Hong Kong: DoJ to appeal court decision

The Department of Justice (DoJ) today said that the Secretary for Justice has decided to appeal against the July 28 decision of the Court of First Instance (CFI) to refuse granting an interim injunction for prohibiting four classes of unlawful acts relating to a song.

The DoJ has filed the application for leave to appeal to the court.

It said the Secretary for Justice acting as a guardian of public interest applied for the interim injunction for the purpose of discharging the constitutional responsibility of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to safeguard national security by effectively preventing, suppressing and imposing punishment on acts or activities endangering national security, and to preserve the dignity of the National Anthem.

The department highlighted that the CFI in its judgment agreed there can be little doubt that the song Glory to Hong Kong was used to incite secession, and the four classes of acts that the application for interim injunction sought to prohibit are plainly or likely to constitute criminal activities.

The DoJ noted the CFI made the decision to refuse granting an interim injunction not because the acts in questions are legal, but because the court considered that such acts already constitute criminal offences even without the injunction, and therefore was not satisfied that the injunction would be of real utility.

The court was also of the view that there is a real risk that the enforcement of the injunction would conflict with the prosecution procedure of cases concerning offences endangering national security under the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL).

The Secretary for Justice considered it necessary to appeal to put forward views and request the Court of Appeal to consider granting the interim injunction.

The DoJ added that the court's judgment has pointed out that had the court been satisfied that the injunction is of real utility and there exists no conflict with the NSL, the court would accept the interim injunction as satisfying the proportionality test, in that the restriction imposed on freedom of expression is no more than necessary to safeguard national security and would not result in an unacceptably harsh burden on the individual, and would have held in favour of granting the interim injunction.

The Government reiterated that it is a criminal offence to disseminate or perform the song with the intention of inciting others to commit secession or with seditious intention, or to disseminate or perform the song as the National Anthem of Hong Kong with the intent to insult the national anthem.

Intentionally aiding or abetting others to commit such acts also constitutes an offence which has serious consequences. Citizens are urged not to take their chances or attempt to break the law.

This story has been published on: 2023-08-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
U.S., a true empire of hackers

Xinhua) 08:51, August 07, 2023

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Several U.S. officials and cybersecurity firms have been disseminating misinformation alleging that "Chinese hackers" have infiltrated U.S. government department computer networks and accessed officials' email accounts.

This fresh wave of attempts to vilify China and stoke controversy is a stark reminder of America's questionable history in this realm.

This photo taken on March 21, 2023 shows the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

THE REAL ATTACKERS

Last month, William Burns, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), revealed that the agency has been actively working to rebuild its spy networks in China and "has made some progress" in doing so.

How ironic. While the United States criticizes China for cyberattacks, it shows a lack of accountability by not attempting to hide its involvement in espionage activities within China. This exposes the double standards that Washington has been employing for years.

"The Americans repeatedly spread false information about so-called Chinese espionage and cyberattacks while blatantly admitting that they are carrying out large-scale intelligence activities against China," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. "This fact speaks volumes in itself."

"The United States needs to stop slapping false labels on China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin commented at another news briefing in response to a question regarding U.S. reports of network hacks.

"We've shared relevant facts with the international community on multiple occasions. China is the biggest victim of cyber attacks," he added.

In 2022, China's Northwestern Polytechnical University fell victim to a cyberattack from abroad. Based on the analysis and tracing done by the joint team of the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center of China (CVERC) and 360 Total Security, all clues point to the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), a cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit affiliated to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), as the perpetrator.

The report from the investigation showed that the United States used 41 specialized cyber weapons to launch cyber theft operations over 1,000 times against the university and stole core technical data.

China has been one of the main targets of U.S. cyberattacks, and the actions mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg.

According to a report released in 2021 by the CVERC, more than 42 million malware attacks were detected in China in 2020, and the number of malware attacks from the United States accounted for 53.1 percent of all foreign attacks.

This photo taken on June 29, 2023 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

HAND IN COOKIE JAR

The United States has long earned its name as an empire of hackers, with numerous instances of spying on other countries.

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA contractor, walked out with a vast trove of secret documents, disclosing to the press details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by the American intelligence community.

As the scandal widened, multiple media outlets revealed that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of internet firms to track online communication in a surveillance program known as Prism.

According to a report published in 2014 by Der Spiegel, a German weekly news magazine, the NSA snooped on as many as 122 foreign heads of state in 2009, listing them alphabetically by their first names.

In his book, No Place to Hide, Journalist Glenn Greenwald exposed that a single unit of the NSA had collected more than 97 billion emails and 124 billion phone calls from around the world in just 30 days in 2013.

As time passed, the situation remained unchanged. On March 7, 2017, Wikileaks disclosed 8,716 secret documents from the CIA cyber intelligence center, which showed the attack patterns of CIA network operation teams, code names of operations and technical details of hacking tools.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Snowden's revelations. Despite the significant impact of that scandal, it comes as no surprise that U.S. espionage has persisted over the years, and it is the Pentagon in the limelight this time.

In April, a set of highly classified documents from the department were leaked online in an apparent security breach that contained extensive top-secret data related to America's friends, including Ukraine, South Korea and Israel.

The exposure of such activities has become increasingly common in recent years, and the latest leaks of documents reaffirm Washington's widespread spying endeavors on allies and foes alike.

"Espionage is a habit well-baked into U.S. history," said an article published by Time, an American news magazine based in New York City.

On May 4, a report entitled "'Empire of Hacking': The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency" was released, shedding light on Washington's use of hacking to buttress its espionage and global cyberattacks. The report disclosed weapons the CIA used for cyberattacks and details of specific cybersecurity cases in China and other countries.

The internet's rapid development this century has presented new opportunities for the CIA to conduct its infiltration, subversion and trouble-making activities, said the report jointly issued by CVERC and the 360 company.

The CIA has been involved in overthrowing or attempting to overthrow more than 50 legal governments of other countries. However, it only admitted involvement in seven, the report said.

"We lied, we cheated, we stole," confessed former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo in Texas in 2019, probably the most truthfully spoken sentence in his career.

It is high time the U.S. was held accountable for its actions.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
We send Bee Opinionated to newsletter subscribers first. Get it in your inbox before it publishes online: Sign up here.

Robin Epley with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board, back with the best of the states opinion journalism over the last week.

Sacramentos response to the worsening homeless crisis is at a crossroads, wrote the Editorial Board last week.

Opinion

The frustration among city residents, business owners and homeowners is understandable. But the people elected to solve community problems cant simply exploit that frustration and call it leadership. Thats where we are in Sacramento today; we lack unified government leadership willing to come together in a new and broader partnership to expand the response to the homeless crisis. Right now, some silos are blaming others, and the problem simply gets worse.

Civic leaders have separately expressed growing frustrations with city officials as unhoused people have congregated in large numbers around court facilities. A greater police response to homeless individuals who are violating a law or an ordinance will dramatically increase the caseload of the district attorney, but will those officials commit the necessary resources?

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and his staff would have to coordinate closely with the very Sacramento city officials they are now investigating to identify and focus on the most troublesome street behavior.

Homeless camper Chadwick Justin Foy, 41, right, says he has no idea where he will move while resting in the shade at the intersection of 28th and C streets on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. The city has given notices to dozens of people living in tents on the sidewalks in that area, near Leland Stanford Park, telling them to move by Wednesday. The notices cite violation of city codes regarding sidewalk obstruction and storage of personal property on public property.

A higher caseload for the district attorney would mean a higher one for Judge Michael Bowman at the countys Superior Court who requested, via a June 29 letter, that the Sacramento Police Department increase its presence near our downtown court locations, jury and employee parking lots.

What we are learning as this crisis deepens is how some governments working together is not enough, wrote the editorial board. All of our officials must make good-faith efforts to work together. No more letters, no more investigations, no more complaining about the city on talk radio. It is time to pick up the phone.

So Long, Sue

Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost announced last week that she will not seek reelection in District 4, a seat she has held for some eight years. So I took some time to remember Frosts greatest hits. Heres just a few of them:

I can only hope that District 4 will finally get a supervisor who represents their values and views, not someone who will repeat talking points they found in insurrectionist chatrooms.

Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost is surrounded by a transparent screen as she listens to public comment during the boards meeting at the County Administration Building in downtown Sacramento on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. Frost was the only supervisor who didnt wear a mask at the meeting.

What this vastly variable, mostly middle-class and mostly unincorporated area deserves is what District 3 found in County Supervisor Rich Desmond, I wrote. A moderate, conservative leader willing to work with colleagues. The residents dont need  and never needed  another wannabe FOX News pundit embarrassing them from the dais.

Op-ed roundup

How can anyone trust U.S. Supreme Court justices who wont abide by an ethics code? by UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky

It is inexplicable and just plain wrong that the only judges in the United States who do not have to abide by an ethics code are the most important and powerful ones: Supreme Court justices.

This is the water question that California politicians keep refusing to answer by Thomas Birmingham, former general manager of Westlands Water District

The extreme, variable weather patterns caused by climate change demand California manage its water resources efficiently. Assertions that there is insufficient runoff to fill an enlarged reservoir ignore recent hydrology.

Opinion of the Week

 First, pivot. Then deflect. Lastly, confuse.  Fresno Bee Opinion Editor Tad Weber, writing last week about House Speaker Kevin McCarthys roundabout response to an amended indictment for former President Donald Trump, who allegedly mishandled classified documents after his time in office.

Got thoughts? What would you like to see in this newsletter every week? Got a story tip or an opinion to tell the world? Let us know what you think about this email and our work in general by emailing us at any time via opinion@sacbee.com.

Stay fresh,

Robin (with assistance this week from Hannah Holzer!)
Maciej Wasik, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, said on Monday that Russia and Belarus were organising another campaign of an influx of migrants travelling to the European Union through the Polish border in order to destabilise the region.

Source: AFP news outlet quoting a statement by Wasik, reported by European Pravda

Details: Wasik said that although the situation is "not as chaotic as it was two years ago", it is still worrying.

Quote: "We are talking about an operation organised by the Russian and Belarusian secret services, which is becoming more and more intense."

More details: Tomasz Praga, Head of the Polish Border Service, in turn, called the Belarusian services "a criminal group that manages illegal migration" and "makes huge profits from it".

Praga added that this year alone, 19,000 migrants tried to enter Poland from Belarus, 4,000 of them in June alone, while in 2022 there were 16,000.

Background:

In the summer of 2021, Lukashenkos regime caused a hybrid migration crisis on the borders of Belarus' European neighbours, facilitating the arrival of people from Africa and the Middle East on the border.

The Baltic states and Poland see this as revenge for their tough stance on Lukashenko's repression of the Belarusian opposition and civil society.

Since the winter of 2021, the intensity of such attempts has significantly decreased, but the problem has not disappeared. People helping migrants to continue their journey deeper into the EU are also regularly identified.

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!
A court in the Belarusian city of Rahachow in Homiel Oblast drew up a protocol on "extremist activity" against activist Dzyanis Dashkevich because of a photo of Polish President Andrzej Duda with a white-red-white flag in the background.

Source: European Pravda with reference to the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty

Details: Yet another report on Dashkevich, who has been living in Poland for a year, was made on 31 July. According to the document, the activist had posted "informational products promoting extremist activities" on the local website Rahachow.Online.

As an example, the report indicates a reprint of the Reuters article titled President Andrzej Duda held consultations with Prime Minister and Head of Defence Ministry. To illustrate the news, Dashkevich used a photo of Duda against the background of a white-red-white flag.

Dashkevich told Radio Liberty that the police continue to report him, although they know that he has left Belarus.

Quote: "Before this report, they carried out a housing check, they were looking for equipment. They found nothing. They asked relatives where exactly I live, who else works on the Rahachow.Online website. They went not only to my relatives and friends, but also to businesses advertised on our website until 2020," the activist added.

He says he does not understand how the president of Poland can "promote extremist activities," and believes that he is under scrutiny on the orders of "local ideologist Natalia Prus".

The white-red-white flag was the state flag of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918 and the Republic of Belarus in 1991-1995. In a referendum in 1995, it was deprived of the status of a state symbol and replaced with a red-green banner.

The white-red-white flag became actively used by the Belarusian opposition and protesters, especially after the falsified 2020 presidential election. Officially, Belarusian authorities consider the demonstration of this banner to be an act of vandalism.

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!
Bensalem police have seized a car they suspect was involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident last month that killed a 14-year-old boy.

A gray sedan was impounded about two weeks ago after it was identified through a license plate reader it passed moments before striking and killing the boy, Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift said on Monday.

Authorities also used surveillance video to track the travel of the car after the July 6 accident, which occurred on Street Road near the Route 1 overpass, Vandegrift said. The vehicle was found in Bucks County, he added.

Bensalem Police say they have impounded a car they believe was involved in a fatal hit and run in July that killed a 14-year-old boy.

Hit and run kills 14-year-old boy Police seek driver involved in fatal accident that claimed life of 14-year-old in Bensalem

After the car was seized, police obtained a search warrant and an active investigation is continuing to determine who was driving the car at the time of the accident, Vandegrift said. Investigators are waiting on DNA evidence obtained from the vehicle.

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office identified the victim as Harlem Dennis. An autopsy found his cause of death was blunt trauma to the head and chest. The manner of death is accidental.

Bensalem police confirmed that Harlem and his mother were long-term residents of the nearby Red Roof Inn motel.

No obituary was found online, but a TikTok creator named "SayTheyName" posted two, six-second video tributes to Harlem on the social media platform.

The accident happened around 10:15 p.m. just before the Route 1 overpass on Street Road. The victim and another juvenile were crossing Street Road when the teen was struck mid-block, police said.

The driver traveling west on Street Road swerved out of the left lane, and missed hitting the first juvenile, but then allegedly struck the second teen who was standing in the middle of the lane, authorities said.

The second juvenile was lying in the roadway when he was struck again by a silver Hyundai Tucson.

Both cars immediately stopped, but the driver in the sedan got back into the vehicle and left the scene before police arrived. The car was last seen westbound on Street Road entering Lower Southampton. The driver of the Tucson remained at the accident scene.

The victim was transported to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital in Philadelphia where he was pronounced dead.

Bensalem police looking for dirt biker Bensalem man in serious condition after he was run over by a dirt bike. What police know

Why U.S. AG was in Bensalem recently Merrick Garland stops in Bucks County hours after Trump indictment. Here's why

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem police find suspected vehicle in hit-and-run that killed teen
Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright has sued State Auditor Beth Wood, alleging Wood and her office illegally tried to investigate his office in recent months.

According to the lawsuit filed in Cumberland County Superior Court on May 26, after receiving an anonymous tip, the Office of the State Auditor contacted the Cumberland County Sheriffs Office in late October to meet with Wright. Ronnie Mitchell, who is representing Wright in the suit and serves as general counsel for the Sheriffs Office, said Thursday that a Nov. 1 meeting took place in person with two employees from the Office of the State Auditor.

In the lawsuit, Wright said that Wood's purview is over state agencies and that his office is a county agency, which is why the Sheriff's Office only provided Wood's investigators with records available to the general public.

What did the state auditor want to see?

According to court documents, between Nov. 1, 2022, and March 8, 2023, Wood and her investigators requested the following:

A PDF of the Sheriffs Offices manual of policies and procedures.

A listing of all Sheriffs Office vehicles and which employees the vehicles are assigned to, excluding undercover vehicles.

An Excel spreadsheet of a payroll report for all employees from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present day.

The personnel file for Mark Rowden, a chaplain with the Sheriffs Office.

All documentation related to the construction of an outdoor shooting range at the Sheriffs Offices training center.

A list of all equipment and trailers received from FEMA or purchased with FEMA funding from 2018 to the present.

All documentation related to the purchase of two Chevy Tahoes.

A warning citation for speeding allegedly issued in 2017. None of the court documents specify who the citation was issued to or which Sheriff's Office employee issued it.

Access to all employees in the Crime Scene Investigation Unit for interviews.

Beth Wood is the North Carolina State Auditor.

Timeline of events

Court filings from Wood and Wright laid out the following timeline:

Nov. 1, 2022: The State Auditor's Office requests the Sheriffs Offices policies and procedures manual, list of vehicles and payroll report. Mitchell said Thursday this request was made during an in-person meeting and that he told Wood's investigators they would be provided with public records, but that an investigation or audit would not fall within their jurisdiction. Mitchell said he and Wright offered to "see what they (could do) to help" however they could if Woods office would clarify the nature of their request.

Dec. 9, 2022: Mitchell sends an email to the State Auditor's Office requesting clarification on what the investigation concerns. Wood's office does not respond.

February 2023: The Office of the State Auditor again requests materials from the Sheriffs Office. The Sheriff's Office offers only the records available under public records law.

March 8, 2023: Wright is served with a subpoena for the records requested by Wood's office.

March 17, 2023: Mitchell responds with a letter to Wood stating the subpoena did not provide sufficient notice in order to provide the materials by the deadline on the subpoena, but that the Sheriff's Office would be willing to make arrangements with Wood's office to turn over the records once compiled. The letter also restates Wrights position that an audit is not within Woods jurisdiction.

May 5, 2023: Wood sends Wright a letter stating that she has the authority to audit and investigate the Sheriffs Office and that the Sheriffs Office has until May 19 to produce the requested records, or they will request a judge become involved.

May 17, 2023: Wright sends Wood a letter stating that his office has provided documents available under public record laws and requesting she withdraw the March subpoena. Wright also asks for Wood to speak with him directly to attempt to resolve this situation, according to a portion of the letter.

May 26, 2023: Wright sues Wood in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Goal of the lawsuit

Wrights complaint states that he is seeking the following:

A judgment declaring whether Wood can legally investigate or audit the Sheriffs Office.

A temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and a permanent judgment preventing Wood from investigating the Sheriffs Office.

At least $10,000 in compensatory damages

Punitive damages.

Cost of legal fees and services.

What's next?

Both parties appeared in court Tuesday, with representation for Wood arguing that the suit should be moved to Wake County because all business related to the Sheriffs Office investigation was conducted there, according to court filings. Wood had also filed a motion to dismiss the case because she was allegedly improperly served.

Mitchell said Thursday that a judge has yet to rule on the issue of the venue, but that both parties agreed Wood was properly served with the lawsuit and that the case should not be dismissed.

This is an inordinate expansion of purported governmental authority where it doesnt exist, Mitchell said.

The Sheriffs Office is troubled by the lack of transparency surrounding the investigation, he said.

Its just a strange thing that she doesnt tell us what it is, Mitchell said, noting that the county has auditors and that the Commission on the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies regularly and thoroughly audits the Sheriffs Office.

A spokesperson for the Office of the State Auditor declined to comment Thursday.

Government watchdog reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at ABSolomon@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland County sheriff suing NC state auditor over investigation
A Gold Star mom sobbed before members of Congress on Monday as she accused the Biden administration of lying to her about the circumstances of her Marine sons death in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Kelly Barnett's son, Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, was one of 13 U.S. service members killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul during the militarys chaotic withdrawal two summers ago.

Barnett was the first of several relatives to speak at a Congressional forum held by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif Monday morning. The event marked the first time the relatives of all 13 fallen troops spoke in a public setting together.

"I'm going to be brave and in [sic] tell you about my kid. He's an amazing kid. And I want you to know that I am not a victim. We're not victims. We're parents to some mighty heroes. I want you to know that," Barnett said.

OUT OF AFRICA: VET GROUPS COME TO RESCUE OF AFGHANS ON TALIBAN KILL LIST

Gold Star mom Kelly Barnett accused the Biden administration of lying about the circumstances of the death of her son, Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover

She said her sons concern about the controversial withdrawal "began the moment that he landed" there for his final deployment, noting that he witnessed "chaos, no communication, lack of leadership."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Barnetts voice, full of emotion, broke when she said her son was told to "clean up the airport" because "we cant leave it dirty for the Taliban."

FIRST HOUSE HEARING ON BIDEN ADMIN'S AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL TO DISSECT 'STUNNING FAILURE' OF LEADERSHIP

"What kind of disrespect? What kind of hatred for our military? What kind of mess? Confusion. Deceit. Lost. Angry. Sad. Heartbroken and disgusted. These are the feelings that the service members felt. And are still feeling. These are the feelings I'm feeling," she cried.

A picture of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover sits on the steps of the Utah Sate Capitol as family members arrive for a memorial service on August 29, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The families of the fallen were subsequently "told lies" and given "incomplete" and "incorrect" reports, according to the grieving mother. She described the situation as "total disrespect."

"I was told to my face, he died on impact. That's not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth," Barnett claimed. "I was lied to and basically told to shut up."

DEM CONGRESSWOMAN: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DOESN'T DESERVE 'ANY BLAME' FOR CHAOTIC AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

"He lived for a little whilehe was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet at around his leg. I don't understand the reasoning of that lie," Barnett said. "It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don't know."

Hoover was killed in the suicide attack on the Kabul airport during the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

After the withdrawal, Darren Hoover  Taylor's father  angrily called on President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley to resign.

To Biden directly, Hoover said, "Be a grown a** man. Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn't happen ever, ever again."

"You all need to resign immediately. Our sons, daughters have more integrity in their little toes than every one of them combined," he added.

A Defense Department spokesperson's statement on the Gold Star families' testimony said, "The Department of Defense expresses our deepest condolences to the Gold Star Families who lost loved ones during the tragic bombing at Abbey Gate. We are forever grateful for their service, sacrifice, and committed efforts during the evacuation operations. We also commend the historic and monumental efforts of all our service men and women who served honorably during the withdrawal period from Afghanistan."
Biden vowed to reform immigration detention. Instead, private prisons benefited Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a former prison repurposed as an immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania

By Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke

PHILIPSBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - As a presidential candidate in 2020, Joe Biden pledged to end for-profit immigration detention, saying: "No business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence."

The opportunity for action came early in the Democratic president's term, in May 2021, when a group of senior immigration officials launched an internal review of detention centers to decide which should be scaled back, reformed or closed.

The review, which has not been previously reported, followed years of complaints from government watchdogs, detainees and advocates about poor medical care and sanitation, a lack of access to lawyers, sexual assault and detainee deaths.

Months later, the group shared findings with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, highlighting around two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and recommending some be closed, according to five current and former officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal government deliberations.

Reuters could not confirm which centers were recommended to be shut down.

But, as illegal crossings reached record highs at the U.S.-Mexico border - putting pressure on Biden officials to keep detention space available - they only announced the closure of one facility in March 2022.

The stalled reform coincided with a boom in private prison revenues from ICE contracts during the Biden administration and an increase in the percentage of detainees being held in private facilities, according to an analysis of ICE data by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) shared exclusively with Reuters.

Some officials argue private facilities can be better than local jails that contract with ICE. Companies say they provide crucial flexibility and adhere to ICE standards.

As Biden gears up to seek re-election in 2024 - and a possible rematch against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump - immigration remains a political flashpoint. Advocates and some Democrats have criticized Biden for not going far enough to reverse hardline Trump policies and adopting some restrictive measures. At the same time, Republicans have lambasted Biden as too lenient.

While the review sought to close or reform troubled centers, the White House and Mayorkas wanted to preserve detention beds and were concerned with backlash in counties that benefited economically from the detention centers, three of the officials said.

The Biden administration shuttered or reduced use of some of the most criticized lockups, but it seemed like "the barest minimum" compared to what was initially envisioned by the group that conducted the review, one of the officials said.

A White House spokesperson said Biden "continues to support moving away from the use of private detention facilities in the immigration detention system."

ICE regularly reviews detention operations "to ensure non-citizens are treated humanely, protected from harm, provided appropriate medical and mental health care, and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled," a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said.

One facility evaluated as part of the Biden administration review was Stewart Detention Center, a Georgia lockup operated by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Eight Stewart detainees have died since 2017, the most of any center. A complaint filed in 2022 on behalf of four women alleged that they were sexually assaulted by a male nurse in the facility.

Ryan Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesperson, said the safety and well-being of detainees was the company's "top priority" and that the employee in question was on administrative leave as ICE and Georgia authorities investigate.

The Biden administration also looked at, but declined to close, several centers that were part of a Trump-era expansion in Louisiana and Mississippi, two of the officials said.

The facilities included Winn Correctional Center, a Louisiana detention run by LaSalle Corrections. A government watchdog recommended in 2021 that Winn "be closed or drawn down until several critical health and safety concerns could be addressed."

While the Biden administration said in 2022 it would limit the use of Winn, the center currently houses 1,100 detainees.

Richwood Correctional Center, also run by LaSalle in Louisiana, was called out in a government report this year for a lack of critical translation services.

Ruben Dario, an Argentine who was detained at Richwood for eight months in 2022, said he needed to serve as an ad-hoc translator for a Mexican man on the verge of a stroke because staff didn't speak Spanish.

"If you don't know what they are asking you, you won't know how to answer, either," he said.

Ryan Horvath, a spokesperson for LaSalle, said the company offered the federal government increased capacity and specialized services. Richwood had at least 14 Spanish-speaking employees last year and translation tools, he added.

BIDEN LEANS INTO PRIVATE DETENTION

ICE detainees include people who recently crossed the border, as well as those living in the country illegally, including asylum seekers. Many are fighting court cases to avoid deportation.

While the numbers of detainees dropped during the pandemic, in part due to lawsuits by rights groups, populations are rising again.

More than 90% of the roughly 31,000 people being held by ICE on average in July were in private facilities, up from 80% at the end of the Trump administration, according to the ACLU analysis.

Under Biden, private prison company GEO Group saw its revenues from ICE contracts for detention centers and remote monitoring of immigrants jump to a record $1.05 billion in 2022, up nearly 40% from the previous year, corporate filings show.

CoreCivic, GEO's biggest competitor, also sustained high revenues from ICE during Biden's term, according to corporate filings.

Under a new Biden asylum policy that went into effect on May 11, more migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border are being sent to detention centers for rapid asylum screenings. Nine centers are focused on the screenings, two officials said. All are privately run.

By mid-July, two months into the new policy, the number of people in ICE custody had jumped by 48% compared to the beginning of the year, according to ICE data.

The administration has scaled back immigration detention in some ways. During Biden's first months in office, before the detention review formally began, ICE shuttered two much-criticized facilities. The agency also stopped family detention by early 2022 and significantly increased the number of people released with electronic monitoring while they await their immigration court hearings.

A White House spokesperson highlighted the use of detention alternatives and said they "could be making a lot more progress" if Congress would provide more funding and enact reforms.

GEO Group subsidiary BI Incorporated manages one of the monitoring programs and GEO's chief operating officer told investors in February that the number of people under remote supervision peaked at more than 300,000 at one point last year. The monitoring program predominately drove GEO's revenue growth from ICE, a company spokesperson said.

In April, GEO's chief executive Jose Gordo told investors of "potential opportunities for upside" for the company, including "increases in populations at our ICE facilities."

ICE often pays to maintain a fixed number of beds at detention centers regardless of whether they are actually used.

Adelanto ICE Processing Center, a GEO Group-run lockup in California, currently houses only 16 detainees due to a COVID-related court order despite paying to maintain a minimum of 640 beds in 2023.

A PRISON REPURPOSED

In March 2021, following a Biden executive order to phase out the use of private prisons for federal detainees, a remote prison in central Pennsylvania run by GEO Group shut down. But just six months later, the company signed a contract to reopen the same complex as a 1,900-bed immigration detention center.

Angela Kelley, a senior adviser to Mayorkas at the time, said officials were aware that opening a new privately run detention center could appear hypocritical.

"It wasn't as if people forgot about the fact that the president made this commitment," said Kelley, who now works with an immigration lawyers association. "Once you're in the chair making these decisions, executing on the promises is a lot different."

Now called the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, razor wire has been removed from the fences and staff do not carry deadly weapons. Detainees are called "residents" and guards are "resident advisers."

Other things, however, have stayed the same. Some 80% of prison staff transitioned to the detention center, a GEO Group supervisor said during a tour with Reuters. Visitors pass through secure checkpoints and detainees are not permitted to move freely. There are cells for solitary confinement.

Sunny Boy Sonkarlay, a Liberian immigrant, was detained at Moshannon for 14 months until he was released in July, according to his attorney and court documents.

The 28-year-old alleged guards slammed doors in his face and unfairly placed him in solitary confinement on several occasions, leading him to attempt suicide, an incident documented in his medical records and a civil rights complaint.

"I tried to hang myself because I just couldn't take it," he said.

GEO did not comment directly on Sonkarlay's complaints but said it strives to treat everyone in their facilities "with dignity and respect." It added it invested approximately $4 million to make improvements at Moshannon.

At a November 2021 county meeting to discuss the Moshannon transition to a detention center, one GEO employee talked about crying in her car when she heard the prison would close, saying "it was devastating" thinking about people losing their livelihoods.

Then Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of a Philadelphia-based immigrant organization, stood up to speak.

"I have heard the opening of Moshannon Valley being described as something that will provide jobs for the community, and that is how it is being sold to you," she said. "Your livelihood should not depend on the imprisonment of others. This community deserves better."

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Philipsburg and Washington, Mica Rosenberg in New York, and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
U.S. President Joe Biden. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The Fifth Circuit blocked Biden's new rules to ease the debt relief process for defrauded borrowers.

A for-profit group sued the administration, arguing the rules would harm impacted schools.

The changes to borrower defense are now blocked as the legal process plays out.

President Joe Biden's efforts to help student-loan borrowers just got dealt another blow in court.

On Monday, a three-judge panel  appointees of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump  in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Education Department's new rules to make it easier for student-loan borrowers who said they were defrauded by the school they attended to get their debt wiped out.

At the end of June, Career Colleges and Schools of Texas, a for-profit college group, filed a lawsuit against the Education Department to block its latest changes to the borrower defense rules, which allow a borrower who proved they were defrauded to have their loans discharged. The rules would create a more streamlined application process for borrowers seeking debt relief, along with expanding the types of misconduct that would qualify a borrower for a loan discharge.

CCST argued in its original complaint that the department stacked "the deck in favor of borrowers and against schools; the Rule imposes strict liability upon schools for even unintentional erroneous representations or omissions, and then irrationally presumes that every borrower in the group would not have attended the school but for the school's act or omission, whatever it is."

While a district court rejected the group's request for an emergency injunction at the end of June, the Fifth Circuit obliged  blocking the new rule from being carried out for the time being.

CCST did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, and an Education Department spokesperson told Insider that it is "reviewing the court's order. The Department issued a set of new and stronger regulations to ensure that borrowers have a path to relief when their colleges take advantage of them or leave them stranded by closures. And the Department won't back down in our efforts to take on predatory colleges, provide relief to borrowers who have been cheated or had their school close, and hold institutions accountable for deceptive schemes."

And Aaron Ament, president of borrower protection group Student Defense, said in a statement that "we cannot afford a green light for dishonest schools to continue harming students."

"Defrauded borrowers are legally entitled to relief and their institutions should be held accountable," he said. "Until these protections are restored, countless students are at risk of being taken advantage of by higher ed profiteers who are exploiting students with little accountability."

The Education Department said in a July legal filing that "CCST's alleged injuries are entirely speculative and, in any event, insufficient to constitute irreparable injury directly attributable to the Rule. Even if this Court concludes that CCST has adequately established some irreparable injury, that threatened injury plainly could not outweigh the damage that an injunction would cause the public interest."

For now, the department's new rules for borrower defense will be blocked as the legal process proceeds. Jason Altmire, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities  a group that represents for-profit colleges  said in a statement that "knowing that this rule has a strong chance to be struck down during the upcoming legal process, it is unjustifiable to allow its implementation while the court proceedings continue. We are pleased that today's ruling upholds this view."

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Bloomberg) -- Organizers of a World Scout Jamboree in South Korea marred by high heat and poor conditions called for an early departure from the events campsite, ahead of the arrival of a typhoon packing high winds and torrential rains.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The World Organization of the Scout Movement said in a statement Monday it received confirmation this morning from the Government of the Republic of Korea that due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure will be planned for all participants.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol discussed a Plan B for the event due to the typhoon set to make landfall in the country in the next few days, his office said.

There appeared to be little preparation for the extreme heat, insects, sanitation, medical needs and food for the scouting event that attracted 43,000 youths from 158 countries to a campsite located on a massive land reclamation project in the southwest part of South Korea.

The troubles have embarrassed organizers and led to high-level government and corporate responses. Delegations from the US and UK had already pulled out due to health concerns.

Organizers have asked nearby universities to move participants to dormitories due to the typhoon, while major South Korean companies have offered to host outings for the event that ends Saturday. A K-Pop concert for the event may move to Seoul or areas further away from the storm.

Samsung Electronics Co. will prepare tours of its chip plants and museum for participants while Hyundai Motor is opening up its largest commercial vehicle manufacturing plant in nearby Jeonju that can churn out 103,000 units per year.

Read: World Scout Jamboree Sees Early Pullouts Amid Deadly Korean Heat

South Korea held an emergency cabinet meeting Friday to allocate 6.9 billion won ($5.3 million) in reserve funds for necessary assistance and Yoon ordered the dispatch of air-conditioned buses and refrigerators.

Adding to the troubles, a South Korean contingent pulled out from the event after criticizing organizers of mishandling an alleged sex offense case involving a foreign adult supervisor, according to Yonhap News.

--With assistance from Sangmi Cha.

(Updates with call for early withdrawal.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Pc Andrew Harper died from multiple injuries after he was dragged hundreds of yards by a suspect's getaway vehicle - Mark Lord

Bike thieves made a chilling reference to the killing of Pc Andrew Harper in a four-hour stand-off with police, a court heard.

Vuitton Robbins, 18, known as Tom, and Akay Coaker, 20, were sentenced on Friday for several counts of thefts, burglary, and violent disorder offences.

A third defendant, Reiss James, 21, was also due to be sentenced but his hearing has been adjourned due to the delay in obtaining a pre-sentence report.

Reading Crown Court heard they threw missiles, boiling water, and radiators at police in an act of pure hatred.

The young men even tried to set fire to the gas meter at the entrance of the property, hoping it would cause an explosion.

One of the defendants could be heard shouting: An officer is getting murdered, dont worry, its a Newbury thing!  referring to the death of Pc Harper who was dragged behind a car for a mile by burglars in 2019.

Abuse

The violent stand-off lasted for four hours and caused about 5,000 worth of damage to the flat, with items such as the microwave and sofa thrown down the stairs to try to barricade the property.

The incident occurred on Dec 8 last year at a flat in Caversham Road, Reading, Berkshire.

Police arrived at the address at about 5.40am to arrest the three men for a string of bike and electric bike thefts across Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

But instead of surrendering, the three men barricaded the door and began to launch missiles at police officers on the street.

Missiles were soon followed by two radiators that they threw out of the window, with one of them hitting an officer on the head. The officers injury was not life-threatening.

The men also hurled glass items, plant pots, a kettle, and boiling water at officers.

Police had to quickly close the road and a nearby primary school was forced to shut down for the day because of the disorder caused by the men.

They then proceeded to try to ignite the gas meter at the entrance of the property, hoping it would cause an explosion, or get officers closer to the building so that they could throw more missiles at them.

During the stand-off, Robbins could be heard shouting abuse at police officers.

He said: Come on, get in here, lets play. Theres no way youre getting in here, Ill blow your head off.

He also shouted: An officer is getting murdered, dont worry, its a Newbury thing!

Mark Trafford, prosecuting Robbins and Coaker, said this comment was in reference to Harper, who was killed near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, on Aug 15 2019.

Harper was responding to a report of a burglary when he was dragged behind a car for a mile, causing his death.

Pure act of hatred

Robbins, of Amity Street, shouted other abuse towards officers, leading to one constable describing the incident as a pure act of hatred towards police.

After a four-hour stand-off, the men were eventually arrested and remanded in custody.

Judge Sarah Campbell, sentencing, heard that Robbins was the main instigator, with Reiss providing him support.

Coaker, on the other hand, was previously acquitted of violent disorder by a jury  but did plead guilty to damaging the flat during the incident.

Robbins pleaded guilty to six thefts to an estimated value of 19,748.98 and five burglaries to the proven value of 10,360.

He also admitted arson, criminal damage and two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm.

James pleaded guilty to seven thefts to the estimated value of 18,289.98 and five burglaries to the proven value of 3,860. He also admitted violent disorder and criminal damage.

The judge decided to jail Robbins, of Amity Street, Reading, for five years and six months in a youth offenders institution.

Coaker, of Benson Close, Reading, was sentenced to 22 months in a youth offenders institution.

James, of Shirley Avenue, also in Reading, will be sentenced on Sept 6.

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Bill Barr is open to testifying in Donald Trumps upcoming criminal trial should he be asked, the former attorney general revealed on Sunday.

Mr Barr was speaking with CBSs Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation when he was asked the same question that Mike Pence was asked on NBC  would he testify in Mr Trumps January 6 trial when it goes to court?

And while the former vice president hemmed and hawed before indicating that he wouldnt try and dodge a subpoena for his testimony, Mr Barr got straight to the point.

Of course, he responded.

He also reinforced during the same interview that he had told the president multiple times before the attack on the Capitol that the claims of widespread election fraud being pushed by his campaign were false. The federal government is planning to argue that Mr Trump ignored the reality of the situation and pushed forward with a plan to interfere in the elections certification despite having been advised his efforts were unconstitutional and not backed up by the facts surrounding the election.

Mr Barr is one of a number of ex-Trump administration officials who have come forward and said that government agencies never saw any convincing evidence to support the Trump campaigns claims of a stolen election; he, in particular, has referred to the conspiracies spread by Rudy Giuliani et al as bulls***.

.@majorcbs: "Were you interviewed by the special counsel?"



Former Attorney General Bill Barr: "I'm not going to get into any discussions."@majorcbs: "Would you appear as a witness, if called?"



Barr: "Of course." pic.twitter.com/cJeRzSx91y  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2023

But the Trump circle continues to insist that long-debunked claims of phantom ballots and votes from dead people are legitimate, while also making the bizarre insistence that the Trump-controlled federal governments warnings to social media companies about potential Russian disinformation efforts led to the unfair suppression of stories in conservative media about Hunter Biden, Joe Bidens adult son. Republicans have argued that emails sent by the younger Biden indicate an influence-trading scheme involving foreign interests and now-President Joe Biden, though this remains wholly unproven.

Former President Trump is now facing 78 criminal charges spread across state and federal jurisdictions, including four relating to his campaign to overturn the lawful and valid results of the 2020 election. The federal government argues that Mr Trumps efforts to block Mr Biden from being certified as the winner of the election on January 6 after his failure to prove fraud in the courts constituted an effort to deprive millions of Americans of their right to a duly-elected leader. He has denied wrongdoing in all of his criminal matters.

The ex-president is expected to face more charges, according to his own legal team, in Georgias ongoing grand jury investigation into Mr Trumps efforts to change the election results in that state. A decision on that matter is expected this month.
A billboard at the intersection of Pendleton Pike and Oaklandon Road in Indianapolis. Jeff Lee, founder and owner of billboard company GEFT, said he had hoped to put up a similar sign along Interstate 69 in Bloomington.

A billboard company that wanted to erect a 50-foot-tall electric sign along Interstate 69 alleged in a lawsuit Monroe Countys zoning laws violated the First Amendment. In a 2021 ruling, a judge agreed. The county changed its zoning laws, but the company said thats not enough. Now the case has an outside chance of being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Indianapolis billboard company GEFT, which filed the suit, had leased part of a property at 2500 W. Industrial Park Drive, in northwest Bloomington, to put up the electric billboard. However, the sign would have been too tall, too large and not set back far enough from the interstate to be allowed in Monroe County.

The sign did not comply with other rules, and the company sought exceptions, or variances, from the Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals. When that board rejected the companys request, the company filed suit in District Court in Indianapolis, alleging the countys sign standards contain unconstitutional, content-based regulation.

The district court judge agreed, and threw out parts of the local laws.

A. Richard M. Blaiklock

GEFTs attorney, A. Richard M. Blaiklock, managing partner with Lewis Wagner in Indianapolis, said recently the suit forced Monroe County to change some of its laws because they were unconstitutional.

Until we filed this lawsuit, Monroe County was in violation of the First Amendment, he said.

Caren Pollack, of Pollack Law, said while a judge invalidated parts of Monroe Countys laws, the sign company still can't put its billboard along I-69.

The parties signed an agreement last week that  barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court  essentially ends the legal fight.

Jeff Lee, founder and owner of GEFT, said unless the land's highest court intervenes, "We cannot put up a sign right now without risking enforcement."

If the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the case and rules in GEFTs favor, the company can refile the lawsuit. If the court rejects the case, the matter would be over  except for the question of attorney fees.

Blaiklock said its difficult to say whether the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case, though Pollack said the odds are very slim.

Why does Monroe County prohibit certain billboards?

One of the two digital signs that GEFT erected on Interstate 70 inside I-465 in 2017.

In a hearing before the board of zoning appeals on March 6, 2019, then-county planning director Larry Wilson told the BZA the county prohibits digital billboards and also does not allow so-called off-premise signs that advertise for a product or service that is not available where the sign is placed. In other words, a gas station next to the interstate can put a billboard on its property to advertise to potential customers on the interstate  but it cannot do so on a rented farm field a few miles away.

Wilson said the county enacted the prohibition for such signs in the late 1990s because they detract from the natural views, cause additional light pollution and further impact existing residences and wildlife."

The planning department said in its report that GEFTs request for variances for an electronic billboard along I-69 should be rejected for reasons including that it would be injurious to the public health, safety and general welfare of the community and may affect use and value of adjacent property.

GEFT argued the rules are problematic because they make a distinction between the type of speech the sign conveys, making the law unconstitutional. Blaiklock said thats particularly problematic for electronic signs, because about a third of the time, GEFTs signs display noncommercial speech, including political ads and advocacy for nonprofits.

In its lawsuit, GEFT said the countys sign standards require permits for some signs, but not for others, such as design features which do not incorporate advertising or identification and temporary noncommercial signs.

GEFT also said the countys permitting and variance schemes were impermissible prior restraints on speech. Prior restraint means a government action  in this case the requirement for a permit  that prohibits speech before it happens.

How did the courts decide?

In a ruling issued on Aug. 10, 2021, Judge James R. Sweeney II agreed, at least in part, with the billboard company, saying some of the exemptions the county has in its zoning regulation are constitutionally infirm.

A wordless mosaic would be exempted from the permit requirement, but a mosaic that identifies a community center's name would need a permit. Yet one is not inherently less distracting to drivers or prettier than the other by nature of such identification or lack thereof, the judge wrote.

The judge also agreed with GEFT that the variance process conferred unbridled discretion on the county.

The judge struck those parts of the local code.

County Attorney Dave Schilling said the county updated its local laws shortly after the judges ruling.

Sweeney II did not agree with the company on the off-premises sign prohibition, because the county has substantial interest in traffic safety and aesthetics. In addition, he said, courts have found that commercial speech is a lower value speech category in First Amendment jurisprudence.

GEFT requested the judge throw out the entire ordinance because parts of it were unconstitutional, but the judge rejected that argument, saying he could simply invalidate the offending passages.

If the judge had agreed to GEFTs request, the company would have been able to install its billboard and could have collected damages from the county.

The judge noted that even though he invalidated parts of the local ordinance, GEFT still would not be allowed to put up its sign because some parts of the ordinance, such as the prohibition against off-premise advertising, would still require GEFT to obtain some variances.

Appeals court partially sides with county

Neither GEFT, nor the county, was especially happy with the ruling, and both appealed, with GEFT asking the appeals court to throw out the entire sign ordinance.

The appeals court said it could not take that step, because the county had by that point deleted the passages that violated the First Amendment.

Freedom of speech: Why Monroe County prosecutor, radio station are involved in lawsuit involving abortion

The county has mooted GEFTs argument, the judges wrote, because the offending provisions no longer exist  though they noted GEFT still may be able to seek monetary damages as the county cannot dodge punishment simply by repealing an unconstitutional regulation.

The appeals court did overturn parts of the lower courts ruling in the countys favor. For example, the appeals court judges said the countys variance procedure relating to sign restrictions such as height, size and digital content, could remain because the censorship risk is low.

Thats in part, the judges wrote, because the county permits ample alternatives for speech, including displays of messages on signs. GEFT could today erect a nondigital billboard within the required size, height and setback limitations, the judges wrote.

In the end we are convinced that Monroe Countys variance provision does not give so much discretion to the Board of Zoning Appeals that it violates the First Amendment. So we reverse the district courts determination that the variance provision is unconstitutional, the judges wrote.

The county did not appeal the district court judges ruling that the permitting scheme was unconstitutional.

That means people who want to put up signs today can do so without a permit  as long as they follow the countys size, height and setback restrictions as well as prohibitions against digital signage and off-premise advertisements. If the signs people put up dont comply with local rules, the county will let them know, Pollack said.

Lee, an Indiana native who finds spots for billboards in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, and subcontracts the sign manufacture and installation, said he has filed about half a dozen similar cases in other parts of the state, including Indianapolis, Fishers and Westfield.

Blaiklock said other communities, too, have had to change their laws as a result of the suits, and in some cases, GEFT also has been able to put up signs.

Lee said almost all of his suits have proven that some local laws violate the U.S. Constitution, and at a bare minimum, the county or municipality has had to pay his legal fees.

Blaiklock said GEFTs attorney fees are well more than $10,000, and he said the county should have to pay those, given its laws were unconstitutional. He said he expects a judge to rule on that matter within six months.

The county legal department could not immediately say how much it paid Pollack to handle the case.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Despite lawsuit electronic billboard won't be allowed in Monroe County
[Source]

A growing number of African American creators on TikTok are joining the gyaru trend, a Japanese fashion subculture that was popular in the 1990s.

#BlackGyaru: Wearing brightly colored outfits and sporting dramatic make-up with oversized lashes, a community of Black women and femmes on TikTok are adopting the aesthetic and sharing their looks with thousands of followers. The #BlackGyaru hashtag has more than 84 million views as of this writing. Some of the best-known TikTok users in the niche include CitrusMalicious and Lady Lavender.

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Another popular TikTok user who draws inspiration from Japans gyaru culture is Aliyah Bah, who rose to popularity due to her eccentric style known as aliyahcore. Her fashion style also mixes aspects of Y2K fashion and streetwear, sporting earmuffs, suspenders and studded belts with creative makeup looks.

Racism against the Black Gyaru: While the style has brought empowerment to the growing Black gyaru community, many creators face ostracization and racism on TikTok. When Lady Lavender first joined the community, she was reportedly criticized and described as an East Asian baiter by some viewers.

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Some creators defended the Black gyaru community, claiming that gyaru was inspired by Afro American artists. Citrus Malicious, who has considered quitting due to the severe hate, believes that the racism surrounding the Black gyaru community should be eliminated as gyaru was made to combat colorist beauty standards in the first place.

According to Bah, Black women with darker skin tones are also more discriminated against. A lighter skinned person could do this alternative stuff and people would eat it up, but when its on a darker skinned person we get this negative connotation, Bah told CNN.

What is Gyaru?: Gyaru, which is the Japanese transliteration of the English slang word gal, originated in Japan in the 1970s and was adopted by women who rejected the nations traditional beauty standards, which only accepted pale skin, dark hair and discreet makeup. The style was particularly popular in Tokyo's trendy districts in the 1990s and early 2000s. Some variants of the style, including b-kei, yamanba and ganguro, were also directly inspired by the U.S. hip-hop culture.

More from NextShark: Jeannie Mai Jenkins apologizes for 'inadvertently excluding Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders'

According to Masafumi Monden, a professor at the University of Sydney who studies Japanese popular culture, the Japanese subculture stemmed from the growing influence of Western media in the 90s. The fashion style borrows its aesthetic from both the California valley girl and R&B styles.

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Katie Ditchen (left) and Jenna Anderton are teacher in the new Launch Post-High program in Fishersville.

FISHERSVILLE  In 1987 Katie Ditchen, then Katie Roller, was a high school sophomore in Staunton at what was then known at Robert E. Lee High School. The 15-year-old spent five days that August in Huntsville, Alabama, at NASA's Space Camp. Out of the 200 students in attendance, she was chosen at the outstanding camper that year. A reporter from The News Leader even wrote a story about her experience.

Ditchen calls herself a space nerd, saying she's been fascinated with NASA and outer space for years. She's also been a teacher for 27 years, the last three working in special education in Staunton and before that in Georgia. Her new job, one of two teachers at the Launch post-high program in Fishersville, seems like a perfect match for her interests.

The new program will be offered starting this year for students with disabilities from Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County. It's for those students who graduate high school but still need additional support to build skills and confidence as they prepare for adulthood.

Known as Launch, the program uses a space theme, including a motto: Plan to Take Off ... Destination: Adulthood.

"We're practicing all of the same prerequisite skills that they'll need in the real world, in the employment world," Ditchen said. "NASA trains astronauts that way. You start by learning about an activity, a task. It's broken down into checklists of tasks. You develop the prerequisite skills, you practice it over and over again until you achieve automaticity, meaning you can dive right in and do it without thinking about it."

It's the same thing at the new post-high program, but instead of training for space missions they are training for adulthood.

The program leased space from the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center (WWRC). LAUNCH will be located at 40 Andrew Lane on the WWRC campus in Fishersville.

Jen Matheny, the program's administrator, said one of the goals of the program is allow students to gain experience in the community. She wants to make sure it's a different experience than high school, not just 13th grade.

Matheny said a lot of the students in Launch had been staying in the high schools because there was no program to suit their needs. Launch will begin with 14 students from ages 18-22. That could grow in years to come, but it depends on the needs of the students, Matheny said.

"The objective of all three school divisions is we don't want the students who have finished the four years of high school, we do not want them sitting in the high school again," Matheny said. "Nothing is wrong with that environment, but just like you and me, they're ready to move on."

Jenna Anderton is the second teacher in the program, which also has five instructional assistants.

One of the rooms in the Launch post-high program in Fishersville will allow students to practice making beds, setting up desks to work at and folding laundry.

There are various rooms in the building. One is a bedroom where students will learn strategies like making the bed, setting up a desk, folding laundry. There's also a kitchen where students will work on cooking skills. There's another room that will be set up as different business environments. To start, it is set up as a travel agency and a flower shop. Students will learn various skills in those environments before using them to volunteer in the community.

"Learning life skills, that's our goal," Anderton said.

The program will work with students on many key competency areas:

Personal Care Skills

Hygiene

Exercise and fitness

Routines

Healthy habits

Understanding personal information

Improving personal safety

Self-advocacy

Interpersonal Skills

Finding meaningful social opportunities

Navigating relationship roles

Improving emotional regulation

Enhancing social communication

Identifying interests/hobbies

Building skill for potential employment or volunteering

Environmental Skills

Meal planning

Budgeting and shopping

Meal prep and cleanup

First aid

General housekeeping and maintenance

Community Connections

Using public transportation

Participating in meaningful service projects

Participating in local recreation programs

Visiting community, business and tourism sites

Generalizing skills across multiple settings

Identifying personal resources

The phone number for Launch is (540) 332-7004. Classes for the students begin Wednesday, Aug. 9.

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 Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: New post-high program for Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro ready to launch
An investigation is underway after a body was found in front of a soup kitchen in Connecticut on Monday morning (WFSB)

An investigation is underway after a body was found in front of a soup kitchen in Connecticut on Monday morning.

New Haven police responded to the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen on State Street after receiving a call about the body around 5.22 am.

We do not believe it is a homicide, but it is being investigated as a suspicious death, Police Chief Karl Jacobson told the New Haven Independent. aThe immediate investigation shows the person had medical issues.

He added that police have not yet positively identified the body and that investigators would await the results of the autopsy for further investigation.

Steve Werlin, executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK), said the person who passed away was a client at DESK. Our staff is assisting police in their investigation. No cause of death has yet been reported. We have no reason to believe that there was any foul play.

The location where the body was found is a drop-in center and administrative offices for DESK that serve free meals and provides a host of social services for New Havens homeless population, according to their website.

This is incredibly devastating for our staff and clients, as were all struggling to process this tragedy, he continued. I ask that you please respect their privacy for now, especially at this early stage.

No other details on the death investigation were provided.
A woman found dead off a popular hiking trail Sunday in Maryland is believed to be a 37-year-old who was reported missing by her boyfriend and police are investigating the death as a homicide, authorities said.

Rachel Morin reportedly went to the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air at about 6 p.m. Saturday evening, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Sunday. She was reported missing by her boyfriend around 11:30 p.m. when she didn't return home.

Rachel Morin / Credit: Harford County Sheriff's Office

Morin's car was located at the trailhead and a volunteer searcher found the body at about 1 p.m. on Sunday, Gahler said.

"They set up a command center here so we figured that it was something rather grave that had happened to that poor woman," Bel Air resident Kathy Tunney told CBS Baltimore.

The area reopened after deputies spent hours at the crime scene, but Gahler urged people walking the trail to be vigilant. He said he could not yet confirm that there is not a threat to the public.

"We understand this homicide causes a lot of concern. It causes a lot of concern for us," Gahler said. "The trail is one of our major parks and recs assets that runs through a lot of different parts of Harford County."

Residents of the normally quiet community told CBS Baltimore they are in shock.

"My daughter was just out running this morning to the end of the trail and back," Tunney said. "So we enjoy it and we enjoy living next to it. I have never felt afraid."

Gahler said there will be an increased police presence throughout the trail while deputies investigate.

"We ask anyone walking on the trail to always be aware of your surroundings," Gahler said. "The earbuds are great, they help you exercise, but it can also prevent you from being aware of your surroundings. If possible, walk or run with a friend, buddy-up, or consider wearing a whistle or an alert device, and let your family know where you are. If you see something that doesn't make you feel comfortable, and you feel suspicious about it, take out your phone and call 911 and let law enforcement respond."

The trail is located near the center of Bel Air, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.

A GoFundMe page set up by Morin's sister Rebekah has raised more than $20,000.

"This was not an accidentally [sic] death, and she did not go willingly and she deserves a funeral worthy of her her beauty," Rebekah Morin wrote.

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Boeing and NASA teams work around Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after it landed on May 25, 2022 at White Sands Missile Range's Space Harbor in New Mexico (Bill INGALLS)

Boeing on Monday said its Starliner spaceship will now be ready to carry out its first crewed flight by March -- though the actual launch date will depend on space calendar constraints.

The troubled program has experienced numerous postponements but was finally meant to send astronauts to the International Space Station on July 21.

During testing, however, Boeing engineers identified new issues relating to a faulty parachute system and wire harness tape used extensively through the capsule that was found to be flammable under some conditions.

"Right now, based on the current plans, we're anticipating that we're going to be ready with the spacecraft in early March," said Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and program manager of the Starliner program.

He added that the actual launch date would depend on constraints in the space calendar and would be decided together with NASA and the United Launch Alliance that provides the Atlas V rocket for Starliner.

Nappi explained that a component of the parachute system called the "soft links" had been reinforced with Kevlar, and improvements were made to its stitching.

Substantial amounts of the electrical tape have been removed, while in other areas they have been protectively covered, he added.

The company finally succeeded in May 2022 in reaching the ISS for the first time -- without a crew on board.

Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew program manager, defended the delays as being in the interest of safety, and reiterated the space agency's commitment to Boeing in the face of increasing criticism from observers.

"We will go fly this mission when we're ready," said Stich, adding: "It's hugely important for Commercial Crew to bring on a second crew transportation system for the ISS program."

NASA hopes to certify Starliner as a second "taxi" service for its astronauts to the space station -- a role that Elon Musk's SpaceX has provided since succeeding in a test mission of its Dragon capsule in 2020.

The US space agency awarded fixed-price contracts of $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX in 2014, shortly after the end of the space shuttle program, during a time when the United States had to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for rides to the ISS.

ia/bbk
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.-- Boeing managers revealed the company has months of work remaining to get the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft ready for its first NASA astronaut flight to the International Space Station.

Boeing was set to launch its first round of astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the space station this summer, however, weeks before the July launch date, mission managers revealed two new problems discovered with the spacecraft.

Engineers discovered new issues after further examining data from the CST-100 Starliner orbital test flight (OFT) from May 2022, a repeat test flight from a botched attempt in 2019 that ended without docking at the ISS because of a computer glitch.

In June, Boeing managers revealed two new issues going into the Crew Flight Test (CFT) with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. On Monday, NASA and Boeing leaders said corrective measures are still in progress, and the CFT won't happen until next year.

The more significant issue was discovered with the parachutes used to slow the spacecraft for landing back on Earth. Small sections of the lines that run from Starliner to the parachutes, called soft links, were retested because Boeing engineers believed the data was recorded incorrectly, and the lines have a lower failure limit. The theory was confirmed through additional testing.

Boeing Starliner program manager Mark Nappi said fixes for the soft links are in testing, including options a Boeing engineer came up with in his garage.

"One of our engineers on the program builds chutes for personal use, and the day that we found out that the testing was suspect, he went home in his garage and built three prototypes to try and understand what we could do next and brought those back," Nappi said. "Right off the bat, you know, we had a really good head start on figuring out what we needed to do to redesign those."

Boeing will add additional stitching to the soft links, and after a drop test in November, the final chute design should be delivered around December.

Fixing the parachute concerns is essential before CFT can happen.

"The parachute delivery is the critical path," Nappi said.

The second concern involved flammable tape used extensively inside the spacecraft to wrap wire harnesses on Starliner.

To resolve the issue, the vehicle was divided into 12 zones, and engineers are removing tape or applying "remediation techniques" to areas where the tape cannot be removed.

According to NASA Commercial Crew Program Steve Stich, Boeing's teams have removed "pounds of tape" from the vehicle. The tape is used throughout the spacecraft to hold wiring in place.

"We have taken off more than we expected," Nappi said. "The tape comes off rather easily."

Stich said SpaceX also used the same tape on the Crew Dragon spacecraft but not in the same way, and it was easily removed once the issue was discovered.

By the end of September, the Starliner tape issue should be ready for review, according to Nappi.

NASA is taking steps to independently review the changes and corrections with Starliner before it approves a launch date.

Stich said an independent team will review all data and changes before the Crew Flight Test happens.

As part of a more comprehensive review of Starliner, NASAs chief engineer spoke to all Boeing team managers involved with every system of the spacecraft.

Stich said the current corrective plan was run by the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, and the members were "pleased."

Both NASA and Boeing officials said it's too early to set a tentative launch date for Starliner.

"Were going to be ready with the spacecraft in early March," Nappi said, adding that doesn't mean a March launch date.

The company will work with NASA and launch provider United Launch Alliance to find a new Crew Flight Test launch date in 2023.

After the space shuttle program ended, NASA paid Russia for nine years to launch astronauts to the International Space Station and bring them home.



Boeing and SpaceX were selected by NASA in 2014 to begin flying American astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX successfully launched the first American astronauts from Florida in 2020.

SpaceX is preparing its seventh astronaut mission to the ISS using the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft under the Commercial Crew Program.

While NASAs astronaut program awaits a second transportation option for its astronauts, the space agency has shifted more crew to SpaceXs Crew Dragon. Stich said the astronauts are conducting training to be ready to fly on either Starliner or Crew Dragon.

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps was slated to fly on Starliner but was recently reassigned to the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann also flew on the Crew-5 mission to the ISS on Crew Dragon after being initially assigned to Starliner.

NASA has contracted Boeing for six flights to the space station.

"There is no reason to change our plans," Nappi said when asked what the path forward will be for Starliner with the retirement of the International Space Station nearing.

NASA plans to retire the ISS in 2030. When the International Space Station program ends, private space stations will be the future of low-Earth orbit. Multiple private space stations are under development by private companies.
FILE - A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility, May 18, 2022 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeings first Starliner flight with astronauts aboard has been delayed until at least next March. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  Already running years behind, Boeings first astronaut flight is now off until at least next March.

Problems with the parachute lines and flammable tape surfaced during final reviews in late spring, ahead of what should have been a July launch for the Starliner capsule. Boeing said Monday that it should be done removing the tape in the coming weeks. But a redesigned parachute system wont be ready until December.

If a parachute drop test goes well late this year, company officials said the spacecraft should be ready to carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as early as March. Starliners first crew flight will need to fit around other space station traffic, however, so its too early to set even a tentative date, according to officials.

To ensure there are no other problems, NASA and Boeing are conducting independent reviews.

Boeing program manager Mark Nappi said technicians are almost halfway done peeling off flammable tape that was used to protect capsule wiring. Tape that cannot be removed from vulnerable spots will be covered with a protective coating.

The original guidelines for usage of the tape were confusing, according to company and NASA officials, but they later determined it could not be used in some areas because it was flammable.

The parachute issue will take longer to resolve. Part of the parachute lines known as soft links did not meet safety standards, having gotten past improper testing years ago. A new, more robust design will be incorporated into upgraded parachutes already in the works.

Theres always the mystery of something else that can pop up, Nappi told reporters. But given the current situation, we have a pretty good schedule laid out to launch as early as March.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX nearly a decade ago to deliver astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is now three years into its taxi service. Boeing has only had a pair of Starliner space test flights with no one aboard.

NASA said it still wants two competing crew launchers, even as the projected 2030 end of the space station program draws ever closer. The goal is to fly one Boeing and one SpaceX crew flight each year.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yuma, Arizona  The number of migrants crossing the southern border illegally, particularly across the inhospitable Arizona desert, has increased sharply after falling to a two-year low in June, despite record heat levels, government statistics obtained by CBS News show.

In recent days, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector, which covers most of Arizona's border with Mexico and parts of the Sonoran Desert, have seen the number of migrants arriving daily soar to as many as 1,900, an increase of 134% from an average of 812 in June, according to unpublished agency figures.

Migrants, including families with young children, have been traversing the Arizona desert in large groups  generally an indication of the involvement of smugglers  amid extreme and dangerous temperatures that surpass 110 degrees each day in most areas of the region.

The sharp increase in migrant arrivals has been particularly acute around Lukeville, a small Arizona town near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. With limited holding space in that remote region, Border Patrol resources have been strained by the spike in crossings, with agents resorting to keeping migrant men outside in triple-digit heat to avoid overcrowding at an over-capacity station in Ajo, another desert town.

Reached for comment, Customs and Border Protection confirmed a "significant increase" in migrant crossings in the Arizona desert. It also acknowledged it has been holding some migrants outdoors near a station in Ajo since the facility "is not equipped to hold large numbers of migrants." The agency said the migrants have been held in shaded areas.

But CBP stressed it was working to expedite the transfer of migrants away from the desert and ensure they can receive water, food and medical screenings. It said there have not been any "major medical emergencies" or deaths related to the heat thus far near Ajo.

"The 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 areas of the southwest border  where individuals have been callously sent by smuggling organizations to walk for miles, often with little or no water," the agency told CBS News.

"People perish seeking the American dream"

Families and adults from China, Colombia, Senegal and other countries wait to be transported by Border Patrol near Yuma, Arizona, after crossing into the U.S. before sunrise. / Credit: Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News

In Yuma, the other Border Patrol sector in Arizona, migrant crossings have not returned to the record levels seen last year. But large groups of migrant families from all corners of the globe  from China, Senegal and Mauritania, to Colombia and Venezuela  continue crossing into the U.S. there, mostly in the middle of the night, when temperatures dip below 90 degrees.

But even then, the heat can be dangerous and in some cases deadly, especially for children and the elderly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Water can be life-saving in these scorching temperatures, said Fernando Quiroz, who distributes water bottles, bananas and granola bars every morning in the busiest crossing sites near Yuma.

"A bottle of water, a snack, something to let them fight for another day, it's something that I'm blessed to be able to do," said Quiroz, who created the AZ-CA Humanitarian Coalition, a volunteer group. "It does make a difference."

Quiroz often reaches migrants before Border Patrol agents do. After giving them water and food, and storing additional supplies in coolers he has assembled, Quiroz tells migrants they should wait for Border Patrol to pick them up, so they can be processed and start the years-long asylum process.

Continuing to cross the desert alone, with little or no water, could be a fatal decision, he warns them.

"We're talking about 110, 120 degree weather that we're seeing every single day," Quiroz told CBS News. "People perish seeking the American dream."

"Our area here has already seen a number of deaths," he added. "We saw a mother that perished a couple weeks ago, not far from where I'm standing."

The woman was traveling with two children, Quiroz said, beforing stopping at the location where she collapsed. Her and her family's belongings were still there when CBS News visited the area. Lieutenant Marco Santana, a spokesperson for the San Luis Police Department, said his officers recovered the body of a migrant woman in the area in late July after being contacted by Border Patrol. The Yuma County Sheriff's Office is examining the death, but Santana said she appeared to have perished due to dehydration.

"The young lady apparently started feeling sick and ultimately just kind of waited there. And she was later found to be on the floor, pretty much collapsed," Santana told CBS News.

The extremely hot temperatures and other dangerous conditions have contributed to a record number of migrants dying while crossing into the U.S. in the past two years. Heat exposure has been the number one cause of migrant deaths along the U.S. southern border in recent years, followed by drownings.

In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol recorded 853 migrant deaths, a record high that eclipsed the previous all-time high of 546 in 2021. The deadly pace has slowed slightly, but during the first nine months of current fiscal year 2023, Border Patrol reported over 330 migrant deaths, according to unpublished agency data obtained by CBS News. Federal fiscal years run from Oct. 1 to Sept 30.

Limits of U.S. policy

Migrant families and adults are processed by Border Patrol agents near San Luis, Arizona, after receiving water and food from local volunteers. / Credit: Camilo Montoya-Galvez/CBS News

The rise in migration has also come despite measures the Biden administration has taken to deter illegal crossings, including a rule that disqualifies migrants from asylum if they enter the U.S. unlawfully without first seeking legal refuge in another country. Last week, a federal appeals court allowed the administration to continue those asylum restrictions, which resemble a Trump administration policy.

The Biden administration had credited those limits on asylum eligibility, as well as programs it created to encourage tens of thousands of would-be migrants to enter the U.S. legally each month, for the two-year low in migrant apprehensions in June.

Adam Isacson, a migration analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington think tank, said the growing number of crossings, despite the asylum restrictions and record heat levels, illustrates the limits of U.S. border policy and the desperation among many migrants.

"For at least 30 years, U.S. border policy has assumed that if the migration experience is dangerous and miserable at the border, with a high likelihood of deportation, then people won't come," Isacson said. "That keeps being proved wrong, as migration has been increasing steadily since the early 2010s  not just in the United States, but throughout the Americas."

Isacson said deteriorating conditions in migrant-sending countries often outweigh tough actions or rhetoric by officials in the U.S., such as Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial efforts to repel crossings by setting up razor wire and river barriers along the state's border with Mexico.

"Even the cruelest policies, like what Greg Abbott is attempting in Texas, are not as harsh as daily life right now in places like Haiti, the slums of Venezuela, or in Mexico's cartel combat zones," Isacson said. "No U.S. policy should try to emulate that level of human misery."

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Three firefighters were injured and 30 Boston residents were displaced following a multi-alarm fire on Irma Street that quickly spread to two adjacent buildings on Monday afternoon, fire officials said.

The firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries, with one firefighter suffering burns, and two firefighters experiencing some type of orthopedic injuries, fire officials said. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Sometime before 3 p.m., flames ignited in the basement of a triple-decker at 20 Irma St. and spread quickly to two nearby multi-family homes. The damage to the three charred properties is extensive.

About 100 firefighters responded to the scene. High wires on the street made it difficult for firefighters to access the burning buildings.

The fire quickly spread to two adjacent multi-family houses, located at 16 Irma St. and 24 Irma St., officials said.

A 3rd alarm was ordered as of 2:47 p.m. and a 4th alarm was ordered after that.

Minutes later, by 3:05 p.m., firefighters had knocked down the heavy fire, officials said.

Firefighters were seen carrying a cage containing two small birds outside of one of the buildings.

Fire crews battled the fire from both inside the buildings and outside, and surrounded the three buildings to spray water hoses to extinguish the flames.

Just after 3 p.m., fire officials reported the heavy fire had been knocked down.

Crews continue to chase hot spots at all of the impacted buildings.

The Red Cross responded to assist the displaced residents.

Additional information was not immediately available.

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

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A boy who was 14 when prosecutors say he fatally shot another teenager last year in Over-the-Rhine can be prosecuted as an adult, a judge ruled Monday.

At a hearing in Hamilton County Juvenile Court, Judge Stacey DeGraffenreid said sustained change for the boy would not be possible through the juvenile system. DeGraffenreid also said the teen is emotionally and psychologically able to handle the transfer to adult court.

The teen is charged in the September 2022 killing of Shawn Lewis. The shooting happened near the corner of Orchard and Main streets at around 10 p.m. Prosecutors say the shooting was unprovoked.

Taquanda McKinney's son Shawn Lewis, 15, was shot and killed in September 2022.

Lewis was celebrating his 15th birthday that evening. According to testimony at a previous hearing, he was at a bus stop when the 14-year-old and another teen approached. As the other teen appeared to try to provoke a fight, the 14-year-old circled the area where Lewis was standing.

The other teen pushed Lewis, according to the testimony, then the 14-year-old pulled out a handgun and tried to hit Lewis with it but missed. The 14-year-old then fired multiple shots, prosecutors say, striking Lewis twice in the torso.

The Enquirer is not naming him because he has not yet been formally indicted in adult court. The case is expected to go before a grand jury.

Evidence includes video

The incident was captured on a businesss surveillance video as well as video from a Lyft drivers vehicle.

On Monday, Assistant Prosecutor Jordan Blake said the 14-year-old shot Lewis for no reason at all and then ran away.

His attorney, Angela Glaser, argued that the case should remain in juvenile court. He had been exposed to violence when he was younger and suffered a traumatic brain injury after a fall.

This is a kid who has not received services, not received treatment, no therapy, Glaser said.

He also tested as having an IQ that was described in court as being between low average and borderline intellectual disability.

A psychologist, Carla Dreyer, testified that the teen had a poor prognosis for change, given his history of behavioral and emotional problems.

Dreyer said the maximum six years he potentially could spend in the juvenile system before he ages out was not enough time.

The teen, who turned 15 this summer, will continue to be held at the county Youth Center on bonds totaling $700,000.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Boy who was 14 when charged in killing to be prosecuted as an adult
By Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government wants the private sector to help reforest large swathes of the Amazon, the country's Environment Minister Marina Silva said in an interview, using concessions to replant some 12 million hectares (120,000 square km) of forest by 2030.

The plan's outlines were sketched out in a briefing last week by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to end Amazon deforestation by 2030. Silva's account of how it would work is the most detailed to date.

In an interview in Brasilia late last week, Silva said the government was looking at offering private concessions of federally owned land for the planting of native trees along with high-value woods such as mahogany that are prized in the furniture and decking industries. Concessions could also be granted to generate other products, like oilseeds, fibers and resins, along with potential carbon credit schemes.

"The idea here is that the business sector could manage this as a concession," she said. "These are concessions for 30 or 40 years."

Andre Lima, the ministry's head of deforestation control, told Reuters last week the plan would likely begin with the concession of federal land in the Amazon already earmarked for conservation. After additional study, it would expand into public land not legally defined as a national park, indigenous reserve or other protected territory.

The vast Amazon rainforest is a key buffer against climate change. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, under whom deforestation surged during his 2019-2022 term, advocated the economic development of the Amazon with mining and agriculture. But multiple studies have shown that the forest can be more economically valuable standing than it is chopped down.

Officials from eight Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia and Peru will meet this week in the northern Brazilian city of Belem for a two-day meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

They aim to forge unified policies, goals and positions in international negotiations on some 130 issues ranging from financing for sustainable development to indigenous inclusion.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter, Brad Haynes and Richard Chang)
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a fundraiser event for the Alabama GOP, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, in Montgomery, Ala. | Butch Dill, Associated Press

Editors note: This story was originally published on Aug. 7. It has been updated.

Former President Donald Trump currently faces 91 felony counts related to four criminal cases: Two separate cases (one federal case, one case in Georgia) involving his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, another involving his handling of classified documents, and another over allegedly falsifying business records. He has denied wrongdoing in each case.

In May, Trump was found liable for sexual assault and defamation in a civil case.

Here is a breakdown of the charges Trump faces.

Trump faces 91 charges across 4 criminal cases

Former President Donald Trump is facing 91 charges across four separate criminal cases. The charges include 44 federal charges and 47 state charges, all felonies. He has also been found liable for sexual assault and defamation in a civil case.

Trumps charges are broken down below.

Federal

4 charges: 2020 election case.

40 charges: Classified documents case.

State

34 charges: Falsifying business records case in Manhattan.

13 charges: 2020 election case in Fulton County, Georgia.

Civil

2 charges: Sexual assault case.

Trump faces 13 charges in Fulton County, Georgia

On Monday evening, a grand jury returned a total of 41 counts against 19 people. Trump was charged with 13 counts by a Georgia county prosecutor.

These charges are related to alleged criminal activity in connection with the 2020 election in the state of Georgia.

One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump, the 97-page indictment reads.

Trumps campaign released a statement about the charges.

The timing of this latest coordinated strike by a biased prosecutor in an overwhelmingly Democrat jurisdiction not only betrays the trust of the American people, but also exposes true motivation driving their fabricated accusations. They could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trumps successful campaign, the statement said, according to CNN.

1 count: Violating Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

3 counts: Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.

1 count: Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer.

2 counts: Conspiracy to commit false statements and writings.

1 count: Conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

1 count: Filing false documents.

2 counts: Making false statements and writings.

Prosecutors accused Trump and his allies of attempting to overturn the election results by, among other things, encouraging state officials to violate their oaths of office, devising a plan to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors, intimidating an election worker and unlawfully breaching voting equipment, The Hill reported.

Related

Trump faces 4 charges in the Jan. 6 case

Federal prosecutors are investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, as well as alleged efforts from Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Trump received an indictment from a grand jury in early August. The indictment levies the following federal charges (per The Washington Post):

1 count: Conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.

1 count: Conspiracy against civil rights.

2 counts: Obstruction.

Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power, the indictment says, per Politico. 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 45-page indictment alleges that Trump and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims, per CNN.

Trump appeared at a Washington, D.C., district court on Thursday, Aug. 3. He pled not guilty to all counts, per NBC News.

Related

Trump faces 40 charges in the classified documents case

Trump faces 40 charges as part of the classified documents case, which alleges that Trump illegally kept classified documents after he left the White House, per CNBC.

The former president currently faces the following federal charges:

32 counts: Willful retention of national defense information.

6 counts: Withholding or altering documents.

2 counts: False statements.

Each of the first 32 counts relates to a specific classified document prosecutors claim Trump illegally possessed after leaving the White House, or, willfully retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act, per Politico. The remaining eight charges relate to his alleged efforts to hide documents from investigators and delete Mar-a-Lago security footage, per The Washington Post.

Trump faces 34 charges in the falsifying business records case

Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records connected to an investigation into alleged hush money paid to adult actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election, per The Washington Post.

Under Article 175 of New York Penal Law, Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In New York, falsifying business records is a felony when there is intent to defraud as well as an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.

Trump found liable for sexual assault and defamation

In May 2023, a jury in a civil case found Trump liable of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. The jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

Carroll accused Trump of raping her nearly 30 years ago inside a dressing room of a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman department store, per The New York Times. Due to statute of limitations, no criminal charges could be filed in the case, so Carroll filed a civil suit.

Jurors notably did not find Trump liable for rape, the most serious allegation Carroll made in a lawsuit filed last year, per CNBC. But their verdict that he sexually abused and forcibly touched her without her consent ... substantiated her civil claim of battery.

Related
A man riding an electric scooter was fatally struck by an Infiniti driver in a Brooklyn intersection, police said Monday.

The Infiniti driver was traveling south on Marcus Garvey Blvd. in Bedford-Stuyvesant when he T-boned a scooter rider heading east on Decatur St. at about 4:25 a.m. Sunday, cops said.

The force of the impact sent the electric scooter crashing into a parked Hyundai Sonata, with the victim flying off his KSR Moto TTX and slamming into a building, police said.

The victim, an adult whose age and name are not yet known because he had no identification on him, suffered severe head and body trauma. Medics rushed him to Kings County Hospital, but he could not be saved.

The 21-year-old Infiniti driver stayed at the scene and was not charged, though police were still investigating.

The Infiniti driver was not hurt, nor were his two passengers.

The fatal crash was one of three in a three-hour span early Sunday.

The other incidents both involved hit-and-run drivers in Queens.

Just past 2 a.m. Sunday, a 33-year-old motorcyclist, Kallyn Jean, died after being struck by a driver at a Laurelton intersection. Jean, of upstate Oneida, was thrown from his bike and slid under a parked 2004 Ford Econoline E350 van. Medics rushed him to Long Island Jewish Valley Stream, but he could not be saved.

At 4:55 a.m., a 37-year-old man on a 2021 Znen ZN150T scooter riding south on 50th Ave. in Corona was fatally struck by the driver of a white Honda CR-V heading east on 97th St. Amikar Armondo Marquez-Larez was thrown to the pavement and died at Elmhurst Hospital Center.

Neither Queens driver has been caught.
[Source]

BTS label Big Hit Music recently announced that group member Suga has officially started his military enlistment process.

About the announcement: In a Weverse post on Monday, the South Korean music label updated BTS fans with the news, writing, We would like to inform our fans that SUGA has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement. We will inform you of further updates in due course.

We ask you for your continued love and support for SUGA until he completes his military service and safely returns, Big Hit Music continued. "Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artist. Thank you."

Not the first: Suga, 30, will be the third BTS member to enlist. BTS oldest member Jin, also 30, enlisted in December 2022, and J-Hope, 29, enlisted back in April.

More from NextShark: 'Bastions': Animated superhero series with music from BTS heads to CrunchyRoll

In October 2022, Big Hit Music shared that all of the BTS members will fulfill their mandatory military conscriptions when the time comes. The K-pop act is expected to reconvene around 2025.

Suga has yet to address his military enlistment on his social media platforms.

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It is not legal to bury a loved one in your own backyard in the state of California  that is, your human loved ones.

But what if your beloved friend had a little more hair and a few extra legs? Is it legal then?

In case youre considering a home burial for a recently deceased pet, here are several things you should consider about Californias laws and regulations.

California law on pet burial

In California, there are no state laws that say pet owners have to dispose of their deceased animals in a humane manner, according to The Pet Memorial.

However, local governments have their own ordinances regarding pet burials.

Those considering a home burial should make sure to know if there are any restrictions on how to bury your pet beforehand.

In the county of Sacramento, for example, you can bury your animal in your backyard, but it is not recommended, according to the Sacramento County website.

Luna Anona, spokesperson for Sacramento County, said there is no official local ordinance regarding pet burials in the county.

We typically recommend that deceased pets weighing more than 15 pounds be taken to veterinary clinics or pet cemeteries, Anona said. Alternatively, they can be taken to Kiefer Landfill.

Here are the policies regarding animal disposal, according to the countys solid waste acceptance policy:

Household domestic pets may be disposed in the general waste stream

Dead farm (or other very large) animals or multiple animals are acceptable for disposal at Kiefer Landfill on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.





According to the countys website, buried animals can pose biological contamination due to decaying. This causes risks to nearby water systems. It can also harm humans and animals who may come into contact with the carcass.

State law about animal disposal pertains to agricultural settings. In situations of emergency where someone has to dispose of an animal  such as on a farm or ranch  the California Environmental Agencys website states the following disposal options should occur, whichever is more accessible:

Storage and transportation for rendering

Taking the animal to a permitted landfill

On-site burial

On-site composting

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.
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CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO FORCED OUTING POLICY

Last month, the Chino Valley Unified School District board voted to enact a policy of forced outing of transgender students to their parents. Now, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating.

In a statement, Bonta said that students should never be afraid to attend school while being who they are.

Chino Valley Unifieds forced outing policy threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity, Bonta said in a statement.

Bonta had previously sent a letter to the board, urging them to vote down this proposal.

Under the policy, teachers and other Chino Valley Unified staff are required to inform a students parents if that student requests to go by a different name or pronouns, or if that student uses bathrooms or joins school programs (such as sports) that dont align with their sex on official records. The policy makes no exception for the physical safety or mental well being of the student.

Surveys show few transgender youths view their home as a safe, gender-affirming place, and transgender students are more likely than their peers to be victims of physical, psychological or sexual abuse.

The school boards vote came in defiance of California Department of Education policy, which calls for teachers and other school staff to protect the privacy of transgender students who may not be out at home.

STEINBERG ENDORSES A SECOND AD-6 CANDIDATE

A day after Assembly District 6 candidate Paula Villescaz announced an endorsement from Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a second candidate came forward with an endorsement from the outgoing mayor: Sacramento Municipal Utility District Vice President Rosanna Herber.

Ive known Rosanna for decades and shes an experienced leader who knows how to get things done. She will be a champion for Sacramento in climate change, housing and mental health, Steinberg said in a statement provided to The Bee.

Herber was the first openly gay person to serve on the SMUD Board.

Another prominent Sacramento-area Democrat, State Sen. Angelique Ashby, also has endorsed Herber, saying in a statement that Rosanna is an experienced leader who will hit the ground running. Her work on SMUD has helped create jobs while being a leader on climate change.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Leaving an open invitation for an ice cream scoop off against the guy from Florida. Hannity can judge. To be clear I did not learn these skills as a benefit resulting from my ancestors enslavement.

- Assembly Majority Leader Isaac G. Bryan, D-Los Angeles, with a unique challenge for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

Some of Californias highest-paid public employees are turning up the heat on Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration after six months of contract negotiations, via Maya Miller .

In the fight against climate change, California is betting on the removal of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air by 2045. A significant development in the technology thats needed might soon take place outside Yuba City, via Ari Plachta .

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, via Dominique Williams .

Diego de Jesus Delgado Melendez traveled thousands of miles from his home in Venezuela and trekked some of the worlds most dangerous terrain in search of a way to provide for his 11 children. And yet, when he finally entered the U.S., after 85 days and 3 deportations, his journey hadnt finished, via Mathew Miranda .

After tree trimming declared ineffective, PG&E adopts new wildfire mitigation strategy, via Grace Scullion.
Lower-income communities in California shoulder a disproportionate share of fire-prone overhead power lines and wooden utility poles, a new study has found.

While one of the most effective ways to prevent wildfires and improve system resilience is to bury power lines underground, doing so largely occurs at the expense of the local community, the study authors noted.

Because decisions about such burial are often based on whether the local population can afford the project costs  up to $5 million per mile  most undergrounding has occurred in wealthy areas, according to the study, published Monday in Nature Energy.

Distribution grids in low-income communities are in a wildfire safety deficit, lead study author Zhecheng Wang, a postdoctoral scholar in electrical engineering, said in a statement.

Californias Public Utilities Commission allows communities, developers and property owners to identify areas for undergrounding, as well as receive funding for a small portion of the cost from their utility.

Nonetheless, wildfire threat and income level have not factored into the regulators criteria for which projects should advance and who should pay for them, the researchers explained.

If California continues with this approach, the per-household cost of burying existing fire-prone overhead lines will soon become significantly higher in lower-income census blocks, according to the study.

For blocks in areas where wildfires are most likely to impact power lines, the authors estimated that the cost would be $37,000 per household at the $200,000 income level, and more than three times that at the $50,000 income level.

To identify which places might be most vulnerable, the scientists created a first-of-its-kind map depicting wildfire risk of power lines across California.

Using an AI-powered model, they identified overhead lines in Google Street View images and filled in gaps in areas where photos werent available.

The researchers then overlaid their results with maps of tree canopies and census data, which included household income and education levels.

Aboveground power lines exacerbate not just the threat of wildfire itself, but they also can jeopardize energy security by trigging preemptive power shut-offs amid severe weather conditions, the authors noted.

These shutdowns have a great impact in low-income neighborhoods, where residents are less likely to install solar panels or generators that could keep them powered through an outage, according to the study.

Our current electric infrastructure leaves low-income communities doubly vulnerable, corresponding author Ram Rajagopal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said in a statement.

Theyre more likely to have power lines at risk during wildfires, and theyre less likely to have backup power, Rajagopal added.

Aiming to offer a sustainable policy solution to this imbalance, the researchers worked on a scheme that would allocate the costs of undergrounding based on a neighborhoods median income.

They suggested that the California Public Utilities Commission give communities with lower income levels the opportunity to split the cost of burying power lines among all utility customers.

In areas above a certain income threshold, communities would be able to choose between paying for burying power lines locally or implementing other fire prevention methods  such as replacing poles or trimming trees on a routine basis, per the study.

Justification for utility-wide cost allocation goes beyond equity and affordability, the authors wrote. Improved grid resilience to wildfires in low-income communities and high-fire-threat areas can benefit all communities

Without such changes, wildfire-induced outages could impact other areas downstream or harm adjacent ecosystems and air quality, according to the authors.

And because utilities are held liable for blazes caused by their infrastructure, all California utility customers end up shouldering the burden, the scientists added.

We need to reshape policies to explicitly take the wildfire risk and income levels as eligibility criteria to socialize the cost, Wang said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Hun Manet (R) is the eldest son of Hun Sen (L) who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades

The eldest son of Cambodia's long-term ruler has been endorsed as the country's next premier in a formality confirming the transition of power.

On Monday, Cambodia's king issued a decree stating Hun Manet will succeed Hun Sen, who has ruled for 38 years.

Hun Sen announced he would step down just days after the 23 July election, which critics said was not democratic.

His party won all but five seats in parliament, after the main opposition was barred from the vote.

King Norodom Sihamoni issued the royal decree after Hun Sen sent a letter requesting the official note.

Hun Manet, 45, who until recently was the commander of the Royal Cambodian Army, has long been groomed for the leadership role.

His appointment still needs to be confirmed by parliament on 22 August, but it is expected to sail through a National Assembly where 120 of 125 seats are controlled by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party.

The appointment follows a dynastic succession plan which had been signposted by Hun Sen for several years.

Hun Manet's new cabinet is expected to include younger faces. Many of the men who rose with Hun Sen through the Khmer Rouge revolution and civil war of the 1970s and 80s have also stepped down, in some cases handing their jobs to their own children.

The transition was first flagged in 2021, but until July it was unclear when it would occur.

However, Hun Sen announced that he would step down just three days after the election. He is one of the world's longest-serving leaders, having ruled the South East Asian nation of 16 million people for nearly four decades.

He said at the time he was resigning to ensure stability in Cambodia.

Hun Sen will however retain leadership of the ruling Cambodian People's Party - a position political analysts say still gives him ultimate control.

His rule has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power in 1985, and he has silenced opponents by either jailing or exiling them.

On the weekend, in addition to marking his 71st birthday, Hun Sen confirmed the party's landslide victory in the July election - polls which the US, EU and other Western nations have said was neither free nor fair.

Hun Manet celebrated Saturday's election result by posting a photo to Instagram showing his son presenting a bouquet of flowers to Hun Sen with the caption: "Happy birthday to respected and beloved father."

The outgoing leader on Saturday also confirmed Hun Manet's election as an MP for Phnom Penh, removing the remaining procedural obstacle for his ascent to power.

With all meaningful opposition shut down in Cambodia in recent years, Hun Manet will face few threats from outside the ruling party. But maintaining the complex web of alliances his father built with other powerful and wealthy families will be a challenge.

Hun Sen dispensed political and business privileges to potential rivals to keep them happy, and the economy growing. But he also saddled Cambodia with incendiary levels of corruption and inequality which could store up trouble for his inexperienced son.

Compared to his father, some have speculated that Hun Manet, who attended US military academy West Point and the University of Bristol, could lead a less repressive regime and be more receptive to Western calls on human rights.

However, there is little evidence to suggest he will be more open. Hun Sen has also made it clear that he will continue to wield enormous influence over the running of the country for at least for another 10 years.

In a telegram post on Monday, Hun Sen wrote of his son's appointment: "It is not the end yet. I will continue serving in other positions for at least until 2033."
CAMBRIDGE  A public hearing was held earlier this month with the Guernsey County commissioners about annexing 6.893 acres of land on Ohio 209 next to Aldi. The property is owned by the Guernsey County Port Authority and Denise Dearth.

The petition is filed in the hope of being able to collect taxes on the properties and provide them with municipal services such as water, sanitary sewer, along with economic and community development programs. This is part of a broader effort to bring more businesses to the area.

This was just a single step in a long process but, while we have no idea as to the future use of this property, we hope it will be an endeavor that will generate jobs and add to the countys sales tax revenue, which accounts for nearly 50% of our General Fund budget, Guernsey County Commissioner Dave Wilson said.

After the board of commissioners formal approval on July 20, the petition was then sent to the city of Cambridge for possible approval after it is read, deliberated on, and finally voted by the city council. If the city council would approve the petition there would be a 60-day hold before officially being a part of Cambridge.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Cambridge working toward annexing property on Ohio 209 near Aldi
A York County campground reborn could add yet another new outdoor option to the area.

The owner of 20 acres at 787 Woodland Park Road in Smyrna wants to develop the property into a 40-site campground. It would include RV camping. The site is more than a mile east of the town, off S.C. 5.

The county zoning board of appeals will hear the case Thursday. The property needs a special exception from that board to allow the campground, but its not the first time the site has been a camping destination.

The property was an active campground in the 1990s known as Woodlands Campground. Structures there date back to the 1970s, according to county land records. By early 2000, the campground was closed, but the site still has much of what supported 45 campsites there. Theres a concrete swimming pool, two bathhouses, an acre pond and other buildings.

Marcus Clayton acquired the property about three years ago from the late, long-time owner who ran the camp property.

Were just trying to get the baby back up to what she used to be, Clayton said. Theres a lot of memories out there. We want to get it back to something that people can enjoy like they used to.

Claytons family went to the campground in its earlier years.

Just an old diamond in the rough, Clayton said.

In late 2020, Clayton had some friends over for camping and took some reservations but got more feedback and support than he expected. Social media blew up, Clayton said.

We quit posting when we figured out we had more stuff to do with the county, Clayton said.

If the decision Thursday goes his way, Clayton intends to move toward reopening and expanding the site in full. Somewhere for parents and kids to play and unplug, he said.

Theres not a whole lot of room for that anymore, Clayton said.

The new plan for Woodland Park Campground involves additional RV space as part of 40 total spaces. A site plan for the project shows 17 sites with a bathhouse just off Woodland Park Road before the internal drive splits in several directions to access the remaining camp sites, parking and a swimming pool. Theres a private residence on the southeast portion of the site. Theres a pond and pavilion to the southwest.

Between the residence and the pond theres an area marked future expansion. The expansion area is 7 acres.

Larger trend in Rock Hill area

The Rock Hill region has long-established camping options from Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill to the Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill to state parks like Andrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, Chester State Park and Landsford Canal State Park in Chester County and Kings Mountain State Park in York County.

There also are new or planned additions. Theres recent and coming work at Ebenezer to upgrade and expand its camp offerings. York County also has Allison Creek Park set to add camping on Lake Wylie and the massive Catawba Bend Preserve coming along the Catawba River.

Last fall, a property owner with 78 acres in southwestern Lancaster County, near the Chester County line, applied to build a campground with 166 sites, a dog park and more off Cedar Creek Road.

This spring, the owner of 335 acres on Kendelwood Drive in Lancaster County applied to build a Christian campground on about 20 acres. It would include an activity center with bus parking, and a chapel.

New outdoor offerings coming to York County include waterfront parks, camping sites
It was a wild scene when a car ended up in the second story of a home in Pennsylvania Sunday evening.

The Junction Fire Company in Mifflin County said they were dispatched around 3:15 p.m. to Alfarata Road in Decatur Township.

The driver of the car was out when crews arrived and taken to a hospital.

The rescue crew stabilized the home and helped the homeowners put a tarp over the hole because of storms on the way.

Fire crews remained on the scene for around three hours.

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Author Carly Fortune has confirmed that her bestselling romance novel Meet Me at the Lake will be adapted for Netflix by Harry and Meghans production company.

News that the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs Archewell Productions had acquired rights to Fortunes book broke over the weekend, weeks after their exclusive deal with Spotify was terminated.

In a statement to The Independent, Fortune said: Im so thrilled about working with Netflix and Archewell to bring Meet Me at the Lake to the screen.

Will and Ferns love story is dear to my heart, and I cant imagine a more perfect partnership.

A former journalist, Fortunes second book Meet Me at the Lake was published in the US on 2 May, and debuted at No 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

It follows the story of Will and Fern, two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects.

It is set in Toronto, where Meghan lived before she started dating Harry.

Author Elena Armas praised Fortunes the novel as breathtaking tale of star-crossed lovers in a testimonial for the Canadian authors book.

News of this reported acquisition comes days after Meghan celebrated her 42nd birthday on Friday 4 August amid radio silence from the Royal Family.

The official Twitter accounts for King Charles and Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, didnt feature birthday messages for Meghan  as they have in previous years.

None of the royals wished Harry and Meghans daughter Lillibet on the occasion of her second birthday in June, either.

Harry and Meghan were spotted leaving Italian restaurant Tre Lune earlier this week, in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.

In June, Spotify terminated its 15m podcasting deal with Archewell Audio, after just one season of Meghans podcast Archetypes.

Less than a year after it was released, the audio streaming company and Archewell Audio announced they had mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together.
New Castle County government's $1.05 million settlement with the family of a 30-year-old man fatally shot by county police in 2021 marks the largest police-violence settlement in Delaware since 2016.

The agreement ends litigation filed by the family of Lymond Moses against New Castle County police and likely is the final government involvement in a tragedy that saw police shoot the man in the head as he tried to flee what they described as a welfare check while patrolling outside their jurisdiction.

The settlement agreement was made public through a Freedom of Information Act request. It agrees to pay out $1,050,000 to Moses' survivors and their attorneys in exchange for them dismissing a federal lawsuit filed in 2021. It admits no fault on behalf of the officers and the county Police Department.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings declined to criminally prosecute the officers for the killing in 2021. A police officer in Delaware has never been found criminally liable for a shooting.

Here are the details of the settlement, what prompted it and how it fits into the recent history of police violence in Delaware.

The shooting of Lymond Moses

New Castle County police on a patrol seeking stolen vehicles went into northeast Wilmington on a January morning in 2021. During the patrol, officers saw Moses' car parked on the side of Rosemont Avenue with its engine running and dome light on. Body camera footage released in March shows Moses asleep behind the wheel.

The car was not stolen, but officers made contact with Moses. He told the officers his mother lived nearby. The officers began speaking with him, but he drove away. He headed down the dead-end street before turning back toward officers, driving in their direction.

Bullets shatter the driver's side window of the car driven by Lymond Moses in Wilmington in 2021.

A county police press release later that day said Moses "made a U-turn and drove at a high rate of speed directly at the officers." Body camera footage appears to show Moses driving around the first officer, not at him. The car also appears to be angled away from the second officer when that officer shoots Moses.

He was struck in the head and died.

Body camera footage and deposition testimony from the officers involved can be found here.

Not criminally liable

The Delaware Department of Justice, led by Jennings, is responsible for investigating deadly police use of force and whether they could constitute criminal acts by officers.

Jennings' office hired an outside law firm to analyze the incident through the lens of Delaware law, which allows local police to kill people if there is credible evidence that the officers reasonably believed the force was necessary to protect either themselves or others against death or serious physical injury.

Their report found that Patrolman Roberto Ieradi, who has left the department, and Cpl. Robert Ellis were not criminally liable under Delaware law in shooting Moses as they had reason to believe he could have hurt them or another officer on the scene by driving in their direction.

While the report opined that the officers could not successfully be criminally prosecuted under Delaware law, it criticized the officers for lapses in tactics and training.

The report and coverage from the time can be found here.

The lawsuit and settlement

Moses' survivors sued New Castle County and the three officers involved for excessive force and wrongful death, claiming that they needlessly killed Moses and that the police force didn't properly train its officers. In court filings, attorneys argued that Moses' actions led to the tragedy and officers' response was justified.

The family of Lymond Moses and their attorneys, including (front, from left) Ikia Womack and Lashonnah Nix, two of Moses' sisters, his widow, Amanda Spence, and attorneys Emeka Igwe and Renee Leverette hold a press conference outside the New Castle County police headquarters after the body camera video of the police shooting of Moses was released publicly Tuesday, March 16, 2021.

The lawsuit was settled after the judge ordered the parties into mediation following oral arguments on the defendants' request that a judge rule in their favor before trial.

The settlement amount encompasses both an amount paid to Moses' family as well as their attorneys and other fees involved with litigating the case. The amount should not be viewed as a simple windfall for the family. In announcing the lawsuit, Moses' sister used the term "blood money."

"Blood money is all that keeps popping up in my head, filing a lawsuit for money that my brothers blood is on," she said in 2021. "It hurts."

Reaction to the settlement and who pays

The settlement, like all agreed to by police and victims of police violence in Delaware recently, includes a confidentiality clause generally barring statements about the case.

A spokesperson for New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer declined to comment.

Emeka Igwe, the attorney representing Moses' family, said the family is "pleased," describing the settlement as a "first step toward accountability."

"But this was never about the money. This was about getting justice," Igwe said on behalf of the family.

He said the family remains hopeful that Jennings or federal authorities will give the case a "second look."

New Castle County Councilman Jea Street said he felt the $1.05 million settlement amount "cut the county a major break."

Settlement partially covered by insurance

New Castle County government, like many municipal governments, carries insurance to cover such settlements tied to police use of force.

An attorney for the county said the insurance kicks in once the settlement amount, as well as fees paid to outside attorneys that helped litigate the case on behalf of the county, tops $750,000. The amount the county pays for that insurance each year was not immediately available Friday.

Police officers disciplined

The litigation offered a rare glimpse into how police discipline themselves, documents that are normally closed off from public disclosure in Delaware.

Through deposition documents posted as part of the case, Delaware Online/The News Journal learned all three officers were disciplined after the shooting. The officers were disciplined for things like failing to notify Wilmington police that they were operating in their jurisdiction among other infractions not directly tied to shooting Moses.

Read more about that here.

Largest settlement in recent years

Settlements are often the only measure of accountability the public learns about dealing with police violence in Delaware.

Using settlement amounts as a comparison, the Moses settlement is the largest paid out by a police department since the $1.5 million settlement by Wilmington police with the survivors of Jeremy McDole, a man killed by Wilmington officers in 2015.

Other noteworthy settlements since then include:

A $975,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died  and who a judge said may have already been restrained  when a Delaware State Police officer used a stun gun on him for a third time in 2015. Depositions by the officers involved contradict summaries of police reports as to whether the man was handcuffed by the time he was hit with a stun gun for a third time.

A $650,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man who was a teen when he was shot at four times and struck twice by a Wilmington officer while fleeing in a stolen car in 2019.

A $700,000 payment to the family of a child that suffered a traumatic brain injury when a Wilmington police chase ended in a multicar pileup on I-95 near the Philadelphia International Airport in 2019.

A $290,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man that was permanently injured after being pinned between a brick wall and a Wilmington police cruiser during a 2018 chase.

Read more about recent police settlements in Delaware here.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Lymond Moses settlement marks largest police violence payout in years
A referendum allowing the president of the Central African Republic (CAR) to run for office as many times as he likes has been labelled a farce by opponents.

The electoral authority says 95% of voters backed constitutional changes; critics say turnout was as low as 10%.

CAR is still in the throes of a civil war that has uprooted a third of all people from their homes.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera is backed by Russian Wagner mercenaries.

Extra fighters arrived ahead of the referendum to provide security.

Wagner forces have been accused of committing war crimes as they back President Touadera in the fight against rebel groups who still control large swathes of the country.

They reportedly trade in the minerals and timber industries.

The proposed new law would scrap the current two-term limit and extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years.

It would also ban politicians with dual citizenship from running for president unless they renounce the other.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch says this stirs up memories of anti-Balaka militias who targeted Muslims for their perceived association with Seleka rebels in the 2013 conflict, which saw hundreds killed in a civil conflict that continues to this day.

Opposition parties and some civil society groups boycotted the referendum vote on 30 July, calling it a "constitutional coup" designed to keep President Touadera in power for life.

They also say the election process lacked transparency and there was not enough consultation beforehand.

Under the changes, a new post of vice-president would be created, who would be appointed by the president. The Senate would be scrapped and parliament would be transformed into a single chamber.

The president and members of his United Hearts Party say they are following the "will of the people".
Seconds and information can mean life or death when a person calls 911.

On Monday, Osceola County became the latest local county to approve a new memorandum that will allow for better cooperation and routing of 911 calls.

Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard, Volusia and Indian River counties have all either signed the agreement or plan on bringing the 911 initiative to board members in the next few weeks. That will help the counties move forward toward full implementation of Next Gen 911 technology.

The system allows 911 callers to send videos, texts and photos to dispatchers. It also improves GPS locations.

READ: Daton Viel: What we know about the criminal history of man who shot 2 Orlando officers

We actually have language translation on the fly and in text messaging where you can, you can text us in Japanese and it comes over in English, said Stephen Kennedy, 911 coordinator for Sumter County.

There is a national push to implement next-generation 911 technology in every call center. It paves the way for more collaboration in the push for Next Generation 911.

READ: Man found shot to death behind building at Ocoee apartment complex

Emergencies, when they happen, they dont happen within county boundaries, said Don Walker, communications director for Brevard County government. As part of that transition, were going to be enhancing the 911 system dispatch center.

Brevard County hasnt signed the agreement yet, but doing so would open the door for grant opportunities.

READ: GoFundMe started for 2 police officers shot in downtown Orlando

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After a fast-moving storm brought a tornado warning to Centre County on Monday afternoon, a tornado watch that had been in effect was lifted by 5 p.m.

The watch had been in effect through 9 p.m. and remained in effect in Williamsport, Lancaster and other points east. Centre County was not under any weather advisories as of 5:15 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued the tornado warning at about 2 p.m. and advised people to take shelter in a basement or interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building. It was in effect through 2:30 p.m. and brought heavy rain, strong winds and hail to parts of Centre County.

After the tornado warning expired, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued until 3:15 p.m and a subsequent warning was issued for the southeastern part of the county until 3:45 p.m.

Emergency responders were called to downed trees and wires across the county, according to dispatch reports. In Potter Township, fire crews responded to a building where a reported lightning strike caused a fire.

On Orlando Avenue in State College, a 75-foot white oak tree fell and narrowly missed a house.

As of 3:30 p.m. Monday, the NWS in State College had not received any confirmed reports of a tornado.

A large white oak tree fell in an Orlando Avenue yard in State College after heavy storms on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. The tree narrowly missed a house. Aaron Porta/Photo provided

What is a tornado watch?

A tornado watch means a tornado is possible in or near the area. A watch generally covers a large area, likely multiple counties or even states, the weather service said. This is the time to be prepared and review and discuss your emergency plans and check supplies and your safe room, the NWS said.

A tornado warning indicates a tornado has been seen or indicated by radar and there is imminent danger to life or property, the NWS said. Residents should move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building and stay away from windows. Those in a mobile home, vehicle or who are outdoors should find shelter and protect themselves from flying debris, the NWS said.

Tornado myths

The National Weather Service in State College addressed a handful of tornado-related myths in a Facebook post Monday.

Contrary to popular belief, tornadoes can occur in mountains and cities, they can cross lakes and rivers, and residents should not open windows if a tornado is on the way, the post said.
WASHINGTON  Maj. Gen. Heath Collins spent the last year managing some of the United States largest homeland and regional defense programs. Now, hes poised to lead the Missile Defense Agency, where he would oversee key modernization programs, some of which will overlap with his lengthy background focused on space and satellites.

President Joe Biden in May tapped Collins to be the next MDA director, succeeding Vice Adm. Jon Hill, who has served as the agencys leader since 2019.

Collins has an ideal resume for MDA, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, who served as a deputy to Collins when they worked together on the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program. Bartolomei now serves as the Air Forces program executive officer for weapons and leads the Armament Directorate. Collins also held those titles.

I think his experience in space, nukes, aircraft and weapons has prepared him very well for this opportunity, he told Defense News.

Among the agencys efforts the next director will oversee are developing a capability to destroy hypersonic missiles, increasing the use of space sensors, and upgrading the homeland missile defense system to counter increasingly complex ballistic and non-ballistic threats. The agency also recently began building a robust air and missile defense architecture in Guam to protect the island from attack.

Collins is going to be ideal for the job, according to Trey Obering III, who led MDA from 2004 to 2008.

Heath has a great background for not just going to space with his space experience, but also the integration, he told Defense News We are fighting in a very integrated world now where we have to tie space, air, land, sea, cyber all into a coherent, integrated warfighting capability.

Defending the homeland

Collins is now MDAs program executive officer for ground-based weapons systems at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He oversees a $3.4 billion portfolio, which equates to roughly a third of the agencys overall budget. The portfolio includes the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, which is undergoing major upgrades.

The GMD system, which dates back nearly two decades, is made up of interceptors in the ground at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, that are designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles, potentially fired by North Korea or Iran.

A ground-based interceptor is launched from then-Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on March 25, 2019, in the first-ever salvo engagement test of a threat-representative intercontinental ballistic missile target. (U.S. Defense Department)

MDA is preparing to update the entire system, including its command-and-control elements, so it can both tackle more complex, emerging threats as well as remain operational. The most significant upgrade is a new, more capable interceptor.

During his tenure, Hill has prioritized homeland missile defense and keeping the GMD system capable of defeating rapidly emerging threats. Underway is a competitive development effort to replace current ground-based interceptors in the GMD system with a Next Generation Interceptor, or NGI.

A Northrop Grumman and RTX team is competing against a Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne team to replace the ground-based interceptors with Next Generation Interceptors.

The aim is to field the NGI by 2028, but industry competitors indicated they can move quicker. A 2021 independent analysis from the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office found NGIs development price tag could total $13 billion, while procurement, operation and sustainment could come to a little more than $2 billion.

Since becoming program executive officer for ground-based weapons systems last summer, Collins has directly overseen the NGI program. The chief MDA role is a six-year term, although most directors serve three to four years. If Collins serves the full length, he could see NGI all the way to the developmental finish line.

A ground-based interceptor missile launches from California. (Airman Kadielle Shaw/U.S. Space Force)

Given the singular importance of the Next Generation Interceptor  the program arguably most closely tied to MDAs long-term institutional identity  it would be fortuitous for an acquisition professional so close to the program to be able to shepherd it and related efforts to fielding later this decade, Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, told Defense News.

Space-based defense

Even with enhanced missile defense capability from the ground, the next MDA director will need to continue proliferating space-based sensors for tracking and defeating missile threats, Obering said.

Defending the U.S. from Iran and North Korea, while also keeping in mind possible threats from China and Russia, is going to take a combination of space-based precise tracking and other types of tracking, as well as traditional interceptors with terrestrial capabilities.

Collins experience with satellites dates back to 20-plus years, when he was the manager of advanced satellite payloads at the National Reconnaissance Office in 2001. After two years in the role, he became the chief vehicle engineer at the organization until 2005.

He then spent several years working on wideband satellite communications efforts at the Los Angeles Air Force Base, and about a decade ago he became a deputy director of space and special programs at a Pentagon intelligence office.

The MDA is working with the Space Force to get its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor on orbit in fiscal 2023. Hill has said the existing sensor architecture allows for seeing and tracking some hypersonic threats, but being able to do so from space would bolster the agencys capabilities.

The two HBTSS satellites are expected to launch later this year and will go through on-orbit testing over the next year. If successful, the sensors will be transferred to the Space Development Agency.

Hypersonic threats

MDA is also in the early phases of a program to develop an interceptor to defeat hypersonic missile threats in the glide phase of flight.

From July 2020 to July 2022, Collins was the Air Forces program executive officer for weapons. In that role, he oversaw the services hypersonic weapons programs, including the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, a boost glide hypersonic weapon; and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, which uses a scramjet to breathe in air to reach hypersonic speed.

An airman helps line up an AGM-183A as it is loaded under the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. (Giancarlo Casem/U.S. Air Force)

The AGM-183A ARRW, developed by Lockheed Martin, experienced three test launch failures during 2021 before recovering with a string of successful flight tests in 2022. But a failed all-up round test in March 2023 dealt a serious blow to the program, and its future is now in question.

Collins had ushered the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile program through its systems requirements phase; just prior to his 2022 departure, he announced the Air Force would pick a vendor later that year to continue development. A few months after he left the job, the Air Force selected an RTX and Northrop Grumman team to develop the weapon.

If confirmed by the Senate as MDA director, he will manage the agencys Glide Phase Interceptor, or GPI, effort for regional hypersonic missile defense. The agency has tapped Northrop and RTX to rapidly develop prototypes.

Hill has said MDA wants to accelerate the plan, which now calls for the first delivery in the early 2030s.

The hardest three-star job

The MDA director job is probably the hardest three-star job in the military, Obering said, because first of all it has been controversial ... because it causes the divide between Democrats and Republicans, between the arms control and the warfighting folks, between even things like the use of space for warfighting or for peace.

Collins will need people skills and leadership skills to navigate those complexities and bridge divides, Obering added.

And according to Bartolomei, Collins is just that. He is a good listener. He is cool under pressure, very steady. I think he is an excellent strategic thinker.

Collins declined a request for an interview ahead of the confirmation process.

When Hill took the MDA director job in 2019, he told Defense News his No. 1 challenge was dealing with the poorly defined MDA charter provision that required the agency, once it finished developing a missile defense capability, to transfer it to one of the services.

MDA transferred the Patriot air and missile defense system to the Army, for example, but Hill said not every program lends itself to such a move.

At the time, lawmakers wanted to move the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense program to the Army. Hill warned that transfer could end up fracturing a program during a time where its most critical to have those programs stable and taking care of the warfighter.

U.S. soldiers train with a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Feb. 6, 2019. (Capt. Adan Cazarez/U.S. Army)

Lawmakers ultimately backed off, but the debate could resurface, as Collins is likely to face increased attention from Congress on MDAs work.

For instance, a group of New York lawmakers is pushing for a third homeland missile defense site on the East Coast, something previous MDA directors resisted due to budget constraints.

Also in recent years, lawmakers showed interest in what MDA and the services were doing to develop an air and missile defense architecture for Guam, in addition to pushing for a missile defense radar in Hawaii that the agency refuses to fund.

For example, a provision in the Senate Armed Services Committees FY24 defense authorization bill requires MDA to produce a strategy for developing, acquiring and operationally establishing an integrated air and missile defense architecture for not just Guam but the entire Indo-Pacific theater.

The House version of the bill calls on the agencys director to produce a report on options for enhancing missile defense protection of the homeland to hedge against the uncertainty of the future missile threats and technical risk in the U.S. missile defense development plans.
A charge of tampering with evidence filed against a former Fort Worth police officer has been dismissed, according to court records and a news release from the former officers attorneys.

Rodsdricke Martin, who was until July 2022 a sergeant with the Fort Worth Police Department, was accused of deleting child pornography off a patients computer in a hospital instead of reporting it, according to police records released at the time. Martin, 47, was working at the hospital as a security guard.

He was indicted last year on a felony charge of tampering with evidence and fired from the police department, but court records show the charge was dropped Monday morning.

Fort Worth police declined to comment on the dismissal of the case. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorneys Office did not immediately respond to a request for information from the Star-Telegram.

According to the news release from Martins attorneys at law firm Varghese Summersett, the charge was dropped because prosecutors determined that the recovered image did not meet the definition of child pornography.

We thoroughly reviewed the file and determined that no crime was committed by Sgt. Martin, defense attorney Tiffany Burks said in the release. After bringing our concerns to prosecutors attention, they agreed and determined that his case warranted a dismissal. Sgt. Martin dedicated 16 years of his life to serving the community as a Fort Worth police officer. While he is pleased with this outcome, he now must fight to restore his reputation and his career.

At the time that Martin was fired, Fort Worth police said their internal investigation determined that he violated multiple department policies.

Varghese Summersett did not immediately respond to questions from the Star-Telegram about whether Martin plans to appeal his termination with the department now that the criminal charge has been dismissed.

This story contains information from the Star-Telegrams archives.
FILE PHOTO: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo addresses the news media, after a deadly crush of fans in Houston

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Lina Hidalgo, chief executive of the third-largest U.S. county and the largest one in Texas, has checked in to a medical facility outside the state to be treated for clinical depression, she said on Monday.

Hidalgo, a Democrat elected in 2018 to lead the county of 4.9 million residents, has battled Republican state officials over election administration and police funding. Last November, she won re-election as Harris County judge against a well-funded political novice with a slim margin of about 17,000 votes.

Hidalgo has also clashed with county's district attorney, Kim Ogg, and in June cursed during a public commissioners' meeting in a discussion related to Ogg.

Three of Hidalgo's former aides have been indicted for helping steer COVID-outreach contracts to a party consultant.

"I am one of the over 21 million American adults that is suffering from clinical depression," Hidalgo said in a public letter, adding she was diagnosed and entered a treatment facility last month. She hopes to resume a normal schedule by early September, Hidalgo wrote.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
China says Jeddah talks on Ukraine helped to 'consolidate international consensus' FILE PHOTO: China's Eurasian affairs envoy Li Hui gives a press briefing in Beijing

By Laurie Chen

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry said on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped "to consolidate international consensus".

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.

Li "had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis... listened to all sides' opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus," the foreign ministry said in a written statement to Reuters.

"All parties positively commented on Li Hui's attendance, and fully backed China's positive role in facilitating peace talks," the statement said.

China will continue to strengthen dialogue based on its 12-point peace proposal, and "accumulate mutual trust", it said, without going into specific details.

China's attendance signals possible shifts in Beijing's approach but not a U-turn in its support for Moscow, analysts said.

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion it launched in February 2022. But it has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine while the United States and NATO were sceptical.

The two-day meeting in Jeddah was part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hit the global economy.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Gareth Jones)
Philippines tells China it will not abandon post in disputed reef Philippines' foreign ministry holds a joint news conference on water cannon incident in the South China Sea

By Neil Jerome Morales and Albee Zhang

BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines told China it will not abandon a disputed shoal in the South China Sea after it accused China's coast guard of using water cannons and "dangerous" moves to prevent Manila from sending supplies to its troops occupying the reef.

Likening the Aug. 5 incident to a "David vs Goliath situation", Jonathan Malaya, a senior Philippine National Security Council (NSC) official said China's increased presence at the Second Thomas Shoal will not deter the Philippines' resolve to protect its position there.

"We will never abandon Ayungin Shoal," Malaya said, using its local name, as he dismissed China's call for Manila to remove its warship from the atoll, which was intentionally grounded in 1999 to reinforce the Philippines' sovereignty claims.

"We will continue to resupply troops in the grounded vessel as long as it takes," Malaya said in a joint news conference with the military, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and foreign ministry.

"It is our right to bring what is necessary to maintain the station and to be sure that our troops there are properly provisioned."

China said it had earlier told Manila not to send ships to the shoal and not to send "construction materials used for large-scale repair and reinforcement" to the warship after it learned of this recent supply plan, the Chinese coast guard said in a statement on Monday.

China's Foreign Ministry said that the Philippines' move violated China's sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. It said the vessel was stopped in "accordance with the law."

It detailed a statement from the U.S. State department on the issue, which it said attacked China's legitimate maritime rights protection and law enforcement actions and endorsed the Philippines' "illegal provocative behavior, which China firmly opposes."

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, an assertion rejected internationally, while Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines have various claims to certain areas.

The Chinese Coast Guard's use of water cannons on Saturday was not the first, as it also sprayed water at Manila's boats on a mission to supply food and water, for a handful of troops living aboard the rusty warship on Nov. 2021.

China's latest actions, which the Philippine military described as "excessive", undermine efforts to strengthen trust between Manila and Beijing, and underlines the "dire need" for a code of conduct, the foreign ministry's spokesperson said.

Ties between the Philippines and China have grown tense under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with Manila pivoting back to its traditional ally, the United States, which has expressed its support for Manila and accused China of "threatening regional peace and stability."

Marcos said his country had relayed its complaint to the Chinese Ambassador in Manila, whom the foreign ministry had summoned.

No one was hurt during the Aug. 5 incident at the shoal, but one of the two Philippine boats, which were transporting supplies, failed to complete its mission.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang in Beijing and the Beijing newsroom, Farah Master in Hong Kong and Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Russia's Foreign Minister meets China's Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, in Jakarta

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Monday that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Wang's comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday that said China would be an "objective and rational voice" at any international multilateral forums and "actively promote peace talks".

The statement came after the ministry said earlier on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped "to consolidate international consensus".

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to try to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine it launched in February 2022. It has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine, while the United States and NATO were sceptical.

(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alex Richardson)
(Bloomberg) -- China last week unleashed some of its strongest criticism against Russia since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Yet any suggestion that Xi Jinping is shifting his view on the war amounts to wishful thinking.

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The rare admonition took place on Friday over an incident involving Chinese citizens  including a popular video blogger  who were denied entry from Kazakhstan into Russia at a border checkpoint. Video footage widely circulated on Chinese social media platforms over the weekend showed Russian border officials going through suitcases, with one of the travelers saying he felt like he was being treated as a criminal.

Russias brutal and excessive law-enforcement activities in this incident have seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizens, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow said in a post on the social media platform WeChat.

Yet while the language was unusually harsh, it hardly signals a broader shift from Beijing. Since Russias invasion, China has repeatedly sought to create some space with Moscow on issues such as the use of nuclear weapons and attacks on civilians, even as Xi consistently backs Putins reasons for going to war  not least because Beijing sees the US and its allies strengthening ties with Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the nations are good partners in a phone call Monday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to a statement from the ministry in Beijing, which made no mention of the border incident. China would take an independent stance on Ukraine, Wang added.

The border incident shows the world that relations between China and Russia are more layered and nuanced than understood by many in the West, according to Henry Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization research group based in Beijing.

China needs to maintain good relations with Russia, he said. It doesnt mean theyre in favor of everything Russia does.

Xi, who signed up to a no limits friendship with Putin shortly before his invasion, has sought to portray China as a neutral broker on Ukraine, releasing a 12-point blueprint for bringing peace that included calls to respect sovereignty, facilitate grain exports and halt all hostilities. While the roadmap has been widely panned by the US and its allies, it has bought Xi credibility among the so-called Global South and won China a seat at Ukraine talks hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend.

Unpredictability

China sent a delegation led by veteran diplomat Li Hui to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to join more than 40 countries including the US and European nations  but not Russia. While the discussions brought little in the way of concrete steps to stop the war or reverse Russias territorial gains, they showed Xis success in countering US efforts to isolate Beijing due to its relationship with Russia.

Still, China has several reasons to be irked with Putin, including his move to end a deal that allowed grain exports through the Black Sea, leading to food supply problems that also impact China. And thats only part of the problem, according to Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

The main issue remains the unpredictability of the long-term nature of the conflict, he said. The war destabilizes the world, and this is bad from Beijings perspective as much as they might like the distracting effect it has toward the Wests focus on China.

China has also made some economic overtures to Ukraine, although not to a degree that comes anywhere close to its trade ties with Russia.

Last month, Chinas deputy commerce minister met with Ukraines deputy economy minister in Beijing, pledging to import more products from Ukraine and develop mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation with the country, according to a Chinese readout from the meeting. Chinas exports to Ukraine totaled nearly $233 million in June, down from a high of $1.2 billion from January last year.

By contrast, Chinas exports to Russia reached a new historical monthly high of 69 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in June. Its crude imports from Russia rose 8.2% month-on-month to a record 10.50 million tons in June, according to customs data.

Military Exercises

China and Russia are also deepening military cooperation.

Over the weekend, both countries sent 11 navy patrol ships near Alaska, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the seventh bilateral military exercise between the two nuclear-armed nations this year. It also set a new milestone in cooperation, marking the highest number of joint military exercises in the past two decades between the neighbors, according to data compiled by the US National Defense University and Bloomberg News.

Moscow and Beijing have tried to put a lid on the slow-boil friction between the two powers in order to focus on areas where their interests converge, said Theresa Fallon, director of the Brussels-based Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies.

At the same time, Xi isnt afraid to hit back at Russia  particularly if its actions could pose a threat to his domestic standing or make him look weak. The border incident showed that many social-media users in China remain skeptical that Russia is worth all the grief Beijing is getting from the US and its allies.

A hashtag on Chinas response to the incident saw nearly 50 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, at one point ranking among the top ten most searched topics. Videos posted by social media accounts run by party-backed outlets such as Beijing Youth Daily primarily focused on the mistreatment of the travelers, echoing parts of the embassy statement that such behavior isnt in line with China and Russias current friendly situation and the trend of increasingly close exchanges between people.

Online Outrage

Some of the most upvoted comments on Weibo questioned whether the travelers had failed to give a bribe, while others cautioned against having deep diplomatic relations with Moscow. It goes without saying that one cannot have a deep friendship with Russia, said Weibo user Wall-E_22, in a post that received almost 1,000 likes.

Russia is looking into the matter to avoid similar issues in the future, Tass reported Saturday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. The incident wont harm relations between Russia and China, the state news wire said, adding that Western media is using the issue to try and undermine ties between the countries.

While the relationship with Russia is too important for China to throw Vladimir Putin under the bus, Xi must also show his people that he will stand up for their interests, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

The strongly worded statement is not a signal to the Russian authorities themselves, but rather a reaction and signal to Chinese domestic online public to say that Xi Jinpings government and MOFA is vigorous in protecting the rights of Chinese regardless of who the violators are, Gabuev said, referring to Chinas Foreign Ministry. Be it enemies like the West or friends like Russia.

--With assistance from Kari Lindberg, Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Philip Glamann.

(Updates with analyst comment.)

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Chris Christie presented Ukraines president with a uniquely New Jersey-themed gift when he arrived last week on a surprise visit that aimed to draw a line between the candidate and other Republicans in his party who have resisted calls to aid Ukraines military.

Mr Christie presented Volodymyr Zelensky with handwritten lyrics to Its My Life from Jon Bon Jovi, the songs author. The gift was a gesture in recognition and admiration of a now-viral group of videos shot by residents of Odessa, Ukraine depicting civilians assisting with preparation for a Russian attack while a band plays the song for them nearby.

An official with Ukraines foreign ministry first tweeted a video of siege preparation in March, urging supporters of Ukraine to tag Bon Jovi in the hopes that the bandleader would see.

The videos were viewed millions of times and were soon celebrated by the band itself:

This is for the ones who stood their ground...

Odessa, Ukraine. #SlavaUkraini  pic.twitter.com/N9iT2EoeH7  Bon Jovi (@BonJovi) March 22, 2022

[The song] served as an inspiration for a lot of the citizens in Odessa, as they were preparing for the invasion by the Russians, Mr Christie said during a CNN interview.

Jon wrote it out in his own hand, got it framed, and I brought it to President Zelensky, he continued, adding that he told the Ukrainian leader that the song was also representative of many of the American people and what they feel about the cause thats being fought for in Ukraine.

Jon Bon Jovis personal political leanings are thought to be more towards the left  he has campaigned with a handful of Democratic politicians throughout the years, including Joe Biden in 2020. But his band is known to have given Mr Christie, formerly the governor of New Jersey, approval to use the Jerey-borne groups music on the campaign trail.

Mr Christies visit comes as Republican opposition to further military aid to Ukraine continues to bubble, particularly among the far-right. The ex-governor and others who find themselves aligned with the GOP and Washington foreign policy establishments have resisted those inclinations with public shows of support for Ukraine and Mr Zelensky.

One of Mr Christies rivals for the GOP nomination, Mike Pence, visited Ukraine and met with Mr Zelensky in late June as Kyiv has become a sort of de facto campaign stop in the 2024 US presidential race.
Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie didnt hold back in a new interview about his opposition to former President Donald Trump.

Hes a completely self-centered, self-possessed, self-consumed, angry old man, Christie told CBS News Robert Costa, who had asked him for the truth on Trump.

And he doesnt care about anyone else other than him, the former New Jersey governor added in an interview that aired Sunday. And if he were ever to become president again, Ill take him at his word. He said, I am your retribution. Well, hes not our retribution, Bob. He will be his own retribution.

Christie, a Trump ally turned vocal critic, said his breaking point was when the former president first claimed without evidence that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

That moment was the breaking point for me, and to me, theres no turning back, Christie added.

Asked about his previous support for Trump, Christie denied that he was a flip-flopper, and said there was 100% no chance he would support Trump again.

Im no different today than I was when I supported him in 2016, he said. Hes the one who kept classified documents against the law. That lied to his lawyers and lied to the government.

Trump is a completely self-centered, self-possessed, self consumed, angry old man, and he doesn't care about anybody else other than himself.



If he becomes the President again, he will not be our retribution. He will be his own retribution. pic.twitter.com/239uOKtslc  Chris Christie (@GovChristie) August 6, 2023

Trump, who leads the Republican pack for the 2024 presidential nomination, has been criminally indicted three times this year. He was indicted in New York over an alleged hush money scheme to influence the 2016 election.

He was also charged with dozens of federal felonies over his handling of classified documents after leaving office and his alleged obstruction of the subsequent investigation. Last week, he was charged with four counts in connection to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

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An 18-year-old Alexandria man died late Friday after allegedly getting shot while trying to rob another man, according to police.

An 18-year-old Alexandria man died late Friday after allegedly getting shot while trying to rob another man, according to police.

A news release issued Monday afternoon by the city identified the dead man as Dontavius Dontrell Ceasor.

According to it, Alexandria Police Department officers were sent to the 2100 block of North Bolton Avenue just after 11 p.m. for a robbery call.

The victim told officers he'd been beaten and robbed at gunpoint near Mimosa Drive and Tupelo Court, which is an area off Enterprise Road. The victim also said there had been a struggle and a gun went off, it reads.

Meanwhile, a second call was received by the department that reported a person with a gunshot wound had arrived at Rapides Regional Medical Center. That person later was identified as Ceasor, who died at the hospital.

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"Police were able to determine that the two incidents were connected, and the deceased was identified as an assailant in the initial report," reads the release.

A second man, 18-year-old Tayshaun Lamar Spearman of Alexandria, was arrested Sunday and booked into the Rapides Parish Detention Center on charges of armed robbery and second-degree murder. He remains in jail with no bond set as of Monday afternoon, according to online records.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call the department's Detective Division at 318-441-6416 or dispatch at 318-441-6559.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Police probing armed robbery identify dead man as Dontavius Ceasor
When we typically think of an ice age, the first thing that comes to mind is often prehistoric humans hunting woolly mammoths or battling saber-toothed tigers. Technically, an ice age is a prolonged period of colder climates when polar and mountain ice sheets are unusually extensive across the earth's surface and on geological timescales, they happen regularly. During the last ice age, some 16,000 ago, Earth's northern hemisphere was blanketed in ice about two miles thick.

But during the Little Ice Age  a period of regional cooling beginning around 700 years ago, especially in the North Atlantic region  things were a lot less intense. During long stretches of the Little Ice Age, seasonal winters would be unusually cold and the following summers were merely mild instead of hot. And while the recent rash of record-breaking heatwaves might make an ice age sound nice right about now, the period was marked by bitter winters, deadly plagues and brutal famines, including one that killed about 10 percent of Europe's population. Strangely, this little interval in Earth's history is often used to deny the realities of climate change.

Ever since the 2000s, climate change deniers have been forcefully peddling their pseudoscience to the political mainstream, an astonishing feat given the irrefutable evidence for ecosystem collapse all around us. Many of these deniers are either motivated by political partisanship or are actually being paid by fossil fuel companies, employing a wide-range of tactics to sow doubt about human-driven global warming.

Ultimately, their goal is to convince the world that humans do not need to stop burning fossil fuels, emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby changing our atmosphere's composition and unnaturally heating the planet.

Climate change deniers often uphold the Little Ice Age, which lasted roughly from the early 14th century through the mid-19th century, as evidence that climatologists are lying. Scientists disagree on the exact length of this event, as well as when its intensity got better or worse, but few dispute that it happened. Yet climate change deniers argue that this proves fluctuations in climate are not caused by humans, as indeed this period predates the industrial revolution.

In reality, the Little Ice Age actually demonstrates just how fragile the Earth's climate is  and, by extension, just how easily human beings (or anything else) can radically change it. Additionally, it demonstrates how superstition prevailed in that era in ways not intellectually or emotionally dissimilar from the denialism seen today.

"During the onset of the Little Ice Age, intriguing historical records reveal that European populations attributed magical beliefs to weather manipulation," Francois Lapointe, a postdoctoral associate in the University of Massachusetts' Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, told Salon by email. Lapointe added that the written archives reveal that medieval Europeans believed mystical practices controlled the weather, which they noticed was getting colder during their own lifetimes.

"It is noteworthy that periods of intensified volcanic eruptions, which contributed to the cooling during the Little Ice Age, coincided with peaks of persecution against individuals accused of witchcraft," Lapointe added. "These unfortunate 'witches' were often blamed for causing disastrous weather conditions and crop failures. The correlation between increased volcanic activity and the rise in witch persecutions suggests that climate-induced hardships during the Little Ice Age fueled fears and superstitions about supposed weather manipulation."

From there Lapointe pivoted to the climate change deniers of today, who he argued are "impeding efforts to address this urgent global crisis and inflicting severe consequences on our planet. Climate change denial, perpetuated by certain groups and individuals, fosters doubt and confusion, undermining public understanding and hindering collective action on this critical issue."

Yet what actually happened during the Little Ice Age? The short answer is that there were a number of complex causes, and as such scientists today do not know for sure. Yet when speaking with Salon, Mark C. Serreze  the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)  offered a fascinating breakdown of the ingredients that led to the lengthy cold weather snap known as the Little Ice Age.

"There is no single reason for it," Serreze told Salon, adding that this was not a single monolithic era but rather "a long period where there were several cold air cold periods, separated by somewhat warmer intervals."

Yet despite the lack of any "clear resolution" regarding its exact cause, scientists know some of the various elements that played a role. Among these are solar output.

"We know that when sunspot activity is low, we tend to have less solar radiation coming through, and so that seems to be part of it," Serreze explained. "But other things were going on as well. There's very strong evidence that there was an extended period of volcanic activity. And we know that an individual big volcanic eruption  say Mount Pinatubo in 1991  actually had a signal in global cooling."

Based on what we know from ice cores and other scientific evidence, we can deduce that there was "an extended period of volcanic activity," one that  like emitting greenhouse gases from fossil fuels  "put all kinds of stuff up on the stratosphere, stratospheric aerosols and that initiated some cooling."

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.

Nor were reduced sunspot activity and increased volcanic activity alone in causing the Little Ice Age. In the early 20th century, Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch speculated that as Earth's position relative to the Sun changes, there are long-term and cumulative effects that alter Earth's climate. This is now known as the Milankovitch Effect.

"What happened is that, if you look back at Earth's history over the past 2000 years, we were in a period where because of changes in Earth's tilt, there was an overall global cooling going on," Serreze observed. "And that turned around right around the mid-to-end of the 19th century to the warming that we see today."

Yet there is also a fourth factor that Serreze lists in addition to solar activity, volcanic activity and changes in the Earth's orbital geometry. It all comes down to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. This system of ocean currents  which is also being destabilized by climate change  includes one "belt" of ocean water that flows north and is warm, so that upon reaching the northern Atlantic it cools and evaporates. While that happens, AMOC causes the water in that region to become saltier and therefore both colder and heavier, sinking and flowing south to create a second belt. These two currents are connected by other oceanic features in the Labrador Sea, the Nordic Sea and the Southern Ocean.

In terms of modern climate change, the ongoing concern is that if AMOC slows down too much or stops entirely, temperatures in Europe will plummet to Little Ice Age levels and the number of extreme storms all over the world will increase. As for the Little Ice Age, "there is evidence from ocean cores and things like this that that overturning circulation may have been disrupted somehow so that it wasn't bringing the warmth into Northern Europe that it normally would."

Lapointe also added a new interesting hypothesis to understanding what exacerbated the Little Ice Age  namely, that Western colonization of the American continents played a significant role.

"On a more speculative yet interesting hypothesis is the 'Great Dying' of the Americas," Lapointe argued. "In 1492, Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, initiating a significant period of European exploration and colonization. Over the ensuing decades, Europeans encountered Indigenous American populations, leading to conflicts, violence and the introduction of deadly diseases. Among the most devastating diseases brought by Europeans was smallpox, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Indigenous Americans, causing immeasurable tragedy and loss of life."

The hypothesis, Lapointe asserted, is that in addition to the horrors of the Western genocide against indigenous peoples, "the colonization process may have had unintended ecological ramifications with potential climate implications. Many Indigenous American communities were skilled farmers who practiced land cultivation and clearance for agricultural purposes. The arrival of European colonists disrupted these established farming practices, leading to depopulation in certain regions."

Since the forests were left untended, the hypothesis holds that "the reforestation following the decline of Indigenous American populations might have resulted in a temporary drawdown of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The increased forest cover could have absorbed CO2 through photosynthesis, thus contributing to a cooling effect on the planet," Lapointe said.

If there is one consistent lesson that can be drawn from what science tells humans about the Little Ice Age, it is that the climate is a delicate combination of elements that can be dramatically changed by outside variables. Perhaps the logical fallacy committed by those who sincerely believe that the Little Ice Age disproves climate change is that, because humans were not responsible on that particular occasion, they assume this means they could not be responsible today. Yet that mindset is inherently unscientific, according to anthropologist Brian Fagan, who wrote a 2000 book called "The Little Ice Age" and is professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"Natural climate change has been with us since humans first evolved on earth. It is constant and will continue to challenge us," Fagan wrote to Salon. "The data that documents this from a wide variety of scientific and historical sources is beyond question. So is the firm scientific evidence for climate change caused by human activity, which is accumulating very rapidly and on a scale that is now beyond question."

Fagan added, "If you wish to deny that the evidence for this exists, then you are challenging the basic tenets of science  and that is delusional. It's the same old mix of conspiracy theories, tired, outmoded ideologies and long discredited scientific theories that hold even less water than they did a century ago. We are living in a climatically very different world, manipulated in considerable part by human activity. Climate change denial is delusional with a capital D. It's a waste of everyone's time."

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about climate change
Rain or shine, Mohammad Shukkur Ali, a rickshaw puller in his 50s, shows up for work on the streets of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The work is already punishing as it requires massive physical effort. But this year, the heat has made things even worse. Temperatures in the city hit 40.6C (105.8F) in April - a record high.

But Mr Ali, who lives with his wife and two children in a rented room, says he has no choice but to endure the discomfort.

"I need to work because we are poor," he said.

Mr Ali works eight-hour shifts every day in Gulshan, an affluent district in Dhaka which houses fancy apartments, sprawling corporate offices and several foreign embassies. To be even allowed into the area, he has to wear a jacket over his shirt - a uniform of sorts - which makes the heat even more uncomfortable.

The gruelling heat in the country has been made worse by fuel shortages- a consequence of the Ukraine war - which has led to frequent power cuts.

Millions of people across the world, including in North America and Europe, have experienced blistering heat this year.

A large number of cities have reported record temperatures, with scientists saying that July is "virtually certain" to be the world's warmest month on record.

Countries have pledged to keep the world from warming past 1.5C - a limit seen as a key threshold to prevent the worst of the impacts of climate change by reducing fossil fuel emissions. But scientists say there is a high chance that this limit will be breached in the next four years.

The globe is now about 1.1C warmer than pre-industrial times. But alarmingly, that increase has been even higher in Asia this year.

A recent report, compiled by nearly two dozen climate scientists, found that temperatures earlier this year were up by 2C in many parts of Asia, a region home to more than 4.5 billion people.

And the impact of this year's extreme heat has been felt in countries across the continent.

At least 23 people have died from heat-related injuries in South Korea between May and August, more than triple the number from the same period last year. Temperatures had risen to as high as 38C in parts of the country. On Thursday, Hundreds of participants at the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Buan, were hit by heat exhaustion. Other parts of the country witnessed heavy rainfalls and floods.

Japan issued heatstroke alerts across half of the country in mid-July after temperatures broke records in many parts of the country. The country's capital Tokyo alone saw temperatures reach a record-high of 38C (100.4F), 8C higher that an average Tokyo summer. And in just one week in July, local media reported that more than 9,000 people were hospitalised due to heatstroke across the country.

China recorded its hottest temperature, when the mercury in a dusty western Xinjiang province town surged to 52C (125F) in July. Just a month earlier, the capital Beijing recorded its hottest June day in more than 60 years at 51C (123.8F).

In India, an intense heatwave swept through the north of the country in May, with temperatures climbing to a record 49.2C (120.5F) in parts of the capital, Delhi.

Temperatures in Thailand reached 45.4C (114F) on 15 April, its hottest day in history

South East Asia also saw record temperatures in a number of countries in both April and May - which are typically the hottest months for the region.

Heatwaves are among the deadliest natural disasters in the world, sometimes killing more people than earthquakes, typhoons, or floods. They can also melt roads, destroy infrastructure, and start forest fires. Some experts call heatwaves a silent disaster because the deaths are often not immediately obvious - they can also trigger pre-existing conditions like diabetes, which are exacerbated in the heat and increase chances of dehydration.

Extreme heat also forces the heart to work harder. Just a half degree rise in core body temperature can raise the heart rate by 10 beats per minute. Heatstroke can occur when the core body temperature rises and stays above 40C (104F), according to Mayo Clinic. It can lead to organ failure, cardiac arrest, and even death if left untreated.

Heat increases moisture in the air and "the sweat on your skin simply can't evaporate [and take the heat away] in the humidity," said Winston Chow, an associate professor of Urban Climate at Singapore Management University. "It becomes dangerous when the body loses the natural ability to cool off."

A 35C (95F) wet-bulb temperature - what scientists call the measure of heat plus humidity - is the "absolute limit" of human tolerance, according to Zach Schlader, a physiologist at Indiana University Bloomington.

Senthil Logesh, a 26-year-old Indian construction worker in Singapore, said heat shelters and water points had to be installed on site where he currently works. Temperatures in parts of the city, which is humid throughout the year, had hit 37C (98.6F) in May, matching a record set four decades ago.

The wet-bulb temperature was monitored on the site, and workers were asked to rest when it got too high. But even then, Mr Logesh, who works 10 hours almost every day of the week, said that everyone was always "wet from sweating a lot."

Over the next decades, population is expected to double in Asia, with the growth mainly in tier-two cities in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, according to Prof Chow, who also co-chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's top climate science agency that assesses the socio-economic impact of climate change.

"Not only will there be more construction taking place, but it will also happen in hotter conditions, so we need to start looking at reducing risks for many vulnerable people," he said.

While reducing emissions is important to prevent the world from warming further, Prof Chow said that countries also need to adapt to heatwaves, which will only increase in intensity and frequency.

Dealing with heatwaves

In South East Asia's wealthier countries like Singapore for instance, infrastructures exist to shield people from the heat, like air-conditioning in malls and homes. The country also plans to build more green spaces, covered walkways, and change building designs to offer more shelter.

However, poorer countries in the same region are unable to implement similar measures. Even when plans to tackle heat exist, they are typically underfunded and often overlook poorer communities.

Thailand, for example, has a national-level early warning system for heatwaves, asking people to find shelter or wear light-coloured clothing, according to Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, a co-author of the Asia heatwave report.

"But not everyone can do that, such as homeless people, the disabled, or the elderly. The plans need to be tailored to these groups as well," she told the BBC. "This is all assuming people actually do as they are told. These plans serve more as general recommendations than specific instructions."

One example of a low budget plan that has seen some success is one developed by the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in 2013, after experiencing a devastating heatwave that killed 1,344 people. Authorities used white paint on the tin and asbestos roofs of the homes of migrant slums to cool them. They make up a quarter of the city's households. Public parks are also kept unlocked throughout the day for street stall owners and construction workers to find shade. Other Indian cities have since tried replicating this plan.

Krishni Tharu works in construction in Nepal to support her family

But critics say more can be done for the poorest communities who still suffer the brunt of natural disasters like heatwaves as they often don't have the means, or access to infrastructure, to cope.

On hot summer nights in Nepal, 30-year-old Krishni Tharu falls asleep in the same room with her two children and mother-in-law, the whole family sharing a single standing fan. In the western city of Nepalgunj, where she works as a construction labourer, temperatures hit 44C (111F) in June.

Nepal, home to Mount Everest, gets warm during the main summer period from May to July. Government data also shows that the temperature has been steadily on the rise every year.

She's usually exhausted after working 10-hour days, from dawn to dusk, earning about US$4.50 each shift to support her family. Such gruelling, outdoor labour has only gotten harder in recent years as the heat has gotten worse, she said.

But she can't stop. Cutting off her family's precious income is not an option, she told the BBC. "There is no escape. I have to work."

Additional reporting by BBC World Service reporters Orchi Othondrila in Dhaka and Bimala Chaudhary in Kathmandu.
Colorado's state government has warned students and teachers that hackers may have accessed their personal information  dating as far back as 2004.

In a notice on its website, the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) confirmed it experienced a ransomware incident that saw hackers access and copy data from its systems between June 11 and June 19. This data includes student and teacher names, addresses, Social Security numbers, student identification numbers, and other unspecified education records, according to CDHE.

The department said that those affected may include individuals who attended public higher education institutions in Colorado between 2007 and 2020 or attended a Colorado public high school between 2004 and 2020.

Additionally, the notice says others may be affected, including individuals with a Colorado K-12 public school educator license between 2010 and 2014; those who participated in the Dependent Tuition Assistance Program from 2009 to 2013; those who participated in Colorado Department of Educations Adult Education Initiatives programs between 2013 and 2017; or those who obtained a GED between 2007 and 2011.

The CDHE did not say how many people are affected by the ransomware attack, but likely encompasses a large number of individuals. The department said it plans to notify those affected, and all of those impacted are being offered two years of identity theft protection services.

Its not yet known who is behind the cyberattack and it doesnt appear to have yet been claimed by any of the major ransomware groups.

Colorado has suffered a spate of ransom attacks in recent weeks. Colorado State University (CSU) confirmed last month that the Clop ransomware gang had stolen sensitive personal information belonging to current and former students and employees during the recent MOVEit mass hacks. The same hackers targeted Colorados Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which said that personal identifiable information of those enrolled in Colorados Medicaid program or child health plan may have been compromised.
Wayne Coffman, 35, of the East Side, right, was on trial on Aug. 2, 2023 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court for two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of felonious assault. A jury found him guilty on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, of all charges in connection with a deadly shootout on March 11, 2022 outside Podunk's bar on the North Side. Coffman intends to appeal the verdict, according to his attorney, Robert Krapenc, left.

During a trial last week in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors argued Wayne Coffman is guilty not only of shooting a man who survived but also of two charges of murder for those who died in the aftermath.

Coffman did not shoot the bystander or the security guard who died outside a North Side bar last year in a chaotic incident that involved multiple people firing guns, but Coffman started the shooting, according to Franklin County prosecutors.

A jury agreed with prosecutors on Monday when it found Coffman, 35, of the East Side, guilty of all charges: two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of felonious assault.

Under Ohio's felony murder rule, if someone commits a felony, in this case felonious assault and attempted murder, and that leads to someone's death, they can be convicted of murder.

Prosecutors argued it was foreseeable - a requirement for this type of murder conviction - that starting a shootout could cause people to get killed.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown found Coffman guilty of possessing a gun illegally as Coffman is a previously convicted felon.

Brown will sentence Coffman on Aug. 18 to a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Brown will decide when Coffman is first eligible for parole after at least 18 years.

Coffman intends to appeal the verdict, according to his attorney, Robert Krapenc.

Krapenc told The Dispatch after the verdict was announced that it's unfortunate nobody else will ever be held accountable for these two deaths.

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor David Zeyen told The Dispatch that unless further evidence is uncovered, there will likely be no further indictments related to this incident.

What happened at Podunk's bar?

According to Columbus police, sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. on March 11, 2022, a surveillance camera inside Podunk's captured Coffman getting into a fight with Anthony Ray Smith and striking him several times. Bar security broke up the fight but Coffman attempted to take several of their guns, according to police.

Coffman then left the bar. In the parking lot, he was handed a handgun, according to police.

Coffman walked up to Smith in the parking lot and shot him multiple times, according to authorities.

Gunfire then erupted with several people in the parking lot shooting, police said.

Laurance Ball, 36, of the Northeast Side, attempted to take cover but was struck and died from her injuries a short time later.

Mareo Bell, 33, of the Northeast Side, was working security at Podunk's that night and also was shot. He succumbed to his injuries about two weeks later.

Coffman was also injured that night, according to Krapenc.

Smith survived his injuries.

According to Zeyen, authorities know some of the people who were involved in the shooting who stayed at the scene and talked to officers. But there are some issues with evidence, including that a bullet that went through Ball was never recovered and only bullet fragments were recovered from Bell.

The second hurdle to convicting the individuals who shot Ball and Bell would be the argument they shot in self-defense, Zeyen said.

More court news: Ex-Columbus police officer indicted with murder in 2022 shooting death of Donovan Lewis

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man guilty of murder for 2022 shootout outside North Side bar
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, speaks at a campaign event in Tega Cay, S.C. (Meg Kinnard / Associated Press)

Tolani Britton and Travis Bristol, a husband-and-wife team of associate professors of education at UC Berkeley, possess the sort of pragmatism that I wish I had in these trying times.

Like so many of us in liberal California, they have watched with dismay as conservative politicians in other states have pushed through laws and policies designed to whitewash lessons about race and discrimination from public schools.

Books of fiction and nonfiction alike have been banned. Teachers have been told what they can and cannot say in classrooms and what facts and realities they must ignore, lest they be summarily fired.

Read more: Column: DeSantis is waging a 'battle for reality' with his anti-trans, anti-Black book bans

It's a crusade that has only intensified in recent weeks with Florida, first, rejecting an Advanced Placement course on Black history for being too "woke" and, as such, lacking educational value, and then crafting its own curriculum, which includes an appallingly inaccurate assertion about "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Stupidly, at least according to the latest polling of Republican candidates for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has repeatedly defended his state's new curriculum, despite it clearly not resonating with voters. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris  along with a curious collection of MAGA-aligned Black Republicans  has repeatedly assailed it.

"They plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery," she told a ballroom full of Black women in Orlando last week, during the Womens Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention. "They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us."

The back-and-forth is a mere microcosm of the culture wars ripping our country apart. Culture wars that many of us feel helpless to stop.

Which brings me back to Britton and Bristol.

For the last few months, the associate professors have been quietly building a team to create a new California-centric Black studies curriculum, based on the exhaustive research of the state's first-in-the-nation reparations task force.

You might recall that the task force officially ended its work in June, amid much hand-wringing over how many billions of dollars might be requested of state government to compensate Black people for the lasting harms of slavery and systemic racism.

Lost in much of that was the sheer breadth and depth of the task force's final report, with its detailed historical accounting of how the progress of Black people was repeatedly blocked and stopped by laws and policies that, for example, promoted mass incarceration and thwarted our efforts to build generational wealth.

Imagine, for a moment, students learning about the history of Bruce's Beach in classrooms. Or the history of how Black and Latino residents were removed by fire to make way for what is today downtown Palm Springs.

"The goal is to put that education into the mainstream," Britton told me one recent afternoon.

Indeed, both she and her husband hope their forthcoming curriculum will be adopted by high schools and community colleges. But because they're pragmatic and because they see what's happening in Florida, they aren't counting on it.

Read more: Slavery, reparations, racism. No topics are off limits in this Black history AP class

So, instead, they plan to take the slightly unorthodox approach of making the curriculum free and accessible to the broader public, finding ways to distribute it to after-school programs, community groups, churches and parents.

Anyone who is in a position to teach a child about Black history, also known as American history.

To accomplish this, Britton and Bristol are bringing in  and paying  high school students, teachers and community educators to help develop the curriculum through a series of workshops and pilot programs.

"The pendulum always swings on what can and can't be taught in schools. And we know that schools are not the only places of learning," Britton explained, "particularly for Black children."

This is how you win the culture wars  or at least undercut them.

It's not necessarily a new idea. But it is one that seems to be gaining popularity as public school systems increasingly become focal points for partisan pettiness and racist power plays passed off as parental rights.

In Florida, for example, a group of Black religious leaders, civil rights activists and community organizers recently held a news conference via Zoom to announce that they are forming a task force to teach Black history in the state and opening a series of freedom schools.

Hes not going to rewrite and redefine Black history, R.B. Holmes Jr., pastor of the historic Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Tallahassee, said of DeSantis. "Not while were still alive."

Such efforts might seem unnecessary in California.

We are, after all, one of only 17 states to expand education on racism, bias and the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to American history.

We're also the first to require that high school students take at least one semester of ethnic studies. By law, the courses will start being offered in the 2025-26 school year and the class of 2030 will be the first that's subject to the graduation requirement.

Meanwhile, as my colleague Howard Blume reported recently, 18 students at Dorsey High School in South L.A. were among only a few hundred students nationwide to take the College Boards new Advanced Placement African American Studies course this past school year.

This is the same course that Florida officials, at the urging of DeSantis, rejected in favor of building a flawed curriculum of their own.

Read more: Juneteenth is about freedom. And it can be found on L.A.s New Orleans Corridor

Yet even in California, a few districts have followed Florida's lead and passed bans on lessons about race and racism, usually described under the catch-all term "critical race theory."

Among them is Temecula Valley Unified School District, which was sued last week by a group of parents and teachers for allegedly violating state laws that mandate lessons about racism, inequality and how past events are relevant in the present day.

I do not believe that CRT or any racist ideology is a suitable educational framework for classroom instruction at the elementary and secondary level, school board President Joseph Komrosky told The Times in what he described as a personal statement.

Unsurprisingly, Temecula is the same district that Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine and send textbooks to after its board refused to adopt a state-approved social studies curriculum because it included lessons on slain gay rights leader and San Francisco County Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Eventually, the school board relented  but not before Komrosky called Milk a pedophile.

Trying times, indeed. Laws and policies are always changing, particularly in this political environment.

"Without trivializing what is happening currently, I think it has always been the case that students in different states and different districts, learn different things," said Britton, who along with Bristol worked and studied in various states before moving to California.

"I think it is both the challenge and the opportunity of a decentralized school system that we have."

This is why, even though California should absolutely celebrate the introduction of ethnic studies courses in public schools, and adopt that AP African American Studies course as soon as it is available, the lessons of Black history can't be confined to classrooms. Nor to the whims of politicians.

That's how culture wars are waged and ultimately lost.

"We have always known, in part because schools weren't even always open to Black people," Britton said, "that there are many, many places of education for Black children."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Madison County sheriffs investigators returned to a home in Comer on Monday to search the location for more evidence related to a late night attack on a woman that occurred two days earlier.

A suspect, the victims 38-year-old son, is in jail.

The woman was transported to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center on Saturday with numerous stab wounds to her neck and chest, according to the sheriffs report.

The attack occurred shortly after 3 a.m. Saturday at a home on Clairmont Avenue, where the victim called to report that she was stabbed while she asleep in bed, deputies said.

The woman, who made her way to the front porch, told the officer that she didnt know if her assailant was still in the home.

Oconee Blotter: Cops looking for a dozen IHOP eaters who fled without paying bills

Self-inflicted: Investigation determines Athens man died of self-inflicted gunshot

A deputy reported he went into the house and found trails of blood and in her bedroom was a large nail that possibly was used in the attack.

The suspect had fled and a K9 unit from the Georgia Department of Corrections arrived and tracked the suspect to Flint Street, about a block away, where the trail ended. The dogs handler told deputies the suspect apparently got into a vehicle at that point.

A manhunt then ensued for the suspect, identified as Wayne Patrell Jackson of Comer. A sheriffs deputy received information that Jackson was hiding at a location in nearby Colbert.

We got information he was inside a camper on Fleming Street, Chief Deputy Jeff Vaughn said Monday.

He barricaded himself in for a little while, but we got him out, Vaughn said.

Jackson remains in jail without bond on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated battery and home invasion.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Comer man charged with stabbing mom while she slept at home
A Madison County woman remained in jail Monday without bond after she was charged in the July 31 death of a motorcycle driver.

The Georgia State Patrol charged Madison Breanna Potts, 22, of Della Slaton Road, Comer, with first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI, a stop sign violation and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

The crash claimed the life of Webster Dean Simmons, 65, of Comer who was driving a 1994 Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Troopers said the crash occurred about 8 p.m. at the intersection of Georgia Highway 72 and New Hope Church Road. Potts was traveling south at the time of the collision, but the patrol did not release information on which road she was traveling.

Potts was booked into the Madison County Jail on Aug. 1.

Stabbing: Comer man charged with stabbing mom, possibly with a nail, while she slept

Georgia trail: 'We want to go where people want us': Georgia Hi-Lo Trail would link Athens to Savannah

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Comer woman charged in death of motorcycle driver on Highway 72
Veteran-owned Go Getters Outdoor Services and Go Getters Washing opened in March, offering pressure and soft washing, junk removal, lawn care and landscaping services in the Hagerstown area.

Owner Austin Kershner said his business stands out in its knowledge and professionalism.

A Go-Getters company car.

Unlike other power and soft washing services that just use water, he said, Go Getters uses safe chemicals to provide a better wash.

"We go full in-depth with our professionalism," Kershner said. "What fills our deal is how much knowledge we have and our experience."

Kershner first learned about power washing during the four years he served in the Marine Corps.

Go Getters is not in the market purely for profit, Kershner said; he also wants to help the community. The company is working to clean one house free every month.

"It makes me happy helping people; it's not always about money," Kershner said.

For more information, contact Go Getters at gogettersoutdoors@gmail.com. The company offers free estimates for services. Call (240)-513-5247.

New Dollar General Market opens in Hagerstown

The new DG Market at 761 Wilson Blvd. in Hagerstown.

A new Dollar General Market has opened on Wilson Boulevard in Hagerstown.

Dollar General's market store format includes a wider selection of food items, including meats, fruits and vegetables. The store will also carry typical brands and products offered by the chain, according to news release from the company.

"The new DG Market format aims to provide the Hagerstown community with closer access to fresh and healthier foods and a convenient location to purchase the items they want and need at everyday low prices," Matthew Simonsen, senior vice president of real estate and store development, said in the release.

The chain plans to donate 100 new books to a nearby elementary school through a partnership with the Kellogg Company, per the release. Schools, nonprofits and libraries within a 15-mile radius of the new store may apply for Dollar General Literacy Foundation grants.

There will be around 15 employees at the new location.

Mlend, Middletown Valley Bank name new president of mortgage sales

President and CEO Bill Poffenbarger Jr. of Millennium Financial Group Inc., also known as Mlend, has retired, and Jerry Merrick has been promoted to executive vice president  president of mortgage sales for Middletown Valley Bank and Mlend.

Bill Poffenbarger

Poffenbarger officially retired Aug. 1 from the wholly owned mortgage subsidiary of Middletown Valley Bank, according to a news release from the bank. Merrick had been vice president of mortgage lending for the Western Maryland market before his promotion.

Jerry Merrick

On behalf of the entire company, I would like to thank Bill for his 20 years of success, support, and leadership through the founding and growth of Mlend. We wish him well on his next chapter. Robert E. (BJ) Goetz, president and CEO of the bank, said in the news release. He added that Merrick's "many years of experience as a top-performing lender in the mortgage lending industry have him well positioned to support and lead our corporate mortgage team to the next level.

Washington promoted to San Mar deputy executive director

Jerica Washington was recently appointed deputy executive director of San Mar Family & Community Services, according to a news release from San Mar.

Jerica Washington

Washington started her new position July 1. A staff member of San Mar since 2014, she has held a variety of positions within the agency, including special projects coordinator, therapist, and as director of the Jack E. Barr Center for Well-Being Outpatient Mental Health Clinic for the last five years.

Washington holds a masters degree in social work from the University of Maryland and completed the Georgetown University School of Public Policy nonprofit management executive certificate in June, according to the release. She will continue to lead the outpatient mental health work at San Mar, as well as focusing on adding campus program development initiatives and facilities planning, board of managers operations and other growth needs.

United Way of Washington County announces board of directors for 2023-24

The United Way of Washington County recently announced its incoming officers, directors and continuing board members for 2023-2024.

New officers include Shane Heizer, a wealth adviser with Carson Wealth, chairman; Stacie Turner, a compliance manager with Fiserv, vice chair; and Emily Beecher, a supervisor with SEK, CPAS & Advisors, treasurer. Richie Holzapfel, vice president and financial adviser of the Holzapfel Group, was named secretary, and Julie Pippel, a private environmental consultant, is the past chair.

New board members include:

Rhiannon Combs, branch manager with M&T Bank

Tsala Harrison, general manager with Pepsico

Nicole Alt-Myers, co-president of Myers Management

Mark Subrizi, producer with Blue Ridge Risk Partners

Continuing members include:

Ben Bruno, JLG

Leslie DeMott, DC News Now

Mike Harsh, Hagerstown Community College

Lynn Haines, Meritus Health

Tim Haines, Washington County Public Schools

Gary Hayes, retired owner of Spherion Staffing

Tereance Moore, owner/consultant with TMConsultant LLC

Ellen Prete, Citi

Zane Schreiber, Abeles Flurie Wealth Management

Angie Stouffer, Washington County Public Schools

Vaun Miles-Swain, the Washington County Board of License Commissioners (liquor board)

Mark Zucca, Potomac Edison

Outgoing board members include

Mary-Jane Bowyer, CNB Bank

Karen Boyer, First United Bank & Trust

Erin Clark, SEK

Christ Howlett, Hagerstown Housing Authority

Brook Lane announces new leadership

Brook Lane, a nonprofit mental health system, announced three new leadership changes through a company release.

Yuki Uchino is the interim chief information officer of Brook Lane as of July 7, following the retirement of Robert Fritz. He will oversee Brook Lane's transition to a new electronic records system, according to a release.

Uchino recently worked at Meritus Health as the director of analytics and software engineering.

Jeremie Robinson started as director of facilities management on July 10. Robinson has experience as a facility manager for GCL Facility Management and experience as an HVAC technician.

Brian O'Keefe became the director of physician practice in June. He was the chief operations officer at Metropolitan Nephrology Associates and is an experienced healthcare executive, according to the release.

Opening? Moving? Got a new hire or promotion? Let us know

If you have details on a business coming or going in Washington County, Md., or Franklin County, Pa., email us at news@herald-mail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Comings & Goings: Go Getters and Dollar General Market open
Russian forces continue using chemical weapons in Ukraine, violating international conventions, said Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander for the Tavria military sector.

According to Tarnavskyi, Russian troops fired two artillery barrages with munitions containing a chemical substance, presumably chloropicrin, on Aug. 6.

Exposure to chloropicrin's vapors causes severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and, if inhaled, to internal organs. This substance, widely applied during World War I, is no longer authorized for military use.

Tarnavskyi said the chemical weapons were used in the area of Novodanylivka but didn't specify the oblast. There are several settlements in Ukraine called Novodanylivka. Most likely, it was the one located near Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, as it lies the closest to the front line.

No casualties were reported after the shelling, the Ukrainian commander said. "The Russians are trying to do everything to stop our advance. But they won't succeed."

This is not the first time Russia has used chemical weapons in its war against Ukraine.

Ukraine's Border Service said on May 26 that the Russian military had fired munitions with irritant aerosols and chemical grenades near Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast.

In December last year, Russian troops reportedly used Soviet-made K-51 tear gas grenades against Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the east.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits using chemical and biological weapons in war.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Some conservatives are standing by the film "Barbie," despite criticisms and reviews that blasted the blockbuster film for an allegedly liberal agenda.

Many conservative commentators had scathing takes on the Margot Robbie film based on the iconic Mattel doll, even as it reportedly passed $1 billion in global box office.

But some conservative women defend the film, with one commenter calling it a "delightfully fresh critique of modern feminism and masculinity" and even claiming it acknowledges "what makes a woman a woman."

GRETA GERWIG SAYS SHE WAS 'TERRIFIED' THAT MAKING THE 'BARBIE' LIVE-ACTION MOVIE 'COULD BE A CAREER-ENDER'

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling attend the European premiere of "Barbie" in London, July 12, 2023.

A popular Christian movie review site, Movieguide, published an early review of the film prior to its release warning its readers to not take their daughters to "Barbie" because it pushes "transgender character stories" by featuring a transgender actor as one of the Barbies.

Katrina Trinko, editor and chief of the Heritage Foundations Daily Signal, said this was a disappointing "woke moment" of the film, but that overall the movie "challenges the understanding of women promulgated by the sexual revolution and modern feminism."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A notion, she says, "Conservatives should cheer not despair."

The general plot of the film follows Barbie, played by Robbie, in her journey of choosing whether to remain living in Barbie Land, where the Barbies are in charge and the Kens just exist as an accessory. Her journey takes her to the real world  complete with all the complexity, challenges and beauty of being a human, specifically a woman, according to some observers.

"Ultimately, the message of Barbie is: Barbies life isnt enough. Sure, the world of Barbie is sheeny and sparkles and theres no aging or cellulite or crying babies or stress. But its also vapid, meaningless and loveless," Trinko writes.

"In some ways, this 1960s doll is in line with the bad thinking of both the sexual revolution and modern feminism  the idea that women could have casual sex, and not be emotionally destroyed, just because they could prevent pregnancy, and the idea that to be a fully realized woman must include having a successful career outside the home," she says.

"The never-pregnant, never-married, career-laden Barbie is exactly the kind of woman the 1960s thought we might all want to be. Except female desire  including, as it turns out, even in Barbie herself  is just more complicated than that," Trinko says.



BLACK UNIVERSITY LECTURER REFUSES TO SUBJECT DAUGHTER TO BARBIE OVER WHITE IS ALWAYS RIGHT IDEOLOGY

David Heyman, Greta Gerwig, Ariana Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera pose on the pink carpet for the world premiere of "Barbie" in Los Angeles, July 9, 2023.

Nina Power, a senior editor and columnist at Compact, writes, "[Director Greta] Gerwigs film is ultimately good-hearted, breaking the fourth wall to posit a feminist fourth wave.

"If the first wave sought political representation; the second, womens reality and history; the third  well, whatever that was; the fourth posits a return to sexual difference, and to a heterosocial world in which men and women largely get along," she writes.

Power points to a scene where she says the creators underscore a core tenet of the conservative view  that "women exist and sexual difference is real."

"In the final scene, just when you think Barbies off to be a #GirlBoss, it turns out she is seeing a gynecologist instead. In the transition to the flesh, the smooth space gets complicated," Power says.

"Gerwigs nod to what makes a woman a woman is quietly subversive," she says.

Ginger Gaetz, wife of firebrand Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, after attending a premiere of the film donning pink on the red carpet, later Tweeted that the movie "neglects to address any notion of faith or family" and that it contained "disappointingly low T from Ken."

But Lois McLatchie, a commentator on free speech and faith issues in the U.K., disagreed, and argued that "Barbie might not have intended to champion traditional marriage, but it does."

"Barbie Land depicts the damaging extreme of hardcore feminism  when equality between the sexes tips over into girls dont need no man whatsoever,'" McLatchie claimed.

"#GirlPower too often has come at the expense of the role of men as fathers, husbands and heads of families, as well as their harnessing disciplined leadership skills unique to their gender," McLatchie writes.

SPORTS RADIO HOST FIRED AFTER 'BARBIE' COMMENTS TO FEMALE TV REPORTER

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling filming scenes for Barbie in Venice California, June 27, 2022.

By the same token, McLatchie says "Barbie" accurately harnesses modern "patriarchy" in the character arch of Ken, played by Ryan Gosling  describing it as "a hyper-reactionary movement responding to the damage of feminism to men in the 21st century."

"'Barbie' sits astride these two increasingly polarised social dogmas and points out flaws in both. Societal solutions that pit the sexes against each other will ultimately end in disaster for both parties," McLatchie concludes.

Gerwig, a three-time Academy Award nominee, last year said she was "terrified" that making "Barbie" might be a "career-ender" but is now the highest-grossing female director in Hollywood history.
A woman walks with her child past the Crack Shack in the 9th and 9th area of Salt Lake City on May 31. The 9th and 9th intersection is scheduled to close as early as Monday and remained closed for about a month as a part of the ongoing 900 South Reconstruction Project. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

A prominent intersection in Utah's capital city is closing for about a month as a part of an ongoing city road project.

Salt Lake City's 9th and 9th intersection, where 900 South meets 900 East, will close as early as Monday as part of Salt Lake City's 900 South Reconstruction Project. Crews are slated to remove and replace the street's aging roadway surface and improve the storm drain system in the area, as well as install a new section of the 9-Line Trail.

The intersection is expected to remain closed for about 30 days once construction begins.

City officials contend that fully closing the intersection will reduce the project time by an additional 15 to 30 days, as compared to a partial closure, which has been used in other parts of the project area.

Despite the closure, officials urge residents to still support the local businesses in the area, using streets 700 East, 900 East, 1100 East and 800 South to reach the shops and restaurants on 900 South in the closed area. Local traffic can use 900 South, but not enter the intersection.

The project, which began in 2021, aims to repair 900 South from 900 West to Lincoln Street (945 East). The city completed a section of the project from 900 West to 200 East last month. Crews are also working on a stretch of 900 South from 200 East to 500 East.

City seeks feedback on Main Street's future

While the 900 South project construction is in motion, planning is heating up for a project that would transform another prominent Salt Lake City street.

Salt Lake City's Department of Economic Development launched an online survey on Thursday, seeking public feedback on a conceptual design to turn Main Street into a "pedestrian-transit mall" from South Temple to 400 South in downtown Salt Lake City. The plan follows three years of temporarily closing down the section of road to foot traffic and extending outdoor dining patios.

While "Open Streets" started out as more of a COVID-19 pandemic necessity, city leaders point out that it's something the city had planned out all the way back in 1962.

"This is the next step in fulfilling the vision of the Second Century Plan, and other downtown master plans," said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall in a statement. "The vision for Main Street has always been about creating a destination that enhances connectivity between people, which ultimately contributes to the long-term economic health of downtown Salt Lake City."

The city is working with multiple partners on "bringing this project to life," including the state and Dig Studio, an architecture firm based out of Denver, Department of Economic Development officials said. The online survey, which runs through Aug. 11, is one of the first pieces in putting together a project plan.

Open Streets is slated to return for a few weekends beginning next month, after facing delays this year.
TechCrunch

There was plenty going on as usual -- with fintech investors sounding off, payments companies seeing big stock moves and much more. One other note, you can find Mary Ann on TechCrunchs Equity podcast, which she co-hosts every Friday with Alex Wilhelm, including this episode that came out Friday. This past week, we saw two global payments companies release earnings with wildly different results.
British critics have described the barge as an 'oppressive environment' (Ben Stansall)

Britain on Monday began housing migrants on board a barge docked off the southwest English coast, in its latest controversial immigration policy that has drawn heavy criticism from locals and rights campaigners.

The "Bibby Stockholm", which has been moored for weeks in Portland on the Dorset coastline, accepted the first of up to 500 young, male inhabitants due to stay there, after a series of delays.

The decision to dock the vessel in Portland, a small island with a population of about 13,600 people, has prompted a backlash from some locals, including its Conservative MP, who argue the area is ill-suited to the task.

Rights advocates have also hit out at the policy, saying the barge is unfit for the purpose, with protesters from either side showing up at the waterfront site in recent weeks.

Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK branded the barge "a shameful way to house people who've fled terror, conflict and persecution".

It was previously used by Germany and the Netherlands to house homeless people and asylum-seekers, but opponents in Britain have noted it was previously described as an "oppressive environment".

A number of migrants did not board the barge after legal moves.

"None of the asylum-seekers we are supporting have gone to the Bibby Stockholm today," said Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, adding that they had suffered torture, modern slavery and had traumatic experiences at sea.

"To house any human being in a 'quasi floating prison' like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel," he said.

The firefighters' union last week called for an urgent meeting with the interior ministry over safety concerns raised, but officials have said it passed all necessary checks.

- 'Grave risks' -

The UK government, which is trying to lower the costs of housing asylum claimants following a surge in cross-Channel arrivals aboard small boats in recent years, has insisted the barge provides suitable accommodation.

Britain's asylum system backlog had ballooned to more than 130,000 by the end of March. The bill to house those applicants and other migrant arrivals has spiralled to more than 6 million a day, according to officials, as they resort to using hotels and other temporary accommodation.

"The government thinks it is right to find alternatives that are cheaper and more cost effective," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman told reporters Monday. "We think this is one alternative."

Sunak's government is also seeking to deter migrants through a new "illegal migration" law, enacted last month, which bars asylum claims by all arrivals via the Channel and other "illegal" routes.

It also mandates their transfer to third countries, such as Rwanda.

But both policies are on-hold amid a court challenge over the legality of sending migrants to east Africa.

The United Nation's refugee agency has condemned the new rules as a "breach of international law" and warned it would expose refugees to "grave risks".

Sunak's spokesman said the UK leader remains committed to his pledge to "stop the boats".

"That's the long-term aim of the Rwanda migration partnership and the new legal powers the government has sought," he said.

bs-jj/har/pvh
More than two years after former state Sen. Frank Artiles was arrested on campaign finance and other charges for his involvement in the ghost candidate scheme that interfered with the outcome of a state Senate race in the 2020 election, a Miami judge has set a Feb. 5 trial date.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ariel Rodriguez on Monday scheduled the jury trial for two weeks next year, and imposed an Oct. 2 deadline for all discovery in the case. Rodriguez warned that if either party delays in producing the case documents needed in the case, he would set another hearing to keep the trial on schedule.

Artiles, 50, has pleaded not guilty to campaign finance charges alleging he paid his friend, Alexis Pedro Rodriguez, a Boca Raton auto parts dealer, to run as a no-party affiliated candidate in the Senate District 37 race against Miami-Dade Democratic Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who was seeking a second term.

Although Alex Rodriguez did no campaigning, he was buoyed by a covert campaign that paid for mailers that made him look like a progressive Democrat. He received more than 6,000 votes in the race, giving Republican challenger Ileana Garcia, a former TV personality, a 34-vote victory.

Following the money

The two-year investigation by State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle uncovered an elaborate web of phony organizations designed to shield the source of the funds used to finance the so-called ghost candidate scheme and evidence showing that Artiles paid Alex Rodriguez more than $44,000.

Last year, Alexis Pedro Rodriguez took a plea deal in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors. He is expected to testify at Artiles trial. Investigators say Artiles was paid $90,000 by the Gainesville political consulting firm Data Targeting, a political consulting firm hired to help Republicans retain their majority in the state Senate.

READ MORE: No-party candidate in Miami election fraud case takes plea deal, apologizes to voters

Artiles attorney, Frank Quintero, told the court on Monday that he will dispute the allegations and will be turning over thousands and thousands of pages of documents that challenge their conclusions, including information he said that had be deleted from iPhones, and a list of 15 to 20 witnesses that will include a deposition of Alexis Pedro Rodriguezs former partner.

Quintero said in an interview that he will show that Alex Rodriguez was a fraudster a con artist who lied to Artiles and deleted phone messages after he became a cooperating witness for the state.

Artiles is an absolute victim of this guy, Quintero said.

If convicted, Artiles faces up to five years in prison for each of three felony counts.

Quintero said he would not answer why Artiles went to the effort of submitting Alex Rodriguezs election paperwork to run as a no-party-affiliated candidate or why he was recruited to run in the race.

Im not going to get into that. Thats part of the case, he said.

Defense attorney claims text messages deleted

He told the court that after conducting a forensic review of Artiles text messages he has evidence that Rodriguez deleted text messages from his phone after he became a cooperating witness for the state.

Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen, who has led the investigation, said he would be ready for trial as early as October and accused Artiles lawyers of delay.

Your honor can see whats going on, he said. Theyre not giving me discovery and then saying that I need more time.

He said that Artiles lawyers have had Artiles phone records since the inception of the case. Hes their client. So now theyre telling the court, they need to turn something from his cloud to the state.

Well, its been two and a half years into the case and they could have provided me that for two and a half years. They waited. Now theyre telling the court the states going to need more time. Its based on their timeline. Its not based on mine.

Quintero told the Herald/Times that VanderGeisen was absolutely wrong about the timeline. He said Quintero downloaded the text messages from Artiles phone over a year ago but only after deposing Alex Rodriguez in June did they decide to conduct the forensic audit.

He said he is confident he will persuade a jury that Artiles was lied to by Alex Rodriguez and should not be found guilty.

If this was a normal case, nine times out of 10, after reviewing this stuff, the state would dismiss the charges, he said. But this is not a normal case  because its political.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached meklas@miamiherald.com and @MaryEllen Klas
Alina Narziso speaks to reporters outside a prison in Tijuana. (Karen Castaneda / For The Times)

Alina Narziso had grown used to putting on makeup and sunglasses to hide her bruises.

They came from her boyfriend, an officer on the Tijuana police force with Narziso. He tightly monitored her whereabouts and would slap her and squeeze her neck in fits of rage.

Narziso, then 24, recalled reporting the abuse to a boss, who sounded unconcerned.

"I don't think he's capable of killing you," he told her.

The violence, in fact, did turn deadly. But it was Narziso, not her boyfriend, who was led away in handcuffs and charged with murder.

In a country where an average of 10 women were slain a day last year, sometimes by their romantic partners, Narziso's case shows how Mexico deals with a lesser-known outcome: when a woman kills her alleged abuser.

Mexico's criminal justice system has long shown little sympathy to abused women, activists say. Allegations of domestic violence are often pushed away and killings of women are poorly investigated. But a strong feminist movement has moved cases such as Narziso's into the public eye, forcing judges and legislators to pay attention.

The Times reviewed court documents and spoke with legal experts, activists and family members in reporting this story. The events are as Narziso described them in several interviews and in court testimony.

Narziso joined the Tijuana police at age 19 at the suggestion of an uncle on the force. Before that, she'd worked as a hairdresser.

She thrived patrolling the busy streets, feeling like she'd found her calling. Shopkeepers took her personal number and contacted her with suspicions.

She'd been on the force about four years when, in January 2019, 27-year-old supervisor Luis Rodrigo Juarez moved to her police district. They soon became patrol partners.

Their long days on the job extended to a friendship, dancing and barbecues.

"We only wouldnt see each other to sleep, but the rest of the time we were together, Narziso said.

Two months after Juarez arrived, he brought her to his parents' home. The pair fell asleep watching TV. The next morning, she said, she woke up with Juarez on top of her. He pinned her hands down and forced her to have sex, she would later testify in court.

Afterward, when she tried to leave, Juarez became remorseful.

'I thought about leaving him, but I didnt know how.'

Alina Narziso

He told me, I've never spent so much time with a girlfriend, youre the first person Ive been with this much. I dont know how to treat a woman,'" Narziso said. He apologized and gave me a thousand explanations."

It was the start of a pattern  abuse, then contrition. Narziso stayed with him, and the two began renting an apartment that summer, in the same building where she had lived with her mother.

One night in September, when she was bathing, Juarez accused her of cheating on him and grabbed her by the neck. When she denied it, he slapped her. Then he apologized, hitting his head with his hands, she said.

She texted photos of her face, and her location, to two colleagues in case they didnt hear from her in the morning. But the next day, Narziso and Juarez both reported to work.

Rodrigo Juarez, shown in an undated photo, joined the Tijuana police force where Alina Narziso was also a cop. (Teresa Arellanes)

"I thought about leaving him, but I didn't know how," she said. "We were patrolling together."

The violence continued. One day when Narziso tried to leave the apartment for a salon appointment, Juarez pushed her to the ground. He ultimately let her leave, but when she returned, he blew up, demanding to know why she had taken so long.

For Narziso, it was too much. When he left for work, she started packing to leave. Her mother, Socorro Tehuaxtle, came over to help. For the first time, Narziso told her that Juarez was responsible for the bruises she had asked about.

Read more: A single mother in Mexico was blamed for her own death. Now a well-connected playboy has been charged

Narziso asked a colleague to send a police unit to prevent Juarez from entering the apartment while she packed. She moved back into her mother's unit.

Over the next few days, Juarez would wait outside the apartment building with flowers. He approached her one day when she was eating at a restaurant, asking her to give him another chance. Again, she agreed, but set a condition: that he see a psychologist and stop drinking. They soon began living together again, but he refused to go to therapy, Narziso said.

For me, this had already turned into a normal life routine, she said. I didnt realize it was a vicious cycle, that nothing would change.

She never filed a police complaint against him because she worried about retaliation within the force. She had already seen domestic violence reports get little attention.

Once, seeing her bruises, another officer had asked, Now what did you do? Why did he hit you?

On Dec. 12, 2019, around 2 a.m., Narziso said, she awoke to a wide-eyed Juarez on top of her.

Are you going to leave me because Im drunk and crazy again? he said, grabbing her by the neck.

He pressed the barrel of his police pistol against her head.

Of course not, she told him, she wouldn't leave.

He stowed the gun in his waistband and started to snort cocaine, she said, but as she tried to leave the bedroom, he grabbed her by the hair and started slamming her face against the door frame. Youre not leaving here, he told her.

As he put her in a chokehold, she screamed for help, hoping her mother, who lived on the same floor, would hear.

As they struggled, she pulled his gun from his waistband and pointed it at him, demanding he let her leave.

He stepped toward her. She closed her eyes and started shooting.

When she opened her eyes, he was slouched but still standing. He put his hand on his chest, she said.

"It's your turn, he taunted her. "Kill yourself."

When he started to step forward, she shot again. And again. This time, she said, he fell to the floor. Relief and fear washed over her as he lay motionless.

Moments later she heard pounding at the door. Her mother.

Woken by Narzisos screams, she'd heard gunshots while running for her daughter.

"What happened?" she asked.

He was hitting me. I shot him, and I think I killed him."

Her mother hugged the crying Narziso and told her to call 911. Narziso said that as she dialed, she felt confident authorities would understand her actions.

"I was sleeping, he assaulted me, I defended myself," she explained later. "I was in that moment very sure of what I had done."

The first authorities arrived at 2:33 a.m. Officials declared Juarez, who had been shot five times, dead at the scene. And they arrested Narziso.

A doctor who examined her a few hours after the shooting noted fresh bruises. But later that day, a Baja California prosecutor announced that she was uninjured and that no evidence supported that she had acted in self-defense.

At first, Socorro Tehuaxtle, 52, wasnt sure how to help her daughter.

She began selling burritos and sweets outside the prison where Narziso was held to help her daughter pay for clothes. She gave Narziso's car to an attorney to pay for her defense. She educated herself on Mexican and international law, took empowerment classes at a women's center and eventually got a scholarship to go to law school.

Read more: The Times podcast: A murder mystery, a cover up, and femicide in Mexico

She met journalists interested in telling Narzisos side of the story. Gabriela Martinez, a reporter for the newspaper El Universal, thought of the mourning mothers she'd interviewed who wondered whether their daughters had tried to defend themselves.

"Many of us have been Alina in different phases of what she lived through," Martinez said. "We always tell the story of a woman who has been killed. This was the first time that I was telling a story of someone who survived."

When Narziso's trial began in Tijuana in the fall of 2022, Martinez was there to cover it.

During the trial, an expert testified that Juarez had cocaine and a high level of alcohol in his system. The doctor who saw Narziso a few hours after the homicide said she had abrasions on her mouth and bruises on her neck and forearm.

Tehuaxtle testified that from her balcony, from which she could see the couple's bedroom window, she had seen Juarez put Narziso in a chokehold. As she ran to their apartment in her slippers, she heard her daughter cry, "Let me leave!" and then the pop of gunshots. She feared her daughter had been killed.

In court, others backed up Narzisos contention that Juarez had been abusing her for months.

A criminologist for the defense testified about his interviews with Narziso's friends and colleagues, including one who said she'd seen bruises Narziso had blamed on Juarez. A colleague on the force testified that Narziso told him Juarez would point his gun at her in their apartment and that there were times when she was so bruised she couldnt go to work. Narziso's mother also testified about seeing marks on her daughter.

'We always tell the story of a woman who has been killed. This was the first time that I was telling a story of someone who survived.'

Gabriela Martinez, a reporter for the newspaper El Universal

A therapist whom Narziso saw three times in late 2019 said Narziso told her Juarez threatened her life, forced her to have sex, and told her, Without me youre nothing.

Narziso also testified. She had not planned to kill her boyfriend, she told Judge Daniel Aguilar Patino.

"I acted because there would have been no way for me to get out that day alive," she said. "He was drugged, he was drunk, he had the weapon, and I know if I hadn't reacted and taken it from him he would have killed me."

But the judge said that there was no risk of Narziso being harmed and that she could have fired a warning shot or wounded Juarez instead of killing him. He ruled there was "not one objective fact" that showed she had lived under constant violence. He found her guilty.

In October 2022, he sentenced her to 45 years in prison.

In Mexico, a country known for its high rate of femicide  the killing of a woman because of her gender  a majority of females 15 or older have said they've been the victims of violence. Last year, 339,000 calls to 911 involved violence against women.

But authorities often brush aside women who report domestic abuse, activists say.

"We're failing to recognize something: that violence against women in Mexico should be considered a national emergency," said Patricia Olamendi, a former congresswoman in Mexico who is a legal expert on women's rights. "We're a country with strong machismo, prejudice and stereotypes about women  and that plays a role."

Read more: Growing more radical, Mexican feminists seize control of a federal building

Activists and attorneys defending women who've killed men in self-defense often point out that Mexico has long been a signatory to international treaties that require countries to protect women from discrimination and violence. Those treaties, legal experts say, underscore the obligation Mexican judges have, in cases where women kill in self-defense, to give consideration to what's known in Mexico as "gender perspective."

The walls outside a courthouse are filled with messages against femicide and in support of Roxana Ruiz, who was sentenced to prison for killing a man who had raped her. (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

In other words, authorities should look beyond the specific moment of a killing and evaluate whether the woman who killed previously experienced violence that led her to believe her life was in danger. It also means taking into account physical differences.

"What happens if whenever your husband comes home drunk he hits you, so you live with this constant fear. Maybe that day he didnt hit you or didnt carry a gun, but faced with the fear that he was going to rape or hit you, you kill him," said Daniela Ancira, the director of La Cana, an organization that provides legal services and job training to women in prison. "You need to take into account that many women experience years and years of violence."

'He was drugged, he was drunk, he had the weapon, and I know if I hadn't reacted and taken it from him he would have killed me.'

Alina Narziso

But activists have long accused authorities in Mexico of failing to do that. Moreover, Mexico's standard for self-defense requires a real and "imminent aggression."

Women who kill in self-defense are typically detained soon after, and prosecutors have only a short window to decide whether to seek pretrial detention, said Jose Antonio Caballero, a legal studies investigator at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In homicides, he said, prosecutors may lean on the side of charging wrongly rather than freeing someone irresponsibly.

Some legislation has aimed to bolster the rights of women who defend themselves against violence. One measure, introduced in 2018 in Mexico's bicameral legislature, passed last year in one chamber and is now sitting in the other.

When women are exonerated, it's often after pressure by feminist groups and media coverage, Ancira said.

After a court sentenced 23-year-old Roxana Ruiz to six years in prison for killing a man as he raped her, protests got the attention of Mexicos president, who offered a pardon. Days after the May sentencing, prosecutors in the state of Mexico withdrew the charges against Ruiz, who has spoken publicly about her ordeal.

Outside court, Roxana Ruiz, right, hugs Araceli Osorio Martinez, whose daughter was murdered in a case classified as a femicide. (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

Narzisos mother fought to harness that kind of outrage over her daughter's case. She organized small marches with feminist groups, standing outside the Tijuana criminal courthouse with signs that declared #FreeAlina" and It was in self-defense!"







I understood I had to make the case visible," she said, "that it become viral.

It did. About 57,000 people signed an online petition demanding Narziso's release. Shortly after Narziso was convicted, Baja California's governor said at a news conference that she supported the family.

Read more: Half-empty offices, schools and businesses: Mexico goes a day without women

State congresswoman Liliana Michel Sanchez Allende, who spoke by phone with Narziso when she was in prison, said she realized Narziso had been cast as a criminal from the beginning by authorities who unfairly presumed she could have used less force.

"When you're defending your life, protecting yourself and responding to aggression, you're in a state of fear, a state of confusion, and it's hard to respond proportionally to the violence that's being inflicted on you," Sanchez said.

The Baja congresswoman proposed a bill  similar to legislation passed in the spring in the state of Tlaxcala  that requires prosecutors to use a gender perspective when a woman is defending herself against violence.

The measure has been named "the Alina Law.

In May, after Narziso had been in prison for more than three years, she returned to court in an orange prison jumpsuit to hear appellate judges rule on her case.

In a Mexicali courtroom, a three-judge panel found that Narziso had been abused by Juarez. And they excoriated the judge who sentenced her, saying he simply discarded testimony about the abuse.

The judges said that Narziso had behaved rationally by using Juarez's gun, and that because he had continued to behave aggressively after she first shot him  demanding she kill herself  her last shots were necessary.

It was unreasonable, the judges said in a unanimous ruling, to expect she had sufficient presence of mind to compare and measure the magnitude of the attack [and] to then measure the defense needed to protect her life.

She was absolved. In the courtroom, Narziso, still wearing ankle cuffs, turned to her mother.

Alina Narziso is greeted with hugs after being exonerated when an appellate court determined she had acted in self-defense. (Karen Castaneda / For The Times)

Im free, mom! she said.

Rodrigo Juarez's family members feel that justice has slipped away.

His mother, Teresa Arellanes, said in an interview that the case had been politicized to serve a feminist agenda.

If I raise my voice, everyone will attack me, she said. Men today dont have a voice or a vote, unfortunately. If I say that someone hit me, theyre going to believe me for the simple fact that Im a woman.

Arellanes denied that her son was violent. She said that a few days before he died, Juarez had said he wanted to soon move back home, telling her that Narziso was a very jealous girlfriend.

If he had been aggressive or if it was a couples fight, she could have shot him in the leg and gotten out, Arellanes said. She had the opportunity and didnt give it to my son.

Today, Narziso, her mother and her 20-year-old half brother live together in Tijuana. Narziso has decided to not return to the police and is considering getting a degree in psychology.

Some question whether Narziso's case will truly change how officials view similar situations. The appellate court ordered a disciplinary process opened against the trial judge and required him to receive legal training on women's rights.

But Baja California's chief prosecutor has told reporters that although he respected the appellate court's decision, he still backed the 60-year sentence that prosecutors had sought against Narziso.

"We defend the work the prosecutor's office presented at the time," he said.

In 2020, almost a year after Juarez's death, Arellanes attended the ribbon-cutting inauguration of a small Tijuana park called the Plaza of the Police.

A wall in a Tijuana park holds plaques honoring two officers, including Rodrigo Juarez. Local feminist groups in July vandalized the park and removed the plaques. (Leila Miller / Los Angeles Times)

Near an exercise bicycle and strength training equipment, a concrete wall held plaques honoring an officer who died of a medical condition and Juarez. One plaque, which featured Juarezs picture, praised him as someone "who with dedication and effort ensured the safety" of the residents in the neighborhood.

Last month, local feminist collectives ripped both plaques off the wall and scrawled "Plaza of terrorists" in purple spray paint, along with the message that women being abused shouldn't have to choose between prison or death.

Narziso said she supported the message. "There shouldn't only be those two options for people who experience violence."

Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez in The Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Presumptive Green Party nominee Dr. Cornel West dismissedbut did not disputeThe Daily Beasts discovery of more than $500,000 in outstanding federal tax liens lodged against him in two states, even as he appeared to push back on an open $49,500 child support judgment found in New Jersey.

Speaking on The Breakfast Club radio show Monday morning, the Ivy League academic and best-selling author asserted that he was broke as the 10 Commandments financially even before sympathetic host Charlamagne Tha God mentioned the report from last week.

The Daily Beast drew upon county clerk records in New Jersey and California to reveal that the IRS had repeatedly flagged West over back taxes, including for $85,477.02 from 2017, $136,916.26 from 2016, $82,396.14 from 2015, $98,818.25 from 2014, $62,367.69 from 2013, and $77,803.42 from 2005all of which remain unresolved, according to the public records.

Any time you shine a flashlight under somebodys clothes, youre gonna find all kind of mess, because thats what it is to be human, West asserted.

Cornel West Owes More Than Half a Million in Unpaid Taxes

Charlamagne the God sounded empathetic, telling West he loved the disruption youre causing, and questioning why the report had only come out after West began seeking the White Houseeven though West as president would be responsible for allocating billions of dollars in taxpayer money, and appointing the leadership of the Department of the Treasury. But the Harvard- and Princeton-educated scholar agreed with the host heartily.

Absolutely, absolutely, and the thing is, I mean, I told you before, I got so much gangsta in me, I was a gangsta before I met Jesus. I aint nothing but a reformed sinner with gangsta proclivities, West said. Partly its because I do like to give to loved ones and others too. But I take responsibility for it too. But it dont make no difference to me.

West, born into a solidly middle-class family in Sacramento, further asserted that the story was an attempt to draw attention from the broader problems of poverty and injustice.

They want to use it as a distraction. Why dont you keep the focus on the suffering that Im highlighting? he said. This is just a matter of trying to hit you below the belt and keep the distraction.

While West didnt appear to dispute that he owes the IRS money, he did take issue with The Daily Beasts report that, according to New Jersey state court records, a 2003 child support judgment valued at $49,500 remains open.

What upsets is when theyre lying about my kidssee, thats what I cant stand. Lie about my kidssee, I take care of my kids. I give them everything I got, West said.

The Daily Beast reached out repeatedly to West, his campaign manager Jill Stein, and to his campaign press inbox before publishing the story. In response to questions before publication, West said, My brother I have asked my accountant to respond to these charges some of which are not true, but The Daily Beast received no correspondence from the accountant, and neither the professor nor his staff answered subsequent requests for documentation that would contradict the public record.

In the wide-ranging discussion on The Breakfast Club on Monday, West also defended another political leader who ran into trouble with the feds in Los Angeles: disgraced City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. Ridley-Thomas was convicted earlier this year of steering public dollars to the University of Southern California in exchange for a full scholarship and a professorship for his son.

My dear brother Mark Ridley-Thomas in L.A., the most powerful Black politician, who has been convicted for nothingfor nothingunder Bidens Justice Department, West said.

Above all, West insisted he is running for president for leverage to uplift Black Americans and their concerns, favorably citing his friend and co-author Tavis Smiley, an alleged sex pest.

"When I have leverage I don't look at the Black community the way my brother Tavis Smiley says so many other politicians doas some political calculation, he said. No, not at all. These are the people who love me into my sanity, into my dignity.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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While the pandemic exacted a devastating toll in America's two largest metropolitan areas, New York City ended up seeing far more COVID-19 deaths per capita than Los Angeles County, a review of data shows.

Health officials and scientists will spend years studying COVID's spread to divine what fueled the worst global disease outbreak in a century, as well as determine what policies  if any  may have reduced the worst health outcomes.

But as the experiences of New York City and Los Angeles County show, the path of the pandemic was not etched in stone. Numerous factors, and even a bit of luck, ultimately shaped the scale of the COVID crisis.

Read more: With new coronavirus wave, L.A. faring much better than New York. Can it last?

New York City's cumulative per capita COVID-19 death rate was about 50% higher than L.A. County's, data from Johns Hopkins University through early March show.

In raw numbers, New York City  with a population of more than 8.3 million  reported about 45,000 COVID deaths. L.A. County's death toll was notably lower, about 36,000, even though the region is home to roughly 1.7 million more people.

Put another way: For every 1 million New York City residents, about 5,400 of them died from COVID-19. The comparable figure in L.A. County is about 3,540.

Even when adjusting for the different distribution of ages among the two metros, a similar pattern emerges. A Los Angeles Times analysis of deaths by age group, as reported by local health departments, shows New York City recorded a COVID death rate 40% higher than Los Angeles County's, with an age-adjusted rate of 4,671 deaths per 1 million residents compared with 3,338.

One factor may be as simple as timing. America's two largest metros were hardest hit by coronavirus at different points in 2020, with L.A. having longer to prepare.

But other more fundamental characteristics may have left New York City more vulnerable. The Big Apple has a slightly higher proportion of seniors  16.3% of city residents are age 65 and over, compared with 14.6% in L.A. County  and has colder weather, which keeps people indoors, where transmission risk is higher.

Some experts are cautious about drawing too many conclusions, however.

Differences in death rates, they say, may have more to do with socioeconomic characteristics  such as access to medical care, how many residents live in poverty or overcrowded housing and what percentage of employees can work from home  than pandemic-related health interventions.

"It is is extremely difficult to draw comparisons by one variable  [such as] mask mandate vs. no mask mandate  between different jurisdictions without also controlling for those other factors that are predictive of disease," said Dr. Jay Varma, director of the Cornell Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response.

Read more: The coronavirus has infected New York City's rats. Why that's bad news for people

Some public health leaders, however, haven't been shy about touting their COVID-19 record and how they measure up to other areas.

San Francisco has been outspoken about its pandemic policies and relatively low death rate  which, according to a Times analysis, is 38% of L.A. County's and 25% of New York City's. When adjusted for age, San Francisco's COVID-19 death rate is one-third of L.A. County's and about one-quarter of New York City's.

A number of reasons likely explain the differences between L.A. County and New York City, including the timing of initial stay-at-home orders; vaccination rates, particularly among elderly residents; and the duration of mask mandates. Underlying vulnerabilities in each region also may have played a role.

The initial wave that washed over New York arrived in early 2020, when little was known about COVID and safety supplies were in short supply. Distressing stories from those initial disastrous weeks shocked the nation and were, for many, a wake-up call to the virus' brutality.

About 22,800 deaths were reported citywide through mid-June of that year. That's a rate of about 2,700 for every 1 million residents in just a few months.

L.A. County's death rate during the same time period was one-tenth that, an early degree of success some dubbed the "California miracle."

That optimism proved premature, however. Los Angeles County reached its most harrowing heights of the pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021, as lockdown-weary residents traveled and gathered for the fall-and-winter holiday season  spawning the region's own "New York moment."

Over a six-month period starting in mid-December 2020, L.A. County recorded nearly 1,600 deaths per 1 million residents, about 50% higher than New York City's rate during the same time period. Los Angeles County was hit particularly hard as the virus stormed through crowded workplaces and poorly ventilated spaces, such as factories and warehouses.

But while that surge was terrible, overwhelming morgues and pushing hospitals to the brink of rationing care, L.A. County health officials may still have benefited from having more time to prepare than New York.

Carolyn Tan, left, helps her COVID-19-positive patient Socorro Carrillo, 58, at White Memorial Hospital on Aug. 13, 2021, in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

By the next autumn, the roles reversed yet again. As the highly contagious Omicron variant emerged in late 2021, New York City's cumulative death toll began climbing faster than L.A. County's  and it has remained consistently higher through the entirety of the COVID era.

Read more: Who are the L.A. County residents still most likely to die of COVID-19?

Vaccination coverage among seniors

Not all experts agree on what could be behind the widely different death rates. But a lagging booster vaccination rate among New York City's seniors could be one explanation.

Seniors are among the most vulnerable to fall seriously ill and die from COVID-19.

As of Feb. 1, 2022  the midpoint of the Omicron variant's first winter  the primary vaccination rate for seniors in L.A. County and New York City was close: 84.5% and 83.8%, respectively, according to a Times analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But L.A. County got its seniors boosted faster. By that same date, 60.8% of L.A. County seniors had received their first booster shot, compared with 47.5% in New York, the analysis showed.

It's not clear why booster rates lagged in New York City. Health departments in both jurisdictions say they worked intently to make shots available to seniors.

Even now, there remains a disparity.

As of early May, 45.8% of L.A. County's seniors had gotten an updated bivalent booster, compared with 32% in New York City, according to the Times analysis of CDC data, the most recent available. Those reformulated shots became available 11 months ago.

Data clearly show that being up-to-date on COVID shots reduces the risk of death. Still, there could be other factors at work.

"We really should look at the proportion of population that's living in poverty, the proportion of the population that considers themselves underrepresented minorities or people of color; we should look at that situation of density and overcrowding," L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

"There may be places where we look at New York City, and we would say New York City did a better job than us."

Read more: Column: U.S. government debunks COVID lab-leak conspiracy theory, enraging conspiracy theorists

Masking

Following the arrival of the problematic Delta variant in summer 2021, L.A. County was the nation's first major metro area to renew a universal mask order in indoor public settings  doing so that July.

New York state officials did not re-implement a mask order until six months later, when the initial Omicron wave was well underway.

Wearing masks or face coverings and practicing social distancing, people wander the Glendale Galleria on May 28, 2020, in Glendale. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

The efficacy of such mandates, particularly without significant government enforcement, has long been a topic of debate. And in any case, people certainly could have gone maskless in private settings.

But health officials in L.A. County have maintained that heavy-handed enforcement such as fining individual scofflaws wasn't necessary so long as many adhered to the directive.

Read more: Are masks still effective even when many aren't wearing them? What experts say

By late 2021, it appeared two masking cultures had emerged. Anecdotally, people who visited both metro areas said the practice appeared far more common in L.A. County than New York City.

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist, has said that she suspects L.A. County's earlier mask order influenced people's behaviors.

Read more: L.A. County relaxes universal mask recommendation as COVID eases

"When things are not required, there's a lot of people who do not follow" recommendations, said Dr. Bruce Y. Lee, professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. "If you don't require something, a lot of people are just not going to want to do it."

While New York and L.A. County had different mask policies in the lead-up to the Omicron era, it's hard to quantify how that may have ultimately affected COVID deaths.

One analysis comparing state-level pandemic policies, published in the journal the Lancet, suggested state governments' use of protective mandates was associated with a reduction in their cumulative coronavirus infection rates.

But for death rates, that analysis suggested that it was vaccine coverage that was statistically associated with lower mortality. Other factors that were associated with worse COVID-19 mortality included poverty, lower educational attainment, higher rates of chronic health conditions, limited access to quality healthcare services and lower rates of "interpersonal trust"  trust that people have in one another.

Read more: COVID is still out there. Here's what to do if you get it now

Shutdowns

California's stay-at-home order  the first of its kind in the nation  went into effect March 19, 2020. A similar order, "New York State on Pause," took effect three days later.

California's order helped interrupt the virus' early spread, experts said at the time.

Local health officials in California were also empowered to use their wide-ranging powers at the county level. Gov. Gavin Newsom routinely allowed local leaders to take stricter measures.

But in New York, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo feuded publicly with former Mayor Bill de Blasio over who should make the final call on a stay-at-home order.

Read more: Here's how the pandemic changed Californians' lives (in your own words)

A bit of luck

It's possible hard luck played a role in the death disparities too.

While there were assumptions that California  an international travel hub for the Pacific Rim  would be hit earlier than other parts of the country given the coronavirus' China connections, a different dynamic instead emerged. COVID surges in the U.S. seemed to be influenced more by trends in Europe.

California's first coronavirus cases  in L.A. and Orange counties  were reported in late January. New York's wasn't reported until early March, in a healthcare worker returning from overseas.

L.A. County's first known coronavirus patient was a then-38-year-old tourist from Wuhan, China, who was passing through Los Angeles International Airport on his way home from a family vacation in Cancun.

Read more: The surprising story of the salesman who became L.A.s first known COVID-19 patient

As The Times reported in 2020, the man  the son of a physician long familiar with safety protocols  wore a mask on his international flights, one of the few aboard to do so.

L.A. County officials have said they don't think the man spread his coronavirus to anyone else, even his wife and preschool-age son, who were traveling with him. It wasn't until March 2020 that L.A. County reported additional coronavirus cases.

By contrast, the virus was likely spreading widely in New York City by late February. The second confirmed case, a resident of suburban New Rochelle who worked in nearby Manhattan, fell ill in late February, and the area became an early hot spot for COVID-19. The man attended large events before he got sick, according to media reports.

The virus' rapid spread before the first shutdown orders were imposed could partly explain why New York City's worst spike came in the early weeks of the pandemic.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
If history is an indicator, Gov. Tate Reeves re-election campaign might have gotten a major boost this past week: new federal criminal charges filed against former President Donald Trump.

Those charges could fire up the legion of Mississippi Trump voters to go to the polls to support the Republican Reeves later this year, just as the congressional impeachment of Trump got them to flock to the polls four years ago.

It looks as though Reeves already is trying to take advantage of the Trump indictment to get voters to the polls this November for his re-election effort against Democrat Brandon Presley.

The Biden administrations attempts to interfere in the election by weaponizing law enforcement are corrupt and wrong, Reeves wrote this week on social media. They have proven they will do anything to get Donald Trump, and trample ethics, the rule of law, and our national unity to do it.

There was a belief by many, including those on the 2019 gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Jim Hood, that the decision by U.S. House Democrats to launch an official impeachment inquiry of then-President Trump played a key role in tilting Mississippis governors election to Reeves.

In 2019, Reeves was endorsed by Trump. And perhaps more importantly, Trump held a massive rally for Reeves on the Friday night before the November 2019 general election in Tupelo  the center of the key battleground area of northeast Mississippi. The day before that rally, House Democrats began the official impeachment inquiry.

Reeves might have won regardless of Trump. After all, he was the favorite to win in Republican friendly Mississippi. But on that Friday night rally in Tupelo, the focus was not on electing Tate Reeves because of his political skills or policies. Instead, it was on Trump and encouraging Republican voters to send a message to House Democrats.

We cant re-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, but we can do the next best thing: elect Tate Reeves governor, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker told the raucous crowd that night.

If an impeachment inquiry spurred Mississippians to go to the polls to vote for the Republican gubernatorial nominee, imagine what two sets of federal indictments  plus state charges in New York and the likelihood of facing more state charges in Georgia  could do.

Trump, of course, was indicted earlier on charges related to the mishandling and concealing of classified documents after he left office. And perhaps the charges leveled last week will have the most impact on many Mississippi voters. Those charges relate to his effort to use his position as president and the power of the U.S. Department of Justice and other groups to overthrow the 2020 election, when he was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden.

Criminal charges against Trump related to the 2020 election and attempts to overthrow it, no doubt, will fire up many voters who remain convinced that the election was stolen despite no evidence to support that theory.

In 2019, during the campaign rally in Tupelo, Trump urged Mississippians to send a signal (about his impeachment) by sending a terrific new Republican governor to Jackson.

Days before the 2019 election, a Mason-Dixon poll said Reeves had a narrow 46%-43% advantage.

In this close race, President Donald Trump could be the deciding factor, the Mason-Dixon pollsters wrote. Trump remains popular in Mississippi and efforts by congressional Democrats to impeach him are opposed by a significant majority of state voters.

The poll said the impeachment inquiry was opposed by a 56% to 34% margin in Mississippi.

Hood campaign staffers said privately after the election that their internal polling showed the Democrat holding a slight lead throughout 2019. Hoods internal polling also showed that he was viewed more favorably than Reeves. But a key is that the internal poll consistently showed that Trump was more favorable than the Mississippi politicians, including outgoing Gov. Phil Bryant.

As the impeachment inquiry intensified during the final days of the Mississippi gubernatorial campaign, Hood staffers said they could feel the election slipping away.

On that Friday night in Tupelos BancorpSouth Coliseum, the momentum for Reeves and the anger over the impeachment inquiry seemed palpable. And on Election Day, Reeves convincingly won the Tupelo area that was viewed as a Hood stronghold, helping to propel Reeves to a 5-point victory statewide.

This year, Democrat Brandon Presley, already facing difficult odds against an incumbent governor with a sizable fundraising advantage, has to hope Mississippi voters are not as angry this year about Donald Trumps legal woes.

For whatever it is worth, Trump also campaigned for the Republican candidates for governor in the other two states with gubernatorial elections in 2019, Kentucky and Louisiana.

In both those states, the Democrat won.

That is the history that may give Presley a glimmer of hope, but the Trump factor could loom large in Mississippi.

This analysis was produced by Mississippi Today, a nonprofit news organization that covers state government, public policy, politics and culture. Bobby Harrison is Mississippi Todays senior Capitol reporter.
A local mother is breathing a sigh of relief that her daughter is safe after her Kia burst into flames in the parking lot of their south Charlotte apartment complex.

This incident comes just days after more than 90,000 Kia and Hyundai cars and SUVs were recalled due to fire risks.

Sabrina Morrison then sent pictures of the scorched car to Channel 9. The heat was so intense that the tires melted and glued the 2013 Optima to the parking lot.

Our neighbors came through every apartment banging on the door, saying someones car is on fire, Morrison told Channel 9s Glenn Counts.

Last week, the car manufacturer issued the recalls because of a defect in a transmission oil pump for certain 2022 and 2023 models, consumer reports say. This recall impacted multiple popular models like the Hyundai Palisade, Tucson, Sonata, Elantra, Kona, Kia Soul, Sportage, and Seltos.

Due to the fire risk, the automaker is pushing for owners to park outside and away from buildings until the problem is fixed. Morrison and her daughter are following that advice and encouraging anyone looking to buy a car to do their research.

ALSO READ: Kia, Hyundai reimbursing drivers of certain models that caught fire

I strongly suggest that wherever you get your car from, whether it be a dealership or a local private business, do your homework, Morrison said.

The 2013 Kia Optima is not covered by the new recall, but there are several other recalls dating back to 2018 concerning fuel line issues. Morrison bought the car last year and told Counts shes not sure if the proper recall work was done.

Its the drivers side; my daughter got out of this car minutes before it caught fire, she said.

Morrison said she believes destiny protected her daughter because the car gave no warning signs of fire, not even smoke.

It could have been worse, thank goodness, Morrison explained, but it wasnt in that she came back home in time and something just ordered her steps to be home instead of going to find something else to eat, and I could have gotten a worse phone call.

To figure out if there is a recall on your car, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations website. You can also enter your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to see if recall work was completed on your vehicle.

(WATCH BELOW: More Hyundai and Kia cars recalled due to fire risk)
Johannesburg  A regional bloc of 15 nations in West Africa that had given the military coup leaders Niger one of its own member states  until Sunday to reinstate the country's democratically elected president said Monday that it would convene on Thursday to discuss the political situation. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had threatened military intervention if the junta that seized control last month did not relinquish power and reinstate ousted leader Mohammed Bazoum by August 6.

On Sunday, however, it was the coup leaders who took action, closing Niger's airspace after rejecting the ECOWAS ultimatum. The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, as noting "the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country" as the junta shut down the skies over Niger.

Mohamed Toumba, center, one of the leading figures of the post-coup government in Niger, which calls itself the National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland, attends a pro-coup rally at a stadium in Niamey, the capital city of Niger, August 6, 2023. / Credit: Balima Boureima/Anadolu Agency/Getty

A source close to the ousted president told CBS News that Bazoum remained under house arrest, effectively held hostage along with his wife and son, without electricity, running water or cell-phone communication.

"The house is surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, including some on the roof," the source said, adding that they were still confident Bazoum would resume his presidency soon.

U.S. orders evacuation of non-essential embassy staff from Niger

Military intervention has always been touted as a last resort by ECOWAS and some observers believe the bloc's hardline stance, with the August 6 ultimatum, was prompted by pressure from Western allies such as the U.S. and France.

But it also reflects a fresh approach by the new chairman of ECOWAS, Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu, who is determined to protect member states and ensure their militaries don't get any coup ideas of their own.

The putsch in Niger was the seventh coup in just three years in a region that's become known as Africa's "coup belt."

Amid the threat of regional war, West African countries have been racing to pick a side. Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have said they would send troops, although the Nigerian Senate has yet to approve Tinubu's deployment request, insisting that the president explore options other than the use of force.

In contrast, Burkina Faso and Mali  both ECOWAS members, but both ruled by military-backed governments ushered in by their own recent coups  have said any intervention in Niger would be considered a declaration of war against them, too.

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also warned against a military solution to the crisis.

Niger's military rulers claim they seized power because of a deteriorating security and economic situation in the country, but there have also been suggestions the coup was staged after reports started circulating that the junta's leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, was about to be sacked as head of the elite presidential guard  a position he's held since 2011.

Tchiani served as a battalion commander for ECOWAS forces during conflicts in Ivory Coast in 2003, and he knows exactly what an intervention mission by the bloc involves.

Members of Niger's junta have met with counterparts in Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries that are clients of the Russia's mercenary group Wagner, which has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in African countries where its private army is deployed.

Shortly after the July 26 coup in Niger, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered his support for the rebellious generals. After his brief, failed mutiny in Russia, Prigozhin may be looking to refocus his company's efforts in Africa, and he could see uranium-rich Niger as a business opportunity.

Some analysts have warned that if ECOWAS does go ahead with a military intervention, it could increase the risk of Wagner forces joining the fray, as the junta would launch into a desperate search for military support.

Tens of thousands of supporters came to a rally organized by the coup leaders at a stadium in Niger's capital city of Niamey on Sunday, cheering the generals' decision not to stand down in the face of ECOWAS' ultimatum. Some members of the crowd could be seen waving Russian flags.

Niger is effectively the lynchpin of the United States' counterterrorism strategy in the wide region of northern Africa known as the Sahel. The country's recently deposed, civilian-led government was a key partner in Washington's fight against Islamic extremist insurgencies that have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more across the region.

U.S. military personnel have been training local forces to fight extremist groups, with Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali all battling to repel insurgents.

There are about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases, and in 2017, Niger approved the use of armed American drones in the country to target militants.

To date, Washington has stressed that it has no intention of pulling its troops out of Niger, but that it is monitoring the situation closely.

With the threat of regional war looming, economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS against Niger are already hitting hard in a country that's deeply impoverished and has been ravaged by food insecurity and the deadly effects of climate change.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday rejected Donald Trump's claim that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election in his most forceful comments to date on the matter.

"Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner," DeSantis told NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns in his first broadcast network interview since he launched his presidential campaign.

DeSantis continued to discuss all the ways he believed the previous presidential election was not perfect. But pressed further, he clearly stated that Trump lost.

"But respectfully, you did not clearly answer that question," Burns said. "And if you cant give a 'yes' or 'no' on whether or not he lost "

"No, of course he lost," DeSantis said, adding, "Joe Bidens the president."

Tune in for the interview Monday on "TODAY" and "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt." Additional segments will air throughout the day on MSNBC and NBC News NOW. The full interview will also be available on NBCNews.com.

"Ron DeSantis should really stop being Joe Bidens biggest cheerleader," Trump spokesman Steve Cheung told NBC News.

DeSantis' comments come just days after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And at a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday, DeSantis also strongly dismissed theories that the election was stolen, saying they "did not prove to be true."

Still, DeSantis made sure to point out in Sunday's interview that he saw a number of problems with the 2020 election, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbergs grants for election administration, the widespread availability of mail-in ballots, state laws that allow third parties to collect and return voters' ballots, and how social media outlets de-emphasized a story about the laptop of President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden.

"I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. ... I dont think it was a good-run election," DeSantis said. "But I also think Republicans didnt fight back. Youve got to fight back when that is happening."

Image: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before an interview with NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday. (Maddie McGarvey for NBC News)

But DeSantis also took aim at Trump, saying he set the stage for his own loss by signing the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill in response to the Covid-19 crisis. About $400 million of that money went to help states with election administration  and many states made voting by mail more widely available during the pandemic.

"But heres the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because of Trump turned the government over to Fauci," DeSantis said, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leader of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."

Florida has long allowed anyone who wants to vote by mail to do so, including in the 2020 election.

Trump has been a vocal opponent of mail-in voting. For the 2024 election, the Republican National Committee has been attempting a "change of culture" to get GOP voters to embrace early voting, including voting by mail, after years of Trump's demonizing the practice.

Moving on from Trump

DeSantis refused to lean into attacking Trump over his legal troubles, insisting that "its not really about Donald Trump" and emphasizing his opposition to a justice system that "is not fair if it is weaponized."

He also said focusing too much on Trump and his indictments is a problematic pathway for the GOP.

"If the election is a referendum on Joe Bidens policies and the failures that weve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around," DeSantis said.

"If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose."

Image: DeSantis meets with voters at a campaign stop at Spanky's South Tama Livestock Auction in Iowa on Saturday. (Maddie McGarvey for NBC News)

Florida standards on Black history

DeSantis also discussed the new Florida standards around teaching Black history to middle schoolers  particularly a widely criticized provision that children be instructed that enslaved people developed "skills" that could be used for their "personal benefit."

DeSantis has tried to distance himself a bit from the standards, having said last month: "I didn't do it. I wasn't involved."

But he has also defended the standards, saying they were "probably going to show some of the folks," referring to enslaved people, "that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life."

Asked about the topic Sunday, DeSantis said: "So that means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery. It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended."

"Weve been involved in education, not indoctrination," he added. "Those standards were not political at all. The Legislature didnt dictate any of that. Governors office didnt dictate anything of that."

DeSantis has faced significant criticism over the standards, including from four of the five Black Republicans in Congress. All four who have spoken out have endorsed Trump except Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is running for president himself.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, said last month: "What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating. So I would hope that every person in our country  and certainly running for president  would appreciate that."

Confronted with Scotts quote in the interview Sunday, DeSantis replied: "Don't take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Don't indulge those lies."

DeSantis continued to note that a group of Black scholars developed the standards. But as NBC News has reported, a majority of the members of the work group did not support the most controversial elements that were eventually released.

Image: Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a campaign event in Vinton, Iowa, on Aug. 5, 2023. (Maddie McGarvey for NBC News)

'Lethal force' against migrants

One of the issues on which DeSantis has been running to the right of Trump is immigration. In late June, he said he supported using "deadly force" against migrants coming into the U.S. who were suspected of smuggling drugs.

Youre already on U.S. soil once ... you get through the wall, he told NBC News at the time. You have hostile intent, because youre obviously running drugs. You absolutely can use deadly force."

DeSantis doubled down on his proposal Sunday, saying that "cartels are basically foreign terrorist organizations" and that "lethal force" is justified.

Burns pressed DeSantis about how he would be able to "tell good guys from bad guys, especially when folks are crossing the border under cover of night."

"Same way a police officer would know," DeSantis replied. "Same way somebody operating in Iraq would know. You know, these people in Iraq at the time, they all looked the same. You didnt know who had a bomb strapped to them. So those guys have to make judgments."

DeSantis served in Iraq and is the only veteran running in the 2024 race.

No penalties against women for getting an abortion

In April, DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban into law. Burns asked the governor "to what extent do you believe that women should be punished for violating an abortion ban?"

"Not at all," he replied. "No, I dont think this is an issue about the woman. I think a lot of these women, you know, are in very difficult circumstances. They dont get any support from a lot of the fathers. And a lot of them, the number one reason why women choose to have an abortion is because theyre not getting support and they feel abandoned. Now, in Florida weve provided support and weve put our money where our mouth is, but at the end of the day, you know, I would not support any penalties on a woman."

When asked if he would "veto any sort of federal bill that tries to put a nationwide ban in place," DeSantis replied, "We will be a pro-life president and we will support pro-life policies."

DeSantis also said he didn't support limits on contraception.

"No, no, no, no," he replied. "Contraception in Florida  we actually, our Department of Health, we provide about 100,000 people a year with access to contraception at no cost to them. And I think it should be available over-the-counter, and I think people should be able to have access to it."

Image: The DeSantis campaign bus leaves Grinnell, Iowa, on Saturday. (Maddie McGarvey for NBC News)

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The StayNJ property tax rebate, the loudly heralded deliverance for homeowning New Jersey seniors, doesn't exist yet and isn't scheduled to launch for another 2 years.

Nonetheless, the program is featured in a new glossy brochure. It commands an equally glossy StayNJ website. And the program has a powerful pitchman who is making the rounds hawking it to the curious and the slightly confused.

"It's going to stay as long as people stay in New Jersey," said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, in a StayNJ Town Hall last week at a senior center in Princeton.

Coughlin was answering questions from an online participant in the forum. The question came from a resident who was eager to know about the longevity of the promised rebate, which promises to cut senior property taxes up to 50% once and if  and that's a big "if"  it materializes by January 2026.

"It's a permanent plan," Coughlin said firmly, sparking a murmur of approval and surprise in the back row.

Conjuring the cure-alls of yore

Fort Lee, NJ July 21, 2023 -- Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin during the press conference. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill with the support of a delegation of politicians representing the Garden State, who came to Fort Lee to announce a lawsuit against the city of New York for imposing a congestion tax and its adverse impact on the citizens of NJ and its environmental impact.

Coughlin showed up with his entourage of aides and advisers, but he might as well have arrived alone in a horse-drawn wagon with a garish advertisement painted on its sides touting "C.J. Coughlin's Property Tax Tonic" in large, frontier-style lettering.

After all, the Woodbridge lawyer was selling an elixir to New Jersey's nagging heartache about its highest-in-the-nation property taxes. But Coughlin's attempt at a cure-all largely remains a concept sketched out in a public statute. Snake-oil salesmen of yore at least offered the eager and the gullible a liquid potion of some sort. Coughlin's StayNJ is still working out the recipe.

Of course, the Assembly speaker and his fellow Democrats who are hitting the trail this summer and fall can point to a law that was actually passed that formally outlined StayNJ. In Princeton, Coughlin was flanked by state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, D-Mercer, and Assemblyman Roy Freiman, D-Somerset, of the 16th Legislative District, one of the handful of possible tossup districts this fall.

And they can also use the town halls, like the one in Princeton, to promote a provision in the new law that boosted the size of last year's ANCHOR rebate to a maximum of $1,750 for seniors and $500 for renters. It was also an opportunity to explain how StayNJ will be made available to homeowners making as much as $500,000 and capped at a $6,500 reduction.

And like the traveling peddlers who came before him, Coughlin pulled at the heartstrings of his eager audience. The speaker explained to a mostly elderly audience that the StayNJ rebate could make the difference between moving to a low-cost state in the South and staying put in Jersey and closer to their grandkids.

"For those of us who are fortunate enough to have grandkids  and I have a 5-month-old little granddaughter and a 3-month-old little grandson  I know how important it is to be able to share their lives, and it's a joy every time we get to go over there and hold them, and that's all I really want to do," Coughlin said, sparking a few chuckles. "Everybody's not as lucky as I am. Some people have to make the decision about whether they're going to be able to stay here in New Jersey and pay private property taxes or move to someplace that is less expensive."

More Charlie Stile: NJ tax rebates are usually politically expendable. Can StayNJ be the exception? | Stile

'The numbers are just too big'

That sounds nice and homey. And the website featuring the back of a young, ecstatic grandchild with a hand raised skyward at the sight of her loving grandparents is enough to make you reach for the tissue box. Still, the truth is that there is little chance the benefit will ever see the light of day.

To begin with, it's unlikely that the Legislature will be able to muster the $1.3 billion price tag to cover the cost of the program.

Earlier this year, state treasury officials had to revise downward their revenue projections for the next fiscal year  a signal of leaner times to come. (Gov. Phil Murphy, the former Goldman Sachs honcho, was assured by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin during a recent lunch that things are looking brighter in the next couple of years. Thats comforting, I guess).

Pandemic aid that propped up New Jerseys recovery is now drying up, and a group of bipartisan economists and budget experts recently warned that New Jersey is likely to face an enormous shortfall in revenues between fiscal years 2025 and 2028, ranging from $12.5 billion to $18.5 billion, according to the Steve Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University.

Frankly, it doesnt make any difference to me whether its $1.2 [billion] or $1.6," said Richard F. Keevey, a state budget official during the administrations of former Gov. Thomas H. Kean and the late Gov. Jim Florio, during a virtual press event last month, referring to the range of estimates for the projected cost of StayNJ. The numbers are just too big to be handled without making substantial cuts in other programs or increasing taxes.

More Charlie Stile: Craig Coughlin has a StayNJ windfall to sell to seniors. Will it ever pay off?

The StayNJ law establishes a commission to study how to consolidate the relief programs and simplify the offerings under one application. The program will award homeowners the largest benefit  a combination of the Senior Freeze and the new ANCHOR rebate, or the StayNJ benefit of a 50% cut.

Creating the new program is a massive administrative and political nightmare forced under a strict timeline under the new law. And the law included language that puts StayNJ on the chopping block if the state can't fulfill its obligations on school funding and pension payments or sock away a surplus of 12%  a challenge that will be hard to meet if the revenues continue to drop.

Coughlin later scoffed at suggestions that he was overselling the program by assuring the audience that it is permanent program. He argued that most state programs are vulnerable to the vagaries of the economy, unless they are constitutionally guaranteed.

"There is no end date for the program," he said. "The program is designed to last in perpetuity."

Questions  and skepticism

Yet, among the crowd in Princeton, there were questions about how the rebate program will work. And there was skepticism. One older man, speaking softly, didn't understand why the 50% cut would be offered to homeowners with incomes up to $500,000. He said the maximum $6,500 benefit isn't going to mean much to people making that kind of money.

What about reducing the eligibility to homeowners making $250,000 and increasing the size of the rebate, to, say, $8,000  an amount that will make a material difference for more people?

Coughlin pushed back with his talking point. The idea is to signal to the upwardly mobile, those who could see themselves reaching into that bracket as they reach retirement age, that the state is taking steps to become more affordable. It's a "transformative" plan designed to reach an estimated 97% of senior homeowners with an inducement to stay.

"We're trying to capture as many people as we can,'' he said.

That's assuming that the check ever comes. Right now, Coughlin & Co. are obsessed with another number game: turnout in November. And with StayNJ, they seek to capture as many voters as they can. The "C.J. Coughlin Property Tax Tonic" wagon has many more miles to travel.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jerseys political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

Twitter: @politicalstile

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: StayNJ property-tax rebate: Craig Coughlin hits road to sell
Temptations Cabaret, a long crime-ridden strip club just across the Fort Worth city limits, has dropped its federal lawsuit against Tarrant County and its officials.

The strip club had filed suit July 14 against the county in Texas Northern District Court, claiming the county violated its patrons First Amendment rights by revoking its sexually oriented business permit.

Temptations operated as BYOB.

The strip club lost its permit to operate in June, with Tarrant Countys sexually oriented business permitting board arguing the club was within 1,000 feet of residences.

Lawyers for the club also claimed the new rules for sexually oriented businesses were targeted at Temptations.

A Wednesday court filing from Temptations voluntarily dismissed the case without prejudice.

Law enforcement said there were 134 calls for service to Temptations in 2022. Four people have been shot and killed there since 2018, and a man who shot and killed two people at the club in March 2018 was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office identified the 62-year-old man who died in the weekend shooting in Cuyahoga Falls as Richard Luft.

The victim of a fatal shooting over the weekend had been involved in a property dispute with neighbors and brandished a firearm before he was shot, police said Monday.

Audio of the dispute and shooting was captured on a 911 call made to police.

Richard Luft, Jr., a 62-year-old man from Cuyahoga Falls, was identified as the shooting victim who died in his backyard Saturday afternoon, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office.

Capt. Chris Norfolk with the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department said no arrests have been made as of early Monday afternoon.

"This incident started as a neighbor dispute over the property line," police said in release later. "Luft Jr. brandished a firearm at several known persons. The known persons reported that they feared for their safety, unholstered their guns, and shot Luft Jr."

The shooting occurred on the 2000 block of Germaine Street, a residential street east of state Route 8 that runs from East Portage Trail south toward Tallmadge Road. Police said they received a 911 call around 4 p.m. and found Luft in his backyard with multiple gunshot wounds.

911 call captures shooting

The sound of multiple gunshots can be heard in a 911 recording provided Monday by police following a Beacon Journal public records request.

In it, a man can be heard saying, "Get out of my property," before talking to the dispatcher.

"I need a cop. These people have guns. They're in my property," the man said.

The dispatcher asks the man for his address, and the man can be heard saying, "You better step back."

Then the sound of a single gunshot can be heard, followed almost immediately by nearly 20 rapid-fire shots.

A man can then be heard calling out, seemingly in pain and the recording ended.

Police did not say if Luft Jr. was the caller.

A second caller, who requested an ambulance, told the dispatcher that the neighbor fired a shotgun at him and his family.

"Our neighbor shot a **** shotgun at us," the caller said multiple times.

Police provided emergency medical treatment, but Luft Jr. died at the scene. All parties involved are known, police said in a statement released Saturday evening.

"All parties involved have been identified and there is no ongoing public safety concern," the press release said. "The Cuyahoga Falls Police detective bureau and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are on scene investigating the incident."

No information was provided Sunday or Monday on the number of times the man was shot as an autopsy was still being performed, said Gary Guenther, chief investigator at the medical examiner's office.

Fatal shooting: Police investigate shooting death of Cuyahoga Falls man on Germaine Street

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 911 call reveals neighbor dispute in fatal Cuyahoga Falls shooting
People gather at a memorial for OShae Sibley on Aug. 4, in New York City.

People gather at a memorial for OShae Sibley on Aug. 4, in New York City.

Intheworld of senseless crimes, I never thought Id see the day when someone would be murdered for dancing. But here we are, living in a world without OShae Sibley. As more details develop about how Sibley was killed and who his killer was, it becomes clear that Black, queer people are still enemy No. 1 even when we are minding our own business and simply existing in a bubble of joy and self-expression.

We are the boys who played with dolls that were taken from us and replaced with trucks and tools to project masculinity. It didnt work. Our innate beings fought against the notion that we needed to present a certain way to be worthy of love. As children, we chipped away at the internalized homophobia that forced us into shadows and closets and boxes. We now live in the light despite the worlds attempts to extinguish us. And we will stay in the light.

We are the boys who wore our mothers heels until what was once seen as cute became a threat to the notion of how boys are supposed to act and be. But that desire to live vibrantly never left us. We have become the ultimate arbiters of fashion and style.

We are the boys who spoke like lightning and rainbows, exchanging words of energy and freedom. Our language has been stolen, sold and commodified for commercial use while we are still vilified despite being the originators of it. It has never stopped us from continuing to live in our truth.

To be visibly queer is to choose your happiness over your safety, author DaShaun Harrison has aptly noted in their work. We are the boys whose spirit and well-being have been dismissed. And yet we refuse to be defined by outdated societal norms that stubbornly persist. We are living our unapologetic truths despite the hatred and harm inflicted upon us. Our Black queer heroes were stolen from us, stories erased or never told, and yet we get to be the heroes to future generations of Black queer children.

While I never met Sibley, our stories are intertwined. I wrote All Boys Arent Blue for boys like him. My narrative is one about a Black familys love, a queer child in a world full of oppression, danger and spaces that reject us at every turn. It was and is a love letter to Black folks in my life who loved, supported and protected my queerness, despite a society that finds you disposable. My story has affirmed people and changed minds. But its still not enough. Our visibility cannot save us. In many ways, it has only put an even larger target on our backs. But we cant give up.

James Baldwin told us that to be Black in America is to be living in a constant state of rage. To be Black and queer in America  well, thats rage, fear and hypervigilance. Yet we continue to dance and use our joy as resistance in a space that continues to tell us that our lives mean nothing. We are on the front lines of Black liberation, constantly on a quest to free ourselves from the constructs of the white hetero patriarchy.

As we as queer Black people collectively grieve, we must turn our grief into our power by persisting. We must continue to love on each other and love on ourselves. Moments of violence like these are meant to send us back into the silence and secrecy that our ancestors were confined to. But we have every right to be where we are.

We are OShae Sibley and we will carry him with us, as we carry every spirit stolen from us. We are the Civil Rights Movement, the Stonewall Riot and every other emblem of unapologetic Blackness and queerness. We will continue to grieve. But we must also continue to dance in the light, and well grow stronger together.
Records show the man who police say shot two police officers in downtown Orlando on Friday has an extensive criminal history, was on probation, and had several warrants out for his arrest.

When the officers approached Daton Viel, 28, downtown, they did so because the car he was in was connected to a homicide in South Florida.

But his history started long before then.

Court records show in December 2022, Viel took a 14-year-old girl to Trotters Park in Orlando and raped her. He was arrested in March 2023.

Read: Orlando police officers who were shot in the line of duty continue to recover at the hospital

The day he made his first appearance in court for charges in that case, March 28, the Department of Corrections filed a report saying Viel violated his probation with the rape arrest.

On March 30, the public defender argued the alleged rape happened before Viel was put on probation, so he couldnt be held for a probation violation.

Read: GoFundMe started for 2 police officers shot in downtown Orlando

That motion was granted so that violation of probation for trespassing would not have factored in when he bonded out on April 14.

The only thing the state could have done was file a pretrial motion for detention.

Watch: What we know about the 2 Orlando police officers shot

We could have done any million number of things, but this individual as a matter of law was entitled to a bond and the judge, in this case, decided a $100,000 bond was sufficient, State Attorney Monique Worrell said.

Channel 9 reached out to the judge about their decision in that case but has not heard back.

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.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Aug. 7 that over the last week, the eastern front became the "epicenter of hostilities."

She reported that Russian forces are "desperately trying to surround Avdiivka" in Donetsk Oblast and attempting to regain the positions around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast that they lost last autumn during the Ukrainian surprise counteroffensive.

Maliar said that that last week alone, Russia spent "almost half a million rounds of ammunition" and 9,000 shells in the east.

She previously reported on fierce battles in the region on Aug. 1.

Russia has been concentrating forces around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast since mid-July.

On July 17, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraines Eastern Military Command, said that Russia was concentrating "more than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 555 artillery systems, and 370 multiple rocket launchers" in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction.

Read also: Endless Russian assaults near Kreminna test Ukraines defenses

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The defendant charged with first-degree murder in a fatal shooting at an Erie convenience store in May was prohibited from having a gun due to mental health issues, and the defense is considering exploring those issues as the case heads to trial.

The defense is contemplating seeking a mental health evaluation for the defendant, Jaquan O. Harris, 26, his court-appointed lawyer said at Harris' formal arraignment in Erie County Common Pleas Court on Monday.

Judge David Ridge gave the lawyer, Brian Arrowsmith, two months to file pretrial motions, which could include a request for a mental health exam.

After the brief arraignment, Arrowsmith said the request for a mental health exam would come in light of evidence that Harris was not allowed to have a gun during the shooting, on May 16 at the Quick Stop at West 18th and Chestnut streets.

Video surveillance from inside the store showed Harris shooting the victim, 22-year-old Jalen Rieger-Williams, once in the chest at close range as soon as Rieger-Williams walked into the store at about 7:50 p.m. Rieger-Williams was unarmed, according to testimony at Harris' preliminary hearing, in July.

Paramedics work to save shooting victim Jalen Rieger-Williams, 22, on May 16 at the Quick Stop convenience store at West 18th and Chestnut streets in Erie. Jaquan O. Harris, 26, is charged in Rieger-Williams' death.

Harris said in an interview with police that he acted in self-defense, one of the detectives on the case, Jason Russell, testified at the preliminary hearing. Russell also testified that Harris was not allowed to carry a gun.

He referred to documents that showed Harris once had a gun permit, but had his license revoked in December 2019 "following an involuntary mental health assessment"  known as "a 302," after the section of the Pennsylvania Mental Health Procedures Act that allows for the involuntary commitment of a person due to mental health problems. A person who has been involuntarily committed in Pennsylvania is prohibited from carrying a firearm.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Nick Maskrey, said after the preliminary hearing that police did not know where Harris got the gun. Harris after the shooting told police to look for the gun in a trunk of a car, where police found it.

Harris also accused of aggravated assault in Quick Stop case

Maskrey is prosecuting the case with Assistant District Attorney Tayler Moses. At Monday's brief arraignment, Maskrey reviewed Harris' rights, and Harris pleaded not guilty before Judge David Ridge, who also set the schedule for pretrial motions. The trial will occur sometime in 2024, Ridge said.

In addition to facing a charge of first-degree murder, a premeditated homicide, Harris is charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault and simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, related to other people who were in the crowded Quick Stop during the shooting. He is also accused of illegally possessing a firearm as a mentally incompetent person and carrying a firearm without a license.

Harris is in the Erie County Prison with no bond set because he is charged with first-degree murder. He said little at the arraignment other than to tell Ridge he understood his rights and the charges he faces.

The killing of Rieger-Williams was the second fatal shooting in less than three years at the Quick Stop, at 408 W. 18th St. Another Erie resident, Kyontia L. Blanks, said he acted in self-defense in fatally shooting 40-year-old Frederick Perry on Oct. 21, 2020, as Blanks stood outside the front of the Quick Stop and an unarmed Perry got out of his newly parked car. That shooting was also captured on surveillance video.

Blanks, 27, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter at a jury trial in Erie County Common Pleas Court in January and was sentenced to nine to 18 years in state prison in February.

Arraignment held in another Erie fatal shooting

Harris' formal arraignment was the second to occur in an Erie homicide case in five days. On Wednesday, Torrance A. Norris, 29, pleaded not guilty before Judge John J. Mead on charges connected to the fatal shooting of Naim Jahace Bayete, 21, on March 18 in the 800 block of East 21st Street, near Wayne Street. Norris is accused of hiding between two houses before he fired at Bayete as the victim drove by in an car.

Torrance A. Norris, 29, is charged in the fatal shooting of Naim Jahace Bayete, 21, on March 18 in the 800 block of East 21st Street, near Wayne Street.

Norris is accused of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license and tampering with evidence. Police said Norris after the shooting threw his clothes in the garbage and changed into different clothes. The gun was never recovered, but the shooting was captured on surveillance video, according to testimony at Norris' preliminary hearing, in May.

Maskrey, the prosecutor in the Quick Stop case, is prosecuting the case against Norris. The court-appointed defense lawyer in the case is Bruce Sandmeyer.

Mead at the arraignment scheduled a trial for January, according to court records. Norris is being held in prison with no bond set.

Case against Jaquan Harris: Echoing earlier case, self-defense hinted at in latest fatal shooting at Erie Quick Stop

Case against Torrance Norris: Testimony in Erie homicide reveals friend ditched suspected murder weapon

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Mental issues mentioned in case of fatal shooting at Erie, PA store
Clay Cass and his wife Michelle Cass, behind register, recently opened Trilogy Kitchen at 844 E. New York Ave. in DeLand. In addition to selling their Trilogy Coffee Roasting Co. drinks, their new business offers breakfast and lunch items like chicken biscuits and quesadillas.

DELAND  A flight of fresh biscuits, apple pie French toast and a Taco Bell-inspired crunch wrap are just a few of the flavorful offerings on the menu at Trilogy Kitchen.

And that's just breakfast.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because the new fast-casual breakfast and lunch spot was opened by the same married couple behind the beloved Trilogy Coffee Roasting Co.

"It's been a long time coming," Clay Cass said.

He said they began looking at expanding their business footprint a few years ago and put plans on hold during the coronavirus pandemic.

The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday and seats over 30 people; the outdoor area seats about the same.

Filling a need

Trilogy Kitchen opened just over a month ago at 844 E. New York Ave. between North McDonald and South Virginia avenues.

The location was previously home to Gram's Kitchen, which closed two years ago.

"We wanted to kind of do justice to the legacy that they created by offering a great breakfast and lunch menu, but we also wanted to give the space a refresh," Cass said.

The menu includes a breakfast entree named for the former longtime eatery: Gram's plate includes two eggs prepared any way, bacon, a buttermilk biscuit topped with thyme sausage gravy and home fries.

The chicken and biscuit sandwich at Trilogy Kitchen includes fried buttermilk chicken drizzled with cayenne maple syrup on a maple bacon biscuit.

Michelle Cass said patrons of their downtown cafe on Georgia Avenue, which opened about seven years ago, have often asked for more food options.

"We saw the need for some great breakfast in DeLand," Michelle said, adding that they wanted to offer a menu of items "all made in-house and locally sourced as much as possible."

Dining news: 4 popular Florida restaurants named among The Souths Most Legendary Steakhouses

From Hogwarts to Flagler Beach: Which local restaurant recently served Emma Watson?

Clay said Jose Galan, Trilogy Kitchen's chef, has an "elevated Southern cuisine" approach to food.

During a recent visit to the new restaurant, customer Carol Lopez-Bethel had to share her thoughts with Clay.

"It's a game changer," Lopez-Bethel said of the carrot hummus panini, which includes roasted carrot hummus, red, yellow and green peppers, seasoned onions and feta on olive bread.

Lopez-Bethel also called the Cuban sandwich "as good as anything you get in Miami."

Visiting Trilogy Kitchen

Breakfast is served from 7-11 a.m. and ranges in price from $6-14.

Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and ranges in price from $6-10. Housemade chips are available as a side for $2.

Clay said patrons will find the drinks they know and love from the downtown cafe at Trilogy Kitchen.

Kloey Snow prepares a cappuccino at Trilogy Kitchen in DeLand, a new breakfast and lunch spot started by the founders and operators of Trilogy Coffee Roasting Co.

Beverages range in price from $3-6.50 and include:

Drip coffee

Cold brew

Nitro brew

Espresso

Americano

Cortado

Cappuccino

Latte

Hot teas (flavors: black, jasmine citrus green, earl grey black, lemon ginseng with green tea, ginger turmeric herbal, chai)

Iced teas (flavors: black, jasmine citrus green, chai)

Matcha latte (hot or iced)

Hot chocolate (hot or iced)

Lemonade

Orange juice

Clay said mimosas will be on the menu once they obtain the required licensing.

The cats next door

In May, the DeLand Cat Cafe opened in a portion of what used to be Gram's Kitchen.

Visitors may order drinks from Trilogy Kitchen, available during the restaurant's operating hours, to enjoy while spending time with cats that are available for adoption from local shelters and rescues.

Deborah Cedar started the cat cafe in an effort to get more felines adopted.

A visit to the cat cafe is $10 per hour for an adult and $7 per hour for children.

The cat cafe is open Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Reservations are preferred and can be made via delandcatcafe.com/reservations.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Trilogy Kitchen opens in DeLand; new spot offers breakfast, lunch
The Democratic governor of Kansas has launched a political action committee to help elect moderate Republicans and Democrats.

The Middle of the Road PAC's name pays homage to Gov. Laura Kelly's reelection campaign, which featured television ads, speeches and other materials presenting her as middle of the road politically. The PAC's website displays a photo of Kelly walking down the middle of a road.

"I've always been middle-of-the-road," Kelly said in a statement from the PAC. "That's how I've governed  by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to meet in the middle. Kansans expect their leaders to work together and pass common-sense policies like expanding Medicaid, funding our schools, and cutting taxes to help our families. This PAC will support Kansas leaders who put politics aside and work with me to deliver policies that help families thrive."

Gov. Laura Kelly launched the Middle of the Road PAC to help elect moderate Republicans and Democrats.

Kelly's middle-of-the-road moniker has been a source of criticism from Republicans and Democrats.

Senate President Ty Masterson has previously described Kelly as "walking down the far-left lane, if not the ditch outside of that." House Minority Leader Vic Miller previously said, "It's very dangerous to stand in the middle of the road" and urged the governor "to move a little bit to the left."

The PAC will publicly endorse moderate candidates, regardless of party, running for Statehouse races in the 2024 elections. While still a whole legislative session away, the 2024 elections could reset the balance of power for Kelly's last two years in office.

Republicans currently hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate, enabling conservatives to override Kelly's record-setting number of vetoes. But the small handful of moderates have occasionally sided with Democrats, preventing the GOP from overriding all of Kelly's vetoes.

Policies advocated by the PAC include Medicaid expansion, tax cuts "for working families and seniors" and policies "that grow our economy and create jobs."

Medicaid expansion has long been a priority of Kelly and fellow Democrats with some support from moderate Republicans, but GOP leadership has been ardently opposed. Both parties have found areas of agreement on tax cuts, but Kelly has been particularly opposed to the GOP push for a flat income tax, resulting in a veto of a broader tax relief package.

Economic growth and job creation also find bipartisan support, but with a difference of opinion on how to go about doing so, particularly on Kelly's continued push for incentives for megaprojects and the appropriate level of government regulation, such as in the child care industry.

The PAC launched Monday is based in Overland Park and its treasurer is Sheryl Spalding, who was a former Republican state representative who endorsed Kelly in her reelection campaign.

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: Laura Kelly forms Middle of the Road PAC to elect Kansas moderates
Screenshot of the body camera footage, after Hight is shot. Courtesy of Tre Kitchens

An Arkansas deputy responded to a woman who called for help during a domestic violence incident.

Bodycam footage appears to show the deputy shoot at her Pomeranian when it ran toward him.

The deputy hit the woman instead, she says. She is suing the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

A woman in Arkansas is suing her local sheriff's office, saying a deputy who fired his gun to shoot at a Pomeranian running toward him hit her instead.

Tina Hight, a resident of Columbia County, called the Columbia County Sheriff's Office on August 30, 2022, asking for assistance for what she told Insider was a "domestic violence" incident. The request for help spurred a traumatizing turn of events that still affects her today, she said.

The lawsuit was first reported by local station KATV.

"I became the person who called the cops for my protection to the victim in just a matter of minutes," Hight told Insider. "I'm shaking now just talking about it. It just gave me a lot of anxiety. I'm still very nervous about the police."

In bodycam footage viewed by Insider, Columbia County Deputy Brian Williams, one of two responding deputies, tells the other officer, "she's got some dogs in there," as they walk up the front yard to knock on her door.

Williams stands back while another deputy in front of him knocks on the door to Hight's residence. When the door opens, a couple of dogs walk out onto the front porch, and Hight explains that they won't bite the deputies.

The dogs  including a Pomeranian mix between 8-10 pounds, per Hight's lawyer  run and bark toward Williams.

Williams then begins shouting, "Get back! Get your dog! I'll kill this motherfucker!"

The video shows he then fires his gun once into the air. Hight begins gathering her dogs when the Pomeranian escapes and runs toward Williams again. He fires again, hitting Hight, who screams, "You shot me!"

She begins writhing in pain, telling the deputies to get away from her. "I'm scared of y'all," she says in the video, crying.

Williams and the second deputy deny that he shot Hight. At one point, Williams walks back to the patrol car after being asked to call an ambulance and says the dog was most likely responsible for her injuries.

"I shot at the goddamn dog, and I think the dog scratched her," Williams says in the video. "She said I shot her."

An ambulance eventually came that night, Tre Kitchens, Hight's lawyer, told Insider.

"I'm telling the officer that I felt the bullet go in," Hight told Insider. "I mean, I felt it was burning. It was like I was on fire. And they just brushed it off."

Kitchens provided photos to Insider of what he said were Hight's bullet wounds.

Hight said she still has the bullet lodged in her right shin and the pain is "excruciating." Hight also said that her Pomeranian was injured by bullet and concrete fragments but has fully recovered.

Kitchens told Insider this was "one of the most egregious cases" he had ever seen.

"It was a situation that didn't need to be escalated  it is by the grace of God and luck that he didn't kill another deputy, Ms. Hight, or somebody else in the house," Kitchens said.

In the lawsuit filed in June, reviewed by Insider, Hight and her lawyer assert that Williams had "no basis to discharge his weapon."

Sheriff Leroy Martin of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office addressed the incident in a statement on Facebook in response to the KATV story, saying the deputy was investigated by the Arkansas State Police and cleared.

"The evidence will come out accurately; and the video will be in it's [sic] entirety and forth coming [sic]," Martin wrote. "The video will show that the Deputy was responding to a know [sic] residence as the dog aggressively came at him."

Hight told Insider that she did not know the deputies before this incident.

Per the lawsuit, Hight is suing for damages, citing medical costs as well as pain and mental anguish she said she suffered due to the incident. Hight is also suing for punitive damages, asking Williams to be disciplined to prevent similar incidents. The lawsuit asks for a monetary award for damages "exceeding $10,000,000."

"Not all cops are bad, I'm not saying that," Hight told Insider. "Just be careful, even with law enforcement, whether you're calling them for your protection or not. They do carry a gun, and some will just shoot without thinking about what they're doing. If I ever had to call the law again, I would never open my door, because I'm not going to ever stop owning my animals...I just don't want another life injured or taken over a small dog incident like this."

An attorney for the sheriff's office did not immediately respond to questions sent by Insider. The Arkansas State Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Insider on Sunday.

Read the original article on Insider
Nearly three years after the 2020 election, Gov. Ron DeSantis has conceded for the first time that President Donald Trump didnt win.

Of course, he lost, DeSantis said of Trumps reelection campaign in an interview with NBC News that aired Monday. Joe Bidens the president.

DeSantis also continued to misrepresent the Democratic Partys stance on abortion. He claimed the party wants to allow abortions until birth, which he called infanticide, despite NBC News Dasha Burns pushing back that there was no indication of Democrats supporting that.

Trump was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election last week, having denied that President Joe Biden won despite being repeatedly told by advisers, the indictment says.

DeSantis statement on the 2020 election was a clear break from Trump for the governor, who is trailing the former president badly in the 2024 GOP presidential primary race. But DeSantis also attacked Trump for states allowing more mail-in ballots in the first place.

But heres the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about, DeSantis said. Why did we have all those mail votes? Because Trump turned the government over to Fauci, DeSantis said of Anthony Fauci, a White House pandemic adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

They embraced lockdowns, DeSantis said. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country.

DeSantis, despite imposing a month-long state shutdown himself in April 2020, has called for Fauci to be imprisoned, and last year said he wanted to chuck him across the Potomac.

But he also thanked Trump for the bi-partisan CARES Act in 2020, saying the $4 billion in funds the state received will help ensure Florida ensures critical resources as we continue this fight.

DeSantis also spoke about the 2020 election in an Iowa campaign stop on Friday, according to the New York Times.

Ive said many times: The election is what it is, DeSantis said, according to the Times. All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.

But he still criticized the election process to NBC News, saying the media want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election.  I dont think it was a good-run election. But I also think Republicans didnt fight back. Youve got to fight back when that is happening.

Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, called DeSantis comments on Trump an act of desperation.

Hes never said it up till now, Jewett said. Hes had plenty of opportunities. But hes always flirted with the Trump didnt lose crowd and has actually been pretty firmly on that side, even if he never said it directly. He certainly never said it wasnt true, either. So this is a huge change.

In fact, DeSantis was one of the first in the nation to suggest overturning election results in Pennsylvania, which was blasted as radical at the time but soon became the norm for Republican members of Congress.

Two days after the 2020 election, when votes were still being tallied in several states, DeSantis told Fox News Laura Ingraham, I would also tell [Republicans], especially if youre in those states that have Republican legislatures like Pennsylvania and Michigan and all these places, call your state representatives and your state senators.

Under Article 2 of the Constitution, presidential electors are done by the legislators and the schemes they create and the framework, DeSantis told Ingraham. And if theres departure from that, if theyre not following law, if theyre ignoring the law, then they can provide remedies as well.

Trump was charged in part because of an alleged corrupt plan to play up fake claims of voter fraud to encourage legislatures in states Trump lost to choose Trump electors to the Electoral College, including in Pennsylvania, the indictment states.

A CNN poll from last week showed 69% of Republicans falsely believe Bidens win was not legitimate, Jewett said. Polls of the GOP primary also show Trump with huge leads over the governor.

This is a big risk for DeSantis, who is already viewed as disloyal by many Trump supporters, Jewett said. Hes trying to do something to separate himself from Trump.  But if he was doing well in the polls, I dont think DeSantis would ever have said it.

The NBC interview, which aired on the Today Show, was DeSantis second with a major news network this year as his campaign shifts to include mainstream media in addition to friendly conservative outlets.

DeSantis said he would not go too much further in criticizing Trump.

If the election is a referendum on Joe Bidens policies and the failures that weve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around, DeSantis told NBC.

If on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose, he said, referring to Trumps other federal charges of keeping classified documents at his Palm Beach mansion.

DeSantis also defended the state Board of Educations controversial Black history standards in the NBC interview. The standards include a required instruction on how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.

So that means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery, DeSantis said. It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended.  Those standards were not political at all. The Legislature didnt dictate any of that. [The] governors office didnt dictate anything of that.

DeSantis did, however, sign the Stop WOKE Act, which puts restrictions on discussions of race and gender in schools and bans making people feel guilty or uncomfortable about the past.

Asked about criticism of the standards by prominent Black Republicans, including presidential campaign opponent U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., DeSantis said, Dont take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Dont indulge those lies.

Harris slammed the standards in two trips to Florida this summer, including in Orlando last week. She rejected DeSantis invitation to discuss the standards, saying, There is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defended Floridas new Black history school curriculum Sunday, claiming it is not political at all, following criticism of the updated guidelines from across the nation.

Weve been involved in education, not indoctrination, DeSantis said Sunday in an interview with NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns. The Legislature didnt dictate any of that. Governors office didnt dictate anything of that.

Floridas new standards have come into focus in DeSantiss presidential campaign over the past few weeks since a new set of controversial guidelines were passed last month.

The guidelines are based on Floridas controversial law that requires race to be taught in an objective manner that does not seek to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.

One of the updated requirements that prompted some of the most backlash requires teachers to instruct on how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied to their personal benefit.

Teachers in Florida are also now required to instruct on acts of violence perpetrated against and by Americans, such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre and the Tulsa Race Massacre, both events where Black people were overwhelmingly killed by white people.

The guidelines come as DeSantis has made eliminating woke culture a central focus of his campaign. Burns asked DeSantis about the standards Sunday in his first broadcast network interview since launching his campaign.

So that means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery, DeSantis said. It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended.

Vice President Harris spoke out against the states new education standards last month, calling them propaganda.

Dont take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Dont indulge those lies, DeSantis said in the interview with Burns.

DeSantis once again said the standards were made with the help of African American scholars.

The interview will air Monday night on NBC Nightly News.

Updated at 3:16 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Sinking in the polls and pressured by at least one powerful donor to moderate his far-right positions, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis admitted publicly on Sunday that Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020.

Of course he lost, DeSantis said in an interview with NBC News. Joe Bidens the president.

But which DeSantis was it who finally spoke the truth? The woke warrior? The Trump pal? The pro-COVID-vaccine guy? The anti-COVID vaccine one? The new governor who visited the Pulse nightclub site to mourn the LGBTQ lives lost or the second-term authoritarian who has targeted gays and trans people?

None of the above. No, the DeSantis who said those long-delayed words out loud is the one who has remained constant amid all that calculated shape-shifting: the opportunist.

DeSantis has tried to have it both ways for ages. He wouldnt quite say that Trump had lost because he hoped to lure some of the ex-presidents MAGA supporters while still challenging him for the Republican nomination. It has made for a strange and strained dance for DeSantis as he contorted himself into whatever position was politically advantageous.

Thats consistent with his political transmogrification during five-plus years as governor, when he has gone from conservative to arch-conservative to a crazed-sounding extremist who proposed shooting drug dealers stone cold dead if they cross the U.S. border and said that, if elected, hed start slitting throats in the federal government on his first day.

The swamp

As recently as last week, he was still dodging the question of Trumps loss. A few minutes after the ex-presidents indictment on charges of 2020 election interference, DeSantis deflected, tweeting that Trump couldnt get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., because it would be unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality. DeSantis, of course, is a former three-term U.S. representative who served in Washington in that very swamp.

The evasion, though, couldnt go on, and DeSantis knew it. At a New Hampshire town hall last week, he openly criticized Trumps policy failures  the border wall, draining the swamp  and his behavior, which he says is one of the reasons the GOP lost in 2020.

And now, with the window for viability against a strengthening Trump getting narrower by the day, DeSantis has apparently decided theres nothing left to lose. He has to draw a line between himself and Trump  his mentor and the man whose endorsement likely gave him the Florida governorship  if his campaign is to stay afloat into the fall.

Also, there was this: Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, who gave $20 million to the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down political group, said he wouldnt donate any more unless the governor attracts big new donors and becomes more moderate in his stances.

Tried to side-step

Even with all of that, DeSantis first tried to wriggle out of an answer on Sunday about whether Trump lost by saying,Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner.

NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns pushed harder. (The interview was DeSantis first for a broadcast network since he launched his presidential campaign, another sign he has realized he has to move more to the middle.)

But respectfully, you did not clearly answer that question, Burns said. And if you cant give a yes or no on whether or not he lost 

And thats when DeSantis finally answered.

Well, whoopee, you may be saying. What else do we expect from politicians, anyway? They lie. They fudge. They change positions to appeal to voters and get elected.

But refusing for all these years to say that Trump lost in 2020 and then saying it now isnt a minor tweak to a position or even a major one. Theres no do-over here. This isnt just politics. This is about whether the leader of the state of Florida and a serious candidate for the presidency supports democracy in the United States, including the peaceful transition of power.

What, then, does it say about DeSantis character that this is what it takes for him to speak out? Trump lost. DeSantis wouldnt say that until it became politically expedient.

Thats not a person with a moral center or principles to guide him. Thats not someone with deep-seated beliefs about leadership that shape his actions. Thats a person who holds fast to nothing except the burning desire to win, a person who shapes himself according to the political winds. An opportunist, in other words.

And voters should ask themselves  the polls seem to indicate they already are  if thats really what they want in a president.

Click here to send the letter.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waves after speaking at a fundraising event for U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. | Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back on former President Donald Trumps claims about the true winner of the 2020 presidential election in his latest television appearance Monday.

Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner, DeSantis told NBC News host Dasha Burns.

When pressed to answer whether Trump lost, he said: No, of course, he lost. Joe Biden is the president.

DeSantis, coming in second behind Trump in polls for the Republican primary, has ramped up his criticism of the former president in recent weeks.

DeSantis pushes back on Trumps COVID-19 policies

DeSantis took aim at Trump for many of his pandemic-related decisions, like embracing lockdowns and signing the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, a stimulus bill that DeSantis said funded mail-in ballots in the interview Monday.

Why did we have all those mail votes? Because Trump turned the government over to Fauci, DeSantis said of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief of the White House task force on COVID-19.

Related

He used his governing track record in Florida as an example: While Americans in DeSantis state voted by mail in the 2020 election, Republican lawmakers in Florida passed reforms and tightened restrictions on mail-in ballots earlier this year.

During the interview, DeSantis said that Republicans should focus on the failures of the Biden administrations policies instead of Trumps legal troubles.

If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose, he said.

A spokesperson for Trump said in a statement that the Florida governor should really stop being Joe Bidens biggest cheerleader, per The New York Times.

Apart from denying Trumps claims, DeSantis also vocalized other concerns that he observed in the 2020 election, like the involvement of social media giants.

Twitter, now known as X, suppressed the news about Hunter Bidens laptop, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg funded grants for election administration during this election.

DNC responds to DeSantis

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement in response to DeSantis remarks Monday.

As Ron DeSantis attempts to reboot his disaster of a campaign, hes now trying to spin his yearslong record of supporting election conspiracy theories and January 6 insurrectionists  but has Ron DeSantis met Ron DeSantis? the committee said.

DeSantis has said hed consider pardoning some January 6 insurrectionists, the statement said, adding that he has a long history of downplaying the violence from the January 6 insurrection  and it was as recent as this summer that DeSantis publicly refused to admit Trump lost the 2020 election.

When the news of Trumps latest indictment  related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election  was released last week, DeSantis issued a statement, accusing the Department of Justice of politicizing the law.

Related

As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans, he said.

But when he was in Iowa hosting a campaign event on Friday, a day after Trump was arraigned, he said that the controversial claims about the election were not true.

Ive said many times: The election is what it is, DeSantis said, per The Washington Post. All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.

But, in the past, he has hinted at pardoning Trump if he became president.
Editors note: This report has been updated with clarification that this is Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantiss first network interview since his campaign reboot.

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey DeSantis, will sit down with NBCs Dasha Burns for the governors first formal network since his campaigns reboot, the network announced Sunday.

NBC News said the interview will air Monday on the Today show and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Additional segments will also air throughout the day on MSNBC and NBC News NOW, according to the network.

Floridas first lady has played a central role in her husbands campaign for the White House, having joined him for various appearances on the campaign trail. Her presence has drawn both praise and criticism in parts of the news media.

NBC News wrote in a statement that the interview will take place amid questions about the strength of his candidacy, ongoing attacks from the former president, and as he attempts to shift from campaigning as an incumbent governor to an insurgent candidate.

The interview comes amid DeSantiss sagging polling numbers as recent polls show him continuing to trail behind former President Trump in the Republican primaries.

DeSantiss campaign has come under fire over the past few weeks for its laying off 38 staffers late last month in an effort to revamp amid low poll numbers. His campaign team also fired a staffer last month who reportedly made a pro-DeSantis video featuring the Republican candidate at the center of a sonnenrad, an ancient European symbol used in Nazi imagery and propaganda.

DeSantis recently sat down for an interview with Fox Newss chief political anchor Bret Baier and appeared for the first time on CNN last month in an interview with Jake Tapper.

The Hill has reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment.

Updated on Aug. 7 at 6:52 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Ron DeSantis has not ruled out enacting a national abortion ban if elected president, after the Florida governor implemented state restrictions on abortion access at 15 weeks and six weeks of pregnancy within the last two years.

But he suggested that there is no consensus in the US for members of Congress to implement a national ban, as abortion restrictions and the US Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v Wade remain overwhelmingly unpopular.

Asked by NBCs Dasha Burns whether he would veto any sort of federal bill that would institute a nationwide ban, Mr DeSantis replied: We will be a pro-life president and we will support pro-life policies.

In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to revoke a constitutional right to abortion care last year, Republican officials have repeatedly stated that the ruling merely left it up to individual states to decide. But anti-abortion lawmakers at the state level and in Congress continue to push for national restrictions that would also strike down state laws that protect and expand abortion access.

Congressional Republicans have already passed several anti-abortion measures with national implications and have signalled the GOPs readiness to ban abortion at certain gestational limits. President Joe Biden has promised to veto any such legislation, if it made it through Congress.

In media appearances throughout his campaign, the governor has not directly answered whether he would support or veto legislation that would enact national abortion restrictions, suggesting that the issue should come from the bottom up with individual states determining policy.

His statements have drawn criticism from influential anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, which called the governors position unacceptable to anti-abortion voters. Meanwhile, his campaigns top donor has threatened to stop funding the candidate over his extreme position on abortion.

And Donald Trump, who has taken credit for the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization, has suggested that his rival for the 2024 Republican nomination for president has gone too far with a state law that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, signed into law just one year after a 15-week limit was put in place.

Dobbs returned it to the political branches. I think the reality is that that basically means the states are going to have primary control over it, Mr DeSantis told NBC.

You know, I do think the federal government would have an interest in, say, preventing post-birth abortions or things that are really horrific, but I dont think that theres enough consensus in the country to see a lot of mileage in Congress, he added.

There is no such thing as a post-birth abortion; killing an infant after birth is illegal in all states, and pregnancies resulting in the death of the fetus in the third trimester are exceedingly rare, and largely involve fetal anomalies and life-threatening medical emergencies. The vast majority of abortions take place within the first trimester, while roughly 1 per cent occur after 21 weeks, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The governor also suggested that Democratic officials support infanticide, echoing his remarks in a recent CNN interview claiming that liberal state allow post-birth abortion.

I would not allow what a lot of the left wants to do, which is to override pro-life protections throughout the country all the way up really to the moment of birth in some instances, which I think is infanticide, he told NBC News.

Ms Burns interrupted Mr DeSantis: Thats a misrepresentation of whats happening.

The governor also said that he does not support penalties for people who seek abortions.

Not at all, he told Ms Burns. No, I dont think this is an issue about the woman. I think a lot of these women, you know, are in very difficult circumstances. They dont get any support from a lot of the fathers. And a lot of them, the number one reason why women choose to have an abortion is because theyre not getting support and they feel abandoned. Now, in Florida weve provided support and weve put our money where our mouth is, but at the end of the day, you know, I would not support any penalties on a woman.

Mr DeSantis also told NBC that he does not support limits on contraception access.

And I think it should be available over-the-counter, and I think people should be able to have access to it, he added.
A Detroit woman says she was falsely arrested on charges of carjacking and robbery.

Police had used facial recognition software to match her to the female suspect, her lawsuit says.

While 8 months pregnant, she says she was forced to sit on a concrete bench in jail for 11 hours.

A Detroit woman says she was falsely arrested while eight months pregnant and forced to sit for 11 hours on a concrete jail bench before being released, a newly filed lawsuit says. She alleges that a bogus facial recognition match is partly to blame.

Attorneys for Porcha Woodruff, 32, filed a lawsuit against the City of Detroit and Detroit Police Detective LaShauntia Oliver on August 3, alleging that Woodruff was falsely arrested and accused of carjacking and robbery. Woodruff is seeking $25 million in damages.

The lawsuit accuses police of using "unreliable facial recognition" software to connect Woodruff to the crime. Facial recognition software is notoriously inaccurate, and it often misidentifies Black people. Woodruff is a Black woman.

Detroit Police Chief James White said in a statement to Insider that Woodruff's allegations are "very concerning" and that the department is "taking this matter very seriously." He declined to comment further.

Woodruff and her attorney Ivan Land told Insider they think police should conduct further investigations before arresting people using facial recognition.

"Facial recognition itself shouldn't target people of color," Woodruff said. "I just don't want this to keep happening."

Woodruff was arrested in connection to a carjacking and robbery

Woodruff was arrested after a man went to Detroit Police and said he was the victim of a carjacking and robbery.

The man told police he had sex with a woman named Trinidad, and afterward, they went to a local gas station, where he said the woman interacted with several individuals, a police report included in the lawsuit shows. After leaving, the victim said he was robbed and carjacked by a man who had been at the gas station.

Woodruff's attorneys say in the lawsuit that Detroit Police Detective Oliver used facial recognition technology on surveillance footage, which matched Woodruff to the woman in the video.

The lawsuit says that police showed the man a lineup of photos of six women  including an eight-year-old photo of Woodruff  and he identified Woodruff as the woman he was with during the carjacking.

Woodruff's lawyers allege in the suit that there was no mention of the female suspect being pregnant during Oliver's interactions with the victim.

Woodruff's lawyer, Land, told Insider that the victim had been drinking at the time of the incident, so his recollection of the day may have been impaired. The victim told police he had been drinking with Trinidad before the carjacking, his witness statement included in the lawsuit shows.

Woodruff was arrested in front of her children

According to the lawsuit, Woodruff initially thought police were joking when they showed up at her door with a warrant for her arrest on February 6 "given her visibly pregnant state."

As her two children, ages 6 and 12, cried, Woodruff told them to go upstairs and tell her sleeping fiance, "Mommy is going to jail," the lawsuit said.

Woodruff with her fiance and two daughters. Porcha Woodruff

Attorneys for Woodruff say in the suit that Woodruff was taken to Detroit Detention Center, where she had to stand or sit "on a concrete bench for approximately 11 hours before being released since there were no beds or chairs available."

Woodruff's attorneys allege in the suit that while in jail, Woodruff "was not able to consume the foods or beverages offered because of her diagnosis" of gestational diabetes. She told Insider that police had no bottled water to offer her, only faucet water from the station, which she did not trust to drink.

She added that they also offered her sugary concentrated lemonade, which she couldn't drink because of her diabetes, and a ham sandwich that she said looked 5-10 days old.

Woodruff was eventually released on a $100,000 personal bond, and her fiance took her to the hospital, where she was treated for dehydration and contractions from stress, the lawsuit says.

A few weeks later, the charges against Woodruff were dismissed for lack of evidence, court documents included in the lawsuit show. Her lawyer said she ended up not having to pay the $100,000 bond.

Woodruff's lawyer says his client 'has a long road ahead of her'

Woodruff said the incident took a "huge toll" on her and her family.

"I'm still stressed. My anxiety is through the roof, especially now," Woodruff told Insider, adding that she's still dealing with postpartum depression from the experience. "My kids, they have anxiety. They're stressed out. They see police officers, and they're scared."

Land told Insider that Woodruff "has a long road ahead of her."

He added that Woodruff "doesn't know what the long-term effect" of the incident would be on her son, her two daughters, or herself.

"Her marriage was put on hold because of these proceedings and the money she has to extend defending this," Land added. "She wasn't able to go to work. She's still hurting."

Read the original article on Insider
A Detroit woman is suing the city and a police detective after she was falsely arrested because of facial recognition technology while she was eight months pregnant, according to court documents.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, was getting her two children ready for school on the morning of Feb. 16 when six police officers showed up at her doorstep and presented her with an arrest warrant alleging robbery and carjacking.

Woodruff initially believed the officers were joking given her visibly pregnant state. She was arrested.

"Ms. Woodruff later discovered that she was implicated as a suspect through a photo lineup shown to the victim of the robbery and carjacking, following an unreliable facial recognition match," court documents say.

The robbery victim told police that on Jan. 29 he met a woman whom he had sexual intercourse with. At some point in the day, they went to a BP gas station, where the woman "interacted with several individuals," according to the lawsuit.

They then left for another location, where the victim was robbed and carjacked at gunpoint by a man whom the woman had interacted with earlier at the BP gas station. The victim told police his phone was returned to the gas station two days later.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan, names Detective LaShauntia Oliver, who was assigned to the case, as a defendant.

When Oliver learned that a woman had returned the victim's phone to the gas station, she ran facial technology on the video, which identified her as Woodruff, the lawsuit alleges.

"Detective Oliver stated in detail in her report what she observed in the video footage, and there was no mention of the female suspect being pregnant," the lawsuit says.

When a man was arrested driving the victim's car on Feb. 2, Oliver failed to show him a picture of Woodruff, according to court documents.

The victim was also shown a lineup of potential suspects and identified Woodruff as the woman he was with when he was robbed. Oliver used an eight-year-old picture of Woodruff in the lineup from an arrest in 2015, despite having access to her current driver's license, according to the lawsuit.

On the day Woodruff was arrested, she and her fiance urged officers to check the warrant to confirm whether the woman who committed the crime was pregnant, which they refused to do, the lawsuit alleges.

Woodruff was charged with robbery and carjacking and released from the Detroit Detention Center at around 7 p.m. on $100,000 personal bond.

Her fiance took her to a medical center, where she was diagnosed with a low heart rate due to dehydration and was told she was having contractions from stress related to the incident.

On March 6, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office dropped the case for "insufficient evidence," according to the lawsuit.

In a statement Sunday, the prosecutor's office said the case was dismissed, which emphasizes that a judge made the final decision, not prosecutors.

The prosecutors office said the warrant that led to Woodruffs arrest was on solid ground. The warrant was appropriate based upon the facts, it said.

The office said it was dismissed because the victim failed to appear during a preliminary hearing, which was intended to ensure there's sufficient evidence to prosecute. A victim's unwillingness to appear or testify, however, is not an automatic trigger for dismissal. Evidence can often still carry a case. And it's not clear if prosecutors in this case requested dismissal.

The office confirmed that facial recognition prompted police to include the plaintiff's photo in a six-pack, or array of images of potential suspects in the warrant package.

Detroit Police Chief James E. White said he reviewed the allegations in the lawsuit, which he said are "very concerning."

"We are taking this matter very seriously, but we cannot comment further at this time due to the need for additional investigation," he said in a statement. "We will provide further information once additional facts are obtained and we have a better understanding of the circumstances."

Oliver did not respond to requests for comment.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, arrives on Capitol Hill to give closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee in the Republican-led investigations into President Joe Biden's son, in Washington, Monday, July 31, 2023. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

The third criminal indictment of former President Trump dominated headlines last week, but among Republicans, there was a lot of talk about Devon Archer. Archer is a former business partner of Hunter Biden, President Bidens son. Both Archer and Hunter Biden were on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

Burisma is at the center of claims by Republicans that President Biden improperly used his influence during his time as vice president to help his sons foreign business deals.

Archer gave hours of closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee last Monday, and on Thursday the transcript of his testimony was released.

Both political parties have said that Archers testimony vindicates their arguments. Republicans say it shows corruption by the Biden family, even if there is no proof of misconduct by Joe Biden himself. Democrats say it proves President Biden did nothing wrong.

Hunter Biden is seeking a plea deal with the government over tax evasion and gun charges.

Archer is himself trying to avoid prison time for an unrelated crime in which he was found guilty in 2018 of defrauding a Native American tribe out of $60 million.

Heres what Archer had to say about Joe Biden, Burisma and Hunter Bidens business deals.

Hunter Biden, center, exiting the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Hunter Biden used his access to his dad to boost his business

At least 20 times during Bidens vice presidency, Archer said, Hunter Biden called his father or received a call from him and then put him on speaker phone and asked him to say hello to business associates.

Asked whether Joe Biden seemed to know who he was speaking to most of the time, Archer said, sometimes yes, sometimes no, but generally no.

For example, in 2011, Hunter Biden and Archer were at dinner in Paris with executives from a French energy company whose business they were seeking. Joe Biden, then the vice president, called Hunter, who put his father on speakerphone and asked him to say hello to the executives.

Biden and Archer did not get the contract with the French company, Archer said. But Hunter Biden did make millions in business deals with other foreign companies, including Burisma and CEFC China Energy.

Archer repeatedly testified that he never saw or heard Joe Biden discuss any business deals on the phone when he called Hunter.

You have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that, Archer told Congress. 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.

President Biden and Jill Biden with Hunter Biden at a University of Pennsylvania graduation ceremony for Hunter's daughter Maisy Biden, May 15. (Amanda Andrade Rhoades/Reuters)

Hunter was selling what Archer called an illusion of access to Joe Bidens decision-making power.

People send signals and those signals are basically used as currency. And thats kind of how a lot of D.C. operators and foreign tycoons and businessmen work, Archer said.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who has been the most aggressive Democratic defender of Biden in Congress, asked Archer directly: Are you aware of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden?

No, Im not aware of any, Archer answered.

The Biden brand and Burisma

Archer also said multiple times that he never saw any evidence that Hunter Biden influenced his fathers decisions regarding U.S. foreign policy, or that Joe Biden did anything as vice president to benefit his sons business deals.

But Archer did say that after Burisma added Hunter Biden to its board in 2014, that helped the company survive because it was associated with what Archer called the Biden brand.

I think Burisma would have gone out of business if it didnt have the brand attached to it, Archer said. People would be intimidated to mess with them.

Archer also asserted that then-Vice President Joe Biden met a Burisma executive in 2015 at a dinner with Hunter Biden and others in Washington, D.C.

Rep. Dan Goldman at an event in support of Ukraine a year after the Russian invasion, Feb. 24. (Irynka Hromotska/Reuters)

Biden and the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor

For years now, Republicans have said that when then-Vice President Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in 2015, that was meant to help Burisma and Hunter Biden.

All public evidence, however, has contradicted this claim. The U.S. government across all its foreign policy agencies, along with numerous foreign allies, wanted Shokin gone in exchange for aid from the International Monetary Fund.

And Shokin was pushed out not because he was a threat to Burisma, but because he was not investigating aggressively enough claims of embezzlement by Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

Archers congressional testimony mostly supported this claim. He claimed that he was told by others in Burismas D.C. office that the firing of Shokin was bad for Burisma because he was under control.

Archer explained that under control meant that Shokin was going to maybe give a slap on the wrist to Burisma for corruption charges, as opposed to, you know, seize all [Zlochevskys] assets.

Archer expressed some vague skepticism of this claim, but did not elaborate. And in fact, Goldman pressed Archer to acknowledge that a seizure of $23 million worth of Zlochevskys assets by the British government had to be reversed because Shokin had failed to cooperate with the British investigation.

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Archer did tell right-wing polemicist and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week that Shokin was a threat to Burisma in the sense that anyone ... in government was always a threat and always trying to shake down these businesses. Archer reiterated to Carlson that when Shokin was fired we were told that that was bad and we dont want a new prosecutor.  Shokin was taken care of.

Archer also dismissed Republican claims that Joe Biden might have received a $5 million bribe from Zlochevsky, which Republicans based on an allegation from an anonymous informant to the FBI, documented on a form known as a FD-1023.

If someone were to conclude from this that this is evidence, this Form 1023, is evidence that Joe Biden was bribed by Mykola Zlochevsky, would you disagree with that conclusion? Archer was asked.

Yeah, I would, Archer said.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has pulled back from selling timber on federally funded wildlife lands as it continues to address environmental concerns pressed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) for the past several years.

The DNR's sudden pause is the latest development in an ongoing conflict over the federal agency's effort to make sure the DNR's timber sales are first for wildlife purposes  not to satisfy relentless timber quotas. Meeting the wildlife-first standard is a requirement for millions of dollars in ongoing federal grants to Minnesota from excise taxes and license fees collected from hunters and anglers.

The DNR confirmed late last week in an interview with the Star Tribune that at least one such grant, worth $14 million this year, hasn't been conferred by the FWS more than five weeks into the new fiscal year. The full slate of so-called Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson grants is annually worth $20 million to $30 million to the DNR.

Dave Olfelt, the DNR's fish and wildlife division director, and Tim Patronski of the FWS's Midwest Region said the two agencies are actively discussing the logging issue. The talks pertain to timber sales on federal-aid lands including state wildlife management areas (WMAs) and state aquatic management areas (AMAs), together comprising more than 1.4 million acres.

"I'm getting close to having information on the topic,'' Patronski said in an interview with the Star Tribune.

Olfelt said the two agencies have been in conversations this spring and summer regarding planned timber harvests on wildlife management areas. In late June, about one week before three WMA timber stands in the Warroad forestry district were scheduled to go up for auction, DNR pulled them back, he said.

The FWS didn't request the withdrawal, Olfelt said, but there was discord between the two agencies. "They wanted to be looking at stuff before we put it up for auction and we didn't have that same understanding  so we stopped,'' Olfelt said.

Moreover, in collaboration with DNR's forestry division, Olfelt's office has placed all other WMA timber sales on hold "until we have a clearer understanding,'' he said.

"We are not going to put any more up until we get the nitty gritty ironed out,'' Olfelt said.

In December, DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen and then-FWS Regional Director Charlie Wooley announced a five-point management agreement as a "path forward'' to resolve conflict borne out of an expanded logging program launched by the DNR in 2018. The program, developed in response to a plea from the forest products industry, strives to annually put up for sale 870,000 cords of timber across all DNR-management lands, including WMAs and AMAs. The FWS supports logging on those federally aided parcels but only if the timber sales are carried out for the benefit of wildlife.

The five-point agreement, struck late last year, called for training of DNR staff and for field monitoring visits of logging sites, among other things. Now, Olfelt said, the two sides are in further discussions and the DNR paused timbers sales on WMAs "out of respect for the conversations we were having.''

Rank-and-file complaints

The overarching conflict came to light four years ago, when 28 DNR field employees wrote to Strommen saying the new logging quotas were hurting wildlife and that it was "scientifically dishonest'' for the agency to say otherwise. The employees, including wildlife managers and foresters alike, complained in their memo that wildlife habitat goals on federally aided hunting lands were being sacrificed to meet hard timber targets.

Some of those rank-and-file complaints were validated eight months later when two federal wildlife biologists monitored logging activity at three large WMAs. According to a central finding in their report, the DNR's Forestry Division appeared to be implementing timber harvests "primarily to meet commercial timber objectives.'' The report said the DNR's Fish and Wildlife Division seemed to have little oversight of the cuttings despite legal requirements for any type of forest management on the wildlife lands to primarily benefit wildlife.

The monitoring report said DNR "might lack compliance'' with seven laws and regulations, including the federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act. Instead of enhancing wildlife habitat, some of the observed sites were logged to the detriment of critters and hunters, the report said.

Steve Thorne, a former DNR deputy commissioner who is part of a group of retirees working to hold DNR accountable to wildlife-first mandates on WMAs and AMAs, said oak savannas are among the natural resources getting "hammered'' by DNR's logging program.

DNR executives have consistently inverted the principle of putting wildlife habitat concerns above industry demands for more timber, Thorne said. At risk, he said, is the uninterrupted flow of Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Act dollars that have been critical to DNR's budget for the past 70 years.

"I think they've been playing chicken with the Fish and Wildlife Service,'' Thorne said. "They could have avoided this mess so many times.''
Located in the H building at St. Francis-Emory off of Manchester Expressway, the clinic is seen as a building block in producing well-prepared doctors when they leave the internal medicine residency program, Dr. Anupa Rai, the program director, said.

The accredited, three-year internal medicine residency program is St. Francis-Emorys first, and is a community-based program that began in July 2022.

Through the new clinic, residents will be able to see patients during their first visit and follow-ups that allows them to gain experience and build connections with patients. The residents are always supervised by faculty.

Dr. George Jarrell, a resident from Columbus, looks forward to serving the community.

Being from here, I want the people of Columbus to be happy and healthy, Jarrell said. And this clinic is a big part of their health. I honestly believe people cant be happy until theyre healthy.

The Residency Program

There are 30 doctors in the internal residency program, Rai said, with 10 residents in each year of the program.

Dr. Howard Willis, an internal medicine specialist who has been in practice 43 years, is part of the faculty working at the clinic. Willis grew up in Waverly Hall and chose to continue to live and work in the Columbus area.

My job is to mentor young doctors who are first-year, second-year and third-year trainees in internal medicine so they can be internal medicine specialists and provide primary care for (the patient population), Willis said.

He hopes the clinic enhances the foundation for the regional medical center and increases the number of primary care providers in the area. St. Francis-Emory serves Fort Moore, Columbus, Phenix City and the surrounding communities.

As internal medicine specialists, primary care will constitute more than 80% of the patients they will see, said Dr. Abbas Conteh, the chief resident.

Having an education that equips us with the requisite training in primary care is immensely important for practice as well as for the boards, Conteh said.

Training residents at the clinic is not only beneficial for their education, Willis said, but also serves everyone living in the region because there is a need for more primary care. It is important that physicians are trained in Columbus, he said, and then continue to stay in Columbus once their residency is completed.

Willis, along with many of his colleagues, are nearing retirement age, he said, making it imperative that primary care continues to be provided as the population grows.

A significant portion of the residents in the program are interested in staying in Columbus or returning to the region after completing a fellowship, Dr. Jessica Withey, a resident, said.

Columbus is a moderately sized town and not far from the Atlanta area, Conteh said, making it an attractive location for young doctors in the program. The region has a good patient population, he said, and there are also a number of good doctors and specialists in the area.

Conteh is thinking about returning to the city after he completes a fellowship.

I love this town, Jarrell said. There is a shortage of physicians, so I think this program is definitely a big step forward to getting more doctors to stay and practice in Columbus.

From left, Dr. Jessica Withey (second year), Dr. George Jarrell (second year), and Chief Resident Dr. Abbas Conteh are physician residents at St. Francis-Emory Healthcares new Primary Care Continuity Clinic in Columbus. 08/03/2023

Expanding access to primary care

Willis and Rai hope doctors in the residency program will continue to live and work in the Columbus area, but they also believe the new continuity clinic will provide a solution to another problem in the short-term.

(The clinic) provides a link to the hospital, to the emergency room and to the community, Willis said. And that link is for patients who dont have a primary care provider, or who come into the hospital and have no follow-up providers.

The ability to follow-up with patients after treating them in the hospital is one of the most important aspects of the clinic, Withey said.

Its nice to be able to follow them throughout their progress in an outpatient setting after weve just stabilized them in the hospital, she said.

There is a large underprivileged population in the region that needs to be served, Rai said, and the clinic is part of St. Francis-Emorys plan to meet that need.

Residency programs generally cater to communities, Conteh said. People who do not have insurance, for example, can easily walk into the community hospital and walk into the resident clinic.

As faculty, Willis will be overseeing the residents work at the clinic.

Their young eyes along with my old eyes are able to do a really great job in terms of evaluating our patients, Willis said.

The residents will be very well supervised, he said, but many dont need very much supervision. Primary care is basic to good medical help, Willis said. The Columbus community does well with the providers it has, he said, but it needs many more physicians.

We want to serve the community, Rai said. We want these younger doctors to know what it means to be doctors in the community.
Despite more than two-thirds of NATO members supporting a path for Ukraine into the alliance, Ukraine got a flat no. The alliances decision at the 2023 Vilnius summit was both unsurprising and a disappointment. Opposition primarily from Washington and Berlin dashed any hopes of a clear invite for Ukraine, with only a pledge that Ukraine would join when members agree and conditions are met.

The good news is that Ukraine and its friends have one year until the next summit to persuade U.S. President Joe Biden that Ukraine belongs in NATO. Berlin will follow suit. Ukraines friends should spend the next period making the growing consensus on Ukrainian membership ironclad.

Above all, that means working to change Bidens calculus and addressing the White Houses biggest objections, particularly the pervasive fear of Russian escalation, which continues to shade every major U.S. decision.

Read also: Ukraine gets a fraction of what it wanted at NATO summit

It goes without saying that Ukraine in NATO is the single best way to safeguard the peace  both for their country and for all of Europe  that Ukrainians are fighting and dying for. They are resolutely united in seeking membership in the alliance, with 86% in favor of joining as of 2023, a serious increase from past years.

Its also promising that this shift in Ukrainian public opinion is matched by a shift in NATO opinion. Though Berlin was unwilling to break directly from Washington and call for an invitation for Ukraine at the Vilnius Summit, more members signaled that they supported such a move. France was a notable example, given that they were a chief obstacle to Ukrainian and Georgian membership at the 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit.

While the most pressing issue for Ukraine and its partners is to support Ukrainian troops with all the tools they need to liberate more territory and succeed in the counteroffensive, its time to start laying the groundwork to ensure that NATO members have no excuse to sidestep inviting Ukraine at the Washington summit next year.

Americans and Europeans see Ukrainians as courageous partners  its time to take that a step further and show that they would be even better as allies. One way to formalize this is for Western voters to elect officials in their own countries who support Ukraine in NATO.

While Ukraines friends work to bolster consensus on membership and lay the groundwork for an invitation, Ukraines government and civil society can get to work at home as well. The big three items on the Biden administrations list are more decisive action against corruption, judicial reform, and de-monopolization.

The West and Ukrainians alike favor anti-corruption efforts and judicial reforms. Ukraines government is showing meaningful attempts to stamp out corruption, with President Volodymyr Zelensky recently reiterating that corruption is tantamount to treason and that Ukraine has no more time for that.

After a high-profile food procurement scandal at the Defense Ministry earlier this year, Zelensky moved quickly under public pressure to get rid of numerous deputy ministers and regional governors while directing Ukraines Security Service (SBU) to conduct dozens of raids on allegedly corrupt officials, former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

Its also promising to see the Verkhovna Rada speaker urging MPs to resume asset declarations for government officials, which have been suspended under martial law. Requiring government servants to be transparent about their finances would be a strong signal of accountability, and the EU ambassador to Ukraine calls it a good test case for whether or not Ukraine is serious about the anti-corruption efforts needed to join the EU.

Read also: Editorial: A smart NATO would seek Ukraines accession

Recent reports that the SBU thwarted criminal groups  including those led by Russian agents  trying to steal Western weapons to sell on the black market are another cause for hope. Rather than trying to hide these types of cases, publicizing anti-corruption efforts and accountability are a good way to spotlight the good work of watchdogs and contribute to a broader culture shift away from graft.

Every country has those who will try to secure ill-gotten gains  Ukraine can show the world its one of the countries where those people are caught and held accountable. But theres still more work to do to show that the incredible progress Ukraine has made is irreversible.

Another milestone was passed in June, when members of the High Qualification Commission for judicial appointments were finally appointed. However, Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of judicial watchdog DeJure Foundation, points out that two members of the commission do not meet standards of integrity and remain marked by scandals, while more qualified candidates were passed over.

The reform is a partial victory that is vital to build on. The commission, its members, and their decisions require strict scrutiny, and the West should hold its feet to the fire while supporting Ukrainian victory.

Ukraines post-Revolution of Dignity anti-corruption agencies have yet to bring any serious charges against high-ranking corrupt officials or oligarchs, though they did detain Supreme Court President Vsevolod Kniaziev as part of a massive bribery inquiry in May. Pursuing accountability at the highest levels is the sign of a vibrant, healthy democracy  especially during wartime.

Zelenskys government has also made decent progress in de-oligarchization, though implementation of the anti-oligarch law has been delayed as it tries to resolve conflicts with the EU over how best to address the issue. Working closely with the EU and the Venice Commission to future-proof Ukraine from the corrosive influence of oligarchs will be a major step for Ukraine to join both the EU and NATO.

While some fairly point out that Ukraine is being asked to meet standards that even some NATO members may not meet, the reality is that welcoming a new member into the alliance is a political decision. The best thing for Ukraine to do is make that political decision an easy one.

Read also: Officials accused of using war as pretext for hiding ill-gotten wealth

There are strong arguments for inviting Ukraine to be the 33rd NATO ally. The best way to preserve peace in Europe is by adding Ukraines world-class fighting force to the alliance.

After Ukraine defeats Russia, the best way to preserve that peace is through NATO. Further integration into Western structures like NATO and the EU are also excellent ways to consolidate the democracy that Ukrainians are fighting for.

Theres just under a year until the Washington summit. Both Ukraine and its friends have their work cut out for them. Time to get to work.

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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Russian authorities have claimed that their air defence system shot down a UAV on the approach to Belgorod.

Source: Russias Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov

Quote: "Our air defence system was activated in Belgorod  an aircraft-type UAV was shot down on the approach to the city. The operational services are clarifying the consequences on the spot."

Details: Gladkov explained that there were no casualties or damage, as preliminary reports said.

Background: Fighting with drones is constantly reported near the border with Ukraine in Belgorod Oblast, Russia: sometimes they get shot down, and sometimes they fall either on the road or on buildings.

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!
A 21-year-old man who police say was drunk while doing doughnuts in a Middletown-area park, causing his Jeep to flip and kill a passenger, has been charged in connection with the early Sunday morning incident.

Jymier Hicks is being held in prison on $75,000 cash bail after being charged with vehicular homicide, a felony, as well as felony receiving stolen property, driving under the influence, malicious mischief by a motor vehicle and criminal trespass for the crash, which killed a 20-year-old man. It happened just before 2 a.m. Sunday.

According to police, Hicks was driving a Jeep Wrangler with three passengers through Bayberry North Park when he started doing doughnuts. The doughnuts caused the Jeep to roll onto its side, pinning the 20-year-old man under the car.

Police and paramedics who responded to the wreck were able to move the Jeep and remove the victim. He was rushed to Christiana Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Hicks was charged on Sunday and booked into prison that afternoon. Police said they will release the victim's name once family has been notified.

Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_

READ: Today's weather: Severe thunderstorms with tornado possible for Delaware on Monday

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Deadly Middletown crash leads to charges for man police say was drunk
A Dulce woman has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter earlier this year in connection with a 2022 incident in which she struck a man in the head with a snow shovel.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of New Mexico, 38-year-old Laurice Montoya, a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, entered a guilty plea to the charge on May 4. Court documents show that Montoya got into an argument with the victim on Jan. 19, 2022, in her home, and she responded by hitting him in the head twice with a snow shovel, causing him to fall and have a seizure.

The documents state that Montoya stayed with the victim but could not call for help. Approximately four hours later, a friend arrived at Montoyas residence and called 911. The victim was transported to the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington for treatment by a Jicarilla Apache emergency medical services team, where he later died.

An examination revealed the victim had sustained a traumatic brain injury, a rib fracture, severe bruising on his upper body and two cuts on his scalp.

Montoya will be subject to three years of supervised release upon her release from prison, the release states.

The case was investigated by the Farmington office of the FBIs Albuquerque Field Office with assistance from the Jicarilla Apache Police and the San Juan County Sheriffs Office.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Victim died after being struck twice in head with show shovel
E. Jean Carroll is still waiting for her $5 million Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

On Monday, the federal judge in Trump's NY rape-defamation case ruled again in E. Jean Carroll's favor.

Rape using fingers is still rape, the judge again ruled in dismissing Trump's counter-claim.

The writer is no closer to pocketing the $5 million verdict she won from Trump in May.

Magazine writer E. Jean Carroll won her latest legal victory against Donald Trump on Monday, but is still no closer to pocketing the $5 million defamation-sex assault verdict she won from him in May.

In a decision Monday, a federal judge in Manhattan tossed out Trump's attempt to counter-sue Carroll for defamation.

The former president had claimed Carroll defamed him when she appeared on CNN on the morning after the verdict, which held Trump civilly liable for sexual battery, but not for rape as defined in New York's penal code.

"Oh, yes, he did," Carroll had said on CNN This Morning, when asked what had gone through her mind on hearing that the jury found Carroll had not proven that Trump had penetrated her with his penis.

"Oh, yes, he did," she repeated.

Saying "yes, he did" despite the verdict was defamatory, Trump had said in a counterclaim that argued those three words showed "actual malice and ill will with an intent to significantly and spitefully harm and attack" Trump's reputation.

US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan disagreed in Monday's opinion, which countered that penetration by either fingers or a penis can constitute rape in "common modern parlance."

"It accordingly is the 'truth,' as relevant here, that Mr. Trump digitally raped Ms. Carroll," the judge wrote, citing her compelling testimony. Carroll "squirming in response to an intrusive memory of Mr. Trump's fingers" also proved she had been so raped, he said, as did the size of the verdict  a full $2 million of which is compensation for sexual battery.

Kaplan used the same logic  that digital penetration is commonly understood to be rape  last month, in striking down Trump's attempt to reduce that $2 million portion of the damages.

Kaplan will preside in January over a trial for Carroll's remaining defamation lawsuit, which centers on remarks Trump made while still president.

In those statements, Trump called Carroll a liar, including on June 24, 2019, when he told reporters, "I'll say it with great respect: Number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?"

Trump has already parted company with the $5 million he owes Carroll. The money remains in an escrow account controlled by the federal court system, where it is accruing interest while Trump continues to appeal the May verdict.

"We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump's counterclaim," Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a press statement responding to Monday's opinion.

"That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldn't take very long to complete," she wrote.

"E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019."

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina declined to comment on the opinion, which contained a small victory for his client.

The victory concerns Trump's "She's not my type" and "It never happened" statements from June, 2019.

The judge will allow Trump to use a defense during the January trial that those statements were matters of opinion, and, as Trump has argued, "are not capable of being proven true or false."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Migrants find their way across the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass on July 28, navigating concertina wire and the floating barrier that Texas recently installed. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

EAGLE PASS  When Magali Urbina and her husband, Hugo, bought a nearly 400-acre pecan farm along the Rio Grande in April 2021, it was supposed to be a fun retirement project. They planned to open a coffee shop, a restaurant and a glamping area on the riverbank.

Then they noticed groups of migrants walking through the orchard, some leaving trash behind. So when the Texas Department of Public Safety offered to install a chain-link fence near the riverbank last year, they welcomed the idea. The fence even had a gate with a lock so Hugo could continue fishing on the river.

But as Gov. Greg Abbott geared up his efforts to stem illegal immigration at the border, state troopers began patrolling the riverbank and National Guard members sped through their property to reach the river. Then came the rolls of concertina wire that cut off their access to the river altogether.

Urbina, a Republican who said she voted for Abbott for reelection, said the day it became too much came on a late-July afternoon when she spotted a pregnant woman cross the Rio Grande and push her way through the concertina wire. The womans arms were cut and bloodied. Urbina said she called nearby Border Patrol agents, who cut through the states fence to reach the woman.

When a few state troopers approached, the 52-year-old retired elementary school teacher sternly told them, Back off. This is my property and she is going to get through. An ambulance took the pregnant woman away.

Urbina, like others in this border town of about 30,000 residents was at first tolerant, if not supportive, of Abbotts efforts to stop illegal immigration through Operation Lone Star.

Hugo Urbina, 52, and his wife, Magali Urbina, 52, at their pecan farm in Eagle Pass on July 30. The Urbinas bought the property on the Rio Grande two years ago and say they have become uncomfortable as the state has installed concertina wire and a floating barrier on the river next to their property. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

State lawmakers have allocated nearly $10 billion so far for the states border buildup, which began in 2021 and has sent Department of Public Safety troopers and National Guard members to parts of the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border, where they often arrest migrants who cross the Rio Grande and charge them with trespassing.

In Eagle Pass, the state has blocked a portion of the riverbank at Shelby Park, which flanks the international bridge, with a wall of shipping containers. It has installed rows of concertina wire from the park downstream to at least the end of Urbinas property  roughly 5 miles of riverbank. Last month, the state deployed a 1,000-foot floating barrier in the river made from a line of buoys with mesh hanging below them and what appears to be circular saw blades mounted between them.

The river is shallow enough in this part of the border that migrants can be seen walking around the barrier.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Abbott after it asked the governor to remove the concertina wire and the floating barrier. Abbott responded: See you in court. Mexicos secretary of foreign affairs, Alicia Barcena, said last month that the Mexican government sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. on June 26 stating the barriers are in violation of a 1944 water treaty.

And in recent months, Eagle Pass residents and city leaders have become uncomfortable with the states tactics or have dropped their support of Abbotts efforts, saying there must be a better way.

Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr., who in June agreed  without the City Councils approval  to declare Shelby Park private property so state troopers could arrest migrants for trespassing, has recently reversed his support, saying that since he signed the agreement with the state, things have changed, things that obviously I don't like.

Some of the critics include troopers that Abbott sent to the border: The Department of Public Safety recently opened an internal investigation into one troopers claims  made in an email to a superior  that troopers had been ordered to push migrants back into the river and deny them water, and that the razor wire had seriously injured migrants.

After placing a wall of shipping containers along the riverbank in Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, the state asked the city to declare the park private property so state troopers could arrest migrants there on trespassing charges. The city council recently reversed that decision. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

DPS spokesperson Travis Considine said that as part of the investigation, officials are looking into allegations made by five troopers.

The Urbinas said when they asked the DPS to remove the razor wire from their property, they were told that Abbotts disaster declaration for the border  which Abbott signed in 2021  allows the state to use private property to protect its borders.

Ericka Miller, a DPS spokesperson, referred questions about the Urbinas complaints to a news article quoting Victor Escalon, a DPS regional director for much of South Texas.

We do everything we can to prevent crime, period, he said. And thats the job.

Magali Urbina, who said shes consulted a lawyer about forcing DPS to remove the concertina wire, said no landowner likes migrants crossing through their property, but she also doesnt support what Abbott is doing.

Migrants wade past the state's floating barrier in the Rio Grande. Because of the concertina wire installed along the riverbank, migrants are told to walk to the end of the wire where state troopers and National Guard are waiting to detain them. Some find gaps in the concertina wire and manage to get through. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

National Guard members install concertina wire along the river bank on private property owned by the Urbinas in Eagle Pass, Texas on July 28, 2023. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

A group of migrants follow a state trooper vehicle after turning themselves in. They crossed through a gap in the concertina wire on the Urbinas property. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The T

Theres a humane way to do it, she said. The image of the pregnant woman bleeding near the river has stuck with her. Shes seen the bodies of drowned migrants floating in the river past their orchard. Last week, Mexican officials removed a body that had drifted into the floating barrier.

We cant help them all, but maybe were supposed to help some. Maybe thats what Gods calling us to do, she said on a recent afternoon as she drove her blue Cadillac Escalade near the river bank. She said she wants the Biden administration to make it safe for asylum seekers to enter the U.S. and she hopes the federal government changes immigration laws so migrants dont have to risk their lives.

Meanwhile, she said she laments people dying.

How many people have lost their lives? she said. And how many will continue to lose their lives?

Every challenge has its reward

In this part of the Rio Grande, the layers of barriers the state has deployed havent stopped migrants from crossing. They gather in a park on the Mexican side, near the bridge that connects Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras. Then they gingerly step into the river, some holding trash bags filled with clothing, bracing themselves for slippery rocks and the tricky current.

When they wade across the waist-deep river and approach the U.S. side, they are blocked by the concertina wire.

A Tribune reporter observed dozens of migrants at a time crossing the border over several days in late July. Some asked National Guard members for help, others asked to be allowed through the wire.

In one instance, a woman groaning in pain and holding onto a crutch pushed through the wire as two National Guard members watched the woman struggle. They eventually pulled her to her feet.

Migrants in Piedras Negras, Mexico, try to decide where to cross the Rio Grande to turn themselves in to U.S. authorities on July 30. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

A Colombian mother goes through concertina wire to turn herself in with her daughter and other people in Eagle Pass, Texas on July 29, 2023. As there is concertina wire installed along the Urbinas property, migrants are told to walk to the end of the property, taking them approximately an hour from that point. Many make that walk which can be difficult to do through slippery rocks in the water, the current and the inclined river bank, while some find spots through the concertina wire and manage to get through. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The T

A Colombian mother and her daughter wait to be processed after turning themselves in in Eagle Pass, Texas on July 29, 2023. They crossed through a cap in the concertina wire in the Urbinas property. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The T

The U.S. Border Patrol  which enforces immigration law along the border  appeared to have surrendered this stretch of the river to the state forces, blocked off from the riverbank by the chainlink fencing and concertina wire.

A Border Patrol spokesperson didnt respond in detail to questions from the Tribune about how its agents are co-existing with state forces in Eagle Pass.

Border Patrol continues to work with local, state, and federal partners to secure the border, the spokesperson said in a statement. Migrants are urged to seek legal means to enter the U.S. and not fall victim to smugglers tactics that put them in danger, crossing between ports of entry.

Many of the migrants said they came from South or Central America and wanted to request asylum in the U.S. On a recent Sunday morning, a group of about 40 migrants that crossed the river said they were from Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras.

Si la selva no me mato, los alambres menos  If the jungle didnt kill me, neither will the wire  one migrant said as he walked through the river, a reference to the dangerous Darien Gap, a roadless jungle connecting Colombia and Panama that many must cross on their way north.

Among the group was 30-year-old Jocelyn and her husband, Alexander, 37, who only wanted to be identified by their first names, with their 6-year-old daughter. In Venezuela, they said they both worked as civil engineers.

They said they left Venezuela because of poor public safety, lack of educational opportunities for their daughter and gang members who demanded money to let them live in peace, they said. When they reached Piedras Negras after about three months of traveling, they said they slept next to a convenience store for two nights before making the crossing.

This is worth it, Alexander said, standing on the riverbank before the family crossed into the U.S. Every challenge has its reward.

Alexander, 37; his wife Jocelyn, 30; and their 6-year old daughter cross the Rio Grande from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to turn themselves in to U.S. authorities. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

When National Guard members or troopers encountered migrants trying to cross the river, they told them to follow the river downstream until they found an opening in the concertina wire. The migrants then walked along the bank  or in the river where the wire blocked passage  until they reached an opening where other National Guard members waited to load them into unmarked white vans and take them away.

At the start of Operation Lone Star, DPS was ordered to arrest only single men. In December, troopers were ordered to also arrest single female migrants, according to DPS, which said minors, adults over 65 and families are turned over to Border Patrol.

The Houston Chronicle recently reported that troopers have recently begun separating some men from their families and arresting them.

On Aug. 1, 33-year-old Wender Quintero trudged through the water, trying to keep up with a group of about 40 other migrants. He wore sunglasses, a blue T-shirt and black pants and walked with crutches.

Quintero said he was hit by a motorcycle outside his home in Venezuela a year ago  suffering injuries that required eight surgeries and 84 screws in his face and left scars across his body. Standing on an island in the river on a hot afternoon, he said he needs medical attention that he cant get in his home country. So he left Venezuela for the U.S. without telling his wife and three children  he said he didnt call them until he was approaching the Rio Grande to make the crossing.

God be with you, she told me, he said, then broke down in tears, gasping for breath. Then he continued walking toward the gap in the concertina wire.

Council reverses decision that allows DPS to arrest migrants in Shelby Park

Jessie Fuentes fumed when he saw workers razing a small island in the river bordering the Urbinas property to install the floating barrier.

Fuentes owns Epis Canoe & Kayak Team, an Eagle Pass-based kayak rental business that he launched eight years ago after retiring from teaching. He grew up swimming and fishing in the Rio Grande.

When the buoys went into the river, Fuentes decided to fight back. He filed a lawsuit against Abbott and the Texas Department of Public Safety, claiming that the floating barrier harms his business and that Abbott did not have the authority to regulate cross-border traffic.

You dont respect us, you're making us look like a third-world country, Fuentes said during an interview at his home before he led a group of reporters and advocates on a tour of the Rio Grande and the floating barrier. Youre making that river that ties us together disastrous. Youre ruining the ecosystem, you dont care about what you're putting in the middle of it.

Other residents have voiced their anger at City Council meetings after learning that the mayor had turned Shelby Park into private property to help Operation Lone Star.

At least 500 migrants were arrested after crossing the river into the park in July.

I am deeply saddened to see Shelby Park become a place of militarization, human rights violations and xenophobic rhetoric instead of a place of recreation and friendship, 19-year-old Karina Flores, of Eagle Pass, told the council members in late July, after dozens of residents and immigrant rights advocates demonstrated outside of City Hall. Several other citizens voiced opposition to the mayors agreement with DPS during the council meeting.

Escalon, the DPS director overseeing operations in South Texas, told the council that the agreement was a key part of the states mission in Eagle Pass and without it, the community would be in crisis.

And the way to avoid that is by our presence, he told the council.

In the end, the council unanimously rescinded the agreement with the state, making the park public property again. Salinas, the mayor, also voted with the council.

Obviously if its inhumane, Im not going to say, Yes, I'm totally for people getting cut [by razor wire], he said before the vote.

Mayela Aldape, 34, an immigration attorney, at a shelter where she works in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

On the other side of the Rio Grande, Mayela Aldape, a 34-year-old immigration attorney who works at a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, said that no matter how much Texas tries to deter migrants, theyre going to continue to cross.

She said she advises migrants to be patient and make an appointment to request asylum through the U.S. governments cellphone app, CBP One. But many of the migrants have complained the app either crashes because of high demand or the 1,450 appointments offered each day get filled up, which forces them to sleep on the streets in Mexico or wait for months in crowded shelters.

Aldape said she hears harrowing stories from migrants who say they have received death threats from criminal gangs in their home countries who demand protection money or try to recruit their children into the gangs.

I wish people understood that leaving their home countries isnt easy, the trek to the U.S. isnt easy, because theyre risking death, she said from her office in the shelter. How desperate does one have to be to risk their lives and the lives of their children?

Concertina wire, fencing and the recently-installed floating barrier, seen from the Piedras Negras side of the border. Credit: Veronica G. Cardenas for The Texas Tribune

More than 200 speakers are now confirmed for the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival in downtown Austin from Sept. 21-23. Each year, the Festival engages, challenges and surprises attendees with unexpected talent mashups, must-see interviews and more, curated by the award-winning journalists at The Texas Tribune. See the lineup and get tickets today.
Protesters gather outside the LAPD's North Hollywood Station on June 4, 2020, days after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Months later, L.A. County voters passed Measure J to direct more funds to social services rather than law enforcement and incarceration. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Voters resoundingly approved Measure J, Los Angeles Countys landmark criminal justice reform, near the close of tumultuous 2020 following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and summerlong protests that called on the nation to acknowledge and correct persistent unequal treatment of Black Americans, especially in the justice system.

In passing the charter amendment, voters made it clear that they wanted more of their tax money directed to mental health care, economic opportunity and other public safety alternatives to police, prosecution and jail.

Read more: Editorial: Lots of talk, still too little change to policing three years after George Floyd's murder

A vastly disproportionate percentage of L.A. County's jail population is Black and Latino. The same communities are grossly underserved by healthcare and economic development programs.

Measure J directs the county to spend 10% of its locally generated discretionary revenue on a Care First, Jails Last approach.

Implementation hit a snag when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled two years ago that the ballot measure violated the state Constitution by locking in annual spending requirements that are generally within the discretion of the Board of Supervisors.

Read more: Editorial: Opaque county process threatens Measure J funding

But the board wisely proceeded to make budget decisions as though Measure J, and the voters will, remained binding. In each of the last two years, the supervisors approved progressively greater annual allocations for nontraditional public safety programs in anticipation of next years county budget, when the full set-aside was supposed to kick in.

And now it will. An appeals court recently overturned the trial court ruling and ordered that Measure J be fully reinstated.

Read more: Editorial: L.A. County should stick with its criminal justice reform measure

That makes L.A. County one of the few jurisdictions in which a racial reckoning and a fundamental rethinking of public safety in the wake of Floyds death may become more than just talk.

For example, when she was in Congress, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass twice introduced the important George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but it twice died in the Senate. In Minneapolis, where a police officer murdered Floyd, voters rejected a landmark public safety overhaul. And in most American cities, despite claims that law enforcement has been defunded, police budgets have held steady or have increased, in some cases sharply.

Read more: Endorsement: Yes on Measure J. Shift L.A. County spending from punishment to treatment

Now a nervous nation racked by mass shootings and law-and-order posturing has lost much of its appetite for change. That puts us in serious danger of falling back onto the same foolish actions that have long fueled a dangerous cycle of criminal recidivism: defunding mental health and drug treatment, publicly supported housing and employment development, while further bulking up police.

Los Angeles County is moving  although still too slowly  in a more positive direction. Last week, county officials began accepting applications for a second year of Measure J grants to organizations that offer programs like job training, bridge housing and drug treatment. Each of these and other Care First" programs are solidly within the countys purview but historically have been underfunded, largely because their clientele lack political clout.

Read more: Editorial: 50 Cent and prosecutors are wrong about cash bail. L.A. courts get it right

The pushback is fierce. It is grounded in the self-interest of police unions, the bail bond industry, politicians of both major parties (but principally Republicans) and others who feel threatened by the shift away from ever-larger jails and police forces toward more effective and lasting responses to disorder and dysfunction, such as expanded mental health care. The opposition to nontraditional public safety programs is adept at fear mongering and deception. It is well organized and well funded.

And some of it lives inside the county's own house. Public employee unions, generally thought of as politically progressive, tried to block Measure J in an effort to keep county money from going to outside service providers.

Read more: Editorial: Ignore the early reviews. California's criminal justice reform movement fared well on election day

But the Board of Supervisors put the measure on the ballot anyway, and four of the five members endorsed it, at the urging of a rising generation of criminal justice reform activists in organizations including Black Lives Matter-LA and Dignity and Power Now, alongside establishment players, chiefly the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

Their success, and the ruling by the appeals court, could make Measure J the nation's most lasting and consequential criminal justice reform strategy to arise from the social movements of 2020.

Read more: Editorial: There's no going back on sentencing and prison reform

It won't be automatic. The supervisors have not yet kept their commitments to companion criminal justice reforms, such as closing the dangerous Men's Central Jail and redirecting incarceration funding toward mental health care, or remaking the juvenile justice system. Too many successful programs, including the Office of Diversion and Reentry and Housing for Health, remain underfunded.

It is time now for the Board of Supervisors to recommit itself to its Care First agenda with programs that break the cycle of recidivism and make the county safer and more just. Voters rightly demanded meaningful change, and are entitled to get it.

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.
FILE PHOTO: Eric Emeraux, head of the Gendarmerie's Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes, poses in Paris

By Stephanie van den Berg and Charlotte Van Campenhout

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - UN appeals judges on Monday ordered the war crimes trial for elderly Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga indefinitely suspended because he has dementia, rejecting plans for an alternative slimmed-down procedure.

The judges, who are part of the court that succeeded the Rwanda war crimes tribunal, also ordered a lower trial chamber to rapidly evaluate under what circumstances Kabuga could be released. His lawyer has previously said his client should be freed.

The former businessman and radio station owner was one of the last suspects sought by the tribunal prosecuting crimes in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.

Kabuga is in his late 80s, though his precise date of birth is disputed. He was arrested in France in 2020 after more than 20 years on the run.

In June, judges at a U.N. war crimes court ruled Kabuga unfit to stand trial but said alternative procedures should take place.

Prosecutors had argued halting the trial would be unfair to the victims and said Kabuga's own actions put him in the position of facing trial at an advanced age with diminished capacity.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Transparency in government is generally considered a good thing. But there is a growing trend in California for governments to weaponize it, to release personal information for various agendas that at the moment are trending on both sides of the political spectrum.

Real sunshine can be harmful in large doses. So is government information that is used to scorch people on the wrong side of political leaders. Three recent examples:

At Southern Californias Chino Valley Unified School District, its board voted 4-1 to notify parents if a student, filling out a form or talking to a teacher, wants to be known by a name or pronoun other than those listed on the students birth certificate or other records. In other words, if a kid is transgender, that is news to be spread to everybody.

Opinion

Tony Thurmond, the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, recently spoke to the Chino board to oppose the parental notification policy and respect the privacy of its students. Thurmond was basically ejected from this public meeting. When security is necessary to safely escort a state official from a government meeting, something is terribly amiss.

In Alameda County, District Attorney Pamela Price released in two court documents the home address of a rival prosecutor, Amilcor Butch Ford. Exposing someone who has put hundreds and hundreds of local residents behind bars was a reckless move that outraged the labor union representing the prosecutors.

The political backdrop for all of this and much more is a complicated and ongoing court conflict between Ford and Price, who also happens to be facing a bitter recall election.

Finally, there is a recent incident right here in Sacramento. An information rights group asked Sheriff Jim Cooper to stop voluntarily sharing license plate information with other states, particularly those in states with abortion restrictions that could potentially use the information to track the private movements of patients.

As a state assemblyman, Cooper had supported a bill that restricted such sharing of information. As sheriff, he apparently changed his mind. On Twitter, Cooper later said that the Electronic Frontier Foundation is protecting child molesters, fentanyl traffickers, rapists and murderers.

That is a pretty curious criticism of an organization that has been around for 33 years and is active around the planet on various digital conflicts that can potentially compromise personal privacy. And it does not explain an apparent change of thinking in his conversion from a legislator back into a law enforcement officer.

The Constitution does not mention the word privacy, although it does promote some ways to protect it, particularly in the Fourth Amendments prohibition against unreasonable searches and the Fourteenth Amendments promotion of equal protection.

If any student in the Chino Valley Unified School District happens to publicly identify as transgender, it is hard to make the case that the district is protecting this student equally by its notification policy.

This school board provided the state schools superintendent only a minute to speak. Thurmond tried to make the most of it.

We can debate all the laws and all of the policies and practices, I ask you to consider this, he said. That nearly half of all students who identify as LGBTQ-plus are considering suicide. I ask you to consider this. That the policy that you consider tonight might not only fall outside of the laws that respect privacy and safety for our students, but may put students at risk.

Board President Sonja Shaw responded. Here is the problem. We are here because of people like you. You are in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children. She rejected Thurmonds request to respond and temporarily suspended the meeting as the boardroom descended into a chaos of shouting and screaming.

What a lesson for any student who happened to be watching.

For all of us, it is the healthy kind of sunshine, when the public begins to understand when its leaders are misusing information to potentially harm members of the public, that is the best cure of all.
MADISON - The nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously approved a new design for absentee ballot envelopes that elections officials say will make it easier for voters to read and complete absentee ballot envelopes in future elections.

The updated design introduces colors to the envelope scheme, moves the clerk's initial field from the bottom of the envelope to the top and introduces a numbered three-step process for voters to follow while filling out their envelope. Envelopes come in four colors: blue for outgoing envelopes mailed to voters from clerks, purple for standard return envelopes that voters mail in, teal for return envelopes from care facility-based voters and brown for return envelopes from military or overseas voters.

The result is a clearer ballot envelope that better meets voter needs, said Sara Linski, information technology manager for the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

WEC staff gathered feedback from more than 250 voters and local election officials in at least 11 communities statewide during an absentee ballot envelope usability testing period from late May to mid-July. Feedback was generally positive, though the WEC made some minor language changes and added a warning icon to the witness certification section to address concerns raised during the testing process.

Diana Dykstra, clerk and treasurer for the Village of Mukwonago, said witness certifications were the "number one reason" why she had to reject absentee ballots at the polls. She said the new envelope design will reduce errors, which in turn will increase security at the polls.

"If you're getting [the ballot] a day before election day, there's not much room for us to try to get that voter to come back in and correct that error," Dykstra said. "The whole goal here is to make everyone's vote count."

Commissioners also weighed whether printing color envelopes would increase costs for local government. But cost estimates varied among clerks statewide, Linksi said, with one clerk reporting envelope costs could double while another expected their costs to decrease.

Additionally, the committee's finalized motion introduced a two-color scheme for outgoing envelopes, with most of the envelope features being blue but the wavy "Official Election Mail" logo colored red.

The suggestion for the change came from Commissioner Robert Spindell, who was concerned a blue envelope with a grey logo could sow confusion among voters because blue is a color commonly associated with the Democratic Party. Spindell has previously made comments praising Republican campaign efforts that he said discouraged Black voter turnout in Milwaukee.

WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe said she did not know what the cost effects would be of introducing a second color for the logo. She said one vendor expected an additional color to increase costs but lacked enough data to make an assertion.

Commissioners also voted Friday to include a warning for clerks not to buy absentee envelopes for years out in the event state lawmakers change design requirements.

Republican lawmakers introduced a bill last month that would require watermarks on absentee ballots. Local clerks said the watermarks would pose additional challenges, including deciding how many watermarked absentee ballots to purchase and ensuring that the machines could count the ballots accurately.

Municipal clerks will be required to use the new envelope designs beginning in the February 2024 spring primary.

Editor's note: This article was updated to clarify changes were made to absentee ballot envelopes, not absentee ballots.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin elections officials approve redesign of absentee ballot envelopes
Gazan teenagers create mosaic murals to revive Palestinian heritage

Xinhua) 08:59, August 07, 2023

A Palestinian teenager is seen putting her finishing touches on a big mosaic-colored mural, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 1, 2023. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Inspired by Byzantine-style mosaic art, two Palestinian teens, Lama al-Aqqad and Ahmed Ibrahim, were busy finishing a large mural depicting a woman in a traditional Palestinian dress, swapping a long scarf.

For the past five months, the two, along with some 13 other teens from Gaza, have been working on at least 20,000 small pieces of colored stones and ceramics in a youth artist workshop set up in the headquarters of Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), a Gaza-based non-profit organization.

They spend at least eight hours per day cutting hundreds of colored ceramics, using primitive hand tools such as pliers and cutters.

Photo shows the hand of a Palestinian teenager putting his finishing touches on a big mosaic-colored mural, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 1, 2023. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

As they made final touches to the mural, the vivid image of a young Palestinian lady wearing traditional clothing appeared on the workbench.

Named "Talhameia Woman," the mosaic portrait of a fictional but collective image of women from Bethlehem in the West Bank aims to bring viewers close to the rich cultural heritage of the local Palestinian people.

"Our female ancestors used to wear their own traditional embroidered dresses. Each Palestinian city has its distinguished clothing," al-Aqqad told Xinhua, referring to the word Talhameia, which means people from Bethlehem.

"Although it is too hard to manage and deal with such a large number of pieces, we are happy to be a part of a process to keep the heritage, which lasts for thousands of years, alive," she said in front of the mural.

Once finished, the portrait and other murals will be installed in the CFTA headquarters and other public spaces in the coastal enclave.

"Not only our traditional costumes have disappeared, but also most of our heritage became rarely known as the people gave up reading history books and instead spent hours per day immersed in a digital world," Ibrahim told Xinhua while grasping some colored stones in his hands.

Palestinian teenagers are seen putting their finishing touches on a big mosaic-colored mural, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 1, 2023. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

About 18 months ago, the fifteen teenagers visited archaeological sites in Gaza, which can date back to the Byzantine and Roman eras, in an activity organized by the CFTA to raise young Gazans' cultural awareness, said Mohammed Abu Lahia, supervisor of the art department in the association.

Palestinian teenagers are seen putting their finishing touches on a big mosaic-colored mural, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 1, 2023. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

"They loved the mosaic arts used in producing various floors, images, and murals in these sites and were marveled at the rich artistic elements in them," Abu Lahia told Xinhua.

Being inspired, the students urged the CFTA to set up a workshop to allow them to create their own mosaic murals in the traditional Palestinian way.

During the visit, the teenagers noticed that the mosaic floors and images have not been affected by climate and erosion even though more than 4,000 years have passed, as he said.

"Amazed at the incredible arts in the archeological sites, the teenagers suggested we also produce mosaic murals," Abu Lahia added.

The 15 students were then involved in an eight-month intensive educational course on producing mosaic paintings in 2022.

"They started by producing small mosaic figures and became more professional in producing bigger ones after day-by-day training," Abu Lahia explained.

The Palestine Sunbird, the Gaza Sea, an olive tree, an elderly man, and Al-Aqsa Mosque are also being depicted in the big mosaic murals, he noted.

He expected to finish all murals by the end of this year and hold a public exhibition to allow the locals to enjoy such incredible art and reflect upon the rich Palestinian heritage.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Looking for a job, but need to find one that actually pays enough? Finding a job to support you and your family without a long list of requirements can be difficult.

The Bellingham Herald has searched the job website Indeed and local Craigslist listings to find positions with minimal requirements that are available as of Monday, Aug. 7, that advertise wages at or above living wages:

Kitchen staff positions at Silver Reef Casino

 $23 - $25+ per hour depending on experience, plus a $500 hiring bonus

 Full-time

 No requirements listed

Sales supervisor at Kohls

 $20.75 - $32.20 per hour

 Full-time

 Must be at least 18 years old

Receptionist at Axiom Construction & Consulting LLC

 $20 - $23 per hour

 Full-time

 Requirements: high school diploma and valid drivers license

Entry-level machine operator at Lynden Door

 $21.10 per hour

 Full-time

 No requirements listed

Customer service call center representative

 $21 per hour

 Full-time

 Requirements: high school diploma or GED, must be at least 18 years old and type 40 words per minute.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculated the living wage by county by evaluating typical expenses to find how much an individual must make hourly to support themselves, or multiple children or dependents in a full-time job.

MIT records living wages for individuals, couples and families that vary based on the number of dependents, number of children and the number of adults who are working:

 Whatcom Countys living wage for an individual with no dependents is $17.47 per hour, working full time.

 For a household with two adults, no children, and only one individual working, a living wage in Whatcom County is $27.62 per hour.

 For a household with two adults, no children and both adults working, the living wage is $13.81 per hour.

 For a household with two adults, one child, and only one adult working, the living wage is $34.53 per hour. If this household had two children the living wage would be $39.51 an hour.

 For a household with two adults and two children and both adults working, the living wage is $25.98 per hour. If the family had three children, both individuals would need to make $32.10 per hour.

As Washington states minimum wage is $15.74 per hour, this amount is not considered a living wage in Whatcom County unless you have multiple adults working in a household with no dependents.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defies environmental protests against the felling of trees for the expansion of a coal mine in southwest Turkey and says the campaigns cannot be explained with love for nature (BULENT KILIC)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday dismissed environmental protests over the felling of trees to expand a coal mine in southwest Turkey, saying the campaign was led by "marginals".

Dramatic scenes have emerged since July 24 when Akbelen forest in the Milas district of the Aegean province of Mugla was occupied by villagers and activists trying to stop the trees from being felled by the mine's owner, an energy company close to the government.

Mugla is home to three power plants and activists say the coal mines that supply them threaten the region's centuries-old olive groves, a vital part of the local economy.

"This power plant, which produces almost two-thirds of the electricity consumed in the southern Aegean, contributes around one billion dollars annually to our country's economy," Erdogan said in a televised address after the weekly cabinet meeting.

He said the power plant needed to continue production with new coal basins as the existing reserves were close to depletion.

"Coal power plants have become once again a major source of energy in European countries after the crisis that broke out with the Russia-Ukraine war," he said.

Coal accounts for over a quarter of Turkey's primary energy and the industry generates over a third of the country's electricity.

- Protesters are 'marginals'-

Erdogan called the protesters "marginals" posing as environmental activists.

"We just mind our business," he said. "It is a fact that we cannot explain the campaigns carried out in our country by the love of trees and environmental sensitivity."

Tensions erupted last month when logging crews turned up in the forest, leading to violent scuffles between the villagers and the gendarmerie who fired tear gas and water cannon to push back the crowds.

Some activists who managed to get past the security barricades, occupied the forests and hugged trees while several villagers were detained after they refused to heed the call to leave.

Erdogan's comments come on the eve of a special session in parliament, currently on a summer break, to discuss the situation in Akbelen at the request of the opposition.

YK Energy, a joint affiliate of IC Holding and Limak Holding, which has close ties with the government, obtained permission in 2020 to cut down the trees in a section of the Akbelen forest to expand a mine.

Erdogan compared the latest protests to demonstrations a decade ago over plans to redevelop Gezi park in the heart of Istanbul which snowballed into nationwide rallies that posed one of the biggest challenges to his government.

"Although some are constantly and persistently trying to re-play the same scenarios with different skins, nobody is deceived by this game anymore," Erdogan said.

fo/ach
FILE PHOTO: People displaced due to the fighting between TPLF and ENDF rest outside in their shelter at the Abi Adi camp for the Internally Displaced Persons in Abi Adi town, Tigray Region

By Dawit Endeshaw

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A senior Ethiopian official accused militiamen in the Amhara region of seeking to overthrow the regional and federal governments following days of fighting that led the authorities to declare a state of emergency.

Clashes between Fano militiamen and the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) continued over the weekend. Residents of Gondar, Amhara's second-biggest city, said that heavy weapons fire that began on Sunday could be heard into Monday morning.

The conflict has quickly become Ethiopia's most serious security crisis since a two-year civil war in Tigray region, which neighbours Amhara, ended in November.

Temesgen Tiruneh, director general of Ethiopia's national intelligence service who was appointed to oversee enforcement of the state of emergency, acknowledged that militia fighters had taken some towns and districts.

"This robbery force is operating with the goal and intention of overthrowing the regional government by force and then advancing to the federal system," Temesgen said in comments broadcast late on Sunday by state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting.

The state of emergency declaration gives the security services the power to impose curfews, restrict movement, ban the carrying of guns and sharp objects, ban public gatherings and make arrests and conduct searches without warrants.

Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said on Saturday that the authorities had already started to arrest those behind the unrest.

Fano is a part-time militia that draws volunteers from the local population and was an ally of the ENDF during the Tigray war.

Their relationship later deteriorated, 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.

Violent protests erupted across Amhara in April after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered that security forces from Ethiopia's 11 regions be disbanded and integrated into the police or national army.

Protesters accused the government of trying to undermine Amhara's security. The government denied this and said the move was needed to ensure national unity.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Aaron Ross and Nick Macfie)
NEW YORK  Donald Trumps expanding web of legal troubles is becoming ever more intertwined.

Actions he takes in one case are coming back to haunt him in others. Potential trial schedules are starting to conflict. Even a lawyer representing Trump in one of his criminal indictments could be a witness against him in another.

In some ways, the overlap is inevitable, if only because of the logistical difficulties of litigating so many criminal and civil matters across various jurisdictions. But in other ways, the connections are Trumps own doing  and could provide advantages to his legal adversaries.

Temidayo Aganga-Williams, a former federal prosecutor with the Brooklyn U.S. attorneys office, said prosecutors likely welcome the possibilities created by Trumps simultaneous indictments and civil proceedings.

I would look at this as an opportunity, said Aganga-Williams, who also served as senior investigative counsel for the House Jan. 6 select committee. When you have a defendant thats facing multiple cases, especially in multiple jurisdictions, theres always opportunity for expanding your base of evidence.

Take a recent dispute over a videotaped deposition that Trump gave as part of writer E. Jean Carrolls lawsuit accusing him of rape and defamation.



On May 5, excerpts of that deposition became public after they were used as evidence during the trial (in which a jury sided with Carroll). Trumps reactions to being questioned about Carrolls accusations captured the attention of cable-news hosts and pundits across the country.

But they werent the only ones watching.

Across the street from the courthouse where the trial took place, prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney  who earlier this year brought the first-ever criminal charges against Trump  watched the deposition excerpts, too. And 10 days later, they subpoenaed the law firm representing Carroll in an effort to obtain the unreleased portions of the deposition, arguing in court filings that the full scope of his comments is relevant to their case, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records to help cover up an affair with a porn star.

On Thursday, a judge ruled the law firm can comply with the subpoena.

Trump is facing a gauntlet of court dates over the next year at the same time that he is campaigning to return to the White House. He has five trials set to take place between October 2023 and May 2024: the Manhattan DAs criminal trial, a federal criminal trial, a New York state civil fraud trial and two federal civil trials. A sixth trial in his newest criminal case  an indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election  will be scheduled later this month. And he might soon face additional criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia.

With so many deadlines, scheduling in one matter is likely to affect scheduling in another simply due to the sheer volume of activity  legal filings, discovery production, court appearances  set to take place within a limited amount of time.

But it is also Trumps actions in and out of court in certain cases that have begun to prompt steps in others.

Earlier this year, for example, as the Manhattan indictment loomed, Trump encouraged his supporters to protest. In part as a result of Trumps reaction to the threat of indictment, the judge overseeing the Carroll lawsuit ordered that the jury in that case remain anonymous, with their identities shielded from even the plaintiff and defense lawyers.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan cited a very strong risk that jurors will fear harassment while the Carroll trial proceeded as a result of Trumps behavior in connection with the pending indictment.

Later, in the Manhattan criminal case, prosecutors asked the presiding judge for a so-called protective order to maintain the confidentiality of certain evidence. And in doing so, they cited two other Trump legal entanglements: the federal investigation into his handling of classified documents (for which he has since been indicted) and his civil lawsuit against his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

They told a judge that the documents investigation gives rise to significant concern that Defendant will similarly misuse grand jury and other sensitive materials here. And they argued that Trumps lawsuit against Cohen (who is a key witness in the Manhattan case) heightens the risk that Trump will use the confidential materials for purposes other than a defense of this case  suggesting he might deploy them against Cohen.

And in an argument that went full-circle, the prosecutors also pointed out, in arguing that the protective order should delay the disclosure of the identities of certain district attorneys office personnel, that the judge in the Carroll trial had taken the usual step of ordering that the jury be kept anonymous.



The judge overseeing the Manhattan criminal case ultimately issued a protective order that precludes Trump from publicly sharing discovery materials and limits his ability to view certain materials.

In certain instances, Trump appears to have attempted to take advantage of scheduling issues in his multiple cases.

In March, lawyers for a group of federal class action plaintiffs who are suing Trump and his company for allegedly promoting a pyramid scheme wrote to judges in both their case and a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump brought by the New York attorney general. The lawyers suggested that Trump had purposely proposed a trial date in the attorney generals case that would conflict with the trial date that had already been set in the class action case.

A judge set the trial in the attorney generals case for this October, and the trial date in the class action case remained scheduled for January 2024.

Trumps legal thicket has also created an unusual situation in which some people in his orbit have different roles in different cases. Lawyer Evan Corcoran is representing Trump in certain matters and was with him in the courtroom Thursday for his arraignment in the election-interference case. But Corcoran is also a potential witness in the classified documents case. He testified before the grand jury in that case, and the indictment there appears to rely on notes he took in which he recorded Trumps suggestion that he withhold classified documents from investigators.

It is uncommon for any defendant  not to mention a presidential candidate  to face four concurrent indictments in four different jurisdictions, as Trump may encounter if he is charged in the Georgia investigation, where a grand jury this month is expected to consider charging Trump and allies for efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.

Onetime Trump antagonist Michael Avenatti faced three concurrent federal indictments in two jurisdictions, and then a judge in his California case severed that trial into two, meaning Avenatti faced four sets of charges. Avenatti was convicted in two trials in New York and pleaded guilty to some counts in California. The Justice Department then dropped the remaining counts against him.

Aganga-Williams, the former federal prosecutor, said Trump has the most peril when the cases are overlapping in criminal conduct, such as with the Georgia probe and the federal election-interference case.

I think that's where you would see prosecutors most attuned to whats happening in other jurisdictions, Aganga-Williams said.

Trumps situation also poses particular challenges for his lawyers, who have an outspoken client who is a candidate for federal office. When a client is facing multiple legal challenges, you have to be conscious of what the client might say that could rebound to the clients detriment down the road, said Jonathan Entin, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.



In Trumps case, as he tries to fend off a series of legal threats while running for president, the challenge for a lawyer is to see whether the candidate will not say things on the stump that either jeopardize his legal position or that might rub the judge the wrong way when the judge has to make some sort of discretionary rulings, Entin said.

This is really a complicated situation for the lawyer because the lawyer cant just say, Be quiet for the next six months to a year.
Charles McGonigal, a former FBI official arrives at Federal Court in New York

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former FBI agent accused by U.S. prosecutors of working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska may change his plea in relation to criminal charges of evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering, court records showed on Monday.

Charles McGonigal had previously pleaded not guilty. A change of plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden in Manhattan has been scheduled for Aug. 15.

McGonigal's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

Prosecutors in January said McGonigal, who led the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, received concealed payments from Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch and unsuccessfully pushed in 2019 to lift U.S. sanctions on Deripaska.

The charges against McGonigal came as U.S. prosecutors ramped up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal, was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Mark Porter and Conor Humphries)
A former senior FBI counterintelligence agent is attempting to negotiate a plea deal over charges of violating economic sanctions and money laundering related to his work for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

In January, the Department of Justice brought two simultaneous cases against Charles McGonigal, who served as the head of counterintelligence at the FBIs New York City field office before his 2018 retirement.

The first case, filed in New York, relates to his relationship with Deripaska, and a second in Washington, D.C., regards his collection of $225,000 in unreported payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer. McGonigal initially pleaded not guilty to both sets of charges  but that may change.

On Monday, Manhattan Federal Judge Jennifer Rearden wrote in a briefing that the court has been informed that defendant Charles McGonigal may wish to enter a change of plea.

Last week, McGonigals attorney, Seth DuCharme, stated that there was a decent chance the [Washington, D.C.] case is going to be resolved without the need for a jury trial.

Authorities allege that McGonigal acted on behalf of Deripaska and fraudulently used a U.S. entity to obscure their activity in violation of U.S. sanctions. Deripaska himself was indicted by the Justice Department in 2022 for violating sanctions imposed on him following allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. McGonigal is accused of having aided Deripaska in investigating a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments.

As an FBI official, McGonigal participated in investigations related to Russian interference in the 2016 election  including the FBIs probe into ties between former President Donald Trumps campaign and Russia  as well as an investigation into Deripaska himself.

Some former FBI officials previously expressed to Rolling Stone their belief that McGonigal was motivated by greed and not espionage. But his rank and access within the FBI means the long exposure for the bureau could be devastating. The potential here is that he could be one of the most devastating spies in U.S. history but theres not enough evidence to make that claim, retired CIA officer John Sipher told Rolling Stone in February.

His arrest is a sorry day for the FBI, added a retired senior FBI official. The bureau has taken a beating the last few years with Trump and others attacking it. His arrest is all we need.

More from Rolling Stone

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A former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd was sentenced on Monday to four years and nine months in state prison even as he continued to deny any role in Floyds death.

Tou Thao, who had held crowds back as other officers restrained Floyd, was found guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter by a jury in May. He had claimed that he merely served as a human traffic cone during the deadly encounter.

Related: George Floyd murder: Minneapolis police have pattern of aggression and discrimination, DoJ inquiry finds

Floyds murder by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin triggered a wave of protests across the US that eventually spread around the world, prompting a reckoning with police brutality and racism.

At the hearing, Thao said that he was distressed by Floyds death but denied any role in it. I did not commit these crimes, he said. My conscience is clear. I will not be a Judas nor join a mob in self-preservation or betray my God.

Presiding Hennepin county judge Peter Cahill responded that after thee years of reflection, he was hoping for a little more remorse from Thao and a little less preaching.

In a 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thaos actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers, Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, from the crowd.

There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances, Cahill wrote.

The sentencing comes three days after a federal appeals court rejected Thaos claim that hed been subjected to prosecutorial misconduct and upheld his conviction for violating Floyds civil rights during his 2020 murder under the knee of Chauvin.

In that case, Thao was found to have deprived Floyds rights by failing to intervene in Chauvins use of unreasonable force. It was also found that he had been deliberately indifferent to Floyds medical needs.

Mondays sentencing marks the end of the round of sentencing for all of the four Minneapolis police officers connected to the killing.

Thao is already serving three and a half years on the federal charges and will now be transferred to a Minnesota state prison to serve out his terms. Chauvin is serving concurrent state and federal sentences of more than 20 years while Kueng and Lane are serving three years.
A one-time lawyer to former President Donald Trump now likes his old employers top primary rival so much that he contributed more than the maximum allowable amount, a new Federal Election Commission filing shows. But when The Daily Beast asked the lawyer, John Dowd, why he put so much money behind his former clients opponent, Dowd had a curious response: I dont know.

According to the filing, which named 800 donors who had made excess contributions to the DeSantis campaign, Dowd has contributed $3,570 to the DeSantis campaigns primary election$270 more than allowed by law. But in a Monday afternoon phone conversation, the 81-year-old attorney evaded questions.

Asked why he supported DeSantis, Dowd first claimed, I dont want to. Confronted with his contribution record, Dowd replied, I dont know. I dont want to talk about that, then hung up and blocked this reporters phone number. (The Daily Beast confirmed Dowd as the contributor based on FEC filings, which list a hometown address on his DeSantis donations that matches his address on prior donations.)

DeSantis Affordable Housing Appointee Is Benched Just Six Months In

Dowd represented Trump during the Mueller investigation, then briefly served as counsel for Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, clocking $100,000 from the Republican National Committee for his work. Today, however, hes one of a number of former Trump backers who have shifted to DeSantis. But many wealthy donors have since expressed second thoughts about that support, citing runaway spending, unpopular right-wing culture wars, and the character the Florida governor has cut in campaign appearances.

According to the FECs notice on Monday, DeSantiswhose latest filing shows about $20 million raised, $8 million spent, and $12 million cash on handappears to have raised several million dollars in excess donations. Those funds must either be refunded, allocated to spouses with joint bank accounts who havent maxed out, or expressly reattributed by the donor to DeSantis general election accountwhich federal law forbids DeSantis from using during the primary. (The FEC notice also flagged an excessive donation from Kelly Craft, Trumps former ambassador to the United Nations; Craft did not respond to a comment request.)

Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance attorney and deputy executive director of Documented, told The Daily Beast that while these types of FEC notices typically dont pose major problems, that could be different here given DeSantis dire financial straits.

Redesignating millions of dollars to the general isnt a big deal for a candidate who is flush with cash or cruising to a primary victory, Fischer said. But shuffling millions of dollars to an off-limits general account can really hurt a candidate who is short on funds and struggling with primary voters.

Its not the first time Dowd has given more than allowed by law; FEC filings show more than $33,700 in refunds to Dowd over the last two decades, including a 2019 $3,700 check from the Trump campaign that he never deposited.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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By James Pearson and Christopher Bing

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An elite group of North Korean hackers secretly breached computer networks at a major Russian missile developer for at least five months last year, according to technical evidence reviewed by Reuters and analysis by security researchers.

Reuters found cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government, which security researchers call ScarCruft and Lazarus, secretly installed stealthy digital backdoors into systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya, a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.

Reuters could not determine whether any data was taken during the intrusion or what information may have been viewed. In the months following the digital break-in Pyongyang announced several developments in its banned ballistic missile programme but it is not clear if this was related to the breach.

Experts say the incident shows how the isolated country will even target its allies, such as Russia, in a bid to acquire critical technologies.

NPO Mashinostroyeniya did not respond to requests from Reuters for comment. Russia's embassy in Washington did not respond to an emailed request for comment. North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment.

News of the hack comes shortly after a trip to Pyongyang last month by Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War; the first visit by a Russian defence minister to North Korea since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

The targeted company, commonly known as NPO Mash, has acted as a pioneer developer of hypersonic missiles, satellite technologies and newer generation ballistic armaments, according to missile experts  three areas of keen interest to North Korea since it embarked on its mission to create an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capable of striking the mainland United States.

According to technical data, the intrusion roughly began in late 2021 and continued until May 2022 when, according to internal communications at the company reviewed by Reuters, IT engineers detected the hackers' activity.

NPO Mash grew to prominence during the Cold War as a premier satellite maker for Russia's space programme and as a provider of cruise missiles.

EMAIL HACK

The hackers dug into the company's IT environment, giving them the ability to read email traffic, jump between networks, and extract data, according to Tom Hegel, a security researcher with U.S. cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, who initially discovered the compromise.

"These findings provide rare insight into the clandestine cyber operations that traditionally remain concealed from public scrutiny or are simply never caught by such victims," Hegel said.

Hegel's team of security analysts at SentinelOne learned of the hack after discovering that an NPO Mash IT staffer accidentally leaked his company's internal communications while attempting to investigate the North Korean attack by uploading evidence to a private portal used by cybersecurity researchers worldwide.

When contacted by Reuters, that IT staffer declined to comment.

The lapse provided Reuters and SentinelOne with a unique snapshot into a company of critical importance to the Russian state which was sanctioned by the Obama administration following the invasion of Crimea.

Two independent computer security experts, Nicholas Weaver and Matt Tait, reviewed the exposed email content and confirmed its authenticity. The analysts verified the connection by checking the email's cryptographic signatures against a set of keys controlled by NPO Mash.

"I'm highly confident the data's authentic," Weaver told Reuters. "How the information was exposed was an absolutely hilarious screwup".

SentinelOne said they were confident North Korea was behind the hack because the cyber spies re-used previously known malware and malicious infrastructure set up to carry out other intrusions.

'MOVIE STUFF'

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin touted NPO Mash's "Zircon" hypersonic missile as a "promising new product", capable of travelling at around nine times the speed of sound.

The fact North Korean hackers may have obtained information about the Zircon does not mean they would immediately have that same capability, said Markus Schiller, a Europe-based missile expert who has researched foreign aid to North Korea's missile programme.

"That's movie stuff," he said. "Getting plans won't help you much in building these things, there is a lot more to it than some drawings".

However, given NPO Mash's position as a top Russian missile designer and producer, the company would be a valuable target, Schiller added.

"There is much to learn from them," he said.

Another area of interest could be in the manufacturing process used by NPO Mash surrounding fuel, experts said. Last month, North Korea test-launched the Hwasong-18, the first of its ICBMs to use solid propellants.

That fuelling method can allow for faster deployment of missiles during war, because it does not require fuelling on a launchpad, making the missiles harder to track and destroy before blast-off.

NPO Mash produces an ICBM dubbed the SS-19 which is fuelled in the factory and sealed shut, a process known as "ampulisation" that yields a similar strategic result.

"It's hard to do because rocket propellant, especially the oxidiser, is very corrosive," said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

"North Korea announced that it was doing the same thing in late 2021. If NPO Mash had one useful thing for them, that would be top of my list," he added.

(Reporting by James Pearson in London and Christopher Bing in Washington; editing by Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell)
William Friedkin, the groundbreaking director of 'The Exorcist' and 'The French Connection,' posing in June 1999 with his wife Sherry Lansing (L) and actress Linda Blair, who played the demonically possessed 12-year-old at the heart of 'The Exorcist' (Chris Delmas)

William Friedkin, the groundbreaking US director of "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," died on Monday, a family friend told AFP. He was 87.

Friedkin passed away in Los Angeles after suffering unspecified health issues in recent years, said Stephen Galloway, a former Hollywood Reporter executive editor.

"He died this morning," confirmed Galloway, after speaking with Friedkin's wife.

The director had "been working until a few weeks ago," but "had been in declining health," he added.

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro led the tributes on Monday, calling Friedkin "one of the Gods of Cinema."

"Cinema has lost a true Scholar and I have lost a dear, loyal and true friend," he wrote on social media.

Fellow horror director Eli Roth posted a tribute on Instagram to "one of the most impactful directors of all time" who "set the course of my life in a different direction."

Actor Elijah Wood described Friedkin as "a true cinematic master whose influence will continue to extend forever."

Friedkin was among a crop of influential young "New Hollywood" directors in the 1970s who fundamentally reshaped the US film industry, upsetting a long-established system in which powerful studio producers had reigned supreme.

Alongside fellow auteurs such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, Friedkin exploded onto the Hollywood scene in 1971 with the gritty cop drama "The French Connection."

It won five Oscars, including for best director and best picture.

Friedkin followed that up with "The Exorcist," in 1973. It was a huge commercial and critical hit, as well as being deeply controversial.

The shocking film about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning two, and grossed an eventual $440 million.

The movie has spawned multiple sequels, including an upcoming trilogy from horror producer Jason Blum in which Ellen Burstyn returns as the original film's heroine.

In a statement Monday, Blum said he was "personally indebted" to Friedkin.

"More than any other filmmaker, he changed both the way directors approached horror films and also the perception of horror films in the broader culture," he said in a statement obtained by trade website Deadline.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of his passing and intensely grateful for the body of work he has left behind."

Following the stratospheric success of "The Exorcist," Friedkin's career went into sharp decline.

He released "Sorcerer" in 1977 -- a hugely expensive flop in its time, although fans such as bestselling horror author Stephen King praised the film in tributes Monday.

"Very sorry to hear of the passing of William Friedkin, a deeply talented filmmaker," King wrote. "THE EXORCIST is great, but for me the real classic was SORCERER."

Friedkin continued directing well into his 80s.

His final film, "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," starring Kiefer Sutherland, is set to premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival.

"Working with William Friedkin was one of the great honors of my career," Sutherland said in a statement. "My condolences go to Sherry and his family."

Friedkin, who was once married to French actress Jeanne Moreau, is survived by his fourth wife, Sherry Lansing -- a former Paramount Pictures studio chief -- and two sons.

amz/bbk
Two years ago, in the midst of the U.S. militarys frantic withdrawal from its two-decade war in Afghanistan, the Air Force unveiled a new, sweeping effort to change how it deploys airmen overseas.

The Air Forces force generation plan, or AFFORGEN, aims to lay the foundation for the shrinking service to take on a faster, less predictable era of warfare after more than 20 years in multiple conflicts across the greater Middle East.

For Expeditionary Center airmen, a new challenge in the Pacific

No longer would airmen be thrown into rotation after rotation, wearing down people and planes and leaving little time for training or home life. Under AFFORGEN, the service wants airmen to spend 18 months in increasingly intensive training before entering a six-month stretch when they can deploy on short notice.

Each step of the four-part program lasts six months, meaning units would ideally go more than a year between deployments. Aircrews and maintainers have already started heading overseas under that model, for taskings such as the NATO air patrols to keep Russian jets from threatening Europe.

While we are making progress on how we are generating forces, we still need to work on how we present forces to the joint force, Air Force spokesperson Capt. Rachel Salpietra said in an email. We also need to work on how we are training forces to work together as task-organized teams.

Now the service is preparing to introduce a central tenet of the AFFORGEN plan. Starting in October, it will begin dispatching new groups known as expeditionary air base teams to replace air expeditionary wings after more than 20 years.

The Air Force has used air expeditionary wings since the 1990s, when they became a way to keep several different air capabilities at one base to quickly react to crises in a region. Staff at those bases were chosen piecemeal from various wings. After they were picked, theyd start to train on the skills they needed to be certified to deploy.

That model served as the Air Forces main means of projecting power throughout the War on Terror, at installations like Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

An Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker refuels a F-15E Strike Eagle April 19 during exercise Southern Strike, which focused on Agile Combat Employment. (Staff Sgt. Ashley Sokolov/Air Force)

Cohesive teams

Now service leaders envision sending airmen to existing bases  or to new camps set up on the fly  in teams that are small enough to be flexible and trained in a wide variety of jobs  which the Air Force calls agile combat employment.

But instead of bringing together airmen from several wings, the Air Force will send out a group of people from the same base, known as an expeditionary air base team. Each will be composed of engineers and other personnel who can prepare a base for flight operations, the supporting airmen needed to run the base, and leadership  the wing commander, a command chief and wing staff.

Those teams can also pull from units at nearby installations, to improve regional training inside the U.S. before going overseas, the service said in a March video.

Ten different expeditionary air base groups will be available to deploy at any given time, depending on what capabilities regional commanders need. Once a site is established, the Air Force can bring in airmen with other skills as needed.

Its motivation is twofold: to shrink the footprint of existing brick-and-mortar bases that could become targets; and to capitalize on the camaraderie and trust of airmen who have lived and worked together stateside.

It also makes what the Air Force has to offer clearer to the other military branches, when the Joint Staff or a combatant commander is considering what combination of forces to throw at a problem.

It is sometimes difficult to convey a finite capacity, especially within base operating support, Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, deputy commander of Air Forces Central, said at a conference in March. Its very easy to go, We have this many fighter squadrons. This many are deployed already. This is how many we need in a reset phase. 

Pieces of the puzzle

Expeditionary air base teams are the next step of the Air Forces vision for force elements, or components that comprise a deployed force.

Those seven components include: airmen who open, establish, operate and grow a base; a leadership command-and-control team; a mission generation team of pilots, maintainers and other aircrew; and rapid-reaction forces.

Airmen with the 62nd Airlift Wing return to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., April 4. The deployment was the wings first under the Force Generation model to U.S. Central Command, European Command and Africa Command. (Senior Airman Callie Norton/Air Force)

Were no longer focusing on individual flights, squadrons, groups or wings, but on force elements, Air Combat Command, which manages most of the services deployed aircraft, told Defense Daily in 2021. Force elements are a composition of multiple [specialties] that [represent] an operational capability and are aligned to the Air Forces assigned roles and missions.

Some airmen are optimistic about the changes so far; others say its simply a rebranded version of the past that wont affect their deployments.

Some fields will still need to support more frequently or have different dwell cycles, Air Force Reddit user KlaussVonUllr commented. There are a lot of pros. Big picture, I think its a great model.

Im tired of being a reactionary force, Reddit user b3lkin1n added. Let us train constantly and be ready.  You are a soldier/Marine before your [job] and they are all trained to fight. Why cant we?

Easing the burden

Lt. Gen. John Healy, the head of the Air Force Reserve, noted at a conference in March that more predictability in uniform will lend the Reserves part-time airmen more stability at their civilian jobs.

Air National Guard boss Lt. Gen. Michael Loh added that while AFFORGEN may not help the Guards around-the-clock operations in their home states, it would ease the burden of overseas ops.

The uncertainty of deploying that came from the previous model put a lot of stress on the [medical group] to medically clear airmen in time, said Lt. Col. John Smith, a squadron commander in the 87th Medical Group at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, in a release. With AFFORGENs deployment cycles, were able to plan ahead from a medical standpoint and maintain a ready force.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Daniel Webber, 773rd Civil Engineer Squadron, cuts a two-by-four on a glide miter at Camp Mad Bull on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June 14. As part of Force Generation and Agile Combat Employment training, Webber produced support beams for structures during a three-day bivouac exercise. (Airman 1st Class Johnny Diaz/Air Force)

Still, airmen in the mobility community have complained on social media that the seemingly never-ending pace of cargo and refueling operations mean they still travel more than they rest.

When asked if AFFORGEN is taking a backseat to real-world demands, Air Mobility Command spokesperson Lindsey Wilkinson said airlift and tanker crews are adopting it like the rest of the force.

But, she noted, those airmen are also beholden to the daily needs of U.S. Transportation Command, as they were before AFFORGEN began.

Like the Air National Guards 24/7 operations, that means mobility airmen still have to help ferry the joint force and U.S. leaders around the world  even if they arent stationed outside the U.S.

Salpietra acknowledged that means mobility aircrews will have to be uniquely managed to optimize readiness while fulfilling TRANSCOMs mission.

Short-notice deployments will always be a fact of life in the Air Force, she said. AFFORGEN provides us with a tool for selecting those units best able to meet the operational requirements, while communicating the risks associated with doing so.

Changes in training

AFFORGEN has also spurred the service to revamp airmens pre-deployment training. Rather than wait to get called up to get up to speed on skills, from cross-cultural communication to survival tactics, the Air Force is trying to spread that work across 18 months.

F-15E Strike Eagles assigned to the 94th Fighter Squadron fly in formation with Arctic allies and partners during Arctic Challenge Exercise 2023 on June 1. (Courtesy photo via Air Force)

The active duty Air Force must adopt the Ready Airman Training framework by October 2024, while the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard have another two years.

How much training an airman has to do depends on how up-to-date they are on those skills. That ranges from 15 hours for people in staff jobs or who are nondeployable, to 40 hours for those deemed inexperienced.

Though the Air Force has tried not to be too prescriptive in how units should check off those training requirements, some airmen are confused about whats expected of them.

The vague training requirements are the most annoying, such as the 4-8 small-arms requirements with no set standard on how to accomplish most of them, Reddit user MisterHEPennyPacker wrote.

Maj. Gen. Albert Miller, the services training and readiness director, told Air Force Times last year that a unit could bake lessons in proper handling, sight alignment and clearing barrels into an exercise, or invite an expert to discuss it at a commanders call.

Its little reminders of what they learned when they were at the range [in] the initial training, to keep that level of readiness up over time, he said.

Some units have begun parlaying those instructions into new learning opportunities.

For example, a group of engineers from Californias Beale AFB recently learned their way around search-and-rescue helicopters in a cursory rotary-wing safety course  information that could come in handy if a deployment requires them to fly on an HH-60.

In another instance, the Air Force Civil Engineer Center tried out a crash course in airfield repair for airmen from other careers.

Tracking progress

Whether AFFORGEN will have a sizable impact on airmens well-being and military readiness remains to be seen. The service will start tracking metrics on training, maintenance and more later in the rollout, Salpietra said.

Staff Sgt. Norberto Gonzalez, Senior Airman Curtis Rhoden and Airman 1st Class Katlin Anders, with the 48th Civil Engineer Squadron at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom, work on a mobile aircraft arresting system April 25 during Civil Engineer Readiness Challenge IX on Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. (Samuel Robbins/Air Force)

Force Generation hasnt been in place long enough to know how it affects readiness metrics, like mission-capable rates  the percentage of a fleet that can perform at least one of their core missions, she said.

When the initiative will fully come to fruition remains to be seen. The Air Force first estimated it would be ready for initial operations in 2023; it recently told Congress that deadline would come in 2024. Its unclear what the service wants to accomplish as part of that milestone.

Salpietra said Air Force leaders would assess AFFORGENs progress so far and flesh out future benchmarks at the services Corona conference of general officers, which was held June 12-15 in Florida.

At Corona and beyond, theyll try to answer the questions that stand in the way of making AFFORGEN a sustainable reality.

How do you pull that manpower out of squadrons, to build teams that can train together and deploy together as teams, without an excessive impact to the installation? Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, the Air Forces operations director, said in March. Frankly, that is the central question.

Air Force Senior Airman Sean Wilson, 628th Comptroller Squadron financial services technician, participates in Ready Airmen Training at Joint Base Charleston, S,C., March 2. (Staff Sgt. Bailee Ann Darbasie/Air Force)

Filling in for those airmen while theyre away could be a job for the Air Force Reserve.

I received calls from more than one [major command] saying, Hey, can you help a brother out? Healy said. I think itll be clunky going out of the box, but  I see a lot of opportunity there.
Former President Donald Trump's attorney John Lauro on Sunday went on five Sunday morning shows to insist that his client's Jan. 6 scheme was not a crime because it was merely "aspirational."

"What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything," Lauro told CNN. "He asked him in an aspirational way."

Lauro used a similar line when asked about Trump's call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to "find" enough votes to overturn his loss in the state.

"That wasn't a threat at all," Lauro told NBC News. "What he was asking for is for Raffensperger to get to the truth... That was an aspirational ask."

WATCH: Why did fmr. Pres. Trump threaten Georgia Sec. of State Raffensperger with a criminal charge? @chucktodd asks.



Trump lawyer John Lauro: "That wasn't a threat at all. ... He was asking for [him] to get the truth. ... That was an aspirational ask." pic.twitter.com/fqAOqlCOda  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 6, 2023

Lauro went on to claim that Trump never asked Pence to break the law.

"He said the president asked him to violate the Constitution, which is another way of saying he asked him to break the law," host Chuck Todd noted.

"No, that's wrong," Lauro shot back. "A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law. That's just plain wrong. And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statute."

WATCH: Trump attorney John Lauro says Pence never said he thought Trump was acting criminally.@chucktodd: He said the president asked him to violate the Constitution.



Lauro: No  a technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law. pic.twitter.com/feMuDu9N5t  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 6, 2023

Legal experts were unimpressed with Lauro's defense strategy.

"If this is the best that Trump has got, he's in for a legal beatdown by the DOJ," tweeted MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang.

"If this is their legal defense, hoo boy are they in for a rude awakening," agreed national security attorney Bradley Moss, suggesting the defense shows "they know they're going to lose at trial."

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told CNN that Lauro's argument is "definitely quite aspirational."

"You can imagine a fraudster asking a [potential] victim if they'd like to invest in a fraudulent investment," he said. "The mere fact that it's a question does not transform that into First Amendment-protected speech. It's very well-settled by courts that lots of crimes involve talking to people. The fact that you're doing that doesn't mean you're entitled to First Amendment protection."

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote that Lauro's defense "would be funny if it wasn't so serious."

"You know who else asks people to commit crimes in an 'aspirational way' without 'directing' them to? Mob bosses, human traffickers & the heads of organized drug rings," she added.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Georgia State University Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis took issue with Lauro arguing that a "technical violations of the Constitution is not a violation of the law."

Section 241, the conspiracy against rights charge that Trump is facing, "is exactly that," Kreis wrote. "When a person conspires to injure a constitutional right- like the right to vote and have it counted- then a constitutional violation  a crime."

Kreis added that Lauro's argument is "entirely unconvincing."

"Section 241 was meant to reinforce the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection and due process," he wrote. "The idea that a president can run roughshod over voters' ability to cast ballots in a free and fair election as an exercise in vanity in pursuit of power is profoundly wrong."

Read more

about the Trump indictment
An employee checks the temperature of the corn in a farm, in Timar

By Luiza Ilie and Marek Strzelecki

BUCHAREST/WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukraine has become entirely dependent on alternative European Union routes for its grain exports after Russia last month exited a year-long deal that had allowed them to be shipped safely via its Black Sea ports.

This has exacerbated Brussels' efforts to find a balance between helping Ukraine with the demand of five eastern EU member states to protect their own markets by extending a ban on domestic sales of Ukrainian grain till at least the end of 2023.

A current deal to protect farmers in the five states near to Ukraine - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - is due to expire on Sept. 15.

Russian attacks against Ukraine's inland port infrastructure on the river Danube  its last waterborne export route  in the weeks since the collapse of the Black Sea deal have piled further pressure on the EU to allow proximity grain sales again.

Here are details on how the temporary ban in the five CEE states has affected sales of Ukrainian grain and its transit to other destinations.

WHY DID UKRAINIAN GRAIN INFLOWS RISE IN CEE?

Ukrainian grain is exempt from EU customs duties, which has made it cheaper than local production.

Ukraine's proximity and high logistics costs drove an unprecedented surge in its grain exports into the five states in 2022 and early 2023, creating sales disruptions, squeezing out regional crops from domestic and some export markets, depressing prices and prompting farmers' protests.

Poland's grain imports rose nearly three-fold in 2022 to 3.27 million tonnes, of which 75% was Ukrainian grain, mostly corn and wheat. High imports continued until March 2023. Romania, one of the EU's biggest grain exporters in its own right, saw 3.2 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain and oilseeds remain within its borders by May, the agriculture ministry said. Its imports before the start of the war were negligible.

Cezar Gheorghe of Romanian grain market consultancy AGRIColumn, who placed Ukrainian grain sales at around 4.7 million tonnes, said imports continued even after the ban was enforced under the guise of existing contracts.

Hungary imported up to 50,000 tonnes of grains and oilseeds annually from Ukraine before the war. The flow spiked to 2.5 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds in 2022. In 2023 it was up to 300,000 tonnes until the import ban was put in place. In Slovakia, imports of Ukrainian grain rose to 339,000 tonnes in the second half of 2022, an almost 10-fold increase versus the first half of the year, official data showed.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE IMPORT BAN?

In April, Poland and Hungary unilaterally closed their borders to imports of Ukrainian grain and other food. Romania, Ukraine's biggest alternative transit route, stopped short of a ban but started sealing transports. In May, the EU allowed five states - Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia all border Ukraine, while Bulgaria lies south of the Danube - to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize and oilseeds till June 5 - later extended to Sept. 15 - while still allowing transit through them for onward export.

After the ban, transit surged. Transit of wheat from Ukraine via Poland jumped to over 90,000 tonnes in June from between 43,000-51,000 a month in the first quarter of this year. Transit of corn increased to 170,000 tons in June from about 50,000-70,000 tons a month in the first quarter of this year, the Polish agriculture ministry said.

Romania has shipped about a third of Ukraine's grain exports since the start of the war through its Black Sea port of Constanta  8.6 million tonnes in 2022, and 7.5 million tonnes in the first half of this year.

Volumes increased in May and June, particularly via barges on the Danube from Ukraine's river ports.

HOW WILL BRUSSELS HANDLE EXTENSION REQUEST?

On July 19, the five countries requested the ban to be extended till at least the end of the year. Brussels will review the ban in early September, taking into account harvest results, storage capacity, and the situation in third countries in terms of their access to grain. Poland, with an election due in October or November, has already said it will not open its border on Sept. 15, increasing pressure on Brussels to extend the protective measures.

Meanwhile, Lithuania has asked the European Commission to develop a route for Ukrainian grain through Baltic ports. The five ports in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have a combined grain export capacity of 25 million tonnes.

But the key issue will be the economic viability of alternative land routes, known as "Solidarity Lanes".

Ukraine estimates the extra cost of the EU transit route at $30-40 a tonne. Transiting by land via Poland added 37 euros more per tonne than through Romania's Constanta port, said Viorel Panait, the manager of port operator Comvex.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Luiza Ilie; Additional reporting by Gergerly Szakacs in Budapest and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Gareth Jones)
South Korean authorities began a massive operation on Tuesday to relocate nearly 40,000 teenage scouts from around the world, after they were forced to change venues for a 12-day gathering that had become plagued with problems.

The World Scout Jamboree, held on a giant makeshift campsite in Saemangeum on the countrys west coast, was supposed to feature outdoor activities, cultural performances, sustainability workshops and other offerings for the participants, mostly middle and high schoolers.

But complaints about conditions in the camp, as well as an approaching typhoon and extreme heat  the latter of which sickened hundreds of teens  put a dampener on festivities and scouts are now leaving the main venue almost a week ahead of schedule.

More than 1,000 buses carrying 37,000 scouts started leaving the jamboree site on Tuesday, according to Lee Sang-min, the countrys interior and safety minister.

The buses are being escorted by 273 police patrol vehicles and four police helicopters, and the participants will be placed in 128 accommodation locations across the country.

For the remaining five days, the government continues to operate the jamboree program, and we will support the participants to build the Jamboree experience, the minister added.

Scouts prepare to leave the campsite of the World Scout Jamboree on August 08, 2023 in Buan, South Korea - Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The World Organization of the Scout Movement had announced this emergency evacuation plan on Monday, citing the incoming Typhoon Khanun. The typhoon is forecast to hit South Korea on Thursday, with up to 6 inches (150 millimeters) of rainfall expected, according to CNN meteorologists.

The typhoon is only the latest in a series of issues that have dogged the event since its launch on August 1. Within the first week, hundreds of teenagers fell ill at the event due to a sweltering heat wave, with others going to the on-site hospital for issues such as skin rashes, sunburn and bug bites.

On Sunday alone, nearly 1,300 people visited the on-site hospital, according to Kim Hyun-sook, chairman of the jamborees organizing committee, and the gender equality and family minister.

Participants play with a ball at the campsite for the 25th World Scout Jamboree in South Korea, on August 4, 2023. - Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

South Korea has issued heat wave warnings across most of the country since late July, with temperatures expected to rise to 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) in some regions on Monday, according to the Korean Meteorological Agency.

And there were other complaints too, with anxious parents sharing online what their children had been reporting from the campsite  such as not having enough food, sleeping gear or even beds.

Organizers announced a series of new measures on Friday to improve the situation, such as increasing the number of cleaning staff seven-fold to more than 500.

Over the weekend, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered authorities to send air-conditioned buses to the site for additional shelter from the heat, and called for an all-out effort to maintain hygiene at the campsite to prevent food poisoning.

But it was too late to assuage concerns from other countries leaders and campers families overseas. Over the weekend, large contingents of scouts from the United States, Britain and Singapore pulled out of the event, further fueling calls to end the jamboree early.

The US contingent said it would move its campers to the US Army Garrison Humphreys before flying them home on August 25, Reuters reported.

Matt Hyde, chief executive of Scouts UK, said they had already relocated 4,500 members of the British contingent from the jamboree venue to hotel rooms in Seoul.

The reasons why we have taken that decision is we were concerned about young people and adult volunteer safety, he said in a video posted to the Scouts UKs website. He cited what he said was the poor sanitation conditions in the camp, concerns about food and access to medical services, as well as limited measures in place to cope with the punishingly hot weather.

Those four areas gave us concerns about whether young people and adult volunteers were safe, he added.

Hyde said scout activities would continue over the coming days.

The people of Seoul have just been incredible Last night a local football team reached out and offered us 4,000 tickets, he added.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday that storms headed for the East Coast will likely pause departures in and out of airports along the East Coast as airports in the region are already seeing hundreds of cancellations and delays.

The FAA said it is rerouting aircraft around the storms and will likely have to pause departures in an out of East Coast airports, including in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Charlotte and Atlanta.

According to FlightAware, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta currently has the most reported changes to flights, with 135 cancellations and 395 delays as of 5:05 p.m. Monday. FlightAware reported Delta Air Lines cancelled the most flights compared to other airlines as of 5:05 p.m., with 334 cancellations and 816 delays.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said dangerous storms with strong winds, hail and a few tornadoes are likely Monday afternoon and evening across parts of the mid-Atlantic.

A tornado watch is in effect in Washington, D.C., Delaware, New Jersey and parts of Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, according to the NWS. Wind gusts of up to 75 miles per hour and hail 1.5 inches in diameter can be expected, the NWS said.

Federal workers in the D.C. area were authorized to leave their workplaces two hours earlier than normal because of the storms. Employees were told to leave government buildings no later than 3 p.m. EDT, according to a release from the U.S. Office of Personal Management.

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for parts of Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

A severe thunderstorm watch is also in effect for other parts of the country including portions of Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Porcha Woodruff is the sixth individual to claim that facial recognition technology led to false accusations against them. Her case marks the third instance involving Detroits police.

An automated facial recognition search error led to the wrongful arrest of a pregnant Black woman in Detroit.

Porcha Woodruff, a 32-year-old licensed aesthetician and nursing school student, recalled getting her two daughters ready for school when six police officers arrived at her home last February to take her into custody for robbery and carjacking, according to The New York Times.

While she was eight months pregnant, police took a handcuffed Woodruff to the Detroit Detention Center, where she was detained for 11 hours, interrogated about a crime she maintained she had no knowledge of, and had her iPhone seized for a search for evidence.

Porcha Woodruff poses on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Oak Park, Mich. Woodruff who was falsely arrested when she was eight months pregnant and accused of a carjacking is suing the City of Detroit and one of its police officers due to what she says is an over reliance on facial recognition technology. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

I was having contractions in the holding cell. My back was sending me sharp pains. I was having spasms. I think I was probably having a panic attack, said Woodruff, The Times reported. I was hurting, sitting on those concrete benches.

Woodruff was released on a $100,000 personal bail following her court appearance on charges of robbery and carjacking. She claimed in an interview that she went right to the hospital, where she was given two bags of intravenous fluids for dehydration. The Wayne County prosecutor dismissed the case against her a month later.

On Thursday, Woodruff filed a wrongful arrest lawsuit against Detroit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The city is now at the center of three lawsuits alleging unjust arrests caused by facial recognition technology.

Detroit Police Chief James E. White stated that the allegations made in the complaint are very concerning and that the department is taking the situation seriously.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy called the arrest warrant in Woodruffs case appropriate based upon the facts.

A 25-year-old man contacted the Detroit police from a liquor store on a Sunday night, more than two weeks before officers arrived at Woodruffs door, to report that he had been robbed at gunpoint.

The robbery victim informed police that he had picked up a woman earlier in the day from the street. He claimed they had been drinking together in his car at a BP gas station and a liquor store parking lot, where they also had sex.

A man allegedly waited with a firearm to meet the victim when he dropped the woman off 10 minutes away. He grabbed the victims phone and wallet and escaped in his Chevy Malibu.

Days later, the police detained the driver of the stolen car. At the same BP station, a woman who matched the victims description of his robber dropped off his phone, according to the police report.

After receiving the surveillance footage from the BP station, a detective with the police departments commercial auto theft unit requested that a crime analyst perform a facial recognition search on the woman.

City records state that the police employ DataWorks Plus, a facial recognition company, to compare unfamiliar faces to a database of criminal mug pictures. The algorithm provides matches, ranked by how likely they are to be the same person, and the department uses this information to make decisions.

The crime analyst provided Woodruffs identity to the investigator based on a match to a mugshot taken in 2015 after she was arrested for driving with an expired license.

According to the police report, the victim viewed a six-pack photo lineup  a set of six Black womens mugshots  five days after the carjacking. He mistook Woodruff for the woman he had been involved with.

Gary Wells, a psychology professor who has researched the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, said using face recognition software in conjunction with eyewitness identification should not be the basis for criminal charges. Even if the person has no criminal intent, an eyewitness asked to perform the same comparison will likely make the same error as the machine.

Woodruff is the sixth individual to claim that facial recognition technology, employed by police to match an unknown offenders face to a photo in a database, led to false accusations against them. All six victims were Black, and Woodruff is the first woman to describe having experienced it.

It is the third instance involving the Detroit Police Department, which, according to weekly reports about the use of the technology provided by the police to Detroits Board of Police Commissioners, a civilian oversight body, conducts 125 facial recognition searches on Black men annually. The technologys detractors claim that these incidents highlight its flaws and dangers to innocent people.

Woodruff said she experienced stress throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. She added that her daughters had suffered trauma and that she felt humiliated about getting detained in front of her neighbors. They mock her infant son by saying he was in jail before he was even born.

She was so far along in her pregnancy, which made the experience much more challenging, but Woodruff said she believes it helped officials conclude that she did not commit the crime, as the carjacking suspect did not appear pregnant.

Its scary. Im worried. Someone always looks like someone else, said Woodruffs attorney Ivan L. Land, The Times reported. Facial recognition is just an investigative tool. If you get a hit, do your job and go further. Knock on her door.

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The claim: Post implies forecast map was changed as part of climate change 'brainwashing' operation

A July 30 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows two maps of Europe. One shows temperatures and symbols  such as a sun or rain cloud  superimposed over a green-toned background.

It is labeled "zondag 29 Juli 2018," or, translated from Dutch, "Sunday July 29, 2018."

The second map shows temperatures and city names superimposed over a firey red, orange and yellow background. It is undated, but labeled "Weer & Radar."

"2018 Vs now," reads the caption. "Check the temps they are the same. This is another brain washing op."

"Mind games totally," wrote a commenter. "Trying to control totally. Stand firm and together."

The post was shared more than 2,000 times in a week.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim  that the 2018 map graphics were changed to present a scarier depiction of similar, current temperatures  is wrong. The two maps are produced by two separate Dutch weather websites that use different graphics. The website that produces the map with the fiery red tones used similar graphics in 2018.

Social media post compares maps produced by different weather channels

The 2018 green-toned map with temperatures and weather symbols is produced by Weerplaza, whereas the red-toned map is produced by Weer & Radar.

While the second map is undated, archived posts from X, formerly Twitter, show that Weer & Radar also used a firey red color scheme in 2018.

Early August weather forecasts for Spain and Italy show that Weerplaza continues to use green-toned graphics similar to those of 2018.

Fact check: Subtitles wrongly frame Mexican weather broadcast as global warming critique

Multiple independent climate agencies have documented global warming driven by human greenhouse gas emissions.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The implied claim was also debunked by Reuters.

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: Maps by two websites, not altered to exagerate warming | Fact check
A Camp Pendleton Marine was detained for questioning after military police found a 14-year-old girl at barracks on the base on June 28. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

For the record:

12:58 p.m. Aug. 9, 2023: An earlier version of this article said the 14-year-old girls family was demanding answers more than 80 days after she was found at Camp Pendleton. It was more than 40 days after she was found at the military base.



More than 40 days after a missing 14-year-old girl was found at Camp Pendleton barracks, her family says they've received few details about the investigation or those who brought the girl onto the military base.

Casaundra Perez, the girl's aunt, alleges her niece was raped by a Marine on the base north of San Diego and, in an interview with The Times, said military police at the base questioned her niece without a guardian present before notifying her family that she had been found. The aunt continues to be concerned about the investigation and said she worries that investigators have attempted to lay some blame on her niece and get the incident "swept under the rug."

"[Investigators] were accusing [my niece] of communicating with the Marine, and saying that he was her boyfriend, but she doesn't even know the Marine's name," Perez said.

Perez said the family is working with CommunityX, a group that organizes petitions, calls to action and fundraisers through "digital activism," to raise awareness of her niece's case.

An online petition created by Perez is demanding that the name of the Marine be released to the family, that an impartial investigation be completed and that Camp Pendleton adopt measures to prevent similar incidents. The petition has garnered more than 7,000 signatures.

Chloe Cheyenne, founder of CommunityX, said the family has waited weeks "and the identity of the accused is still not being released, either privately to the family, to the victim, or to the public."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service confirmed the investigation is still active and that no charges have been filed.

NCIS declined to offer any other details, citing the ongoing investigation.

"As always, NCIS is committed to fully investigating any allegation of criminal behavior that threatens the Department of the Navy's readiness and the safety of children in the communities where our family live and work," spokesperson Jeff Houston said in a statement.

NCIS has previously confirmed that it took a Marine with Combat Logistics Battalion 5 in for questioning on the day the girl was found.

Officials with the 1st Marine Logistics Group did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case.

Perez said the family has received calls from detectives who said the investigation is moving along but provided few specific details.

The family has been particularly concerned that the Navy has not issued a military protective order, or MPO, which is often issued to prevent military personnel under investigation from contacting alleged victims. The MPO, relatives said, would have also revealed the Marine's name to the girl and her family.

The girl went missing from her Spring Valley home on June 10, and Perez said she spent June 27 and 28 at the base before she was discovered.

She said her niece does not know the Marine who brought her onto the base. Investigators initially told the family that the girl had been in communication with the Marine, but Perez suspects her niece was sold to the Marine for sex, though she provided no evidence.

She also questioned how the Marine was able to bring a minor onto the base.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The educational facilities at a nature reserve in the north of the Isle of Man's have been enhanced to include more family activities.

The re-launch of the Ayres Nature Discovery Centre, also puts and emphasis on the site's past.

The Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) said it aimed to explain the "unique ecology, geology and human history of the area".

The land was designated an area of special scientific interest in 1996 and a nature reserve in 2000.

'Fascinating beach finds'

The new activities at the Ayres National Nature Reserve include enabling visitors to identify pebbles found on the beach and find out where they originated from, nature discovery rucksacks that can be taken out on to the reserve, and jigsaws of local wildlife.

The displays at the centre also feature other beach finds which demonstrate the more recent history of the area, including some items dating back to World War Two, including cannon casings once fired from Spitfires and Hurricane aircraft.

MWT chief executive Leigh Morris said further development at the centre would continue to allow "more people to discover and enjoy this very special part of our island biosphere".

Much of the land at the Ayres is owned by Manx National Heritage or the government.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to IsleofMan@bbc.co.uk
The family of a Richmond County, Georgia man is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who killed their son.

On January 30, 2022, while attempting to leave Club 706, located at 2623 Deans Bridge Road in Augusta, Kevin Coatney Jr. was shot and killed in the parking lot.

The Richmond County Sheriffs Office is asking for the publics help in developing new leads in the investigation of his death.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Coatneys family is offering a $10,000 reward in that effort.

Anyone with information about this case should contact any on-duty investigator with the Richmond County Sheriffs Office at 706-821-1020 or 706-821-1080.

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The son of a well-known Spanish actor has been detained in Thailand and charged with murdering a surgeon and attempting to conceal the crime by dismembering the mans body and dumping the remains at several sites.

Daniel Sancho Bronchal, 29, the son of actor Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, appeared in court on Monday in connection with the grisly case in Koh Phangana picturesque island popular among tourists for its famed full moon parties. Sancho was taken into custody shortly after severed body parts were found in at a landfill on the island.

German Real Estate Tycoon Found Dismembered in Rental Home Freezer

According to Reuters, Sancho accompanied police to seven locations on Sunday including a beach where he allegedly dropped plastic bags containing some of the remains of his victim. Police later identified the deceased as Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, 44, a Colombian surgeon.

Sancho, whose mother is also an actor, works as a chef and had traveled to Thailand for a vacation. Local media broadcast security camera footage riding on a motorcycle together the day before the body parts were found in the landfill. Authorities said the investigation is still ongoing and that a search is continuing to locate the rest of the remains.

Police say DNA was used to identify Arrieta as the victim and that they had other forms of evidence against Sancho. Authorities say Sancho has already confessed to the crimes.

According to Spains El Pais newspaper, Sancho was seen on the evening of Aug. 1 buying knives, garbage bags, rubber gloves, and cleaning utensils at a store. He and Arrieta had dined together earlier on the same day. In his confession, Sancho reportedly told police Arrieta had gone to his hotel room and asked him to have sex.

When Sancho refused, he said, he pushed Arrieta, causing the surgeon to fall and hit his head on a bathtub. It was at that point he allegedly attempted to cover his tracks by cutting up Arrietas body and dumping the remains at several spots around the island, including in the sea.

Two women who run a kayak rental store close to where the murder allegedly took place said Sancho arrived in an agitated state at around 9 p.m. on Aug. 1 asking to hire a boat. The women said they told Sancho it wasnt safe for a tourist to go out on the water at night but that they eventually allowed him to buy a boat for $1,000.

He then allegedly dumped a suitcase containing some of Arrietas remains in the sea before going back to his hotel room. According to the Bangkok Post, Sancho checked out of his hotel on Aug. 4the same day a garbage collector reportedly found a human pelvis and intestines stuffed inside a bag at the landfill. The following day, more remains were found at the same site. A black plastic bag was found containing a black t-shirt, a pair of shorts and a pair of boxer shorts, and two human legs.

Sanchos father is best known in Spain for his appearance in El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Ministry of Time). On Sunday, Sanchos family released a statement requesting maximum respect, both for Daniel Sancho himself and for the whole family, in these delicate moments of maximum confusion.

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Fast food chains have spent millions this year on lobbying and advertising campaigns to stave off a bill that would hold corporate owners responsible for abuses that occur at franchise restaurants, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis.

Their target, Assembly Bill 1228, would hold companies and their franchisees jointly liable for accusations of harassment, wage theft or other forms of mistreatment.

Opponents of the measure have spent more than $4 million from Jan. 1 through June 30 to fight the bill, records show. That number is likely higher, but lobbying reports frequently do not differentiate the sums restaurants and industry groups have spent fighting individual bills.

Currently, employees of McDonalds, Wendys and other fast food outlets deal solely with individual franchise owners over such allegations. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, would force parent corporations to assume a portion of accountability.

The bill brings back the most controversial provision of a Holden bill from 2022 that created a fast food council to improve restaurant working conditions.

Assembly Bill 257 enjoyed more support, especially after Holden dropped the joint liability portion toward the end of the session. Fast food companies are still fighting that measure through a ballot measure voters will consider in 2024.

AB 1228 stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of the July 14 deadline for bills to advance out of policy committees. Chair Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, will likely help the bill get a hearing after the month-long summer recess ends on Aug. 14.

But it is unclear whether the measure can make it through the Legislature, even if it passes out of the Judiciary Committee. The bill squeaked out of the Assembly in April with 42 votes  just over the 41-vote threshold.

Republicans opposed to the measure continued push the industry argument that changing liability rules will prompt changes that hurt franchisees.

But some Democrats argued workers are in need of greater protection, and lawmakers could continue fine-tuning the bill. Ultimately, more than a dozen Democrats declined to vote on AB 1228, and a handful joined Republicans in voting against it.

Now, with only a few weeks of session left, Umberg has committed to obtaining a waiver to allow the bill a Judiciary hearing in August or September. Supporters are confident the Legislature will move the measure forward.

Sandra Jauregui, center, and other fast-food workers rally at the state Capitol in November 2022, demanding that fast food companies stop seeking to repeal a bill creating a fast food council to improve workplace conditions. Bill author Assemblyman Chris Holden is pushing another measure that would hold corporations liable for employee mistreatment.

Big spending against AB 1228

Fast food companies and industry groups have been lobbying against AB 1228 throughout the legislative session, although they ramped up their efforts during the spring and summer as the bill advanced through the Capitol.

No on AB 1228 is the primary group opposing the measure. It spent about $3.5 million from April through June, according to Secretary of States Office records. Thats on top of $150,000 the group spent from January through March.

McDonalds Corporation is a major No on AB 1228 backer. The chain has given the group more than $4 million since Jan. 1.

The remaining funds came from industry groups and other fast food restaurants. Jack in the Box and Chick-fil-A have spent a collective $83,500 fighting AB 1228. Yum! Brands  which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut  spent at least $33,728 to defeat the measure.

Additional opponents lobbied against AB 1228 along with other bills, making it difficult to separate the total funds spent solely against AB 1228.

Some gave money to Save Local Restaurants, the group leading the ballot initiative against AB 257. Its lobbying arm is also fighting AB 1228.

Supporters of AB 1228 have put up only a fraction of the money fast food companies have spent. But its unclear by how much. One of its main proponents, the California Labor Federation, has spent more than $365,000 on lobbying so far this year. Thats for a slew of bills, though, not just AB 1228.

Employees conduct training session at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Manteca, California, in April 2020. The chain is among those fighting a bill from Assemblyman Chris Holden that would hold corporations liable for employee mistreatment.

End of franchise model?

A large chunk of No on AB 1228s lobbying money has funded advertising campaigns opposing the bill. Digital, mail and video ads show concerned franchisees expressing fears their business model will end if lawmakers pass the bill.

The ads falsely claim AB 1228 forces national corporations to take control over local franchise restaurants. Although the bill could prompt companies to become more involved in franchisees employment practices, it does not require franchisors to change the way they oversee restaurants.

But franchisees believe this increased liability would result in corporations exerting more control and possibly lead to the eventual elimination of franchising. The business model has been a staple of American capitalism for decades, particularly in the fast food industry.

Franchises allow owners and corporations to share in the operations and profits. Franchisees sell a corporate product and must adhere to certain company standards, including operations and advertising.

Franchisors already exert control over certain parts of franchisees businesses, but their limited role in employment prevents them from facing responsibility for labor violations.

Franchisees fear in the long run, and the corporations will just start ending the franchise agreements or were not going to do any more new franchises, said Kathy Fairbanks, a public affairs strategist speaking on behalf of the No on AB 1228 campaign.

Frivolous lawsuits could be another problem, according to Fairbanks.

Its going to incentivize trial lawyers to file meritless lawsuits and meritless claims against both the franchisees and the corporations, she said.

Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Los Angeles, center, speaks during an August 2022 rally in Sacramento about a bill creating a fast food council to improve workplace conditions. Democratic Assembly members Mia Bonta, of Oakland, left and Alex Lee of San Francisco, right, joined Holden at the event. Holden this year is pushing another measure that would hold corporations liable for employee mistreatment. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The push for worker protections

Advocates, like leading sponsor Service Employees International Union, say the current franchisee model leaves independent owners to fend for themselves. The result, they contend, is increased wage theft, harassment, discrimination and other violations of employment law.

We know that these problems that workers have been raising are very real, said Isabel Urbano, a spokeswoman for SEIU. More and more workers are brave enough and bold enough to finally speak out, go on strike and say that something needs to change around.

AB 1228 represents a larger movement by labor groups to empower low-income workers, who are overwhelmingly people of color. SEIU spearheaded a campaign in 2016 to raise Californias minimum wage to $15, as well as last years AB 257 fight.

Holden and bill proponents believe joint liability would force franchisors to take a more active role in preventing employee abuse at their restaurants.

What theyre really saying is, if we do have a rogue operator who isnt doing the right thing, who isnt treating the employees correctly, who is creating a hostile environment, they dont want to have any responsibility of having to hold them responsible as a franchisee, Holden said.

The Bee Capitol Bureaus Stephen Hobbs contributed to this story.
While the Ukrainian counteroffensive is difficult, the initiative is on the side of Ukraine and things are even more difficult for Russias invading forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Argentine newspaper La Nacion on Aug. 6.

While Ukraines counteroffensive is slower than some want or imagine  all these are secondary things, Zelenskyy said.

Read also: Ukrainian counter-offensive continues unabated, says intel chief

There are mines at some areas of the front, as well as other complications in other areas... We can talk about them for a long time. About directions, about what is right and what is wrong, he said, explaining the speed of the advance.

But a counteroffensive is an advance of an army, not a retreat. And this is an important [and] positive point. The initiative is in Ukraines hands.

It is very difficult to fight for such a long time, but it is more difficult for the Russian invaders than it is for the Ukrainian defenders, Zelenskyy pointed out.

Read also: Viral video shows Ukrainian drone destroying Russian reconnaissance stations near Bakhmut

Its very difficult when you lack certain weapons, the Ukrainian leader said.

All this is very complicated. Because this is war. And I know for sure that its difficult for us, but its more difficult for the Russians. We have fatigue in our eyes, while they have fear, and these are two different things. Well have to be patient. What can I say? We must be patient if we want to win. And we want that.

The aggressor country, unlike Ukraine, can end the war faster and without [additional] unnecessary casualties, simply by leaving the sovereign territory of Ukraine, he noted.

At the same time, Ukraine will not continue the war on the territory of Russia, Zelenskyy reiterated.

It has never been our goal, the president said.

Were liberating only our territories. They (Russians) have somewhere to return to. But we dont. They have somewhere to go, but we dont. Because this is our only land.

The Defense Forces are preventing the Russian invaders from advancing in the Kupyansk, Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka areas, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Aug. 7.

Read also: Ukrainian military liberates over 37 sq. km last week, says official

In June, Ukraine successfully liberated several settlements on the border of Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk oblasts, including Blahodatne, Neskuchne, Makarivka, Storozhove, as well as Piatykhatky and Rivnopil.

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Federal workers have been told to go home early as severe weather is expected to hit the Washington, D.C., area and parts of the Northeast region of the country.

In a news release Monday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said federal employees located in the D.C. area were authorized to leave their workplaces two hours earlier than expected, and that all employees must evacuate their buildings no later than 3:00 at which time Federal offices are closed.

The OPM added that emergency federal employees are expected to remain at their worksite unless otherwise directed by their employer.

The National Weather Service (NWS) declared a tornado watch for D.C. and parts of the southeastern region of the country through 9 p.m. Monday. The NWS said widespread storms with strong winds, hail and tornadoes are likely to happen throughout the day across parts of the mid-Atlantic region and cautioned area residents to plan to be inside when the storm hits.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) also announced that it will prepare to deploy additional services.

Due to severe weather expected today, we understand many are heading home. Our trains & buses are operating on time, WMATA said in a statement. We strongly advise our customers to avoid traveling later this afternoon.

NWSs Baltimore-Washington center already informed residents of Hagerstown, MD to take shelter as a severe thunderstorm capable of producing tennis ball sized hail is moving to their region.

Parts of Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky are under the tornado watch.

Its been a decade since the D.C. metropolitan area was placed under a Level 4 risk Tornado watch. According to NWS Prediction Center, a set of severe storms brought six tornadoes to the area in June 2013.

Updated at 5:24 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Nearly four months before Ilya Dutch Lichtenstein and Heather Razzlekhan Morgan were arrested for their role in the largest crypto heist in history, they were inadvertently tipped off that they were the targets of a criminal probe, leading the flamboyant pair to toss a computer down a garbage chute in a desperate bid to stymie investigators.

Thats according to plea documents unsealed Monday, which say an unnamed financial services provider told Lichtenstein in November 2021 that the feds had subpoenaed records for an account in his name. The company had been too slow in processing an extension of a non-disclosure order issued by a judge, and mistakenly sent out a notice informing the 35-year-old hacker of the governments request.

Upon receipt of the notice, Lichtenstein and Morgan took steps to further conceal their activities, reads a statement of offense attached to Lichtensteins plea agreement. For example, Lichtenstein deleted data from devices in the United States and abroad, and Lichtenstein and Morgan threw a computing device down a garbage chute, when said computing device contained relevant, inculpatory evidence related to this criminal scheme.

Lichtenstein and Morgan were arrested in February 2021 and pleaded guilty last Thursday to conspiracy to commit money laundering over the 2016 hack of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. While Lichtenstein wasnt charged with the $4.5 billion Bitcoin theft itself, his plea deal says he admitted to illegally penetrating Bitfinexs servers and siphoning out the purloined funds. (Morgans plea docs had not yet been made public at the time of publication.) The government says it has managed to claw back most of the money.

The charge to which Lichtenstein confessed carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. However, based on his criminal history and a number of other factors, including his acceptance of responsibility, prosecutors have recommended restitution to the tune of $72 million, plus a sentence of 10 to 12 years.

But while Lichtenstein didnt have an existing rap sheet before now, the newly public statement of offense reveals he engaged in earlier, less significant hacking and financial fraud activity, including as a juvenile. In 2015, Lichtenstein illicitly obtained and transferred a small amount of PayCoin, an alternative form of virtual currency, it says. And, in addition to looting Bitfinex for billions, Lichtenstein used customer credentials stolen during the initial reconnaissance phase of the operation to vacuum up an estimated several hundred thousand dollars worth of funds from customer accounts at a second, unidentified crypto exchange.

Prosecutors have offered to sponsor Lichtenstein for a spot in the U.S. governments Witness Security Program (WITSEC), colloquially known as the witness protection program, if he decides he wants to disappear for his own safety, according to the plea. This suggests Lichtensteinwhose plea deal in fact mandates his continued assistance, including participating in covert law enforcement activitiescooperated with the feds, and gave up others, according to former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani.

It is unusual to see the Witness Security Program referred to in unsealed court documents, Rahmani told The Daily Beast, noting that any such negotiations are supposed to be secret.

If Lichtenstein does choose to take on a new identity, in a far-away place, his plea deal says he will be governed exclusively by the programs rules. That means taking on a new identity, and a near-total break with his past, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which administers the program and says it has never lost a protectee.

The question about WITSEC is tethered to a question about cooperation, Jarrett Wolf, a former prosecutor and DEA Special Agent now in private practice, told The Daily Beast. $71 million is a lot of money. If I was investigating this case, I would be having a lot of conversations with Lichtenstein. A lot.

Lichtensteins defense team did not respond on Monday to a request for comment and further details.

Lichtenstein formulated the Bitfinex heist carefully, coming up with a way to reduce any perceived taint of the funds over time, the statement of facts says.

It says Lichtenstein left the loot sitting dormant in a digital wallet for several months, then began moving the money out in countless small transactions, making it extremely difficult for law enforcement to trace. He then transferred some of the funds to darknet marketplaces like AlphaBay and Hydra, as well as exchanges that did not require know-your-customer protocols.

Morgan helped Lichtenstein launder the stolen funds but didnt know until early 2020 that he was responsible for the hack itself, according to the statement of facts. She was an eager participant in cleaning the dirty money, prosecutors say, funneling it through banks in Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. under fake names and false pretenses. They then traveled to various ATMs in multiple U.S. states to withdraw portions of the haul, using numerous cards but only one per ATM, to avoid suspicion, the statement of facts continues. Morgan also used some of the funds to buy gold coins, which she buried in an undisclosed location, the plea documents state, noting that investigators have since recovered the subterranean stash.

The two used a technique called chain hopping, which involves moving funds from one form of cryptocurrency to another in an effort to avoid being traced. It is a fairly sophisticated method of laundering money, and an important part of the so-called layering process, Wolf said.

In addition to gold coins, prosecutors said Lichtenstein and Morgan spent some of the stolen loot on NFTs, as well as mundane things such as purchasing a Walmart gift card for $500. Upon announcing their arrest last year, FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate said, Criminals always leave tracks, and todays case is a reminder that the FBI has the tools to follow the digital trail, wherever it may lead.

Tom Robinson, a cryptocurrency forensics specialist and the chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based firm that investigates crypto-based financial crime, told The Daily Beast at the time that he believed Lichtenstein and Morgan were likely identified via data seized in 2017 by federal law enforcement from darknet marketplace Alphabay. The initial complaint against the couple shows investigators tracing funds from Alphabay to a crypto account in Lichtensteins name. Far from being anonymous, Robinson said cryptocurrencies are in fact highly traceable by law enforcement.

Lichtenstein and Morgan captured the publics attention after they were arrested and charged, though the two have certainly tried to garner strangers eyeballs for years. (The two were known to walk their cat on a leash near their apartment in Manhattans Financial District.) In 2019, Lichtenstein proposed marriage to Morgan via billboards he placed in Times Square, promoting her self-released hip-hop album. Morgans lyrics are the definition of cringe, with lyrics about getting high in the cemetery.

Puff puff pass Fuck the park / its full of fuck boy sex slaves, she rhymes on one widely derided track. Im about to light it up / When a big ass horse pulls up / In a dark chocolate 67 Porsche / How much for a hand job? / Yo, Im not some kind of slutty basic ho / About to jack off a horse for a ride in yo po-shhhh.

Court documents filed in court prior to the pairs plea deals described an intricate investigation by agencies including the IRS, FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. Prosecutors worried the two would flee, arguing for the two to be detained while the case worked its way to a conclusion. However, defense lawyers said the couple had every intention of sticking around, because they had several embryos in storage at a hospital in New York in anticipation of starting a family together.

A sentencing date has not yet been added to the court docket.

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How does experience as an aviation ordnance technician or work in the airborne infantry translate to the civilian workforce?

There arent really civilian occupations like that, said Robert Kennedy, an Army veteran and electrical instructor at Home Builders Institutes Norfolk location.

Home Builders Institute is working to connect the dots between skills gained during military service and civilian job opportunities. The Department of Defense Skillbridge Program, in partnership with The Home Depot Foundation, offers transitioning service members the opportunity to participate in a cost-free 12-week program that will certify them in safety, electrical and carpentry and help place them in a job.

Three service members completed the program Friday. For graduate Donnel Holmes, an electricians mate assigned to Naval Station Norfolk, this means he is one step closer to entering the civilian workforce.

Most of the work Holmes has done for the past 20 years was on warships.

A lot of the jobs in the military are not transferable. The electrician job is  I just had to find a way to make the connection between what that job looked like in the Navy versus what it looked like in the civilian world, Holmes said.

Holmes is now qualified to become a licensed electrician, a second career he plans to pursue upon his retirement from the Navy later this year.

Like most transitioning or retiring military members, Holmes future is at a crossroads. He has the option of joining a local union, working for Dominion Energy or finding work with another company, whether that be in Hampton Roads or in his hometown of Richmond.

Now I have the experience for submarines, ships, residential and construction, Holmes said.

As part of the program, participants undergo an interview process to identify their skillset. Steve Kelley, regional career development coordinator for the Home Builders Institute, said sometimes the skillset has little to do with a service members specific job, and is more about the collateral duties they have experience in.

You may go into the military to do one thing and find yourself doing something else. We call it collateral duties. I have had a lot of collateral duties. And many of our students have had collateral duties. And those are the strengths and assets that contractors want, said Kelley, who served the Navy as a machinist mate for 20 years.

The Norfolk location begins a new class every six weeks, offering instruction to up to 30 service members at a time. The Norfolk facility, which opened in 2019, is one of just two Navy-centric locations, with the other eight being in close proximity to Army bases.

Arielle Middleton, a motor transport chief with the Marine Corps, is five weeks into the carpentry program. She is considering separating from the Marine Corps in December. Stationed at Quantico, Middleton commutes to Hampton Roads to participate.

When I was looking at getting out, I thought, What options do I have? I wanted to become certified, licensed, and really a master of a craft, Middleton said.

Middleton has been with the Marine Corps for 16 years. She has worked as a combat engineer and in motor transport, but the bulk of her career was spent in criminal investigations. But it was actually a passion for renovating and restoring furniture in her spare time that led her to the Skillbridge program.

Everything I thought I knew before was kind of self-taught, YouTube taught. Coming here, you get like the legit, This is what we do. This is why things are done this way, Middleton said.

While she has one week left in the carpentry program and six weeks in electrical, Middleton said she already feels more confident in her craft and is interested in pursuing it as a full-time business.

I feel like I would be panicking if I was not in this program. I think you sleep better at night when you know what you want to do and the ways you can achieve that goal. And even if you are not committing to a company, you are at least getting yourself prepared and set up for future success, Middleton said.

The carpentry class is led by Sergio Arman, a former Navy seabee who retired from the decommissioned Construction Battalion 2. The electrical class is led by Robert Kennedy, an Army veteran who served in the airborne infantry for 10 years.

The transition out can be hard for some. People get out and they realize what they left behind  that structure that is in the military. You know where to go, what time to be there, what to do when you get there. All that is there, Kennedy said.

But then the wheels come off and you have to find a way to continue to support your family.

Caitlyn Burchett, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
In some good news from across the pond, the European Commission has recently proposed the continents first-ever soil law, which should undo a large amount of the damage done to the land by years of intensive farming, The Guardian reported.

The proposal, put forward in Brussels this July, is a plan to revive degraded soils. Besides the immense impact this could have on the climate going forward, the new law would greatly impact food sustainability as well. The proposed actions could ensure sustainable food production for an ever-growing population well into the future.

Agriculture is a major source of air pollution, much of that having to do with soil management, like erosion and the level of chemicals from fertilizers.

Research has shown that even minor improvements to agricultural soil around the world could store enough carbon to keep the planet from heating beyond 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, which, many scientists agree, would be disastrous.

According to the proposal, members of the European Union would monitor the health of soils, fertilizer use, and erosion, though no targets have been set for what level of improvements are expected.

However, the new law would not have legally binding targets for farmers and landowners. Instead, they will have financial incentives to improve the health of their soil.

The aim of the proposed law is for Europe to again have healthy soils by 2050, per The Guardian. As of now, more than 60% of the EUs soils are considered unhealthy, according to the EU Soil Observatory of the European Commission.

If our soils continue to degrade, the biggest risk is to our food security and farmers. Basically, their business model is wiped out, EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told the Guardian. I can hardly imagine how we could do agriculture without fertile soils. The worst effects of droughts and flood can be avoided with healthier soils.

Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more, waste less, and help yourself while helping the planet.
Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk region was killed during repeated shelling

Five people were killed and 18 injured in a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraines Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in a Telegram post on Aug. 7.

Col. Andriy Omelchenko, regional head of the State Emergency Service, was among the victims, according to the message.

Read also: Russian troops attack Pokrovsk, hitting multi-story building

"Five dead and 18 injured  the consequences of two attacks on a residential building in Pokrovsk," said Klymenko.

Read also: Reintegration Ministry announces mandatory evacuation of children from nine settlements in Donetsk Oblast

"During the second strike, the deputy head of the Main Department of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast was killed. Four more rescuers, eight police officers, and three civilians were injured. Our heroes were the first to arrive at the scene of the shelling to help people."

Search and rescue operations continue on site.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Officers from multiple Johnson County law enforcement agencies were on the scene of a police shootout Sunday inside a Mission QuikTrip.

A Tennessee man suspected of stealing a vehicle in Lenexa was killed, and a Fairway police officer was critically wounded.

Heres a quick recap of what we know so far:

What events led to the deadly shooting?

It all started with reports of a stolen vehicle in Lenexa.

Officers responded around 7:30 a.m., but they didnt have to look far: Two suspects in the stolen vehicle hit a Lenexa police car and drove away, leading police on a roughly eight-mile chase into nearby Mission, Lenexa police told The Star.

There, the suspects ran into a QuikTrip gas station store at 4700 Lamar Avenue, and officers followed.

That is where the fatal shootout occurred.

What do we know about the suspects?

Lenexa police revealed Sunday night that the suspects were Tennessee residents Shannon Wayne Marshall, 40, and Andrea Rene Cothran, 32.

Marshall was killed in Sundays shooting, while Cothran was taken into custody. She was being held at the Johnson County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

Kansas statute defines this crime as a level 6 person felony, which can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.

One person was dead and an officer was injured after police exchanged gunfire with suspects on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at a Mission QuikTrip, police said.

Which law enforcement agencies were involved?

Multiple agencies were on the scene of Sundays gas station shooting, including Lenexa police, Fairway police, Mission police and the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The officer injured in Sundays shooting is a member of the Fairway police department.

He remained in critical condition as of Sunday night, according to Fairway Police Chief J.P. Thurlo.

Where did the theft, chase and shooting happen?

We know that the suspected vehicle theft that set off Sundays events was reported in the area of W. 95th Street and Interstate 35 in Lenexa, a busy intersection around 20 minutes southwest of downtown Kansas City.

The suspects then led police on the chase that ended in Mission, around 11 minutes southwest of downtown Kansas City. It was here that the shootout occurred that killed one suspect and injured a police officer.

The officer belongs to the police department in Fairway, a small city located just southwest of, and across the state line from, the Country Club Plaza.

Fairway had a population of around 4,170 people at the time of the 2020 census. Known as the City of Trees, it is largely residential and home to a handful of local businesses, such as Rainy Day Books.

What dont we know about Sundays shootout?

We still dont know exactly how many shots were fired on Sunday, or by whom.

The Johnson County Officer-Involved Critical Incident Investigation Team, which is composed of various area law enforcement agencies, is investigating.

We also dont know the name of the Fairway officer injured on Sunday, or how long he has been a member of the police force. Police Chief Thurlo confirmed late Sunday that the officer is still in critical condition at a local hospital.

I ask for thoughts and prayers for the officer and his family, and request privacy for the officers family and for the Fairway Police Department, he said in a Sunday evening statement.

The Stars Anna Spoerre and Andrea Klick contributed reporting.

Do you have more questions about officer-involved shootings in Kansas or Missouri? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
Tornado watches and warnings were posted along the East Coast on Monday as meteorologists warned millions of people to brace for severe thunderstorms, damaging winds and large hail.

The National Weather Service forecast "very active" weather on the East Coast from late afternoon into the evening, with severe weather, heavy rains and flash flooding possible from the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic and up into parts of the Northeast.

Storm clouds the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. / Credit: Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Strong winds downed trees in Maryland, where more than 96,000 customers lost power across the state, CBS Baltimore reported. By Monday night, more than 1.1 million people across multiple states in the storm's path had lost power, according to The Associated Press.

The greatest threat was expected across the southern and central Appalachians to the Mid-Atlantic region, according to the weather service. The storms knocked down trees and caused other damage in Tennessee earlier, and there were reports of golf-ball-sized hail in West Virginia.

About 30 miles north of Baltimore in Westminster, Maryland, 33 adults and 14 children were trapped in their cars for several hours after strong winds knocked down utility poles along Route 140, CBS Baltimore reported. They were all safely evacuated by 11:30 p.m., police said.

Parts of Maryland were also dealing with severe flooding. More than a dozen motorists had to be rescued after getting stranded by flood water in Cambridge, Maryland, police said in a statement.

"Some perspective: This is the first moderate risk for severe weather in at least 10 years for much of our forecast area," the NWS service out of the Baltimore-Washington area said on social media.

The National Weather Service forecast for the East Coast shows extreme weather. / Credit: National Weather Service

Federal employees in Washington, D.C., were told to go home early because of the extreme weather forecast, with federal offices set to close at 3 p.m., according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

At least two deaths were blamed on the severe weather. In Florence, Alabama, a 28-year-old man died after being struck by lightning in the parking lot of an industrial park, police said. In Anderson, South Carolina, a minor was killed by a fallen tree, Anderson City Fire Department Chief Charles King told CBS News.

Heavy rains and flash floods are a concern for eastern New York into New England Monday evening into Tuesday. Ping-pong ball-sized hail was possible in some areas.

With the threat of severe weather ongoing, there have been thousands of flight delays and cancelations, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was re-routing flights around the storms as much as possible in the afternoon, but then issued ground stops for a number of major airports stretching from Atlanta and Charlotte up through Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and the New York City area. The ground stop in Philadelphia was lifted around 10 p.m. ET.

More than 400 flights at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport alone were canceled Monday, according to FlightAware.

Parts of the region have already dealt with extreme rain and flooding in recent weeks. Several people died in Pennsylvania during flash flooding last month. There was also deadly flooding in New York.

On Monday, New York City Emergency Management activated the city's Flash Flood Plan in anticipation of the weather system.

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Wang Dan at a clothing store after rain and floods in Zhuozhou

As floodwaters recede, Chinese city faces 'bitter' days ahead Wang Dan at a clothing store after rain and floods in Zhuozhou

By Tingshu Wang and Josh Arslan

ZHUOZHOU, China (Reuters) - As floodwaters began to drop over the weekend, residents of the Chinese city of Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, say their challenges have only just begun.

Zhuozhou bore the brunt of the worst storms to hit the northern province of Hebei in decades. More than a sixth of the city's 600,000 inhabitants were evacuated.

"Our difficulties are only beginning now," a Zhuozhou resident Wang Dan, told Reuters on Monday. "What's next will be the most bitter."

All of the inventories worth about 100,000 yuan ($13,915.75) in her clothing shop were soaked and likely damaged.

"Three years of pandemic, plus this year's flood, I don't know if I can keep going," said the 30 year old.

"Now I'm going to have no customers again."

Baoding prefecture, which administers Zhuozhou, said hundreds of bridges and hundreds of kilometres of rural roads had been water-damaged, with direct economic losses reaching nearly 17 billion yuan as of Saturday.

The owner of a local packaging factory estimated he suffered at least 15 million yuan of losses.

"My heart truly hurt. We'd never thought of suffering from such a severe natural disaster," said 41-year-old Wu Chunlei, standing amidst soaked paper packages in his factory.

"This is all I've worked for over the last decade."

He said the flood did more damage than the pandemic in the last three years.

"I don't know how to face this."

Gao Dong, 53, who has been staying at a disaster relief centre, despaired at the thought of rebuilding his home, now filled with a foot of mud.

"After so many years of hard work, it's heartbreaking. Our food is all gone, and we can't imagine how we'll be able to make ends meet."

He makes less than 200 yuan a day as a part-time worker and has not been able to visit his corn farmlands, which earn him a couple of thousands of yuan a year, saying it is probably all gone.

"Rebuild home, with what? If the government doesn't help, what can we use to rebuild our home?" Gao said, tearing up.

($1 = 7.1861 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(This story has been corrected to fix a resident's name in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Tingshu Wang and Josh Arslan, writing by Albee Zhang; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
The Florida Department of Education said over the weekend that it will allow the full curriculum for an Advanced Placement Psychology Class to be taught to high school students. The decision came a day after the College Board said the state could not censor information about sexuality and gender and still offer the course

The Florida Board of Education last week said those parts of the curriculum violated the states prohibition on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation through high school, better known as the dont say gay law. While the controversial law passed last year with a full ban on those topics standing only through third grade, the state board, appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, extended the restrictions through high school in February.

That raised immediate questions about courses like AP Psychology, in which 28,000 Florida students were enrolled this year, according to the College Board. The state board suggested this week the class could be taught but with certain portions of the curriculum running crossways from the law omitted.

In response to last week's decision, the College Board said in a statement Friday, "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 state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics."

It added, "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."

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But Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz backtracked from that direction immediately after the College Board threatened to disallow any offering of the edited course.

In fact, the Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in its entirety in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our course catalog, Diaz wrote.

The brief potential for nixing the course loomed as many Florida school districts expect to begin the new school year this week. The issue also raised an issue DeSantis has to address as he runs for President.

Diaz characterized the matter as a misunderstanding amplified by the College Boards pushback and told superintendents he was sending clarifying directing out of an abundance of caution after the College Board had slammed the decision to restrict some content. He also noted other advanced offered such as International Baccalaureate were offering their own psychology courses.

The College Board has not further commented on Diazs most recent direction to schools.

Diazs letter came after the Florida Education Association, the states top teachers union, publicly urged Diaz to allow teachers to offer the full course.

We call on you to clearly and unambiguously state that nothing in AP Psychology course violated Florida statutes of Florida State Board of Education rule, read a letter from FEA President Andrew Spar.
According to the state of Florida, under the guidance of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, 16- and 17-year-old kids aren't old enough to learn that gender and sexuality have an impact on human development. Well, sort of. Florida has not yet banned school dances, where students frequently bring dates. Students are not yet required to shave their heads and wear nothing but potato sacks to school, to block any display of gender identity. As far as we know, students are still allowed even to say they have a "boyfriend" or "girlfriend." But, according to Florida law, inside the walls of a high school psychology classroom, acknowledgment that humans have gender and sexuality is strictly forbidden.

In DeSantis' Florida, AP psychology has been effectively banned in high school, rather than let students learn "how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development." The psychology class was pulled from the state due to a law signed by DeSantis last year which forbids "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity."

Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology. What a terrible decision that is 100% politically motivated. pic.twitter.com/HROTUYeW7P  Rep. Anna V. Eskamani  (@AnnaForFlorida) August 3, 2023

"Gender exists, sexual orientation exists," an exasperated Florida teacher told Local 10 News in Miami.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

The law is being selectively applied, of course. From school proms to gendered pronouns to sex-segregated bathrooms, the DeSantis government has not cracked down on every way that gender or sexuality is acknowledged in the classroom. The reason the AP psychology class has been singled out is because it acknowledges that LGBTQ people exist. Worse for Republicans, the course refuses to stigmatize LGBTQ people as sickos and perverts.

When DeSantis first signed the ban on classroom discussion of gender or sexual orientation, critics deemed it the "don't say gay" law, claiming that it was only queer identities that were actually being banned. DeSantis took offense, and Republicans swung into action, falsely implying that the law was only meant to keep explicit sex talk out of the classroom. But of course, the critics were soon proved right, as book bans came down that were so draconian that teachers were forced to put their entire classroom libraries out of reach of kids. What the hundreds of titles that have been banned have in common is not explicit sexuality. They are books that show LGBTQ people as normal, tell the truth about racism, or portray sexism as an oppressive force in society. Sexy books that are pro-patriarchy, it should be noted, have not been targeted for bans.

This attack on the AP psychology course is more of the same. The letter sent from the Florida Education Board to the College Board, which sets standards for advanced placement courses, cites a ban on "classroom instruction" on "sexual orientation or gender identity." The board has not made similar moves, however, to censor classroom materials that teach, say, that married straight couples exist. Books are not being banned for saying "man" or "woman" or even "husband" or "wife." Clearly, sexuality and gender are permitted topics in the classroom  as long as the sexuality is straight and the gender is cis.

As the College Board noted in their response, "The American Psychological Association recently reaffirmed that any course that excludes these topics would violate their guidelines and should not be considered for college credit." It's not a great leap to suggest that what DeSantis and his allies object to is that the American Psychological Association (APA) doesn't just acknowledge the existence of queer sexualities or trans identities, but that they affirm these identities as normal and healthy. The APA's website notes, "Both heterosexual behavior and homosexual behavior are normal aspects of human sexuality." The site also argues, "identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder." It's not much of a leap to say that these are the ideas that DeSantis and his allies are objecting to, instead of a general opposition to acknowledging that sex and gender are real and influence people's lives.

"This law is yet another attempt to erase LGBTQ+ people from public view based on biased thinking and irrational fear," APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. said in a statement.

It wasn't always true that the psychological establishment was willing to admit that gender non-conformity and queer sexualities are healthy. It wasn't until 1973, four years after the famous Stonewall riot that helped kick off the modern gay rights movement, that the American Psychiatric Association stopped classifying "homosexuality" as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Trans people are still often diagnosed with "gender dysphoria," which many say is unfairly stigmatizing. But there's been a hesitance to change that, mainly because such a diagnosis can make it easier to get insurance coverage for the recommended treatment, which is gender transition.

By making this move, DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Florida Education Board are attacking the past five decades of the psychological establishment affirming LGBTQ identities as normal and healthy. There's little doubt Republicans would be fine with allowing high school students to take AP psychology courses if the lessons were from pre-Stonewall days and taught that gay people are "sick." Doing so would not just be morally reprehensible, but flat-out dishonest. As both the College Board and the APA have repeatedly reiterated, they didn't just invent "gay is OK!" out of thin air. It's the conclusion of decades of scientific research that shows, again and again, that the only mental health issues that stem from LGBTQ identities are the undeserved hate they face from society.

Of course, DeSantis has made it clear that he is not interested in facts, science, or history. He believes he can and should rewrite reality to conform to his own small-minded bigotries. He wants to believe slavery was a beneficial gift white people gave to Black people, and so now Florida schools are required to teach lies about how it "benefited" Black people to be enslaved. He wants to believe LGBTQ people are "sick" and "groomers," so he will ban classes that teach the scientific consensus that shows otherwise.

This is bigotry, but also part of a larger war DeSantis is waging on the value of public education itself. Around 30,000 Florida students were scheduled to take the AP psychology course this year, and the vast majority of them were hoping to use it as part of the larger goal to get a college education. Many of them would have been able to use the high school course for college credit, which helps many kids save on tuition and graduate faster. Others were using it to enhance their GPA and resume, to get scholarships or placement in their preferred universities.

But even though DeSantis graduated from Yale and Harvard Law, he takes a dim view of other people trying to avail themselves of the same opportunities for higher education. He's been waging a full-scale assault on universities in Florida, driving out academic talent and turning the once-beloved New College into a right-wing indoctrination mill. He claims this is about a war on "woke," which is, at best, a vaguely defined term and usually a racist dog whistle. But the dripping contempt he has for educators shines through in every word he says on this subject. Education is about teaching people to grapple with reality and develop critical thinking, both skills DeSantis loathes. So of course he hates education and is just using these shiny culture war distractions as cover for what is a larger attempt to turn his state into a hotbed of ignorance.

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Removing a cyst instead of a kidney during a 2021 surgery will cost an Orlando doctor $7,236 and require more education after the state Board of Medicine approved a settlement agreement.

But the punitive action didnt address something else in the Florida Department of Health administrative complaint: Why the patient wasnt told about the mistake for two months.

In addition to the $5,000 fine and $2,236 reimbursement of Florida Department of Health investigation and prosecution costs, urologist Zamip Patel must take a five-hour continuing medical education course in risk management and give a one-hour speech at a medical facility on wrong-site surgeries.

READ MORE: A man went in for a kidney removal. Thats not what a Florida doctor took out

According to the complaint, on June 16, 2021, Patel was supposed to remove a right kidney. He took out a significant mass, which was sent to pathology.

Pathologys report two days later: Patel removed a hemorrhagic and inflamed cyst, not the intended kidney.

But, the complaint said, the patient didnt know about this when he showed up at Advent Health Orlando two months later complaining of pain. A CT scan revealed he still had a right kidney.

Patel has been board certified with the American Board of Urology since 2013 and licensed in Florida since Feb. 25, 2011. His Florida Department of Health profile says this is the first disciplinary action against his license.

READ MORE: The mother of a toddler died during BBL surgery. Heres what happened to the Florida doctor
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  Florida school districts are spending tens of thousands of dollars to comply with a new state law thats increased scrutiny  and removal  of books in K-12 school libraries.

The new law requires all campuses to digitally chronicle each book shelved and available for students in classroom libraries. Yet many schools, tight on staff with thousands of books to inventory, are outsourcing the arduous work of making all books searchable on local websites to a third-party company. Those services are costing districts between $34,000 to $135,000 annually, according to contracts reviewed by POLITICO.

We very much so want our classrooms to be very full of those books, for students to have robust access and a variety of those, Candace Allevato, director of secondary curriculum for Lee County Schools, said at a recent school board workshop. But we need to go through the inventorying process first and ensure that all of the books are meeting new requirements.

Floridas Republican-led Legislature this year expanded education transparency laws in the state by tightening scrutiny around books that could be considered pornographic, harmful to minors, or describe or depict sexual activity, requiring such texts to be pulled from shelves within five days and remain out of circulation for the duration of any challenge.

At the same time, this policy, building on a 2022 law that opened the door to more local book objections, made school districts responsible for books brought to campuses by teachers for classroom libraries.

These moves are part of the push by Florida conservatives, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, to regulate what students are learning in schools, particularly surrounding race and gender identity. Earlier this year, the DeSantis administration sought to remove books with graphic content from schools, taking aim at specific titles such as Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, which depicts sex acts.

Yet the new law has caused confusion among many school districts and has led some to remove books such as Toni Morrisons Beloved or a childrens book about two same-sex penguins. In another instance, a Miami-Dade K-8 school limited access to Amanda Gormans presidential inauguration poem, The Hill We Climb, after a parent made a complaint.



Opponents of these changes, such as Democrats and free speech groups, decry these policies as a ban first, review later mentality and censorship in education. There are at least two lawsuits, including one brought by the publishing giant Penguin Random House, challenging local school districts that have pulled certain books from shelves.

Republicans, however, contend they are focused on protecting children from explicit content and have fought back against claims of book banning.

Regardless, many expected that the new law, FL HB 1069, would have widespread ramifications for local school staffers during implementation, something that is playing out now with the fall semester fast approaching. Approved by Floridas GOP-led Legislature, it also widened a ban on school lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity and prohibits school staff from asking students about their preferred pronouns.

Officials with the Florida Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.

The key change requiring classroom libraries to be inventoried and vetted by a school employee with a valid educational media specialist credential from the state in particular has driven schools to seek outside help.

In Lee County, for example, the district is staffed with 10 certified media specialists working throughout 98 schools stocked with some 6,000 classroom libraries. As such, the district, which is in southwestern Florida and encompasses Fort Myers, had to create a local process that at times would leave books unavailable pending review.

But, since that initial implementation, Lee County has opted to join several other school districts in contracting with a company to streamline the review process. Most of the districts, including Broward, Hillsborough, Pasco, Collier, and Okaloosa counties, hired the same company  Washington, D.C.-area based Beanstack.

Beanstacks software allows teachers to scan a book and automatically see its status in the district, whether its been challenged, rejected, or approved. From there, educators will instantly know if a book is permitted in their classroom library instead of having to wait for an individual specialist to approve.

Districts are paying thousands of dollars annually to access this software, which also is set to host a website for parents and other users to search what books are available in schools  another key component of the Florida legislation. Over the summer, Hillsboroughs school board agreed to pay Beanstacks parent company Zoobean $135,986 for its contract; Lee County in late June signed an $88,000 deal with the company; Broward County already worked with Beanstack for other reading services and added another $34,000 to expand its contract and cover the classroom library services, records show.

It is the only vendor weve found that is able to accomplish this, Lea Mitchell, director of the office for leading and learning at the Pasco County School District, told board members during a spring meeting where a $98,000 contract was approved.



Although this appears to be a financial windfall for Beanstack, top officials with the company said that they grappled with the decision to offer the program, expressing that working with Florida to implement the new law tested our companys culture like nothing before. Beanstack also offers programs to track student reading and is reportedly being used in 10,000 public libraries and schools.

The company maintains that students should have access to books that provide windows to the experiences of others and mirrors to their own experience, including the stories of members of the LGBQT community, indigenous people, and people of color. Further, Beanstack said that assistance from technology should give schools more time to focus on reading instruction instead of book challenges.

While it is possible that our software may be used by some to remove books from shelves, I believe that it is already doing far more to keep books on shelves, Beanstack co-founder and CEO Felix Brandon Lloyd wrote in a July blog post ahead of the companys retreat.

So far, Beanstack is scoring positive reviews as its programs help schools carry out Florida law even with limited staffers available to review books.

Beanstack looks like its going to be a big improvement, especially with some of the instant access on things, Lee County School Board member Samuel Fisher said at a July workshop.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly described the location of Lee County.
Florida education officials and the Lake County school district on Friday urged a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit filed after the childrens book And Tango Makes Three was removed from school libraries in December in reaction to a controversial Parental Rights in Education law.

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The lawsuit alleges that the school district violated First Amendment rights when it removed the book, which tells the story of two male penguins who raised a penguin chick at New Yorks Central Park Zoo. The districts decision stemmed from a 2022 state law that restricted instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

But in two motions filed Friday, attorneys for the state and the district argued that U.S. District Judge Brian Davis should dismiss the lawsuit, in part because they said it is moot. That is because the district reversed its decision on the book after receiving legal guidance from the Florida Department of Education that the 2022 law (HB 1557) applied only to classroom instruction  and not library books.

The county restricted Tango in the first place because it mistakenly believed the restriction was required by HB 1557, the states motion said. Once Lake County became aware of its erroneous interpretation and the states longstanding view that HB 1557, by its plain and obvious terms, does not apply to library books and thus does not restrict the countys discretion in such matters, the county acted through its superintendent  the same official that restricted Tango in the first placeto lift the restriction.

In a filing last month seeking a preliminary injunction, attorneys for the plaintiffs disputed that the case is moot. They argued, in part, that the district could reverse course again and bar the book from libraries.

(The) Lake County defendants are not committed to preserving access to Tango because they reserve their right to re-restrict Tango if DOE (the Department of Education) reverses course and deems library books subject to HB 1557, the July 20 filing said.

But Davis on Thursday rejected the request for a preliminary injunction because of the mootness issue. The injunction request sought to require the district to restore access to the book before the 2023-2024 school year, which starts Thursday in Lake County.

Plaintiffs have not shown there is a reasonable expectation that the government will reverse course, Davis wrote in denying the request. While the decision to reverse the restriction on Tango came after the lawsuit and (preliminary injunction) motion were filed, plaintiffs present no argument showing defendants knew their action might be unlawful until this suit was filed.

The dispute is rooted in the 2022 law and a broader debate about challenges to books in Florida schools. The law barred instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade. Supporters titled the law Parental Rights in Education, but opponents called it the dont say gay bill.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature this year passed a measure (HB 1069) that expanded the prohibition on instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity to pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

The Lake County school district in December removed And Tango Makes Three from libraries because it thought the 2022 law applied. The plaintiffs, including book authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and students, filed the lawsuit June 20, alleging First Amendment and due-process violations. The defendants included the Lake County School Board, Superintendent Diane Kornegay and the State Board of Education.

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In applying HB 1557 to restrict access to Tango in public school libraries, Lake County schools, the Lake County board, and the boards executives discriminated on the basis of content and viewpoint: They barred students from accessing Tango because of its content  namely, the story of a same-sex animal couple with an adopted child  and its expressed viewpoint  namely, that same-sex relationships and families with same-sex parents exist; that they can be happy, healthy, and loving; and those same-sex parents can adopt and raise healthy children, the lawsuit said.

But a day after the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Education sent a legal memorandum to the district saying the 2022 law did not apply to library books, only classroom instruction. That prompted Kornegay to quickly reverse course on barring the book from libraries.

Davis rejection of the preliminary-injunction motion last week does not resolve the underlying issues in the lawsuit. In its motion to dismiss the case Friday, the state disputed the First Amendment allegations, along with contending the lawsuit is moot.

The states motion said that because the compilation of library materials is government speech, the First Amendment does not bar the government from making content- and even viewpoint-based choices about what to curate.

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Little Liberty Belle Garcia arrived in the world at a Hollywood hospital in August weighing only 1 pound 5 ounces. A month later, Cheyenne Tomblin was born at a Boca Raton hospital weighing 12 ounces, about the size of a can of soda.

By being born tiny and months early, they both faced incredible odds to survive. In Florida, the difficult struggle of such babies is happening more often with the number of low birthweight newborns rising and surpassing the national average.

In 2021, 9% of babies born in Florida weighed less than 5 pounds, an increase from 8.7% in 2019, a troubling trend considering birthweight is one of the strongest predictors of an infants health.

Florida is a state where a lot more work needs to be done to help children and families, said Norin Dollard, senior policy analyst and Kids Count director for the Florida Policy Institute.

Florida ranks 31st in the country in child well-being, doing well in education but lagging in health issues, according to an annual report released recently by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The 2023 KIDS COUNT Data Book report measures states on a series of indicators, with Florida ranking fifth in education, 37th in economic well-being, 33rd in health and 32nd in what the foundation calls family and community. The state has seen worsening patterns in child and teen deaths, as well as in children and teens who are overweight or obese, but there has been some improvement in the rate of teen births and children living in high poverty areas.

Florida worse off than the US average

When it comes to low-birthweight babies, Floridas 9% rate exceeds the national rate of 8.5%. By arriving into the world so small, a baby may have a harder time eating, gaining weight, and fighting infections.

These babies are more likely to have to do a NICU stay, where they might be on a ventilator or need additional interventions to make sure their organs are where they need to be, said Caroline Valencia, director of maternal infant health for March of Dimes, South Florida. But there also are long-term implications, potential cognitive delays and health risks that can be with them rest of their lives.

Liberty Belle Garcia spent four months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Joe DiMaggio Childrens Hospital and Cheyenne Tomblin went home after six months in the NICU at West Boca Medical Center. Both underwent multiple surgeries, physical therapies, and needed help breathing.

Valencia said there is a critical connection between infant health, maternal health and the health of a family. A March of Dimes Florida report card released in November found nearly a quarter of mothers in Florida had inadequate prenatal care. In addition, for each of the last five years, the state lagged the nation in the number of doctors who care for pregnant mothers.

Do Florida moms have nowhere to go?

Some women may be at particular risk for pregnancy complications if they have conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.

Its important to make sure we get maternal health ramped up, Valencia said. When the mom is at risk for her health, it also increases the risk for the baby to be born pre-term. It starts with mom.

March of Dimes will release a report on Aug. 1 that identifies areas of Florida with little or no access to maternal and reproductive care  where women have to go long distances to get care or give birth. Nationally and in Florida, labor and delivery units are shutting their doors, and fewer doctors are going into the demanding, high-risk profession.

In Broward County, Rose McKelvie, administrator of womens & childrens services at Broward Health, said her health system already has identified such an area in Broward. Specifically, Broward Health learned a Lauderdale Lakes region had no obstetrics care, which is why the hospital system is building a family health center.

We know there are areas of Florida and in Broward where we need to get more providers on the ground so women can access prenatal care, McKelvie said. I think most of these babies born pre-term are because mom has a complication.

Pregnancy visits by phone

In its 2023 budget, the state allocated $12.7 million to improve maternal health outcomes in Florida through telehealth care. McKelvie said Broward will be one of 20 counties that gets some of the money and will look at how pregnant woman can get early care from a doctor by phone. It will take time but we think we will see a difference. We have got to try something different.

Dr. Thresia Gambon, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said pregnant women in the state often are uninsured and dont realize they can receive health coverage for prenatal and postpartum care through Medicaid. That thinking decreases access. I would like mothers to be seen in their first trimester and throughout pregnancy.

As a Hialeah pediatrician, Gambon said babies born pre-term or with a low birthweight need close monitoring throughout their childhood for signs of delayed development. However, she said, their first year is most critical. If you are looking at extremely low birth rate babies, they have higher morbidity and mortality in the first year of life.

Like McKelvie, Gambon sees where the focus needs to be: It almost always goes back to mom didnt have adequate prenatal care.

_____
Ken Paxtons lawyers over the weekend waged an aggressive fight to stop the suspended attorney generals impeachment trial from taking place as scheduled next month, filing a barrage of motions that their counterparts in the Texas House have until next week to formally challenge.

As outlined in the rules the Senate adopted for the Sept. 5 trial, Paxtons team had until Saturday to file all pretrial motions. From Friday through Saturday, they filed a staggering 13 motions, and they argue that the trial should never happen because the charges are confusing, nonimpeachable or lack evidence. They separately accuse House managers of dumping 180,000 pages of documents on them, leaving Paxton and his lawyers to question which among those records contain evidence prosecutors intend to present at trial.

The flurry of motions underscores Paxton and his attorneys' fight to defeat all 16 impeachment articles he faces without a trial and clear the path for the three-term Republican to return to office as the states top attorney. Paxton, who has been suspended since late May, when the House voted overwhelmingly to impeach him, is represented by prominent Houston lawyers Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell as well as six lawyers in the attorney generals office who are on leave to help him prepare his defense.

Attorney Tony Buzbee, who will defend suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial, speaks at a news conference at Travis County Republican Party headquarters in June.

In the past month, Paxtons team has filed 20 pretrial motions, including one from earlier last week that seeks to dismiss all but one count because the conduct alleged to have occurred came before Texas voters reelected Paxton in 2022.

The House managers, led by legendary Houston lawyers Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin, have until Aug. 15 to respond to each Paxton motion and, as of Monday, had not responded to any.

Many of the 16 counts Paxton faces are for bribery or misuse of office in connection with his relationship with Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer and a Paxton campaign donor. Another four counts related to Paxtons ongoing felony case involving securities fraud charges are being held in abatement, meaning they were separated from the others and wont be taken up at this trial.

Before opening statements Sept. 5, all motions from Paxton to dismiss a charge will be held to a majority vote among the 30 eligible senators. Paxtons wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, will not get to vote, as the Senates rules prohibit her from having any meaningful role as a juror due to her familial conflict.

On any remaining charges, the Senate will hear sworn testimony before rendering a verdict. The trial is likely to last two to three weeks, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who will preside over the proceedings in a role similar to a judge. A vote from two-thirds of the Senate, or 21 of the 30 qualified jurors, is needed to permanently remove Paxton from office.

In seeking to dismiss the impeachment articles against Paxton, his lawyers over the weekend made these arguments:

Article 1: Paxton is accused of harming the nonprofit Mitte Foundation by pushing for a settlement in its lawsuit against Paul. Paxtons lawyers say that the purpose of the settlement was to help the nonprofit avoid legal fees for excessive litigation.

Article 2: In 2020, Paxton issued what the House says was a legal opinion to halt a courthouse foreclosure sale involving Pauls properties. Paxton's lawyers say the attorney general provided guidance, not a formal opinion, and that it was consistent with Gov. Greg Abbotts restrictions at the time on public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Article 3 and 4: These are related to public information requests. The first says he directed his office to refuse to render a proper decision related to a request for records from the Department of Public Safety. The second says he obtained records held by his office to benefit Paul. In both matters, Paxtons lawyers say the charges are vague and do not make a clear allegation.

Article 5: This relates to Paxton hiring Houston lawyer Brandon Cammack to investigate law enforcement authorities on behalf of Paul, who had accused the officials of illegally searching his home and business. Paxtons lawyers say he had the authority to do this, and that the House is mistaken on Cammacks actual title, which they say was special prosecutor and outside counsel, not attorney pro tem.

Article 6 and 8: Former top aides say Paxton fired them in violation of whistleblower protections after they reported his alleged misconduct involving Paul to the FBI. Paxtons lawyers say this is not impeachable, and that the matter is for a court of law. Paxton is also accused of concealing his actions by pushing lawmakers to fund a $3.3 million settlement with the whistleblowers. His lawyers say the process was public, and that Paxton concealed nothing.

Articles 7 and 15: On the whistleblower complaint, Paxton is accused of directing his office to conduct a sham investigation and then in the findings of a 400-page report making numerous false or misleading statements. His lawyers say the impeachment notice doesnt specify what was untrue, and that disputes House managers raised in testimony are petty and trifling.

Articles 9 and 10: For his assistance to Paul, Paxton is accused of receiving a home remodel funded by Paul and securing employment in Pauls company for a woman with whom Paxton was having an affair. Paxtons lawyers reference missing elements they say are needed to show there was an actual bribery agreement between Paul and Paxton.

Articles 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20: These broad charges rely on specific claims from earlier impeachment articles. Boiled down, they say Paxton engaged in inappropriate conduct and is unfit to continue in office. Paxtons lawyers say the five articles are vague and, as such, should be tossed out.

Separately, Paxtons lawyers filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds that this is a criminal proceeding and that the House has failed to articulate the actual claims against him. The House lawyers previously said this is not a criminal proceeding and that they expect to say more in a formal response to Paxtons motions.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas impeachment: AG Ken Paxton asks Senate to toss out charges
WASHINGTON  When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden successfully negotiated a debt ceiling deal with stricter work requirements for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits, it was not the end of the policy debate surrounding the massive social safety net.

Lets get the rest of the work requirements, McCarthy said at a press conference after the House passed the debt ceiling deal.

The popular food assistance program is gearing up to become a major point of contention in the closely divided House as lawmakers work to hammer out a farm bill, a must-pass legislation approved roughly every five years that addresses agricultural to conservation to nutrition policy. The bill's 2018 version is set to expire Sept. 30 and it is unclear if lawmakers will be able to pass a new version before that deadline.

Food assistance programs make up nearly 80% of the massive spending bill, which spent $867 billion in 2018. This years farm bill could run roughly $1.5 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office. With a Republican-controlled House eager to cut spending wherever possible, the farm bill could be another target for GOP lawmakers eyeing budget cuts.

Ahead of when lawmakers return to Washington from the August recess, Democratic lawmakers are already digging in when it comes to support for the farm bill.

Any change to SNAP or food assistance is a nonstarter for Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a member of the House agriculture committee. McGovern told USA TODAY it is unconscionable to further limit access to SNAP after work requirements were changed in the debt ceiling negotiations.

House Committee on Rules Ranking Member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., speaks during a hearing on the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the US Capitol in Washington, DC on May 30, 2023.

Time is short for Congress to approve must-pass farm bill

The farm bill is set to expire on Sep. 30 and Congress will only be in session for about three weeks when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill in September. With little time to spare, hunger relief advocates are hoping the legislation can be pushed in a bipartisan fashion.

We have to view investments in SNAP as an investment in our future, Vince Hall, chief government relations officer of Feeding America, told USA TODAY. Im hoping  that this August recess will be an opportunity for (lawmakers) to really ground themselves in the reality of their communities and come back to Washington ready to roll up their sleeves and create a bipartisan farm bill.

Chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., has promised to maintain bipartisanship with the farm bill, which has traditionally passed Congress without the partisan rancor that has dominated the House as of late.

A government shutdown?: What Congress is saying about the latest funding fight

Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pennsylvania, stands with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, for a ceremonial swearing-in and photo-op during the opening session of the 115th Congress, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

What it means for you

Efforts to change SNAP are already afoot among Republicans in the House Committee on Agriculture. Among some of those changes are modifying waivers for SNAP recipients who are adults without children, who are able to still receive benefits even if they do not fulfill work requirements in some conditions, according to a Republican aide who was granted anonymity to speak about the ongoing discussions.

But other changes to food assistance, according to the aide, Democrats could find agreeable. Among those changes are:

 Broadening the activities that would satisfy the work requirements for recipients to qualify for SNAP such as volunteer work and training programs.

 Repealing a ban on people with felony drug convictions blocking them from receiving SNAP benefits.

 Making food more accessible for recipients of certain programs, such as implementing a delivery program for elderly recipients of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

GOP lawmaker would not support SNAP changes if its the difference between feeding families

The debate surrounding changes to SNAP is not a clear-cut partisan issue for lawmakers.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told USA TODAY he was raised on SNAP benefits growing up as a child. The Wisconsin Republican said he would be hard-pressed to support work requirements if it meant other people in similar situations as to his were impacted by the changes.

I was raised on food stamps until my mom could get her feet underneath her. Those programs are incredibly vital, Orden said, noting he would support stronger work requirements, but if its the difference between not being able to feed poor children like I was growing up  thats something that I would really seriously look at.

Democratic lawmakers say work requirement debate on SNAP is over

Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly warned that as far as they see it  expanding work requirements for SNAP benefits has been settled. Any further changes, Democrats say, are absolute nonstarters for their support.

The issue of work requirements was resolved, after the debt ceiling deal, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told USA TODAY. Costa said that sentiment rings true for the overwhelming majority of Democrats.

With little calendar time remaining until the farm bills expiration considering Congress also has to pass government spending bills to avert a shutdown, Costa said he could see lawmakers voting to extend the bill with a continuing resolution to buy more time for negotiations.

Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa., another member of the House Agriculture Committee, who co-sponsored a bill earlier this year that would have made it harder for people to receive SNAP benefits, scoffed at the concern over GOP lawmakers putting more limits on the program.

Were working with it all right now. I just want to get the farm bill passed, Feenstra said.

Harvested wheat gets transported into a chassis on the Sanderlin family farm in Stanton, Tenn., on Friday, Jun. 9, 2023.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SNAP benefits: How fight in Congress on work requirements impacts you
The Ada County Prosecutors Office has dismissed a felony charge against a former Idaho Democratic lawmaker, according to online court records.

David Langhorst, who also served as the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, was arrested and charged with felony aggravated battery in August 2022 after prosecutors alleged he shoved a woman he knew to the ground. The Boise Police Department previously said that the incident was a verbal dispute that turned physical.

The felony charge was dismissed last fall, and according to a judgment of dismissal, prosecutors dismissed the charge because they were unable to proceed. The Idaho Statesman has reached out to the Ada County Prosecutors Office for additional information.

The Boise resident led Idahos Department of Parks and Recreation from 2014 until his retirement in 2020. During his tenure, the department built a visitors center at the Lake Cascade State Park.

Langhorst served as a state representative from 2002 to 2004 and as a state senator for four years afterward. He represented Boises Legislative District 16 during all three terms.

Langhorst was also an appointed member of the Idaho State Tax Commission from 2009 to 2014.
ORLANDO, Fla.  Frank Artiles, the former lawmaker accused of paying a friend to run for a South Florida state Senate seat in 2020, is set to go to trial next February, nearly three years after his arrest.

Artiles faces four felony charges and a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said Monday during a hearing to set the date of the trial, which is scheduled to start Feb. 5 and expected to last up to two weeks.

Artiles, a political consultant who resigned from the Florida Senate in 2017 after going on a racist tirade against Black colleagues in a Tallahassee bar, was arrested in March 2021 after a months-long investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Alex Rodriguez, the friend Artiles is accused of giving nearly $45,000 to run in Senate District 37 in 2020, pleaded guilty in August 2021 and is expected to testify against Artiles at trial.

Prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen on Monday urged Judge Ariel Rodriguez and Artiles defense to set a trial date and stick with it.

Im telling the court, Im ready, VanderGiesen said.

Text messages between Artiles and Rodriguez are expected to be a key part of the states case. Artiles, now 50, approached Rodriguez in 2020 and offered him $50,000 to file to run as an independent, or no party affiliate, candidate in the Miami-area Senate race, according to charging documents from the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office.

The scheme was intended to confuse voters and siphon votes away from the Democratic incumbent, Jose Javier Rodriguez, and help Republican Ileana Garcia, who won by 32 votes.

But Artiles attorney, Frank Quintero, said Rodriguez deleted some of his text messages after the investigation was underway. A data expert helped uncover those old messages, he said.

Alex Rodriguez was one of three independent ghost candidates who filed to run in competitive Senate races in 2020 and did not campaign but were promoted in a series of ads, arranged by GOP operatives, that portrayed them as progressives.

A pair of political committees that paid for the ads received their funding from a dark-money nonprofit run by political operatives with the Alabama-based consulting firm Matrix LLC, who worked closely during the 2020 election cycle with executives for Florida Power & Light.

FPL has denied any involvement in the scheme. But the now-former Matrix operatives behind the ghost candidate ad blitz had also worked to undermine critics of the utility including Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Jestine Iannotti, who ran as an independent in Central Floridas Senate District 9 in 2020, is also still awaiting trial on campaign finance charges, as is political consultant Eric Foglesong, who helped launch her campaign. Both have hearings scheduled later this month.

A third person arrested in connection with Iannottis campaign, former Longwood mayor and Seminole County GOP chair Ben Paris, was convicted of a misdemeanor at trial in September. He is currently appealing his conviction.

In the Miami case, prosecutors have indicated their investigation goes beyond Artiles and Alex Rodriguez, though no one else has been charged.

-------
Former Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan (R) said Monday that he has received a subpoena to testify before the Fulton County grand jury this month.

In response to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, by CNNs Kaitlan Collins, Duncan confirmed that he received the subpoena. According to Collins, Duncan received a subpoena this month to testify before the grand jury investigating efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

I can confirm this is true, he posted on X. I will continue to share the facts as I know them around this investigation in hopes of figuring out what really happened.

Duncan, who served as the lieutenant governor of Georgia from 2019 to 2023, has been an outspoken critic of the former president. In a post Sunday, he said, History shows us that almost everyone associated with Trump ends up regretting it, listing Trumps business partners, investors and employees as examples.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) signaled last week that her investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia was wrapping up. She previously said that any charging decisions would come from this grand jury session, which ends Sept. 1.

The investigation  which has lasted more than two years  focused heavily on a call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in January 2021, when the former president asked him to find 11,780 votes to overturn President Bidens victory in the election.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
WASHINGTON  Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik met Monday with investigators from special counsel Jack Smith's team as part of the probe that resulted in the indictment of former President Donald Trump last week.

Keriks attorney, Tim Parlatore, confirmed the meeting, which was first reported by CNN. NBC News reported last month that Kerik, an ally of Trump's, had been expected to meet with federal prosecutors in Smith's office.

Monday's meeting lasted for about five hours, and Smith was not present, Parlatore said. The meeting focused on former Trump lawyer Rudy Giulianis efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

A spokesperson for the special counsels office declined to comment on the meeting. A spokesperson for Trumps presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Kerik had worked with Giuliani in an effort to uncover voter fraud following President Joe Bidens victory. Giuliani appeared to be one of the six co-conspirators named in the indictment against Trump. No alleged co-conspirators were charged in the filing.

Late last month, Parlatore turned over thousands of pages of documents to the special counsels team. A day later, Kerik tweeted that he was subpoenaed several months ago and that his lawyer had recently obtained the appropriate waivers from Trump to allow the documents to be handed over to the special counsels office.

Trump was charged with four counts related to conspiring to defraud the U.S. and obstructing Biden's election victory. He pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Kerik, who was appointed by Giuliani when he was mayor, was New York Citys police commissioner from August 2000 through December 2001. Kerik rose to national fame after the 9/11 terrorist attacks but was later sentenced to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

Kerik was released from federal prison in 2013 after having served three years. Trump granted him a full pardon in 2020.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Minneapolis ex-officer sentenced to nearly 5 years in Floyd killing Former Minnesota police officer Tou Thao poses for a booking photograph in Minneapolis

By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) -Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao was sentenced on Monday to 4-3/4 years in prison for aiding and abetting manslaughter in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was pinned to the ground by another officer's knee during a botched arrest.

The sentence, meted out by Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, was more than the 4-1/4 years requested by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

"I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgment of some responsibility," Cahill said before handing down the sentence.

The sentence will run concurrently with the 3-1/2 years Thao previously received on a federal conviction of violating Floyd's civil rights.

Cahill in May found Thao guilty of one count of aiding and abetting manslaughter in the second degree for his role in Floyd's death. Thao, a nine-year veteran of the police force, was the fourth and final officer sentenced in the killing.

"I didn't intend on doing any malice or ... try hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best that I thought I could," Thao said in court before he was sentenced.

Derek Chauvin, a white officer captured on cellphone video kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, was found guilty of murder in 2021. Thao held back a small crowd of bystanders while Chauvin and two other officers were subduing Floyd, who police suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby store.

The killing ignited a wave of protests over racism and police brutality across the United States and around the world.

Lawyers for Thao did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The other two officers at the scene, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, restrained Floyd's knees and buttocks while Chauvin knelt on his neck. Lane and Kueng last year pleaded guilty in state court to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison. Kueng was sentenced to three years.

At a federal trial last year, Kueng and Lane were also found guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights. Lane was sentenced to 2-1/2 years and Kueng to three years in federal prison, to run concurrently with the state sentence.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in state prison for the unintentional second-degree murder of Floyd. Last year, he received a concurrent sentence of 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd's civil rights.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCool)
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for his role in George Floyds murder.

Thao was found guilty in May of state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in connection to Floyds death in 2020.

The sentence will run concurrently with Thaos three-and-a-half year prison term on a separate federal civil rights conviction.

Thao held back bystanders while fellow former officer Derek Chauvin pinned down and pressed his knee on Floyds neck for more than nine minutes back on 25 May 2020.

Bodycam footage showed Thao preventing witnesses from coming to Floyds aid, as he lay on the ground crying out for help, saying: I cant breathe.

This is why you dont do drugs, kids, Thao was heard telling bystanders.

He was also heard telling another emergency responder to back off when she asked to check Floyds pulse.

On 2 May, Thao was convicted of second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Tou Thao was found guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter in connection with George Floyds death (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

Thao testified at his trial that he had merely served as a human traffic cone.

However, Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill in Minnesota ruled that Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyds death and actively encouraged Chauvins restraint despite knowing that it could endanger Floyds life.

The short of it: Tou Thao did not want to follow the proper protocol and the work it would entail, Judge Cahill said. George Floyd died as a result.

Thao is the fourth former Minnesota police officer convicted over Floyds death, which set off a racial reckoning around the United States in the summer of 2020 following a string of high-profile police killings of Black citizens.

A mourner pays their respects at a mural at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, April 23, 2021 (Associated Press)

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in 2021. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges for violating Floyds civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Former officers J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were also found guilty of federal civil rights charges and are each serving two to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Lane also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Kueng was sentenced to three and a half years for the same charges.
Serhiy Slabenko, former member of Ukraine's Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, was killed in combat at the Zaporizhzhian front, the government announced on Aug. 6.

Slabenko served in the Verkhovna Rada from 2002 to 2006. During his term, he chaired the subcommittee on courts, judicial proceedings, and judicial reform of the legal policy committee.

From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a deputy chairman of the attestation chamber of the Volyn bar qualification and disciplinary commission, and from 2015 to 2020, he served as a deputy of the Volyn Regional Council.

According to the Volyn News Service, Slabenko was killed in action in the Zaporizhzhia sector on Aug. 4. His body will be brought home on Aug. 7.

Ukraine's southern front is a formidable challenge for counteroffensive troops, with occupying Russian forces deeply entrenched behind multiple defensive lines.

Slabenko is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. The Verkhovna Rada expressed their condolences to his family.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
FORT PIERCE  Anyone hoping to see former President Donald Trump at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce will be waiting a while longer, after he filed papers indicating hell skip his arraignment Thursday before a magistrate judge.

I waive my right to appear in court at my arraignment, Trump said in an Aug. 4 filing, referring to a Thursday 10:30 a.m. hearing at the Alto Lee Adams Sr. U.S. Courthouse.

In the same filing, Trump pleaded not guilty to three new charges added July 27 to a criminal indictment in the classified documents case. The new charges include two counts of obstruction and one count of unlawful retention of National Defense Information.

Waltine "Walt" Nauta, former President Trump's valet and co-defendant (left), arrives at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce for the Trump/Nauta pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.

Its still unclear if Trumps co-defendant and hired body man Waltine Walt Nauta will show up or waive his appearance to be arraigned on two new obstruction counts added in the superseding indictment.

Last week, Trump and Nauta were scheduled for arraignment Thursday, but lawyers with Special Counsel Jack Smiths office filed papers July 27 stating that both may excuse their appearance subject to the courts approval.

However, Trumps newest co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, is expected in Fort Pierce Thursday at 10 a.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard to enter a plea on four counts revealed in the superseding indictment, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing an object and making a false statement.

De Oliveira, who is the property manager of Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, didnt enter a plea during his first court appearance July 31 in Miami. A judge put off his arraignment to give him time to obtain a local lawyer, after he appeared in court with his Washington D.C.-based attorney, John Irving.

MIAMI, FLORIDA - JULY 31: Carlos De Oliveira (C), a property manager for former U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, leaves the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building on July 31, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Special counsel Jack Smith announced three new felony charges against Trump, including claims that he asked De Oliveira to delete security camera footage of his Mar-a-Lago home that was being sought by investigators probing his handling of classified documents. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 776012606 ORIG FILE ID: 1583056706

Court records though, dont indicate who will represent him at Thursdays hearing.

Superseding indictment allegations

De Oliveira is accused of helping Trump and Nauta conceal boxes of classified documents from investigators after the former president left office.

Prosecutors say the former president mishandled dozens of classified documents he took from the White House and schemed with members of his staff to hide them from investigators.

FBI agents seized boxes of classified documents containing military and intelligence secrets during a search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022  more than a year and a half after Trump left office.

In the documents case, Trump now faces a total of 40 counts and Nauta is charged with eight counts.

According to the indictment, De Oliveira told another member of Trump's staff that the boss wanted the server for surveillance cameras deleted after investigators issued a subpoena for video of the Palm Beach estate. The staffer refused.

Hot water: Fish kills and bioluminescence loom in Indian River Lagoon amid summer heat

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In an interview with the FBI on Jan. 13, De Oliveira denied helping unload or move boxes for Trump.

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon has scheduled their trial to begin in May 2024.

Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Donald Trump files papers to skip Thursday arraignment in Fort Pierce
Serhii Slabenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament of the 4th convocation, has been killed on the Zaporizhzhia front, taking part in the war against Russian aggression.

Source: Ukraines Verkhovna Rada on Telegram

Details: Verkhovna Rada stated that "his wife, son and daughter were waiting for Serhii at home."

Reference: Slabenko is a former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament (2002-2006), and was the chairman of a subcommittee of the Verkhovna Radas Committee on Legal Policy and Justice, focusing on court activities, judicial administration and judicial reform.

Slabenko worked as the deputy chairman of the Attestation Chamber of the Volyn Qualification and Disciplinary Bar Commission from 2006 to 2009, and from 2015 to 2020 he was a member of Volyn Oblast Council, and a member of the Standing Committee on the use of property jointly owned by hromadas of the oblasts villages, towns, and cities. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a city, town or village and its adjacent territories  ed.]

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!
A Fort Worth nonprofit that helps people seeking asylum with food and housing is seeking a zoning change so it can build eight fourplexes on six acres in southeast Fort Worth.

DFW Aslyum Seeker Housing proposes 32 one-family units, an amenities center and parking at 2201 Annabelle Lane.

But residents of the nearby neighborhood are pushing back, and the zoning commission has recommended that the City Council deny the request when it considers the proposal on Tuesday.

Munatsi Manyande, executive director of the nonprofit, told the zoning commission at its June 14 meeting that it can take three years or more for refugees to receive work permits, and in that time, his network wants to serve those and give them a home, food and assistance in preparing them for work.

One resident told the zoning commission during the June 14 meeting that he and many other homeowners in his neighborhood have lived there for generations and dont want it to change. He also said crime in nearby apartment complexes is an issue, while his neighborhood is safe.
A new comedy club is bringing the funny to Fort Worth this fall.

Big Laugh Comedy is opening a club this October at 604 Main St. suite 100. The venue will be located at the bottom of the Kress Building and just minutes from Sundance Square.

The club is a brainchild of Big Laugh CEO Brandon Lewin, whos excited to open in the city.

Fort Worth is such a great market, Lewin said. Comedians and agents dont think its a different market from Dallas, and I do believe it is.

Lewin started Big Laugh Comedy a handful of years ago after joining the stand-up comedy scene himself in Austin around 2016.

After a few months of performing, Lewin decided to start producing comedy shows. The one show that sold him on the idea of Big Laugh Comedy and providing opportunities and stage time for comedians came in Cedar Park.

The show secured a big headliner, followed by a few other comedians looking for stage time. One sold-out event later and Lewin was hooked.

The high I got from it wasnt so much being on stage, but it was actually helping the comedians get in front of an audience, Lewin said.

From there on, Lewin decided to pursue Big Laugh Comedy and focus on the business side of things to put more comedians in front of people.

He took the company full time in 2020, with his first major event booked for March 7, just a few days before the world shut down due to COVID-19. But Lewin pivoted and focused on producing online shows during that time, building a camaraderie across the comedy world.

What were about is helping comedians springboard or launch their careers, or further their careers, Lewin said.

Big Laugh Comedy has been hosting in-person shows out of Vulcan Gas Company in Austin, but will soon have its own venue in Fort Worth.

Lewin had been searching for where to open Big Laughs first comedy club, zeroing in on Fort Worth after finding the Kress Building and seeing how turnkey the place was. The venue needed some renovations, but not much, Lewin said.

The first floor of the club will have a stage with seating for up to 100.A larger stage on the second floor will have seating for 300 people. A kitchen and bar, event area and podcasting studio are all planned for the venue as well.

Lewin said hes excited to join and expand the comedy scene in Fort Worth, which he came to know working with nearby Hyenas Comedy Night Club on a few shows.

I love the community, I spent so much time down there when we were doing shows with Hyenas that I really got to understand the downtown area and the community in general, Lewin said. I thought it was a perfect fit for what were looking to do.

Big Laugh Comedy Club is set to open this October at 604 Main St. suite 100. For more information on what comedians are coming to Fort Worth, visit here.
Children born in 2025 will officially be known as Gen Beta. AaronAmat / Getty Images

2024 will be the last year of "Gen Alpha." Children born from 2025 will be part of "Gen Beta."

Some Gen Zers are posting about their shock at discovering that will likely include their kids.

Many people have commented that the name is nowhere near as cool as "Gen Alpha" sounds.

Gen Zers are shocked to realize that 2024 is the last year to have children who will be part of "Gen Alpha," and that babies born between 2025 and 2039 will be part of "Gen Beta."

Gen Alpha is the current youngest generation, born between the early 2010s and the mid-2020s. Members of Gen Alpha are mostly children of millennials and older Gen Zers.

As more of Gen Z, the oldest of whom will turn 27 this year, seems to be heading towards parenthood, some are taking to social media to share their existential stress about the passage of time.

In one video posted on June 28, a TikToker who goes by the username @sar.poooooh wrote that she needed to change her "life plans" after realizing that her time is limited if she wants to have children that are part of Gen Alpha. The video currently has over 3 million views.

The majority of viewers seemed to agree that "Gen Beta" is a much less impressive name than "Gen Alpha." Many wrote that the video had made them realize they had to hurry to have children.

Some parents also joined in the conversation and wrote that they were proud to have Gen Alpha children.

One viewer announced they were holding out for "Gen Gamma"  which is set to be born after 2040  so they could have some "Hulk children." This is a reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which Dr. Robert Bruce Banner's exposure to high doses of gamma radiation allowed him to transform into the Hulk.

The first Gen Beta child hasn't even been born yet, but people have been mocking the name for years. In a video posted in March 2021, a Gen Z TikToker who goes by the username @cathcorn said, "I feel sorry for them already and they're not even born."

While many viewers who said they were Gen Z took the opportunity to laugh at the names of upcoming generations, it also sparked a conversation among viewers who said they didn't want to have children at all, some for environmental reasons and others who said they didn't think they could afford to.

Named after the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Gen Alpha is the first generation born entirely in the 21st century. Social researcher Mark McCrindle is credited with coining the name.

Millennials have been saying that Gen Z makes them feel old for some time now. As Gen Alpha's online presence continues to grow, some Gen Zers are finding themselves struggling with many of the same issues that they have been mocking millennials for and feeling increasingly out of touch with the zeitgeist.

Read the original article on Insider
A police officer convicted over the murder of George Floyd has been handed a heavier sentence because the judge said he lacked remorse.

Tou Thao was sentenced to almost five years in prison in a state court in Minneapolis for holding back bystanders during the murder of Mr Floyd, who died in May 2020 when another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for almost 10 minutes.

Thao previously said he had acted as a human traffic cone by keeping bystanders away from the scene as Mr Floyd pleaded for his life and said: I cant breathe.

The incident was captured on video by an onlooker and triggered a worldwide outpouring of anger over police brutality towards black people.

Biblical references

At the hearing on Monday, Thao denied any responsibility for Mr Floyds death and spoke about his growth as a Christian during his 340 days behind bars.

In remarks littered with biblical references, he drew parallels with the sufferings and false accusations endured by Job and Jesus.

I did not commit these crimes, he said. My conscience is clear. I will not be a Judas nor join a mob in self-preservation or betray my God.

Peter Cahill, the Hennepin County judge who convicted Thao in May, said he had imposed a harsher sentence because of his lack of remorse for his actions.

As he sentenced him to four years and nine months behind bars, Mr Cahill said he was hoping for more than preaching from Thao.

After three years of reflection, I was hoping for a little more remorse, he said.

Top end of sentence range

The sentence is at the top end of the range recommended under state guidelines, where the standard sentence is four years.

The sentence was more than the 51 months that prosecutors had sought and the 41 months requested by Thaos attorney, Robert Paule.

Thaos sentence will run concurrently with a three-and-a-half year sentence for his separate conviction on a federal civil rights charge, which an appeals court upheld on Friday.

He will be returned to a federal prison to finish the sentence before he is transferred to a Minnesota state prison to serve out the remaining few months with credit for time served.

Mr Paule, who called Thao a good and decent man with a family in court, said afterwards that they will appeal in both the state and federal cases. He declined to comment further.

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A man wanted in a string of crimes is now off the streets after police said he led them on a chase on his bicycle.

The Bibb County Sheriffs Office said they recognized the wanted man spotted riding his bike in the area of Log Cabin Drive.

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As they attempted to stop him, he sped off. Deputies said they saw him throw a handgun from his waistband as they chased the man.

Eventually, they caught up to the man and arrested him.

Deputies said he was wanted on nine other outstanding warrants. He now faces a new charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

IN OTHER NEWS:
A vehicle chase involving a stolen vehicle ended with a man arrested in Hall County, according to Oakwood police.

Hall County Sheriffs deputies received a tip that a stolen Gwinnett County vehicle was seen in a Walmart parking lot in Oakwood.

When officers responded and found the car, they saw the driver leaning over the steering wheel.

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When he saw the officers, the man drove away. Units followed in pursuit and the driver, later identified as Michael Patrick Walker of Jefferson, rammed an Oakwood patrol car and hit four other vehicles belonging to private citizens, according to police.

The chase followed Walker south on I-985 from Mundy Mill, reaching speeds of 84 miles per hour. The Oakwood officers were unable to use a PIT maneuver to stop the car.

Officers from Flowery Branch were able to assist, getting in front of the chase and put out spike strips, according to officials.

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The second PIT attempt with spike strips was successful without damaging any additional vehicles.

After the PIT maneuver, Walker kept driving on I-985 until his tires started to shred. The car started to slow and the vehicle was stopped.

Police said Walker spun around off the right shoulder of the road after the PIT maneuver and continued to flee, but the vehicle wasnt driving well on soil and stopped.

Walker then tried to run and resist further, before officers tased him in an effort to bring him into custody.

As a result, Walker was charged with theft by receiving, obstruction of law enforcement officers, fleeing and eluding, and four counts of hit and run, pending a warrant, as well as driving with an open container of alcohol.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
French police on Monday said they had arrested a 55-year old German national after his wife was discovered naked and with broken bones following 12 years in captivity at the couple's home.

A police source said the woman, also German, was found with her head shaved in a bedroom of the apartment, had multiple injuries, including broken bones, and was undernourished.

She had probably been tortured, the source said.

The state of her health was "not good", local prosecutor Olivier Glady told AFP after her examination by the local forensic medicine service.

Police said the bedroom and other rooms in the apartment were closed off with metal wire at the flat in Forbach in eastern France, near the German border.

There were around 10 cats in the apartment, Glady said.

A police source said the woman, who is 53, got access to a phone and called police in Wiesbaden, western Germany, who in turn alerted their French colleagues.

She was rushed to hospital with fractures in both legs, and her fingers.

Over the years, the man had told everyone in the building that his wife had cancer, said Alicia, a neighbour.

"I never saw the lady, I don't think she ever left the house," she said.

"Sometimes I heard screams," Alicia said, but added that she thought they were caused by the illness.

About the man, she said: "Very polite, nice".

Erika, another witness who lives in an adjacent street, said she last saw the woman "maybe 10 years ago", and thought that "maybe she had died, or moved out".

Police are building a case against the man for kidnapping, aggravated rape, and acts of torture and barbarism, French broadcaster BFMTV said.

Broadcaster RMC said police found a diary-type notebook in which it was believed the man kept a record of his actions and of the times he gave his wife food but the prosecutor did not confirm this.

The man is jobless and believed to have worked in German industry previously, Glady said.

burs/jh/ach
(Bloomberg) -- The German government expects Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to give the go-ahead for the construction of a 10 billion ($11 billion) facility in the eastern city of Dresden on Tuesday after a board meeting, according to people familiar with the matter.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Chancellor Olaf Scholzs ruling coalition will provide as much as 5 billion in subsidies for the plant, which will specialize in making chips for the automotive sector, Bloomberg has reported.

The imminent TSMC approval for the new fab was first reported earlier Monday by Germanys Handelsblatt newspaper. Spokespeople for the Economy Ministry in Berlin and the regional government of Saxony, where Dresden is located, declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg about the article. TSMC spokeswoman Nina Kao said she has no further update.

Governments around the world are competing fiercely for new chip factories in an effort to secure more control over the manufacturing of the components critical to global supply chains.

A disruption of supplies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic  particularly out of Asia  caused widespread shortages that rippled across industries including autos and consumer electronics, driving home the risks to all nations of depending on foreign inventories.

Germany has emerged as one of the most aggressive countries chasing after more domestic manufacturing. Scholzs government is expected to approve a plan this week to top up a fund targeting semiconductor production, along with climate-protection measures, by about $22 billion, according to people familiar with the discussions. Intel Corp. is set to receive about $11 billion in subsidies from the government in Berlin for its own chip complex.

Taiwan-based TSMC has been in talks with partners including NXP Semiconductors NV, Robert Bosch GmbH and Infineon Technologies AG to invest in the new German venture, Bloomberg News has reported.

TSMC Chairman Mark Liu has since confirmed that his company is considering having customers hold minority stakes in the German plant, although he has not disclosed the names of the parties interested in doing so.

To mollify concerns from customers over growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait, TSMC has been expanding its overseas presence.

It has committed to creating two advanced facilities in the US state of Arizona with a total price tag of $40 billion, and its building a $8.6 billion plant in Japan with support from the government in Tokyo and investment from Sony Group Corp. and Denso Corp.

--With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Lynn Doan, Agatha Cantrill and Christoph Rauwald.

(Updates with detail on TSMC expansion plans; a previous version corrected dollar amount in first deck head)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The deputy stated that the key factions in Germany reached a consensus on the transfer of Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine

Germany will ship Ukraine Taurus long-range missiles after the countrys parliament reached agreement, Ukraines Servant of the People MP, Yehor Cherniev, announced on social media on Aug. 7.

My friends in the Bundestag (German parliament) have just informed me that the key parliamentary factions have reached a consensus on the transfer of Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine, he said.

NV

Taurus missiles have a range of 500 kilometers and are capable of reaching all occupied territories, including the southern coast of Crimea, Cherniev explained.

Weve been working with German parliamentarians for a long time to form a support group, and now, finally, the ice has broken, the lawmaker said.

Were waiting for an official decision.

Read also: When will Ukraine have its own long-range missiles?

The decision would mark a change from July 11, when German Defense Minister announced that the country had no plans to transfer the Taurus missiles to Ukraine. That statement was criticized by several Bundestag members.

Incumbent German lawmaker and former Bundeswehr general, Roderich Kiesewetter, for example, considers it crucial to transfer these types of weapons to Ukraine.

On July 26, the head of the Bundestag Committee on Defense Policy and a member of the Free Democratic Party, Marcus Faber, announced the need to provide the Defense Forces of Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles.

Pistorius reiterated on Aug. 3 that Germany has no plans to send Ukraine Taurus missiles.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
A GoFundMe is raising money for the two Orlando police officers shot downtown on Friday night.

Officials have not identified the officers but said both are continuing to recover from their injuries at Orlando Health.

To assist the officers families as they relocate to the hospital for an unknown length of time, the Orlando Police Heroes Foundation is raising money to offset those costs so that the families are not burdened financially during these trying times, GoFundMe organizers said.

Read: Orlando officers shot in the line of duty still recovering at hospital

Officials said both officers underwent emergency surgery following the shooting. While both officers are expected to recover, officials said they have long recoveries ahead of them.

Members of the Fraternal Order of Police, Orlando Lodge 25, founded the Orlando Police Heroes Foundation in 2017 to assist the men and women of the Orlando Police Department.

Watch: What we know about the 2 Orlando police officers shot

Police said the two officers approached Daton Viel near the intersection of West Washington Street and North Garland Avenue around 11 p.m. on Friday because the car he was near was wanted in connection to a homicide case in Miami.

Police said Viel then opened fire, shooting both officers before fleeing the scene.

You can click here to donate.

Our officers continue to receive care at Orlando Health and have a long road to recovery. If youd like to support our officers here is a fund set up by @FOP25. Funds are being collected by the Orlando Police Heroes Foundation. https://t.co/mq4p0cxQkK  Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) August 7, 2023

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One of North Carolinas black bears is getting ribbed on social media after it was photographed sitting precariously atop an extremely fragile tree.

It happened Aug. 3 on Allen Mountain Drive in Black Mountain, and police say they spotted the bear while responding to a residential alarm.

The bear sat just outside the property line, so it could not be accused of trespassing, police say. However, it clearly looked guilty of something.

Hes apparently not the brightest bear in the trees! police wrote. He was given a stern warning and told to move on.

The department posted photos of the bear on Facebook, resulting in hundreds of reactions and comments  many poking fun at the bears tree-picking skills.

Not only did the tree offer little cover, but also the bear couldnt get more than 10 feet up before running out of limbs, police say.

Out of all those lush trees, this is the one he chose to climb? Lori Jackson Pisani posted on Facebook.

Looks like a peeping Tom! CindyTim Carter wrote.

Our squirrels around here keep getting bigger and bigger, Keith Thomson said.

As for what became of the bear, the home was built into the side of a mountain, and police allowed the bear to drift back into the surrounding forest.

Black Mountain is about 110 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Hungry bears drawn to car egged by pranksters on Halloween weekend, NC video shows

Images of beast on 2 feet inspires talk of Bigfoot in North Carolina. Its a bear

350-pound bear rips into sleeping familys tent in Smoky Mountains, claws mom and child
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  Days after former President Donald Trump was indicted on conspiracy charges relating to attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Republican presidential hopefuls in Iowa called for massively changing  or completely dissolving  the Department of Justice and the FBI.

But, despite their fervor against federal agencies, the candidates shied away from specifically discussing Trumps latest charges.

Seven GOP presidential hopefuls converged in Cedar Rapids on Sunday night, speaking at a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson. Hundreds of Iowa Republicans mingled with the candidates over a pulled pork dinner, then settled in for two hours of speeches.

Hinson was the only member of Iowas D.C. delegation to post on social media after Trumps latest indictment was unveiled Tuesday. She told a cheering crowd Sunday that she will not stand for the un-American politicization of our justice system under President Joe Biden.

A federal grand jury indicted former Trump on Tuesday on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election victory of President Joe Biden, including actions that resulted in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

Iowa Republicans attending the Hinson fundraiser and weekend campaign events for Gov. Ron DeSantis had mixed opinions about the latest Trump charges  the third criminal case he faces. Some denounced Trump, arguing his legal troubles hurt his candidacy.

Kevin Brezina, a 66-year-old Tama resident who attended a DeSantis event Saturday, said he feels sorry for the former president, but his top choice for 2024 is DeSantis.

Potential caucus goers listen as Republican presidential candidates speak during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I dont think (Trump is) going to make it, Brezina said. I wish hed bail out  because of all this stuff thats going on.

Others rallied behind Trump and decried the charges.

Theyre just trumped-up charges to try to get people to become weary of Trump, said Susie Burns, a 74-year-old Fairfax resident attending Hinsons event. And Im not gonna let them win.  Im more convinced now that Im not going to let the Democrats destroy Trump to the point where Im going to vote for somebody else. No, hes got my vote for sure.

Republican presidential candidates target Department of Justice, 'deep state' corruption

Trumps name was hardly mentioned at Sundays cattle call of candidates, but four of the seven who showed pledged to reform or to dissolve the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, eliciting cheers from the crowd.

Vivek Ramaswamy and Perry Johnson, both businessmen and newcomers to politics, advocated for a complete shutdown of agencies that they say are overcome by corruption.

I am going to shut down the FBI, Johnson said. The reason I say that is that we have too much corruption, its been going on for literally 45 to 50 years. I say we end it. The Department of Justice, that has to be dismantled, because we have corruption there too.

Republican presidential candidate Perry Johnson, right, is introduced during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Johnson was the only presidential candidate to mention Trumps legal troubles on Sunday night. He reminded the crowd that he pledged in March to pardon Trump, if he is elected.

I think that its unfair that we start picking on our candidates and letting the Democrats decide who should be running. This is not right, Johnson said.

Even before criminal charges were brought against Trump, Ramaswamy had proposed a dissolution of federal agencies far beyond law enforcement. He reiterated his plan to a supportive crowd in Cedar Rapids.

When there are government agencies that should not exist, that have become so corrupted that they have lost their original purpose  from the FBI, to the ATF, to the IRS, to the CDC, to the U.S. Department of Education  we will not just reform those agencies, no, Ramaswamy said Sunday. We will get in there, and we will shut them down.

DeSantis pledged to slay the administrative state, though he did not call for completely shutting down any agencies.

Youre going to get a new FBI director on day one. Youre going to get the DOJ cleared out, DeSantis said. Theres going to be a single standard of justice in this country again, and we are going to stop the weaponization of federal power.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis poses for photos with supporters as journalists document the scene during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Hinsons event was the final stop on DeSantis three-day swing through Iowa. DeSantis told reporters on Friday that Trumps claims that the 2020 election was stolen were unsubstantiated.

DeSantis also announced his 40th Iowa legislative endorsement Sunday night: Rep. Tom Gerhold, R-Atkins.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, said he would reform the FBI and the Department of Justice.

We are a party that believes in our justice system, but we want it to work fairly, we want it to work rightly for the people of our country, he said.

Hutchinson did not go on the attack against the former president, as he did at a GOP fundraising dinner in late July. There, Hutchinson told Iowa Republicans they will be caucusing while multiple criminal cases are pending against former President Trump, and he urged them to chart a new direction for America and for the GOP.

Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson speaks during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Dawson McNamara-Bloom said Monday morning that proposals to "defund law enforcement and eliminate America's investigative and intelligence agencies" are not "serious solutions."

"These candidates are not ready to lead this country and these misguided solutions certainly aren't going to make Americans safe and secure," McNamara-Bloom said.

Radio personality Larry Elder, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley stayed far away from discussion of the U.S. justice system or Trumps entanglement with it.

Elder spoke about his family history and decried the epidemic of fatherlessness, which he attributes to government welfare programs.

Weve incentivized women to marry the government, Elder said. Weve incentivized men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility.

Burgum criticized Bidens policies on energy, the economy and national security.

D.C. needs more small-town values, he said. They need more understanding of whats going on in America in small towns.

Haley focused her entire speech on national security, saying the country was totally distracted from foreign threats by a bunch of other things that dont even matter.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

All of these issues are big issues, she said. But if we dont have national security, none of it matters.

Iowa Republicans diverge on opinions of latest indictment

Republicans who attended political events this weekend had a wide range of opinions about the criminal charges against Trump.

On one end of the spectrum was Roger Lutes, a 62-year-old Ferguson farmer who called Trump a dictator.

If Trump gets in, hell try to take it over like he did the last time, Lutes said at a DeSantis event in Tama. He admires Putin, he admires the Chinese guy, because hes a dictator himself. Nobody ever tells him no.

Some Republicans said they were following the Trump news, but that it wouldnt necessarily sway their decision in the caucuses.

It doesnt really bother me much. It doesnt change my opinion of him, said Danette Spurgeon, a 48-year-old nurse from Hiawatha who attended the Hinson fundraiser. It seems like theres always something that is going after Trump.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, center holding hand up, performs with the Kickin' Country band during the Ashley's BBQ Bash fundraiser, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Dawn Coffman, a 69-year-old Williamsburg resident, said she was following the indictment news and the misdemeanor charges against Hunter Biden.

I believe its a circus on both sides, said Coffman, who saw DeSantis in Grinnell. Im tired of it.

Lynn OConnell, a 74-year-old Cedar Rapids resident, said the indictments were playing dirty against Trump.

Every time I hear another indictment, Im like, yeah, now Im really going to vote for Trump, OConnell said at the Hinson fundraiser.

Katie Akin is a politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at kakin@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katie_akin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: GOP presidential candidates stay quiet on Trump charges, attack FBI
Russian troops repeatedly shelled the city of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on Aug. 7, killing a 36-year-old man and injuring an elderly resident, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.

Houses, farm buildings, cars, a gas pipeline, and power lines were damaged in the city, the governor added.

Nikopol, home to over 115,000 residents, has been constantly shelled by the Russian army, regularly resulting in casualties among the civilian population.

The city sits across the Dnipro River from the Russian-controlled Enerhodar in neighboring Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, located in Enerhodar, has been occupied by Russian forces since March 4, 2022.

Nikopol lies on the bank of the Kakhovka Reservoir, which dried up after Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's dam on June 6.

Read also: Locals near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant brace for potential disaster: It would be the end of us

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Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported that Russian forces fired on a high-rise in Kherson multiple times during the early hours of Aug. 7, killing one 59-year-old woman.

10 people were injured, including a 93-year-old-woman, as a result of the attacks on the residential building, which set on fire, he said.

Two firemen were also injured while extinguishing the blaze and were taken to hospital.

Strikes were also reported in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, reported that a Russian missile hit the Synelnykove district of the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight.

A fire broke out, which emergency workers have extinguished. No casualties have been reported.

Lysak also reported that the Russian army shelled the village of Myrove in Nikopol Oblast. Shells from heavy artillery flew there. The information is being clarified.

Read also: 2 elderly women injured in attack on Kherson Oblast

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Texas has declared its under invasion by migrants (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

If you were to believe Texas governor Greg Abbott, you would think a literal army of migrants, loaded down with drugs and armed with the best guns the Sinaloa cartel can buy, is marching on the Lone Star State.

Your inaction has led to catastrophic consequences. Under your watch, America is suffering the highest volume of illegal immigration in the history of our country, Mr Abbott wrote in a letter to the White House in November, saying the state was under invasion by the Mexican drug cartels.

Of course, drugs like fentanyl are largely brought into the US by American citizens at ports of entry , and most migrants are not cartel members, but those distinctions are rarely mentioned by the governors office.

Instead, in response to this purported cartel-migrant invasion, the state has carried out what amounts to a mass military buildup at the border, deploying thousands of state police and National Guardsmen, lining the riverbanks with walls and razor wire, and, this July, controversially putting floating border barriers in the Rio Grande itself, ensnaring exhausted migrants and reportedly killing at least one person, according to Mexican officials.

As Jessie Fuentes, a Texas river guide who is suing the state over the effort recently told The Independent , Youve taken a beautiful waterway and youve converted it into a war zone.

Guardsmen patrol as workers continue to deploy large buoys to be used as a border barrier along the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday, July 12, 2023 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The emergency actions being taken by the governors office rest in part on a controversial legal theory about the Constitution that Mr Abbott and his fellow border state conservatives have been pushing towards for years: that immigration itself is an invasion, so the US Constitution grants states emergency war powers to stop it.

Starting in 2022, Mr Abbotts office began making the argument that under the Constitution, which allows states to take emergency wartime action if theyre  actually invaded , Texas could ramp up its powers over fighting illegal immigration, an area thats the province of the federal government. The governor argued that the invasion of the state authorised him under the state and US Constitution to deploy gunboats, border walls, and National Guardsmen, as well as state police who could arrest and return migrants to the border.

Legal experts say that the constellation of different people crossing the border  asylum-seekers, economic migrants, cartel members, from a variety of different nations  do not constitute the kind of pressing, military attack the Constitution considers an invasion.

Greg Abbott has declared a variety of emergency powers at the border (iStock/AFP/Getty)

The theory that Abbott is relying on here is that the influx of undocumented individuals is an actual invasion. That also doesnt pass muster, Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Centers Liberty & National Security Program, told The Independent.

We have a series of court cases from the 1990s in which states, including New Jersey, went into federal court and said, All of this immigration is an invasion, and courts all the way up to the Supreme Court said, No. No its not. Immigrants are not an invasion.

Texass embraced this line of thinking anyway in 2022, after courts ruled that the state was violating the law by arresting migrants on state trespassing charges, a justification a Texas court found to be a pretext for the kind of immigration enforcement thats the power of the federal government.

The new invasion play is just a backdoor into immigration enforcement, according to Ms Yon Ebright.

David Bier, in an article for the libertarian Cato Institute, has argued equating immigration to invasion is a completely unserious attempt to demand extraordinary, military-astyle measures to stop completely mundane actions like walking around a closed port of entry to file asylum paperwork or violating international labor market regulations in order to fill one of the 10 million job openings in this country.

The Independent has contacted the governor for comment.

Outside of the legal criticisms of the governors stance, others have taken issue with the message of declaring immigrants to be invaders.

Some have noted that rhetoric from Mr Abbott and his lieutenant governor Dan Patrick bears a striking similarity to that of the El Paso mass shooter, who killed 23 mostly Latino people in 2019. The shooter claimed the white supremacist attack was in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.

Texas has installed razor wire, walls, and floating buoys to deter migration (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

As far back as 2021, the governor and his top deputies have described a nefarious plot by Democrats to encourage immigration, implicitly that from Latin American countries, and transform Texas politically.

Unless you and I want liberals to succeed in their plan to transform Texas  and our entire country  through illegal immigration, this is a message we MUST send, Mr Abbott wrote in a fundraising appeal, which he later apologised for.

We are being invaded, Mr Patrick said that year. That term has been used in the past, but it has never been more true.

The governors renewed talk of an invasion is a dog whistle that brings back memories of the El Paso shooters hateful words, according to Zachary Mueller, political director with immigration rights group Americas Voice.

He knows what hes doing, and hes courting political violence for his own political fortunes, Mr Mueller told The Texas Tribune in November, when the governor unrolled his invasion plan out to the public.

Nonetheless, political pressure has been building across the Republican ecosystem to adopt such radical stances, according to observers.

In February 2022, Mark Brnovich, then the attorney general of Arizona, published an opinion arguing that the on-the-ground violence and lawlessness at Arizonas border caused by cartels and gangs constitutes a legal invasion, entitling the state to take emergency action.

Former Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich popularised idea that governors could declare migration an invasion (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The idea quickly caught on, with backers ranging from far-right gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to former Trump Homeland Security officials like Ken Cuccinelli pushing Republican leaders to declare an invasion.

Mr Cuccinelli blasted Governor Abbott in The New York Times last March , claiming he hadnt moved the needle one iota for the simple reason that theyre not returning people to Mexico.

The right wing of Abbots Republican party really just grabbed onto that as a panacea, declare the invasion, journalist Todd Bensman, author of Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History, told The Independent.

People in Texas, everywhere else that calls it an invasion, meant in the legal sense, theyre just hammering their elected leaders over the headDuring the campaigns in November, it was still really a strong groundswell on the far-right in these states.

The push into novel legal territory is the latest attempt by states and private individuals to seize immigration policy from federal hands. In recent years, Texas and Arizona have seen experiments with a variety of tactics, from building ramparts out of shipping containers , to erecting privately funded border walls .

Some of these efforts have faced challenges  Arizona was forced to take down its shipping container wall after threats from the Department of Justice  while others go unchecked.

The DoJ has challenged aspects Texass military buildup at the border under environmental law, arguing in a July lawsuit states cant erect a barrier within the Rio Grande without federal permission.

As Mr Bensman argues, under the Biden administration, border states and the federal government are often working at cross-purposes these days. The federal government, enacting immigration law, allows some migrants into the country to await immigration proceedings. State governments like Texas, meanwhile, want to shut down large parts of the current immigration wave.

Youve got this clash going on of opposing goals and policies, he said. States want to stop and block them, and Bidens Border Patrol agents, who catch and release them into the interior. Theres a very interesting dynamic where the feds are undermining the Texans, but the Texans are also undermining the feds.

Governor Abbott has vowed to fight the White House all the way to the Supreme Court over the floating barriers, but that may just be the beginning of the battle. Itll be a fight on two fronts: over the facts of whats really happening at the border, and who has the power to respond.
A Kentucky business owner has been federally indicted for defrauding the government of more than $80,000 in loans through the Paycheck Protection Program during COVID-19.

Prageeth Hettiarachchi, a 41-year-old Lexington resident, is charged with seven counts of wire fraud  five are related to government loans, and two are connected to defrauding an elderly woman, according to an indictment.

Hettiarachchi is the owner of a ballroom dance studio operated through his companies, ZAH LLC and ZAH Investments, according to the indictment.

Through these companies, Hettiarachchi applied for four PPP loans during the pandemic and submitted false documents where his net profits were significantly higher than reality, according to the court document.

PPP loans were part of a COVID-19 pandemic relief program through the Small Business Administration which were designed to provide forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses.

After submitting false info on paperwork, Hettiarchchi qualified for PPP loans for ZAH LLC and larger PPP loans for ZAH Investments, his indictment reads.

Hettiarachchi received more than $80,000 in PPP loans, according to court documents.

Two additional counts of wire fraud are tied to a scheme where Hettiarachchi is said to have stolen loans directly from an elderly victim and used them to pay personal bills and his daughters school tuition.

Hettiarachchi filed for bankruptcy in 2013, then went to the victim and asked for $30,000 with a promise to repay her in five years, according to the indictment. The victim remained anonymous in court records.

Over that five years, Hettiarachichi instead convinced the victim to loan him at least $150,000, according to court documents.

In 2015, he convinced the victim to open a line of credit to help his business. Over the course of four years, he and his wife are alleged to have charged $310,000 on two cards. More than $20,000 was used for his daughters school tuition. Hettiarachchi also falsely promised to give the victim an ownership stake in his company, according to court documents.

With the promise of repayment, Hettiarachchi would wire the money out of the victims personal retirement account, the indictment says.

Hettiarachchi is said to have convinced the victim to take out large loans in her name, and use her line of credit to make the loan payments.

With $30,000 in uncollected credit payments, the credit card company initiated legal proceedings against the victim, according to the indictment.

If convicted, Hettiarachchi faces 20 years in prison, fines and a supervised release of three years. He also faces the possibility of having to forfeit property and pay restitution, according to court documents.
A grandfather and dairy farm owner was found dead after a warehouse accident caused shelves holding thousands of cheese wheels to collapse in Italy, according to news reports.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 75, was in his warehouse in Bergamo on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 6, the Italian news outlet ANSA reported. The warehouse held 25,000 wheels of cheese on shelves up to about 33 feet tall, the outlet reported.

Each wheel of grana padano cheese, a type of parmesan-style hard cheese, weighs about 88 pounds, firefighters told Agence France-Presse.

Chiapparini was checking on the cheese when a shelf broke and started a domino effect, causing the other shelves to collapse, firefighters told AFP.

The sound alerted people nearby who called for help, ANSA reported.

Rescuers searched the warehouse all night and found Chiapparinis body on the morning of Monday, Aug. 7, the Italian news outlet Il Messaggero reported.

The accident might have been caused by a failure or other malfunction in the mechanical system that rotates the cheese wheels, the outlet reported.

Chiapparini started and owned the Azienda Agricola Chiapparini Giacomo dairy farm, Il Messaggero reported. The farm is run by him, his children and grandchildren, the outlet reported.

Other local dairy farmers are hoping to save the cheese wheels to prevent the farm from suffering even further economic losses, ANSA reported.

Bergamo is about 30 miles northeast of Milan.

Google Translate was used to translate the articles from ANSA and Il Messaggero.

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Protesters at the prime minister's home in his Richmond constituency

Government departments should cut ties with Greenpeace in the wake of last week's protest at Rishi Sunak's house, No 10 has said.

Activists from the group scaled the prime minister's home in his North Yorkshire constituency last Thursday during an anti-oil demonstration.

Five people were arrested by police and released on bail pending further inquiries.

The PM's spokesman said engagement with the group was no longer "appropriate".

"We obviously don't think that people who are accused of breaking the law should have a seat at the table in discussions with government," he added.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was no longer engaging with the group because of the stunt, the spokesman added.

"I don't think it's unusual for Defra or other agencies to engage with climate action groups - that's taken place for a number of years," he told reporters.

"But clearly given their actions and the arrests last week we don't think it's appropriate to engage with them."

The most recent known meeting between Greenpeace and Defra took place between January and March this year, when the group met marine minister Richard Benyon to discuss fisheries policy, according to departmental data.

Departmental records show the group met ministers three times last year. Records beyond March 2023 are not yet available.

The energy security department cut ties with Greenpeace some months ago.

The department's records, also available up to March 2023, do not show any meetings with Greenpeace this year. One meeting was registered last year, with then energy minister Greg Hands, to discuss energy security.

'Bold action'

Greenpeace UK's co-executive director, Will McCallum, said: "Burying your head in the sand isn't going to make the climate crisis go away.

"It's precisely because the government has effectively shut the door to civil society groups, like Greenpeace, as well as ignoring warnings from the UN, its own advisors and the International Energy Agency, that we need to protest in the way that we do.

"The bunker mentality on display from this current government is deeply damaging - cutting ties with Greenpeace isn't going to help."

He claimed the public wanted to see "bold action" on climate and would make their views known at the next general election.

"We would like to invite any member of this government to discuss with us environmental policy and the need for urgent action," he added.

Five people scaled Mr Sunak's country house to protest against the government's decision last week to grant 100 new North Sea oil and gas licences.

Activists covered the Grade II listed property in black sheeting, and unfurled a sign reading "No new oil".

Two men and two women were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and public nuisance. A third man was also arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.

Mr Sunak's office confirmed neither the prime minister nor his family, who are currently on holiday in the US, were present at the time.

The prime minister purchased the house after becoming the MP for the rural Richmond constituency in 2015.
Guzman Escobar, who has the title "trusted messenger" at ATX Peace, shows his scar from a gunshot wound in March. Abel Lopez, right, is ATX Peace's Travis County coordinator. Trusted messengers go into communities and try to meet with high-risk people before they commit a violent crime.

Guzman Escobar was at Chicano Park in March when he noticed people running toward him. Someone yelled, "They're shooting!" Then he got hit.

The bullet ricocheted inside him, hitting his colon, then his pelvis and then his back, where it remains to this day. Someone patched him up quickly before he got to the hospital. Had he waited five to 10 more minutes, he would have died, the doctor told him.

It will be another year or two before he's healed, and he still walks with a cane.

Revenge was the first thing on Escobar's mind, though police had already arrested the suspect in the shooting. Escobar grew up in East Austin, frequently getting into fights and being locked up. But he didn't want to see the same future for his 13-year-old son  especially after being moments away from death.

Because of Escobar's past and his connection to the community, he was approached by Abel Lopez, who works with ATX Peace, the city's first community violence intervention program.

Now, working with ATX Peace to help prevent violence in some Austin neighborhoods, Escobar is trying to do what the doctors did for him: save a life.

"I got blessed," Escobar said.

Lopez said one shooting often leads to three or four more, and that's part of the work of a community violence intervention program: stopping acts of retaliatory violence.

ATX Peace is a joint venture by two nonprofits, Jail to Jobs and Life Anew Restorative Justice. The organizations received an $800,000 grant through the city of Austin's Office of Violence Prevention to start a pilot community violence intervention program last October.

The organizations are now seeking more funding through the city to expand the effort. Eddie Franz, program director for Jails to Jobs, said the group is sending a budget proposal to the City Council.

Michelle Myles, a manager in the Office of Violence Prevention, said the office has been approved to receive $1 million from the federal government after it sent a proposal for more funding to the office of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

"We are grossly underfunded," Franz said. "It's a pilot program, so we understand that. ... (But) the city of Austin is growing, and those growing pains are going to create more and more tensions, more and more tight spaces, which increases violence and homicides. We don't want that. So what we're trying to do is get ahead of it. And in order to do that, we need adequate funding."

Abel Lopez of ATX Peace said one shooting often leads to three or four more, and community violence intervention programs try to stop such acts of retaliatory violence.

What is community violence intervention?

Different forms of community violence intervention have been around since the 1990s, and cities across the country, including Houston and San Antonio, fund similar types of programs.

In Austin, ATX Peace typically uses former convicts or people with a violent past who are ready to turn their lives around and start giving back to the community, Franz said. These people, such as Escobar, are trained to be "trusted messengers," the boots on the ground who go into the communities and try to meet with high-risk people before they commit a violent crime.

ATX Peace's program has three stages. First, staff members meet with potentially violent offenders to offer them a different lifestyle.

Second, they offer resources for anyone wanting to take up that option. This includes helping people get paperwork such as birth certificates, driver's licenses and Social Security cards. They also set people up with training for trade jobs, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians; auto mechanics; or commercial drivers.

Third is what they do after a shooting: visit victims and other people involved in the shooting, typically the victims' friends and relatives, to try to prevent retaliation.

Guzman Escobar, left, with Abel Lopez at the offices of ATX Peace on Tuesday, grew up in East Austin, frequently getting into fights and being locked up. But he didn't want to see the same future for his 13-year-old son.

ATX Peace has been set up in two areas of the city: North Austin, in the 78752, 78753, 78754 and 78758 ZIP codes; and in Southeast and East Austin, in the 78702 and 78741 ZIP codes.

Franz said that programs such as ATX Peace are supplemental to policing and that both are required to address public safety in a city.

"We're trying to stop the violence before it happens," Franz said. "Once it happens, that's law enforcement's domain, and they're great at that. But we're trying to be proactive and be in the community."

Violence intervention programs have been shown to reduce homicides 30% to 60% in areas where they are used, according to the Giffords Law Center. Since starting in Austin, Franz said, ATX Peace has been able to prevent at least six shootings.

Chico Tillmon, director of the community violence intervention leadership academy at the University of Chicago, said everyone in the municipality has to be on board with community violence intervention programs for them to work, including law enforcement, government and social services personnel.

Tillmon came to Austin to work with the Office of Violence Prevention as an expert when the office was setting up violence intervention programs.

He said many people want to give these programs just a year or two, and if they are not getting the results they sought, they want to stop the funding.

"That's the wrong attitude," he said. "The way we're supposed to measure it is: Are they actually engaging the individuals they said they would? Are they helping transform those individuals' lives that are that less than 1% (of the population) that are the drivers of violence? Because if they are doing that, violence should go down, but when it spikes, we can't put all the responsibility on them and relieve all the other actors in the public safety ecosystem."

Guzman Escobar's brush with death made him want to keep others from going down the same path.

'Doing life better'

ATX Peace tries to get people resources such as cognitive behavioral therapy and job training so they can learn to deal with their emotions and have options to turn to outside of the streets, Lopez said.

"Going through our program, they have a better opportunity of not just having a career or a job, but doing life better," he said.

Lopez said it's not always a success. Many people go into his office and tell him they want to get better, but they continue to commit crimes.

Richard Robinson III, program director with Life Anew Restorative Justice, the other nonprofit that received part of the grant in Austin, said community violence intervention work is not just violence prevention.

"In order to get the violence to be prevented, you have to have relationships with people that are in the midst of that," Robinson said. "And sometimes the only way to have relationships with those (people) is to kind of help (them) navigate through some of their situations, which may not be violent-related."

'I'm moving forward'

For many people whom Lopez helps, one of the first things he does is take them to get their vital records.

That's what Marcos Bailon was doing Tuesday. He's had four DWIs and served time in jail for them. He works two jobs, but he's still homeless. He's trying to get his driver's license, but he didn't have a copy of his birth certificate.

So Lopez took Bailon to the vital statistics office in Central Austin, where he helped Bailon fill out the paperwork and then paid the $22 charge to get his birth certificate.

"I feel like a citizen," Bailon said to Lopez and Escobar as he walked out of the government office holding the document. "I feel like I'm moving forward. Usually, I'm moving back. ... I wish there was more programs like this."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Why a violence intervention group is seeking funds from city of Austin
As of Monday, new policies are in effect regarding who can donate blood. No longer will gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men be discriminated against for their sexual orientation after being banned, in some form, from participating in life-saving blood donation for nearly 40 years. Additionally, no attention is paid to whether somebody is transgender, intersex or gender-nonconforming.

Recently, The Advocate spoke with the Director of the Food and Drug Administrations Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Dr. Peter Marks, to discuss the FDAs new guidelines regarding blood donations in the United States.

Those new guidelines that previously excluded gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men no longer exclude people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Instead, they focus on the level of risk certain behaviors pose, according to the FDA.

What was the blood ban, and why were gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men excluded from giving blood?

In 1985s, after falsely labeling HIV and AIDS gay diseases, the FDA banned lifetime blood donations for men who had sexual relations with another man since 1977. In addition, the FDA banned sex workers, people living with HIV, and intravenous drug users from donating blood. It was reduced to a one-year deferral period in 2015, and after the COVID-19 pandemic caused blood shortages in April 2020, it was reduced to three months of celibacy.

What are the new guidelines?

Effective August 7, 2023, potential blood donors will be screened using an updated questionnaire. No more gender-specific deferrals or screening questions about sex between men and women will be conducted. In adopting risk-based regulations, the United States will follow the United Kingdom and Canada.

Who can donate blood under the new policy?

Queer men in monogamous relationships can now give blood. All potential donors will be screened using a new questionnaire about that person's risks for HIV. That will include questions on their sexual behavior, recent sexual partners, and subjects.

Who can't donate blood under the new policy?

Potential donors who report having anal sex with new partners in the last three months won't be able to donate. Instead, they'll have to wait to donate blood.

Can I donate blood if I'm on PrEP or PEP?

Under the new regulations, people who take medications for PrEP or PEP are also not eligible to donate blood.



If every drop of blood in the blood supply is tested for pathogens, why are there still exclusions?

Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Food and Drug Administrations Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that even though modern sensors are excellent at keeping the blood supply safe, screening is still necessary when collecting blood for donation.

Detecting HIV in people who have recently been infected is, however, a challenge for devices, he said.

There is a period with our current testing, its about 10 days after infection, where our current tests are not able to tell whether someone has been infected, said Marks. Its just theyre not sensitive enough to be able to pick up the virus. And because of that, we need to have an additional layer of safety on top of that by asking people whether they have done anything in that recent past that could put them at risk for having become infected.

If people who take PrEP have to be HIV-negative to take the medication, and the medication prevents HIV transmission, why are people who use PrEP prohibited from donating blood?

As testing improves and more data and experience are gathered, the FDA may be able to reduce restrictions in the future.

We really want people to keep taking their PrEP, he says. PrEP does an extremely good job at making sure a person doesnt acquire HIV through sex, he explained, because the amount of blood exchanged is measured in fractions of teaspoons.

The amount of blood required for blood transfusions is much more significant.

The issue is that when youre talking about something thats a thousand times more in volume, that potentially means that if theres a little virus there, it could come along, he says. The other problem that goes along with PrEP is that, because it keeps down replication of the virus, in that larger volume, there could be a small amount of the virus, and our current tests wont be able to detect it.

For now, deferment for those on PrEP is necessary to ensure that the blood supply remains safe as science develops better tests.

Were committed to keeping our policies as up-to-date as we can and science-driven so that we can [allow] as many people to donate as we can, he said.

Im gay or bisexual. Can I donate blood?

Yes. Being gay or bisexual or otherwise being a man who has sex with men does not limit donor eligibility. Donors are not asked about their sexual orientation.

I am transgender. Can I donate blood?

Yes. Being transgender does not limit donor eligibility. A donor can indicate the gender they identify with at the time of donation. They do not need to disclose that they are transgender.

I am intersex. Can I donate blood?

Yes. Being intersex is not an eligibility criterion for donors. During donation, donors can indicate the gender with which they identify. The FDA requires donation centers to allow donors to choose whether they are male or female. Staff do not need to be informed that individuals are intersex.

I am gender non-binary, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, gender fluid, or agender. Can I donate blood?

Yes. Gender identity and gender expression do not affect donor eligibility. According to FDA guidelines, all donors are required to answer the same questions. Currently, the FDA requires donation centers to allow donors to choose between male and female. Individuals do not need to inform staff of their gender identity.

Find out more here.
Hank the Tank

A massive and notoriously mischievous black bear has been captured after more than a year on the run following a string of break-ins in California.

The 500lbs (227kg) bear, known to fans as Hank the Tank, is believed to have broken into 21 homes in the Lake Tahoe area since 2022.

Hank - who is actually a female bear registered as 64F - will be moved to a sanctuary in Colorado.

Her three cubs may be transferred to a facility in California's Sonoma County.

In a statement released on Friday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said that biologists had "safely immobilised" the bear, who had been linked to 21 break-ins by DNA evidence.

Pending a successful health check, Hank will be taken to the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Springfield, Colorado.

While California authorities have noted that relocation is "not typically an option", Hank's fame has given her a reprieve.

"Given the widespread interest in this bear, and the significant risk of a serious incident involving the bear, CDFW is employing an alternative solution to safeguard the bear family as well as the people in the South Lake Tahoe community," the statement said.

Hank's three cubs will be taken to a different facility in Petaluma, California "in hopes they can discontinue the negative behaviours they learned from the sow and can be returned to the wild".

On the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, Colorado Governor Jared Polis welcomed Hank - and joked that she should have been named "Henrietta the Tank".

Hank was originally believed to have been responsible for over 40 break-ins, but DNA samples proved that the break-ins were also the work of at least two other large bears with a voracious appetite for human food.

The discovery that Hank was not alone in the crime spree prompted California officials to reassure the public that "no bears will be euthanised, harmed, relocated to some facility or placed in a zoo".

Biologists believe that Hank, who is considerably larger than most black bears, had grown unafraid of humans and had learned to use her strength to force her way into people's homes.

"When you have a bear forcibly crashing its way through a garage door or ripping open a front door with people inside, that's pretty brazen and unusual," CDFW spokesperson Peter Tira told the BBC in February 2022.

The whereabouts and potential fate of the other two bears involved in the spree of California break-ins is unclear.

The BBC has reached out to CDFW for comment.

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Channel 9 anchor Daralene Jones was on an assignment late Friday night with Orlando police and Police Chief Eric Smith when the two officers were shot just feet away.

The shooting happened less than two blocks away from the downtown precinct.

Jones was invited by Smith to go out on patrol Friday night, downtown, as part of a special report focused on his first year as chief.

Instead, the night provided Jones with a unique real-time perspective of what officers face, and how quick and intense the moments can get.

Read: Daton Viel: What we know about the criminal history of man who shot 2 Orlando officers

Fitted with a bulletproof vest, Jones listened in on the briefing with the additional 35 officers working extra shifts to help keep downtown Orlando safe

Chief Eric Smith routinely patrols with his officers, and Friday night he happened to be with this unit.

You have assigned positions, well stick to those. As always watch out for each other, be safe, Smith said.

Read: Orlando police officers who were shot in the line of duty continue to recover at the hospital

Another 10 bike officers and a tactical unit temporarily pulled from other neighborhoods were already on patrol looking out for bad actors, some hustling to clear the streets for nighttime crowds, and putting up barricades.

Sergeant has to make sure all the roads are shut down, Smith said. Part of the new permit, we have officers assigned near some of the bigger nightclubs.

Roughly 10 minutes later, there was a call about a foot chase, less than two blocks away, that quickly developed into shots fired and a vehicle pursuit on I-4.

Read: GoFundMe started for 2 police officers shot in downtown Orlando

Chief Eric Smith and a sergeant hustled past Jones to join the chase, only to find out moments later that two officers had been shot. Jones said they heard the gunshots.

Seconds matter, other officers drove the two officers to the trauma center at Orlando Health.

See more from Jones experience in the video above.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell discussed the criminal history of a man who shot two Orlando police officers in downtown late Friday.

Worrell said discussed Daton Viels criminal history and responded to what she called disinformation that she believes originated with the Fraternal Order of Police.

She said no one is to blame for the shootings other than Viel.

Worrell also said that the justice system is imperfect.

Read: Daton Viel: What we know about man accused of shooting 2 Orlando police officers

She provided Channel 9 with the following statement:

This past weekend, two officers from the Orlando Police Department were shot and injured. Our thoughts and prayers are with the two officers, their families, OPD, and all members of law enforcement at this difficult time. We know the work of law enforcement is dangerous, and we do not take them for granted.

Daton Viel was serving a probation sentence for felony trespass when this incident occurred. He was also being prosecuted for sexual battery of a 14-year-old girl that was committed prior to the probation violation. After his arrest for the sexual battery case, the judge at initial appearances set his bond at $125,250. Mr. Viel was legally entitled to a bond because he was not charged with a life felony or a capital offense. It was within the judges discretion to set the bond amount. Mr. Viel posted the bond shortly thereafter.

Again, we recognize the dangers of the job of law enforcement and do not take it lightly. It is important to not politicize a tragedy and know all of law enforcement shares a common goal.

TIMELINE: Suspect dead, 2 Orlando officers shot expected to recover, officials says

Orlando police Chief Eric Smith told Channel 9 on Monday that he will look into why Viel was not in jail.

It is time for me as the chief of the police to protect my officers and look at why he was out and (was) able to do the things he (did), he said. I have to protect my other officers and protect law enforcement as a whole.

Watch Worrells full news conference in the video above.

Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks onstage at a protest outside the National Rifle Associations annual meeting on May 27, 2022, in Houston. Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune

For 24/7 mental health support in English or Spanish, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations free help line at 800-662-4357. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, considered a rising star among Texas Democrats, will temporarily leave her post leading the states most populous county to receive treatment for clinical depression, she announced Monday.

Hidalgo said she was diagnosed with the condition in July and checked into an out-of-state facility to undergo treatment late last month. She aims to return to work in early September.

From the beginning of my tenure as County Judge, I have stressed the importance of mental health services, Hidalgo wrote in a letter Monday afternoon to Harris County residents. Depression and other mental health illnesses are part of the human condition, and mental health illnesses should be treated just like any other health condition. I feel so strongly that we should be open and forthright about mental health issues, which historically have been tarred with stigma that have prevented people from seeking the treatment they need.

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis will preside over the countys four-member commissioners court while Hidalgo undergoes treatment, she said. Hidalgos chief of staff will handle her offices day-to-day operations.

Hidalgo serves as Harris Countys top political leader, guiding policy for the nations third-most-populous county.

She won the position in 2018 when she unexpectedly ousted Ed Emmett, a Republican who had enjoyed bipartisan support. Since then, Hidalgo has built a national profile as she led the county amid the COVID-19 pandemic and became one of the states most prominent Democrats  as well as a major target for Texas Republicans.

Its unusual for elected officials to speak candidly about their mental health diagnoses. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has spoken openly about dealing with depression after he sought care for the condition earlier this year.

Hidalgo said, My experience has been difficult, but I am taking it as an opportunity to be open about my own struggle, my own challenges, and to encourage others, who need help, to seek treatment. All of us know someone  a friend, a coworker, or a family member  who suffers from depression. I encourage every person that is struggling with mental health challenges to look for support in your community, your loved ones, and your doctor.

Last year, Hidalgo announced a $14.3 million initiative using American Rescue Plan Act funds to increase access to mental health services in Harris County. A few months before that, the city of Houston set aside $21 million for mental health and domestic violence prevention training for its police department.

Major depressive disorder  often referred to as depression  is a common but serious medical illness that leads to a variety of emotional and physical problems, according to the American Psychiatric Association. It can decrease someones ability to function at work and at home.

Depression can cause feelings of sadness, difficulty thinking, loss of energy, and thoughts of death and suicide. The mental illness can occur at any time in someones life, but it can also be triggered by a medical condition. Studies have found a high likelihood of it being genetic.

Most Texans probably know someone who has depression. More people across the country have been diagnosed with the condition since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2021, 43.4% of adults in Texas reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, and more than half of Americans reported that the lockdowns and other impacts of the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

One common myth about depression is that its only triggered after a sad or traumatic event, but symptoms can appear at a very young age and can stay with someone for the rest of their life. Its not a mood but a clinical disorder that medically affects the brains ability to work properly unless treated.

Depression is among the most treatable mental disorders. Between 80% and 90% of people with depression eventually respond well to treatment. Common treatments include antidepressants, talk therapy and developing coping skills.

Mental health crisis services are available in Texas through local mental health or behavioral health authorities. These services are available 24/7 and can include crisis assessments, intervention services and relapse prevention services.

More than 200 speakers are now confirmed for the 2023 Texas Tribune Festival in downtown Austin from Sept. 21-23. Each year, the Festival engages, challenges and surprises attendees with unexpected talent mashups, must-see interviews and more, curated by the award-winning journalists at The Texas Tribune. See the lineup and get tickets today.
GOSHEN - The head of a Bronx anti-violence program was among 15 charged in a recent Orange County narcotics conspiracy investigation.

Michael Rodriguez, 48, of Yonkers, was charged with first-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree conspiracy and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all felonies.

Rodriguez is the director of Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, which receives government funding and works to promote safer streets in the Bronx.

According to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney's office. Rodriguez was among 15 people facing charges at the conclusion of a two-year investigation into the trafficking of cocaine in the cities of Middletown and Port Jervis.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said a warrant was executed at Rodriguez's Yonkers home on July 25. That resulted in the seizure of more than 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, $165,509 in cash, a money counter, two unlicensed guns, a vacuum sealer, digital scales and jewelry worth approximately $50,000. He is being held without bail in the Orange County jail, pending a future court appearance.

Manslaughter conviction: Newburgh man sentenced in 2022 shooting death of 29-year-old near Washington Street

According to Hoovler, Rodriguez is alleged to have regularly supplied cocaine to Angelica Rodriguez, 39, of Otisville - who is not believed to be related to him - and she would sell it in and around Middletown. He also is suspected of supplying cocaine to Tiano Lopez, 25, of Middletown, who would sell it in and around Port Jervis.

Angelica Rodriguez was arrested on July 27 and charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy, both felonies. She is currently being held without bail in the Orange County jail pending a future court appearance.

Lopez was charged with second-degree conspiracy and was arraigned and released pending a future court appearance.

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Also charged with second-degree conspiracy in the operation were Amy Austin, 44, Rebecca Concepcion, 32, and Jennifer Williams, 49, all of Port Jervis; Janiyah Conklin, 20, Ruthann Dailey, 43, Angel Rodriguez, 42, Felix Rodriguez, 31 and Minnie Williams, 31, all of Middletown; Nathan Gannon, 54, of Wallkill; Michael Jackson, 35, of Newburgh; John Meyer, 42, of Glen Spey; and Victor Pacheco, 42, of Ellenville.

Concepion, Jackson and Pacheco have not yet been arrested, and prosecutors are appealing for the public's help in locating them. Arrest warrants for all three are on file in City of Middletown Court.

The others were all arraigned and released pending future court appearances.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, Poughkeepsie Journal and The Journal News/lohud. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com or on Twitter @mikerandall845.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Orange County charges Bronx anti-violence leader in drug probe
A scheduled Monday hearing over whether S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson can pay two law firms $75 million from a federal government settlement has been delayed.

An assistant for Judge Clifton Newman said the judge had a conflict and the case had to be rescheduled. A reason for the conflict was not immediately given.

A new date for the hearing was not immediately scheduled.

In 2020, the federal government agreed to pay South Carolina $600 million for failing to remove weapons-grade plutonium from the Savannah River nuclear weapons complex in Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties. The state had been stuck with the deadly material for years after a major federal government construction project unraveled.

The U.S. Department of Energy agreed to remove nearly 10 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium from SRS over the next 15 years.

As part of the deal, Wilson agreed to pay $75 million in fees for attorneys from two Columbia law firms, Willoughby & Hoefer, and Davidson, Wren & DeMasters. Wilson said that amount was derived from a contingency fee formula based on the amount recovered. Before becoming attorney general, Wilson worked for Willoughby & Hoefer.

In September 2020, Columbia attorney John Crangle and the S.C. Public Interest Foundation sued Wilson, arguing that the $75 million fee was unreasonable and Wilson had no need to hire private counsel to address a relatively straightforward issue that government leaders ultimately negotiated.

Gov. Henry McMaster also questioned the size of the fee.
This piece contains details about eating disorders and self-harm.

As a gay man, Ive always felt strange being obsessed with film and TV. Id have friends talk about how deeply theyd resonate with particular characters, but growing up, I never really felt much of that myself. Queer representation on screen was minimal, and the few gay characters that did exist on TV (like Marco on Degrassi: The Next Generation) were typically pushed to the side in favor of straight characters. It almost felt like the thing in the world I loved most in the world wasnt for me.

Things are very different now, and its wonderful to know that so many queer youths wont feel nearly as confused or underrepresented by the projects they love watching on screen. A show I would have completely and utterly adored growing up is Hearstopper, the surprise hit that just released its second season on Netflix.

Heartstopper, based on the graphic novel series by Alice Oseman (who also created and writes the TV series), is a tender, heartwarming queer love story about two British teens: out and proud Charlie (Joe Locke) and rugby lad Nick (Kit Connor). It might be the sweetest show on television, but it also has just enough edge to stop it from feeling overly cloying. Practically everyone in the primary cast is queer, and the show is a proud celebration of how wonderful it feels to live an authentic life.

Heartstopper May Be Corny, But Its a Queer Rom-Com Triumph

And thats why I was so disappointed in how the series did a disservice to what could have been an important and potentially life-saving storyline dealing with an issue thats rarely talked about within the LGBTQ+ community: the shocking prevalence of eating disorders among queer youth.

(Warning: Spoilers for Heartstopper Season 2 ahead!)

Despite the radiant rainbow-positivity, this isnt a show that hides the reality of being queer: Growing up not understanding why youre different from anyone else can be brutal, and there can be unfortunate and serious consequences to being out, especially when youre young. Much of the second season follows Charlie and Nicks blossoming partnership. While Charlie is confident in his sexuality and out at school, Nick is still closeted, terrified of what his peers and family (barring his super accepting mother, played by Olivia Colman) will think.

Their intimate circle of friends (many of whom are also queer) know about their relationship, and thats good enough for Charlie, whos on Cloud 9 now that theyre together: This is the best my life has ever been. I dont have to hide my amazing boyfriend anymore. Im not getting bullied. Everythings perfect, he tells Nick. But thats not entirely trueCharlie isnt eating.

This is important ground for a show like Heartstopper to cover. Eating disorders are devastatingly prevalent in society, especially among LGBTQ+ people. A 2020 study revealed that a staggering 54 percent of LGBTQ+ adolescents have been diagnosed with a full-spectrum eating disorder, while an additional 21 percent believed they had an eating disorder during their lives. For the math-averse, thats a whopping 75 percent of queer youth whove been impacted by eating disorders. And a lot of those are gay men.

In the final scene of Heartstopper Season 2, Nick finally asks Charlie about the bullying he endured when he first came out. Actors Connor and Locke perform the scene beautifully, but Lockes line reading is particularly devastating: I think it surprised me how homophobic people were. I thought things were better nowadays.

People would just call me disgusting to my face, he continued. And it went on for so long I think I started to believe what they were saying.

Its completely crushing to hear Charlie, whos appeared so happy-go-lucky throughout the entire season, reveal how deeply bullying has impacted him. I felt his confession in my bones, recalling how brutal my own teenage experience felt at times. And though Ive moved past it, the thought of those words still stings over a decade later, so I have no doubt itll take Charlie a long time to truly process and work through the hurt.

The season 2 cast of Heartstopper. Samuel Dore/Netflix

Charlie also reveals to Nick that he resorted to cutting in the past. Its a powerful moment. The camera stays on Charlie, emphasizing the pain hes experienced, rather than focus on his partners reaction. Nick handles the situation perfectly, lifting Charlies spirits up rather than admonishing him for hurting himself. He holds Charlie tight and tells him all the things he adores about him. They share a kiss, and then Charlie heads home.

But thats it. What could have been a tender exploration of how Charlie still is harming himself, albeit in a different way, gets put aside for budding romance. Something about it just feels off. The show had sprinkled references to Charlies issues with food, focusing the camera on a number of meals hed left uneaten, to the concern of Nick.

He even faints during their trip to Paris, where Nick confronts Charlie about his eating. Charlie tells Nick his problems with food stem from trying to get control of his life after all the bullying. Nick is every bit as supportive as he is in the final scene. Nick even makes him have a bite of a sandwich. Then it's never brought up again, and theres no real indication the issue is resolved. But in the final scene, theres a sudden reveal that Charlie self-harmed, and the eating disorder storyline becomes a distant memory.

Its here Heartstopper runs into a problem, trying to effectively straddle two separate desiresqueer euphoria and realistic representation. It wants so badly to be optimistic that when it does address conditions like eating disorders it lacks the appropriate gravity and detail. By not getting into the details of whats ailing Charlie, beyond just a few lines acknowledging his issues, Heartstopper is trying to have the best of both worlds. Eating disorders are vastly complex and dont just vanish after a quick chat. The series fails to tackle the issue head-on, presumably to make this a more palatable, sweet show. If thats the case, why bring up the issue in the first place?

The shows superficial exploration of the issue feels odd, since it otherwise so successfully explores the nuances of what it means to be a queer youth in contemporary society. For a show thats so important to teens, using kiddy gloves to deal with a very real issue feels like a misstep.

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That said, the plotline isnt a complete disaster. It doesnt bend to the typical representation of people with eating disordersnamely a lot of sitting agonizingly over or by a toilet. Nick is the only person who seems to realize theres something wrong with Charlie, and it's only through not-so-subtle hintsCharlie leaving behind full plates of foodthat hes able to realize something is wrong behind the facade. Mental health issues often arent recognizable, even if you know someone intimately, and Heartstopper deals with this admirably.

Its such a shame because season 2 of Heartstopper is largely wonderful. Its still one of the best shows steaming right now, particularly for kids trying to figure out their own identity. But in Season 3 (which is already confirmed), the show will have to make a decision: Deal with heavy issues respectfully and thoroughly, or dive head-first into presenting the most optimistic show on TV.

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Tarek El Moussa shared a statement on Friday. Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

Tarek El Moussa addressed criticism over his plan to redevelop a property into a 138-unit apartment building.

The property's current tenants say they're being evicted so El Moussa can pursue the project.

El Moussa denied that he or his partners were involved in the evictions.

Tarek El Moussa denied that he and his partners were evicting tenants from their rent-stabilized apartments so they can be redeveloped into a residential building.

Tarek acknowledged criticisms directed at his project, NoHo 138, in a statement shared on Instagram on Friday. According to the project's website, NoHo 138 will be created through Tarek and wife Heather Rae El Moussa's respective real estate investing companies. Pyramid Development Group and WJK Development Co. will also help develop the project.

"Even though I am being dragged for false accusations and misconceptions, my intentions are to do good, and I hope that we can focus on the positive and the facts," Tarek wrote. "Notices to the tenants were served by the current owner, not by me or the partners of NoHo 138. I am not evicting anyone. We did not issue the Ellis Act relocation documents."

The Ellis Act refers to California law that allows landlords "with a legal way to 'go out of business' short of selling the property to another landlord,'" according to the City of West Hollywood's website. Ellis Act evictions offer compensation for affected tenants between $7,000 and $25,000.

Tarek continued that NoHo 138's partners are attempting to contact the remaining tenants to facilitate "an amicable discussion regarding final move out agreements."

Tarek and his wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, are investing in the project through their respective companies. Amy Sussman / Staff / Getty Images

"The partners of Noho 138 have also reached out to the attorney representing the Hartsook tenants to request assistance in facilitating a meeting between both parties," Tarek wrote. "Our intentions are to work with the tenants to offer a great opportunity for them while helping to improve the neighborhood."

The statement added NoHo 138 would include 14 low-income rental units and other efforts to acknowledge the local community.

"In addition, this project will provide hundreds of new jobs through the construction process, provide a boost to city tax revenue which will be allocated for homeless programs and other socially impactful programs as promoted by the current city administration, create 131 new parking spaces to help reduce the impact of street parking, provide tenants an opportunity to come back and live in a newly constructed apartment, as well as create a beautiful new community to attract a diverse base of residents," he wrote.

Representatives for NoHo 138 did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In May, Tarek shared a YouTube video detailing the project and inviting viewers to invest in NHO 138. He said his team purchased multiple homes in the area to build the complex on Hartsook Street. Tenants living in the area began calling out Tarek in July on a tenant-run Instagram account, which called his actions "predatory" in one post.

Community members also blasted the evictions in interviews with local outlets like The Los Angeles Times and KCAL. They did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

"It was really triggering and traumatic and totally ignoring the fact that people still lived here," a tenant, Clare Letmon, told KCAL.

The Times reported that the El Moussas told investors in a presentation that they could sell NoHo 138 for $26 million more than it costs to acquire property and build the development.

"Pay us to leave," Letmon told The Times. "But pay us an amount of money that's dignified and recognizes the profit they're set to make off of everything that was done to us."

Read the original article on Insider
Metropolitan Ionafan (Anatolii Yeletskykh), the head of a Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) diocese in Ukraines Vinnytsia Oblast, was sentenced to five years in prison with confiscation of property, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on Aug. 7.

According to the press release, he was found guilty of inciting insurrection and calling for an overthrow of the constitutional order, as well denying the armed Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Read also: Orthodox Church of Ukraine finally adopts new calendar

The prosecution proved in court that in January 2022, the priest published an article on the website of his diocese about the dominant role of the ROC in Orthodox Christianity and alleged "dependence" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The article was widely circulated on the internet, particularly after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Read also: Wake up and finally stop serving evil  OCUs Metropolitan Epiphanius to worshippers of Russian Orthodox Church

The metropolitan also kept propaganda leaflets on his computer to distribute among his flock. These materials attempted to justify Russias invasion of Ukraine and legitimize enemy troops occupying sovereign Ukrainian territory.

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
More utility work associated with construction of Californias high-speed rail route will tie up several streets in central and downtown Fresno in August and September.

Daytime lane and road work was scheduled to begin Monday in the area of Fresno and G streets between Highway 99 and downtown, while intermittent nighttime lane closures were to start Monday night near H Street, Belmont and Weber avenues near Roeding Park in central Fresno.

The latest work announced by the California High-Speed Rail Authority and its contractor, Tutor-Perini / Zachry / Parsons, is in addition to ongoing construction in Fresno and throughout the central San Joaquin Valley.

The daytime work near downtown includes the closure of G Street between Stanislaus and Fresno streets, as well as closure of an eastbound lane of Fresno Street east of G Street. Construction will be happening from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Sept. 8.

Traffic heading north on G Street will be detoured west on Fresno Street, then north on E Street, and then east on Stanislaus Street back onto G Street. Southbound traffic on G Street will be sent west on Stanislaus, south on E Street, and then east on Fresno Street back to G Street.

A short distance to the north, multiple closures are planned for nighttime work along Weber and Belmont avenues and H Street from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Oct. 9. That work includes:

Intermittent lane closures along northbound Weber Avenue between Belmont and Thorne avenues.

Intermittent lane closures along H Street between Belmont and Palm avenues.

Intermittent lane closures along Belmont Avenue between Farris and Safford avenues.

Intermittent lane and road closures along southbound Weber Avenue between Belmont Avenue and H Street.

Drivers heading east on Belmont Avenue to get to southbound H Street will be detoured north on Golden State Boulevard, then east on Olive Avenue, and then south on Weber Avenue to H Street.

Traffic heading north on H Street to go east on Belmont Avenue will face a detour that first goes west on Belmont, then around the Belmont traffic circle and back east on Belmont, according to the rail authority and contractor.

Signage will be in place at both construction areas, and flaggers will also be directing traffic at the Belmont/Weber/H Street zone. Property owners and business operators will continue to have access to their sites during the work.

Details on construction are available at online at BuildHSR.com or Caltrans QuickMap online tool.
A major cross-state highway remained closed Monday as a slow-moving wildfire on Sourdough Mountain in Whatcom County continues to creep toward the Diablo Dam, a Seattle City Light power plant and a village of homes for its workers, state and federal officials said.

The fire hasnt gone all the way down to those structures. We still want to treat them as if they are at risk, said Mark Enty, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center team thats now managing firefighting operations.

State Highway 20 remains closed indefinitely between Newhalem and Rainy Pass, the Washington State Department of Transportation said Monday.

Cross-state travel is possible using U.S. Highway 2, Interstate 90 and U.S. Highway 12, WSDOT tweeted Monday.

Highway 20, also called the North Cascades Highway, is the northernmost pass connecting eastern and western Washington. Its closed for the safety of firefighters who are using the road to move equipment, Enty told The Bellingham Herald.

Its really hard to know when the road can be shared, he said in an interview.

Size of the fire was estimated at 1,440 acres with 0% containment, down from almost 3,000 acres first reported over the weekend because of more accurate fire mapping, Enty said.

Firefighters are protecting the Whatcom County town of Diablo, the power-generating facilities and the campus of the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, he said.

Helicopters conducting water drops are mostly whats helping to slow the fires spread, he said.

Earlier, people flying drones in the area were hampering those efforts, as planes and helicopters cannot fly in the area if drones are present, experts said.

More than 330 firefighters and support personnel are helping with the fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Cooler temperatures and higher humidity Monday also were expected to help the firefighting effort, and thunderstorms were also in the forecast, along with erratic winds and possibly dry lightning.

A lightning strike sparked the fire on July 29 in remote eastern Whatcom County.
A dog named Sasha needed rescue from the Kentucky woods after a copperhead snake struck during a recent hike, officials said.

Members of the Wolfe County Search & Rescue Team responded to a 911 call at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 regarding a dog in distress near the Turtle Back Arch Trail in Kentuckys Red River Gorge, the organization said in a news release.

Sasha had been bitten five times by a copperhead on both back quarters, the release said. Soon, the dogs back legs swelled, and he couldnt walk. Sashas owners then carried him on their backs for a mile until they reached the rescue crew, the release said.

A veterinary technician on the team gave Sasha a Benadryl before he was loaded onto a stretcher and carried out, rescuers said.

Sasha was then put into the owners vehicle and taken to a veterinary hospital in Lexington, roughly 70 miles northwest, according to the release.

We wish Sasha a speedy recovery and commend the owners for working so hard to get him out quickly, rescuers said.

While copperheads can be found across all of Kentucky, they are less common in the Inner Bluegrass Region, according to the University of Kentucky. (Their) preferred habitat includes rocky, wooded hillsides, lowland areas near streams, abandoned wood piles or rotting logs and mulch piles.

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Topekans are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated about homelessness.

Barry Feaker can feel it. He led TRM Ministries, formerly the Topeka Rescue Mission, for 36 years before stepping down in April 2022 and assuming a role as the organization's strategic adviser.

Public concern rose after homeless people became dispersed throughout the community after last year's bulldozing of the large "Tent City" homeless camp just east of TRM's main shelter, Feaker said.

Messages on social media  not all of them accurate  have brought increased frustration, resentment and animosity, he said.

Amid complaints that homeless camps were creating eyesores and public health hazards, Topeka's mayor and city council voted Feb. 7 to hire Evanston, Ill.-based Sylver Consulting LLC for $76,080 to help the city.

TRM Ministries' executive director La Manda Broyles speaks on a list of questions, concerns and misconceptions she and adviser and former executive director Barry Feaker receive during a July 27 public meeting at the former North Topeka Baptist Church.

TRM's public meetings intended to reduce misinformation

Rescue Mission executive director La Manda Broyles and Feaker scheduled a series of meetings with the public to try to tamp down what they say is misinformation and misconceptions about their efforts. They also say they want to encourage dialogue about homelessness in Topeka.

The first was July 27. Others will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 22, both at the former North Topeka Baptist Church building TRM owns at 123 N.W. Gordon.

They sat down with The Capital-Journal on Friday.

TRM, a faith-based organization, since 1953 has served homeless, hungry and impoverished citizens in the Topeka community. Its main shelter is at 600 N. Kansas Ave.

Deanna Mortensen shares her feelings as a NOTO business owner in late July, saying: "I am a former homeless person. I'm not angry at any of those people. I'm angry that nothing is being done and that instead of directing, 'Hey, can we help you or can you teach you to do something?' were being run out of our businesses."

TRM in 2019 experienced a financial crisis that forced it to make a public plea for donations. It has since bounced back to the point where it now has a "very healthy budget," Broyles said.

When asked about the most common rumors leaders hear about TRM Ministries, Feaker pointed to a policy that ended more than 35 years ago.

In 1986, TRM ended its requirement that residents of its Topeka homeless shelter attend chapel services, Feaker said, adding that many are convinced the policy remains in effect.

Topeka city government gets involved with homelessness issue

Then-Topeka city manager Stephen Wade was among officials who attended a seven-hour, invitation-only summit on homelessness April 5. The event involved people from about 45 organizations, including TRM.

Topeka's mayor and council then voted 10-0 on July 11 to fire Wade, for reasons that haven't been made public.

Scores of people attended a July 17 meeting in downtown North Topeka's NOTO Arts District, where speakers who included NOTO business owners contended key decisions about strategies for dealing with homelessness were being made behind the scenes.

Those speakers demanded accountability, transparency and improvement in services for Topeka's homeless population.

Topeka's mayor and council then voted July 25 to stick with Sylver Consulting and restart the process they began in February to deal with homelessness.

Topeka city officials have taken steps to help with those experiencing homelessness including attending a summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on April 5, attending public hearings and hiring Sylver Consulting.

Possibility of low-barrier shelter stirs concern in Topeka

When the city initiated its effort to deal with homelessness, Broyles said, she told others involved that TRM wanted to help in whatever way it could to best serve the community.

Wade and Broyles were among city and TRM officials who went in April to Colorado Springs, Colorado, which has taken steps to address homelessness that included creating a low-barrier homeless shelter.

Low-barrier shelters impose minimal requirements upon those who stay there. TRM's Topeka shelters aren't considered low-barrier. They won't let people stay if they're intoxicated, using drugs or carrying weapons.

Somehow, Broyles said, a false rumor was widely spread alleging that the city and TRM had agreed to create a low-barrier shelter and that TRM would be paid to operate it. TRM has no plans to operate a low-barrier shelter, she said.

Still, TRM is willing to be part of such an effort "if that is what God is calling us to do," Broyles said at TRM's July 27 public meeting.

After the former North Topeka Baptist Church was donated in June to TRM, that organization found itself dealing with a false rumor that it planned to use that building as a low-barrier shelter, Broyles said.

"No plans were made for that," she said.

Broyles wouldn't have planned to do that without first talking to neighbors and NOTO businesses, she said.

She said she put out a news release saying the former church wouldn't be used as any type of shelter, but "the narrative keeps being out there, despite what I say."

TRM leaders say they want to re-establish relationships with NOTO owners

Community members listen to TRM Ministries' executive director La Manda Broyles and Barry Feaker, strategic adviser and former executive director, during an informational hearing in late July at North Topeka Baptist Church, 123 N.W. Gordon St.

Broyles said she can understand why owners would be worried about how their businesses would be affected by the establishment in North Topeka of a low-barrier shelter.

"I mean, this is their livelihood," Broyles said. "This is where they live. That matters to me, too. I don't want to do anything as executive director to damage what they've worked so hard for."

TRM used to have a "very good" relationship with the NOTO business community, Feaker said.

Now, it's working to get that back, he said.

Feaker said TRM was a partner in the inception of NOTO, which began with the opening of three businesses in 2011 in the 800 and 900 blocks of N. Kansas Ave.

"I think people I know who used to have a really good feeling about the mission have been given some wrong information," Feaker said.

It's consequently up to the mission to restore harmony to those relationships by re-establishing those ongoing conversations about, "What's true, what's reality and what's being done," he said.

Leaders: TRM's ties to Stephen Wade may have had negative effects

Broyles also responded to a question from The Capital-Journal about a published assertion that Wade, in a text message, said he hoped to add $1 million into the city's 2024 budget for TRM.

That message wasn't specific, Broyles said.

"It says 'homeless shelter,'" she said. "It never said 'Topeka Rescue Mission.'"

TRM Ministries' adviser and former executive director Barry Feaker talks about the shelter's approach to ending chronic homelessness during a late July informational hearing.

Broyles added, "The $1 million was for whatever direction we went with homeless services, and whoever was going to run with it."

Feaker acknowledged TRM's connection to Wade may have negatively affected the way it was perceived by some, particularly people who didn't like Wade.

He said when he was president of this community's Safe Streets Coalition in 2007, he partnered with "the experts"  local leaders in law enforcement, prosecution and corrections  and some people didn't like that.

When you ally with someone, that person's enemies tend to see you as being their enemy, Feaker said.

"I think that's just how we are as humans," he said.

Still, Feaker said he thought Wade made a "very smart move" in asking TRM for advice about homelessness.

"We're on a mission here," he said, "and we're going to connect with people who can get things done, not people who want to complain and just have no solution at all."

Though Wade is no longer city manager, Broyles and Feaker acknowledged they still have connections with him personally.

Broyles is part of Wade's "support group," she said.

Wade said in a recent interview with The Capital-Journal that he suffers from depression.

Feaker and Wade attend the same church, and interact there, Feaker said.

Barry Feaker defends unsuccessful application for federal grant

TRM Ministries' executive director La Manda Broyles thanks those in attendance at a public informational event alongside strategic adviser and former executive director Barry Feaker in late July.

Feaker defended TRM's decision to apply this year for a federal grant amounting to nearly $317,000, which was denied.

The effort began during the tenure of former Topeka city manager Brent Trout, who helped arrange for TRM to receive COVID-related funding to rehouse people who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, Feaker said.

More than 600 households were rehoused as a result, he said.

The program was so successful that, with the money running out, TRM applied  unsuccessfully  for grant funding that would have kept the program going, Feaker said.

"We applied for that because the success was so huge," Broyles said.

More: Domestic violence, fire and mental illness  how these Topeka residents ended up unhoused

TRM policy limits longer stays to people with Topeka-area ties

TRM is also working at its public meetings to dispel the misconception that it is a destination of homeless people from all over the U.S., Feaker said.

In an effort to discourage that, he said, TRM in 2005 initiated a policy allowing for people to stay there no more than 14 days unless they were from Topeka; had family in Topeka; were here for a mental or physical health reason; were here for legal purposes; or came here for a job, regardless of how that may have worked out.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began, TRM tightened up its rules to generally allow people to stay there only if they were from from the Topeka Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Jefferson, Jackson and Osage counties, Feaker said.

That protocol remains in effect, though it has been eased  to some degree  for families, he said.

Broyles is dedicated to "try to fix whatever concerns are there in whatever way I can" regarding TRM, she said.

Feaker and Broyles said they thought TRM's July 27 public meeting was a success, and look forward to building upon that in future meetings.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: TRM Ministries tries to quash rumors and educate about homelessness
HSBC's head of public affairs has apologised after accusing the British government of being "weak" for complying with US demands to cut back business dealings with China.

A spokesperson for the bank said Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles made the comments "at a private roundtable discussion and shared his personal views."

US-China ties have become increasingly tense in recent years.

The UK-based firm makes much of its profit in Asia, including China.

"I was speaking at a private event under Chatham House Rules and my personal comments do not reflect the views of HSBC or the China British Business Council. I apologise for any offence caused," Sir Sherard, who is also chairman of the China-Britain Business Council lobby group said in a statement provided to the BBC by HSBC.

Under the Chatham House Rule, attendees of meetings are free to use information gained from discussions, but are not allowed to reveal who made any comments.

The rule, which originated almost a century ago, is a system for holding debates about controversial topics and is named after the London headquarters of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Sir Sherard told the closed-door meeting that Britain often bowed to calls by the US and should look after the UK's own interests, rather than blindly following Washington's lead, Bloomberg News first reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.

According to Bloomberg, Sir Sherard told the meeting that one example of the UK caving in to US demands was when Britain banned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from taking part in building the country's 5G mobile phone networks in 2020.

More than 80% of HSBC's profits are generated from outside the UK, with over half of that coming from mainland China and Hong Kong.

It means that the global banking giant has to walk a fine diplomatic line between authorities in Washington and Beijing.

The UK and other Western governments have found themselves caught between the constant tit-for-tat between the world's two biggest economies as they hit each other with trade restrictions.

In October, Washington announced restrictions on Beijing's access to advanced computer chip technology.

China responded this month with restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium - two materials key to the semiconductor industry.
A Madison County woman faces charges in connection with a fatal wreck in June that claimed the life of a Winterville woman, according to Athens-Clarke police.

Keosha Laricka Martin, 38, of Hull is charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and failing to maintain a lane. She was charged on July 31 and released the next day on a $6,250 bond.

The crash claimed the life of Linda Motichek, 70, who died at the scene.

The crash occurred on Cherokee Road, where police said Martins vehicle crossed the center line and collided with Moticheks southbound Toyota Corolla, according to the police report.

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A Michigan man was charged with killing his estranged wife in an egregious example of domestic violence, police said.

After receiving a report of a shooting, Detroit police found Breon McIntosh, 35, at a downtown construction site shortly before 8 a.m. on Aug. 4, authorities said in a news release.

He was holding a gun and standing over his wifes motionless body in the road, police said.

The woman, identified as Andricka McIntosh, was pronounced dead at the scene, and the man was arrested.

The pair, who were believed to have been separated, met up on Aug. 4 and got into an argument, police said. As the dispute intensified, Breon McIntosh pulled out a handgun and fired multiple times, police said.

McIntosh has been charged with premeditated first-degree murder and felony firearm, police said. He was arraigned and returned to jail on Aug. 6.

An attorney for the man could not immediately be reached for comment by McClatchy News.

The death of Andricka McIntosh is the eighth domestic violence homicide this year and, very unfortunately, there will be more, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in the release.

This cannot be said enough, Worthy added, the most dangerous time in the life of a domestic violence victim is when they are trying to leave the relationship.

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The parents of a missing Georgia woman said their worst fears were confirmed last week when their daughter, 30-year-old Imani Roberson, was found dead on Friday.

Roberson had been missing for three weeks. On Friday, her husband Donell Anderson, 22, was charged with murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime in connection with her death, Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett said in a press conference on Saturday.

Anderson was taken into custody Friday night after her body was recovered.

This investigation is still ongoing and I can assure you that another arrest will be made, Levett said at the news conference.

Levett told reporters that Roberson was last seen driving home after having dinner with her four children at her mothers house on the night of July 16.

Imani Roberson.

Imani Roberson.

Roberson went home with her 1-month-old and 3-year-old, while leaving her two older children with their grandmother, police said.

The next day, concerned that her daughter was not picking up the phone, Robersons mother, Clarine Andujar-White, visited her daughter and Andersons home to find it empty and reported Roberson missing.

Although police did not provide details about where the two younger children were, they confirmed they were found safe.

Last week, according to local news outlet WSB-TV, officers found Robersons SUV torched about 30 miles away from her parents home.

Her disappearance prompted public pleas from her family and authorities for information.

Imani loves her children, Andujar-White said at a press conference after the SUV was found. Please help me reunite these babies with their mother.

On Friday, she was found dead, though authorities did not immediately provide more information about where her body was found or how she was killed.

Pushing back tears, Robersons parents spoke on Saturday about the difficulties of losing their daughter and again asked for the public to come forward with any information  this time asking for justice.

Parents of Imani Roberson.

Parents of Imani Roberson.

Late last night, my worst fears were confirmed, and our family is devastated, Andujar-White said.

Its not the news that we wanted, but Im happy that we can hold them accountable, said Ronald Acklin, Robersons father.

Levett told reporters that Robersons children will be in the care of their grandparents.

A candlelight vigil honoring Roberson is set to take place on Monday.

According to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 3 women have reported being the victim of physical violence from their intimate partner in their lifetime.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

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Australian rapper Iggy Azalea was reportedly one of more than 70 people who wrote Tory Lanez a letter of support ahead of his sentencing in the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.

Lanez (legal name Daystar Peterson), 31, has been in jail since 23 December 2022 after a jury convicted him of first-degree assault, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and having a concealed and unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

Fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion had accused Lanez of shooting her in the foot in a July 2020 incident.

During the court hearing on Monday (7 August), Judge Herriford briefly summarised the numerous letters of support he had received for Lanez, one of which came from Azalea, according to court reporter Meghann Cuniff.

Cuniff  who has earned the affectionate monicker Megan Thee Reporter from Megans fans during the longwinded trial  said Herriford told the court that Azaleas letter asked him to impose a sentence that is transformational, not life-destroying.

The Independent has contacted Azaleas representatives for comment.

Among the letters, Cuniff also reported that a jailer wrote to say that Lanez is remorseful and has talked in detail about the event and what he could have done to prevent it.

Iggy Azalea (left) and Tory Lanez (Getty Images)

Los Angeles prosecutors are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for Lanez, who also faces deportation to his native Canada. An official sentencing is expected later today, which his lawyers plan to appeal.

Megan The Stallion (real name Megan Pete) testified during the trial that Lanez had shot a handgun towards the back of her feet and told her to dance b**** after she got out of his SUV and walked away from it. The pair had left a party at Kylie Jenners Hollywood Hills home.

She required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her feet and alleged Lanez offered her $1m (830,000) to stay quiet about the incident as he was on probation.

Los Angeles prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that along with the crimes for which he was convicted, Lanez has re-traumatised Megan with social media posts about the case that emboldened many among his more than 2 million followers to attack her.

In April, Megan spoke for the final time about being shot by Lanez and the public reaction to the shooting.

Explaining that she saw herself as a survivor, because I have truly survived the unimaginable rather than a victim, Megan said that shed had to face her trauma being turned into a running joke.

I understand the public intrigue, but for the sake of my mental health, I dont plan to keep reliving the most traumatic experience of my life over and over again. Im choosing to change the narrative because Im more than just my trauma, she said.
Route 24  a 255-mile stretch of open road that runs through Illinois from the Mississippi River to the Indiana border  has been deemed the most-feared route in the state.

Thats according to a survey by Gunther Mitsubishi, which asked 3,000 drivers across the country to name the road in their state they most fear becoming stranded on.

Route 24 may instill the most trepidation among some Illinois drivers, but it ranked No. 19 on the list overall, which covers all 50 states.

Heres a look at why U.S. Route 24 in Illinois might have drivers so uneasy, and what the state is doing about it.

How does Route 24 compare to other feared roads in the US?

Taking the No. 19 spot, the survey ranks Route 24 just behind Route 2 Michigan. Thats the isolated stretch of highway that runs through the states Upper Peninsula, which gets heavy snow and average temperature lows of -20 degrees in the winter.

The survey ranks these roads as the 10 most feared routes in the U.S. The top five generally pass through vast, desolate swaths of land with few services and possibly dangerous weather hazards, including lava flows or 120-degree heat.

New Mexico: U.S. Route 285 California: Death Valley Road (SR-190) Texas: U.S. Route 90 Hawaii: Saddle Road (Hawaii Route 200) Nevada: U.S. Route 50 The Loneliest Road in America Kentucky: Mountain Parkway South Dakota: U.S. Route 14A (Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway) Alaska: Dalton Highway (AK-11) New York: State Route 17 Mississippi: U.S. Route 49

Route 24 through Illinois

Like many roads in Illinois, maintenance and improvements have fallen behind along some parts of U.S. 24.

According to the Rebuild Illinois initiative, the state has not had a comprehensive, multi-year capital plan since 2009, and the overall infrastructure has a C rating, with tens of billions of dollars of deferred maintenance.

For Route 24 in particular, the road narrows from a four-lane, undivided highway to a two-lane road where vehicles move past each other at high speeds.

Those portions of the road, one example being the two-lane portion that connects Canton to Peoria, have raised concerns from some drivers about safety.

In 2020, for example, drivers there told a CIproud.com reporter about frequent accidents along the route and speeding drivers weaving between lanes.

They think its a race track when youre going back and forth to Peoria, one regular driver along the route told CIproud.com.

A separate report published in the Peoria Journal Star in 2017 noted there were 23 crashes between 2010 and 2015 involving left turns onto Route 24 from a dangerous intersection at Spring Creek Road in the town of Washington. Those crashes produced 30 injuries, according to the Journal Star.

What is the state doing to improve safety along Route 24?

Asked about progress on the states efforts to improve Route 24, Illinois Department of Transportation spokesperson Paul Wappel cited the multi-year Rebuild Illinois project. The capital plan will invest more than $33 billion into various infrastructure improvements over a six-year period. The plan includes $25.4 billion for roads and bridges alone.

As for Route 24 specifically, Wappel pointed to several improvements made to the route since 2020, including new bridges, a signalized intersection and more.

A piece of the broader Rebuild Illinois plan will target an 8.6-mile segment of Route 24 between Banner and Kingston Mines, just outside of Peoria. That project will allocate $135 million to expand U.S. 24/Illinois 9 to four lanes and replace bridges.
The first 75 or so arrivals stepped out of buses at Union Station clutching clear plastic bags that held few possessions. This was almost a year ago. Each had been to the United States-Mexico border with the hope of immigrating to this country. Once there, they were put on buses bound for the self-styled sanctuary city of Chicago. Many did not speak English. Some spoke English, but felt more comfortable speaking Spanish. Most came from Venezuela and Nicaragua and Cuba. They were mothers and children and fathers and single men and single women, and they shared two things in common: They had become participants in a political protest by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott against federal immigration policies and, after arriving in the Loop, they would be filing out lots of paperwork.

Paperwork primarily in English.

Katarina Ramos, managing attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center, based in Chicago, thought immediately of Alejandra Oliva, who was in her late 20s yet preternaturally assured. Oliva had been promoted recently at NIJC and was working on policy, but Ramos required a pragmatic, efficient hand. The situation was fraught and chaotic. She had heard the buses were coming; then she had heard they werent coming. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot had asked advocacy groups to handle what Ramos calls the Legal Immigration 101 walk-through.

Plus Texas wouldnt even say when buses would be here, Ramos recalled, and whenever we tried to make a deal with the bus company to get a little notice, Abbotts office would push back.

Oliva, who is now 30 and lives on a quiet Sauganash neighborhood street in a classic Chicago bungalow, was among the first to greet the migrants. She is an essayist and immigration activist and author  her memoir, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration, was published earlier this summer by Astra House  but Oliva has become particularly appreciated for her role as a translator.

Working overnight in the days before the first bus came, she put together a website for the new undocumented arrivals, all in Spanish. Before anyone reached the paperwork stage, she streamlined the greeting process. One by one, Oliva said, you would meet these couples, many with the same questions, which had not been answered yet. Questions as basic as What is asylum? And what did it say on this form (usually in English) about Immigration and Customs Enforcement? Sometimes it was a question of how to check in with ICE or simply how to change an address.

Eventually, inevitably, there is paperwork.

Applications, statements, histories.

Its such an obvious detail, yet, in our bottomless debates about immigration, we forget a frequent truism: Though the U.S. government does not have an official language, most of its applications and forms demand a degree of fluency in English for prospective citizens. Oliva, who writes in Rivermouth about working on the U.S.-Mexico border and helping migrants tell harrowing histories in the narrow boxes of government forms, has since become an outspoken advocate for language justice, a concept developed by educators Alice Johnson and Roberto Tijerina with a pretty straightforward premise: Everyone has a right to communicate  and to be understood  in their own languages, in ICE meetings, on applications, at town halls.

In a strictly practical sense, as a historian of immigration myself, that paperwork (being filed by migrants who enter the U.S.) is a transcript for any historians 100 years from now, said Rachel Buff, chair of the history department at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Its almost our sacred responsibility to get their stories right. What a person had to do to get here, what it took to leave  all of that only enters the records through these very moments of translation. I have walked for five days and I am worried about gangs in my village  thats not going to cut it. What Alejandra is calling for, in a broad sense, is cultural bilingualism as a kind of responsibility.

What Oliva does  and she is quick to point out  is far from unique; she is one of many such translators across the country helping migrants complete paperwork to explain their life stories.

But Alejandra is particularly patient and able to step back and calm a situation, Ramos said. All without losing focus on who she is doing this for. In this work, you get people who want to save migrants. Alejandra works with, not helps, them. She takes a persons fear and every reason they may be afraid to return to their home, then she recognizes something that a lot of people tend to forget about all this: This person will get one chance to get this paperwork right.

As Oliva writes in Rivermouth: The U.S. government is not the Catholic Church, but it does require asylum-seekers to be saints. Translating a migrants story into government parameters takes many shapes, but without help, the result often drifts away from the messiness of real life and into the beats of a known and understood narrative.

By the time Johannes Favi worked with Oliva, he had left the small African nation of Benin and had been living in Indiana for nearly a decade. He already had two children and a wife and was going through the process to receive a green card, but ICE held Favi in 2019 and sent him to a Kankakee detention center for 10 months.

After he sued the government for violating his right to due process and not supplying proper protection during a pandemic, he was released and then asked to speak about his experience for a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on immigration and citizenship. Alejandra has no legal power, he said in an interview. But the time she takes to help prepare your story  you always hope you know someone who can bring change to your life, you know? From a language standpoint, when youre telling your story as an immigrant, you can get confused. Youre probably still traumatized. I was still living here and adjusting to this life. Then you get arrested in front of your kids; you dont know when you will be released. On Fridays at 5 a.m., they call out names and you dont know where you are going next or even if you may be out of the country in 48 hours. People get desperate. I have seen people (in detention) use bedsheets and hang themselves.

Alejandra helped me focus my story, in a way so you are not unknowingly harming yourself. She will tell you the truth even if it hurts. I like that opinion. To have someone like Alejandra in front of you, it made me what I am today and inspired me to be more like her. Which is what I do. Favi lives in Chicago now and works as the deputy director of Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants, a nonprofit that advocates for housing and human rights for asylum-seekers.

On a recent weekday morning, Oliva sat in her dining room with a hand below the table steadying her dog, Chico, and the other signing onto a Zoom talk that she was leading. It was about trauma and translation workers. About 100 participants were allowed and 150 signed up. Her long black swoop of hair streaked with blonde fell across her face, which stiffened in concentration yet somehow also exuded serenity. A water bottle and notebook sat off-camera. When the talk began, she offered advice for not looking judgmental during translations. She fielded questions about the ways translating emotionally draining stories can affect the mental health of a translator. Someone asked if its natural for translators to feel anger toward those in their personal lives who complain about petty things. (I have definitely known that feeling, she said.) She talked about when a translator, a neutral party, should convey emotions.

Then someone described a heated situation when they felt caught between lawyer and migrant.

Oliva said its important to remind everyone they are not talking to her but to each other. Still, its understandable if a translator working with migrants finds themselves in an uneasy place. She said, We are expected to walk this line between being an interpreter and being an advocate for whomever is talking. Its not unusual to find yourself saying: I am not the one saying these things. On the other hand, an interpreter should not expect to hold themselves to a robot calm.

An uneasy place, indeed.

When she arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, during the so-called migrant caravan situation of 2018 and 2019, she immediately found advocates who wanted to do good but held romantic notions of humanitarian work. Paperwork is not romantic. At her dining room table the other day she explained in a single gesture, spreading her arms wide and saying with a beatific smile:

At last! Here I am everyone!

Except, bureaucracy is not romantic.

There are government immigration apps that presume a migrant owns a smartphone. Humanitarian volunteers who dont speak Spanish. Migrants quickly lose whatever hope they came with. Buff, who volunteered at the border during those caravan days, met Oliva there. She recalls sitting around with volunteers in San Diego after a long day on the border: This woman said the next time she does this she would stay in Tijuana because it was more of an authentic experience. Alejandra said something like, Oh, I dont know, I also like there to be toilet paper in a bathroom. You can get some very naive people who want to help, who virtue signal, and they are not necessarily the ones who stick with it. If you want to do this because you are a good person and thats it, you do not last. Alejandra comes at it from a deep spiritual and political motivation. She can be skeptical of things since there is no question shell be back tomorrow.

Oliva first went to the border while she was a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, though she was more interested in becoming a writer than a preacher. She frames her work with migrants in near-religious tones. She does not take on their pain, but believes in honoring it, she says. Her relationship with organized religion itself is strained. She grew up evangelical but found her own moral foundation different from the morals the church wanted to install in me.

She moved to Chicago in 2019 to work with the NIJC, but grew up in Massachusetts and Texas. Her mother was born in Brownsville, Texas, at the border; her father is from outside Mexico City. He earned a doctorate in business and worked for Harvard Business School; the family was well-off, she said. So there was never difficulty with their paperwork. Money, of course, buys good lawyers.

She began volunteering as a translator while still enrolled as a student at Columbia University in New York. At first, she stumbled her way around I-589s, the government application for asylum.

An attorney can explain (a migrants story) more, which could lead to an appointment with a forensic specialist who can get into the specifics of how someone was harmed. But for a lot of people, its a much different process. You get these tiny boxes to explain what bad things happened. It has to fit in there. What do you fear? Have you been harmed? You have like 200 words, and so it gets boiled down to awful declarative sentences. So it can be comforting (for the asylum-seeker) to have someone there with eyes on them. At the border, there were not enough volunteer Spanish speakers, so you would end up accompanying people, doing this weird very specific direct service. Everything is uncertain, theyre scared; they just want to know if everything will be OK. But I can stand there and explain the process. Which is just nonstop.

And its not just that their story needs to be compelling, it needs to be consistent. If I asked you what you had for breakfast last week, your memory might change. But youre helping someone who probably has just gone through a lot of trauma and you are helping them fill out paperwork and prepare their narrative, which is not just a memory but the memory of what happened.

Oliva sits back and takes a breath.

Rivermouth, which is focused on her work with migrants, gnaws and gnaws at unsettled feelings of how much help is accomplished within a system so deeply arbitrary. She writes about the fallacy of believing you can cross a border the right way; the lines of people waiting to be processed when some days no one is called and others 600 are called; credible fear interviews conducted by law enforcement who dont require evidence yet scrutinize every inflection.

You realize you have to be open to messy feelings, she said in her dining room, not long after she quit NIJC to focus on writing. You have to realize none of what you do feels special. Its hard to figure out a way of doing it that doesnt feel self-serving. Im guilty of it myself. Its boring, but its also important to know this, that you cant go in and hand out sandwiches and fix things.

She pets her dog a moment.

Again, I am not the only one who does this, but these documents are important, at least to journalists. We forget that. We dont give someones story the right level of care. We think of a good story as one that fits a government box. Look, when I work on an asylum application, I care more about filing it out correctly and keeping you safe than doing a story justice, so to speak. When I help storytelling, its often because (the immigrant) needs a certain audience, like a politician, to care and empathize. But in general, you give your full attention and presence. You show the person going through all this, no, they might not have any control over (some things) right now, but lets at least make sure they have control over this part of this process, which is their story.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com
India's lower house of parliament greenlit the revised data privacy legislation presented the previous week, even as the bill has received criticism, with many believing that it grants significant discretionary authority to the Narendra Modiled government.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, which was reintroduced in the lower house last week (nearly a year after abrupt withdrawal of a previous proposal last), makes it mandatory for companies collecting user data to obtain explicit user consent before processing it. However, it includes "certain legitimate uses" as an exemption for data collection without user consent. It lets platforms process personal user data without the consent of their users when it is provided voluntarily in certain situations, such as sharing payment receipts with users or offering public services.

The bill allows the Indian government to waive compliance requirements for certain data fiduciaries, such as startups, if necessary. It also empowers the government to establish a data protection board and appoint all its members, including the chairperson.

Additionally, the data privacy bill protects the Indian government and its established data protection board from legal action.

The data privacy bill needs to be approved by parliaments upper house and the Indian president to become a law.

This proposed legal framework comes at a time when digital services are flourishing in the world's most populous nation. India's intensifying focus on data privacy, a strategic move that has been brewing over several years, finds resonance with concurrent initiatives in numerous other countries. India's IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Monday that the bill was necessary to protect the right to privacy of Indian citizens.

The bill covers handling digital personal information, even if it takes place outside of India, as long as it relates to providing goods or services to Indian individuals. The government has the power to decide which countries are not allowed to receive personal data from users.

Opposition leaders, members of the civil society and independent bodies, including the local journalists' association Editors Guild of India, expressed apprehension about the data privacy bill's provisions that grant the central government certain powers and exemptions.

Vaishnaw said the bill was created after a thorough public consultation process involving 48 organizations, 39 ministries, and approximately 24,000 consultations.

New Delhibased digital rights advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation said the bill failed to include "several of the meaningful recommendations" that were made during the consultation process of its last draft, and it did not "sufficiently safeguard" the right to privacy of individuals in the country.

"There are many accepted principles of digital data protection," the minister said, adding that the bill included the principles of legality, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, reasonable safeguards and accountability.

"Today, about 900 million Indians have connected to the Internet. . . . In such a situation, there is a need for protection of rights, security and privacy of citizens in this digital world. For this, bill has been brought," Vaishnaw said.

He added that unlike Europe's GDPR, which included 16 exceptions, the data privacy bill introduced by the Indian government has only four exceptions.

Debates over data protection in the South Asian nation started back in 2017. During that year, India's Supreme Court reaffirmed privacy as a fundamental right. Two years later, the Indian parliament received the first personal data protection bill that was withdrawn last year after privacy advocates and tech companies, including Amazon, Google and Meta, criticized it for its exemptions for government departments, limitations on protecting user data and restrictions over data exports.
A Brazilian Indigenous leader, Tabata Kayapo, (R) walks at an Indigenous camp in Belem, the Brazilian city hosting a summit of the eight-nation Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization as it seeks a roadmap to protect the world's biggest rainforest (Evaristo Sa)

Indigenous leaders from across South America called Monday for bold steps to protect the Amazon and their ancestral lands ahead of a summit on saving the world's biggest rainforest.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will host fellow regional leaders Tuesday and Wednesday for the first summit in 14 years of the eight-nation Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, seeking a roadmap to stop the destruction of one of Earth's crucial buffers against climate change.

Native leaders who took part in pre-summit talks last weekend in the host city, Belem, called on Lula and his counterparts to create new Indigenous reservations -- one of the best ways to protect nature, according to experts -- and rethink the way the world views the rainforest.

"The forest isn't an oil well, it's not a gold mine. It's our temple," said one leader, Nemo Guiquita, head of Ecuadoran Indigenous confederation CONFENIAE, which represents 1,500 Amazon communities.

"We hope our views will be included in the (summit's) final statement," she told AFP, saying politicians should not be the only ones deciding the future of the Amazon.

"We're calling on world leaders to work hard to promote conservation. Our struggle isn't just for Indigenous peoples, it's for the entire world, so future generations can survive on this planet."

Brazilian Indigenous Affairs Minister Sonia Guajajara called the summit a "historic moment" for Indigenous peoples.

"We're not just thinking about the next four years, we're thinking about the next 40," she told AFP.

The participating countries -- Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela -- are due to discuss strategies to fight deforestation and organized crime in the Amazon, and seek sustainable development for the region.

Colombian Indigenous leader Dario Mejia, a member of the Zenu people and representative on a United Nations panel on Indigenous issues, urged world leaders to fundamentally rethink the idea of "economic development."

"There have been many different names for the market economy: first 'progress,' then 'development,' now 'the bio-economy' or 'transition economy,'" he said.

"But if we don't overcome the values of cut-throat competition, of permanent war on nature, it's going to be very difficult to overcome the environmental crisis... I want to hope (the summit) will prove an important step for us all."

mel/jhb/mlm
JAKARTA, Indonesia  Indonesia has bought 12 surveillance and reconnaissance drones worth $300 million from Turkish Aerospace Industries to be used by its military to strengthen the nations defenses, the Defense Ministry said Aug. 2.

The purchase aims to increase the variety, quantity and quality of Indonesias military equipment with the contract signed Feb. 3 with TAI,. The 12 units of Anka drones are expected to be delivered before November 2025.

Indonesia will also get training, logistics support and related equipment as well as a warranty period of two years or 600 flying hours.

The 12 Anka drones will be used by Indonesias Air Force, Army and Navy. The 8.6-meter (28-foot) drone can fly for about 30 hours at an altitude of 9,100 meters (29,856 feet). The Turkish Air Force has used them since 2010.

In January, Indonesia sealed another deal worth $805 million to buy a dozen advanced Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets that were used by Qatars Emiri Air Force. The purchase, manufactured by French company Dassault Aviation, was criticized for the age of the equipment.

But the Defense Ministry said Indonesia needs fighter aircraft that can be quickly delivered to cover its Air Forces decline in the combat readiness, as many of the countrys existing aircraft have aged out. Some of them are receiving upgrades, or undergoing overhauls or repairs during the long wait for delivery of newly ordered aircraft.

Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto also agreed to purchase 42 units of Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft in February 2022. Indonesia is expected to receive the first three of six twin-engine Rafale fighters in January 2026.
California regulators have fined Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood $75,000 for "deficient practices" that led to the death of a patient admitted for labor and delivery. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)

California regulators have fined Centinela Hospital Medical Center $75,000 after faulting the Inglewood hospital for "deficient practices" that led to a patient dying while admitted there for labor and delivery.

The California Department of Public Health found the hospital failed to ensure the patient was properly assessed and treated to prevent blood clots, did not follow up appropriately on her complaints about leg heaviness, and failed to alert her physician when her vital signs had veered out of normal parameters, among other lapses.

The state agency did not name the patient who died as a result of those failures, but its report lays out a string of events leading to a female patient dying on Jan. 10  the same day that a 31-year-old woman named April Valentine died at the Inglewood hospital.

The death of Valentine, who left behind bereft friends and family, a grieving boyfriend and a newborn daughter named Aniya, spurred a public outcry and calls for investigation. In California and across the country, Black women like Valentine have been at disproportionate risk of dying of pregnancy complications.

"The findings of the Department of Public Health clearly show that Centinela's gross negligence led to the tragic death of April Valentine during her labor and delivery," said attorney Andrew J. Marton, who is representing Aniya and her father, Nigha Robertson, who was Valentine's boyfriend.

The $75,000 fine will not bring them justice, Marton said, "but it is a step in the right direction as we must hold Centinela accountable and ensure that such preventable tragedies never happen again."

Read more: State investigators found lapses that could threaten patients at Inglewood hospital

Centinela Hospital is part of the Prime Healthcare system, which said in a statement that it is "in continual pursuit of ensuring the highest quality of care and forwarding health equity for all patients and our community" and cited recent accolades for the Inglewood hospital.

The healthcare system did not comment directly on the fine, but Prime Healthcare's vice president of communications and public relations, Elizabeth Nikels, said in an email, "We continue to express our deepest condolences to the family of Ms. Valentine."

Roughly two weeks after Valentine died, the California Department of Public Health made an unannounced visit to the Inglewood hospital to investigate a complaint alleging "inadequate care" led to the death of a patient who was admitted there for labor, according to its report.

Its findings, which prompted the $75,000 penalty, echoed those of a state team that surveyed the Inglewood hospital in February to check if it was meeting specific requirements for federal programs that reimburse hospitals. That investigation found that for several patients in the Centinela labor and delivery unit, medical records did not show appropriate steps being taken to address the risk of blood clots, which are one of the most common causes of pregnancy-related death in the United States.

Valentine's cousin Mykesha Mack said the family was grateful to see something happen in response to such failures, but "what is $75,000 compared to a life that we know we'll never, ever get back?" Mack said she is still waiting on the results of investigations from other regulatory bodies.

"There's still so much more work to be done," she said.

Centinela will soon be transferring maternity services to another hospital affiliated with Prime  St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood  according to a Prime Healthcare spokesperson, who said the Inglewood hospital had seen declining demand for labor and delivery services. A public notice issued by the hospital said the closure of the unit at Centinela would affect "17 perinatal beds, nine NICU beds, and the newborn nursery."

"This transfer of services, effective late October, will allow Centinela to serve more patients and expand bed capacity to areas of community need, such as behavioral health services, general medical surgical services, and more," Nikels said in a statement. St. Francis already provides labor and delivery care, "with plans to expand perinatal and high-risk OB care."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A buzzer goes off in a large industrial kitchen at an Army base in Natick, Massachusetts. Two small metal tubes full of foodtruffle mac and cheese and hash browns with baconhave been heating up for five minutes in a steam oven and are now ready for eating. Daniel Nattress, a senior food technologist with the militarys Combat Feeding Division, uses a red protective mitt on his right hand to grab them.

Then comes the moment Ive been waiting for: a chance to eat the food that comes out of these tubesthe mac and cheese, the hash browns with bacon, and a tube full of whats called chunky apple pie, which Ill be consuming at room temperature. The apple pie is first, and attached to the tube is an orange probe thats like a rigid straw. I squeeze the tube to push the food through the probe, and eat some. "It actually tastes like apple pie," I remark.

The food made in this facility is unique among military rations for the Department of Defense. A soldier in the field may get their nourishment from an MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat), sampling a flavor like spaghetti with beef and sauce. Or, if they were at a base, theyd eat whatever was served at the dining facility. Meanwhile, a sailor on a ship or submarine will eat grub in the galley. But the pilots of the high-flying U-2 spy planes bring along sealed tubes of food to give them a boost during a long flight. Heres why they rely on tube food, and how its made.

A U-2 pilot in pressure suit and helmet in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.

Dining at 70,000 feet

When an Air Force pilot flies a U-2 aircraft, they wear a full pressure suit and helmet. The plane is known for being both a challenge to flyespecially to landand for its ability to soar at heights significantly higher than commercial airliner cruising altitudes. The U-2 can operate, according to an Air Force fact sheet, at altitudes over 70,000 [feet], and the suit the aviators wear exists to protect them.

Really what it does is it acts as a backup envelope, as it were, for the pilot if the cockpit cabin were to decompress, says Hannah Jacobs, the Air Force program manager at the David Clark Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, which makes the suits. Its like a secondary atmospherea container to keep the individual flying the aircraft safe if the aircraft were to become damaged, or if the cabin pressurization system were to fail, she says.

Jacobs knows the topic well. Before working for the David Clark Company, she was in the Air Force, where she was a technician who was a part of the U-2 program, focused on areas such as maintenance and repair of those pressure suits.

[Related: The real star of this aerial selfie isnt the balloonits the U-2 spy plane]

Someone wearing a sealed pressure suit cant exactly grab a protein bar to gnaw on if they get hungry. Thats where the tube food and the straw-like probe comes into play. The pilot, who can heat the tube in the cockpit, puts the probe through a small portal in the helmet, allowing them to get sustenance while staying protected within the envelope of the sealed suit. The idea is that you dont have to break the seal at all, she says. The straw goes in through the feeding port, and that also has an o-ring around it that would prevent any kind of air leakage from escaping the suit, and so you stay protected the entire time.

While there are 19 flavors of the tube foods, she recalls the popularity of the chocolate pudding (there is both a regular version and a caffeinated one) and that she once, while in the Air Force, experienced a chocolate pudding shortage.

You never want to be the tech delivering that news to anyonethat the chocolate pudding supply has been exhausted, she adds.

This is tube food.

How the tube food is made

The food that a U-2 pilot eatsflavors include hash browns with bacon bits, chocolate pudding, chicken tortilla soup, polenta with cheese and bacon, beef stroganoff, beef stew, and pepperoni pizzabegins its life in the Department of Defense kitchen in Massachusetts. (Technically in a building called the Bainbridge Combat Feeding Laboratory, at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, which is also known as the DEVCOM Soldier Center, which is located at a base in Natick.) Favorite items include pears, chicken tortilla soup, and the hash browns with bacon.

The main event happens at the Nordenmatic 602, a machine that according to the companys website can fill various kinds of tubes with various kinds of thingsthink stuff like toothpaste or cosmetics.

[Related: I flew in an F-16 with the Air Force and oh boy did it go poorly]

The tubes for this Air Force cuisine are made of aluminum with a gold food-grade liner inside to prevent the grub from being in direct contact with the aluminum. Each one holds about 5 ounces, and before its filled with its delicious contents, one end remains open, so its essentially a cylinder. The tubes take a trip on a small track in the machine with their open end facing upwards, passing below a hopper from which the food travels down into the tube. Another part of the machine then crimps the end of the filled tube, sealing it.

This is brand-new, Nattress says, noting that it replaced an older machine. So why the upgraded equipment? Theyre envisioning that the U-2 will fly another 20 years, he says. Two more decades of flight for this storied aircraft means two more decades of tube food production.

To get into the hopper above the Nordenmatic, the food travels through a hose from a 40-gallon steam-jacketed kettle. This large metal container is where the food is mixedit then gets pumped into the hopper of the nearby Nordenmatic machine. After being filled, the tubes are sterilized in a retort oven.

Flavors include caffeinated chocolate pudding and chicken tortilla soup.

Its better than baby food

Nattress, who has been in charge of the tube food program for 25 years and is a trained taste-tester, takes the culinary mission seriously. He notes the four ways that people derive sensation from food: taste, texture, smell, and appearance. A pilot who is squirting the food directly from an opaque tube through a probe and into their mouth is missing out on some of those senses, leaving two for them to focus on.

Texture and taste are huge, he says. The key is to make sure there is a texture to the cuisine, with little particles that can fit through the probe.

If we just grind it down into nothing, you lose that texture, he says. You want to have a little bit of texture in there, so that they can discern the food particles. For example, the chunky apple pie dish is made from real sliced apples (as opposed to applesauce) that have been ground up, along with graham cracker crumbs. The chunks are good, but they cant be too big. Imagine being up there at 70,000 feet, and you want to have something, and it clogs up, he says.

While holding a tube of the chunky apple pie, he recalls the process that went into developing that flavor. Well take a nice apple piea nice, good-quality apple piewell put it in our mouth and taste it, and we try to describe, write down, those sensations that we get. And we try to recreate that in here, he says, pointing at the tube.

In other words, this stuff is not just flavored paste, sauce, or a baby-food like substance. Even like the more advanced baby foods, they may have a little bit of texture, but they dont have a lot of spice in it, he adds. We want to have that full-flavor profile.

A U2 pilot in his helmet in 2019 in the United Arab Emirates.

Eating the tube food

The chunky apple pie I tasted straight from the probe included not just apples, graham crackers crumbs, but also cinnamon, nutmeg, and some dairy, Nattress says. After eating the dessert item first, it was time to eat the two that hed heated: the truffle mac and cheese, and the hash browns with bacon.

To conserve those plastic probes, he squirts the truffle mac and cheese straight onto a plate into a gooey yellow pile, and hands it to me with a spoon. This items ingredients include truffle oil, gouda, a cheese powder, onion powder, paprika, little bitty pastas, and cream.

The next one was the hash browns and bacon, whose origin story, Nattress says, involved a request for breakfast food. They were expecting an egg product, he says. But thats not what they gotthey got a delicious and savory combination of hash browns and bacon bits. He squirts that one onto a different plate. The hash browns, he says, have actually started out as tater tots.

I tried both, and perhaps due to an aversion for creamy food, the winner in my eyes was the hash browns with bacon. I think this is my favorite, so far, I say, after my first spoonful of this breakfast item made for spy plane pilots. You can taste the little bacon bits in there.

Nattress says they produce more than 20,000 tubes each year.

Watch a short video about the process belowincluding the taste tests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF9BChtidho
Russian troops struck Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast on Aug. 7, killing at least five people and wounding 18, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The central part of the city was hit two times in less than an hour, the regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.

As of 9:20 p.m. local time, four civilians have been confirmed killed and three injured in the first strike, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

The second attack killed the deputy chief of the Donetsk Oblast Department of the State Emergency Service, according to Klymenko. Another four first responders, eight police officers, and three civilians were reportedly wounded.

The attack damaged apartment buildings, private residences, a hotel, restaurants, shops, and administrative buildings, the governor added.

Kyrylenko warned of the threat of repeated Russian strikes and urged residents to remain in shelter.

President Volodymyr Zelensky published a video showing the aftermath of the Pokrovsk attack on Telegram.

"We must stop Russian terror. Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves people's lives," Zelensky said. "Everyone in the world who helps Ukraine will defeat terrorists together with us. Russia will be responsible for everything it has done in this terrible war."

Russian forces have killed a total of 1,645 residents of Donetsk Oblast since the start of the full-scale invasion and have injured an additional 3,939 others, according to the regional authorities.

The actual casualty numbers are expected to be much higher as the current ones do not include the casualty rates in Russian-occupied settlements.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
FILE PHOTO: Fast-attack crafts from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy swarming Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi as it transits the Strait of Hormuz from Dubai to port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, Arabian Gulf early hours of May 3, 20

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has equipped its Revolutionary Guards' navy with drones and 1,000-km (600-mile) range missiles, Iranian news agencies reported on Saturday, as the U.S. offers to put guards on commercial ships going through the Gulf's Strait of Hormuz.

Referring to the possible presence of U.S. guards, Iranian armed forces spokesperson Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said the region's countries were "capable of ensuring Persian Gulf security" themselves.

"What do the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean have to do with America? What is your business being here?" Shekarchi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

State news agency IRNA said the Revolutionary Guards' weapons include "various types of drones ... and several hundred cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 300 to 1,000 km are among the systems and equipment that were added to the capabilities of the Guards' navy today."

Earlier this week, Washington said it could soon offer to put armed sailors and Marines on commercial ships in the region following Iran's seizure and harassment of vessels.

Last month, it said it would send additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, to monitor waterways. About a fifth of the world's crude oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.

Tehran usually says detained vessels have committed shipping violations. Some have been released only after foreign countries have freed detained Iranian ships.

Revolutionary Guards' Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri told state TV on Saturday that the new missiles had better precision as well as longer range.

"The cruise missiles can attack several targets simultaneously and the commands can be altered after take-off," Tangsiri said.

(Reporting by Dubai NewsroomEditing by Andrew Cawthorne and Helen Popper)
Iran's ISNA news agency said policemen were securing the planned demolition of 'unauthorised buildings' in Tehran when several of the structures collapsed (-)

Five people including two policemen were killed and at least 11 others injured during the collapse of several buildings in Iran's capital, local media reported on Monday.

The policemen were securing the planned demolition on Sunday of "unauthorised buildings" in Tehran's southwest, ISNA news agency said. Another news agency, Tasnim, said two of the officers were killed.

The overall "toll from the collapse" has reached five, spokesman for Tehran's fire department, Jalal Maleki, told Fars news agency.

According to ISNA, authorities had begun the demolition of one building when five others collapsed.

Rescue operations were underway to find others who may be trapped under the rubble, ISNA and Tasnim reported.

Photographs from the scene issued by Tasnim showed rescuers and heavy equipment working below a pile of debris and twisted metal several metres (yards) high, with other unfinished and partially damaged buildings around them.

ISNA quoted a police statement saying the buildings which collapsed did not comply "with construction safety measures".

A Tehran city official said on Saturday that authorities had demolished more than 46,000 unauthorised buildings over the past two years, according to Hamshahri newspaper.

In May 2022, a building collapse in Iran's southwest killed 43 people, in one the country's deadliest such incidents.

The collapse of the 10-storey Metropol building, which had been under construction in the city of Abadan in Khuzestan province, sparked protests across the country decrying corruption and incompetent authorities.

ap-rkh/mz/it
The News

If you wanted to describe the GOPs journey from the Bush era to the Trump era in one chart, you might check out the latest data on concerns about federal power from our partners at Gallup. Its one of two dozen issues theyve consistently tracked over the last 20 years, which they updated with new polls today.

Semafor/Emily Nadal

After 9/11, Republican voters rallied around national security measures that were more like to be opposed by Democrats including expanded surveillance, torture, and military operations abroad. But as the war faded, there was a surge in Republican skepticism toward government, often centered around spending under President Obama, but later fanning out to public health agencies during the pandemic, and fears of FBI and deep state interference under both Trump and President Biden.

Since 2003, the parties have moved apart a net 50 points on whether the federal government has too much power, the most of any of two dozen topics Gallup polled in that period.

It hasnt been a consistent year-by-year trend  partisans tend to be more trusting of government when their own party holds the White House and the gap narrowed early on under Trumps presidency  but the overall arc has been towards more Republican distrust, even with a Republican in office.

Know More

Some other notable areas where polarization has increased: Abortion, which Democrats are now far more supportive of keeping legal in any circumstances, and immigration, where Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on whether the U.S. should decrease the number of immigrants it admits and the overall benefit they provide to the country. The parties are still moving in opposite directions on climate change as well, though it hasnt stopped a red state boom in renewable energy and electric vehicle production.

Semafor/Emily Nadal

Semafor/Emily Nadal
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has called the strikes conducted by Ukraines Defence Forces on bridges in the occupied territory "a part of the Ukrainian interdiction campaign" to create conditions for decisive counteroffensive operations.

Source: ISW

Details: ISW noted that "Ukrainian forces struck two key road bridges along critical Russian grounds lines of communication (GLOCs) connecting occupied Crimea and occupied Kherson Oblast".

As a result, on 6 August, Russian troops were forced to divert traffic from shorter eastern routes to longer western routes.

At the same time, Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces used Storm Shadow cruise missiles to carry out both strikes, however ISW has not yet seen any confirmation that Russian forces intercepted Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

ISW pointed out that Ukraines Defence Forces strikes on bridges along critical Russian routes are part of the Ukrainian interdiction campaign, aimed at creating conditions for future decisive counteroffensive operations.

ISW also noted that Ukrainian troops continued counteroffensive operations on at least two frontline areas on 6 August.

ISW said "Ukrainian officials stated that Ukrainian air defences have destroyed 3,500 aerial targets since the beginning of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on 6 August that Ukrainian air defences have intercepted and destroyed more than 2,000 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (types were not specified), while Ukrainian pilots had made more than 14,000 sorties since 24 February 2022.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 6 August:

Ukrainian forces struck two key road bridges along critical Russian grounds lines of communication (GLOCs) connecting occupied Crimea and occupied Kherson Oblast on 6 August, causing Russian forces to reroute road traffic from shorter eastern routes to longer western routes.

Ukrainian strikes on bridges along critical Russian GLOCs are a part of the Ukrainian interdiction campaign focused on setting conditions for future decisive counteroffensive operations.

Russian forces conducted one of the largest missile and drone strike series on Ukraine in recent months on the night of 5-6 August.

Ukrainian officials stated that Ukrainian air defences have destroyed 3,500 aerial targets since the beginning of Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

International talks aimed at drafting the main principles for a future settlement to the war in Ukraine continued in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 6 August.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov gave an unclear and contradictory answer to a New York Times reporter who asked whether Russia seeks to conquer more Ukrainian territory beyond the four partially occupied oblasts that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022.

Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least two sectors of the front on 6 August.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations along the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in the Zaporizhzhia-Donetsk Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast 6 August and made advances in certain areas.

Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine continue establishing institutional linkages between Russian and Ukrainian governance structures and social services in occupied 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!
Ukrainian strikes against road bridges linking Russian-occupied Crimea to Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast "pose significant disruptions to logistics," the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its Aug. 6 analysis.

On Aug. 6, the Ukrainian military confirmed attacks on the Chonhar Bridge and the Henichesk Bridge, which connect the Crimean peninsula to territories in Kherson Oblast currently occupied by Russian forces.

The bridges are strategically important, serving as key routes for Russian communications, logistics, and transport. The Chonhar Bridge represents the shortest route between Crimea and the southern front line.

The strike on the Henichesk Bridge "is likely forcing Russian forces to redirect military traffic from the Arabat Spit to longer western routes between occupied Crimea and occupied Kherson Oblast," the ISW wrote.

This will cause "a major bottleneck" in Russian communications lines, according to the ISW.

The ISW pointed out that some of the roads to which Russian forces have rerouted traffic following the bridge attacks are "within artillery range" of Ukrainian troops in Kherson Oblast.

This may force Russian troops to take less efficient back roads, slowing down transport of equipment and personnel to the southern front lines.

Disrupting Russian logistics is a major component of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Read also: Increased attacks on Crimea disrupt Russian logistics, attempt to derail its southern defenses

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Japan has confirmed that its considering arming its Kawasaki C-2 military transport jets with air-launched standoff missiles, as it seeks to expand its long-range strike options. If Japan follows through with the plans, it will join the U.S. military, which is currently experimenting with adding a standoff attack option to existing transport fleets.

Known as Rapid Dragon, the U.S. initiative is a means of rapidly and cost-effectively boosting this kind of capability, without the need to acquire and deploy more combat aircraft, especially bombers.

According to a report in the Japan Times yesterday, citing unnamed government sources, the Japanese Ministry of Defense is looking at the potential of arming its C-2s with long-range missiles, which would be used to attack enemy bases such as missile launch sites in counterstrike operations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6OyYHl_ucI

The type of missiles Japanese C-2s might be able to launch in the future were not disclosed, although the same sources described a launch process in which the missile is first dropped during flight before its engine powers up, according to the Japan Times. The story also states that the concept Japan is looking at does not require major modifications to aircraft and that the United States is developing related technology.

This would all appear to suggest that Japan is looking either at the U.S.-developed Rapid Dragon air-launched palletized munitions concept or one thats very similar. The Rapid Dragon concept involves multiple munitions mounted inside modular frames, which are then loaded in a palletized fashion onto a cargo aircraft with a large rear ramp, as found on the C-2.

Rapid Dragon also includes a computerized targeting system that feeds information from off-board sources and into the missiles. The concept is designed to be scalable and platform agnostic, and the U.S. Air Force has now tested it multiple times using C-17 Globemaster III and different specialized C-130 Hercules variants.

An official model of the Rapid Dragon air-launched palletized munitions system. Joseph Trevithick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d-lQ5dUh8c

As part of its fiscal 2023 budget, the Japanese Ministry of Defense is receiving a little over $25 million to explore the concept, with a plan to continue technical research until fiscal 2024. If judged successful, full-scale development would then follow.

As for the missiles that the C-2s could carry, these will be procured off-the-shelf and the Japan Times notes that one strong contender is the U.S.-made AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM family of cruise missiles. Japan is already procuring JASSM to arm its F-15 Eagle fighters, which are similarly undergoing an upgrade that includes introducing a new standoff precision strike capability. You can read much more about the scope of Japans F-15 modernization here.

Concept art released by Boeing showing an upgraded Japanese F-15J carrying a large missile on its centerline station. Japan has decided to arm its upgraded F-15s with the JASSM. Boeing

Another option would be a homegrown missile, most likely the improved version of the Type 12 anti-ship missile. This was initially fielded in a truck-mounted application, but the development of a longer-range and more advanced variant, also suitable for air launch, is now underway. The new missile is expected to have a much longer range than its surface-launched cousin, at roughly 620 miles compared to around 120 miles for the truck-mounted missile. It will also incorporate stealthy features to make it much harder to detect and defeat. However, the air-launched missile is not expected to be available until fiscal 2028, which might make the JASSM a more realistic prospect, at least in the near term.

Japan is also getting the Joint Strike Missile, which is a highly-capable surface and land attack weapon that is smaller in dimensions, allowing ti be launched from the internal weapons bay of an F-35. This is another contender.

In its favor, as a launch platform for standoff missiles, the C-2 offers much greater carriage capacity than a fighter or even a maritime patrol aircraft like the Kawasaki P-1. It is also able to remain airborne for much longer periods of time than a fighter, flying farther without the need for aerial refueling support.

https://twitter.com/aviation07101/status/1286011418077167619?s=20

A key disadvantage is the relatively small number of C-2s that are actually deployed by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). Only around 13 of these aircraft are currently in active service, with a handful more either stored or used for test work, while one has been adapted for electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering, as the RC-2.

Standing in the way of additional procurement is the very high cost of the C-2, with around $2.3 billion plowed into the development effort and each airframe priced at approximately $176 million, as of 2017. This means Japan has been buying these aircraft at a slow rate and the latest Defense White Paper only aims for a frontline fleet of 16. The high cost has also contributed to a failure to win any export orders which, if secured, would have helped to bring down the price.

A Japan Air Self-Defense Force Kawasaki C-2 at the 2019 Australian International Airshow. Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons

Nevertheless, with the Japanese governments Defense Buildup Program specifically calling for further diversifying launch platforms as a way to bolster standoff strike capabilities, then at least looking at the C-2 as a potential munitions truck makes a lot of sense.

A Rapid Dragon-like solution for the JASDFs C-2 fleet, or even procurement of a version of Rapid Dragon itself, would certainly increase the options for Japan in terms of striking targets at long range. This could be particularly important in a future high-end conflict, of the kind that would be fought against China or Russia, for example, as well as contingencies involving North Korea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Pj-0xYFzg

As well as targets on land, using missiles from the JASSM and/or Type 12 families would also open up the possibility for attacking naval targets at considerable distances, which is also of particular concern to Japan vis-a-vis Chinas expanding naval capabilities. The JASSM family includes the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), specifically for such missions.

There is nothing to indicate that the standoff munitions capability for the C-2 would be a permanent fixture, an especially important factor considering the small fleet of these airlifters. It would likely involve the same kind of roll-on/roll-off package used for Rapid Dragon. In this way, the JASDF would be able to rapidly convert a portion of its C-2 fleet into missile platforms immediately ahead of, or even during a future major conflict.

Palletized JASSM munitions are loaded onto an MC-130J during a Rapid Dragon test in late 2021. U.S. Air Force

At the same time, switching even a handful of C-2s to strike missions would clearly reduce airlift capacity, even if only temporarily. This is a concern that has cropped up in U.S. studies of Rapid Dragon, too, as you can read more about here. Suffice it to say, in a full-scale conflict with China especially, the JASDFs transport fleet would likely be in high demand to perform its primary missions. We could see Japan increase its inventory of C-2s in order to better achieve the needed capacity for the additional standoff strike mission.

Should Japan decide to adopt Rapid Dragon to meet this requirement, it would also allow for immediate interoperability. That might enable the JASDF to make use of forward-deployed U.S. Rapid Dragon systems during future coalition operations and also that Japanese C-130s might be able to employ it too. In the recent Mobility Guardian exercise in the Pacific, the Rapid Dragon was again demonstrated, with Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of U.S. Air Mobility Command, bringing up the relevance in that theater of allied C-130 fleets.

Now the adversary has an infinitely higher problem to worry about. [They] dont need to worry just about the bombers, [they] have to worry about this C-130 and every other C-130 on the planet, Minihan said. C-130s can do it. All of our partners and allies fly them, so you can give the adversary an infinite amount of dilemmas that they need to worry about.

Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force airbone troops paradrop from a JASDF C-130. TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP via Getty Images

Japan's C-130s, of which there are around 14 in service, could also be outfitted with the country's Rapid Dragon-like capability, if they do not adopt the U.S. system.

As well as the standoff missiles under study, theres also the possibility that a modular launch system could allow the C-2 to launch a range of other stores as well, perhaps even swarms of drones. This is something that is gaining increasing traction in the U.S. military, and Japan is also looking to leverage drones to a greater degree in the future. Launching throngs of electronic warfare-enabled air-launched decoys is another option.

Whatever course Japan takes with its proposal for C-2s as standoff missile platforms, its clear that long-range strike capabilities, chiefly to deter China, are of growing importance for the countrys defense doctrine.

In April this year, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced contracts for four different standoff missile projects, all of them placed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) as prime contractor.

https://twitter.com/ModJapan_en/status/1592439564014358529?s=20

As well as development and production contracts for the aforementioned improved Type 12 anti-ship missile, these programs comprise the production of a Hyper Velocity Gliding Projectile (HVGP) and the development of a submarine-launched standoff cruise missile. The sub-launched missile is also considered likely to be based on the improved Type 12 and will similarly engage land and naval targets.

Since then, a contract has been announced for a new coastal, anti-ship cruise missile, to be produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), which you can read about here, and Japan is also buying several hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States for its surface combatants.

https://twitter.com/LokmanKaradag1/status/1637105066590240769?s=20

The news that Japan is eyeing its transport fleet for use as standoff weapons trucks also points to what we have posited will be an increasing trend among air arms big and especially small. These parallelized systems take existing aircraft and give them into the role traditionally carried out by long-range strategic aircraft  delivering standoff cruise missile attacks in large quantities over long distances. Few countries have true bomber or large cruise missile carrier aircraft in their inventories, but they do have transports and highly-capable standoff weapons like JASSM, or they can acquire the latter. Concepts like Rapid Dragon basically offer this delivery capability, at least in rudimentary fashion, at a fraction of the cost of developing, procuring, fielding and sustaining a fleet of aircraft dedicated to this type of mission. The dynamic, unpredictable, and survivable nature, as well as the range extending benefits of air launching these weapons is also undeniable. So we should be seeing much more of this in the future. Countries like Australia and those in Europe are of particular interest.

As fears of a potential Chinese campaign against Taiwan continue to mount, these are felt especially keenly in Japan, where the need to defend its southwestern islands, including the disputed Senkaku Islands, has become more important.

Indeed, with Japanese ground, sea, and air platforms all now slated to receive new standoff missile capabilities, it becomes obvious just how seriously the country is taking the growing Chinese threat in the region.

It now remains to be seen whether or not the Japanese response will also involve adapted C-2 airlifters hauling air-launched missiles in the future.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
Dominica's diplomat: Western media reporting on Xinjiang false

09:03, August 07, 2023 By MO JINGXI ( Chinadaily.com.cn

Women work at the Eagle Textile company's factory in Yarkant county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo by Cui Jia/China Daily]

Martin Charles, the ambassador of Dominica to China, said he did not see any of the claims that the Western media have been making about Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, including so-called human rights violations, as he paid a five-day visit to the region.

"They say when you see, you believe, and so (for) those of us who come here, we have an opportunity to say to the Western media that what you have been reporting to us is not true," he said.

"I have not seen any one being forced to do labor or otherwise. Instead, I've seen happy residents. Some countries are probably using (the untruths) as a means trying to contain the rise of China," he said.

The ambassador, who has visited many other provinces in China, said he was touched by the great transformation that has taken place over the years in Xinjiang by learning about what the region was before and how it is now.

"This seems to me that China is looking after its people. This is what the rest of the world needs to look at (about) how to develop people, empower people, so that you can have a healthy, happy society," he said.

"I would like to urge as many people from the West, in particular, to come here and to see for themselves," he added.

The ambassador said he had spoken to many foreigners coming to China.

"Not only in Xinjiang, but whenever they come to any part of China, be it Beijing or Shanghai or Guangzhou, the impression of China is completely different to what they've been told and what they've heard about China," he said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
TOKYO (AP)  Japan expressed concern on Monday over Iran's advancing uranium enrichment program and the Middle East country's suspected supplying of combat drones to Moscow for Russia's war on Ukraine.

Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi raised the two issues during talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said. A statement from the ministry said Hayashi appealed for Iran to act constructively in the matter but did not elaborate.

Iranian drones have been a key element of Russias continued war on Ukraine. Tehran has offered conflicting accounts about the drones  first denying Iran has supplied them to Russia and later claiming the unmanned aircraft were only sold before the Russian invasion.

However, the number of Iranian-made drones used in the conflict shows a steady supply of the bomb-carrying weapons. In June, the White House said Iran was providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow as the Kremlin looks to lock in a consistent stream of weapons.

As U.S. ally and a member of the Group of Seven advanced nations, Japan has joined sanctions against Moscow while providing Ukraine with humanitarian support and non-lethal defense equipment, largely because of fear that Russia's invasion could embolden an already assertive China in Asia.

Irans state television said Amirabdollahian denied providing drones to Russia and insisted Tehran is focused on efforts for dialogue and finding a political solution to end the war. The report also quoted the top Iranian diplomat as saying the United States and the West should stop what he described as baseless accusations against Iran.

Hayashi also expressed serious concern about the expansion of Iran's nuclear activities and urged Tehran's full and unconditional cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the ministry added.

The ministry statement said Hayashi stressed Japan's support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that curbed Iran's enrichment in return for halting economic sanctions on Iran. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled America out of the nuclear deal and restored crushing sanctions.

Since then, Iran's government has been galloping ahead with its nuclear program, openly exceeding the deals limits on uranium enrichment and stockpiling, and building a new nuclear facility so far underground as to likely be impervious to U.S. weapons.

Experts say Iran can now develop atomic bombs if it chooses to do so. A U.S. intelligence assessment released in July said Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons at the moment but has ramped up activities that could help it develop them.

In talks with Hayashi, Amirabdollahian said Iran is seeking ways to reactivate the nuclear agreement through negotiations and expressed appreciation for Japanese diplomatic efforts, the ministry also said.

___

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeffrey Gunter announced Monday that hes running for the U.S. Senate in Nevada, making him the third high-profile Republican to enter the GOP primary.

Gunter served as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland under former President Trump from 2019 to 2021 and joins former Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant and retired Army Capt. Sam Brown in the GOP primary to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).

Im Jeff Gunter, and Im running for U.S. Senate. I was honored and humbled to serve as President Trumps ambassador to Iceland, where I fought the deep state, I fought China and I fought Russias influence in the Arctic in the great high north, Gunter said in a more than three-minute campaign ad.

Now Im running to bring that same fighting spirit to stand up for every Nevadan. Ill fight to support Donald Trump and his amazing and great America First agenda. Ill bring jobs back to Nevada, Ill reduce gas prices, making American energy independent, he said later in the ad. Ill work with President Trump to finish the wall to secure our border. And I will cut endless bureaucracy to allow our great small businesses here in Nevada to thrive.

Gunter also used his campaign to endorse Trump for president, making him the latest Republican in a competitive Senate race to back the former president in 2024.

The fight to preserve our great country and the state of Nevada must be fought in the Nations Capital. We must, at all costs, protect our liberties and freedoms that are being trampled on by the far-left agenda seeking to destroy the very fabric our nation was founded upon: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, he said in a statement. This is why I am proud to officially endorse President Donald J. Trump and challenge my opponent to do the same.

Gunters Senate candidacy, which was speculated for weeks, received at least one key endorsement Monday from former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who narrowly lost to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in the New York governors race last fall.

The announcement comes as Senate Republicans have sought to coalesce around Brown as their GOP nominee. Brown lost to Republican Adam Laxalt in the 2022 Senate GOP primary to take on Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). Laxalt lost in November.

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the seat as lean Democrat.

Gunters time in Iceland was, at times, marked by controversy. While serving as ambassador, Gunter reportedly wanted a firearm and heightened security over concerns about his safety in Iceland, though he ultimately did not ask to arm himself, according to a CBS report in 2020.

The former ambassador left his post in Iceland to attend a conference in Washington just before the start of the COVID pandemic. It reportedly took him several months before he returned to Iceland after being contacted by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CBS noted.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Attorney John Eastman, an architect of Donald Trumps last-ditch efforts to subvert the 2020 election, is asking a California judge to postpone disbarment proceedings lodged against him, saying hes increasingly concerned hes about to be criminally charged by special counsel Jack Smith.

[R]ecent developments in the investigation have renewed and intensified [Eastmans] concerns that the federal government might bring charges against him, his attorneys Randall Miller and Zachary Mayer wrote in an Aug. 4 filing posted to the courts public docket on Monday.

Miller said the growing concern about criminal charges might prompt Eastman to assert his Fifth Amendment rights during disbarment proceedings. The Fifth Amendment generally allows people to refuse to provide testimony that could be used against them. But invoking the Fifth Amendment in the disbarment proceedings would jeopardize Eastmans ability to defend his law license, his lawyers wrote.

[Eastman] requests that the Court exercise its discretion to stay the State Bars disciplinary proceeding against him pending resolution of a parallel criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Jack Smith and any trial or other proceedings that may result from that investigation, Miller and Mayer wrote.

Bar discipline authorities have charged Eastman with multiple violations of professional rules and ethics  as well as the law  in his effort to upend the certified results of the 2020 election. Eastmans bar discipline trial began in June  and he had even testified for several hours without asserting his Fifth Amendment rights. But it was postponed to late August after the proceedings ran longer than the initially anticipated two weeks.



Eastman is asking that the proceedings be postponed yet again until the resolution of Smiths newly filed criminal case  in which Trump is, at least so far, the only defendant. If the disciplinary judge, Yvette Roland, denies that request, Eastman is asking her for a three-month delay to see whether he has been charged by then.

Eastman, identified in the special counsels indictment only as co-conspirator 2, plays a significant role in the charges that Smith brought last week. The indictment says Eastman used deceptive arguments, premised on false claims of election fraud, to help lead an effort to pressure then-vice President Mike Pence to prevent Joe Bidens election.

The indictment heightens the potential for [Eastman] to be charged as a criminal defendant, Eastmans attorneys wrote. When there are parallel criminal and civil proceedings, the defendant faces the difficult choice of asserting his Fifth Amendment right at the risk of losing a non-criminal trial (here, a disciplinary proceeding), or waiving his constitutional right against self-incrimination. Courts have recognized the need to stay civil proceedings to avoid prejudicing the defendant's rights.
This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune.

Multiple Texas A&M University System regents voiced concerns about the perceived left-leaning credentials of Kathleen O. McElroy, a Black journalism professor, hired to launch a new journalism program at their flagship school, according to an internal report released Thursday.

Top system leaders questioned the decision after a conservative website blasted the hiring of McElroy, a tenured professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former New York Times editor. As Texas A&M University officials fielded pushback from regents and external concerns from conservative groups, McElroys offer was watered down after A&M held a public signing ceremony announcing her hire. She ultimately rescinded her acceptance.

A review of the failed hiring also revealed that former university President M. Katherine Banks was heavily involved in discussions about making changes to McElroys offer, contradicting Banks earlier claims that she was unaware that the school had weakened its proposed terms of employment. Banks abruptly retired last month amid turmoil spurred by the botched hiring.

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The report summarizing the internal inquiry, which was conducted by the systems general counsel, included hundreds of pages of text messages and emails. It provides new insight into the unusual involvement of system-level regents, who are gubernatorial appointees, in a university-level hire. And it reveals that university leadership tried to delay the announcement of McElroys hiring until after the Republican-controlled Legislature ended this years regular lawmaking session and approved the systems budget.

The report is the latest revelation as Texas A&M administrators grapple with two employment scandals that have rocked the Aggie community this summer and raised questions about the level of outside interference in university-level decisions that led to multiple resignations, including Banks. The system on Thursday also released details of an internal review of how respected opioids expert Joy Alonzo was suspended after she was accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a lecture.

Both personnel controversies were first reported by The Texas Tribune.

The A&M systems general counsel reported it could not find evidence that race and gender were a factor in the fumbled attempt to recruit McElroy. But the university also publicly acknowledged Thursday that it would pay a $1 million settlement to McElroy, who is remaining in her tenured role at UT-Austin.

McElroy, a 1981 Texas A&M graduate, has studied news media and race, with a focus on how to improve diversity and inclusion in newsrooms. A&Ms attempt to recruit her came as lawmakers were debating a bill that bans diversity, equity and inclusion offices, programs and training at publicly funded universities. That legislation ultimately passed and takes effect Jan. 1.

McElroy previously said that her appointment was caught up in DEI hysteria as Texas university leaders try to figure out what type of work involving race is allowed under the new law. She told the Tribune she felt judged for her race and gender and said an A&M administrator told her that her hire has raised concerns within the system because youre a Black woman who worked at The New York Times.

Text messages and emails included in the report reveal that many members of the Board of Regents had concerns with McElroys prior experience, which they viewed as counter to the vision they had for the new journalism program and the university writ large.

Please tell me this isnt true, regent Jay Graham wrote to Banks and Chancellor John Sharp about the news of McElroys hire. But since its not April Fools Day, I assume it is. I thought the purpose of us starting a journalism program was to get high-quality Aggie journalist[s] with conservative values into the market. This wont happen with someone like this leading the department.

After the deal fell apart, Board of Regents Chair Bill Mahomes sent a letter to McElroy on July 19 stating that the Board of Regents did not discourage your hiring and would not question the hiring of an individual based on their race or gender.

But a month prior, on June 19, regent Mike Hernandez told 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], and encouraged them to put the brakes on this, so we can all discuss this further.

While it is wonderful for a successful Aggie to want to come back to Texas A&M to be a tenured professor and build something this important from scratch, we must look at her resume and her statements made an[d] opinion pieces and public interviews, Hernandez wrote. The New York Times is one of the leading main stream media sources in our country. It is common knowledge that they are biased and progressive leaning. The same exact thing can be said about the university of Texas. Yet that is Dr. McElroys resume in a nutshell.

He added that he forwarded all information he could find about McElroy via an internet search to system general counsel Ray Bonilla to distribute to the full board.

The internal inquiry also shows that the effort to promote conservative values at A&M extended beyond the journalism program. Texts between Graham and regent David Baggett about McElroys hiring referenced Banks 2022 move to combine several academic programs into a new College of Arts and Sciences as part of a new strategic plan to reshape the universitys structure.

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, Graham wrote. This wont happen with this kind of hire.

Attention and outrage

The general counsel report was released to the public days after the regents directed that office to conduct a complete and thorough investigation into what happened and gave university lawyers the green light to negotiate a settlement with McElroy.

In a joint statement from McElroys lawyer and the university announcing the settlement, A&M apologized to McElroy and acknowledged mistakes were made during the attempt to hire her.

Texas A&M University remains in my heart despite the events of the past month, McElroy said in the 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.

In the weeks following the initial offer, McElroy told the Tribune, Texas A&M started to walk back its terms, reducing it from a tenured position to ultimately a one-year teaching contract and a three-year offer to serve as the director of the journalism program. McElroy told the Tribune that Jose Luis Bermudez, the former interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said that there were concerns from within the A&M system about her hiring because of her prior work to build diverse and inclusive newsrooms and her experience at The New York Times.

In early July, McElroy said that Bermudez advised her to remain at UT-Austin in her tenured position because he could not protect her if outside forces wanted her gone. McElroy took that advice.

Texas A&Ms failed recruitment garnered national media attention and spurred outrage from faculty organizations and alumni groups demanding the school explain what happened.

How this University treated this respected, honored, qualified, experienced, successful, and tenured fellow Aggie is unacceptable and would have been unthinkable yet for her race and gender, leaders of the Black Former Student Network wrote to Sharp. The fact that this University outwardly promotes very laudable principles in the Aggie Core Values, yet you dont have the character nor the courage to follow these Core Values as the leader of this University reveals the deep chasm between your words and your actions.

In a meeting with the Faculty Senate days after the news broke, Banks and other administrators said they were unaware of the changes made to the original offer letter.

I am embarrassed that we are in a situation where we have an offer that was released without the proper approvals. I was surprised by that, Banks said during the meeting. However, its important to note that we honored that letter, we honored all of the letters, because it was of no fault to the candidate, who was very, very qualified, that our administrative structure broke down.

But after the Faculty Senate meeting, Hart Blanton, the communications and journalism department head involved in the failed effort to recruit McElroy, said that Banks interfered in the hiring process and that race was a factor in university officials decision to water down McElroys job offer.

To the contrary, President Banks injected herself into the process atypically and early on, Blanton said.

Blanton said he shared related materials with university lawyers on July 21. Hours later, Banks submitted her resignation to Sharp, which was first reported by the Tribune the following day.

Texas A&M cannot have its leaders misleading the faculty, public, or policymakers about how we conduct business, Blanton said.

A very rough road

According to the report, Blanton made a verbal offer to McElroy on May 11 and she accepted.

In text messages on May 11 and 12, Bermudez told Blanton that he had spoken with Banks and she preferred the university wait until after the legislative session concluded at the end of May before announcing the hire.

Bottom line is that the NYT connection is poor optics during this particular legislative session, Bermudez said to Blanton.

During this time, state lawmakers were considering legislation to ban faculty tenure and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion offices on college campuses. University leaders, including those at Texas A&M, were negotiating with lawmakers over the legislation, as well as state funding for public universities.

Thursdays report shows that Blanton raised concerns about delaying the public announcement of McElroys hiring from the beginning, arguing in text messages it was bad optics to hire a Black professional but then ask them to not associate with the university while lawmakers were still making decisions about university funding.

Blanton suggested that the university bring in a crisis communication team because there may be some possibility we make national news of the Nikole Hannah-Jones variety if we ask a famous Black journalist not to share her exciting decision with the world.

Hannah-Jones spearheaded The New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, a collection of essays that centered on how slavery and the contributions of Black Americans shaped the United States. The University of North Carolinas board of trustees sparked national controversy when it denied Jones a tenured position in 2021 despite a recommendation for tenure from the universitys journalism department. Also in 2021, Texas lawmakers prohibited schools in the state from requiring students to read the 1619 Project. That prohibition was part of a larger law that restricts how Americas history of racism is taught in public schools.

According to Thursdays report, McElroy was told the university was stalling her announcement due to administrative requirements.

After the regular legislative session ended, Banks alerted Sharp that they planned to move forward with the announcement. Sharp told Banks to alert Mahomes, the chair of the systems Board of Regents.

Two days after McElroys June 13 signing ceremony, the conservative website Texas Scorecard published an article painting her as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion proponent. The university received multiple phone calls from the Rudder Association and former students raising concerns about the hire. Banks also said she received calls from six to seven members of the Board of Regents asking questions.

The regents had been briefed previously on the provisions of [Senate Bill] 17 relating to DEI, including the provisions requiring the Board to annually certify that the requirements of the bill have been fully implemented and confirm the Systems compliance with the bill, the report says. Regents questioned how McElroys advocacy for DEI could be reconciled with TAMUs obligations under SB 17.

By June 19, Blanton and Bermudez were negotiating with McElroy to accept a position without tenure. According to the text messages, McElroy was open to the idea. McElroy previously told the Tribune that Bermudez had convinced her to forgo tenure and avoid the need for board approval.

According to a message that Bermudez sent Banks, McElroy is happy with the professor of the practice. Texts show Bermudez and Banks discussed a three-year contract, which Bermudez sent to Banks to review, contradicting Banks claims to the Faculty Senate that she did not see copies of new offer letters. Banks gave the go-ahead to revise the offer, but when Bermudez asked how much he could say about support from the top of the university, Banks replied, Absolutely nothing. Nothing, nothing.

She is going to have a very rough road here, she said.

A high-stakes situation

On June 22, as Bermudez and Blanton were texting about the new offer letter, Bermudez told Blanton that he needed to communicate to McElroy that this was a high-stakes situation. He mentioned Avery Holton, a white male communications professor who had been offered the same position but withdrew for personal reasons.

Somebody like Avery comes here and nobody cares. The board will be as interested as they are in the synchronized swimming team, Bermudez said. Kathleen comes here and everybody takes note. That makes things volatile and high stress.

On June 27, Banks approved the revised offer letters but told Bermudez to wait until July 8 to move forward with sending them to McElroy. The report states that Mahomes requested the appointment be delayed until after the board could receive an update in its July 6 meeting.

Its going to be a little awkward, Bermudez replied to Banks. Ill need to think of what to say.

The board discussed the McElroy hiring behind closed doors but took no action and did not direct Banks to change the offer terms. McElroy was expected to provide a briefing to the board on the new journalism program during its regular board meeting in August.

On July 7, Bermudez, Blanton and McElroy had a phone call.

Bermudez does not recall his specific comments to McElroy, but Blanton and certain text messages indicate that Bermudez did make a comment to McElroy during the phone call about race being a factor in her treatment, the report states. Bermudez now explains that the comment referred to race potentially being a factor for certain outside parties that were critical of hiring McElroy and did not mean that race was a factor for any TAMU officials.

On July 8, McElroy told Bermudez she was cutting off contact with Texas A&M. When Bermudez sent an updated offer letter to McElroy on July 9, it included a one-year appointment to teach and a three-year appointment to run the journalism program.

The report does not address the five-year offer letter McElroy was sent, which she provided to the Tribune.

On July 10, Bermudez and McElroy spoke on the phone, and McElroy expressed displeasure that the faculty appointment was only for one year. Bermudez said he would see what he could do.

McElroy decided to stay at UT-Austin and reached out to the Tribune. Text messages show Bermudez alerted Banks that the Tribune reached out for comment about the botched negotiations.

Ok, Banks responded. I assume all text messages were deleted.

The day the Tribunes initial story published, text messages show Banks and Bermudez expressed anger that McElroy shared her story with the media.

I think we dodged a bullet. She is a awful person to go to the press before us, Banks said. We will learn from this and move on  Just think if she had accepted!!! Ugh.

Alonzos suspension

The general counsel report also includes an internal investigation of what happened when Texas A&M temporarily suspended professor Joy Alonzo, a respected opioids expert, after Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham alleged that the professor made a comment criticizing Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor, during a guest lecture to her daughters class at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The Tribune first reported that situation two weeks after the McElroy story.

In mere hours, Buckingham called Patrick, who called Sharp and asked him to investigate. Texas A&M previously said the request made its way down the chain of command to the university, where the Division of Risk, Ethics and Compliance placed Alonzo on leave while it investigated. UTMB issued a formal censure of Alonzo, though university leaders would not confirm what Alonzo was alleged to have said.

The case has also raised concerns about political interference in the universitys academic affairs.

The university said Alonzo did not object to how the investigation was handled.

On Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle published an op-ed by Patrick in which he defended his decision to ask Texas A&M to investigate Alonzo. Hours later, Buckingham posted on social media, When a professor states, Your Lt. Governor says those kids deserve to die regarding the group of kids in Hays County who tragically lost their lives to fentanyl  it has no place in a lecture and is indefensible.

Alonzo denied those claims and said in a statement through Texas A&M University that her comments were mischaracterized and misconstrued.

Ive given this same presentation about 1,000 times across the state over the past few years, and I also have trained others to provide the same presentation, Alonzo said. At no time did I say anyone deserved to die from an overdose.

Texas A&Ms review said the universitys investigation did not substantiate the allegation that Dr. Alonzo made unprofessional or inappropriate comments about the Lt. Governor.

Unlike the investigation into McElroys bungled hiring  which included hundreds of pages of documents  the review of Alonzos case included only a handful of pages of documents. The system also released a message Thursday from Sharp, in which he apologized to Alonzo.

I am sorry her name was bandied about in the news media four months after the university had cleared her of allegations she had criticized Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in a manner that at least one student found offensive, Sharp wrote in a statement.

Previously, Texas A&M officials had told the Tribune that Sharp asked a staffer to look into Alonzos comments and that staffer asked Banks to investigate. The report identifies Banks as the person who officially called for the investigation into Alonzo.

The universitys review confirmed the Tribunes reporting that Patrick called Sharp, who asked university officials to look into the matter. It said Sharp later sent Patrick a message notifying him that an investigation was underway.

Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud be finished by end of week, read the text, which was made public by the Tribune but not included in the universitys review.

In a statement Thursday, Sharp said the report also corrects the false narrative that I ordered an investigation into Dr. Alonzo and am not a champion of academic freedom because I took one brief, non-threatening phone call from the lieutenant governor.

Sharp said the university put Alonzo on leave while it investigated the allegation with no initiation or interference from me. He said the investigation was sparked by UTMBs censure, which he said was done without providing Texas A&M any information and unfortunately still hasnt been retracted.

What else would you have the university do but check it out? Sharp wrote.

Texas A&M University System spokesperson Laylan Copelin said in a statement that Sharps text to Patrick was a typical update, saying it is not unusual for the chancellor to keep elected officials informed when something at Texas A&M might interest them.

It is not unusual to respond to any state official who has concerns about anything occurring at the Texas A&M System, said Copelin, who said the system followed standard procedure to look into the claim.

But the Faculty Senate has sent a letter to Welsh, the interim president, demanding that the university clarify its administrative leave policies and ensure they are properly followed.

From the facultys perspective, Professor Alonzos administrative leave appears to have been instigated on a hasty reaction that short-circuited reasonable due process under the circumstances, Hammond wrote. We want to work with you to avoid that kind of outcome in the future.

More investigations coming

The Texas A&M Faculty Senate is also investigating what happened in the situations involving McElroy and Alonzo. Earlier this week, it announced a three-person investigative subcommittee to examine both circumstances. Its unclear what the timeline is for that investigation.

Overall, the two situations have left Texas A&M faculty uneasy over the potential chilling effect on speech  and the possible fostering of a fearful culture in which professors agonize over the political ramifications of their work.

It has also raised concerns about how these events have damaged the universitys reputation and could slow efforts to recruit and retain academic talent, eclipse decades of work, and erode the love and devotion that students, instructors and alumni have poured into a beloved institution.

In a press conference this week, interim President Mark A. Welsh III pledged to increase transparency with the Aggie community and pledged his commitment to help the university move past the recent turmoil.

Its really important for even great, great institutions to occasionally step back and take a real honest look in the mirror, he said. As soon as we get all the facts available to us, we need to make decisions on how we prevent getting into these situations in the future.

William Melhado and James Barragan contributed to this story.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, New York Times, Texas A&M University System and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
More questions were asked of Judge Aileen Cannons fitness to preside over Donald Trumps high-profile classified documents case on Monday after the South Florida federal judge rejected special counsel Jack Smiths bid to preserve grand jury secrecy through sealed filings.

In her ruling, Cannon questioned the legal propriety of Smith using an out-of-district grand jury to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings. She demanded that Smith explain why prosecutors are doing this by Aug. 22.

While much of the Mar-a-Lago docs case is being handled out of Cannons district, a portion of the grand jury work ahead of Trumps indictment was done by a D.C. grand jury, which Cannon appeared perplexed by.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote online that Cannons latest order may tee up the issue of her fitness on this case. Andrew Weissmann, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, suggested the samewriting that Cannons order is off base.

Judge Cannon clearly shows her ignorance (bias? both?); the obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in [Florida] or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district, he wrote on Twitter. And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside [Florida].

In a separate blow to Smith, Cannon also removed two filings by prosecutorsabout defense attorney Stanley Woodwards potential conflicts of interestfrom the record entirely.

Prosecutors had asked for a so-called Garcia hearing to alert Woodwards clients of the potential conflicts of interest, so they filed a motion in hopes they could do so while keeping information off the public record.

Cannon shot down that request, however, writing that prosecutors didnt do enough to explain why the meeting needed to be kept under wraps. Smith can file new requests to seal the material, but Cannon has made clear she wont grant a request without a thorough explanation as to why its necessary.

The Incredible Mystery of How Trump Got Judge Cannon in the Mar-a-Lago Case

Questions surrounding Cannons fitness have swirled since she was assigned to handle a lawsuit Trump filed last year to challenge the seizure of documents at Mar-a-Lago. She went out of her way to slow down the FBIs investigation by issuing bizarre rulings in Trumps favor, including the appointment of a special master to review the seized files. That ruling was later tossed out by an appeals court.

A Trump appointee with little experience on the bench, Cannon was then randomly assigned to preside over the criminal case when Trump was indicted in June.

Meanwhile, a string of errors shes made in her short time as a judge has come to light. Her most recent hiccup came in June, when she closed jury selection in a child pornography casedenying the defendants family and others a seat in the courtroom to watch jury selection. The misstep, an apparent violation of the constitutional right to a public trial, nearly invalidated the proceedings entirely. She also neglected to swear in a prospective jury poola mandatory procedure.

Cannon, 42, was appointed by Trump in the waning days of his presidency in 2020. Shed been a federal prosecutor for seven years, but has only been a part of eight criminal trials that resulted in jury verdictsfour as a prosecutor and four as a judge. Shes spent a total of just 14 days in trial as a federal judge, The New York Times reported.

Trump faces 40 counts in his classified docs trial, which is slated to begin in Mayat the heart of primary campaign season. It will be Cannons most high-profile trial to date, with the eyes of the nation expected to be on her tiny Fort Pierce courthouse.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A federal court has ruled that a U.S. Forest Service project to cut trees and clear brush from a remote stretch of Los Padres may move forward.

The judge ruled in favor of the federal agency after a coalition of groups and public agencies sued over the plans for a 755-acre area in the Reyes Peak area in Ventura County.

In 2021, the Forest Service signed off on the project to clear thick stands of chaparral and cut down pine and fir trees. Work would focus on smaller trees, mostly those under 24 inches in diameter. Doing so would improve the health of the remaining trees, officials said.

Trees between the 24-inch and 64-inch diameter would be retained unless they pose a safety risk, according to the agency.

"There's all these little trees that are sprouting up in the shadow of primarily the really big trees that are still healthy," said Andrew Madsen, Los Padres spokesman. "If you fast forward 10, 15, 20 years, you're going to have a big thicket of these trees."

The shaded fuel break is planned for an area of Pine Mountain stretching from Highway 33 to the Reyes Peak trailhead. The Forest Service said it would help protect against big wildfires, providing a spot where firefighters could make a stand.

But those opposed said the work may increase fire risk, not lower it.

Coalition sues in federal court

Removing brush would clear the way for nonnative grasses to take over, conservation groups said. Those light grasses dry out early in the year, can ignite easily and spread fire quickly.

Los Padres ForestWatch, Keep Sespe Wild, Earth Island Institute, American Alpine Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Patagonia Works and California Chaparral Institute filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Ojai and Ventura County officials filed similar lawsuits.

"Our concern all along has been wanting to ensure that Pine Mountain stays protected," said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch. "We don't want to see  and thousands of residents who submitted comments don't want to see  a commercial logging project involving large trees."

They also don't want to see heavy machinery removing chaparral on the mountain either, he said. The recreational spot is considered important for endangered California condors and other sensitive wildlife.

The groups sued saying the Forest Service violated federal environmental law in its approval of the project. But the judge ruled that the Forest Service did not violate the law, allowing the project to move ahead.

Logging concerns raised

The groups said they are evaluating their next steps.

"I think ultimately what we would like to see is the Forest Service devote resources towards wildfire mitigation measures that are most effective," Kuyper said. "That means focusing on areas that are closer to our communities, not projects like this that focus on clearing out native habitat in really remote and ecologically sensitive areas."

Los Padres Supervisor Chris Stubbs said in a statement that the work is not a commercial logging project. But conservation groups cited the agencys decision memo, which allows for a commercial timber sale.

The Forest Service called sale of timber and other wood by-product an available tool but said it would not change the outcome of the project. The language is required to qualify for additional funding, according to Madsen.

"We have to allow for the possibility that there might be a way to get some commercial value from what we log," he said. "But to date, there has been absolutely zero interest."

Work is expected to start during the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Federal court allows forest thinning to move forward in Los Padres
A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trumps counter defamation lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll, dealing another legal blow to the former president.

In an order Monday, Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Trump had not proven that Carrolls statements on CNN the day after the jury awarded her $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her were false or not at least substantially true, which is the legal standard.

Trump sued Carroll in June based on her response to questions posed on CNN. Carroll was asked about the verdict finding Trump sexually abused Carroll, but did not rape her as defined under New York law and as she alleged. Carroll said, Oh, yes he did.

In throwing out Trumps lawsuit, the judge wrote, Indeed, the jurys verdict in Carroll II establishes, as against Mr Trump, the fact that Mr Trump raped her, albeit digitally rather than with his penis. Thus, it establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms Carrolls rape accusations.

Kaplan added: In consequence, there is no merit to Mr Trumps argument that the jurys finding on Penal Law rape question established that Ms Carrolls statements were false even if her statements reasonably could be construed as referring to rape in that specialized Penal Law sense, a subject on which this Court now expresses no view.

The judge previously rejected Trumps request for a new trial.

Trump is set to go to trial in January on another defamation lawsuit brought by Carroll in 2019 for statements Trump made while he was president. That case was tied up in legal issues while the lawsuit brought under the Adult Survivors Act (known as Carroll II) went to trial in May, resulting in the $5 million award.

The former president has also appealed that jurys verdict and other adverse rulings.

Carrolls attorneys have argued the only issue for the jury in January is how much in damages Trump should pay her. Trumps attorneys argued there should be a cap on damages to avoid double counting from the jurys verdict in the ASA case.

We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trumps counterclaim, said Carrolls attorney, Roberta Kaplan. That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldnt take very long to complete. E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.

The trial comes in the middle of the presidential primary season and as Trump prepares to defend against three criminal indictments.

We strongly disagree with the flawed decision and will be filing an appeal shortly, said Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump.

This story has been updated with an additional statement from Carrolls attorney.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
E Jean Carroll praised her legal team after a judge dismissed former President Donald Trumps counter-lawsuit against writer E Jean Carroll.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in an order made public on Monday that Mr Trump hadnt proven that Ms Carrolls statements on CNN the day after a civil trial jury found that the ex-president had sexually abused Ms Carroll and subsequently defamed her were false or not at least substantially true.

Mr Trump sued Ms Carroll in June following her CNN appearance the previous month. Ms Carroll was asked about the verdict  the jury found that while Mr Trump sexually abused her, they didnt state that Mr Trump had raped her under New York state law, to which Ms Carroll said, Oh, yes he did.

Judge Kaplan wrote: Indeed, the jurys verdict in Carroll II establishes, as against Mr Trump, the fact that Mr Trump raped her, albeit digitally rather than with his penis. Thus, it establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms Carrolls rape accusations.

In consequence, there is no merit to Mr Trumps argument that the jurys finding on Penal Law rape question established that Ms Carrolls statements were false even if her statements reasonably could be construed as referring to rape in that specialized Penal Law sense, a subject on which this Court now expresses no view, he added.

Ms Carroll praised her attorney, writing on her Substack on Monday that while the world was fixated on a certain blokes latest indictments, Robbie Kaplan was making moves.

We rely upon the law to bring us justice. As I type these words my heart swells with gratitude for my attorneys, she added.

I refer, of course, to that famous fly-fishing maven Robbie Kaplan, Ms Carroll, 79, wrote on Monday.

She went on to share her appreciation for the unreasonably hot Shawn Crowley, the swashbucklingly smart Mike Ferrara, the omnipotently shrewd Joshua Matz, the ingeniously even-tempered Matt Craig as well as the consummately quick Trevor Morrison, the eternally elegant Helen Andrews, the affectionately ferocious Emmy DeCourcy, the deliciously crafty Donya Khadem, and the paralyzingly penetrating Kate Harris.

She concluded with a special salute to Ms. Rachel Tuckman who is enjoying a hellaciously HOT mom summer!

Judge Kaplan had already rejected Mr Trumps request for a new trial, CNN notes.

Mr Trump is set to go on trial against Ms Carroll again in January on a separate defamation lawsuit filed by the writer in 2019 for statements Mr Trump made while occupying the White House.

The case has been delayed by the legal battle that ensued. The lawsuit brought under the New York Adult Survivors Act, known as Carroll II, went to trial in May of this year, leading to the writer being awarded $5m.

Mr Trump had appealed that verdict as well as other adverse rulings.

Ms Carrolls legal team have claimed that the only issue that the jury should settle in January is how much Mr Trump should pay the writer. The ex-presidents lawyers have said that there should be a limit to the amount of damages he can owe to avoid doubling up from the jurys verdict in Carroll II.

Ms Kaplan said in a statement: We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trumps counterclaim. That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldnt take very long to complete.

Mr Trump is set to face his challengers in the Republican primary in the Iowa caucuses on the same day.

Ms Kaplan added: E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba told CNN: We strongly disagree with the flawed decision and will be filing an appeal shortly.
FILE - Family members of the victims embrace following the arraignment of Christopher Ferguson, Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at District Court in Newton, Mass. A man charged with killing a couple marking their 50th wedding anniversary as well as the womans 97-year-old mother in suburban Boston has been found by a judge to be mentally incompetent to stand trial at this time. During a hearing Monday, Aug. 7, in Newton District Court, the judge ordered 41-year-old Christopher Ferguson, of Newton, to remain at Bridgwater State Hospital, a state psychiatric facility. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

NEWTON, Mass. (AP)  A man charged in connection with the triple homicide of a couple marking their 50th wedding anniversary and the womans 97-year-old mother in suburban Boston was found by a judge on Monday to be mentally incompetent to stand trial.

During a hearing in Newton District Court, the judge ordered Christopher Ferguson, 41, of Newton, to remain at Bridgwater State Hospital, a state psychiatric facility for people who have either been convicted of or are awaiting trial on criminal charges.

Prosecutors said at the hearing that the state couldn't show that Ferguson was competent to stand trial "as of today.

Based on that information, I will make a finding today that the defendant today is not competent, Judge Jennifer Queally ruled.

Ferguson is charged in connection with the killings of Gilda DAmore, 73, Bruno DAmore, 74, and Lucia Arpino, who were found dead on June 25 at a home in Newton after the couple failed to show up at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, where parishioners had planned to celebrate the DAmores 50th wedding anniversary in a post-Communion blessing.

Ferguson, who did not appear to have any connection to the victims, previously pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail. He has been charged with murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and burglary. Prosecutors have said additional charges could follow.

The victims were discovered in a bedroom by a friend shortly after they failed to show up for 10 a.m. Mass, police said. The friend called police, who discovered signs of forced entry through a window. Investigators found bare footprints on the tile floor, along with blood droplets and fingerprints.

Surveillance video from a nearby home showed a man with no shirt or shoes staggering not far from the DAmores home shortly before 5:30 a.m., according to prosecutors. Several police officers identified the man as Ferguson, whose footprints matched bloody prints found in the home, investigators said.

Ferguson's attorney told The Boston Globe on Monday that he expects his client to be indicted by a grand jury in the coming weeks. That ruling would move the case to Superior Court, where another judge will decide whether to adopt the results of the current competency evaluation or order a new one.

If he is found to have regained competency, either because he was treated or medicated, his case would then continue along the regular path toward a criminal trial, Lev said.

Ferguson's next court date is Oct. 10.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A federal appeals court on Monday halted a rule from President Joe Biden's administration that could make it easier to obtain student loan debt relief for borrowers who say they were victims of misleading information about the quality of education they would receive.

At issue is a rule broadening existing policy ending the debt of students who borrowed money to attend colleges and universities that are determined to have misled them on matters such as whether their courses would actually prepare them for employment in their field or the likely salary they would earn upon obtaining a degree.

Career Colleges and Schools of Texas, an association of for-profit higher learning institutions, filed a lawsuit against the rule in February. Among its complaints was that the rules are so broad that they cover even unintentional actions by a college. They also said the rule unconstitutionally gives an executive branch agency, the Department of Education, what amounts to the power of a court in deciding whether to grant claims for debt relief.

Administration lawyers said relief granted by the department could be appealed in federal court.

The colleges asked a Texas-based federal judge to block the rule while the case plays out. The judge refused in a June ruling. But three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Monday issued a brief order granting an injunction. The order said the panel would hear arguments in November.

The three judges on the panel in New Orleans are Edith Jones, nominated to the court by former President Ronald Reagan; and two nominees of former President Donald Trump, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Cory Wilson.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland makes a point as he speaks to members of the house of delegates of the American Bar Association at the group's annual meeting Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER (AP)  The U.S. Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigation s, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday as he reaffirmed his department's aid more than a year after the Russian invasion.

Congress recently allowed for new U.S. flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of the United States cooperation, Garland said.

We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability. We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable, he said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.

He appointed a prosecutor to serve at a center opened last month in The Hague to support nations building cases against senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression. International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression will not issue indictments or arrest warrants for suspects but will instead support investigations already underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The ICC does not have jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine because Russia and Ukraine have not ratified the Rome Statute that founded the court, though Ukraine's prosecutor general has said they plan to join.

The United States also is not an ICC member state. Since the Treaty of Rome, which established the court, took effect, successive U.S. administrations beginning during Bill Clintons presidency have taken a largely hands off approach toward the ICC due to concerns it might open investigations and prosecute American soldiers or senior officials.

Although it is not a member of the court, the U.S. has cooperated with the ICC in the past on war crimes issues, notably during the Obama administration when Washington contributed evidence to the investigation into atrocities allegedly committed by the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda and surrounding states in east Africa.

However, American antipathy toward the tribunal reached new heights during the Trump administration when it imposed sanctions on the former ICC chief prosecutor and several aides for pursuing investigations into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and Israeli servicemembers in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Biden administration rescinded those sanctions shortly after taking office and its decision to actively assist the court with Ukraine investigations marks another step toward cooperation with the ICC.

The Justice Department is giving wide-ranging assistance to Ukraine, from training on prosecuting environmental crimes to help developing a secure electronic case-management system for more than 90,000 suspected atrocity crimes. Garland also touted the $500 million seized assets and over three dozen indictments the department has handed down to enforce sanctions.

Ukraine must do three things simultaneously: it must fight a war; it must investigate war crimes; and it must ensure that a just society comes out on the other side of the war, he said. The Justice Department is honored to stand with them.

Garland also encouraged more private lawyers to volunteer to help Ukrainian victims. He recalled how his grandmother and his wifes family were able to flee Europe as refugees to the United States and avoid the Holocaust. Other relatives were killed by the Nazis.

We do not know if anyone involved in their deaths were held accountable, Garland said. The families of the victims of the current atrocities in Ukraine deserve to know what happened to their loved ones. They deserve justice.

___

Whitehurst reported from Washington. AP diplomatic writer Matt Lee in Washington contributed.
A juvenile died Sunday night after being struck by a vehicle near Caldwell, according to an Idaho State Police spokesperson.

A 20-year-old Wilder man was driving a 2005 Jeep Liberty westbound at around 11:50 p.m. on Karcher Road in Canyon County when the juvenile, who was running southbound on Indiana Avenue, crossed into the lane of travel at the intersection and was struck by the jeep, according to a news release from ISP.

The release did not indicate the pedestrians condition, but Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told the Idaho Statesman by phone that the minor died. Snell didnt know whether the victim died at the scene or at a nearby hospital, or know their age or gender.

Snell said he didnt believe anyone else, including the driver, was injured.

The accident blocked traffic for about three hours, according to the release. The incident is under investigation by police.
Sealed safely inside the International Space Station, astronauts dress for comfort and convenience. Their typical getupsshort-sleeve collared shirts and long cargo pantsare regular Earth clothes, sourced from retailers that include Cabelas and Lands End. But astronauts require exceptional attire when outside the ISSs climate-controlled confines. NASAs chunky spacesuits are, essentially, spacecraft condensed to human size. They protect wearers from an environment that swings from 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun to minus 250 degrees in the shade.

Inside the suits, spacewalkers often work up a sweat, despite cooling tubes that wick away body heat. Extravehicular activities, or EVAs, may involve hours of strenuous labor. To stay warm and pressurized, astronauts also have to wear layersincluding an inner form-fitting garment akin to long underwearthat they re-wear and even share. Complicating matters still: There are no laundry machines on the ISS. Because water is so valuable, washing a suit in orbit is not an option. Which is why NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and other organizations have asked textiles experts to investigate the problem of biocontamination in suits and develop fabrics that might solve it.

[Related: Future astronauts and space tourists could rock 3D printed second skin]

Heavy work in heavy gear leads to filth. After mock EVAs on Earth, technicians who help peel stand-in astronauts out of their suits have learned to turn their heads away on the first unzip to avoid a stinky blast, says Gernot Gromer, director of the Austrian Space Forum, a research group that conducts simulated astronautical missions. Everybody sees those beautiful, shiny white spacesuits. But nobody knows what it smells like at the ISS. (Its not particularly pleasant.)

As these suits are used again and again, worries go beyond foul odors to hygiene and health hazards. The possibility for biocontamination, which includes human debris, bacteria, and other foreign substances, may get worse as spacefarers travel past low-Earth orbit for longer trips to the moon.

Washing spacesuit interiors on a consistent basis may well not be practical in lunar habitats, ESA materials and processes engineer Malgorzata Holynska says in a statement. That space agency is investing in unusual ways to keep suits clean, such as antibiotic chemicals churned out by microbes.

Sanitary death metal

During NASAs shuttle program, which ran from 1981 to 2011, spacesuits were designed to be used on two-week trips. But as astronauts began to live on the ISS for longer periods in the late 2000s, suit lifespans had to be extended up to six years. That meant microbes became a concern in ways they hadnt before, says Evelyne Orndoff, a textiles engineer at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

In NASAs first comprehensive attempt to address spacesuit contamination more than a decade ago, Orndoff and her colleagues evaluated several off-the-shelf methods to kill germs on fabric, including Cupron and SilverClear. They cut treated textiles into two-inch squares, placed them in petri dishes, and grew several species of fungi and bacteria on the samples.

Astronauts' typical getups are regular Earth clothes, sourced from retailers that include Cabelas and Lands End.

Some of the fabrics were infused with copper, which has impressive antimicrobial properties. When bacteria touch the element, it destabilizes their cell walls and membranes, making the microbes vulnerable to damage from the metals ions. The NASA scientists also examined textiles treated with silverlikewise toxic to germs on contactand silicone.

After observing the gunk that grew on the fabrics for up to 14 days, they found that only one compound kept bacteria and fungi below targets set by NASA's Constellation programa now-defunct plan for lunar missions in which a spacesuit would have been reused up to 90 times in six months. The winner was a solution of silver molecules used for disinfecting hospital dressings and other fabrics. But the metal ion was too good at its job. It kills everything, Orndoff says. Total sterility can cause even more problems than grime, given than humans need a balanced ecosystem of millions of microorganisms to keep the skin and other organs healthy.

The experiments showed that concentrations of other antimicrobial compounds were generally too low to be effective. Some microbes would initially dip in numbers, but the resistant ones would repopulate the samples. The scientists worried that, at high-enough amounts, antimicrobial particles would irritate anyone wearing the fabric or pollute the space station. After that we never really revisited antimicrobial treatments, Orndoff explains, for the simple reason that it would present complications for the ISS life-support system that provides clean air and water.

[Related: Onboard the ISS, nothing goes to wasteincluding sweat and pee]

While Orndoffs team did not pursue their idea further, NASAs commercial contractors have. In 2022, the agency hired US companies Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace to develop the next generation of suits for spacewalks. Earlier this year, Axiom unveiled a prototype suit that Artemis III astronauts might use to explore the lunar south pole. In a statement to Popular Science, the company says: The Axiom Space AxEMU spacesuits will use textiles that have antimicrobial properties to reduce biocontamination. The suits cooling system will also use biocide in its water loops to prevent microbial buildup. The company did not share the exact type of the agents, citing their proprietary nature.

Biological agents at work

Future astronauts might get a helping hygienic hand from the microscopic world. Partnering with the Vienna Textile Lab, and with funding from the ESA, Austrian Space Forum researchers have been studying how to turn a bacterial cells own defenses against it.

Specifically, Gromer and his collaborators have been investigating biological compounds called secondary metabolites that microbes sweat out as a defense against other microorganisms. The researchers bonded several of these molecules to textiles and, over the past few years, subjected those samples to hundreds of tests, including zaps of radiation from a nuclear accelerator in Austria and baths in synthetic sweat. (The nasty liquid, which reminds Gromer of the acidic blood of the monsters in Alien, ages fabrics quickly.)

A scanning electron microscope view of textiles tested by the Austrian Space Forum.

One metabolite in particular, named violacein, survived every hostile attack with its antimicrobial properties intact. The purple-black substance can be found in the bacteria that live on the skin of red-backed salamanders. Its so good at killing microbes that some biologists suspect it protects the amphibians from deadly chytrid fungus infections. The Austrian Space Forum plans to field-test violacein in a simulated Mars mission, in which six astronaut roleplayers will spend four weeks in Armenias rugged mountains in 2024.

Gromer envisions a future where this pigments potent defenses leave the planet, not only on treated spacesuits but also towels and other gear. While dirty linens might just sound like a chore, they can be a breeding ground for microbes, which thrive in low gravity and may mutate faster in space. When you go to Mars, you're at the edge of whats technologically possible, so little nuisances can transform into real disaster-prone situations, Gromer says. And so if there's a risk we can control, hell, let's do it.
Relatives lay flowers in memory of those killed in the 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi (Tony KARUMBA)

Kenyan victims of the 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi on Monday renewed calls for compensation from Washington as the East African nation marked 25 years since its deadliest terror attack.

A powerful blast hit the US embassy in downtown Nairobi on August 7, 1998, killing 213 people and injuring over 5,000 -- most of them pedestrians or office workers in the adjacent buildings.

Minutes later, another explosion rocked the US mission in Dar es Salaam, in neighbouring Tanzania.

The twin bombings, claimed by Al-Qaeda, killed a total of 224 people and went on to shape how a generation thinks about personal security.

The attack "still feels fresh" a quarter century later, said Anisa Mwilu, who lost her husband in the blast.

"What we can ask is for compensation," she said to applause from several hundred people gathered for a remembrance ceremony for those killed, held at a memorial park in the Kenyan capital.

Caroline Muthoka, a member of a victims' group, urged the US Congress to approve legislation to cover medical expenses and education costs for survivors and their families.

Muthoka described the failure of the US government to compensate victims as a "injustice".

Redempta Kadenge Amisi, who was in a building flattened by the explosion, said she needed financial assistance to cover the costs of her twice-daily medication.

- Revenge attacks -

"The three people I was with were killed instantly. I didn't realise it but my back was on fire," she said of injuries that hospitalised her for over a month.

"Since the attack, I haven't received anything... but I still hope to get some."

Both Kenyan and US officials attended the ceremony, where the names of all the victims were read out aloud, and candles lit in memory.

The 1998 attack thrust Al-Qaeda onto the global stage and was the first in a series of bloody assaults in the East African nation.

Since the deployment of Kenyan military in Somalia in October 2011 to fight the Al-Qaeda-affiliate Al-Shabaab, there has been an upsurge in revenge attacks over the border.

In September 2013, Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed Nairobi's Westgate mall, killing at least 67 people.

Another Al-Shabaab attack in April 2015 at a university in the eastern Kenyan city of Garissa left 148 people dead.

In January 2019, the group laid siege to a hotel complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people.

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As a kidnapped American nurse and her child marked their 11th day in captivity in Haiti on Monday, the United Nations leading child-welfare agency says it is seeing an alarming spike in the abductions of women and children in the Caribbean nation.

Nearly 300 cases have been reported in the first six months of this year, UNICEF said. The number is close to the total documented in 2022 and is close to three times more than what was recorded in 2021.

In Haiti, most kidnappings are at the hands of armed gangs, whose warfare has worsened since the 2021 assassination of the countrys president, Jovenel Moise. Gangs routinely grab people and hold them for ransom. But sometimes abductions are the result of inside jobs, where victims are set up  and even taken  by people they know, including family members, friends or employees.

Still, the high number of women and children who are falling victim to the epidemic is worrisome, the U.N. agency said.

We cant say that theyre specifically targeting women and children, but indeed we see that there is an increased number of women and children, both boys and girls, who are being abducted, Laurent Duvillier, UNICEFs regional chief of communications and advocacy for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in an interview.

That in itself is a concern, as far as UNICEF is concerned, because they require specific assistance, he added. The level of risk is higher for them in many ways and they have needs that are very specific.

Protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by police during a protest against insecurity in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.

As Haitians took to the streets in Port-au-Prince on Monday to protest against the violence, UNICEF called for the immediate release and safe return of all those who have been kidnapped. The actual number of kidnappings remains unknown since many abductions go unreported for fear of retaliation by armed groups, or concerns about victims being held longer due to their perceived ability to pay large ransom demands.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking to reporters in New York on Monday, said there are many different parties responsible for the kidnappings in Haiti.

Theres been a rise in activity, particularly by different criminal and other gangs. And that is why weve been pushing for a ... multinational force that could help restore stability and order to Haiti, Haq said.

Among those still being held by kidnappers is the former head of the countrys provisional electoral council and television station owner, Pierre-Louis Opont, who was abducted over a month ago, and Alix Dorsainvil. A U.S. citizen, Dorsainvil is a community health nurse from New Hampshire who works for the Christian humanitarian aid organization El Roi Haiti in Port-au-Prince. She and her daughter were abducted on the morning of July 27 on the campus of the nonprofit. She is married to the organizations director, Sandro Dorsainvil.

A State Department spokesperson said that the U.S. government is 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 inter-agency partners, the spokesperson said. We have nothing further to share at this time.

Dorsainvil was kidpoanoeod the same day the State Department ordered the departure of non-emergency personnel from its embassy, located several miles east in the suburb of Tabarre. Days earlier, dozens of Haitian families had sought refuge in front of the embassy after an armed gang invaded their nearby neighborhood.

U.S. citizens were also advised to immediately leave Haiti.

The State Department and El Roi have said little about the circumstances surrounding Dorsainvils abduction.

The Associated Press, citing witnesses at the campus, said Dorsainvil was providing medical care in El Rois small brick clinic Thursday morning when armed men burst in and grabbed her. The captors demanded $1 million in ransom.

Haitians familiar with the grassroots organizations work have held protests demanding the duos release.

A report by the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights in Port-au-Prince, which tracks kidnappings, concurs with UNICEF that there is a significant rise in kidnappings in Haiti compared to previous year. Since January, there have been 539 cases reported, the human rights group said.

Kidnappings are a very traumatic experience for victims, said Duvillier, the UNICEF spokesman.

Many things can happen during the captivity, unfortunately, he said, citing cases of sexual violence against girls and women.

Its not always the case, but it can happen. So there are many risks involved, Duvillier added. We have experience of girls being held for months in captivity, living with the armed groups being threatened, different forms of violence.It varies from one person to another.

Even after individuals are released the trauma persists, he said. Victims are sometimes scared to make contact with relatives either because they want to protect them from being abducted or they are ashamed of what happened to them while in captivity. As a result of the increase in needs for services, Duvillier said UNICEF has increased its efforts in Haiti, working with police and the brigade in charge of minors to provide support and in some cases even housing for freed victims.

Those who have been abducted live with fear that it can happen again and they dont feel safe to go back to their relatives because they dont want to expose their relatives, so they dont know where to go, he said.

The escalation in kidnappings and armed violence have made the countrys humanitarian crisis worse. Today, an estimated 5.2 million people, almost half of the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. said. This includes 3 million children, many of whom have been displaced and are unable to go to school, while others are suffering from high rates of malnutrition.

In cases where they are forcefully taken by armed groups and used for financial or tactical gains, they are also left to grapple with deep physical and psychological scars, possibly for years.

The stories we are hearing from UNICEF colleagues and partners on the ground are shocking and unacceptable, said Gary Conille, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Women and children are not commodities. They are not bargaining chips. And they must never be exposed to such unimaginable violence. The growing trend in kidnappings and abductions is extremely worrisome, threatening both the people of Haiti and those who have come to help.

Still, protection for women and children, in general, are among the most underfunded areas, said Duvillier. A $720 million humanitarian aid plan for Haiti has only received 23% of the funds it has requested, the United Nations has said.

We need to provide water, we need to provide shelter, we need to provide food to people. But beyond those humanitarian needs to keep people alive, child protection, for example, is an area that is absolutely critical. But you may not see the impact of it, he said. You may not see how tangible, how visibly important it is because most of the people are living with internal scars.... But its very important if we want them to rebuild their lives and to move forward, go beyond the trauma and give them a sense of a normal life.
It's a subtle but important difference.

When David Magee goes into a school to talk to children about mental health and substance misuse, his message isn't just "say no to drugs" or "don't drink and drive" or "don't suffer in silence."

Instead, Magee tells students he wants them to find and keep their joy  a task many youth are finding much more difficult than most adults might imagine.

In a 2021 advisory, "Protecting Youth Mental Health," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy noted that in 2019, one in three high school students  and half of female students  reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, an overall increase of 40% from 2009.

And while U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics indicate that drug use among adolescents decreased slightly over that same 10-year timespan, in 2019 one in seven students still reported having used an illicit drug or misused a prescription medication. More concerning, the rate of overdoses among youth is climbing as narcotics become increasingly likely to be laced with the deadly and addictive drug fentanyl.

Last time at CivicCon: Why haven't we solved homelessness? Because we've deemed too many "unworthy" of our help.

A dubious honor: Pensacola medical district ranks No. 1 in Florida opioid deaths; double state average

Magee said starting to have conversations with your children about drugs when they're in middle school "may not even be soon enough."

"I don't really tell students 'don't do drugs.' It didn't work, it doesn't work. I say, 'That's really going to be your choice,'" Magee told the News Journal. "But what we need to talk about is helping students find the joy that they want  and they do want it. We need to just help them understand that things like substances steal (their joy), and we need to help them better understand how they can naturally manage their own emotions and their own feelings."

Magee is a student wellbeing activist who created the The William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi after his son William died of an accidental drug overdose. Magee is also the award-winning author of "Dear William: A Fathers Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, Love and Loss," and a sought-after speaker in schools, universities and companies nationwide, addressing students and parents about mental health and substance misuse challenges and solutions.

At a CivicCon event in Pensacola on Aug. 15, Magee will be sharing tips and takeaways from his newest book, "Things Have Changed: What Every Parent (and Educator) Should Know About the Student Mental Health and Substance Misuse Crisis."

According to Magee, now more than ever, parents and educators need better information about the challenges facing their children, what sorts of issues to expect and when, and the warning signs to look for.

"So, when you look at the whole spectrum, across the board, there's a lot that has changed and it's happened fast," Magee said. "I wrote this as a guidebook really to set the table for parents and educators so they can really better understand what they're up against."

Smartphones have made our children targets for content that warps their self esteem

One of the main things that have changed is smartphones and social media.

Magee recounted a conversation he had with a college-aged student who would stay home to study on the weekends, but who couldn't resist the urge to go online and see what her friends were up to.

"'I see that all my friends are out, and I know that that's normal,'" Magee recalled the young woman saying. "'But soon, my mind is running away from me and I'm thinking they're talking about me. They're having fun. They have moved on without me. Then I can't focus on studying, then I feel bad about myself. Then I go to dinner and I feel like I eat too much. I'm uncomfortable with myself.' That's a extraordinarily common scenario."

The surgeon general, in his 2021 advisory, gave a similar assessment.

"We also know that, too often, young people are bombarded with messages through the media and popularculture that erode their sense of self-worth  telling them they are not good looking enough, popular enough, smart enough, or rich enough," Murthy wrote.

Magee noted that the first iPhone was released in 2007, and it has only been in the past decade or so that youth have had a smartphone within arm's reach nearly 24/7. We're just now starting to study the ramifications of that change, and much of what we've learned is troubling.

Logging out: Florida schools could soon join state universities in banning TikTok on devices, networks

"The studies are clear, if you spend enough time in apps like, say, Instagram ... if you spend too much time in there scrolling, your feelings change. How you feel about yourself changes. And that's why we're seeing soaring eating disorders and not just in young women, young men as well, and feelings of loneliness and suicidal ideation," Magee said.

"I think just saying 'no' completely to smartphones and social media is not reasonable either," Magee said. "Now, it might be reasonable to wait  a lot of people suggest waiting until eighth grade, and I think the studies are pretty clear there. You don't have to go rush out and hand them this weapon."

Magee said from speaking to parents, students and leaders around the country, there is is clear consensus that we should be doing more in schools to prepare students for what social media, the Internet and the world in general can have on their self esteem, body image and relationships.

"We're going to have to do this with the involvement of our schools and our students to figure out how we can create this and envelop it within (schools)," Magee said. "So it's not just one more thing we're handing them to manage."

More potent drugs are leading to more addiction and overdoses

Along with eroding mental health, technology is also playing a role in addiction.

"Smartphones, because of the apps they present, are now the place that teens are most likely to negotiate an illegal drug deal for pills or marijuana or anything else," Magee said. "It's no longer done on the street corner. It's done on apps through this device."

Magee noted that our children's drug dealers are often people we don't expect: friends, classmates, teammates and relatives, and apps like Venmo and Cash App allow youth to buy and sell narcotics easily and discretely.

"People use substances to change how they feel," Magee said. "We used to think with teenagers, it was peer pressure. Well, that's not the primary reason. I mean, often, they may use substances alone. It's really about when there's more risk of mental health issues, they're more likely to change how they feel with substances. And in substances, that world is not as it used to be either."

A 2022 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey found 8.3% of eighth-graders, 19.5% of 10th-graders and 30.7% of 12th-graders reporting cannabis use in the past year, numbers that are generally in line with prior years.

Coming to the ballot: Legal recreational marijuana could be a reality in Florida. What to know

One major problem is that marijuana has become increasingly potent over the years, potentially increasing the risk of addiction and misuse. In a study of cannabis research samples over time, the average delta-9 THC (the main form of THC in the cannabis plant that creates a "high") concentration almost doubled, from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2017, according to the CDC.

Magee said it is now common to see marijuana that's four or five times more potent than what many adults may have used when they were young.

"A lot of these parents grew up in an era when it was milder," Magee said. "It was not addictive, necessarily. And so they don't know. They'll go, 'I don't like it that my child is doing this every single day,' but they don't understand that just in recent years, the potency has gone up exponentially."

Use of other illicit drugs  such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines or nonmedical use of prescription drugs  was significantly lower at 4.9% of eighth-graders, 5.7% of 10th-graders and 8.0% of 12th-graders, according to the NIDA study.

However, a growing problem with these drugs and counterfeit prescription pills youth are buying on the street is that have become increasingly likely to be laced with fentanyl.

The proliferation of fentanyl in the drug supply is of enormous concern," NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow said in an assessment of the survey data. "Though the data indicate that drug use is not becoming more common among young people than it has been in the past, the tragic increase in overdose deaths among this population suggest that drug use is becoming more dangerous than ever before. It is absolutely crucial to educate young people that pills purchased via social media, given to someone by a friend, or obtained from an unknown source may contain deadly fentanyl.

From July 2019 to December 2021, a total of 1,808 adolescent overdose deaths occurred in 32 jurisdictions with available trend data, according to a December 2022 CDC morbidity and mortality report. Median monthly overdose deaths among adolescents increased 109%, from 32.5 during JulyDecember 2019 to 68 during JulyDecember 2021; during the same period, deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyls increased 182%, from 22 to 62.

Approximately 90% of deaths involved opioids and 84% involved fentanyl. Counterfeit pills were present in nearly 25% of deaths. Approximately 41% of decedents had evidence of mental health conditions or treatment.

Magee, discussing what families can do to combat this epidemic, said the key is conversation.

"The research is very clear. You need to talk to your students in open-ended questions," he said. "It seems so simple, but that's the key to the conversation. We've all grown up in the generation where we were told, and we're just repeating that behavior, is telling our children how they should feel and what they should do. 'Go make an A. You could be a star on this team if you just work at it.'

"We need to ask them how they feel, how they're doing, and so you really have to begin with open-ended questions. And the biggest reason for that is, a lot of times the students don't know how they feel ... when you start asking people open-ended questions and it opens up the possibility (they can express what they're going through). It won't come all at once, but over time, if you really practice it they will begin to tell you things about themselves often that they don't even know."

A tragedy, an extraordinary recovery and a calling

Magee knows firsthand the difference dialog can make.

His eldest son, William, an honors student and track athlete, died of an accidental drug overdose not long after graduating college. His middle child, Hudson, nearly died of an accidental overdose at a college frat house and spent two days in a coma after he was found not breathing with no heartbeat. His daughter, Mary Halley, struggled for years with an eating disorder, and Magee himself nearly lost his marriage and career while struggling with prescription drug and alcohol abuse.

"My whole entire family, besides our son William, who unfortunately was a casualty, we found extraordinary recovery. And a lot of it began with a conversation, which then opened up counseling and having honest conversations about what we faced, which began to change the paradigm and we turned it all around. That's not uncommon. I think we can do that family by family. I think we can do that community by community. It will take a little time, but we just have to begin the conversation."

Magee said he felt a calling to share his story, and as he began speaking to students, he realized they were turning to substances because they were trying to find happiness that was missing elsewhere in their lives. Instead of helping however, substances were taking away the little joy they had left.

"I get to speak in a lot of schools around the country, and I'm seeing students and parents and leaders, grassroots movements say we actually do need to be learning more about ourselves and our emotions in schools," Magee said.

In talking to students, "What they tell me consistently is that hearing somebody talk about what they have faced helps them the most, because it helps them start to think 'I'm not alone and there's not something wrong with me.'"

Magee's book and his Civicon presentation will address topics such as how to have meaningful conversations about mental health and substance abuse, how to empower your child to ask for help when they need it, how to encourage your child to invest in healthy relationships, and how to be intentional about social media usage and interactions.

CivicCon

The free event will be 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Brownsville Community Center, 3200 W. De Soto St.

Registration is available by searching "CivicCon" at eventbrite.com. Questions for Magee can be submitted during registration, or by emailing event moderator Lisa Nellessen Savage at lnelless@gannett.com.

Magee's presentation will also be livestreamed at pnj.com and the News Journal's Facebook page.

CivicCon is a partnership with the News Journal to help empower citizens to better their communities through smart planning and civic conversation. More information about CivicCon, as well as stories and videos featuring previous speakers, is available at pnj.com/civiccon.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: CivicCon presenter David Magee at Brownsville Community Center
Kim Kardashian Continues To Advocate For C-Murder To Get A New Trial | Kevin Mazur/MG23 and Prince Williams via Getty Images

Kim Kardashian is continuing to speak up for Master Ps brother, Corey C-Murder Miller, who has been serving time in prison for allegedly murdering a 16-year-old boy in 2002. In a lengthy message she posted on social media on August 3, Kardashian urged her followers to repost if they believe Miller should get a new day in court.

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, whom the state dragged to trial just on material witness warrants, the reality TV star wrote on Twitter. 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.

I wanted to shed some light on a case that Ive been working on for years



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, whom the State dragged to trial just on material witness  Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) August 3, 2023

The 42-year-old advocate also said the case was mishandled because the witnesses were harassed.

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, Kardashian continued in her post.

According to the global star, there were also issues at the start of his 2009 trial because Millers attorney attempted to withdraw and complained he had not been paid in years. As a result, the case was in the hands of an attorney who made no effort to call favorable witnesses to testify, according to Kardashian.

C-Murder wrote an Instagram post from the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, to show his gratitude for Kardashian and her efforts.

Its been a fight, and long journey for Justice. Thank you @kimkardashian  and EVERYONE involved over the years (praying, advocating and believing) in my innocence, he wrote.

Kardashian also spoke up for Miller in 2020.

On January 18, 2002 a tragedy occurred when a young man was killed. The next day Corey Miller was arrested for the murder, the mother of four tweeted at that time. The jury convicted Corey 10-2 and he was sentenced him to life in prison. If his trial was today, the jury would have had to be unanimous for him to be convicted.

#FreeCoreyMiller On January 18, 2002 a tragedy occurred when a young man was killed. The next day Corey Miller was arrested for the murder.  Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) August 16, 2020

Kardashian also said witnesses have recanted since his trial while new evidence of his potential innocence has come to light, and there are claims of jurors being pressured into voting to convict.

True justice for the young man requires that the person who actually killed him be held responsible and that Corey Miller he returned home to his kids, she wrote. My heart goes out to the family of Steve Thomas. I can only imagine how hard this is and my intention is never to open up this painful wound but to help find the truth behind this tragedy.

According to TMZ, Miller is charged with second-degree murder and hes serving a life sentence. Kardashian hopes that Louisianas new law, which allows new factual evidence to be submitted, will help prove the rappers innocence.
A Kings Guard in London is being applauded for acknowledging a young boys outfit selection.

The boy named Frank, who goes by the username @frankthesolider1 on TikTok, is known for showcasing his own version of the uniform, complete with the red jacket and bearskin hats that are usually worn by the guards standing outside of St James Palace and Buckingham Palace.

In a viral video from last week, Frank is seen standing outside a gate near St James Palace as the guards are walking by holding instruments. Frank is standing up straight as hes saluting them. Although not all paid attention to him - keeping true to protocol - one in the very back of the procession silently gave the little boy a nod as he would to a fellow soldier, which Frank reciprocated.

The soldiers are famous for not showing any expression, no matter the scenario, as part of their training and protocol. The guards can even be landed with a fine for laughing or smiling and have to work through all weather conditions.

Another one of the soldiers shared a verbal greeting with Frank, with the video capturing the moment the guard said: Morning young man.

The TikTok ended once the guards had walked out of the frame, at which point Frank could be seen standing in disbelief before sharing a thumbs up with his father, who films all of his videos. The video has since been viewed more than five million times.

People in the comments section were quick to praise the Kings Guard for breaking protocol to make the little boys day. I love how they acknowledged him, including the Kings Guard the other day, one comment read. Theyve all been that little lad at one point, another one wrote. That last nod brought tears to my eyes, a third viewer said.

This isnt the first time the soldiers have performed a heartwarming gesture. In July, another member of the Kings Guard was applauded for taking an unexpected step toward a young man with Down Syndrome to help him take a better picture.

In the video posted on TikTok, an unnamed member of the Household Calvarys Blues and Royals regiment helped Ibrahim and his friend Mike van Erp capture an improved photo by taking one step closer to them, Forces Network reported.

"[Ibrahim] was nervous around the guard, probably because I was being careful to give the soldier space and because the guard has such emphatic body language, van Erp said.

The gesture has also amassed more than five million views on TikTok and was seen by Major Steve Parker, an official at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where both Prince Harry and Prince William went.

I am proud to be a member of @HCav1660 (Blues and Royals) every single day but seeing this young Trooper do this has me bursting with Pride. Well done young man, you are a fantastic example of the empathetic, strong young leaders we need in the @BritishArmy, Parker tweeted after seeing the video.
A mysterious parasitic worm that infests trees has experts concerned about forests along the East Coast.

Beech leaf disease was the first detected in Ohio in 2012. How it got to the state is unclear, as is how it rapidly spread as far north as Maine, as far south as Virginia and to parts of all the states in between. It has also been found in Canada.

Large numbers of foliar nematodes are the culprit behind the disease, which interferes with chlorophyll production and starves beech trees to death, according to the Providence Journals Alex Kuffner, part of the USA Today Network. The parasite, which is invisible to the naked eye, has also become more widespread in European cultivars often used for landscaping, including weeping beech, copper beech, fern-leaved beech and others.

Considered a foundational species" in northern hardwood forests and especially critical for black bears, American beech's tall canopy and smooth gray trunk provides long-term habitat and sustenance for numerous types of birds, insects and mammals. The tree  which may live up to 400 years  produces a high-fat nut for bears and other animals to eat, a place for woodpeckers to forage, and homes for animals to nest and raise their young.

Its heartbreaking, University of Rhode Island plant scientist Heather Faubert told Kuffner.

Before infection with beech leaf disease, this beech in Middletown would have had a thick canopy of leaves blocking any view of the sky above.

University of Rhode Island plant scientist Heather Faubert inside Albro Woods, a 9-acre forest in Middletown dominated by American beech trees, which are facing a dire threat from a worm-borne disease.

Mihail Kantor, an assistant research professor of nematology at Pennsylvania State University, told Rich Schapiro of NBC News the disease could have a huge ecological impact.

What does infestation look like?

When diseased leaves are cut open and wet with a drop of water, thousands of nematodes are known to swim out, according to the Providence Journal.

The worms overwinter in the long, cigar-shaped beech buds and attack leaves as they develop in the spring  which interrupts the tree leaves ability to photosynthesize and produce food.

In the first year of infestation, the leaves will appear to have bands. By the second year, the leaves may be crinkled, thick and deformed, or they may not change in appearance at all.

A previously healthy infested tree will often tap into its energy stores to generate a second round of smaller, thinner leaves, but it can only do this a few years in a row before it becomes depleted.

The nematodes overwinter in the long, cigar-shaped beech buds and attack leaves as they develop in the spring. At St. Marys Episcopal Church in Portsmouth. As she looked at their ornamental beech trees, Heather Faubert saw early signs of disease.

Is there a cure for beech leaf disease?

There is no known way to control or manage this disease right now, according to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, but research efforts are underway to fight it, Eric Williams of Cape Cod Times, part of the USA Today Network, reported earlier this summer.

Peter Hanlon, an integrated pest management specialist and arborist representative for Bartlett Tree Experts, a private company with a research arm and laboratory based in Charlotte, North Carolina, said Bartlett's scientists had seen promising results in trials with a nematode-attacking fungicide product.

According to NBC News, a small group of researchers have struggled to get funding from government agencies and other sources for needed studies that could help tackle the issue. The spotted lantern fly, on the other hand, has received more research money and international media attention, experts that spoke with NBC said.

Nothing against the spotted lantern fly  but it doesnt actually bother people, and it doesn't bother many plants, Margery Daughtrey, a plant pathologist and senior extension associate at Cornell Universitys School of Integrative Plant Science, told NBC. This is threatening to eliminate an important Northeastern tree species, she said.

Contributing: Eric Williams, Alex Kuffner

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Beech leaf disease threatens the decimation of forests. What to know.
What the rejection of Ohio's Issue 1 could mean for abortion rights

Washington  In a closely watched special election, Ohio voters rejected Issue 1, which could have a major impact on whether the right to an abortion becomes enshrined in the state constitution later this fall.

The defeated measure would have made it more difficult to amend the Ohio Consitution by requiring proposed amendments to receive support from 60% of voters, rather than the simple majority currently needed.

The question of whether to raise the threshold landed on the ballot after Ohio's GOP-led General Assembly approved a joint resolution in May to send the matter to voters. But the effort to set the supermajority benchmark also came as abortion rights supporters were mounting their own campaign to put reproductive rights directly on the ballot in November.

The two ballot measures  Tuesday's question on raising the standards to pass a constitutional amendment, and November's proposal on enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution  have garnered immense interest from voters and stakeholders nationwide. Ohio is the only state with abortion access on the ballot this year.

Early voter turnout in Ohio had surged for Tuesday's special election, with nearly 700,000 people voting by mail or in-person during the early-voting period. By comparison, 288,700 people voted early for the May 2022 primary election, according to the Associated Press.

Here's what to know about Issue 1, the ballot measure that was at the center of Ohio's special election.

What is Issue 1 in Ohio?

Attendees listen to speakers during a

State Issue 1 was a proposed constitutional amendment that would have elevated the standards to place a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment on the ballot and pass it.

Proposed by a joint resolution of the Ohio legislature, the measure would have required that any proposed constitutional amendment receive approval from at least 60% of voters.

The amendment would also have required any initiative petition filed after Jan. 1 seeking to change the Ohio Constitution to be signed by at least 5% of the electors of each of Ohio's 88 counties.

The plan needed a majority of "yes" votes to pass. Had it met that bar, the supermajority threshold would have taken effect immediately.

A summary of the argument in favor of Issue 1 prepared by two Republican lawmakers stated that a "yes" vote "protects our Constitution from deep-pocketed, out-of-state interests. By passing Issue 1, the People would have ensured constitutional changes are widely accepted and declare that Ohio's Constitution is not for sale."

"Currently, special interests target Ohio, seeking to inject their own personal views and objectives into our state's most sacred document. Why? Because Ohio is one of the few states that allow these interests to directly enshrine their social preferences and corporate motives into the Constitution at the same threshold as everyday laws," they wrote. "Common sense tells us that this should not be the case."

In a summary of the argument against Issue 1, a group of Democratic lawmakers said the amendment "would destroy citizen-driven ballot initiatives as we know them, upending our right to make decisions that directly impact our lives. It takes away our freedom by undermining the sacred principle of 'one person, one vote' and destroys majority rule in Ohio."

"[H]ere we are, voting in August on just one question: should Ohio permanently abolish the basic constitutional right of majority rule?" the state lawmakers said, referencing a bill approved by the Ohio legislature in December that eliminated most August special elections. "Special interests and corrupt politicians say yes. They don't like voters making decisions, so they're trying to rewrite the rules to get what they want: even more power."

What does the Issue 1 polling say?

Three polls conducted prior to the vote examined public support for Issue 1 and found that less than half of Ohioans favored the effort to increase the threshold to change the state constitution.

A Scripps News/YouGov poll conducted in June found that 38% of Ohio adults agreed with the proposal, while an Ohio Northern University from mid-July found that 42.4% of registered voters backed the plan. A third poll from USA Today Network/Suffolk University released last month found 26.2% of likely voters support Issue 1.

How did Issue 1 get on the ballot?

Protesters gather inside the Ohio Statehouse on May 3, 2023, in Columbus to protest a group of Republican legislators' attempt to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments. / Credit: Patrick Orsagos / AP

A joint resolution to require a 60%-vote to approve any constitutional amendment cleared both chambers of Ohio's Republican-led General Assembly this spring. The state's constitution allows the state legislature to propose amendments to it and, if approved by three-fifths of each house, the proposals then go before voters for their approval or rejection.

The GOP-controlled state House and Senate easily approved the measures, but not without pushback from protesters who descended on the statehouse. Demonstrators opposed the effort to do away with the simple-majority threshold  50%, plus one vote  for constitutional amendments, which has been in place since 1912.

Who was behind the drive to change the threshold for constitutional amendments?

A recent CBS News investigation found that the attempt in Ohio to make it more difficult to change the state constitution is one aspect of a nationwide campaign heavily backed by Richard Uihlein, a shipping supplies magnate and GOP megadonor.

The investigation found Uihlein donated $1.1 million in April to a political committee that pushed Ohio lawmakers to clear the resolution to raise the standards to pass a constitutional amendment.

Uihlein was also the top contributor to Protect Our Constitution, the main organization backing Issue 1. He donated $4 million to the group, out of the $4.85 million it raised in total.

The main organization opposing Issue 1, One Person, One Vote, raised $14.8 million. Roughly $2.5 million of its funding came from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports progressive causes.

How would Issue 1 have impacted the Ohio abortion amendment?

Abortion-rights advocates saw success in all six states where the issue was on the ballot in 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Ballot measures protecting abortion rights were approved in three states, while proposals restricting abortion access were defeated in three states.

Ohio became the next battleground in the campaign to enshrine reproductive rights in state constitutions.

The proposed amendment, called "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety," qualified for the November general election ballot in July. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the group Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom submitted nearly 496,000 valid signatures  exceeding the roughly 413,000 required.

The measure provides that every individual has the right to make their own reproductive decisions, including on contraception and abortion, and prohibits the state from prohibiting or interfering with the "voluntary exercise of this right."

The measure would allow the state to prohibit abortion after fetal viability, which it defines as "the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient's treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures."

Currently, the abortion rights ballot measure would need a simple majority to pass. But if voters approve Issue 1, it will be subject to the new 60% standard.

A July USA Today Network/Suffolk University poll showed 58% of likely voters in Ohio support the proposed abortion rights amendment  significant support that would still fall short of the supermajority bar sought in Issue 1.

 Caitlin Huey-Burns and Michael Kaplan contributed reporting.

Ohio voters reject Issue 1 in major victory for abortion rights backers

Texas relying on renewable energy for power amid extreme heat

Moody's cuts credit ratings for 10 U.S. banks
The public education system is designed to give all students access to learning in an environment that best fits their needs.

For students with disabilities, that can mean extra support services or altered curriculum.

For their families, figuring out a child's education experience can be complicated. Here's a guide to understanding the process and rights guaranteed under Tennessee and federal law.

How do I get my child screened for special education services?

Parents who think their child might have a learning disability or developmental delay can begin the evaluation process with a program called Child Find. Students from preschool to 12th grade, ages 3-21, are eligible to be screened.

Child Find requires school districts to identify and evaluate all children, regardless of the severity and kind of their disabilities, under protections guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

This includes children who are suspected to have a disability even if they are advancing grade levels and performing well academically. For instance, students with a hearing impairment, speech delay, specific learning disabilities or emotional challenges are eligible to be screened.

Child Find assesses whether students need special education. The evaluation covers speech, hearing, vision, motor skills and social-emotional behavior development. Once evaluated, an individualized education plan is developed to determine the best way forward.

Districts are required to evaluate students within 60 days of receiving parental consent. Evaluation must be requested in writing.

The district works with parents to develop an Individualized Education Program, a plan that lists the services and accommodations the child should receive, within 30 days of evaluation.

More: How to navigate Knox County Schools as parents of children in special education

Federal law requires districts to provide parents with an explanation of their rights and the rights and protections guaranteed to the child.

What happens if parents disagree with the services offered by the district?

If parents disagree with the district's recommendations for their child, the state offers three ways to resolve dispute.

File an administrative complaint in writing. This ensures that federal and state regulations are followed and the rights of the parent and child are not being violated.

Mediate with the district.

File a due process complaint. In this case, a hearing before an administrative judge would address the evaluation or educational placement of a child.

More information can be found on the state department of education's website: www.tn.gov.

Who do I contact if I have questions about my rights as a parent of a student with disabilities?

The following agencies offer free support, assistance or advocacy for people with disabilities in Tennessee and are recognized by the state department of education.

Areena Arora, data and investigative reporter for Knox News, can be reached by email at areena.arora@knoxnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AreenaArora.

Support our newsroom's exclusive, in-depth local coverage by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How to screen a child in Tennessee for special education
If saved from demolition, the Sterchi-Audigier residence at 2651 E. Magnolia Ave. is eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the owner could receive a federal historic tax credit.

The character and economic vitality of East Knoxville's main thoroughfare is in jeopardy as one of its historic homes faces demolition, officials and preservationists say.

There's just as much concern about what would be built in its place.

The Sterchi-Audigier residence at 2651 E. Magnolia Ave., built in 1925 and once home to city luminaries, is headed toward demolition to make room for a state parole office.

While there's a groundswell of public support to save the building, the process toward demolition is already in motion and the permit will be granted Aug. 21 unless the property owner and state offices change course.

There's a 60-day delay in issuing the permit because the home is more than 50 years old, said city spokesperson Eric Vreeland.

"The city does not have the legal authority to deny demolition permits for historic buildings," Vreeland said. "City staff is providing information to the property owners team about the variety of incentives and other redevelopment tools available to support the preservation and redevelopment of important historic structures in our community."

Owner John Davenport, who did not respond to a phone call asking for comment, bought the property in 2021 for $730,000, according to property records.

The new parole office would replace the 1426 Elm St. location, according to State Building Commission minutes and documents obtained through a public records request.

In 2021, the state selected a bid to lease the Magnolia Avenue site, one of three submitted to the state, said Michelle Parks, communications director for the Tennessee Office of General Services.

The original bid was to lease the renovated historic home, but a fire in October 2022 severely damaged its second story.

The state's lease of the Magnolia property is scheduled to begin in September. Its Elm Street lease runs until the end of the year.

Roof damage can be seen through an open window at the Sterchi-Audigier residence.

While Parks said conversations about other leasing options are ongoing, the decision whether to demolish the home lies in the hands of its owner.

Historical preservationist Christine Cloninger, executive director of Knox Heritage, said the 2022 fire and the damage it caused does not mean the home should be demolished.

"We have connected with multiple members of the community and the surrounding neighborhoods that are upset not only with the potential demolition of that particular site, but the fact that the parole office plan was in place without any community input," Cloninger said.

McKenzie: Magnolia's future is at stake

State Rep. Sam McKenzie represents East Knoxville, and remembers when Magnolia Avenue was an economic thoroughfare, not unlike Kingston Pike or Clinton Highway. At Austin-East High School, he took his senior photos at a studio on the street. In an interview, McKenzie called the parole office a "terrible project."

"Magnolia is on the verge of resurgence," McKenzie told Knox News. "We have enough bail bondsmen, halfway houses, things of that nature along that stretch. We've given our fair share along that stretch. Magnolia has to be an economic driver for that district, and having that type of facility would do the opposite."

McKenzie said he has been in contact with other state representatives and offices, including the Department of Corrections, to explore alternatives. He encouraged residents who share his concerns to do the same.

"The whole future of the Magnolia Avenue Corridor is at stake," McKenzie said. "I think this will have ripples that will permeate decades on down. It will become more of a service corridor. It's just not what Magnolia was built to be."

In a post on Facebook on Aug. 2, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon expressed her desire to preserve the home, and said she was in communication with McKenzie, state officials and the property owner to explore other options.

What options are there to save the home?

The Sterchi-Audigier residence is eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places and could receive a federal historical tax credit through the state and the National Park Service.

The program - which the Tennessee Historical Commission said has helped rehabilitate more than 1,000 buildings and generated more than $1.5 billion in investments in Tennessee - offers a 20% tax credit for work done to preserve historic buildings.

Cloninger said she hopes the owner restores the home himself and takes advantage of the tax credit or considers selling it to someone who would restore it.

Sterchi-Audigier residence was home to Knoxville families

Cloninger said the house has been a tourist lodge called the Evergreen Club and a worship space. It sat vacant for years before last year's fire, increasing the risk of vandalism and structural damage.

The home was built by W. H. Sterchi, one of a pair of brothers who made Sterchi furniture famous worldwide and built headquarters on Gay Street, now known as Sterchi Lofts.

Side view of the Sterchi-Audigier residence at 2651 E. Magnolia Ave.

The home was later sold to Louis Audigier and his family, worldwide travelers who donated an eclectic 400-piece collection of rugs, jewelry and artwork to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, according to UT Libraries.

In the Magnolia Avenue Corridor Plan, prepared by the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission in 2009, the home was cited as "a fine example of the Spanish Eclectic Style, nationally popularized between 1920 and 1940 but rare in Knoxville."

As the deadline approaches, Knox Heritage, formed in 1974 to save the Bijou Theatre from demolition, said residents can contact the Tennessee Department of General Services at 615-741-9263 or general.services@tn.gov.

Daniel Dassow is a reporting intern focusing on trending and business news. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville historic home on Magnolia faces demolition. Can it be saved?
From left; Eliza Silva, Lorena Ramirez, and Maria Hernandez, hotel workers at the JW Marriott hotel in downtown Los Angeles, join other striking hotel workers during a protest outside the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown hotel, at 7th and Figueroa streets in downtown Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

For the record:

8:26 p.m. Aug. 7, 2023: An earlier version of this story said that the alleged incident at the Hotel Maya happened Sunday.



Hundreds of hotel workers rallied in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning to protest what their union described in a labor complaint as a pattern of violent incidents and property destruction at picket lines where workers have been on strike.

At one point, workers marched in a large circle, blocking traffic at the Wilshire Boulevard and 7th Street intersection, chanting and waving signs as police looked on.

Workers and their supporters have been attacked multiple times as they protested outside properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Unite Here Local 11 alleged in a complaint filed Monday with the National Labor Relations Board. The union's complaint cited incidents as recently last weekend, at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, Hotel Maya in Long Beach and Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point.

Thousands of hotel workers have staged intermittent walkouts since early July as they demand higher wages and improved working conditions. Contracts covering more than 15,000 workers and more than 60 hotels expired June 30.

Last week, hundreds of employees across Los Angeles at more than 25 hotels walked out, urging Taylor Swift to postpone her Aug.3-9 concerts at SoFi Stadium to support their push. The workers say they dont earn enough to afford housing near their jobs. Only the Westin Bonaventure has reached a tentative agreement and avoided a strike.

Peter Hillan, a spokesperson for the California Hotel and Lodging Assn., said that safety is the top priority of the group's members in the face of "Unite Here Local 11s extremely aggressive and unlawful protest tactics."

"Union representatives are blaring sirens and alarms at odd hours that not only disturb the peace and neighboring residents but also clearly create a safety risk," Hillan said in an email. "Hotels have made law enforcement as well as the Mayors office aware of these increasingly aggressive actions by picketers aimed at guests, employees and our communities. Weve asked that the police take concrete steps to ensure the safety of all. "

A video circulating online shows footage of security personnel pushing and tackling picketing hotel workers after a rally march Saturday in Santa Monica that ended at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel and Bungalows. The protesters appeared to be trying to cross a barrier set up in front of the luxury hotel, and Hillan noted "on the video at the Fairmont, union representatives are kicking over barricades intended to maintain safety and order."

German Martinez, who was among workers tackled at the Saturday protest, said that when security guards opened a barricade to let a car in, he walked through. Suddenly and without verbal warning, security guards tried to yank the drum away and tackled Martinez to the ground, Martinez said in an interview. While he was still on the ground, a guard jumped on him a second time, Martinez said.

"The security guards basically came after us, all the protesters," Martinez said in Spanish. "What the company did wasn't correct, we were peacefully protesting."

"I couldn't get up because I was hurt. My ankles and my elbows were all bruised," Martinez said. He was still in pain three days later: "My whole body hurts."

Keith Grossman, an attorney representing a group of 44 hotel owners and operators involved in contract negotiations  including the Fairmont Miramar  declined to comment through Hillan. Grossman has previously said strike actions by hotel workers represent Local 11s continued counterproductive conduct.

Fairmont Miramar representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another incident took place Saturday in Long Beach at the Hotel Maya, according to the complaint.



"Hotel security personnel including a manager at the Maya Hotel sought to forcibly relocate striking workers using a chain link fence while a guest ran around the fence and punched a worker in the head" and pushed "at least two others," the union said in a news advisory.

Kambiz Babaoff, chairman of the real estate group that owns Hotel Maya, did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

Read more: Strike hits dozens of L.A. hotels as tourism industry expects lift from Taylor Swift's SoFi concerts. Here's what to know

There were at least three altercations in July at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point the union said. During one, celebrity chef John Tesar, who runs the hotel's Knife Modern Steak restaurant, swore at striking workers and broke one of their drums, the union said.

Unite Here Local 11 also alleges that a security head at Laguna Cliffs told a guest who had threatened to assault workers that the guest should do what he wanted to do and that security personnel would testify on the guests behalf.

Laguna Cliffs is owned by the University of California Retirement Fund and operated by Aimbridge.

A hotel representative told the New York Post that Tesar was removed from the hotel property and the company is examining "appropriate next steps. Union representatives said they, too, were told by Aimbridge that it is investigating the incident after removing Tesar from the property.

Aimbridge did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Laguna Cliffs human resources manager Joe Garciaross did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to reach Tesar were unsuccessful.

Protesting hotel workers have not only had run-ins with security personnel, but also with guests. Angry guests have filed noise complaints about early morning picket lines. There was an instance in which a passerby threw an egg and poured a cup of urine on workers.

At the rally held outside the InterContinental hotel in downtown L.A. on Monday morning, hundreds of workers sporting their signature red union shirts marched, chanted and waved picket signs. The sound of drums and brass instruments echoed through the air as workers danced.

We will not be bullied at the negotiating table and we will definitely not be bullied on the picket lines," Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, said through a megaphone to the crowd.

Ada Briceno, also co-president of Unite Here Local 11, addressed the crowd from the makeshift truck podium.

We wont tolerate it, Briceno said in Spanish about the incidents that occurred over the weekend. She said union members will continue to protest peacefully for as long as it takes to secure a contract  even if [a contract] is six months away.

Los Angeles Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky of District 5, Hugo Soto-Martinez of District 13, Eunisses Hernandez of District 1, and Nithya Raman of District 4 also spoke at the rally.

Earlier this year, Yaroslavksy co-proposed a minimum wage increase for workers at hotels with more than 60 guest rooms to $25 an hour by 2023 and $1 per year to $30 by 2028.

We wont cower to intimidation, shameful tactics, like the anti-union behavior we saw this weekend at the Fairmont. They should be embarrassed, Yaroslavsky told the crowd.

Councilmember Raman, the chair of the councils committee on housing and homelessness, addressed the thousands of eviction notices in the city and the burden of homelessness.

It's appalling. It's ridiculous for you to use violence on some of our most vulnerable community members, Hernandez said as she pointed up to the InterContinental buildings security guards. (The InterContinental wasn't mentioned in the union's complaint.) Youre witnessing but youre not safe, either. Dont be comfortable and align yourself with the community.

Que queremos? Contrato! Cuando? Ahora! (What do we want? A contract! When? Now!) the striking workers yelled in a call and response. As the rally ended, they paired up for the Zapateado, a traditional Mexican dance, to the music of the assembled live band.

Theyre wasting the money to get protection for themselves but what about us? said Diana Rios Sanchez, a housekeeping supervisor at the InterContinental. She vowed to keep fighting for a contract.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Frank LaRose wants people to vote in favor of Issue 1.

"There's been a lot of false information out there about Issue 1 very intentionally driven by a completely dishonest mainstream media," the Ohio Secretary of State said.

LaRose was in Mansfield on Monday, the day before the 2023 special election, to speak to members of the Richland County Republican Party.

He told them a lot of advertisements about Issue 1 have been purchased with money from California and Switzerland.

"They've launched personal attacks against me and others who have dared to speak out about this important public policy," LaRose said. "They've intentionally confused Ohioans with the narratives that they've been sharing in the pages of their newspapers and on the TV screens that they control."

Frank LaRose, Ohio's secretary of state, discusses Issue 1 in Richland County on Monday, Aug. 7, the day before the 2023 special election.

State constitution is 10 times longer than that of the U.S.

The secretary of state reminded his fellow Republicans that constitutions exist to provide a basic framework for government and to preserve fundamental rights.

There are similarities, he said, in the constitutions of Ohio and the United States. There also many differences.

Both documents can be adjusted.

The nation's constitution is about 7,000 words. The state's is 10 times longer at nearly 70,000 words.

Over the years the Constitution of the United States has been amended 27 times. In fewer years, the Ohio Constitution has been amended nearly 200 times.

Frank LaRose, Ohio's secretary of state, discusses Issue 1 in Richland County on Monday, Aug. 7, the day before the 2023 special election.

The secretary of state said he thinks it's good that constitutions can be adjusted, but that Ohio's has been altered far too many times.

"Issue 1 is our chance to finally do something about it," LaRose said. "It probably should have been done a long time ago."

Of the 50 states, only 17 allow citizens to spearhead constitutional amendments. Ohio is one of those 17.

Polls open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Polls are open for the Aug. 8 special election from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Monday. Absentee ballots may be returned by mail Tuesday or delivered to the county board of elections office by 7:30 p.m. Absentee ballots cannot be returned at polling places.

Voters will decide whether they support the measure, which would:

Require 60% of voters to pass a new constitutional amendment, instead of a simple majority of 50% plus one.

Require citizens who want to place an amendment on the ballot to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters from the last gubernatorial election in all 88 counties, instead of the current 44.

Eliminate a 10-day cure period that allows citizens to replace any signatures deemed faulty by the secretary of state's office.

'Whoever gets more people out to vote tomorrow wins'

There have been many talking points used by both Republicans and Democrats as they have debated Issue 1.

One of those, the secretary of state admitted, is "a very dangerous pro-abortion amendment" that he expects to see on ballots this November.

"But that's not the only thing Issue 1 is about," LaRose said.

He said that failure to pass Issue 1 "opens the door to underage children getting a gender reassignment surgery" without parental approval.

"It's absolutely extreme," LaRose said. "It's one of the many reasons why we should vote 'Yes' (on Aug. 8)"

He said he suspects that next year the debate will be over minimum wage.

"Right now they're gathering signatures as we speak to put a massive increase in minimum wage on the ballot," LaRose said. "That would raise the minimum wage such that Ohioans would be put out of work. Ohio businesses would be put out of business."

He said such a move would be "very dangerous."

"But that's not the end of it," LaRose said. "What comes next?"

One proposal would make it 'impossible to raise livestock'

Attacks on livestock production in the Buckeye State, he said.

"There's an effort by groups like PETA," LaRose said of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Have you ever heard of them?"

The secretary of state said a "livestock care standard" has been drafted for Ohio that would "make it impossible to raise livestock."

He told his fellow Republicans that passing Issue 1 would help protect the state from those things.

"I can tell you this with complete certainty: Whoever gets more people out to vote tomorrow wins this," LaRose said. "We can do it."

ztuggle@gannett.com

419-564-3508

Twitter: @zachtuggle

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Secretary of State visits Mansfield to rally support for Issue 1
Two major police reform bills that passed the Delaware General Assembly in the final days of this year's legislative session have been signed into law, culminating a years-long effort to make sweeping changes to police accountability and transparency statewide.

In a room filled with legislators, law enforcement heads, police reform advocates, students and other elected officials at the Wilmington Police Athletic League Monday afternoon, Gov. John Carney signed the two bills: House Bill 205 and 206.

The legislation, which passed the Senate on the final day of the legislative session, establishes local police accountability boards, creates uniform standards for police agencies across the state, requires accreditation for all Delaware law enforcement agencies and mandates that agencies publish information about internal investigations into use-of-force and certain other substantiated claims, among other requirements.

Governor John Carney was joined by legislators and members of the community Monday afternoon in signing two major police reform bills into law in Wilmington.

The bills are the final pieces in a series of policy reforms the Delaware Legislative Black Caucus and Attorney General Kathy Jennings first called for in June 2020, about two weeks after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

THE BILLS, EXPLAINED: Delaware tries again to make substantive police reform. Is this time different?

They also mark a major step forward in a state that, until now, had "the most secretive law enforcement officer bill of rights in the country," Jennings said.

"These changes will greatly improve transparency and accountability throughout law enforcement," said House Majority Leader and HB 205 sponsor Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown. "(It) significantly moves the ball forward and opens the door for future efforts."

Legislators praise bills as first step; advocates argue not enough being done

Members of the legislative Black Caucus introduced the legislation in June and quickly pushed it through the General Assembly, despite pushback from advocates who feel the laws do little to fix transparency and accountability issues.

Though the bills made it out of committee with strong bipartisan support  HB 205 unanimously and HB 206 with a 7-1 vote  advocates said they felt left out of the final bill-writing process. Several organizations, including the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, said they were not aware of the legislation until the bills were filed in early June.

But lawmakers pushed back, arguing these groups had been part of the process for the last several years, since even before legislators began working on the policy items they introduced in June 2020.

Those items  including requiring all police officers to use body-worn cameras, establishing statewide use-of-force standards, banning chokeholds, changing the way juveniles are treated and expanding the Delaware Department of Justice's civil rights and public trust unit  have all been codified.

MORE: With the governor's signature, major reforms are coming to Delaware police agencies

Other concerns from advocates centered on beliefs that the bills don't go far enough and that police wouldn't face consequences under the new laws.

Delaware House Majority Leader Melissa Minor-Brown speaks during a bill signing ceremony on August 7, 2023.

Yet law enforcement heads vehemently disagreed, saying the bills represent "impactful" change that the state hasn't previously seen. Jamie Leonard, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police, also noted that prior police heads wouldn't have been willing to make the changes that were ultimately signed into law.

"My predecessor wouldn't sit at this table. He wouldn't be part of it," Leonard said in June. "(But) the generation of law enforcement that I come from is ready to move the needle.

How this 'opens the door for future efforts'

Though the bills are a big step forward when it comes to lifting the veil of secrecy that surrounds police personnel records, including disciplinary and investigative records, advocates argue they fall short regarding what the public can and cannot access.

Under the new laws, agencies must publish a detailed narrative regarding investigations into:

The discharge of a department-issued firearm, even if a person is not struck by bullets

A sustained finding of sexual assault or sexual harassment

A sustained finding of dishonesty related to perjury, false statements, filing false reports, witness tampering and destruction, falsification or concealment of evidence

A sustained finding of domestic violence

But while law enforcement agencies looking to hire an officer are allowed to review an applicant's personnel file in its entirety, the public remains in the dark regarding reprimands or disciplinary action taken against officers that do not fall into the above categories.

Minor-Brown acknowledged Monday that some advocates "feel like this bill didn't go as far as they wanted it to." Yet she stressed that HB 205 "makes the first substantial revisions" to the Law Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights "in decades."

ADVOCATES SPEAK: The Delaware police reform bills have bipartisan support. Yet advocates feel left out

She also noted that under the new law, investigations into claims of misconduct must be completed no matter a person's employment status. This, she said, means "that an officer cannot avoid having a sustained misconduct made public simply by resigning or retiring."

The law also applies to part-time or seasonal police officers.

Delaware Representative Kendra Johnson speaks during a bill signing ceremony on August 7, 2023.

Despite touting the new laws as great leaps forward, legislators and other elected officials emphasized Monday they are just a start.

"The bills ... will make our criminal justice system more just," said Rep. Kendra Johnson, chair of the Delaware Legislative Black Caucus and sponsor of HB 206. "It's not a perfect system and we will keep pushing the issues. But we have accomplished a lot."

Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware police reform bills signed into law after years of advocacy
President Joe Biden has pushed to cancel student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Conservative groups filed a lawsuit last week to block Biden's latest student-debt relief effort.

The relief would discharge loans for more than 800,000 borrowers on income-driven repayment plans.

They said the plan would affect recruiting efforts via the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The Supreme Court may have decided the fate of President Joe Biden's first attempt at broad student-debt relief, but that doesn't mean the lawsuits are over.

On Friday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at protecting constitutional freedoms, filed a lawsuit on behalf of two conservative groups  the Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy  to block Biden's latest effort to cancel student debt for borrowers on income-driven repayment plans.

The Education Department announced in July that it would automatically cancel $39 billion in student debt for 804,000 borrowers who had completed their required 20 or 25 years of payments on income-driven repayment plans. Many borrowers who had completed their qualifying payments have been stuck in repayment for years because of paperwork and administrative difficulties  and the department's latest action would finally give those borrowers relief and refund overpayments.

However, the conservative groups want the court to block the plan from being carried out. The groups said the relief was illegal and accused Biden's administration of overstepping in its authority. The Education Department pushed back.

"The Biden-Harris Administration is fighting every day to fix the broken student loan system and make sure borrowers get the relief they earned, need, and deserve," a spokesperson for the Education Department told Insider on Friday. "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 already started notifying borrowers who qualify to have their loans forgiven in the coming weeks, writing in its email to borrowers that "you are now eligible to have some or all of your student loans forgiven because you have reached the necessary 240- or 300-months' of payments under IDR." This lawsuit risks throwing that relief off course.

What's in the latest lawsuit

This isn't the first lawsuit the New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed against student-debt relief. Back in October, it represented the Cato Institute in filing a lawsuit to block Biden's broad plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers. The lawsuit was struck down by the Supreme Court at the end of June in favor of another lawsuit that challenged the policy.

But there are similarities in the arguments from the October lawsuit and the most recent one challenging the income-driven repayment relief. Both complaints referenced the impact the relief would have on recruiting incentives through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments. With the Cato Institute and Mackinac Center being nonprofits, the complaint said that PSLF "materially helps qualifying employers attract and retain borrower-employees who might otherwise choose higher-paying employment with nonqualifying employers in the private sector."

"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," it said.

The group said the relief violated the Administrative Procedures Act because Biden's administration didn't solicit necessary public feedback  however, the Education Department published its proposed rule on reforming income-driven repayment on the Federal Register in January in accordance with the negotiated-rulemaking process.

It's unclear how this lawsuit would impact debt discharges, but the administration has yet to indicate whether the process would be halted.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A lawyer at the center of former President Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is asking a California judge to delay disbarment proceedings against him, suggesting that he expects to face federal criminal charges.

Attorneys for Trump lawyer John Eastman asked the California court to delay proceedings that could strip Eastman of practicing law in the state until after the case against Trump is resolved. Trump was federally indicted and arraigned last week on charges linked to his alleged plot to stay in power after losing the 2020 presidential race.

Attorneys Randall Miller and Zachary Mayer argued that numerous media outlets have speculated Eastman is an unnamed co-conspirator in the case based on details in the indictment. The indictment lists six unnamed co-conspirators.

A stay is warranted in the interests of justice, as recent developments in the investigation have renewed and intensified Respondents concerns that the federal government might bring charges against him, the attorneys wrote in an Aug. 4 court filing.

The attorneys also said that concern over an impending indictment could cause Eastman to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the proceedings.

The California State Bar is seeking to stop Eastman from practicing law in the state. The regulatory agency claims that Eastman made false and misleading statements about purported election fraud, including on Jan. 6, 2021, which the agency asserts contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol. Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges.

The Notice of Disciplinary Charges alleges that Mr. Eastman violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land  an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy  for which he must be held accountable, State Bar of Californias chief trial counsel George Cardona said in a statement at the time.

Eastman masterminded a legal strategy that attempted to overturn the election, which included using slates of fake electors in battleground states to swing the elections outcome in Trumps favor. The plan also relied on then-Vice President Mike Pence tossing out the real electors.

The Trump lawyer holds law licenses in both Washington, D.C., and California.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- At least three people died in a bus collision with another vehicle in Pennsylvania, authorities said.

Pennsylvania State Police said the crash happened on Interstate 81 late Sunday when a charter bus carrying 45-50 passengers collided with a passenger vehicle.

Authorities said the bus flipped on its side, killing "multiple passengers" while others sustained injuries and were taken to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

Injuries ranged from "minor to critical" police said, adding it wasn't immediately clear how many people had been injured.

The American Red Cross provided food, drinks and cots at the Chambers Hill Fire Department for passengers being discharged from the hospital, the fire station said.

Those who died have not been publicly identified and the cause of the crash was under investigation Monday.

Interstate 81 was reopened later Monday morning as troopers worked through the night before dawn to process the crash scene. State police said emergency crews transported numerous others with injured to
Legal experts say the Supreme Court is unlikely to intercede in the criminal cases against former President Trump to stave off convictions on multiple felony counts, even though Trump appointed three of the six conservative justices on the court.

The experts The Hill spoke with are more divided, however, on the question of whether the Supreme Court is likely to hear an appeal if Trump is indeed convicted in the District of Columbias federal court or Southern Floridas District Court.

The likelihood of Trumps legal team getting a conviction or multiple convictions thrown out by the Supreme Court or the D.C. Circuit Court will depend largely on the procedural decisions handed down by D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan and Southern Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon.

Trump on Friday accused the Justice Department of waging a politically motivated prosecution against him and called on the Supreme Court to intervene.

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 interceded. MAGA! Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, referencing President Biden.

Legal experts, however, say its highly unlikely the Supreme Court will review Trumps criminal cases before they reach verdicts, which could happen later this year or sometime in 2024.

I dont think its actually likely that the Supreme Court would intervene, because it seems like most of the purely legal issues are  about statutory interpretation points that have already been decided by the Supreme Court in the past, and the Supreme Court has a pretty strong presumption about overturning statutory interpretation, said Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, who focuses on constitutional law.

Somin acknowledged every once in a while the court does take up a case which may not have much broader legal significance, but its important because of the specific litigants involved, as was the case in Bush v. Gore, which settled the dispute over the 2000 presidential election.

But in general I think its not likely that this case will end up in the Supreme Court, he said, adding that even in cases involving Trump that do make it to the highest level, he generally does not actually have a good record in winning those cases.

The Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP that congressional subpoenas for the presidents information were enforceable but remanded the case to the lower courts with instruction for judges to be more mindful of separation of powers concerns.

In Trump v. Vance, the Supreme Court ruled that the president was not immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers.

Laurence Tribe, the Carol M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University, said federal prosecutors who charged Trump on four criminal counts this past week put forth a solid indictment that doesnt give the Supreme Court any grounds for review.

I cant imagine what legal issue the Supreme Court would think worthy of consideration in the four-count indictment, which doesnt even arguably contain any legal flaws on the face of it, whatever legal or factual defenses Mr. Trump as defendant might try to advance at trial, he said.

Tribe argued the federal indictment Trump is facing in the Southern District of Florida doesnt appear to contain any legal or factual flaws, either.

Nobody  not even the lawyers Trump has hired to represent him in these cases, both in court and, it seems, on television  has purported to identify any facial constitutional infirmity in any of the statutes under which the D.C. grand jury or any of the other grand juries have brought their indictments, he said.

Tribe said the lack of legal infirmity on either constitutional or statutory grounds provides no avenue for litigation that could plausibly result in any pretrial adjudication by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan who is now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said Trump can file pretrial motions challenging the indictment, but it will be up to the presiding judges whether to grant them.

Like any defendant, he will have an opportunity to file pretrial motions with the district court challenging the indictment on legal grounds. If the judge denies his motions, then the final judgment rule holds that he can appeal her decisions, but only following a conviction at trial.

The judge presiding over Trumps trial in Washington on charges alleging he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election is Chutkan, an Obama appointee who has handed down tough sentences to other Jan. 6 defendants.

In Florida, the judge is Cannon, a Trump appointee, who delivered a favorable ruling for Trump by granting the former presidents request for an independent special master to review documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.

Cannons decision was later overturned by a three-judge appellate panel.

Former federal prosecutors predicted the Supreme Court would be leery of intervening in the case given the strong evidence against Trump and the politically charged nature of the matter.

Jeffrey Robbins, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts and former chief counsel on the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during its probe of fundraising in the 1996 presidential election, said the chances are extraordinarily slim the Supreme Court would involve itself before the criminal trials reach a verdict.

Its not at all clear what the basis for interceding in the Espionage Act cases could possibly be. It beggars the imagination. The former president cant be charged with the Espionage Act for taking classified documents and obstructing an investigation? I dont think so, he said.

Regarding the most recent indictment against Trump for trying to block the certification of President Bidens election victory, the former presidents legal team may argue that the former president cannot be charged for lying and asking then-Vice President Mike Pence to block Bidens victory in Congress.

That roughly speaking would be the appellate issue that the Trump defense team would conjure up, Robbins said, before adding that theres no basis whatsoever for the court interceding before a trial in this case.

At a minimum, the evidence ought to be played out. The indictment surely does not lay out all the evidence, he said. There isnt any way the Supreme Court is going to intervene at this point and say the government cannot possibly under any set of circumstances prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct of this president violated these statutes.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted on his podcast Verdict that the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court would ultimately throw out any conviction of Trump.

Cruz said he thought the ultimate outcome of any Donald Trump conviction on this indictment would be a reversal in all likelihood at the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.

But Tribe said its too soon to speculate on what grounds the Supreme Court may invalidate a jury conviction.

Unless hes both a futurologist and mind-reader, the senator would have no possible way of forecasting the outcome of a Supreme Court appeal from a conviction not yet voted, based on a trial not yet conducted, to consider evidence not yet introduced, with arguments of counsel not yet made and jury instructions not yet formulated, Tribe said.

Alex Little, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Burr & Forman focused on criminal defense, litigation and government investigations, said future appeals would depend on how the judges conduct the trials.

He said the Supreme Court may very well want to have a final say on the criminal cases if for no other reason than to lend legitimacy to the entire process.

But Little gave little credit to the argument that prosecuting Trump for claiming the 2020 election was stolen and for taking actions to stop the certification of the result infringes on his right to free speech.

I dont think any serious attorney is making that argument. Thats certainly not what happened here. Theres all sorts of speech that has limits, he said.

You cant just say, Well if it involved speech therefore its First Amendment protected. There are lots of crimes where speech is the primary vector of action, he said.

He said the more interesting question is to what extent was the former president permitted to make really novel and perhaps legal objections in furtherance of maintaining power.

Little said while Trumps actions in the run-up to Jan. 6 were such that not any of us would think it very moral or very proper, the question is whether its criminal.

Updated at 10:46 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former Attorney General William Barr said Sunday he would testify in the Jan. 6 criminal trial against Donald Trump if called, adding once again that he believed the case against the former president was legitimate.

Barr made the comments Sunday on CBS News Face the Nation, telling host Major Garrett he didnt believe the case  Trumps second federal indictment  violated his First Amendment rights.

From a prosecutors standpoint, I think its a legitimate case, Barr said. But I think there are other considerations, and I would have taken those into account.

Barr went on to echo comments he made shortly after Trump was indicted on four criminal counts linked to his efforts to remain in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Prosecutors have charged him with a multi-pronged conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruct an official proceeding and deprive Americans of their right to vote.

The former president has regularly blasted special counsel Jack Smith  who also indicted him over his handling of classified documents  and his attorneys have claimed his effort to spread lies about voter fraud amounted to protected speech under the Constitution.

"From a prosecutor's point of view, is this a case you would have brought?" @majorcbs asks former Attorney General Bill Barr on the Trump Jan. 6 indictment.



"I think it's a legitimate case...But I think there are other considerations and I would've taken those into account." pic.twitter.com/Gh2hz8L0M3  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2023

Barr rejected that assertion earlier this month, an assessment he re-upped on Sunday.

I dont think it runs afoul of the First Amendment, he said on CBS. The allegation, essentially, by the government is that  the president conspired, entered into a plan, a scheme that involved a lot of deceit, the object of which was to erase those votes, to nullify those lawful votes.

This is not a question of what his subjective idea was as to whether he won or lost, Barr added. Theyre saying, what you were saying consistently, the stuff you were spouting, you knew was wrong.

Barr refused to say if he had been interviewed by Smith. But Garrett asked the former attorney general if he would appear as a witness in the trial if called.

Of course, Barr said.

.@majorcbs: "Were you interviewed by the special counsel?"



Former Attorney General Bill Barr: "I'm not going to get into any discussions."@majorcbs: "Would you appear as a witness, if called?"



Barr: "Of course." pic.twitter.com/cJeRzSx91y  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2023

Related...
President Truman signing a proclamation declaring a national emergency and authorizing U.S. entry into the Korean War. Also pictured, George C. Banning. (National Archives)

President Harry S. Truman faced some tough choices in his life. In World War I, he led his artillery battery through hell and forced it to stay strong. He got in trouble for firing out of sector to save American lives. Twice. Right after he assumed the presidency, he became the first and only president to order an atomic bombing. He ordered the integration of the armed forces.

But the decision that most haunted him was invading Korea, and a package from a Gold Star father drove the point home.

Buildup to war

The seeds of the Korean War hit the ground right as World War II ended. Japan retained control of the peninsula until its surrender in 1945. Upon the dissolution of Japanese forces, the Soviet Union immediately moved troops into Korea and occupied it, starting from the North. America sent forces in from the South and took surrenders from the Japanese, as well. American and the Soviet Union agreed to temporarily divide the peninsular along the 38th parallel.

Like divided Germany, divided Korea was a hotbed of tension. In 1950, North Korean troops launched attacks across the 38th parallel. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution, 9 to 0, to condemn the invasion. Truman committed troops to a U.N. mission to expel the North Korean forces.

On June 27, 1950, the U.S. officially entered the war. American troops already stationed in North Korea assisted with repelling the invasion and new American forces poured in by the millions.

The war was on. And one of the troops sent into the fray was George C. Banning.

George C. Banning.

The death of George Banning and the letter

Army Pfc. George C. Banning deployed to Korea with the 5th Infantry Regiment, 5th Regimental Combat Team. By May 1953, American forces had made it almost to the border with China, China threw them almost off the peninsula, and American forces pushed almost back to the 38th parallel, where the war started.

Banning fought northeast of Seoul and, at Sagimak, Korea, on May 11, 1953, met his unfortunate end.

The Army told his family of his death. And his father, William Banning, decided to send his Purple Heart, ribbon bar, lapel pin, Gold Star pin and button to President Truman with a letter.

In the letter, he wrote:

Mr. Truman As you have been directly responsible for the loss of our son's life in Korea, you might as well keep this emblem on display in your trophy room, as a memory of one of your historic deeds. Our major regret at this time is that your daughter was not there to receive the same treatment as our son received in Korea. Signed

William Banning

Truman kept the Purple Heart and letter nearby for the rest of his life, something historians learned when staff went to his desk to catalog the contents after his death.
A sheriffs deputy was hospitalized after a lightning bolt fried his patrol car in the Florida Panhandle, officials said.

The identity of the deputy has not been released, but he is expected to recover, the Walton County Sheriffs Office said in a news release.

It happened Sunday, Aug. 6, as the deputy drove U.S. 331 south of DeFuniak Springs, officials said.

Lightning hit the back of the SUVs roof, breaking glass and popping off fittings, a photo shows.

The deputy was transported to Sacred Heart (Hospital) by Walton County Fire Rescue, Florida and his vehicle was inoperable after the strike fried his electrical system, officials said.

He is awake and conscious and is expected to be okay.

The deputy is one of two people injured Sunday in suspected lightning strikes in the county, officials said.

Deputies responded to a water rescue at Morrison Springs (park) at 11:45 AM for a female who had possibly been struck by lightning while in the water, the sheriffs office said.

CPR was performed by bystanders. The patient was transported by Walton Air Rescue, Florida.

The identity and condition of the victim has not been released.

Lighting flashes pack about 300 million volts and about 30,000 Amps, according to the National Weather Service. In comparison, household current is 120 Volts and 15 Amps.

Strikes can cause cardiac arrest, and victims have been known to have a delayed death a few days later if they are resuscitated, the NWS reports.

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The apex of the Defense News Top 100 list for 2023 might look familiar to some of our loyal readers.

The stability of the defense market is reflected in the top nine companies on the list, all of which were in the top 10 last year  though the order has slightly shifted.

Growing defense revenue isnt something a company can do overnight. One of the fastest ways is by merging or acquiring another company, but the U.S. government has made clear its opposition to major mergers  as well as some smaller deals. (Lockheed Martin unsuccessfully sought to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne in 2021 and 2022; now L3Harris Technologies has acquired it.)

The other, generally slower way is finding new work. But the defense budget, while boosted by Ukraine war spending, is generally about flat these days, meaning theres no massive surge of money into new or unexpected programs.

Even so, there is some movement on the list. Boeing dropped to the fifth spot, down from 3rd last year, and its lowest ranking since it placed 5th in the 2018 list. The company last year reorganized its defense unit after delays of key programs, rising costs, quality concerns and significant losses.

Ukraines Ukroboronprom moved up 24 spots this year to 65th place, as the country has spent nearly 18 months fighting Russias invasion.

A closer look at the list

Just over half of the companies on the list are U.S. businesses. Thirty-one firms are based in Europe, and eight non-Chinese firms from the Asia-Pacific region are on the list.

Still, we recognize this list has some gaps. We cant capture the defense revenue of Indian companies this year in large part because our correspondent there was arrested. We rely on a think tank to provide the data for the Chinese companies; three state-owned enterprises that were in last years list did not release figures for consideration in this version by press time.

There are no Russian firms on this years list because they did not respond to our requests for information and we couldnt locate reputable sources of data.

Some private companies with significant defense revenue, such as General Atomics, opt not to provide data, while technology companies including Amazon and Google dont offer comprehensive information on their defense revenue.

We also opt not to include medical and pharmaceutical companies in our list, even though they often have sizable military business, because we focus on companies producing weapons systems, military capabilities and associated technology.

That said, we hope this list offers a useful snapshot of whos who in the modern industrial base as well as a window into how its changing.

Click here to see the Top 100 list.
The federal perjury trial of former Springfield insider Tim Mapes was bound to highlight the tight-knit nature of Illinois politics and the fierce opinions it engenders.

That became clear even during jury selection: One prospective juror said he is close friends with a former state representative. Two worked for AT&T, a company caught up in the widespread corruption scandal related to powerful former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Then there was the potential juror who wrote in her questionnaire that Madigan, Mapes ex-boss, could not be trusted.

Further, she wrote, she hopes Madigan and all his friends go to jail.

She was dismissed shortly afterward.

In all, 22 people made it past the first round of cuts Monday as prosecutors and defense lawyers sifted through the potential jurors. The process is slated to continue Tuesday morning. Opening statements are expected to begin after attorneys have selected 12 jurors along with alternates.

Mapes, 68, is accused of lying to grand jurors in an attempt to obstruct the sweeping federal corruption case against Madigan. He has pleaded not guilty to both the perjury and attempted obstruction counts. The latter charge calls for up to 20 years in federal prison, while lying to a grand jury carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

According to prosecutors, Mapes lied repeatedly in his March 31, 2021, grand jury testimony in an ill-fated attempt to protect his former boss, claiming he couldnt recall anything relevant about Madigans relationship with longtime confidant Michael McClain.

While Mapes is hardly a household name outside the states political circles, his indictment marked an intriguing power play by the U.S. attorneys office in what has become one of the biggest political corruption scandals in state history.

Mapes has denied wrongdoing. His attorneys have maintained federal authorities were attempting to squeeze him to give up information to bolster the prosecutions case against Madigan, who is slated for his own trial next year.

Before Mapes jury selection got underway Monday, U.S. District Judge John Kness made a flurry of decisions about what evidence could be introduced at trial.

Jurors will not hear the name of a onetime campaign aide who accused a Madigan lieutenant of sexual harassment, Kness ruled. They could, however, hear recordings of a conversation with a member of Madigans inner circle concerning the transfer of state property to the city in Chinatown in an alleged scheme to bring business to Madigans property-tax law firm.

Jurors may hear evidence, including wiretap recordings, related to a wide range of insider Springfield dealings, such as the alleged Chinatown land transfer proposal and the 2018 sexual harassment allegations that brought down some Madigan allies, including Mapes.

But the matters discussed on the tapes are not the main issue in the trial  rather, the recordings will be played in an attempt by prosecutors to prove that Mapes had a tight-knit relationship with Madigan and McClain.

The Mapes defense team successfully sought to block the name of whistleblower Alaina Hampton from the trial, viewing it as prejudicial. Hampton was involved in a high-profile 2018 scandal in which she accused Madigan lieutenant Kevin Quinn of sexual harassment.

Madigan subsequently ousted Quinn, the brother of Madigans hand-picked 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, from the then-speakers government and political operations. Hampton later settled a federal lawsuit against four Madigan-controlled campaign committees over allegations that she was blackballed from Madigans organization because she called out Kevin Quinn.

In his ruling on Hampton, Kness acknowledged the matter, which rocked Madigans operations while Mapes was still chief of staff, had received extensive public exposure.

The judge suggested it is the topic of sexual harassment accusations, which was discussed within Madigans inner circle while Mapes was on board, thats potentially relevant to the case, not Hamptons name specifically.

For Madigan, 2018 was a year of reckoning with the #MeToo movement as he ended up separating several allegedly misbehaving allies from his political and government teams, including Mapes.

Madigan in June 2018 ousted Mapes from his top roles as chief of staff, House clerk and executive director of the Madigan-run Democratic Party of Illinois. It happened just hours after a downstate staffer accused Mapes of sexual harassment and fostering a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying. Mapes disputed the allegations.

In the perjury case Monday, the defense also successfully kept out of the trial the name of attorney Julie Porter, who once served as interim legislative inspector general while Mapes and Madigan were in office. She is the wife of Mapes attorney Andrew Porter.

Kness, in ruling, said he did not want to draw the jurys attention to the idea that Julie and Andrew Porter are spouses, saying its not important for jurors to know the name of the legislative inspector general.

Julie Porters work as legislative IG included reviewing marijuana advocate Maryann Loncars accusations of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, including what she considered sexual harassment.

Lang, who is on a list of potential witnesses in the Mapes trial, immediately branded Loncars allegations absurd and later declared himself vindicated when Porter determined a preponderance of evidence does not support Loncars allegation that Lang engaged in misconduct and closed the matter.

Porter wrote she attempted to reach Loncar via mail, email and Facebook but that she has declined to respond to my overtures. Porter did interview Lang and other witnesses. At the time, Loncar released a statement that called the process a joke, saying she was leery of a review process in which the IG was chosen by lawmakers.

Loncar sat in the courtroom gallery Monday, saying that she wanted to see justice served for the women citizens of Illinois.

Lang testified in the previous ComEd Four trial in which all four defendants, including McClain, were convicted.

Prosecutors played a series of recordings that showed Madigan, with McClains help, muscled Lang out of his longtime House seat following Loncars allegations and concerns that other accusations may surface against Lang, who once served on Madigans leadership team.

During that case, Lang bristled when a lawyer referred to sexual harassment charges in one of his questions, prompting Lang to loudly declare he was not facing sexual harassment charges and that he resented the allegation and the inference.

In the Mapes case, prosecutors have alleged Mapes lied when he said he had no knowledge that McClain had communicated with two unnamed state representatives in 2018 on Madigans behalf. The Tribune reported the two Democrats are Lang and Rep. Bob Rita of Blue Island, who is also a potential witness.

Other potential witnesses in the case include former House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago; longtime Madigan staffers-turned-lobbyists Tom Cullen, Will Cousineau and Craig Willert, who are three former political point men on the speakers staff.

Nancy Kimme, longtime top aide to Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, also was mentioned as a potential witness.

Two years ago, Democratic Rep. Theresa Mah, who represents Chinatown, told the Tribune that Kimme, acting as a lobbyist, had brought an amendment for a Chinatown parcel to the lawmaker and asked her to sponsor it. But Mah said she had declined, saying the community was against it

In the interview, Mah said Kimme, who has deep political relationships on both sides of the aisle, did not say whom she represented when she was pushing the proposal. Many lawmakers expect lobbyists to disclose their clients when bringing an amendment forward.

In a written order, Kness ruled against Mapes request to prevent jurors from hearing about a conversation with McClain regarding the Chinatown property.

In a discussion with Mapes, McClain allegedly referred to the Chinatown issue as an assignment from Madigan, and prosecutors are contending Mapes did not answer truthfully in the grand jury about what he knew about McClains relationship with Madigan.

That evidence pertains directly to whether Mapes knew he was lying about McClains relationship with Madigan, the judge wrote.

Mapes allegedly misleading statements did not stop Madigan and McClain from both being indicted on racketeering charges last year. Prosecutors alleged Madigan was at the top of a criminal enterprise aimed at enriching himself and his cronies and maintaining his nearly unfettered political power.

Madigan and McClain have pleaded not guilty in that pending case.

Mapes indictment in May 2021 caught many by surprise, particularly since he was granted immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorneys office and warned by the chief judge before his grand jury testimony that failing to answer truthfully could result in criminal charges against him.

Mapes is receiving just under $150,000 a year in a taxpayer-supported state pension. Since his ouster in 2018, he has received $711,282 in pension benefits, according to the states pension system.

rlong@chicagotribune.com

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
By Julie Steenhuysen and Deena Beasley

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Five major U.S. health systems said they would offer Eisai and Biogen's promising new Alzheimer's drug Leqembi after working out payment and administrative policies, and how to assess and monitor patients, most likely in the next month or two.

Leqembi, which won full U.S. regulatory approval last month, is the first treatment proven to slow progression of the mind-robbing disease for people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's.

The disease affects an estimated 6.5 million people, most of whom are part of the U.S. governments Medicare plan for people 65 and older.

"The patients are lining up. They want to be treated, but it's difficult to rush right into it," said Dr. James Galvin, who heads the Alzheimer's research program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Neurologists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Chicago's Northwestern Memorial and Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai all said they plan to roll out the drug in the next few months. Cleveland Clinic and Utahs Intermountain health system said they have not started offering it.

After the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, the Medicare agency pledged to pay for the drug broadly and consider relaxing a decade-old restriction on a type of brain imaging recommended for candidates of the treatment.

Wall Street analysts are expecting payment and diagnostic testing issues to slow the launch of the drug by Eisai and partner Biogen and have publicly pressed the companies for sales information.

Tokyo-based Eisai said Aug. 1 during an investor call that a looser Medicare imaging policy could accelerate access to the drug. It expects 10,000 people to receive the drug by March 2024 and as many as 100,000 by 2026.

"Many physicians have been prescribing Leqembi and uptake continues to progress as anticipated," Eisai and Biogen said in a joint email on Friday.

Galvin said he had just completed protocols for the treatment at UHealth-the University of Miami Health System, which must be reviewed and adopted by colleagues in departments including radiology, scheduling and billing.

Among the five neurologists in his division, 50 or more patients are waiting to be infused, Galvin said.

To qualify, patients undergo cognitive tests to ensure their disease is early enough to be treatable, genetic testing to better understand their risks for side effects, and either brain scans or a spinal fluid test to confirm the presence of amyloid - a protein that Leqembi removes. Amyloid testing appears to be a key stumbling block, Galvin said. Hospitals and patients prefer amyloid PET scans, a less-invasive testing approach that has been limited to patients in clinical trials. Medicare pays for the spinal fluid test.

Leqembi can cause brain swelling or bleeding, and patients must also undergo an MRI before treatment and several during treatment to watch for this risk, which the FDA has flagged. Anticoagulants can also raise the risk of bleeding in the brain.

Recognizing the brain swelling issue on an MRI is challenging, especially when it is mild, and takes special training, said Dr. David Knopman of the Mayo Clinic.

Before the July 6 full approval, Durham, North Carolina-based Duke University Health System started 16 patients on Leqembi who are paying for the drug out of pocket, said Director of the Duke Memory Disorders Program Dr. Kim Johnson.

Medicare said it plans to reimburse the drug, priced at $26,500 per year, in return for participation in a patient database. Johnson estimates the system has 100-150 diagnosed Medicare patients on a waitlist, but they will have to be reevaluated before treatment. Assessments for the presence of beta amyloid are all being done through spinal fluid tests, she said.

Dr. Sanjeev Vaishnavi, a neurologist affiliated with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said clinical rollout will start this month, with the first infusion expected in the next few days.

Neurologist Dr Sarah Kremen of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said the hospital has yet to start dosing patients.

The hospital has been working with a wide range of departments, including the ER, to ensure physicians check whether patients are taking Leqembi and know how to treat them. "There is the potential for people to come in looking like they have had a stroke," she said.

"We're having meetings with 26 people present," she said of the preparations.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; editing by Caroline Humer and Gerry Doyle)
A man accused of fatally shooting a New Bedford man at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth in July was held without bail following his arraignment on Monday, the district attorney said.

John Geovanni Pires Monteiro Macedo, 20, pleaded not guilty to one count of murder during his arraignment in Plymouth District Court in connection with the shooting death of Robert Aponte-Flores, 25, of New Bedford, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said.

On July 12, at approximately 2:40 p.m., Plymouth Police received several 911 calls for a report of a shooting at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth and a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, Cruz said.

John Geovanni Pires Monteiro Macedo is accused of fatally shooting a New Bedford man at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth in July.

When emergency crews arrived, they found the victim, Aponte-Flores, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his face, left tricep, and right collarbone, Cruz said. Aponte-Flores was taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess-Plymouth Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Multiple witnesses told authorities that an altercation took place in a picnic area of the park between Aponte-Flores and Macedo, prior to the shooting, Cruz said.

State Police sought and obtained an arrest warrant for Macedo on July 13.

Man arrested in connection to fatal shooting at Myles Standish State Forest, DA says

More than two weeks later, around 3:55 p.m. Saturday, the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section arrested Macedo without incident at an apartment in New Bedford, Cruz said.

An investigation by State Police assigned to Cruzs office, Plymouth Police, and New Bedford Police is ongoing.

Macedo is due back in court on Oct. 5.

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

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A man accused of trying to run over parkgoers Sunday in Rancho Cordova has been arrested, the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office said.

Robert Avery, 33, of Orangevale was arrested Monday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and committing a hate crime.

Detectives began investigating after receiving a 911 call at 7:30 p.m. reporting a man trying to run over people at Heron Landing Park near the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Justinian Drive, the Sheriffs Office said.

Callers also reported the man was yelling racial slurs and targeting people who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, threatening them with violence. The Greater Sacramento Muslim Cemetery about 3 miles from the park.

Deputies and officers from the Rancho Cordova Police Department responded to the scene and found that no one had been injured.

Using witness accounts and video footage, detectives identified Avery as a suspect. Deputies and officers launched a search for him and the vehicle he was driving, telling the public he was considered armed and dangerous. Avery is also a registered sex offender, the Sheriffs Office said.

Deputies took Avery into custody before shortly 7:30 a.m., said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, spokesman for the Sheriffs Office.

More information was not immediately available.
A man camping near the Purgatoire River in Trinidad in southeast Colorado was bit by a bear Saturday night but is expected to survive.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the camper was resting in a hammock when he apparently startled a bear that was next to him.

The bear left a two-to-three-inch wound in the man's arm before wandering off, according to CPW.

A photo shows the bite marks left by a bear on a man camping in Trinidad, Colo. on August 6, 2023. / Credit: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

"Bear attacks are rare and we take them very seriously," said Mike Brown, CPW's area wildlife manager for the region. "We are doing everything we can to locate this bear. And we continue to investigate the incident. Luckily, the victim's injury appears to be relatively minor."

If captured, the bear will be euthanized, per agency policy, according to CPW.

The camper, who CPW officials did not publicly identify, said he heard rustling noises around 10 p.m. He turned on his headlamp and then the bear bit him. The man went to a local motel and called an ambulance.

Now, CPW and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are searching the area with teams of trappers, inspectors and dogs. A trap was set up near the campground where the bear bit the man, in case it returns.

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A French prosecutors said Tuesday that a man accused of holding his wife captive is being released without charges after her claims appeared to be unfounded.

Police on Monday said they arrested the 55-year-old man after his wife claimed he had held her captive in their home for 12 years. The woman said her husband had raped and tortured her repeatedly, but officials could not corroborate those claims.

The public prosecutor, Olivier Glady, ordered him released from custody the following day, saying there were no grounds for charges. The prosecutor said the wife was suffering from several health issues and that her claims were not founded in reality.

Glady said Tuesday that the woman had been questioned for several hours and maintained her accusations against her husband. However, Glady said that it was clear she was not held captive.

He said the husband told him that the woman suffered from an autoimmune disease that left her disabled, and that the couple had not sought medical assistance for her condition. He said the couple, both German nationals, did not speak French and that had stopped them trying to find a doctor or sign up for public health insurance.

The prosecutor said the woman was still in the hospital as the authorities tried to find a better solution for her medical care.

The couple lived in the village of Forbach, in the Moselle region of eastern France, just across the border from Germany.

A photograph shows the entrance to the building where a couple lived in Forbach, eastern France, on August 7, 2023, after French police said they had arrested a 55-year-old German national. / Credit: JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP via Getty Images

Emergency services in Wiesbaden, Germany, received a phone call very early Monday morning from a woman who claimed she had been held captive and tortured by her husband since 2011. German authorities contacted their French counterparts who sent police officers to the address at 6 a.m. local time.

The local prosecutor told reporters the police found the 53-year-old woman in a bedroom of the apartment. She was taken to the hospital and her husband was taken into custody, before later being released.

Early media reports suggested the woman was malnourished and her head had been shaved. However, the prosecutor said that the woman's illness had caused hair loss and left her emaciated.

Doctors who examined her in the hospital said that there were no signs of bruising on her body, and X-rays showed no traces of fractures.

The prosecutor added that there was no conclusive evidence that she was malnourished or dehydrated.

A neighbor who lives on the same floor of the apartment block told reporters that the man told everyone that his wife had cancer. "We never saw the wife," she said. "We heard cries sometimes, I thought it was because of the pain of the illness."

The wife told police she had been tortured, and there were early reports that her husband had a box of torture tools. But the prosecutor said that, despite a thorough search of the apartment, no such items were found. No evidence of brutality was found, he said.

The prosecutor said an investigation was underway to determine the circumstances of the woman's care and the extent of her illness, and why she told police she was being held against her will and abused. He added that, after 12 hours of investigation, it seemed unlikely that charges of false imprisonment and torture would be brought against the man.

The husband, who has denied the allegations, is not known to French police, according to the prosecutor. Inquiries have been made to German police.

The prosecutor did, however, confirm that police had been called to the home in 2019 when neighbors complained of the noise and said they were concerned she was being beaten. No action was taken at that time.

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Rochester police have identified the man shot to death on North Clinton Avenue amidst chaotic crowds in the neighborhood early Saturday morning.

Anthony McIntyre III, 22, of Rochester died from his injuries. He was one of five people shot on North Clinton Avenue within a two minute span early Saturday morning, said Capt. Frank Umbrino of the Rochester Police Department.

Of the five people shot - one person died, two suffered life-threatening injuries and two others suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening - on North Clinton Avenue, between Siebert Place and Scrantom Street. Officers were already patrolling in the area due to ongoing violence in the area when two unrelated shootings took place around 1 a.m. as a group of women were fighting nearby. Though close in proximity, none of the incidents appeared to be related, according to police.

McIntyre was one of two shot on North Clinton Avenue, near Scrantom Street, the second of the two shootings, according to police.

As of Monday morning, one of the two men who had suffered life-threatening injuries remained hospitalized with "very grave injuries" at Strong Memorial Hospital, said Lt. Greg Bello of the Rochester Police Department.

The shootings came during the second straight night of violence on that same stretch of North Clinton Avenue. Hundreds of police officers were on patrol Saturday night into Sunday. "The increased presence was hugely beneficial," Bello said.

Officers will also be stationed in the neighborhood "for the foreseeable future," Rochester Police Chief David Smith said Saturday morning.

No charges have been filed in connection with the shootings and fights. Police continue to investigate.

Police are asking anyone with information or video about the incidents to call 911, the Major Crimes Unit (585) 428-7157, CrimeStoppers (585) 423-9300, or email MajorCrimes@cityofrochester.gov.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Anthony McIntyre shot, killed on North Clinton Ave. in Rochester NY
The man killed in an exchange of gunfire Sunday morning in Johnson County has been identified as a 40-year-old man from Tennessee, police said.

Shannon Wayne Marshall, 40, of Ashland City, died Sunday after he led police on a chase through two Kansas towns in what authorities believe was a stolen car, Danny Chavez, a spokesman for the Lenexa Police Department, said in an email just before 9 p.m.

A second suspect who was with Marshall was arrested at the scene. Andrea Rene Cothran, 32, of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, is being held at the Johnson County Jail on the charge of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

A Fairway police officer was also critically wounded and remained hospitalized Sunday evening, Chavez said.

Upon hearing the call for assistance, our officer courageously and without hesitation responded to help, Fairway Chief of Police J.P. Thurlo said in a statement Sunday evening. These brave actions are reflective of the men and women in law enforcement in our community, and throughout this country, who put on the badge knowing the potential dangers they may face in the course of their duties.

Thurlo confirmed that his officer was still in critical condition late Sunday. He said more information would be released about the officer early next week.

Tonight, I ask for thoughts and prayers for the officer and his family, and request privacy for the officers family and for the Fairway Police Department, he said.

The shooting

Officers responded around 7:30 a.m. to the area of West 95th Street and Interstate 35 to reports of a stolen vehicle, Chavez said.

As officers were investigating the theft, a person driving the car believed to be stolen hit a Lenexa patrol vehicle, then drove away, Chavez said. Officers chased the car north on I-35 until the driver stopped near Lamar Avenue and I-35 in Mission. Police said two people in the suspect vehicle then ran into a nearby QuikTrip.

Officers from multiple agencies followed the pair into the QuikTrip. From there, gunfire rang out, Chavez said.

The man was declared dead at the scene, Chavez said.

Chavez told reporters at the scene that its not yet known how many shots were fired, or by whom. Multiple agencies were on the scene at the time, including Lenexa police, Fairway police, Mission police and the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The Johnson County Officer-Involved Critical Incident Investigation Team, which is comprised of various area law enforcement agencies, is investigating the shooting.

The Stars Andrea Klick contributed.
A man lost at sea for 30 hours on a partially submerged boat removed its motor in a desperate attempt to stay afloat

Emergency-service workers taking Charles Gregory to hospital after the US Coast Guard found him in a boat off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. Joe Perez/ US Coast Guard

A Florida man who was lost at sea for more than a day was severely sunburned and stung by jellyfish.

His father told CNN that his son removed the boat's motor to keep the boat afloat and stay alive.

The 25-year-old man also used his swimming trunks to try to flag down nearby boats, his father said.

The father of a 25-year-old man who was lost at sea for almost 1  days told CNN that his son tried everything he could to survive, including removing his boat's engine to keep the lightweight vessel afloat.

Charles Gregory had gone fishing off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida, on Friday when the tide suddenly rose and caused a large wave to knock him off his small, flat-bottomed craft, CNN reported.

Though he managed to climb back on board, the tide carried him out to sea, where he remained for some 30 hours, according to the media outlet.

The man's father, Raymond Gregory, told CNN that his son's skin was burned by the scorching sun and the lack of shade. And at night, the man had to brave the freezing cold, made more painful by his severe sunburn, his father said.

He also encountered sharks and was stung by jellyfish, his father said.

"He was scared to death," he added. "He said he's had more conversations with God in that 30 hours than he's had his whole life."

The US Coast Guard said in a press statement that Gregory was reported missing on Friday evening and that crews rescued him on Saturday.

The statement said an airplane crew spotted Gregory sitting in his "partially submerged" 12-foot boat about 12 miles offshore of St. Augustine.

The Coast Guard then rescued Gregory and transported him back to land, the press release said.

His father told CNN that Gregory tried various means to survive, including removing the motor from his boat to keep the partially submerged vessel afloat.

He also took off his swimming trunks and waved them in an attempt to flag down boats or aircraft, his father said.

His father said that Gregory was expected to make a full recovery but that he was struggling to move because of his injuries.

He's also suffering from rhabdomyolysis, a heat-related medical condition that can occur when damaged muscle tissues release their proteins and electrolytes into the blood, he added.

Still, the father told CNN: "At the end of the day, the whole moral of the story is 'don't ever give up.'"

Read the original article on Insider
A Brooklyn Park man was sentenced to seven years of probation Monday for beating and raping a homeless woman at a downtown St. Paul parking ramp in 2017.

Liban Mohammed Dahir, 30, was arrested and charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct in November 2019 after his DNA in a burglary case in Massachusetts linked him to the April 6, 2017, assault.

Since the charge, court proceedings were delayed because of the pandemic, Dahir failing to appear at three hearings and his subsequent civil commitments for being mentally ill and chemically dependent. In February, after further treatment at the Anoka-Metro Regional Treatment Center, Dahir was found to be mentally competent to stand trial in the case, court records show.

The downward departure from state sentencing guidelines handed down by Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro was per agreement of parties, court records say.

In May, Dahir pleaded guilty as charged. Under a plea agreement he reached with the prosecution, Castro sentenced him to a seven-and-a-half prison term, then stayed it in favor of seven years probation. The agreement included no additional jail time beyond the 418 days he had already served.

Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorneys office, said in a Monday statement: The prosecutor was able to resolve this 2019 case without further trauma to the victim and respecting her wish not to have to relive her ordeal through a contentious trial.

Dahir must adhere to a long list of conditions of probation or else face the prison term. After probation, he must serve a statutorily required 10 years of conditional release and register as a predatory offender for life.

Case stalled until DNA hit

According to the criminal complaint, the 46-year-old woman missed her curfew at a homeless shelter she was staying at and slept in a parking ramp off Cedar Avenue for the night. She woke up to a man covering her face with a sweatshirt and ordering her not to look at him or he would kill her.

He was armed with a knife and used one hand to hold her down by the throat as the woman kicked and screamed and begged the man to get off of her, promising to do what he wanted so long as he didnt kill her.

Instead, the man repeatedly punched her in the face and slammed her head onto the concrete floor. Then he removed her clothes and raped her.

After the sexual assault, he stole the womans cellphone and took off, threatening to shoot her if she looked at him, the complaint said.

The woman was taken by an ambulance to a hospital for a sexual assault examination and for treatment of her injuries. Before the exam was complete, she fell into critical condition from a serious head injury, and later had to undergo brain surgery to repair multiple brain bleeds.

She now lives with a severe traumatic brain injury, the complaint said.

Despite an extensive investigation at the time, police were unable to locate the suspect, the complaint said.

Then, in October 2019, St. Paul investigators were notified by officers from Sommerville, Mass., that a suspect in a burglary case under investigation there was a direct match to a single source male DNA profile established in the 2017 rape case in St. Paul, authorities say.

Police arrested Dahir on Nov. 5, 2019, after learning that he returned to Minnesota and was on probation in Ramsey County in an unrelated case. His DNA sample matched the one taken from the victim during her sexual assault exam, the complaint said.

During his interview with officers, Dahir denied the rape and said he didnt know the victim, though he acknowledged that he hung out with homeless people in downtown St. Paul in 2017. When pressed about why his DNA was found on the woman, Dahir said it was possible he met her at a party during that time period while everyone was drinking, smoking marijuana and having sex.

Then, as his interview was nearing an end, Dahir reportedly went further and said he actually did recall having sex with the woman in a bathroom at a house party in 2017. He said he didnt know how she would have suffered a head injury from their encounter, the complaint said.

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In 2018, Harris County, Texas, paid Jerome Godinich, a Houston-based defense lawyer, more than $409,000 to represent people who couldnt afford to hire a lawyer in 604 cases. Godinich had a reputation of taking on more cases than one lawyer could reasonably handle, and his caseload regularly far exceeded state and federal guidelines. But judges, many of whom received campaign donations from Godinich, kept sending him cases.

One of the clients appointed to Godinich that year was a 66-year-old man named Michael Carter, who was being held without bail on a driving while intoxicated, or DWI, charge. During the three years Godinich represented Carter, he never visited his client and did minimal work on the case, according to a malpractice suit filed Thursday by Carter.By the time Carters case was finally dismissed and he was released from jail, he had lost his truck, his credit, his ability to work and his wife, who died while he was incarcerated.

I just dont want anybody to go through what Ive been through, Carter said in a statement about the suit, which accuses Godinich of violating legal and professional standards of representation. To sit there every day in jail for years and never hear from your lawyer? Nobody deserves that.

Godinich, who has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1987, has no public disciplinary history. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Carter was arrested on July 10, 2018, and charged with one count of felony driving while intoxicated. According to the malpractice suit, he was neither driving nor intoxicated at the time of his arrest, but was sleeping in his car without his keys in the ignition.The first lawyer appointed to represent Carter, who could not afford to hire the lawyer of his choosing, retired in November 2018. Godinich was assigned to take over the case.

Carter received only four visits from a member of Godinichs team during the three years he was represented by Godinich  and never from the lawyer himself, according to the complaint. The first visit was by a legal assistant, who came more than eight months after Godinich was appointed to the case. Although Carter repeatedly tried calling and writing to Godinich, he was never able to get a response. He believes his lawyers phone was not set up to take calls from the jail, the complaint stated.

Carter wrote letters to Godinich, asking him to request an independent test of the blood sample taken when he was arrested. Carter does not know whether Godinich complied, but the lawyer never shared any information about such a test, according to the complaint. Carter also advised Godinich to contact several potential witnesses who could testify on his behalf and to file several motions  none of which happened. When Carters sister tried to intervene, Godinich told her he had already done everything Carter requested.

Any reasonable lawyer representing Carter would have, at minimum, regularly met with Carter confidentially, discussed the facts and law with Carter, developed a legal theory to defend Carters case, sought to have the blood sample independently tested, investigated witnesses, sought speedy resolution of the case, and performed numerous other legal tasks to advance Carters interests, the complaint said. On information and belief, Godinich did none of these things.

The stakes were high for Carter. He was on parole when he was arrested and if convicted of the DWI charge, he risked being sent back to prison for decades. The only options for representing Carter would be either to get the case dismissed or to take it to trial, the complaint said.

Carter tried advancing the case on his own. In February 2020, more than a year after Godinich was appointed to the case, Carter wrote to the court that he had been unable to discuss the case with his lawyer. He filed more than 15 motions on his own and even sought to have Godinich replaced.

While his case languished, Carter struggled in jail. His walking cane was taken away from him, forcing him to limp around in pain and eventually use a wheelchair. Carter, who has high blood pressure and high cholesterol, remained in jail during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing him to experience additional fear and isolation, according to the complaint.

On Feb. 15, 2022, after more than three-and-a-half years in jail, Carter told the judge that Godinich had never asked for his side of the story, the complaint said. When he explained that the keys were not in the ignition when the police approached and that there was a significant delay between his arrest and blood testing, the case was dismissed.

Carters case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt at this time, the case record states.

Carter learned his case was dismissed from the bailiff. His own lawyer never told him, the complaint said.

Godinich filed for payment for just eight out-of-court hours of work on Carters case, despite representing him for three years. Carter believes they spoke about five times, always during court dates and never in a confidential setting where they could discuss strategy. Godinich and his colleagues have ignored several requests from Carter for his case file, according to the complaint.

When he was finally freed from jail, Carter returned home to a very different existence than the one he had left. He couldnt work while in jail, so he had fallen behind on payments for his car, home and credit card. His wife died while he was incarcerated and he was not allowed to attend her funeral. He now lives with his sister because he cannot afford his own place.

Carter lost everything as a result of this case and his deficient representation from Godinich, the complaint said.

Carter lost everything as a result of this case and his deficient representation from Godinich.Michael Carter's malpractice complaint

Although Harris County has a public defenders office, the overwhelming majority of felony cases are handled by private lawyers who are appointed by the judge overseeing the case. While lawyers in the public defenders office follow national caseload guidelines, which advise lawyers not to take more than 150 felony cases a year, many private lawyers do not.

Because private lawyers are paid per case, there is an incentive to take on as many cases as possible to maximize income. A 2020 study found that judges appoint more than twice as many indigent cases to private lawyers who donate to judicial campaigns than those who dont, creating the optics of a pay to play system.

A 2013 evaluation of the then-newly established Harris County Public Defenders Office found that their lawyers outperformed appointed attorneys with every measure as they achieved a greater proportion of dismissals, deferred sentences, and acquittals, and a smaller proportion of clients found guilty.

As HuffPost has previously reported, the Harris County Public Defenders Office does not take any death penalty cases. Instead, indigent defendants facing the prospect of execution rely on the appointment system, where the judge hand-picks the lawyer  who may be juggling hundreds of other cases.

In 2018, Harris County paid Godinich to work on 583 felony cases, one misdemeanor, six felony appeals and 14 capital cases, according to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, which tracks attorney caseloads. (Capital cases are so labor intensive that a separate Texas public defenders office that specializes in them recommends attorneys have no more than five active capital cases at a time  with no additional felony cases.)

By the time Godinich was appointed to Carters case in 2018, he had already attracted attention for his high caseload. In 2009, the Houston Chronicle reported that two of Godinichs clients on death row lost their federal appeals because he missed filing deadlines. In each case, he blamed a broken filing machine, an excuse that prompted criticism from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But that didnt stop judges from continuing to assign Godinich hundreds of indigent cases a year.

Mr. Carter sat in jail for years without receiving even basic representation from his attorney, and Harris County taxpayers still wrote him a check, said Geoff Burkhart, the executive director of the Texas Fair Defense Project, whose lawyer is representing Carter in the malpractice suit.

Last year, Harris County paid attorneys over $30 million for felony representation, yetwith the exception of the public defenders office, which handles just a fraction of the casesthere is little attorney oversight. Harris County needs a robust, independent public defense system.
The Diversion Hub, looking southwest, is shown in this rendering. The two-story building will span 30,435 square feet.

A permanent home for the Oklahoma County Diversion Hub, launched two years ago to provide options to jail for low-level offenders, is advancing with construction set to start in early 2024.

The $15 million project is funded with $13 million from MAPS 4 and a land contribution from the Arnall Family Foundation valued at $2 million. Meagan Taylor, executive director of the diversion hub, said the new building cant open soon enough.

We are absolutely bursting at the seams, Taylor said. We have every single corridor filled with partner agencies and diversion hub staff. We are desperate for more space.

An update on the MAPS 4 venue by architects at Rees Associates represents the scale of the diversion hub program and its aspirations. The building will span 30,435 square feet  more than three times the current 10,000-square-foot operation at 220 NW 10.

The two-story building will be located on a block just west of downtown along Linwood Boulevard between Klein and Ellison avenues. A presentation by the architects given to the city promotes the hub as a welcoming and comfortable space that will serve as a beacon of hope for clients.

More: See what OKC's new family justice center for domestic violence survivors could look like

The Diversion Hub lobby shown in this rendering is designed to hold up to 75 people while still allowing visitors some privacy.

Farooq Karim, director of design at Rees Associates, said the design was developed with the assumption that some clients may be in need of shelter, food and clothing.

When clients are coming to the building they typically have things with them, they have bicycles, animals, their belongings, so we start outside the building accommodating for that with bike racks and areas to store belongings, Karim said.

What to expect at the new Oklahoma County Diversion Hub

Improvements over the agency's current home includes a washing machine and dryer and a donation area for clothing and food.

A lot of times when clients come to the building, they do not have a pair of shoes, they may not have warm clothing, they may be hungry, and its hard to have conversations when youre dealing with those stresses, Karim said. When a person visits, the first thing that happens is they are taken to a place to eat.

Integrated private areas are designed to foster personalized interactions while still maintaining a sense of connection and transparency. Architects also designed the building to accommodate the collaborative approach taken toward helping clients navigate the criminal justice system and get back on track.

The space will include public training rooms, a kitchen, consultation and meeting rooms, a client computer lab, a mental health facility, and alternative courts that will have separate entries for after-hours appointments.

Rachel Bundy, senior project manager with Rees Associates, said the lobby is designed to hold up to 75 people but will allow visitors to maintain some privacy.

"They want them to feel comfortable, not to feel crowded if they need a little bit of personal space," Bundy said. "There will be a variety of seating, and there are interior tools we are using to divide the space up while keeping it transparent and visible."

Diversion Hub office space is shown in this rendering.

Karim said the design reflects numerous meetings and presentations with the Oklahoma County Diversion Hub and its partners to ensure the new home is flexible enough to allow for a growing mission and expansions to host additional partners.

More: LiveFree OKC, led by Jabee, aims to address root causes of the cycle of gun violence

What to know about the Diversion Hub program

The Diversion Hub program is relatively new. Taylor, a former prosecutor, oversees an operation that traces back to an experimental program launched in 2019 at a time when Oklahoma had the highest incarceration rate in the United States.

We were leading the world in incarceration rates and not seeing any improvement, Taylor said. People get out, released at 3 a.m., and have no idea of what charges are filed and what to do next with bond and everything else. The courts are not set up to help people navigate it successfully.

To make matters worse, services that might help a person successfully emerge from the criminal justice system were difficult to find and access. Everything was all over the city, nothing was coordinated, and there was no specialized group helping people in the system, Taylor said.

The Diversion Hub is designed to be that central place, and its new home is located near multiple bus stops with planning underway to connect it with the citys growing bike lane network. Transportation, the idea of simply connecting clients with the Diversion Hub, is a priority, Taylor said, and other options include the nonprofit's shuttles or even Uber, if needed.

Clients who connect with the Diversion Hub are provided with an array of services ranging from housing, getting an ID, a Social Security card, a Soonercare card and SNAP cards. A therapist will be joining the mix soon, with other partners including the Homeless Alliance  experienced legal professionals who can help clients navigate the courts and avoid returning to jail over unpaid fines and failures to appear in court.

The Diversion Hub classroom is shown in this rendering

The Diversion Hub also will coordinate with TEEM (The Education & Employment Ministry). Both offer similar services to help people before trial, but they have differing approaches.

TEEM's pretrial services include identifying people who can be bailed out of jail at no cost on the condition of agreeing to follow the group's program. At the Diversion Hub, those wanting to use services must secure their own release first.

In both instances, people are provided case management that includes access to employment, substance abuse, mental health and other services as necessary, along with support to comply with attendance for court dates and payment schedules. The goal through both options is also to provide intervention that can reduce the risk that participants will end up in prison.

Education, hygiene, health care, dental care and other day-to-day needs also are addressed.

Our goal is to fill gaps in the community, Taylor said. We look at who is entangled in the system.

The Diversion Hub currently serves about 1,100 clients. The 38-person staff is growing, and with a larger, new home, Taylor looks forward to helping more people and adding more services.

The $15 million Diversion Hub, shown in this rendering, includes land for the building and parking, valued at $2 million, donated by the Arnall Foundation.

Oklahoma still ranks high for incarceration  third highest in the country. Taylor said of those who sought help at the Diversion Hub in 2022, only 10.63% ended up with new misdemeanor or felony charges.

That's great, Taylor said. But what Im most proud of is the type of services we have helping our clients succeed. Our justice navigation program has consistently had successful outcomes by making sure people appear in court, that they get help in house hunting, communicating with courts, and by being in their corner.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's expanded Diversion Hub key to cutting incarceration rates
A frantic weekend search for 37-year-old Rachel Morinwho disappeared Saturday evening near the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Marylandended on Sunday afternoon with the discovery of her body near the route.

Now, detectives are trying to find out who may have killed her while Morins boyfriend publicly pleads his innocence on social media.

I love Rachel, 27-year-old Richard Tobin wrote in a Facebook post. I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve. Yes, I have a past but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please.

Tobin referenced his lengthy criminal history, which includes charges of assault and resisting arrest, among others. He hasnt been charged for any offenses since 2020, however.

Just days before she went missing, Tobin had announced his relationship with Morin on Facebook.

But Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said theres still no suspect in Morins disappearance and death.

We firmly believe this is the body of Rachel Morin, Gahler said at a press conference Sunday night after the discovery of what he said was an obviously deceased woman. But that final determination belongs with the medical examiner and that has not happened yet.

Gahler said no one was in custody and there was no known motive for the possible homicide.

Thankfully we dont have too much violent crime in Harford County, but when we have one, I prefer when I can stand here and tell you that the suspect has been arrested or that its a targeted crime, Gahler said. I cant tell you that is the case.

Gahler added that the Ma and Pa trail will reopen for visitors with a heightened police presence as the investigation continues. He was unable to say that there was no ongoing threat to the community, however.

I cant do it, he said.

Details of the apparent murder remain sparse. Gahler said investigators still werent sure exactly when she went missing, saying that she may have disappeared anytime from 6 p.m. Saturday until Sunday morning.

Gahler was asked why a homicide investigation had already been started, considering medical examiners werent even able to identify the body yet.

Our detectives have no doubt, he said. Im not going to go into what, physically, they observed at the scene. But investigators believe sadly that its a homicide case.

Cops found Morins car at the entrance of the Ma and Pa Traila 6.5-mile rail route just south of the Pennsylvania borderhours after Morins boyfriend reported her missing late Saturday night.

Bel Air resident Juniper Ernest said she passed Morin on the trail at around 6:45 p.m. on Saturday.

She was alone and walking past us in the opposite direction, Ernest told The Daily Beast. I am assuming she was only a couple minutes into her walk when we passed her.

Ernest said that the popular trail was relatively barren that day.

We only passed a handful of people, a few families, a couple bikes, but not a ton of people at all, she said, adding that she and others in the community love and enjoy the Ma and Pa Trail and always thought it was a safe place to walk.

Investigators are urging anybody with information to contact the Harford County Sheriffs Office at 410-836-5430.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Conspiracy, Charlottes newest cocktail bar with speakeasy vibes, quietly opened in late July on West 5th Street, dubbing itself uptown Charlottes best kept secret.

Located in the spot of the former Corkscrew on 5th, The Conspiracy is owned and operated by Northwood Ravin and open to the public. Its founders disguised the entrance as an innocuous storefront, camouflaging it amidst the buildings structure, The Conspiracy website states. To the outside world, this building appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned establishment, left untouched and unnoticed for years. Little did the public know that it held the entrance to a vibrant and thriving speakeasy below.

With an expansive bar area, several tables, plush semi-circle booths and other sitting areas, the upscale bar with a vintage ambiance and enchanting atmosphere has ample room for happy hour crowds and friendly gatherings. Check out the photos below for a look inside The Conspiracy.

As expected, craft cocktails are king at The Conspiracy. Each cocktail is a nod to a conspiracy theory, said co-manager of food and beverage Bethany Shank. We didnt really do anything polarizing; we wanted to keep it light and fun and in the pop culture realm, she told CharlotteFive on Friday afternoon.

The Lunar Leap is a nod to the moon landing. It has Titos Vodka, activated charcoal, Owens Espresso Mix and a whole milk ice cube sphere. The espresso martini part is pitch black, Shank said. It looks like the moon in the night sky  its so cool.

The Great Unknown is a mix of Titos vodka, strawberry rhubarb syrup, key lime juice & Rumchata.

Patrons can also step into a realm of sophistication and mystery with The Conspiracys enigmatic elixir, The Chupaloma, a blend of blend of Casamigos Reposado, ginger liqueur, pink peppercorn syrup, red grapefruit juice and key lime juice.

The Vanishing Act includes Casamigos Blanco, orange liqueur and clarified lime juice.

The Pearhart is a mix of Hendricks Gin, Creme de Violette, pear syrup, lemon juice and prosecco finish.

With a full bar, several other cocktails are available, along with a selection of wine and beer.

The food options are just as expansive, with a carefully curated menu that includes charcuterie, flat breads, raclette, spiced nuts, hummus, goat cheese & pesto dip, cauliflower lettuce wraps, Cuban sliders, Turkey and Waffles, shrimp scampi, crab cakes and more.

Northwood Ravin is always pushing the envelope on new, creative projects, Shank said. It started with opening property bars for residents and their guests, she said. And then when a space became available in a building we already own, we said Why not? Were doing bars, we can do food, we can do hospitality. So thats how this idea was born.

The Conspiracy is open from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.

Location: 412 W 5th St Suite C 120, Charlotte, NC 28205

Cuisine: Small bites, craft cocktails

Instagram: @ConspiracyCLT

Alex Cason contributed reporting.
China's participation in the Saudia Arabia peace talks could signal a shift in Beijing's allegiance, experts told journalists from Reuters.

Shen Dingli, an international relations scholar based in Shanghai, told Reuters that China needs to engage in international peace efforts because Russia is "bound to be defeated."

The international talks, held in Jeddah Aug. 5-6, brought together 40 countries to discuss Ukraine's path to peace. Although China refused to join a similar summit in Cophenhagen in June, Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui represented Beijing at the Jeddah talks.

Russia was not invited to participate.

The Financial Times reported that Ukrainian allies welcomed China's move, viewing it as a shift away from Moscow's interests and toward Kyiv's.

An unnamed European official told the Financial Times that China "actively participated" in the forum and was "positive" about another meeting of its kind.

"Beijing will not want to be absent from other credible peace initiatives that are led by non-Western countries," Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, told Reuters.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the news outlet Interfax-Ukraine that Hui's attendance in Jeddah was "a historic victory."

Read also: Ukraine may be winning worlds first cyberwar

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Life at the largest street market in Brazil ahead of the Amazon Summit, in Belem

Merchants in Brazil's Amazon trade natural bounty as leaders discuss environment Life at the largest street market in Brazil ahead of the Amazon Summit, in Belem

By Leonardo Benassatto

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -"The Amazon brings people health," said Brazilian merchant Edison Rosa, holding out a handful of glistening, dark purple antioxidant-rich acai berries - touted worldwide as a superfood. "Without the forest, no one lives."

Belem, a port city in northern Brazil and gateway to the Amazon, is home to the bustling Ver-o-Peso market where merchants come to sell fish, herbs, nuts, berries and other fruit harvested from the world's largest rainforest.

In the same city, heads of state from eight nations that share the sprawling rainforest are meeting this week to discuss how to develop the Amazon region in a sustainable way.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he will push for a common protection policy for the first time, with the countries that share the rainforest collectively agreeing on actions to conserve and reforest the region.

Still, divisions are expected at the summit over new permits for oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River, and over the deforestation resulting from rapid agricultural expansion.

"This place is like a movie theater," said Beth Cheirosinha, a herb merchant whose stand overflows with colorful bottles of oils and tonics.

"People come from all over the world to see the postcard of Belem that is Ver-o-Peso," she added. "It is our roots."

Even at night the market is buzzing. Men haul a fish as big as a child off a fishing boat. Piles of oranges, bananas, fresh herbs and acai berries fill heaving crates on the edge of the bay.

"This is everything for me in my life, everything good," said Rosa. "I am very happy with my life."

Deforestation surged under the previous government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who slashed environmental protections. For the first seven months of Lula's administration, satellite data suggests deforestation has fallen 43% from the same period of 2022.

The country's environment minister said on Monday the government would look at offering private-sector concessions for the planting of native trees and high-value woods, to help reforest the Amazon.

(Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O'Brien)
BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday urged the United States to stop utilizing the South China Sea issue to sow confusion and discord, respect China's territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and respect regional countries' efforts to uphold peace and stability in this region.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson made the remarks in response to a U.S. State Department statement criticizing China for obstructing Philippine vessels that sought to deliver new troops and supplies to a grounded military vessel at Ren'ai Jiao and firing water cannons.

The U.S. statement says such actions are "inconsistent with international law" and "threatening regional peace and stability" and calls upon China to abide by the South China Sea arbitration award issued in 2016. The statement indicates U.S. support for "the Philippines' lawful maritime operations" and says an armed attack on the Philippines' Coast Guard would "invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under the U.S.- Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty."

The State Department's statement, in disregard of the facts, attacked China's legitimate and lawful actions at sea aimed at safeguarding its rights and enforcing the law, and the statement also voiced support for the Philippines' unlawful and provocative behavior, the spokesperson said.

"China firmly opposes the statement," the spokesperson said.

For some time, the United States has been inciting and supporting the Philippines' attempts to overhaul and reinforce its military vessel that was deliberately grounded on Ren'ai Jiao. The U.S. even sent over military aircraft and vessels to assist and support the Philippines, and repeatedly sought to threaten China by citing the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. The U.S. has been brazenly bolstering Philippines as it infringes upon China's sovereignty, but those moves will not succeed, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said Ren'ai Jiao has always been part of China's Nansha Qundao and the historical context of the issue of Ren'ai Jiao is very clear.

In 1999, the Philippines sent a military vessel and deliberately ran it aground at Ren'ai Jiao, attempting to change the status quo of Ren'ai Jiao illegally. China immediately made serious demarches to the Philippines, demanding the removal of the vessel. The Philippines promised several times to tow it away, but has yet to act. Not only that, the Philippines sought to overhaul and reinforce the military vessel in order to permanently occupy Ren'ai Jiao, the spokesperson said.

On Aug. 5, in disregard of China's repeated dissuasion and warning, the Philippines sent two vessels that intruded into the adjacent waters of Ren'ai Jiao and tried to deliver the construction materials for overhauling and reinforcing the grounded military vessel. Such actions violated China's sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels stopped them in accordance with law and warned them off through appropriate law enforcement measures. Their maneuvers were professional, restrained and beyond reproach, the spokesperson said.

The South China Sea arbitration was a pure political drama staged in the name of the law with the U.S. pulling strings behind the scenes. The so-called award contravenes international laws, including UNCLOS, and is illegal, null and void. The U.S.' attempt to make an issue of the illegal award will not affect China's firm resolve to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in accordance with the law, the spokesperson said. 
Metropolitan Ionafan, the head of the Tulchin Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in Vinnytsia Oblast, was sentenced to five years in prison for public justification of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Source: press service of the Security Service of Ukraine

Details: It is noted that the court sentenced the cleric to an appropriate punishment based on the evidence presented by the special services.

According to the materials of the investigation, the defendant distributed propaganda leaflets among the churchgoers, where he called for a seizure of power and a change in the state border of Ukraine.

On one of the websites of the Russian Orthodox Church, Ionafan posted publications in support of the Russian invaders and their war crimes.

The examination of the materials (pro-Kremlin propaganda leaflets and literature) seized during the searches initiated by the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed the fact of the metropolitans illegal activities.

In January, the Security Service of Ukraine handed over the conviction against the head of the Tulchin Diocese of the UOC-MP to the court.

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!
Mexico Beach City Council members on Thursday narrowed down the six applicants they believe are best suited to take on the position of city administrator.

MEXICO BEACH  Local officials are making progress in their search for a new city administrator.

In a special meeting on Thursday afternoon, Mexico Beach City Council members narrowed down the six applicants they think are best suited for the position. The meeting was called after Interim City Administrator Michael Manning announced on Tuesday that he plans to resign Aug. 15.

Manning has held the title since late June, when he took over following the resignation of former City Administrator Douglass Baber.

"The city administrator ... is involved in every aspect of the city, so it's very important to find somebody who is quite capable and has experience," City Council member Linda Hamilton said.

Mexico Beach began advertising the position about a month ago, and 15 people applied. The top six applicants in order from most to least preferred are:

Patrick Marsh, former city manager of Fernley, Nevada.

Timothy Day, district manager of Inframark Corporation in Cape Coral.

Chris Hubbard, a former city administrator of Mexico Beach who currently works as a real estate agent in Barbourville, Kentucky.

Tim O'Briant, economic development director of Aiken, South Carolina.

Denise Vickers, director of the Innovation News Center at the University of Florida.

Katherine Gatewood, city clerk of Freeport.

Position to open: Michael Manning announces resignation as interim city administrator of Mexico Beach

Hamilton said the council's goal on Thursday was to narrow down their top five applicants, but six ended up being considered because there was a tie for fifth place. Each council member ranked their top five applicants, with five points given to their first choice, four points given to their second choice, three points to their third choice, two points to their fourth choice and one point for their fifth choice. The final list is made up of those who received the most points.

Marsh claimed 22 points, Day claimed 15 points, Hubbard claimed 14 points, O'Briant claimed six points, Vickers claimed five points and Gatewood claimed five points.

Council members were split on who they think is best suited for the position. Hamilton and Councilman Adrian Welle voted Marsh as their favorite. Council members Richard Wolff and Jerry Smith voted for Hubbard as their favorite. Mayor Michele Miller selected Day as her favorite.

Hamilton said the City Council is slated to interview the top candidates on Tuesday from noon to 6 p.m. Interviews will be held in the city's public works building at 114 N. 22nd St.

"They will be public meetings, and we're going to try and interview one at a time," Hamilton said. "We don't have a set date (for when we will make a final decision), but I know we want to do it in a timely manner and as quickly as possible because of Michael Manning leaving."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Mexico Beach City Council narrows down city administrator candidates
In a joint statement with his wife, Miami-Dade Countys police director said he did not pull out his gun during a July 23 argument the couple had in a Tampa hotel, denying the claim that landed him in handcuffs hours before he shot himself on a highway.

Further, the reckless allegation that he took out his gun prior to checking out from the hotel that evening is false and unsupported by either witnesses or camera footage, read the statement from Alfredo Freddy Ramirez and Jody Ramirez released late Sunday night by lawyer Kendall Coffey.

READ MORE: I didnt do anything. Body-camera video shows Miami-Dade police director in handcuffs

The statement also said that no violence occurred between the couple during the incident, condemning a rumor that wasnt supported by the police communication and other official accounts made public over the last two weeks.

Jody strongly wishes to emphasize that at no time was there even a hint of physical aggression between her and Freddy. Nor is there the slightest evidence of such contact  not from Jody, not from a witness and not from any of the various security cameras operating throughout the hotel, read the statement, released by lawyer Kendall Coffey.

Footage from body cameras worn by Tampa police who cuffed Freddy Ramirez showed him and Jody Ramirez both denying he pulled out his gun, as an unknown witness reported in a chain of event that led to a 911 call at a J.W. Marriott where they were attending a law enforcement convention.

Officers who questioned the couple determined there was no basis for any further law enforcement action and released Ramirez.

In the hours that followed, Ramirez, a Democratic candidate for sheriff and police director since 2020, offered to resign his county post in a phone call with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and then wounded himself with a gunshot to the head during the couples drive back to Miami.

The body-camera footage released last week showed a hotel manager telling police that a guest waiting for an Uber reported seeing a man outside the hotel with his gun at the Florida Sheriffs Association convention.

The witnesss name wasnt taken and that person couldnt be found after police responded in force to the Ramirezes 12th-floor hotel room. At least one officer had a weapon drawn when police banged on the door, whisking Jody Ramirez away and handcuffing Freddy Ramirez.

Jody Ramirez said to officers: Is this for real? Freddy Ramirez told them: I didnt do anything.

Both acknowledged having an argument outside the hotel, but denied it went further than that.

Freddy Ramirez told officers he did not unholster his gun. In questioning by officers, Jody Ramirez initially said she had been drinking and couldnt remember when asked about her husband pulling out his gun. Pressed, she gave a clearer answer: I dont remember him pulling his gun out. At all.

Freddy Ramirez remains in a Tampa hospital, recovering from the head wound suffered south of Tampa on I-75 sometime after 9 p.m. Its not known the exact sequence of events surrounding the gunshot, but the weapon was still in the car when Jody Ramirez called 911 for help, according to the recording of the call.

The statement said the wound would have been fatal if Jody Ramirez had not intervened in a moment when the couple were still distraught from the profoundly disturbing event of Freddy Ramirez being placed in handcuffs.

After the seriously troubling and confusing events that had befallen them, during the drive home, with both still bewildered and distraught, Jody was able to grab her husbands arm so that the resulting injury was serious but not fatal, the statement read. She saved Freddys life.

The statement does not address whether Tampa police were wrong in their actions, but called the incident, as captured on the body-camera footage, profoundly disturbing.

Both Jody and Freddy were shocked by the sudden arrival of numerous police officers shortly after 6:30 on that Sunday evening, the statement read.

It was even more shocking that Freddy was put in handcuffs. It is evident that being placed in handcuffs is a profoundly disturbing event for any who experiences it, the statement continued. It was especially so for such a distinguished leader of law-enforcement, with an unblemished record of more than 28 years of exemplary service in protecting the public.

Here is the full statement from Jody and Freddy Ramirez, which was released at 10:52 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, by lawyer Kendall Coffey:

Jody and Freddy Ramirez want to express their deepest and heartfelt appreciation to the many who have sent messages of support and best wishes for Freddys speedy recovery. This outpouring of care and concern has meant everything to their family at this difficult time and continues to contribute to Freddys healing.

While the familys focus is upon Freddys recovery, it is appropriate to address damaging and hurtful misinformation that has been repeated in various media reports concerning the events of the evening of July 23rd.

Jody strongly wishes to emphasize that at no time was there even a hint of physical aggression between her and Freddy. Nor is there the slightest evidence of such contact - not from Jody, not from a witness and not from any of the various security cameras operating throughout the hotel. Further, the reckless allegation that he took out his gun prior to checking out from the hotel that evening is false and unsupported by either witnesses or camera footage. It is hoped that the media will be cautious about reporting on this subject, not only out of respect for their family, but because the public deserves to know the truth rather than sensational and unsubstantiated falsities.

Both Jody and Freddy were shocked by the sudden arrival of numerous police officers shortly after 6:30 on that Sunday evening. It was even more shocking that Freddy was put in handcuffs. It is evident that being placed in handcuffs is a profoundly disturbing event for any who experiences it. It was especially so for such a distinguished leader of law-enforcement, with an unblemished record of more than 28 years of exemplary service in protecting the public. Afterwards, shortly after local police left their hotel room, Jody and Freddy decided to leave for home and put a bad nights experience behind them. After the seriously troubling and confusing events that had befallen them, during the drive home, with both still bewildered and distraught, Jody was able to grab her husbands arm so that the resulting injury was serious but not fatal. She saved Freddys life.

This is a strong family anchored on a 30-year marriage of love and deep mutual respect. Jody, Freddy and their four children continue to be a family utterly devoted to each other. Jody is respectfully requesting that their sisters and brothers in law enforcement, as well as members of the public, appreciate what an extraordinarily painful and challenging time this has been. She will not be commenting and will remain dedicated to Freddys recovery, looking forward to the moment when they will walk out of the hospital together.
This editorial is part of Miami Dysfunction, a series that examines flaws in the city of Miamis structure of governance.

Timing is on the side of Miamis city officials, not on the side of voters who are headed to the polls in November.

Thanks to a dragged-out court case over how the citys five commission districts were drawn, it appears the city will be able to squeeze in a victory to the benefit of the people in power.

In the past week, a federal judge ruled against the city, throwing out the district map the commission drew in June. That ruling was reversed by an appeals court that said it was too close to the elections to force the city to adopt a new map. The civic groups that sued Miami, claiming the city split residents and neighborhoods to achieve a specific racial and ethnic makeup of the commission, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. Its a long shot. As of this writing Monday afternoon, there had been no response from the court.

Miamians dont have to keep up with the courts, or understand the Voting Rights Act, to get whats truly happening.

From the get-go, the City Commission has been motivated by power. Commissioners gave a good talk from the dais about Miamis tradition of having three Hispanic commissioners, a Black one and an Anglo one  which the lawsuit says violates the law. But they were looking out for themselves first.

The citys motivation didnt change when the federal judge forced them to redraw the districts in June after ruling that the plaintiffs, among them the NAACP, were likely to prove in trial the city violated the U.S. Constitution.

Or was it just a coincidence that the maps neutralize Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portillas only opponent in the Nov. 7 election? The lines of his District 1 were suspiciously drawn to move Miguel Gabela, whos been campaigning since February, to another district. Gabela filed his own lawsuit on Monday challenging the citys map.

Perhaps it is just a stroke of fate that Commissioner Joe Carollos longtime home in Coconut Grove was moved into his District 3. When Carollo was elected in 2017, his home belonged in District 2. He claimed to live in a Brickell condo, inside District 3, to meet the citys residency requirements. After the election, his opponent filed a lawsuit, claiming Carollo never actually moved, but lost in court.

Thanks to the redrawn districts, Carollo can legally reside in his six-bedroom home and reap the financial benefits of claiming a homestead exemption on his property taxes, which is granted only for someones primary home.

And heres another twist. The home of the opponent who sued Carollo, Alfie Leon, was conspicuously moved out of District 3 to District 4, where Commissioner Manolo Reyes is running for reelection this fall. That means that if Leon was planning to run to replace Carollo when he reaches his term limit in 2025, hes out of luck.

Meanwhile, residents of Coconut Grove and the historic Black West Grove, who fought to remain unified in a single district, lost their battle, at least for now. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore wrote in his ruling last week that the maps the city presented to the court in June continued to split neighborhoods and facilitate racial separation. Moore ordered Miami to temporarily adopt a map drawn by the plaintiffs while the case moves through the court system. A trial is scheduled for 2024.

In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed Moores ruling and sided with Miami. The court blamed the plaintiffs for waiting too long  nine months  to sue the city and cited a legal principle that the courts should not interfere with election law so close to an election. The appeals court also wrote that its not clear that the map Moore forced Miami to adopt fixed the alleged racial sorting in the Citys re-districting legislation.

Essentially, the city prevailed because the clock is running out, not necessarily because it did a good job. Its still likely that when voters go to the polls in November to elect, or reelect, three commissioners, they may be doing so in districts that violate the U.S. Constitution, as Moore argued in his decision.

In the end, the true winners arent the residents of Miami, but those who manipulate the citys political process for their own gain.

Click here to send the letter.
In late July, Microsoft confirmed its ChatGPT-like Bing Chat was testing in third-party browsers like Chrome and Safari for select users after various reports had spotted the feature in action. Today, the company directly announced that Bing Chat would "soon" be available in third-party browsers, including both on the web and on mobile devices.

The news indicates Microsoft aims to compete on AI across platforms besides its own, in addition to those places where Bing Chat is already available, like the Bing mobile app and Microsoft Edge web browser. It would also put the AI chatbot up against other browsers' built-in tools, like Google's generative AI search features, available in the Google mobile app and Chrome browser.

"This next step in the journey allows Bing to showcase the incredible value of summarized answers, image creation and more, to a broader array of people," Microsoft explained in its announcement of the coming features, which celebrates the six-month anniversary of the AI-powered Bing. "Youll get most of the great benefits of Bing and well continue to optimize along the way to meet your needs across different browsers," it read.

However, the company cautioned that, while the Bing Chat experience would work in users' preferred web browsers, the "best" experience would be found in the Microsoft Edge browser.

During tests, for example, users noticed that Bing Chat in Chrome only supported five messages per conversation, instead of the 30 available in Microsoft Edge. It was also limiting the character count to 2,000, instead of the 3,000 supported by Edge.

Microsoft today hinted toward these limitations, adding that with Edge, users would "unlock longer conversations, chat history, and more Bing features built right into the browser."

In the blog post, the company also celebrated several other recently launched features, including multimodal visual search in Bing Chat -- meaning the ability to search using both text and images -- a feature Google first introduced back in 2021. Bing's model, however, leverages Open AI to allow users to input images into the Chat and then prompt the chatbot with related questions.

Microsoft additionally referenced the launch of Dark Mode for Bing Chat and the newly announced Bing Chat Enterprise, which includes commercial data protection for use inside organizations where sensitive data cannot leak out. A number of businesses have already banned employees from using consumer applications like ChatGPT due to data protection requirements, including Apple, Samsung, Walmart, Verizon and major banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan.

The company also revealed a few milestones about Bing Chat to date, noting that it's since seen over 1 billion chats and over 750 million images in the chatbot in addition to nine consecutive quarters of growth on Edge.

An exact launch date for third-party browser support for Bing Chat was not provided, but the feature is said to be arriving soon.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos looks on as Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks Thursday during a preview at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee of proposed state legislation to increase funding to local governments.

Expanding water service agreements. Further privatizing garbage service. Eliminating or reducing city-funded retiree health care.

These were among the areas that Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson's administration told state leaders the city could consider as changes to meet Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' demand that the city and Milwaukee County look into privatizing or sharing services before he would consider allowing the dedicated local sales tax long sought by the two cash-strapped governments.

Vos' December comments to the Journal Sentinel on his ask to Johnson and County Executive David Crowley came months before the introduction of legislation that boosted funding to local governments across the state, created an "innovation fund" with grants for local governments that transfer services elsewhere, and allowed the city and county to each implement local sales taxes to help stave off deep service cuts.

The law, which went into effect in June, also imposed a series of restrictions and requirements on Wisconsin's largest city.

With the city's financial outlook now much-improved, it's not clear whether any of the listed steps will be part of upcoming budgets, but Johnson said the list Milwaukee sent to Vos contained areas in which the city was already contemplating changes.

"The list came from areas that we had already been thinking about and then put a greater focus on in light of the fact that there was supposed to be several hundred million dollars in this innovation fund for us to be able to take advantage of," he said.

Johnson said he did not commit to making any specific changes in discussions with state leaders, though he said the city had a "strong desire" to work with the county because it's in both local governments' interests to access money from the innovation fund.

Vos' office did not respond to a request for comment on the proposals.

More: Robin Vos wants Milwaukee to explore privatizing or sharing services before he considers a dedicated sales tax

More: Speaker Robin Vos says bill changing Milwaukee operations could come in spring with funding in state budget

Documents detail possible 'efficiency savings' and 'reform proposals'

The documents, which the Journal Sentinel received through an open records request, include six "rough estimates of possible city efficiency savings" and a series of "reform proposals" broken out into seven categories.

Possible efficiency savings included civilianization of Milwaukee Police Department desk jobs to free up sworn officers for patrol, consolidating city and county park maintenance, further privatizing sanitation and mowing services in the city's Department of Public Works, and eliminating or reducing city-funded retiree health care costs, the document states.

The city from 2018 through 2021 paid an average of $36 million per year for total retiree health care costs, according to the proposal. And while it notes the potential for "significant" annual savings, it also states that there are "several possible legal and contractual obstacles" to making such a change for retirees who receive the benefit.

Johnson said the city had to look at all of its options because of its serious financial challenges.

On the potential for privatizing city services, he said there are areas in which he believes the city should be careful because of potential impacts on the quality and cost of services for the public.

However, he said he backed expanding private garbage collection.

The city currently picks up garbage and recyclables from about 190,000 households with one to four units. The proposal noted the potential for savings if the city required private garbage service for the approximately 2,600 four-unit properties.

The list of reform proposals led with changing the city's pension system, which was described in the document as the "most impactful area for long-term financial reforms."

A spike in the city's annual pension contribution was a key factor in its increasingly tight budgets. Other factors were the state's decision to return a stagnant amount of shared revenue to the city for more than two decades and state-imposed limits on local governments' ability to raise revenue coupled with rising costs and dwindling reserves.

Without the sales tax, the city faced deep service cuts in 2025.

The new law makes changes to the city's pension system, including by requiring the city to move new employees into the state pension system if it imposed a local sales tax. The changes also come with significantly increased costs related to the pension.

The reform proposals also included pursuing shared services, including expanding water service agreements with adjacent neighboring communities that are not currently serviced by Milwaukee Water Works.

"Especially on wholesale deals, there is a return for us and there is a benefit, of course, to other communities that partner with us on this as well," Johnson said. "Our water rates are some of the most affordable in the country."

The proposals also include reducing city infrastructure, exploring privatization or contracting for some services like street lighting work and snow removal, and expanding the city's fire and police academies to provide training to police, fire and EMS recruits statewide.

Need for change comes from staffing, funding challenges

Five or six years ago, the desire to save money and address budget constraints was the main driver for local governments to consider service-sharing and privatization, said Rob Henken, president of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum that has long analyzed government finance.

Today, though, staffing challenges have surpassed tight finances as a key reason to at least consider these options, he said.

That's true in Milwaukee, he said, where city government faces the question not only of where to find the greatest potential cost savings but also whether privatization can help address increasingly insurmountable staffing challenges in some areas of government.

The city and county are particularly struggling to maintain staff in the skilled trades and general laborer positions, he said. The Policy Forum is looking at whether the two governments could jointly recruit and build career ladders to help address the worker shortage in those positions.

That analysis is part of a Policy Forum project looking at potential service collaborations between the city and Milwaukee County.

Some of the service-sharing suggestions in the city's proposal represent a way forward that the city, county and other municipalities should be considering, Henken said.

Service sharing is often most beneficial if multiple governments are trying to improve their level of service, he said. However, that doesn't mean it will definitely work out.

"Oftentimes, once the analysis is done, it turns out that the potential benefits don't outweigh some of the sacrifices that a local government would need to make in terms of relinquishing some element of local control," he said. "That said, we commonly say to local governments there are certain sets of conditions that may make service sharing worth at least considering."

Those include areas in which local governments need to make significant investments in technology upgrades.

The Policy Forum's preliminary report laying out areas with the most potential for collaboration between the city and county is expected by early fall, with a more detailed analysis potentially taking place in the fall and winter. The goal would be to have "actionable plans" by the end of the first quarter of next year.

A second study by Ernst & Young is also under way. That analysis of the city's finances and operations is seeking ways to more efficiently deliver some services.

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 listed garbage service, retiree health care as ways to save
Seven civilians were killed and about 30 injured as a result of a Russian missile strike on central Pokrovsk, in Donetsk Oblast, which damaged several high-rise buildings. Deputy head of Ukraines State Emergency Service (SES) in Donetsk Oblast was killed. Rescue workers, police officers and a child sustained injuries.

Source: Ihor Klymenko, Head of Ukraines Ministry of Internal Affairs, on Telegram; Serhii Kruk, Head of Ukraines State Emergency Service, on Telegram, Suspilne, citing Serhii Dobriak, Head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration

Quote from Klymenko: "Five people have been killed and 18 injured as a result of two missile strikes on residential buildings in Pokrovsk. As of 21:20, [we know that] four civilians were killed and three injured in the first strike.

The second strike killed the deputy head of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast. Four rescue workers, eight police officers, and three civilians sustained injuries. Our heroes were the first ones to arrive at the site of the attack to help people.

Rescue and search operations are still underway. We are clearing away the rubble and rescuing people from the Russian terror."

Details: Serhii Kruk, Head of Ukraines State Emergency Service, confirmed that an SES employee was killed and added that another five SES rescue workers were injured.

Zelenskyy later shared the name of the State Emergency Service employee killed in the Russian attack on Pokrovsk: Colonel Andrii Omelchenko.

Updated: Klymenko reported that as of 21:50. The number of people reported to have been injured has risen to 31, of them 19 are police officers, 5 emergency workers, and 1 is a child. Emergency workers are clearing away the rubble.

Kyrylenko reported that as of 22:00, 5 civilians were reported to have been killed, and 14 wounded (among the wounded is an 11-year-old child). In addition, two State Emergency Service employees and one soldier were killed. Nine police officers, a local military administration employee and a soldier were wounded.

      pic.twitter.com/xfZRDjWedb     (@ukrpravda_news) August 7, 2023

Suspilne reported that seven civilians were killed and 27 were injured, citing the numbers provided by Serhii Dobriak, Head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration. Most injured civilians have been hospitalised in a Pokrovsk hospital, though two persons in a critical condition were transferred to the city of Dnipro. Work to clear away the rubble has been temporarily suspended.

Background:

In the evening, Russian troops launched a missile attack on a residential building in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, damaging high-rise buildings and killing one person; seven people were injured.

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!






Editors Note: A version of this article originally appeared in the weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief, which is released every Monday. You can sign up here to receive them every week and during significant storms.

Record dry streaks and a long-lasting ridge of high pressure are teaming up to lock in dangerous heat and trigger an expanding drought across parts of the Southwest and Texas.

This is particularly true in Phoenix, which just endured the hottest month on record for any US city and still hasnt had any measurable rain, even though the monsoon season, which is responsible for bringing the Southwest at least 50% of its annual rainfall, started nearly two months ago.

Phoenix is currently experiencing its driest three-month period on record, fueled by the second-latest first rain of the monsoon season.

This, in combination with the much talked about stubborn area of high pressure, will keep temperatures in record territory for the foreseeable future.

Phoenix needs monsoon rain to break the heat. It brings added moisture, cloud cover and rain which can moderate temperatures, especially from oppressive afternoon highs.

Its getting drier by the day, with nothing more than a 20 to 30% chance of rain through the week.

Highs in Phoenix are expected to come down slightly this week  from a scorching 116 degrees on Saturday down to a forecast high of 104 degrees on Wednesday.

However, the added monsoonal moisture will bring the humidity levels higher, which means the heat index, or feels like temperature, will be higher. Its a no-win situation right now, unless they get rain.

By the end of the week, moisture decreases and so do the chances for rain. And you guessed it: temperatures climb right back up to 110 degrees.

Growing drought and extreme fire conditions in Texas

The lack of rain is also putting the Lone Star State in a dire drought situation which is causing the threat of fires to grow.

Its just going to keep deteriorating, said Logan Scherschel, fire analyst for Texas A&M Forest Service. Theres a pretty good recipe for a bad week coming up because the fields have been drying out for over a month.

Texas had a really wet spring, which produced a lot of fresh grass growth. Then the summer has been very dry and very hot.

Several Texas cities, including Waco, Austin, Houston, Midland, San Angelo and Del Rio, have had little-to-no rainfall during the last few months and are all now experiencing their driest 30-day stretch on record.

The heat is also helping dry out the ground even more. El Paso is expected to hit 109 degrees Monday, then hover around 105 degrees the rest of the week. The city has had 30 days this year with temperatures above 105 degrees, breaking the record for the most such days.

Austin is also expected to stay around 105 degrees all week. The city endured 11 consecutive days above 105 degrees ending in late July, which was an all-time record.

Much of the new grass that grew during the spring is dead now, creating the perfect fuel for the spread of fires.

Were starting to not only see a lot of fires easily started and carried by the grass, but theyre starting to get what we call significant fires because they get very resistant to control as the brush and trees start burning, Scherschel explained.

Texas has had more than 100 fires burn in the last seven days alone, most of those in the more populated areas of the state from Dallas to Houston to San Antonio.

So even if fires dont get thousands and thousands of acres in size, a small fire can still impact a pretty good-sized population, Scherschel said.

Much of the state is under heat alerts on Monday. There is also an elevated fire risk for West and Central Texas.

The combination of extremely hot temperatures, 20-30% RH (relative humidity) and very dry fuels has resulted in aggressive fire behavior, according to the storm prediction center.

More than 50% of Texas is in drought, with a small pocket of the most extreme level of drought covering the Hill Country. According to Scherschel, they need rain and a lot of it.

Pretty much at this point, its going to take some type of season-ending event, such as like a tropical storm or hurricane to bring a lot of Gulf moisture, a lot of rainfall on a lot of real estate, Scherschel said.

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Over the years, the Defense News Top 100 list has highlighted fundamental changes in the defense industry. Comparing lists from 2010 to 2023, one can see a rise of Chinese, Turkish and South Korean firms. They show the increasing prominence of services and information technology sectors as major components of the industry.

But one of the most salient features of the global defense industry mostly eludes visibility in the Top 100 list: the rise of private capital as critical players in the defense sector.

Click here to see the Top 100, a ranking of the largest defense companies in the world.

Whether controlled by private equity firms or families, privately owned firms play an increasingly prominent role across numerous defense market sectors. Privately owned defense firms  as opposed to those that are publicly traded or government-owned  used to be a rarity in the defense sector.

The Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group was an early pioneer among private equity firms, having acquired defense-related properties in the 1980s. But it was in the 2000s that private equity firms started their rapid expansion into many sectors of the global economy, including defense, aerospace and government services.

(Source: Oliver Wyman)

Why are many of these players missing from the Defense News Top 100 list? Privately owned firms are not required by government regulators to disclose financial information, like revenue, margin or capital investment.

Open-source information is one of the principal means, along with a voluntary survey, by which Defense News compiles the annual Top 100 list. Many private firms choose to keep their financial indicators private. Those that do show up on the list  like Sierra Nevada Corp., ranked 57th in this years edition  do so for their own reasons, such as brand awareness. The presence of companies like ManTech, Amentum and Peraton show some private equity owners are willing to share at least some details about the size of their defense operations.

This means many increasingly prominent players in the global defense sector are absent from the Top 100 list. Publicly available U.S. Defense Department contract data suggests the scale of some of these missing companies (a contract value can be a proxy for revenue, but the two metrics are not equal):

Atlantic Diving Supply: Family-owned ADS is a distributor of tactical equipment to military, law enforcement and emergency services customers. ADS generated more than $3 billion in contract value from DoD agencies in the U.S. governments fiscal 2022, suggesting it could be in the top half of the Top 100.

General Atomics: The maker of the Reaper drone rarely discloses its financial information. But in FY22, General Atomics was awarded DoD contracts valued at more than $2 billion. That does not count potential classified contracts. Further, General Atomics has exported the Reaper to international customers, which would add international sales to its defense revenue.

SpaceX: The firm is a critical space launch provider to the DoD and NASA. In FY22, SpaceX generated nearly $760 million in contract value from the DoD alone. It is hard to know where this would put them on this years Top 100 list, in part due to international defense revenue.

Cubic Corp.: Cubic was ranked 98th in the 2021 version of the Top 100 list, with about $635 million in FY20 defense revenue. But after Veritas acquired it in May 2021, the firm stopped publicly reporting financial information. In FY22, Cubic gained more than $568 million in prime contract value from DoD customers. Adding international and subcontract revenue, Cubic would likely take a position in this years Top 100 list, too.

Why are private investors drawn to defense? Defense firms usually do not generate margins much greater than low single digits, a fraction of those seen among, say, commercial technology firms like Apple (43.3% gross margin in 2022) or Microsoft (68.4%).

But defense companies can be valuable in other ways. Defense (and broader government) markets offer limited risk: Government customers generally pay on time, they cover most research and development costs, and they provide steady cash flow. This predictability and low risk can lead to a total shareholder value that is highly attractive.

The role of defense in private investors motivations can vary. Many private equity firms maintain a broad portfolio, even if, like Veritas Capital, Arlington Capital Partners and others, they pursue defense as a specialty.

Individual investors may be drawn to defense for patriotic reasons. Palmer Luckey, a founder of defense software integrator Anduril, told The New York Times in 2017 that we need a new kind of defense company, one that will save taxpayer dollars while creating superior technology to keep our troops and citizens safer.

Looking to the future, some firms may disappear from the Top 100 list. Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions was acquired by the global private equity firm Advent International in 2020, but continues to feature on this years list (in 75th place). That rank is due in part to its absorption of Ultra Electronics, which Advent acquired in March 2023. Similarly, Advent acquired Maxar Technologies (77th on the list) in May 2023. These firms continued presence on the Top 100 list may have as much to do with Advents appetite for publicity as it does with these companies commercial success.

Doug Berenson is a partner at the consultancy Oliver Wyman, where he focuses on the aerospace and defense markets.
Two Missouri Republican lawmakers and a prominent anti-abortion activist filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the estimated cost of several proposed ballot measures to restore abortion rights.

The lawsuits plaintiffs include state Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican, state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, and Kathy Forck, an anti-abortion activist from New Bloomfield. The lawsuit was filed in Cole County.

Their complaint challenges a series of fiscal notes that Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick prepared for the proposed ballot measures estimating that they would have no cost to the state. The lawsuit argues that restoring abortion in Missouri would cost billions to the state and cause local governments to lose millions  figures pushed by anti-abortion groups that Fitzpatrick has said are inaccurate.

The proposed amendments would allow the destruction of thousands of pre-born Missouri citizens a year, with profound consequences to Missourians that far eclipse financial Concerns, the complaint said. As part of the initiative petition process, however, the State Auditor is legally tasked with the grim calculation of the financial costs to Missouri from this enormous human loss.

Fitzpatrick, in an interview with The Star on Tuesday, touted his anti-abortion views, saying he wished he could submit fiscal notes estimating a huge financial loss to the state. But he said he has a duty to submit accurate information.

This is not a question to me about whos the most pro-life. I just have a job to do as auditor to present to voters the most accurate information possible when theyre voting on something, he said, adding that he had only read roughly half of the lawsuit.

Abortion rights supporters on Monday painted the complaint as an attempt by Republicans to halt the abortion rights petition from reaching the ballot. Some Republicans have acknowledged that a measure restoring abortion access would have support from a majority of Missourians if it were on the ballot.

Tom Bastian, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Missouri, in a statement pointed to the fact that Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey pushed the same estimates argued in the lawsuit before he was shot down in the Missouri Supreme Court last month.

This is another attempt by power-obsessed politicians to prevent Missourians from voting on reproductive rights, Bastian said Monday. The bogus lawsuit parrots the already court-rejected claims of the Attorney General.

Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, an abortion rights advocacy group formerly called Pro-Choice Missouri, criticized the complaint in an email Monday.

These women who claim to be advocates for families are blatantly ignoring the facts denying access to abortions has long term and inter generational consequences, the statement said in part. Abortion access ensures economic stability for families, communities, and entire states.

Fitzpatrick and Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is also named as a defendant, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Ashcroft, a candidate for governor in 2024, faces a separate lawsuit from the ACLU of Missouri for drafting misleading language for the proposed ballot measures that would ask voters to allow for dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions. A trial in that case is scheduled for Sept. 11.

Mondays lawsuit represents another legal hurdle for abortion rights supporters who are looking to get a version of the measure on the ballot in 2024 and illustrates a sustained effort by Republicans to stop the measure from moving forward.

Last month, the states high court ruled that Bailey had overstepped his authority when he refused to sign off on Fitzpatricks estimates. Bailey had also argued that the measures should include a projected loss of $12.5 billion in Medicaid dollars to the state.

At issue are 11 versions of a state constitutional amendment that would restore abortion rights in Missouri. Anna Fitz-James, a retired St. Louis doctor, submitted the proposals in March. The legal standoffs have prevented supporters from gathering signatures to get a version of the measure on the ballot, an arduous, expensive and time-intensive process.

Fitzpatricks fiscal notes for the petitions state that the measures would have no cost to the state. The estimates do say that local governments estimate at least $51,000 in reduced tax revenues, based on an estimate from Greene County.

Mondays lawsuit pushes back on this projection, arguing that Fitzpatrick failed to include estimates pushed by anti-abortion groups that legalizing abortion could cause the state to lose billions in Medicaid money.

The lawsuit also argues that Fitzpatrick should have applied Greene Countys estimates to the entire state, finding that local governments could lose millions each year.

Our legal challenge to the fiscal note is not about individual officeholders, but about the omission of the true fiscal costs to individual Missourians with measures that could imperil their financial futures, and cost the state billions of dollars in health care funding, Kelly, Coleman and Forck said in a joint statement Monday.

This story has been updated to include comments from Missouri Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.
TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned, for the second time in less than a month, Danish Ambassador to Tehran Jasper Vahr over the recurrent desecration of the Quran in the Scandinavian country, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Speaking at a weekly press conference in the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday, ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the ministry had asked the Danish envoy to convey to the Danish government Tehran's strong protest against the continuation of the sacrilegious acts against the Islamic holy book.

Vahr was also informed of Iran's expectation from the Danish government to take responsible and deterrent measures against the desecration of the Quran in Denmark, said Kanaani.

He said the Danish ambassador elaborated on his government's measures to stop Quran desecration.

Over the past weeks, the Quran has been desecrated several times in Sweden and Denmark, igniting fury and criticism from Muslim-majority countries across the world.

On July 22, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Vahr to protest against the "insult" to the Quran in Denmark, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported. 
When Kentucky Sen, Mitch McConnell (R) last ran for reelection in 2020, he handily defeated Democratic challenger Amy McGrath by nearly 20 points in a stunning display of the political clout that has made McConnell an institution in both his home state and the United States Senate as a whole. Just three years later, however, McConnell's seemingly impenetrable fiefdom appears on significantly shakier ground; the man whose senatorial impact and legacy rivals even that of Lyndon Johnson now finds himself increasingly at odds with his own party as it continues to transform into an extension  both politically and culturally  of former President Donald Trump.

Making his 28th appearance at Kentucky's annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic this weekend, McConnell was met with a cacophonous barrage of boos, shouted allegations that he'd "lost the Senate," and ongoing calls to "retire," even as he tried in vain to tell picnic-goers that "it's not hard for Republicans to look good these days."

The episode quickly went viral online, boosted in part by Trump himself, who shared a clip of McConnell's speech, complete with a transcription of the crowd's "BOOOOORETIRE, RETIRE, RETIREBOOOOO!!!" chant, on his Truth Social platform. "I AGREE!" Trump added, making absolutely clear where he stands on the issue of McConnell's senate tenure. That the incident occurred just days after McConnell inexplicably froze mid-sentence during a GOP press conference  itself just months after McConnell was discharged from a hospital after suffering a concussion from a recent fall  only served to heighten the sense that this onetime lion of the Senate might be facing his final act as a Republican leader. But is the McConnell era truly coming to a close, or will he weather this latest turbulence and continue leading his party for the foreseeable future?

What are the commentators saying?

"Speculation about McConnell's future has become more common" following his fall this past Spring, CNN reported, noting that despite warm applause when he first appeared at the Fancy Farm Picnic, "some voters expressed some concern about how his health will affect his ability to continue serving in the Senate." McConnell's "speech has sounded more halting in recent weeks, prompting questions among some of his colleagues about his health," according to The Associated Press. After his press-conference freeze-up, "a number of pro-Trump conservative media figures and activists, who have long despised the Senate minority leader, called for [McConnell's] immediate resignation," Vanity Fair said, adding that despite McConnell's vow to complete his term and tenure as Republican senate leader, his "obvious frailty means that a retirement or retreat from Senate leadership is certainly a possibility."

While the Associated Press said that the chorus of boos during McConnell's speech originated with Democrats in the audience, the fact that those in attendance chanted accused him of having "lost" the Senate highlights the bipartisan frustration with the longtime GOP leader, with the predictably Democratic opprobrium buttressed by a growing conservative bloc of Trump-influenced conservatives. Just before McConnell's speech this weekend, the former president called his onetime ally "perhaps the worst leader in the history of our country," alleging that "they've got something on Mitch McConnell."

For his part, McConnell "stuck to his script" during his speech, the New York Post reported, adding that he conspicuously "did not acknowledge" Trump's comments. Nevertheless, while his influence is unmatched across the GOP, Trump is not the only Republican who has publicly called for McConnell to step down: late last month former UN ambassador and current Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also called McConnell out by name during a CBS interview, where she encouraged him to "know when to walk away" as part of a broader call for electoral term limits.

What's next?

To date, McConnell has publicly denied any plans to heed the calls for his retirement, saying in a statement last month that he intends to "serve his full term" as Senate minority leader, which his colleagues "overwhelmingly elected him to do." Still, the nexus of health concerns, with the steady flow of threats from the current Republican presidential front-runner has put McConnell in as vulnerable a position as he has ever been. Were he to retire, or find himself incapacitated while in office, a 2021 bill passed over the objections of Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear would require a fellow Republican to fill his seat, ensuring no change in the balance of partisan power in the Senate. What could change, however, is the balance of power within the GOP itself. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.), and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) are each seen as "possible contenders to be McConnell's successor," according to Vox, which pointed out that "all three have at times sought to keep their distance" from Trump of late. Still, McConnell's absence would create a "power vacuum" in the Senate, which in turn could lead to "an opening for the MAGA wing of the party to grow its influence."

While his recent health concerns may have exacerbated calls for a change within the party, McConnell's once solid-seeming support showed cracks as early as this past midterm election, when  after losing the Senate majority to the Democrats  he faced an insurgent effort by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to oust him as GOP leader. While Scott's effort ultimately only garnered 10 votes from fellow Republicans, it was a sign of shifting winds within the party. "My criticisms following the last election loss are well known," Sen. Josh Hawley, one of Scott's supporters, told Vanity Fair. "I think we need a different approachbut I don't want that to be taken as a dig against his health, at all."

"I'm against older candidates, the current president, Mitch McConnell," one attendee at this weekend's picnic told CNN. "I think that they've run their course in politics, I think they'd be good for backing people now. But I think politics now is more of a young man's game." In spite of those headwinds, though, McConnell himself seemed nothing but confident, telling picnic attendees that "this is my 28th Fancy Farm and I want to assure you it's not my last."

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Mitch McConnell was heckled at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky this past weekend.

Booing is not unusual at Fancy Farm, but McConnell spoke after a much publicized health scare.

The veteran GOP leader has committed to serving in his leadership role through the 2024 elections.

As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday stepped onstage at Fancy Farm  the premier political event in Kentucky  he was repeatedly met with jeers to "retire."

Such a reception is not unusual for McConnell, one of the most polarizing figures in US politics.

And the reception is definitely not unusual at the Fancy Farm picnic, where Democrats and Republicans have their most fervent supporters cheer and boo candidates from opposing parties during the oft-raucous event.

But McConnell is at a political crossroads, as the 81-year-old veteran lawmaker fights to flip the Senate back into GOP hands after losing control of the chamber after the dual Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January 2021. And while McConnell has steered the Republican Senate caucus since 2007, questions about his longevity as a party leader escalated after he froze mid-sentence during a Capitol Hill press conference in late July.

McConnell, first elected to the Senate in 1984, was reelected to seventh term in 2020, so he isn't facing voters again this year or next.

But during McConnell's speech at Fancy Farm, he went into attack mode against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who's seeking reelection to a second term against GOP state Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

"We are dominant, but we haven't completed the job. We haven't completed the job," McConnell said of the rise of the Republican Party in the onetime Democratic-heavy state. "What Frankfort needs  is a governor who wants to go in the same direction. It's the last big step to make in our state."

McConnell lit into Beshear, criticizing him for his support of COVID-19 restrictions and remarking that the moderate governor "speaks liberal with a California accent," while also trying to link him to President Joe Biden  an unpopular figure in the Bluegrass State.

While McConnell was making many of his more pointed political statements, the boos continued.

Similar to Sen. Dianne Feinstein  the 90-year-old California Democrat whose previous monthslong health-related absence blunted her party's efforts to fill critical court vacancies  the advanced age of many of the country's top leaders has come into heavier scrutiny in recent years.

Biden, 80, is running for reelection to a second term, despite the reluctance of some Democratic voters who may support his policies but express concern about his age.

Many of the country's top political leaders, as explored in Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" series, often point to their tenure in office as a key reason for their effectiveness. And they're not ceding the spotlight anytime soon.

Despite his health scare, McConnell's office said that he remained committed to serving as the party's leader through the 2024 elections.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mitch McConnell was heckled with chants of retire as he spoke at an event in Kentucky over the weekend  just weeks after he sparked concerns for his health with his freezing episode.

The Senate minority leader, 81, was interrupted with loud jeers, boos and shouts of retire as he appeared at the 143rd Annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in his home state on Saturday.

My friends, Ill be honest, its not hard for Republicans to look good these days, Mr McConnell said, while the crowd roared with heckles around him.

Were up against the folks that gave you record high inflation, that closed schools...

The Republican senator tried to ignore the ruckus, while the crowds chants escalated and grew ever louder.

Other chants directed at Mr McConnell included shame on you, ditch Mitch and lost the Senate.

The calls for him to retire come just over one week after a concerning episode where the 81-year-old froze in the middle of a press conference.

Mr McConnell was speaking at a Senate Republican briefing back on 26 July, when he suddenly stopped speaking and froze at the podium for several seconds.

He was guided away by his fellow lawmakers before returning a few moments later and answering questions from reporters.

When asked to address what happened, he simply responded: Im fine.

A spokesperson later said that he had simply felt lightheaded.

Mr McConnell has tried to make light of the incident, saying that he was sandbagged  a reference to President Joe Bidens fall on stage at a military graduation in June.

He also vowed to serve out the remainder of his senate term  despite the health episode leading to renewed calls for term limits for US lawmakers.

Mitch McConnell was booed and faced chants to retire after freezing episode (The Independent)

The long-running senator had only returned to the Senate in March after another fall which left him with a concussion.

Sources told NBC News that the 81-year-old also suffered a fall while disembarking a plane in early July and that he is now using a wheelchair as a precaution while travelling in crowded places such as airports.

Though not addressing the incident directly, Mr McConnell remained defiant about not standing down from the senate during his appearance at Fancy Farm on Saturday.

Well, this is my 28th Fancy Farm, and I want to assure you, its not my last, he said.

Meanwhile, the senator also chose not to respond to Mr Trumps latest attack, after the former president claimed that Democrats must have got something on Mitch McConnell for him not to back him in his fight against his growing legal troubles.

Theyve got something on Mitch McConnell, he claimed at an event in South Carolina.

Its a terrible thing thats happening with that guy and with the wholethey gotta step up.

The House is stepping up, theyre working hard and they are stepping up and I think a lot of things are happening but well see.
The secret to impressing an Iron Chef is definitely in the sauce for the Modesto-based makers of Five Monkeys BBQ Sauce.

The locally made barbecue sauce has been a regional hit since 2017, when the five-member Morasci family launched its brand of corn syrup-free, clean ingredient sauces. Now, the companys food has the blessing of celebrity chef Michael Symon, and the Morascis will appear this month on his Food Network series BBQ USA.

Cleveland-based chef Symon is known for his Food Network shows Iron Chef America, Burgers, Brew & Que, Symons Dinners Cooking Ou, and his newest series, BBQ USA. Launched last year, the part-travel, part-cooking competition show follows Symon as he checks in on barbecue events across the country.

Its at one of these events that Symon met George Morasci and learned of the familys Five Monkeys sauces. Morasci, his wife, Kelly, and three adult children run the company and attend food events to promote the brand. They started producing the sauce commercially after friends and family urged them to share their personal recipe with the world, and its playful name refers to the five family members.

The Morasci family of Modesto launched their own brand of barbecue sauce, Five Monkeys, in August 2017. Pictured L-R: Keith, Taylor, Nico, Kelly and George Morasci.

Morasci said he received an invitation earlier this year to an annual benefit in Queens, New York. He had gone to the event last year and almost ignored the emailed 2023 invitation. Then he learned this years celebration would be filmed for Symons series, with the famed chef picking a handful of teams to shadow and feature on the series.

The filming took place over two days in April in New York. Film crews followed Morascis team and seven others, though signing on didnt guarantee they would make it onto TV. Still, the opportunity to have the prestigious James Beard Award-winning chef taste their offerings was enough for them.

Honestly, I didnt care too much about the competition, I just thought it was cool that Michael Symon would be coming by to try my food, Morasci said. You get an Iron Chef to come by and try your food, people pay attention.

George Morasci, his daughter, Taylor (who now lives in Boston), and friend and fellow chef Andy Nguyen attended the Queens competition, which featured judges from another popular Food Network series, BBQ Brawl. Kelly Morasci, who teaches for Modesto City Schools, and the couples sons werent able to make the trek.

To stand out, Morasci decided to cook nontraditional barbecue dishes for his competition entries. He made a pulled pork egg roll with a Vietnamese slaw and an ice cream sundae with homemade baklava and caramel sauce. Both dishes, of course, featured their Five Monkeys products: BBQ sauce in the eggrolls and the new flavored almonds in the dessert.

His strategy worked, and Symon spent time visiting with them and even brought his wife back to their booth to try the food. At one point, Morasci said, Symon took video of the food to send his Greek mother to tell her he had a new favorite baklava.

I dont think hed heard of us before this event. But I darn well know that he knows who we are now. Took a clam-shell of baklava home with him, Morasci said.

Iron Chef Michael Symon appears in season 2 of his Food Network series BBQ USA.

The episode will air Aug. 14 on the Food Network as part of the shows ongoing second season. The Morascis will host a free, public watch party at downtown Modestos Food Fix restaurant to screen the episode. Chef Nguyen also will be there and the interactive event will feature samples of the dishes they made for the competition available to taste.

Family members have not seen the episode yet but are hopeful theyll make a good showing. The companys first national television exposure comes at a time when Morasci said theyre resetting their production. They currently manufacture out of a facility in Patterson but are looking for a larger space to upgrade their operation.

Before the pandemic, the company had ramped up its distribution to about 1,400 sites, including some national. But Morasci said that level of production proved too much for the family-run business, where George and Kelly still work their day jobs. During the pandemic, when supply and other manufacturing issues abounded, they pulled back distribution because they couldnt satisfy demand.

So they now work with only about 100 largely local distributors and what Morasci calls mom and pop shops. Regionally you can find the products at some Raleys Supermarkets and Ace Hardware stores, as well as downtown Modesto restaurants Food Fix, Piccadilly Deli and Chinns International. Theyre also available on Amazon and through their company website, fivemonkeysbbqsauce.com.

Since its launch six years ago, the company has gone from its one original BBQ sauce to two additional varieties (chili orange and scotch whiskey). It also has a line of seasoned almonds and recently debuted a Mexican-style seasoning.

Five Monkeys barbecue sauce in Ceres, Calif., Thursday, August 3, 2023.

Morasci said the family isnt sure what to expect from its appearance on BBQ USA but he hopes more people will get a chance to try and enjoy the Five Monkeys creations.

It was probably as cool a thing as Ive ever done in my life. To have someone of that caliber standing next to you and talking about the food youre creating, wow, Morasci said.

The BBQ USA featuring Five Monkeys BBQ Sauce will air at 7 p.m. Aug. 14 on Food Network, and the watch party at Food Fix, at 938 11th St. in Modesto, starts at 5:30 p.m.
An Oregon woman who vanished while on a hike in Arizona has been found dead, reports say.

Jessica Lindstrom, 34, was reported missing after failing to return from a morning hike in the Deem Hills Recreation Area on Friday, Aug. 4, the Phoenix Police Department said on Twitter, now rebranded as X.

Lindstroms body was found in the recreation area that evening, according to police, KTAR News reported.

Police said her death does not appear to be suspicious, the outlet reported.

Phoenix Fire Department Capt. Scott Douglas told CBS News that while the medical examiners office will determine a cause of death, it appears Lindstroms death may be heat-related.

Lindstrom, a registered Oregon nurse, was visiting family in Arizona, the outlet reported.

Lindstroms husband wrote in an Aug. 6 Facebook post that she was his world, adding she was the best thing that ever happened to him.

I am just so sad with a big hole in my heart at this time and taking everything in stride, he said.

The two shared four boys together, according to his post.

Lindstroms husband said he proposed to her at Deem Hills, where she died, according to an Aug. 7 Facebook post.

So eternally grateful that she said YES and gave me a chance, he wrote. I married my best friend.

Lindstroms mother shared her thanks on GoFundMe to those who helped search for Lindstrom.

We have been so overcome with the selfless service, the love, and the prayers that you have shown, her mother wrote. Oh how we will miss our Jessica.

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A Detroit woman is suing the city and a police detective after she says facial recognition technology wrongfully pegged her as a robbery and carjacking suspect while she was eight months pregnant, leading to her arrest.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, in a lawsuit filed Thursday said she was left scared, humiliated and her pregnancy jeopardized after being arrested at her home back in February by six police officers as she readied her two young children, ages 6 and 12, for school.

Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant? she said she told one of the arresting officers, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Woodruff, while dealing with gestational diabetes from her pregnancy, said she was taken to a detention center and held for 11 hours after being implicated as a suspect in an armed robbery that took place several weeks earlier.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, is suing the city of Detroit and a local police detective for unspecified damages after she said she was wrongfully arrested after being misidentified by facial recognition technology.

Porcha Woodruff, 32, is suing the city of Detroit and a local police detective for unspecified damages after she said she was wrongfully arrested after being misidentified by facial recognition technology.

The case against her was later dropped. Woodruffs suit claims that this was due to a lack of evidence. The Wayne County prosecutors office said this was because the robbery victim did not attend a March court hearing.

The arrest warrant was appropriate based upon the facts, the office said in a statement to HuffPost Monday.

Detroit Police Chief James E. White in a statement to HuffPost called the allegations presented in Woodruffs lawsuit very concerning but said that he cannot comment further due to it being an ongoing investigation.

We will provide further information once additional facts are obtained and we have a better understanding of the circumstances, he said.

According to Woodruffs lawsuit, she was incorrectly identified as involved in the robbery after an old arrest photo of her from 2015 was added to a photo lineup of six women that was presented to the robbery victim by police.

The man considered the photos and he identified Woodruff as a woman who he met at a store and had sex with shortly before being carjacked on Jan. 29. Just before the theft, he said he saw the woman interact with his future carjacker at a gas station that they stopped at.

He stated that she was the person that he had spent several hours with on the day he was robbed, prosecutor Kym Worthys office said in the statement.

Woodruffs photo was added to the lineup after Police Detective LaShauntia Oliver, who was handling the case, went to the gas station to review surveillance footage and consequently requested that facial recognition be used to identify the woman seen on video.

The carjacking suspect was later arrested and questioned. But he was not presented a photo of Woodruff to see if she was the same woman that he allegedly interacted with, according to the suit.

After being arrested at her home in front of her children and fiance, Woodruff said she was taken to a detention center where she was questioned by Oliver. Her phone was confiscated and she was told that she was identified as a suspect through a photo lineup.

Woodruff said she asked Oliver if the victim said the woman he was with was eight months pregnant. Oliver said he did not.

Despite knowing that [Woodruff] was not involved in the robbery or carjacking, DETECTIVE OLIVER directed [Woodruff] back to the holding cell. [Woodruff] was arraigned approximately two hours later on the charges of robbery and carjacking, the lawsuit states.

Woodruff was released later that night on bond, and her fiance took her to a hospital where she was treated for dehydration and diagnosed with low heart rate. She also learned that she had had contractions during her ordeal due to stress from the earlier events, according to her lawsuit.

This case highlights the significant flaws associated with using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects, her lawsuit states. Despite its potential, law enforcements reliance on facial recognition has led to wrongful arrests, causing humiliation, embarrassment, and physical injury, as evident in this particular incident.

Woodruffs lawsuit alleges false arrest and imprisonment, the violation of her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure, and accuses Oliver of acting with malice and reckless indifference to her rights.

She knew that there was a high probability that her conduct would cause severe emotional distress, her suit states.

A representative for the city said it does not comment on active litigation.

Related...
This article was originally published in Daily Montanan.

State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen said Thursday the state could see 1,000 teacher vacancies going into the upcoming school year  or roughly one in 10 positions.

A thousand new teachers or teachers will be requested within our 928 schools across our state, our 402 school districts, Arntzen said during the Montana Board of Public Education meeting.

Teacher pay has been an ongoing challenge in Montana, especially for rookies, and the dearth of teachers this year mirrors the shortage last school year.

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At the meeting, board members discussed teacher recruitment, retention as well as potential adjustments to licensure requirements as they related to the vacancies.

Despite boosts to their wages in recent years, Montana pays the lowest average starting salary for teachers in the country at $33,568, according to an April report from the National Education Association.

The idea to change license requirements has been controversial, and educators have said Montana must maintain quality. At the meeting Thursday, however, Arntzen said a potential change in licensure standards should not be seen as diluting teacher quality, but as giving school districts more flexibility.

Some of the proposed changes include recognizing licenses for nationally board-certified teachers and increasing access for expired licensees to reenter the classroom, according to an Office of Public Instruction press release.

This is enhancing to make sure that we hand districts the ability to be able to hire, Arntzen said.

OPI spokesperson Brian OLeary said in an email to the Daily Montanan the number of new licenses in 2022-2023 was the lowest in five years, at 1,207. The number of licenses in the state that were renewed, upgraded and added endorsements was the second lowest in the last five years.

Many businesses are struggling to fill positions throughout our great state, and schools are no exception, OLeary said.

Crystal Andrews, director of accreditation, educator preparation programs, and licensure for the state, is slated to lead a discussion on potential revisions to licensure standards Friday, according to the state boards agenda.

At the meeting, Arntzen talked about another strategy intended to help fill vacancies. In the Teacher Residency Program through the states universities, students spend their fourth year of study in the classroom with a teacher mentor, with a requirement the new teacher stays in the community.

Board Vice Chairperson Susie Hedalen, who works as a superintendent in Townsend, said later in the meeting her school hired one of the residents through that program to become a full-time teacher.

It was a lot of work for the mentoring teacher, the student teacher and the principal, she said. They put a lot of time and effort into it, (and) we have a great new teacher next year.

OLeary said OPI doesnt hold data on all of the public school teacher vacancies in the state, but its Jobs for Teachers webpage lists 1,089 openings for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and counselors as of Thursday.

Teaching positions make up 950 of the positions posted, OLeary said, adding OPI cant guarantee the listings dont include duplicate postings, for example. He said school districts are also not required to post their job listings on the site.

The number of vacancies this time of year is consistent with last year, with OLeary saying near the end of July 2022 there were more than 1,100 job postings on the OPI Jobs for Teachers page. The NEA reported there being more than 10,800 teaching jobs in the state.

Other efforts OPI is making include hosting job fairs to connect teachers and school districts, with the next one on Aug. 4 online. The department is also touting the expansion of the TEACH Act to increase new teacher pay and loan assistance for teachers at impacted schools, meaning alternative or rural education settings.

Board member Jane Lee Hamman said she thought teacher retention should be a high priority for the next legislative session.

We can start to think about some of the plans for structural changes and additions for the next session, because I think thats going to be critical, she said.

Angela McLean, in the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, said licensure and making sure educators in all fields get to where they are needed in the state is critical.

Its not just enough to just make sure that we have a teacher that will stay in the more urban parts of Montana. We want to get them to some of these rural communities where they have long been needed the most, she said.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and Twitter.
More than 3,000 U.S. sailors and Marines reached the Red Sea on Sunday aboard the assault ship USS Bataan in response to Irans harassment and seizures of merchant vessels, according to the U.S. Naval Central Forces Central Command.

These units add significant operational flexibility and capability as we work alongside international partners to deter destabilizing activity and deescalate regional tensions caused by Irans harassment and seizures of merchant vessels earlier this year, the U.S. Fifth Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Tim Hawkins said in a statement shared with The Hill.

The arrival is part of a preannounced military deployment, the U.S. Naval Central Forces Command said. Hawkins said it signals the countrys strong, unwavering commitment to regional maritime security.

The assault ship arrived Sunday after traveling from the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. The U.S. Naval Central Forces Central Command said the USS Bataan and dock landing ship USS Carter Hall bring additional aviation and naval assets, as well as more U.S. Marines and Sailors, providing greater flexibility and maritime capability to the U.S. 5th Fleet.

The U.S. Naval Central Forces Central Command also said the assault ship can carry more than two dozen rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft and several ambitious landing craft. The dock landing ship will be used in operations for multiple rotary-wing aircraft, tactical vehicles and amphibious landing craft.

Since 2019, Iran has seized several ships in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf in an attempt to pressure the West over negotiations over its collapsed nuclear deal with world powers. Tensions have continued to rise since the Trump administration withdrew from Irans 2015 nuclear agreement and reinstated sanctions, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Sunbathers were sprawled on the sand at Waushakum Pond but not a soul was in the water -- and with good reason. Waushakum is one of more than fifty Massachusetts beaches closed over the weekend because of contamination -- in this case, from harmful algae overgrowth.

But the vast majority of beaches with swimming bans tested for high levels of bacteria -- most likely e.coli, which is associated with human and animal feces. Closed beaches included both salt and freshwater sites in more than thirty communities, according to the new state Water Quality Dashboard, rolled out by the state Department of Public Health.

At Ashland State Park, some didnt realize the beach was closed -- and actually has been for many days.

I came to swim and to hang out with my good friend, said Amy Mevorach, who was hauling enough beach paraphernalia to maybe outweigh her disappointment. There are definitely inconveniences that come up because of climate change. Its a systemic thing we need to address.

On the bright side, said Mevorach, parking was plentiful because of the swimming ban. Its still peaceful and relaxing to be here with the woods and a friend and the sunshine, she said.

Juliana Wall knew enough to expect no swimming at the Park. Shes been aware of its contamination problems this summer.

Its really unfortunate, Wall said. Its a really nice beach and I live in town here and its a great way to bring together community -- especially to cool off in the summer.

And Wall isnt holding out much hope the water quality at Ashland State Park will turn around any time soon.

Heres hoping we can swim again there this summer, she said. But I dont know... Im not planning on it.

The state listed two Framingham bathing sites as closed. At Learned Pond, bacterial contamination was the issue. Thus, on a bright, warm summer day, the parking lot was nearly empty.

Bill Nugent sat in the shade, quite a distance from the water.

I guess its necessary, he said. But it puts a lot of people out. Im not much of a swimmer, but it does my heart good to see the Moms and the kids, families that come because they love places like this.

For Nugent, Learned Pond holds a special place in his memories.

My Mom used to take me and my little sister here when we were real young kids, he said.

Nugents Mom and sister both passed away seven years ago. In fact, he was at the beach to mark the anniversary day his mothers passing.

He requested a song from a local radio station in honor of his mother -- an Irish tune with a theme about someday meeting again. As it played, Nugent closed his eyes -- and remembered.

The full list of current beach closures can be viewed here.

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

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Home to buildings more than a century old, improvements and restorations are a near constant at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Now ahead of another state fair, the latest major renovation project is still underway.

Brayden Wilson arranges his Grand Champion Poultry Market Pen for the Governors Sale of Champions in the Coliseum of Champions during the 2021 Illinois State Fair at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ill., Tuesday, August 17, 2021. [Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register]

Gov. JB Pritzker announced a $58.1 million project last year, specifically targeting the Multi-Purpose Arena and the Coliseum, road improvements for a smoother drive through the fairgrounds and replacement of the roof and HVAC systems in many of the site's buildings. Years of dereliction prompted the investment along with another $6.7 million from the Illinois Department of Agriculture - racking a total of nearly $65 million towards fairgrounds improvements in the last five years.

Renovations caused the closure of MPA during last year's fair, requiring events to be moved to the Coliseum and the Grandstand instead. This year, IDOA Director Jerry Costello II said the arena will reopen Thursday - opening day for the 2023 Illinois State Fair - as host to the Monsters of Destruction tour in addition to several truck and tractor pulls and a rodeo show over the course of the fair.

The state invested $8.6 million through Rebuild Illinois into MPA, these funds going towards a new canopy and structural repairs to the the foundation and terraced walls. Work on restrooms and new concession stands at the 23-year-old building is also nearing completion.

"I can tell you any fairgoers moving around the fairgrounds, it's hard to miss the tents of the Multi-Purpose Arena," he said during fair media day earlier this week. "It's something that I think everyone will notice is new."

Phase 2 work on the Coliseum resumed following the conclusion of last year's fair with the goal of adding more seating and a new HVAC system among its several initiatives. Most of the seating has been added, Costello said, along with an additional elevator as part of a broader effort to make the amphitheater more ADA-accessible.

The $16.3 million renovation phase complements Phase 1, completed in 2019, and is expected to be wrapped up later next year.

As Costello and State Fair Manager Rebecca Clark noted, making the fairgrounds accessible year-round while maintaining its historic nature remain at the center of the work.

"Improvements to the fairgrounds are going to be a continual process," Clark told The State Journal-Register. "We're going to continue to have to replace roofs, we're going to have to continue to pave roads."

Improvements to the arena and Coliseum make up the lion's share of the funding, more than $25 million combined, but fairgoers will also see replaced roofs at the Emmerson and Expo buildings, charging stations for electric vehicles and a sensory-friendly station.

More: Sensory friendly station, sunflower hours to be featured at the Illinois State Fair

Road improvements totaling $4.1 million also kicked off last spring, where roads along the cattle and swine barns as well as the Avenue of Flags were resurfaced. Another $8 million allowed for new construction along Eighth Street and structural improvements to the pedestrian tunnel heading into the Grandstand infield.

Deferred maintenance placed the state in a bit of a "catch-up" status when it came to fairgrounds improvements, Costello added, but recent and continued investments have put it on the right path. In this year's fiscal budget, IDOA received approximately $16.8 million for costs associated with the operation and improvements to the fairgrounds in Springfield and DuQuion.

"In my opinion, the grounds looks better than it's looked in probably decades," he said.

Contact Patrick Keck: 312-549-9340, pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Construction ongoing, Multi-Purpose Arena to reopen at state fair
CHENGDU, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- As the eight-day diving tournament at the Chengdu Universiade finished on Monday, it is time for Ker Ying Ong from Malaysia and her good friend, Chinese diver Zhang Rui, to bid farewell to each other.

"Diving made me more outgoing, and I made lots of friends through it," said Ong, who earned the silver in women's synchronized 3m springboard.

"We often joke with each other and only get serious while talking about diving skills," said Zhang, who won the silver in women's platform.

Ong and Zhang met more than a month ago when the Malaysian diving team went to Qinhuangdao, east China's Shandong Province, for training. Since then, Ong has been frequently chatting with Chinese athletes about diving skills.

Ong noticed that Chinese athletes jump very high after taking off. "So, I learned the rhythm on the springboard from them. And they also explained the details to me," Ong said, adding that she also applied these skills at the Universiade.

Despite the 21-year-old Malaysian girl only signing up for one event due to a shoulder injury, she was very satisfied with her performance.

"After the event, Zhang gave me a hug and congratulated me," Ong said.

In addition to Zhang, Ong also made many new friends during the tournament, but they will soon depart from Chengdu. "We believe we will meet again in the international competition soon," Ong said.

The young Malaysian diver also expressed regrets about the Chengdu Universiade. Because of her shyness, she did not take a photo with her idol Shi Tingmao, a two-time Olympic diving champion from China.

"Youth can express themselves and communicate with each other, which will greatly benefit them in their lives and sporting careers," Shi said at the post-match news conference, as the manager of the Chinese diving team at the Chengdu Universiade. 
When OpenTable CEO Debby Soo joined the restaurant reservation company in 2020, the industry was struggling through the pandemic.

It was all hands on deck and How do we help restaurants keep afloat? she said. It was a very intense period, but it was also a very clear period. That was what the whole company was focused on doing.

These days, she is focused on growing the 25-year-old company, which was acquired by Amsterdam-based Booking Holdings in 2014. OpenTable manages reservations for 55,000 restaurants worldwide and seats more than 1 billion diners per year.

In 2021, OpenTable launched Experiences, which lets diners book special offerings like wine tastings or cooking classes. Last year, it partnered with inline, a Taiwan-based restaurant software provider, to expand its presence in Asia. And in March it joined with ChatGPT to give automated restaurant recommendations to the chatbots users.

Soo spoke to The Associated Press recently about OpenTable and the restaurant industry. Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What are some dining trends that have changed since the pandemic?

There was this surge of early dinner dining during the pandemic that has largely carried out even after the pandemic. That 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. slot is quite popular, whereas before the 7 p.m. slot was really the most coveted. I think theres something at play here with work and working in an office. Before it was Monday through Friday, you were in the office, you would leave at 5:30. Now maybe maybe youre fully remote and youve been in your apartment or your house for a whole day and you cant wait for the opportunity to get dressed to go out. Were also seeing diner behavior shift to online, meaning when youre thinking of dining out, instead of walking in or phoning, youre going online and trying to book a reservation that way.

What about dining has stayed constant?

A. Even after the pandemic, when dining demand has largely returned, its still really hard to do what restaurateurs do. Labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, the economic uncertainty. Its very hard to run a restaurant. And I dont think thats something that has changed.

How will OpenTable continue to grow?

There are a couple levers we can pull. One is international expansion. The inline partnership is a good example. They are a table management system; weve partnered with them to create a consumer layer, so Taiwan has full access to our diner app and you can book directly on OpenTable with inline restaurants. So thats one way. Another way is to go in with sales people, sign up restaurants and build the diner demand. We can also go into different segments of the market. OpenTable right now is primarily for restaurants that take reservations. Could there be a day when we went into restaurants who have waitlist only? To be honest, as the CEO, I feel really bullish about all of those opportunities.

Restaurants have to integrate an increasing amount of technology. Do you get any pushback from them?

Any given restaurant contends with about 12 to 15 pieces of discrete software or technology. The various takeout apps and delivery apps, their point of sale, their front of house reservation system, payroll, inventory management. The list can go on. We generally dont hear restaurants pushing back. We help them run their front-of-house operations much more efficiently. We do everything in our power to make sure that were connecting with different pieces of software and make it as easy as we can for our restaurant partners.

You came to OpenTable from the travel site Kayak. How did you manage the transition to a completely different industry?

There was definitely a pretty steep learning curve. We have so many people at the company who come from hospitality, who have worked in restaurants their whole lives, who have a deep passion for the industry. And so anything I didnt know was very quickly and easily answered by the folks I worked with. Its a very different, more complex business. My partners used to be United Airlines and Delta, and there werent many of them. Here restaurants are my partners, and we have 55,000 of them. But I would say the one thing that wasnt hard to learn was that ethos that the hospitality industry has. My parents own a small business, so when you see what restaurateurs are doing, theyre contending with what small business owners and entrepreneurs deal with all the time. And so in that way, its really inspiring for me because were helping those types of businesses thrive.
Nearly half a billion children in South Asia are exposed to extreme high temperatures as life-threatening heat waves caused by the climate crisis become stronger and more frequent, according to the United Nations childrens agency.

In a news release Monday, UNICEF said its analysis of 2020 data showed an estimated 460 million children in countries including Afghanistan, India and Pakistan were exposed to temperatures where 83 or more days in a year exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit)  making South Asia the hardest-hit region for those under age 18.

The analysis showed 76% of children in South Asia were exposed to extreme high temperature compared to 32% globally, UNICEF said.

Countries in the region are not the hottest in the world right now but the heat here brings life-threatening risks for millions of vulnerable children, said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF regional director for South Asia. We are particularly concerned about babies, toddlers, malnourished children and pregnant women as they are most vulnerable to heat strokes and other serious effects.

Temperatures in some parts of India soared to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in June, killing at least 44 people and sickening hundreds with heat-related illnesses.

Some cities in Pakistan also saw similarly high temperatures the same month, raising fears especially for laborers who spend hours toiling outdoors and for poor populations with little to no cooling options.

In parts of the countrys southern Sindh province, about 1.8 million people were exposed to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and higher, UNICEF said, giving rise to short and long-term health risks, including dehydration and organ failure.

Girls fetch water from a public tap amid hot weather in Farah Province, Afghanistan, July 26, 2023. - Mashal/Xinhua/Getty Images

UNICEF warns the situation is exacerbated for children as they are unable to quickly adapt to such temperature change.

The risks can be life threatening  from fainting and poor mental development to neurological dysfunction, seizures and cardiovascular diseases.

Pregnant woman are particularly susceptible to heat and can experience preterm births and stillbirths, UNICEF said.

Prolonged heat and weather extremes

Experts say the climate crisis is only going to cause more frequent and longer heat waves in the future, testing the regions ability to adapt.

India, the worlds most populous nation of 1.4 billion, often experiences heat waves during the summer months of May and June, but in recent years, they have arrived earlier and become more prolonged.

In April 2022, India experienced a heat wave that saw temperatures in the capital New Delhi exceed 40 degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days. In some states, the heat closed schools, damaged crops and put pressure on energy supplies, as officials warned residents to remain indoors and keep hydrated.

People travel on a bus on a hot and humid day in Kolkata, India on 11 June 2023. - Sudipta Das/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Experts have also warned the threat facing Afghanistan is particularly stark. Not only is there high potential for record extreme heat, the impacts are compounded by dire social and economic problems.

At the same time, extreme weather has had a deadly impact in other parts of the region.

Flooding caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan submerged a third of the country last year, killing nearly 1,600 people  more than a third of whom were children.

Children play with sheep in a flood-affected area on the outskirts of Multan, Pakistan on July 16, 2023. - Shahid Saeed Mirza/AFP/Getty Images

While the water washed away homes and destroyed villages, water-related ailments began infecting children, giving rise to a new disaster in the nation of 230 million.

In its report, UNICEF warned that ultimately children, adolescents and women are among those who pay the highest price for extreme weather events.

Young children simply cannot handle the heat, Wijesekera said. Unless we act now, these children will continue to bear the brunt of more frequent and more severe heat waves in the coming years, for no fault of theirs.

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A white mother who was accused of human trafficking by a Southwest Airlines employee in 2021 has filed a federal lawsuit against the company for "intentionally" discriminating against her and her biracial daughter, according to the complaint.

Mary MacCarthy had boarded a Southwest flight to Denver, Colorado, from San Jose, California, in October 2021 with her daughter, who was 10 years old at the time. But upon their arrival in Denver, MacCarthy, and her daughter were confronted by armed police and a Southwest staff member for suspected child trafficking.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday in the District Court of Colorado, MacCarthy is accusing Southwest of racial discrimination. She is also alleging that Southwest employees had reported her to law enforcement "based on a racist assumption" about a biracial family, the complaint said.

MacCarthy is seeking a jury trial, attorney fees, and costs, in addition to compensatory damages and economic damages that will be established at trial, according to the complaint.

David Lane, the attorney representing MacCarthy, said the lawsuit is designed to "bring some" accountability to the company and to have the airline re-examine its policies and training.

"In using racial profiling to cause the Denver police to stop innocent travelers, Southwest Airlines has attempted to address the serious crime of sex trafficking through use of a stereotypical, easy formula," Lane said in a statement to USA TODAY.

"Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling in using law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did," Lane added.

Southwest declined to comment due to the pending litigation. But the company said in 2021 that it was conducting an internal review of the incident and that its employees undergo robust training on human trafficking.

Denver police given 'racially charged information,' lawsuit alleges

MacCarthy and her daughter were traveling to attend the funeral of MacCarthy's brother, who had suddenly died the day before. After arriving in Denver, the pair was surrounded by Denver Police Department officers and a member of Southwests staff who began to question them.

A video from the incident showed the Southwest employee and an officer speaking to MacCarthy and her daughter about their behavior that looked suspicious.

"The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthys daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is white and her daughter is Black," the lawsuit alleges.

MacCarthys daughter broke down in tears while the two were questioned and the incident remains "extremely traumatic" for the young girl, according to the complaint.

"To this day, whenever the incident is mentioned, Plaintiff M.M. goes silent and does not speak about it," the lawsuit said.

A Southwest flight attendant had reported MacCarthy to police because she was "suspicious" about the pair. She told police the two were the last to board the flight and they did not speak during the flight.

The lawsuit added that the flight attendant had reported MacCarthy to the police without any conversation or contact with her.

"Unbeknownst to Ms. MacCarthy, while they were in the air, a Southwest employee called the Denver Police Department to report Ms. MacCarthy for suspected child trafficking for no reason other than the different color of her daughters skin from her own," the complaint alleges.

Lawsuit alleges similar incident

The lawsuit also alleges that the incident involving MacCarthy was not the first case where Southwest employees racially profiled families and reported them to law enforcement.

In January 2021, the lawsuit said Southwest employees pulled a white father, who was with his Black daughter, off a plane for questioning. The father and his daughter were traveling back home after visiting his grandmother, who was dying of pancreatic cancer.

According to the lawsuit, the father sent a complaint to Southwest after the incident but the company "did not take steps to correct the racist assumptions its employees make" about biracial families traveling together.

"Southwest again claimed that the fact that a white parent was traveling with a Black child was evidence, in and of itself, of human trafficking," the lawsuit alleges.

Contributing: Keira Wingate, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Southwest sued for 'racial profiling' after accusing mom of trafficking biracial child
Mother-Daughter Duo Make History As First Caribbean People To Go To Space | An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of southern Andhra Pradesh state on July 14, 2023. India launched a rocket on July 14 carrying an unmanned spacecraft to land on the Moon, its second attempt to do so as its cut-price space programme seeks to reach new heights. (Photo by R. Satish BABU / AFP) (Photo by R. SATISH BABU/AFP via Getty Images)

Anastatia Mayers and her mother, Keisha Schahaff, will be the first mother and daughter to go to space. The Antigua & Barbuda natives will also make history as the first Caribbean people to embark on the journey. They will fly on Virgin Galactics second commercial flight, departing on Aug. 10.

Mayers, 18 and, a student at Aberdeen University in Scotland, heard about the opportunity from her mother.

My mom read about the competition back in 2021 while we were on our way to another Caribbean Island to get my visa for studying at the University of Aberdeen, she told her university in an interview. We had to take an insane detour. So instead of a one-hour flight, it was 16 hours through London and then back into the Caribbean.

It was on that flight my mom randomly entered this competition, which I had no clue about until I was here in Scotland. I was very skeptical about it when she told me she had entered. I thought she was joking, she added. The one thing I did make sure was if she was going into space, it was going to be with me.

Mayers then started her studies in Physics and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. She is now about to enter her third year.

Months later, Schahaff started receiving updates about the sweepstakes.

I filled out this sweepstakes, and then suddenly months later, Im getting correspondences saying that youre a top 20 finalist, then a top five finalist, to becoming a winner, Schahaff told the BBC.

#USA: Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter Anastasia Mayers, will be the first mother and daughter ever to make a trip to space after winning two coveted places worth $900,000 in a prize draw. pic.twitter.com/FNZ8dHB2E3  CaribbeanNewsNetwork (@caribbeannewsuk) August 5, 2023

Mayers received a FaceTime call from her mother, who she thought was simply checking in as this was her first time living abroad without her.

That was when she told me we won the trip to space. I remember saying, What are you talking about? Youve finally lost it. I was in utter shock. I wasnt able to piece my words together. I was in disbelief. Im still processing the fact we get to do this, Mayers said.

In November, the mother and daughter got a surprise visit at their home in Antigua from Richard Branson, who formally delivered the news. They had won two seats on the Galactic 02 flight, Virgin Galactics second commercial spaceflight and the very first with paying customers.

One of the prized seats aboard the mission costs $450,000, according to the BBC. The first mission took place in June and reached an altitude of 279,000 ft.

This week our student, Anastatia Mayers, is launching into space on @virgingalactic's #Galactic02 space flight. To find out how she got her place onboard and how she's feeling ahead of Thursday's launch, read her interview here: https://t.co/oamvrN7RRm Image: Virgin Galactic. pic.twitter.com/5MMSPMxjhF  University of Aberdeen (@aberdeenuni) August 7, 2023

At first, Mayers kept the news to herself as she says it took her a long time to come to terms with the idea that she would be going to space. She started telling some of her closest friends at university and back home.

My friends are over the moon, so excited for me and so supportive, she said, the BBC reported.

The mission will depart from New Mexico on Aug. 10. Both mother and daughter started hands-on training for the flight over the weekend.

Ive been doing my best to mentally prepare for it, trying to understand this is actually happening. I wanted to create some goals and figure out the things I want to get out of this. Im just trying to make it a meaningful and lasting experience, Mayers said.

She says having her mother by her is comforting, as she is her biggest supporter.

Im very grateful to be doing this with my mom; there is no one else I would choose to experience this with, she added. I dont think theres anything else that could be more bonding than this. It is so comforting to know shes there with me. Its a very big event. Its mind blowing in itself, and having my mom there with me and having the ability to support each other is very comforting.

Mayers has been curious about space since she was about 8 years old and started learning about astronomy. She wants her experience to inspire others to believe in their dreams.

My intention is to just break any barriers that we set for ourselves or that the world sets for us, she said. I want people to know that it doesnt matter where you come from, who you are  anything  your dream is your dream, and you can make that happen, despite what anyone else says.

The launch for the Galactic 02 flight will be livestreamed at 11 a.m. EST on the companys website and YouTube.
An 18-year-old Aberdeen University student and her mother will travel to space later this week after winning a place on Virgin Galactic's second commercial flight in a prize draw.

Anastatia Mayers and her mum Keisha Schahaff will be the first mother and daughter to go to space.

The pair will take off from New Mexico on Thursday.

Keisha was travelling to the UK to sort out her daughter's visa when she entered the competition.

She was on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Antigua to London when suddenly an advert popped up.

"I filled out this sweepstake and then suddenly months later I'm getting correspondences saying that you're a top 20 finalist, then a top five finalist, to becoming a winner," she says.

"Suddenly, who's walking into my yard? Richard Branson. The whole team just swarmed into my house saying 'you're the winner, you're going to space'."

The Galactic 01 flight reached a height of 279,00ft (85km) in June

Anastatia says it was her decision to travel from the Caribbean to study in Scotland that led to the opportunity to go space.

"Had I not randomly chosen Aberdeen University and had we not had to take a massive detour to get my visa - we wouldn't be going to space," she says.

"I feel like a lot of things had to happen at very specific moments for us to end up here."

The second-year philosophy and physics student says coming to study in Scotland was one of the biggest decisions of her life but it has "led to magnificent things happening".

The mission, named Galactic 02 is the second commercial spaceflight conducted by the American space company, and the first with paying customers onboard.

The advertised price for a ride on the rocket plane has been as high as $450,000 (350,000).

The Galactic 01 mission took place in June. It reached an altitude of 279,000ft (85km). It is thought the second mission will attempt the same path.

'Over the moon'

Anastatia, who will be the second youngest person to go to space, says she hopes she can use the experience to inspire others.

"That would be very important to me, both in Scotland and Antigua and anywhere else I have any ties," she says.

"I do hope that people are watching and supporting.

"My intention is to just break any barriers that we set for ourselves or that the world sets for us.

"I want people to know that it doesn't matter where you come from, who you are - anything - your dream is your dream and you can make that happen, despite what anyone else says."

Keisha adds: "For me and my daughter together, it's more than a dream come true.

"This is my kid, I love her with all my heart, and to know that we both share the same goal, the same dream, that is super over the moon."

The pair will be joined former Team GB Olympian Jon Goodwin from Newcastle. He will become the second person with Parkinson's to go to space as well as the first Olympian.
James De Monte, a 2005 graduate of the University of Mount Union, visits Alliance as part of the Fogle Author Series at Rodman Public Library on the heels of the publication of his second book  Where Are Your People From? A Novel in Stories.

The associate professor of English at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland will visit the library at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 28. Registration is required to attend at rodmanlibrary.evanced.info/signup.

In Where Are Your People From?, De Monte, who grew up in Dennison and graduated from Tuscarawas Central Catholic, draws on his heritage and his previous employment at various labor jobs as he tells the story of Giacomo Agostini, a retired coal miner and first-generation American, a son of foreigners, a Depression kid who never got over it, the second-oldest living member of the St. Theresa's Knights of Columbus, and a pick-and-shovel man from Appalachian Ohio. Spanning 90 years, the book explores the fellowship and hardship of Midwest Italian-Americans in the post-industrial Appalachian region of Ohio through the eyes of a son of immigrants.

Published by Cornerstone Press, Where Are Your People From? followed his 2015 novella Brotherhood, which explored the world of blue-collar railroad repairmen through the eyes of a recent college graduate. Published by Blue Cubicle Press, Brotherhood was longlisted for Shakespeare and Company's Paris Literary Prize.

A staff editor with Chagrin River Review, De Monte earned a master of fine arts from Kent State University and taught at Columbus State Community College, in Sicily and Sardinia, at Central State University, and for the Wick Poetry Center, before joining the faculty at Lakeland.

Ahead of his visit, De Monte answered some questions:

Q: Can you talk about your experiences at Mount Union and what professors had an impact on you?

A: I initially came to Mount because my older brother was already there, but I ended up loving my time there. The English faculty with whom I studied  Frank Tascone, Michael Olin-Hitt, Rodney Dick, Andrew Price, Katherine McMahon, Judith Makens  were superb. Frank, a fellow writer, has become a good friend to me since that time. Also, I took several classes with Kelly Lowe, a wonderful, colorful writing professor who has since passed away, unfortunately. I did a couple plays and took theater courses with Deb Lotsof and Doug Hendel. Doug's Acting I remains one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in a classroom.

The professor I took the most classes with, Steve Kramer, was actually from psychology. I became a psychology minor because of Steve. I don't have space here to list the ways Steve Kramer influenced my time at Mount, my life since, or my pedagogy. I will just say this: The classes I took with Steve were the most important classes and formative experiences I had at any post-secondary or graduate level  bachelor, master or Ph.D. One example: I had never flown on an airplane before meeting Steve. I ended up traveling to El Salvador with him three times  first as a student, then as a group leader for his Social Responsibility course. That made me want to travel much more and value intercultural connection and understanding. In addition to teaching, I've now served as director of the Center for International Education at Lakeland Community College for nearly a decade. Without Steve, I wouldn't have ended up on this path.

I should say that I also started dating my now-wife, Leah, while at Mount. We ended up getting married about a decade later and now have four young sons together, keeping us busy. So, I can thank Mount Union for my family, too.

Q: Your bio says you worked a number of labor jobs. How do you draw on those experiences as a writer?

A: These were all short-term, but I worked on the railroad, for the county's road and bridge department, and for the post office (briefly) as a mail handler. The railroad experience became the setting for my first novella, Brotherhood, in fact. There, and on the other jobs, I appreciated the camaraderie and colorful  if often off-color and crude  banter amongst the workers.

I also worked during breaks from college at my uncle's drive thru, selling pop, beer, and cigarettes to locals. I listened to stories from interesting regulars and those who'd just stop in here and there. I appreciated hearing of their unique experiences. In many ways, this prepared me to listen to students, to hear them out, to encourage them to share their stories, too.

Q: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

A: Not really. I read here and there as a kid, and I read what teachers asked me to in school (for the most part). During my senior year of high school, I did read both Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Camus' The Stranger for a wonderful English teacher named Rich Jagunic. I was blown away by novels for the first time, but I still never thought it would be something I'd pursue until my second year of college. It was then that I took writing courses with Michael Olin-Hitt and Frank Tascone at Mount and loved the creative opportunities and atmospheres both of them fostered in the classroom.

Q: What advice would you give an aspiring writer?

A: This is all stolen from others I've either read or talked to: Read more than you write, though write often. Don't be afraid to explore the extraordinary aspects of ordinary people and the human experience. Be open to surprise and find joy in the process. Have a thick skin.

Q: What can people expect when they come to your visit at Rodman Library?

A: I'll read several selections from the collection. The characters are all the same, but the book is not chronological, so I'll jump around, giving context as needed. I promise not to drone on, and, for the sake of everyone, I'll read short selections that range in style and approach. Ideally, all attendees will come away with something they found interesting. Here's hoping anyway!

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Mount Union grad, now an author, to speak at Rodman Library
The ghost kitchen company that runs MrBeast Burger has countersued Jimmy Donaldson, aka YouTube megastar MrBeast. Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) alleges that Donaldson and his Beast Investments (BI) company failed to abide by contractual obligations, such as carrying out promotional work, and that they "materially damaged" its reputation. VDC is seeking over $100 million in damages according to Variety, which first reported the news.

VDC alleges that Mr. Donaldsons and BIs actions have materially damaged the reputation of MrBeast Burger and VDC, turned away customers, and shattered hard-won relationships with vendors and suppliers, damaging the bottom lines of hundreds of restaurants across the country and around the world, and causing damages to VDC that, according to VDCs evidence and Mr. Donaldsons own estimations are in the nine-figure range, VDC told Nation's Restaurant News in a statement.

Donaldson filed suit against VDC and its parent company last week. He sought to end his partnership with them, citing issues including "disgusting" and "inedible" food. The original suit claimed VDC caused material, irreplaceable harm to the MrBeast brand. Donaldson also alleged that VDC had generated millions of dollars in revenue but he had not received a dime.

In its countersuit, VDC claims that Donaldson made disparaging comments against the company and MrBeast Burger. It cites several tweets (some of which seem to have been deleted) from the YouTube sensation, including claims that he wanted to shut down MrBeast Burger and that the company I partnered with wont let me stop even though its terrible for my brand.

This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence, VDC's countersuit claims. He is mistaken.

MrBeast Burger primarily uses a ghost kitchen format, which VDC specializes in. Ghost kitchens don't have dedicated storefronts (though some operate out of existing brick-and-mortar restaurants) and only fulfill orders for delivery or pickup. When the first physical MrBeast Burger location opened in New Jersey with Donaldson and his crew in attendance last September, more than 10,000 people showed up.
Passenger Matthew Oshiafi, of New York City, describes the harrowing bus crash he was involved in on I-81 overnight Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, north of Harriburg, Pa. He was at a Red Cross Disaster Relief center set up in the Chambers Hill Fire Company hall in Swatara Township, Pa., Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. Oshiafi helped evacuate a baby from the overturned bus and was the last passenger out, escaping through the front windshield. (Mark Pynes/The Patriot-News via AP)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A bus carrying up to 50 people traveling from New York to Ohio crashed and hit another vehicle on a Pennsylvania interstate, killing three passengers, state police said.

The wreck happened during heavy rain around 11:50 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 81 just north of Harrisburg, state police said.

The bus drove off the road, struck an embankment, rolled onto its right side and hit the back of a car that was stopped in the right lane, according to a crash report.

Three passengers were declared dead at the scene, the police report said, and others suffered injuries that ranged from minor to severe.

Matthew Oshiafi, a passenger on the bus operated by the Super Lucky Tour Company of Boston, told Pennlive.com that he remembered a terrible screeching and shuddering before the bus crashed and flipped. He said he was sitting in the last row.

Oshiafi, 39, a New York City resident who was headed to Cincinnati to visit family, said the crash threw people from their seats and left some piled on top of others. He heard people screaming and saw people around him severely injured or unconscious.

Oshiafi said he saw a couple in a nearby seat with a baby and noticed the woman appeared to be unconscious and the man was trying to help her. The man handed the baby to Oshiafi, who said he passed the baby through the broken bus windshield to emergency responders.

Im shaking, he told the newspaper on Monday, about 10 hours after the crash. I know people have died."

A Milton S. Hershey Medical Center spokesperson said it helped 28 patients from the crash, ages 1 to 69. Three were admitted, one in critical condition. Three others were being evaluated and 22 were discharged. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Community Osteopathic treated 21 patients, treating and releasing 20 of them; one adult remained hospitalized, the medical center said.

A Red Cross-run reception center at a nearby fire company closed late Monday after helping 23 adults and two children, feeding them and offering emotional support.

A Dauphin County spokesperson said information about the people who died was not immediately available through the coroner's office.

The name of the bus driver has not been released. Trooper Megan Frazer said Monday morning that more details about the wreck might not be released by police until Tuesday.

Peter Chan, the bus company manager, said in a brief phone interview Monday that he was very sorry to hear about the accident but had no further information because he hadnt been able to talk to the driver, who was injured in the crash and remains hospitalized.
MUNCIE, Ind.  The police pursuit of a Muncie man came to an abrupt end early Friday when he pulled to a stop outside the Delaware County jail.

An Indiana State Police trooper about 3 a.m. began chasing a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer driven by Joshua Guy Little, 44, after determining the car had a stolen license plate.

The chase began when the trooper tried to pull the car over at Madison Street and Memorial Drive. It eventually led east into Liberty Township before returning to the Muncie city limits on Jackson Street.

The trooper reported Little eventually made his way to South Tillotson Avenue, then turned west on 26th Street and pulled into a parking lot at the Delaware County Justice Center, which includes the jail.

Little  also listed in court documents at an Indianapolis address  was then taken into custody without incident.

He told the trooper he had fled "to get his mind right, because he knew he was going to jail due to having active warrants."

Little  preliminarily charged with resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, driving while suspended and theft  remained in the jail on Monday. His bond on those charges was set at $12,500.

At the time of his latest arrest, Little already faced 14 charges in three Delaware County cases  auto theft, criminal mischief, dealing in meth, leaving the scene of an accident, possession of marijuana and resisting law enforcement, and two counts each of criminal trespass, possession of a narcotic drug, possession of paraphernalia and theft.

Warrants had been issued in all three cases after the Muncie man failed to show up for pre-trial hearings.

According to court records, Little has been convicted of domestic battery, driving while intoxicated, driving while suspended, possession of meth, resisting law enforcement (twice) and theft (three times).

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie man leads trooper on car chase to the Delaware County jail
Law enforcement officers in Dallas shot and killed a murder suspect Monday morning, according to multiple media reports.

Officials told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV that the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force, which includes Dallas and Mesquite police officers as well as deputy marshals, killed the man after he pointed a gun at them as they attempted to arrest him.

Dallas police did not respond to a request for information from the Star-Telegram. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service in Dallas was unavailable to comment Monday afternoon.

Sources told WFAA that at least four officers fired at the suspect.

The Dallas Morning News reported the man who died has been identified as Corey Wayne Thomas.

Thomas was a suspect in a July 24 homicide on Mentor Avenue, KDFW-TV reported.

No police officers with the task force were injured in the shooting, which happened about 10:30 a.m. at an apartment complex on Tyler Street in the central Oak Cliff neighborhood.

This is the seventh shooting involving Dallas police in which a person has been killed or injured this year.

This is a developing story. For the latest updates, sign up for breaking news alerts.
RIYADH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Security advisors and representatives from 43 countries on Sunday concluded a two-day meeting in Jeddah, a coastal city in western Saudi Arabia, where they discussed solutions to the Ukraine crisis that has dragged on for more than a year.

The closed-door meeting was attended by quite a number of developing countries, many of which have primarily stayed neutral in the crisis. Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui also attended the meeting.

Analysts said that China's participation reflects its role as a responsible major country in promoting peace, and the meeting represents the latest efforts by the international community in solving the crisis.

Li Xinggang, a researcher at the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, believes that the Jeddah meeting will push for a greater international peace force to resolve the crisis, and allow more international actors to participate in it, so as to find fair, just and lasting solutions to the crisis.

Abdullah Otaibi, an expert on international issues in Saudi Arabia, pointed out that although the Ukraine crisis is unlikely to end soon, the convening of the Jeddah meeting is an important step in the right direction toward resolving the crisis and an important opportunity to enhance consensus among all parties and seek a practical and feasible solution.

Wang Guangyuan, an associate professor at the Middle East College of Beijing Language and Culture University, said that the Jeddah meeting, a transitional event linking the past and the future, paves the way for the next peace conference that can include Russia.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of Ukraine's presidential office, said in a statement that the meeting's participants had conducted "very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built."

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said that a peace proposal can have a chance of success only if both sides of the conflict participate, the historical context is considered, and the current realities are taken into account.

The participation of the Chinese delegation in the meeting has attracted a lot of attention.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said prior to the meeting that 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.

Otaibi pointed out that China's position on resolving the Ukrainian crisis has always been valued by the international community and will play a positive role in formulating agreements and principles to end the conflict.

Ahmed Ibrahim, a Saudi political analyst, said that China is an important force to promote world peace and development.

China has been in contact with all relevant parties on the Ukraine crisis, actively promoting peace talks, and has been calling on relevant parties to respond to the call of the international community, gradually accumulating and creating conditions for the final resolution of the crisis, which attests to China's role as a responsible major country, he said. 
(Reuters) - Elon Musk's brain chip startup Neuralink has raised $280 million in a funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, months after securing approval for its first in-human clinical trial.

The company did not reveal the valuation at which the funds were raised. In June, Reuters reported that the company was valued at about $5 billion after privately executed stock trades.

"We're extremely excited about this next chapter at Neuralink," the company said in a post on Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Neuralink employees told Reuters last year the company was rushing and botching surgeries on monkeys, pigs and sheep, resulting in more animal deaths than necessary, as Musk pressured staff to receive FDA approval.

The animal experiments produced data intended to support the company's application for human trials, the sources said.

In May, U.S. lawmakers urged regulators to investigate whether the makeup of a panel overseeing animal testing at Neuralink contributed to botched and rushed experiments after Reuters reported on potential financial conflicts on the panel.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
A Russian military plane made a mysterious trip to Pyongyang on August 1, according to flight radar.

The flight, RFF7203, took off from Moscow on July 31, landing in North Korea, according to flight maps from Flightradar24, a Swedish flight tracker.

The Russian Air Force Il-62Mthe kind of plane used for military delegationswas on the ground for approximately 36 hours, according to NK News, which first reported the mysterious trip.

Russian and North Korean state media dont appear to have reported on the trip.

It was the first time a VIP Russian plane made the trip to North Korea since 2019, when Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin visited Pyongyang, after which North Korea cut off travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Putins Squad of Allies Just Got a Lot More Dangerous

The mysterious flight comes a week after Russias Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang with the goal of convincing leadership in North Korea to boost weapons sales to Russia, according to U.S. intelligence officials assessment, White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby told reporters.

Shoigu's visit came as part of a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the armistice for the 1950-53 Korean War. He met with Kim Jong-un, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam and other senior officials, including Jong Kyong Thaek, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, and Im Chon Il, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, according to KCNA.

Accompanying Shoigu were Aleksei Krivoruchko, vice-minister of defense, Andrei Rudenko, vice-minister of foreign affairs, and Alexandr Matsegora, Russias ambassador to North Korea, according to KCNA.

Kang, North Koreas defense minister, gave Shoigu a tour of an arms exhibition, showing off new attack and spy drones as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), according to Yonhap.

Russias Ministry of Defense said the meetings were intended to help strengthen cooperation between our defense departments.

The mysterious military plane trip early this month could be a followup from Shoigus visit to iron out military deals, according to NK News.

The effort to lean on North Korea for more favors coincides with Russian military failures to make major gains in Russian President Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine. It's just the latest sign that Russia is becoming more reliant on North Korea to continue to keep up the fight as Russia's own defense production and supply of equipment flounders.

It highlights the dire straits that Russia finds itself in, when it comes to resupplying and refreshing its munitions capabilities, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said of the growing relationship between North Korea and Russia.

North Korea has been supportive of Russias war in Ukraine from the get-go. Pyongyang has previously accused the west of coercing Moscow to invade Ukraine in order to protect its security interests. Pyongyang has since provided infantry rockets and missiles to Russias Wagner Group, according to a White House assessment early this year.

This Could Be the Year North Korea Gets Tactical Nukes

And in March, Russia sought to solidify a deal with North Korea in which Pyongyang would provide Moscow with munitions in exchange for food and commodities it desperately needs.

Following Shoigus visit, Kim appears to be doubling down on weapons production plans. He called for North Korean weapons production to increase and for programs to modernize weapons, according to Yonhap. Kim made the rounds, visiting major North Korean military factories days after Shoigus trip came to a close, including those that make engines for strategic cruise missiles and large-caliber multiple rocket launchers, according to Yonhap.

Kim said the facilities are important for war preparations and called for "steadily increasing the performance and reliability of the engine" and "rapidly expanding its production capacity," according to KCNA.

North Koreas work to bolster its weapons production comes as tensions between Pyongyang, Washington, and Seoul have mounted. Kim has been launching a series of missile tests in recent weeks as South Korea and the United States prepare to launch their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. While Washington and Seoul brand the drill as a defensive mechanism, Pyongyang has claimed they are a rehearsal to invade North Korea.

Kims tour of weapons facilities could be a warning from Pyongyang that it can hold its own in the face of perceived threats from South Korea and the United States, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

We express deep regret that North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) as well as conventional weapons at the expense of the wellbeing of its citizens, Koo Byoungsam, a spokesperson for the ministry said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had high praise for the Department of Justice after it filed its second indictment against Donald Trump last week.

Pelosi spoke in awe of federal prosecutors while reacting to Trumps latest criminal charges in an interview with New York Magazine published on Monday.

The indictments against the president are exquisite, the former speaker of the House said during a sit-down last Friday. Theyre beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with.

The DOJ is currently juggling two different cases against the former president.

Trump was indicted in a Miami court in June on accusations he mishandled classified documents and engaged in an attempted cover-up.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks outside the U.S. Capitol Building on July 20, 2023.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks outside the U.S. Capitol Building on July 20, 2023.

On Thursday, he was charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election and for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in Washington, D.C.

Pelosi, who pushed for some of the earliest investigations into the insurrection, told the magazine, I knew on January 6 that he had committed a crime.

Trump and his team have defended his actions, claiming he had a right to challenge the 2020 election under the First Amendment.

Not long after the indictment, Pelosi teased Trump during an interview with MSNBCs Andrea Mitchell, where she compared him to a scared puppy at his Washington, D.C., court appearance.

Trump responded in a Truth Social post, where he called Pelosi a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!

Related...
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Nationals Park on June 6, 2023. Rob Carr/Getty Images

Pelosi praised the two federal Trump indictments as "exquisite," "beautiful," and "intricate."

"They probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with," she said.

The former speaker arguably played a key role in the indictment by creating the January 6 committee.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is offering high praise for the two federal indictments against former President Donald Trump.

"The indictments against the president are exquisite," she said in an interview with New York Magazine. "They're beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with."

In that interview, Pelosi reflected more broadly on the role that the January 6 committee  a select committee that Pelosi created after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of a bipartisan 9/11-style commission  played in setting the stage for Trump's indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

"I knew on January 6 that he had committed a crime," said Pelosi.

While Trump's first federal indictment  which includes 37 charges in relation to his handling of classified documents  had little to do with the work of the committee, the second indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith last week arguably would not have happened without the work of the January 6 committee.

"I did want them to pay attention, and I hope that we got their attention," Pelosi said of the Department of Justice. "That's why the presentation  the narrative  had to be the way it was."

Even as the committee laid out a narrative making the case that Trump engaged in criminal behavior, the DOJ was not yet undertaking efforts to investigate the former president. Nonetheless, the narrative laid out in last week's 45-page indictment bore a strong resemblance to the narrative laid out in the report that the committee released at the end of the last Congress.

Pelosi noted that she made her appointments to the committee with the idea of building that narrative.

"When people were accepting the offer to be on the committee, they knew that it wasn't going to be every five minutes that they'd be speaking," said Pelosi. "It would be part of the plan [to present] a narrative for the public to understand."

Read the original article on Business Insider
NASA has reestablished contact with its interstellar spacecraft Voyager 2 after an incorrect command pointed the spacecraft away from Earth, cutting off data for about two weeks.

An incorrect command sent to Voyager 2 on July 21 left the mission science team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California unable to get data from the spacecraft.

NASA keeps in contact with the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 through its system of ground antennas known as the Deep Space Network (DSN). NASA said it lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after a series of planned commands sent to the spacecraft caused an unintended shift in its antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth.

The data blackout would have continued until an automatic correction in October, but teams used the Deep Space Network antenna in Australia to send the correct command hoping to hit the intended target more than 12.3 billion miles from 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 told FOX Weather last week.

NASA announced Friday that the "interstellar shout" worked and Voyager 2 is once again sending back data. The spacecraft reoriented itself, turning the antenna back to Earth.

It took about 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager and 37 hours for controllers to learn if it worked, according to the space agency.

"At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory," NASA wrote.

VOYAGER 1 CONTINUES ZOOMING THROUGH INTERSTELLAR SPACE 45 YEARS AFTER ITS LAUNCH

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft mission began in 1977 after both spacecraft launched separately from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida , taking advantage of a 176-year planetary alignment that made the grand tour of all four giant outer planets possible.

Prior to the communication sabbatical with NASA, Voyager 1 and 2 would send back multiple hours of data every day. The Voyager 2 spacecraft still has five instruments operating, each using only 4 watts of power per year.

Voyager 2 visited Uranus and Neptune before exiting the heliosphere in 2018-- the protective bubble of solar wind considered to be the boundary of our solar system.
Strong storms threaten Nashville and Middle Tennessee with dangerous winds in excess of 60 mph and large hail.

The National Weather Service said storms will likely to develop between 9 a.m. and noon with the greatest threat east of I-65 and in the Cumberland Plateau.

A tornado watch was issued for much of Middle Tennesse but the National Weather Service cancelled it for Nashville and surrounding counties.

Tornado watch vs warning: What to know when severe weather strikes

A tornado watch has been issued for parts of North Carolina and Tennessee until 7 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/K0qwiAUqQI  NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) August 7, 2023

Nashville, Waverly and Franklin are all under a marginal risk (1 of 5) for severe weather. A stretch of Middle Tennessee from Lawrenceburg to Columbia, Murfreesboro north to Carthage and Jamestown are all under a slight risk (2 of 5).

Areas from the Alabama state line to Crossville and east are at an enhanced risk (3 of 5) where hail could be larger than 2 inches.

"We anticipate this line to move fast, but some models vary by an hour or two on development," the NWS said. "To account for this, we believe the best window of time for impact is 9am-4pm for Middle Tennessee."

Strong to severe thunderstorms are likely later this morning into the afternoon, mainly for areas east of I-65. Main threats are damaging winds and large hail. While not the primary concern, a brief tornado or two cannot be ruled out today, especially along the Cumberland Plateau pic.twitter.com/q74zXOOrYV  NWS Nashville (@NWSNashville) August 7, 2023

Nashville-area weather radar

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville weather: Tornado watch canceled for Middle Tennessee
Russian forces have established "schools for young voters" in occupied areas of Kherson Oblast, the National Resistance Center reported on Aug. 6.

The schools' stated purpose is to prepare high school students for the Russian presidential "elections."

According to the Center, the training program is set to begin in September and last until March 2024, when Russia will hold its next presidential election.

"It should be noted that in Russia there is no such thing as elections," the Center said.

International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) described Russia's previous presidential election, held in 2018, as "overly controlled."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed this in a comment to the New York Times on Aug. 6.

"Our presidential elections are not exactly democracy, they are expensive bureaucracy," Peskov said. "Putin will be re-elected next year with over 90% of the vote."

Later, Peskov walked back his claim, telling the Russian state news outlet TASS that the Times journalist misinterpreted his words.

In July 2023, Russian occupation authorities in Kherson announced that the region would hold local "elections" in September. Ukrainian officials denounced these elections as illegal and "absurd theater."

Read also: Life under occupation: I was forced to vote in sham referendum at gunpoint

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The border checkpoint that tribal members pass through to come or go from their reservation.

It was pitch black when the Border Patrol rolled up to Raymond Mattias home on a remote corner of the Tohono Oodham reservation in southern Arizona, investigating a report of gunshots.

Border agents, smugglers and migrants were a familiar sight in the tiny desert village a mile from the southern border where the Mattia family had lived for decades. Mattia often patrolled his property with a flashlight, his family said. That night in May, Mattia told an older sister over the phone that he was heading outside to meet the agents, she said.

But in a chaotic instant in May, three Border Patrol agents fatally shot Mattia as they came upon him in the desert, hitting him nine times, according to an autopsy. A Border Patrol report says he had tossed a sheathed machete toward an officer and then abruptly extended his right arm. His family said he was unarmed and posed no threat.

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His death has touched off an outcry on the Tohono Oodham (pronounced Toh-HO-noh AW-tham) Nation, which lies along 62 miles of the southern border, and stirred up long-running resentments over the federal agencys presence on the Native American territory.

Tribal members pass through border-security checkpoints stationed just outside the reservation on their way to Tucson, Arizona, the nearest big city, and say they are regularly pulled over and questioned  encounters that have left a film of fear and distrust.

Im always on guard, always scared, nervous, said Vivian Manuel, who lives near Mattias village. Theyll harass you: What are you doing out here? Are you a tribal member?

Yet Tohono Oodham leaders have called the Border Patrol an ally in confronting drug and human smuggling on a 13,000-person reservation the size of Connecticut. More than 600 migrants have died there over the past decade trying to cross the deserts and ragged mountains, according to the migrant-aid group Humane Borders. The tribe says trafficking has damaged its land and cost the tribe millions in extra work for its roughly 60-member police force.

John R. Modlin, the Border Patrols Tucson sector chief patrol agent who oversees the area, has described tribal partnerships as essential to our national security mission. The Border Patrols social media feed is filled with posts showing agents helping the tribe fight wildfires, planting saguaro cactuses and stopping traffickers who cross the reservation with migrants packed into car trunks.

The Border Patrol released a lengthy account of Mattias killing as well as body-camera footage. An investigation is being conducted by the FBI and the Tohono Oodham Police Department. The agencies declined to discuss the shooting, citing the investigation.

Ned Norris Jr., the Tohono Oodham chair, said in a statement that he had serious concerns about Mattias killing but was reserving judgment. He did not respond to a request for comment.

News of the shooting has rippled through other tribes near the border, forcing some leaders to grapple with their own mixed feelings about the federal presence around their lands.

We always worry about both sides, whether its the cartels or some of the agents who man these border patrols who have guns, said Peter Yucupicio, chair of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, whose headquarters are in Tucson. You start wondering as a tribal member: If I do something wrong, am I going to get all shot up.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the umbrella agency of the Border Patrol, has reported an average of roughly 15 use-of-force incidents involving guns each year since 2020. Many of those occurred after vehicle pursuits or other attempts to apprehend smugglers and migrants, according to news reports and accounts from the agency.

But the shooting of a tribal member on tribal lands sets this case apart.

The Tohono Oodham, whose name means desert people, ranged across the Sonoran desert for centuries before there was a border, following seasonal water flows, hunting deer and harvesting fruit from cactuses, according to tribal histories.

Their traditional lands were split in two when the 1853 Gadsden Purchase set the boundary between the United States and Mexico.

In the decades that followed, the Border Patrol has built surveillance towers and substations on the reservation, and its white pickups roam highways and sandy back roads. The tribe has about 33,000 members, most of whom live off the reservation.

Many try to honor their cross-border heritage by visiting family and graveyards on the Mexican side, or by crossing to hold religious ceremonies or tend to ranching stock.

They must present tribal identification cards to pass into the United States at dedicated gates, and tribal leaders say that Tohono Oodham trying to travel back and forth have been detained and had ceremonial items like pine leaves and sweet grass confiscated.

The tribe resisted the Trump administrations campaign to build a border wall as an infringement on its freedoms, so instead of a 30-foot-high line of steel columns, the border is marked mostly by X-shaped vehicle barriers and a gaptoothed bollard fence.

Some in the tribe said they were not bothered by the Border Patrols presence.

But others said a history of run-ins had left them leery, such as a 2014 incident in which a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded two joy riding Tohono Oodham men after they accidentally clipped the agents parked pickup truck one moonless night. A federal judge later found the shooting was not justified and awarded the men more than $250,000.

They need to look at us as people and not like were all criminals, said Angelita Reino Ramon, whose 18-year-old son was fatally struck by a Border Patrol truck 20 years ago in what a judge later called an unavoidable accident. They need to have more respect.

The exact circumstances that led to Mattias death the night of May 18 are still hazy.

The call began about 9 p.m. when tribal police asked the Border Patrol for help responding to a report of two gunshots heard in Mattias village, Menagers Dam, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection.

In radio recordings and body-camera videos, dispatchers and officers said it was unclear where the shots had come from. Before heading out, they cautioned that someone in the area might have a rifle.

At 9:37 p.m., the agents and at least one tribal police officer pulled up to the village and spread out around Mattias dark cinder-block house. There was just a sliver of moon that night, and in the video, their flashlights barely penetrate a ghostly landscape of outdoor furniture, creosote bushes and cactuses.

I thought somebody just ran this way, an agent said, jogging into the brush.

The tribal officer and agents found Mattia near a wooden structure about 100 yards away from his house. They ordered him to come out with his hands up. I am, he said and tossed a sheathed machete through the air, which landed near an officers feet.

Several officers started yelling, ordering Mattia to take his hands out of his pocket and get on the ground. Seconds later, they fired the fatal burst of shots.

As the agents handcuffed and flipped Mattia onto his back, one yelled out to secure the gun that they said was beneath his limp body. Instead, they found a cellphone and its case.

The case is already testing parallel efforts by the Biden administration both to strengthen ties and trust with tribes, and overhaul how Border Patrol shootings are investigated.

Last year, the administration disbanded secretive critical incident teams within the Border Patrol that had been criticized for effectively allowing the organization to investigate itself after events like Mattias killing. The administration also ordered federal law enforcement agencies, including the Border Patrol, to wear body cameras and promptly release footage after shootings.

The administrations COVID rescue package contained $1.75 billion for American Indians and Alaska Natives, and the administration also created a Homeland Security advisory council focused on tribal issues. Its 15 members include the Tohono Oodham tribal chair.

Mattias relatives say they have little faith in the investigations, and have struggled to get answers from both the tribal government and the Border Patrol.

Frustrated, a dozen relatives and supporters put on matching red T-shirts bearing Mattias photo and held a small protest across the highway from a Border Patrol station, just outside the reservation boundaries.

They burned sprigs of creosote bushes and took turns waving posters that called for justice and huddling under umbrellas to get out of the sun.

Mattias family described him as a ceremonial leader in their community who made wood carvings and loved hunting deer. His sister, Annette Mattia, said the family had lived in the same area for generations, but that the shooting had shattered their sense of home.

We dont even want to be here anymore, she said.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
FILE PHOTO: Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of their offices in San Diego

(Reuters) -Nektar Therapeutics on Monday sued Eli Lilly, accusing the U.S. drugmaker of undermining the prospects for a drug the companies were developing together for various autoimmune diseases.

The two companies in 2017 entered into a partnership to develop and potentially commercialize the drug, called rezpegaldesleukin.

The complaint filed in San Francisco federal court accuses Lilly of breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, unfair competition and other wrongdoing. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages, among other remedies.

Lilly did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Nektar, which regained all rights to the drug earlier this year after the deal was terminated, separately said on Monday Lilly had incorrectly reported data from two early-stage studies testing rezpegaldesleukin to treat eczema and psoriasis

Nektar said new data showed that 12 weeks of treatment with the drug at the highest dose reduced severity of eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, by 83%, compared to 66% reported previously.

The new data also indicated that the treatment at the highest dose reduced severity of psoriasis by 44%, compared to 40% reported previously.

Shares of Nektar, which had a market capitalization of $100.79 million as of Friday's close, rose about 60% to 86 cents after the new data.

Nektar also said Lilly had purchased another company with a competing drug candidate that was under development.

Lilly in 2020 bought Dermira Inc, which was developing a competing atopic dermatitis drug, for about $1.1 billion in cash.

With the improved efficacy data, rezpegaldesleukin shows similar efficacy as that of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' Dupixent, Jefferies analyst Roger Song said in a note, adding that the terminated collaboration with Lilly may turn out to be a windfall for Nektar.

Nektar said it plans to begin a mid-stage study for the drug in eczema by October.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Sriraj Kalluvila)
(Bloomberg) -- Israel and Saudi Arabia will deepen economic and business ties even if they dont formally recognize each other, according to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Israeli prime minister told Bloomberg hes confident he can strike a deal with the Saudis under which the countries have official diplomatic relations. Without one, the two can still build an economic corridor running from the Arabian Peninsula to Europe that encompasses energy, transport and communications technology, he said.

Were going to realize that, he said in a television interview on Sunday in Jerusalem. My sense is well realize that whether we have formal peace or not.

Its unclear if Saudi Arabia would accept much deeper connections. Public opinion in the kingdom remains opposed to recognition of Israel.

Netanyahu, 73, has said the normalization of ties would benefit Israel and Saudi Arabia economically and discourage Iran from meddling aggressively in the region, including by disrupting oil-shipping routes.

While Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations earlier this year in a deal that China helped broker, Riyadh still views Tehran with suspicion and as a geopolitical rival.

US President Joe Biden is also keen for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel. He sent National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to the kingdom last month, partly to discuss the issue with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It would have enormous economic consequences for investors, Netanyahu said. If they had to bet on it, right now Id bet on it. But I cant guarantee it.

Riyadh has previously said an independent Palestinian state is a precondition. It has expressed frustration in recent months over Israels deteriorating relations with the Palestinians  typified by the recent raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank and incendiary comments by some far-right members of Netanyahus coalition.

Privately, the Saudis have asked for firm defense guarantees from the US, access to top-notch American weaponry and for the White House to allow it to enrich uranium domestically as part of a plan to build nuclear power plants.

Palestinian Check Box

Netanyahu downplayed the Palestinian issue as something hindering a Saudi-Israel deal.

Its sort of a check box, he said. You have to check it to say youre doing it. Is that whats being said in corridors? Is that whats being said in discreet negotiations? The answer is a lot less than you think.

The premier declined to say if he would accept limitations on new Jewish settlements in the West Bank to get an agreement with Riyadh. He said he wouldnt allow a Palestinian state without Israel having security control over it.

You wont have a Palestinian state  youll have an Iranian terror state, he said. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves and none of the powers to threaten Israel. This means that in whatever final peace settlement we have with the Palestinians, Israel has the overriding security power in the entire area  ours and theirs.

On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said he was confident Saudi Arabia would take Palestinian interests into account.

The kingdom considers the Palestinian issue to be a focus of its interest and a top priority in its regional and international deliberations, Shtayyeh told a weekly cabinet meeting.

Guardian of Islam

Normalization would be a significant coup for Israel. While its signed historic diplomatic deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan since 2020, Saudi Arabia is the biggest economy in the Middle East, with the government investing trillions of dollars to diversify from oil. In addition, its the guardian of Islams two holiest sites at Mecca and Medina.

Why Israel Is Bitterly Split by a Judiciary Overhaul: QuickTake

Despite the lack of formal ties, Israeli tech and cyber-security firms have secretly done business with the kingdom for years. In late 2020, Israeli media said Netanyahu had flown to Saudi Arabia to meet the crown prince, a trip that was never officially acknowledged by either side.

Some dealings have become more open. Last year, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to airlines flying in and out of Israel. And this month SolarEdge Technologies Inc., an S&P 500 company based in Israel, announced its forming a joint venture with a Saudi firm to develop renewable energy in the kingdom.

--With assistance from Galit Altstein, Gaia Lamperti, Harris Braude, Fadwa Hodali and Marissa Newman.

(Updates with reaction from Palestinian prime minister above Guardian of Islam sub-head.)

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BEIRUT, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Monday refuted claims that the kingdom wanted to ruin Lebanon's tourism season by issuing a statement asking its citizens to leave the country shortly after clashes broke out in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

"Saudi Arabia will be among the countries that encourage tourism in Lebanon the most, and it will prove this in the future if the Lebanese succeed in solving their crisis," Bukhari was quoted as saying by the Elnashra news website.

On July 29, clashes erupted in Ain Al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon between members of the Palestinian Fatah movement and Islamic activists. The clashes continued until August 3, leaving at least 13 people killed and dozens of others injured.

The clashes prompted Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to urge their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, while Kuwait warned its citizens to stay away from areas of conflict.

The Saudi ambassador said the kingdom made the move because it was "keen to protect its citizens wherever they are and cannot neglect this issue."

Soon after Saudi Arabia made the decision to ask its citizens to leave Lebanon, Lebanese authorities expressed concerns that the move would affect its tourism sector. 
Police are crediting a North Myrtle Beach woman for saving the life of a baby girl, who was found in bushes Sunday evening.

The infant, who is alive, is believed to have been born within the last day, according to Officer Patrick Wilkinson Monday. The infants mother, Britney Wheatle, 21, has been arrested and charged with unlawful conduct toward a child.

Police say Robyn Cain found the newborn during her evening walk about 6:18 p.m. at 117 Live Oak Court, police say.

Cain told officers she heard a noise and thought it was an animal, such as a kitten. However, when she looked in the bushes, she saw that it was a baby. She scooped it up and called 911, Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said the homeowners at that residence were out of town and had nothing to do with the infant.

North Myrtle Beach Police and Fire departments, as well as EMS, responded to the scene. The baby was transported to the hospital where she is in stable condition, Wilkinson said.

Cain told detectives that she had seen a young woman earlier in the day walking in the neighborhood, Wilkinson said. The woman seemed confused and lost, Cain told police. She asked the woman if she was lost and she said she was trying to get to her job at Walmart.

Cain gave the woman a ride to work and then went back home to begin her walk. A short time later she found the child.

The newborn, which was premature, had no clothes, no blanket and was lying in the dirt, Wilkinson said. It appears the baby girl had been there for about an hour. There were no signs of abuse on the baby. However, the heat on Sunday was in the 90s.

Officers went to Walmart where they found the mother and she confessed that she had abandoned the child. Wheatle is from Jamaica and is in the U.S. on a J1 visa, he said. It appears she gave birth at her apartment on Second Avenue.

The mother also was transported to the hospital for treatment and then arrested, Wilkinson said.

Pat Wilkinson, a North Myrtle Beach public information officer and K-9 handler, gives a press conference on Monday about the discovery of an infant child found under bushes in North Myrtle Beach and the arrest of the childs mother, Britney Wheatle, a 21-year-old student from Jamaica working in the U.S. under a J-1 student visa.

Wilkinson wanted to remind people about Daniels Law, which allows parents to relinquish their unharmed child up to 60 days old to a safe haven location, which includes hospitals, law enforcement, fire departments, house of worship during staffed hours or EMS, without prosecution.

Under a bush is not a safe haven in the South Carolina heat, Wilkinson added.

Wheatle was given a $10,000 bond and is still in the J. Reuben Long Detention Center. She could face up to 10 years in prison for the felony charge.

Wilkinson said he wanted to give a special thanks to Cain and the rescuers.

Thank God we got that baby and got her to the hospital, Wilkinson said. God was on her side that day. The real hero that day was Ms. Cain.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden has ordered the U.S. government to start sharing information about possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The decision, which was made in recent days and first reported by The New York Times, overrides months of resistance by the Defense Department.

Biden has said Russian President Vladimir Putin has clearly committed war crimes.

The U.S. is not a member of the ICC, and the Pentagon had blocked efforts to share evidence of war crimes. The Pentagon has had concerns that by working with the ICC, the U.S. could open the door to the prosecution of U.S. troops deployed abroad.

The ICC, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, has investigated allegations that U.S. forces and the CIA committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. supports a "range of international investigations" to hold perpetrators responsible, including through the ICC, the Ukraine prosecutor generals office and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission.

"On the ICC specifically, we are not going to discuss the specifics on any cooperation, which is consistent with the Courts practice of treating requests for cooperation in a confidential manner," the spokesperson said. "More broadly, we will keep working with Ukraine and other countries to expose the war crimes and atrocities that Russian forces and officials are committing for the world to see."

The U.S. has deployed international investigators and prosecutors to help the Ukraine prosecutor generals office prepare war crimes cases, the spokesperson said.

In September, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin signed a memorandum of understanding for closer collaboration in identifying and prosecuting perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine.

In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin, a move that Biden said was "justified." It said Putin was responsible for illegally transferring children from Ukraine to Russia.

Putins press secretary, Dmitriy Peskov, said at the time: We do not recognize this court. We do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. This is how we treat this.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Explosions hit critical road bridges linking occupied Crimea with parts of Kherson region under Russian control, Russian authorities say, as Ukraine escalates its targeting of Russian infrastructure and territory.

The blasts came on the same day the Moscow mayor said a drone had been shot down approaching the city and soon after Ukraine struck one of Russias biggest oil tankers with a sea drone as well as carrying out an attack on a major naval base.

The Russian-appointed acting head of Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, says the missiles that hit two bridges in Crimea Sunday were all Storm Shadows, an air-launched long-range missile supplied to Ukraine by the UK.

Saldo said the two bridges were used by civilian and not military traffic. A rupture to a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge had cut off supplies to 20,000 residents of the city of Henichesk in Kherson.

Saldo said: Its this kind of sneaky missile attack that cant be forgiven. Its like a wounded animal snapping back.

These strikes do not do anything for the special military operation that is currently underway  They have decided to take petty revenge on civilians and those who are now moving through the territory of the Kherson region.

He added that no one was hurt and the bridge would reopen to traffic by the end of the day.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian guided aerial bomb struck a blood transfusion center in the Kharkiv region Saturday.

He added that there were dead and wounded without providing any specific numbers.

Mapbox

A new wave of Russian missiles also struck sites across Ukraine overnight, most of which were shot down.

Ukrainian strikes inside Russia and Russia-controlled territory are an increasingly common feature of the war.

A string of drone strikes have peppered Russian cities including Moscow throughout the summer, while Friday saw the attack on a Russian port hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-held territory, leaving a warship listing.

Ukraine on Saturday pledged that there would be more of such attacks on Russian shipping and the Crimea bridge to come.

Any explosions that happen to Russian ships or the Crimean bridge are an absolutely logical and effective step. Moreover, such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal, said Head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Maliuk.

Maliuk said that if the Russians wanted such explosions to stop they have the only option to do so  to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and our land.

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About 50 years ago, Canadian police discovered a partially nude woman floating face down in a river west of Montreal  her hands and ankles strapped with neckties, her neck bound with a black coaxial cable wire, and her head covered with a hand cloth, towel and tablecloth.

The identity of the woman, Lalla Jewel Langford, would not be known to authorities until 2021, thanks to a DNA sample of her exhumed body that matched up with her relatives.

The man now accused of killing the 48-year-old American woman in 1975 was arrested last month by deputy U.S. marshals at a retirement home in Hollywood, Florida.

Rodney Mervyn Nichols, 81, is charged with Langfords murder  thanks again to DNA technology along with a confession  and he remains in custody at the Federal Detention Center in Miami awaiting extradition this fall to Ontario in one of Canadas oldest and most infamous cold cases.

In early February of last year, officers with the Ontario Provincial Police traveled to Hollywood to question Nichols with FBI agents at the North-Lake Retirement Home. Nichols, who lived with Langford after she had moved from Tennessee to Montreal 48 years ago, admitted to the crime when investigators showed him photographs of the neckties that had been used to bind her hands and ankles.

Nichols identified the neckties as belonging to him, according to an extradition complaint filed by U.S. prosecutor Lawrence LaVecchio in Fort Lauderdale federal court, the day before Nichols arrest on July 25.

Canadian authorities then advised Nichols that he had admitted to the murder of Langford and that he could be charged, the complaint says. After consulting with a legal aid lawyer in Canada, Nichols told investigators that he had an altercation with Langford that started in his home in Montreal, and that he subsequently dumped her body in the Nation River.

When asked why he confessed, Nichols said he had to come clean, the complaint says.

However, in a court filing, Nichols lawyer with the Federal Public Defenders Office questioned the validity of the confession, asserting that the former Canadian man suffers from dementia, needs medication and must use a wheelchair. Assistant Federal Public Defender Bernardo Lopez said that despite the serious charge, Nichols is not a danger to the community or a flight risk and should be allowed to return to his assisted-living facility in Hollywood where he had lived in recent years until his extradition to Ontario. An extradition hearing is set for Sept. 26.

The Federal Detention Center is no place for someone with Mr. Nichols frailties and vulnerabilities, Lopez said in the filing.

Nation River Lady

Langford had been known for decades only as the Nation River Lady after her remains were found on May 3, 1975, floating in the Nation River, a short distance from a highway bridge near Casselman, Ontario  about 90 miles west of Montreal.

Technology that uses DNA to find genetic matches led to identifying her as Langford, Ontario Provincial Police said at a news conference last month.

Police say Langfords case marked the first time that Canadian authorities used genetic forensic technology to identify a victim. Other methods of identification, including creating a 3D facial approximation of her in 2017, were tried but had no success.

Detective Inspector Daniel Nadeau said Langford was a well-known member of the business community in Jackson, Tennessee, who co-owned a spa with her ex-husband.

She traveled to Montreal in April 1975 and moved into a house with her boyfriend, Nichols, then 32.

Jewell Langford, middle, was prominent in the Jackson, Tennessee business community, police said.

At that time, her family in Tennessee had reported her missing, Nadeau said.

At the time of her disappearance, Langfords belongings, including her Cadillac, remained at her home in Montreal, according to the extradition complaint. The Montreal Police Service investigated her disappearance, but were unable to locate Langford or bring charges.

A May 1975 autopsy report by Canadian authorities revealed two fracture injuries to the victims larynx, and then a coroners report concluded that the cause of death was strangulation by ligature of the neck.

Further, the absence of water in the victims lungs suggested to Canadian authorities that she was deceased before entering the water, the extradition complaint says.

In June 1975, Montreal police investigators questioned Nichols at the home he shared with Langford, but they did not consider him a suspect, according to the complaint. Nichols said the couple got into an argument and that she left on her own for Vancouver that June, calling him by phone to join her there.

Langfords identity remained unknown for more than 40 years because of the unavailability of DNA evidence. In 2011, Canadian authorities conducted a forensic analysis of the items found on the victims body, including two large, blood-stained pieces of green cloth that covered her face and neck when her body was found in the Nation River.

Following the DNA

A partial male DNA profile was found in the bloodstains on the green cloth, the complaint says. Then, the Ontario Provincial Police collected DNA samples from nine male persons of interest and compared each with the partial DNA male profile found on the green cloth. Each person of interest was excluded as the source of the DNA.

Seven years later, Canadian authorities exhumed the victims body from a cemetery in Toronto, and the Ontario Centre of Forensic Science took a DNA sample from the victim. With assistance from the DNA Doe Project and FBI, the Ontario police obtained DNA samples from several members of Langfords extended family and compared them with the sample obtained from the exhumed body.

On July 13, 2021, the Ontario police pathologists positively identified the victim as Langford.

Investigators said that because Langfords body was discovered in May 1975  one month before Nichols claimed he spoke on the phone with her from Vancouver in early June  they concluded that Nichols deliberately misled them during his interview, the complaint says.

Jewell Langfords original grave marker, top, was replaced, bottom, when her body was returned to her family and buried, police said.

In February of last year, Ontario police investigators and FBI agents visited Nichols at the retirement home in Hollywood to question him about the disappearance and murder of Langford. He denied any involvement, but then said that he and Langford had taken out a sailboat, the boat capsized and she drowned. Then he said he tried to drown Langford in the Ottawa River because he was depressed, the extradition complaint says.

But when investigators showed him the photographs of the neckties that had been used to bind Langfords hands and ankles, Nichols said they belonged to him.

During that February 2022 interview, Nichols provided a sample of his DNA to the Ontario police investigators. His sample was compared to the partial male DNA profile that was collected a decade earlier from the blood on the green cloth that was wrapped around Langfords face and neck.

The Ontario police pathologists concluded that the partial DNA from the blood on the green cloth was 190 times more likely to be Nicholss DNA than the DNA of any other person unrelated to Nichols.

Information from the Associated Press was used for this story.
U.S. health officials are racing to control an outbreak of tuberculosis linked to contaminated bone graft material that has killed one person and infected at least four others - the second outbreak of the rare disease in two years.

Eight people died in 2021 when the same type of bone repair product used in spinal surgery was also contaminated with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. The product was supplied by Aziyo Biologics, the Silver Spring, Md., company also involved in the current outbreak.

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The contaminated product was used in at least 36 patients who underwent surgical or dental procedures earlier this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the outbreak did not become public until Aziyo issued a voluntary recall on July 13.

All patients are being treated as if they have tuberculosis because of the large percentage of people who develop severe forms of the disease from implanted bone material, according to Kathleen Conley, a CDC spokesperson.

TB is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but it can attack any part of the body, such as the kidney, spine and brain. The bacteria spread through the air, from one person to another. Left untreated, tuberculosis can be fatal.

In 2021, surgeons used the contaminated material in 113 patients, sparking a wave of lawsuits and calls for tighter regulation of the product, a commonly used surgical putty that contains living cells procured from the bones of a cadaver.

In the current outbreak, the bone products were derived from a single donor and sent to 13 facilities in seven states: California, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Texas and Virginia, between Feb. 27 and June 20, according to the CDC.

Aziyo recalled a single lot of the bone repair product, ViBone Moldable, which is made from human tissue and used primarily in orthopedic and spinal procedures, according to a July 13 company statement. Samples from the lot had tested negative for the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, the company said. The CDC said the company's bone grafting solution, called alloOss Plus, used for dental procedures, also came from the same donor and was recalled.

The company said it has suspended shipments of all bone repair products from all donors. All patients, facilities and states involved have been contacted and remaining units of the product lot have been removed from inventory and will not be used, according to the CDC.

Aziyo, which processes the bone product, is responsible for ensuring the product is free of contamination. But current U.S. regulations do not require organ or tissue donors to be assessed for tuberculosis or tuberculosis risk factors. The Food and Drug Administration requires human tissue used for products like the bone repair material to be tested for several communicable diseases, including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis - but not tuberculosis.

Nor is laboratory testing for the tuberculosis bacteria routinely performed on donors, according to a report on the 2021 outbreak published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases. Its authors include CDC, FDA and other federal and state health officials who investigated that outbreak, the largest recorded tissue-derived tuberculosis outbreak, the report said.

Standard screening was unsuccessful at detecting infection in donated tissues as well as in the donor, an 80-year-old man who traveled frequently to an unidentified country where the annual number of new TB cases is more than eight times higher than in the United States, the report said.

In that report, federal health officials recommended that "all prospective tissues and donors should be routinely assessed for tuberculosis risk factors and clinical findings."

In a recent statement, Aziyo said neither the FDA nor the American Association of Tissue Banks, the organization that promotes the safety and use of donated human tissue, mandate testing for the tuberculosis bacteria in cellular products.

"However, considering our experience in 2021 and with the intent to protect patients, Aziyo worked with outside experts to develop a test to screen for [the bacteria] where none was previously commercially available," the company said. "We have used this test as part of our standard operating procedures since that time. This test exceeds guidelines set by both the AATB and the FDA."

The company said samples from the specific lot of bone material that was related to the tuberculosis infections had tested negative for the bacteria by an independent laboratory using a nucleic acid test that is designed to specifically detect the organism. "Our investigation has involved additional testing on the donor lot in question through multiple independent labs and in each instance, [the bacteria] has not been detected in the donor samples," the company said.

Beverly Bliss, vice president for accreditation standards and regulatory affairs at the American Association of Tissue Banks, agreed that even a more sensitive laboratory test, which would take six to eight weeks, is not guaranteed to turn up tuberculosis in bones. And that length of time might threaten the live cells in the Aziyo product.

"There simply isn't a good test," she said. Current tests were "all designed for living people."

The association is preparing to release a new set of "risk factors" Monday to help companies avoid collecting tissue from the remains of people most likely to have been exposed to tuberculosis in their lifetimes. Their bodies should not be used for "any viable cell product," she said.

Bliss said extensive investigations by both the AATB and the FDA did not turn up anything wrong in Aziyo's processing of the bone in 2021. She declined to comment on why a single company, of the many in the United States that process tissue, is involved in both tuberculosis outbreaks.

"We have not detected anything noncompliant yet," Bliss said.

The FDA said it is working with the CDC "to fully understand the impact of this recall," said Carly Kempler, an FDA spokesperson.

In response to whether the agency plans to update its human tissue requirements and mandate testing for tuberculosis, Kempler said the agency routinely reviews its approaches for screening and testing of human cells, tissues and cellular and tissue-based products from donors to determine whether any changes should be made.

James Sunstrum, an infectious-disease expert in Dearborn, Mich., who treated two patients for severe tuberculosis after they underwent spinal surgery with Aziyo's contaminated bone product in 2021, said the type of test performed by Aziyo is a quick test, but "some TB cells could certainly escape with that DNA test." He and other clinicians say a more thorough test to detect tuberculosis would entail culturing a specimen, but that requires six to eight weeks of additional incubation for this very slow-growing bacteria.

"It's very disturbing and distressing to hear about a second outbreak," Sunstrum said. "We think this kind of product should be removed from the shelves."

Chris Buri, 72, of Denver, was among the patients in the 2021 outbreak who contracted tuberculosis after spinal surgery. His 10-hour surgery was a success, he said, but the tuberculosis infection hit him with severe pain and night sweats. The months-long antibiotic treatment for TB made the pain worse. When he learned how he had become infected, "I wanted to get healthy and I wanted to get even," Buri said in an interview this week. He filed a lawsuit but he reached a settlement with the company. He is not allowed to disclose the terms.

Buri said he was eager to move on. He became active in WeAreTB.com, a TB education and support group. But the new outbreak is bringing back difficult memories. "I'm heartbroken to find out that more people have now suffered from a second outbreak," he said.

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Just two days after prosecutors requested a protective order to prevent Donald Trump from posting on social media about the legal case regarding his actions to subvert the 2020 election results, the very shouty former president shared multiple crazed all-caps messages to Truth Social about exactly that.

Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday morning claiming that there is NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL with the current judge, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, and Washington, D.C. venue. Chutkan was randomly selected to preside over the trial.

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ASSIGNED TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE, Trump wrote. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

Trump has previously talked about requesting a venue change, floating West Virginia  a state he won in 2020 by 40 points and which he recently described as politically unbiased  as a possibility to host the proceedings.

Chutkan is the one of three district judges who has given Jan. 6 defendants harsher sentences than what the government has asked, matching or exceeding prosecutor recommendations in nearly half of her Jan. 6 sentences. She also issued a ruling in 2021 allowing the Jan. 6 committee to access files from Trumps White House, including call logs, memos, and more  evidence cited by Jack Smith in the Tuesday indictment against the former president.

Its probably the worst draw for Trump. Shes the worst judge he couldve gotten handed, an attorney who has experience representing a Jan. 6 defendant told Rolling Stone. Shes pleasant, shes nice, and shes fair, but shes a tough judge with these Jan. 6 cases.

Trumps angry Truth Social posts came shortly after he attacked special counsel Jack Smith in a speech in South Carolina on Saturday night. Deranged Jack Smith. Hes a deranged human being, Trump told the South Carolina GOP Dinner. You take a look at that face, you say that guy is a sick man. Theres something wrong with him This guys a maniac.

Trump: Deranged Jack Smith. Hes a deranged human being. You take a look at that face, you say that guy is a sick man pic.twitter.com/GdmoTbcRuk  Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2023

Prosecutors from the Justice Department on Friday requested Chutkan issue a protective order to limit the amount of information Trump can publicly share about the ongoing case. Trumps legal team asked for an extension, but Judge Chutkan rejected their request, giving them until 5 p.m. on Monday to respond to prosecutors request.

Federal prosecutors argued that a protective order is particularly important in this case because Trump posts on social media about witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.

For example, Trumps post from Sunday morning, where he wrote: DERANGED JACK SMITH AND OUR HIGHLY PARTISAN, AND VERY CORRUPT, DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE, COULD HAVE BROUGHT THIS BIDIN [sic] OPPONENT CASE YEARS AGO, BUT CHOSE TO WAIT AND BRING IT RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY ELECTION CAMPAIGN. NO WAY!!! I HOPE YOU ARE WATCHING AMERICA. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Judge Chutkan is expected to set a trial date on Aug. 28 at the first hearing she will oversee in this case.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are not on the same page for their proposed debate.

Newsom and DeSantis are already polar opposites when it comes to major issues like gun reform, abortion rights, immigration, and education, and have been trading barbs for months. In June, Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Newsom if he would ever debate DeSantis, who is also a Republican candidate for president. Newsom said yes, and sent proposed terms to Hannity in late July, writing that the event "will be marketed as a Red vs. Blue debate that is focused on the impact of representation at the state level."

Hannity would be the moderator, Newsom said, and the two governors would be the only speakers. The 90-minute debate would air live on Fox News, with Newsom and DeSantis each having four minutes to deliver an opening statement. They would not be allowed to come in with any notes or documents, and there would not be an audience in the room with them. Newsom suggested holding the event in Nevada, Georgia or North Carolina and said he is available on Nov. 8 or Nov. 10.

DeSantis told Hannity last Wednesday that he was open to debating Newsom, adding, "This is a debate for the future of our country." He submitted his proposal to the host on Friday, and said he wants the event to take place in front of a live audience split evenly between both sides. DeSantis does not want any opening remarks, and instead proposed the governors should put together two-minute videos, approved by Fox News, to play at the start of the event.

DeSantis' counterproposal is "a joke," Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said in a statement, and it is "littered with crutches to hide his insecurity and ineptitude  swapping opening statements with a hype video, cutting down the time he needs to be on stage, adding cheat notes and a cheering section." DeSantis, he continued, "should be able to stand on his own two feet. It's no wonder Trump is kicking his ass."

Eric Ting, politics editor at SFGate, wrote that DeSantis had been smart to avoid debating Newsom, as "it would be bizarre for someone polling at second place in a presidential primary to debate against someone on the sidelines." When DeSantis finally accepted the invitation, it was because his presidential campaign is "bleeding staff, money and support in the polls," Ting added. "He needs something, anything, to give his campaign life. Debating Newsom looks like an act of desperation because it is one."

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Map showing the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including those suspended or sanctioned following a coup (Gal ROMA)

The second-ranking US diplomat met Niger's military leaders on Monday to press to reverse a coup but reported no headway a day after an ultimatum from the West African bloc ECOWAS was ignored.

Victoria Nuland, a veteran envoy and acting deputy secretary of state, said she met for more than two hours with military chiefs who ousted democratically elected Western ally Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.

Nuland's trip, conducted in secrecy until she left, came after the expiration of a deadline set by ECOWAS to reinstate Bazoum by midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday or risk military intervention.

The 15-nation bloc is reconvening for its own diplomatic push on the crisis with a summit Thursday in Nigerian capital Abuja.

A source close to ECOWAS said an immediate military intervention to restore Bazoum was not envisaged at this stage, adding that the path to dialogue still appeared open.

Speaking to reporters before her departure, Nuland described her talks as "extremely frank and at times quite difficult".

She said she offered the coup leaders "a number of options" to exit the crisis and restore the relationship with the United States, which like other Western nations has suspended aid.

"I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer," she said.

She added that the coup leaders did not respond to her requests to meet Niger's self-proclaimed new leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or the detained elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, although US officials have been in touch with Bazoum by telephone.

Nuland said she met Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, who has been named the new military chief of staff and who has worked closely in the past with the United States, which along with former colonial power France has based anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel out of Niger.

Nuland said she warned Niger against following neighbouring Mali in bringing in Russia's Wagner mercenaries.

"The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in," said Nuland, who is known for her hawkish stance on Russia.

- Diplomacy 'preferred' -

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed on Monday the need for the international community to find a diplomatic route out of the coup.

"Diplomacy is certainly the preferred way of resolving this situation," he told French Radio RFI.

"It is ECOWAS' current approach. It is our approach."

Niger's neighbours have strongly rejected the possibility of a regional military intervention.

Mali said it and Burkina Faso -- which have both been suspended from ECOWAS over their own military coups -- were sending a joint official delegation to Niamey to show "solidarity (with) the people of Niger".

They have said military intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military solution, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be "a direct threat" to his North African country.

Senators in regional heavyweight Nigeria urged everyone to focus on the "political and diplomatic option".

- More envoys coming -

Just before the ultimatum expired on Sunday, Niger's military rulers closed the Sahel country's airspace and warned any attempt to enter it would meet with an "energetic and immediate response".

They said there had been a "pre-deployment in preparation for intervention" made by two Central African countries, without naming them, and warned: "Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent."

But Niger's military rulers also urged an ECOWAS delegation to return for talks, Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou told French broadcaster TV5 Monde Monday, after an abortive first attempt.

Mahamadou said in his interview that Bazoum -- held with his wife and son -- was enduring deteriorating conditions.

"The junta have asked the ECOWAS delegation to return" and its members "will be in Niamey probably today (Monday) or tomorrow", Mahamadou said.

An ECOWAS delegation arrived in the capital Niamey last Thursday but did not stay overnight as scheduled. It did not meet either Bazoum or Tiani.

The UN Secretary-General's representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, was also in Abuja for talks on the crisis.

France, with which Niger's new rulers have broken military ties, said it would "firmly" back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the deadline expired.

On Monday, the military leaders appointed former finance minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister and Habibou Assoumane as the new commander of the presidential guard.

Niger's coup is the latest of several in Africa's Sahel belt since 2020.

Niger has been critical to Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have plagued the Sahel since 2012, with France and the United States stationing around 1,500 and 1,000 troops in the country respectively.

bur-sct/lb/aha
Members of the military attend a rally in Niamey on 6 August

A senior US official has held face-to-face talks with Niger's military leaders following last month's coup.

Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said the conversations had been "extremely frank and at times quite difficult".

Washington has said the coup can still be ended diplomatically and President Mohamed Bazoum reinstated, but has suspended aid payments in the meantime.

West African countries are set to meet on Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Ecowas - a trading bloc of 15 West African states - had issued a 23:00 GMT Sunday deadline to Niger's junta leaders to stand down and restore the elected president.

The coup leaders responded to a threat of military action from the bloc by closing Niger's airspace.

Speaking to reporters from capital Niamey, Ms Nuland said that, in talks lasting more than two hours, the US had offered its help "if there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to the constitutional order".

"I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer," she said.

Ms Nuland said she had met the new military chief of staff, Brigadier General Moussa Salaou Barmou, but not with Niger's self-proclaimed new leader, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, or with Mr Bazoum.

Mr Bazoum remains in detention but has previously spoken to US officials by phone.

Ms Nuland said she also raised concerns over claims the coup leaders had asked Russia's Wagner mercenary group for help in maintaining control of the country.

"The people who have taken this action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited in," she said.

Gen Tchiani, a former chief of the presidential guard to Mr Bazoum, seized power on 26 July, saying he wanted to avert "the gradual and inevitable demise" of Niger.

The growing instability in the region compelled former colonial power France on Monday to warn its citizens against travelling to the Sahel region, and for those still there to be cautious due to anti-France sentiment.

"It is essential to limit travel, to stay away from any gatherings and to keep themselves regularly informed of the situation," read a statement from the foreign ministry.

The junta in Niger on Sunday said it had information that "a foreign power" was preparing to attack the country, following reports that military chiefs from Ecowas had drawn up a detailed plan for use of force.

Earlier, Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas' commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said that while "all the elements" had been worked out about an "eventual intervention", the body wanted "diplomacy to work".

Over the weekend Nigeria's Senate discussed the situation in Niger after President Bola Tinubu wrote to it about the Ecowas resolutions imposing sanctions and the possible use of military force.

Local media report there was strong opposition to military intervention, especially from senators representing states near the long border the two countries share.

President Tinubu has been especially vocal in demanding that the Niger military leave power and has threatened to use force if they do not - but he needs approval from the National Assembly for any foreign military intervention.

Map

The coup leaders seem to be showing no sign of willingness to cede power, and on Sunday thousands of their supporters rallied defiantly at a stadium in the capital Niamey.

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.

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.

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Israel says kills 3 Palestinians en route to carrying out attack

Xinhua) 09:03, August 07, 2023

People lay flowers at the site where three Palestinians were killed, south of the West Bank city of Jenin, on Aug. 6, 2023. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)

JERUSALEM/JENIN, West Bank, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Israel said its troops killed three armed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Sunday while they were on their way to carry out an attack against Israelis.

According to a statement released by the Israeli army, soldiers and agents with the Shin Bet internal security agency "thwarted a terror cell" near Jenin in the northern West Bank. An M16 rifle was found in the car.

The head of the group, identified as 26-year-old Naif Abu Tsuik from the Jenin refugee camp, was "a leading military operative" and involved in "military actions against Israeli security forces and advancing military activities directed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip," said the statement.

A man displays the bullets he found at the site where three Palestinians were killed, south of the West Bank city of Jenin, on Aug. 6, 2023. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)

Palestinian eyewitnesses in Jenin said the militants were targetted by intensive gunfire from a special Israeli armed force while they were driving south of the city.

They accused the Israeli soldiers of preventing ambulances from reaching the militants, resulting in their deaths at the scene, and of taking their bodies away.

The killing comes about a month after Israel carried out its largest-scale military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in more than 20 years, killing at least 12 Palestinians, wrecking damage across the camp and forcing thousands of residents to temporarily flee from their homes.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
WINDHOEK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Namibia is determined to bring the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate down to less than two percent by 2028, a health official said Monday.

Ben Nangombe, the Executive Director of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, made the pledge at the opening session of a joint Regional Validation Committee meeting in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, with the aim of validating the country's remarkable progress in the path to the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B virus.

Nangombe highlighted the country's remarkable progress in combating the transmission of these infections to newborn babies and children, saying the country is on track to be one of the next countries in Africa to be certified for the triple elimination of the three infections.

"Namibia is joining the rest of the world in the unprecedented opportunity to eliminate new HIV, congenital syphilis, and hepatitis B infections among our youngest citizens, " he said, adding the overall MTCT rate of HIV was 4.14 percent in 2022.

Namibia launched its national roadmap for the elimination of HIV and syphilis in 2020 and established the National Validation Committee with multisectoral members to lead the effort. 
Nigers armed forces have been bringing in reinforcements to the capital to prepare for a potential military intervention, a military source told CNN, just hours after the military junta running the country refused to abide by an influential regional blocs deadline to cede power.

A convoy of about 40 pick-up trucks arrived at nightfall on Sunday evening, bringing troops from other parts of the country to both reassure a nervous public and prepare for potential battle.

Niger has been engulfed in political chaos since late last month, when President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup detat by the presidential guard. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) responded days later by enacting sanctions and issuing an ultimatum to the ruling military junta: stand down within a week or face a potential military intervention.

That deadline came and went Sunday without any change in the political situation. Bazoum remains deposed and his whereabouts are still unknown to the public. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the juntas formal name, is still effectively in charge of Niger. A junta leader said Sunday that Nigers armed forces would be closing the countrys airspace due to the threat of military intervention.

What comes next is unclear. ECOWAS leaders say their preference is find a diplomatic solution to the crisis but have maintained they willing to resort to the use of force as a last resort to return Nigers democratically elected government to power. The bloc is set to hold another meeting on the situation on Thursday.

ECOWAS head and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Monday that she believes the group will be able to find a resolution to the situation in Niger.

I really believe that it may seem now that we are headed toward a major crisis, we are headed toward major violence, and conflicts. I believe that the ECOWAS authorities will find a way out of that, Sirleaf told CNNs Isa Soares.

She added that ECOWAS would not take any step that would result in a destruction of countries, or the death of people.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday meanwhile said he was concerned over Bazoums continued detention, according to a statement from his spokesperson.

Uncertainty in Niamey

The uncertainty has rattled residents in Niamey, the capital. Some people flocked to supermarkets purchase staples like rice and cooking oil in bulk, while others attempted to flee. Employees of local bus companies said most lines out of the capital were fully booked.

Men pour diesel from jerrycans to a generator in Niamey on Monday. - AFP/Getty Images

At the busy Wadata market, east of the capitals center, many shoppers buying food and necessities Monday voiced apprehension about what might come.

Our country is in the process of falling into a crisis that we have never experienced, were really afraid, said Mariama Sabo, a 31-year-old cleaner.

Salifou, a 27-year-old fruit seller, worried for his business. He imports his produce from Benin, but the border between the two countries is now closed.

My stock is entirely depleted and that really worries me, Salifou said.

Others shared concerns about the rising cost of food.

The authorities should show some sense of responsibility towards us or else its going to be difficult, a woman named Salamatou said. They have to bring peace, but also bring prices down.

Salamatou, seen here during a trip to the Wadata market, said she was concerned about the rising price of food. - Omar Saley/CNN

Pro-junta demonstrators, meanwhile, gathered Sunday at a 30,000-seat stadium in Niamey to voice their support for the military government and their opposition to ECOWAS sanctions.

Despite its wealth of resources, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Many Nigeriens, especially in the younger generation, still see France as an imperial power responsible for the prevailing poverty levels in their country. Those who back the new military government see its rule as an opportunity to distance itself diplomatically from French influence.

Ali Maikano, a bricklayer living in the capital, said he was ready to fight alongside the army to push back against French interests in the country.

Enough is enough, weve suffered a lot under this regime which has given everything to France, were not afraid of ECOWAS or anyone else, Maikano told CNN at the Wadata market.

Supporters of the junta demonstrate in Niamey, the Nigerin capital, on Sunday. - AFP/Getty Images

The future of Nigers elected government is of particular importance to the countrys democratic neighbors and Western partners. The United States and France stationed hundreds of troops, many of whom assist with counterterrorism missions, on the basis that Niger was a relatively stable democracy in a region fraught with political upheaval, terrorism and Islamist insurgencies.

The State Department has had direct contact with military junta leaders in Niger urging them to step aside in the last week to ten days, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

There has been direct contact with military leaders. Im not going to say at what level or with whom, but there has been direct contact with military leaders urging them to step aside, Miller said.

Pressed on if the State Department has sent a point person to Niger to handle the countrys ongoing crisis, Miller would not get into any specific trips or meetings. Miller said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior officials have been involved in conversations and well continue to have senior officials involved in conversations.

Russia has attempted in recent years to capitalize on the geopolitical situation in West Africa to gain clout and influence, especially through the mercenary group Wagner. Wagner has a presence in several countries, including in neighboring Mali, where a military government took charge after a coup in 2021. Wagner forces have been contracted to help local defense forces against rebellions and insurgencies, and suppress opposition.

The French Foreign Ministry said that Wagner had been in touch with the coup leaders in Niger, but it was unclear if the two sides were moving toward a partnership.

We can see that Wagner is in an opportunistic and predatory logic, so they may be tempted to take advantage of the whole situation, a spokesperson for the ministry told journalists.

Shortly after the putsch, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin celebrated the coup and appeared to pitch the private military company to Nigers new leaders.

Burned cars are seen on Monday outside the headquarters of the ousted President's political party. - AFP/Getty Images

Nigers democratic neighbors worry the coup could have a domino effect given the fragility of West African democracies like those in Mali and Burkina Faso, where a coup took place in 2022.

Both countries are now backing the Nigerien junta. They said in a joint statement last week that they would consider any military intervention in Niger an act of war against all three countries.

Both countries are sending delegations to Nigers capital Niamey, in solidarity with the people of Niger, according to the Malian Armed Forces.

Burkina Faso has not yet publicly commented on sending delegations to Niger and Burkina Fasos Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet responded to CNNs request to confirm their attendance.

CNNs Richard Roth, Pierre Bairin and Mihir Melwani contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
By Abdel-Kader Mazou and Boureima Balima

NIAMEY (Reuters) -West African leaders scheduled a summit for Thursday to discuss the Niger junta's rejection of an ultimatum to reinstate the ousted president, as the United States sent a top official to Niamey to push for a return to democracy.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had told leaders of the July 26 coup to stand down by Sunday or face a possible military intervention.

But the junta, under self-declared head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani, former commander of Niger's presidential guard, instead closed the airspace and pledged to defend the country.

The bloc has not directly responded but said on Monday it would hold the Thursday summit to discuss the standoff, a decision the European Union and United States said allowed more time for mediation.

U.S. Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland flew to Niger's capital Niamey on Monday for "frank and difficult" talks with senior junta officials, who rebuffed calls for a return to democratic order.

"They are quite firm in their view of how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the Constitution of Niger," she told reporters late on Monday by phone before leaving Niamey.

"It was difficult today and I will be straight up about that."

Niger's uranium and oil reserves and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants in the Sahel region give it economic and strategic importance for the United States, Europe, China and Russia.

Coup leaders in Niamey have struck a defiant tone, repeatedly affirming their resolution to stand firm and fight if necessary. The junta has cited persistent insecurity as its main justification for seizing power, but data on attacks shows security had actually been improving.

In a further sign of its will to remain in power, the junta on Monday named former Finance Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine as the new prime minister.

Coup leaders have also called on young Nigeriens to be ready to defend the country - a rallying call that several students at the capital's Abdou Moumouni university said on Monday they would heed.

"No sacrifice is too much ... for our country. We are ready to give our lives," said economics masters student Soumaila Hamadou on the rain-drenched campus.

Niamey appeared calm on Monday with people going about their business as usual, but the closure of Nigerien airspace disrupted the skies.

Landlocked Niger is more than twice the size of France and many flight paths across Africa would normally pass above it. Air France suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali, which both border Niger, until Aug. 11 and warned that some flight times would increase.

ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The credibility of the 15-nation club is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows.

ECOWAS defence chiefs agreed on Friday on a possible military action plan if the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, was not released and reinstated, although they said operational decisions would be decided by heads of states.

But the bloc's unity has been broken by a promise from the ruling juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso, both member states, to come to Niger's defence if needed.

Both countries sent delegations to Niamey to show solidarity, the Malian army said on social media on Monday. Later, a representative of the Malian delegation reiterated his country's backing for the junta.

A fracture within ECOWAS and escalation of the stand-off with Niger would further destabilise one of the world's poorest regions, already facing a hunger crisis and an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

The threat of worsening security has prompted France to warn its citizens against all travel to Niger, while the Chinese Embassy in Niamey said its nationals in Niger should leave for a third country or return home if they had no reason to stay.

HOPE FOR DIPLOMACY

African and Western allies have imposed sanctions and cut aid to Niger to pressure the junta to step down.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. State Department said "hundreds of millions of dollars" in paused U.S. assistance was at stake if the country's junta did not reinstate the elected government.

Despite these looming hardships, coup organisers appear to enjoy support from at least part of the population.

A pro-coup rally drew thousands of people to a Niamey stadium on Sunday, while some locals, including women, have picketed intersections in the capital to offer non-violent resistance in support of the junta if needed.

"This proves the commitment and determination of Niger's young women to accompany and support them (the junta)," said Zeinabou Boubacar Zakou, a student and member of the Nigerien Young Women's Council.

(Additional reporting by Anait Miridzhanian in Dakar, Humeyra Pamuk, Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis in Washington, Andrew Gray in Brussels, Felix Onuah in Abuja, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Alvise Armellini in Rome and Ingrid Melander in Paris; Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Nellie Peyton and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Toby Chopra, Nick Macfie, Conor Humphries, Alex Richardson, Richard Chang and Cynthia Osterman)
Comedian Tim Hawkins

Comedian Tim Hawkins fall tour will be held Aug. 12 at Odell Williamson Auditorium, on the campus of Brunswick Community College, 150 College Road, N.E., Bolivia.

Looking for a night of laughs and good times? Head to Odell Williamson Auditorium, on the campus of Brunswick Community College for comedian Tim Hawkins' fall tour. Hawkins will bring his signature blend of humor and music to Bolivia at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12. Hawkins will perform his hilarious observations on everyday life, spoof songs, and side-splitting impressions, and favorite bits like "The Government Can" and "Chick-fil-A" PLUS. Hawkins will also perform some new material. The event is located at 150 College Road, N.E. in Bolivia. Details: 910-755-8513.

Sandbar lecture

The Sandbar lecture series presents "Sharks of the Carolinas and Beyond" from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8 at the Museum of Coastal Carolina, 21 East Second St., Ocean Isle Beach.

Dan Abel's lifelong association with sharks includes studying shark hearts at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and leading the Coastal Carolina University Shark Project.

Abel will discuss sharks along the North Carolina coastline, including their life history, vital importance in ecosystems, humans relationship with sharks, threats to sharks survival and more.

The lecture is free with museum admission. Details: 910-579-1016 or www.museumplanetarium.org.

Movies in the Park

The town of Ocean Isle Beach Recreation Department presents Movies in the Park at Town Center Park, 11 E. Second St. Showing at dusk Wednesday, Aug. 9 will be the film "DC: League of Super Pets." Admission is free. Food vendors will be on site. Bring a chair or blanket.

Sunset Beach Sound Waves concert series

Jan Michael Fields Band plays classic rock, 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9 at the Sunset Beach Sound Waves concert series to be held at the Village Park gazebo, 1791 Queen Anne St. Free.

Brunswick Little Theatre

Brunswick Little Theatre will perform the play "Maybe Baby, It's You," written by Charlie Shanian and Shari Simpson. The comedy, directed by Rick Roberts, is about the search for that most elusive of entities, the soul mate, told in a series of 11 vignettes that cover ground from the first kiss to the not-so-golden years of marriage.

The show will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, Aug. 10-12 and a matinee at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13. Tickets are available at https://www.brunswicklittletheatre.com/ or at the Ricky Evans Gallery, 211 N. Howe St., Southport.

Shark soiree: Should humans fear or revere sharks?

Join the Museum of Coastal Carolina for a day swarming with shark activities that will inspire curiosity and raise awareness of one of the coasts most feared ocean creatures. The event will be held from 10 a.m-7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10.

Shark soiree is in collaboration with Ripleys Aquarium of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and will be on site sharing fun shark facts. Programming includes shark-themed crafts and education stations throughout the museums galleries.

The Museum of Coastal Carolina is located at 21 E. Second St., Ocean Isle Beach.

For admission, call 910-579-1016 or www.museumplanetarium.org.

Shallotte Summerfest concert series

The Brunswick Parks & Recreation Department present Shallotte Summerfest concert series. The Blackwater Band will perform, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10 at the Mulberry Park Amphitheater, 123 Mulberry St., Shallotte. Bring a chair or blanket.

Oak Island concert series

The Oak Island "Bands by the Beach" concert series will be held 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11 at the Middleton Park Amphitheater, 102 SE 47th St. The Embers featuring Craig Woolard will be playing beach music at the free concert.

Ocean Isle Beach Summer Concert

Come to the Ocean Isle Beach Summer Concert, also known as the Peggy Hughes Concert Series, and listen to Gary Lowder & Smokin' Hot playing beach music from 6:30-8 p.m. Aug. 11 at Town Center Park, 11 E Second St. Free.

More: Your guide to 2023's can't-miss outdoor concerts in the Wilmington area

Matinee: 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'

The town of Leland Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources will present a free showing of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (rated PG) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12 at the Leland Cultural Arts Center, 1212 Magnolia Village Way, Leland.

There also will be free crafts and popcorn. Participants can war their best Hogwarts-themed gear.

Holden Beach Concert Series

The Holden Beach Concert Series welcomes Too Much Sylvia playing beach, R&B, pop music from 6:30-8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13 at the pavilion under the Holden Beach bridge. Refreshments available for purchase. Bring a chair or beach towel. Free. 910-842-6488.

STAY CONNECTED: Keep up with the areas latest Brunswick County news by signing up for the Brunswick Today newsletter and following us on Facebook and Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Brunswick County, NC events Aug. 8-13
Hackers from North Korea have hacked the computer networks of the Mashinostroyeniya scientific production association, which produces ballistic and cruise missiles.

Source: Reuters

Quote from Reuters: "An elite group of North Korean hackers secretly breached computer networks at a major Russian missile developer for at least five months last year, according to technical evidence reviewed by Reuters and analysis by security researchers."

Details: Reuters states that the cyberespionage groups ScarCruft and Lazarus, linked to the North Korean government, secretly installed invisible digital "black holes" in the systems of the Mashinostroyeniya scientific production association, located in Reutov, near Moscow.

The media could not determine whether any data was obtained during the intrusion and what kind of information could be viewed.

Several months after the hack, Pyongyang announced some progress in its ballistic missile program, but it's unclear whether this is related to the hack.

It is said that hackers had access to the networks of the Mashinostroyeniya scientific production association from the end of 2021 to May 2022.

News of the hack came shortly after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu travelled to Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, the first visit by a Russian defence minister to North Korea since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Mashinostroyeniya scientific production association, the Russian Embassy in Washington, and the North Korean Mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to Reuters requests for interview.

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!
North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme is recovering from a medical emergency at a Washington D.C. hospital days after a visit in Sierra Leone with other South Florida elected officials, his chief of staff confirmed.

The mayor was part of a joint delegation of South Florida officials visiting Africa when he passed out Friday during dinner with officials from Sierra Leone and Nigeria, said North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin, who was on the trip.

Mayor Dr. Alix Desulme had to cut his trip to Africa as part of a South Florida Delegation short due to a medical emergency. He has been transported to Washington DC to seek medical attention. He is talking and in good spirits. Please keep him in your prayers for a full recovery. pic.twitter.com/6ZH835DINn  Mayor Alix Desulme (@AlixDesulme) August 7, 2023

It was very scary. Youre in a foreign country, he said. There was fear in the room. Its not like in the States, where we pick up the phone and they call 911. So there was chaos. It was scary.

Within 10 minutes of him fainting, Galvin said Desulme was alert and taken to the hospital.

Misty Brown, Desulmes chief of staff, declined to go into details about the incident but said, It was something that required immediate medical attention, which we sought in Sierra Leone during our visit at a hospital there, she told the Herald.

Brown did not disclose which hospital Desulme is receiving treatment. He had a full work up  a thorough examination which includes laboratory work and X-rays  and other tests are expected later, Brown said. It is not known when he will return to South Florida.





1/ As Deputy Mayor of Banjul, I proudly joined Mayoress Rohey Malick Lowe, Councillors, & City Council during the momentous visit of Mayor @AlixDesulme from North Miami. A celebration of unity, diplomacy, and cultural exchange! pic.twitter.com/T5mnei9m3B  Hon. Aziz Dabakh Gaye (@AzizDabakhGaye) August 5, 2023

He is already talking, and his phone has been taken from him so he wont over talk, Brown said, adding that the mayor is doing well and was great on the plane before leaving the country. He was walking, talking, laughing and in good spirits.

Still, Desulmes illness remains unexplained, spokesperson Brian Andrews said.

Hes never experienced a reaction like this in his life, Andrews told the Herald. But it was significant enough that the medical authorities in Sierra Leone recommended he get back stateside and get checked out by a specialist, and he is heeding the warning of those medical professionals.

In his statement, Desulme thanked officials from the Miami-Dade, North Miami, Miramar and North Lauderdale delegation who assisted him during the medical incident. He also recognized Sierra Leones government and the U.S. Embassy for quickly arranging his departure.
State and local authorities are battling a wildfire near Godley in Johnson County that has grown to more than 1,400 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

The fire, named the Double Back Fire, was about 50% contained on Monday afternoon, according to an update on social media Monday from the Johnson County Office of Emergency Management.

On Sunday afternoon, the large grass fire was near CR 1232 south of CR 1127 and was moving north to northwest, the Johnson County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

About 8:20 p.m. Sunday, the sheriffs office said, The fire is closer to being contained but still have hot spots popping up in different areas.

Public information map of the #DoubleBackFire in Johnson County showing an estimated 1,100 acres as of Aug. 6, 2023. pic.twitter.com/5mfSrJpLYe  Incident Information - Texas A&M Forest Service (@AllHazardsTFS) August 7, 2023

The countys emergency management director, Jamie Moore, wrote in a Facebook post that the main crews will work until 8 p.m. then transition to an overnight strike team of engines mopping up and continuing (the) containment line.

I anticipate we will continue containment and mop up efforts through at least Wednesday night, Moore wrote.

Voluntary evacuations were put in place Sunday, according to the forest service. The fire got close to at least one home, the sheriffs office said.

No structures are currently threatened, but two barns were destroyed on Sunday, according to the emergency management office.

An elevated fire threat continues across North and Central Texas on Monday due to low humidity and very dry vegetation, during an extended heat wave, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. An excessive heat warning also is in effect for temperatures over 105 degrees.

Residents are urged to avoid any activities that could spark a wildfire. Most counties have active burn bans in effect.

An elevated fire threat continues area-wide today in the presence of low humidity and very dry vegetation. Avoid any activities that could spark a wildfire. The vast majority of North and Central Texas counties have active burn bans in effect. #dfwwx #ctxwx #txwx pic.twitter.com/1uguq2CqEQ  NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) August 7, 2023

Current North Texas Wildfires

This map shows wildfires that have been updated within the past 7 days from the Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). The larger the circle, the larger the wildfire by acres. Data is from the US Department of the Interior, Office of Wildland Fire, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA and ESRI.

Open
As kids get ready to go back to class, more books are leaving school shelves as districts follow new state guidelines Governor Ron DeSantis said is aimed at transparency.

Action News Jax dug through records and found 19 titles have been removed from Duval County Public School shelves, 31 from St. Johns County, and 115 from Clay as student gear up to head back to school.

Clay County District Schools added 45 new books pending review over the summer. Its one reason former educators Casey Raasio and Kati Johnston are ramping up their efforts with the organization Rebel Readers.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

If books arent in schools, then kids dont have anything to reinforce the skill sets theyre learning, Raasio said.

Both are friends with different backgrounds but now have a passion for literacy in common. They said literacy is under attack by House Bill 1467, which was signed into law last year. DCPS said the new law means all books in classroom libraries must be reviewed.

Rebel Readers gives access to unapproved books by donating them to Little Free Libraries across Northeast Florida.

In Duval County, for example, The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu was banned. In Clay County, All Boys Arent Blue by George Johnson has been removed. That same book was pulled from St. Johns County classroom shelves along with The Kite Runner, The Haters, and Water for Elephants.

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In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards. Florida is the education state and that means providing students with a quality education free from sexualization and harmful materials that are not age-appropriate, said Governor Ron DeSantis.

Education is about the pursuit of truth, not woke indoctrination, said Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. Under Governor DeSantis, Florida is committed to rigorous academic content and high standards so that students learn how to think and receive the tools necessary to go forth and make great decisions.

That message goes against what Rebel Readers is trying to accomplish.

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History doesnt repeat itself, it rhymes. I feel like this is such a similar tune that we really need to turn the volume up and listen, Johnston said.

The organization is now pushing ahead with its mission as class goes back in session.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Volunteers are preparing to harvest leeks, aubergines, carrots and potatoes which are being grown at the site

Volunteers and staff at the UK's largest urban farm and eco-park have said its first growing season has been tough because of the unusual weather.

The multimillion-pound Northern Roots in Oldham faced a very hot and dry May, before being hit by Greater Manchester's wettest July on record.

Farm and landscape manager Georgia Forsyth Sijpestijn said there was also "frost damage" at the start of 2023.

However, volunteer John Drydale added that some plants had coped well.

The farm's team have been preparing to harvest leeks, aubergines, carrots and potatoes, which have been grown on the 160-acre regeneration site near Alexandra Park.

It is hoped the project will create jobs and business opportunities for local people and attract about 100,000 visitors a year, while preserving the site's biodiversity and environmental value.

It is hoped the project will create jobs and business opportunities for local people

Ms Forsyth Sijpestijn told BBC Radio Manchester the team had worked hard in challenging conditions during its first growing season.

"At the start of the year, we took some of our crops into our polytunnels and they got frost damage," she said.

"We had the really hot spell in May when some of crops got heat stress damage.

"In July, the wet weather has meant more slugs and some of the tomatoes haven't grown that well, because it's not been sunny".

Mr Drydale, who lives on the other side of town in Royton, said the volunteers had been "planting rhubarb, tomatoes and carrots" and the vegetables were "looking brilliant".

"Every Thursday I come here and I really enjoy it," he said.

"People should come here and join us".

Council bosses hope the attraction - seen here in an artist's impression - could attract 100,000 visitors a year

The site is undergoing many changes as the eco-park takes shape and two striking buildings, a learning centre and a visitor centre, will be built on the site, which will house classrooms, a cafe, an exhibition space and a shop.

Work has also been taking place to manage the woodland in the area.

Ranger Sam Clayton said he had been "surveying the site to pinpoint the trees which had been suffering from Ash dieback disease".

"You need to do that in summer while the trees are in leaf, so you can see what's dead and what's alive," he said.

"After that, we can see what we need to fell and remove because the branches have become dangerous."

Plans have also been approved for a 5m bridge between Oldham and Tameside, which will cross the River Medlock at Park Bridge just under two miles away and link to the southern end of of the site.

Oldham Council previously said the crossing, which will replace a brick railway viaduct, which was demolished in 1971, would be a "new landmark within the Medlock Valley and Park Bridge, which celebrates the local landscape and industrial heritage of the area".

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
Former President Donald Trump's lawyer John Lauro made appearances on five different Sunday morning shows, asserting that his client's involvement in attempting to overturn the 2020 election did not amount to criminal conduct, but was merely "aspirational."

"Every single thing that President Trump is being prosecuted for involved aspirational asks - asking state legislatures, asking state governors, asking state electoral officials to do the right thing," Lauro told Fox News. "In fact, even asking Vice President Pence was protected by free speech."

Lauro made appearances on CNN, ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS defending his client, who was indicted last week on four federal charges, including conspiracy to defraud, obstruction and conspiracy of rights.

"These shallow attempts to explain away the damning conduct described in the indictment are a clear sign that Trump does not have a strong defense to the charges, Temidayo Aganga-Williams, a white-collar partner at Selendy Gay Elsberg and former senior investigative counsel for the House Jan. 6 committee, told Salon. "When a defendant has a convincing defense, he leads with it. President Trump's lawyer is instead ignoring the detailed indictment and leading with baseless claims. This may work for Trump in front of his political base, but it will not work for a jury."

Former federal prosecutor Kevin O'Brien pointed out that Trump is still entitled to a "vigorous defense" in and out of court and his lawyer is well within his rights to make arguments that offer Trump's side to the issues raised in what is a "very unusual indictment."

"John Lauro's various statements to the press defending his client's conduct by invoking the First Amendment and other principles may well be wrong, even glaringly so, but they are part of a defense attorney's job," O'Brien said.

Lauro continued to defend Trump even in the face of evidence that he exerted pressure on his then-Vice President Mike Pence to discard valid votes for Joe Biden.

"What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything," Lauro told CNN. "He asked him in an aspirational way."

When questioned about Trump's call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to "find" enough votes to overturn his loss in the state, he claimed that Trump's comments weren't a "threat at all."

He continued: "What he was asking for is for Raffensperger to get to the truth. He believed that there were in excess of 10,000 votes that were counted illegally. And what he was asking for is the Secretary of State to act appropriately and find these votes that were counted illegally.  That was an aspirational ask."

None of his lawyer's statements would be out of place in a courtroom, where the advocate usually "must milk every possible inference to support reasonable doubt," O'Brien said.

He added that since the prosecution has filed a massive indictment generating "unprecedented publicity," Lauro and Trump's other lawyers should be able to respond to its arguments in any way they plausibly can.

Smith very likely anticipated this defense that Trump's directives were merely "aspirational," and the indictment spells out the evidence the government would seek to use to defeat it, former federal prosecutor Christine Adams, a partner at Los Angeles-based Adams, Duerk & Kamenstein, told Salon.

"It seems from the indictment that the most important witness will be former Vice President Mike Pence himself, who would testify that Trump directed him to reject the legitimate electoral votes or send them to the state legislatures to review, and that when Pence refused, Trump berated him, threatened to publicly criticize him and told Pence he was 'too honest,'" Adams said. "These key moments in the indictment will certainly challenge Trump's narrative that he did not 'direct Vice President Pence to do anything.'"

Aganga-Williams said that characterizing Trump's requests as "aspirational" is utterly contradicted by the indictment, which includes several examples of Trump "acting with a sober mind and with criminal intent."

"The indictment is filled with evidence that Trump knew what he was doing and that he knew it was wrong," Aganga-Williams said.

The former president has pleaded not guilty to all the charges filed against him and has maintained he is innocent.

While Lauro made his rounds defending his client's actions, Trump took to Truth Social to claim that his lawyers will request the recusal of the federal judge overseeing his criminal case as well as a venue change, though Lauro said in an interview that no "final decision" has been made.

"There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge 'assigned' to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case," Trump posted on his social media platform."Everybody knows this and so does she! We will be immediately asking for recusal of this judge on very powerful grounds and likewise for venue change, out (of) D.C."

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump's case, is renowned for her reputation as one of the more strict judges in matters concerning January 6 defendants and has issued more severe sentences for certain defendants than what the prosecution had sought, according to The New York Times.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Chutkan has also described the attack on the Capitol as a "very real danger" to American democracy. Trump in his social media posts asserted that his legal team will try to move his trial out of Washington since he would never get a "fair trial."

There has been no formal request and they would "appear to have little or no chance of success," O'Brien said.

Trump also continued to attack special counsel Jack Smith in his social media posts calling him "deranged," and suggested that he could have brought the case "years ago," but instead waited until "right in the middle of [his] election campaign."

His posts come just two days after prosecutors filed a motion for a protective order, which would prevent Trump from publicly sharing evidence in the case.

The protective order is meant to govern the disclosure of discovery material, including witness names, and not the current threats, O'Brien pointed out.

"Judge Chutkan will probably have to impose a gag order forbidding them, on pain of going to jail  where Trump will likely wind up if the threats continue," he added.

Read more

about Trump's legal woes
At their meeting in Saudi Arabia, the participating states did not agree on all of the points of the peace formula proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the dialogue on controversial issues continues.

Source: Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, during a press conference in Kyiv, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "If all countries had said: 'Yes, we agree with everything', then we would have hosted the peace summit by the end of the month. There are points on which there are no objections at all, and there are those on which the dialogue continues."

Details: Yermak noted that the indisputable point is the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

According to him, "there can be no compromise on territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty [of Ukraine], and many countries emphasised this."

Yermak said that amongst the points that remain problematic are the point on justice which provides for the punishment of the Russian political leadership guilty of aggression, war crimes, etc., and the point on compensation to Ukraine.

"We still need to work with the countries of the Global South on difficult points, such as responsibility. But not because they are against it, but because they need more explanations of how this will happen," Yermak said.

According to him, within a month there should be a meeting of advisers where they will discuss issues on which there is no final agreement.

Yermak emphasised that "today no other initiatives are being considered, except for Zelenskyys peace plan."

He also said that after the meeting in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine plans to hold a series of summits on the peace formula presented by Zelenskyy.

Background:

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NAIROBI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and demanded compensation by the U.S. government.

Agnes Kavindu, chairperson of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee that is pushing for compensation to the Kenyan victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing, told journalists that the majority of the victims were innocent Kenyans.

"Compensation of the Kenyan victims is long overdue," Kavindu said.

The terror attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi on Aug. 7, 1998 killed 213 persons and injured more than 5,000 others.

Kavindu said that her nine-member committee is planning a trip to the United States in September in order to meet members of the U.S. Senate to request them to amend the legislation that excludes compensation for Kenyan victims of the terrorist attacks that target Americans.

Caroline Muthoka, an international convener of the Consortium of the Aug. 7, 1998 Victims Association, said that the commemoration was part of the journey to drum up support for compensation through lightning of candles and laying of flowers on the grounds of the former U.S. embassy building.

Muthoka added that the U.S. government has so far only compensated its own citizens, employees and third-party contractors who were affected by the bombing.

On Aug. 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions allegedly by an al-Qaida linked terror group hit the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing over 224 people (213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania) and injuring more than 5,000 others.

Washington claimed that the attacks were masterminded by Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al-Qaida who was killed by U.S. forces in 2011. 
This undated photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows the South Lake Tahoe conflict bear 64F. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that the bear, known as Hank the Tank, has been captured. | California Department of Fish and Wildlife via Associated Press

One of the most notorious criminals in South Lake Tahoe, California, has finally been captured after over a year of successfully evading authorities during a prolific string of home break-ins and considerable property damage.

The criminal in question? A massive 500-pound female black bear known as Hank the Tank that captured the hearts of the public in early 2022 even as she terrorized local residents.

On Friday, Hank was safely immobilized and captured alongside her three cubs, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced in a press release.

Related

According to the CDFW, Hank is responsible for at least 21 DNA-confirmed home break-ins and extensive property damage.

She is also the suspect in many other break-ins, as residents reported the bear for ripping off screen doors and parts of garage doors, rummaging through garbage bins, climbing stairs and scratching up cars in search of food for herself and her cubs, The New York Times reported.

What will happen to Hank the Tank next?

Hank the Tank will be relocated to a wildlife sanctuary in Colorado, while her three cubs will be sent to the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue with hopes of being later returned to the wild, the CDFW announced.

Though conflict bears, as the CDFW calls them, are typically euthanized, the agency decided that given the widespread interest in this bear, Hank would be relocated to The Wild Animal Sanctuary near Springfield, Colorado, under a one-time permission from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis welcomed Hank the Tank to Colorado on social media, stating, We welcome Hank the Tank (turned out to be Henrietta the Tank) to Colorado!

Today, wildlife biologists for the @CaliforniaDFW captured a large female black bear, who will be transferred to @animalsanctuary upon a one-time permission from @COParksWildlife and @coagriculture1.



We welcome Hank the Tank (turned out to be Henrietta the Tank) to Colorado! pic.twitter.com/KdI0l2NtoW  Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) August 4, 2023
Oklahoma City Assistant City Manager Jason Ferbrache and OKC Public Safety Partnership implementation manager Andrea Grayson present recommendations on new public safety proposals on Aug. 1 to the Oklahoma City Council.

Oklahoma City management has announced a little-known police oversight board has officially been dissolved in the wake of a tense Oklahoma City Council meeting this month.

Before the death of George Floyd in 2020 and ensuing protests for police transparency, many residents of Oklahoma City  including members of the city council  didn't know the board existed.

As scrutiny toward police rose, so did scrutiny of the board.

It was a board that was largely, essentially, appointed by the police department," said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt. "And thats not to say the appointments of it had any poor intentions, but that doesnt on paper look like an independent accountability.

Oklahoma City council voted last week to create a new version of the Citizens Advisory Board and change the name to the "Community Public Safety Advisory Board."

The vote passed 6-2 to replace the board and start anew, but many questions remain. Here's what we know:

Related: After heated discussion, OKC Council votes to replace police oversight board

What did the Oklahoma City Police Department Citizens Advisory Board do?

Begun in 2005, the Oklahoma City Police Department Citizens Advisory Board was meant to maintain a partnership with the community in an effort to reduce crime and to enhance the quality of life, according to 2017 bylaws.

The boards role was to review investigations of complaints by citizens against police, including allegations of excessive force and other misconduct, and then give suggestions and recommendations to the police chief.

In theory, the board was meant to build trust between the Oklahoma City community and police. But in practice, the board couldn't run its own investigations or discipline officers. Members only reviewed internal investigations that had been completed by police, and by the time the board would examine a case, the officers involved would have already been disciplined.

Related: Oklahoma City Police's Citizens Advisory Board treads line between accountability, secrecy

What problems did critics have with OKC's Citizens Advisory Board?

Critics argued that, although the former oversight board opened dialogue between the community and police, it lacked transparency with its membership process and was ineffective in providing accountability for complaints.

Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon believes the previous board had very little recourse legally and systematically to do anything further with cases brought before them after police had already closed their investigations.

With the way the legal structure of it was set up, there isnt a lot of policy to say, Yes, that was an excessive use of force, Hamon told The Oklahoman. The board couldnt take any action that goes beyond what disciplinary procedures the department already has in place.

Andrea Grayson is the implementation manager for the upcoming OKC Public Safety Partnership, the new title for a collective of task forces working with various city agencies on police reform proposals. She said she discovered a lack of resources was also a major issue for the previous board as she consulted its members.

They did have technical support and research support from the police department, Grayson said, but the group didnt have the resources to publicly report police activities through a coordination plan or an education program.

Why completely change the board? Is there a lapse in coverage?

Holt said many agreed that a new mechanism was needed to improve accountability. A proposal for a new oversight board was included in the 39 police reform recommendations provided by the 21CP consulting firm to the city's Law Enforcement Task Force and Community Policing Working Group.

Members of the prior board had left their roles in May as the Citizens Advisory Board began dissolving to prepare for last week's vote to start the new iteration.

Weve all resigned, longtime board member Don Graham said Wednesday. That board does not exist anymore, as of (last) Tuesday.

So while new board members are selected in the coming weeks, there will be no active citizen-led board serving as an accountability check on police complaints until later this fall.

Until the board stands up, police complaints can still be submitted, Hamon said, but the new board will likely have to deal with a steep backlog once all of its roles are filled.

How will the new Community Public Safety Advisory Board differ from the old board?

Key points were presented at an Oklahoma City Council meeting about the Community Public Safety Advisory Board, set to replace the current Citizens Advisory Board providing oversight of local police.

The main change, Grayson said, is to have a more "democratic process" by making adjustments to member roles.

The new advisory board is expected to conduct monthly open meetings. It will consist of eight members nominated by the councilmember from each ward, all approved by the mayor, and one at-large member also would be appointed by the mayor and would chair the group.

Unlike the previous board, members of the new public safety advisory board members have term limits  up to four two-year terms  while the previous advisory board allowed members in good standing to serve indefinitely. At the time the previous board was dissolved, multiple members had served on it since its inception nearly two decades ago.

In recommendations to rename and reconfigure the board, Grayson said she reached out to numerous city agencies, organizations, and multiple municipalities and consulting groups throughout the country to reflect best practices with the new public safety approach.

We did do quite a bit of research, but we wanted our big thing to be using the word 'community' as opposed to 'citizen,' Grayson said. It was that this advisory board was for everyone. We didn't want to seem exclusive. We wanted to be inclusive, and so in using that word 'community,' I think we're really communicating that shift.

Related: Police reform progress complicated by crime, public safety concerns

What about the new iteration were city councilmembers dissatisfied with?

Hamon voiced misgivings about the proposed language regarding some of what the new boards oversight could encompass. She said broadening the title of the board, from "police department" oversight to "public safety," might cause confusion for some residents who interpret the concept of public safety as including stable housing and mental health treatment, rather than only reviewing misconduct.

Hamon added that cases of police misconduct deserved a higher level of scrutiny because, unlike situations involving the fire department or other agencies, there is a greater degree of risk when police interact with members of the public due to the power officers carry.

I think that just the language and possible vision of this board is really straying away from what the original recommendations we received from 21CP are, Hamon said. Police hold a different level of power over people and over our residents that requires a different level of scrutiny, and it really in my mind needs to be a singular task of a standalone board.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice also questioned how the board could properly represent transparency if the mayor could appoint his own chair for the board, rather than the city council as a group selecting the board's leader.

To help residents understand its purpose, Hamon requested to rename the board the Community Review and Accountability Board  an attempt that failed. Nice then formally requested the vote be delayed to a future council meeting so the conversation could continue, which also failed.

We could have all at least talked through what the possibilities could have been and found out what other ways we could have compromised on how this could have better serviced constituents and our residents," Nice said. "Thats what we wanted to ensure  that there was at least autonomy and transparency, but were already starting with this process with the lack of both.

What does the mayor think of the board changes?

Holt defended his vote, saying that he was only one of several to vote in favor of the board, that he did not introduce the resolution and that the city government is not mayoral-centric. He argued that what the board is called is the least important thing about it compared to what its work could accomplish, but said that most of the council was fine with the new title.

Its name is not something I feel passionately about one way or the other, Holt told The Oklahoman. Its a name that I think accurately characterizes the situation at hand: Its Public Safety, and then the other part of the name, Advisory Board, already mirrors language were used to with MAPS 4 and other advisory boards we have, so its a kind of model that our residents are familiar with. So, I think, for me, the name was satisfactory, and I was not persuaded to go a different direction.

More: Police reform panel makes oversight proposals

Who was on the previous police oversight board?

According to the city manager's office, eight people were serving on the former Oklahoma City Police Department Citizens Advisory Board at the time of its disbandment. They included:

Malaka Elyazgi, a member of the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women, the voice of women to the (state) legislature for three decades, according to the website. Elyazgi was the advisory boards chairperson at the time of its disbandment, Graham told The Oklahoman.

Don Graham, who has worked for the Home Savings and Loan Association for 37 years. A lifetime resident of south Oklahoma City, he also was once a member of the Capitol Hill Main Street group, before it was rebranded as Calle Dos Cinco.

Mannix Barnes, a member of the original Citizens Advisory Board since it began. Barnes resigned in December 2022 as superintendent of the Western Heights school district amid mounting pressure after his tenure threw the schools into turmoil.

Robert Everman, who had also resigned due to "health issues" as president of the Western Heights school board in late 2022. Everman was a longtime close associate of Barnes, with whom he worked at several organizations and businesses.

Michael Brooks, a pastor in northeast Oklahoma City. He retired from Tinker Air Force Base before his time on the board.

Jacob Hill, a disability specialist who also served as a certified Council for Law Enforcement Education and Training, or CLEET, instructor. According to Graham, Hill stepped away from his past role as the advisory boards chair due to illness but continued serving on the board into 2023.

Hooria Suhaib, a licensed professional counselor and mental health consultant. Suhaib was among the former board's newest members.

Maria Guzman, another behavioral therapist and school psychologist well-known in Oklahoma City's Latino community. She was also a newer member of the former oversight board.

The city's webpage for the board also listed Emergency Responders Assistance Program co-founder Doug White; OKC Hispanic Chamber ambassador Evelyn Cardona; and former OKC Black Chamber of Commerce board member Monica Finley as former board members. But staff at the city manager's office told The Oklahoman that these three no longer served on the board by the time it was dissolved.

Former bylaws stated a representative of police, selected by the department chief, also sat on the board as a non-voting member.

Will prior members rejoin? How would an interested person join?

When asked if he might be approached again to be a member of the new board, Graham said it was "a possibility," but expressed serious hesitation, noting that he thinks "its time to let new people in.

Residents interested in serving on the new board should contact their ward's city councilperson, who will submit their recommendations for appointees by the end of August.

Depending on how long it takes for nominations to be vetted and approved, Hamon said it could be until late September or early October when the new board is finalized.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: What we know about OKC's revamped police oversight advisory board
This article is Part 2 of Death by Delay, a series on how consumer product hazards have cost lives.

One infant was 22 days old, his body cold and still when his mother found him. Another, a fussy 2-month-old, was discovered unresponsive by his exhausted parents hours after they had brought him into bed late at night. A third suffocated while lying next to his twin brother in the bassinet they shared.

Before they died, all of the babies had been placed to sleep on nursing pillows  and their deaths were neither isolated nor unavoidable, an NBC News investigation found.

At least 162 babies under a year old have died in incidents involving nursing pillows since 2007, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis based on hundreds of public records as well as internal federal data. Some of the babies slumped down on the pillows or arched backward off of them, constricting their airways. Others turned their faces into the plush surface, suffocating as their parents slept feet away.

In some cases, the cause of death wasnt clear, but the babies were found on or with nursing pillows, sometimes while co-sleeping with parents or alongside soft bedding that also poses a suffocation risk. At least three incidents involved mothers who fell asleep while feeding their baby with a nursing pillow and awoke to find they couldnt rouse their child.

You think, Well, we wouldnt be able to buy things that are potentially unsafe for our babies. But yet, we can, said Dr. Elizabeth Murray of Golisano Childrens Hospital in Rochester, New York, who sees babies nearly every year who have died after they were placed to sleep on nursing pillows.

Nursing pillows have become a must-have item for many new parents, with 1.34 million sold per year in the U.S., according to industry estimates. The horseshoe-shaped cushions, which come in a variety of colorful prints, are marketed as essential for the early months of life, when babies need to be fed frequently. Manufacturers say theyre safe if used as intended: to help caregivers cradle their babies while breastfeeding or bottle-feeding them.

But infants left unsupervised on the cushions or allowed to sleep with them  against the products warning labels  can stop breathing within minutes.

Autumn Wells' mother Taylor Wells at her daughters final resting place at the family cemetery plot in Belmont, Miss., on July 30, 2023. (Andrea Morales for NBC News)

NBC News count of deaths is based on a range of records, including reports by consumers and local officials reviewed by federal authorities; law enforcement and medical examiners reports; and federal data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The count includes deaths caused by suffocation or restricted airways in incidents involving nursing pillows. In some cases, other causes were listed, such as pneumonia, or the cause of death was undetermined, unexplained or not listed, but a nursing pillow was mentioned as a potential factor. In most cases, the brand of nursing pillow was not specified. (For the full methodology, see below.)

The vast majority of the babies were less than 4 months old; the youngest was just 3 days old.

NBC News list is almost certainly an undercount, as autopsy reports do not always include details about specific products and often are not made public. Separately, state officials in Oklahoma and Indiana told NBC News they have tallied dozens of deaths in which nursing pillows were found in infants sleep areas, most of which were not included in NBC News count because there were not enough details.

Grieving parents said they had no idea the widely used product could be dangerous.

I never would have brought that damn thing in my house, said Janea Ivory of Springfield, Ohio, whose 3-month-old daughter, Reagan Merriweather, died napping on a nursing pillow in July 2010. It looked safe, for heavens sake.

Reagan Merriweather with her mother Janea Ivory. (Courtesy Janea Ivory)

Federal regulators have been aware of the hazard for decades. But it was not until 2020 that the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers that nursing pillows and other similar products are not designed for sleep and are not safe for sleep. The agency added that it was investigating fatal incidents but did not say how many.

After years of delays, the CPSC is now preparing to take the first steps toward rules to make nursing pillows safer, with a proposal expected in the coming weeks. Alex Hoehn-Saric, the agencys chair, recently said at a conference that the CPSC has identified more than 130 deaths associated with nursing pillows over a 10-year period, a figure that does not include some of the deaths on NBC News list.

Im very concerned, given the large number of deaths, Hoehn-Saric, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, said in a recent interview. We need to move forward as quickly as possible.

But several leading manufacturers of baby products are pushing back against the prospect of new regulation.

The Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance (BFIDSA), which formed last year, is leading a lobbying and PR push whose funders include The Boppy Company and Snuggle Me Organic, two nursing pillow manufacturers. The coalition, which has enlisted support from nonprofit groups, health professionals and small businesses catering to new parents, is framing its effort as a feminist cause.

Womens rights are being gutted  and the ability for women and parents to choose how they feed their baby is next on the chopping block, the alliance says on its website. It warned that federal regulators, who have not yet unveiled their proposal, want to impose the will of government over the needs of mothers, requiring such drastic design changes that products would have to be pulled from the market.

That could have a negative impact on breastfeeding or prompt some caregivers to turn to makeshift solutions that could be dangerous, the alliance said in a statement to NBC News. It is imperative to have safe products on the market that properly assist parents in caring for their babies.

Instead of mandating changes, the CPSC should invest in an extensive campaign to educate consumers on safe sleep practices and defer to voluntary safety standards that are currently under development, the group added.

When asked for comment, Boppy said, As a member of BFIDSA, we support their position and responses to your questions. Snuggle Me did not respond.

The campaign  which has spent about $150,000 on lobbying since last year, according to estimates in federal disclosures  has infuriated some regulators and safety advocates who accuse manufacturers of undermining efforts to save babies lives.

Any infant death is too many, said Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety for the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit advocacy group, and any number beyond that is outrageous.

Its not worth an entire life

Sterling Gerber was just shy of 7 months old when he was found unresponsive after falling asleep on a nursing pillow on the floor of his Oklahoma day care in July 2018, according to a police report obtained through a public records request.

The little boy, described by his mom as one of the happiest babies, was rushed to the hospital, where he was put on life support. But doctors told his parents he had been without oxygen too long to recover, said Sterlings mother, Allison Blackburn. A medical examiner ruled it a sudden unexplained infant death, and the day care, which had been cited for multiple violations, shut down shortly afterward. The law firm that represented the day care declined to comment.

Sterling Gerber with this mother Allison Blackburn. (Courtesy Allison Blackburn)

Blackburn has since warned as many parents as possible not to buy nursing pillows.

Its not worth risking putting your baby in a pillow, said Blackburn, who now lives in Aurora, Colorado. Its not worth an entire life.

Blackburn has kept mementos of her sons brief life, including a box of Sterlings clothes that shes left untouched the past five years. She has two other boys, ages 3 and 4, who are learning ways to honor their big brothers memory.

We do kind of what we call a yes day on his passing day, where we go out and do whatever they want, such as buying toys or eating chicken nuggets for all three meals, Blackburn said. Anything that they ask, they get  for one day.

William Allen Cruze Lowe, known as Cruze, was 19 days old in June 2021 when his mom propped him up on a nursing pillow to sleep at home in Clinton, Tennessee. He had some sniffles, and his mother said she thought the elevated angle would help him breathe more easily.

William Allen Cruze Lowe, known as Cruze, with his mother Courtney McBride. (Courtesy Courtney McBride)

In the morning, Cruzes father, William Lowe, reached for his sons tiny hand, expecting the baby to make a fist around his finger like he always did. But Cruze didnt move.

Cruzes cause of death was acute bronchopneumonia, a medical examiners report concluded, adding that the unsafe sleep environment likely contributed to the demise.

Lowe still wonders if he could have saved his son.

If I had woke up 10 minutes earlier, I could have got him, he said.

Cruzes mom, Courtney McBride, said that she didnt know how sick her baby was, or that the pillow could cause him harm. She said that unlike the recalled Fisher-Price Rock n Play sleeper, which has been tied to the deaths of about 100 babies, she had never heard safety concerns related to nursing pillows.

I never thought it would be anything that could contribute to a life-or-death situation, she said.

A new product, and new concerns

Nursing pillows are a relatively new innovation  and it took time for them to catch on.

Susan Henderson, a Colorado mother, invented the C-shaped Boppy pillow in 1989, after her daughters day care asked parents to bring in pillows that could be used to support babies who couldnt yet sit on their own.

She said she soon realized that the pillow could be even more useful as a nursing support to reduce mothers neck and arm strain as they held and fed their babies. The pillows can position babies more comfortably as they latch onto the breast, which helps with milk production  one of many challenges new moms can face.

During the first few years, Hendersons company struggled to stay afloat, but the Boppy soon took off. A growing number of Americans were embracing breastfeeding, encouraged by public health campaigns and research showing the benefits for both babies and mothers. By 2006, The Boppy Company had reportedly reached $15 million to $25 million in annual sales; the company was sold two years later. Nursing pillows are now a mainstay of baby registry lists, and Boppy competitors have swarmed the market.

While most nursing pillows have labels warning against using them unsupervised or for sleep, some, including Boppy, have also been labeled or marketed as places for infants to practice tummy time on their stomachs, or as a support for sitting or reclining.

The Boppy pillow is not limited to breastfeeding; it offers a range of versatile uses, the company says on its website. Leachco similarly describes its nursing pillow as a multipurpose product suitable for supervised tummy time or for lounging while awake.

That might lead caregivers to believe its safe to leave their baby unattended in those positions, some safety advocates and medical experts said. But that can quickly turn deadly.

Absolutely use it to support breastfeeding so youre comfortable and the babys comfortable, said Dr. Lois Kaye Lee, who chairs the council for injury, violence and poison prevention at the American Academy of Pediatrics. But after that, put it away.

Some manufacturers are promoting a similar message: On Amazon, Snuggle Me says its nursing pillows  described as feeding supports  should never be used for propping, sitting up or tummy time.

Image: The Boppy Original Support Nursing Pillow, The Leachco, the Boston Billow Bedford Nursing Pillow, and the Leachco Cuddle-U Nursing Pillow. (Boppy; Boston Billow; Leachco)

Babies are particularly vulnerable to the threat posed by pillows and similar soft objects as they sleep, said Erin Mannen, assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Boise State University, who has studied the issue. While adults and older children have an internal arousal response that wakes them up when theres danger, babies have a less developed response  and dont have the muscle strength and motor control to get themselves out of an unsafe position on soft cushions, Mannen said.

Sometimes 15 minutes away from the baby is something that we need for our sanity, she said. Unfortunately, even in that short amount of time, some really dangerous and sad situations can occur if babies arent in safe products.

As nursing pillows grew more popular, medical experts and safety regulators were becoming increasingly concerned about the dangers of soft surfaces, bedding and other objects surrounding babies as they slept. In 1992, the CPSC banned beanbag-like infant cushions after dozens of babies died. Four years later, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that babies sleep on a firm surface without any soft bedding to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, in addition to being placed on their backs.

In 2004, federal regulators announced the first  and so far, only  recall of a nursing pillow.

Unlike most nursing pillows, which are stuffed with foam or polyester fiber, the Boston Billow is filled with plastic beads that mold to the shape of a babys head and body. In its recall announcement, the CPSC said the product was prohibited under the 1992 ban. The agency did not mention any deaths or injuries in the recall announcement, but warned that infants were at risk of suffocation if placed on these pillows and left unattended.

The company fought back, and in 2008, the agency reversed course and ruled that the Billow  and other substantially similar nursing pillows  were exempt from the infant cushion ban. The CPSC said at the time that nursing pillows served a useful purpose and that infants were unlikely to suffocate if the pillows were used properly for breastfeeding.

Boston Billows, which continues to sell the same nursing pillow, said it is unaware of any safety incidents involving its products. (NBC News did not identify any deaths associated with the Billow.)

Ken Igoe, the companys co-founder and CEO, said in an interview the Billow was never designed or marketed to prop up babies and he faulted companies that did so.

Theyre promoting the use of a product in an unsafe way, he said. And that may be contributing to these tragic deaths.

Photographs of Autumn Wells at her home in Belmont, Miss., on July 30, 2023. (Andrea Morales for NBC News)

The first warning

Over the next decade, evidence continued to mount that babies were dying in their sleep in soft bedding  and that their deaths were avoidable.

In December 2019, a study by researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 141 deaths of babies who had been set down to sleep on or with U-shaped pillows over a 12-year period. It determined that the pillow was directly to blame for airway obstruction in at least nine of the cases.

The following October, alarmed by growing reports that babies were dying in nursing pillows as well as infant loungers  cushioned pads meant for supervised awake time  the CPSC issued a general public warning against using any pillow-like products for sleep. The 2020 warning mentioned deaths possibly associated with the pillows but did not give a number.

By 2021, CPSC commissioners were deciding whether to move forward with a proposal to expand the 1992 ban, which could potentially target nursing pillows and loungers. The CPSC ultimately delayed that plan  and in the meantime commissioned new research and worked with industry representatives and consumer advocates on voluntary safety standards, which are still being drafted.

Under our statute, we cannot put rules in place by snapping our fingers, CPSC Commissioner Peter Feldman said in a statement. Courts will block agency action when we take shortcuts.

Mannen, the Boise State professor, spearheaded the research the CPSC commissioned, which was released in October 2022. Her team examined 28 cases from January 2019 to March 2021 in which nursing pillows, or nursing pillows that are also marketed as loungers, were tied to babies deaths. Two of the deaths occurred when mothers breastfeeding their babies fell asleep themselves, while the rest occurred when infants were laid down on the nursing pillows to sleep.

Mannen believes that firmer nursing pillows with defined edges are safer than the rounded, tubular design because firmer pillows would be a less inviting place to set babies down. Others have suggested widening the curve of the pillows to make it harder to prop up babies on them.

While Mannen did not specify brands that follow her recommendations, one that might fit the criteria is My Brest Friend, a nursing pillow that launched in 1995 and has a firmer surface, a sharper edge and a wider curve than tighter C-shaped pillows like the Boppy. Made by Zenoff Products, My Brest Friend was solely designed for breastfeeding and is not conducive to other uses, like propping a baby, according to Andrew Zenoff, the companys founder and CEO.

Last year, the family of a 3-month-old who died on a nursing pillow in New Jersey in 2020 sued Boppy and its parent company, alleging that they knew or should have known about the products defective and unreasonably dangerous design, yet continued to sell it anyway. The companies denied this in court filings and said the babys parents were guilty of negligence which either caused or contributed to their infants death. The case is ongoing.

Dr. Rachel Moon, who leads the SIDS task force for the American Academy of Pediatrics, argues that its the manufacturers responsibility to make their products design less deadly.

You have to make sure that its going to still be safe, even if people dont use it correctly, she said. Because these are babies  the babies cant protect themselves, and they cant make those decisions.

The back of a t-shirt worn by Autumn Wells' grandfather, Joel Wells, at the family burial plot. The shirt has a image of Autumn's face with a bible quote surrounding it. (Andrea Morales for NBC News)

A battle over the nursing pillows future

While the Consumer Product Safety Commission didnt move forward with a plan to regulate nursing pillows in 2021, it became clear to the industry that it could only be a matter of time before federal regulators proposed rules that could dramatically alter the business.

The Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance launched last year; by April 2022, Boppy and Snuggle Me had each contributed more than $5,000, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The group hired lobbyists from Bracewell, a prominent industry law firm, and met with CPSC commissioners and their staff at least three times last year, agency records show.

In meetings last summer, members of the alliance  including Boppys co-CEO, Snuggle Mes chief sales officer, Bracewell lobbyists and a doula who is also a breastfeeding counselor  said they were concerned that the CPSC might expand the 1992 infant cushion ban.

The group said the idea came out of nowhere and scared the stakeholders, according to notes from July 2022 meetings with CPSC Commissioner Feldman and CPSC Chair Hoehn-Sarics staff, provided to NBC News by an attendee.

Members of the alliance warned that if nursing pillows were not readily available, mothers might resort to using standard pillows to make themselves comfortable while breastfeeding instead  which they argued would be even more unsafe, according to the attendees notes.

When a CPSC staffer asked what companies could do to stop parents from misusing the products, Boppy and Snuggle Me emphasized that their warning labels instruct consumers to use their products only for awake time, and pointed to their work on voluntary safety standards, according to the meeting notes.

The companies, overall, stressed that theyre not the culprit, the notes said.

Three months later, in October 2022, the CPSC released its operating plan for the following year: It would finally propose the first federal safety regulations for nursing pillows, but not as an expansion of the infant cushion ban.

Since then, the industry-backed group has ramped up its campaign. Shortly after Mothers Day, the Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance issued a press release urging the public to fight for moms rights by opposing a threat by the CPSC to significantly change or even ban Nursing Pillows.

CPSC commissioners began receiving hundreds of emails urging them to #SupportMoms by protecting nursing pillows from regulatory overreach, echoing the alliances website. The group has also held meetings on Capitol Hill to keep members of Congress informed of progress, it said in a statement.

Supporters of the alliance  who include a pediatrician who previously served as a paid consultant for Boppy and nonprofit groups that have received donations from the company  said in interviews that they stepped up not because of their past relationships with manufacturers but because they back the cause.

Dr. Ian Paul, a professor at the Penn State College of Medicine who testified on the alliance's behalf in 2022, said that nursing pillows benefit a huge number of people and are safe if used properly.

These extremely rare events are tragic, he said, but given how often these pillows are used, the likelihood is very, very low.

First Candle, a nonprofit group focused on SIDS prevention, is not a member of the alliance but endorses its effort to protect nursing pillows.

Without this support, breastfeeding could very well become too difficult for mothers, and they will simply give up, the group said, pointing out that breastfeeding has been associated with reduced risk of SIDS.

Hoehn-Saric, the CPSC chair, accused industry representatives of using scare tactics and disinformation to mislead the public. I have been clear that I dont want to ban nursing pillows; I want to make them safer, he added in an emailed statement.

Feldman, the CPSCs sole Republican commissioner, countered that the industrys concerns about a ban are not unfounded, since new rules could have the same effect as a ban by forcing products off the market.

The CPSC is expected to unveil its proposal in the coming weeks. But given the lengthy rulemaking process, which includes a public comment period, the fight could drag on for years.

Theres nothing thats going to bring my child back

At least 36 babies have died in incidents involving nursing pillows since the CPSCs first and only warning to the public in October 2020, according to NBC News investigation. One of them was 4-month-old Autumn Wells.

It was March 2022, and Autumns mother, Taylor Wells, was getting excited to celebrate her daughters first Easter. She had ordered her a frilly dress with bunnies on it and a little fabric basket embroidered with Autumns name. She couldnt wait to spend the holiday with her active, curious daughter.

Taylor Wells said her daughter, Autumn, always seemed curious about the world around her. (Andrea Morales for NBC News)

She would try to stand up, Wells said. She had places to be.

On March 9, Wells, of Belmont, Mississippi, dropped Autumn off at day care and then went to her job at a nearby motorhome factory. That day, staff placed Autumn face-down in a Leachco nursing pillow for a nap and covered her with a blanket, according to police and court documents.

Day care employees discovered Autumn unresponsive. A local coroner found that she had died of asphyxia and blamed the unsafe sleep environment, including the nursing pillow and blanket. Leachco did not answer questions and referred to the statement provided by the Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance.

Five people have been indicted in Autumns death, including two former day care employees who face manslaughter charges; all have pleaded not guilty. (An attorney for the day care center did not respond to calls and emails.)

There is no justice in a case like this, Wells said. Theres nothing thats going to bring my child back.

Autumn wore the new dress her mom got her, but not on Easter. Instead, she was buried in it.

Methodology: To compile the list of 162 deaths of babies less than 1 year old in incidents involving nursing pillows, NBC News relied on autopsy reports; child fatality reports; state death databases; lawsuits and other court records; and vetted media clips. We also relied on the Consumer Product Safety Commissions Clearinghouse data, which draws from death certificates, medical examiner reports, news articles and reports from local government agencies. In addition, we drew from the CPSCs SaferProducts.gov database, which compiles reports from consumers, local health and government officials, and others. And we obtained a list of deaths that the CPSC sent to ASTM International, a technical standards development organization that works on voluntary safety standards.

The Clearinghouse data and SaferProducts.gov reports are reviewed by the CPSC before being posted online or released through Freedom of Information Act requests, though the agency does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. The database of deaths the CPSC sent to ASTM International as part of a voluntary standards process was also reviewed by the CPSC and is more detailed than Clearinghouse or SaferProducts.gov.

NBC News list includes deaths caused by suffocation, positional asphyxia and SIDS in which babies were placed on nursing pillows to sleep or were propped on nursing pillows while breastfeeding or bottle-feeding. It also includes deaths in which the nursing pillow is mentioned as a contributing factor in an unsafe sleep environment that may also involve other factors, such as soft bedding or a bottle left propped in a babys mouth. In some incidents, additional causes of death are listed, such as prematurity, a respiratory illness or co-sleeping with an adult. The list also includes incidents for which no cause of death was listed, or for which the cause was listed as undetermined or pending, but which involved a nursing pillow, according to CPSC data and product safety reports to the agency.

The list excludes deaths in which the cause appeared not to be directly related to the nursing pillow, such as deaths caused by blunt-force trauma; deaths in which the baby rolled off the nursing pillow and fell to the floor; and deaths caused by a drug. This list also excludes any potentially duplicative cases, based on the location, date of death and other incident details.

To corroborate information on the deaths, NBC News sought autopsy reports and death certificates through public records requests, obtaining reports from police, medical examiners, child welfare offices and health departments, among other sources. In many cases, it was not possible to obtain autopsy reports or death certificates because the CPSC did not provide detailed location information or because states or local authorities declined to make the documents public.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The Oconee County Sheriffs Office reported the following incidents:

EAT AND RUN: On July 29, Deputy Dylan Pulliam was dispatched to the IHOP off Epps Bridge Parkway, where a group of a dozen people arrived for a meal. When they finished eating sometime after midnight, the group did a dine and dash, meaning they fled without paying for their tab. The group escaped in several vehicles including a 2020 Buick Enclave, a 2016 Nissan Versa, a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix and a 2015 Mercedes Benz. A person in the parking lot assisted in getting some license plate numbers before the suspects made their escape into the night.

HOME BURGLARIZED: On July 29, Deputy Steven Heckler was dispatched to a home on Hebron Church Road, Statham, where someone entered and stole several items including a .22-rifle, several titles to vehicles and prescription medicine. The burglars also left whiskey and rum bottles, which were collected by the officers as evidence.

DUI AT SCHOOL: On July 31, a 46-year-old Hartwell man arrived at Rocky Branch Elementary School for Meet the Teacher Day in a condition that caused concern among teachers and staff as he appeared to be heavily intoxicated. Deputy Jonny Richards spoke to the man, who arrived in a jacked-up Ford F-250 pickup, which an officer described as a tank. The man denied drinking that morning but said he had the previous evening. The man was swaying and said he came to the school to see his child and baby momma. Another deputy had observed the man driving at the school, so he was charged with DUI. During an alcohol test, he registered 0.15.

MAIL THEFTS: On July 29, a resident of Daandra Drive reported someone had entered his roadside mailbox as some of his mail was on the ground. As he drove through the neighborhood, he also located stolen mail that belonged to a neighbor.

Athens shoppers beware: Thieves eyeing wallets in shopping carts

Bomb threat: Threat to bomb Democratic Party office in Athens lands woman in prison

TRASH CASE: On July 30, Deputy Annessa Glenn was patrolling about 3 p.m. on Atlanta Highway, Bogart, when she observed trash fly out of the bed of a pickup and land in the highway. She conducted a traffic stop and the 42-year-old man driving the truck provided a name that turned out to be false. He later gave his real name and explained he lied because his drivers license was suspended. The man was taken to jail and his wife arrived to get the Ford pickup.

TURN SIGNAL: On July 30, Deputy Dylan Pulliam was patrolling on the Athens Perimeter when he observed a car cross a line and fail to use a turn signal when it exited the highway. The officer stopped the car. The 20-year-old driver was not licensed and his learners permit was expired.

UNLICENSED SHOPLIFTER: On July 31, Deputy Collin Worsham responded to Home Depot, where a loss prevention officer explained a man came in and put nearly $200 worth of tools in a 5-gallon bucket, then left the store. The man was confronted in the parking lot, but he insisted his boss had already paid for the tools. When the man was asked for his drivers license, he said he didnt have one and he immediately left in a Dodge van.

WORKER INJURED: On Aug. 1, Deputy Doug Mattocks investigated an accident at a business on Mars Hill Road, Bogart, where a 71-year-old Bogart man was injured on July 26. The deputy called the man who explained he was repairing cracks in the concrete drive when a pickup came around the corner. He jumped out of the way, but the pickup ran over his foot. The 49-year-old man driving the pickup explained he didnt see the worker until it was too late. The accident was reported late as the injured man insisted on being taken home.

AC THEFTS: On Aug. 2, Deputy Bradley Vaughn was dispatched to Walmart, where a shoplifting suspect had fled in a blue car. The deputy stopped the car and took the 33-year-old man back to Walmart, where he was identified as the person who tried to steal two window air conditioners valued at $644.

BURGLARY: On Aug. 8, Deputy Dustin Mines met with a 69-year-old Watkinsville man who reported someone burglarized his home on Moreland Heights Road and stole $1,000 in change along with some blank checks and jewelry that belonged to his deceased wife.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Oconee Blotter: Eaters skip on bill at IHOP; DUI charge at school
A man accused of pretending to be a U.S. Marshal was exposed as an imposter after a sheriffs corporal noticed the unique sound of his siren, authorities said.

A Marion County Sheriffs Office corporal was stopping for gas on July 31 at a Marathon in Summerfield, Florida, when he heard an unfamiliar noise, according to an Aug. 2 Facebook post.

He looked up for the source of the sounds and saw a black pickup truck lit up with flashing red and blue emergency lights, the sheriffs office said.

The truck drove around cars and then blew through a red light, according to the post.

The corporal knew there were no calls for service in the area that would require that level of response, so he got in his vehicle and followed the truck until he pulled the truck over for a traffic stop.

In body camera footage shared by the sheriffs office, the corporal is seen walking up to the drivers side window and asking the driver to identify himself.

The driver, 52, was wearing a hat that said Police U.S. Marshal, and gives his name while flashing a badge, the video shows.

The corporal asks the driver where he is headed, and he tells the corporal he is responding to a shooting in Marion Oaks, about 13 miles west of where they were stopped.

Im just looking for something to verify that youre a U.S. Marshal, the corporal says to the driver.

The sheriffs office said there were no reports of a shooting in Marion Oaks, so the corporal called the offices U.S. Marshal Liaison to ask the driver a few questions.

The driver tells the corporal and the liaison that he is a U.S. Marshal based in Texas, but he had come to Florida for work.

They got me down in Florida right now looking into Marion Oaks, the driver told the liaison over the phone. Theres two gang members, two gangs out there that are riding on a four-wheeler with a pole on it busting into peoples houses.

The liaison asked the driver over the phone what district he works out of in Texas, to which the driver responded Dallas, the video showed.

The driver told authorities he was driving his personal vehicle and didnt have his credentials, but the truck had a Florida license plate, the corporal said in the video.

The corporal went into the truck and saw there was a control panel for the driver to display lights and there were multiple siren options, the footage showed.

The truck was equipped with flashing lights and multiple siren sounds, the sheriffs office said.

The liaison later arrived on scene and questioned the driver in person, asking again where the driver works in Texas.

Whats your district? the liaison asked.

District? What do you mean? the driver responded.

If youre a U.S. Marshal, you would know your district, the liaison said.

The U.S. Marshals Service operates 94 federal districts across the country, in the Virgin Islands and Guam, according to its website. Dallas is the headquarters of the Northern District of Texas.

The driver continued to give inconsistent information, and the deputies and U.S. Marshal concluded he was impersonating a Marshal, the sheriffs office said.

When they searched his truck, they found a firearm and the prescription drug Diazepam hidden in a compartment in his wallet, the sheriffs office said.

The driver was taken into custody and charged with false impersonation of a law enforcement officer, unlawful use of blue lights, unlawful use of a badge, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of Diazepam and introduction of contraband into a detention facility.

The public places a lot of trust in us. We recognize that. Theres a great deal of power and control here from a law enforcement standpoint to keep the peace. When someone is trying to interfere with that unlawfully, we take it very serious, Marion County Sheriffs Office Lt. Paul Bloom told WOFL.

Summerfield, Florida, is about 60 miles northwest of Orlando.

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Black Sea beaches in Odesa Oblast will once again open to the public by the end of the week, regional governor Oleg Kiper said in a Telegram post on Aug. 7.

"We are opening the sea for the velvet season," said Kiper.

He noted that the destruction of the Kakhovka HEP dam and the resulting flooding in June has degraded water quality in Odesas coastal waters for some time. As of Aug. 7, however,

Read also: Zelenskyy visits damaged Odesa cathedral

the water quality in the Black Sea has stabilized and meets all sanitary norms, according to Kiper.

"I have ordered to get the beaches ready for public access," the official said.

Read also: UNESCO mission arrives to assess damage from Russian attacks on Odesa

The governor has set an Aug. 10 deadline for local authorities to make the necessary preparations.

But I urge everyone to meet the deadlines so that Odesa can welcome tourists already this weekend, Kiper added.

Read also: Grain elevators damaged, port facilities burning in Odesa after Russian drone attack

The (weather) forecast is up to +30C, so we welcome everyone to our beaches, best in the world.

On May 2, the chairman of the Public Council of the Odesa Regional Administration, Serhiy Bratchuk, announced that Odesa beaches would be closed this year, just as they were in 2022.

Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron!

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Officer who held back crowd during George Floyds murder sentenced to over 4 years in prison

Tou Thao, the former Minneapolis police officer who held back a crowd of bystanders during George Floyds fatal arrest in May 2020, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Monday for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Thao gave a short comment on his role in Floyds death in a statement prior to his sentencing in a Minnesota courthouse.

Obviously, on that day, we didnt intend on  I didnt intend on doing any malice or anything like that, or try to hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best I thought I could, he said. Obviously the outcome didnt come out the way I wanted it, so Ill leave it at that.

He then spoke for about 20 minutes about how he rediscovered Christianity after Floyds death and delivered a religious sermon to the court.

Tou Thao was sentenced on Monday in Hennepin County District Court to four years and nine months in prison for his role in the killing of George Floyd. - Leila Navidi/Star Tribune/AP

Hennepin County Judge Peter A. Cahill was unimpressed.

Mr. Thao, to be perfectly honest, after three years of reflection, I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgement of some responsibility and less preaching, he said.

Suffice it to say that I think your culpability is less than Mr. Chauvin, but well above Mr. Kueng and Mr. Lane, as an experienced senior officer who was in the best position to save George Floyd. Accordingly, its my belief that a sentence at the top of the (sentencing) range would be condign punishment.

Thao had no visible reaction to the sentence. When asked if he had any questions, he said, No, God bless you sir. He received credit for 340 days already served.

All four officers convicted of federal and state charges

Former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng have all been sentenced to prison for their roles in George Floyd's death in May 2020.

The sentencing marks the end of a series of state and federal trials for the four former officers involved in Floyds death. All of the former officers have been convicted of crimes in the years since.

Thao and his then-colleagues Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng were fired and arrested for their actions  or lack thereof  in May 2020 as Chauvin pressed his knee into the neck and back of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was handcuffed and lying on his stomach, for more than nine minutes.

During the arrest, Lane held down Floyds legs, Kueng held down Floyds torso, and Thao stood nearby and kept back a crowd of upset bystanders, including an off-duty firefighter trying to render aid. Even as Floyd pleaded for air and for his mother, Thao made mocking references to Floyds assumed drug use and kept the group of bystanders from helping.

Thao was found guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in May at a trial by stipulated evidence decided by Judge Cahill. The guilty verdict meant that all four of the officers who took part in the fatal restraint have been convicted on both state and federal charges.

Thao is already serving a 3 1/2-year sentence for his February 2022 conviction on federal charges of violating Floyds civil rights during the arrest. He was sentenced last July in the federal case. He will serve his state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence.

Calls to Thaos attorney and lawyers representing the Floyd family were not immediately returned Monday morning.

Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in state court and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison in June 2021. In federal court, he pleaded guilty to depriving Floyd of his rights and an unrelated civil rights violation and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He is serving the sentences concurrently.

Lane, Kueng and Thao were found guilty in federal court of violating Floyds civil rights and of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the restraint.

In the state cases, Kueng and Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter and were sentenced to 3 1/2 years and three years in prison, respectively.

Floyds death has led to significant change in Minneapolis and its police force. The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay Floyds estate $27 million to settle a lawsuit, and in March agreed to reorganize the police department to address race-based policing, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights said in a news release.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect date for an agreement by Minneapolis to reorganize its police department to address race-based policing. The agreement was announced in March.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak reported on Aug. 7 that 22 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been returned from Russian captivity.

The soldiers range in age from 23 to 54 years old, and include two officers. Among those returning from Russian captivity are injured soldiers, Yermak said on Telegram.



"All those freed will undergo a course of physical and psychological rehabilitation and reintegration and will receive the necessary treatment with the support of medical specialists," Yermak said.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights, said that 2,598 Ukrainians have been returned over 48 prisoner exchanges.

The last exchange resulted in the return of 45 prisoners of war on July 6. Two children, who had previously been deported, were also returned.

Read also: Exclusive: New insights point to Hungarys collaboration with Moscow on transfer of Ukrainian POWs

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Ohio voters on Tuesday will decide on a ballot measure to make it harder to amend the state constitution, a change conservatives say is needed to protect the state from a radical anti-gun, abortion and education agenda that could soon find its way to other states.

It's an issue that has already prompted a massive early vote turnout  one that has some election offices straining to manage the load.

"This is gubernatorial-level turnout," said Regine Johnson, deputy director of the board of elections in Stark County.

As of Wednesday, more than 533,000 people had voted by mail or in person since early voting began July 11, according to data collected by the Associated Press . That's nearly double the final early voting figures for Ohio's two previous midterm primary elections, which included races for governor and Congress.

Today, ballot measures to amend the Ohio Constitution need only 50% plus one vote to pass. But if State Issue 1 passes, that threshold would be raised to 60%  conservatives say this change is needed to protect the state from outside groups who want to alter the state's constitution.

"At its core, it's about keeping out-of-state special interest groups from buying their way into our constitution, which we're seeing happen far too often," Amy Natoce, press secretary for Protect Women Ohio, told Fox News Digital. "They're circumventing the legislative process and going directly after the constitution."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

HOW THIS CRUCIAL MIDWESTERN BATTLEGROUND STATE SHIFTED FROM PURPLE TO RED

Democrat opponents have made the argument that the ballot measure would take away power from voters and give it to politicians.

"The purpose of Issue 1 is to silence the majority of Ohioans, and subject us to the policy preferences of a small group of extremists who have secured the favor of our unconstitutionally gerrymandered legislature," the ACLU wrote about the measure earlier this year.

"Just look at how Issue 1 supporters are framing their argument. They deem their effort the Protect Ohios Constitution campaign. In fairness, they are desperately attempting to protect our Constitution," the group added. "The key question is, from whom are they protecting our Constitution? The answer is  a majority of Ohioans."

But Mehek Cooke, an Ohio attorney and Republican political consultant, told Fox News Digital the ACLU is putting out a "deceitful message."

"They're lying to Ohio voters when they say that we are taking their vote away," said Cooke, who said the goal is to prevent outside groups from influencing the state. "We're actually empowering Ohioans."

"The constitution is truly for the structure of government and then fundamental rights, not policies. I believe that's the place for the legislature. So, I feel very strongly as a mom but also a business owner and an attorney that we need to protect a strict analysis of our constitution and not allow these outside groups to dictate what works in Ohio."

Natoce also said that some of the biggest opponents of State Issue 1, including the ACLU and the Ohio Democratic Party, have internal rules in their organizations that require a 60% threshold for actions such as removing board members, endorsing candidates and amending their own constitutions. Cooke said the change would put Ohio more in line with other states that have higher thresholds for changing the constitution.

OHIO ABORTION VOTE THIS NOVEMBER CONSIDERED 2024 PRESIDENTIAL BELLWETHER BY DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS

State Issue 1 would take effect immediately if passed, which means that a November ballot measure that would enshrine the right to an abortion into the state constitution would need 60% voter approval, not 50% plus one.

Critics of that abortion measure say it is written in such an expansive and ambiguous way, including not mentioning the words "woman" or "adult," that it would take away parental rights when it comes to sex change surgeries and abortions for minors.

The proposed amendment states that "every individual has a right to make and carry out ones own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing ones own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion."

Protect Women Ohio has committed $25 million in ads in opposition of the amendment. One of the advertisements released in May includes video of President Biden stating, "Theres no such thing as someone elses child," and ends by warning, "Theyre coming for your parental rights."

Democrats have focused largely on abortion in their opposition to State Issue 1, but Cooke told Fox News Digital that progressives will attempt to strip away gun rights as well as the rights of parents in classrooms and other issues in states across the country.

Cooke and Natoce said Democrat Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb has signaled a plan to push gun control changes to the constitution.

"We can use our real political power to change the culture of guns in this state. It starts by voting no on Issue 1, by the way, to make sure we can maybe put a ballot measure on our state constitution to have commonsense gun reform," Bibb said .

ABORTIONS, GENDER TRANSITIONS FOR MINORS COULD BE ENSHRINED IN STATE CONSTITUTION, PARENTS' GROUP WARNS

A group of people protests outside the Ohio State House in Columbus.

State Issue 1 would also eliminate the 10-day cure period during which citizen-led campaigns may submit additional signatures if they fall short the first time; it would also increase the number of counties where signatures must be collected from 44 to all 88. But those provisions would come too late to affect the abortion issue, which has already faced both legal and administrative hurdles and is now set for a vote in November.

Polling in July showed that voters are split on the issue, with 42% saying they are a "yes" on State Issue 1, 41% are saying they are a "no" and 16% are neutral.

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
by Naftali Mwaura, Li Zhuoqun

NAIROBI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- While growing up in the picturesque central Kenyan countryside, Lawrence Pius Murithi was at ease juggling school work and tending to his parents' farm, instilling in him the virtues of hard work, fortitude and service.

Murithi's well-adjusted upbringing came in handy when he enrolled for a mechanical engineering course at a mid-level college in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, where he burnt the midnight oil and passed with a decent grade.

Now a supervisor at the rolling stock department of the Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Murithi glows with pride having secured a prized career that has eluded the majority of his peers.

Prior to the launch of the 480 kilometers modern railway on May 31, 2017, the 32-year-old benefitted from training on the maintenance of passenger trains, sponsored by the SGR contractor.

"I was lucky I was considered to join SGR in the rolling stock section for the maintenance of passenger trains," Murithi told Xinhua during a recent interview, attributing his Chinese instructors for his competence at work.

For the last six years since he joined the growing ranks of local youth working for the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, Murithi has sharpened his technical, managerial and interpersonal skills.

In addition, he has improved his financial standing, thanks to a decent monthly salary that has enabled him to purchase land in his ancestral village and run a livestock business as a side hustle.

"I have ornamental birds and other animals. Working for the SGR has improved my living status and I look forward to furthering my education so that I can be in top management of the company," Murithi said.

Looking back, Murithi was at pains to explain how life would be minus the financial security, exposure and skill set that the modern railway has provided him, vowing to mentor his younger peers to dream of prestigious careers like his.

Since it was put into operation six years ago, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has accelerated the localization of its workforce, hiring a robust cadre of young professionals to work in key sections like locomotives, track, signal and management.

Dennis Ogeto, a 33-year-old mechanical engineering major, was recruited by the SGR operator in 2018 to work in the dispatch section where his daily routine involves connecting wagons with the passenger and cargo trains.

The former construction worker had a glow on his face one balmy afternoon as he held chopsticks with dexterity while enjoying a meal of rice and beef stew before embarking on the next assignment.

Under the tutelage of Chinese instructors, Ogeto is now competent in assembling wagons for the passenger and freight trains that ply the Mombasa-Nairobi and Suswa routes.

"The training by Chinese instructors has been very good because when I joined the SGR, I had minimal skills, but now I have gathered a lot of skills," Ogeto said, adding that he has also acquired managerial skills from his Chinese supervisors.

Ogeto said that other positive attributes he has acquired courtesy of his Chinese instructors include better time management, self-discipline, hard work and respect for diversity.

A career spanning over five years at the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has also improved Ogeto's social skills, and he singled out his ability to relate cordially with passengers and colleagues.

Despite his humble upbringing at a rural hamlet in western Kenya, Ogeto has endeavored to dream of a better future and looks forward to upward mobility at his current workstation.

"I dream to get a managerial position at the SGR in the years to come and hope one day it will be extended to the Ugandan border so that it creates more opportunities for fellow youth," Ogeto said.

Hailed for revolutionizing mobility and commerce along its 480 kilometer corridor, the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has contributed to the growth of Kenya's gross domestic product by 1.5 percent, according to government statistics.

The SGR, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, has unleashed skills and technology transfer, benefitting local youth.

Stephen Mutua, a 39-year-old father of three, is a proud team leader at the track and bridge maintenance section of Ngong SGR station, located on the western hillsides of Nairobi.

A business management major from a mid-level college, Mutua joined the SGR in 2019, and thanks to training and mentorship from his Chinese instructors, he is competent in overseeing a team that is mandated with maintaining the track.

"I have gained knowledge, especially from the Chinese technicians who have taught us a lot in areas of management, planning, and inspecting the track and bridges," Mutua said.

In the near future, Mutua plans to go back to college, pursue an advanced course in railways operations and maintenance and hopefully secure a top-level managerial position at his current workstation. 
Ohio voters will go to the polls Tuesday to vote on a ballot measure that could raise the threshold for changing the state constitution  and in the process have a direct impact on abortion rights in the battleground state.

The measure, known as Issue 1, would raise the threshold for amending the state constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent of voters. The amendment concerns a procedural process, but the issue has become politically charged in the shadow of a ballot measure set for November that would enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.

Because of this, the Aug. 8 election is seen as the latest front in the war over abortion rights, as both parties grapple with how to handle the issue heading into next years presidential election.

We are deeply opposed to Issue 1 because it is special interests and corrupt politicians trying to gain more power for themselves and take away Ohioans right to one-person, one-vote, to democracy and of course to their ability to vote in November to protect reproductive freedom, said Lauren Blauvelt, the vice president of government affairs and public advocacy at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.

Abortion rights proponents have argued that the Aug. 8 measure was designed specifically to make enshrining abortion rights more difficult. On the other hand, advocates for the measure argue that the measure is intended to limit the influence of special interests and lobbyists in amending the constitution. But some have also pointed to it as an opportunity to try to stop what they view as a radical abortion amendment.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) has been among the most vocal proponents of the measure, having put forward the proposal along with a GOP state representative last November. He said at the time that the measure was designed to protect the state constitution from continued abuse from special interests and influence from people out of state.

The Ohio Constitution is supposed to serve as a framework of our state government, not as a tool for special interests, he said.

But LaRose, whos running to replace Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in next years closely watched Senate race, stirred controversy with comments he made to supporters in May, when he said the proposal is 100 percent about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.

The Aug. 8 measure would also amend the constitution to require that petitions to have voters weigh in on a possible amendment receive signatures from all 88 of the states counties, instead of just half. It would also eliminate a 10-day period that those backing a petition currently have to gather additional signatures if some of their signatures are ruled invalid.

The fight over abortion rights in Ohio, like in other states around the country, was kicked into overdrive after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. A bill banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in 2019, went into effect after the ruling, only for it to be temporarily blocked in September.

Blauvelt said she is part of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of patient advocates, civil rights leaders, activists, medical providers and other state residents that has operated since Roe was overturned. Planned Parenthood was one of the parties that pursued the lawsuit to block the abortion ban.

Blauvelt said the case will likely be decided in the states Supreme Court, and the coalition does not expect to win there, based on the current conservative-leaning makeup. She said the group worked to conduct research and gather 700,000 signatures from state residents to put the abortion measure on the November ballot.

Notably, the number of signatures they secured was about 300,000 more than needed.

The November measure would establish a fundamental right to reproductive freedom with reasonable limits in the state and ensure that every individual has the right to make their own reproductive decisions, including on contraception, pregnancy and abortion.

Abortion rights activists argue that LaRoses comments and the timing of the measure indicate that its designed to sink the abortion measure in November. Those on the other side push back against that notion, arguing that the state constitution should require more than just a simple majority that can be too easily subject to outside influence.

Mark Weaver, a Republican strategist whose political consultancy firm has produced some advertisements encouraging Ohioans to vote in favor of the measure Tuesday, said raising the threshold would require members of both parties to come together to amend the constitution instead of the very low bar of a simple majority.

Ohioans know that outside corporate interests have littered our state constitution with their profit-making schemes, Weaver said.

He pointed to a 2009 constitutional amendment that legalized gambling in Ohio as an example. The amendment narrowly passed with 52 percent of the vote after parties who eventually became the owners and operators of four casinos introduced a petition for the measure.

Weaver said these casinos essentially wrote guaranteed profits into the state constitution.

But Jeff Rusnak, an Ohio-based strategist supporting the abortion rights effort, argued that it was in fact special interests that have spurred the effort to raise the threshold for changing the constitution.

Billionaire Richard Uihlein, a major Republican donor, has been among the biggest financial backers of the Aug. 8 measure, donating $4 million to the campaign committee supporting it. The vast majority of financial support for both the yes and no campaigns have come from out of state.

Rusnak said those supporting the measure Tuesday are fabricating an issue that does not exist.

The issued constitutional amendments are a rarity in the state. They dont occur as often as they would like, and passing them, frankly, is even more difficult. This has been in place for over 100 years in Ohio, and its worked. Theres no reason to change. Its somewhat convenient now for them to say this, Rusnak said.

Weaver argued that those advocating for the abortion proposal but opposing the Aug. 8 measure acknowledge that a clear consensus doesnt exist in Ohio on the hard-left pro-abortion proposal.

If they thought there were 60 percent of Ohioans who would support that radical idea, they wouldnt be opposing Issue 1, Weaver said.

Special elections often see lower turnout than general or primary elections, but both sides seem to agree that turnout will likely be higher than normal given the attention that the measure has received.

Weaver said corporate media such as the editorial board for The Plain Dealer, Clevelands primary newspaper, have denounced Issue 1 and thus given the issue a higher profile and made additional participation likely.

Blauvelt and Rusnak said they have seen a surge in early voting. Rusnak said early ballots have come from urban and suburban areas in particular.

If you look at the early vote numbers and the interest around this issue, were seeing much larger than normal  certainly for a special election  but higher numbers than you would see in an off-year election, Rusnak said. Theres tremendous attention around this issue.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Ohio Department of Commerce said they helped over 1,000 Ohioans find more than $221,000 in unclaimed funds at the Ohio State Fair this year.

Each year at the fair the Division of Unclaimed Funds sets up a booth to help reunite Ohioans with their lost or forgotten funds, according to a media release.

One person found more than $50,000, while another found $19,000 according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.

>> They lost everything; Mother, son support those impacted by Harrison Twp. apartment fire

The average claim was around $300.

Unclaimed funds are lost or forgotten money that businesses and banks report to the division after accounts become inactive, typically three to five years.

The division said they are currently safeguarding $3.9 billion in unclaimed funds.
Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) was hospitalized Friday after an accident while working at his ranch in Oklahoma, according to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The post said Lucas was injured while working at his ranch in Roger Mills County on Friday morning and admitted to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City with non-life-threatening injuries.

Frank and his family are in good spirits and are sincerely grateful to the tremendous team of doctors, nurses, and others taking care of him, the post said. Congressman Lucas will be back on the ranch and in the district soon and expects to make a speedy recovery.

No additional information regarding what caused his injuries was released. The Hill has reached out to Lucass office for further comment.

Lucas was first elected to the House of Representatives in a special election in 1994 and is the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. He represents Oklahomas Third Congressional District.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Misinformation shared on social media in Ethiopia has increased amid violent clashes in the countrys northern Amhara region. Photos shared on Facebook claim to show protests against federal government forces in the Amhara region. However, this is false: the photos show youth mobilised from Debre Tabor, a city in the Amhara region, in 2021 to fight alongside the government forces during the Tigray war.

A Facebook post in Amharic published on August 2, 2023 and translated to English, reads: Public protests have already been held this morning in this manner in Debre Tabor. Other cities in Amhara should also carry out similar movements and give backing to Fano.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on August 4, 2023

The post has been shared more than 80 times.

Fano is a paramilitary youth group active in the Amhara region and currently fighting against Ethiopian troops.

The post includes a collage of three different images depicting the same scene. The photos show a large crowd of people on a street, most of them carrying sticks.

On August 4, 2023, Ethiopia declared a state of emergency in Amhara following a request by the regions leaders (archived here).

It followed reported clashes between Ethiopian military and Fano fighters in Debre Tabor in the South Gonder zone (archived here).

However, the photos do not show recent events in Amhara.

Tigray war

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and established that the photos showed youth mobilised to fight alongside the Ethiopian army during the Tigray war in August 2021 in Debre Tabor.

The three photos together were originally published on the official Facebook page of Debre Tabors city administration more than two years ago, on August 2, 2021 (archived here).

Screenshot of the original post, taken on August 4, 2023

Translated, the Amharic text accompanying the photos reads: Earlier today the youth group from Debre Tabor city led to the war front, rallying behind the defence forces, special forces and militias by using modern and traditional weapons such as swords, axes, lances and others.

The photos thus depict the citys youth backing government operations during the two-year-long war in the Tigray region, which was ended through a peace deal in November 2022  not anti-government protests in August 2023.
An El Paso man was charged with murder after deputies said he stabbed a man in Chaparral over the weekend.

Fabian Carrasco, 32, was charged with an open count of murder after Dona Ana County Sherrif's deputies said he killed Aaron Pedraza on Aug. 5.

According to an affidavit, deputies believe that Pedraza threatened his girlfriend, a friend of Carrasco's, when he and Carrasco began to brawl. Witnesses told deputies that Carrasco drew a knife or a crowbar and stabbed Pedraza's torso. Pedraza died a short time later.

Police then discovered Pedraza's body on the 200 block of Paloma Blanca in Chaparral.

Witnesses also told deputies that they had recorded a previous altercation between the two men earlier in the day.

Carrasco remains in jail in New Mexico as of the publication of this article.

Justin Garcia covers public safety and local government in Las Cruces. He can be reached via email at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com, via phone or text at 575-541-5449, or on Twitter @Just516Garc

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: One dead, one arrested after stabbing in southern Dona Ana County
Those who believed that Brexit would see the UK take back control continue to look in despair as the countrys borders remain porous and insecure. The ongoing small-boats emergency on the English south coast has made a complete mockery of our so-called national sovereignty over immigration and asylum policy.

The asylum system has been reduced to a survival-of-the-fittest arrangement, with able-bodied males being ferried to the UK on small boats through the English Channel. Some of these illegal entrants are in turn relocated to the more disadvantaged parts of the country. At times, they subsequently abscond from under-regulated forms of accommodation without a trace.

Some on the contemporary British Left are open-border evangelists who believe that the UK should be an international outpost that serves the central purpose of maximising global welfare. From a philosophical perspective, the very concept of the nation state with meaningful borders is an enemy to their holy cause, which might be called global redistributive justice. There is no serious consideration for the fact that this scale of illegal migration fuels labour exploitation, undermines social cohesion and poses a threat to public order.

While the Government has sought to shore up our borders through the Illegal Migration Act, there needs to be a truly national effort to dismantle people-smuggling networks, as well as punishing exploitative bosses who employ illegal migrants and unscrupulous landlords who house them in overcrowded properties. There needs to be a fostering of a genuinely hostile environment for those who are contributing towards the UKs illegal immigration crisis.

As it stands, an individual may be sent to prison for five years and pay a large fine if that person is found guilty of employing someone who he/she knew or had reasonable cause to believe did not have the right to work in the UK. This fine can be up to 20,000 per illegal worker. But the Government should look to introduce much stronger penalties for those who fail to comply with the law on right-to-work checks and knowingly employ illegal migrants while making handsome profits by paying them a pittance. This form of labour exploitation undermines the integrity of the British market economy  one where social responsibility is an integral part of mainstream business activity.

Moreover, like the case of employing illegal workers, one can be sent to jail for 5 years or receive a fine for renting property (in England) to someone who he/she knew or had reasonable cause to believe did not have the right to rent in the UK. The amount for a first-time penalty for a lodger in a private household is a meagre 80 (which rises to 1,000 for tenants in rented accommodation). Both the potential prison sentences and penalties for such misdemeanours should be toughened as a matter of urgency. This is not anti-landlord  it is about tackling criminal activity in the rental market.

By empowering its law-enforcement authorities and introducing stiffer punishments, the UK can create a truly hostile environment for those who benefit from the illegal immigration ecosystem, especially people-smuggling networks, exploitative bosses, and crooked landlords.

Dr Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance

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In 2024, the U.S. Mint will issue quarters featuring five prominent American women. This run, the third year of the American Women Quarters Program, includes Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. She was an abolitionist, surgeon, prisoner of war and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.

Walker poses for a photo wearing her Medal of Honor (Library of Congress)

On November 26, 1832, Walker was born in Oswego, New York. The youngest of seven children, the entire family worked on a farm. Walkers parents encouraged independence and instilled a strong sense of justice in their children. At an early age, Walker showed an interest in medicine and read her fathers books on anatomy and physiology in her free time.

Walker taught school in Minetto, New York, until she saved enough money to attend medical school. In 1855, she graduated from Syracuse Medical College with honors as the only woman in her class. Later that year, she married a classmate named Albert Miller. Walker kept her last name and the couple started a joint practice in Rome, New York. However, female doctors were not trusted or accepted at the time and the practice did not do well. Walker and Miller later divorced in 1869.

Walker served as the Armys first female surgeon (Public Domain)

When the Civil War broke out, Walker volunteered to serve as a surgeon in the Union Army. Despite her years of experience in private practice, Walker was rejected for being a woman. She was offered a military position as a nurse which she declined. Insisting on serving, Walker volunteered as a civilian surgeon. With no female surgeons, military or civilian, the army initially restricted her to nurse duties.

At the beginning of the war, Walker served as a nurse at the First Battle of Bull Run and a hospital in Washington, D.C. She later served as the Union Armys first female surgeon, albeit unpaid, near the front line including the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Chickamauga. Walker wore mens clothing, citing that it was easier to perform her duties compared to traditional women's clothing at the time.

Walker after the war c. 1870 (Public Domain)

In September 1862, Walker volunteered her services as a Union spy. While her offer was declined, the following year, Walker was employed as a civilian Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon for the Army of the Cumberland. This made her the first female surgeon employed by the U.S. Army Surgeon. Later in the war, Walker was appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry Regiment.

On April 10, 1864, after assisting a Confederate doctor in performing an amputation, Walker was captured by Confederate troops. She was arrested as a spy and held at the Castle Thunder prison in Richmond, Virginia. During her time as a prisoner, Walker refused to wear the female clothes provided to her. On August 12, 1864, she was released in exchange for a Confederate surgeon.

Walker was known for wearing mens clothing (Library of Congress)

After the war, Walker received a disability pension for a partial muscular atrophy that she developed during her time as a POW. She became a writer and lecturer, championing temperance, healthcare and womens rights, among other issues. Walker was frequently arrested for wearing mens clothing.

Seeking to validate her service during the war, Walker lobbied for a retroactive brevet or commission. President Andrew Johnson directed Secretary of War Andrew Stanton to look into the matter. The Army Judge Advocate General determined that there was precedent for commissioning a woman. Instead, it was recommended that a commendatory acknowledgment could be issued instead of a commission. Dissatisfied, Johnson personally awarded Walker the Medal of Honor on November 11, 1865, which we proudly wore until her death in 1919.

The back of the coin depicts the Medal of Honor and Dr. Walker wearing her medal while holding her pocket surgical kit (U.S. Mint)

From 1916-1917, the Armys Medal of Honor Board struck 911 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll for ineligibility. Among these recipients were Walker and Buffalo Bill Cody. Walker was removed because of her civilian status during her service. Major General Leonard Wood, who also served as a civilian surgeon when recommended for the award, was not removed from the Roll. It wasnt until 1977, at the recommendation of the Board for Correction of Military Records, that the Army's Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs posthumously restored Walkers Medal of Honor.
A straightforward question: If former President Donald Trump is the Republican candidate for president in 2024, could he win Michigan?

A straightforward answer: Well, duh. if Trump is on the ballot, sure, he could win.

Of course, he could lose. Trump has experienced both victory and defeat in this state, despite what he pretends happened here in 2020.

John Lindstrom

Michigan will be no less important in 2024 than it has been in the last four election cycles. And like in every election, it's the voters who will decide if Trump wins or loses.

Which voters? The ones who are the most POed.

Let's get to speculating

We tread speculative waters in this discussion. Such is the nature of political forecasting.

Consider: If the 2024 election were held today, Tump could win, yes. More likely, he'd lose.

Meaning President Joe Biden would win  Michigan, at least  even though he is generally unpopular.

Why might Biden win? First, he has a real record of accomplishment, with real, tangible achievements. All that road construction out there? The huge chunk of federal money sent to Michigan under Biden funded a big part of that construction. He's taking meaningful steps to slow climate change.

(Trump had a transportation plan, didnt he? He said he did. What happened to it?)

Second, Trump would lose today because the Michigan Republican Party is a chaotic mess. And broke. And everyone in the party seems to hate each other. Theyd rather throw punches  that's not a figure of speech  than develop campaign strategies. That hurts Trump and the entire party.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to guests at the Oakland County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner at Suburban Collection Showplace on Sunday, June 25, 2023, in Novi, Michigan. Local Republicans were to present Trump with a "Man of the Decade" award at the event, which was expected to draw 2,500 people in his first visit to Michigan since launching his 2024 presidential bid.

Meanwhile, Democrats right now look like a well-disciplined, command-focused army.

Which is the first time they have looked that way since ... well, this reporter cant think of whenthey ever looked like that. Big advantage: Biden.

But Democrats have to show their discipline by working harder than they did in 2020 and 2022. And make sure their fellow Democrats vote; not sit on their butts as they did in 2016. And honestly, the main reason Trump would likely lose today? Most people dont like him. They just dont like him. (Why? It would take a multi-volume encyclopedia to explain.)

The anger index

Trump has clocked four wins in Michigan: The 2000 Reform Party primary, the 2016 Republican primary, that year's general election, and the 2020 Republican primary.

The only times he has won a majority of Michigan votes, however, have been when he was the only candidate on the ballot: In the 2000 Reform primary  a whopping 2,164 votes statewide were cast for Trump that year  and in the 2020 Republican primary. In those other contests, he just got more votes than the other candidates.

In 2020, Biden won an outright majority of all the votes cast. It wasnt huge, but it was a 3-point majority.

Remember how all of this is speculative?

The conditions today will not be the conditions some 16 months from now. At this moment, it appears Trump and Biden will be their parties' front-runners, but that could change.

Consider: Trumps legal status is constantly changing, not generally for the better. Already indicted for squirreling away critical confidential U.S. documents  now charged with 40 counts in that case  Trump has also been indicted for a hush money arrangement with porn star Stormy Daniels  with whom Trump was having an affair while his wife Melania was pregnant  just last week for his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection and attempts to steal the 2020 election  and he is expected to be indicted in Georgia for his ham-handed attempts to twist state officials into changing the 2020 voting results in the Peach State.

This history enrages both sides: His supporters are screaming the U.S. judicial system has been weaponized against Trump, while his opponents fume, THIS corrupt guy was president? And you WANT him to be president again? Adding to the rage on his opponents side are Trump's revelations that if he is returned to office, he wants to increase presidential powers to nearly dictatorial status, including eliminating the U.S. Civil Service system  the people who actually do the work of making this country run, which would be a disaster.

Other things will change between now and November 2024. What that will be, how dramatic such changes may be  and most important, what effect they have on the anger index  could dramatically change political prognostications.

Because that is how could Trump win, both here and nationally. That powerful ally: anger.

None of this is good

Trump is  pardon my French  pissed off all the time. His supporters are pissed off too.

Most times, you might not see that anger. Most times, like most people, Trump supporters are generally pleasant, easy to get along with, happy to have a beer with you. Anti-Trumpers are the same way, most of the time.

But talk politics, and Trump supporters anger appears, instantly, intently, unflinchingly. They dont necessarily scream out their anger. This reporter recently spent a pleasant time with a lady who made tea and smilingly told him Biden was a disaster, Democrats were evil, Trump really won, Trump would win again, the survival of our country and way of life depended on him winning.

More: Detroit was never going to admit it overstepped in Detroit Will Breathe charges | Opinion

More: Letters to the Editor: NCAA penalty for Harbaugh's hamburger is a travesty

To any question or challenge, the smiling yet fearsomely intense answer was that Democrats are truly evil, Biden is a senile doofus (Biden is younger than the lady in question), Trump will win, and he will save us. More tea?

Their anger is existential. They feel attacked, their beliefs, institutions and values threatened.

Many of these worries revolve around the expansion of Americas inclusive universe. In the efforts to assure women, people of all ethnicities, people of all religions, folks who are gay, straight, bi, trans are included in the American pantheon, Trump supporters feel excluded and targeted.

But weirdly, so, too, are anti-Trumpers angry. They feel Trump unleashed and encouraged attacks on them, their beliefs, their actions. Abortion-rights supporters are really furious at Trump for naming three U.S. Supreme Court justices who backed the constitutionally-suspect overturn of Roe v Wade.

That's the question in American politics right now. Not what party you belong to or where you come from: How freaking angry are you?

Anger is a great way of motivating voters. Angry voters vote. You can count on them to show up in the polling booths. Trump backers did in 2016, stunningly so.

Angry voters came out in 2020, but that year, the Democrats and their anti-Trump allies were angrier than Republicans. They, too, saw themselves under attack, and acted on it.

Going into 2024, which voters will be angrier? Trump supporters? Or the broader coalition of Biden-personal rights-environmental/climate change activist-societal inclusiveness activist-general anti-Trumpistsupporters?

It is sad that we can most effectively forecast elections based on who is more pissed off. Anger has driven other elections. Anger over keeping or ending slavery largely drove the 1860 election (and, of course, sparked the Civil War). Voters were angry with Herbert Hoovers largely ineffective response to the Great Depression and pushed him out of office in 1932. But anger in the past has largely been driven by issues or conditions. Now, anger revolves around one person.

We should be voting over honest differences on policy. We arent. It is personality, the personality of Donald Trump in particular, that founded the anger driving our politics now.

And yes, because our politics is now so focused on anger, Donald Trump could win. Think about that, and think about how we can, if we can, restore some calm dignity to our electoral politics.

John Lindstrom has covered Michigan politics for 50 years. He retired as publisher of Gongwer, a Lansing news service, in 2019. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: Can Trump win Michigan in 2024 presidential election?
Channel 9 is working to learn more about the two Orlando police officers who were shot in the line of duty on Friday.

It all started with a traffic stop at West Washington Street and North Garland Avenue in downtown Orlando.

Police said a suspect then shot the officers, carjacked someone and took off.

The suspect, Daton Viel, 28, was then killed by SWAT teams in a hotel room on International Drive near Universal Orlando Resort. Viel was holed up for hours prior to being fatally shot.

TIMELINE: Suspect dead, 2 Orlando officers shot expected to recover, officials says

The officers who were shot were taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center and are expected to make a full recovery.

Orlando police Chief Eric Smith said he has been visiting the officers in the hospital.

It will be a long road to recovery, but hes looking forward to seeing them get discharged.

Watch: What we know about the 2 Orlando police officers shot

Watch: Daton Viel: What we know about man accused of shooting 2 Orlando police officers

Channel 9 will continue to follow-up with law enforcement and will provide updates on Eyewitness News.

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.
An investigation into the death of a South Miami-Dade construction companys diver found lack of proper life jackets, poor assessment of the jobs perils and divers asked to do things beyond their training, the Occupational Safety Health Administration said last week.

OSHA wants Downrite Engineering to pay $258,935 for 22 violations leading to the Jan. 26 workplace death.

Downrite has until Aug. 14 to let the U.S. Department of Labor division know whether it plans to just pay the proposed fines, request an informal meeting with OSHA, or contest the violations before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

This summer, two Miami-Dade companies have chosen the contest option after OSHA investigations of workplace deaths of their employees.

READ MORE: A Miami company is fighting $40,000 of OSHA fines after the electrocution death of a Kendall husband

Downrite Engineering hung up on a Miami Herald reporter, then put the reporter on hold for several minutes during each of two subsequent phone calls. Downrite also didnt return an email seeking comment sent through the website.

Death of a Downrite diver

Downrites work at the Lennar at Westview housing development, 2601 NW 119th St., turned tragic around 10:30 a.m. Jan. 26.

OSHAs description:

An employee and coworkers were performing diving operations in a canal with about 8 feet of water to dredge for installation of an underwater pipe. None of the workers were dive-certified and some only had in-house or on-the-job training in the operations.

The workers took turns rotating between diving or dive tending. The employee was on a dive rotation when he lost consciousness under the water and subsequently drowned.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Rogelio Vandamas told Ted Scouten of Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami that the divers co-workers noticed that his bubbles, about five minutes, they noticed he wasnt communicating with them. They called 911 and they tried to locate him as well. His total dive, I understand was 40 minutes.

Vandamas also said conditions made the rescue attempts tough.

The pipe obscures the sun, so we have no light to help us with the search, he said. Also, since everybodys been working in there, theres sediment in the water so our lights are ineffective helping us see underwater. Our divers dove by feel until they found the diver in the pipe.

Despite being airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, the diver died. He was 48.

READ MORE: The lift collapsed and killed a worker. His Miami employer is fighting the $58,000 proposed fine

What were the 21 Serious violations OSHA found?

Of the 22 safety violations OSHA investigators found, 21 fell under the Serious classification and one was Other-Than-Serious. Four violations received no proposed fine. None were classified as Willful.

Here are the Serious violations that OSHA found at Downrites dive site, from the Citation and Notification of Penalty:

 Employees performing diving operations were exposed to a drowning hazard in that they were assigned duties and tasks beyond their experience and training.

 All dive team members were not trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid (American Red Cross standard course or equivalent).

 The person designated by [Downrite] was not at the dive location in charge of all aspects of the diving operation affecting the safety and health of dive team members.

 The safe practices manual didnt have all of the following: Safety procedures and checklists for diving operations; assignments and responsibilities of the dive team members; equipment procedures and checklists; emergency procedures for fire, equipment failure, adverse environmental conditions, medical illness and injury.

 The dive location didnt have an emergency aid list with all of the following: a list of the telephone or call numbers for an operational decompression chamber, accessible hospitals, available physicians, available means of transportation and nearest U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center.

 The dive location didnt have a first aid kit appropriate for the diving operation and approved by a physician.

 Downrite didnt provide an American Red Cross standard first aid handbook or equivalent. Also, a bag-type manual resuscitator with transparent mask and tubing wasnt available.

 Planning of a diving operation did not include an assessment of the safety and health aspects of the diving mode.

 Planning of a diving operation did not include an assessment of the surface and underwater conditions.

 Downrite did not ensure that required emergency procedures were available at the worksite.

 Before the diving operation, Downrite didnt brief the dive team members on the tasks to be undertaken; safety procedures for the diving mode; any unusual hazards or environmental conditions likely to affect the safety of the diving operation.; any modifications to operating procedures necessitated by the specific diving operation; before making individual diver assignments, Downrite didnt ask the dive team members current physical fitness state; nor did Downrite  notify the dive team of the procedures for reporting physical problems or adverse physiological effects during and after the dive.

 Downrite didnt provide a means to assist an injured diver from the water.

 Downrite didnt provide an operational two-way communication system to the crew at the dive location.

 The air compressor wasnt tested nor was its maintenance up to date.

 Air compressor intakes were not located away from areas containing exhaust or other contaminants. In this situation that meant the air inlet of the air compressor was adjacent to a truck with the engine running.

 Divers didnt have an umbilical cord that was marked in 10-foot increments.

 Downrite didnt provide air masks with a non-return valve at the attachment point between the helmet or mask and hose which closed readily and positively.

 Divers werent wearing safety harnesses.

 Downrite didnt provide a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket or buoyant work vests.

 A lifesaving skiff was not immediately available at locations where employees are working over or adjacent to water.

 A diver was not stationed at the underwater point of entry when surface-supplied air diving was conducted in enclosed or physically confining spaces. In this situation, that meant a stand-by diver wasnt at the culvert entrance.

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 said. 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.

Who is Downrite Engineering?

Did Downrite Engineering send unqualified divers into a situation that ended in death?

State records say Downrite registered to do business in Florida in 1984. Samuel LoBue, listed as the president, treasurer, secretary and director, is the only officer on the 28 years of state filings available on sunbiz.org.

Before the Lennar at Westview death, OSHA had investigated Downrite 13 times over the last 10 years and fined the South Miami-Dade company four times.

Feb. 17, 2022: Downrite was cited for three violations, including using accident prevention tags as a substitute for accident prevention signs and moving construction equipment on a road that wasnt made to safely handle such equipment or vehicles. Downrite settled a $31,080 penalty down and paid $18,648.

Nov. 13, 2019: Downrite was cited for starting a project without making provisions for prompt medical attention in case of serious injury and not reporting an injury within 24 hours that requires inpatient hospitalization, amputation or the loss of an eye. Downrite settled a $23,133 fine down to $13,885.

Aug. 11, 2017: Improper use of flaggers or attire worn by flaggers. Downrite paid a $10,864 fine.

Aug. 11, 2016: Downrite was cited for failing to report within 24 hours an inpatient hospitalization, amputation or the loss of an eye via a work-related incident. The company contested the $5,000 fine and it was reduced to $2,500 by the review committee.
KIGALI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Government officials and private sector actors from Rwanda and Madagascar held a business forum on Monday in Kigali, Rwanda's capital city, to explore ways of investment cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as information and communications technology, mining, tourism, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Visiting Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina attended the forum that showcased business and investment opportunities in both countries.

"To industrialize a country, you need the private sector. We cannot develop a country without creating employment, producing, and adding value locally to all things that people need," Rajoelina told the gathering.

Clare Akamanzi, the chief executive officer of the Rwanda Development Board, said Rwanda has created an enabling environment to facilitate investment such as easing of business registration.

She stressed that the country's shared vision of a prosperous future is grounded on the spirit of entrepreneurship, exchange of knowledge and skills, as well as expertise.

"This forum provides a platform for meaningful dialogues, networking, and forging lasting partnerships," she said.

A Memorandum of Understanding aimed at fostering and enhancing business cooperation between the private sector actors in both countries was signed at the forum.

Meanwhile, President Rajoelina, who arrived in the country on Sunday for a three-day visit, on Monday held discussions with his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, on the status of bilateral cooperation between Rwanda and Madagascar, the president's office said.

"For both our countries, trade and investment are important drivers of economic growth. In recent years, Rwanda and Madagascar have been hit by extreme weather events. This has affected livelihoods, and damaged biodiversity and infrastructure. We must share expertise, and learn from each other's experiences," said Kagame. 
The News

Representatives from over 40 countries met in Saudi Arabia over the weekend to convene talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Weve curated reporting and insights about whether the peace talks were productive towards ending the conflict.

Insights

The talks, which Russia was reportedly not invited to, ended with few tangible strategies for ending the war, Bloomberg reported. The officials did make plans to form working groups focused on the different parts of Ukraines peace formula, including nuclear security. Right now, theres no prospect for direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

China, a strong partner to Russia, attended the talks, which was seen as an encouraging development to other participants. The mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated, a European diplomat told the FT. It was a smart move for China to engage with U.S. and European leaders, supporting their message that they are pushing for peace, said Alexander Gabuev, a leading Russia-China expert. But Gabuev hasnt seen evidence that Chinas attendance will lead to any concrete actions toward ending the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys goal with the talks was to garner international support for his peace formula, which includes affirming Ukraines territorial integrity. Such consensus helps Ukraine as it continues grinding Russias forces down, but that doesnt mean we should expect Russia to come to the negotiating table anytime soon. Ukraines backers will have to understand that ejecting Russia is turning out to be a grinding war of attrition. ... Get ready for a long haul. 
New member Christina Tonsing received what she described as a "rebuke" from the rest of the Ozark school board after hosting solo community listening sessions in May and June.

Tonsing was referring to a statement, on district letterhead, issued by the board  signed by the other six members  and read publicly at the June 29 meeting.

In the letter, the board wrote it wanted to "address the fact that a board member is conducting individual 'town hall' or group meetings with the public" and noted members have no individual authority outside of board meetings.

"Accordingly, let it be known the Ozark school board has not granted Christina Tonsing the authority to conduct any such meeting, and therefore, all liability arising out of any such meeting falls to her personally. These meetings or similar individual board meetings of any kind are not sanctioned by the Ozark Board of Education."

Tonsing, one of three members elected in April, invited the public to a two-hour "community chat" May 6 and June 3 at the public library in Ozark.

The invite stated: "Let me know how it's going with school, what things do you really like about the district, what suggestions do you have to make it better, anything you want to share."

Those unable to attend were asked to message her campaign email address, not the official board one issued by the district.

Tonsing, a longtime math teacher and co-founder of the nonprofit Gospel for Haiti, posted a three-page response to the letter on her campaign Facebook page.

She has taught math at the high school and college level, working at Glendale High School and then later at Evangel University and Ozarks Technical Community College.

She wrote, in part: "The letter issued by the board was not a disclaimer but instead a rebuke. It also contained many factual errors and distortions. The letter misnamed the listening sessions 'town halls or group meetings,' when...I was merely making myself available for anyone wanted to come by and tell me about their experiences during their school year."

She added: "I wasn't speaking nor informing anyone of anything."

In the rebuttal, Tonsing noted board president Sarah Adams Orr recently stated that each member is active in the community and attends various meetings.

"If my listening sessions were actually so dangerous as to warrant a needed board disclaimer then there is surely equal need for disclaimers to be issued for all of the other board members who also attend meetings and speak with the public."

Tonsing wrote, in her rebuttal, that "many people have reached out" with questions about the intent of the letter and how it was initiated and compiled.

In response to a request for comment from the board, Dan Ortega, director of communications for the district, said the board was not making any statements beyond the letter itself.

The letter was signed by Orr, board vice president Mark Jenkins and members Amber Bryant, Guy Callaway, Aaron Johns and Patty Quessenberry. Bryant, Callaway and Tonsing joined the board in April.

A June 29 letter issued by the Ozark school board addressed community listening sessions held by newly elected member Christina Tonsing.

In the letter, the board majority recommended public input be sought or provided in the following ways:

Submit communications in writing to the superintendent or board president, which is then shared with the entire board.

Participate in the public comment period at board meetings.

Conduct district-organized town hall meetings that include "appropriate parameters and safeguards."

Use other avenues that are part of district's official, planned and "legally compliant" community engagement process. No examples were given.

Tonsing wrote she was not aware of the letter until minutes before it was read at the meeting.

She added that after consulting attorneys versed in education law, she is confident her listening sessions did not cross any line. She said they were not official meetings and she was only representing herself and not the board.

Tonsing wrote that concerns were raised after she posted the invite including that she might speak inappropriately, hear something that needed to be reported and fail to report it, or that her words might be twisted out of context by someone attending the sessions.

"The fears then center on the idea that the district or individual board members would be liable in some sort of lawsuit resulting in financial loss," she wrote. "Even if they were valid, the most minimal awareness of the expensive, lengthy process involved in bringing a suit  let alone a successful one  would likely calm all of those fears immediately. Regardless, they are not valid."

The News-Leader emailed Tonsing to request an interview and ask what she learned from the community during the listening sessions. She did not respond.

Tonsing appeared on the Wake up Springfield Podcast on KWTO, a conservative radio station, late last month to talk about her board service and the letter.

She said on the show that she "ran to be a voice for the parents" who want to be more engaged with how children are being educated. "I thought I should listen to them and hear what they have to say. I thought that was my duty to make myself available."

More: Lathan agrees to get drenched in Gatorade if SPS student attendance goal is met this year

Tonsing defended some board members who signed the letter, arguing they may not have had all of the facts in advance.

"That has been the problem for many years with our different school boards. They are not aware of everything that is happening in the district so one person or a few people can just run the show," she said. "They're just used to getting their own way. They just say what needs to be said to be convincing."

At the last meeting in July, five board members  all but Johns, who was absent  signed a follow-up letter to the community. Tonsing also signed it.

It read: "The board understands there are multiple interpretations of the letter regarding board liability and individual member sessions. The purpose of the letter was to inform the public that no one board member speaks for the whole and should not be misconstrued as to any board member acting illegally."

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Ozark school board raises concerns after member hosts solo 'town hall'
Simon & Schuster is the fourth largest of America's "Big Five" publishing companies, which also include HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group USA and Macmillan Publishers (TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

Paramount Global said Monday it had reached an agreement to sell Simon & Schuster, a top US publisher, to private equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion.

The proposed sale, if it goes through, will end a years' long effort to sell the prestigious publishing house, whose authors include Stephen King, Colleen Hoover and Bob Woodward.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement on a transaction that delivers excellent value to Paramount shareholders while also positioning Simon & Schuster for its next phase of growth with KKR," Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish said in a statement Monday.

After the purchase -- which Paramount said will be made entirely in cash -- Simon & Schuster will become a "standalone private company," according to the statement.

The publisher will retain its existing leadership.

"With KKR's support, we look forward to collaborating on new strategies that will enhance our ability to provide readers a great array of books and to give authors the best possible publication they can receive," Simon & Schuster president and CEO Jonathan Karp said in the statement.

The deal announced Monday is less than last year's tentative plan to sell the company to Penguin Random House for $2.18 billion, which foundered amid regulatory concerns.

US District Court Judge Florence Pan, in her ruling, said the government had convincingly shown that the merger would substantially lessen competition "in the market for the US publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books."

Paramount at the time made clear its intentions to continue to look for a buyer for the unit, calling it "a non-core asset."

- 'Big Five' -

Also in the running for a potential purchase were fellow publisher HarperCollins, held by Murdoch-owned News Corp, and investor Richard Hurowitz, backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Other big-name writers who have published with Simon & Schuster, which was founded in 1924, include Doris Kearns Goodwin and Britain's Prince Harry.

The publishing house releases around 2,000 books per year, and owns a back catalog of about 36,000 titles for adults and children, plus audio works.

It employs more than 1,600 people.

Simon & Schuster is the fourth largest of America's "Big Five" publishing companies, which also include HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group USA and Macmillan Publishers.

In after-hours trading Monday, shares of Paramount Global jumped 4.54 percent to $16.82, while KKR shares remained relatively stable, up 0.03 percent to $61.83.

elm-caw/st
My party of 2 spent more than $87 at The Cheesecake Factory. Next time, I'll just return for dessert.

The Cheesecake Factory is a popular chain restaurant, but I haven't been there much. Alice Levitt

I visited The Cheesecake Factory at Dulles Town Center in Sterling, Virginia.

We ordered an app, two entrees, and a slice of cheesecake. The bill was $86.95 before tax and tip.

The only menu item I'd return for is a slice of the Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore.

Founded in the 1970s, The Cheesecake Factory has been a mall-culture staple for decades.

The short wait at many chain restaurants isn't typical at The Cheesecake Factory  maybe because everything on the oversized menu is cooked on location. Alex Abad-Santos, a senior correspondent at Vox, reported in 2022 that the only menu items not made in-house are the desserts, shipped from a commissary bakery.

Attacking that menu is a staggering feat, but I was prepared to put the chain to the test.

I've been a restaurant critic for more than 15 years, and I recently visited The Cheesecake Factory for the third time and my first time in almost a decade.

The atmosphere is unusual, but the mammoth menu is the star

The interior of The Cheesecake Factory, which has a ceilings and lanterns hanging above several sets of chairs and tables.

The Cheesecake Factory has a very unique interior.Alice Levitt

My first experience at The Cheesecake Factory was in my late 20s, so I had no expectations and none of the nostalgia a regular visitor might have.

That said, the restaurant's atmosphere is striking and memorable. At my location, there was a large mural covering one wall and arches leading up to the tall ceiling.

But the grandest element of all was the thick, ring-bound menu. With more than 200 items, there's no way to give The Cheesecake Factory a fair review. That would cost thousands of dollars and require almost as many hours of visits. This is just a summary of a single meal.

Free bread is an increasingly rare asset

A metal bread basket on a table at The Cheesecake Factory.

Complimentary bread is always a win.Alice Levitt

The Cheesecake Factory wins points for having a complimentary bread service. In recent years, I've seen this fine-dining staple transform into an appetizer that can retail for well north of $10.

Even though some '90s relics like spinach-and-cheese dip make The Cheesecake Factory feel a bit behind the times, I'll happily take my free bread: slices of a sweet, oat-topped brown baguette and a disarmingly fragrant sourdough.

It was served warm enough to melt the chilled square of butter that accompanied it.

To maximize the range of what I tasted, I ordered the $16.50 egg-roll sampler

Four egg rolls in halves with dips in center on square plate at The Cheesecake Factory

The egg-roll sampler had some highs and lows.Alice Levitt

When the egg rolls arrived at our table, my dining companion commented, "This is what's wrong with America." At 1,340 calories for four egg rolls, I can see his reasoning, but I prefer to think this kind of plenty, applied judiciously, is what's right about our country.

I've always been a fan of "ironic food." The Cheesecake Factory excels in this category with dishes like chicken Parmesan "Pizza-Style," a chicken patty nearly the size of your plate crowned with pasta doused in sauce.

I didn't try that dish this time, but I did fall under the spell of cheeseburger spring rolls. They are exactly what they sound like  appealingly fatty ground beef and American cheese in a crunchy wrapper  and I found myself wishing that I had more.

The appetizer platter's other offerings varied in quality. I liked the avocado egg rolls, but I was less fond of the Tex-Mex egg rolls and flabby chicken taquitos.

Nonetheless, it was fun dipping the egg rolls in a quartet of sauces, the highlight of which was a smooth avocado salsa.

The entrees were the hardest to choose

My dining companion had raved in advance about The Cheesecake Factory's fettuccine Alfredo, so that was an obvious must-order. But I counted more than 60 main dishes. How was I to choose just one?

I set my sights on the Factory Combinations and ordered the Steak Diane with herb-crusted salmon ($26.95).

I prefer a traditional Alfredo sauce made with butter and cheese. What is served at The Cheesecake Factory is heavily reliant on cream, which robs the dish of the salty, nutty Parmesan flavor that should define it. But I can live with a creamy Alfredo. What I can't accept is overcooked noodles.

At $27.50, the fettuccine I tried was a few minutes past al dente. Since the portion size could easily be split into two days of leftovers, I feared whatever was left would become even soggier and less palatable.

The fettuccine Alfredo didn't impress me much. Alice Levitt

I chose the combination plate because I wanted to see more examples of The Cheesecake Factory's sauces.

The Steak Diane came with four small cuts of steak cooked just below my requested medium rare. The "rich mushroom wine sauce" was thin in my opinion, as if it was missing an emulsifying ingredient (or perhaps the busy cooks didn't have the time to properly reduce it).

A steak diane on plate with green sauce next to herb-encrusted salmon at The Cheesecake Factory.

I enjoyed the asparagus spears served with my Steak Diane.Alice Levitt

Separated by mashed potatoes on the other side of my plate, the chunk of salmon was crusted in dried herbs, which had surprisingly little flavor. There was also a more robust-looking pool of "delicious lemon sauce," which had a citrusy zip.

My favorite part of the plate was three grill-charred spears of asparagus.

Cheesecake is in the restaurant's name for a reason

I initially toyed with ordering whichever cheesecake had the most calories, but I can't resist a s'mores dessert. I settled on the 1,550-calorie Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore ($10.50).

I typically don't love cheesecake. I'm not a fan of the cream-cheese tang and I often find the texture to be chalky. But that was not the case with the cheesecake I ordered.

The Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore was pretty good. Alice Levitt

The dessert centered on a Hershey's chocolate cheesecake, surrounded by an intensely chocolaty ganache. The bottom was made with crumbled graham crackers.

Buried in a layer of bruleed marshmallow spread, the dessert was an assault on the brain's pleasure centers, hitting high notes of varied texture, flavor, and over-the-top visual appeal.

All told, my dining companion and I spent $86.95 before tax and tip. And though I didn't leave The Cheesecake Factory a new devotee of the chain, I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself drawn back for another slice of the Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore.

Read the original article on Insider
CLEAR, which allows airline passengers to pay to be whisked through airport security checkpoints, is under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers following two previously unreported security incidents  including one where someone was able to go through security using a boarding pass theyd fished out of the trash.

In both incidents, a CLEAR employee escorted passengers through TSA security checkpoints who had not displayed any ID, and who were not enrolled in CLEARs identity-vetting service, according to a congressional aide granted anonymity to discuss TSA briefings with lawmakers. (Once past that step, passengers must still go through TSA baggage screening.) The aide said TSA has briefed lawmakers on both incidents, which happened in January and March of this year.

Lawmakers say these two incidents  along with another in July 2022 where a passenger successfully used CLEARs service with another persons identity  raise fresh questions about the companys security processes. Theyre calling for changes in the way TSA handles CLEAR passengers.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House committee that oversees the Homeland Security Department, blasted what he called CLEARs lax security controls.

After being briefed that there have been multiple security breaches over the past year due to CLEARs lax security controls, it is apparent that the company puts its bottom line ahead of the security of our aviation system, Thompson said in a statement to POLITICO. Each passing day the homeland is at greater risk until TSA acts to completely close these security vulnerabilities that it was alerted to last year. We cannot afford any additional delay.

CLEAR spokesperson Annabel Walsh said for the company security is job one and we have a zero tolerance policy.

In the case of the two newly revealed incidents this year, Walsh said they are isolated and had nothing to do with our biometric system and were the result of an ambassador not following our strict protocols after which we took immediate action, she added.

CLEAR fired the employees responsible for the lapses and their managers, along with requiring all employees to be retrained on CLEARs verification process, the company said.

Still, Thompson and Senate appropriators have called for TSA to begin requiring all CLEAR passengers to present their IDs to a TSA agent. That could impact CLEARs business of charging $189 a year so pre-screened passengers can use an eye or fingerprint scan, or both, before being escorted to the front of the security line by a CLEAR employee. This allows people to avoid having an ID scanned before being directed to baggage screening.

In both of the newly reported cases, the passengers were able to go through the security checkpoint because of CLEARs lack of oversight, the aide said.

One incident was discovered because the passenger noticed their boarding pass was for a different airport. In the other, a person who did not have a ticket was able to use a discarded boarding pass to enter security through the CLEAR lane. Neither successfully boarded an aircraft, the aide said.

In the previously reported July incident last year, a passenger successfully used another persons identity in Alabama to apply for CLEARs service, which he used to board a plane. CLEARs technology flagged the ID as mismatched, but an employee waved him through anyway. TSA discovered the identity discrepancy later after he attempted to bring ammunition through the checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The passenger, according to Crystal Nosal, a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokesperson, was charged with weapons possession and identity theft.

In the case of the July 2022 incident, CLEAR said it was a result of human error to allow the passenger to enroll in the program under a false identity.

Since the 2022 incident, CLEAR said it does not allow employees to override one of their machines that indicates a potential mismatch of ID with the person seeking to use the service.

CLEAR will continue to partner with the DHS and TSA to implement the new industrywide digital identity standards that we have been working on together since 2020, Walsh said.

But that may not be enough to satisfy lawmakers such as Thompson and others, who are demanding that CLEAR passengers present their IDs to a TSA agent before proceeding to the baggage screening lane.

TSA announced last month that it would begin increasing the number of CLEAR passengers who must present their IDs.

TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston said the TSA will require CLEAR passengers to use TSAs Credential Authentication Technology machines to have their IDs scanned.

TSA has established a timeline with milestones for this to occur, Langston said, without providing a specific deadline. Currently, all passengers except [Registered Traveler] participants are required to present identification at the CAT unit, where it is available. CLEAR is the only company that operates under the registered traveler program.

TSA provided notice to CLEAR in early June that CLEAR users would need to present IDs and provided a 30-day notice and comment period. Currently, TSA is evaluating the comments, and a shift to 100 percent ID usage is not imminent.

Aside from the July 2022 incident, there are also questions about CLEARs application methods for customers, following a Bloomberg reportlast month showing photos of people whose application photo  used in conjunction with the companys eye and fingerprint biometric scanners  had their faces partially cut off.

CLEAR said the photos in question were not part of the enrollment process and that the company no longer uses face scans to verify identity on the day of travel. Instead, it relies on fingerprints or eye scans.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the federal indictments against former President Trump exquisite and beautiful and intricate in a new interview published Monday.

The indictments against the president are exquisite, Pelosi said in an interview with New York magazine. Theyre beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with.

Pelosi was referring to the two latest indictments against Trump unveiled by special counsel Jack Smith.

Last week, Trump was arraigned on four criminal charges related to his efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election. In June, he was indicted over his retention of classified documents after he left the White House.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases.

Pelosi, as Speaker at the time, pushed for an inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, ultimately creating the Jan. 6 select committee, which many credit with providing the basis for the latest indictment against Trump on related charges.

In the interview, which was conducted Friday afternoon, Pelosi resisted taking credit for any of the work of the committee, apart from appointing its members. She praised the panel for providing a beautiful balance in its approach and a seriousness of purpose.

Pelosi warned in the interview about what she saw as the dangers of another Trump term in the White House.

Dont even think of that, she said when asked in the interview. Dont think of the world being on fire. It cannot happen, or we will not be the United States of America.

If he were to be president, she added. It would be a criminal enterprise in the White House.

Pelosi last week called the latest charges against Trump heartbreaking, noting in an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper, Its heartbreaking for our country to have a president of the United States with this list of charges against him.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi once again praised the indictments of former presidentDonald Trump after the former president railed against the former speaker.

The former speaker commended the indictment that a grand jury handed down to the former president last week in an interview with New York Magazine. The grand jury indicted Mr Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and he had previously been indicted for his handling of classified documents related to national security.

The indictments against the president are exquisite, she said in reference to both indictments. Theyre beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with.

Ms Pelosi said that she did not speak with Attorney General Merrick Garland or anyone in President Joe Bidens administration about investigating Mr Trump.

On Friday, Ms Pelosi said that Mr Trump looked like a scared puppy during his arraignment in Washington DC. In response, Mr Trump lashed out at Ms Pelosi, referencing the attack on her husband Paul Pelosi, which led to him being seriously injured.

I purposely didnt comment on Nancy Pelosis very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious, he posted on Truth Social. I wasnt scared. Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!

Ms Pelosi told New York Magazine that she suspected that Mr Trump would try to steal the election in some way.

As we got closer to January 6, I knew he was cooking up all these things, but what was he going to do about it? she said. It was clear that he knew he did not win the election.

Ms Pelosi said it was clear he would attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results on that day.

When we saw what he did on January 6, I knew that was a crime, she said, acknowledging that it is not possible to determine what can be proven in a court, but I know he committed a crime that day.
(Bloomberg) -- In his four and a half years in office, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has placated Pemex investors by repeatedly giving the state oil company cash bailouts and tax cuts.

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Each time, the aid  around $77 billion and counting  temporarily alleviates pressures on the companys bonds. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the rally fades.

The pattern has led to a growing sense of fatigue among money managers who hold the debt. They argue the handouts made by AMLO, as the president is known, have done little to solve the companys deep structural problems or address growing questions about its governance and sustainability practices.

This administration really is not making a concerted effort to address investor concerns, said Edwin Gutierrez, a money manager at Abrdn in London. The latest capital injection is good news in the near term as it clarifies any uncertainty over short-term financing. But obviously these governance issues will continue to weigh on the company.

Investors are now demanding 600 basis points more to hold the oil giants notes due in 2027 than similar sovereign bonds, even though the company is entirely owned by the government. Thats about double the premium for bonds of South Africas troubled, state-owned energy company Eskom Holdings.

In a sign of how fed up markets have become with AMLOs Band-Aid approach, it took just five days for the spreads on Pemex bonds to return to some of the highest levels in years after a brief reprieve when it announced it received a $4 billion handout last month.

The same pattern that has unfolded every time AMLO has stepped in. Whether its a capital injection or a reduction of Pemexs massive tax burden, any rise in bond prices quickly fades as investors return their focus to the companys mounting debt, dwindling oil production and lack of plans to tackle sustainability concerns.

On top of capital injections, AMLO has reduced the profit-sharing tax to 40% from 65% in the last four years, and taken every opportunity to voice his support for the driller. Pemex isnt a private company, Lopez Obrador said during a morning press conference last month. Its connected to the nation.

The capitalizations  720 billion pesos ($42.2 billion) through the end of June  have been earmarked for debt repayment and investment, ranging from the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery to the purchase of Shells stake in the Deer Park plant and other refining and fertilizer projects.

Read More: Pemex Profits Fall Amid $4 Billion Government Injection

Even though the debt isnt explicitly guaranteed by the government, AMLOs repeated pledges to support the driller made the bonds a favorite for some emerging-market investors who are attracted by the yields.

As a result, Pemex debt has rallied since AMLO took office at the end of 2018, with a total return of 15.8%, compared to 4.5% for a broad emerging-market index.

But with his departure looming after next years election, the question has turned to how much support Pemex will receive going forward, said Claudia Calich, the head of emerging-market debt at M&G Investments.

Some of the spread volatility is reflecting risks ahead for the election, Calich said. Its difficult because its a bit of the chicken or the egg  who do you blame? Do you blame the company for not being more efficient or do you blame the Mexican government?

Some Wall Street giants including Pimco have limited themselves to short-dated bonds out of concerns the next administration wont be so generous. Pemex bonds will face pressure as long as there is the lack of a plan for the medium term, said JPMorgan Asset Managements Pierre-Yves Bareau, who oversees about $50 billion in emerging-market debt.

Theres definitely a rhetoric in favor of Pemex, he said. Beyond that, theres definitely a bigger issue for the Mexicans that they need to address.

The questions over government support come on top of a litany of underlying concerns, including production thats fallen roughly by half from two decades ago, inefficient refineries, and a ballooning debt burden. The $110.5 billion it owes ranks it as the most-indebted oil major in the world both as a total number and as a ratio of its earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Read More: Pemex Says Size of Gulf of Mexico Spill Has Been Overstated

The operational woes have been brought into sharp contrast by a spate of recent incidents, including a deadly gas platform explosion in the Cantarell field complex last month, setting the ocean on fire, an oil leak nearby the site of the blast several days earlier, and a series of fires this year at half of its refineries.

That track record has alienated funds that are increasingly incorporating environment, sustainability and governance  known as ESG  standards into their portfolio. Pemex has yet to produce a long-awaited plan to address sustainability issues.

For Sergey Goncharov, an investor at Vontobel Asset Management who holds the debt, theyre all signs of a slow-motion downfall.

Its never a rapid demise, he said, but Im turning more cautious lately.

(Updates ninth paragraph with details on government support.)

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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday knocked President Biden after a report revealed a combined Russian and Chinese naval force had patrolled the coast of Alaska last week without ever entering U.S. territorial waters.

The fleet of ships appeared to be the largest such flotilla ever to approach American shores, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials. The flotilla was made up of 11 Russian and Chinese ships and reportedly was shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

Pence, who is running for president in 2024, blamed the incident on what he characterized as Bidens weak leadership.

Under President Biden, Russia and China threaten to conquer their neighbors & their new Axis is now operating together off the American coast. China & Russia & their no limits partnership now conducts joint blue water naval operations off the American coast & the arctic north, Pence wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

America needs a new Commander-in-Chief who understands the threat and will build a much bigger navy, new shipyards and a military fitted to the widening threats of the 21st Century. The enemies of freedom only understand strength, he added.

The demonstration of aggression comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and China and Russia, particularly surrounding Taiwan and Ukraine.

The Journal cited a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command who confirmed the report but did not provide details on the number of ships or the precise location of the Chinese and Russian ships.

Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat, the official reportedly said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) applauded the U.S. response amid a new era of authoritarian aggression, the Journal reported.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former vice president Mike Pence has described a moment when he believes Donald Trump legitimately considered  albeit briefly  accepting the lawful and valid results of the 2020 election.

Mr Pence was speaking to CBSs Major Garrett on Sunday about the newly filed indictment against Mr Trump, charging him with several crimes related to the former presidents efforts to overturn the presidential election.

Among the crimes Mr Trump is accused of is depriving Americans of their right to a duly elected president via his efforts to interfere in the legal process of transferring power between administrations.

The former vice president was central to that effort.

As president of the Senate, the vice president presides over the special session of the chamber wherein the results of the election are certified.

Mr Trump attempted to persuade Mr Pence throughout the latter part of 2020 to interfere in that process and demand that the election certification be halted while Republican-led state legislatures in states where Mr Trump lost would supposedly work to throw out the lawful election results and substitute their own.

Mr Pence refused, however, and the transfer of power went ahead following an unsuccessful attempt by a mob of Trump supporters to invade the Capitol and prevent the process from taking place.

During his interview on Sunday, Mr Pence recounted a conversation with Mr Trump that took place in December 2020  just weeks before the attack on Capitol Hill  where he says he thinks his boss may have considered not going ahead with his effort to interfere in the transfer of power should his court challenges fail, which they eventually all did.

I remember one occasion before Christmas, where the president asked me what... he thought we ought to do. We were just the two of us in the Oval Office, Major, Mr Pence told Garrett.

And I remember, I looked at him and I said, look, let all the lawsuits play out, let the Congress do their work to consider objections, but I said at the end of the day, if the election goes the other way, I said we ought to take a bow, we ought to travel around the country.

And I remember, I remember, the president is standing in front of his desk, listening very intently to me, and I'll never forget the way he just kind of pointed at me as if to... say, that's worth thinking about.

Former Vice President @Mike_Pence recounts an occasion before Christmas 2020 when former President Trump asked him "what he thought we ought to do."



"I said, 'At the end of the day, if the election goes the other way...we ought to take a bow'...And I'll never forget the way he pic.twitter.com/aEqxYreEzj  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2023

Mr Trumps legal team has denied any wrongdoing in the Jan 6 case and has warned that they will call Mr Pence to testify.

The ex-president faces dozens of criminal charges while he campaigns for a second term in office. Despite his professed innocence, his legal team separately said on Sunday that they expect indictments to be handed down in Georgias investigation into the president and his campaigns efforts to overturn the election in that state.
MOGADISHU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) on Sunday received a 150,996-U.S.-dollar donation from China to support delivery of emergency aid to victims of conflict and national disasters in the country.

Mahamud Moallim Abdulle, SoDMA commissioner, hailed China for the donation, stressing the vitality of the long term relationship between the two nations.

"The Chinese government and the people of Somalia share historical supportive relations and solidarity and it is not the first time we received such donations," Abdulle said in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Fei Shengchao, the Chinese Ambassador to Somalia, said the support for victims of disasters and strife shows Beijing's commitment to strengthen cooperation with Mogadishu.

"As we all know China and Somalia have a long standing relationship that has withstood the test of times and changes in the region and international arena," Fei said.

The donation comes amid warning from the United Nations that a credible risk of famine persists among displaced and pastoral populations in the areas of Somalia that were worst impacted by the recent drought. 
WASHINGTON  When Joe Laurienti founded space propulsion company Ursa Major in 2015, he didnt expect its first contract would come from a Pentagon hypersonics program.

It was a pivotal year for the commercial space industry as private funders flocked to space startups in record numbers. At the same time, Congress was pushing the Defense Department to eliminate its dependence on Russian-made rocket engines and invest in domestically produced space launch systems.

In that intersection of commercial investment and national security need, Laurienti saw an opportunity. The aerospace engineer, who had worked on propulsion systems for SpaceX and Blue Origin, decided to start a company focused on building engines for space launch vehicles using advanced manufacturing techniques.

But Ursa Majors first deal wasnt for a space launcher.

The 2017 contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory was to supply the companys Hadley liquid rocket engine for the labs X-60A, a hypersonic test vehicle. It turns out the same liquid propulsion systems that provide maneuverability and deep throttle capabilities for rockets are also useful for hypersonic aerial targeting and flight testing.

The contract, Laurienti said, broadened his vision for Ursa Major.

Hypersonics fell in our lap, he told C4ISRNET in an interview. That, pretty early on, forced us to architect a very dual-use, single engine that could work for space or hypersonics.

Click here to see the Top 100, a ranking of the largest defense companies in the world.

Ursa Majors expertise remains in rocket propulsion, but it is now developing a portfolio of engines that can be used for Defense Department and commercial missions, as well as support a range of air-launched, space and hypersonic applications. In May, the Air Force lab awarded the company a contract to continue developing and testing two of its engines  Arroway for space and Draper for hypersonic launches.

While Ursa Majors pathway into the DoD hypersonics market isnt typical, its one of many commercial and nontraditional companies looking to make inroads in a field dominated by defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies).

What they may lack in experience with major defense programs, these startups make up for with specialized expertise, private capital, and novel approaches to developing and producing hardware and software. Some, like Ursa Major, offer flexible, dual-use subsystems and components that could be integrated into the Defense Departments hypersonic efforts, which are largely focused on developing and testing high-speed weapons and defending against similar systems that adversaries, including China and Russia, are building.

A Russian Air Force MiG-31K jet carries the hypersonic missile Kh-47M2 Kinzhal during a military parade. (Pavel Golovkin/AP)

Others are stepping into new territory, developing hypersonic aircraft that could one day pave the way for high-speed military and commercial transport.

As the Pentagon looks to begin fielding hypersonic weapons in the next few years and eyes a future that could include aircraft traveling and maneuvering at Mach 5 or higher speeds, investing in these companies could help ensure the department has a strong, diverse industrial base on which it can rely.

Our voice in the DoD lately has been: How do you use what we have built  if not the end product, all of the underlying technology and capability set  for adjacent markets? Laurienti said. I think the DoD [is] going a layer deeper on the capabilities of these companies, and where they can pull those threads will be really important over the next few years.

Attracting private investment

Venture capitalists invested at least $356 million last year in U.S.-based startups developing hypersonic systems and technology, according to analytics firm PitchBook. However, that figure  up from $78 million in 2020 and $111 million in 2021  is likely even higher due to unannounced funding.

Drawing private funding is crucial for any startup, but particularly for those developing breakthrough capabilities in areas like hypersonics, where extreme heat and complex aerodynamics present significant technological challenges. To attract the early capital needed to build systems that operate in that environment, demonstrating demand is important.

While most companies developing hypersonic aircraft or supporting technology have long-term commercial ambitions, that market doesnt yet exist. For those firms, the Defense Departments interest in hypersonics and its urgency to begin fielding weapons make it a natural first customer, according to Zach Shore, vice president of growth at startup Hermeus.

DoD partnerships have been important for the Georgia-based company, helping generate interest from investors and providing access to test facilities.

Founded in 2018, Hermeus secured a $1.5 million contract in 2020 from AFWERX, the Air Forces innovation arm, and a $60 million follow-on deal in 2021 to complete development of its reusable hypersonic aircraft, dubbed Quarterhorse.

The company will use the vehicle to validate its Chimera turbine-based combined cycle engine, which is built on General Electrics J85 turbojet system, which powers the Air Forces T-38 jet trainer.

In 2019, Hermeus raised $100 million in private capital to complete Quarterhorse development and fund work on a second vehicle  an uncrewed hypersonic aircraft called Darkhorse. Both efforts will inform work on Halcyon, the companys commercial passenger aircraft.

You have to have an intermediary market where you can create revenue and validate the tech, Shore told C4ISRNET. The Defense Department does that. Its that step in between.

Hermeus is designing a hypersonic passenger aircraft, Halcyon, to travel more than 125 trans-oceanic routes. (Hermeus)

Zachary Krevor, CEO at California-based Stratolaunch, said the companys work with the DoD has helped show investors that theres demand for hypersonic systems.

It gives you a lot more credibility as you walk into that investor world, he said. Theres a real demand, and its demonstrated by the contract signing.

Will Roper, a former Air Force acquisition executive who now sits on the boards of Ursa Major and Hermeus, said the success of these companies also has implications for the Pentagon. A robust commercial hypersonics market, he explained, could help make future defense development and production more affordable.

If it [the Defense Department] gets this wrong, theres no guarantee theres going to be another wave of deep tech companies that are focused on defense, Roper told C4ISRNET in an interview.

Defense opportunities

The Pentagon has shown signs it recognizes the value of partnering with companies whose capabilities could help with near-term needs like testing, materials and subsystem technology.

The departments tech accelerator, the Defense Innovation Unit, is working to leverage commercial aircraft, payloads and supporting technology to provide more avenues for the DoD to test high-speed systems. Through its HyCAT effort  which stands for hypersonic and high-cadence airborne testing capabilities  DIU has awarded contracts to Rocket Lab and Fenix Space to provide launch capabilities, and to Australia-based Hypersonix to provide a test vehicle.

During the second phase of the HyCAT program, DIU plans to choose payloads and other technology to integrate onto the test vehicles, including alternative navigation, advanced communication systems and low-cost materials.

Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, DIUs program manager for HyCAT, said one of the programs goals is to help the department expand the national security-industrial base for hypersonics by involving commercial companies.

These are vendors that are not the go-to partners that have been doing hypersonic weapons testing in the past, he told C4ISRNET in an interview. Were fostering the innovation base.

The Pentagons Test Resource Management Center and the Navy are leading a program called the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed, or MACH-TB, in which theyre working with traditional and nontraditional companies to demonstrate and validate hypersonic technologies.

Stratolaunch, which was founded in 2011, is one of the companies working with the Pentagon on MACH-TB. Its Talon-A test bed  slated to take its first hypersonic flight this fall  is designed to provide a reusable, affordable system for government and commercial customers to test and validate high-speed components and other technologies.

Leveraging commercially available tech for hypersonic applications, Krevor said, is an idea hes seen the DoD really starting to explore.

A Talon-A test vehicle separates from its launch system. (Ethan Wagner/Stratolaunch)

If we can start to move technologies that are working in other flight environments or other environments in general and move them into the hypersonic environment, we can really start to short-circuit the typical development timelines for a hypersonic system, he added.

Indeed, that pull from the Defense Department is starting to happen, albeit at a small scale. Take Varda Space Industries, a California-based in-space manufacturing company founded in 2020: The firm plans to launch small satellites, which it calls production facilities, that are able to build components in orbit and return them to Earth in a capsule.

Through a strategic funding increase agreement issued last January, the Air Force, NASA and several private investors awarded Varda $60 million to study whether the capsules it will use to return products to Earth could also serve as a test platform for hypersonic materials and components.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Vardas story highlights not only the potential that lies within innovative companies, but the flexibility of these organizations and their interest in adapting to the needs of unlikely customers.

Thats an example of how the commercial world, which was moving in one direction, has been able to be repurposed towards DoD efforts in hypersonics, Clark told C4ISRNET.

The long play

Despite the smaller investments in companies like Varda and programs like MACH-TB and HyCAT, the Defense Departments broader vision for bringing commercial capabilities into its hypersonics programs is unclear.

James Weber, who is responsible for the Pentagons high-level approach to developing, fielding and integrating high-speed systems across the military services, declined an interview with C4ISRNET, and a spokesman refused to answer questions about the DoDs engagement with commercial firms.

But Clark noted that many of the departments acquisition approaches still favor larger defense primes, and that its requirements process, which he called specialized and aspirational, tends to emphasize high-end needs for capabilities that can take decades to materialize  a paradigm that doesnt always work for nontraditional companies.

The commercial world is not interested in a 20- or 10-year [research and development] program. They would rather figure out ways to adapt technologies they are already developing to be applied to military use cases, Clark said. That, to me, is the big issue. DoD needs to be able to have a more evolutionary approach to requirements development so that its able to tap into commercial capacity as opposed to getting exactly what it wants at the start.

Roper, who also sits on the Pentagons Defense Innovation Board, noted that while the department has shown interest in working with nontraditional companies, it hasnt backed up its rhetoric with funding.

There are steps in the right direction; theyre just not big in value, he said. If the department cares about hypersonics  and it certainly talks [like] it does  then it needs to place a bet on it with the startups that are working in it.

Roper has for years encouraged the department to work more closely with startups. With hypersonics, he said, theres an opportunity for a long play approach from the DoD that moves beyond small efforts to integrate commercial capabilities within existing programs. With an eye toward future needs, the Pentagon should provide more testing and prototyping venues for deep tech companies looking to validate hypersonic aircraft and supporting technology, he argued.

This, to me, is a must-succeed mission if the industrial base is going to grow, Roper said in an interview. The companies that are working in areas like hypersonics, aside from pulling together great teams, theyre also convincing private investors that there is a successful company that can de-risk these initially military technologies for eventual commercial use.

Roper has experience here. During his time with the Air Force from 2018 to 2021, he championed a program called Agility Prime, which aimed to bring credibility to the fledgling electric aircraft market by creating test and certification opportunities for emerging companies.

The Agility Prime model could translate to the world of hypersonics, he said. And by providing startups with valuable test and validation data, as well as a path toward airworthiness certification, the DoD gets a chance to reduce technical risk and support a burgeoning industrial base it will likely rely upon, he explained.

Its also a nice synergy because it teaches the Pentagon that its value in this market is not just money, Roper added. Its much more heavily weighted toward initial testing and certification.

Will Roper, then assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, speaks during a 2019 conference at National Harbor, Md. (Staff)

As the department seeks to work more with new entrants to the defense market, Hermeus Shore said its important that engagement moves beyond meetings and small contracts to recognizing and valuing innovation and integrating it at scale. It may also mean changing processes to make it easier for startups to compete with more traditional defense contractors.

Theres just this inherent tension in the department, still, of push versus pull in the way the department buys technology, the way the department originates an idea and the way the department thinks about competition, he said. I dont think the department has yet figured out how to commit to actually bear-hugging new technology sets and working with them.

Ursa Majors Laurienti noted that while its easier for the Defense Department to leverage commercial capabilities in space, where theres an existing market, doing that within the hypersonics portfolio requires some creative thinking on the governments part.

Just getting DoD to wrap their heads around  This company has X, Y and Z capabilities. Lets pull that thread a little bit  thatll be game-changing for how the department develops new capabilities very quickly, he said.
The Defense Department Inspector General is reviewing the Armys harassment prevention and response programs, according to an official notice. The move comes months after an Army audit criticized the services ability to identify and implement actionable recommendations on preventing similarly harmful behavior.

The Defense Department inspection aims to determine the effectiveness of the Armys actions to prevent and respond to harassment of soldiers, including sexual harassment, bullying, and hazing, in accordance with Federal and DoD policies, according to the notice letter. In addition to interviews with Pentagon-based Army officials, the Inspector General planned to visit Fort Cavazos, Texas, and Fort Liberty, North Carolina, as part of the review.

Although the notice does not specify why the Pentagons top inspector general will investigate the programs, one of the Armys own internal watchdogs highlighted years-long problems with how the service manages research intended to improve the programs. The Army Audit Agency report Research of Soldiers Harmful Behaviors was completed on Jan. 30. The Project on Government Oversight first reported and publicly published the audit.

While the ongoing inspector general probe deals primarily with different forms of harassment, the Army harmful behaviors audit also included studies on sexual assault, substance abuse, domestic abuse and suicide.

Without stronger governance, the Army will continue to lack full awareness of its research on soldiers harmful behaviors, auditors warned, before concluding the deficit could leave the service less able to become a learning organization with respect to preventing such behavior.

Out of 47 service-funded research reports on harmful behaviors completed between Oct. 1, 2018 and Sept. 30, 2022, Army auditors who penned the January report found that only five offered any actionable recommendations. And out of the ten recommendations provided in those reports, the Army offices responsible hadnt taken action to implement any of them.

The Army Audit Agency faulted the service for failing to centrally coordinate the work, too, and for lacking mechanisms for ensuring that the recommendations from the reports were implemented. Oversight officials also noted that previous audits had recommended the Army centrally govern and monitor its prevention research. But the recommendations went unheeded, auditors noted.

In response to the January report, the Army noted that of the 10 actionable recommendations, even fewer were on matters the Army could affect. But service officials agreed with its findings and committed to designating an office to oversee and coordinate future research on how to prevent and respond to harmful behaviors. According to the audit, the Armys Integrated Prevention Strategy (which Army Secretary Christine Wormuth signed earlier this year) also officially recognized the need to coordinate such efforts.

Its not clear when the Department of Defense Inspector General will complete and publish its report.
A woman is trying to find love on LinkedIn, and people say it's inappropriate. NurPhoto/Contributor/Getty Images

A woman said in a viral video that she uses LinkedIn to find men to date.

Candice Gallagher said one downside to LinkedIn is that there's no way to filter men by height.

Users on TikTok said Gallagher is "unprofessional" and "disrespectful" for hitting men up on LinkedIn.

A woman said she uses LinkedIn as a dating app, and people online are divided on whether it's appropriate.

Candice Gallagher, who goes by the username @candi.licious on TikTok, said in a video that she uses the online networking platform to look for men to date. The video, which was posted on July 27, has since garnered some 860,000 views.

"Why am I using LinkedIn as a dating app? The filters! Number one, I can filter for an education  MBA, baby," Gallagher said in the video, adding that she can also filter potential partners by industry and that she's looking for doctors, lawyers, and finance bros.

Gallagher, who's from the UK and works in Singapore, said there's one drawback to using LinkedIn as a dating platform  there is no feature to filter out men by their height.

"But at least there are very good-looking photos that I can kind of do some height analysis on," she added.

LinkedIn, of course, is primarily meant to be a place where professionals can network, look for jobs, and post work-related updates. But increasingly, it's become a mixed-use site, where people try to do everything from getting hired to sell insurance policies and gym memberships.

"To provide you with context, a friend had privately shared the LinkedIn profile of one of their connections and had asked if I would like to be set up on a blind date with him. This approach then sparked ideas about LinkedIn as a dating app," Gallagher told Insider, adding that she didn't intend to "undermine LinkedIn's professional purpose."

Dozens of TikTok users were unhappy that Gallagher was using LinkedIn as a dating platform, with several saying that it was "unprofessional."

"Is this a joke? There are so many women complaining about men doing the same thing. Why is it okay for you to do this?" one user said.

"People are not on LinkedIn looking for that. That's definitely not the place," one user wrote, adding that it's "fully disrespectful."

Some users raised questions on how Gallagher would know if the person she's interested in on LinkedIn is married or not.

"gurl, but u cant filter whether they alr marriage or not," one user commented.

But several users agreed with Gallagher that the best way to find a partner is by hitting men up on LinkedIn.

One user commented: "this is true if you want to date an intelligent and stable man go to LinkedIn."

A LinkedIn spokesperson told Insider in a statement: "Romantic advances and harassment of any form is a violation of our rules, and our policies include detailed examples that show what kind of content does not belong on LinkedIn. Members can report any instances of harassment on LinkedIn and signal to us that such behaviour is unwanted, allowing us to take action."

It's not the first time LinkedIn has gone viral as a dating app. In February, TikToker Hannah Harmelin told Insider that a man had asked her out on LinkedIn, and that it made her feel "flattered" but "creeped out" at the same time.

Read the original article on Insider
The Arkansas HBCU now offers an MBA with more graduate classes to come.

One of the oldest HBCUs in Arkansas has transitioned from a college to a university as the first step to broadening its academic and research offerings.

Philander Smith College in Little Rock has become Philander Smith University. Colleges offer a smaller menu of courses and focus on undergraduate degrees, while universities provide undergraduate and graduate studies.

Philander Smith College has now become Philander Smith University. (Source: YouTube screenshot)

It makes us more competitive, Cynthia Bond Hopson, the interim university president, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It puts us in line to attract students who are looking for masters degrees.

Philander, with 1,000 students, offers 21 undergrad programs and one graduate program, a masters in business administration. The university received approval in January to start the MBA program.

When our 10-Year-Long-Range Strategic Plan was implemented six years ago, one of our key goals was to establish an MBA program, Roderick L. Smothers, who was president at the time, said in a news release. Thus, I am tremendously proud that our team  helped make possible the historic pivot in our status from college to university.

Founded in 1877, the university, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, was the first institution west of the Mississippi to offer education to formerly enslaved people, its website says.

In 2016, Philander Smith rolled out a 10-year strategic plan to create the masters degree program and transition to a university. Hopson told the Democrat-Gazette, It will take us about two years to get everything, like the signage and academic offerings, in order.

In addition to the increased academic offerings, becoming a university helps burnish the schools reputation.

The shift to university status enhances the institutions prestige and recognition. The title of university carries weight and is widely recognized, both nationally and internationally, the university says on its website.

This increased prestige helps Philander Smith University attract top-tier faculty, researchers, and students. It opens doors for collaborations, partnerships, and grants, as it signifies a higher level of academic rigor, research focus, and intellectual contributions. The elevated reputation strengthens the institutions standing within academia and the broader community, the website says.

Trustee emeritus Charles Donaldson spoke at a gathering celebrating the transition. Philander has always stood for excellence in the higher education space, especially in educating students of color, he said, the Democrat-Gazette reported.

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MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The Philippine government summoned Chinas ambassador on Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guards use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.

The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan expressed support for the Philippines and concern over the Chinese actions. Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if Philippine public vessels and forces come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference on Monday at which they showed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal. One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons. Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

This was like a David and Goliath situation, Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

A U.S. Navy sailor from the amphibious assault ship Bataan stands watch it transits the Suez Canal with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on Aug. 6, 2023. (Cpl. Nayelly Nieves-Nieves/U.S. Marine Corps)

Malaya emphasized that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said Chinas ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas, Daza said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorization into the shoal, which Beijing calls Renai Jiao. It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

In order to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective, water cannons were used as a warning. The on-site operation was professional and restrained, which is beyond reproach, the Chinese coast guard said. China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still-commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that invalidated its claims in 2016 by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejects that ruling and continues to defy it.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Sunday that by firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, (Chinese) ships interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It added that such actions are a direct threat to regional peace and stability.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often criticized Chinas aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says are in Americas national interest.

China has told the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday accused the U.S. of threatening China by raising the possibility of the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty being activated.

What the U.S. does is to blatantly support the Philippines violation of Chinas sovereignty, and its plot is doomed to fail, the ministry said in a statement in Beijing.
The Philippines has accused China Coast Guard vessels of firing water cannons at its ships in the disputed South China Sea (Handout)

Manila summoned Beijing's envoy on Monday after the China Coast Guard blocked and used water cannon on Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos said.

The incident happened Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies to Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law by blocking and firing water cannon at the resupply mission, preventing one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal.

Another charter boat successfully unloaded its cargo.

"Our Secretary of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Huang (Xilian) today and gave him a note verbale including pictures, video about what happened, and we are awaiting their reply," Marcos told reporters.

"The position of China, of course, is they say 'this is ours so we are defending it', and we, for our part, are saying 'no, we own it so we are defending it'. So that becomes a grey area that we are discussing."

China maintained over the weekend that it had taken "necessary controls" against Philippine boats that "illegally" entered its waters, and said on Monday it had been "professional and restrained".

The US State Department condemned the Chinese actions, saying they directly threatened regional peace and stability.

Beijing hit back on Monday by saying Washington had disregarded "the facts".

"What the United States is doing is to blatantly support the Philippines' violation of China's sovereignty, and this plot is doomed to fail," a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Britain, Australia, Canada and the European Union also criticised China's conduct.

- 'Illegal activities' -

Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from China's nearest major landmass, Hainan island.

China's coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the contested waters, Manila says.

The Philippines has issued more than 400 diplomatic protests to Beijing since 2020 over its "illegal activities" in the South China Sea, the foreign ministry said.

China appeared to be "trying to gauge our commitment to supply our troops" at the shoal, National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters on Monday.

"For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal," Malaya added, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal.

- 'David and Goliath' -

Malaya said Saturday's "David and Goliath" incident showed the Chinese had established what appeared to be a "blockade" of the shoal.

"There were only two (Philippine) coast guard vessels and two Philippine supply boats against six large Chinese coast guard vessels and two Chinese militia vessels, and more People's Liberation Army naval vessels at near proximity to the area," he said.

Malaya said he believed it was the largest Chinese presence at the shoal "in recent memory".

At one point, a China Coast Guard vessel came "within 20 yards (18 metres)" of a Philippine coast guard boat, which he said could have resulted in a collision.

The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, which includes representatives of various government agencies, condemned the Chinese actions "in the strongest terms".

"As a low tide elevation, Ayungin shoal can neither be the subject of a sovereignty claim nor is it capable of appropriation under international law," the task force said in a statement.

Second Thomas Shoal was part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and the resupply and upkeep of the BRP Sierra Madre were "legitimate Philippine government activities", it said.

The Philippine military deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre, a World War II-era vessel, on Second Thomas Shoal in the late 1990s and keeps up a tiny garrison there to maintain a presence in the hotly contested waters.

The Chinese coast guard urged Manila in a statement on Monday to "tow away" the ship and "restore the reef to its original state".

Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes over the South China Sea but former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was seen as cosying up to China in the hope of attracting investment.

Since succeeding Duterte, however, Marcos has insisted he will not let China trample on his country's maritime rights, seeking to strengthen defence ties with former colonial ruler and longtime ally the United States.

burs-je/pbt
The claim: Image shows traffic light melted by Texas's extreme heat

A June 19 Facebook photo (direct link, archive link) shows a traffic light that is warped and appears to have partially melted.

"Its so hot in Texas even the traffic lights are melting," reads the caption.

The post was shared over 30,000 times in less than two months.

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Our rating: False

The damage shown in the photo is not associated with a heat wave in Texas. Instead, it shows an old photo of an Italian traffic light that reportedly melted as the result of a vehicle fire.

Traffic light melted in Italy in 2022

Texas endured a summer heat wave that brought about weeks of 100-degree temperatures in June and July, according to The Texas Tribune. But the image of the melted traffic light is unrelated to the heat wave.

An Italian Instagram user posted a video of himself with the damaged light on July 29, 2022.

The Instagram video was shot at the intersection of Viale Regina Margherita and Via Bergamo in Milan, Italy. Google Maps images of that location match the scenery in the Instagram video as well as the Facebook photo and other photos of the traffic light circulating online.

The Italian website Open reported that the damage to the traffic light was caused by a scooter fire.

Fact check: Photo shows actor in zombie makeup, not lightning strike victim

Social media users have also wrongly claimed the traffic light melted in Arizona, Nevada, Bulgaria and India.

The Facebook user who posted the image told USA TODAY that they knew the photo was old and not from Texas.

"It's just a funny meme because it's been so hot in Texas," the user said.

The photo was also debunked by Check Your Fact.

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: Traffic light melted in Italy, not Texas | Fact check
A video has been viewed millions of times alongside the false claim it shows pigs kept by the founder of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia who was arrested for blasphemy in August 2023. The video in fact misuses photos from unrelated incidents elsewhere in Indonesia. AFP has not found credible reports about pigs on the school campus.

"Crazy. Hundreds of pigs were discovered at Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school," reads Indonesian-language sticker text on a video posted on TikTok on July 13, 2023.

"They belong to Panji Gumilang," the sticker text also says, referring to a 77-year-old Muslim cleric who heads the school (archived link).

The 47-second clip, which shows various photos of pigs, has been viewed more than seven million times.

The video also features the voice of a male narrator who claims Panji is raising hundreds of wild boars and pigs -- considered "haram" or forbidden for Muslims -- inside the boarding school complex (archived link).

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on August 1, 2023

The post circulated after Al-Zaytun, an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia's West Java province, sparked uproar among conservative Muslim circles for allowing women to pray in the same row as men and to give Friday sermons, as well as for singing a Hebrew folk song "Havenu Shalom Aleichem" (archived links here, here and here).

On August 2, 2023, Panji -- who founded the 5,000-strong school in 1999 -- was arrested on charges of blasphemy and hate speech and faces years in jail.

The video has been viewed more than 73,000 times after it was shared with a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here; as well as on TikTok here and here.

Some social media users appeared to believe the claim.

"They must be for the students to consume.. oh God," commented one TikTok user.

"They are meant to be sold, friends, generating a lot of revenue," wrote another.

Muslims are prohibited not only from eating but also selling pork (archived link).

Screenshot of social media users' comments

However, the claim is false. Reverse image and keyword searches on Google and Yandex found the photos are unrelated to Al-Zaytun and AFP has not found any credible reports about pigs on the campus.

Unrelated photos

The opening of the video shows a photo of a group of individuals, some dressed in camouflage military uniforms, examining what looks like a shack.

This photo was published by Indonesian online media Batam Line on February 16, 2021, in a report about the demolition of several pigsties near an airport at the city of Batam, in Indonesia's Riau Islands province (archived link).

The report says that the pigsties were demolished because they encroached on a forest zone.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from Batam Line (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from Batam Line (right)

At the six-second mark, the false video shows an image of a uniformed man standing near a pig pen.

The photo previously appeared in a CNBC Indonesia report, dated May 9, 2023, about an African swine fever outbreak on Batam Island (archived link).

The photo is captioned "A pig farm in Batam, Riau Islands" and is credited to the Agricultural Quarantine Office.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from CNBC Indonesia (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from CNBC Indonesia (right)

The image at the 19-second mark of the false video, which shows a man in a uniform near a pigpen, was published by the Jakarta Post on April 1, 2020 (archived link).

The Jakarta Post's photo is captioned: "A Tanjung Pinang Agricultural Quarantine Office official in Riau Islands inspects pigs set to be exported to Singapore on Sunday, March 29."

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from the Jakarta Post (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from the Jakarta Post (right)

The image shown at the 24-second mark of the false video actually shows police officers inspecting a pig in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua, published by state-run Antara news agency on September 1, 2020 (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from Antara (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from Antara (right)

Meanwhile, the last picture, at the 45-second mark of the video, shows a woman posing with a black-haired pig. It appeared in local media outlet Berita Bali's February 2021 interview with a Balinese academic on the topic of pig farming in Bali (archived link).

Black-haired pigs are known as domestic pigs indigenous to Indonesia's Hindu-majority Bali island (archived link).

Dr Budi Rahayu Tanama Putri, the academic interviewed by Berita Bali, told AFP on August 4, 2023: "The photo shows me and a Balinese pig in Nusa Penida, Bali. Not in West Java" (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine Berita Bali photo (right):

Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the genuine picture from Berita Bali (right)

Other images in the video include an aerial view of Al-Zaytun's campus and a photo of Panji (archived links here and here).

On July 21, 2023, the Indonesian National Police said that a similar claim about the police chief seizing thousands of pigs from Al-Zaytun premises was a hoax (archived link).
The News

U.S. regulators approved the first ever pill to treat postpartum depression  a condition that, without treatment, can affect one in eight women after childbirth and can last years.

Weve gathered news and insights into how the pill will change the scope of maternal mental health.

Insights

Unlike general antidepressants that start to relieve symptoms of depression in two weeks, clinical trials of Zuranolone, the new postpartum drug, can ease depression in as little as three days. Dr. Ruta Nonacs, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital said that the effectiveness of the pill will encourage new mothers to seek help and reduce the stigma surrounding postpartum depression. She added that so often patients that suffer from postpartum depression fall through the cracks, because of feelings of shame and embarrassment. 

Mental health disorders have become the leading cause of maternal death in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported, and contribute to nearly one in four pregnancy-related deaths  either through suicide or drug overdose during pregnancy or within a year after birth. New mothers often struggle to seek help because there is no one kind of doctor to tend to new mothers and their mental health. According to the Journal, there are only three inpatient care facilities dedicated to maternal mental health care across the country and nearly 30 that offer outpatient care.

Prior efforts to combat postpartum depression have included a 60-hour IV drip. While proven effective, the drip takes postpartum patients away from their family and new baby and may cause added stress. The pill, however, will be more accessible and can be taken in the safety of ones home, Patricia Kinser of VCUs Institute for Womens Health. Kinser says, however, that zuranolone has not been tested in people who intend to breastfeed, so it may still limit accessibility right now.
MILAN  Poland has announced that it is buying hundreds of Spike tank-killing missiles through Rafaels longstanding industry partner, Mesko, which will carry out local production of missile parts and final assembly of the weapon.

The Polish Ministry of Defense has awarded a third contract order to the Israeli company for the procurement of the long-range variant of the weapon. The exact number of missiles was not disclosed, but the contract value is said to be near $100 million, according to a statement released by the Israeli vendor.

Mesko and Rafael have collaborated in working with the Polish market since 2003, allowing for the sale of completely Poland-ized missiles provided for the Polish user.  Robust local manufacturing capabilities have provided it with over 3,000 Spike missiles entirely Polish-made, a Rafael statement reads.

Over the last two decades, Warsaw has assembled an arsenal of nearly 4,000 Spike-type missiles. It placed its first order for 264 long-range launchers and 2,675 missiles in 2003, followed by a second one in 2015 for 1,000 units.

In 2020, Mesko deepened its industrial partnership with Rafael by signing an agreement to co-produce Spike short-range missiles as part of the countrys national Pustelnik program.

At the time, Rafael said that because Mesko had already been producing Spike missile parts and conducting final assembly for several years, the necessary infrastructure was already in place for manufacturing the shorter-range version.

The Polish sales avenue differs from the one taken by other European customers of Spike missiles, whose production process is typically carried out by EuroSpike GmbH in Germany, a joint venture between Diehl Defence, Rheinmetall and Rafael.
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and another 10 injured in a fireworks explosion at a religious festival in central Mexico's Tlaxcala state, the state government said Sunday.

"Two people, a man and a woman, unfortunately lost their lives as a result of the explosion," it said in a statement.

The blast occurred Saturday night at a church in the town of San Bartolome Tenango, where residents were celebrating a religious holiday, according to local media.

Authorities are investigating the incident, the statement said. 
The Polk County Sheriffs Office said they have arrested a man for robbing a gas station in Winter Haven on Saturday.

Deputies said the robbery happened around 2:57 a.m. at a Circle K store at 4980 Spirit Lake Road near Winter Haven.

According to the arrest affidavit, 24-year-old Keith Rhoden approached a gas station employee outside the store, pointed a gun, and took him to the cash register.

After taking money from the register, police said Rodhen stole cigars and a bottle of Mountain Dew before running from the store.

Read: Man accused of shooting 2 Orlando police officers had lengthy criminal history, documents show

About 30 minutes later, officers arrested Rhoden around 3:20 a.m. after a foot chase through the Oak Preserve neighborhood.

According to a news release, deputies found Rhoden hiding under a truck at a residence.

Rhoden surrendered, and deputies found the stolen money, the cigars, and a handgun nearby.

The responding patrol deputies, aided by K-9 and Aviation, handled this robbery exactly how you would want them to---this was a textbook response that resulted in a dangerous criminal being taken off of the streets very quickly, Sheriff Grady Judd said.

Read: Detectives investigate 2 different DeLand shootings on the same street

Rhoden was arrested and charged with robbery with a firearm, armed burglary structure, and violation of probation.

According to court records, Rhodens criminal history includes petit theft, resisting arrest without violence, and providing a false name to a law enforcement officer.

His probation for felony petit theft had just started on July 20.

The sheriffs office said there were no injuries to the victim, deputies, or the suspect.

Read: Police ask for publics help after man found dead near Ocoee apartment complex

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.
Gwent Police reviewed the content of a leaflet sent by David TC Davies to voters in his Monmouth constituency - Matthew Horwood/Getty Images Europe

Police have dropped an inquiry into a Cabinet minister who was accused of sending out a racist leaflet about a planned traveller site, The Telegraph can reveal.

Gwent Police said it will not be taking any further action against David TC Davies, the Welsh Secretary, after reviewing the flyer as a potential non-crime hate incident.

The force had faced criticism for leaping to action over the complaints which were spearheaded by a charity that is funded by the Welsh Labour government.

Carl Williams, its Chief Superintendent, told The Telegraph that he had decided not to open a full investigation into the case after discussing it with prosecutors.

He said: We launched a review into the contents of a leaflet published and distributed in Monmouthshire regarding proposals for a development of a gipsy and traveller site.

Officers have spoken to several people from the gipsy and traveller and settled communities before seeking advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on whether the leaflets contents constituted any offences.

Any allegation of discrimination is taken extremely seriously and following this review, we will not be taking any further action.

Reignited controversy over non-crime hate incidents

The case has reignited the controversy over police forces investigating and recording non-crime hate incidents and the risk it poses of a chilling impact on free speech.

Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has issued chief constables in England and Wales with new guidance ordering them to take a more common sense approach.

The rules, published in June, say non-crime hate incidents should only be recorded if it is deemed proportionate and necessary to do so in order to mitigate a real risk of harm.

She told forces not to look into cases just because someone is offended after as many as 120,000 such incidents were recorded in the past five years.

Senior Tories had publicly defended the Welsh Secretary, including Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister, who insisted the leaflet was not racist.

Gwent Police announced last Tuesday that it was reviewing the content of a leaflet that Mr Davies had sent out to voters in his Monmouth constituency.

The leaflet distributed in Monmouth

The flyer was titled Gypsy and Traveller Site Coming To Your Area Soon! and asked residents Would you like to see a traveller site next to your house?

It added that the MP had concerns about the insufficient consultation of local residents on the plans, which had been carried out by the local Labour council.

The Welsh Secretary had not opposed the creation of such sites and insisted that the leaflet was not a criticism of the gipsy and traveller community.

Travelling Ahead, an advocacy project for gipsies and Roma in Wales, said it had lodged complaints about the flyer which it branded unacceptable.

Trudy Aspinwall, a project manager at the service, suggested that the material was racist and complained that it was targeted at gipsies and travellers.

TGP Cymru, the charity which runs the group, received 1.46 million in grants last year and admitted it has an over-dependence on the Labour Welsh Government.

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Update: The Kansas City Streetcar resumed service around 8:15 p.m. Sunday.

Kansas City police are investigating a homicide reported Sunday evening in the Crossroads, near downtown.

At about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the scene of a cutting on the bridge near the 2000 block of Main Street, Sgt. Jake Becchina, with the Kansas City Police Department, told media at the scene.

The witness who called police said it appeared two people got into a physical fight on the west sidewalk on the bridge over the railroad tracks when one of the people, who appeared to be a male, hit the other with an unknown object.

The victim, who Becchina said has been identified as a man, but whose name has not yet been released, was unresponsive when help arrived. He later died at the hospital.

At 8 p.m., police were still canvassing the area. Becchina said theyre hopeful that other witnesses and businesses with surveillance footage will come forward.

Its like any other Main Street. Its busy, he said.

The witness told police that the suspect walked away, heading north, before police arrived.

Streetcar service was temporarily suspended Sunday evening as police investigated the scene near the line. Main Street from East 20th Street to the bridge headed south to Union Station remained closed off by police tape as of 8 p.m.

I dont think it speaks to the general safety of the streetcar or the area around here, Becchina said of the killing. It does speak to good conflict resolution and avoiding any kind of physical confrontation.
Authorities are investigating human remains that were located in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Monday afternoon.

Police say while conducting a search in the area of Goodwill Park off of Gifford Street in Falmouth officers located human remains.

According to the Cape and Islands District Attorneys Office, the remains have been identified and no foul play is suspected.

There was no additional information given.

The ongoing investigation is headed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Cape and Islands District Attorney, assisted by the Falmouth Police Department.

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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WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Border Guard has asked the defence ministry to send another 1,000 troops to the border with Belarus, the deputy interior minister said on Monday, amid an increase in attempts to illegally cross the frontier.

The head of the Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, said this year 19,000 people had tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, up from 16,000 last year.

"The general (Praga) asked to move another 1,000 soldiers to the Polish-Belarusian border," Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said.

Poland has built a face on the border with Belarus, equipped with electronic protection.

In recent weeks, soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group have appeared near the border, which, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, is aimed at destabilising the situation on NATO's eastern flank.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Leader of Bhumjaithai Party Anutin Charnvirakul, left and Leader of Pheu Thai party Chonlanan Srikaew smile during a press conference announcing coalition party at Thai Party headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. The populist Pheu Thai Party on Monday announced it will assemble a coalition with the Bhumjaithai Party from the outgoing administration to solve the months long political deadlock. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BANGKOK (AP)  Thailand's populist Pheu Thai party announced Monday that it will form a coalition with a party from the outgoing military-backed administration to try to end nearly three months of political deadlock after the progressive party that won national elections was excluded from the formation of a new government.

Thailand has struggled to break the impasse and select a new leader after the progressive Move Forward Party became the surprise winner of the May elections but was blocked by the conservative elite from taking power.

Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat had assembled an eight-party coalition with 312 seats in the 500-member lower house. But under Thailand's military-enacted constitution, a new prime minister must receive a majority in a vote by both the elected House and 250-member appointed Senate, selected by a previous military government. Pitas initial bid last month fell short by more than 50 votes, largely because only 13 senators backed him. He was barred from a second attempt the following week when Parliament voted that he could not be nominated again.

Members of the Senate said they opposed Pita because of his partys call for the reform of a law that makes it illegal to defame Thailands royal family. Critics say the law, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, has been abused as a political weapon. The Senates members, like the army, see themselves as guardians of traditional royalist values.

Pheu Thai, the second biggest party in the eight-party coalition, took over the lead role in forming a government after Move Forwards two failed attempts. It said last Wednesday that Move Forward had been excluded from the coalition because its platform to reform the royal defamation law made it impossible to rally enough support from other parties and the Senate.

Pheu Thai on Monday said it will try to form a government with the Bhumjaithai Party, which finished third in the election with 71 seats in the lower house. Together with Pheu Thai's 141 seats, the two parties hold 212 seats.

Bhumjaithai, which is known for cutting deals with parties on both sides of the political divide, was part of the outgoing military-backed coalition government of Prayuth Chan-ocha, who as army chief toppled a Pheu Thai government in a coup in 2014 and returned as prime minister after 2019 elections. Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul serves as deputy prime minister and minister of public health in Prayuths administration.

Anutins most prominent legacy as health minister is removing marijuana from the countrys narcotics list, leading to an explosion of shops selling cannabis around the country.

Anutin said at a news conference with Pheu Thai on Monday that Bhumjaithat has agreed to join the coalition under the conditions that the royal defamation law will not be amended, and that Move Forward will not be a part of the government.

Chonlanan Srikaew, Pheu Thais leader, said the two parties will invite other parties this week to join them in forming a government.

We need support from all sides because the problems that the country and the people are facing right now are severe. The longer the delay is, the more damage it will cause, Chonlanan read from a joint statement by the two parties.

Chonlanan said a Pheu Thai-led government will propose a new draft constitution because the current charter enacted after the 2014 military coup is the main factor causing the current political crisis and a reason why the coalition with Move Forward failed.

A plan by Parliament to vote for a new leader last Friday was derailed after the Constitutional Court said a day earlier that it needs more time to deliberate on whether to accept a petition from the state ombudsman on the legality of Parliaments earlier vote to block Pitas renomination, and will meet again Aug. 16 to decide on the matter. The House speaker then postponed the vote pending the courts decision, since the court could order the vote to be suspended until it issues a ruling.

Pheu Thai is the latest in a string of parties affiliated with ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire populist who was ousted in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin has said he plans to return to the country in the coming weeks following years of self-imposed exile to escape a prison term in several criminal cases which he has decried as politically motivated.

Although Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai were on opposite sides of the political divide during the last government, Anutin said he never said that the two parties could not work together and called for a compromise.

Now its the time that the country needs a government. The country needs to move on, so we have to finish all those disputes, he said. You dont want to see the country continuing in factions like this. If theres a chance, we can unite together and move on. We have to do it for the sake of our country and the people.
Ukraine's Presidential Office denied reports that Kyiv had softened its position regarding the withdrawal of Russian troops as the condition to start peace talks.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed European officials, that Ukraine didn't press the full withdrawal demand, the key point of its peace formula, at an Aug. 5 meeting in Saudi Arabia that gathered diplomats and national security advisors from dozens of countries.

During a meeting in Kyiv with journalists on Aug. 7, members of Ukraine's delegation denied reports, saying that Ukraine hasn't changed its stance.

"We said in the very beginning of the meeting that Russian forces need to fully withdraw from Ukraine," said Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of the Presidential Office. "No participants have contented that."

Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office, blamed Russian propaganda for spreading rumors about the meeting, saying these statements were an attempt to undermine the talks.

"Sometimes these 'anonymous' sources have a very obvious origin," he told the Kyiv Independent during the meeting with journalists on Aug. 7. "This meeting is a huge blow to Russia. We aren't surprised that fake information comes up, even in reputable publications."

Read also: As 40 countries discuss peace for Ukraine, Medvedev says Kyiv must beg for mercy

The WSJ wrote that the event participants "appeared keener to seek out a consensus" than at the previous meeting in Copenhagen, where Ukraine reportedly pushed for some developing countries to accept the peace formula but they refused to do so.

Russia wasn't invited to the peace formula talks that numbered representatives from 42 countries.

"It irritates the aggressor country a lot that this conversation is taking place without them," Yermak said.

On the same day, the Presidential Office head emphasized on national television that the meeting had focused only on the Ukrainian peace plan. According to the WSJ, China presented its 12-point peace proposal, first announced in January, which was criticized by Ukraine's partners for a failure to clearly state call out Russia as the aggressor.

"All talks about a ceasefire without the mandatory withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine are delusional," Yermak told TV reporters. "It would only prolong the process and prepare for new attacks on our territories. Everyone spoke about this very clearly (at the Saudi Arabia meeting)."

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-old full-scale war against Ukraine.

Ukraine's 10-point peace formula, supported by many Western allies, includes the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, and the punishing of those responsible for war crimes.

When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin could escalate the war in response to the peace formula talks, Yermak said: Can a mad man in the Kremlin do something even crazier? I dont know, Im not a doctor.

Read also: Why Ukraine chooses to negotiate on the battlefield, not at peace talks

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Hackers claim that all data was transferred to the Ukrainian Defense Forces

A group of pro-Ukrainian hackers has compromised the website of the Moscow Technical Inventory Bureau, transferring some of the retrieved information to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and making a portion of the database public, RFE/RL reported on Aug. 7.

The Moscow Technical Inventory Bureau, a Russian state service, stores data about real estate developments and buildings in the city. This includes plans, technical specifications, data on demolitions, utilities, and more.

Read also: Ukraine officially joins NATOs cyber defense center

The group left a message on the bureaus website: "Information about civil servants, politicians, military and intelligence officials who support the war with Ukraine has been handed over to the Ukrainian Defense Forces."

Read also: Russian cyber gang issues ultimatum to victims of several UK firms  media reports

The hacker group began posting screenshots of the data, likely procured from the breached database. They publicly revealed addresses and register numbers of facilities belonging to Russias FSB and military units in Moscow. Part of the database was also published online.

The group, identified as "sudo RM-RF," has taken credit for the cyber-attack. Previously, they had infiltrated the website of the Russian Skolkovo Foundation and made the acquired materials public. Skolkovo was commissioned by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy head of Russias Security Council.

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Most Russians think it's appropriate to travel while their country commits war crimes

Despite Russia's war against Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens continue to eye popular summer vacation spots, or even shelters to wait out the war, but their presence is causing problems, Politico writes.

Some countries are willing to accept Russian money, but this has its consequences. The policy of accepting tens of thousands of tourists from a rogue country is already creating problems in paradise for some popular destinations, Politico reports.

Turkiye

As lazy travelers often write Turkiye is a country that divides East and West. This old cliche took on a new meaning after the war in Ukraine began; a NATO member country provides support to Kyiv and at the same time refuses to impose sanctions against Moscow, Politico reports.

As a result, much-needed foreign money was poured into Ankara as Russians seek to take their assets abroad. Turkey is also one of the few European destinations where flights from Russia are not prohibited. While the skies of the EU are closed, Turkish operators offer flights from Moscow to Antalya and Bodrum for as little as 130 euros.

Some even decided to stay - currently, 145,000 Russians have a residence permit in Turkey. Having avoided the political instability and the danger of conscription, they now share their new homeland with tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the war.

Journalists said that this creates tension in resort cities such as Antalya, which are popular with both Russians and Ukrainians.

Georgia

In 2022 alone, more than 1.1 million Russians visited Georgia, while a year earlier this figure was only 200,000.

"The ruling Georgian Dream party has been seeking rapprochement with the Kremlin since the beginning of the war and wants to benefit from Russians' desire to travel. However, many local residents are not sure about this," the article says.

In a survey conducted in March, only 4% of 1,500 respondents said Russians were welcome in Georgia, and a quarter said Russians were only tolerated because of the money they spend on visits.

Thailand

For Russians, the attractiveness of a trip to Thailand is largely related to the one-month visa-free stay in the country, writes Politico,

Over the past year, the number of Russians who visited Thailand has increased by more than 1,000%, says Bloomberg. According to official statistics, in the first half of this year alone, 791,574 Russians visited the country.

There has been a particular influx of tourists in the party town of Phuket, where almost half of all villas sold have been bought by Russians since January, either as holiday homes or as party spots where they can wait out the war.

Cyprus

A beach holiday in Cyprus has become out of reach for ordinary Russians after Cyprus followed other EU countries in banning commercial flights from Russia and just last year introduced a visa fee of 80 euros. This decision, according to officials, brought in an extra income of 600 million euros.

However, for those who can afford the expense, the cost of a flight from Russia with a short stopover in Istanbul or Yerevan is around 250 euros. Cyprus is also one of the most active issuers of the so-called "golden passports", which grant EU citizenship in exchange for an investment of only 2.5 million euros.

UAE

"Dubai is not to everyone's taste. But this playground for billionaires and its clean beaches have become a favorite vacation spot for many wealthy Russians, who are looking for a friendly welcome and the opportunity to spend huge sums in luxurious shopping centers," the article says.

Last year, the number of Russians who flew to the Gulf countries increased by 63%, making the UAE the second-largest tourist destination for Russians.

In the UAE, there is also an influx of Russian expats, who note that they feel more relaxed here than in Western countries, as there are no public demonstrations of support for Ukraine.

Ukraine (Occupied Crimea)

For Russians who have permanent jobs and limited funds to spend abroad, country houses and holiday parks remain the most popular option.

Read also: Crimean tourists leak position of Russian air defense system near Yevpatoria

Not long ago, many of them went to the occupied Crimean peninsula. Now, with a series of explosions at military facilities in Crimea, and Kyiv's insistence that the peninsula will return to its control, this worries many Russians.

With air services canceled, the only route to the peninsula is the Crimean Bridge, opened by dictator Vladimir Putin in 2018. This bridge has repeatedly been hit by Ukrainian troops, who seek to disrupt the passage of Russian military convoys.

As a result, despite active promotions and discounts, hotels are more than half empty on average. According to the owners, the situation is even more deplorable than the Russian occupiers are ready to admit.

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Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist and director at the Pento Center for Political Studies gives an express summary of the peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

It is very important that, judging by Western media reports, all participants in the negotiations recognize the principle of Ukraines territorial integrity. Working groups have been created according to the specific points of President Zelenskyys peace formula, meaning that the Ukrainian position is not simply considered, it becomes the starting point for the formation of a consensus position to end the war and the forming of the future global security architecture.

The negotiations are not just ongoing. They continue without Russias participation (which obviously irritates Moscow). And they continue with the participation of China, India, South Africa, and Brazil, in other words  countries that economically and politically cooperate with Russia.

The influential publication The Guardian notes: China is said to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine. An EU source said China participated actively and was positive about idea of a third meeting at this level. The involvement of China is seen as a big diplomaticprize as it had been invited to the Copenhagen talks in June but did not attend.

The main counterpoint, which explains why even Russias partners are beginning to distance themselves from it in the negotiation process, is a fundamental difference of interests  Russia wants to protract the war against Ukraine, while this does not satisfy China and the influential countries of the global South. They want peace, global food security, and world trade stabilization. And we must take advantage of it.

On June 28, I wrote a text in which I noted that the negotiations that were launched in Copenhagen could become a promising negotiating format. This prediction is confirmed. What is the advantage of this format?

First, its a platform for coordinating various peace initiatives. Second, its a platform for an active peace dialogue with the countries of the global South, which have significant relations with Russia. And third, it can be used both for gradual pressure on Russia and for promoting our position  President Zelenskyys peace formula.

So far, there is no reason to expect a quick result but the initiative in this negotiation process is on the Ukrainian side.

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The Apocalypse and Coming Kingdom: New Book Provides a Definitive and Prophetic Look at the Coming Kingdom of Christ and the Fate of All Humanity

The return of Jesus is the greatest promise yet to be fulfilled in the Bible. This is a truth of which we are reminded by the new release of author Kenneth Behr's latest book, "The Apocalypse and Coming Kingdom" (Xulon Press).

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Faith Dialogue

Aug. 7, 2023

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /Christian Newswire/ -- As a culture, we are barraged and immersed with images and thoughts of our collective end, and the end of all time. We tend to have a human fascination with the big question, "How's it all going to end?" Behr says, "We need to remember to get all our answers from the only authoritative source, The Holy Bible. We also need to remember the importance of what "The Day of the Lord" signifies: The second coming of Jesus Christ."

Author, pastor, and apologist Kenneth Behr (Roaming Catholics, Ending the Wander to Embrace the Wonder) pulls verses from various books in the Bible and puts them side by side, explaining how they relate to each other. He lays out the events and timing of the end times as explained in scripture while cautioning against overinterpreting current events.

Behr demonstrates early in this new book that the Bible has a history of faithfully predicting future events. He prompts us to remember that when we pray, "Thy Kingdom Come," these three words tell us that there is a kingdom that is coming, and it is something that we should pray for daily. He laments the fact that there are too many, likely the majority of our churches and pastors, who stay away from Bible prophecy.

Published by Xulon Press, "The Apocalypse and Coming Kingdom" is available in print and on Kindle, as well as other eBooks on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in select Christian bookstores.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Kenneth Behr is a pastor, a church planter, and host of the popular video and audio podcast, "Prophecy Countdown." Ken had a successful career in business and has served in various capacities over the past twenty years, including as President of the ECFA, headquartered in Washington, DC.

Ken and his wife Carol have been married for over 40 years and have two children and five grandchildren. He has a doctorate in theology and is ordained by the Evangelical Church Alliance. His website is www.prophecycountdownpodcast.com.

SOURCE Faith Dialogue

CONTACT: George Mateo, 844-639-8180


Last years midterm elections were a tough go for progressive insurgentswith high-profile candidates struggling to oust incumbents, and high-stakes losses from liberal nominees in battleground districts.

The 2024 cycle isnt looking any easier, as both parties desperately try to seize the House majorityin a presidential election year, no less.

And yet, former progressives candidates from across the country are giving it another shot.

We knew the first time that I ran in 2020 that we would probablypotentiallyhave to run multiple times, said Kina Collins, a progressive organizer in Illinois, who is primarying longtime Rep. Danny Davis (D) for a third time.

To not just wear the incumbent down, she continued, but to really get in front of the electorate and, you know, wake them up that they have options, and choices, and this isn't the best that we can do.

These Primary Losses Are Latest Blow to Progressive Power

In 2020, Collins lost the primary by about 46 points. In 2022, she lost by just over 6 points. She said the need for repetition is to be expected. To her, that persistence is part of carrying on the modern progressive movementwhich boomed in 2018 and 2020 when a wave of primary challengers unseated longtime incumbents.

Hoping to carry on that momentum, other candidates are following the same idea.

Jamie McLeod Skinner, an attorney and engineer, was the lone progressive to unseat an incumbent House Democrat in 2022. She beat moderate Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) in a testy primary that drew national attention. Schrader argued he was a better fit for the swing-seat district, which Republicans were heavily targeting.

McLeod Skinner lost the 2022 general election by 2 points to now-Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR). This year, McLeod Skinner didnt waste time hopping in again, announcing her second bid in July.

Shes built a strong grassroots base of support in the district and came incredibly close last year, a McLeod Skinner spokesperson said in a statement, adding that with a strong team and energized base, she raised $100k in the first 24-hours of her launch.

In Texas, Michelle Vallejo won a closely watched open primary while running as a progressive in 2022. Shed won a slew of progressive endorsements. But in the general, she was pitted in a battleground contest against now-Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX). Vallejo lost by 9 points.

Vallejo re-launched in May this year, telling The Daily Beast theres a very clear path to victory here.

We were able to show impressive gains last cycle in our short fight against Monica De La Cruz. And now we have more time, more support, Vallejo said.

Progressives Blast Dem Leaders for Blocking Lefty Candidates

In New York, progressive former Rep. Mondaire Jones is also running for Congress again after a chaotic redistricting shuffle left him in a crowded primary that he ultimately lost. And Lucas Kunce, a Missouri progressive and populist who lost the Democratic nomination for Senate last cycle, has also mounted another Senate bid.

Call 2024 the year of the rematchat least when it comes to progressives taking on incumbents theyve already gone after before.

Theres a logic in going another round; candidates from both parties have done it. You start off with name recognition. You have less of a learning curve on campaigning and electoral strategy. And if youre lucky, youre just trying to close in on a few more percentage points to get to victory.

But there are also trickier parts of being a comeback candidate. Voters get fatigued. Convincing holdouts also isnt an easy task. And if you were the previous nomineeespecially in a battleground districtyoure tasked with persuading voters that, even though you lost last time, this time could be different.

Other progressives are considering joining the trend of mounting comeback bidsthough some have reservations about the electoral climate, the stakes of 2024, or their viability after 2022 redistricting dramatically shifted the playing field in many states.

Odessa Kelly, a Tennessee progressive who was backed by the campaign group Justice Democrats last year, told The Daily Beast shes considering another run. She originally mounted a challenge to then-Rep. Jim Cooper (D) in 2022. After redistricting gave Republicans the strong advantage, she ran against Rep. Mark Green (R) instead in a neighboring district. She lost in the general election.

The issue is trying to figure out a realistic path to victory given how ridiculous the gerrymandering was and how hard they made it for Nashville to have any congressional representation that is actually a resident of Nashville, Kelly said.

Progressives Decide Its Better to Win With Manchin Than Lose Without Him

Morgan Harper, a progressive who challenged Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) in 2020 and ran for Ohios open Senate seat in 2022, said shes definitely still open to running again in 2024, but doesnt have any specific plans at the moment. Former state Sen. Nina Turner (D-OH)whos twice battled Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) in primariesalso told The Daily Beast shes currently focused on helping change the material conditions for poor and working poor people, but whether the vehicle is electoral or outside electoral politics has yet to be seen.

One of the most high-profile progressive contests of 2022and 2020could also go to a third round. Attorney Jessica Cisneros hasnt ruled out another primary challenge to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a moderate who fended off challenges from Cisneros in 2020 and 2022 by increasingly narrow margins.

Shes been busy working as an immigration attorney again, so thats been her focus for now, said Alejandro Garcia, Cisneros former spokesperson who still keeps in touch with the former candidate. I think shell let people know if/when shes ready.

Imani Oakley, a New Jersey organizer who challenged Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) last cycle, said shes keeping her plans close to the vest, but that she doesnt necessarily see 2024 as the most fertile ground for candidates like her.

I think 2024 is going to be a particularly difficult year for grassroots candidates given the economic climate as well as the overall feeling from more centrist voters that the focus should be on getting rid of Republicans this time around, Oakley said.

Key groups that have helped uplift and fund progressive candidates in past cycles also havent publicly begun dabbling in 2024 yet. Justice Democrats has not selected its 2024 slate. The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC has also not begun widely issuing endorsements.

For these comeback candidates, many of which won broad support from progressive outside groups last cycle, courting those endorsements are hurdles theyll likely have to jump through again. That can be laboriousand add to the stressors of running in back-to-back cycles, with little break time in between.

Collins, however, whos in her third round, says shes not tired.

I feel confident. I dont feel, I dont feel like, Oh, I have to do this again. I feel like we need to finish what we started, Collins said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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An unnamed company is eyeing Cleveland County for a new manufacturing facility off Farmville Road that will mean more than 100 new jobs and millions in investment for the county.

County Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve the sale of 107 acres of land as part of Project Sunrise.

Unfinalized projects such as these are often given a name rather than the companies identity.

The county purchased the land in 2011 for the purpose of economic development, according to Chief Deputy County Attorney Martha Thompson.

Jim Wrenn, business attorney, presented details about the project during Tuesdays meeting.

Wrenn said the property is expected to sell at $22,500 an acre and Project Sunrise wished to purchase it for the construction of an industrial facility for the manufacturing of composite external insulation products for power transmission and distribution.

Wrenn said the company employs 1,700 associates worldwide and has operations in a dozen countries. The companys anticipated total capital investment in Cleveland County over five years will be approximately $118.25 million with investment in real property of $67.9 million and investment in personal property $50.3 million

The company plans to create 134 new jobs over the five year period, Wrenn said, with an estimated average annual wage of $45,770.

The company must obtain economic development incentives from the state, the county and the city of Shelby, Wrenn said. Part of the city and county incentives will be $3.59 million to be used to offset the cost of clearing and grading the site.

If the company fails to commence vertical construction within 270 days following closing, the county may repurchase the property from the company for the purchase price.

Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the sale and the probable average hourly wage of $22/hour and determine that the fair market value of the interest subject to the repurchase option is $22,500 per acre.

This sale was in conjunction with the city of Shelby. The city of Shelby owns half of the property. Our county economic development organization was instrumental in bringing this to our county, Thompson said.

Doug Bridges, commissioner, said he felt the risk of offering incentives would be worth the gain they would see.

We need more higher paying jobs, he said.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: "Project Sunrise" to bring new, higher paying jobs to the county
Negotiations on the Ukrainian peace formula were held in Saudi Arabia, China took part in them

Ukraine and its allies are impressed with the results of talks held in Saudi Arabia centered on finding a peaceful resolution to Russias war on Ukraine, a U.S. official told Al Arabiya English on Aug. 6.

Read also: Progress on peace talks made in Saudi Arabia  Fesenko, political scientist

It was a good and constructive set of conversations with a range of countries who came together to exchange views and build common ground in support of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, discuss how to end the war in Ukraine, and address the practical consequences of Russias war in Ukraine and around the world, the official said.

In addition to Ukraines G-7 allies, strategically important countries like India, Brazil, and host Saudi Arabia participated. China was also part of the discussions after missing the first meeting in Copenhagen in June.

Russian representatives were not invited.

Read also: Principles of peace agreement agreed at summit in Saudi Arabia, media report

The official also expressed Washingtons gratitude to Saudi Arabias capital of Riyadh for hosting the talks, saying: We were glad that more than 40 countries attended the talks and benefited from the chance to hear directly from Ukraine about the war and to exchange views.

The U.S. delegation was led by U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the official said.

Peace summit in Saudi Arabia: What is known

Two days of negotiations on the Ukrainian peace formula took place in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 5-6.

Ukraine and its Western backers pitched the talks as an effort to rally global support behind appropriate conditions for ending the war, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 6.

After the talks in Jeddah concluded, diplomats said there was broad acceptance that central principles of international law, like respect for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, should be at the heart of future peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

In Jeddah, Ukraine and the major developing countries appeared determined to find a consensus. A senior European official said that Ukraine didnt push again for its peace plan to be accepted and other countries werent insisting that Kyiv drop it. Nor was there any disagreement over Ukraines demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Read also: Ukraine peace summit to be held in September at UN General Assembly or G20 Summit in India  Politico

There was agreement on pursuing more detailed work on the global impact of the war, and most countries attending, including China, appeared willing to meet again in the coming weeks in the current format, with Russia excluded, according to people involved in or briefed on the closed-door talks.

The biggest difference between the Copenhagen and Jeddah meetings was attendance  more than twice as many countries attended or dialed into talks on Aug. 5. That included European countries, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, and South Africa.

While no date has been set for a third meeting, there was agreement on a two-track process to move forward. Ukraine will continue discussions with foreign ambassadors in Kyiv on peace conditions.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia plans to propose a set of working groups for specific issues raised in the Ukrainian peace plan, some of which touch on the global impact of the war.

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.

LAFAYETTE, Ind.  David Trevino and Adrian Suarez will learn Thursday what formal charges they face in Saturday's killing of 21-year-old Jordan Angel Lee Loveall.

On Monday afternoon, prosecutors received a 72-hour extension to file charges against the two Texas men who were in Lafayette on a job assignment. Currently, they are being held without bond at the Tippecanoe County Jail on suspicion of murder in the commission of a felony.

Loveall planned to sell marijuana to Trevino, 21, and Suarez, 23, from his house in the 2000 block of Roosevelt Avenue late Friday night, according to prosecutors.

Conversely, Trevino and Suarez planned to rob Loveall of his pot.

Trevino and Suarez, both from Hereford, Texas, arrived at Loveall's driveway across the street from the McAllister Recreation Center about 11:15 p.m. Friday, according to prosecutors.

As Loveall came out of his house and walked down the drive to Suarez and Trevino's red rental car, Trevino got out of the car with a gun at his side and said, "Let me have it," according to prosecutors.

Loveall saw Trevino and that he was armed, drew his own sidearm and began backing away towards the house, according to prosecutors.

Suarez told police he then heard several gunshots, according to prosecutors.

More: Roosevelt Avenue homicide victim died from multiple gun shots

More: 21-year-old man killed in North End shooting

Suarez's car rolled out of Loveall's drive and into the street, and wouldn't work, so Saurez and Trevino abandoned it and ran way, according to prosecutors.

Loveall's girlfriend was inside the house and heard the shots. She called 911, according to prosecutors.

Meanwhile, an Indiana State Police trooper on Lafayette's North End arrested Suarez in the area of 20th and Underwood streets, and delivered him to Lafayette police for questioning, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Suarez told police he called Loveall to get some marijuana to smoke at a friend's house, and Trevino suggested they get the pot for free  meaning rob Loveall of the dope, according to prosecutors. Suarez told police he agreed to the plan, according to the affidavit.

After his arrest, Suarez told police that officers might find Trevino at their friend's house at North Fourth Street, which is where police found him early Saturday.

After running from the shooting, Trevino messaged the friend and asked him to pick him up, according to prosecutors. That friend took Trevino back to an apartment on North Fourth Street, where police found him a few hours later.

The probable cause affidavit filed with the request for a 72-hour extension does not contain any statements to police from Trevino.

Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello said Monday that the preliminary autopsy findings indicated Loveall died of multiple gun shot wounds to the torso. Final autopsy results are pending the return of toxicology reports.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Prosecutors: Suspects planned to rob victim instead of paying for pot
Without fail, each year politicians take to the Fancy Farm stage to try out comedy material at the expense of their opponents. Some of it gets laughs, some of it fails.

On both sides of the aisle, candidates for statewide office blended the political with the personal in an attempt to playfully bring down the opposition.

Heres a sampling from top to bottom of the statewide ticket, with an appearance from U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear

Beshear started off his speech firing directly at Cameron, with a stray shot toward First District Congressman James Comer, R-KY, who Democrats have criticized for spending time in Frankfort, where his family lives, before GOP-led redistricting morphed his district to include Frankfort.

Its great to be back in Western Kentucky, where my family is from, where Jamie Comer pretends to live and where Daniel Cameron shows up for a political rally but not for tornado survivors, Beshear joked.

He also chided Camerons lieutenant governor running mate Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, who he indicated was not the Cameron campaigns first choice for the role, calling specifically to Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles.

The governor called Mills, a prominent political figure in his home county but relatively unknown statewide, an interesting choice.

If you took all the people on Daniels LG list above Robby Mills, and you put em all in a room together, youd have the biggest crowd of the Cameron campaign.

Daniel Cameron, Republican candidate for governor

Camerons jokes focused largely on his campaigns belief that Beshears values are out of step with the average Kentuckian.

Many of the comments were centered around transgender issues, including a reference to Bud Light, a beer brand that has been boycotted by conservatives after including a transgender woman in promotional material.

We can recover for our children what Andy Beshear took from them. We can restore law and order. We can build a future thats based on true Kentucky values, instead of the Beshear-Biden radical ideology Governor, I know you guys are obsessed with pronouns these days. But come November, yours are going to be: has and been, Cameron said.

People attend the annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in Fancy Farm, Ky., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023.

Robby Mills, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor

Mills joked that it was nice to meet Beshear outside of a press conference setting.

In reference to the GOP-led legislatures frustrations with communication between the branches, Mills said that the only time he hears from the governor is through veto messages on the bills the Republicans prioritize.

At the Graves County GOPs pre-Fancy Farm breakfast, Mills joked about Amnesia Andy, with the governor running away from his veto of Senate Bill 150, an omnibus bill that Republicans are messaging on.

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell

McConnell focused much of his on Camerons  the attorney general began his political career as an 18-year-old interning in McConnells office  race against Beshear. McConnell stressed he knew a thing or two about beating Beshears, as he easily defeated former governor Steve Beshear, Andys father, in a 1996 U.S. Senate race.

Andy Beshears dad thought woke was what he did from his nightmare election in 1996 (Andy) might as well be running for governor of San Francisco, McConnell said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks during the annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in Fancy Farm, Ky., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Coleman

It mightve been easy to miss a jab at Cameron and former Gov. Matt Bevin, with a potential reference slid in on Bevins recent divorce filings.

Coleman joked Cameron is trying to distance himself from the former governor, and hes not the only one.

Beshear and Colemans 2019 campaign was marked with criticisms of nepotism, given that Andys father Steve was governor for eight years. But Coleman ended her speech turning that criticism around in reference to Camerons close relationship with McConnell.

Id rather be Steve Beshears son than Mitch McConnells puppet, Coleman said.

Rep. Pam Stevenson, Democratic candidate for Attorney General

In an interesting move, Stevenson addressed concerns about her not being technically licensed to practice law in Kentucky  her campaign says she will be this month  in her speech.

I know these boys are trying to make a big deal about my bar status, but I would, too, if I had to compete with my resume. Lord knows that some of these boys couldnt even make it through boot camp, the former Air Force colonel said.

Kentucky Attorney General Democratic candidate Pam Stevenson speaks during the Mike Miller Memorial Marshall County Bean Dinner at the Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park Convention Center in Gilbertsville, Ky., on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.

Russell Coleman, Republican candidate for Attorney General

Coleman poked fun at Stevenson only being licensed to practice law in the state of Indiana.

Touting his law enforcement bonafides, he said the race is a choice between someone from Kentucky law enforcement and, well, a Hoosier lawyer.

Republican Auditor Mike Harmon

Like last year, Harmon did a Jeff Foxworthy-inspired routine titled you might be a Beshear-Biden Democrat if

One line referenced President Joe Bidens son, Hunter, the subject of an inquiry by First District U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-KY, who also spoke at the event.

If the only hunter you think should have a gun is Hunter Biden, you might be a Beshear-Biden Democrat, Harmon said.

Kentucky State Auditor Mike Harmon speaks at the Graves County Republican Party Breakfast at WK&T Technology Park in Mayfield, Ky., on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023.

Buddy Wheatley, Democratic candidate for Secretary of State

Wheatley made reference to incumbent Michael Adams office flirtation with pulling out of bipartisan voter data sharing network ERIC. He also highlighted Adams himself and his law firm continuing to work with candidates, including an election denier and a current GOP presidential candidate, while he oversees Kentucky elections.

GOP Secretary of State Michael Adams

In perhaps the most cutting series of jokes on the day, Adams let loose on Wheatley for a 2008 incident where he crashed a Covington city vehicle after drinking alcohol.

He compared Wheatleys relatively low poll numbers to the legal blood alcohol content limit.

In the polls, he is only getting 24% - in third place, behind undecided. For the first time, hes relieved to see a number above 0.08%, Adams said.
Plans are advancing for a summit later this month between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to find a way to restart a lapsed deal allowing Ukraine to get its grain to world markets. File Photo by Iranian Presidential Office/UPI

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later this month to discuss restarting a stalled deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its blockaded Black Sea ports.

The resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative with the aim of containing grain prices would be one of the main topics of Putin's tentative visit to Ankara in late August, the Russian news agency TASS said Monday, citing a diplomatic source.

"Obviously, one of the main issues during the Russian president's potential visit will be the revival of the grain deal. Progress in this area will make it possible to prevent further growth of grain prices after the suspension of the implementation of the Istanbul agreements," said the source.

"The current situation affects the countries most in need of agricultural products, and this problem should be solved in parallel with Russia's questions to the parties to the deal," the source said, adding that Ankara was confident of negotiating an agreement with Russia.

Erdogan's cabinet was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the possible summit, which Erdogan first broached during a visit to Istanbul by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 9.

Putin and Erdogan agreed to plan for the meeting in a phone call last week in which Putin emphasized that Russia was willing to work with Turkey and other interested countries to figure out ways to get its grain to countries that needed it.

For his part, Erdogan pledged that Ankara would keep doing everything it could, including diplomatic means, to move toward an agreement on expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Russia quit the agreement on July 17, hours before the latest in a series of extensions was due to expire claiming it was not receiving the promised benefits of the deal.

Putin said Moscow had only agreed to the July 2022 U.N.-Turkey brokered deal because it was its moral obligation to "remove illegitimate obstacles to the supply of grain and fertilizers from Russia to world markets," but none of its provisions had been fulfilled.

The source was not forthcoming on tangible proposals that the Turkish side was weighing with representatives of the U.N., Russia and Ukraine, but he said he believed that a positive resolution would bolster Ankara and Moscow's standing in Africa and Asia.

Grain prices, which fell 23% while the deal was in force, according to Erdogan, soared 15% in the two weeks after the grain deal lapsed.
The boyfriend of a Maryland mother-of-five has denied involvement in her death, after police launched a homicide probe into the death of a woman whose body was found on a popular hiking trail.

Rachel Morin, 37, disappeared after reportedly heading out for a hike on the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Hartford County, at around 6pm on Saturday.

Her new boyfriend Richard Tobin, 27, reported her missing at around 11pm that night after she failed to return, Hartford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told a press conference on Sunday.

Authorities launched a missing person investigation and Ms Morins car was found at the Williams St entrance to the trail on Sunday morning.

A member of the public found a womans body near the trail at 1.07pm, and authorities launched a homicide investigation as they await formal confirmation of the deceaseds identity and cause of death from the medical examiners office.

On Sunday night, Mr Tobin took to social media to state his innocence while also making reference to his lengthy criminal rap sheet.

I love Rachel, I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve, Mr Tobin wrote.

Yes I have a past but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please.

Richard Tobin has denied involvement in his girlfriend Rachel Morins death as homicide probe launched after womans body found (Facebook / Rachel Morin)

Court records show Mr Tobin has two arrests for second-degree assault, and separate arrests for violating restraining orders, malicious destruction of property and drug possession dating back to 2014

Mr Tobin has also faced charges of being a fugitive from justice, resisting arrest and disorderly intoxication, according to Maryland judiciary case search records.

Mr Tobin has not been named as a suspect, or accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the homicide inquiry.

Mr Tobin only confirmed his relationship with Ms Morin in a Facebook post on 1 August, five days before she was reported missing.

The Independent has attempted to reach Mr Tobin, but a publicly listed cellphone number went straight to voicemail on Monday.

Ms Morins devastated sister Rebekah Morin confirmed in a post on a GoFundme page that the remains located on the Ma and Pa Trail belonged to her sister.

Rachel Morin was last seen alive heading off on the Ma and Pa Trail near Bel Air in Maryland (Harford County Sheriffs Office)

My sister, Rachel Morin went missing on Saturday August 5 2023 around 6 pm. In less then 24 hours her body was found by local law enforcement, she wrote.

Rebekah Morin added her death was not accidental, and she did not go willingly.

She also revealed that the family had been devastated by the loss of her niece to sudden infant death syndrome just a week earlier.

On Sunday, Sheriff Gahler has said that there may still be a danger to the public, and urged anyone hiking the Ma and Pa Trail to be vigilant.

Thankfully we dont have too much violent crime in Harford County, but when we have one, I prefer when I can stand here and tell you that the suspect has been arrested or that its a targeted crime.

I cant tell you that is the case, he said.

He urged anyone hiking trails in the area to carry a whistle toan alert device, pay attention to their surroundings, and notify family and friends of their plans.

Sheriff Gahler also pleaded with the public to call 911 immediately if they spotted anything suspicious, and come forward with any information that might be relevant to the homicide inquiry.
Monica Lee sat outside her parents' home, where a former Mississippi sheriffs deputy pummeled her son, who died hours later in the hospital.

It was a sweltering afternoon in Braxton  the same town where, in a separate episode, six white law enforcement officers tortured two other Black men in January, shaking seasoned federal prosecutors, elected officials and ordinary people to their core.

The officers, one of whom also was involved in the violent episode with Lee's son two years prior, pleaded guilty Thursday to a long list of federal civil rights charges.

More: Officials and attorneys speak after Mississippi ex-officers plead guilty. What they said

Lee believes former Rankin County Deputy Hunter Elward is responsible for the 2021 death of her son, Damien Cameron, who was accused of vandalizing a neighbor's home while living with his grandparents. A grand jury declined to indict Elward and he was never convicted of a crime. The brazen acts of violence to which he would plead guilty two years later were made possible because of a police culture that has festered for years, Lee said.

Clockwise from top: Joshua Hartfield, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon and Daniel Opdyke

Five deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff's Office, some of whom called themselves "the Goon Squad, and an officer from the Richland Police Department admitted to taking part in a racist assault against Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrel Parker. The men never thought their abusers would pay for their crimes.

It's really a shock, but I enjoyed every moment of it, Parker said, recounting the former officers being led out of a federal courtroom in shackles.

Court documents unsealed by federal prosecutors suggest only some members of the Goon Squad participated in the raid. There are other Rankin County deputies known to the United States Attorney, the documents say.

Lee, who spoke to The Associated Press the day after the guilty pleas, rejoiced that Elward is headed to federal prison. Elward's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But even as Elward and the other deputies face accountability for their brutal crimes against Jenkins and Parker, she said, a culture of corruption and violence exists within the sheriff's office, which she worries will persist.

They say one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, Lee said. If they do it once, theyll do it again.

The charges follow an investigation by The Associated Press linking some of the deputies to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries. Law enforcement officers are seldom charged for crimes committed on the job, and it is rarer still for them to plead guilty.

When a white neighbor complained Black people were staying with a white woman on Jan. 24, the officers went to the home and found Jenkins and Parker. They burst inside without a warrant and handcuffed the men. They beat and sexually assaulted the pair and shocked them with stun guns. They poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces and mocked them with racial slurs. Elward shoved a gun in Jenkins' mouth and fired, lacerating his tongue.

To cover up their crimes, they planted drugs on Jenkins.

That behavior is taught," said the Rev. Ricky Sutton of Mount Carmel Ministries, a Rankin County church. When I think about this culture, I just ask myself, how deep does it run?

The behavior runs deep enough, Sutton said, that some Black people are afraid to spend time in Rankin County, a majority-white county just east of the state capital, Jackson, which is home to one of the highest percentages of Black residents of any major U.S. city.

As if channeling that fear as a tool to layer their physical abuse with maximum psychological terror, 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.

The former officers who pleaded guilty included Elward, Christian Dedmon, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriffs Office, and Joshua Hartfield of the Richland Police Department.

The officers believed they could operate with impunity because of the negligence of Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, said Angela English, president of the Rankin County NAACP.

It starts at the top, and I dont believe you regain our trust if the same people are running the show," English said.

Bailey has presided over a code of blue in which officers protect one another instead of citizens, English said.

Bailey, who said he was lied to by the officers, told reporters Thursday that he would not resign.

The only thing Im guilty of in this incident right here is trusting grown men that swore an oath to do their job correctly. Im guilty of that. But the people of Rankin County elected me to do a job during good times and during bad times, Bailey said. "Thereve been times during this I want to hide under a rock because Im ashamed and embarrassed about what theyve done.

Keith Taylor, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former New York police officer, said the mindsets of officers are often downstream of department culture.

If you have a policing culture that tolerates all the -isms  sexism and racism and classism  if you have a department that allows for that kind of behavior to thrive, then itll be exhibited by the officers on the street, Taylor said.

Had a better internal system been in place for conducting oversight, Lee said her son, Damien Cameron, would still be alive and the January episode would never have happened.

Jenkins and Parker, who aren't sure if they will ever return to the state for an extended period, took solace that at least one part of the justice system appears to have worked.

We finally got justice knowing what we went through," Jenkins said. They got what they deserved.

___

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.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Racist abuse by MS deputies reveals culture of misconduct; residents
A police chase that started because of a suspected stolen vehicle that allegedly rammed a patrol car quickly escalated into a shooting Sunday morning that killed one of the suspects and injured a Fairway officer, recordings of law enforcement radio traffic show.

Shortly after the suspects had crashed or abandoned the suspected stolen Jeep Grand Cherokee and fled into a QuikTrip near Interstate 35 and Lamar Avenue in Mission, a call came over the radio that an officer was down.

Lenexa has an assist now, a dispatcher advised. They have shots fired.

Word that an officer had been shot prompted other Johnson County agencies to send officers to assist those already at the scene, as captured by audio from Broadcastify.com, an online source of police radio recordings.

The officer, later identified as 29-year-old Jonah Oswald, died at a local hospital Monday night. Oswald, a husband and father of two young children, was a four-year veteran of the Fairway Police Department.

Fairway Chief of Police J.P. Thurlo said in a statement Monday night that he was heartbroken at the tragic loss, saying Oswald made the ultimate sacrifice while carrying out his oath to serve and protect.

Shannon Wayne Marshall, 40, of Ashland City, Tennessee was also killed in the shooting, police said.

Meanwhile, Andrea Rene Cothran, 32, of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, was charged Tuesday morning in Johnson County District Court with three felonies, including one count each of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and theft. She also faces a charge of reckless driving, a misdemeanor.

She made her first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

The audio from Broadcastify gives a partial look into what led up to the fatal shooting. The audio, however, does not include radio traffic from Lenexa officers during the chase. The feed that usually records the regional communication channel that law enforcement agencies in the Kansas City area switch to during chases was offline Sunday.

The audio, however, captured radio traffic between Johnson County dispatchers and police supervisors.

Radio traffic gives details of chase

Officers responded around 7:30 a.m. to a gas station and convenience store in Lenexa to investigate reports of a stolen vehicle, Chavez said Sunday.

Information for all units on a J-7 (auto theft) that just occurred in Lenexa at the QuikTrip around 95 and I-35, a dispatcher said. Vehicle taken was a navy Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The dispatcher relayed the vehicles license plate.

It should have a dog inside the vehicle, the dispatcher said. It was last seen on 9-5.

About five minutes later, chatter on the police radio asked dispatchers if they knew what Lenexa police were chasing. A dispatcher advised that it was the Jeep stolen from QuikTrip.

The Jeep also allegedly rammed a Lenexa police car.

To all units, it looks like Lenexa is in pursuit northbound I-35 from 95th, aggravated assault on L-E-O (law enforcement officer), a dispatcher advised at 7:45 a.m.

Other dispatchers advised officers in their cities as the chase continued north on I-35, passing 87th Street and eventually Antioch Road.

A dispatcher then told officers that the vehicle possibly crashed on the exit at Lamar and I-35.

We are getting a call from the QuikTrip, the dispatcher said. Its a black SUV wrecking out at the exit. Subjects ran from the vehicle. A heavy set white female and a white male in bikers vests.

Other officers told dispatchers that they would respond to the area to help set up a perimeter.

Subjects might possibly be inside the QuikTrip according to Lenexas notes, the dispatcher said.

Police respond to shooting

Soon after, a dispatcher advised that shots had been fired. There was an officer down.

Another dispatcher advised that officers at the scene were requesting an officer with a ballistic shield to respond.

Suspect is in a bathroom there at the QuikTrip, a dispatcher advised. They are not detained and not down. They are requesting a shield.

The suspect was armed, the dispatcher advised.

At one point, an apparent police supervisor told a dispatcher that if the suspect was contained in the bathroom, he would tell the officers to contain the area and call a critical incident response team.

The dispatcher replied that Lenexa police were in command.

Eventually, staging emergency medical crews were told to go ahead and proceed to QuikTrip to pick up the patient.

They have moved the patient outside the building, the exterior is secure, the dispatcher said.

Shortly thereafter, dispatchers advised that Lenexa police had said the suspect was dead.

The Stars Andrea Klick and Anna Spoerre contributed information to this story.
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called Juneteenth a useless holiday during a campaign event with voters in Iowa on Saturday.

Ramaswamys remarks, first reported by NBC News, come after he celebrated the holiday June 19 earlier this year, saying it is about honoring how far the country has come and how people can advance through hard work, commitment and dedication.

He called for a range of proposals concerning the countrys elections Saturday, including that all voting happens on one day, having all paper ballots and declaring Election Day a national holiday instead of one of the useless ones.

Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up, Ramaswamy said. You cant have everything be a holiday, but well cancel one of the other ones and make Election Day a holiday.

NBC asked Ramaswamy after his remarks to clarify if he believes Juneteenth is a useless holiday, and he responded, I basically do. He said he does not consider holidays such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day to be useless.

Ramaswamy said he stands with the presumption of time-tested traditions, but the spirit of Juneteenth is already represented with holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day.

We shouldnt have redundant holidays that celebrate overlapping purposes. It should have a distinct purpose, he said.

While Martin Luther King Jr. Day recognizes the contributions of the Civil Rights leader toward equality and Presidents Day honors the countrys leaders, Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of the last U.S. slaves being freed in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, following the end of the Civil War.

President Biden signed a bill declaring Juneteenth a national holiday in 2021 after the legislation received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.

Ramaswamy argued Juneteenth was made a holiday under political duress following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which he said is not how we should create holidays.

We should not create holidays with a cultural gun to our head, and thats what happened with Juneteenth, he said.

He has railed against a focus on diversity during his presidential run as he calls for an emphasis on people coming together and recognizing how they are similar.

NBC reported former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), another presidential candidate, slammed Ramaswamys remarks for calling to cancel a holiday that celebrates equality and freedom.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Third telco player DITO Telecommunity said its subscriber base could have been double now if only the tussle over interconnection woes were resolved.

Adel Tamano, DITO chief administrative officer, said that Philippine Competition Commissions (PCC) proceedings about the issue remain ongoing, a year after the company filed a case against Globe Telecom and PLDT (Smart Communications) over alleged anti-competitive practices that bar DITO customers to interconnect with the other networks.

READ: Interconnection woes: DITO accuses Globe, Smart of 'abusing' dominant positions

The fact that it is ongoing shows that it has merit. We are confident to see more movement about that, Tamano said during a chat with media late last week.

Globe and Smart have dismissed DITOs case as baseless, as they refuted claims on anti-competitive practices. Ayala-led Globe also asked the National Telecommunications Commission to require the third telco firm to pay a penalty fee of 622 million for allegedly violating their interconnection deal.

For context, it took 20 years before Globe and Smart interconnected, it took President [Fidel] Ramos issuing an executive order, forcing them to interconnect So I am not surprised as a lawyer coming into this field, I know they will not make it easy for us to interconnect, Tamano said.

Late President Fidel V. Ramos in 1993 issued Executive Order No. 59 requiring public telecommunications carriers to interconnect, allowing subscribers to send messages and make calls from one network to another.

Rodolfo Santiago, DITO Telecommunity chief technology officer, said the failure rate when calling other networks stands between 75% and 80%, far from the ideal 1%.

The official said that due to this, the company cannot boost its product portfolio as the interconnection issue leads to a lot of dissatisfaction, subsequently translating to opportunity losses.

Tamano said that if DITO Telecommunity realizes interconnection, the group can challenge Globe and Smart head-on.

You will see our true numbers, he added.

Currently, DITO Telecommunity has nearly 8 million subscribers, down from 14 million from end-2022 due to the implementation of the SIM registration.

Evelyn Jimenez, DITO Telecommunity chief commercial officer, said the company was not worried about the slash in subscriber base as almost 100% of our revenue-generating subscribers have registered.

Jimenez also expressed confidence about the continuous spike in subscriber uptake.
Do you know the meaning of the red, yellow, blue and green flags that fly at Rhode Island's ocean beaches?

They could save your life. Lifeguards fly the flags to advise beachgoers of the sometimes hazardous water conditions at the state beaches and the presence of dangerous marine life.

Rhode Island has had at least seven water-related deaths so far this summer, and while the circumstances may differ, the deaths are tragic reminders of the threat that lurks along the Ocean State's 400 miles of shoreline, as well as in its ponds, lakes, rivers and swimming pools.

Lifeguard's, like Andy Sprague and Andy Lavallee, shown here at Scarborough in Narragansett, staff state beaches daily until 6 p.m.

Powerful surf, currents and dangerous marine life pose threat in RI waters

High surf, strong currents and sea life that can hurt, or even kill, present dangers for swimmers in Rhode Island waters each summer. Even on calm days along the coast, or on glass-like ponds, the water can pose problems for those who are unprepared or overlook its power.

In two of the seven water deaths, it appears that victims overlooked at least one of the most important safety tips for swimmers. They swam in water unprotected by lifeguards. In another of the deaths, a Cranston man died trying to save people who'd gone swimming after lifeguards had left for the day.

"The best thing you can do is swim near a lifeguard," says Greg Dusek, a senior scientist for NOAA who studies rip currents.

On July 13, Nicolette Biber, 28, of East Greenwich, drowned while swimming at night off Conimicut Point Beach, an area known for strong currents, according to the Warwick police.

"We cannot overstate the dangers of swimming at night, in the dark and in unfamiliar areas where tides and high winds may make conditions unpredictable," the police said in a press release.

Two weeks later, on July 27, Jaimer Martin Ico Gregorio, 15, went missing while swimming in high surf off Dune's Park Beach in Westerly. Jaimer, from New London, Connecticut, had gone to the beach that evening with a group of family and friends. His body was recovered July 30.

Jaimer had been near a jetty, where rip currents are known to form; divers and rescue swimmers searching for him that night and the next morning said they had to contend with some of the strongest currents they've ever encountered, Westerly Police Chief Paul Gingerella said.

GoFundMe for teenager who died off Westerly

Jaimer was from Guatemala and most of his friends and family reside there. A GoFundMe has been established to help his "family bring Jaimer home to Guatemala where he can lay to rest with his family and friends."

In two other cases, men died trying to save people in the water in locations not staffed by lifeguards. On the evening of July 18, Idmael Elmonus, 38, of Cranston died trying to rescue two swimmers who were struggling off Scarborough North State Beach.

The swimmers, a boy, 17, and a woman, 21, were rescued by police. They'd gone into the water shortly before 7 p.m.; lifeguards staff state beaches until 6 p.m.

More: Summer brings the danger of drownings. How to have a safer season. | Opinion

On July 9, Javier Rivera, 46, of Woonsocket went under the water on Wenscott Reservoir in Lincoln while reportedly trying to help two kayakers, one of whom had flipped a vessel, Lime Rock Fire Department Chief Timothy P. Walsh said.

The three other deaths happened at beaches that were staffed by lifeguards.

On May 28, a 60-year-old Hartford man drowned at Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly. The unidentified man lost his footing while wading in strong currents and was pulled from the water by lifeguards, according to the Westerly Sun.

On July 7, an adult man also died at Misquamicut after he was pulled from the water by lifeguards, the state's Department of Environmental Management said in a press release. He was identified as Frank Sievel, 74, of Farmington, Conn.

On July 25, Louis Diffley had been swimming with family members at Warwick City Park when he appeared to suffer from a medical episode before disappearing in the water, according to the police. The state Medical Examiner's Office ruled Diffley's death a drowning, Warwick Police Chief Bradford Connor said Wednesday.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 4,000 fatal unintentional drownings every year in the United States, including boating-related drownings. Rhode Island has confirmed five deaths from drowning so far this year, according to the Rhode Island Department of Health. That compares with 20 last year and 19 in 2021.

(Health Department numbers can sometimes lag, because the medical examiner might need to determine if someone drowned or suffered from another medical episode, such as a heart attack, a spokesman said. Rhode Island also had a drowning in February when a 67-year-old woman fell through the ice in Burrillville.)

In addition to keeping an eye on swimmers, lifeguards can provide information on swimming conditions. The Rhode Island Division of Parks and Recreation uses a colored flag system to communicate ocean conditions at state beaches.

More: A 10-year-old girl and a father of two drowned at Conimicut Park. Now, their families are suing.

Here's what those beach flags mean

The double red flag means no swimming, conditions are too dangerous. A single red flag means high hazard due to surf, currents or both. A yellow flag means there's a medium hazard with moderate surf, currents or both. A green flag means low hazard with calm conditions. A blue flag means there's dangerous sea life in the area.

Lifeguards at state beaches post flags to indicate water conditions and whether dangerous marine life is in the area. The double red flag means conditions are extremely hazardous, and there's no swimming.

The DEM urges beachgoers to check in with lifeguards on water conditions.

"As always, DEM urges parents and guardians to watch their children while theyre swimming or near the water," the state agency said in a recent Facebook post. "Also, DEM urges beachgoers not to enter the water if they cannot swim."

Along with watching for high surf and strong currents, lifeguards and swimmers should keep watch for dangerous marine life. Portuguese man-of-war, which can deliver a painful sting, were spotted on Rhode Island beaches in July, prompting lifeguards to fly the purple flag.

More: Are there sharks in Rhode Island? 8 sharks that can be found off the shore

Sharks are also sometimes spotted off the Rhode Island coast.

"When a fin is sighted in the waters off a state beach, RI State Parks staff will evacuate swimmers from the water," the DEM says on its website. "The protocol calls for swimmers to remain out of the water for an hour after an actual or suspected shark sighting, while DEM marine biologists and environmental police investigate the sighting."

The American Red Cross urges everyone to learn to swim well and is among organizations that offer swimming lessons.

Rhode Island Department of Health and Red Cross offer tips for staying safe around water

Here are some tips from the Rhode Island Department of Health:

Messages for parents

Always watch children when theyre in or near water. Never leave them unattended.

Designate an adult to supervise children in the water. That should be their only task. They should NOT be texting or doing anything else.

Even if a lifeguard is present, parents should still be watching their kids.

If your child doesnt know how to swim dont let them go in the water.

If your child does know how to swim, buddy up! Use the buddy system.

Messages for everyone

Never swim alone.

When in doubt, get out. Dont hesitate to get out of the water if something doesnt feel right (current, rough surf, fatigue, muscle cramps, etc.).

At state beaches, swim in the areas supervised by lifeguards. Swim within designated swimming areas.

If you mix alcohol and swimming, you are asking for trouble. Do not do it.

If ever caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shore, instead of into the current. You could be swept away from shore very quickly.

Here are water safety tips from the Red Cross:

Swim in designated areas supervised by lifeguards. Always swim with a buddy; do not allow anyone to swim alone.

Provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising, even when a lifeguard is present, no matter how well the child can swim or how shallow the water. Avoid distractions including cell phones.

Never leave a young child unattended near water and do not trust a childs life to another child; teach children to always ask permission to go near water.

Designate a water watcher whenever in a group setting.

Stay within arm's reach of any weak or inexperienced swimmer who is in the water.

Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets around water, but do not rely on life jackets alone.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Here's what those flags mean and other water safety tips for RI beaches
This story was updated at 10am EDT on Aug. 8, 2023, with comment from the Pentagon.

Military recruiters sometimes skipped steps to screen out enlistees affiliated with criminal gangs or political extremist groups, increasing the likelihood of disciplinary problems and security risks within the armed services, according to an audit released Monday by a Pentagon watchdog.

The departments Office of Inspector General investigated the militarys recruiting process to determine whether the service branches were applying policies ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in April 2021 to stamp out extremism in the ranks. The watchdog found that recruiters completed the screening steps inconsistently, sometimes skipping the required interviews, questionnaires, tattoo reviews, fingerprint checks and background investigations. The screening shortfalls may mean recruits with extremist or gang associations were allowed into active duty, the report states.

If the military services are not completing required applicant screening steps, recruiters may not identify all applications with extremist or criminal gang associations during the accessions screening process, increasing the potential for security risks and disruptions to good order and discipline within the joint force, Inspector General Robert Storch said in a statement.

The inspector generals office called on the Pentagon to issue a new memo to recruiters, reiterating the importance of screening for applicants ties to extremist groups and gangs. The watchdog also recommended that each service branch conduct its own regular review of the screening process. Each branch agreed to establish periodic reviews by early 2024.

As a result of the lapses, recruiters may not have identified all applicants with extremist or criminal gang associations during the screening process, said a defense official on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity under rules set by the Pentagon. The official said the Pentagon takes extremist activity seriously and is working to implement extremism-prevention tactics approved by Austin in 2021.

The screening shortfalls may mean recruits with extremist or gang associations were allowed into active duty. Department of Defense Inspector General Report

The inspector generals findings are deeply concerning and underscore the need for the military to modernize its recruiting and screening processes, said Joseph Shelzi, an analyst at The Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy.

Military training is highly valued by extremist groups and criminal gangs, both of which make deliberate efforts to infiltrate their members into the military, Shelzi said. The spread of online disinformation and extremist content is a societal problem and the military cannot ignore or insulate itself from these kinds of challenges.

Austin updated DoD policy regarding extremist behavior following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when myths about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election drove supporters of former President Donald Trump to try to stop Congress from certifying the results. About 14% of the rioters charged in the attack were veterans or service members, according to George Washington University.

The DoD created a standard screening questionnaire in 2021 to solicit specific information from recruits about their current or former affiliations with extremist ideologies. The service branches updated their screening that year to include questions about applicants membership in racially biased or other extremist groups and their participation in violent activities. Applicants can seek waivers for previous affiliations with extremist groups and for tattoos of gang or extremist symbols, but theyre ineligible for service if theyre denied waivers or if they have criminal histories associated with extremist activity or gangs.

While recruiters generally followed the new policies and screened applicants for extremist and criminal gang behavior, they were sometimes lax with the process, the inspector generals office found.

The office reviewed a statistical sample of recruits from 2021 and 2022 and found that 53 of them, or 41%, werent asked according to policy about their ties to extremist groups or gangs. Recruiters didnt administer screening forms in 40% of cases when they should have, and they didnt complete required tattoo screenings nor fingerprint checks for 9% of applicants. In one case, a recruiter didnt initiate a background investigation into an applicant who shouldve been subject to one.

While Navy recruiters were found to have completed the screening process consistently, inspectors found instances in which Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force recruiters didnt follow the new policies, the audit states.

Army and Air Force recruiters are required to ask all applicants if theyve ever had associations with extremist or hate organizations or gangs, and check their responses as yes or no. Air Force recruiters didnt check either box in 22% of applications the inspector generals office reviewed, and Army recruiters didnt check either box in 45% of applications.

As a result of the audit, Jeffrey Angers, deputy assistant secretary of the Army, sent a memo July 10 to U.S. Army Recruiting Command, reminding recruiters to ask applicants about their affiliations with extremist groups or gangs.

Extremist and hate organization ideologies and affiliations are antithetical to Army core values, Angers wrote in the memo. It is important to follow all the required steps for screening applicants for extremist, hate and criminal gang associations during the accessions process... Applicants associated with these beliefs and/or organizations are neither permitted nor suited to access in the United States Army.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.
The GOP is criticizing President Biden over his response to China and Russias joint naval patrol near Alaska last week, calling out the commander in chief for what they claim is a tepid response.

The U.S. Navy dispatched four destroyers and a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance airplane last week after 11 Chinese and Russian ships conducted a joint naval patrol near Alaskas Aleutian Islands, coming near the coast without entering U.S. territorial waters.

U.S. Northern Command later said that the foreign fleet was not considered a threat, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the patrol.

But several high-profile Republicans took the incident as an opportunity to claim Biden is neglecting to properly stock the Navys fleet, which is on track to include 293 ships.

Under President Biden, Russia and China threaten to conquer their neighbors & their new Axis is now operating together off the American coast, former Vice President Mike Pence wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

America needs a new Commander-in-Chief who understands the threat and will build a much bigger navy, new shipyards and a military fitted to the widening threats of the 21st Century. The enemies of freedom only understand strength, Pence added.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Beret, similarly attacked Biden over his proposed defense budget for next year. The administration earlier this year put forward a plan to buy nine warships and decommission 11 vessels in fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1.

China and Russia sends 11 warships off the coast of Alaska and we can only pull together 4 to respond to defend the homeland, Waltz posted on X. Yet Bidens defense budget is retiring more ships than its building!

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the fourth-ranking House Republican, asserted Bidens continued weakness on the world stage has emboldened our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing.

Alaskas two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, meanwhile, did not go after Biden but repeated calls to increase military funding for their state.

This is a stark reminder of Alaskas proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty, Murkowski said in a joint statement with Sullivan.

Sullivan said he has been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure to host these assets.

Moscow and Beijing have significantly strengthened their defense and economic ties in the past year over tensions with the U.S. regarding Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022, and Taiwan, which China claims as its sovereign territory and threatened to take control of by force.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Guardsmen watch as migrants try to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. near in Eagle Pass, Texas, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mexican officials informed the state of Texas that two bodies were found in the Rio Grande: one ensnared in Governor Greg Abbotts controversial floating border wall, and another in a nearby area. Their official cause of death hasnt been determined yet, but sooner or later, the razor-wire-tipped buoys are going to get people killed. And that, all but explicitly, is the point.

The buoys are part of a three-decade push from state and national leaders of both parties to make crossing the border as deadly as possible, under the theory, proven wrong by data, that this will reduce migration overall. Until we change course, the bodies will keep piling up.

Mr Abbott insisted last month in a letter to the White House that no one wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River, and spun his efforts at the border as a way to save lives and drive people towards legal immigration at US ports of entry.

The reality on the ground would suggest otherwise.

In July, a Texas state border medic named Nicholas Wingate went public with allegations that the border barriers were already causing severe injuries, and that he and his fellow troopers were ordered, as part of the governors Operation Lone Star, to push exhausted migrants back into the river and refuse to offer them water. (The state denies this order existed.)

I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane, he told his superiors, in messages shared with media outlets.

Last year, at least 250 people died crossing the Rio Grande, and that was before Texas installed what amounts to a giant, razor-tipped net in the middle of the river. Mr Abbott, a longtime leader in Americas biggest border state, surely knows the stakes of making this crossing even more lethal.

Republican state governors dont have a monopoly over abuse on the border, though.

Under the Biden administration, which made much of how different it was from the naked cruelty of the Trump years, the Border Patrol has been accused of routinely destroying caches of water left for migrants wandering through desert areas between highly militarised ports of entry.

Despite formally jettisoning the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico asylum policy, the Biden White House asks asylum-seekers to use a buggy cellphone app to process their claims, stranding them in Mexico for long periods of time, where they are vulnerable to kidnapping, extortion, and violence, according to Human Rights Watch.

2022, under a Democratic president, was the deadliest year ever for border-crossers, with more than 800 people lost.

While many were shocked by the extremes of the Trump border regime  family separation, border walls, mass refusals of entry under Title 42  the Republican administration was only underlining the kind of approach thats been standard-issue from Washington for decades.

Trump administration officials first proposed separating children from their families at the border, what eventually became the infamous zero tolerance policy, as a means to deter people from trying to immigrate.

And how different is that really than in the 1990s, when President Clinton, another leader who took office amid a season of high immigration, first proposed prevention through deterrence.

In 1994, his Border Patrol unveiled a strategic plan to fortify major border-crossings, leaving unauthorised migrants little choice but to brave the mortal danger of crossing remote rivers, mountains, or deserts to enter the US.

It was our sense that the number of people crossing through Arizona would go down to a trickle once people realized, Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service at the time, has said.

The thinking here, whether by a Republican governor, or presidents of both parties, is that theres some magical amount of violence that can be inflicted on migrants that will put a stop to undocumented immigration.

This is morally wrong, and apart from that, easily disproven.

In December of 2022, officials had 251,487 migrant encounters at the Southwest border, a record in US history. In March of 2000, a previous peak, there were 220,063 encounters. In other words, after decades of policy and billions spent, after all the extra Border Patrol officers added under Clinton, or the expanded border surveillance under Bush and Obama, or the draconian excesses of the Trump years, little has changed overall.

As Jaime Puente of the state advocacy group Every Texan, which monitors the state budget, recently told me of Texass efforts, Weve spent $12bn over the last decade, and we have nothing to show for it. People are not being deterred from coming to the US to seek a better life and opportunitiesno matter how deadly we make that journey.

All of the deaths at the border, and all of the backlog in the legal immigration system that fuels them, could be addressed at the policy level. They are not a fact of life, but a consequence of our actions, and inactions.

Legislation could cut down on the nine million people waiting for green cards, or the often decade-long wait for family reunification visas, or the millions more people who apply each year than are accepted into the US diversity visa lottery. Our leaders simply dont have the vision or the desire to change this status quo.

The next time a body washes up in Greg Abbotts border buoys, or a skeleton is found in the desert of Arizona, there will be little doubt who is to blame. As one border activist recently told me, these tragedies are death by policy.
In my line of work I have the privilege of seeing good done around the country. I see the joy when LGBTQ youth who are struggling find the support and community they so desperately need. I see the relief of someone who has finally found an affirming health service provider who can help them. I see the excitement people feel when theyve found an accepting home away from home. All of these good things come from LGBTQ community centers. So when I heard that some House Representatives were targeting LGBTQ center funding a couple weeks agao, I was furious. And when I saw that officials at the local level were taking cues from these representatives, like they just did in Manatee County, Fla., my anger only grew.

LGBTQ community centers play an important, yet often overlooked role in the life of LGBTQ people in the United States. In many parts of the country, a local LGBTQ community center may be the only place where LGBTQ people and allies can access affirming and inclusive health care, community programs, or even basic information. Community centers are also important players in the LGBTQ movement, linking LGBTQ people and local, state, and national efforts to advance LGBTQ equality.

Across the country, many LGBTQ community centers also serve as safe havens for the broader local community, providing vital programs and services in an environment that is competent and respectful of LGBTQ identities. In Vermont, a full-scale food pantry and resource program offers delivery to rural areas to address the food insecurity needs of the LGBTQ community. The Terrace Concert Series in Ohio is a monthly concert series hosted by a community center that showcases diverse local LGBTQ talent. The Community Health Worker program is aimed at providing health education, care navigation, and case management for LGBTQ community members in rural Virginia. It ensures that there is someone not only to help guide and support community members in achieving their health goals, but to also help serve as necessary patient advocates to ensure inclusive and affirming practices.

In 2023, over 520 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced across the country. And while eight in 10 Americans (80 percent) favor laws that would protect LGBTQ people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing, discrimination and hateful rhetoric directed toward the LGBTQ community is at an all-time high. Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ individuals have been steadily climbing for the past four years according to data published by the FBI. In fact, LGBTQ people are nine times more likely than non-LGBTQ people to be victims of violent hate crimes.

LGBTQ community centers collectively serve over 51,800 people each week, or nearly 2.7 million people per year. Without support and funding from federal and local governments, millions of Americans could be left struggling to find culturally competent life-saving programs that allow them to live authentically and safely.

LGBTQ Americans need the services that community centers provide now more than ever. Stripping funding from LGBTQ community centers  organizations that offer programming to ensure that members of vulnerable populations feel safe, connected, and empowered  is unconscionable, dangerous, and cannot be allowed to happen.

Denise Spivak is the CEO of CenterLink, the community of LGBTQ+ Centers.

Views expressed in The Advocates opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
A Black man had his 10-year conviction vacated after an appellate court granted him the right to a new trial because the judge said he looks like a criminal.

Leron Liggins, of Southfield, Michigan, was convicted on two drug charges in 2022, but a three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Thursday that the judges comment violated Liggins right to due process.

The comments came during a pre-trial hearing in 2020, in response to Liggins changing his attorney for the second time.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy III said that was tired of this case.

What do you want me to do? This guy looks like a criminal to me, Murphy reportedly said. This is what criminals do. This isnt what innocent people, who want a fair trial do.

The case against Liggins started with a Michigan grand jury indictment in February 2018, charging him with conspiracy to possess heroin with the intent to distribute.

The trial, however, did not take place until several years later, after a superseding indictment added another charge of aiding and abetting heroin dealing.

In response to the judges comments, Liggins filed a motion for Judge Murphy to recuse himself from the case. Although he apologized for the remarks, the judge denied the request and claimed that he could still be fair to Liggins.

The three-judge panel, however, disagreed with Judge Murphys assertion. While prosecutors argued the judges comments were related to Liggins actions and not his race, the panel said the ambiguity was enough reason for retrial.

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...Beyond this remark, the district judges other remarks could be understood to demonstrate clear prejudgment of Liggins guilt, their opinion said.
The computer networks of a one of Russia's top missile developers were breached by an "elite group of North Korean hackers," Reuters reported on Aug. 7.

According to Reuters, cyber-espionage teams linked to the North Korean government "secretly installed stealthy digital backdoors into systems at NPO Mashinostroyeniya," a major Russian weapons developer.

The company, which was founded in 1944 and is based in Reutov, just outside of Moscow, produces hypersonic missiles, satellites, and ballistic armaments.

Reuters said that it could not determine whether any data was taken as a result of the breach, but that in the months following the hack, North Korea declared new "developments in its banned ballistic missile program."

Reuters highlighted, however, that it was not clear if these events were directly related.

Reuters and security analysts from cyber security company SentinelOne reviewed technical evidence that showed the systems were secretly breached for at least five months last year, starting around late 2021 and continuing until May 2022, when IT engineers detected suspicious activity.

The report added that experts believe "the incident shows how the isolated country will even target its allies" to obtain technologies it needs to develop its own missile program.

According to SentinelOne, the use of malware and infrastructure used by North Korean hackers to carry out other breaches in the past pointed to their involvement.

Read also: White House: Russia seeks to buy more munitions from North Korea





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A Rhode Island man who operated a "ghost gun factory" from his Providence home pleaded guilty to charges last week in New York City, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan announced.

Robert Alcantara, 36, conspired to sell more than 100 ghost guns to people in the Dominican Republic, according to Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. "Ghost guns" are purposely made without serial numbers, making them difficult for law-enforcement agencies to trace.

Alcantara pleaded guilty last Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan to conspiracy to traffic firearms and conspiracy to launder money from his firearms trafficking, Williams said in a news release. Alcantara faces up to five years in prison on the firearms charge and up to 20 years on the money-laundering charge.

Law enforcement officials seized these ghost gun kits from Alcantara.

More: What are ghost guns? Police say they pose a growing threat in Rhode Island.

Officers stopped Alcantara and found ghost gun kits

Alcantara was charged after police in New York City stopped his car in November 2021 and found some 45 kits to build ghost guns. After initial denials, Alcantara ultimately told authorities he was planning to turn the gun parts into working firearms, and that he had 50 similar ghost guns at his home, according to the indictment, statements made in court, filings and previous Journal reporting.

The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan says Robert Alcantara operated a "ghost gun factory" from his home in Providence, providing this photograph as evidence.

Alcantara and an alleged co-conspirator had bought the kits at a gun show in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, and records from Alcantara's cellphone indicated that he had offered to have his mother transport firearms to the Dominican Republic, the Journal previously reported.

Robert Alcantara built untraceable ghost guns and conspired to sell more than 100 of them to individuals in the Dominican Republic. Thanks to the work of our law-enforcement partners, his brazen gun trafficking scheme has been stopped," Williams said in the news release.

Alcantara is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 15.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI man who wanted to sell ghost guns in the Dominican Republic pleads guilty
The News

The day his family home was scaled by anti-fossil fuel protesters and covered in black banners, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was a world away  posing for photos with his family on the Santa Monica Pier.

Sunak is in California on vacation, visiting the state where he and his wife met and now own a multimillion-dollar penthouse.

He reportedly took part in a 7 a.m. Taylor Swift-themed SoulCycle spin class (a disappointment to fans who thought that the special guest at the class would be Swift herself). Some then staked the claim that Sunak is most American prime minister that the UK has ever had.

Heres a rundown of Sunaks most American ties and interests.

Know More

Sunak went to graduate school at Stanford University in California, where he met his wife, Akshata Murty.

After graduating, he worked for a London-based hedge fund, but was focused on the U.S. He worked on the firms legal fight with the CSX, the American freight rail company, according to the BBC. He later worked for a finance firm and was based in Santa Monica.

He once cited his time in California as a reason for backing Brexit, saying, The pace of change is just accelerating around the world - that was my experience being in California.

Sunak and his wife have owned their penthouse flat in Santa Monica since 2014 and visit often as a vacation spot. Its valued at over $7 million, according to The Guardian. He had maintained his U.S. Green Card, but returned it October 2021.

Politically, hes aimed to increase Britains economic ties with Washington, viewing the U.S. as a more important ally amid competition from China, a more aggressive Russia, and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence tech.

Culturally, Sunak is clearly a Swiftie, and has seen her in concert before, though theres no word yet on whether he plans to go to one of the Eras Tour shows in Los Angeles this week. He told The Sunday Times in 2021 that hes a fan of the show (which, despite its name, is very American), and prefers Marvel Comics over Andrew Marvell, the English poet.

There are some diplomatic lines he wont cross. When asked in 2021 if Britney Spears should be freed from her conservatorship, he answered: Probably not right for me to comment on the internal affairs of another country.

Room for Disagreement

Other British prime ministers could also make strong cases for their American credentials.

Winston Churchills mother was American. He went on to coin the phrase special relationship that would come to define the close ties between U.S. and U.K. In 1963, he became the first person to be granted honorary American citizenship, a merit that has since been given to just seven other people.

Boris Johnson was born in New York, first holding dual British-American citizenship. But he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 to show his loyalty to the U.K.

Tony Blair was known for his enthusiasm toward the British political relationship with the U.S. Blair internalized the special relationship, analysts say: He wasnt just pro-American; he was American  at least in temperament and political style, NPR wrote in 2007. He faced criticism for his unwavering ties to Washington, especially after he sent British forces to Iraq.
The reduction of personnel and the transfer of the fourth power unit to the "hot stop" state is a gross violation of the operating requirements.

Many ZNPP personnel with Ukrainian licenses have left the plant as the occupiers allowed them to leave Enerhodar. These are unit shift supervisors and station shift supervisors. Thus, there is now a critical shortage of licensed personnel at ZNPP. For example, only half of the employees are on duty according to the staffing schedule. This situation increases risks and hazards. According to the regulatory document by Energoatom, a minimum number of employees is required to operate the plant, which is not being met. Although in the IAEA notes, Russia claims that there is enough staff.

Read also: IAEA experts access roofs at ZNPP, see no signs of explosives, agency says

On the part of Ukraine, I would still demand that the IAEA check the compliance of the staffing of the operational personnel with our regulatory documents. It is imperative. Whether the power unit is operating at capacity or is in a state of hot or cold shutdown, the number of operating personnel at reactor facilities must comply with the regulatory document. Blackmail is also increasing. Some employees are forced to work even without a contract.

Read also: Russia abducts another ZNPP employee  Energoatom

Regarding nuclear blackmail: There is information that power unit No. 5 was put on cold shutdown. This was done because the steam generators at that power unit were leaking. According to technological regulations, a power unit can be in hot shutdown for no more than 100 hours a year. This power unit has been in hot shutdown for eight months.

However, the transfer of power unit No. 4 to hot shutdown is carried out with the aim of nuclear blackmail because, in my opinion, the technological and production needs for steam, as explained by the Russians to the IAEA, are not as important as safety. A power unit in a hot shutdown can be switched to the minimum controlled capacity very quickly, according to the regulations, in 17 hours. This increases the risks that in case of cooling loss of the power unit, a severe accident with melts on the cores and radionuclide emissions may develop. Therefore, when a chain reaction begins at the minimum controlled power, hazardous radionuclides, volatile ones like Y-131, accumulate in the core. Consequently, they do all these things in violation of regulations, even though the personnel must be properly trained to work on VVER-1000 reactor units.

In other words, Russia put the fourth power unit on hot shutdown to continue nuclear blackmailing Ukraine.

Representatives from Smolensk and Kursk's Russian nuclear power plants now operate the Chornobyl-type LWR (high power channel reactor). This is an entirely different reactor. If we also consider that ZNPP has undergone a significant modernization during this period as part of the lifetime extension of power units, with Western equipment, with Ukrainian equipment that is not available at Russian NPPs, even with VVER-1000, the risks are growing.

As for the leaking steam generators, power unit 6, which also operated in hot shutdown all winter, was put into cold shutdown in the spring because of leaking steam generators. These are serious problems. The second power unit is good if it can be repaired, but the steam generators may need to be replaced. This is expensive equipment. That is, two power units are already in question regarding equipment integrity.

About the risks: As you know, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam was not coordinated with Rosatom. The ZNPP, which cannot produce the electricity they planned to send to the Russian unified energy system last summer, is like a suitcase without a handle. Their plans to supply the south of occupied Ukraine and Crimea with electricity from ZNPP have failed. According to my sources, the military does not coordinate their actions in Enerhodar and Zaporizhzhia NPP with the staff and management of Zaporizhzhia NPP. This is a problem. Knowing how all the coordination in Russia is done and their crookedness, we need to prepare for different developments.

Read also: Rosatom ends operations in Czechia

They are keeping Unit 4 in this state now to maintain the degree of escalation. The IAEA, for example, reported that they were allowed to inspect Unit 5 and visually confirmed that everything was working. Of course, the unit is not working, but all the equipment is fine. They also inspected the Zaporizhzhia Heat Canal but were barred from checking the locking gates on the coolant pond. Some work was done there, allegedly to strengthen it, but we know from the Main Intelligence Directorate that Russia mined the locking gate of the pond. The report also emphasizes that IAEA experts heard the detonation. It's strange that they just wrote about it now because the exits to the villages near Energodar and the nuclear power plant are under fire every night.

Last week, there were also reports in Enerhodar's telegram channels that something had flown into the area of the city's fire station. Until now, IAEA experts have not received permission to visit the roofs of the engine rooms, where there are some sniper positions. Movement is restricted, information is limited, and we have no data on radiation monitoring, which was shut down by Russia back in May of this year. The IAEA experts manually measured the radiation background and entered this data into the IAEA system of radiation conditions.

Read also: Russia prepares false flag provocation at ZNPP  Ukrainian intelligence

In other words, the only official information is from the experts currently at ZNPP, and Ukraine and the civilized world have virtually no additional information.

Everything leads to the fact that ZNPP is spinning out of control. If, in August last year, the general in charge of the occupation troops in Enerhodar said that ZNPP was either theirs or scorched earth, it is clear that they would do maximum damage to prevent the plant from working. It can only operate with the Kakhovka reservoir at full capacity anyway. Therefore, they will also steal equipment, because some equipment is unavailable at Russian nuclear power plants. They have already looted a training center with American computer programs and equipment. Therefore, we should not expect that the nuclear power plant will only start working after the de-occupation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Read also: IAEA requests access to inspect ZNPP reactor building roofs

Will it be possible to restore everything? First, a lot depends on the equipment. For example, steam generators for this type of reactor are made in Russia. Second, the integrity of the reactor itself is also essential. If there is a loss of reactor cooling, even in a cold shutdown, and a severe core melt accident develops, it will take longer than in a hot shutdown, up to 8 days. But if Ukrainian specialists cannot intervene in the process, it will mean the loss of the reactor unit, which cannot be repaired or replaced.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Editor's note: If you are in need of mental health support, please call the 24/7 National Center for Mental Health Crisis Hotline at (0917) 899-8727, (0908) 639-2672, (0966) 351-4518, or (02) 7-989-8727 or 1553 (Landline-to-landline only).

The mother of Euphoria star Angus Cloud, who died Monday at age 25, shared more details about his final day and said while a cause of death hasnt been announced, the actor did not intend to end his life.(CNN)  The mother of Euphoria star Angus Cloud, who died Monday at age 25, shared more details about his final day and said while a cause of death hasnt been announced, the actor did not intend to end his life.

Friends, I want you all to know I appreciate your love for my family at this shattered time, Lisa Cloud, the late actors mother, wrote in a social media post on Friday. I also want you to know that although my son was in deep grief about his fathers untimely death from mesothelioma, his last day was a joyful one. He was reorganizing his room and placing items around the house with intent to stay a while in the home he loved. He spoke of his intent to help provide for his sisters at college, and also help his mom emotionally and financially.

First responders from the Oakland Fire Department determined Cloud was already deceased when they were dispatched to the familys California home for a medical emergency, Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the fire department, told CNN earlier this week.

A cause of death has not yet been determined by the Alameda County Coroner.

He did not intend to end his life. When we hugged goodnight we said how much we loved each other and he said he would see me in the morning. I dont know if or what he may have put in his body after that. I only know that he put his head on the desk where he was working on art projects, fell asleep and didnt wake up, Lisa Clouds message reads. We may find out that he overdosed accidentally and tragically, but its abundantly clear that he did not intend to check out of this world.

His mother continued, noting, his struggles were real. He gave and received so much love and support to and from his tribe. His work in euphoria became a lightning rod for his generation and opened up a conversation about compassion, loyalty, acceptance and love.

Clouds mother referenced a brain injury he suffered as a teen.

His head injury 10 years ago miraculously didnt result in death as it almost always does. He was given 10 bonus years and filled them with creativity and love, she wrote.

Social media posts have suggested his death was intentional. I want you to know that is not the case, her post concluded. To honor his memory, please make random acts of kindness part of your daily life. Bless your hearts.
Five Beaufort County food businesses were cited with B grades in July health inspections by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control:

Bonito Boathouse, 875 Bonito Road on Fripp Island, scored an 98% (B) in a follow-up inspection on July 27. This grade normally would merit an A grade, but the report says there were consecutive violations from an earlier inspection on July 12: Rodent droppings and excessive odor of rodent urine throughout the dry storage area, and rodent droppings in the liquor storage cabinet.

An additional follow-up inspection was scheduled within 10 days but was not available on the DHEC website as of Aug. 7. This story will be updated online when that information becomes available.

Rancho Grande, 136 Sea Island Parkway in Beaufort, scored an 94% (B) in a follow-up inspection on July 14. This grade normally would merit an A grade, but the report says this was a consecutive violation from an earlier inspection on July 5: The walk-in cooler is in poor repair and unable to hold food at the proper temperature.

The restaurant was reinspected on July 17 and scored a 100% (A).

Sabor Urbano, 15C Marshland Blvd. on Hilton Head Island, scored an 86% (B) in a routine inspection on July 12. Issues noted by inspectors included: Problems with cold food holding temperatures; meat thawing improperly on a counter; the lack of a date marking policy; the one-door reach-in cooler unable to hold food at the proper temperature; a bottle of Clorox bathroom cleaner in the food prep area; and soiled utensils stored improperly in standing water.

The restaurant was reinspected on July 19 and scored a 100% (A).

Seaside Bar & Grill, 1760 Sea Island Parkway on St. Helena Island, scored an 81% (B) in a routine inspection July 12 that was the result of a public complaint. Issues noted by inspectors included: A hand-washing sink without paper towels; a hand-washing sink being used to hold a pot of raw chicken; lack of chlorine in the chemical dish machine; problems with cold food holding temperatures and the walk-in cooler in poor repair; problems with the consumer advisory displayed on the menu; household pesticide spray stored in the kitchen area; an abundance of flies throughout the kitchen and bar area; wiping clothes not stored in sanitizer buckets; a water leak from the bottom of the dishwasher; and a fryer with a missing door shield.

The restaurant was reinspected on July 14 and scored a 100% (A).

Sonic Drive-in #3789, 5 Sherington Drive in Bluffton, scored an 86% (B) in a routine inspection on July 24. Issues noted by inspectors included: Access to a hand sink obstructed by large buckets of grease; a hand sink without cleanser; all hand-washing sinks without drying provisions; the interior walls of an ice machine coated with black organic matter; problems with cold food holding temperatures and the walk-in cooler unable to hold foods at the proper temperature; the single-door reach-in cooler with a broken door, unable to close; cleaned utensils stored in a sealed container with water and condensation; single-service fry packaging stored in contact with a greasy, dirty surface; heavy buildup of food debris and grease on the hot line equipment; and light fixtures in kitchen with no protective shielding.

The restaurant was reinspected on Aug. 4 and scored a 98% (A).

What the grades mean

Inspectors hand out a grade of A, B or C, depending on the conditions found at the time. Points are docked for a variety of infractions, and restaurants have a chance to correct the problems and improve their score.

A: 88% to 100%

B: 78% to 87%

C: 77% or less

During July, DHEC recorded 145 inspections of restaurants, schools, stores and other food establishments in Beaufort County. The agency publishes the results of these health inspections on its website.

Newer food grade decals include a QR code that customers can scan with their phones to see a food establishments latest report.

Below are the SC DHEC restaurant grades in Beaufort County from July 1-31, 2023.

At the top left of the chart, there is a space to search for the name of a restaurant. Please note that this months inspections take up two pages. Switch to page 2 at the top right.
Over 100 Ukrainian and foreign specialists participated in a discussion of the role of state-owned enterprises in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine on July 27, and their findings have now been made public.

The discussion was organized by the USAID project "Activities within the framework of the reform of state-owned enterprises of Ukraine" (SOERA).

Read also: USAID to provide Ukraine with Skydio drones to document Russian war crimes

More than 3,200 state-owned and 14,000 communal enterprises work in Ukraine, says Andrii Nesterenko, a senior specialist in USAID project management in Ukraine.

They will be the first to contribute to the recovery of Ukraine at the end of the war, and only later will private businesses join the process.

Due to the full-scale Russian invasion, state-owned enterprises have acquired new roles, said John Tokolish, SOERAs deputy director.

Read also: Schools and hospitals to be rebuilt as priority in de-occupied territories

Ukrposhta, for example, needs the opportunity to provide additional banking services, especially where financial institutions are not ready to offer them, said Ihor Smilyanskyi, SOERA general director.

He added that Ukrposhta is also working on the digitalization of services and the development of logistics that are accessible and effective for all settlements, including those affected by Russian aggression.

The post-war recovery of Ukraine will not be easy. The volume of public procurement will increase significantly, and the perception of the state as a risky customer needs to be changed so that private companies are not afraid to participate in tenders, says Mustafa Nayem, State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure head.

The risks that can hinder this process are already clear.

There is a lack of qualified personnel, which can be helped by optimizing procedures for the re-mobilization of soldiers and the creation of necessary educational programs. Otherwise, Nayem believes, there will be money, but no one to do the work.

Businesses should work more efficiently and transparently, says Andriy Boitsun, an independent consultant on the corporate governance of SOERA and roundtable moderator.

Read also: To keep people coming back. When and how to rebuild Ukrainian cities

The government has plans for the privatization and implementation of effective corporate governance. These include a section dedicated to state assets, corporate governance, and privatization issues.

A four-year plan for 2024-2027 is currently being prepared, which will be submitted to the European Commission for the development of a large-scale assistance program for Ukraine, said Oleksiy Sobolev, Deputy Economic Minister. The plans include a section dedicated to state assets, corporate governance, and privatization.

The economy of Ukraine will grow thanks to investments, in particular through privatization, said Sokolev. The government is in no hurry to sell corporate rights to all companies, adding that his ministry has developed a list of enterprises that must remain state-owned.

Companies such as Ukrposhta, Ukrenergo, and Ukrzaliznytsia played an important role during the war. Therefore, the government is considering only partial privatization of these enterprises, in particular through an IPO. Corporatization and the creation of independent supervisory boards will allow state-owned enterprises to attract credit funds with lower costs.

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
Former President Donald Trump (left) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (right). Mark Wallheiser via Getty Images

A commentator at China's state-run Global Times called Ron DeSantis a medium-sized Trump.

Chinese pundit Ding Gang said DeSantis' China policies are "no different" from Trump's.

Ding also wrote that, in his opinion, China doesn't need to "worry about the smaller-sized Trumps."

A pundit at one of China's top state-linked media outlets delivered a scathing assessment of Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday, calling the Florida governor a medium-sized Trump who poses little threat to China.

"If the real Donald Trump is an L-size candidate, then Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is an M-size Trump," wrote Ding Gang, a foreign affairs columnist for the state-run Global Times.

Ding also compared DeSantis to his one-time mentor, former President Donald Trump.

"If the large-sized Trump did not significantly impact China, there is no need to worry about the smaller-sized Trumps as all they do will only create more noise," Ding wrote in his article.

Ding went on to criticize DeSantis' policies, saying the governor "has yet to offer anything new" in his plans to manage US-China relations.

"His proposals to end China's preferential trade status, ban the export of US intellectual property and prevent US companies from sharing key technologies with China are no different from what Trump has already done and what the Democratic Party's Biden administration is doing," wrote Ding, alluding to the campaign promises made on DeSantis' website.

The Chinese internet has often voiced its support for Trump, albeit with much sarcasm. When Trump was first indicted in March, some Chinese social media users posted memes that hailed Trump as a national hero who's strengthening China by embarrassing the US.

DeSantis has, for his part, tried to be tough on China. In May, he signed a bill banning Chinese citizens from buying land in Florida, citing concerns that Chinese investors have been buying up too much farmland in the state.

Trump has been polling far better than his fellow GOP presidential candidates in spite of his ongoing legal woes. Trump was arraigned at a courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty to four charges in relation to the January 6 Capitol riot.

Representatives for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday acknowledged that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, days after the former president pleaded not guilty to criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the result.

Of course he lost, DeSantis told NBC News when pressed.

Joe Bidens the president, he added.

Though he separated himself from Trumps lie of a rigged election, DeSantis maintained that the 2020 contest was far from a perfect election. That puts him at odds with a group of top security and election officials at the Department of Homeland Security who called the race the most secure in American history in November 2020.

I dont think it was a good-run election, DeSantis said. But I also think Republicans didnt fight back. Youve got to fight back when that is happening.

DeSantis blamed everything he considered problems with the 2020 race on Trump, saying the former president didnt have control over his own government.

He took issue, among other things, with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act that Trump signed, and the $400 million it provided to the Election Assistance Commission for states to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally for the 2020 election.

The funds also covered the printing of additional ballots and envelopes for greater use of mail-in ballots.

But heres the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because of Trump turned the government over to [Anthony] Fauci, DeSantis told NBC News, in reference to the former chief medical adviser.

While DeSantis was keen on criticizing Trump over COVID, he tiptoed around Trumps criminal cases, claiming the U.S. justice system is weaponized.

He told NBCs Dasha Burns that the GOPs path to victory in 2024 includes focusing on what he sees as Bidens failures instead of Trump.

If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago  if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose, DeSantis said.

In addition to the 2020 election case, Trump has been indicted in the Justice Departments investigation into his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, and in Manhattan over his role in a hush money payment scheme involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump has denied wrongdoing. He has claimed his latest indictment is politically motivated, aimed at hurting his 2024 chances.

Republicans underperformed in the November 2022 midterm elections due to various factors, including the partys efforts to restrict or ban abortion following the Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v Wade.

DeSantis, who recently signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida, hasnt heeded that lesson. Asked if he would veto a nationwide abortion ban if it landed on his desk as president, DeSantis replied: We will be a pro-life president and we will support pro-life policies.

DeSantis extreme positions are also testing his relationship with donors. Earlier this year, Republican megadonor Thomas Peterffy said he is suspending donations to DeSantis over his stance on abortion, among other things.

Meanwhile, Trumps legal troubles have solidified his place as the GOP front-runner. DeSantis, once a strong second place in the 2024 GOP field, continues struggling.

An average of national polls in the 2024 GOP primary compiled by FiveThirtyEight has DeSantis at 14.3%, trailing Trump by nearly 40 percentage points.

Last month, DeSantis laid off a third of his campaign team to build a leaner political operation.

Related...
Florida Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis toured Wichita States National Institute for Aviation Research facility in Park City on Monday morning ahead of a high-dollar Wichita fundraising luncheon.

Gov. DeSantis was in town today for other business and asked to tour NIAR. He heard about us and wanted to see what we are doing to help the U.S. military sustain its legacy fleet of air and ground vehicles, Tracee Friess, WSUs associate vice president of strategic communications and marketing, told The Eagle in an email.

NIAR has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Defense in recent years. In March, the Army awarded the institute a $100 million contract for advancing and modernizing its tank fleet.

After the tour, DeSantis departed to court donors. Tickets for the luncheon started at $3,300 per person, with a VIP reception priced at $6,600 per person.

While Wichita billionaire Charles Koch is spending tens of millions of dollars to oppose former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary, he has not yet endorsed a challenger. The DeSantis campaign and Koch Industries did not respond to questions last week about whether the candidate would meet with Charles Koch while in Wichita.

The DeSantis campaign laid off more than a third of its staff two weeks ago in a cost-cutting measure as the second-place candidate attempts to reset his struggling campaign.

In a New York Times-Siena College national poll conducted in late July, 54% of likely Republican voters say they support Trump, compared to 17% for DeSantis.

DeSantis previously visited Kansas last September to stump for then-Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, who Gov. Laura Kelly defeated in November.

DeSantis will hold a similar luncheon in the Kansas City metro area Tuesday.

Contributing: Jonathan Shorman of The Kansas City Star
During a national teacher shortage and a tumultuous time for Florida educators, about 400 new Miami-Dade County schoolteachers filed into the Hialeah Gardens High auditorium on Monday to start a week-long orientation before the 2023-24 school year.

The public school district, which still has about 300 instructional vacancies to fill before the first day of class on Aug. 17, greeted them with pomp and circumstance.

Last year, the school district, the third largest in the nation, also welcomed about 400 new teachers at orientation. On Aug. 4 last year, 13 days before the school year started Aug. 17, the school district had 280 instructional vacancies, compared to 525 at the same time in 2021.

Superintendent Dr. Jose L. Dotres offers welcome greetings to about 450 new teachers at the New Teacher Orientation at Hialeah Gardens Senior High on Monday, August 7, 2023.

The schools Gladiator Band performed for them on a stage decorated with green and gold balloons and three huge white letters: N-T-O, standing for New Teacher Orientation.

Miami-Dade School Board Chair Maria Teresa Rojas led them in a chant, and Superintendent Jose Dotres promoted the school districts accomplishments and recounted other teachers success stories in a speech.

Give me a T! Rojas screamed, throwing both hands up in the air in fist pumps.

T! the rookies answered from the audience.

School Board of Miami-Dade County Chair Ms. Mari Tere Rojas, center, leads the audience of about 450 new teachers in a cheer as the high schools band performed at the New Teacher Orientation at Hialeah Gardens Senior High on Monday, August 7, 2023.

Together, they spelled T-E-A-C-H-E-R.

In her speech, Rojas also recalled how she launched her decades-long career with Miami-Dade Public Schools in the 1970s, sharing that her employee number began with a zero and how she felt mixed emotions during her own orientation.

I couldnt wait to start teaching, but at the same time I was afraid that I couldnt do everything that I wanted to do, she said with a smile.

Combating teacher shortage

Teachers will learn about topics like benefits and compensation, the Florida retirement system, technology, mentoring, lesson planning, the teacher evaluation system, classroom management and content-specific professional learning, said Miami-Dade school district spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla.

Dotres described the orientation as a development week so that theyre ready when they enter their classrooms.

Were excited that theyre joining us, Dotres said. Were all confident that they will be prepared, that they are going to do the very best for the students in this community.

Superintendent Dr. Jose L. Dotres listens to opening remarks as he waits to greet about 450 new teachers at the New Teacher Orientation at Hialeah Gardens Senior High on Monday, August 7, 2023.

Because of the pandemic struggles and low wages, fewer and fewer people want to teach.

The National Education Association, the nations largest union representing nearly three million educators, reported in its latest survey in February that 90% of its members reported feeling burnout as a serious problem and 55% of its members plan to leave the profession sooner than planned after COVID-19.

Florida ranks 48th in the nation for average teacher pay, according to the Florida Education Association.

READ MORE: Amid teacher shortage, culture wars and living costs, Miami-Dade teachers to get pay hike

Rojas said Monday that the school district needs to recruit, retain, reward and respect teachers. The audience burst out clapping in response.

To combat the teacher shortage, Dotres said the district built a grow-your-own program to encourage non-instructional personnel to become teachers.

The district also partnered with Miami Dade College to create teacher academies in 51 high schools so students can take dual enrollment college-credit classes that directly relate to teaching and to hire college students majoring in education during their internships instead of after graduation.

Superintendent Dr. Jose L. Dotres offers welcome greetings to about 450 new teachers at the New Teacher Orientation at Hialeah Gardens Senior High on Monday, August 7, 2023.

Facing state pressures

Amanda Rosario, a Hialeah native, attended the orientation Monday. She recently graduated from the University of Florida, and this upcoming year she will teach intensive reading in sixth and seventh grade at Hialeah Middle School.

Ive always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl, the 23-year-old said. Im proud of myself for being here.

She said she isnt that concerned about state efforts to ban certain books because she learned in college how to judge which books would work for each level.

It would probably be the biggest challenge, but Im not too worried about it, she said.

New Miami-Dade County teachers listen as Superintendent Dr. Jose L. Dotres offered his welcome greetings at the New Teacher Orientation at Hialeah Gardens Senior High on Monday, August 7, 2023.

Other teachers, however, report feeling pressured by recent laws and directions coming from the state Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis administration.

Last month, the Department of Education, which governs K-12 public schools, generated an uproar when it approved new Black history standards that suggested some slaves benefited from their enslavement. That came on top of book challenges by parents and a new law that restricts the way that teachers and students can use their preferred pronouns in schools.

Dotres said the district will train its employees on how to navigate difficult situations related to the political climate and hopes they rely on one another to solve them.

Were in a landscape where a lot things are happening, and a lot of folks are being impacted, Dotres said. One of the things that were doing in our school district is that when teachers or administrators encounter sensitive, complex issues, we have to rely on a thought partner.
Tippecanoe County Offices of the Coroner, 629 North Sixth St., Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 in Lafayette.

LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Jordan Angel Lee Loveall was three weeks shy of his 22nd birthday when he was gunned down in a drug deal turned robbery that went wrong.

Loveall died from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello said Monday about Loveall's autopsy pending results.

The manner of death was homicide.

Adrian Suarez, 23, and David Trevino, 21 the two Texas men suspected of killing Lovell  are expected to have a brief hearing Monday afternoon in the Tippecanoe County Magistrate's Court, according to court schedules.

More: 21-year-old man killed in North End shooting

Police said Saturday that Loveall met Suarez and Trevino in the 2000 block of Roosevelt Avenue about 11:15 p.m. Friday to buy drugs from the two Texans, who planned to rob Loveall.

The robbery and drug deal went south, and shots were fired, killing Loveall, according to police.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Roosevelt Avenue homicide victim died from multiple gun shots
Rudy Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York City and one-time lawyer for former President Donald Trump, has listed his Upper East Side apartment for $6.5m amid legal challenges.

Property records and court documents confirm his address is the same listed by Sothebys Realty. While the listing says the building is distinctive for its magnificent gothic-inspired terra cotta and brick facade the three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment is also distinctive for being raided by the FBI in April 2021 over Mr Giulianis alleged dealings with Ukraine.

The apartment was put up for sale just days after Mr Giulianis ex-client and ally, Mr Trump, was indicted for the third time.

Mr Giuliani himself is facing a number of legal woes. A lawyer for the 79-year-old last week acknowledged to the New York Times that his client appeared to be the person identified as Co-Conspirator 1 in the federal indictment accusing Mr Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in his favour.

Robert Costello, Mr Giulianis attorney, said the indictment eviscerates the First Amendment, and denounced the filing as election interference.

In his own words, Mr Giuliani said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who handed down the indictment, should be indicted. The people lying are the people bringing this They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights, the former mayor said on Newsmax.

His former assistant, Noelle Dunphy, filed a lawsuit in May against him for sexual assault, harassment, wage theft, and other claims. In the lawsuit, Ms Dunphy claimed that her former boss made clear that satisfying his sexual demands  which came virtually anytime, anywhere  was an absolute requirement of her employment.

Bombshell tapes and transcripts of their conversations have been revealed in recent weeks. In one such tape, the man once called Americas Mayor allegedly said, Come here, big t*ts. Your t*ts belong to me. Give them to me. I want to claim my t*ts.

Mr Giuliani also faces a defamation lawsuit in Georgia, in which he seemed to admit that he made statements that carry meaning that is defamatory per se about two of the states election workers after the 2020 election. A judge has asked him to clarify precisely what he meant, as the former mayor made seemingly incongruous and certainly puzzling caveats.

Additionally, Dominion sued Mr Giuliani for defamation in January 2021, claiming he had made defamatory falsehoods in order to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election. The company is seeking $1.3bn in damages.

The Independent has reached out to a lawyer for Mr Giuliani.
Russian forces dropped four guided aerial bombs on the village of Kruhliakivka in Kharkiv Oblast on the evening of Aug. 7, killing two civilians aged 45 and 60, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

A total of seven people were injured in the attack, according to the oblast governor.

Two civilian men and two women were hospitalized, while another 62-year-old woman received medical assistance on the spot.

Russian troops hit the village again when first responders came to the scene, Syniehubov said. Two employees of the State Emergency Service were reportedly wounded.

The air strike destroyed and damaged peoples homes, the official added. First responders are working on the spot and eliminating the consequences.

Kruhliakivka lies some 25 kilometers southeast of the city of Kupiansk, liberated by Ukraine last autumn.

Russia has concentrated its forces around Kupiansk since mid-July, trying to regain positions lost during the Ukrainian surprise counteroffensive.

Read also: Endless Russian assaults near Kreminna test Ukraines defenses

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In 2022 alone, 19,000 migrants tried to enter Poland from Belarus, 4,000 of them in June alone.

Russia and Belarus are organizing another campaign of migrant influx into the European Union through the Polish border, deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said on Aug. 6, as reported by Polish outlet RMF 24.

Wasik noted that the situation is not as chaotic as it was two years ago, but it still causes concern.

"We are talking about an operation organized by Russian and Belarusian special services, which is becoming more and more intense," he said.

Read also: Poland detains Belarusian spy collecting intelligence about the Polish ports and military facilities

Wasik pointed out that since the erection of a fence on the border with Belarus, the aggression of those trying to enter Poland has increased.

Read also: Summit in Saudi, weekend bombings, ending the row with Poland

The official added that Belarusian services are involved in damaging the border barrier by expanding and cutting beams with power tools.

Meanwhile, the head of the Polish Border Guard Service, Tomasz Praga, called Belarusian services a "criminal group that manages illegal migration" and "receives huge profits from it."

Read also: Poland to bolster military, border security over Wagner threat, says deputy PM

He said that in 2022 alone, 19,000 migrants attempted to enter Poland from Belarus, with 4,000 in June alone. The total number of migrants in 2022 was 16,000.

Praga also appealed to the Defense Ministry to send 1,000 troops to the eastern border due to the increasing attempts of illegal border crossing from Belarusian territory.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Three vloggers were arrested after staging a kidnapping prank that sparked widespread public outrage and concern, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Monday.

The PNP said it took into custody on August 1 three content creators behind Tukomi  which currently has 4.2 million followers on Facebook and 4.2 million subscribers on Youtube  based on a warrant of arrest for alarm and scandal.

The arrest stemmed from the incident that unfolded last April 6 in Barangay CAA, Las Pinas City, where Mark Heroshi San Rafael, Mark Lester San Rafael, and Eleazar Steven Fuentes staged a scene in which men wearing black bonnets kidnapped an individual on the street.

Unknown to them, PNP-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) member Police Staff Sergeant Ronnie Conmigo witnessed the "meticulously orchestrated" scenario, which prompted him to lodge a criminal complaint against the vloggers.

"Pranks that induce panic and disrupt public order cannot be taken lightly. We commend our personnel for their swift action in this instance," PNP chief Benjamin Acorda said.

The viral video is still up and has since accumulated around 817,000 views on Youtube.

While the three were released from custody on August 2 following due legal procedures and bail payment, their arraignment is scheduled on August 10 before a Las Pinas court.

"This incident serves as a poignant reminder of the imperative for responsible online conduct and the far-reaching consequences arising from flouting the law," the PNP said.
Ukraines Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has updated the statistics on damaged cultural heritage sites in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. From 24 February 2022 to 25 July 2023, 763 such objects were damaged or destroyed.

Source: This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Culture

According to the Ministry of Culture, among the objects 105 are of national importance, 595 are of local importance, and 63 are recently identified. Of those, 241 are objects of architecture, 218 are of architecture and urban planning, 185 of history, 28 are of architecture and history, 19 of monumental art, 17 of urban planning and monumental art, 18 of archeology, 27 of architecture, urban planning and history, 5 of urban planning, 2 of science and technology, 1 of landscape art, 1 of architecture, urban planning and monumental art, and 1 of architecture and monumental art.

Of the sites presented in the list, 23 monuments were completely destroyed, 625 were partially damaged, the degree of damage to 115 remains unknown.

The Ministry of Culture recorded damage to cultural heritage sites in 15 oblasts:

Kharkiv Oblast  207 objects

Donetsk Oblast  100

Kherson Oblast  76

Kyiv Oblast  69

Odesa Oblast  69

Chernihiv Oblast  63

Zaporizhzhia Oblast  35

Lviv Oblast  32

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast  28

Luhansk Oblast  25

Sumy Oblast  25

Mykolaiv Oblast  22

Khmelnytskyi Oblast  6

Vinnytsia Oblast  4

Zhytomyr Oblast  2

Less than a month ago, the Ministry of Culture reported that it had recorded damage or destruction of more than 664 cultural heritage sites, excluding cultural infrastructure, such as libraries or other institutions housed in modern buildings.

"We will be able to see the full picture after the end of the war and only after most of the war zones have been cleared and become directly accessible to researchers. As of today, we can survey and fully document mainly those objects that are located in liberated territories and territories that are relatively remote from the front line," said Deputy Minister Kateryna Chuieva.

g

Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, destroyed by a Russian missile. Photo: Hennadii Trukhanov/Facebook

UNESCO data

UNESCO draws up its own statistics on the damaged cultural sites in Ukraine. In early August, it issued an updated list confirming damage to 274 cultural sites since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

UNESCO experts recorded the most such damage in Donetsk (78 objects), Kharkiv (55 objects), Kyiv (38 objects), Luhansk (33 objects) and Chernihiv oblasts (17). They also added to their lists damage in Zaporizhzhia and Sumy (12 objects each), Odesa and Mykolaiv (8 each), Kherson (6), Zhytomyr (3), Vinnytsia (2) and Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv oblasts (1 each).

The work of UNESCO in the direction of documenting damage in Ukraine during the current war is sometimes publicly criticised by state officials. For example, after the missile attack on Lviv on the night of 6 July, when Russia hit the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, ex-Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko said: "As always, we are waiting for actions greater than just deep concern." The mayor of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, noted that he did not see representatives of the organisation protecting the historical heritage on the site of the missile strike.

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 four-legged Luna-25 lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms, is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole (Handout)

Russia said Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly fifty years.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said it had scheduled the launch of the Luna-25 lander for the early hours of Friday.

With the lunar mission, Russia's first since 1976, Moscow is seeking to restart and build on the Soviet Union's pioneering space programme.

The launch is the first mission of Moscow's new lunar project and comes as President Vladimir Putin looks to strengthen cooperation in space with China after ties with the West broke down following the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine last year.

Engineers have assembled a Soyuz rocket at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the launch of the lander, Roscosmos said.

"The Luna-25 will have to practise soft landing, take and analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The four-legged lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms (1,750 pounds) , is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole. By contrast, most previous Moon landings have occurred near the lunar equator.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon around five days after launch.

- 'Total sanctions' -

After Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as future 26 and 27 missions.

Despite the pullout, Moscow said it would go ahead with its lunar plans and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific instruments.

Speaking at the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite "total" sanctions.

The Kremlin chief insisted Moscow would similarly continue to develop its lunar programme despite current Western sanctions in response to the assault in Ukraine.

"We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin said.

In June, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, described the upcoming launch as high-risk.

"This mission involves landing at the south pole. No one in the world has ever done such things," he said during a meeting with Putin.

"The probability of successful completion of such missions is estimated at around 70 percent."

- Evacuation -

Ahead of Friday's launch, local authorities said that residents would be evacuated from the village of Shakhtinsky in the far-eastern region of Khabarovsk, where the rocket's boosters are expected to fall.

During the last Soviet Moon mission in 1976, the Luna-24 brough back samples of lunar soil.

With Sputnik, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into space in 1957 and later sent into orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

But compared with the Soviet era, modern Russia has struggled to innovate and its space industry is fighting to secure state funding while the Kremlin prioritises military spending.

Russia's space agency is still reliant on Soviet-designed technology and has faced a number of setbacks, including corruption scandals and botched launches.

Moscow is also falling behind in the global space race, facing tough competition from the United States and China.

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Russian troops have launched a missile attack on a residential building in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast.

Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram

Quote: "The city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast. Donbas, of which Russia is trying to leave only broken and scorched stones. Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit. Unfortunately, there are victims. Rescue workers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues."

Details: Zelensky called for an end to Russian terror and emphasised that Russia would be held accountable for its crimes.

             pic.twitter.com/BnAnbO1QIx     (@ukrpravda_news) August 7, 2023

Updated: Pavlo Kyrylenko, Head of the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration, said that one civilian was killed and seven others sustained injuries in a Russian missile strike on Pokrovsk.

Quote from Kyrylenko: "The Russians carried out two strikes on the city centre, less than an hour apart from one another. They damaged several nine- and five-storey buildings, houses in a private residential neighbourhood, a hotel, and several [cafes or restaurants], shops, and administrative buildings.

Attention! There is an ongoing threat of further attacks! Civilians are urgently requested to proceed to shelters."

Photo from Kyrylenko's telegram

Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said two civilians were killed in the attack, a man and a woman. Ambulances took four civilians who were injured to a hospital. Yermak explained that Russia launched two missiles on a residential building.

Updated: Yermak later posted on Telegram that only one civilian has been killed.

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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has offered a comment on the meeting to discuss Ukraines Peace Formula that was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 5-6 August. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Kremlin does not think any peace talks without Russias participation are valid, and it wants Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion to end.

Source: RIA Novosti, a pro-Kremlin Russian media outlet, citing Mariya Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; BBC

Quote from Zakharova: "We are convinced that a truly comprehensive, sustainable, and just settlement is possible only if the Kyiv regime stops fighting and [conducting] terrorist attacks (Russias way of describing the military operations conducted by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in response to its armed aggression against Ukraine  ed.), and its Western sponsors stop pumping weapons into the Ukrainian Armed Forces."

Details: Russia is dissatisfied with each of the 10 points of Ukraines Peace Formula, claiming that none of them would bring the war to an end. The Kremlin considers the Peace Formula as a "senseless ultimatum for Russia aimed at prolonging the hostilities".

The Kremlin was also offended that Russia was not invited to the Jeddah summit. "Any meetings on the issue of the Ukrainian crisis are worthless without Russias participation and without taking [Russias] interests into account," Zakharova said.

Background:

A summit to discuss Ukraines Peace Formula was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 5-6 August. National security and political advisors from 42 countries took part in the summit. Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that the summit was a step towards implementing Ukraines peace proposals.

The Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah held a series of bilateral meetings to discuss the details of the implementation of the peace initiatives it had put forward.

European officials have said that Chinas participation in the senior state advisers meeting to discuss Ukraines Peace Formula in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, had been "constructive".

Andrii Yermak held meetings with heads of over 30 delegations in Jeddah.

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 eight people have died after two Russian missiles hit a residential building in east Ukraine, on the same day Vladimir Putin has ordered the state-owned defence conglomerate to produce more attack drones.

Five people, including four civilians and one emergency official, were killed after the rockets hit an apartment complex in the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region on Monday, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

At least 31 more have been injured, as videos from outside the building show emergency services rescuing people trapped under the rubble and treating the wounded.

Writing on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Russia will be held accountable for everything it has done in this terrible war.

It came as the UKs Foreign Office told The Independent it was reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion.

Speaking to Independent TV from Kyivs presidential compound, Ms Zelenska called for an urgent crackdown on such trade to strangle Moscows funds.

Key Points

Independent TV: Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenskas interview with Bel Trew

Ukraine and Russia confirm Kyiv hits Chonhar bridge to Crimea

Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight

Volodymyr Zelensky condemns Russian attack on blood transfusion centre

Russia attacks eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days, deputy defence minister says

Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings kill five in east Ukraine, Kyiv says

Russian informant detained over Zelensky assassination plot, Kyiv says

Monday 7 August 2023 14:44 , Eleanor Noyce

A Russian informant has been detained over a plot to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv has said.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said it has detained a Russian informant who was preparing a Russian airstrike in the Mykolaiv region during the visit of the President of Ukraine.

The alleged informant on the eve of the recent trip of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv region, was gathering intelligence about the planned visit, the service said, referencing a trip Zelensky made to the region in July.

In a statement, the SBU said that the individual tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region, but agents had obtained information about the subversive activities of the suspect and subsequently introduced additional security measures.

Monitoring the communications of the woman - who has not been named, but is understood to be a resident of Ochakov in southern Ukraine - the service established that she had been tasked with locating electronic warfare systems and warehouses with ammunition of the armed forces.

The individual allegedly travelled around the district and filmed the locations of Ukrainian objects.

Zelensky attends an event on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood held on Mykhailivska Square in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 28 July 2023 (EPA)

Exclusive: Ukraines children losing the will to live, First Lady says

Monday 7 August 2023 21:30 , Maanya Sachdeva

From inside the heavily-guarded Ukraine presidential compound in Kyiv, First Lady Olena Zelenska has spoken in a rare and wide ranging interview with The Independents Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew.

During their discussion Mrs Zelenska blasted countries for circumventing Russian sanctions, saying the conflict in her nation will drag on endlessly until Russias ability to wage war is stopped.

She also warned Ukraines children are losing the will to live in an emotional plea for help, as she spoke of the struggle to retrieve the children disappeared into Russia.

Watch the full interview here:

Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenskas interview with Bel Trew

Exclusive: Foreign Office to act over Ukraine first ladys plea on sanctions

Monday 7 August 2023 21:11 , Andy Gregory

The government is reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion.

The Foreign Office has expressed its fury over sanctions-busting efforts by Russian allies to use a third country to continue trading with Moscow despite the hefty economic measures imposed since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.

The government is weighing how it can act and hopes to move imminently, The Independent can reveal, after Ukraines first lady made the plea in an interview with Independent TV, which you can watch here.

My colleagues Kate Devlin and Bel Trew have the full story here:

Foreign Office fury at sanctions-busting by Russian allies  after Zelenskas plea

US Justice Department helping Ukraine in war crimes investigations

Monday 7 August 2023 21:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

The US Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday as he reaffirmed his departments aid more than a year after the Russian invasion.

Congress recently allowed for new US flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of the United States cooperation, Garland highlighted.

We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability, he said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.

We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable, he added.

He appointed a prosecutor to serve at a center opened last month in The Hague to support nations building cases against senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression.

International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression will not issue indictments or arrest warrants for suspects but will instead support investigations already underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The Justice Department is giving wide-ranging assistance to Ukraine, from training on prosecuting environmental crimes to help developing a secure electronic case-management system for more than 90,000 suspected atrocity crimes.

Garland also touted the $500 million seized assets and over three dozen indictments the department has handed down to enforce sanctions.

Ukraine must do three things simultaneously: it must fight a war; it must investigate war crimes; and it must ensure that a just society comes out on the other side of the war, he said.

The Justice Department is honored to stand with them.

Ukraine says Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings kill five in east

Monday 7 August 2023 20:12 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two Russian missile strikes killed five people and injured 31 when they hit residential buildings in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Monday.

Videos and pictures released by Ukrainian officials showed people sorting through the rubble including a badly damaged five-story apartment building. An ambulance was on the scene treating the wounded.

According to Klymenko, four civilians died in the first attack and Donetsk emergency official was killed during the second attack.

Facade of the residential apartment that was hit by Russian rockets on Monday (Ihor Klymenko/Telegram (obtained by Kyiv Independent))

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, Klymenko said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraines presidential administration, later reported two more victims of Russian strikes in Kruhliakivka village in Kupiansk district.

Russia blasts peace talks in Saudi Arabia as pointless

Monday 7 August 2023 20:07 , Maanya Sachdeva

Russias foreign ministry on Monday criticised efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks dont have the slightest added value because Moscow - unlike Kyiv - was not invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered on Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

But without Russias participation and without taking into account Moscows interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

It repeated previous assurances that Russia is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and is ready to respond to serious proposals.

Let's make this clear. Any scenario of a ceasefire and freezing of the war in Ukraine in the current disposition will mean only one thing - Russia's actual victory and Putin's personal triumph. International law will ultimately lose any force, and the "law of the jungle" will be    (@Podolyak_M) August 7, 2023

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, ruled out Moscows previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no Kyiv compromise on that.

Restaurant frequented by journalists was target of Donetsk attacks'

Monday 7 August 2023 19:35 , Maanya Sachdeva

A Ukrainian journalist, Denys Kazansky has shared more footage from outside the residential building that was hit by Russian rockets in the eastern city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk.

He claimed Corleone, a restaurant on the ground floor of the apartment complex, was the target since it was frequented by journalists and volunteers.

At least 2 dead civilians in Pokrovsk



There was "Corleone" restaurant on the ground floor of the house that was hit by the rocket. Volunteers and journalists often visit it. It was the target



Russians repeated what they did in Kramatorsk, where they bombed RIO cafe with people pic.twitter.com/5pkZy1HVxs    (@den_kazansky) August 7, 2023

Two dead after Russian missiles hit residential building in east Ukraine, Kyiv says

Monday 7 August 2023 19:09 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two people were killed in two Russian missile strikes on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraines presidential administration, said on Monday.

As of now, it is known about two dead people - a woman and a man. The four wounded were taken away by an ambulance. Rescuers and medics are working, Yermak said in his Telegram channel.

There are victims: Russian missiles hit residential building in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 18:51 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two Russian missile strikes hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

He wrote on his Telegram channel: Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit. Unfortunately, there are victims.

Rescuers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues.

Kyiv troops hold initiative over Putins forces on frontline

Monday 7 August 2023 18:26 , Maanya Sachdeva

Ukrainian troops are creating conditions to advance forward step-by-step and have the initiative on the battlefield, Ukraines commander-in-chief said on Monday.

Kyivs defensive lines are stable with troops repelling Russian attempts to counter-attack and distract Ukrainian forces from other parts of the front, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Heavy fighting is underway, and step-by-step, Ukrainian troops are continuing to create the conditions to advance. The initiative is on our side, Zaluzhnyi said after a telephone call with US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive at the start of the summer, attempting to retake swathes of territory captured by Russia in the south and east of the country.

Officials have brushed aside criticism that they are advancing slowly, saying they are trying to avoid high casualties as they attack well-fortified Russian lines that are strewn with landmines.

ICYMI: Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 17:31 , Eleanor Noyce

Point-of-view footage shows the moment a camera operator had to run for cover during what a Russian official said was Ukrainian shelling on Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, 5 August.

The camera was following firefighters as they approached a university building in the city, which was burning after what Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin called a Ukrainian attack.

Moments later, a loud blast is heard and the camera operator runs away whilst crouching down.

Kulemzin said initial reports indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions - this has not been independently verified.

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Ukraine says Jeddah talks 'huge blow' to Russia, new meeting agreed

Monday 7 August 2023 17:05 , Eleanor Noyce

A senior Ukrainian official said on Monday that the weekends talks in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine dealt a huge blow to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks that were seen as an attempt by Kyiv to build a broader coalition of powers to support its vision of peace.

We will hold another meeting within a month, month-and-a-half and we will move towards (holding) a summit, presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promoted a set of 10 principles that Kyiv wants to serve as the basis for peace to end the full-scale war launched by Moscow in February 2022.

The principles include the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

Yermak said all the countries present at the talks in Jeddah fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity, and that only peace initiatives put forward by Ukraine were discussed at the meeting.

Ukrainian troops creating conditions to advance - commander-in-chief

Monday 7 August 2023 16:45 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukrainian troops are creating conditions to advance forward step-by-step and have the initiative on the battlefield, Ukraines commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Monday.

Zaluzhnyi also said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Ukrainian defence was stable with troops repelling Russian attempts to counter-attack and distract Ukrainian forces from other areas of the front.

China tells Russia it will uphold 'impartial' position on Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 16:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Monday that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Wangs comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday that said China would be an objective and rational voice at any international multilateral forums and actively promote peace talks. The statement came after the ministry said earlier on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped to consolidate international consensus.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to try to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine it launched in February 2022. It has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine, while the United States and NATO were sceptical.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi poses as he meets Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, 26 July 2023 (via REUTERS)

Russia blasts Saudi Arabia talks on ending war in Ukraine after Moscow gets no invitation to attend

Monday 7 August 2023 16:15 , Eleanor Noyce

Russias Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks dont have the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  wasnt invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

Read more:

Russia blasts Saudi Arabia talks on ending war in Ukraine after Moscow gets no invitation to attend

Ex-FBI agent accused of working for Russian oligarch may change plea

Monday 7 August 2023 16:05 , Eleanor Noyce

A former FBI agent accused by U.S. prosecutors of working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska may change his plea in relation to criminal charges of evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering, court records showed on Monday.

Charles McGonigal had previously pleaded not guilty. A change of plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden in Manhattan has been scheduled for 15 August.

McGonigals lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

Prosecutors in January said McGonigal, who led the FBIs counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, received concealed payments from Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch and unsuccessfully pushed in 2019 to lift U.S. sanctions on Deripaska.

The charges against McGonigal came as U.S. prosecutors ramped up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal , was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.

Japan raises concerns over Iran's nuclear enrichment and drone supplies to Russia for Ukraine war

Monday 7 August 2023 16:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Japan expressed concern on Monday over Irans advancing uranium enrichment program and the Middle East countrys suspected supplying of combat drones to Moscow for Russias war on Ukraine.

Japans Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi raised the two issues during talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said. A statement from the ministry said Hayashi appealed for Iran to act constructively in the matter but did not elaborate.

Read more:

Japan raises concerns over Iran's nuclear enrichment and drone supplies to Russia for Ukraine war

Ukraine says Jeddah peace talks 'huge blow' to Russia, new meeting agreed

Monday 7 August 2023 15:49 , Eleanor Noyce

The Ukrainian presidents chief of staff said on Monday that talks about the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia at the weekend dealt a huge blow to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

Andriy Yermak told a briefing in Kyiv that no other peace initiatives were discussed at the meeting in Jeddah apart from Ukraines, and that all countries present at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

Chief of Staff of Ukrainian Presidential Office Andriy Yermak speaks during a press conference, 29 June 2023 (REUTERS)

China's foreign minister Wang Yi holds call with Russian counterpart - ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 15:45 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the phone, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

On the Ukraine crisis, Wang told Lavrov that China will uphold an independent and impartial position, actively promote peace talks and strive to find a political settlement to the issue, according to the statement.

Russian leftist dissident critical of war designated a "terrorist"

Monday 7 August 2023 15:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Prominent Russian sociologist and leftist political activist Boris Kagarlitsky was designated a terrorist on Monday, weeks after being arrested under an article that forbids public calls for terrorist activities using the Internet.

Since starting the war in February 2022, Russia has made it a crime to discredit its armed forces and cracked down on those who oppose what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine.

Kagarlitsky, 64, known as a dissident since Soviet times, has repeatedly spoken out against the war in a magazine he edited and on his YouTube channel.

Kagarlitsky, who teaches at the private Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences, had already been designated a foreign agent since 2018, and on Monday he appeared on a list of registered terrorists on the website of Russias Federal Financial Monitoring Service.

He was detained last month by the FSB security service and remanded in custody for two months in the city of Syktyvkar, 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Polish Border Guard asks for 1,000 more soldiers on Belarus frontier

Monday 7 August 2023 15:10 , Eleanor Noyce

Polands Border Guard has asked the defence ministry to send another 1,000 troops to the border with Belarus, the deputy interior minister said on Monday, amid an increase in attempts to illegally cross the frontier.

The head of the Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, said this year 19,000 people had tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, up from 16,000 last year.

The general (Praga) asked to move another 1,000 soldiers to the Polish-Belarusian border, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said.

Poland has built a face on the border with Belarus, equipped with electronic protection.

In recent weeks, soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group have appeared near the border, which, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, is aimed at destabilising the situation on NATOs eastern flank.

End of war only possible if Kyiv lays down arms, Russia says

Monday 7 August 2023 15:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

Russia has said the end of the war in Ukraine is only possible if Kyiv stopped the hostilities and terrorist attacks and western countries ceased supplying arms, according to a report.

Moscow was commenting on the two-day talks held in Jeddah over the weekend, when over 40 countries came together to discuss the peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict.

According to The Guardian, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: The original foundations of Ukraines sovereignty  its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status  must be confirmed.

Russia also called on Ukraine to cede its occupied territories to Moscow, as per AFP.

Ukraine MP says key German lawmakers reach consensus on long-range missile supply

Monday 7 August 2023 14:45 , Eleanor Noyce

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said on Monday that key parliamentary factions in Germany had reached a consensus to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500 km (310 miles) but that an official decision was yet to come.

Germanys defence minister said last week Berlin does not plan to supply the missiles for now and that the weapons are not the most urgent priority. A ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that Berlins position had not changed.

However Yehor Chernev, a lawmaker who heads Ukraines delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said: My friends in the Bundestag just told me that key parliamentary factions have reached consensus regarding the transfer to Ukraine of long-range Taurus missiles.

Weve worked for a long time with German parliamentarians to form a support group and now finally the ice has broken. We await an official decision, he wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine is hoping to secure long-range weapons from the West to strike back at Russia which has used an array of missiles fired from hundreds of kilometres away to wreak damage on its infrastructure.

Intense defensive and offensive operations underway on front line, Zelensky says

Monday 7 August 2023 14:30 , Maanya Sachdeva

Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky has said intense defensive and offensive operations are underway on the front line, as the war enters a pivotal, new phase on the 530th day since Russia launched a special military operation in the country.

Zelensky shared updates from his daily conference call with ministers on the situation in Ukraine, where at least three people were killed after Moscow launched a multi-wave overnight assault in retaliation for attacks on its naval vessels in the Black Grain sea last week.

Writing on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Zelensky said: We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway.

The daily conference call.



We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway.



The Ministry of Defense reported on the supply of equipment and ammunition, as well as the supply calendar for pic.twitter.com/7SlGd4lR1w    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 7, 2023

He also reported we understand the enemys immediate plans, noting that he had received data from Russia that was provided by the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Foreign Intelligence Service.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Monday 7 August 2023 14:00 , 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.

Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV from Monday 7 August.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 13:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Point-of-view footage shows the moment a camera operator had to run for cover during what a Russian official said was Ukrainian shelling on Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, 5 August.

The camera was following firefighters as they approached a university building in the city, which was burning after what Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin called a Ukrainian attack.

Moments later, a loud blast is heard and the camera operator runs away whilst crouching down.

Kulemzin said initial reports indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions - this has not been independently verified.

Watch:

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Russia attacks eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days, deputy defence minister says

Monday 7 August 2023 13:06 , Eleanor Noyce

Kyiv has pushed back Putins forces around Bakhmut despite continuous artillery fire, Ukraine has said.

Hanna Maliar, the deputy minister of defence of Ukraine, said that Russia has attacked eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days.

The enemy spent almost half a million rounds of ammunition in the East last week alone, Ms Maliar said, adding that our fighters continued offensive operations on the Bakhmut front under such continuous artillery fire.

The news comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germanys IRIS-T, were proving highly effective and had already yielded significant results.

Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down a significant part of Moscows attacks over the past week, which included 65 missiles of various kinds and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds - despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted residential buildings and civilians, leaving some dead.

Kyiv struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsulas northeast coast on Sunday, Moscow-appointed officials and Ukraines armed forces said.

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 13:00 , 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.

Read more:

Heres why Putin really invaded Ukraine

ICYMI: Russias war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Monday 7 August 2023 12:30 , Eleanor Noyce

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

Jim Heintz has more:

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

In pictures: Serhiy Prytula crowdfunds for Ukrainian military

Monday 7 August 2023 12:06 , Eleanor Noyce

Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowdfunding campaigns for the Ukrainian military have made him a national hero, has been pictured alongside volunteers loading equipment for the army.

Crouching beside Ukrainian-made kamikaze drones on a runway, TV star Serhiy Prytula appears keen to taunt Moscow with a crowdfunded fleet that experts have linked with recent strikes inside Russia.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jeddah talks were successful contribution to Ukraine peace - Berlin

Monday 7 August 2023 11:44 , Eleanor Noyce

A conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine was a successful meeting because it showed the willingness of the international community to work towards ending the war, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.

Germany will also continue to engage actively including in this process, the spokesperson said at a regular news conference in Berlin.

Russian tourism to Crimea halves

Monday 7 August 2023 11:34 , Eleanor Noyce

The number of Russian tourists travelling to Crimea has decreased by close to half within weeks as Ukraine has intensified its attacks on the peninsula.

According to Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, hotel bookings fell by 45 per cent in comparison with the beginning of the month, with hotel occupancy decreasing to between 50 and 60 per cent.

People gather at the beach area of the Black Sea, in Balaklava's bay, a part of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula (AP)

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 11:15 , Eleanor Noyce

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

ICYMI: Former MP killed while defending Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 11:01 , Eleanor Noyce

A former member of Ukraines parliament was killed in combat at the Zaporizhzhian region, the government confirmed yesterday.

Serhiy Slabenko who served the parliament from 2002 to 2006 and then served as a deputy of the Volyn Regional Council was killed in action on 4 August.

He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. His body will be brought home today.

ICYMI: Ukraine replaces Soviet coat of arms with trident on towering Kyiv landmark

Monday 7 August 2023 10:50 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukraine has replaced the Soviet emblem that once adorned one of the nations most recognizable landmarks with the countrys coat of arms.

The symbolic move is part of a wider shift throughout Ukraine to reclaim the countrys cultural identity from the Soviet past amid Russias ongoing invasion.

Read more:

Ukraine replaces Soviet coat of arms with trident on towering Kyiv landmark

Ukraine says 22 soldiers return in latest prisoner swap with Russia

Monday 7 August 2023 10:40 , Eleanor Noyce

Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges on Monday, with 22 Ukrainian soldiers returning home, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiys office, said the released servicemen included two officers, sergeants and privates who fought in different parts of the front. Some of them were wounded.

A video posted on Telegram showed soldiers wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags posing for pictures and shouting Glory to Ukraine. Today we have returned 22 Ukrainian fighters home from captivity, Yermak said, adding the oldest of them was 54 years old and the youngest 23.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Yermak gave no other details on the exchange.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners in the course of the war, now in its 18th month.

Ukraine grain exports total 2.56 million metric tonnes so far 2023/24 -ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 10:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukraines grain exports have risen to 2.56 million metric tonnes so far in the 2023/24 July-June season from 2 million tonnes at the same time of the season last year, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Monday.

Exports have been affected since Russia quit a United Nations-backed grain deal last month but the ministrys data did not give a breakdown on exports since the deal collapsed.

The total volume of grain exports this season included 1.27 million tonnes of corn, 977,000 tons of wheat and 329,000 tons of barley.

That compared with exports of 1.3 million tonnes of corn, 467,000 tonnes of wheat and 180,000 tonnes of barley as of 6 August 2022, the data showed.

Exports for the entire 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tons, exceeding the previous seasons 48.4 million tons.

Most of the volume was exported via deep Black Sea ports under the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July to tackle a global food crisis worsened by Russias invasion of Ukraine and blockade of Ukrainian ports.

Russia left the deal on 17 July after saying its demands to ease sanctions on its own grain and fertiliser exports had not been met. Moscow also complained that not enough grain had reached poor countries.

A major grain grower and exporter, Ukraines grain output dropped to about 53 million tonnes in clean weight in calendar 2022, down from a record 86 million tons in 2021.

The ministry has said the crop could fall to around 46 million tonnes of grain in 2023.

Germany expands investment guarantees in Ukraine - econ ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 10:24 , Eleanor Noyce

Germany on Monday announced that its guarantees for German companies investing in Ukraine would be expanded beyond property damage.

From now on, the guarantees will also cover conversion and transfer risks for interest payments on quasi-equity loans often used by German companies to fund Ukrainian subsidiaries, a statement from the economy ministry said.

Fourteen companies are currently making use of the guarantees covering a total maximum liability of 280 million euros ($307.24 million), the ministry said, adding that it had received further applications and would process them swiftly.

China says Jeddah talks on Ukraine helped to 'consolidate international consensus'

Monday 7 August 2023 10:10 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas foreign ministry said on Monday that recent international talks in Saudi Arabia on resolving the Ukraine crisis helped consolidate international consensus.

Chinas Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis...listened to all sides opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus, the foreign ministry said in a written statement.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

Watch: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 10:00 , Tara Cobham

Ukraine says three killed in Russian shelling of Kherson and Kharkiv region

Monday 7 August 2023 09:46 , Tara Cobham

A woman was killed early on Monday when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, while two other people were killed in Russian shelling of border areas of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, officials said.

Both the city of Kherson and parts of the Kharkiv region are directly adjacent to the front line. The Ukrainian military has reported increased Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region in recent days.

"A difficult night for Kherson ... The Russian army continued to shell Kherson residents' homes in the central part of the city," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.

Prokudin said the shelling had started around midnight and lasted for several hours.

Separately, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram that two civilians had been killed and three others wounded during Russian shelling of border areas of Kharkiv region on Monday morning.

The details of the Ukrainian reports could not be independently verified.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 08:55 , Tara Cobham

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Ukraine says Western weapons seeing significant results

Monday 7 August 2023 08:13 , Tara Cobham

Ukraine is seeing "significant results" from U.S. and German air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted civilians and residential buildings.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germany's IRIS-T, were proving "highly effective" and had "already yielded significant results."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had shot down a significant part of Russia's attacks over the past week, which included 65 missiles of various kinds and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds.

Ukraine's military said later that Russia had launched 30 missiles and 48 air strikes.

"Unfortunately, there are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure suffered destruction," the military said in a statement.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a celebration of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Sunday, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine (via REUTERS)

Ukraine and Russia confirm Kyiv hits Chonhar bridge to Crimea

Monday 7 August 2023 07:57 , Chris Stevenson

Ukraine struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsula's northeast coast on Sunday, Moscow-appointed officials and Ukraine's armed forces said.

"The enemy launched a missile strike in the area of the Chonhar bridge in the north of Crimea," Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, wrote on Telegram. "One hit, part of the missile was hit by air defence." The road surface was damaged, traffic diverted and repairs had begun, he said.

Acting Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo -- another Moscow appointee -- said without providing evidence that the strike on the Chonhar bridge, one of three road links between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, involved an Anglo-French Storm Shadow missile.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine Strategic Communications Directorate said the strike damaged the road surface of the bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under its control. Ukraine struck the same bridge in June.

The directorate said Ukrainian strikes had also left the smaller Henichesk bridge sagging but provided no further details. Reuters could not immediately verify the condition of either bridge nor the munitions used.

Saldo said Ukrainian shelling wounded a civilian driver and damaged a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge serving Henichesk, the temporary administrative centre of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas. He said a village school was also damaged.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexedfrom Ukraine in 2014 and which is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

Hide and seek. Last night, dozens of russian missiles and Shaheds searched for Ukrainian planes and Storm Shadow missiles at the airfields. But it wasnt until today, in Chonhar and near Henichesk, that the russians finally found them. pic.twitter.com/Ei09qyFwR2  Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 6, 2023

Russian air defence takes down drone near Kaluga region bordering Moscow

Monday 7 August 2023 07:30 , Shweta Sharma

Russias air defence system destroyed a drone resembling an aircraft over the Ferzikovskyi district in the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app on Monday.

The Kaluga region shares a border with the Moscow region to its north. Mr Shapsha emphasised that this incident had no adverse effects on individuals or infrastructure.

There has been no impact on people or infrastructure, he said.

The origin of the launched drones remains unclear, and as of now, there has been no immediate response from Ukraine. It is worth noting that Kyiv rarely takes public responsibility for attacks conducted within Russia or on territories controlled by Russia in Ukraine.

Although Russian authorities have attributed the recent surge in drone attacks within Russia to Kyiv, there hasnt been any confirmation or official statement from Ukraine regarding this matter.

Ukraine says woman killed in Russian shelling of Kherson

Monday 7 August 2023 07:10 , Shweta Sharma

A woman was killed early Monday due to shelling by Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to statements from regional officials.

A difficult night for Kherson... The Russian army continued to shell Kherson residents homes in the central part of the city, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The shelling commenced around midnight and persisted for several hours.

In November, Ukraine regained control of Kherson city and portions of the Kherson region following months of Russian occupation. However, Russian forces consistently subjected the city and its surroundings to shelling from across the Dnipro river.

This month, another tragic incident occurred as a doctor lost their life, and a nurse sustained injuries due to Russian shelling targeting a Kherson hospital.

Blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv hit by Russian attack as three killed

Monday 7 August 2023 07:00 , Shweta Sharma

Three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre in Ukraine destroyed, as Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage in retaliation to attacks on its naval vessels in the Black Sea earlier this week.

Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday that Moscow had launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, with 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones.

We managed to shoot down a significant number of these, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, in his nightly address.

Three killed in Ukraine as Russian bomb hits blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 06:30 , Shweta Sharma

Six killed in overnight strikes across Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 05:48 , Shweta Sharma

Overnight strikes on Ukraine have now resulted in six reported deaths, with three additional fatalities attributed to the 70 missile and drone attacks conducted during the night.

Among the casualties, there was a woman in her 80s in Donetsk and two individuals in Kharkiv, as mentioned in our previous report at 10.53 am.

The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported that two people were killed in the villages of Torske and Niu-York due to Russian attacks.

Furthermore, in the Kharkiv region, a 58-year-old woman lost her life, along with the two deaths previously mentioned.

Additionally, four other people sustained injuries in the Kharkiv region as a result of the strikes.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 05:18 , Shweta Sharma

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Former MP killed while defending Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 04:52 , Shweta Sharma

A former member of Ukraines parliament was killed in combat at the Zaporizhzhian region, the government confirmed yesterday.

Serhiy Slabenko who served the parliament from 2002 to 2006 and then served as a deputy of the Volyn Regional Council was killed in action on 4 August.

He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. His body will be brought home today.

Ukraine pace talks in Saudi Arabia ends with no concrete resolution to war

Monday 7 August 2023 04:26 , Shweta Sharma

Jeddah-hosted talks for peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war concluded yesterday with no concrete resolution to invasion as Moscow did not take part in the meeting.

The participants from at least 40 countries agreed on the importance of continuing consultations to pave the way for peace, according to a closing statement released by Saudi Arabia.

Countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks.

While a senior Ukrainian official called that talks productive Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants a global summit to take place based on those principles later this year.

Speaking about the Jeddah talks, Mr Zelenskys head of staff Andriy Yermak said in a statement: We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state media as saying the meeting was a reflection of the Wests attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the Global South behind Mr Zelenskys position.

Ukraine eager to see F-16 in action as soon as possible, Zelensky says

Monday 7 August 2023 04:01 , Shweta Sharma

Volodymyr Zelensky said they are eager to see Americas F-16 fighter jets soaring in the skies as soon as possible as both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks.

The president added that he is seeing significant results from US and German air defence systems.

Russia reported it had shot down a drone heading for Moscow in the third such attack in a week, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germanys IRIS-T, were proving highly effective and had already yielded significant results.

Icymi: Blood transfusion centre hit by Russian missiles

Monday 7 August 2023 03:01 , Holly Bancroft

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of committing another war crime against Ukraine after a blood transfusion centre was hit by missiles.

The president said there are fatalities and injuries after the strike in the town of Kupiansk. Kupiansk is a railway hub that is less than 10 miles from the frontline.

(REUTERS)

Zelensky says Ukraine needs complete protection against terror as he calls for more air defence supplies

Monday 7 August 2023 01:22 , Holly Bancroft

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the country needs complete protection against terror as he calls on allies to supply air defence systems and missiles.

Speaking in a video posted on Twitter, he said: The reponsible position of each partner in supplying air defence systems and missiles is very important. Complete protection against terror is needed here.

In this week alone, Russian terrorists have already used 65 different missiles and 178 attack drones against us, including 87 "Shaheds". We managed to shoot down a significant number of them. We will do our best to make the  sky shield only stronger. Here, in our skies, we can pic.twitter.com/ApBKybPPKe    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 6, 2023

China reportedly backs further Ukraine peace talks

Sunday 6 August 2023 23:58 , Holly Bancroft

China is reportedly in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine.

According to European officials, China has apparently signalled that it is willing to attend further international talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

The progress happened at a Saudia Arabian forum this weekend, which focused on a 10-point peace plan proposed by Kyiv.

Although no concrete developments were made at the talks, the presence of Chinese representatives was seen as a win for Ukraine.

One European diplomat told the Financial Times that the mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated.

Dozens of countries, including Brazil, Turkey, the US and the EU, attended the forum.

Germany has delivered only 10% of Leopard 1 tanks promised - reports

Sunday 6 August 2023 22:49 , Holly Bancroft

Germany has delivered only around 10 per cent of the Leopard 1 tanks that it promised to Ukraine, German newspaper Die Welt has reported.

In May the country agreed to a 2.7 billion-euro military aid package with Ukraine.

Die Welt, who has tracked the delivery of the military aid, reported that in the last two months Germany has sent Ukraine just 10 out of the 110 promised Leopard 1 tanks and 12 of 18 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks.

Pictured: Ukrainian president Zelensky attends celebration of air force

Sunday 6 August 2023 22:02 , Holly Bancroft

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a celebration of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, amid Russia's continued attack on the country.

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

Road bridge to Crimea destroyed by Ukrainian missile, Moscow-appointed head of Crimea says

Sunday 6 August 2023 20:35 , Holly Bancroft

A road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea has said.

Acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, another Moscow-appointee, was reported by Russian media as saying that the strike on the bridge involved an Anglo-French Storm Shadow missile. He did not provide any evidence for his claim however.

In June Ukraine struck the same bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine that are under Russian control.

Saldo also said that another road link to the region, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait, has been shelled.

A gas pipeline which serves the area has also been damaged, he said, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Reporting by agencies.

Overnight airstrikes kill three in Ukraine as Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 19:30 , Matt Drake

Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said Sunday, while Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the areas Kupyan district late on August 5.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

Overnight airstrikes kill three in Ukraine as Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Lukashenko opponents unite, plan 'New Belarus' passports

Sunday 6 August 2023 18:30 , Matt Drake

Exiled opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko met in Poland on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of their unsuccessful post-election protests, to display unity and plan strategy including the issuance of New Belarus passports.

Set up in August 2022 by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the self-declared government-in exile has opened more than 20 alternative embassies and information centres abroad.

Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher who fled after running against Lukashenko in a 2020 vote critics called rigged, said the opposition would seek international recognition for the alternative passports.

Speaking at a hotel in Warsaw to several hundred activists, including independent media and civic groups, Tsikhanouskaya urged opposition forces abroad to unite and support the creation of a New Belarus movement.

Belarus' exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya gives an opening speech during the New Belarus conference in Warsaw (REUTERS)

Ukraine calls Jeddah talks productive, Russia calls them doomed

Sunday 6 August 2023 17:30 , Matt Drake

A senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday that talks in Saudi Arabia to make headway towards a peaceful settlement of the war with Russia had been productive, but Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, are taking part in the Jeddah talks that are expected to end on Sunday without any written concluding statement.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be the basis for peace, including the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

President Volodymir Zelenskiy has said he wants a global summit to take place based on those principles later this year.

Eighteen months after Russia invaded Ukraine, any prospect of direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow appears remote.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be the basis for peace (EPA)

Sunday 6 August 2023 16:58 , Matt Drake

Moscow unleashed a massive missile and drone barrage on western Ukraine Sunday, following through on its promise to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian tanker.Russian and Ukrainian shelling across the country overnight killed in at least six people, officials said.Separately, Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early Sunday following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.Ukraines air force said Russia launched 70 attack drones and missiles, including cruise missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraines Khmelnytsky region military administration, said three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv area, damaging several buildings and igniting a fire at a warehouse. The strike may have been intended for the citys airfield, officials said.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.

Around 20,000 without gas in Kherson region following attacks, Russian official claims

Sunday 6 August 2023 16:30 , Matt Drake

Ukraine has been accused of launching a missile strike on several bridges linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea, the RIA news agency reported.

Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo said in his Telegram channel that another of the road links, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait linking the town of Henichesk with the narrow Arabat Spit on Crimea's northeast coast, had been shelled and that a civilian driver had been wounded. It was not clear whether traffic on the bridge had been suspended.

He said a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge serving Henichesk, the temporary administrative centre of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, had also been damaged, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

The damaged Chonhar bridge connecting Russian-held parts of Ukraines Kherson region following previous attack in June (via REUTERS)

Multiple explosions hit road bridges between Crimea and occupied Ukraine - according to reports

Sunday 6 August 2023 15:33 , Matt Drake

The Chonhar bridge that links Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike on Sunday, the RIA news agency reported.

Ukraine previously struck the same bridge, one of a handful of links between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, in June.

According to the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, multiple explosions have been reported on critical road bridges.

Also hit was the Arabat Spit which is on Crimea's east coast and also the city of Henichesk, CNN reported.

Russian-installed leader of Ukraine's Kherson region Vladimir Saldo pictured in June inspecting the damaged Chonhar bridge (via REUTERS)

Pictures of damage to unversity hit in Donetsk strike

Sunday 6 August 2023 14:45 , Sam Rkaina

Flames engulfed a university buildings wooden roof in Donetsk following Ukrainian shelling on Saturday, said an emergency official in the Russia-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.

As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russia-installed mayor, said on Telegram.

We are using 12 water tanks, three ladders and 100 firefighters, said Alexei Kostrubitsky, the Russia-installed emergency minister for the region that Moscow calls the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

(REUTERS)

(REUTERS)

Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 14:15 , Sam Rkaina

Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the areas Kupyan district late on August 5.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

A woman in her eighties was also killed by Ukrainian shelling in Russian-held Donetsk, the citys Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said Sunday. Moscows Vnukovo airport located 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of the Russian capital briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down in the airspace around the city.

The drone was destroyed by air defense systems in the Podolsk region of the Moscow suburbs, the Russian defense ministry said.

Authorities in Ukraine, which generally avoids commenting on attacks on Russian soil, didnt say whether it launched the raid.

Flights were last halted at the airport on July 30, when two drones crashed into the Moscow City business district after being jammed by Russian air defenses.

Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:50 , Sam Rkaina

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.

Ukraine two months into gruelling counteroffensive

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:47 , Bel Trew in Ukraine

Ukraine is two months into a gruelling counteroffensive to try to push out Russian forces occupying almost a fifth of its territory in the south and east.

Progress has been slower than previous assaults as Russian forces have spent the last year building up entrenched defence lines.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that while Ukraine had recaptured half the territory that Russia had initially seized, this counteroffensive was in its early days and would take shape over several months.

Ukraine said on Friday Kyiv was working to take land near the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut.

This weekends intense bombardment came after Moscow vowed to retaliate  after a Ukrainian sea drone hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea and a major Russian sea port on Friday.

Both attacks reportedly halted marine traffic and vehicles using Russias Kerch Bridge which connects the Russian mainland to occupied Crimea.

Msoows Vnukovo airport, located around 15km southwest of Moscow, suspended flights briefly on Sunday morning after Russia claimed it shot down a drone in the airspace around the city.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged targeting of Vnukovo airport. An official with Ukraines Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press that it was behind the earlier attack on the sea tanker, which was transporting fuel for Russian forces.

Ukraines air force said on Telegram its air defence had destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight Saturday. It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not disclose any further information on them.

Russian occupied territory in Ukraine, Moscow-appointed authorities said a woman in her 80s was killed by Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk where a university building was also set alight.

Three killed in Russian revenge attacks

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:45 , Bel Trew in Ukraine

At least three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre bombed in Ukraine, as Russia unleashed a wave of intense drone and missile strikes after vowing to retaliate for a Ukrainian hit on Russian tankers in the Black Sea.

Moscows second-largest airport also briefly suspended flights Sunday morning following what the Kremlin said was a foiled Ukrainian drone attack. The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed publicly whether they were behind either raid.

For most of the weekend, air sirens blared across Kyiv, and regions, from the south to the west, as Russia launched one of its heaviest and most widespread aerial bombardments in weeks.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday that in total Russian forces had launched 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as cruise and hypersonic missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea.

Russian shelling in the northern region of Kharkiv also killed three people.

(via REUTERS)

Russia says Western bid to get Global South to back Ukraine is doomed

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:19 , Sam Rkaina

Moscow has said that weekend talks in Saudi Arabia including the U.S., China and India aiming to establish principles for a peaceful end to Russias war in Ukraine were a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv.

Senior officials from some 40 countries were attending the two-day meeting, part of a push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers among countries that have been reluctant to take sides in the conflict. Russia was not invited.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS calling the meeting a reflection of the Wests attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelenskyi formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset.

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

At its heart is a withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraines territorial integrity.

Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry

Sunday 6 August 2023 12:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Sunday 6 August 2023 11:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

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.

Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV from Monday 7 August.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Three killed in a night of attacks across Ukraine

Sunday 6 August 2023 11:20 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said on Sunday, as Kyivs military exchanged fire with Russian occupation forces.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion centre in the areas Kupyan district late on Saturday.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Mr Zelensky wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life.

A woman in her 80s was also killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-held Donetsk, the citys Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said on Sunday.

The attack also set alight the main building of the M Tugan-Baranovsky University of Economics and Trade, said the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed Donetsk Peoples Republic, Denis Pushilin.

Ukraine emblem raised to replace Soviet symbol on Kyiv's Motherland Monument

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:45 , Sam Rkaina

Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:29 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine with 70 air-assault weapons including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones, Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday, and at least 10 missiles appear to got through air defences.

Local media said a worker at a grain silo had been wounded in the overnight attack, which appeared to be focused on an area of western Ukraine, far from the front line.

In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons, the Air Force said. Information about Kinzhals is classified, the Ukrainian military noted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said people had been killed and wounded in an earlier hit to a blood transfusion centre in the town of Kupiansk, a railway hub fewer than 10 miles from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region.

Rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene, he said on Saturday evening, describing the strike as a war crime. He did not say how many casualties there were.

(REUTERS)

Moscow mayor says hostile drone destroyed by air defences

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:14 , Sam Rkaina

A hostile drone was destroyed by air defences as it approached Moscow on Sunday, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Sobyanin wrote on messaging app Telegram that the drone approached Moscow around 11am (8am GMT).

Russia accused Ukraine of two drone attacks on its capital last week.

Moscows Vnukovo airport suspends flights

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Moscows Vnukovo airport suspended flights on Sunday, citing unspecified reasons outside of its control, the TASS news agency reported.

Vnukovo previously carried out similar suspensions when the Russian capital was attacked by drones last week.

Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Sunday 6 August 2023 09:45 , Sam Rkaina

Russia used 70 air-assault weapons in overnight attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 09:20 , Sam Rkaina

Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, using 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles and Iranian-made drones, Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday.

The Air Force - which is celebrated in a holiday on Sunday - said on the Telegram messaging channel that Ukraines air defence destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight.

In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons, the Air Force said.

It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, but would not disclose further information on them.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any damage from the overnight attack or what happened to the 10 cruise missiles that were not shot down.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told the national Ukrainian broadcaster that one of the key targets for Russias overnight attack was the Khmelnytskiy region.

Now, it is the Starokostiantyniv airfield that haunts the enemy, Ihnat said.

Russia had earlier targeted the Starokostiantyniv military airfield in the Khmelnytskiy region at the end of July.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:45 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth  to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance.

But Europes largest land war in decades  and the biggest one since the dawn of the digital age  is taking place in a superheated information space. And modern communications technology, theoretically a force for improving public knowledge, tends to multiply the confusion because deceptions and falsehoods reach audiences instantly.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson cells tip of iceberg

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:25 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russias eight-month occupation of Kherson are just the tip of the iceberg, an international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned.

The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres  including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution  are evocative of genocide, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week.

The UNs special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state.

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson tip of iceberg

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:05 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Russia destroys two drones over Bryansk region -local governor

Sunday 6 August 2023 07:39 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russias air defence system destroyed two aircraft-type drones over the Karachevskyi district in the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine, said on Sunday.

There were no damages or casualties, Bogomaz said on the Telegram channel.

It was not clear who launched the drones, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russia-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Russian authorities say the Bryansk region - which borders both Ukraine and Belarus - has seen multiple attacks by Ukrainian forces and pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 17 months since Russia launched its invasion on Ukraine.

Half of 30,000 Russian paratroopers fighting in Ukraine likely killed or wounded, says UK MoD

Sunday 6 August 2023 07:01 , Arpan Rai

At least 50 per cent of the 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed in Ukraine last year have been killed or wounded, according to the figures shared by top Russian General, the British Ministry of Defence said today.

It pointed to the annual celebrations of Russias Airborne Forces (VDV) Day earlier this week on Wednesday which the ministry says were overshadowed by an apparently unsanctioned disclosure of the scope of the casualties the elite force has suffered in Ukraine.

In a recorded address for VDV Day, the VDVs Commander-in-Chief General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky said that 8500 paratroopers had been wounded and later returned to duty or had refused to leave the front line at all, the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

It added that the video was quickly deleted from the Russian MoDs official channels and that General Teplinsky did not comment on how many troops had been killed or were too seriously wounded to return to duty.

However, extrapolating Teplinksys figures endorses the assessment that at least 50 per cent of the 30,000 paratroopers who deployed to Ukraine in 2022 have been killed or wounded, the ministry claimed.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Sunday 6 August 2023 06:47 , Arpan Rai

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Zelensky condemns Russian attack on blood transfusion centre

Sunday 6 August 2023 05:45 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region which targeted a blood transfusion centre, leaving several dead and injured.

Russias guided air bomb against a blood transfusion centre in Ukraine. This evening, the Kupiansk community in Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire, Mr Zelensky said without mentioning the exact death toll.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression. Beasts that destroy everything that simply allows to live. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life, he said.

Russia's guided air bomb against a blood transfusion center in Ukraine. This evening, Kupiansk community in Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire.



This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/aCgxAbJx8P    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 5, 2023

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson cells tip of iceberg

Sunday 6 August 2023 05:05 , Arpan Rai

An international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned that the harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russias eight-month occupation of Kherson are just the tip of the iceberg.

The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres  including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution  are evocative of genocide, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week.

The UNs special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state.

Andy Gregory reports:

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson tip of iceberg

Russia vows to punish Ukraine for attack near Crimean Bridge

Sunday 6 August 2023 04:37 , Arpan Rai

Russia has vowed to punish Ukraine for using a sea drone to attack a civilian tanker near the Kerch Strait in what it said was a terrorist act that threatened the lives of the crew and risked a large-scale environmental disaster.

The Kyiv regime, meeting no condemnation from Western countries and international organisations, is actively applying new terrorist methods, this time in the waters of the Black Sea, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished.

Earlier yesterday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyivs attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, and threatened to hand Ukraine an ecological catastrophe.

Officials on both sides confirmed a Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives had struck a Russian fuel tanker overnight on Friday near a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea, the second such attack in 24 hours.

Blinken discusses Black Sea grain initiative with Turkish foreign minister, says State Department

Sunday 6 August 2023 04:04 , Arpan Rai

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call yesterday with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, discussed the Black Sea grain initiative, peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Swedens entry into Nato, the State Department said.

In a statement, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the State Department, conveyed that Secretary Blinken expressed gratitude to Turkey for its prominent role in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. He also highlighted the pressing necessity to confront the Kremlins inhuman use of food as a weapon of war.

The Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian Ports endorsed by the United Nations, was signed in July 2022 in Istanbul. This initiative aims to reestablish Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, even amidst the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The secretary also thanked Turkiye for its commitment to send Swedens Nato accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for ratification, Mr Miller added.

Russia official blames Ukraine cluster shells for Donetsk fire

Sunday 6 August 2023 03:42 , Arpan Rai

A university building in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine was up in flames late last night following Ukrainian shelling, the Russian-installed mayor of the city said.

As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the university of economics and trade is on fire, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor said on Telegram.

He said preliminary information indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions. Reuters could not verify the details of his account.

Ukraine, which received supplies of cluster munitions from the United States last month, has vowed to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Sunday 6 August 2023 03:00 , Joe Middleton

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth  to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere
Russian attacks on Ukrainian airfields are futile because Ukrainian aircraft relocate promptly before a strike comes, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Aug. 6.

The recent Russian attack on the air base near Starokonstantyniv wasn't the first one, because it is a tactical aviation brigade's base, he said.

"However, our aircraft move promptly and our pilots know how to deal with the enemy in the current condition. We have dozens of air bases at operational levels in Ukraine. Therefore, the enemy will not be able to destroy our aviation so easily," Ihnat said.

Read also: Russia attacks Dnipro with Iskander missiles

The Ukrainian Air Force has certain procedures to counter Russian attacks, in particular, constant relocation of aircraft, Ihnat said.

"I believe that our pilots will soon show Russians their place," he added.

Russia launched several barrages of missiles and drones against Ukraine overnight on Aug. 6.

The Russian military carried out three attacks on Khmelnytsky Oblast in Ukraine's west on Aug. 5 alone. Most of the missiles were shot down. However, civilian facilities were damaged in Starokonstantyniv District by blast waves.

A total of 57 out of 70 weapons used against Ukraine were downed in an attack overnight on Aug. 6. The Ukrainian Air Force said air defences downed 57 of aerial targets, including 30 cruise missiles and 27 Shahed suicide drones.

It was not the first time Russians targeted Starokonstantyniv air base. Last time, they launched 13 missiles at it on June 23. All of the attacking missiles were shot down.

However, they did hit the air base on May 29. The Ukrainian Air Force reported "some damage" and a fire, but revealed no further information for security reasons.

Read also: Death toll from Russian missile attack on Sumy increases to two, another 20 people injured

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
The town of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has been under heavy Russian attack on 7 August, which killed one person and left another one injured.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "The aggressor has been terrorising Nikopol since early morning. They are attacking the city with heavy artillery. Unfortunately, the enemy bombardments ended in tragedy once again. A man, 36, has been killed... Another resident of the city has been injured. He's 68. His condition is stable, so he will be recovering at home."

Details: Private residential buildings, outbuildings and personal vehicles were damaged. A gas pipeline and power lines were hit, Lysak added.

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Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia's Belgorod Oblast, alleged on Aug. 7 that Russian air defense downed a drone as it approached the city of Belgorod.

Gladkov claimed that there were no casualties or damage, but did not provide further details. The Russian city is less than 35 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Local Telegram channels in Belgorod reported the sound of explosions earlier in the day.

The governor of Russia's Kaluga Oblast, Vladislav Shapsha, also reported on Aug. 7 that Russian air defense shot down a drone.

The previous day, on Aug. 6, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin claimed that a drone headed to Moscow was shot down.

Read also: From Moscow to Novorossiysk: The list of attacks on Russian soil

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Russian invading forces shelled 14 districts of Sumy Oblast over the past 24 hours, the regional military administration reported on Telegram on Aug. 6.

In total, 21 enemy attacks were recorded on Sunday. No casualties were reported, however, several households were damaged as a result of the shelling.

Read also: Police publish harrowing video of first minutes after Russian missile attack on Sumy

The Russians targeted the districts of Krasnopillia, Bilopillia, Khotin, Seredyna-Buda, Shalyhyne, Esman, and Novoslobidske, employing mortars and artillery. A total of 139 explosions were recorded.

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Fire starts in Kherson city center as a result of hostile shelling

The Russian invaders shelled the center of Kherson three times overnight on Aug. 7, killing a woman and injuring another 11 people, including two rescuers, the regions governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, reported on Telegram.

The Russian troops struck a nine-story residential building and killed a woman. The attack started a fire, Presidential Office head, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram.

Read also: Bridges at Chonhar and Henichensk reported to have been hit by missiles

In a horrific night for residents, Russia attacked the same civilian apartment block three times overnight, leading to eight residents reporting a neurotic reaction and hospitalizing one disabled person, Prokunin added.

Two rescuers suffered injuries while putting out the resulting fire. They were taken to hospital due to heatstroke.

Read also: Military expert explains why Odesa, Mykolayiv arent protected from shelling  opinion

The second attack on the building came 30 minutes later, with an artillery shell killing a 59-year-old woman and giving a 60-year-old man a contusion.

The building was hit for an incredible third time a short while later, with a 93-year-old woman receiving trauma and a contusion as a result.

Russia also shelled the center of Kherson on Aug. 3. They twice hit St. Catherines Cathedral and destroyed a trolleybus. Three passengers were injured, as well as four rescuers who suffered from repeated shelling while extinguishing the flames.

The evening, occupiers hit a shopping mall and a medical facility in Kherson's center.

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J-10 fighters take off at sunrise

China Military Online) 09:06, August 07, 2023

A J-10 fighter jet attached to an aviation brigade of the air force under the PLA Southern Theater Command taxies onto the flightline before takeoff during a recent flight training exercise. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Hou Kaiwen)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who was foreign affairs secretary from 2017 to 2018, on Monday said there are several steps Manila can take following Chinas latest aggression in Ayungin Shoal, including summoning the Chinese ambassador.

On Saturday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannon against the formers vessels that were escorting indigenous boats chartered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to deliver food and supplies to military troops stationed on BRP Sierra Madre.

Dangerous maneuvers by the Chinese also prevented the second boat from unloading supplies, the AFP said.

Following these events, Cayetano told CNN Philippines The Source Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo can summon the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines for a dialogue.

Its important to show our indignation, its important to show that this is unacceptable. But it should actually include a very heartfelt dialogue, the senator said, noting that the officials should discuss what the problem is and how it can be solved in the short run.

While there was an earlier push to raise the West Philippine Sea before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September, Cayetano said there may be a better venue for the matter to be discussed.

READ: Senate adopts resolution 'strongly condemning' Chinas harassment, other incursions in WPS

He noted that the UNGA is most effective if you deal with consensus, meaning no one will object but abstaining is allowed.

If the call pushes through, surely there will be parties who will go against it, namely China and its allies, Cayetano pointed out.

It would be counterproductive because if you raise to that level and China being a superpower, even if it doesnt call itself that, its going to be more belligerent, the senator explained. Kung gusto talaga natin ng multilateral na may mangyayari talaga (if we really want a multilateral approach that will really lead to an outcome) or strategically good for us, ASEAN is one good venue.

Talks regarding the South China Sea code of conduct should also continue as this will not only benefit the Philippines when dealing with Beijing, but also with other claimant countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan, Cayetano said.

If China were to withdraw from the disputed waters now, the Philippines will not gain a strategic advantage since the other claimants have been also reclaiming areas and are militarizing these, he noted.

Cayetano said the government should not only have a strategy against China, but we also have to have a strategy of working and being closer to Vietnam and Malaysia, but working it out that there is no military threat to us.
Moscow-backed Orthodox Metropolitan Pavlo (Petro Lebid) was released from custody on a Hr 33.3 million ($290,000) bail, Lebid's lawyer Mykyta Chekman said on Aug. 7.

According to Chekman, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) collected donations from the parishioners to post bail for Lebid, with over 1,000 people allegedly contributing to the cause.

Metropolitan Pavlo is accused of inciting hatred, justifying Russia's war against Ukraine, and discriminating against citizens based on their religious beliefs.

He was taken into custody with the option to post bail on July 14 after spending more than three months under a 24-hour house arrest.

Read also: Taras Tarasiuk: How the Russian Orthodox Churchs covert actions against Ukraine have failed

Following the court's hearing that led to his detention, Metropolitan Pavlo said he didn't have the money for bail. However, according to prosecutors, Lebid owns property worth a total of around $1.6 million.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said that Lebid had repeatedly offended the religious beliefs of Ukrainians, humiliated the views of believers of other confessions, and supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Lebid has held consistent pro-Russian views and called for "unity" with Russia. He has also said that "Crimea has never been Ukrainian."

Since November last year, the SBU has conducted dozens of raids on Moscow Patriarchate churches, including the 980-year-old Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. During the searches, the SBU found Russian propaganda, xenophobic literature, as well as Russian passports of the church's leaders and documents with pro-Russian ideological messages.

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Elsina Khayrova has been embroiled in an acrimonious divorce fight after splitting from her husband

A Russian moguls wife led a court on a merry dance trying to hide 1 million of handbags in a bitter divorce battle over the division of assets.

Dmitry Tsetkov, 42, and his wife Elsina Khayrova, 36, a former model and the daughter of a Russian MP, have been embroiled in an acrimonious divorce battle over tens of millions of pounds of assets following their split last year after more than a decade of marriage

The couples assets included a property empire, comprising a 22 million mansion on the Wentworth estate in Surrey, homes in London worth 18 million and properties in Dubai and Cyprus, along with millions of pounds worth of high-end cars, jewellery and art.

However, Ms Khayrova failed to include her sizeable handbag collection in evidence. It has now emerged this comprised more than 150 bags worth 943,095.

She lied during a hearing in February 2023 that she owned just 20 handbags, repeating the lie to the court again in May 2023.

The judge also told of how she downplayed the bags and said it would be disproportionate to have them valued.

In a slating judgment handed down at the High Court, Mr Justice Peel said the case had been infected by [Ms Khayrovas] dishonesty from start to finish.

Dmitry Tsvetkov marries Elsina Khayrova in 2009

He accused her of being guilty of sustained duplicity and of having led the court on a merry dance about handbags through her lies.

The couples marriage ended in September 2020, when Ms Khayrova asked her husband for a divorce.

The Telegraph reported that year that Mr Tsvetkov had complained his marriage was under strain after he was placed on a Kremlin wanted list accused of unknown offences.

He said he was the victim of a campaign of intimidation and death threats in a row over the ownership of a coal mine in Siberia, worth 500 million.

Ms Khayrova is the daughter of Rinat Khayrov, the Russian politician who worked in the countrys defence ministry before being elected to parliament in 2011, where he served until 2021.

Upon separating from her husband, Ms Khayrova almost immediately prevented Mr Tsvetkovs access to the family bank accounts and credit cards, the court was told.

Ms Khayrova poses with a handbag

She transferred some of their Cypriot properties into her mothers name, which the judge said he regarded as an obvious attempt to place assets beyond her husbands reach.

The couple also owned a number of valuable items of jewellery, including investment grade diamonds and a Patek Phillipe watch, which were held in a Harrods Safe Deposit box to which Mr Tsvetkov held the keys

The High Court was told how Ms Khayrova persuaded Harrods staff that the keys had been lost and obtained a set for herself, failing to tell her husband she had done so and omitting the items from evidence.

Ms Khayrova also passed confidential information to Rustem Magdeev, her husbands former business partner, during a separate legal case over a 15 million diamond bought at the Graff boutique in Cyprus.

Mr Tsvetkov  an entrepreneur who first came to the UK in 2004 and was granted a British passport and indefinite leave to remain five years later  has not been able to make meaningful sums of money since June 2022 as a result of his wife blocking him from the family bank accounts, the court was told.

But describing him as clever, resourceful and well-connected with extremely wealthy friends, Mr Justice Peel told the court that Mr Tsvetkov was optimistic that he would soon be able to begin trading again, probably in art.

Failed coffee business

The court was told that Ms Khayrova did not work during their marriage and that a coffee business she tried to set up during the divorce proceedings had failed.

There is no real indication that her next business proposition, a private members beauty club, is likely to be financially fruitful, added the judge.

At the beginning of the divorce case in 2021, Mr Tsvetkov accused his wife of taking his passport after he left the family home in Knightsbridge and refusing to give it back. She claimed he kept millions of pounds worth of paintings, jewellery and luxury cars.

Mr Justice Peel ultimately ruled that Ms Khayrova carries the greater responsibility for this expensive litigation and ordered her to pay half of her husbands 1,761,488 legal bill.

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The governor of Russia's Kaluga Oblast, Vladislav Shapsha, reported on Aug. 7 that air defense shot down a drone over the region's Ferzikovo district at 2:30 a.m. local time.

"There are no consequences for people and infrastructure," Shapsha claimed.

The district's center, Ferzikovo, is more than 300 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

On Aug. 6, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin claimed that a drone headed to Moscow was shot down around 11 a.m. local time.

Flights were redirected to other airfields near Moscow "for safety reasons" as of 10:26 a.m. local time on Aug. 6, Russian state media TASS wrote.

TASS also reported that temporary restrictions were imposed on the departures and arrivals of aircraft at Vnukovo International Airport, which is located 30 kilometers to the southwest of Moscow's city center.

Read also: From Moscow to Novorossiysk: The list of attacks on Russian soil

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Nearly 28 combat encounters between Ukrainian Defence Forces and the Russians occurred on 6 August.

Source: General Staff report

Quote: "During the day, the enemy launched 2 missile attacks, 33 aircraft strikes and 50 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems on the positions of our forces and on settlements."

"On the Kupiansk front, our soldiers are firmly holding the defence. They have successfully repelled enemy attacks near the settlements of Synkivka, north of the settlement of Ivanivka in Kharkiv Oblast and south of the settlement of Novoselivske in Luhansk Oblast."

"On the Bakhmut front, the enemy was conducting offensive actions near the settlements of Andriivka, Kurdiumivka and Druzhba in Donetsk Oblast to no avail."

"On the Avdiivka front, the Defence Forces have successfully repelled Russian attacks near the settlement of Avdiivka under dense aircraft and artillery fire."

"On the Zaporizhzhia front, the enemy was conducting offensive actions near the settlement of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast to no avail."

Details: Meanwhile, the Ukrainian forces continue to conduct the offensive operation on the Melitopol and Berdiansk fronts and are gaining foothold on the achieved borders.

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Two trucks carrying Russian invaders corpses have arrived at a morgue in the city of Chaplynka from the Kherson front.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Quote: "The enemy continues to suffer heavy losses, trying to hide them in every possible way.

For example, two trucks carrying the bodies of Russian army servicemen from the Kherson front arrived at the morgue in the temporarily occupied settlement of Chaplynka, Kherson Oblast."

Details: The General Staff noted that the corpses of the Russian occupiers were buried in two different locations.

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One person has been killed and 12 others injured as a result of a Russian attack on the city of Kherson on the night of 6-7 August.

Source: Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram; Andrii Yermak, Head of the Presidents Office, on Telegram; Roman Mrochko, Head of Kherson City Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "Tough night in Kherson. The Russian army continued to fire on Kherson residents' homes in the central part of the city."

Details: Prokudin said Russian forces fired on a residential building at around 00:50. As a result of this attack, eight residents have been diagnosed to be suffering from shock. One person with limited mobility was taken to hospital.

Two rescue workers were wounded during the extinguishing of a fire caused by the Russian strike. They were taken to hospital with heat exhaustion.

Russian forces continued their attacks on the city half an hour later. A 59-year old woman has been killed, and a 60-year old man has suffered concussion as a result of an artillery projectile hitting the building.

The Russian occupiers attacked the building again at around 03:15, wounding a 93-year-old woman. She was taken to hospital with a mine-blast injury and concussion.

Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, reported that the Russians hit a nine-storey residential building during the night, as a result of which a fire broke out. Yermak also posted a photo of a building on fire.

Roman Mrochko, Head of Kherson City Military Administration, added that a total of 12 people have been injured.

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The Russian invaders increased bombardments in eastern Ukraine last week, with the Kupiasnk front, where the Russians are trying to regain lost positions, remaining the hottest.

Source: Hanna Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine, live with the Military Media Center

Quote from Maliar: "Actually, for the whole of last week, the East was the epicentre of hostilities. The Kupiansk front was probably the hottest. And the enemy was trying to regain the positions it lost last autumn."

Details: As Maliar said, the Russians bombarded the East more than 9,000 times last week. "The enemy spent almost half a million rounds of ammunition in the East last week alone. Our fighters continued offensive operations on the Bakhmut front under such continuous artillery fire," the Deputy Minister of Defence emphasised.

Maliar also added that the Russians want to regain the positions they had lost in Kharkiv Oblast. "And they have such a plan; they want to regain those territories in Kharkiv Oblast that were lost after we liberated them," she said.

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The Russian military fired on the village of Kucherivka in Kharkiv Oblast, killing two people and wounding three.

Source: Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian Presidents Office, on Telegram; Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration

Quote from Yermak: "Russians fired on the village of Kucherivka, Kupiansk district, hitting a residential building. We know that two people were killed and three wounded".

Details: Syniehubov said that fighting continues on the Kupiansk frontline: "Yesterday, our military repelled the enemy's attempt to attack east of Petropavlivka. The occupants retreated with losses."

A 31-year-old civilian man was wounded on Sunday 6 August as a result of attacks on Kupiansk.

Private homes were damaged and a fire broke out in the village of Kucherivka in Kupiansk district.

A 61-year-old woman and her 65-year-old husband were wounded in the village of Putnikove in Kupyansk district.

A 57-year-old woman died as a result of a guided aerial bomb strike on the village of Podoly, Kupiansk district. A 66-year-old man was seriously wounded and hospitalised.

As a result of a guided aerial bomb strike on the village of Petropavlivka in Kupiansk district, the buildings of a farm were damaged and a fire started.

In addition, bombardment of the village of Cherneshchyna in Izium district damaged a farm building.

A building belonging to a local business in Kholodnohirsk district was damaged on Sunday [6 August  ed.] as a result of a morning attack on Kharkiv by an S-300 missile. There were no casualties.

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The Russians fired a missile at the Synelnykove district of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on the night of 6-7 August, causing a fire.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration

Quote: "Last night, the Russians fired a missile at the oblast. The explosion occurred in Synelnykove district.

A fire broke out, which firefighters have already extinguished. Other consequences of the attack are being investigated."

Details: Lysak clarified that there were no casualties.

On the morning of 7 August, the Russian army attacked Myrove hromada in Nikopol district with heavy artillery [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories  ed.].

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Russian invaders have struck a residential building in Pokrovsk with Iskander [mobile short-range ballistic missile system] missiles on the evening of 7 August.

Source: Zelenskyy in a video address

Quote from Zelenskyy: "A rescue operation is underway in Pokrovsk, Donetsk [Oblast], after Russian missile strikes. Iskander missiles against ordinary residential buildings."

Details: Zelenskyy also said that the State Emergency Service employee killed by the second strike on the city is Colonel Andrii Omelchenko, Deputy Head of the State Emergency Service of Donetsk Oblast.

Quote from Zelenskyy: "I would like to recognize the rescue [workers] today. Our employees of the State Emergency Service. Those who work in different cities of Ukraine for the sake of life. To make the Russian terror lose, because lives are saved.

Employees of the State Emergency Service of Kherson [Oblast]: civil protection service Sergeant Vitaliy Murzenko and civil protection service Lieutenant Volodymyr Yavtushenko. Employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine of Kharkiv [Oblast]: civil protection service Master Sergeant Serhiy Hladkyi and civil protection service Colonel Andriy Solianikov. Employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine of Dnipropetrovsk [Oblast]: civil protection service Sergeant Kostiantyn Poturaiko and civil protection service Captain Vitaliy Denysenko.

All of them have repeatedly participated - directly participated  in [dealing with the aftermath] of terrorist attacks, in saving the lives of our people. And, of course, all the employees of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa regions. I thank the entire staff of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine!"

Background:

In the evening, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the city centre of Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast.

As a result of the strike, 5 civilians were killed and 31 injured. Deputy head of Ukraines State Emergency Service (SES) in Donetsk Oblast was killed. Police officers, rescue workers and a child were injured.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, Aug. 7) The government is looking to raise a portion of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) affected by recent heavy flooding to prevent it from happening again.

"Approved ang pagtaas ng tulay sa bandang San Simon ng NLEX. Approved," President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said during a briefing in San Fernando, Pampanga.

[Translation: The raising of the bridge in San Simon of the NLEX is approved.]

In the same briefing, Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC) president Rogelio Singson said the Department of Public Works and Highways agreed to raise a portion of NLEX in San Simon.

"(The) DPWH, based on my conversation yesterday, pumapayag na sila for us to raise that portion by 0.7 (meters) and mag-iiwan kami ng clearance ng 4.5 meters," said Singson.

[Translation: The DPWH, based on my conversation yesterday, they allowed us to raise that portion by 0.7 meters and well leave a clearance of 4.5 meters.]

He said the improvement will allow water to pass under the elevated part, adding that the affected portion is about 200 meters long.

Marcos said alternate routes will have to be figured out.

During the briefing, the president said government agencies, including local officials, should deploy more attuned solutions amid threats of climate change, with Bulacan and Pampanga suffering from widespread flooding due to recent typhoons and enhanced habagat.

READ: Bulacan placed under state of calamity due to 'Egay' floods

READ: Damage from recent typhoons prompt Pampanga, Cagayan LGUs to declare state of calamity

Hindi na tayo babalik sa dati, ganito na ang climate change. Hindi maaari na gagawin natin yung dati nating ginagawa, the president said at a situation briefing in San Fernando, Pampanga.

[Translation: We cant go back to the past, this is climate change. We cant apply the same measures we did before.]

Marcos said the national government has a master plan, which includes the establishment of large-scale water impoundment that seeks to combine efforts for flood control and boosting irrigation.

Hindi lang natin iniipon yung tubig para makaiwas sa baha, iniipon din natin para magamit natin sa tag-init. Thats the plan, he said.

[Translation: Were not only storing water to prevent flooding but this can also be used during the summer season.]

The president said this would be a part of the long-term plan, but the immediate needs would include the massive dredging of internal waterways and main river outflows.

During his visit to some evacuation centers in the two provinces, Marcos assured the families there that government support will continue.

Marcos also said they can expect to receive cash assistance, especially those severely affected by the situation.

In Bulacan alone, more than one million individuals were affected, while damage to infrastructure and agriculture already reached P768.67 million.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has stressed that Ukrainian defenders are holding the initiative in the offensive and that the Russians are trying to distract Ukrainian forces from certain areas of the front by active assault operations.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine quoting Zaluzhnyis statement after his conversation with US General Mark Milley

Quote: "Ive had a telephone conversation with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley. Ive informed him about the operational situation at the frontline. The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to conduct defensive and offensive operations.

Regarding the defence. It is steadfast. Our soldiers are doing their best. The enemy is conducting active assault actions on a number of fronts but is not succeeding. In particular, the enemys actions have the aim to distract Ukrainian forces from other specified areas of the front.

Regarding the offensive. Heavy fighting continues, and Ukrainian troops step by step continue to create conditions for advancing. The initiative is on our side."

Details: Zaluzhnyi said that he and Milley also discussed the current needs of the Armed Forces for weapons and ammunition. Zaluzhnyi thanked the partners for their help and support and agreed to continue to stay in touch and actively cooperate.

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Russian Sukhoi SU-35S air defence fighters and Mikoyan MIG-29 jet fighters aircrafts are presented at the air show during the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon outside of Moscow, Russia, in July 2021. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

The Russian air force continues to struggle against Ukraine's strong air defenses, UK intel said.

Russia is attempting to throw basic free-fall bombs into Ukrainian territory instead.

But the bombs "have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy," the British Ministry of Defense says.

The Russian air force is barely able to leave its own airspace because Ukraine's air defenses are so strong, according to UK intelligence.

While Russian pilots were managing to support land operations in the south of Ukraine, they were doing so "without decisive operational effect," the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday.

To compensate, Russia was sending adapted free-fall bombs into Ukrainian territory. However, these had "yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy," it added.

"Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses," the update said.

A sortie is a military term for the deployment of troops from a defensive position or stronghold.

Russia's recent change in aviation tactics to combat Ukraine's counteroffensive has not deterred Kyiv from successfully securing its airspace.

In the early days of the counteroffensive, Ukraine was vulnerable to Russian air attacks, with some senior Ukrainian military officials saying they were concerned about Russia's "aviation and artillery superiority."

Moscow's use of helicopters also blunted Ukraine's attempts to advance using armored troop vehicles.

But Russia's helicopter prowess appears to have become "less effective" in recent weeks, according to the UK's MoD.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to gain air superiority in the war so far despite Russia's vastly larger air force. But a military expert previously told Insider that the "advantage is with defense."

British Air Marshal Johnny Stringer said at a conference last month that Russian strikes on front-line targets for the most part remained highly inaccurate.

"That is not the hallmark of a top-tier air force, and to be honest, although we are probably seeing some improvements  and I don't really want to get too drawn on that  they have a long way to go," he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A 60-year-old Sacramento man died early Monday morning after a big rig struck him as he was walking across a roadway in North Highlands, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The incident occurred shortly after midnight on Auburn Boulevard, just south of Myrtle Avenue. The street in that area has four traffic lanes and a center turning lane.

The pedestrian was walking across Auburn Boulevard outside of the marked crosswalk and heading west, the CHP said in a news release.

A 51-year-old Sacramento man was driving a 2020 Freightliner east on Myrtle Avenue and making a right turn to head south on Auburn when the big rig hit the pedestrian, the CHP said.

Medics took the pedestrian to Mercy San Juan Medical Center in nearby Carmichael, where he was pronounced dead, the CHP reported. The Sacramento County Coroners Office will release his name after his family has been notified.

The driver was not injured in the crash, and the CHP said the cause of the collision remains under investigation.
Before Emily Dalsins 23-year-old son left for a cabin weekend with his friends, she offered some motherly advice.

Be safe, she told Andy Dalsin.

But two days later in late July, Emily Dalsin and her husband received a phone call from one of Andys friends. He had been in an accident while boating in Wisconsin.

The Dalsins learned Andy jumped off a pontoon boat but misjudged how deep the water was.

He hit the bottom of the lake, Emily Dalsin said in a GoFundMe. He couldnt feel his arms and legs.

The accident caused his C7 vertebrae to be shattered, and it fractured his C6 vertebrae. Andy was unable to move any extremities from his upper chest to his toes and was taken to a Minnesota hospital.

In her GoFundMe, Emily Dalsin said her son is a fighter and will do whatever it takes to recover.

The recovery is expected to take at least a year.

He may never walk again, but its also possible that with time and great care, he can beat the odds, she said.

Within days, doctors were already seeing encouraging signs. In a July 31 post on CaringBridge, Andys mom said his pain had become more manageable and he was showing improvements during his physical training.

He is our warrior, and he isnt giving up, an Aug. 1 post read. He is determined to beat this!

Hes already undergone multiple surgeries, and the plan is for Andy to be treated at a renowned spinal rehab center in Denver.

Among the setbacks was Andys lung being partially collapsed. But by Aug. 6, Emily Dalsin described silver linings and a miracle.

The nerve pain Andy feels in his hands, arms and neck is spreading to his feet and calves, she said. Its a faint tingle right now. We all got so excited!!! Pain and sensation are hope. They are the most beautiful silver linings we have seen in days!!!

She described his hospital stay as a roller coaster recovery ride. The next milestone, Emily Dalsin said, is getting Andy to the Denver rehab center.

Fall at water park leaves teen spending 15th birthday in Ohio hospital, family says

Pastor breaks his neck in icy fall outside Minnesota church. I knew I was paralyzed

Snowmobile crash paralyzes 26-year-old man during Minnesota racing competition
On Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, Judge Matthew A. Maciarello, associate judge of the Circuit Court for WicomicoCounty, sentenced Dionte Dutton, 39, of Salisbury to a total of 83 years of incarceration.

On May 30, 2023, a Wicomico County jury convicted Dutton of second-degree murder, first degree assault,conspiracy first degree assault, second degree assault, reckless endangerment, use of a handgun in thecommission of a crime of violence, illegal possession of a regulated firearm and wear/carry/transporthandgun in vehicle.

On June 10, 2017, Dionte Dutton became engaged in a minor confrontation with Jaquanta Walton while insidethe VFW located on West Main Street in Salisbury.

As a result, Dutton summoned his associate, Lee Braboy, to the VFW with a firearm, according to prosecutors. Upon Braboys arrival, Dutton entered Braboys vehicle and began to stalk Walton, who was on foot outside of the VFW, prosecutors said. After a period of time, Dutton began driving Braboys vehicle. Immediately preceding the murder, Dutton pulled the vehicle behind a building opposite the VFW, where Braboy exited, per prosecutors.

More on other arrests Salisbury homicide: Second suspect arrested in Philadelphia

Dutton then proceeded to leave the area. Less than three minutes later, Braboy emerged from behind the building, walked directly up to Jaquanta Walton and shot him one time in the chest before fleeing on foot.

Dionte Dutton was previously convicted of these same charges in 2019 but was granted a new trial on appeal.Braboy was convicted of First-Degree Murder and related charges in March of 2019, and is currently servingmultiple life sentences.

The Maryland State Police Homicide Unit and the Salisbury Police Department led the investigation, withSenior Assistant States Attorneys Patrizia Coletta and Lauren Bourdon prosecuting the case.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Murder conviction nets Salisbury man 83 years in prison
The San Joaquin Valley is a doctor desert.

It has the least number of doctors, nurses and practitioners per 100,000 people of any area in California. There are 22% fewer primary-care physicians than the state average. Those who do practice are aging toward retirement.

The region has among the states highest concentrations of patients on Medi-Cal, Californias Medicaid system for low-income people. It pays less than Medicare and far less than private insurance for the same services, meaning doctors often cant afford to serve low-income areas.

Members of Congress representing the San Joaquin Valley, a farming-reliant region with some of the worst air quality and poorest health in California, have introduced a series of bills in the last few weeks intended to attract and keep more physicians.

Federal efforts to get San Joaquin Valley doctors

Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, joined Democrats and Republicans in introducing the Rural Hospital Technical Assistance Program Act at the end of July. It would make permanent a U.S. Department of Agriculture program to help prevent closures, improve services and optimize staff performance for rural hospitals. It comes after Madera Countys only adult acute care hospital closed in January.

Our Valley is all too familiar with the challenges faced by rural hospitals, especially with the Madera Community Hospital closing in 2022, Duarte said. This legislation creates programs to ensure that these facilities get the resources they need.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, introduced the bipartisan Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act of 2023 to renew and modify a waiver program that lets foreign doctors studying in the U.S. get a visa after residency if they practice in a medically-underserved area for at least three years.

Rural communities like many throughout the Central Valley too often lack basic and necessary healthcare services, forcing people to drive long distances for routine medical treatments or forego care altogether, Valadao said. Programs like Conrad 30 are a critical part of correcting this problem.

The program  created in 1994 and named after former Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.  has brought more than 15,000 doctors to rural, inner city and other underserved communities. Every state has used it, Valadaos office said.

The legislation extends the program for three years and starts a process to increase the number of waivers per state; creates for immigration flexibility for spouses and children, and requires annual use reports from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to the Department of Health and Human Services, among other changes.

Rep. Josh Harder, D-Tracy, reintroduced his Train More Doctors Act to expand residency slots in local hospitals.

Hospitals that operate residency programs in underserved areas can get funding from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after five years. The five-year period is meant to give the program time to grow; that growth helps determine how much funding the hospital gets.

In San Joaquin County, St. Josephs Medical Center started a residency program in 2018 and was expected to finish building it by 2022. But the pandemic stalled recruitment.

Harders bill would extend the timeline for certain teaching hospitals affected by the pandemic to determine how much funding they could qualify for.

The Train More Doctors Act cuts some of the red tape that prevents doctors from coming to, training in, and staying in the Valley, Harder said. We know 57% of new doctors settle in the communities where they completed their residency, which means we need to make it easier for folks to enroll in these programs locally.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, led Democrats in reintroducing the Expanding Medical Education Act. It authorizes federal grants for medical school construction, expansion and training in regions like the San Joaquin Valley that lack health care access.

Grants would target new medical and osteopathic medicine schools as well as existing institutions like UC-Merced and UCSF-Fresno. Money would help recruit and retain students from underserved backgrounds, expand curriculum on treating rural and underserved communities, hire diverse faculty and modernize medical infrastructure, Costas office said.

We simply dont have enough doctors for our growing population, a problem only made worse by the pandemic, Costa said. He added, Growing our own doctors is the only way of confronting this shortage and ensuring people have access to quality healthcare.
Sandra Bullocks longtime partner, Bryan Randall, has died aged 57, his family revealed in a statement on Monday (7 August).

It is with great sadness that we share that on 5 August, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], his family shared. Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.

We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours, his family added, according to People magazine.

At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan, the statement concluded, signed, His Loving Family.

Bullock, 59, met Randall, a model-turned-photographer, in 2015 when he was photographing her son Louiss birthday. They later made a public appearance together at Jennifer Aniston and Justin Therouxs wedding.

I found the love of my life. We share two beautiful children  three children, [Randalls] older daughter. Its the best thing ever, Bullock told Red Table Talk in 2021.

I dont wanna say do it like I do it, but I dont need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother, The Lost City star said of marriage, adding: I dont need to be told to be ever present in the hardest of times. I dont need to be told to weather a storm with a good man.

ALS (also commonly known as Lou Gehrigs disease) affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, its name coming from the Greek and referring to a wasting away of the muscles responsible for controlling voluntary movement caused by a lack of nourishment, the fault of a genetic mutation.

There is currently no cure for ALS but the US Food and Drug Administration has approved four drugs to treat the condition and ease the discomfort of sufferers: Riluzole, Nuedexta, Radicava and Tiglutik.

Randalls family asks for donations to be made to the ALS Association and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

More to follow
Sandra Bullock and Bryan Randall are seen at 'Oceans 8' World Premiere on June 5, 2018 in New York City. Jackson Lee/GC Images

Sandra Bullock's longtime partner, Bryan Randall, has died after a private battle with ALS.

Randall's family said he died on Saturday, three years after receiving an ALS diagnosis. He was 57.

There is no known cause or cure for ALS, though some drugs may slow progression.

Bryan Randall, actor Sandra Bullock's longtime partner, died over the weekend after a private diagnosis of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 57.

Randall's family announced the news of the model-turned-photographer's death in a statement to Insider on Monday.

"It is with great sadness that we share that on August 5th Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS," his family said. "Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request."

Randall's family continued, "We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours."

Bullock and Randall first met when he photographed her son Louis's birthday in 2015, People magazine reported. People was first to announce Randall's death Monday.

ALS is fatal because people lose control of their ability to swallow or breathe

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a is a disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and in the spinal cord, making movements like walking, talking, and even swallowing and breathing become more difficult over time.

Often called Lou Gehrig's disease, in honor of the New York Yankee who died of ALS at age 37 in 1941, the condition usually begins with some muscle weakness, twitching in the hands or feet, or slurred speech.

On average, people live two to three years after their diagnosis, though there are outliers, like Stephen Hawking, who live for decades with ALS.

Scientists don't fully understand what causes ALS, though roughly 5-10% of cases are believed to be genetic. There is no cure for the disease, though there are a few FDA-approved drugs that can slow its progression.

Randall's family urged those who want to help to donate to the ALS Association or Massachusetts General Hospital's Healey & AMG Center for ALS.

"At this time, we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan," the family said.

Read the original article on Insider
Much of South Carolina's abortion debate has hinged upon the push and pull of a six-week abortion ban and the Republican dispassion for the medical procedure.

But lesser known is the faith lawmakers rest on organizations they see as the alternatives to abortion care.

In court filings, budget documents and policy discussions, public officials repeatedly insisted pregnant people had other options, and preferred culling financial support for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

In the last state budget, lawmakers fueled that notion by giving nearly $2.6 million worth of medical contracts to anti-abortion, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). This year, lawmakers gave nearly the same amount of funding to CPCs, but turned it from one-time funding to recurrent funding in the state budget.

S.C. Department of Health and Human Services reports show about 20 organizations across the state received funding to hire nursing staff, fund counseling services and run a maternity home.

These non-profit organizations are faith-based and encourage individuals against ending their pregnancy. They offer programs for families to access diapers, counseling, free pregnancy tests and limited ultrasounds. Many even offer free STI testing and assist with adoption services.

But that's not the extent of their efforts. These spaces are platforms for public officials and presidential hopefuls to seek endorsements and brandish their pro-life track record.

In 2021, Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abortion group, announced its support of Gov. Henry McMasters re-election campaign at Greenvilles Piedmont Womens Center.

Last year, former Vice President Mike Pence visited Spartanburg and spoke at a gala hosted by the Carolina Pregnancy Center. Pence's visit came the same week a draft leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's majority ruling signaled the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

"This has been a momentous week in the cause of life. I believe with all my heart that life is winning in America. To be pro-life you must be pro-adoption," Pence said in Spartanburg.

Ardent supporters are confident in the mission of South Carolina anti-abortion centers to protect mothers and infants in a state battered by a maternal health crisis, which disproportionately affects low-income, women of color.

But public health experts are concerned about the quality of medical services offered at CPCs. Unlike other organizations that purport to offer medical services, these centers remain vastly unregulated and do not face the same oversight other medical spaces do.

Experts argue they merely mimic other healthcare organizations and can mislead pregnant individuals with abortion misinformation, often exaggerating the procedure's effects and downplaying the risks of delivering a child, which is considered to be 14 times more dangerous than getting an abortion.

A set of guidelines from Care Net, an organization many CPCs are affiliated with, deter single people from using contraception and recommend that married couples seek contraceptive advice from their pastors or physicians.

Meanwhile, faith-focused counseling, which could delay a pregnant individual from getting critical healthcare on time, rarely match nationally accepted medical standards supported by organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"They're not medical facilities and they have very specific goals  anti-abortion, promoting sexual abstinence before marriage, and promoting marriage," said Andrea Swartzendruber, professor at the University of Georgia College of Public Health said. "So they're not taking a client-centered approach of prioritizing the client's needs. They are prioritizing their own goals, which I think is in conflict with all public health and medical frameworks."

Alexia Newman, executive director of the Carolina Pregnancy Center, speaks to former Vice President Mike Pence, as he tours the mobile unit, during the CPC's annual fundraising Spring Gala, at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium in Spartanburg, SC, Thursday, May 5, 2022.

How does SC's budget fund crisis pregnancy centers?

Lawmakers made three allocations in the 2022 budget.

A total of $50,000 went to the Pregnancy Center and Clinic of the Lowcountry to hire a professional nursing staff. St. Clares Maternity Home, associated with the Charleston Diocese, received $200,000 for counseling, occupancy and food expenses.

The biggest recipient of funding was the SC Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, a group of 19 organizations that received over $126,000 each. Prominent Upstate-based centers such as Carolina Pregnancy Center and Piedmont Women's Center are part of this coalition.

This year, crisis pregnancy centers were awarded $2.4 million, again, under medical contracts, and the Pregnancy Center and Clinic of the Lowcountry also got another $50,000.

Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort, who earmarked $50,000 for the Pregnancy Center and Clinic of the Lowcountry, said addressing maternal health after the fall of Roe v. Wade was the "genesis" of his earmark. He had seen CPCs offer prenatal vitamins and care for families coming to terms with unintended pregnancies.

South Carolina Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, left, and House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, right, take their seats before a conference committee meeting on the budget that lasted about three minutes and reached no deal on Monday, June 5, 2023 in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

"There's no system that's perfect," Herbkersman said. "Some of these women are as young 14 to 15 years old  teaching them how to care for a child and how to care for themselves too ... I think that's critical, and that's their mission.

This type of funding is not unique to South Carolina. Earlier this year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee attempted to divert $100 million to anti-abortion CPCs. That amount was later whittled down to $20 million. Meanwhile, in 2022, Texas gave $100 million to its state program supporting abortion alternatives for a period of two years.

Herbkersman, also a member of the influential House Ways and Means Committee, said it was unlikely that SC would fund anti-abortion programs like Tennessee and Texas due to budgetary reasons. Several maternal and infant health-related services are covered by Medicaid.

"But I do think that in areas where (CPCs) are helping and we can prove the metrics on it, then it deserves to be looked at and serves to be properly funded," he said.

Reproductive rights advocates question correlation between crisis pregnancy centers, improved maternal health

In South Carolina, 14 of 46 counties don't have a dedicated OB-GYN doctor.

Lack of transportation resources often leaves patients in dire straits. Some women are forced to drive for hours between facilities that offer prenatal or post-partum care. A recent maternal mortality report showed 82% of the pregnancy-related deaths recorded in 2019 were preventable if patients had access to critical care.

"Anti-abortion centers exist in every single state," said Ashley Underwood, director at Equity Forward. "Red and blue, progressive bubbles, they're everywhere."

But the presence of anti-abortion centers has not curbed a rise in the number of maternity care deserts  spaces in the U.S. without a hospital or birth center offering critical healthcare.

Underwood said there is a need for improved social infrastructure that caters to child care. She sees the allure of anti-abortion centers that advertise free services, counseling and parenting courses as a resource.

"I'm a parent as well. I think most people would jump at the opportunity to have some sort of course that helps direct their parenting journey," she continued.

But anti-abortion centers are generally not equipped to address wages, jobs and the full spectrum of child care costs, she said.

Vicki Ringer, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said lawmakers could improve key metrics by expanding Medicaid and increasing funding for community health centers. Ringer said lawmakers could also recruit more doctors by creating a model where the government could offer paying student loans in exchange for doctors making a commitment of working in a particular area for at least five years.

"There is so much that they can do, Ringer said.

Piedmont Women's Center in Greenville on June 22, 2023.

What to know about crisis pregnancy centers in SC

Charleston, Columbia and Greenville have the only three abortion clinics, currently, in SC.

There are more than 35 crisis pregnancy centers operating in the state, according to a crisis pregnancy center map created by Swartzendruber and Danielle Lambert at the University of Georgia College of Public Health.

The News reached out to each pregnancy center that received state funding with questions about their services. The News also reached out to other crisis pregnancy centers in the state.

Only one representative responded.

"The South Carolina Association of Pregnancy Care Centers (SCAPCC) consists of some 20-plus member centers that provide complimentary support services, medical care and physical resources to pregnant women, their partners and their babies," Cassandra Deans, SCAPCC President said. "The state funds received are being used to enhance and continue these services."

Experts: medicalizing crisis pregnancy centers may pose a public health risk

Swartzendruber and Lambert have been researching anti-abortion centers since 2018 and have tracked their evolution.

They believe the SC legislature's decision to give medical contracts to anti-abortion centers is part of a movement to "medicalize" crisis pregnancy centers to help CPCs escape scrutiny.

Their research shows CPCs became more medicalized with each passing year between 2018 and 2021. They began with the first step: offering free, yet limited, ultrasounds.

In 2018, 66% of the CPCs offered a free ultrasound. That figure jumped to 77% in 2021. Though seemingly well-intentioned, limited ultrasounds can be a cause for concern for expecting mothers.

Lambert said limited ultrasounds are aimed toward confirming a pregnancy and the pregnancy's term. But ultrasound technicians in CPCs, who aren't required to be licensed in South Carolina and 45 other states, are not looking for complications that could arise during pregnancy.

"It's not always clear to everyone that (a limited ultrasound from a CPC) is not the same type of ultrasound that they would get from an OB-GYN," Lambert said.

Mike Pence tours the Carolina Pregnancy Center's mobile unit with Carla Beasley, nurse manager with CPC, showing ultrasound equipment.

She raised the case of a lawsuit in Massachusetts that originated when a pregnant woman visited a crisis pregnancy center for an ultrasound. The ultrasound technician confirmed she was in the midst of a viable, healthy pregnancy. However, a month after her visit, it was revealed that she had an ectopic pregnancy that required emergency surgery.

"So who's at fault? Should the tech have caught that?" Lambert asked. "When CPCs use that terminology around limited ultrasound  it's not fully exploring all the potential complications. It's not prenatal care."

Down South, home to 40% of the CPCs in the U.S., Reveal investigations documented incidents in Kentucky and Florida, where CPCs either did not disinfect transvaginal ultrasounds properly or told a patient incorrectly that an abortion might lead to breast cancer.

Other medical spaces, such as a hospital system or an abortion clinic, undergo extreme scrutiny when it comes to licensing and safety standards for both patients and workers. The Dept. of Health and Environment Clinic, a regulatory body, also licenses tattoo and body piercing facilities.

But the rules are not the same for crisis pregnancy centers, a review of the state law showed.

"People may be going to CPCs thinking that they're getting first trimester, early second-trimester prenatal care. So they're not seeking out an OB-GYN because they think that they're getting that for free at a CPC," Lambert said. "But that's not a substitute for licensed medical advice. That's not a substitute for a full-range ultrasound."

Rep. Chandra Dillard, D-Greenville, said the lack of oversight worried her.

"If something is being couched as a medical facility, there needs to be some uniformity," she said. The public has perceptions and expectations when they walk into the facility, and so if we're giving public funds, we need to make sure that those expectations are met."

Devyani Chhetri covers SC politics for the Greenville News. You can reach her at dchhetri@gannett.com or @ChhetriDevyani

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC gives medical contracts, funding to crisis pregnancy centers
British Scouts are staying at a hotel in Seoul after leaving the campsite

A 17-year-old scout has been left disappointed after leaving the campsite of an international event hit by extreme heat.

Harri Hepden, from Hawarden in Flintshire, raised 3,000 over the past 18 months to attend the World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, near Buan.

The event has been plagued by issues and all 40,000 scouts have now left the campsite due to an incoming storm.

Harri and the other British scouts had already moved to hotels in Seoul.

They will remain in the South Korean capital until 12 August, when the jamboree was due to finish.

Harri's mother, Elen Hepden, said she "can't really think of blaming anybody", but her son was disappointed he would miss out on the chance to mingle with scouts from other nations.

"That's the whole point of the jamboree isn't it? To go meet other people. When we messaged them about the move, he said he was disappointed, but also understood why it happened," she said.

The group of 4,500 British scouts, the largest in attendance, arrived at the camp last week, but it quickly became clear organisers were unprepared.

Wales' scouts spent just a handful of days in camp before leaving

The head of the country's ruling People's Power Party, Kim Gi-hyeon, issued a public apology on Monday and proposed an investigation into whether taxpayers' money had been well spent on preparations.

UK Scouts chief executive Matt Hyde told the BBC he felt let down by organisers and UK activities had been set back years.

15-year-old Iestyn Seiriol has been a scout since 2019 and was looking forward to his first trip abroad without his parents.

He raised more than 2,500 to go to the event that takes place every four years.

His mother, Dr Sara Roberts, said: "It's a chance of a lifetime. You only get one shot at doing the jamboree because of the way it's organised. So he was really excited a bit nervous as well."

She said Iestyn had told her there were hygiene issues on the sites, along with "very, very hot" weather.

"He was actually having a really good time but he was acknowledging that there were problems with the site," she said.

Iestyn Seiriol's fundraising efforts included abseiling down a church in Betws-y-Coed, Conwy

Iestyn said he was still looking forward to "experiencing other aspects of Korean culture" before heading home on Sunday.

"I think it is still an amazing experience and leaving the campsite was the correct thing to do in this situation," he said.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  The Philippines will continue its resupply mission in the West Philippine Sea despite Chinas attempts to block the operation and its use of water cannon against Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said.

We will continue the resupply mission to ensure the well-being of our marines and sailors and to perform our obligations in the region, AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said in a joint news briefing by the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) on Monday.

On Saturday, the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) fired water cannon at PCG vessels while they were escorting civilian boats chartered by the AFP to deliver supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre  a rusting US navy ship which was intentionally grounded in 1999 at the Ayungin Shoal by the Philippine Navy to serve as a military outpost in the contested waters.

READ: Chinese coast guard fired water cannons at PH vessels en route to Ayungin Shoal  PCG

Two civilian boats escorted by one PCG vessel each were chartered to deliver supplies to the outpost.

The Chinese blockade forced one boat and its PCG escort to leave. However, one civilian vessel successfully broke past and successfully delivered supplies to the Sierra Madre, NTF-WPS officials said, meaning only half were delivered.

Beijing on Monday justified its use of water cannon, claiming that four Filipino vessels broke into the waters adjacent to Renai Reef in the Nansha Islands of China without the approval of the Chinese government." It added that it would "continue to carry out rights protection law enforcement activities in the waters under Chinese jurisdiction."

China refers to Ayungin as Renai Reef, and the Spratly Islands as Nansha Islands.

Filipino officials said as Ayungin shoal was within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, the resupply mission was lawful and called on China to cease its pervasive and unlawful actions over the West Philippine Sea.

Manila summoned China's ambassador and filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing over the water hosing, the 35th protest this year, and the 445th since 2020.

READ: PH summons Chinese ambassador, files diplomatic protest after encounter near Ayungin Shoal

Lawmakers and the international community have likewise condemned Chinas continued harassment of Filipino vessels over Philippine waters and its rejection of the 2016 arbitral award under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that negated Beijings sweeping claims over the South China Sea.

The tribunal ruling in 2016 affirmed Philippine sovereign rights in areas of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf which Beijing contests.

It declared Ayungin Shoal, known internationally as Second Thomas Shoal, as "a low-tide elevation located within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines" adding "there exists no legal basis for any entitlement by China to maritime zones in the area of Second Thomas Shoal."
Roscoe L. Alford will serve a life prison sentence, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, for killing Adrian Armstead in Canton on Feb. 14. Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank G. Forchione sentenced Alford on Monday.

CANTON  Roscoe L. Alford could spend the rest of his life in prison for fatally shooting Adrian Armstead in February.

Stark County Common Pleas Court Judge Frank G. Forchione sentenced the 38-year-old city resident on Monday to a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years on charges of murder and felonious assault.

Before pronouncing the sentence, the judge heard from Armstead's parents and others who loved the 33-year-old man who provided a neighborhood transportation service and was known to buy milk and diapers for others' children.

"Roscoe, you didn't take my son's life," said the victim's father, also named Adrian Armstead. "My son's life is everlasting with Jesus Christ right now. You murdered my son at the tender age of 33. And Jesus also (was) crucified on the cross at age 33."

The victim's mother, Jamie Hogan, thanked the judge and Assistant Stark County Prosecutors Kristen Mlinar and Seth Marcum "for everything that they did because my son couldn't speak for himself. But they spoke for him."

Turning to the defendant, she said, "I hope that you take this and change your life because things have to change. Black-on-Black crime has to change. Whatever the reason was that you took my son's life, at the end of the day, was it really worth it? Because he has loved ones that don't have him anymore, and I'm sure you have loved ones that's not going to have you anymore.

"Nobody wins today, nobody. It does not bring back my son and it does not give you your freedom.

"I just hope that you aspire to be a better man," Hogan said. "I hope that you let this change your life so that you can have a life because my son will not. I hope one day that you find it within youself to pray to a God that you probably don't believe in to give you redemption. I pray that my son has peace.

Lamenting the loss of Adrian Armstead

Jonalyn Blair said the deceased was her best friend, and that they had been inseparable since meeting about 13 years ago. She said she and other people confided in him daily.

"When he lost his life, I didn't know how I was going to continue mine," she said.

Dion Williams recalled how at the memorial for her cousin, his friends talked about all he did for other people.

"He was like a modern day Jesus ... buying Pampers, buying milk," she said. "He was a good guy. He had a good heart."

To Alford, she said, "You made a grave error, a grave error, a grave error."

Williams also thanked the judge and the prosecutors for their work, and asked the judge to pray for her family. He said he would and expressed his condolences to them. "I just don't understand this senseless crime," Forchione said. He referred to Alford's claim that he and the victim were friends. "It sounds like you two were best friends. He had a big heart. He was the neighborhood Uber driver, driving people to wherever they need. And that friendship ended with four bullets."

Roscoe Alford and a 'senseless crime.'

"I just don't understand this senseless crime," Forchione said. He referred to Alford's claim that he and the victim were friends. "It sounds like you two were best friends. He had a big heart. He was the neighborhood Uber driver, driving people to wherever they need. And that friendship ended with four bullets."

The judge talked about Alford's daily lifestyle, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, with some other people using cocaine "partying all day and all night, with no job or anything like that.

"And then once you bring guns into it, it was a recipe for disaster," Forchione said. "There is too much of this shoot-first-and-then-claim-self-defense-later.

"This is the third life sentence I have given within the last 30 days. I keep repeating the same thing. I just wish our young people would put these guns away. Quit shooting. Quit killing. Life is too precious."

The shooting occurred before 4 a.m. Feb. 14 in the 1200 block of Eighth Street NE.

Verdict: Jury finds Roscoe Alford guilty of murder for February shooting in Canton

Struggle or murder? Defense attorney says Roscoe Alford shot Canton man in self-defense

Alford did not speak on his own behalf when given the chance.

Adrian Armstead disagreed with Alford's claim, made during his jury trial, that he had been his son's friend from the middle of January to the time of his death. He said that was not enough time to develop a great friendship.

He called the defendant "pitiful" and said he hopes that Alford sees his face in his dreams and every morning when he wakes up in prison.

Hogan said she hopes her sons face is the last image Alford sees at night and the first he sees in the morning until he asks for forgiveness.

"One day in life I may have to have forgiveness, but that day won't be today," Armstead said.

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Roscoe Alford gets life in prison for killing friend, Adrian Armstead
Serial home break-in bear 'Hank the Tank' captured in California, relocated to Colorado

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.  Infamous "Hank the Tank" bear break-in artist has been captured, and wildlife biologists are relocating her to a Colorado wildlife sanctuary. Hank's crime spree included 21 home invasions and property damage since 2022, verified by DNA, and is suspected in many more.

The public nicknamed this large black bear and several others that look like her, "Hank the Tank" in 2022 when the black bears made social and mainstream media. California and Nevada wildlife officials determined that she needed to be removed recently, lethal or relocated.

PAW-LICKIN' GOOD: THIS BEAR CAUGHT BREAKING AND ENTERING FOR KFC

"Relocation is not typically an option for conflict animals over concern that relocating an animal will relocate the conflict behavior to a different community," said the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in a statement. "However, given the widespread interest in this bear, and the significant risk of a serious incident involving the bear, CDFW is employing an alternative solution to safeguard the bear family as well as the people in the South Lake Tahoe community."

Management options for the troublesome bear had been exhausted, CDFW officials wrote. The only other option was removing the female with lethal force.

HOW TO WATCH FOX WEATHER

Hank's three male cubs, born this year, were also captured. The trio accompanied Mom on several home invasions. Biologists discovered the family living under a Lake Tahoe home in March. All bears were tagged. Hank got a satellite tracker, which she ditched in May. The cubs have microchips, similar to those implanted in dogs, for tracking purposes.

The boys will not join Mom in Colorado. A California wildlife rescue will attempt to rehabilitate the trio and re-release them.

"The sow's three young cubs, which have accompanied the bear on recent home break-ins, will potentially be relocated to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, a CDFW-permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility in Petaluma, in hopes they can discontinue the negative behaviors they learned from the sow and can be returned to the wild," wrote the CDFW.

BEAR BEATS SCORCHING CALIFORNIA HEAT BY TAKING DIP IN POOL

Bear encounters are common in the Lake Tahoe area. State agencies have partnered to educate residents on how to prevent the bears from breaking into homes, cars, stores and garbage cans for food. The bears become even more active in the fall as they try to bulk up for hibernating, according to the BEAR League, a non-profit 24-hour/7-day-a-week hotline in Tahoe for bear activity reporting.
A 2010 photo of the Harriott II Riverboat in Montgomery, Alabama.

A 2010 photo of the Harriott II Riverboat in Montgomery, Alabama.

Multiple people were taken into custody after a group of white boaters attacked a Black worker on the riverfront in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saturday, authorities say. Other bystanders joined in the mans defense, leading to a brawl.

The fight seems to have started after the dock worker confronted a group of boaters who refused to move their docked pontoon so a riverboat could park, according to videos posted on social media.

The incident occurred late afternoon in downtown Montgomery, near a spot on the dock that is regularly reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat, Montgomerys city-owned vessel that takes short cruises up and down the Alabama River, Alabama Political Reporter reported.

Mayor Steven L. Reed seemed to corroborate the story in a statement about the incident posted on Sunday.

Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job, Reed said. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served.

Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served.



This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police pic.twitter.com/5cywOwA6Uz  Mayor Steven L. Reed (@MayorofMgm) August 6, 2023

Montgomery police told local news stationWSFA 12 News that charges are pending and the incident is under investigation as they comb through multiple videos provided by the public and city video surveillance.

Police told USA Today that there are four active warrants out as of Monday morning.

Theres a possibility more will follow after the review of additional video, the Montgomery Police Department told the outlet in a statement.

A woman on a riverboat can be heard describing the incident in one video, which has garnered more than 13 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A Black man in a white shirt, who some outlets identified as a dock worker, can be seen near a pontoon boat parked at the dock, trying to move it.

He got off our ship to go over there to move that black pontoon boat on his own because those guys who parked there were told not to leave it there and they left it there, so hes just pushing it off, the woman says.

The worker is soon confronted by several white men, and they appear to have a heated discussion as people on the boat where the woman is recording the video chant the chorus of Ludacris 2002 hit Move, Bitch.

At the 3:27 mark in the video, one of the white men  who is shirtless and in gray shorts  charges at the Black worker. In response, the worker throws off his hat and prepares to fight as the white man punches him in the face. As the two fight, another white man  who is shirtless and in red shorts  begins to attack the worker as well. As a brawl breaks out, some Black bystanders get involved in the fight in order to defend the man.

Anothersocial media video shows a Black teenager  who appears to be a colleague of the man being attacked  jump into the water and swim to the dock in order to help out.

Many people on social media have dubbed the teenager Black Aquaman  and the rest of the Black bystanders who defended the worker as the Black Justice League.

Makina Lashea, a woman who says shes a publicist for the teenagers family, said in a statement posted to Facebook that the swimmer is a 16-year-old boy who she identified only as Aaren.

In the face of adversary, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years, Lashea wrote. We are immensely proud of his actions and the values he exemplifies, standing as an inspiration to us all.
Shasta County officials have agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of a man who was killed when the car he was riding in was hit head-on by a sheriff's deputy's patrol vehicle traveling more than 100 mph.

According to David Fiol, the lawyer for the family of the man killed in the car crash, the conditional agreement would bring to an end two lawsuits filed against the county in connection to the crash.

Harrison Breedlove, then 28, had been living in the Redding area when he was killed in a traffic collision in 2019 on Highway 299 west of Redding.

Sheriffs deputy Henry James Taylor, 34, was driving to a trespassing call at a vacant home at speeds over 100 mph when he hit a deer, according to court documents. Taylors air bags deployed, he lost control of his patrol vehicle and crashed into a car traveling in the eastbound lane, according to court testimony and reports.

The woman driving the car and a then 2-year-old child in the back seat were seriously injured in the crash, according to reports.

Taylor, who no longer works for the sheriffs office, faces trial in September on charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, reckless driving and speeding over 100 mph. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He was breaking the law. He was not on an emergency call. He was obliged to drive the speed limit just like everybody else, which is why the federal court was just so offended by his conduct, Fiol said.

Former sheriff's deputy Henry James Taylor (left) sits next to his defense attorney, Paul Goyette, at a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

The Record Searchlight sent the Shasta County Counsel's Office a list of questions regarding the case but did not receive a reply. Christopher Pisano, the lawyer hired by the county to handle the civil cases, declined to comment. A message left with one of Taylors criminal defense attorneys, Brett Sherman, also was not returned.

Background on the case

The incident began about 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2019, when someone called 911 to report people were at a vacant home on Rock Creek Road west of Redding. The person who called 911 allegedly told dispatchers that the trespassing was not an emergency, according to the lawsuit filed against the county.

The first deputy was assigned to the call nearly one-and-a-half hours after it was first phoned into 911, the lawsuit says. The first deputy who arrived at the home on Rock Creek Road asked for a backup officer. That deputy drove to the scene substantially complying with traffic laws, the lawsuit says.

Note to readers: If you appreciate our effort to highlight critical issues in your community, please help power our local journalism. Subscribe to the Redding Record Searchlight.

Taylor was called to the home as a second backup. By the time he started to the home at 7:53 p.m. the sun had set and it was dark outside.

One of Taylors criminal defense attorneys, Paul Goyete, said previously that one deputy involved was concerned the trespassing call could escalate. Goyette said there were officer safety concerns, as the house was described as a drug "flop house" with "felons and ex-cons."

While on his way to the call, Taylor reached speeds approaching 110 mph, the lawsuit says. He also did not activate the emergency lights on his 2017 Ford Explorer as he was driving, and he did not inform emergency dispatchers that he intended to exceed the speed limit, the lawsuit says.

At about the same time Taylor was heading west, Breedlove was a passenger in a 1999 Toyota Corolla traveling east at about 55 mph, the lawsuit says.

Taylor was not wearing a seatbelt or shoulder harness when he struck the deer crossing Highway 299, the lawsuit says. After his airbags deployed Taylor's vehicle crossed over the double yellow lines in the road and struck the Toyota, the lawsuit says.

A California Highway Patrol officer who investigated the crash testified in a preliminary hearing on the criminal charges against Taylor that the deputys speed was the primary factor in causing the collision. He said he knew of about 50 instances in recent years where a patrol car struck a deer and said none led to secondary crashes.

The deputy who was initially called to the reported trespassing on Rock Creek Road said he was unable to locate any trespassers on the property, the lawsuit says.

Fiol said that Breedlove was a handyman who was not married and had no children. The lawsuits filed in Shasta County Superior Court and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in Sacramento were filed on behalf of his half-brother, Wesley Corbera, who has two other surviving siblings, Fiol said.

Damon Arthur is the Record Searchlights resources and environment reporter. He is among the first on the scene at breaking news incidents, reporting real time on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Damon is part of a dedicated team of journalists who investigate wrongdoing and find the unheard voices to tell the stories of the North State. He welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834 and damon.arthur@redding.com. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County agrees to pay $1.5M in sheriff's deputy crash lawsuit
Legal experts warned that former President Donald Trump could face court sanctions after firing off a series of Truth Social posts aimed at special counsel Jack Smith, the judge overseeing the case and likely witnesses for his upcoming trial.

Trump repeatedly attacked his former Vice President Mike Pence, who recently said he would "comply with the law" if he were obligated to testify in Trump's conspiracy trial case, in which he stands accused of trying to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"I have no plans to testify, but, look, we'll always comply with the law. But  I don't know what the path of this indictment will be," Pence said during a CNN interview that aired Sunday. "The president's entitled to a presumption of innocence. He's entitled to make his defense in court. But actually there are profound issues around this, pertaining to the First Amendment, freedom of speech and the rest. I'm confident he and his lawyer will litigate all those things."

The previous day, Trump took to Truth Social, writing, "WOW, it's finally happened! Liddle' Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side."

"I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was 'too honest,'" the ex-president continued. "He's delusional, and now he wants to show he's a tough guy. I once read a major magazine article on Mike. It said he was not a very good person. I was surprised, but the article was right. Sad!"

Trump on Monday targeted Pence again after his remarks.

"I never said anything bad or even slightly inappropriate to Liddle' Mike Pence," he claimed. "What I did do was make him, over the many people who wanted it, Vice President of the United States. Disloyalty in politics is alive and well. MAGA!!!"

While Trump seemed to have a negative read on news of Pence's willingness to testify, his criminal defense attorney, John Lauro, claimed that "Pence will be one of our best witnesses at trial."

"I read his book very carefully, and if he testifies consistent with his book, then President Trump will be acquitted," Lauro predicted on Sunday during a sit-down with ABC News.

Trump over the weekend also lashed out at U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge randomly assigned to his trial case, asking for recusal and that his trial be transferred outside of left-leaning Washington, D.C.

"THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE 'ASSIGNED' TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C. [sic]"

"Keep talking. You're begging for the judge to slam you down," warned national security attorney Bradley Moss.

Keep talking. Youre begging for the judge to slam you down. pic.twitter.com/8AdSXKvj4C  Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) August 6, 2023

Longtime Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe tweeted that Trump's plan appears to be "to gloat if he gets away with trashing witnesses in defiance of the judge's orders" and "to play victim and make the judge's life a living hell if she imprisons him to enforce her mandate."

"She should call the coward's bluff," he tweeted.

"Trump is daring Chutkan to enter a gag order," argued University of Michigan law professor Barb McQuade. "

"With social media post blasting Pence, a witness in the election interference trial, Trump is daring Judge Chutkan to enter a gag order," she wrote. "If she enters an order, he will cry foul. But, if she declines to do so, Trump will intimidate witnesses with impunity. "

With social media post blasting Pence, a witness in the election interference trial, Trump is daring Judge Chutkan to enter a gag order.  If she enters an order, he will cry foul. But, if she declines to do so, Trump will intimidate witnesses with impunity.   Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) August 6, 2023

Prosecutors in Trump's election case have already asked Chutkan for a protective order, following a threatening statement Trump made on Truth Social last Friday.

"If you go after me, I'm coming after you!" he wrote.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

"The order  which is different from a so-called 'gag order'  would limit what information Trump and his legal team could share publicly about the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith," The Associated Press noted,

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller's team, told MSNBC that "any other defendant who did this, who was facing six counts of obstruction of justice... I think would be remanded, meaning would be sent to jail and have to await trial in jail."

"Just to be clear, any other defendant who did this, who was facing six counts of obstruction of justice... I think would be remanded, meaning would be sent to jail and have to await trial in jail."@AWeissmann_ on Trump's threatening Truth Social post. pic.twitter.com/HIGO8Z7lgc  Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) August 6, 2023

Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo wrote in an op-ed that over her "three-decade former state prosecutor in New York, I have never seen a defendant treated as leniently as defendant Trump."

"He has a rap sheet with 3 open felony indictments, 78-charges, in 3 separate jurisdictions," she wrote. "He has repeatedly threatened prosecutors, judges, and potential witnesses and has his own 757 jumbo jet at the ready to fly anywhere in the world and can abscond at any time. And the nature of his charges are among the most serious there are  he is accused of stealing our nation's most sensitive secrets, trying to destroy evidence of his crimes, committing fraud in the oval office, and causing a violent insurrection in order to attempt to steal an election he lost, and our democracy. Imagine if he were Black or Muslim. There is no doubt he would be incarcerated pending trial."

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about the Trump indictment
Everyone has to shop for groceries.

Maybe you make trips to several supermarkets each week. Maybe you just stick to one. Or perhaps you order your groceries online for delivery.

Whatever the case, you probably have a favorite store.

Reason? Selection. Price. Atmosphere. Location.

We want to hear from you.

Whats your favorite supermarket in South Florida?

Heres what to know to make your voice heard:

How to vote

Where to find the poll: Read about the stores below and then take our poll at the bottom of the article.

How to see the survey: Its not a scientific survey, but it will give all of us an idea of the most popular stores in South Florida. If you cant see the poll, turn off your ad blocker.

Next rounds: Vote for your favorite store, and well narrow down the winners until we  or, rather you  declare an all-around favorite grocery store.

Deadline: The first round of voting closes at the end of Sunday, Aug. 13. You can then vote on the Top 10 survivors starting next week.

About each store on the ballot

Aldi storefront in the Coral Reef Shopping Center at 15033 S. Dixie Hwy. in Palmetto Bay, Florida.

 Aldi: Aldi, a discount grocer founded in Germany in 1946 that dispenses with frills like fancy displays and carryout service and instead offers food staples and household at reduced prices. The focus aims more on its own brands rather than pricier names. Aldi has 2,297 locations in the United States, and Florida, with 209, is second only to Illinois 211 in number of locales.

BJs Wholesale Club at 7007 SW 117th Ave, Miami.

 BJs Wholesale Club: A membership-driven wholesale club, similar to Costco, that sells a mix of brand and its own goods like food, household cleaners, electronics (TVs, laptops, smart phones, tablets), home and yard furnishing. Outlets may also include an eyeglass shop, gas station, and separate alcohol alcove. Families buy in bulk here.

This Bravo Supermarket, near the Buena Vista and Little Haiti areas, failed inspection on Friday, Aug. 5.

 Bravo Supermarkets: Bravo, a chain of 70 supermarkets established in 1991, operates from New York to South Florida with the slogan, Every aisle leads home.

Miami-Dade county residents Jackie and James Silva load their car after shopping to prepare for potential landfall by Hurricane Ian at Costco in Miami, Florida, on Saturday, September 25, 2022. The Silvas were shopping to assist friends and family who might be in need of extra supplies.

 Costco: Costco, a branded membership-driven warehouse club, similar to BJs. Sells a lot of everything in bulk.

The Fresco y Mas at the TJ Maxx Plaza at 7480 SW 117th Ave. in Kendall on Dec. 16, 2022.

 Fresco y Mas: Part of Southeastern Grocers, the Jacksonville parent company that also owns Winn-Dixie. Fresco y Mas is more or less the same as the familiar Winn-Dixie but its marketed to a Hispanic audience.

The Fresh Market store at Sunset Harbour on West Avenue, South Beach.

 The Fresh Market: Inspired by a European trip, Ray and Beverly Berry opened the first Fresh Market in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1982. There are about 160 stores  46 in Florida  featuring produce, coffees, floral stands, deli and other grocery goods.

Gordon Food Service is expanding into Texas and has several South Florida locations.

 Gordon Food Service: Gordon Food Service is a family-run chain of markets that cater to restaurants, chefs and the general food industry. The no-frills Michigan-based market has 175 stores in 13 states, including Florida, with two stores apiece in Miami-Dade (Little Havana and Flagami), Broward (Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale) and Palm Beach, and a Key West location on Roosevelt Boulevard.

Kroger is now delivering groceries in parts of Central Florida and has expanded into South Florida.

 Kroger: Kroger, a national grocery giant, bypassed brick and mortar locations in Florida, operating spoke facilities around the state to deliver groceries to customers as an online retailer, like Amazon. The companys Opa-locka hub opened in 2022 and serves a 90-mile delivery radius in South Florida.

Milams Market at Pinecrest Center, 11701 S Dixie Hwy. on Dec. 18, 2022.

 Milams Market: Thomas Milam, who had years of experience in the grocery industry post-World War II, opened the first Milams Market grocery store at the Red Bird Shopping Center with his son Allen in 1984. That store near Coral Gables remains and is joined by six other locations from Sunny Isles Beach to Pinecrest, run by 13 members of the Milam family.

Plum Market has opened on Northeast 178th Street and Biscayne Boulevard in Aventura.

 Plum Market: The small chain Plum Market, founded by two former Whole Food employees, opened amid grocery-chain festooned Aventura in January with a focus on local, natural and organic fruits and veggies, along with prepared food, apothecary items and wine.

The Presidente Supermarket at 2199 NW 36th St. in Miami

 Presidente Supermarket: Opened in 1990 by a South Florida Cuban-American Omar Rodriguez, the chain numbers about 30 stores in the tri-county Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach areas.

The Publix supermarket at 13401 South Dixie Hwy. in Pinecrest.

 Publix: The Lakeland-based supermarket giant that coined the phrase, Where shopping is a pleasure, and, one could argue, the acronym BOGO and the sandwich nickname youll wait at the deli counter for, Pub Sub. Publix, founded by George Jenkins in Winter Haven in 1930, has 1,334 stores  847 in Florida  according to the companys most recent figures.

 Sabor Tropical Supermarket: Doral-based Latin American grocery aimed at the Hispanic market has eight locations in Miami-Dade and opened nearly 15 years ago.

 Sams Club: A chain of 600 membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart. Sams Club was founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton. It is based in Arkansas.

Sedanos Supermarkets will be open New Years Eve and New Years Day.

 Sedanos Supermarkets: Sedanos started as a family-owned neighborhood grocer in Hialeah in 1962 and has grown into one of the largest Hispanic-owned supermarket chains with 35 stores in Florida, including its Miami-Dade base and locations in Broward and Central Floridas Orange and Osceola counties.

Sprouts Farmers Market is expanding in Florida.

 Sprouts Farmers Market: The Phoenix-based Sprouts puts the produce aisle front and center as nearly a quarter of its grocery stores business. Youll find a deli as well as packaged products at its more than 40 Florida locations. New Sprouts are in Delray Beach, Bradenton in June, West Boca, Fort Myers, Tampa, Orlando, West Melbourne and Kenneth City.

 Target: Like Walmart, Target sells a little of everything like a department store. But many larger Target locations have larger grocery store departments.

The Trader Joes at 9205 S. Dixie Hwy as it opened Saturday morning

 Trader Joes: Trader Joes prides itself on running brick and mortar stores  they want you to come to them  and once inside youll find mostly Trader Joe branded merchandise. The chain was founded in Pasadena, California, in 1967, and has about 25 stores in Florida.

 Walmart: The nations largest grocery retailer, even if, like Target, it may be best known for its general merchandise aisles. But there are miles of aisles dedicated to groceries, too, at its nearly 4,700 locations. Florida, with 340 Walmarts, is second only to Texas 515, and ahead of Californias 278 locations. The chain even started experimenting with drone deliveries in partnership with DroneUp at 36 sites in seven states, including Florida.

 Whole Foods: Founded in 1980 in Austin, and a subsidiary of Amazon since 2017, Whole Foods promotes its vast selection of organic and natural food products.

The Winn-Dixie supermarket in a shopping center at 10505 NW 41st St. in Doral on Dec. 19, 2022.

 Winn-Dixie: Winn-Dixie, owned by Southeastern Grocers, can trace its roots back almost 100 years  to 1925, when founder Milton Davis moved to Miami and opened a precursor as Table Supply. Headquartered in Jacksonville and named Winn-Dixie in 1955, the familiar chain has 456 stores in Florida as of May 2023, nearly the bulk of its 542 stores in five states.

Take the survey below
A supermarket is reducing food waste by offering vegetable leaves for pets at no cost.

In the Reddit community r/mildlyinteresting, which boasts 22.3 million members, someone posted a picture of a sign with a picture of two gerbils in what appears to be the supermarkets produce section.

Free vegetable leaves for pets in my local supermarkets produce section, the poster wrote above the image.

Photo Credit: u/Lord_Stahlregen / Reddit

This is a positive initiative that can work to reduce food waste while also saving pet owners money.

In the United States, between 30% and 40% of all food is thrown away each year, according to Feeding America. Thats around 119 billion pounds of food.

Food waste also contributes between 8% and 10% of all the planet-warming gases caused by human activities, per the World Economic Forum.

One reason is that food must be transported from one place to another, which increases the burning of fuels, which produces gases that warm the planet. Transportation accounts for 6% of the food industrys planet-warming gases, according to Our World in Data.

Another reason is that lots of land is required for the production of food, which means trees are cut down. Trees absorb the pollutants that heat the planet, so fewer trees basically means more toxic gases in the atmosphere.

Land use accounts for 24% of the gases released from overall food production (the majority of which comes from the livestock sector) per Our World in Data.

Giving away vegetables (that would otherwise get thrown out) as free pet food is a great way to reduce food waste and help pet owners save money.

This is brilliant because all these things would have been garbage anyways, one commenter expressed.

Shout out to New Seasons on the West Coast. My local store keeps the carrot tops behind one of the cash registers in front and all you have to do is ask for some, another added.

Another enthusiastically agreed, Such a great idea, no waste, thinking of our little animals! Bravo!

However, some Redditors brought up some interesting points.

One person wrote that here in America, where Im guessing shes from, [rules] basically [dont] allow stores to donate to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, food banks, and the like. Its [not] that its against the law, its just that the higher ups dont allow that because then they cant profit from it.

Someone else countered by adding that the Good Samaritan laws are in place to ensure anyone donating even out of date stuff cant be sued.

Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more, waste less, and help yourself while helping the planet.
FILE - Houston Astros first baseman Jon Singleton stands in the dugout before the start of a spring training exhibition baseball game against the Washington Nationals in Kissimmee, Fla., March 15, 2015. Singleton is being called up by the Astros, returning to the team he last played for in 2015. Singleton told The Associated Press he was heading to Baltimore on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, to join the team for the opener of a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles, who have the best record in the American League. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

HOUSTON (AP)  Jon Singleton is being called up by the Houston Astros, returning to the team he last played for in 2015.

The first baseman adds some depth at a position where Jose Abreu is the starter. Abreu has underperformed in the first year of a three-year $58.5 million contract, hitting just .237 with 10 homers and 56 RBIs.

The left-handed slugger has been playing at Triple-A Sugar Land after signing a minor league deal with the Astros on June 24 following his release from the Brewers. Hes been great since joining the Space Cowboys, hitting .333 with 12 homers, 28 RBIs and a 1.138 OPS.

Singleton was in the Astros organization until before the 2018 season when he asked for his release after being suspended 100 games after a third positive drug test while playing at Double-A Corpus Christi. He was regarded as one of the top infield prospects while with the Astros organization from 2011 until his release after being acquired in a trade with Philadelphia.

Singleton didn't play organized baseball from 2017 until 2021 when he restarted his career in the Mexican League. After his release from the Astros, he didn't plan on playing baseball again.

He discussed that time period this weekend in Sugar Land before he learned hed be rejoining the Astros.

When I did walk away from baseball, I honestly wasnt thinking about playing baseball anymore at all, he told The AP. It wasnt even a thought. But once I started working out and going to the gym every day and things start to progress, then baseball became a thought again.

So things have really come full circle, he continued.

He credited his recent success to his preparation off the field.

I think my mindset, mentally, my mental state, thats been huge for me, he said. The last five to six weeks, just small things Im doing to prepare myself and just reminding myself what I need to do every day just to be ready.

The 31-year-old appeared in 114 games for the Astros in the 2014 and 2015 seasons after signing a five-year $10 million contract. He last appeared in a major league game for the Astros on Oct. 2, 2015.

He made his return to the majors for the first time since that game when he appeared in 11 games with the Brewers before his release.

Outfielder Corey Julks was optioned to Sugar Land Sunday to make room for Singleton on the roster. The Astros were off Monday and visited the White House where they were honored by President Joe Biden for winning the World Series.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Devastating floods and other adverse weather conditions in Slovenia have killed at least six people and caused $500 million worth of property damage, a government spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

Slovenias Prime Minister Robert Golob said on Saturday the flooding which began on Friday has become the worst natural disaster to ever hit the country.

The floods caused rivers to rise and break out into fields and towns, leading to the destruction of roads and infrastructure, a spokesperson for the Slovenian Environmental agency added.

Theres incredible damage around the country,  the Environmental agency spokesperson said Monday, after confirming that a months worth of rain fell in less than a day.

Golob visited some of the affected areas on Sunday and reiterated how the country had already requested assistance under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, as well as from neighboring countries to support Slovenia during the floods.

It is even more important that we are here today to set up an effective restoration. Intervention is well regulated. It is known who is responsible, how the intervention takes place and who provides resources, Golob said during his visit to Skofja Loka where the situation was described as very worrying.

A view of the damage in the aftermath of floods in Crna na Koroskem, Slovenia, August 7. - Borut Zivulovic/Reuters

A flooded area is seen in Ravne na Koroskem, some 60 km (38 miles) northeast of Ljubljana, Slovenia. - Gregor Ravnjak/AP

Golob also visited Medvode on Sunday where he stressed that the government would make every effort to ensure that the money would reach the most vulnerable, according to the government statement.

People will not be left alone, Golob was quoted saying, reiterating that the Government allocated just over $10 million of humanitarian aid to the Slovenian Red Cross and Caritas Slovenia to help the residents of the affected areas.

The Slovenian governments appeal for international assistance through EU and NATO mechanisms includes the request of heavy machinery for debris removal, engineering teams, provisional road transportability and temporary bridges up to 40 meters (31 feet) in size.

A destroyed car in the yard of a house that was flooded by the Savinja River in Nazarje, Slovenia. - Matej Povse/Getty Images

Military helicopters for transport assistance and 200 soldiers to carry out protection, rescue and assistance tasks have also been requested, according to a statement released by the Slovenian government on Sunday.

Croatia has provided assistance with the deployment of a military helicopter to help close and secure a broken levee on the Mura River and to help reinforce its embankments, the statement added.

Help from other countries is still expected to arrive. The assistance is being coordinated through the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, which is in constant contact with the two aid coordination centres in Brussels, the statement said.

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Sofia Kinzinger, the former director of strategic media for former Vice President Mike Pence, is pressing her former boss to be more truthful about former President Trump.

In an interview on CNN This Morning with Poppy Harlow, Kinzinger criticized Pence and said there are too many untruths still floating around about Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kinzinger  who is married to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who was a member of the Jan. 6 Select Committee  said it was especially personal for her when she hears Pence refer to the Jan. 6 Committee as a partisan witch hunt.

I worked in campaigns. I know what it takes to strategically draft talking points. Because youre trying to pursue voters. Were not talking about policies here, were talking about our democracy, Kinzinger told Harlow in the Monday interview.

Mike Pence, he knows us. He knows Adam very well, he knows me. Were not Democrats and would definitely not allow Democrats to use us as political pawns. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger really exposed the truth when he was quiet, Kinzinger said of Pence.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger were the two Republicans who served on the House Jan. 6 panel. They did so after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two of then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthys (R-Calif.) GOP picks for the panel, arguing they were too close to Trump. Other Republicans in the House then refused to serve on the committee.

And, honestly, I would like to know what he thinks about Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney. Is he grateful for what they did? Sofia Kinzinger said. Because hes confirming absolutely everything that hes now brave enough to come up to the public and explain.

Adam Kinzinger is now a senior political commentator on CNN.

Sofia Kinzinger said that she absolutely would have liked Pence to have spoken out sooner. And not because Im Adams wife and what we had to endure, but as an American. He was our No. 2.

Pence, who is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has repeatedly criticized the former president over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. His criticisms have been tougher on the issue than several other of Trumps GOP rivals.

Pence has also stepped up some of his public criticism since Trump was indicted and charged with four criminal counts related to his attempts to stay in power in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Pence provided key testimony to the special counsel drafting the indictment, and Pences efforts to push back against Trumps pressure for Pence to reject electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, is detailed at length.

But Sofia Kinzinger said Pence in her view has not been as vocal as he could be.

He now makes it sound like hes been out there speaking about this a long time. Listen, we dont forget, Kinzinger said. He was absent for a long time, and this is where, again, it becomes personal, because there were two that were willing to fight for that truth, his truth.

The narrative out of the committee was that he acted heroically. I would like to know if he preferred that Jim Jordan was on the committee. Would that have been the narrative? I dont know. So, yes, its very unfair and very disappointing.

Updated at 10:36 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday said the firing of a water cannon by the Chinese Coast Guard on Philippine vessels last Aug. 5 may be due to Manila getting caught in the middle of the rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

Naiipit tayo minsan sa (We are sometimes caught in between the) strategic rivalry ng US at ng China, Cayetano told CNN Philippines The Source, noting that there are unreported incidents that may have led to Chinas aggression in the disputed waters.

As an example, Cayetano noted Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Beijing will not militarize the South China Sea, which was reported.

"But it was not released and it was not reported that much that the US navy made sure that they were active and more aggressive then in the South China Sea, which pushed China to militarize the islands," the senator added.

It is possible the same circumstances may have led to the firing of a water cannon by the Chinese Coast Guard on Philippine vessels en route to deliver supplies to troops at the BRP Sierra Madre during the weekend, the senator said.

This is also why former President Rodrigo Duterte should be appointed as a special envoy to China because as former chief executive, he has the knowledge of matters that are unreported, Cayetano added.

Im quite sure were right but Im also quite sure that there is something behind this. So when President Xi Jinping said President Duterte promote ties between China and the Philippines, for me that was a signal, for me that is saying may problema ang relationship natin ngayon (our relationship has a problem now), he also said.

During his administration, Duterte maintained good ties with Beijing.

Cayetano said the former president has also gained the trust and respect of the Chinese government in the highest levels, which makes him fit for the position.

READ: Zubiri on appointing Duterte as special envoy to China: Why not?

In a briefing on Monday, Marcos said he believes the recent harassment by China is not related to the meeting between Duterte and Xi last month.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it filed a diplomatic protest with the Chinese Embassy regarding the incident and summoned China's ambassador.

An international tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea affirmed in 2016 Philippine sovereign rights in areas of its Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf which Beijing contests. The ruling also invalidated China's expansive claims in the South China Sea.
MORGAN CITY, La.  Jenna Gros jangles as she walks the halls of Wyandotte Elementary School in St Marys Parish, Louisiana. The dozens of keys she carries while she sweeps, sprays, shelves and sorts make a loud sound, and when children hear her coming, they call out, Miss Jenna!

Gros is head custodian at Wyandotte, in this small town in southern Louisiana. Shes also a teacher-in-training.

In August 2020, she signed up for a new program designed to provide people working in school settings the chance to turn their job into an undergraduate degree in education, at a low cost. Theres untapped potential among people who work in schools right now, as classroom aides, lunchroom workers, afterschool staff and more, the thinking goes, and helping them become teachers could ease the shortage thats dire in some districts around the country, particularly in rural areas like this one. 

Children hear Jenna Gros coming because of the sound of the keys jangling on her hip. She has the keys to every closet, every room and every gate in the school.

In two and a half years, the teacher training program, run by nonprofit Reach University, has grown from 50 applicants to about 1,000, with most coming from rural areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and California. The apprenticeship degree model costs students $75 dollars a month. The rest of the funding comes from Pell Grants and philanthropic donations. The classes, which are online, are taught by award-winning teachers, and districts must agree to have students work in the classroom for 15 hours a week as part of their training.

We have overlooked a talent pool to our detriment, said Joe Ross, president of the online Reach University. These people have heart and they have the grit and they have the intelligence. There's a piece of paper standing in the way.

Efforts to recruit teacher candidates from the local community date back to the 1990s, but programs have exploded in number over the past five years, said Danielle Edwards, assistant professor of educational leadership, policy and workforce development at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Some of these grow your own programs, like Reachs, recruit school employees who dont have college degrees or degrees in education, while others focus on retired professionals, military veterans, college students, and even K12 students, with some starting as young as middle school.

Grow your own has really caught on fire, said Edwards, in part because of research showing that about 85% of teachers teach within 40 miles of where they grew up. But while these programs are increasingly popular, she says it isnt clear what the teacher outcomes are in terms of effectiveness or retention.

Nationwide, there are at least 36,500 teacher vacancies, along with approximately 163,000 positions held by underqualified teachers, according to estimates by Tuan Nguyen, an associate professor of education at Kansas State University. At Wyandotte, Principal Celeste Pipes has three uncertified teachers out of 26.

Showing up to school was hard amid COVID Why arent kids (or teachers) returning to class?

We are pulling people literally off the streets to fill spots in a classroom, she said. Parishes surrounding hers, which is 85 miles west of New Orleans, pay more than the starting salary of $46,000 she can offer; some even cover the cost of health insurance.

Reach University: Eliminating choice between jobs, degrees

Data suggests not having qualified teachers can worsen student achievement and increase costs for districts. An unstable workforce also affects the school culture, said Pipes: Once we have people here that are years and years and years in, we know how things are run.

As Gros walks the hallways, she stops to swat a fly for a scared child, ties a first graders shoelaces and asks a third about their math homework. Her colleagues had long noticed her calm, encouraging manner, and so, when a teachers aide at Wyandotte heard about Reach, she urged Gros to sign up with her. 

Gros grew up in this town  her father worked as a mechanic in the oil rigs  and always wanted to be a teacher. But with three children and a salary of $22,000 a year, she couldnt afford to do so. The low cost and logistics of Reachs program suddenly made it possible: Her district agreed to her spending 15 hours of her work week in the classroom, mentoring or tutoring students. She takes her online classes at night or on weekends.

Current employees are also in the retirement system, meaning the years theyve already worked count toward their pension. For Gros, who has worked for 18 years in her school system, that was an important consideration, she said.

Pipes said people like Gros understand the vibe of this rural community  the importance of family, the focus on church, the love of hunting. And people with community roots are also less likely to leave, said Chandler Smith, the superintendent in West Baton Rouge Parish School System, a few hours drive away.

His district is the second-highest paying in the state but still struggles to attract and retain teachers: It saw a 15% teacher turnover rate last year. Now, it has 29 teacher candidates through Reach.

In West Baton Rouge Parish, Jackie Noble is walking back into the Brusly Elementary school building at 6:45 p.m. Shed finished her workday as a special education teachers aide around 3:30 p.m., then babysat her granddaughter for a few hours, spent time with her husband, and picked up a McDonalds order of chicken nuggets, a large coffee and a Coke to get her through her evening classes. Some Reach classes go until 11 p.m.

Noble was a bus driver in this area for five years, but she longed to be a teacher. When she mustered the courage to research options for joining the profession, she learned it would cost somewhere between $5,000 to $15,000 a year over at least four years. I wasn't even financially able to pay for my transcript because it was going to cost me almost $100, she said.

Jackie Noble was a bus driver for years before she enrolled in Reach Universitys online classes. Evening and weekend classes can be challenging but she says it will be worth it. She hopes to be a special education teacher for first graders when she graduates.

When Noble heard about Reach and the monthly tuition of $75 a month, she said, My mouth hit the floor.

Ross, of Reach University, said he often hears some variation of: I had to choose between a job and a degree.

What if we eliminate the question? he said. Let's turn jobs into degrees.

Focus on school employees without degrees

Brusly Elementary is quiet as Noble settles down in a classroom. She moves her food strategically off camera and ensures she has multiple devices logged in: her phone, laptop and desktop. Sometimes the internet here is spotty, and she doesnt want to take any chances.

Its the night of the final class of her course, Children with Special Needs: History and Practice. Her 24 classmates smile and wave as they log on from different states. Theyve been taking turns presenting on disabilities such as dyslexia, brain injuries and deafness; Noble gave hers, on assistive technologies for children with physical disabilities, last week.

Reach began in 2006 as a certification program for entry-level teachers who had a degree but still needed a credential. It then expanded to offer credentials to teachers who wanted to move into administration as well as graduate degrees in teaching and leadership. In 2020, Reach University started the program focused on school employees without a degree.

Kim Eckert, a former Louisiana teacher of the year and Reachs dean, says she was drawn to the program because, as a high school special education teacher, she saw how little opportunity there was for classroom aides in her school to boost their skills. She started monthly workshops specifically for them.

In growing the Reach program, Eckert drew from her teacher-of-the-year class, hiring people who understood the realities of classroom management and could model what its like to be a great teacher. She shied away from those who havent proven themselves in the classroom, even if they have degrees from top universities. Everybody thinks they can be a teacher because they've had a teacher, she said, but thats not true.

Reach University has several state Teachers of the Year among its faculty for its "grow your own" program, including from Virginia, Idaho, Delaware and Hawaii. Dean Kim Eckert, herself a 2018 teacher of the year from Louisiana, says she wanted the best educators with the latest information in front of her teacher candidates. It's not like a typical university where in four years you'll have your own class and you'll be a great teacher. You are in your own class right now, Eckert says.

The 15 hours a week of in-class training, which can include observing a teacher, tutoring students or helping write lessons, is designed to allow students to test out what theyre learning almost immediately, without having to wait months or years to put their studies into practice. Michelle Cottrell Williams, a Reach administrator and Virginias 2018 teacher of the year, recalls discussing an exercise in class about Disneys portrayal of historical events versus the reality. One of her students, a classroom aide, shared it with the fifth graders she was working with the next day.

Noble says shell carry lessons about managing students from the bus to her classroom. She was responsible for up to 70 students while driving 45 miles an hour  so 20 in a classroom seems doable, she said.

When Ashlee met Evelyn: This high-performing first-generation student needed more help

She cant wait to have her own classroom where she is responsible for everything. Being with the students approximately eight hours a day, you make a very, very larger impression on their lives, she said.

Hoping the numbers work themselves out

In May, Reach graduated its first class of teachers, a group of 13 students from Louisiana who had prior credits. The organizations first full cohort will walk across the stage in spring 2024.

There are promising signs. Nationwide, about half of teacher candidates pass their states teaching licensure exam; more than 60% of the 13 Reach graduates did. All of them had a job waiting for them, not only in their local community, but in the building where theyd been working.

Like other teacher-candidates at Reach University, Jenna Gros spends 15 hours a week in classrooms. She sometimes observes teachers, and other times helps children in small groups.

But Roddy Theobald, deputy director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research and researcher at the American Institutes for Research, says far more research is needed on grow your own programs. There's very, very little empirical evidence about the effectiveness of these pathways, he said.

One of the challenges is that the programs rarely target the specific needs of schools, he said. Some states have staffing shortages only in specific areas, like special education, STEM or elementary ed. Sometimes they result in even more teachers with the right credentials to teach courses that the state doesn't actually need, he said.

Edwards, one of the first researchers to study grow your own programs, is investigating whether teachers who complete them are effective in the classroom and stay employed in the field long term, as well as how diverse these educators are and whether they actually end up in hard-to-staff schools.

States are investing millions of dollars into this strategy, and we don't know anything about its effectiveness, she said. We could be putting all this money into something that may or may not work.

Ross, of Reach University, says his group plans to research whether its new teachers are effective and stay in their jobs. In terms of meeting schools specific labor needs, Reach has agreements with other organizations such as TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project) and the University of West Alabama to help people take higher-level courses in hard-to-fill specialties such as high school math. But while Reach staff look at information on teacher vacancies before partnering with a school district, they dont focus on matching the districts exact staffing needs said Ross: Our hope is the numbers work themselves out.

In Louisiana, Ross said he believes the organization could put a serious dent in the teacher vacancy numbers statewide. Some 84% of all parishes have signed on for Reach trainees, he said, and 650 teachers-in-training are enrolled. That amounts to more than a quarter of the teacher vacancy numbers statewide, 2,500.

Jenna Gros, head custodian at Wyandotte Elementary School in St Marys Parish, Louisiana, stops to tie a students shoe. She said she makes it a point to develop relationships with students: We dont just do garbage, you know?

We're getting pretty close to being a material contribution to the solution in that state, he said.

His group is also looking to partner with states, including Louisiana, to use Department of Labor money for teacher apprenticeships. At least 16 states have such programs. Under a Labor Department rule last year, teacher apprenticeships can now access millions in federal job-training funds, and Reach is in talks to use some of that money, which Ross says would allow it to make the programs free to students and rely less on philanthropy.

Doubling her salary

A straight-A student since her first semester, head custodian Jenna Gros expects to graduate without any debt in May 2024. She expects to teach at this same elementary school. At that point, her salary will almost double.

She said she loves how a teacher can shape a childs future for the better. Thats what a teacher is  a nurturer trying to provide them with the resources that they are going to need for later on in life.

"I think I can be that person, she said. She pauses. I know I can.

This story about grow your own programs was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teacher shortage solution? Training people already working in schools
The Marinka front in Donetsk Oblast is one of the hottest fronts along the entire contact zone.

The Russian military is assaulting Ukrainian positions, but Ukrainian artillery successfully repels the attacks.

One of the advantages over the Russians is motivation, said a fighter from the artillery unit of the 79th Air Assault Brigade, who serves on the Marinka front. He told his story to the Ukrainian Witness project.

The serviceman is part of the crew of Soviet-made 2S9 Nona artillery system, designed for fire support of airborne units.

Ivan, the commander of the unit, who goes by the alias of Rubicon says that the weapon is used for its intended purpose: Nonas cover the Ukrainian infantry during the offensive and help them repel Russian assaults.

They are effective against Russian armoured vehicles and infantry.

Unit commander Ivan with nom de guerre Rubicon

Screenshot from Ukrainian Witness' video

"There is enough ammunition. This is an important advantage. When the target is shot, there is practically no spread of shells. Thanks to this, we complete all tasks", says Rubicon.

Everyone in the crew has their role: the driver takes a firing position and keeps the crew away from Russian attacks, and the gunner points the gun and shoots.

Gunner Yurii gave his Nona a nickname, Tooth Fairy.

Gunner Yurii

Screenshot from Ukrainian Witness' video

"When we were loading ammunition, a particle flew off and knocked off half of my tooth," says Yurii.

He repeats a well-known proverb: "A gunner's sweat saves an infantryman's blood".

Immediately after the shots are fired, the radio reports a hit, says gun commander Artem with the alias of Matvii. Remembering the latest hits, he says that 4 out of 9 shells hit the target, 3 fell nearby, and 2 were fired so as to adjust the fire.

The men's motivation to fight is ironclad.

"When you find out that you hit your target, you want more. I understand that the sooner we kill them, the sooner it will all end, and I will return to my family, my son and my wife. That's my motivation", says Serhii who loads the cannon.

Previously, we posted stories about the life of Kherson residents in the occupation.

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!
Scouts evacuated from an international event due to the heat and concerns over sanitation had shown "legendary" resilience, their leader said.

Thousands have left the World Scout Jamboree's site in South Korea, with an incoming storm forcing the remainder to relocate to Seoul on Monday.

The Bedfordshire Bees, made up of 36 youngsters, are among those spending the next week in the capital.

"They've been absolutely phenomenal," said group leader Nick Kealy.

"In [the heat], to be happy and singing away and setting up tents - it just shows exactly what young people are capable of."

Attended by more than 40,000 young people, the event at a campsite in Saemangeum, near the town of Buan, has been plagued by problems.

Hundreds fell ill amid 35C (95F) temperatures and UK Scouts said there was a lack of shade, a lack of food for those with dietary needs, poor sanitation and insufficient medical services.

Its chief executive, Matt Hyde, told the BBC he felt let down by organisers and said the relocation would cost the UK Scout Association more than 1m from its reserves.

The British group of 4,500 people, the largest in attendance, arrived last week but were transferred to hotels in the capital on Saturday.

British scouts were moved to Seoul on Saturday

Speaking to BBC Look East, Mr Kealy said he was frustrated by the "negative" news coverage, as his unit had coped well and were well supported.

"What they [the media] haven't focused on is the fact that, despite the challenging conditions, the young people have rolled up their sleeves and have still socialised with people from 170-plus countries," he said.

"It's been hard work but so rewarding.

"No-one is really disappointed. The jamboree has moved from a campsite to a fantastic, friendly, willing and open city that just loves everything scouting."

Independent review

The World Scout Jamboree happens every four years, with teenagers in the Bedfordshire Bees, based near Bedford, going through a "tough" selection process, followed by two years of fundraising.

Scout Ned, 14, said he and his friends had not suffered adversely in the conditions.

"I haven't got any insect bites and I've been out of the heat quite a lot looking after myself," he added.

"We were fine [at the campsite] and pushing through at the jamboree.

"It's challenging, however it's good to be on because it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I get to see new cultures and new religions - people I would never see in my life, but I get to meet them in one place."

Each British scout had spent about 3,500 on the trip, added Mr Hyde, who called for an independent review.

World Scout Jamboree organisers said on Monday that the South Korean government told them it was no longer safe to hold the event.

The head of the country's ruling People's Power Party, Kim Gi-hyeon, issued a public apology and proposed an investigation into whether taxpayers' money had been well spent on preparations.

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Got a story? Email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 0800 169 1830
Note: This guide first appeared in our email newsletter series, One Day in Tampa Bay. Subscribe to that newsletter and check out our other offerings at tampabay.com/newsletters.

Today were heading to southeast St. Petersburg. This area is just south of the University of South Floridas St. Pete campus and includes sunny parks, delicious local favorites and a lot of history.

The lesser-trafficked spots below have a relaxing, locals-only vibe. If you love the waterfront views of Vinoy Park and the Pier but hate the crowds, these are the places to visit instead.

Start here

First stop: Old Southeast Market. Grab a morning snack (we opted for boba tea with popping pearls and jellies), shop for Tampa Bay-themed stickers and clothing, or pick out items for a picnic by the water.

The market is stocked with goodies, including Old Florida Gourmet brand tortilla chips, craft beer, bottles of wine and kombucha. Theres even ice cream for your dog. For larger appetites, the deli counter features favorites like Cuban and Reuben sandwiches and a classic banh mi (theres a great vegetarian banh mi, too), as well as a selection of fresh poke bowls.

Dont miss the blue Coast bikes for rent in the parking lot, or the spacious back patio on which to enjoy a meal.

The market is a short walk from Lassing Park, a long stretch of grass, palm trees and benches on Beach Drive SE between 15th and 22nd avenues SE. Its a peaceful place to bring that picnic, string up your hammock, play fetch with your dog and gawk at the beautiful waterfront homes. There are no public restrooms, but you can go inside Old Southeast Market.

No trip to southeast St. Pete is complete without a ride over Thrill Hill (Third Street S, south of 15th Avenue SE). This humpback bridge was first built over Salt Creek when a trolley line was constructed in the Old Southeast neighborhood over a century ago. These days, locals know it as the bump in the road that gives you that roller coaster feeling in the pit of your stomach if you zoom over it fast enough. (Just under 30 miles per hour is the sweet spot.) Keep an eye out for cyclists!

Read more about the landmark here.

Click here to see the full map.

Transportation: Check out Coast Bike Share, or explore by car.

Parking: Find a spot throughout southeast St. Pete and surrounding communities. Parking is free.

Bathrooms: Old Southeast Market.

Lunch break

For lunch, swing on over to The Big Catch at Salt Creek, a waterfront bar and restaurant tucked away next to the Harborage Marina. The casual spot features a Floridian fish camp theme, with fresh seafood plates, sandwiches, salads and shareable snacks. Dont skip the fried grouper bites.

The best seats in the house are near the back bar, right on the water. (These are conveniently close to the stage, too, where live musicians hold court several nights a week.) A killer cocktail list includes drinks like the Salt Creek Paloma, made with Espolon tequila and sparkling grapefruit juice, and the Angry Margarita, made with muddled jalapenos and a chili salt rim  watch out, that one has a kick.

For a similar vibe but off the water, Mullets Fish Camp & Market features plenty of outdoor seating and a seafood-focused menu where guests can create their own adventure by choosing from a variety of fish, cooking styles and sides.

Our pick? The Faroe Island salmon sandwich, served Bobby Lee style, sauteed in hoisin, ginger and garlic butter with crunchy Asian-inspired slaw.

Other food and drink options nearby:

Nueva Cantina serves a mean margarita and plenty of snacky, shareable appetizers like nachos, bacon-wrapped jalapenos, Oaxacan chicken wings and ceviche. Youll recognize the spot by its large, colorful sugar skull mural on the outside and its spacious patio deck, great for lounging over a few drinks. The restaurant offers one of the areas best happy hour deals, with $5 margaritas, $4 well drinks, imported draft beer and wine from 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For all the Florida feels, hit up The Chattaway, where the outdoor patio features picnic tables surrounded by a canopy of lush plants tucked inside pink bathtubs. People rave about the cheese Chattaburger, but the English-style fish and chips (made with cod) are also a good bet. In the evenings, the restaurant and bar frequently hosts local music acts, and children and pups are always welcome.

Explore a new neighborhood

After Lassing Park, keep strolling south along Beach Drive SE, then hang a right on 23rd Avenue SE and a left on Bay Street SE. Walk until you get to the Driftwood neighborhood. Youll know youve arrived in this community off Big Bayou when you see the arching Driftwood sign. Admire the canopy of mature trees that shade the collection of homes designed during the 1930s. According to Tampa Bay Times archives, its been home to a number of significant locals, like George Gidge Gandy Jr., who helped his father and brother build the Gandy Bridge. Driftwoods colorful past makes it all that much more appealing to its bohemian residents, reads a 2015 Times story. It was once a landing site for bootleggers smuggling in alcohol during Prohibition. It also claims the distinction, detailed in a historic marker, of being the only site in Pinellas County that was fired upon during the Civil War.

Make your way to Historic Roser Park and walk along the canals. The hilly, picturesque neighborhood runs from east to west between Fourth and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. streets S, with Booker Creek and Ingleside Avenue bordering the north and south. It was founded in the early 1900s by Charles Martin Roser, an Ohio native who was said to have invented the Fig Newton cookie.

Times tip: Stroll the tree-lined walking trail along Booker Creek and admire the colorful old architecture, from prairie homes to craftsman bungalows. It feels unlike any other part of Tampa Bay.

Another nearby area to check out: The Deuces, St. Petes historic 22nd Street S corridor. Born out of the citys era of segregation, which pushed out many Black families and businesses as Interstate 275 was constructed, the district became a booming business hub. In its heyday, music greats like Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday came to perform here. Its legacy is carried on today. Visit the Woodson African American Museum of Florida and the nearby African American Heritage Trail to dive further into the areas past.

You can also walk, run or bike along the trails at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. Its home to a number of permanently injured and non-releasable birds of prey. Take in the nature preserve on a ranger-led bike tour, or join a small group on a guided night hike. Check the St. Pete parks website for scheduling and pricing.

Contact Gabrielle Calise at gcalise@tampabay.com. Follow @gabriellecalise. Contact Helen Freund at hfreund@tampabay.com. Follow @helenfreund.
SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket topped with a payload of Starlink satellites into space on Sunday night from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another payload of Starlink satellites into space from Florida late Sunday.

The rocket launched at 10:41 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending the 22 satellites into low-Earth orbit where they will join Starlink's constellation of thousands of orbitals that provide high-speed, low-latency Internet worldwide.

Kate Tice, senior quality systems engineering manager with SpaceX, said minutes before liftoff that weather presented only a "10% of violating our launch commit criteria."

The launch was SpaceX's 53rd of the year and 252nd to date.

The first-stage booster, which was on its fourth mission, returned to Earth where it successfully landed upon the Shortfall of Gravitas droneship that was awaiting its arrival in the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch was SpaceX's 53rd of the year and 252nd to date. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Both fairing halves used in the mission were flight tested, with one half flying its eighth mission and the other flying its 10th. They were to be retrieved upon the Doug drone ship.

The launch follows SpaceX putting 22 Starlink satellites into space late last month.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exhaust plume turns red at altitude. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI

Early Thursday, SpaceX also launched a single Intelsat satellite into space.
More than 70,000 hectares have burned in Spain since the beginning of the year (JORGE GUERRERO)

Firefighters in Spain and Portugal were battling to keep wildfires spanning thousands of hectares contained Monday as a scorching heatwave hit the Iberian peninsula, worsening conditions.

A thousand firefighters were deployed in central and southern Portugal, supported by 12 water-bombing planes, to battle blazes, according to the national civil protection authority.

At least nine crew have been injured in the southern fire near the town of Odemira, which is being fanned by winds, an official told local media.

Another fire near the central city of Castelo Branco has destroyed some 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres).

Meanwhile, three wildfires that scorched more than 1,000 hectares in Spain over the weekend were under control Monday, but the country remained on high hot weather alert as it faced its third heatwave of the summer.

The regions of Andalusia in the south, the central Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura in the west were placed on an orange alert with temperatures expected to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) on Monday, according to Spain's weather agency Aemet.

Central and southern Portugal similarly is facing temperatures of over 40C, prompting a "very high or maximum" risk for fires.

It is the third summer heatwave to hit the Iberian peninsula, which is expected to last until Thursday.

A fire that broke around 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Spanish coastal city of Cadiz, a popular destination for tourists on the Atlantic Ocean, on Sunday had "stabilised" by midnight, the firefighting service Infoca said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Another fire, also under control, blackened some 450 hectares (1,100 acres) near the southwestern city of Huelva between Saturday and Sunday.

In Catalonia, on the Mediterranean coast near the French border, firefighters were working since Friday to extinguish a blaze, an effort that was being complicated by wind gusts.

Catalan fire officials said Monday on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X, that the blaze was now under control, though around 30 firefighting units were still on site where nearly 600 hectares burned, forest officials said.

Catalonia and Andalusia are the two regions most frequently hit by drought, creating conditions for fires to spark.

More than 70,000 hectares have burned in Spain since the beginning of the year, after a record in 2022 when more than 300,000 hectares were destroyed, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).

Experts say the greater frequency of heatwaves, which are also increasingly long and intense, is a consequence of climate change.

mdz/chz/giv/rox
(Bloomberg) -- The Spanish far-right party Vox pledged it wouldnt impede efforts to unseat Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, potentially widening the options for the conservative Peoples Party as it seeks a route to power.

Most Read from Bloomberg

In a statement on Sunday, Vox said it wouldnt seek to be an obstacle to efforts by PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo to piece together enough support for a vote in Parliament to oust Sanchez as premier.

By saying it wont get in the way of Feijoos efforts to form a government, Vox could make it easier for him to negotiate with regional parties including the Basque PNV and the Canarian Coalition, which between them have six deputies.

Both groups have said they wont back Feijoo if hes in a formal alliance with Vox. Speaking to supporters in the Galicia region on Sunday, Feijoo said that if his party wins power, he would seek to govern alone without a formal pact with other groups.

Even with the support of Voxs 33 deputies, most analysts see Feijoo facing an uphill task to win enough support to form a government.

Spanish elections held last month produced a gridlock as Feijoo won the most seats but not enough, even with Voxs backing to win a parliamentary majority to unseat Sanchez. The Socialist leader, meanwhile, would need backing from the Catalan separatist parties Junts per Catalunya and Esquerra Republicana in order to remain in power.

--With assistance from Demetrios Pogkas.

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GRAND RAPIDS  Rashad Maleek Trice, 26, will face a federal jury trial for a pair of charges in connection to the kidnapping and death of 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith, after pleading not guilty to both counts during his arraignment hearing in Grand Rapids on Monday.

Federal prosecutors have charged Trice with kidnapping a minor and kidnapping resulting in death in connection with Wynter's death, following Wynter's body being found in Detroit on July 5. A federal grand jury bound Trice over to stand trial, which government prosecutors believe could take eight days. A timeline for when the trial could begin was not established at Monday's hearing.

Arraignment hearings are among the first steps in a criminal proceeding. During Monday's hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ray Kent explained to Trice his rights, the charges against him and the evidence that government prosecutors plan on entering in the trial.

A booking photo taken of Rashad Maleek Trice by the Ingham County Sheriff's Office. Trice has been charged with kidnapping slain 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith.

Trice, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, was curt with his responses, replying "yes," "no," and "yes, your honor" when Kent asked him whether he understood the charges and the criminal justice procedures in front of him. Trice is currently being held in the Newaygo County Jail without bond.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten, whose office is prosecuting the case, said the prosecution is committed to securing justice for Wynter and her family.

"The alleged facts in this case are staggering, and my deepest sympathies go out to the mother, to the father, to the family," Totten told reporters following the hearing. "My office is fully prepared to do everything necessary to establish the facts beyond a reasonable doubt."

Totten did not take questions from the news media after delivering his statement.

A provided photo of Wynter Cole-Smith.

Investigations: Records shed light on suspect connected to deceased toddler Wynter Cole-Smith

The government alleges Trice, after a dispute with Symari Cole, Wynter's mother, stabbed and assaulted Cole at her Lansing apartment the night of July 2. Cole, according to charging documents filed in the case, said she stabbed Trice in self-defense.

Cole fled the apartment for her mother's nearby apartment, leaving Wynter and a 1-year-old son she has with Trice, who police describe as an ex-boyfriend, at the apartment, according to charging documents. When police returned to the apartment, Wynter was gone, although the 1-year-old boy remained. Cole's car, a white 2013 Chevrolet Impala, had also been taken with its keys.

Government-submitted evidence states at about 4:50 a.m. July 3, a St. Clair Shores Police officer on patrol in the area of Nine Mile Road spotted the white Chevrolet Impala and attempted to stop the vehicle. Behind the wheel, Trice attempted to flee and crashed into another police vehicle after a brief chase. Wynter was not in the car with Trice at the time of his arrest.

The Detroit Free Press obtained footage from officer-worn body cameras of the arrest. On the video, after Trice was subdued by a stun gun, pulled out of the car and handcuffed, officers searched the back seat and the trunk of the car he was driving. The girl kept the baby, not me," Trice says in the video. "I took off. Dont have the baby. Shes in Lansing with her mom.

Earlier testimony from an FBI agent assigned to the case included text-message conversations between Trice and a man labeled as his father in Trice's phone. In one exchange, Trice's father asked "where's the little girl," to which Trice replied "she's gone" at 4:01 a.m. July 3.

In the Impala, parts of a torn, pink cellphone charging cable were found.

About 6:50 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, Wynter's body was discovered in an alley between Olympia Street and Edgewood Avenue near Erwin in Detroit. A torn, pink cellphone charging cable was wrapped around the toddler's neck and braided hair. An autopsy confirmed Wynter's death was caused by strangulation.

During Monday's hearing, U.S. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jonathan Roth said the government plans on entering the alleged assault and stabbing of Cole as evidence when Trice goes to trial, although he does not face federal charges for the acts.

Last month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's Office filed 18 felony counts and two misdemeanor charges against Trice stemming from Wynter's disappearance in 54A District Court in Lansing. Nessel's office is handling all state-level charges against Trice after consolidating charges across three jurisdictions.

Both federal charges against Trice are felonies, and the kidnapping in death charge has a statutory minimum mandated sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors have said the charge is also death-penalty eligible  Michigan does not have a death penalty but it can be used for certain convictions of Michigan defendants in federal court. The charge of kidnapping a minor carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Free Press senior investigative reporter Matthew Dolan contributed to this article.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wynter Cole-Smith case: Trice pleads not guilty, set for jury trial
Juron Martin, program director at Midwest Health Services, shows a stove with pans that don't heat up on the outside when residents use the "smart" stove in Stark County's first "Smart Home" for people with developmental disabilities.

PLAIN TWP.  Smart home devices may seem like a convenience, but for individuals with developmental disabilities, they can play a crucial role in their ability to live independently.

The county's first "Smart Home" welcomed its first three residents this summer. This single-level home contains assistive technology designed to make it easier for those with developmental disabilities to live on their own. It comes amid a statewide push for more technology usage in disability care and an ongoing shortage of direct support providers.

The project is a collaboration between the Hope Homes Foundation, Charis Homes, Midwest Health Services and the Stark County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

When was Stark County's first Smart Home built?

Construction on the three-bedroom house started last fall.

The county board of developmental disabilities works closely with the Hope Homes Foundation, a Stow-based nonprofit that provides affordable housing to individuals with developmental disabilities. Hope Homes owns 22 rental properties across Stark, Summit and Wayne counties.

The build on Martindale Road NE was underway when Hope Homes and Stark DD decided to make it a Smart Home. Both agencies had interest in constructing a house with assistive technology, and the timing was right, Stark DD Superintendent Bill Green said.

The house itself was funded through the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities' Community Capital Assistance Program. Stark DD paid for the smart technology. Midwest Health Services joined the project to provide support services.

Construction on the project wrapped up in May, and three residents moved in July 11.

Paul Herrera, CEO of Hope Homes Foundation Inc., talks about the "smart" washer and dryer for residents with developmental disabilities living at Stark County's first "Smart Home" in Plain Township.

Home offers smart stovetop, refrigerator, other assistive tech

On the outside, the Smart Home looks no different than other nearby houses.

But its unique features become apparent once you step inside.

The house has a zero-entry design, meaning no steps are required to access any part of the home. This allows wheelchair users to navigate the house without the need for stairs or ramps. It is also equipped with a two-way remote support system that enables service providers to check in with residents via video chat.

In the kitchen, the induction stovetop uses pots and pans that do not heat up on the outside. Juron Martin, a program coordinator with Midwest Health Services, said the stovetop only works using these specific pans, and the burners automatically turn off if they do not detect activity after a certain amount of time.

Meanwhile, the smart refrigerator reads aloud step-by-step recipes that residents can follow, and the washer and dryer have sensors that detect the amount of clothing inside, helping simplify the laundry process.

Other technology includes a smart lock and Ring doorbells, a monitored fire alarm system, fall detection sensors and watches equipped with GPS that can track a resident's location if they venture outside the perimeter of the home.

Residents living in Stark County's first "Smart Home" in Plain Township wear a watch that tracks when they are outside the yard.

Smart technology promotes independent living, addresses direct support provider shortage

Paul Herrera, chief executive officer at Hope Homes, said the technology affords individuals with developmental disabilities an opportunity to live independently while maintaining access to the services they need.

"Every county is trying to do something (with assistive technology)," he said. "The state of Ohio really emphasizes the use of technical smart devices."

In 2018, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order creating the state's Technology First Initiative, which requires technology to be considered as part of the support and service plan of any individual with a developmental disability.

Herrera said he knows of Smart Homes in Cincinnati and Toledo. The Summit County Board of Developmental Disabilities also has a Smart Home that individuals can tour to test out the technology.

Herrera said the Smart Home promotes the technology-first concept while addressing an important issue in disability care: the direct support provider shortage.

The support service industry has faced a workforce shortage for years, and the problem was only exacerbated the pandemic. More than 80% of service providers reported turning away new referrals because of staffing issues, according to a 2022 workforce survey by ANCOR.

"There's a well-documented shortage of staff everywhere," said Gina Beamer, regional director at Midwest Health Services.

Herrera said smart devices can help ease the burden on providers by reducing the need for staff.

Stark County's Smart Home will serve as both a residence for three individuals with developmental disabilities and a model home for assistive technology. The residents and their guardians agreed as part of their lease with Hope Homes to allow others to tour the home and test the technology themselves.

"There's going to be a referral process," said Shawn Miller, service and support administrator at Stark DD. "But (individuals) will reach out, and they'll be able to take their teams on a tour just to see the different kinds of technology, and I would be able to demonstrate it for them."

Green said the agreement gives residents first right of refusal if they decide they do not want anyone visiting on a particular day.

"(We) recognize that first and foremost it is their home," he said.

Green said the county board currently has 81 individuals with supportive technology in their service plan. He expects that number to increase in the coming years.

Reach Paige at 330-580-8577, pmbennett@gannett.com or on Twitter @paigembenn.

A look inside the "smart" refrigerator at Stark County's first "Smart Home" in Plain Township.

Juron Martin, program director at Midwest Health Services, talks about the "smart" fridge in Stark County's first "Smart Home" for people with developmental disabilities.

The Hope Homes Foundation has built Stark County's first "Smart Home" in Plain Township. It serves people with developmental disabilities.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Smart Home with assistive technology opens in Stark County
Energy startup Rondo is looking to change the industrial heating game  thanks to a special brick made from a centuries-old recipe, as Canary Media reported.

Though the method remains untested at a large scale, if Rondo pulls this off, it could have a massive impact on the future of the planet.

Rondo uses refractory brick, made mostly from oxygen, silicon, and aluminum, and is known for its heat-storing abilities, per Canary Media. The company heats the bricks in an insulated container using clean electricity from more affordable energy sources. The bricks can hold heat of over 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit and can supply on-demand heat to replace dirty energy methods used in intensive industrial processes.

Rondo, based in the Bay Area, is producing the bricks at a facility in Thailand owned by Siam Cement Group. Over the next few years, that factory will undergo a massive expansion, increasing its output by nearly 40 times its current production.

Once the larger facility is up and running, it will be the worlds largest battery facility in terms of output  able to produce much more storage capacity than lithium-ion factories. The factory will easily outproduce current facilities run by Tesla and GM, according to Canary Media.

Rondo is able to expand production so rapidly because the storage mechanism doesnt include the expensive materials that traditional batteries do. Thats not to mention the partnership with SCG, which already manufactures this type of brick.

Incredible amounts of heat are necessary to make a lot of things, like cement, steel, and even baby food. Many companies have pledged to cut back on air pollution produced at their factories, but many dont know how to produce the heat necessary to make their products without burning coal or gas.

Rondo CEO John ODonnell believes the cheaper production cost and a reliable alternative to dirty energy are a no-brainer.

ODonnell told Canary Media: Where it delivers both economic value and decarbonization  then youve got economic tailwinds. Those are the projects were focusing on serving.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed that the Philippines summoned China's ambassador and filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing after its coast guard fired water cannon on Manilas vessels near Ayungin Shoal over the weekend.

DFA spokesperson Tess Daza said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian and issued the protest on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz likewise handed a protest note to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

Daza added that as of Aug. 7, the Philippines has filed 445 diplomatic protests since 2020, of which 35 were filed this year, including the latest one over the firing of water cannon.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier told media that the DFA sent a note verbale, together with pictures and videos of the incident, to the Chinese Embassy

The Chinese Coast Guard on Aug. 5 used water cannon against Philippine vessels that were en route to military troops in BRP Sierra Madre for a resupply mission. Beijing also conducted dangerous maneuvers that prevented another boat from unloading its supplies, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said.

Marcos said the Philippines' response to Chinas latest aggression in the disputed waters will be discussed at a command conference on Monday.

We continue to assert our sovereignty. We continue to assert our territorial rights in the face of all of these challenges and consistent with the international law and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), he emphasized.

Still, Marcos said it is important to keep communication lines open between the Philippines and China because we need to really come to a conclusion.

He earlier suggested a direct line of communication between the two countries and their leaders in order to avoid unfortunate incidents which include blocking our fishermen in our fishing grounds, and intimidation of our maritime forces.

However, despite the proposal, the foreign affairs department revealed that China ignored the Philippines for several hours as the water cannon incident was taking place on Saturday.

The DFA also expressed our disappointment that the Department was unable to reach its counterpart through the maritime communication mechanism for several hours while the incident was occurring, and expressed our hope that the Chinese side would reciprocate, with the same sense of urgency, the communications initiated by the Philippines as has been demonstrated by the Philippines when receiving communications initiated by the Chinese side, it said.

The president also believes the incident is not related to former President Rodrigo Dutertes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.

Of course there are other things na napag-usapan (that were discussed), which I think need to remain confidential. That's between President Digong and myself. These are operational aspects of our military, of our navy, of our coast guard kaya mahirap pag-usapan (thats why its difficult to discuss these), he said.

China has not responded to the diplomatic protest as of this writing.

With reports from CNN Philippines Tristan Nodalo, Bamba Galang, and Seth Cabanban.
Pennsylvania State police in Indiana are looking for two people who they say stole a dishwasher right off the front porch of a White Township home on Aug. 2.

The dishwasher, which was brand new and still in the box, is valued at $449.10.

The suspects dragged the box off the porch to the entrance of Huckleberry Road and fled in an unknown direction.

State police said one of the suspects is a male and was wearing a black hoodie, light-colored pants and dark shoes. He is possibly between 5 feet, 10 inches and 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and weighs around 170 to 190 pounds.

Police said the second suspect was wearing a light-colored hoodie, light-colored pants and light-colored shoes. No further description was availible.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Trooper Loughner at 724-357-1960.

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NEW BEDFORD  If a man 3,000 miles away in Germany hadn't come into New Bedford resident Deborah Sousa's life when he did in 2016, she probably wouldn't be here today.

To Sousa, that July seven years ago felt like any other. She had no indication of the news she'd receive that month during a routine check-up at her doctor's office.

"I wasn't even sick," she said of the time she was diagnosed with leukemia at age 62. Aside from a little bit of tiredness she'd been experiencing  which she credited at the time to sunny days working out in her garden  Sousa says she'd observed no reason to suspect something was wrong. "It was just a yearly physical."

After her doctor followed up with her via the phone to share a troubling blood test finding, Sousa went to a cancer specialist who tested her bone marrow, finding that she had leukemia. Even more troubling was the outlook given to Sousa on what she might expect from there, and how soon.

Stay current: 5 projects Sen. Elizabeth Warren addressed in her visit to New Bedford

"He told me if I didn't get help right away, I'd be dead in three months," Sousa said. "If I had rescheduled that appointment, I would be dead."

'This guy was such a blessing'

The times that followed were trying for Sousa and her family, to say the least. The next month, on Aug. 1, Sousa began a potent form of chemotherapy to buy as much as time as possible while a much-needed stem cell donor was searched for.

As luck would have it, Sousa's miracle came through just in time. By November, a suitable donor had yet to be identified when a complete stranger in Germany decided to register himself in the database of potential donors for DKMS, one of the world's leading organizations for stem cell transplants.

New Bedford resident and cancer survivor Deborah Sousa (left) got to meet her life-saving stem cell donor, Christian Stober (right), when he and his family made the trip from their home in Germany to visit Massachusetts in early July.

"He had just donated three days before I needed it," Sousa said, noting that, although they have no blood relation, the donor, then-29-year-old Christian Stober, was found to be 100% match.

Four months after receiving Stober's donation, doctors told Sousa she was in remission, and then pronounced her cancer-free about a month after that, she said.

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"It's been six, seven years now and I feel great," Sousa said. "I just went for my physical a couple months ago and everything is perfect. Crazy; it's still unbelievable. This guy was such a blessing."

But until last month, the two had never met.

'One big family'

While incredibly grateful to him, it would still be some time before Sousa could personally thank Stober for saving her life, or even know his name.

"We had to wait two years before we were allowed to contact each other," Sousa said of donor/recipient protocols. "But when I was able to, I sent a letter to Dana Farber, they sent it to the hospital where he donated, and from there we started writing each other, FaceTiming....

"He kept saying he was coming to the U.S. so I told my husband, I don't care where in the country he goes, we're meeting him."

As it turned out, New Bedford would be Stober's destination when he, his wife Sophie, and their three young children made their first-ever U.S. trip last month  right at the Sousa family residence, to be exact.

New Bedford resident and cancer survivor Deborah Sousa is seen with her stem cell donor, Christian Stober and his family after taking a famous Duck Tour around Boston. Left to right: Sousa, Rosalie Stober, Christian Stober, Sarah Stober, Karl Stober and Sophie Stober.

"We tried to do everything," Sousa said, noting day outings during that week included visits to Boston, Plymouth and more. Sousa said Stober was especially happy to take in the history at sites like the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, formerly Plimoth Plantation; and New Bedford Whaling Museum.

"He works for a museum so he was really into that," Sousa said.

While it took some extra work at times for everyone to understand each other, Sousa said language barriers were no hindrance to how connected two families felt to one another.

Keep up with the latest: New Bedford's mayoral candidate pool has shrunk. Here's who's running now.

"It was like we knew each other already. There was no awkward feeling.... It felt like we were one big family," she said. "They're already planning on coming back in two years."

'We've all changed'

If nothing else, Sousa says she hopes her story impresses two points on those who hear it: to never, ever skip a routine doctor's visit, and how desperately stem cells and other vital donations are needed.

New Bedford resident and cancer survivor Deborah Sousa is seen with her stem cell donor, Christian Stober, and his family during a day outing in Plymouth. Left to right: Sarah Stober, Sophie Stober, Rosalie Stober, Karl Stober (front), Christian Stober and Sousa.

"I remember my husband asked Christian what made him want to donate. He said, why wouldn't you?," Sousa said. "I didn't realize myself until this happened to me how important it is."

Now, Sousa says the reminder of life's fickle nature has not been wasted on her or her family.

"We've all changed," she said. "We all look at life differently. We don't pick on little, stupid things, we don't fight as much. I'm just so happy to be alive."

Interested in donating?

If interested in joining the DKMS donor pool like Stober, swab kits can be requested online at dkms.org.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford woman meets German donor who saved her life 7 years ago
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in Florida told beachgoers to stop calling authorities on packs of manatees bunched together near the shore. While the animals look like they could be distressed, theyre actually just mating.

If you see this, no you didnt.

This is the message a Florida sheriffs office shared with the public after receiving calls about groups of manatees writhing on the beach.

While the animals often look like theyre distressed, theyre actually just mating, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office assured in a social media post.

We get calls all the time from citizens when they see this, believing the manatees are in distress. We can assure you they are more than fine, reads the post which is accompanied by a video clip of the creatures gathered close to the shore.

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Manatees mating rituals are usually a crowd event, according to conservation organization Save the Manatees, as the sea cows form mating herds close to the shore. Several males, known as bulls, seek after a female, known as a cow, until she is ready to mate. They are not so picky when mating begins, however, and appear to engage indiscriminately until finished, when the males then leave and take no part in calf rearing.

Once cows become pregnant, gestation lasts about a year and the calf will then nurse from its mother for one to two years, Save the Manatees says.

How rare are manatee births?

Manatee reproduction rates are low. A manatee averages just one calf birth every two to five years, per the nonprofit, which contributes to their status as a protected species.

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Disturbing manatees is illegal in Florida

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office also reminded that touching or disturbing manatees is not only potentially dangerous but against the law.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, feeding, harassing, harming, hunting, shooting, killing, pursing, molesting or annoying manatees are all breeches of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. Those who violate the legal protections may be subjected to a $100,000 and/or one year in prison.

While manatees breed throughout the year, spring and summer are peak season, meaning an increase in sightings and phone calls, said the sheriffs office.

So, if you see this, theres no need to call, they are a-okay! said the office. Instead, they suggest you watch from a safe distance, if you want to watch at all. Instead of making a report, appreciate the manatees from a distance.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Manatees mating on beach prompt 911 calls; police say don't worry
A rash of thunderstorms expected to form and roam the southwestern United States in the coming days that will bring lightning that could spark new wildfires, AccuWeather forecasters warn.

The storms that develop, especially in the mountains of Central and Southern California from late Wednesday through Friday, many will feature lightning but very little rainfall and are known as dry thunderstorms. This is a dangerous recipe as the region barrels into the annual wildfire season.

The threat of these dry thunderstorms will expand into parts of the Northwest by the weekend.

The impetus for thunderstorms in the Southwest on Friday will be lingering energy from former Tropical Storm Eugene, which dissipated earlier this week, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

Accompanying the lingering energy from Eugene will be some moisture, which can increase the humidity across much of California and help to trigger storms, mainly across higher terrain.

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"Moisture in the upper atmosphere can help to develop thunderstorms across the mountains of Southern California and the Sierra Nevada," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty. "The lack of moisture near ground level can lead to little rainfall with many of the storms."

These storms will also impact parts of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. They will tend to ignite over higher elevations and with the heating of the day before diminishing at night.

The combination of little rainfall and lightning could lead to the ignition of new wildfires as the region heads into the thick of wildfire season, which typically runs from July to October.

Flames rise from the York Fire on Ivanpah Rd. on Sunday, July 30, 2023, in the Mojave National Preserve, Calif. Crews battled fire whirls in Californias Mojave National Preserve this weekend as a massive wildfire crossed into Nevada amid dangerously high temperatures and raging winds. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil)

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there were 9 active wildfires across California as of Wednesday morning. The No Name Fire is the largest blaze that started August 5th, 2023 and has already scorched over 1,120 acres in Riverside County to the southwest of Los Angeles.

Despite nearly half a dozen active fires, this is below the historical average for August, at least compared to recent seasons. This is largely due to the record amounts of rain and snow the state recorded late last year and earlier this year. However, AccuWeather experts warn that current conditions are ripe for the development of new fires.

"We are just now getting into the thick of the dry season in California," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Joe Bauer. "The longstanding blanket of snow that has remained since last winter has vanished at many reporting stations in the Sierra."

With the loss of the snowpack at all but the highest elevations, there will be plenty of dry vegetation, or fuels that can be ignited by lightning in the mountains and nearby foothills, added Bauer.

"Gusty winds associated with thunderstorms can also lead to rapid fire growth," warned Douty.

California and the Southwest will not be the only region at risk for dry storms, which can lead to new wildfires. AccuWeather forecasters warn that by this weekend, the energy and moisture associated with the threat late in the workweek will expand into more of the Northwest.

On Saturday and Sunday, thunderstorms with very little rain will also erupt in parts of the northern Sierra Nevada range in Northern California, and also over mountains as far north and east as southern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming.

High pressure returning to the West Monday will largely end the threat of thunderstorms for an extended period of time. It will also fuel a massive warmup from the Central Valley of California north to the interior Pacific Northwest.

Temperatures will be as much as 15 degrees above historical averages for the early and middle part of next week, AccuWeather forecasters say. Combined with little or no rainfall, and a preexisting drought in parts of the Northwest, the uptick in temperatures can also fuel a wildfire risk.

Just enough moisture will be pumped into the region to allow some of the storms to bring localized rain that can be beneficial and problematic.

"In some cases, enough rain will fall to dampen the landscape temporarily and ease the wildfire threat," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

For example, in Riverside, California, occasional drizzle evolved into drenching downpours that delivered 0.20 of an inch of rain early Thursday morning. Riverside only averages about 0.03 of an inch of rain the entire month of August.

However, in a few locations, too much rain may fall too fast on the dry, hard-packed landscape or in urban areas and lead to flash flooding, Sosnowski said. These will tend to be very isolated in the pattern, but there is a risk that some dry stream beds, called arroyos, can briefly become raging rivers. Street flooding is possible in some neighborhoods where downpours linger for more than a few minutes.

Motorists and hikers should be aware that storms miles upstream can bring a torrent of water even when rain may not be falling in the immediate vicinity.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
A handful of schools in Summit County are facing scrutiny from the state due to students' low test scores and other accountability measures.

Three districts in the county  Akron Public Schools, Cuyahoga Falls City Schools and Barberton City Schools, plus a half-dozen charter schools  have at least one school facing oversight from the state and will be required to produce plans for improvement. Those schools will also receive extra funding.

Some of the schools were flagged for oversight because of the entire building's test scores being low and students not showing much progress. Others had subgroups of students, like students with disabilities or a racial minority group, who performed poorly.

A handful of schools in Summit County are facing scrutiny from the state due to students' low test scores and other accountability measures.

The designations, as the state calls them, are a year behind, reflecting scores from the 2021-22 school year.

Some schools on the lists, including half of those flagged in Akron's school district, were rolled over from the 2019 lists, and may have improved enough that they would no longer be flagged based on the most recent year's scores.

Here's what's important to know.

Why does the state give schools designations?

The state is required by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act to identify schools that need to improve. The state has to get approval from the U.S. Department of Education for how it will identify, offer support and hold accountable schools that are struggling.

Bryan Hoynacke, the state's associate director of the Office of School and District Improvement, said that process was delayed significantly by the pandemic. The designations are usually given in the fall, but the federal government took about an extra eight months to approve Ohio's plan, finally solidifying it in June, which is why the 2022 lists are coming out now.

Schools that are identified have to tell the state how they plan to improve. But the designations also come with additional funding to help with improvements, like extra training for teachers or more tutors.

What are the designations, and what do they mean?

To comply with the law, every three years, the Ohio Department of Education releases three lists, each with new names starting this year:

Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools: A new name for what were formerly called "Priority Schools," this designation takes into account every student's scores. While the list correlates roughly with the bottom 5% of schools in the state based on test scores, the formula is now more holistic and schools can balance out low test scores by showing improvement. Factors like absenteeism also carry weight. CSI schools tend to be ones that are low performing and not showing much growth.

High schools can also earn a CSI designation just by having a graduation rate below 67%. An elementary school that only serves grades K-2 can make the CSI list for poor rates of chronic absenteeism, because students in those grades don't take state tests.

Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) Schools: Formerly known as "Warning Schools," these are buildings that have subgroups of students performing poorly compared to students in that subgroup across the state.

Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) Schools: Formerly known as "Focus Schools," these buildings also struggle with subgroups, but are just above the ATSI category.

How do schools come off the lists?

While the CSI and ATSI lists are released every three years, schools can earn their way off in between if they show two years of consecutive improvement. For CSI schools, that means two years in a row of being out of the bottom 5%, or in the case of high schools with low graduation rates, raising them over 67% for two consecutive years.

Because there was no testing due to COVID-19 in 2019-20 school year, and then state tests did not count in 2020-21 because so many schools were still in remote learning, schools that were on the 2019 list have mostly had only had one year to show improvement, the 2021-22 school year, ahead of the 2022 list.

The state still included those schools on the 2022 list, noting them as "carried" from the 2019 list, but they could come off as soon as this fall, once 2022-23 data is available. Hoynacke said they will be able to say in December which buildings are officially off the lists.

The TSI list is run annually, so schools are either on it or they aren't each year.

Which Summit County schools earned state designations?

Akron Public Schools had 11 schools that were flagged, including nine for overall low performance or a poor graduation rate. But of those, five have already showed improvement and may soon be removed from the list.

New to the list is David Hill Community Learning Center, an elementary school that tested in the bottom 5% in the state in the 2021-22 school year and is now considered a CSI school.

Also new to the list is Garfield high school, which is on the CSI list under its previous name of Kenmore-Garfield. The school was previously a priority school because of its graduation rate, but it is now on same list for being in the bottom 5%.

East, Buchtel and North high schools are also carried over from the previous list for graduation rate, but each showed one of the two required years of improvement and could be removed from oversight as soon as this fall.

Helen Arnold and Innes, an elementary and middle school, were each on the 2019 list for being in the bottom 5% academically and have been rolled over to the 2022 CSI list, but both improved and were not in the bottom 5% in 2021-22. If the most recent school year sustained that improvement, they should also come off the CSI list this fall.

The district had two Additional Targeted Support and Improvement schools, the I Promise School and Leggett Community Learning Center. I Promise was flagged for its subgroup performance with Black students and students with disabilities, which each make up significant portions of the school. Black students were 57% of the school's population of 522 students in 2021-22, and 30% of the students had a disability.

Leggett received the designation because of the subgroup of students with disabilities, who in 2021-22 made up about 19% of the population.

Six Summit County charter schools also earned low-performance designations from the state, although one, Imagine Leadership Academy, has also shown improvement and may be removed from state oversight.

Three buildings in Cuyahoga Falls City Schools and one in Barberton City Schools were identified for having subgroups of students who are low-performing.

In Cuyahoga Falls, one of the flagged schools, the Cuyahoga Falls City School District Virtual Learning Option, was created for the pandemic years but is no longer enrolling students.

Cuyahoga Falls High School earned its designation for low performance by Asian and Pacific Islander students, and Bolich Middle School made the list for low performance by multi-racial students.

Barberton had one ATSI school, Barberton Elementary West, which made the list for the performance of students with disabilities.

What are the school districts saying about their designations?

Akron's Executive Director of School Improvement Keith Leichty-Clifford said the district was already aware of the areas of struggle for these schools ahead of the state assigning them designations. The work to improve in those areas has been ongoing, he said.

"No matter where you are, there's room for growth," Leichty-Clifford said.

David Hill will have a new leader this year, but Leicthy-Clifford noted the school's preliminary test results from the most recent school year were an improvement, so hopefully that will count as the school's first positive year toward shaking its designation.

Leichty-Clifford said the district is reviewing the reasons why students didn't perform well at Garfield, landing the school on the list for the first time.

In Cuyahoga Falls, spokeswoman Christine Stewart said the district has seen an influx of students who are immigrants or learning English as a second or even third language, as Akron's North Hill population of refugees and other immigrants and their families have spread throughout the county.

Stewart said the district is excited for the diversity, having served primarily white students, but is still adjusting to meet those students' needs.

"We are actively trying to identify how we can best serve those families," she said.

Cuyahoga Falls is in the process of hiring a family liaison for the Nepalese community, she said, and is adopting a communication app with a translation function to use with all parents.

Barberton's superintendent did not return an email seeking comment.

Summit County's Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Schools (formerly known as 'Priority Schools')

Akron Public Schools:

Helen Arnold Community Learning Center, bottom 5%, carried over from 2019

East Community Learning Center, graduation rate, carried over from 2019

APS Online, graduation rate, new to the list

North High School, graduation rate, carried over from 2019

Kenmore/Garfield High School, graduation rate, carried over from 2019 but new to bottom 5%

David Hill Community Learning Center, bottom 5%, new to the list

Innes Community Learning Center, bottom 5%, carried over from 2019

Akron Alternative Academy, reissued to the list for graduation rate and new to the bottom 5%

Buchtel Community Learning Center, graduation rate, carried over from 2019

Charter schools:

Akron Career Tech High School, chronic absenteeism

Cascade Career Prep High School (Dropout Recovery School), graduation rate carried from 2019 and new to the bottom 5%

Imagine Leadership Academy, bottom 5%, carried from 2019

Schnee Learning Center (Dropout Recovery School), renewed to the list for graduation rate

Steel Academy, bottom 5%, graduation rate

Towpath Trail High School (Dropout Recovery School), reissued to the list for graduation rate

Summit County's Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) Schools (struggling the most with a subgroup's performance)

Akron Public Schools:

I Promise School - Black students and students with disabilities

Leggett Community Learning Center - students with disabilities

Barberton City Schools:

Barberton Elementary West - students with disabilities

Cuyahoga Falls City Schools:

Bolich Middle School - multiracial students

Cuyahoga Falls City School District Virtual Learning Option - white non-Hispanic students

Summit County's Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) Schools (Showing some struggle with a subgroup performance)

Cuyahoga Falls City Schools:

Cuyahoga Falls High School - Asian or Pacific Islander

Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @JenPignolet.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Schools in Summit County named to state lists for low performance
Edward Blums suit targets a contest by Fearless Fund, founded by Keshia Knight Pulliam, Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons, which awards $20,000 in grants.

A group formed by the same conservative activist who played a crucial role in the U.S. Supreme Courts June affirmative action ruling is using the support that Black women business owners receive as the basis for a racial discrimination lawsuit.

American Alliance for Equal Rights filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in Atlantas federal court, accusing Atlanta-based venture capital firm Fearless Fund of violating Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits racial discrimination in private contracts, according to Reuters.

The lawsuit focuses on the Fearless Funds Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which offers Black women who own small businesses $20,000 in grants, digital tools to help them build their companies and mentorship opportunities, efforts made in partnership with Mastercard.

Conservative activist Edward Blum, the affirmative action opponent behind the lawsuit challenging the use of race in college admissions considerations, has now filed a lawsuit in Atlanta focused on a grant program that aids Black women business owners. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Edward Blum, an opponent of affirmative action, created the Texas-based American Alliance for Equal Rights. In an interview, Blum stated that the lawsuit was the first of many he intended to file through the alliance to vigorously contest race-based corporate practices.

Blum and the American Alliance for Equal Rights said some of the groups 60 white and Asian-American members were denied grants because of race.

As a result of lawsuits filed by Students for Fair Admissions, another organization Blum created, the Supreme Court ruled in June that the University of North Carolinas and Harvard Universitys race-conscious student admissions criteria are unlawful.

The conservative-majority court rejected practices many American institutions of higher education employ that use race as one of many considerations in admissions to increase the enrollment of Black, Hispanic and some other minority students. Blums organization alleged the programs discriminated against white and Asian-American candidates.

Blum, who is white, said he intended to base the new groups lawsuits on that successful legal action.

The common theme of these organizations is to challenge in the courts the use of racial classifications and preferences in our nations policies, said Blum, Reuters reported.

The outlet said the Fearless Fund did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, entrepreneur Arian Simone and corporate executive Ayana Parsons founded the Fearless Fund in 2019. In addition to Mastercard, it has received funding from Costco Wholesale, Bank of America, General Mills and JPMorgan Chase.

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The post Support Black women business owners receive becomes basis for discrimination lawsuit appeared first on TheGrio.
A Waltham man is facing several charges including intent to murder after a stabbing that left one person seriously injured on Sunday morning.

Waltham Police responded to 94 Adams Street around 11 a.m. for reports of a stabbing and officers located the victim suffering from apparent stab wounds.

The victim, whose identity has not been released, was transported to an area hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

The suspect was located shortly after the stabbing and was immediately placed into custody.

33-year-old Thiago Oliveira is being charged with armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon and threats.

Police said there is no threat to the public.

This an active and ongoing investigation.

Oliveira is back in court for his arraignment on Monday.

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

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Six months ago, on February 6 2023, a devastating earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria.

58,000 people lost their lives, and another 2.5 million were displaced from their homes.

The long-term impacts of the conflict are far-reaching and have generated a healthcare crisis for the 4.6 million civilians in Northwest Syria.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates there are more than 130,000 pregnant women in Syria, and 2.2 million women and girls of reproductive age are still in desperate need of sexual and reproductive health care.

A new mother and childrens hospital, funded by ActionAid, has already helped more than 5,000 women and girls to receive urgent medical care from a dedicated team of nurses, midwives and doctors.

The brand-new health facilities have greatly helped families in the vicinity of the site, but every day is still wrought with challenges.
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted  again. This time, he is facing federal charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which eventually boiled over into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

While Trump's prior federal case, related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, is being overseen by a Republican judge that he appointed, this case will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a staunch liberal who has "stood out as one of the toughest punishers of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol," The Associated Press reported. She has also ruled against the former president in his prior legal efforts, using some of the strongest language seen by a federal judge against Trump.

Chutkan's assignment to the former president's case "may worry Mr. Trump's legal team," BBC News noted, especially given her reputation for punishing Jan. 6ers  and because the indictment itself alleges that Trump directly "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol ... based on knowingly false claims of election fraud." But who exactly is Chutkan, and what might her previous judicial experience mean for Trump?

Judicial beginnings

Chutkan, 61, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She began her journey to the bench with a BA in economics from George Washington University before obtaining her JD from the University of Pennsylvania, according to her profile from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Chutkan then worked as a trial attorney in Washington, D.C., where she "argued several appellate cases and tried over 30 cases, including numerous serious felony matters," her profile said. She eventually joined a private law firm with clients including "antitrust class action plaintiffs, as well as individual and corporate defendants involved in complex state and federal litigation."

In 2013, then-President Barack Obama nominated Chutkan to serve as a U.S. District Court judge, where she has sat ever since.

Bench life and Trump saga

Given her appointment by Obama, it's no surprise that Chutkan "ruled in an arguably liberal-leaning way in several notable cases," The New York Times reported. It is unclear if she is a registered Democrat, though the Times reported that she had "donated money to [Obama's] campaigns" prior to her judicial appointment.

Chutkan, whom the Times described as "deeply versed in running trials," said during her Senate confirmation hearing that "impartiality is bedrock." During her time as a judge, Chutkan has "presided over dozens of criminal cases against alleged Jan. 6 rioters," CNN noted. At one sentencing hearing in December 2021, Chutkan told a rioter that "trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, assaulting law enforcement, is going to be met with certain punishment." She sentenced the rioter to five years in prison, which up to that point had been the longest term yet for a Jan. 6 defendant.

An AP investigation last year found that Chutkan had "consistently taken the hardest line against Jan. 6 defendants of any judge" in the Washington, D.C., area.

Chutkan's first judicial encounter with Trump came in November 2021, when she ruled that the former president couldn't keep Jan. 6-related documents from being turned over to the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Chutkan gave a strong rebuke of Trump in her ruling, writing that "presidents are not kings, and [Trump] is not president," noting that executive privilege did not apply to his documents.

Given this history, Chutkan "appears to be the worst-case scenario for the former president," Intelligencer said. However, she also appeared to acknowledge the high stakes of the upcoming trial  when asked how she was feeling following her assignment to the case, Chutkan replied, "Good ... I think."

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NEW YORK  The teen accused of fatally stabbing a gay black man claimed to be Muslim during a standoff over voguing at a Brooklyn gas station, though his family says hes Christian.

A conflicting portrait of Dmitriy Popov emerged Monday as the 17-year-old, who surrendered Friday with his lawyer, was arraigned as an adult defendant on murder charges and ordered held without bail.

The Midwood teen tried to go on the lam for a week after the killing by shaving his head and shutting off his phone in a failed attempt to evade the law, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Jafari said in court.

But the alleged killers mother called him a good boy who goes to church and has two jobs.

Popov stabbed OShae Sibley the night of July 29, after hurling homophobic slurs and anti-Black epithets at his victim before plunging the knife deep into his side, piercing his heart, police said.

Stop dancing here, Popov said, according to court papers. We are Muslim.

Get that gay s--t out of here.

Popovs grandmother has countered that narrative, noting the teen is actually Christian, wears a cross and loves the Black woman married to his older brother.

But police said that during the confrontation, captured on surveillance video, Popov stabbed Sibley in the stomach after a minutes-long standoff at the Mobil station on Coney Island Ave. near Ave. P in Midwood.

Sibley and his friends returning from a trip to the Jersey Shore, pulled over to get gas. They spent the next few minutes blaring Beyonce songs and voguing near the gas pumps

Popov and his friends, who were inside the station convenience store, stepped out said to object, claiming the dancing offended their faith.

The teens demanded that they stop dancing, NYPD Chief Joseph Kenny said Saturday. You can see on video that the heated dispute quickly turned physical.

There were a lot of anti-gay statements and derogatory anti-Black statements, Kenny said. There were a lot of people from the community acting like peacemakers.

The dispute ended with Sibley getting stabbed after he followed Popov, who used his phone to record Sibley and his friends.

The defendant, the assistant district attorney said in court, pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the chest and punctured his heart causing his death a short while later.

Popov had a full head of hair in the video, but the prosecutor noted to the judge that the teen stands before you with a shaved head.

Popovs lawyer, Mark Pollard, argued in vain that the case be tried in Family Court and asked that bail be set, but Judge Craig Walker said given Popovs week on the lam theres a good chance hed try to flee.

Its all about choices, Walker said, and the choices that were made that night which have us over here in this particular moment.

Pollard outside court called the murder a tragedy all around. The suspects mother, Lana Popov, meanwhile, read tearfully from a statement.

My heart goes out to the family of Mr. Sibley, she said. I know they are in pain as we are as well. My son is a good boy. He was working at two jobs and goes to church and school.

He is not that whats being said about him.

_____
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Officials of the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) have demanded that Beijing cease its unlawful actions in the Philippines exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) fired a water cannon at Filipino vessels.

READ: Chinese coast guard fired water cannons at PH vessels en route to Ayungin Shoal  PCG

The Chinese militia vessels have no right whatsoever to place a blockade or impede or otherwise control the movement of the PCG [Philippine Coast Guard] and Philippine supply boats in Ayungin Shoal or anywhere in the West Philippine Sea, National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said Monday.

We demand that the government of the Peoples Republic of China immediately cease its pervasive and unlawful actions in the West Philippine Sea, Malaya added, a sentiment echoed by the military and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it would fulfill its obligations in the region and continue resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in the Ayungin Shoal.

The DFA on Monday summoned Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian and filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing over the incident.

READ: PH summons Chinese ambassador, files diplomatic protest after encounter near Ayungin Shoal

It said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro asked China to stop committing illegal actions against Filipino vessels and interfering with activities of the Philippine government.

Beijing was also told to comply with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 arbitral ruling that negated its sweeping claims over the South China Sea, and to fulfill its commitments under the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

Beijing reiterates 'claim' over Ayungin Shoal

However, in a statement published on the same day, the CCG reiterated its claim that the RenAi Reef  known locally as the Ayungin Shoal and internationally as Second Thomas Shoal  has always been part of Chinas Nansha Island, or the Spratly islands.

It said that the Philippines illegally grounded the BRP Sierra Madre, a decommissioned US Navy warship, to serve as an outpost in the contested waters and urged Manila to tow away the base.

Moreover, the coast guard said it would continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty, justifying its blockade and firing of a water cannon at PCG vessels.

It [CCG] once again calls on the Philippines to accept China's proposal and discuss specific measures to control the situation on the Ren'ai Reef through negotiations, the statement said.

In 2016, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the UNCLOS declared the Ayungin Shoal as a low-tide elevation within the Philippines EEZ, and that there was no legal basis which entitled China to the area.

This ruling likewise nullified Beijings sweeping claim over the South China Sea, which included 80% of the Philippines EEZ.

READ: PH wins maritime arbitration case vs. China
A man was shot Friday in Gulfport while trying to sell a gun to a teen, according to Gulfport police.

On Saturday, police arrested Cornelius Demetric Lampley Jr., 17, and charged him with one count of armed robbery and one count of aggravated assault.

Police report they are searching for Marcus Howard Peterson, 20, who has an active felony warrant in Gulfport and should be considered armed and dangerous.

The shooting happened at 1:25 p.m. Friday in the 13000 block of Dedeaux Road in Gulfport. The unidentified victim told police he was selling a firearm when Lampley and Peterson allegedly produced handguns and tried to rob him of the gun.

Both men fired, striking the victim, police said in a press release, then fled the scene.

Lampley is being held on $450,000 bond.

Anyone with any information about this incident or the whereabouts of Peterson is asked to contact the Gulfport Police Department at 228-868-5959 or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 877-787-5898.
Police have charged a Brooklyn teenager in the stabbing death of OShea Sibley, a professional dancer and gay man. Sibley was dancing at a gas station with friends on July 29 when, police say, the teen hurled homophobic and racist slurs at the group then stabbed Sibley once in the chest.

According to CBS New York, the 17-year-old will be charged as an adult, however police will not release his name as he is underage. He is being held without bail.

CBS also reports that the teen is Muslim. However, his grandmother told the New York Daily News that those reports are incorrect and he is actually a Christian and belongs to the church. He wears a cross.

She also told the Daily News that her grandson wasnt a racist and had simply acted in self-defense.

The news says he hates Black people, but his older brother has married a black woman. We have a grandchild who is Black. He does not understand gay or not gay, she said. There were four of them strong, big men and intoxicated, if he did not do it, the guys would have killed him, she continued.

Mayor Eric Adams spoke about the tragedy and what the city plans to do moving forward.

This is a city where you are free to express yourself, and that expression should never end with any form of violence, Adams said. Were going to create an environment where the city is safe and one should be allowed to dance, to express themselves, to dress the way they want.

An Act Of Solidarity

Sibleys murder has rocked the LGBTQ+ community in New York and sparked moments of solidarity from many prominent Black women. Beyonce posted a tribute to the young, professional dancer who was revered for his talent, on her website.

Rest in power, OShea Sibley she wrote.

Before the altercation that led to his murder, Sibley was dancing and voguing alongside his friends, to Beyonces 2022 album, Renaissance.

The queer community in New York took to the streets to mourn Sibleys killing and express solidarity.

The Ballroom Scene carried in the name of OShae Sibley!! pic.twitter.com/YeTJ776uAO  TENz Magazine (@TenzMagazine) August 5, 2023

The post Teen Charged with Murder as a Hate Crime in Killing of Dancer appeared first on 21Ninety.
British scout members leave the World Scout Jamboree campsite in Buan, South Korea, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. South Korea is preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of scouts from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, world scouting officials said Monday. (Choe Young-soo/Yonhap via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, officials said Monday.

More than 1,000 vehicles will be used starting Tuesday morning to move 36,000 scouts  mostly teenagers  from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Koreas Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area, he said. Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.

Officials at Camp Humphreys, a major U.S. military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, did not immediately confirm reports that thousands of scouts from Sweden, Norway and Denmark were to be transferred to its facilities.

The base is already accommodating hundreds of American scouts, who were moved over the weekend because of heat concerns as South Korea grapples with one of its hottest summers in years.

The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the scouts from the storms path and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.

South Koreas government did not immediately specify any venues where the scouts will be staying. David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.

An official from Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's biggest province surrounding Seoul, said they were working to secure accommodation based on the potential relocation of around 15,000 scouts to the region. The possible venues include the Korea International Exhibition Center, a major convention facility in Goyang, according to the official, who did not want to be named because the plans weren't finalized.

Khanun has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japans southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and train services. On Monday afternoon, it had sustained winds of 108 kph (67 mph), with higher gusts, and was forecast to maintain that strength as it brushed Japans main island of Kyushu this week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

South Koreas weather agency reported that Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, potentially packing winds as strong as 118 to 154 kph (73 to 95 mph). Large swaths of the countrys south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.

The plans to evacuate the scouts were announced hours after President Yoon Suk Yeols office said he called for contingency plans, including relocating them to hotels and other facilities in the greater capital area.

The Japanese weather agency said the storm was about 160 kilometers (99 miles) east of Amami city on Japans southern main island of Kyushu and moving gradually toward the north as of Monday afternoon. It warned residents in affected regions to watch out for mudslides, high winds and rough seas.

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the countrys Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Due to the forecast of harsh weather in the region, West Japan Railway Co. said there was a possibility of suspending Shinkansen bullet train services from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

The South Korean Safety Ministry said the storm will unleash strong winds and rain throughout the country from Wednesday to Friday and instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other sectors vulnerable to flooding.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. The British scouts were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts were moved to Camp Humphreys.

Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday. Long before the event started, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.

Geir Olav Kaase, leader of the 700-member Norwegian contingent, said Norwegian scouts had already started leaving the campsite on Monday evening to avoid any chaos that may arise in the event of a joint evacuation. Kasse said the evacuations were proceeding in close cooperation with the Danish contingent, but he did not specify whether the Danes have started to leave too.

We do all we can to ensure that the scouts are safe and well, and that the transfer goes as smoothly as possible. We help each other and keep our spirits up, Kaase said in a statement.

The Swedish news agency TT said some 1,500 scouts from Sweden will be relocated to Camp Humphreys along with Norwegian and Danish scouts.

Kim Hyun-sook, South Koreas minister of gender equality and family, said officials are trying to arrange new cultural events and activities for the scouts before they leave, including a possible K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium on Friday to go with the closing ceremony.

We dont see it that way, Kim said when asked whether the scouts departure from Buan should be seen as an early end for the jamboree. We are creating new programs with regional governments away from the campsite, so it could be said the jamboree is widening.

Organizers earlier on Monday were scurrying to come up with plans to evacuate the scouts ahead of the storms arrival but werent committing to abandoning the campsite entirely.

Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamborees organizing committee, said organizers have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.

About 40,000 scouts came to the jamboree. About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while about 1,000 were from the United States.

South Korea categorizes Khanun as a typhoon, defined as a tropical storm with winds stronger than 61 kph (38 mph). South Koreas weather agency expects Khanun to weaken to a storm within the next five days.

___

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
After a 13-year run with Elon Musks Tesla, Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn is stepping away from the electric car manufacturer.

Kirkhorn stepped down from the role Friday but will continue to serve the company through the end of the year to support a seamless transition, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Tesla.

Being a part of this company is a special experience and Im extremely proud of the work weve done together since I joined, Kirkhorn said in a LinkedIn post. Teslas Vaibhav Taneja has been named CFO in addition to his current role as chief accounting officer.

An unsold 2023 Model X sports-utility vehicle sits outside a Tesla dealership Sunday, June 18, 2023, in Littleton, Colo. Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn has left the company after 13 years with the electric vehicle and solar panel maker.

Tesla stock slumped Monday in light of the news, with shares trading down more than 3% in the early afternoon. The automaker did not respond to a request for comment.

Kirkhorn joined Tesla in March 2010 to lead cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency efforts for the Tesla Roadster, according to SEC filings. He went on to fill critical roles in various projects including the site selection and launch of Teslas Gigafactory 1 in Nevada and the launch of Model X and Model 3 before being named CFO and Master of Coin."

The Wall Street Journal reports that board members had discussed Kirkhorn as a possible successor to Musk as Tesla's CEO.

Taneja, the newly-appointed CFO, served as chief accounting officer since 2019 after roles as corporate controller and assistant corporate controller. He previously served in various finance and accounting roles at SolarCity  a company founded by two of Musks cousins where the billionaire served as chairman  before moving over to Tesla after the automaker acquired SolarCity in 2016.

Musk is banking on his 'everything app' But will it work?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk's Tesla names a new CFO, announces Zach Kirkhorn's departure
FILE - A sign bearing the company logo outside a Tesla store in Cherry Creek Mall in Denver is seen here on Feb. 9, 2019. Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn has left the company after 13 years with the the electric vehicle and solar panel maker. The Austin, Texas, company says he stepped down from the post on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, but will stay with Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

DETROIT (AP)  Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn is departing after 13 years with the electric vehicle and solar panel maker.

Kirkhorn stepped down Friday but will remain with Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition, according to the Austin, Texas, company.

Shares of Tesla Inc. ended down about 1% Monday amid a broader sell-off in the electric vehicle sector. Rivian Automotive Inc. fell almost 4% and Lucid Group Inc. lost 3%.

Vaibhav Taneja was named CFO in addition to his current role as chief accounting officer, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.

Kirkhorn has been CFO for the past four years and was a regular participant in the company's quarterly earnings conference calls.

The filing gave no reason for his departure, but said Tesla has experienced tremendous growth during Kirkhorn's tenure.

Being a part of this company is a special experience and Im extremely proud of the work weve done together since I joined over 13 years ago, Kirkhorn wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. He did not respond to a message seeking further comment.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday acknowledged Kirkhorn's efforts at the company.

"I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years," Musk wrote on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

Kirkhorn has sold more than $6 million worth of Tesla stock this year, either as part of a prearranged trading plan or to satisfy tax obligations on vesting stock options, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Taneja, 45, has been chief accounting officer since March of 2019, and served as controller since May of 2018.
Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's chief financial officer, and Tesla CEO Elon Music. YouTube

Tesla announced in a regulatory filing that its chief financial officer was leaving the carmaker.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Zachary Kirkhorn could have been the successor to Elon Musk.

Kirkhorn, who has worked at the EV maker for about 13 years, confirmed his departure on LinkedIn.

Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's chief financial officer, is leaving the electric-car company after working for the electric-car maker for about 13 years.

The EV company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that was made public on Monday that Kirkhorn would be replaced by Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla's chief accounting officer. Tesla said Kirkhorn, who had served as the chief financial officer for about three years, would assist in the transition through the end of the year.

Kirhorn confirmed his departure on LinkedIn.

"Being a part of this company is a special experience and I'm extremely proud of the work we've done together since I joined over 13 years ago," he wrote. "As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought not possible. I also want to thank Elon for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people."

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Kirkhorn could be the next CEO of Tesla. The publication said that board members at the company had considered him a successor to Elon Musk and that Kirkhorn's name had been mentioned before a trial last year about Musk's $44 billion Tesla pay package.

During the trial, James Murdoch, a Tesla board member, said Musk had identified a potential successor within the months leading up to the trial but did not specify who Musk had suggested.

In May, the Journal compared Musk's relationship with Kirkhorn to the connection between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Steve Jobs, a cofounder of Apple, because Jobs and Musk were willing to take "risky bets" to build their companies, while Cook and Kirkhorn appear to have taken a more cautious approach that helped keep the companies in balance.

Tesla staff told the Journal that Kirkhorn won Musk's approval by leading with "bad news" and staying in the billionaire's shadow. The publication said Kirkhorn also often stepped in as a mediator between Musk and other staff at Tesla.

Kirkhorn's LinkedIn profile says he joined the car company in 2010 as a senior analyst. Tesla's value has surged since he took over the position of chief financial officer from Deepak Ahuja in 2019. Kirkhorn worked as an analyst at McKinsey & Company before joining Tesla and previously interned at Microsoft, his profile says.

The company is expected to have a busy quarter in the coming months. Musk recently announced plans to begin deliveries of its highly anticipated Cybertruck by the end of the year.

It's unclear whether Kirkhorn might transition to a role at another one of Musk's companies as the billionaire has been known to bring in staff from Tesla or SpaceX to help at his other companies, including X, formerly Twitter.

Last year, Musk moved Omead Afshar, one of his righthand men at Tesla, to SpaceX.

Kirkhorn, Musk, and a spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

Do you work for Tesla or have insight to share? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
In another win for Teslas North American Charging Standard (NACS) plugs, Mercedes-Benz just announced that it will integrate NACS in its electric vehicle lineup in 2025, according to reporting from Business Wire.

In the meantime, Mercedes-Benz will also offer an adapter that enables the companys existing Combined Charging System (CCS) to work with NACS plugs starting in 2024, giving Mercedes drivers access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across North America.

In a press release, Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said, Our strategic priority is clear: Building the worlds most desirable cars. To accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, we are dedicated to elevating the entire EV-experience for our customers  including fast, convenient, and reliable charging solutions wherever their Mercedes-Benz takes them.

Kallenius further added, Thats why we are committed to building our global Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network, with the first sites opening this year. In parallel, we are also implementing NACS in our vehicles, allowing drivers to access an expansive network of high-quality charging offerings in North America.

As Kallenius mentioned, Mercedes-Benz is not abandoning its plan to build its own global charging network, but it is acquiescing to Teslas NACS as the dominant charger type.

The new Mercedes-Benz Charging Network will include more than 2,500 high-powered chargers across North America, which will be usable by both Mercedes-Benz drivers and non-Mercedes-Benz drivers alike, according to Business Wire.

Mercedes-Benz will be the first German car manufacturer to include NACS ports, Business Wire said, signaling that the tides are shifting in favor of the NACS in the NACS-CCS war for charging supremacy.

However, even with NACS gaining ground, there are still far more CCS chargers in the United States and an even greater discrepancy favoring CCS in Europe.

It is also worth noting that China, one of the worlds leading producers and consumers of electric vehicles, has its own charging standard  so, while this announcement from Mercedes-Benz is good news for Tesla and NACS, they are still a long way from world dominance.

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The heat has been unrelenting in the southern United States this year with record-shattering temperatures that have had deadly consequences in Texas.

At least seven people have died due to the heat in Harris County, including Ramona and Monway Ison of Baytown, located about 25 miles east of Houston.

Last week would have been the couple's 52nd wedding anniversary.

The two great-grandparents lived with their dog in a mobile home, and just as the hottest part of the year was arriving on June 12, the air conditioning unit for their home failed. Houston-based news station KTRK reported that the couple needed to apply for a loan to pay for the repairs, but in the meantime, stayed in their home.

Neighbor Eddie Phillips told KTK that he offered the couple a portable air conditioning unit, and opened his home for them to stay until the repairs were made. "They wouldn't take it," Phillips said.

The neighborhood where Ramona and Monway Ison lived in Baytown, Texas. (KTRK)

The couple, who were high school sweethearts, were approved for a loan on June 15, and a technician was scheduled to come to their home on June 16 to make the repairs.

June 15 was the seventh consecutive day with a high temperature in the mid-90s. To make matters worse, the low temperature did not dip below 80 degrees for two days.

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On Friday, June 16, neighbors noticed the couple did not come outside to walk their dog, part of their morning routine. The couple also wasn't answering their door, so police were called for a wellness check, according to KTRK.

A medical examiner declared the couple dead at the scene at the same time the air conditioning repair technician arrived.

"They were gathering their things to leave," said Roxana Floods, who is the couple's daughter. "The way that they were found, I think they decided that it was too hot and it was time to go and it was just too late."

Nearly two months have passed since the dreadful day, and Floods hopes that the story will help to save the lives of others who find themselves in a similar situation as her parents, noting that staying in a home without AC is like "staying inside an oven."

"Everybody that I talk to, I tell them to tell their parents, 'Don't be too proud to ask for help.'"

Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to NOAA.

"It's been devastating to our family. The heat, it's just not a joke," Floods told KTRK.

Around 168 people die every year due to heat in the U.S., according to the historical average. The second-leading cause of weather-related fatalities is flooding with around 89 deaths per year. In comparison, around 39 people die in the U.S. every year due to cold weather.

In 2022, Texas reported 53 heat-related deaths, accounting for 36% of the national total.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
The US Justice Department wrote a report in 2019, which found officers failed to provide adequate medical care at Harris County Jail

Family members of inmates at a jail in Harris County, Texas are suing the county over claims officers brutally beat their loved ones and denied them critical medical treatment.

Attorney Ben Crump has filed a suit on behalf of 22 families who say their relatives died or suffered injuries.

The families say the inmates were deprived of constitutional rights.

"Just because you are arrested does not mean you should be given the death sentence," Mr Crump said.

"The families have been crying out for the last two years saying that they need something to be done, and since, nothing has been done," he added at a news conference on Monday announcing the suit.

The BBC has reached out to Harris County for comment.

At least 27 people died in Harris County Jail custody last year, a number Mr Crump noted was higher than the number of people who were executed on death row in all of Texas.

In the suit, Mr Crump alleges that Harris County Jail, a facility meant for temporary confinement for those not yet convicted of a crime, has become a place of "torment and punishment".

The suit alleges numerous instances of officers assaulting inmates and delaying medical care, failing to intervene in attacks from other inmates and denying those being held at the jail their medications.

One inmate, Evan Lee, who had a history of mental health issues and diabetes, died in jail custody in March 2022 after he was beaten by another inmate and did not receive proper medical care from jail staff for weeks, according to the complaint.

"It has totally, totally torn our lives," Jacilet Griffin-Lee, the mother of Evan Lee, said at the news conference on Monday. "For our loved ones to be totally taken away from us is inhumane and unjustifiable."

In another instance, an officer "inexplicably" kicked Jeremiah Anglin, an inmate who suffered from schizophrenia, in the face, knocking six of his teeth out, the suit alleges.

The families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages for emotional distress and other harms resulting from the death of their loved ones.

"This has been going on for years," said Gabrielle Smith, the daughter of Gary Smith, who died in jail custody in January 2023 after he was denied medical observation and care for a kidney disorder, according to the lawsuit. "I just pray that we can all stand together to get some justice," Ms Smith added.

In 2009, the US Justice Department published a report from an investigation into the Harris County Jail, which found the jail deprived inmates of critical medical care and failed to protect them from physical harm and other life-threatening conditions.

In the suit, attorneys for the families allege officials have taken no drastic measures to improve safety conditions and medical care at the jail since the report.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has also found that the Harris County Jail did not meet minimum jail safety standards on several occasions, including in recent years. Texas officials have said the jail has been plagued by overcrowding and staffing shortages.
A Texas woman who allegedly stabbed her date during sex in retaliation for a US drone attack that killed an Iranian military leader in 2020 will avoid prison and instead will serve three years of probation.

Nika Nikoubin, 23, was indicted last year on attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and burglary in the stabbing of Daniel Trevino, who was wounded when she allegedly stabbed him in the neck. She later agreed to plead guilty to two counts of false imprisonment with a deadly weapon.

Judge Carli Kierny ruled on Wednesday that she would get probation, citing the college students mental health struggles. She has suffered from severe depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, 8 News Now reported.

Nikoubin, who moved from Iran to America when she was 12 years old, expressed sincere remorse to the judge and apologized to the victim.

I was raped when I was 18 years old by another student, Nikoubin said in her statement. At the time, I did not fully realise the impact that this experience had on me, and my mental health deteriorated.

She added that she was in a mental health facility for 10 days before she traveled to Las Vegas and met Mr Trevino.

I was diagnosed with a number of disorders including severe depression, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder, she added. These diagnoses were deeply upsetting to me and, truthfully, I was in denial. While I was prescribed medication to treat my disorders, I initially struggled to properly follow my treatment regimen.

Nikoubin then told the judge: Most importantly, your honour, I want to express my deepest apologies to the victim, Daniel, and to the state of Nevada, for the harm that I have caused.

The woman reportedly met Mr Trevino on the online dating site Plenty of Fish and the pair went to Sunset Station hotel in March 2022 where they started to have sex. Ms Nikoubin then blindfolded her date and then stabbed him in the neck with a knife, it was reported.

Mr Trevino spoke out in court, telling the judge he has the scars to show for the 2022 incident, according to 8 News Now.

On the night of the stabbing, he told investigators: Ive chosen to forgive but whatever the law decides to do, thats up to the law.

At the time, Nikoubin told an investigator that she wanted revenge against US troops for the killing of Qassem Soleimani in 2020, and that the song Grave Digger had provided motivation for attacking the man, who she met on an online dating app, according to a report filed by the Henderson Police Department.

Soleimani was the top Iranian military leader killed in a US drone strike in January 2020 following his reported involvement in Irans foreign operations, including against ISIS prior to 2017, and was described by former US president Donald Trump as the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world.

Nikoubins defence attorney argued to the grand jury last year that the attempted murder charge was inappropriate, pointing out her client did not intend to kill her date, writing, "Nikoubin specifically stated she did not wish to kill [the victim], but only wanted to hurt him."
(CNN)  Nearly half a billion children in South Asia are exposed to extreme high temperatures as life-threatening heat waves caused by the climate crisis become stronger and more frequent, according to the United Nations childrens agency.

In a news release Monday, UNICEF said its analysis of 2020 data showed an estimated 460 million children in countries including Afghanistan, India and Pakistan were exposed to temperatures where 83 or more days in a year exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit)  making South Asia the hardest-hit region for those under age 18.

The analysis showed 76% of children in South Asia were exposed to extreme high temperature compared to 32% globally, UNICEF said.

Countries in the region are not the hottest in the world right now but the heat here brings life-threatening risks for millions of vulnerable children, said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF regional director for South Asia. We are particularly concerned about babies, toddlers, malnourished children and pregnant women as they are most vulnerable to heat strokes and other serious effects.

Temperatures in some parts of India soared to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in June, killing at least 44 people and sickening hundreds with heat-related illnesses.

Some cities in Pakistan also saw similarly high temperatures the same month, raising fears especially for laborers who spend hours toiling outdoors and for poor populations with little to no cooling options.

In parts of the countrys southern Sindh province, about 1.8 million people were exposed to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and higher, UNICEF said, giving rise to short and long-term health risks, including dehydration and organ failure.

UNICEF warns the situation is exacerbated for children as they are unable to quickly adapt to such temperature change.

The risks can be life threatening  from fainting and poor mental development to neurological dysfunction, seizures and cardiovascular diseases.

Pregnant woman are particularly susceptible to heat and can experience preterm births and stillbirths, UNICEF said.

Prolonged heat and weather extremes

Experts say the climate crisis is only going to cause more frequent and longer heat waves in the future, testing the regions ability to adapt.

India, the worlds most populous nation of 1.4 billion, often experiences heat waves during the summer months of May and June, but in recent years, they have arrived earlier and become more prolonged.

In April 2022, India experienced a heat wave that saw temperatures in the capital New Delhi exceed 40 degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days. In some states, the heat closed schools, damaged crops and put pressure on energy supplies, as officials warned residents to remain indoors and keep hydrated.

Experts have also warned the threat facing Afghanistan is particularly stark. Not only is there high potential for record extreme heat, the impacts are compounded by dire social and economic problems.

At the same time, extreme weather has had a deadly impact in other parts of the region.

Flooding caused by record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan submerged a third of the country last year, killing nearly 1,600 people  more than a third of whom were children.

While the water washed away homes and destroyed villages, water-related ailments began infecting children, giving rise to a new disaster in the nation of 230 million.

In its report, UNICEF warned that ultimately children, adolescents and women are among those who pay the highest price for extreme weather events.

Young children simply cannot handle the heat, Wijesekera said. Unless we act now, these children will continue to bear the brunt of more frequent and more severe heat waves in the coming years, for no fault of theirs.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Most children in South Asia are exposed to extreme high temperatures, UNICEF says."
HOPEWELL  The citys mayor is suggesting that Ward 7 Councilor Dominic Holloway, who has yet to be served with papers suing him for mismanagement of a GoFundMe account he started for the family of a murdered Hopewell child, be handed those papers by the sheriff's department possibly during the next council meeting.

In a text conversation with Sheriff Travis Stanley  a copy of which was obtained by The Progress-Index  Mayor Johnny Partin Jr. said he would welcome the papers being served on him at the meeting Tuesday night. In the conversation, Partin tells Stanley that he was sorry yall have to deal with his foolishness and added that Holloway spends several hours every day on the second floor of the Municipal Building in councils designated office space.

Last June, Brionna Taylor, the mother of 8-year-old PAris Mi-Unique Moore who was shot to death Dec. 30, 2022, in Hopewell, sued Holloway for $5,600. She claims Holloway took that money to pay child support he owed. Taylor has made two attempts to serve the warrant on Holloway but in both instances, Holloways home address was incorrectly identified and the papers not served.

In Virginia, it is the responsibility of the plaintiff to make sure the service address is correct. The first warrant had Holloways service address as 209 E. Cawson St., which is the Appomattox Regional Librarys downtown Hopewell branch. The second address was 3900 Oaklawn Blvd. but that address does not exist.

Holloways address of record with the city is 3400 Oaklawn Blvd.

The case was set to be heard Aug. 2 in Hopewell General District Court. However, since the warrant had not been placed in Holloways hands, neither Holloway nor his attorney showed up. General District Judge Peter Eliades then ordered the suit continued to Sept. 6. After that ruling, Taylor obtained the correct address.

Mayor Johnny Partin Jr.

Sheriff Travis Stanley

Councilor Dominic Holloway

In the text exchange from Aug. 2, Stanley tells Partin he has previously served Holloway papers so I know he can be found. Normally, the sheriff said, his department tries to serve papers to city leaders or department heads discreetly to avoid any embarrassment.

But if he is playing games, we would forgo that discretion and publicly humiliate him before Ill let my deputies be thrown under the bus, Stanley wrote.

Partin originally suggested service any weekday at the Municipal Building.

"It is easy to find him in the city clerk's office every day," Partin told Stanley in the text. "He spends at least 4-5 hours on the 2nd floor between the clerk's office and [city] manager's office. I hope this helps."

After Stanley's comments about playing games, Partin responded, I was going to say you can serve on August 8th if youd like to. We have a City Council meeting.

As of Friday afternoon, there was no record of the warrants successful service.

He concluded the exchange with, If [Holloway] keeps trying to avoid yall and embarrass your deputies, bring it to a City Council meeting. I welcome it.

Both Partin and Stanley verified the authenticity of the text exchange to The Progress-Index.

Partin said he recommended serving the papers at the Aug. 8 meeting because "the family needs closure, and this issue needs to be resolved as quickly as possible."

"After learning about the continuance that was given and being told that the deputies were having a hard time serving Councilor Holloway, I reached out to Sheriff Stanley," the mayor said. "I told Sheriff Stanley that Councilor Holloway is normally in the City Clerk's Office and City Manager's Office for approximately 4-5 hours a day from what I am told. If your deputies are unable to serve them, then I welcome you and your deputies to our City Council meeting on Aug 8.".

Holloway has repeatedly turned down offers to comment on the lawsuit.

The City Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Councilors will convene at 6 p.m. to go into closed session, followed by a 7 p.m. work session preceding the regular meeting's start.

Even if Holloway had appeared in court last week, it was likely that the case still would have been continued. Eliades said he and his four Sixth Judicial District colleagues are recusing themselves because Hopewell City Council provides a portion of the courts funding. The Supreme Court of Virginia would have to appoint a judge from outside the district to hear it.

The GoFundMe lawsuit is not the only legal issue for Holloway.

A Chester woman is suing him for $4,000 plus attorney fees and court costs over a disputed loan. Britney McDaniel claimed Holloway and his wife approached them for the money last December so he could close out election fines he aggregated during his 2022 councilmanic run. Holloway allegedly maintains that the money McDaniel gave him was a gift, not a loan.

McDaniels warrant also had 3900 Oaklawn Blvd. as Holloways service address. She told The Progress-Index last week she planned to reissue the warrant with the correct address.

A hearing on that case is set for Aug. 16, also in Hopewell General District Court.

More: Hopewell council approves $988,000 contract with Robert Bobb Group

More: Working 'fun for me': 93-year-old AdvanSix engineer Bill Salot still going after 70 years

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell officials discuss GoFundMe lawsuit service on councilor
In-N-Out may be pursuing litigation against a burger joint in Sinaloa, Mexico, LA Times reported.

Social media posts show how the eatery sells what looks like a double-double and animal-style fries.

The restaurant is called In-I-Nout and has a logo that looks like an upside down In-N-Out logo.

A burger joint in Sinaloa, Mexico, looks eerily similar to In-N-Out  from the menu items to the very name  and the fast food chain doesn't seem too thrilled about it.

The restaurant in Mexico appears to have a menu taken straight out of the beloved California staple.

The knockoff In-N-Out in Mexico called In-I-Nout. pic.twitter.com/aKv9lfddqO  Chad (@ChadBlue83) August 4, 2023

According to the burger joint's Instagram, the eatery sells a double cheeseburger with sesame-seedless buns and raw onions as well as french fries that can be topped with melted cheese, grilled onions, and a sauce that looks like In-N-Out's spread, making the dish akin to animal-style fries.

The red and white color scheme of the burger joint also evokes In-N-Out's familiar interior decor.

If those aren't convincing enough to make someone think of In-N-Out, the Sinaloa restaurant's name might do the trick: It's called In-I-Nout.

The Mexican burger restaurant also has a logo that looks like In-N-Out's golden arrow but upside down.

In-N-Out and In-I-Nout did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.

There are some differences. At In-I-Nout, customers can put bacon in their burgers or order boneless chicken wings, according to the restaurant's Instagram.

In-N-Out appears to have already taken notice and told The Los Angeles Times that it's not providing comment "due to ongoing litigation."

This wouldn't be the first time In-N-Out has sought lawsuits against restaurants the company felt were copying its product. But it may be the most egregious example.

In 2021, In-N-Out sued a Michigan-based chain, Doll n' Burgers, claiming it copied the overall look of its restaurants, The Daily Telegram reported. Doll n' Burgers featured a white, red, and yellow color scheme, according to the report.

A Utah-based restaurant called Chadders was also sued in 2007 because of some similarities the two burger joints shared, including the menu. According to KSL-TV, Chadders offered customers items such as a hamburger wrapped in lettuce, which is called a protein-style burger at In-N-Out, and fries with cheese and onions.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A third member of K-pop megastars BTS has begun the process of enlisting for South Korea's mandatory military service (Jung Yeon-je)

A third member of K-pop megastars BTS has begun the process of enlisting in South Korea's mandatory military service, the band's agency said Monday.

All able-bodied men in South Korea must serve at least 18 months in the military and, after a years-long debate about whether BTS deserved an exemption, Jin, the oldest member of the group, enlisted last year, followed by his bandmate J-Hope in April.

"We would like to inform our fans that SUGA has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement," HYBE said in a statement.

"We ask you for your continued love and support for SUGA until he completes his military service and safely returns," it added, without providing further details.

Before the band went on a hiatus in June last year, BTS bagged six No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 chart and all seven members of the boyband have reached the top of the charts with solo tracks, Billboard said.

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been credited with generating billions of dollars for their country, as well as boosting the image and soft power of South Korea -- now a global cultural powerhouse.

They have been invited to speak at the United Nations, and to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House.

Earlier this year, the chairman of the septet's agency, Bang Si-hyuk, said that making BTS do their military service was slowing the global growth of K-pop.

The global K-pop market "narrows significantly when BTS is taken out", he said, adding "the continuity of a person's career or their value as a national asset is damaged" by enlisting in the military.

South Korea offers exemptions from military service to people including Olympic medal winning athletes and some classical musicians, but K-Pop musicians are not eligible under the existing program.

sh/ceb/mca
Pedestrians walk past a police patrol in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023. Haitians are expressing skepticism over an offer by Kenya to lead an international police force aimed at combatting the gang violence in the Caribbean nation. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)  Several thousand people  their faces covered to conceal their identities  marched through Haitis capital on Monday demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.

Haitians' daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.

We want security! the crowd chanted as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister's official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

I cant work. I cant go out. Im like a prisoner in my own home, said Wilene Joseph, a 36-year-old street vendor and mother of two who joined the march out of frustration.

I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying from all directions all the time, Joseph said of her children, ages 5 and 7. The situation is unacceptable.

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, experts say gangs have seized control of up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty.

From January to March, more than 1,600 people have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, a nearly 30% increase compared with the last three months of 2022, according to the newest U.N. report.

On Monday, UNICEF announced an alarming spike in kidnappings, with nearly 300 confirmed cases so far this year, almost equaling the number reported for all of last year, and almost three times the total for 2021.

The agency noted that women and children are increasingly being kidnapped and used for financial or tactical gain. Among those kidnapped in late July was Alix Dorsainvil, a U.S. nurse from New Hampshire, and her young daughter. Dorsainvil works for El Roi Haiti, a Christian organization that offers medical care, education and other services. She and her daughter remain in the hands of their captors, who are demanding $1 million in ransom.

Parents of young children are particularly fearful that gangs will snatch them when they go to and from school. Nacheline Nore, 40, said her two boys, ages 10 and 8, have to call her every day as soon as they step inside their school, and she rides back home with them every afternoon: You dont know whos going to be the next target, she said.

Mario Jenty, a 36-year-old cell phone vendor who joined Mondays march, said the increase in kidnappings is pushing Haitians into even deeper poverty. Theyre going to have to sell that home to pay for ransom, and theres a chance they might not be released, he said of the victims.

Jenty, who lives in Carrefour-Feuilles, said he would not allow gangs to take over his neighborhood. Im going to fight this, he said. Id rather die than leave my community.

Jenty joined the thousands of Haitians who yelled Bwa kale! on Monday as they marched, a reference to a violent uprising that began earlier this year, with civilians targeting suspected gang members. More than 200 people have been slain since then, and demonstrators vowed to keep the movement alive as gangs overwhelm Haitis understaffed and under resourced police department.

Last October, Haitis prime minister and other top-ranking officials requested the urgent deployment of an international armed force to help quell gang violence.

In late July, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force, but the U.N. Security Council has yet to vote on a resolution to authorize a non-U.N. multinational mission. The U.S. said last week that it would put forward such a resolution.

___

Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.
The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, pictured in New York harbour in May 2022 (Angela Weiss)

More than 3,000 United States military personnel have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships, part of a beefed up response from Washington after tanker seizures by Iran, the US Navy said Monday.

The deployment adds to a growing US military buildup in tense Gulf waterways vital to the global oil trade and led Tehran on Monday to accuse the US of inflaming regional instability.

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.

The US sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea on Sunday after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

They arrived on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, providing "greater flexibility and maritime capability" to the Fifth Fleet, the statement from the Bahrain-based command added.

The deployment adds to efforts "to deter destabilising activity and de-escalate regional tensions caused by Iran's harassment and seizures of merchant vessels," Fifth Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins told AFP.

USS Bataan is an amphibious assault ship which can carry fixed-wing and rotary aircraft as well as landing craft. The USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, transports Marines, their gear, and lands them ashore.

In a Monday news conference, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said US deployments are only serving Washington's interests.

"The US government's military presence in the region has never created security. Their interests in this region have always compelled them to fuel instability and insecurity," he told reporters.

"We are deeply convinced that the countries of the Persian Gulf are capable of ensuring their own security."

The spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ramazan Sharif, meanwhile said the Islamic republic "has reached a level of strength and power that can reciprocate any vicious act by the US, such as seizing ships", according to state news agency IRNA.

- 'New approach' -

The latest deployment comes after Washington said its forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5.

The maritime services in Iran said one of the two tankers, the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, had collided with an Iranian vessel, seriously injuring five crew members, according to IRNA.

In April and early May, Iran seized two oil tankers within a week in regional waters.

Those incidents came after Israel and the United States blamed Iran in November for what they said was a drone strike against a tanker operated by an Israeli-owned firm off the coast of Oman.

The US announced last month that it would deploy a destroyer, F-35 and F-16 warplanes, along with the Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit, to the Middle East to deter Iran from seizing ships in the Gulf.

Last week, a US official told AFP that Washington is also preparing to put Marines and Navy personnel aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as an added layer of defence.

Washington's stepped-up military response comes at a time of deepening engagement between the region and China, which brokered a shock detente between Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in March.

Tehran's relations with other Gulf Arab states are also growing. The president of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait's foreign minister were both offered invitations to visit the Islamic republic last week.

"Security will remain a friction point in US-Gulf relations even if the threat posed by Iranian attacks against shipping eases in the short term," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

"The perception that the US isn't doing enough to deter Iranian attacks against international shipping will persist," he told AFP.

"The need for a new approach is evident".

bur/ho/jsa/hkb
Three people face kidnapping or assault charges for an alleged incident involving a Guntersville man, according to a news release from Etowah County Sheriff Jonathon Horton.

Timothy Baker, 49, and Brandy Click, 46, are in the Etowah County Detention Center and face felony charges of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault, according to the release. Amy Downing, 48, is in the Marshall County jail on an unrelated charge but will be extradited to Etowah County on a first-degree assault charge.

According to the release, the victim in the case walked to a residence in the Egypt community, seeking help with his hands still bound behind him.

Deputies and medics responded to the scene and the man was taken first to a Gadsden hospital, then transferred to a Birmingham hospital, where he underwent surgery for his injuries.

Authorities say it was not a random attack, that the victim knew the other three people.

Baker and Click are being held without bond on the kidnapping charges and $50,000 bond on the assault charges. Downing will face a $50,000 bond once shes back in Etowah County.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Three charged in alleged abduction, assault of Guntersville man
Reps. Katie Porter, Adam B. Schiff and Barbara Lee, from left, are running for the same Senate seat, creating some uncomfortable dynamics in California's Democratic House delegation. (Andrew Harnik, Jose Luis Magana and Peter Dejong / Associated Press)

For the record:

10:40 a.m. Aug. 7, 2023: An earlier version of this article said that Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee sit on the Appropriations Committee. Porter is not on that committee.



Soon after Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) jumped into the race for the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, he asked freshman Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) for her support. Hed backed her 2022 campaign, and she was happy to endorse him.

Just a few weeks later, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) announced she'd be running against Schiff. Kamlager-Dove told Lee that she would endorse her too.

The unusual dual endorsement is a sign of the uncomfortable dynamics inside Californias Democratic House delegation as Schiff, Lee and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) vie for their colleagues support in one of 2024s highest-profile Senate races.

Read more: Expanding the Supreme Court is a longshot. Why California's Senate candidates support it

Im happy to be serving alongside Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Barbara Lee and I think each of them has tremendous qualities that would make them amazing senators, Kamlager-Dove told The Times.

"They are both big deals, she added.

Capitol Hill is tight quarters, especially for members from the same state. Schiff, Porter and Lee are constantly bumping into one another and their other California colleagues in the hallways, the elevators, at committee hearings and on the House floor. The California delegation has a weekly Wednesday lunch. Lawmakers say theyve spotted Schiff and Porter on the same flights from D.C. to LAX.

And while the Senate hopefuls and their colleagues insist that no ones trying to make things weird, some California Democrats admit that having the three running against one another has created an uncomfortable situation.

They're all friends. So yes, it is awkward when you have friends who are running against each other for the Senate seat, Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Indio) told The Times.

Conversations with more than half of the 40 members of Californias Democratic House delegation revealed that the trio of lawmakers had remained civil adults and had not put any of them in a tough spot.

But its still early in the race, and many fretted that as the March primary approaches, things might ratchet up. A potential November election between two of the Democrats could make matters tougher.

They haven't had a debate yet. They haven't started doing their messaging and all of that. That really starts to increase the emotional intensity, said Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), who backs Schiff.

Its hard to overstate how claustrophobic Congress can be. During interviews about the Senate contest, multiple members glanced around to make sure none of the three candidates were within earshot.

Read more: Adam Schiff dominates rivals in fundraising for California's U.S. Senate race

As I talked to Porter near the House floor a few days ago, Schiff stepped out of an elevator just feet away. His spokeswoman shot me a smirk.

Its just a scrum here of various humans, Porter said after Schiff walked away.



Porter said that shed ridden the House subway with Lee just the day before and that they'd chitchatted amiably. And Schiff said he often bumped into his Senate opponents on the House floor.

When Adam goes down to the House floor, everybodys looking around to see where people are at, said one California Democrat.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), who backs Lee, said hed been surprised at how little tension there seemed to be among the candidates  so far.

It's probably because it's early, he said.

Although most members speaking on the record said that everything was hunky-dory, they admitted privately that they were worried how the race might develop  and what strains it could put on the delegation.

Its just difficult. You have relationships with your colleagues; you work with them, one long-serving California House Democrat said. I certainly hope that it remains amicable.

That Democrat was one of several who pointed to the 2012 race between Democratic Reps. Brad Sherman and Howard Berman as a cautionary tale.

The two had a tense relationship going back decades, and when a new congressional map tossed them into the same San Fernando Valley district, they were soon at each others throats  almost literally.

During their final debate, Berman got in Shermans face, and Sherman responded by grabbing him around the shoulders (he disputed later that it was a headlock) and asking Berman: You want to get into this? A police officer stepped in to separate them.

Sherman (D-Northridge) told The Times that the race got so nasty partially because he had been squabbling with Berman and Bermans brother Michael, a powerful political consultant who ran Democrats gerrymandering efforts, for decades, and said that the cage match of running in a House race was much more tense than a statewide campaign.

But he warned that another component that made his race against Berman so brutal could play out in the Senate contest.

If no Republican finishes in the top two of Californias allparty March primary, two of the three Democrats will have to spend eight more months running against each other.

Thats a real possibility: A recent Public Policy Institute of California survey found a tight three-way race, with all three Democrats in the teens and Porter slightly ahead. The trio led every declared Republican hopeful, none of whom polled in the double-digits.

The only thing worse than running against a colleague once is doing it twice in the same year, Sherman said.

Read more: Who will replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein? Meet the potential candidates

Right now, all three Democrats have a strong incentive to play nice. Any candidate who punches too hard against an opponent risks alienating a potential future ally who could be a valuable endorsement in the general election. The same can be said of their supporters.

But that incentive is likely to disappear in November.

In 2016, after a relatively peaceful Senate primary, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) found herself trailing badly against then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in the general election. When then-President Obama endorsed Harris, who was a longtime ally, Sanchez said he did it partially because they were both Black  a claim that inflamed Black-Latino tensions.

All three of the House Democrats vying to replace Feinstein have faced some version of this quandary before.

When Porter first ran in 2018, she faced off against Dave Min  a fellow law professor at UC Irvine. Theyd known each other for years, not only working together but living in the same neighborhood. Their kids attend the same elementary school.

That race got exceedingly tense. Rumors flew about Porters divorce, in which she and her ex-husband accused each other of abuse; a judge sided with Porter. Porter and other Democrats stated publicly that they believed Min and his allies were behind the rumors, which he denied. Min ran what Porter called called sexist attack ads criticizing her professional credentials.

But theyve patched things up: Min, now a state senator, is backing her U.S. Senate race, and shes supporting his bid to replace her in the House.

After an election, you know, it's difficult both for the winner and the loser. You're tired. You're trying to plot your next journey, Porter said. So I think we both took a couple of weeks to kind of figure out what that meant for us.

Min didnt respond to requests for comment.

Lee ran against fellow California Democrat Linda Sanchez (D-Whittier) for vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus in 2016, losing a close race that created some internal tensions in the delegation.

Two years later she ran against now-House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a contest for caucus chair that got even more heated  she and her allies said afterward that colleagues had lied to her in saying theyd support her before voting for Jeffries on the secret ballot.

Schiff hasnt directly faced off against any California colleagues. But when he made noises about potentially running to replace former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) as House Democrats' leader last year, many members  including his California colleagues  made it clear that he didnt have a chance against Jeffries.

Few in the delegation wanted to talk about those races.

Youre looking for trouble in all the wrong places, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) told The Times before walking away.

Don't write stories about division. Write stories about positive stuff, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), a Lee supporter, responded when asked about Lees previous runs for House leadership.

But not all endorsements carry lasting tensions.

Takano, although he is backing Schiff, said he admired the political maturity Porter showed in endorsing Min after a very bitter primary fight, and pointed out that shed backed Takano in his own bid to be ranking member on a committee after hed endorsed Min in that primary.

And Sherman is backing Schiff even though Schiff endorsed Shermans opponent in 2012.

The entire Democratic delegation  including Porter and Lee  rallied around Schiff when Republicans moved to censure him in June. And the trio have continued to work together. Lee is a co-sponsor on legislation Schiff introduced with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) just a few weeks ago.

All three of the Senate candidates have insisted that things havent been awkward for them.

Its very comfortable. We have a lot of respect for each other, Porter said.

No awkwardness on my part, Lee said.  I'm running to win, and everybody's running to win. ... All of us know what elections are all about.

It has been very cordial, Schiff said.

Schiff and Lee have known each other for decades  they served in the state Legislature together in the 1990s before being elected to Congress.

I spoke with her before the race. I said: You and I have been friends before this race started, well be friends during, and we'll be friends after, however it turns out, Schiff said.

The situation might be a little less awkward for Schiff, since more than half of the California delegations Democrats are supporting him, including Pelosi.

Read more: 'I'm emancipated now': Nancy Pelosi enjoying life after leadership

I respect them all. I love them all. But I'm for Adam. I think that we really need his experience and the respect he commands nationally, the former speaker told The Times.

Pelosi said that Lee was wonderful; shes like a sister to me, and described Porter as new and fresh and popular. But Schiff, she said, was the best choice because he represented the most strength to fight for California in a time of transition for the states leadership, as she and Feinstein are stepping away from the national spotlight.

I dont think it will be nasty towards the end. I think it will just be politics. Thats the life we lead, said Pelosi.

Lee has a few endorsements from colleagues, including Khanna and Waters, and from a number of other politicians including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a former congresswoman; and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).

No California congressional members have endorsed Porter: Her sole congressional support so far comes from her mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Ruiz, who hasnt endorsed in the race, said that Schiff had been the most aggressive to seek endorsements but that all three had approached him for support.

The endorsement process itself is awkward enough. Some members said they made sure to let their colleagues know they were backing another candidate, as a courtesy, before publicly endorsing. Others are waiting to see how things shake out  or plan to stay out entirely to avoid the drama.

I wish them good success  all of them, Garamendi said. Im not going to engage one way or the other. Why not? Why not endorse one or the other? he shot back incredulously. Theyre all colleagues.

Lee, when asked if shed drawn any lessons from her previous hard-fought leadership runs against other Democrats, said that you can't take anything in politics personally.

There are winners and there are losers, she said. You have to be able to separate the personal from the political, and I've always done that.

Porter promised to do her part to keep the race from going negative.

It should stay a positive race. I think that is really important for the Democratic Party writ large.  We will set a tone about whether or not Democrats can compete in a way that lifts up the party, that draws people in, that creates positive energy for our down-ballot candidates, she said. I'm really committed to doing that.

But some of their colleagues are bracing for whats to come.

The thing I hate most about politics," said Takano, "is when there is an intra-family competition.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
An investigation is underway at the site of the helicopter wreckage in Cabazon. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

Three men who were part of a group battling a small blaze in Riverside County on Sunday were killed when their helicopter struck another chopper around 7:05 p.m., according to authorities.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, identified the victims as Assistant Chief Joshua Bischof, Fire Capt. Tim Rodriguez and pilot Tony Sousa. Friends from Cal Fire confirmed the deaths online.

Here is what we know about the victims.

Joshua Bischof, 46

Joshua Bischof in an undated photograph during an S-70i Firehawk unveiling at the Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base. (Cal Fire via Facebook)

Bischof was promoted to assistant fire chief in Riverside County in March, according to a Facebook post from his wife.

He was previously the battalion chief at Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base, which is one of the 14 such bases that Cal Fire has across the state. Before that, he worked in Menifee for the Riverside County Fire Department.

Bischof had spent years aboard planes and helicopters directing aerial attacks of fires. He routinely posted photos from high above fires burning in Riverside.

Read more: Authorities investigate Cabazon helicopter crash that killed 3: 'This should never happen'

Bischof worked the Camp fire, which ripped through the town of Paradise, Calif., in 2018, he told news outlets.

This is certainly one of the worst fires in California history, he told a CBS reporter as they flew over the Paradise destruction. Its the most destruction Ive ever seen.

Bischof was among the firefighters who joined then-President Trump for a news conference on the Camp fire.

Tim Rodriguez, 44

Rodriguez was a fire captain with Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base, according to Cal Fire and social media posts.

He sometimes took videos of fires from the helicopter, including a memorable shot of the Chaparral fire in Riverside and San Diego counties in 2021.

"His life was firefighting," said a family member who asked to not be named to avoid unsolicited contact. "That was his life. He loved doing it and he loved training and training people."

Rodriguez enjoyed taking his wife and kids out of town on his days off, the family member said.

Besides firefighting he loved to cook and was an avid cyclist.

"He did what he loved, and he was doing what he loved when he died," the family member said.

Tony Sousa, 55

Sousa was a contracted helicopter pilot, according to Cal Fire and social media posts.

He also was a go-kart racer, according to posts from friends.

"All of us at QRC Karts are saddened to learn of the passing of Tony Sousa," the karting company wrote on Facebook. "An original house car driver, father, and great friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Sousa family during this devastating time."

Chad Costa, assistant fire chief for the Petaluma Fire Department, posted that he knew all three victims personally but didn't offer details about the fallen pilot. Storey County Professional Fire Fighters, the union whose members serve the residents of Reno, also posted on Facebook that Sousa was among the victims.

"We were responding to this incident and heard the 'Emergency traffic' call as we were coming into the area," the union posted. "Your heart sinks when you hear this, but you continue on. Everyone on scene continued to work to mitigate the multiple fires that were active. This incident was a somber reminder of how dangerous this job is. Everyone in the fire service knows the dangers, but all accept the risk, as we all want to help others in their time of need."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Poll workers wait for voters at a polling place at Park Tavern on November 3, 2020 in Atlanta. Credit - Megan VarnerGetty Images

When lawmakers return from their August recess next month, Congress will have only a handful of days to pass a budget and avoid a government shutdown on October 1. Last-minute faceoffs have become a routine exercise on Capitol Hill, but the stakes this year extend beyond the federal bureaucracy. As part of the rough-and-tumble of trying to pass the next spending bill, Democrats are desperately pushing to incorporate another crucial priority: protecting state and local election workers.

The agenda item has taken on increased significance as of late. Former President Donald Trump is running to reclaim the White House while defending himself against multiple criminal indictments, including on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Its a scenario thats poised to create a powder-keg environment when voters cast ballots next year.

There's an urgency to this, given the climate we're in and wanting to be as prepared as we can for the 2024 election, Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland tells TIME. These dollars need to get out to these officials sooner rather than later. Simply put, the upcoming budget is likely the last chance for Congress to help safeguard the next election.

At the heart of the effort are two objectives: to ramp up funding for state and local election offices and to pass an election security bill that would strengthen the federal penalties for harassing or intimidating election administrators. It comes as election officials have faced a titanic upswing in death threats, online intimidation, and abuse. An April survey by the Brennan Center for Justice found that nearly half of all election workers feared for their colleagues safety.

We need to be more prepared, and restore what has already been underfunded, Omar Sabir, the city commissioner of Philadelphia, tells TIME. Elections have always been underfunded for years. Congress allocated $75 million to help fund federal elections in the last two fiscal-year budgets, a small fraction of what election officials and outside experts say is necessary. Last June, a bipartisan group of election workers, orchestrated by the nonprofit advocacy group Issue One, pressed Hill lawmakers to allocate more than five times that muchat least $400 millionfor the next election. Those dollars, which would be disbursed to states and municipalities through Election Security Grants, would fund new cyber protections to thwart the hacking of voting machines and vote-counting software; physical security at polling and canvassing locations; and, in some cases, protecting the homes of election administrators facing threats of violence.

The other part of the equation is to disincentivize menacing behavior toward election officials. The Election Worker Protection Act, authored by Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, would strengthen the criminal penalties for harassing or intimidating election workers. Election workers are on the frontlines of our democracy, but they have faced serious threats, intimidation, and even physical harm, Klobuchar tells TIME.

That hits home for Sabir, who remembers when two Virginia men were arrested in November 2020 for carrying automatic guns near the Philadelphia Convention Center, where mail ballots were being tallied in the pivotal swing state. Last October, they were found guilty of bringing weapons into the city without a permitbut acquitted on election interference charges.

Some states have recently advanced their own measures to protect election workers, such as Nevada, but activists are hoping for federal measures that would extend to officials in states with more lenient laws. They hope it would send a signal to would-be miscreants. Nevada passed legislation to make it a felony to harass or intimidate election workers and volunteers, which is giving election workers the faith that we have their back, Cisco Aguilar, Nevadas Secretary of State, tells TIME. We are not gonna allow people to f-ck with them.

Officials in other battleground states would like to see that policy adopted more broadly. A few people wearing an orange jumpsuit picking up trash on the side of the road would go a long way, Ed Lindsey, a Republican member of the Georgia State Election Board, tells TIME.

Congress has already solidified some extra help for election workers. Last year, the Election Assistance Commission approved a request from Klobuchar and then-Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, to support state and local election security measures through the Help America Vote Act, which passed in 2002 after Floridas hanging chad fiasco upended the 2000 presidential election.

But advancing new legislation through a highly divided Congress is a far more formidable challenge. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House, but their MAGA flank is deeply resistant to increasing federal aid for elections, which they claim without evidence are rife with fraud and corruption. Speaker Kevin McCarthys office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would support either measure. It's a tough climate in Congress for getting some of these things passed, says Sarbanes, who has introduced voting-rights legislation in the House with some of the same provisions in Klobuchar's bill.

While the issue remains polarized on the Hill, surveys show that the idea enjoys bipartisan support from voters. A recent poll conducted by Citizen Data, a nonpartisan group, found that 74% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans support federal funding of state and local elections.

I think the public is certainly on our side, Sarbanes says. Whether we can convince members of the House who have the gavel and decision-making authority for what comes to the floor is a different matter. I'm not super optimistic about that, but were going to make it very clear that their responsibility to their constituents and to the voting public makes it absolutely necessary to put these protections in place.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
LOS ANGELES  Emily Drabinski took over as president of the American Library Association in July with plans to tackle the pressing issues facing her profession, such as shoring up funding and fighting a record number of book ban attempts nationwide.

She said she wants to make sure that the LBGTQ community and Black people see themselves reflected in the books on their library shelves. And shes planning to prepare libraries for the consequences of climate change, pointing to the severe flooding this summer in the Northeast.

But some Republicans have focused on a single tweet Drabinski sent over a year ago to incite an effort to defund and abandon the ALA, the oldest and largest nonprofit trade organization for libraries. Conservative Republican lawmakers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming have pushed their states libraries to withdraw from the ALA, citing a since-deleted tweet Drabinski wrote after her election in April 2022.

I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary, Drabinski wrote. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD. I love you mom.

Montana became the first state last month to cut ties, eschewing association with an organization led by a Marxist.

Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association, has an Iowa city public libraries Pride sticker, reading Libraries are for Everyone on her water bottle. (Alisha Jucevic for NBC News)

Right-wing activists have asserted that librarians following the ALAs lead have been captured by a woke ideology, have labeled the organization radical and accused it of pushing a sexual agenda on children. Marxism is a political theory developed by German philosopher Karl Marx in the 19th century that critiques capitalism and analyzes class relations, and influenced many communist regimes. And though it has attracted backlash, Drabinski said shes not going to hide her political opinions.

I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me, and are often under a lot of scrutiny, Drabinksi said in her first interview since taking office last month.

She said she wanted to show a sense of pride to peers who share those identities with her, some of who voted for her because of it, she said. I didnt anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasnt happening right now.

Drabinski, 48, stepped into her year-long term as ALA president at a crucial time for libraries, which have become magnets for protests by right-wing activists and are fighting legislation that aims to restrict the books on their shelves, which frequently centers on objections to titles with LGBTQ-themes.

The ALA documented the highest number of attempted book bans in 2022 since it began tracking such efforts in 2001. People in Pennsylvania, Florida and West Virginia have filed criminal complaints attempting to have librarians arrested and charged with obscenity, though none have succeeded, while several GOP governors signed bills that would make it easier to arrest librarians for letting children check out books they deem harmful to minors.

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Braun of Indiana demanded last week that federal funds for the ALA be halted, and that the government investigate the organization for allegedly advising librarians to discriminate against a Christian book publisher. Mike Flynn, the retired Army general and former Trump adviser who has become a conspiracy theorist and a local Republican leader in Florida, attacked the ALA recently for being led by Marxist thugs.

Drabinski, who grew up in Boise, Idaho, and is a librarian at the City University of New York, sees these critiques as organized pro-censorship efforts by people who want to erode support for public institutions that enable access to information for everyone.

The ALA has plans to beef up its support for libraries facing political challenges, including raising funds to hire lawyers and providing crisis communications support. The ALA will launch a campaign school to support and encourage people who believe in intellectual freedom to run for school and library boards, Tracie Hall, the groups executive director, said at the groups national conference in June.

Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association, in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 2023. (Alisha Jucevic for NBC News)

In January, the ALA will host an intellectual freedom summit in Washington, D.C., which it has done only twice before, during the McCarthy era when people were blacklisted for alleged ties to communist groups. At the time, authors and teachers were singled out and accused of communist subversion, and libraries faced demands that they label books considered un-American.

The last time that state chapters withdrew from the ALA, according to the organization, was during the Jim Crow era after the national office said it would not host events in segregated states.

But one difference between now and those previous eras of strife for the ALA is the intense focus on Drabinskis views and sexual orientation as activists and lawmakers call to ostracize the organization, which is governed by 193 council members and has 62,000 members.

This isnt about the figurehead of the ALA, said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, a First Amendment advocacy organization. Its much more about sending a chilling message to a larger number of people to put them on notice about what happens to people who stand up for freedom of expression or freedom of identity.

When trustees of the Montana State Library Commission debated leaving the ALA at their meeting last month, board member Tom Burnett said that their oath of office forbade them from being associated with a group led by a Marxist. Moms for Liberty chapters outside Montana had called on its members to urge the commission to leave the ALA, hoping to set a precedent for other states to withdraw as well over the organizations Marxist lesbian president.

Its a really alarming precedent that theyre proposing here, Friedman said, which would be some kind of litmus test for the politics of all organizations that receive state funding, the likes of which havent really been adopted before in the United States.

Wyoming Rep. John Bear, a Republican and chair of the states Freedom Caucus, said hes pushing his state to leave the ALA because he believes the association is full of Marxists who promote books that create a sexualized child at an earlier age and are turning libraries into activist training grounds.

Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association, in Los Angeles on Aug. 3, 2023. (Alisha Jucevic for NBC News)

The ALA has allowed this political point of view to infiltrate every aspect of their training, Bear said in an interview. And their trainings are just completely full of things like, how to deal with parents who dont appreciate the type of materials that are available to children in the library, how to deal with your state legislature or your local government.

Bears sentiment has been echoed by his colleague, state Rep. Pepper Ottman, who claimed in a July 12 webinar that the ALAs recommended reading lists were provided to open children up to pornography and to groom them for sex trafficking. And his wife, Sage Bear, is on a library board in Campbell County that recently fired its library director because she would not remove books that included LGBTQ or sex education themes.

Drabinski said that she doesnt want the ALA to get stuck talking exclusively on the terms that they have set for us rather than the terms that I think the rest of us operate on every day.

My own personal political viewpoint is a target right now, but my personal agenda doesnt drive the association, she said. Its the agenda of all of us together.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
(CNN)  Nigers airspace closed on Sunday, the day imposed as a deadline by a group of African countries for Nigerien military coup leaders to release power and reinstate the countrys democratically-elected president.

As that deadline expired, Nigers airspace closed due to the threat of intervention from neighboring countries, according to a video statement by Nigerien coup leader Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane. The statement was played on state television Sunday.

The military coup in Niger was launched late July. President Mohamed Bazoum was seized by members of the presidential guard, national institutions were shut down and protesters from both sides eventually took to the streets, including thousands who support the military coup.

But outside Niger, the coup leaders actions were quickly condemned by the United States and some Western nations, as well as group of western African countries, which threatened force.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc, warned that if the military junta does not stand down, it could face possible military intervention and gave coup leaders until Sunday to cede power.

Should the junta remain in charge, the group has said it would take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order, including using force.

The bloc also went further, imposing a travel ban and asset freeze for the military officials involved in the coup attempt, as well as for their family members and the civilians who accept to participate in any institutions or government established by the officials.

France and the European Union also cut off financial aid to Niger following the coup.

On Sunday afternoon, thousands rallied in Niamey, Nigers capital, to show their support for the junta and to voice their opposition against the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS.

And the junta has also warned on state television that any military intervention would be met with an immediate and unannounced response by Nigers defense and security forces.

Ahead of Sundays deadline, ECOWAS leaders met in Nigeria last week to organize a collective response to the coup and plan a potential military response, which the group has said is a last resort.

All the elements that would go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here and [are] being refined, including the timing, including the resources needed, and including 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.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "As critical deadline for Nigers military coup expires, the countrys airspace closes due to threat of intervention"
U.S. State Department Under Secretary for Public Affairs Victoria Nuland attends a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia

By Daphne Psaledakis, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. State Department's acting No. 2 traveled to Niger and held talks on Monday with senior officials from the country's junta which seized power last month, but made no progress in meetings she described as "difficult".

U.S. Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was in Niamey, she told reporters in a call, and met with Moussa Salaou Barmou, the self-proclaimed defense chief of Niger's junta and three other colonels supporting him.

Washington offered ways to restore democratic order, Nuland said, but the junta officials showed little interest. The U.S. side conveyed what is at stake in terms of economic assistance and other aid if the situation is not reversed, she added.

"These conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult, because, again, we're pushing for a negotiated solution. It was not easy to get traction there. They are quite firm in their view of how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the Constitution of Niger," Nuland said.

"It was difficult today and I will be straight up about that."

Nuland spoke two hours with Barmou and his team and there were some side conversations. Her requests to meet with ousted president Mohamed Bazoum or with junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani were not granted.

The coup, the seventh in West and Central Africa in three years, has rocked the Sahel region, one of the poorest in the world. Given its uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants, Niger holds importance for the U.S., Europe, China and Russia.

Landlocked Niger is more than twice the size of France and many flight paths across Africa would normally pass above it.

It was unclear how or when any further negotiations with the junta officials would continue.

"This was a first conversation in which the United States was offering its good offices. If there is a desire on the part of the people who are responsible for this to return to constitutional order, we are prepared to help with that, we are prepared to help address concerns on all sides. I would not say that we were in any way taken up on that offer but I hope that they will think about it," Nuland said.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has sent military forces into troubled member states in the past, had told the junta to stand down by Sunday, but coup leaders instead closed Niger's airspace and pledged to defend the country.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
Ex-officer Tou Thao has also been found guilty by a federal court of violating George Floyd's civil rights

A former Minneapolis police officer has been sentenced to 57 months (almost five years) in prison for his role in the death of George Floyd.

The officer, Tou Thao, was found guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter by a Minnesota judge in May.

Mr Thao testified that he acted as a "human traffic cone", holding back bystanders while Derek Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes.

Mr Floyd's death on 25 May 2020 sparked mass protests across the US.

All four former police officers involved in the incident were convicted on federal civil rights charges, in addition to state murder charges for Mr Chauvin. Ex-officers Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Thao, who was sentenced to three and a half years over his civil rights conviction, will serve the 57 months at the same time.

The former officer had waived his right to a jury trial in the manslaughter case, opting instead for Judge Peter Cahill to determine the verdict. He also waived the right to testify and question witnesses.

In a 177-page ruling in May, Judge Cahill said that Mr Thao's actions - which included shielding Chauvin and the two other officers from the crowd - prevented a trained emergency medic from being able to help Mr Floyd.

"There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thao's actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances," the judge wrote.

Judge Cahill added that Thao's actions "were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop other officers' excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid".
The Russian informant tried to establish the locations and time of Zelenskyy's visit to the Mykolaiv region

A woman was detained while helping the Russian occupiers prepare an air strike on Mykolaiv to coincide with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys visit to the area, Ukraines SBU Security Service announced on social media on Aug. 7.

The suspected Russian agent tried to find out the schedule of the presidential route in the region.

The SBU managed to stay ahead of her actions and caught her in the act. Additional security measures were taken during Zelensky's visit.

Read also: Ukraines SBU nabs Russian agent helping abuse residents of Mykolayiv Oblast

SBU

The woman was watched by security agents to collect information about her "curators" and tasks she received, which weren't limited to spying on the Ukrainian president.

Read also: SBU detains Ukrzaliznytsia employee for facilitating Russian attack on Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

She also traveled to photograph electronic warfare systems and ammunition warehouses in the area near Ochakiv on the Black Sea coast, as well.

The occupiers wanted the information to prepare another mass air attack on Mykolaiv Oblast.

SBU

SBU

The woman was arrested while attempting to transfer the collected data. She is an Ochakiv resident who worked as a saleswoman in a store at a military base in the region.

She traveled across the Ochakiv District to capture Ukrainian Armed Forces locations to study the location of crucial objects. She also tried to collect data through her contacts in the region, especially in social services.

The suspected traitor was detained and faces up to 12 years in prison under Part 3 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unauthorized dissemination of information on the direction, movement, weapons and ammunition in Ukraine, movement, relocation or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine), if found guilty.

Read also: Ukraines SBU seizes ex-MP Novynskyis hidden assets worth $287.1 million

Zelenskyy visited Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa oblasts in the end of July. He visited a medical stabilization center in Ochakiv.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Tribal and state researchers in Wisconsin are teaming up to study the effects of forever chemicals, or PFAS, on the iconic bald eagle.

Being an apex predator, eagles are a sensitive indicator of trends in environmental contaminant exposure in the habitats for which they reside, said Sean Strom, a wildlife toxicologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources whos leading the study.

Knowing how much eagles are affected by PFAS can provide a clearer picture of how much the environment, as a whole, is affected by the worrisome chemicals.

The ability to identify trends in contaminant exposure is a valuable tool not only for the health of the species, but for the long-term health of the ecosystem as well, Strom said.

Blood samples were taken from nestling bald eagles from along the south shore of Lake Superior, which is encompassed largely by the Red Cliff Ojibwe Reservation.

Researchers with the tribes natural resources division worked with state DNR researchers in locating and collecting the blood samples from eagles on the reservation.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of tasteless and odorless chemicals that have been used and manufactured in the U.S. since the 1940s.

The chemicals are used for their water- and stain-resistant qualities, in products like clothing and carpet, nonstick cookware, food packaging and firefighting foams.

Humans can come into contact with PFAS in many different ways in their everyday lives. Some of the most common sources of the chemicals are drinking water, food, working in occupations such as firefighting or chemical manufacturing, and breathing air containing PFAS.

Most people in the U.S. have been exposed to PFAS in their lifetime. Because the compounds accumulate in the human body over long periods of time, there's no way to get rid of them. Studies have also shown that the chemicals have been linked to reproductive and developmental problems, liver and kidney and immunological effects in laboratory animals, and have been linked to cancerous tumors and increased cholesterol levels.

Stroms study will help identify current concentration of PFAS and other contaminants and the risks posed to wildlife and the environment in Wisconsin.

More: Testing for 'forever chemicals' lacking for tribal water systems

He hopes to identify hotspots to target for future monitoring and increase understanding of how contaminants accumulate throughout the food web.

Besides being an indicator species, researchers chose the bald eagle because it's a species highly prized by the American public and studies of the effects of PFAS on the animal could help increase public concern, interest and resources in managing PFAS.

While the bald eagle is the national symbol, it's also a very important and highly revered being for many Native American tribes, including the Ojibwe in northern Wisconsin.

The bald eagle, known in Ojibwe as Migizi, represents the Ojibwe connection with Gchi Manidoo (Creator or God).

When Ojibwe people lay down tobacco (asemaa) for ceremony, prayer or to give thanks, the Migizi swoops down and gathers the tobacco and prayers and carries them up Ishpeming (Above or Heaven) to Creator.

More: Bald eagles, songbirds in Wisconsin found to have 'forever chemicals'

The Eagle Clan among the Ojibwe hold roles as spiritual leaders in their communities and are responsible for passing on oral history and stories to tribal leaders.

Gifts of eagle feathers also are very important to Native American tribes, including the Ojibwe, as they represent a direct connection between the recipient, Migizi, Thunderbirds and Creator.

The feathers are often used in headdresses, fans and staffs for ceremonies.

Strom said test results from blood samples collected this summer are expected by early next year.

Reporters Laura Schulte and Katelyn Ferral contributed to this report.

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: Bald eagles being studied for PFAS in northern Wisconsin reservation
FILE - The logo of Toshiba Corp. is seen at a company's building in Kawasaki near Tokyo, on Feb. 19, 2022. Toshiba announced a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in a move that will take it private, as the scandal-tarnished Japanese electronics and energy giant seeks to turn itself around. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

TOKYO (AP)  Toshiba announced a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer on Monday in a move that would take it private, as the scandal-tarnished Japanese electronics and energy giant seeks to turn itself around.

The tender offer led by a buyout fund of major Japanese banks and companies called Japan Industrial Partners starts Tuesday and is priced at 4,620 yen ($32) a share.

Chairperson Akihiro Watanabe asked shareholders to back the proposal, saying it is the only option for Toshiba Corp. to return to its former strength.

This move for Toshiba is great not only for Japan but also for the world, he said. I have faith in the revival of Toshiba.

Tokyo-based Toshiba also reported a 25 billion yen ($176 million) loss for the April-June quarter on 704 billion yen ($5 billion) in sales, down nearly 5% from the previous year.

It did not give a full fiscal year profit projection, citing uncertainties in its computer chip business.

If the proposal succeeds, it will be a major step in Toshibas yearslong turnaround effort, allowing it to delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

At least two-thirds of shareholders must offer their stakes for the bid to succeed. Overseas activist investors own a significant number of Toshibas shares, and some have expressed dissatisfaction about the bid.

The Toshiba board accepted the deal in March.

Toshiba closed at 4,584 yen ($32) a share Monday.

The buyout would keep Toshiba in an alliance with Japanese partners. Japan Industrial Partners, set up in 2002 to restructure Japanese companies, has also invested in other Japanese brands like Sony, Hitachi and Olympus.

Toshiba, a major manufacturer in Japans nuclear industry, was hit by the March 2011 tsunami that sent three reactors into meltdowns at Fukushima in northeastern Japan.

Toshiba is involved in the decommissioning effort at Fukushima Dai-ichi, which is expected to take decades. Its U.S. nuclear arm Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after years of deep losses as safety costs soared.

The Toshiba brand, once prized for household appliances, laptops, batteries and computer chips, became the target of overseas activist shareholders.

Its image was also badly tarnished by a sprawling accounting scandal in 2015 involving books that were doctored for years.

Toshiba stressed the latest offer was fair and reasonable and made management sense, with companies that had longtime deep business relations with Toshiba offering to invest.

Chief Executive Taro Shimada said it would bring stability to Toshiba, which he noted will mark its 150th anniversary in a couple of years.

He pleaded with stakeholders to support the offer.

The value at our company comes from creating what didn't exist in the world before, he told reporters.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
A super PAC allied with former President Trump announced Sunday it will air a new ad targeting President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Bidens alleged business dealings with foreign countries.

The new 60-second ad from MAGA Inc., titled Hey Joe, will prosecute the case against crooked Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden crime family, according to a statement from Taylor Budowich, the CEO of MAGA Inc.

The ad was first reported by Axios.

Joe, how come your Justice Department goes after Trump endlessly yet they cover for your family? Hunters laptop? Yeah, that was censored, but we know that laptop is real and its not just filled with photos of Hunters drug-fueled debauchery either, a narrator says in the ad.

This is in reference to a laptop hard drive that supposedly belonged to Hunter Biden, which he allegedly left at a Delaware computer repair shop. The contents of this laptop came into focus after a New York Post story was published in October 2020 discussing emails that detailed alleged meetings between President Biden, who was vice president at the time, Hunter Biden and Ukrainian business executives.

The laptop showed Hunter pocketing millions from foreign partners, cash from Ukrainian and Chinese interests accused of bribery and fraud, the ad continues.

The ad goes on to discuss Hunter Bidens alleged business dealings with China and claims the presidents brother, grandkids, even nieces and nephews got paid from foreign deals that totaled $17 million.

You, Joe, went from being one of the poorest in Congress to a millionaire in the White House, the ad states. Come on, Joe, all this, a coincidence? Or corruption?

The ad follows the Department of Justices indictment of Trump last week over his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 presidential election. In its 45-page indictment, the Justice Department alleges Trump led a campaign of dishonesty, fraud and conceit to obstruct a bedrock function of a democracy.

Trump and multiple GOP leaders have repeatedly claimed the Justice Departments investigation into the former president represent a two-tiered system of justice. Last month, the House Oversight Committee heard from two IRS whistleblowers who alleged authorities slow-walked the case and demonstrated preferential treatment to the presidents son.

The ad, which will air on Fox News, CNN and Newsmax starting Monday, differs from the super PACs other recent ads, which have targeted 2024 White House hopeful Ron DeSantis (R). Its the first of its kind to directly take aim at the current president and his family.

MAGA Inc was started in the fall of last year and has raised about $14.6 million throughout the first half of this year, according to a midyear filing with the Federal Election Committee (FEC).

The Hill has reached out to MAGA Inc. for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former President Donald Trump asked a judge Monday to issue only a narrow order restricting what he can say about evidence and witnesses as he awaits trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Hours after trashing U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan and special counsel Jack Smith, Trumps lawyers asked the judge to only restrict Trump from revealing secret grand jury testimony, claiming that the Republican presidential front-runner must have the right to talk about the case.

The government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights. Worse, it does so against its administrations primary political opponent, during an election season, Trumps lawyers wrote in a filing submitted just before a 5 p.m. deadline.

The filing came in response to Smiths demand for an order barring Trump from discussing any evidence publicly or threatening any potential witnesses.

Chutkan didnt give any indication when she might rule.

Trump earlier blasted Chutkan as the prosecutions number one draft pick." He called for a new jurist to be appointed to oversee his historic trial even though his defense team has not made any such motion in court.

Deranged Jack Smith is going before his number one draft pick, the Judge of his dreams (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!), in an attempt to take away my FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, Trump posted on his social media site.

He later followed up that post with a more direct dispatch aimed at the potential gag orders, saying I shouldnt have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to FREE SPEECH.

The new outburst came after Trump issued a less-than-veiled threat over the weekend to retaliate against his perceived tormentors.

If you go after me Im coming after you, Trump wrote.

Smith flagged that post over the weekend, calling on Chutkan  who was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Barack Obama  to consider a new order restricting Trump from threatening witnesses or other people connected to the case.

Trump also slammed former Vice President Mike Pence after his one-time loyal lieutenant said he would be willing to testify about his refusal to go along with Trumps alleged plot to stay in power.

Chutkan demanded that Trump defense lawyers file papers responding to the prosecutions request for tighter restrictions on the former president by Monday afternoon. She rejected the former presidents request for more time to make his argument.

Its not unusual for defendants facing criminal charges to be ordered to keep quiet about the evidence in their cases and to avoid threatening potential witnesses like Pence.

But any restrictions will surely be greeted with howls of protest from Trump, who claims he has the right to verbally attack anyone he wants because he is running for president in 2024.

Aside from the proposed restrictions on Trump, Chutkan is also mulling a schedule for the former presidents trial ahead of a planned Aug. 28 hearing.

She ordered Smiths team to propose a planned trial date and to disclose how long it expects a trial to take by later this week. Trumps defense team will have a week to respond.

Trump, who holds a dominant lead in the Republican presidential primary, was arraigned last week on four counts including conspiring to defraud the U.S., conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding and depriving people of rights.

Smith says Trump mounted a multipronged effort to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, including spewing bogus claims of widespread voter fraud and creating slates of fake pro-Trump electors from states Biden won.

When those efforts failed, he urged a crowd of his loyal supporters to fight like hell in a speech on Jan. 6, a call that led them to storm the Capitol in an effort to physically block Congress from certifying Bidens win. An attorney for Trump said the president pointed out that he told supporters in that same speech to peacefully make their voices heard.

Trump also could face impending charges in a Georgia state election interference case. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis suggested possible indictments are coming this month for Trump or others for trying to overturn Bidens win in the Peach State.

Trump also faces a May 2024 trial date in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case and a March trial in Manhattan over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

_____
Former President Donald Trumps attorney John Lauro argued that West Virginia is much more diverse than Washington, D.C., as he called for a venue change in the case charging his client for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Lauro, in an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation, told host Major Garrett that Trumps team will absolutely pursue a change of venue as he declared that the team would prefer somewhere with a diverse venue and jury.

Somewhere that reflects the characteristics of the American people, its up to the judge. I think West Virginia would be an excellent venue to try this case, Lauro said of a state where Trump easily beat President Joe Biden in 2020.

Theyre close to D.C. and a much more diverse , he said before trailing off.

Lauros suggested state falls short of being as diverse as others racially, as U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that nearly 93% of West Virginia residents are white.

West Virginia is also tied with Vermont as the second-least racially diverse state in the nation, according to the bureaus diversity index based on 2020 census data.

The comments arrived on the same day Trump took to his Truth Social platform to claim that theres no way he can get a fair trial in D.C., while calling for the recusal of Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Sunday.

Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants have made requests to move to venues outside Washington, too, although those requests have not been approved by judges, CNN reported.

Trump lawyer John Lauro on CBS: "We would like a diverse venue, a diverse jury ... I think West Virginia will be an excellent venue to try this case. Close to DC and a much more diverse--" pic.twitter.com/ib6S2Mdd7l  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 6, 2023

Users on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, mocked Lauros suggested venue change and left him with a simple message for the former president: do your coup in West Virginia if you want a West Virginia jury.

1. According to the 6th Amendment, crimes are tried in the districts where the crimes took place. Defendants don't get to pick someplace else.



2. Republicans think "diverse" juries are important? OK sure.



3. West Virginia, 92% white, is not remotely "diverse" https://t.co/DK8n4Bm4Mh  Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 6, 2023

West Virginia is 92% white. How is it more "diverse" than DC, which is 45% black, 37% white, 11% Latino, and 5% Asian? https://t.co/LORo9I3eYu  James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) August 6, 2023

He said West Virginia is diverse and represents the characteristics of the American people with a straight face. https://t.co/lvAiMPitDZ  Walter M. Kimbrough (@HipHopPrez) August 6, 2023

Professor: If the defendant resides in Washington D.C., he plans and commits his alleged crimes in Washington D.C., and if all of the co-conspirators and witnesses, are in Washington D.C., tell me: what is the appropriate venue?



Class: West Virginia! https://t.co/H1ChN1rFnQ  Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) August 6, 2023

Related...
A federal judge Monday dismissed former President Trumps claim that E. Jean Carroll defamed him in May after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer.

The day after the verdict, Carroll appeared on CNN and indicated Trump had raped her. The jury had not found Trump liable for rape under New Yorks definition, but instead found him liable for sexual abuse.

Trump then claimed Carrolls insistence on CNN amounted to defamation, filing a counterclaim in Carrolls other lawsuit that has not yet gone to trial.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday dismissed Trumps argument, ruling Carrolls statement on the cable network was substantially true and that [t]here would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.

The difference between Ms. Carrolls allegedly defamatory statements  that Mr. Trump raped her as defined in the New York Penal Law  and the truth  that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll  is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes, Kaplan ruled.

Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, separately rejected Trumps defense that he has absolute presidential immunity in the case.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said the former president would be filing an appeal shortly, calling it a flawed decision.

Carroll in June 2019 publicly accused Trump of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. She has since filed two lawsuits against Trump.

In May, a jury heard one of those cases and found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defaming Carroll last year by denying her story.

Carroll appeared on CNN the following morning, and Trump appeared on the network for a town hall hours after that.

Both addressed the jurys verdict during their appearances. Carroll added Trumps comments to her pending lawsuit, and Trump followed by filing the now-dismissed counterclaim.

The lawsuit had originally accused Trump of defamation when Carroll initially came forward in 2019. It cited three statements Trump made denying Carrolls story, including one he made during an interview with The Hill. A trial is scheduled for January.

We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trumps counterclaim, Carroll attorney Robbie Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said in a statement.

That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldnt take very long to complete, she continued. E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Donald Trump has called for the judge in his most recent federal indictment to be removed from the case after she issued a ruling against him.

The ex-president launched his attack on District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday morning, days after he appeared before her in court to plead not guilty to four federal charges stemming from a Department of Justice investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The day after the arraignment took to Truth Social with a post seemingly threatening revenge on those pursuing him.

IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! the ex-president wrote.

Special Counsel Jack Smiths team cited that post in a Friday request for Judge Chutkan to issue a protective order that would limit what discovery evidence Mr Trump and his legal can share publicly.

The judge responded by giving Mr Trumps team until 5pm Monday to respond to the request and pitch amendments to the prosecutions proposed order.

Mr Trumps team asked for a three-day extension to respond, but that request was denied by Judge Chutkan.

Then came another Truth Social post attacking the judge.

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ASSIGNED TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! he wrote.

WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF (sic) D.C.

That post goes to the heart of prosecutors argument for why the protective order is needed: Mr Trumps prolific use of social media.

All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public, prosecutors wrote in the protective order request.

"Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him, it continued.

Mr Trump has continuously attacked prosecutors, judges, witnesses and more involved in his many legal battles to maintain his innocence and discredit their arguments.

Before the indictment against the ex-president was made public on 1 August, Mr Trump used Truth Social to inform his followers he expected to be federally indicted at 5pm and called the prosecutor, Jack Smith, deranged.

The protective order would limit what Mr Trump and his attorneys could publicly say in order to protect the integrity of the case.

Mr Trumps campaign issued a statement regarding the request for the protective order saying, The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech, and was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch brothers and the Club for No Growth.

Mr Trumps attorneys have publicly used the First Amendment as a defence against the indictment which charges Mr Trump with 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.

They have argued that the statements Mr Trump issued claiming there was election fraud and he actually won the 2020 election were only political speech and he had a right to say them.

The indictment clearly mentions that while Mr Trump had the right to say what he wanted he unlawfully took steps to try and change election results in his favour.
(CNN)  Three Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the Jenin Camp in the occupied West Bank, the IDF announced on Sunday.

The IDF said that they had thwarted a terrorist cell in the camp. According to the IDF, three individuals who were part of the cell were killed during the operation.

The IDF released a statement detailing the incident, stating that the head of the cell, Naif Abu Tsuik, along with two other members, were killed. An M-16 rifle was also found in the vehicle used by the cell.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has not yet issued a statement regarding the deaths. Eyewitnesses reported that the vehicle, with the bodies inside, was taken by Israeli soldiers.

Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem, condemned the incident, calling it a new crime committed by the Zionist enemy.

He stated that the occupation will not escape the consequences of its actions and that the Palestinian people would continue their resistance.

This weekend, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the village of Burqa, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The incident drew US condemnation and two Israelis were arrested  it is rare for Israeli settlers to be arrested for attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

On Saturday night, an Israeli patrolman was shot and killed in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian gunman who was also shot and killed, Israeli authorities said.

Jenin has long been a flashpoint  last month saw Israeli forces carry out their largest-scale military operation there in decades.

The unrest left at least 12 Palestinians dead and caused widespread destruction to the citys refugee camp.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Israeli forces say 3 Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank."
(Bloomberg) -- The federal judge presiding over the prosecution of Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents is reviewing the legal propriety of the government using grand juries in both Florida and Washington to build its case against the former president.

Most Read from Bloomberg

US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, on Monday ordered both sides to file briefs on how Special Counsel John Jack Smiths team used a grand jury in Washington to continue gathering evidence after it had already indicted Trump in Florida using a grand jury in Miami.

The involvement of multiple grand juries is an issue raised by Trumps lawyers as a potential line of attack against the prosecution because there are rules that limit how and where the government can use them. Cannons order puts Smith on the spot early on to explain the process.

Special counsel spokesperson Peter Carr said in an email that Smiths office will respond at the appropriate time through a filing with the court.

Read More: Trump Special Counsel Probes Still Active Even After Indictments

Cannons order was prompted by a request by Smiths team last week for a hearing on whether there were conflict of interest problems related to Stanley Woodward, a lead attorney for Trumps co-defendant and personal aide Waltine Walt Nauta.

Cannon rebuffed an attempt by prosecutors to file more information about the conflict issue under seal, saying theyd failed to provide a sufficient legal or factual basis. She gave Nauta until Aug. 17 to respond, and said the government should reply back by Aug. 22. Trumps lawyers can also weigh in by Aug. 17.

Woodward declined to comment. A Trump spokesperson didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

In its motion last week, the government confirmed it continued to use grand juries in Florida and Washington after indicting Trump on June 8 to investigate further obstructive activity. Trump and Nauta are charged with trying to interfere with efforts by federal officials to retrieve classified documents after Trump left the White House. Trump separately is charged with mishandling state secrets. He and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.

A grand jury in Florida returned a new version of the indictment on July 27 that added more obstruction counts and an additional co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, an employee at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort. De Oliveira also pleaded not guilty.

Woodward has represented at least seven other people besides Nauta who were questioned in the classified documents probe, including three potential trial witnesses, according to the government. The potential witnesses arent named  prosecutors said thats what they were filing under seal  but were described as the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago and two people who worked for Trump while he was president and after he left office.

According to the government, the Mar-a-Lago IT director has a new lawyer, but prosecutors said that doesnt fully resolve potential conflicts with Woodward staying in the case. Prosecutors have alleged that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira conspired to try to have that employee delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago after the government asked for it.

Woodward continues to represent the other two potential witnesses, the government told Cannon.

Lawyers can represent multiple clients in the same investigation, but not at the expense of one clients interests. A client can agree to keep their lawyer and waive raising any conflict issues later, but the judge can investigate to make sure the persons rights are protected and has the power to reject a waiver.

The government has asked for that inquiry when it comes to Woodwards representation of Nauta.

The case is US v. Trump, 23-cr-80101, US District Court, Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach).

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Former President Trump claimed Monday that special counsel Jack Smith was going before the judge of his dreams in U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case linked to Trumps efforts to hold power after the 2020 election.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the venue of the case  Washington, D.C.  and Chutkan since his indictment, arguing that he cannot get a fair trial in such a setting.

Deranged Jack Smith is going before his number one draft pick, the Judge of his dreams (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!), in an attempt to take away my FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, Trump posted on Truth Social.

This, despite the fact that he, the DOJ, and his many Thug prosecutors, are illegally leaking, everything and anything, to the Fake News Media!!! Trump continued.

The latest messages are part of a wave from Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, that have gone after Chutkan.

The judge, an appointee of former President Obama, was randomly assigned the case in D.C. A Trump appointee is presiding over a separate case on Trumps handling of classified documents in Florida.

The case that Chutkan is presiding over in D.C. is also related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which took place just blocks from the courthouse.

Voters in D.C. overwhelmingly voted for President Biden in the 2020 election, another fact highlighted by Trump and his allies.

Trump was charged with four criminal counts related to his attempts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election. He pleaded guilty to all four charges at an arraignment last week.

Chutkan, who was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate, has developed a reputation for handing out tough sentencings in cases related to Jan. 6.

She ruled in favor of the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, allowing it access to key records that helped it make its case against Trump. Many credit the Jan. 6 committees work with paving the way to the latest indictment against Trump.

In ruling against Trump, Chutkan wrote, Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Over the weekend, Trumps allies tried to make the case that Trump could not get a fair trial in D.C.

Several Trump allies-turned-critics, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and former New Jersey Governor and U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, rejected that argument, saying they are confident in the D.C. jurors.

Christie is a rival of Trumps in the 2024 GOP primary.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former President Trump arrives to board his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va., after pleading not guilty to federal conspiracy charges that allege he conspired to subvert the 2020 election. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

Special counsel Jack Smith's team Monday disputed rules proposed by former President Trump's legal team to define how evidence can be distributed during the trial over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, accusing Trump of trying to play out his trial in the media.

"The government proposed a reasonable protective order consistent with current practice in this District. The defendant instead proposed an order designed to allow him to try this case in the media rather than in the courtroom," Smith said.

Earlier Monday, Trump's legal team, led by lawyer John Lauro, suggested in a 29-page motion that the court should loosely define and expand whom Trump can share sensitive information with to prepare his defense to "volunteer attorneys," expert witnesses, investigators or others without "paid employment arrangements."

In an email exchange included in the filing, a prosecutor described the potential wording as "almost boundless."

Trump's team also wants to preclude the Justice Department from marking material from other government entities as sensitive. This would probably include records produced by the Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police and Department of Homeland Security; those agencies have fought to keep many of those documents private because they relate to security planning.

Lauro also requests that "general mental impressions," even of sensitive documents, be exempted from the protective order.

The press and the American people in a campaign season have a right to know what the evidence is in this case provided that this evidence is not protected otherwise, Lauro told CNNs Dana Bash on State of the Union on Sunday.

Smith also responded in Monday's brief to Lauro's statements over the weekend about sharing evidence with the media, stating that "there is no right to publicly release discovery material, because the discovery process is designed to ensure a fair process before the Court, not to provide the defendant an opportunity to improperly press his case in the court of public opinion."

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan announced Monday that she will hold a hearing by Friday to settle the dispute.

Smith's office asked Chutkan on Friday to set limits on what Trump's team can do with evidence that was collected during the lengthy investigation and that will be shared with the defense as part of the discovery process. Smith asked that Trump and his lawyers be prohibited from disclosing materials provided by the government to anyone other than his legal team, possible witnesses, the witnesses lawyers or others approved by the court.

Prosecutors indicated during Trump's arraignment Thursday that they would ask for such a protective order, which is a normal part of a felony trial. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges related to alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss and block the peaceful transition of power.

The protections Smith is seeking for materials marked sensitive would be even more restrictive. In their initial request, prosecutors asked to prohibit Trump's attorneys from providing sensitive details from grand jury transcripts and other evidence to the former president because they feared he would publicly share them or take other actions that could obstruct the case. Trump would be allowed to view the evidence but not be allowed to write down personal identifying information from those documents.

Read more: The 'Johnny Appleseed of election fraud' wants to upend voting in America. Why he's focused on California

"Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him," prosecutors wrote in Friday's filing, adding that they are concerned the former president might share sensitive information online that could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses.

Smith's filing pointed to a post Trump made on Truth Social that day that said "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU!" Monday's filing from Trump's legal team echoed a statement from his campaign that the message was not directed at those involved in the case.

On Saturday, Chutkan rejected Trumps request for a three-day extension to respond to the order. In a series of Truth Social posts, the former president demanded her recusal. In a post Monday, he called Chutkan the special counsel's draft pick and dream judge.

The posts undercut Lauro's efforts Sunday to publicly walk back Trumps calls for recusal, saying on a podcast hosted by Florida defense attorney David Markus that Trump was speaking with a "laymans political sense."

Read more: Trump pleads not guilty to 4 felony charges in 2020 election case

Trump continued criticizing Smith and the request for a protective order, casting it as infringing on his right to free speech.

I shouldnt have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to FREE SPEECH, Trump posted Monday morning. Deranged Jack Smith and the Department of Injustice should, however, because they are illegally leaking all over the place!

Get the best of the Los Angeles Times politics coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Former President Donald Trumps attorneys singled out a meme post from President Biden on social media in a court filing Monday arguing against the scope of a proposed protective order.

Trumps attorneys made the filing in Washington, D.C., in the Justice Departments case against the former president for his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results.

Prosecutors had asked for a protective order to limit how widely evidence could be shared in the wake of a social media post by Trump vowing to go after anyone who targeted him.

In response, Trumps attorneys argued in part that the former presidents political opponents have campaigned on the indictment at a time when Trump is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

President Biden has likewise capitalized on the indictment, posting a thinly veiled reference to his administrations prosecution of President Trump just hours before arraignment, his attorneys wrote.

The filing then includes a photo of a post on Bidens personal account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in which he wrote: A cup of Joe never tasted better, with a link to a mug with the Dark Brandon image of Biden with lasers shooting out of his eyes.

The tweet includes a short video clip of Biden sipping from the mug and saying he likes his coffee dark. It was posted at 11:18 a.m. Thursday. Trumps court appearance took place roughly five hours later.

The Dark Brandon meme is a viral image and a winking nod to a more devious alter ego for the 80-year-old president. It stems from White House allies co-opting a taunt in which conservatives would chant Lets Go Brandon as a coded message for F Joe Biden.

Bidens campaign sells merchandise with the image printed on coffee mugs and T-shirts, and Biden made a joking reference to the meme at the White House Correspondents Dinner this year.

Biden has yet to publicly comment on Trumps indictment in Washington, and both the president and White House aides have remained adamant that they have had no discussion with Justice Department officials about the cases against Trump.

Still, Trump has relentlessly claimed that the charges against him are a case of election interference intended to harm his White House bid.

Trump is leading the Republican primary race by a wide margin, according to polls, but polling of a hypothetical rematch between Trump and Biden in 2024 shows a close race. A New York Times/Siena College poll published last week found a hypothetical match-up between the two to be deadlocked at 43-43 percent.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Jack Smith studied at the Oneonta State University before going on to Harvard Law School - SAUL LOEB/AFP

When Alexi Schacht was asked to defend Manzoor Qadar, who was accused of murdering his nieces husband as part of an honour killing, he thought it would be a doddle.

The prosecution was relying on thin circumstantial evidence to prove his client had travelled from Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1996 to shoot Shaukat Parvez dead in Queens in exchange for a 46,000 bounty.

So confident was Mr Schacht that the case would fall apart, he branded it at the time as one of the weakest prosecutions Ive ever seen.

But the one thing the lawyer hadnt factored into the trial at Brooklyn federal court was his opponent: Jack Smith.

While press conferences have offered onlookers polished insights into the composed special counsel who is bringing 41 criminal charges against former president Donald Trump, the vast majority of Americans are yet to see him unleashed in a courtroom.

Yet the 2024 election is shaping up to hinge as much on the performance of this bearded, 54-year-old triathlete than anything - or anyone - else.

Mr Smith is the man who could put Mr Trump, the Republican frontrunner, in prison.

Described as an aggressive prosecutor, the father of one vowed last week to bring a speedy trial for charges alleging Mr Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.

Lawyers acting for Mr Trump branded the move absurd as they began jostling to push the proceedings back until after polling stations close next November, knowing the 77-year-old could make all his legal woes disappear if his re-election bid is successful.

But Mr Smith - who locked eyes with the frontrunner for the Republican Party nomination for a fleeting moment as they faced each other in a Washington DC court on Thursday - has other ideas.

Raised in Clay, a town of around 60,000 people in upstate New York, he studied at the Oneonta State University before going on to Harvard Law School.

The persistent prosecutor previously described himself as not very talented, but [if] you field a lot of ground balls, youre a good shortstop.

After graduating in 1994, he cut his teeth at the Manhattan District Attorneys office under the tutelage of Robert Morgenthau, who was known for taking some of the citys most high-profile cases against organised and white-collar crime. Mr Smith used to ride his bicycle to crime scenes and picked up conversational Spanish from his caseload.

Five years later he became an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.

It was at this point in his career he faced Mr Schacht during an intense case which resulted in a jury convicting Qadar after just two hours of deliberation. He was handed a mandatory life sentence.

So impressive was Mr Smiths performance that one juror supposedly called across the street asking him to represent them.

Smith is not afraid to lose

I remember his closing argument was very strong, Mr Schacht told The Telegraph.

A good, emotional plea to the jury about the horror of the case - which was good in a case that was a little bit thin on the facts.

But the pitch was by no means delivered in an emotional way as thats not his personality, Mr Schacht said.

Hes kind of even tempered, but he was able to convey a dramatic quality to things, he added, noting Mr Smith had a firm, serious, confident, non-nervous quality.

But one thing Mr Smith doesnt have, according to Mr Schacht, is a commanding presence - because it is usually down to the defence lawyer to bring the theatrics into the courthouse.

A good prosecutor, like him, wants to try and keep the jury focused on the evidence, whereas the defence lawyer usually wants to kind of distract from the evidence. So its not really in the prosecutors interest to be too commanding, Mr Schacht said.

One of Mr Smiths most valuable assets is that hes not afraid to lose, he added.

The four charges Donald Trump faces in the Jan 6 indictment

While many federal prosecutors choose to dodge cases over fears they could be embarrassed, it is not something that fazes Mr Smith.

I dont mean hed bring a case if theres no reason to bring it. But you know, like the Florida case, just because its in a Republican part of Florida, a case could be tough to win. He wasnt afraid to bring the case there, Mr Schacht said.

That sentiment echoes something Mr Smith previously said about himself.

If I were the sort of person who could be cowed  [if I thought:] I know the person did it, but we could lose, and that will look bad  I would find another line of work, he told the New York Times.

I cant imagine how someone who does what I do or has worked with me could think that.

Despite being trounced by Mr Smith in 2002, Mr Schacht said he would prefer to go up against him again over most of the prosecutors he has met.

Hes not the kind of prosecutor, and of whom there are some, who are tricky or dishonest or something like that... Its very important to have an adversary whos clear, honest and trustworthy. So, it doesnt matter that hes a good trial lawyer, Id rather have him than many other prosecutors, he said.

Mr Smith may be a good operator, but he has also surrounded himself with extremely good prosecutors, Mr Schacht added.

Former president Donald Trump arrives to board his plane after facing a judge on federal conspiracy charges - Alex Brandon/AP

Developing young talent is something Edward J Loya Jr, who was part of Mr Smiths team at the Department of Justices Public Integrity Section (PIN), remembers well.

Mr Loya Jr, who is now a partner at firm Epstein Becker and Green, said Mr Smith got a kick from progressing the careers of hungry junior prosecutors.

He told The Telegraph that learning from Mr Smith between 2010 and 2013 was the highlight of my career as a young lawyer.

Smith taught us to always do the right thing

Mr Smith arrived at the department as someone with a lot of gravitas and he epitomised what it means to be a prosecutor who tries difficult cases.

He taught us to always do the right thing, and to make the correct decision on the merits, no matter how difficult a task might be or how much the odds appeared to be stacked against the government, he said.

While some anonymous former colleagues previously accused Mr Smith of shifting the unit away from complex crimes to low-hanging fruit, he did secure some key convictions, including Bob McDonnell, the former Virginia governor, and his wife for taking gifts from a businessman as well as Rick Renzi, a former Republican congressman from Arizona, for taking bribes.

Following his time at the helm of PIN, Mr Smith went on to become acting US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee before a stint as chief prosecutor in The Hague working on Kosovo war crimes cases.

Now he has been given arguably the biggest job a prosecutor could be tasked with.

Mr Schacht said he can think of no one better than his old rival to step up to the plate, and I know loads of prosecutors all over the country.

Previously describing what inspires him to do his job, Mr Smith said he does it for people like his parents.

They pay their taxes, follow the rules and they expect their public officials to do the same, he said.

In a separate interview in 2018, he said: Like most people, I think, I want to devote my energies to making the world and my community a better place for my daughter to grow up in.

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Former President Trumps indictment over his actions after the 2020 election and around Jan. 6 has poured gasoline on a long-simmering dispute between the former president and his old running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump had been restrained over the past year even as Pence grew increasingly vocal about differing accounts of the events of Jan. 6, the war in Ukraine, the future of Social Security, and the Republican Partys approach to abortion. Trump was even mum as Pence launched a competing campaign in June for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

But Trumps animus toward Pence spilled out into the open in recent days with the former vice president playing a central role in the indictment against Trump for his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

Trump will turn on anyone. Loyalty is a one way street for him. Pence put his fidelity to the Constitution over Trump. I hope he wont agree to support him again, Alyssa Farah, who served as a press aide to both Pence and Trump in the White House, posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Pence, however, dodged questions over the weekend about whether would support Trump should he be the 2024 nominee  leaving that door seemingly open.

Trump has attacked Pence repeatedly on social media since pleading not guilty last Thursday to the charges levied by the federal government in the case.

He wrote that he felt badly for Pence and his presidential campaign, which had been struggling to gain traction in the roughly two months since it launched.

WOW, its finally happened! Liddle Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was too honest. Hes delusional, and now he wants to show hes a tough guy, Trump added, denying information that was contained in the indictment. I once read a major magazine article on Mike. It said he was not a very good person. I was surprised, but the article was right. Sad!

During a campaign stop in New Hampshire over the weekend, Pence was greeted by pro-Trump hecklers who derided the former vice president as a traitor and a sellout.

Why didnt you uphold the constitution? one protester shouted.

I upheld the constitution, Pence responded as he prepared to pose for a photo with a family. Read it.

Indeed, rioters on Jan. 6 focused their ire squarely on Pence, who as vice president at the time held a ceremonial role in overseeing the Electoral College count by Congress, the final step in solidifying Joe Bidens 2020 presidential win. Trump had said that morning that he would win the election if Pence did the right thing.

Trump supporters chanted hang Mike Pence as they pushed their way into the Capitol, even setting up a gallows outside. He along with dozens of lawmakers were ushered to safety when rioters breached the building.

Pence advisers said the former vice president went into the campaign clear-eyed that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol would be a key issue for voters and the media, and Pence has leaned into the conflict with Trump over Jan. 6 as his 2024 campaign seeks to capitalize on the renewed attention on his role that day.

The former vice president was among the first 2024 primary candidates to put out a statement on the indictment, stressing that Trumps attempt to put himself over the Constitution should disqualify him from office.

Pence has given several interviews to major media outlets in the days since, and his campaign has started selling merchandise emblazoned with the phrase Too Honest, a reference to a section of the indictment in which Trump described Pence as being too honest when he said he lacked the authority to overturn the election results.

His campaign has seemingly benefited from the spike in attention, racking up thousands of donations in the days since the indictment was announced and pushing him closer to qualifying for the first primary debate later this month.

Pence never had a shot at this thing, so while Trump taking swipes at him doesnt exactly help his cause, it adds a patina of relevance that had been comically absent to date, Liam Donovan, a former aide to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on X.

One Republican strategist said the attacks from Trump give Pence a boost in media attention that his campaign had previously been lacking, though they acknowledged that it is unlikely to help the former vice president win over Trump supporters who hed likely need to prevail in the primaries.

Pence is polling in the single digits in most surveys, and Trump is unlikely to view him as an imminent threat to win the partys presidential nomination.

The Hill Elections 2024 coverage

But strategists said there is a risk for Trump if Pence is on the debate stage contradicting the former presidents version of events around Jan. 6, or if the former vice president remains front and center pushing back on his old running mate.

For Pence, there is also the possibility that Trumps trial will block out any efforts to discuss major policy differences or issues like the economy.

Pence bemoaned that Trumps indictment meant more discussion of Jan. 6 and less focus on kitchen table issues or criticisms of the Biden administration.

And for Pence, it could mean time on the witness stand in a future trial, keeping him squarely in Trumps crosshairs.

I have no plans to testify. But, look, well always comply with the law, Pence said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

I want to tell you, I dont know what the path of this indictment will be, Pence added. The presidents entitled to a presumption of innocence. Hes entitled to make his defense in courtBut what I want the American people to know is that President Trump was wrong then and hes wrong now, that I had no right to overturn the election.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Jacqueline Thomsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump's lawyers urged a federal judge on Monday to reject a protective order sought by prosecutors ahead of the former U.S. president's 2020 election trial, saying it would violate his free speech rights under the Constitution.

Prosecutors, in asking for the protective order, argued that Trump could otherwise improperly disclose confidential evidence before trial.

In a filing late on Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the two sides to meet on Tuesday and agree on two possible dates for a hearing to be held no later than Friday on the matter.

Trump's attorneys, in a 29-page filing to U.S. District Court in Washington on Monday, did not directly address the assertion of potential witness intimidation.

They did acknowledge that some court documents should be shielded from the public, such as materials from the grand jury investigation that led to last week's indictment accusing Trump of orchestrating a plot to overturn his 2020 election loss.

"However, the need to protect that information does not require a blanket gag order over all documents produced by the government," Trump's attorneys wrote in the court papers.

"In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights," Trump's attorneys said, referring to the right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

In a reply brief, prosecutors said that since they had asked for the protective order, Trump's attorneys had discussed the case on major U.S. television networks. Prosecutors said Trump had a "plan to litigate this case in the media."

Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he conspired to try to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. It was the third criminal case brought against Trump so far this year.

At his arraignment on Thursday, Trump swore to not intimidate witnesses or communicate with them about the case without legal counsel present.

Prosecutors on Friday, in their request for a protective order from Chutkan, pointed to a post from Trump on his Truth Social site that said, "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!"

Prosecutors said the post could suggest that Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, might try to intimidate witnesses.

Under a process known as discovery, prosecutors must provide defendants with the evidence against them so they can prepare a defense. Prosecutors in their Friday filing said they are prepared to provide Trump with a "substantial amount" of evidence once a protective order is issued.

A Trump spokesperson on Saturday denied that the Friday post was related to the trial, saying instead that Trump was attacking people dubbed "Republicans in Name Only," or RINOs.

But Trump's social media posts have escalated since prosecutors' Friday court filing. He has said he will seek to have Chutkan, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, recused from the case. Trump's lawyers have not yet officially made that request.

Chutkan previously ruled against Trump in a civil lawsuit seeking to block White House records from a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

She also has strongly spoken out against the Capitol attack in criminal cases stemming from the riots. Prior court rulings are not enough to require a federal judge to step aside from a case.

Trump lawyer John Lauro has said he will seek to transfer the 2020 election case from Washington, D.C., to West Virginia. While criminal cases are sometimes tried in different locations than where they are brought in order to sit an impartial jury, others charged in the Capitol siege have failed in trying to have their criminal cases transferred out of the Washington federal trial court.

(Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Leslie Adler)
The News

Its been a while since one of Donald Trumps social media posts had quite as many immediate consequences as his Friday Truth Social promise: IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! Heres the fallout you should be on top of, as well as other legal updates:

Prosecutors are already using Trumps social media posts in court

Just hours after Donald Trump threatened vengeance against his various foes in a social media post Friday afternoon, federal prosecutors asked for a protective order that would bar the former president from sharing evidence in the case publicly.

The limit was necessary, special counsel Jack Smith argued, in light of Trumps previous social media comments aimed at witnesses, judges, and attorneys in cases against him. As an example, they included a screenshot of his post from earlier in the day.

If the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details  or, for example, grand jury transcripts  obtained in discovery here, it could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case, Smith wrote.

Trumps attorneys have vowed to fight the order, which (like the rest of the governments case) theyve characterized as an assault on free speech. We will not agree to keeping information that is not sensitive from the press, lawyer John Lauro told CNN Sunday. Theyll have to work quickly: Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request from Trumps team to extend their response deadline beyond Monday.

Trumps team really wants the case moved to West Virginia

A few days back, Trump suggested that his trial should be moved out of Washington, D.C. (which is full of Democrats) to an impartial Venue such as West Virginia (where he got more than two thirds of the vote in 2022). Talking to CBS Sunday, Lauro confirmed hed motion for a venue switch, and said the Mountain State would be ideal. Absolutely, we would like a diverse venue, a diverse jury, he said.

Most experts have suggested that Trump will have a hard time getting a change of venue given the strong legal presumption that criminal cases should be tried where the alleged activity occurred and that jury selection can address potential biases. Many Jan. 6 defendants already attempted and failed to have their trials moved. However, Paul Blumenthal and Igor Bobic offer an interesting note: The Supreme Court has never actually considered the question of whether a city could be too Democratic to hold a fair trial for a Republican, or vice versa. Maybe well finally get a precedent.

The aspirational defense

Lauro also added a new wrinkle to Trumps free speech defense: He didnt direct Mike Pence (or anyone else) to do anything illegal; he just asked in an aspirational way.

Asking is covered by the first amendment, he added.

University of Pennsylvania professor Seth Kreimer told me case law wasnt likely on Trumps side there (the Supreme Court has made it clear that asking people to do illegal things is illegal). He compared it to arguing a mob boss asked for a hit in an aspirational way by suggesting they wanted to take care of someone. Does anyone imagine this is protected by the First Amendment? he said.

A technical violation

A related defense from Lauro: The request to Pence wasnt asking him to commit a crime, but to take Trumps side in a Constitutional dispute in line with prior battles over presidential and congressional authority. A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law, Lauro said on NBCs Meet The Press.
Donald Trump earlier this year was found liable for defamation and battery against E. Jean Carroll. The former president responded to the verdict by continuing to bash the writer who accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room, prompting her to sue him again. Trump filed a defamation counterclaim against Carroll in June  which a federal judge dismissed on Monday.

Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in the order dismissing the claim that Trump had failed to prove that the statements Carroll made following the verdict in May were not at least substantially true. Carroll told CNN that Trump did rape her, as she claimed, after the jury found Trump liable for battery but stopped short of ruling that Carroll proved Trump raped her.

There is no merit to Mr Trumps argument that the jurys finding on Penal Law rape question established that Ms Carrolls statements were false even if her statements reasonably could be construed as referring to rape in that specialized Penal Law sense, a subject on which this Court now expresses no view, Kaplan wrote in dismissed Trumps counterclaim.

The verdict in May, which Trump is appealing, was the result of a lawsuit filed in late 2022 under New Yorks Adult Survivors Act. Trump is still scheduled to go on trial in January for the defamation suit Carroll filed in 2019.

We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trumps counterclaim, Robbie Kaplan, an attorney for Carroll, said in a statement. That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldnt take very long to complete. E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.

Kaplan also ruled on Monday that Carrolls lawyers can give Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a video of the deposition they took from Trump last year. Bragg issued a subpoena for the video a month after he indicted Trump on criminal charges stemming from hush money doled out to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump tried to block the subpoena to no avail.

The E. Jean Carroll case is, of course, only a fraction of the former presidents legal troubles. Hes been criminally indicted by Bragg, for falsifying business records and twice by the Justice Department for his handling of classified documents upon leaving the White House and for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is widely expected to indict Trump sometime this month for meddling in Georgias election results.

Trump has claimed hes done nothing wrong and that the various probes are part of a Democratic conspiracy to keep him from winning the 2024 election.

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On the wall of the mens bathroom in the Wickenden Pub in Providence, Rhode Island, three names have been scrawled in blue pen, each one crossed out. Arthur Knight, Nick Rossi, Nick A. Below them, a fourth name is left uncrossed: Three Question Nick. Those names may just be the drunken scribbles of a punter in the wood-panelled dive bar, but anyone who frequented the Wickenden between 2015 and 2017 will have heard of the final one.

Three Question Nick was the name given to one of the bars regulars  an oddball with thick-rimmed glasses who used to come in and bend the ear off anyone who would listen. None of his stories appeared to add up; he was a Harvard man who supposedly worked in politics but never seemed to have a job to go to. He was always peddling some get-rich-quick scheme or finding a way to fleece a drinking partner out of a few dollars. He was, by all accounts, more an irritation than an enigma. Nevertheless, people who knew him back then were not surprised to learn years later that he was a conman. You never really believed what was coming out of his mouth, says Corey Lamoureux, a bartender at the Wickenden.

Night after night, he would prop up the bar and fire an endless stream of questions at whoever occupied the next stool. The boss gave him the nickname because he became so annoying. Hed sit there and ask so many questions that our boss said, Listen, you can ask three questions; if you ask a fourth Im throwing you out.

Three Question Nick claimed, among other things, to be a Harvard graduate - UNPIXS

Three Question Nick is just one of at least 16 names US law enforcement believes he has gone by over the years. All of them link back to one man  an American fugitive wanted on several counts of rape and for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid debt; a man who is now in a Scottish prison awaiting extradition to the United States.

The story of Nicholas Rossi, who faked his own death and invented a new identity in Britain in an attempt to shed the trail of alleged criminality he had left behind in the US, is so outlandish a Hollywood producer would deem it far fetched.

Rossis latest alias is Arthur Knight. For the past year, in an attempt to avoid extradition, he has argued in an Edinburgh court that he is the victim of a terrible case of mistaken identity. He claims to be an upper class English gentleman with Irish heritage (his stilted accent is far from convincing), a university professor and a happily married man who has tragically found himself in poor health despite only being 35. He has attended court in a wheelchair, an oxygen mask strapped to his face, the muscles in his legs supposedly so badly atrophied he cant walk or lift his arms above his head  except, conveniently, any time he needs to raise his hand to attract the attention of his barrister.

Knight has worn either a three-piece suit or a dressing gown to court. For a hearing in June he arrived sporting a black barristers gown and a yarmulke, having converted to Judaism in HMP Edinburgh, where he has been held since 2022. He claimed to have nothing to do with the alleged fraudster and alleged rapist from Rhode Island, Nicholas Rossi. He claimed the tattoos on his arms which matched those Interpol had on file for Rossi had been added to his arm while he was in a coma; he claimed the fingerprint records which linked him to Rossi had been manipulated and used to frame him.

After some of the most bizarre scenes the Edinburgh Sheriff Court has surely ever seen, Sheriff Norman McFadyen finally ruled last week that Knight/Rossi could be sent back to America to stand trial.

The tattoos Interpol had on file for Rossi matched those of Arthur Knight - UNPIXS

Rossi was arrested on December 13, 2021, at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, where he had been admitted with Covid. His arrest followed an investigation led by Interpol, with input from police forces from Utah to Essex, that had started in 2017 and concerned two rapes in Utah, an assault in Massachusetts and another assault (and suspected kidnapping) in Rhode Island. A woman in Essex has claimed a man who went by the name Nicholas Rossi and resembles the man claiming to be Arthur Knight raped her in 2017. He is also alleged to have defrauded his foster parents of $200,000.

As his story has gained notoriety more allegations have arisen, and his ex-wife, Kathryn Heckendorn, has spoken about the domestic abuse she suffered at Rossis hands. They married in 2015 in Dayton six months after meeting at church. She didnt know of his previous sexual offence until after they were married. She describes him as controlling, manipulative and physically violent. He broke me down and we got married without telling anybody, she told the BBC. It was the first day he hit me, right after we were married.

She told how she would be hit on a daily occurrence. [I would be] put down verbally [and told] just how stupid, dumb I was. If I didnt act that way, I wouldnt have to get hurt.

When she escaped, a recording she had made of the abuse helped ensure she was believed in court. A judge accused Rossi of gross neglect of duty and cruelty and granted her a divorce.

People in Rhode Island who knew Rossi dont recall seeing him around after 2017 - UNPIXS

His stepfather, David Rossi, has also spoken out, saying that his stepson suffers from mental health problems and visited psychiatric wards as a child. According to reports, Rossi, who grew up in Rhode Island, became a ward of the state in 1999, aged 12, and spent a number of years in care in Nebraska, Florida and Ohio.

In 2008, he was found guilty of sexual imposition and public indecency after luring a woman called Mary Grebinksi into the stairwell of a building on a college campus in Dayton, Ohio, pressing his body weight against her and touching her against her will. I saw his dark eyes behind his dark rimmed glasses and they were void of any emotion, any human feeling, it was like looking into something dead, Grebinski said in a video she posted on YouTube in July.

After his conviction, he spent years trying to make Grebinski pay by flinging new evidence at the courts and eventually suing her (unsuccessfully) for defamation and mental distress.

Then, in 2011, he re-emerged in Rhode Island. By this stage, he was in his twenties and using the surname Alahverdian, his biological fathers name. He spoke publicly of the abuse he had suffered in care and campaigned for a childrens bill of rights.

The patrons of the Wickenden Pub, in Providence, Rhode Island, only began hearing about Rossis crimes in 2017. We had found out about his first conviction because one of our friends was a police officer, says Corey Lamoureux. But, by then, he had disappeared, after making noises about getting married and moving abroad.

In the three years that followed, Lamoureux only heard about Rossi via another pub regular, Stephen OShea, an author who once described Rossi as hard to shake off, like a wet shirt.

Stephen said he spoke to him a couple of times on the phone, says Lamoureux. He owed [him] a lot of money and had made promises to pay him. And then we all got the call that he was dead.

Rossi with his ex-wife Kathryn Heckendorn, who made a recording of the abuse she endured. A judge accused Rossi of gross neglect of duty and cruelty and granted her a divorce - UNPIXS

In the spring of 2020, a woman claiming to be Rossis wife phoned Lamoureux. [She told me] Nick always looked up to you, he was really glad you guys were friends, he talked highly of you, would you please come to the memorial service? He said he would make it if he could.

Even at that point, no one at the pub thought he was dead.

Father Bernard Healey, of Our Lady of Mercy in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, received a call too, asking if he would hold a memorial service for Rossi. It was strange, because the woman sounded like Hyacinth Bucket, Healey has said.

His body, the wife said, had been buried in Switzerland (odd, given an obituary on a memorial website had said his remains had been scattered at sea), but she wanted to host a memorial for him. He agreed. I then started getting emails about setting the times and date for the service, and I recall she became a little obsessive.

Rossis ex-wife Kathryn said she was physically and psychologically abused by him during their seven-month marriage - UNPIXS

The invitations went out, then Healey got a call from the police. Detectives told him they thought Rossi had faked his death, that he was wanted by Interpol, the federal government and other state authorities. They said he was using some sort of voice distorter over the phone, Healey said. He wrote to the wife to postpone the memorial.

Rossi was very much alive and living in Britain. In early 2020, around the same time as people in Rhode Island began receiving calls about a terminal illness, Nafsika Antypas hired Rossi (or Nicholas Brown as she knew him) to do PR in the UK for her Canadian vegan food brand. She had found his profile on Upwork, a site that connects companies with freelancers. He said he was experienced in PR and marketing and had a little TV experience, a Harvard graduate. I decided to have a call with him that very day. Antypas recalls how he seemed a little odd. He had a stutter. I thought maybe just because he was nervous to speak to me.

In the three months Rossi worked for her, Antypas says she paid him $30,000CAD (17,500 at todays exchange rate), while he failed to deliver the work she had set him. She would chase him constantly, but recalls how every time she questioned him he would tell her she was being paranoid.

He kept coming up with these excuses, she says over the phone from Montreal. He was in the hospital, and then his wife was in the hospital, and then his dogs were in the hospital, and then he was on his second honeymoon.

When she issued him with an ultimatum, refusing to pay any more until she saw evidence of his work, he threatened her. He created a smear campaign against her, writing articles and creating a fake website. He sent legal letters threatening to sue her and harassed her parents on the phone. Antypas has had little success in bringing her case to the attention of authorities in the UK or Canada. Between the money she paid him and the money she has spent trying to clear up the trail of destruction he left, she has lost an awful lot in the ordeal.

Rossi arriving with his wife Miranda at Edinburgh Sheriff And Justice Of The Peace Court, for a preliminary extradition hearing - PA

Interpol finally tracked Rossi down to a flat in Glasgows West End in December 2021. When they arrived, they found his new wife, Miranda Knight. Arthur, she said, was in hospital. At the QEUH, the officers were told they had better act quickly: Rossi had been trying to leave in a private ambulance. When he was arrested he said: I am Arthur Knight. Ive never even been to the US.

Back home in Rhode Island, Nicholas Rossi is a constant source of amusement in the pub where he spent three years of his chequered life. At one point we wanted to fly overseas and just sit in a courtroom and yell at him because we know its him, says Lamoureux, whose assessment of Rossi is less that he is mentally ill and more that he thinks hes smarter than anyone else.

In the coming months, Rossi will have to face the charges that have brought him back to the US. Lamoureux suspects hell keep up his bizarre story of mistaken identity until the end. Hes going to go down swinging with this Arthur Knight character. It wouldnt shock me if hed tried to sell the rights to this story already.

If a team of producers is already scouting out characters and locations for the Netflix series, they could do worse than to start in the mens bathroom of a Rhode Island dive bar, where the names of a local fugitive are scrawled on the wall, and above them the message: I faked my own death at the Wickenden Pub.

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According to archaeological studies conducted on cultural artifacts and remains found at Fort Liberty, Cumberland County was originally utilized as a hunting territory for both the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina (TNNC) and the Catawba Nation.

According to many experts, the Tuscarora and other Iroquoian nations arrived in the region about 2,500 years ago. Prior to European contact, the Tuscarora and Catawba actively competed for access to the resources of the Cape Fear River region. However, only settlements occupied by the Tuscarora Nation have been documented within the land holdings that Fort Liberty Military Reserve encompasses.

As the Tuscarora Wars ended, Tuscarora communities continued to reside in areas previously under their influence. State and federal records, and experts have documented that Tuscarora communities migrated to what became Robeson County to escape settler encroachment. Despite officially acknowledging the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina in direct communication with federal authorities, the NC Commission of Indian Affairs continues to oppose the self-determination of the Tuscarora People.

Donnie Rahnawakew McDowell, Tuscarora Nation

Clarifying the misconceptions and assumptions about Tuscarora history with documented facts helps the public to better understand the unique experience of the TNNC communities who continue to call Cumberland and adjoining counties home.

More: The Fayetteville Observer: Opinion

While many Tuscarora migrated north, the ancestors of the TNNC chose to remain in their southern homelands. The migration route taken by ancestors of the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina included the hunting ranges in Cumberland County.

Tracing the land deeds once held by core Tuscarora ancestors, Dr. Peter Wood examined the exact path which led these families to Drowning Creek. A half dozen families including the Locklear, Cumbo, Chavis, and Lowry, were confirmed to have meandered through Cumberland County before making a final exodus to what was then Bladen County. Some Tuscarora families had settled along the Drowning Creek as early as 1750, establishing the Long Swamp Indian Burial Grounds as the first Tuscarora family cemetery in the region.

Although most of the Tuscarora families participating in this journey continued until they reached what is today parts of Robeson County, few Tuscarora families decided to remain on lands in Cumberland. Before Indian Removal and disenfranchisement in the 1830s, Tuscarora communities enjoyed the right to purchase land, vote and hold other privileges as free people.

From Dr. Woods perspective, the Tuscarora exodus resembled the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes, including the Cherokee and Choctaw. Ironically, the removal of Tuscarora communities from the region was a precursor to the Federal Indian Removal Policy which further erased Indigenous connections to the land.

Investigations into the Indian groups that remained in Robeson, Cumberland, and adjoining counties in the late 1800s confirmed that Tuscarora communities resisted colonial notions of authority. Evidence regarding the life experiences of Tuscarora ancestor, Henry Berry Lowry, highlights that Tuscarora communities remained self-determined and active in defending the basic human rights of the Tuscarora People.

Statements from the Flora College and Adjutant General John Gorman verify that Tuscarora families were targets of retaliation by the Confederate Home Guard for evading the conscription camps at Fort Fisher. For decades following this more modern Tuscarora War, the State Assembly passed laws attempting to force the Tuscarora communities to assimilate into the dominant culture.

NC House Rep. Hamilton McMillan, who had an interest in Indian burial mounds in Cumberland and surrounding counties, desperately sought to influence the Tuscarora communities to attend the Croatan Indian Normal School. Even though a separate school system granted some form of basic education, the Tuscarora recognized the Croatan designation only as the name of a coastal Algonquin village. Therefore, the ancestors of the Tuscarora Nation communities did not recognize nor assume a Croatan identity.

Surviving Indian Removal and the Lowry War, the Tuscarora Nation communities in Robeson County continued to self-identify, organize, and make efforts for reaffirmation. In 1976, Director Bruce Jones of the NC Indian Commission confirmed that the Tuscarora Nation was a state-recognized tribe when discussing the history of Cumberland County.

Director Jones explained that Indian families that are part of the Cumberland County Association of Indian People (CCAIP) were descendants of either the Tuscarora or Cherokee. Jones identified the Tuscarora communities as distinct and separate from the CCAIP, Lumbee and other tribal groups, exemplifying that the Tuscarora Nation was tribes recognized by the Indian Commission.

Since the late 1970s, the Tuscarora communities of Robeson County have worked together toward reaffirming the tribal status, rights and privileges of the Tuscarora People that have been disenfranchised for far too long. House Bill 699, introduced in March of this year, and which would have established state recognition of the Tuscarora and laid the foundation for reconciliation of the historical trauma impacting the Nation.

By recognizing the Tuscarora Nations place in the development of Cumberland County, we respectfully honor the sacrifices of the Tuscarora communities and begin to dismantle the oppression afflicting the Tuscarora People.

Donnie Rahnawakew McDowell is the public relations officer for the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Tuscarora have long Cumberland roots, deserve NC recognition, says tribe
Springfield Police are investigating a shooting at a central Springfield Business that left one person dead and another wounded.

Police are seeking a suspect in an early morning shooting that left one man dead.

According to a release from the Springfield Police Department, officers responded to a report of a person shot at 318 N. Kansas Expressway just before 3:30 a.m. on Sunday. The release does not say if the shooting occurred inside or outside of the business.

One victim was treated at the scene with non-life-threatening injuries, but a second victim, Larry McCoo, 35, from Springfield, was transported to a local hospital where he later died.

A suspect has not been identified at this time.

Detectives know that multiple people were present during this incident. They encourage anyone with information to contact the Springfield Police Department at 417-864-1810 or make an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 417-869-TIPS (8477) or online at p3tips.com.

Springfield Police are investigating a shooting at a central Springfield Business that left one person dead and another wounded.

This is Springfields 12th homicide investigation in 2023.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Two shot in early morning incident at central Springfield business
Two U.S. military veterans were killed late last month while fighting in Ukraine, marking the latest of a growing number of Americans who have fought against Russian soldiers and died in the embattled country.

Lance Lawrence, a former U.S. Marine, and Andrew Webber, a former Army officer, both died on July 29 during an operation against Russian forces, according to media reports and public posts from those who knew them.

The State Department confirmed the death of two U.S. citizens in a drone attack in Ukraine on July 29, but did not name them out of respect for the familys privacy.

We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Both Lawrence and Webber died in the service of Ukraines 59th Motorized Brigade.

Lawrence was providing cover fire under heavy enemy fire for fellow Chosen Company soldiers when he was wounded, wrote one of his comrades and friends, Ryan OLeary, on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Lance was enlisted into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He was not a mercenary out for blood or excited for combat, OLeary wrote. He came because he thought what was happening in Ukraine by Russia was wrong. Rest easy, brother.

Military news outlets Task & Purpose and Stars and Stripes first reported the news last week.

The deaths of Lawrence and Webber mean at least 14 American citizens have died while fighting in Ukraine since the war broke out last year, although the exact figure is unclear.

Lawrence enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 2013 and achieved the rank of private first class after three years and earned several medals for his service, according to Stars and Stripes.

Webber, who leaves behind two daughters, served about a decade in the U.S. Army, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to his LinkedIn profile. His page says he joined the Ukrainian armed forces in May.

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, his GoFundMe page reads. Andrew will be forever missed.

Updated at 3:34 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Credit - Getty Images

About a month ago, the U.S. and Iran were reportedly close to an informal understanding that would reduce their tensions over the latters nuclear program. A month later, progress on an understanding seems limited. A prisoner exchange deal is stuck; there have been no new talks. Relations between Washington and Tehran have, if anything, gotten more tense in recent weeks.

But its too soon to declare diplomacy dead. There remains space for both sides to avoid serious escalation while leaving the door open to further, albeit incremental, diplomacy somewhere down the line.

Unspoken arrangement

Since efforts to renegotiate the original 2015 nuclear deal collapsed last August, Iran has escalated its enrichment of uranium, to the point that it could likely race to a bomb in a matter of weeks. A return to the original deal is impossible after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord and enacted painful sanctions under former President Donald Trump. But American officials have suggested a more limited arrangement in a series of talks held earlier this year. If Iran agreed to ramp down its enrichment of uranium, hand over several U.S. citizens it holds prisoner, pull back its support for Russia, and generally avoid taking action against U.S. forces positioned throughout the Middle East, the U.S. would release several billion dollars in Irans money currently frozen in bank accounts in Iraq and South Korea.

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With the offer came a threat: if Iran, which currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, took the final step to enrich to 90% needed to produce a nuclear weapon, the U.S. would respond immediatelyand probably with military force.

This isnt a new nuclear deal. The U.S. is framing this as an understanding, while Iran has said very little about it. If they really did come to an agreement, dont expect either side to trumpet it. For President Joe Biden, talking to Iran carries significant political risks, given its deadly support for Russias war in Ukraine and the recent crackdown on domestic protests. Irans leadership, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, distrust the U.S. and have baked anti-Americanism into their governing ideologya turn back toward negotiating would cost them credibility within the nezam, or system, which Khamenei (who is 84 and in fragile health) is conscious of retaining as he looks ahead to the succession crisis that would come after his death. For now, a limited understanding to avoid major escalation is about as much as either side is willing to consider.

Wheres the understanding?

Even this limited arrangement looks like a heavy lift.

On July 5, Iran attacked several oil tankers exiting the Persian Gulf, including one owned by Chevron. The U.S. dispatched advanced F-35 aircraft and more troops to the Gulf to deter further Iranian attacks. Iran continues to supply Russia with drones and is assisting with the construction of a drone factory inside Russia. The surprising exit of Bidens special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, an advocate for diplomatic engagement, over alleged mishandling of classified documents and a lack of progress on a prisoner exchange suggests that this years diplomatic push has failed to yield any positive results.

Yet on the most important issue at stakeIrans ever-expanding nuclear programthere remains grounds for limited, cautious optimism. The U.S. has urged Iran to cease its stockpiling of uranium enriched to 60%, and Iran has reportedly agreed in principle. Whether it will do so in reality depends on its willingness to cooperate with U.N. nuclear inspectors. Earlier this year, Iran agreed to an expansion of U.N. surveillance and has even provided some information to settle long-running U.N. investigations into its past nuclear activities. This move came shortly after the inspectors discovered evidence of Iran enriching trace amounts of uranium to 83.7%, tantalizingly close to the 90% needed to produce a bomb; Iran has explained to the U.N. that this escalation was accidental.

Looking ahead for good newsor bad

The outlook for Iran is a mix of good and bad. While tensions with the U.S. appear to be worsening, the limited cooperation between Tehran and the U.N. inspectors suggests some slight progress on the nuclear issue. The U.S. has warned Iran from enriching to 90%, and so far, Iran seems to be listening. It may continue to add to its stockpile without taking the final step to weaponization. Whether Iran decides to actually ramp down its enrichment, as the U.S. has pushed it to do, will become clear soon, as U.N. inspectors are expected to report on Irans enrichment activities by the end of August. For now, its a question of wait and see.

The result is a shaky status quo with both the U.S. and Iran avoiding escalation. Even as both sides rattle the saber, neither appears willing to take things to the next level. This shaky state of affairs could very easily disintegrate into a more serious confrontation, should a new crisis arise or should Israel try to attack Irans nuclear program without U.S. cooperation.

For now, though, the situation between the U.S. and Iran is stuck in a kind of limbo. The understanding hinted at a month ago remains largely theoretical. But theres an opening for de-escalation, should Iran be willing to take the necessary steps on enrichment. Iran and the U.S. may not be close to talking, but theyre still not ready to start shooting. That, at least, offers some hope that things may improve in the near-term.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
Metropolitan Pavlo (Petro Lebid), Abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), who is suspected of supporting Russias war against Ukraine, made UAH 33 million [about US$894,000  ed.] bail to get out of the pre-trial detention centre.

Source: video of Metropolitan Pavlos lawyer Mykyta Chekman, Ukraines Security Service

Details: The lawyer recorded a video with Lebid in the car, saying that over 1,000 people donated money for bail.

The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that bail was made for Lebid.

Background:

On April 1, Pavlo was served with a notice of suspicion of violation of citizens' equality based on their religious preferences, and justification, recognition as legitimate, or denial of the Russian Federations armed aggression against Ukraine, or glorification of its participants.

The Security Service of Ukraine said it had gathered substantiated evidence that Petro Lebid was involved in inciting religious hatred and justifying and denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

In the courtroom, Lebid stated that he was "against aggression", but did not mention Russia as the perpetrator.

On 1 April, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kyiv placed Metropolitan Pavlo under round-the-clock house arrest until 30 May, but on 14 July the Solomiansky District Court changed the preventive measure to detention with the possibility of making bail of more than UAH 33 million.

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!
There are over eight million tribespeople in Jharkhand

For many years now, Anil Jonko's life follows a simple routine.

He starts his day by offering prayers at his parents' grave in Chaibasa, a small village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand dominated by the Ho tribal community.

The 40-year-old then heads to a special court - set up two years ago to deal with civil matters of local tribespeople - where he is fighting a land dispute case.

In India, special courts for tribal communities have been established to protect their culture and distinct identity. While there is no official figure on their number, a similar system is found in the north-eastern states where tribal courts decide on matters of marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance based on their own personal laws and customs.

At the court which Mr Jonko visits, there is no lawyer or judge. Three village leaders - one named by the complainant, one by the respondent and the third named by the local administration - hand out "verdicts".

Mr Jonko says he prefers going there because the staff comprises people from his community and all the cases are heard in the local Ho language. Ho is one of the many indigenous languages spoken in Jharkhand where 27% of the population is made of tribespeople.

But Mr Jonko now worries that his village's unique justice system would cease to exist.

The fears were sparked earlier this year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proposed a plan to enact a Uniform Civil Code or UCC - a single personal law for all citizens irrespective of religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation.

At the moment, there is no clarity on the contents of UCC as there is no draft of the law yet.

But the government argues that a common code is necessary to achieve gender justice; equality through uniform application of personal laws in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance; and to foster national unity. The BJP, in one of its election manifestoes, said there "cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a Uniform Civil Code".

Critics, however, say that any attempt to push for it would divide communities and lead to a loss of their distinct identity and culture.

The proposal is largely seen as a counter to personal laws of Muslims - which the government says are "regressive" - as it seeks to consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP ahead of the 2024 general election.

But it has triggered a wave of anxiety among tribespeople who fear that the proposal interferes with their centuries-old practices and customs.

The Ho tribe has its distinct customs and practices

"Right now, a non-tribal person cannot buy land in our village. With the UCC anyone would be able to do that," Mr Jonko says. "Our culture and tribal practices will be be wiped away."

In Jharkhand, special laws have been in force for decades to protect the distinct identity of the state's 8.6 million tribespeople.

This includes a 1908 law that prohibits the transfer of tribal land to non-tribal communities to ensure community ownership, and a 1876 law which prohibits non-Santhal people from buying Santhal land without the permission of the district magistrate. The Santhals are a tribe that occupy the area of Jharkhand bordering West Bengal state.

Similar laws also exist in the north-eastern states, where autonomous district councils are set up to protect the land and culture of tribal communities.

Santosh Kido, professor at Xavier's College in Ranchi city, says that tribespeople fear that a UCC would wipe away their identity.

"These people identify as tribal because of their distinct culture, tradition and customary laws. If the government puts all of these in one basket there will be nothing left for them," he says.

Anil Jonko worries that his village's unique justice system would cease to exist

Dayamani Barla, an activist who has been fighting for the rights of tribespeople in Jharkhand, agrees with the assessment.

She says the tribal system of governance and self-rule is deeply connected with their customs and any attempt to do away with that would undermine their autonomy. "Besides, how can you have one law for a diverse country like India?" she asks.

However, supporters of a UCC argue that it is a much needed reform to end discriminatory practices prevalent in local traditions and customs.

In most tribal societies of Jharkhand for instance, daughters have no share in her father or husband's property. "A common set of personal laws would bring gender equality among tribespeople," says Amar Kumar Chowdhary, professor at Ranchi Technical University.

Mr Chowdhary adds that a UCC would also help to integrate these communities better with "the national mainstream".

"If it is implemented properly, it will be good for everyone. We will all move forward together," he said.

There is no clarity on how much of this would actually happen under the new law or when will it be implemented. But tribespeople in Jharkhand say they are bracing for an uncertain future.

"We don't know much, we only hear about things on the TV," Mr Jonko says.

"But we are poor and helpless and we know we won't be able to stop it if the UCC is implemented."

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The Russian Air Force lacks "decisive operational effect" in its support of Russia's ground troops in Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its intelligence update on Aug. 7.

Though Russian combat aircraft are carrying out over 100 sorties a day over the summer, Ukrainian air defense almost always prevents them from flying beyond Russian-controlled territory, the ministry believes.

To overcome this, Russia is increasingly opting to use "basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments," which can be released by aircraft many kilometers away. However, "they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy," the update said.

The update also mentioned that on the southern front, tactical air power has become less effective in recent weeks, and in particular the effectiveness of Russia's attack helicopters appears to have waned.

On July 27, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported that Russia is using modified attack helicopters to launch strikes beyond the range of Ukraine's air defenses.

Read also: Increased attacks on Crimea disrupt Russian logistics, attempt to derail its southern defenses

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Russian Aerospace Forces are continuing to expend significant resources in support of ground operations in the war against Ukraine but without decisive operational effects, UK Defence Intelligence has stated.

Source: UK Ministry of Defence intelligence review on the Russian-Ukrainian war dated 7 August, as reported by European Pravda.

Details: UK Defence Intelligence reports that during the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft usually flew more than 100 sorties per day, but mainly over the territory controlled by the Russian Federation, due to the threat from Ukrainian air defence.

Quote: "Russia has attempted to overcome this issue by increasingly using basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments. Aircraft can release these many kilometres from their targets, but they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy," the review notes.

UK intelligence noted that Russian attack helicopters were effective at the start of Ukrainian counteroffensive actions in June 2023.

"However, in recent weeks Russia appears to have been less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south," the analysts added.

Background:

In a previous review, UK intelligence said that Russia had lost at least half of its airborne troops during the war against Ukraine, which corresponds to a figure of 15,000.

Uk Defence Intelligence also suggested that Russia is attacking Ukrainian infrastructure in the south with Iranian-made drones, as it believes that such strikes will not lead to a significant escalation.

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!
Experts' take on 6G Technology

09:08, August 07, 2023 By Chen Zhi, Gao Yuan and Qiao Xinsheng ( China Daily

MA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY

Editor's note: With tech powerhouses drawing their respective blueprints for the development of 6G, R&D in the emerging sector has gathered pace. China is focused on the next-generation internet and intensified research and development in 6G technology to build new types of information infrastructure facilities, and expedite the application of ICT in different sectors. Three experts share their views on the issue with China Daily.

Mobile communication has transformed the world in the past four decades, with each decade witnessing the emergence of at least one new generation technology. While 5G technology opened the door to the internet of things, 6G aims to further advance this concept by evolving into a platform for "connected intelligence".

The 6G technology is expected to help mobile communication networks to connect a vast array of smart devices, enabling real-time connectivity between the physical and digital worlds through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Also, it will likely enable people to access and retrieve a wealth of information in real time, and help them enter an intelligent, interconnected world. As such, 6G will usher in the next wave of digitalization.

While 6G is still in the initial stage of development, industrial circles believe it will have a unified network that bridges the virtual and physical spaces, facilitating "connected intelligence". The 6G technology, experts say, will incorporate diverse networks, including cellular, satellite and drone-provided communication to facilitate information collection. In particular, densely distributed small satellites forming an "airborne wireless network", will cover the entire planet. This distinct feature sets 6G apart from previous generations of communication networks.

In terms of network performance indicators, 6G is expected to significantly improve the transmission rates, end-to-end latency, reliability, spectrum and network efficiency and more, thus meeting the diverse network needs of vertical industries.

More important, 6G will incorporate domestic AI technology as far as machine learning in the design of end-to-end mobile communication systems is concerned. It will provide AI services everywhere and all the time, optimizing system performance and user experience. A key disruptive technology of 6G will be the use of radio waves for monitoring the physical world to send and retrieve signals, and enable advanced perception capabilities.

The 6G technology will help boost production, improve people's lifestyle, enhance efficiency, promote innovation in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, and create new opportunities for the digital economy. The technology's potential applications include integrated air, space and ground communication, which will allow users to seamlessly access mobile broadband in cities, rural areas, and even on airplanes and ships. It is thus clear that 6G will help empower industries, integrate various sectors, and create, for instance, smart factories, promote connected vehicles and boost telemedicine.

Moreover, 6G will help meet the requirements of users beyond 5G, which include but are not restricted to, precise motion control and immersive communication in augmented and virtual reality.

The global race for 6G has begun, with experts saying the technology is likely to enter the market around 2030. In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology established the IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, providing a platform for industries, research institutions and operators to deepen cooperation and collaboration in ICT. And the Ministry of Science and Technology, along with other departments, formed the National 6G Technology Research and Development Promotion Working Group and the National 6G Technology Research and Development Expert Group to promote further research in 6G.

Chinese internet companies and equipment manufacturers have been conducting research in 6G based on their respective technological advantages. For example, China Mobile, after proposing the world's first systemic 6G network architecture, achieved breakthroughs in key technologies such as new wireless transmission, new network protocols and digital twin networks.

In fact, China Mobile collaborated with Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and other institutions to develop six sets of technology prototype samples. And major equipment manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE have intensified research in 6G. For instance, in 2022, Huawei released a white paper on 6G, which is a comprehensive analysis of the potential apps, requirements and supporting technologies for 6G wireless networks.

The 6G technology's requirements and industrial ecosystem are more complex than that of existing high-tech ecosystems, because it uses cloud computing, AI, edge computing and other advanced technologies. So, Chinese companies, universities, and research institutions need to intensify collaboration to boost research.

But since experimentation in key technologies and determining the different application scenarios are critical to achieving breakthroughs in high-tech, it is necessary to establish platforms for collaboration in 6G technology, create more international cooperation opportunities, and jointly explore and validate 6G with partner countries, thereby creating a mutually beneficial, open and cooperative global 6G industrial ecosystem.

The author is director of and a researcher with the Institute of Innovation and Development, Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

New tech will revolutionize mobile network

Gao Yuan

The Ministry of Science and Technology initiated research in 6G technology way back in 2018, which enabled China to assume a leading global position in 6G technology development. At present, however, the IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, established by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2019, is coordinating 6G research and development, and encouraging R&D institutions, companies and operators to participate in the process to fix the global standards for 6G.

Compared with 5G, research and development in 6G put greater emphasis on comprehensive communication network coverage on land, at sea, and in air and space. The 6G technology promotes the use of microwave, millimeter-wave, terahertz, visible light, and core key technologies such as information and communications technology, computing, storage, positioning, and artificial intelligence (AI) to help integrate mobile services and users.

First, in terms of network architecture, 6G is likely to have an integrated terrestrial-aerial-space network architecture, which is recognized as one of the seven key network requirements by the International Telecommunication Union. Such an architecture will build on the foundation of terrestrial cellular mobile networks and combine the characteristics of broadband satellites, unmanned aerial vehicle communications and stratospheric platforms.

The comprehensive coverage of land, sea, and air and space through the integration of various networks will create new opportunities for the global markets, especially the maritime, border defense and unmanned system sectors.

Second, in terms of broadband spectrum fusion and utilization, 6G aims to use a unified network architecture that will accommodate lower frequencies such as shortwave, ultra-shortwave and long wave, as well as higher frequencies like terahertz and optical communications. This will enable 6G to achieve peak data rates of 100 gigabytes per second and support larger-scale user connectivity, laying the foundation for ubiquitous wireless network deployment.

And third, 6G is likely to achieve breakthroughs in system integration. Mobile communication has evolved from the nine systems in the 1G era to a globally unified system in the 5G era, establishing a stable technological system.

In the 6G era, the focus will be on enhancing systems' capabilities, and achieving breakthroughs in areas such as enhanced wireless air interface technologies represented by MIMO (multiple-in-multiple-out technology), full-duplex system, new physical dimension wireless transmission technology represented by intelligent meta-surfaces, orbital angular momentum and intelligent holographic radio technologies, cross-domain integration technology, novel network technology represented by endogenous intelligence in-air interface and network architecture, and key network technology represented by distributed autonomous network architecture.

These advancements will support immersive, intelligent services.

In the global application of the 5G technology, China faced sanctions from the United States, which severely impacted the country's chip and other high-tech equipment sector, and dealt a blow to Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE, which are considered global leaders in 5G.In fact, Huawei and ZTE were forced to delist from US stock exchanges, which affected their global business.

But 6G promises to create new, bigger opportunities for China to promote innovations in the economic and social spheres. And by strengthening basic research in 6G, China can retain core high-tech talents and promote cross-industry collaboration. As a matter of fact, intensifying research in 6G's application can help boost economic development in the long run.

By intensifying basic research in 6G, the authorities can lay the foundation for cultivating core talents, and by promoting synergy between industry chains, they can boost research in 6G.

There is a need, though, to establish collaborative mechanisms among the government, industry, academia and research institutions to ensure their joint participation in significant scientific projects. In fact, through the establishment of research centers and formation of industry alliances, the authorities have already started harnessing the strengths of all stakeholders to build a strong talent pool with the aim of enhancing China's international competitiveness in 6G.

Besides, by deepening research in 6G's applications, we can boost China's economic development. And by reinforcing the core technologies that China has mastered, we can consolidate the country's advantages in core technologies.

The optimization of 6G will surely bolster China's global competitiveness, unlike the time when Chinese telecom industries suffered a severe blow while establishing 5G technology networks in Western countries. In the 6G era, however, fostering collaboration among enterprises, research institutions and industries in 6G standards and security will help set globally acceptable 6G standards and ecosystems.

The potential transformation of 6G in the future can be categorized into three parts: integrated and diversified intelligent connectivity, augmented reality applications, and intelligent industry applications. The 6G technology aims to achieve global connectivity on land, at sea, and in air and space, through the use of ground-based cellular networks, satellite networks, drones and intelligent connectivity technologies with ultra-low power consumption and high precision. And the technology's potential areas of application include integrated air-space-land communication as well as underwater communication.

In the field of augmented reality, 6G is expected to evolve from augmented/virtual reality to mixed reality interaction, eventually enabling wireless holographic communication, facilitating immersive cloud XR, sensory integration, and virtual concerts, tourism and online gaming.

The 6G technology will be especially beneficial to vertical industries such as manufacturing, transportation, education and healthcare, giving rise to new business models and services. In this context, 6G can be potentially applied to smart factories, intelligent transportation systems, smart robots, smart cities, digital twins, precision telemedicine, unmanned space exploration and other fields.

Also, 6G will help improve people's lifestyles, boost work efficiency, and provide users with diversified, personalized digital experiences. The development and use of 6G will promote innovations in information and communications technology, foster collaborative research and development in cutting-edge technologies, create new opportunities for multiple sectors, and bolster the development of the digital economy.

The author is an associate professor at the Academy of Military Science of the PLA.

Dual approach to safeguard telecom security

China has decided to build the 6G mobile communication network, following the comprehensive development of the 5G technology network, so as to secure operation of wireless communication.

China may have lagged behind the advanced countries in the development of telecom technology, from 1G to 4G.But it leads the world in 5G. In fact, it has built the world's largest 5G technology network, and leads the world in the field of mobile communication.

Unable to digest China's evident technological advantage in 5G, the United States has imposed sanctions on Chinese companies, such as Huawei, which are world leaders in 5G technology. As such, Huawei, which holds many patents in 5G, is under unprecedented pressure.

The 5G technology has completely changed the telecom security landscape, preventing the US from leveraging its advantages in information and communications technology to pursue global hegemony.

In the past, the US often used its advanced technology to spy on many countries' leaders, businesspeople and other entities, in order to consolidate its dominance in the field of communication. But since it became clear that China has gained a lead in 5G, the US is finding it increasingly difficult to gather intelligence against other countries. In desperation, therefore, Washington launched a smear campaign against China, claiming China's 5G technology and equipment pose a security risk to not only the US but also other countries.

Many focus solely on the speed with which 5G enables information to be disseminated while overlooking its advantage in safeguarding communication security. The 5G networks have not only increased network communication speed and transformed the traditional technological development path but also, and more importantly, provided better safeguards for communication security.

China recognizes the importance of establishing a legal framework to better protect communication security and freedom. That's why it attaches great importance to safeguarding 6G security, and has taken measures to ensure that enterprises involved in 5G's development and application strictly adhere to the law.

China has enacted a series of laws, including the National Security Law, Cybersecurity Law and Personal Information Protection Law, and taken additional measures to boost the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to better tackle cybersecurity issues that may arise due to the advancement of AI. China's objective is to prevent risks and ensure the reliability and safeguard the security of next-generation communication networks.

Hence, China has tightened supervision in the telecom market and taken strict actions against entities that infringe upon consumers' rights and interests and endanger national security.

In fact, China's research and development in 6G has laid a solid foundation for strengthening China's cybersecurity, which will better protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests, and help maintain national security. The development of 6G will help safeguard China's network security, with the country's comprehensive legal system for cybersecurity playing a key role in protecting telecom network security.

China adheres to openness, and encourages all countries to engage in cooperation to safeguard regional and global telecom security. By promoting innovations and overcoming the challenges in the field of cybersecurity, and establishing scientific network technology standards and legal systems, China aims to better safeguard the rights and interests of enterprises and individuals.

The author is a professor of law at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc drew criticism from British lawmakers after its head of public affairs accused the UK government of being weak by following US policy on China.

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Sherard Cowper-Coles told a private event in London in June that the UK would often bow to the demands of Washington and had been strong-armed into cutting back business dealings with China. He apologized for any offense caused in a statement that said his were personal comments. The bank reiterated in its own statement that the comments were his personal views.

Nevertheless, two China critics in the UKs governing Conservative Party  who have both been sanctioned by the Asian nation  slammed the London-listed bank, Europes largest. Former Tory Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said HSBC have an awful lot to answer for, while fellow backbencher Tim Loughton branded the lender an apologist for the Chinese government.

Perhaps HSBC should get on with putting their own house in order before criticising others, not least when their actions over the last two years suggest their willingness to act first in the interests of an autocratic communist state, Alicia Kearns, chair of the UK Parliaments foreign affairs select committee, told Bloomberg News.

The remarks expose a growing rift in the Tory Party between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has sought to preserve and grow trading links with the worlds second-largest economy, and those in his party who are suspicious President Xi Jinpings regime. They want Britain to reduce ties with China over disputes ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic to its treatment of Uyghur Muslims and its stance on Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Increasingly HSBC has become an apologist for the totalitarian Chinese Communist Government, Loughton said. Cowper-Coless comments suggested a kind of arrogant complacency where principles and regard for human suffering kowtow to business opportunity. That, he warned could encourage an emboldened China to bulldoze aside international rule of law and to buy international influence.

Cowper-Coles told attendants at a closed-door event in London in June that the UK shouldnt blindly follow the US but rather look after its own interests, according to the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the event was private.

The HSBC employee, a former diplomat, is acting like the worst sort of apologist, blind to the outrages that the Chinese government commits against its people, Duncan Smith said. He cannot separate his personal views from HSBC because he is an adviser to HSBC. Now we know what he is advising them, he added.

Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which counts several China hawk British lawmakers as members, also criticized the comments by Cowper-Coles, saying such diplomatic pragmatism belonged in the past and reflected an obsession with trade over everything else.

Still, Vince Cable, the former leader of the Liberal Democrat party and business minister, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview that deferring excessively to pressure from the United States is unhelpful to the UK and not in our interests.

It isnt the first time British politicians have taken aim at HSBC. In June, the bank was criticized by the UK parliaments Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the US Congress Select Committee on China after the bank denied some Hong Kong expatriates access to their retirement funds. British politicians also spoke out after a report that a Chinese communist party committee was set up at HSBCs local investment banking arm.

Sunak and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly have described China as an epoch-defining challenge to UK security, accusing Beijing of running secret police stations in Britain. Nevertheless, in an illustration of the premiers outreach to China, the British and Chinese governments are reviewing dates for a visit by Cleverly to the country, after a planned July trip was postponed.

--With assistance from Ambereen Choudhury, Alberto Nardelli and Harry Wilson.

(Adds comment from chair of Parliaments foreign affairs select committee in fourth paragraph.)

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UK moves some asylum seekers to a barge on southern coast First asylum seekers to be housed on Bibby Stockholm barge

By Toby Melville

PORTLAND, England (Reuters) -Britain began moving some migrants on to a large residential barge on its southern coast on Monday, as part of plans to save money and remove what the government called the "pull" of hotels for those arriving in small boats.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made cracking down on illegal migration a major priority ahead of a national election expected next year, pitching his Conservatives as being tougher on the issue than the opposition Labour Party, which enjoys a strong lead in opinion polls.

Seeking to deter people from arriving in Britain, it is moving migrants on to disused military sites and barges like the grey, three-story Bibby Stockholm in Portland which can house around 500 people in more than 200 bedrooms.

It is also trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, although that plan has been bogged down in the courts and still hinges on a ruling by the Supreme Court on its legality.

Fifteen migrants have boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge, Cheryl Avery, Director for Asylum Accommodation at the Home Office, told reporters, adding that more asylum seekers were to be brought on over the coming weeks.

"There have been some challenges, some minor legal challenges ... Accommodation is offered to all individuals on a no choice basis so we are looking at how we manage that going forward," she said, without giving further details.

More than 50,000 asylum seekers are living in hotels after they made the final part of their journey in small dinghies across the Channel from France. The government says that hotels are costing more than 6 million pounds ($7.6 million) a day.

"We are stopping the use of hotels to house illegal migrants at the taxpayers expense," Sunak's No. 10 office said on messaging platform X.

"Instead, were providing alternative sites that are more manageable for communities, providing the essential needs of those accommodated and minimising the impact on local services."

Home Office minister Sarah Dines told Sky News that the barge sends a message that Britain will give "proper accommodation but not luxurious". Migrants are expected to be housed on the barge for three to nine months while they go through the asylum process, Avery said.

The policy has divided local communities, with some describing the housing for people arriving from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan or Albania as inhumane.

Others have been angered by the impact on local services and have questioned whether the sites will become targets for protests.

Local authorities said on Monday they were investigating letters sent to some people and businesses in the area around Portland Port, suggesting they could be targeted if they offered support to asylum seekers on the barge.

"The welfare of asylum seekers in our care is of the utmost importance," a spokesperson for the Home Office, or interior ministry, said.

"(We) continue to work closely with the local police and our partners on-the-ground to ensure the safety of any individuals housed on the site and the wider community."

Government figures show that nearly 46,000 asylum seekers made the dangerous crossing from France to the southern coast of England on small boats last year. The number so far this year stands at nearly 15,000.

The government has said the Bibby Stockholm will only house single men, providing "basic and functional" accommodation, along with the provision of healthcare, catering facilities and onboard security.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Suban Abdulla, additional reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Kate Holton, Nick Macfie and Mark Potter)
(Bloomberg) -- The UK will begin housing asylum seekers on a barge in southern England this week as Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks Conservative government steps up its focus on immigration in order to highlight dividing lines with the opposition Labour Party.

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People will be moved onto the vessel moored in Portland, Dorset imminently, with quite possibly 500 living there by the end of the week, Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told BBC radio on Monday. The government is also increasing fines for businesses or landlords who employ or accommodate people who dont have permission to live and work in the UK.p

Were determined to make sure there isnt that pull factor, Dines told Sky News on Monday, referring to the plan to use the Bibby Stockholm barge as an alternative to housing asylum seekers in hotels. What it sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation, but not luxurious accommodation.

Sunak is trying to bear down on cross-channel immigration by asylum seekers thats soared in recent years, with more than 15,000 arriving by small boat so far this year. One of the five key promises hes told voters to judge him by is to stop the boats, and the government has pursued a series of divisive measures including a new law placing a legal duty on the government to detain and remove those arrivals, alongside plans to deport them to Rwanda.

After the Court of Appeal ruled the Rwanda plan unlawful in late June, a decision the government is seeking to overturn in the Supreme Court, ministers are also looking for other solutions. The Times and Mail newspapers reported that the government is re-considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island to have their claims processed, a policy that was previously considered by former home secretary Priti Patel in 2020 but dropped on logistical grounds. The isolated territory lies 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away in the Atlantic Ocean, has only a small hospital and a population of fewer than 1,000.

Dines refused to deny the Ascension plan is being looked at again, saying only that lots of other alternatives are always discussed. In a sign that the government views immigration as a wedge issue to peel of Labour voters, Dines in her BBC radio interview repeatedly mentioned the opposition, saying it had no plan to deal with cross-channel boat crossings. Labours shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, however, at the weekend ripped into the Tory record and said Labour would fast-track asylum decision, crack down on people-smuggling gangs and tackle humanitarian crises at source.

The Tories trail Labour by around 20 points in recent national polls, and Sunak is seeking to emphasize policy differences that he thinks will regain the electoral edge for the Tories. As well as pushing immigration policy, in recent weeks, hes also softened positions on green policies in a rightward tack designed to generate momentum.

Read More: Sunak Gambles With Lurch to Right as UK Moderates Flee to Labour

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The UK has slapped so many sanctions on Russian oligarchs, authorities are struggling to keep up with their applications to pay at supermarkets, florists, and yoga studios. Aaron Chown/PA Images/Getty Images

UK's sanctions enforcement authority is swamped with license applications from Russian individuals, per the Guardian.

The sanctioned individuals need to get permission to access funds even for their daily needs.

UK received 1,000 applications related to Russian sanctions since the Ukraine war started  up 100 times on-year.

The UK authority responsible for enforcing sanctions is swamped with paperwork related to the restrictions on Russian oligarchs, The Guardian reported Saturday.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the UK  alongside allies like the US and Europe  has enforced sweeping sanctions against Russian oligarchs, individuals, and entities with alleged links to the Kremlin to punish them and restrict them from funding the war.

The UK has frozen $18.4 billion British pounds, or $23.4 billion, worth of assets under the Russian sanctions regime as of October 2022  up 400 times from the 44.5 million pounds in 2021.

Owners of these assets are unable to access them but can apply for licenses to make payments such as for living expenses like food, rent, and utilities, per The Guardian. The individuals can then submit licenses to their banks to release the funds for the intended purposes.

The restrictions are so extensive that sanctioned Russian individuals in the UK have to apply for permissions to do everything from paying for their weekly grocery runs to their lawyers  which, in turn, has driven up the number of license applications for payments by nearly 100 times, per The Guardian.

In the year leading up to the Ukraine war, the UK Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, or OFSI, received 11 license applications related to sanctions against Russia and approved nine. Since the war started, the OFSI has received over 1,000 license requests and approved 82, per The Guardian.

"Every time my client went to Waitrose to buy food for the kids, I had to write to OFSI notifying them he'd breached sanctions and committed a criminal offense," an unnamed sanctions lawyer told the media outlet. "If you were to comply with the law, you'd starve to death. The system is broken: they just cannot cope."

To cope with the increased workload, the OFSI has already increased its staff strength from 45 at the start of 2022 before the war to more than 120 now, a UK Treasury spokesperson told Insider.

After all, sanctioned individuals appear to be willy-nilly applying for licenses for every spend.

"I've always advised my clients that, frankly, you shouldn't be applying for the florist or the yoga teacher," a second unnamed lawyer representing several sanctioned individuals told The Guardian.

But, it's not just everyday affairs that are getting cleared by the OFSI. There are also criticisms that the authority is being too permissive while approving licenses  including allowing large payments for legal fees  according to the news outlet.

A UK government spokesperson told Insider these licenses are "strictly monitored, with a breach resulting in financial penalties or criminal prosecution." The spokesperson added the applications are "closely scrutinized and frequently rejected."

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Migrants standing in a queue waiting to be processed in Kent.

Asylum seekers have been taken off the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset after Legionella bacteria was discovered on board.

The accommodation is part of the government's plan to deal with the large numbers of people arriving in the UK on small boats.

What has the government said about migrant accommodation?

In April 2023, the government announced that a barge called the Bibby Stockholm would host up to 500 adult male asylum seekers off the coast of Portland, Dorset.

The barge received its first 39 occupants in early August after delays due to fire safety concerns.

On 11 August, they were all removed after Legionella bacteria was found in the water system. The bacteria can cause Legionnaires disease, a type of pneumonia.

Earlier, in March 2023, the government said that three ex-military sites in Essex, Lincolnshire and East Sussex would house several thousand migrants:

Wethersfield in Essex is due to hold up to 1,700 people

Scampton in Lincolnshire is due to hold up to 2,000 people

Bexhill in East Sussex is due to hold up to 1,200 people

Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire is also due to open soon, but the government has not yet said how many people could be housed there.

Forty six asylum seekers have arrived at the Wethersfield site. An unspecified number of residents subsequently tested positive for tuberculosis (TB).

The first asylum seekers were expected to arrive at Scampton in mid-August, but this has been delayed until October 2023.

West Lindsey District Council and Braintree District Council have been given permission to bring a judicial review contesting the use of Scampton and Wethersfield.

The Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge.

The Home Office is also reported to be considering using tents to accommodate asylum seekers.

At the end of March 2023 there were more than 47,000 asylum seekers living in hotels across the UK, and the government hopes its alternative accommodation plans will save money.

A Home Office official told a committee of MPs that the department was also paying to keep nearly 5,000 hotel beds empty to prevent overcrowding at detention centres.

What is the government's plan to tackle migrants?

Under the Illegal Migration Bill, which passed in July 2023:

the home secretary has a duty to detain and remove those arriving in the UK illegally either to Rwanda, or another "safe" third country

migrants will not be granted bail or able to seek judicial review for the first 28 days of detention

under-18s, those medically unfit to fly or at risk of serious harm in the country to which they are being removed, will be able to delay departure

the number of refugees the UK settles through "safe and legal routes" is capped.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says the legislation "fails to tackle the criminal smuggler gangs, and makes it easier for traffickers".

She added that the lack of returns agreements with other countries "will just increase the asylum backlog with even more people in costly hotels".

The government has also signed a new agreement with France, under which the UK will pay 500m over three years to fund more patrol officers and a new detention centre.

Suella Braverman said the new bill was a response to the "waves of illegal migrants breaching our borders"

What are the "safe and legal" routes to claim asylum in the UK?

The Home Office insists there are a number of "safe and legal" routes to the UK.

However, some are restricted to people from specific countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, while other routes only accept limited numbers. Figures shown are for the year to March 2023:

UK Resettlement Scheme - prioritises those from regions in conflict (1,056 grants issued)

Community Sponsorship Scheme - for local community groups to provide accommodation and support for refugees (309 grants)

Refugee Family Reunion - for partners and children under 18 of those already granted protection in the UK (6,029 visas)

Mandate Resettlement Scheme - to resettle refugees who have a close family member in the UK who can offer a home. (Six resettled; about 430 refugees accepted since 2004)

In April 2023, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick was asked in Parliament which safe and legal routes were available to a young person wanting to flee the conflict in Sudan.

He said individuals should contact the UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR. But it insisted "there is no mechanism through which refugees can approach UNHCR with the intention of seeking asylum in the UK".

What does international law say about refugees?

Critics of the government's asylum proposals, such as the Refugee Council, say they risk breaking international law.

The main principle of the 1951 Refugee Convention states that refugees should not be returned to countries where they faced threats to life or freedom.

Suella Braverman (centre) pictured on a visit to Rwanda in March 2023

The government insists its plan to send migrants to Rwanda for their asylum cases to be heard complies with international law.

But the Court of Appeal ruled in June 2023 that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful and risks breaching Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The government is taking the case to the Supreme Court.

Clarification 2 December: This article has been amended to make clear that the government's "safe and legal" routes are only available to certain groups of people who have already been recognised as refugees, or family members of refugees already in the UK.
Two US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons US Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Matthew Lotz

Ukraine has long sought F-16s, believing the Western fighter jets would be a boon to their arsenal.

Experts told Insider there are pros and cons to the Soviet-made MiG-29s and Su-27s Ukraine is flying now.

F-16s aren't wonder weapons but they have advantages that could make them valuable.

Ukraine wants desperately to add American-made F-16s to their arsenal of Soviet-made fighter jets, asserting that the Western fighter jets will be critical assets, even if they won't necessarily be silver bullets.

F-16s "would be a massive improvement on what the Ukrainian fighter pilots are flying today," Justin Bronk, a professor at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy and senior research fellow for airpower and technology in the military sciences team at Royal United Services Institute, told Insider, adding that the US-made fourth-generation jets would come with a huge global supply chain and upgradeable features that Kyiv's current jets don't have.

With recent movement on the matter from the US and its NATO allies, it's possible that Ukrainian pilots could start training on the jets in August and that F-16s could be on the ground in Ukraine by the end of the year, potentially helping challenge Russia's extensive air defense systems and providing support for ground operations.

Although there's no definitive timeline for when Ukraine might get the F-16s it has been asking for, their expected eventual delivery and employment in battle would likely be a boon for the Ukrainian air force.

Ukraine's current air force faces immense challenges

Ground staff directs a Mig-29 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force after a flight during a training session at a military airbase in Vasylkiv village, some 30km from Kyiv, Ukraine on November 23, 2016. Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Ukraine is currently flying Soviet-made MiG-29 and Su-27 multirole fighters against a larger and technologically superior Russian air force.

The aircraft are underdogs compared to Russian fighter aircraft like the MiG-31s and Su-25s, which feature advanced radars that allow them to see and locate targets further away, among other higher-end capabilities. The MiG-31 in particular can track and engage multiple targets at once, and its fuel usage is more economical than the MiG-25 from which it evolved.

And Kyiv is also facing maintenance issues with its fighters.

"Going forward, maintaining them is going to get harder because they don't have access to factory parts manufactured in Russia," Brynn Tannehill, a defense expert and former US Navy pilot, told Insider, adding that Ukraine will increasingly have to either machine their own parts or get them from NATO allies with Soviet-era equipment.

That's not to say Ukraine's current aircraft don't also have their benefits. For one, Kyiv has experience operating these aircraft, but beyond that, a "MiG-29 is actually significantly better at doing improvised field operations" than a jet like the F-16, she said, noting the rugged landing gear and protective air intake on the Soviet aircraft.

Ukraine's been operating much of its air force from "remote locations, places that the Russians wouldn't expect," Tannehill added. F-16s would have trouble with that. "The F-16 were intended to operate off debris-free, very crystal smooth concrete runways. They were not designed to be on improvised fields or rough fields," she said.

But those advantages don't make up for the weaknesses the aircraft have in the face of Russian fighters and, importantly, Russian ground-based air defenses.

One of the biggest challenges for the Ukrainian air forces has been Russia's formidable air defenses, which have kept much of Kyiv's air force far from the front lines. The S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, for example, give Moscow capabilities to eliminate a variety of targets out to a range of up to almost 300 miles. On the other hand, the Ukrainian forces, armed with their own air defenses and Western systems, like US-made Patriots, have also been able to hamper Russian air operations, but greater combat capability is desired.

Ukraine has wanted F-16s since the early days of Russia's invasion

A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Taylor Crul

Ukraine has long argued that F-16s with better radars, weapons capabilities, speed, and range will help it combat Russian threats and that they'd also be useful for Kyiv's air force in the long-term, potentially deterring Russia from engaging it in a future conflict.

Back in May, US President Joe Biden announced support for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, signaling plans for NATO to assist in the preparation and provision of fighter jets to Kyiv. US approval was initially a major roadblock, as concerns over Russian escalation have led the White House and Pentagon to at times hesitate on sending a variety of big-ticket items, such as the Abrams tank, to Ukraine.

It's not clear if F-16s, which have their limitations against some of Russia's more modern aircraft and defenses, would kelp Kyiv's forces achieve "air superiority," and much of their usefulness would come down to what weapons are supplied. But the Western jets have the potential to give Ukraine better control over its airspace than its current fleet of MiG-29s and Su-27s as F-16s could quickly cover ground to help troops push the current battle lines while also providing support and firepower for offensive movement.

F-16s are also more compatible with NATO system and weapons upgrades, Tannehill said. "Depending on what's supplied to Ukraine, it would allow the effective employment of a larger variety of NATO weapons systems."

For instance, as Bronk explained to Insider, "an F-16 would potentially be more capable with the AGM-88 high speed anti-radiation missile than the MiG-29 and Su-27, which have been adapted to carry them for the Ukrainian Air Force at the moment." The F-16 would allow Ukrainian pilots to better and more easily detect and destroy enemy radars with the AGM-88 HARM, whereas current Soviet fighters had to be irregularly modified to even carry it.

In addition to the AGM-88 missiles, other US weapons like the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) or Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), both of which can be carried by certain F-16 models could potentially deal damage to Russian air assets and ground forces.

F-16s will help, but they're not a silver bullet

F-16 US Air Force

But while there are advantages to the F-16, there are plenty of challenges to operating the jets. The logistical tail of the jets will be difficult, requiring a complete overhaul of where Ukraine gets parts from and how it conducts servicing and repairs. Pilots will need be trained on an entirely new system, something a US official told Reuters could take as little as four months with an experienced Ukrainian pilot but could potentially take significantly longer to fully master tactics and uses. It'll be expensive to operate F-16s, too.

"The flip side to this is that they're very expensive to operate relative to the Soviet-era aircraft Ukraine is used to" and "they would require, like any Western aircraft, a very different approach to maintenance servicing and general operations," Bronk said.

The jets will Westernize Ukraine's way of war, but it will likely require a long-term relationship between Kyiv and NATO allies afterwards. That relationship could involve combat exercises, training pilots, and upgrading the jets and systems.

"There will no doubt be a need for an ongoing support arrangement with European and US partners to allow Ukraine to afford to operate an F-16 fleet even once the fighting is done," Bronk said.

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Ukraine has expended huge amounts of ammunition while fighting the Russians on the battlefield.

The high rate of fire has strained US stockpiles of 155 mm artillery shells that it's sent to Kyiv.

But the Army has a plan to boost munitions production from 24,000 to over 80,000 a month.

Ukrainian forces are burning through a critical artillery shell in their fight against Russian troops, straining the stockpiles of Kyiv's Western military backers  including the US and its NATO allies.

To ease this burden, Washington is ramping up production of conventional 155 millimeter munitions and plans to make hundreds of thousands more of them each year as part of a multi-pronged effort to modernize and boost its defense industrial base, a top US Army official said this week.

A prominent aspect of Russia's 17-month-long war in Ukraine has been the intense and bloody artillery duel between the two sides, and Kyiv's troops have been expending ammunition at a very high rate, both on defense and during their ongoing counteroffensive. This relentless exchange of firepower, however, is draining Ukraine's inventory and has its allies concerned for their own arsenals.

The Biden administration has even been forced to explore alternative and temporary solutions to ensure that Ukraine has sufficient ammunition to conduct offensive operations and also protect its own supply of ammunition, like the decision to provide Kyiv with deadly  and controversial  cluster munitions last month. White House and Pentagon officials said at the time that outfitting the Ukrainian military with this kind of weaponry will help alleviate the stress caused by its dwindling stockpiles.

But there's a more long-term effort to replenish munitions in the works  not just for Ukraine, but also for the US and its allies.

Ukrainian servicemen prepare to fire at Russian positions from a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, July 14, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File

Right now, the US is manufacturing up to 24,000 155 mm shells a month, already a higher figure than before the war, and soon looks to increase that figure to 28,000 a month, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Douglas Bush told reporters on Monday. The goal is to then expand to over 80,000 shells a month over the course of the next year. That would be a huge jump from current levels of production, but the military expects to meet this target.

"That ramp up is really about to kick in, and we look forward to working with industry as we make that happen," Bush said. "We made multiple investments there in multiple facilities, so we're working with a variety of industry partners on that."

Beefing up inventory is not without its challenges, though. The US is having to establish new manufacturing lines to build the actual shells, invest in the capacity to pack the shells with explosives so they're functional, and bring in additional production  at home or overseas  for the charges that go behind the shell and propel them from heavy artillery pieces like howitzers.

"All of those things do have to come together, so there are always risks in that," Bush said, adding that the US is getting the resources and contracts and working closely with industry partners to knock down any roadblocks.

In any conflict, critical resources like artillery ammunition may be in high demand, Bush said.

He noted that while it's important to ramp up production of 155 mm rounds primarily to support Ukraine and replenish domestic stockpiles, the US is also expecting increased demands from allied countries who want a piece of the pie  which the Army expects will eventually be over one million shells a year  to ensure they are able to adequately defend themselves.

A gun crewmember loads the M777 howitzer to aim artillery fire onto Russian positions near the occupied Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on July 13, 2023 in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Photo by Roman Chop/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

"Between supporting Ukraine, replenishing ourselves, and supporting other countries  allies, we expect to use that capacity," he said. "That's the overall reason we're doing it."

The US has already committed over $43 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion last year, according to Pentagon data. That includes more than 2 million 155 mm artillery rounds and nearly 200 howitzers that can be used to fire these munitions.

American officials have said that Ukrainian soldiers are firing thousands of artillery rounds a day on the battlefield, and complaints from the Russian side indicate that they have been able to inflict serious damage on some front-line Russian positions.

Kyiv's troops have been complementing this capability with other high-profile weapons from the US  like air-defense systems, rocket artillery, anti-tank missiles, cruise missiles, drones, and armored vehicles  to hinder Russian operations, push Moscow's forces back, and even make territorial gains in the eastern and southern occupied regions.

A Ukrainian serviceman of the 57th Kost Hordiienko Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade fires a 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a position near the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, Ukraine July 5, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

"Our equipment is working. Wars are complicated endeavors  they rise and fall based on many factors," Bush said. "American equipment that's getting to Ukraine is highly effective in combat, and that doesn't just happen. That's a result of decades of work by thousands of people to make sure our equipment's tested well and also that our industry partners produce it critically at a high level of quality."

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Ukrainian servicemen help a comrade during an evacuation of injured soldiers in a region near the retaken village of Shchurove, Ukraine, in September 2022. AP Photo/Leo Correa

Ukraine is using cargo drones to carry injured soldiers from the battlefield, The Economist reported.

The drones can carry 397-pound weights for up to 43 miles, the report said.

Ukraine is the first country in the world to do this, according to The Economist.

Ukraine is using cargo drones to evacuate soldiers wounded fighting against Russian forces, The Economist reported, in what is likely a first on any battlefield.

Ukraine has deployed large drones that are able to carry 397-pound weights for up to 43 miles, the report said. It is the first country in the world to do so, The Economist reported.

It is not clear how many times Ukraine has used drones to transport injured troops, or in what parts of the country it has done so.

Casualty figures have been steadily increasing during the conflict.

A purported US Defence Intelligence Agency document estimated in April that Ukraine had up to 113,500 wounded soldiers, compared to up to 180,000 wounded Russians, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Reuters reported.

However, there are no verified figures for how many Ukrainian or Russian soldiers have been injured or killed fighting, with neither country giving detailed figures on their own troops.

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers have been treated by front-line medics, in Western Ukraine far from the front lines, and in other European countries, after being transported by train.

Meanwhile, UK intelligence said in July that up to 50% of Russian combat fatalities in Ukraine were preventable, and happened due to poor medical provisions.

Captured Russian soldiers have also described being left to die.

Ukraine's use of drones to transport injured soldiers is one example of how Ukraine is learning lessons about using new technologies, in ways that could ultimately benefit other armies, the report noted.

Ukraine has also had to look to improvised weapons in its fight against Russia, and the war is being used to test some advanced weaponry on a large scale for the first time.

Ukraine's defense minister and industry experts told the Financial Times last month that they're getting valuable insight for NATO countries by using some advanced weapons on the battlefield.

The US has also offered to help Ukraine build a "trauma registry," a database of how soldiers are injured, treated, and their fate, which would be useful information for Ukraine, its allies, and wider medicine, The Economist reported, with something similar done in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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While all eyes are on the land war in Ukraine, the greater strategic prize for Kyiv could well be found in the war at sea  something quite remarkable for a country without a conventional navy. In two days, two major Russian ships have been hit by maritime attack drones, both operating in the vicinity of Novorossiysk, Russias main Black Sea oil port which exports 600,000 barrels a day.

They illustrate both Russias vulnerability at sea and the potential opportunity to inflict severe economic damage on Moscow. This was particularly true of the attack on the oil tanker Sig, thought to have been sailing to Feodosia on the Crimean coast to load a cargo of jet fuel. Damaging or even sinking vessels like the Sig and the Olenegorsky Gornyak will have an impact on Russian military logistics, but the consequences go well beyond that.

Just hours before the Sig was hit, the Ukrainian State Hydrographic Office issued a warning that the whole of Russias Black Sea coast, from Taman to Sochi, was now a war risk zone to all ships. That followed a declaration from Ukraines ministry of defence in July that all vessels heading to Russian controlled ports on the Black Sea may be treated as carrying military cargo.

Perhaps that was considered rhetorical payback for Moscows threats against shipping headed to Ukrainian seaports. But backed up by the two drone strikes in a few days  with perhaps more to follow  the latest warning could be enough to deter many civilian cargo vessels from plying to any port in the designated area, inflicting a severe shock on Russias economy.

To understand the extent of this threat to Moscow, just follow the oil exports. They have become the lifeblood of Russian government revenues. The oil trade  mainly to China and India  generates the foreign currency needed to keep the rouble in equilibrium. And for all the talk of Russian pipelines, Putin is still reliant on Black Sea ports to ship a vast amount of oil abroad. Any sudden reduction of this capacity cannot be compensated by new pipelines, which take years or decades to build.

Moscow predictably branded the Black Sea drone attacks as terrorism. That would be an accurate description of its own threats against Ukraines grain exports and recently intensified attacks against grain infrastructure, intended as they are not to cripple Kyivs economy but to pressure the West by starving the world.

But targeting Russias war economy is a legitimate act of self defence, so long as Ukraine adheres to the laws of war in its maritime campaign. Kyiv ought to go further, by stepping up the strikes and turning the targeting of Russian oil into a major new front in the war.

Yet, as often happens, Ukraine may soon be hampered by concerns from Washington DC. The Biden administration took the lead in sanctions that kept Russia in the oil business, designed to minimise Moscows revenues while avoiding further energy price rises. Now the White House will be terrified by the prospect of a gas price hike in the run up to a presidential election.

In figuring out his various strategic conundrums, President Zelensky will have to balance what would be a natural desire to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy with the need to hold together the support of his allies. But this is for sure: he has correctly identified Putins weakest spot.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inscribes a French SCALP-EG missile with the words "Glory to Ukraine" in Ukrainian during a visit to an air base on August 6, 2023. Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

Ukraine shared images of French-supplied SCALP-EG missiles the day it struck two Crimean bridges.

Ukrainian and Russian officials reported the strikes as having damaged the bridges and a gas pipeline.

The SCALP-EG, France's version of the Storm Shadow, is a powerful air-launched cruise missile.

Ukraine struck two bridges in the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, with at least one hit by Storm Shadow missiles, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.

That same day, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense released images confirming the arrival of SCALP-EG missiles  the French version of the Storm Shadow.

Their arrival relieves some pressure on Ukraine's military, which has only a limited supply of the powerful but expensive missiles.

France announced in early July that it would supply an undisclosed number of the air-launched missile to Ukraine.

The move angered chief Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who warned of unspecified "consequences," as Le Monde reported.

Ukraine announced it had damaged two Crimean bridges with a Storm Shadow missile on August 7, 2023 Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

The SCALP-EG missile is France's version of the Storm Shadow, which the UK started to give to Ukraine earlier this year.

Experts have described the Storm Shadow as "absolutely critical" to Ukraine's counteroffensive. Its high precision, evasive technology, and far reach means it can strike Russian targets far behind the front lines.

In images released on Ukraine's Air Forces Day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen writing "Glory to Ukraine" on a French-supplied missile attached to a SU-24 bomber.

The missile also bears an image of the Ukrainian coat of arms, overlaid with the Eiffel Tower.

Ukraine claimed responsibility for the bridge strikes using the missile in a tweet on Sunday, making a sarcastic nod to Russia's recent efforts to wipe out a key Ukrainian airfield and with it the country's ability to launch the Storm Shadow.

In the tweet, Ukraine said that Russians had only "found" the missiles when the Crimean bridges were struck by them.

Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 6, 2023

Volodymyr Saldo, the region's Russian-installed leader, said that a checkpoint on the Chonhar bridge  which connects the peninsula to the Russian-occupied Kherson region  had been suspended, according to Russian state-controlled news agency TASS. He claimed the bridge has no military significance, the outlet reported.

The strike on the second bridge, around 15 miles away at Henichesk, set a nearby gas pipeline ablaze, leaving local residents without a gas supply, Saldo added.

Ukraine announced it had damaged two Crimean bridges with a Storm Shadow missile on August 7, 2023 Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's interior ministry, shared images purporting to show the damaged bridges:

Storm Shadow missiles have been credited with far-reaching strikes since they began to be used by Ukraine earlier this year.

A colonel in Kyiv's air defense command, who was not named, recently told The Times of London that the missiles in Ukraine's possession have twice their publicized range  about 310 miles, rather than the 155 miles advertised by its manufacturer.

In July, the UK's Ministry of Defence declined to specify whether the missiles sent to Ukraine had been modified in any way.

Last month, Russia claimed to have shot down one of the missiles and was studying the recovered parts to better understand the technology and how to combat it.

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The Ukrainian army stuck two bridges connecting Crimea with the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast, forcing Russian forces to detour to much longer western route and creating the condition for a breakthrough in the Russian defense, the UK's Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its Aug. 6 update.

The campaign is beginning to resemble the one that led to the liberation of western Kherson Oblast in fall 2022, a Wagner-affiliated military blogger says. At that time, Ukrainian Forces methodically targeted Russian logistics, causing the breakdown of Russian defense in a matter of days.

It is likely that the Ukrainian strikes on eastern crossing points will likely disturb personnel, ammunition, and equipment transition from occupied Crimea to the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast "for some, undetermined, time." These are Russia's key logistic routes for its defense campaign in southern Ukraine, the ISW believes.

"Ukrainian forces appear to also be expanding their efforts to target Russiannaval targets involved in Russian logistics in the Black Sea," ISW wrote.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces has continued their offensive campaign in at least two frontline areas on Aug. 6, as the General Staff reported after attacks in the Berdyansk and Melitopol areas.

Road bridges at Chonhar andHenichensk were struck by Ukrainian forces on Aug. 6.

Two Ukrainian sea drones attacked the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight on Aug. 4. Later, video and pictures of a large Russian amphibious assault ship appeared showing the ship listing heavily to port, which likely indicates the flooding of several compartments.

Explosions were also heard near the illegally built Crimea Bridge. A sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the SIG, was damaged. It had been supplying fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine.

Ukraines Security Service (SBU) confirmed the use of sea drones against Russia's fleet.

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Negotiations in the Saudi city of Jeddah regarding the Ukrainian peace formula have helped to "consolidate the international consensus," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday, August 7, according to Reuters.

The agency said that China's special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, actively communicated with all parties regarding the "political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," in the terminology used by the Chinese communist party to describe the full-scale war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine.

Read also: Promise for peace? Saudi-hosted summit on conditions to end war good and constructive, says USA

"All parties responded positively to Li Hui's participation in the talks and fully supported China's positive role in promoting peace talks. He listened to the opinions and proposals of all parties and continued to [help] strengthen the international consensus," the ministry stated.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry promised that Beijing would continue to "strengthen dialogue on the basis of its 12-point peace plan and accumulate mutual trust."

Earlier, the FT reported that Ukraine's allies described China's participation in the Saudi Arabian summit as "constructive, and was positive about the idea of holding a third meeting at this level."

The peace summit in Saudia Arabia - What is known

Read also: Presidential adviser Yermak reveals details of agreement struck at peace formula summit in Saudi Arabia

Two days of negotiations on the Ukrainian peace formula took place in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 5-6.

Ukraine and its Western backers pitched the talks as an effort to rally global support behind appropriate conditions for ending the war, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 6.

After the talks in Jeddah concluded, diplomats said there was broad acceptance that central principles of international law, like respect for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, should be at the heart of future peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

In Jeddah, Ukraine and the major developing countries appeared determined to find a consensus. A senior European official said that Ukraine didnt push again for its peace plan to be accepted and other countries werent insisting that Kyiv drop it. Nor was there any disagreement over Ukraines demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Ukraine peace summit to be held in September at UN General Assembly or G20 Summit in India  Politico

There was agreement on pursuing more detailed work on the global impact of the war, and most countries attending, including China, appeared willing to meet again in the coming weeks in the current format, with Russia excluded, according to people involved in or briefed on the closed-door talks.

The biggest difference between the Copenhagen and Jeddah meetings was attendance  more than twice as many countries attended or dialed into talks on Aug. 5. That included European countries, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, and South Africa.

Read also: Principles of peace agreement agreed at summit in Saudi Arabia, media report

While no date has been set for a third meeting, there was agreement on a two-track process to move forward. Ukraine will continue discussions with foreign ambassadors in Kyiv on peace conditions.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia plans to propose a set of working groups for specific issues raised in the Ukrainian peace plan, some of which touch on the global impact of the war.

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A top Ukrainian official called a summit held in Saudi Arabia over the weekend very productive as dozens of countries gathered to discuss Kyivs proposals to end Russias war of aggression, including some that have so far held back from pressuring Moscow to retreat.

It was the second such summit to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys peace formula, which lays out 10 principles such as Russias withdrawal from all of Ukraines territory, delivering justice for war crimes and guaranteeing the countrys security.

We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and durable peace should be built, Andriy Yermak, who serves as Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and who led his countrys delegation to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, wrote in a post on Telegram on Monday.

Russia was not invited to participate in the summit, which included about 40 countries.

Yermak said the number of countries participating was three times more than participated in an earlier summit in June in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Saudi summit included representatives from some of Ukraines most staunch supporters, including the U.S., but also included countries that have sought to preserve relations with Moscow despite its nearly 18-month war  including China, India, South Africa and Brazil.

We had an extremely honest, open conversation, during which representatives of each country could express their position and vision, Yermak wrote in his post.

There were different views, but all those present testified to the commitment of their countries to the principles of the U.N. Charter, international law and respect for the sovereignty and inviolability of the territorial integrity of states. And it is on these principles that President Zelenskyis Peace Formula, which we talked about in detail, is built on.

Chinas special envoy Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, attended the summit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement to Reuters that Li had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis listened to all sides opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus.

All parties positively commented on Li Huis attendance, and fully backed Chinas positive role in facilitating peace talks, the statement said, adding that Beijing is looking to strengthen dialogue surrounding its own 12-point peace plan.

Ukrainian officials have said they would not accept an end to the war that resulted in Ukraine losing territory or putting the conflict on hold. Chinas proposals have been criticized as putting forward aspirational position statements instead of concrete solutions.

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Another 22 Ukrainian prisoners-of-war (POWs) were released from the Russian captivity on Aug. 7, the Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.

"These are the fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, two of them are officers," Yermak wrote.

"They fought at different parts of the frontline. There are injured people among those released."

The oldest among released POWs is 54, the youngest is 23.

Read also: Ex-Olenivka prison camp warden charged for torturing POWs by SBU

Each released POW defender will undergo physical and psychological rehabilitation and reintegration training, in addition to any necessary medical care.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraine said Monday it had detained an informant who was sharing intelligence with Russia as part of a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The woman "was preparing an enemy airstrike on Mykolaiv region" during Zelenskyy's recent visit, Ukraines security service, the SBU, said in a statement released online.

The SBU said the woman, who was not publicly identified, was collecting information, including the time and a list of locations Zelenskyy planned to attend in the southern region.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Clodah Kilcoyne / AFP - Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the SBU confirmed that Ukraine was saying Zelenskyy was the target of the attack.

The SBU said that it learned of the alleged plot in time and that "additional security measures were taken during the visit."

A woman, center, being detained by law enforcement after she was accused of plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Ukraine Security Service)

Zelenskyy regularly moves around the country, visiting front lines and liberated cities, under strict security. In the early days of the war, he was thought to be a primary target for Moscows forces and the subject of a number of foiled assassination attempts.

The SBUs statement said it continued to document the womans actions to learn more about her alleged Russian handlers and learned that she was also instructed to locate the Ukrainian armys strategic assets near the town of Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region, which the SBU claimed the Russians were planning to use to launch a massive airstrike on the region.

The woman was apprehended "red-handed" as she was trying to pass intelligence to the Russians, the statement said.

She was identified only as a resident of Ochakiv and a former military shop saleswoman. She faces up to 12 years in prison if she is convicted.

NBC News has not independently verified the Ukrainian claims. There was no immediate public reaction from the Kremlin.

In May, Russia claimed Ukraine tried to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin, which Ukraine denied. Unlike Zelenskyy, Putin rarely makes public appearances near the front lines or even inside Russia.

Kyiv and Moscow have been striking deep behind each other's defensive lines in recent weeks, while Ukraine's counteroffensive has so far failed to produce a clear breakthrough on the battlefield.

Artem Grudinin reported from Kyiv, and Yuliya Talmazan reported from London.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are seen after a swap, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine

Ukraine says 22 soldiers return in latest prisoner swap with Russia Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are seen after a swap, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine

KYIV (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges on Monday, with 22 Ukrainian soldiers returning home, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said the released servicemen included two officers, sergeants and privates who fought in different parts of the front. Some of them were wounded.

A video posted on Telegram showed soldiers wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags posing for pictures and shouting "Glory to Ukraine".

"Today we have returned 22 Ukrainian fighters home from captivity," Yermak said, adding the oldest of them was 54 years old and the youngest 23.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Yermak gave no other details on the exchange.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners in the course of the war, now in its 18th month.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a street during a visit to the southern city of Mykolaiv in June 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

Ukraine's security service said it foiled a Russian attempt to assassinate President Zelenskyy.

It learned of the attack in advance and was able to keep Zelenskyy safe, it said.

It said by tracking a woman it learned she was trying to share information on Ukraine's arms locations.

Ukraine's security service said it foiled an effort to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with an airstrike, and that it detained a collaborator who tried to reveal his location.

The SBU said Monday that Russia planned to use information gathered by the alleged informant to launch a massive airstrike on the southern Mykolaiv region while Zelenskyy was visiting.

A spokeswoman for Ukraine's armed forces said the SBU was able to "foil the attack on the president during a recent trip to Mykolaiv," describing it as an "aborted assassination attempt."

The woman tried to figure out the timings and route for Zelenskyy's visit, but the SBU learned about her efforts in advance and put extra security in place during his trip, the SBU said.

"Zelenskyy is safe, the plot was foiled in advance," the spokeswoman said.

By tracking the woman they also found she was trying to locate where Ukraine's electronic warfare systems and ammunition warehouses were placed, the SBU said.

It published screenshots of text messages consistent with an exchange between an informant and handler but with few specifics.

The woman was arrested on Monday after Ukraine learned the extent of her "treason," the armed forces spokeswoman said.

She now faces up to 12 years in prison, the SBU said, identifying her as a resident of the city of Ochakov, in Mykolaiv, and a former saleswoman in a military store.

The armed forces spokeswoman said she was "turned collaborator by FSB agents and continued to work for them."

The FSB is Russia's main security and spy agency.

It's not clear when the attack on Zelenskyy was planned. He was last recorded visiting Mykolaiv at the end of July, though he also made trips there earlier in the war.

Other Russian attempts to assassinate Zelenskyy have been reported.

Zelenskyy survived at least three assassination attempts from Russia-backed agents in the first few weeks of the invasion, The Times reported.

Zelenskyy himself said he carried a pistol and would have fought to the death if Russian forces had got into his headquarters.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly visited the front lines since Russia launched its full-fledged invasion, with his office typically announcing his visits after he has already left, in order to reduce the risks on his life.

Ukrainian officials and lawmakers told Politico this month that Ukraine had a plan in place if Zelenskyy is killed.

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Ukraine detained a Russian informant working to gather information on President Volodymyr Zelenskys planned trip to Mykolaiv last week, part of an apparent assassination plot, the Secret Service of Ukraine announced Monday.

The informant, a Ukrainian woman, is in custody and being questioned.

Ukrainian officials said they apprehended the traitor red-handed when she was trying to pass intelligence to Russian officials.

They added they learned about the informants intentions in advance and took additional security measures ahead of Zelenskys trip to the Mykolaiv region.

Ukrainian officials said the informant was trying to establish an itinerary for Zelenskys trip. She then planned to give the information to Russian officials to prepare for a new massive air strike on the region, the Secret Service of Ukraine said in the statement.

According to the Ukrainian investigation, the informant drove into the target area, capturing photos and video footage of facilities. Ukrainian officials said she also tried to garner additional data through social relationships she had, hoping that her acquaintances would unwittingly provide certain information.

Ukrainian officials said the informant had been instructed to identify the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraines electronic warfare systems and ammunition depots.

The informant was not named by Ukrainian officials, but they said she was a resident of Ochakiv and a former salesperson in a military shop of one of the local military units.

In a Monday statement, Zelensky said officials were working on the struggle against traitors in Ukraine.

The Main Intelligence Directorate and the Foreign Intelligence Service provided the data received from Russia. We understand the enemys immediate plans. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Malyuk reported on the struggle against traitors in Ukraine, he said in a post on X, formerly called Twitter.

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Ukraine's intelligence agency, the Secret Service of Ukraine (SSU), said Monday that it had arrested a woman in connection with an alleged assassination plot against President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The woman in question "was preparing a Russian airstrike in the Mykolaiv region during the visit of the President of Ukraine," the SSU said.

"Primarily, the woman tried to establish time and list of locations of the Head of State's tentative itinerary in the region," a statement from the SSU said, referring to a planned visit by the president to the southern region.

The report from Kyiv's intelligence community came as Russian forces struck the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in the south, and border areas in the northeast Kharkiv region, with at least three people killed in the attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a prayer for peace in Ukraine on Freedom Square in Lviv, Ukraine, on July 8, 2023. / Credit: Stanislav Ivanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

"A difficult night for Kherson... The Russian army continued to set fire to the homes of Kherson residents in the central part of the city," Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on social media. One woman was killed in the attacks, Prokudin said.

Separately, Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy's chief of staff, said Moscow had shelled the village of Kucherivka, close to Ukraine's border with Russia in the Kharkiv region. That strike left two people dead, Yermak said.

The strikes were just the latest examples of Russia's daily aerial bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities. Both countries have ramped up attacks on each other's troops, infrastructure and military hardware in recent weeks as the deadliest war in Europe since World War II nears the 18-month mark.

On Sunday, the Reuters news agency, citing officials in both Kyiv and Moscow, reported that Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula  a large region that has been occupied by Russia since 2014  to the Ukrainian mainland.

Over the weekend, Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage across Ukraine, including an assault on a blood transfusion center that Zelenskyy called "a war crime." The strikes were seen as likely retaliation for a Ukrainian attack on a major Russian port in the Black Sea, which was struck by Ukrainian sea drones Friday, causing significant damage to a Russian warship.

Attacks on key strategic ports in the Black Sea have increased following Russia's withdrawal in July from an internationally brokered deal that had allowed Ukraine to export grain to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, senior officials from some 40 countries including Ukraine, the U.S and China, but notably not Russia, gathered in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for peace talks, with no concrete steps emerging from the summit.

The Ukrainian delegation described the talks as an attempt to secure broad international support for Kyiv's terms and conditions for peace, including the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

On Monday, China's foreign ministry said in a written statement to Reuters that the talks in Jeddah had helped "to consolidate international consensus."

Last week, Ukraine's Zelenskyy expressed hope that a Ukraine "peace summit" would be held later this year, and he said the talks in Saudi Arabia were a step toward that objective.

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The Ukrainian Armed Forces southern advance has been slowed down by the mining of territories by the Russian invaders, as well as their fortifications of the dominating heights, Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Malyar. told Ukrainian national television on Aug. 7.

The situation in the south was quite difficult all last week, she said.

Read also: No schedules or deadlines in Ukrainian advance, says Danilov

On the main offensive lines  Melitopol and Berdyansk  our forces faced continuous mining, which much has already been said about. You know that the enemy is mining positions even in three layers and not only positions, but also in all possible directions of movement. More than that, the enemy is strengthening and reinforcing key dominant heights for them.

The mines are fortified high positions take time to overcome, Malyar explained.

Read also: Fighting is in our favor, second stage of Ukrainian counter-offensive can begin, claims Melnyk

All this slows down moving forward, she said, adding that the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to advance.

Ukrainian counter-offensive: Latest

Ukrainian forces have breached the first line of Russian defenses in southern Ukraine in some areas of the front, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Aug. 4.

Read also: Pushing forward, Ukrainian Armed Forces report advances on Melitopol front

The newest thrust of Ukraines counteroffensive is toward Ukraines southeast, The New York Times reported on July 27. The counter-offensive operation is complicated with large areas of mined land and relentless enemy artillery fire.

Ukrainian defenders described the initial phase of the operation as chaos, reported the Financial Times, adding that Kyiv has changed tactics to avoid heavy losses.

Ukraines Armed Forces knocked Russian invaders from their positions south of Avdiyivka in Donetsk Oblast, a spokesperson for Ukraines General Staff, Pavlo Kovalchuck said on Aug. 2.

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Key developments on Aug. 7:

Russia bombards Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, killing 5, injuring 18

Russia claims drones downed in Belgorod, Kaluga Oblast

Ukraine brings back 22 POWs from Russian captivity

Defense Ministry: Russia increases attacks on eastern front, uses 500,000 munitions over past week

Germany ready to approve long-range missiles for Kyiv, Ukrainian MP says

Russian troops fired two missiles at residential buildings in Pokrovsk, a town in Donetsk Oblast, on the evening of Aug. 7.

As of 9:20 p.m., the death toll had reached five people, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported. Thirty-one people, including a child, were wounded as of 10 p.m., according to the minister.

The central part of the city was hit two times in less than an hour, Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.

Among those killed was the deputy head of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast, Klymekno said. He died in the second strike.

Five rescuers and 19 police officers are also among those wounded, according to Klymenko.

"Our heroes were the first ones to arrive at the scene of the attack to save people," he wrote on Telegram.

Kyrylenko reported that the attack also injured 14 civilians, including an 11-year-old child.

He also said the attack damaged apartment buildings, private residences, a hotel, restaurants, shops, and administrative buildings. The rescue operation is ongoing.

Following the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky published a video showing the aftermath.

"We must stop Russian terror. Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves people's lives," Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

"Everyone in the world who helps Ukraine will defeat terrorists together with us. Russia will be responsible for everything it has done in this terrible war," he said.

Read also: Uncertainty and despair: War taking heavy toll on mental health of Ukrainians

Russia claims drones downed in Belgorod, Kaluga Oblast

Russian authorities claimed drones were shot down approaching the city of Belgorod and in Kaluga Oblast on Aug. 7.

Vladislav Shapsha, the Governor of Russias western Kaluga Oblast, claimed that air defenses had shot down a drone over the region's Ferzikovo district at 2:30 a.m. local time.

He said there were "no consequences for people and infrastructure" and did not provide further details.

The town of Ferzikovo is located over 300 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Later in the day, the governor of Russia's Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that air defenses had downed a drone as it approached the city of Belgorod.

Gladkov also claimed that there were no casualties or damage without further details.

Belgorod is located less than 35 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Earlier on Aug. 6, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a drone that was heading to the Russian capital was shot down by air defenses at around 11 a.m. local time.

While Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the drone strikes in Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 30 that it is "natural and fair" that the war is "gradually returning to Russian territory."

"Ukraine is becoming stronger. The war is gradually returning to Russian territory  to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process," Zelensky said.

Read also: From Moscow to Novorossiysk: The list of attacks on Russian soil

22 POWs return to Ukraine from Russian captivity

Twenty-two Ukrainian prisoners of war were brought home from Russian captivity on Aug. 7.

Among them were two officers and wounded soldiers, reported Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff. He said the soldiers ranged in age from 23 to 54 years old.

"All those freed will undergo a course of physical and psychological rehabilitation and reintegration and will receive the necessary treatment with the support of medical specialists," Yermak wrote on Telegram.

Some of the Ukrainian soldiers brought back to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange on Aug. 7. (Photo: Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine / Telegram)

"Thanks to our boys, I returned from hell, from captivity," said one of the injured soldiers who returned, as seen in a video posted by Yermak.

Following the exchange, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported that 2,598 Ukrainians had been brought back over 48 prisoner exchanges held since the start of Russias full-scale invasion in February last year.

Read also: What its like to know your loved ones are in Russian captivity

Germany ready to approve long-range missiles for Kyiv, Ukrainian lawmaker says

According to Ukrainian MP Yehor Cherniev, the key factions in the German parliament have reached a consensus regarding the transfer of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

"My friends in the Bundestag have just informed me that the key parliamentary factions have reached a consensus on the transfer of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine," Cherniev, who is also the head of Ukraine's delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, wrote on Facebook on Aug. 7.

"For a long time, we have been working with German parliamentarians to form a support group, and finally, the ice broke," Chernievs post reads.

Germany has not confirmed his claim yet.

Cherniev is a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party and deputy chairman of the parliament's security, defense, and intelligence committee.

Taurus missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers, meaning that Ukraine could potentially use them to strike deep into Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea.

German media reported in May that Ukraine requested Germany to supply long-range cruise missiles.

However, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius earlier said on June 5 that Germany did not plan to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles.

Read also: Increased attacks on Crimea disrupt Russian logistics, attempt to derail its southern defenses

Defense Ministry: Russia increases attacks on eastern front, uses 500,000 munitions over past week

In the past week, the eastern front became the "epicenter of hostilities, with Russian troops using "almost 500,000 rounds of ammunition" for its attacks there, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Aug. 7.

Throughout the week, the east was the epicenter of hostilities. The number of enemy shelling increased significantly  about 9,000 per week, Maliar wrote on Telegram.

Amid the increased attacks, Ukrainian forces are not allowing Russian troops to advance in the directions of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast, as well as near Lyman, Avdiivka, and Mariinka in Donetsk Oblast, Maliar said, adding that heavy fighting is ongoing there.

According to Maliar, Ukraine also continued to conduct offensive operations on the southern flank of the Bakhmut direction, while advancing was complicated by Russian mines and shelling.

She also reported that Ukrainian forces continue the offensive toward Russian-occupied Melitopol and Berdiansk in southern Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, Maliar reported that Russian troops are attempting to regain positions around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast that they lost last autumn during Ukraines surprise counteroffensive.

Russia has been concentrating forces around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast since mid-July.

Read also: Ukraines counteroffensive lurches forward: Key moment looms as more forces committed

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After a meeting in Saudi Arabia this weekend, Ukraine plans to hold two summits on President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace formula, one of them involving Russia.

Source: Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a conversation with journalists in Kyiv on Monday 7 August, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "The first summit is a constituent one, at which the participants must approve Zelenskyys peace formula of 10 points... The second summit, the final one, will have to conclude the end of the war. "

Details: Yermak says several summits must be held in intervals, in several directions, as to the points outlined in the peace formula where ways of their implementation will be developed.

Yermak adds that the final summit will involve Russia.

The Presidents Office is expecting Russias surrender by that time, as well as participation of Kyiv's partners in negotiations with the Russian Federation, said Yermak's deputy Ihor Zhovkva.

Quote: "We have not discussed in Jeddah any timeline for possible negotiations with Russia. But at the end of the war it will be necessary to involve Russia."

Details: Yermak stressed that without the implementation of the preconditions on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the implementation of the plan is impossible.

"And we were supported in this... In particular, a representative of Germany clearly said: we cannot allow even the thought of a frozen conflict and that [Russian  ed.] troops will not be withdrawn," said the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Earlier: The Russian Foreign Ministry was outraged that Russia was not invited to the meeting in Jeddah: "Any meetings on the issue of the Ukrainian crisis are worthless without Russias participation and without taking [Russias] interests into account", it said in a comment.

Background:

Andrii Yermak recently spoke about the results of the meeting in Saudi Arabia regarding the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and noted that most of the participating states have decided how they will make their contributions. Yermak noted that there were almost three times more participating countries at the meeting in Jeddah than at the consultations in Copenhagen.

It was reported that in Jeddah, the participants reached an agreement that respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, as well as the supremacy of the UN Charter, should be at the heart of any peace agreement.

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The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has reported the detention of a Russian informant preparing a Russian air strike on Mykolaiv Oblast during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit.

Source: SSU on Telegram

Quote: "The Security Service detained an informant of the Russian secret services gathering intelligence on the eve of the recent working visit of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv Oblast.

First of all, the attacker tried to establish the time and range of locations of the head of state's tentative route in the oblast."

Details: The SSU said it took a proactive approach by learning about the Russian accomplice's intelligence and subversive activities in advance and taking additional security measures during Zelenskyy's visit.

Particularly, the security service found out that the collaborator was tasked with locating Ukrainian electronic warfare systems and ammunition storage points in the area of the city of Ochakiv in Mykolaiv Oblast.

The SSU officers detained the woman red-handed in her attempt to pass intelligence to the Russians.

The investigation revealed that the offender was a resident of Ochakiv, a former saleswoman in a military shop on the territory of one of the oblast's military units.





The woman was served with a notice of suspicion under Article 114-2.3 of the Criminal Code (unauthorised dissemination of information on the direction and movement of weapons, armaments and ammunition to Ukraine, and movement, relocation or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine).

The detainee was placed in custody as a measure of restraint. She faces up to 12 years in prison.

Background: On 27 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had visited Ochakiv.

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President Joe Biden has claimed that the U.S.'s support for Ukraine "will not waver" amid its conflict with Russia, but new reports about the slow pace of Kyiv's counteroffensive highlight the costs of the fighting.

The New York Times reported last week that newly Western-trained Ukrainian brigades have failed to achieve any "sweeping gains," due to Russian artillery fire. Similarly, CNN has highlighted Ukraine's difficulty in penetrating Russian defenses, with one Ukrainian official calling the density of Russian mines "insane." And Politico reported Tuesday that U.S. officials expect the counteroffensive to last "at least through the fall and possibly into the winter."

These reports follow a July 25 story in The Wall Street Journal claiming that the failure of Ukraine's counteroffensive to achieve its objectives has many Western officials fearing an "open-ended conflict"and pessimistic that conflict-ending negotiations will occur this year.

"We are not expecting that they will be able to recover all the territory that was lost to Russia, especially if you are considering Crimea and even the territory which was lost in 2014 with Donbas," one European official told the Journal.

"It's going on pretty much according to the way I thought it would," says Lyle Goldstein, a visiting professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. "It always seemed ridiculous that you could have armored elements advancing without air cover, never mind having a deficiency in artillery. And when you add the mines to it, it always struck me as a nearly impossible task."

Yet earlier Western expectations thought Ukrainian valor could overcome this reality. As the Journal reported earlier in July, "Western military officials knew Kyiv didn't have all the training or weaponsfrom shells to warplanesthat it needed to dislodge Russian forces. But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day."

"Pentagon and White House officials had low confidence of Ukrainian success, but allowed them (actually, outright facilitated their ability) to go on an offensive that was almost certain to fail," says Daniel L. Davis, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities. Ukrainian soldiers, he adds, "shouldn't have been sacrificed for a mission that was all but militarily unattainable."

For Ukraine's counteroffensive to succeed, the country's armed forces need time to wear down Russian defenses. "At this stage of active hostilities, Ukraine's Defense Forces are fulfilling the number one taskthe maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts, artillery and air defense forces of the Russian army," wrote Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, a month ago. "We are acting calmly, wisely, step by step."

But Ukraine's plans also require the U.S. and its allies to provide more military aid. "The only real response is an industrial mobilization that will give Ukrainians, and the Russians, a clear message that the Ukrainians will always have plenty of what they need," one Washington-based diplomat told The Wall Street Journal.

Such a policy underestimates the costs and dangers of supplying arms for the offensive, such as the threat of nuclear escalation. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stoked these fears on July 30 when he said that Russia would be forced to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine's offensive were to infiltrate Russian territory.

"I've been regularly documenting all kinds of nuclear threats that have traded back and forth," says Goldstein, "and I personally think that we've kind of underplayed those for political reasons."

There is another way the U.S. can help end the war. Instead of continuing to aid the counteroffensive, Washington could facilitate a negotiated end to the conflict by opening back-door diplomatic channels.

"The most prudent course of action now is to stop the offensive, use the rest of their striking force to begin digging in so that they guard against a Russian counterattack this summer," says Davis. "And then seek a ceasefire to end the killing of their men and destruction of their cities, and try to find a negotiated way out."

"The Ukrainians achieved a miraclethey saved the Ukrainian stateso they should pocket that victory and try to come to some kind of ceasefire," adds Goldstein. "I don't really see major political changes coming in either Moscow or Kyiv, so maybe a Korea-like settlement is the best we can hope for."

The post Ukraine's Sluggish Counteroffensive Raises Questions About U.S. Support appeared first on Reason.com.
The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service (SBGS) has reported no observed Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (SRGs) on the border with Belarus, although they are present on the borders with Russia in Ukraines Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts.

Source: Colonel Andrii Demchenko, Spokesman for the SBGS, during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "We see that the enemy is trying to use sabotage and reconnaissance groups, especially directly along its border with Ukraine. As for the border with Belarus, we do not observe any enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups in this area; unfortunately, the enemy is trying to use such groups along its border with Ukraine, especially in Sumy Oblast.

There were also attempts to use sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Chernihiv Oblast when they entered the territory of Ukraine  primarily, of course, to identify the positions of Ukraine's defence forces, but also to carry out various attacks, which, unfortunately, also target civilians.

This goes in addition to the daily Russian bombardments of Ukrainian territory in this area."

Details: Demchenko added that border patrols had reported about 500 attacks on Ukraine since the beginning of August, carried out by the Russians from their territory using a variety of weapons.

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Ukrainian forces are advancing slightly faster on the Bakhmut front than in the southern region, but overall, the counter-offensive continues unabated, Ukraines defense intelligence chief has said.

Chief of the Ukrainian Defense Ministrys Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) Kyrylo Budanov was speaking in an interview with Bulgarian television channel bTV on Aug. 5.

It's challenging, I won't hide it, but it's quite understandable given that Russia has constructed stationary, fully-equipped, concrete-fortified defensive strongholds during this time, Budanov said, commenting on the Ukrainian counter-offensive at the interviewers request

The most important thing is that the advance isn't stopping; it's ongoing. In my opinion, it's progressing slightly faster on the Bakhmut line than in the south, but time will show, Budanov said.

Read also: Ukraine can deploy 75% more forces for counteroffensive  retired officer

The Bulgarian interviewer also queried Budanov about how much territory the Ukrainian forces had recaptured in the 60-day advance, and whether they could hold it.

Unfortunately, I don't have a map in front of me right now to give you an exact answer, but I'll address the second part of your question. Can we hold the territory we've already retaken? Yes, we can, and we will continue moving forward, he said.

Two Months of Counter-offensive: In Detail

On June 8, several Western media outlets, including The Washington Post, reported that Ukraine had launched a counter-offensive, highlighting increased attacks by the Ukrainian Army along the frontlines in the countrys southeastern part. Some media reports mentioned significant losses of equipment in a battle in the south.

Read also: Ukraines costly counteroffensive must produce results before NATO summit  Zelenskyy

Ukraine's Defense Ministry had repeatedly stated that they wouldn't announce the start of a counter-offensive. However, on June 5, they announced a transition to offensive actions on certain fronts and reported some successes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Zaporizhzhya front.

On June 10, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the counter-offensive was underway but did not specify the directions of the troops' movement.

UK intelligence reported that Ukrainian troops were conducting large-scale offensive operations on three main fronts in the south and east of Ukraine.

In June, Ukraine successfully liberated several settlements on the border of Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk oblasts, including Blahodatne, Neskuchne, Makarivka, Storozhove, as well as Pyatyhatky and Rivnopil.

Read also: ISW explains Russian milibloggers silence on attack on Chonhar bridge, Putins comments on counter-offensive

Furthermore, on June 24, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced the start of an offensive in several directions in the east, where Ukraine retook parts of Donetsk Oblast, which had been occupied since 2014.

However, Defense Ministry spokesperson Hanna Malyar mentioned that part of Ukraines reserve troops would be deployed later during the counter-offensive, and the main attack is still ahead. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov clarified that Ukrainian military personnel were currently carrying out a preparatory operation.

Meanwhile, some Western media outlets reported that Ukraines progress was behind schedule. Western partners, commenting on the challenges of the counter-offensive, noted that Russian occupiers managed to build defensive structures, including minefields, in the captured territories.

Read also: Fighting is in our favor, second stage of Ukrainian counter-offensive can begin, claims Melnyk

President Zelenskyy acknowledged that achievements were slower than desired. Nevertheless, he emphasized that there was progress on all fronts of the advance.

Western media outlets at the end of July reported that Ukraine had changed its counter-offensive tactics after setbacks in the initial stage.

At that time, reports emerged that Ukraine had commenced a new phase of the counter-offensive, with a primary focus on the southeast.

UK intelligence highlighted an escalation of battles in the south during this period.

Read also: Ukrainian counteroffensive or just probing attacks for now

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
Russia continues to suffer losses in its war of aggression against Ukraine: over the past 24 hours alone, Ukrainian defence forces have killed 540 invaders, and destroyed 12 artillery systems and 28 drones.

Source: General Staff

Details: The total combat losses of the Russian forces from 24 February 2022 to 7 August 2023 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses  ed.]:

approximately 250,240 (+540) military personnel

4,244 (+7) tanks

8,270 (+8) armoured combat vehicles

4,977 (+12) artillery systems

709 (+4) multiple-launch rocket systems

467 (+1) air defence systems

315 (+0) fixed-wing aircraft

311 (+0) helicopters

4,154 (+28) operational-tactical UAVs

1,377 (+18) cruise missiles

18 (+0) ships/boats

7,451 (+10) vehicles and tankers

735 (+1) special vehicles and other equipment

The data is being confirmed.

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Key factions in the German parliament have reached consensus on the transfer of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Ukrainian member of parliament Yehor Cherniev said on Aug. 7.

Germany has not confirmed his claim yet.

"For a long time we have been working with German parliamentarians to form a support group," said Cherniev, a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People party and deputy chairman of the parliament's security, defense and intelligence committee.

Cherniev is also the head of Ukraine's delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Taurus missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers. This means Ukraine could use them to strike deep into Russian-occupied territories, including Crimea.

In May, German media reported that Ukraine had submitted a request asking Germany to supply the long-range cruise missiles.

On May 23, German MP Roderich Kiesewetter voiced support for the transfer and said that, out of 600 missiles purchased 10 years ago, Germany had around 150 operational ones.

However, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on June 5 that Germany did not plan to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Military confirms strikes on key bridges linking occupied Crimea with mainland Ukraine

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Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowdfunding campaigns for the Ukrainian military have made him a national hero, talks with AFP journalists in the office of his name foundation in Kyiv on August 4, 2023. Crouching beside Ukrainian-made kamikaze drones on a runway, TV star Serhiy Prytula appears keen to taunt Moscow with a crowdfunded fleet that experts have linked with recent strikes inside Russia. (Sergei SUPINSKY)

Crouching beside Ukrainian-made attack drones on a runway, TV star Serhiy Prytula appeared keen to taunt Moscow with a crowdfunded fleet that experts have linked with recent strikes inside Russia.

Ukraine has not taken direct responsibility for the string of attacks, including on the capital Moscow, but President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that "war" is coming to Russia.

Polls show the former stand-up comedian's crowdfunding campaigns for the military have rendered him one of the country's most trusted public figures -- second only to Zelensky.

Offering a rare glimpse at Ukraine's homegrown explosive drones, Prytula recently shared images of himself with a fleet in an undisclosed location.

"Muscovites! Shudder from the sirens. Go to the bomb shelters," he wrote on social media alongside photos of himself with steel grey drones on a runway.

"We have no idea what could fly to Moscow," he said with a grin in a separate video.

His July 30 posts came on the day Ukrainian drones struck a skyscraper in Moscow, one of a series of strikes on the city.

In an interview with AFP in Kyiv, he declined to identify the type of drones in his posts.

He jokingly likened them to a "one-way ticket," saying only that they were capable of a flight range of 1,000 km (621 miles) and cost about $108,000 apiece.

- 'Revenge' -

Four analysts, including from Britain's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the US-based Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), and Janes, the defence intelligence firm, told AFP that they appeared to match the drones identified in videos from strikes on Russia's capital.

"That is the Beaver drone that has been hitting Moscow," Steve Wright, a Britain-based expert in drone technology, told AFP, referring to Prytula's images, pointing to several distinguishing features.

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a window into Ukraine's domestic drone industry, which appears to be rapidly developing in response to Russia's full-scale invasion launched in February last year.

It underscores Ukraine's resolve to gain deep-strike capabilities in response to the routine bombardment by Russia, which has taken advantage of aerial superiority and Kyiv's limited air defences.

Scrawled on one of the drones in Prytula's post was a handwritten message: "From Ukrainians without love."

"Of course without love, but also without hate," Prytula said at his Kyiv office, littered with gifts from soldiers, including the mangled wing of a downed Russian craft.

Last year, Prytula's eponymous foundation raised 352 million hryvnia ($9.6 million) through what he called a "revenge" crowdfunding to purchase 142 long and short-range kamikaze drones to target Russia.

A domestic company, which he declined to name, manufactured the drones in batches over several months, he added.

Another Ukrainian influencer Igor Lachenkov told his Telegram followers that he was able to raise 20 million hryvnia ($545,000) for attack drones.

Just days after a brazen May 3 drone attack on the Kremlin, he posted pictures alongside what appeared to be Beaver drones.

Lachenkov told reporters that in December he was approached by Ukrainian military intelligence and asked for help funding a "drone that can fly very far".

"Our business is to bring to the military what they need," Prytula said, refusing to get into specific discussions with the armed forces.

- 'Fury and frustration' -

The efforts illustrate the rise of combat crowdfunding in Ukraine, which is increasingly reliant on domestic support and Western military aid to sustain its defence against a larger and more powerful aggressor.

Charities run by influencers, billboard campaigns and roadside donation boxes all urge citizens to fund the war effort.

"We need to use this fury for some good, for our military," said Prytula, who declared his career in comedy to be "over" as the widespread death and destruction had shifted his attention to the war effort.

Prytula said his foundation had so far raised about 130 million euros ($142 million) since the start of the full-scale invasion, with a bulk of the contributions coming from Ukrainians themselves.

At a warehouse at his foundation's Kyiv headquarters, dozens of volunteers packed and labelled cardboard boxes with everything from rifle scopes and satellite phones to combat medicine destined for soldiers on the warfront.

Such "fundraising campaigns help people to channel their fury and frustration into financial incentives for the army," Roman Osadchuk, a Kyiv-based research associate at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, told AFP.

"It gives non-military people a feeling of helping repel the Russian invasion," he added.

bur-ac/jbr/rox
Heads of government from across the world will next month gather in New York for the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The permanent members of the Security Council will not, we may be sure, be represented by all their leaders, since it is more than unlikely that Vladimir Putin will take up residence in the Plaza Hotel, although no doubt the ventriloquists doll who passes by the name of Sergey Lavrov will think of making an appearance. President Xi may also feel he has better ways to spend his time. Why, then, should it matter if, as has been suggested, Rishi Sunak also declines to travel to this great jamboree? The summit will occur close in time to an all-important Conservative Party conference that may offer the Prime Minister his last chance to set out effective and ambitious new policies, and expose the sheer vacuity of Sir Keir Starmers political programme.

From the Labour benches, David Lammy complains that Sunaks absence would mark a low ebb of the Conservative Partys isolationist foreign policy. Isolationist is hardly the right word for a government that has been more agile than almost any other in supporting Ukraine, and has been actively negotiating trade treaties and defence partnerships across the globe. Brexit does not allow for isolationism.

The real failure has, alas, been in the workings of the United Nations, which has found it impossible to resolve the big foreign policy questions of our day, most recently in Ukraine, and has betrayed the fundamental principles that go back to its establishment at the end of the Second World War. For instance, its attempts to handle the 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict have surely been frustrated by the willingness of the General Assembly to condemn Israel (which is certainly not above criticism, particularly under its present government), while bypassing the genocidal horrors perpetrated in Syria and Iraq. In flagrant breach of the UN Charter, Russia can get away with fighting its wars thanks to its much used, or rather abused, powers of veto on the Security Council. Iran is about to chair the UN Human Rights Social Forum.

International law is a fine but often nebulous concept, notionally guaranteeing all sorts of basic rights, and the UN Charter remains a fundamental statement of its central principles. But principles and practice have diverged ever since the UN came into being.

A talking shop where one political leader after another flies into New York, perhaps on a private jet, travels in a motorcade to the UN headquarters, marches to the podium, makes predictable statements to which no one really pays attention, and shakes the hand of a few friendly heads of government is hardly the best use of Sunaks time. And the same goes for Davos, COP27, and all these other attempts to blow a trumpet out of which very little audible noise emerges.

Everyone knows that the best use of time at the UN is meetings behind the scenes, contacts between countries that in some cases do not wish to be seen talking to one another. Recent revelations about how, over several decades, the Israelis were meeting Arab politicians and diplomats in back rooms at the UN and elsewhere, with gradual but real long-term results, confirm that the grand opening of the General Assembly is just another act of international play-acting.

At the United Nations, hyperbole rules. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has declared that the warmest July on record means that the era of global warming has already come to an end and the era of global boiling has arrived. Indeed, as we have all no doubt noticed, the air is unbreathable. But one has to wonder whether the people who really matter, such as those in some Asian nations, are going to pay much attention. Here in the UK, heavier blame is placed on relatively minor sources of carbon, such as short-distance flights and the gas boilers for which there is as yet no truly satisfactory alternative.

The task of the UN is not to exacerbate the debate about climate change but to create an atmosphere of reasoned debate about what needs to be done, bringing in India, China and other major polluters. Glaciers may be melting, but the speed of action at the UN is glacial. It had taken two decades for the UN to persuade its sometimes reluctant members to approve the new High Seas Treaty, addressing the pollution of the oceans by plastic and other waste. Waste is the right word  wasted time and wasted opportunities that need to be grasped if the UN is to play an effective role in the world.

The question is quite simply how, in an exceptionally unstable world, the UN can play a role in restoring stability. It faces challenges far greater than any since the Cold War  potentially since the Second World War, if the Ukraine conflict turns nuclear. Flummery in New York is no substitute for hard work indoors at Number 10.



David Abulafia is professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge

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We who are weak and wonderful, wicked, bewildered, wistful and wild are saying Good mornings through the fever. It is the giant-hour. Nothing less than gianthood will do:

Nothing less than mover, prover, shover, cover, lever, diver, for giant tackling, overturning, new organic staring that will involve, that will involve us all.  Aurora, Gwendolyn Brooks

This past week, weak and bewildered, salmon-like I returned to my headwaters, Chicago. Girding my loins for what could be my last struggle. I have been blessed to live longer than any other men in our family have lived. I realize that each day I wake up on this side of the earth is a gift. I have become more of an elder witness than an activist in the struggle for universal freedom and justice. It is appropriate. As we learned in the 60s, those who will live in the world should take the lead in creating it. Now, we all must be prepared to battle for the soul of our country and the survival of our beloved planet.

We were in Chicago celebrating the launch of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. A visit to the Mississippi part of the monument will come later. We joined a meeting of Rainbow Push and touched base with colleague and mentor Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Rev. Marshall Hatch Jr. gave a rousing homily on power, love and sound mind from 1st Timothy. There was a birthday bash for my departed aunt, Marie Dixon, Willies wife. While we were home, Tyler Perrys All the Queens Men, in which I am featured, dropped on BET.

Chicago is a city of giants. Oprah, Harold Washington, both Michaels  Jordan and Jackson  and, of course, former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle began their careers there. During the 60s there were giants on whose shoulders I personally stood: Fr. George Clements, Oscar Brown Jr., Lorraine Hansberry and Willie Dixon and other members of my family. Flapping around at their feet, I finally learned to swim on my own.

Chicago represents contrasts, then and now, progress and regress, black and white. Our Bronzeville community was grounded in solid Southern Black values: patience, empathy, strength and humor. We learned to seek joy while suffering through pain, courage while caught in the vise of fear and love while surrounded by hateful reactionaries. As a child I was taught patience by my granny who cared for others no matter how mean they treated her. My career soldier dad taught me empathy by sharing his foxhole camaraderie. The bedrock of my strength came from a mother who sang Summertime in January while the temperature was below zero and the hawk cut through you like a hot knife through butter. Willie Dixon taught me how to sing the blues, to give thanks for my blessings, and to dance through Saturday night.

Because of the work by these warriors, I do not worry about the emerging fascists and racists crawling out from under their rocks trying to eviscerate democracy. Didnt we find the power to resist Senator McCarthy, George Wallace and Lester Maddox? Our indigenous brothers and sisters are showing us how to treat the land they have called home for thousands of years. Love will not allow global warming to destroy our beloved planet. Being of sound mind our fierce sisters, mothers and daughters are leading the struggle for their right to choose. We are the holders of the sacred stories. Our power is rooted in remembrance.

Visiting the Roberts Temple on State Street we remember being terrified by the grotesque treatment of a Black child by perverted white supremacists. But, just across town, President Obamas Presidential Center and Library stretches to the stars, singing Good Morning ... It is the giant-hour. Nothing less than gianthood will do.

Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Partys nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He was the 2022 Lions Paw Awardee and Living Legend honoree of the National Black Theatre Festival. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.
Some passengers have resorted to using Apple AirTags to track down lost luggage. Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images

A United Airlines passenger told CNN that she flew two hours across the US to find a lost bag.

Sandra Shuster flew to Chicago to collect the bag after United Airlines failed to return it to her.

Shuster was flying from Baltimore to Denver when a bag of her daughter's lacrosse gear went missing.

A United Airlines passenger says she flew two hours across the US after the airline failed to reunite her with her bag.

Sandra Shuster told CNN that she was traveling from Baltimore to Denver via Chicago on July 17 when the checked bag that contained her daughter's lacrosse kit went missing.

When Shuster checked the location of an Apple AirTag she had left in the bag, the tracker showed that her luggage was in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport at the Terminal 1 baggage reclaim.

Shuster told CNN that she relayed the information to United staff but failed to make much progress. This was partly because a United check-in agent had attached the incorrect tag to the bag, swapping it with a passenger who was only traveling from Baltimore to Chicago, she said.

The lack of progress made by United in tracking down the bag, which contained about $2,000 worth of lacrosse kit her daughter needed for team try-outs, pushed Shuster to take matters into her own hands. She booked a day off work, bought a ticket with her air miles, and flew two hours from Denver to Chicago, she told CNN.

She told the news outlet that it took staff at the Chicago airport 30 seconds to find her the bag after she arrived.

A spokesperson for United Airlines told Insider in a statement: "Unfortunately, this bag was incorrectly tagged at the start of the trip, which contributed to the longer delay  we've apologized to Ms. Shuster, reimbursed the miles used and gave her an additional travel credit to use toward a future flight."

"Our teams work to reconnect our customers with their baggage as quickly as possible and we regret that we could not get this bag to Denver sooner," the spokesperson said.

This isn't the first time passengers resorted to using trackers to locate their bags.

Amid last summer's travel chaos, one passenger told Insider they tracked down $10,000 worth of lost luggage, including a wedding dress, by tracking the bag with an Apple AirTag.

Read the original article on Insider
The University of Iowa has revealed plans to acquire Mercy Hospital on the heels of the organization's recent bankruptcy filing.

Mercy "voluntarily" filed a bankruptcy petition, the company announced in a press release Monday morning. The 194-bed facility has served area residents since 1873.

Mercy Iowa City believes this plan is the best path forward to preserve our hospital operations, saidTom Clancy, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mercy Iowa City in a press release. As we implement this plan, our dedicated Mercy Iowa City staff remain steadfast in their commitment to provide compassionate care toour community.

The State of Iowa Board of Regents will consider the university's proposed $20 million acquisition of Mercy's facilities and business operations at Tuesday morning's special session.

In an attached letter of intent filed in bankruptcy court, the hospital said the university plans to integrate the Mercy system into UI Health Care.

The University of Iowa's acquisition would integrate 14 buildings largely located on the Mercy Iowa City campus in addition to smaller offices in North Liberty, Kalona, Tipton and Williamsburg.

We have always maintained great respect for Mercy Iowa City, knowing the vital role it has played in our community since 1873. As members of the same community, many of us know and care about people who work at Mercy Iowa City, the University of Iowa presidents office said in a statement early Monday.

We want you to know that leaders from the University of Iowa, UI Health Care, and Mercy Iowa City are working together to avoid significant disruption. Although many decisions will be in the hands of the bankruptcy court, we share a goal to preserve and enhance local and regional access to quality health care and jobs.

Mercy will remain operating at its usual capacity with no plans to close. The bankruptcy court will decide many of the deal's specifics in the coming months.

In the meantime, Mercy Iowa City will continue to see patients as its hospital proceeds through bankruptcy and we will prepare, to the extent permissible, for a potential future where our entities join as one to continue to serve the health care needs of Iowans," the University of Iowa president's office said it in its statement.

Texas company tried to buy out Mercy last month

Dallas-based Preston Hollow Community filed a motion last month to try and take over business operations of Mercy Hospital.

Preston Hollow Community Capital officials accused Mercy Iowa City's board of directors and management of making a series of decisions that jeopardized the facility's ability to pay off its debts, including $62 million in publicly issued bonds and $40 million in pension plans.

Mercy Iowa Citys decision to file for bankruptcy is the result of years of financial mismanagement and an ongoing refusal to take the necessary steps to restructure and stabilize its operations," Preston Hollow said in a news release provided to the Press-Citizen on Monday. "Even now, after years of inaction on their part, the hospital chooses to point fingers at others rather than take any accountability for their financial losses or demonstrate any willingness to seriously address the factors that led to those losses,

Mercy management alluded to issues with financial creditors in their announcement Monday.

The recent actions of one of our largest creditors has significantly and negatively impacted the hospital and resulted in this bankruptcy filing, Mercy Hospital Chief Restructuring Officer Mark. E Toney said in a press release. The board and management moved rapidly to secure a partner to maintain health care in our community.

Mercy has struggled financially for years

Preston Hollow said Mercy Iowa City was in financial freefall" in its July petition to the court.

The company invested more than $40 million in Mercy in 2018 but said the hospital was suffering unsustainable losses, including a $2.6 million monthly cash burn.

Mercy Iowa City's financial projections show that by Sept. 29, its liquid assets will fall below $5 million, a mark they feel cannot sufficiently maintain operations.

Mercy Iowa City revealed they had tried resolving their differences with Preston Hollow before talks broke down a few days before the firm's court petition.

Preston Hollow officials said they provided a suitable plan for the future, but Mercy didn't follow through.

The Preston Hollow Community Capital team has consistently advised and encouraged Mercy Iowa City to develop and implement a substantive plan to rehabilitate and recapitalize the hospital," the company added in Monday's release. "The fact that they chose not to do so is the fault of Mercy Iowa City and no one else.

Preston Hollow Community Capital remains committed to ensuring families in Johnson County have access to high-quality, affordable health care services and will take the steps necessary, including legal steps, to ensure that outcome is achieved.

The hospital announced plans to leave its partnership with MercyOne, the largest statewide healthcare system, in April, less than seven years after joining. Previous plans to exit the MercyOne partnership failed in 2021.

The hospitals credit rating was downgraded in March by Moodys, a financial services company that analyzes credit ratings and provides risk analysis for investors. The company's analysis said the hospital is experiencing "continued weak cash metrics" and a "limited clinical array" compared to its in-town competitor, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

In April, the Register reported that Mercy Iowa City hired New York-based financial management firm ToneyKorf Partners, a company specializing in helping struggling healthcare systems improve their operations.

Michaela Ramm contributed reporting.

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: Mercy files for bankruptcy, UI seeks approval to purchase for $20M
U.S. naval forces last week monitored 11 Chinese and Russian ships that patrolled near Alaskas Aleutian Islands before they quietly left the area.

Four U.S. destroyers, along with P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, shadowed the fleet of warships before they departed the area without entering U.S. territory, according to The Wall Street Journal, which confirmed the details with administration officials and Northern Command.

The incident set off immediate concern in Washington over the weekend, particularly among Alaskan lawmakers who received a classified briefing on the matter.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the combined incursion from Russia and China near his state was yet another reminder that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow.

Sullivan also noted that a combined naval fleet from Russia and China patrolled near Alaska in September, which he said saw a tepid response from Washington at the time.

For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska, Sullivan said in a statement over the weekend.

Russias Defense Ministry said Friday that the joint patrol with the Chinese navy was conducted for a mock search and destroy mission.

The Defense Ministry said in a Telegram post the fleet has patrolled more than 2,300 miles in the military exercise. Chinas embassy in Washington confirmed similar details to the Journal.

The waters around Alaska, which is separated by Russia by the Bering Strait, has been a tense region as Washington and Moscow have grown further apart during the war in Ukraine. In May, U.S. jets intercepted six Russian jets near the state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the incident last week was a stark reminder of Alaskas proximity to both China and Russia.

Incursions like this are why we are working so hard to secure funding and resources to expand our militarys capacity and capabilities in Alaska, and why our colleagues must join us in supporting those investments, she said in a statement.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The U.S. Navy shadowed a fleet of Russian and Chinese vessels off Alaska last week, according to media reports and U.S. Northern Command.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Saturday that 11 Russian and Chinese ships were steaming near Alaskas Aleutian Islands, citing anonymous U.S. officials.

According to the Journal report, those ships never entered U.S. waters but were shadowed by a P-8 Poseidon aircraft and four destroyers.

The Journal report does not note which days last week the patrol arrived near Alaska. NORTHCOM confirmed the sequence of events to Navy Times Monday but declined further comment.

NORAD and USNORTHCOM actively monitored the Russian and Chinese combined naval patrol that operated near Alaska earlier this week, according to a statement from the command. Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat.

China to hold naval drills with Russia despite ongoing Ukraine war

The Journal cited Russian and Chinese officials who said the patrol was not aimed at anything other than joint patrols and maritime operations.

The Associated Press reported the start of joint China-Russia naval drills in July and cited Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency reporting that the drills would involve more than 10 ships and 30-plus aircraft.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in July, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. John Aquilino, said cooperation between Beijing and Moscow is creating a dangerous world.

He also mentioned the Russian and Chinese combined patrol during his remarks at the forum on July 20.

Well see where that ends up, whether its off the Aleutian Islands, whether its the Philippine Sea, whether it goes to Guam, whether it goes to Hawaii or whether it goes off the West Coast of the United States, Aquilino said, according to a transcript of the event posted to the commands website. Their exercises have increased, their operations have increased.

I only see the cooperation getting stronger, and, boy, thats concerning, he added.

According to the Journal, the destroyers John S. McCain, Benfold, John Finn and Chung-Hoon were dispatched to follow the flotilla.

John S. McCain is based out of Everett, Washington, while John Finn and Benfold are based in Yokosuka, Japan, and Chung-Hoon is homeported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Senior U.S. officials briefly met with Chinas envoy for Europe over the weekend on the sidelines of a summit in Saudi Arabia promoting Russias retreat from its war in Ukraine.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan and acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland held a brief meeting with Chinas envoy for Eurasia Li Hui, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday.

The National Security Council described the meeting as a brief greeting.

Miller did not address the details of the meeting, but it comes at a time of fraught tensions between the U.S. and China, with military confrontations and diplomatic spats complicating efforts by the Biden administration to standardize communication between Washington and Beijing.

On Sunday, the State Department criticized as dangerous what was described as Chinese naval ships obstructing and blocking Philippine ships in the South China Sea, warning an attack on the Philippine navy would prompt a response from the U.S.

Chinas Foreign Ministry responded by accusing the U.S. of pulling strings behind the scenes.

And last week, the U.S. dispatched four U.S. Navy destroyers off the coast of Alaska in a show of force against 11 Russian and Chinese military vessels that were transiting American waters.

But U.S. officials have encouraged China to exercise a positive influence to help pull back Russia from its war in Ukraine. Chinese President Xi Jinping is the most high-profile world leader to maintain close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the two declaring a no limits partnership shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Monday, Miller called Chinas participation in the summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, productive.

We have long said that it would be productive for China to play a role in ending the war in Ukraine, if it was willing to play a role that respected Ukraines territorial integrity and Ukraines sovereignty, Miller said.

He rejected the suggestion that China and the U.S. are at the head of talks about any negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and he put the blame on Moscow for refusing to engage in meaningful peace negotiations.

Russia has shown no sign of curtailing its imperialist ambitions or coming to the negotiating table, Miller said.

Should there ever be peace negotiations, its Ukraine that will be in the lead, from the non-Russian side. The United States is happy to play any role that is productive, to stand with our Ukrainian partners, and we would welcome any other country that wants to play a productive role as well, he added.

The summit in Saudi Arabia was the second meeting for Ukraine to personally address dozens of countries on its proposals to end Russias war. Ukraine is calling for the full retreat of Russian forces from its territory and arguing against freezing the conflict. Ukraine and its backers say a cease-fire would allow Moscow to solidify territorial gains while buying time for it to restock its military.

Miller said the U.S. is working to convince as many countries as possible  that when this war ends, it should end in a way that respects Ukraines territorial integrity, its sovereignty. Thats the point that Ukrainian officials made this weekend, thats the point that US officials made this weekend and we will continue to press that and try to convince as many countries as possible to take that view of the situation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Mourners walk next to a mural of the shooting victims before a candlelight vigil in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2023. Fourteen months ago a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth grade classroom.

Mourners walk next to a mural of the shooting victims before a candlelight vigil in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2023. Fourteen months ago a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth grade classroom.

The Uvalde district attorney is withholding information that would help a medical team determine if some children could have been saved during the mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers at their elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Its been months, Mark Escott, chief medical officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety and head of the panel, told ABC News. And the most important piece of evidence are the autopsies, and I dont have any of those.

The Texas DPS created a medical panel after the shooting to determine if any of the 21 victims could have been saved. The panel consisted of five medical experts to perform a casualty analysis to determine whether any of those killed at Robb might have survived if police, first aid and medical assistance had reached them sooner, according to the outlet.

The panel needs to review the victims autopsies, but Christina Mitchell, Uvaldes DA, has not given the panel the findings.

Gloria Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was murdered during the mass shooting, told Good Morning America that she believes her daughter could have been saved if police officers acted sooner. When police finally killed the shooter, Jackie was found with a bullet in her chest but with a pulse.

We have to continue to fight for Jackie, Cazares said on GMA.

The DPS and Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 400 police officers had gathered on Robb Elementarys campus on May 24, 2022, and it took more than an hour for them to confront the shooter. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas DPS, called the police response on that day an abject failure.

A report from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training in June 2022 determined that lives could have been saved.

While we do not have definitive information at this point, it is possible that some of the people who died during this event could have been saved if they had received more rapid medical care, the report read.

Related...
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden recently spent a weeklong vacation in Rehoboth Beach, a southern Delaware city on the Atlantic whose tagline is "The Nation's Summer Capital."

For most visitors, thoughts of Rehoboth Beach conjure up visions of a crowded beach and boardwalk; the happy faces of children at the Funland amusement park; 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, Delaware, 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.

Hard to complain about this weather, the president told the press as he left the beach Wednesday.

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, Delaware, home, Biden worships at St. Joseph on the Brandywine. When in Rehoboth Beach, he attends St. Edmond's Roman Catholic Church.

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.

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 has 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 General 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.

Dine at Matt's Fish Camp

The USA TODAY Network asked SoDel Concepts, the award-winning company that owns and operates Matt's Fish Camp in Lewes, Delaware, 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 has three locations.

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.

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.

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: What the Bidens did during their Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation
A 35-year-old man was inside his home when he heard a noise outside near his vehicle, authorities in Illinois said.

Someone was trying to steal his catalytic converter at about 4:40 a.m. Monday, Aug. 7, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The vehicle owner approached the accused thief, police said, then he was shot in his right abdomen.

The shooter fled from the area, police said.

The victim was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

An investigation is ongoing.

Reports of catalytic converter thefts have risen significantly from 2020 through 2022, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. There were 16,660 related insurance claims made in 2020, compared with 64,701 in 2022.

This new data is just a snapshot of an underreported crime that affects communities across the nation, NICB President and CEO David J. Glawe said in a May 2023 news release. While a catalytic converter can be removed in just a few minutes, for vehicle owners, the cost is much more than the replacement parts. Victims must find alternate transportation, schedule necessary repairs, and may face loss of work as a result.

The car part, which is used to neutralize harmful gases, contains valuable metals that can be sold to metal recyclers, according to the organization.

Man shoots person trying to steal catalytic converter and is arrested, Texas cops say

Man found crushed by car was trying to steal catalytic converter, California cops say

Man crushed to death while trying to steal catalytic converter, GA car salesman says
It was a quiet Friday night at the Ventura County Fair until a woman rushed up to the two police sergeants strolling past the Zipper carnival ride.

She pointed across the Ventura County Fairs midway. A fight had started.

Ventura Police Department Sgts. Mike Acquarelli and Tim Ferrill walked briskly. Running, they explained later, only brings a crowd and aggravates the conflict.

A vendor stepped away from her booth, craning her head toward Ferrill as she explained the fight was brief. It started when one group of teenage boys confronted another, calling out a gang name. Punches were thrown. The apparent instigators ran off, leaving a half-dozen juveniles vowing revenge, at least one of them cursing a bystander.

Police and county probation officers circled the area turning teens who were walking away back toward the sergeants. One of the teens was searched. A knife was found.

The officers walked the kids past the Ferris wheel toward a fairgrounds exit. They were evicted. Their night at the fair was over.

Ninety-nine percent of the people here didnt see a thing, Cmdr. Rick Murray said later. The quicker were on it, the quicker the problem is resolved.

Ventura Police Department Sgt. Tim Ferrill, from left, Sgt. Mike Acquarelli and Detective Anthony Reginato point out some of the people involved in a fight at the Ventura County Fair on Friday.

Two hours earlier, more than 25 officers clustered in a corner of the fairgrounds that serves as the police department's command center throughout the 12-day fair. Most of them were Ventura police officers on overtime carrying their usual patrol gear: tasers, batons, handguns and body cameras. Others were Ventura County sheriffs deputies and probation and parole officers.

Outside the fairgrounds fence, sheriffs deputies on horseback and utility vehicles patrolled the perimeter of the 62-acre property. In the grandstands, parking lot and throughout the grounds, guards from three private companies kept watch in security efforts revamped after $570,000 in admissions and other revenue was stolen early in the morning a year ago during the fair. A trial for three of the four men charged in the crime is set to begin later this month.

The fourth man, an alleged insider who worked for a company then contracted to run admissions at the fair, pleaded guilty to commercial burglary and other crimes. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

The high-profile theft brought renewed scrutiny on internal security. Noting the crime happened after the fair closed for the day, police officers said their job hasnt changed.

Ventura Police Department officers detain a person after a fight broke out at the Ventura County Fair on Friday.

As Acquarelli explained in the Friday night briefing held in a tent, the goal is to be seen. Take a lap around the fairgrounds, then another, he told officers. Dont take action unless necessary. Be highly visible but with a low profile.

Moments after the briefing, the two sergeants walked past a ride that looked like a mammoth praying mantis carrying riders to nose-bleed heights, then falling in a stomach-lurching drop. It was Youth Day. Kids 12 and younger were here for free.

The sergeants handed out junior officer badges to kids. They shook hands with fairgoers who thanked them for their work. There were no signs of trouble.

Learning from the X Games at the fairgrounds

Outside the fairgrounds parking lot, at Figueroa Street and Habor Boulevard, five police motorcycles were parked in a line. Country music played at modest volumes. Traffic officers wagged fingers at cars and pedestrians, directing traffic.

The officers on patrol inside the fairgrounds work rotating shifts. But the five, sometimes six, traffic officers here work the entire fair  12 days of 12-hour shifts. They take breaks in a trailer equipped with laptops, a microwave oven and, on this night, a bottle of tabasco sauce.

The same group worked the Strawberry Festival in May when a flood of cars headed to the fairgrounds paralyzed traffic throughout downtown Ventura.

It was pretty frustrating, said Sgt. Mark Knackstedt. Youre trying to shoehorn them into a space this big.

Ventura Police Officer Keith Therrien directs traffic at the entrance of the Ventura County Fair on Friday.

The international X Games, held at the site last month, was enlightening by comparison. An emphasis on offsite parking, social media messaging and reliance on trains and buses curbed most parking and traffic problems.

Lessons were learned. On this night, the parking lot was completely filled. Instead of blocking off Harbor Boulevard as they did in the past, officers followed the X Games example and allowed motorist to enter the fairgrounds. They were routed through a corner of the parking lot, back onto a surface street and then to Figueroa where they could search for offsite parking downtown.

The maneuver may have frustrated a few drivers but it was designed to keep traffic from backing up far down Harbor Boulevard.

Memories of the Ventura County Fair bungee jump incident

Inside the fairgrounds, things were quiet enough for a jog down memory lane. Acquarelli, who has worked 15 fairs, remembered the night six years ago when the bungee jump malfunctioned, leaving a man dangling 30 feet in the air for 20 minutes. He was not injured.

Ferrill has worked more than a dozen fairs. He has never ridden the spinning, flipping Zipper. Its a streak that will continue.

My life is risk adverse enough, he said.

The quiet ended at about 8:30 p.m. when the fight broke out on the midway. Police officers quietly formed a semi-circle around the scene, keeping things in check. As they shepherded the juveniles off the grounds, another fight broke out, this time near the fairs Main Street. A teenager was handcuffed and brought to the command center.

A couple of more fights emerged. By nights end, two juveniles were arrested on misdemeanors, one for suspicion public fighting, one for suspicion of assaulting an officer.

Murray called the night a success, noting that once the incidents were handled no other issues emerged. When adults are involved in brief fights, alcohol is often involved. He attributed the conflicts Friday night to juvenile activity.

That was probably the busiest night weve had, he said.

Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com or 805-437-0255.

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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County Fair fights dealt with by police officers
VERO BEACH  A Vero Beach man accused of operating a boat during a 2017 crash that killed his 19-year-old best friend was ordered Monday to serve two years in prison as part of a deal reached with the state, according to attorneys.

Jayson Michael Clark, 24, of the 2300 block of 14th Street Southwest, was also ordered to serve eight years of probation after being convicted of vessel homicide during a June 7 change of plea hearing.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped one count of boating under the influence manslaughter related to the June 3, 2017 death of Vero Beach resident Chance Rivero, who had known Clark since childhood.

Clark had faced a maximum prison term of 30 years if hed been tried and convicted of both offenses, his attorney Andrew Metcalf said after Mondays hearing.

It was a sad day in court  From a lawyer point of view, it was a good result legally, Metcalf said. But it was a terrible tragedy.

Jayson Michael Clark

Clark was 19 at the time of the crash in the Indian River Lagoon that killed Rivero and injured others among the six people on board, ranging in age from 19 to 24.

How did the fatal crash happen?

Reports show Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials found that the group's 18-foot Sea Chaser boat struck a channel marker about a mile south of the Alma Lee Loy Bridge, throwing Rivero into the water just before midnight.

Fish and wildlife officials found alcohol was a factor, according to court filings.

In statements Clark provided to investigators, he launched the boat from Memorial Island, south of the Merrill Barber Bridge, around 8:30 p.m. and had Rivero and three others aboard, court records show. Around 10 p.m., the group returned to the boat ramp and picked up another person then headed south for Fort Pierce to fish in the channel.

J.J. Klarmann takes TCPalm to channel marker where deadly crash happened

When the group headed back later that night, Clark was using only a Mag Light-style flashlight to navigate through the channel. Rivero was the only one sitting on the side the pylon hit.

Clark was heading the boat north back towards the boat ramp before midnight when he struck the channel marker, investigators reported.

Clark had been looking down, then looked up and saw the channel marker but was unable to avoid it and the vessel struck the marker on the port side, court filings stated. Once the vessel came to a stop, they realized that Chance Rivero was missing and not on the vessel.

He was spotted in the water about 2 feet from the channel marker, with injuries to his head and face. He was later pronounced dead of blunt force trauma at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.

Was Clark drinking while operating the boat?

Clark reported that no one saw the channel marker until it was too late.

He was unsure if everyone was drinking but knew at least half of everyone was, investigators reported. He had over six 12-ouce Bush Lite canned beers between 8:30 p.m. and stopped 30 minutes prior to striking the channel marker.

Clark in 2020 was charged with vessel homicide but a year later prosecutors also charged him with BUI manslaughter.

At the time, Assistant State Attorney William Long said they filed the additional charge after a state expert reviewed the evidence presented by Fish and Wildlife investigators.

On Monday, Long said the state had two theories for prosecuting Clark: Vessel homicide, meaning he was so reckless that his actions caused Riveros death. And BUI manslaughter, in which being under the influence of alcohol while driving the boat contributed to the fatal crash.

A sheriffs official collected a sample of Clarks blood about three or four hours after the crash and according to Metcalf, his blood alcohol level was right at .08.

The legal limit in Florida is 0.08 or less.

Boating under the influence: BUI, happens on the Treasure Coast, but it's rare

Hot water: Fish kills and bioluminescence loom in Indian River Lagoon amid summer heat

Metcalf though, filed papers objecting to the test results and challenged whether Clark's blood draw had been properly collected, preserved and stored. He said the sheriffs official who drew Clarks blood had apparently left his job and was unavailable.

There are real issues about how this blood was drawn and maintained, Metcalf said.

The motion was never argued, he said, because the state offered a plea deal that would minimize risk for Clark verses going to trial.

Even if the blood was suppressed the state could still move forward on the theory of reckless boating, Metcalf noted. And that was based on the fact that he had navigation lights that were not operable and had no one managing a spotlight. And he was allegedly traveling too fast for the conditions, which were dark.

Regarding Clarks plea, Long acknowledged the state had some evidentiary issues in seeking to convict him for BUI manslaughter.

It's not that the state couldn't have overcome them, said Long. But  it would have been an uphill battle.

Riveros family also was consulted, he said, in terms of Clarks conviction and sentence.

One of the things that became abundantly clear was they wanted the matter resolved and they were hoping to avoid a trial, Long said.

Metcalf said in the six years since the fatal boat crash, Clark has a lot of remorse for the fact that his friend is gone.

He's a hard worker, very family oriented, just a good guy, Metcalf said. No one set out that night for anyone to get hurt. Its an accident.

Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Jayson Clark, the boat operator in 2017 fatal crash, ordered to prison
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called for cancelling Juneteenth after he had previously posted a video celebrating the holiday, NBC News reported.

Mr Ramaswamy spoke in Vail, Iowa, about how to make elections more secure. In his speech, he called for Election Day to be made a national holiday.

Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up, he said. In addition, he called for paper ballots and voter identification cards despite the fact there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud.

When asked if he considers Juneteenth a useless holiday, he said, I basically do.

Juneteenth commemorates when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on 19 June 1865 and announced that enslaved people were officially freed. In the ensuing years, it became a day of celebration in Black communities across Texas.

In 2021, Congress voted overwhelmingly and President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

But two months ago, Mr Ramaswamy posted a video celebrating Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is a new holiday so we still have a chance to define what it means to us. It neednt be about grievance & self-flogging. Let it be a celebration of the American Dream itself.  pic.twitter.com/NyHfbJoAlw  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 19, 2023

We dont just look back and flog ourselves, thats beside the point, Mr Ramaswamy said. What we celebrate is how far weve come, and as a first-generation American myself, you better believe Im proud of it. Happy Juneteenth, everybody.

When asked by NBC News whether he thought Veterans Day or Memorial Day were useless, Mr Ramaswamy deferred.

I stand with the presumption of time-tested traditions, he said, calling Juneteenth redundant of Martin Luther King Jr Day and Presidents Day.

The reason for making it a holiday was under political duress. It was a political hostage situation on the back of the death of George Floyd, he said.
Senegalese opposition figure Khalifa Sall can now run in next year's presidential election following the parliamentary vote (SEYLLOU)

Senegal's parliament passed a vote Saturday that effectively restored the right of two key opposition deputies to run in the country's presidential election next year.

The vote cleared any person convicted but then either pardoned or amnestied to run for office, paving the way for Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, who would otherwise have been ineligible. The proposal was passed by 124 votes to one.

Once the text is officially promulgated, which seems likely given it was backed by the government, both men will be free to run for office.

Sall, a former mayor of Dakar, and Wade, son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, are both considered leading contenders for the presidential vote, due in February 2024.

They were prevented from running in the last presidential election, in 2019, because of separate convictions for financial crimes.

The 2019 victor Macky Sall, who is completing his second term in office, ended months of speculation by announcing in July that he would not seek a third term, the legality of which had been disputed.

Some observers believe that Saturday's parliamentary vote may help ease the tension that has gripped the country in recent months.

- Sonko's campaign -

Senegal until recently enjoyed a reputation of relative stability in the region.

But since 2021 it has been shaken by sometimes deadly political violence linked to the judicial woes of leading opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.

The way leading opposition figures such as Wade and Sall had been ruled out of the electoral race because of their convictions also sparked political tension.

On Monday, Sonko, widely considered another leading contender for next year's presidential poll, was indicted and detained and his party dissolved.

A government spokesman accused him and his followers of having fomented insurrection and promoted violence.

It now seems more likely than ever that Sonko, who has already been convicted in two other cases, will be unable to contest the election.

In this context then, the presidential race seems more than usually open.

- Contenders -

Karim Wade, 54, a former minister during his father's presidency between 2000 and 2012, seems to be back in the running for the top office.

His six-year prison conviction in 2015 was for illegal enrichment. He served three years before being pardoned by President Sall in 2016, after which he went into exile.

Khalifa Sall, 67, served as mayor of Dakar from 2009, but he was detained in 2017, accused of forgery and financial crimes, and sentenced to five years in jail the following year.

He was released in 2017, also having received a presidential pardon.

All three opposition figures have denounced the judicial proceedings against them as politically motivated.

President Sall meanwhile, opened talks with a part of the opposition in May, agreeing to discuss the eligibility of Khalifa Sall and Wade for political office.

Those involved in the talks agreed on this latest change to the law as the solution.

- 'Cynical' -

In 2021, Khalifa Sall and Sonko agreed an electoral alliance. Their coalition, Yewwi Askan Wi, won control of several cities, including Dakar in the 2022 local elections.

In the same year, it became the main opposition force in parliament.

Some observers see President Sall's decision to enter talks with supporters of Khalifa Sall and Wade as a bid to split the opposition.

While Khalifa Sall and his supporters agreed to enter those talks, Sonko refused.

During Saturday's parliamentary debate, the presidential camp quit the chamber when one deputy called for Sonko to benefit from the new measure.

Bakary Diedhiou denounced the proposed law as "cynical", as it was designed to eliminate a candidate who represented great hope for many people.

The presidential camp has left Macky Sall free to nominate a candidate for his own succession and that decision is expected some time after he meets with several hopefuls on Thursday.

bur-lal/jj/mtp/lb
Author Wesley Lowery breaks down why theres a spike in violent hatred in this country against Black people and people of color.

Over the past two decades, acts of domestic terrorism and extremist content on social media have dramatically increased. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and American WhiteLash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress author Wesley Lowery argues the trends are in direct response to progress made by Black people and people of color.

Lowery spoke with theGrios Natasha S. Alford about how its no coincidence the numbers started to go up right after former President Barack Obamas election and why people who once supported Americas first Black president switched to supporting polarizing Republican candidates like Ron DeSantis.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Wesley Lowery (Credit: CBS NEWS/JOHN PAUL FILO)

The following is a transcript of their conversation:

Natasha S. Alford [00:00:06]: Hello, Im Natasha Alford and welcome to theGrio Weekly where we cover the stories you are talking about or well soon be talking about  stories that impact all aspects of life in Black America.

Alford [00:00:31]: That was FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying to Congress in 2021, clearly stating the threat posed by white violent supremacists in our country. The Government Accounting Office reports that between 2010 and 2021, there were more than 230 acts of domestic terrorism in America. So whats driving the spike in violent hatred? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery says its in direct response to the progress made by Black people and people of color.

He writes about it in his book, American WhiteLash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress. Wesley, thank you so much for joining us. But lets talk about this very serious issue. Were watching a violent spike in white supremacy. And you say that its no coincidence that the numbers started to go up right after the historic election of Barack Obama.

Wesley Lowery [00:01:23]: Well, in 2008, we see two big things happen. The first, obviously, is the election of Barack Obama, a Black president, and this idea, this feeling that perhaps America has taken a major step towards multiracial democracy. At the same time, you see the census projections that say that by 2050 America will be a majority-minority country, that therell be more people of color than there are people who are considered whites.

Now, both of these things speak to massive changes within the United States of America. And what we see pretty quickly is an increase in racial anxiety and generalized anxiety among white Americans. This feeling that the country has changed in some way and its leaving them behind by the end of the Obama years, 55% of white Americans believe that they are racially discriminated against.

That in function, the election of a Black president and in the years that follow, lead white Americans to believe that they are a racial minority and that they face systemic discrimination of some sort. What we see then is a political movement that plays to that rhetoric, plays to that anxiety, and is taken advantage of by white supremacists, by people who hope to divide us by race, who hope to take us back to being a white country in a white ethnostate.

Alford [00:02:46]: Wes, I saw this very interesting package about mothers, majority white mothers who were attracted to Ron DeSantis in part because they had been attacked on Twitter by what they said was a woke mob. And they found that they felt welcomed in the DeSantis camp, right. They were attracted to this idea that they were understood there. What do you do with those folks, right?

Some of those folks said that they actually voted for Barack Obama before, but because they felt so attacked, they decided to go in the other direction. What does that balance of calling out truth and the reality of white supremacy, white privilege and society, while also figuring out how you build coalitions with people? Im very interested in your thoughts on that.

Lowery [00:03:36]: Of course. And its really hard as a political question because, as you noted, two things can be true at the same time. We are seeing a reactionary conservative movement across the country, people who feel as if the country has changed in ways that are leaving them behind, that their way of life, be it how they think of themselves coded racially, be it their perception, is an understanding of gender or sexuality, be it how they want their children educated.

There are people who believe that that way of life is fundamentally under threat, and that is not unlike similar populist reactionary movements in the past. The Klan of the 1920s  we remember it for its anti-Black racism, but we forget that at the core of its political appeal and of its political support was anti-immigrant animus, anti-Catholic animus, anti-Jewish animus. The suggestion that the urbanization of America was changing and threatening the culture, right?

That it was a fundamentally reactionary conservative movement wanting to keep things the way they had been and operating off of a nostalgia for an America that actually hadnt even really existed in the past. We see a lot of that now. Among this movement on our political right, folks who are upset about immigration and the changing demographics of the country, folks who are upset about the rise of a new racial justice movement and advances towards racial equity. Folks who are upset about our new understandings and developing understandings of sexuality and gender, and people being willing to express their experiences and their identities.

People who are frustrated by pop culture. The fact that Little Mermaid is Black now and Spider-Mans Afro-Latino right? This idea that their country is gone, that its changing, that technology has disrupted things. And so, those are people who are looking for a home and looking for people to tell them that they will not be and do not have to be the losers of American history. And in fact, that their understanding of America is a valid one. And so we get and we understand why political appeals to prejudice work in that case.

That no, no, no, no, no, its not that the countrys changed, its that its been taken over by these bad, terrible people and that youre the right one, youre the real Americans, youre the ones who get it. And so we see why Ron DeSantis campaigns the way he does, why Glenn Youngkin was able to get elected in Virginia on the campaign issues he pursued, removing Beloved from schools and, you know, attacking Toni Morrison, right. And we see all of this at the core and at the heart of the Trump campaign as well.

Alford [00:06:21]: Its a huge challenge that were going to continue talking about right after this quick break, Wesley. When we return, were going to talk more also about white lash and how it isnt always cloaked in violence. Stay with us.

Check out the full clip above and tune into theGrio Weekly at 11 a.m. ET every Sunday on theGrio cable channel.

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The post Watch: Is the uprising of violence due to racial progress in America? appeared first on TheGrio.
A "legal error" has resulted in an additional parole hearing for a former Watkins Glen resident who confessed to brutally murdering a high school classmate 23 years ago.

Joshua Horein, 39, was 16 when he bludgeoned 15-year-old Amber Brockway to death in August 2000.

Days away from going to trial early in 2001, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison by then-Schuyler County Judge J.C. Argetsinger.

Horein was denied parole after a hearing eight months ago  parole hearings are typically conducted every two years  but is scheduled to have another appearance before the parole board in September, due to what Nicole Sheremeta, spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, called a "legal error" in the board decision.

Amber Brockway of Watkins Glen was 15 when she was beaten to death in August 2000 by classmate Joshua Horein.

Why a new parole hearing date was set

Following the Dec. 20, 2022 hearing, the parole board set Horein's next scheduled appearance for June 2024, Sheremeta said. That date still stands.

However, a "de novo interview"  essentially a repeat of the prior decision  has also been scheduled for Sept. 23 due to a "legal error" in the board decision, Sheremeta said. She did not specify what that error was.

The Elmira Star-Gazette has requested documents related to Horein's December 2022 parole hearing through a Freedom of Information request. Agencies are given five business days to respond to such requests.

Remembering Amber Brockway: Watkins Glen teen loved by family, friends, aspired to be model

Schuyler County DA: 'The system needs to be revamped'

Horein is currently incarcerated at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, New York.

Schuyler County District Attorney Joseph Fazzary, who prosecuted Horein, said this will be his seventh appearance in front of the state Parole Board since October 2019.

Fazzary said Amber's mother, Joanne Brockway, testified before the board again on Aug. 4.

"Every time, (Amber's) mother has to suffer the agony of testifying and then wondering if her daughters killer will be released from prison," he said.

New hearings must be scheduled within 24 months when parole is denied in New York, Sheremeta said. The statute does not prohibit hearings from happening sooner. Those who have been denied parole can also file to appeal the board's decision.

Fazzary said he believes the frequency of such hearings should be limited.

"Thats not justice and the system needs to be revamped," he said. "Victims should never have to undergo this kind of torture just to keep a cold-blooded killer behind bars."

Follow Jeff Murray on Twitter @SGJeffMurray. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: 'Legal error' in Amber Brockway's killer's parole hearing: What's next
Thousands of people from all over the region will be traveling to Charlotte this week ahead of Beyonces concert at Bank of America Stadium. Despite cloudy skies leading up to the concert, the weather is expected to hold up for the big show.

The global superstar will be performing Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 8 p.m. Doors will begin opening at 6 p.m., but BeyHive fans will likely be gathering near the stadium hours beforehand.

A stadium spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer that the show will take place rain or shine, but it may be delayed if inclement weather pops up in the area.

Luckily for fans, it looks like that wont be the case.

According to the extended forecast from the National Weather Service, it will be sunny with a high near 90 degrees during the day and mostly cloudy with a low around 73 degrees in Charlotte on Wednesday evening. Theres a small chance of overnight thunderstorms afterward.

Because itll be warm, stadium officials say those going to the outdoor show are encouraged to stay hydrated and wear sunscreen while the sun is out. There will be food and drink concessions inside available for purchase, but each guest is also allowed to bring two sealed 16.9 oz bottles of water to the show.
Tenants recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic are trickling into the Idaho Asian Plaza, an international retail center originally touted in 2018 as Boises very own Chinatown.

The plaza, on the southwest corner of Cole and Ustick roads, was purchased by Utah-based China Town Plaza LLC five years ago, with plans of turning it into a center full of international shops and restaurants. Idaho Asian Plaza LLC, managed by Zhuang J. Lin of Salt Lake City, is the legal name of the business that has owned it since.

Skyrocketing construction costs and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic sharply curtailed the plazas transformation, said property manager Celeste Davies in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman from Utah.

Some tenants moved in before the pandemic hit, including the Idaho Capital Asian Market, a grocery store selling authentic Asian ingredients; Global Lounge, a nonprofit that hosts multicultural workshops, classes and events; and Viva Brazil, a Brazilian market.

Other units have sat vacant for years. But the goal of transformation persists, and new tenants are on the way, Davies said, including Taste of Nigeria African Cuisine, Peking Tokyo Asian Bistro and a vape shop. The owners are in negotiations for other units.

Theres a lot of potential to become an international center, she said.

Its the first thing anyone sees when driving into the Idaho Asian Plaza area off Cole Road just south of Ustick Road. The Friendship Gate was constructed with parts from imported from China. Its kind of like a welcome sign, said Celeste Davies, the property manager.

Plaza slows to a crawl

Plaza development stalled when the pandemic hit in 2020, Davies said. There was a shortage of materials, a doubling or tripling of delivery times, and rising costs. Some tenants who were planning on moving in, like a Chinese tea house, couldnt, she said.

Some tenants set up shop before the pandemic and weathered it.

Global Lounge: A meeting of cultures

The Boise nonprofit called Global Lounge opened in the plazas mall at 3085 N. Cole Road, Suite 201, in 2019, Donna Kovaleski, its executive director said by phone. The Lounge is a meeting point for Idahoans of cultures around the globe who dont usually cross paths, she said  so the following years were tough.

Were a platform for bringing people together, which is the opposite of what COVID restrictions are all about, she said.

Instead, the organization focused on revitalizing its suite by pursuing grants for new technology, she said. The Lounge was awarded funding for a TV to use while hosting classes and workshops. It purchased recording equipment for a music mentoring project hosted by the Boise band Afrosonics.

It was kind of a crawl through COVID times, Kovaleski said. But now were on the other side of that.

The Lounge started a weekly farm and art market in the Plaza parking lot in June, Kovaleski said. Small business owners and artists set up shop every Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. under two large canopies to sell goods and food. The city library branch in the plaza, at 7557 W. Ustick Road, has promoted library programs and cards there, said Renee Addington, the branch manager, in an interview.

Guerda Kwete, a vendor at a weekly farm and art market in Boises Idaho Asian Plaza, prepares a spread of homemade African dishes on July 28. The spread included croquettes, chicken and okra. Local nonprofit Global Lounge began hosting the market in June in the parking lot of the plaza at North Cole and Ustick Roads.

Boises African Community Development organization meets in the Lounge once a week, Kovaleski said. A Muslim womens group uses the space for workout groups. The Lounge hosts a free community dinner open to the public on the third Tuesday of every month.

Asian Market: Food court coming

The Capital Asian Market, which opened in 2018 at 3107 N. Cole Road, wasnt slowed down by the pandemic.

The market has grown to distribute ingredients to 40 restaurants around the Treasure Valley, said Dillon Luo, its owner, in an interview. Its about to open a wholesale department for local restaurant owners to buy in bulk.

The market is in talks with the property owners to knock down a wall on the south side of the building, Luo said, expanding into a neighboring unit to create an additional 3,600 square feet for a food court and shelves for more goods.

The food court is expected to serve roasted duck, dumplings, dim sum and Asian baked goods. The store will be able to use the added shelf space to sell more ingredients for Malaysian and Indonesian dishes, Luo said, based on customer demand.

Luo said he expects to start construction this year and complete the expansion by summer 2024.

Stacy Lin, 30, of Meridian, shops for vegetables with her son, Austin, and daughter, Mia, at the Idaho Capital Asian Market on July 31. The market was one of the first businesses to open in the Idaho Asian Plaza at North Cole and Ustick Roads after it was purchased in 2018 by a Utah developer with plans to turn the area into a Boise Chinatown. Dillon Luo, the owner and manager, said the store is in talks to knock down the wall of a neighboring unit and expand, adding more shelves and a food court selling Asian goods.

Brazilian market: A couple owns it

Viva Brazil, a Brazilian market, opened in the Plaza in November 2020 at 3075 N. Cole Road, said David Hunter, who owns the store with his wife, Geralda, in a phone call with the Statesman. The market saw a gradual increase in customers through 2021 that tapered off at the end of the year, he said. They delivered groceries to 10 customers throughout the pandemic.

Guarana Antarctica, a Brazilian soda, is one of the most popular items in the store, along with Pao de Queijo  a type of cheese bread  and meat rolls called coxinha, David Hunter said. The coxinha is cooked fresh on the weekends and has sold out in less than an hour, Hunter said.

He said he expects traffic to the store to increase once more tenants move into the plaza.

Diaspora museum: Raising money

The Idaho Museum of International Diaspora opened an administrative office in the mall in fall 2019, in suite 203, which it used before the pandemic to plan for the cultural museum it plans to build, said Palina Louangketh, its executive director, in a call with the Statesman. The plaza was an ideal location because its a multicultural center, she said.

The museum, which could be as large as 200,000 square feet, is expected to educate visitors about the cultural heritage of Idahoans and Native Americans, as well as the cultures of immigrants who have migrated to the state.

Once the pandemic struck, however, the organization transitioned to remote work, Louangketh said. The museum now uses the office to collect mail and shares it with Indo Idaho Inc., a nonprofit that aims to preserve Indonesian culture in Idaho.

The museum is fundraising for its project and hopes to raise up to $2 million to purchase land downtown. Louangketh said she hopes to break ground in 2025.

Beauty salon, martial arts studio

Sunshine Beauty Salon opened in the mall in suite 113 in 2019 and offers haircuts, perms and coloring, said Fawn Nguyen, its owner.

Soul Self Defense, a martial arts studio, opened in suites 204 and 206 in March 2022, said Jessica McBride, its co-owner.

Longtime tenants wonder whats up

Though the Asian and Brazilian markets are open, and tenants have taken up residence in the mall, the plaza still looks partially deserted on the outside.

Temporary canvas business signs hang over empty units bordering the south and east sides of the parking lot, the view inside blocked by paper taped to the windows. The same signs have been hanging over vacant businesses in the plaza for years, said Addington, the library branch manager, and Gary Lillard, an insurance agent at an Allstate office in the plaza, at 3175 N. Cole Road.

The Idaho Asian Plaza, a business idea to gather a variety of Asian eateries and markets at one location near the intersection of Cole and Ustick roads in Boise, was barely gathering steam when the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the dream of a Boise Chinatown.

Addington said she was excited about the plazas Chinatown concept.

Seeing more businesses in this area that are thriving would be great, she said.

Sarah Cecil, assistant branch manager at the Washington Federal Bank branch in the plaza, at 3197 N. Cole Road, said in an interview that its been sad to see units sit empty.

Multiple cultures in this little plaza would be cool, she said.

McBride, the co-owner of Soul Self Defense, said shes raised concerns about weeds on the property and many units sitting empty, but the owners have been responsive. New restaurants coming in should help business, she said.

Jonathan Melby, president of the West Bench Neighborhood Association, within which the plaza sits, said the association is interested in supporting any amenities in the neighborhood that are easily accessed on foot or by bike. Hes bought food from multiple booths at the weekly farm and art market, he said.

Coming: Taste of Nigeria

Leke Abimbola, who owns and operates Taste of Nigeria African Cuisine with his wife, Zainab, said the business has been in talks since 2019 about moving into the Plaza.

The couple has been operating the business as a food truck in Boise since 2008. The Abimbolas wanted to first test the water in town to make sure they could establish the customer base to support a storefront, Leke Abimbola said by phone.

People need to taste the food and know it, he said.

But when the couple decided to explore setting up shop in the plaza, construction costs to convert a unit there to a restaurant were too high. The price hasnt come down, Abimbola said, but with personal loans and a COVID-19 relief grant from the city of Boise, the restaurant is now moving forward in the plaza. After signing a lease in February 2022, Taste of Nigeria hopes to open in 3031 N. Cole Road by the end of this year, he said.

Abimbola said the restaurant will help customers learn more about Nigerian culture and create more culinary diversity in the community.

Gone are the days where people only eat fries and a hamburger, he said.

Coming: 2 restaurants & a vape shop

Peking Tokyo Asian Bistro, a restaurant serving Japanese food and sushi, at 3027 N. Cole Road, is expected to open by September, Davies said.

Vape Shop of Idaho, at 3149 N. Cole Road, is expected to open by November.

A hot pot restaurant operated by Utah-based Ombu Grill, at 3109 N. Cole Road, is expected to open by the end of the year.

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PROVIDENCE  Political junkies, history buffs and baffled Rhode Island newbies  this one's for you.

It's a head-to-the-beach, Del's in hand, 308-page book on "The State of Rhode Island: Politics and Government" that looks with hope, a critical eye and some regret at what's changed in the state's political culture over the last two decades  and what hasn't. (Hint: the I-know-a-guy "coziness.")

What's not to love (or hate), depending on your political bent?

Written by University of Rhode Island political science Professor Emeritus Maureen Moakley and assistant professor Emily Lynch  with essays by a number of advocates and well-known political commentators, including Providence College's Adam Myers, Brown University's Wendy Schiller and state Rep. June Speakman, a Roger Williams University professor  the book begins with this premise:

"Change has come to Rhode Island," it says, with "an increasingly diverse electorate ... more voices in the public square, the proliferation of interest groups and national political trends."

The basics for outsiders: "Little Rhody, the smallest state in the union, has a land mass of just over 1,200 square miles. North to south it is 48 miles; east to west 37 miles. With a population of just over one million, it is the second most densely populated state in the country, yet nearly 50 percent of the state is forest. It is called the Ocean State as, given its small size, it has over 400 miles of shoreline."

The authors chose this memorable moment during the roll call at the National Democratic Convention in 2020 to illustrate the "parochial ethos" that has put Rhode Island in the national news.

While "many states recorded their vote with references to historical or current political issues. The ... roll-call vote for Rhode Island featured the chair of the state Democratic Party on a beach in Rhode Island touting a plate of calamari, the states official appetizer, while announcing the vote."

In this image from video, Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairman and state Rep. Joseph McNamara speaks during the state roll-call vote on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in August 2020. At right is John Bordieri, executive chef at Iggys Boardwalk in Warwick, with a big order of calamari.

The Washington Post described the moment as the most irreverent and characteristically Rhode Island way to make an appearance on the national stage.

"There is, however, a darker side," the authors note. "A unique degree of coziness between political leaders, labor leaders, social leaders ... [and] a legacy of political corruption."

In all, the book includes contributions from: Patrick T. Conley, Michael DiBiase, Bob Hackey, Rob Horowitz, Colleen Kennedy, Diane Kern, Aaron Ley, Emily K. Lynch, Maureen Moakley, Adam S. Myers, Shanna Pearson, Gary Sasse, Barry Schiller, Wendy J. Schiller, June Speakman, Michaela Szymczak and Matt Ulricksen.

More: Rhode Island is known as the Ocean State. How did we get the nickname anyway?

What has changed in the last 20 years?

"The immigrant experience."

Rhode Island's Latino population nearly doubled between 2010 and 2020, and Moakley wrote in one of her sections, "As one historian notes, 'For earlier immigrants, it sometimes took decades or even a century for them to become full participants in the Rhode Island community. ... Not so for Latinos.'"

"There had been pockets of Puerto Rican, Cuban and Mexican immigrants in Rhode Island, particularly in the postwar period, but a surge of Latino immigrants occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s, and in one generationthey have become a political force," she wrote.

"Minorities [currently] hold positions of influence in government, nonprofits, education and private industry, and they are becoming a respected contingent of new leaders in the state." (Cue up the bankruptcy-to-rebound story of Central Falls.)

The book estimates there are about 30,000 undocumented residents in the state  9% of the immigrant population and 1% of the total population. Many, the book says, are from Latino communities.

State Sen. Sandra Cano, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Education, speaks at a gathering at the State House. Cano, a native of Colombia, is among several Rhode Island politicians who are immigrants.

In 2021, the book notes, Gov. Dan McKee signed legislation that made residents, regardless of immigration status, eligible for in-state tuition at the state colleges and universities. More recent laws provide child health care and driving privileges to those unable to establish their legal presence in the United States.

"While there are inevitable instances of drug trafficking, gangs and violent crime that accompany poverty and displacement, most of this population is generally accepted as productive," the book says. "Formerly undocumented immigrants are in the state legislature and other elected office and are productive and respected members of the political elite."

Latinos make up about 14% of voting-age adults in Rhode Island, Brown's Schiller notes, "but in terms of eligible voters, they comprise closer to 11% of the voting eligible population over age 18."

What else changed? The number of women in Rhode Island politics

"Gina Raimondo, the first elected female governor in the state, changed expectations about the capacity of elected women in public office."

And there's more, according to Schiller:

In 2003, when the legislature was downsized, "women represented just over 19% of members in the General Assembly; by 2023, women were over 44% of the legislature," with 17 out of 38 state senators, and 33 out of 75 members of the House.

"In 2021, women were over 44% of legislative membership, making Rhode Island the state with the fourth highest number female legislators in the country. In that year, women reached parity with men in the state Senate,being 50% of that body. In 2022, two of five statewide offices were held by women."

What hasn't changed?

Answer: A "back-door patronage system" that is nowhere more evident than in the appointment of magistrates to the court system, according to Moakley.

"Magistrates are appointed directly by the chief judge of each court, thus circumventing the open judicial nomination process ... which gives fits to reform groups, who call out the inside loophole in the system as a remnant of the 'I know a guy' culture in the state."

Answer #2: "The one million Rhode Islanders ... hold tightly to their hometown identities, local traditions, and local control of policy," rebuffing repeated calls for consolidation and regionalization.

"The preference for hyperlocal control is further manifested in the proliferation of dozens of other units of government ... that pull power away from the State House  from fire districts to water authorities and housing authorities," writes Speakman.

More: Does RI need 39 cities and towns? Regionalizing saves money, but it's still a hard sell

What else?

For all the changes at the State House, "Insider deals still get done; in the end-of-session rush, many insider bills are pushed through quietly, in the hopes of avoiding public scrutiny."

And, significantly: "Rhode Island is [still] a labor state."

"During the early twentieth century, labor was a powerful advocate for the rights of workers and immigrant groups that provided the labor to fuel the industrial growth that contributed to the states prosperity and a rising middle class," the book says.

"Private sector unions remain influential, but the power of the unions is centered in the states public service unions ... the thousands of state worker unions, including teachers unions and state and municipal public service unions like firefighters and police, [who] collectively wield considerable influence."

Union members and students supporting Rhode Island School of Design janitors and other union workers on strike gather at the corner of Waterman and North Main streets in Providence on April 3.

Their power "derives from the unions ability to influence primary elections in legislative and municipal races, where they can be a critical factor."

The book cites McKee's win in last year's Democratic primary as an example of how candidates court the union vote, in his case, by offering state workers $3,000 bonuses for being vaccinated against COVID-19. ("The blowback was considerable, so the policy was reconfigured ... as part of a retention effort to keep them on the job.")

"When the state passed pension reform, some of the more excessive aspects of union agreements involving excessive disability pension provisions and costly work allowances for public service workers were curtailed. However, many overburdened cities and towns still face costly work rules and high accumulated pension obligations," the book says.

The most glaring example: "The City of Providence has an unsustainable pension obligation of over one billion dollars."

A warning flag ahead: "Whatever the outcome [of a stalled pension-relief bond], the unions are ... confident that, while other municipalities might be forced into bankruptcy, the state would not allow the capital city to go under."

A 'laggard' compared with some blue states?

The legislature has taken on a distinctly more progressive agenda, the book says, with new progressive legislators and leaders who  while keeping a firm grip on power  are less conservative and give space and voice to members.

In his essay, Providence College's Myers cites the 2019 battle over abortion rights in the Rhode Island State House as "just one example of how Rhode Island politics and policy are highly influenced by political and policy developments" in Washington, D.C.

But he also notes the extent to which Rhode Island "lags" other blue states. Among his other observations:

Democrat-controlled states have been increasingly raising their income taxes over the last 20 years. Rhode Island, he notes, has resisted this trend. "The states top income tax rate is 5.99%, significantly lower than that of many leading 'Blue States' like California (top rate of 13%), New Jersey (top rate of 10.75%), New York (top rate of 8.82%), or Oregon (top rate of 9.9%)."

Rhode Island has generally moved in the same direction as other blue states, passing laws codifying abortion rights, protecting LGBTQ+ residents from employment discrimination, restricting gun access, providing driving permits to unauthorized immigrants, among other policies, but "In general, however, the state has not been at the forefront of liberal cultural policymaking," he wrote, citing gun control and marijuana legalization as arenas where Rhode Island has lagged other Democratic states.

"Given the lopsided Democratic advantage in both chambers of its legislature ... [this] may be surprising to those who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the states politics," Myers writes. "But in fact, Rhode Islands more conservative approach to cultural issues is quite easily explained by the unusually strong power of cultural conservatives within the states Democratic Party. Indeed, for much of the twenty-first century, the leaders of both the [House of Representatives] and Senate have been Democrats with conservative views on cultural issues."

"Whether on abortion, gay rights, or guns, these leaders have often sought to stall efforts emanating from the states progressive activist community to change the states cultural policies," he continues. "Time and again, however, political pressures have eventually forced the House Speaker and Senate President to relent."

"If and when the progressive activist community succeeds in its goal of taking over the state DemocraticParty and, with it, the General Assembly, we can expect that Rhode Island will shift from being a laggard to being a leader in Blue-State cultural policymaking."

Data points

A 2021 survey cited by URI's Lynch indicated that "a majority of Rhode Islanders follow state and local politics most of the time (60%)."

But "comparative state statistics place Rhode Island around the middle of the pack for other indicators of civic engagement." For example: "Youth engagement in Rhode Island was lower than the national rate, with 43.6% of young adults ages 18 to 29 discussing political or social issues with [a] friend or family."

Other forms of engagement, including sharing views on social media, contacting public officials and belonging to a group were also lower than the national rate.

Rhode Island recently ranked 26th for political engagement, based on voter registration, contributions and voter turnout.

Education levels for the voting-eligible population (meaning those age 18 and up): 9.4% had some high school or less, 38.4% had a high school diploma or less, 29.2% had an associates degree or some college, and 32.4% had a bachelors degree or higher, according to a 2021 analysis.

Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) made up the largest proportion of voters in 2016, 2018 and 2020 and had the highest percentage of voters of their generation that turned out to vote in 2020 (77%).

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New book for political junkies dives deep into state of RI politics
This small Iowa town along the Mississippi River is known for being the birthplace of Western icon Buffalo Bill and, in the past decade, the History Channel show American Pickers.

LeClaire sits on the western bank of the Mississippi River just north of Bettendorf.

Take a walk down Cody Road  adorned with stereos attached to trees playing songs like Mr. Sandman  which runs parallel to the Mississippi River and find antique stores and gift shops, places to drink and eateries with impressive views.

Where to eat in LeClaire

A portion of beef brisket served on top of soda bread and mashed potatoes with a side of asparagus from the Crane & Pelican Cafe, located in a historic home on Second Street in LeClaire.

Dine in a home that dates back more than a century with the Crane & Pelican Cafe, located at the Dawley House, which maintains its original chandeliers, fireplaces and pine floors. The stately brick home, built in 1851, formerly served as the residence of Daniel and Sabina Dawley and their nine children, according to the restaurant. Expect a menu of American fare including slow-roasted beef brisket, Cajun pasta  topped with blackened chicken, sirloin steak, or salmon over rigatoni noodles  pecan-crusted salmon, sandwiches such as a blanched asparagus with cream cheese served on rye, and for dessert, homemade ice cream. Stop by on Sundays for a buffet brunch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Location: 127 S. Second St., LeClaire

Another option: If youre looking to dine with a view, Steventons, located at 1399 Eagle Ridge Road, is the choice since it overlooks the Mississippi River. The fine-dining restaurant with American cuisine skews more toward surf and turf  think filet mignon, ribeye, scallops and salmon. You could make a meal of the tuna tartare tower, smoked salmon cakes or oysters, either on the half shell or baked with Parmesan cheese and Creole sauce. Sit on one of the two decks, keep warm by the firepit when the temperatures drop and order the show-stopping Greek cheese, set on fire table side with the help of a little 151 rum.

Where to catch a drink in LeClaire

Mississippi River Distilling Co., located on Cody Road in LeClaire, serves cocktails made with the distilley's own spirits daily.

Mississippi River Distilling Co. was founded in 2010 and has since expanded into Davenport. The distillery makes gin, vodka, liqueurs and whiskey, serving them in drinks at the LeClaire location, which the distillery also calls a cocktail house. Try drinks such as a honey whiskey-based lemonade, bourbon peach tea, a vodka Mississippi mule and more.

Location: 303 N. Cody Road, LeClaire

Another option: Green Tree Brewery, 309 N. Cody Road, is Mississippi River Distilling Co.s neighbor. Like the distillery, the brewery offers great views to accompany your drinks, which include perfect-for-the-summer IPAs spiked with mango and blood orange or a hefeweizen beer named after the brewery in German, Gruner Baum.

Where to find the perfect gift in LeClaire

Aunt Hatties Fanciful Emporium sells vintage pieces and merchandise from popular franchises on Cody Road in LeClaire.

Aunt Hatties Fanciful Emporium has something for everyone, including men  youll get that reference once you visit. While you may find some vintage goodies, expect to discover loads more whimsical, wacky gifts that will make you chuckle, or question whether you need it, like a cookbook from rapper Snoop Dogg.

Location: 102 S. Cody Road, LeClaire

Another option: The Western-inspired boutique Cody Road Trading Post sells apparel, decor, knick knacks and more at 110  N. Cody Road.

More Iowa travel: Headed to the Amana Colonies this summer? Here's where to visit from restaurants to shops.

Where to shop in LeClaire

Mike Wolfe of "American Pickers" fame chats with customers at his store Antique Archaeology in LeClaire in 2018.

A visit to LeClaire wouldnt be complete without a stop at Antique Archaeology, whether you're an American Pickers fans or not. The store is owned by Mike Wolfe who, in the History Channel series, is accompanied by friend Frank Fritz in earlier years and now his brother Robbie Wolfe as they travel and discover fascinating finds across the country. Antique Archaeology houses items from the show and "American Pickers" merchandise from vintage motorcycles, signs and decor to apparel.

Location: 115  Davenport St.

Another option: Shop for antiques inside a home over a hundred years old. Mississippi Cottage Antiques, 606 N. Cody Road, is located in a house built in 1915 that overlooks the Mississippi River. Find vintage canes, silver dollars, antique furniture, glassware and perhaps least expectedly  home-grown catnip. The two-story shop has five distinct rooms upstairs, including one dedicated to military and war items such as knives and clothing.

What to do in LeClaire

The Buffalo Bill Museum, located on Front Street in LeClaire, features history about its namesake William Cody and the city.

You wont miss the Buffalo Bill Museum in part because of the Lone Star Steamer docked, enclosed and on display next to the museum. The 19th century steamer, designated a National Historic Landmark, is the only example of a wooden-hulled boat built in traditional Western rivers fashion in America today, according to the museum. The museum is named after LeClaire-born William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, the American soldier, buffalo hunter and showman responsible for Buffalo Bills Wild West touring show. In addition to Cody, the museum also features the history of the Mississippi River and early American life and settlers.

Location: 199 N. Front St.

Another option: Step off dry land and go sight-seeing with Riverboat Twilight. Guests will travel north on the Mississippi River, passing by Rapids City and Port Byron, Illinois, as well as Princeton, Iowa. The Victorian-styled boat has outdoor decks for passengers to enjoy the views. Learn more about Mississippi River towns and their history on the hour-and-a-half trip, which departs and docks in the Port of LeClaire.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at pbarraza@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: The best places to eat, drink and shop while visiting LeClaire, Iowa
Human brain scan in neurology clinic Credit - Getty Images/Westend

The FDA in mid-July for the first time ever approved an Alzheimers drug, Leqembi. The annual price-tag will run patients $26,500. The same week, the Alzheimers Association for the first time ever released county-level data to identify which communities are most struggling with the disease.

6.7 million Americans live with Alzheimers disease and 134,000 of them will die because of it each year. Weve known these aggregate numbers for a while now, but with new data and new drugs, healthcare specialists can now better target attention and resources.

More Americans will die from Alzheimers this year than will die from breast cancer, prostate cancer, and car accidents combined. In the next 25 years, its expected that the number of Americans with Alzheimers will double as the disease continues to grow in prevalence and as life expectancies increase.

More From TIME

Doctors and scientists dont quite know all the reasons that people develop Alzheimers. Doctors agree that it is probably caused by some combination of age-related changes, along with genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.

With new data just released, patterns of inequality are slowly emerging.

The evidence is reflected in the map above. Black populations in the Mississippi delta region, elderly populations in southern Florida, Hispanic populations along the border with Mexico, and the low-income White populations in the Appalachians are all visible in the data, showing that Alzheimers is not only a disease that impacts the elderly, but also dramatically impacts different communities as the social determinants of health come into stark relief.

The CDC states this clearly, Lower levels of education, higher rates of poverty, and greater exposure to adversity and discrimination may increase the risk of Alzheimers disease. Researchers can see this clearly in the data. Older Black Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimers as older White Americans according to the National Institute of Health. Hispanic Americans are 1.5x as likely to develop Alzheimers, and researchers also found that for each one-point increase on a scale of socioeconomic deprivation, there was an 8% increase in the odds of developing Alzheimers.

The conditions in places where people are born, live, learn, work, and play are known as social determinants of health (SDOH). These conditions can have a profound effect on a persons health, including their risk for Alzheimers disease and related dementias, the CDC goes on to say. The build up of beta-amyloid plaques and tangles may cause Alzheimers, but social conditions show much greater risk for some Americans even before that chemical change begins to happen.

Black Americans die more often from Alzheimers

In 2017, researchers finally figured out why Black Americans are both more likely to develop Alzheimers Disease and to die from it: stress.

Black Americans experience more stress than their White peers, which has led to higher rates of Alzheimers prevalence. Specifically, researchers have studied how job loss, financial burdens, and housing insecurity have created stresses on Black Americans more so than on White Americans, leading to higher rates of Alzheimers. On top of this, Black Americans end up paying 35% more in Medicare payments for their dementia diagnoses.

Black Americans who live in areas challenged by poverty, low education, unemployment, and/or substandard housing had significantly increased odds of having Alzheimers-related biomarkers and impaired cognition according to new research from the Alzheimers Association.

Alzheimers has become a leading cause of death

Deaths from Alzheimers have more than doubled over the last two decades. Meanwhile deaths from heart disease and stroke have actually declined. Alzheimers is a disease that impairs memory and cognitionmaking it harder to remember who you are, where you are, and what is happening around you. This often appears as mild to advanced cognitive impairment. Alzheimers not only robs you of an identity, it kills you slowly by impairing your motor skills as your body essentially forgets how to swallow or breathe properly.

When our American Inequality article about inequalities in life expectancy made its way around the web, many wrote back saying that quantity of years wasnt everythingquality was hugely important. Alzheimers is probably the worst disease in this respect. It not only destroys the quantity of years one has left to live, but it also ravages the quality of those years.

One state in particularly shows the lethal effects of these intersecting forces on both quantity and quality of years. With a high percent of Black Americans, high percent of low-income Americans, and poor access to health-care, Mississippi illustrates the life-or-death consequences of Alzheimers inequalities.

Mississippi has the highest Alzheimers death rate

Mississippi has the highest mortality rate from Alzheimers in America with nearly 53 out of every 100,000 people dying from Alzheimers in the state. From 2000 to 2019, deaths from Alzheimers in Mississippi increased 267%, nearly double the national average which also increased a startling 145%.

The primary reason Mississippi has such high Alzheimers deaths rates has to do with its medical care. Quality medical care can reduce Alzheimers death rates in two ways: Reducing complications, and slowing the progression. Even before the FDA began approving new drugs like Leqembi, several medications have existed to help slow the progression of Alzheimers and other dementias, but without access to affordable care many Mississippi residents never get these drugs. In addition, 29% of Americans with Alzheimers die from pneumonia as the disease causes them to forget how to swallow, inadvertently inhales food particles or liquids that cause bacterial infections. Doctors know how to treat pneumonia and other complications or comorbidities, but only if the sick can actually get into doctors offices to receive that care.

In June, the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund ranked Mississippi last of all 50 states in terms of the quality of its healthcare system. When Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippis state health officer, was asked about the report he was hardly surprised, saying If we had 60 states, wed be 60th in health.

The interwoven nature of inequality becomes apparent in Mississippi. Top of this the fact 39% of Mississippi residents are Black (the highest Black population of any state in America) and that Mississippi also has the lowest median household income of any state at $46,511.

Even though New York and Maryland are the states with the highest prevalence of the disease (1 in 8 residents in each state has Alzheimers) Mississippi has a 3x higher Alzheimers death rate. New York actually has the lowest death rate at 19 deaths from Alzheimers out of every 100,000. This is a testament to the tremendous healthcare systems that both New York and Maryland have, though its important to acknowledge that healthcare challenges and SDOH issues in specific communities persist, such as in Baltimore, MD and in the Bronx, NY.

The Path Forward

While doctors and scientists continue to make headway on preventative care and to research the underlying causes of Alzheimers, there are steps that policymakers, healthcare advocates, and researchers can take to address the growing challenges that already exist.

Train more caregivers on Alzheimers America will need 3x the number of caregivers that the country has now to serve just 1 in 10 Americans with Alzheimers in 2050. The Alzheimers Association has deemed 20 states to be neurology deserts for Alzheimers care. In New York, 39% of the staffing challenge surrounding Alzheimers care stem from inadequate training. Meanwhile, healthcare specialists estimate that caregivers in America provide 18 billion hours of unpaid care for Alzheimers patients, valued at $339.5 billion. This caregiving also falls disproportionately on women, who comprise 67% of all Azheimers caregivers. More states should require nursing home staff to receive training and identification skills around Alzheimers. Currently, only 23 states require this. Medical schools can also encourage more students to focus on geriatric studies, which only 3% of medical school students pursue now. Students can help focus on the areas for the greatest need for care that can meaningfully improve the quality of patients lives.

Analyze more data on minority communities While Black Americans make up 13.6% of the U.S. population, a meta-analysis of 17 Alzheimers studies found they make up just 7.3% of the overall Alzheimers data. Researchers not only need to overcome stigmas and barriers to encourage more participation of Black Americans in studies, but they also need to pool their data together more. Grants from the National Institute of Aging have already helped to close this gap, which was twice as bad from 1997 to 2017 when Black Americans made up just 3.4% of all Alzheimers research patients. The AgingResourceBioBank out of the National Institute of Health is helping spearhead this effort to share data, along with several other public, academic, and private institutions.

Increase education on new drugsAs The New York Times puts it, Leqembi is not a cure for Alzheimers, and the drug doesnt improve patients memories or cognitive abilities. It also does not stop the disease from getting worse. The new drug just approved by the FDA can modestly slow down cognitive decline in patients who are in the early stages of the disease. But only about 1 million of the 6.7 million people with Alzheimers are estimated to be eligible. While the cost of the care may be covered largely by Medicare, this drug will be out of reach for many. But that may be a good thing. Patients need to be properly informed about what the drug can and cannot do, which may be particularly hard to wrangle for those with cognitive impairments. If healthcare advocates cant set the record straight about what the drug can do, they need to decrease costs so that patients dont get bilked.

Alzheimers continues to both create and reflect healthcare inequalities across the U.S. Rising death rates, new drugs, and recently available data have brought this conversation into the light. Meanwhile, Black communities, residents of Mississippi, and caregivers continue to suffer. However, growing the supply of caregivers, improving data accuracy, and providing more information to the public can go a long way toward helping Americans who may be losing their most precious treasures: their memories.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
Wawa is coming.

In 2022, the Philadelphia-area gas and convenience market known for serving up East Coast-style hoagies at its delis teased it would be coming to Nashville...but not until 2025. But the convenience store and gas station has already announced where several locations will be in Tennessee. Including the recent announcement of a store in Springfield.

The city of Springfield confirmed that Wawa submitted plans to open on a former Rite-Aid property located at the corner of Memorial Boulevard and Tom Austin Highway. The Robertson County location is about 29 miles north of Nashville.

Even though the city confirmed Wawa's submitted plans, the company itself is remaining tight-lipped about it and other possible locations in Tennessee.

We cant confirm specific locations or timelines at this stage in the process. We can, however, say that we are actively looking into potential sites for new Wawa stores in the Nashville markets, Wawa Senior Manager of Media Relations Lori Bruce said. Its too soon in the process to confirm locations or timelines, but we look forward to sharing more information on our growth plans as plans take shape.

Maybe Wawa got a bit ahead of schedule? Hopefully so.

Take a look at other potential Wawa sites in Nashville and Middle Tennessee and what it will bring once it makes its mark in Tennessee.

Wawa locations in Tennessee

Tennessee currently has no Wawa's open, but the company has been looking at different sites in the Middle Tennessee and Nashville area.

Springfield is the latest possible location for a store. Before Wawa representatives spoke with Springfield officials, plans for a proposed new Dickson store location were presented in April 2023 to the Dickson Planning Commission.

In that same month, Bellvue Councilman Dave Rosenburg announced the possibility of a store coming to Highway 100.

In June, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Regional Planning Commission approved Wawa's proposed plan for a Clarksville location on Fort Campbell Blvd and Lady Marion Drive.

In 2022, Wawa announced that more than 40 locations could be coming to Middle Tennessee.

What is Wawa?

Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a Wawa offers all the things you'd expect from a convenience store  snacks, lottery tickets, drinks, tobacco, gas (at most locations), etc.  but they also offer a larger variety of fresh food than most fast-food restaurants such as their made-to-order, fan-favorite hoagies and the hot breakfast "Sizzli" sandwiches.

In case you don't know what a Sizzli is, take a look here.

What does "Wawa" mean?

"Wawa" is an Ojibwe Native American word that translates, more or less, as Canada goose".

It's also the name of the town where this version of the company developed and where the corporate offices still reside.

How do you pronounce Wawa?

It's pronounced to rhyme with "saw-saw," and the second w is never capitalized.

Where are Wawa's located?

Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C.

When will the Nashville Wawa open?

By 2025 the brand will have its first Nashville location, company officials said in 2022.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Wawa is coming to Nashville, Middle Tennessee: See locations so far
Updated, Aug. 7: A tornado watch forced the postponement of the White House K-12 cybersecurity summit from 4 p.m . Monday to 10:30 a.m. EST Tuesday. Check back on The 74 for Mark Keierlebers full report from D.C.

First Lady Jill Biden, senior administration officials, school district heads and technology company executives will convene at the White House Monday to kick off a new cybersecurity defense initiative as schools increasingly fall victim to crippling ransomware attacks.

The Education Department will launch a coordinating council to provide formal collaboration between government officials and district leaders to help schools strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities in the face of attacks that have closed campuses and exposed highly sensitive student and educator information online. The effort was announced by senior Biden administration officials on a press call Sunday evening.

The council is being billed as the departments key first step in a renewed focus on cybersecurity after multiple districts  including in Los Angeles and Minneapolis  were targeted by cyber gangs.

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At the White House event, federal officials will hear from school district leaders who navigated attacks, including Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who led Americas second-largest school system through a hack last September. That breach, an investigation by The 74 revealed, exposed thousands of current and former students highly sensitive psychological evaluations on the dark web.

In addition to the first lady, others expected to attend the 4 p.m. White House summit include Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies, said the administration seeks to help school districts protect sensitive information about students, parents and educators. In March, a ransomware attack against Minneapolis Public Schools led to a data breach that exposed more than 189,000 files, including records related to sexual misconduct investigations, child abuse reports and district physical security information thats typically kept private.

Neuberger called the Minneapolis breach a particularly vicious example, citing the disclosure of closely held school security information, which was first revealed in an investigation by The 74.

Teams of federal cybersecurity experts will visit schools and help them create incident response plans, said Neuberger, adding that districts  particularly small ones  often lack the money and resources to adequately prepare for attacks.

Schools are now the single leading target for hackers, outpacing health care, technology, financial services and manufacturing industries, according to a global survey of IT professionals released last month by the British cybersecurity company Sophos.

Cindy Marten, the deputy secretary of education, said that government officials and school leaders must make school cybersecurity a priority at the same level as physical infrastructure. She said she experienced firsthand how districts and the federal government can work together to mitigate the harm from attacks. Carvalho reached out to the Education Department after the Los Angeles district was hacked, Marten said, making clear the importance of partnerships.

It can take as long as nine months for districts to recover from cyberattacks, according to a 2022 Government Accountability Office report, and can cost them as much as $1 million to respond.

Several technology companies have also committed to offer schools free and low-cost resources. Amazon Web Services pledged to provide $20 million for a K-12 cyber grant program, free security training and incident response help. Meanwhile, Cloudflare will offer free cybersecurity tools to small districts with 2,500 or fewer students.

Other federal commitments announced Monday include a guide from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Guard Bureau to help schools report cybersecurity incidents and tap into federal cyber defense expertise.

Last month, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a $200 million grant program to help districts bolster cybersecurity.
A mother is suing Southwest Airlines for racial discrimination, saying she was accused of human trafficking when traveling with her biracial child.

Mary MacCarthy, who is White, traveled from California to Denver with her daughter, who is Black, to attend her brothers funeral in October of 2021, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.

Unbeknownst to Ms. MacCarthy, while they were in the air, a Southwest employee called the Denver Police Department to report Ms. MacCarthy for suspected child trafficking for no reason other than the different color of her daughters skin from her own, the suit alleges.

As MacCarthy and her daughter were walking down the jet bridge, they were confronted by Denver police officers, it continues.

The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthys daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is White and her daughter is Black.

After significant questioning, during which Ms. MacCarthys daughter began to break down in tears, Ms. MacCarthy was eventually allowed to leave by the officers, but not before this display of blatant racism by Southwest Airlines caused Ms. MacCarthy and her daughter extreme emotional distress, the lawsuit adds.

MacCarthy believed the officers in Denver were there to tell her about another death in her family but were told an employee of the airline had reported her as a possible human trafficker, according to the lawsuit.

In an interview with CNN following the incident last year, MacCarthy shared an email she sent to the airline asking for an apology.

In her email to Southwests media team, MacCarthy said she wanted a written apology from the airline, immediate reimbursement of the full price of their tickets and additional compensation to account for the trauma imposed on an innocent family, and especially on a grieving 10-year-old Black girl.

At the time, Southwest said they were disheartened by her account of the events.

We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us, Southwest Airlines spokesperson Dan Landson said in a statement to CNN in November 2021. Our employees undergo robust training on Human Trafficking. Above all, Southwest Airlines prides itself on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for the millions of customers who travel with us each year.

A spokesperson for Southwest said they had no comment on the pending litigation.

MacCarthy is asking for an unspecified award for damages, including emotional distress, mental anguish, suffering and inconvenience.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
From August 7th, 1942, to February 9th, 1943, American and Japanese forces fought for control of the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands archipelago. The battle was a turning point in WWII for several reasons. First, it was the first major Allied offensive against Japan. Second, it resulted in the first significant defeat of Japanese land forces. Third, it stopped the Japanese advance toward Australia. And fourth, it gave the Allies a much-needed morale boost.

The Importance of Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal was important for several reasons. First, it was a key part of Japan's strategic plan to isolate Australia from the United States. By cutting off sea routes between Australia and the U.S., Japan could focus on other areas, such as Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. Second, Guadalcanal was home to an airstrip that Japan could use to launch air attacks against Allied ships. And third, Guadalcanal was rich in natural resources, including timber and minerals. Here are seven things you probably don't know about Guadalcanal.

The Battle of Guadalcanal Begins

The battle began on August 7th, 1942, when Marines landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal and took control of the airstrip that Japan had been building. The Marines were met with heavy resistance from Japanese troops, which were dug in and well-prepared for an attack. The two sides fought a brutal battle of attrition for the next six months. There were no clear winners or losers; each side suffered heavy losses. In January 1943, after months of fighting, the U.S. finally regained control of the airstrip. It began to turn the tide of battle in their favor.

Troops from the armies 164th infantry rest at a stand still at Guadalcanal.

Understanding the importance of the Pacific Theater

When you think about WWII, what images come to mind? If you're like most people, you probably think of the European Theater with its iconic battles like Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. But while the European Theater was certainly important, events such as Battle of Guadalcanal were just as crucial to the Allies' eventual victory. Here's a look at why.

To understand the Pacific Theater's importance, you must first understand the strategic goals of both the Axis and Allied powers. For the Allies, the primary goal was to defeat Nazi Germany. But for Japan, the goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." This sphere would stretch from Korea and China to India and Australiaessentially making Japan the dominant power in Asia.

Japan had to control natural resources and sea lanes to achieve this goal. Most of Japan's natural resources were located in Southeast Asia, so their conquest of that region was crucial. They needed to control key sea lanes in the Pacific Ocean to keep their conquests supplied with food and materials.

The Allies recognized that if Japan were allowed to achieve these goals, it would be nearly impossible to defeat them. So, even though defeating Nazi Germany was their primary focus, they also devoted a significant amount of time and resources to halting Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

The next time you think about WWII, don't forget about the important role that the Pacific Theater played in defeating both Japan and Nazi Germany. From Midway to the Battle of Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima, Allied forces made countless sacrifices to ensure that freedom would prevail in both Europe and Asia.

The WWII Monument in Washington D.C.

When most people think of Washington, D.C., the first things that come to mind are probably the White House, the Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial. However, there's one monument in D.C. that often gets overlooked, even though it's located right in the center of the city. The World War II Memorial was built to honor the 16 million Americans who served in World War II. It also honors the 400,000+ who lost their lives fighting for our country.

The memorial consists of 56 granite pillars. Each represents a state or territory. Two large arches symbolize victory in Europe and the Pacific. A Freedom Wall is inlaid with 4,048 gold stars. Each star represents 100 Americans who lost their lives. In addition, several sculptures and inscriptions throughout the monument commemorate different aspects of the war. For example, one sculpture shows a mother and father saying goodbye to their son as he ships off to fight. Another depicts a young nurse caring for a wounded soldier.

The WWII Memorial was dedicated on April 29th, 2004, by President George W. Bush. Since then, it has become one of D.C.'s most popular tourist attractions, with over 4 million people visiting annually. This powerful reminder reflects the sacrifices made by so many Americans during one of the darkest periods in our history.
It is with the 2024 presidential election in mind that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally clarified his views on the 2020 contest, which most Republicans continue to falsely believe was won by Donald Trump.

Of course he lost, DeSantis said in a new interview with NBC News. He acknowledged that Joe Biden is president, while also peddling conspiracy theories about ballot harvesting and voting by mail.

It was a seemingly obvious confirmation of reality  but one that could have major consequences as DeSantis struggles to regain the early promise of his presidential campaign in the face of Trumps own third White House run.

Read more on Yahoo News: Why is the DeSantis campaign struggling?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a Trump rally in Opa-Locka, Fla., Nov. 2, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

After winning reelection in a landslide last year, DeSantis emerged as a darling of the conservative establishment. If the midterm elections were mostly disappointing for them (with many Trump-endorsed candidates losing), the Florida governor was a bright spot that seemed bound to get brighter.

Aware of the challenge, Trump stepped up his attacks on DeSantis. The governor responded coyly at first. We must reject the culture of losing that has infected our party in recent years, he said in Iowa.

Left unsaid was whom DeSantis blamed for that losing culture. But now that he is facing a defeat of his own, he can no longer afford being coy.

A careful silence after Bidens win

Donald Trump is greeted by DeSantis prior to a campaign stop in Fort Myers, Fla., Oct. 16, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

For three years, DeSantis tried to maintain a public ambiguity about how he viewed the results of the 2020 election. There was no widespread evidence of malfeasance or fraud, but the defeated Trump has continued to maintain the election was stolen  and so have many of his supporters whom DeSantis hopes to win over.

Just days after the election, DeSantis seemed to suggest that there could have been irregularities  without directly making the kinds of outlandish claims Trump and his close allies were making.

Read more on Yahoo News: DeSantis still won't say whether he thinks Trump lost in 2020, via Insider

I would exhaust every option to make sure we have a fair count, he said.

About a month after the election, DeSantis finally seemed to tepidly acknowledge that Biden had won. Were going to push ahead. Well work with whoever we need to be able to do right by the state of Florida, he said in mid-December.

Dubious claims about election integrity

DeSantis at a vaccine summit at the White House, Dec. 8, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Even after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, Trump stood by his thoroughly debunked claim that he had actually won the election. And even as many establishment Republicans wanted nothing to do with the conspiracy, the partys base was firmly behind him.

DeSantis, who was in the early stages of contemplating a presidential run, tried to split the difference by creating an election integrity unit last spring to combat election fraud. But there had been no evidence of fraud in Florida; one Democratic state legislator called the new unit unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer funds.

Read more on Yahoo News: DeSantis has yet to explain why just 20 ex-felons were singled out on voting charges, via Orlando Sentinel

Those concerns were validated when the unit managed only 20 arrests in a state where 11.1 million people were registered to vote. The arrested men had not attempted to perpetrate electoral fraud: They had served time for felony convictions and thought they could register to vote. Floridians voted to restore voting rights to felons in 2018, but DeSantis significantly weakened the measure.

Evasive on the campaign trail  until now

A man in Simi Valley, Calif., endorsing a Trump-DeSantis ticket, March 5. (Allison Dinner/Reuters)

We need the courage to lead and the strength to win, DeSantis said in a video that accompanied the launch of his presidential campaign earlier this year.

But as Trump opened up an ever-widening lead in both national and state-level polls, DeSantis had trouble convincing voters that they should switch allegiance from Trump simply out of electability concerns.

After all, most Republican primary voters continued to believe that Trump had won. And the electability argument had failed to persuade them in 2016, when they  and Trump  proved wrong those who made it.

Even when directly asked about the Jan. 6 attack, DeSantis ducked the issue.

I wasnt anywhere near Washington that day, he told voters in New Hampshire. I have nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didnt enjoy seeing what happened, but weve got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards and be mired in the past.

The response was widely mocked, including by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival for the 2024 nomination.

With his campaign sputtering in the polls and burning through cash, DeSantis is trying to draw clearer distinctions between himself and Trump.

There will be costs to that shift. The former presidents campaign criticized DeSantis harshly for his latest comments.

Ron DeSantis will say whatever he can to keep his campaign afloat, even though he was one of America's leading election critics until his campaign needed a reset, campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, referencing recent attempts by DeSantis to regain the confidence of Republican donors and grassroots. Ron will do whatever it takes to hoodwink a few more donors into giving to his failed campaign.

Read more on Yahoo News: Why has Ron DeSantis been such a flop?
Companies often invest in automation with the expectation of increased profits and productivity, but that might not always be the case. A recent study indicates businesses are likely to see diminished returns from automationat least initially. Whats more, becoming too focused on robotic integration could hurt a companys ability to differentiate itself from its competitors.

According to a new review of European and UK industrial data between 1995 and 2017, researchers at the University of Cambridge determined that many businesses experienced a U-shaped curve in profit margins as they moved to adopt robotic tech into their production processes. The findings, published on August 2 in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, suggest companies should not necessarily rush towards automation without first considering the wider logistical implications.

[Related: Workplace automation could affect income inequality even more than we thought.]

Initially, firms are adopting robots to create a competitive advantage by lowering costs, said Chandler Velu, the studys co-author and a professor of innovation and economics at Cambridges Institute for Manufacturing. But process innovation is cheap to copy, and competitors will also adopt robots if it helps them make their products more cheaply. This then starts to squeeze margins and reduce profit margin.

As co-author Philip Chen also notes, researchers intuitively believed more robotic tech upgrades would naturally lead to higher profits, but the fact that we see this U-shaped curve instead was surprising. Following interviews with a major American medical manufacturer, the team also noted that as robotics continue to integrate into production, companies appear to eventually reach a point when their entire process requires a complete redesign. Meanwhile, focusing too much on robotics for too long could allow other businesses time to invest in new products that set themselves apart for consumers, leading to a further disadvantage.

[Related: Chipotle is testing an avocado-pitting, -cutting, and -scooping robot.]

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 Velu. Its important that companies develop new processes at the same time as theyre incorporating robots, otherwise they will reach this same pinch point.

Regardless of profit margins and speed, all of this automation frequently comes at huge costs to human laborers. Last year, a study from researchers at MIT and Boston University found that the negative effects stemming from robotic integrations could be even worse than originally believed. Between 1980 and 2016, researchers estimated that automation reduced the wages of men without high school degrees by nearly nine percent, and women without the same degree by around two percent, adjusted for inflation.
Sacramento District Attorney Thien Hos office has decided to freeze out a Superior Court judge from hearing any criminal cases coming from its prosecutors, employing a rule that allows them to reject a judge for being prejudiced against their interests.

Hos office confirmed to The Sacramento Bee that prosecutors plan to use a section of the California Code of Civil Procedure to blanket paper Judge Stephen Acquisto, a 10-year veteran of the bench.

The office would not say what prompted the move.

Yes, we are exercising our authority pursuant to CCP 170.6 as it relates to Judge Stephen Acquisto, Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett said in an emailed statement. At this time, we will not provide further information on this matter.

Stephen P. Acquisto

Tripletts statement did not indicate whether the decision to paper Acquisto was permanent or would lapse after some time.

The D.A.s Office notified Sacramento Superior Court Presiding Judge Michael Bowman of the move July 31, according to a court email forwarded to The Bee.

Acquisto did not respond to a request for comment, with a court spokeswoman writing in an email that the judge is unable to provide any comment regarding pending or future cases that may come before the court.

Bowman also declined a request for comment through the spokeswoman.

Both Acquisto and Bowman were appointed to the bench in December 2013 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.

The move has sparked gossip among capital attorneys wondering what may have prompted the decision, and speculation that it may stem in part from a case handled under Californias revised felony-murder law that allows for defendants who received life sentences as accomplices in murder cases to seek new sentences.

Two sources, who spoke anonymously to The Bee because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the re-sentencing in a 2008 second-degree murder case may have sparked the D.A.s move.

In that case, the defendant was serving a 15-years-to-life sentence and successfully sought re-sentencing that allowed for his release from prison despite opposition from the D.A.s office.

The sources also said Acquisto had been the subject of an earlier move by Hos office to keep cases from being assigned to Acquisto temporarily.

Lawyers familiar with the judge defended his impartiality as word of the D.A.s plan emerged.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho office is using a section of the California Code of Civil Procedure to ablanket papera Judge Stephen Acquisto, a 10-year veteran of the bench. Sources told The Bee that the move may have come after Acquisto ruled on a re-sentencing in a 2008 second-degree murder case.

Public defender attorneys have appeared before Judge Acquisto on a wide variety of cases over the years and have found him to be a fair and impartial judge, the Sacramento County Public Defenders Office said in a statement to The Bee. While we do not always agree with his rulings, he endeavors to find a just resolution in every case before him.

Veteran Sacramento defense attorney Mark Reichel said Acquisto has a reputation as a really bright judge, and theres no one who would say otherwise.

He reads and applies the law like we would require, Reichel said. Most people are saying its because he is being a judge and fairly applying the law to the facts, which at times will require him to rule against the prosecution.

Obviously, he rules on hundreds of cases throughout the year. It appears on a few occasions where he rules against the prosecution they are of the opinion that his rulings should be 100 percent of the time in their favor.
The indictment that Special Counsel Jack Smith unveiled last week portrays Donald Trump's efforts to reverse Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, including his appeals to state officials and Vice President Mike Pence, as a criminal conspiracy that violated three federal statutes. Trump attorney John Lauro, by contrast, argues that his client was merely exercising his First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of his grievances.

Lauro, who outlined the former president's defense in interviews on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News yesterday, said Trump believed then and still believes his grievances about the election were justified. And in pressing election officials, state legislative leaders, and Pence to act on his unsubstantiated fraud claims, Lauro maintains, Trump was pursuing remedies he reasonably believed to be legitimate. As Lauro sees it, Trump therefore lacked the criminal intent that federal prosecutors will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

When Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes that would be necessary to award him that state's 16 electoral votes, for example, he was not, according to Lauro, soliciting election fraud. To the contrary, he was asking Raffensperger to do his job by correcting election fraud. Likewise when Trump asked Republican legislators in states such as Arizona and Michigan to certify his electors instead of Biden's.

What about the "alternate" electors who, at the urging of Trump's lawyers, presented themselves as "duly elected and qualified" in seven states that Biden had officially won? "Alternate electors are used in every four-year cycle," Lauro told Dana Bash on CNN. "The Senate parliamentarian acknowledged to Vice President Pence that they always receive protest alternate electors. None of those electors were counted. Vice President Pence was completely aware of the nature of the protest, of the nature of the right to speech."

In public comments and in private conversations with Pence, Trump urged him to accept those "alternate" slates and/or reject Biden's when he presided over the congressional tally of electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Had Pence done that under the scenario that Trump imagined, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would have resolved the purported conflict. But Lauro emphasized that Trump "ultimately" asked Pence merely to "pause" the tally so that the relevant state legislatures would have an opportunity to reconsider which slates should be recognized.

This was Trump's "final ask," Lauro said, as reflected in the speech he gave during the "Save America" rally at the Ellipse that preceded the Capitol riot. "If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election," Trump told his supporters. "States want to revote. The states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people."

As the indictment explains, it was not true that "the states got defrauded," at least not in the sense that fraud was extensive enough to make a decisive differencea claim that was repeatedly debunked by state and federal officials, including Republicans who had supported Trump's reelection. Nor was it true that state legislatures "want[ed] to recertify"; to the contrary, the Republican legislative leaders to whom Trump appealed uniformly rejected that suggestion. But in making his "final ask," Lauro says, Trump was relying on legal advice from John Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University's law school and "an esteemed constitutional scholar."

Eastman acknowledged that the "pause" he proposed would violate the Electoral Count Act. But that statute, he argued, was unconstitutional, so the course of action he recommended would be consistent with a higher law, although he also admitted it was likely that the Supreme Court would unanimously reject that claim.

Pence repeatedly refused to do what Trump wanted, saying it was not within his constitutional powers as vice president. But as Lauro tells it, this was a disagreement with colorable arguments on both sides, and Trump did not commit a crime simply because he favored the side that was consistent with his cause.

Pence has repeatedly condemned Trump for demanding that "I choose him over the Constitution." He has described the advisers on whom Trump relied as "crank" and "crackpot" lawyers. But even Pence has expressed skepticism about whether Trump can be held criminally liable for listening to them.

The indictment describes Eastman as one of Trump's co-conspirators. Civil rights attorney Harvey Silverglate, who is representing Eastman, argues that he did nothing to justify that characterization. "He acted in the highest traditions of the legal profession to advise his client, even if some of his theories were at the very boundary of the law," Silverglate wrote in a letter to The Boston Globe. "There is nothing unlawful, much less criminal, about coming up with creative, boundary-pushing legal theories."

While Pence rejected Eastman's theories, Lauro says, he was sympathetic to some of Trump's claimsin particular, his complaints about pandemic-inspired changes to election procedures. According to Lauro, Pencewho, like many others in Trump's circle, did not buy his stolen-election fantasynevertheless agreed that it was appropriate for Congress to consider allegations of election irregularities, although he did not agree that they justified sending supposedly disputed slates "back to the states."

While "people disagree about constitutional principles all the time," Lauro said on NBC, "it never leads to a criminal charge." Trump "acted under the advice of counsel when he petitioned" Pence, Lauro added, and that was protected "under the First Amendment."

In short, Lauro says, the Justice Department is attempting to criminalize differences of opinion about an empirical question (whether systematic fraud delivered a phony victory to Biden) and legal questions such as the propriety of "alternate" electors and the constitutionality of the intervention that Pence rejected. The government's case, he argues, is plainly inconsistent with the First Amendment, which protected Trump's right to complain about the election and his right to solicit the assistance of state and federal officials in addressing his complaints.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has a similar take. Writing in The Hill, Turley notes that the First Amendment protects political speech even when it is false and even when the speaker knows it is false, as the indictment acknowledges: "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."

Yet the case against Trump, Turley argues, "sets up the federal government as the arbiter of truth" and "essentially charges Trump with not accepting the 'truth.'" If Trump sincerely believed that the election was stolen, he says, "the indictment collapses," because that means he did not have the criminal intent required by the government's conspiracy charges.

"In an effort to demonstrate his knowledge, the indictment details how many people told Trump that he was wrong about the election and wrong about the law," Turley writes. "I was one of those voices. Trump did not listen to me, most legal analysts or even his White House counsel. Instead, he listened to a small group of lawyers who assured him that a challenge might succeed and that there was evidence of massive election fraud. But Trump is allowed to seek out enablers who tell him what he wants to hear."

George Mason law professor Ilya Somin thinks that's wrong. "Even if Trump did manage to delude himself into believing he had actually won the election, his conduct was still culpable," Somin writes in a Volokh Conspiracy post. "If I steal your valuable ring because I have persuaded myself (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary) that I am its true owner, I am still guilty of theft. The same logic applies here. Trump had every reason and opportunity to learn he had lost. If instead he chose to indulge in self-delusion, which he then used to justify his scheme to overturn the election, he is guilty for much the same reasons as the thief whowithout any justificationimagines himself to be the rightful owner of the object he steals."

Nor does Somin think it makes a difference that Trump relied on legal advice from Eastman et al., any more than the imagined thief could escape conviction by citing "cr[a]ckpot lawyers" who "assured him he owned someone else's property." In any case, Somin says, Trump "had overwhelming evidence he lost [the] election and privately admitted he did."

Smith clearly thinks evidence concerning what Trump "privately admitted," which the indictment cites to show his claims were "knowingly false," is important. But unlike the evidence regarding the election outcome, the evidence regarding what Trump actually believed, which is frequently contested or ambiguous, seems less than overwhelming.

As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) noted in a statement about the indictment, "fraud and speech integral to criminal conduct do not enjoy First Amendment protection." But while "the government may, for example, criminalize lying on an insurance claim, or passing a note to a bank teller to commit bank robbery," FIRE said, "these exceptions must remain narrow and well-defined in our laws and jurisprudence." To convict Trump, it added, "a jury must hold DOJ to its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that former President Trump (1) knew his election fraud claims were false but repeated them anyway'corruptly' in an attempt to (2) have others ignore their legal duties in order to (3) prevent certification of the electoral vote."

Lauro thinks the government cannot possibly meet that test. Trump "believes he won, and the Biden administration will never be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't," he said on NBC. "What he's being indicted for, ultimately, is following legal advice from an esteemed scholar, John Eastman, that he could petition his own vice president and ask his vice president to pause the voting on January 6th to give the states one last chance to certify or re-audit. That was the ultimate ask that President Trump made in his Ellipse speech. That's clearly protected."

The post Here Is Why Trump's Lawyers Say His Post-Election Conduct Was Constitutionally Protected appeared first on Reason.com.
He took over a Jackson, Mississippi, TV station known for its racism and led it to new heights.

William H. Dilday Jr., the first Black television station manager in the United States who was also one of the 44 founders of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), died on July 27 in Newton, Massachusetts. He was 85.

Several media outlets reported his death. His daughter Kenya Dilday told The New York Times that he died from complications from a fall.

A video mix switcher in a control room. No television station in the U.S. had ever had a Black manager until William H. Dilday Jr. took over WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi in 1972. Dilday died recently at 85. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

In 1972, when Dilday was just 34, he took over WLBT, the NBC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi. The station had been beset by controversy and was party to a lawsuit that resulted in a historic decision.

A Jackson life insurance company owned WLBT and, in 1964, was up for its FCC station license renewal. A group of citizens and the United Church of Christ protested the renewal because of the stations racist actions, which included regularly using a slur on air.

The FCC granted WLBTs renewal, but the church and citizens sued. After years of court cases, an appeals court reversed the FCC license renewal and transferred the license to a local nonprofit affiliated with the church. That cemented WLBTs history as the first TV station to lose its FCC license.

It was against that backdrop that Dilday took the job. The Times noted that, as a Boston native, Dilday was initially reluctant to leave his position as personnel director for WHDH in his hometown and move south. But he did and immediately began making his mark.

He diversified the staff and the stations programming. In its obituary, the Times said he hired Dorothy Gibbs, a Black woman, to create Our Playmates, an integrated childrens show. He led the station to the No. 1 ranking in its market, the National Association of Black Journalists noted.

By 1977, a Black man anchored the 6 p.m newcast, 40% of the stations staff was Black, and one-third were women, according to a 1977 Times story.

He also suffered his share of insults. The station received a torrent of hate calls and mail when it announced he would be station manager. When he editorialized on air, more threats came, The Time reported.

He also had to battle his staff. His production department threatened to quit when Dilday promoted a Black man to a managers job. Three employees did resign.

Through it all, Dilday held firm and ran the station to his best journalistic ability and in a way that made money. He was criticized for covering a white supremacist rally, a decision he said he made because he wanted viewers to see the hate. He refused to broadcast the TV miniseries Beulah Land because it portrayed enslaved people as happy on the plantation. (The Washington Post, in a review, said the series had provoked outrage over its degrading treatment of Black people.)

Dilday also made the nonprofit station money, bringing in excess revenue of $500,000 on $3.7 million in earnings.

Dilday left WLBT in 1985 and took a job at WJTV, the Jackson CBS affiliate, where he stayed until his retirement in 2000.

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The post William H. Dilday Jr., first Black TV station manager in U.S., dies appeared first on TheGrio.
An Horry County woman was arrested Monday for her involvement in a Fathers Day crash in North Myrtle Beach that left a Longs man dead.

Police say Nancy Bishop was driving under the influence when she caused the head-on collision that killed the man.

Bishop turned herself in to police Monday and was charged with felony DUI resulting in great bodily injury or death and driving under a suspended license. She had a suspended license for another DUI offense in Massachusetts.

Her arrest was delayed for nearly two months because she had been in the hospital after the crash, police say.

Police say that Bishop was driving a black Lexus about 8 p.m. June 18 on Robert Edge Parkway when she collided head-on with a white Nissan that was occupied by a woman, man and three children. Thomas Brown, a passenger in the other vehicle, died on the scene.

Bishop did not appear in court Monday afternoon for a bond hearing. The judge weighed the danger to the community, given that this was at least Bishops second DUI offense.

A spokesperson for the family said that Browns wife is in a wheelchair and is immobile with three children under the age of 6 to care for. The family asked for no bond, adding that if Bishop received bond, it would be like pouring salt into already fresh wounds.

The judge issued Bishop a bond of $50,000 for each charge that would be paid in cash or surety. She was also confined to home detention with GPS monitoring. The judge also said she was to have no contact with the victims.

Eyewitnesses stated that Bishops vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic and struck the other vehicle. When searching Bishops vehicle, officers found an open container of wine, along with a cup in the vehicles cupholder containing liquid consistent with the contents of the wine bottle, police said.

Police opened a DUI investigation following the accident.
Woman facing manslaughter charge in stabbing death of boyfriend inside Marlboro apartment

A woman is facing a charge of manslaughter in connection with the stabbing death of her boyfriend inside an apartment in Marlboro last week, authorities announced Monday.

Darlene Carreras, 37, of Marlboro, was arrested Saturday and is slated to be arraigned Monday in Marlboro District Court on the manslaughter charge in the death of 45-year-old Eric Murray, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Marlboro Police Chief David Giorgi.

Officers responding to a 911 call for an altercation inside an apartment on St. Ives Way late Wednesday night found a man suffering from apparent stab wounds.

The victim, later identified as Murray, was pronounced dead at UMass Memorial Hospital.

A preliminary investigation indicated that Carreras had been in a romantic relationship with Murray and that they had been seeing each other regularly, Ryan and Giorgi said. Carreras allegedly stabbed Murray in the chest during an altercation, ultimately killing him.

After the stabbing, Murray is said to have called a friend for help instead of contacting 911 for transport to the hospital.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has since determined the manner of death was a homicide caused by stab wounds.

State police detectives assigned to the DAs office continue to investigate the incident alongside Marlboro police.

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By Elissa Welle

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new study is raising fresh questions about the value of breast cancer screening in older women, finding that those 70 and older who underwent mammograms were more apt to be diagnosed with tumors posing no threat to their health than those who did not screen.

The study by researchers at Yale Medical School, published on Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, tracked 54,635 U.S. women 70 and older who received a mammogram - an X-ray of the breast - in 2002. Women who opted for continued screening were compared to those who chose not to be screened.

The researchers found that among women ages 70 to 74, up to 31% of breast cancer cases found among those who underwent mammograms were overdiagnosed - defined as the diagnosis of a medical condition, typically through screening, that otherwise would not have led to symptoms or problems in a person's lifetime.

As age increased, so did overdiagnosis, the study found. In women ages 74 to 84, that jumped to 47% - and to 54% in those 85 and older.

The study also did not find statistically significant reductions in breast cancer deaths associated with screening.

The rationale for screening is to catch a disease at an earlier stage to improve the chances of successful treatment. Overdiagnosis might lead to unnecessary treatments and the accompanying financial and emotional burdens.

A concern of continued screening in older women is detecting breast cancers that would never become symptomatic, according to study lead researcher Dr. Ilana Richman, an internal medicine physician at Yale Medical School.

"At some point, it's unlikely that knowing about breast cancer earlier is going to make much of a difference," Richman said.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that makes recommendations about clinical preventive measures, has recommended that women ages 50 through 74 undergo screenings every two years. But it has said there is not enough evidence to assess the harms and benefits of mammograms for women ages 75 and up. The task force is reviewing a draft recommendation to lower the starting age for regular mammograms to 40.

The American Cancer Society has recommended screening women over 55 if their life expectancy is more than 10 years, whereas the American College of Physicians has recommended discontinuing screening women over 74 for women whose life expectancy is 10 years or less.

"It's critical for older women who are thinking, 'Should I continue screening,' to understand what is the full range of risks and benefits," Richman said, adding, "I'm interested in what can we do to help women understand their options."

Oncologists Drs. Otis Brawley and Rohan Ramalingam from Johns Hopkins University wrote in an editorial accompanying the study that physicians need new tools to objectively identify the stage and severity of cancer.

(Reporting by Elissa Welle; Editing by Will Dunham and Caroline Humer)
WASHINGTON  Dragging out debate drama for as long as he can, former President Donald Trump is now asking supporters whether he should attend the first Republican confrontation this month.

Trump and his campaign are using the "will he or won't he" question as part of a fundraising pitch, urging donors to "please take my poll on whether you think I should show up to the Republican primary debate."

"Were outraising the entire field. We have more support from the grassroots than anyone else  and its not even close," Trump said in an email Sunday to supporters, citing his lead in polling and fundraising over his Republican rivals.

The first in a series of Republican debates is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

Donald Trump and rivals at a debate in 2016

'Foolish for me'

Trump has also taken to asking supporters at campaign events whether he should debate after months of suggesting that he would skip the proceedings.

On the stump and in his fundraising pitch, Trump has cited his big lead in GOP polls and said struggling rivals shouldn't be given such a chance to attack him in a public forum.

The thrice-indicted Trump has also said "I'm in a battle for my freedom" and the Biden administration wants "to throw me in JAIL for life."

"So, I think it's sort of foolish for me to go to the Republican debate," Trump said in the email.

'Coward'?

For weeks, Trump's opponents  and officials with Fox News, which is broadcasting the debate  have urged Trump to show up to the first Republican faceoff.

Some campaign rivals, seeing the debate as their best chance to cut into Trump's lead, are trying to goad him into going to Milwaukee.

"If Trump doesnt show up to the debates, hes a coward," Chris Christie said over the weekend on X, formerly Twitter, a line the former governor of New Jersey has used frequently.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is in a distant second in most polls, told Newsmax last month that Trump should debate because "nobody is entitled to be nominated; you've got to earn it. And I think he should show up and make his case and answer questions like the rest of us."

A second Republican debate is scheduled for Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Trump has suggested he will skip that one as well.

It seems clear that the former president will try to drag out the suspense right up to the day of the first debate, which is two weeks from Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump polls voters on whether to debate 2024 Republican rivals
New York Yankees' Carlos Rodon, right, reacts as he is pulled during the third inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

CHICAGO (AP)  Carlos Rodon was placed on the 15-day injured list Monday by the New York Yankees, who activated reliever Jonathan Loaisiga before their series opener against the Chicago White Sox.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Rodon has a minor, low-grade left hamstring strain. The left-hander exited his start against the Houston Astros in the third inning Sunday with tightness in the hamstring.

Rodon's injury is the latest blow to a shaky Yankees rotation as New York tries to stay close in the American League playoff chase. Boone said the two-time All-Star should be able to maintain a throwing program while he recovers, beginning by tossing on flat ground. He hopes Rodon can return when eligible after 15 days.

Carlos wants to pitch through it and it doesnt sound like hes going to have to be shut down at all, Boone said.

Boone wasnt certain who would take Rodons rotation spot, but mentioned right-hander Randy Vasquez, currently with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Rodon has struggled badly in his first season with the Yankees after signing a $162 million, six-year contract as a free agent in December. He missed the first three-plus months of the season because of forearm and back injuries, and is 1-4 with a 7.33 ERA in six starts covering 27 innings.

Loaisiga was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. The right-hander had arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur from his pitching elbow, which had sidelined him since April 5.

Boone said he had no reservations about using Loaisiga in a high-leverage situation even though the 28-year-old reliever has appeared in just three games and pitched 3 1/3 innings for New York this season.

I feel like he's in a really good place, Boone said. "We feel like he's throwing the ball really, really well.

I'm really excited to add him to the mix because he's an impact reliever back there.

The Yankees also recalled left-hander Nick Ramirez from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and designated right-hander Deivi Garcia for assignment.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Col. Erik Smith left a high-ranking role in federal law enforcement to lead the Kansas Highway Patrol, an agency that has been plagued by low morale and controversy for nearly a decade.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Smith, who previously led the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrations inspections division, to lead the state law enforcement agency that has been a consistent source of strife for the Democratic governor since she took office in 2019.

What Im focused on is just making peace with the past and trying to take the agency into the future, Smith said in an interview with The Star four weeks after he took over as the patrols acting superintendent as he awaits confirmation by the Kansas Senate.

That past dates back to when Republican Gov. Sam Brownback appointed Col. Mark Bruce as superintendent to resolve morale issues that festered under his predecessor, Col. Ernest Garcia.

Bruce gained a reputation for high recruiting classes and Kelly chose to keep him on when she took office in 2019. But months later, Kellys administration forced Bruce out amid questions of his handling of a domestic violence case involving another high-ranking officer. Bruce has a pending lawsuit against Kelly related to his ouster.

But Kellys pick to replace Bruce, Col. Herman Jones, was soon mired in controversy as he faced multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.

Earlier this year, lawmakers, with support from the Kansas Troopers Association, threatened to reorganize the force, taking it away from Kelly and placing it in the hands of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican.

Smith, who began his career in the Sedgwick County Sheriffs Office, has promised a reset  and so far has garnered bipartisan support.

I think what the Highway Patrol needs is stability here and now, and I think if that sets up the next administration to be in a position to go in a different direction it doesnt matter what that direction is, said Smith, who spent two decades in federal law enforcement before returning to Kansas. I want to be able to prepare the Highway Patrol for that day.

The Kansas two-step

The same month that Smith took over the patrol on an acting basis, a federal judge handed down a scathing ruling, which faulted Jones and the patrol, for unconstitutionally violating drivers rights through the Kansas two-step, a practice in which troopers would walk away from a car before returning, sparking a voluntary interaction that allowed time for drug sniffing dogs or other backup to arrive.

Smith said he could not comment much on the lawsuit, citing that case was still ongoing. The federal case remains open as the court seeks to replace Jones with Smith as the defendant in the case. Kobach told reporters last week his office was still determining whether or not to appeal the order.

He did affirm the importance of following the constitution and said the patrol would abide by any court order.

Our policies have evolved even since when those traffic stops occurred and well continue to take a look at best practices, he said.

The ruling made national news, harming the patrols reputation in an era already marked by distrust in police, especially among communities of color.

Theres some work to be done in repairing relationships among members of the public, Sen. Ethan Corson, a Fairway Democrat, said.

But Smith rejected the idea that the Highway Patrols reputation in the community needed to be rehabilitated.

Theres a loud voice that carries a sometimes negative law enforcement sentiment but I dont think that that is widespread, Smith said. I do think that the Highway Patrol has a fantastic reputation overall of professionalism, of service, of courtesy and of professionalism.

Broad support for Smith

As a political appointee, Smith may only have three years at the helm of an agency before a new governor comes in with a new superintendent.

But, after years of political squabbling over the future of the force, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are optimistic about the forces future under Smiths leadership.

Bringing in Col. Smith with his vast amount of experience, being outside of the Kansas Highway Patrol, I think bodes really well, said Rep. Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican. . He added that the troopers hed spoken to had good first impressions.

There seems to be a lot of optimism that he is going to be the person that comes in and really does walk that walk.

Sen. J.R. Claeys, a Salina Republican and vice-chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said Smiths impressive experience will help in that process when he comes in front of the Legislature next year with his budget proposal.

I think that people do trust him, that legislators will trust him, Claeys said. That makes the job so much easier both for him and for us. It was very difficult handing money over to the previous leadership knowing that that money may not be used for raises, for incentives to become a Highway Patrolman or woman but instead might be used for large settlements.

And the Kansas State Troopers Association, which has for years expressed extreme displeasure with Jones, is showing early support for the new regime.

Theres nothing off the table for him and hes willing to listen, said Sean McCauley, a Kansas City attorney who represents the Troopers Association. That is the breath of fresh air that the organization really needs.

McCauley said troopers had seen early signs that Smiths tenure brings promise. Hed already visited with the troopers association, McCauley said, and shown a willingness to revisit long standing policies like the patrols strict prohibition on visible tattoos and listen to troopers concerns about scheduling.

Were going to stop thinking that because weve done it forever it has to be the only way, he said.

These efforts to modernize the patrol, state Rep. John Carmichael said, would be key to the agencys future success in recruiting and in citizen relations.

The patrol has a long tradition of holding itself, in its own mind at least, above other law enforcement in Kansas because of their stringent requirements at their academy and straight-backed Trooper standing with a large hat on the highway in full uniform at 105 degree heat, Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said.

In todays world I think that probably the life expectancy of paramilitary police law enforcement organizations is limited.

Restoring morale

Although a federal judge ultimately ruled in favor of Jones in a sexual harassment suit brought by current and former female employees, McCauley said the consistent negative headlines about the force had left a stain on the morale.

It was worsened, he said, by an us versus them mentality and a sense among rank-and-file officers that executive leadership in the Highway Patrol was not listening to them.

Its put everyone at odds when they should be going in the same direction, McCauley said.

Meanwhile, the agency has struggled to keep a full staff as troopers leave quicker than the force can hire and train new ones.

In June, only 10 troopers graduated from the patrols academy. For comparison, 38 troopers graduated in December of 2017, according to Highway Patrol reports. The patrol holds training classes twice a year, graduating new recruits once every six months.

Smith suggested public statements and reports of increasingly frustrated rank and file officers at the patrol were overblown. Hes spent the past three weeks traveling the state and said he found people eager and ready to move forward alongside him bringing the force into the 21st century.

Are there differences of opinion on a variety of topics? There are. One of the things Ive talked to people within the agency about very very emphatically is really what good morale is and good morale isnt, Smith said.

One of the notions I reject is that bad morale exists because one segment of the population didnt get something that they wanted. What I believe bad morale is, is the inability to deliver on an expectation. Whether the rank and file has that expectation of me as a leader or I have that expectation of the rank and file.

Clear and open lines of communication, Smith said, will be the key to bringing a culture of energy and passion to the agency that helps recruitment and morale.

I would like to see the organization as a whole be energized and excited about getting up and coming to work each day, I would like to see the organization be willing to sacrifice for a sense of service, he said.

Though he said he would evaluate pay and benefits for officers, Smith viewed that as just one piece of the puzzle for fixing recruitment. Police agencies across Kansas and the nation have struggled to recruit for several years amid a workforce shortage and challenges wrought by the pandemic and nationwide protests over police bias and brutality.

Lawmakers said theyd be watching morale as well as recruitment and retention efforts closely as Smith takes over.

Sometimes change is the best solution and this is an opportunity for Col. Smith to take a look at the processes overall without biases of the past two or three colonels, Owens, the Republican lawmaker, said.

In the past, Owens said, a spot on the Highway Patrol was the pinnacle of an officers career. Now, he said, local agencies appear to be having an easier time recruiting than the state.

Corson said hed like Smith to bring the Legislature a plan for recruitment and retention that includes a reevaluation of pay and benefits for troopers.

Ultimately, Smith said he sees opportunities as he looks ahead.

Those challenges are opportunities for the Highway Patrol to move to the next level, Smith said, referencing challenges in staffing and a need to update the patrols use of technology.

Its our intention to continue to pursue the best applicants that are out there that represent the values that the agency stands for and that represent the diversity in the communities we serve.
A boat that was used to rescue residents of flooded homes following torrential rain throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, in Stony Point, N.Y., on July 9. (Seth Harrison/USA Today Network via Reuters)

More than 120 million people from Atlanta to Philadelphia found themselves at risk of severe thunderstorms, including strong wind gusts, hail and heavy rain, on Monday. Some areas may even experience tornadoes, while the southern U.S. from Florida to Arizona continues to swelter under extreme heat.

Mondays storms were the latest in a series of extreme rainfall events that have recently hit the eastern United States. Last month, Connecticut, Vermont and New Yorks Hudson Valley endured dramatic flash floods caused by 1,000-year rains. A week later, flash floods killed five people in Pennsylvania.

In the first half of the year, ending June 30, the precipitation total in the continental states was 15.70 inches, which is 0.39 of an inch above average.

Nationwide statistics arent yet available for July, but New England got drenched, with New Hampshires Mount Washington receiving 16.91 inches of precipitation  its wettest July ever. Last month, Boston got more than three times its usual rainfall, making it the citys second-wettest July on record. Providence, R.I., and Worcester, Mass., also had their second-rainiest July on record.

Besides natural variability, the main factors contributing to this years wet weather are El Nino, a band of warm ocean water that develops in the Pacific Ocean, and climate change. Heres how.

Climate change

A person in a canoe passes cars partially submerged by floodwaters from recent rainstorms in Montpelier, Vt., on July 11. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

As with the ongoing record-setting heat waves, heavier rainfall is a byproduct of climate change.

Warmer temperatures cause more water to evaporate, which dries out soil and exacerbates droughts, but also leads to more total rain and heavier individual rain events.

Studies have found that climate change is pushing the water cycle to extremes on both ends, with higher total rainfall.

Since 1901, global precipitation has increased at an average rate of 0.04 inches per decade, while precipitation in the contiguous 48 states has increased at a rate of 0.20 inches per decade, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

These changes are not evenly distributed. While the dry Southwest has been locked in a multidecade megadrought, the already wet Northeast and Upper Midwest have gotten wetter. Between 1951 and 2017, the Great Lakes regions average temperature increased 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, its annual rainfall rose 17% and its heavy rain events went up by a whopping 35%.

Even in drought-stricken areas, rains can become more extreme when they do come. After its driest two decades in 1,200 years, California got inundated with near-record rain and snow this winter.

Studies have shown that climate change is weakening the jet stream, a current of eastward-blowing strong winds, causing storms like the one that recently dumped record amounts of rain on Vermont to stall out. The temperature difference between the Arctic and the tropics powers the jet stream, but the Arctic is warming faster than other regions, disrupting the flow of the jet stream.

Human-caused warming from fossil fuel burning is impacting these events in several ways, Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, told Yahoo News last month in an email. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so when it rains theres potential for much more of it. And the pattern of warming is impacting the jet stream in such a way that we get more of these very stagnant or stuck, wavy patterns which are associated with persistent weather extremes (both heat/drought/wildfire and flooding, depending on your location).

El Nino

Residents look over the flood damage in Montpelier on July 11. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

While El Nino generally increases temperatures across North America, its relationship to rain varies by region.

The warmer waters cause the Pacific jet stream to move south of its neutral position, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains. With this shift, areas in the northern U.S. and Canada are dryer and warmer than usual. But in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southeast, these periods are wetter than usual and have increased flooding.

But the overall effect of an El Nino year in the U.S. is more total rain, because, according to NASA, the warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, which allows moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rainstorms.

The wettest three years on record  1973, 1983 and 2015  were all years that featured El Nino, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

If youre looking for relief from the high heat and heavy rain, dont expect it to arrive very soon. The latest projections from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts show that El Nino is expected to reach peak strength in September and last until January.
No new weed shops will be able to open in New York, after a judge blocked cannabis regulators from moving forward with retail licensing on Monday.

The order is the latest blow to New York's ambitious effort to ensure that people harmed by marijuana enforcement are able the reap the financial benefits of legalization.

The ruling sides with a group of service-disabled veterans, who filed a lawsuit last week, arguing that a priority licensing program for entrepreneurs impacted by marijuana enforcement was unconstitutional.

The court is blocking the states cannabis regulatory agencies from issuing new licenses and from granting operational approval to those who are already licensed and working toward opening up dispensaries.

New York Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant ruled that without a court order blocking the cannabis licensing program, it appears that there is genuine urgency and that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result if the licensing program moves forward, his order read.

The background: New York cannabis regulators attempted to roll out their recreational marijuana market with a bold licensing program that prioritized the first dispensary licenses for certain entrepreneurs with past cannabis convictions or immediate family members with past convictions.

Nonprofits that serve formerly incarcerated populations are also eligible for these licenses.

For entrepreneurs with past convictions, the state designed a program that would pair them with real estate and capital. But that program has faltered, with fewer than 20 storefronts open for business almost 2 years after the state first legalized marijuana. A thriving illicit market, with hundreds of unlicensed shops, has sprung up in the meantime.

The wait has angered entrepreneurs like the veterans bringing this lawsuit, who are also supposed to receive priority licensing under the 2021 legalization law. That law defines social and economic equity applicants as people from communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis enforcement, minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses and service-disabled veterans.

More context: A trade group made similar arguments in a lawsuit filed in March, arguing that prioritizing entrepreneurs with cannabis convictions amounted to overreach by the agencies. Meanwhile, the agencies are facing a lawsuit from hemp beverage businesses challenging their emergency hemp rules.

A spokesperson for the Office of Cannabis Management did not immediately return a request for comment, but said after the lawsuit was filed that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

The impact: Entrepreneurs like Osbert Orduna wont be able to move forward with opening their dispensaries if the court continues to block the program. Orduna is part of a team that won a license reserved for justice-impacted entrepreneurs and is also a service-disabled veteran.

His business, which is already doing deliveries, is in the process of starting construction on a storefront in Queens, which won't be able to open up shop under the court order.

In other cannabis markets with social equity programs like Illinois and Michigan, special interest groups have found ways to pit one social equity group against the other, Orduna said in an interview. Divide and conquer.

Service-disabled veterans who have won early retail licenses like Orduna as well as those who have processing or cultivation licenses are going to suffer because of the court order, he said.

Whats next: A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug, 11 at 10 a.m. at the Ulster County Supreme Courthouse in Kingston, N.Y. Parties in the case have an Aug. 9, 5 p.m. deadline to upload filings before the hearing.
Krystal Cascetta, a renowned oncologist at Mt. Sinai in New York City, shot and killed her baby and then killed herself in her home in Somers, New York, at around 7 a.m. on Saturday, police said. The killings shocked residents in Westchester County, north of New York City.

Somers is typically a quiet town in Westchester, a place where residents spend time on bike trails and at a nearby farm on summer weekends.

"Somers is a nice, quiet community in northern Westchester and everybody knows everybody and this is just awful," Stuart's Farm owner Betty Stuart said.

Stuart woke up Saturday morning to emergency vehicles outside her small community on Granite Springs Road.

"Our friend is an EMT and he texted us and it's so sad, so sad. They were a nice young family and we didn't know that they had a child," Stuart said.

Just next door to the farm is where Cascetta and her family lived.

"They came here when they bought the house from a friend of ours and they kept to themselves," Stuart said.

The news has rocked the community and Dr. Cascetta's patients.

"I don't think I've ever heard anything so sad as long as I've been here," one resident said.

One patient told CBS New York by phone that Dr. Cascetta was just on maternity leave. The patient added she remembers Cascetta being full of life as she helped patients through their cancer journeys.

Photos online show Dr. Cascetta working through the pandemic, speaking at medical engagements, and during events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"When we heard about it, it just rocked us to the core. Really it did. And the whole neighborhood ... we're all upset," the patient said.

CBS New York spoke with family members at the home on Sunday. They didn't want to speak on camera, but they said that Dr. Cascetta was a wonderful person and it's a true tragedy what happened to their family.

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.



For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.

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New York's famous yellow taxis want an exemption from the toll (Angela Weiss)

New York wants to introduce car-loving America's first congestion charge, but the move faces fierce opposition -- including from the city's famous yellow taxis.

The plan, similar to pricing long in place in London and Singapore, aims to improve air quality in the Big Apple by easing Manhattan's traffic-choked streets.

It also seeks to raise much-needed revenue to upgrade a creaking subway system that is used by around four million New Yorkers every day.

The scheme, slated to start next year, is being challenged in court, highlighting the difficulty of levying drivers in a country where car is king.

Officials insist the toll will help the environment by reducing pollution, and make the city that never sleeps more efficient by speeding up travel times.

"Congestion pricing is a generational opportunity," said John McCarthy, a spokesman for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The plan would charge drivers for venturing below 60th Street in Manhattan, an area that encompasses the business districts of Midtown and Wall Street.

The MTA has not yet set rates, but is considering charging $23 during rush hour and $17 for off-peak times.

Taxi driver Wein Chin worries that the charge, which cabbies would pass on to customers, will mean fewer fares.

He earns around $300 to $400 a week and is already struggling to pay off a $170,000 loan he owes for his taxi permit.

"I don't know that I could survive, paying the mortgage, supporting a family," the 55-year-old, who moved to the United States from Myanmar in 1987, told AFP.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union representing 21,000 cabbies, estimates the levy could see drivers lose $8,000 a year in income.

Members have taken to the streets in recent weeks to demand they be exempted from the toll.

The union's president, Bhairavi Desai, said the charge could sound the death knell for some drivers already hammered in recent years by a surge of Uber drivers and the pandemic.

"There are only so many ashes that the phoenix can rise out of," she told AFP.

- Carbon emissions -

Officials have proposed discounts to appease low-income New Yorkers.

Some 700,000 vehicles enter the proposed pricing area every day, with cars traveling just seven miles per hour on average due to gridlock, officials say.

The scheme aims to lessen traffic by ten percent daily, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Officials cite studies showing that central London saw a 20 percent fall in CO2 emissions after it introduced its charge in 2003.

"We know vehicle pollution is a major contributor to the climate crisis that harms both our planet and our health," said Tim Donaghy of Greenpeace.

"Shifting away from cars and towards more public transit is a step in the right direction, and can create healthier more people-centric cities."

New York's plan has been years in the making. Michael Bloomberg proposed a toll in 2007 when he was mayor, but it wasn't until 2019 that lawmakers finally reached agreement.

The federal government then greenlit the proposal in June this year, with local officials pledging to introduce the charge in spring 2024.

Neighboring New Jersey responded by suing the government, claiming the scheme would place an unfair financial burden on those who have to drive to Manhattan for work.

The state also objects to its residents having to pay for the upgrade of New York's underground train network.

The MTA estimates that the pricing will generate $1 billion annually for subway improvements.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has vowed that New Jersey's suit will not stop congestion pricing from going ahead.

"It's a win, win, win for transit, traffic and the environment," Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for public transit advocacy group the Riders Alliance told AFP.

pdh/st
Editors note: This file has been updated to correct Rep. George Santoss party affiliation.

Democrats are looking to pick up three, four or even five seats in New York to win back the House majority and make Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) the Speaker.

Jeffries, the House minority leader, has longtime relationships with leaders in the New York state Senate and state Assembly and will have a major say over the states congressional map, New York Democratic sources say. The state is drawing a new map after a court determined a version drawn by a court-appointed special master for the 2022 midterm election was a temporary solution.

Current and former Democratic officeholders and party officials from New York who spoke to The Hill on condition of anonymity say Jeffries will wield significant influence over the redistricting process  and they note that New York stands to benefit substantially if he becomes Speaker.

If Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) keeps his job as Senate majority leader and Jeffries gains the Speakers gavel, it would put two New Yorker Democrats in charge of Congress.

If they dont listen to Jeffries, theyre crazy, one Democratic official said of the upcoming redistricting process. Theyre going to want to follow Hakeems lead. Hes very well-respected, hes very well-liked.

Among the seats New York Democrats are eyeing is the one belonging to disgraced Rep. George Santoss (R-N.Y.). Santos represents the states 3rd Congressional District, to which they are likely to add more Democratic voters to ensure it flips.

Retired Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) is eyeing a comeback to Congress and has indicated he would run as the Democratic candidate for his old seat in the 3rd District if Santos steps down or is expelled from Congress before his term is over, New York Democratic sources say.

If Santos stays in his job through the end of the 118th Congress, which he says he intends to do, there would be a crowded Democratic primary race to run against him in the 2024 general election. In that case, Suozzi is expected to announce his decision about whether to run again for Congress in the fall.

Former state Sen. Anna Kaplan, The Next 50 co-founder Zak Malamed and Nassau County legislator Josh Lafazan are in the mix of candidates who would run for the seat if there isnt a special election to replace Santos.

Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), announced in April that House Democrats will target five other first-term New York Republicans in addition to Santos: Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony DEsposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams.

A gain of six congressional seats would be enough to flip the House to Democratic control. Republicans currently hold 222 seats while Democrats have 212.

One of those targeted incumbents, Molinaro, told reporters last week that New York voters are getting exhausted by the battles over the House district boundaries.

However the lay of the land, you know, adjusts, Ill roll with the punches. I do think, though, voters are getting a little bit exhausted by the multiple changes in districting and its just an utterly confusing situation for too many voters, he said.

Democrats are feeling increasingly optimistic about picking up three to five congressional seats in New York next year, given their partys disappointing performance in the state last year, when Republicans picked up three seats and defeated DCCC Chairman Patrick Maloney.

Anything is possible. I wouldnt take any seat off the table, personally. So we will be fighting to mobilize in all of the districts held by Republicans, said Rep. Grace Meng, who represents New Yorks 6th District in Queens.

Former Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) says Democrats should be able to pick up four or five seats in the Empire State. He ranked the 3rd and 4th congressional districts on Long Island and two upstate as the best pick-up opportunities.

He also predicted there will be close coordination among Democratic leaders in New York and Washington and Jeffries will get what he wants.

Putting out a Democratic-friendly map is no sure thing. The New York Independent Redistricting Commission is in charge of writing the map, which must be approved with two-thirds majorities in both state chambers.

Democrats got too greedy in the last election cycle and had their map thrown out, but party officials tell The Hill they believe the legislature can draw up a new map that will help Democrats pick up as many as five House seats while staying within the bounds of state law.

Several Democratic officials who spoke to The Hill predicted that the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission will fail to reach an agreement and that drawing a new map will fall to the New York state legislature, where Democrats control supermajorities in both chambers.

If that happens, they say Jeffries will wind up playing a significant role in influencing the new congressional district boundaries.

The redistricting debate is heating up behind the scenes because New York officials are talking about moving up their 2024 primary to earlier on the calendar  April 2 instead of June 23.

Jeffries told reporters at the U.S. Capitol last week that he just wants New York to have a fair map and urged the Independent Redistricting Commission to do its job.

All we want is fair maps to be drawn all across the country, he told reporters. We want a fair map in Alabama, a fair map in Louisiana, fair maps in North Carolina and Ohio, in Wisconsin, certainly fair maps in New York.

Jeffries kept his distance from the redistricting debate and insisted it will be up to the Independent Redistricting Commission to draw the new lines.

In the case of my home state, I think its important that the Independent Redistricting Commission, which is bipartisan in nature be given the opportunity to complete its work to try to find common ground and present a congressional map to the legislature that gives every community  urban New York, suburban New York, rural New York  an opportunity to have its voices heard in deciding in what the congressional delegation emerging from New York should look like, he said.

A New York appeals court ruled last month in Democrats favor that the state must redraw its congressional map before the 2024 presidential election. Republicans, however, have appealed that ruling to New Yorks Court of Appeals, the states highest court, putting the legal battle on hold until September.

If the Court of Appeals rules for Republicans, then Democrats will be stuck with the same map they had in 2022.

In the meantime, the Independent Redistricting Commission will be able to hold hearings and solicit input for a new map.

But Democratic officials are skeptical they will come up with any proposal that can muster the necessary bipartisan support within the commission as well as approval by supermajorities in the state Senate and state House.

Either the Independent Redistricting Commission makes a deal or more likely gives it their best effort, fails and then the Democratic legislature steps in, which is what happened last time but they overreached and the rest is history, said a Long Island-based Democratic party official and former officeholder.

Jeffrey Wice, a professor at New York Law School and an expert on redistricting, said if the Independent Redistricting Commission deadlocks, Democrats in the state legislature should be able to come up with a map that meets court approval.

I think the legislature can draw a lawful map that complies with the criteria included in the Constitution, he said. Its the legislatures responsibility to comply with the new constitutional amendments rules and to produce a map that meets population equality, minority voting rights and other criteria.

If it does that, then theyre not going to have a problem. If they violate any of the criteria, they could end up in court all over again.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

Updated at 7:41 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
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SOMERS, N.Y.  A New York oncologist fatally shot her baby and then herself Saturday morning in their home, state police reported.

The incident happened in Somers, about 25 miles north of White Plains.

Dr. Krystal Cascetta, 40, entered her baby's room in their home at about 7 a.m., shot the baby and then herself, according to a press release issued by state police. The baby's gender and age were not provided, but an online baby registry suggests the baby was about 4 1/2 months old.

Law enforcement sources told The Journal News/lohud, part of the USA TODAY network, that the baby was a girl and an only child. They said that Cascetta's husband, Timothy Talty, was away and Cascetta's parents were in the house at the time of the shooting.

Postpartum pill OK'd: First-ever postpartum depression pill, Zurzuvae, approved by FDA

Cascetta was site chief of the Mount Sinai Queens Infusion Center, a treatment center for cancer and blood disorders, and was an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine.

Generic police tape scene. A blurred police car in the background behind yellow crime scene tape. [Via MerlinFTP Drop]

Cascetta and Talty, who married in 2019, purchased the home on Granite Springs Road in 2021. The couple had previously lived in Brooklyn.

Cascetta's husband is the founder of a line of protein bars that Cascetta endorsed. A bio of her on the Talty Bars website described how she had always planned to be a doctor and that she began focusing on oncology while in middle school after a friend of her mother's died of breast cancer.

A graduate of Albany Medical College, she was inducted into its Gold Humanism Honor Society, which recognizes excellence in humanistic clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service, according to her Mount Sinai bio.

New Jersey: School pays $9.1 million settlement to family of New Jersey 12-year-old who died by suicide

What to know about postpartum depression, psychosis

Postpartum depression may affect about 1 in every 7 women, according to the National Institutes of Health. It is a form of major depression that may take hold at the beginning of pregnancy or within four weeks of giving birth.

Postpartum psychosis is a more rare and severe condition than postpartum depression. Fewer than 5% of new moms experiencing postpartum psychosis engage in violent behavior such as infanticide, according to Postpartum Support International, a nonprofit organization educating the emotional changes in women during pregnancy and after pregnancy.

Symptoms of postpartum psychosis can include feeling confused and lost, having obsessive thoughts about your baby, hallucinating or having delusions, sleep problems, paranoia and, at its most severe, making attempts to harm yourself or your baby. It can lead to life-threatening thoughts or behaviors and requires immediate treatment.

According to the Mayo Clinic, here are symptoms of postpartum depression to watch for:

Depressed mood or severe mood swings

Crying too much

Difficulty bonding with your baby

Withdrawing from family and friends

Loss of appetite or eating much more than usual

Inability to sleep, called insomnia, or sleeping too much

Overwhelming tiredness or loss of energy

Less interest and pleasure in activities you used to enjoy

Intense irritability and anger

Fear that you're not a good mother

Hopelessness

Feelings of worthlessness, shame, guilt or inadequacy

Reduced ability to think clearly, concentrate or make decisions

Restlessness

Severe anxiety and panic attacks

Thoughts of harming yourself or your baby

Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

Contributing: Saleen Martin

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Oncologist kills baby, self in New York home, police say
The Scoop

The New York Times fired its second Baghdad bureau chief in five years in a bizarre saga that has infuriated some of the papers staff in the Middle East.

Three people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that Jane Arraf was put on leave earlier this year amid an investigation by the paper into whether she misused the bureaus funds. Two people with knowledge of the situation said that among the issues the Times examined was Arrafs decision to pay non-US journalists over the papers $150 a day limit, a cap that has prompted grumbling in at the Times foreign bureaus in recent years, including at its office in Baghdad. Arraf has privately disputed that her spending within the bureau was improper.

Arraf is a veteran of the CNN Iraq bureau, who began work there in 1998 and was for a time the only Western correspondent in the country. She joined the Times in 2020, but clashed with management when the paper ordered her to cut costs by firing some non-US staff working in the bureau.

Arraf pushed back against the moves, and according to two people with knowledge, even suggested to some bureau staff that they look into whether the Times decision may have violated local Iraqi laws.

One person familiar told Semafor that the Times and Arraf are continuing to negotiate over the circumstances of her departure. After Arraf was put on leave, several staff who have worked for the Times abroad complained about the decision to the papers management.

A spokesperson for the Times declined to comment.

Maxs view

Arraf occupied what was once one of the most coveted foreign postings in journalism. But her unceremonious departure came as Iraq was marking the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of the country, and with it, the continued shift of American media attention and resources away from Iraq for conflict zones like Ukraine and the deep-pocketed Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Over the last several years, almost every major US outlet has scaled back its presence or pulled out of the country: The Times, which once had over a hundred people in its Baghdad office, has not had a bureau chief there for most of the year. The Associated Press Iraq correspondent was reassigned to Ukraine last year. While the Washington Post has a Baghdad bureau chief, the paper is in the process of closing down its physical bureau.

The moves are understandable. Major US news organizations have limited resources for on-the-ground foreign coverage, which is costly and often has a limited audience at home. With the US spending billions on the war in Ukraine, and with an increasing diplomatic focus on China, it makes sense that major US organizations have reoriented their international coverage to focus on these areas of national interest.

But the pullback has left Iraqi and other Arab journalists who cover Iraq feeling frustrated, serving as a reminder that American interest in the country extended only to conflict.

Western newspapers have abandoned Iraq, one Arab journalist who has written for the Times told Semafor.

Arrafs departure is also just the latest data point in the tumultuous recent history of the Times Baghdad outpost.

Her predecessor, Margaret Coker, left the Times after the paper concluded that she worked with the Iraqi government to bar fellow Times journalist Rukmini Callimachi from entering the country. Coker believed that Callimachis reporting was reckless and didnt meet the papers standards.

And while her conduct may not have been collegial, the substance of her suspicion was borne out several years later when Callimachis hit podcast Caliphate was forced to correct major errors that relied on faulty information from one of its key sources.

Room for Disagreement

Step back from the internal disagreements among the American press, and you find a more scathing critique from the Middle East.

As far as much of the mainstream media is concerned, Iraq is a forgotten country, the war a past occurrence. Even among peace activists and antiwar colleagues, we have found a reluctance to talk about the Iraq conflict, and in some cases point-blank refusal to engage in commemoration work, reads an op-ed published by the Qatari network Al Jazeera earlier this year. This thunderous silence points to a difficult truth: two decades after the invasion, American propaganda has conclusively won the Iraqi battlespace.

Notable

The pullback from Iraq is a part of the shifting priorities at the Times, which just a few years ago was pouring resources into the controversial terror beat, which was heavily focused on Syria and Iraq. But its reporting there sometimes over-hyped the capacity of the terror group ISIS.

The disillusion in the Times Middle East bureaus runs deep. Correspondents experiences since 2015 have been like losing faith in a church, C.J. Chivers told editors, according to the Washington Posts Erik Wemple.

Back in 2004, the Times examined its own coverage of the run-up to war, and found that articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried.
Barbara Lakin sits on a bus in New York City, her fingers busy sewing blue thread into a tiny dress. On the seat beside her, six disheveled Barbie dolls stick out of her backpack.

People must think Im insane, sitting on a bus sewing clothes for dolls, but they dont know who Im doing this for, Lakin told CNN.

The little girls who are going to get these dolls are migrants. Most of them have traveled with their families for months to get to the US border, usually fleeing poor economies and dangerous situations at home in Central or South America.

Lakin examines her Barbies after cleaning them up and making them new clothes. - Cory Curtin

Using old Barbies she buys or donated dolls, Lakin, a New Yorker living in the East Village, restores the toys as gifts for the children. A former fashion designer, she spends hundreds of hours sewing unique, couture outfits for the dolls.

Some of these families have traveled from country to country to get to the border, then spent 40 hours on a bus to come here. They got everything taken away from them, Lakin, 66, said.

Its hard to imagine what these children have gone through. I think for a child to have a toy, especially in these circumstances, is really important. Its something that can comfort them, something that they can hold close.

Lakin is a volunteer with Team TLC NYC, an organization that began meeting migrants at New Yorks Port Authority Bus Terminal in 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started busing them from the border to Washington and New York.

As of August 1, more than 95,600 asylum-seekers have come through New York Citys intake centers since last spring when migrants first began arriving, according to Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom. The deputy mayor renewed the citys call for help from the federal government, highlighting Mayor Eric Adams meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week.

Last week alone, 2,300 asylum-seekers entered the system, Williams-Isom said while discussing the crisis at a briefing at The Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, the citys first asylum-seeker arrival center.

Migrants were reportedly sleeping on sidewalks outside the center for days as the city regularly ran out of shelter space as a result of the influx of asylum-seekers, CNN affiliate WCBS reported. Migrants have been temporarily placed in hotel ballrooms, lobbies and a church in Long Island City, WCBS said.

Upon their arrival in the city, Team TLC NYC volunteers welcome the migrants and provide them with urgent necessities. In March, the organization also opened the Little Shop of Kindness, where the migrants can shop for free and young migrant girls can receive the Barbies.

The shop is set up as if its a real shop, so it gives them a sense of dignity instead of forcing them to rummage through a bunch of old clothes in a pile, said Lakin of the racks of donated clothing, including pants, shirts, dresses and shoes.

A father wears a shirt from Team TLC NYC's Little Shop of Kindness as his daughter holds a Barbie wearing a dress of the same fabric. Lakin made both. - Courtesy Barbara Lakin

The store, in front of Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, has served thousands of migrants since opening in March, Team TLC NYC director Ilze Thielmann told CNN.

Lakin, who is half Mexican and originally from England, has given away nearly 20 Barbies so far and hopes people will donate more, especially Black and brown Barbies that look more like the girls who will get them.

They need the essentials, clean underwear, jeans and T-shirts. But right at the end of when they finish shopping for free things, we have a counter where we have the extra things  the scrunchies for the hair, toys, jewelry  and thats what puts a smile on the face, especially if they know the story behind it, Lakin said.

When we surprise them with the Barbies, it makes them feel even more special when they know that I actually made the clothes.

Its more than just a Barbie doll

Some of the children who walk through the Little Shop of Kindness have witnessed unspeakable horror during their trek to the US, including seeing dead bodies, said Thielmann. They often arrive exhausted, sick and hungry after an arduous and heart-wrenching journey, with very few personal belongings.

While toys will never take away the trauma they experienced or the hardships they still face, Lakin said the dolls do make a difference.

The first doll that inspired Lakins mission was a brown doll that had been discarded and accidentally discovered by a fellow volunteer at the shop. Rather than throw it away, Lakin found herself instinctively cleaning the doll and sewing her a dress. Days later, she gave it to a little girl who had just arrived with her family at Port Authority.

She was so happy, and Ilze later saw the little girl cradling the doll like it was a baby, she was so taken by it, Lakin said.

When the Little Shop of Kindness began receiving an influx of long-sleeved shirts nobody wanted, Lakin took her Barbie mission a step further.

Barbie dresses and scrunchies match men's shifts after Lakin sewed them from the same fabric. - Courtesy Barbara Lakin

She began cutting the shirts into short sleeves, using the leftover fabric to make scrunchies and dresses for the Barbies. This way, she can donate matching Barbie dolls and shirts to father-and-daughter duos who come to the store.

If I see a father and a young daughter together, Ill tell them, I have something really special for you, and ask them to choose which Barbie and T-shirt combination they want, Lakin said. Their reactions are always very sweet, they get so happy. A few times the dads will put on the shirt immediately before even leaving the shop.

Lakins work has been therapeutic, she said. It begins with finding the Barbies, which she either buys used at garage sales or are donated by people supportive of her effort.

Most of the time, the Barbies come used and scruffy, so she cleans them and shampoos their hair before designing their dresses and bringing them back to life.

Lakin, who spent decades as a sweater designer, takes her creative process seriously, carefully creating the Barbies outfits, whether its a classy strapless mini dress or a maxi dress with a crisscross halter top.

It shows these kids we care that extra amount, that were not just giving them sandwiches and water and essential clothes, but its an extra special thing, and I think that resonates with them, Lakin said.

I get a lot out of it, too. I personally like to hand them out because I love being able to say, I made this for you. The smiles and the happiness they give me, its moments like that that make it all worthwhile.

A dad wears a shirt made from the same fabric as his daughter's Barbie's dress. - Courtesy Barbara Lakin

Lakin does her best to source Barbies and dolls besides the stereotypical blondes, so the migrant children get dolls that look more like them. So far, her collection has included dolls in a variety of shapes, sizes and skin colors, even one Barbie with the skin condition vitiligo.

Team TLC NYC runs on donations, and anyone interested in donating to its Amazon wish list can help by finding non-White Barbies for Lakin to makeover with her homemade clothes.

We rarely get any children that look White, except for one Ukrainian child, but the rest are overwhelmingly Latina. I dont really think its appropriate to be giving blonde Barbies to them, Lakin said. I want to give them dolls that look more like them.

Similar to the message seen in the wildly popular Barbie movie, Lakin wants to make sure these dolls dont enforce stereotypes on these girls but instead remind them of their worth  and the power of their individuality.

Many of these children are unaware they are in the center of a volatile political debate. Unlike most other kids their age, these young migrants have already survived brutal circumstances and will grow up navigating childhood in an unfamiliar place.

While a Barbie doll wont solve everything, at least for a moment, they can be simply children again.

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Daniel Sancho Bronchalo is the son of Spanish actors Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre and Silvia Bronchalo - Somkeat Ruksaman/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

A YouTube chef has appeared in court accused of chopping up his boyfriend and dumping his head in the sea on a Thai resort island.

Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, appeared in court on Monday after police arrested him for the brutal death and dismemberment of his lover Dr Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year old Colombian plastic surgeon.

The pair were on holiday on the southern Thai island of Koh Pha Ngan  famed for its picturesque beaches, laid-back lifestyle and wild full moon parties  when an argument over sex and money turned deadly, according to local police.

But the officers have said there are signs the grisly crime was premeditated.

He admitted it, Panya Niratimanon, the police chief of Koh Pha Ngan, told AFP.

The victim and the suspect knew each other before they came to Thailand, and his dubious activities indicate that he might murder the victim.

Dr Edwin Arrieta Arteaga was a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia

According to local media reports, Mr Sancho  the son of Spanish actors Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre and Silvia Bronchalo, and a well-known social media chef in his home country  reported his lover missing after attending a full moon party with friends. The pair had known each other for a year.

But on Friday, Mr Sancho was detained shortly after body parts, including hips and thighs, were found by shocked locals at a landfill site on the island.

It has since been alleged that the YouTuber cut Arteagas body into 14 pieces, discarding some in the rubbish dump and using a kayak to cast others out to sea in a suitcase  including the surgeons head.

On Sunday, Mr Sancho travelled with police to seven sites where he is accused of ditching the body parts.

Mr Sancho travelled with police to seven sites where he is accused of ditching the body parts - Royal Thai Police/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Police Major-General Saranyu Chamnanrat told Reuters that DNA tests have proved the remains are Arteagas, and that Mr Sancho has been charged with premeditated murder and secretly moving or destroying a corpse to conceal a death or the cause of death.

Other media outlets have reported that Mr Sancho had been purchasing knives, plastic bags and cleaning supplies at various convenience stores across Koh Pha Ngan.

On Sunday, Mr Sanchos family released a statement asking for maximum respect, both for Daniel Sancho himself and for the whole family, in these delicate moments of maximum confusion.

Police said the chef was in court on Monday, with police seeking his continued detention as investigations continue.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a daily selector conference call to discuss the situation at the front, the plans of the Russians, the supply of ammunition and the extension of the "grain corridor".

Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram

Quote: "Daily selector [meeting]. We heard the report of Commander-in-chief Zaluzhnyi on the situation at the front: tense defensive and offensive operations [are underway]."

Details: The president has said that the Ministry of Defence reported on the receipt of equipment and ammunition and on the delivery calendar for the near and medium term. The Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine reported on the development of its own production. "We are eliminating bureaucratic barriers," the president stressed.

In addition, intelligence agencies, Defence Intelligence and Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, turned the president's attention to the data obtained from Russia. "We understand the enemy's immediate plans," Zelenskyy said.

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Maliuk, reported on the fight against traitors in Ukraine.

They also discussed Russian attacks on civilian targets and actions to eliminate consequences and help people.

In addition, some decisions of the Commander-in-chief's HQ about extending the "grain corridor" are being prepared for implementation.

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!
On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed solidarity with Georgia and reaffirmed support for its sovereignty on the anniversary of the beginning of Russia's armed aggression against Georgia in 2008.

Source: Zelenskyy on Twitter, reported by European Pravda

Quote: "On the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Russia's armed aggression against Georgia, we express our solidarity with the Georgian people and our resolute support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country.

It is only the complete de-occupation of Ukrainian and Georgian lands, punishment of Russian invaders and compensation for the damage they have caused that will bring peace and stability to Europe and the world."

 15-                     .       ,            (@ZelenskyyUa) August 7, 2023

Earlier, European leaders, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top EU diplomat Josep Borrell spoke on the 15th anniversary of the start of Russia's armed aggression against Georgia.

Russia invaded Georgia on 7 August 2008. As a result of the war, Georgia lost control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On 26 August 2008, Russia recognised the "independence" of these regions.

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!






Japan's prime minister hit out at Russian threats to use nuclear weapons as the country marked the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Sunday.

Around 140,000 people died in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and 74,000 in Nagasaki three days later, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities days before the end of World War 2.

"Japan, as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war, will continue efforts towards a nuclear-free world," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a ceremony in Hiroshima.

"The path towards it is becoming increasingly difficult because of deepening divisions in the international community over nuclear disarmament and Russia's nuclear threat," he said.

At the ceremony, thousands of people -- survivors, relatives and foreign dignitaries from a record 111 countries -- prayed for those killed or wounded in the bombing and called for world peace. ...continue reading
Pottawattamie Conservation broke ground recently on a new 60-foot by 40-foot open-air pavilion near the Hitchcock Nature Center front entrance in the Loess Hills. Not only will the project meet the need for larger gathering space, it also serves as a showcase of public-private partnership in the Council Bluffs community.

One of Pottawattamie Conservations goals is to reconnect our society to the natural world around us, and to do that in locally sustainable and harmonious ways, Mark Shoemaker, Executive Director for Pottawattamie Conservation, said in a news release. This project is just one example of what that reconnected relationship can look like when public and private interests collaborate.

A recent grant from Google helped close the fundraising gap to bring the project to fruition. Additional community partners include the Iowa West Foundation, the Peter Kiewit Foundation, Iowa Parks to People, CMET, Union Pacific Railroad and Audubon Society of Omaha.

"This project is a wonderful representation of Google's broader commitment to community and sustainability," said Matt Sexton, public affairs manager at Google. "We are excited to play a role in enhancing this world-class amenity for the broader metro community."

The new venue will be ADA compliant, feature sustainable design and construction and serve as an educational resource for sustainable design education. The pavilion will serve as a community connection point and will be able to accommodate large family reunions and gatherings, persons with restricted mobility and moderately sized wedding receptions. The project features design elements like locally-harvested milled cedar timbers and structurally round timber construction, highlighting the feasibility of sustainable local materials sourcing and design.

The pavilion enables HNC to facilitate its goal of healing the relationship between humans and the natural world and educating the public about the significance of the Loess Hills. The pavilion will feature educational signage explaining the pavilions construction and the harvest locations of each tree incorporated into the shelter.

Upon completion this fall, Pottawattamie Conservation and its partners will host a community ribbon cutting event to share information with the community.
More than 18,600 Iowa students have been approved for an education savings account to pay for private school tuition and expenses, the Iowa Department of Education announced Monday.

The numbers exceed state projections that expected around 14,000 students would be approved for the accounts during the programs first year. Those original projections expected the program would cost $107.4 million in its first year, and $345 million by the fourth year.

Lawmakers set no budget cap on the program, so each approved application will be funded, regardless of cost.

The program, which provides a students full per-pupil state allocation  around $7,600  to families to pay for private school tuition, was the top legislative priority of Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this session, and the first bill she signed into law in January.

Ninety-six of Iowas 99 counties have at least one student receiving state funding for private school. No education savings accounts went to Decatur, Louisa and Ringgold counties.

The states most populous counties also largely received the highest number of approved applications. The top 10 counties are as follows:

Polk County, 3,133

Linn County, 1,318

Scott County, 1,306

Sioux County, 1,183

Black Hawk County, 942

Woodbury County, 916

Dubuque County, 882

Johnson County, 572

Dallas County, 505

Carroll County, 427

Less than 1,000 applications are still being manually reviewed, the department said.

More than 29,000 students had applied for the accounts before the application window closed June 30, according to Reynolds' office.

Reynolds championed the policy as a way to expand education opportunities for Iowa students, regardless of their familys income, and allow families to find the educational settings that work best for them.

The tremendous response from Iowa families demonstrates theres both a need and a strong desire for school choice in our state, Reynolds said when the application window closed in July. Allowing parents to choose the education thats best for their children levels the playing field and creates equal opportunities for Iowas students.

The bill passed with only Republican support in the Legislature. Democrats and public education advocates argued the law siphoned money from already struggling public schools and directed it to unaccountable private institutions serving a small minority of the states students.

Around 486,500 students attended public K-12 schools in Iowa during the 2022-2023 school year, while private schools educated around 33,700 students.

"Governor Reynolds gave the special interests and private schools a huge bonus today, Rep. Sharon Steckman, D-Mason City and ranking member of the House Education Committee, said in a statement. Its just the first installment of her promise to shift over $1 billion of our tax dollars from public schools to private schools instead.

The result being that 90% of Iowa students who attend public schools will have fewer opportunities, Steckman said.

(A)nd its even worse for those public school kids in rural areas, she added. Iowans are overwhelmingly opposed to vouchers because public money is for public schools, and Iowans do not want more of their public schools to close. Its time for the Governor and Republican politicians to stop playing politics with our kids and start doing whats best for Iowans.

Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, in a statement said Mondays numbers show Iowas urban counties will largely benefit.

Out of Iowa's 99 counties, the top 10 counties get over 60% of the money if all the approved voucher students actually enroll, Quirmbach said.  Altogether the top 10 counties stand to get over $85 million, while the bottom ten get less than $100,000 combined -- and three get nothing at all. Meanwhile every public school in Iowa has lost money because state Republicans have failed to keep funding up with inflation over the last six years.

Representatives for House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.

Public schools will receive $1,205 in state money for every student within the districts boundaries that receives an education savings account, but they will not receive the $7,600 they otherwise would if the students attended the public school.

A voucher program that would initially cost Iowans almost a billion dollars over the next three years will cost even more, benefiting only a select few, Mike Beranek, president of the Iowa State Education Association, the states largest teachers union, said in a statement. Iowans overwhelmingly support investments in our public schools. Ninety percent of Iowa families continue to choose their neighborhood public schools. That is where our precious resources should be directed.

Majority of approved students attend private school

Not all students with approved accounts may be able to enroll in a private school for the coming year, as there are limited slots at private schools in the state. The governors office said last month there are around 9,000 open seats at Iowas accredited private schools.

At a board of education meeting last week, Iowa Department of Education officials said they expected around 60% of approved applications to be from students already attending private schools, and 40% to be from public school students.

During the programs first year, the savings accounts are open to all public school students and private school students in families making up to 300% of the federal poverty line  around $90,000 for a family of four.

During the 2024-25 school year, the income limit will increase to 400% of the federal poverty level.

By the third year of the program, it will be open to all public and private school students, regardless of income.

Accounts will be billed by school

Families with a student who attends a private school with an education savings account will receive an invoice from their childs school through their account, the Department of Education release said. Once approved, the funds are transferred from the account to the school.

Funds can also be used on a range of education expenses. Those expenses can only be made after tuition is paid, and must be made on a marketplace run by Odyssey, the New York company administering the program.

If a student does not attend a private school during the upcoming school year, the funds will remain with the state and return to the general fund, the department said.

The final number of approved applicants and more details about participation will be available later this fall after enrollment numbers are finalized.

Tom Barton of the Gazette Des Moines Bureau contributed

Close Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds hugs her husband First Gentleman Kevin Reynolds at the conclusion of the Condition of the State address, inside the Iowa House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Iowa Senate President Pro Tempore Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, applauds during Gov. Kim Reynolds' Condition of the State address, inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Attendees to Gov. Kim Reynolds' Condition of the State address applaud during the speech, inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber on Jan. 10 at the State Capitol in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds is escorted into the Iowa House of Representatives, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, to give the annual Condition of the State address, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Photos: Gov. Kim Reynolds delivers the condition of the state address Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds hugs her husband First Gentleman Kevin Reynolds at the conclusion of the Condition of the State address, inside the Iowa House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Iowa Senate President Pro Tempore Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, applauds during Gov. Kim Reynolds' Condition of the State address, inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Attendees to Gov. Kim Reynolds' Condition of the State address applaud during the speech, inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber on Jan. 10 at the State Capitol in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Condition of the State address to members of the Iowa Legislature inside the House Chamber, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines. Gov. Kim Reynolds is escorted into the Iowa House of Representatives, on Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2023, to give the annual Condition of the State address, at the Iowa State Capitol, in Des Moines.
Weather Alert

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON MONDAY TO 10 PM CDT WEDNESDAY... * WHAT...Heat index values up to 109 expected. * WHERE...Portions of west central Iowa and east central and northeast Nebraska. * WHEN...From noon Monday to 10 PM CDT Wednesday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is spending his holiday with his family in Morocco in a trip that revealed the scale of hostility to anything Moroccan among some Spanish opposition parties.

Sanchez has been in Morocco since last week and spent a few days in Marrakech where the media shared his pictures, sightseeing the centuries-old medina and visiting its main attractions.

He is now in northern Morocco where he will stay in Tangier, a city on Gibraltar strait, and visit the blue iconic town of Chaouen in addition to Tetouan.

Moroccan media interpreted the visit as a message of friendship and solidly growing ties between the two kingdoms at all levels.

Under Sanchez, Morocco and Spain opened a new chapter of close cooperation after Madrid described the autonomy plan as the most serious, credible and realistic, option to settle the Sahara conflict.

The announcement was followed by two visits to Morocco during which Madrid and Rabat reiterated attachment to close strategic ties based on mutual respect.

The momentum in Spanish-Moroccan relations was often targeted by the Spanish right and left wing opposition, intent on turning Morocco phobia into a political capital to mobilize voters.

The scale of anti-Moroccan sentiment among the opposition led many to criticize Sanchez for choosing Morocco for his private family trip! This stand presupposes that the Spanish opposition views any trip to Morocco as a crime!

Despite Sanchez office explaining that the trip was paid for from Sanchez private money and that no official agenda was included, the opposition kept taking aim at him few days after an inconclusive election.

PP deputy secretary general Miguel Tellado said Sanchez visit was a provocation while Santiago Abascal of the Vox extreme right party said Sanchez seems to have chosen Morocco to Spain.

Spanish opposition, including tiny Podemos and ardent Polisario supporters, have made of Morocco their scapegoat or the hook in which they pin all Spains woes.

Sanchez, in contrast, made of improving ties with Morocco an asset and an achievement of his government citing advancing cooperation and the economic, security and migration control levels.
Senegalese authorities have detained Juan Branco, a French lawyer and adviser to opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, on charges of call for uprising and dissemination of false information.

Branco has been subject to an arrest warrant issued by Senegal but he challenged the warrant, showing up at a press conference in capital Dakar on July 30, after Sonko was detained and jailed for calling for uprising.

He was, according to the Senegalese police, arrested Saturday August 5 in the Mauritanian border town of Rosso, and was brought to Senegal for interrogation and later on Sunday to Rebeuss detention Center in Dakar.

He will be prosecuted for calling for insurrection, spreading false news, acts and manoeuvres likely to compromise public safety or cause serious disturbance, a police source told State-run news agency APS.

This is not an investigation, but the execution of an international arrest warrant, the source added. Branco has been under scrutiny after he sued Senegalese leader Macky Sall and several of his aides before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crime against humanity after June 2023 bloody crackdown of riots in Senegal, following the condemnation of Sonko to two years in prison.

Senegal on July 14 issued an international arrest warrant against him for crimes and misdemeanors in connection with the unrest in early June 2023.
Moroccos fruits and berries export revenues have grown significantly reaching $7.1 billion in cumulated volume over 2018-2022, East Fruit reported.

In 2022 alone, export of fruits and berries totaled $1.7 billion, the media also noted. Moroccan fruits and berries during the same period were available on the markets of 122 countries, with Spain, France, the Netherlands, Russia and the UK being the top markets. Spain is the biggest importer. It accounts for about 27% of Moroccos total exports in the past five years. However, in 2022, the kingdom was the fourth largest supplier of fruits and berries to Spain with the share of 15% in Spains total imports.

East Fruit also noted that revenues from Moroccan exports to Spain fell by 23% compared to 2021. Blueberries bring almost a third of Moroccos total revenues from exports to Spain, which also imports Moroccan raspberries, avocado, watermelons, strawberries, etc.

In 2022, the North African country was the fourth biggest exporter of blueberries globally, behind Spain which ranked third.

Moroccan exports of fruit and berry to France reached $1.2 billion in 2018-2022 (17% from the total revenues). In 2022, the share of Morocco in Frances total imports of fruits and berries reached 6%, making the North African country the fifth largest supplier of fruits and berries to the European country, with the most active demand shown for Moroccan watermelons, melons, mandarins, avocado, raspberries, and blueberries.

The Netherlands accounts for 17% of Moroccos total revenues from fruit and berry exports believed to amount to $1.2 billion. Despite the encouraging figure, exports to the Netherlands were declining since 2020. As for exports to Russia, data consulted by East Fruit shows that the trend has been declining.

Over the past five years, Moroccos share in the Russian market has more than halved, and exports in 2022 amounted just to half of those in 2018, the media notes.

The nosediving trend ranked the kingdom in the 16th position in the ranking of Russias biggest suppliers.

UK on the other, emerged as the most attractive market for Moroccos exports of fruit and berry over 2018-2022 period. The share of Morocco grew six folds, exports to the UK quintupled, and Morocco ranked fifth in the list of the UKs biggest suppliers of fruits and berries, the outlet notes.
Nigers coup leaders have closed the countrys airspace, thus further escalating regional tensions after the coup two weeks ago, but support for ECOWAS military intervention to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum seems to be waning, revealing differences of opinion among the 15 West African member states on how to proceed.

Nigers airspace has been closed as the putschists alleged there had been a pre-deployment of troops in two Central African nations for military intervention. The move came as tens of thousands of coup supporters gathered Sunday (6 August) at a stadium in the countrys capital, Niamey, to cheer on the generals who seized power  or the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). ECOWAS has condemned the coup, imposing severe economic and travel sanctions, including cutting off Nigers power supply. ECOWAS ultimatum for President Bazoum to be reinstated has been rejected by the junta.

West African military chiefs said on Friday (4 August) they have made a plan for a possible military intervention in Niger if coup leaders do not stand down. France said on Saturday (5 August) it will support efforts to overturn Nigers military coup. Now with the deadline already expired, support for a West African military operation wavered, as senators in Nigeria  which would lead any intervention  urged regional leaders to prioritize diplomacy over a military operation, at least for now. Also Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani suggested in an interview published on Monday (7 August) that ECOWAS should prolong their deadline for the reinstatement of Nigers ousted president because the only way is the diplomatic one.
Militiamen in the Amhara region have been accused by a senior Ethiopian official of seeking to overthrow the regional and federal governments, as authorities declared a state of emergency following days of fighting.

While the Ethiopian army and the Amhara militia were allies in the two-year civil war against the northern Tigray region, but now the clashes between the two sides have been escalating, with the sound of heavy weapons fire echoing across Amharas second-biggest city. Mobile internet is reportedly down in the region, residents say, while Ethiopian Airlines have cancelled flights to three of the four airports it flies to in Amhara. The conflict has quickly become Ethiopias most serious security crisis since a two-year civil war in Tigray region, which neighbors Amhara, ended in November last year.

Ethiopias government declared a state of emergency on Friday (4 August) following days of clashes in the restive region between the military and the local Fano militia. This robbery force is operating with the goal and intention of overthrowing the regional government by force and then advancing to the federal system, said Temesgen Tiruneh, Director-General of Ethiopias national intelligence service who was appointed to oversee enforcement of the state of emergency.

The measure gives the security services the power to impose curfews, restrict movement, ban the carrying of guns and sharp objects, ban public gatherings and make arrests and conduct searches without warrants. The relationship between the Fano militia and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) deteriorated after the Tigray war, in part over recent efforts by federal authorities to weaken regional paramilitary groups.
The Biden administrations charm offensive with Africa is ramping up in a big way, most recently with the launch of a new bureau aimed at making the battle against global outbreaks a lasting priority of US foreign policy and a pledge to seek partnership with African youth leaders to meet todays challenges.

Widely interpreted as being a part of the US charm offensive in Africa to counter Russia and China, the State Department has launched a new bureau aimed at making the battle against global outbreaks a lasting priority of US foreign policy. The bureau is to include the 20-year-old initiative known as the Presidents Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR that has succeeded beyond most early expectations in addressing the AIDS crisis and is credited with saving up to 25 million lives worldwide. The bureau will be led by a Cameroon-born public health official, John Nkengasong who founded the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention operations in Africa. The lessons learned from the US HIV program are applied daily in dealing with other threats, Nkengasong said at the opening.

Meanwhile, speaking at a closing ceremony of The Mandela Washington Fellowship Summit in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told young leaders from Africa last week that collaboration as equal partners is necessary to meet todays challenges of food security, preventing conflict, combating climate change, and slowing the spread of disease. Our countries, the United States, our partners in Africa, we can only meet todays challenges. We can only actually deliver results for our people if we collaborate as equal partners, Blinken said. The mission of the summit, which brought together nearly 700 of Sub-Saharan Africas promising young leaders, is to build relationships that will expand US organizations impact and outreach in Africa.
King Mohammed VI has sent a written message to Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The message focuses on ways to strengthen and develop bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, reports the Qatari News Agency, QNA.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Emir of the State of Qatar, received the royal message on behalf of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during a meeting on Monday at the princely cabinet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita, and Minister in charge of the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa.

During the meeting, Bourita conveyed the Kings greetings to his brother Sheikh Tamim and to Sheikh Abdullah, and his wishes for good health and well-being of their Highnesses and for the development and progress of the Qatari people.

For his part, the Deputy Emir conveyed to Bourita the greetings of the Emir of Qatar and his own greetings to King Mohammed VI, and their wishes for the Sovereigns good health and happiness and for further progress and prosperity for the brotherly Moroccan people.

The meeting provided an opportunity to review ways of bolstering the strong fraternal ties binding the two countries and to examine a number of issues of common interest.
Photo: Philip Montgomery

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If you were going to draw up a list of the people most responsible for the latest indictment of Donald Trump, the former president himself would be at the top, followed by the prosecutors who have brought the case. Republicans in Congress perversely deserve a great deal of credit, too, since they could have exiled Trump from political life and perhaps spared him more intense legal scrutiny if they had voted to convict him in the impeachment trial over his role in the siege of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Ultimately, however, you cannot tell the story of Trumps historic indictment without Nancy Pelosi. It was the then-Speaker of the House who insisted that there be a congressional inquiry following January 6. And it was the work of the select committee she fashioned that finally appears to have spurred a reluctant Justice Department to action, setting in motion a more intense phase of criminal scrutiny focused on Trumps effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The resulting indictment closely tracks the select committees work and findings, presenting a factual narrative that traces  almost identically  the evidence presented by the committee of a sophisticated, multipronged effort by Trump to remain in power that culminated in the mayhem at the U.S. Capitol.

I knew on January 6 that he had committed a crime, Pelosi told me late Friday afternoon, squeezing me in for a roughly 30-minute interview at the tail end of a remarkable week in Washington.

I wondered what was going through her head as someone who had played an essential role in bringing about the most important criminal prosecution in the history of our country, and I was curious, in particular, when it had occurred to her that Trumps conduct following the 2020 election had not merely been politically destructive or outrageous but may have crossed the line into actual criminality.

During the Trump administration, Pelosi emerged as one of Trumps most persistent and effective political antagonists, and the personal rancor between the two was often on public display. She went toe to toe with him in the Oval Office. She authorized the third-ever impeachment of an American president after Trumps effort to shake down Ukraines president to get dirt on Joe Biden. She famously tore up Trumps 2020 State of the Union speech while standing behind him. As Trumps supporters began to approach the Capitol on January 6, Pelosi said that if Trump joined them, Im going to punch him out. Ive been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, Im going to punch him out. And Im going to go to jail, and Im going to be happy.

The rioters proceeded to ransack her office, and instead of punching Trump, who was prevented from going to the Capitol by the Secret Service, Pelosi impeached him again. To this day, Pelosi seems to get under Trumps skin like no one else. Early Sunday morning, Trump called her a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!

Long before January 6 itself, Pelosi had been preparing for Trump to try to disrupt the transfer of power. During the election, I thought, Hes going to try to pull a stunt and we have to try to have as many states in the Democratic column as possible, she told me, contemplating the possibility that Bidens victory might not be certified and that the House would have to move to an obscure procedure in which each states congressional delegation would cast a single vote to determine the next president.

Trump promptly proceeded to validate that concern, undertaking an extraordinary effort to remain in power after Election Day by falsely claiming that he had won and by trying to work various levers of official power to stay in office. As we got closer to January 6, I knew he was cooking up all these things, but what was he going to do about it? Pelosi recalled. It was clear that he knew he did not win the election, she explained. It was clear, and he had to disrupt the joint session of Congress to certify the election. As the indictment alleges, Trump did this not only by pressuring Vice-President Mike Pence to illegally cast aside Bidens electoral votes but also by watching with apparent pleasure as a mob tore through the Capitol and by exploiting the violence fed by his lies.

When we saw what he did on January 6, I knew that was a crime, Pelosi added. She acknowledged that it is not possible to predict what can be proven successfully in court, but I know he committed a crime that day.

After Bidens inauguration, Pelosi set about to organize a bipartisan 9/11 Commissiontype investigation into the events that led up to January 6, but she was repeatedly stymied by congressional Republicans. We yielded on every point, Pelosi recalled of the negotiations with her Republican counterparts at the time. We gave them an equal number of commission members, which we always would have done  equal member staff, equal member funding for everything  and equal subpoena power, which the majority never gives away, but nonetheless, we did it because this was so awful for our country, so necessary to have this.

In what turned out to have been a historic miscalculation, Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell blocked the initiative in the Senate. He went around to members and said, Do me a personal favor and do not vote for this, Pelosi told me. Even though he knew that night  and said  that the Republican president was responsible, they didnt even want to have an investigation.

Pelosi has earned a reputation as one of the most tactically savvy leaders in the history of the Congress, and she chuckled as she recalled McConnells maneuvering. People said to Mitch, You think Nancy is going to let this go? What could he have been thinking?

Pelosi then shifted gears to negotiating over a select committee in the House with Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who took the project about as seriously as McConnell had by proposing to name, among other people, bomb-thrower Jim Jordan to the panel. Pelosi quickly decided the negotiations were not going anywhere, explaining that McCarthy wanted to appoint members who would totally undermine the committee.

Okay, she recalled thinking. Thats really nice. So you get consultation as to who will serve [on the committee], and I have consulted with you, and Ive said no to who you want. Thats the power of the Speaker.

Pelosi then assembled a group led by Democratic chair Bennie Thompson and Republican vice-chair Liz Cheney, along with six other Democrats and Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger. It did not take long for observers to conclude that McCarthy may have monumentally misplayed his hand, particularly after the committee produced a riveting series of hearings last summer that were mercifully free of the clownish and disruptive antics of the House GOPs right flank.

In the course of our discussion, Pelosi was reluctant to take any sort of credit for the committees work or Trumps indictment with the exception of taking credit for the appointees on the committee, whom she described as providing a beautiful balance in their approaches and a crucial seriousness of purpose.

Pelosi said she knew from the beginning that, in order for the committee to succeed, it could not operate in the way of typical committee hearings, and she worked to ensure that the members shared that perspective. When people were accepting the offer to be on the committee, they knew that it wasnt going to be every five minutes that theyd be speaking, she said. It would be part of the plan [to present] a narrative for the public to understand.

In the end, Pelosi told me, the quality of the membership, the effectiveness of the staff, and the excellence of the presentation made it one of the best presentations in the history of our country.

Meanwhile, there were questions about what the Justice Department was doing to address the potential criminal culpability of Trump and those in his orbit. The committees members and staff were uncovering  and presenting to the public  damaging evidence that they had obtained from Trump administration officials, but the DOJ was not pursuing those same threads  despite public frustration among some observers  seemingly content with focusing on the people who had stormed the Capitol or who played a role in organizing the violence that day.

I asked Pelosi whether during this period she had ever tried to speak with Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Biden, or anyone in the White House about making sure the Justice Department was properly investigating Trumps conduct. No, she quickly responded, telling me that she did not think it was appropriate for her to try to influence the departments work behind closed doors.

I did want them to pay attention, and I hope that we got their attention, Pelosi told me. Thats why the presentation  the narrative  had to be the way it was, she explained, so that the public record could be as clear and credible as possible. We couldnt have people, like the Republicans wanted to put on, who would be disruptive, disruptive, disruptive. Too much was at stake.

Still, there was palpable anxiety among House Democrats about the Justice Departments progress  or lack thereof  investigating Trump directly. That anxiety may have reached a high point this June, when the Washington Post published a remarkable 8,000-word story providing the most comprehensive account to date of the departments investigation into Trumps conduct.

According to the Post, it took more than a year after January 6 before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election, and even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. One source told the paper that it felt as though the department was reacting to the House committees work as well as heightened media coverage and commentary as the departments investigation finally gathered steam last year.

When the Washington Post article came out, Pelosi told me, not that it was a complete shock or surprise to our members, but they were very concerned about it.

Now that Trump has been indicted over his effort to steal the election, we are in the midst of a singular moment in American history  one that will have dramatic long-term implications for our country and one that will likely be covered in history books for generations to come. The difference, of course, is that as we live through this period, we have no idea how it will end  with Trump in prison or with Trump in the White House again.

I asked Pelosi how she thought this would all end, and she struck a tentative but cautiously optimistic tone. As we always say, it all depends on what happens at the end of the day, but you have to determine what the end of the day is. Yesterday was the end of a day. The former president of the United States was arraigned, and that was a triumph for the truth.

The indictments against the president are exquisite, Pelosi added, referring to both the latest set of charges and the earlier federal indictment over Trumps hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his subsequent efforts to obstruct investigators. Theyre beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with.

As for the prospect of a second Trump term, Pelosi immediately recoiled when I brought it up. Dont even think of that, she told me. Dont think of the world being on fire. It cannot happen, or we will not be the United States of America.

If he were to be president, she continued, it would be a criminal enterprise in the White House.

There was a time in American life, not that long ago, when that would have been clear hyperbole. These are categorically different times.
Donald Trump must be so proud of him. Photo: Cheney Orr for The Washington Post via Getty Images/The Washington Post via Getty Im

The record number of non-white candidates running for the GOPs 2024 presidential nomination is a source of pride for Republicans who deny their party has become a MAGA white-nationalist cult. But the candidates themselves often seem to be walking a tightrope when addressing the overwhelmingly white Republican primary electorate. The two South Carolinians in the race are good examples: Black U.S. senator Tim Scott and Indian American former governor Nikki Haley have both touted their ability to overcome racial discrimination as a personal triumph while denying systemic racism is still a problem for the country.

Indian American tech tyro Vivek Ramaswamy hasnt spent a lot of time talking about the discrimination he might have faced; his whole claim to fame, thanks to lavish attention from Fox News, is being a crusader against woke corporations and anything like anti-discrimination policies in the public or private sectors. Predictable as that stance may be, Ramaswamy is now blazing new trails as a non-white candidate peddling racist dog whistles. During an appearance in Iowa over the weekend, his gratuitous attack on Juneteenth as a useless holiday that should be replaced with an Election Day holiday drew chuckles and applause from the all-white audience:

Ramaswamys slur about Juneteenth as a made-up holiday imposed under political duress after the killing of George Floyd actually represented a two-cushion shot to the far-right side of the table. His suggestion that we make Election Day a national holiday was accompanied by proposals to get rid of early and electronic voting and impose a national voter-ID system. Im pretty sure Ramaswamy is too smart to believe the various forms of convenience voting came out of nowhere in 2020 to thwart Donald Trump. They have been spreading state by state for many decades, often promoted by Republicans. So the premise for his dismissal of Juneteeth comes right out of the MAGA fever swamps.

But the idea of Juneteenths arising from nowhere after Floyds death is either deeply ignorant or malignantly cynical. Juneteenth commemorations of the last slaves to learn of their emancipation in 1865 date back to 1866; the first state Juneteenth holiday was established in Texas in 1980; and before Joe Biden made it a federal holiday, 49 states had official observances. Ramaswamys glib dismissal of Juneteenth as redundant is even more insulting. Yes, the emancipation of slaves was the first step in the struggle for justice and equality for which Martin Luther King Jr. died, but both the destruction of slavery and the end of Jim Crow were distinct and momentous occurrences in U.S. history.

As anyone with access to Google can establish, Ramaswamy was singing a different tune about Juneteenth when the holiday was commemorated less than two months ago:

Juneteenth is a new holiday so we still have a chance to define what it means to us. It neednt be about grievance & self-flogging. Let it be a celebration of the American Dream itself.  pic.twitter.com/NyHfbJoAlw  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 19, 2023

Even then, Ramaswamy was anxious to make sure no white folks imagined that Juneteenth provided any reason for self-examination or discomfort. But he didnt call it useless. I guess he needed some attention that his vast personal wealth couldnt buy. Or perhaps he wanted to show Trump, his much-admired role model, that he really was learning the ropes.
Storm clouds over Atlanta on Monday. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Severe thunderstorms are threatening tens of millions of people on the East Coast on Monday, triggering severe thunderstorm warnings, along with tornado watches and warnings, from Georgia to New York State. In addition to tornados, the storms could produce 60 to 80 m.p.h. wind gusts, hail, extreme rainfall, and flash flooding. The National Weather Service initially issued a rare Level 4 risk advisory for the Mid-Atlantic region, thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled, and nearly a million electric customers were without power as of Monday night. Below are updates on this developing weather event.

Several people were injured this afternoon by falling trees in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one person was struck by lightning in North Carolina, and over 300,000 customers are without power as severe weather continues. Updates: https://t.co/1SbY1d2Hxu  Breaking Weather by AccuWeather (@breakingweather) August 7, 2023

Looks like most of the East Coast got lucky

Thus far, the storms have not produced the extremes that many meteorologists had feared  this time at least:

Agree with Mike here. Was it a busy day? Yes. Did the weather community perhaps collectively over forecast? Yes. But was the data supportive of said forecast at the time? Yes.



Its unclear what didnt line up, or why things didnt come together exactly as expected. Still busy! https://t.co/eY74pHna8j  Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) August 7, 2023

Footage of some of the tornados

Tornado watches remain in effect in several states until late Monday night. Earlier in the day, multiple tornados were detected or seen across the East Coast. Its not yet clear how much damage they did or if anyone was hurt.

In New York:

A possible funnel cloud from an earlier tornado warned storm. This picture was taken in Deer River looking towards Carthage, NY.



Picture from Heather Hancock. #NYwx #NNYwx @NWSBUFFALO pic.twitter.com/rJW8reGbVz  Kris Hudson (@KrisHudson_WX) August 7, 2023

This video was taken by Mike Niziol in Harford, NY at 5:14PM looking North. It matches well with the SRM couplet at that time on the Tompkins/Cortland county line. Please contact me for media posts. @NWSBinghamton @wxbywilliams @weatherchannel @foxweather pic.twitter.com/Mb1LNyNufm  Tom Niziol (@TomNiziol) August 7, 2023

In Tennessee:

Thats big hail (in Virginia)

@NWSWakefieldVA the hailstones found between bowling Green and Port Royal measured to be 4.5 and 4 #vawx pic.twitter.com/ZHeXd5sr9Y  Harry (@harrythomvi) August 7, 2023

Severe thunderstorm watch for NYC tonight

NEW: Severe Thunderstorm Watch in effect for the NYC Metro Area until 1:00am. Strong wind gusts to 70mph, hail to quarter sized and a couple of tornadoes are possible. Have a way to get weather warnings through the remainder of the evening. pic.twitter.com/MK1ZFGiQlS  New York Metro Weather (@nymetrowx) August 7, 2023

Some striking views of the front lines of the storms

Aerial shot of the Tornado Warned Storm that roared through Radnor PA just moments ago #pawx pic.twitter.com/Qdie2h7id9  Ray Leichner  (@stormchaserray) August 7, 2023

Welcome news regarding the wind reports thus far

So far we havent had any reports of significant wind nationwide. There have been plenty of 60 mph gusts or limbs down, but weve lacked the severity anticipated.



Things could worsen as the low level jet ramps up, but at present it appears things arent as bad as expected. pic.twitter.com/kzkzyJOFK0  Matthew Cappucci (@MatthewCappucci) August 7, 2023

Another round of storms headed for Georgia

Initial storms around Atlanta were just a warm-up act for another batch of severe weather incoming now.



There are 49-52 active severe weather warnings from north Georgia into the Mid-Atlantic



Radar: 530 PM pic.twitter.com/EilimQKWEk  Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) August 7, 2023

D.C. took the brunt of the storms in the early evening

Federal offices closed early on Monday because of the coming storm, but it has thankfully been less severe than forecast.

5:45p: Severe storms have now reached the Beltway, DC and I-95 as they continue to move east. Fortunately, not as intense as July 29 thus far. But still powerful with a gust near 60mph in Manassas and higher gusts near and over 70mph possible. Updates: https://t.co/gkl2pNA1lv pic.twitter.com/NpUN8Jf11Z  Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) August 7, 2023

9th St NW facing south - sunset vibes to a whole lot of downpour @capitalweather pic.twitter.com/rWJDQt8EEL  Sarah Horvitz (@horvitz_) August 7, 2023

Severe thunderstorm warnings, and some tornado warnings across multiple states

Wow! A lot of NWS offices have issued Tornado Warnings within the past day! pic.twitter.com/e5onqP3jO7  Peyton Simmers (@P_SimmsWX) August 7, 2023

Severely warned storms trek across the Mid-Atlantic this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/4Ox1T5gWYU  CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) August 7, 2023

The storms so far

Eastern US under siege: Severe storms sweep through, leaving a trail of damaging winds and large hail in their wake. https://t.co/Op2UhK4bZI pic.twitter.com/i4wOLoua3Q  AccuWeather (@accuweather) August 7, 2023

The Washington Posts indispensable Capitol Weather Gang reports:

Five tornado watches have been issued along with two severe thunderstorm watches. Around two dozen tornado warnings have been issued by the Weather Service, along with about 200 severe thunderstorm warnings. As of late Monday afternoon, more than 150 reports of severe weather  mostly from damaging winds  have been tabulated by the National Weather Service, mainly in the Appalachians before storms move into higher population zones to the east. Reports have been most concentrated in eastern Tennessee and West Virginia so far. These wind damage swaths will progress eastward.

There have also been a handful of reports of hail that is 1 or 1.5 inches in diameter. A funnel cloud was observed in a storm south of Binghamton in northern Pennsylvania. A number of flash flood warnings have been issued in western West Virginia, where several water rescues occurred earlier in the afternoon.

This post has been updated throughout.
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: AP Images, Getty

In campaign speeches, Donald Trump seems to be taking his second federal indictment in stride. We need one more indictment to close out this election, he said in an appearance on Friday night in Alabama, days after he was charged for conspiring to defraud the government. One more indictment and this election is closed out. Nobody has even a chance.

But if Americans have learned anything over the past eight years, its that Trump is most honest when hes posting. And judging by his reaction on Truth Social, hes not happy about the four new charges stemming from his effort to overturn the 2020 election. On Friday afternoon, he posted what appeared to be a barely veiled threat: IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! Hours after the message, the federal prosecutors on the case brought it to the attention of U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case. In their filing on Friday night, prosecutors requested that Chutkan issue a protective order barring Trump and his legal team from publicly sharing the evidence in the case handed over by the prosecution in discovery. Chutkan ordered Trumps legal team to respond to the prosecutors by 5 p.m. on Monday.

In response, Trump found a new target: the judge herself. There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge assigned to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case, Trump wrote on Truth Social, again in all caps. Everybody knows this and so does she! Trump then wrote that his legal team would ask for the recusal of Judge Chutkan on very powerful grounds and a venue change from Washington, D.C., where all the events in the indictment took place. On Monday morning, Trump doubled down on his call that Chutkan must be recused and referred to her as the judge of special counsel Jack Smiths dreams  a reference to Chutkans history of severe sentencing on January 6 cases she oversaw. (Trumps legal team doesnt seem to be fully onboard with the recusal idea yet; We havent made a final decision on that issue at all, attorney John Lauro said on Sunday.)

Minutes before the deadline, Trumps legal team proposed a much more limited set of rules barring him from sharing genuinely sensitive materials. They also included some unusual supporting materials:

Trump also wants to make sure Judge Chutkan is aware of Dark Brandon. https://t.co/wZUv6RZZaJ pic.twitter.com/5cjVhyhCjH  Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 7, 2023

But if a protective order is issued  and if Trump violates it by posting about evidence in the case  he could be held in contempt of court. Already, per his conditions of release, he has vowed not to tamper with or retaliate against any witnesses, victims, informants, or officers of the court, which includes lawyers and judges. Surely hell have the self-control not to break his word.

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The organisers behind Malaysias Good Vibes Festival are threatening to pursue legal action against The 1975 after the event was cancelled following frontman Matty Healys onstage rant against the countrys anti-LGBT+ laws.

The British rock band headlined the festivals opening night on 22 July in Kuala Lumpur.

I dont see the f***ing point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with. Unfortunately, you dont get a set of loads of uplifting songs because Im f***ing furious, Healy, 34, told the crowd.

And thats not fair on you, because youre not representative of your government. Because youre young people, and Im sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool.

Their performance was cut short when Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald  an act which is banned in Malaysia.

After disappearing off-stage briefly, Healy returned to tell the audience: We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, goodbye.

The festival was then called off entirely by Malaysias government due to its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule or contravene Malaysian laws.

Matty Healy (Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

In a statement seen by BBC News, organisers Future Sound Asia (FSA) said it had issued the band with a Letter of Claim demanding they acknowledge liability and compensate them for damages incurred.

FSA said that if The 1975 fail to do so, then they will pursue legal action in UK courts.

According to The Guardian, FSA claim that Healys actions tarnished the festivals reputation and that they intentionally contravened the agreement [the band] had with FSA, causing significant financial losses for the company and local artists and businesses.

Representatives for The 1975 declined to comment on the FSAs statement.

The band is also facing a class action lawsuit from a group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors who lost out on income after the festival was cancelled.

Mathew Thomas Philip of Malaysian law firm Thomas Philip, which is preparing the class action lawsuit, told The Guardian: My view is that The 1975 must be held responsible and accountable for the losses suffered by the artists and vendors.

Story continues

Healys actions prompted concern from some members of Malaysias LGBT+ community and allies over fears they would generate a backlash.

Matty Healy (PA)

Thilaga Sulathireh, a founder of the LGBT+ group Justice for Sisters, warned of the timing of Healys actions ahead of the highly contested state elections next month.

They told The Washington Post: One can appreciate the meaning of Healys protest, but I think the timing of it may not necessarily benefit folks.

Political parties are currently campaigning, and we know LGBT issues are often scapegoated.

An expert on Malaysia at the University of Tasmania, James Chin, added: Among the Muslim communities of Southeast Asia, they see LGBT rights as part of this Western agenda to impose cultural values on other countries, especially Muslim countries.

One of the problems with trying to promote these sorts of things around the world is that without the local context, you tend to get it wrong.

LGBT+ people face severe discrimination in Malaysia, where homosexuality is forbidden, and sodomy can be punished with imprisonment and corporal punishment.

Responding to news that the music festival had been cancelled in response to the kiss, Healy poked fun at the controversy on Instagram.

He shared the cancellation statement, accompanied by the words: Ok well why dont you try and not make out with Ross for 20 years. Not as easy as it looks.

On 23 July, The 1975 announced they had now withdrawn from playing scheduled shows in Taiwan and Indonesia, stating that it would be impossible to proceed with the tour dates.
Beijing and Canberra should go with the grain of their improving relations

09:11, August 07, 2023 By China Daily editorial ( Chinadaily.com.cn

Based on its review of "the changes in the Chinese barley market" that it started in April this year, the Commerce Ministry on Saturday lifted the anti-dumping and countervailing duties it levied on imported Australian barley from May 2020.

The Australian side immediately expressed its welcome to the move, including that by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. That should serve to persuade those continuing to try and sow a discord between Australia and China by reminding Canberra of the so-called "coercive" nature of the duties to save themselves the trouble of a fool's errand.

Both sides have clearly reached a tacit consensus that they should let the past be past and focus on the future together. This is undoubtedly a good re-boot for not only the resumption of trade between the two countries but also the improvement of their diplomatic relations and cooperation as a whole.

Apart from barley, after a gap of two years, Australia has begun exports of thermal coal to China on a large scale, and Australian lobster is back on Chinese dining tables already.

Since Albanese took office in May last year, Canberra and Beijing have made joint efforts to meet each other half way in addressing the damage the former Scott Morrison government did to Sino-Australian relations in a bid to reset the ties back onto the right track for healthy development.

The meeting between Albanese and the Chinese leader in Bali, Indonesia, in November last year, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, initiated a thaw in ties and their talk pointed out the direction for the following respective endeavors of both sides to improve relations.

Notably, the Albanese government has made its stance clear that it does not support the island of Taiwan joining the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. That represents a big change from its predecessor on the matter and also the extending of an olive branch that Beijing has not ignored. The openness Albanese has unequivocally expressed for a visit to China is another good sign that Beijing must have taken into account.

However, although China remains consistent in its policy toward Australia, Beijing has no reasons not to remain aware of the fact that Australia exists in almost all anti-China cliques of the United States, ranging from AUKUS and the Quad to the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance. This is also something that does not change no matter who becomes the leader of the country.

Yet something else that has not changed is that China has been and will continue to be Australia's largest export market. Its trade volume with China exceeds its total combined trade with Japan, the Republic of Korea, India and the US.

That calls for more diplomatic wisdom, flexibility and pragmatism on the part of both Beijing and Canberra to maintain the current good momentum in ties.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The Community Foundation of East Alabama awards grant to faith-based organization in Opelika that aims to fight human trafficking and advocates for victims and survivors.

The group gave a $500 check to Worthy, a group that wants to tackle the issue at its root by education others and speaking against pornography

We are proud to support the important work of worthy squared, said Fred Kam, the chairman of the Community Foundation of East Alabama. Their dedication to helping victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking is truly inspiring, and we are honored to be able to play a small role in their efforts.

Worthy (worthy squared) provides direct support to victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. The organizations founder, Kathryn Guthrie, said their focus is on building relationships with the victims and being able to provide for their needs.

The organization provides clothing, emergency safe shelters, transportation, medicine and other resources. Worthy also helps assist victims throughout the court process and connects them to resources to help them detox from any drug addictions, earn their GED, receive counseling, receive trauma-informed treatment, get their record expunged or establish a long-term residential living situation.

According to the International Labour Organization, about 6.3 million people are victims of forced commercial sexual exploitation. Nearly 5 million of those victims have been identified as women and girls.

National databases report that the U.S. is the number one consumer of sexual exploitation in the world. The purpose of the grant is to help strengthen Worthys funding for victim services and allow the organization to better support victims during their road to recovery.

We are incredibly grateful for the support of the Community Foundation of East Alabama, Guthrie said in a release. This grant will allow us to expand our outreach efforts and provide even more support to those who have been affected by these terrible crimes.

The Community Foundation of East Alabama is hopeful that this grant will make a meaningful difference.

Worthys commitment to providing support and assistance to these victims is truly commendable, and we look forward to seeing the organization continue to make a positive impact in the community, the CFEA release stated.

CFEAs goal is to promote philanthropy by connecting people who care with causes that matter, to serve the charitable purposes of their donors and meet the charitable needs of the community.

The organization serves Lee, Russell, Tallapoosa, Macon and Chambers counties, and provides grants and support to a wide range of organizations and initiatives in the area, with a particular focus on education, health, and community development.
United Way volunteers exceeded its goal to pack 22,000 meals in 65 minutes at Wednesdays Campaign Kickoff at the Food Bank of East Alabama.

In 45 minutes, volunteers filled 22,000 bags with rice, beans, soy, vegetables and vitamins. The food will be distributed to people who experience food insecurity in Lee County.

Some people might just need a meal for a couple of days until they get their paycheck, or they might need help to pay their utility bill just this month until they start that new job. We want to be that bridge to help them to their success, said Tipi Miller, the executive director of the United Way of Lee County.

UWLC partnered with Ocala Outreach Foundations Feed the Need initiative to pack the meals for people in the seven counties the Food Bank of East Alabama serves. There were over 135 volunteers at the 2024 Campaign Kickoff, including Opelika City Councilman George Allen. Auburn Mayor Ron Anders and Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller were also in attendance.

The Food Bank of East Alabama faced a food shortage in June and this event will certainly help as all 22,000 bags will be going directly to the food bank, which is one of United Ways partner agencies.

In the 2023 Campaign Kickoff, volunteers packed over 30,000 bags in no more than 65 minutes.

The coolest thing is  in this community people show up, said 64-year-old Eric Canada, who served on the UWLC board. The biggest thing about this kind of an event is it raises the awareness that hunger is a very real need, even in our community, which is relatively well off. There are a lot of people who live at the poverty line or lower and this food will feed those people.

Canada, who has been involved with UWLC since 1998, said the Food Bank of East Alabama is one of the longest tenured UWLC agencies.

As for the kickoff, United Way hopes to reach its goal of $925,000 by the end of December in order to distribute that money to the 20 partner agencies that work with the organization. Jennifer Fincher, United Ways campaign chair, sees the early success of the kickoff as a good sign for the months to come.

Its just a great illustration of what United Way does, we unite the community and we multiply efforts, Fincher said. We take on the fundraising, so that our agencies are able to focus on what they do best. And we dont raise all of their funds, but we are able to contribute to 20 partner agencies.

UWLC did not reach their 2023 campaign goal, but Fincher and her team are confident that they will reach the goal this year. Meanwhile, Miller has already planned to add more volunteers, more bags and more food to next years campaign kickoff event.

One of the things that I believe our community can do is get back above the $1 million United Way budget. Were taking steps to get to that point, because we have a very, very generous community, Canada said.

UWLC accepts donations directly on its website.
Through a guarded fence in Athens, Greece, nurse Allie Loehr gazes on a maze of shipping containers and the diverse faces of refugees from Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan among others.

It was nothing like I expected, though I didnt know what to expect, Loehr shared. A 2022 graduate of Auburns College of Nursing, Loehr is one of 50 students, faculty and alumni who traveled to Greece for the Auburn University Office Outreach Global Healthcare Service-Learning trip this summer. The containers each had a different purpose: a school, an office, a health clinic. Others were homes. Our job was to knock on doors, give people information about health testing and encourage them to visit the medical office. Though many of them spoke multiple languages, most of our communication was through gesturing and handing out pamphlets.

The 10-day program partnered with nonprofit Doctors of the World, Greece and local community leaders in Athens to address the healthcare needs of underserved communities. Auburn students shadowed the doctors and helped administer healthcare services during the unique service-learning and cultural immersion opportunity. Participants hailed from Auburns College of Nursing, Harrison College of Pharmacy, College of Education, College of Mathematics and College of Forestry Wildlife and Environment.

Refugees are a really misunderstood population and to have encountered them in such close quarters and to get to take care of them really was a privilege, Lalah Rose Hasbrouck said. Hasbrouck graduated with her nursing degree from Auburn in August and is starting her masters in child life sciences. It impacted how I approach health care here in the United States.

Beyond assessing health care needs in the refugee camp, the students and support staff participated in street work to administer health care to the homeless and other underserved populations in Athens. Students shadowed doctors, developed clinical skills and deepened their understanding of global health challenges.

The street work was my favorite part. It broadened my understanding of what health care is, what it looks like, Hasbrouck said. We talk about cultural competency and embracing diversity. Doctors of the World, Greece focuses on the humanitarian approach to care. The Auburn Creed is to have that human touch in all that we do, and that was really present in our work in Greece.

Doctors of the World, Greece went above and beyond to make opportunities for us, Loehr agreed. We worked with and learned from social workers, pharmacists, doctors and nurses. The communication barriers were not unlike some that I experienced with patients in the United States, and I learned so much about how resourceful community health care workers can and have to be when there are not supplies at hand.

Participants met with the mayor and deputy mayor of Athens to learn about how the government partners with nonprofits like Doctors of the World, Greece to address the humanitarian needs of refugees, homeless and underserved citizens in Athens.

Meeting the mayor and the deputy mayor of Athens was an awesome experience, Jaylynn Fortenberry said. The Greece trip was the first time Fortenberry, a pharmacy student, had traveled outside of the U.S. I could tell that they really cared about what they were doing and were open to finding solutions for the refugees and homeless from health care to getting them settled in Greece or helping them travel to another safe country.

It was eye-opening. We worked with families fleeing their countries due to terrorism. We worked with children who will never go home, Fortenberry continued. I think the more people who can experience a trip like this will help them develop more compassion for other countries and people going through this abroad and in the United States.

This type of perspective is what Auburn University Office of Global Outreach, a unit under University Outreach, is all about. The office creates opportunities for global engagement, cultural immersion experiences and contributions toward community development across the globe. The goal is to create affordable, short-term service-learning experiences to make education abroad accessible for more students. Beyond their service work, students also traveled to historical landmarks in and near Athens, including the Acropolis, the Parthenon and Delphi.

We live in a global village, said Elisabeth I. Quansah, director of Auburn University Office of Global Outreach. Our students need to be holistic, and one way is to expose them to diverse populations, multicultural education and community outreach in an international program.

Global Outreach will offer the Greece Service-Learning Program in Health again March 1-9, 2024, and the Ghana Service Learning Program June 21 - July 2, 2024. Visit Auburn Global Outreach for more details.
As researchers and energy companies around the globe invest heavily in the exploration of new clean energy sources and related technologies, several new discoveries are emerging, but whether they will ever reach the market is still unknown. Out of thousands of potential new discoveries, few are likely to ever be used in practice, but some could potentially come to market thanks to the international drive for a green transition. One innovative discovery being presented by researchers from MIT is an energy-storing building material made by mixing cement, water, and carbon black.

Scientists at the university believe they have discovered a new material that could be scaled for use in roads and building to provide renewable energy. The researchers mix the cement, water, and carbon black to produce a supercapacitor. They have previously tried creating battery-like properties in building materials by mixing concrete with graphene-based carbon nanotubes. However, as nanotubes are expensive to manufacture, this was not viewed as viable for use as a commercial building material. In contrast, carbon black is produced from the incomplete combustion of coal, vegetable matter, or fuel, and is much cheaper to make.

The group at MIT found that mixing cement, water, and carbon black created a fractal-like, electron-conducting network. The final product is used to form small plates, that are 1mm thick and 10mm wide and coated in a potassium chloride membrane. There are two electrodes made from the material, separated by an insulating layer, which lets them become a powerful supercapacitor. When provided with power, the plates can light a series of LEDs, which, the team believes, could make them useful in roads and buildings, when used to store energy.

But there are still challenges facing the team, as ensuring that the plates are able to keep both their energy-storing capability and structural strength is complicated. While black carbon has greater energy-storing properties, using more of it can weaken the concrete. The researchers believe using 10 percent black carbon in the mix provides the best balance. However, more can be used in scenarios where structural strength isnt so critical.

This is not the first time researchers have attempted to use innovative building materials for the purpose of storing energy. It is widely believed that thermal storage can be used in buildings to provide energy. When the temperature inside a building increases, innovative construction materials heat up, storing heat (thermal energy) for later use. While this technology has been largely overlooked in the past, greater political support and investment in a green transition could be just what was needed to encourage more research into the development of innovative building materials. For example, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are exploring ways to overcome the challenges faced in water-based thermal energy storage. The team are developing new building materials and systems to be used for heating and cooling, with advances in the technology already being reported.

Ravi Prasher, Berkeley Labs Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies, explained It is very challenging to decarbonise buildings, particularly for heating. He added, But if you store energy in the form of the end use, which is heat, rather than in the form of the energy supply, which is electricity, the cost savings could be very compelling. And now with the framework weve developed, well be able to weigh the costs of thermal energy storage versus electrical storage, such as with lithium batteries, which has been impossible until now.

Developing these building materials could be key to decarbonisation and achieving a green transition, with buildings in the U.S. accounting for 40 percent of the countrys energy consumption. Around half of this energy is used for heating and cooling equipment, as well as water heating and refrigeration. And this proportion of energy usage is expected to increase as the population increases. In addition, the eventual fall in natural gas use will increase reliance on the ageing electric grid. Therefore, the use of thermal energy storage could help alleviate some of the pressure on the U.S. grid, as well as decrease the proportion of traditional renewable energy needed to be used in buildings.

However, significantly more research and investment are needed in thermal storage for it to be developed for commercial use. At present, most materials being analysed face significant challenges when it comes to commercial rollout. While the innovations being seen at some of the top U.S. universities are promising, it is unlikely that we will see any wide-scale use of these types of materials for decades to come. However, their use in the long term could help to meet the growing demand for renewable energy and decrease reliance on other sources of clean electricity.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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Crude oil prices inched lower on Monday but remained elevated following a six-week winning streak. Supply concerns spiked when Ukrainian forces attacked two Russian oil tankers in the Black Sea over the weekend.

The Ukrainian naval drone attack on a Russian vessel over the weekend does make for some unease in a market already dealing with tightening supply, energy analyst Vandana Hari told Bloomberg.

Despite a slight decline in prices earlier in the day, these remain higher than last weeks, still being boosted by curbs in OPEC+ production, Reuters noted in a report earlier today.

"The bullishness is in line with our expectations of a stronger second half for oil compared to the first half," the report quoted DBS Bank energy analyst Suvro Sarkar as saying.

"But we think further upside may be limited and oil prices could consolidate around the $85 a barrel level (Brent) for a while, capped by ongoing concerns about the pace of China's recovery and doubts about how long Saudi and Russia will continue to curb production and exports, respectively, given the spare capacity on hand," Sarkar added.

Last week, Saudi Arabia provided an additional boost for prices when it announced it would extend its voluntary production cuts of 1 million bpd for another month in September. Days after the announcement, the Kingdom also raised its official selling prices for most buyers.

Neither move was a surprise to traders, who have regained some of their bullishness on expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will sometime soon end its rate hikes.

Russia, meanwhile, said it would reduce exports in September by 300,000 bpd, adding to the Saudi curbs. These, by the way, Riyadh said might deepen at some point.

An additional prod for prices came from the U.S. shale patch where drilling rigs fell for the eighth week in a row to the lowest since March last year.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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While Kyrgyz authorities were preparing the population for possible electricity shortages this winter, a giant crypto-mining farm was consuming more power every day than cement factories, gold mines, and bazaars that employ thousands of people.

Until this week, perhaps.

On July 26, in a direct response to an investigation by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service (Radio Azattyk), President Sadyr Japarov tried to justify the work of an energy-hungry cryptocurrency-mining operation in Chui Province, near Bishkek, the capital.

The operation close to an electrical substation in the Kemin district was paying for its electricity at the highest possible rate, Japarov said, claiming that Kyrgyzstan enjoys a power surplus in the summer.

Cryptocurrency-mining operations "could be turned off in the winter months" if power deficits appeared, he added, crediting the Kemin development with providing 225 million soms (more than $2.5 million) to the state budget in taxes and 480 million soms ($5.5 million) in electricity payments.

But on July 31, Energy Minister Taalaibek Ibraev told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that the company behind the gargantuan crypto-farm had "ended cooperation" with the state electricity grid and blamed Azattyk's investigation for the farm's decision to use power from neighboring Kazakhstan instead.

"There has been no theft [from the grid]. But after this investigation, the company ended cooperation [with the state] from August 1. So now we are losing money. The company will buy electricity from the Kazakh company and we will only receive [transit payments]. Instead of 480 million soms, we will receive 17 million soms ($195,000)," Ibraev complained.

But is the operation as good a deal for the country as officials are making it out to be? Or were powerful insiders, not for the first time, enjoying special protection?

'Should We Hold A Protest?'

Ibraev's sudden irritation over lost profits is in sharp contrast to his comments a little more than a week ago, when he was spearheading a national energy-saving campaign.

On July 20, during a cabinet meeting, Ibraev called for a presidential decree on a three-year state of emergency in the energy sector, after authorities were forced to purchase 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity from Russia and Turkmenistan last fall and winter.

"If this year the electricity deficit amounted to 3 billion kWh, next year it will grow larger. For example, if in 2023 [demand for electricity] is 17.2 billion kWh, then in 2026 this figure will reach 19 billion kWh. In this way, there will be a deficit of 5 billion-6 billion kWh," Ibraev warned.

Japarov has since signed a decree declaring an emergency.

There is no doubting the scale of the problem.

Kyrgyzstan's Toktogul hydroelectric power plant (HPP) has a total capacity of 1,200 megawatts (MW) and provides around one-third of all domestically produced electricity. But the reservoir upon which that power generation depends is currently at its lowest level in the last three years.

And despite the government covering the deficit with imports, many parts of Kyrgyzstan still suffered power cuts last winter.

One of them was Kemin, where residents living near the crypto-mining farm are only too aware of the toll being exacted on the power supply by their new neighbor.

"In autumn [the transmission line] was extended and many transformers were installed.... I heard that the electricity that [the cryptocurrency mine] consumes in one day is enough for Kemin for three days," said local resident Zholdoshbek Dalbaev in an interview with RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.

"At first, they were turning off our electricity. I called the dispatcher and asked him: 'Why are you turning us off, for the sake of that thing? Should we hold a protest?' After that, they stopped switching us off," he said.

The enterprise that locals say was built on the territory of a former state-owned summer camp for children is certainly well protected.

It sits behind a high fence, on more than two hectares of land, and consists of steel containers grouped into three sections, drone footage by Radio Azattyk showed.

A Kyrgyz policeman guarding the cryptocurrency mine called it a "strategic object" when an RFE/RL correspondent attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to gain access to the site.

Appetite For Power

That object's burden on the state grid is not just anecdotal.

It is backed up by Energy Ministry data on electricity consumption by major consumers, which was publicly available -- until recently.

Standings for April published on the Esep.energo.kg website showed a company called Solarcoin at the top of the pile, using far more electricity (over 17 million kWh) that month than even large taxpayers and employers like the Kant Cement Plant (13.5 million kWh) -- the largest cement producer in Kyrgyzstan.

Solarcoin's usage during that period dwarfed that of TransElectro (4.7 million kWh), a private electricity company, and was three times the amount used by the operators of Jerooy, the country's second-largest gold mine, Alliance Altyn.

Since Radio Azattyk published its investigation, that list has been removed from the website.

But the supposition that Kemin's cryptocurrency behemoth belonged to the company was confirmed by grid official Gulzhigit Murzakarimov, who told RFE/RL that the company's 30 MW-capacity operation might expand in the near future.

Murzakarimov also said that a rule imposed in 2019 preventing crypto-miners from using power from the grid was no longer in force.

Now, firms like Solarcoin can access the grid if "technical capacities allow," said Murzakarimov, who refused to comment on the reported power cuts in Kemin.

Cryptocurrency mining relies on blocks of computers working around the clock to solve complex cryptographic equations in exchange for rewards in cryptocurrency. Cooling systems are deployed to prevent the computers from overheating.

The process is incredibly energy-intensive and also expensive in jurisdictions where electricity tariffs are high.

That is not the case in Central Asia, a fact that has made it an attractive location for crypto-miners, some of whom fled China after a crackdown on the practice there.

In Kyrgyzstan, the top tariff for electricity -- as paid by cryptocurrency farms and other major consumers -- is 5.04 soms, or just under $0.06 per kWh.

That is about five times the super-low rates paid by Kyrgyz households, but broadly comparable to tariffs paid by homes in energy-rich countries like Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

Since Solarcoin's operation began in December, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has almost doubled, and is currently just under $30,0000 per Bitcoin.

Crypto-Kings

According to data published by industry sources, Kyrgyzstan's neighbor Kazakhstan has now become the second-biggest crypto-mining country in the world after the United States.

Kazakh energy officials have sometimes bemoaned the impact that new demand from the cryptocurrency sector has had on an ailing grid, particularly in the southern part of the country, where power shortages are the most common. Kazakh law enforcement has trumpeted the shutdown of apparently illegal operations benefiting power-station owners and, in at least one case, Bolat Nazarbaev, the disgraced brother of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Kyrgyz security services have also carried out numerous raids on cryptocurrency farms. Yet the investigation by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service suggested conflicts of interest involving current energy officials may be at play in Solarcoin's case.

Correspondents discovered, for instance, that a woman named Tatyana Martinova, was listed as one of the co-founders of Solarcoin. Martinova had in the past worked as director of another company, Ai Element, which was founded by a former lawmaker, Farkhat Iminov.

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Data on a government portal indicates that somebody with a surname and initials matching those of Iminov paid the equivalent of $300 in land taxes and just over $50 in nonresidential property taxes to the local tax service in Kemin on Solarcoin's behalf in January.

That is significant insofar as Iminov was in November 2022 elected to the board of directors of JSC Electric Power Plants -- the majority state-owned company that oversees nearly all of Kyrgyzstan's power generation -- just as construction of Solarcoin's operations were nearing completion.

Martinova is also listed as the founder of another company, Metrum KG, a status she shares with Jyrgalbek Turuskulov, another former lawmaker turned energy official. While Iminov represents JSC Electric Power Plants, Turuskulov serves as a board member for the state grid itself, whose full title is the National Electrical Grid of Kyrgyzstan (NESK).

Turuskulov told Radio Azattyk in a telephone call that he had seen Martinova only once in his life and did not know her beyond that.

Neither Martinova nor Iminov could be reached for comment, while Aisana Ismailova, listed as Solarcoin's director, told RFE/RL via telephone that she would provide comment, though she failed to do so.

Due to Kyrgyzstan's dependence on hydroelectric power, dry years like 2023 -- coupled with commitments to provide downstream neighbors Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with water -- can spell trouble for the grid.

Earlier this year, the deputy chairman of the cabinet of ministers, Bakyt Torobaev, estimated that Kyrgyzstan will enter the heating season with a volume of approximately 12.4 billion cubic meters of water in the Toktogul Reservoir -- more than 1 billion less than last year.

During the winter, more water is drawn to provide power as demand grows, with inflows into the reservoir falling sharply by the beginning of autumn.

History suggests that Kyrgyzstan needs to retain 6 billion-7 billion cubic meters of water in Toktogul during the cold months to avoid the regular shutoffs that deepened popular anger with the ill-fated regime of President Kurmanbek Bakiev more than a decade ago.

Current President Japarov was a top official in that government.

In his comments following Radio Azattyk's investigation, Japarov repeated the refrain of his predecessors that Kyrgyzstan "will become an electricity-exporting country" as new HPPs come online in the near future.

But energy expert Ernest Karybekov told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service that the Solarcoin project is another example of private interests being prioritized over the public good when it comes to the domestic energy sector.

"If you, I, or another citizen asks for electricity to open a factory, they will say that there is no capacity, and block permission," Karybekov said.

"Does it pose a risk? Yes it does. [But the authorities] will give permission for somebody else to enrich themselves," he added.

By Chris Rickleton via RFE/RL

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Saudi Aramco raised the official selling price (OSP) for its Arab Light crude oil grade to Asia by $0.30 per barrel for the month of September, to $3.50 above the Oman/Dubai average, Aramco said on Saturday.

The state-run oil giant also raised the price of its Arab Light crude to Europe by $2 per barrel, but it left its crude to the United States the same at +$7.25 versus ASCI for the month of September, it said.

Earlier this week, some analysts had predicted that Saudi Arabia may raise its OSP for its flagship Arab Light crude to Asia refiners in September to $3.65 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai quotes. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia agreed on Thursday to extend its 1 million bpd voluntary production cut through Septembera move that lifted crude oil prices globally.

The price hikes from Aramco to Asia are an indication that the oil giant feels emboldened by its production cut extension into September and improving refining margins in Asia. To the market, raising the OSP could convince the market that Saudi Arabia looks at future Chinese demand as improving.

Saudi Aramco exports roughly 60% of its oil to Asia, making it its prime market. Aramcos price movements to its premium market, Asia, are largely seen as a bellwether for the global price trends for crude oil.

Saudi Arabia hiked its OSP to Asia last month and the month before that as well, raising Augusts Arab Light grade by $0.20 for August loading to $3.20 per barrel above Oman/Dubai. Dubai oil is considered a proxy for other regional grades.

Last month, a Report from Renaissance Energy Advisors called Arab Light the least competitive grade for Asian Refiners.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Amid a heatwave, power shortages and ambitions to become a major energy hub, Egypt has seen its natural gas output drop to a three-year low in the first five months of this year, based on data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI), Reuters reports.

Between January and May 2023, Egypts gas production fell by 9% YoY, and by 12% over the same period in 2021. Egypt has had high hopes of becoming a regional energy hub. Those hopes gained further momentum with Russias invasion of Ukraine and Europes subsequent drive to find alternative energy sources. In 2015, Italian Eni discovered the giant Zohr gas field in Egypt, but discoveries have since tapered off. Zohrs reserves are estimated at 850 billion cubic meters of gas. Production at Zohr is reportedly declining due to water infiltration issues, according to sources cited by Reuters. Zohr production accounts for an estimated 40% of Egypts total gas production.

Egypt is also working to re-export Israeli gas as LNG, and started importing Israeli gas to that effect in 2020. The outlook in January was more optimistic, when data showed that Egypt had exported some 8 million tons of LNG in 2022, worth up to $8.5 billion due to a price rally.

That same month, Egypt granted oil and gas exploration rights to Exxon for two offshore blocks in the outer Nile Delta. Presently, Egypt is experiencing a major heat wave that has pushed demand up for cooling. The country is also experiencing sporadic power cuts, which are not common, as temperatures exceed 100F (37.8C). This is Egypts hottest month on record, and pressure on the grid is mounting. While $300 million in heavy fuel-oil imports are said to be on the way, a timeline for balancing out the grid and power shortages has not yet been revealed.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Exxon is no longer worried about the future of its natural gas operations in Australia after the Albanese government imposed restrictions on gas prices late last year to prevent them from rising too high.

The Albanese government announced caps on the price of natural gas and coal in December 2022. The price of natural gas will be capped at $8.15 (A$12) per gigajoule and at $85 (A$125) per ton of coal and the cap will be in effect for a year.

"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and we know, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what we've seen is a massive increase in global energy prices," Albanese told media in December.

Criticism from the energy industry was quick. A policy of such significance, proposed without any meaningful consultation with industry, creates an environment of uncertainty that will result in investment activity dropping across energy markets. This will make solving the underlying structural problems in the energy market harder, not easier, Woodside said in a statement soon after the announcement was made.

Another energy major in the region, Senex, announced it would suspend an investment project planned for the Surat Basin in Queensland after the caps.

Four months later, the Albanese government said it would extend the price caps until July 2025 to make sure Australians have gas at reasonable prices. Small producers of natural gas have been granted an exemption as long as they supply their output to the local market.

At the time the cap was introduced, Exxon was among the most vocal critics, calling the decision reckless free-market intervention, the Western Australian recalls. Since then, however, the government has been in discussions with energy majors on the new code of conduct for the industry in the new circumstances. According to an Exxon executive, these have been encouraging and uncertainty is beginning to resolve.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) recently graduated its first class of Air Force Detachment  1 Aim High Flight Academy (AHFA) students. The 24 students arrived in Viking Land this summer from several states and Air Force Bases in Japan, Germany, and South Korea. Participants earned 15 hours of flight and ground school time and got hands-on flight experience on an ECSU aircraft, and simulation training experience.

AHFA Student Ryan Johnson, 17, is the son of a former Air Force pilot who now aspires to be a commercial pilot and potentially join the Air Force. Even with his familiarity with aviation, he enjoyed everything about what his experience at ECSU offered.

"(The program) was awesome  challenging and rewarding, and I loved my instructor, said Johnson, of San Antonio, Texas. I found a lot of friends from all over the world. This definitely felt like a community.

ECSU Dean of the School of Science, Aviation, Health, and Technology, Kuldeep Rawat Ph.D., who helped launch the Flight Academy at ECSU, acknowledged students hard work to complete the program.

These students are very focused and dedicated because they know why they are here, whether representing the Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force. By completing this program, they have an edge over others who have not chosen this path, he said.

The events keynote speaker was Major Matthew Roland, director of operations for DET-1. He encouraged students with the insight that the program was very selective, yet they were chosen.

You are advocates now, he said. I hope you consider joining the Air Force and making your mark on the world. The sky is not the limit. Its just the beginning.

ECSU Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon also addressed students with a motivational message to strive for excellence.

Whether learning new skills or achieving your goals, this mindset will set you apart as a leader and serve as a foundation for the rest of your lives, both personally and professionally, she said. Students, as you leave our campus, may you go with courage, honor, and a steadfast commitment to making a difference!
Indias crude oil imports from Russia in June were the cheapest since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during which time the worlds third-largest oil importer became a key Russian oil customer alongside China.

The average cost of a barrel of Russian crude that landed at Indias ports in June was at $68.17, per data from Indias Ministry of Commerce and Industry cited by Bloomberg. The price exceeds the $60 price cap set by the G7, but the cap does not include shipping.

Most of Indias purchases of Russian crude oil are being done on a delivered basis inclusive of freight, insurance, and other costs.

To compare, India paid $70.17 on average per barrel of Russian crude in May and $100.48 a barrel in June 2022, according to the data.

International crude oil prices were lower in June compared to July and early August amid concerns about the global economy and the uneven Chinese recovery after the end of the Covid restrictions.

But prices have rallied in recent weeks as hopes have grown of a soft landing of the U.S. economy. Analysts and traders expect the supply cuts by OPEC+ and the unilateral output and export reductions from Saudi Arabia and Russia, respectively, to tighten the market for the rest of the year.

Indias crude oil imports from Russia dropped in July and could be headed to a more significant decline in August, to the lowest since January this year, according to Kpler.

In July, crude imports from Russia into India, the worlds third-largest oil importer, dropped to 2.09 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 2.11 million bpd in the previous month, Viktor Katona, head of crude analysis at Kpler, told Bloomberg last week.

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This month, Indias crude oil imports could further decline and fall to 1.6 million bpd, Katona added. If the projection is correct, Indias imports of Russian oil in August could drop to their lowest level since January 2023.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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As a major crackdown on illegal oil activities unfolds in Nigeria, security forces have launched airstrikes at vessels carrying stolen crude in the Niger Delta, destroying the vessels and their cargo.

A security operation in Nigerias Rivers State caught three vessels stealing crude from a pipeline and launched air strikes designed to completely destroy the vessels and serve as a potential deterrent for others involved in illicit oil activities.

Nigerian security forces also said it has spotted another illegal refining site with tanks and reservoirs loaded with suspected illegal refined products. That site was also destroyed in an airstrike over the weekend.

The days of treating criminal elements in our country with kids gloves is over. We must continue on this trajectory until we bring all of them to their knees, The Guardian of Nigeria quoted Air Marshal Hasam Abubakar as saying.

The airstrikes come after the Nigerian military last week destroyed 36 illegal refining sites and arrested 22 suspected oil thieves in the Niger Delta. The operation reportedly recovered 310,700 liters of crude oil; 14,675 liters of Automotive Gas Oil, 49,000 liters of Dual Purpose kerosene and assorted weapons.

Nigerias premium oil grade is Bonny Light, named after its Bonny oil hub, which last year was said to be losing nearly all of its oil output to theft.

Nigerias petroleum officials have varyingly estimated that the country is losing between 200,000 and 400,000 barrels of oil per day to illicit activities.

Nigeria is hoping to increase its oil output to up to 1.7 million bpd by November, hoping to win a higher quota in the OPEC+ agreement, though the country has consistently failed to produce to its quota, due to pipeline vandalism, oil theft and lack of investment capacity.

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Nigerias quota was 1.742 million bpd earlier this year, but due to its underproduction of more than 400,000 bpd, the output cap for Nigeria was lowered to 1.38 million bpd at the OPEC+ meeting in early June.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Polands pipeline operator PERN said on Sunday it had halted a section of the Druzhba pipeline carrying oil from Russia to Europe after detecting a small leak that is being fixed, with oil flows set to be restored by Tuesday.

The damaged section, where there is no indication of the leak being caused by a third party, is under repairs now, the company said in a statement carried by Reuters.

The expected time for pumping to resume is Tuesday morning, PERN said.

Security of supply to Germany is fully guaranteed, a spokesperson for the German federal Economy Ministry told Reuters.

Apart from the section under repair, other parts of the infrastructure operated by PERN are operating as usual, including the Pomeranian section, which is used to pump crude oil arriving in tankers to Poland and then further to Germany, the company said.

Parts of the Druzhba pipeline have come under attack since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this year, a pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline was shelled in a western Russian region bordering Ukraine and Belarus, but the oil flows continued.

The Druzhba pipeline is a key artery of oil supply from Russia to Europe, with two branches  a northern one via Belarus to Belarus, Poland, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania, and a southern one passing through Ukraine and sending oil to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia.

Flows through the Druzhba pipeline are exempted from the EU embargo on imports of Russian crude oil by sea that came into effect on December 5. The EU has exempted pipeline oil flows to landlocked EU member states from the ban.

Nevertheless, Germany and Poland have said they would halt imports of Russian crude via the Druzhba pipeline as of January 1. Germany did it on the first day of this year, following through on a previous pledge to stop buying Russian pipeline crude despite the fact that the EU embargo exempts pipeline flows from Russia to Europe.

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By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Ukrainian refugees are filling open job positions in the shale patch of North Dakota, thanks to a humanitarian program, the AP reports, noting 16 Ukrainians have already started work in the shale patch and another 12 are due to arrive later this month.

There are some 2,500 job vacancies in the Bakken shale play in North Dakota, which currently produces some 1.1 million barrels of oil daily. The output in the play peaked in 2019 at 1.5 million barrels daily and has been in decline since then.

As of June, there were 38 drilling rigs in the Bakken but North Dakotas mineral resources director Lynn Helms said at the time that these should bounce back to the mid-40s when the first batch of Ukrainian workers under the humanitarian program arrived.

If this workforce program works as well as we hope, were going to see that rig count bounce back, and that adds a lot of dollars to North Dakotas economy, Helms said in June, as quoted by the Bismarck Tribune.

The program, dubbed Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers, or GROW, was launched earlier this year with the aim of filling job vacancies in the Bakken through immigration with the initial focus on Ukrainians.

The Bakken shale play is still one of the biggest producing oil regions in the U.S. shale patch. The biggest player there is Harold Hamms Continental Resources, the company that revealed the true potential of the place back in the early 2000s.

Since then, however, natural depletion has reduced the output of crude oil while increasing the production of natural gas, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. At the time, the Energy Information Administration cited this decline in Bakken oil output as the reason for a revision of 2024 oil production figures.

Those were revised down to a total of 12.65 million barrels daily, from an earlier projection of 12.8 million bpd.

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By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Via Metal Miner

Although aluminum prices started to rebound in the short term, they have yet to breach ranges that would signal the beginning of a new trend. Indeed, prices continue to create an uncertain environment for the aluminum market due to the lack of direction.

Overall, the Aluminum Monthly Metals Index (MMI) moved sideways, rising a modest 0.4% from July to August.

Norsk Hydro, Alcoa See Q2 Demand Fall, Impacting Aluminum Prices

While prices rose modestly during July, aluminum producers felt the pinch of lower demand last quarter. According to the companys recent Q2 earnings report, Norsk Hydros EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) saw a nearly 39% year-over-year drop during Q2. The company also noted lower aluminum, alumina, and extrusion sales, which weighed on its quarterly results. And though improved raw material costs helped offset weaker market conditions, Q2s EBITA still marked an almost 6% drop from Q1.

Norsk Hydro was not alone in its results, as Alcoa also saw an even sharper decline. The companys adjusted EBITDA fell almost 85% from Q2 2022. This reflects a nearly 43% drop from Q1. Yet despite these declines, Alcoa CEO Roy Harvey noted, we expect to see financial improvement in the third quarter of 2023.

Falling Premiums Suggest Demand Remains Muted

Alcoa may feel optimistic about Q3, especially as Q3 opened with an over 4% rise in LME aluminum prices during July. However, the market continues to reflect pressured demand.

In the U.S., the Midwest premium has remained bearish since January, and currently sits at its lowest level since October 2022. While certain sectors, including the automotive sector, continue to post robust sales, weakness elsewhere has translated to lower demand and, thus, a lower regional premium. Meanwhile, the ongoing contraction of the U.S. manufacturing sector has yet to show any meaningful turnaround. Until it does and funding delays related to infrastructure projects resolve, the U.S. market appears likely to remain soft.

Meanwhile, the European duty paid aluminum premium also continues to decline. Prices peaked weeks after the Midwest premium but have nonetheless fallen over 23% since early February. As in the U.S., Europes manufacturing sector also remains weak. In July, the Eurozone Manufacturing PMI fell deeper into contraction territory to 42.7, the lowest in three years.

Finally, the Main Japan Port Premium appears relatively stable. This serves as a proxy for Asian demand, as Japan remains the leading aluminum importer within Asia. Still, the Q2 premium fell slightly from the Q1 range of $125-130/mt to $127.50/mt. However, muted Asian demand poses a downside risk to prices, especially as Chinese capacity returns from drought-related outages and economic Chinese growth continues to disappoint markets.

Amid Declines, Norsk Hydro Calls For Russian Aluminum Sanctions

Tighter market conditions and lower performance among aluminum producers appear to have renewed calls to sanction Russian material. According to Reuters, Norsk Hydro recently sent a letter to the LME urging the exchange to reconsider its position on admitting Russian-origin aluminum.

Indeed, Russian aluminum made up 80% of LME stocks in June. This was a considerable increase from the roughly 18% seen in October 2022. According to Norsk Hydro, Russian material carries an estimated $100-300/mt discount over material sourced elsewhere. Clearly, this could begin to weigh on LME pricing amid Russian aluminums current dominance within warehouses. Throughout the year, China leaned heavily on Russian supply. In fact, aluminum imports rose 10.7% during H1, with most of it coming from Russia. It still remains to be seen if this will affect aluminum prices long-term.

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As capacity returns in China, it begs the question of whether the country can sustain such import volumes amid muted economic growth. If not, the likely consequence could be more Russian aluminum deliveries into LME warehouses. LME and CME prices have yet to see a meaningful bifurcation, which will likely prevent the LME from shifting its position in the short term. Moreover, some market participants remain in support of the LMEs current policy. To nobodys surprise, Russian producer Rusal, which accounts for 6% of global supply, strongly rejected Norsk Hydros position. In a statement, the company noted, Rusal considers these comments to be aimed at destabilizing the market and driving anti-competitive behaviorhence to the benefit of the competitor.

By Nichole Bastin

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Andrew Tate has been released from house arrest in Romania.

The disgraced influencer, 36, is facing charges of rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women and has been under house arrest since March but he is now free to leave his home although he is not allowed to leave the country.

According to MailOnline, Tate and his brother Tristan, 34, who is facing a charge of human trafficking, were released from house arrest on Friday (04.08.23) and are now under judicial control which is described as a lighter restrictive measure. Two Romanian women who have been charged with human trafficking alongside the Tate brothers - who deny the charges against them - have also been released from house arrest.

The four may now move around freely but they are banned from leaving Romania or entering certain parts of the country.

The move comes days after the Tates appeared at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest to appeal against a court decision in July which would have kept them under house arrest for another 30 days.

In a post on Twitter on August 1, Andrew Tate wrote: "'I am in the Bucharest Court of Appeal to find out if I will be detained for a ninth month. Three months in jail, six months locked in my house."

He was arrested in December and spent three months behind bars before being released to house arrest. Tate spent months appealing against the house arrest order until it was finally lifted this week.

Andrew Tate recently gave an interview to the BBC in which he denied allegations of rape and exploitation and called himself a "force for good". The former 'Big Brother' star told the outlet: "I genuinely am a force for good in the world. You may not understand that yet, but you will eventually. And I genuinely believe I am acting under the instruction of God to do good things, and I want to make the world a better place."
The Sarpy County Sheriffs Office has earned accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

The purpose of accreditation, which was announced by the office Monday, is to improve public service by maintaining and following comprehensive law enforcement standards set by seasoned law enforcement personnel, researchers, and accreditation experts, according to the press release.

There were policies that we changed. It wasn't that we were deficient or were doing something wrong, so to speak, Sheriff Jeff Davis told The Times. They set certain standards nationwide that we're required to meet, and so that requires you to review some policies. It caused us to combine some policies, separate some policies. Just changes like that, nothing that was drastic.

The accreditation process includes internal and external reviews of policies, procedures, ethics, recruitment, hiring, training, and discipline. The sheriffs office applied to CALEA in November 2020, and received accreditation this year  along with the Sarpy County Juvenile Justice Center  on July 29 at a hearing in Oklahoma City.

We had contemplated certification for some time, Davis said. It is labor intensive to an extent that one of the things you have to consider, the personnel that are dedicated to that. We're no different than anybody else. When you're short (staffed), it's a very difficult decision to make. But, at some point, we just decided we had to do it.

While the sheriff's office had been looking into accreditation through CALEA for a while, it was the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that prompted local officials to go ahead and apply to the program.

There wasnt anything we were or werent doing training-wise or equipment-wise where we had to change anything," David said. "However, incidents like that throughout the country have caused other, whether it be city councils or state legislatures, to try and move in an area where many or most of their departments have some kind of certification."

Sarpy County Sheriff's Office leadership felt those requirements would likely come to Nebraska as well.

"We talked to our insurance company, NIRMA (Nebraska Intergovernmental Risk Management Association), they thought it was a great idea," Davis said of seeking accreditation from CALEA. " Our (county) commissioners, the same thing. They felt thats probably the wave of the future, we should be on board as quickly as we possibly can.

The Sarpy County Sheriffs Office is the eighth law enforcement agency in Nebraska to receive accreditation from CALEA.

The Papillion Police Department has held accreditation for years, and it's joined by the Omaha and Lincoln police as well as the Douglas County Sheriffs Office and Nebraska State Patrol. The University of NebraskaLincoln and Union Pacific police departments also are accredited.

Once accredited, law enforcement agencies have to get reaccredited every four years.

Everybody has policies and procedures, and you certainly hope your people follow them, but how do you know unless you routinely revisit those policies department wide, Davis said. It's one thing to have policy, and it's another thing to make sure people understand it, and they follow it.
Donald Trump has claimed he's 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 his arraignment 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 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 them or you prosecute him. We can't 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 he's 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 Defendant's 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.
If you have ever ended up with dissatisfying photos or videos you made for social media, dont worry  weve all been there. Capturing the perfect moment isnt only about timing, which youll know if a seemingly perfect picture youve taken has ever turned out to be blurred or poorly focused. Thankfully, there are some tricks you can use to breathe life into your content and transform it into something truly extraordinary.

1. GIF Maker

A GIF Maker tool lets you quickly and effortlessly create high-quality GIFs in mere seconds. You can take any snippet from your video, add text, stickers and effects, and turn it into a GIF with a single click of a button. If youre creating promotional content for social media platforms or any other animation, a GIF Maker will help you do it faster. Users also have the ability to adjust speed, reverse the GIF and create a seamless loop.

New to media editing? No need to worry  there are plenty of useful CapCut templates that make content creation a breeze no matter what your niche is. CapCut is a free all-in-one video and image editing app that allows you to create incredible visuals with very little effort.

The app was created by ByteDance  the same company that was also behind TikTok  and comes with some pretty handy features that will allow you to edit, enhance and share your videos. Even beginners can create high-quality, engaging content with CapCut.

2. AI Image Upscaler

With an AI Image Upscaler that comes free with CapCuts online editor, you can turn your low-resolution images up to full 4K without losing quality. Theres no need to be a professional graphic designer or buy expensive software  CapCut uses advanced AI algorithms that intuitively fill in the gaps in pixels after upscaling, identifying patterns and making educated improvements that will take your photos to true high-definition. Even a blurry, smudged image can be transformed into a high-quality picture!

3. AI-Powered Color Correction

Take your social media content to the next level with advanced Color Correction. All you have to do is upload your image, change the options to your preferences and click Generate  the app will automatically identify and correct color imbalances, creating a balanced and visually stunning photo. The AI can accurately change saturation, contrast and brightness based on massive datasets used for it to learn, making professional-level editing simple and fun.

4. AI Portrait Generator

Cant decide on which photo to use for your profile pic? With CapCuts AI Portrait Generator, you can convert any photo into an artistic portrait. The tool offers a range of styles to choose from like Manga, 3D game or Hong Kong cartoon. You dont have to limit yourself to social media posts with it  its perfect for profile pictures, but you can also use it to create digital art  the possibilities are endless.

5. AI Photo Colorizer

Last but not least, CapCuts AI Photo Colorizer can breathe new life into old black-and-white photos. Take your old photos, upload them into the colorizer and see how theyre immediately filled with vibrant colors. With this tool, you can turn your old family album into a colorful masterpiece, as the AI intelligently paints each photo with fitting colors.

CapCut offers a wide range of powerful AI-based tools that make creating amazing social media content extremely simple. With CapCut, anyone can be a content creator  test the free tools out and elevate your social media game!

Lee Enterprises newsroom and editorial were not involved in the creation of this content.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Focusing on the Bidens rather than Donald Trump's federal court appearance, House Republicans released a transcript Thursday of their interview with Hunter Bidens former business associate detailing overseas financial dealings by the presidents son.

The more than five-hour closed-door interview with Devon Archer by the House Oversight Committee, released hours before Trump's appearance to face a third list of charges, provides fresh insight into how President Joe Biden's youngest son used his relationship with his father, who was then vice president, to court foreign investors. Archer said Hunter Biden was using the illusion of access in Washington.

Republicans on the panel hope to use their work to prod impeachment proceedings against the president. However, though pressed repeatedly, Archer offered no tangible evidence that Joe Biden's role in his sons work was more than saying hello during their daily family calls.

You know, Hunter spoke to his dad every day, right?" Archer said to committee members and staff on Monday. And so in certain circumstances, when youre in  you know, if his dad calls him at dinner and he picks up the phone, then theres a conversation."

He added, "And the, you know, the conversation is generally about the weather and, you know, what its like in Norway or Paris or wherever he may be.

Release of the more than 140-page transcript is the start of what is expected to be a long and tangled Republican-led probe into Hunter Bidens business dealings as he hopscotched the globe using what critics call the illusion of proximity to power to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself and his associates. Three committees are looking at Hunter Biden so far, and Republicans are pushing ahead on several lines of inquiry.

Archer testified that over the span of their decade-long business relationship, Hunter Biden put his father on the phone around 20 times while in the company of associates but never once spoke about any business dealings.

At one point, Archer was asked point blank: Are you aware of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden?

He responded, No, Im not aware of any.

Overall, the transcript portrays the presidents son as capitalizing on his fathers name, but not necessarily promising or delivering any influence that would rise to a questionable level or approach wrongdoing.

Still, Republicans have long seen Archer, who served with Hunter Biden on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, as a key witness in their search to directly connect the president to his sons various international business transactions.

Rep. James Comer, Republican chair of Oversight Committee, issued a subpoena to Archer in June, saying he played a significant role in the Biden familys business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine. He said Archers testimony would be critical to the committees investigation.

And while there was no evidence directly tying Hunter Biden's financial dealings to his father, Archer's testimony raised new questions about the ways in which the 53-year-old used the Biden brand" to build his multimillion dollar international businesses.

He was getting paid a lot of money, and I think, you know, he wanted to show value," Archer testified, adding the younger Biden was not overt about his relationship with his father.

But I think he would  you know, given the brand, I think he would look to, you know, to get the leverage from it, Archer said, adding, I think its more defensive, you know, defensive leverage that, that the value is there in his work.

Asked what value he brought to Burisma, Archer replied, The value that Hunter Biden brought to it was having  you know, there was  the theoretical was corporate governance, but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value. I dont think it was the sole value, but I do think that was a key component of the value.

Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican member of the Oversight Committee who attended the interview, portrayed the testimony about the Biden brand as implicating the the president directly. I think we should do an impeachment inquiry, the Arizona lawmaker told reporters as he exited the interview Monday.

Comer agreed, saying in a statement Thursday that Archer's testimony confirmed, "Joe Biden was the brand that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family." When pushed on it later, Archer clarified that the brand that brought Hunter Biden value with international clients was the broader, Washington access, which included his previous lobbying work.

D.C. was the brand, he testified to a line of questioning by Biggs.

Nonetheless, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently said Republicans may need to launch an impeachment inquir y to dig deeper.

But the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said the transcript proves once again that Republicans cannot produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden.
Cobalt carnage, child labor and ecological destruction By Paul Driessen

web posted August 7, 2023



Global cobalt demand soared with the advent of cell phones and laptop computers. It exploded with the arrival of electric vehicles and now is skyrocketing in tandem with government EV mandates and subsidies. Cobalt improves battery performance, extends driving range and reduces fire risks.



Demand will reach stratospheric heights if governments remain obsessed with climate change and Net Zero. States and nations would have to switch to electric cars, trucks, buses and tractors; end coal and gas electricity generation; convert gas furnaces, water heaters and stoves to electricity; and provide alternative power for windless, sunless periods. Electricity generation would triple or quadruple.



Weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels would require billions of battery modules, to stabilize power grids and avoid blackouts every time wind and sunshine don't cooperate.



All that Net Zero transformation equipment -- plus transmission lines, substations and transformers -- will require billions of tons of cobalt, lithium, copper, nickel, graphite, iron, aluminum, rare earths and other raw materials at scales unprecedented in human history. That will necessitate mining, ore processing, manufacturing, land disruption and pollution at equally unprecedented levels.



Just President Biden's first tranche of US offshore wind turbines (30,000 megawatts by 2030) will require some 110,000 tons of copper, for the turbines alone. Transmission lines, transformers and batteries are extra. Based on average global ore concentrations, getting that copper would require extracting 40,000,000 tons of surface rock (overburden) and 25,000,000 tons of copper ore.



But those 2,500 12-megawatt 800-foot-tall turbines would provide barely enough electricity to power New York state on a hot summer day, if the wind is blowing, and before its Net Zero mandates kick in.



However, the Biden Administration opposes mining in the United States -- even for essential Net Zero materials; even under stringent US pollution, workplace safety and mined-land reclamation regulations. The President's horse-blindered Secretary of the Interior has vetoed mining for materials in Alaska, Minnesota and almost anywhere critical metals and minerals might be found.



The Administration is laser-focused on ending the "climate crisis" by switching to "clean" energy. It has few qualms about importing the critically needed materials from foreign countries, primarily China -- regardless of economic, defense, national security, ecological or human rights implications. It just wants the dirty aspects of "clean" energy far away and out of sight.



Cobalt mining involves unimaginable horrors. Cobalt Red, by Nottingham University associate professor of modern slavery Siddharth Kara, exposes the excruciating realities that Stop Oil and Net Zero campaigners strive to keep buried -- along with the bodies of parents and children killed in cave-ins or dying slowly and painfully after being maimed or poisoned in cobalt mines.

Children fill sacks with cobalt Professor Kara took multiple trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo, risking his health and life to document conditions for desperate Africans in a region that holds 72% of the world's known supplies of cobalt. He estimates that 70% of this cobalt (half the world's entire supply) involves some measure of child labor, while much of the rest involves near-slave labor.



The DRC's once-verdant southeastern corner hosts the largest, most accessible, highest grade cobalt ore deposits known on Earth. For EV buyers, Net Zero aficionados, and corporate and government elites, the land is blessed with cobalt interspersed with copper, other Net Zero metals, uranium, chromium, gold and silver. For those toiling at the bottom of the Congo food chain, the land is cursed with those metals.



In DRC mines, "labor is valued by the penny, life hardly at all," Kara says. Miners in its big industrial mines get somewhat decent working conditions, medical care and pay (perhaps $10 per day).



But almost one-third of Congo cobalt is gouged from the earth by artisanal miners: men and women, and boys and girls as young as six. They and their families live and work in a treeless "hellscape of craters and tunnels patrolled by maniacs with guns."



Noxious clouds of gas permeate air that even infants must breathe. Families fish, play and bathe in -- and drink from -- rivers and lakes contaminated with metals and industrial chemicals.



They labor ten to twelve hours a day in sweltering heat and toxic mud, water and dust, in enormous pits hundreds of feet deep -- hacking at rocky walls and in long, narrow tunnels that collapse with frightening frequency. Injured miners may get initial medical care; then nothing.



In some areas, their clothing and skin are covered with mustard-colored dust -- dried sulfuric acid from processing the ores. Almost everywhere, breast, kidney and lung cancers are rising, because adults, children and babies are exposed constantly to heavy metals and uranium in everything around them. High lead levels cause permanent neurological damage.



15-year-old Muteba hobbled on crutches, his shattered, mangled legs dangling below his skinny waist. He was the only survivor from a cave-in that buried his brother and six others alive. 16-year-old Makano fell into a pit, broke and gashed his leg and hip, and was left with a festering, infected wound that desperately required antibiotics and medical attention he was unlikely to receive.



There are thousands more like them -- maimed, paralyzed, disfigured or dead.



"Fair living" wages? Male artisanal miners receive around $2-4 a day -- for output that might reach two 90-pound (40-kilogram) sacks of heterogenite cobalt ore. Women and children are typically paid half that, regardless of how much they produce or the purity of the ore they mine.



Those who disobey mine overseers can get "locked in a shipping container with no food or water for up to two days." At Kanina, two boys who tried to get more than the usual pittance for their 65-pound bags of ore were gunned down -- murdered -- by security guards.



"Here it is better not to be born," a mother lamented. A miner reflected, "Here we work in our graves." Of course we fear the dangers, said another, "but if we do not work, we do not eat."



And still mining, tech and EV companies, ESG investment firms, politicians and climate zealots tell us they require and ensure "responsible sourcing" of Net Zero supply chains, good wages, safe working environments, and prevention of child labor and slavery. What indifferent, self-serving fraud.



No DRC buyer knows or cares where a quantity of cobalt ore came from, under what conditions it was mined, or whether children dug it out. The entire marketplace is designed to collect and mix ores from formal industrial mines and legal or illegal artisanal operations -- making it impossible to trace sources or tell whether child slaves or brutal militias were involved.



At least one marketplace is a remote night operation that can have no other purpose "than to launder artisanally mined cobalt into the formal supply chain completely our of view." Every mixed load of ore is then thrown into acid baths for initial processing -- before being sent out of country, mostly to China.



We hear much about reparations for descendants of American slaves -- but little about reparations for Native Americans, and zilch about compensating these modern-day slaves.



Nor do we hear from billionaires like Bill Gates, John Kerry, Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. They lavishly fund "climate crisis" and "clean energy" campaigns. Have they spent one dime bringing decent wages, working conditions, living standards and medical care to Congo's miners?



These human rights issues should top their charitable giving -- and the agenda for anyone promoting the climate crisis, ESG, Net Zero and batteries, especially President Biden, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.



Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, climate change, environmental policy and human rights. Home
Sarpy County is seeking applications to replace the current county treasurer, who has announced his resignation.

Trace Jones, whose resignation will take effect Aug. 31, began his term as treasurer in January and was set to serve until January 2026. Nebraska law calls for the county board to appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of the term.

A candidate for treasurer must be be a resident of Sarpy County and a registered voter. While not required by law, a candidate would ideally have a background in management and finance or banking, according to a press release from the county.

The treasurers salary for the 2023 fiscal year is $106,424 and is set to increase each year through 2026, according to Sarpy Countys website.

The treasurer supervises a staff of 28, according to the offices website. The office has an annual operating budget of a little over $2 million, and it collects and distributes about $600 million a year in property and motor vehicle taxes and fees.

More information on the position and information on how to apply are available at www.sarpy.gov/940/Sarpy-Treasurer.

Jones said previously in an interview with The World-Herald that hes leaving on a high note and that there wasnt any particular incident that led to his resignation.

Before being elected in November to a full four-year term, Jones had been appointed by the Sarpy County Board as interim treasurer in April 2021 following the boards removal of the previous treasurer, Brian Zuger, The World-Herald previously reported.

Zuger was removed after a state audit alleged a number of accounting errors, including miscalculated tax payments to school districts, inaccurate financial reconciliations and a patchwork system of bookkeeping.

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KYIV, Ukraine  Two Russian missile strikes hit the city center of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region Monday evening, killing at least five people and wounding two dozen more, Ukrainian officials said.

The strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, occurred within 40 minutes of each other, according to Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. The attack damaged nine- and five-story buildings, residential houses, a hotel where foreign journalists used to stay, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, he said.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said five people, including a local official of Ukraines State Emergency Service, were killed and 31 more were wounded by the strikes. Nineteen policemen, five rescuers and one child were among the wounded, Klymenko said.

The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but broken and scorched stones in eastern Ukraine. His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  wasnt invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals. The Kremlin's demands include Kyiv recognizing its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscows previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied. He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced Monday it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

It claimed the woman was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyys visit.

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyys route, times and visits in the region. She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscows forces approached.

He has been one of Ukraines unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognizable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. He said Kherson had endured a tough night as the Russians covered the central part of the city with fire.

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Also on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the U.S. Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigation.

Congress recently allowed for new U.S. flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of the United States cooperation, Garland said.

We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability. We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable, he said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.
LINCOLN  A 69-year-old Nebraska man is one step closer to extradition to Germany to be tried for a 1978 killing after a hearing in Lincoln.

Tommy Tom Molina shook his head no Friday as Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Packard went through the evidence German investigators have that points to Molina as the one who killed Cornelia Humpfer on April 20, 1978, in Schweinfurt, where he was stationed at the time as a U.S. Army soldier.

She was found the next morning with 14 stab wounds.

The case centered around DNA. This case went unsolved for years. And it turns out that five blood stains on the victims stockings come back to the defendant, Packard said.

While the DNA contained a mix of contributors, he said, the conclusion was the highest probability it included Molinas.

Packard said tire tracks at the scene also matched his car, as well as the pattern of Molinas car mats and the fact that he had cleaned his car before investigators came to talk to him five days after the killing.

Eyewitnesses also said they saw a car like his with two people in it in the area around the time of the killing, he said.

Packard said there also were Molinas own alleged admissions to his ex-wife and motive: that Molina had been having an affair with the victim and she threatened to expose it.

On the other side, Toni Wilson, a federal public defender, said it was important to point out that Molinas DNA was taken in 2000 and wasnt a match.

In 2020, the FBI again collected Molinas blood and sent it to Germany. This time, testing led to a warrant for his arrest, which happened June 21 in Gering.

Mr. Molina was questioned multiple times through law enforcement, Wilson said. He maintains hes innocent (of) this arrest warrant. Hes been questioned. Hes continuously maintained his innocence.

She argued against the judge finding probable cause, challenging the alleged admissions as stories Molina made up while drinking and questioning the intent of his ex-wifes statements to investigators.

But Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart stopped her, saying she couldnt ask her to waive contradictory evidence.

Thats not my job here today, she said.

The extradition hearing was solely about whether probable cause existed. Zwart ultimately found it did.

It doesnt mean that I am finding you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or even by preponderance of the evidence, she said. Its just, does the country of Germany have the evidence it needs to bring a case against you.

Wilson also argued Friday for bail while Molina, who has a number of ailments, goes through the extradition process, as well as due to the lengthy delay in charging him.

The proceedings in this arent over with today, she said.

Wilson said that while this court was deciding if Molina was extraditable, certification next will go to the secretary of state for a final decision on whether to surrender him to German authorities.

While that decision is being made, she anticipated a so-called habeas petition would be filed questioning the lawfulness of his detention.

Packard said that if Molina were released on bail, the practical effect would be the court telling Germany that hes extraditable but telling them they needed to come find him.

Just from a commonsense standpoint that doesnt make a whole lot of sense, he said.

Packard said that when the U.S. government seeks to extradite someone in Germany, it is seeking an efficient, speedy process thats fair. And it has an obligation to do the same for Germany.

He said Molinas health issues didnt qualify as extraordinary circumstances to merit release.

Zwart agreed, saying that while hes 69, he was out mowing his yard in May. And she didnt see the delay in the proceedings as justification for Molina not to be detained.

The country of Germany did not let up on this, she said. It just took until the science caught up.
LINCOLN  A legal nonprofit that has targeted colleges and universities offering preferential treatment based on race accused the University of Nebraska-Lincoln of racial discrimination for creating and supporting a residency program for Black filmmakers.

The Equal Protection Project, which was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case challenging Harvard Universitys race-conscious admission policies, filed the complaint against UNL with the U.S. Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights on Sunday.

In its complaint, Equal Protection Project alleges a partnership between UNLs Johnny Carson School of Emerging Media Arts and the New York City-based nonprofit Black Public Media violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act.

The Black Public Media Residency program between the two entities was a partnership to serve Black filmmakers, artists and creative technologists by offering them access to and training on emerging technology equipment and software.

The residency program, which ran for several weeks in July in both 2022 and 2023, seeks to develop the talent of producers of color, specifically projects where a person of African descent is in a key creative position such as writer, director, or producer.

William Jacobson, a Cornell University professor and the founder of conservative blog Legal Insurrection, which launched Equal Protection Project in February, said requiring at least one person on the team of creatives to be Black diminished the opportunities for others.

The racial discrimination of the (UNL) program is particularly pernicious because it requires that student teams organize themselves around race, with one team member required to be Black, Jacobson said in a statement. This puts students in the position of choosing among their peers focused on race. Making students complicit in the discrimination is offensive and troubling.

Three filmmakers and artists  Eboni Zamani of Philadelphia; J. Bird Lathon of Clarksville, Tennessee; and Conrad Burgos of Buffalo, New York  were selected for the second year of the residency program funded through a $40,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which ran from July 10 to 21.

Because UNL receives federal funding, it is required to follow Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning discrimination on the basis of race, the complaint states, even if the discrimination advances a benign intention or motivation.

Thus, regardless of UNLs reasons for creating, sponsoring and promoting the BPMR, it violated Title VI by doing so, the complaint states. And, because UNL is a public institution, its creation, sponsorship and promotion of the BPMR also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The complaint also refers to the Students for Fair Admissions case decided in June by the Supreme Court, which found that racial categories were often overly broad and did not further the educational goals of an institution.

The Equal Protection Project asks the Office of Civil Rights to investigate the blatantly discriminatory program and implement penalties, including imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue federal financial assistance.

Jacobson also said the NU system should appoint a special investigator to look for other programs that provide preferential treatment on the basis of race.

In a statement Monday afternoon, a university spokeswoman said NU has not received a copy of the complaint from the Office for Civil Rights.

When we do, we will respond appropriately, the university said in its statement.

According to the Department of Education, the Office of Civil Rights will review the complaint to determine whether it has legal authority to investigate or if the allegations raised have been resolved.

If investigators determine there are grounds to proceed, investigators can review documentary evidence, interview the parties involved, or conduct a site visit to evaluate the allegations.

The office will then decide whether there is a preponderance of evidence to support a conclusion that UNL violated the law, or if there is insufficient evidence to support that finding.

The action against UNL is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Equal Protection Project this summer against colleges and universities that offer residencies, internships or other programs that give preference to racial minority or other underrepresented groups.

The EPP filed a civil rights complaint against the State University of New York at Buffalos School of Law for its Discover Law Undergraduate Scholars Program, a four-week residential program for 20 high-performing students that gives preference to students of color and first-generation students.

In early June, the organization also targeted an internship program offered by the University of Minnesota for Black and Native American students that has been in place since the 1980s, the MinnPost reported.

The University of Minnesota quickly renamed and relaunched the program, eliminating the preferences for students from minority groups, but that didnt assuage EPP or state lawmakers who criticized the program as discriminatory.

The Equal Protection Project also filed a complaint against Missouri State University this year, alleging the small business boot camp for women and people of color was discriminatory against White males.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of August 2023
Getting away to Nebraskas state parks will cost slightly more next year.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission approved increases for state park entry fees at its meeting Friday in Valentine.

Beginning Jan. 1, annual permits for vehicles licensed in Nebraska will increase from $30 to $35. Temporary or daily permits will increase from $6 to $7.

In addition, annual permits for vehicles licensed in states other than Nebraska will increase from $60 to $70 and daily permits will increase from $12 to $14.

The cost of obtaining duplicate permits will increase from $15 to $17.50 for vehicles licensed in Nebraska and from $30 to $35 for those licensed in other states.

Commissioners also authorized one lottery and one auction permit for a 2024 bighorn sheep hunting season, which will be Dec. 3 to 22.

Additionally, commissioners approved an application period for a potential bighorn management hunt. It will allow for a management hunt application period separate from a regular sheep hunt application period, if such a hunt is approved in the future. Management hunts would only be approved to manage the health and sustainability of a bighorn herd.

If a management hunt were approved in the future, it would be for Nebraska residents only. The application period would begin 60 days before the opening of the management season and last 14 days.
A Tecumseh, Nebraska, woman was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday in Johnson County District Court after pleading guilty to motor vehicle homicide and two other felonies.

Chelsy Kress, 36, admitted to causing the death of Logan Ascheman, 22, of Tecumseh on March 16 while driving recklessly. A judge ordered her to serve three years for motor vehicle homicide and three to four years for failure to stop and render aid with the sentences to be served one after the other.

Kress also was ordered to serve two years in prison for possession of a controlled substance, with that sentence to be served the same time as the previous two sentencings. According to the sentencing order, Kress will be eligible for parole after serving 3 years.

She will be credited with 145 days served while waiting for trial. Following her release from prison, Kress must serve three years of probation.

Deputies from the Johnson County Sheriffs Office in southeast Nebraska responded to a call from Kress about 2:30 a.m. March 17. According to an affidavit, Kress called the Sheriffs Office to say that she believed she hit someone with her vehicle.

A deputy went to the area of First Street and the railroad tracks in Tecumseh and located Ascheman, who was deceased. The deputy then went to Kress home and found damage to her vehicle consistent with striking a pedestrian.

Investigators said surveillance video shows Kress traveling northbound on First Street about 10 p.m. March 16. Kress, they said, struck Ascheman with her vehicle and left the area without stopping to render aid.

Kress then returned home and did not contact law enforcement for 4 hours after the incident, authorities say.
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP)  A teenager who killed four students at his Michigan high school in 2021 was like a feral child, deeply neglected by his parents during crucial years and mentally ill, a psychologist testified Tuesday at a hearing to determine if the mass shooter will get a life prison sentence.

Ethan Crumbley's lawyers also played disturbing videos from jail showing the 17-year-old wailing in distress earlier this year as deputies restrained him. In one image, his head is completely covered with a hood.

Why didn't you stop it? I'm sorry. ... Stop it, God, why? he said.

A psychologist, Colin King, said the shooter was experiencing psychosis, a break from reality. He later predicted that the boy absolutely can be rehabilitated.

A number of my clients have had issues with the law, said King, who has testified in many homicide cases. Through psychotherapy and support, theyve been able to make progress. ... Ethans brain is still maturing."

Crumbley pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other charges in a shooting that killed four students and wounded seven others at Oxford High School, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Detroit.

Because of his age  15 at the time  the shooter can't automatically be a given life sentence. Oakland County Judge Kwame Rowe first must consider the shooters maturity, mental health, unstable family life and other factors set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

He still can order a life sentence, but it would be a rare outcome for a teen. Crumbley otherwise would face a minimum prison sentence between 25 years and 40 years, followed by eligibility for parole. His maximum term would be 60 years.

King said he spent more than 20 hours with the shooter during several meetings, interviewing him and running him through a series of psychological tests. He also reviewed the teen's dark journal entries and text messages.

King disclosed that the boy believed that a gun was going to be found in his backpack on the day of the shooting when he was sent to the office for drawing violent images in class.

Ethan said for the first time in his life he felt relieved, King testified. He said he just knew the sheriffs were going to burst into the office and arrest him because there was no way  after all that they saw  they werent going to search that backpack.

But the backpack was never checked, and the boy was allowed to remain in school. He later emerged from a bathroom and started shooting.

King said the shooter was raised in a turbulent home by parents who left him alone for hours, argued in front of him and weren't discreet when discussing infidelity, divorce and suicide. The boy was even forced to figure out what to do with his beloved dead dog.

He can be considered a feral child, King said.

It is essentially a child who has been abandoned. ... Someone who is abandoned has what is called arrested development, he said. They lack social cues. They become misfits in society.

The shooter, King concluded, has major depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A number of innocent people died, King said. I'm not here to make excuses for Ethan Crumbley. He planned the attack. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. He was mentally ill.

His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are separately charged with involuntary manslaughter. Theyre accused of buying a gun for their son and ignoring his mental health needs.

Prosecutors want a life prison sentence with no chance for parole. During cross examination of King, they suggested the psychologist was giving the shooter a break.

People with depression all dont become mass shooters, do they? assistant prosecutor David Williams said.

Williams repeated evidence that was entered last week: journal writings and a video made the night before the shooting in which the teen declared his plan to attack the school.

He noted that victim Justin Shilling was executed in a bathroom. You think thats the product of a juvenile brain? Williams asked.

I do, King replied.

King said adults repeatedly missed opportunities to help the shooter. But Williams noted that help was just a few days away if the boy really wanted it. His parents had assured school staff that he would get counseling within 48 hours after they saw his violent drawings.

Prosecutors last week called four people who witnessed the shooting, including a staff member who was wounded and a student who saved a wounded girl. It was the first time their accounts were aired in court.

The hearing will resume Aug. 18.
Oops JPMorgan Chase did it again...again By Scott Shepard

web posted August 7, 2023 JPMorgan Chase is back to debanking. Once again, it's not providing any explanations. And once again it's targeting people who dare to question the Left Government/Woke Business conspiracy against liberty. At about the same time, it appears, Chase debanked, without warning, Drs. Syed Haider and Joseph Mercola. Wait, no. Not just them, but also Dr. Mercola's employees -- and his and their families. All without explanation. These debankings don't come without context. You may recall that last fall Chase debanked Senator, Ambassador and Governor (so, you know, pretty well respected) Brownback's religious liberty organization, after having debanked General Flynn and a series of other conservatives. Chase got called on the Brownback debanking and first stonewalled and then lied, a half dozen times, about the reasons for the debanking, and then went back to stonewalling. That's relevant again because, whaddya know, the debanked doctors turn out to be conservatives, too -- or at least they're sufficiently opposed to the woke big government/big business monolith that they were willing to question the efficacy of the lockdown regime. In fact, the New York Times wrote a story about him in the summer of 2021 calling him "The Most Influential Spreader of Coronavirus Information Online." Why? Because he'd dared to "publish[] over 600 articles on Facebook that cast doubt on Covid-19 vaccines since the pandemic began, reaching a far larger audience than other vaccine skeptics, an analysis by The New York Times found." He also published "posts often ask[ing] pointed questions about [the vaccines'] safety and discuss[ing] studies that other doctors have refuted." Oh, the horror. Disagreement about scientific questions? Can not have. Especially if the right scientists have refuted some underlying positions. You know, the way the right scientists refuted the lab-leak theory. Mercola also helped to publicize a study that claimed that the "covid vaccines were 'a medical fraud' and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease." Wait. That all turned out to be right, didn't it? Wasn't he right? Haven't the Times and Mercola's detractors been refuted about those claims of misinformation? Weren't they the misinformants? Haider similarly questioned the efficacy of the vaccines, and documented the slow admissions that he and other skeptics had been correct in their claims. Now, if this is a political debanking, it initially seems odd that it's coming years after the controversy about the vaccines had died down. But the key may lie in the Times story itself, which explained that "[t]he activity has earned Dr. Mercola, a natural health proponent with an Everyman demeanor, the dubious distinction of the top spot in the 'Disinformation Dozen,' a list of 12 people responsible for sharing 65 percent of all anti-vaccine messaging on social media, said the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. Others on the list include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and Erin Elizabeth, the founder of the website Health Nut News, who is also Dr. Mercola's girlfriend." Well, that would fit the pattern. Kennedy is an enemy of the unistate. He's a bad guy to know or share any connections with, these days. (By the way, check in on the Center for Countering Digital Hate. I know you'll be shocked to discover that their functional -- rather than their purported -- definition of hate is "anything that deviates from woke policy goals.") Now, I don't have any opinion on the veracity of other claims that Mercola and Haider may have made. I, like decisionmakers at Chase, am not a doctor. And I certainly don't have any public opinions about the 2024 primaries. But that's hardly the point. Once again we have a situation in which Chase has shut down accounts of people orthogonal to the big-gov/big-biz conjuncture without explanation. And this time, in a move reminiscent of the type of bills of attainder that are constitutionally forbidden to American governments, the ban extends not only to companies, but to individual employees and their families. Unless there's a terrific, non-partisan, non-censoring reason for all of this, that's monstrous. It's always possible that the fact that Chase's debanking of organizations and people (and now their families) just happens always to fall on those espousing anti-woke positions, even though Chase adamantly refuses to provide any true explanations for them, but is happy to tell lie after demonstrable lie. It's possible. Really, though, what are the odds? They're certainly getting longer. Coutts Bank of Britain recently debanked Nigel Farage, who championed Brexit. All of the other banks of England followed along. But then it was discovered that the debanking had been political. So the British government is investigating, and the head of NatWest, which owns Coutts, has been, as they say, sacked. You're up, American politicians. Time for a full investigation of debanking at JPMorgan Chase and some of the other malefactors of great piles of other people's wealth, like Bank of America. Find out what's really going on and why, so that some of the mighty may fall the way of the NatWest CEO. The Brits have long understood taking sharp action pour encourager les autres. Time for us beyond the sea to learn. Scott Shepard is a fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research and Director of its Free Enterprise Project. This first appeared at RealClearMarkets. Reprinted with the kind permission of NCPPR. Home
The three politically motivated phony indictments of Trump so far By Rachel Alexander

web posted August 7, 2023 There are three pending criminal cases against Donald Trump so far, with another one likely to arise in Georgia. Biden-appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting Trump in Florida over allegedly taking classified documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. He's charging him over J6 in D.C., and Georgia prosecutors may follow with a similar suit. State prosecutors in New York have charged Trump with fraud over an alleged payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. No one actually believes the formerly most powerful man in the world, who had the top attorneys and advisors surrounding him, would blatantly commit felonies. Everyone knows it's a fishing expedition by politically motivated prosecutors to exploit the left-leaning justice system and take lawfare to a new level  prosecution. In the latest indictment , regarding J6, Trump has been charged with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and witness tampering. It essentially repeats the DNC talking points the MSM repeats ad nauseam; that he stoked violence and pretended the election was stolen. The indictment uses language that ignores the fact the country is still incredibly divided over whether election fraud influenced the race, "Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to stay in power." The prosecution isn't even bothering to assess whether there was fraud or not in the 2020 election, as Trump's Senior Advisor Stephen Miller pointed out . Nor do they care that Rasmussen Reports, one of the most accurate pollsters, found that most voters believe cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. Constitutional law attorney Robert Barnes of the Viva & Barnes legal podcast asserted , "The #TrumpIndictment alleges Trump conspired to deprive people of their right to vote, when it is the indictment itself that is the conspiracy to deprive Americans of their right to vote." It criminalizes political speech. Trump said during a speech at the South Carolina GOP's Silver Elephant Gala on Saturday, "This means we cannot ever criticize elections, once that happens you have tyranny." Legal scholar Jonathan Turley said the prosecution would "bulldoze" over the First Amendment if successful, pointing out that Smith would need to prove that Trump knew the statements he made about the 2020 election were false. Turley cited the 2012 Supreme Court case, United States v. Alvarez , which found that it's unconstitutional to criminalize lies. X owner Elon Musk responded "Exactly" to Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon's post quoting Attorney General Robert Jackson, who served in the 1940s. Jackson said the biggest danger from a prosecutor is "that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than cases that need to be prosecuted." He went on, "It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views." Let's not forget that multiple Democrats challenged the certification of the election after Trump won in 2016, and nothing happened to them. It's nothing less than what goes in Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent . Defense attorney Harvey Silverglate showed how the average American commits three felonies a day but doesn't know it, since our laws have become so numerous, broad and vague. Multiple prosecutors funded by the taxpayers' unlimited deep pockets for years on a fishing expedition can take down anyone, even the formerly most powerful man in the world. One of Trump's former legal advisors in 2020, renowned constitutional scholar John Eastman, is reportedly one of the "co-conspirators" named in the complaint. He is currently undergoing a disbarment trial by the State Bar of California, which is widely considered a kangaroo court, conducted by a bar disciplinary judge who contributed to Democrats while sitting on the bench. First Amendment attorney Mark Fitzgibbons observed that the trial so far has had the ironic effect of actually bringing out much of the evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, evidence that judges have refused to admit during election challenge trials. In regards to the prosecution over Trump bringing classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, the law there is "relatively weak on enforcement elements" according to Turley, and high-profile violations haven't resulted in anyone serving time behind bars, including former CIA director and retired four-star Army general David Petraeus, former FBI Director James Comey and President Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger. Berger stuffed classified materials into his pants and socks in order to remove them. Turley said, "Trump's reported behavior is well short of Berger's." The New York March indictment was over allegedly falsifying business records, accusing Trump of paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 as hush money but fraudulently recording it as legal services for his former attorney Michael Cohen. However, in order to convict Trump, it must be shown that it was a campaign finance violation, when at worst it was merely Trump trying to hide the alleged affair from his wife. Coincidentally, Smith prosecuted former presidential John Edwards over a similar accusation  involving far more payments  and got nowhere, with all charges eventually dropped. There are so many ways a prosecution can be manipulated by law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. A judge gets to decide what information a grand jury sees, making indictments almost meaningless (a good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich). A judge controls what jury instructions the jury sees  which is how a judge got the jury to convict former GOP Congressman Steve Stockman. I'm so sick and tired of people saying "Trump clearly broke the law." They ignore other interpretations of the law, pretend that all the ways to manipulate our left-wing dominated legal system don't exist, and ignore the many instances throughout world history where officials have abused the justice system to take down political opponents. Democrats have become increasingly attracted to the law in recent years, realizing it provides them with tyrannical power. They now dominate prosecutors' offices, state bars and much of the judiciary. Stop being naive and letting the MSM hide the truth and dictate the narrative about this terrifying new level of lawfare within our justice system. Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, Enter Stage Right and other publications. Home
BLOOMINGTON  A 38-year-old Rockford man was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to producing child sexual abuse media and sexually abusing a teen girl.

Edin O. Portillo Lopez pleaded guilty Monday to three Class 1 felony counts of child pornography and one Class 2 felony count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor. He had been scheduled to begin a jury trial when he entered the guilty pleas.

Portillo Lopez was arrested in July 2022 by the Rockford Police Department after a warrant was issued as part of a Bloomington police investigation. At the time of the offenses, he was living and working in Bloomington, according to court documents.

He initially was charged with 16 counts of child pornography and 10 counts each of criminal sexual assault and aggravated sexual abuse. The remaining charges were dismissed as part of his plea agreement.

Portillo Lopez was sentenced to 37 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, with 10 years on each count of producing sexual abuse images and seven years on the aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Judge William Yoder also ordered him to pay at least $6,000 in fines, register as a sex offender and serve a term of mandatory supervised release ranging from 3 years to life.

In a victim impact statement read by a prosecutor, the girl said Portillo Lopez had coerced her into engaging in sexual acts and producing images and video of her sexual abuse. She said she suffers from anxiety, depression and nightmares because of what happened.

Defense attorney Andres Ybarra represented Portillo-Lopez and declined to comment after the hearing, citing attorney-client ethics.

Portraits of resilience: Survivors of clergy abuse tell their stories Patrick Shepard Dorothy Small Salvador Bolivar The Charbonneau sisters Jacob Olivas Mark Belenchia John Vai
LEXINGTON  The Illinois State University agriculture department will host a delegation of farmers from Brazil on Wednesday, Aug. 9.

The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the ISU farm near Lexington to talk about the transition of ISU's 600-acre university farm to regenerative.

Several presentations will be given during the event, including a presentation on the department from Cori Malone, regenerative agriculture from David Bishop, Central Illinois Agriculture and Mid-Illinois Soils/Cover Crops from Dr. Franson Kidwaro and Dr. Nicholas Heller will give an update on the progress of the USURF's transition to a Regenerative Agriculture Facility and Demonstration/Education Farm.

Heller, Kidwaro, and Malone will also be giving a tour of the research farm.

This will be similar to the Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at the University of Illinois.
Livingston County Health Department to host tire collection

PONTIAC  The Livingston County Health Department hopes to reduce mosquito breeding grounds by collecting unused tires and providing an environmentally safe tire disposal.

Tires are notorious breeding grounds for mosquitoes, according to a press release from LCHD. As tires sit outdoors, they often fill with stagnant water and leaves, making them the perfect environment for mosquitoes to thrive.

The tire collection is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 5, and end Sept. 27. Appointments are required and can be made by calling 815-842-5921.

No farm or construction equipment tires will be accepted. Tires can be on or off the rim. Tires must be unloaded by the individual dropping them off.

Collection will end once funding has been allocated for disposal costs.

DeGuido joins YMCA leadership team

BLOOMINGTON  Cassie DeGuido has joined the Bloomington-Normal YMCA as senior director of program development.

She previously has directed program launches, community engagement initiatives and special events working with the Illinois Network of Child Care and as a program coordinator for Quincy Public Schools.

In her new role at the YMCA, she will focus on engaging the community in the experiences that the Y provides.

Photos: Illinois State Finals Cheerleading Preliminary Round
In the two-and-a-half years since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, Congress passed a bipartisan law closing loopholes in the complex process of choosing a new president that Donald Trump tried to exploit to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.

Candidates for crucial swing-state election posts who backed Trump's push to overturn the 2020 election all lost their bids in last year's elections. Last week, federal prosecutors filed four felony charges against the former president for his role in the scheme to overturn President Joe Biden's win.

While those avenues for electoral mischief may be blocked or severely constrained in 2024, the prosecution  along with another federal indictment accusing Trump of mishandling classified information after leaving office  is providing additional urgency among conservatives for a plan to make over the U.S. Department of Justice.

That's a step democracy advocates warn could mark a new assault on the U.S. system should Trump win the presidency a second time.

"The incentives for him to move in that direction will be even stronger, and we should worry even more about the degree of control he'll attempt to wield over federal law enforcement," said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College and co-director of Bright Line Watch, an academic group that monitors democracy in the U.S. "We have many examples from other countries demonstrating the dangers of a political takeover of law enforcement."

The myth that Trump won the 2020 election took firm hold in the Republican electorate, with nearly 60% of GOP voters saying in an Associated Press poll last fall that Biden was not legitimately elected. The belief led millions to distrust voting machines, mail balloting and vote counting while leading to death threats against election officials.

Numerous rural counties saw election conspiracy theorists take control of elections and vote-counting, raising worries of more election chaos next year. Certification of election results remains a potential pressure point for delaying or undermining a final outcome in the next election  whether by local commissions, state certification boards, legislatures or even Congress.

The accelerating GOP primary highlighted a new worry: calls by Trump and his allies for more control of federal prosecutions. Several legal experts highlighted this as perhaps the most troubling threat to the country's democratic institutions should Trump  or another Republican  win the White House next year.

Currently, the president can appoint the attorney general and other top Department of Justice officials, subject to Senate confirmation, but has more limited tools to change the behavior of career prosecutors.

"Doing away with or diminishing the independence of the Justice Department would be a huge mistake," said Paul Coggins, past president of the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys. "We can't afford for people to lose more faith in the system than they have now."

He said federal prosecutors paid attention to Trump's recent vows to seize greater control of the system.

"I think the fact that Trump has raised this idea sent shock waves through prosecutors everywhere," Coggins said.

Trump and other conservatives argued that such a takeover is overdue, especially because they see the prosecutions against him as the 2024 campaign is heating up as political. Trump vowed to pursue Biden and his family should he return to the White House.

"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," Trump told reporters after his most recent arraignment. "So if you can't beat 'em, you persecute 'em or you prosecute 'em."

At a Republican Party dinner Friday in Alabama, Trump repeated his claims that the latest criminal case he faces is an "outrageous criminalization of political speech," and said his "enemies" are trying to stop him and his political movement with "an army of rabid, left-wing lawyers, corrupt and really corrupt Marxist prosecutors," "deranged government agents and rogue intelligence officers."

He called the indictment "an act of desperation by a failed and disgraced, crooked Joe Biden and his radical left thugs to preserve their grip on power."

Trump allies, including his former budget office head Russell Vought and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official referred to in the indictment as "Co-Conspirator 4," are working on a plan to increase control of the federal bureaucracy the next time a Republican is in the White House. That would include at the Department of Justice, where internal regulations limit the influence of the president and other political actors.

Trump helped reshape a party that long promoted itself as the protector of law and order.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a new FBI director and the right for defendants to choose not to be prosecuted in Washington, D.C., a primarily Democratic city.

House Republicans empaneled a committee to investigate what they call the "weaponization" of federal law enforcement. FBI director Christopher Wray, a Republican nominated to the position by Trump, has become a frequent target of Republican attacks.

Some longtime conservatives say they've become disillusioned with the Justice Department, especially as they see it pursuing Trump with more vigor than Democrats such as Biden's son Hunter.

Trump tried to enlist the agency in his fight to stay in office. Election conspiracy theorists urged him to use the Justice Department to seize voting machines to highlight the search for fraud. Trump tried to get the agency to announce probes of some of his supporters' more paranoid theories of how the election was stolen, even after his own attorney general, William Barr, told him there was no indication of widespread fraud.

Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice, said Justice Department attorneys helped stop Trump's attempt to stay in office. She worries that there may not be similar safeguards next time.

"Had the department not resisted the attempts to enlist it in this conspiracy, it could have actually led to a sabotaged election," she said.

States where the most Jan. 6 rioters were arrested States where the most Jan. 6 rioters were arrested #49. Mississippi #48. Nebraska #47. Hawaii #46. Rhode Island #45. Vermont #44. New Mexico #43. South Dakota #42. Alaska #41. Louisiana #40. Nevada #39. New Hampshire #38. Connecticut #37. Arkansas #36. Maine #35. Montana #34. Delaware #33. Oregon #32. Idaho #31. Oklahoma #30. Iowa #29. Kansas #28. West Virginia #27. Wisconsin #26. Minnesota #25. Utah #24. Arizona #23. Massachusetts #22. Maryland #21. South Carolina #20. Alabama #19. Indiana #18. Colorado #17. Kentucky #16. North Carolina #15. Georgia #14. Michigan #13. Washington #12. Missouri #11. New Jersey #10. Tennessee #9. Washington, D.C. #8. Illinois #7. Virginia #6. Ohio #5. California #4. New York #3. Pennsylvania #2. Texas #1. Florida
Violence and the civilized society: Conformity and dissidence in different societies (Part Nine) By Mark Wegierski

web posted August 7, 2023 (Initial drafts of this essay date back to 1988. -- author's note) One may generally conclude that there are no easy solutions to this complex of problems. It can be suggested that the current-day, left-liberal, managerial-therapeutic regime, which is the prevalent configuration of Western societies today, has to a large extent solved the problem of maintaining its ideological hegemony, apparently without recourse to violence. The efforts of the earlier, traditionalist regimes, to maintain their world-views, may now seem as especially vicious, cruel, and crude, and have also been shown as manifestly ineffective. The traditionalist or conservative would argue that left-liberalism's renunciation of violence has been more apparent than real. Left-liberalism was always able to somehow utilize coercion on its behalf. Today, with the managerial-therapeutic regime firmly in place, most conditioning takes place through the mass-media, mass-education, and consumerist systems. This is all ostensibly "non-violent." It is also largely possible because of the advent of fantastic new technologies in a period when left-liberalism was already largely ascendant, particularly among the opinion-forming elites/intellectual classes. However, this ongoing indoctrination may be seen as the exercise of what liberals called "prior constraint" in regard to censorship; i.e., certain ideas, notions, and outlooks, are simply not discussed or disseminated widely. In addition, there is a growing movement towards "political-correctness" and the outright banning of that deemed to be "hate-speech," as well as the punishment of those deemed to be "hate-mongers". What constitutes "hate" is conveniently defined by the ruling group, and these definitions are growing ever-wider. If conservative and traditionalist regimes have been guilty of "killing the body," left-liberalism can be accused of "killing the soul." One should also remember that left-liberalism has, in the twentieth century, to a large extent relied on the Leninist regimes to do the actual removal of "inconvenient" people for them. And these Leninist regimes killed proportionately far greater numbers of people than any conservative or traditionalist regimes. (It has been calculated that more people died in one day of Stalin's regime, than had been executed over the entire, 800-year existence of the Spanish Inquisition.) It should also be remembered to what extent traditionalists and conservatives have thoroughly and wholeheartedly repudiated Nazism, whereas apologists for the Leninist regimes have been and are still quite frequently seen among liberals. Considering how far traditionalists and conservatives appear to be from ever holding significant power in most Western societies, the question of the use of violence and force must for them be a largely academic one. However, the theoretical working out of these questions points to the fact that all societies ultimately employ coercive instrumentalities; that liberalism has advanced world-historically through the use of severe violence (e.g., in the English Civil Wars and suppression of the Jacobite rebellions, the French Revolution, and the American Civil War); and that conservatives who are aware of the problems created by late modernity may be more acute in understanding the issues around the employment of violence in the civilized society. One of the better possible societies may consist of a symbiosis between traditionalism and liberal democracy, which has sometimes been called "ordered liberty", or could be called an "organic democracy" -- and which roughly corresponds to what Aristotle had considered the optimal, so-called "mixed regime" -- polity. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. Home
My mother was an elementary teacher for about a half dozen years straight out of college. Once her second child came along, she resigned from teaching to become a stay-at-home-mother, which was very normal for that time in the United States. On occasion throughout the rest of her life she would talk about some of her experiences in teaching. She would invariably say at some point when talking about the children she may remember that teachers only remember the naughty or weird students. The nicely behaved or academically sound children fade from memories more quickly. At least, it makes it tougher to remember the ones that she enjoyed teaching, because they didnt stand out as much. I always thought this belief was a touch sad, and hopefully over-generalized.

In my teaching experience, albeit in totally different circumstances, I taught college classes to people who wanted (mostly) to be in school and who could come or not attend as they pleased. I have not come to the same conclusions, although I will acknowledge that a few of the more trying students are more memorable than others.

A few months after I started as a columnist, I received a nice letter from a former teacher. That person wrote she recognized me from my column headshot and remembered me right away. After a moment of pleasure at being remembered, I then recalled my mothers belief, and I fervently prayed that my mother was indeed wrong all these years and teachers DO remember more than the "weird and bad kids"!

Growing up attending school in the Unit 5 district, I have come to realize that, with only one exception, the teachers were all decent, hardworking, intelligent employees doing their best. A credit to the district. There were some with interesting quirks, some had more disciplinary tendencies and some would go above and beyond the usual expectations. In sum, they made up a good staff in each of the schools I attended.

Nearly everyone is influenced in some way by those adults around them as they grow up. For many people, a primary influencer may be a teacher. For good or bad, a teacher may inspire (or perhaps deter) a student to a goal, profession or interest in a particular subject. This is a normal outgrowth of the teaching process. An English teacher may inspire the future author, a foreign language teacher may help a student down the path to work in a foreign embassy, or a science teacher may have several doctors or scientists as former students.

The one teacher I want to highlight is the longtime Unit 5 music teacher who agreed to let a scrawny fourth grader start learning to play the violin mid-year after he moved into the district from out of state. Let me say right now that I havent been thought of as scrawny for many, many years. Perhaps because she was my violin/music instructor for the three years in elementary school (go Oakdale!), and then again for the three high school years at Normal Community High School, Mrs. Deanne Bryant had more contact with me than any other teacher, and therefore the opportunity to help shape and develop my lifelong interest in classical music.

But it wasnt just me that she influenced. In my school cohort of my class, plus the two years before me and two years after me, I can count at least four former students who made music their profession, and another handful of classmates who are at least semi-professionals who have derived at least some income from playing an instrument in a major or regional symphony. At least one former student of this group has played professionally in the White House, while at least three former students have played internationally. These are figures that I know about, and quite possibly are low. All from a five-year time frame. What is remarkable is that Mrs. Bryant had a lengthy career in music in Unit 5, and still is active today as founder and music director for the Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony. How many of these current members will go on to become music professionals?

As for that one exception I mentioned earlier? That person had a purpose as well. It was simply that they remained a teacher just to make the rest of the teachers look really good.

Photos: 27th annual Glorious Garden Festival takes root in Bloomington-Normal Tending succulents Tropical Flowers Cactus Succulent Shed Climbing Onion 2023 Dan Anderson 1 GLORIOUS GARDENS 071523-blm-loc-gardenfest4 Video: Children's librarian Alex Bell talks about StoryWalk
SPRINGFIELD  U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is leading a congressional trip to the Indo-Pacific region for the second time this year with stops set for Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

The follow-up trip comes with the aim of further bolstering military and economic partnerships between the U.S. and several countries in the region.

It can be viewed as a projection of American power as the country enters a greater level of competition with China, as well as an opportunity to promote Illinois industries and products, such as agriculture and ethanol.

"When I meet with delegations that are coming to the U.S. and when I'm there, what they say is, 'We want you here, don't make us choose between the (Peoples Republic of China) and the United States,'" Duckworth said Friday in a press call ahead of her trip. "'But we don't want you to be absent.'"

"We need you to be here and we need you to be an option for us so that we can have deeper participation with you,'" she continued. "It can't always just be military, which is why I'm really pushing on the energy aspect."

In Indonesia, for instance, Duckworth hopes to forge partnerships with Japanese and Korean companies "looking at rare earth minerals in Indonesia for the EV battery market here in the United States." Currently, the Chinese are considered the biggest players in that market.

Illinois has sought to market itself as the "Silicon Valley" of electric vehicles. State lawmakers have approved a bevy of incentives aimed at EV producers and parts manufacturers. And the state has set a goal of having at least 1 million EVs on Illinois roads by 2030. As of July, there were just more than 76,000, according to data from the Secretary of State's Office.

However, growth has been slow-going, with only two agreements having been reached so far under the state's Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV) Illinois tax credit program  and none for the production of much-needed batteries.

"We have a shortage of EV manufacturers in the United States. We need (a battery manufacturer) in Illinois, in particular," Duckworth said. "Rivan and Lion Electric are producing electronic vehicles in Illinois. So I've been talking with Panasonic and some other Japanese companies, and also some Korean companies and Samsung about trying to bring a battery manufacturer into Illinois."

Whether those conversations are fruitful likely won't be known for a while, though Duckworth points to previous trips she's taken that have resulted in economic investment in the state, such as the partnership between Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. and South Korean-based LG on a Decatur plant.

While in Indonesia, Duckworth plans to meet with other countries that are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is based in Jakarta.

In the Philippines, Duckworth will meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other senior government officials. She will also be talking about the expanded U.S. military presence there. In June, the U.S., Japan and the Philippines coast guards conducted joint operations in Manila.

Duckworth said she also plans to push for the Philippines to adopt a higher blend of ethanol, which would be a boon for Illinois' farmers and could help the Philippines reduce its carbon footprints.

In Thailand, Duckworth said she will steer clear of politics  the country in the midst of a deadlock following elections earlier this year  and focus on economic and environmental initiatives, namely issues like water quality and conservation as well as erosion control on the country's rivers.

Duckworth, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, was asked by reporters before she left if she believes Sen. Tommy Tuberville's hold on hundreds of military promotions would be brought up during her trip.

Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, has prevented hundreds of military promotions and appointments from being approved over a disagreement on Pentagon abortion policy. This has led to many interim appointments and has sparked concerns about military readiness.

"I'm sure that it will come up," Duckworth said. "The problem we have right now is Sen. Tuberville's really dangerous hold on these promotions means that we only have people in acting capacity in many of the positions down range."

"And so when you're in an acting capacity, you can't make certain decisions, you can't sign certain agreements, and it does affect our ability to interact and form partnerships with our friends and allies overseas," she said. "So I do expect that I will hear it."

Duckworth, a Democrat first elected to the Senate in 2016 and reelected last year, serves on the body's Armed Services; Commerce, Science & Transportation; Small Business & Entrepreneurship; and Foreign Relations committees.

Photos: U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth Tammy Duckworth Tammy Duckworth - 2004 Tammy Duckworth - 2014 Tammy Duckworth - 2015 Tammy Duckworth - 2015 Tammy Duckworth - 2015 Tammy Duckworth - 2016 Tammy Duckworth - 2016 Tammy Duckworth - 2016 Tammy Duckworth - 2017 Tammy Duckworth - 2017 Tammy Duckworth - 2018 Tammy Duckworth - 2018 Tammy Duckworth - 2019 Tammy Duckworth - 2020
A grieving mother and her lawyer have been targeted by an extreme campaign of abuse after suing a conspiracy theory newspaper which falsely claimed her son died from a Covid vaccine.



The Irish Light repeatedly abused Edel Campbell online and its supporters have threatened her lawyer with "execution".



Conspiracy theorists worldwide have used dozens of tragic deaths to spread vaccine misinformation.

This case is thought to be the first where a relative has sued.



The Irish Light included Ms Campbell's son, Diego Gilsenan, and 41 others in an article last year which suggested the "untested and dangerous" Covid vaccine was to blame for the deaths. In fact, the BBC has been told Diego had taken his own life in August 2021, aged 18, and had not been vaccinated.



The campaign of abuse following her legal case has been "nothing short of shocking" and may explain why other relatives have not taken action, Ms Campbell's solicitor, Ciaran Mulholland, told BBC Radio 4's Marianna in Conspiracyland podcast.



"You can understand why a lot of people were incredibly reluctant to go to a solicitor when they saw the backlash with Edel Campbell," he said.



Ms Campbell told the BBC that the Irish Light has "made my life hell" and said she's now fearful of speaking out.

The BBC has agreed not to use a photo of Ms Campbell - or her son - for this story to protect her.



In frequent social media posts over several weeks, the Irish Light and its editor, Gemma O'Doherty, have accused Ms Campbell of "outrageous lies", being "mentally unstable" and involved in a "massive fraud". There are also extreme references to suicide about Ms Campbell.



According to Mr Mulholland, people who support the Irish Light have called for him to be executed or shot, as well as anonymously calling his office and threatening other members of staff.



Ms Campbell and her solicitor decided to bring a civil case against Ms O'Doherty for harassment with defamation, after the paper published a photo of her son Diego Gilsenan and others on the front page under the headline "Died Suddenly".



This tagline has been widely used across social media by conspiracy theory activists to suggest unexpected deaths of young people are related to the Covid-19 vaccine.



In the article that featured Ms Campbell's son, the Irish Light claims that the establishment is not questioning the "mysterious deaths" because "they know exactly what it is: the untested and dangerous injection they forced into the Irish people".





Ciaran Mulholland, Ms Campbell's lawyer, said the level of abuse she has received may be preventing others from speaking out



Deaths from Covid vaccines are extremely rare. UK figures record 55 deaths where the vaccine was given as the underlying cause, out of more than 50m people who have had at least one dose.



Among some of the other young people featured by the Irish Light, one died in a swimming pool accident, another from a head injury and a third from meningitis, according to their families.



Ms Campbell says the Irish Light did not contact her for comment about Diego before publication. The BBC also understands that the Irish Light did not contact several other family members of young people featured.



Mr Mulholland said the aim of the legal case is not "retribution" or compensation. "All Edel Campbell wanted was to protect the integrity of Diego, and her family as a whole," he said.



Ms Campbell's legal case has been funded through donations and her lawyer's pro-bono work.



He told the BBC the legal proceedings were launched after various attempts to ask Gemma O'Doherty to remove the images of Diego Gilsenan failed and resulted in an escalation in online abuse.



In July, the High Court in Dublin granted a restraining order that prohibits the Irish Light editor from contacting Ms Campbell and from using or publishing the image of her son for any purpose without his mother's consent.



Abusive posts about Ms Campbell have continued on social media, including from the Irish Light account on X, formerly known as Twitter, which Gemma O'Doherty has admitted to running.



Ms Campbell made reports of harassment to the police - but Mr Mulholland says they are yet to contact or question Gemma O'Doherty about these.



Garda Siochana - the Republic of Ireland's national police service - told the BBC that it "does not comment on named individuals" or "specifics of on-going investigations". It says it continues to "actively investigate the alleged harassment of an individual in the North Western Region" of Ireland.



Ms O'Doherty and the Irish Light have not responded to the BBC's request for comment. However, on social media the Irish Light says the BBC will "do a character assassination" on Gemma O'Doherty because "she exposed the vaccine genocide".



The Irish Light



In its gallery of recent front pages, the Irish Light shows the one featuring Diego as "censored" after a restraining order



In online posts, Ms O'Doherty denies harassing Edel Cambell and continues to suggest her son's death was sinister or mysterious in some way. She has instructed a solicitor to defend the case brought against her.



The Irish Light is a sister paper of its namesake in the UK, the Light, although they are editorially independent of each other. The BBC previously revealed the UK paper has called for the execution of politicians and doctors. It has links to the British far-right and a German publication connected to a failed coup attempt.



As well as more innocuous features, the Irish Light has published stories promoting conspiracy theories such as "Pfizer knew the vaccine would kill", "Water fluoridation is lowering Irish IQ", "Why manmade climate change is a fraud" and "Irish to become a minority in Ireland".



While Ms Campbell is thought to be the first to sue over a false claim about a vaccine death, the case has parallels with other victims of conspiracy theorists.



Manchester Arena bomb survivors are suing over claims the attack was faked and parents of Sandy Hook mass shooting victims won a landmark ruling against Infowars host Alex Jones.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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News that a driver has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour for cursing a police officer with the dreaded Antoa deity has been widely condemned by many, especially social media users.



The driver, Joshua Amankwaa, was sentenced by the District Magistrate of the Kasoa District Court, His Worship Stephen Ofori Akrasi, to a year of imprisonment in hard labour on August 1, 2023, for invoking curses on the police officer after the police officer stopped a vehicle he was aboard, singled him out and conducted a search on him.



The court found him guilty of offensive conduct contrary to section 207 of the Criminal Offence Act 29/60.



According to the judgement, the driver showed no remorse after explaining the circumstances under which he invoked the curses on the plaintiff.



The explanation of the accused holds no water and I find him guilty. He claimed that they were five on board, but it was only him who was searched and this aroused him anger to invoke the name of the rivers he used to invoke the curse on the complainant as Ahwerewaa, Etwa and Antoa. The demeanour of the accused shows he has no remorse. Accused is sentenced to 12 months in high, the verdict read.



The decision of the court has angered many on social media users.



Many others have criticised the court.















Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Church of Pentecost Nyanyano District Chieftaincy Ministry has donated one hundred twenty (120) pieces of math sets to all final-year students of the church who will be sitting for their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).



The gesture which was under the direct guidance and supervision of the District Pastor, Rev. Emmanuel K. Ofosu, according to the Chieftaincy Ministry was part of its contribution to education in the District.

The one hundred twenty (120) beneficiaries were from the twelve (12) Nyanyano District locals of the Church of Pentecost which is also under the Kasoa Area.



The Chairman of the District Chieftaincy Ministry, Elder Nana Osei Nkwantabisa, in presenting the items to beneficiaries through the Presiding Elder of the Nyanyano Central English Assembly during Sunday service on Sunday 9 August 2023 admonished the finalists to concentrate and maintain their focus before and during the exam period.



He added that they abstain from any forms of acts that would hinder their prospects during the exam period, including bringing outside materials into the exam room and adhering to the laws and regulations that apply to all students.



Elder Nana Osei Nkwantabisa, who also serves as the chieftaincy ministry chairman of the Kasoa Area of the Church of Pentecost, exhorted the finalists to maintain discipline and seek God's help at all times.

The Presiding Elder of the Church of Pentecost Nyanyano District Central English Service, Elder Stephen Kwesi Nkrumah, on behalf of the church, thanked the Chieftaincy Ministry for its assistance and urged the students to go out and do well on their exams.



The assembly then prayed for the applicants and wished them luck in their tests under his direction.

Deaconess Francisca Abroh, the District Chieftaincy Ministry Secretary, urged parents to help their children before and throughout the exams week by providing for all of their needs to give them a sound mind and let them focus on their studies.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The National Youth Wing and the entire NPP express warm regards and support to all students participating in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) this academic year. As a political organization dedicated to the wellbeing and advancement of the Ghanaian youth, we understand the significance of education as the fundamental basis for a brighter future for our nation.



The BECE represents a critical milestone in the educational journey of every Ghanaian student. It signifies not only an evaluation of their knowledge and abilities; but also an opportunity to demonstrate their determination and potential for excellence. We have faith in the capabilities of the youth, and through this press release, we encourage them to approach the examination with confidence and resilience.



Education has always been a top priority for the NPP National Youth Wing. We acknowledge the transformative power of knowledge in individual lives and national progress. Consequently, we consistently advocate for policies and initiatives that aim to enhance educational quality, invest in infrastructure, improve teacher competency, and provide equal opportunities for all Ghanaian students.



Our Youth Wing acknowledges the tremendous effort and sacrifice that students, parents, and teachers have made in preparing for the BECE. We commend your dedication and applaud your hard work. Remember that this examination is an opportunity to showcase your abilities and shine brightly. Believe in yourself and have confidence in the knowledge and skills you have acquired throughout your educational journey.



As a National Youth Wing, we assure all students that we stand by them and offer our support during this crucial period. Our party remains steadfast in advocating for policies that create a conducive environment for comprehensive education reforms, including access to quality education and career guidance for the youth. The Free SHS and TVET/COTVET policies are life-changing for the Ghanaian student that we urge them to work hard and benefit from.



On behalf of the National Youth Wing and the entire party, we send our best wishes to all students taking the BECE. May you excel in your examinations, and may your efforts lead to success as you continue to progress in your educational pursuits. Remember, success goes beyond the results of this examination and encompasses a lifelong journey of personal growth and improvement.

Source: Salam Mustaph - NPP National Youth Organizer









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Three staff members of Bolgatanga Regional Hospital in the Upper East Region have been arrested by the Ghana Police Service for allegedly stealing boxes of assorted medicines from the hospital.



The suspects are Raymond Asoke, a 33-year-old driver, Bridget Noeyelle, a 33-year-old assistant dispensary officer, and Raheem Fasilat, a 48-year-old storekeeper at the hospital.



The arrests were made through an intelligence-led operation conducted by the police in the region.



Asoke was first apprehended on August 4, 2023, after he was observed loading boxes of medicines from an unmarked house into a saloon car with registration number GE 1532-21.



Upon searching the car, 12 boxes of various medicines were recovered. Further investigation led to the discovery of an additional 22 boxes of medicines at the house.



During interrogation, Asoke implicated Noeyelle and Fasilat, leading to their subsequent arrests. The suspects are currently in police custody and will be brought before the court to face legal proceedings.



The hospital has been facing a recurring issue of medicine theft for the past two years, but previous attempts to apprehend the culprits had been unsuccessful. The criminals' ability to hide and dispose of stolen medicines made it challenging for hospital management to track them down.



However, on the day of the arrest, luck was not on the suspects' side. Asoke was caught in the act of stealing medicines and attempted to escape but was quickly apprehended by a team of police officers who acted on a tip-off.



Further investigation is ongoing to identify any other accomplices involved in the crime and to determine the motive behind the thefts.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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The Ghana Police have launched an investigation into the perplexing death of a woman, identified as Akua Serwaa Kyei, in Atwima Bebu, Ashanti Region. The incident occurred on the evening of August 3, 2023.



The Police in a statement said according to the victim's husband, he returned home around 5:30 pm on that fateful day to find his wife lying unconscious at the back of their house.



He acted swiftly, rushing her to the hospital, but tragically, she was pronounced dead upon arrival. Disturbingly, the husband disclosed that their living room and bedroom had been ransacked, with a television set stolen.



The police's Crime Scene team conducted a preliminary assessment at the incident location and revealed that there were no signs of forced entry through doors or windows. Moreover, a thorough inspection of the deceased's body at the hospital showed no visible marks of violence or gunshot wounds.



As part of the ongoing investigation, the woman's body has been taken to the morgue for preservation and an autopsy to shed light on the cause of death.



Authorities have already reached out to the family of the deceased, providing them with support and reassurance of a comprehensive investigation to bring those responsible to justice. The Inspector-General of Police personally spoke to the bereaved family via a telephone call, expressing his commitment to resolving the case.



To aid the grieving family during these trying times, a Police clinical psychologist has been assigned to provide support and counselling.

Source: graphic.com.gh









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The police are pursuing some criminals who attacked two cargo vehicles in Anyinamso No. 1 in the Ashanti Region leading to the death of a driver.



The incident caused the death of one individual.



The suspects, according to the Police, were able to flee into a nearby forest with GHC2,000 and three mobile phones during the attack, when a Police patrol team chanced on them.



According to reports, the cargo vehicles were transporting goods from the Kumasi Central Market when the attack occurred.



The robbers are said to have ambushed the vehicles, and in the process, shot at the drivers.



The police, upon arriving at the scene, chased after the suspects but were unable to apprehend them.

An intense search is ongoing with the hope of finding the suspects and bringing them to justice.



The deceased has been identified as Kwesi Agyeman, a driver of one of the cargo vehicles. Agyeman was shot in the chest and died on the spot.



The police are urging anyone who may have information about the suspects or saw anything suspicious around the time of the attack to come forward and report to the nearest police station.

They also urged transport companies to be vigilant and employ security measures to ensure the safety of their drivers and cargo.



This incident has left the residents of Anyinamso No.1 and surrounding communities in fear, and they are calling on the authorities to increase security measures in the area to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









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Richard Branson, one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs once said, "Entrepreneurs are the dreamers who dare to challenge the status quo and transform the world.



This quote encapsulates the essence of my explorations discourse.



Ghana, a vibrant West African nation, is at a critical juncture in its developmental journey.



The country's economic landscape is undergoing a transformation, driven by a confluence of factors, such as progressive developmental strategies, the increasing importance of entrepreneurship education and the emergence of innovative business models.



According to the World Bank, Ghana's GDP has seen a steady growth rate of approximately 6.5 per cent in the past five years, a testament to its burgeoning economy.



However, to sustain this growth and ensure it translates into comprehensive development, there is a need to focus on entrepreneurship education.



A study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) revealed that countries with a strong focus on entrepreneurship education tend to have a higher rate of start-up success, job creation and economic resilience.



In the context of Ghana, entrepreneurship education has the potential to empower individuals with the skills and knowledge needed to create innovative enterprises.



These enterprises, in turn, can contribute to sustainable growth by addressing local challenges, creating jobs and driving economic diversification.



For instance, the rise of digital start-ups in Accra, Ghana's capital, has not only boosted the local economy but also provided solutions to everyday challenges, from health care to agriculture; evidence depicting that the power of entrepreneurship education and innovative enterprises cannot be underestimated in fostering sustainable growth in Ghana.



It is the key to unlocking the nation's potential and propelling it towards a prosperous future.



Impact developmental strategies

Ghana has been the beneficiary of numerous developmental strategies aimed at enhancing the living standards of its citizens and promoting economic growth.



For instance, the World Bank Group has been actively assisting Ghana in maintaining economic growth and exceeding its poverty reduction targets.



The government has also initiated strategies to transform the country into a significant Meeting, Incentive, Conference, & Exhibition (MICE) hub.



Furthermore, initiatives like the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP) and the Sustainable Development of Rain-fed Lowland Rice Production Project are making significant contributions to the agricultural sector.



These strategies, along with others, are laying the groundwork for the systematic development of the state capital and surrounding areas, akin to the swift modernisation observed in China.



Ghana has been the beneficiary of numerous developmental strategies aimed at enhancing the living standards of its citizens and promoting economic growth.



For instance, the World Bank Group has been actively assisting Ghana in maintaining economic growth and exceeding its poverty reduction targets.



Over the past 30 years, real GDP in Ghana has more than quadrupled, and in 2011 the country joined the ranks of Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).



According to the World Bank report, GDP per capita grew by an average of three per cent per year over the past two decades, putting Ghana in the top 10 fastest-growing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).



The government has also initiated strategies to transform the country into a significant Meeting, Incentive, Conference, & Exhibition (MICE) hub.



In addition, the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has been playing a crucial role in the country's economic development.



The MIIF manages the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies and receives mineral royalties on behalf of the government.



These revenues are then used to fund key developmental projects, including infrastructure, education and health care, contributing to the overall economic growth and improvement of living standards in the country.



Furthermore, initiatives like the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP) and the Sustainable Development of Rain-fed Lowland Rice Production Project are making significant contributions to the agricultural sector.



The GCAP, supported by the World Bank, has been instrumental in promoting commercial farming and improving agricultural productivity.



It has helped to increase access to reliable water sources, improve agricultural practices, and strengthen market linkages, thereby boosting the incomes of smallholder farmers and contributing to food security in the country.



Another key initiative is the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), which aims to provide integrated national support for start-ups and small businesses.



NEIP primarily focuses on providing business development services; startup incubators and accelerators; funding for youth-owned businesses; and an innovation competition to unearth more innovative businesses.



The NEIP has so far trained over 7000 startups and small businesses and provided funding for over 500 businesses.



These strategies, along with others, are laying the groundwork for the systematic development of the state capital and surrounding areas, akin to the swift modernisation observed in China.



The success of these initiatives is a testament to the potential of strategic planning and targeted investment in driving sustainable growth and development.



Diagram 1: Impact of Ghanas developmental strategies by the writer



Significance entrepreneurial education

The Bilaad Development Trust has advocated for increased investment in education and entrepreneurship to tackle the high levels of poverty and unemployment in the country.



Entrepreneurial education is gaining momentum in Ghana, with a focus on training and financing for the small enterprise sector, which makes up 92 per cent of all businesses.



Institutions, such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), have established entrepreneurship clinics to equip students with the necessary skills to establish their businesses.



This approach is viewed as a means of alleviating the government's burden of providing jobs to the multitude of unemployed graduates.



Emerging ieas, economic trends

Despite fluctuations in Ghana's economy, with GDP growth expected to decelerate in 2023 due to rising consumer prices and monetary tightening, innovative business ideas are thriving in the country.



Profitable ventures range from taxi businesses, catering services, and poultry farming, to more tech-oriented solutions such as mobile money agents.



The Bank of Ghana's anticipated sale of $120 million to Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) is another significant economic event that could stimulate business opportunities in the oil and gas sector.



Confluence

The amalgamation of developmental strategies, entrepreneurial education, and innovative business ideas is the driving force behind sustainable development in Ghana.



Entrepreneurial education, a cornerstone of this confluence, plays a pivotal role in nurturing innovative business ideas, which in turn contribute significantly to development initiatives.



Simultaneously, these development initiatives create a conducive environment for entrepreneurship to flourish, thereby fostering a cycle of innovation and growth.



One of the key developmental strategies in Ghana is the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).



Under the leadership of the Business Development Director, MIIF, Dr Kennedy Abrokwa, has been instrumental in maximising the value of dividend and royalties income accruing to the Republic of Ghana in a beneficial, accountable and sustainable manner.



MIIF's strategy of building a highly diversified portfolio across varied asset classes and asset types for consistent returns through uncertain market cycles is a testament to the innovative business ideas at play in the developmental strategies.



On the government front, the Ghanaian government has launched the Ghana CARES Obaatampa programme, a bold, ambitious and novel initiative aimed at stabilising and revitalising the economy following the COVID-19 pandemic.



This programme is expected to accelerate Ghana's entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem, thereby fostering sustainable growth.



The programme's focus on entrepreneurial education and innovative business ideas is a clear demonstration of the confluence of these elements in driving development.



The Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme is bolstering the business environment and SME competitiveness.



Educational institutions, such as the Centre for Sustainable Transformation (CeST), are emphasising Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to prepare communities for a sustainable future.



Additionally, citizens are actively participating in sustainable growth initiatives, including a citizen science initiative that monitors progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ghana, contributing to the country's sustainable development.



Ghana's journey towards sustainable development is a testament to the synergy of developmental strategies, entrepreneurial education and innovative business ideas.



This progress requires the combined efforts of the government, private sector, educational institutions and the public.



The success of initiatives such as MIIF and NEIP, bolstered by contributions from various sectors, underscores the effectiveness of this approach and offers a blueprint for sustained growth.



Charting course

The success of the MIIF, the Ghana CARES Obaatampa program, the Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme, and the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) exemplify the potential of this approach.



They provide a roadmap for progress, demonstrating the power of collaboration between the government, private sector, educational institutions and the citizenry.



Sustainable growth in Ghana is not merely an economic goal; it's a holistic vision encompassing improved living standards, environmental sustainability and opportunities for all citizens.



As Ghana continues this path, it does so with the understanding that the power to shape its future lies within its entrepreneurs, innovators and people



In conclusion, Ghana's journey towards sustainable growth is a confluence of development, entrepreneurial education and business innovation.



It's a journey that requires vision, courage and collective effort.



As Ghana strides forward, it does so with the conviction that it is well on its way to a prosperous and sustainable future.







Source: graphiconline.com









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(Photo : AFP) (-/AFP via Getty Images)

Niger residents flocked to a stadium in the nation's capital of Niamey in a show of support for coup leaders who refused to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Thousands of Niger residents flocked to a stadium at the nation's capital in a show of support for rebel leaders who ignored a deadline that demanded them to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

The situation also had the military junta close the country's airspace on Sunday until further notice to avoid military intervention from the West African regional bloc. The coup is the seventh that has been seen in West and Central Africa in the last three years. It has shaken the Sahel region, considered one of the poorest in the world.

Niger Residents Rally in Support of Coup Leaders

Niger is considered a crucial region for the United States, Europe, China, and Russia due to its uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants. The defense chiefs of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have all agreed on a potential military plan.

This includes when and where to strike back against the rebels if they do not decide to release and reinstate Bazoum, who has been detained. In a statement, a representative from the military junta said they have information that there had been a pre-deployment of forces in two Central African countries, as per Reuters.

The representative added that Niger's armed forces and the country's defense and security forces, supported by the people, were ready to defend the integrity of their territory.

On the other hand, ECOWAS did not respond to a request asking for information on what they plan to do next in an attempt to reinstate Bazoum. Previously, a spokesman said the group would state by the end of Sunday.

More than 100 military junta supporters came together over the weekend and set up a picket near an air base in Niamey. They blasted military tunes and tooted vuvuzela horns as a part of the citizen movement offering non-violent resistance against the elected government.

Read Also: China To Participate in Saudi Arabia Meeting on Ukraine's Peace Plan

Potential Military Intervention

Previously, the French government has revealed that it supports efforts by members of ECOWAS in fighting against the rebel group. In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry said that the country's future and the entire region's stability were at stake, according to CNN.

In a statement, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said that all the elements that would go into a potential intervention have already been worked out and are being refined. He said that they are now discussing the timing and resources needed.

On Thursday, the bloc sent a delegation to Niamey to meet with coup leaders to address the current situation. However, a few hours later, the military junta warned that any military intervention would be met with "an immediate and unannounced response by Niger's defense and security forces."

The situation has also prompted the United States to pause certain foreign assistance programs that benefit the Niger government. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they would continue to provide humanitarian and food assistance to the region, said The Guardian.

Related Article: China Accused of Using Water Cannons to Push Away Philippine Supply Ships

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Businessman and renowned entrepreneur Dr Kofi Amoah was on Saturday, August 5 honoured at the prestigious Tech EMINENCE Awards held at the Accra Technical University auditorium.



Dr Amoah, popularly known as Citizen Kofi, was honoured for his contribution to technical and vocational education.



The event coincided with this years graduation ceremony for students who have successfully completed their studies.



Addressing faculty members and the graduating class of 2023, Dr Amoah stressed that the pivotal role that technical and vocational education plays in shaping the future must be recognised.



Speaking on the theme Promoting Technical and Vocational Education for National Industrialisation, the business magnate underscored how TVET, among others, bridges the gap between theory and practice.



It emphasises experimental learning, allowing students to gain hands-on experience through internships, apprenticeships, and practical training, he told the gathering including faculty members.



This practical exposure not only enhances their skills and knowledge but also instills in them a sense of responsibility, discipline, and work ethic.



These qualities are invaluable in the professional world, where success is often determined by ones ability to apply knowledge effectively.



He, however, noted that the benefits of TVET can only be fully realised through collaboration and synergy.



It is the collective responsibility of the government, educational institutions, industries, and society at large to create an ecosystem that nurtures technical education.



Dr Amoah, therefore, called for investment into state-of-the-art infrastrutucre, for instance, and update curricula to align with industry needs in order to make the most from TVET.



Outstanding students of the various technical universities were honoured at the awards event.

Source: 3news.com









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Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu has advised Ghanaians not to be afraid of exposing politicians amassing wealth illegally. He wants Ghanaians to be bold and unafraid of death when it comes to exposing corrupt politicians.



He has vowed to deal with a current Minister of the Akufo-Addo administration who has become wealthy overnight and is said to own four gargantuan mansions situated in the wealthy suburb of East Legon, Accra.



Speaking on The Keypoints on TV3 on Saturday, August 5, 2023, he stressed that a current minister straight since he came into office. I have been talking about it. We will deal with it. Dont be scared of death



He revealed that a few months ago, somebody took me to East Legon and showed me four houses belonging to a certain minister but the person was too scared to report and handle the matter themselves.



This, he said, does not augur well for the fight against governmental graft and therefore wants Ghanaians to be bold enough to report such politicians to the appropriate quarters such as the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).



He is scared. He doesnt want to go forward so he sees me making noise here, so to speak. And he says Kpebu, you come and I will show you something. Gargantuan houses. Millions of dollars,' Mr Kpebu lamented.



News about how the former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources Cecilia Abena Dapaah stashed millions of dollars in her room has reignited the discussion on how politicians become extremely wealthy in no time after being appointed into various positions.



Beyond urging Ghanaians to be bold in exposing thieving politicians, Me Kpebu wants appropriate and more biting laws passed to check the lifestyles of politicians to prevent them from stealing and getting away with it.













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A second-year student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Lambert Frimpong, has been stabbed to death by a friend over a missing t-shirt.



According to myjoyonline.com reports, the incident took place at Kronum-Kwapra in the Suame Municipality in the Ashanti Region.



According to reports, the 24-year-old deceased who was accused of stealing the t-shirt denied it severally but that didnt stop his friend from stabbing him.



The victim was declared dead at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital(KATH) following tests carried out by the medics.



It is understood that the police service has initiated a thorough search to fish out the person culpable for the heinous crime.















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The Police through an intelligence operation have arrested suspects Raymond Asoke, Noeyelle Bridget and Raheem Fasilat for stealing some boxes of medicine at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.



Suspect Raymond Asoke, a driver at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital was arrested on August 4, 2023 when he was monitored loading boxes of medicines from a certain unmarked house into a saloon car with registration No. GE 1532 -21.



A statement from the Ghana Police Service indicated that a search in the car led to the retrieval of twelve (12) boxes of various medicines.



The search was extenddd into the house where twenty-two (22) additional boxes containing various kinds of medicines were discovered and retrieved.



Further investigation led to the arrest of suspect Noeyelle Bridget, the Assistant Dispensary Officer at the hospitals pharmacy and suspect Raheem Fasilat, the Regional store keeper at the Regional hospital who has admitted to giving the boxes of medicines to the driver, the statement added.



According to the Police, all three suspects are currently in custody and will be put before court to face justice.



Meanwhile, investigation is ongoing to identify and arrest any other accomplices as well establish what the suspects do with the medicines stolen from the hospital, the statement concluded.





Source: starrfm









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Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has rejected claims that he doesnt deserve to contest the upcoming presidential primaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to lead the party to the 2024 general elections since he is just a new entrance.



Refuting the aduru meso mantra, Dr. Bawumia, who likened his political journey and impact on the NPP to that of the biblical figure Paul with a surety to break the eight years governance cycle for the party said sometimes great individuals emerge at pivotal moments in history, just like the Apostle Paul emerged to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ, proclaiming that in the same way, my coming could be seen as a turning point for our nation.



Dr. Bawumia said this at Aburi in the Eastern Region as part of his campaign tour, when he met with the delegates, urging them to vote for him to become the flagberear of the party and lead the party to win the 2024 general elections.



Addressing a large crowd of NPP supporters and delegates at the Aburi Presbyterian Womens Training College, Dr. Bawumia explained that I stand before you today as a testament to the transformative power of politics. My journey has been like that of Paul, who went from being a persecutor to an apostle. Similarly, I have grown and evolved within the NPP, and I believe I am the ideal and surest candidate to break the eight-year cycle.



Dr Bawumia further stressed that he had succeeded in transforming the Vice Presidency from one of docility to activism, symbolic representation to policy implementation, and from mysticism to realism.



He said he believes he can effectively lead the NPP and bring about positive change for the nation, adding that I have dedicated my life to public service, and I am determined to bring progress and prosperity to the people of Ghana. Together, we can build a nation that thrives on innovation, inclusivity, and sustainable development.



Outlining some of his achievements, he noted that he had played a pivotal role in formulating and implementing programmes such as Zongo Development Fund, One District One Factory, Planting for Food and Jobs, Free Senior High School, Gold for Oil programme, among others.



He also accused the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of engaging in religious and tribal politics.



Dr. Bawumia further asserted that the NDC is only resorting to divisive tactics by exploiting religious and tribal sentiments for political gain.



However, he urged the delegates to be mindful of such tendencies since the NDC has no message of hope for them, adding that the party was using these strategies to appeal to specific voter base and consolidate power, rather than focusing on the needs and aspirations of the Ghanaian people.



Dr Bawumia further argued that the NDCs approach is detrimental to the unity and progress of Ghana as a nation, and stressed the importance of politics based on issues, policies, and the overall welfare of the population, rather than identity-based divisions.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









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Dr. Gideon Boako, the Spokesperson for Vice President Dr. Bawumia, has showered praises on the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over his behavior towards the New Patriotic Party's impending internal elections.



The New Patriotic Party(NPP) will on August 26 hold a Special Delegates Conference to elect five out of ten candidates vying for the party's flagbearer position and on November 4, go into their main presidential election.



The ten candidates include; Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen; former Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto; Assin Central MP, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong; former Attorney General, Joe Ghartey; former NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong and a host of others.



Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, Dr. Gideon Boako touted President Akufo-Addo as the only President in Ghana's history whose actions haven't interfered with political party internal elections.



He expounded that the President has made no decision that negatively impacts the NPP conference, stressing, "President Akufo-Addo has conducted himself very well than all other Presidents who have supervised internal elections in their parties. I'm saying this without any fear of anything".





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility, May 18, 2022 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeings first Starliner flight with astronauts aboard has been delayed until at least next March. Credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP, File

Already running years behind, Boeing's first astronaut flight is now off until at least next March.

Problems with the parachute lines and flammable tape surfaced during final reviews in late spring, ahead of what should have been a July launch for the Starliner capsule. Boeing said Monday that it should be done removing the tape in the coming weeks. But a redesigned parachute system won't be ready until December.

If a parachute drop test goes well late this year, company officials said the spacecraft should be ready to carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as early as March. Starliner's first crew flight will need to fit around other space station traffic, however, so it's too early to set even a tentative date, according to officials.

To ensure there are no other problems, NASA and Boeing are conducting independent reviews.

Boeing program manager Mark Nappi said technicians are almost halfway done peeling off flammable tape that was used to protect capsule wiring. Tape that cannot be removed from vulnerable spots will be covered with a protective coating.

The original guidelines for usage of the tape were confusing, according to company and NASA officials, but they later determined it could not be used in some areas because it was flammable.

The parachute issue will take longer to resolve. Part of the parachute lines known as soft links did not meet safety standards, having gotten past improper testing years ago. A new, more robust design will be incorporated into upgraded parachutes already in the works.

"There's always the mystery of something else that can pop up," Nappi told reporters. But given the current situation, "we have a pretty good schedule laid out" to launch as early as March.

NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX nearly a decade ago to deliver astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX is now three years into its taxi service. Boeing has only had a pair of Starliner space test flights with no one aboard.

NASA said it still wants two competing crew launchers, even as the projected 2030 end of the space station program draws ever closer. The goal is to fly one Boeing and one SpaceX crew flight each year.

 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Geoscientists have long thought that wateralong with shallow magma stored in Earth's crustdrives volcanoes to erupt. Now, thanks to newly developed research tools at Cornell, scientists have learned that gaseous carbon dioxide can trigger explosive eruptions.

A new model suggests that basaltic volcanoes, typically located on the interior of tectonic plates, are fed by a deep magma within the mantle, stored about 20 to 30 kilometers below the Earth's surface.

The research, which offers a clearer picture of our planet's deep internal dynamics and composition, with implications for improving volcanic-hazards planning, is published August 7, 2023 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We used to think all the action happened in the crust," said senior author Esteban Gazel, the Charles N. Mellowes Professor in Engineering in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, in Cornell Engineering. "Our data implies the magma comes directly from the mantlepassing fast through the crustdriven by the exsolution (the process phase of separating gas from liquid) of carbon dioxide.

"This completely changes the paradigm of how these eruptions happen," Gazel said. "All volcanic models had been dominated by water as the main eruption driver, but water has little to do with these volcanoes. It's carbon dioxide that brings this magma from the deep Earth."

About four years ago, Gazel and Charlotte DeVitre, Ph.D. '22, now a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Berkeley, developed a high-precision carbon dioxide densimeter (which measures density in a tiny vessel) for Raman spectroscopy (a device that examines scattered photons through a microscope).

The natural samplesmicroscopic-sized carbon dioxide rich bubbles trapped in crystals emanating from the volcanic eruptionare then measured via Raman and quantified applying the newly developed densimeter. Essentially, the scientists are examining a microscopic time capsule to provide a history of the magma. This new technique is critical for near real-time precise estimations of magma storage, tested during the 2021 eruption in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands by Gazel's group.

Further, the scientists developed methods to assess the effect of laser heating on carbon-dioxide rich inclusions (found swathed in the crystals), and to accurately assess melt inclusion and bubble volumes. They also developed an experimental reheating method to increase accuracy and properly account for carbon dioxide trapped as carbonate crystals inside the bubbles.

"The method of development and instrument design were challenging, especially during the height of the pandemic," Gazel said.

Using these new tools, the scientists scrutinized volcanic deposits from the Fogo volcano in Cabo Verde, west of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean. They found a high concentration of volatiles in the micro-sized melt inclusions encased within the magnesium-iron silicate crystals. The higher amount of carbon dioxide enclosed in the crystals suggested that the magma was stored tens of kilometers below the surfacewithin the Earth's mantle.

The group also discovered that this process is connected to the deep mantle source that supply these volcanoes.

This implies that eruptions such as Fogo's volcanic flareups start and are fed from the mantle, effectively bypassing storage in the Earth's crust and driven by deep carbon dioxide, according to the paper.

"These magmas have extremely low viscosities and come directly from the mantle," DeVitre said. "So here, viscosity and water cannot play the common roles that they do in shallower and/or more silicic (rich in silica) volcanic systems. Rather at Fogo volcano the magma must be driven up fast by the carbon dioxide and this likely plays a significant role in its explosive behavior. This is a major step in our understanding of the controls on basaltic explosivity."

Comprehending magma storage helps best prepare society for future eruptions, said Gazel, who is also a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

"As deep magma storage will not be detected by ground deformation until the melt is close to surface," he said, "this has important repercussions to our understanding of volcanic hazards. We need to understand the drivers of these eruptions. The only way to see these processes now is by observing earthquakes, but earthquakes don't tell you exactly what's happening."

Said Gazel, "With precise measurements that tell us where eruptions start, where magmas melt and where they are storedand what triggers the eruptionwe can develop a much better plan for future eruptions."
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The future of chemistry in a nutshell: A triple focus of efficiency, safety and circularity is needed to steer chemistry towards sustainability. Credit: HIMS.

In a comment in Nature Reviews Chemistry, Ph.D. student Hannah Flerlage and associate professor Chris Slootweg of the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences argue that modern day chemists need to broaden their horizons and consider the effects of chemistry "beyond the reaction vessel and the fume hood." In order to combat ever worsening environmental crises, and to achieve real sustainability, chemistry needs to develop a combined focus on efficiency, safety, and circularity.

Modern chemistry is "quite literally rubbish," Flerlage and Slootweg write, as it facilitates the path of matter from extraction to pollution. All sorts of waste, both stemming from chemical manufacturing processes and from their often short-lived end products, have resulted in human health problems and environmental disasters at varying scales.

Admittedly, over the past decades more and more sustainable synthetic methods have become available, minimizing or even eliminating the use of hazardous substances and waste. But, Flerlage and Slootweg rhetorically ask, is chemistry there yet? Their answer: "Not at all."

In their view, chemists have to start looking beyond "cool molecules," and "awesome chemistry." Sure, it can be fun and rewarding to create aesthetically pleasing molecules. But this ignores the role of chemistry in the modern world. As an example, they refer to perfluorocubane, a molecule that in 2022 was designated "Molecule of the Year." Its synthesis might be a stellar achievement, and there will probably be potential future applications. But its structure, containing multiple carbon-fluorine bonds, suggests that perfluorocubane will persist in the environment and bioaccumulate.

Flerlage and Slootweg argue that modern chemistry needs to take such environmental concerns to heart, and right from the start. They even go so far as to consider it unethical to develop chemistry that will lead to chemical pollution. They call for an end to poorly designed compounds, in particular "forever chemicals" such as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances and brominated flame retardants.

Systems thinking

As chemistry is the science of the transformation of matter, not just of the creation of novel molecules, Flerlage and Slootweg point out the responsibility to develop safe chemistry and chemicals that use the world's resources most effectively and improve sustainability.

This requires an approach of systems thinking that is grounded in the recognition of sustainability as an emergent property, and guided by an understanding of the molecular basis of sustainability. This means that chemistry should not only focus on using renewable resources and reducing production waste. It also has to consider the life-cycle environmental footprints and overall environmental implications of (novel) chemicals.

As an example, Flerlage and Slootweg mention drop-in bio-based polymers such as bioPE, which is made from bioethanol. These polymers reduce the use of fossil resources, but don't improve recyclability or biodegradability. And thus they continue to contribute to plastic pollution.

More challenging, more rewarding

In their paper, Flerlage and Slootweg advocate a triple focus on efficiency, safety, and circularity, both regarding chemical processes (synthesis) and products (chemical structure). These three core values of modern chemistry are described by the paradigms of green chemistry, safe and sustainable-by-design, and circular chemistry. These must all be complied with simultaneously if chemistry is to make a real contribution to sustainability.

All this will render chemistry more challenging, but also more rewarding, Flerlage and Slootweg write. "We need to broaden our horizons and consider our chemistry beyond the reaction vessel and the fume hood: how do the molecules and materials we make interact with the technosphere (industrial systems and society) and the biosphere (nature)?" To them, chemistry will only have a real and positive impact to sustainability when it fully embraces circular design, life-cycle thinking, human and environmental toxicology, and environmental and social impact assessment.

More information: Hannah Flerlage et al, Modern chemistry is rubbish, Nature Reviews Chemistry (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41570-023-00523-9
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Credit: Australian Academy of Science

The Great Barrier Reef is likely to face impacts from climate change that could become irreversible around mid-century regardless of whether global emissions stabilize. That is the conclusion of a report published today by the Australian Academy of Science.

The report explores possible futures for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) under different emissions scenarios. It also identifies evidence-based strategies and areas of opportunity to manage the reef ecosystem in the face of unrelenting climate change.

It found flow-on effects from climate impacts to cultures and customs are rapidly changing and mostly unknown, making it difficult to prioritize where to intervene to protect areas of high cultural value to Traditional Owners.

The report says this could be improved by ensuring transdisciplinary knowledge is integrated into prioritization processes.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water engaged the Academy as an independent scientific adviser to convene three roundtable discussions to assess the likely outcomes for the Great Barrier Reef in three climate scenarios: near term, and both low-emissions and high-emissions trajectories in the medium term.

A total of 84 multidisciplinary experts joined the roundtable discussions: the first on climate impacts on functions of the GBR, the second on interventions and the third on the future of the GBR.

The report has been delivered to the Reef 2050 Plan Independent Expert Panel. They have considered it in their advice to government on the current and likely health and resilience of the GBR in the face of climate impacts and potential reef interventions.

President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Chennupati Jagadish, said the report makes clear that climate change is the primary threat to this global icon and its connected systems.

"It reminds us that sticking to that path we are currently on, simply because we started on it, will not offer the best solution for the Great Barrier Reef," Professor Jagadish said.

"It highlights that in the medium-term, there are opportunities to slow the decline in the health of the reef, however this requires Australia to take further action now."

The report also identifies other opportunities including:

A comprehensive review of GBR managementthis may offer opportunities to streamline processes that are currently decentralized to create a management setting that is fit for purpose and agile enough to react to a changing climate. The report highlights that the management system was established before there was understanding of how climate change would impact the GBR.

Relevant research organizations could form a consortium to agree on sector-wide data standards and sharing arrangements. Such agreements would support better integration of existing and future research efforts.

Filling gaps in knowledge in the high emissions scenarioif these gaps were filled, including an improved understanding of how different ecological functions might be impacted, communities could be better prepared for the anticipated disruptions to lives and livelihoods.

Standardizing and centralizing socio-ecological data could aid GBR management. Of particular importance will be understanding differing opinions between groups as to what values, regions or functions are most important for preservation or protection. If we can't save everything, what we can save needs to be communicated and understood by all.

Developing suitable regulations and laws which do not rely on political involvement to be implemented in full. Doing so will secure a more evidence-informed system for the benefit of the GBR.

Traditional knowledge could provide a framework for managing a changing and adapting GBR. Indigenous peoples have adapted to a changing GBR, however, the rate of change that is being and will be experienced is unprecedented. Indigenous participants suggested that there is an opportunity to address the decline of GBR values in a more profound and connected way, using a collaborative approach founded in traditional knowledge.

The Reef Traditional Owners are supported by the Australian and Queensland governments to build a taskforce to operationalize the Reef 2050 Traditional Owner Implementation Plan's actions in a collaborative co-design approach.

The report concludes:

"Truthful, open, and clear communication with the public is needed to prepare Australians for what is to come, given the GBR will continue to change as the environment becomes more challenging for its habitats and species.

Clear communication is also important to garner support for necessary management interventions to protect the GBR to the greatest extent possible."

More information: Reef Futures Roundtables Report: www.science.org.au/supporting-  s-roundtables-report

Provided by Australian Academy of Science
(Photo : Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ukraine touts what it called "productive" talks in Jeddah, a city in Saudi Arabia, regarding a 10-point peace formula over its war with Russia.

On Sunday, a senior official from Ukraine said that discussions held in a city in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah, were "productive" amid efforts for a peaceful settlement over the war with Russia.

However, Moscow said the meeting was a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv. The talks in Jeddah that ended on Sunday included more than 40 countries, such as China, India, the United States, and several European countries, but it did not include Russia.

Ukraine Touts 'Productive' Jeddah Talks

Ukraine and its global allies have called the talks an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be used as the basis for peace. These include withdrawing Russia's troops and returning all Ukrainian territory to its control.

In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wants a global summit based on such principles later this year. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia's Media Ministry said that the talks' participants agreed on the importance of continuing consultations to make way for peace between Moscow and Kyiv, as per Reuters.

Additionally, European officials said that the participants of the peace talks wanted to establish working groups responsible for addressing specific problems raised by the conflict.

The situation comes 18 months after Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, and officials worry that any prospect of direct peace talks between the two nations could be unlikely. In a statement, Zelensky's head of staff, Andriy Yermak, said they had productive consultations on key principles.

On the other hand, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying that the Jeddah meeting was a "reflection of the West's attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts" to mobilize the Global South in support of Zelensky's agenda.

Read Also: China To Participate in Saudi Arabia Meeting on Ukraine's Peace Plan

Russia Criticizes Meeting

The meeting in Jeddah follows similar talks held in Copenhagen earlier in June that were designed to be informal and yielded no official statement. Additionally, Ukraine said that the 10-point peace formula talked about in Saudi Arabia got more support than the discussions in Denmark, according to Arab News.

A senior White House official noted that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan led Washington's delegation to Jeddah. In a Friday statement, the official Saudi Press Agency said that the meeting underscores the region's willingness to exert its good offices to achieve a solution that would result in permanent peace.

China's special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, said that while the Asian nation has many disagreements with other nations, their principles are shared. A source from the EU added that Beijing's officials actively participated in the talks and showed optimism regarding the idea of a third meeting.

China's involvement in peace talks is considered a major development as it had been previously invited to the Copenhagen talks but did not attend. The discussions were meant to find a viable basis for a meeting between heads of state, where officials said they could set a meeting before the end of the year, said The Guardian.

Related Article: Russia Attacks Ukraine Overnight With 70 Air-Assault Weapons: Report

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The interactions between hobbyist and commercial beekeepers can enhance "honey value add," industry profits and knowledge around beekeeping in Western Australia.

That's the finding of a new study by Associate Professor Kirsten Martinus, a human geographer in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Western Australia, which explored the differences and similarities between hobbyist and commercial beekeepers and how their interplay influences the industry. The work is published in the journal Geoforum.

"Interestingly, both hobbyist and commercial beekeepers were found to be both competitors and collaborators, operating in different markets," Associate Professor Martinus said.

"While hobbyists mostly engage in bartering or not-for-profit exchanges, commercial beekeepers cater to the consumer sales market.

"Hobbyist beekeepers or 'hobbyist innovators' emerged as crucial contributors to various low-tech industries, serving as a wellspring of scientific, practical, and local geographic knowledge, which significantly influenced beekeeping industry approaches and activities in WA."

Interviews with 30 hobbyist, semi-commercial, and commercial beekeepers were conducted in 2017 and 2020 for the study.

Associate Professor Martinus said the "hobbyist innovator" model could lead to better understanding of how informal local community groups could spark innovation and even lead to industry transformation.

"The study highlighted the significance of informal 'non-firm actors' in the industry, with hobbyists found to play a vital role in the development and persistence of WA beekeeping culture and techniques through their entrepreneurial endeavors and various activities," she said.

To further nurture the thriving beekeeping community, the study recommended fostering collaborations between hobbyist beekeepers and local businesses through supportive local and state government policies.

Associate Professor Martinus said the significant role of informal activities and hobbies in supporting industries were frequently overlooked in research.

"Passionate pursuits of hobbies have often played a pivotal role in shaping societies and industries throughout history," she said.

More information: Kirsten Martinus, 'It's a love interest'Enthusiasts and regional industry cultures of practice, Geoforum (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103808
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Current efforts to protect and restore native biodiversity is being threatened by difficulties in identifying wild and domestic cats, and categorization is likely to remain fraught for the foreseeable future, experts have warned.

Efforts to restore the native wildcat (Felis sivestris) are ongoing in Britain and conservationists in New Zealand are also trying to protect native species. Domestic cats pose a threat to other species in both countries.

The study shows New Zealanders are much less sentimental about pest management to protect native species. As a result domestic cats are treated very differently in the two countries.

Dr. Alexandra Palmer, from the University of Auckland, and Dr. Virginia Thomas, from the University of Exeter, interviewed those involved with cat conservation in New Zealand and Britain respectively.

In Britain, public opinion is very much against culling feral cats, even in the interests of protecting wildcats. Conservationists are responding to this pragmatically, using 'trap neuter vaccinte release' programs to manage feral cats, rather than culling them. Avoiding culling has the added advantage of ensuring that wildcats aren't accidentally killed if they're mistaken for a feral cat. Killing feral cats is legal however, with some game keepers shooting them as part of their predator control programs.

Wildcats are protected and killing them is an offense, but it can be very difficult to distinguish between domestic and wildcats and this is complicated even further by domestic wildcat hybrids which make legal distinction difficult and render prosecution in cases of wildcat persecution almost impossible under existing legislation.

Different values and attitudes towards cats means that a feral cat is often in the eye of the beholdersome people see a cat and assume that its' feral while others might assume that it's a wildcat or even a pet cat.

New Zealanders, New Zealand conservationists and even New Zeland cat welfare organizations tend to accept the killing of feral cats in order to protect native species. Pet cats can be killed by mistake if they are accidentally caught in traps intended for feral cats or other 'pests'. In this case, the legal difficulty is over whether cats are genuinely feral or are stray, and people therefore have a responsibility to protect rather than cull them.

Dr. Palmer carried out 59 interviews and 16 in-depth discussions in New Zealand with conservation project managers and staff, critics of predator control, researchers, Maori stakeholders, and others with relevant interests and expertise. Dr. Thomas visited four wildcat breeding facilities across Britain and carried out 26 interviews with those involved with species conservation and management, including conservation communication officers, consultants, practitioners, project managers, policy experts, and researchers.

Dr. Thomas said, "In theory and in practice, valued companion and wildcats are distinguished from unprotected feral cats, and in-between categories of stray and hybrid cats. Those responsible draw boundaries between cat categories differently. These differences in boundary-drawing reflect the inherent blurriness of category boundaries, practical challenges, and, importantly, differences in values, in particular whether priority is placed on the life of the cat or the cat's potential victim, particularly native or game birds."

"This can mean that laws outlining protections for specific categories of animals have limited effect if, in practice, those encountering cats draw boundaries differently."

"In Britain, it seems unlikely that legal protection of wildcats in theory can be extended to the field without a quick, easy, and reliable method of differentiating between domestic, hybrid, and wildcats. Reducing gaps between law and practice would require seeking agreement from those involved in cat management to stick to the letter of the law, despite this potentially bringing difficult practical implications."

Research participants in the UK described the "genetic dilution" of the wildcat and its functional extinction.

In the UK there is no legal definition of a wildcat, which makes protecting them extremely difficult. Meanwhile, feral cats may legally be killed at any time, although they are protected under the Animal Welfare Act (2006), meaning that any such killing must be humane. Companion cats are classed as property and are protected by property ownership laws.

The research is published in the journal People and Nature.

More information: Alexandra Palmer et al, Categorisation of cats: Managing boundary felids in Aotearoa New Zealand and Britain, People and Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10519 Journal information: People and Nature
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A lot of nitrogen and nitrous oxide are emitted at the mouth of the Elbe River into the sea. Credit: Hereon/ Sina Bold

Nitrous oxide has a much stronger effect on the climate than carbon dioxide. Soils, peatlands and rivers are potential nitrous oxide sources. However, when, where and how much nitrous oxide is emitted into the air has not yet been sufficiently researched.

A team led by Gesa Schulz, a doctoral student at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, has now studied nitrous oxide production in the Elbe estuary in greater detail and discovered real hotspots. The results, which were recently published in the journal Biogeosciences, can help to better assess the sources of nitrous oxide worldwide.

When it comes to climate change, most people talk about the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which is released in large quantities through the combustion of natural gas, crude oil and coal. What is often overlooked is that there are other potent greenhouse gases that have been far less researched. These include nitrous oxide (N 2 O) in particular, whose effect on the climate is almost 300 times greater than that of carbon dioxide.

N 2 O is released primarily by biological processes and the decomposition of nitrogen compounds in agriculture, but rivers or peatlands can also emit nitrous oxide. However, where, when and how much nitrous oxide escapes into the atmosphere worldwide is still unclear. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that 1% of the nitrogen that enters rivers rises into the air as nitrous oxide after biochemical conversion. But these are rough estimates.

Too much nitrogen from agriculture

A team led by Gesa Schulz, a doctoral student at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, has therefore taken a closer look and measured nitrous oxide production in the entire Elbe estuary from Geesthacht, east of Hamburg, to the North Sea over several years and in different seasons. As the scientists write in their paper, the Elbe estuary releases nitrous oxide throughout the yearalthough the amount varies from season to season. In addition, nitrous oxide production differs from river section to river section.

"Our data show that the main source of nitrous oxide production is agriculture, which applies nitrogen," says Schulz. "Especially in winter, when plants are not growing and hardly consume any nitrogen, a lot of nitrogen enters the river with the rain and melting snow."

Biochemical and microbial processes then convert some of the nitrogen to nitrous oxide. These processes do not occur as quickly in cold water as they do in summer. However, strong storms often stir up and mix the water of the Elbe during the winter, releasing a comparatively large amount of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere at this time of year.

Schulz and her colleagues have also discovered that there are two nitrous oxide hotspots in the Elbe estuary: The port of Hamburg releases a particularly large amount of nitrous oxide. In addition, there is the estuary section from Cuxhaven to Brunsbuttel, where the Elbe water strongly mixes with water from the North Sea at high tide. This section of the Elbe is known as the "maximum turbidity zone" (MTZ).

Measurements were also taken at the port of Hamburg. Credit: Hereon/ Sina Bold

Algae blooms produce nitrous oxide

Nitrous oxide production in the MTZ is caused by microalgae that grow in the nearshore North Sea in spring and summer. These are transported upstream into the MTZ at high tide. When the algae die, they are microbially and biochemically decomposed, releasing a lot of nitrous oxide.

In the Port of Hamburg, the situation is somewhat different. In spring and summer, the Elbe transports large amounts of freshwater algae downstream to the Port of Hamburg, which were able to grow mainly due to the nitrogen introduced by agriculture. Since the Elbe in the port of Hamburg is dredged to about 15 meters for the large cargo ships, the algae suddenly pass from the light-flooded upper reaches of the Elbe into deep dark water, where they die. This makes a lot of biomass available for biochemical decomposition, which consumes a lot of oxygen, favoring the production of nitrous oxide. Accordingly, nitrous oxide production is high there in summer.

Finding solutions together

Together with social scientists from the University of Hamburg, Schulz is working in the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change and Society" (CLICCS) to improve the situation and, in coordination with various institutions from the Elbe region and the Hamburg Port Authority, to find new ways of sustainable management.

"We want to find out what measures can be taken to reduce nitrogen input into the Elbe and the production of nitrous oxide in the river," she stated. Later, farmers along the Elbe will also be involved to find solutions that can actually be implemented on a day-to-day basis.

In addition, the data that Schulz and her colleagues have collected are very important for a fundamentally better assessment of nitrous oxide production in estuaries. For the last decades, measurements in the atmosphere and the estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show a continuous increase of N 2 O emissions. However, the N 2 O sources have not yet been identified or accurately measured.

"We are contributing to answering these open questions," says Schulz. "This also makes it possible to address the problem regionally through targeted measures." Her research may also help to better calculate nitrous oxide emissions in computer climate models in the future.

More information: Gesa Schulz et al, Seasonal variability of nitrous oxide concentrations and emissions in a temperate estuary, Biogeosciences (2023). DOI: 10.5194/bg-20-3229-2023 Journal information: Biogeosciences
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Temperature anomaly on Wednesday August 2, 2023. Red areas of Chile and northern Argentina are much hotter than the long-term average for this time of year. Credit: ClimateReanalyzer.org, CC BY-SA

Temperatures in parts of Chile and northern Argentina have soared to 10C20C above average over the last few days. Towns in the Andes mountains have reached 38C or more, while Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, saw temperatures above 30Cbreaking its previous August record by more than 5C. Temperatures peaked at 39C in the town of Rivadavia.

Bear in mind it's mid-winter in this part of the world. And it's far south enough that seasonal variations have a substantial impact on temperatures. Buenos Aires, for instance, is as far south as Japan, Tibet or Tennessee are north.

In terms of deviation from temperatures you might expect at a certain place and time of year, this heat wave is comparable to, if not greater than, the recent heat waves in southern Europe, the US and China. In Vicuna, one of the towns in the Chilean Andes that recently reached 38C, a typical August day might be 18C or sojust imagine it being a whole 20C warmer than normal wherever you are now.

No wonder some climate scientists have already suggested this could be one of the most extreme heat waves on record.

What's causing the extreme heat?

Over the past six days, a persistent area of high pressure, or anticyclone, has lingered to the east of the Andes. Also known as a "blocking high," this appears to be the key driver of the intense heat.

Blocking anticyclones can drive heat waves in three main ways. Firstly, they pull warmer air from closer to the equator towards them. The system also compresses and traps the air, heating it up, as was the case for the 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, which shattered the Canadian temperature record by nearly 5C. Finally, the high pressure means there is little ascending air and hence little cloud cover. This allows the sun to heat the land continuously during the day, building up heat.

Temperature anomaly on Wednesday August 2, 2023. Red areas of Chile and northern Argentina are much hotter than the long-term average for this time of year. Credit: ClimateReanalyzer.org, CC BY-SA

However, scientists need to analyze the meteorology of this unprecedented event in more detail to gain a more complete understanding.

El Nino made this more likely

The Chile-Argentina heat wave may have been made more likely by the developing El Nino in the Pacific Ocean. El Nino events, which typically occur every four years or so, are characterized by warm sea surface temperatures in the central-to-eastern tropical Pacific. Temperatures in the central Pacific are currently about 1C above average for the time of year.

These warmer ocean temperatures make air more buoyant over the central Pacific, causing the air to rise. This drives changes to atmospheric circulation patterns further afield. El Nino-induced changes to atmospheric circulation typically mean higher pressure and warmer winter temperatures for this part of South America.

Climate change made it worse

The blocking system driving the extreme heat would probably have led to warm temperatures even in the absence of anthropogenic climate change. However, the rapid warming of climate change allowed the heat wave to become truly unprecedented.

An increase in averages means an increase in extremes. Credit: Australia Climate Commission/IPCC, CC BY-SA

Climate scientists expect to see temperature records broken as our planet continues to heat up. This is because the distribution of possible temperatures is shifting higher and higher.

Chile has already experienced the effects of climate change recently through a severe heat wave in Februarylate summerresulting in several deaths from wildfires, as well as a decade-long mega-drought. The country recently rejected a rewrite of the constitution which would have mandated its government to take action against the nature and climate crises.

The longer-term impact of a winter heat wave

The hottest temperatures now appear to have largely subsided in the Andes. However, temperatures are still well above average for northern Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, and will remain so for the next five days or so.

The impacts of winter heat waves are less well understood than summer heat waves. For Chile, the most likely impact is on snowpack in the mountains, which provides water for drinking, agriculture and power generation. Any melting of the snowpack will probably also affect the diverse flora and fauna found in the Andes.

Overall, this heat wave is a startling reminder of how humans are changing Earth's climate. We will continue to see such unprecedented extremes until we stop burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Losing long-lasting flockmates may drive a golden-crowned sparrow to stray from its favorite overwintering spot, a new study says, suggesting that friendly, familiar faces help anchor it to familiar spaces.

Led by ecologists at the University of NebraskaLincoln, the study found that a golden-crowned sparrow returning to California after a winter migrationone that can stretch as many as 3,000 milesresettled an average of just 90 feet away from the center of its previous year's range.

But golden-crowned sparrows appearing for at least their third consecutive winter began to drift from their preferred locales when their closest flockmates failed to rejoin them down southhinting that, even for sparrows, home is where the heart is.

"The fact that they come back to this winter site and then hang out with the same individualsand it's important for them to be with the same individualsis kind of a crazy thing that we're still wrapping our heads around," said lead author Annie Madsen, who earned her doctorate from Nebraska in May.

Madsen and her colleagues undertook the research hoping to untangle the knot of what she called a "chicken-and-egg question." Many animals, including the golden-crowned sparrow, share space with members of their species. In many cases, they also spend time around and interact with those neighbors. Golden-crowned sparrows, for instance, have adopted what are called fission-fusion networks, spending minutes or hours congregating in small groups before dispersing, only to later reassemble with different members of the larger flock.

The challenge for ecologists: figuring out how much animals are interacting with their own because they happen to value the same territoryespecially one rich with foodversus sharing that space because they value the social bonds and benefits of the friends they find there. Which ties, in other words, actually bind?

"Are they coming together because of a resource? Are they coming together because of social partnerships? And as they come together for resources, do they gain social partners? Or are they using social partners to find resources? It's a complex question," Madsen said, "that's really hard to get at.

"But we wanted to know if there was some kind of directionality here, if there was one of those forces that took precedence. Do they care about this one specific patch of bushes, which is a really nice patch that they come back to every year? Or is it their friends, their flockmates, that they're coming back to spend time with?"

As the overwintering site for thousands of golden-crowned sparrows fleeing the cold of Alaska and western Canada, an arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz seemed as fitting a place as any to investigate. From 2009 to 2019, the combination of multi-colored leg bands and diligent observation by scores of researchers and volunteers helped map both the geographic distribution and social networks of individual sparrows.

The more consecutive winters a golden-crowned sparrow spent in Santa Cruz, the less its average range shifted from the prior year, with the sparrow seeming to home in on and develop an affinity for a particular site. On its own, that finding might have pointed toward certain spots boasting certain features that were ultra-appealing to the species.

But that decade of data also allowed the team to identify the equivalent of each sparrow's closest friends, or the 10% of fellow golden-crowned sparrows it was most likely to be spotted with in a given year.

An average sparrow, Madsen and her colleagues discovered, was liable to lose about 52% of its favored flockmates across however many years it migrated to Santa Cruz. And in the years that its closest social contacts did fail to return, the shift in a sparrow's home range tended to reverse course, flitting not closer but instead farther from its prior center.

To Madsen and her colleagues, the finding suggests that a sparrow's loyalty lies not just with a locale, and the resources it might offer, but with the fine feathered friends it comes to expect will be there to greet it. When the latter wanes, a sparrow's ties to a specific location appear to wane, too.

That's all the more telling, Madsen said, given that resources are generally less scarce, and real estate less prized, when overwintering than when seeking mates and raising a handful of hatchlings in the summer.

"It's really interesting that they're coming back to such specific sites on their wintering grounds, where it doesn't seem like it wouldn't matter that muchespecially since, at an arboretum, they have pretty cushy lives," said Madsen, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego. "There are nice bushes everywhere. My collaborators lay out millet seed piles so that they can study dominance behavior, so there's food everywhere. And yet (the sparrows) are still coming back to these really specific places within the arboretum.

"Whether it's more this social cohesionindividuals staying together because they prefer to be togetheror maybe partially that they're trying to avoid dominance interactions with other individuals, it does seem like there's something there. There's something to having familiar flockmates that is important."

There was more. The team discovered a quantitative quirk that bolstered the case for the magnetism of friendship: The loss of flockmates didn't seem to much affect the home ranges of golden-crowned sparrows that were returning for only their second winter in Santa Cruz. Though it's not definitive, Madsen said the discovery could indicate that second-year sparrows hadn't developed as many close contacts, or as tight-knit of bonds, as sparrows that had been coming back to California for at least several consecutive winters.

"Some of these relationships are being built up over multiple years," Madsen said. "And as one sparrow is returning again and again, not only are they maintaining friendships with all of the flockmates that do return, they also make new friendships. They gain new flockmates from new immigrants, from first-year birds that are coming into the population. So they're building lots of social capital."

The paper is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information: Anastasia E. Madsen et al, Loss of flockmates weakens winter site fidelity in golden-crowned sparrows ( Zonotrichia atricapilla ), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2219939120 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Accumulation of phytoalexins in 10 upland cotton lines, averaged over days four, six, and eight postinoculation with approximately 3  106 CFU ml1 Xanthomonas citri subsp. malvacearum race 1 strain 3631. Black bars are experiment 1, hatched bars are experiment 2. Note the change in y-axis scale in the upper part of each graph. The near-isogenic lines in the widely susceptible Ac44E background are indicated in the figure by their respective B-gene complements. The other lines, OK1.2, AcHR, and Im216, have multiple resistance genes and are described in the Materials and Methods section. A, Lacinilene C (LC); B, lacinilene C 7-methyl ether (LCME); C, 2,7-dihydroxycadalene (DHC); and D, 2-hydroxy-7-methoxycadalene (HMC). Phytoalexins were undetectable in mock-inoculated leaves in 77 of 80 determinations. The other three instances occurred in experiment 1: averaged over days 6 and 10 postinoculation, LC in Acb 7 was 0.004 mol (g DW)1; and LCME in Acb 7 and AcHR was 0.003 and 0.001 mol (g DW)1, respectively. All of the bars for inoculated leaves are greater than those mock-inoculated levels except for Ac44E (all four phytoalexins in experiment 1), AcB 2 (LC and DHC in experiment 2), and AcB 4 B In (DHC in experiment 2). Credit: Phytopathology (2023). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-08-22-0310-FI

While wrapping oneself in 100% Egyptian cotton bedsheets is a delightful luxury on a warm summer night, cotton provides much more than breathable, soft fabric. In addition to textiles, the cotton plant is grown for food, fuel, and daily-use consumer productssuch as coffee filters, currency, and moisturizers. However, a resurging plant disease called bacterial blight is currently threatening cotton production worldwide.

Bacterial blight is best controlled through natural, genetic resistance. Although several genes for natural resistance to bacterial blight of cotton were discovered in northeast Africa during the mid-twentieth century, one of these genes, found in Egyptian cotton, had been overlooked until a team of researchers led by Margaret Essenberg from Oklahoma State University began studying the gene.

One of their recent studies, published in Phytopathology, unveiled that gene B 5 confers powerful resistance to bacterial blight.

Essenberg and colleagues observed puzzling behavior from gene B 5 after it was crossed into the DNA of upland cottona variety used in most clothing fabricsas it did not appear to follow typical Mendelian genetics. Further investigation revealed an explanation for this peculiarity: upland cotton (AcB 5 ) appears to carry gene B 5 at two locations in its genome versus the typical single location.

Under Oklahoma field conditions, the gene at either location enabled strong resistance to bacterial blight. In the lab, AcB 5 exhibited resistance to the predominant and widely virulent strain of the disease's causal pathogen, race 18, in addition to nine other pathogen races.

These findings have positive implications for bacterial blight resistance in agriculture. "Natural, heritable disease resistance is an economical and environmentally safe means of maintaining plant health," corresponding author Melanie Bayles explains. "Resistance genes trigger synthesis of natural defense chemicals at sites of infection. AcB 5 cotton is a champion in this activity; it accumulated at least ten-fold more defense chemicals than cotton lines with four other single resistance genes."

Because pathogens often evolve to overcome such resistance, relying only on a single gene for disease resistance is precarious. The researchers propose that plant breeders combine this valuable B 5 gene with other strong, broadly specific genes, such as B 12 , to develop durable resistance to bacterial blight.

In addition to plant breeding, Bayles states that this research can benefit disciplines such as molecular plant-microbe interactions and phytochemistry, since the "signal transduction pathways of five different major genes for bacterial disease resistance in cotton are shown to lead in part to production of the same set of defense chemicals." AcB 5 is available for other researchers to use, along with a near-isogenic susceptible parent line.

Essenberg and colleagues' new, quick method for estimating amounts of defense chemicals in cotton plants offers a "blight bulb" idea for improving resistance to this prevalent disease.

More information: Margaret Essenberg et al, Gene B5 in Cotton Confers High and Broad Resistance to Bacterial Blight and Conditions High Amounts of Sesquiterpenoid Phytoalexins, Phytopathology (2023). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-08-22-0310-FI

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Diagrammatic representation of sediment transport along the north (a), central (b) and south (c) coastlines of Queensland. Credit: Cowley and Harris 2023.

Coastal wave action occurs due to complex interactions between offshore ocean conditions and the local landscape of the coastline, in addition to the effects of currents, tides and storms. It is an important process that affects the transport of sediment to and away from the shoreline, including beaches.

Sediment is suspended in the ocean from river runoff into the sea as well as waves disturbing the seabed, so are significantly impacted by heavy rainfall and storm events. In tropical and subtropical locations, the formation of reefs also strongly impacts wave energy reaching the coast and provides some protection against erosive action by changing the height, spacing and direction of waves.

Dr. Dylan Cowley and Dr. Daniel Harris from the University of Queensland, Australia, investigated the effect of the Great Barrier Reef on the transport of sediment to Australia's northeast coast by a process known as longshore drift. This is when waves bring sediment to the coast at an angle, but as the water recedes the backwash transports it directly away from the coastline at a 90 degree angle, causing material to move in a zig-zag pattern along the coastline. If it is not replenished sufficiently, this can result in erosion of the coastline in the "upstream" area and a build-up of sediment further "downstream."

Modeling research published in Marine Geology found that the Great Barrier Reef decreases the offshore wave energy while moving north up the coast. The scientists determined that over 500,000 m3 of sediment could be transported to the coastline by waves in the south of Queensland, while this reduces to less than 50,000 m3 when moving north along the coast to Fraser Island.

Dr. Cowley and Dr. Harris used a combination of computer modeling and real measurements from buoys along the coast to estimate a median wave height reaching the coast of 1 m to 2 m in the north of the study area, decreasing to less than 0.5 m around Fraser Island. Similarly, the wave period (the time it takes for two successive wave crests to pass the same point) reduced from eight to 10 seconds to threefive seconds, corresponding to an energy shift to lower swells. A change in dominant wave direction was also noted, from east-southeast to east-northeast.

Mean volumes of sediment transported under different wave directions (a, from the south, b from the east and c, from the north) in the north (i), center (ii) and south (iii) of Queensland. Black arrows indicate northward longshore drift and red arrows southward longshore drift. Credit: Cowley and Harris 2023.

This resulted in estimates of sediment transport volumes that varied significantly up the coast from 1,800,000 m3/year in southern Queensland, to 400,000 m3/year in the Capricorn Channel preceding the Great Barrier Reef, to less that 40,000 m3/year in the lagoon behind the reef.

The effect of offshore wave direction is a significant factor in the direction of longshore drift with those directed from the south causing greater northward transport of sediment along the south Queensland coast up to Fraser Island. However, local coastline makes the effects more variable northwards into the Capricorn Channel and Great Barrier Reef lagoon with even some southward transport dominating in the latter.

In the case of winds blowing from the north, the aforementioned scenario reverses in conjunction with the coastline changing from a predominant north-south orientation to a northwest-southeast orientation. The more open nature of the coastline south of Fraser Island and a steep narrow shelf makes it more susceptible to the offshore wave energy, higher swells and therefore more sediment transported to the coast.

Overall, the Queensland coast experiences a net positive increase in sediment being transported there, which can be exacerbated by southeasterly trade winds (winds blowing east to west near the equator) as well as extreme wave-generating events such as tropical cyclones and El Nino (a climate system occurring every two to seven years where the tropical ocean of the east Pacific becomes warmer). The latter can alter the wave direction to south and southeasterly, due to prevailing winds, and the intensity of the waves resulting from the overall energy in the atmosphere-ocean system during these events.

In the intervening La Nina phases (the opposite of El Nino with cooler temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean) increased rainfall brings more sediment to the coast from land runoff, meaning there is more available for transport. The researchers note the importance of this finding in particular as such extreme weather events are predicted to increase in frequency and magnitude in the decades to come, therefore impacting sediment transport.

With the Great Barrier Reef's continued decline, its potential for dissipating some of the incoming wave energy will likely be reduced, with waves of greater energy reaching the coastline having dual erosive and mobilizing effect. Understanding the changes in wave energy on sediment transport is important due to the increasing populations occupying coastal locations and the economic reliance upon them.

As significant changes to coastal regimes are expected over the coming decades due to climate change, the power of the oceans to transform our landscapes is a reminder of how we must seek to find ways to help the planet thrive through its natural processes, as well as those heightened by mankind's activities.

More information: Dylan Cowley et al, Wave-driven sediment transport potential on a tropical coast: Implications for the northeastern Australian sediment budget, Marine Geology (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.margeo.2023.107104

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Credit: Jason Dunlop

Jason Dunlop, curator of Arachnida and Myriapoda at the Museum fur Naturkunde, in Berlin, has identified a spider held at the museum for several years. In his paper published in the journal PalZ, he describes the features of the spider and also notes that it is the oldest spider fossil ever found in Germany.

The fossil was unearthed at Piesberg, a quarry near Osnabruck, Germany, approximately four years ago by Tim Wolterbeek, a geoscientist, with Universiteit Utrecht. He eventually passed it on to the museum in Berlin, where Dunlop undertook a study of the ancient arachnid.

The spider was dated back 310 to 315 million years ago by studying other material in the strata in which it was found, putting it in the Paleozoicand marking it as the first from that era to have ever been found in Germany.

Dunlop also found that it was a new species, and promptly dubbed it Arthrolycosa wolterbeeki. Further study showed that the fossil was in excellent condition (even its spinnerets, the silk producing organs, could be seen) and nearly wholly complete. He estimates that the spider was likely approximately one centimeter longfossilization would have made it shrink.

He also estimates the legs were likely approximately four centimeters long when the spider was alive. It also had a segmented abdomen, marking it as one of the "limb spiders" of its time. Dunlop found the spider to be of the order Araneae, which separates it from other spider-like groups. He notes that it is just one of 12 Carboniferous species assigned to Araneae. It also resembles the brown recluse spider of modern times.

Credit: Jason Dunlop

Dunlop notes that it appears that fossilization of the specimen must have been due to extraordinary circumstances as its features suggest it was likely burrow-dwelling, which would have limited its contact with water.

Prior research has shown that the area in which it was found was forested at the time the spider was alive, which suggests it spun its web on the forest floor, hoping to capture even tinier prey.

Dunlop also points out that the spider was likely male, despite the lack of a palpal bulb, since females of its kind would most likely have been sedentary.

More information: Jason A. Dunlop, The first Palaeozoic spider (Arachnida: Araneae) from Germany, PalZ (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s12542-023-00657-7

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The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) flight transceiver is inside a large tube-like sunshade and telescope on the Psyche spacecraft, as seen here inside a clean room at JPL. An earlier photo, inset, shows the transceiver assembly before it was integrated with the spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Set to launch this fall, NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) project will test how lasers could speed up data transmission far beyond the capacity of current radio frequency systems used in space. Known as a technology demonstration, DSOC may pave the way for broadband communications that will help support humanity's next giant leap: when NASA sends astronauts to Mars.

The DSOC near-infrared laser transceiver (a device that can send and receive data) will "piggyback" on NASA's Psyche mission when it launches to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name in October. During the first two years of the journey, the transceiver will communicate with two ground stations in Southern California, testing highly sensitive detectors, powerful laser transmitters, and novel methods to decode signals the transceiver sends from deep space.

NASA is focused on laser (optical) communication because of its potential to surpass the bandwidth of radio waves, which the space agency has relied on for more than half a century. Both radio and near-infrared laser communications use electromagnetic waves to transmit data, but near-infrared light packs the data into significantly tighter waves, enabling ground stations to receive more data at once.

"DSOC was designed to demonstrate 10 to 100 times the data-return capacity of state-of-the-art radio systems used in space today," said Abi Biswas, DSOC's project technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "High-bandwidth laser communications for near-Earth orbit and for moon-orbiting satellites have been proven, but deep space presents new challenges."

There are more missions than ever headed for deep space, and they promise to produce exponentially more data than past missions in the form of complex science measurements, high-definition images, and video. So experiments like DSOC will play a crucial role in helping NASA advance technologies that can be used routinely by spacecraft and ground systems in the future.

"DSOC represents the next phase of NASA's plans for developing revolutionary improved communications technologies that have the capability to increase data transmissions from spacewhich is critical for the agency's future ambitions," said Trudy Kortes, director of the Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to test this technology during Psyche's flight."

The Hale Telescope at Caltechs Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, will receive the high-rate data downlink from the DSOC flight transceiver. The telescope is fitted with a novel superconducting detector that is capable of timing the arrival of individual photons from deep space. Credit: Caltech

Groundbreaking technologies

The transceiver riding on Psyche features several new technologies, including a never-before-flown photon-counting camera attached to an 8.6-inch (22-centimeter) aperture telescope that protrudes from the side of the spacecraft. The transceiver will autonomously scan forand "lock" ontothe high-power near-infrared laser uplink transmitted by the Optical Communication Telescope Laboratory at JPL's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California. The laser uplink will also demonstrate sending commands to the transceiver.

"The powerful uplink laser is a critical part of this tech demo for higher rates to spacecraft, and upgrades to our ground systems will enable optical communications for future deep space missions," said Jason Mitchell, program executive for NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters.

Once locked onto the uplink laser, the transceiver will locate the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, about 100 miles (130 kilometers) south of Table Mountain. The transceiver will then use its near-infrared laser to transmit high-rate data down to Palomar. Spacecraft vibrations that might otherwise nudge the laser off target will be dampened by state-of-the-art struts attaching the transceiver to Psyche.

To receive the high-rate downlink laser from the DSOC transceiver, the Hale Telescope has been fitted with a novel superconducting nanowire single photon detector assembly. The assembly is cryogenically cooled so that a single incident laser photon (a quantum particle of light) can be detected and its arrival time recorded. Transmitted as a train of pulses, the laser light must travel more than 200 million miles (300 million kilometers)the farthest the spacecraft will be during this tech demobefore the faint signals can be detected and processed to extract the information.

"Every component of DSOC exhibits new technology, from the high-power uplink lasers to the pointing system on the transceiver's telescope and down to the exquisitely sensitive detectors that can count the single photons as they arrive," said JPL's Bill Klipstein, the DSOC project manager. "The team even needed to develop new signal-processing techniques to squeeze information out of such weak signals transmitted over vast distances."

The distances involved pose another challenge for the tech demo: The farther Psyche journeys, the longer the photons will take to reach their destination, creating a lag of up to tens of minutes. The positions of Earth and the spacecraft will be constantly changing while the laser photons travel, so this lag will need to be compensated for.

"Pointing the laser and locking on over millions of miles while dealing with the relative motion of Earth and Psyche poses an exciting challenge for our project," said Biswas.

Provided by NASA
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Plant pathologist Katie Gold, an assistant professor at Cornell University, inspects diseased grapes in a field. Golds team used a JPL-developed instrument to detect infected crops from the air in one of Californias most important wine grape producing regions. Credit: Allison Usavage

In a case study, scientists detected the costly infection in cabernet sauvignon grapevines before they showed symptoms visible to the human eye.

Withering molds, root-rotting bacteria, viruses, and other plant pathogens destroy an estimated 15% to 30% of global harvests every year. Early detection can make the difference between a failed crop and a treatable one.

Using an airborne science instrument developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, researchers have found that they can accurately spot the stealthy signs of a grape disease that inflicts billions of dollars in annual crop damage. The remote sensing technique could aid ground-based monitoring for this and other crops.

In a pair of new studies, researchers from JPL and Cornell University focused on a viral disease called GLRaV-3 (short for grapevine leafroll-associated virus complex 3). Primarily spread by insects, GLRaV-3 reduces yields and sours developing fruit, costing the U.S. wine and grape industry some $3 billion in damage and losses annually. It typically is detected by labor-intensive vine-by-vine scouting and expensive molecular testing. The first study is published in Phytopathology.

The research team wanted to see if they could help growers identify GLRaV-3 infections early and from the air by using machine learning and NASA's next-generation Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). The instrument's optical sensor, which records the interaction of sunlight with chemical bonds, has been used to measure and monitor hazards such as wildfires, oil spills, greenhouse gases, and air pollution associated with volcanic eruptions.

It was during a 2020 campaign to map methane leaks in California that plant pathologist Dr. Katie Gold and her team seized the opportunity to pose a different question: Could AVIRIS-NG uncover undercover crop infection in one of the state's most important grape-producing regions?

"Like humans, sick plants may not exhibit outward symptoms right away, making early detection the greatest challenge facing growers," said Gold, an assistant professor at Cornell University and senior author of the new studies. In the case of grapevine leafroll virus, it can take up to a year before a vine betrays the telltale signs of infection, such as discolored foliage and stunted fruit. However, on the cellular level, stress is well underway before then, changing how sunlight interacts with plant tissue.

A drone captured a grateful message written among grapevines by individuals with the wine industry who collaborated on the pathogen-spotting research in the Lodi, California, region. Credit: Aaron Lange/Lodi Winegrape Commission

Aerial advantage

Mounted in the belly of a research plane, AVIRIS-NG observed roughly 11,000 acres of vineyards in Lodi, California. The regionlocated in the heart of California's Central Valleyis a major producer of the state's premium wine grapes.

The team fed the observations into computer models they developed and trained to distinguish infection. To help check the results, industry collaborators scouted more than 300 acres of the vineyards from the ground for visible viral symptoms while collecting vine samples for molecular testing.

Gold noted it was a labor-intensive process, undertaken during a California heat wave. "Without the hard work of the growers, industry collaborators, and the scouting teams, none of what we accomplished would have been possible," she said. Similar efforts will continue under the NASA Acres Consortium, of which Gold is a lead scientist.

The researchers found that they were able to differentiate non-infected and infected vines both before and after they became symptomatic, with the best-performing models achieving 87% accuracy. Successful early detection of GLRaV-3 could help provide grape growers up to a year's warning to intervene.

In a complementary paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, the researchers said their case study shows how emerging capabilities in air and space can support ground-based pathogen surveillance efforts. These capabilities include forthcoming missions like NASA's Surface Biology and Geology (SBG)part of the fleet of missions that will compose the agency's Earth System Observatory. They said that SBG will provide data that could be used in combination with machine learning for agricultural decision-making at the global scale.

Fernando Romero Galvan, a doctoral candidate and an author of both studies, noted that sustainable farming practices are more important than ever in the face of climate change. "I think these are exciting times for remote sensing and plant disease detection," he said. "Scalable solutions can help growers make data-driven, sustainable crop management decisions."

"What we did with this study targets one area of California for one disease," said co-author Ryan Pavlick, a research technologist at JPL. "The ultimate vision that we have is being able to do this across the planet for many crop diseases and for growers all over the world."

More information: Fernando Romero Galvan et al, Scalable early detection of grapevine virus infection with airborne imaging spectroscopy, Phytopathology (2023). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-01-23-0030-R Gloire Rubambiza et al, Toward CloudNative, Machine Learning Base Detection of Crop Disease With Imaging Spectroscopy, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (2023). DOI: 10.1029/2022JG007342

Provided by NASA
(Photo : Mike Hvozda/U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)

A Florida man who was stranded at sea for nearly two days was rescued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) from his partially submerged boat.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) successfully rescued a Florida man on a partially submerged boat and found that he had suffered from jellyfish stings, dehydration, and sunburns.

The man, Charles Gregory, was last seen departing the Lighthouse Park Boat Ramp onboard a 12-foot jon boat on Thursday night. The USCG said the man's family sent a report to watchstanders with the Coast Guard Sector in Jacksonville, notifying them that Jackson had yet to return to the lighthouse boat ramp by Friday.

Florida Man Rescued from Partially Submerged Boat

An HC-130 airplane crew spotted the missing Florida man on Saturday morning, saying that he was sitting in his partially submerged boat. Later, a Coast Guard Cutter Coho boat crew recovered Gregory from his partially submerged boat and transferred him to a Station Mayport boat crew, bringing him to EMS at Vilano Beach Fishing Pier.

In a statement, Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville search and rescue mission coordinator Cmdr. Nick Barrow said that the outcome of the case was relatively positive. He also expressed gratitude to local and state partners involved in the efforts to find Gregory, as per CBS12.

However, Barrow warned that despite the fortunate result of the mission, it also highlights the importance of having safety gear onboard and being prepared for any potentially negative situation. He recommended having a life jacket, VHF marine-grade radio, signaling devices, and an emergency personal locator beacon.

Gregory's unfortunate situation was brought about by the tide rising quicker than he was initially prepared for before a wave struck his boat and knocked him into the water. In an interview on Sunday, his father, Raymond Gregory, said that the Florida man could get back on his boat but was quickly taken out to sea.

Read Also: Kai Cenat Arrested After Sparking Riot in New York Union Square

Unfortunate Turn of Events

He spent nearly two days where he allegedly "struggled to stay alive" under the hot Florida sun despite being stung by jellyfish. Raymond said that his son was scared to death and had had "more conversations with God in that 30 hours than he's had his whole life," according to CNN.

However, the night was the worst time for Gregory as he was sunburnt; the wind would blow, making the temperature freezing cold in the water. Following his rescue, the Florida man could go home and rest. He was said to have suffered from Rhabdomyolysis, a condition that breaks down muscle and leads to muscle cell contents flooding into the bloodstream.

Raymond expressed his gratitude to the search teams and community members who worked for his son's safe return. He added that at the end of the day, his son's unfortunate experience teaches the moral of never giving up, said AOL.

The Coast Guard also released video footage of the incident that showed Gregory seated in the inundated boat while its bow was dipping beneath the water's surface. Shortly after, rescue crews were able to reach him and bring him back to safety.

Related Article: California Judge Arrested for Allegedly Killing His Wife in Anaheim Home

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Daphnia water fleas (on the right sick Daphnia & on the left healthy Daphnia). Credit: Enav Marcus

A new study by Tel Aviv University reveals that the presence of parasites in nature is not necessarily negative, and sometimes even helps animals survive. The team of researchers explain: "Thinking about parasites usually brings up negative connotations, such as, 'do they harm their host'? Or 'how harmful are they to those who carry them'? In our research, we showed that parasites can in fact have a positive effect on the structure of an ecosystem, and that they can play a key role in the design of the habitat and in sustaining its biological diversity."

The research was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Frida Ben-Ami and Dr. Sigal Orlansky from the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

The researchers explain that in a healthy ecosystem, there is usually a wide variety of species living side by side. Related species are able to exist in the same habitat provided that they influence and are influenced differently by natural resources and predators. Without proper separation and balance between those species, they cannot coexistone of the species will be driven to extinction by the other. This principle is termed the 'competitive exclusion principle,' also known as Gause's law.

Dr. Sigal Orlansky adds, "Parasites and pathogens are an integral part of any ecosystem. Despite their bad reputation, parasites play a key role in shaping population dynamics, community structure, and biodiversity, thanks to their influence on the balance between the species in that ecosystem."

The research was conducted on tiny Daphnia water fleas, which in Israel can be found mainly in winter ponds. Daphnia fleas are about three millimeters in length, feed on single-celled algae and bacteria and themselves serve as food for fish. Since winter pools are closed habitats, the competition between different species is particularly significant in its effect on the biological diversity in the pool.

Aquatic species that live in the winter ponds cannot leave or migrate elsewhere independently, so the results of the competition are crucial to their survival. Like most animals, these species are also hosts or carriers of parasites and it is rare to find a species that is almost completely resistant to parasites.

According to Prof. Ben-Ami, "In the population of water fleas in Israel, we found one species called Daphnia similis, whose nickname in the laboratory is 'Super Daphnia' due to its almost complete resistance to parasites. Nevertheless, this 'Super Daphnia' does not become the dominant Daphnia species in ponds. The most common species is actually Daphnia magna, which is highly vulnerable to a wide variety of parasites."

To understand why immunological immunity does not constitute a springboard for wide distribution in the pond, the researchers have set up a biological microcosm in the laboratory, in which the two species shared the same habitat in the presence or absence of parasites. The results showed that in a parasite-free habitat, the parasite-sensitive species, which is the most common Daphnia species in the wild, is the one that won the competition, even forcing the disappearance of the parasite-resistant 'Super Daphnia'.

However, in habitats with parasites, the survival of the parasite -sensitive Daphnia decreased dramatically and the 'Super Daphnia' population became established, demonstrating an environment where coexistence between the two species is possible via the mediation of parasites.

Dr. Sigal Orlansky says that "The results of these experiments emphasize the important role of parasites in shaping biodiversity, as the parasites can mediate competition between Daphnia species."

"This competition enables the coexistence of a species that is indeed resistant to parasites, but its ability to compete is lacking and without parasites would probably become extinct when it shares the same habitat with the Daphnia species most common in Israel, the Daphnia magna, which while sensitive to parasites is otherwise strongly competitive. Our research shows that coexistence of these two Daphnia species is only possible through the mediation of a parasite."

Prof. Ben Ami emphasizes that the results of these experiments have significant implications for obtaining a better understanding of systems in which both sensitive to parasites and less sensitive species to parasites co-exist. These results may help guide efforts in dealing with biological invasions and even help reduce the threat to endangered species.

More information: Sigal Orlansky et al, The parasites of my rival are my friends, Frontiers in Microbiology (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1135252 Journal information: Frontiers in Microbiology
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J. Robert Oppenheimer speaking in Israel, 1966. Credit: Boris Carmi /Meitar Collection / National Library of Israel / The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The release of the film "Oppenheimer," in July 2023, has renewed interest in the enigmatic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer's life. While Oppenheimer will always be recognized as the father of the atomic bomb, his early contributions to quantum mechanics form the bedrock of modern quantum chemistry. His work still informs how scientists think about the structure of molecules today.

Early on in the film, preeminent scientific figures of the time, including Nobel laureates Werner Heisenberg and Ernest Lawrence, compliment the young Oppenheimer on his groundbreaking work on molecules. As a physical chemist, Oppenheimer's work on molecular quantum mechanics plays a major role in both my teaching and my research.

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation

In 1927, Oppenheimer published a paper called "On the Quantum Theory of Molecules" with his research adviser Max Born. This paper outlined what is commonly referred to as the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. While the name credits both Oppenheimer and his adviser, most historians recognize that the theory is mostly Oppenheimer's work.

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation offers a way to simplify the complex problem of describing molecules at the atomic level.

Imagine you want to calculate the optimum molecular structure, chemical bonding patterns and physical properties of a molecule using quantum mechanics. You would start by defining the position and motion of all the atomic nuclei and electrons and calculating the important charge attractions and repulsions occurring between these particles in the molecule. Solving the Schrodinger equation lets scientists calculate the properties of a molecule.

Calculating the properties of molecules gets even more complicated at the quantum level, where particles have wavelike properties and scientists can't pinpoint their exact position. Instead, particles like electrons must be described by a wave function. A wave function describes the electron's probability of being in a certain region of space. Determining this wave function and the corresponding energies of the molecule is what is known as solving the molecular Schrodinger equation.

Unfortunately, this equation cannot be solved exactly for even the simplest possible molecule, H, which consists of three particles: two hydrogen nuclei (or protons) and one electron.

Oppenheimer's approach provided a means to obtain an approximate solution. He observed that atomic nuclei are significantly heavier than electrons, with a single proton being nearly 2,000 times more massive than an electron. This means nuclei move much slower than electrons, so scientists can think of them as stationary objects while solving the Schrodinger equation solely for the electrons.

This method reduces the complexity of the calculation and enables scientists to determine the molecule's wave function with relative ease.

This approximation may seem like a minor adjustment, but the Born-Oppenheimer approximation goes far beyond just simplifying quantum mechanics calculations on molecules. It actually shapes how chemists view molecules and chemical reactions.

When scientists visualize molecules, we usually think of them as a set of fixed nuclei with shared electrons that move between nuclei. In chemistry class, students typically build "ball-and-stick" models consisting of rigid nuclei (balls) sharing electrons through a bonding framework (sticks). These models are a direct consequence of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

The ball-and-stick model shows nuclei represented by spheresor ballswith shared electron bonds represented by sticks. This image shows the structure of a benzene molecule. Credit: Aaron Harrison

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation also influenced how scientists think about chemical reactions. During a chemical reaction, atomic nuclei are not stationary; they rearrange and move. Electron interactions guide the nuclei's movements by forming an energy surface, which the nuclei can move on throughout the reaction. In this way, electrons drive the molecule's progression through a chemical reaction. Oppenheimer demonstrated that the way electrons behave is the essence of chemistry as a science.

Molecules can change structure during a chemical reaction. Credit: Chem540grp1f08/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Computational quantum chemistry

In the century since the publication of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, scientists have vastly improved their ability to calculate the chemical structure and reactivity of molecules.

This field, known as computational quantum chemistry, has grown exponentially with the widespread availability of faster, more powerful high-end computational resources. Currently, chemists use computational quantum chemistry for various applications ranging from discovering novel pharmaceuticals to designing better photovoltaics before ever trying to produce them in the lab. At the core of much of this field of research is the Born-Oppenheimer approximation.

Despite its many uses, the Born-Oppenheimer approximation isn't perfect. For example, the approximation often breaks down in light-driven chemical reactions, such as in the chemical reaction that allows animals to see light. Chemists are investigating workarounds for these cases. Nevertheless, the application of quantum chemistry made possible by the Born-Oppenheimer approximation will continue to expand and improve.

In the future, a new era of quantum computers could make computational quantum chemistry even more robust by performing faster computations on increasingly large molecular systems.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Credit: The Helix Nebula -NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner, STScI, & T.A. Rector, NRAO

Graphene has long been put forward as a wonder material. Undeniably, it has astounding propertiesstronger than steel, a better electrical conductor than copper, and lighter than almost anything else with similar properties. And while it's been partially adopted into space-faring technologies, many use cases remain where a pure form of the material could dramatically benefit the space industry.

To detail those opportunities, a group of scientists from the Italian Space Agency recently released a paper in Nanomaterials that looked at graphene's role in space explorationand where it might stand to make an even bigger impact shortly.

When used in space technologies, it is simply returning to a place where it already exists naturally. Research has shown that up to 1.9% of interstellar medium carbon is made of graphene. It is created during the destructive process of a star going through its death throes and spreads throughout the galaxy as part of that process.

Unfortunately, recreating a supernova isn't particularly easy here on Earth (just ask any nuclear physicist). And creating graphene here on Earth isn't easy eitherat least not at the scale necessary for its full material properties to become realized. But even a little graphene added to the mix makes a difference.

Typically, engineers combine graphene with different metals and polymers for space applications, giving rise to a class of materials known as nanocomposites. Even this tiny amount of wonder material can have significant positive benefits for the results compositewhether increasing its thermal conductivity or stiffness. Some composites can even be used as sensors, with their output controlling things like rocket positioning. The current difficulties in manufacturing graphene effectively. Credit: Verge Science YouTube Channel

Other use cases, like solar sails, antennas, and anti-wear systems, show how versatile graphene can be. But where do we go from here? There still isn't a way to successfully craft pure graphene with the physical properties we desire. But there is plenty of research on how to do that. Credit: Nixene Publishing YouTube Channel

As with so many other areas of scientific research lately, China is leading the charge in developing that methodology. According to the paper, China controls 71% of the global patents on graphene, and eight of the top 10 universities researching graphene are located in the country. China also has a robust space program, but its space economy is not as well developed as the US or EU, so it may take a while before any advancements in the country are more widely adopted into the space industry.

More information: Tanya Scalia et al, From Protosolar Space to Space Exploration: The Role of Graphene in Space Technology and Economy, Nanomaterials (2023). DOI: 10.3390/nano13040680
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Russia said Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly fifty years.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said it had scheduled the launch of the Luna-25 lander for the early hours of Friday.

With the lunar mission, Russia's first since 1976, Moscow is seeking to restart and build on the Soviet Union's pioneering space program.

The launch is the first mission of Moscow's new lunar project and comes as President Vladimir Putin looks to strengthen cooperation in space with China after ties with the West broke down following the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine last year.

Engineers have assembled a Soyuz rocket at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the launch of the lander, Roscosmos said.

"The Luna-25 will have to practice soft landing, take and analyze soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The four-legged lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms (1,750 pounds) , is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole. By contrast, most previous Moon landings have occurred near the lunar equator.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon around five days after launch.

'Total sanctions'

After Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as future 26 and 27 missions.

Despite the pullout, Moscow said it would go ahead with its lunar plans and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific instruments.

Speaking at the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite "total" sanctions.

The Kremlin chief insisted Moscow would similarly continue to develop its lunar program despite current Western sanctions in response to the assault in Ukraine.

"We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin said.

In June, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, described the upcoming launch as high-risk.

"This mission involves landing at the south pole. No one in the world has ever done such things," he said during a meeting with Putin.

"The probability of successful completion of such missions is estimated at around 70 percent."

Evacuation

Ahead of Friday's launch, local authorities said that residents would be evacuated from the village of Shakhtinsky in the far-eastern region of Khabarovsk, where the rocket's boosters are expected to fall.

During the last Soviet Moon mission in 1976, the Luna-24 brough back samples of lunar soil.

With Sputnik, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into space in 1957 and later sent into orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

But compared with the Soviet era, modern Russia has struggled to innovate and its space industry is fighting to secure state funding while the Kremlin prioritizes military spending.

Russia's space agency is still reliant on Soviet-designed technology and has faced a number of setbacks, including corruption scandals and botched launches.

Moscow is also falling behind in the global space race, facing tough competition from the United States and China.

 2023 AFP
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The COVID-19 pandemic created a global increase in domestic violence against women. Now, an MIT-led experiment designed with that fact in mind shows that some forms of social media can increase awareness among women about where to find resources and support for addressing domestic violence.

In the randomized experiment, set in Egypt, women recruited via Facebook were sent videos via social media as well as reminders to watch television programming from a well-known Egyptian human rights lawyer focused on gender norms and violence. The results have been published in Nature Human Behaviour.

The study found that receiving the videos or reminders increased consumption of media content about the issue, increased knowledge about the resources available, and increased reported and hypothetical use of some resources in response to violence. The experiment did not appear to change long-term attitudes about gender and marital equity, and sexual violence, however.

"We found that women did exhibit increased knowledge of where they can find resources about what to do, and how to get informed," says MIT Professor Fotini Christia, who led the study.

The experiment also showed the texting service WhatsApp to be the best way to ensure participants viewed the messages or videos, at least compared to Facebook in this setting.

"There was increased consumption of the content through social media," Christia says. "We found a lot more effectiveness with WhatsApp than Facebook in terms of reaching our audience and getting the message out."

The paper, "Can Media Campaigns Empower Women Facing Gender-Based Violence amid COVID-19?," is being published today in Nature Human Behaviour. The project is backed, in part, by MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which supports randomized field experiments offering solutions to poverty and other social issues.

More information, new resources

To conduct the study, the researchers partnered with the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, in Cairo, to evaluate the impact of spreading its "You Are Not Alone" media campaign. In a country of about 100 million people, social media has become an increasingly common presence, with about 38 million Facebook users and 24 million WhatsApp users. (The company Meta is the owner of both Facebook and WhatsApp).

The researchers first surveyed 10,000 women on Facebook and from that enrolled 5,618 women in the experiment, which ran from July through September 2020. The women were divided into four groups that received different sets of messages on WhatsApp and Facebook about content concerning women's resources to stop domestic violence, including links to television shows produced by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights; there was also a control group that received the content after the completion of the study.

Ultimately about 45% of the participants in the experiment visited the website hosting the television shows, and watched a mean of 2.6 episodes, among other findings. Sending people individual WhatsApp messages produced the highest yield of shows watched. By contrast, group WhatsApp messages to sets of eight to 12 women at a time led to less engagement, with only about 9% of WhatsApp group messages evolving into an extended conversation about the subject.

"Though WhatsApp was cost-effective in reaching women, we couldn't use it as a way to really spur social interactions, in the ways that offline interventions have done when they stage film screenings for instance," Parker-Magyar says. "We also made the decision not to include men, who of course play a key role in norm changes and sustaining violence. We think extensions of the research should consider how to better spur engagement in online groups and how to stage grouped online interventions addressing all audiences."

She adds, "In the bigger picture, we did find WhatsApp useful in getting the message out given what we know about the severity of gender-based violence risks during the COVID-19 crisis."

Prior to participating in the experiment, only 28% of women surveyed knew of any online resources and 22% knew about any organizations supporting women suffering from gender-based violence. In 2015, 36% of "ever-married" Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 reported having experienced domestic violence. In that context, what the researchers term a "moderate" uptake of content about resources for ending violence against women can represent a significant outcome.

Survey: Similar attitudes before and after

In a follow-up survey of 4,165 of the women, from September to October 2020, the researchers also found that participating in the experiment, gaining knowledge of resources, and even watching some of the content did not change participants' core long-term beliefs about the place of women in society.

"There were no changes in attitudes toward gender, marital equality, and the justifiability of gender-based violence," notes Larreguy. "We were encouraged that we did see an increase in terms of womens' knowledge of resources they could access, and not only on our partner's organization and hotline, but instead an increase in information-seeking behavior."

Larreguy adds, "Though we were responding in our design to really immediate needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was encouraging to see similar results across the television and WhatsApp content. This helps to show similar social-media based interventions might powerful or scalable even beyond the pandemic."

Some deeply held gender norms in Egypt likely influenced this particular survey outcome. Egypt ranks 129 out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum's 2020 Global Gender Gap Index; only about 25% of women in Egypt are in the workforce.

"We think this shift is meaningful, even if it doesn't seem massive," Christia says.

For her part, Christia is working to expand this type of research by conducting similar experiments in countries and further evaluating the impact of such interventions.

"We want to keep looking at these types of questions about gender equity, gender inclusion, and gender-based violence," she says.

More information: Can Media Campaigns Empower Women Facing Gender-Based Violence amid COVID-19?, Nature Human Behaviour (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01665-y Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour

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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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Social media helped contribute to the UPND's impressive victory in the 2021 Zambia elections, new analysis shows.

The party's online messaging resonated more with users compared to their rivals, helping to portray Hakainde Hichilema as an electorally viable alternative to President Edgar Lungu from the PF. Both parties invested heavily in social media.

The study shows the election was not won online. Instead, social media helped to facilitate the flow of information across a heavily controlled media ecosystem in which face-to-face communication remained key.

While President Edgar Lungu and the PF were visible across the country, Hichilema and the UPND were largely invisible in everyday spaces, yet won with 59% of the popular vote in the presidential election and secured a parliamentary majority.

The research, carried out by Gabrielle Lynch from the University of Warwick and Elena Gadjanova from the University of Exeter, is published in the Journal of Eastern African Studies. They carried out 21 interviews with party officials, activists, journalists, civil society workers and academics between July 2021 and March 2022 via WhatsApp. They also used data from the 2017 and 2020 Afrobarometer surveys and a phone survey of 318 party officials and activists.

The study outlines how Lungu and the PF abused their position to try and control online content. Online political discussions were heavily policed, and featured personal insults as well as harassment and cyber-bullying of women. There were hardly any substantive conversations about needs and policies, and groups were often focused on or dominated by elites.

PF respondents who took part in the research were more reliant on Facebook, and UPND respondents on WhatsApp. PF campaigners felt freer to discuss politics and to post propaganda for its candidates and against its opponents than their UPND counterparts, who in the face of a series of arrests and harassment of citizens for social media posts and the 2021 Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Act, were wary of what they posted.

The PF had the power of the state behind them and used these powers to monitor and harass people onlinewith at least 18 people arrested for critical Facebook posts between 2019 and 2021and temporarily shut down various social media platforms on election day. The PF employed a large communications team to troll and attack UPND candidates, activists, and supporters.

A sense of volunteering was stronger among UPND activists and this helped to ensure the use of social media worked to the party's advantage.

Dr. Gadjanova said, "The PF was visible and vocal online and had a largely consistent message in the run-up to the 2021 elections. However, this messaging failed to persuade a majority of voters and sat uncomfortably with people's lived realities of poor economic management.

"The UPND's reliance on WhatsApp helped to ensure that their messaging appeared more personal in its content and delivery. The UPND also benefited from the work of vocal civil society leaders and musicians, and more critical online newspapers, and their regular exposure of PF abuses and scandals."

Professor Lynch said, "Social media provided a space in which ordinary citizens could display their frustrations with the PF and support for the UPND in ways that helped to foster a sense that Hichilema was an electorally viable alternative. These displays were rendered particularly significant by the inability of the UPND to organize conventional performances of support through large public rallies, and helped to overcome a perennial collective action problem of whether it is rational to cast one's individual vote."

More information: Gabrielle Lynch et al, Overcoming incumbency advantage: the importance of social media on- and offline in Zambia's 2021 elections, Journal of Eastern African Studies (2023). DOI: 10.1080/17531055.2023.2232241
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The researchers spent hours underwater pulling model fish along a wire past colonies of damselfish, and filming their responses. Credit: Sam Matchette

A new study provides the first experimental evidence that the trumpetfish, Aulostomus maculatus, can conceal itself by swimming closely behind another fish while huntingand reduce the likelihood of being detected by its prey. The study, involving collaborators at the University of Bristol, was published in the journal Current Biology.

In this 'shadowing' behavior, the long, thin trumpetfish uses a non-threatening species of fish, such as parrotfish, as camouflage to get closer to its dinner.

This is the only known example of one non-human animal using another as a form of concealment.

The research involved hours of diving in the Caribbean Sea, pulling hand-painted model fish along a wire.

"When a trumpetfish swims closely alongside another species of fish, it's either hidden from its' prey entirely, or seen but not recognized as a predator because the shape is different," said Dr. Sam Matchette, a researcher in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology and first author of the study.

Damselfish, Stegastes partitus, form colonies on the seafloor and are a common meal for trumpetfish. Working among the coral reefs off the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, researchers set up an underwater system to pull 3D-printed models of trumpetfish on nylon lines past colonies of damselfish, and filmed their responses. The long thin trumpetfish uses a bigger, non-threatening species of fish, such as parrotfish, as camouflage to get closer to its dinner without being detected. Credit: Sam Matchette

When the trumpetfish model moved past alone, damselfish swam up to inspectand rapidly fled back to shelter in response to the predatory threat.

When a model of a herbivorous parrotfish, Sparisoma viride, moved past alone, the damselfish inspected and responded far less.

When a trumpetfish model was attached to the side of a parrotfish modelto replicate the shadowing behavior of the real trumpetfishthe damselfish responded just as they had to the parrotfish model alone: they had not detected the threat.

Matchette said, "I was surprised that the damselfish had such a profoundly different response to the different fish; it was great to watch this happening in real time."

"Doing manipulative experiments in the wild like this allows us to test the ecological relevance of these behaviors," said Professor Andy Radford in the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, and co-author of the study. Damselfish inspected the model trumpetfishand rapidly fled from this predator to avoid being eaten. Credit: Sam Matchette

Matchette, along with his co-author and dive buddy Christian Drerup, spent hours underwater, barely moving, to conduct their experiment.

Their earlier questioning of divers working at dive shops in the Caribbean revealed that trumpetfish are commonly seen swimming alongside parrotfish and other reef fishbut the reason for this remarkable behavior had not been tested.

In addition, divers were much more likely to have seen the shadowing behavior on degraded, less structurally complex reefs.

Coral reefs around the world are being degraded due to the warming climate, pollution and overfishing. The researchers say the strategy of hiding behind other moving fish may help animals adapt to the impacts of environmental change.

Damselfish didn't detect a threat when the two models passed by together. Credit: Sam Matchette

"The shadowing behavior of the trumpetfish appears a useful strategy to improve its hunting success. We might see this behavior becoming more common in the future as fewer structures on the reef are available for them to hide behind," said Dr. James Herbert-Read in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology, senior author of the study.

Human duck hunters historically hid behind cardboard cut-outs of domestic animalscalled 'stalking horses'to approach ducks without being detected. But this strategy has received little attention in non-human animals and has never been experimentally tested before.
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Storm Bella hit the Netherlands on December 27, 2021 with winds reaching 110 km per hour that caused extensive damage. Credit: Zivko Trikic | Shutterstock

Since 2015, the UK's Met Office has used forenames to label storms, as a strategy for improving people's awareness of severe weather warnings. The list of names for the 2023 storm season was compiled in conjunction with the Irish forecaster Met Eireann and KNMI, the Dutch national weather forecasting service.

The list includes forenames suggested by the British publicDaisy, Glen, Khalid, Owainas well as the winner of a public vote on Twitter, Betty. KNMI has honored famous Dutch scientists with its selections: Antoni, Hendrika, Johanna, Loes, Tobias and Wouter. And Met Eireann has plumped for Cillian, Fleur, Ide, Ruadhan and Nelly.

Getting the public involved in naming storms injects an element of fun into the otherwise serious business of heightening awareness of perilous weather. When we use people's names for non-human things, we anthropomorphize (or humanize) them, and so they gain more of our interest and attention. But naming storms also has its pitfalls.

How storm names reflect cultural tendencies

With the exception of Cillian, which was the ninth most popular given to baby boys in Ireland in 2021, the 2022-23 storm names tend not to mirror today's popular baby names. In terms of popularity, Wouter and Hendrika are the next most highly ranked baby names on the list (being respectively, the 37th most popular name given to baby boys and the 42nd for baby girls in the Netherlands).

In other words, compared to Noah, Ella or Emma, they're not overly trendy.

They do however reflect the cultures, religions, ethnicities and linguistic diversity of the countries involved. Ide is an old Irish saint's name, Owain is Welsh, Khalid is Arabic, Priya is Sanskrit and Loes is the Dutch form of Louise.

When storm Frank made landfall on December 29, 2015, it led to extensive flooding across the UK. Credit: JASPERIMAGE | Shutterstock

Also, the storm names replicate the cultural tendency in Europe and elsewhere for forenames to be gendered. Most of the names on the list are what naming specialists identify as typically female or typically male forenames. The list alternates on this basis.

Almost all of the typically female names in the list end in a (phonetic) vowel (Hendrika, Ide, Johanna, Priya) or they are a pet form (Betty, Daisy, Nelly). These elements are considered to be linguistic femininity markers, that is, linguistic features that occur predominantly in female names and only rarely in male names.

Likewise, most of the male names in the list show the typical linguistic masculinity markers found within many Germanic languages, including in English and Dutch. All apart from Antoni end in a consonant.

Masculine names can hold greater prestige and there is debate about whether storms with feminine names are taken less seriously. Given this, the inclusion in this year's list of three gender-neutral names (Glen, Sam and Val) is to be welcomed.

Naming things can adversely impact eponymous people

Using people's forenames to identify things such as storms, that are not people, can also have unintended consequences. In 2015, Isis was removed from the UN's storm name list and people with the name Isis have faced stigma, because it is now associated with a terrorist group. Similarly, the devastating hurricane Katrina of 2005 led to this forename dropping down the rankings of popular baby names in the US, from position 281 to 942 in 2012.

Naming problems have been a constant thread throughout the pandemic too. Mere geographical names for new variants have led to instances of racism and xenophobia directed at people from the places invoked. And in 2020 a boy called Corona was reportedly bullied because he bore the informal name for the virus.

People battle storm Ciara on the North Sea coast in Zandvoort, Netherlands, on February 9, 2020. Credit: Wut_Moppie | Shutterstock

Including names like Khalid or Kamil on lists of storm names does give recognition to how names signal cultural diversity. However, it can adversely impact people too. If a minority ethnic forename is used to name a storm that turns out to wreak extensive damage, injuries or deaths, people with that forename may subsequently experience even more disadvantage than they already face due to their name being considered "non-white" or "foreign".

Historic building and street names can lead to similar predicaments. While the public figures honored might have been esteemed at the time of christening, with today's knowledge they are often no longer considered worthy candidates.

Should the buildings, public squares and roads bearing the names of slave traders in London and Liverpool, for example, be renamed? Or should they keep their names and serve as a cautionary reminder of the past?

In Germany, historical commissions have spent decades tracking down the many streets named by the Nazis after their idols and most ardent members. These are then renamed, in some instances, with the names of victims of the Nazi regime.

Similarly, Berlin is in the process of substituting the colonialists named on street signs in its north-western Afrikanisches Viertel (African quarter) with the names of African liberation fighters.

The naming of storms, streets or buildings is a complicated and risky business precisely because names are not just benign words. They are powerful cultural workhorses, brimful of meanings that say so much about who we are and how we experience the world.

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The thickness of the blubber changes with the water temperature. Credit: Tang, B. et al.

Cetaceans, including dolphins and whales, spend their entire lives in the water. Unlike terrestrial animals, they face greater challenges in regulating their body temperature because water conducts heat 25 times faster than air. However, these clever marine mammals have evolved an incredible adaptationa specialized subcutaneous blubber layer that serves as an intelligent thermal coat, crucial for their survival.

So how does this blubber layer contribute to thermoregulation?

In a study using B-mode ultrasound imaging, a team of researchers in China monitored the blubber thickness in Yangtze finless porpoises (YFPs) over different seasons. They made a fascinating discoverythe thickness of the blubber changes with the water temperature.

"When the water gets colder, their blubber layer becomes thicker, acting like a warm, cozy down jacket," shares Bin Tang, first author of the study. "And when the water warms up, their blubber gets thinner, helping them stay cool and comfortable."

Interestingly, the blubber thickness of cetaceans exhibits varying patterns across different body regions in response to water temperature changes. Specifically, in the dorsal region, blubber thickness decreases linearly as the water temperature increases. However, in the lateral and ventral regions, significant changes in blubber thickness occur only when the water temperature reaches approximately 18 oC.

The researchers, who published their findings in Water Biology and Security, also investigated the interconnection between energy intake, blubber thickness, and water temperature.

The Smart "Coat" of Yangtze Finless Porpoise. Credit: Bin Tang

"It appears that water temperature might influence changes in blubber thickness by affecting the appetite of these marine mammals," adds Tang.

Nonetheless, the relationship between energy intake, blubber thickness, and how it is influenced by water temperature is a complex subject that merits deeper investigation to uncover the underlying mechanisms.

"By delving deeper into these aspects, we can gain valuable insights into the adaptive strategies of cetaceans and the mechanisms they employ to thrive in various aquatic environments," concludes corresponding author Yujiang Hao. "Such knowledge could have broader implications for understanding marine ecosystems and potentially even aid in conservation efforts for these remarkable marine mammals."

More information: Bin Tang et al, Variation of blubber thickness of the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis) in human care: Adaptation to environmental temperature, Water Biology and Security (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.watbs.2023.100200

Provided by KeAi Communications Co.
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Water supply in Iraq, which the UN ranks as one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, is in a dire state.

Iraqi villager Omar Ziad gazes at the cracked and barren earth where his fish farm once stood, lost to water conservation efforts during a devastating four-year drought.

As the alarming water crisis blamed mostly on climate change drags on, officials see the need for trade-offs in an effort to meet the country's demands.

Drastic government measures have restricted water use for some purposes, including crop irrigation, and authorities have cracked down on illegal practices they long ignored.

Since late May, unauthorized fish farms like Ziad's have become a target.

"I've worked in this industry since 2003," the 33-year-old said at his village of Al-Bu Mustafa in Iraq's central Babylon province.

He had watched helplessly as officials from the water resources ministry sealed his family's seven fish ponds.

Surrounded by fields and majestic palm trees, this was where Ziad, his father and seven brothers would rear carp, which Iraqis use to make their beloved grilled fish dish known as masguf.

At full capacity, the farm held about 50,000 fish and earned the family the equivalent of $1,300-2,600 a month, far more than many in the country.

"We would share the revenues", said Ziad, who also works as a teacher.

He added that they sold their fish "cheaply", but since all but five of the village's 80 fish ponds shut down, the price of carp has almost doubled, now selling at more than 8,000 dinars (around $6) per kilogram, he said.

Dry fish farms abound in Iraq following a crackdown on unauthorised ponds in an effort to conserve water.

'Strategic reserves'

From a bird's-eye view, the backfilled dry patches of land that replaced the ponds are marked out by unpaved roads.

The monotony of the barren landscape is occasionally interrupted by ponds that still hold water. These were spared because their owners had the necessary permits, according to Ziad.

Water supply in Iraq, which the United Nations ranks as one of the five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change, is in a dire state.

Declining rain over the past four years coupled with rising temperatures has brought water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to staggering lows, for which Baghdad also accuses upstream dams built by neighboring Turkey and Iran.

"The strategic water reserves in Iraq are at their lowest point" in nearly a century, said Khaled Shamal, spokesman for the water resources ministry.

A fishing boat is moored on the banks of a branch of the Euphrates River in the Iraqi town of Al-Hamza.

Some of Iraq's 43 million inhabitants share the blame, he told AFP, due to water-intensive "irrigation practices".

Shamal justified the crackdown on unauthorized fish farms by saying the ponds "increase the water surface susceptible to evaporation", provoke seepage into the soil, and contribute to "environmental pollution".

About half of Iraq's estimated 5,000 "unlicensed" fish farms have been closed, Shamal said, pointing out that authorities still allow mobile fish tanks which are submerged in rivers.

Plunging output

Ayad al-Talibi, president of the Iraqi association of fish farmers, said he accepted the shutting of unauthorized ponds but questioned whether the water that has been saved was "properly used".

Before the May crackdown, Iraq produced nearly one million metric tons of fish per year, but Talibi told public broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya that output has now plunged to 190,000 metric tons.

Declining rain and rising temperatures have brought water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to staggering lows.

A man walks on a makeshift bridge over what is now a dry fish farm in the village of Al-Bu Mustafa.

According to him, the sector employs two million Iraqis. "All of these families will migrate to the cities" which might struggle to accommodate them, he predicted.

The water crisis has also affected river fishing.

In Iraq's far south, high salinity has harmed fishing in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge before spilling into the Gulf.

As the flow of fresh water from the north decreases every year, the riverbed gradually fills with salt water.

Sailing the waters of Shatt al-Arab, fisherman Khdeir Aboud, 71, casts his net but expects no major catch.

Fresh water would once carry "all types of fish" but "with the salt water, there's nothing left", said the white-bearded man.

The meager pay he now makes "can't support a household", he lamented.

"Most fishermen have quit the trade for odd jobs. There are only a few old people left."

 2023 AFP
(Photo : Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Witnesses recorded a Saturday evening brawl near the Montgomery Riverfront Park on a video posted to social media, resulting in multiple individuals' arrest. (not the actual photo)



On Saturday night in Montgomery, Alabama, a dispute turned into a racist altercation that stunned onlookers and left law enforcement trying to regain control. Many people were taken into custody as a result.

The altercation was sparked by a pontoon boat blocking a riverboat's dock space, resulting in a series of confrontations that quickly escalated into a full-on brawl, USA Today reported.

Divided Brawl at Montgomery's Riverfront Park Leads to Multiple Arrests

At around 7 o'clock in the evening, the Montgomery Police Department swiftly responded to the disturbance near the 200 block of Coosa Street. Numerous people were engaged in the altercation, and several were apprehended by law enforcement.

A video of the incident, shared on social media, captured the tension and aggression of the situation. In one short clip, a group of white individuals is seen fighting a single Black man, who is identified as a dock worker named by Jasmine Williams of WSFA.

The audio of the video captured witnesses yelling, but the exact cause of the initial confrontation was not entirely clear. Witnesses, as well as local outlets, reported that the fight originated from a pontoon boat obstructing the regular docking spot reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat.

As the altercation unfolded, onlookers can be heard shouting for help, and the situation quickly spiraled out of control. A Black man, seemingly sympathetic to the attacked individual, jumps into the water from a boat and swims towards the dock. This momentary intervention appears to briefly deescalate the situation, but it does not last long, according to The Daily Mail.

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Authorities Scramble to Quell Chaos Amidst Racial Divide

Moments later, the brawl reignites with even greater ferocity as more individuals from both Black and white communities join the fray. Chaos ensues, with people resorting to kicking, punching, eye-gouging, and wrestling each other.

One disturbing scene captures a man using a folding chair as a weapon, hitting others over the head with it. Security officers on-site made desperate attempts to break up the fight, but it took the arrival of law enforcement officers to finally bring some semblance of order.

Handcuffs were placed on several individuals, including the man wielding the folding chair. As of Sunday, the names of the detained suspects have not been released, and the specific charges against those involved are pending, according to the Montgomery Police Department.

In response to the disturbing incident, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed issued a statement condemning the violence and reaffirming the city's commitment to justice. As the investigation unfolds, the community is grappling with the implications of the racially charged altercation and the need for greater understanding and unity.

The incident at Riverfront Park serves as a stark reminder of the importance of peaceful conflict resolution and highlights the role of law enforcement in maintaining public safety. The local authorities are working diligently to bring those responsible to justice and prevent such incidents from happening again in the future, as per The Daily Beast.

Related Article: 'Be Not Afraid!': Pope Francis Announces South Korea as Hosts of World Youth Day 2027

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The Winchcombe meteorite was the first meteorite to be recovered in the UK in over 30 years. Credit: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, 2021

One of the U.K.'s most famous meteorites is helping scientists learn more about asteroids millions of kilometers away from Earth.

Knowing more about the chemical composition of the Winchcombe meteorite and comparing it to asteroid data could help unravel some of the mysteries of our solar system.

Since it crash-landed in the eponymous town in Gloucestershire in 2021, scientists have been attempting to unlock the secrets of the Winchcombe meteorite. The rare piece of space rock is now giving us a pristine look at asteroids that are otherwise difficult to study at great distances.

In a new paper published in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, researchers take a closer look at the minerals contained within the meteorite, its bulk elemental composition and water content.

Researchers are now looking to use this data on bulk composition to compare and learn more about similar asteroids that are floating around in space.

As previously suspected, this latest research confirms the Winchcombe meteorite to be a CM carbonaceous chondrite. This type of meteorite is considered among the oldest objects in the solar system and can offer greater insights into the origins of the planets.

Dr. Helena Bates, who researches asteroids at the Museum and is the lead author of the study, says, "We know most meteorites come from asteroids, but as asteroids are really far away we can't really make a direct comparison unless you have what we call 'bulk information' about the meteorites."

"Gathering this information is something that we are good at doing here at the museum, as we've got a technique that's very well practised."

Why is the Winchcombe meteorite important?

On the evening of Sunday 28 February 2021, hundreds of people witnessed a fireball blazing across the sky in the west of England.

The following day, residents of a house in Winchcombe woke to find fragments of dark rock had crash-landed onto their driveway. Almost 600 grams of this meteorite were quickly recovered and brought to the Museum for intensive analysis and study.

Around two to three small meteorites are believed to fall in the country each year, but it often happens in places that make retrieving them difficult. The Winchcombe event was therefore particularly exciting as it was the first meteorite to be recovered in the U.K. in more than 30 years.

This is important because once a meteorite lands on Earth, it quickly becomes contaminated. But in the case of Winchcombe, as the fragments were recovered within 12 hours the quality of the sample is comparable to those retrieved from asteroids by probes, and so it is highly valuable for research.

"One thing we were able to look at was how much mercury content was in the sample," says Helena.

"Mercury is very hard to measure in meteorites as it is greatly affected by terrestrial contamination. When a rock sits on the Earth, any extraterrestrial mercury it contains gets contaminated by terrestrial mercury. In this case, we have been able to get an excellent measurement of the mercury content because Winchcombe was such a pristine meteorite when it fell, and we were able to collect it really quickly."

The Winchcombe meteorite is thought to come from the asteroid belt, which is made up of rock left over from the beginning of the solar system and orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

For millions of years, the meteorite was part of a larger asteroid, but a collision resulted in the rock breaking apart and being flung away from the asteroid belt. For 300,000 years the fragment traveled through space, eventually coming close enough to be pulled in by Earth's gravity.

How have scientists been studying the meteorite?

For the past two years scientists have been analyzing the Winchcombe meteorite in careful detail to try and understand more about the type of asteroid it came from.

As part of this, the research team dissolved a sample of the meteorite to look at its specific elements. Studying the bulk elemental composition showed that Winchcombe is quite typical for a CM carbonaceous chondrite. They also looked at the iron content and found the iron abundance and amount of oxygen the iron was exposed to was also similar to other CM carbonaceous chondrites.

The study also looked at the bulk mineralogy by taking a 50-milligram sample from the meteorite and firing X-rays at it. The angle at which the X-rays bend is a good indicator of what atoms and bonds are present within the sample, which can then be used to build a picture of the mineralogy.

The mineralogy suggested Winchcombe was once exposed to water, as it was rich in clays and other water-bearing minerals. Scientists wanted to learn more about where this water was contained. To do this, they heated a sample of the meteorite up to 1,000 degrees, and its change in weight was measured as the rock heated up.

Different minerals dehydrate at different temperatures, so by looking at this rate of change over time the researchers were able to tell which minerals were holding the water.

Without water, life on our planet wouldn't exist, so the scientists are trying to understand more about where it came from and how it got here.

To compare the meteorite with asteroids, researchers then used a technique called infrared spectroscopy, where they shine an infrared laser at the meteorite and then look at the light that is reflected back.

Light interacts with specific minerals differently as some absorb the light, and some reflect it. The light that is reflected back contains gaps which are characteristic of specific minerals. This information can then be compared to asteroid data.

"When looking at asteroids in space, we can use the sun like a giant laser," explains Helena. "We look at the reflected sunlight, and again you see these characteristic gaps."

"What we were basically doing in this study was to recreate what we see in asteroids in the lab. First, we completely characterize this meteorite and examine what it might look like out in space, and then we can compare it to bodies that are still out in space."

"We want to compare Winchcombe to asteroids that show signs of having hydration, meaning they've been altered by water. There's a whole group of these called the C complex asteroids."

"The cool thing about that is both OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2, which are the [asteroid sample return] missions that the Museum has some involvement with, have visited C complex asteroids. But there's also huge amounts of data collected by ground based and space-based telescopes of C complex asteroids that we can also compare Winchcombe to."

More information: H. C. Bates et al, The bulk mineralogy, elemental composition, and water content of the Winchcombe CM chondrite fall, Meteoritics & Planetary Science (2023). DOI: 10.1111/maps.14043

This story is republished courtesy of Natural History Museum. Read the original story here.
By Politico staff Writer

The President of Womens Forum Network Sally Ndimawa Adams has expressed her organizations appreciation for the work carried out by the National Council for Civic Education (NaCCED).

She made the compliment whilst she and other senior members of the network visited the NaCCED head office at Steward Street in Freetown on 1st December 2021. She told the Chairman of NaCCED, Kalilu Totangi how they were particularly impressed at NaCCEDs Civic Education exercises and said that they are looking forward to working with the council in that all important area.

In his reaction, the NaCCED boss said he was pleased to receive such compliments from a womens group. Totangi said their recognition of NaCCEDs operations was as a result of the hard work of every member of staff. He assured the delegation that NaCCED would explore the possibility of partnering with womens forum.

I met your past president Madam Maude Regina Peacock when I was cutting my teeth as an activist, Totangi recalled. He then went on to showcase the new Civic Text Books that his institution played a prominent role in their publishing and said they would soon be distributed to schools for use. The books are already in the country from Ghana and the syllabus caters from class one up to JSS 3,the NaCCED chairman disclosed.

The women on behalf of their organization then made a symbolic meritorious award presentation to NaCCED through chairman Totangi. Womens Forum Public Relations Officer, Tiana Alpha said the award should have been given some time ago but again noted it was better late than ever. President Julius Maada Bios government established NaCCED in 2019 to revitalize civic education of the populace that had become non-existent for decades. It is expected to create greater public awareness on the practice which would in turn foster national cohesion and development.

Copyright  Politico Online 06/12/21
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KINGSBURY  A Cambridge woman was sentenced on July 19 to 1  to 3 years in prison for possession a gun stolen from Calamity Janes Firearms and Fine Shoes store last October.

Penny R. Phillips, 50, pleaded guilty in Warren County Court to a felony count of fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property-firearms.

Phillips was one of 11 people arrested in connection with the Oct. 21 theft of 31 firearms from the store on Dix Avenue in Kingsbury. The Washington County Sheriffs Office investigated the case with the assistance of state police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Phillips was initially charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. She admitted to the one count in satisfaction of the charges.
MOREAU  A growing number of concerned residents in the town of Moreau are sparking a debate over where personal freedom and municipal accountability meet in the function of government.

As highlighted in the chaos that ensued during the July 20 meeting of the Moreau Town Board, residents are outraged by comments being made on a personal social media page by board-appointed town Historian Brigid Martin.

Ms. Martin has daily used her social media to harass, belittle, slander, spread half-truths and alternative facts, and bully residents and organizations, read a statement submitted to the town by Maureen Jackson.

Town Supervisor Todd Kusnierz maintained throughout the public comment portion of the meeting and in a follow-up interview with The Post-Star that comments made on the personal social media pages of any elected or appointed official are protected under the same right to free speech as any private citizen.

Kusnierz said that angry online rants are part of current social media and American culture.

This is not China where we crack down on freedom of speech, or censor individuals rights in their private lives, he said.

But the issue goes deeper.

Can a public official effectively serve in office if voicing their personal opinions alienates a portion of the public they serve?

For many in Moreau, the answer is no.

Ms. Martin does not represent the morals and values of the town or its residents, Jacksons statement reads, adding that she should not be the town historian. Martin receives $1,260 annual stipend in her role as historian.

For her part, Martin says her views and expression should not concern the public and does not affect her official role with the town. Her roles as historian and as the administrator of the Yes, Moreau Facebook are crucial in the town, she said.

At times I use my community page as a soapbox, where I express my ideas in the public square, she wrote to The Post-Star. To this date I have not heard one complaint about my performance as town historian.

Donald Chesworth, a partner at the Rochester office of Tully Rinckey, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, which specializes in municipal liability, sees both sides.

I suppose if they alienate a good portion of the public by what they say or what they post on a social media platform, that theyre undermining themselves and their ability to function, he said.

As well, the state looks at a persons social media history during background checks and, under a new law, during the pistol concealed carry permitting process as well.

I think the legislature and the governor have taken the position that what you say on a Facebook page or an Instagram page, or wherever it may be, is information that ought to be considered when determining whether or not you are a danger to yourself or others, he said. So its an interesting escalation of the importance of those pages.

An importance that might disqualify someone for a job, he added.

However, as far as what actions can be taken against an individual making statements on a personal account, depends on the content of those statements.

There are limits as to what type of speech is protected under the First Amendment, though exactly what is or is not allowed is not always clear. Still, the statement is often considered public, he said.

And youve then got to accept the consequences of making those statements, Chesworth said. People can complain to the persons boss.

As of this writing, there is an online petition with more than 300 signatories, calling for the removal of Martin as town historian.

Part of the tumult from the July 20 meeting stemmed from the perception that the public outcry against Martin was falling on deaf ears.

The right response remains elusive, and the people who do not like it, are looking to the town supervisor to do something.

The attorney, Chesworth, said that an attempt by Kusnierz to regulate Martins personal speech would violate the First Amendment, but again, there could be consequences.

If the public thinks that that makes her irresponsible and not appropriate for that job, then they ought to pressure the town supervisor to let her go, and if that doesnt work then they can always let the town supervisor go at the next election, Chesworth said.

Scroll down for a related story.
BUENA  The cause of a fire triggered by an explosion at a borough home last week remains unknown, police said Monday.

Franklin Township police, who patrol Buena, and the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office are investigating the fatal house explosion and fire in the 300 block of Northwest Boulevard in the Landisville section of the borough.

Two children, ages 2 and 3, and two men, ages 52 and 73, were killed in the incident. Two more children, ages 1 and 16, were sent to a Philadelphia hospital with severe burns.

Their names were not being released by authorities as of Monday, Franklin police Chief Matthew DeCesari said.

A vigil is planned for Tuesday evening to remember the children and men killed in the blast. The gathering is in loving memory of Lyanni & Leovani, according to a post on the Buena, NJ Neighborhood Watch Facebook page, and those who attend are welcome to bring your own candles and flowers.

Irma Rodriguez, the purported mother of the children killed, said the meetup is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Vigil scheduled for victims of Buena house fire A vigil is planned for the victims of last week's deadly Buena house fire that claimed four lives, including two small children.

Residents reported hearing a powerful explosion about 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Some ventured outside to see a home fully engulfed by a three-alarm fire.

DeCesari said Thursday police reached the scene within minutes.

By late Thursday afternoon, the bodies of three of the four victims were found. The last was discovered about 2 p.m. Friday.

Residents from at least two homes near the property were displaced because of damage, DeCesari said Thursday.

The home that exploded was located on a stretch of street separated by railroad tracks and at least one block from Route 40.

Its listed owner is George O. Apella, of Frisco, Texas, according to borough tax records. Whether he was at the property at the time was unclear Monday.

Two phone calls were placed to numbers associated with Apella. One with a Texas area code went to voicemail, while another local number had a continuous ring. A message left with the Texas number was not returned.
ATLANTIC CITY  South Jersey television and film actors are preparing to hold a rally on the Boardwalk amid the ongoing Screen Actors Guild strike.

The rally is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday in front of Kennedy Plaza outside Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, Philadelphia Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists President Nikki Izanec said.

Izanec said the rally is being held in support of union members who live in South Jersey but work in cities with broad media markets, including Philadelphia and New York. Her chapter covers parts of Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware, Izanec said.

The rally will feature guest speakers, some of whom are union representatives, Izanec said. Local officials also are expected to appear.

"I live in South Jersey, and like many performers, I understand the struggles often commuting back and forth from Philly and New York to work in an industry where the structure has become unsustainable," Izanec said.

The strike began in June amid talks of a three-year contract between the guild and the studios, streaming services and production companies that employ them.

More than 160,000 members have joined the picket line. The local region has just over 3,000 members, Izanec said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

South Jersey actors deal with setbacks due to strike At the end of the last decade, things were looking up for actors who settled in southern New
White-headed langurs spotted in S China's Guangxi

Xinhua) 09:15, August 07, 2023

Two white-headed langurs frolic at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur is pictured with its baby on a tree branch at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur climbs on a cliff to forage at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

A white-headed langur moves through the woods at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

Two white-headed langurs rest on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

A white-headed langur walks with its baby on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur looks out on a tree branch at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur leaps at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

A white-headed langur leaps at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

Two white-headed langurs rest on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A flock of white-headed langurs rest on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur is pictured with its baby on a tree branch at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

Two white-headed langurs are pictured on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur rests on a tree branch at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur eats fruit at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

Several white-headed langurs rest on a cliff at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhou Hua)

A white-headed langur forages at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

A white-headed langur leaps at a national nature reserve in Luobai Town of Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Aug. 5, 2023. The white-headed langur is one of the world's most endangered primate species and exclusive to China. The endangered animal, characterized by the white hair on their heads, are spotted in the 200-square km karst hills between the Zuojiang and Mingjiang rivers in Chongzuo. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
(Photo : Lt. Steve Smith/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

This week, China and Russia staged a "highly provocative" naval operation in Alaska, prompting a strong US military response.



Last week, a joint naval patrol consisting of several Russian and Chinese vessels operated off the coast of Alaska, drawing attention from US defense officials and lawmakers.

While the display of force prompted a response from the US military, it was clarified that the patrol did not pose a direct threat to the United States or Canada, CNN reported.

Russia and China Naval Patrol Near Alaska Raises Concerns

In response to the presence of the Russian and Chinese vessels in international waters near the Aleutian Islands, US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) promptly deployed planes and ships to monitor the situation.

A spokesperson from US Northern Command assured the public that the foreign vessels were monitored while remaining in international waters. During the incident, 11 Russian and Chinese warships were operating close to the Aleutian Islands, according to a joint statement from Alaska's Republican senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski.

The presence of these foreign naval forces led the US Navy to dispatch four destroyers as a response. Senator Murkowski shared that she and Senator Sullivan had been closely monitoring the situation, receiving detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels transiting US waters in the Aleutians.

It is not the first time such a situation has arisen, as Chinese naval ships have sailed near the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean for at least three consecutive years. In September 2022, a US Coast Guard cutter encountered a People's Republic of China guided missile cruiser off Alaska's Kiska Island during a routine patrol in the Bering Sea.

Later, the crew located four Russian ships, including a destroyer, and two additional Chinese naval ships. The formation adhered to international rules and norms, but the US Coast Guard maintained a "presence-with-presence" approach to safeguard US interests in the region.

This year's encounter with the Russian and Chinese naval patrol garnered a different response from the US Navy, with Senator Sullivan expressing his satisfaction with the robust reaction. He emphasized that the US will not hesitate to protect and defend its vital national interests in Alaska, sending a clear message to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as per USA Today.

Read Also: Ukraine Considers Talks in Jeddah 'Productive,' Including 10-Point Peace Plan Over War with Russia

Implications for US National Security and Alaska's Role

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, US intelligence report has shed light on the intensifying cooperation between Russia and China, particularly in the realms of defense and economics. This growing partnership has raised concerns among US defense officials and policymakers as the two nations repeatedly express their commitment to bolstering their military ties.

The alignment between Russia and China has become increasingly evident, with both countries seeking to enhance their joint capabilities in various strategic areas. The strengthening bond between the two powers poses potential challenges to the global geopolitical landscape and has implications for US national security.

Of particular concern to the United States is the recent incident involving a joint naval patrol conducted by Russian and Chinese vessels off the coast of Alaska. Although this display of force drew attention from the US military and raised eyebrows among lawmakers, it was clarified that the patrol did not pose an immediate threat to the United States or Canada.

But the incident underscores Alaska's critical role in preserving the nation's military and territorial sovereignty and serves as a stark reminder of the state's physical proximity to both China and Russia. As one of the United States' northernmost states, Alaska's strategic location near the Arctic Circle and its vast coastline underscore its importance in the nation's overall security posture.

The region provides a crucial gateway to the Arctic, which is becoming increasingly significant due to its economic and geopolitical implications, particularly with regard to maritime trade routes and natural resources.

The United States has long been vigilant about monitoring activities in the Arctic and its surrounding waters. The recent naval patrol near Alaska serves as an indicator of the evolving dynamics between Russia and China and highlights the need for continued vigilance and preparedness on the part of the US government.

While the US acknowledges that the patrol did not pose an immediate threat, it remains wary of potential future developments and their impact on regional stability. As such, the US government maintains a close watch on activities conducted by both Russia and China in the Arctic and the broader North Pacific region.

As the partnership between Russia and China evolves, the US faces the challenge of balancing engagement with competition in the international arena. It is crucial for the US to uphold its national interests and security commitments while navigating the complex relationships among major global powers, according to Express.

Related Article: China's 'Chasing Dreams' Documentary Shows Army's Preparations to Strike Taiwan

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By James Greig

When I was a teenager, my parents owned a DVD box set featuring three Pedro Almodovar films: Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999) and Talk To Her (2002). This period of the Spanish directors work  more muted and less garish than his 1980s output  became the enduring inspiration for my fantasy home.

These films are all bleak in their subject matter, dealing with death, rape, addiction and devastating acts of violence. But I still found them aspirational: I wanted my life to be as passionate and propulsive as it was for these characters, to spend my days whirling around a sun-drenched metropolis, attending glamorous parties and nights at the theatre. The vision of Spain they presented seemed to be the highest embodiment of a confident, modern, European cosmopolitanism.

I didnt really know it at the time but it was an accurate impression. The Spanish economy had been booming and there was a prevailing attitude of optimism: the belief, as Giles Tremlett writes in his travelogue-cum-contemporary history Ghosts of Spain, that life is always going to get better  and that it will do so at the same velocity it has acquired over the past three decades. The 2008 financial crash put an end to the dream of perpetual progress, long before Id first watched any Almodovar, but Madrid still seemed to be the most thrilling place it was possible to live.

The reality, as I discovered when I moved to the city in my early twenties, was a little different, but it was close enough to my teenage reveries that I was never fully disillusioned. My fantasy home would still be in a grand, if somewhat decaying, apartment building. It would be in the gay neighbourhood of Chueca (ideally, the grubbier, seedier pre-gentrification version) or overlooking the Segovia Viaduct, a vast, looming structure that features in several of Almodovars films.

The distinctive, bicycle-wheeled Gae Aulenti table from Talk To Her (2002)

The interior design would include most of his signature aesthetics: a living room emblazoned with bright red wallpaper, to symbolise my fiery yet sensuous personality; tablecloths with kitsch patterns; glossy cabinetry with artificial textures that contrast with the wooden floor; a tiled bathroom with bead curtains, and the occasional piece of groovy furniture (the Gae Aulenti table from Talk To Her,, perhaps, which sits on bicycle wheels instead of legs, or the mid-century arc lamps with glass shades from All About My Mother). I wouldnt bother with the Pop Art paintings or the religious kitsch that often appear in his films. It would be Almodovaran minimalism: spartan and stripped back.

Unlike the dark, damp and crowded flatshares Ive since become accustomed to in Britain, it would be light and spacious. I would have a balcony where I could dry my clothes, instead of painstakingly hanging up wet socks from every available perch in my bedroom. I would live there alone.

At the core of my fantasy home is the idea that I would rarely be there: it would be an occasional stage-set, a backdrop to a rich and exciting metropolitan life. At the first itch of restlessness, I would slip out the door in a leopard-print coat and find myself already in the middle of the city. I would never have to wait around in the rain for a night bus, or spend money on an Uber.

No matter what the time of day, the air would be warm and the streets humming with life. As Leocadia, the protagonist of Almodovars 1995 film The Flower of My Secret, says, In Madrid, its never late. There would always be a bar open, somewhere I could sip a vermouth in pensive solitude or have a fraught rendezvous with my lover (who, naturally, would be a matador with a fiery temper and the soul of an Andalusian poet).

Moving to Madrid was kind of like that, even if I suffered from a lack of tempestuous romance, never lived anywhere resembling an Almodovar set, and my social life largely consisted of lacklustre friendships-of-convenience with other expats. While I earned very little money, I was able to afford a room in the city centre, five minutes walk from the Paseo del Prado boulevard, and I could eat at restaurants almost every evening. It was never too late, or too inconvenient, to go out: I could make plans, or respond to invitations, at one in the morning and walk anywhere I wanted to go.

Mid-century glass lampshades abound in All About My Mother (1999)

After years of being pushed out further into the quiet, dowdy suburbs of London, I find myself longing to be once again embedded in the heart of a city, and to escape the oppressive feeling that, past a certain time, nothing is happening. Even if I could afford to live centrally in London, I would be forced to conduct any torrid late-night trysts in McDonalds or a Leicester Square casino, which wouldnt carry quite the same allure.

In the end, my Almodovar fantasy was unrealisable because it required me to actually be Spanish. As my fluency in the language improved, I did become more airy and laconic. Every time I waved a cigarette while muttering claro, claro, I inched a little closer. But there was always an unbridgeable distance. I realised that, no matter how long I stayed, I would never become a member of the multi-generational families Id gaze at with yearning as they enjoyed a raucous Sunday lunch (Papa, por que ese hombre nos mira fijamente? Papa, why is that man staring at us?) Forced to confront the bracing reality that I could never truly be Penelope Cruz, I left Madrid.

I still hold out hope that, one day, if the housing crisis cools and London relaxes its drinking laws, I might be able to create a sliver of Almodovaran paradise right here  a home that is not a place of confinement or retreat, and where all the heady pleasures of urban life are right on my doorstep.

Photography: Alamy; Sony Pictures
Pune's Metro system has hit a remarkable milestone, garnering immense popularity among the city's residents. Over the weekend, the number of passengers using the Pune Metro soared to a record-breaking 96,498, marking a significant achievement for the recently expanded network.

On Saturday, an impressive 57,652 people chose to commute via the Metro, showcasing a growing interest among Punekars in utilizing this efficient mode of transportation. However, the real surge in ridership was witnessed on Sunday, when the numbers nearly doubled, reaching an astonishing 96,498 passengers. These figures were specifically collected for commuters traveling between the Civil Court Metro Station to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and from Vanaz to Ramwadi stations.

The recent expansion of the Pune Metro played a pivotal role in attracting more commuters. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated two crucial corridors, namely the Civil Court Metro Station to PCMC and Vanaz to Ramwadi. This new development not only enhanced connectivity but also contributed to a surge in public interest and usage of the Metro system.

According to Dr. Hemant Sonawane, Executive Director of Public Relations and Administration at Pune Metro, the breakdown of ridership numbers for the two days is as follows:

On August 5 (Saturday):

Number of riders from Civil Court Metro Station to PCMC: 24,900

Number of riders from Vanaz to Ramwadi: 37,752

On August 6 (Sunday):

Number of riders from Civil Court Metro Station to PCMC: 44,951

Number of riders from Vanaz to Ramwadi: 51,547

This remarkable increase in ridership over the weekend, with a cumulative count of 96,498 passengers on Sunday, underscores the growing appeal of the Pune Metro as a reliable and efficient mode of transport for daily commuters.

Encouraged by this positive response, Pune Metro authorities are urging the public to continue availing the benefits of this modern transport system. Furthermore, they have announced that several other stations are slated to be inaugurated in the near future, further enhancing the reach and convenience of the Pune Metro network for residents across the city.
Mike Matson is running for a third term in the Davenport Mayors Office.

Davenport voters elected Matson, an Army veteran and now-retired JROTC instructor at Davenport schools, to the mayors office in 2019 and again in 2021. Before that, he served as an alderman from 2008 until he was elected mayor.

If re-elected, Matson said his focus will be on neighborhood safety. He pointed to initiatives started under his administration to address violence, including a strategy called Group Violence Intervention among law enforcement, community members and social service organizations that aims to intervene in cycles of retaliation. That strategy began in 2022.

My focus has been and will continue to be gun violence, Matson said. Specifically in the last year, shots fired is down almost 40%. Shootings just in one years time, to date is down almost 25%. So we have a pretty good record with that, and I want to continue that focus.

Matson also pointed to the city council funding the Coordinated Assessment Program, started in 2021, which helps referred families connect with resources such as counseling or housing, and civilian analytics in the police department.

Matson also pledged to continue prioritizing replacing and repairing street and sewer infrastructure, hold the line on property taxes and place a greater focus on inspections and holding landlords accountable for safe housing as the city continues to reel from the partial collapse at 324 Main St., Davenport, which killed three people.

Matson is being challenged in the non-partisan election by first-term state Rep. Ken Croken, a Democrat who was elected to the statehouse in 2022. Croken has been sharply critical of the citys response to the building collapse at 324 Main St., calling for accountability in the citys inspections department for what he says was a failure to prevent three deaths. Hes also pledged he would make a bigger focus on state politics, lobbying the Legislature for abortion access, LGBTQ rights and against public funding for private schools.

Matson, said he, too, wants answers from the investigative firms on what the city should do differently. He said the citys looking at everything.

In the days and weeks after the collapse, Matson said residents requested property inspections, and the city did that right away.

I will, if I am lucky enough to be mayor, put a bigger focus on inspections, Matson said.

I am already having conversations with state folks  is there something we can do to tighten up inspections, landlord issues, etc.? Matson said, referring to conversations with state lawmakers. He said the goal is to tighten the rules on what he called slumlords.

We need to get rid of the folks that dont do their job, Matson said.

Matson said other options the city is discussing are hiring more inspections staff, and applying for funding to do so, and working with landlord associations.

Candidates must file for city election in Davenport, the only area Iowa city that holds primaries, between Aug. 14 and Aug. 31.

If more than two candidates file for mayor, a primary would be held Oct. 10 to narrow the field to two. The regular city/school election will be Nov. 7.

Earlier this year, in May, political newcomer Jasmine Schneider announced a bid for the mayors office. But her former campaign manager told the Quad-City Times that shed dropped out of the race.

In running for re-election, Matson pointed to relationships hes built at the state and federal levels that allow partnerships with the city to tackle issues like gun violence, implementing the citys flood plan, repairing infrastructure, attracting businesses, and building quality of life amenities. Matson is the Iowa Metro Coalition chair, Rock Island Defense Coalition chair and a member of the Bi-State Commission, among other groups.

If Im honored by the citizens to get a third term, I have my focus, Matson said. My focus is safe neighborhoods, public safety. My focus is infrastructure. My focus is a balanced budget. My focus is getting the feedback from the citizen surveys and doing what the people ask us to do. My focus is on job creation, so that people have opportunities to choose what jobs they want to work in.

Close Davenport Alderman Robby Ortiz, 4th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Tim Kelly, 5th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Derek Cornette, 7th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman James "JJ" Condon, At Large, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderwoman Judith Lee, 8th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Ben Jobgen, 6th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, 3rd Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Rick Dunn, 1st Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Mayor Mike Matson is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport mayor, new council sworn in Surrounded by family and friends, Davenport Mayor Mike Matson and eight council members, Alderman Rick Dunn, 1st Ward, Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, 3rd Ward, Alderman Robby Ortiz, 4th Ward, Alderman Tim Kelly, 5th Ward, Alderman Ben Jobgen, 6th Ward, Alderman Derek Cornette, 7th Ward, and Alderwoman Judith Lee, 8th Ward, and Alderman James "JJ" Condon, At Large, were sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Alderwoman Maria Dickmann, 2nd Ward, and Alderman Kyle Gripp, At Large, will be sworn in next week by Matson. Davenport Alderman Robby Ortiz, 4th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Tim Kelly, 5th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Derek Cornette, 7th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman James "JJ" Condon, At Large, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderwoman Judith Lee, 8th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Ben Jobgen, 6th Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, 3rd Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Alderman Rick Dunn, 1st Ward, is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman. Davenport Mayor Mike Matson is sworn in Wednesday by Iowa Supreme Court Justice Thomas Dana Waterman.
The group that restored the historic Forest Grove School No. 5 in Bettendorf will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the school with a luncheon and documentary premiere.

The event, planned for Saturday, Sept. 23, will take place at the Putnam Museum, Davenport, with the luncheon followed by the premiere of a film documentary of the rehabilitation project.

For the luncheon, organizers are looking for former teachers and students who would like to attend; anyone matching that description is asked to call 563-332-5859 or email FGS1873@gmail.com

From 2-4 p.m., the general public is invited to see the premiere of Resurrecting Forest Grove, a full-length feature presented by Tammy & Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, Moline. The film in the giant screen theater will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Tickets are $9 for adults and $8 for those ages 3-18, seniors, college students and military.

For advance tickets, go to Putnam.org, click on calendar and scroll down. For more about the film, go to forestgrovemovie.com.

Among those anticipated to attend the premiere are members of the Iowa Country School Association who, coincidentally, will be holding their annual conference in Clinton and touring Forest Grove No. 5 on Saturday morning.

The school was built in 1873 and served as a place of learning from 1873 to 1957. It sits on its original site and was literally falling down when a group of supporters undertook efforts in 2012 to save it.

The building has been reconstructed to its 1920 appearance, including a replica bell tower with the original bell. The effort took about seven years.

The school is furnished with desks, blackboards and other objects that would have been found in a school of that time. It is open free of charge from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays from Memorial Day through Labor Day or by appointment, by calling 563-332-5859.

Supporters also offer field-trip opportunities to schools and home-schools in which a volunteer assumes the role of school marm and guides todays students through a day in the life of a 1920s school.

Earlier this summer, the school received official designation as a Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area Site, a distinction that supporters expect will increase visitors to the historic structure.

Silos & Smokestacks is one of 63 federally designated heritage areas in the nation, a program of the National Park Service. Silos tells the story of American agriculture through programs, workshops and 110 sites in the northeast quadrant of Iowa, including dairy farms, museums, vineyards and tractor assembly plants.

Would-be tourists learn about attractions by going to the Silos website and through its annual magazine.

Forest Grove School fits perfectly with the Silos & Smokestacks mission because it was attended by farm kids and was part of Iowas acclaimed one-room school educational system, Sharon Andresen, project manager of the school, said.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its address is 24040 Forest Grove Drive.

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Heavy rains expected Sunday night put the Quad-Cities under a flood watch by the National Weather Service until Monday morning.

Muscatine County and western parts of Scott and Rock Island counties are expected to receive 2-3 inches of rain with Sundays storms.

Rain at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour could cause some flash flooding in areas that already received precipitation Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Rain is expected to continue into Monday, mostly before noon, in the Quad-Cities region. The flood watch expires at 7 a.m. Monday. Monday afternoon is expected to be partly sunny with a high of 76.

The highest threat for severe storms, however, is in southeastern Iowa and central western Illinois, south of the Quad-Cities.

As much of eastern Iowa has been under drought conditions, the National Weather Service said the precipitation will bring needed rain to its forecast area. Rain in the past 30 days before Aug. 4 has been 75% less than normal, according to the National Weather Service.

As of Aug. 3, the last drought monitor update, most of Scott County was abnormally dry. Most of Rock Island County fell into a moderate drought category.

After Monday, temperatures are expected stay modest, the highs each day keeping below the mid-80s. The forecast includes sunny skies Tuesday with a high in the low 80s.

The next chance of rain doesnt come until Wednesday, when the National Weather Service forecasts a 60% chance of rain mostly between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Next weekend is expected to bring sunny skies and highs near 80 degrees.

The National Weather Services monthly outlook for August puts the Quad Cities right on the edge of the area leaning towards above average precipitation amounts and with equal chances of above or below average temperatures.

Beating the heat: Common car issues in hot weather Beating the heat: Common car issues in hot weather Overheating engines Solutions to combat overheating of engines A/C troubles Sun-baked interiors Solutions to protect your car's interior Tire troubles Solutions to preserve your tires FAQs Bottom line
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, accusing the agency of illegally delaying a rulemaking process that would allow the sale of E15 fuel year-round.

The lawsuit, joined by Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers, alleges the EPA repeatedly missed deadlines that were required by law after being petitioned by several states governors to adjust rules around the sale of ethanol-blended gasoline. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa and names the EPA and Administrator Michael Regan as defendants.

In April 2022, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and six other state governors sent a letter to the EPA asking to remove a volatility waiver afforded to E10 gasoline, which would put it on the same footing as E15, gasoline with 15% ethanol blended in. The change would allow the sale of the higher blend during the summer months.

E15 generally cannot be sold in the summer months because of concerns that the fuel contributes to smog in hot weather. Some research has shown E10 gasoline, the vast majority of gasoline sold in the U.S., has largely the same effect on air quality.

The governors request was made under a section of the Clean Air Act, the first of its kind since the law was written. The lawsuit argues the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to create rules no more than 90 days after the governors make that request  a deadline the state says the EPA has missed by more than a year.

It is now more than 90 days after the end of the notice-and-comment period, and EPA has not issued a final rule a final rule that the Clean Air Act required take effect more than two months ago; a final rule the Clean Air Act required EPA to promulgate last July, the lawsuit says.

The agency put out a proposed rulemaking in March of this year and held a public hearing on March 21. The rulemaking proposed lifting the waiver on E10 gasoline in eight states that made requests, thereby allowing year-round E15 sales, starting in April of 2024.

At the time, Bird and other Iowa leaders said the proposed start date was too late. In its proposed rulemaking, the EPA cited the potential impact to the supply of gasoline in the affected states as its reasoning for delaying the implementation.

But, the EPA also granted a waiver to allow the sale of E15 in the 2023 summer months nationwide in April, citing the high cost of gasoline because of the war in Ukraine. E15 is generally about 10 cents cheaper than fuel with lower ethanol blends.

The lawsuit asks the court to require the EPA to create a final rule no later than six months before the 2024 summer driving season and award the cost of litigation and attorneys fees to the states.

A spokesperson for the EPA did not respond to a request for comment.

Reynolds, ethanol industry weigh in

Reynolds criticized the EPAs decision to delay the rule in a statement on Monday, and she applauded Bird for bringing the lawsuit.

The EPAs ongoing failure to act following our E15 notification more than two years ago is nothing more than a thinly veiled disguise of their disdain towards clean, renewable, American-produced ethanol. The EPA disfavors anything that doesnt have the word 'electric' in its name, Reynolds said. American energy independence, including Iowas renewable energies, should be the goal of any presidential administration - especially when it saves Americans money at the gas tank.

Reynolds signed a law last year, passed with bipartisan support from state lawmakers, to mandate the sale of E-15 at most Iowa gas stations.

Iowa is the leading producer in the nation of ethanol, and the corn used to manufacture it. Iowas 42 ethanol plants can produce more than 4.1 billion gallons a year.

Iowa Renewable Fuel Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said a final rule would provide certainty for consumers and fuel retailers going into 2024.

This is not a complex issue and its mindboggling it has taken this long, he said in a statement. Midwest consumers and fuel retailers deserve to know that E15 will be a year-round option in 2024. Every day of delay jeopardizes investments that can reduce fuel costs, clean our air, and make us more energy independent.
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 Mara-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 Trump's 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 Hunter's 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 Biden's 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 Hunter's business partner, Devon Archer, who acknowledged that then-Vice President Biden had contact with Hunter's 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."

Talgo is the editorial director at The Heartland Institute in suburban Chicago: heartland.org. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
The Atlantic hurricane season extends from June 1 to Nov. 30, with the peak occurring between mid-August and late October. The powerful winds and flooding rains of hurricanes can be disastrous for agricultural producers. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) encourages farmers to take precautions now to help protect their families, livestock, and farm operations.

Tips to protect you and your family:

Monitor local weather reports for up-to-the-minute storm information and follow instructions of local and state government officials.

Charge all cell phones and other important electronic devices.

Create an emergency kit with drinking water and food for humans and pets that will last three to four days, medications, emergency numbers, first aid kit, flashlights, batteries, and dust masks.

Make an emergency plan that identifies evacuation routes and meeting destination for your family in the event you need to evacuate.

Trim or remove damaged trees and limbs close enough to fall on structures.

Secure loose rain gutters and downspouts and clear any clogged areas or debris to prevent water damage to your property.

Keep alternative power sources, such as a portable generator, outside, at least 20 feet away from the house, and protected from moisture.

Document the condition of your home with photos and video prior to the storm for insurance purposes.

Have contact information for your local emergency manager, sheriff, and animal control office readily available.

Do not drive across any flooded roadway, as it only takes six inches of water to move a vehicle and roads may be washed out beneath the floodwaters.

If strong winds knock down trees, make farm lanes and houses accessible to delivery vehicles as soon as it is safe to do so.

Livestock preparedness tips:

Secure livestock and other animals. If necessary, build berms for them to stand on in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding. Fencing may also be removed to allow animals to move to higher ground during floods or lower ground during high winds.

Mark animals with an identifier so they can be returned if lost. This includes ear tags with the name of the farm and/or phone numbers, paint markings on hooves or coat, or clipped initials in the hair.

Stock up on feed, water and livestock supplies so that you are self-sustainable for at least three days.

If your operation uses vent fans, water pumps, milking machines, or other critical electrical equipment, purchase a gas-powered generator and plenty of fuel.

Keep multiple forms of identification for all horses and other equines.

Store the record for the microchip number, if present, in an accessible location. VDACS also recommends keeping a second copy of this information with a family member or friend in a distant location but where it will be easily accessible.

Be sure your horses vaccinations for tetanus and the encephalitis viruses (Eastern Equine Encephalitis and West Nile Virus) are current.

Coastal residents should consider evacuating horses inland and out of a storms path. In addition, horse owners should make plans of how they would acquire any special equipment that may be needed to transport horses prior to an emergency event.

Store fertilizers, pesticides, treated seeds and other such products away from floodwaters and animals.

Inspect all barns, outbuildings, and other structures for broken or weak components and make repairs before the storm arrives.

Stock up on nails, screws and plywood to board up windows and nail doors and windows shut.

Store and secure farm equipment or other items that may blow away or become dangerous projectiles.

Proper planning and taking precautions now could save thousands of dollars in property loss. I strongly encourage all agricultural producers to review these tips and take time now to prepare their farms and agribusinesses for hurricanes and other severe weather events, said Joseph Guthrie, Commissioner of VDACS. For more in-depth emergency preparation tips, please visit www.vaemergency.gov/hurricanes.
(Photo : DAVID MAREUIL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Japan commemorated the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, condemning Russian threats to use nuclear weapons.





When the United States detonated an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and another on Nagasaki three days later, the world saw the devastating effects of nuclear weapons.

These events, marking the world's first and only wartime atomic bombings, left an indelible mark on those who experienced the devastation firsthand, as per The Hill.

Japan Aims for Nuclear-Free World Amidst Growing Challenges

The memories of these tragic events continue to serve as powerful reminders of the catastrophic impact of nuclear warfare. In the 78 years since those fateful bombings, Japan's government, along with the United Nations and other global entities, has been advocating for a nuclear-free world.

Despite the efforts towards nuclear disarmament, this goal has become more challenging, partly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony in Hiroshima, Kishida emphasized that the increasing international divisions regarding nuclear disarmament, coupled with Russia's nuclear threats, have complicated the pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, Kishida emphasized Japan's unwavering commitment to the cause of nuclear disarmament, citing the nation's unique perspective as the only country to have experienced the horrors of nuclear devastation in war. Despite the current challenges, he stressed the importance of revitalizing international momentum towards the realization of a world free from nuclear weapons.

Russia's actions have been a source of concern for the international community, with Kremlin officials using the specter of nuclear attack as a tool to intimidate Western countries and influence their aid to Kyiv during the war in Ukraine. The rhetoric and actions from Russia have escalated tensions, with Putin suspending Russia's participation in the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the last remaining arms control treaty between Russia and the United States.

Additionally, Putin claimed to have moved nuclear weapons to Belarus, heightening anxieties about the risk of nuclear escalation. These growing concerns about the potential for nuclear conflict were palpable during the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima, a yearly event dedicated to promoting world peace and honoring the victims of the bombings.

The occasion served as a solemn reminder of the devastating toll of nuclear warfare, with more than 100,000 people killed in Hiroshima and at least 70,000 in Nagasaki, according to The Washington Post via MSN.

Read Also: US Gov's Ukraine Aid Allegedly Linked to Hunter Biden

Uniting for Nuclear-Free Future

Leaders and officials worldwide were united in their calls for renewed efforts to address the nuclear threat and promote disarmament. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui pointed to the dangers of nuclear deterrence theory, urging leaders to confront the reality of nuclear threats.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, represented by UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, issued a stark warning about the growing drums of nuclear war.

Despite the obstacles and challenges posed by Russia's nuclear posturing, Japan remains steadfast in its commitment to work tirelessly for a world without nuclear weapons. As Kishida reiterated, the current circumstances only underscore the urgency to reignite international momentum towards nuclear disarmament.

The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to drive the world's pursuit of a nuclear-free future, with the hope that lessons learned from history will prevent humanity from experiencing the devastating consequences of nuclear conflict again.

The collective efforts of nations and leaders will be vital in navigating the complexities of disarmament and ensuring global security and stability in the face of nuclear threats, The Guardian reported.

Related Article: America's Declining Patriotism: Experts Now Blaming Individualism for Fewer Patriotic Americans





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The Greater Richmond Convention Center is playing host to the second annual BLCK Street Conference, which seeks to help Black entrepreneurs and business owners grow their business knowledge and skills.

Throughout the day on Monday, more than 40 speakers and 16 panels are scheduled to educate, inform and share experiences and expertise with attendees, according to Rasheeda Creighton, executive director of the Jackson Ward Collective Foundation.

We wanted to do a conference, but there are no conferences for Black entrepreneurs that arent tech-centered, Creighton said. Theres not a conference for Black business owners that are not in that space. A lot of times, we operate in what we call the Main Street space, which is hospitality, retail professional services and personal services. This conference is really geared to support those entrepreneurs. The ones that are running the businesses that you patronize every day in your neighborhood.

BLCK Street is an offshoot of the Jackson Ward Collective, which offers a 12-week business program for those in the Richmond region who want to learn more about starting their own business. BLCK Street is geared toward national and international attendees.

We want people to come to Richmond. We want Black entrepreneurs from around the country and around the world to come to Richmond, Creighton said. Because Richmond is the documented first Black Wall Street community in the United States ... we play a significant role in the history of Black entrepreneurship.

The foundation started when Creighton and two other women saw the need for a conference to create a safe space for Black entrepreneurs since, according to Creighton, they would be the only people of color in the room at many conferences they would attend.

The conference began with a rest retreat on Saturday. Sundays events consisted of a vendor space in Main Street Station, a walking tour of Richmond and one-on-one consultations with established leaders in business development. The vendor space features clothing, jewelry, art and accessories and is open to the public throughout the conference.

Elesha Belke, director of brand for Capital One, was hosting individual sessions to help entrepreneurs think about how to market their businesses.

Marketing is something thats super important for small businesses and helping them to grow and reaching more audiences, Belke said. Im chatting with them about marketing and then specifically their websites. How to think about showing up and reaching their clients and their customers and how to think about how to expand and enhance their marketing so that they can then grow their businesses. So that they can be found when people are searching for the services they offer.

The conference is not only a chance to learn about business, but also an opportunity for many to build their networks.

Entrepreneurship, in and of itself, regardless of your background is isolating and lonely, Creighton said. (This is an) opportunity to be able to support, not just any entrepreneurs but Black entrepreneurs, who often dont have the full social capital to be able to find the resources that are necessary.

Creighton is bringing people together in Richmond, not just for the Black-owned business history here, but also to help people recognize they are not alone in pursuing their entrepreneurial endeavors.

Its not about isolation; its not about keeping anybody out, she said. Its actually about community, coming together to support one another. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to have a business, too.
How much money would employees need to go from working at home to returning to the office? According to a sample of remote workers in Virginia, a bit more than $12,000 is the asking price.

A July nationwide survey conducted by online marketing and content website Authority Hacker asked 3,000 full-time employees who work from home what cash lump-sum payment would persuade them to return to full-time office work.

Virginia survey-takers on average asked for $12,438, close to the national average of $12,188. Information about how the survey was conducted, how the respondents were selected and any compensation provided to participants was not provided.

Respondents in neighboring West Virginia asked for $5,626, the lowest total in the country. North Dakota came in the highest with a $28,176 average among participants.

As businesses look to define their post-pandemic work structures, the preferences and concerns of employees will play a significant role in shaping the future of work, said Mark Webster, co-founder of Authority Hacker. "Be it through monetary rewards, contributions to social causes or adopting a lasting hybrid work approach, companies must discover the balance that ensures both their operations and their workforce can thrive."

Many companies have or are starting to cut back on the availability of remote work. In June, Google added stricter guidelines to its hybrid work policy and is tracking employee attendance. Last year, Apple announced that its corporate employees were required to return to the office at least three days each week.

Earlier this year, Capital One, Richmonds largest private employer, also advised employees to work in person three days a week.

Employees have pushed back against the recent changes. According to the Authority Hacker survey, 63% of remote workers were willing to unionize to prevent forced returns to the office.

Brian Davis, executive director of the Capital Region Workforce Partnership, said staff members are finding that single parents, parents struggling to afford day care and people without reliable transportation are among those still desiring to work from home. Additionally, clients wishing to go into fields such as IT, medical billing and medical coding are also seeking remote work options.

However, remote job postings appear to be decreasing. In the Richmond region, the percentage of online posts listing remote work options fell from 12% to 7% between July 2022 and July 2023, according to labor market research company JobsEQ. Posts mentioning working from home had been trending upward during the early stages of the pandemic.

A cash payment is one way to entice staff back to in-person work, but companies are looking to other solutions that leave less of a financial strain.

Just over two-thirds of survey respondents said they were more likely to consider returning if charitable contributions were part of the incentives package. During a nearly two-week period in June, cloud software company Salesforce planned to donate $10 to a local charity for each employee who returned to the office at that time.

Among survey participants, 72% said returning to the office would negatively impact their mental health. Outside of maintaining flexible work options, creating healthful office environments could help mend the divide between employers and employees.

When Great Minds, an education resource material organization, moved its corporate headquarters to Richmond in 2021, it followed the National Park Service guidelines for historic rehabilitation, preserving the aesthetic of the building at 840 Hermitage Road.

Weve redesigned it to reflect the headquarters as a house of knowledge, which is really at the core of what we do: bringing knowledge into the American classroom, said Rodney Whitmore, chief human resources officer for Great Minds. Our employees enjoy being in that space when theyre there.

Great Minds has approximately 85% of its employees working from home. The company, which also has offices in Washington, D.C., and Farmington Hills, Michigan, searches near and far to hire educators.

We believe that in order to provide the highest quality educational resource materials to the teachers and students that we serve, we have to get the best talent no matter where it is, Whitmore said. If the people happen to be in a certain locale, its great, but its far more important that we get the talent that we need.

Great Minds also employs staff members who work at the offices two to three days a week. Although the organization appreciates what in-person work can provide, it wants that type of work to be purposeful.

The nature of those (office) jobs is enhanced by the sort of collaborative effort that can be accomplished when people are together, Whitmore said. We try to make sure that if youre coming in, theres a good reason for it, and we try to make it comfortable.

Close This July 1955 image shows the building, at Madison and Grace streets in Richmond, that once sat downtown and housed First Presbyterian Church. Completed in 1853 at the current site of Old City Hall, the buildings outer shell was moved to Madison and Grace in the mid-1880s to make room for the city building. In 1943, the Acca Shriners, who had lost the Mosque (now Altria Theater) during the Great Depression, purchased the old church building. They used it until the mid-1950s; the building has since been torn down. In May 1977, this 150-foot smokestack came down, thanks to Controlled Demolition of Towson, Md. The smokestack stood behind what used to be Broad Street Station in Richmond; the demolition was part of a contract with the state for removal of the stack and several buildings in the area. This April 1951 image shows St. Andrews School in Richmonds Oregon Hill area. Noted philanthropist Grace Arents founded the school in 1894 and was a key supporter of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The school offered a wide range of programs, including sewing, music and physical education. It still stands today, serving low-income children. In May 1959, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway announced plans to move about a third of its workforce from Richmond to Huntington, W.Va., by 1961-62. Many employees worked in the First and Merchants National Bank building at Ninth Street downtown, which was partially owned by C&O. The building has been converted to First National Apartments. This July 1947 image shows the new Curles Neck Dairy plant at 1600 Roseneath Road in Richmond. The building, which cost more than $200,000, gave the 13-year-old dairy modern features including a refreshment room that served up to 50 people, ice-cream-making facilities and curbside service. The building is now home to the Dairy Bar restaurant. This March 1987 image shows the Independent Order of St. Luke building at 900 St. James St. in Richmond, which was the new home for the citys Head Start program. The building, which today stands empty, was built in the early 1900s and was expanded between 1915 and 1920. It was home to the benevolent society under Maggie Walkers leadership, as well as the first location of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank that she ran. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. This May 1935 image shows Herberts shoe store at 419 E. Broad St. in downtown Richmond. The store advertised itself as the first air-cooled shoe store in the entire South. A fall sale that year offered womens shoes as low as $1.77. This May 1957 image shows the Woolworths at Fifth and Broad streets in downtown Richmond. The $1 million building opened in September 1954, and it housed several departments for the nearby Miller & Rhoads, which had an earlier store on the site in the late 1800s. An ad for the Woolworths Easter sale offered handbags for $1, records for 99 cents, and cowhide and plastic belts for between 39 and 98 cents. In February 1968, the National Theater on East Broad Street in Richmond was about to undergo a $150,000 remodeling to make it suitable as a movie theater  the building, which opened in 1923, was designed more for vaudeville and other live performances. In June 1968, the theater reopened as The Towne and operated until 1983. It has since been restored again and now hosts concerts. From the Archives: Old Richmond buildings This July 1955 image shows the building, at Madison and Grace streets in Richmond, that once sat downtown and housed First Presbyterian Church. Completed in 1853 at the current site of Old City Hall, the buildings outer shell was moved to Madison and Grace in the mid-1880s to make room for the city building. In 1943, the Acca Shriners, who had lost the Mosque (now Altria Theater) during the Great Depression, purchased the old church building. They used it until the mid-1950s; the building has since been torn down. In May 1977, this 150-foot smokestack came down, thanks to Controlled Demolition of Towson, Md. The smokestack stood behind what used to be Broad Street Station in Richmond; the demolition was part of a contract with the state for removal of the stack and several buildings in the area. This April 1951 image shows St. Andrews School in Richmonds Oregon Hill area. Noted philanthropist Grace Arents founded the school in 1894 and was a key supporter of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The school offered a wide range of programs, including sewing, music and physical education. It still stands today, serving low-income children. In May 1959, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway announced plans to move about a third of its workforce from Richmond to Huntington, W.Va., by 1961-62. Many employees worked in the First and Merchants National Bank building at Ninth Street downtown, which was partially owned by C&O. The building has been converted to First National Apartments. This July 1947 image shows the new Curles Neck Dairy plant at 1600 Roseneath Road in Richmond. The building, which cost more than $200,000, gave the 13-year-old dairy modern features including a refreshment room that served up to 50 people, ice-cream-making facilities and curbside service. The building is now home to the Dairy Bar restaurant. This March 1987 image shows the Independent Order of St. Luke building at 900 St. James St. in Richmond, which was the new home for the citys Head Start program. The building, which today stands empty, was built in the early 1900s and was expanded between 1915 and 1920. It was home to the benevolent society under Maggie Walkers leadership, as well as the first location of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank that she ran. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. This May 1935 image shows Herberts shoe store at 419 E. Broad St. in downtown Richmond. The store advertised itself as the first air-cooled shoe store in the entire South. A fall sale that year offered womens shoes as low as $1.77. This May 1957 image shows the Woolworths at Fifth and Broad streets in downtown Richmond. The $1 million building opened in September 1954, and it housed several departments for the nearby Miller & Rhoads, which had an earlier store on the site in the late 1800s. An ad for the Woolworths Easter sale offered handbags for $1, records for 99 cents, and cowhide and plastic belts for between 39 and 98 cents. In February 1968, the National Theater on East Broad Street in Richmond was about to undergo a $150,000 remodeling to make it suitable as a movie theater  the building, which opened in 1923, was designed more for vaudeville and other live performances. In June 1968, the theater reopened as The Towne and operated until 1983. It has since been restored again and now hosts concerts.
The American Civil Liberties Unions Virginia chapter has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on behalf of three Central American immigrants who they say are being detained unlawfully in Virginia jails against the instruction of federal policy.

It alleges that the immigrants, one from Honduras and two from El Salvador, won a legal protection that prevents their deportation back to their home countries. The protection was won by demonstrating to an immigration judge that doing so would expose them to being tortured or killed.

Despite winning that protection, ICE has not yet released the men, the suit says.

One of the detainees, German Cano Fuentes, was picked up in a traffic stop in August. His lawyers say he fled to the U.S. in 2021.

In March of this year, a judge ruled that Fuentes faced a significant threat of persecution by El Salvadoran gangs and police, and blocked his deportation on humanitarian reasons. Cano Fuentes, who is 29, has remained incarcerated in Virginia since that ruling.

His lawyer, Sophia Gregg, said Cano Fuentes has been languishing in a jail in the middle of nowhere Virginia.

She also believes that the case underscores rogue behaviors at the Washington Field Office of ICE, which handles removals in D.C. and Virginia.

Gregg, who has worked in immigration law since 2016, says ICE has long had a nationwide policy favoring a non-citizens release for individuals who win human rights protections, like Fuentes and his fellow plaintiffs.

In 2021, that policy was reiterated in a memo from ICEs then-acting director, Tae Johnson, who said the policy helps preserve the agencys limited detention resources.

However, Gregg says Fuentes case demonstrates that the Washington Field Office is not following those instructions.

In late July, Erik Weiss, a deputy from the field office, told Cano Fuentes that he could not be released because he had not proved he was not a flight risk or that he would not pose a danger to the community.

This is a pattern of the Washington Field Office, Gregg said. Theyre not following what Secretary Mayorkas has laid out as the policy of ICE.

The ACLU believes that the three men remain detained because the agency still hopes to deport them to a different country or to a third-party country. However, none of the men in question has relationships with other countries, she said, which makes the identification of a country willing to accept them nearly impossible.

James Covington, a spokesperson for ICE, did not return a request for comment.

The suit was announced by ACLU VA in tandem with a broader push to litigate more immigrants rights cases. In the past, the ACLU has focused on advocating against anti-trans policies, solitary confinement and voting restrictions.

Our new Immigrants Rights project will bring extra firepower to the existing fight by using our signature mix of litigation, policy, and organizing capacity to advocate for fairness in Virginia courts, according to the groups news release on Friday.

From the Archives: Professional baseball in Richmond, 1953-1990
WASHINGTON (AP)  At least two people died, thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, including hail and lightning, moved through the eastern U.S.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m. A special Weather Service statement warned, There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.

The storms' spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people were under a tornado watch Monday afternoon.

In Anderson, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy who arrived at his grandparents house during the storm was struck and killed when a tree fell on him as he got out of a car, according to the Anderson County Office of the Coroner.

In Florence, Alabama, police said a 28-year-old man was struck by lightning and died, WAAY-TV reported.

By Monday night, more than 2,600 U.S. flights had been canceled and nearly 7,900 delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Many cancellations were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which was digging out from disruptions caused by Sunday storms.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was rerouting planes around storms heading to the East Coast.

The White House pushed up by 90 minutes President Joe Bidens departure on a four-day trip thats taking him to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The White House also canceled a back-to-school cybersecurity event that was to feature first lady Jill Biden, who is a teacher, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and school administrators, educators and education technology providers from around the country.

The Office of Personnel Management announced Monday that all non-emergency employees would have to depart before 3 p.m., when all federal offices closed.

This does look to be one of the most impactful severe weather events across the Mid-Atlantic that we have had in some time, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Strong said in a Facebook live briefing.

The storms prompted federal workers to be sent home early so they wouldnt be in their cars amid wind, hail and tornadoes.

Strong advised residents: Have yourself in a strong shelter. Be at home or be at work.

The storms postponed a Major League Baseball game between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals in Philadelphia, and in Maryland, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning into Tuesday after 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain fell in a short amount of time.

By early evening, more than 1.1 million customers were without power across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia  all states along the storm systems path, according to poweroutage.us. The Knoxville Utilities Board tweeted that the damage across its service area in Tennessee was widespread and extensive and will likely take several days to repair.

Trees and power lines were toppled in multiple states, falling into roads and some homes, news outlets reported.

A row of utility poles was toppled in Westminster, Maryland, WJLA-TV reported.

In Hockessin, Delaware, at least one residence had the roof ripped off, 6ABC-TV reported.

We saw the clouds coming and could hear a rumbling in the distance," said Tom Tomovich, whose home was damaged. We went into the house and we were on the first floor, and before we could blink an eye the winds just came right through the back of our house.
The University of Virginia has informed employees that they will be banned from using TikTok and other Chinese-owned social media apps on university devices.

UVa officials say students wont be affected by the change.

The policy does not apply to students (other than students doing work for the University). Students' use of the listed apps and programs on personal devices will not be affected, even if they are using a University network, spokeswoman Bethanie Glover told The Daily Progress.

An email to employees regarding the policy change comes a month after Executive Order 24 from Gov. Glenn Youngkins office took effect.

Applications and websites such as TikTok and WeChat provide foreign governments, such as the Chinese Communist Party, with the potential to gain access to the information stored on mobile devices, including location services and browsing history, the order reads. As a result of the growing concern over foreign cybersecurity threats, the Department of Defense has already issued a directive to all service members to remove applications from their government-issued or owned devices.

Youngkin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Progress.

The new policy brings Virginia in line with the nearly half of U.S. states that have taken actions to ban the popular video-hosting social media app from government devices.

However, the new changes raise questions over free speech on Grounds at UVa and across the commonwealth.

A growing number of universities are banning TikTok. University students want to express themselves. They want to see others expressing themselves. Professors are using TikTok in class to study media and even politics, Adam Schwartz, senior staff attorney for Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for digital privacy and free speech, told The Daily Progress. This is so irrational to block one social media but not other ones that are not comparable and it harms freedom of expression.

Practically, anyone can work around the ban by switching from the school's Wi-Fi to cell service or another Wi-Fi network to access TikTok.

We are in the midst of a panic about TikTok in the absence of the federal government coming forward with evidence about it threatening our national security. It raises privacy concerns but so do many other social media companies. Students know and will bypass the rules, Schwartz said.

TikTok isnt unique in collecting personal data. American-based social media apps, such as Instagram, Facebook and Tinder, have all faced backlash and lawsuits for not following laws surrounding the collection of data on minors.

However, a report by Australian-American cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 concluded that TikToks data-collection process was more aggressive.

The facts are that at the time of our analysis, TikTok was doing things on your phone and getting away with it because the individual using the application was allowing it, Thomas Perkins, head engineer behind the report, told The Daily Progress. Their privacy policy (at the time of analysis) was extremely clear on what they collected, and their terms of service (at the time of our analysis) stated they would, and could, send the information they collect to any entity that requested it.

As the new school year begins, UVa said it would review infractions on a case-by-case basis.

By notifying University employees of the updated policy and the new state law, we are making them aware of the change and appreciate their cooperation and partnership in complying with the revision. The University will evaluate potential violations on a case-by-case basis, Glover said.
Virginias two big electric monopolies are stalling on a regulatory order asking them to detail their roles in what is forecast to be a $700 million annual cost for the charging infrastructure needed for electric vehicles, the Sierra Club says.

Dominion Energy, which serves most of the state, and Appalachian Power, the main utility in the western part of Virginia, filed their plans to address EV growth with the State Corporation Commission this spring.

They showed the utilities have done little so far, and have only vague plans for the years ahead, the Sierra Club said. It said the SCC should order them to file compliant plans with concrete details on rate plans and investments to cope with EV electricity use.

Dominion has said rapid growth in the number of EVs on Virginia roads is one reason why adding more natural gas-fired power plants to its fleet  which would boost its greenhouse gas emissions  is the most realistic long-term option for the next 15 and 25 years, even though the Virginia Clean Economy Act calls for it to emit no carbon by 2045.

The company fully supports transportation electrification because of its associated benefits to our customers and the Commonwealth, spokesman Jeremy Slayton said when asked for comment on the Sierra Club criticism.

He said Dominions effort is focused on three priorities: ease of adoption, universal access to charging, and coping with increased demand for electricity.

Environmental groups are skeptical of the companys forecasts of how quickly electricity use will grow, however. They also say EVs are essential in the states efforts to deal with climate change.

The General Assembly and the Commission have spent years working to advance transportation electrification in ways that promote equity and protect ratepayers, the Sierra Club wrote in its filing on the utilities EV plans.

Those efforts would be significantly undercut if they merely result in a unilateral decision by the utilities not to produce transportation electrification plans that provide the required analyses and identify investments or programs designed and scaled to ensure that new EVs are coupled with sufficient new charging infrastructure in ways that maximize grid, ratepayer, and environmental benefits, it added.

Spending on EV charging would reach $700 million a year by 2030, including $400 million that would be required for a public network of charging stations, according to modeling completed for the SCCs 2022 order on EV planning. The rest would be the cost of customers own private charging facilities.

But the five-year, $106 million of federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding for Virginia is available only through 2026.

Dominions filing did not detail any new investments, rates or educational programs needed to build out the network of charging stations  public and customer-based  to support likely growth in EVs, according to the Sierra Club.

While Dominions plan noted there were approximately 42,000 EVs in its territory as of Dec. 31, its rate plans for EV owners served only a little more than 1,300 customers, its filing stated.

In addition, according to the Sierra Club, Dominions plan did not provide sufficient detail about how to ensure that most EV charging occurs during off-peak times, in order to ease strain on the electric grid, since it did not identify a plan to provide effective time-of-use rates for most customers.

Because Dominions plan did not include any estimates of likely EV numbers, it does not mesh with Virginias requirements for greenhouse gas reductions, according to the Sierra Club.

Virginia should initiate an ongoing statewide process to identify all available buckets of investment in public charging infrastructure; determine where charging gaps exist; and find equitable ways to fill those gaps, the Sierra Club stated.

Appalachian Power disagreed with the Sierra Club assessment, spokeswoman Teresa Hamilton Hall said, adding that the company is committed to working with the public and private sector to accelerate use of EVs.

Close William F. Reed, station director at Dominion Bremo Power Station, stands in front of tanks that are part of the new treatment facility that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station. The facility treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. These tanks are part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. PHOTOS: New treatment facility at Bremo Power Station Dominion Bremo Power Station has a new treatment facility that treats and filters water from their coal ash ponds. After running through this multi-stage process and after being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. William F. Reed, station director at Dominion Bremo Power Station, stands in front of tanks that are part of the new treatment facility that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. This is part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station. The facility treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016. These tanks are part of Dominion Power's new treatment facility at the Bremo Power Station that treats and filters water from the power company's coal ash ponds. After running through the multi-stage process and being tested multiple times, it is released into the James River. Photo was taken Tuesday, April 26, 2016.
Male being investigated for Playa del Carmen murder for items found during drug arrest

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  A young male arrested on drug dealing charges is being investigated for murder. On Sunday, the Attorney General of Quintana Roo said that Donovan N was taken into custody for dealing narcotics.

Once in police custody, authorities began investigating him for a Playa del Carmen murder that took place July 23 of this year. The investigation stems from items found on Donovan N during his drug arrest.

According to police, during the arrest of Donovan N, the cell phone belonging to the victim, a cap and gloves used on the day of the aforementioned event were found.

The Attorney General reported that the body of the victim was found on July 23 of this year in a state of decomposition with injuries caused by a sharp object. The body was on a property in the Galaxias 2 subdivision.
Unclaimed cheques gets Houston passenger arrested inside Cancun International

Cancun, Q.R.  For the second time in as many days, another arrest at Cancun International was made for undeclared money. On Saturday, a man arriving from Houston was detained by National Guard inside the Cancun airport after being found with more than $39,000 in unclaimed cheques.

According to a statement from the Secretaria de Seguridad and Proteccion Ciudadana (SSPC), personnel from the National Customs Agency of Mexico found the 10 cheques during a luggage inspection. The unnamed mans luggage was routinely checked after he entered the nothing to declare lane inside the airport.

During the review, Mexican Customs personnel found 10 checks with a total value of $39,349 USD, which is legally considered paper money since cheques are issued by banks. The unidentified man, who had arrived to Cancun on a Houston flight, was taken into custody for failing to declare the money before tax authorities.

The value of the cheques exceeds the limit allowed by the Tax Administration Service (SAT) of Mexico to enter national territory without declaring, and thereby violating Article 9 of the Customs Law, a situation for which he was arrested, the SSPC reported.

Last week, a man arriving from Miami was detained inside the Cancun International Airport after Mexican Customs found wads of $100-dollar bills inside his hand luggage. He was found trying to enter Mexico with $32,400 USD in cash.
A search continues for a missing Blacksburg 16-year-old, town police said Monday.

A vehicle that may be involved in Celena Hosigs disappearance was spotted in Fort Worth, Texas, but she has not been found, police said.

Blacksburg investigators ask that anyone with information about the whereabouts of Celena call (540) 443-1400 or email bpdtipline@blacksburg.gov.

A news release issued Monday came a week after police first asked for help finding Celena, who was last seen on July 26, according to the earlier police statement. The 5-foot-6, 115-pound teen, who is white and has long hair and multiple piercings, might be traveling to Alabama or Louisiana in a silver Chevrolet HHR with Virginia registration TRW-8305, police said last week. The Chevy had a pushed-up rear bumper, possibly from an accident.

Closer to home, Celena also liked to hang out at river areas in Radford and Pulaski, police said.

The update issued Monday said that there was a confirmed sighting of the Chevrolet that Celena was thought to be traveling in. That was in Fort Worth, Texas, the update said.

Police earlier described Celena as having red hair  though police cautioned that she had been known to change its color  and piercings in her ears, nose, lip and septum. She also had tattoos on her back and ankle, police said, though they did not describe the tattoos.

Police did not say who the Chevrolet belonged to or who was thought to have been traveling in it besides possibly Celena.
Anheuser-Busch heir says his ancestors would be upset over the controversial Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney collaboration.

The former owner of the Bud Light parent has recently spoken up amid the PR fiasco that the beer maker is grappling with.

Anheuser-Busch Heir Slams Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Partnership

As per the New York Post, Billy Busch, a prominent figure within the beer dynasty, expressed his discontent with the controversial partnership between Bud Light and the trans influencer Mulvaney.

Busch, an heir to the Anheuser-Busch brewing fortune, said his ancestors would be "rolling in their graves" over the company's recent partnership with transgender model Mulvaney. He recently spoke with "TMZ Live" to promote his new book, "Family Reins: The Extraordinary Rise and Epic Fall of an American Dynasty." Besides speaking about his book, he dabbled in the controversial partnership with the famous beer maker.

The Anheuser-Busch heir told TMZ's Harvey Levin that his "ancestors would have rolled over in their graves." He says, "They believed that transgender, gays, that sort of thing was all a very personal issue."

The former brewing firm owner also pointed out that his ancestors loved America since it is a free country that lets its population do what they want. However, Busch says the trans influencer "was never meant to be on a beer can and never meant to be pushed in people's faces."

Busch also continued to stress that Bud Light drinkers are mostly the "blue-collar worker who goes and works hard every single day." He argued that these folks would not want that messaging "pushed down their throat."

However, TMZ's Levin told Busch that the giant beer maker had been sponsoring pride events even before the collab with the trans influencer. Yet, Anheuser-Busch says that "I just [do not] think the audience that drinks beer is into transgenders."

Read Also: Bud Light Parent Anheuser-Busch Lays Off Employees After Dylan Mulvaney Boycott Controversy

Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Backlash

The Bud Light-Mulvaney partnership has been met with mixed reactions. Some people have praised the company for its inclusivity, while others have criticized it for being "woke."

However, the latter aggressively expressed disgust with the recent collab with the trans influencer. The New York Post notes in its report that Anheuser-Busch felt the effects of the widespread boycott campaign by conservatives and right-wingers. The brewing firm's revenue in the United States slumped by roughly 10 percent. It is equivalent to about $400 million worth of sales.

On top of that, The Daily Mail reports that Bud Light lost its crown as the best-selling beer brand in the US. Its close rival Modelo Especial dethroned it following the intense backlash over the Mulvaney partnership.

Related Article: Controversial Ad With Dylan Mulvaney Caused Major Drop in Sales, Bud Light No Longer #1

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
As the two people who were arrested at Julys Roanoke County School Board meeting were arraigned on misdemeanor charges Monday morning, supporters of trans youths rights rallied outside the county courthouse.

You cant remove us. You cant make this be silent, said Samantha Newell, who organized the rally through Facebook. People exist. Their lives, their identities, who they love, it all matters, and were going to keep showing up.

Danny M. Clawson of Roanoke and Benjamin C. James of Roanoke County were charged with trespassing July 27 after Roanoke County School Board members asked the public to leave the meeting room.

During that meeting, the board had unanimously passed a new policy regarding classroom displays and decor. After a public comment period ended, the county board said in a statement, a handful of individuals chose to be disruptive and disrespectful, and then chairman Brent Hudson asked police to clear the room.

Clawson and James refused to leave and were escorted out of the building in handcuffs, with Clawson chanting, Protect trans kids! according to a video captured by James.

A couple people were brave enough to stand their ground in support of the trans youth and community and were arrested, Newell said Monday. We wanted to be here specifically to support those that were arrested and to bring attention to it.

Im grateful for the media attention, not for myself, but for the kids, because whats happening at the Roanoke County schools is so harmful to them, Clawson said after Mondays court proceeding. I think thats really why all these people are here today is because they support the rights of trans children in the school district and they want to help protect trans kids.

Clawson said that their arrest and James arrest are a distraction from issues that matter.

I absolutely hope that these charges get dismissed. Obviously, I cannot speak to any of the court proceedings that are going on right now, but I think that we really need to be focusing on the issues here, they said. What we really need to be focusing on is the policies that are harming trans children and working to enact policies that are protecting them.

Clawson said the school board should listen to its constituents and to Roanoke County students.

The students came on that night and spoke, have been speaking to the school board, parents have been speaking to the school board, Clawson said. The vast majority of their constituents support the current policies that are in place that are very supportive for trans kids. We dont need to update our policies. Theyre fine just as they are, and wed really encourage them to take a step back from the more divisive forces in our country and really focus on the children and the families.

Clawson and James are expected back in Roanoke County General District Court on Oct. 25, when their cases are set for trial. Clawson has retained Roanoke-area defense attorney Chris Anderson, but James is still looking for a lawyer. Hes scheduled to return to court Aug. 21 to be appointed an attorney if he cant retain his own.

General District Judge Frederick King said the trespassing charges are serious matters and carry a maximum potential sentence of 12 months in jail. Clawson and James left the courthouse Monday after agreeing to return to for the scheduled hearings.
" " Public water fountains were a ubiquitous part of public life before the advent of the environmentally disastrous plastic water bottle. H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images

Back in the 2000s, James Salzman, a professor of environmental law at UCLA, was explaining to a classroom full of students that the public water supply was safer than it had ever been, when he noticed something odd. Instead of relying on one of the building's drinking fountains, half of the class had brought bottled water with them.

Since then, things haven't changed. "Sales of bottled water now exceed sales of soft drinks," notes Salzman, author of the book, "Drinking Water: A History."

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We're in an age when many Americans choose to pay to obtain hydration from a single-use, disposable plastic bottle, instead of relying upon drinking fountains, a technology for delivering water to thirsty people that's been around for centuries. It's a technology that is seen as so important for health that the International Plumbing Code calls for having one fountain for every 100 occupants in schools and office buildings.

While the drinking fountain hasn't vanished from the built environment by any means  many places still have regulations requiring them in buildings, experts note  their future seems unsure. But if you've ever searched for a drinking fountain in a big-box store or shopping mall and finally located one tucked in some obscure corner, it may feel otherwise. Some view them as an anachronism. A recent opinion article in an architectural magazine bore the headline: "Do we need the commercial office drinking fountain?"

While nobody is really sure exactly how many drinking fountains there are in public and private buildings and outdoor areas in the U.S., "There are certainly fewer than there used to be," says Peter H. Gleick in an email. He's the co-founder and president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, and author of the book "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water."

But while drinking fountains might seem as if they're going the way of the telephone booth, there also are signs that they are making a comeback, thanks to concerns about the environmental impact of disposable plastic bottles.
" " Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, accused Russia of using a vacuum bomb, also known as a thermobaric bomb, against the Ukrainian military. Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

As Russia's horrifying invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, Oksana Markarova, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., has alleged that Russia used a vacuum bomb. According to reports, the attack was aimed at a Ukrainian army base in Okhtyrka and 70 soldiers were killed in the blast.

The use of a vacuum bomb has yet to be independently confirmed. But on Feb. 26, 2022, CNN reported that members of its team had spotted Russian military vehicles fitted with thermobaric rocket launchers near the Ukrainian border.

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Vacuum bombs, or thermobaric weapons, work in two stages. Stage one releases a large cloud of combustible material, usually fuel or small metal particles such as aluminium. Stage two triggers an explosion that ignites this material to create a massive fireball and a shock wave. The effect is similar to what's caused in accidental dust explosions in coal mines or flour mills, where the flammable particles become so dispersed, they catch fire and generate huge blasts.

Thermobaric weapons are also called vacuum bombs because the explosion sucks up all the oxygen around the device. This process leaves victims close to the explosion unable to breathe, killing them by asphyxiation. Besides suffocation, the pressure from the explosion can essentially crush a person to death and cause major internal damage to the body's organs, such as rupturing the lungs.

The effects of thermobaric weapons are much more intense and destructive than a more conventional bomb. The explosion lasts longer and happens at a much higher temperature. As a result, these weapons can devastate vast areas of land, destroy buildings and can even vaporize a human body from the extreme heat. The materials used are also often highly toxic and can be as dangerous as chemical weapons.

Thermobaric weapons are not seen as very effective against heavily armored targets, so we wouldn't expect them to be used on targets such as tanks. They are suited to taking out infrastructure, troops and civilians.

Russia's use of thermobaric weapons raises serious legal concerns. Markarova has said that the alleged attack would violate the terms of the Geneva Conventions. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has noted that if the allegations are true  as well as allegations Russia used cluster bombs, another controversial weapon  this would potentially be considered an international war crime.

This wouldn't be the first time Russia has employed these devices. Human Rights Watch condemned Russia for using vacuum bombs in Chechnya in 1999, noting that these weapons "kill and injure in a particularly brutal manner." In 2007, Russia tested the largest ever thermobaric weapon, dubbing it the "father of all bombs." Russia has also reportedly used these weapons in Syria.

Other countries have also used these weapons. For example, the U.S. employed thermobaric devices, not only in the Gulf War, but also in Vietnam and against al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Given Russia's history of using thermobaric weapons, it would not be surprising if they are found to have been employed in this case. But the move would signal a worrying intensification of the conflict. Russia may be trying to speed up its invasion of Ukraine by using more destructive weapons rather than more conventional bombs.

Michelle Bentley is a reader in international relations and director of the Royal Holloway Centre for international security at Royal Holloway University of London. She receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. You can find the original article here.
" " There's some unexpected physics at work in the solar atmosphere. Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images

One of the weird things about space is that things don't always conform to what would seem like common sense. Take the sun, for example. You'd think that the sun's surface would be hotter than its outer atmosphere, since, the surface is closer to the nuclear furnace at the sun's core. After all, when you're sitting in front of a fireplace, it feels hotter when you get closer to it, right?

The problem is that the sun doesn't work that way. The photosphere, as the solar surface is called, is indeed pretty hot, between 6,700 and 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3,700 to 6,200 degrees Celsius). But the further you get from the sun's surface, the hotter the atmosphere seems to get. At the corona  the outermost atmospheric layer about 1,200 miles (2,100 kilometers) from the surface  the temperature soars to an astonishing 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit (500,000 degrees Celsius).

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Besides the sun, some other stars exhibit this curious pattern as well, and for a long time, scientists struggled to figure out why. They developed a hypothesis, in which magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves distribute energy from below the photosphere directly up to the corona, almost like an express train with no local stops.

In 2013, British researchers used advances in imaging technology to examine the chromosphere, the layer between the photosphere and the corona, and actually examined the MHD waves. Their calculations confirmed that the waves could be responsible for transporting energy to the corona and heating that layer.

"Our observations have permitted us to estimate the amount of energy transported by the magnetic waves, and these estimates reveal that the waves' energy meets the energy requirement for the unexplained temperature increase in the corona," Richard Morton, a scientist for the U.K.'s Northumbria University, explained when announcing the discovery.

Now That's Interesting The sun has tornadoes, and they're even hotter than the rest of the atmosphere; one observed by NASA in 2015 had a temperature of 5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2.78 million degrees Celsius).
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Sunshine and a few clouds. Near record high temperatures. High 106F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 78F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Niger: il est encore possible de mettre fin au coup d'Etat, assure Washington

Il est encore possible de mettre fin par la diplomatie au coup d'Etat au Niger, a declare lundi un porte-parole de la diplomatie americaine a Washington.




At least eight people have died after two Russian missiles hit a residential building in east Ukraine, on the same day Vladimir Putin has ordered the state-owned defence conglomerate to produce more attack drones.

Five people, including four civilians and one emergency official, were killed after the rockets hit an apartment complex in the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region on Monday, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

At least 31 more have been injured, as videos from outside the building show emergency services rescuing people trapped under the rubble and treating the wounded.

Writing on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Russia will be held accountable for everything it has done in this terrible war.

It came as the UKs Foreign Office told The Independent it was reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion.

Speaking to Independent TV from Kyivs presidential compound, Ms Zelenska called for an urgent crackdown on such trade to strangle Moscows funds.

Key Points

Independent TV: Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenskas interview with Bel Trew

Ukraine and Russia confirm Kyiv hits Chonhar bridge to Crimea

Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight

Volodymyr Zelensky condemns Russian attack on blood transfusion centre

Russia attacks eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days, deputy defence minister says

Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings kill five in east Ukraine, Kyiv says

Russian informant detained over Zelensky assassination plot, Kyiv says

Monday 7 August 2023 14:44 , Eleanor Noyce

A Russian informant has been detained over a plot to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv has said.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said it has detained a Russian informant who was preparing a Russian airstrike in the Mykolaiv region during the visit of the President of Ukraine.

Story continues

The alleged informant on the eve of the recent trip of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv region, was gathering intelligence about the planned visit, the service said, referencing a trip Zelensky made to the region in July.

In a statement, the SBU said that the individual tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region, but agents had obtained information about the subversive activities of the suspect and subsequently introduced additional security measures.

Monitoring the communications of the woman - who has not been named, but is understood to be a resident of Ochakov in southern Ukraine - the service established that she had been tasked with locating electronic warfare systems and warehouses with ammunition of the armed forces.

The individual allegedly travelled around the district and filmed the locations of Ukrainian objects.

Zelensky attends an event on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood held on Mykhailivska Square in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, 28 July 2023 (EPA)

Exclusive: Ukraines children losing the will to live, First Lady says

Monday 7 August 2023 21:30 , Maanya Sachdeva

From inside the heavily-guarded Ukraine presidential compound in Kyiv, First Lady Olena Zelenska has spoken in a rare and wide ranging interview with The Independents Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew.

During their discussion Mrs Zelenska blasted countries for circumventing Russian sanctions, saying the conflict in her nation will drag on endlessly until Russias ability to wage war is stopped.

She also warned Ukraines children are losing the will to live in an emotional plea for help, as she spoke of the struggle to retrieve the children disappeared into Russia.

Watch the full interview here:

Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenskas interview with Bel Trew

Exclusive: Foreign Office to act over Ukraine first ladys plea on sanctions

Monday 7 August 2023 21:11 , Andy Gregory

The government is reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion.

The Foreign Office has expressed its fury over sanctions-busting efforts by Russian allies to use a third country to continue trading with Moscow despite the hefty economic measures imposed since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.

The government is weighing how it can act and hopes to move imminently, The Independent can reveal, after Ukraines first lady made the plea in an interview with Independent TV, which you can watch here.

My colleagues Kate Devlin and Bel Trew have the full story here:

Foreign Office fury at sanctions-busting by Russian allies  after Zelenskas plea

US Justice Department helping Ukraine in war crimes investigations

Monday 7 August 2023 21:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

The US Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday as he reaffirmed his departments aid more than a year after the Russian invasion.

Congress recently allowed for new US flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of the United States cooperation, Garland highlighted.

We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability, he said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.

We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable, he added.

He appointed a prosecutor to serve at a center opened last month in The Hague to support nations building cases against senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression.

International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression will not issue indictments or arrest warrants for suspects but will instead support investigations already underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The Justice Department is giving wide-ranging assistance to Ukraine, from training on prosecuting environmental crimes to help developing a secure electronic case-management system for more than 90,000 suspected atrocity crimes.

Garland also touted the $500 million seized assets and over three dozen indictments the department has handed down to enforce sanctions.

Ukraine must do three things simultaneously: it must fight a war; it must investigate war crimes; and it must ensure that a just society comes out on the other side of the war, he said.

The Justice Department is honored to stand with them.

Ukraine says Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings kill five in east

Monday 7 August 2023 20:12 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two Russian missile strikes killed five people and injured 31 when they hit residential buildings in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Monday.

Videos and pictures released by Ukrainian officials showed people sorting through the rubble including a badly damaged five-story apartment building. An ambulance was on the scene treating the wounded.

According to Klymenko, four civilians died in the first attack and Donetsk emergency official was killed during the second attack.

Facade of the residential apartment that was hit by Russian rockets on Monday (Ihor Klymenko/Telegram (obtained by Kyiv Independent))

Search and rescue operations were ongoing, Klymenko said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraines presidential administration, later reported two more victims of Russian strikes in Kruhliakivka village in Kupiansk district.

Russia blasts peace talks in Saudi Arabia as pointless

Monday 7 August 2023 20:07 , Maanya Sachdeva

Russias foreign ministry on Monday criticised efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks dont have the slightest added value because Moscow - unlike Kyiv - was not invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered on Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

But without Russias participation and without taking into account Moscows interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

It repeated previous assurances that Russia is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and is ready to respond to serious proposals.

Let's make this clear. Any scenario of a ceasefire and freezing of the war in Ukraine in the current disposition will mean only one thing - Russia's actual victory and Putin's personal triumph. International law will ultimately lose any force, and the "law of the jungle" will be    (@Podolyak_M) August 7, 2023

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, ruled out Moscows previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no Kyiv compromise on that.

Restaurant frequented by journalists was target of Donetsk attacks'

Monday 7 August 2023 19:35 , Maanya Sachdeva

A Ukrainian journalist, Denys Kazansky has shared more footage from outside the residential building that was hit by Russian rockets in the eastern city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk.

He claimed Corleone, a restaurant on the ground floor of the apartment complex, was the target since it was frequented by journalists and volunteers.

At least 2 dead civilians in Pokrovsk



There was "Corleone" restaurant on the ground floor of the house that was hit by the rocket. Volunteers and journalists often visit it. It was the target



Russians repeated what they did in Kramatorsk, where they bombed RIO cafe with people pic.twitter.com/5pkZy1HVxs    (@den_kazansky) August 7, 2023

Two dead after Russian missiles hit residential building in east Ukraine, Kyiv says

Monday 7 August 2023 19:09 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two people were killed in two Russian missile strikes on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraines presidential administration, said on Monday.

As of now, it is known about two dead people - a woman and a man. The four wounded were taken away by an ambulance. Rescuers and medics are working, Yermak said in his Telegram channel.

There are victims: Russian missiles hit residential building in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 18:51 , Maanya Sachdeva

Two Russian missile strikes hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

He wrote on his Telegram channel: Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit. Unfortunately, there are victims.

Rescuers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues.

Kyiv troops hold initiative over Putins forces on frontline

Monday 7 August 2023 18:26 , Maanya Sachdeva

Ukrainian troops are creating conditions to advance forward step-by-step and have the initiative on the battlefield, Ukraines commander-in-chief said on Monday.

Kyivs defensive lines are stable with troops repelling Russian attempts to counter-attack and distract Ukrainian forces from other parts of the front, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Heavy fighting is underway, and step-by-step, Ukrainian troops are continuing to create the conditions to advance. The initiative is on our side, Zaluzhnyi said after a telephone call with US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive at the start of the summer, attempting to retake swathes of territory captured by Russia in the south and east of the country.

Officials have brushed aside criticism that they are advancing slowly, saying they are trying to avoid high casualties as they attack well-fortified Russian lines that are strewn with landmines.

ICYMI: Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 17:31 , Eleanor Noyce

Point-of-view footage shows the moment a camera operator had to run for cover during what a Russian official said was Ukrainian shelling on Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, 5 August.

The camera was following firefighters as they approached a university building in the city, which was burning after what Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin called a Ukrainian attack.

Moments later, a loud blast is heard and the camera operator runs away whilst crouching down.

Kulemzin said initial reports indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions - this has not been independently verified.

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Ukraine says Jeddah talks 'huge blow' to Russia, new meeting agreed

Monday 7 August 2023 17:05 , Eleanor Noyce

A senior Ukrainian official said on Monday that the weekends talks in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine dealt a huge blow to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks that were seen as an attempt by Kyiv to build a broader coalition of powers to support its vision of peace.

We will hold another meeting within a month, month-and-a-half and we will move towards (holding) a summit, presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promoted a set of 10 principles that Kyiv wants to serve as the basis for peace to end the full-scale war launched by Moscow in February 2022.

The principles include the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

Yermak said all the countries present at the talks in Jeddah fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity, and that only peace initiatives put forward by Ukraine were discussed at the meeting.

Ukrainian troops creating conditions to advance - commander-in-chief

Monday 7 August 2023 16:45 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukrainian troops are creating conditions to advance forward step-by-step and have the initiative on the battlefield, Ukraines commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Monday.

Zaluzhnyi also said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that the Ukrainian defence was stable with troops repelling Russian attempts to counter-attack and distract Ukrainian forces from other areas of the front.

China tells Russia it will uphold 'impartial' position on Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 16:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Monday that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Wangs comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday that said China would be an objective and rational voice at any international multilateral forums and actively promote peace talks. The statement came after the ministry said earlier on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped to consolidate international consensus.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to try to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine it launched in February 2022. It has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine, while the United States and NATO were sceptical.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi poses as he meets Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, 26 July 2023 (via REUTERS)

Russia blasts Saudi Arabia talks on ending war in Ukraine after Moscow gets no invitation to attend

Monday 7 August 2023 16:15 , Eleanor Noyce

Russias Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks dont have the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  wasnt invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

Read more:

Russia blasts Saudi Arabia talks on ending war in Ukraine after Moscow gets no invitation to attend

Ex-FBI agent accused of working for Russian oligarch may change plea

Monday 7 August 2023 16:05 , Eleanor Noyce

A former FBI agent accused by U.S. prosecutors of working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska may change his plea in relation to criminal charges of evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering, court records showed on Monday.

Charles McGonigal had previously pleaded not guilty. A change of plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden in Manhattan has been scheduled for 15 August.

McGonigals lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

Prosecutors in January said McGonigal, who led the FBIs counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, received concealed payments from Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch and unsuccessfully pushed in 2019 to lift U.S. sanctions on Deripaska.

The charges against McGonigal came as U.S. prosecutors ramped up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal , was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.

Japan raises concerns over Iran's nuclear enrichment and drone supplies to Russia for Ukraine war

Monday 7 August 2023 16:00 , Eleanor Noyce

Japan expressed concern on Monday over Irans advancing uranium enrichment program and the Middle East countrys suspected supplying of combat drones to Moscow for Russias war on Ukraine.

Japans Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi raised the two issues during talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said. A statement from the ministry said Hayashi appealed for Iran to act constructively in the matter but did not elaborate.

Read more:

Japan raises concerns over Iran's nuclear enrichment and drone supplies to Russia for Ukraine war

Ukraine says Jeddah peace talks 'huge blow' to Russia, new meeting agreed

Monday 7 August 2023 15:49 , Eleanor Noyce

The Ukrainian presidents chief of staff said on Monday that talks about the Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia at the weekend dealt a huge blow to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

Andriy Yermak told a briefing in Kyiv that no other peace initiatives were discussed at the meeting in Jeddah apart from Ukraines, and that all countries present at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

Chief of Staff of Ukrainian Presidential Office Andriy Yermak speaks during a press conference, 29 June 2023 (REUTERS)

China's foreign minister Wang Yi holds call with Russian counterpart - ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 15:45 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the phone, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

On the Ukraine crisis, Wang told Lavrov that China will uphold an independent and impartial position, actively promote peace talks and strive to find a political settlement to the issue, according to the statement.

Russian leftist dissident critical of war designated a "terrorist"

Monday 7 August 2023 15:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Prominent Russian sociologist and leftist political activist Boris Kagarlitsky was designated a terrorist on Monday, weeks after being arrested under an article that forbids public calls for terrorist activities using the Internet.

Since starting the war in February 2022, Russia has made it a crime to discredit its armed forces and cracked down on those who oppose what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine.

Kagarlitsky, 64, known as a dissident since Soviet times, has repeatedly spoken out against the war in a magazine he edited and on his YouTube channel.

Kagarlitsky, who teaches at the private Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences, had already been designated a foreign agent since 2018, and on Monday he appeared on a list of registered terrorists on the website of Russias Federal Financial Monitoring Service.

He was detained last month by the FSB security service and remanded in custody for two months in the city of Syktyvkar, 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Polish Border Guard asks for 1,000 more soldiers on Belarus frontier

Monday 7 August 2023 15:10 , Eleanor Noyce

Polands Border Guard has asked the defence ministry to send another 1,000 troops to the border with Belarus, the deputy interior minister said on Monday, amid an increase in attempts to illegally cross the frontier.

The head of the Border Guard, Tomasz Praga, said this year 19,000 people had tried to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally, up from 16,000 last year.

The general (Praga) asked to move another 1,000 soldiers to the Polish-Belarusian border, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said.

Poland has built a face on the border with Belarus, equipped with electronic protection.

In recent weeks, soldiers from the Wagner mercenary group have appeared near the border, which, according to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, is aimed at destabilising the situation on NATOs eastern flank.

End of war only possible if Kyiv lays down arms, Russia says

Monday 7 August 2023 15:00 , Maanya Sachdeva

Russia has said the end of the war in Ukraine is only possible if Kyiv stopped the hostilities and terrorist attacks and western countries ceased supplying arms, according to a report.

Moscow was commenting on the two-day talks held in Jeddah over the weekend, when over 40 countries came together to discuss the peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflict.

According to The Guardian, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: The original foundations of Ukraines sovereignty  its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status  must be confirmed.

Russia also called on Ukraine to cede its occupied territories to Moscow, as per AFP.

Ukraine MP says key German lawmakers reach consensus on long-range missile supply

Monday 7 August 2023 14:45 , Eleanor Noyce

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said on Monday that key parliamentary factions in Germany had reached a consensus to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500 km (310 miles) but that an official decision was yet to come.

Germanys defence minister said last week Berlin does not plan to supply the missiles for now and that the weapons are not the most urgent priority. A ministry spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that Berlins position had not changed.

However Yehor Chernev, a lawmaker who heads Ukraines delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said: My friends in the Bundestag just told me that key parliamentary factions have reached consensus regarding the transfer to Ukraine of long-range Taurus missiles.

Weve worked for a long time with German parliamentarians to form a support group and now finally the ice has broken. We await an official decision, he wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine is hoping to secure long-range weapons from the West to strike back at Russia which has used an array of missiles fired from hundreds of kilometres away to wreak damage on its infrastructure.

Intense defensive and offensive operations underway on front line, Zelensky says

Monday 7 August 2023 14:30 , Maanya Sachdeva

Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky has said intense defensive and offensive operations are underway on the front line, as the war enters a pivotal, new phase on the 530th day since Russia launched a special military operation in the country.

Zelensky shared updates from his daily conference call with ministers on the situation in Ukraine, where at least three people were killed after Moscow launched a multi-wave overnight assault in retaliation for attacks on its naval vessels in the Black Grain sea last week.

Writing on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Zelensky said: We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway.

The daily conference call.



We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway.



The Ministry of Defense reported on the supply of equipment and ammunition, as well as the supply calendar for pic.twitter.com/7SlGd4lR1w    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 7, 2023

He also reported we understand the enemys immediate plans, noting that he had received data from Russia that was provided by the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Foreign Intelligence Service.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Monday 7 August 2023 14:00 , 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.

Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV from Monday 7 August.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 13:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Point-of-view footage shows the moment a camera operator had to run for cover during what a Russian official said was Ukrainian shelling on Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, 5 August.

The camera was following firefighters as they approached a university building in the city, which was burning after what Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin called a Ukrainian attack.

Moments later, a loud blast is heard and the camera operator runs away whilst crouching down.

Kulemzin said initial reports indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions - this has not been independently verified.

Watch:

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Russia attacks eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days, deputy defence minister says

Monday 7 August 2023 13:06 , Eleanor Noyce

Kyiv has pushed back Putins forces around Bakhmut despite continuous artillery fire, Ukraine has said.

Hanna Maliar, the deputy minister of defence of Ukraine, said that Russia has attacked eastern Ukraine over 9,000 times in recent days.

The enemy spent almost half a million rounds of ammunition in the East last week alone, Ms Maliar said, adding that our fighters continued offensive operations on the Bakhmut front under such continuous artillery fire.

The news comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germanys IRIS-T, were proving highly effective and had already yielded significant results.

Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down a significant part of Moscows attacks over the past week, which included 65 missiles of various kinds and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds - despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted residential buildings and civilians, leaving some dead.

Kyiv struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsulas northeast coast on Sunday, Moscow-appointed officials and Ukraines armed forces said.

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 13:00 , 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.

Read more:

Heres why Putin really invaded Ukraine

ICYMI: Russias war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Monday 7 August 2023 12:30 , Eleanor Noyce

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

Jim Heintz has more:

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

In pictures: Serhiy Prytula crowdfunds for Ukrainian military

Monday 7 August 2023 12:06 , Eleanor Noyce

Serhiy Prytula, a former stand-up comedian whose crowdfunding campaigns for the Ukrainian military have made him a national hero, has been pictured alongside volunteers loading equipment for the army.

Crouching beside Ukrainian-made kamikaze drones on a runway, TV star Serhiy Prytula appears keen to taunt Moscow with a crowdfunded fleet that experts have linked with recent strikes inside Russia.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jeddah talks were successful contribution to Ukraine peace - Berlin

Monday 7 August 2023 11:44 , Eleanor Noyce

A conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine was a successful meeting because it showed the willingness of the international community to work towards ending the war, a German government spokesperson said on Monday.

Germany will also continue to engage actively including in this process, the spokesperson said at a regular news conference in Berlin.

Russian tourism to Crimea halves

Monday 7 August 2023 11:34 , Eleanor Noyce

The number of Russian tourists travelling to Crimea has decreased by close to half within weeks as Ukraine has intensified its attacks on the peninsula.

According to Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, hotel bookings fell by 45 per cent in comparison with the beginning of the month, with hotel occupancy decreasing to between 50 and 60 per cent.

People gather at the beach area of the Black Sea, in Balaklava's bay, a part of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula (AP)

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 11:15 , Eleanor Noyce

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

ICYMI: Former MP killed while defending Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 11:01 , Eleanor Noyce

A former member of Ukraines parliament was killed in combat at the Zaporizhzhian region, the government confirmed yesterday.

Serhiy Slabenko who served the parliament from 2002 to 2006 and then served as a deputy of the Volyn Regional Council was killed in action on 4 August.

He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. His body will be brought home today.

ICYMI: Ukraine replaces Soviet coat of arms with trident on towering Kyiv landmark

Monday 7 August 2023 10:50 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukraine has replaced the Soviet emblem that once adorned one of the nations most recognizable landmarks with the countrys coat of arms.

The symbolic move is part of a wider shift throughout Ukraine to reclaim the countrys cultural identity from the Soviet past amid Russias ongoing invasion.

Read more:

Ukraine replaces Soviet coat of arms with trident on towering Kyiv landmark

Ukraine says 22 soldiers return in latest prisoner swap with Russia

Monday 7 August 2023 10:40 , Eleanor Noyce

Russia and Ukraine carried out the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges on Monday, with 22 Ukrainian soldiers returning home, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiys office, said the released servicemen included two officers, sergeants and privates who fought in different parts of the front. Some of them were wounded.

A video posted on Telegram showed soldiers wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags posing for pictures and shouting Glory to Ukraine. Today we have returned 22 Ukrainian fighters home from captivity, Yermak said, adding the oldest of them was 54 years old and the youngest 23.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Yermak gave no other details on the exchange.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners in the course of the war, now in its 18th month.

Ukraine grain exports total 2.56 million metric tonnes so far 2023/24 -ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 10:30 , Eleanor Noyce

Ukraines grain exports have risen to 2.56 million metric tonnes so far in the 2023/24 July-June season from 2 million tonnes at the same time of the season last year, Agriculture Ministry data showed on Monday.

Exports have been affected since Russia quit a United Nations-backed grain deal last month but the ministrys data did not give a breakdown on exports since the deal collapsed.

The total volume of grain exports this season included 1.27 million tonnes of corn, 977,000 tons of wheat and 329,000 tons of barley.

That compared with exports of 1.3 million tonnes of corn, 467,000 tonnes of wheat and 180,000 tonnes of barley as of 6 August 2022, the data showed.

Exports for the entire 2022/23 season were almost 49 million tons, exceeding the previous seasons 48.4 million tons.

Most of the volume was exported via deep Black Sea ports under the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July to tackle a global food crisis worsened by Russias invasion of Ukraine and blockade of Ukrainian ports.

Russia left the deal on 17 July after saying its demands to ease sanctions on its own grain and fertiliser exports had not been met. Moscow also complained that not enough grain had reached poor countries.

A major grain grower and exporter, Ukraines grain output dropped to about 53 million tonnes in clean weight in calendar 2022, down from a record 86 million tons in 2021.

The ministry has said the crop could fall to around 46 million tonnes of grain in 2023.

Germany expands investment guarantees in Ukraine - econ ministry

Monday 7 August 2023 10:24 , Eleanor Noyce

Germany on Monday announced that its guarantees for German companies investing in Ukraine would be expanded beyond property damage.

From now on, the guarantees will also cover conversion and transfer risks for interest payments on quasi-equity loans often used by German companies to fund Ukrainian subsidiaries, a statement from the economy ministry said.

Fourteen companies are currently making use of the guarantees covering a total maximum liability of 280 million euros ($307.24 million), the ministry said, adding that it had received further applications and would process them swiftly.

China says Jeddah talks on Ukraine helped to 'consolidate international consensus'

Monday 7 August 2023 10:10 , Eleanor Noyce

Chinas foreign ministry said on Monday that recent international talks in Saudi Arabia on resolving the Ukraine crisis helped consolidate international consensus.

Chinas Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis...listened to all sides opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus, the foreign ministry said in a written statement.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.

Watch: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 10:00 , Tara Cobham

Ukraine says three killed in Russian shelling of Kherson and Kharkiv region

Monday 7 August 2023 09:46 , Tara Cobham

A woman was killed early on Monday when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, while two other people were killed in Russian shelling of border areas of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, officials said.

Both the city of Kherson and parts of the Kharkiv region are directly adjacent to the front line. The Ukrainian military has reported increased Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region in recent days.

"A difficult night for Kherson ... The Russian army continued to shell Kherson residents' homes in the central part of the city," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.

Prokudin said the shelling had started around midnight and lasted for several hours.

Separately, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram that two civilians had been killed and three others wounded during Russian shelling of border areas of Kharkiv region on Monday morning.

The details of the Ukrainian reports could not be independently verified.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 08:55 , Tara Cobham

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Ukraine says Western weapons seeing significant results

Monday 7 August 2023 08:13 , Tara Cobham

Ukraine is seeing "significant results" from U.S. and German air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted civilians and residential buildings.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germany's IRIS-T, were proving "highly effective" and had "already yielded significant results."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had shot down a significant part of Russia's attacks over the past week, which included 65 missiles of various kinds and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds.

Ukraine's military said later that Russia had launched 30 missiles and 48 air strikes.

"Unfortunately, there are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure suffered destruction," the military said in a statement.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a celebration of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Sunday, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine (via REUTERS)

Ukraine and Russia confirm Kyiv hits Chonhar bridge to Crimea

Monday 7 August 2023 07:57 , Chris Stevenson

Ukraine struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsula's northeast coast on Sunday, Moscow-appointed officials and Ukraine's armed forces said.

"The enemy launched a missile strike in the area of the Chonhar bridge in the north of Crimea," Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, wrote on Telegram. "One hit, part of the missile was hit by air defence." The road surface was damaged, traffic diverted and repairs had begun, he said.

Acting Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo -- another Moscow appointee -- said without providing evidence that the strike on the Chonhar bridge, one of three road links between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, involved an Anglo-French Storm Shadow missile.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine Strategic Communications Directorate said the strike damaged the road surface of the bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under its control. Ukraine struck the same bridge in June.

The directorate said Ukrainian strikes had also left the smaller Henichesk bridge sagging but provided no further details. Reuters could not immediately verify the condition of either bridge nor the munitions used.

Saldo said Ukrainian shelling wounded a civilian driver and damaged a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge serving Henichesk, the temporary administrative centre of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas. He said a village school was also damaged.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexedfrom Ukraine in 2014 and which is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

Hide and seek. Last night, dozens of russian missiles and Shaheds searched for Ukrainian planes and Storm Shadow missiles at the airfields. But it wasnt until today, in Chonhar and near Henichesk, that the russians finally found them. pic.twitter.com/Ei09qyFwR2  Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 6, 2023

Russian air defence takes down drone near Kaluga region bordering Moscow

Monday 7 August 2023 07:30 , Shweta Sharma

Russias air defence system destroyed a drone resembling an aircraft over the Ferzikovskyi district in the Kaluga region, Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app on Monday.

The Kaluga region shares a border with the Moscow region to its north. Mr Shapsha emphasised that this incident had no adverse effects on individuals or infrastructure.

There has been no impact on people or infrastructure, he said.

The origin of the launched drones remains unclear, and as of now, there has been no immediate response from Ukraine. It is worth noting that Kyiv rarely takes public responsibility for attacks conducted within Russia or on territories controlled by Russia in Ukraine.

Although Russian authorities have attributed the recent surge in drone attacks within Russia to Kyiv, there hasnt been any confirmation or official statement from Ukraine regarding this matter.

Ukraine says woman killed in Russian shelling of Kherson

Monday 7 August 2023 07:10 , Shweta Sharma

A woman was killed early Monday due to shelling by Russian forces in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to statements from regional officials.

A difficult night for Kherson... The Russian army continued to shell Kherson residents homes in the central part of the city, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The shelling commenced around midnight and persisted for several hours.

In November, Ukraine regained control of Kherson city and portions of the Kherson region following months of Russian occupation. However, Russian forces consistently subjected the city and its surroundings to shelling from across the Dnipro river.

This month, another tragic incident occurred as a doctor lost their life, and a nurse sustained injuries due to Russian shelling targeting a Kherson hospital.

Blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv hit by Russian attack as three killed

Monday 7 August 2023 07:00 , Shweta Sharma

Three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre in Ukraine destroyed, as Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage in retaliation to attacks on its naval vessels in the Black Sea earlier this week.

Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday that Moscow had launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, with 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones.

We managed to shoot down a significant number of these, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, in his nightly address.

Three killed in Ukraine as Russian bomb hits blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv

Ukraine: Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Monday 7 August 2023 06:30 , Shweta Sharma

Six killed in overnight strikes across Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 05:48 , Shweta Sharma

Overnight strikes on Ukraine have now resulted in six reported deaths, with three additional fatalities attributed to the 70 missile and drone attacks conducted during the night.

Among the casualties, there was a woman in her 80s in Donetsk and two individuals in Kharkiv, as mentioned in our previous report at 10.53 am.

The governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported that two people were killed in the villages of Torske and Niu-York due to Russian attacks.

Furthermore, in the Kharkiv region, a 58-year-old woman lost her life, along with the two deaths previously mentioned.

Additionally, four other people sustained injuries in the Kharkiv region as a result of the strikes.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Monday 7 August 2023 05:18 , Shweta Sharma

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Former MP killed while defending Ukraine

Monday 7 August 2023 04:52 , Shweta Sharma

A former member of Ukraines parliament was killed in combat at the Zaporizhzhian region, the government confirmed yesterday.

Serhiy Slabenko who served the parliament from 2002 to 2006 and then served as a deputy of the Volyn Regional Council was killed in action on 4 August.

He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter. His body will be brought home today.

Ukraine pace talks in Saudi Arabia ends with no concrete resolution to war

Monday 7 August 2023 04:26 , Shweta Sharma

Jeddah-hosted talks for peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war concluded yesterday with no concrete resolution to invasion as Moscow did not take part in the meeting.

The participants from at least 40 countries agreed on the importance of continuing consultations to pave the way for peace, according to a closing statement released by Saudi Arabia.

Countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks.

While a senior Ukrainian official called that talks productive Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants a global summit to take place based on those principles later this year.

Speaking about the Jeddah talks, Mr Zelenskys head of staff Andriy Yermak said in a statement: We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state media as saying the meeting was a reflection of the Wests attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the Global South behind Mr Zelenskys position.

Ukraine eager to see F-16 in action as soon as possible, Zelensky says

Monday 7 August 2023 04:01 , Shweta Sharma

Volodymyr Zelensky said they are eager to see Americas F-16 fighter jets soaring in the skies as soon as possible as both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks.

The president added that he is seeing significant results from US and German air defence systems.

Russia reported it had shot down a drone heading for Moscow in the third such attack in a week, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had struck two bridges linking Crimea to the mainland.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said advanced air defence systems, including the US-built Patriot and Germanys IRIS-T, were proving highly effective and had already yielded significant results.

Icymi: Blood transfusion centre hit by Russian missiles

Monday 7 August 2023 03:01 , Holly Bancroft

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of committing another war crime against Ukraine after a blood transfusion centre was hit by missiles.

The president said there are fatalities and injuries after the strike in the town of Kupiansk. Kupiansk is a railway hub that is less than 10 miles from the frontline.

(REUTERS)

Zelensky says Ukraine needs complete protection against terror as he calls for more air defence supplies

Monday 7 August 2023 01:22 , Holly Bancroft

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the country needs complete protection against terror as he calls on allies to supply air defence systems and missiles.

Speaking in a video posted on Twitter, he said: The reponsible position of each partner in supplying air defence systems and missiles is very important. Complete protection against terror is needed here.

In this week alone, Russian terrorists have already used 65 different missiles and 178 attack drones against us, including 87 "Shaheds". We managed to shoot down a significant number of them. We will do our best to make the  sky shield only stronger. Here, in our skies, we can pic.twitter.com/ApBKybPPKe    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 6, 2023

China reportedly backs further Ukraine peace talks

Sunday 6 August 2023 23:58 , Holly Bancroft

China is reportedly in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine.

According to European officials, China has apparently signalled that it is willing to attend further international talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

The progress happened at a Saudia Arabian forum this weekend, which focused on a 10-point peace plan proposed by Kyiv.

Although no concrete developments were made at the talks, the presence of Chinese representatives was seen as a win for Ukraine.

One European diplomat told the Financial Times that the mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated.

Dozens of countries, including Brazil, Turkey, the US and the EU, attended the forum.

Germany has delivered only 10% of Leopard 1 tanks promised - reports

Sunday 6 August 2023 22:49 , Holly Bancroft

Germany has delivered only around 10 per cent of the Leopard 1 tanks that it promised to Ukraine, German newspaper Die Welt has reported.

In May the country agreed to a 2.7 billion-euro military aid package with Ukraine.

Die Welt, who has tracked the delivery of the military aid, reported that in the last two months Germany has sent Ukraine just 10 out of the 110 promised Leopard 1 tanks and 12 of 18 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks.

Pictured: Ukrainian president Zelensky attends celebration of air force

Sunday 6 August 2023 22:02 , Holly Bancroft

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a celebration of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, amid Russia's continued attack on the country.

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

(via REUTERS)

Road bridge to Crimea destroyed by Ukrainian missile, Moscow-appointed head of Crimea says

Sunday 6 August 2023 20:35 , Holly Bancroft

A road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea has said.

Acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, another Moscow-appointee, was reported by Russian media as saying that the strike on the bridge involved an Anglo-French Storm Shadow missile. He did not provide any evidence for his claim however.

In June Ukraine struck the same bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine that are under Russian control.

Saldo also said that another road link to the region, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait, has been shelled.

A gas pipeline which serves the area has also been damaged, he said, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Reporting by agencies.

Overnight airstrikes kill three in Ukraine as Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 19:30 , Matt Drake

Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said Sunday, while Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the areas Kupyan district late on August 5.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

Overnight airstrikes kill three in Ukraine as Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Lukashenko opponents unite, plan 'New Belarus' passports

Sunday 6 August 2023 18:30 , Matt Drake

Exiled opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko met in Poland on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of their unsuccessful post-election protests, to display unity and plan strategy including the issuance of New Belarus passports.

Set up in August 2022 by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the self-declared government-in exile has opened more than 20 alternative embassies and information centres abroad.

Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher who fled after running against Lukashenko in a 2020 vote critics called rigged, said the opposition would seek international recognition for the alternative passports.

Speaking at a hotel in Warsaw to several hundred activists, including independent media and civic groups, Tsikhanouskaya urged opposition forces abroad to unite and support the creation of a New Belarus movement.

Belarus' exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya gives an opening speech during the New Belarus conference in Warsaw (REUTERS)

Ukraine calls Jeddah talks productive, Russia calls them doomed

Sunday 6 August 2023 17:30 , Matt Drake

A senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday that talks in Saudi Arabia to make headway towards a peaceful settlement of the war with Russia had been productive, but Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, are taking part in the Jeddah talks that are expected to end on Sunday without any written concluding statement.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be the basis for peace, including the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

President Volodymir Zelenskiy has said he wants a global summit to take place based on those principles later this year.

Eighteen months after Russia invaded Ukraine, any prospect of direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow appears remote.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be the basis for peace (EPA)

Sunday 6 August 2023 16:58 , Matt Drake

Moscow unleashed a massive missile and drone barrage on western Ukraine Sunday, following through on its promise to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian tanker.Russian and Ukrainian shelling across the country overnight killed in at least six people, officials said.Separately, Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early Sunday following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.Ukraines air force said Russia launched 70 attack drones and missiles, including cruise missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraines Khmelnytsky region military administration, said three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv area, damaging several buildings and igniting a fire at a warehouse. The strike may have been intended for the citys airfield, officials said.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.

Around 20,000 without gas in Kherson region following attacks, Russian official claims

Sunday 6 August 2023 16:30 , Matt Drake

Ukraine has been accused of launching a missile strike on several bridges linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea, the RIA news agency reported.

Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo said in his Telegram channel that another of the road links, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait linking the town of Henichesk with the narrow Arabat Spit on Crimea's northeast coast, had been shelled and that a civilian driver had been wounded. It was not clear whether traffic on the bridge had been suspended.

He said a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge serving Henichesk, the temporary administrative centre of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, had also been damaged, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.

The damaged Chonhar bridge connecting Russian-held parts of Ukraines Kherson region following previous attack in June (via REUTERS)

Multiple explosions hit road bridges between Crimea and occupied Ukraine - according to reports

Sunday 6 August 2023 15:33 , Matt Drake

The Chonhar bridge that links Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike on Sunday, the RIA news agency reported.

Ukraine previously struck the same bridge, one of a handful of links between Crimea and mainland Ukraine, in June.

According to the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, multiple explosions have been reported on critical road bridges.

Also hit was the Arabat Spit which is on Crimea's east coast and also the city of Henichesk, CNN reported.

Russian-installed leader of Ukraine's Kherson region Vladimir Saldo pictured in June inspecting the damaged Chonhar bridge (via REUTERS)

Pictures of damage to unversity hit in Donetsk strike

Sunday 6 August 2023 14:45 , Sam Rkaina

Flames engulfed a university buildings wooden roof in Donetsk following Ukrainian shelling on Saturday, said an emergency official in the Russia-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.

As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russia-installed mayor, said on Telegram.

We are using 12 water tanks, three ladders and 100 firefighters, said Alexei Kostrubitsky, the Russia-installed emergency minister for the region that Moscow calls the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

(REUTERS)

(REUTERS)

Moscow airport halts flights after foiled drone attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 14:15 , Sam Rkaina

Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the areas Kupyan district late on August 5.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

A woman in her eighties was also killed by Ukrainian shelling in Russian-held Donetsk, the citys Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said Sunday. Moscows Vnukovo airport located 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of the Russian capital briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down in the airspace around the city.

The drone was destroyed by air defense systems in the Podolsk region of the Moscow suburbs, the Russian defense ministry said.

Authorities in Ukraine, which generally avoids commenting on attacks on Russian soil, didnt say whether it launched the raid.

Flights were last halted at the airport on July 30, when two drones crashed into the Moscow City business district after being jammed by Russian air defenses.

Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:50 , Sam Rkaina

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.

Ukraine two months into gruelling counteroffensive

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:47 , Bel Trew in Ukraine

Ukraine is two months into a gruelling counteroffensive to try to push out Russian forces occupying almost a fifth of its territory in the south and east.

Progress has been slower than previous assaults as Russian forces have spent the last year building up entrenched defence lines.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that while Ukraine had recaptured half the territory that Russia had initially seized, this counteroffensive was in its early days and would take shape over several months.

Ukraine said on Friday Kyiv was working to take land near the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut.

This weekends intense bombardment came after Moscow vowed to retaliate  after a Ukrainian sea drone hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea and a major Russian sea port on Friday.

Both attacks reportedly halted marine traffic and vehicles using Russias Kerch Bridge which connects the Russian mainland to occupied Crimea.

Msoows Vnukovo airport, located around 15km southwest of Moscow, suspended flights briefly on Sunday morning after Russia claimed it shot down a drone in the airspace around the city.

Ukraine has not commented on the alleged targeting of Vnukovo airport. An official with Ukraines Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press that it was behind the earlier attack on the sea tanker, which was transporting fuel for Russian forces.

Ukraines air force said on Telegram its air defence had destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight Saturday. It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not disclose any further information on them.

Russian occupied territory in Ukraine, Moscow-appointed authorities said a woman in her 80s was killed by Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk where a university building was also set alight.

Three killed in Russian revenge attacks

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:45 , Bel Trew in Ukraine

At least three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre bombed in Ukraine, as Russia unleashed a wave of intense drone and missile strikes after vowing to retaliate for a Ukrainian hit on Russian tankers in the Black Sea.

Moscows second-largest airport also briefly suspended flights Sunday morning following what the Kremlin said was a foiled Ukrainian drone attack. The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed publicly whether they were behind either raid.

For most of the weekend, air sirens blared across Kyiv, and regions, from the south to the west, as Russia launched one of its heaviest and most widespread aerial bombardments in weeks.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday that in total Russian forces had launched 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as cruise and hypersonic missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea.

Russian shelling in the northern region of Kharkiv also killed three people.

(via REUTERS)

Russia says Western bid to get Global South to back Ukraine is doomed

Sunday 6 August 2023 13:19 , Sam Rkaina

Moscow has said that weekend talks in Saudi Arabia including the U.S., China and India aiming to establish principles for a peaceful end to Russias war in Ukraine were a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv.

Senior officials from some 40 countries were attending the two-day meeting, part of a push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers among countries that have been reluctant to take sides in the conflict. Russia was not invited.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS calling the meeting a reflection of the Wests attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelenskyi formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset.

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

At its heart is a withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraines territorial integrity.

Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry

Sunday 6 August 2023 12:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Sunday 6 August 2023 11:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

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.

Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV from Monday 7 August.

What Ukraines First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know

Three killed in a night of attacks across Ukraine

Sunday 6 August 2023 11:20 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said on Sunday, as Kyivs military exchanged fire with Russian occupation forces.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion centre in the areas Kupyan district late on Saturday.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Mr Zelensky wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life.

A woman in her 80s was also killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-held Donetsk, the citys Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said on Sunday.

The attack also set alight the main building of the M Tugan-Baranovsky University of Economics and Trade, said the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed Donetsk Peoples Republic, Denis Pushilin.

Ukraine emblem raised to replace Soviet symbol on Kyiv's Motherland Monument

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:45 , Sam Rkaina

Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:29 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine with 70 air-assault weapons including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones, Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday, and at least 10 missiles appear to got through air defences.

Local media said a worker at a grain silo had been wounded in the overnight attack, which appeared to be focused on an area of western Ukraine, far from the front line.

In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons, the Air Force said. Information about Kinzhals is classified, the Ukrainian military noted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said people had been killed and wounded in an earlier hit to a blood transfusion centre in the town of Kupiansk, a railway hub fewer than 10 miles from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region.

Rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene, he said on Saturday evening, describing the strike as a war crime. He did not say how many casualties there were.

(REUTERS)

Moscow mayor says hostile drone destroyed by air defences

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:14 , Sam Rkaina

A hostile drone was destroyed by air defences as it approached Moscow on Sunday, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Sobyanin wrote on messaging app Telegram that the drone approached Moscow around 11am (8am GMT).

Russia accused Ukraine of two drone attacks on its capital last week.

Moscows Vnukovo airport suspends flights

Sunday 6 August 2023 10:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Moscows Vnukovo airport suspended flights on Sunday, citing unspecified reasons outside of its control, the TASS news agency reported.

Vnukovo previously carried out similar suspensions when the Russian capital was attacked by drones last week.

Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk

Sunday 6 August 2023 09:45 , Sam Rkaina

Russia used 70 air-assault weapons in overnight attack

Sunday 6 August 2023 09:20 , Sam Rkaina

Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, using 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles and Iranian-made drones, Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday.

The Air Force - which is celebrated in a holiday on Sunday - said on the Telegram messaging channel that Ukraines air defence destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight.

In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons, the Air Force said.

It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, but would not disclose further information on them.

It was not immediately clear whether there was any damage from the overnight attack or what happened to the 10 cruise missiles that were not shot down.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told the national Ukrainian broadcaster that one of the key targets for Russias overnight attack was the Khmelnytskiy region.

Now, it is the Starokostiantyniv airfield that haunts the enemy, Ihnat said.

Russia had earlier targeted the Starokostiantyniv military airfield in the Khmelnytskiy region at the end of July.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:45 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth  to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance.

But Europes largest land war in decades  and the biggest one since the dawn of the digital age  is taking place in a superheated information space. And modern communications technology, theoretically a force for improving public knowledge, tends to multiply the confusion because deceptions and falsehoods reach audiences instantly.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson cells tip of iceberg

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:25 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russias eight-month occupation of Kherson are just the tip of the iceberg, an international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned.

The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres  including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution  are evocative of genocide, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week.

The UNs special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state.

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson tip of iceberg

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Sunday 6 August 2023 08:05 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Russia destroys two drones over Bryansk region -local governor

Sunday 6 August 2023 07:39 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Russias air defence system destroyed two aircraft-type drones over the Karachevskyi district in the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine, said on Sunday.

There were no damages or casualties, Bogomaz said on the Telegram channel.

It was not clear who launched the drones, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russia-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Russian authorities say the Bryansk region - which borders both Ukraine and Belarus - has seen multiple attacks by Ukrainian forces and pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 17 months since Russia launched its invasion on Ukraine.

Half of 30,000 Russian paratroopers fighting in Ukraine likely killed or wounded, says UK MoD

Sunday 6 August 2023 07:01 , Arpan Rai

At least 50 per cent of the 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed in Ukraine last year have been killed or wounded, according to the figures shared by top Russian General, the British Ministry of Defence said today.

It pointed to the annual celebrations of Russias Airborne Forces (VDV) Day earlier this week on Wednesday which the ministry says were overshadowed by an apparently unsanctioned disclosure of the scope of the casualties the elite force has suffered in Ukraine.

In a recorded address for VDV Day, the VDVs Commander-in-Chief General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky said that 8500 paratroopers had been wounded and later returned to duty or had refused to leave the front line at all, the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

It added that the video was quickly deleted from the Russian MoDs official channels and that General Teplinsky did not comment on how many troops had been killed or were too seriously wounded to return to duty.

However, extrapolating Teplinksys figures endorses the assessment that at least 50 per cent of the 30,000 paratroopers who deployed to Ukraine in 2022 have been killed or wounded, the ministry claimed.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Sunday 6 August 2023 06:47 , Arpan Rai

Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

Zelensky condemns Russian attack on blood transfusion centre

Sunday 6 August 2023 05:45 , Arpan Rai

Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region which targeted a blood transfusion centre, leaving several dead and injured.

Russias guided air bomb against a blood transfusion centre in Ukraine. This evening, the Kupiansk community in Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire, Mr Zelensky said without mentioning the exact death toll.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression. Beasts that destroy everything that simply allows to live. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life, he said.

Russia's guided air bomb against a blood transfusion center in Ukraine. This evening, Kupiansk community in Kharkiv region. Dead and wounded are reported. My condolences! Our rescuers are extinguishing the fire.



This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression. pic.twitter.com/aCgxAbJx8P    (@ZelenskyyUa) August 5, 2023

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson cells tip of iceberg

Sunday 6 August 2023 05:05 , Arpan Rai

An international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned that the harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russias eight-month occupation of Kherson are just the tip of the iceberg.

The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres  including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution  are evocative of genocide, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week.

The UNs special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state.

Andy Gregory reports:

Inside Russias torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson tip of iceberg

Russia vows to punish Ukraine for attack near Crimean Bridge

Sunday 6 August 2023 04:37 , Arpan Rai

Russia has vowed to punish Ukraine for using a sea drone to attack a civilian tanker near the Kerch Strait in what it said was a terrorist act that threatened the lives of the crew and risked a large-scale environmental disaster.

The Kyiv regime, meeting no condemnation from Western countries and international organisations, is actively applying new terrorist methods, this time in the waters of the Black Sea, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished.

Earlier yesterday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev suggested Moscow would launch more strikes against Ukrainian ports in response to Kyivs attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea, and threatened to hand Ukraine an ecological catastrophe.

Officials on both sides confirmed a Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives had struck a Russian fuel tanker overnight on Friday near a bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea, the second such attack in 24 hours.

Blinken discusses Black Sea grain initiative with Turkish foreign minister, says State Department

Sunday 6 August 2023 04:04 , Arpan Rai

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call yesterday with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, discussed the Black Sea grain initiative, peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Swedens entry into Nato, the State Department said.

In a statement, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the State Department, conveyed that Secretary Blinken expressed gratitude to Turkey for its prominent role in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. He also highlighted the pressing necessity to confront the Kremlins inhuman use of food as a weapon of war.

The Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian Ports endorsed by the United Nations, was signed in July 2022 in Istanbul. This initiative aims to reestablish Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, even amidst the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The secretary also thanked Turkiye for its commitment to send Swedens Nato accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for ratification, Mr Miller added.

Russia official blames Ukraine cluster shells for Donetsk fire

Sunday 6 August 2023 03:42 , Arpan Rai

A university building in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine was up in flames late last night following Ukrainian shelling, the Russian-installed mayor of the city said.

As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the university of economics and trade is on fire, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor said on Telegram.

He said preliminary information indicated the cause of the fire was an attack by Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions. Reuters could not verify the details of his account.

Ukraine, which received supplies of cluster munitions from the United States last month, has vowed to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere

Sunday 6 August 2023 03:00 , Joe Middleton

On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand whats happening in the vast war.

Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that cant be confirmed  and stay quiet about defeats.

None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth  to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance.

Russia's war with Ukraine has generated its own fog, and mis- and disinformation are everywhere
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a hungry Malaysian in possession of a strong stomach, must be in want of some sambal. Said sambal should come with bumbu kacang, fried chicken, rice, fried tofu, and tempeh these are the components that make up a standard plate of ayam gepuk.

Like many delicious things, ayam gepuk originated from Indonesia. Dont disregard its simplicity for its sheer power. One bite of this dish can change your life forever, and no, Im not being dramatic.

Ever since ayam gepuk was first popularised here, many other restaurants followed suit by offering their own take on the dish. Now, you have ayam gepuk fans nationwide asking Do you prefer Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus or Ayam Gepuk Top Global?. This is what sparked the idea to conduct a showdown comparing the 2 (somewhat) rival brands.

While looking for other ayam gepuk spots, I found that Pop Meals serves the dish at a similar price point. I thought theyd be fit to join this showdown due to the franchises accessibility and price point.

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Storefront

Starting off with who most would consider to be the OG franchise in the country, Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus (AGPG). With around 45 outlets across 8 states, theyre definitely the most well-known ayam gepuk brand in the country. AGPG was founded in 2013, and within a decade, has opened over 700 outlets in Indonesia alone. The next step is clear: world domination.

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Ayam Gepuk dish

Set B (RM14.90) is their normal set, which was what I opted for for the sake of standardisation. If youre into fried gizzards, theres another set for that. Besides the food itself, the set came with a drink of your choosing.

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Store interior

Following their tagline Tentuka sendiri PEDASMU, customers are allowed to choose the spice level. I asked for the original level, which meant that I received a generous helping of bumbu kacang on top of my sambal. If you cant handle spice at all, youll get the bumbu kacang alone. Almost threateningly, the tagline ends with Anda pedas KAMI PUAS!!!, which goes to show how seriously they take their sambal, and that their food certainly isnt for the faint of heart.

Story continues

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Soy souce packet

When I first saw the dish, my initial reaction was why is their kicap in a packet?, because seriously, why is it in a packet? I understand its convenience for when people order their ayam gepuk to go, but since I was dining in, I fully expected to find bottles of sweet soy sauce on every table.

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Chicken piece

The chicken itself was very crispy on the outside. I wouldnt say that the meat was particularly juicy, but it wasnt dry by any means and easy to chow down. It was also seasoned really well, so even if youre not eating it with the sambal, its still tasty.

Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus - Sambal on chicken

My metric for measuring spiciness is as follows: if Im sniffling, wiping my nose, and pausing in between mouthfuls, its tolerable. If I feel my stomach burning and am struggling to take another bite, then its too spicy. AGPGs original sambal falls in the first category, whereby I think most Malaysians will find it to be the pleasant sort of spicy.

Tastewise, the sambal was a little salty, which I didnt mind. Upon further inspection, it was clear that it wasnt from the sambal itself, but the bumbu kacang. I cant say if this was a mishap on the day I went, or if their recipe calls for this amount of salt. However, it didnt bother me much and I was still able to finish my entire dish with a happy heart and runny nose.

Ayam Gepuk Top Global

Ayam Gepuk Top Global - Storefront

As of 2023, Ayam Gepuk Top Global has a total of 15 outlets, 13 of which are in the Klang Valley and the remaining 2 in Negeri Sembilan. Although you wont find one of their stores at every corner, the franchise has certainly made a name for itself. However, Top Global is strongly associated with Pak Gembus its hard to find someone wholl talk about the brand as its own entity without comparing it to its competitor.

Similar to AGPG, their Set B (RM14.50) comes with the usuals and a drink.

Ayam Gepuk Top Global - Plate of ayam gepuk

Right off the bat, Top Global differs in 2 ways. Firstly, their kicap comes in a reusable bottle placed on every table. Secondly, their sambal and bumbu kacang are not slathered on the chicken but are instead placed on the side.

Ayam Gepuk Top Global - Sambal

While their sambal and bumbu kacang combo still had a distinct kick to it, it wasnt nearly as spicy as AGPGs. Again, unlike the previous sambal, theirs wasnt salty either. In terms of flavour, it was pretty standard in my opinion; not disappointing, but nothing to shout about.

Ayam Gepuk Top Global - Chicken torn in half

Their chicken gets plus points, though! It was surprisingly juicy, while maintaining a crispy skin. To my dismay, the chicken part I received was a breast, which isnt my favourite. Despite that, I still managed to enjoy the fried chicken as the meat was tender. Its seasoning was just fine, but I can definitely say that I prefer AGPGs marination.

Pop Meals

Pop Meals - Storefront

Pop Meals was created with the intention of making delicious food more affordable and accessible. With a pretty diverse menu and almost 40 branches, theyve definitely achieved their goal.

Pop Meals - Menu

The Ayam Gepuk with Sambal Gajus with lemonade was RM14, making it a wee bit cheaper than the previous 2.

Pop Meals - Ayam gepuk

All of Pop Meals dishes are served in takeaway packaging. My box looked a little cramped, with the container of sambal standing on its side, and the small pieces of tempeh shoved in a corner. Here, customers dont have control over how much kicap is added, though I assume you can always ask them for more.

Pop Meals version of ayam gepuk doesnt include bumbu kacang, which really surprised me as Ive always thought of the peanut sauce as the core essence of the dish. This also means that you cant customise the level of spiciness either.

Pop Meals - Sambal

To my delight, the sambal was very tasty. It was spicy enough for me to verbally say wow, pedas, but not intense enough to break out the tissues. It was more savoury than it was sweet, which is how I prefer my sambals to be. This sambal was my favourite flavour wise, but it was the least spicy of the 3.

Pop Meals - Fried chicken

On the other hand, the chicken was tiny. Not only was there very little meat, the skin was extremely tough. Truth be told, it was difficult to pull the skin and meat apart, even with a fork and spoon. Now just imagine what it was like to chew. If I were to eat their chicken every single day, Id have Cillian Murphys jawline by the end of the year.

Verdict

Im aware that there are other restaurants out there that specialise in ayam gepuk, ayam penyet, and ayam geprek. But, the eateries chosen for this showdown were selected on popularity, accessibility, and price point. Therefore, if the restaurant only has 1 outlet (and its located a 30 minute drive away), it loses its accessibility points, thus pulling itself out of the competition.

The clear winner for me is Ayam Gepuk Pak Gembus, with Ayam Gepuk Top Global as a close second. I dont dare to claim Pop Meals ayam gepuk as authentic, but its an okay option if youre in a hurry. Just pray that the chicken you get isnt overly fried. Overall, AGPG is what Id expect from a plate of ayam gepuk, mainly because if Im thinking of the dish, Im thinking of crispy chicken full of flavour mixed with self-inflicted pain caused by sambal.

The post Ayam Gepuk Showdown: Pak Gembus vs Top Global vs Pop Meals appeared first on SETHLUI.com.
Last month, a visitor to the maternity department in an Oregon hospital caused a disturbance, prompting nurses to warn that the guy might try to kidnap his partner's unborn child.

A security guard was killed after the visitor opened fire hours later, sending patients, nurses, and medical staff running for shelter, as reported by The Associated Press.

Healthcare Violence in the US

(Photo : by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - JULY 2: Gloves and other medical supplies are seen at the site of a mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood on July 2, 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland. At least two people were killed and 28 others were wounded during the shooting at a block party on Saturday night.

In the United States, hospitals and medical facilities have been hit by a surge of gun violence, making it difficult for them to respond to the dangers. The shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland was one example.

Healthcare is now among the country's most violent industries due to these assaults. American workers in the healthcare industry now experience more nonfatal injuries at work than in any other industry, including law enforcement.

Other industries outpace health care in terms of overall risk, including fatalities. Identical shootings have occurred in hospitals across the nation. Not only are there lethal shootings, but according to the US, 73 percent of all nonfatal workplace violence injuries occurred to healthcare employees in 2018.

According to a nurse with direct knowledge of the briefing, hospital staff members were warned during meetings the day before the shooting on July 22 in Portland to be ready for a potential "code amber" announcement in case the visitor attempted to kidnap the child. She talked under the condition of anonymity out of concern about workplace reprisals.

According to a timeline released by Portland police, a hospital employee contacted 911 fifteen minutes before the shooting to report that a visitor was endangering staff members.

In Portland, Legacy Health intends to add more metal detectors, mandate bag checks at every hospital, and direct patients and visitors to specific entrances. According to the hospital, more security personnel will be given stun guns, and the bullet-slowing film is being applied to certain inside glass and at important doors.

Read Also: US Healthcare Has a Big Problem: Millions of Patients Get Wrong Diagnosis in Emergency Rooms Every Year

New Punishments for Violence Against Healthcare Workers

Laws raising or adding new punishments for violence against healthcare workers have been passed in almost 40 states. While certain jurisdictions, such as Indiana, Ohio, and Georgia, permit hospitals to establish their police forces, most hospitals employ armed security personnel with batons, stun guns, or firearms.

The health care and policing disparities Black people already face can be exacerbated. They claim that private police forces frequently are not required to reveal information on their use of force-frequency or whether they disproportionately detain people from minority groups.

In response to this violence, more states and jurisdictions have enacted new laws that increase the penalties for assaulting healthcare workers. These laws typically include longer jail sentences and steeper fines.

Related Article: HCA Healthcare Reports Data Breach, Compromising Millions of Patients' Data

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
More than 210,000 caregivers face the daily battles of looking after both the young and the elderly in Singapore. (Photos: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE - Caregiving is no easy task, especially in a country like Singapore, where the population is ageing, the cost of living is rising, and locals are often on the look out for better work-life balance overall.

According to a study conducted by Milieu Insight and Caregivers Alliance Limited (CAL) last year, 51 per cent of primary caregivers reported feeling stressed often or all the time compared to 40 per cent of the general population.

What are the unspoken stressed and trials caregivers face in Singapore?

Speaking with Yahoo Southeast Asia, two caregivers shared the struggles and stresses they've gone through while caring for their elders, and how they managed to overcome these challenges.

The trials of caring for a mother with dementia

For Augustine Ashley, caring for his 67-year-old mother, Regina, who suffers from mild dementia, means "repeating himself many times over".

The entrepreneur first noticed his mother's memory loss and hallucinations in early 2020.

Regina would bombard him with questions like "where am I" and "what time am I going out?" despite having no plans to leave the house.

The frustration was immense as Augustine struggled to connect her condition with dementia.

"It was extremely frustrating, because I didn't understand or associate her conditions with dementia," he said.

Augustine initially attributed his mother's memory loss to the side effects from her breast cancer medications.

However, a pivotal moment came in April when he returned home after work to find his mother missing.

Assuming she had gone for a walk, he took no action, and only dropped her missed calls after she had disappeared for two hours.

At 9.30pm that night, Augustine eventually received a call from the National University Hospital (NUH), informing him that his mother had been admitted in the hospital, and diagnosed with dementia.

Within six months, Regina's mental capacity dwindled, and she faced difficulties reading, writing. She was often delirious and had hallucinations.

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"She would be on the sofa in the living room saying things like 'There's a man sitting down next to me' and 'There's a lady standing at the door'," Augustine said.

Augustine found himself in a position of constant vigilance as he had to be on "constant watch", assisting Regina with daily tasks like walking, eating, and using the bathroom.

"With someone with dementia, it's almost as if they need help 24/7. It became too challenging for her to go to the toilet or shower herself, and I had to step in," he said.

Overwhelmed and unable to work, Augustine took the difficult step of admitting her to a nursing home last August after another incident.

It was when his mother got stuck in the home toilet that it finally sank in that his mother "was not the same".

He knew then it was beyond him to be the sole caregiver.

In prioritising the needs of the situation, Augustine also neglected his physical health.

Coping with the challenges of caregiving

Augustine coped with the stresses of caregiving by giving himself time and space away from this mother to regulate his emotions.

"I will ask my brother to take care of her for one afternoon, while I go out and have some time to myself with my friends," he said.

Through the process, he learnt more about dementia and realised it was "not helpful" for him to be angry at his mother for not being able to control herself. He even played along with her hallucinations as recommended by her doctor.

Augustine viewed caregiving as an opportunity for bonding, taking his mother out for walks at the park to stimulate her mind and body, all while trying to emotionally support her during her journey.

"I am trying to reconnect with her on an emotional level and show her support. She is always worried that she'll be alone and abandoned, because the nursing home is not a familiar environment to her,' he said.

Augustine Ashley with his 67-year-old mother who suffers from dementia (Photos: Augustine Ashley)

Caring for an immobile grandmother

In the case of 29-year-old Chen Yiru, her emotional stress stemmed from being the primary caregiver and decision-maker for her immobile grandmother.

Yiru's grandmother's health deteriorated to the point where even slight movements caused her immense pain, triggered panic attacks, and needed an oxygen machine to help with her breathing.

Yiru's responsibilities escalated to injecting medication to slow her grandmother's heartbeat, and stabilise her condition. Additionally, she had to wet her grandmother's mouth with water every thirty minutes.

"It's not easy to see someone close to you have their health deteriorate, lose her consciousness, and not be able to decide things for herself," she said.

The emotional toll came not just from the physical tasks but also from the difficult decisions.

While the medicine was helpful in putting out her grandmother's pain, it would have her fall asleep for most of the day. On the other hand, she would remain awake but uncomfortable without it.

Her grandmother would refuse to take her medicine at times, and would even manipulate her helper to lie about taking medication. If the helper were to refuse, she would face the wrath of her grandmother.

Moreover, digestive issues due to old age, and nightmares that would wake up her grandmother in the middle of the night shouting, added to the complexity of care, affecting Yiru's own sleep.

Family politics also further compounded the stress, said Yiru, who found navigating power dynamics within the family to "quite a difficult task".

The effects of caregiving

The emotional demands of caregiving took a toll on her social life, leaving her with little time for herself and strained relationships with friends.

If she had to head out, even for a short while, she would rush back home the moment her grandmother reported any pain.

On why she consciously isolated herself from friends, Yiru said she "didn't know how to tell them what was going on" and felt "constricted".

"Even when the hospice provided a counsellor, I didn't think anyone could relate at that point of time," she added.

Yiru said she got through the difficult season by maintaining her sense of honour in caring for her sickly grandmother. Her family and helper were her pillar of support, and helped in her caretaking decisions.

Yiru's grandmother passed away in February this year, at the age of 92.

How caregivers can be better supported

Both Augustine and Yiru stressed the need for more proactive outreach to caregivers.

While hospitals provide caregivers with information through consultations and leaflets, as well as referrals to relevant associations such as Dementia Singapore, the bulk of the work is still left on the caregiver.

In many cases, caregivers are not given the luxury of time to process and manage the situation, and may have limited contacts to ask for help.

With Yiru working in a family-run maid agency, and Augustine running his own business, both caregivers acknowledged they were lucky to have had the job flexibility to care for their ageing family members.

"I think there needs to be outreach to caregivers, instead of caregivers reaching out. Caregivers really have so much on their plate," said Augustine.

"I had hoped that someone else would reach out to me, and give me the support I needed," he added, saying he had "no capacity" to reach out to others for support, as his mother was his first priority.

Yiru also shared similar sentiments, saying that it was important for hospitals to reach out to caregivers and "educate them on the various care options available, and share private care contacts".

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Theres a good reason why Mutiny on the Bounty actor Marlon Brando stepped foot on Tetiaroa in French Polynesia and decided never to leave. With rainforested peaks and coral-fringed lagoons, the archipelago is drawing superyachts away from the Mediterranean and Caribbean milk run to explore its gin-clear, biodiverse waters. And heres why.

First up is the remote location in the heart of the Pacific Oceanan eight-hour flight from both Americas west coast and Australias east. It offers the type of accessible only by boat fun that a growing demographic of owners and charter guests are looking for. Explorer yachts Arctic P and Suri were a regular sight last season, and sailing yacht Farfalla is among those basing themselves in the region this summer.

More from Robb Report

Tahitis rainforests

A private charter aboard the 157-foot Hanse Explorer in November allows guests to experience the Society islands firsthand. Its one of only two yachts where EYOS expedition staff form part of every charter, guiding guests away from tourist-frequented islands, such as Bora Bora, and toward yacht-hopping must-sees such as Huahine, Moorea, Raiatea, and Tahaa.

Hanse has an 8,000-nautical-mile range and professional diving center making it well-suited to venturing off track in the tropics. It ensures the choppy 10-hour overnight cruise from Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, to Tahaa, where the wild vanilla orchid grows, is a comfortable experience.

The 118 islands of Tahiti are the first hub for superyachts in the South Pacific, spanning a territory as wide as the United States. Conservation efforts by the government and local communities, including temporary fishing bans, mean the area remains home to the largest marine sanctuary in the world. Protected species include whales, sea turtles, rays, and more than 20 species of shark.

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Swimming with whales

The recent uptick in the number of humpbacks that migrate from Antarcticas frigid waters to Tahitis nutrient-rich breeding grounds has made swimming with whales the number one activity for charter guests. Its heavily regulated, and boats require a whale-watching permit. Hanse partners with Tahiti Dive Management, whose 33-foot chase boat can be chartered alongside a superyacht and comes equipped with a permit and expert guides. Guests can expect to find themselves in the water with a 40-foot mother and her one-ton baby playing near the surface within fingertip reach. No amount of dreaming compares to the life-affirming reality of a humpback breaching, tail slapping and barrel rolling up close.

Fins, a snorkel, and an aptitude for adventure are all thats needed for swimming with humpbacks, but below the waves more world-class diving opportunities await. The Opunohu canyons and Ceran Pass are two hot spots filled with blacktip sharks, sea turtles, and barracuda. Deep-sea fishing charters also prove popular, with mahi mahi and colossal marlin thriving off the coast of Huahine island.

A deserted motu, or island

The many motussmall uninhabited isles lined with lush palm treescreate the perfect beach barbecue setup. For something more strenuous, Mooreas Mount Tohivea offers a challenging hike shaded by a canopy of buttress trees and strangler figs.

And then its just a short 10-nautical-mile cruise from the dramatic shoe-shaped cove of Cooks Bay on Moorea back to Tahitis surf and international airport, making it the ideal start and end to a two-week itinerary. With yachts settling in for the entire summer season, the opportunity to push deep into the heart of Polynesian wilderness has never been more accessible.

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Chinese sailors atop a naval vessel in April 2009. China's navy is one of the world's most powerful. REUTERS/Guang Niu/Pool

The World Directory of Modern Military Warships ranked the world's navies based on their power.

It looked at their strength, modernization, logistical support, and attack and defense capabilities.

See below for the 25 strongest navies in the world in 2023.

The World Directory of Modern Military Warships ranked the strongest navies in the world, covering 36 nations.

The ranking looked at the number of warships and submarines alongside factors like the age of a fleet, its logistical support, and attack and defense capabilities.

It also looked at the balance of each force: How many asset types they had and whether they were concentrating their assets in one area. It included most ships but left out smaller craft, survey ships, and historical ceremonial vessels.

The ranking distinguished between several classes of combat ship  listing the relatively small corvette and frigate types as well as larger destroyers and cruisers.

Each navy was given a final "True Value Rating" to measure them against one another.

This is how the top 25 countries stack up:

25: Brazil

A Brazilian sailor with a helicopter on board the Navio Atlantico in February. REUTERS/Roosevelt Cassio

The WDMMW said that the 46 units in Brazil's active naval inventory were one helicopter carrier, seven submarines, six frigate warships, two corvettes, five mine/countermine warfare ships, 22 offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no destroyers or cruisers, and its median hull age is 30.3 years.

The listing said Brazil's naval-force balance was "average."

The WDMMW gave Brazil's navy a True Value Rating of 39.9.

24: Singapore

Singapore's RSS Sovereignty in the waters off the island nation in May 2017. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

The WDMMW gave Singapore's navy a True Value Rating of 43.2.

It had 37 units in its active naval inventory in November, made up of five submarines, six frigates, six corvettes, four mine/countermine warfare ships, 12 offshore-patrol vessels, and four amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, destroyers, or cruisers, and its median hull age is 19.2 years.

The WDMMW said its force balance was "average."

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23: Canada

The HMCS Harry DeWolf in December 2021. REUTERS/Ted Pritchard

The WDMMW gave Canada's navy a True Value Rating of 43.7.

Canada has four submarines, 12 frigates, and 21 offshore-patrol vessels, making up its 37 active units in December 2021. The nation has the world's largest coastline.

The WDMMW said Canada "lacks a dedicated aircraft carrier fleet" and a helicopter force with amphibious-assault capabilities.

Canada also has no destroyer warships, corvette warships, cruiser warships, or mine/countermine warfare ships.

Canada's median hull age is a relatively young 16.8. The WDMMW described its naval force balance as "fair."

22: Greece

Sailors at the launch ceremony of the Lt. Vlachakos at a naval base near Athens, Greece, in September. AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Greece has 11 submarines, three frigates, three mine/countermine warfare ships, and 36 offshore-patrol vessels, making up its 63 active units in November, according to the WDMMW.

It said that Greece was focused on offshore vessels and that the fleet represented "over half of all fighting strength."

The balance makes sense for the Mediterranean nation, which has some 6,000 islands.

The WDMMW described the rest of Greece's fleet as "an aging fleet of submarines and frigates for the most part."

Greece has no destroyers, corvettes, cruisers, or amphibious-assault vessels.

The WDMMW said that the navy's force balance was "fair" and that the median hull age was 27.5 years.

It gave Greece's navy a True Value Rating of 47.2.

21: Thailand

A Thai sailor in February 2022. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Thailand had 86 units in its active naval inventory in January.

They were one helicopter carrier, four destroyers, seven frigates, six corvettes, five mine/countermine warfare ships, 51 offshore-patrol vessels, and 12 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no submarines, and the WDMMW described it as "a surface force built primarily around local and regional defense."

Thailand has a long coastline and is near Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia.

The WDMMW said Thailand was working with China to acquire submarines.

It also has no cruisers and a median hull age of 25.6 years

It said Thailand had an "average" force balance.

The WDMMW gave Thailand's navy a True Value Rating of 47.6.

20: Australia

Royal Australian Navy Ships Canberra, Supply, and Warramunga sailing in formation in 2022. Petty Officer 2nd Class Wesley Richardson/Australian Defense Force via AP

The WDMMW gave Australia's navy a True Value Rating of 48.9.

It said that Australia had a young median hull age  at 16.2 years  and that its naval-force balance was "average."

Its 36 active units in October were six submarines, three destroyers, eight frigates, four mine/countermine warfare ships, 12 offshore-patrol vessels, and 12 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no corvettes, cruisers, or aircraft carriers.

The WDMMW said the navy's "bulk of strength" came from its offshore-patrol-vessel force that "makes up more than a quarter of all available strength."

19: Iran

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at an exercise near Abu Musa Island in August. IRGC/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

The WDMMW gave Iran's navy, which had 66 active units in November, a True Value Rating of 50.3.

It also had 25 submarines, seven frigates, three corvettes, 12 offshore-patrol vessels, and 10 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, destroyer warships, or cruiser warships.

The WDMMW said that Iran's naval-force balance was "fair" and that it had an old median hull age of 32.6 years.

18: Germany

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, visiting naval forces in Rostock, Germany, in June. Kay Nietfeld/Pool via REUTERS

The WDMMW gave Germany's navy a True Value Rating of 54.7.

Its 34 active units in July were six submarines, 11 frigates, five corvettes, and 12 mine/countermine warfare ships.

Germany has no aircraft carriers, amphibious-assault vessels, cruisers, or offshore-patrol vessels.

The WDMMW said that Germany's naval force balance was "fair" and that its median hull age was 17.7 years.

17: Spain

An AV-8B Harrier IIs landing on the LHD Juan Carlos I in 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

The 42 units that in Spain's active inventory in November were two submarines, 11 frigates, six mine/countermine warfare ships, 20 offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, destroyers, corvettes, or cruisers.

It has a median hull age of 24 years and an "average" force balance, the WDMMW said.

Spain's navy was given a True Value Rating of 56.

16: Bangladesh

A Bangladesh Navy vessel in the Bay of Bengal in February 2017. AP Photo/Joshua Paul

The WDMMW gave Bangladesh's navy a True Value Rating of 58.6.

It has a modern navy, with a median hull age of just 14.3 years.

Bangladesh had 66 active units in February. They were two submarines, seven frigates, six corvettes, five mine/countermine warfare ships, 30 offshore-patrol vessels, and 16 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, cruisers, or destroyers.

It has 21 units on order, which the WDMMW said showed that its navy was growing and modernizing further.

The WDMMW said Bangladesh's navy had an "average" force balance.

15: Algeria

An Algerian submarine during a training exercise in 2021. Ministry of National Defence Naval Forces

Algeria's navy had 96 active units in June, the WDMMW said.

They were six submarines, eight frigates, 11 corvettes, three mine/countermine warfare ships, 65 offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, cruisers, or destroyers.

The WDMMW said that its naval force balance was "fair" and that its median hull age was 16 years.

It gave Algeria's navy a True Value Rating of 61.5.

14: North Korea

North Korean sailors at a military parade in Pyongyang in April 2017. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

The WDMMW gave North Korea's navy a True Value Rating of 67.9.

Though it has a huge fleet, its ships tend to be old and small, unlikely to seriously trouble a more modern force.

The isolated dictatorship has 19 submarines, two frigates, seven corvettes, one mine/countermine warfare ship, and 157 offshore-patrol vessels.

It has 186 units in its active naval inventory in January.

It has no aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, or amphibious-assault vessels.

The WDMMW said the navy's force balance was "fair."

North Korea also has an old fleet: Its median hull age is 49.2 years.

13: Egypt

Egypt's M. Fahmy in Istanbul, Turkey, in November 2020. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik

Egypt's navy is the largest such force in Africa or the Middle East, the WDMMW said.

It listed 107 active units in November. They were eight submarines, 12 frigates, seven corvettes, 18 mine/countermine warfare ships, 48 offshore-patrol vessels, and 12 amphibious-assault vessels.

It also has two helicopter carriers, which the WDMMW said made it "the only African/Middle East power to have aircraft carriers in the force."

It has no destroyers or cruisers and only has one vessel in production.

The WDMMW said that Egypt's force balance was "average" and that its median hull age is 27.5 years.

It gave Egypt a True Value Rating of 72.4.

12: Taiwan

Candidates training to join the Taiwan Navy's elite Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol unit in December 2021. REUTERS/Ann Wang

The WDMMW said Taiwan had 91 active units in November and gave it a True Value Rating of 74.9.

It said that Taiwan's force balance was "average" and that its median hull age was 26.9.

The navy is a key concern for Taiwan, an island nation that fears invasion from China, its massive and powerful neighbor that disputes its right to exist.

Taiwan has four submarines, four destroyers, 22 frigates, two corvettes, 1o mine/countermine warfare ships, 42 offshore-patrol vessels, and seven amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers or cruisers.

11: Italy

The San Giorgio preparing to dock in Catania, Sicily, in February 2011. AP Photo/Carmelo Imbesi

The WDMMW gave Italy's navy a True Value Rating of 80.7.

Two aircraft carriers, eight submarines, four destroyers, 11 frigates, 10 mine/countermine warfare ships, 16 offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels made up its 54 active units in November.

It has no corvettes or cruisers.

The WDMMW said that Italy's naval-force balance was "average" and that its median hull age was 24.7.

10: Turkey

The TCG Anadolu, Turkey's first amphibious assault ship, in Istanbul in April. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

The WDMMW said Turkey had 90 active units in April, comprising one helicopter carrier, 12 submarines, 16 frigates, 10 corvettes, 11 mine/countermine warships, 35 offshore-patrol vessels, and five amphibious-assault vessels.

Turkey is a NATO member but has no destroyers or cruisers.

Turkey controls the crossing between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a vital maritime chokepoint.

The WDMMW said that its median hull age was 18.8 years and that its force balance was "average."

Turkey got a True Value Rating of 80.5.

9: UK

The HMS Prince of Wales in Portsmouth, England, in October. Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The WDMMW gave the UK's navy a True Value Rating of 88.3.

The force "puts a premium on multi-mission warships with nearly a quarter of its force dedicated to frigates followed by a focus on mine warfare and then submarines," the WDMMW said.

It has two aircraft carriers, 10 submarines, six destroyer warships, 12 frigate warships, 11 mine/countermine warfare ships, six offshore-patrol vessels, and two amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no corvette warships or cruiser warships.

The WDMMW said that the UK had 51 units in its active naval inventory in November and that the balance of its force was "average." It has just three more vessels on order, much less than most of the world's top navies.

The UK's median hull age is 17.7 years, which is younger than many of the world's most powerful navies.

8: France

France's Charles de Gaulle in the Red Sea on April 15, 2019. US Navy/MCS3 Skyler Okerman

The WDMMW said France had 65 active units in January, and gave it a True Value Rating of 92.9.

France has "a modern, multi-role force covering airpower, surface combatants, and undersea boats," it said.

The WDMMW focused on France's efforts to modernize its navy, including its destroyer force of 21 ships.

France also has one aircraft carrier  the Charles de Gaulle  as well as nine submarines, 14 offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels.

It said France's fleet of 17 mine/countermine warfare ships was "considerable considering France's shorelines along European waters."

France has no frigates, cruisers, or corvettes and its median hull age is 23 years.

The WDMMW said France had an "average" force balance.

7: India

The submarine INS Vagir in Mumbai, India, in January. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni

The WDMMW gave India's navy a True Value Rating of 99.1.

It said India had 102 active units in January, which were one aircraft carrier, 17 submarines, 1o destroyers, 13 frigates, 23 corvettes, 29 offshore-patrol vessels, and nine amphibious-assault vessels.

India has no mine/countermine warfare ships or cruisers and its median hull age is 20.1 years, the WDMMW said.

It said India's naval force had an "average" balance.

6: Japan

JS Kumano of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in May. REUTERS/Caroline Chia

The WDMMW gave Japan's navy a True Value Rating of 121.3 and said it had 102 active units in November.

Japan also has a more modern navy than many of the top-ranked countries, with a median hull age of 14.8 years, the WDMMW said.

Japan has four helicopter carriers, 22 submarines, 22 destroyers, three frigates, 22 mine/countermine warfare ships, six offshore-patrol vessels, and three amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, no cruisers, and no corvettes.

The WDMMW said Japan's naval force had an "average" balance.

5: South Korea

South Korea's ROKS Shin Dol-seok submarine in July 2022. US Navy/MCS3 Aleksandr Freutel

The WDMMW said South Korea's navy had 138 active units.

It said the navy was "a well-balanced fighting force that includes all expected naval unit types short of dedicated fixed-wing aircraft carriers."

The WDMMW said that its force was likely a response to its aggressive neighbor, North Korea, and that it was "built with defense and deterrence in mind."

Its force was listed as 18 submarines, 12 destroyers, 12 frigates, 11 corvettes, 11 mine/countermine warfare ships, 64 offshore-patrol vessels, and 1o amphibious-assault vessels in May.

It has no aircraft carriers or cruisers.

It has a median hull age of 22.4 years.

The WDMMW gave South Korea a True Value Rating of 122.9.

4: Indonesia

Sailors celebrating in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October 2010. REUTERS/Enny Nuraheni

The WDMMW gave Indonesia's navy a True Value Rating of 137.7, with 243 active units in July.

Indonesia has four submarines, seven frigates, 25 corvettes, nine mine/countermine warfare ships, 168 offshore-patrol vessels, and 30 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no aircraft carriers, cruisers, or destroyers, WDMMW said.

It said Indonesia's fleet had an "average" balance of assets.

Indonesia's median hull age is 21.8.

3: Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin at Russian Navy Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July. Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Russia's navy, with 265 units in its active inventory assets in March, was ranked third in the world by the WDMMW.

But it said Russia had a lot of aging units, including its only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov.

Many of its 58 submarines, 12 destroyers, and four cruisers are also showing their age.

It said Russia's median hull age was 30 years.

The listing said that Russia's navy had one frigate, 83 corvettes, 28 mine/countermine warfare ships, 27 offshore-patrol vessels, and 21 amphibious-assault vessels.

The WDMMW said, "The mine warfare division is primarily aging Soviet Cold War-era instruments as is the bulk of the amphibious assault/support force."

It said that Russia was trying to modernize its navy by placing 82 new units on order and that it had made a "noticeable commitment" to new corvette warships, submarines, and mine/countermine warfare ships.

The WDMMW gave Russia a True Value Rating of 242.3 and said it had a "good" force balance.

Russia's military has seen some major equipment losses in its invasion of Ukraine, but its navy has not played a major role, keeping its fleet largely intact.

One significant loss was the Moskva, its flagship in the Black Sea that was taken out in a Ukrainian missile strike.

2: China

Chinese sailors standing to attention in April 2009. REUTERS/Guang Niu/Pool

China, a rising naval power, had the largest fleet in the WDMMW ranking, with 425 active units in August.

They were three aircraft carriers, 72 submarines, 48 destroyers, 71 corvettes, 44 frigates, 49 mine countermeasures/countermine warfare ships, 127 offshore-patrol vessels, and 11 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no cruisers.

It has a much younger median hull age than the US, at 13.8 years, but also has fewer assets on order, at 14. The ranking said China's navy had a "good" balance of assets.

The WDMMW gave China a True Value Rating of 318.9.

1: US

The USS Connecticut after surfacing through Arctic sea ice during an exercise in Alaska in March 2011. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

The US Navy is widely considered the most powerful the world has ever known.

The WDMMW gave it a True Value Rating of 323.9, its highest score.

It said the US scored highly because it "features a broad mix of warship and submarine types as well as balance strengthened by overall numbers (quantity) - pulling ahead by its vaunted carrier fleet."

The listing said the US Navy had 243 active units in November, comprising 11 aircraft carriers, 68 submarines, 22 cruisers, 70 destroyers, 21 corvettes, eight mine/countermine warfare ships, 10 offshore-patrol vessels, and 33 amphibious-assault vessels.

It has no frigates, and its median hull age is 23.3 years.

It said the US had a "good" balance in its asset types.

It also said the 67 additional units on order was a sign that the US was "attempting to keep pace with global rival China."

Read the original article on Business Insider
One Womans Story Of Self-Managing Her Abortion In An Anti-Choice State

Managing your own abortion is not a crime in Ohio, but a politically motivated prosecutor might believe Julia should be punished for what she did.

By Alanna Vagianos

SOMEWHERE IN OHIO  Its a pretty short drive to the polling site from the cabin where Julia has been self-managing her abortion. Julia took the last of her abortion pills the day before, which she believes have ended her unwanted pregnancy. She still has some minor cramping and is tired from the whole ordeal, but she feels reasonably OK  well enough to go vote on a ballot referendum that could help decide the fate of abortion rights in Ohio.

Issue 1, a ballot initiative to raise the threshold to alter the state constitution from a simple majority  the standard in Ohio for over a century  to 60%, is a preemptive attempt to block a pro-choice constitutional amendment that Ohioans will vote on in November.

It comes down to control, says Julia, who is being identified by a pseudonym. They want to control us. They hate women and they want to use this to mobilize voters.

She takes some satisfaction in knowing she induced an abortion all by herself  a small act of resistance as Ohio Republicans actively undermine democracy in order to roll back abortion rights.

I think it scares them that women could self-manage an abortion all on their own, she says. Once they realize that we dont need them, they panic.

A few days prior, Julia was frantically rummaging through her closet, looking for the abortion pills she had ordered weeks earlier. After two extremely stressful hours, she found the mifepristone, the first pill in her self-managed abortion regimen, and downed it with a glass of water. Soon, she hoped, she would no longer be pregnant.

Finally, I can get this over with, she thought, letting out a small sigh of relief.

She told only a handful of friends what she was doing, texting them via the encrypted messaging service Signal and inviting a select few to stop by the cabin she was renting to keep her company. She brought some small dog waste bags to hold all of her used menstrual pads, which she planned to burn later to avoid leaving any evidence at the rental house.

Story continues

Julia had to be this careful: A politically motivated prosecutor in a deep-red county could attempt to argue what shes doing is a crime.

Hours before Julia took that mifepristone pill, a mom in Nebraska had pleaded guilty to a felony charge for helping her teen daughter self-manage an abortion at 29 weeks pregnant. Similar to Ohio, self-managed abortion is not explicitly illegal in Nebraska, although Nebraska did have a 20-week abortion ban in place when the teen self-managed. The mom faces up to two years in prison. The teen pleaded guilty to one felony charge of concealing or abandoning a dead body, and was sentenced to 90 days in jail plus two years of probation. A photo splashed across newspapers and media outlets showed the young woman crying as a bailiff took her away in handcuffs.

Abortion is legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy in Ohio, but that doesnt make the state a pro-choice safe haven. Ohio is notorious for some of the most extreme anti-choice legislation in the country. Cincinnati is the birthplace of the National Right to Life, the countrys oldest and largest anti-abortion organization. Ohio was one of a handful of states that attempted to ban abortion at six weeks in 2019  a restriction that went into effect for a few months after Roe v. Wade fell last year. The ban has been temporarily blocked in court and awaits a ruling from the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court.

Ohio is also home to some of the most radical anti-choice elected officials, like the lawmaker who just last year argued that pregnancy from rape is an opportunity for women. Or the state legislators who in 2019 introduced a bill that threatened physicians with murder charges if they didnt reimplant an ectopic pregnancy into a womans uterus  a procedure that does not exist in the medical field. And then theres the Republican state attorney general, David Yost, who went on Fox News and insinuated that the story of a 10-year-old rape victim who was forced to leave the state to get an abortion may not be real. Just weeks ago, Yost signed onto a letter with 18 other state attorneys general to President Joe Bidens administration, claiming that their states have the legal right to medical records of their residents who travel out of state to get abortions.

I think it scares them that women could self-manage an abortion all on their own. Once they realize that we dont need them, they panic.Julia

Self-managed abortion is a legal gray area in Ohio. Its not specifically banned, and most of the abortion-specific laws contain immunities for the pregnant person. But that doesnt mean someone couldnt be arrested, charged and thrown in jail for managing their own abortion.

Theres no law that explicitly makes self-managed abortion illegal in Ohio, said Jessie Hill, an attorney who litigated against the six-week abortion ban and a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland. However, there is a lot of legal peril around self-managed abortion because prosecutors can use other kinds of laws and often laws that dont even directly apply to threaten and prosecute people who are managing their own abortion.

Its often rogue prosecutors, religious attorneys general or anti-choice lawmakers ginning up support ahead of election season who make it their mission to go after women like Julia.

Im Very Ready To Not Be Pregnant Anymore

Julia had rented a small cabin a few towns over because she knew she wouldnt be able to take care of her young son at home while she was passing the pregnancy. And home, a farm in rural Ohio, came with a lot of work that she wouldnt be able to keep up with while self-managing.

She packed the essentials: menstrual pads for the bleeding; Imodium, anti-nausea medication and a heating pad for the cramps and inevitable pain; her computer and phone charger since she planned to work when she could; blue sweatpants and a pink sweatshirt to wear while curled up on the couch; and lots of underwear. She had already taken her mifepristone pill, so she packed the remaining four misoprostol tablets she plans to take in a day or two.

Im very ready to not be pregnant anymore, Julia tells me when I arrive at the cabin. Her boyfriend, Alex, greets me at the door and offers a drink and a snack, like Im a friend coming over to hang out on a normal weeknight.

The cabin is small but spacious and has a sprawling back porch. When I drive up, there are several Vote Yes on Issue 1 signs dotting the neighbors lawns  an indication that the neighborhood is likely not pro-choice.

Julia and Alex have only been dating for a few months, but Alex teases her like theyve known each other for years. Ive never seen her sit still for this long. She has way too much energy, in the best way possible, says Alex, who is also being identified by a pseudonym.

And from what Julia tells me, its true. Growing up on a farm and now living on her own, she prefers driving a tractor to watching Netflix. She can fix almost anything with her hands and she loves to take care of her animals: several horses, two dogs, a cat and a goldfish. She rarely sleeps more than four hours a night, staying busy running a small business and being a political activist in her community. She later laments that she didnt think to bring a kayak to use in the lake nearby, seemingly forgetting for a minute that shes about to be bent over in pain for the foreseeable future.

She never stops. She just gives and gives and gives, Alex says. Shes got a fierceness about her.

Julias wearing a green and white polka-dot sundress and her blond hair is down. She looks like someone whos about to host friends for dinner, not someone whos in the middle of self-managing an abortion. But her cramps havent started yet.

I dont think itll be that bad, but I was nervous for a minute yesterday. I was like, If this pregnancy is farther along than I thought, its gonna suck, Julia says, a hint of anxiety coming through.

By Julias estimation, shes just under eight weeks pregnant  a good time to be self-managing with abortion pills. The medication abortion regimen is one mifepristone pill followed by four misoprostol pills, taken at the same time, 12 to 48 hours later  the same steps someone would use if they went to an abortion clinic for a medication abortion. Abortion pills, like the handful Julia plans to take, are the most common in-clinic option  accounting for about 60% of all abortions up to 10 weeks of gestation in the U.S. Theyre safe and effective for anyone less than 13 weeks pregnant, according to the World Health Organization.

The only difference between an in-clinic abortion and self-managing at home at eight weeks pregnant is that Julia didnt take the first pill in front of a doctor and she wont be talking to a physician throughout the abortion.

All the evidence we have really indicates that self-managed abortion using these pills is very safe and effective, pretty much just as safe and effective as it is when theyre offered in a clinic, said Dr. Daniel Grossman, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.

As a former nurse whos had an in-clinic abortion prior to this, Julia isnt too worried about whats to come. She also takes some comfort in knowing she can call the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline for medical support or the Repro Legal Helpline for advice if she needs it. Shes already scrolled through the abortion subreddit  a space where people anonymously ask and answer questions about self-managed abortion and what to expect.

Her only fear is the bleeding. When she gave birth to her son, she hemorrhaged badly and was in the hospital for an extra week. But she has a plan if it gets to that.

If I start bleeding to the point where I feel dizzy or lightheaded, then Alex is going to take me to a hospital where my OB-GYN is and its more progressive there, she says.

I know not to say the words I self-managed. I would say, Im having a miscarriage  end of story, Julia says. Self-managed abortion and a natural miscarriage are medically indistinguishable.

Weeks earlier, before she even knew she was pregnant, Julia had ordered abortion pills from Aid Access, an Austria-based nonprofit, through a process known as advanced provision. They cost her $200 and took around 10 days to arrive. While she wasnt expecting to use them this quickly, shes extremely grateful she had them.

From the minute I thought maybe I might be pregnant, I started planning the abortion. Because there was no question about it  this is not what I want, she says, sitting on the couch with Alex.

Julia could have gotten an appointment at a clinic, but she wanted to know what its like to manage her own abortion. Self-managed abortion may bring to mind gruesome imagery of pre-Roe back-alley abortions, but modern medicine  and the creation of abortion pills, like the regimen Julia is using  has made it a very safe, effective and increasingly common method. For Julia, choosing to do this from the comfort of a couch, surrounded by a few close friends, gives her back some of the autonomy she feels like shes recently lost.

I feel like over the last several years, as we have lost ground legislatively [in the abortion-rights movement], there is a feeling of I dont have control. That terrifying feeling of What if I cant get mifepristone? ... What if Im too late? she says, alluding to the very real scenario that a right-wing judge could successfully pull mifepristone from the market.

Knowing that I have the ability to control what happens with my body feels better. Being able to control this part feels really good.

Despite the fact that mifepristone has been safely used by millions of pregnant people for over two decades, a group of anti-choice doctors filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration late last year claiming that the FDA rushed the approval process for mifepristone. A Texas federal court judge, an appointee of former President Donald Trump and a longtime abortion-rights opponent, ruled in favor of the anti-abortion physicians despite their lack of standing and evidence  putting mifepristone in a precarious legal limbo. A Supreme Court order ensured that the pill will remain available as the appeal process continues.

The day after taking the mifepristone, Julia had traded in her sundress for sweats. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and she wore glasses. She had started bleeding and cramping the night before and she was ready to take the next, and likely last, set of pills: the four misoprostol. (WHO advises pregnant people to take more misoprostol after the first four pills if theyre closer to 13 weeks, but Julia thinks shell be fine with just the four.)

The misoprostol is what softens the cervix and causes the bleeding that expels the pregnancy from the uterus. Its also the pill that causes the more painful part of the abortion: extreme cramping and often a combination of nausea, migraines, diarrhea and dizziness.

The instructions that came with the pills advise Julia to put the four tablets between her cheeks and gums and let them dissolve. But shes already so nauseated that just the thought of it makes Julia nearly throw up the one bite of toast shes managed to keep down since I arrived. She decides to insert the pills vaginally, which is just as safe and effective, but could alert authorities that shes had an abortion if she has complications and needs to go to the hospital.

All right, lets do this, she says as she pops the four misoprostol tablets out of their plastic container.

Self-Managing In A State Hostile To Abortion Rights

Twenty states have implemented extreme abortion restrictions or bans since the Supreme Court repealed nearly 50 years of precedent last summer. And many of the bans actually empower law enforcement to scrutinize and surveil anyone with the capacity for pregnancy. Anti-choice laws are so extreme in certain states that patients and physicians are fearful to even say the word abortion.

The threat of criminalization is very real: for physicians, for friends who aid and abet and  despite anti-choice lawmakers promises to the contrary  for pregnant people, too.

From 2000 to 2020, Ohio had the second-highest number of people criminally investigated or arrested for allegedly ending their own pregnancy or helping someone else do so, according to research from If/When/How, a legal reproductive justice nonprofit.

In another part of Julias home state, a 21-year-old woman ordered misoprostol pills from India to self-induce an abortion in 2019. She was 28 weeks pregnant. She was later arrested and put in jail for four months while on trial on charges that included involuntary manslaughter and abuse of a corpse. She was sentenced to three years of supervision and lost custody of her young son, who just happens to be around the same age as Julias.

From a medical perspective I dont have any concerns about the safety of self-managed abortion but I am concerned about the legal risks, said Grossman, the director of ANSIRH.

The threat of criminalization is very real: for physicians, for friends who 'aid and abet' and  despite anti-choice lawmakers promises to the contrary  for pregnant people, too.

There are dozens of other stories of pregnant people being criminalized for self-managing, despite the fact that there are only two states (South Carolina and Nevada) that have laws explicitly criminalizing a pregnant person for inducing their own abortion. A Texas mother of two was held in jail on a half-million-dollar bail after police arrested and charged her with murder in 2022 for allegedly self-inducing an abortion. A Mississippi mother of three was arrested and indicted on second-degree murder charges in 2018 after she lost her baby at 36 weeks pregnant and police said that shed searched for abortion pills online.

Women of color, low-income folks and people further along in their pregnancies are the most vulnerable to being surveilled and criminalized for self-managed abortion.

Last month, a Missouri woman named Love Holt testified in front of Congress about how she was forced to manage her own abortion because she could not afford to travel out of state to get care. A mother of five, Holt could also not afford to have another child. She self-managed with abortion pills, but unlike Julia, Holt was more than 13 weeks pregnant. She was rushed to the emergency room for severe blood loss.

I nodded in and out of consciousness in the lobby for several minutes as blood began dripping down my legs, Holt told members of Congress. I sat in that wheelchair and instead of thinking about survival, I thought about not going to jail.

Julia knows the risks of self-managing. But finding out that the Nebraska mom who helped her daughter self-manage had pleaded guilty to a felony charge just hours before she took her first abortion pill made the threat of criminalization feel much more real.

I was a little worried. It felt like it upped the risk, Julia said when she heard about the Nebraska case. Ive been careful  and luckily I knew to be careful in the way that I communicated about this  but I know that what Im doing carries some risk.

Criminalization for self-managed abortion is like a game of Russian roulette  it comes down to who gets to interpret and enforce the law and what their intent is.

Prosecutors who may be politically motivated, who may have the sense that there must be something wrong with [self-managed abortion]  whether or not its actually illegal  have a lot of leeway to bring a prosecution which can still ruin someones life, even if it ultimately ends up being dismissed or the person ends up being acquitted, said Hill, the attorney and law professor at Case Western Law. Thats the really scary thing.

Seeing That Much Blood No One Can Prepare You

It felt like burning in my stomach, Julia says, perched on the couch in the same sweatpants from earlier in the day.

After inserting the misoprostol pills vaginally, she had what she described as pops of discomfort in her abdomen. Not long after, the cramping started and she went to lay down. An hour later, she woke up shaking, sweating and in a lot of pain. She walked downstairs to the bathroom holding the walls because she was so dizzy.

I felt like I was dying, she says.

She sat on the toilet and passed six or seven blood clots, most of which were the size of her fist, she estimates. The largest one was about the size of a softball.

Living on a farm, I see some really gnarly stuff, but seeing that much blood coming out of you no one can prepare you for that, she tells me. As soon as that was done, though, I felt much better. I didnt feel in danger at all. I didnt feel scared.

Most pregnant people who self-manage report similar symptoms and experiences to Julia. Some people have minimal bleeding after taking the mifepristone pill, followed by intense cramping once the misoprostol is ingested. Most women will expel the pregnancy a few hours after taking the misoprostol pills.

Managing an abortion from the privacy of ones home is being discussed more now in part because mifepristone and misoprostol have become much easier to access in the last few years. Misoprostol, which can be used alone to self-manage, is accessible over the counter in many nations. In the U.S., the COVID-19 pandemic actually helped expand access to telemedicine, giving rise to online pharmacies in the country, like Hey Jane, and international websites that ship abortion pills from overseas, like Aid Access and PrivateEmma.

Expanded access has further proved just how safe and effective the mifepristone and misoprostol method is. A recent study found that the overwhelming majority of a group of women who self-managed using pills were able to end their pregnancies safely and without additional medical procedures, even if they were well beyond their first trimester.

For many people, abortion pills are their first choice when it comes to abortion care, said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of URGE and co-chair of Abortion on Our Own Terms, a campaign that educates the public on the safety and effectiveness of self-managed abortion.

People who want to make abortion a crime, they understand how revolutionary abortion pills are  and they know it is so much harder to stigmatize it if you can get it at Walgreens or CVS.

This medication is such a powerful tool of resistance.Elisa Wells, Plan C

Some people, like Julia, choose to self-manage because it provides more flexibility, especially when faced with ever-changing regulations and legal barriers in a post-Roe world. Immediately after the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision leaked in May 2022, internet searches for abortion pills increased by 162%, with more searches in states hostile to abortion rights, according to one study.

Other people are forced to self-manage because they simply dont have any other options. The people who face the most barriers to in-clinic care are also the ones who tend to self-manage: people of color, genderqueer or transgender folks, uninsured people and low-income people, according to a 2023 brief from ANSIRH.

Around 7% of people born female in the U.S. will attempt to self-manage at some point in their lifetimes, according to a 2017 survey conducted by ANSIRH researchers. Grossman is currently conducting another survey at ANSIRH to see if that percentage has increased, but he expects it has.

Barriers to access arent the only reason why someone chooses to self-manage, but its certainly an important reason. As those barriers increase, I anticipate well see  and I think we are already seeing  an increase in self-managed abortion, Grossman said.

The color has come back into Julias face since I saw her earlier in the day. The cramps have stopped and now shes bleeding as if shes on her period. Its heavy bleeding for her, but nothing a pad cant handle.

Julia called her local clinic, but wasnt able to get in for an ultrasound to confirm shes no longer pregnant. Since most people still test positive on pregnancy tests three to four weeks after an abortion, she likely will wait to take one. Shell have an appointment a month after taking the pills to confirm shes no longer pregnant. Shes not too worried; her pregnancy symptoms are completely gone since she passed the blood clots earlier in the day.

Now, two of Julias friends are hanging out drinking White Claws with her on the couch. Alex is making beef bourguignon because he thought Julia might be iron deficient after losing so much blood. Another friend brought over a box of tea and a charcuterie board she jokingly called a charcoochie board.

The mood is relaxed and cheerful  like its just another night laughing with friends. It feels so normal that I almost forget Julia has just done something that could be considered a crime. The contrast is jarring, but also speaks to the start of a quiet revolution happening in the homes of women and pregnant people around the country.

This medication is such a powerful tool of resistance, said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, an advocacy organization that provides people with information on how to obtain abortion pills. It really feels good to have something we can tell people that they can do in the face of ongoing injustice.

By managing her own abortion, Julia was able to take back some of that control she feels like she lost when Roe fell.

It feels like freedom, she tells me the next day as we talk about her experience self-managing.

Its feeling protected from their attacks, she says of anti-choice politicians. Like: Fuck you, keep showing your asses in Columbus. Youre not gonna hurt me. And I want people to know that they can do that, too.

Illustrations by Jianan Liu.

If you or anyone you know needs assistance self-managing a miscarriage or abortion, please call the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline at (833) 246-2632 for confidential medical support or the Repro Legal Helpline at (844) 868-2812 for confidential legal information and advice.
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STORM LAKE, Iowa -- A Minnesota man has pleaded not guilty of sexually abusing a young girl in Storm Lake.

Ka Toe, 41, of St. Paul, Minnesota, entered his written plea Friday in Buena Vista County District Court to two counts each of second-degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts with a child and indecent contact with a child and single counts of incest and child endangerment.

St. Paul authorities notified Storm Lake police in April of a report of sexual abuse alleged to have occurred in Storm Lake. Police investigated the accusations and arrested Toe in June, when he turned himself in to Storm Lake police.

According to court documents, Toe had sexual contact with the girl numerous times in a Storm Lake home between January 2019 and March 2020.
SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council will be asked Monday to approve a nearly $38 million consulting services agreement with a Minneapolis environmental engineering firm for the wastewater treatment plant facility plan improvements project.

If the council votes in favor of the resolution, Hazen and Sawyer P.C. will provide design, site survey and geotechnical investigation, construction administration and observation, as well as post construction services for the project in an amount not to exceed $37,822,334. The council could also opt to deny the agreement and require the city to seek services from another firm, according to city documents.

In May, in spite of objections from the business community, the council approved the third and final reading of a residential, commercial and industrial sewer rate hike to help fund a projected $470 million rebuild of the city's aging wastewater treatment plant, which is between 50 and 60 years old.

The plant, 3100 S. Lewis Blvd., is slated to be rebuilt in phases.

"The (wastewater treatment plant) facility plan improvements are intended to be implemented across two phases, with a potential third future growth-driven phase, and this scope includes preliminary engineering services for the first two phases and detailed design, construction administration, and post-construction assistance for the phase 1 (wastewater treatment plant) facility plan improvements," the city documents stated.

The plant, 3100 S. Lewis Blvd., poses significant safety issues for city staff and has a history of compliance issues with the state. In January of 2022, the Iowa DNR filed suit against the city over alleged repeated environmental violations at the plant, which dated back to March 2012. The city faces fines adding up to millions of dollars.

Last April, the council green-lighted a $617,700 consulting services agreement with Hazen and Sawyer to develop a comprehensive facility plan, which will guide the city's wastewater treatment services for the next two decades.

"The city intends to implement improvements at the (wastewater treatment plant) to address safety and odors, repair deficiencies, enhance reliability, and expand capacity," the documents stated.

Phase 1 of the project features a number of improvements, according to the documents, including primary clarifier replacement, aeration tank rehabilitation and process improvements, new primary sludge and primary effluent pumping stations and plant-wide odor control. Demolition of unused plant structures and buildings is also included in the first phase.

The city is paying for the wastewater treatment plant project with a combination of funding, including the rate increase and American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The city received $40.6 million from ARPA, a COVID relief package signed by President Biden in March 2021.

Industries saw a 5% sewer rate increase effective July 1. A 25% increase goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. Rates are slated to jump 20% in FY 2025 and 2026, while in FY 2027 the increase will be 8.5%. Residential and commercial ratepayers saw an annual rate increase of 20% in the current fiscal year, which began July 1. Rates for those particular customers will increase 10% in FY 2025 and 3% in fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Council, in a split decision Monday, approved a nearly $38 million consulting services agreement with a Minneapolis environmental engineering firm for the wastewater treatment plant facility plan improvements project.

The agreement passed by a vote of 3 to 1. Mayor Bob Scott, who was initially going to abstain on the matter, cast the lone "no" vote. Councilman Matthew O'Kane was absent from the meeting.

Hazen and Sawyer P.C. will provide design, site survey and geotechnical investigation, construction administration and observation, as well as post construction services for the project in an amount not to exceed $37,822,334.

"This dollar amount is shocking. You read it and it is shocking," Councilman Alex Watters said before the vote.

Tom Pingel, the city's utility director in charge of the plant, said city staff worked closely with Hazen and Sawyer and "rigorously tried to reduce the scope" of the project.

"We saved about $1.1 million by reducing the scope, but still kept what we thought was needed to keep this as a successful project," he said.

In May, in spite of objections from the business community, the council approved the third and final reading of a residential, commercial and industrial sewer rate hike to help fund a projected $470 million rebuild of the city's aging wastewater treatment plant, which is between 50 and 60 years old. That same month, the council approved a resolution to create a wastewater treatment plant reconstruction and design advisory committee to address concerns by users during the design stages of the plant's reconstruction.

Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan expressed disappointment that the business community has had "no input to this point." He said the advisory committee, which will have 25 members, has not met and that there has been no dialogue.

"We haven't had a meeting yet to discuss any of this. The business community is concerned that we're getting our cart in front of our horse. We've been asking for this dialogue since March or April, and we'd like to see that commence before we commit to spending $37 million on the scope," McGowan said.

Scott said he finds it "unacceptable" that there hasn't been an organizational meeting yet and said "it's time" the committee get together.

"You're getting a black eye from some of the business community through no fault of your own; I would think that you would want to insist on that as well. What's the day that you think you're gonna start this process?" Scott asked Pingel and City Manager Bob Padmore.

Padmore said staff would sit down with Hazen and Sawyer and get a date set for the meeting.

"I think it's tough to have a meeting without everyone appointed," said Padmore, who said the city is seeking several representatives from the industrial community, as well as an independent wastewater engineer. "We'll do everything we can to get at least a quorum."

The wastewater treatment plant facility plan improvements are intended to be implemented across two phases, with a potential third future growth-driven phase.

The plant, 3100 S. Lewis Blvd., poses significant safety issues for city staff and has a history of compliance issues with the state. In January of 2022, the Iowa DNR filed suit against the city over alleged repeated environmental violations at the plant, which dated back to March 2012. The city faces fines adding up to millions of dollars.

Last April, the council green-lighted a $617,700 consulting services agreement with Hazen and Sawyer to develop a comprehensive facility plan, which will guide the city's wastewater treatment services for the next two decades.

"The city intends to implement improvements at the (wastewater treatment plant) to address safety and odors, repair deficiencies, enhance reliability, and expand capacity," according to city documents.

Phase 1 of the project features a number of improvements, according to the documents, including primary clarifier replacement, aeration tank rehabilitation and process improvements, new primary sludge and primary effluent pumping stations and plant-wide odor control. Demolition of unused plant structures and buildings is also included in the first phase.

"Phase 1 is not a Band-Aid this is a comprehensive project to rebuild the wastewater treatment plant," Pingel said.

The city is paying for the wastewater treatment plant project with a combination of funding, including the rate increase and American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The city received $40.6 million from ARPA, a COVID relief package signed by President Biden in March 2021.

Industries saw a 5% sewer rate increase effective July 1. A 25% increase goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. Rates are slated to jump 20% in FY 2025 and 2026, while in FY 2027 the increase will be 8.5%. Residential and commercial ratepayers saw an annual rate increase of 20% in the current fiscal year, which began July 1. Rates for those particular customers will increase 10% in FY 2025 and 3% in fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
LOS ANGELES  Sharon Farrell, a Sioux City-born television and film actress known for her roles in the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" and in major films of the 1960s and 1970s, died this spring in Los Angeles. She was 82.

Her death, on May 15 at the Los Angeles Downtown Medical Center, went unreported until last week. In a Facebook post announcing Farrell's death, her sister, Dale Candice Forsmoe, said she did not know the cause of death.

Farrell was born Sharon Lee Forsmoe on Christmas Eve, 1940, in Sioux City to Hazel Ruth (Huffman) Forsmoe and Darrel LaValle Forsmoe. In about 1968 or 1969, Farrell later said, she doctored her birth certificate to indicate she was born in 1946, after producers for the film The Reivers, told her she was too old for a part. She got the role.

After graduating from Central High School in 1958, Farrell left her parents' home on Douglas Street almost immediately for New York City and was soon making a name for herself as an actress and model.

In early 1959, Farrell was crowned Miss Brooklyn. That spring, she went to Cuba (at the time a Caribbean destination for Americans, but on the brink of revolution) to star in the film "Kiss Her Goodbye." She claimed later to have spent time with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro during her stay in Cuba; Guevara, she said, reminded her of her father.

By then she had signed a five-year option with Eldorado Productions. In 1960, she was landing television roles, was named Miss Greenwich Village Summer Queen and was under consideration for an MGM contract. That same year, she was an understudy to Jane Fonda in the play "There Was a Little Girl."

Actress Sharon Farrell In 2012, Sharon Farrell returned to Sioux City to visit family and friends. Farrell died May 15.

She was going by the stage name Sharon Farrell from at least as early as 1960. The stage name was reportedly a sort of combination of the first letter of Forsmoe and her father's first name, Darrel, with the addition of an extra "L" at the end.

Bob Hope brought Farrell to Los Angeles to film a TV pilot, but it didnt sell. But she managed to land plenty of episodic work in everything from Gunsmoke to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." to Naked City. A string of parts in other shows and films led to The Reivers, a high-profile production starring Steve McQueen. In 1969, she was considered a frontrunner for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

"This role is the most important that I have done because I co-star with Steve McQueen. The role wasn't challenging because I have played this type of character before" Farrell told The Journal in 1969 of her role in "The Reivers."

"The most challenging role I've played was a Janis Joplin character in a segment of 'The Name of the Game' television series. I did a lot of research on Janis Joplin before doing the role. It was challenging because I sing in the show and I'm not a singer," she added.

Farrell made the rounds of talk shows and landed on The Tonight Show, where an off-hand remark about Sioux City attracted negative attention. Near the end of December, 1969, while promoting "The Reivers," Farrell told "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson that "in Sioux City dirty movies are the only ones that sell." Carson attempted to shift the conversation in another direction, but Farrell maintained that quality films couldn't do well in Sioux City because local "perverts" preferred pornographic films.

The reaction in Sioux City was swift and unpleasant. Her parents, who still lived in Sioux City, were inundated with hostile phone calls in the days that followed, according to contemporary news reports. "The Tonight Show," likewise, faced a wave of angry telegrams and phone calls. Dietrich Dirks, at the time the president and general manager of Sioux City NBC affiliate KTIV, wrote to Carson saying, "We deeply regret Sharon Farrell's unfortunate comments concerning her hometown, Sioux City. Local theater owners refute her contention that patrons are interested only in pornography."

As a result, Farrell stayed away from Sioux City for decades, returning only in 2012 with her memoir, Sharon Farrell, Hollywood Princess from Sioux City, Iowa, to renew old acquaintances and prove she harbored no ill will.

Farrell's screen career came to a halt in 1999, when she moved with a business manager/boyfriend to Fiji.

"He told me life in films was over -- even though I had won an award at a film festival and was on 'The Young and the Restless.' He said, 'That's nothing. Let's get out of here,'" she said of the experience. They moved to Fiji, bought a house and, after a jet ski accident, he abandoned her and took control of her finances.

"Everybody thought I was dead," Farrell said later.

She existed on little or no money until a housekeeper took her to live with her family and help her get "whole." She progressed, but another illness prompted them to send her to New Zealand, where hospital employees found a phone number for actor Sam Jones. They called; Jones got in touch with Farrell's son, Chance Boyer, and helped get her back to Los Angeles.

A friend took Farrell to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings so she could have coffee each morning; women at a Lutheran church gave her assistance. A producer from "NCIS" offered her clothes.

Eventually she put her life back in order.

"I'm proud of her, to a point," Farrell's then-90-year-old mother Hazel Forsmoe said in 2012. "But, in many ways, Hollywood ruined her happiness. She's not the same old Sharon, but she is grounded."

Sharon Farrell Actress Sharon Farrell is shown in 1967. Farrell died May 15.

Farrell married and divorced on several occasions. Her first was to actor Andrew Prine in 1962. Prine divorced her within about a year, testifying in court that she berated him in front of friends and once tore up his clothing. Her second marriage, to her Hollywood manager Ron DeBlasio, ended with an annulment in 1969 (he was reportedly on tour with Tiny Tim at the time). Less than a year later she married John Boyer, who was also her manager. That marriage ended in divorce. In 1973 she married accountant Steve Salkin. They divorced within a year or so, and she subsequently married the writer Dale Trevillion. That marriage, Farrell's longest by far, ended in divorce after more than 30 years.

"I come from Sioux City but my family wasn't religious," Farrell told the columnist Earl Wilson in 1969, after her second marriage ended, and by which time she was taking instruction in Catholicism. "I was never baptized. I decided I like the pomp and ceremony of the church. It makes sense to me."

Information on Farrell's survivors, other than her sister, was not immediately available.
Elon Musk says his much-awaited MMA cage fight against Mark Zuckerberg will be streamed live on his social network, X, formerly Twitter.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur announced the development in his recent post on Sunday, August 6.

Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg Cage Fight to Livestream on X

As per a report by NBC News, Musk and Mark Zuckerberg will go head-to-head in a no-holds-barred MMA battle, testing their physical prowess. While the tech giants have been at odds in the past over various industry disputes, this bout promises to be the ultimate test of strength, strategy, and endurance.

In a recent post, Musk announced that the MMA cage fight between him and Zuck will be streamed live on X. He also assured everyone that "all proceeds will go to charity for veterans. "

Despite confirming the live stream, some of the details of the fight have yet to be disclosed. However, the Meta Chief Executive Officer (CEO) previously challenged Musk to do the match on August 26. Yet, Musk has yet to officially agree on the date.

CNN reports that the two tech titans agreed to go head-to-head in a cage fight last June. Since then, the rivalry between the two billionaires got much heated following the debut of Zuck's Twitter rival, Threads.

Read Also: Elon Musk's X, Formerly Twitter, Takes Down Giant Flashing Sign at San Francisco HQ

Musk Says He Weighs 300 Pounds: What Does This Mean to the Fight?

According to Business Insider, Musk recently expressed confidence in his ability to outlast his opponent. The Twitter buyer disclosed that he weight 300 pounds, noting he stands a chance to win the upcoming cage match.

An X user, Ed Krassenstein, shared a "fight card" photo of the two tech titans. The graphic says the Tesla big boss is "6'2" tall and weighs "197 lbs," adding that Musk is "built like a crash-test dummy."

On the other hand, the "fight card" adds that Zuckerberg is "155 lbs." Krassenstein described the Facebook founder as "one of the stronger nerds you will meet."

However, Musk responded to the post, revealing that he weighs "at least 300 lbs." Given that, he believes that "if the fight is short, I probably win." However, If the match stretches longer, the SpaceX boss says Zuck "may win on endurance." In other words, the Tesla CEO is seemingly bigger than the Facebook founder.

As Musk confirmed, the fight will be streamed live on X, and it is sure to be a major event. If you are a fan of either Musk or Zuckerberg or if you are just an MMA enthusiast, then you would not want to miss this fight.

Related Article: French News Agency AFP Sues X, Formerly Twitter, Over News Distribution Fees

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MOVILLE, Iowa -- It takes a village to mount a food stand at the Woodbury County Fair.

Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sioux City took over operation of the food stand at the county fair run for decades by Presbyterian churches in Lawton and Bronson. The churches decided to give up the space after finding it difficult to get the numbers of volunteers necessary to help run the stand for the fairs week-long run, which ended Sunday.

They asked us to do that because their numbers are low, said The Rev. David Zirpel, associate pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church.

All proceeds from the food stand are going towards mission projects sponsored by various church groups. Proceeds from Monday and Tuesdays sales went to support Mission Central in Mapleton, Iowa. The Lutheran Womens Mission League benefitted from Wednesdays food stand sales. Thursdays proceeds went to the youth groups. The church supports an orphanage in West Africa and Fridays receipts were donated to the orphanage. On Sunday, St. Paul Lutheran Church and School volunteers staffed the stand and received the proceeds.

Redeemer relied on more than just its 1,300 members to run the stand.

We are pulling people from the whole circuit of churches. Its about 13 churches, Zirpel said. With the youth, they are really supporting from all those churches. They are not necessarily all our members.

Church volunteers have been working for more than five months to get ready for Fair week.

We had lots of meetings with them and texting and phone calls, Zirpel said. We took the menu they had these last years, especially the pies.

Kyle Schutte, a Redeemer parishioner, recalled when Pastor Zirpel approached him about the project.

Pastor Zirpel called me. First, I remember he was pretty excited about it. And I kind of said Pastor, do you think we have enough volunteers to do this? Schutte said.

And I was a skeptic at first thinking there was no way we could tackle this huge project. I told him to reach out to some of the committees and groups to see if they would be interested in taking a day. They could use the money for their organization. We got good feedback and then he was on board and Gods plan has led us to this day. Its a little hectic but a lot of money is being raised for a lot of good causes.

Fred Thies helped oversee the entire operation. He joined Redeemer in April of this year.

Back in California, I would do car shows and carnivals for our church back there. I did quite a bit of that stuff and told Pastor what I did when I first met him and so right away when he got the call he calls me and I said yeah, we can do this. Its not a problem, Thies said. Its been a great success. Everybody at the church has been so gracious and so awesome.

Thies dubbed himself Mr. Everything.

I do whatever is needed at the time, he said with a grin.

They heard from long-time customers of the food stand after word got around that Redeemer was taking it over.

When they found out we were going to do it we actually had texts saying please dont change anything. Please keep putting the nacho cheese on the hamburgers. So we pump it on instead of a piece of cheese. Everybody has been happy about that. People that I didnt even know begging us to keep it the same, Zirpel said.

But Redeemer has added its own touch in spots.

This morning we decided to make some tacos. Weve got the signs up. I think we will have that on the menu next year. Two tacos for $4 and you get all the fixins.

The church sold homemade pies for $25.

See all those pies over there, weve had our pies (pie makers) and our workers signed up for about three weeks already," Zirpel said.

One challenge was getting into a rhythm serving long lines of hungry diners.

The only thing is just getting people served during those big times. We are training new people every day, Zirpel said.

Redeemer bought the kitchen equipment from the Presbyterian churches and those churches turned around and donated the money to food banks in the area.

We were really happy about that, Zirpel said.

They served nearly 1,000 customers through Wednesday.

Everybody has their own job and duty and hopefully it runs well, Schutte said.

His job was taking orders and filling the orders.

Our first year is a learning curve. The people that have come and visited us so far, hopefully next year, because it looks like a project we are going to tackle again in the future, hopefully, we are learning some things, Schutte said.

His two sons, Ryan, 16, and Cody, 14, were helping out on Thursday. The teens attend high school at Dakota Valley.

The next generation needs to get out and serve and help out, Schutte said.

In the shadow of a table full of delicious pies, Schutte shared his favorite. I am a pecan pie person with ice cream. Food wise, the taverns (sandwiches) are really good. I would highly recommend them.
LONDON  The Loch Ness Centre in Scotland is calling for "budding monster hunters" and volunteers to join in what it dubs the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster since the 1970s.

The visitor attraction said modern technology, such as drones, that produces thermal images of the lake will "search the waters in a way that has never been done before."

The new surface water search for the fabled "Nessie," planned for the weekend of Aug. 26 and 27, is billed as the largest of its kind since the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau studied the loch for signs of the mythical beast in 1972.

The Loch Ness Centre is located at the old Drumnadrochit Hotel, where in 1933 manager Aldie Mackay reported spotting a "water beast" in the loch, the largest body of freshwater by volume in the United Kingdom and one of its deepest.

The story kicked off an enduring worldwide fascination with finding the elusive monster, spawning hoaxes and hundreds of eyewitness accounts. Numerous theories or explanations were put forward over the years, including that the creature may have been a plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile, giant eels or even swimming circus elephants.

The Loch Ness Centre said its team will deploy drones equipped with infrared cameras so they can produce thermal images of the water from the air. A hydrophone will be used to detect acoustic signals under the water.

Volunteers will be asked to keep an eye out for any breaks or other movements in the water, with guidance from experts on what to look out for and how to record findings.

"It's our hope to inspire a new generation of Loch Ness enthusiasts," said Alan McKenna of Loch Ness Exploration, a voluntary research team taking part in the search.

"By joining this large-scale surface watch," he said, "you'll have a real opportunity to personally contribute towards this fascinating mystery that has captivated so many people from around the world."

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DES MOINES  Library restrictions in an Iowa law passed this year are causing headaches for school librarians and administrators as they prepare for the new school year, and many have said they want to see more guidance from the Department of Education to clear up uncertainties about the policy.

The law, passed by statehouse Republicans and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, makes a raft of changes to education policies in Iowa, including a provision that requires school libraries to only include age-appropriate material, and specifically bans any book that describes or depicts any of a list of defined sex acts.

Darwin Lehmann, the superintendent of both the Central Springs and Forest City school districts, said the districts have begun reviewing some of the books in their libraries and have set some aside for review. The districts are waiting for further guidance from the Department of Education, though, to make the final call.

Lehmann said the districts are setting aside books if there is any doubt about whether they comply with the law. District officials did not provide a list of titles set aside before publication.

Were going to take an approach that if its in doubt, were going to do that until we get further guidance, he said. I would rather take that end because you got penalties in (2024). If you leave it out there, and then you happen to miss something then you get penalties on the other side. So well probably take the conservative approach and the safe approach until we get further guidance coming out of Des Moines in regards to that.

The law took effect July 1, but the Department of Education will only be able to penalize educators or administrators for violating the library restrictions starting Jan. 1, 2024.

Among the bills other provisions are:

Instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity will be barred in kindergarten through sixth grade;

Schools will need to notify parents if a student requests changing their name or pronouns;

Schools must put their library catalog online and allow parents to review certain instructional materials, providing a policy to request removal of any classroom materials;

The bill codifies parents rights and requires parents permission before a student takes a survey that asks about political affiliation and mental health problems, among other things.

Lehmann said he hopes guidance provides further distinction of the definition of age-appropriate, beyond the depiction of sex acts. He also said the department or legislators should clear up what exactly constitutes the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity.

I think schools will probably need to align with the values of their community, and make the best decisions based on where their community values have been and are, he said, noting those policies need to be still in compliance with the law.

In the Aplington-Parkersburg school district, leadership has held an initial meeting to review the legislation and update board policies on libraries, said district superintendent Travis Fleshner, but they have not developed a list of books to remove.

If slightly more guidance was available and available a little sooner that would have been helpful, Fleshner said in an email.

The Iowa City Community School District said it is working with legal counsel to get questions answered and ensure we are moving forward with a complete understanding of the new requirements, it said in a statement provided to The Gazette (Cedar Rapids) Thursday.

Iowa City schools teachers will return to work on Aug. 17. At that time, we will provide them with guidance on reviewing classroom and library materials to ensure compliance with the law, according to the district statement.

Clear Creek-Amana Community Schools Superintendent Corey Seymour said the district also was consulting with attorneys and seeking clarification from state education officials before moving forward.

Iowa Department of Education officials have not promised more guidance around the law.

As we get that feedback well review it on a case-by-case basis and determine how to appropriately respond, the departments legislative liaison Eric St Clair told the Iowa Board of Education on Thursday.

Board President John Robbins told St Clair he has heard from school districts there is confusion about implementing the law, and anything the department could do to address that would be more than welcome.

Theres a lot of confusion, people in the field that Ive talked to are looking at the (department) or somebody to provide directions, he said. Because right now people are kind of either guessing what is right or wrong, and not being in violation of the law.

The Urbandale Community School District said this week it would pause its removal of nearly 400 books from shelves that may violate the law, narrowing down the list to 64 titles.

The district attracted attention when the nonprofit Annies Foundation published a list of titles sent to teachers and librarians for removal from school libraries and classrooms. The list also included books to be removed from elementary and middle school classrooms because they were believed to violate the ban on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.

In an email to staff and families on Monday, the districts superintendent Rosaline Daca said it would not be moving forward with the larger list, and would also pause removing books that reference gender identity and sexual orientation until they receive further guidance from the Department of Education.

Republicans stand by their language

Republican lawmakers brought the bill forward this year after saying they heard concerns from parents in Iowa about the books present in some school libraries. The law contains similar provisions to laws passed in Missouri, Texas and Florida in recent years.

Republican Sen. Ken Rozenboom, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said he does not believe the wording of the law is unclear, and he does not understand why schools are confused about the prohibitions in the law.

A sex act is very precisely written in Iowa Code. Any depiction or description of a sex act is prohibited, he said. It could not be more clear. I know everybody wants to muddy the waters; I do not know how it could be more clear.

Rozenboom mentioned Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, a graphic novel that includes nudity and depictions of sexual activities, as one book that should be removed from schools. On the other hand, he said that George Orwells 1984, which was initially included on Urbandales list of books to remove from shelves, would not fall under the laws prohibitions.

He said he hopes the Department of Education provides more guidance, but noted they will be going off the same language in the law that is already available to school administrators.

I dont know how to make that more clear, he said. The Bible doesnt do that, 1984 doesnt do that  Seems to me like a tempest in a teapot a little bit.

In a newsletter on Friday, Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said he believes Urbandales initial list of books was provided to make a political point.

House Education Committee Chair Skyler Wheeler, of Hull, in a statement provided in the newsletter, said the district was playing a political game and he does not believe deciding which books to remove should be hard.

Its unbelievable to me that some of these school districts are having such a hard time removing sexually explicit material from their library, he said. This is quite simple to me. Porn doesnt belong in school libraries. Books that dont contain porn can remain on the shelves.

Worries about lack of guidance

Education and library advocates argued an overly broad interpretation of the law will deprive students of the opportunity to read books they otherwise would. They said where to draw the line is not clear, and in trying to avoid repercussions schools will disqualify books that should not be removed under the law.

The Iowa Library Association and Iowa Association of School Librarians are advising teacher librarians to wait for more guidance from the Department of Education before taking any action on removing books from libraries. The organizations sent a letter to the departments director, McKenzie Snow, last month, with several questions about the law, and have not received a response.

Without guidance and under pressure licensee penalties, districts will be forced to make decisions that are most likely more restrictive than the letter of the law intended, said Iowa Association of School Librarians Past President Michelle Kruse. Iowa students deserve to be able to go to their school library and find books that are mirrors that reflect themselves and books that are windows that allow themselves to see the world.

Sam Helmick, the president of the Iowa Library Association, said state officials should provide more guidance, in part, to avoid the possibility of litigation over book removals. PEN America, an organization that advocates for library freedom, sued a Florida school district this year after it removed several books, citing First Amendment violations.

I think questions need to be asked and answers need to be given, Helmick said. I dont what else could we do, I guess would be the question. Would it be not have directives and then make it up as we go or try our best to develop criteria and then have that criteria questioned?

Some removal decisions may be easy, others less clear

Matt Carver, legal services director for School Administrators of Iowa, said while some have interpreted the law to mean any book with a reference to a sex act must be removed from libraries or classrooms thats certainly not the case and I dont believe was the intention of the Legislature.

The mere reference to sex is not one and the same as a depiction of an act, Carver said. Its going to be something that is more descriptive thats going to be a violation.

However, school officials still need to evaluate whether the material is age-appropriate.

For example, famous works such as The Catcher in the Rye and The Color Purple that reference sex and describe sexual violence and the ensuing trauma may be age-appropriate for high school students, but not elementary or middle school.

Even then, Carver said he is advising school administrators to encourage teachers to inform parents and guardians that a book or instructional material contains reference to a sexual act and seek approval to provide it to their child to read.

There is some value in students reading about (sex and sexuality) and learning about it and how to cope and learn about things related to sexual assault, but leave the determination to parents, he said.

That said, some books specifically discussed by lawmakers, including the memoirs Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and All Boys Arent Blue by George M. Johnson  which contain overt images and descriptions of sexual activity  clearly must be removed from school library shelves, Carver said.

For those type of books, thats a no-brainer, he said. Or, if you have a book not used for a health or human growth and development class that has drawings of sex acts, thats a pretty easy decision to make. Thats a good starting point to say these books are not permitted in the school library, but they also need to consider whats available to students in classrooms and elsewhere in school buildings, and whether their appropriate for that grade level.

As for the laws provision related to instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in school, Carver said hes offering similar guidance to a state law passed in 2021 that restricts teaching about race and sex discrimination.

Misunderstandings of the bill resulted in many to view it as having a much more of a chilling effect than necessary for compliance with the bill when teaching about topics of sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation or racial discrimination.

Rather than banning such instruction and discussion, the law references stereotyping and scapegoating.

Similarly, Carver said when addressing issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, school officials need to evaluate biases and whether the instruction or material is research-based.

Is there some bias to one sexual orientation or one gender identity or another considered in addition to age-appropriateness when it comes to actual instruction, he said.

While the new law has broadened the scope of whats considered obscene under Iowa law, Carver said that should not be interpreted by school districts to restrict access to materials students have traditionally and long had access to that have literary, scientific, artistic and educational value.

The underlying recommendation is when in doubt  let the parents and guardians know and make the decision, he said.

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You know, I dont really talk to that many other novelists, James McBride told me. I dont spend a lot of time with other writers. It was a statement that explained a lot, while at the same time shooting a pet theory out of the water. If McBrides most recent booksthe celebrated Deacon King Kong, published in 2020, and this summers The Heaven and Earth Grocery Storefeel as if theyre swimming hard against the tide of current literary fashion, its apparently not deliberate. McBride has had other matters on his mind. Perhaps the best way to write a Great American Novel is not to think of yourself as a novelist at all.

The other matters preoccupying McBride include musicas a saxophonist, he toured with Jimmy Scott, and he has written songs for artists as varied as Anita Baker and Barney the purple dinosaurand the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church, founded by his parents in 1954, and to which McBride still belongs. The church is in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where Deacon King Kong is set, where McBride grew up, and where he keeps an apartment, although he also has a place in New Jersey for when he wants to be left alone to write. Thats where he wrote his National Book Awardwinning 2013 novel The Good Lord Bird.

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For someone who likes to keep one foot out of the writing profession, McBride has had plenty of success with it. His first book, 1995s The Color of Water: A Black Mans Tribute to His White Mother, a memoir, was a blockbuster hit, a darling of the book group set that spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list. His first novel, 2002s Miracle at St. Anna, was adapted for the big screen by Spike Lee, and The Good Lord Bird brought the kind of recognition from the literary establishment that many a bestselling author covets in vain. Then it became an acclaimed TV series starring Ethan Hawke as the abolitionist John Brown. The novelist Gish Jen, one of the judges for the 2013 National Book Award for fiction, told me that her yardstick for literary greatness, then and now, is heisted from Tradition and the Individual Talent, an essay by T.S. Eliot. Theres so much that I disagree with in that essay, she added. But I do agree that the whole existing tradition will be, if ever so slightly, altered by a real work of art, and that we writers should be trying to achieve such an alteration. It seemed to me that The Good Lord Bird succeeded.

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It is McBrides two most recent novels, however, that strike me as especially, and sneakily, revolutionary. Both Deacon King Kong and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store are about seemingly insignificant places: The Causeway housing project in Red Hook in the 1960s and the Chicken Hill neighborhood in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s, respectively. When I suggested to McBride that the two places are surprisingly similar, he agreed. Red Hook is its own world, he said, a townlike pocket of relatively ungentrified working-class life even as the rest of Brooklyn has developed around it. Chicken Hillwhere no one had running water and a handful of Jewish immigrants remained in what had become a Black neighborhoodwas far from urban, but both neighborhoods were enclaves, places set apart from their surroundings where, as McBride depicts it, everyone seems to know everyone else.

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McBride, who is unaffectedly modest, would never advance any of his books as candidates for the Great American Novel, that semimythical phenomenon whose exact dimensions and qualities have never been satisfactorily defined. Id like to make a case, though, for Deacon King Kong and, now, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store as better contenders for the 21st-century GAN than many other, more vaunted specimens that have gone before. Its precisely the qualities that might prompt critics to view these novels as small that, paradoxically, make them so big. They are comic novels, ensemble pieces. They lack obvious heroic action. Their focus is intimate rather than sweeping. But in the words of Walt Whitman (an American writer McBride often brings to mind), they contain multitudes.

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Deacon King Kong revolves around an inexplicable incident: An elderly deacon of the Five Ends Baptist Church walks up to a feared teenage drug dealer in the plaza that serves as the projects town square, and shoots the kid in the head, although he succeeds only at nicking his ear. The deacon himself, a man fond of a drink, not only cant explain why he did this, but refuses to believe that he did it at all. As the Cause Houses buzz with talk of the deacons imminent demise, a half-dozen subplots involve a purloined prehistoric artifact, a middle-aged Italian mobster falling in love, and the mystery of where the deacons late wife hid the churchs Christmas fund.

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The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store offers a similar swirl of storylines and characters. The novel begins with a flash-forward to 1972, when a construction crew working on a new development in Chicken Hill discovers a skeleton in a derelict well. Then the story moves back to the 30s, as Moshe Ludlow, a dance-hall owner in the neighborhood, decides to start booking Black musicians in addition to the klezmer bands beloved by Chicken Hills waning Jewish population. He does so on the advice of his wife, Chona, who insists on tending the Chicken Hill store the novel is named for, though it loses moneymostly because she extends infinite credit to her hardscrabble customers. Chona, a survivor of polio, wears a special boot to minimize her limp, and the first Black act Moshe books is a band led by the real-life drummer Chick Webb, who had an abnormally curved spine as a result of a childhood illness. The show is a tremendous hit. Moshe, who adores Chona, views disabilities as harbingers of good luck, and in fact, his decision to integrate his bookings (and audience) makes him prosperous.

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Readers of The Color of Water will recognize some of Chonas history. McBrides maternal grandmother, whom he never met, was an Orthodox Jewish immigrant from Poland, also disabled by polio. But where Hudis Shilskythe real womanendured a loveless arranged marriage to a man who disparaged her in a country where she did not speak the language, McBride has allotted the fictional Chona a happier fate. When I told him that Hudis life struck me as the saddest story in The Color of Water, and that I found his fictional transformation of her loneliness very touching, McBride said, I wanted my grandmother to have a life where she was loved.

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McBrides motherwhose family sat shiva, the Jewish ritual of mourning, after she left home and married a Black man, McBrides fatherrefused to speak much about her past until the adult McBride set about writing his memoir. As a child, growing up with 11 siblings in a series of Black neighborhoods, he felt confused about what his white mother meant for his Black identity. The Jewish milieus in The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store feel a little less fully lived-in than the Red Hook of Deacon King Kong, but McBride has clearly done a lot of catching up. He knows that even what might at first seem like a homogenous Jewish community is fractured into a dozen or so subidentities in its own eyes. The German Jews are snobs, the Romanians are crazy, and Bulgarian Jews (like Chona) cant pour a glass of water without making a party of it.

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Nevertheless, Chicken Hill is a community. In contemporary parlance, that word too often translates to a group of people Im going to speak for whether or not they all agree with me or even know me. In McBrides novels, a community is a hodgepodge entity held together not by ideology but by place and by simple acts of support, like those of the Red Hook neighbors who filled his mothers apartment with casseroles and offers of help after her first husband died, leaving her alone with eight kids. The plot of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store turns on Chonas unhesitating decision to take in the orphaned nephew of her husbands handyman, a Black child the government wants to lock up in a ghastly institution because hes deaf. When I asked McBride how his faith has shaped this vision of community, he said, Im not interested in what any prophet said. Im interested in what you, as a follower of that prophet, actually do. Deacon King Kong is dedicated to Gods peopleall of em, but its the people he talks about far more than the deity. As he tells it, the conversation at his church never touches on politics: Its How are you doing? What do you need? Did you bring the food this week, or am I bringing it? The important thing is life and while life is going on, lets just try to do what we need to do.

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A significant plot twist in The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store turns on an act of illicit plumbing. Class, I observed, seems to bind his characters together more than race or creed. McBride replied, Im big into that because I come from that, relating the story of a recent interview in which he tried to talk about the power of the women in his church to a journalist who insisted that women dont have power. I was talking about the ability to negotiate with nothing because you cant pull out a gun and shoot, and you dont go into a room and start yelling. You just wait, be smart, and quietly move this chess piece here, you move that there, you move the rug, you stick the glass there, and then watch what happens and let the fools run about and do their thing and make their speeches and then jump off the bridge. Then you say, What happened to him?  (Thats the bones of another novel right there.) Instead, his interviewer wanted to get into this liberal, heady argument about women not having power. To him, this zoomed-out social analysis isnt real. He added, I cant even talk to people like that because they havent stood at a bus stop at 11 oclock at night trying to get home from their second job cleaning Ikea.

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It comes as no surprise that McBride is very much not online, and that the raging rhetorical controversies that preoccupy the writers who are dont seem very real to him either. The closest he comes to a rant in The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a passage about the future his characters cant imagine, in which devices that fit in ones pocket and went zip, zap, and zilch delivered a danger far more seductive and powerful than any hot dog, a device that children of the future would clamor for and become addicted to, a device that fed them their oppression disguised as free thought. Its difficult to fit McBrides fiction into a culture framework so profoundly shaped by discussions he considers irrelevant. And while McBride never glosses over the racism, antisemitism, ableism, and other forms of bigotry that afflict his characters, he remains, very unfashionably, optimistic. I like Americans, he told me. I think Americans are resilient. Hes a fan of Joe Biden and enthusiastic about whats happening now. I think this country is in a healing mode. I think people cant see it, but were getting better.

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The books nominated for Great American Novel status in the past have tended to be about individuals struggling to define themselves against nature or the social orderwhether the testing force is the Mississippi River or the elite of 1920s Long Island society. McBrides earlier books2008s Song Yet Sung, about a fugitive enslaved woman with prophetic gifts, and The Good Lord Bird, about a boy caught up in Browns abolitionist insurrectioncan be seen as abiding by that pattern. But Deacon King Kong and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store represent a real departure, and are of a piece.

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I asked McBride if he set out to present tales told in a communal voice, and he said no. The point of view keeps shifting because different people at different times are best suited to tell the story McBride wants to tell. Its the same story, he said. Its just everyone has a different perspective. And so youre trying to show all these perspectives, and you end up showing the community. However, that can happen only when the story belongs to the whole community.

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Maybe, once, the most urgent stories Americans had to tell one another were about the possibilities and challenges of each person realizing their own distinct self. But today, the bigger challenge seems to be figuring out how so many different peopleespousing so many diverse and sometimes conflicting identities, histories, and beliefscan become one people without denying those identities, histories, and beliefs. McBride and I talked about how small-town life in places like Chicken Hill accentuates this dilemma because, unlike the ever-shifting landscape of bespoke online communities, the neighbors you find objectionable arent going anywhere. They cant be blocked or muted or curated out of the picture. You have to figure out how to live with them.

McBrides novels are among the few places you can find a vision of how such a life might work, might even become something joyful. Theyre comic novels by necessity because the only way to do this is with a sense of humor. My characters dont take themselves too seriously, McBride told me. Theyre just looking for the little, simple pleasures, because life is so tough and unforgiving and difficult. But also, if you and your neighbors show up for one another, it can be a bit of heaven as well.
Whence last we checked in on the perpetually rebooting Ron DeSantis presidential campaign, it was about 10 days ago and the Florida governors operation was purging itself of its most obvious Nazi sympathizers. It was also attempting, for, like, the third time, to introduce its candidate to voters as a Husband and a Father in an effort to arrest his slow but steady creep toward the irrelevant also-ran tier of the Republican primary.

Well, that didnt work, or hasnt worked yet, and on Sunday two things happened. One is that Bloomberg published yet another entry in the crowded genre of DeSantis Campaign in Disarray stories, introducing a few fresh examples of internal dysfunction into the discourse. Sources say, for example, that the candidate and his wife, Casey, have to personally approve many of the messages that the campaign posts on Twitter, a process that can take up to two days. (Technically speaking, Twitter is now called X.) Bloomberg also reported that people familiar with DeSantis say that a sense of gloom permeates his Tallahassee headquarters, which is a funny thing to report as an objective fact in a news story, but is also probably accurate.

The other thing that happened Sunday was that NBC News posted an excerpt from a one-on-one DeSantis interview, which was released in full on Monday, in which he said that Donald Trump, quote, lost the 2020 election and that Joe Biden is, quote, the president.

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This subject is the third rail of the 2024 campaign: Though DeSantis may have been stating the consensus view of the American electorate as a whole, many of his partys primary voters believe that Trump did not lose the 2020 election and that his response to being told that he did (i.e., trying to overthrow the government) was entirely appropriate. Literally none of the 319 Republican respondents in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll who said they were going to vote for Trump in the primary no matter whata group that makes up almost 40 percent of the partys primary electorate overallsaid they believed that Trump has committed serious federal crimes.

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Until recently, DeSantis has tried not just to avoid criticism of Trump in regard to the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, but to avoid interacting at all with mainstream reporters who might ask him about it. Now hes not only sitting down with biased MSM libs, hes telling them (as he told NBC) that Republicans will lose in 2024 if it becomes a referendum on Jan. 6th or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago. Having failed to persuade his partys voters to support his candidacy on its own merits, DeSantis is now tiptoeing toward the task of challenging some 40 percent or more of them about their core factual beliefs.

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Its possible to imagine this working in the long term if a trial or related Trump tantrum causes his so-called negatives to spike in polling, as occurred after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, the Black Lives Matter tear-gas incident, and Jan. 6 itself. More to the point, its become impossible to imagine DeSantis winning the primary (or a subsequent general election) without acknowledging that a critical mass of Americans believe, with considerable justification, that Donald Trump has damaged the country and is unfit for the presidency.

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Still, its probably not the rhetorical task that DeSantis wanted to be taking on in August 2023. At the moment, two-thirds of his party believes that Trump is being unfairly persecuted by the Biden crime family and DeSantis is still getting the hang of basic stuff like telling cute stories about his family in Iowa. (Apparently he played catch with his son near a cornfield and it reminded them of Field of Dreams.) Calling Trumps sanity into question, at this juncture, is going to generate significant backlash. In the short term, at least, the forecast in Tallahassee calls for MORE GLOOM.
Who is to blame for the iron grip Donald Trump retains on Republican voters? According to one New York Times opinion columnist, its not the GOP leaders who spent Trumps entire presidency treating him like the second coming of Christ. Its not the party infrastructure that has continued to support the thrice-indicted con man. Its not the right-wing media outlets that dutifully disseminate his lies.

No, David Brooks writesits us.

Addressing an audience of left-leaning, upwardly mobile college graduates, Brooks submits that American systems of meritocracy, which place a high value on academic credentials, have sapped cultural non-elites of power, consigned most of the country to a multigenerational cycle of low earnings and undereducation, and alienated those without college degrees by encouraging the use of words like problematic, cisgender, Latinx, and intersectional. 

All this has cultivated an emerging population of Americans who conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural, and moral assault and, for some reason, turn to the billionaire, politically malleable, Ivy Leagueeducated, utterly amoral Trump to lead their counterassault against the professional class.

In short, Brooks writes, we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, were the bad guys. The 2024 election already feels like the 2020 cycle risen from the dead. Could we at least put these tired myths about Trumps rise to rest?

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Brooks is not wrong that certain economic conditions and changing cultural norms have contributed to a growing sense of disaffected resentment among Americans without college degrees, who make up a large and growing share of Trumps base. And it is no earth-shattering revelation that the way the world has changed in recent decadesor the way (mostly white) people perceive it to be changing, thanks to a right-wing media ecosystem that subsists on panichas predisposed voters to flock to the candidate who best stokes that resentment.

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But Brooks does not explain how exactly Democrats, liberals, or college-educated Americanswe anti-Trumpers, in his wordsare responsible for the social and economic woes of Trumps supporters. He disregards the good reasons why we anti-Trumpers have embraced a policy agenda that is kinder to, say, immigrants and trans people than has the opposition. And in a truly astounding omission, Brooks ignores a fact that threatens to derail his entire thesis: Trump and the GOP are fanatically committed to sustaining the systems of economic inequality and social immobility that Brooks blames for Trumps rise. We anti-Trumpers are the ones backing policies that would mitigate it.

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Part of the problem with Brooks argument is that he lumps conservatives and liberals together in his pile of the college-educated elite. He claims that the roots of anti-elite Trumpism began with college deferments that protected the children of privilege from the Vietnam draft, and grew after authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston, but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived. Were these injustices the work of anti-Trumpers? Conservative elites got as many, if not more, college deferments as liberal ones did. (Trump himself received four.) And though liberal attempts to integrate schools may have been unevenly applied along class linesand, incidentally, vehemently opposed by Joe Bidenit is hard to argue that the segregationist alternative proposed by conservatives would have left Americans better off.

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Likewise, anti-Trumpers are not responsible for the whole of globalization, and even less so for the underregulation of corporations and the financial sector that has led to the decimation of the middle class. The mass exploitation of labor and offshoring of jobs that have left former boomtowns in the dust and workers without living-wage jobs and adequate workplace protectionsremind me, did Democrats do that?

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Brooks also fails to acknowledge that, by and large, to whatever degree the anti-Trump agenda has offended the cultural sensibilities of some less-educated white Americans, it has been a side effect of long-overdue attempts to make other peoples lives better. Advancing transgender rights and protections should be a default pillar of any political platform concerned with human rights, even if it means sometimes having to use the word cisgender. Yes, some people may first encounter that term in college, but online cultural discourse now spans class divides, and one does not need any sort of degree to know, love, or be a trans person. People who suggest that the material concerns of trans people ought to be exchanged for the abstract fears of those who would enforce punitive gender norms have no business claiming the authority to separate the good guys from the bad guys.

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Heres another tell that Brooks analysis is missing a few key angles of the Trump phenomenon: The only time Brooks mentions race is within a quote from a political scientist that he immediately rebuts. The people without college degrees who are turning to Trump have something very important in common beyond their educational backgroundthey are overwhelmingly white. And even as Trump made some gains with people of color and Hispanic voters between 2016 and 2020particularly Hispanic people without college degreesthe vast majority continued to vote against Trump, whether or not they attended college. Among Black voters, a college degree has made virtually no difference in whether a person has supported Trump or the Democrat opposing him.

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This helps to explain why these white people who purportedly resent societys elite have rallied around a candidate who is obsessed with credentials and the trappings of elitism. While president, to defend himself against the charge that he is uncivil, Trump said, You know, people dont understand. I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. Im a very intelligent person. He also brought up his privileged pedigree during his first presidential campaign, telling rallygoers in South Carolina, Im very highly educated. If anti-Trumpers are the ones making non-college-educated Americans feel bad about their lack of education by equating a fancy degree with civility, I have yet to see the receipts.

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Brooks says rural voters went for Trump because theyve been left behind by the economic engines of the cities. But rural counties almost always vote Republican for a wide variety of social, economic, and demographic reasons, and the racial element of Trumps rise is particularly salient in the rural-urban political divide. Though rural America is becoming more racially diverse, rural areas are still disproportionately white, and urban areas are disproportionately populated by people of color. Rural voters may have legitimate economic concerns but, as white people, many were also drawn in by Trumps drumbeat of racial grievances. One study looking at three cultural differences that contribute to the rural-urban political divide found that different rates of racism denialdisagreeing that white people benefit from baked-in social advantagesbetween urban and rural Americans appear to explain about three-quarters of the urban-rural gap in voting for Trump, far more so than gun ownership and evangelical Christianity.

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As evidence of the way economic stagnation in certain places has boosted Trumps appeal, Brooks points out that in 2020, Biden won only 500 or so counties, but together they are responsible for 71 percent of the American economy. Trump won over 2,500 counties, responsible for only 29 percent. Fair enough. But this line of reasoning edges perilously close to a classic logical fallacy often weaponized by the right to defend undemocratic institutions like the Electoral College and prove inflated claims of Trumps popularity. (See: those red-saturated U.S. maps passed around by election deniers.)

Yes, Biden won fewer counties than Trumpbecause the counties he won were jampacked with people. Trumps were jampacked with empty land, which is not entitled to the franchise. It stands to reason, then, that the Biden counties have a greater economic output; they are full of people, most of whom have jobs. Thats how the economy works. But urban poverty is still a reality in this country, even as major cities have undergone substantial gentrification in recent decades. The relative economic juice of American cities does not mean that everyone in Biden counties has a job, much less a well-paying job, much, much less any significant economic power.

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Speaking of economic concerns: The way Brooks tells it, liberal, college-educated elites benefit from immigration making our service staff cheaper to hire, while being less likely to experience the negative effects of immigration on worker pay. But wealthy Americansthe ones more likely to be hiring workers or earning salaries rather than toiling for hourly wagesdisproportionately support Trump. In 2020 Trump won voters with an income over $100,000 by a margin of 12 points. Biden won those who make less than $50,000 and those who make between $50,000 and $99,000 by similar margins.

In other words, Trumps strongest base is not those white, undereducated people who have found themselves on the losing side of the American dream. In 2016, among white people without college degrees who supported Trump, almost 60 percent made more than the median American household income. That same year, 1 in 5 white Trump voters without a college degree reported a household income greater than $100,000.

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As I read Brooks piece, I found myself wonderingbecause he stopped short of proposing any productive way forwardwhat does he want we anti-Trumpers to do? How can we right the wrongs we have perpetrated against Americans without college degrees? What possible solutions could we bring to bear on the problems he identifies?

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Here are a few ideas: We could raise the federal minimum wage, which would undercut the ability of, as Brooks puts it, less-educated immigrants  to put downward pressure on our wages. We could pass universal health care, which, paid for by higher taxes on the ultrarich, would greatly reduce economic pressure on the working class. To end the era of single parenthood as the most significant predictor of social immobility in the country, as Brooks writes (quoting Adrian Wooldridge), we could establish universal day care, pass federal paid family leave, and bring back the COVID-19 pandemicera child tax credit that cut child poverty in half, to its lowest level in history. We could make contraception and abortion care free and widely accessible. We could make college more affordable, through student loan forgiveness and beefed-up grant programs, so that more Americans could enter the realm of the elites without being consigned to a lifetime of mounting debt.

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These, by the way, are the political priorities of anti-Trumpers.

Meanwhile, what are the Trumpers doing to earn the support of their anti-elite admirers? For the most part, they are working to expand the political and economic influence of wealthy elites. With the help of Sen. Joe Manchin, Republicans allowed the expanded child tax credit to expire, pushing 3.7 million children into poverty and shoring up barriers to the social mobility of single parents. They are busting the unions that would build power for the working class (including those blue-collar workers who supposedly projectile vomit whenever they hear the word Latinx). They have blocked bills that would use tax incentives to discourage companies from sending jobs overseas, and they have passed bills that reward offshoring. They have hysterically resisted proposals to forgive student loan debt. They oppose policies that would make single parenthood more affordable, while criminalizing abortion and mounting a war on contraception such that people are more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy, be forced to bear the medical costs of pregnancy and childbirth, and raise children they may not be able to afford.

Conservatives are the ones who have created the conditions that Brooks blames for Trumps enduring popularity. Republicans, not left-leaning elites, are responsible for the majority of contemporary economic and social forces that have given rise to a resentful, despairing, minimally educated populace eager to hand the reins of the country to a criminal strongman. No amount of liberal capitulation or self-flagellation will change that.
On Thursday, in a federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., former President Donald Trump signed a document containing the conditions for his pretrial release. The agreement came with the warning that he could face up to 10 years in prison and/or a $100,000 fine for attempting to intimidate jurors, judges, prosecutors, or witnesses. He also received a verbal admonition at the time from Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, clarifying the terms of his release:

I want to remind you that 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.

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The next day, Trump posted on Truth Social a warning in all-caps: IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! Immediately, special counsel Jack Smiths office asked Judge Tanya Chutkan for a protective order to limit what Trumps team can do with any evidence that will be shared with them during discovery. The governments lawyers noted that the former president has been known to share evidence and attempt to influence witnesses in prior lawsuits and that he has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.

When Trumps lawyers asked for extra time to respond to that motion, Chutkan declined. The Trump team had to respond to the request for a protective order by 5 p.m. Monday, which they did.

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On Saturday, Trump posted again, with respect to a key witness: WOW, its finally happened! Liddle Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side. In separate posts over the weekend and Monday, he then went after Smith and Chutkan by name. To the extent any of this constitutes witness tampering or threats is a tricky legal question to which Trump and his lawyers have already responded by citing his First Amendment rights to say what he wishes about the trial. I asked David Alan Sklanskywho teaches and writes about criminal law, criminal procedure, and evidence at Stanfordto help unpack the contours of a defendants right to speak in advance of his trial. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Dahlia Lithwick: It feels like folks are conflating a huge number of ideas when they discuss Trumps Truth Social postswitness tampering, threats to the judge and prosecutor, disclosure of evidence, among other things. Will they all fall under the same single protective order the special counsel requested?

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David Alan Sklansky: Yes, there are a bunch of different issues here, and no, they dont all get handled in a single protective order. The protective order the prosecutors have proposed places restrictions on the ways in which Trump and his lawyers can use the information that the prosecutors provide to them. Its not a gag order. It doesnt stop Trump from talking about the casepublicly or privately.

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From a criminal justice perspective, what is the real concern here? That he is chilling witness testimony? Poisoning the jury pool? Painting a target on the judge?

I think those are all concernsespecially the chilling of witnesses testimony, or placing witnesses in danger. One part of the proposed protective order does say that Trumps lawyers cant give Trump documents with sensitive information about witnesses, like their home addresses. It says they can show those documents to Trump, but they cant let him copy down the sensitive information about the witnesses. But there is a broader concern about the safety of witnesses, and efforts to intimidate witnesses or to influence their testimony, and depending on how things go, the judge may wind up issuing other orders responding to those concerns.

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We know from Cassidy Hutchinsons Jan. 6 testimony that Trump made attempts to influence witnesses, through their lawyers or through proxies. Does that enter into Judge Chutkans thinking?

Sure. She has to take seriously any possible efforts to intimate witnesses, or anything that might place witnesses in danger.

Robert Reich suggested earlier today that these comments alone mean that Trump should be in jail. That in fact At this moment, about 400,000 criminal defendants are in jail in the United States awaiting trial because they didnt meet a condition of their release. Is there really a scenario under which Trump goes to jail for these kinds of pretrial comments?

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Its hard to imagine him going to jail for the comments that he has made so far on social media. They dont go far enough. And the prosecutors havent done anything to suggest that they might seek to revoke his pretrial release because of any of those comments.

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Given that But Free Speech! forms the bulk of Trumps substantive defense in the D.C. trial, how much will free speech protect what he says about the trial as it proceeds? It feels like the more the court tries to keep him from discussing the case in public, the more it feeds his argument that this is all just about his political speech.

There may be some difficult balances to be struck in that regard as this case moves forward. Judge Chutkan will have to strike a balance between, on the one hand, respecting Trumps First Amendment rights, and allowing him to continue his campaign, and on the other hand protecting the integrity of the trial processand the safety of potential witnesses.
Donald Trumps political action committee has spent more than $40 million on legal fees related to his and his associates legal troubles during the first half of 2023, according to the Washington Post. Thats a staggering amount, and worth pausing for a second to consider.

Lets say, for example, that Trump paid his lawyers an average of $1,200 an hourthe kind of fee one might pay for a partner at a major New York firm. Forty million dollars could pay for 33,300 hours of such work. Thats 833 40-hour work weeksor 16 years of work. And thats assuming only top-dollar attorneys. For perspective, in 2021 and 2022 combined, the Trump PAC spent just $16 million on legal matters.

It makes sense that Trumps legal fees would have gotten a little out of hand. At this point, the cases against him are sprawling and complex, stemming from three separate federal criminal indictments, as well as charges at the state level. And a host of his associates need their own legal support for their roles in the scandals. The amount of raw materialinterviews, video and audio recordings, and other documents from countless interactions involving countless potential witnesses all over the countrythat his legal teams will need to gather and review is itself overwhelming. And thats all before even putting together a legal defense, or considering the myriad other legal needs of a presidential campaign. According to NBC News, Trumps PAC has paid more than 40 law firms for legal work in 2023.

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So while $40 million is a lot, that number will only continue to grow. Trumps lawyers have to respond to a total of 78 criminal charges. Theyll need to look over not just evidence involving mishandled classified documents and falsified business records, but also a plot to overturn an entire presidential election. Theyre huge charges.

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And Trumps campaign is already showing the toll of such complex legal battles. Trumps PAC, Save America, started last year with $105 million and now has less than $4 million, according to the New York Times. Not all of that comes from legal fees, but a significant portion doesaccording to NBC News, legal matters ate up two-thirds of the PACs spending in the first six months of 2023. Save America found itself so unexpectedly cash-strapped that it requested the refund of a $60 million donation it sent to the MAGA Inc. super PAC, which supports Trumps campaign but is not directed by Trump himself. (Save America had sent the money to MAGA Inc. in the first place as a workaround: Save America is not itself allowed to spend money on campaign ads.) MAGA Inc. has already returned some $12 million to Save America, which, according to the Times, accounts for about half a years fundraising for the super PAC. This refund request, the Times reported, is extremely unusual.

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There are two things this transfer tells us. First, the obvious: that Trumps legal expenditures are enormous. But second, the slightly less obvious: that his campaign has been forced to focus substantially more energy on legal matters than actual promotion of the candidate. This is partly due to legal desperation, but also partly due to a lack of concern over political matters. In the GOP primary, Ron DeSantis is polling around 17 percent compared to Trumps 54. No one else is even registering as a competitor. Right now, winning over Republican voters is simply not Trumps top priority.

On Truth Social on Friday morning, Donald Trump complained about the legal cases siphoning off of funds and energy, arguing it unfairly disadvantaged him.

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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!

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Its not clear if his intention here is to raise more funds or just vent, but if its the former, it would make some sense: Trump typically sees fundraising bonanzas in the days just after his indictments.

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But while Trump may be able to fundraise off of his legal troubles, those appeals dont seem to be enough to compensate for losses. A group of Trumps allies are currently creating a legal defense fund to support Trumps associates. Nor are they enough to ward off criticism from his detractors and rivals. A Washington Post op-ed argued that the financial strain made him an unviable candidate. Ron DeSantis campaign pushed messages about MAGA grandmas being scammed into paying his legal bills. And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a floundering presidential candidate, shared his own advice for the former president on Fox: How about go down the streetmaybe just sells Trump Tower and pay for his legal fees that way.
The first time I went to the hospital for pelvic pain, I was 14 years old. It was nighttime, after dinner with my extended family. I think it was spring. My memory of the ER, though, is crystal clear: It was somehow both fluorescent and slightly dingy. After handing me a pale-green basin in which to vomit, the doctor asked my mother to leave the room and pulled a curtain around us. Had I been having sex? Was there any chance I could be pregnant? Be honest.

At this point in my adolescence, Id only ever kissed a boy, so I was horrified by this question. I was also horrified by my body. The pain felt like someone had grabbed my insides in their fist and twisted, shredding my tissue with fingernails. Putting that into words for a stranger, an adult man, this adult man, was mortifying.

I wasnt pregnant. It wasnt appendicitis. I went home without any explanation.

This pattern would repeat for years. Dizzying, debilitating pain, followed by an ER trip, some intrusive questions about my sex life, and a deep shame that I was troubling anyone with my complaints. There were tests and several gynecologists visits but no conclusion other than that I must have a low pain threshold. Or maybe, they insinuated, I was seeking attention.

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Only when I was 35 did a surgeon take me seriously. A new GP sent me to his office suggesting that it might be a hernia. The surgeon took one look at me doubled over and sent me to the hospitalthe same one where Id been a patient at 14. He met me there an hour later and whisked me into surgery, convinced that it was my appendix.

When I recovered consciousness, more than five hours later, my appendix was gone. But so were six inches of my intestines, and the severe endometriosis that had infiltrated both organs. I lay in the ICU, in pain and weeping, not relieved, but furious. I had always suspected something was deeply wrong with me, but no one had listened. And worse, theyd made me question myself.

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Listening to the first episode of Susan Burtons The Retrievals, the new installation from Serial and the New York Times, it all came rushing back. The womenall patients at Yales fertility clinicdescribed going through IVF egg retrieval, in which a large needle is inserted into the vagina and then into the ovarian follicles. The problemthe reason this is a podcastis because they went through this with no pain control at all. The fentanyl they were supposed to receive had been diverted, and replaced, by an addicted nurse.

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The experience of a large needle entering ones body with no pain medication is what anyone might imagine. I remember, like, thrusting my hips up, actually thrusting my hips up, saying, I feel everything,  said one patient in the show. What it was like to experience this as a woman was what I already knew: And, like, nobody believed me, that same woman said.

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When I listened to her speak these words, I was on a walk in Prospect Park, and had to find a bench so I could cry. I had actually put off listening to the show because I feared this would happen. And there I was in public, sobbing. I pictured myself as a patient who desperately wanted to be believed. This so easily could have been me. In a way, it was. When I was just a girl.

Even though the show is in many ways a how-dunit, how the nurse at Yales fertility clinic replaced fentanyl and Midazolam with saline without anyone noticing, its really a show about pain. And how the medical system is built to minimize, explain away, or simply dismiss womens pain completely. And every woman Ive talked to who has listened, whether they have been through fertility treatment or not, has had this experience. With women of color, especially Black women, its even more extreme. (Every patient Burton spoke with identified as a woman. Most were white, and one was Black.)

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In listening, I could have some tiny flicker of sympathy for Donna, the nurse in question. Her substance use disorder needed treatment, and as much as her actions (and her sentence in the case) enraged me, I could perceive her as an individual in crisis, assisted by Burtons own clear empathy for Donna.

But what is galling, and what Burton captures perfectly, is the fault in the system itself. The system of medicine that has been constructed, over decades and centuries, to minimize and ignore womens pain, to treat the female body as something that largely smashes up against the medical system when it is reproducing. Despite decades of progress, the medical profession is still primed to see women as vessels. As mama, as every nurse in labor and delivery maddeningly addresses women laboring. We are not considered people with lives that are equally as valuable as babies and menswe are bodies whose chief function is to bear a child, and because of that, as people who canand shouldbear more pain because our own experiences matter less.

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We are bodies whose chief function is to bear a child, and because of that, as people who canand shouldbear more pain because our own experiences matter less.

You wonder what each person, the doctor or the nurse in the room, what their experience of this was? asks Katie, one patient who had a fentanyl-free retrieval, in Episode 4. What were they thinking? Why did no one stop the procedure? Realize that something was deeply wrong, that no patient should be in extremis like this? The women were primed to accept some discomfort, but so was everyone else watching the women. To accept that pain, agony really, was an essential ingredient of womanhood, and aspiring motherhood. Their pleas were unheard because clinicians are trained not to listen.

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When I was in labor with my son, I screamed that the resident attempting to administer my epidural was doing it wrong. She patted me on the arm and told me to calm down. Only hours later, when I began to babble incoherently, did my OB realize that the doctor in question had missed my epidural space. I had had no pain relief.

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Related From Slate How the C-Section Went From Last Resort to Overused Read More

In Episode 5, The Retrievals series finale, Burton manages to succeed where many other seasons of Serial have failed. There is no hand-wavy meditation on the nature of a crime, or a place, or on humanity and how we all weave narratives to our liking. There is actually a conclusion offered: Womens pain is not treated equally because women are not treated equally.

Burton finds a study showing that suing for malpractice over subpar treatment, painful treatment, is harder if you are a woman. The standard of care, against which malpractice is measured, is simply lower for us. We are set up to hurt. This is not a theory, she further clarifiesthis is something you can find in data.

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How do we count against our reproductive capacity? How can we count on our own?

But Burton also articulates something else in this final, masterful, episode, The Outcomes. There is another difference between womens bodies and mens bodies, a reason why they endure more pain, often willingly. The women she spoke with endured the pain of the retrievals, sometimes even going back for more, because they longed for a baby. The main goal of fertility treatment, after all, is a child. But it isnt, and should never be, the only goal of medical care, or of how we care for female bodies. As she puts it: The baby is what matters. But everything else matters, too. How do we describe an outcome if you end up with a baby, but lingering trauma? Or, in post-Dobbs America, you are able terminate a pregnancy, but only after humiliation and tremendous expense? How do we count against our reproductive capacity? How can we count on our own?

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After the long surgery that found my endometriosis, I would go on to have three more. I still encountered an astonishing wall of sexism in the medical profession. What you should do, said a friends father who was also a reproductive endocrinologist, is get pregnant. That will cure you. Endometriosis is the working womans disease. What he said was not even true, but it did tell me a lot about how he valued me as my own person.

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When I sought endometriosis treatment, so many doctors I saw assumed I was there to prepare for an eventual pregnancy. After all, endometriosis is a major cause of infertility. But what I wanted was a life without pain. I remember being told once that my fallopian tubes were pristine. Good news, if what you want is to conceive. But utterly irrelevant if you simply wish to pass a month without Percocet, which is what my goal was. You dont have real endometriosis, said a loved one once, making that assumption because mine wasnt blocking my reproductive organs. Theoretically, I could still get pregnant. We dont know how to think of a woman, if not as a pregnancy in waiting.

Eventually, I found a surgeon I adore. He severed a nerve between my uterus and spinal column that reduced my pain and dramatically improved my quality of life. He cheered me on when I made the choice to become a mother at 44. Upon listening to the final episode of The Retrievals, I emailed him to thank him for treating me like a person.
Following Slovenias request for help within the framework of the civil protection mechanism, offers of heavy excavators and engineering teams to help Slovenian colleagues in responding to floods immediately began to arrive, Lenarcic wrote on Twitter.

In response to a request for help, France is sending two excavators with engineering units to Slovenia, while Germany is sending two prefabricated bridges, two excavators and appropriate personnel, they announced today in Brussels.

The Republic of Croatia has already provided the assistance of a military helicopter to assist in damming and strengthening the embankments on the Mura.

At the request of Slovenia, the EU also launched the European observation program Copernicus for urgent satellite monitoring of flooded areas and landslides in Slovenia.

Copernicus has so far produced several maps of the affected areas, and a liaison officer from the EU emergency response coordination center is also on the scene, they explained in Brussels.

Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg announced today that he had discussed the floods with the Slovenian Prime Minister on the phone Robert Golob. As he wrote on the X network, they are allies reinforced immediate support, including helicopters, modular bridges and engineering experts. Stoltenberg also expressed his condolences to those affected and solidarity with Slovenia.

Now a massive flood is starting. Photo: BoBo/Borut Zivulovic



Through the NATO mechanism for responding to natural and other disasters (EADRCC), Slovenia requested five heavy military helicopters with a carrying capacity of at least five tons for transport, 200 soldiers to carry out protection, rescue and assistance tasks, and 20 prefabricated bridges up to 40 meters.

Through the European Union mechanism in the field of civil protection for assistance (ERCC) in the mechanization for removing debris and ensuring the transportability of roads, Slovenia applied for 10 work machines (excavator, crawler) up to 7.5 tons with an engineering team, 10 work machines (excavator, crawler ) up to 17.5 tons with an engineering team, 10 work machines (excavator, crawler) over 17.5 tons with an engineering team, 10 work machines (excavator and bulldozer) with an engineering team, 30 special vehicles for managing water courses with an engineering team and 20 prefabricated bridges up to 40 meters.
Authorities reported that at least one individual was injured in a suspected explosion at a Sherwin-Williams facility in Texas on Monday morning.

Per ABC News, the victim, an employee of the paint manufacturing facility, was treated in Garland, northeast of Dallas, at the site. According to the Garland Police Department, multiple roads in and around the area are closed due to the structure's fire.

Garland, Texas Explosion

According to the Garland Police Department, the building remains ablaze. One person was injured and treated at the scene, according to reports. It is assumed that the plant manufactures paint.

The origin of the fire and explosions is unknown. Firefighters have arrived.Several units responded to a massive fire and detonation at the Garland Sherwin-Williams paint factory. The fire began at approximately 1:45 a.m. on Monday.

The fire was extinguished by first responders, but several highways remain closed. The facility is located in Garland at 701 South Shiloh Road. Additionally, the facility has the address 3605 Forest Lane.

Lt. Richard Maldonado of the Garland Police Department said, "I can tell you that major roadways in and around the plant are closed. Just so you know, the plant carries multiple addresses as it can be accessed from direct areas."

The Garland Fire Department and hazardous materials teams have verified their presence at the site. First responders have not yet determined the cause of the fire.

This is a developing story. Stay tune for more updates.

Related Article: Massive Riverfront Brawl in Alabama Between White and Black Men Goes Viral, Prompts Arrests

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The military junta in Niger today closed the airspace over the country until further notice due to the danger of intervention.

The ultimatum for the return of the elected president expired on Sunday Mohamed Bazoumwhich was imposed on the junta a week ago by the Association of West African States (Ecowas) and threatened with military intervention if it was not followed.

Due to the threat of intervention, which is becoming increasingly clear in the light of the preparations of the neighboring countries, Nigers airspace is closed to all aircraft from today until further notice, the junta announced shortly before the deadline for the return of Bazoum to power, without specifying which countries it went.

Any country involved will be treated as an enemy, she warned in a statement and threatened that any attempt to violate the ban would be met with a firm and immediate response, reports the French news agency AFP.

Its spokesperson announced that the armed forces are ready, reports the British BBC. Support for the junta in Niger has already been expressed by neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, where the junta also rules. The two countries announced that international military intervention in Niger would mean a declaration of war for them.

Portraits of the CNSP and the Russian flag are visible at the demonstrations

Meanwhile, in the streets of Nigers capital, Niamey, demonstrations took place again on Sunday in support of the coup carried out by the junta on July 26. At the stadium there, the leaders of the now-ruling National Council for the Protection of the Homeland (CNSP) greeted the crowd. Among other things, portraits of CNSP leaders and the Russian flag could be seen at the venue.

On Friday, the chiefs of general staff of the Ecowas countries agreed on a plan for possible intervention in Niger, which they are otherwise not in favor of and want an agreed solution for the country. The association has already imposed sanctions as a result of the coup against the country, and several countries, including the United States, Great Britain, and France, have already evacuated part of their diplomatic staff and some of their own citizens from Niger.

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Bubble tea, or boba tea, is a popular beverage that originated in Taiwan. It usually includes tea, milk, tapioca balls, and sometimes other toppings. There are several franchises available in the U.S. for entrepreneurs interested in building a business around this beverage. Here are a few bubble tea franchise opportunities to consider.

What is a bubble tea franchise?

A bubble tea franchise is an independently owned business that sells bubble tea using a franchise model. This business structure involves a larger brand that is owned by a corporation, and individual stores that are owned and operated by local franchisees. Franchisees pay an initial fee and ongoing royalties in exchange for the ability to use the brands established systems, branding, and resources.

Below is a more detailed explanation of what a bubble tea franchise involves:

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Brand Recognition : One of the primary benefits of owning a franchise is the ability to operate under a well-known brand. This helps attract customers who are already familiar with the brands offerings and reputation. It also reduces the amount of marketing and advertising the franchisee needs to do.

: One of the primary benefits of owning a franchise is the ability to operate under a well-known brand. This helps attract customers who are already familiar with the brands offerings and reputation. It also reduces the amount of marketing and advertising the franchisee needs to do. Initial Franchise Fee : To acquire a franchise, you generally have to pay an initial fee. This gives you the right to use the franchisors brand and business system. The amount varies depending on the franchise, but it typically ranges from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand dollars.

: To acquire a franchise, you generally have to pay an initial fee. This gives you the right to use the franchisors brand and business system. The amount varies depending on the franchise, but it typically ranges from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand dollars. Ongoing Royalties : In addition to the initial franchise fee, franchisees usually have to pay ongoing royalties to the franchisor. This is typically a percentage of the franchises gross revenue and is used to fund corporate support services like advertising, training, and operational support.

: In addition to the initial franchise fee, franchisees usually have to pay ongoing royalties to the franchisor. This is typically a percentage of the franchises gross revenue and is used to fund corporate support services like advertising, training, and operational support. Training and Support : Franchisors typically offer extensive training programs to ensure that franchisees are equipped to run the business effectively. This training might include everything from how to make the bubble tea to how to manage the stores finances. Additionally, franchisors often provide ongoing support in areas such as marketing, supply chain management, and product development.

: Franchisors typically offer extensive training programs to ensure that franchisees are equipped to run the business effectively. This training might include everything from how to make the bubble tea to how to manage the stores finances. Additionally, franchisors often provide ongoing support in areas such as marketing, supply chain management, and product development. Location : Franchisees typically receive help from the franchisor in finding and securing a suitable location for the store. The franchisor may provide guidelines or requirements for the location to ensure it fits with the brands image and target market.

: Franchisees typically receive help from the franchisor in finding and securing a suitable location for the store. The franchisor may provide guidelines or requirements for the location to ensure it fits with the brands image and target market. Operational Guidelines : Franchises operate under specific guidelines provided by the franchisor. These guidelines cover everything from store design and layout to the types of products that can be sold. These standards are designed to ensure consistency across all franchises.

: Franchises operate under specific guidelines provided by the franchisor. These guidelines cover everything from store design and layout to the types of products that can be sold. These standards are designed to ensure consistency across all franchises. Marketing and Advertising : Franchisors often manage large-scale marketing and advertising efforts on behalf of the entire franchise network. They may also provide guidance or resources to franchisees for local marketing efforts.

: Franchisors often manage large-scale marketing and advertising efforts on behalf of the entire franchise network. They may also provide guidance or resources to franchisees for local marketing efforts. Supply Chain: Franchisors typically have established relationships with suppliers, which franchisees can take advantage of. This can result in cost savings and ensures consistency in the products used and sold across all franchise locations.

Owning a bubble tea franchise can be a lucrative opportunity for those interested in this trendy and popular beverage. It offers the chance to own a business with an established brand and a proven business model, while still enjoying the autonomy of being a business owner. However, its important to carefully consider the costs and commitments involved before deciding to invest in a franchise.

Why You Should Consider a Bubble Tea Franchise

If youre interested in starting a business in 2023, here are some reasons to consider a franchise bubble tea shop:

Stand out in a crowded beverage industry: Bubble tea is a unique offering in many U.S. cities. Though lots of these businesses also offer other specialty beverages like coffees and teas, a bubble tea shop is likely to get noticed.

Bubble tea is a unique offering in many U.S. cities. Though lots of these businesses also offer other specialty beverages like coffees and teas, a bubble tea shop is likely to get noticed. Build brand recognition: Thanks to having franchises in other markets around the country, some people are likely to already know of major bubble tea brands. So you shouldnt have to work as hard to build trust and recognition.

Thanks to having franchises in other markets around the country, some people are likely to already know of major bubble tea brands. So you shouldnt have to work as hard to build trust and recognition. Get up and running quickly: Franchises offer proven systems and support with tasks like site selection and training. So you dont have to figure these elements out on your own.

Franchises offer proven systems and support with tasks like site selection and training. So you dont have to figure these elements out on your own. Access to proven business systems: Once youve launched, they also provide support with marketing materials, inventory, and equipment purchases.

Once youve launched, they also provide support with marketing materials, inventory, and equipment purchases. Expand your offerings: Bubble tea shops often provide additional food and beverage options as well. So this may be the ideal way to break into the beverage world with a small shop.

Top Bubble Tea Franchises

If youre ready to start a bubble tea business, there are plenty of brands offering new franchise locations around the U.S. Here are some top bubble tea franchise opportunities to consider.

1. Kung Fu Tea

Kung Fu Tea is a popular brand with more than 2002 stores around the U.S. The company offers a ten-step process for getting your own bubble tea shop off the ground. And they offer multiple store models, from traditional storefronts to those located in airports and shopping centers. Upfront costs range from $140,000 to $422,000 for a traditional store.

2. Tapioca Express

Tapioca Express currently has about 29 franchise locations in the U.S., mainly along the West Coast. The company provides a wide array of startup support services, from location selection to employee training. Getting started costs anywhere from about $200,000 to $527,000.

3. Gong Cha

Gong Cha is a bubble tea franchise that originally launched in Taiwan. Stores offer fresh tea sourced from Taiwan and tapioca pearls made from the finest ingredients. The company is currently seeking new franchisees in a number of states, mainly in the Northeast. Estimated startup costs range from $177,430 to $335,400 for a single unit.

4. Bubbleology

Bubbleology is a small franchise business that offers boba, waffles, and various fruit-flavored milk teas. The brand looks for experienced retail operators to develop exclusive territories across the U.S. The company only has a few locations currently, so there are many open territories available, with estimated upfront costs falling between $205,850 and $458,950.

5. Sharetea

Sharetea offers a variety of beverages, including traditional tea, milk tea, blended drinks, and fruit juices. The company originally launched in 1992 and has more than 150 stores across North America. Startup costs vary, starting around $300,000.

6. Koi Tea

Koi Tea offers a bubble tea franchising opportunity for those with food service and/or retail experience. Each boba shop offers a variety of tea drinks as well as rolled ice cream and other treats. The initial investment ranges from about $200,000 to $500,000.

7. Ding Tea

Ding Tea is a global brand offering franchise opportunities in the U.S. The company simply requires franchisees to be at least 20 years old, have some business experience, and be passionate about the tea industry. The initial investment ranges from about $123,000 to $422,000.

8. CUPP Bubble Tea

CUPP Bubble Tea is a U.K.-based bubble tea brand. There arent currently any locations in the U.S. But the company offers an international master franchise program for those interested in opening the first bubble tea franchises in a new country. Costs for a new store start at 80,000. But international franchises are likely to incur extra costs since they are responsible for entire territories.

9. Bambu

Bambu is a dessert and tea franchise offering boba tea, coffee, and exotic fruit smoothies. There are several locations spread throughout the country, but still room for growth in many markets. The initial investment falls between $137,000 and $321,000.

10. HTeaO

HTeaO originally launched in Texas in 2009. Stores focus on flavored iced teas, blended drinks, and coffee. And the initial investment ranges from $289,200 to $859,000.

Franchise Number of Locations in the U.S. Cost Range Unique Aspects Kung Fu Tea Over 2002 $140,000 - $422,000 Offers multiple store models Tapioca Express 29 $200,000 - $527,000 Provides wide array of startup support services Gong Cha Not Specified $177,430 - $335,400 Originated from Taiwan, seeking franchisees mainly in the Northeast Bubbleology Few $205,850 - $458,950 Many open territories available Sharetea Over 150 From $300,000 Variety of beverages available Koi Tea Not Specified $200,000 - $500,000 Franchising opportunity for those with food service and/or retail experience Ding Tea Not Specified $123,000 - $422,000 Global brand, minimal requirements for franchisees CUPP Bubble Tea None From 80,000 (UK-based) Offers international master franchise program Bambu Several $137,000 - $321,000 Offers tea, coffee, and exotic fruit smoothies HTeaO Not Specified $289,200 - $859,000 Focus on flavored iced teas, blended drinks, and coffee

How to Choose the Best Franchise to Start Your Bubble Tea Business

If youve decided that a bubble tea franchise is right for you, there are many businesses to consider. Here are some tips for making the best decision for your goals.

Consider Your Budget

How much money do you have to dedicate to a franchise fee and other upfront costs? Many companies also require new franchisees to have a certain net worth to meet ongoing costs until the store becomes profitable.

Research Your Local Market

What bubble tea businesses already have a location in your area? If you can offer something new, your franchise may be more likely to stand out. Additionally, if youre interested in eventually expanding with a multi-unit development, consider a brand with lots of open territory near you.

Look at the Support Systems

Each franchise system offers different types of support, from marketing to helping design store layouts. Think about the elements of operating a business that you need the most help with, and consider the opportunities that provide help in those important areas.

Dig Into the Finances

Aside from your initial investment, research ongoing expenses for each franchise, along with potential earnings. Each model should provide financial data in their franchise disclosure documentation.

How much does it cost to start a boba tea franchise?

Each boba tea franchise has its own costs, which also vary by location. However, most brands estimate the initial investment to fall between $200,000 and $500,000. You probably wont find many bubble tea shops when searching for franchises under 10k or even franchises under 20k. A few franchises offering a kiosk or mobile model may fall near the range of franchises under 50k.

Is a bubble tea franchise profitable?

As is the case with nearly any industry, some bubble tea franchises are profitable, while others are not. However, this business model certainly can bring in significant income. Many franchise owners report profit margins of 20 to 30 percent. Check the list above for some of the most profitable franchises in the bubble tea industry.
I often dont talk about how religion and politics affect small business, but I thought for once that we needed to with so many issues facing us.

This week on The Small Business Radio Show, I discussed how religion and politics are affecting small business with my colleague, Brian Moran. He is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs achieve their objectives and to run better businesses. With a global team of subject matter experts, Brian leverages his 30 plus years of experience in the small to midsize business market to assist entrepreneurs with everything from social media to accessing growth capital to expanding into the global marketplace.

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Prior to rejoining the world of entrepreneurship, Brian was an Executive Director at The Wall Street Journal. He was also the Associate Publisher at Inc. Magazine, a Publisher and Associate Publisher at Entrepreneur Media, and held management positions at Success Magazine and Medical Economics Magazine.

Brian also co-authored Lessons From the Great Recession, a book that provided practical solutions to small business owners riding the economic rollercoaster.

First, we discussed the role of religion in the recent Supreme Court decision deciding that a web designer could deny creating a website to a gay couple (even though it turned out to be fictitious).

Brian asked, Why do business with any company that doesnt recognize you or accept you other than to cause controversy? There are dozens of other florists, wedding planners, and website designers in town. Why choose the one who doesnt want to do business with you?

He sees a few arguments on all sides of the issue:

Freedom of Religion: The business owner is within his rights to refuse service because of his religious beliefs. This perspective maintains that freedom of religion is a fundamental right that should be respected, even if it may result in discriminatory actions. Discrimination: There are those who believe that this situation is a clear case of discrimination, irrespective of the business owners religious beliefs. They argue that everyone should be treated equally regardless of their sexual orientation and that the business owners actions are a violation of this principle. Human Rights Conflict: Another viewpoint recognizes this scenario as a clash between different human rights  freedom of religion versus freedom from discrimination. This perspective acknowledges the complexity of the situation but ultimately might lean towards one right over the other, depending on individual values. Business Professionalism: From a professional standpoint, some individuals may argue that as a business owner, the business owner has an obligation to serve all customers equally, regardless of personal beliefs. They feel that personal convictions should not interfere with professional service provision. Supporting Freedom of Association: People with this viewpoint might argue that the business owner, as a private business owner, has the right to decide who he wants to associate with or serve, similar to the way customers have the right to choose which businesses they patronize. Legal Perspective: From a legal viewpoint, it could be argued that if the business owner lives in a jurisdiction where discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited, he should be held accountable for breaking the law, irrespective of his personal beliefs. Prioritizing Love and Inclusivity: Those from this perspective may believe that the key principle of most religions is love and acceptance. They argue that the business owner should not use his faith as a tool to discriminate but should instead focus on spreading love and inclusivity. Supporting Non-Coercion: Some people may argue that while they do not agree with the business owners views, they also oppose forcing him to act against his deeply held beliefs. They believe in preserving the non-coercion principle even in challenging circumstances. The Impact on the LGBTQ+ Community: This perspective focuses on the emotional and psychological impact such instances of discrimination have on members of the LGBTQ+ community. Advocates argue that refusal of services contributes to a hostile and unwelcoming society for this community, and that its crucial to challenge and overcome such instances of discrimination.

Secondly, we also discussed the role businesses should play in politics and culture wars. Should companies be partisan according to their customer base or the founders beliefs?

Listen to the entire interview with Brian on The Small Business Radio Show.

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The campground industry is booming. Its the fastest-growing segment of the tourism industry. Its a great choice for entrepreneurs looking for business ideas related to the outdoors. Thats because campground owners can start small, with just a few scattered rustic tent sites.

As the campground small business grows, the number of campsites can evolve along with the business. The successful campground owner can add a small RV park and/or cabins.

Consumer demand for all types of camping is growing. Your target market? People who want a peaceful getaway destination.

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A Campground Business Story

Weary of company politics, Mike and Andrea Steele bought a dilapidated former campground in Sigel, Pennsylvania. They started with 24 rustic campsites and in just a few years, grew to more than 100 sites. You can read about their adventure with how to start a campground.

Step 1  Location

The Steeles bought a former campground. Thats an option. There are other options, such as purchasing vacant land or making use of the land you already own.

As always, before purchase, check with local government officials to find out if your proposed campground is allowed use of the land. Zoning laws may restrict land uses such as RV parks. Also perform due diligence by doing a market analysis, including local attractions and other businesses that may draw potential customers to you. Examples of other attractions could be vineyards or art shows.

Step 2  Infrastructure

The Steeles had some basics in place, such as electricity to the site. As they established their Campers Paradise small business, they also had to navigate requirements from state agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Protection, to establish water and septic infrastructure.

Step 3  Lodging

The least expensive way to start a campground business is to offer rustic tent sites, where people camp and bring their own tents.

You can upgrade from there. Maybe youd add a glamping tent, such as a yurt. Next, you may add RV hookups for water, electricity and sewer, and/or cabins. You may add campground service buildings, such as a bathhouse, laundromat and camp store.

Remember that youll need a construction permit for buildings, and permits for water and sewer projects.

Remember the Details

There are many ways that your campground can stand out from others. For example, guests cite a quality restroom as their most important feature at campgrounds.

You can create a dog walk area and/or dog park, and if you have room, hiking trails. Guests also like community fire pits, a recreation room, laundry areas, a swimming pool, offices and playgrounds.

If you have a pond, add a boat ramp and rental kayaks. Of course, there are significant costs involved in adding such amenities.

Reap the Rewards

The average cost for a rustic, no-frills tent site is from $30-50 per night. Remember that many small businesses grow slowly. Establishing the infrastructure needed for growth  while obtaining the proper permits  may take more than a year.

Why You Should Consider a Campground Business

Are you a good fit to own and run a campground? Here are some considerations:

In your personal life, when youre not at your current job, you love to be outdoors.

You like interacting with people.

Campgrounds can be a good use of substandard lands, such as land that is not suitable for farming. If youre already searching for vacant land business ideas, a campground could be the perfect fit.

If you start with rustic tent sites, youll have little prep work other than keeping the area mowed and tidy.

There are growth opportunities for campground businesses as Airbnb competitors, and the ability to earn money in the meantime.

Consideration Love for the Outdoors Enjoyment of Interacting with People Utilization of Substandard Lands for Business Opportunity Minimal Prep Work for Rustic Tent Sites Growth Opportunities in the Campground Business and Earning Potential via Airbnb Competitors

If a campground isnt the best fit for you, check out this list of 398 great business ideas for other options.

How to Open a Campground Business

Campgrounds are booming businesses and campers are waiting for new ones to open. If youre consdering a campground in your top list of small business ideas, heres how to get started:

1. Find Land

Youll need acreage in a location that doesnt impose restrictions on campground development. As you research opportunities for campgrounds, make sure you are thoroughly checking into existing local ordinances and zoning laws for the property.

Prospective new owners may want to meet with the local zoning board in the county or city, to learn more.

2. Property Permits

Two of your most important needs will be water supply and septic systems. Each of those will require permits.

Even for a simple campground design, you will be required to provide a place for campers that is a restroom facility. This doesnt fall under the amenities category  it is a necessity.

Youll also need a permit to provide fresh water to campers via water connections. You can do this with a single centrally-located hydrant. Before campers use the water, it should be tested.

If youre going to add structures such as cabins or an office, or even tiny homes, youll need to check local building codes and any other permits which may be needed for your business.

3. Buy Insurance

As a minimum, youll need general business liability insurance and business property insurance. Youll need business property insurance for your residence if the campground office is part of your house.

If you add a pool, youll need to increase your amount of liability insurance.

4. Develop a Business Plan

Start with a mission statement, followed by a business executive summary. In the summary, youll describe how you plan to start and grow.

Next, youll get into business financials. Youll estimate expenditures and income, as well as capital expenditure budgets, with categories for costs such as electrical maintenance, wastewater treatment, and road maintenance.

Youll choose a business structure, which for campgrounds is most often the Limited Liability Corporation or LLC.

5. Begin Site Prep Work

Once youve got the location and the permit, start installing the services your guests will need. At a minimum, campers expect bathroom facilities and the availability of fresh water.

6. Market Your Campground

Use social media sites and local radio. Keep specific audiences interested by announcing upcoming events at your location, or offering camping specials in connection with nearby local events.

Writing a Campground Business Plan

Here are helpful tips for writing a campground business plan:

Remember that the plan is not etched in stone. You can adapt it at any time. Dont get bogged down trying to write your final comprehensive plan.

Remember that this business plan is one of the documents people present when seeking small business loans.

Make it a point to list your expansion plans in phases. For example, many campgrounds start by operating seasonally but become year-round campgrounds when they add services such as bathhouses and laundry. Bathhouses and laundries help attract customers who are working in a nearby city and are seeking a long-term place to stay.

Financing a Campground Business

Of course, financing options vary especially depending on whether or not you already own the land. Here are financing options to consider:

Use rustic site income to fund gradual improvements

Apply to commercial lenders

Apply for a Small Business Administration 7 (a) loan. The SBA 7 (a) loans can be used to purchase land and make land upgrades. Typically theres a low downpayment and long repayment terms.

Grants for Starting a Campground

You may be surprised to learn that there are grants available for starting a campground business:

USDA  The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Services has grants available.

National Recreation and Park Association  The NRPA has grants for applicants who seek to help visitors develop a greater appreciation of the outdoors.

Marketing a Campground

There are numerous websites on the internet that cater to campers or specifically RV travelers. You can list your campground on these sites.

You can market by holding educational events, such as How Tos for outdoor skills. You can invite guest speakers who can teach campers how to cook over an open fire or use a map and compass, for example.

Of course, operate a FB page as part of your marketing plans. Keep it up to date as far as campsite availability and special events.

Create a one-page marketing plan that details the specific strategies youll use to grow your campground. Then refer back to it and update it periodically.

Recreational Trends and Market Growth

The campground industry is booming, representing the fastest-growing segment of the tourism industry.

Camping and outdoor activities have become increasingly popular, making campgrounds an attractive business option for entrepreneurs.

The campground business offers opportunities for starting small and gradually expanding the number of campsites and amenities to meet growing demand.

Consumer interest in various types of camping experiences is rising, with a target market consisting of people seeking peaceful getaway destinations.

Whats the difference between a campground and an RV park?

Both of these fall under the category of rental business ideas. However, campground may offer tent sites and glamping tents. An RV park offers hookups for electricity, water and sewer at each site.

How much does it cost to start a campground?

The cost to create a campground can vary from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on land, and infrastructure needs. A septic system can cost $40,000.

How much money can you make as a campground business owner?

The average campground business owner makes $75,000 annually.

How many acres do you need for a campground?

The number of acres needed depends on local zoning laws. For example, local zoning may have a required minimum size for a campground, such as ten acres or more.

Is it hard to run a campsite?

The hardest part is getting established while navigating the paperwork and requirements for all the permitting that is required. Use this business startup checklist to make sure all the details are covered. Once the campground is established, the difficulty of running it depends on its size and type of amenities.

For example, with rustic sites the owner is responsible for mowing and general site maintenance. Add a bathhouse, and the owner is responsible for plumbing and electrical work, as well as cleaning.

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The grass is not always greener on the other side, economic justice activist Eva Putzova writes in her opinion piece.

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With Slovak parliamentary elections around the corner, campaigns heating up, and the social media content visibility controlled by big tech, our national grumpiness seems to be increasingly turning towards each other.

When you live, like me, far away from Slovakia for a long time and are intensely involved in the public life of your new home, you miss the minutiae of the legislative and executive discourse and the national dialog that dominates Slovak media. You lose track of the judicial scandals with their procedural intricacies. You glance over the culture and identity wars that most parties love to engage in because they sharpen the political conflict while taking away attention from the bread-and-butter issues they are unwilling to solve.

But after 23 years abroad, I gained a perspective that I want more Slovaks to understand.

Initially, for a white educated immigrant in a wealthy country, everything tends to be fascinating and greatas it was for me, making a home and building a professional career in the U.S. Then you begin to romanticize the place you came from, frequently basking in the nostalgia of the years past that froze Slovakia in time for you with wonderful memories of a carefree childhood and the exciting transformative years of young adulthood and college experiences. For my generation, the euphoria of the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the sense of unity, love, and hope we collectively felt, and then the thrill of the early 1990s with our newfound freedom made my formative years especially worthy of frequent visits down memory lane. Eventually, you can develop a more nuanced understanding of what is worth to love, protect, and enhance in Slovakia besides food, customs, and beautiful countryside.

The Slovak constitution guarantees free healthcare and the right to health protection for all. We should not give up this basic human right that many in the U.S. wish to have. To the contrary, we should demand that legislators make mental health, dental care, and vision care part of the universal, publicly funded healthcare system because the body is an integrated system and should be treated as such. Protecting the solidarity principle in healthcare financing limits costs and increases accessibility.

College debt is a massive problem in the U.S. economy, second to only mortgage debt, crippling the prospects of young people as they try to start their independent lives. Slovakia should protect its public higher education system, resist privatization, and keep it tuition-free for all its citizens. We all benefit from an educated population whether we go to college or not.

Slovakia created a legal framework that encourages political organizing by providing public financing of political parties that show popular support. While it may seem messy and sometimes even unstable to have many political parties that exist thanks to this system, political plurality is good for democracy. In the U.S. with its system of the winner takes all, political power is too concentrated rather than distributed and negotiated through coalition building the way it is in Slovakia. We can even deepen democracy in Slovakia by completely restricting political contributions from businesses and other entities that do not have voting privileges and thus should not have an undue influence on elections, while making the process of collecting contributions up to a certain limit in a cycle from individual citizens easier.

Income inequality is a huge and growing problem in the world, but Slovakia has the lowest inequality of all OECD countries as measured by the GINI coefficient. We should support universal programs and the kind of economic activities that keep raising the floor for all, including cooperatives, which has a tradition in Slovakia that dates to the mid 1800s. In fact, the first cooperative lending institution in Europe was established by Slovak Samuel Jurkovic. Cooperative models provide an alternative to corporate structures, which are being increasingly scrutinized by economists, social scientists, and economic justice activists for their speculative strategies to boost short-term profits at the expense of other societal goals.

As Slovaks living abroad, we have perspectives that are both enhanced and limited by experiences in our host countries. We should talk more often and in public about the policy directions that as a country we got right, and we need to build on. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Eva Putzova is an economic justice activist, campaign consultant and strategist, former Flagstaff City Council Member and a 2020 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. She splits her time between Flagstaff, Arizona and Nitra. You can find her on all social networks as @evaputzova.
No one would ever mistake the city of Minneapolis for a coffee producing region. But here in Minnesota, be it on a shady patio in the summer or inside the a cozy cafe as the snow falls in winter, this city is home to a love of coffee that spans cultures and traditions.

The coffee culture in Minneapolis is in a constant state of evolution as new people immigrate to the city, sharing their traditions and recipes, and learning from one another. Theres the Swedish egg coffee served in church basements, Vietnamese iced coffee, cafe de olla poured from steaming pots, and numerous African espresso bars. Alongside these traditional methods of preparation theres also a collection of cafes focused on high-quality coffees, drawing on the past and pushing the industry forward.

Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota and shares the banks of the Mississippi River with St. Paul, the states capitol. Theres a long history of coffee here, from a giant instant coffee plant that supplied the U.S. Military during World War I, to Peace Coffee, who helped pioneer a more ethical approach when they opened in 1996, and remain popular and influential today. Add to that the internationally noteworthy green coffee importer Cafe Imports, and roaster manufacturer Mill City Roasters, and theres clearly no shortage of expertise to draw on.

Its always worth a visit to Spyhouse or Dogwood, two of the citys largest and oldest specialty coffee companies. Both roast their own beans and are well-known throughout the city, with multiple locations to choose from. But theres also a group of smaller shops with their own approaches to coffee, forging unique independent identities that reflect the wider cultureand cross-pollination of culturesthat makes Minneapolis what it is today.

Cafe Ceres

Its not often you get the chance to try Turkish coffee at a specialty coffee shop, but for those who love this style of preparation, Cafe Ceres is an essential place to visit in Minneapolis. Alongside this traditional delight, Cafe Ceres also offers an array of lattes with Middle Eastern flavors such as date syrup, sumac, and carob. These flavors continue with the food offerings. Pistachio croissants, Turkish bagels, and heartier options like falafel bowls all show the influence of the Red Sea region on the menu.

The larger food menu and abundance of seating attracts all kinds of customers. There are families, people working on laptops, and everyone in between. Despite this, the baristas keep things moving. Drinks are prepared using a La Marzocco Strada espresso machine and Mazzer grinders, and come out quickly without feeling rushed.

The Minneapolis roastery Silverbird provides coffee for all three Cafe Ceres locations. The two larger shops in Southwest Minneapolis are ideal for sitting down or having lunch, while the downtown Cafe Ceres caters more to workers getting their morning coffee.

Harmony Coffee

Harmony Coffee, tucked into an alley in Northeast Minneapolis, feels like that quintessential hidden gem that every great coffee city is proud to have. Here the location and space is half the fun, partially sunken underground with Brutalist cement walls, exposed brick, and beautiful old wooden floors. Adding to the experience is the sound system. If the name Harmony isnt a tip-off enough, the large freestanding speakers and sizable record collection show that a focus on acoustics is also an important aspect of the cafe.

Harmony has a small menu, focusing on classic cafe drinks and a couple high-quality teas. They serve coffee from a variety of roasters, including Dak from Amsterdam, Mother Tongue out of Oakland, and local roaster Misfit. On the bar is a FETCO batch brewer, La Marzocco Linea Classic, and a Nuova Simonelli espresso grinder.

Even on weekends Harmony tends to be relatively quiet and relaxed. This makes it a great place for working, having a mid-day reset, or enjoying a nice coffee break with a friend.

Misfit Coffee

After the closure of their original cafe location in 2022, Misfit pivoted by adding a cafe space to their roastery. The result is a charming space with a distinctively DIY vibe. Stepping through the open garage doors into the cafe feels a bit like entering a clubhouse. There are large couches to sit on, neon signs, a motorcycle, and a collection of troll dolls looking over the bar.

The cafes eclectic design continues through to their varied drink menu. Alongside cafe classics Misfit also offers a wide variety of specialty lattes with seasonal ingredients, cocktail-inspired Kyoto chilled drinks, a large tea menu, and house-made soda. While the menu might stump indecisive cafe-goers, its wide variety means theres something for everyone from the coffee snob to the caffeine-avoidant friend.

Misfit is always roasting an array of coffees from around the world. Its worth trying their single origin offerings, either brewed as espresso using a Mahlkonig twin grinder and Synesso espresso machine or as a Kalita Wave pour-over.

Misfits roastery and cafe is a little off the beaten track in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood, but on many days they can also be found serving coffee out of their trailer around the city, or from their stand at the Weisman Art Museum.

Wesley Andrews Coffee and Tea

Their phrase conversation complements reflects the idea behind Wesley Andrews. It is a small, bright cafe in the Whittier neighborhood. On a typical day you will find people working, reading, or talking with their friends over drinks. The idea of engaging in conversation is further referenced by a large communal table, stacked with issues of coffee magazines and books, and bar seating where customers often sit to wait for their drinks and chat with baristas. The diverse menu with made-to-order drinks means Wesley Andrews is a great place to sit and enjoy a coffee and less suited to grabbing something in a hurry.

If you are looking for a pour-over coffee or well made tea, Wesley Andrews is the place to go. They have multiple single origin pour-over options at any given time alongside high quality tea that can often be hard to find, even at specialty coffee shops. In fact, for those who love tea, or are coffee drinkers looking to learn more, Wesley Andrews also hosts weekly tea tastings where you can learn more about their offerings.

Wesley Andrews roasts their own coffee and sells a selection of retail bags, as well as brewing equipment and other goods.

The Get Down Coffee Co

When a new company comes onto the scene with a splash, it can be a struggle to keep up with the attention and expectations. Thats not the case here. The Get Down Coffee Co has been able to maintain their physical location, open a new roasting facility, and sell coffee through the retail giant Target all while keeping quality high.

The coffee shop, which aimed to bring a welcoming take on specialty coffee to North Minneapolis, is small but inviting. Vinyl records on the wall and a bank of speakers point to the importance of music at the shop, a trend that is continued in the drink namesespresso and drip coffee together is called footsteps in the dark hereand coasters made out of old records. There are a couple communal tables in the space, but overall seating is limited. Because of this, The Get Down Coffee Co is a great place to stop on a walk, or before getting breakfast at one of the weekend pop-ups hosted right outside the shop.

While the normal cafe mainstays are great here, its worth trying their specialty drinks too. Its hard to beat a Brown Sugar Banana Cream latte or the Cranes in the Sky, a strawberry vanilla latte with strawberry cold foam.

Marco Dregni is a freelance journalist based in Minneapolis. Read more Marco Dregni for Sprudge.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230806/fire-in-portugal-covers-over-17000-acres-injures-at-least-11-people-1112429630.html

Fire in Portugal Covers Over 17,000 Acres, Injures at Least 11 People

Fire in Portugal Covers Over 17,000 Acres, Injures at Least 11 People

As a wildfire rages in Portugal, other parts of the world have reported record breaking heat.

2023-08-06T23:56+0000

2023-08-06T23:56+0000

2023-08-06T23:56+0000

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fire

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portugal

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"The estimated area of burning is 7,000 hectares ...Unfortunately, to date, we have recorded 11 victims with minor injuries," CNN Portugal quoted Guilherme as saying. July of 2023 could become the hottest July in world history, according to the data of the European Union's Earth Observation component Copernicus. Temperature records have been set in many European countries, including Spain, Italy, France and others, and in China and the United States. Wildfires have been raging for days in Greece due to the heat wave. Meteorologists warn of increased risks of heat-related health frisks to citizens and livestock, droughts and threat to crops.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230806/thousands-of-nigeriens-rally-in-support-of-rebels-ahead-of-deadline-for-reversing-coup-1112429352.html

Thousands of Nigeriens Rally in Support of Rebels Ahead of Deadline for Reversing Military Takeover

Thousands of Nigeriens Rally in Support of Rebels Ahead of Deadline for Reversing Military Takeover

ECOWAS issued an ultimatum last Sunday, giving Niger's military leaders 7 days to reverse the coup or face a military intervention. Crowds of Nigeriens appeared undaunted on Sunday night as the deadline was set to run out.

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2023-08-08T11:52+0000

africa

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niamey

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power takeover

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The 15-nation Economic Community of Western African States issued an ultimatum last Sunday, giving Niger's military leaders 7 days to reverse the power takeover or face a military intervention. Crowds of Nigeriens appeared undaunted on Sunday night as the deadline was set to run out, a Sputnik correspondent reported from Niamey. Demonstrators chanted slogans in support of rebel commander Abdourahmane Tchian, the former head of President Mohamed Bazoums elite guard, and waving Nigerien and Russian national colors. Catherine Colonna, the foreign minister of Nigers former colonial master France, warned the African nation on Saturday that it should take the threat of military action by ECOWAS very seriously, but said France would not assist in the intervention.The military leaders then closed airspace on Sunday against the background of the ultimatum of the ECOWAS and citing the threat of military intervention.On July 26, Niger's presidential guard ousted and detained Bazoum. The guard's commander, Tchiani, proclaimed himself interim leader and the president of the caretaker National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/american-freight-trucking-giant-yellow-declares-bankruptcy-after-firing-30000-workers-1112445643.html

American Freight Trucking Giant Yellow Declares Bankruptcy After Firing 30,000 Workers

American Freight Trucking Giant Yellow Declares Bankruptcy After Firing 30,000 Workers

Several days after shutting down operations, US trucking company Yellow has filed for bankruptcy. Executives have tried to pin the blame on the Teamsters union for blocking their restructuring plan, but the union fired back.

2023-08-07T17:25+0000

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2023-08-07T17:25+0000

americas

international brotherhood of teamsters

truckers

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Last week, Yellow fired all but about 1,600 of its 30,000 workers, retaining a core staff of non-unionized workers to wind down operations.Hawkins told US media that the company had faced nine months of union intransigence, bullying and deliberately destructive tactics, adding that the Teamsters union was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, despite every effort to work with them.However, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union that represented 23,000 Yellow employees, blasted the company for trying to pin the blame on the union, saying that the restructuring effort was really an attempt to exploit their workers.They shamelessly pin their corporate incompetence on working people. This is whats wrong with Big Business. This is a reminder of why workers ability to organize and collectively bargain is so crucial to protecting and creating good jobs in America, he added.Yellow has long been in dire straits, posting just three profitable quarters since 2009 and boasting a massive debt problem since at least 2000, when it began buying up or merging with smaller competitors. However, in the summer of 2020, Yellow received $700 million from the federal government as part of a massive $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package intended to prop up key parts of the US economy after the massive crash triggered by the Spring lockdowns.Yellow, then known as YRC Worldwide, received the bailout because it delivers to US military bases, and used the money to launch a restructuring plan the company said would help it consolidate the many regional trucking brands it had acquired over the years into a single large company.The company said it has more than 100,000 creditors and more than $1 billion in liabilities, including $2 million owed to Amazon and $1.7 million owed to Home Depot. The company also lost some $6.85 million in a settlement after the Justice Department accused Yellow of defrauding the federal government.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230725/ups-teamsters-reach-tentative-deal-to-avert-nations-largest-ever-single-employer-strike-1112143516.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/ensuring-safety-of-arabian-gulf-being-gulf-countries-job---iranian-foreign-ministry-1112447219.html

Ensuring Safety of Persian Gulf Being Gulf Countries' Job - Iranian Foreign Ministry

Ensuring Safety of Persian Gulf Being Gulf Countries' Job - Iranian Foreign Ministry

The safety of the Gulf's water routes depends on Iran and the Arab countries in the region rather than on the United States, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Monday.

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In June, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian called on Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to put in place a collective mechanism for ensuring the interests and security of the Gulf countries. An American daily reported last Thursday, citing sources in the US Department of Defense, that the US was ready to deploy armed sailors and marines on commercial vessels crossing the Gulf to prevent potential attacks by the Iranian navy. In early July, Pentagon said that US forces had prevented attempted seizure by the Iranian navy of two commercial oil tankers, the Marshall Islands-flagged TRF Moss and Richmond Voyager, following through the Strait of Hormuz three hours apart. Iranian forces opened fire at the Richmond Voyager, but had to change course after the US Navy sent USS McFaul destroyer and MQ-9 combat drone to the scene, Pentagon added. The Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed the US's reports about the Iranian Navy attempting to seize any oil tankers off the Omani shore.

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As part of the launch of Russia's first lunar landing mission in over 50 years on August 11, a community in the country's far east will be evacuated, a local official announced on Monday.

According to Reuters, the Luna-25 lunar lander, the country's first since 1976, will be launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, about 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow.

Village Evacuation

Shakhtinskyi, a village in the Khabarovsk region of Russia, southeast of the launch site, will have its residents evacuated early on August 11 because it is expected to be in the area where the rocket boosters will crash when they separate.

The Luna-25 lander will be the first to touch down on the moon's South Pole after being launched on a Soyuz-2 Fregat launcher.

The mission's primary goals will be the advancement of soft-landing techniques, investigation of the lunar interior, and resource exploration, including the quest for water. The lunar surface operation of the lander is anticipated to last a full year.

The Luna-25

Luna-25 will land in the south polar region of the Moon. This region is of particular interest to scientists because it is thought to be rich in water ice.

(Photo : LEON NEAL/AFP via Getty Images) The LK-3 lunar lander from 1969 (L) and the Lunokhod 1 lunar roving vehicle from 1970 are displayed in London on September 17, 2015, during a press preview for the Science Museum's latest exhibition "Cosmonaut".

The lander will carry a number of scientific instruments, including a camera, a spectrometer, and a magnetometer. These instruments will be used to study the composition and structure of the lunar surface, as well as the lunar environment.

Luna-25 is a major milestone in Russia's lunar exploration program. The success of this mission will pave the way for future missions, such as Luna-26 and Luna-27, which are planned to launch in 2024 and 2025. These missions will carry rovers and other robotic vehicles to the Moon.

The Luna-25 mission demonstrates Russia's continued commitment to lunar exploration, and it paves the way for future missions that will help us to learn more about our Moon.

Read also: Putin To Be On Board Russia's Doomsday Plane Known as the 'Flying Kremlin' Should the West Provoke Nuclear War

Russia's Lunar Explorations

Russia has a long and storied history of lunar exploration, dating back to the early days of the Space Race.

The Soviet Union was the first country to successfully send a spacecraft to the Moon, and it also achieved a number of other firsts, including the first soft landing on the Moon, the first crewed lunar orbit, and the first sample return from the Moon.

Russia's lunar exploration program has been somewhat dormant in recent years, but it is now making a comeback. In 2022, Russia launched the Luna-25 lander, which was the first Russian lander to the Moon in over 40 years.

Luna-25 was followed by the Luna-26 orbiter in 2024, and the Luna-27 rover in 2025. These missions are part of Russia's renewed commitment to lunar exploration, and they are expected to provide valuable insights into the Moon's history and geology.

Related article: India Launches Chandrayaan-3 Moon Mission

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/fact-check-ukraines-western-air-defenses-just-cant-make-the-grade-1112441057.html

Fact Check: Ukraines Western Air Defenses Just Can't Make the Grade

Fact Check: Ukraines Western Air Defenses Just Can't Make the Grade

The West continues providing the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weaponry that they use against Russian troops, but are these weapons effective enough to prevail on the battlefield?

2023-08-07T15:33+0000

2023-08-07T15:33+0000

2023-08-07T15:35+0000

russia

ukraine

volodymyr zelensky

patriot missile system

missiles

kalibr

air defense system

ukrainian counteroffensive attempt

sputnik's fact check

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently praised performance characteristics of the US and German air defenses - the Patriot and IRIS-T, respectively - that were earlier supplied to Kiev as part of the Wests military assistance to Ukraine.Zelensky argued that these systems were proving "highly effective" and had "already yielded significant results" by allegedly downing 65 Russian missiles of various kinds and 178 Russian assault drones. Sputnik checks this out. View From Other Angle The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) earlier this month released a video of the destruction of the IRIS-T system by the Lancet-3 kamikaze drone, something that was reported by a US military news outlet as well. The IRIS-T was obliterated amid Ukraines counteroffensive, which the MoD said had failed on all fronts.The developments were preceded by the Russian hypersonic missile Kinzhal successfully destroying five launchers of Ukraines Patriot system in May.To understand the real effectiveness of the above-mentioned air defenses, one should first of all bear in mind that the Russian Armed Forces carry out combined missile attacks on Ukraines military infrastructure, Moscow-based military historian and political commentator Yury Knutov told Sputnik.What are Combined Strikes?Knutov explained that such attacks stipulate Russian forces first using simple and cheap missiles along with similar unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. The goal is to exhaust the Ukrainian air defenses, including the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts in terms of the number of missile interceptors or anti-aircraft missiles.The same goes for Russian UAVs, he added. According to the expert, first and foremost, relatively cheap Russian drones are launched so that the enemy can use the same expensive interceptors to destroy these vehicles.Devil in Details When asked about the effectiveness of the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts as such, the Russian expert noted that if we take the total number of targets downed by these air defenses, it can turn out to be quite massive, so we can understandably refer to the high efficiency of these systems.Still, nothing is as simple as it could seem at first glance, according to Knutov.How Can Russia Tackle the Touted Air Defenses?Knutov explained that Russia an grapple with the Patriots and the IRIS-Ts by means of the Kh-37 anti-radar missiles, which are capable of destroying the Ukrainian air defenses guidance or radar stations and thereby disable their key element.He added that one cannot but mention Iskander-M missiles, capable of overcoming any enemy air defense shield, and the Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles, which successfully tackles the Patriot.Both Iskander-Ms and Kinzhals are highly effective against any Western air defense system. These missiles can destroy enemy air defenses even before and during deployment, a mission that can also be implemented with the help of the Kalibrs or Geran (Geranium) drones," Knutov concluded.The Russian MoD has, meanwhile, said in a statement that since the beginning of its counteroffensive on June 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.In addition, the Russian troops have destroyed Kievs 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.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230610/watch-ukrainian-armored-units-get-obliterated-amid-counteroffensive-1111046802.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230510/fact-check-ukraine-didnt-shoot-down-russias-kinzhal-hypersonic-missile-1110235332.html

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patriot air defense system, iris-t air defense system, russian cruise missile kalibr, russian missile strikes, russia's iskander-m missile, russian drones
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/fbi-agent-reveals-bureau-met-with-tech-companies-on-biden-laptop-withheld-info---lawmaker-1112444193.html

FBI Agent Reveals Bureau Met With Tech Companies on Biden Laptop, Withheld Info

FBI Agent Reveals Bureau Met With Tech Companies on Biden Laptop, Withheld Info

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - An FBI agent on the Foreign Influence Task Force revealed in testimony to Congress that the bureau met with social media companies to... 07.08.2023, Sputnik International

2023-08-07T16:32+0000

2023-08-07T16:32+0000

2023-08-07T16:44+0000

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us

hunter biden

fbi

facebook

laptop

investigation

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The Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government interviewed Foreign Influence Task Force chief Laura Dehmlow in July, Jordan said in a statement via social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The FBI met with both Facebook (owned by Meta, banned in Russia) and Twitter on October 14, 2020  the same day US media broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, the statement said. During its meeting with Twitter earlier in the day, one FBI agent confirmed to the company that the laptop was real, before another agent jumped in to say the agency has no further comment, the statement said. The FBI then held emergency deliberations to decide how to answer the question ahead of the meeting with Facebook, with one FBI employee ordering that the agency respond with no comment moving forward, the statement said. The FBI provided such a response to Facebook when they asked about the laptops authenticity, the statement said. Twitter and Facebook then censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, the statement said. The Biden administration secretly set in motion the events that led 51 former US intelligence officials to claim the story was Russian disinformation, the statement said. FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, the primary conduit between the agencys Foreign Influence Task Force and big tech companies, made a number of inconsistent statements during sworn testimony, the statement also said. Chan lied about his knowledge of the FBIs Hunter Biden laptop investigation and the extent of his engagement with social media platforms on the matter, the statement said. The Justice Department has stonewalled the committees efforts to interview Chan, the statement added. The lawmakers investigation into the censorship-industrial complex remains ongoing, the statement said. Lawmakers are preparing and considering legislation to bolster constitutional protections for freedom of speech and the press, the statement said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230625/fbi-knew-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-reliable-before-smearing-it-as-russian-disinfo-1111457950.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/four-syrian-soldiers-killed-four-injured-in-israels-overnight-attack-1112430896.html

Four Syrian Soldiers Killed, Four Injured in Israel's Overnight Attack

Four Syrian Soldiers Killed, Four Injured in Israel's Overnight Attack

"Our air defense systems have intercepted the aggressor's missiles, having shot down some of them. This [attack] has resulted in the death of four servicepeople and wounded four others," the ministry said in a statement.

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"Our air defense systems have intercepted the aggressor's missiles, having shot down some of them. This [attack] has resulted in the death of four servicepeople and wounded four others, and caused material damage," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that Israel's air force fired rockets "at several sites near the city of Damascus from the occupied Syrian Golan" on Monday morning. Syria's state media reported earlier in the day that Syria's air defense forces were repelling an Israeli attack near Damascus.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/japan-planning-fukushima-water-discharge-between-late-august-early-september-1112433914.html

Japan Planning Fukushima Water Discharge Between Late August, Early September

Japan Planning Fukushima Water Discharge Between Late August, Early September

Japan is planning to start the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea between late August and early September after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida returns from a trilateral summit with the US and South Korean leaders, Japanese a news agency reported on Monday.

2023-08-07T08:40+0000

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2023-08-07T08:40+0000

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nuclear power plant

fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant

fukushima

2011 fukushima disaster

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Kishida is expected to discuss the water discharge plan with US President Joe Biden and their South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, during the summit on August 18 at the Camp David presidential residence in Maryland, 62 miles northwest of Washington, the media said. The Japanese prime minister will hold a meeting with relevant Japanese ministers after his return from the summit on August 20 to appoint a date of the water discharge, the agency added. Japan initially planned to begin discharging water purified of all radionuclides except tritium into the ocean 0.6 miles from the station this spring. However, the deadline was pushed back to the summer of 2023 due to adverse weather conditions and other factors. The Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred on March 11, 2011. The plant was severely damaged by a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Pacific Ocean. This triggered a massive tsunami that hit the plant and caused three nuclear reactors to melt down. The accident is considered the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and has resulted in widespread contamination of local soil and water. The disaster left 22,200 people dead or missing.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230712/truth-behind-hastily-released-iaea-report-on-japans-radioactive-water-dumping-plan-revealed-1111828075.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/macron-not-invited-to-brics-summit---south-african-foreign-minister-1112440840.html

Macron Not Invited to BRICS Summit - South African Foreign Minister

Macron Not Invited to BRICS Summit - South African Foreign Minister

French President Emmanuel Macron has not been invited to the BRICS summit in South Africa on August 22-24, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday.

2023-08-07T13:31+0000

2023-08-07T13:31+0000

2023-08-07T18:02+0000

africa

emmanuel macron

cyril ramaphosa

naledi pandor

south africa

france

brics

brics summit 2023

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French President Emmanuel Macron has not been invited to the BRICS summit in South Africa on August 22-24, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday. in June, a French newspaper, citing sources in the Elysee palace, reported that Macron had asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for an invitation to the upcoming BRICS summit. According to a source familiar with the matter, South Africa did not say whether it was prepared to allow other international leaders to attend the event.Later, Macron's top diplomat, Catherine Colonna, confirmed that the president was interested in coming to Johannesburg as an observer in August to attend the meeting of Brazilian, Russian, Indian, Chinese and South African leaders, the so-called BRICS group of major emerging economies.Macron's proposal was met with a mixed reaction from BRICS, with South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor calling the idea a departure from the practice of doing things. She said President Cyril Ramaphosa, the current BRICS chair, would be the one making the decision. Russia argued that Macron's participation would be "inappropriate," given Paris hostile policy toward Moscow.Meanwhile, the South African president has invited "invited (with consensus support from his fellow BRICS Leaders) sixty-seven (67) Leaders from Africa and the global South to attend the BRICS-Africa Outreach and BRICS Plus Dialogues. The Leaders cover all the continents and regions of the global South," the country's Foreign Minister said.Another 20 representatives of international organizations were also invited, the minister said."The President has also invited twenty (20) dignitaries that include the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the President of the New Development Bank, the Chairs and Executive Heads of African Regional Economic Communities, African financial institutions, and the Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and CEO of the African Union Development Agency," the statement said.Currently 34 countries confirmed their participation, the minister added.There are 23 countries that have officially expressed their interest in joining BRICS, the top South African diplomat said."We have had formal expressions of interest from the Leaders of 23 countries in joining BRICS, and many more informal approaches about the possibilities of BRICS membership," Pandor said.BRICS unites the world's largest developing economies  Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. A number of other countries intend to join the economic bloc, including Algeria, Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and others. South Africa, which assumed the rotating BRICS presidency in January, will host the 15th BRICS summit from August 22-24.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230723/1112090534.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230622/macrons-bid-to-join-brics-summit-signals-rift-within-g7---observer-1111405916.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/how-much-does-brics-contribute-to-world-gdp-1112307546.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/maduro-condemns-lack-of-response-to-quran-burning-incidents-from-european-leaders-1112431570.html

Maduro Slams European Leaders 'Silence' On Quran Burnings

Maduro Slams European Leaders 'Silence' On Quran Burnings

Several Quran-burning demonstrations have taken place in Denmark and Sweden in recent months. On Sunday, Maduro condemned the lack of response from European leaders and a number of media.

2023-08-07T03:39+0000

2023-08-07T03:39+0000

2023-08-07T11:55+0000

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quran

the quran

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venezuela

venezuelan

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denmark

sweden

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"I feel, deep within my heart, the discontent of Muslim peoples around the world when they see the Quran being burned," Maduro said on the "With Maduro and More" program aired by the Al Mayadeen broadcaster, adding that those who turn a blind eye to the burning of sacred books in Europe are "indirectly involved" because of "their silence." Maduro also criticized media for not covering the issue, adding that he "strongly condemns" hate crimes against Muslims and the activities of "extreme right-wing and racist circles" destroying copies of the Quran in Europe. Several Quran-burning demonstrations have taken place in Denmark and Sweden in recent months. Most Muslim countries have condemned the demonstrations, and some have summoned the Swedish and Danish ambassadors to issue letters of protest. Earlier this week, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom pledged to pay special attention to relations with Muslim countries, and the Danish police temporarily toughening controls at the country's borders for security reasons following recent Quran-burning demonstrations.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/moscow-expects-brics-states-to-inform-russia-about-course-of-jeddah-talks-on-ukraine-1112437552.html

Moscow Expects BRICS States to Inform Russia About Course of Jeddah Talks on Ukraine

Moscow Expects BRICS States to Inform Russia About Course of Jeddah Talks on Ukraine

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Russia expects that BRICS countries that took part in the meeting on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah over the weekend to inform Moscow... 07.08.2023, Sputnik International

2023-08-07T11:02+0000

2023-08-07T11:02+0000

2023-08-07T11:02+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

maria zakharova

volodymyr zelensky

russia

ukraine

kiev

brics

russian foreign ministry

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"We expect that, in accordance with the agreements, they [BRICS countries] will share their assessments with us and reaffirm our position on the so-called peace formula of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, which the Kiev regime and the West are trying to promote during such meetings. None of its 10 points is aimed at finding a negotiated and diplomatic solution to the crisis," Zakharova said in a statement. "By promoting Zelensky's 'formula,' the Kiev regime and the West are trying to downplay the high value of other countries' peace proposals and monopolize the very right to propose them. In essence, as we said, there is a fight against dissent at the international level, attempts to push through unviable settlement ideas through unscrupulous manipulations," the statement read. Russia has always been and remains open to a diplomatic solution to the crisis and is ready to respond to really serious proposals, the spokeswoman said, adding that without the participation of Russia and taking into account its interests, no meetings on the Ukrainian crisis have any value. "We are convinced that a truly comprehensive, sustainable and fair settlement is possible only if the Kiev regime stops hostilities and terrorist attacks, and its Western sponsors stop pumping weapons into the armed forces of Ukraine," she added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230805/jeddah-talks-on-ukrainian-peace-require-russian-presence-says-brazil-presidential-aide-1112411994.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/nigerien-coup-leaders-say-2-african-countries-preparing-for-military-intervention-1112441992.html

Nigerien Military Leaders Say 2 African Countries Preparing for Military Intervention

Nigerien Military Leaders Say 2 African Countries Preparing for Military Intervention

The Nigerien National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) said on Monday that two unspecified Central African countries started a preliminary transfer of troops for what it believes will end up being a military intervention in Niger.

2023-08-07T13:51+0000

2023-08-07T13:51+0000

2023-08-08T11:54+0000

africa

niger

mali

burkina faso

economic community of west african states (ecowas)

power takeover

takeover

west africa

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The Nigerien National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) said on Monday that two unspecified Central African countries started a preliminary transfer of troops for what it believes will end up being a military intervention in Niger. On July 26, Niger's presidential guard ousted and detained President Mohamed Bazoum. The guard's commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, proclaimed himself the president of the caretaker CNSP-led government. On July 31, the Economic Community of West African States condemned the takeover, suspended financial aid to the country, and gave Niger's military leaders one week to reinstate the detained president, or the community would use "all measures," including military, to restore order in the African nation. The military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger's neighbors, warned that any military intervention against Niger would be considered a declaration of war against them.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230806/nigerian-senate-urges-ecowas-to-seek-diplomatic-solutions-to-situation-in-niger-1112426594.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/pentagon-backs-philippines-over-escalation-near-disputed-islands-with-china-1112431004.html

Pentagon Backs Philippines Over Escalation Near Disputed Islands With China

Pentagon Backs Philippines Over Escalation Near Disputed Islands With China

"We stand with our Philippine allies," Ryder said. China Coast Guard said that two cargo ships and two PSG vessels entered the territorial waters of the Nansha (Spratly) Islands without Chinese permission.

2023-08-07T02:22+0000

2023-08-07T02:22+0000

2023-08-07T02:22+0000

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"We stand with our Philippine allies in condemning the PRCs [the People's Republic of China] efforts to impede lawful operations at Second Thomas Shoal," Ryder said on X (formerly known as Twitter). The spokesperson added that Washington remains committed to the "ironclad" alliance of the US and the Philippines. China Coast Guard fired back, saying that two cargo ships and two PSG vessels entered the territorial waters of the Nansha (Spratly) Islands without Chinese permission, adding that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and its adjacent waters. In July, PSG accused Chinese coast guard ships of preventing its vessels from approaching the reef. The Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected the Philippines' accusation, saying that "the Chinese maritime police ships enforced the law in line with regulations" and "acted professionally and proportionately to safeguard China's territorial sovereignty and maritime order." The reef, known as Ren'ai Jiao in China and Ayungin Shoal in the Philippines, is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, a major archipelago that China and several other Asian nations lay rival claims to. The Philippines grounded a navy transport ship, BRP Sierra Madre, on the reef in 1999 to house a contingent of marines.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/turkiye-continues-dialogue-with-western-countries-on-grain-deal-resumption---source-1112446913.html

Turkiye Continues Dialogue With Western Countries on Grain Deal Resumption - Source

Turkiye Continues Dialogue With Western Countries on Grain Deal Resumption - Source

Ankara continues its dialogue with Western partners on the resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and continues an interdepartmental dialogue with Russia as well, a source in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration has told Sputnik.

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"Of course, [the dialogue] is underway. In parallel, we are also in dialog with Russia, with specific agencies. Mr. President [Erdogan] has repeatedly emphasized the importance of this initiative for countries in need," the source said when asked whether Ankara was in talks with Western partners to remove obstacles to the export of Russian food products and ammonia. Later in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Ankara intends to make efforts to facilitate the resumption of the grain deal, adding that the primary goal for the Turkish diplomacy will be to achieve deescalation in various conflict zones in the region. Turkiye will continue to maintain contact with all parties to the grain deal in order to facilitate its resumption, the minister said, adding that during the weekend, he discussed it with his US and Ukrainian colleagues. Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani believes that Turkiye is the only country that can achieve an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on food supplies via the Black Sea while the grain prices are soaring. "The poorest countries who do not get the grain are paying the highest price," he said in an interview with a Italian newspaper. "I don't know how much the Africans bought. Egypt definitely [bought] a lot. But the prices for wheat and grain are growing, that is the main problem. A deal needs to be struck by Russia and Ukraine, brokered by Turkiye, the only country right know that can do it. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will go to Turkiye in August, and I hope an agreement will be made," Tajani said. The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits of 1936 ensures the freedom of passage through Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits for merchant ships both in times of peace and war. The document limits the period of stay in the Black Sea of warships of non-Black Sea states to three weeks. In emergency situations, Turkiye has the right to prohibit or restrict the passage of military ships through the straits.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230802/moscow-ready-to-return-to-grain-deal-after-conditions-concerning-it-are-fulfilled---kremlin-1112333878.html

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Philippine Vice President Sara Durterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, took center stage to defend the allocation of a substantial $2.6 million in confidential funds to the Department of Education (DepEd).

In the midst of speculation and public scrutiny, Duterte asserts that these funds are an essential component of safeguarding the nation's future.

Philippine VP Sara Duterte Defends $2.6 Million Confidential Funds

As per CNN Philippines, VP Duterte has defended the roughly $2.6 million proposed confidential funds for the Department of Education (DepEd) in the 2024 budget.

The former President's daughter also heads the education department, apart from her duties as the veep.

The Education Secretary and VP justified the staggering amounts of confidential funds to the tune of 150 million Philippine pesos (PHP), or around $2.6 million. Duterte argued that the education sector is apparently "intertwined" with national security affairs.

Inquirer reports that she adds that "[it is pretty crucial] that we mold children who are patriotic, children who will love our country and who will defend our country."

Duterte's defense of the confidential funds faces mixed reactions. Some have argued that the funds are unnecessary and that they could be better used to improve the Philippines' education quality. Others have said that the funds are necessary to protect students and teachers from threats, particularly terrorism.

In a separate CNN PH report, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies or PIDS says that the national government needs to focus on boosting the quality of education in the Southeast Asian country.

In 2021, a World Bank study showed that roughly 80 percent of Filipino youth "do not know what they should know."

Read Also: Philippines' Request to Halt Inquiry Into Drug-Related Deaths Denied by ICC

Sara Duterte and Confidential Funds

For the 2024 Philippine budget, Duterte is seeking $2.5 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd.

As Vera Files reports, Duterte proposed a P500 million or $8.9 million confidential fund for the OVP during the 2023 budget proposal. The Philippine VP also wanted another P150 million or $2.6 million for the Education Department. The House of Representatives granted the $11.5 million funding for her first year in office.

For 2024, CNN PH reports that the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. seeks confidential funding of a whopping P10.14 billion or $180 million for the President's office alone.

The issue of confidential funds has been a source of controversy in the Philippines for several years. These funds, as the name gives away, are spent confidentially. Thus, some raise the worry that the multi-million funding could be misused.

Related Article: 'A New Philippines Has Come': Marcos Delivers 2nd State of the Nation Address

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/two-us-warships-bring-3000-strong-reinforcement-to-contingent-in-middle-east-navy-1112441657.html

Two US Warships Bring 3,000-Strong Reinforcement to Contingent in Middle East

Two US Warships Bring 3,000-Strong Reinforcement to Contingent in Middle East

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Two US ships with 3,000 troops on board have arrived in Middle Eastern waters to provide "greater flexibility" to US naval forces stationed... 07.08.2023, Sputnik International

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"More than 3,000 U.S. Sailors and Marines of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) arrived in the Middle East, Aug. 6, as part of a pre-announced Department of Defense deployment," the Naval Forces Central Command said, adding that the reinforcement includes "additional aviation and naval assets." Amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and dock landing ship USS Carter Hall arrived in the Red Sea from the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, the statement read. The Pentagon announced reinforcement plans for its Gulf-stationed fleet in July, citing alleged Iranian threats to international navigation. It said USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall will join USS Thomas Hudner, F-16 and F-35 jets of the US 5th Fleet, whose area of operation encompasses approximately 2.5 million square miles and includes parts of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/ukraines-counteroffensive-may-run-its-course-in-the-next-few-weeks--1112434002.html

Ukraine's Counteroffensive May 'Run Its Course in Next Few Weeks'

Ukraine's Counteroffensive May 'Run Its Course in Next Few Weeks'

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that Kievs counteroffensive, which was launched on June 4, is unsuccessful in all fronts as Russia continues its special military operation in Ukraine.

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The next few weeks will see the Ukrainian counteroffensive run its course, former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist and Bank of America strategist David Woo has told Russian media.The Russians are now fighting with weapons they didnt have 18 months ago because they didnt exist 18 months ago. And that to me is the most impressive thing, [] whereas the West is still walking around in the same circle, Russias getting better and better, and this war is gonna [sic] be won by technology in the end, the former IMF economist argued.Ukraine's much-hyped counteroffensive kicked off on June 4 after months of delays over a lack of military supplies from Western donors. Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored last month that Ukraines counteroffensive, which he said claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainian servicemen, had yielded no results.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, said that "the Kiev regime has no successes and is in a very difficult situation.The special military operation continues. It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not working out the way it was intended in Kiev," Peskov told reporters.He was echoed by the Russian Defense Ministry, which, in turn, said that Ukrainian troops kept trying, but were failing to advance as they continue to suffer heavy losses in men and materiel. A number of Western media outlets also pointed to the unimpressive results of Kiev's counteroffensive, admitting that its progress was "slower than desired."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230801/retired-polish-general-asks-whether-ukraines-counteroffensive-really-exists-1112315114.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230806/kievs-western-allies-getting-tired-of-ukrainian-counteroffensive-1112417311.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/vicegerent-of-kiev-pechersk-lavra-released-after-bail-paid-lawyer-1112443407.html

Vicegerent of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Released After Bail Paid - Lawyer

Vicegerent of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Released After Bail Paid - Lawyer

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The vicegerent of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Bishop Pavel has been released following a 33 million hryvnia ($900,000) bail... 07.08.2023, Sputnik International

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"Today, the bail was finally paid for Metropolitan Pavel. More than a thousand people paid money for our Vladika [a Slavic title of bishops]. Now he's in a car," the lawyer said in a video address on his Telegram channel. Earlier in the day, a Ukrainian news agency reported that the Kiev Court of Appeal postponed consideration of the appeal against Metropolitan Bishop Pavels arrest to August 14.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/watch-peaceful-village-being-destroyed-by-ukrainian-forces-1112433632.html

Watch Peaceful Village Being Destroyed by Ukrainian Forces

Watch Peaceful Village Being Destroyed by Ukrainian Forces

The village of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye region have been devasted by the Kiev regime as a result of its fruitless attacks since early June. All buildings have been wrecked the Ukrainian regime in indiscriminate shellings.

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Sputnik reporters shared a frightening video demonstrating the results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, showing that where there is not a single undamaged house left because of the unsuccessful assaults of the Ukrainian Forces. Ukrainian troops are trying to enter Rabotino from the north and east directions, but every time the Russian military stops them on the approaches to it. At the same time, Kiev forces are constantly shelling the village, making the life of the dwellers a true nightmare.In addition, the video shows a massive number of destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles in the vicinity of the settlement.Ukraine launched a counteroffensive effort in early June and since then has achieved virtually nothing except losing much NATO-supplied military equipment.

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The village of Rabotino destroyed by the Ukrainian Forces Sputnik correspondents visited the village of Rabotino in the Zaporozhye region, where not a single house was left undamaged due to the unsuccessful assaults of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the past two months 2023-08-07T12:42+0000 true PT0M55S

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230807/watch-russian-armed-forces-finest-in-action-1112434376.html

Watch Russian Armed Forces' Finest in Action

Watch Russian Armed Forces' Finest in Action

This week, Russias Ministry of Defense released a short video tribute to soldiers from different branches of the Russian Armed Forces who fight on the frontline of the Ukrainian conflict.

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This week, Russias Ministry of Defense released a short video tribute to soldiers from different branches of the Russian Armed Forces who fight on the frontline of the Ukrainian conflict.Charging into a new week together with our heroes. Good luck, guys, read the ministrys original social media post that features the video.

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The Armed Forces of Russia is Continuing Special Military Operation in Ukraine, Demonstrating Bravery and Courage The Armed Forces of Russia is continuing its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, demonstrating bravery and courage 2023-08-07T17:39+0000 true PT0M40S

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The win streak continued for undefeated three-year-old trotter Irish Ray, this time in track record fashion on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 6) in Canadas oldest Standardbred stakes race, the P.E.I. Colt Stakes, at Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway.

With trainer Marc Campbell sick and off all 14 of his afternoon drives, Gilles Barrieau jumped in the bike behind Irish Ray and sent the Muscle Through It gelding right down the road in a $12,000 P.E.I. Colt Stakes three-year-old colt trotting division to a 1:57.4 lifetime-best performance for owner Three Wisemen Stable of Kingston, P.E.I. The win was number 14 of the trotters career from as many starts and lowered the former 1:59.1 three-year-old trotting gelding track record set by Waiting On A Woman in 2011 as well as the overall three-year-old trotting standard of 1:58.3 belonging to Tequila Tuesday from a 2020 race.

Campbell had two wins as a trainer on the day with Gettin Salty winning a $12,000 P.E.I. Colt Stakes three-year-old filly trot division in 2:00.4 in line to Jason Hughes for owner Blayne White of Pinette, P.E.I.

Good Omen had the quickest steps on the day, winning a $13,500 two-year-old pacing colt Gold division in 1:55.2 for trainer/driver Paul Langille and owners Ellie Driscoll and Rosanne Langille of Lower Onslow, N.S. The mile tied Woodmere Stealdeals two-year-old track record for male pacers set in 2020.

Langille tripled up on the day as a trainer/driver, winning with A Girl Named Tom (2:01.2) in a $5,700 two-year-old pacing filly Grassroots division and with Dusty Lane Tito (1:58.3) in a $6,750 two-year-old pacing colt Grassroots division.

Joe Baxter doubled up as a trainer winning back-to-back races with Little Leroy (1:57.4) in a rookie colt Grassroots split with Corey MacPherson driving as well as with filly Woodmere Luna (2:01.3) with Ken Murphy in the seat.



Murphy (pictured above) went right back out and won the next race, a Grassroots division for two-year-old rookie pacers, with Mr Andreychuk from his father Cliff Murphys stable in 2:01.4 for the Harrington, P.E.I. drivers 1,000th career driving victory.

Another two-year-old Grassroots pacing colt division went to Howmac General (1:59.2) with Patrick Shepherd in the bike for trainer Earl Watts while a pair of filly splits were won by Windemere Evaline (2:00) for trainer/driver Clare MacDonald and High Roller (1:59) with Adam Merner driving for conditioner Melissa Rennie.

Tobins Chester remains undefeated in his career as a he won a $13,500 two-year-old colt Gold division in 1:58.1 for trainer/driver Hughes and owner Donald MacRae of Vernon Bridge, P.E.I. The Shanghai Phil colt has won all four of his career outings.

The $11,400 P.E.I. Colt Stakes two-year-old pacing filly Gold divisions were won by Goodmorning Nova (1:57.3) for driver Barrieau and trainer Duane MacEachern, Saulsbrook Feisty (1:58.4) in line to David Dowling for trainer Carrie Saunders and Chip Of Evil (1:58.1) from the Ed Doucette barn with MacPherson supplying the steer.

Gettin Tipsy was upset bound in her $12,100 P.E.I. Colt Stakes two-year-old trot filly division, winning at 12-1 odds in 2:04.1 for trainer/driver Mike McGuigan and owner Jamie Whalen of Avondale, P.E.I.

Countyline Babe was the best in the lone $12,100 two-year-old trot division in 2:03.1 for driver Myles Heffernan Sr., trainer Myles Heffernan Jr., and owner Jackie Heffernan of Summerville, P.E.I.

Jessiejesorjessica won the $4,600 Island Ocean Trot Mares Series leg, presented by Burkie By The Bay Stable, in 1:57.3 with Dowling in the seat for trainer Jennifer Doyle.

Live harness racing continues Monday evening with a rescheduled program at Red Shores Charlottetown at 6 p.m., followed by a Tuesday evening presentation at Red Shores Summerside starting at 6 p.m.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click the following link: Sunday Results - Summerside Raceway.

(With files from Red Shores)
With family by his side, longtime harness racing industry photographer and participant John Watkins of Oshawa, Ont. passed away peacefully at Lakeridge Health Oshawa on Sunday, Aug. 6 at the age of 59 years.

John will be fondly remembered by his extended family and many friends especially his friends that he found through his photography with the Ontario horse racing community. He was a frequent contributor to Ontario Racing's media department and a valued, longtime photographer/contributor and friend to TROT Magazine with his work adorning the magazine's cover on multiple occasions. Watkins was also a Media Excellence Award finalist for Outstanding Photograph at the 2020 O'Brien Awards.

Beloved son of Allan and Joanne Watkins. Loving husband of Jane for 31 years. Cherished father of Chantal and her fiance Joe Zimba, and Chris (Jaime). Doting Grandpa of Mila, Addison Jaxen and Nixen. He will be missed by his fur babies Ellie and Cairo. John will be greatly missed by his sisters Nancy (Craig), Donna (Darren) and his brother in law Wade Deacon.

Visitation will be held at Oshawa Funeral Home, 847 King Street West (905-721-1234) on Friday, Aug. 11, from 3 - 5 p.m. and 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Memorial Service will be held in the chapel on Saturday, Aug. 12 at 1:30 p.m. Interment of cremated remains to follow at Resurrection Cemetery. Memorial donations to the Kidney Foundation would be appreciated.

The live streamed service will be available here.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of John Watkins.
Flatwater Free Press

MERRITT RESERVOIR  Last September, the International Dark-Sky Association confirmed what veterans of the Nebraska Star Party have known for 30 years: On a clear night, the Sandhills boast some of the darkest skies on Earth.

Thanks to a joint effort between two Nebraska state agencies, the 729-acre Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area  spilling like a broken vessel across the heart of Cherry County  is now the first certified International Dark Sky Park in the state.

The Milky Way is so bright here it casts shadows on the ground, said Brenda Culbertson, a solar system ambassador with NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at last months 30th annual Nebraska Star Party. Her husband Mike, a farmer and mechanical engineer, tinkered with his telescope beside her. Here the stars are in your face, not up in the sky. It feels like youre on a different planet.

The IDA called Merritts certification a major first step in conserving Nebraskas nightscape and an opportunity to highlight it as an astrotourism destination. And judging by this years Nebraska Star Party turnout  the third highest on record, with 382 registered stargazers  the results may already be speaking for themselves.

Despite thunderstorms, soaring temperatures and haze from Canadian wildfires, vehicles from Nebraska to New York and Michigan to Massachusetts skirted the parks weather-cracked roads all week, waiting for that one clear night beneath the stars.

This is amazing, said Dave Knisely, Nebraska Star Party board member and field school coordinator. Im looking at a galaxy  a huge galaxy  from one end to the other, right now, with just the naked eye.

Beneath the excitement of ring nebulas and globular clusters, however, whispers circulated throughout the event that mere bureaucracy prevented Merritt Reservoir and the surrounding wildlife management area, both managed by the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, from achieving the highest classification: not that of a Dark Sky Park, but a full-fledged Dark Sky Sanctuary.

Though reluctant to comment on what she called local politics, former IDA director of conservation Ashley Wilson agreed.

From my point of view, IDA would have easily accepted that site as a sanctuary, she said. But it appeared that the people in charge of the wildlife management area were just done. They just wanted to observe from the outside, and not really be part of the application process.

Had the 8,900-acre wildlife management area chosen to participate, the larger Merritt area would have joined fewer than 20 other certified dark-sky sanctuaries in the world.

***

Sandhills natives have long cherished the clarity of their night skies. But the success of the Nebraska Star Party over three decades has confirmed just how rare that celestial theater has become in the 21st century, as artificial light pollution continues to draw the curtain.

Today, the Milky Way itself  inspiring humankind since the birth of our species  is no longer visible to roughly one-third of the planet, research shows, including 80% of Americans. In fact, between 2011-2022, Earths average night sky has grown brighter by 9.6% each year.

Nobody has worse skies than I do, said Dan Higgins, president and founder of AstroWorld TV, a YouTube channel devoted to astrophotography. He traveled to this years Nebraska Star Party from his home on Long Island. If you take a look at the light pollution map for New York, its pure white. Theres no comparison here. These are the darkest skies Ive ever seen.

According to Nebraska Star Party officials, the skies over Merritt are a true Class 1 on the Bortle scale, a ranking system adopted by amateur astronomers to assess a given locations stargazing potential. Other Bortle Class 1 sites include Big Bend National Park in Texas, Denali National Park in Alaska, and more.

Nebraska Star Party founder Tom Miller couldnt quantify it when he first invited friends and family to Merritt in the summer of 1993, still testing the waters for a star party, he said. But he could sense the potential right away.

It was cloudy when we first got here. We pulled up to the Snake River campground and got out, and it was so dark you couldnt see your hands in front of your face. When the clouds finally lifted, he knew already, the stars would explode.

Sipping a cold Leinenkugels, Miller narrated the Big Bang of the Nebraska Star Party from a lawn chair on Dob Row, a small cul-de-sac in the observation field where attendees have long gathered with their canon-sized Dobsonian reflecting telescopes, optimized for deep-sky observation.

Its his fault. Everything here is his fault, yelled his friend Dragan Nikin, popping out from a trailer he purchased to haul his 600-pound, 11-foot telescope. Thats why Im broke.

They blame me for their aperture fever, Miller said.

Born and raised in Lincoln, Miller started working for his familys seed business fresh out of high school in 1975, overseeing a plant in Hereford, Texas. He married and started a family, all while his grind at Miller Seed Company shifted into higher gear. On the verge of burnout in the early 80s, he built a small observatory in his backyard and cruised the cosmos. It was something to utilize the only free hours he could find; something to shift his perspective.

You just realize how small you are. You get out here, and you see the Milky Way, how it runs from horizon to horizon. Were part of just one galaxy, and there are billions of galaxies in this universe, he said, shaking his head in disbelief. Wow, you know?

Soon he joined the astronomy club in nearby Amarillo. He went to the Texas Star Party near Fort Davis. It was pitch black, he said, until the clouds lifted and the stars exploded. He went the next year, too. And again after that  six years straight. When he moved back to Lincoln in 1991, he joined the Prairie Astronomy Club and convinced four other members to go back to Fort Davis with him.

When they left the desert, they started brainstorming what a star party might look like back home. Miller kept researching. The club kept debating. And in the summer of 1993, by invite only, they soft launched their very own Nebraska Star Party at Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area, where the light-pollution maps fade to black; where the lake provides daytime recreation for the families in tow; where the campgrounds provide cheap, if simple accommodations; and where  on a year so wet as this  the hills virtually hum with wildflowers.

I tell people Nebraska takes and it gives, said Ken Plecki, who towed his 28-foot travel trailer from Willow Springs, Illinois, to this years event. He first attended in 2005, and no sooner had he unpacked his tent than a thunderstorm blew it away. He slept the next two nights in his car, but the skies were the best hed ever seen.

I had a scope. I didnt even look through it. I just sat here and looked at the sky because the center of the Milky Way was casting a shadow, he said, quieter now, as if it were happening all over again. At that moment, I kind of felt like I wasnt looking at the galaxy anymore. I was a part of it.

***

The Nebraska Star Party had long been discussing the potential for dark-sky certification at Merritt. But the spark plug that finally kicked things into high gear, said public outreach coordinator John Johnson, was the Nebraska Tourism Commissions new adventure travel specialist.

Originally from Georgia, Jenna Bartja had just spent the past five years working at Grand Canyon National Park, then pursuing its own accreditation from the International Dark-Sky Association (now DarkSky International), a recognized authority on light pollution.

When Bartja arrived in Nebraska in the fall of 2018, she said, I already had this sense of dark skies as a natural resource worth protecting, and the potential for it to attract more tourism.

She honed in first on the sparsely populated Sandhills, and then, with the enthusiastic support of the Nebraska Star Party  the Merritt area in particular: The 729-acre state recreation area, and the roughly 8,900 acres of wildlife management area surrounding it.

Bartja approached the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission a year later, delivering her compiled dark-sky readings, which far exceeded the criteria for an International Dark Sky Park. She also delivered a full inventory of the lights that would need replaced or retrofitted to meet IDA requirements.

We werent really familiar with the program, so it took some time to understand the commitment there, said Bob Hanover, Game & Parks assistant parks division administrator. But the commission soon agreed to begin the process, impressed by what he called layers of value in preserving Merritts night skies.

Astro-tourism is something that we know a lot of people are interested in, he said. But the other side is that we know preserving dark skies has a value to the environment, to wildlife, even to recreational activities.

After Bartja submitted the official International Dark Sky Park application in spring 2021, however, the campaign began to wobble.

Citing exceptional night sky quality and a historic dearth of public programming at Merritt, the IDA suggested they apply for sanctuary status, instead, denoting a more remote, hands-off experience and even darker skies. Shortly after doing so, however, the IDAs new program manager exposed a fundamental misunderstanding between the submitting parties.

Unlike Bartja, the commission had never considered the surrounding wildlife management area part of the application.

Barring its inclusion, the IDA recommended they revert back to their original application for a park. The commission agreed, though why exactly it chose to omit the larger area remains unclear.

It wouldnt have impacted anything, Bartja said, adding that the Merritt Reservoir Wildlife Management Area currently has no lights. But I kind of understood there was something else going on here that theyre not sharing with me.

Deputy director Jim Swenson dismissed the notion, claiming it was more a matter of crowd control. Given the uncertainties of a new dark-sky designation, he said, the commission hoped to confine any new influx of visitors to an area more easily serviced, and to safeguard the larger habitat area for hunters, anglers, bird watchers, so on and so forth.

He clarified, however, that stargazing and other activities like camping, though not necessarily promoted in wildlife management areas, arent technically prohibited, either.

The IDA ultimately declared the recreation area at Merritt Reservoir an International Dark Sky Park last September, the first in Nebraska, and the 200th IDA site worldwide. Though happy to celebrate the win, Bartja and Johnson said they havent yet abandoned hope for one day achieving sanctuary status.

The true cherry on top would have been the opportunity to say not only is it the first in Nebraska, but its of the highest tier that this organization offers  one of only 15 in the world, Bartja said. That is a very elite circle.

***

The Nebraska Star Partys 30th anniversary started not with a bang, but a whisper. Like sanctuary status itself, the stars peaked briefly through the clouds before vanishing in the storm. Night after night, more of the same. A few stars. More clouds. Another storm.

And then, just as the Cherry County locals began trickling in for the public viewing on Friday night, the haze lifted, the clouds drifted and the so-called Great Rift, visible to the naked eye, cleaved the Milky Way in two. Meteors blazed through crystalline constellations. Veterans lobbied amateurs to peer through reflecting telescopes big enough to swallow a kayak. And many simply craned their necks to the sky.

I dont have to use a telescope, said Knisely, the star party board member, and that alone is enough to get you out here.
Tesla may have cracked some of the mysteries of artificial general intelligence, the pinnacle of artificial intelligence programming, according to Elon Musk's teasing.

The Tesla CEO responded to Whole Mars Catalog after they shared a video on their X account about an incident in which Elon Musk claimed on stage that fully autonomous vehicles will be able to operate in San Francisco, which seemed unfeasible given the level of the technology at the time.

However, as technology improved, the concerns were allayed, and today fully autonomous Tesla vehicles can effortlessly navigate San Francisco by only using "computer vision."

Musk stated that Tesla may have figured out some parts of artificial general intelligence in his response to the Whole Mars Catalog post. The car "has a mind," they said, "not a big mind, but a mind nonetheless."

(Photo: by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images) SpaceX, Twitter, and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an event during the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16,

Elon Musk's efforts to advance artificial general intelligence through Tesla are related to his newest business, X.AI, which is focused on employing artificial intelligence-powered technologies to solve cosmic puzzles like the existence of extraterrestrial life.

If what Musk claims about Tesla unlocking some areas of artificial general intelligence is accurate, we might eventually witness fully autonomous vehicles that have some level of consciousness. But given how quickly artificial intelligence is progressing toward the pinnacle of AGI, it's safe to conclude that fully-conscious machines are still a ways off.

Read also: Elon Musk Claims AI More Profound Than Tesla FSD Software

The Rise of AGI

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that would have the ability to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can. AGI is still in its early stages of development, but there is a growing belief that it is only a matter of time before it becomes a reality.

There are a number of reasons AGI is becoming increasingly possible. First, the amount of data that is available to train AI models is growing exponentially. This data can be used to teach AI models how to perform a wide range of tasks, including tasks that were previously thought to be too complex for AI.

Second, the hardware that is used to run AI models is becoming increasingly powerful. This allows AI models to process large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

Third, there are a number of new AI techniques that are being developed that are specifically designed to create AGI. These techniques include reinforcement learning, which allows AI models to learn by trial and error, and transfer learning, which allows AI models to learn from data that was collected for a different task.

The development of AGI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives. For example, AGI could be used to develop new medical treatments, create more efficient transportation systems, and even design new forms of art and literature.

However, there are also concerns about the development of AGI. Some people worry that AGI could become so powerful that it could pose a threat to humanity. Others worry that AGI could be used to create new forms of discrimination and inequality.

Related article: Elon Musk's Decision-Making Is Tesla's 2nd Biggest Threat, Investors Warn-Is Twitter Distracting the Billionaire?

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Eva Wallace retired from teaching in the Cabarrus County Schools three years ago but she was not ready to give up changing the lives of children.

So Wallace and a group of other like-minded women decided to form Chara Academy and she decided she wanted to bring this new initiative to her hometown  Mooresville.

Chara Academy, a program designed to empower young girls from sixth through 12th grades, held its official ribbon-cutting this week at its home inside the Mooresville Public Library.

Wallace described the decision to open Chara as a vision. It was a vision that was given to me, she said. Its a desire Ive always had to be affiliated with some type of girls program.

With her retirement, Wallace decided to fulfill that vision and Chara was born.

Chara, she said is short for character. And the sessions each month will be formed around a character trait the mentors hope to instill in the girls. For example, she said, this month the lessons will be focused on respect, and next month will be courage.

The sessions may include a speaker, such as next month, in recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, Susan Tolle, volunteer field advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, has been invited to speak, Wallace said.

We will have public speakers come in and share with the girls, she said. We will have different people from different backgrounds.

She said the diversity of speakers will hopefully give the girls a different perspective on their futures. There are so many options for young people, she said. Not every girl may want to go to college, she said, and these varied speakers will give the girls all types of options.

Wallace said the sessions will be on the first and third Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. at the library in a room designated for the program. One session will be designed around a speaker and the other is geared toward performing community service. Wallace said the plan is to utilize that time as well as early release or no school dates to volunteer at FeedNC or for other area agencies.

The sessions will run from August through May and are tailored around the same schedule as the public school year.

Wallace said the goal is to empower the girls for their future and to provide opportunities for them to thrive and prosper and to become more confident in their self-worth. Each girl will be assigned a mentor, who is a member of the Chara board of directors.

She said the academy is nonprofit and it is currently in the last steps to attain 501(3) status. The girls do not pay for anything, Wallace said.

Wallace said that these sessions are not aimed at addressing academics, at least at this point. The main focus is getting to the heartstrings of these girls, that there is hope and about the different things they can achieve, she said. Its about addressing the needs of the students  emotional, physical and psychological.

But Wallace said an academic component may be added later. I never say never, she said.

There is an application process, she said, and registration is still open. To register, email Wallace at evawallace@chara-academy.com or visit the website at https://chara-academy.com.

Mooresville Mayor Mile Atkins and Commissioner Thurman Houston, as well as Mooresville Graded School District Board Member Rakeem Brawley, were on hand for the ribbon-cutting/

Houston said he was happy to see a program such as Chara come about, and encouraged the girls taking part in it to listen to their parents and to put God first in everything they do. He also offered support to Wallace and the board members. If there is anything we can do as a town, dont hesitate to ask us, he said.

Brawley echoed Houstons comments about keeping God first.

Atkins offered his congratulations about the opening of the Chara Academy.

Wallace said she is excited and thrilled with seeing her vision come true and, more importantly, about offering these girls the chance to see their future in a different light. She said the hope is that she and the mentors in the program will be able to follow the girls that are sixth graders now through their high school graduation. Hopefully, prayfully, they will follow all the way through and they will be the first graduating class from Chara Academy, she said.
In Syria, most medicines are in short supply or unavailable, according to Athr Press.

Some families and pharmacists in Hama have raised serious concerns about the scarcity of medicines and the difficulties they face in finding essential drugs. The situation has led to fears of a complete interruption in the supply chain, which could have severe repercussions on patients and pharmacists alike, exacerbating an already precarious drug crisis.

Bou Mohamed, a patient suffering from heart and hypertension issues, shared his harrowing experience with Athr Press, recounting the great struggle he faced while searching for his prescribed medicine. He had to visit five different pharmacies in various locations to no avail.

Hilal al-Shawaf, the director of the al-Shaqfa Pharmaceutical Warehouse, confirmed to Athr Press that the problem extends beyond just a few medicines; rather, most medicines are in short supply or unavailable. He explained that the existing stock in warehouses and pharmacies mainly consists of old medications, as many pharmaceutical laboratories have ceased production.

Dr. Ayman Shaker, the owner of a pharmacy in the center of Hama City, highlighted the detrimental effects of medicine interruptions on various conditions, including pressure, heart, and diabetes medications, among others. Additionally, some individuals resort to buying multiple boxes of medicine due to concerns about potential interruptions or price hikes, thereby depriving others in need. Furthermore, there is a group of patients who are reluctant to accept alternative medications, even if they have the same composition as the prescribed drug, exacerbating the severity of the ongoing drug crisis.

The exchange rate is the problem

Dr. Badri Alfa, the head of the Hama Pharmacists Syndicate branch, provided a justification for the loss of medicines due to the fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Central Bank. Initially set at 4530 SYPs, the exchange rate later rose to 6350 SYPs after three months and recently surged to 8540 SYPs. Unfortunately, the prices of medicines were not adjusted accordingly, and the pharmaceutical sector remains tied to the exchange rate from the start of the year, forcing them to produce and price drugs at the outdated rate of 4530 SYPs. This situation has resulted in significant losses for drug factories, leading them to halt production.

Adding to the challenges, Dr. Alfa highlighted that all pharmaceutical laboratories have been grappling with a shortage of diesel for approximately a year and a half. Additionally, frequent power outages further compound their difficulties, incurring substantial expenses in managing operations.

The head of the Hama Pharmacists Syndicate branch emphasized that the key to resolving this drug crisis lies in the prompt adjustment of medicine prices by the Ministry of Health, in coordination with drug laboratories. He also mentioned that the Hama Pharmacists Syndicate, in collaboration with the Hama Health Directorate, is actively monitoring and regulating pharmacy prices across the governorate. They are prepared to address any legitimate complaints that may arise in this challenging situation.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is cautious about engaging in any military ventures in Syria, according to al-Watan.

Field sources familiar with the situation in eastern regions of Syria have revealed several challenges facing the U.S. occupations plans to advance militarily on the ground and connect its illegal military base in the Tanf area, located at the triangle of Syrian borders with Jordan and Iraq, to the areas of Deir-ez-Zor and the city of al-Boukamal. These areas house the only border crossing between Syria and Iraq. Despite rumours about the U.S. occupation sending trained militants from the Tanf base to areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) east of the Euphrates River, the sources downplayed the significance of such reports.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is cautious about engaging in any military ventures to expand its influence in eastern Syria, given the potential material and human costs associated with it. While Biden may desire a military and moral victory to alter the control map in a critical region for both Russia and Iran, boosting his chances in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, the sources suggest that Washington is hesitant to involve its occupation army directly on the ground. Instead, they prefer to rely on local allies to avoid potential human losses, as the distance between Tanf and al-Boukamal is considerable, making any movement through the vast Syrian desert challenging and risky, especially in the face of possible resistance and opposition from the Russian Air Force.

During a meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal al-Mekdad called for the U.S. occupation to withdraw from Syria voluntarily, implying that the Syrian Arab Army and its allies would not tolerate any military actions by the occupation army on Syrian territory.

Recent conflicts between the SDF and the Deir-ez-Zor Military Council have revealed underlying tensions and differences between Arab tribes and militias due to the marginalization of the former and the concentration of power within the General Command of the SDF. Washingtons attempts to enlist support from Ankaras National Army to bolster its military operations in the east may not succeed, as it goes against the interests of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who rejects the SDFs presence and views them as a terrorist organization.

Regarding the leaked news of the U.S. occupation sending militants from the Tanf base to SDF-controlled areas east of the Euphrates River, it indicates the occupations struggle in forming an effective force capable of advancing from Tanf to al-Boukamal or across the river. These militants heavily depend on the cooperation of the SDF and cannot move independently, as the SDF is unwilling to risk any military actions outside its areas of influence, even in conjunction with the American occupier.

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.
Jamous is the fourth president of the commission since its establishment in 2015, according to al-Souria Net.

The Syrian Negotiation Commission held a virtual meeting where Badr Jamous was re-elected as its president, with the participation of all its components. Safwan Akash was also re-elected as secretary for a second term, as officially announced on Saturday.

In a statement, the opposition political body mentioned that the meeting involved representatives from Damascus, Qamishli, and al-Rai in northern Syria.

Besides the re-election of Jamous and Akash for a second term, the meeting focused on recent political developments related to Syria. Discussions also encompassed the internal committees, their mechanisms of work, and measures to strengthen their role. Particular attention was given to the detainees committee, the legal committee, the constitutional committee, and the election committee.

The Syrian political track has been facing a stalemate for over two years, leading to the suspension of the Constitutional Committee meetings due to conditions imposed by the Russians and the Syrian regime.

Jamous is now the fourth president of the commission since its establishment in 2015, following Riad Hijab, Nasr Hariri, and Anas al-Abdah.

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.
Investments and trade agreements may further strengthen Iran's influence in areas under regime control, Shaam Network writes.

Critics from within the Assad regime have expressed concerns about the recent agreement between the Syrian and Iranian governments to eliminate customs duties. This has led to increased discussions about the extent of investments and trade agreements that may further strengthen Irans influence in areas under regime control.

Former Minister Lamia Assi pointed out that free trade agreements resulting in zero customs duties can have a positive impact on trade between two countries, provided there is a balanced trade flow with both exports and imports.

However, Assi raised a valid concern in a recent publication. If imports constitute a significant majority, say 80% or more, while exports remain minimal, it could lead to losses for the public treasury, exacerbating the already challenging financial situation without generating any returns.

Yasser Akram, a member of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged the potential benefits of abolishing customs duties for economic development. Nevertheless, he emphasized that to truly benefit from this move, it is crucial to diversify the range of importable materials and encourage various forms of tourism, not solely religious tourism.

Akram further argued that while the elimination of duties may have a negative impact on local products, it can also spur healthy competition, ultimately elevating the quality of domestic products. Accessing materials without customs duties could lead to reduced market prices, especially if imports are facilitated without unnecessary restrictions.

Economist Ali Kanaan explained that a free trade agreement is essentially a bloc between two or more countries aimed at liberalizing trade. Such agreements involve removing all tariff and non-tariff barriers on the exchange of goods and services.

Overall, the agreement between Syria and Iran on customs duties has its merits, but it also requires careful consideration of trade balance and the promotion of diverse economic activities to ensure positive outcomes for both nations involved.

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.
Your daily brief of the English-speaking press on Syria.

On Sunday morning, four Syrian regime soldiers lost their lives in northern Lattakia province due to rebel shelling. The day before, on Saturday, three civilians from the same family were killed in Idleb, when Russian warplanes targeted the outskirts of the city. Adding to the escalating conflict, a drone strike by Turkey on Thursday night targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria. The situation remains highly volatile and tense in the country.

Four Syrian regime soldiers killed in rebel shelling after a Russian strike on Idleb

Four Syrian regime soldiers were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning in rebel shelling of the northern Lattakia province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported, following a deadly Russian strike on Idleb city.

SOHR said that the dead soldiers included one colonel and another officer and that the Fath al-Mobin rebel operations room was responsible.

Syrian pro-regime sources said that the attack targeted the Nabi Younis peak in the mountains of northern Latakia province.

At least two regime soldiers were also wounded in the rebel shelling. The injured soldiers were taken to a regime military hospital for treatment.

The rebel attack came less than one day after Russian warplanes struck the outskirts of rebel-held Idleb city in northwestern Syria, killing a man, his wife, and their son and wounding six other people.

The Russian attack on Idleb City followed a period of relative calm in rebel-held northwestern Syria.

Syrias conflict broke out in 2011 following the brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests by the Assad regime.

Over 500,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced, most of them by regime bombardment of civilian areas.

The Assad regime has been able to regain control over most of Syria after receiving crucial backing from Iran and Russia.

Idleb province in northwestern Syria is now the last area of the country to be held by anti-Assad rebels.

Russian strikes kill three civilians in Syria: monitor

Three family members, all civilians, were killed on Saturday when Russian warplanes struck the outskirts of the northwest Syrian city of Idleb, a war monitor said.

Russia has over the years repeatedly struck Syrias last main opposition bastion, but attacks killing civilians had been limited this year until an uptick in violence in late June.

Russian air strikes this morning to the west of Idleb left three dead from the same family including a woman and a child, and six others wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Four strikes hit the area where rebel bases are also present, added the Britain-based group which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria.

An AFP correspondent saw a partially destroyed building with floor mats, mattresses and the remains of a vehicle among the rubble.

With Russian and Iranian support, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has clawed back much of the territory it had lost to rebels early in the conflict that erupted in 2011.

The last pockets of armed opposition to the Assad government include swathes of rebel-held Idleb province, controlled by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is led by the countrys former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Syrian baby born under earthquake rubble turns 6 months, happily surrounded by her adopted family

A baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family home destroyed by the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria six months ago is in good health, loves her adopted family and likes to smile even to strangers, The Associated Press reported.

The dark-haired baby Afraa survived 10 hours under the rubble after the Feb. 6 earthquake crushed to death her parents and four siblings in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. When she was found, her umbilical cord was still connected to her mother.

Her story captivated the world at the time, and people from all over offered to adopt her.

After spending days at a hospital in north Syria, Afraa was released and handed over to her paternal aunt and her husband, who adopted her and are raising her along with their five daughters and two sons. Afraa was handed over to her aunts family days after a DNA test was conducted to make sure the girl and her aunt are biologically related, her adopted father, Khalil al-Sawadi, said.

On Saturday, baby Afraa was enjoying herself, swinging on a red swing hanging from the ceiling while al-Sawadi pushed her back and forth.

This girl is my daughter. She is exactly the same as my children, said al-Sawadi, sitting cross-legged with Afraa on his lap.

Al-Sawadi said he spends the day at an apartment he rented but at night the family goes to a tent settlement to spend the night, as his children are still traumatized by the earthquake which killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria.

Al-Sawadi said he has received several offers to live abroad, but he said he refused because he wants to stay in Syria, where Afraas parents lived and were killed.

Afraas biological father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was originally from Khsham, a village in eastern Deir-ez-Zor province, but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group captured the village, Saleh al-Badran, an uncle of Afraas father, said earlier this month.

We are very happy with her because she reminds us of her parents and siblings, al-Sawadi said. She looks very much like her father and her sister Nawara.

Turkey conducts drone strike against Kurdish forces in Syria

Turkey carried out a drone strike against Kurdish-led forces in Syria on Thursday night, further escalating the conflict in the country.

According to a report by Al-Monitor, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said an unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Turkish occupation struck a vehicle carrying six SDF members en route to the village of Harmi Sheikho, near the city of Qamishli in northeast Syria. Four fighters were killed, while another two were injured, the SDF said in a press release on Friday.

Turkeys National Defense Ministry also said on Friday that it neutralized five terrorists belonging to the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an unspecified part of northern Syria, the official Anadol Agency reported.

The YPG is a Kurdish armed group that leads the SDF. Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed PKK, though the SDF denies this.

Why it matters: Turkeys attacks on the SDF have escalated in recent months. Despite the uptick in violence, the United States and Russia have remained silent on the issue, Al-Monitors Amberin Zaman reported last month.

The US supports the SDF in its fight against the Islamic State, while Russia backs the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Know more: The SDF defeated IS territorially in 2019, but the latter remains active in Syria. The Islamic State (IS) attacked a Syrian military convoy on Monday.

On Thursday, IS confirmed the death of its leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi. IS said that Quraishi was killed in clashes with the Syrian Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Turkey claimed in April that its forces had killed the IS leader.

IS named Abi Hafsan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as its new leader, Agence France-Presse reported.

AANES Slams US Stance on Demographic Change in Syrias Afrin: Unfair

North Press reports that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said the recent statement of the US regarding the demographic change in Syrias Afrin was unfair.

In a press brief on August 2, spokesperson of the US Department of State, Matthew Miller, said they do not see the building of settlements in the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwest Syria by Turkey to house the families of the militants of the armed factions as a demographic change.

Badran Chiya Kurd, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the AANES, said in a tweet in Arabic that the recent statement by the US Department of State which included that the deportation of Syrian refugees to northern Syria does not change the demography of Afrin is incorrect, adding, this is a political stance that is unfair and contrary to reality.

Replying to a question about this is an intention to alter the demographic change in Afrin? Miller said, No. Furthermore, he thanked Turkey for what he called hosting communities for generously supporting nearly 3.7 million refugees, 3.3 million of whom are Syrians.

Chiya Kurd said the Turkish plan to deport three million refugees aim at eliminating the Kurdish presence in northern Syria. Lately, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked about a plan to deport a million Syrians from Turkey to the Turkish-occupied areas, like Afrin.

The Kurdish-majority region of Afrin has been under the Turkish occupation since 2018 following a military operation dubbed Olive Branch to push away the Kurdish Peoples/Womens Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) under the pretext of protecting the Turkish national security.

The invasion displaced around 300,000 indigenous Kurds. Turkey and its affiliated opposition factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA), replaced the population with Arabs fleeing other parts of Syria. The Kurds in Afrin are subject to systemic discrimination and violence. In 2022 alone, 633 people, mostly Kurds, were arbitrarily arrested by SNA factions and Turkey.

The statement of the US Department of State further complicates the situation and reveals a clear consistency with the Turkish demands, Chiya Kurd added.

UK must stop funding detention of children in Syria, says David Davis

The former UK cabinet minister, David Davis, has called on the UK government to end its policy of funding the illegal detention of children in north-east Syria and to reveal how many British minors are being held in camps run by Syrian Kurds, according to The Guardian.

This comes after the case of Yusuf Zahab, a 19-year-old Australian citizen who was locked up in Syria since he was 14 and was presumed killed in an Islamic State (IS) attack on a prison in Hasakah. However, a year-old video of him speaking, dated after the attack, was recently released, raising questions about his status.

The UN previously contacted the British government in 2022, stating that the UK was providing up to 20 million to fund detention camps in Syria, some of which hold young boys as young as nine. David Davis expressed disappointment that the UK Middle East minister, Lord Ahmad, had not responded to his request for information on British children held in these camps, citing operational security.

Davis emphasized that other countries, including France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and the Netherlands, have repatriated families from north-east Syria, and there is a consensus among the UKs allies, notably the US, that repatriation is the best solution. He stated that the detention of British boys in dire conditions without trial is a breach of international law and constitutes collective punishment, funded in part by the British taxpayer.

The director of the legal charity Reprieve, Maya Foa, echoed Daviss concerns, urging the UK government to repatriate British families from Syria instead of continuing to fund the detention camps. She argued that the longer the government delays, the higher the risk that children will be disappeared into these camps indefinitely.

In response to previous lobbying, Lord Ahmad had mentioned that detention and camp facilities in north-east Syria were under the jurisdiction of the autonomous administration of north and east Syria. He cited the UKs commitment to supporting vulnerable populations with humanitarian assistance in the region but highlighted the challenges of providing direct help to British nationals located there due to the lack of a consular presence within Syria.

How Feb. 6th earthquake compounded the misery of northwest Syrias children

The February 6 earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria compounded the misery of northwest Syrias children, with many becoming orphaned or separated from their families, The Arab News reported.

. The earthquakes resulted in one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the region, affecting at least 2.5 million children in Syria alone, according to UNICEF.

Children who lost their adult family members in the earthquakes either moved in with distant relatives, many of whom were also displaced, or had to fend for themselves. The situation has been especially harmful to orphaned children with no adult relatives in the area, leaving them vulnerable to abuse, trafficking, and mental health disorders.

The challenges faced by these children are vast and include trauma, physical injuries, inadequate health support, disrupted education, and heightened risks of child marriage, child labor, and recruitment by armed groups. Boys, in particular, face a higher risk of becoming separated, unaccompanied, or being recruited into armed groups.

The earthquake disasters in northwest Syria have significantly compounded the hardship faced by children, affecting various aspects of their well-being and development. They are in urgent need of emotional support and mental health services. However, mental health support remains inaccessible for most, and there is a lack of funding dedicated to childrens well-being.

The loss of civil documentation during the conflict and earthquakes poses a significant barrier to these childrens ability to exercise their rights and access services. Without proper documentation, they face challenges in obtaining protection against trafficking and other threats and may face arbitrary arrest and detention in the long run.

The humanitarian situation in the quake-hit region is complicated by limited funding for child protection and the absence of formal child-protection mechanisms. Millions of children remain vulnerable and are at risk of an uncertain fate unless efforts to protect them are intensified.

NGOs and charities operating in the region are calling for increased support and resources to address the dire situation faced by the children affected by the earthquakes and conflict in northwest Syria.
BAND-MAID has just released their latest digital single, Shambles, just in time for the second half of their North American 10th Anniversary tour.

The girls toured the eastern half of America earlier this year, and now it's time for the western half. As of press date, they're actually already at Lollapalooza in Chicago. This two-date set gives way to Minneapolis, and then further west to Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Spokane, and finally, my neck of the woods, California.

This time the capital gets some love with a show in Sacramento, and then they head down south to Los Angeles. That ends the US portion of the trip. They've got one more show in Mexico City and that's that. BAND-MAID then returns to Japan at the beginning of September.

Thankfully, tickets did not sell out instantly for the California shows. Last time around, I had absolutely zero chance of buying a ticket at face value for the San Francisco show. I was out in the field with zero cell signal. By the time I returned to civilization, tickets were long sold out. It was the first US tour since 2019, and the first time in San Francisco in god knows how long. Maybe since 2017's J-Pop Summit? Between last year's tour and now, Japanese bands are making up for lost time. We've seen a lot of names grace the US in the last eight months alone and we're not done yet.

Anyway, back to the single.

The single starts out with some very aggressive guitarwork from Kanami before the rest of the band joins in. There's not much else to say; let the music your ears and Saiki's voice fill your thoughts.

I appreciate how Misa's bass comes through prominently in the mix. All too often the bass gets lost in the mix.

I also appreciate how the band acknowledges their foreign fanbase and includes subtitles right off the bat. Many bands fail to appreciate their fans overseas and fail to capitalize on opportunities to blow up big. Shows outside of Japan are seen as something of an afterthought, and there are a very limited number of acts that have been able to come back tour after tour to America and elsewhere. I'm proud to say that BAND-MAID is one of them.

On a base level, Shambles can be interpreted as sticking to your guns and never giving up. "Follow the path of Shura," the Buddhist demigod of war. Those who walk that path are determined and unyielding and will continue onward no matter what troubles they face. "No thoughts of 'can' and 'can't,' No giving up just 'because'.."

The titular "shambles" are the ashes in the wake of your journey. "You were here, leave your mark."

This is the kind of song all of us needs at some point in our lives. For most of us, nothing comes easy and every step is a battle.

For those of you who are familiar with the manga and anime Kengan Ashura, the above should make sense, and Shambles is the ending theme for the second season. I'm not sure if Shambles will make its way onto any of the setlists but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

All in all, the song is a solid piece of hard rock and can stand alone even without its anime tie-in.

Check out the single here:

Tour dates as follows:

8/3/23 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza Aftershows

8/4/23 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

8/6/23 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater

8/8/23 Denver, CO - Summit

8/9/23 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot

8/11/23 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom

8/12/23 Spokane, WA - Bing Crosby Theater

8/14/23 Sacramento, CA - Ace of Spades

8/15/23 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues Anaheim

8/18/23 Mexico City (MX) - PABELLON OESTE
The city of Longview will be conducting a water main flushing Friday south of Tennant Way and east of Oregon Way.

A city press release asks residents in the area to avoid using water during the flushing because the process can stir up sediments in home plumbing systems. After the flushing, residents are recommended to briefly run water in a bathtub or outside hose before drinking it or washing clothes.
MG Motor India announced its collaboration with Prestige Group, Indias leading real estate developers, to set up 100 EV chargers across all prominent properties of Prestige Group in Bangalore. The association reinforces MGs commitment towards setting up a robust charging ecosystem under the MG Charge initiative.

MG Motor India aims to boost sustainable mobility by introducing MG Comet EV and MG ZSEV to Prestige Group. This collaboration emphasizes their joint dedication to sustainable development and enhancing the EV charging infrastructure in the nation. Prestige Groups management and employees will utilize these cars for their daily commute, enjoying a convenient and eco-friendly transportation option while experiencing the advantages of electric mobility.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Gaurav Gupta, Deputy Managing Director, MG Motor India, stated,  At MG, we firmly believe that installing EV chargers is about leading the charge towards sustainability and innovation. As responsible corporate citizens, we have a duty to pave the way for a cleaner and greener tomorrow, making electric mobility accessible and convenient for all. Together, with Prestige Group, we are committed to driving positive change and enriching lives through cleaner and greener transportation options.

Elaborating on the collaboration, Mr Javed Shafiq Rao, CEO, Property Management, Prestige Group said, The strategic partnership between Prestige Group and MG Motor India will pave the way for a sustainable and eco-friendly future for Bangalore. We recognize our responsibilities towards our communities and the environment as leading companies. This collaboration will further make a significant advancement in our commitment to making electric mobility accessible and convenient for everybody. With this partnership, Prestige Group aims to strengthen Bangalores community EV charging infrastructure, allowing people to embrace electric vehicles with confidence. We are convinced that sustainable transportation is more than a choice; it is a communal obligation to protect our world for future generations. We aspire to ignite transformative change that is in sync with the citys values via creativity, passion, and a profound sense of responsibility.

Under the MG Charge initiative, MG Motor India plans to install 1,000 EV SMART chargers across India to support the countrys EV charging infrastructure and accelerate the adoption of electric mobility nationwide. MGs new SMART chargers will be Type 2 chargers that will support most of the leading current and future EVs. This initiative will pave the way for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

MG Motor India and Prestige Group is determined to set a precedent in Indias automotive industry with this transformative initiative, a significant step towards a green and clean future.
Three people were killed after two firefighting helicopters collided after responding to a fire in Cabazon, California Sunday night (August 6).

In a news conference the next day (August 7), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said the collision happened after the helicopters responded to a structure fire near the intersection of Broadway Street and South Ronda Avenue in Riverside County.

Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher identified the victims as one Cal Fire Division Chief, one Cal Fire captain, and one contract client pilot but fell short of revealing their names.

According to CBS's Los Angeles bureau, the collision happened over Native American land.

Read Also: Violence in Healthcare: Attacks at US Medical Centers on the Rise

Additional Fireball

Fulcher added the fire spread into the vegetation surrounding the fire scene, prompting them to deploy their firefighting aircraft.

The first helicopter, a Sikorsky Skycrane, which could carry a water tank to fight fires from the air, had safely landed near Pipeline Road and Apache Trail when the second one, a Bell helicopter used as an observation aircraft, and where all the deceased were aboard, collided before hitting the ground and producing a massive fireball about 1.6-hectares wide.

The fire from the crash was extinguished soon after.

"Although this was a tragic event, we are also thankful today that it wasn't worse," Fulcher said. "The individuals in the first helicopter were able to land safely without incident and no one else was hurt."

The incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

This is a developing story. Please follow HNGN for more updates.

Related Article: Sherwin-Williams Paint Plant Ablaze After Huge Fireball in Garland, Texas

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning (2023). https://proceedings.mlr.press/v202/davies23b.html

In the rapidly evolving landscape of business and technology, optimizing computational efficiency is key to breaking new ground. At the International Conference for Machine Learning held July 2329 in Honolulu, researchers presented a paper exploring whether an algorithm called Ford-Fulkersonwhich computes the maximum flow in a networkcan work faster by using machine learning.

Large-scale software often requires several machines and hundreds of hours of computing power to solve industry problems. By combining machine learning with problem-solving techniques, computers can analyze and process data faster. Another bonus: companies can save energy because computers are working more efficiently and using less power.

"We often observe some phenomenon in practice related to the performance of an algorithm, and we don't totally understand why it's happening. One example is the usefulness of warm starts," said Sami Davies, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher at Northwestern University. "If we can figure out why something is happening, then we can harness it and use it to our advantage."

What is a "warm-start?" Imagine someone playing a video game for the first time; the player is unfamiliar with that game and the obstacles they are about to face. A gamer will use knowledge from similar games they have played in the past as they approach the new game. That advantage is like a "warm-start."

Benjamin Moseley, Ph.D., Associate Professor from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business and a co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning, notes that businesses have used warm-start algorithm design since the 1970s.

"We wanted to explore if machine learning can be coupled with traditional techniques to unlock performance improvements," said Moseley. "In particular, we asked: Can predicted solutions be used as a starting point that results in software running faster?"

For this study, they evaluated image segmentation, a core problem when computers analyze an image to separate an object from the background. Image segmentation, for example, is used in self-driving cars to detect and recognize pedestrians and in medical imaging to identify tumors.

By using photographs of common things like people, animals, and objects, they tested their theory and found that image segmentation using warm-start resulted in faster image segmentation than cold-start.

"This paper offers a solution that can take advantage of good predictions and is robust to predictive errors," said Moseley. "By building on the technology businesses have been using for decades, our findings show that this approach can improve computing speed while not sacrificing the accuracy or reliability of the algorithm's predictions."

Moseley points out that there are still some challenges to overcome, like figuring out what to do when the predictions are wrong. They also want to explore if other algorithms can benefit from similar techniques.

This research has given an example of a well-established approach that can be dramatically improved using the warm-start approach. The next step is to identify other cases where warm-start could improve performance. The team is exploring local search algorithms, which are a common approach used in artificial intelligence and machine learning applications.

More information: Sami Davies et al, Predictive Flows for Faster Ford-Fulkerson, Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Machine Learning (2023). proceedings.mlr.press/v202/davies23b.html
Tracy Hanson teared up at her dining table last May. The Killeen child care operator had gotten word from Austin that Texas legislators would not fund her child care center or any other center in the state.

Cody, Im not going to make it, Hanson said to her friend who was on the other end of the line.

She kept her phone on speaker but an unease had settled in for the night. For 28 years, Hanson had managed to keep her center, Education Connection Preschool and Child Care Solutions, afloat. She had made calculated moves to downsize, first after the 2008 recession and then again in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But she was running out of moves.

She could only raise tuition so much in Killeen, home to Fort Cavazos, one of the largest military bases in the nation. The most she could offer her employees was a $10 to $12 an hour starting salary  not enough to be considered a living wage and not enough to compete with higher paying jobs at food chains across town. She was hemorrhaging employees.

We get them hired, we orient them, we train them, and then Burger King calls and says, Hey, we have an opening and we're gonna pay you $15 an hour. Hanson said. How? How is it that a fast food place can pay more than a child care center?

Running a child care business was hard before the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the industry beginning in 2020. Since then, some child care providers have never reopened. Those operators whose businesses did survive credited federal pandemic relief funds, which will end this year. Hanson says her child care center got its last federal paycheck in June.

This year, the Texas Legislature passed on a chance to step in and fund child care providers now staring at this looming economic cliff. A $2.3 billion House proposal for child care was left out of the final budget. Texas child care providers say they were counting on help from the state. They had hoped to use state money to help raise the average wage of staff and educators from $12 per hour to at least $15 per hour.

When you're a high quality center, you need to pay for high quality staff. And when there's no funds to help with payroll. Even if they just helped with payroll, Hanson said, before trailing off. No one listened.

Without substantial funds going to child care providers and their employees, Texas could see a wave of mass closures in the coming months, forcing working families to scramble for child care alternatives.

Since 2020, Texas child care providers have received more than $4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. That money helped cover child care costs for an estimated 836,000 Texas children, according to the federal Administration for Children and Families.

Federal relief dries up

In Wichita Falls, Keri Goins was once again playing a game of musical chairs with the enrollment charts for her child care center, Child Care Partners. She was trying to make space for a working mom who had shown up with her infant in hand and her two older kids trailing behind.

Please, the mom had implored. If Goins couldnt find her a spot, her two older kids would have to take turns missing school to stay home to take care of her infant.

Goins knows keeping her business open means parents can keep their jobs. But COVID-19 devastated child care providers, forcing some businesses to permanently close. Goins says the numbers on the invoices are a lot higher than before the pandemic  feeding the kids has gotten more expensive; fuel surcharges are tacked on to every purchase; even the cost of paper has doubled.

In Goins case, she used the federal relief funds to increase pay for staff by $2 an hour. Most of her staff are on food stamps or get groceries from the local food bank, she said.

The only reason why we were able to pay (staff) during covid was because of the child care relief grant, Goins said. As soon as that drops off, things are going to get really hard.

For the Wichita Falls child care center, the last of the federal funds came in June. Goins says the money will be gone by October. Shell have to find another way to find the funds to pay her employees.

With the federal pandemic relief money set to expire, state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston had hoped the state could step in and buoy child care providers. He tucked a $2.29 billion request to fund child care in the 2024-25 budget.

Walle admitted it was an ambitious ask but one that felt justifiable given the need and the record budget surplus of $32.7 billion.

We had a $30 billion surplus so we thought that that was something we could pull off, Walle said. We weren't trying to reinvent any wheel. There was already an existing funding source at the federal level that was helping. We just wanted to maintain that assistance.

The proposal ended up being relegated to the wish list section of the budget, which meant it was a point of negotiation between the House and Senate. But it did not make it into the final budget.

The record budget surplus ended up going towards different state priorities, including $12.3 billion in new money to property tax cuts.

Lawmakers did add $35 million in child care money to the next budget cycle at the request of the state workforce commission  a required state match before Texas can access an additional $52 million in federal money. That money will not support the child care workforce directly but will instead serve as financial aid for families to afford child care. Families qualify for a subsidy if their income is below 85% of the states median income.

Texas historically hasnt invested in child care, according to Cody Summerville, the executive director of Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. Instead, the state has allocated the minimum amount of money to child care required to draw down more federal dollars.

You really have to think about child care as the bedrock of economic recovery, Summerville said. The Legislature hasn't been able to connect those dots. Theres been some great champions in the Legislature who do understand it but, as a whole, the body is not there yet.

Mass closures coming

Of the over 1,500 child care programs surveyed by the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children, 44% suggested a likelihood they will close their programs within the next year.

Back in Killeen, Hanson had to increase tuition by $20 a week after federal relief dried up. Its the only way her program can survive  for now, she said. Shell still have to close doors if she cant get staff up and enrollment within the next six months.

I have fought the good fight and have done the best that I can to get help for child care centers to be able to continue to offer quality care for less. It has fallen on deaf ears at the Capitol, Hanson said in a letter last week to her families about pricing changes.

Hanson was among the providers who testified in front of the Texas Senate finance committee when lawmakers were in session. Even standing in front of the podium, she said she didnt feel heard.

Child care is at the bottom of everybodys list. And even testifying, you felt that in the room, Hanson said. There werent a lot of questions asked of you. There weren't a lot of comments made.

Already, two families have told Hanson they need to leave the center because of the new costs. Her center specializes in kids with unique learning disabilities and learning needs, so Hanson worries about what it will mean when they no longer get that specialized support.

Just moving furniture in a classroom. I was just talking to one of my therapists that works with one of them and he [the student] is melting down because the Legos are not in the same spot, Hanson said. And hes one thats fixing to have to go to public school because they cannot afford to keep him here.
S Korean architect firm to supervise terminal construction at Long Thanh airport

By Tuong Minh Mon, August 7, 2023 | 8:47 pm GTM+7

South Korea's Heerim Architects & Planners has signed a construction-phase supervision and advisory contract for the passenger terminal being built at the Long Thanh International Airport in southern Vietnam.

A Monday report of the Korea Economic Daily said the Seoul-headquartered architecture firm will be responsible for design inspection and supervision during the construction phase. It made no mention of the contracts value, but said its significance lay in Heerim's contribution to the airports design.

An artists impression of the Long Thanh International Airport passenger terminal. Photo courtesy of Heerim.

In 2018, Heerim was awarded the conceptual design contract for the Long Thanh Airport passenger terminal and it performed the basic design work a year.

The firm also secured in 2021 the contract for detailed design and completed it, the paper said, adding that Heerim was paid 28 billion won ($21.4 million) for the work.

Located in Dong Nai province, about 40 km east of Ho Chi Minh City, the Long Thanh International Airport is a mega project that is expected to ease the burden on the citys heavily overloaded Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The VND336.63 trillion ($14.12 billion) project is divided into three phases. The first phase, worth VND110 trillion ($4.64 billion), will consist of a runway, terminal and auxiliary facilities that can serve 25 million passengers per year.

The project kicked off in 2021 and is expected to complete the first phase by 2025. The passenger terminal is the first phases largest investment package with a value of VND35.23 trillion ($1.49 billion). It is expected to be completed in 33 months.

In the second phase set for completion by 2035, another runway and terminal will be added, doubling the passenger capacity to 50 million. Other infrastructure that will be built by 2050 in the third phase will further double the airport's capacity to 100 million passengers.
Shinhan Bank Vietnam receives ISO 27001:2013 certification from British Standards Institution

By Trang Nguyen Mon, August 7, 2023 | 1:00 pm GTM+7

Shinhan Bank Vietnam on Monday received ISO 27001:2013 certification from the British Standards Institution (BSI) for meeting international requirements for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS).

The certification is applied to the ISMS in order to operate and maintain the bank's information technology system.

Hwang Cheol Oh, deputy general director, and Information Security Management Systems team of Shinhan Bank Vietnam receives ISO 27001:2013 certification. Photo courtesy of the bank.

ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is one of the world's leading information security management system standards, outlining ISMS requirements, assisting with control implementation, and directing activities to ensure information security, risk assessment, and appropriate controls for the business. Therefore, production and commercial losses tend to be minimized as a result of crucial information and data loss.

Compliance with standards such as ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 is the bank's priorities and pledges in order for Shinhan Bank's activities to match international standards and effectively satisfy the increasingly stringent requirements of customers in terms of safety and security.

Throughout the implementation process, the ISO project implementation team received great support and commitment from the bank's board of directors to achieve the certification. This certification has helped to validate Shinhan Bank's efforts to ensure information security, as well as to build trust among customers and partners in the highest security of personal information and data. Furthermore, the certificate enhances the awareness of all Shinhan Bank employees about information security in the context of the financial industry's strong digitalization.

Since our first inception in the Vietnamese market in 1993, Shinhan Bank has invested in deploying IT infrastructure such as network equipment system, security equipment, operation of main and backup data centers, and formulating a system of policies, regulations, and procedures on information system security.

The bank will continue to maintain the ISO 27001 standard and upgrade to the latest version - ISO/IEC 27001:2022 about Information security, Network security, and Privacy protection - in the following plan, which will run from now until 2025.

Shinhan Bank is additionally striving to promote whole-line digital transformation in order to provide customers with "More Friendly, More Secure, More Creative financial experiences and to become a "Leading digital bank in Vietnam in 2030. Therefore, information security will always be a crucial aspect in developing digital efforts to enable a successful and secure digital transformation, especially in the context of increasing security threats to information.
Chinese vice premier calls for minimizing casualties, property losses as floods wreak havoc

Xinhua) 09:29, August 07, 2023

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, directs flood control work in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

HARBIN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing called for efforts to minimize casualties and property losses during his inspection in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province as rainstorms and floods wreaked havoc in the country over the past week.

Zhang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, directed flood control work on front lines on Saturday and Sunday, checking on the relocation of local residents and inspecting water levels.

More professional forces should be deployed to search and rescue the missing and trapped people, Zhang said, stressing that no effort should be spared.

Zhang said local authorities should strive to bring down water levels in reservoirs, reinforce dikes, and swiftly evacuate residents in affected areas. Communication, transportation, power and water facilities should be restored fast to ensure people's lives can return to normalcy at an early date.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Zoom decided to embrace a hybrid work model. The video conferencing firm is now asking some employees to return to the office.

Zoom Tells Staff to Return to Office

Zoom, the video platform that redefined remote work during the pandemic, has made a surprising announcement. As per Mashable, the video conferencing giant is asking its workforce to dust off their office chairs and return to the physical workspace.

It is not the first time Zoom asked its workforce to return to the office since the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to work at home. Since then, the video conferencing service took the world by storm as employees around the world relied on it for communication.

Zoom is now appealing to its employees to start embracing a hybrid schedule. The tech firm is asking some workers to go to the office for at least two days a week. The remaining days could still be under the work-from-home setup.

The hybrid setup is requiring some employees, particularly those who are near Zoom's offices to show up in person twice a week. In other words, workers living within 50 miles or 80 kilometers would have to start returning to the office.

The New York Post notes that Zoom has two offices around the United States. One sits in Denver, Colorado, while the other is located in San Jose California.

Read Also: Work Burnout: Here's How to Deal With It + America's Most Overworked Cities

Why Zoom Wants Employees to Return to Office

According to Fortune's report, Zoom believes a "hybrid" working setup works better for the tech firm.

A Zoom spokesperson explains that "a structured hybrid approach - meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams - is most effective for Zoom."

Last year, or in 2022, Zoom already hinted at a shift in work arrangements. The tech firm says most employees have to follow a hybrid setup. However, some staff, around two percent, will be working full-time. Zoom's chief financial officer Kelly Steckelberg argued that most employees still want a choice, giving them the option to continue working at home.

While remote work comes with several advantages, such as avoiding long commutes and increased flexibility, companies believe in-person interactions are crucial. Other tech giants have also encouraged their workers to return to the office, noting that in-person work offers benefits that remote workers are missing out on. The Facebook parent and Google stress that working in an office cultivates ideation and builds trust.

Thanks to the explosion of remote work across the globe, Zoom's shares ballooned in 2020. However, the sudden plummet of the video conferencing service did not last long. By the end of 2021, its stock price rapidly slumped, slashing around $100 billion worth of market value.

Related Article: Zoom Calls on Sony Bravia TVs Are on Their Way: Here's How It Works!

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Singapores TNB Aura says expected third fund will focus on Vietnam

By Truong Van Mon, August 7, 2023 | 3:05 pm GTM+7

Singapore-based venture capital firm TNB Aura (TNBA) says it is in talks to raise capital for its third fund, to be focused on Vietnam as a core market.

TNB Aura is looking to double down on investments in Vietnam in the next few years, the venture capital firm wrote in a statement on its website seen on Monday. The announcement is the text from an earlier interview TNB Auras founding partner Vicknesh Pillay gave to Japans news platform Deal Street Asia.

Through applying some of the research and learning from our investments in Indonesia and other more mature markets, we foresee TNBA making a lot more investments in Vietnam, Pillay said.

TNBA expects to make another 5-7 investments into Vietnam over the next 18 months, he said.

In our view, many tech trends are yet to emerge from Vietnam which we foresee to be an exciting country for investments over the next few years.

Vicknesh Pillay (left) and Charles Wong, co-founders and managing partners, TNB Aura. Photo courtesy of the company.

The firm has made eight investments in total in Vietnam over the past three years. Typically, TNBA allocates 20-40% of its fund corpus towards Vietnam. The company did not disclose the targeted size of the third fund.

In a release on July 31, TNBA said Vuihoc, an edtech platform serving K-12 Vietnamese students, has secured a $6 million investment in a Series A funding round led by the Singaporean VC firm. Prior to that, it joined the $17.1-million Series A funding round in Vietnamese earned wage access startup GIMO. Earlier, the firm led a $6-million funding round for edtech startup Vuihoc.

In our view, many tech trends are yet to emerge from Vietnam which we foresee to be an exciting country for investments over the next few years, Pillay told Deal Street Asia.

With the current edtech landscape concentrated around English language and training players, we believe that the K-12 segment targeting subjects covered under the national curriculum presents a huge opportunity for growth.

Offline centers, though widespread, are fragmented and do not provide affordable access to students in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, therefore signaling a gap in the market of over 17 million students. In addition, we have also seen a growing willingness to pay from Vietnamese parents given that they spend an average of over 35% of their disposable income on education.

TNB Aura has established a Scout initiative to tap into early-stage opportunities in Vietnam. Last year, TNB Aura Vietnam Scout partnered with Hanoi-headquartered VC firm ThinkZone Ventures to launch the Global Minds Accelerator program to co-invest, mentor, and support Vietnamese tech startups.

TNBA is optimistic about Vietnams future growth, he said, adding that his firm has been running its Scout initiatives to identify high-quality founders and invest in business models that it is familiar with at earlier stages, allowing TNBA to get a foot in the door and lead the funding rounds of these opportunities at the right stage.

In terms of competition in the Vietnamese market, he said TNBA collaborates closely with local seed funds and industry experts for deal flow and focuses on where it can value add more significantly, which is in the Series A stage.

We assist portfolio companies with governance and practices such as the right due diligence, business plan formulation and milestone setting. In addition, through our research-based and outbound approach, TNBA connects with founders long before they raise funds, thereby facilitating the opportunity to lead subsequent rounds upon identifying these leading founders and companies early.
Hai An and other shipping companies have set cautious plans for this year after recording a sharp drop in Q1 profits and a big profit in 2022. Compared to a year ago, freight rates for some main routes have fallen considerably. What are your forecasts for rates in the last six months of the year? Will the ship charter market prosper?

The downtrend of the maritime industry started in August 2022, but in the first eight months of 2022, shipping firms still grew well, so last year they recorded a very high profit.

In fact, in the first quarter of this year, major container shipping lines reported losses, including ZIM - the 10th largest in the world, and Wan Hai Lines - one of Taiwan's leading container shipping lines. Most recently, ZIM has just forecast a loss for this year, although it expected a profit at the year beginning. This means that the downtrend of the global maritime industry continues and the domestic container shipping market is no exception.

Moreover, compared to the beginning of the year, freight rates have decreased by up to 70-80%. The maritime industry is a service sector, so it is affected by the economy. Meanwhile, Vietnam's economy is currently facing difficulties, with falling demand and shrinking exports to major markets such as the U.S. and Europe due to tight consumption and poor circulation of goods between regions so I think the domestic container shipping market in the last six months of the year will be unable to prosper.

The same goes for ship charter services, which are currently mainly influenced by the world market. The situation is less positive in China and the U.S., and even worse in Europe. Recently, the ship charter market has shown signs of growth only in India and the Middle East. However, this did not make up for the declines in the aforementioned major markets, causing difficulties for pushing up charter rates from now until the year-end.

However, although freight rates are going down, they are still higher than before the pandemic, so ship owners can still turn a profit. In the past two years, every company has reported a huge profit, an unprecedented level in history..., so when the charter rates drop, maybe some firms will record losses, and some others will see more humble profits.

For Hai An, charter prices for its fleet are slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels, so the company still targets a profit this year.

Hai An is expected to issue a maximum of VND500 billion ($21.06 million) of bonds to invest in building new ships. Do you think this is a risky move when a large-scale shipping capacity surplus may occur in the coming years?

For container shipping, as many new-built ships will be delivered in 2023, 2024 and 2025 (accounting for nearly 30% of the total tonnage of the global container fleet), a tonnage surplus is likely to be seen. Besides, countries have been expanding their emissions management areas and forcing ships to use diesel oil (DO) with a sulfur content of less than 0.1% when entering these areas. At the same time, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has applied speed management measures to reduce carbon emissions through the installation of speed limiters from January 1, 2023. The above factors will significantly increase the operating costs for the fleets.

It is not correct to say that there is absolutely no risk, but we always use the word "risk in calculation". That means the company has taken into account the worst case that can happen and how it will affect the firms production and business activities.

Firstly, the plan to build three new ships was made in October 2021. Each new ship needs about 12 months to complete. The company is expected to receive the first newly built ship in mid-November this year and the remaining two in January and March next year. Hai An is currently operating a total of 11 ships, of which three were built in 1999, 2000 and 2002 (over 20 years). Therefore, in the coming time, the company will liquidate these ships to ensure service quality and build new ships to replace the old ones.

Secondly, as the shipbuilding contracts were signed in 2021 at good prices. Two years ago, when the company ordered the first ships, after only about six months, if sold, they would make a profit of about $1-1.5 million per vessel. Currently, although the market is going down, the cost of new ships remains unchanged or has risen, so the company always considers selling and restructuring assets in case of business difficulties. In fact, for its old ships, the company has never suffered a loss. This is also an advantage of Hai An's fleet business.

At its annual general shareholder meetings, Hai An has always asked for shareholders opinions on the purchase of old ships, but in reality, this business always depends on the market situation. Currently, the shipping market is not favorable, so from now to the middle of next year, the company will only focus on completing these three new ships and has no plans to buy old ships.

In addition, now the company is focusing on serving the domestic container shipping market and the new shipbuilding plan will mainly help Hai An reach the intra-Asia market.

Now Hai An is operating routes to Hong Kong and southern China. This year or early next year it will launch a route to central China or coordinate with other partners to deploy another to South Korea. There is a high demand for shipping cargo between Vietnam and China and South Korea.

The company's stock price increase was in contrast to its Q1 business results. How do you explain this?

Firstly, from the perspective of the board of directors, we only know how to do the best we can as well as provide accurate and transparent information and reports about the company's activities, while the stock price is decided by market supply and demand.

Secondly, at the last annual general shareholder meeting, thanks to the good business results of 2022, the company also proposed to pay stock dividends at a rate of 50%. Maybe that is one of the reasons for the stock price hike.

Haian East ship. Photo courtesy of the company.

The lease contracts on many of Hai An's ships have expired and you've had to switch to chartering. What is the companys plan to improve this situation in the near future?

Starting the container ship business in 2014, Hai An sets its self-exploiting rate at 50% and outsourcing at 50%. In the 2021-2022 period, the company signed several contracts with good charter rates and long-term duration. If the company continues to implement the 50-50 plan, some ships will enjoy good charter rates until the third quarter of 2023.

Compared to the past, charter rates have decreased by 50% or even more.

This is completely consistent with the rule of market supply and demand. During the pandemic, the high demand for cargo shipping pushed up charter rates, and ship owners asked charterers to accept high-priced contracts with longer charter periods of at least two years. But now, the market demand has decreased while the supply remains the same and is even increasing, so the market is in the hands of clients who have the right to ask ship owners to lower their charter rates and shorten charter periods.

Currently, Hai An accounts for about 27-28% of the self-exploitation share in the domestic market. Moreover, it has leased out ships for five years and created good relationships with external partners. Some charter contracts have been renewed by partners, but the rates and periods are much lower. Most of Hai An's ships were invested from 2014 to 2018 and the difficult period due to the pandemic (2020 - 2021), so the average investment cost was quite low. Even though this is a difficult period for ship owners due to low charter rates, Hai An is still earning a profit.

Last March, Hai An officially launched and put into operation ZIM Hai An Joint Venture Company Limited (Lotus Link). How does this joint venture work and does the company have any plans to cooperate with other groups?

Forming a joint venture with ZIM, one of the 10 largest container shipping companies in the world, will definitely help the company's business to develop well in the future. For example, ZIM Hai An is currently chartering one ship from the company and will probably continue to hire our ships for its new routes. From this August, the joint venture will charter an additional vessel and extend the current service between Vietnam and Malaysia to India.

Lotus Link has only been operating for four months and is suffering a loss, which is still in the plan. The goal of this joint venture is to start making a profit after about 18 months.

Finding other partners is relatively difficult or almost impossible, because ZIM is one of the top 10 container carriers in the world, so Hai An and other partners (if any) must consider very carefully if they want to cooperate with others. In short, "fishing with two hands" is always something to be avoided in business. In the immediate future, the company will only focus on making the joint venture's operations efficient and profitable. Regarding the search for other partners, if any, we will give priority to partners in other fields such as warehousing, co-operating foreign routes or investing in the fleet, and completing the supply chain.

Reaching this deal with ZIM was a great effort by the companys leadership that took several years. Hai An has always pursued the "win-win" principle when cooperating with foreign partners, even if we have to accept a little more loss for long-term development. Besides, we must be honest and frank with partners. If we can't reach cooperation at this time, please maintain the relationship to do it at a later date when the market is more favorable.

Although Vietnam boasts great potential for international shipping fleet development, its import and export goods are mainly handled by foreign fleets, accounting for more than 90%, especially on long sea routes to the U.S. and Europe. As the leader of a major shipping line in Vietnam, what suggestions do you have to improve the competitiveness of the Vietnamese fleet to meet global shipping development trends?

In terms of trade, if Vietnam keeps the old tradition of "buying CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight), selling FOB (Free On Board)", the right to ship goods will belong to outsiders.

For example, if we win such a shipping contract, the cargo owner must have additional responsibilities such as ensuring the safety of cargo during shipping, additional shipping costs and insurance, as well as a variety of other risks, so this is really a difficult question.

Shipping lines will always look to reach out to the world, but also face many difficulties. One of the most important factors is human resources. To do it, they must have good staff. Compared to 20 years ago, life is much better so very few people accept the life of a crew member due to the harsh working environment and being away from home for six months to one year.

Moreover, in the international market, shipping firms have to face competitors with much greater experience and financial potential. In addition, it is necessary to have employees who are fluent in English or the native language. Competing with companies providing services in the host country is also an obstable, not to mention office and staff costs.

Regarding the capacity of Vietnam's fleet, for container ships, Vietnamese enterprises account for an extremely small market share. According to the latest statistics of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the country currently has more than 3,000 vessels, of which new container ships number about 40-41, or over 1%.

Therefore, developing a container fleet needs orientations. In the immediate future when we cannot operate long routes, we should focus on shorter ones such as those to Hong Kong, China, Southeast Asia and then intra-Asia.
ST. GEORGE, S.C. (AP)  In a small South Carolina town, a community is getting ready to show off a little-remembered part of the history of the segregated South. The restoration of the Rosenwald school in St. George is nearly complete. Part of the money to build the school for Black students in 1925 came from Jewish businessman Julius Rosenwald, once president of Sears Roebuck. Rosenwald partnered with Black communities to build 5,000 schools in 15 states across the South that spent little money on African American students during Jim Crow. Only about 500 are standing and roughly half of them have been restored. There also is a movement to create a national park to honor Rosenwald.
(TBTCO) - Sang ngay 18/8, tren mang xa hoi va mot so hoi nhom ve bat ong san, chung khoan a ang tai hinh anh cong an lam viec tai van phong Cong ty BCG Land (Helios tai so 25 Xuan Thuy, P. Thao ien, TP. Thu uc, TP. Ho Chi Minh). Qua o, nhieu tin on that thiet lan truyen vi hinh anh tren, Tap oan Bamboo Capital voi tu cach cong ty me cua BCG Land va co lien quan trong cac tin on a nhanh chong inh chinh su viec, khang inh moi hoat ong cua doanh nghiep van dien ra binh thuong.
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After more than a year of failed attempts by state lawmakers to develop solutions to Wyomings languishing affordable housing supply, one approach has garnered some forward momentum: reforming zoning laws.

Zoning laws regulate land use, and are meant to make sure communities are organized responsibly. Theyre the regulations that distinguish residential, commercial and agricultural land, set minimum lot sizes and create public parks.

But communities nationwide are rolling back portions of their zoning laws amid concerns that some policies once embraced as staples  housing density maximums, for example  pose serious obstacles to housing affordability.

A working group under the Wyoming Legislatures brand-new Regulatory Reduction Task Force is expected to next month discuss a slew of proposals intended to do just that, including:

softening density maximums;

making it easier for property owners to have accessory dwelling units;

authorizing multi-family housing to be built in certain commercial zones; and

setting state-level caps on zoning regulations.

Some of the initiatives were considered by the Montana State Legislature earlier this year, task force members noted during a Monday meeting.

Unlike legislative committees, Wyomings Regulatory Reduction Task Force cant sponsor bills; its job is to by Oct. 1 issue recommendations to Gov. Mark Gordon and the Legislature on what the state can do to address issues related to overregulation. In addition to housing, task force members are also currently reviewing energy and agriculture regulations.

In the task forces first meeting in June, Eric Protzer, a senior research fellow for the Harvard Growth Lab presented findings to the task force that indicated that amending zoning regulations was central to addressing Wyomings affordable housing issues.

In addition to relaxing housing density maximums, Protzer advised lawmakers to ban so-called protest petitions  a process that allows landowners and neighbors to fight proposed rezonings  and to restore municipal extraterritorial jurisdiction, which essentially allows cities to exercise authority over land contiguous to their official boundaries.

From 2010 to 2021, Wyoming experienced lower growth in both median gross monthly rent and median home values compared to neighboring states, Hank Hoversland, an analyst for the Legislative Service Office, told lawmakers during the Monday working group meeting.

That doesnt mean Wyoming isnt feeling a crunch, though. Officials noted practically every community in the state is suffering from soaring housing prices and dwindling supply, which is not only contributing to housing instability but hampering economic growth  if Wyoming cities and towns dont have homes affordable for the average worker, businesses cant attract employees, after all.

Instead of making broad changes to zoning laws on the state level, several lawmakers, officials and advocates who spoke Monday questioned whether it might be more effective for the Legislature to create programs incentivizing communities to implement the reforms of their own accord.

The regulation reduction, for me, is more on a local level, and the state could be a good voice to encourage communities to do that, Dan Dorsch, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County, said during the meeting.

There was also discussion about developing ways to streamline the processes for acquiring building licenses and permits.

Pulling a permit for something even as simple as a barn, because of the complexity and the layers of regulation in this community, it requires hiring a professional or multiple professionals, Mark Barron, who serves on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners, said.

Some who offered testimony on Monday said construction-related regulations in particular had become a huge hurdle in recruiting builders and developers to build homes.

David Fraser, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Municipalities, said that contractors often have to be re-certified when they want to work in a new community.

We started a conversation within WAM of reciprocating those contractor licenses, Fraser said, using an acronym for the Wyoming Association of Municipalities.

The task force indicated it would soon create a website to gather more public input on housing regulation reforms.

Housing solutions is a relatively new topic for the Legislature. A committee of lawmakers worked on workforce housing policy during the 2022 interim legislative session, though it didnt end up sponsoring any housing-related bills in Cheyenne in 2023.

If Mondays working group meeting was any indication, there could still be some interest in revisiting those proposals alongside regulatory reforms.

Dorsch and Brenda Birkle, executive director of My Front Door, nudged lawmakers to revive several housing proposals considered last year, including a bill that would establishing a state housing trust fund program and a bill to enable communities to form land banks.

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.
A Casper man accused of murdering his father in their home is withdrawing his "reason of mental insanity" defense, as his trial began Monday.

Vincent Hayes pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder by reason of mental illness earlier this year, but the defense indicated it intends to withdraw the latter portion of his plea, court filings show.

Hayes appeared in front of Judge Catherine Wilking in Natrona County District Court Monday morning. He continuously scanned over the courtroom while over four dozen people took part in the jury selection process.

Despite Hayes' change of plea, the defense "still intends to call the state hospital doctor in its case," court filings state. But the prosecution is moving to limit or remove discussion of mental health from the trial.

"...Wyoming does not recognize the defense of diminished capacity, as it relates to general intent crimes such as the crime currently charged," court filings state.

Hayes is facing 20 years to life in prison if convicted. He is being represented by public defender Kurt Infanger.

On Nov. 12, 2021, a shooting was reported at a home on the 4700 block of East 12th Street, the affidavit in his case states. When officers arrived, they found a man dead inside.

Hayes is suspected of shooting his father, William Johnson, after they got into a heated argument, the affidavit states.

Johnson and Hayes were allegedly arguing over Johnson's opinions about people with "non-traditional" lifestyles and people of color, the affidavit states. His father allegedly made derogatory remarks about Hayes' girlfriend.

Both men retrieved handguns and started waving them at each other in the living room. Hayes then allegedly shot Johnson "several times" while he was sitting in a recliner.

In an interview with investigators, Hayes allegedly stated he was not aware of the shooting until early the next morning, when he woke up and went upstairs to find Johnson lying on the floor with a plastic bag over his head and a missing shoe, the affidavit states.

He allegedly told police that an alternate personality, "Reno" was in control at the time of the shooting, and "Reno" was allegedly acting in self-defense, the affidavit in his case states.

It is unclear how this will play into the trial now that the defense intends to drop the mental health defense, which has been a prominent angle of the case throughout all previous proceedings.

Hayes reportedly told police his father was abusive towards him and his mother, and the abuse had been "constant" in his childhood, the interview citied in his court filing states.

He is suspected of hiding the gun downstairs and covering his father's head so his mother wouldn't see him, the affidavit states. He allegedly began to clean up the scene and move the body, but his mother stopped him and called police.

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.
China is now dealing with growing international backlash after one of its coast guard vessels used a water cannon against a Philippine boat in the South China Sea on Saturday.

Analysts say the incident escalates an already tense situation and could lead the United States and its allies to accelerate plans for joint patrols in the waterway, according to CNN.

On Second Thomas Shoal, a South China Sea feature in Manila's exclusive economic zone that China calls Renai Reef and also claims as its sovereign territory, a much smaller Philippine boat was being sprayed by a large Chinese Coast Guard ship as it attempted to deliver supplies to a garrison of Philippine marines.

The Chinese ship was also visible in images from the Philippine Coast Guard, which was escorting the resupply boats, getting perilously close to them.

Washington Reacts

By Sunday, Washington, Manila's principal friend, had denounced China's actions and reaffirmed that it would uphold its end of the mutual defense pact with the Philippines.

(Photo: by TED ALJIBE/AFP via Getty Images) US coast guard ship Stratton takes part in a maritime exercise with Japan and the Philippines in the South China Sea off Mariveles, Bataan province on June 6, 2023.

Allies of the US formed a unified front with Manila and Washington. Australian, Japanese, and German officials referred to China's moves as "dangerous" and "destabilizing."

The Chinese ambassador in Manila, according to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was presented with a diplomatic note of complaint "along with images and videos on what had happened" on Monday.

While this was going on, the Philippine Foreign Ministry and Armed Forces held a joint press conference to denounce China's use of water cannons, which they called a "dangerous and illegal practice" that put "the lives of the Filipino crew at risk in violation of humanitarian and international law."

Read also: South China Sea Tension: Philippine Coast Guard Exposes China's Aggression in Disputed Waters

Tensions Between the Philippines and China

The tension between Manila and Beijing has always been centered on the South China Sea. Beijing asserts "indisputable sovereignty" over the majority of the islands in the 1.3 million square miles South China Sea, even those hundreds of miles from the Chinese mainland.

This includes the Spratlys, also known as the Nanshas in Beijing, a group of 100 tiny islands and reefs that are also fully or partially claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

However, Manila refers to the region as the West Philippine Sea. It purposefully grounded the BRP Sierra Madre, a navy transport ship manned by Filipino troops, on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to bolster its territorial claims.

The International Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, which determined in 2016 that China lacks a legal foundation to assert historic rights to the majority of the South China Sea, supports Manila's claims. Beijing has disregarded the decision.

Analysts and lawmakers in the Philippines described the incident on Saturday as an improvement over a number of Chinese-Philippine conflicts this year, which included a Chinese ship firing a laser at a Philippine vessel in February and a succession of what analyst Collin Koh called "near collisions."

Related article: US, Philippines Conduct Largest Joint Military Drills in South China Sea Despite Intensifying Tensions

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As record high temperatures are recorded around the nation and world, Yellowstone National Parks fisheries division is proposing to protect its native cutthroat trout by securing a high mountain stream as a coldwater refuge.

Buffalo Creek is fed by streams cascading from the peaks of Montanas Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, and therein lies the rub for a portion of the project. To secure a place for Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the stream, the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Custer Gallatin National Forest and Yellowstone Park are proposing to use a helicopter to fly in equipment, prompting opposition from the conservation group Wilderness Watch when the proposal was announced in 2021.

The Forest Service has not issued a final decision just yet on the project, said Mike Thom, Gardiner District ranger, in an email.

He said the agency is hoping to have a decision issued within the next couple of weeks.

Wilderness Watch, and any others, will have the option of litigation following the decision signature, Thom added.

Yellowstone National Park only recently released an environmental assessment regarding its portion of the proposed work on Buffalo Creek where it runs through the park. The concept was, however, outlined in the parks 2010 Native Fish Conservation Plan.

The public has until Aug. 9 to comment on Yellowstones proposal. The document, as well as a place to comment, can be found online at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=111&projectID=107438&documentID=130776.

Flights

Yellowstones EA is proposing the use of a helicopter 10 times a year over three years to fly in equipment to remove rainbow trout. The park is also proposing another 10 flights  two per year for up to five years  to restock fish in Buffalo Creek.

Under the 1964 Wilderness Act, federal agencies are responsible for preserving the wilderness character of designated wildlands. The use of motor vehicles and motorized equipment  except in emergencies  is forbidden.

To help mitigate the action, the park is proposing the helicopter fly from a staging area near the Slough Creek Campground up the creek to the Silver Tip Ranch, outside of the wilderness area, before motoring over the mountains to the Buffalo Creek drainage. The helicopter would fly at least 500 feet off the ground to reduce disturbance of wildlife. The helicopter landing zone would be inside the park, just south of its northern border.

Rotenone

Under the Forest Service and FWP plan, rotenone would be applied to about 33 miles of the creek and in two lakes over about 12 to 14 days each summer for up to three years. Rotenone has been widely used as a fish poison in other streams to remove nonnative fish. The poison is neutralized by applying potassium permanganate to the water.

Yellowstones fisheries chief, Todd Koel, has advocated for the project because the rainbow trout in Buffalo Creek can swim into Slough Creek and interbreed with cutthroat trout there. The park has been working successfully since 2010 to remove nonnative fish, such as rainbow trout, from its waters at other locations. The Buffalo Creek project is one of the largest and most complex because of the remote location and size of the stream.

Slough and Buffalo creeks are tributaries to the Lamar River, just upstream from where it joins the Yellowstone River near Tower Junction. Slough Creek and the Lamar River are highly valued by anglers who fish the streams extensively.

Yellowstone cutthroat trout are also recognized by the park as an important source of food for an estimated 16 species of birds and mammals, including bears, river otters and mink.

Warming

Without the removal of rainbow trout and restocking of cutthroats, the parks fishery division fears that as stream temperatures warm, the amount of suitable habitat for Yellowstone cutthroat trout may be considerably reduced, the EA noted.

In addition to the direct effects of changing thermal regimes, Yellowstone cutthroat trout are likely to become increasingly exposed to diseases in streams where temperatures warm dramatically, the EA said.

Written comments on the parks proposal can be mailed to: Yellowstone Center for ResourcesCompliance Branch, Attention: Buffalo Creek EA, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190.
GUARDIAN Holdings Ltd is not just sold as a rock, it is as solid as bedrock, its chief executive officer Ian Chinapoo has said, as he assured that the group, even in the face of recent concerns, remains both stable and reliable.

At the end of the day we know who we are, we know we are very, very, very strong, we know our investments are all over the world, we know that we are well diversified, we know that we have a business that has honoured every single claim, Chinapoo told the Express during a sit-down interview at his Westmoorings office.
Several Government and Opposition MPs listed their lands and properties on Form B of their declaration forms to the Integrity Commission, a search by the Sunday Express has found.

There has been controversy over Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys non-declaration of his Inez Gate, Tobago, townhouse on Form B of his declaration filed for 2019 to the Integrity Commission.
As was widely expected, the local government election (LGE) resulted in a repeat of the control of the 14 local government bodies being split 7-7 between the PNM and UNC. Crumbs of votes were sprinkled on the minor parties.

We have reconfirmed our propensity to condemn ourselves to continued political stagnation.
An Italian man, 74-year-old Giacomo Chiapparini, has been crushed to death after a shelf of cheese wheels weighing about 40kg each broke inside his own cheese factory in Italy's Lombardy region Sunday evening (August 6).

Chiapparini had been inspecting ripening grana padano cheese wheels, a kind of hard cheese similar to the more famous parmesan, stored on metal shelves as high as 10 meters tall when one of the shelves broke, according to The Guardian.

Read Also: UNESCO Urges To Add Venice to Heritage Danger List Over Overwhelming Tourism, Overdevelopment, Rising Sea Levels

A Cheesy Death

Firefighters responding at the scene inside the warehouse of his dairy factory in the small town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo told local media Monday (August 7) a shelf of cheese wheels broke, causing a domino effect that brought down thousands of wheels.

Chiapparini was buried under the weight of the cheese wheels that rescuers had to "move the cheeses and the shelves by hand," which took "12 hours" before finding Chiapparini, who died at the scene.

Local media also reported police are currently investigating the cause of the incident.

Chiapparini's company had been producing grana padano cheese since 2006.

Related Article: Penis in the Sky: Lufthansa Pilot 'Accidentally' Draws Phallic Flight Pattern After Being Diverted

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
One man was killed and a companion was injured early Sunday morning when they were struck as they crossed a busy street on Tucson's south side, police say.

The two men were jaywalking and in the westbound lanes of East Valencia Road near South Sixth Avenue about 5 a.m. when they were struck, Tucson police said in a news release. The men were crossing Valencia mid-block and outside of a crosswalk, police said.

One man was declared dead at the crash scene. The other man was taken to the hospital, the release said.

Neither man was identified by police.

Police are searching for a vehicle, or vehicles, that struck the men.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME, the anonymous tips line.
Tucson police are searching for the driver of an SUV involved in a deadly three-vehicle wreck early Friday morning on the south side, police say.

The driver of the SUV, a 2003 GMC Yukon, was running lights and speeding west on East Valencia Road about 4:15 a.m. just before it ran a red light at South County Club Road and smashed into a southbound 2003 Freightliner, Tucson police said in a news release.

The Yukon continued west and struck a traffic signal in the median before crashing into a a black 2012 Ford Fusion stopped in the turning bay, police said.

The SUV driver ran away before police arrived.

Two men and a woman who were passengers in the SUV had severe injuries.

Carlos Martinez, 34, died at the hospital.

The drivers of the Freightliner and Ford were evaluated at the crash scene.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME.
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

Two men accused through their company of wrongfully taking more than $2 million in casino management fees have won a court victory on the matter.

Pottawatomie County District Judge John Canavan ruled in favor of David J. Qualls and Tony D. Holden, who were defendants in a civil lawsuit brought by the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, according to court records.

Canavan, in a July 17 order, rejected various claims by the Peoria Tribe that were levied against the pair, whose jointly owned company Direct Enterprise Development LLC managed the tribes Buffalo Run Casino & Resort in Miami.

The judge determined that the case should be dismissed in favor of Holden and Qualls because the tribes gaming commission, which levied the fine against the pair, was not authorized by tribal ordinance or the commissions bylaws because neither identified any amount of potential fine or method of calculation as required by federal, state or tribal constitutions.

Based on the failure to specify the amount of potential fines or a method of calculation, the Peoria Tribe Gaming Commission lacked jurisdiction to issue any fine against either defendant and the unauthorized fines which plaintiff seeks to collect in this action therefore violate due process, Canavans order continued.

The judges order dismissed all eight claims against the pair, including embezzlement, unjust enrichment and deceit after the tribe voluntarily dismissed its conspiracy claim against the duo.

We are pleased with the district court outcome, said Joe Vorndran, Holdens attorney.

The parties had three years to compile evidence and take depositions and create support for their claim and the court took that information and we are pleased with the courts ruling which led to the dismissal of all of the plaintiffs claims against Mr. Holden and Mr. Qualls, Vorndran said.

An attorney for the tribe called the decision a bump in the road and said an appeal of the ruling is planned.

We think its definitely wrongly decided, said Peoria Tribe attorney Mike McBride III. And we will be taking up on appeal. The tribe is very adamant about making itself whole.

The Peoria Tribe went to state court in 2019 in an attempt to recoup $2,067,561 in casino management fees that it claimed were wrongly paid to DED.

The lawsuit came after the National Indian Gaming Commission issued a notice of violation to the tribe, alleging that it was violating various federal and tribal gaming regulations.

The tribe, in a June 13, 2019-dated press release, blamed Qualls and Holden for the violations, saying it would seek penalties from the pair.

The Peoria Tribal Gaming Commission later revoked the gaming licenses of Qualls and Holden and issued a $2,067,561 fine against the pair.

The tribes Sept. 25, 2019-dated court petition claimed they were unaware of the violations until September 2017 when the NIGC notified them of the wrongful conduct.

But after nearly four years of litigation, Canavan ruled in favor of the pairs motions for summary judgment.

Holden, meanwhile, said his life has been ruined since the allegations surfaced.

Holden said each time he applies for a job, a background check turns up the allegations. He said he has also spent millions of dollars on attorneys fees in an effort to clear his name.

Ive lost everything I own, Holden said. Everything. Home. Marriage. Every dollar. And theres no recourse because they have sovereign immunity, he said, referring to the tribe.

I stayed silent for five years, Holden said. I just sat there and kept my mouth shut and just got torn up. And this day finally came.

Qualls could not be reached for comment on the ruling through his attorney.

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Why is Oklahomas state superintendent targeting Tulsa Public Schools for a possible state takeover or even closure when academic outcomes for students in inner-city Oklahoma City schools and certain other smaller schools across the state are comparable?

In an exclusive interview with the Tulsa World, Ryan Walters offered some insights into his rationale.

When I say all options are on the table, what I mean is it is heartbreaking to me to see a district with this many low-performing schools, Walters said during the sit-down in Tulsa on Thursday afternoon. What youve seen here is a district, because of poor leadership, that the district itself has not been able to be successful.

You know, thats not the fault of the teachers. Thats surely not the fault of the kids. I refuse to believe that the kids in Tulsa cannot be high-achieving students.

For starters, despite obvious similarities in demographics and state test results, Walters said he does not view the academic outcomes of TPS and the Oklahoma City school district as virtually identical.

I would challenge that a little bit. Ive seen some differences there. Weve seen Oklahoma City Public Schools get over a dozen schools off the F-list this past year, and weve seen a specific plan (for) how theyre going to implement that across the district.

I met with Oklahoma City Public Schools leadership just even this week, Walters said. We want them to perform much better for those kids, but there has been a different approach.

A quick Tulsa World analysis of data publicly available from the Oklahoma State Department of Education shows Tulsa Public Schools and Oklahoma City Public Schools stack up against one another like this:

As of the states last official count in October 2022, the Tulsa and Oklahoma City districts had student enrollments of 33,871 and 33,245, respectively.

Of those, 75.8% of Tulsa students and 91.4% of Oklahoma City students were identified as economically disadvantaged.

Districtwide rates of students meeting or exceeding grade-level standards for English, according to the most recent state report cards, is 12.9% for Tulsa and 11.7% for Oklahoma City.

The number of OKCPS school sites with an overall letter grade of F on their state report card declined from 30 for 2018-19 to 13 for 2021-22, while the number of Tulsa school sites with an overall letter grade of F from the state declined from 28 to 24 in the same time period.

Some of those Oklahoma City school sites were among the 15 that district has closed since 2019, while the same is true of some of the eight school sites closed by Tulsa Public Schools during the same time span.

The racial and ethnic breakdown of students in Oklahoma City in 2021-22 was 58.7% Hispanic, 19.6% Black, 11% white, 6.4% multiple, 2.2% Asian/Pacific Islander and 2.1% American Indian/Alaska Native. For TPS, it was 38.1% Hispanic, 22.4% Black, 21.8% White, 9.7% multiple, 5% American Indian/Alaska Native and 3.1% Asian/Pacific Islander.

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.

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.

When was the last time Walters and Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist spoke to each other before Thursday?

Walters said he thinks it was when they spoke about storm damage across the school district in mid-June, and he said theyve also exchanged emails.

But he added that in his view, there has been a lack of accountability at the local and state levels for chronically low academic outcomes in TPS for too long.

I mean publicly she has not wanted to address the academics, he said. Im not interested in the distractions. What Im interested in is why arent the kids learning? What can we do to ensure the kids will be learning? Thats the conversation I want to have. 

Frankly, the folks of Tulsa, they dont want a 10-year plan. They want to see: What are we doing right now that can make a difference in my kids life?

Walters said he believes there must be greater urgency in school turnaround plans.

My daughter is going into fourth grade. If you told me, Hey, in 10 years, the districts gonna be a lot better, I go, Well, thats great. My daughter is going to be gone. You know, that doesnt help me, Walters said.

Were absolutely going to continue this fact-finding mission, and we need to see what has the district been doing and why have we not seen this change  for these kids?

One common theory about why TPS and not Oklahoma City Public Schools may be the target of criticism by Walters and Gov. Kevin Stitt, for whom he previously served as secretary of education, is the difference between the two districts superintendents.

Oklahoma Citys superintendent is male and keeps a low profile, while TPS is led by a woman who supported teachers in the 2018 statewide teacher walkout and advocated for pandemic protocols in local schools with which the governor and Walters both disagreed.

What does Walters say to that theory or supposition?

I think its absurd. I think it is an attempt to deflect. I think it is an attempt to try to escape accountability. I have been very critical of Oklahoma City Public Schools, he said. I know people have to speculate on these things, but what I see is I see Democrats, I see the teachers union that are obsessed with not answering the questions on student performance. They want to take this and turn it into something else and use these absurd claims that its about, you know, personality, or its about all these random things.

And the reality is its about student performance. We want to see an improvement there. Thats what I care about.

Walters repeatedly brought up a high-profile embezzlement case, which TPS discovered and self-reported and is still under law enforcement investigation.

The state Department of Educations own director of accreditation has recommended that TPS be accredited with deficiencies for that case, as well as one required report that was turned in to the state late. When asked by a state Board of Education member during a public meeting, the accreditation director said that besides TPS, four to five other school districts similarly received deficiencies for embezzlement cases.

Why would those districts be accredited without delay? Why are they not in Walters sights for state takeover?

Walters responded this way: What were seeing with Tulsa is the size and the amount of money is unique, number one. Number two, what weve seen is weve seen more and more information around the (fiscal) protocols that are in place.  And so as we start unpacking this more and more, we discovered a problem that was a much larger issue than what weve seen in these other districts.

But Walters specified no further than to say he has requested new documentation from TPS for his agencys ongoing inquiry.

A school takeover approved by the State Board of Education could mean overriding the authority of Tulsa voters duly elected local school board officials, and Walters said he believes that authority exists at his state agency.

The voters across the state of Oklahoma, including Tulsa County, elected me to ensure that their kids have a great education. They elected me to make sure that Im a good steward of taxpayer dollars and hold schools accountable for those dollars. That is a responsibility I take incredibly seriously, Walters said.

Im going to look at the powers that have been entrusted to me by voters and the state constitution and do all that I can for every single child in the state of Oklahoma.

And when were looking at Tulsa Public Schools, youre looking at a district and district leadership thats failed their kids. And so Im going to ensure that these kids have a better education.



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State Superintendent Ryan Walters full interview on Tulsa Public Schools: Part 2
Barbara Hoberock Tulsa World Capitol Bureau Staff Writer Follow Barbara Hoberock 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

OKLAHOMA CITY  Lawmakers have varying views on State Superintendent Ryan Walters increasing criticisms of Tulsa Public Schools.

In recent weeks, Walters has threatened to take action on the schools accreditation.

He has criticized the district for low reading scores, a late report and self-reported embezzlement by a former employee.

He also held a press conference to complain about the districts response to a school board member who led a prayer at a graduation ceremony.

He recently said new financial information has come to his attention, as well.

Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, a former Tulsa Public Schools teacher, said Walters likes to escalate things to distract from his own mismanagement of federal funds coming to the State Department of Education, and he said the Tulsa school board members actions in leading a prayer were inappropriate.

As I have said, as long as there are tests in the classroom, there will be prayer in the classroom, but it should never be led by government, Waldron said.

He said he gets asked everywhere he goes about the situation.

Everyone is concerned and outraged we would even be at this point, Waldron said.

Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, is a former TPS administrator and teacher. Like Waldron, she said her constituents are asking her about how to stop the chaos created by Walters.

So it is apparent that TPS is a piece in a larger power acquisition for the (state) superintendent, Provenzano said. It is unfathomable he would threaten accreditation instead of offering support. The loss of accreditation would have impact all over Green Country.

Mr. Walters continues to create chaos with fabricated culture-war messaging to distract from the investigations of misspent federal dollars and his poor execution of effort and lack of policy knowledge inside the State Department of Education.

Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, said his constituents think TPS has been unfairly targeted by Walters. Now is not the time to be reducing resources for the district, he said, but increasing them.

Matthews said that if the district loses accreditation, it will affect property values, economic development and progress made to bring more balance to Tulsa.

Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, said Walters was elected on a statewide ballot.

If he feels that needs to happen, that is in his purview to do, Rogers said of the potential that TPS will lose its accreditation.

Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, said he doesnt know enough about accreditation to comment but thinks the parties need to get together and work it out.

Ive been in communication with (TPS Superintendent) Dr. (Deborah) Gist and look forward to having a future discussion with Superintendent Walters to see how we can improve Tulsa Public Schools, said Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow. At the end of the day, I want whats in the best interest for the kids in this district.

Rep. Mark Tedford, R-Tulsa, said he has received a number of emails from constituents concerning the issue, though he doesnt represent Tulsa Public Schools.

Tedford said he is concerned about the tone and rhetoric regarding the conflict. He is concerned about escalation and even possible physical violence at some of the meetings.

I am really hoping that cooler heads will prevail and some of the rhetoric will calm down a little bit, he said.

Tedford said the loss of accreditation is a big deal and that the threshold for it is pretty high.

I prefer more of a plan of improvement over loss of accreditation, Tedford said.

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Remember when Garth Brooks sold more than 100,000 tickets for a series of concerts at Tulsa's BOK Center?

Imagine how many would have showed up if the concerts were free.

Garth: Live from Central Park was a concert held by Oklahomas Garth Brooks on Aug. 7, 1997 in New York Citys Central Park. The event was known as Garthstock in reference to Woodstock.

The concert was free and was billed as the largest concert ever held in the park. The show featured a 360-foot-long stage and boasted attendance of 300,000 to 980,000, depending on your source.
Tulsa Race Massacre / The Tulsa World Library: See all of the coverage of the race massacre in this special report.

"The first time Americans were terrorized by an aerial assault was not Pearl Harbor," a CBS News story says leading up to coverage this weekend of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

"Scott Pelley reports on a race massacre in which an estimated 300 people, mostly African American men, women and children, were killed, and aircraft were used to drop incendiary devices on a black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greenwood Massacre of 1921 has been largely ignored by history, but Pelley finds a Tulsa community seeking to shed more light on what's been called the worst race massacre in history," a preview reads for a "60 Minutes" story airing 6 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

Context for viewers: Six airplanes circled the Greenwood area during the morning hours of June 1.

What they were doing, and why there were so many, has long been a matter of passionate debate. Many people believe they were used to shoot at people on the ground and bomb Greenwood.

Officials said the small craft, generally thought to be two-seat, single-engine Curtis Jenny biplanes, were merely keeping track of activities on the ground and relaying the information through written messages dropped in weighted metal cylinders attached to streamers.

To what extent this explanation was initially challenged is unclear, but in October 1921 the Chicago Defender published a story in which it said Greenwood had been bombed under orders of prominent city officials.

The story cited a Van B. Hurley, who the newspaper said had given a signed statement to Elisha Scott, a Kansas attorney.

Scott filed dozens of lawsuits on behalf of victims but doesnt seem to have ever entered the Hurley affidavit into the record. There is no record of a Van B. Hurley living in Tulsa around the time of the massacre or that anyone by that name ever belonged to the Tulsa police force.

But that doesnt mean the story did not have substance. Many people believed city officials were behind the burning of Greenwood, and the explanation that the squadron of planes was only used for surveillance struck some as suspiciously thin.

Certainly the planes had a great psychological impact on many. For example, Mary Jones Parrish wrote about them in her account, as did prominent attorney B.C. Franklin in his.

The Defender story said the planes dropped nitroglycerin on buildings, setting them afire.

But nitroglycerin is an explosive, not an incendiary. It is also highly unstable and dangerous.

That has caused some to speculate that something like Molotov cocktails might have been used, or turpentine balls  rags soaked in flammable liquid and wrapped around the head of a stick.

There are several practical reasons why trying to light and throw incendiary devices from an open cockpit airplane of that era would seem a difficult, dangerous and even foolish idea.

But that doesnt mean it wasnt done.

Tulsa Race Massacre / The Tulsa World Library: See all of the coverage of the race massacre in this special report.

Tulsa Race Massacre: This is what happened in Tulsa in 1921
Tim Stanley Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Tim Stanley 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

Members of a growing alliance of tattoo and piercing artists from across the state hope to have a greater say in how their industry is regulated, starting with a recent state proposal to revive some invalidated rules.

Organizers behind the new Oklahoma Body Arts Alliance, which is in the initial stages of forming, say they decided to mobilize recently after state health officials in June announced their intention to begin enforcing parts of a statute dating back to when the state legalized tattooing in 2006  parts that were subsequently struck down by a court.

The provisions, which have not previously been enforced, regulate where shops can locate and require all body-piercing and tattoo operators to obtain $100,000 surety bonds.

Part of Oklahoma Statute Title 21 Section 842.3, a judge issued a permanent injunction against the provisions in 2007 after they were challenged as unfair, unreasonable and unconstitutional.

The new enforcement plan originally was set to take effect July 1, but officials have since moved it to Nov. 1.

Alliance members hope that the additional time will allow for review and reconsideration.

I think were optimistic that we will figure out how to work through this, said Cale Turpen, owner of Geek Ink in Broken Arrow and a leader in the effort. And if we cant, were prepared to take steps to take it back in front of the judge and get everything figured out.

Turpen is serving on a temporary board set up as part of the alliances organization process, with election of a permanent board to follow soon.

There are a lot of good things that are within the states current rules, Turpen said. But this is just a case where theres really no point that any of us within our industry can see for this to even be needed.

So far, the alliance has grown to include 113 licensed tattoo and piercing studios out of some 194 statewide.

Continuing to assess

The Oklahoma State Department of Health said the new enforcement would affect new applicants and new locations.

The location provision would prohibit piercing and tattoo artists from having a shop within 1,000 feet of a school, church or playground.

The effective date was originally set for July 1, but after the initial notification, state officials moved it to Nov. 1 in an effort to clarify ongoing regulatory guidance.

Erika Rankin-Riley, OSDH spokesperson, said: OSDH continues to assess the 2007 Order, as well as the applicability of relevant statutes to new applicants and new locations. OSDH will provide additional information and guidance to applicants and license holders as we complete our review.

Rankin-Riley added that the date change to Nov. 1 will allow sufficient time for continued assessment, and allow new applicants and/or new locations additional time to prepare for pertinent regulatory requirements. OSDHs overarching goals remain compliance with applicable statutes, concise regulatory guidance, and protecting the public health of all Oklahomans.

Oklahoma legalized tattooing in 2006, becoming the last state in the nation to do so.

Shop owners who received the notice in June say they wonder why after 16 years the provisions in question are being revisited, and whether the state even has the legal right to enforce them, given the injunction.

Turpen said he began making calls to state officials after receiving the notice. He said nobody he talked to was even aware of the 2007 lawsuit.

That doesnt surprise me, he said. Theres new people coming in and things may fall through the cracks. They get paid to look at rules that are in front of them and they enforce those rules. And while these rules had been ruled against in district court, they had never been stricken from the regulations.

It gives Turpen hope that, as health officials continue their review, they will change their minds.

And if shop owners like him can help change them, they are happy to do so, he said.

Were not a danger to churches, playgrounds or schools, or for children in general for that matter, Turpen said. If this were to go back through, we would then be required to be further away from a school than even a bar that serves alcohol. I cant think of any other industry other than bars that has a (location restriction) like this, which is why the health department was taken to court back in 2007.

The surety bond provision is equally baffling, he said.

Nobody in Oklahoma who writes surety bonds is even 100% sure how to write a surety bond for tattooing, because its just not something that is common practice anywhere in the country, he said.

Seat at the table

Organizers say the goal of the alliance is to advocate for industry professionals and the general public regarding state regulations, safety guidelines and industry standards.

A consultant for the alliance said the recent situation has had at least one positive effect: shops working together for the common good of their industry.

Were hearing a lot of confusion and uncertainty from shops (over the June notice from the state), but also hope, said Sabrina DeQuasie of Norman. This is the largest group of body art professionals trying to organize so far in the history of body art in Oklahoma. Its a difficult but workable undertaking, and its necessary to ensure that industry professionals have a say in the regulations for their industry.

Turpen said the body art industry weathered the pandemic well overall. His shop and many others initially closed like other businesses statewide, then went to appointment-only for about a year.

Business remained fairly steady, he said, adding that many shops even benefited.

There wasnt a lot of stuff to do during the pandemic as far as social things, so one of the things that people chose to do was get tattooed, he said.

The future of the business in Oklahoma is bright, Turpen said. And with the new alliance in place to give artists and shop owners a stronger voice, it should only get brighter, he added.

Our eventual goal is to hopefully set up a system to where we actually have a seat at the table, Turpen said. To my knowledge were the only professional licensure in the state of Oklahoma that does not have a member of the industry working in any capacity with the legal board.

For more information about the alliance and its efforts, email OKbodyartsalliance@gmail.com.

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Ho Chi Minh City will add nearly 100 kilometers of metro lines to its planning if it gets the relevant agencies approval, said director of the municipal Department of Transport Tran Quang Lam.

Lam delivered a presentation on the citys urban railway development plan in the 'Residents Ask-The City Answers' program, centered around 'Special Mechanisms and Policies for Ho Chi Minh Citys Development: Responsibility  Actions,' held on Sunday.

Lam said the city wants to comprehensively develop metro lines. Under the current planning, the southern metropolis has planned 220 kilometers of metro lines.

The figure is expected to rise to 300, Lam added.

The city will determine new routes and submit the metro line development plan at the end of this year for execution next year, he said.

Regarding the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) model, the official said that other countries have employed the model for a long time.

Ho Chi Minh City has targeted the deployment of the model for years but it was not realized until the National Assembly passed Resolution 98 with special policies for the citys development, allowing it to integrate urban development with high-capacity public transport.

The city can pilot the TOD model near stations of metro lines and road junctions along Beltway No. 3, which connects Ho Chi Minh City and three neighboring provincesDong Nai, Binh Duong, and Long An.

The city has also established teams to study and review planned sites for the TOD model development.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has coordinated with districts to review land lots within a radius of 500-1,000 meters from metro stations and road junctions along Beltway No. 3.

The agency and the Department of Planning and Architecture have jointly established criteria for zoning off areas that need adjusting.

The Department of Transport is reviewing possible sites to formulate projects and draw up a plan to take back land to seek the Peoples Councils approval, and set up separate site clearance projects, Lam shared.

At a conference late last year, a representative of the World Bank pledged that the bank was willing to support Ho Chi Minh City in accessing capital for metro line projects and sharing experience from other countries.

Ho Chi Minh City has planned to build eight metro lines and three tramways or monorails. These systems with a total length of 220 kilometers require an estimated investment of nearly US$25 billion.

At present, the citys first metro line, running from Ben Thanh Market in District 1 to Suoi Tien Theme Park in Thu Duc City, and second metro line, linking Ben Thanh Market and Tham Luong Depot in District 12, are under construction.

The prefeasibility report for the first phase of the metro line No. 5 project from Bay Hien Intersection in Tan Binh District to the Saigon Bridge in Binh Thanh District is being appraised.

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ISLAMABAD -- A passenger train derailed in southern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 80, local broadcaster Geo reported citing a district official.

Around 10 cars of a passenger train derailed in Nawabshah district in the southern province of Sindh, roughly 275 km (170 miles) from the country's largest city Karachi.

Geo reported some people were still trapped inside a train car and others had been transferred to hospitals. Train services to the interior districts of Sindh had been suspended and rescuers dispatched to the area.

Accidents on Pakistan's decaying rail system are common and successive governments have for years been trying to secure funds to upgrade the rail network as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative for infrastructure projects.

A major train crash in Sindh in 2021 killed 56 people and injured more than 100.

A rescue worker searches for victims after a train derailed in Sarhari town in district Sanghar, Pakistan August 6, 2023. Photo: Reuters

People with belongings stand at the site after a train derailed in Sarhari town in district Sanghar, Pakistan August 6, 2023. Photo: Reuters
The trucking company Yellow Corp. has declared a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and cessation of operations following years of financial struggles and growing debt. Yellow's announcement marks a significant shift for the US transportation industry and shippers nationwide.

The company filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday (August 6), three years after it received $729.2 million in pandemic-era loans from the US government under the Trump administration. While a Chapter 11 filing is used to restructure debt while operations continue, Yellow would liquidate and the federal government would join other creditors who would unlikely recover the funds they extended to the company, totaling to $1.5 billion.

A congressional probe recently concluded the Treasury and Defense departments "made missteps" in the decision and noted Yellow's "precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss," the Associated Press reported.

Plagued for a Long Time

Yellow reportedly fell into severe financial stress after a long stretch of poor management and poor decades-long strategic decisions.

Other companies, like Celadon and New England Motor Freight, also filed for bankruptcy protection and were liquidated in 2019.

With the Nashville-based Yellow going bankrupt, experts say former Yellow customers and shippers would have to face higher prices by taking their businesses to its competitors, such as FedEx or ABF Freight, noting the company's historically affordable price points in the industry.

"It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business," Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins said in a news release late Sunday. "For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers."

As of June 30, Yellow said it has already paid $67 million in cash interest on the loan, which was due in 2024.

Read Also: Anheuser-Busch Heir Says His Ancestors Would Be Upset Over Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Partnership

Yellow's Union: Bankruptcy a Long Time Coming

Meanwhile, the Teamsters, which represented over two-thirds of Yellow's 30,000 workers, said last week the company told them of their legal notice for a bankruptcy filing and shutting down of their operations in late July, following layoffs of hundreds of non-union employees.

Both the Wall Street Journal and FreightWaves reported in late July that bankruptcy was imminent, as customers like Walmart, Home Depot, and Uber Freight have already started to leave the carrier in large numbers in the lead-up to the filing, as well as because the company has ceased freight pickups.

Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien called the news "unfortunate but not surprising" in a July 31 statement, reflecting the financial chaos Yellow-faced over the years. "This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry," he added.

The reports arrived after Yellow averted a strike from the Teamsters due to heated contract negotiations. A pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, avoiding a planned walkout, as well as giving Yellow "30 days to pay its bills," notably a total of $50 million owed to the Central States Health and Welfare Fund.

Previously, a Yellow spokesperson said the company previously requested a short-term deferral of the pension contributions plus interest, but the funds denied that request. Yellow blamed the nine-month talks for the demise of the company, saying it was unable to institute a new business plan to modernize operations and make it more competitive during that time.

The company has also asked the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware for permission to make payments, including for employee wages and benefits, taxes, and certain vendors essential to its businesses.

On the other hand, Stifel research director Bruce Chan said ahead of the filing late last month Yellow's financial chaos was "probably two decades in the making," pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s.

"At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore," Chan added.

Brokerage firm TD Cowen noted Yellow was one of the largest US trucking companies prior to its demise, holding roughly 8% to 10% of the market share.

Related Article: Zoom Now Asking Employees to Return to Office: Here's Why

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Police in Dak Nong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands region, have arrested two local teenagers for throwing stones at moving sleeper buses on National Highway 14, a local police official confirmed on Sunday.

The teenagers were identified as Pham Van T. and Ly Thien H., both aged 18 and residing in Dak Song District.

Police officers are also hunting for others involved in this case to tackle them as per the prevailing regulations.

At around 4:30 am on Saturday, police in Dak Song were notified that a group of people threw stones at moving buses on the highway section passing through the districts Nam Binh Commune.

Police officers then launched an investigation and searched for this group of vandals.

Three hours later, they managed to apprehend Pham Van T. and Ly Thien H., who committed the act of vandalism on their way home after joining a karaoke and drinking party.

Two local teenagers were arrested for throwing stones at moving sleeper buses on the National Highway 14 section running through Dak Nong Province, located in Vietnams Central Highlands. Photo: Tam An / Tuoi Tre

The duo confessed that they and some others, who are on the run, picked up stones from the roadside to throw at moving buses on the highway, for their headlights dazzled them.

They immediately fled the scene, but then continued to throw stones at other sleeper buses on their way.

Consequently, the windows of six sleeper buses were broken.

Police strongly condemned this act of vandalism, saying that it would not only damage the vehicles, but could also harm drivers and local residents.

It could lead to other serial and tragic traffic accidents, police added.

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The Peoples Committee of Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam has given the green light to an anti-erosion and coastline protection project in Hoi An City, a popular destination in the province, at a total cost of VND980 billion (US$41.2 million).

The capital will be sourced from official development assistance loans and the provinces budget.

The project is slated for completion in 2026.

The management board for agricultural and rural development investment projects was appointed as the investor of the project, which is set to consist of three subprojects.

The first subproject includes building a 2,090-meter breakwater and a 1,490-meter groin to reduce coastal erosion, backing coastline sustainability.

Piling up sand to strengthen beaches and constructing other supporting structures such as makeshift harbors are among the components of the first subproject.

As scheduled, the second subproject incorporates studying and evaluating coastal areas, constructing a concentrated coastline data center, and improving the automated water quality and environment check system.

The final subproject is managing the project.

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The administration in Phu Quoc City, off the coast of Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam, will take coercive steps to demolish five more illegally-constructed villas in Duong To Commune this month.

The island citys authorities are working to prepare for the coercive demolition, said a provincial special task force on Sunday.

These five villas are owned by different owners, who come from various areas in the country.

The Phu Quoc administration has remained prudent and strictly complied with the prevailing regulations when adopting the coercive measures, the special task force said.

Last year, the special task force in coordination with the authorities of Phu Quoc and Duong To, and relevant agencies carried out an inspection on September 20 and discovered that 79 villas, spanning some 18.9 hectares of land managed by the state, were illegally constructed.

The Duong To administration imposed an administrative fine of VND7.5 million (US$315.47) each on two villas, whose owners were Vu Dinh K. and Le Xuan H., as well as called on them to voluntarily demolish their villas and restore the original state of the land lots.

A while later, Huynh Quang Hung, chairman of the Phu Quoc Peoples Committee, signed a decision on October 31, imposing coercive measures against these two villas and forcing their owners to take remedial actions for the illegal construction.

The city administration sent vehicles and equipment to pull down the two villas, which covered an area of some 500 square meters each, on November 9 the same year, as per the prevailing regulations.

The provincial police also pressed charges against three individuals for their alleged involvement in the illegal construction of the 79 villas, Le Quoc Anh, vice-chairman of the provincial administration and head of the special task force, confirmed on November 11 last year.

The three suspects, whose identity remains unknown, were found to have duped customers into buying state-managed land.

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In the past, donating blood was considered something extremely terrible. Blood donors even suffered discrimination because they were supposedly so poor that they had to sell their blood for money.

This is what Tran Ngoc Que, director of the National Blood Center under Vietnam's Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Hanoi, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper when he reflected on his 30-year career in dealing with blood.

The pioneers of promoting blood donation

In 1993, Que was a third-year student at Hanoi Medical University. As a medical student, he soon understood how profoundly important blood is for patients.

He and 12 other friends formed a volunteer group to reach out to young people and encourage them to donate blood.

In 1994, Que and his friends started a student club for charity. The club opened its doors to students from different universities in Hanoi.

Among many different activities, the club also encouraged its members to achieve their common goal of saving lives by volunteering to donate blood.

At that time, we did not dare to name the club with the term 'blood donation,' but simply called it the Students' Club for Philanthropic Activities, as there was a lot of discrimination about blood donation at that time, Que recalled.

Many people thought donating blood was bad so they ate very much to have a volume of blood that they could not donate. Also, many people thought that only poor people who were destitute needed to donate or sell blood for money."

To reach young people and get them to donate blood, club members had to take advantage of various situations at the time.

These included joint meetings for students, International Womens Day celebrations, or the like where they tried to educate students about the importance and benefits of donating blood and explained to them that giving blood has no negative impact on their health.

On January 24, 1994, an event to mark Blood Donation Day was held for the first time in Hanoi.

This was a very important milestone showing the development of the blood donation movement at that time, Que proudly said.

In 1994, 138,000 units of blood were collected nationwide, 15 percent of which came from donations. A unit typically equals 250 millimeters in Vietnam.

Now 1.4 million units of blood are donated each year, thanks to a blood donation rate of up to 99 percent.

Blood donation, which began as a voluntary activity, is now a regular activity. Programs to donate blood for humanitarian goals are held regularly and there are permanent centers for blood donation throughout the country, Que said.

The first blood donation campaign was held in Hanoi on January 24, 1994. Photo: Supplied

Continuing his mission of passion

After graduating from Hanoi Medical University, Que worked at the Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion and continued his blood donation.

To date, he has given blood more than 60 times and is one of 100 people who will be honored in 2023 for their outstanding contributions to blood donation.

While working in the blood donation department, Que knew many patients who needed blood urgently, but unfortunately their blood type is rare, so it was exceedingly difficult to find the right blood type.

At that time, I thought it was necessary to have a source of rare blood types available when there was a need," Que said. So, I made a list of people who had already donated rare blood and asked them to help us later when we needed their blood type."

The initiative was later supported by the hospitals board of directors, and the Rare Blood Type Donor Club was formed.

The club's membership grew over time thanks to the expansion to members relatives and family.

The number of people willing to donate blood increased as the club developed, Que said.

Tran Ngoc Que works as director of the National Blood Center under the Central Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Hanoi. Photo: Supplied

In addition, Que is a member of a phenotypic blood donation group.

He explained that some patients who need to receive many blood transfusions have the possibility of developing antigens that target their own red cells.

To prevent this risk, patients must be provided with the appropriate phenotype blood. A persons phenotype is determined by the expression of antigens on their red cells.

Patients who need frequent blood supplies, such as those with thalassemia or bone marrow failure syndromes, require the most compatible blood: phenotypic blood.

This means that aside from the ABO blood type and Rh blood group, patients should be thoroughly tested so that each of them can be treated appropriately on an individual basis.

I have been working in the blood donation department for more than 30 years and I believe we will advance much more in the near future, Que said.

There will be more progress not only in blood donation, platelet donation, and plasma donation but also in rare blood giving and compatible blood types, raising hopes that more patients will be helped."

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Ho Chi Minh City will begin installing rooftop solar panels at the headquarters of administrative agencies and public service units from September this year, said deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thi Kim Ngoc.

The Peoples Committee has assigned the Department of Industry and Trade to cooperate with other departments and agencies to build a plan on the rooftop solar panel installation, Ngoc said in the 'Residents Ask-The City Answers' program, centered around 'Special Mechanisms and Policies for Ho Chi Minh Citys Development: Responsibility  Actions,' held on Sunday.

The department is completing the plan for submission to the municipal administration this month.

The biggest problem of solar power systems lies in how to discard solar panels, Ngoc said, adding that producers and importers of such products have been forced to collect and recycle them to prevent an impact on the environment.

The plan will specify the responsibility of relevant agencies for ensuring environmental protection, fire prevention and fighting, electricity safety, and the design of solar power systems.

In an earlier report submitted to the lawmaking National Assembly, the city allowed administrative agencies and public facilities to install rooftop solar panels to power themselves.

In the past, households, individuals, and enterprises in the city have registered to install rooftop solar power systems.

The power sector takes responsibility for checking and monitoring the operation of these systems.

A team of the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also inspected the installation of rooftop solar power systems in the city and concluded that their installation and operation are in line with the law.

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A Lao Peoples Army rescue team on Saturday night saved all 45 Vietnamese passengers traveling in 22 vehicles stuck on National Highway No. 8, which links Vietnams Ha Tinh Province with Laos Bolikhamxay Province, due to landslides.

The landslides, taking place from August 3, caused traffic disruptions on the highway, one of the major roads connecting central Vietnam with central Laos, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

As the landslides struck both ends of the road, drivers and passengers were unable to find a way out.

They found it difficult to reach out for help due to poor mobile signal in the mountainous area.

A Lao Ministry of National Defense rescue team led by Deputy Minister Lieutenant General Chanthong Sonetaat arrived at the scene of the landslides to rescue the stranded, according to a representative of the Vietnamese attache office in Laos.

As of Saturday night, all of the 45 Vietnamese citizens were rescued, with 35 sent to Bolikhamxays Khamkert District and the rest taken to Khounkham District in Laos Khammouane Province for medical care.

Their health conditions are improving.

The Vietnam News Agency added that all passenger vehicles which were en route from Laos to Vietnam but were stuck on the landslide-hit road made a U-turn and headed to the Chalo border gate to enter Vietnam.

On August 4, the Department of Public Works and Transport in Bolikhamxay Province announced that National Highway No. 8 was temporarily closed until further notice owing to landslides, the Laotian Times reported.

The closures affected an 8km stretch in the Phu Pha Man area and a 10km section in the Phu Hay area.

Heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides in some places, making the road impassable.

The Lao department said that the closures could last for several days and vehicles were advised to take alternate routes in the meantime.

Heavy downpours this year have affected and damaged roads across Laos, causing damage to homes, farmland, roads, and daily activities.

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Bon Tang (Four-Story) Waterfall, a system of four smaller cascades with a distance of 50 meters between two falls, amid a primeval forest in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam is a must-visit destination for backpackers, trekkers, and those fond of adventure and experience travel.

An Lao District, which is considered the 'Da Lat of Binh Dinh' because of its cool climate year round with temperatures ranging between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius, enchants adventure travel lovers with Bon Tang Waterfall.

Bon Tang Waterfall is some 120 kilometers from Quy Nhon City, the capital of Binh Dinh Province.

After traveling by car to the forest edge, tourists can walk deep into the primeval forest to see the waterfall.

The way to the waterfall is interesting as tourists can walk under the shade of trees while enjoying beautiful songs of birds and cicadas.

They can also admire many kinds of wild orchids blooming next to small streams and ripe terraced rice fields of local residents in the distance.

Admiring Bon Tang Waterfall amid a primeval forest in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam

After walking for about 45 minutes to reach a height of 500-600 meters above sea level, travelers will reach the first waterfall of the Bon Tang Waterfall system.

The waterfall flowing down from a height of some 40 meters looks like a silk band or a girls long hair amid the poetic wild nature.

Going up an extra 50 meters, tourists will meet the second stunning fall. Two other cascades are located 50-100 meters, respectively, higher.

Besides admiring imposing natural landscapes, tourists can wade in the pure and cool stream at the foot of the waterfall, admire stones in various shapes, and catch trapdoor snailsa specialty in An Lao District.

Tourists can also experience the special cultural space of the Hre ethnic minority group in An Quang Commune, An Lao District.

In An Lao, travelers should visit An Toan Commune, which is known as heavens gate in Binh Dinh, to hunt clouds.

It is also recommended to enjoy sim wine, which is made from the fruits of the local rose myrtle, ruou can, a traditional wine made from mixed ingredients such as wild leaves, white potatoes, rice, and pure water from local streams, onychostoma gerlachi, and diplazium esculentum.

Bon Tang Waterfall is wild and mighty. Photo: Dung Nhan / Tuoi Tre

Those exploring the waterfall for the first time should ask for help from local residents to find the right way to reach the site. They should also prepare snacks, drinks, and especially drugs to prevent leeches.

Local residents use crushed lemongrass soaked in a mixture of salt, lemon, and water to touch leeches sticking to their legs and the leeches will immediately come unstuck.

The district considers Bon Tang Waterfall a potential tourist site and has drawn up a plan to exploit it, said Do Tung Lam, vice-chairman of the district Peoples Committee.

An aerial view of one of the cascades of the Bon Tang Waterfall system in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam. Photo: Dung Nhan / Tuoi Tre

Leaders of the district have recently surveyed the waterfall and required the planning of the area for tourism development. The district expects to publicize the planning in mid-2024 to attract investors, Lam added.

The An Lao District Peoples Committee has a scheme to build a concrete road measuring one meter wide and six-seven centimeters thick through the forest to facilitate tourists exploring Bon Tang Waterfall.

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Ho Chi Minh Citys first-ever river festival, which took place between August 4 and 6, spurred the expectation of many officials and tourism insiders about river tourism that might make the city more unique and attractive.

The municipal Department of Tourism will continue launching various river-based tourism products and services to cement the citys riverine urban brand.

The river fest will become an annual tourism event in Ho Chi Minh City, said Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, director of the department.

The festival was chosen as one of the citys distinctive tourism products and will be scaled up for the next editions, she said.

It is necessary to promote more river tourism products, said Nguyen Nguyet Van Khanh, marketing director at Vietravel.

Over the past few years, domestic and international visitors have opted to tour the heart of the city and experience the Saigon River tour, she said.

Moreover, many families desiring to learn about where they live will pick river tours as these are appropriate to short inner-city trips.

Given rising demands for river tourism and the diversity of tourism products, the city should further popularize them among local and international travelers, she stressed.

Discussing the strength of rivers for tourism, Nguyen Minh Man, head of communications and marketing at TST Tourist Company, said that rivers and canals are interesting materials for tourism products.

Among our 10 tours in Ho Chi Minh City are a sunset-watching yacht tour on the Saigon River, and a one- or two-day Thu Duc City exploration tour in which visitors are briefed on the history of the Saigon River, he said.

The organization of the Ho Chi Minh river fest is considered a way to tap the cultural and historical values of the river and canals to advance tourism.

Rivers and canals are 'materials' to build exciting and unique tourism products, he shared.

Many departments, agencies, and firms should join hands to upgrade wharves and marinas, and offer all-in-one services to build a Ho Chi Minh City  Saigon River tourism brand, according to Man.

Tourists can experience a river tour in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

Ho Chi Minh Citys first river festival took place between August 4 and 6, 2023. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre

The outdoor art show titled Saigon  River Tells Stories wrapped up Ho Chi Minh Citys first-ever river festival on Sunday night.

The show was one of the highlights of the fest, featuring the participation of over 700 artists, artisans, directors, experts, consultants, and staff workers, as well as the 3D and mapping technologies.

The festival, which was organized at the Saigon Cruise Port, the Bach Dang Wharf Park, and the Binh Dong Wharf, along the banks of Nhieu Loc  Thi Nghe Canal, and in various tourist sites citywide, was aimed at popularizing the images of the city and people, cultural features, food, and tourism among local and international travelers.

Between January and July, Ho Chi Minh City welcomed more than 2.3 million international tourists, mainly from South Korea, China, and the United States.

The city holds 10 major tourism events annually to satisfy dwellers and visitors, said Hoa.

Among them are the International Travel Expo, Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional costume) Fest, and Ho Chi Minh Tourism Fair. These events have been scaled up year over year.

Artists perform at the Saigon  River Tells Stories art show. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre

The fest featured various art performances and interesting activities along the Saigon River. Photo: T.T.D. /Tuoi Tre

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Officials in Kyiv revealed they have arrested a woman in connection to a Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while he was visiting Kherson and Mykolaiv last June.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the woman tried to find out the itinerary of Zelensky's visit to the flood-hit town due to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam.

Ukrainian officials regularly accuse local residents near the front lines who support Russia of passing information to Russian military forces or intelligence agents, the BBC reported.

For his part, Zelensky confirmed he had been informed of the arrest and the plot to assassinate him while in Mykolaiv, saying the chief of the SBU updated him about the "fight against traitors."

Meanwhile, Russian officials did not comment on the arrest.

Read Also: Japan Warns Russia of Nuclear Attack During 78th Hiroshima Bombing Anniversary

SBU: Woman Arrested in Act of Passing Intel to Russians

In a statement, the SBU said their agents have arrested the woman in her home in Ochakiv, while allegedly in the act of providing intel to Russian forces. They were also made aware of the plot to assassinate Zelensky, prompting them to take security measures to prevent such attacks. The Russians shelled Kherson just hours after his party left the city.

They have also released photo evidence of the arrest inside a home, redacting the faces of both the woman and the arresting agents.

The SBU added the woman was also passing information about the locations of electronic warfare systems and ammunition warehouses which could be targeted by the Russian military.

The agency has not revealed the name and identity of the woman as of this report. She is expected to face charges of unauthorized dissemination of information about the movements of weapons and troops. If found guilty, she could serve up to 12 years in prison.

Zelensky Aide: There Were More Attempts

Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in March last year Zelensky had survived more than a dozen assassination attempts which the West does not know.

"I believe that there have been more than a dozen such attempts," he told Ukrainska Pravda. "We are constantly receiving intelligence that there are certain reconnaissance groups trying to enter government quarters and the like."

Zelensky himself told CNN in July the Russians were still looking for a chance to kill him, but that would not stop him from visiting and boosting the morale of his countrymen.

"I'm convinced that society has to see if they are at risk, their President is at risk, too - together, with them," he added.

Related Article: Ukraine Considers Talks in Jeddah 'Productive,' Including 10-Point Peace Plan Over War with Russia

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The Bibby Stockholm has hit the headlines a lot in recent months.

Attention is focused on the UK governments decision to house asylum seekers on the massive barge, which began on Monday with around 50 people moved on board.

The Conservatives claim it offers cost-effective accommodation, amid a record backlog of asylum cases. However, the move has widely been condemned as dangerous, inhumane and not cost-saving.

Yet this is just the latest chapter in Bibbys chequered history.

It has been variously used across Europe to house rough sleepers, as a floating detention centre and was even the subject of a bomb threat.

Built in 1976 by the Dutch company Nederlandse Scheepsbouw, the ship was converted into an accommodation barge in 1992.

Current owners Bibby Lane  which has well-evidenced historic ties to the slave trade, according to the UK Refugee Council - say it can accommodate more than 500 people in luxury, but it was originally fitted out to house just 222.

Fears about overcrowding led Britains Fire Brigades Union to warn the 47-year-old vessel would be a potential deathtrap for anyone housed there.

During the late 1990s, Bibby provided 52 overnight beds for the homeless in Hamburg, Germany.

German authorities resorted to the ship as an emergency measure to ensure that during winter no one has to sleep the street, then Hamburg's Senator for Social Affairs, Helgrit Fischer-Menzel said at the time.

ID checks, crime and the size of the rooms kept many rough sleepers away from the barge, reported the left-wing German news outlet Taz in 1994.

It noted only 65% of the beds were used, with the homeless steering clear of the barge.

Next the gigantic 90m-long, 27m-wide ship was used to detain asylum seekers in Rotterdam in 2005.

A Dutch watchdog called Bibby an oppressive environment, though it has reportedly been refurbished since then.

In February 2008 an Algerian asylum-seeker Rachid Abdelsalam died of heart failure on board.

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Fellow detainees claim that although they warned the guards of Rachid's deteriorating health, his cell door was only opened two hours after he died, the monitoring organisation State Watch reported in 2012.

The vessels-come-prisons were notorious for offering poor quality health care and terrible services, triggering repeated hunger strikes and riots from detainees, State Watch added.

Going undercover as a security guard, Dutch journalist Robert van de Griend documented the abysmal treatment of inmates.

Rotterdam later closed the Bibby and the other detention centres, after new facilities were created.

A handout picture taken in an unknown location by Bibby Marine Limited and released by the UK Home Office, on April 5, 2023 - Bibby Marine Limited / AFP

Construction workers were next to stay in the nearly 11,000-tonne behemoth.

Bibby was used in 2013 by Petrofac to accommodate those working on Scotlands Shetland Gas Plant in the North Sea.

A disgruntled former offshore worker told emergency services in 2015 that bombs had been planted on the barge along with another accommodation ship berthed in Lerwick Harbour in the Shetland Islands.

He was given a six-month tagging order, admitting threatening and abusive behaviour.

Bibby, the last floatel, was towed away from Lerwick in 2017, after being unoccupied - save for a single security guard - for more than a year.

The Shetland Times quoted the port authority as saying the ship had brought in welcome revenue to the remote archipelago, though they now wanted to free up berthing space.

Months later it was reported by the Irish Times that discussions were ongoing about using Bibby as floating accommodation for university students in Galway, Ireland.

The plans were soon dropped, however, with the docks deemed unsuitable and concerns over planning permission.

Authorities in the West Ireland city said the student accommodation crisis needed to be tackled in a different way.

In April, the UK government announced it would use the barge to house asylum-seekers, as the country grapples with a record backlog of 166,000 asylum cases.

Plans to start putting people onto the 500-capacity boat have been repeatedly pushed back, reportedly costing the British taxpayer 3.5 million in delays.

Ministers claim Bibby will help reduce the 6.5 million daily bill footed by taxpayers to house asylum seekers in hotels, with existing facilities fill to the brim. That the ship is a more cost-effective alternative is disputed, however.

Critics point out hotels are only needed as the Conservative government has degraded the asylum system and failed to process applications quickly, with two-thirds of people waiting over six months for an initial decision, figures by the Insitute for Government show.

"As a survivor of torture, I am deeply disturbed that the Government is going ahead with its cruel plan to cram refugees onto a barge that has been branded a potential death trap," said Kolbassia Haoussou, Director of Survivor Empowerment at Freedom from Torture in a statement sent to Euronews.

Instead of punishing people like me whove already been through so much, survivors should be offered protection and support, he added.

"Its time for this Government to stop wasting time by forcing refugees to live in unsafe and undignified accommodation, and concentrate its efforts on rebuilding an asylum system that treats people with humanity and compassion."
SWNS

A young woman has proudly spoken of her amazing tattoo which covers her entire back and bum - but is completely invisible from the front. Alexandra Cornish, 24, opted to get a unique back tattoo - which spans her entire back, bum and the back of her thighs. A tattoo artist herself, Alexandra, from Hillarys, Perth, Australia, took inspiration from Japanese 'bodysuit' tattoos. She got the 3,000 ink done over NINE sessions in a year, taking more than 50 hours to complete in total. The tattoo centres around Princess Wakana and also features flowers, skulls and spiders on a spider web background. She loves seeing people's reactions when they see her from the front, with no visible ink - then she turns around. Alexandra, who is currently living with her partner in Singapore, said: "I never looked at myself originally with a big back piece. "But traditionally with Japanese back pieces, they're supposed to tell the story of the rest of your body and all images link to the back and I liked that. "When people say the back is quite painful, I didnt find it too bad. My waist and tailbone hurt though. "Tattoos like this are designed to be hidden under clothes - and it's good I can have it hidden. "I love having it on display though. I love the contrast of not looking tattooed from the front, but having a heavy back piece. "I do notice people staring when I'm out - but I take no offence. "I put 50 hours into it - I don't care who looks!" Alexandra had two tattoos but nothing on her back when she first reached out to tattoo artist Dan Molloy, based in Perth, Western Australia in January 2021. She already knew him from a previous tattoo he did for her and she feels he is "one of the best artists" in Australia. Initially unsure what she wanted, they came up with an idea around Princess Wakana, the beautiful daughter of Lord Otomo no Sorin, a Japanese feudal lord of the 1500s. She studied magic and had a special connection with spiders which taught her magic spells, according to Japanese art from the 1800s. Alexandra said: "I told Dan I wanted a woman that wasnt too feminine, but nothing too intense, and he suggested Wakana. "Originally I didn't like spiders and I wasn't inclined, but I have always liked magic and fantasy, so I went with it." She explained these back pieces normally only cover the back when done on men because they have broader shoulders. But due to her feminine proportions, it made more sense for the design to stretch lower, and cover her entire bum and the tops of her thighs. Alexandra's first session took place in September 2021. She had to fly to and from Dan's studio Kurikara Fudo Tattoo in Perth from where she was living in Surry Hills, Sydney at the time. The entire tattoo took nine sessions - with some as long as eight hours in one go - and the entire piece took 50 hours to complete. She said: "When people say the back is quite painful, I didnt find it too bad. "Certain parts were better than others. The shoulders, I found so easy. "But I didnt like my waist or ribs. The worst part was the very bottom, my tailbone. "People say the butt is sore but I found that and my thighs ok - I was expecting it to be worse. "The hardest thing was the bruising when travelling for the days after." By August 2022 her back was completed - delayed by travel restrictions in Sydney due to local Covid outbreaks. Since then, she has proudly showed off her unique ink and loves it. While her parents weren't originally big tattoo fans, now they see it as "art" - although not everyone agrees. Alexandra said: "A comment that irks me is 'I like it but I wouldnt get it' - I just dont really care. "It's not on their body! "The way mine is, and where it is a whole design, it looks like art. "Someone else commented that I'm beautiful but the tattoos ruined me. "Someone once asked if I'm worried that men won't be attracted to me - but then why would I be attracted to them? I'm a tattoo artist! "Ten out of ten times someone approaches me, it's about my tattoo - I get it in clubs, the gym, the shop, cafes, everywhere." She said she loves surprising people - who don't expect her to have ink on her back after seeing her from the front. She said: "Personality wise I am friendly and bubbly, I dont have a face where I look like I'll be heavily tattooed. "Its a good contrast. "I still like the look of being heavily tattooed, I love that look, as a tattooer myself. "But for me personally I am not at a point yet where I want that next step. "For now, I'm very content with the 'shock factor'".
Image source: The Motley Fool

Frequent Fool readers will know that Warren Buffett is one of my all-time heroes. In nearly eight decades of investing, the famed American investor has built up a personal fortune of $117.5bn. Now 92, Buffett has also donated over $50bn to good causes, as part of his pledge to give away 99% of his lifetime wealth.

During his long journey through life, the so-called Sage of Omaha has made many ordinary investors very much richer. Indeed, his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska has a significant over-concentration of millionaires and even billionaires, most of whom owe their good fortune to Uncle Warren.

Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway has $147bn

In its latest quarterly earnings report, Warren Buffetts $768bn conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed that its pile of cash and short-term Treasury bills had surged to $147bn. This sum leapt by almost $17bn in just three months.

Thats more than 115bn, which is larger than the market value of all but three companies in the UKs elite FTSE 100 index. In other words, should he wish to, Buffett could afford to buy outright any London-listed business he wanted  aided by a bit of cheap borrowing for the three biggest firms.

What would I do with this cash mountain?

What would I do if Warren Buffett asked me to invest this Mount Everest-sized mound of cash today? Ive been thinking about this a lot this month, as I have a similar problem, but on a vastly reduced scale.

Quite simply, what I would do is apply Buffetts own principles for value investing by using this sum to buy cheap financial assets for long-term income and growth. And one of the cheapest markets in the world right now is the humble FTSE 100.

Today, the Footsie trades on a lowly multiple of under 10.5 times earnings, producing a generous earnings yield of 9.6%. In comparison, the US S&P 500 index trades on a premium rating of 20.3 times earnings, for an earnings yield of 4.9%.

Whats more, the FTSE 100 offers a prospective dividend yield of 4.1% a year, covered over 2.3 times by earnings. On the other hand, the S&P 500s yearly cash yield is just 1.5% (covered 3.2 times).

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Why bet on the UK, rather than the US?

On multiple occasions, Warren Buffett has warned investors, never bet against America. So why would I go against this advice by investing in unloved UK shares? Especially when I know that the US stock market has beaten the rest of the worlds returns in 12 of the past 13 years?

I shall explain. Berkshire Hathaway has 115bn in cash, while the FTSE 100s total value is close to 1.97trn. Thus, Buffett could buy roughly 5.8% of the Footsie with Berkshires cash pile.

By doing this, he would be entitled to 5.8% of all the earnings and cash dividends generated by 100 of the largest firms listed in London. And more than 70% of these earnings come from overseas, so hed be buying global growth at a big discount to other stock markets.

In summary, like Warren Buffett, I would avoid paying premium prices for US growth stocks. Instead, Id back the FTSE 100 for the next 10 years, which is exactly how my family portfolio is currently positioned!

The post Heres what Id buy with Warren Buffetts $147bn in cash! appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Cliff DArcy has an economic interest in Berkshire Hathaway shares. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. 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
Dubai International Airport

Iraqs prime minister has ordered an investigation into how a bear escaped from its crate aboard an Iraqi aircraft as it was due to depart from Dubai airport, leaving passengers disgruntled over the delay and causing a stir on social media.

Iraqi Airways said that it wasnt to blame for the bears escape and that the aircrafts crew worked with authorities and specialists in the United Arab Emirates to sedate the animal and remove it from the plane.

A video clip circulating on social media showed the planes captain apologising to passengers for Fridays take-off delay because of the bears escape from its crate in the cargo hold.

Iraqi Airways said procedures to transport the bear were carried out in accordance with the law and with procedures and standards approved by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Bear breaks out from a container in the cargo hold of an Iraqi Airways flight from Baghdad to Dubai - https://t.co/5KJeGp3orA pic.twitter.com/HicKz2An0H  Iraqi News (@IraqiNews_com) August 5, 2023

A person speaking on the video seen on social media said the aircraft was an hour late for its trip to Baghdad and that passengers were being asked to disembark until the issue was resolved.

Dubai International Airport, the worlds busiest for international travel, declined to comment.

The airline had initially said that the bear was being flown from Baghdad to Dubai, but an Iraqi Airways official confirmed to The Associated Press on Sunday that the bear was being transported to the Iraqi capital.

The official declined to name the animals owner.

Keeping predatory animals as pets in Iraq  especially in Baghdad  has become popular among the wealthy.

Authorities have struggled to enforce legal provisions to protect wild animals and Baghdads police has previously called on citizens to assist authorities in preventing such animals from being let loose on the citys streets or ending up as exotic meals in restaurants by reporting such cases.
Leaders of West Africa's regional bloc said Monday that they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after Niger's military junta defied a deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the countrys airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighbouring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.

In Niger, state television reported the junta's latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger's population to defend the nation.

The United States said on Monday that it is still possible to put an end to the coup through diplomacy.

"It is still possible. We believe that the junta should withdraw and allow President (Mohamed) Bazoum to resume his duties", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

The use of force is a solution of "last resort" for ECOWAS, said Matthew Miller, adding that the United States was "focused on finding a diplomatic solution.

The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Nigers first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africas Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Story continues

The defense chiefs from ECOWAS countries excluding Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Niger, during their extraordinary meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, Aug. 4, 2023 - Chinedu Asadu/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

Region divided

Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

The Associated Press saw several security officers from Burkina Faso at a hotel in Nigers capital.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigerias Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigerias president, the blocs current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegals government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc's efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

The junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

US officials say they are still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was Monday.

Two officials said the administration of US President Joe Biden intends to maintain both a diplomatic and military presence in Niger for the foreseeable future.

The administration is still weighing whether the developments amount to a coup, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic discussions. They said there was still time for Nigers military leaders to reverse course.

If the US determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid.

Pro-junta rallies in Niamey

Since the coup, extremists have been ecstatic because they are able to move around more freely without fear of attack, Boubacar Moussa, a former jihadi fighter, told the AP. He had joined a nationwide program that encourages fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The program's fate is unclear.

Moussa said hes received at least 10 phone calls from active jihadis in the Tillaberi region near the Mali border who said theres been no concern about airstrikes. If theres a military intervention by ECOWAS, they likely will attack the capital, Niamey, he said.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, rallygoers beheaded a chicken decorated in the colours of former colonizer France.

Supporters of Niger's ruling junta hold a Russian flag in Niamey, Niger, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. - Sam Mednick/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, Frances Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended almost 500 million euros ($550 million) in aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 US military personnel also in Niger.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didnt intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS.
Hays annual What Workers Want survey, which received 8,853 responses including 382 from throughout the province, found that 69% of the Northern Ireland-based employers surveyed offered hybrid working to staff. Pictured is John Moore, managing director of Hays in Northern Ireland

Almost a third of employers in Northern Ireland are planning to change their hybrid working offering this year and will ask staff to come into the office more frequently, according to a new survey from global recruitment firm Hays.

Hays annual What Workers Want survey, which received 8,853 responses including 382 from throughout the province, found that 69% of the Northern Ireland-based employers surveyed offered hybrid working to staff.

Over half (54%) of Northern Ireland professionals said their preferred way of working is hybrid, while 26% said they prefer fully working in the office, and only 20% have a preference for fully remote working.

According to the survey, 43% of local employers offer flexible working to all staff, whereas 53% assess each role individually when deciding whether to offer flexible working options.

Of the employers polled, 28% said they expect their hybrid offering to change this year, with 12% saying they are already offering incentives to encourage staff back to the office and a further 13% of employers said they are considering it.

The most popular incentives being offered by employers include:

Access to better hardware/software in the office (50%)

Bike storage and showers (50%)

Onsite cafe and free drinks (42%)

Paid or subsidised access to gym facilities (33%)

Social events (33%)

Paid or subsidised travel (25%)

The most popular incentives with staff are subsidised lunches (45%), on-site cafe (42%), subsidised travel (42%) and access to gym facilities (38%).

While some employers are keen to attract staff back to the workplace, 44% of those surveyed expected the proportion of employees based fully remotely to increase in the next 12 months, compared with 22% who think it will decrease and 33% who expect numbers to stay the same.

A conclusive 82% of the employers surveyed said transparency about their organisations approach to flexible working is very or quite important to attracting staff, while 94% of staff viewed it was very or quite important. Of the employees surveyed 72% said the use of hybrid or remote working is included in their contract.

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John Moore, managing director of Hays in Northern Ireland, said: While people working in many industries have to be in their workplace every day to do their job, for those whose roles are more office based and reliant only on having access to a computer and the internet, there has been a cultural shift towards remote and hybrid working patterns since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many employers have adapted and accepted that hybrid will be their model for the long term. But others now feel they need more time when their people are together and are offering incentives to encourage people into the workplace.

Each employer will need to find what works for them but while the labour market is so tight, it is incumbent on them to work out what it is that prospective employees want in order to join or stay with their organisation.

The survey also found that employers continue to introduce new measures to improve employee wellbeing, with a view to retaining and attracting talent.

Hays found 16% of organisations said they have implemented no meetings during lunch or certain hours of the day, 15% say they have put in place a limit on the duration of meetings, and 9% have implemented meeting free days.

Although 71% of employers said they havent put any restrictions on meetings over half (54%) of professionals said they would find it useful if their employer encouraged no meetings during lunch or at a set time, 41% said it would be useful to have a mandated limit on the length of meetings, and 34% said it would be beneficial to have meeting free days.
Julie HarrisonPic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Julie Harrison, who has served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) since April 2022, will take up the new role in September.

The British Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, with the approval of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has announced Ms. Harrison will replace Madeleine Alessandri who left the post in July to become the new Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Head of the Joint Intelligence Unit.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris MP, said: I am delighted Julie has been appointed as the new Permanent Secretary to the Northern Ireland Office. She is an outstanding civil servant, has a passion for the place and will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the post.

The NIO has some of the most dedicated and hard working civil servants I know, all of whom are committed to making a positive difference and to delivering for all the people of Northern Ireland.

Julie will play a central role in supporting them and in guiding the department to realise its vision for Northern Ireland: to make it a better place to live, to work and to invest. I look forward to welcoming Julie to the NIO and to working together.

Mr. Case, said: I would like to congratulate Julie on her appointment. Julie brings a wealth of experience from her time in the Northern Ireland Civil Service and I look forward to working with Julie in her new role as Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office.

"I would also like to thank Madeleine Alessandri for her excellent leadership of the department over the last three years and Dominic Wilson for steering the department over recent weeks.

Ms. Harrison said: I am looking forward to working with the Secretary of State, the team in the NIO and a wide range of community, business and political voices to create solutions that enable Northern Ireland and the people who live here to prosper.

Ms Harrison is expected to take up her new post in September.
The leaders of a coup in Niger on Monday defied an ultimatum to restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.

Hours after thousands gathered in the capital Niamey in rallies backing the soldiers and denouncing possible foreign intervention, military commanders sealed off the country's airspace until further notice.

"In the face of the threat of intervention that is becoming more apparent ... Nigerien airspace is closed," a junta representative said in a statement on national television.

He said forces had been put on alert in two central African countries in preparation for an intervention but did not give details.

"Niger's armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory," the spokesman said.

Chance

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) gave the military officers leading the coup in Niger until Sunday night to release Bazoum from his residence, where members of the presidential guard have been holding him since 26 July.

With the deadline passed, Ecowas defence chiefs say they have agreed a possible military action plan, including when and where to strike against General Abdourahmane Tchiani's junta.

On Friday in Abuja at the close of a three-day meeting, Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said the decision of when and where to strike will be made by heads of state.



Read more on RFI English



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France says leaders of coup in Niger still have a 'way out'

Pressure mounts on Niger junta as deadline nears for military intervention

First of four evacuation flights from Niger arrives in France
The Government has said a task force has been launched to identify unscrupulous lawyers after reports that false asylum claims are being submitted for a fee.

The Home Office said the unit will bring together regulatory bodies, law enforcement teams and other Government departments to take action against advocates found to be deceiving the courts.

It comes after the Daily Mail reported that a number of solicitors agreed to help an undercover journalist posing as an economic migrant submit a false application in exchange for thousands of pounds.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) prohibits lawyers from deceiving courts, and any act of dishonesty or lack of integrity may result in them being struck off.

But the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, said the necessary powers are already in place to deal with immigration advisers engaged in misconduct.

It said the Home Office is focusing on a tiny minority of lawyers rather than significant asylum claim backlogs and the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act.

The Home Office said the Professional Enablers Taskforce, for which there is no new funding, has been carrying out preliminary work over the past few months.

This has included the development of a new training package for frontline staff who work in the immigration system to help them identify and report suspect activity, according to the department.

Police referrals have also been made where criminal activity is suspected, the Home Office said, with those ultimately found guilty of helping people remain in the country by fraudulent means facing life imprisonment.

The maximum sentence for assisting unlawful migration is already life imprisonment under the Immigration Act 1971.

Justice Secretary and former barrister Alex Chalk said professionals should not be granted immunity from the law simply because they are lawyers, telling GB News he is absolutely comfortable with the crackdown.

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People arrive by coach to board the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge at Portland Port in Dorset (Ben Birchall/PA)

The announcement came after the first 15 migrants boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge, amid others being granted a last-minute reprieve after a series of legal challenges.

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson was reported to have said asylum seekers complaining about the barge, moored off the Dorset coast, should f*** off back to France.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, speaking about the task force, said: Crooked immigration lawyers must be rooted out and brought to justice.

While the majority of lawyers act with integrity, we know that some are lying to help illegal migrants game the system. It is not right or fair on those who play by the rules.

The British people want us to put an end to illegal migration  I am determined to crack down on these immoral lawyers and stop the boats.

Mr Chalk said: The accuracy and honesty of legal advice underpins the integrity of our world-leading legal system, so those who undermine it by encouraging deception must be held to account.

This Government is committed to stopping the boats  that means breaking the business model of criminal gangs and holding to account unscrupulous lawyers who aid and abet them by abusing the legal system.

But Richard Atkinson, deputy vice president of the Law Society, said: This task force has been around for months now, so it is not clear what, if anything, the Government is announcing today.

He added: The Government, regulators and law enforcement agencies already have the powers they need to deal with immigration advisers engaged in misconduct.

The overwhelming majority of immigration lawyers continue to support the rule of law through their adherence to the law and professional standards set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and provide an essential service to clients.

The focus of the Home Office on a tiny minority of lawyers to which they are apparently applying considerable resources should not deflect from the fact that there remains significant backlogs in asylum claims or the unworkability of the Illegal Migration Act.

Bar Council chairman Nick Vineall said lawyers must observe ethical and conduct rules which apply to them while advising and representing their clients, with appropriate sanctions if they breach them.

He said: The task force must not fall into the trap of identifying lawyers with the causes of their clients, nor should it assume that misbehaviour by clients amounts to misbehaviour by lawyers.

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said it is too little too late and the buck stops with the Conservatives, accusing them of having sat idly by for 13 years while illegal migration has spun out of control.

He said: Now, weak as ever, they are setting up a talking shop instead of cracking down on those who abuse our immigration system.

The first asylum seekers arrived at the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland on Monday, with the Home Office saying people are expected to be housed there for between three and nine months.

Cheryl Avery, the Home Offices director for asylum accommodation, confirmed 15 people were moved on to the vessel as part of the Governments bid to cut the cost of hotel bills by finding other accommodation, which also includes former military bases.

Care4Calais said around 20 asylum seekers did not board the barge as planned because their transfers were cancelled after lawyers challenged the decisions.

A Home Office spokesperson said on Tuesday evening: The first asylum seekers are now being housed on the vessel in Portland after it successfully completed all health, fire and safety checks.

The number of people on board will increase gradually with more arrivals later this week and in the coming months, as part of a carefully structured phased approach.

This marks a further step forward in the Governments work to bring forward alternative accommodation options as part of its pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels and move to a more orderly, sustainable system which is more manageable for local communities.

Conservative MP Lee Anderson said asylum seekers complaining about the Bibby Stockholm barge should go back to France (UK Parliament/PA)

Tory MP Mr Anderson, on those complaining about the accommodation, told Express.co.uk: If they dont like barges then they should f*** off back to France.

He added: I think people have just had enough.

These people come across the Channel in small boats if they dont like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better not come at all in the first place.

Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, currently an Independent MP, wrote on Twitter: A new low even for the Tories.
Everything's going well with SpaceX's largest rocket.

The private space company recently announced that its latest Starship Booster 9 static fire test today was a success while admitting that it could have gone better due to some setbacks.

SpaceX has yet to reveal when it would launch its Starship rocket for its next test flight following the "rapid unscheduled disassembly" of the first test flight in April experienced.

A Test For What's To Come

SpaceX had a field day on Aug. 6. According to Space.com, the first-stage prototype of the company's Starship rocket, Booster 9, managed to pass a static fire test. The company fired all of its Raptor engines while the prototype was anchored to the orbital launch mount at its Starbase site in South Texas.

While considered a success, there were some problems, albeit small, with the rocket's Raptor engines. Of the 33 that roared to life on that test, four of them shut down prematurely, which meant less thrust for the rocket's first stage.

The premature shutdown of four of the 33 Raptor engines showed that SpaceX is still struggling with the reliability of its Raptor engines despite the work its engineers put into improving their performance, per Ars Technica.

As of press time, SpaceX's Starship rocket is powered by Raptor 2 engines; the company is working on an upgraded "Raptor 3" version to address engine reliability. Despite the setback, SpaceX still saw the test as a success as 29 out of 33 isn't bad - both Booster 9 and its orbital launch mount emerged from the test in one piece, unlike the first Starship SpaceX test launched.

Read More: Genshin Impact 4.0 Brings Fontaine, New Features on Aug. 16

"A big congrats to the Starship team for getting through today's test," SpaceX's John Insprucker said during the company's Aug. 6 webcast. "That moves us another step closer to our next flight test."

When's The Next Test Flight?

While SpaceX has yet to reveal when it will launch its Starship rocket for its next test flight, the fact that it did its static fire test on a Sunday shows there is some urgency with SpaceX's launch campaign. Whether this urgency means that a test launch is possible in the next few months is still debatable.

Nevertheless, SpaceX has made considerable progress and improvements since its first Starship test flight on Apr. 20, when the rocket experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (an explosion) and caused environmental damage in Florida. These improvements include installing a large water deluge system (and successfully testing it).

SpaceX also tested this system during its Aug. 6 static fire test. It includes a thick, perforated steel plate beneath the rocket where jets of water are fired to offset the heat and acoustic energy of Starship's 33 Raptor engines firing simultaneously, producing immense amounts of steam.

The company did well creating this water deluge system. A coalition of environmental and Indigenous groups is currently suing the FAA for failing to take a closer look at the environmental risks posed by SpaceX's operations in its Boca Chica launch site.

The creation of such a system will help SpaceX's efforts to get a new launch license for Starship's next test flight.

Related Article: SpaceX's Next Starship Launch in 6 - 8 Weeks, Musk Says
Ascension Island is the UK government's 'Plan B' if its policy to send migrants to Rwanda fails - Credit: Adobe

The government has contingency plans in place to tackle its migrant problem in the event that its contentious Rwanda policy does not go ahead. A volcanic island 4,000 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean has emerged as a candidate.

Ascension Island is being considered as a place to house migrants before finding them a permanent home. The location had been suggested for processing asylum seekers previously.

Ministers are in negotiations with at least five countries over a 'Plan B' deportation deal, according to The Times. These include Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Morocco and Niger - the latter of which is currently facing a military coup.

ONE EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO SALES. NO ARCHIVING. NO ALTERING OR MANIPULATING. NO USE ON SOCIAL MEDIA UNLESS AGREED BY HOC PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICE. MANDATORY CREDIT: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor Handout photo issued by UK Parliament of Home Secretary Suella Braverman making a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, London. Ms Braverman has said she is "committed" to making the plan to send migrants to Rwanda work after the High Court ruled that the policy is lawful. Several challenges were brought against the proposals announced by then-home secretary Priti Patel in April, which she described as a "world-first agreement" with the east African nation in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the Channel. Picture date: Monday December 19, 2022.

The aim is to find somewhere remote enough that deters those who cross the English Channel in small boats.

Plans are being drawn up should the government's Rwanda policy - which will see migrants sent to central Africa - fail. It has already been ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal and consistently criticised by human rights experts.

Here is everything you need to know about Ascension Island - one of the favourites to replace Rwanda as the location government ministers wish to deport asylum seekers.

Where is Ascension Island?

Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island which is south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is 1,000 miles from the coast of Africa and 1,400 miles from South America and is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena.

It was first discovered by famed Portuguese navigator Joao da Nova in 1501 when it was initially named Conception Island. Yet following a re-discovery two years later on Ascension Day by Alphonse de Albuquerque, it was renamed.

Ascension Island was used as a base by the US during the Second World War and as a support base for the RAF during the Falklands War.

The island is the home of a Royal Air Force station, a European Space Agency rocket tracking station, a British-American signals intelligence facility and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. A NASA Meter Class Autonomous Telescope - which is used to track orbital debris - can also be found here.

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The currency on the island is the St Helena pound which has the same worth as the pound sterling. It has a handful of shops, gyms and swimming pools, and even a cinema and an array of outdoor activities.

What is the population of Ascension Island?

There is no permanent or Indigenous population on the island, rather it is made up of employees and their families who work on the island. It is estimated that Ascension Island has a population of around 800 people at any given time.

Does Ascension Island have an airport and how to get there?

Until only few years ago, Ascension island was closed to tourism and it was only possible to travel there upon invitation for business purposes, or if the visitor was part of the resident military personnel. It is linked by plane to the rest of the world, two or three times every week, with flights operated by the Royal Air Force between Brize Norton and Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands making stopovers. Both flights are between eight and nine hours long, nonstop, and are operated by wide-body jets, usually by Airbus A330 Voyager.
Matthew Smith

A disgraced former deputy headteacher at Prince George and Princess Charlottes former primary school promised children he would pay them if they shared sexual photos of themselves, a court heard on Friday (August 4). Matthew Smith, 35, commissioned the horrific abuse of children as young as seven whilst working at a British school in Nepal.

Smith recruited teenagers he knew to groom children and offered to pay their school fees in exchange for sexual images. The teacher, who was due to be sentenced last Friday, previously admitted 18 counts of child sex abuse levelled against him.

However, the judge deferred handing Smith a substantial prison sentence until next week, in order to do the complicated case justice. Addressing Smith, who appeared at Southwark Crown Court in jeans and a white shirt, the Honourable Justice Martin Griffith told him: You know I am going to pass a substantial prison sentence

But I really want to go through this, having heard the submissions. I will construct my sentencing remarks and make them available for whoever wants them and deal with you on Wednesday.

Smith was deputy headteacher at the 20,000-a-year Thomass Preparatory School in Battersea, southwest London, until allegations first emerged late last year. None of the offences related to his job at the prestigious primary school, which was attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte until the end of the last academic year.

Before taking up the job at St Thomass, he worked at a British school in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, between 2017 and July 2022. The court heard Smith had also previously worked at an orphanage in Nepal, and that some of the images found on his black Dell laptop derived from his former place of work.

His home in East Dulwich, south London, was raided by police last November. During the raid, police found more than 120,000 indecent images of children on his laptop, an SD card and his mobile phone.

Martin Hooper, prosecuting, told the court Smith was on his black Dell laptop at the time of the raid, and that a number of tabs were open which involved indecent images of children.

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After his arrest, Smith admitted in a police interview: Clearly I have an addiction in this area I dont like the person I am. I would give anything to be normal. Anything.

Mr Hooper added: Asked if there was any relevance to his employment history and whether he abused anyone at work, [Smith] was quite emphatic in saying no.

His history is important, as at the time of his arrest in November 2022 he was employed as a teacher. He was the deputy head of pastoral care at Thomass School, which teaches children aged four to 13.

Prior to that he was a teacher in Nepal and had volunteered at an orphanage with children aged between two and 15. Some of the material on the defendants laptop showed the exploitation of at least one child from that orphanage.

After his interview, the police fully downloaded all the material that this case involves. It was clear from that that there were a number of different individuals that the defendant was corresponding with to illicit images of children and the physical exploitation of children.

Mr Hooper explained that the first folder police examined involved communication with a young boy in India, who Smith paid to engage in sexual activities with his younger brother - estimated to be 10 years old.

Smith would also send his own images to the young brothers asking for them to be recreated, and transferred them nearly 7,000. Another folder related to material sent by a boy in India whilst Smith was working at the British school in Kathmandu.

Police examined messages relating to sexual acts the boy and Smith committed together, with the young boy referring to him in some messages as Uncle.

The defendant requested [the boy] went and found young males to live with him with the express intention that they would be sexually abused, Mr Hooper said.

The defendant said he would pay their school fees in return. One boy left his family home to go and live with [Smiths contact]. The boy [who left his family home] is thought to be seven or eight years old.

It was very much a two-way flow of images. [In one message to his contact] the defendant says, Awesome. What else will he do?

The harm is extreme. Its the highest category of culpability. There is planning, grooming; images were kept and there was a commercial aspect to it as well.

It may be argued there was isolation of the victim as well.

Mr Hooper suggested Mr Justice Griffiths sentenced Smith by finding the most serious offence and aggravating it to reflect the others.

Sarah Vine, KC, defending Smith, told the judge some of the charges were inchoate - or preparatory to a further criminal act that was never acted upon - and sought to highlight that there was no evidence that young children had been subjected to penetrative sex.

Ms Vine argued it was credit to his character that Smith had written to every single member of his family and friends to explain what was happening and apologise to them for the distress he may have caused them.

She added: It has been to his very significant credit the extent to which Mr Smith is prepared to accept his offending. He very much understands his life over the next substantial period will be in custody.

Difficult as his time thus far in custody has been, he has nonetheless sought to use it constructively. A man of excellent education, he has set about teaching other inmates to read and write. He hopes he will have, in some way, made some tiny reparation for the harm he has caused.

Smith is now due to be sentenced on Wednesday, August 9.
Mali and Burkina Faso will send a joint official delegation to coup-hit Niger on Monday in a show of solidarity between the nations  all of whom are ruled by juntas. Meanwhile regional bloc Ecowas said an immediate military intervention to restore Niger's toppled president was not envisaged.

The delegation, announced by the Malian army, is expected to arrive in Niger on Monday, according to Niger's foreign ministry.

The country's coup leaders defied a Sunday deadline from the West African bloc Ecowas to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible military action.

Mali and Burkina Faso, where the military also took power by force in 2020 and 2022, warned in a joint statement that they would consider military intervention as a declaration of war.

France said it would suspend development aid and budgetary assistance to Burkina Faso over the move.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS will hold a summit in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger, ECOWAS spokesperson Emos Lungu told Reuters on Monday.

Niger closes airspace

Thousands gathered in the capital Niamey in rallies backing the soldiers and denouncing possible foreign intervention, military commanders sealed off the country's airspace until further notice, the junta said in a statement.

Air France has suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali until 11 August, the company said on Monday.

Meanwhile France has warned against all travel in Niger.



Read more on RFI English



Read also:

Niger coup leaders defy ultimatum to restore Bazoum to power

Junta rallies supporters in Niger as deadline to reinstate president passes

Time for Niger's coup leaders to give up on reckless 'adventure', says France
Niger has closed its airspace until further notice citing the threat of military intervention from the West African regional bloc after coup leaders rejected a deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president.

The airspace was closed by the junta on Sunday "in the face of the threat of intervention that is becoming more apparent," a representative said in a statement on national television.

He said there had been a pre-deployment of forces in two Central African countries in preparation for an intervention - but did not give details.

Thousands of junta supporters flocked to a stadium in the capital Niamey, cheering the decision not to cave in to external pressure to stand down by Sunday following the power grab on 26 July.

Prior to Sunday's deadline, defence chiefs of the West African regional body - known as ECOWAS, agreed a possible military action plan, including when and where to strike, if the detained president Mohamed Bazoum was not released and reinstated by Sunday.

ECOWAS has said it will hold a summit in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss the coup in Niger.

Mr Bazoum, who has claimed he is a "hostage", was elected two years ago in the nation's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960.

He had been seen as a key Western ally in the region in the fight against extremists linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

The coup, led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, marked the seventh in West and Central Africa since 2020.

ECOWAS sanctions have led to power cuts and soaring food prices but it was not immediately clear what the bloc will do next as it faces prominent calls to pursue more peaceful means.

An escalation in the stand-off with ECOWAS would further destabilise the region and the bloc's military threat has triggered fears of further conflict in a region already battling the deadly Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee.

Story continues

Read more:

UK reduces number of staff at Niger embassy

How Russia may seek to exploit crisis-hit Niger

Any military intervention could be complicated by a promise from juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to Niger's defence if needed.

Given its uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants, Niger holds importance for China and Russia.

It is also a security ally of France and the US, which both use it as a base to fight an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa's wider Sahel region.
(Bloomberg) -- Oil dropped as traders shrugged off the risk to commodity ships in the Black Sea until disruptions materialized.

Most Read from Bloomberg

West Texas Intermediate settled below $82 a barrel at the start of the week after rising more than 4% over the previous two sessions. In recent days, sea drones hit a Russian oil tanker and naval vessel, highlighting the threat to fuel flows on a key route to global markets. Still, exports are continuing from the region at a time when the market is relatively well supplied.

The crude market has a poor record of anticipating the impacts of supply disruptions and oil traders are hesitant to make assumptions until supplies are off the market, said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth. The fact that Saudi Arabia has plenty of spare capacity in the short term is also helping buffer any supply related reaction.

With the elevated risks in the Black Sea doing little to propel prices, there were instead headwinds from wider markets on Monday. A selloff in government bonds accelerated, spurred by the threat of further rate hikes.

Meanwhile in central Europe, Poland has stopped shipping oil through a section of the Druzhba link running to Germany after detecting a leak late Saturday, according to pipeline operator PERN. The firm plans to resume pumping Tuesday morning.

Oil capped a sixth weekly gain last week, the longest rising streak since June 2022. Futures have erased year-to-date losses as supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia tighten the market. On Saturday, the kingdom raised almost all of its prices for September to Asia and Europe.

To get Bloombergs Energy Daily newsletter direct into your inbox, click here.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A Tel Aviv municipal patrol officer has died, Israeli officials said on Saturday, after being shot by a Palestinian on a street in central Tel Aviv.

The suspected shooter was then shot dead by another municipal patrol worker, Tel Aviv's mayor Ron Huldai told Israel's public broadcaster.

A statement from the Israeli police said the shooter was a 27 year-old resident of the Palestinian town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the attack but did not take responsibility.

The shooting came a day after a Palestinian teen was killed in an attack by Israeli civilians on a Palestinian village in the West Bank.

Washington has expressed concern over a growing number of attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where violence has worsened since last year with increased Israeli raids amid Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.

Tel Aviv mayor Huldai said the municipal worker had approached the attacker after noticing something suspicious and was then fired at by the shooter. A second municipal worker then killed the shooter.

"We are standing at a very sad incident," Huldai said. "We are praying for the well-being of the injured."

In brief statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the actions of the municipal patrol officers.

Despite the attack, tens of thousands protested in Tel Aviv, according to the Israeli public broadcaster, against the governing coalition's planned judicial overhaul which would see the highest court stripped of much of its powers.

Proponents of the legislation say it restores balance to the branches of government, while those against say it removes checks on government powers.

Last month, the coalition passed legislation that removed the court's power to strike down government actions based on the action being classified as "unreasonable."

(Reporting by Emily Rose and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Toby Chopra and David Holmes)
(Bloomberg) -- Pheu Thai, a party linked to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has joined hands with conservative Bhumjaithai Party to form a government and break a political stalemate thats gripped the Southeast Asian nation since the May general election.

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Bhumjaithai, a group known for championing the liberalization of cannabis, will endorse a prime minister candidate picked by Pheu Thai, its leader Anutin Charnvirakul said at a briefing in Bangkok on Monday. The party agreed to join the new alliance on conditions that it excludes the reformist Move Forward Party and will not seek to amend a controversial royal insult law nor run a minority government, he said.

The new coalition wil include more parties, which will be unveiled over the coming days, Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew said at the same briefing. The bloc will command a majority of the lawmakers in the 500-member House of Representatives, he said.

Pheu Thais coalition is taking shape after the party broke away from a previous pro-democracy bloc led by Move Forward that won the most seats in the election. Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forwards leader, was twice blocked from taking the prime ministers job by pro-establishment parties and senators, who opposed his partys pledge to amend the law barring criticism of the royal family.

Anutin said the alliance of parties from two opposite camps may help heal the polarization that has plagued modern Thai politics. Now its time that the country gets a new government and move on. We need to end all those disputes and despairs, Anutin said.

Thailands benchmark stock index rallied as much as 0.6% on speculation a new coalition may help end the political gridlock and ended 0.1% higher. The baht initially pared its losses before sliding again to trade 0.4% lower by 5 p.m. local time.

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Still, any rally in Thai equities will be limited as the alliance isnt yet assured of enough votes in parliament to get its prime ministerial candidate elected, said Poramet Tongbua, an analyst at Bualuang Securities Pcl. Investors will cautiously monitor the political developments before making aggressive investments, he said.

Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai, which placed second and third in the election, together command 212 seats in the lower house, still well short of a majority and a threshold to seal the prime ministers post. Pheu Thai has said it will nominate property tycoon Srettha Thavisin for the top job.

Its not yet clear how Pheu Thai will muster the remaining lawmaker support to form a government. Any winning coalition will need the backing of the majority of the 750 lawmakers in a joint sitting of the the lower house and the military-appointed Senate.

A coalition with Bhumjaithai doesnt create any obstacles in winning the backing of the Senate and other parties, unlike one with Move Forward Party, Cholnan said. Our chance of a successful government formation with Bhumjaithai is high.

A new date for the parliament to pick the next prime minister has not yet been set. A vote set for last Friday was canceled, pending clarity from the Constitutional Court, which last week deferred making a decision about Pitas re-nomination petition.

With the political stalemate continuing, Thaksin also delayed his plan to return to Thailand this week, signaling Pheu Thai is still some way from reaching a deal to form a government.

--With assistance from Anuchit Nguyen, Pathom Sangwongwanich and Suttinee Yuvejwattana.

(Updates with comments from Anutin and Cholnan in fifth, ninth paragraphs.)

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The whole world has felt how heavy the Covid-19 pandemic was. Luckily for us, experts and professionals around the world worked together to beat the virus until it barely affected us anymore. Scientists are still working on ways to prevent such a thing from happening again, and an AI system might be the answer.

AI to Detect the Next Pandemic

Scientists from Scripps Research and Northwestern University in the US conducted a study showing an AI system that can warn us about dangerous virus variants that can progress to another pandemic.

It's called Early Warning Anomaly Detection or EWAD, and it is capable of analyzing genetic sequence, frequencies, and mortality rates of the virus variants as they spread, all of which are made possible through machine learning, as reported by Interesting Engineering.

The system has already been tested by researchers using data from the Covid-19 pandemic. The results were found to be accurate when it comes to predicting which variants of concern (VOC) would emerge when the virus mutated.

The AI system is even capable of estimating how health measures would affect the spread and evolution of the virus such as the use of vaccines and wearing of masks, making it another source of proof for the effectiveness of such methods.

It uses a mathematical technique called Gaussian process-based spatial covariance, reports say, which is able to predict new data based on the existing data at hand and its relationships. It can also find patterns that humans usually miss when there's too much data to analyze.

Microbiologist and lead author of the study, William Balch said that they could see key gene variants appearing and becoming more prevalent as the mortality rate also change, and it was happening weeks before the VOCs were officially designated by the World Health Organization.

The AI system can very well be what saves us from another pandemic that is bad or worse than Covid-19. Early detection will allow us to conduct early preventive measures, as well as develop solutions fast before it gets past the early stages.

Read Also: Around 4,000 People Lost Their Jobs to AI, Report Finds

Predictive AI Systems

A lot of AI experts have been developing AI tools for various uses, some of which are less controversial. Many of them actually serve a greater purpose in certain industries. For example, an AI tool was developed to help farmers in Africa.

The Africa Agriculture Watch or AAgWa, is a web-based platform that combines remote sensing data and machine learning to help farmers with decision-making concerning African food production systems.

It is available in 47 countries. Some of its features allow users to view productions and yields, which can be viewed in different years. The countries and regions can also be specified, along with the kind of crop that farmers plan to plant.

All the data needed are pulled from satellite data and images. Upon sensing parameters on the ground, the factors can be easily studied by AI to inform farmers of potential growth conditions, which can be important when uncertainty comes with climate change.

Related: AI Tool Helps Farmers in Africa Be Productive Despite Climate Change
These are some of the best places across Newcastle to have afternoon tea during National Afternoon Tea Week (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI)

This years National Afternoon Tea Week starts on Monday, August 7 and runs until Sunday, August 13 and were lucky there are so many amazing options on where to go across Newcastle for the meal.

Based on Google reviews, these are some of the top rated places to go for afternoon tea in and around Newcastle.

Read Newcastle's news on the go with our free email newsletters - bringing the headlines to your inbox. Catch up on the day's news and sport and enjoy even more from the NewcastleWorld team. Visit our website here to find out more and sign up.

Dreamworld Cakes

Based in the heart of trendy Ouseburn, Dreamworld Cakes offer an afternoon tea deal which includes a selection of mini patisserie items, sandwiches and freshly baked scones along with a hot drink.

It is served between 11:30am and 3pm between Wednesday and Saturday each week as well as 11:30am until 1pm on Sundays at a cost of 18.50 per person and 7 for children under 11 years old.

The site offers a cosy sanctuary from city life and has a 4.9 rating on Google reviews.

Monsieur Crepe Cafe

Over in Heaton, this cafe which specialises in crepes and deli sandwiches also offers the traditional British meal for 15 per person.

The price includes a savoury tart, a selection of scones as well as mini deserts and a choice of hot drinks. The cafe also has a 4.8 rating from Google reviews.

Those looking to turn their experience into more of an event are also in luck thanks to a series of high end afternoon tea options across the city.

Jesmond Dene House

Sat in the picturesque area of the park sharing its name, Jesmond Dene House has been a favourite for those looking for a classy way to celebrate occasions in Newcastle for years.

Their current afternoon tea deal offers diners scones, sandwiches, scones, a savoury snack and a patisserie at prices ranging from 32.50 to 44.

Vermont Hotel

Back in the centre of the city, the Vermont Hotels afternoon tea options start from 9.95 for a cream tea while a full traditional afternoon tea comes to 22.95 per person.

The larger option includes finger sandwiches, scones, preservatives and clotted cream as well as a series of sweet treats alongside tea or coffee.

The site also offers an alternative afternoon tea which includes a scotch egg, Vermont burger and pork pie with cheese and fries for the same price.
Dual citizenship offers those eligible a chance to remain

Casting my mind back to June 2016, as the result of the EU referendum was announced, I remember a great sense of loss, not so much for myself but for my child.

The opportunities they once held in their young hands had been taken from them; the chance to work and study unhindered in numerous exciting and vibrant countries across Europe; perhaps finding a job in France to learn to speak the language like a native; maybe their dream career move would await in Germany; or might they have chosen to soak up the sun and culture in places such as Italy or Spain.

Brexit felt like a book containing a rich and colourful future being snapped shut for the young people of the UK. They became the poorer relative of their European cousins still benefiting from the union, thanks to votes cast by people, many of whom would have shuffled off this mortal coil long before the children left to bear the consequences of their actions even reached adulthood.

But there was a glimmer of hope, at least for some of us. For anyone with the opportunity to gain dual citizenship, you had an 'out'.

For me, my saving grace is my Irish mother - who, I might add, has been my saving grace on many more occasions than just this one - whose birthplace offers both me, and her grandchildren, the chance to remain.

And it's not a thought that has only occurred to me of course. Applications for Irish passports rocketed following the referendum result. With so many people in the UK with a parent or grandparent from the Emerald Isle, they too can give back to their families at least some of what had been taken away.

And Irish heritage is by no means the only opportunity open to people - boasting lineage from the other European Union member states could also spell your way back into the fold.

Yet, despite being prepared to do what I can to offer my children as much choice as is open to them, this Im alright Jack attitude doesnt sit entirely well with me. Instead of a select few of us with family from outside the UK keeping hold of some of the bonuses received from being part of such a huge bloc, I would prefer if they were still available to all.

What makes this pill all the more difficult to swallow is the recent poll showing Brexit regret at an all-time high and indeed the majority of people would actually now have preferred to remain in the EU.

So for the time being, while I celebrate my Irishness as the gift that keeps on giving, I remain hopeful that before too many more children pass into adulthood without the opportunities most of us perhaps took for granted, the UK can see the error of its ways and rejoin the union that gave us so much more than it ever took.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Its difficult to find a policy area that systemic racism hasnt touched in the U.S.

Education, healthcare, housing, and even the environment are all affected by inequities that are baked into the American pie.

And were at a moment where Mother Nature is upping the challenges for peopleespecially those with lower incomesto live on this planet. Wildfires in Canada made the air literally unbreathable in wide berths of the U.S. several different times already this summer. Sea levels are rising, extreme heat is killing people, and things arent going to just get better on their own.

America Is Putting Up Memorials for a Lynching Victim, While Minimizing Slavery

Black and Brown communities face the brunt of failed climate action and lackluster environmental policy. But there are those who believe its actually government efforts to ease the effects of calamitous effects of climate change that are to blame for the hard times of lower income communities.

Theyre calling it Green Jim Crow.

This is the idea (which appears to have been introduced in a 2021 study by the self-described left-leaning environmental and civil rights lawyer Jennifer Hernandez) that Democratic politicians in California have pushed for policies whose environmental benefits are massively outweighed by the economic disadvantages they impose on poorer, mostly Black and brown communities. (The populist right is beginning to warm to the phrase, as well.)

Though there are some compelling arguments in Hernandezs studysuch as the proposed new housing map designed to increase the use of public transit only serves to reinforce segregative housing policies of the pastthe premise of the idea is simply wrong.

First and foremost, Black people today do, in fact, own fewer homes than they did before the civil rights movement, but that isnt attributed to environmental policies or zoning. It is correlated heavily to a banking industry with predatory lending practices being uprooted in the collapse of 2008, rising rents, and housing costs broadly, and a widening racial wealth gap. Top mortgage lenders Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, and Bank of America signed off on 44,000 fewer mortgages for Black buyers in 2021 than in 2007, housing data show.

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These effects have snowballed into an economic calamity for Black families.

And while its true that Californians endure some of the highest housing costs in the country, they also boast some of the strongest green innovations and technological advancement in green energy.

California is trying to hold corporations accountable for their climate impact, with bills that would require large corporations to disclose greenhouse emissions and report climate risks.

RFK Jr.s Legacy of Inflicting Severe Damage on Black Communities

Just last year, California achieved a top feat in running on 100 percent clean energy for the first time. According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, California is in the business of getting things done: slashing air pollution, launching the clean energy revolution, holding Big Oil accountable, eliminating the tailpipe, and fighting climate-driven crises like wildfire, drought and extreme heat. Were taking action now because we know later is too late.

Though California is on track for seismic and necessary climate and energy policy change, it hasnt come without scrutiny. The usual suspects are conservatives but a smaller group of liberal voices are joining the chorus.

But the government being responsive to climate change and more severe and frequent extreme weather events environmental cautionary tales isnt whats hurting Black Californians. Increasing energy efficiency reduces electricity costs. Expanding access to solar and providing tax breaks and provisions for cars that dont require gasoline is good policy. Eliminating carbon emissions helps protect air quality.

Environment destruction and racial injustice are linked.

The issues are so grave and widespread that prominent organizations are calling for climate reparations for Blacks. The Brookings Institution found that communities of color are overexposed to climate harm and climate-related disasters disproportionately compared to majority-white neighborhoods.

Particularly notable is the systemic exploitation of Black and Native American labor that fueled Americas economic engine in industries that would destruct the environments where those two groups primarily lived.

Were Finally Starting to Fight Back Against Racism in AI

The devastating impact of slavery also drove environmental disaster. "In 1776, the U.S. was responsible for less than 1 percent of global GHG emissions, but by the time slavery was abolished in 1865 and the Industrial Revolution gained steam, it had grown into the worlds third-highest emitter and was on a rapid course to become the highest by the start of the 20th century, according to a Brookings study. Racial wealth gaps also determine who has the means to endure climate and environmental disasters, while others cannot.

Any policy that advances racial equity must include environmental and climate protections. A net good comes from environmental policy changes that incorporate reductions in emissions and provide for clean water, clean air, and fuel/energy efficiency.

Though possibly well-intentioned, the idea that environmentalism and standards of living are zero-sum balanced is not only irresponsible, its hurtful to the Black communities that require these changes to thrive. The idea of Green Jim Crow isnt just reckless hyperbole, its patently ridiculous.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The purpose of the rare visit by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to a G7 member country was not announced (ATTA KENARE)

Iran's foreign minister visited Japan on Monday for the first time since 2019, in a rare trip to a G7 member country by the Islamic republic's top diplomat.

The purpose of the visit by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to the current chair of the G7 was not announced, but reports said Japan would press Iran to stop supplying Russia with arms.

Kyiv's military said last month it had destroyed dozens of Iran-built attack drones targeted at Ukraine's Odesa region.

Amir-Abdollahian met Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, with both hailing the opportunity to have face-to-face talks in Tokyo.

"I am grateful for having this opportunity of exchange of opinions" over bilateral, regional and international issues, the Iranian diplomat said.

Ahead of the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in Tokyo "we don't pick a side in any war", denying Iran had provided Russia with arms, Jiji Press reported.

He added that Iran "has never provided drones to any country for use in Ukraine", according to the report.

Amir-Abdollahian will also make a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, private broadcaster TBS reported.

TBS, citing unnamed government sources, said Japan would raise the issue of arms exports to Russia.

The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement that Hayashi had "requested Iran to take constructive measures, repeating Japan's position on Russia's invasion into Ukraine".

- Nuclear concerns -

Japan and Iran have traditionally kept friendly ties despite key Tokyo ally Washington's tense relations with Tehran.

Iran used to be a major oil exporter to resource-poor Japan, but volumes have dropped sharply in recent years due to US economic sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.

Amir-Abdollahian's visit to Japan is the first by a top Iranian diplomat since December 2019, and the first under President Ebrahim Raisi.

However, Hayashi and Amir-Abdollahian have held telephone talks in the past, most recently in April this year.

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During the April talks, Hayashi expressed Japan's support for the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six major powers, and urged Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.

The 2015 accord -- to which Russia and China were also parties -- was aimed at scaling down Iran's nuclear activities in order to allay fears it was developing atomic weapons.

But the United States pulled out of the deal under former president Donald Trump and efforts to revive it under President Joe Biden have faltered, while Tehran has expanded its nuclear work.

The Japanese foreign ministry said in its statement that Tokyo had "serious concerns about Iran's nuclear-related activities" and called for Iran to take "constructive measures including complete and unconditional cooperation" with the IAEA.

kh/stu/smw
West African leaders will discuss Niger on Thursday after the junta that seized power there on July 26 defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president or face the threat of military intervention, a spokesman for the ECOWAS regional bloc said on Monday. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

This live blog is no longer being updated.

9:05pm: Mali warns of 'catastrophe' if ECOWAS intervenes in Niger

A military intervention in Niger by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore the ousted president could be a "catastrophe", Mali's head of diplomacy warned on Monday.

President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown in a military coup on July 26, and ECOWAS had threatened possible military intervention if he was not restored by Sunday.

Neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, both run by juntas, have expressed their opposition to any use of force against the putschists.

8:50pm: US says 'window of opportunity' open to reverse Niger coup

In one of the world's poorest countries, he said, such sanctions could take a heavy toll.



Read more on FRANCE 24 English



Read also:

Niger coup leaders rally supporters as ECOWAS deadline passes

ECOWAS steps up pressure on Niger coup leaders

ECOWAS delegation arrives in Niger to meet coup leaders for talks
Two Russian missile strikes on the east Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including on a residential building, killed at least five people and wounded 31 others, Kyiv said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are creating conditions to advance forward step-by-step and have the initiative on the battlefield, Ukraine's commander-in-chief said on Monday. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

This live blog is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage on the war in Ukraine, please click here.

8:32pm: Russian strikes on east Ukraine's Pokrovsk kill five, wound 18, says Kyiv

Two Russian missile strikes on the east Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including on a residential building, killed at least five people and wounded 18, Kyiv said.

"Five dead and 18 wounded as a result of two strikes on a residential building in Pokrovsk," Igor Klymenko, Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, said on Telegram. He said the first strike killed four civilians and that an official from the emergency services was killed in the second strike.

7:51pm: US says it was productive that China attended talks on Ukraine war in Saudi Arabia

Glukhovsky, who lives outside Russia, is best known for his novel Metro-2033, that has also been used as a basis for a popular video game.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)



Read more on FRANCE 24 English



Read also:

Ukraine says it downed scores of cruise missiles, drones overnight

Deadly Russian strike hits blood transfusion centre, says Zelensky

Russia says it thwarted Ukraine drone attack on Black Sea port of Novorossiysk
More than 50 wildfires are tearing through the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, with strong winds fanning the flames and complicating efforts to keep the blaze under control - the same situation faced by Portugal last Saturday.

Over 1,100 firefighters and 14 water-carrying aircraft battled a fire that had broken out in the Castelo Branco area in central Portugal on Friday, while local authorities warned that the hot and windy conditions could fan on the flames. Some 100 people living in the area were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

In Sardinia, some 600 people were evacuated from cities and towns on the east coast of the island, including residents of Posada where one fire started on Sunday. Tourists staying at camping sites, luxury resorts, hotels and nearby restaurants have also been asked to leave.

One woman in her 70s was injured after deciding to remain inside her home in the town of Bolotana, despite raging fires. She was rescued by emergency services on Monday.

Six teams of firefighters, including 30 officers and 12 vehicles, have been deployed in the region, while several Canadair planes dropped water on the fires on Sunday - to little or no avail.

"Not a fair fight"

"Despite the huge deployment of fire officers, the situation is truly dramatic," Posada's town councillor Giorgio Fresu was quoted as saying by local media. "The wind is blowing so strongly that it's not a fair fight."

The wind is expected to lose strength through Monday, a development which should ease the firefighters' woes.

The south coast and the territory surrounding the island's main city, Cagliari, have also been affected by wildfires, fanned by winds reaching up to 100 km/h on Sunday. A protected area home to hundreds of flamingos, one of the attractions of the area and a symbol of the city, was affected.

The mayor has announced the closure of all parks and cemeteries as a preventative measure.

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As in the case of Sicily, which was recently hit by devastating wildfires that led to the temporary closure of its main airports in Palermo and Catania, the origin of the fires in Sardinia is not yet clear - though some suspect arson. On Tuesday, fire services said they found proof that the fires were sparked by yet-to-be-identified arsonists.

The regions president, Christian Solinas, said it cannot be ruled out that the fires were caused by a deliberate act.

The mayor of the city of Muravera, also ravaged by blazes, was quoted by local media calling for harsh punishment for those involved, should it be proven it was arson.

The Italian government is currently working to introduce tougher sentences for arsonists in the country and is expected to present a new draft of legislation on the topic on Monday.

Under the revised law, the sentence for wilfully sparking a fire in a forest or woodland in Italy would be increased to a minimum of 6 years - from the current minimum of 4. Those who accidentally start a fire would be punished with a jail sentence of between 1 and 2 years, meanwhile.

Sardinia, like much of Italy, has recently been affected by extreme temperatures, reporting a record of 48C in the town of Jerzu last month.

Smoke billows from a fire in the Cypriot village of Paramytha, on August 6, 2023. - ETIENNE TORBEY/AFP

Scientists have determined that climate change is fuelling these abnormal weather events and dramatically increases the risk of wildfires, as well as their severity. Keeping global warming to a level lower than 2C would significantly reduce the risk of wildfires, according to researchers.

Policies to target climate change remain controversial in Italy, despite the increased urgency of the issue felt by some.

Fires ravage Cyprus as much of Portugal remains under red alert

On Monday, Portugal's capital Lisbon was added to the list of cities and towns in the country currently under a "red alert" as temperatures are expected to reach 44C. The red alert is expected to turn into an orange one by midday and last until the end of Tuesday.

The extreme heat of this summer has also been linked to the fires ravaging Cyprus, where aircraft from Greece, Jordan, and Lebanon are helping local fire services battle the flames, according to officials.

Two helicopters operate over a fire in Apesia, a semi-mountainous village near Limassol, southwestern Cyprus, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. - Philippos Christou/AP

The fire, which started on the island on Friday, had largely been contained overnight but had rekindled in several areas of the country early Monday. Agriculture and Environment Minister Petros Xenophontos described the reigniting of the fire as "something that concerns us."

Fires are here, climate change exists and unfortunately it won't go away, the minister told reporters.

The fire burned around 8.5 square kilometres of land in Cyprus, according to officials.
UK Contingent Unit 2 'The Wee Buns' from Northern Ireland at the world jamboree site in South Korea before they had to evacuate. Photo: The Wee Buns Facebook page

Tens of thousands of scouts  including more than 4,000 from the UK  were forced to flee from their campsite as Tropical Storm Khanun looms.

However, one Scout leader, speaking in a video posted on the official Scouts website, said there were also serious concerns around the cleanliness of the toilet facilities, the amount of food that was available, and the heat relief measures that were being put in place and the available medical services.

"We do feel let down, but the jamboree journey continues for us, he said.

Among the UK contingent is a group of 36 young people from all over Northern Ireland who call themselves The Wee Buns. There are also 19 adult volunteers from the province who are part of the International Service Team (IST).

Their parent organisation  UK Scouts  said: UK Scouts has transferred our young people and adult volunteers from the Jamboree site at SaeManGeum to Seoul.

They all arrived in Seoul on Sunday, August 6. This follows announcing our plans to transfer from the site on Friday, August 4. The UK contingent have now been allocated their accommodation. The UK Embassy has been welcoming them as they arrive.

The UK Embassy and the mayor of Seoul are also supporting the UK team with developing programme activities so our young people still get the most from the rest of their Jamboree experience in South Korea.

We know leaving the Jamboree site may be a disappointment for some, but we will continue the Jamboree experience in Seoul. 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.

South Koreas weather agency reported that Khanun was about 205 miles north-east of the Japanese island of Okinawa as of 9am local time yesterday. It was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, packing high winds.

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Large swathes of the countrys south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as tomorrow, the agency said.

President Yoon Suk Yeols office said he called for contingency plans, which could include relocating the scouts to hotels and other facilities in the countrys capital, Seoul, and nearby metropolitan areas.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday.

Long before the events start, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.
By Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk

WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish pipeline operator PERN said it had halted pumping through a section of the Druzhba pipeline, which connects Russia to Europe, after detecting a leak in central Poland on Saturday, but it expects flows to resume on Tuesday.

PERN said there was no indication a third party had caused the leak, which follows a series of attacks on pipelines carrying Russian oil and gas since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"PERN services have reached the damaged section of one of the lines of the western section of the Druzhba pipeline in the commune of Chodecz," PERN said earlier on Sunday.

"It is the main line that transports crude oil from sea deliveries to the west. Repair work on the oil pipeline is currently underway. The expected time for pumping to resume is Tuesday morning."

PERN did not say what the impact would be on supply to Germany, but a spokesperson for the federal Economy Ministry in Berlin said: "We are in contact with the operators of the east German refineries. The security of supply is still fully guaranteed."

Firefighters and PERN emergency services were at the scene but there were no reports of a fire.

"The part of the pipeline that was affected by the leak was cut off from the rest, so the scale of the leak is not huge, we're talking about a rectangular area measuring 30 by 210 metres (yards)," Grzegorz Jankowski from the State Fire Services in Wloclawek told private broadcaster TVN24.

PERN said the second line was operating normally and there was no health threat to local residents.

It said supply to Polish refineries was not impacted and that it was in contact with German partners receiving oil through the pipeline. Germany stopped buying Russian oil in January, but German media have reported that Kazakh oil was being imported through the line.

Germany's industry association for fuels and energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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"Other elements of PERN's infrastructure, including (Druzhba's) Pomeranian section, which is used to pump crude oil arriving in tankers to Poland and then further to Germany, are operating in standard mode," PERN said in its statement.

The Druzhba oil pipeline is one of the world's largest and can carry 2 million barrels per day. The total capacity of the western section of both lines that carry oil from central Poland to Germany is 27 million tonnes of crude oil per year.

Flows through the Druzhba pipeline have dropped sharply since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and pipeline infrastructure has been hit several times since in attacks that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine. Ukraine has not acknowledged the attacks.

Europe has been on high alert over the security of its energy infrastructure since major leaks were found in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea in September.

The leaks were found to have been caused by unexplained explosions that ruptured both pipelines. Moscow has blamed Ukraine and the West for the blasts, which occurred as Europe was reducing its reliance on Russian energy in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine and Western leaders have denied any responsibility for the attacks, calling them an act of sabotage that they are investigating.

(Additional reporting Vera Eckert and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Frances Kerry, Philippa Fletcher and Barbara Lewis)
SWNS

Two magnet fishers have pulled out a cannon from a river in what is believed to be the first discovery of its kind in the UK. Dave Sonik Jordan, 46, and Raymond Harper, 73, latched onto the artillery piece while magnet fishing - which is where people use magnets to pull treasure out of water. It took the pair, who have been fishing together for ten years, over an hour to get the 3ft (91cm) object out of the River Don in Sheffield, South Yorks,. The cannon's origins are currently unknown but Raymond and Dave believe it could be anything between 200 to 600 years old. YouTuber Dave has said he thinks the artillery piece could be the first one to be discovered in a river in the UK and said he was 'elated' to have found it. He said: "I've never seen anything like this before. "We always come across weird and wonderful stuff but this cannon takes the cake. "When we were pulling it out, we just looked at each other and said 'it's a frigging cannon.' "I just thought 'cannon - oh my god' and we were really elated as it's the holy grail of finds. "A few people talk about it and say it's on their bucket lists to find one and we've just come along and found it. "We never thought we would find something as amazing as that when we started our journey cleaning the environment. "It might be the first cannon to be discovered in-land, in the UK or in the world. "I'll never find a cannon again - this is once in a lifetime." Dave took the cannon back to his home in Northampton, East Mids,. and is planning to contact the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme to report the object. But although he is estimating it could be from '200 to 600 years old', he doesn't know for sure how old it is but is interested in finding out the cannon's history. Dave said: "It's still covered in rust at the moment but I don't want to clean it up just yet. "It could be anything from 200 years old, which would be from the Napoleon time period or it could be from the civil war. "It also could be from when the Sheffield castle was demolished or it could have been brought back from a war from a merchants ship. "It could have been anything but until it gets cleaned up a little bit and we can see some markings on it, then we haven't got a clue. "We know it's old because when was the last time a cannon was used? "It's just whether it's 200 years old or more 500 to 600 years old, we just don't know. "But it could also be something to do with the manufacturing side of Sheffield but we haven't got the foggiest." Dave started magnet fishing ten years ago and enjoys going to different rivers in the UK and cleaning rubbish out of them. He said: "We go out and clean the environment and rivers for around ten hours a week. "Anyone could have got the cannon out of the water if they knew it was there but we spend so much time sorting out rubbish and that's how we come across stuff. "It's not just as easy as walking up to somewhere and finding the cannon. "It's pure luck and you never know what's down there." In November last year, Dave helped reunite retired police officer Geoffrey Barron with his exemplary service medal after it was stolen from his home. Dave found the medal after he was scouting for treasure in the River Nene, Northampton. He documents his finds on his YouTube channel, which you can subscribe to here: https://www.youtube.com/@AdventureswithSonik
Korean conductor Yoon Han-kyeol, center, the winner of the 2023 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award, conducts during a final-round concert at the main auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, in this photo captured from the Salzburg Festival. Yonhap



Korean conductor Yoon Han-kyeol won the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award, one of the most prestigious prizes for young conductors, in Salzburg, Austria, on Sunday.



The jury named the 29-year-old the winner of the Karajan Young Conductors Award during a ceremony at the main auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation.



In the final round, Yoon conducted an hourlong program, which included Gioachino Rossini's "Overture from Il barbiere di Siviglia"; Mozart's "Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle" aria for soprano and orchestra, K. 538; Shin Dong-hoon's "Of Rats and Men"; and Mendelssohn's "Symphony No. 3 A minor op. 56."



The Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Awards is open to conductors who are older than 21 and younger than 35 and takes place every two years.



It is an initiative of the Salzburg Festival in cooperation with the Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute and is dedicated to the renowned Austrian conductor, who took the baton of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1956 to 1989.



The laureate will receive a cash award of 15,000 euros (US$16,513) and the opportunity to conduct a concert with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and a rising young soloist as part of the 2024 Salzburg Festival.



Born in the southeastern city of Daegu, Yoon studied conducting, composition and piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in Germany.



He was the youngest ever recipient of the Neeme Jarvi Prize at the 2019 Gstaad Menuhin Festival and received conducting invitations from the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Basel and Bern Symphony Orchestras.



In the 2022/23 season, Yoon made his debuts with the Bern Symphony Orchestra and the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra and assisted renowned conductor Simon Rattle for the European tour of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.



"I have been following this competition, named after one of the most important conductors in history and presented by one of the most renowned festivals in the world, for a long time," Yoon said in an interview with the Salzburg Festival ahead of the final concert.



"For many years, it has been my goal to participate some day. The list of candidates and winners illustrates its high standard." (Yonhap)


Another Russian warship listing in the water is probably not the image Vladimir Putin had in mind for his beloved Black Sea fleet - but it does demonstrate the increasing effectiveness of Ukraine's sea drones.

The last few days have seen two attacks on Russian ships, both reportedly carried out by Ukrainian unmanned vessels.

In a war where Kyiv does not have the warships to challenge Moscow's control of the Black Sea directly, the proliferation of sea drones appears to be giving Ukraine an avenue to strike back.

While the strategic value of such attacks is uncertain it is arguably significant for propaganda purposes and as a message to Mr Putin, in the same way as the sinking of the Moskva flagship last year.

Six dead in overnight strikes - Ukraine war latest updates

What happened in the Black Sea?

While questions remain about what exactly has occurred this weekend - and who was responsible - it seems that two Russian ships have been targeted with drones.

The first attack, news of which emerged on Friday, reportedly left the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship with serious damage and footage appeared to show it partially submerged as it was towed to port.

A Ukrainian intelligence source said the ship "received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions".

Russia denied the claim, with a regional official saying that no damage or casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.

On Saturday, Moscow claimed that a Russian-flagged tanker was hit by a Ukrainian sea drone close to the Kerch Bridge that connects occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.

The vessel targeted in Saturday's attack was delivering oil to Russian troops based in Syria, according to Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The SIG ship, its operator, and its owner, had previously been sanctioned by the US for helping provide jet fuel in Syria.

What are sea drones?

Sea drones, sometimes called USVs, are small, unmanned vessels that operate on or below the water's surface.

Story continues

Military analyst Sean Bell told Sky News that these are "relatively cheap" and "provide a relatively fast and low-profile threat to Russian military ships, particularly when the attack is conducted at night".

He added: "Maritime drones can operate on the sea surface or just below, where it is a lot more difficult for conventional radar to detect.

"They are usually made from carbon fibre to provide an element of stealth capability, and if attacks are conducted at night they are very had to detect with the human eye. And, the sound can be masked by the sea."

Mr Bell described Ukraine as a "David to Russia's Goliath" and said it has had to resort to asymmetric attacks to avoid a brutal war of attrition which would favour Russia.

"This has led to the widespread use of drones, whether for tactical surveillance of the battlefield, or for long-range strikes against strategic targets."

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Kim Jong Un tells arms factories to increase production

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What impact can they have on the war?

Drones tend to be relatively small and therefore have limited capacity to carry a large explosive charge, Mr Bell says.

"The damage caused tends to be more psychological than physical, albeit the damage to the Black Sea fleet ships might take some time to repair.

"In some respects, drones are like wasps disrupting a summer BBQ - they are unlikely to cause any lasting damage, but they can be a major distraction to the main effort."

But he added that wars can also be won by destroying the enemy's will to fight rather than purely through victory on the battlefield.

"Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated he wants to take the war to Russia, to expose the Russian people to the truth behind the rhetoric, and undermine Putin's power base with the Russian oligarchs.

"Attacks on Russian territory and on high-profile targets - such as the Black Sea Fleet - all increase pressure on the Russian president."

What does this mean for the future of warfare?

War generally brings a drive to innovate new and more efficient weaponry, and the conflict in Ukraine over the past year-and-a-half has been no different.

"Although it is always difficult to directly link lessons learned from this war into future conflicts," Mr Bell says, "most military analysts believe that huge expansion in the exploitation of drone technology will have profound implications for future defence planning."

He gave the example of the UK's flagship Queen Elizabeth-Class aircraft carriers, which cost around 1bn each.

"Although there is a comprehensive array of defensive capability around such ships, the ease with which the Ukrainians were able to damage Russian ships will inevitably embolden potential enemies.

"And, the pace at which such technology can be adapted and married to potentially huge quantities of drones, will create an enduring challenge for defence planners."
Uganda has begun restoring a disused branch of a railway line built under the British Empire, which it hopes will offer a cheaper way to transport goods to neighbouring countries.

The line, which has been out of use for roughly 40 years, is part of the East Africa rail network that stretches out from the port of Mombasa in Kenya. It was built by Kenya and Uganda's former colonial ruler Britain around the turn of the 20th century.

Work has begun to restore nearly 400 kilometres of the tracks between Tororo in eastern Uganda, near the border with Kenya, and Gulu in the north, near South Sudan.

"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," a spokesperson for for state-run Uganda Railways Corporation, John Linnon Sengendo, told Reuters news agency.

New line stalled

Uganda decided to revamp the old network after plans to build a separate, modern line failed to secure funding from China.

Another Chinese contractor, China Road and Bridge Corporation, will repair the old line over two years at a cost of 200 billion shillings (50.6 million euros) to the Ugandan government, Sengendo said.

Rail revival

Uganda's railway network 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 north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

(with Reuters)



Read more on RFI English



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Ascension Island lies in the South Atlantic

THE UK Government is reportedly considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive to the UK by unauthorised means to Ascension Island.

Reports say ministers and officials are considering the island as a plan B to the Rwanda policy which has been met with legal challenges since it was first discussed.

The small, volcanic island could potentially host an asylum processing centre as the Government aims to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel.

Where is Ascension Island?

Ascension Island is a UK Overseas Territory, located around 4000 miles from the UK and situated in the South Atlantic.

READ MORE: Greens slam 'disgrace' of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima anniversary

It is east of Brazil and west of Angola and is just under 34 square miles in size.

Who lives on the island?

There is no permanent or indigenous population on the island. It is made up of employees and their families who work there.

There are around 800 people living there at any point in time, made up of people from St Helena, America and the UK.

What is on the island?

The island has two settlements  Georgetown and Two Boats. It also has two military bases, which are home to the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, along with an airfield and a BBC relay station.

Who governs the island?

Ascension Island is not considered a part of the UK. It has its own constitution which it shares with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha and is self-governing.

The UK is however responsible for defence, international relations and security on the island.

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It has five councillors and the Governor of St Helena, Nigel Phillips.

What is the environment like?

The temperature of the island ranges from 20C to 38C with a wet season during January to April.

The island has the Green Mountain, which has a peak of 859 metres, as well as low coastal areas and an array of native wildlife including turtles, seabirds and crustaceans.
Dr. Dani Riebe, a University of North Georgia (UNG) limited-term faculty member of History, Anthropology & Philosophy, took two students on archaeological research trips to Hungary this spring and summer.

Riebe brought the students along as part of a team of faculty and students from multiple universities on the Prehistoric Interactions on the Plain Project, of which she is project director, and the Koros Consortium project. Both projects have National Science Foundation grants backing their efforts and fully funding student participation.

"We want to train the next generation of archaeologists," Riebe said. "Students need hands-on experiences, and these projects in Hungary provide opportunities to learn archaeological techniques while simultaneously being exposed to different cultures, customs and ideas."

Brandon Kulp, a rising UNG senior from Ludowici, Georgia, pursuing a degree in history with a minor in anthropology, participated on the Koros Consortium project this past spring. During his time on the project, he observed how technology is constantly being integrated into the field as evidenced by drones being utilized to document the progress of excavations through aerial photographs. Moreover, he also learned more about various archaeological specialties, including soil chemistry, remote sensing and household archaeology.

"My research experience in Hungary was quite the adventure for sure. A year ago, I would never have thought I would find myself in Europe," Kulp said. "I was able to do a lot including excavating, artifact processing, and flotation. I knew archaeology required patience and delicacy, like fishing, but it required a bit more than I had originally thought."

These archaeological field projects in Hungary will be offered in the future, and interested students should feel free to reach out to Riebe with their inquiries.
The University of North Georgia (UNG) received a $200,000 grant from Google.org, Google's philanthropy, for the development of entrepreneurial resources in rural communities. In partnership with Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce, the Lumpkin County School District, and the Development Authority of Lumpkin County, the grant funding will commission a study to map the existing resources that support innovation and entrepreneurship in Dahlonega and Lumpkin County and identify needed resources that don't currently exist in order to create a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"Georgia's historic economic success is unfolding in all four corners of the state," Gov. Brian Kemp said. "As a result of developing strong partnerships with public and private stakeholders on the local level, communities in north Georgia are increasingly benefitting from private-sector investments like this that will continue to spur transformational job creation, innovation and entrepreneurship."

"The generous grant from Google.org in support of rural communities comes at a perfect time as we are bringing on a new director for our Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the next few months, and as the community is continuing to build its focus on attracting and growing new ventures for the area," Dr. Mary Gowan, dean of UNG's Mike Cottrell College of Business (MCCB), said. "Senator Gooch made the connection for us, and once again demonstrated his commitment to opening doors for new initiatives for the university and the community."

With a heavy STEM focus at UNG and the Lumpkin County School System, this grant will also allow the partnering groups to create programming to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the area.

"This partnership between UNG, the Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce, the Lumpkin County School District, and the Development Authority of Lumpkin County offers an ideal avenue to provide the services entrepreneurs in our region need," state Sen. Steve Gooch said. "The gift provided by Google.org, in support of rural communities, is critical to the mission as the partners strive to develop and support the entrepreneurial pipeline in rural north Georgia. I look forward to seeing the creative ideas our area residents will put in motion thanks to the support they will have through this collaboration."

UNG's Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is developing a broader footprint to include community programming. Computer science and cybersecurity are STEM programs housed in the MCCB and an area of growing interest for entrepreneurial activity, along with health care and other STEM programs at UNG.

"Google is proud to call Georgia home. Our community partners and grant recipients are doing vital on-the-ground work in communities across the country, and we're proud to support the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in Lumpkin County," Lilyn Hester, head of Southeast External Affairs & Government Relations for Google. "Increasing access to computer science and STEM programming is important to Google, because it's important to the future of our country and our communities."

The Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce recently developed a co-working space, providing a place for small businesses, nonprofits, and start-up businesses to gain access to high-speed internet, workspace, conference rooms and other resources that would otherwise not be accessible to them.

"It's a good way for us to merge resources and open partnerships with the university for the business community, Robb Nichols, Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce executive director, said.

UNG, Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce, the Lumpkin County School District, and the Development Authority of Lumpkin County will create learning opportunities to inspire innovation and entrepreneurial thinking in the community. This will include a local "Innovation Pitch" competition where community participants will be matched with a mentor, and winners will receive both mini-grants and an opportunity to participate in an accelerator to move their ventures forward. This model will also be implemented in local high schools in the future.

"We have an opportunity to cultivate something larger through partnership for long-term benefits to the community," Rebecca Mincey, Lumpkin County community and economic development director said. "The grant has brought us together, and these efforts extend beyond one-time commitments."

Google.org, Google

'

s philanthropy, brings the best of Google to help solve some of humanitys biggest challenges combining funding, product donations and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone. It engages nonprofits, social enterprises and civic entities who make a significant impact on the communities they serve, and whose work has the potential to produce scalable, meaningful change.
BTS members gathered at Suga's solo concert / Captured from Jin's social media account



By Hong Hye-min



A mini-reunion of sorts took place among BTS members as a few unannounced guests made a surprise appearance at Suga's concert.



On Sunday, Suga held his "Agust D Tour D-Day, The Final" concert at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, with the event also being livestreamed online through Weverse.



It marked the last leg of Suga's D-Day tour spanning 25 concerts in 10 cities across the globe.



The atmosphere was at a fever pitch as fans celebrated the final event of Suga's world tour, especially as other BTS members showed up to support their friend. In concerts held on Friday and Saturday, Jungkook and Jimin were featured as guests, and on Sunday, RM shared the stage with Suga while J-Hope and Jin were spotted in the audience, both of whom are currently serving in the Korean military.



After performing "People" and "People Pt. 2," Suga took the mic and expressed his gratitude to J-Hope, who had created the dance choreography for these two tracks. Suga called out his name, and the camera panned to the audience to reveal J-Hope and Jin sitting among the audience, shown on a giant screen as fans started cheering wildly. The pair gave them a soldier's greeting by saluting at the camera.



More surprises were in store for the fans as the concert went on. Suga chose to perform the track "Strange" featuring RM from his solo album "D-2," and RM in the flesh soon appeared on stage to form a perfect duet with Suga.



After finishing the track, RM expressed his gratitude, saying, "I'm so honored to be a part of Suga's solo journey, which he worked so hard on to make it possible." Fans noticed that RM had gotten a buzz cut. He jokingly explained, "I have about five or six people asking me about my hair every day. Let me clarify that my haircut has nothing to do with me joining the military. I'll let you know when it's time, so don't you worry. I got this haircut because the weather was too hot." However, RM did suggest that his enlistment in the military may be imminent, saying his stage with Suga might be his last performance before putting on a uniform.



RM also showcased an unreleased solo track for the first time on Sunday, a tribute to the fans and a mark of his friendship with Suga.



The unexpected guest appearance by BTS members added another layer of excitement to Suga's tour event. Fans are craving for more after Suga announced at the end of the concert that his next performance in Seoul might involve a full reunion with all seven BTS members, eliciting loud cheers from ARMY members in the audience.





Hong Hye-min (hhm@hankookilbo.com) is a reporter at The Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times. This article, previously published in The Hankook Ilbo, has been translated as part of a news-sharing program.


Masan Group  Best company to work for in Asia

The "Best Place to Work in Asia" award is a highly esteemed international accolade conferred annually by HR Asia, the premier magazine on human resources in Asia.

It assesses and recognizes businesses with outstanding HR policies, attractive remuneration packages and exemplary working environments in the region.

In Vietnam, HR Asia assessed nearly 650 companies and polled 50,000 employees ranging from grassroots staff to senior personnel, including executives and human resources directors.

In line with the theme "Honoring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," HR Asia employed the Total Engagement Assessment Model (TEAM) to gauge the satisfaction level of Masan employees. The assessment was based on three fundamental factors: Core (strategy and structure), Self (individual) and Group (collective).

It was remarkable success for Masan to win the special award for "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" in recognition of its commitment to fostering a diverse, equal and inclusive working environment.

The accolade marks a significant milestone in Masan's journey towards creating an exceptional workplace that embraces diversity and inclusivity.

40,000 people share spirit of Masan Way

With more than 40,000 people from various backgrounds and professional experiences working for it, Masan has fostered a common and unique Masan Way culture to promote the following traits and attributes: No ego + consumer-centric; Leadership + Passion to be #1; Solution-oriented + problem solving; Accountability + results-driven; Integrity + transparency; and Mastery + never stop learning.

In this inclusive environment, everyone is provided with equal opportunities to pursue their aspirations without facing discrimination or bias.

The company ensures fairness through consistent HR policies that apply to all employees, complemented by various programmes aimed at fostering creativity and idea-sharing among staff.

An array of activities supports employees in their growth and realization of potential, including the establishment of the Employee Training and Development Center - Growth Center, mentorship programmes and internal training initiatives led by both company leaders and renowned external institutions.

Masan Group has assembled a team of skilled managers and international experts hailing from diverse business sectors, resulting in a rich pool of talent and a flexible talent attraction policy.

With a shared vision aligned with the interests of consumers and the creation of value for the economy, environment and society, Masan Group continues to thrive as a company that embraces diversity and contributes positively to the nation.

Michael Hung Nguyen, its deputy CEO, said on the occasion of Masan winning the prestigious award for "Best Place to Work in Asia: "We are grateful for the support and encouragement that Masan has received from our colleagues, friends, and family in our efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. We recognise that there is still much work to be done to continue encouraging ourselves and societies about the importance of diversity and inclusion, and we must take concrete steps to create a more inclusive society.
HCM CITY  Viet Nams personal finance market is facing challenges, primarily stemming from a lack of financial literacy and limited access to educational resources, experts said.

Dr Le Minh Nghia, chairman of Viet Nam Financial Consultants Association (VFCA), highlighted the challenges during a forum on developing the personal finance market in Viet Nam organised late last week in HCM City.

The problems faced by individuals in securing their financial future and achieving their financial goals have been exacerbated by unreliable and shallow resources on personal finance available on the Internet, he said.

Findings from a survey conducted recently in Ha Noi further supported these concerns, with over 80 per cent of respondents admitting to having little interest and knowledge in personal finance.

As a result, individuals are ill-equipped to make informed financial decisions, lacking essential knowledge in budgeting, saving, investing, and managing debt, he added.

Consequently, people fail to set aside funds for emergencies, secure effective retirement plans, or accumulate wealth sustainably, according to Nghia.

The lack of financial literacy also leaves individuals vulnerable to financial fraud and misconduct, he warned.

Without a solid understanding of financial concepts and practices, there is an increased risk of falling into the clutches of loan sharks or making premature withdrawals of social security benefits, he said.

Individuals may also struggle to differentiate between various financial products, such as bank savings and corporate bond purchases or flexible savings products and life insurance products, leading to poor investment decisions, he noted.

Financial education

Can Van Luc, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, said personal finance planning remains limited as debt management ability, understanding, and knowledge of personal financial planning need improvement.

Luc proposed enhancing financial education such as to include financial education in school curricula and develop targeted programmes for adults, such as workshops, seminars, and online platforms.

These initiatives would provide individuals with practical knowledge and skills to effectively manage their personal finances, he said.

In addition, the Government should play an active role in promoting financial literacy and consumer protection by implementing policies and regulations that ensure ethical practices and protect the interests of consumers, he added.

Dr Nghia said regulatory bodies should strengthen their oversight and review the practices of financial advisors and institutions regularly to ensure compliance with ethical standards.

Experts also recommended incentives and tax benefits be introduced to encourage a savings culture and long-term financial planning.

For instance, tax breaks can be offered to individuals who contribute to retirement plans or dedicate a portion of their income to savings, they noted.

These incentives would motivate individuals to prioritise their financial future and develop healthy saving habits.

Collaboration with employers can also play a significant role in promoting personal financial planning.

Companies can partner with financial institutions to provide financial wellness programmes and education to their employees.

By incorporating financial wellness into the workplace, employers can empower their employees to make informed financial decisions, alleviate financial stress, and foster a more financially secure workforce.

The forum was co-organised by VFCA in cooperation with the HCM City-based Van Lang University.  VNS
HA NOI  The Viet Nam Trade Office in Mexico said that it was inviting some Mexican corporations and companies to participate in the Viet Nam International Sourcing 2023 organised by the European  American, Ministry of Industry and Trade, to be held next month.

In order to promote trade and develop bilateral trade between the two countries, the trade office is connecting to bring a delegation of 10 Mexican wood manufacturing enterprises to Viet Nam from October 28 to November 3 to buy wooden planks.

Viet Nam International Sourcing 2023 will take place in HCM City from September 13-15, aiming to support domestic firms to engage more deeply in global production and supply chains.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the organiser of the event, many foreign supermarkets, distributors and retailers are making their shopping list for products from Vietnamese suppliers at the event, which is expected to connect foreign importers and domestic manufacturers and exporters.

This year, the event expects to welcome 8,000 visitors and 150 delegations from 30 countries and territories. It has received its greatest interest so far from world leading companies.  VNS
HA NOI  Japan wants to collaborate with Viet Nam to establish industrial cooperation strategies in line with the development goals of both nations, as expressed by Matsumoto Izumi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Viet Nam.

In a recent meeting to seek Japan's support and expertise in implementing Viet Nam's Industrialisation Strategy, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong acknowledged the active cooperation, support and assistance from international friends, notably Japan, in the country's journey towards industrialisation and modernisation.

Phuong highlighted the positive outcomes of the implemented strategy, including advancements in supporting industries, increased localisation rate and improved productivity and competitiveness in six priority sectors. He also urged for further Japanese investments, particularly in high-tech projects, research and development, and technology transfer to domestic companies.

The Industrialisation Strategy, approved by the Prime Minister in 2013, emphasises the concentrated development of six key industries: industrial machines, agricultural and aquatic product processing, electronics, shipbuilding, automobile and auto parts, and environmental and energy-saving sectors. Additionally, the strategy aims to strengthen cooperation in human resources training, research activities, technology transfer, and innovation promotion.

For his part, Izumi praised Viet Nam's progress in implementing the strategy and proposed several policies to help the country avoid the middle-income trap and achieve developed status by 2045. These include elevating the industry's developmental level, promoting restructuring towards high technology, and fostering an innovation-based economy.  VNS
Compiled by Thu Ha

HA NOI  Total non-performing loans (NPLs) at many banks surged in the first half of this year due to the poor business performance of the whole economy, and experts forecast the trend will continue.

The latest financial statement of TPBank showed the bank's total NPLs by the end of the second quarter of 2023 increased by nearly three times compared to the beginning of this year to VN3.91 trillion.

Of which, substandard debts increased 5.6 times to VN2.14 trillion and doubtful debts also increased nearly 2.5 times to nearly VN1.13 trillion. The ratio of NPLs to total outstanding loans of the bank increased sharply from 0.84 per cent at the beginning of this year to 2.21 per cent.

At BaoVietBank, the total NPLs as of June 30 was VN1.75 trillion, up 58 per cent compared to the beginning of the year. Notably, BaoVietBank's potentially irrecoverable debts doubled to VN1.52 trillion and doubtful debt also increased by 41 per cent to VN154 billion, which caused the banks NPL ratio to increase from 3.34 per cent to 4.69 per cent.

Similarly, the total NPLs at ABBank also increased by 61 per cent compared to the beginning of this year to VN3.82 trillion as of June 30, 2023. Therefore, the banks NPL ratio increased sharply to 4.55 per cent from 2.89 per cent earlier this year.

Not out of the trend, Bac A Bank recorded a bad debt increase of more than 32 per cent compared to the beginning of the year, to about VN679 billion, mainly due to a sharp increase in sub-standard debts by 316 per cent to VN175 billion. The ratio of NPLs to total outstanding loans of the bank increased significantly to 0.7 per cent if compared to the rate of 0.55 per cent at the beginning of this year.

As one of the first banks to publish H1 2023 financial statements, LPBank recorded an 80 per cent rise of potentially irrecoverable debts after the first half of this year to VN2.43 trillion, which pushed the banks total NPLs to surge by 65 per cent to VN5.65 trillion.

At PGBank, NPLs after the first half of this year also increased by nearly 12.7 per cent, lifting the banks bad debt ratio to 2.77 per cent by the end of June 2023.

Techcombank also recorded a bad debt increase in the period, though it also gained many bright spots in business performance, such as high profit and CASA (current account savings account) improvement in H1.

The banks NPL ratio inched up from 0.9 per cent at the end of 2022 to 1.07 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2023, while the bad debt coverage ratio decreased from 125 per cent at the end of last year to 115.8 per cent.

For State-owned commercial banks, although they have not officially announced their financial statements, their business performance results in the first half of 2023 have been revealed partly.

VietinBanks deputy general director Nguyen Hoang Dung said the bad debt ratio was controlled at 1.1 per cent and met the banks plan, while the NPL coverage ratio also continued to remain high at 170 per cent.

At Vietcombank, general director Nguyen Thanh Tung revealed by the end of June 2023, the banks credit quality was controlled with a bad debt ratio at 0.85 per cent. Although the ratio was the lowest level in the countrys banking system, it increased compared to Vietcombank's rate of 0.68 per cent at the end of 2022.

As for Agribank, the bad debt ratio increased again due to domestic and global economic headwinds though it reduced from 8.1 per cent to 1.86 per cent after restructuring in the 2016-20 period.

Pham uc An, chairman of Agribank's board of members, said Agribank's bad debt ratio as of June 30, 2023 increased to exactly the same as the end of the restructuring in the 2016-20 period, and the ratio is under rising pressure in the coming time.

Having faced the fact that bad debts are getting bigger and bigger, banks have aggressively auctioned to sell collateral to recover the debts, but the work is not easy.

For example, at Vietcombank, the collateral of an Evergreen Technology Companys debt, including land use rights and machinery systems, at the bank has been put up for auction many times over the past year but has not found buyers, though the price dropped by more than VN300 billion compared to the initial price.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, general secretary of the Viet Nam Banks Association, said the debt recovery has faced many difficulties, such as the frozen real estate market.

According to experts, this is not the peak of bad debt because payment of many debts are still reschedued according to a circular by the State Bank of Vietnam.

When the circular expires on June 30 next year, the actual number of bad debts must be higher.

Banking expert Dr. Can Van Luc said the increase in bad debt is a common trend of the world in the current difficult context. Though bad debts increase compared to 2022, it is still under control. In order to reduce the burden of rising bad debts in the future, banks are still actively setting up provisions for higher risk cases.

According to Luc, Circular 02/2023/TT-NHNN from SBV requires banks to make provisions for risky debts to ensure that they will be still settled even in the worst scenarios.

Though the bad debt coverage ratio out of the total outstanding loans of the economy is currently at 135 per cent, not as high as a few years ago, it is still an important resource for banks to handle bad debts.  VNS
HA NOI  PV Power reported a sharp fall in net profit in the second quarter due to increased fuel prices.

In the quarterly financial statement, PV Power said that its total consolidated net revenue increased by nearly 13 per cent year-on-year to VN8.43 trillion. Its profit before tax fell by 59.4 per cent, while expenses rose by 19 per cent to more than VN8.3 trillion.

The company said that the poor results were caused by higher fuel prices. The cost of goods sold rose 21.8 per cent on-year to over VN1.4 trillion, causing its gross profit to halve to mostly VN469.1 billion.

Meanwhile, PV Power recorded a loss of VN13.9 billion in financial activities, significantly improving compared to the loss of VN163.8 billion in the same period last year.

As a result, PV Power's consolidated profit after tax tumbled 69 per cent on-year to VN181.6 billion.

For the first half of 2023, the company recorded a net revenue of nearly VN16 trillion, a gain of 9.2 per cent on-year, but profit after tax fell 40 per cent to VN831.6 billion.

Its parent company posted a profit of VN660.2 billion.

During the period, outputs of many power plants dropped due to the shortage of water and gas, increasing costs, and maintenance, according to PV Power.

On the stock market, PV Power's shares are traded on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) with ticker symbol of POW. POW shares were traded at VN13,750 per share at 11:09 am (local time) on Monday.  VNS
The headquarters of KDB Life in central Seoul / Courtesy of KDB Life



M&A market for insurance companies to expand in H2



By Anna J. Park



Aiming to expand their non-banking business portfolios, major financial firms, including local financial groups, are closely examining whether to add new insurance subsidiaries, as two insurers  KDB Life Insurance and ABL Life  are currently looking for new owners.



Lotte Insurance and Tongyang Life Insurance are also deemed as candidates that are likely to be put up for sale within the next several months, attracting the interest of potential buyers.



According to industry sources on Monday, many financial companies, including Kyobo Life, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), Mirae Asset, Korea Investment Holdings, as well as Hana Financial Group, are mulling the acquisition of the insurance companies.



Hana Financial Group is one of the most active potential buyers, showing clear interest in acquiring KDB Life Insurance. Since the major financial group was tapped as the preferred bidder of the insurance firm in mid-July, the company is currently conducting due diligence for the deal.



"The financial group is planning to acquire a non-banking unit to maximize the group's strength, while complementing its business portfolio," Yang Jae-hyuk, CSO of Hana Financial Group, said during a conference call for its first half earnings on July 27.





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HA NOI  The Prime Minister has issued a dispatch demanding ministries, sectors, and localities ramp up response to and settlement of downpour and flood consequences in northern mountainous and midland areas.

The document was sent to the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; the National Committee for Incident and Natural Disaster Response, Search and Rescue; the ministers of agriculture and rural development, natural resources and environment, construction, transport, industry and trade, national defence, and public security; and the chairpersons of the provincial Peoples Committees of Lai Chau, Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Son La, ien Bien, Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan, Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Lang Son, Bac Giang, Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho, Hoa Binh, and Quang Ninh.

Since August 4, the region has recorded downpours with rainfalls of 100 - 200mm, even nearly 400mm in some areas, causing flooding on small rivers and springs, flash floods, and landslides in some localities and also resulting in human and property losses, especially in Lai Chau, Yen Bai, and Son La provinces.

The PM offered condolences to the bereaved families and sympathies over the losses suffered by residents in affected areas.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has predicted that downpours will continue in this region from now through August 8, with rainfalls of 50-120mm, even over 180mm, which will continue posing very high risks of floods, flash floods, and landslides.

Given this, to ensure life safety and minimise property losses, the Government leader requested the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, the National Committee for Incident and Natural Disaster Response, Search and Rescue, ministers, and chairpersons of the provincial-level Peoples Committees in the region not to lower their guard, proactively take response actions, and quickly address consequences.

From August 5 to 6pm on August 6, downpours and floods caused 10 casualties in northern mountainous and midland localities, including seven in Lai Chau, two in Yen Bai and one in Son La, along with heavy property losses, reported the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee.

Local authorities have visited and offered assistance to the families of those killed or injured in floods. They are also working to evacuate residents in vulnerable areas to safer places.

Earlier, the PM had also issued a dispatch to request strong efforts to respond to floods, subsidence and landslides, and ensure the safety of dams in the Central Highlands region.  VNS
HA NOI  Silk paintings by members of Sac Lua Viet (Vietnamese Silk) are being introduced to the public in an exhibition that is being held at Fine Arts Exhibition Hall, located on 16 Ngo Quyen Street, Ha Noi.

Entitled Huong Lua Thang 8 (The Fragrance of August Silk), the exhibition showcase 40 silk artworks by four painters Nguyen Thi Thien from Quang Ninh, o Thu Huong from Hung Yen, and Ta Hung Viet and Hoang Quoc Tuan from Ha Noi.

This is the second exhibition organised by the Sac Lua Viet, following the success of the first one  Huong Lua Thang 6 (The Fragrance of June Silk) that was held June last year to preserve and extend the passion for silk painting.

"We encountered many difficulties in pursuing this style of painting due to its niche audience and limited sales. As a result, fewer artists are creating works in this genre. The purpose of the Sac Lua Viet is to preserve and develop this type of painting, said painter o Thu Huong.

Adopting four distinct themes, diverse brushwork and styles, each silk painting conveys delicate and romantic emotions. Altogether they create a distinctiveness and value of the unique art form.

Nguyen Thi Thiens paintings are inspired by the landscape and the images of ethnic communities in her hometown Quang Ninh. The artist enjoys exploring the cultural festivals of ethnic minorities, wedding ceremonies, and the daily life scenes of fishing villages in the province.

"I have participated in charity work and taught young children in the fishing villages. Witnessing their daily lives, I incorporate those experiences into my paintings. Moreover, Vung Vieng and Cua Van fishing villages have breathtaking scenery, despite the hardships, there is a sense of peace, and the people are incredibly friendly. Their lives have changed now, but I portray them based on the memories I have," she said.

Meanwhile, painter Ta Hung Viet introduces a series of silk paintings that explore the theme of family emotions, depicting the natural bonds among family members.

In one of his paintings portrays a father, who is a military officer, combing his daughter's hair before taking her to an event where she will receive an award for academic excellence. In another, a mother meticulously grooms her child on a special occasion, and in another a soldier visits his mother and loved ones during his leave.

Painter o Thu Huong finds inspiration from her real-life journeys. Impressed by beauty in nature and humanity, she tells the stories of each character in her artworks, which also reflects her inner world. Each piece becomes a window into her thoughts and emotions, capturing the essence of her personal experiences and perspectives.

Huong said she primarily chose women as the main theme of her artwork because the feminine image represents a universal symbol that transcends different age groups, resonating with her personal experiences throughout life.

She also holds a special affinity for depicting the traditional costumes of ethnic minorities as they embody the essence of cultural identity. She deeply admires the simple and humble way of life of ethnic communities, cherishing their unadorned and uncomplicated lifestyles, and the harmonious connection they have with nature.

Meanwhile, painter Hoang Quoc Tuan seeks to discover the beauty of purity and innocence through his artwork, focusing on depictions of children and women. In some instances, he pours his heart into portraying the thoughts and contemplations of young girls stepping into adolescence.

"I hope that people will find a piece of themselves in these artworks. It could be a glimpse of carefree innocence from the ages of five to seven, or a reflection on the thoughts of everyday life, he said.

The exhibition will run until August 14. Entrance is free. VNS
JAKARTA  Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Vuong inh Hue received Governor of Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono on August 6 within the framework of his official visit to Indonesia.

Hue told the governor that his visit aimed to strengthen relations between the two countries on all channels and at all levels, including via party, parliament, and government channels, locality-to-locality cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

He expressed his hope that the capital cities of Ha Noi and Jakarta would intensify cooperation and exchange development experiences, especially with a direct air route between them expected to be launched soon.

The top legislator shared that the National Assembly of Viet Nam had just approved the extension of tourist e-visas from 30 to 90 days, and increasing temporary residence of foreigners from 15 days to 45 days from August 15, which will facilitate the travel of the two countries businesses and people.

The Vietnamese NAs agencies and Ha Noi were in the process of developing the Capital Law (amended) and wanted to learn from Jakarta's experience, especially its specific policies, Hue added.

Hartono expressed his hope that Ha Noi and Jakarta, which set up twinned relations in 2004, would continue stepping up the exchange of experience and cooperation in the fields of transport, city administration, service industry; and promote collaboration through the Jakarta Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well as relevant agencies of Ha Noi. VNA/VNS
JAKARTA  Regional media outlets have highlighted the significance of Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong inh Hues official visit to Indonesia and attendance at the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44).

In its article, Indonesia's Antara news agency wrote that the visit is very important and shows that Vietnams foreign policy attaches importance to bilateral relations with Indonesia and wants to contribute to building a peaceful, stable, and prosperous environment in the region.

Regarding the two countries relations, the news agency said the Vietnamese and Indonesian people joined hands in solidarity to fight for national independence. This was the result of intelligent leadership and friendship between Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh and Indonesian President Sukarno.

This year, the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership with the hope of further enhancing cooperation in all areas ranging from diplomacy, politics, economy, and culture to people-to-people exchanges.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people of both countries promoted a spirit of mutual love and support, and helped fight the pandemic together.

At the height of the pandemic, the most tense and difficult time, leaders of Viet Nam and Indonesia regularly maintained diplomatic channels, exchanged views to overcome difficulties, and discussed solutions to prevent the spread of the virus and disease outbreaks.

The two countries also shared the burden with other ASEAN member states to establish a cooperation mechanism to contain COVID-19 and gradually expand vaccination networks for the public. Fighting and winning against the COVID-19 pandemic, people of Viet Nam and Indonesia joined hands to rebuild the national economies, according to the article.

Antara noted that the strong economic cooperation can be seen from bilateral trade turnover in 2021 reaching US$11.5 billion, an increase of 40 per cent compared to 2020, exceeding the $10 billion target set by the two sides in the action plan to implement the strategic partnership.

To further strengthen the partnership in the future, the two sides agreed to promote the completion of the action plan for the 2024 - 2028 period as the future orientation of bilateral cooperation, aiming for the value of two-way trade to reach $15 billion by 2028.

Bilateral trade in the future is expected to continue to grow in line with the economic growth of each country.

Regarding parliamentary cooperation with other legislative bodies, Viet Nam has actively participated in multilateral forums, regional and international inter-parliamentary organisations. The Viet Nam NA and the Indonesian People's Representative Council signed a cooperation agreement in March 2010.

The Vietnamese NA wants to deepen the two countries strategic partnership by further promoting cooperative activities with the Indonesian legislature, such as increasing the exchange of delegations at all levels and promoting exchange and cooperation between professional committees, as well as friendly parliamentary groups.

The Vietnamese NA also wishes to promote the exchange of information and experiences with the Indonesian parliament in the legislation work, oversight of issues related to post-pandemic economic and social recovery, and global issues such as digital transformation.

Antara said that Viet Nam expressed its support and appreciation for Indonesia's role and initiatives in the ASEAN Chair throughout 2023 and Jakarta's efforts to continue to maintain peace, stability and prosperity at the regional level, especially in the Southeast Asian region and at the global level.

With regard to the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) issue, Viet Nam and other ASEAN countries are promoting practical and effective negotiations on a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea and respecting the sovereignty and interests of the parties concerned in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In a commentary posted on Asia Review, Kompasiana and Republik Merdeka, Veeramalla Anjaiah, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), said NA Chairman Vuong inh Hues visit clearly demonstrates the interest of Viet Nams leadership in its relations with Indonesia. The visit symbolises the spirit of solidarity and trust between the leaders of the two countries, who are willing to work towards deeper cooperation for the sake of the people as well as peace and stability within Southeast Asia. It will enhance cooperation between the legislative bodies of Viet Nam and Indonesia.

Since assuming the post of NA Chairman in 2021, Hue has been trying to innovate the quality and operational efficiency of the legislature to help Viet Nam reach new heights and become a prosperous, powerful, democratic, fair, and civilised country. He and his institution have been making great efforts to renew work styles, significantly contributing to socio-economic development.

Anjaiah said Viet Nam and Indonesia established their diplomatic ties on December 30, 1955. In 2013, they elevated their ties to a strategic partnership.

Both are important member states of ASEAN and are striving to achieve high-income country status by 2045 through a shift from resource-based industries to high-tech industries as well as increased educational cooperation and knowledge-sharing between the two countries.

The researcher noted both countries have made major contributions to ASEAN and are committed to fostering ASEANs relevance amid global challenges. Both have similar perceptions about the settlement of disputes by peaceful means in accordance with international rules, including the 1982 UNCLOS. - VNA/VNS
JAKARTA  Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong inh Hue had a meeting on August 6 with Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, on the occasion of the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44) held in Jakarta.

Hue highlighted the robust development in all fields of the Viet Nam-Philippines strategic partnership, especially in high-level contacts.

The two leaders agreed to boost the bilateral ties in a more substantive manner, particularly in economics, trade and investment, and to strive to bring two-way trade to soon hit US$10 billion.

In the context of the current complicated world situation, Hue suggested Viet Nam and the Philippines cooperate in developing supply chains and facilitate the import of Viet Nam's key products such as rice and construction materials, and enhance collaboration in digital transformation and energy transition.

The two sides agreed to continue promoting cooperation between the two parliaments, and stepping up the exchange of delegations as well as the sharing of experience in parliamentary activities.

They will also continue cooperation and mutual support within the multilateral framework; back each other's initiatives at the AIPA; and work together to further strengthen ASEAN's solidarity, strength and centrality, and maintain a common voice in regional security issues, including the East Sea (known internationally as the South China Sea) issue.

Hue proposed the Philippine parliament send a delegation to the 9th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians to be held in Ha Noi. The Speaker of the Philippine lower house confirmed that he will do.

The Vietnamese top legislator took the occasion to invite the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate to visit Viet Nam. Ferdinand Martin accepted the invitation, adding that he would visit Viet Nam at an appropriate time.  VNS
JAKARTA  National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong inh Hue held a meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand Wan Muhamad Noor Matha in Jakarta on Monday, during which Hue affirmed that Viet Nam highly values the strengthened strategic partnership with Thailand.

Hue congratulated the Speaker of the House of Representatives on his new position as President of the National Assembly of Thailand, expressing his hope that he will continue to make contributions to the growth of the Viet Nam-Thailand relations.

The two sides shared delight at the sound friendship and expanding cooperation between the two countries. They noted that bilateral economic partnership is growing strongly, with Thailand being Viet Nam's largest trade partner and the second biggest investors among ASEAN members.

Hue said that in 2023, when the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the bilateral strategic partnership, coordination should be strengthened to implement the "Three Connects" strategy, including connections in supply chains; connections in economy, businesses and localities; and connections in sustainable growth strategies, towards the goal of US$25 billion in two-way trade.

The Vietnamese top legislator asked the parliament of Thailand to continue giving favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Thailand, and supporting the development of Vietnamese culture in the country, laying the foundation for people-to-people exchange between the two nations.

Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha congratulated Viet Nam on the countrys socio-economic achievements, and spoke highly of the contributions that the Vietnamese community in Thailand had made to the host society. He said the parliament and Government of Thailand would continue to give optimal conditions for the community.

They agreed that the two legislatures should increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, while strengthening cooperation among their specialised agencies.

At the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), NA Chairman Hue invited a Thai parliamentarian delegation to the Ninth Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in Ha Noi.  VNS
JAKARTA  Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hue raised key proposals at the first plenary session of the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44) in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.

The Vietnamese legislator suggested enhancing solidarity, centrality and strategic values of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He also proposed optimising the support of partners and the international community in ensuring a regional environment of peace, security and stability; ensuring the principles of independence and self-reliance, and maintaining consensus with ASEANs common stance and viewpoints.

Hue suggested taking peace as the goal, dialogue as the tool, and cooperation as the motto to address disputes in the spirit of respect for law, in line with common principles and code of conduct, as well as international law.

He called for stronger intra-bloc cooperation in trade, investment, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, technology transfer, finance-monetary, safe and sustainable digital transformation, and just energy transition.

ASEAN should foster relations with its partners to narrow development gaps, effectively respond to non-traditional security challenges such as diseases, natural disasters, cyber crimes, cross-border crimes, climate change, and energy and water resources security. It should also boost sub-regional cooperation, contributing to ensuring inclusive growth, and equal and sustainable development, and raising its resilience to regional and global challenges, he said.

The leader stressed the need for ASEAN parliaments to continue improving their roles in law building, and strengthen their supervision over governments during the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025 in all the three pillars of politics-security, economy, and culture-society, towards the post-2025 vision.

Meanwhile, AIPA should further reform, pay more attention to relations with partners that are its observers, he continued, stressing that Viet Nam supports the admission of Cuba, Turkey and Armenia as AIPAs observers.

According to the top legislator, at AIPA-44, Viet Nam proposed three draft resolutions aiming to help ASEAN optimise advantages in science, technology, and innovation in service of economic recovery and development, as well as its potential to promote agricultural, food and forestry development.

Viet Nam wished to receive support from other ASEAN parliaments for the proposals, he said.

Hue used this occasion to invite representatives from the ASEAN parliaments and observers to attend the 9th Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians, slated for September in Ha Noi.

Viet Nam would try its best, together with other ASEAN member countries and AIPA parliaments, to build a strong and responsive ASEAN and AIPA, and turn risks into opportunities, towards a stable, prosperous and stable ASEAN Community, he affirmed.

With the theme of "Responsive Parliaments for A Stable and Prosperous ASEAN," AIPA-44 focused on issues regarding maintaining peace, security and stability through dialogue and cooperation; the fight against terrorism and extremism, and how to ensure water resources, energy and food security; accelerating green transition; enhancing regional economic connectivity and combating corruption; and promoting innovation, and scientific and technology transfer, application and development, among others.

Delegates shared the view that AIPA member parliaments should carry forward their roles in strengthening ASEANs solidarity and centrality in maintaining regional peace, security and stability, which is the prerequisite for a favourable environment for rapid socio-economic development and recovery. VNA/VNS
JAKARTA  Viet Nam attaches great importance to its strategic partnership with Indonesia, National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong inh Hue told Indonesian President Joko Widodo at their meeting in Jakarta on Monday.

President Widodo spoke highly of Chairman Hues official visit to Indonesia on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership (2013 - 2023), saying it had created momentum for the bilateral cooperation to grow more intensively, extensively and practically.

The strategic partnership had not only brought benefits to the two countries but also contributed to peace, stability and prosperity in the region, he stressed.

Chairman Hue conveyed greetings and regards from General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Nguyen Phu Trong, President Vo Van Thuong and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to the Indonesian leader.

The top legislator congratulated Indonesia on its 78th Independence Day, and noted his firm belief that the country would reap more achievements in all spheres, and hold an increasing role and position in the world.

Informing the host about the outcomes of his official visit to Indonesia and his attendance at the 44th General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-44), Chairman Hue said the two legislatures signed a cooperation agreement aiming to boost their relations, thus contributing to fostering the Vietnam-Indonesia relationship, towards advancing it to a new height.

Both leaders rejoiced at the rapid, effective development of the strategic partnership in key spheres, especially trade with two-way revenue hitting a record of over US$14 billion last year.

They agreed to step up the exchange of delegations at all levels and through all channels, and effectively implement signed agreements.

The two countries will work to raise their bilateral trade to over $15 billion by 2028 in a more balanced way.

The leaders also shared the view that the two countries need to further maintain existing supply chains, and closely cooperate to form new, strategic ones, saying both sides have strengths to boost collaboration in navigation and fishery, as well as new areas such as digital transformation and just energy transition.

President Widodo thanked Viet Nam for its support for Indonesias ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023, and suggested Viet Nam continue its coordination to enhance ASEANs centrality and implement the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

On this occasion, Chairman Hue conveyed invitations of Party General Secretary Trong and President Thuong to President Widodo to soon visit Viet Nam this year. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  The northern region has been hit by prolonged heavy rain, resulting in severe landslides and flooding that claimed seven lives and three injuries, blocked numerous roadways, and caused significant damage to properties and infrastructure.

A report from Yen Bai Provinces Disaster Response and Search and Rescue Committee said the heavy rain led to flash floods and landslides, resulting in the deaths of two young children on Saturday.

The two children, born in 2021 and 2023, from Hang Bla Ha AB Village, Khao Mang Commune in Mu Cang Chai District were killed when rocks rolled into their house.

The floods also damaged 31 houses and a section of National Highway 32 passing through Khao Mang and Ho Bon communes.

The landslide debris completely blocked the roads to the two communes, isolating and keeping them inaccessible. The entire Mu Cang Chai District experienced a power outage.

On Saturday night, local authorities directed the urgent evacuation of 15 households to safe locations. Secretary of the Mu Cang Chai Districts Party Committee Nong Viet Yen said the committee directed the police and military to promptly reach the disaster site to assist in evacuating people from the affected area.

Two task forces were established to access the affected communes and to visit the affected families.

The district issued warnings to prevent vehicles from passing through dangerous landslide-prone areas, high slopes, and steep terrains.

The committee mobilised human resources, machinery, and equipment to clear the debris and ensure road accessibility as soon as possible.

In Son La Province, a 23-year-old man in Chieng Lao Commune, Muong La District was swept away by landslides and floods. At least eight houses were totally collapsed.

Due to the slope collapse, rocks and soil have intruded into local houses, prompting the emergency evacuation of 28 households in Muong La District, five households in Quynh Nhai District and two households in Song Ma District.

Moreover, the section of National Highway 279D from Muong La District to Lai Chau Province has been completely cut off.

Roads leading to Na Lech Village in Chieng Lao Commune, Muong Sai and Chieng Bang communes in Quynh Nhai District, and Muong Leo and Pa Khoang communes in Sop Cop District have been partially blocked.

On Sunday, the provincial Disaster Response and Search and Rescue Committee established a task force to visit Muong La District and assist affected households.

Reports from Than Uyen District's People's Committee in Lai Chau Province showed that four people died and three were injured after torrential rains swept through the province.

Luong Van On, 51, and Mua A Su, 4, residing in Ta Mung Commune, Lo Thi inh, 56, and a man whose identity remained unknown in Khoen On Commune were among fatalities.

Muong Cang, Khoen On, Muong Kim, Ta Hua, and Ta Mung communes were the hardest hit as over 140 hectares of rice fields, vegetables, and fish ponds were swept away, causing damage worth more than VN8 billion (US$377,000).

In Lai Chau Province, widespread landslides have blocked several roadways with thousands of cubic metres of soil and rocks, completely disrupting transportation routes. Similar conditions are also affecting various national highways in ien Bien Province, including National Highway 4H passing through Muong Cha District, National Highway 6 passing through Tuan Giao District, and National Highway 12 passing through ien Bien District.

Authorities have promptly set up barriers and warning signs and are working to resolve the issues on these affected roads.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, heavy rain was forecast to continue in the northern regions in the next two days, with widespread rainfall of 20-50mm and locally exceeding 100mm.

Risks of flash floods and landslides were forecast in mountainous areas, and low-lying areas were at risk of flooding. Urban areas may also experience flooding due to heavy rain in a short period.

The prolonged heavy rain has also caused mudslides in many areas. In Minh Phu Commune, Soc Son District in Ha Noi, mudslides have trapped many vehicles and caused difficulties in transportation.

To proactively respond to the risks of flash floods and landslides, on Saturday, the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, and the National Committee for Disaster Response and Search and Rescue issued a directive calling on authorities to monitor the developments of heavy rain, flash floods, and landslides, and provide timely and comprehensive information to local authorities and residents to enable proactive prevention measures.

Northern mountainous provinces were asked to inspect and review residential areas near rivers and low-lying areas to proactively relocate and evacuate residents. The authorities were in charge of ensuring traffic control and providing guidance and warning signs in affected areas.

Local authorities were directed to implement safety measures for mines, reservoirs, and dams, especially small hydropower reservoirs. They were also tasked with arranging a standing force to regulate and handle potential incidents.  VNS
VINH LONG  In the past six years, a house of Bui Van Hung, residing in ong Thuan Ward, Binh Minh Town in southern Vinh Long Province has become a home for many elderly people who are lonely and facing difficulties.

This home accommodates around 20 elderly people from many cities and provinces, including Vinh Long, Can Tho, Hau Giang, and Soc Trang.

Those who come to this house are people with special and challenging circumstances. Most are elderly, lonely, weak, and sick. They share joys and sorrows during their twilight years. The healthy ones cook, exercise, and engage in cheerful conversations, while the ill ones rest and receive care.

Over time, those who were once strangers have become like brothers and sisters.

Tran Thi Gon, from southern Hau Giang Province, was among the first to move into the home. After months of struggling to live alone, she now has many sisters who encourage her to live happily and healthily.

"Life used to be very difficult for me. I lived alone, struggling day by day. Every month, Hung came to visit and brought gifts. Seeing me alone and unable to afford medical treatment, he suggested taking me in to care for me, she recalled.

After living here for several years, these sisters who were once strangers have become like family. Each one of us has our own difficulties. Healthy ones help the sick, and we share with each other to reduce sadness, she said.

Sharing the same fate of loneliness and relying on help from neighbours, Pham Thi Lan, from southern Soc Trang Province, said she felt lucky to be welcomed into this special home.

Due to her old age and failing eyesight, Lan relies on others to complete daily activities. She receives full care, including meals, beds, and attentive healthcare whenever she falls ill.

Lan shared: "I am so happy being here. I had no house, no children. Now I live here. Nothing is better than this. Thanks to these sisters and brothers who take care of food, medicine, and hospital visits, I am now healthier."

Apart from providing free accommodation for the elderly, those who established this home also show sincere care and encouragement to the elderly. Every meal is carefully prepared to enhance their immune systems and the weaker receive special attention, care, and timely medical treatment.

Dedicated to the elderly in need

The ong Thuan Ward Home was established by Bui Van Hung, with help from his family and friends in 2017.

Hung said after a period of time supporting the elderly in the ward, he and his friends started providing monthly support for more than 50 elderly people in difficult circumstances in Can Tho, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Soc Trang thanks to the communitys contributions.

These people had quite a hard life although they were getting support from the community. Empathy towards those in hardship pushed him to build this home to welcome elderly individuals.

"Seeing these elderly people struggling with sickness and loneliness, I feel deeply sorry. Having them here, I feel relieved knowing that I can take care of them to some extent and help them have a better life, he said.

We always encourage them to care for and love each other, so they can enjoy their twilight years happily," he said.

Hung's actions have attracted many other community members to join in.

As a fellow companion in the operation of the home, Nguyen Thi Dung in Can Tho City said she always considered the elderly residents at the home as her own family. With this mindset, she remains willing to help despite the difficulties and hardships.

Every day, she travels from Can Tho City to the home to support in preparing meals, cleaning, bathing, and caring for the elderly. In her free time, she engages in conversations with the elderly.

Along with providing care for over 20 elderly people at the house, the members of the ong Thuan Ward Home also regularly support and care for about 200 other underprivileged elderly living in nearby provinces.

Ngo Minh Phuc, deputy chairman of the wards People's Committee, said Hungs house has contributed to providing better care for the lonely and underprivileged people in the local area.

The local authorities always paid attention to and supported the home, and considered it a model to spread humanitarian values within the community and contribute to the care of the elderly who were alone and vulnerable.

Chairwoman of the Red Cross of Vinh Long Province Nguyen Thuy Yen Phuong said the organisation would continue to call for more resources to provide care for more elderly people in difficult circumstances.  VNS
Tianjin issues red alert for floods in major tributary of Haihe River

Xinhua) 10:05, August 07, 2023

Emergency workers reinforce a dike along the Daqinghe River in north China's Tianjin, Aug. 6, 2023. North China's Tianjin Municipality issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest level of warning, for possible floods in its Daqinghe River, a major tributary of the Haihe River, which is currently undergoing its worst flooding since 1963, said local authorities. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

TIANJIN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- North China's Tianjin Municipality issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest level of warning, for possible floods in its Daqinghe River, a major tributary of the Haihe River, which is currently undergoing its worst flooding since 1963, said local authorities.

The Daqinghe River saw its floods reach the range of Tianjin at noon on Aug. 4 when the city had already put the river's significant floodwater detention and retention area into use.

Relevant personnel, emergency vehicles and disaster relief materials have been sent to the floodwater detention and retention area, with the riverway's outer embankment reinforcement work underway.

At present, the Haihe River Basin in northern China is experiencing the worst flooding caused by rainstorms, said the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources.

This aerial photo taken on Aug. 6, 2023 shows the Daqinghe River and villages at the north embankment of the river in north China's Tianjin. North China's Tianjin Municipality issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest level of warning, for possible floods in its Daqinghe River, a major tributary of the Haihe River, which is currently undergoing its worst flooding since 1963, said local authorities. (Xinhua/Sun Fanyue)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
By Lee Min-hyung





IMM Asset Management CEO Kim Hyun-jung
HCM CITY  The positive contributions of the nationwide Catholic community have played a significant role in the overall success of the country over the years, particularly in the fields of social support, humanitarian charity, and disease prevention and control.

President Vo Van Thuong reaffirmed this during his visit to the Viet Nam Episcopal Council in HCM City yesterday morning.

At the meeting, the President provided updates on the country's recent development, particularly highlighting significant achievements including overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, economic and social recovery and growth, maintaining political and social stability, ensuring public welfare, upholding national defence and security, and enhancing international relations with notable outcomes.

The Catholics had spread the spirit of compassion, bringing love and sharing the noble values of the nation in general and the Catholic community in particular. These results continue to be promoted, brightening up the spirit of unity and the willingness to serve of the Catholics who respect God and love the country.

He also affirmed the Vietnamese Party and State always ensured citizens right to freedom of belief via the Constitution and law.

People were always given conditions to practise their faith well and, through this, engage in meaningful activities for the well-being of the people and the prosperity of the country.

Announcing the outcomes of the recent visit to the Vatican, the President said that Viet Nam and the Vatican had affirmed their increasingly developed and substantial relationship.

This progress was based on a better mutual understanding and a willingness to share common concerns.

Additionally, the two sides had jointly affirmed that the bilateral relationship was developing better and better and achieving real results, creating conditions for the effective operation of the Resident Representative Office in Viet Nam.

During the meeting, the representative of the Viet Nam Episcopal Council informed the President and the working delegation about the activities of the Catholic Church in recent times, highlighting various specific achievements, especially in social welfare and charitable activities.

Archbishop Nguyen Nang mentioned that the relationship between Viet Nam and the Vatican had achieved significant results over the years. This had been a long process, and the achievements attained today were the result of mutual trust, respect, and a willingness to support each other between the Holy See and Viet Nam.

Archbishop Nguyen Nang said that Vietnamese Catholics would always be ready to serve and continue to make contributions to the development of the country. VNS
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam's exports of goods decreased due to the general difficulties of the world market.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is promoting negotiations and signing new trade agreements, commitments and links to diversify markets, products, and supply chains and increase exports of Vietnamese goods.

Import and export started showing signs of improvement.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just released a statistical report on industrial production and trade in the first 7 months of 2023.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, export activities have been strongly implemented with active and synchronous measures to remove difficulties to support domestic production, trade promotion, and expand domestic and export markets. Imports in July showed positive signs.

Specifically, goods' total import and export turnover was estimated at 57.21 billion USD, up 2.5% over the previous month.

However, in the first 7 months of 2023, due to the general difficulties of the world market since the beginning of the year, the total import and export turnover of goods was estimated at 374.23 billion USD, down 13.9% over the same period last year.

Exports decreased by 10.6%; imports decreased by 17.1%. The trade balance in goods in the first seven months of 2023 is estimated to have a trade surplus of 15.23 billion USD.

Mentioning specific numbers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in terms of commodity exports, in July, commodity export activities continued to have positive signals when increasing by 0.8% compared to the previous month, estimated at 29 .68 billion USD.

July is also the month with the second-highest export turnover since November 2022 (only lower than the export turnover of March 2023, reaching 29.71 billion USD).

In which the domestic economic sector reached 7.76 billion USD, down 1.8%; the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) reached $21.92 billion, up 1.7%.

Compared to the same period last year, the export turnover of goods in July decreased by 3.5%, of which the domestic economic sector decreased by 4.2%, and the foreign investment sector (including crude oil) decreased. 3.2%.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the main driver for the prosperity of commodity exports in July came from the group of processed industrial products with a turnover of 1.1% compared to the previous month, estimated at USD 25.12 billion, accounting for 84.65% of the total export turnover of the country.

The export of some main industrial products tends to increase, such as computers, electronic products and components; textile, footwear; wood and wood products

For example, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in July 2023, the export of wood and wood products reached nearly 1.1 billion USD, bringing the 7-month turnover to 7.1 billion USD.

Besides, the export turnover of fuel and minerals in July 2023 was estimated at 369 million USD, up 8.7% over the previous month.

Export turnover of agricultural and aquatic products in July 2023 slowed down compared to the previous month (down slightly by 0.9%) but increased by 13.5% over the same period last year.

In general, for the first seven months of 2023, the export turnover of goods was estimated at 194.73 billion USD, down 10.6% over the same period last year. The domestic economic sector reached 51.5 billion USD, down 10.2%, accounting for 26.4% of total export turnover; the FDI sector (including crude oil) reached 143.23 billion USD, down 10.8%, accounting for 73.6%.

In the first 7 months of 2023, Vietnam has 30 products with an export turnover of over 1 billion USD, accounting for 91.6% of total export turnover (5 export products with over 10 billion USD, accounting for 57.6%).

Super strong export

In the opposite direction, the decrease in world demand for goods also affects the import turnover of raw materials for the production of export orders of Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

However, thanks to the positive signals in industrial production and exports in July, the import turnover of goods in July 2023 was estimated at 27.53 billion USD, up 4.4% over the previous month.

However, due to the decline since the beginning of the year, in the first 7 months of 2023, the import turnover of goods is estimated at 179.5 billion USD, down 17.1% over the same period last year, of which the economic sector in the country reached 64.1 billion USD, down 16.1%; FDI sector reached 115.4 billion USD, down 17.7%.

In the first 7 months of 2023, there are 35 imported items worth over 1 billion USD, accounting for 88.8% of the total import turnover (2 imported items with over 10 billion USD, accounting for 37.9%).

Because imports fell more sharply than exports, Vietnam's trade balance in July continued to have a trade surplus of about 2.15 billion USD, bringing the total trade surplus in 7 months of 2023 to 15.23 billion USD, more than 11 times higher than the trade surplus of the same period last year (a trade surplus of 1.34 billion USD).

The domestic economic sector has a trade deficit of 12.58 billion USD; the FDI sector (including crude oil) has a trade surplus of 27.81 billion USD.

Also read: Rice export: Big chance and risk prognosis  Vietnam News - Latest Updates and World Insights | Vietreader.com

Wood industry waiting to explode.

Although the export turnover of wood has not been able to increase sharply, the turnover of July 2023 is almost equal to the turnover of July 2022, showing a signal that the export of wood and wood products has gradually recovered.

Mr. Trinh Duc Kien - Deputy Director of Ke Go Co., Ltd., shared that this is not the first time that wood exporters have encountered difficulties because they have faced them in the past.

Mr. Kien expressed that businesses understand that there will be certain cycles, and after each difficult period will be a new development cycle. How long the difficulty will last cannot be predicted, but at some point, it will have to pass, and businesses must prepare and maintain "health" until that time. Surely then, consumer demand will increase.

Mr. Trinh Duc Kien also said this is a good time to evaluate his capacity to automate many stages.

Ms. Dao Thi Thanh Thuy, CEO of Thien Phat Construction, Trading and Production Company, told Vietnam Plus/VNA that normally, every year, until April 30 and May 1, you have to schedule a holiday to take a holiday. In the first half of this year, even normal days are alternated due to decreased orders.

Vietnam's partners tighten spending.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade data shows that Vietnam's exports to key markets declined in the past 7 months. Typically, the US market decreased by 21.8% over the same period last year. In addition, the EU market decreased by 9.9%; ASEAN decreased by 9.6%; Korea down 8.8%; Japan fell by 3.5%.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade explained why Vietnam's imports, exports, and orders fell: "The cause of the decline in import and export in the past 7 months is because major economies are Vietnam's export partners such as the United States and the United States. The EU reduced spending on conventional and luxury products in the United States, decreasing order volume.

A Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association representative also said that many businesses in the industry still face great difficulties and challenges.

For traditional customers, the decline is about 30-40%, and for some businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, small orders have almost no positive signal.

Assessing the general situation, according to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, in the past period, the world and regional situation continued to have very complicated and unpredictable developments, affecting and deeply affecting the stability of the country that emerged in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Meanwhile, the long-lasting consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic led to disruptions to supply chains, especially the decrease in purchasing power in some key markets, which significantly affected production in the country in general and industrial production in particular because these are the import markets for many key industrial products such as garment, footwear, wooden furniture, etc. of Vietnam.

Along with that, the price of export goods tends to decrease in the first 7 months of 2023, in which the prices of many agricultural products such as cashew kernels, tea, pepper, rubber... all decreased compared to the same period last year (such as pepper down 28.4%; rubber down 20.6%).

The ministry also said that export prices of some processed industrial products of Vietnam also fell sharply to double digits such as crude oil fell by 25.2%; petrol and oil of all kinds decreased by 16.9%; Fertilizers of all kinds decreased by 36.2%; Plastic raw materials decreased by 25.2%; Textile fibers and yarns of all kinds decreased by 23%; Iron and steel of all kinds down 24.8%...

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises are still facing many difficulties due to a decrease in foreign orders, low purchasing power in the domestic market, high input costs, and not easy access to credit.

Increase exports of goods.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is making efforts to accelerate negotiations and sign new agreements, commitments and trade links, including completing the implementation of the FTA with Israel and signing the Agreements, FTAs, and trade agreements with other partners still have many potentials (UAE, MERCOSUR...) to diversify markets, products and supply chains.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade continues to support businesses to take advantage of commitments in FTAs, especially CPTPP, EVFTA, and UKVFTA agreements, to boost exports through propaganda on rules of origin and licensing. Certificate of origin, opportunities and ways to take advantage of opportunities from the Agreements.

Also read: FTAs provide impetus for exports  Vietnam News - Latest Updates and World Insights | Vietreader.com

The ministry also said it is coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to negotiate with China to open more export markets for other Vietnamese fruit and vegetable products such as green-skinned pomelo, fresh coconut, avocado, pineapple, milkweed, lemon, cantaloupe...

Improve efficiency and regulate the speed of customs clearance of import and export goods at the border gate area between Vietnam and China, especially for seasonal agricultural and aquatic products; fast, strong shift to official export.

In addition, increased early warning of trade remedy lawsuits. The Ministry of Industry and Trade strives to step up and guide businesses on how to respond to lawsuits and, at the same time, promptly inform businesses and associations about new information, demands and regulations of the market.
The investment round was led by Ascend Vietnam Ventures with notable participation from Pentathlon Ventures, among other organisations and individual investors.

With this funding, Cerebry aims to continue the growth of its AI-enabled practice platform and to offer adaptive learning models to millions of students across Asia-Pacific education centres.

Cerebry collaborates with educational institutions, publishers, and other edtech companies to deliver personalised practice assignments. Its platform, constructed using AI technology and machine learning data accumulated over the past few years, ensures that students receive tailored exercises. These exercises, inclusive of solutions, hints, feedback, and customised additional tasks, are designed based on individual student interactions and absorption capabilities.

In 2022, Cerebry saw its revenues increase tenfold, maintaining an impressive near-100 per cent retention rate across varied customer segments. The company counts among its clientele governments in Southeast Asia and MENA regions, publishers, and major educational institutions in India.

While many edtech companies faced challenges retaining customers post-pandemic, Cerebry bucked the trend with increased product usage in schools. Founded by the trio Shubham Goyal, Rahul Singhal, and Rohit Singhal, the platform's inception was Rahul's PhD project at the National University of Singapore.

With Cerebry, the founders sought to address their personal challenges of limited financial access to tutoring services and bespoke learning solutions, especially when preparing for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance exams.

Having started with a focus on middle school mathematics, the edtech startup turned profitable in 2022. With the recent capital injection, Cerebry plans to enhance its offerings by expanding into other subjects such as science, as well as into new markets like Vietnam and Japan.

Vietnamese edtech startup Vuihoc secures $6 million in funding round led by TNB Aura The Vietnamese edtech startup, Vuihoc, has successfully raised $6 million in its latest funding round, with TNB Aura  a prominent venture capital firm  taking the lead.
Parents want peace of mind when it comes to educational establishments for their children

Tuition discount incentives for payment with international credit cards and unsecured loans are among the initiatives being offered by BAC A BANK for the new school year, as it attempts to support TH School parents and manifest investment into future generations.

Specific products have also been created. The Dream School personal credit product offers unsecured loans to individual customers to pay tuition fees during students study at TH School, with preferential lending rates in flexible tenure.

In addition, loyal customers of BAC A BANK also enjoy a special promotion for their children or grandchildren who wish to enrol at one of TH Schools campuses. The incentives apply to all levels of education at TH Schools three campuses: Chua Boc and Hoa Lac in Hanoi, and the complex in Vinh of central Nghe An province.

Incentives include free school services such as bus and lunches, donation of laptops and tablets, or direct deductions from tuition fees up to VND60 million ($2,500).

TH School parents can use the BAC A BANK MasterCard international credit card to pay tuition and other fees for their children. They also can register for interest-free instalments with flexible terms and competitive conversion fees. Besides that, customers are refunded 1 per cent of the amount.

The incentives are applied to transactions of only VND10 million ($415) or more, while support via multichannel payment is also used, bringing customers convenience as they can conduct transactions anywhere in a quick, convenient, and safe manner.

At the same time, parents who register for TH School tuition instalment payments via international credit card will receive outstanding utilities with discounts, fee waivers, accumulation of points for gift exchange, and cashback privileges depending on the type of card owned.

Hoang Huong Giang, a 38-year-old engineer in Hanoi, said that her family has two children studying in an international school in the city.

Our familys current financial condition can meet their schooling now, but I am also worried with a third child now starting his first grade. With the existing economic downturn, to ensure that all three children can enjoy the same international schooling, we have to make more careful consideration about choosing a school for them, Giang said.

After much consideration, she decided to transfer her children to TH School in the previous school year. I am satisfied because the older children still continue with the Cambridge international programme like the previous school without any interruption, Giang said.

The youngest can now study with his siblings as the family wishes. We are also gratified because we can enjoy many preferential tuition fees from programmes associated with BAC A BANK, Giang added.

A representative of BAC A BANK said, At the TH School system, children who study international curricula still absorb the national culture through the Vietnamese programme. They can grow up with their family without having to study abroad too early. This is a long journey that needs a solid financial foundation. We would like to share this legitimate desire, and we are committed to accompanying TH Schools parents with a long-term strategy.

We have the desire to contribute to bringing generations of Vietnamese students with an educational environment of international standards, imbued with Vietnamese identity, the representative added. The bank wants to help the students to realise their dream of becoming a global citizen of future generations.

Established in 1994, BAC A BANK has been focussed exclusively on providing investment consultancy for the high-tech agricultural sector. By late 2022, BAC A BANKs bad debt continued to be well controlled, with a ratio of 0.55 per cent, down by 0.22 per cent as compared to 2021. Its profit before tax reached VND1 trillion ($43 million), completing 103.2 per cent of the business plan assigned by its AGM. Investment consulting activities have continued to be promoted for projects related to high-tech agriculture, healthcare, education, and tourism. BAC A BANK is also the investment consultancy for many large-scale agricultural projects, such as TH Groups $1.2 billion dairy cow farm and milk processing plant in Nghe An province, and its $2.7 billion high-tech dairy farming and milk processing complex in Russia, which is currently under construction.

Established in 2016, TH School aims to bring up international-standard pupils in Vietnam, and has taken the lead in applying international programmes such as IPC, IGCSE, and AS/A Levels. These programmes have been widely used by many international-level schools. The school is using Cambridge-standard English-language curricula that is successfully applied worldwide for millions of students. With an optimal learning programme combining 80 per cent of classes taught in English and the remainder for Vietnamese subjects including literature, history, geography, and civic education, TH School students are exposed to the full international education, while strongly preserving the core values of Vietnam. For more information about schooling incentives offered by BAC A BANK and TH School: https://thschool.edu.vn/ or https://www.baca-bank.vn/SitePages/trang-chu.aspx Customer care line: 1800 588 828

BAC A BANK offers special gifts to female customers To honour its close customers, and especially women on the occasion of Women's Day, BAC A BANK is implementing a special programme offering gifts to female customers nationwide.

BAC A BANK launches new pro-business initiative BAC A BANK has implemented a credit incentive programme to assist businesses applying for short-term loans. This is in response to calls from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to create more favourable conditions that will optimise investment and development opportunities.

BAC A BANK offers new credit cards with incentives On March 21 in Hanoi, Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (BAC A BANK) launched an international credit card branded with MasterCard, with two card lines including BAC A BANK MasterCard Rewards Gold and BAC A BANK MasterCard Cashback Platinum.

BAC A BANK gets ball rolling for a successful year BAC A BANK last week successfully held its AGM for 2023 in the central province of Nghe An, with a series of issues discussed and resolved.
A twist in the tale of the multi-billion-dollar Long Thanh Airport project tendering process saw the Hoa Lu consortium, led by Coteccons, raise objections last week against the Vietur consortium - recently announced as the only bidder to meet technical requirements for the VND35 trillion ($1.46 billion) contract.

Hoa Lu has alleged that the leading member of the Vietur consortium breached bidding regulations and did not meet the standards required to fulfil the technical aspects of the contract, known as the 5.10 Package.

The consortium has appealed for a review of Announcement 3146, stating, "We lodged a complaint with the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), but it has not yet been considered."

According to baodautu.vn, the Government Office has just issued an official letter to the ACV; the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises; the Ministry of Transport; and the Ministry of Planning and Investment about the petition of the Hoa Lu consortium regarding its qualifications to participate in the bidding for the 5.10 Package, the first stage of the Long Thanh International Airport project.

In response to the petition from the Hoa Lu consortium, DPM Ha tasked those same bodies with the review and resolution of the petition in accordance with legal regulations on August 6.

Hoa Lu insists that its proposal fully met the technical requirements of the tender document, however, on August 1, the consortium was informed that the only contractor to meet the technical requirements of the bid was Vietur, led by IC Holdings from Turkey.

The consortium specified that IC Holdings, or IC Ibrahim Cecen Yatirim Holdings, is named after the company's chairman. He is considered one of the five major construction tycoons in Turkey. This is the first time IC Holdings has entered Vietnam, and it has no previous experience with Vietnamese laws or construction regulations, nor a clear track record.

The Hoa Lu consortium has been established by seven domestic contractors and one Thai contractor, and consists of Unicons, Thanh An, Delta, Central, An Phong, Hoa Binh and Power Line Engineering, with Coteccons leading the consortium.

The Vietur consortium includes ten enterprises, led by IC Istas Industry and Trade Construction Group from Turkey. The remaining members include Ricons, Newtecons, Vinaconex, Phuc Hung Holdings, and Hanoi Construction Corporation, among others.
At a media briefing in Hanoi on August 4, DKSH, Hoa Linh Pharmaceutical and Thai Minh Pharmaceutical shared the success storeys from their cooperation journey.

Hoang Thi To Nga, general manager, Business Unit Performance Materials, DKSH Vietnam said, DKSH's Business Unit Performance Materials is not only a bridge to assist local businesses to approach international innovative materials, but we also go along with our strategic partners in the process of market research and product development.

The success of Hoa Linh Pharmaceutical and Thai Minh Pharmaceutical is testament to DKSH's efforts to accompany and help develop domestic businesses as they bring high-quality products to millions of Vietnamese," she added.

Hoang Thi To Nga, general manager, Business Unit Performance Materials, DKSH Vietnam

DKSH has been a strategic partner of Hoa Linh and Thai Minh for many years, and aids the firms in their research and development processes, working with both businesses to enhance competitive advantages while affirming its position in the domestic market.

Hoa Linh is one of the top Vietnamese healthcare product brands, developed using experience from Vietnamese traditional medicines and natural ingredients. Hoa Linh chose DKSH as a strategic partner to develop and optimise the production process for two national product lines, Ngoc Chau herbal toothpaste and Nguyen Xuan herbal hair care products.

With extensive expertise in the industry, DKSH has provided advanced ingredients and strategic consulting to assist Hoa Linh in improving formulas as well as enhancing product performance, contributing to the outstanding growth of the two products. The strategic partnership between the two companies has contributed to the production of millions of units each year for Vietnamese consumers. Hoa Linh has successfully become one of the most popular Vietnamese healthcare brands in the domestic market.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, director, Cosmetics, Healthcare, and Beauty Products, Hoa Linh Pharmaceutical

Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, director, Cosmetics, Healthcare, and Beauty Products, Hoa Linh Pharmaceutical said, "Ensuring the quality of the product will help us to remain in the market leader position heading towards sustainable development. We appreciate DKSH's expertise and excellent support for Hoa Linhs business over the past decade. This strategic partnership has contributed significantly to the success of Hoa Linh Pharmaceutical on its journey to bring the best personal care products to Vietnamese consumers.

DKSH has also been accompanying Thai Minh since 2019 as they seek to improve Vietnamese health together. With dedication to a scientific foundation, Thai Minh strives to research and cooperate with domestic and international scientific experts and organisations to seek the best solutions to health problems. Thai Minh is committed to creating products based on the most professional and reliable scientific research. Science is an important factor in Thai Minh's products to ensure the highest efficiency in improving the quality of health for its customers.

Thai Minh and DKSH successfully launched the calcium gummy Heviho at the beginning of 2023. This nutraceutical contains 'CalGo', a nutraceutical ingredient extracted from natural salmon by Hofseth Biocare in Norway, which is distributed by DKSH in Vietnam. This ingredient not only helps absorb calcium six times easier than others but also enhances bone and dental health without causing constipation.

Han Ngoc Anh, director of Thai Minh Pharmaceutical

Han Ngoc Anh, director of Thai Minh Pharmaceutical said, We believe that with its outstanding features, the calcium gummy Heviho will secure its position in the Vietnamese market. With the support of DKSH, Thai Minh will continue to develop, diversify, and invest in our portfolio of high-quality healthcare products in Vietnam, providing consumers with more choice besides imported products.

DKSH has been a top market expansion services provider for businesses seeking growth opportunities across Asia and beyond for nearly 160 years in four sectors: healthcare, consumer goods, performance materials, and technology. The company has extensive industry expertise and in-depth local market understanding, providing comprehensive and flexible solutions according to business needs.

During more than 30 years of operations in Vietnam, DKSH has consistently sought to strengthen its capabilities, remaining a trusted partner to existing and new businesses alike.

Lipton Teas partners with DKSH to boost presence in Vietnam Lipton Teas and Infusions has partnered with DKSH Business Unit Consumer Goods, a leading partner for companies seeking to grow their consumer goods business in Asia and beyond.

How a glocalisation strategy from DKSH elevates brands With the combination of global experience and in-depth local market understanding, DKSH Vietnam is consistently improving its world-class service portfolio to help businesses succeed across Asia and beyond, especially in the consumer goods segment.
Hong Kong-based virtual insurer OneDegree secured $27 million in funding in mid-July, earmarked to fuel its ambitious expansion in Asia and investments in AI. Investors from top financial institutions, as well as supporters such as Gobi Partners, BitRock Capital, and Sun Hung Kai & Company, are demonstrating their faith in OneDegrees vision.

OneDegree began its journey focusing on pet insurance but has since broadened its offerings to include parcels, fire, home, and health insurance, even stepping into the relatively unchartered territory of digital asset protection against hacking, malware, and theft.

Insurtech groups utilise Vietnam for ambitious plans, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com

However, the companys aspiration extends beyond diversifying its portfolio. OneDegree has been providing its technology platforms to insurance companies in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and is now aiming to expand further across Asia and into the Middle East.

In the meantime, Bowtie Life Insurance is making significant strides in the digital insurance landscape. An emerging medical insurer in Hong Kong, Bowtie is the largest online insurance sales entity in the region. The startup plans to replicate its success across Asia by leveraging its strategic connection with Japanese general trader Mitsui & Company, cited a Nikkei Asia report in March.

Though Bowtie has not revealed details about its operations in Vietnam, the existence of a Vietnamese website and an office in Ho Chi Minh City signal its interest in this booming market.

Meanwhile, insurtech firm Igloo, which is headquartered in Singapore, in late July celebrated the one-year milestone of Ignite by Igloo, a digital platform for sales intermediaries

With the surge of online distribution channels for insurance, Vietnam was the first country that Ignite entered and since its launch in early 2022, it has recruited over 18,000 agents in Vietnam and issued over 30,000 policies, covering all provinces in the country.

Tri Nguyen, country manager of Igloo for Vietnam, highlighted how the platform streamlines customer service and administrative work, empowering agents to concentrate on selling.

Although Global Data says the Vietnamese insurance industry is set to skyrocket to a staggering $3.5 billion by 2026, the lions share of this potential remains largely untapped, with insurtech products currently accounting for only 2-3 per cent of the overall market revenue, Nguyen told VIR.

To address this, Igloo is set to pioneer the distribution of insurance products through a leading convenience store chain in Vietnam, making these products more accessible to the population.

Australian insurtech firm Hillridge and MSIG Vietnam, a non-life insurance company, have also collaborated to introduce a drought insurance product.

The offering, arranged in June, aims to shield Vietnamese farmers from the impacts of climate volatility, marking a significant departure from traditional insurance products and underscoring how insurtech can contribute to environmental and social resilience.

This shift in the insurance landscape was also echoed by Arup Kumar Chatterjee, principal financial sector specialist for Sustainable Development and Climate Change at the Asian Development Bank.

The insurance sector can be a game-changer by managing risks from climate change in Asia-Pacific, protecting ecosystems, and supporting the shift towards a sustainable future, he said.

Bernhard Kotanko, a senior partner at McKinsey, also spoke of his optimism for growth in Southeast Asia. Theres a lot of growth optimism for Southeast Asia, and that of course comprises huge markets like Indonesia and Vietnam, as well as more mature markets like Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, Kotanko explained.

However, there are significant hurdles to overcome. The primary challenge we face in Vietnam stems from a fundamental lack of insurance awareness among the populace, said Nguyen of Igloo. This lack of understanding breeds mistrust and consequently leads to a meagre participation rate in insurance programmes. As such, its imperative that we commit a significant portion of our focus to educational initiatives.

Insurtech signals radical change in global insurance The global insurance industry, particularly in Vietnam, is going through rapid changes thanks to the development of digital technologies and the so-called Insurtech revolution.

Foreign insurtech businesses praise Vietnams potential Foreign insurtech firms are seizing the opportunity to venture into Vietnam, driven by the countrys accelerated digital transformation and growing appetite for innovative insurance solutions.
These top-tier rankings are judged based on three primary criteria: financial capability as reflected in their latest annual financial reports; media reputation, evaluated through a method known as media coding; and surveys conducted by various stakeholders in June 2023.

In addition to its notable achievements, MB secured a prestigious position in Vietnam Report's Top 5 Most Reputable and Efficient Public Companies for 2023.

Pham Nhu Anh, CEO of MB, emphasised that the bank's ambition transcends mere digitalisation. By 2026, MB seeks to fully evolve into a digital conglomerate.

"Our aspiration is for 50 per cent of the group's revenue to come from digital channels in the future. This pivot towards becoming a digital entity will continue to be anchored by our two main platforms: the MBBank App (for individual customers) and BIZ MBBank (for corporate clients)," he said.

With significant investments in technology and a forward-thinking vision, MB has achieved commendable milestones. By the end of June 2023, its Current Account Savings Account (CASA) ratio reached 37.06 per cent in Group 1, the highest among joint-stock commercial banks.

Its CASA deposit size remains at the industry's forefront. With its impressive customer acquisition rate, MB can boast almost 23.5 million individual customers and nearly 300,000 corporate clients as of June end. Transactions conducted digitally were impressively high, standing at 96 per cent.

Innovation and product diversity

The expert council of Vietnam Report praised MB for its relentless efforts in continuous innovation, improvement, and pioneering the introduction of high-tech products, diversifying its services according to customer demands and experiences.

From mid-2022 onwards, MB stirred the market by launching the MB Hi Collection, a 2-in-1 card integrating both credit and ATM functionalities. This multifunction card offers immediate physical card ownership, bypassing the usual waiting time associated with traditional card applications. The card is activated in less than 60 seconds post-identification on the MBBank app. This innovation not only establishes a fresh trend in Vietnam but also provides a seamless cashless spending experience.

Moreover, the financial investment application 'Wealth Management' on the MBBank App elevates the financial ecosystem experience, connecting investors with a diverse range of financial products, bolstered by reputable market advisory. With a vast customer base and a high digital transaction rate of 96 per cent), this investment application promises robust growth.

In tandem with app-based offerings, MB is honing its self-service banking with MB SmartBank, allowing 24/7 transactions. Integrated in a seamless online to offline model connected with the MBBank App. It provides a "triple-no" experience  "no time wasted", "non-stop operation", and "no need for cards or documents," offering a streamlined digital banking experience that's increasingly overshadowing traditional bank branches.

With the banking landscape in a state of flux, MB's strategic positioning and innovations ensure it remains a formidable force in the industry.

MB skyrockets past tech giants to dominate financial app sphere Military Bank (MB) eclipsed a host of conglomerates and tech unicorns, and securing the coveted No.1 spot in Data.ai's 2023 "Top 10 Vietnam Headquartered Finance Publishers" award, thanks to their groundbreaking financial apps, MBBank and BIZ MBBank.
Blackpink's performance at My Dinh stadium in Hanoi late last month. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi  The Hanoi Department of Tourism on August 5 announced that out of 70,000 peopple flocking to Korean girl band Blackpinks concert at the Hanoi-based My Dinh National Stadium on July 29 and 30, over 3,000 ones are international visitors.

The foreign visitors are mostly from China, Canada, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia while Vietnamese fans of Blackpinks are mainly from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Nha Trang.

During the period, city tour service providers with double-decker buses saw a significantly increased number of clients. Particularly, the number of service users who booked online tickets from July 29 to July 31 rose 15 per cent compared to the previous days. Some hotels, especially in the areas in the district of Thanh Xuan and Cau Giay around My the Dinh National Stadium posted a 20 per cent increase in room occupancy compared to the previous weekends.

Search volume for booking in Hanoi during the two days of BlackPink concert through international booking websites grew by ten times compared to the previous week, according to Agoda.

The average occupancy rate of the hotels in July 2023 reached 60.8 per cent, up 19.2 per cent over the same period in 2022.

From July 28 to 30, the number of visitors to Hanoi's tourist destinations increased by 15-20 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Specifically, the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam welcomed more than 9,600 visitors, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel more than 8,000 visitors, and Bao Son Paradise Park 7,000 visitors.

On July 29 - 30, the total number of tourists to Hanoi reached more than 170,000, including more than 30,000 international tourists. The citys total revenue from tourism reached 630 billion VND (25.54 million USD).

Blackpink Vietnam concert organiser apologises over S. China Sea map The organiser of a Blackpink concert in Hanoi has apologised after its website featured a map showing China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, prompting a backlash on social media.

Starbucks and Blackpink join forces to dial up summer fun in Vietnam Starbucks will unite with K-pop girl group Blackpink to unleash a new experience set to excite the legions of fans in Vietnam this summer.

Blackpink to take the stage as planned in Hanoi Blackpink World Tour 2023  a show featuring the Republic of Koreas girl group phenomenon will go ahead as planned in Hanoi's My Dinh stadium for two nights on July 29 and 30, the Hanoi Peoples Committee announced on July 25.
SABECO lights path for green change

With electricity shortages expected to put great pressure on the national power grid in the near future, the application of green and sustainable energy solutions will be a long-term key to solving production issues. Mitigating climate change impacts and sustainable development is also a goal that requires the cooperation of many parties.

At the launch ceremony of a programme to evaluate and sustainable businesses in Vietnam in May, Nguyen Quang Vinh, chairman of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development, said that sustainable business helps companies strengthen their internal resources, improve their position, and win the trust of the government, investors, and especially consumers.

Over the years, more and more businesses have chosen a sustainable business development model, but the number of businesses that can persevere and complete the set goals is not high due to the lack of long-term vision as well as the right investment, he said.

SABECO is implementing new systems for its packaging

A greener journey

According to Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (SABECO), sustainable development efforts carried out from business to community are part of its commitment to sustainable development revolving around its four pillars of country, culture, conservation, and consumption.

In May, SABECO officially implemented the second phase of a rooftop solar power project in the production system. It is expected that by the end of this year, a total of 17 of 26 plants will use renewable energy sources, saving 25 million kWh of electricity per year.

It is estimated that 18,000 tonnes of CO2 will also be reduced each year, contributing to the companys net-zero emissions target by 2050, while also helping to support the National Green Growth Strategy for this decade.

Starting the transformation plan began in 2018, SABECO has not only promoted green initiatives within the business but has also strengthened cooperation with state agencies and social organisations to implement many initiatives in the community. These include installing solar lights in localities, which contributed to raising awareness about renewable energy and protecting the environment.

A majority of provinces now benefit from the companys solar street light initiative

In 2022, the project Lighting up the countryside by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in collaboration with SABECO installed 34km of solar street lights in 34 rural areas across 34 provinces, boosting environmental sustainability and safety for local people.

It is expected that by the end of 2023, all provinces will be supported by this project with at least one kilometre of solar street lights, helping to spread the application of renewable energy and raise awareness of green lifestyles. It will also help reach the National Green Growth Strategy targets.

A rooftop solar energy system at Bia Saigon Quang Ngai Brewery has been installed

Expanding responsibility

In order to realise the goal of green growth and bring net emissions to zero, the government has taken stronger measures for businesses, such as changing the Law on Environmental Protection, an increase in the environmental protection tax rate, and the latest issuance of the Extended Manufacturer Responsibility regulations, which requires businesses to be responsible for the life cycle of each product that is sold.

Furthermore, instead of using fossil fuels to power its boilers, SABECO has switched to plant-based biomass fuel made from rice husks, sawdust, cashew shells, and leaves, implemented a wastewater treatment system, used sustainable packaging by down-gauging cans and light-weighting cardboard boxes and bottles, and reused beer glasses and bottles.

SABECO has also made a number of additional steps to reduce its environmental effect. These include pushing continual improvements in water consumption, where the amount utilised per litre of beer produced has been lowered from 5 litres in 2018 to less than 3 litres last year.

With a commitment towards the goal of raising the status of Vietnamese brands and contributing to building a more prosperous Vietnamese community and country, SABECO will continue to strengthen initiatives on green growth, making a strong contribution to the national goals and gradually improving the enterprises competitiveness.

SABECOs national system consists of 26 breweries, 11 member trading companies, and a network of hundreds of thousands of sales points across the country. The company takes pride in its portfolio of beer brands that are beloved by the people of Vietnam, including Bia Lac Viet, Bia Saigon Chill, Bia 333, Bia Saigon Special, Bia Saigon Export, Bia Saigon Lager, and Bia Saigon Gold.

Vietnams golden superstars supported through SABECO Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation and its branding Bia Saigon are not only offering financial assistance for athletes to compete in major events, but also help to conduct a number of community-building initiatives for Vietnamese sports.
Shipping containers are stacked at a port in Busan, Aug. 1. Yonhap



The Korean economy's slowdown appears to be "gradually moderating" on the back of the looming recovery in the chip industry, a state-run think tank said Monday.



The assessment came after separate data from Statistics Korea showed that the inventory of semiconductor products fell 12.3 percent on-month in June, with their shipments advancing 41.1 percent.



"The slump in the semiconductor cycle is showing signs of abating, with sustained improvement in business sentiment indices," the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said.



"A growing number of indicators hint at an easing downturn in the semiconductor market, evidenced by escalating shipment and inventory indices and a surge in export volume, concurrent with the waning decline in semiconductor production," it added.



In July, Korea's exports of chips dropped 33.6 percent on-year to $7.44 billion.



The KDI added that Korea maintains a robust job market in the service sector, with inventory levels within the manufacturing sector also declining.



Korea's job additions remained stronger than expected in June on the back of the senior workforce, although the on-year growth slowed for the third consecutive month.



The country's industrial output, private spending and investment also rose for the second consecutive month in June, with inventories in the manufacturing sector falling 6.2 percent on-month, the sharpest drop since 1975.



The think tank, however, added that uncertainties still linger for the Korean economy amid the rising costs of raw materials, and the slower-than-expected recovery of the Chinese economy.



The KDI noted that concerns over a hike in global grain prices have increased due to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war, coupled with unfavorable weather conditions.



"Amid the ongoing sluggishness of global manufacturing, China seems to be experiencing increased downside risks, primarily centered around its real estate market," it added. (Yonhap)


The agricultural sector is a pillar of Vietnam's economic growth. In 2022, agricultural export turnover reached more than $53 billion for the first time, accounting for more than 75 per cent of the total export value of the country. Eight product groups with export turnover of more than $2 billion including coffee, rubber, rice, vegetables, cashews, shrimp, basa fish, and wood products.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Le Minh Hoan

To maintain this role as the backbone of the economy, there is still a lot of work to be done to modernise agriculture, especially regarding human resource development. Vocational training is currently a bottleneck in the sustainable development of the country's agriculture.

Although trained employees have increased rapidly, bringing the rate of qualified workers to 24 per cent, most receive short-term training, and the percentage of workers with degrees and certificates from the elementary level or above is low, at less than 5 per cent.

Between 2016-2020, the number of students registered to study agriculture, forestry, irrigation, and fisheries decreased by more than 30 per cent compared to the previous five years.

Labour in the agriculture, forestry, and fishery sectors currently accounts for 30 per cent of the total number of employees across the country, but students enrolled in these departments were less than 2 per cent of the approximately 520,000 students attending universities in 2022. Some traditional agricultural areas have enrolled few or even no new students recently.

This directly affects the quality of the industry's human resources in many aspects, from state management, production, and business, to research, application, and transfer of sci-tech.

The situation poses challenges to realising the goal of industrialisation and modernisation of the agricultural sector and rural development towards ecological agriculture, modern rural areas, and civilised farmers.

To overcome the above shortcomings and prepare human resources for implementing Resolution No.19-NQ/TW and the Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in this decade, with a vision to 2050, the Party Personnel Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Resolution No.37 in May. This should help innovate and improve the effectiveness of training high-quality human resources for the sustainable development of the sector before 2030.

The goals of the resolution clearly state that training high-quality human resources is needed to meet the quantity and quality requirements to build an ecological agriculture sector in a vibrant countryside, with innovative farmers forming a team of professional, knowledgeable, and skilled agricultural professionals to become a catalyst for rural economic development by 2030.

To achieve these goals, it is necessary to have the attention and leadership of the Party and state, and the support of ministries, central agencies, and localities, especially collaboration between vocational training facilities, and the business community.

Training institutions need to invest in and upgrade facilities and equipment for teaching and learning, while renovating the recruitment, fostering, and development of lecturers and teachers. Universities should concentrate on enrolment promotion, expanding many new training disciplines, and meeting the needs of society and learners.

The business community should actively participate in training and providing scholarships to support learners, especially in agricultural industries that are difficult to enrol in.

Manufacturers also have opportunities to access new technology and knowledge from research activities and technology transfer from universities through state funding and support from international projects.

These efforts have made an essential contribution to increasing the trained labour force and accelerating the industrialisation and modernisation process. These advancements will build the foundations to ensure that Vietnam is among the top positions of the world's major agricultural exporters.

Answers required for skilled labour scarcity Vietnam is expected to continue suffering from shortages of high-skilled engineers due to a rise in local production.

Businesses in dire need of skilled workers Vietnams labour market is in desperate need of high-qualified and skilled workers, experts have said.

Meeting skilled workforce demand in manufacturing and processing industry Machine learning, AI, and automation are shaping the evolution of the manufacturing and processing industry, a bright spot of Vietnam's economic recovery prospects. Experts from ManpowerGroup Vietnam, Thailand, and Middle East and the Institute of Labor and Social Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs have gathered to discuss sustainable solutions for workforce supply in the field.
A charging station of VinFast. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) could receive an incentive totalling 1,000 USD per purchase.

This was one of the Ministry of Transports proposals on incentives for EV producers and users, which have been submitted to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha in a bold effort to promote the transition away from fossil fuel cars and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as Vietnam aims to achieve net zero by 2050.

Accordingly, a sum of 1,000 USD would be provided to buyers for each EV purchase, which aimed to change the consumption behaviour away from fossil fuel vehicles, the ministry said.

The ministry suggested three types of EVs to receive incentives, including battery-powered EVs, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which are powered by hydrogen, and solar EVs. Existing policies to encourage the use of EVs of Vietnam only focus on battery EVs (BEVs) with incentives relating to special consumption tax and registration fees.

The ministry proposed to add EV manufacturing and assembling industries, and battery production to the list of industries that receive special investment incentives. It also proposed an exemption and reduction of import tax on equipment, production lines, and import of complete components and components for the production and assembly of EVs and batteries.

For EV manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance companies, the ministry asked for a preferential mechanism that helps them access financial sources. At the same time, a tax incentive mechanism is also needed for imported EVs.

Notably, according to the ministry, many businesses have proposed the continued application of the special consumption tax incentive of 3 per cent for EVs with nine seats or less after February 28, 2027, for domestically produced and assembled EVs. The companies also asked for VAT exemptions for the first five years and a reduction of 50 per cent for the five following years.

The registration fee for EVs is exempt for the first five years from March 1, 2022. In the next five years, from March 1, 2027, the first registration fee is 50 per cent of the fee for petrol and diesel cars with the same number of seats.

The ministry also proposed exemptions of import tax on components and equipment for the installation of electric charging stations, corporate income tax and land fee for five years and a reduction of 50 per cent for the next five years.

According to Dam Hoang Phuc from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, it was critical for Vietnam to not only develop the market for EVs but also build an EV production industry.

EV production was the race not only between makers but also between countries, he said, stressing that good policies would promote the development of the EV industry.

Charging infrastructure

The ministry also proposed standards for charging stations to be raised together with policies to encourage investment in the development of charging stations, which was critical to promoting the development of the EV market and production industry.

The ministry said that many companies stepped up to develop charging stations throughout the country.

VinFast, a major EV maker in Vietnam, has developed a system of charging stations with more than 150,000 charging ports for electric motorcycles and electric cars in all 63 provinces and cities.

Another company, EVIDA, also participated in providing charging services in Vietnam with EBOOST charging system which now has more than 850 charging points across the country.

Vietnam Electricity (EVN) joined the market with the pilot operation of some charging stations in the central region.

Some car makers also started to install charging stations such as Porsche, Audi or Mercedes  Benz with plans to expand the charging system in major cities.

Global companies such as Siemens, Charge and ABB were also eyeing to invest in charging infrastructure in Vietnam, the ministry said.

Although the number of charging stations was increasing rapidly, Vietnam needs policies and solutions to expand and upgrade the charging infrastructure to meet the demand, the ministry said.

Potential market

According to the Ministry of Transport, there were now only two EV producers and assemblers  Vinfast, a member of multi-industry Vingroup, and TMT Automobile Joint Stock Company.

Vinfast provides the market with four types of electric cars. A car with batteries has prices ranging from 538 million VND to more than 2 billion VND, while the versions without batteries are from 458 million VND to nearly 1.7 billion VND.

The Thanh Cong Group Joint Stock Company and Truong Hai Automobile Joint Stock Company have also introduced electric car models to explore the market and eyed domestic production and assembly.

The number of EVs in Vietnam has increased rapidly in recent years. From 2018 to 2021, there were only 167 vehicles. By July 2023, the number had increased to nearly 12,600. However, they are mainly passenger cars and city buses.

Recently, Geleximco Group said that it planned to invest in an EV plant in Thai Binh province.

To realise Vietnam's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the Prime Minister approved an action programme on green energy transformation, reducing carbon and methane emissions in the transport sector.

Under the programme, Vietnam will promote the production, assembly, import, and use of electric motorised road vehicles, along with charging infrastructure in the 2022-2030 period. It is expected that from 2025, all new buses on roads will use electricity and green energy.

From 2030, all new taxis will use electricity and green energy. By 2050, all road motorised vehicles and construction vehicles participating in traffic will be converted to electricity and green energy. Vietnam aims to complete charging infrastructure to sufficiently provide green energy to meet the demand of people and businesses nationwide.

According to market intelligence in 2022 of the International Trade Administration, the EV market in Vietnam was in its infancy, yet there was potential for significant growth, given its young population and an increasing middle class with strong interest in cutting-edge technologies, fuel efficiency and environmental awareness. These are opportunities for the EV market to grow at a double-digit rate in the coming years, the report said.

Vietnam-a market of strong potential and excitement for its electric vehicles Vietnams electric vehicle market is promising and has a very bright future, but a number of issues must be tackled for the sector to truly flourish.

Southeast Asia's EV market primed for growth Southeast Asia's electric vehicle (EV) sector, led by both foreign and local manufacturers such as Wuling, Volvo, and VinFast, is poised for significant growth, with a rising demand for supporting infrastructure, increasing investments, government incentives, and a potential leadership role in the global lithium-ion battery supply chain.
At the same time, PM Chinh called on government bodies and foreign companies to help Vietnam produce semiconductors.

It is not the first time that the prime minister has asked for training schemes to help develop a labour force for this sector, as well as promote the production of semiconductors.

At a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in July, PM Chinh was told that the United States was willing to assist Vietnam in producing semiconductors. Chinh sees the expansion of semiconductor production as a priority for Vietnams growth.

To that end, the PM urged the MPI to complete the construction of the National Centre for Innovation and establish a course on semiconductor manufacturing in April.

Last year, at the launch of Samsungs first research and development centre in Vietnam, PM Chinh asked the company to quickly prepare all necessary criteria to test manufacturing high-density interconnection electronic circuit boards, camera module products, and wide-angle lenses with optical image stabilisation for the $920 million factory in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, and to start production from July this year.

Vietnam's semiconductor industry is rapidly growing as companies affected by supply chain disruptions invest in the country. Currently, Vietnam's chip exports are mainly from foreign-invested enterprises, while the country's role in the supply chain is primarily assembly, testing, and packaging.

The US is adopting a comprehensive approach to diversify and strengthen the semiconductor ecosystem. By moving operations away from overly centralised or risky points in the global supply chain, the US aims to create a safer economic position for itself and the world. In the past decade, Vietnam has emerged as a crucial node in the global semiconductor supply chain, said the US Treasury Secretary.

Vietnam's semiconductors market to grow by $6.16 billion in next five years The semiconductors market in Vietnam is poised to grow by $6.16 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a compound annual growth rate of almost 19 per cent during the forecast period, according to the report by global technology research and advisory company Technavio.

IBM unveils worlds first 2nm chip technology for semiconductors Global tech giant IBM today unveiled a breakthrough in semiconductor design and process with the development of the worlds first chip featuring 2 nanometer (nm) nanosheet technology.

Samsung to invest $206 billion in semiconductors, displays, and biopharmaceuticals South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group targets to invest around $206 billion over the next three years in sectors like semiconductors, displays, and biopharmaceutical products.
Workers assemble a car at a plant of Thanh Cong Group. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - Vietnamese enterprises in the auto industry are not deeply involved in the global supply chain. To become global suppliers, domestic enterprises must be consistent with the management culture and business philosophy of global manufacturers, experts have said.

This is a long-term accumulation process with no shortcuts that Vietnamese businesses must overcome if they want to join deeply in the global supply chain, said experts.

Phan Dang Tuat, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Supporting Industries (VASI), said before the fourth industrial revolution, people paid significant attention to the industrial development level of a country involving in automotive, electronics and chemical industries.

A recent study by Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) showed that more than 75% of Vietnamese enterprises frequently encountered problems in production methods, standardisation of operations, and product quality control.

Most of them did not have managerial tools to control product processes or delivery schedules causing waste and large inventory.

Tuat said the automobile industry combined all quintessence of technologies, production methods and modern management methods.

He noted the learning experience of production and corporate governance from developed countries and global leading auto manufacturers was very important for Vietnamese enterprises in international integration.

In early July, the Industry Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) signed a memorandum of understanding on a cooperation project to help domestic businesses in the automobile supporting industry improve their capacity and enhance the connectivity between them and car assemblers.

This is the fourth year the two sides have inked a cooperation deal to assist domestic firms to raise the rate of locally made components in automobiles.

After three years of cooperation, TMV has recruited one official supplier and selected seven potential suppliers as well as conducted training for 60 Vietnamese suppliers.

The total number of localised products in the automobile supporting industry has reached nearly 1,000 products of all kinds.

Tuat said manufacturing a car with tens of thousands of components needed scientific production and management systems.

He said only through cooperation and continuous learning could Vietnamese enterprises improve their product quality to grasp the opportunity to become a part supplier for global automobile manufacturers.

On July 18, TMV and VASI just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support VASI members in building their capabilities and linkages to automobile assemblers. This project will be implemented from 2023 to 2024. Specifically, Toyota Vietnam and VASI will implement two main activities, screening and making a list of potential auto part suppliers to connect with automobile assemblers in Vietnam, and implementing an operational improvement support program for a number of domestic suppliers to improve the production process.

Pham Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of TMV, said related enterprises had not yet become main suppliers for Toyota, but they had been able to cut production costs, increase labour productivity, and create a better working environment.

In addition, TMV had worked with suppliers to develop a closed green cycle, in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions in all stages of the product life cycle at the supplier. As a result, Toyotas suppliers reduced their emissions by 6,462 tonnes of CO2 in 2022.

Tran Thi Kim Que, General Director of Phong Nam Co., Ltd. said When we are offered this support, we will be able to stand on our own two feet, with our own knowledge. The most difficult thing is how to convey those positive energies to all middle-level managers and continue to transmit them to employees.

"We should take workers and employees as the centre of operations and support them because they are the ones who make the final product.

Sharing the view with Que, many small- and medium-sized enterprises have the desire to become professional suppliers for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) enterprises in Vietnam.

They also wish to have a production management system that can meet the strict requirements of fastidious markets such as Japan, the US, and Europe.

Cooperation crucial to build competent auto industry As Vietnam makes strides to become a developed country by 2045, the number of personal vehicles is constantly rising. To develop the local automobile industry, a strong network of localised supporting manufacturers is required. Yet, domestic supporting industries are still weak, leaving the Vietnamese automobile industry at the bottom of the global supply chains.

Clarity offered through auto industry tax proposals The Ministry of Finances proposal on tax incentives for domestically-produced cars beyond 2022 could contribute to aiding the local automobile and supporting industries.
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP)  Two women were killed and another woman and two men were hospitalized with burns after a pleasure boat caught fire and exploded at a marina in Long Beach, California, authorities said.

The blaze was reported around 5:15 p.m. Saturday on a 35-foot (11-meter) powerboat at a fuel dock in Alamitos Bay, the Long Beach Fire Department said.

Cory Valdes was on another boat nearby when he heard the explosion and then saw flames consume the vessel.

It was so loud, it shook us, he told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. It went up so fast  you are talking ten, fifteen seconds and it was fully engulfed."

One man was quickly able to get off the burning boat and onto the dock, Valdes recalled, while the other man and a woman jumped into the water.

Valdes and others grabbed a hose to help fight the flames until a a fire boat arrived with a water cannon. Firefighters initially struggled to find the two remaining women on the boat, Valdes said.

You know there are the other two on board, you are hearing yelling, you think you are hearing screaming  it was just a poor, sad situation, said Valdes, who's retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and is a regular at the marina.

The fire sent up a black plume of smoke that could be seen and smelled from throughout the area that is about 30 miles (48 km) south of downtown Los Angeles.

All of those killed and injured were in their 60s, Fire Capt. Jake Heflin told the newspaper. Their identities were not immediately released.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Sunday.

The wreckage of the boat was towed to an isolation dock to prevent environmental damage from leaking fuel, Heflin said.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Police on Sunday announced the arrest of a 14-year-old in the shooting death of a 12-year-old in St. Paul, Minnesota.

St. Paul police said the 14-year-old is being held at a juvenile detention center on a charge of manslaughter. Police have not identified him.

Police said the victim was taken to a local hospital, where he died. Family identified the 12-year-old as Markee Jones, KSTP-TV reported.

Martez Hill told the station that his nephew, Jones, was shot during a birthday celebration. He said about 14 kids were having a sleepover. They were playing with a gun when it went off, Hill said.

This shouldve never happened, he told KSTP-TV.

I hope this brings a lot of attention to people who have firearms to make sure you keep your gun safely locked away, Jones' aunt Lakrisha Hill said. Kids are curious, and now I have a nephew to bury because of somebody elses mistake.
Waco police arrested a 20-year-old man over the weekend, accusing him of busting in the door of a North Waco home a week earlier and threatening the residents with a handgun.

Elijah Lamar Jackson was booked Sunday into McLennan County Jail on a first-degree felony charge of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit aggravated assault.

Jackson entered a residence in the 2600 block of Maple Avenue on July 31 by kicking in the front door, causing the door to swing open and strike one of the residents of the house, according to Jacksons arrest warrant affidavit. The resident received injuries to her face as a result of being hit by the door, the affidavit says.

After kicking in the door, Jackson brandished a semi-automatic handgun and threatened the residents of the home, according to the affidavit. The affidavit does not say whether Jackson stole anything or whether he knew any of the residents.

Jackson remained in jail Monday with bond set at $25,000.
The Waco areas six remaining Purple Heart veterans of the Vietnam War gathered Monday to rededicate the monument bearing their names and honor those who never came home from the war.

They were the last of 13 Vietnam veterans of the Military Order of Purple Heart listed on the granite marker that was dedicated 15 years ago at the Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The group had not gathered together at the memorial since then.

We dedicated this memorial not for ourselves, but for all 58,220 veterans who died in Vietnam, said Robert Williams, who was a sergeant first-class in the U.S. Armys 9th Infantry Division and wounded in combat in Vietnam during July 1968.

The reunion of the members of the orders Bosque Valley Chapter 4077 was called on Purple Heart Day, which reflects the creation of the medal on Aug. 7, 1782, by George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

Williams was joined by fellow members Jose Morales, Eddie Cincerne, Manuel Nelson and Andrew Henderson Sr., and Thomas Baird, who organized the gathering and was involved in creating the memorial.

In modern times, the Purple Heart Medal is awarded to military personnel who are wounded by enemy weapons. Next of kin may also be awarded the Purple Heart in the name of a veteran who died as the result of combat, the Military Order of the Purple Heart website says.

The Purple Heart monument on the Doris Miller VA is the only such monument in Texas on government property, Baird said.

I went to Temple four times to meet with with the VA Director there to get permission to put our memorial where it is, Baird said. Ultimately, Joe Phipps of Phipps Memorial donated and erected the stone and refused payment for it, Baird said.

The Purple Heart veterans Monday took turns recounting the wounds that won them the medal.

Baird was sent to Vietnam in 1969. On April 1, 1970, his unit was hit with mortars. He said that North Vietnamese soldiers fired countless AK-47 rounds at him and missed, but a fragment from one of those mortar rounds struck him.

At 2:30 in the morning, I ran into the bunker to wake up the men and tell them we were being hit, Baird said. They laughed like it was an April Fools prank. But I said, If this is an April Fools prank, why am I bleeding?"

Williams was in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969 with the 9th Division and wounded in July 1968.

Nelson, a career soldier, deployed to Vietnam twice, first in 1966 and returning the following year, and again in 1970 for most of the year.

He said he had brought his company back to base camp as first sergeant and they were all going home in November 1970, when a rocket hit and blew up, wounding him.

Morales, also a career soldier, fought in Vietnam twice. He said he went there as a door gunner in a helicopter unit during 1963 and stayed for two years. He went back around 1967 for two years as part of an infantry unit.

Even though I was wounded twice on the ground, I was always more afraid in the air, Morales said. When we were on the ground, we had all of us on the ground and those in the air. When I was in the air, it was just us.

Cincerne said he was a staff sergeant in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, being wounded in 1968.

Henderson said he was in Vietnam during 1969 and 1970 and wounded twice.

So many didnt make it back, Henderson said. God blessed us and left us here for a reason.
The United States is currently experiencing a higher number of ransomware attacks compared to the combined total of the next 22 most-affected countries. Malwarebytes provided insights that there were 1,462 reported ransomware attacks exclusively in the United States in the year ending June 2023.

In recent years, a disturbing trend has emerged, garnering the attention of both experts and the general public. This phenomenon, known as ransomware attacks, has insidiously infiltrated numerous businesses and organizations, leaving in what followed a trail of chaos and despair. This once-obscure menace has become distressingly prevalent. Malwarebytes, a cybersecurity company, has recently released a report that reveals the true scope of the ongoing pandemic. This exhaustive analysis reveals a staggering 75% increase in ransomware attacks, a stark contrast to the previous year. Surprisingly, the United States is responsible for more than 43 percent of these reported incidents, highlighting the nation's vulnerability in the face of this unrelenting assault.

Malicious cybercriminals have demonstrated that their malevolent attention was directed toward the core of the United States healthcare system, resulting in a path of disorder and anguish in its aftermath. The perpetrators orchestrated a deliberate assault on numerous hospitals and medical facilities across the nation on a significant Thursday, driven by their malicious intentions. They effectively incapacitated these vital institutions with a single strategic action, causing them to descend into disarray and ineffectiveness. The patients in critical condition found themselves in a distressing situation, as their hopes for recovery were thwarted by the limitations of an overwhelmed healthcare system.

The healthcare sector faces a great deal of difficulty regarding information technology and computer security. In this particulate attack, we are confronted with the pervasive risk posed by malware, which not only compromises the fundamental principles of system integrity but also breaches the confidentiality of patient information. In addition, malicious distributed denial of service assaults (also known as DDoS attacks) constitute a formidable threat since they cause significant disruption to healthcare facilities and obstruct the facilities' ability to fulfill their essential purpose of providing exceptional patient care.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a ransomware attack that resulted in the temporary closure of emergency rooms across multiple states on Friday, as reported by The Guardian. Ambulances were redirected as Prospect Medical Holdings, a California-based healthcare organization with hospitals in multiple states, implemented a precautionary measure by taking their systems offline to ensure their protection. In collaboration with third-party cybersecurity experts, the organization initiated an investigation.

As a result, certain locations were compelled to suspend their services, while others were left with no choice but to resort to the use of traditional paper records as a means of maintaining essential patient information.

Prospect Medical Holdings, an entity in the healthcare industry, has recently disclosed a distressing incident. This organization, known for its extensive network of 16 hospitals and over 165 clinics and outpatient centers across Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Southern California, has fallen victim to a malicious cyberattack. Prospect Medical Holdings officially announced the disconcerting news on Thursday, sending shockwaves throughout the healthcare community.

The spokesperson from Prospect Medical was unable to provide an estimate on Saturday regarding the anticipated restoration of services to their normal state. The extent of the impact on the system's sites remained uncertain.

The company has officially labeled the incident as a "data security incident that has disrupted our operations." However, it has been confirmed by the FBI that they are currently investigating the incident as a ransomware attack. The identity of the ransomware group responsible for the attack has not been disclosed, and no group has publicly claimed responsibility.

Eastern Connecticut Health Network, a Prospect Medical affiliate, has announced the temporary shutdown of some of its facilities on its official website. These closures, which are in effect until further notice, affect a variety of vital healthcare facilities, including a state-of-the-art medical imaging center, an urgent care facility dedicated to providing prompt medical attention, and an outpatient blood-draw center catering to patients' diverse needs, among others.

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In a recent announcement on the social media platform Facebook, CharterCARE Health Partners, an affiliate based in Rhode Island, conveyed the regrettable necessity of rescheduling a portion of its appointments. Furthermore, to mitigate potential disruptions, the organization has decided to revert to paper records temporarily. According to a report by The Philadelphia Inquirer, it has been brought to light that the computer systems at Crozer Health facilities in Delaware County have also experienced significant disruption.

In a recent communique issued on Saturday, Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. conveyed the occurrence of a data security incident that has regrettably disrupted our day-to-day operations. Upon receiving this disconcerting information, we promptly decided to suspend the operation of our systems to safeguard their integrity. Simultaneously, we initiated a thorough inquiry, enlisting the expertise of third-party cybersecurity specialists to aid us in this endeavor.

The company expressed its unwavering commitment to diligently attend to the urgent requirements of its patients while steadfastly striving to restore normalcy in its operations with utmost expediency.

Regrettably, the report failed to furnish comprehensive information regarding the specific characteristics and intricacies of the security breach.

Waterbury Hospital, situated in the scenic locale of Waterbury, Connecticut, has recently encountered a series of unfortunate disruptions, as reported on a somber Saturday. Additionally, it was noted that several of its outpatient and diagnostic imaging services were not accessible during Friday and Saturday. It was revealed that the organization in question had placed its unwavering trust in the age-old practice of maintaining paper records.

In the healthcare industry, the occurrence of cyberattacks targeting hospitals has regrettably become increasingly prevalent. This disconcerting observation has been aptly articulated by John Riggi, an authority in the field of cybersecurity and risk, who serves as the national adviser for the American Hospital Association.

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HCA Healthcare acknowledged a security compromise in the prior month that exposed sensitive data belonging to 11 million patients. In addition, in October, a ransomware attack targeted the computer systems of CommonSpirit medical facilities across the country, causing major disruptions. During such attacks, hospitals have documented increased fatality rates and cases of delayed medical attention. Because hospital systems are more likely than other institutions to pay ransoms, cybercriminals are driven to target them frequently.

In 2022, One Brooklyn Health, a hospital group committed to serving disadvantaged communities in New York, experienced a destructive cyberattack. This attack compromised their digital infrastructure and necessitated their dedicated staff to rely on traditional paper records. As per the employee feedback, the current situation posed a significant learning challenge, as most hospitals had already implemented electronic records as early as the 1990s. As a result, the cyberattack unintentionally led to a delay in retrieving specific diagnostic test results, worsening the situation.

The previous year, CommonSpirit Health, a healthcare organization with a statewide network of over 140 hospitals and 700 care centers, was victimized by a damaging cybercrime. This regretful episode resulted in a number of unfavorable outcomes, including the untimely rescheduling of surgeries, medical visits, and other vital healthcare services. According to NBC, the incident caused significant disruptions in the supply of crucial medical services. In 2020, a group of Russian hackers launched a ransomware attack against United Health Services, a prestigious institution with a network of over 400 institutions. The brazen act of cyber assault was a watershed point in history, as it was the most massive attack of its sort at the time.

There has been a significant increase in the frequency of cyberattacks, largely attributed to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This has resulted in many healthcare services being compelled to transition to online platforms, said John Riggi, national adviser for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association.

Mr. Riggi expressed that there has been a growing reliance on cloud-based services and the support of remote third parties. All of these endeavors are pursued with noble intentions, fueled by an unwavering dedication to improve the quality of patient care and safeguard valuable human lives. Nevertheless, an unintended outcome of this phenomenon has resulted in a substantial increase in our digital vulnerability.

A terrifying phenomenon has raced over the globe in the field of cybersecurity, leaving nations frightened in its wake. Among the afflicted countries are European powerhouses such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. During the observed era, the United States became entangled in a web of turmoil and uncertainty. An astonishing 1462 ransomware attacks poured on the country, conducted by no fewer than 48 unique ransomware organizations. Their malicious intents spared no one, as they targeted businesses, government agencies, and even naive normal consumers. The continuous bombardment left a path of damage in its wake, leaving the country to deal with the fallout from these brazen acts of cybercrime.

According to a report by Malwarebytes, the education and healthcare sectors in the United States have experienced significant challenges over the past year, ranking among the most affected industries outside of services. They have experienced a significant number of attacks, to the extent that if they were considered individual nations, their frequency of attacks would rank them as the fourth and sixth most targeted entities globally, with Germany in between.

The Services sector accounted for 26% of all ransomware attacks in the United States. The financial services sector experienced the lowest number of targeted ransomware attacks in the United States, accounting for only 2% of incidents from July 2022 to July 2023.

The United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) just released its FY2024-2026 Cybersecurity Plan. By arguing for fundamental changes in strategy, this plan intends to address the national security risk posed by cybercriminals proactively. The strategy attempts to successfully combat emerging threats by disrupting cyberattack efforts and minimizing exploits. It also tries to improve system resilience against attacks by advising firms on security investments. Furthermore, the plan aims to encourage technology companies to create solutions that prioritize security by default and embrace open security standards.

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4 Delaware County hospitals fall victim to ransomware attack
This photo released Sunday by state media shows North Korean leader holding a rifle during an inspection of munitions factories at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Yonhap



Pyongyang promotes 'defense business' as it reinforces military ties with Moscow



By Jung Min-ho



As Seoul cements its position as one of the world's fastest-growing arms exporters, Pyongyang may also be aiming to emulate the South's success.



After North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected key weapons factories from Thursday to Saturday, its state media honed in on "defense business"  a term it has never before used.



Speaking to reporters on Monday, Koo Byoung-sam, the spokesman for the Unification Ministry, said that recent signs indicate that North Korea might be seeking to export arms to Russia, a country in need due to its invasion of Ukraine.



"If that really is what it (North Korea) aims for, it is deeply regrettable as it is tantamount to admitting that it will violate the U.N. resolutions," Koo said.



For some experts, the ministry's analysis is a bit too conservative. They believe that North Korea has already violated the resolutions by sending arms to Moscow and that the size of its exports of "Russia-tailored" weapons will likely expand further.



"Russia is desperate and North Korea can gain much from Russia by providing what it needs. This creates a perfect environment for business between the two," Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a think tank, told The Korea Times. "Given that they care less about what the U.N. says, North Korea will likely redouble efforts to sell more arms as it seeks to secure food, energy or technology support in return."



While inspecting factories making missile engines, artillery systems and other weapons, Kim called for the modernization and expansion of production lines.





This photo released by state media shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaking with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting at the office building of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 26. Yonhap
WATERLOO  Three people have been arrested in connection with an Aug. 1 shooting that sent one person to the hospital.

Aundaris Reed was injured when what was supposed to be an Instagram marijuana deal erupted in gunfire, according to police accounts. Reed remains hospitalized at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, and he hasnt been charged.

On Wednesday, Waterloo police arrested Larry Earl Lorondez Phillips, 30, Eric Mooda Darnail Hayes Jr., 17, and Deondre Jermaine Seals, 17, for first-degree robbery. Seals was also arrested for intimidation with a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm. Both Hayes and Seals are charged as adults.

Bond for Phillips was set at $250,000; bond for Hayes was set at $200,000; and Seals bond was $100,000.

Police continue to investigate the shooting.

According to court records, Hayes had arranged to sell $200 worth of marijuana to two people in a transaction set up through the Instagram social media platform.

One of the alleged buyers told police he arrived in the 100 block of Mohawk Street around 7:15 p.m. to meet Hayes.

Hayes walked up to the car with a ski mask on and then lifted the mask, court records state. Hayes allegedly showed marijuana to the purchasers, and another person with Hayes then pulled a gun and pointed it at the buyers.

One of the buyers was also armed with a gun, and shots rang out. Reed, who was with the robbers, was injured, police said. Officers found Reed with a gun, records state.

Bullets also struck the buyers vehicle as it fled, breaking out a window, court records state.

Seals allegedly told police he was acting as a lookout during the robbery and fired a shot in the air to scare people in the vehicle, court records state.

Phillips was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the robbery and GPS information showed he was in the area at the time, according to court records.

No charges have been filed against people in the vehicle, police said.

Phillips is current awaiting trial for an Aug 21, 2022, incident where he allegedly shot a man in the hand outside Flirts Gentlemens Club after the man punched him, according to court records.

Hayes was previously petitioned in juvenile court for a February 2022 shooting where he and others allegedly robbed two people in a vehicle in the 600 block of Dawson Street. One of the victims was shot in the arm and chest.

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Veronica Iordanova remembers Octobers growing up in Arizona when it was too cold to trick-or-treat in a short-sleeved Halloween costume. She cant imagine that anymore.

The summer heat lasts longer and feels more intense now, and she knows that is a result of human-caused global warming. She worries about her and her family's future.

We need to realistically look at the situation and realize its not going to get better, said Iordanova, who lives in Tempe.

Across the U.S., many people are living through one of the most brutal summers of their lives. And some psychologists believe the attention on a cascade of record-shattering heat, wildfire smoke, extreme flooding and Jacuzzi-hot ocean water could be "another turning point in efforts to raise awareness about the everyday impact of climate change, as Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald put it. Thats a crucial step to prompt collective action on global warming.

The recognition that human-caused climate change is already contributing extreme weather has been gaining traction for a few years now among Americans.

This definitely feels like were in that point of no return that people have talked about for a long time, said Stephen Escudero of Miami, who says this has been the worst summer hes ever seen in his 38 years of living there.

For years, Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, was unable to see any sign in the data that extreme weather was influencing Americans to think differently about climate change. That started changing around 2016, he said, when more people started connecting their experiences of extreme heat and drought with broader climate patterns.

A majority of people in the U.S. understand that climate change is real and caused at least in part by human activity. Over half of the general public say extreme weather that they've experienced was at least partly a result of climate change, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Yales polling asks about personal experiences using a different measure and finds that 44% of people say they have personally experienced global warming.

Leiserowitz notes that an extremely small yet vocal climate-denying minority can tend to dominate the discourse  Iordanova and Escudero expressed that they feel alone in their beliefs about climate change even though they're in the majority, and public sentiment has been gradually moving in their direction over time.

However, theres still a long ways to go before Americans have fully understood whats happening here" with climate change, Leiserowitz said.

Sometimes personal experiences end up being a more compelling measure than peer-reviewed research.

Back then I was like, oh, my gosh, you know, climate change, thats horrible, said Paul Bowyer, who grew up in Arizona and now alternates his time between Northern California and Costa Rica. He said that he used to be interested in the messages coming from political figures like Al Gore, but over time, the urgency faded and left him feeling like he hadn't seen too much difference in the weather.

The thing is, nothing has changed, he said. Though he acknowledged that this year brought the worst snowstorm he's ever seen after years of drought  5 feet of snow on his deck was not normal, he said  he interpreted that as an act of Mother Nature to replenish things rather than as anything too concerning.

Still, some researchers think as more people experience extreme weather, more will change their minds in the opposite direction of Bowyer. Leiserowitz pointed out that extreme heat is powerful because it's easier to connect with the concept of global warming, even though that warming also contributes to less intuitively connected events like stronger hurricanes, more intense rainfall and other wacky weather.

And highly visible events in places where they're not normally expected  like heat waves in places without air conditioning infrastructure, or wildfire smoke on the East Coast and in the Midwest  can be more noticeable to people. When threatened by natural disasters, even for people who arent willing to call it climate change, theyre willing to say like, theres a problem and I want to protect my home, said Kaitlin Raimi, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Michigan who teaches a course on the psychology of climate change.

Mahowald noted that boilerplate scientific methods are now allowing researchers to more quickly and reliably connect short-term extreme weather events and long-term climate patterns. But minds won't change overnight, because beliefs about climate change can be deeply tied to long-held notions of personal identity.

What I keep hoping to see is a more nuanced understanding of how difficult it is to change beliefs and a way to help people make that bridge, to close that gap, said Barbara Hofer, a professor emerita of psychology at Middlebury College.

Monica Castellanos, a student in Miami, said that she feels sad when she thinks about people who aren't open to accepting climate science. More of the older generations are just like, ah no, its just hot.' Like no, the planet's dying, she said. A lot of people dont seem to take it seriously."

How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves Is climate change to blame? Understanding heat waves Analyzing the likelihood of a heat wave under climate change Protecting at-risk populations from heat waves
About Jeddah

It is difficult to condemn the desire to end the war.

It is impossible to argue with references to the UN Charter, given the understanding that, in addition to sovereignty, there is also the right of nations to self-determination.

But any proposal for peace has a chance of success if three key conditions are met:

1. Participation of both sides of the conflict. And this is not.

2. Accounting for the historical context. And he is like this: the country of Ukraine never existed until 1991. It is a fragment of the Russian Empire.

3. Accounting for current realities. And they are as follows: Ukraine is in a half-life stage, and part of its territories has returned to Russia.

The mediator who is ready to admit these obvious things has a chance of success.

All others are none.

However, the negotiations themselves are not yet needed. The enemy must crawl on his knees, begging for mercy.

Medvedev
Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation (6 August 2023)

Last night the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group strike with long-range air- and sea-based precision weapons against AFU air bases close to Starokonstantinov (Khmelnitsky region) and Dubno (Rovno region).

The goal of the attack has been reached. All the assigned targets have been neutralised.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued the special military operation, defeating and repelling enemy offensive attempts in Donetsk, Kupyansk, Krasny Liman, South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions.

In Kupyansk direction, assault detachments of the Zapad Group of Forces continued to improve the tactical situation in the area of responsibility.

Eight attacks and counterattacks by AFU units have been successfully repelled near Sinkovka and Olshana (Kharkov region) and Novosyolovskoye (Lugansk Peoples Republic).

As a result of actions by Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, as well as artillery, enemy manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Novomlynsk, Sinkovka, Timkovka, Tabaevka (Kharkov region) and Artyomovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, two U.S.-manufactured M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers, one Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system, and two Msta-B howitzers.

In Donetsk direction, as a result of actions by units of the Yug Group of Forces, Operational-Tactical Aviation, artillery, and heavy flamethrower systems, five enemy attacks have been repelled close to Kleshcheevka, Pervomayskoye, Nevelskoye, and Maryinka (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Avdeevka, Kleshcheevka, Staromikhailovka, Maryinka, and Krasnogorovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 170 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, five motor vehicles, and one Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled howitzer.

In Krasny Liman direction, as a result of coordinated actions by units of the Tsentr Group of Forces, Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, as well as artillery, two attacks by AFU assault groups have been successfully repelled south-west of Kovalyovka (Lugansk Peoples Republic) and close to Serebryansky forestry.

In addition, manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Torskoye, Yampol (Donetsk Peoples Republic), Petrovskoye, and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk Peoples Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 110 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system and one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer.

In South Donetsk direction, as a result of actions by aviation and artillery, as well as units of the Vostok Group of Forces, an enemy attack by an assault group has been repelled close to Urozhainoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware have been hit near Staromayorskoye and Storozhevoye (Donetsk Peoples Republic), and Levadnoye (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 150 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, one Grad MLRS combat vehicle, and one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system.

In Zaporozhye direction, as a result of by the actions of units, aviation and artillery of the Russian grouping of forces, two enemy attacks have been repelled near Rabotino (Zaporozhye region).

In addition, AFU units have been hit near Novopokrovka, Rabotino and Novoandreevka (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer.

In Kherson direction, the enemy losses were up to 40 Ukrainian servicemen, as well as eight motor vehicles.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 136 artillery units at their firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 145 areas.

One munition depot of missile and artillery weapons of the 9th Army Corps of the AFU has been destroyed close to Zaporozhye.

In addition, hangars with AFU aircraft equipment have been hit at Zaporozhye airfield.

One command post of the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the AFU has been neutralised near Paraskovievka (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

Air defence facilities have intercepted 11 HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system projectiles and one HARM anti-radar missile.

In addition, 16 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been shot down close to Belogorovka, Ploshchanka, Rubezhnoye, Novovodyanoye (Lugansk Peoples Republic), Krasnaya Gora, Lidievka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), Ternovoye, Mirnoye (Zaporozhye region) and Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson region).

In total, 458 airplanes, 245 helicopters, 5,534 unmanned aerial vehicles, 428 air defence missile systems, 11,143 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,143 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 5,778 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 12,098 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation.

WtR
Weather Alert

...Widespread rains and cooler conditions with an increased risk of flooding for parts of western NV and the eastern Sierra through late Monday... * Hurricane Hilary in the eastern Pacific is forecast to make landfall today near the northwestern portion of Baja of California. While this system will rapidly weaken by the time it arrives in Nevada, significant amounts of moisture will bring periods of heavy rainfall to the region this afternoon through Monday. The greatest threat for flooding is across the Basin & Range and the eastern Sierra. However, isolated flooding cannot be ruled out elsewhere across western Nevada and northeast California. Have multiple ways to receive alerts in case flood warnings are issued, and never drive through flooded roadways. * Abundant cloud cover and rainfall will keep afternoon high temperatures 10 to 20 degrees below normal today through Tuesday, with Monday likely being the coolest day. * Stay tuned to the National Hurricane Center by visiting www.hurricanes.gov for the latest on Hilary.

...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM NOON PDT TODAY THROUGH LATE MONDAY NIGHT... * WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...A portion of western Nevada, including the following area, Greater Reno-Carson City-Minden Area. * WHEN...From Noon PDT today through late Monday night. * IMPACTS...Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Storm drains and ditches may become clogged with debris. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Hurricane Hilary will bring widespread impacts to much of the Southwest through Tuesday. The biggest concern remains flooding from excessive rainfall. While periods of rainfall are possible at anytime over the next 4 days, this afternoon through Monday will be the window where we will have the greatest flooding threat as the remnants of Hilary moves through central Nevada. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued. &&
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, left, inspects readiness at a hangar of the Air Force's Eighth Fighter Wing in Wonju, Gangwon Province, Aug. 7, in this photo released by his office. Yonhap



Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum visited front-line Air Force, Navy and Marine units Monday to check readiness amid concerns about the possibility of North Korean provocations ahead of a major summertime South Korea-U.S. military exercise.



Kim inspected the Air Force's Eighth Fighter Wing in Wonju, 87 kilometers east of Seoul, a forward-deployed naval unit and a Marine Corps unit on the northwestern border island of Yeonpyeong.



His visit came as Seoul and Washington are preparing to hold the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise set to kick off later this month. Pyongyang has denounced the exercise as a war rehearsal against it.



At the Air Force unit, Kim said the North may ratchet up the threat and intensity of provocations on the pretext of responding to the UFS exercise, while calling for a readiness posture to enable an "immediate response" in the event of a provocation.



"A requirement for an operational success in case of an enemy drone provocation is the immediate operation of response forces capable of identifying and downing enemy drones in a timely manner," Kim was quoted as saying.



Kim then visited the Marine unit in charge of defending front-line islands and the Navy unit tasked with safeguarding waters south of the Northern Limit Line, a de facto inter-Korean sea border.



At the Marine base, Kim called for dealing a "bold" blow to an enemy in the event of a provocation to make it deeply "regret" the provocation.



While at the Navy base, the general pointed out that should an enemy engage in a provocation, the South Korean military should "shatter the enemy's will" for provocations through the operation of "overwhelming joint forces." (Yonhap)


Its that time of year to put a bug in your ear about a warm-weather pest that can foil the fun. Tick season is in full swing, and avoiding the bloodsuckers and their bites is getting increasingly difficult.

Thats because the tick population is booming in many areas of the country due to a number of factors, including land development, patterns in the movement of their prey and, some experts say, climate change. As a result, tickborne diseases are also on the rise. In fact, the number of reported cases of tickborne disease more than doubled between 2004 and 2016, federal data show, and cases continue to swell.

Here are five things you need to know about ticks, plus tips to stay safe this summer.

1. Not just Lyme: Ticks transmit other serious diseases.

Ticks are often associated with Lyme disease, which is the most common type of a bacterial infection transmitted by the tiny spider-like creatures. But they can pass on a number of other diseases as well, some of which can be lethal.

A Vaccine for Lyme Disease? The U.S. did have a vaccine available for Lyme disease, but that is no longer the case. The manufacturer discontinued the shot in 2002, claiming insufficient consumer demand. Clinical trials for new Lyme disease vaccines are underway. Read more about the vaccine's progress on AARP.

For example, the same tick that spreads Lyme (the black-legged tick, or deer tick) also transmits babesia, a parasite that causes a malaria-like illness (babesiosis) that can range from asymptomatic to life-threatening, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And theres been an observable uptake in babesia, says Douglas Norris, a professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The black-legged tick also carries a bacteria called anaplasmosis that can cause flulike illness, and weve seen an increase in those cases, Norris adds.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever is another tickborne disease that pops up in the Eastern, Central and Western United States and has become more common in certain areas of Arizona over the past several years, the CDC notes. And tickborne viruses like Powassan virus  which can inflict long-term neurological complications  are increasing, too, although Powassan is still relatively rare. According to the National Institutes of Health, only 20 cases of Powassan infection were reported in the U.S. before 2006; 99 were reported between 2006 and 2016.

2. Some of these diseases are hard to diagnose.

Most cases of Lyme disease produce a surefire sign of infection: a bulls-eye rash. Other tickborne illnesses, however, can be harder to diagnose  especially if you never saw the tick  because they tend to bring on a series of very familiar flulike symptoms that can easily be confused with other diseases, Norris says.

If you develop fever, chills, aches and pains and recently spent a lot of time outside, ask your doctor about whether your symptoms may be due to a tick bite. Some bites will trigger a mild rash, which could be a clue that your symptoms stem from a tick.

The majority of tickborne diseases are caused by bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. If you know you were bitten by a tick and develop flulike symptoms within a few weeks of your bite, tell you doctor when the bite occurred and, if you can, the type of tick that bit you, since different tickborne diseases are treated with different medicines.

3. Most people dont know what tick bit them.

To that point, most people arent able to distinguish between different types of ticks.

Black-Legged Tick Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

People think of ticks in a generic way, says Thomas Mather, a tick expert and director of the University of Rhode Islands Center for Vector-Borne Diseases. But its important to know that different ticks transmit different germs. So you need to really be able to distinguish between the types of ticks, to know what type of germ you might get.


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Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.


PYX Set to Export Ilmenite and Rutile

Sydney, Aug 7, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Pyx Resources Limited ( LON:PYX ) ( NSX:PYX ), the world's third-largest publicly listed zircon producer by zircon resources, is delighted to announce a change in Indonesian law, issued by the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, under regulation No. 13, allowing Indonesian Mineral Sands companies to export Ilmenite and Rutile as a Non-Metal commodity, the same as Zircon.



The law change was recommended by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and allows for the export of Ilmenite and Rutile as Non-Metal with a minimum grade of TiO2 greater than or equal to 45% for Ilmenite and TiO2 greater than or equal to 90%. As a result, PYX Resources anticipates the award of the export license of Titanium dioxide, from the Trade Department, imminently.



On receipt of the export licence the Company can proceed with the export of its titanium stockfeed, of which it currently has 8.3kt in inventory.



PYX Resources is a leading mining company that specialises in the exploration, extraction, production and sales of mineral sands. The Company has operations in Kalimantan, Indonesia, where it has secured long-term mining rights. With this law change, PYX Resources can now export its products on a broader scale and contribute to the continued development of the global business community.



Titanium feedstock production represents an approximately US$4.5 billion per annum industry.



Commenting on the change of law in Indonesia, PYX's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Oliver Hasler, said:



"This is a significant milestone for PYX Resources, and we are excited to be able to add our highquality Ilmenite and Rutile by-products to our Premium Zircon product portfolio and share them with the global market. This law change will allow us to contribute to the development of international supply chains and generate increased revenue and profitability for our business. We are grateful to the Government of Indonesia for recognising the potential of our products and supporting the growth of our operations."





About Pyx Resources Limited





PYX Resources Limited (NSX:PYX) (LON:PYX) is a global producer of premium zircon listed on the National Stock Exchange of Australia and the London Stock Exchange. The Company's flagship asset is the Mandiri mineral sands deposit, located in the alluvium sediment rich region of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Boasting the world's 5th largest producing deposit of zircon, PYX is a large-scale, near-surface open pit operation in production since 2015 and with exploration to date validating the presence of additional Valuable Heavy Minerals such as rutile, ilmenite among others within its mineral sands.
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Instagram Celebrity

The 28-year-old hip-hop artist, whose real name is Dominique Armani Jones, is seen sporting new tats while signing a contract with fellow rapper Rylo Rodriguez.

Aug 7, 2023

AceShowbiz - Lil Baby has shocked fans with his latest appearance. The "Do We Have A Problem?" spitter was spotted with some new ink on both of his arms, but some people had a hard time believing it since the emcee previously insisted that he'd never get a tattoo.

In a clip surfacing online, the 28-year-old hip-hop artist could be seen signing a contract with fellow rapper Rylo Rodriguez. What stole people's attention, however, were his tats.

"When lil baby get a tattoo?" one person asked on Twitter. "b***h I know that ain't lil baby with a tattoo????" another wrote in disbelief. A third chimed in, "lil baby having tattoos now is a shocked tho. Someone else added, "When the hell lil baby get a tattoo thoooo he been acting funny with us lately."

Baby's change of heart came as a surprise because he's constantly spoken about why he wanted to stay ink-free. He said he believes people with tattoos look like thugs and that's not a look he wanted to portray.

Meanwhile, when speaking to The New York Times in 2020, the Atlanta-born rap star said he never wanted to be seen as a "dope boy" when handling business. "I never saw me being a rapper," he explained. "A big-dog dope boy, that's it."

"Not even just a dope boy. That's why I ain't got no tattoos, because I always knew I was going to run my money up, and I was going to have to go sit in front of some people to do something with my money," he explained. "And I didn't want them to look at me like a dope boy."

"I had to keep my appearance straight," Baby further emphasized. "I literally said, 'When I sit down in front of these white folks, I don't want to have no tattoos.' In a way, it's still that today. Because when I'm sitting in these meetings, I don't have tattoos on my face. I know they'd have to think something if I've got tattoos on my face."

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Instagram Celebrity

The 'Crack a Bottle' rapper's daughter and her fiance are observed having little interaction with each other while watching Metro Boomin perform at the music festival in Chicago.

Aug 7, 2023

AceShowbiz - Eminem's daughter Hailie Jade and her fiance looked "odd" during their date night. The "Just a Little Shady" podcast host and her partner, Evan McClintock, were observed to be having little interaction with each other despite spending time together at Lollapalooza music festival.

Speaking to Page Six on the matter, an eyewitness found it "odd" that Hailie and Evan did not talk much during their date night on Friday night, August 4. The two were together for a number of hours, but they exchanged not more than "a few words with each other" during the period.

At that time, Hailie and Evan came to the music event in Chicago to watch Metro Boomin perform. "Hailie arrived with her fiance and five or six friends before Metro Boomin came on stage," the insider went on to spill to the outlet.

"She sat between two of her girlfriends and Evan stood on the other side of the table in the VIP section of the club," the eyewitness explained. About Hailie's mood throughout the night, the eyewitness stated, "She didn't seem to be in very high spirits."

According to the insider, the Grammy winner's daughter and her partner left the venue at around 3 A.M.. Before making their way out, the engaged couple and their group of friends were spotted having a conversation with Drake's lawyer, Steve Reisman. The insider claimed that the widely known attorney gave stacks of $2 to all of the women sitting around the table.

Hailie and Evan have been in a romantic relationship since 2016. In February 2023, she announced via Instagram her engagement to the executive of investigation management company Scout. Along with a picture of her beau kneeling down, she penned in the caption, "Casual weekend recap... 2.4.23 i love you @evanmcclintock11."

Evan himself has revealed that he had asked for Eminem's blessing before popping the question to Hailie. In a February interview on "Just a Little Shady podcast, he recalled the moment he spoke to the "Stan" rapper. He said, "I saw your dad go downstairs, and I'm like, 'I gotta do it right now, or I'm not doing it today, and I'm gonna have to schedule another time.' "

"So I just followed him downstairs, and, thankfully, he was just down there getting your cake and I made it happen," Evan continued. During the chat, he also noted that he had been planning to propose to Hailie since summer 2022. "I was looking for an opportunity not to make it too obvious," he added. He eventually got down on one knee on February 4, 2023.

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Taking to social media to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their show 'The O.C.', the 'Tron Legacy' star recalls being wowed by her co-star the moment they met.

Aug 7, 2023

AceShowbiz - Olivia Wilde thinks Mischa Barton has "one of the most beautiful faces" she's ever seen. The 39-year-old actress starred alongside Mischa, 37, on the hit teen drama "The O.C.", and Olivia has recalled being wowed by her co-star the moment they met.

Taking to social media to celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, Olivia, who played Alex Kelly, the on-screen love interest of Mischa's character, wrote on Instagram, "Mischa = one of the most beautiful faces I've ever seen. I remember just being like WHOOOAAAA (sic)".

Olivia previously joked that she would've refused to join the cast "unless [she] got to make out with Mischa." During an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show", Olivia also admitted that their love scenes were "so sweet."

Despite this, Olivia has confessed to having mixed feelings about her time on the show. The actress explained that she was initially embarrassed about her role - but she now feels "lucky" to have been part of the cast.

She told the New York Times newspaper, "I used to dismiss 'The O.C.' ... I did a teen soap - what an embarrassment.' And now I think, ah, that was really formative and I'm lucky I got to do that."

What's more, Olivia admitted to being shocked by the level of interest in the show. Speaking to the "Keep It" podcast, the actress explained, "I was just like, 19, just working, shooting this movie 'Alpha Dog' on the weekends and I was going back and forth between these sets and then it came out. My role was kind of revealed to the world and it was the sensational storyline of like queer love between two teenage girls on this like, American soap. At the time I was like, 'Well this should be normal. Why is it such a big deal?' But people either got riled up in a good way or got riled up in a bad way. And I was like, 'Well this is an important conversation.' "

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A special police squad and a police tank patrol Jeju International Airport, Aug. 6. Yonhap



An online post threatening to bomb Jeju International Airport has led police to search the airport and attempt to track the writer, officials said Monday.



The post was uploaded at 9:07 p.m. on an internet community Sunday, threatening to "launch a terrorist bombing attack on Jeju International Airport at two o'clock on Monday," according to police officials.



The writer said a bomb had already been installed at the airport and threatened to stab people coming out of the airport.



After spotting the post, police conducted a search of Jeju International Airport for two hours, but no explosives were found.



Officials said police plan to deploy police personnel and step up access controls at the airport Monday to prepare for any emergency situation.



Police were also tracking the writer, pledging to sternly punish the suspect.



The police on Monday also searched Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern port city of Busan and Daegu International Airport in the southeastern city of Daegu after online bomb threats were made for both airports.



An online post, uploaded at 12:18 a.m. Monday, threatened to detonate a bomb and kill everyone with a jackknife at Gimhae International Airport.



Another post on an internet community, uploaded at 11:16 p.m. on Sunday, warned of "a terrorist bombing attack at Daegu International Airport on Aug. 9," threatening to "stab everyone to death."



Shortly thereafter, the police searched the two airports but found no signs of terrorism, the officials said, adding they will step up security at the airports.



The incidents mark the latest in a series of copycat crime threats that followed two fatal stabbing rampages in and around Seoul.





Police personnels stand guard near Seohyeon station in Bundang after a stabbing rampage, Aug. 4. Yonhap
Instagram Celebrity

After bragging about the former president's background and his White House career, the prolific filmmaker is dragged online for describing the 62-year-old as 'a descendant of slaves.'

Aug 8, 2023

AceShowbiz - Tyler Perry has been dragged online after posting a birthday shout-out to Barack Obama. While he has nothing but love for the former U.S. president, the actor/writer caught some flak over the misinformation that he could spread about the politician's ancestry.

On Friday, August 4, the day Obama turned 62 years old, Perry took to his social media page to wish him a happy birthday. Along with a picture of the two's meeting at the "A Madea Christmas" star's house, he wrote a glowing tribute to the former POTUS in the caption.

"This photo was taken at my house," the 53-year-old began detailing their meeting. "I bought these chairs from an auction because they belonged to Abraham Lincoln. We both sat in them and had a conversation."

Raving about Obama's White House career, he continued, "I wondered when he freed the slaves could he have imagined that one day a descendant of those slaves would become president of the United States. Only in our America and with all of her flaws.. what a great country we live in and we must fight to keep our democracy." He went on concluding, "Happy Birthday to you President @barackobama."

Many soon took to the comments section of Perry's post to remind him that Obama is not a descendant of American slaves. "Obama is not a descendant of American slavery," one of them wrote. Another blasted him, "Tyler is all the information I need that Dreams really do come true." A third similarly stressed, "Obama did not descend from Slaves ! In the US at least! Respectfully!!!!"

Others took to Twitter, which has been rebranded to X, to voice their frustration over Perry's apparent lack of research. A user who goes by the name Nas slammed him, "Is Tyler Perry this stupid? Obama is not a Descendant of Slaves. His mom was white and his dad was an Kenyan Immigrant. These Democrat Shills will say anything to glorify Obama. Just outright lies."

Another claimed, "Obama's father is from Kenya & his mother is from a bloodline of Caucasians who owned slaves in America. Obama is not a descendant of enslaved Africans. He didn't even believe Black Americans needed reparations. Tricky math here."

"Barack Obama is not a descendant of enslaved people. Lincoln agreed to the Emancipation Proclamation on the condition that it be tied to a plan to send Black people out of the country. I could go on but I'm choosing not to," someone else argued.

Perry seemingly caught wind of the criticism because he has since edited the caption. He replaced "a descendant of those slaves" simply with "this man."

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Brainiacs, powered by Birla Open Minds (affiliated to Cambridge University) is a hybrid schooling platform that recently introduced Ayushmann Khurrana as its brand ambassador.

Nirvaan Birla, Founder of Brainiacs, says, We are delighted to have Ayushmann Khurrana on board as our brand ambassador. His remarkable achievements and dedication to his craft resonate with our mission of providing an innovative and holistic learning environment. We believe that Ayushmanns association with us will inspire learners to unlock their true potential and pursue excellence in all aspects of their lives.

The National Award-winning actor brings his talent, charisma and credibility to this exciting partnership, and will inspire and empower young learners across the nation. Brainiacs combines cutting-edge technology with experiential learning, backed by a strong teacher training academy. It aims to stimulate collaborative learning through an interactive learning pedagogy for learners from nursery to grade 12.

Muddassar Nazar the CEO of Birla Brainiacs says With 150+ hybrid centres and specialized -home tutors pan India, the focus of the platform is not just limited to the school curriculum; it also offers courses on coding, communication skills, financial literacy, vlogging and a unique subject on mental well-being called Soul Science. We provide the perfect blend of online and offline learning to students by conducting upskilling activities and projects in our physical schools and hybrid centers on a monthly basis.

Talking about the collaboration, Ayushmann says, It gives me great pleasure to join hands with Brainiacs, a platform that aims to empower young learners to explore their unique talent, think out-of-the-box and acquire skills that will pave the way for their success. I am excited to start this journey with the Birla family in changing the education space and achieving their mission.

This collaboration marks a remarkable milestone in the platforms journey to equip learners with the tools to thrive in an ever-evolving world. With Ayushmanns support, the brand aims to reach out to more learners and transform the way homeschooling is perceived and implemented across the globe.
Cretorial the Global Brand Consulting Company is excited to announce the launch and entry into thriving advertising industry.

Cretorial harnesses the power of Generative AI to deliver cutting-edge solutions in content, marketing, technology and advisory services. With a unique combination of creative expertise and advanced AI capabilities, Cretorial is set to redefine the industry landscape and drive unparalleled success for its clients.

Furthermore, we are excited to share that we have officially launched our website www.cretorial.com, the journey that combines human creativity with the power of AI to elevate your brand to new heights.

Leveraging Generative AI, businesses gain the ability to access unparalleled levels of creativity,

personalization, and efficiency when it comes to their marketing efforts. This agency utilizes advanced AI algorithms to create custom-tailored content for multiple platforms such as social media, blogs,

websites, and more. By merging data analysis, consumer insights, and state-of-the-art AI models, the agency empowers its clients to establish deeper connections with their target audiences, ultimately enhancing brand awareness and engagement.

In addition, the agency's advisory services are tailored to assist businesses in harnessing the

opportunities presented by the ever-changing digital landscape. The agency is equipped with a team of experienced professionals who provide comprehensive guidance on integrating and optimizing

technology solutions according to the unique needs of each business.

With a exceptional team of Data scientists, Integration programmers, Campaign Managers, Creative Writers, Designers, marketing strategists, content creators, and AI specialists, we are poised to deliver unparalleled results for our clients

Mr. Pawan Nayar (Founder & Chief Thought Officer) Cretorial Media Services, We are thrilled to unveil our global branding agency that combines human creativity with the power of Generative AI. Our mission is to pioneer accelerated growth by seamlessly merging the realms of content, marketing, experience, and technology (CMET). We empower digital-first businesses to embrace innovation,

redefine experiences, and achieve unparalleled success. Leveraging the power of AI across NLP, ML, and generative AI technologies, combined with our deep understanding of human-machine interactions, we provide unrivaled competitive advantage. Through transformative journeys and cutting-edge solutions, we want to not only lead industries but also shape an extraordinary future."

Experience story of core investing team:

Pawan Nayar, (Founder & Chief Thought Officer,) is an alumnus of MIT Sloan School of Management. Pawan has over 25 years of stellar experience in setting up, leading, and scaling large content, marketing, and community development operations for a top Fortune 500 firm. Pawan is a celebrity influencer on Instagram and other social media channels. His Instagram account @Go2Words gets over tens of millions of impressions per year

The thought is led by ex-executives from leading fortune 500 companies with immense experience in their respective fields. The core concept is developed by Mr Pawan Nayar (Founder and Chief Thought Officer
Her Circle is a prominent digital platform that is empowering women and fostering a sense of inclusivity. It is a thriving community providing scope for professional development, personal growth, and forging meaningful connections among women worldwide.

Tanya Chaitanya is the CEO of Her Circle & Digital and Diversity Initiatives at Reliance Industries Limited. She has been leading some transformative projects and initiatives having a significant impact on the industry.

According to Chaitanya, the digital platforms create a sense of democracy and Her Circle was created to bridge the gender digital divide. Her Circle provides networking opportunities, sharing updates, growing together, finding job opportunities, financial advice, and upskilling. It is described as a one-stop destination for women to be empowered, connected, and informed. It has launched the EveryBody project supporting body positivity and free expression. Her Circle Bizruptors is a campaign that is dedicated to women startup founders, by supporting their innovative solutions and long-term Unicorn ambitions.

In conversation with Adgully, Tanya Chaitanya sheds light on the platforms various initiatives to empower women, remove the gender digital divide, and work on its key pillars of sustainability, inclusion and equity, entrepreneurship, and empowerment.

What is the importance of digital platforms in empowering women and fostering a sense of inclusivity and diversity? How is Her Circle empowering women? How did the idea come about?

It may sound poetic, but how nature, birds grow and move unhindered across geographies and sensibilities, so does digital. Access to digital platforms, by default, is empowering. Digital platforms offer a sense of democracy. While there is always a risk everywhere, the online space if used with caution, offers women options to stay aware, connected, and informed.

Offline, women can sometimes have little or no freedom of movement, especially in smaller towns due to safety, security, and lack of infrastructure. Digital platforms provide easy access and a window to the world. That said, the gender digital divide still exists and is alarming. The OXFAM Digital Divide-India Inequality Report 2022 says that India accounts for half of the worlds gendered digital divide. Indian women are 15% less likely to own a mobile phone, 33% less likely to use mobile internet services than men, and almost 55% less likely to be doing banking and financial transactions online. Her Circle was imagined to bridge the gender digital divide. Launched in March 2021, Her Circle is already Indias largest digital platform for women, a choice that gives every woman a strong voice.

How is Her Circle different from its competitors? What is its USP?

With our 350+ million plus reach and 2.45 lakh registered users, Her Circles biggest USP is that it is a multiverse for women covering content, social networking, personalised tracking, job opportunities, upskilling, wellness help, financial advice, and entrepreneurial expertise. We are multilingual and available in English and Hindi. We are a one-stop destination for everything a woman needs to stay empowered, informed, and connected. A community that is a circle of light and sisterhood.

What are the marketing activities undertaken by HerCircle in the past year and during the first half of this year? What is its overall marketing strategy?

Her Circles marketing activities owe everything to the community and word-of-mouth. Our offline activations center around community support and building. Her Circle Hive is an on-ground initiative where we invite our community members to interact with fitness, finance, lifestyle, and corporate experts. Deanne Pande, a well-known celebrity fitness expert did a session, where she interacted with Her Circle readers, and gave them fitness lessons and lifestyle advice.

Our masterclasses have focussed on building soft skills such as food styling, makeup, and hair expertise, professional photography, choreography, etc. Renowned makeup artist Shaan Mu, photographer Vikram Bawa, MasterChef Payal Gupta, etc., have given their professional crash courses free of cost for Her Circle users.

On social media, our marketing campaign  #HasMyBack  was a resounding success, where women came together to talk of solidarity and sisterhood and posted pictures of those who have been their supporters and cheerleaders. The Her Circle impact is measured through our reach, connection, information, and eventual feedback  only from the reader.

How was 2022 for Her Circle? What are your plans for the coming times?

2022 was a year of consolidation for Her Circle. We started with a bang in the middle of the pandemic and with the kind of registrations we saw in the beginning, we were super encouraged. We wondered if we would be able to keep up the momentum once people returned to physical office. But our users are loyal, our content is consistently high quality and our conversations in social networking are safe, so women can speak freely without hesitation.

Her Circles initiatives are across our key pillars  sustainability, inclusion and equity, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. Our initiative, Her Circle Bizruptors, is a platform for giving women start-up founders and their ideas/ innovations/ products/ services a chance to be showcased. We intend to build a community of inspirational women entrepreneurs and winners.

The sustainability initiatives we run cover the length and breadth of planet-friendly ideas. Our sustainability special meets women warriors who build circularity, promote environmental practices, and believe in being green citizens and parents. Kalki Koechlin, Kirti Poonia and Rameshwari Seth have been some advocates of sustainability we have associated with.

Our inclusion and equity initiative is the ongoing Her Circle EveryBODY project, which has featured body-positive influencers such as Virali Modi, Neha Parulkar, Tanvi Geetha Ravishankar, Neelakshi Singh, Apeksha Dusija, Roma Maity, Apeksha Dusija, Pooja & Norah.

How are women benefitting from HerCircle? Which age group of women are most active on the platform? What is its engagement rate?

A community that supports together digitally, builds each other individually. Our focus in the professional and social networking is to throw the spotlight on real women. Not celebrities, but regular women who have a talent and have found their niche. A chef, a dancer, a yoga enthusiast, a fitness specialist, a human rights activist, an equality advocate  Her Circles Connect section gives a platform to women with different skills and talents.

Our personalised trackers provide up-to-date information on how each person can customise their health, nutrition, fitness, and financial requirements; Help section connects women to Reliance Hospital doctors like gynecologists, mental health experts, and dermatologists who respond to reader concerns and queries within 24 hours.

The age band that is our largest is between 18 and 45 years. But our reader base is strong and even extends to those in their 60s. With a high engagement rate of 5%-6%, we are not just the largest, but also the most animated digital community. One for all, all for one.

Could you tell us in brief about the EveryBody project, Bizruptors project, as well as the sustainability project of Her Circle? What are the objectives of these projects and what do they aim to solve?

Launched this year on our second anniversary was the Her Circle EveryBODY project. Here, we promoted body positivity and have featured influencers with a difference. Our cover people each month for this project fit into no pre-conceived notions of perfection. They are diversity advocates across size, skin, colour, body, neurology, and physicality and they are making the world a kinder place, one post at a time. Take, for instance, Pooja and Norah, the mom-daughter duo in which the five-year-old child has Down Syndrome. When we featured them, we got amazing reviews on how neurodiversity is often ignored and rarely mainstreamed. We opened up on conversations on size-inclusivity, special needs.

Her Circle Bizruptors is a campaign that is scouting for start-up women founders with ideas, innovative solutions, and long-term Unicorn ambitions. Entries are now open and nominees are being selected throughout the year and showcased on our platform. At the end of the campaign, the Her Circle Bizruptor trophy awaits the winners.

Our Sustainability Digital covers are now in their second year. The first time we featured circularity and environment champions like Kirti Poonia, Rajeshwari Seth, and Elsie Gabriel. This year, we had Kalki Koechlin topline the cover as a green parenting advocate and a person who is environmentally conscious in her daily life.
The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has warned certain advertising agencies over the increasing prevalence of unfair business practices. INS has observed instances where these agencies are offering significantly discounted rates to potential clients on behalf of Member Publications, without obtaining proper approvals from the concerned publications.

Such practices have been deemed by INS as both unfair and detrimental to the healthy functioning of the industry. These actions are in direct violation of the Agreement executed by the advertising agencies, as per the Rules & Regulations Governing Accreditation of Advertising Agencies and Media Services Agencies.

In light of these concerns, INS reiterates its call to all advertising agencies to desist from engaging in such practices. Failure to comply with this advisory may result in severe consequences. INS reserves the right to take strong action, which could potentially include the issuance of a Notice of Disaccreditation. It's imperative for the agencies to understand that they will be held responsible for all the ramifications arising from such actions.
The introduction of the ISA Media Charter by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), the representative body of advertisers across the country, has ignited multiple discussions about fairness, transparency, and other related topics within the ever-evolving advertising industry. This charter aims to protect the interests of brands, while addressing multiple concerns.

Sunil Kataria, Chairman of ISA and CEO-Lifestyle Business at Raymond Ltd, emphasised his organisations dedication to advocating for advertisers needs.

The ISA Media Charters six key pillars include:

ISA Model Media Agency Agreement: A milestone in harmonizing relationships between advertisers and media agencies, this initiative provides a meticulously designed template for agreements. Zero Tolerance to Ad-Fraud: Addressing a pressing concern, the charter unequivocally condemns ad fraud, aiming to create an atmosphere of vigilance within the advertising community. Brand Safety: Ensuring brands are showcased in secure environments, insulated from content that could tarnish their reputation, is a pivotal focus of the charter. Viewability: Adapting to the digital era, this initiative addresses the challenges brought about by rapid technological advancements. It ensures that advertisements are genuinely viewable by their intended audience, optimizing engagement and impact. Common Minimum Standard for First-Party Data: Upholding consumer privacy and protection, this pillar sets forth guidelines for responsible data collection and usage. Cross-Screen Measurement: Reflecting the evolving media landscape, this initiative aims to harmonize measurement standards for both TV and digital platforms.

Tejas Apte, ISA Media Forum Head and General Manager - Media, South Asia, Unilever, hailed the charter as a convergence of priorities that resonate across the advertising spectrum. The charter embodies the aspirations of advertisers, agencies, and publishers to establish a transparent ecosystem while safeguarding consumer interests, Apte stressed. In a fast-evolving digital domain, the charters commitment to brand safety and viewability is paramount, and it is expected to set a precedent for responsible data practices.

Central to the ISA Media Charter is an emphasis on a transparent and consumer-centric media ecosystem. Sunil Kataria has underlined the significance of this focus. The question that emerges is how this emphasis on consumer-centric practices will wield influence. For brands, the prospect of a more transparent and consumer-oriented approach offers the potential to cultivate trust and engagement, leading to stronger brand-consumer relationships. Consumers, on the other hand, stand to benefit from an advertising environment that respects their preferences and privacy, potentially enhancing their overall experience.

Brand safety and transparency

Two of the charters driving forces are brand safety and transparency. The charters emphasis on brand safety underscores the importance of aligning advertisements with platforms that resonate with the brands target audience.

And as far as media agencies are concerned, there exists a sense of discontentment that is difficult to ignore. The ISA Media Charter is underlined by its ambitious goal: to revolutionise the industry by establishing a set of guiding principles and standards that promise to promote transparency, fairness, and a consumer-centric approach.

Intriguingly, the media agencies discontent is not solely a matter of structure. There is a sense of skepticism over the notion of standardised guidelines, though they are seemingly promising. They say that each advertiser operates with distinct briefs and goals, while each agency brings its own key performance indicators (KPIs) to the table.

Media agency executives say that the charters push for uniformity thus could inadvertently undermine the unique intricacies of every campaign.

As the ISA Media Charter takes its initial steps, questions abound. Can it strike a delicate balance between inclusive collaboration and potential dominance? Will it manage to harmonise divergent interests under the banner of standardised guidelines? How will its focus on transparency and consumer-centric practices shape the industrys future? These queries remain unanswered, painting the charter as both an enigma and a potential harbinger of change within Indias advertising landscape.

There is no problem in clients asking for transparency and accountability, states Ashish Bhasin, Founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group. He adds that most professional agencies today would be happy to provide that.

It is not just in India; it is a global trend to ask for accountability. Equally, it cannot be a one-sided ask. For example, for this to be sustainable, a fair set of rules on agency remuneration, timely payment by clients, etc., have to be worked out, which are fair to both the sides. There is no doubt that there cant be a compromise on issues like transparency, brand safety, etc. The era of opacity is over. And that is not just in India; it is a global trend. Most of the agencies have already adapted to it. I dont find anything wrong in that ask. You cant have that as an ask and clients not fulfilling their part of the ask. For example, they are talking about cross-channel measurement. But clients are unwilling to pay for research. All the research is either paid for by the agency or the broadcaster. If they want to develop cross-media measurement, they have to be willing to pay for it. When you want to develop new things, you have to be ready to pay for it, stressed Ashish Bhasin.

Anita Nayyar, COO - Media & Communications, Patanjali Ayurved Limited, believes that transparency is undoubtedly essential. However, she adds, when discussing consumer-centricity from a media charter standpoint, the connection can appear somewhat intricate. According to her, media agencies must prioritise transparency and brand-centricity initially. Following this, she points out, the obligation shifts to brands to adopt a consumer-centric approach. The demands of business should be evenly distributed between brands and media agencies, fostering a path towards a consumer-centric approach, she points out.

Brand safety and ad frauds are top priority for brands, says Anita Nayyar. This also calls for transparency, which will lead to higher efficiencies and benefit everyone concerned. Hence, platforms which guarantee both brand safety and zero ad frauds will have an edge. Today, there are many tools through which both brand safety and ad frauds can be reported, she adds.

We heard about brand safety. Every brand has its TG. Communication will be within that echo system. What is consumer safety? They should focus more in that realm, says the media agency top executive.

Another major aspect addressed in the charter is viewability. It is important to ensure that ads are genuinely viewed by the target audience. Ensuring reliable viewability holds paramount importance for both brands and consumers. To foster trust and value, platforms must guarantee full views and establish transparent methodologies to uphold this assurance.

The pain points

There are certain key pain points here as far media agencies are concerned.

The media industry suffers from the syndrome of wafer-thin margins, points out Anita Nayyar. Extremely low commissions is the biggest pain point for media agencies. The industry is resource-intensive, and hence, large teams are needed by the media agencies to service brands/ clients. While advertisers safeguard their interest by laying down various qualifiers, it is critical that a base standard remuneration be agreed to be paid to media agencies so they can make their ends meet, hire good talent, and provide services to brands. There is no standardisation of fee/ commissions, and hence, media agencies are forced to negotiate AVDs, says Nayyar.

Ashish Bhasin does not think media agencies will have problem either with clauses like brand safety or transparency. He feels that this is a great opportunity for media agencies to strongly raise with clients the need for paying for media research.

They must pay for it; after all it is useful for their brands. This is also a great opportunity for media agencies to sit with the clients and raise the issue of a fair of working, including remuneration. It has to be a win-win for both sides. If it is one-sided it will never work. Just because one body has issued a proposed charter does not mean that it is accepted as a norm, and I am pretty sure that most media agencies will pretty much feel that way, Bhasin adds.

Titans Vs small players?

At its core, the ISA Media Charter seeks to establish a common ground for all stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem, from the titans of the industry to the smaller players. However, beneath this noble intent lies a complex conundrum. There are concerns that the dominant influence of a few titans might eclipse the interests of medium and smaller agencies. The tug-of-war between inclusivity and domination, thus comes to the forefront.

Any association with a common interest and standard with guidelines is very important as long as they include all stakeholders. However, few biggies control it and the medium and small players lose. That should not happen,: said a media agency top executive on condition of anonymity. Standard guidelines like common agreement, etc., may not work. Also, every advertiser has his own brief and every agency its own KPI, he adds.

Anita Nayyar also stresses on the importance of ensuring viewability. She adds, As of today, there are a number of platforms which promise and may deliver view-ability. However, one is not 100% sure of the same. It is important in the interest of brands and hence consumers for platforms to ensure 100% views and also provide transparent ways to ensure the same.

This challenge will always remain, points out the executive. It is still a challenge with TV, print, radio and cinema, he says, stressing on the need for a measurable mechanism from campaign to commerce.
Many actors are good at acting but it's hard for them to pull off and excel in all sorts of emotional scenes it's one and only Ranveer Singh who has always proved that he is the best when it comes to emoting on screen. Usually, there are actors good at a certain genre or a specific emotion, but when it comes to Ranveer he is a perfectionist in all sorts of emotions with the same par. In his recent release, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani the superstar has left everyone spellbound with his stupendous performance. Whether its romantic scenes or comedy or intense emotional scenes, Ranveer performed outstandingly. So much so that the audience laughed and cried seeing his performance. Thats the power of an expert actor that Ranveer is.

Watch him in the proposal scene in the film, the way he expresses his love and romance is truly something that every girl admires from her guy-to-be. Then his comic timing in the film, that's the biggest highlight of Ranveer's performance. He has just made every scene so interesting with his humor that genuinely makes the audience wait for him to come on the screen. Then emotional scenes, the superstar truly made everyone cry with his expressions. Be it the scene with his dad and conversation with Alia after 'Dhindora Baje re' song Or the monologue with Alia's dad or when he fights for his mothers respect, every scene was so well performed with the exact emotions, that's only Ranveer can perform.

No one can say that Ranveer was good at only at comedy or only in emotional scenes, or he was performing romance well keeping aside the other emotions, so whatever emotion was required in the scene, it's only Ranveer who can do absolute justice to it and that's what makes him the best actor of this generation.

Well, it's not just Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, but Ranveer has proved his mettle as an actor in his past releases as well while bringing a range of emotions in different films. Be it performing an action, the way he fought like a brave and unbeatable worrier in Bajirao Mastani and carried such a king character [3:39 PM, 8/7/2023] Nehal Adgully: exuding sheer authoritativeness then his fight like a rebel Gunda in Gunday, then coming to his role in Band Baaja Baaraat, where he stepped into the shoes of a bindass Delhi guy, then he brought a ambitious emperor Alauddin Khilji in Padmaavat onto the slate, where he not only stood as a courageous and stubborn king but also a leader of his people, while these are just a few examples, time and again Ranveer has proved his excellent acting prowess in his enlarged filmography. It's his powerful acting that he manages to pull off all the emotions so well. Moreover, must say, it's indeed the best actors' job to play their roles at their best and nothing to doubt Ranveer has totally nailed it every time
A 17-year old class 12 economics student Rhea Bakshis first documentary Indias Treasures was awarded at the New York International Film Awards, in the best student film category. It was the only film from India to be awarded with the finalist laurel.

"Indias Treasures" is an intimate journey into the enchanting world of one of Indias centuries-old traditional art forms - handmade silver jewellery - adorned by the royalties across all continents. Directed and presented by Rhea Bakshi, student of The Shri Ram School, Moulsari, Gurugram; the documentary travels through the magical Rajasthan, Jharkhand and narrow lanes of old Delhi to embrace artisans lives and showcase their pride, fears, sacrifice and passion while creating and preserving Indias distinct identity.

On the Finalist Laurel awarded by New York International Film Awards Rhea Bakshi said, Indias Treasures highlights the irreplaceable value of Indian craftsmanship and the need to celebrate it on a global scale, and moreover its significance for Indias cultural, societal and economic growth. I am overjoyed and grateful to the New York International Film Awards jury for this distinguished honour. This will trigger a wider audience for the documentary and viewers will witness the impact and contribution of the talented self-employed Indian artists, especially women.

The focal point for this film was inspired from Prime Minister's Narendra Modis mission of inclusive economic growth, which I believe is critical to realise the vision of making India the world's third-largest economy. For the last four years, I have been engaged with Nai Disha, a NGO providing education for under-privileged children, which sensitised me to the aspiration and challenges of the vulnerable sections of our society. I would like to share this award with all my students at Nai Disha who have immensely enriched my perspective and imminent career path, Rhea added.

The handicraft sector in India plays a vital role in driving the countrys economy, employing over 7 million artisans and impacting the livelihoods of over 200 million people. The documentary emphasizes the need to celebrate these artisans and preserve their unique skills - the true treasures of India's heritage - underscoring the power of sustainable development where everyone can contribute and earn with fair and equal access to resources and opportunities. It would further increase artists awareness about the PM Modis Vishwakarma Kaushal Samman Yojana, which can boost their livelihood through small loans and financial incentives, access to technology and institutional support.

The director and creator Rhea Bakshi, an ardent admirer of the traditional handmade silver jewellery, documents the diverse jewellery-making styles, unique to varied Indian geographies, including Orissas fine filigree work, Jaipurs art of enamelling and the setting of semi-precious stones in Old Delhi. It introduces inspiring stories of inclusive economic growth, a mission close to Rheas mission. It also showcases how the sector is empowering disadvantaged women facing cultural and economic barriers through skill-building, offering them a path to a better future, transforming their lives, enabling them to financially contribute to their families well-being. Viewers will discover the duality of globalisation, mass-manufacturing and e-commerce platforms on this noble art form and the promise it holds for the next generation.

A class 12 economics student; in her first documentary Rhea also discusses microcredit facility as an amazing solution, and how artisans can leverage small bank loans to re-establish their lives. It delves into the artisans predicament with e-commerce, viewed as the future. The film concludes with the artisans deep desire to continue their age-held craft and their expectation of a secure future for their children.
The BJP has taken quite a lot of twists and turns in politics. The BJP is accused of accommodating all the corrupt politicians of other parties in alliance with them. In our culture, the dreaded criminal Valya became Valmiki when he got the right directions and orders in life. When a corrupt leader comes to the BJP, it is chronicled that he will not do corruption again. All those corrupt leaders of other parties, such as the Shiv Sena and NCP, are tamed down in the alliance. No case against Ajit Pawar has been withdrawn since he joined the BJP. But somewhere in Maharashtra, people are not happy due to manipulative politics played out in the open by the BJP.

First, Eknath Shinde cracked out of the Shiv Sena, snatching away the name and symbol of the original Shiv Sena. Now, the Ajit Pawar group was lured to join the alliance of the BJP. The mounting ED pressure and speculations about Ajit Pawar getting arrested made people believe that the BJP and Modi were definitely going to punish the corrupt. On several occasions, Devendra Fadnavis and Modi made scorching attacks on Ajit Pawar and the NCP, calling them National Corrupt parties. The chances of the BJP coming back to power in Maharashtra rest on the three-party alliance. The three parties together have a comfortable majority, and they can rock the boat at any cost. If the present coalition has to fall, any one of the partners can withdraw support. Why should they do that unless they have a better option?

The third option is if the BJP does extremely well in the local body and by polls, there are chances of a mass exodus from the alliance. But in the recent local body election, the BJPs performance was just average. However, if the BJP is able to do well in municipal elections, there is a possibility of the party attracting MLAs. Also, if the BJP does extremely well in assembly elections in other states, that too may have its reflections.

Right now many political parties in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, such as Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) (mostly in Goa neighbouring area), Nationalist Congress Party of Ajit Pawar, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), Prahar Janshakti Party (PJP), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), Republican Party of India (Athawale) (RPI(A), The parties that may possibly join the alliance in future  merely on account of them being part of the NDA earlier are Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Some small unknown parties may align as per the direction of the wind at that time.

A lot depends on the general elections result, which will happen around May, 2024. Again, if the BJP shows itself to be too powerful, engulfing the entire political field of the nation and becoming impressively strong, there is a possibility of the alliance crumbling. Undoubtedly, the BJP will emerge as a big party with a record-breaking and thumping victory. I can envisage Modi becoming PM for the third time in the 2024 elections.

Considering the opposition partys lack of vision without any constructive manifesto, a trustable face and conflict of interest could end the journey of many parties and politicians. In Maharashtra, the government should last till 2024, unless some constituent party goes crazy and withdraws support. Bawankule already made a statement to the media that, In Maharashtra, we have started our work across 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 Assembly constituencies. Irrespective of who contests which seat among our alliance partners, we will put forth our best efforts. The BJP is leaving no stone unturned to attain its goals. Political parties remain in power or vibrant in politics so long as the party follows its ideology. If the party tries to change its ideology only to suit the particular time and space, it will start its downward trend. Gradually, the party becomes extinct too.

Already, people have formed an opinion of the Shiv Sena. The series of events that have shaken the state have harmed the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray. Regional parties in other states also lost ground because of their arrogance. In Karnataka, Deve Gowda, who took over power from Ramakrishna Hegde in 1994, became too aggressive and arrogant. The party started diminishing. Now even the top leaders of the party are unable to win an election. Similar is the case in respect of the Samajwadi Party, BSP, RJD, RLD, INLD, TDP, CPIM, etc., and Congress, too, is following them in letter and spirit.

All these parties have been too powerful for regional or national parties that never expected to be overpowered. But now they are finding survival difficult. In the past two successive elections, in 2014 and 2019, the Narendra Modi factor played a significant role in Lok Sabha polls. The state BJP poll strategists believe Moditva will remain an integral factor even today. And people will decide on the Modi factor. Yet the party believes it will have to strengthen its own organization to take on the election challenges. Unlike in the past, when the Shiv Sena and BJP alliance fought against the Congress-NCP alliance, the dynamics have changed.

In the past year, the BJPs Operation Lotus led to splits in two regional parties: the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray and the NCP led by Sharad Pawar. The Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar have pledged support to the BJP both in government and in the pre-poll alliance for 2024. This time, the elections ahead will be really interesting for everyone.
An armed special police squad patrols southern Seoul's Gangnam Station in response to a murder threat posted online, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Lee Hae-rin



Amid growing fears of random attacks and online murder threats forewarning of copycat crimes, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon ordered the prosecution, Monday, to broadly endorse the use of force by police in the process of arresting violent offenders.



The Korean National Police Agency announced measures for "special policing against serious crimes," Friday, and urged front-line officers to use firearms and stun guns against culprits at the scenes of stabbing rampages.



The minister's statement came amid criticism against an order discouraging police officials responding on site from actively arresting suspects of violent crimes for fear of allegations of police brutality.



"The recent series of random violent crimes led some innocent civilians to die and heightened public concerns," the minister said explaining the order's background in a released statement.











Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon attends a special cabinet meeting at Seoul Government Complex, Friday. Newsis
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas of Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji and his wife Megala challenging the Madras High Court order upholding his arrest in a money laundering case.

A bench of Justices A S Bopanna and M M Sundresh also referred to a large bench the issue that police custody is not permissible beyond the first 15 days of remand.

Balaji, who continues to be a minister without portfolio in the Tamil Nadu government even after his arrest on June 14, and his wife assailed a Madras High Court order upholding his arrest by the probe agency in a money laundering case arising out of the alleged cash-for-jobs scam in the states transport department.
Have you noticed how strikingly similar both the mindsets and actions are between the suicide bombers at Kabuls airport, and the anti-mask and anti-vax people here? They both blow themselves up, inflict harm on those around them, and are convinced they are fighting for freedom. Arne Duncan, 8/29.21 Twitter

The cruelty, ignorance and moral superiority drip off the screen from former Secretary of Education under President Obama Arne Duncan. We can shrug it off, call him a jerk, move on. Or we can take a hard look at the thought process of people with current or former power within our government and their platform/capacity to incite deep fears that have one goal - compliance. Secretary Duncan might want to pay some of us a visit, to find out how akin we are to suicide bombers as we care for our children 24/7/365. It is WE who got bombed, and 25 years into the autism epidemic, we are less respected and more hated than ever - how's that for an ugly truth. Hard to believe where we are today as a nation. Hard to believe.



Here is the Tweet text below: www.twitter.com/arneduncan

Managing Partner, The Emerson Collective. #ChicagoCRED. Author of How Schools Work. Here are the Emerson Collective's stated priorities:



Immigration Helping aspiring Americans and new immigrants succeed

Education Clearing pathways to a meaningful education

Climate Building solutions at the intersection of climate innovation and environmental justice.

XQ: The Super School Project Rethinking America's high schools

Chicago CRED Creating real economic destiny in Chicago

Equity & Justice Shaping new systems of opportunity for all

Media & Journalism Provoking thought and strengthening democracy

Health Accelerating cancer research and empowering patients
Youll get to spend time with more than twenty notable speakers, including CHDs own Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman on leave, Mary Holland, J.D., president on leave, the CHD team and more!

CHDs 2nd Annual Conference will be held in Savannah Georgia at the Savannah Convention Center Nov. 3-5, 2023. Whether you are a supporter, an activist, a healthcare provider, an attorney, or someone who has been vaccine injured, join us for an opportunity to gather with like-minded individuals, meet the CHD staff and hear the latest from industry experts.

Some of our guest speakers include:

Catherine Austin Fitts is President of Solari, Inc. and publisher of the Solari Report. She offers a unique perspective on navigating the opportunities and risks in the global financial system and political economy. Her show, Financial Rebellion, airs weekly on CHD-TV.

Krishna Doniparthi, M.D. is a physician specializing in fatty acids and phospholipids for cellular repair and regeneration.

Zen Honeycutt is the Executive Director of Moms Across America, a non-profit and national coalition of unstoppable moms dedicated to creating healthy communities, focusing primarily on the food supply.

Leigh Merinoff is the owner of Meadow Bees Farm, an experimental farm and school in the mountains of Southern Vermont.

Christina Parks, Ph.D. specializes in Cellular and Molecular Biology in the field of cytokine signaling.

Tracy Slepcevic is a Certified Integrative Health Practitioner, speaker, Air Force veteran and bestselling author of Warrior Mom: A Mothers Journey In Healing Her Son with Autism.

Monica Smit has been on the front line of Australias freedom movement since August 2020.

Paul Thomas, M.D. is a pediatrician, author, activist, and champion for informed consent and medical freedom.

Andy Wakefield, M.D., FRCS is a physician, author and filmmaker. He has published over 150 original scientific articles, books, book chapters and invited scientific commentaries.

Join like-minded individuals and learn how to fight corruption in Big Pharma, Big Government, Big Tech, Big Food and regulatory agencies that prioritize profits over people. We look forward to seeing you there!

In health,

The Childrens Health Defense Team

### From Skyhorse Publishing



The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic



#1 Seller in Forensic Medicine



By Pierre Kory Dr. (Author), Jenna McCarthy (Author)



Big Pharma and health agencies cry, Dont take ivermectin! A media storm follows. Why then, does the science say the opposite? Ivermectin is a dirty word in the media. It doesnt work. Its a deadly horse dewormer. Prescribe or promote it and youll be called a right-wing quack, be banned from social media, or lose your license to practice medicine. And yet, entire countries wiped out the virus with it, and more than ninety-five studies now show it to be unequivocally effective in preventing and treating Covid-19. If it didnt work, why was there a coordinated global campaign to cancel it? Whats the truth about this decades-old, Nobel Prize-winning medication? The War on Ivermectin is the personal and professional narrative of Dr. Pierre Kory and his crusade to recommend a safe, inexpensive, generic medicine as the key to ending the pandemic.



Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak (Childrens Health Defense) Hardcover  Illustrated, August 15, 2023 by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Author), Brian Hooker (Author)

Based on over one hundred studies in the peer-reviewed literature that consider vaccinated versus unvaccinated populations. Each of these studies is analyzed and put in context of the difference in health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated infants, children, and adults. Given the massive push to vaccinate the entire global population, this book is timely and necessary for individuals to make informed choices for themselves and their families.
Were No. 4! But is that high enough? Barbecue lovers in Birmingham may beg to differ with the results of a new ranking that names The Best BBQ Cities in America for 2023.

The Magic City made a good showing, taking fourth place in a national list published recently by the website Real Estate Witch. But Birmingham was bested by three other Southern cities  Austin, Texas (No. 1); Memphis, Tennessee (No. 2); and San Antonio, Texas (No. 3)  that scored higher in some of the categories used for the rankings.

Before we get too fired up about this, however, lets consider all the positive things Real Estate Witch had to say about Birmingham barbecue. There was plenty of praise for the city in a story published July 30, which ranked barbecue cities using metrics from Yelp, Google, U.S. Census data, Roaming Hunger (food truck data) and other sources.

The website looked at the number of barbecue restaurants in each city per 100,000 people, the citys average Yelp rating for local barbecue restaurants, the Google Trends score for searches on 12 barbecue items and more. The metrics were weighted in several ways for an overall score, as explained on the website.

Birmingham smoked most of the competition, and for good reason, according to writer Matt Brannon.

Birmingham residents are consumed by their passion for BBQ, Brannon said. The city scored a 99 out of 100 in our Google Trends metric, based on search volume for a variety of BBQ-related terms. Thats the second-highest score of the 50 cities we analyzed.

When it comes to specific BBQ terms, Birmingham beat out every city on our list for search activity of BBQ sauce  perhaps because of the states recognizable white BBQ sauce.

Fortunately, Birmingham BBQ fans have plenty of places to find the iconic sauce and other BBQ foods. The city has 4.0 BBQ restaurants per 100,000 people  74% more than the average city on our list (2.3 per 100,000). Plus, Birmingham has 1.1 BBQ food trucks per 100,000 people  57% more than the average city we ranked (0.7 per 100,000).

Chowing down locally isnt too expensive, either. A pound of BBQ meat in Birmingham costs about $5.29  cheaper than the average of $5.32 per pound in our study.

Jonathan "Rusty" Tucker opened Rusty's Bar-B-Q in Leeds, Ala. in 2009. His barbecue is a favorite with drivers and their crew members who come to race at the nearby Barber Motorsports Park.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)

The website also pointed to two barbecue restaurants in the Birmingham area: Rustys Bar-B-Q and Martins Bar-B-Que Joint.

READ: 5 things to know about Rustys Bar-B-Q

Of course, while wed prefer to see Birmingham in the No. 1 spot  well get you next time, Austin!  the city did have a secure berth in the top five. Also, folks in Alabama know weve got great barbecue in the Magic City, as well as throughout the state. For proof, take a look at AL.coms recent picks for the best barbecue in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and statewide, and readers barbecue favorites.

READ: Birminghams best barbecue: Our Top 5

Birmingham was the only Alabama city ranked as best for barbecue by Real Estate Witch, which named 50 cities total, with Austin in the top spot and Riverside, California, as No. 50. Also, Birmingham climbed two spots higher than last years rankings on the website, when it took sixth place.

Trailing Birmingham in the Real Estate Witch top 10 for 2023 were Las Vegas, Nevada (No. 5); Nashville, Tennessee (No. 6); Houston, Texas, (No. 7); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (No. 8); Jacksonville, Florida (No. 9); and Raleigh, North Carolina (No. 10). (See all the full list here, and an overview in the map below.)

More on Alabama barbecue:

The Alabama Barbecue Bucket List

Making a forgotten Alabama barbecue joint relevant again

The story of Rodney and Nick, brothers in barbecue

Alabama barbecue restaurant celebrates 60 years at BBQ and blues festival

5 things to know about Full Moon Bar-B-Que
Some north Alabama school systems are closing ahead of expected storms this afternoon.

According to DeKalb County EMA, DeKalb County and Fort Payne City Schools will release students at 12:45 p.m. today due to threat of severe storms.

According to the National Weather Service, the central part of the state could see storms from 2 to 8 p.m. before severe weather exits the southeastern part of the state from 6 to 11 p.m.

The combination of a very unstable atmosphere and upper-level systems producing Mesoscale Convective Systems, or MCS, will likely produce severe weather across portions of the state from today through at least Wednesday and possibly Thursday into Saturday.
A Birmingham man killed in a shooting Friday night is being remembered as a loving father and hard worker.

RahKeem Darnell Vanderbilt, 32, was one of two men killed in separate incidents.

Vanderbilt and two other men were shot just before 7 p.m. when someone opened fire on them as they were hanging out together on Fourth Avenue S.W., just off Goldwire Street.

South Precinct officers were dispatched to the area on a report of a person shot. They found blood and multiple shell casings at the scene, said Officer Truman Fitzgerald.

The three victims had already been taken by private vehicle to UAB Hospital, where Vanderbilt was pronounced dead.

A second victim sustained life-threatening injuries and the third victims injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. Their names have not been released.

Fitzgerald said it wasnt immediately clear whether the shooter was on foot or a vehicle.

Shot Spotter registered several incidents of gunfire at the location, including one burst of 29 rounds fired.

No arrests have been announced.

South Precinct officers were dispatched just before 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, 2023, to the 400 block of Goldwire Street on a report of a person shot. Once police arrived, they found multiple shell casings and blood on Fourth Avenue S.W., just off Goldwire. (Carol Robinson)

Vanderbilt leaves behind five young children.

Those close to him said he had a good relationship with all of his children and described him as family oriented.

Vanderbilt worked for the City of Birmingham. He also had a car-washing business and was a barber.

A GoFundMe has been started to help his family with his funeral. Donations can be made here.

We are all devastated by RahKeems loss, his sister, TyShay Murphy wrote on the donations site. RahKeem was a loving and supporting brother, cousin, nephew, father, and uncle who could make anyone smile.

Anyone with information on the slaying is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
Frank Artiles, the former lawmaker accused of paying a friend to run for a South Florida state Senate seat in 2020, is set to go to trial next February, nearly three years after his arrest.

Artiles faces four felony charges and a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said Monday during a hearing to set the date of the trial, which is scheduled to start Feb. 5 and expected to last up to two weeks.

Artiles, a political consultant who resigned from the Florida Senate in 2017 after going on a racist tirade against Black colleagues in a Tallahassee bar, was arrested in March 2021 after a months-long investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Alex Rodriguez, the friend Artiles is accused of giving nearly $45,000 to run in Senate District 37 in 2020, pleaded guilty in August 2021 and is expected to testify against Artiles at trial.

Prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen on Monday urged Judge Ariel Rodriguez and Artiles defense to set a trial date and stick with it.

Im telling the court, Im ready, VanderGiesen said.

Text messages between Artiles and Rodriguez are expected to be a key part of the states case. Artiles, now 50, approached Rodriguez in 2020 and offered him $50,000 to file to run as an independent, or no party affiliate, candidate in the Miami-area Senate race, according to charging documents from the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office.

The scheme was intended to confuse voters and siphon votes away from the Democratic incumbent, Jose Javier Rodriguez, and help Republican Ileana Garcia, who won by 32 votes.

But Artiles attorney, Frank Quintero, said Rodriguez deleted some of his text messages after the investigation was underway. A data expert helped uncover those old messages, he said.

Alex Rodriguez was one of three independent ghost candidates who filed to run in competitive Senate races in 2020 and did not campaign but were promoted in a series of ads, arranged by GOP operatives, that portrayed them as progressives.

Floridas dark money playbook: How ghost candidate scheme revealed secretive political tactics

A pair of political committees that paid for the ads received their funding from a dark-money nonprofit run by political operatives with the Alabama-based consulting firm Matrix LLC, who worked closely during the 2020 election cycle with executives for Florida Power & Light.

FPL has denied any involvement in the scheme. But the now-former Matrix operatives behind the ghost candidate ad blitz had also worked to undermine critics of the utility including Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Dark power: How FPL, other utilities neutralize opponents, grow profits

Jestine Iannotti, who ran as an independent in Central Floridas Senate District 9 in 2020, is also still awaiting trial on campaign finance charges, as is political consultant Eric Foglesong, who helped launch her campaign. Both have hearings scheduled later this month.

A third person arrested in connection with Iannottis campaign, former Longwood mayor and Seminole County GOP chair Ben Paris, was convicted of a misdemeanor at trial in September. He is currently appealing his conviction.

In the Miami case, prosecutors have indicated their investigation goes beyond Artiles and Alex Rodriguez, though no one else has been charged.

2023 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
When all of Alabamas Republican elected federal officials except U.S. Sen. Katie Britt announced their endorsement of Donald Trump in his presidential campaign, perhaps it seemed odd that Britts name was the only one missing.

It appeared to look that way to Charlie Kirk, a staunch Trump supporter and founder/CEO of Turning Point USA  a conservative group aimed at attracting young voters.

Theres no legitimate excuse for Sen. Katie Britt to be the only federal elected official from Alabama not endorsing Donald Trump, especially when he went to bat for her in the (GOP Senate) primary (in 2022) and especially when Trump, the rule of law and our entire country are under assault, Kirk posted on Twitter last Friday.

The tweet came a day after Alabamas Washington GOP delegation announced their support of Trump  hours before the former president delivered the keynote address at the Alabama Republican Partys annual summer dinner. Those officials endorsing Trump were Congressmen Robert Aderholt, Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers and Dale Strong along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville.

Britt, however, provided an explanation for her absence among the endorsees in a statement the day before Kirks tweet.

Alabamas junior senator cited her appointment last November to the newly-formed Republican Party Advisory Council  a group charged with analyzing what the party saw as disappointing results in the 2022 midterm elections. As part of that group, put together by RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, Britt said she intended to remain neutral until the group completed its work.

Britts full statement last Thursday given to AL.com:

Senator Britt continues to serve on the RNCs Republican Party Advisory Council, Britt spokesman Sean Ross said in the statement. As a condition of joining that Council, she pledged to stay neutral until the Council has finished its work, and she keeps her word. Senator Britt enjoys a warm relationship with President Trump and had an opportunity to speak with him by phone this week. 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.

Britt missed the GOP dinner last week while recovering from what her office termed sudden facial numbness. The senator was briefly hospitalized and her statement last week said the condition was not life-threatening but it could take several weeks for full recovery.

Trumps views on Britt have varied wildly. While supporting former Congressman Mo Brooks in his Senate campaign, Trump blasted Britts early candidacy. A month after she announced her senatorial campaign, Trump said in a July 2021 statement, She is not in any way qualified and is certainly not what our country needs, Trumps statement continued. For (Senate GOP leader) Mitch McConnell to be wasting money on her campaign is absolutely outrageous. Vote for Mo Brooks!

Eleven months later -- and 11 days prior to the GOP Senate primary runoff with polls indicating Britt had a comfortable lead over Brooks -- Trump gave his endorsement to Britt after earlier dropping his support of Brooks.

Katie is an Incredible Fighter for the people of Alabama, Trump said in a June 2022 statement. As President and CEO of Alabamas Business Council, Katie has been working hard to Grow Alabamas Economy, Create Jobs, and Restore the Great American Dream. She has the Total Support and Endorsement of Chairman Jimmy Parnell and the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Above all, Katie Britt will never let you down. So Get Out and Vote for Katie Britt on June 21st in the Alabama Senate Runoffshe has my Complete and Total Endorsement!

The impact of Trumps endorsement on Britts campaign may appear dubious. Britt finished 16 percentage points ahead of Brooks in winning a plurality of the votes in the primary before Trumps endorsement. In the runoff, she won 66 of Alabamas 67 counties in a landslide victory over Brooks.
A search is underway for a man convicted of murder who escaped from a state prison Monday morning.

Jordan Andrew Thomas, 30, escaped from Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore County about 11 a.m. Details of his escape have not yet been made public.

Thomas is serving a life sentence for the 2012 death of Dennis Johnson.

He was first convicted in Montgomery County in 2014 and sentenced to 75 years in prison, but that conviction was dismissed because of incomplete jury charges. He was retried again in 2019, court records show, and sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas is a Black male, 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

He was last known to be wearing brown pants and a brown shirt.

Thomas has multiple tattoos.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Staton prison officials at 1-800-831-8825.
Meteorologist Taylor Sarallo announced she has left ABC 33/40 after nearly four years at the Birmingham station.

I owe it to you all to let you know that Friday was my last day at ABC 33/40, Sarallo said in a statement posted on Twitter and Facebook.

No reason was given for her departure.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented group of people at ABC 33/40 and, of course, learn from one of the absolute best Meteorologists in the country.

I am honored to have served the people of central Alabama for the last 4 years. Thank you to all the viewers who have turned to us and trusted our coverage on tough days. You all are family and I care for you all deeply.

Born in Plano, Texas, Sarrallo was raised in Georgia where she ultimately attended the University of Georgia in Athens where she graduated second in her class and was the first woman to obtain a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from UGA.

Sarallos first on-air job was chief meteorologist at WDHN News in Dothan before she joined WKRG in Mobile where she covered multiple hurricanes including Hurricane Michael.

She joined ABC 33/40 in 2019. She would appear with James Spann during severe weather events when the station would break in for coverage.

Life is about learning, growing and change, she continued in her statement. I am in a season of change, but all I can hope is that I learn and grow from it and come out on the other side a better person for it.

In a January 2023 interview with AL.com, ABC 33/40 chief meteorologist James Spann said about Sarallo, Shes brilliant. Shes absolutely brilliant. Her academics from the University of Georgia were stunning.

Spann told AL.com he checked with some professor friends of his at UGA before hiring her while she was working in Mobile, and both of them said hire her immediately, and we did.

In addition to being a brilliant scientist with these incredible credentials, she has the heart of a servant, Spann continued. She loves people. Shes had a chance to go to big markets, but shes stayed here because she loves Birmingham.

Spann also said he would not want anybody else on set while coverage severe weather events. During that severe weather coverage, she becomes your soul mate, he said. She knows what I want before I call for it. Shes always over there, and shes an astute observer. Shes got my back.

He also said Sarallo was a great role model for young women and girls dreaming of careers in meteorology.

Shes absolutely brilliant, and a great, great, great role model for women who want to do science, he said, noting many students he encounters while speaking at schools in Alabama express they admire her and want to do what she does for a living.
British jamboree members leave a campsite to temporarily get away from the scorching heat wave in Buan, North Jeolla Province, Aug. 6. Yonhap



An early departure will be planned for all participants in the 25th World Scout Jamboree from the campsite in the Saemangeum reclaimed land in southwestern Korea due to inclement weather, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said Monday, citing such a move by the Korean government.



"WOSM received confirmation this morning from the Government of the Republic of Korea that due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure will be planned for all participants at the 25th World Scout Jamboree from the campsite in Saemangeum," the organization said in a statement, using the official name of Korea.



"The (Korean) government informed WOSM that they will soon provide details of the departure plans and the venues that will host the participants," the organization said, adding it urgently asked the government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay until they return to their home countries.



This year's Jamboree kicked off in Saemangeum on Aug. 1 with the attendance of about 43,000 young Scouts and volunteers from 158 countries and was scheduled to continue through Saturday.



Typhoon Khanun is expected to make landfall on the nation's southeastern coast Thursday morning, bringing heavy rain and strong winds across the Korean Peninsula, the state weather agency said, noting the typhoon may bring winds with a maximum speed of up to 44 mps that are strong enough to derail a running train.





Yoon discusses 'contingency plan' for Jamboree participants Inside Saemangeum's World Scout Jamboree fiasco Situation improving at World Scout Jamboree campground The approach of the typhoon comes as the overall situation at the Saemangeum campground has been gradually improving after initial woes associated with a scorching heat wave, lack of preparation and the withdrawal of some contingents.



The Scouts are expected to leave Saemangeum sequentially from around Tuesday morning, according to officials involved in the event. As a result, some off-camp activities slated for Monday afternoon are expected to be canceled, they added.



The government is reportedly discussing a contingency plan that involves the possible relocation of Scouts' lodgings and remaining events to Seoul and the surrounding capital area.



The jamboree organizing committee is also reportedly moving to relocate all remaining participants to university dorms and other large-scale accommodation facilities in adjacent areas or other cities and provinces.




Oppressive heat will continue for much of Alabama this week as a series of storms  some possibly severe  will roll through.

High heat and humidity will result in Heat Index values from 107-113 today prompting Excessive Heat Warnings and a Heat Advisory. Both will likely remain in place throughout the week for portions of the state, according to Jim Stefkovich, Meteorologist, Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

READ MORE: Enhanced risk for severe weather in Alabama on Monday

Also, the combination of a very unstable atmosphere and upper-level systems producing Mesoscale Convective Systems, or MCS, will likely produce severe weather across portions of the state from today through at least Wednesday and possibly Thursday into Saturday

For today, Stefkovich said a line of thunderstorms is forecast to enter the northwest part of the state morning or early afternoon and move southeastward through this evening. An Enhanced Risk of severe storms is forecast near and north of I-20, where pockets of damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph and large hail are the threats. South of I-20, a few damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph and hail are also possible.

READ MORE: Dangerous heat possible in parts of Alabama on Sunday

Storms will enter areas like Florence, Decatur and into Huntsville around 10 a.m.-2 p.m. before pushing southwards towards Birmingham around 11 a.m.-5 p.m. The central part of the state could see storms from 2-8 p.m. before severe weather exits the southeastern part of the state from 6-11 p.m.

On Tuesday, another MCS will move into the state by late morning through early evening bringing the potential for a few damaging wind gusts and hail. Timing and exact locations of those storms is low, however, and potential changes to the forecast will likely occur

On Wednesday, yet another MCS is forecast during the afternoon and evening hours with a damaging wind threat. Unfortunately, the unsettled pattern continues from Thursday into the weekend with the potential for additional severe weather each day.
Early this year, in the small mining town of Jasper, a man died of hypothermia after two weeks in county jail, launching national headlines and an investigation by the FBI.

But its not the first time that an inmate died in Walker County Jail or a family alleged medical neglect.

A litany of recent lawsuits against the jail claim injury and medical neglect, and include tales of inmates left to die from blood poisoning, pneumonia or for want of basic medical care. Inmates allege they were jailed for petty crimes, such as stealing $40. Some say they were locked up for months or longer.

When I came in, we had people who (had) been in the county jail for three, four, five, six years, said Sheriff Nick Smith about inmates stuck in jail while awaiting trial.

In fact, the Walker County Jail has a troubled legal history going back decades, so much so that in 1995, a federal judge ordered the sheriff to transform the jail after a class action lawsuit over unsafe conditions. But continued complaints and even a bizarre escape suggest maybe not much has improved. The complaints, the FBI investigation, the recent deaths, all seem to raise a lingering question:

What is wrong with the Walker County jail?

Sheriff Smith, who was elected in 2018, says hes working to turn it around. Theres a lot of problems that I inherited that weve worked extremely hard to fix, Smith told AL.com. On top of trying to fight and combat new problems.

Prisoner artwork in one of the cells. New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Unsafe conditions

Earlier this year, the mother of Anthony Mitchell, 33, sued, saying her son froze to death while jail staff failed to call for help for hours. But long before that case, numerous lawsuits alleged that people faced substandard and violent conditions in the Walker County Jail.

Some lawsuits alleged sewer water flooded their cells, that jailers held people for days in solitary confinement as punishment or that three to four people stayed in a single cell, sometimes sleeping on the floor without mats.

The complaints speak of violent punishment by guards, unchecked fights among inmates and serious injuries left untreated.

In 2020, two inmates filed separate lawsuits against the jail saying they were assaulted and placed in a restraint chair by guards. One of the inmates, Jaiden Gilbert, said he was left strapped in the chair in the cold, outdoors, as punishment for standing up for another inmate to a guard. His lawsuit continues in Walker County Circuit Court.

In 2017, Terry Benton sued, alleging five other inmates attacked and beat him in the jail in 2015. He was taken to a hospital for a rib contusion and sent back to the jail where he claims he was not given antibiotics. Benton was transferred to Fayette County Jail, admitted to a different hospital, and treated for an infection, he alleged.

Benton is permanently disfigured, requires reconstructive facial surgery, and he suffers from nerve damage and chronic pain from his injuries, his suit alleged. The county and sheriff settled the case in 2020. Details of the settlement are not public in court records.

Other complaints contain allegations that the building was dilapidated and unsafe.

In 2018, despite a history of suicidal tendencies, jailers put Jaime Martin in solitary confinement on a second story room, according to a lawsuit his mother filed in Walker County Circuit Court in 2020.

New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

According to the lawsuit, his mental health was not assessed at Walker County Jail, and he was left unmonitored in the cell, which, due to general disrepair, had a broken light fixture without a protective covering. Martin used the cord from his pants to hang himself from the fixture. The county settled the case in 2022, but details are not public in court records.

Martins mother contends there was widespread and unacceptable risk of suicide at the jail and that mental health services were grossly inadequate as another inmate had already died by hanging himself at the jail within months of Martin.

Inmates were able to fashion weapons, the suit says, from loose pieces of concrete and metal strips from windows and door casings.

Walker County Jail and Sheriff Nick Smith did not respond to record requests from AL.com about jail policies for the use of restraint chairs and suicide watch. But Smith did talk to AL.com about medical care and his difficulty in finding employees.

At 35 years old, new Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith was the youngest sheriff in Alabama when he took office. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com).Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Medical woes

Some of the more dire claims in recent years have challenged the lack of medical treatment inside the jail.

Like Mitchells mother, Michael Smothers mother filed suit after her son died while in custody in 2017. Smothers, 48, was arrested for failing to report for probation after writing a bad check for $150.

He went into the Walker County Jail the day before he was scheduled to get treatment for his legs, according to the suit filed in federal court in 2021, by his mother, Pamela Smothers. Her son had been in and out of the hospital for multiple health conditions, including chronic venous insufficiency, which caused painful swelling in his legs. He also had cirrhosis of the liver, COPD and recurrent cellulitis, which is a bacterial infection.

The lawsuit, which is set for trial next year, claims the jail failed to take Smothers to his health appointments for six months and failed to intervene when he developed sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, in his leg.

By the time Smothers was taken to the nearby hospital, it was too late. He was transferred to Montgomery for emergency treatment, but he fell into a coma and died, according to the suit.

The suit alleges that Preemptive Forensic Health Solutions, LLC, the company that provided the jails healthcare for many years, gave him Lasix, a drug to treat swelling, without taking him to a doctor, to save money and increase profits.

Roger Childers, the head of the company, did not respond to a request for comment from AL.com. In a response to the suit in 2021, Childers said that Smothers wasnt willing to take his medication and denied other claims in the suit. The defendant denies he was guilty of wrongful conduct as alleged by the plaintiff and demands strict proof hereof.

Smothers wasnt the only one to claim a family member died in the jail during that period.

Autumn Harris, 34, was accused of stealing $40. She was sent to jail after failing to appear at a hearing. In December of 2018, after three weeks in the Walker County Jail, she died of pneumonia.

Harriss father filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Preemptive Forensic Health Solutions, alleging jail nurses never treated Harris despite the fact she was diagnosed with pneumonia when she arrived at the jail.

Pneumonia is one of the most common respiratory infections in the United States, her attorney, Justin Jones, told AL.com earlier this year. Its a killer, and yet its very treatable. In this case, there was a systemic failure from start to finish to apply a well-established standard of health care to a patient. Those failures ultimately caused her death.

Harris became too weak to walk or stand, lost control of her bodily functions, urinated on herself and reported trouble breathing, according to the suit, yet the jail treated her with its anxiety protocol, which included suggestions like taking walks and doing yoga. Medical staff did not provide her with an inhaler or other treatment, the suit alleged.

In its July of 2020 answer to the lawsuit, the company said it was not responsible for Harriss death. Defendants deny that the Plaintiffs decedents death was caused by any conduct on their part.

Last month, Preemptive Forensic Health Solutions, LLC, settled the lawsuit.

Walker County Jail inmates prepare lunch in the kitchen. New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Making strides

After taking office in 2019, Sheriff Smith began sending all inmates with medical needs outside the jail for treatment, nearly doubling the countys medical expenses.

In 2021, the county commission switched healthcare providers, choosing a larger company called Quality Correctional Health Care, which provides medical services to other jails in Alabama and in other states.

We bid out medical services to get a reputable medical company, Smith told AL.com.

Smith increased medical staffing at the jail from eight hours a day to 16. Now he is asking the county commission to pay for a nurse to be at the jail overnight.

Walker County Commissioner Jeff Burrough told AL.com that the larger company promised a lower and more predictable rate for medical services.

According to county records, Walker County spent nearly $1 million on inmate medical expenses in 2021, more than double the amount it spent just three years earlier, before the switch.

Burrough said he could not comment on Mitchells death or the companys performance so far.

However, he said that the sheriffs department is currently receiving about 60 percent of the countys budget, which he said is higher than the average for most counties, something the Association of County Commissions of Alabama confirmed to AL.com.

I think ever since the sheriff took office, hes made strides and is trying to improve it, Burrough said.

Yet Stacy Fuller, a nurse who worked with jail inmates outside the facility in her job with the drug recovery group, Recovery Organization of Support Specialists, told AL.com that inmates complained to her that there was a practice to deny all medications for 30 days, including heart and other life-saving medications.

Sheriff Smith said there was no such policy.

They are not prevented from being on their meds. he told AL.com. Precautions are taken and a verification is made that they are on the medication they claim to take.

Dangerous conditions in one of the cells. New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Staffing problems

Under the 1995 consent order, each inmate in Walker County was required to have 39 square feet of space to themselves, and none could be made to sleep on the floor or on mattresses on the floor. The jail was required to put policies in writing and give them to inmates.

The consent order also required the jail to build an indoor-outdoor exercise facility and give inmates access an hour each day, four days a week. It stated inmates should have freedom to move between the cells and the day room during the day.

Inmates with serious mental illness would be diagnosed and treated. Dental care would be routinely provided. Medication would be given out by doctors orders, not discontinued, and one holding cell should remain suicide resistant.

According to Sheriff Smith, the consent decree ended in 2006. He said he is not sure when things started to go downhill or if they ever improved at the jail. When he entered office in 2019, the jail was starting renovations.

In 2017, former Sheriff Jim Underwood sued the county in two lawsuits after the county commission shifted the costs of feeding inmates to the jail. Underwood claimed the county was failing to cover the necessary costs of operating the jail. Both cases were dismissed in 2019.

According to Smith, financial barriers remain. He said its difficult to retain skilled workers at the jail for the amount he can pay them.

My challenge is finding good, qualified people who are willing to come and put their life on the line for $13 an hour, when just about every agency in this county...(is) starting out at $20 plus.

Walker County Jail inmates prepare lunch in the kitchen. New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Terry Martins 2019 suit said other inmates beat him and kicked him as he lay unconscious on the floor, but no guards came to help. He spent 13 days in the ICU to have multiple surgeries to repair his jaw, face and eye socket, and needed a steel plate to reconstruct part of his face. Martin now has a cleft palate and is blind.

His suit alleged the jail was short at least 12 full-time staff for 240 inmates, leaving jail workers fearful or unable to respond to fights.

No guards came to the cell-block to help stop the fight or protect Martin from further harm, his suit claims. The county settled the case in 2021, but the details of the settlement are not public in court records.

Two years earlier, clever inmates exploited staffing shortfalls to break out.

In 2017, 12 inmates escaped from Walker County Jail using peanut butter to fashion door numbers to trick a guard into opening the wrong door and releasing them outdoors.

New Walker County Sheriff, Nick Smith shows the conditions in the Walker County, Alabama Jail in Jasper. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Red tape

Once in the jail in Walker County, it can be hard to get out. Over the years, lawsuits have also alleged inmates are forgotten in the jail for weeks and months on end without being given court dates.

A lawsuit brought by Dailen Gaines in July of 2020 alleges many people who are charged with failure to appear and end up in the Walker County Jail are forgotten. Gaines had been waiting in jail for 30 days to have a date set to go before a judge after failing to appear for an initial hearing. A Walker County judge dismissed the lawsuit last year.

These individuals sit and languish in the Walker County Jail, many for minor offenses, most unrepresented by counsel, for days, weeks, and sometimes months on end, the lawsuit alleges.

Christopher Wayne Reno sued the jail and sheriff in July of 2019, saying he had not gotten a court date in over seven months and had been held on $50,000 bond for a year without a trial date. He also said he needed some help mentally. His suit was dismissed in 2020.

Smith said some had been in the jail for years when he took office.

Other inmates sued, alleging they were locked up with excessive bail.

Smith said he has worked with area judges to get inmates cases processed more quickly and that has helped reduce overcrowding at the jail, which had about 100 inmates beyond its 280 beds when he took office in 2019. He said thats not the case today.

Even if youre convicted of a crime, said Smith, The longest the county jail needs to hold somebody is a year and a day.

James Shedd, who spent time in Walker County Jail before heading to prison on sex crimes convictions, told AL.com that he was put in a room nicknamed the freezer for its sometimes-cold temperatures. Shedd said he was not suicidal but was placed in the room naked on suicide watch.

(It took) over two hours just to get my body temperature back up to where its supposed to be because my feet, my hands and all was done numb.

Shedd, who is now sitting in an overcrowded state prison in Limestone County, said he was stabbed and beaten in state prison, but he would rather be there than in Walker County Jail.

Im still 10 times better off here.
As thousands of people have moved to Baldwin County in the past decade, leaders in one city found themselves in a bind: the water supply hasnt kept up with demand.

During periods of lower rainfall in recent years, officials in Fairhope asked residents to conserve water. In June, the city entered phase 1 of a water conservation ordinance as demand surpassed 85% of the systems capacity.

We see a period of drought in our area, and people start watering their lawns and use their irrigation a lot, Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said. We tend to see our water (usage) creep to over 8 million gallons, and our capacity is 9 million gallons.

Since 2010, Fairhopes population has grown by 55.7%, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the state. The most recent census data shows the population of the metro area, which also includes Daphne, Spanish Fort and Foley, grew by 3% between July 2021 and July 2022.

While several factors, such as rainfall and temperatures, influence water usage and supply for cities along the Alabama coast, Fairhopes officials note that its recreational areas and picturesque landscapes require a large amount of water

As the city grows, so does your infrastructure. It has to, said Fairhope Water Superintendent Daryl Morefield. I think theres just a little bit of a lag that infrastructure upgrades havent kept up with the growth, and thats what were trying to catch up on.

What makes Fairhope unique is that the city owns its own water utility. There are other cities in Baldwin County that own their own water, but Fairhope Public Utilities is the largest supplier of water in the county, according to their website.

Yet, Fairhopes water system was first established in 1916  compare that to Daphne, which started its utility in 1953.

Its all going to come down to doing whats best for the customer and doing whats best for as many people as possible, said Sam Williams, chief communications officer at Riveria Utilities, which provides water services to south Baldwin County. There are different circumstances for different utilities, and theyre also connected to different things.

When the city first started feeling the pressure of high water use in 2020, Fairhope passed an ordinance that encourages water customers to decrease their water usage in times of high demand.

In addition to population growth, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to officials encouraging people to stay in their homes, and residential water usage increased across the country.

According to the Fairhope ordinance, a water shortage might be occurring if the system demand is in excess of 85% of the available capacity.

If the water system reaches a demand of over 100%, there could be widespread water outages.

The ordinance has three phases. The first phase is a precautionary measure  no citations are issued to residents who do not follow the citys guidance  which primarily addresses irrigation. Phases 2 and 3 are mandatory, meaning those who dont follow the citys guidelines could be ticketed.

The city entered Phase 1 of the ordinance in early June, which also happened around the same time last summer. In the following weeks, as rainfall increased, water usage decreased. Water usage was down between June 15-21 from 8.2 million gallons to 6.1 million gallons  a 26.9% decrease.

The on-again-off-again ordinances may be alarming to those in Baldwin County who rely on the Fairhope Water Department for this vital utility, but Fairhope officials say they are already working to increase the citys water pumping capacity and to address population changes.

The city is currently extending an existing water main from County Road 33 to County Road 48 by 19,859 linear feet and developing a new well.

These two projects, totaling over $7.3 million, have already begun and are expected to be completed by late spring 2024, according to the mayor. The projects will increase capacity by 2 million gallons, raising the pumping limit from 9 million to 11 million gallons.

Were continuing to make those improvements every day, Sullivan said. Everybodys concerned about the growth because nobody ever expected our community to grow as fast as it is continuing to grow. I do believe that we as a city are doing things that we need to do to put the infrastructure in place to meet the demands of the growth.

Fairhope has also recently upgraded electric substations, lining sewer lines to avoid sewer system infiltration and is in the process of rehabbing sewer lift stations and manholes.

I know its inconvenient for people, she said. Ive just found that people complain if we dont invest in our infrastructure, and then they complain for the inconvenience of having to take a different route to work because we are putting in infrastructure.
This is a guest opinion

At a time when politics can feel hopelessly divided, Alabama lawmakers achieved an unusual victory this session. They set aside their differences and unanimously passed reforms to protect privacy and free speech.

Senate Bill 59, also known as The Personal Privacy Protection Act, ensures that Alabamians personal information is secure when donating to worthy nonprofit causes. It prohibits state agencies from demanding, collecting, or publicly releasing the names and addresses of nonprofit members and donors, except where required by current law.

People have a right to give to the causes they support without having their information taken and abused, said Alabama Senator Rodger Smitherman, who sponsored S.B. 59.

States are waking up to the danger of leaving personal data unsecure. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a group of nonprofits in a lawsuit over the California Attorney Generals demand for their donor lists. Nearly 300 nonprofit groups joined briefs in the case urging the Court to shut down Californias dragnet.

Far from representing uniquely sensitive causes, these organizations span the ideological spectrum, and indeed the full range of human endeavors: from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund; from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to the Zionist Organization of America; from Feeding AmericaEastern Wisconsin to PBS Reno, Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the majority opinion.

The Courts ruling reaffirmed that Americans have a First Amendment right to support nonprofit causes privately. Private giving protects Americans from having their voices silenced through harassment and intimidation tactics.

S.B. 59 codifies the Courts ruling in Alabama and boosts privacy and free speech throughout the state.

The First Amendment protects not only our right to speak, but also our freedom to join together with other citizens and organizations representing our values. S.B. 59 adds necessary safeguards to prevent these rights from being chilled, explained Dillon Nettles, the Policy and Advocacy Director at the ACLU of Alabama.

Sixteen other states have already adopted their own version of S.B. 59s protections for nonprofit supporters, including Alabamas neighbors in Mississippi and Tennessee. Privacy is proving popular on the left and the right, in red states and blue states. Yet Alabamas victory is of special historical importance because it is the birthplace of modern privacy protections for nonprofits and their members.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Alabama state officials sought to force the NAACP to turn over a list of its members in the state. They refused, and the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Justices 9-0 ruling in favor of the NAACP  issued 65 years ago on June 30, 1958  became a landmark First Amendment decision.

It is hardly a novel perception that compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute as effective a restraint on freedom of association as [other] forms of governmental action, the Court observed.

In the years following NAACP v. Alabama, the Court continued to police and reject government efforts to surveil the members and supporters of advocacy groups. Over time, however, states began to slip back into old habits. Californias recent requirement that nonprofits turn over their donor lists before soliciting funds in the state directly contradicted NAACP v. Alabama.

Fortunately, courts, legislators, and the nonprofit community are pushing back. No one should have to risk their safety or their career to support the causes they believe in. In todays hyper-connected world, with new and omnipresent threats from doxing and digital surveillance, a recommitment to privacy is needed. The passage of S.B. 59 shows progress is possible. All Alabamians should be thankful for Senator Rodger Smitherman, Representative Danny Garrett, and Governor Kay Ivey for championing this legislation and ensuring it became law.

Alabama has come a long way in six decades from being unanimously rebuked at the Supreme Court to unanimously passing new protections for privacy. Such a strong win for civil liberties is a beacon of hope in our troubled times.

Heather Lauer is the CEO of People United for Privacy, a nonprofit that defends the First Amendment rights of all Americans  regardless of their beliefs  to come together in support of their shared values.
This is a guest opinion column

Alabama lawmakers insist on repeating their oppressive history. Black Alabamians are leaning on federal courts to ensure the states legislature does the right thing to secure our voting rights. Our valiant fight to assert our humanity and continue the work our ancestors started also repeats. If history repeats itself, so should our activism.

As it stands, Black peoplewho comprise 27% of the states population have majority voting power in only one of the seven congressional districts. Lawmakers here are hell-bent on defying the U.S. Supreme Courts recent ruling, which ordered the Alabama legislature to create a new congressional map to include another Black-majority district. But when lawmakers returned to the table, they defied the court. The new map they proposed still has only one Black-majority district. Furthermore, the Black population would shrink in four of the districts in their proposed redesigned map.

Its time to center Alabama

This defiance has been a staple in Alabamas story for generations. While all eyes are on our state to parse how it will affect the nation, we cannot lose sight of who should be centered: Black Alabamians. Yes, what is happening in Alabama is a watershed moment in the fight for strengthening voting rights. Not only can it have rippling effects in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia, but it could also impact states outside of the South since requirements for redistricting under provisions in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 could be scrutinized. W.E.B. Du Bois once noted, Where the South goes, so goes the nation. We want to make sure that the South goes in the direction of democracy.

Throughout our history, Alabamians have created systems of positive change for all people across the country, but we dont consistently benefit fully from those efforts. Black people in our state gave us the blueprint for political organizing, nonviolent protest, and civic engagement. Our movements birthed inclusive laws like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and instilled pride in being an American. Yet, Black Alabamians continue to face voter suppression, poverty, and lack of economic and educational opportunities.

Alabama elected officials must be accountable, and well do that through the courts and our votes. We are committed to amping up political education and uplifting our legacy of civic engagement and change-making in Alabama. Political education should include lessons about voting rights, voter suppression and how to mobilize communities. There is no way around it: we must step once again. The Supreme Court has ruled in our favor, but its up to us ensure legislators dont make a mockery of the ruling in Allen v. Milligan.

We will fight to ensure the Alabama legislature follows the Supreme Courts direction, but well also ensure that we are able to elect our chosen representatives. In my work at the nonprofit Transform Alabama, I have talked to many Alabamians who are uninspired and apathetic due to the constant rigging of the electoral process. They feel as though their votes dont matter. But I know that it does, and thats why the spirit of segregationists is working overtime to stop them from voting. But our ancestors didnt lose hope and neither will we.

I understand that residents in many counties, including Russell and Macon counties may feel worn down by gerrymandering. This was by design. The forces against us intend to wear us down and exhaust us to the point where we give up the fight. This will never happen. Our communities know their history and on whose shoulders they stand on. We will dig deep, and we will harness the hope our ancestors left us. We have no other choice.

Were on the cusp of another large movement, and we know that movements dont happen quickly or in a vacuum. For example, the Selma to Montgomery march was decades in the making and involved many people with varied skills who organized around a single cause. They found and held onto hope against incredible odds. We are tapping into that energy by voting in every election cycle and dispelling the myth that our votes dont matter.

Black Alabamians have the power to push for true liberation in our state, and we will continue to use that power. Our ancestors have gotten us this far on the march toward justice, but its up to us to carry the baton over the finish line.

Dr. Adia Winfrey is the executive director of Transform Alabama, and a fellow with the Black Southern Womens Collaborative.
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Koda Wert is a stay-at-home dad whose chest isnt just fat tissue; it feeds his son.

More well-known as breastfeeding, the term chestfeeding essentially carries the same meaning. Chestfeeding means providing a baby with milk from ones chest, except it is phrased in a gender-neutral way. The term is commonly used amongst communities of trans men and transmasculine nonbinary people who might experience gender dysphoria around the term breast.

Wert is a trans man based in South Carolina. In July 2022, he gave birth to his son.

I knew I wanted children long before I ever got pregnant, said Wert, who in the very beginning of his transition hated to even imagine himself chestfeeding. I am a man now, right? Why would I ever do something so strictly gendered towards women? But as time went on and I became comfortable in my identity, the idea didnt sound so bad.

To his surprise, trans people questioned Werts validity as a trans man, even those within the community. He said, it added another layer of difficulty that I think other parents should take into consideration before making their own choice.

Conversations around chestfeeding have circulated among the transmasculine community for many years. Over a decade ago, Trevor MacDonald made rounds on the internet as a trans father who publicly spoke out about his experience chestfeeding his child. In a 2012 Huffington Post article, MacDonald shared how top surgery still allowed for chestfeedingeven if limited.

He writes in the piece: Following a natural birth, my midwife assisted me in latching on my newborn, Jacob. To everyones delight and amazement, we could all hear him enjoying his first swallows of colostrum, the rich milk full of protective antibodies that is produced in the first days after birth.

Ioannis Ntanos, a UK-based surgeon who specializes in top surgery tells Reckon that typically, the main goal of top surgery is to create a flat projection of the chest area. Hence, most top surgeries aim to remove the breast tissue in its entirety, though not as drastic as a mastectomy. Ultimately, top surgery procedures inhibit the ability to chestfeed.

There are other options available which leave some of the tissue behind and where chest feeding would be possible, but this would be a bilateral breast reductionwhich does not result in a flat projection, Ntanos said. The surgeon could attempt to avoid the milk ducts when carrying out keyhole procedures, but after pregnancy (or lactation in cases of surrogacy) the chest would likely remain swollen even after the chest feeding has been completed.

In 2016, MacDonald, who had already been documenting his journey as a nursing father since 2011 in his blog Milk Junkies, published a tell-all memoir titled Wheres the Mother? about his experience of pregnancy and chestfeeding as a trans man. In an interview with Rewire News Group, MacDonald opened up about being able to produce only a quarter of the milk his son needed and how he turned to his community to supplement the rest.

From a Mormon donor to a military family to a Mennonite family, all these different kinds of families from different backgrounds came together to help us feed our baby, he told Rewire News Group. It was amazing to meet these different people and to realize that despite us being a different kind of family in this one particular way, what was most important to all these people was that a baby needed breast milk.

For Wert, cost was the main factor in deciding to chestfeed. He said, I knew chestfeeding would be cheaper than buying formula and that automatically made it a very appealing idea. But the thing that really drew me in was that I discovered that I liked my chest a lot more when it was doing something useful. How could I hate a part of my body that directly nourished my child?

Despite over a decade of transmasculine parents having discussions around chestfeeding, the topic remains to attract many critics. Some are as recent as this year.

Earlier this January, Tanius Posey, known to one million TikTok followers as transking30 faced backlash for posting about his journey on the popular app. Posey is also a trans man who gave birth this year and shares his experience chestfeeding.

I got a lot of backlash, and it got the best of me real bad [at first], Posey said in an interview with Pink News, where he mentioned comments that questioned his integrity as a dad who is trans and how his parenting will corrupt his child. My child has to eat. I cant sit there and starve him. Hes gotta eat and he doesnt take a bottle, so Ive got to feed him. We gotta stop living under a rock, weve gotta open up our eyes and realize theres more than one way to live.

To Poseys luck, it seems as though things are changing. Last month, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) offered new guidance on chestfeeding that included LGBTQ-inclusive advice.

The CDCs page on Health Equity Considerations in Infant and Young Child Feeding notes that transgender and nonbinary-gendered individuals may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed). In a section on Breastfeeding and Breast Surgery, the CDC notes that transgender and nonbinary parents can feed children, as long as the healthcare providers working with the families are familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant.

Wert hopes for the world of healthcare and parenting to gain awareness, research and empathy for families of all kinds. At the moment, he seeks to pursue top surgery in the future, but not until he feels completely done having kids. All in all, Wert, like many parentstrans or notsimply wants to be good to his children.

The biggest misconception [around chestfeeding] is this pervasive belief that no man would ever willingly chestfeed their baby, he said. If every single cis man woke up tomorrow with the ability to chestfeed, [I believe] a good chunk of them would choose to do so.
August 6, 2023 by Amy Gold

During the week of July 30, 2023, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" was voted the greatest acoustic song of all time in a recent poll by Total Guitar. Coming in at numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively, were Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," The Eagles' "Hotel California," Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven," and The Beatles' "Blackbird."

Also that week, it was reported that Cher sold her interest in her past recordings and in songs she has written to Iconic Artists Group run by Irving Azoff. Azoff also acquired the controlling interest in the catalog, name, and likeness of his old college friend, Dan Fogelberg, who passed away in 2007. Fogelberg and Azoff left the University of Illinois together in the early 1970s and headed to Los Angeles where Azoff became one of rock music's most powerful managers, guiding the careers of Fogelberg, The Eagles, Steely Dan, and more.

Finally, a podcast titled "Stones Touring Party" was posted on iHeart.com that covers The Rolling Stones' famous 1972 U.S. tour. This broadcast is based on "S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones," a book by Robert Greenfield of Rolling Stone magazine who carried out over 60 hours of interviews with the band.

Newly-Announced Tours & Shows:

(Band/Artist - Event(s) - Location - Dates)

Paul McCartney - Tour (Got Back) - Australia - October 18-November 4, 2023

Donny Osmond - Residency - Las Vegas, NV - January 23-May 11, 2024

Queen + Adam Lambert - Tour (Rhapsody) - Japan - February 4-14, 2024

Newly-Announced Recordings:

(Band/Artist - Title - Format - Release Date)

Trevor Rabin of Yes - Big Mistakes (single from "Rio") - digital download, streaming - August 4, 2023

Van Morrison - Beyond Words: Instrumental - CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming - August 18, 2023

Grateful Dead - Wake Of The Flood (50th anniversary re-release deluxe edition) - CD, digital download, streaming - September 29, 2023

Trevor Rabin of Yes - Rio - CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming - October 6, 2023

Lynyrd Skynyrd - FYFTY (50th anniversary box set) - CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming - October 13, 2023

New & Upcoming Books:

(Author - Title - Publisher - Publication Date)

Laurel Snyder - Bruce Springsteen: A Little Golden Book Biography - Random House - September 5, 2022

(For more information about the above news items, please see below for a list of sources.)










English News Build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor into an exemplary project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 7 Aout 2023



The success of the BRI shows the inevitable trend toward cooperation and development, said Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the Chairman of the Pakistan Senate Defence Committee. He pointed out that acting on the principles of high-standard, people-centered and sustainable development, the BRI will bring more development opportunities to participating nations including Pakistan and inject stronger impetus into global recovery.

By He Yin, People's Daily China will work with Pakistan to aim for high-standard, sustainable and livelihood-enhancing outcomes and further build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) into an exemplary project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, said Chinese President Xi Jinping in a congratulatory message to the Decade of CPEC celebration event.



He gives full recognition to the positive achievements and important significance of the CPEC, offering guidance for the economic corridor's development and China-Pakistan practical cooperation.

The CPEC is a major and pilot project of the Belt and Road cooperation. It is deemed pivotal by the leaders of both countries.



When paying a state visit to Pakistan in April 2015, Xi said it's important to guide the two countries' practical cooperation with the CPEC construction, form a "1+4" cooperation structure with the CPEC at the center and achieve common development by focusing on the four key areas of the Gwadar Port, energy, transport infrastructure, and industrial cooperation, which charted the course for China and Pakistan to achieve common development with the economic corridor as an important focal point.



China and Pakistan have been advancing the CPEC construction under the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, yielding a batch of early fruits that have injected new impetus into Pakistan's economic and social development.



The Gwadar port, as the pearl of the CPEC, is now fully operational and steadily marching towards its goal of becoming a logistics hub and industrial base.



Energy cooperation under the CPEC framework has made remarkable progress. Many clean energy projects like wind and hydro power have been completed and account for nearly one third of Pakistan's total power supply.



The Karakoram Highway(KKH) Phase Two project, the Orange Line Metro Train project in Lahore and other transport infrastructure projects are operating smoothly, help building Pakistan's transportation arteries and driving development in surrounding areas.



The first Phase of the Rashakai Special Economic Zone has been officially completed, marking another new breakthrough in China-Pakistan industrial cooperation.



Over the past decade, the CPEC has evolved from a grand blueprint into a concrete reality, bringing $25.4 billion in direct investment to and creating 236,000 jobs for Pakistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the CPEC has injected unprecedented dynamism into Pakistan's economy.



The CPEC fully demonstrates the all-weather friendship between China and Pakistan, providing important support for building a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era.



The construction of the CPEC has entered a new stage of high-quality development from laying foundations and defining initial structures.



The two sides have continuously expanded the areas of cooperation, with new highlights created in agriculture, science and technology, information technology and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.



They worked together to align the Green Silk Road with the Clean Green Pakistan, strengthening collaboration on green investment, green infrastructure and green agriculture.



China-Pakistan agricultural cooperation is flourishing, and livelihood projects between the two countries have enabled more and more Pakistanis to benefit from the dividends of the CPEC.



China and Pakistan are working to create an "upgraded version" of the CPEC - building a growth corridor, a livelihood-enhancing corridor, an innovation corridor, a green corridor and an open corridor. This will surely lift the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership to new heights.



The construction of the CPEC adhere to the Silk Road spirit, and has reaped fruitful win-win results. It is a successful example of Belt and Road cooperation and demonstrates that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents China's commitment to sharing opportunities and seeking common development with the world. It has further strengthened the confidence of all relevant parties in Belt and Road construction.



The success of the BRI shows the inevitable trend toward cooperation and development, said Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the Chairman of the Pakistan Senate Defence Committee. He pointed out that acting on the principles of high-standard, people-centered and sustainable development, the BRI will bring more development opportunities to participating nations including Pakistan and inject stronger impetus into global recovery.



Recently, a landmark building in Islamabad was decked with the colors of the Chinese and Pakistani national flags to mark the 10th anniversary of the CPEC. This mirrored the firm support for the economic corridor from the Pakistani government and people.



China will continue its unremitting efforts to utilize the CPEC as an engine driving cooperation of higher standards, broader scope and greater depth, so as to bring more fruits of development to all Pakistani people.



China will also take the BRI's 10th anniversary as an opportunity to join hands with all relevant parties to broaden the Belt and Road as a "path of happiness" benefiting the whole world.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > B&B boom fuels demand for managers in China China, Africa make fruitful achievements in economic, trade cooperation BRICS cooperation shines with strong appeal Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Workers dismantle shade structures installed for the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Monday. The World Organization of the Scout Movement announced that it received confirmation from the Korean government that an early departure will be planned for all participants due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun. Yonhap



Tropical storm expected to make landfall on Thursday morning



By Lee Hyo-jin



All participants of the World Scout Jamboree currently taking place in Saemangeum, a reclaimed tidal flat in North Jeolla Province, will leave the campsite for Seoul and its surrounding areas as Typhoon Khanun is expected to hit the nation on Thursday, the government announced, Monday.



Beginning Tuesday morning, tens of thousands of young Scouts will be relocated to the greater Seoul area under an emergency contingency plan initiated in the wake of the rapidly-approaching typhoon.



About 1,000 buses will be mobilized to transport some 36,000 participants from 156 countries. The Jamboree initially drew some 40,000 young Scouts from 159 nations, but the 1,500-member U.S. and 4,400-member U.K. delegations, along with participants from Singapore, pulled out from the campsite over the weekend citing risks posed by the heat wave.



"The relocation process will begin from 10 a.m. and the participants will be transferred in consecutive orderWe expect the whole process to take about six hours, but it may take longer depending on the situation," said Vice Minister for Disaster and Safety Management Kim Sung-ho during a briefing held at the campsite.



During the rest of their stay in Korea, the participants will be able to take part in alternative tour programs offered by local governments. A K-pop concert, originally planned at an outdoor venue in Saemangeum, is likely to be held in Seoul on Friday, which is when the closing ceremony is scheduled to take place.



Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook stressed that the early exit from the campsite does not mean an early closure of the quadrennial gathering.





Vice Minister for Disaster and Safety Management Kim Sung-ho, right, speaks during a briefing held at the World Scout Jamboree campsite in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Monday. At left is Gender Equality and Family Minister Kim Hyun-sook. Yonhap



"We are reviewing various activities with local governments, I would say we are broadening the scale of the Jamboree," she said.



The officials were not able to immediately give an exact number or the type of accommodations that will be provided to the young Scouts, saying that discussions with local governments are underway.



Hours before the government briefing, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said it received confirmation from the Korean government about the sooner-than-planned departure from the Jamboree venue.



"We urgently call on the government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries," it said in a statement.



The early exit was announced early in the afternoon on the seventh day of the 12-day event. The Jamboree got off to a rocky start due to reports of horrific campsite conditions amid an extreme heat wave and poor management  although conditions have significantly improved in recent days, according to some participants.



On Monday night, President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the government to carry out a contingency plan for the Jamboree, with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo leading a team of ministers including Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min.



"Starting immediately, the team will carry out the contingency plan in which the accommodations of the Scouts and their remaining activities can be relocated to Seoul and its surrounding areas," Yoon was quoted as saying by senior presidential press secretary Kim Eun-hye.









The gender equality minister said concerns and requests from the WOSM and contingents from participating countries have also been reflected in the government's decision.



Khanun was traveling over waters some 330 kilometers northeast of Okinawa, Japan, as of 9 a.m., Monday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The state weather agency predicted the tropical storm to make landfall on the southeastern coast by Thursday morning.



The KMA classified Khanun as a "strong" typhoon  the second-highest level in its four-tier system  and said most parts of the nation will be under its influence before exiting Korea on Saturday.



The unexpected change of the Jamboree venue has caused confusion among the teenage Scouts.



"We were told that we were moving to Seoul because the closing ceremony will also be held in Seoul. I don't have more information about the location (of our accommodation)," an 18-year-old Scout from Germany told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.



An International Service Team (IST) volunteer from South America said, "I'm sure everyone will be evacuated, but it's nearly impossible to get everyone out at the same time," calling it a "logistical nightmare."



The incoming typhoon poses another natural disaster for the Jamboree after an extreme heat wave already forced the several contingents to withdraw from the campsite over the weekend.





British participants who withdrew from the World Scout Jamboree campsite in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, watch news coverage of the Jamboree at Yongsan Station in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap



Other than the extreme weather conditions, the festive spirit was marred by poor facility management and dismal campsite conditions, as well as a controversy over a Thai man was caught in the women's showers.



On Sunday, Kim Tae-yeon, leader of the 900th contingent of the Korea Scout Association's North Jeolla Province Council, announced that his team was pulling out due to the organizer's improper response to a sexual harassment allegation. According to him, a Thai man followed a Korean female official into the shower room on Wednesday night. But the man was only given a warning by the organizers.



Gender Equality Minister Kim sparked criticism after she described this as "a minor incident." At a briefing on Monday, she explained that it was not her intention to downplay the incident, saying that she was initially briefed that it was a simple case of trespassing in the wrong facilities.



"The man has been separated from the victim and I believe an additional investigation (by the police) is underway," she said.





Participants of the 25th World Scout Jamboree rest under a vine-covered tunnel in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Sunday. Courtesy of World Organization of the Scout Movement
Democrats and corporate media throw around terms like 'fascism' and 'dictatorship' as a means of stifling discussion of anyone they disagree with. Totalitarianism is another term along those lines, typically associated with tyrants such as Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

While Wikipedia is not the most reliable reference source, they have a clear and concise definition of totalitarianism:

Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life. It employs all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry.

As kids like to ask their parents on long road trips: Are we there yet?

When it comes to totalitarianism, I am afraid we are there. America as a beacon of freedom and liberty may be in hospice care, barely alive, with little hope of survival or healing.

COVID was a good example of complete control and regulation over public and private life. DEI and wokeism is much the same. Then there is political dissent.

Socialist historian Howard Zinn proclaimed, Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Socialist two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton echoed, We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration. The Biden-Garland-Obama junta took a 180 by criminalizing free speech and dissent.

Former President Donald Trump is racking up indictments almost as fast as current President Joe Biden is collecting falls and face plants.

Start with the timing of these indictments. Matt Margolis provided a timeline suggesting that indictments are dropped against Bidens political opponent whenever Biden or his family are implicated in another scandal.

This convenient distraction is actually election interference, what Trump is accused of in the most recent indictment. The party in power has arrested and wants to imprison its political opposition, banana republic-style.

The same day that the FBI released bribery allegations against Joe Biden, Trump was indicted over supposed mishandling of classified documents. When Hunter Bidens plea deal fell apart, the next day Special Counsel Jack Smith added a superseding indictment in the classified documents case.

YouTube screen grab

Then right on schedule, the day after Devon Archer confirmed Hunter Bidens foreign influence-peddling with Father Joes knowledge and participation, Smith indicted Trump for challenging the 2020 presidential election results, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

What Bidens DOJ is doing is out of the totalitarianism playbook, eliminating political opposition, outlawing opposition to the state and pushing its claims through state-controlled media.

Since when does America indict and attempt to imprison political opponents, especially former presidents? And for exercising First Amendment rights to free speech?

So what if Trump complains that the elections were rigged or fraudulent? Is that not allowed? Mind-reader Jack Smith is alleging that Trump did not believe his own elections claims. If thats the precedent, most Republicans are next in line for arrest.

A CNN poll shows, 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents view President Joe Biden's win as illegitimate.

If this is the new normal, most Democrats should be indicted over denying election results. If Trump wins in 2024, perhaps his Attorney General Rudy Giuliani can indict these Democrats using Jack Smiths precedent, as outlined in this RNC video montage of Democrats denying previous election results.

Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Stacey Abrams, and most Democrat members of Congress and cable news anchors should be indicted for conspiracy to challenge previous elections, defrauding the U.S.

Lets add other names of high government officials who participated in the Russian collusion hoax. Richard Nixon wiretapped DNC headquarters and was forced to resign. James Clapper, James Comey, John Brennan, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, and many others wiretapped Trump Tower, spied on an opposing political campaign, its transition team, and its administration.

They lied to FISA courts for surveillance warrants, gaslit the media and American people, and are rewarded with book deals, university faculty appointments, television commentary gigs, none receiving even a slap on the wrist. They all conspired to rig or overturn an election with no special counsels and no indictments. Such propaganda and elimination of political opposition fits the definition of totalitarianism.

Dont forget the conspiracy of 51 intelligence officials lying over Hunter Bidens laptop being Russian disinformation. This conspiracy obstructed a presidential election, defrauding America and voters, 16 percent of whom would have not voted Biden if they were told the truth. All 51 co-conspirators kept their security clearances and their freedom.

Whats next? Will Bidens DOJ round up and arrest the 60 percent of likely U.S. voters who, according to Rasmussen Reports, suspect recent elections have been affected by cheating, and believe officials are ignoring the problem? Or the 69 percent of Republican voters that believe Bidens 2020 win was illegitimate?

Where is the GOP on this? Is there any GOP outrage or pushback? So much for checks and balances and co-equal branches of government. Where are the GOP primary candidates on this outrage that awaits them should they ever make it to the White House, and unlike the Bushes, actually push back against the deep state?

Candidate Ron DeSantis, under donor class pressure, channeling his inner Mitt Romney, declared that claims about the 2020 election being stolen were false, according to the New York Times.

High-minded Republicans who look down on Trump and would be happy to see him politically eliminated so they can feel good about themselves and their principles, fail to realize that they may be next.

Oh, I am just exaggerating, this is only about Trump. Really?

The Michigan Attorney General filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.

Were any charges filed against Democrats in 2016 when, Many Democrats, liberal activists, and Hollywood stars tried to pressure electors to reverse the results of the November election? Or when in 1960, Democrats did in Hawaii the same as Republicans did in 2020, according to Politico. I dont recall any indictments in 2016 or 1960.

The same Michigan AG is prosecuting her predecessor over allegedly tampering with voting machines while those scanning and rescanning ballots in the middle of the night were given a pass. Another Democrat attempting to arrest and imprison her political opponent.

If Democrats get away with this, they will double down, imprisoning their political opponents. Totalitarianism anyone?

Real election interference, in 2016, 2020, and now 2024 at the hands of the federal government is encouraged and cheered on by the corporate media. Republicans sputter and stutter. And if anyone complains or calls it out, they are indicted.

Hows that for totalitarianism?

The federal government has turned its immense powers against political rivals. They want to arrest and imprison their leading political opponent. Why? Let Trump answer that from his recent op-ed,

Seven years ago, I ran for office taking on all the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests in our nation's capital. My agenda was an existential threat to a Washington establishment that got rich and powerful bleeding America dry.

Will Trump in prison be enough for the totalitarians? How about the death penalty? One of the recent indictment charges is for violating Civil War-era laws which would normally involve only 10 years in prison, but could be extended to death if, according to the DOJ, the government proves an aggravating factor. That cant happen. Or can it?

The same DOJ that is criminalizing free speech can surely concoct an aggravating factor. And they have a willing Obama-appointed judge overseeing the case, one who when presiding over January 6 protesters, handed down sentences tougher than the ones sought by prosecutors.

What if she decides to hand down a tougher than asked-for death sentence to Trump due to aggravating factors? Dont think it could happen? I never thought our government would attempt to imprison a political opponent because they didnt like his protected free speech. And at the same time, giving the current government leader and his family a pass for selling U.S. policy interests to foreign actors - bribery and treason.

If the current government wants a civil war, what would they do differently? Add that to a nation in economic freefall with no national sovereignty or pride, a decimated military, and a rotting culture. The time is ripe for foreign adversaries to put an end to America as the shining city on the hill.

Who will stop any of this? A Democrat president whose family took millions from these countries (in exchange for what?) or a MAGA president who is willing to fight back? And fight back he will. If he is charged, he has subpoena power and discovery for his defense, assuming the judge doesnt block it all.

Trump summarized it well concluding in his op-ed,

There must be a reckoning. Accountability now lies in the hands of the voters. The Durham Report has made the stakes abundantly clear, and now the choice is ours: either the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.

This is Americas last stand as a beacon of freedom and liberty. Continuing this path means America, R.I.P.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brians Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
On July 27, 2023, the United Nations turned up the heat on the global climate hoax by declaring the era of global warming has now morphed into the era of global boiling. With typically hysterical rhetoric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that, short of a mini-Ice Age in the coming days, July 2023 would likely shatter records across the board. In Geneva, scientists from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared that July 2023 was set to be the hottest month on record. Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European Commissions Copernicus Climate Change Service, echoed the UN in declaring, Unless an ice age were to appear all of a sudden out of nothing, it is basically certain we will break the record for the warmest July on record and the warmest month on record.

This all-too-obvious coordinated drumroll of frightening climate change warnings has become the propaganda technique of choice for international organizations who presume responsibility for controlling Earths climate. The only problem with the current theme of the monthnamely, that July 2023 was the hottest month on recordis that it is NOT true. But truthfulness is apparently a less worthy goal to the UN, the WMO, and the European Commission than making sure we stop using hydrocarbon fuels, the energy that has allowed modern industrial states to prosper during our good fortune to be experiencing an interglacial warming period. The whole point of these announcements is to scare people. Climate change is here, the UN chief said. It is terrifying. And its just beginning.

The lying appears ubiquitous among government agencies monitoring the weather. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has disappeared an internet page that demonstrated that, 90 years ago, we experienced a far greater wave of heat than we are experiencing today. For now, the NASA Global Climate Change website still displays an article by Ellen Gray, NASAs Earth Science News Team, that features a scientific study demonstrating that we experienced the worst drought of the last thousand years in 1934 during the dust bowl years of the Depression. How long it will remain there is unclear.

Image: Earth on fire (edited) by rawpixel.com.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue mocked a July 24 Washington Post article with a headline blaring, Heat waves in the U.S., Europe virtually impossible without climate change, study finds. Maue quipped on Twitter [now rebranded as X], I guess thats true if you memory hole 1925, 1930s, 1950s, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2012, 2020, etc. and the rest of the almanac. In a follow-up Tweet, Maue continued the theme:

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s and 1980 stand out as so exceptionally hot, many decades ago, that no one would say without laughing that the recent July in Texas was unprecedented.



I guess politicizing the weather means we have to suspend disbelief and erase the past.



"The past  Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) July 25, 2023

Cliff Mass, professor of Atmospheric Studies at the University of Washington, rubbished the claim that July 2023 was the hottest month ever. Mass noted the climate was radically warmer around 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period when agriculture thrived in parts of now ice-covered Greenland. If you really go back far enough there were swamps near the North Pole, and the other thing to keep in mind is tht were coming out of a cold period, a Little Ice Age from roughly 1600 to 1850.

There are several reasons July 2023 was hot. The Sun is burning hotter in the current Sun Cycle 25 than Sun Cycle 24. According to Javier Vinos, author of the 2022 book Climate of the Past, Present and Future: A Scientific Debate, the monthly sunspot number for June 2023 reached 163.4.

While this figure may be revised slightly, its likely to stand as the highest number seen in over two decades, since September 2002, Vinos explained in a recent article. Solar Cycle 25 is relatively young, only three and a half years old, which means there are ample opportunities over the next three years to surpass this months 20-year record.

A newly released report by Clintel.org [Climate Intelligence (Clintel), an independent foundation headquartered in the Netherlands], entitled The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC, featured Vinoss work on the Mid-Holocene [7,000 to 5,000 years ago]. The new IPCC [UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] came with the remarkable claim that it is now warmer than in the past 125,000 years, the Clintel report noted:

This would mean that it is now warmer than during the Mid Holocene, a period that was also relatively warm. Javier Vinos investigates the evidence for this and shows that glaciers and treelines contradict this evidence. It is now more likely that the Holocene Thermal Maximum was warmer than it is now. [page 22]

It was also warm in July because it is summer, and a rudimentary understanding of the Milankovitch Cycles makes clear that the tilt of the Earths axis places the Northern Hemisphere at an angle closest to the sun in the months of July and August. Currently, according to NASA, the Earths eccentricity is near its most elliptical (most circular) and is very slightly decreasing in a cycle that spans about 100,000 years. Wait a while, and we will have global cooling (i.e., Autumn), then wait a little longer, and we will have global freezing (i.e., Winter); wait a while longer, and we will have the next Ice Age (as Earths orbit nears its most elliptical phase).

In his 2022 book The Great Reset, Marc Morano, creator of ClimateDepot.com, predicts the World Economic Forum global elite are pushing climate hysteria to set the stage for a Global Warming Lockdown, similar to the COVID-19 lockdown. But as IPCC catastrophic climate predictions fail to materialize, the global warming [aka, climate change] movement risks losing credibility. In his 2023 book, The Grip of Culture: The Social Psychology of Climate Change Catastrophism, Andy West argues that climate hysteria has left the world of science to enter the wonderland of ideology, operating as a secular religious doctrine, not as science fact. Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, commented on Wests book, Climate change catastrophism is a cultural disease haunting Western society.

In a little-publicized statement, Jim Skea, the new head of the UNs IPCC, risked committing global warming heresy by urging supporters not to overstate the global warming threat to humanity if Earth temperatures do rise 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In a sign the IPCC senses the mass delusion over climate may have overstated its case, Skea told the German news agency, We should not despair and fall into a state of shock should global temperatures exceed the IPCCs nominal target of limiting global warming to the 1.5 Celsius target.

Existential threat or not, we may have to wait until January or February before winter cools the mainstream media off from the overheated but predictable existential climate crisis drumbeat of July and August.

Since 2004, Jerome R. Corsi has published over 30 books on economics, history, and politics, including two #1 New York Times bestsellers. In 1972, he received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation in 1972 was entitled Prior Restraint, Prior Punishment, and Political Dissent: A Moral and Legal Evaluation. His book, Volume I, in his Great Awakening Trilogy, The Truth About Energy, Global Warming, and Climate Change: Exposing Climate Lies in an Age of Disinformation, received highly positive reviews from prominent climate scientists. Volume II, The Truth About Neo-Marxism, Cultural Maoism, and Anarchy: Exposing Woke Insanity in an Age of Disinformation, is scheduled for publication on November 14, 2023. Dr. Corsi has resumed podcasting on his new website TheTruthCentral.com, which is now on the Internet in its first development phase.
Ohio voters go to the polls Tuesday, August 8 to vote in a referendum to change requirements for amending the state constitution through initiative-and-referendum (I&R). Currently, a simple majority (50% + 1) suffices to pass an I&R constitutional amendment; Issue 1 would raise that requirement to 60%. (It would also raise the number of counties from which signatures for I&R petitions come from the current 44-50% of Ohio -- to 88, i.e., all counties).

The immediate impetus for the effort is an effort to staunch a virulently pro-abortion Right to Reproductive Freedom amendment to the Ohio constitution, already certified for inclusion on the November 7 ballot. That amendment, if adopted, would legalize abortion through birth (Potemkin village language about viability notwithstanding) and force Ohioans to pay for it while stripping parents of rights to parental consent or even notification.

Ohio pro-life forces hope to change the thresholds for amendment approval to defeat the Reproductive Freedom amendment. Theyre rightly concerned that, in an off-election year like 2023, out-of-state interests can pour money into an abortion referendum in Ohio (and legislative elections in Virginia, the only other major pro-life contest this year) to lock abortion into the Buckeye States basic law.

Abortion proponents complain that the effort is anti-democratic and takes away peoples rights to decide. Is there merit to their claim?

No.

Superficially, raising the requirements for a constitutional amendment might seem anti-democratic. Its not. Heres why.

Constitutions are the basic law of any jurisdiction, country, or state. They set the basic rules, including the basic values, for that jurisdiction. Because, as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote (in the 1905 case, Lochner v. New York), constitutions are made for people of fundamentally differing views, they should not be used to lock down policy wins for transient majorities. That is why most constitutions amending processes are rigorous: they are designed to ensure that changes to the fundamental law reflect a deep and abiding consensus that is tested by time and breadth of agreement.

Thats why, in most states, changing the constitution requires passage of amendments twice, usually by different legislatures to ensure an election took place between them. Its also why that product then usually still has to go before the voters to approve.

Even Ohios constitution somewhat reflects this. If the State Legislature wants to change the constitution, it has to do three things:

adopt the amendment by 3/5ths of both houses (the same margin Issue 1 would impose on I&R-originated amendments); complete that process no fewer than 90 days before an election; and then submit the amendment to be approved by Ohio voters.

The fact that popularly-initiated constitutional amendments in Ohio can be approved by a one-time bare majority, without the review processes normal legislative action provides, makes the I&R process an outlier and dangerous. Note that the bare majority does not even have to be a majority of Ohios registered voters, only a bare majority of those who bothered to show up. That means special interest get out the vote campaigns -- perhaps funded by out-of-state money -- can use the process to prevail.

The U.S. Constitutions amending process is designed to force political consensus on changes to the supreme law of the land. Both houses of Congress have to pass an amendment by 2/3s majorities. Then the amendment has to be approved by 3/4s of the states, i.e., at least 75 different legislative houses across America. That process has protected our Constitution against being altered for what the Declaration of Independence called light and transient causes.

Why does Issue 1 also raise the number of counties where signatures for I&R amendments have to be gathered? Simply because Ohio is America in miniature. Thats why its often a swing state. It has cities, suburbs, and rural areas -- and a lot of those rural areas are pejoratively considered flyover country not just by out-of-staters but even some Ohioans.

Requiring signatures to come from all across Ohio ensures that every corner of the state is represented in changing its constitution. The current process favors cities (especially those with entrenched political machines, like Cleveland): run up your signatures in the large cities along I-80 in northern Ohio, grab some names in Columbus and Cincinnati, get signatures from some neighboring counties, and ignore the rest. Issue 1 would make sure the rest are not ignored.

If Ohioans think thats undemocratic, they should consider that the undemocratic Electoral College gives swing states like Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania greater weight in terms of not being ignored: you have to try to win there. Without it, national politicians could treat all of Ohio as flyover country. A state that likes to throw its weight in national affairs should ensure citizens in every corner of Ohio are represented in state affairs, including such fundamental ones as changing the state constitution.

While Ohio pro-life groups have mobilized behind Issue 1 August 8 to protect the unborn next November, there are many other groups recommending a yes vote on the proposition. They do so because they see the low, one-time thresholds to tamper with the state constitution as easy pickings for deep-pocketed special interests trying to ram something into the document.

Turning out the vote in the middle of summer will be a challenge, but the stakes are high, not just for the unborn but for the protection of rule of law against easy manipulation. Voting yes on Issue One is not anti-democratic. Its recognizing that constitutions matter.

John M. Grondelski is an independent scholar writing from Falls Church, Virginia.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
I don't think the federal government will exist in its current form much longer. The reason is simple: if Marxist globalists get their way, then sovereign U.S. powers will continue to be unlawfully delegated to the U.N., the WHO, and other international monstrosities until some Obama-type tyrant is ruling over us all from Turtle Bay or a stately castle outside Brussels. If freedom-minded people succeed in reining in the federal government and reimposing the Constitution's limited delegation of powers, then the monstrosity that is already with us will radically diminish or disappear. Either the current beast lording it over us will transform into something even more menacing, or it will be sapped of its blood-thirst for unconstitutional overreach and brought to heel. For what it's worth, my vote is for the Price Is Right option: the whole D.C. menagerie should just be spayed or neutered.

As we stand right now, the federal government functions as an extra-constitutional and largely illegitimate system that usurps the individual states' respective sovereignties, infringes the American people's personal rights, and betrays the spirit of our country's foundations in liberty.

Our Union came into existence only because the former colonies were assured that they would maintain their freedom and independence. Had the Articles of Confederation or their successor, the U.S. Constitution, sought to extinguish the individual states' inherent sovereignties by replacing their discrete political powers with those of a single new nation, then no agreement to form a Union would have ever been reached. The colonies did not fight a war for their independence from an empire only to squander their victory and become part of another empire.

Quite the contrary, the individual states maintain a political stature on par with foreign nations such as France and Spain; it is only in the specifically enumerated powers delegated to the federal government that federal authority supersedes the states' own. That word "delegated" is important. The federal government's power does not spring from thin air, but rather is derived from specifically listed authorities delegated to it from the states and the people. The American people and the individual states are the origin of all legitimate power, and the federal government exists only so long as the people and the states continue to lend their own innate powers to breathe life into an otherwise powerless system. Before the Civil War, the idea that an American was a citizen of the United States would have been as absurd as an American today being a citizen of the United Nations. Americans are citizens of their respective states, and the states belong to the Union.

Because history and civics are no longer taught in school, the federal government has worked a self-serving linguistic voodoo that has allowed it to pretend that the birth of the United States was the birth of a brand new nation. In actuality, we are a federation of independent states that magically became a single nation before inexplicably becoming a borderless empire.

If we were still abiding by the Constitution, then 99% of today's federal government would be chucked to the bottom of the Potomac. As James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers (No. 45):

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

In other words, the individual states and the American people delegated a small number of powers (there are only eighteen enumerated legislative powers in Art. I, Sec. 8) to a jointly directed government that would provide for the states' common defenses, represent the states in negotiations with other nations, and regulate foreign commerce among the states. That's it. All other powers, as the Ninth and Tenth Amendments make clear, remain with the individual states and the people.

The plain meaning of the U.S. Constitution and the Founding Fathers' copious essays and personal correspondence all attest to their intention to keep the federal government small, limited in authority, and deferential to the states. Instead, we have today the largest, most expensive, most powerful central government that has ever existed on Planet Earth. No detail of an American's life is too small for the federal government not to regulate; no nuclear confrontation is too risky or military alliance too great for D.C.'s permanent "ruling class" not to unilaterally undertake. The federal government insists on controlling the rain puddles on our land, the political speech that we may voice, the health care we may receive, the appliances in our homes, and the fruits of our labor. The Constitution vests none of these powers in the federal government; they represent illegitimate power-grabs, yet the government has legalized its illegitimacy anyway.

The idea was simple: divide the federal government into three branches that would compete against one another, let the state legislatures control the U.S. Senate, and let the people choose their representation for the House. Instead, the branches conspired with one another to become bigger and more powerful, the Seventeenth Amendment turned the Senate into a ruling aristocracy, and the imposition of political parties gave private corporations control over who would pretend to represent the people. In order to sidestep the Constitution's limitations completely, the federal government invented a fourth branch  the administrative State  that acts with the combined powers of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches while operating beyond the reach of the people. In order to preserve these illegitimate powers, the federal government then invented an unaccountable Intelligence Community that spies on and bullies ordinary Americans.

Within the Constitution's "checks and balances," the people have three principal powers to use against the federal government: their vote, their free speech, and their Second Amendment right to defend themselves against tyranny. Today, elections are not trusted, the federal government censors political speech and dissent, and there is an ongoing effort to deprive Americans of their firearms. The federal government has stolen the people's power.

The individual state governments, bought off or intimidated into submission long ago, have largely remained quiet. It is as if someone told the states to play dead, and they complied.

The remedy to all this nonsense has always been straightforward: nullification. In the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions arguing against the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison insisted that the states have a duty to reject acts of Congress not authorized by the Constitution's enumerated powers. "[W]here powers are assumed which have not been delegated," Jefferson wrote, "nullification ... is the rightful remedy." Alexander Hamilton  a staunch supporter of centralized government  agreed and warned that should Congress exert authority beyond its "constitutional powers," its actions are "merely acts of usurpation and will deserve to be treated as such."

What we need is a movement of people who recognize that nullification is not only possible, but necessary. The problem is that Americans have been forced to choose between two private corporations posing as political parties that do not embrace a duty to protect Americans' freedom and liberty. That is perhaps the most telling symptom of our current problems. A Union that was formed to protect the people's inalienable rights and liberties has no political party addressing those foundational concerns on the national stage.

Perhaps it is time to throw all the bums out, so that we may begin representing ourselves.

Image via Raw Pixel.
One of the most interesting articles that I've read in some time comes from Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. of The Wall Street Journal. He asked a key question:

How different would our world be if the American people had been able to rely on their national press for dispassionate, skeptical and honest reporting and analysis of both Mr. Trump and his enemies? If, in holding Mr. Trump accountable for his election lies, it had also been seen holding his enemies accountable for their lies?

That's so correct.

What if the media had actually treated then-senator Obama like a presidential candidate rather than a political version of Harry Belafonte doing the latest calypso to fawning reporters? Seriously, did Senator Obama get a serious question in 2008? Or was he too smart to question?

What if the media had been outraged when President Obama used the IRS to eliminate his critics or use executive orders to issue diktats around the Congress?

What if the media had called for someone to fire Director Comey for allowing Mrs. Clinton to get away with violating all the rules on the books over files? Private server?

What if the media had been outraged that so many Democrats were questioning the 2016 results? And let's not forget 2000 or 2004. Remember when it was fashionable to call the president illegitimate?

What if all of those "sources" familiar with the Russia investigation would have been ridiculed publicly for lying? And what about the 51 "intelligence officials" who signed the infamous Hunter-Biden-laptop-is-Russian-disinformation letter? Any reporters showing up at their homes asking for an explanation?

It's a little too late now to turn into investigative journalists; the target is, and always has been, President Trump. The public are skeptical of the whole thing, and they should be. This is what happens when some news is not fit to print because it does not fit the narrative.

So we are here, and don't expect the storm to end anytime soon.

PS: Check out my blog for posts, podcasts, and videos.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
Although the current administration has always attempted to put a good face on their efforts to combat the nation's ongoing cyber-crisis, like trotting out First Lady Dr. Jill Biden this week to kick off the White House's back-to-school cyber-safety summit, the truth is, cyber-security has been another key issue where America has lagged under the stewardship of President Joe Biden.

As of the end of 2022, well past the point where Democrat spin doctors could attempt to blame shift to former President Trump, there was a labor shortage of qualified cyber personnel to the tune of approximately 700,000.

The United States being understaffed regarding cyber-security poses significant dangers and vulnerabilities in both the public and private sectors. In today's interconnected and digital world, cyber-threats are continuously evolving, and the demand for skilled cyber-security professionals has never been higher. A lack of sufficient cyber-security personnel can have severe consequences for national security, economic stability, and the protection of sensitive information.

In the public sector, during a time where overall American security has seemed to take a major hit under the incompetent leadership of Alejandro Mayorkas at the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), government agencies and critical infrastructure face an array of sophisticated cyber threats from state-sponsored actors, hacktivists, and cyber-criminals.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a sub-agency under the DHS banner, has certainly spent enough taxpayer money over the past two and a half years to have made major strides in shoring up our defenses in the cyber-sphere, but the results just aren't there about two thirds of the way through Joe Biden's current term.

Most recently, there was a July joint cyber-security advisory from CISA, the FBI, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), regarding a spike in cyber-gangs deploying variations of Truebot malware, which is a botnet that has been used often by Russia-based cyber-gangs like CLOP.

Additionally, China, a country that has long been at or near the top of the list of America's top cyber-adversaries, was just reported to be the origin of an attack that breached the email account of U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, as a part of a larger targeted intelligence-gathering initiative.

Without an adequate cyber-security workforce, government organizations will continue to struggle to detect and respond to cyber-attacks effectively. This could lead to data breaches, disruption of essential services, and potential threats to national security. Additionally, the loss of sensitive government data can compromise diplomatic relations, intelligence operations, and military capabilities.

In the private sector, businesses across various industries are increasingly targeted by cyber-criminals seeking to steal valuable intellectual property, customer data, and financial information. These kinds of breaches have been executed with increasing frequency by countries like China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

An understaffed cyber-security team in private companies can lead to slower incident response times, leaving them exposed to prolonged cyber-attacks. The resulting data breaches can result in financial losses, reputational damage, and legal liabilities, affecting not only the targeted organizations, but also their customers and stakeholders.

Moreover, the interconnectedness of public and private sectors makes them interdependent. Cyber-attacks on private companies can have ripple effects on the nation's critical infrastructure and public services, such as energy, transportation, and health care. This underscores the importance of a strong cyber-security workforce in both the government and private sectors, collaborating to defend against cyber-threats effectively.

To address these challenges, the United States needs to invest in robust cyber-security education, training, and recruitment initiatives. One program that may bear fruit if properly executed is Florida International University's cyber-security workforce training program. The program provides free cyber-training to the nation's veterans and first responders.

We also need to begin encouraging students to pursue careers in cyber-security from a younger age and launch a consistent plan of doing so year-round, and not just trotting out the first lady for a short speech and dedicating just one week out of the year to awareness.

This, in addition to offering competitive salaries and benefits, will attract talent to fill critical cyber-security roles.

This extended understaffing epidemic in the cyber-security sector poses grave risks for the United States, leaving the nation vulnerable to cyber-threats on multiple fronts. At this point, a much bigger commitment must be made towards building a skilled and well equipped cyber-security workforce.

Should we do so, it will hopefully strengthen our cyber-defenses, protect sensitive data, safeguard national interests, and establish a resilient and secure digital landscape. Whether or not the Biden administration will be up to that task remains to be seen.

Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, cyber-security researcher, editorial director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cyber-security and politics, has been published by many of the most respected news organizations in the world.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
Everything we've heard about the death of Barack Obama's chef, Tafari Campbell, has been a lie.

Why not the depth of the water, too? I found little about Obama to be true in my years of research. There were many lies, which I include in my book The Rubbish Hauler's Wife versus Barack Obama.

The story about the chef's death changed more often than the days of the week. The Obamas weren't there, then they were. The daughters may or may not have been there.

In previous versions, Tafari was paddle-boarding alone, while someone else was also in the area. That person tried to assist Tafari, unsuccessfully, when he fell off his board and went beneath the water.

The most recent version is that he was on the water with a female employee who swam to shore, and someone from the Secret Service called for help. The only part of that story that appears truthful is that he may have been with a female. Malia? Sasha? If it was a female employee, why did that information not appear in the first version, and why so secretive about who called for help?

Allegedly, his body was found the following morning in eight feet of water about 100 feet from shore. That also appears to be a lie.

A government document, the Massachusetts Estuaries Project, shows on page sixty-one that the distance from the Obama property to a depth of eight feet would be at least three hundred feet from the shore.

At most, the water was three feet deep. Tafari could have saved his own life just by sitting up.

Susan Daniels has been a licensed private investigator in Ohio for thirty years and is president of Susan Daniels & Associates. Her memoir, The Rubbish Hauler's Wife versus Barack Obama, is available at Amazon.com.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
Reduced to its essentials, Bidens DOJ indicted Donald Trump because he allegedly lied to the American people. The lie is that he disagreed with the Democrat and Uniparty narrative regarding the fraud (or lack thereof) in the 2020 election. Meanwhile, its emerged that, rather than having a difference of opinion with someone, Joe Biden blatantly lied to the American people about an incontrovertible fact: namely, the money his son raked in from foreign governments. This was a purely factual lie and a true fraud.

Political speech is protected speech, even when its dishonest. Thats why the indictment against Trump is a fundamental denial of his First Amendment rights, and thats true whether Trump lied (as Democrats allege) or truly believed that the election was rife with fraud (as his supporters believe). Its not actionable and cannot be actionable because any other standard means that the government gets to determine what constitutes the truth.

Picture made a Racool_studio image.

However, as another president once said,

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

In Trumps case, the truth is definitely a matter of opinion, and Trumps main crime is that he refused to listen to advisors who manifestly despised him.

However, when it comes to what Biden told the American people, the facts are very stubborn, and we now know that he lied about absolutely unequivocal facts.

As you may recall, during the debates leading up to the 2020 election, Trump raised the fact that Hunter Biden was raking in money from foreign governments that sought to influence American policy. A hopped-up, outraged Biden emphatically denied that assertion:

Nothing was unethical. Heres what the deal. With regard to Ukraine. We had this whole question about whether or not, because he was on the board, I later learned of Burisma, a company that somehow, I had done something wrong, yet every single solitary person, when he was going through his impeachment, testifying under oath, who work for him, said I did my job impeccably, Joe Biden said during an October 2020 presidential debate. I carried out U.S. policy, not one single solitary thing was out of line, not a single thing, number one. He continued, My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China. I have not had the only guy who made money from China is this guy [Trump]. (Emphasis added.)

Because the FBI refused to admit what it knew to be the truththat the Hunter Biden hard drive was not Russian misinformationBiden was able to get away with this lie. And a lie it was.

Just The News reports that, thanks to a failed plea deal that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware hoped to strike with Hunter Biden, we now know that Hunter got millions of dollars from China:

The U.S. Attorneys office in Delaware  which charged Hunter Biden with tax and gun crimes last month  released to a federal court last week a now-scuttled plea deal that affirmed the presidential son got millions himself from Chinese sources in 2017-18 alone. That included money from a Chinese energy firm as well as legal payments from a Chinese executive convicted of bribery. [snip] Lawmakers told Just the News last week that the size of the payments from communist China and Joe Bidens efforts to conceal them raise larger questions about whether such monies to his family caused the president to take actions like refusing to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon or shuttering the FBIs main Chinese counter-intelligence program rooting out spies in U.S. academia.

We also know that the entire Biden clan was receiving massive sums of money from overseas sources, despite having done nothing to earn them. When it comes to Joe Biden himself, his finances are mysterious, with his showing a net worth substantially lower than the millions he legally earned in his four years outside of the White House. The only takeaway is that Joe is good at hiding money. And of course, Hunter Bidens verified hard drive shows him giving 10% to the Big Guy, and complaining about paying for the whole family.

The big question when it comes to all this money is whether Joe was in on it. Tony Bobulinski long-ago stated that Joe was, something the Democrats and MSM ignored. Then, under oath before a House committee, Devon Archer said that Biden coincidentally called Hunter just as Hunter was in meetings with foreign investors connected to their own governments, and Hunter put him on speaker.

That fact, standing alone, means nothing as to Joe. Hunter undoubtedly proved to foreign investors that he had Joes ear, but that didnt mean Joe was selling himself. Its the money trail thats going to make the difference, and finding proof of Hunters millions in a document filed by a U.S. Attorney is a good start. Moreover, the fact that Joe Biden lied to the American people about it is a hint that he has a whole lot more to hide.
Joe Biden is a miserable failure as president across the board, but few examples are quite as vivid as his failure in Latin America, where he is doing literally nothing as the place goes to hell in a handbasket.

The neglect is so bad that even Democrats are embarrassed.

According to Politico:

Biden's diplomatic team has spent most of his first term trying to rebuild alliances in Europe and Asia stressed by former President Donald Trump's brash nationalism. They have only recently started to turn their attention to Latin America, but lawmakers and corporate officials alike say those efforts are scant  and their patience is starting to wear thin. "I struggle to see what this administration is doing in Latin America that has any heft to it," Sen. Tim Kaine (D. Va.) said. Kaine's comments came during a contentious Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month, where he and other lawmakers grilled representatives from the State and Treasury Departments on why the administration has been, in their words, ignoring Latin America. "I am so embarrassed because when I meet these heads of state," said Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), "I can't tell them that they're wrong" when they criticize the U.S. agenda for the hemisphere.

Those are a couple of Democrat heavyweights, and they aren't even trying to hide that Biden is a do-nothing failure on this front.

Meanwhile, here is the kind of thing that's going on in that region abutting ours:

Unlike the rest of Latin America, Mexicos army stayed out of politics for many decades.



That may now change under its left-wing president.

https://t.co/AxkUG38ZeK  David Luhnow (@davidluhnow) August 5, 2023

A tin-pot military regime forming on our front doorstep? Nothing to see here  just trust that old Joe, who left the border open, knows what he's doing.

And from Chile?

Un grupo de terroristas armados, interceptaron un bus, obligaron a la gente a bajarse y luego lo quemaron por completo.



A solo cuadras de La Moneda.

Un viernes por la tarde.



Detenidos?

Ninguno

Funcionarios de gobierno preocupados? Ninguno. pic.twitter.com/insQw0Gigp  Jose Antonio Kast Rist  (@joseantoniokast) August 5, 2023

I thought they elected a left-wing regime to put a stop to this kind of activity. Seems it's gotten worse, and we all know what Chile eventually does when the leftists drive the country into ruin...

OK, and this news from Colombia is entertaining, except when you consider the level of corruption involved:

 | ULTIMO MINUTO: El Congreso colombiano ordena una investigacion al presidente Petro por presuntas irregularidades en su campana electoral. pic.twitter.com/lsdVQaIHxQ  UHN Plus (@UHN_Plus) August 4, 2023

...and less laughable, this:

One guess as to where that cocaine is going with Joe Biden's open borders, and what that much cocaine will do to the government of the U.S.'s top partner in Latin America.

Meanwhile, what's the view of Joe Biden's policy regarding Venezuela?

MADURO Y SUS ALIADOS EN WASHINGTON



Estimado SG @Almagro_OEA2015, @NicolasMaduro hubiese preferido ejecutar extrajudicialmente a estos sindicalistas, pero por temor a la @IntlCrimCourt opto sentenciarlos a 16 anos de carcel. Como dicen en mi pais, el miedo es libre y gratis. El https://t.co/vCR7i2LFjd  Pedro Mario Burelli (@pburelli) August 2, 2023

Google Translate, with added clarifiers:

Dear [UN Secretary General] @Almagro_OEA2015 , @NicolasMaduro would have preferred to execute these trade unionists extrajudicially, but out of fear of @IntlCrimCourt [the International Criminal Court] he chose to sentence them to 16 years in prison. As they say in my country, fear is free... and free. Maduro's, and his, is also great and rightly so. Unfortunately, daily we show that the calculation of @JoeBiden @SecBlinken @JakeSullivan46 @WHAAsstSecty and @Cartajuanero in Venezuela has been wrong, erratic and irresponsible. Without any plan, dismissing the evidence they have in abundance and perched on a naivete more typical of teenagers gawking at #TikTok , the Biden Administration believed it could lead a pack of criminals to blow themselves up and end up in jail by way of free and fair elections. This task was entrusted to novices of those that one imagines in fifth world governments but not in a country that struggles to preserve some relevance in a new world full of challenges and competitors. To top it off, these novices, driven by the spoiled 'energetic' @amoshochstein , believed that they would separate Maduro from a certain Vladimir Putin who gives him political support, scolds him for his crimes and keeps his ill-gotten fortune from civilians and soldiers of the Chavista nomenclature. Secretary General, Maduro has known allies in the Permanent Council of the @OEA_oficial [United Nations] , unfortunately, behind the good intentions and speeches of @USAmbOAS [Joe Biden's ambassador to the Organization of American States] , Frank Mora, there is a papier-mache government, a team 'a la Potemkin'. Shameful and dangerous to the region and to US interests and security Remember that lapidary saying of the Reagan era personnel is policy. There is nothing more to say. Some will continue abusing and others will continue doing the __________ s (that is, what they are).

Tell me that isn't a devastating reading, and from one of the most important observers on the Venezuelan scene in Washington, a man many hope will eventually become a free Venezuela's president or foreign minister.

These are all just August events. This isn't even getting into the problem of China, Russia, and Iran taking over key parts of Latin America's economy, with China becoming the region's top trading partnerl Russia and China getting the hooks in in Cuba, complete with new surveillance stations directed at the U.S.; or the deterioration of democracy in places like Nicaragua and Honduras, with all the illegals that will bring us.

We see a lot of micromanaging of less troubled Guatemala's affairs from USAID chief Samantha Power, complaining that its democracy doesn't measure up, but nothing about the countries that have gone off the cliff right there in Guatemala's neighborhood, with two de facto military regimes surrounding Guatemala: Mexico and El Salvador. Nope, just Guatemala, run by what passes as a conservative in that region, is the bad guy.

We also see a lot of silence on Brazil, now that the ruling leftists have disqualified the still popular former president, Jair Bolsonaro, from running for office for seven years. Obviously, they consider that a how-to guide, not an ominous sign of democracy falling apart.

It's just astonishing what the failure is in this region from Joe Biden, and now the region is remaking itself into something unrecognizable to Americans  not a collection of democracies anymore, but a collection of enemy-linked tyrannies, going on right under Joe Biden's nose, with an open border to let its effects into the States.

Yeah, supposedly Joe's got bigger problems, with an election on, his own corruption, his attacks on his opponent, as well as China and Russia and maybe Niger in Africa, too. But this is something he, and we, ought to care about, too.

When you've got top Democrats saying they're embarrassed about Biden's absence of a plan at a time when one is desperately needed and foreign policy is run by amateurs, you can bet we've got a problem we're going to be hearing about in some very unpleasant ways not too far in the future.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0,
For all four years of Trumps presidency, the Democrat establishment never let up: Russia! Russia! Russia!as if a corrupt country with a dying population and a minimal industrial base was a threat to us. (The Dems never minded the very powerful Soviet Union.) Donald Trump tried very hard to get America to focus on the real risk, which is China. All the Chinese stories in the news of late show he was correctand a new one has just been added to the list, which involves Chinese citizens (foot soldiers?) being smuggled into America.

Here are just a few things to consider about China vis-a-vis America:

Image: Chinese migrants at the border (cropped). YouTube screen grab.

While its true that China has problemsa drastically declining population and an artificially inflated economy, for startersits still a global threat because it seeks to empower itself by spreading its empire. After all, having an empire sending riches home is what kept both Rome and England at the top of the heap for so long.

The main threat to Chinas push for dominance is America. Its true that weve become a markedly less consequential country under Biden (a trend that started under Obama or, heck, even under Clinton), but we still matter. Were still Chinas greatest geopolitical rival.

Therefore, its unnerving to know that, among the millions of military-aged men from around the world marching across our open southern border, many are Chinese. This NBC article tries to make it sound as if the at least 4,300 Chinese undocumented migrants apprehended are tired, hungry, huddled masses but, if you look at the pictures, theyre military-aged men. And thats just the ones who were caught.

Now we learn that the government is worried that Chinese illegal aliens are also slipping into America through Florida:

Federal authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a route Chinese migrants are utilizing to make their way to Florida illegally, according to an internal federal intelligence report obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The report states that law enforcement lacks information regarding who is coordinating the smuggling between the Bahamas and Florida, where the migrants are being staged in the Bahamas and why Chinese migrants are choosing the Caribbean island. It also references recent incidents of Chinese nationals entering Florida illegally via the Bahamas. There have been five such incidents of Chinese migrants attempting to self-smuggle from the Bahamas, according to the report. One incident took place on July 16 and involved a group of six Chinese migrants.

The numbers of those caught are small (27), but the feds admit that It is unclear, however, how many of the total number of Chinese migrants caught by Florida authorities used the Bahamian smuggling route. They really know nothing.

I know I sound paranoid, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck. And over the last 20 years, with accelerating speed of late, China has been doing everything it can to impress upon us that (to switch metaphors) its in the drivers seat, and were being taken for a ride.
Park Jie-won, a former director of the National Intelligence, appears for police questioning in Seoul over allegations of hiring irregularities, in this file photo taken July 1. Yonhap



Police have referred two intelligence chiefs from the previous Moon Jae-in administration to the prosecution for further investigation into allegations of hiring irregularities, officials said Monday.



The National Office of Investigation said Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon, both former directors of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), were handed over to the prosecution on July 31.



Suh and Park, who served as NIS directors from 2017 to 2020 and from 2020 to 2022, respectively, are suspected of abusing their authority to secure employment positions for people close to them at the Institute for National Security Strategy, an entity affiliated with the NIS.



The intelligence agency reportedly became aware of the alleged misconduct during an internal inspection and requested a police investigation early this year.





Suh Hoon, a former director of the National Intelligence, appears at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, in this file photo taken June 30. Yonhap
They say life imitates art, and emerging stories from the intensifying conflict in South Africa would certainly lend credence to the old adage. One CCTV still shows how sinister the situation really is:

#FarmAttackers caught on cctv with signal jammers. They come in gangs between 3 - 11 to kill and torture. In South Africa you cant just buy a signal jammer, its against the law, and almost $20k. It is not just normal crime the woke media want you to believe @IndividualRSA pic.twitter.com/Nu3feJNXqw  Boer (@twatterbaas) August 6, 2023

Now, as the image is a bit blurry and grainy, we can't know for sure what the man in the lower left portion of the frame is carrying in his rucksack. The author of the tweet, a white South African farmer himself, reasonably believes the man to be toting a device that "jams" phone and/or communication signals. I speculated that the four upright rods could also potentially be the legs of two bipods, an accessory used by hunters to steady a weapon on a target. And, with some level of uncertainty, two of the three men appear to be holding handguns.

We see human-hunting-human under the cover of darkness. No doubt, the scene is eerily and distressingly reminiscent of one specific work of fiction: Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" (also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff"). Also from the same Twitter account, posted yesterday:

#SouthAfrica

I dare you to read and share a farmers wife story Today-



'We felt like wild animals being hunted'



A woman and her family - who survived a horrific farm attack in which she was raped twice, shot in the buttocks and forced to beg for her children's lives to be spared  Boer (@twatterbaas) August 6, 2023

Connell's unsettling tale no longer plays out on some fictitious Caribbean island, but in South Africa, where a campaign of terrorism is flourishing with impunity. Just the other day, Julius Malema led a 90,000-strong mob to sing "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" in unison. Malema is a prominent member of the country's parliament, and a Robert Mugabe fanboy. See below:

In 1975 the white population in Zimbabwe was 300 000 (8% of the total population). Today, 40 years after Zims independence, fewer than 30 000 remain.



What is the correct term for what happened to them? pic.twitter.com/18KLpYThff  Skye (@SkyeZedA) August 6, 2023

As a reminder, the killings perpetrated by Mugabe's government and under his rule were both genocidal and democidal, but the dictator said the murders were just "the early rain that washes away the chaff."

The violent thugs maiming and slaughtering the innocent are emboldened  and maybe even equipped (see the right-hand image in the first embedded tweet)  by a biased and despotic regime, and the war on the white farmers is now a perverse game of hunter versus hunted.

See this tweet, posted less than a day ago:

Another brutal farm murder in South Africa



2 gunmen murdered Duwayne Smith and shot his wife Ingrid while their daughters Jenica (10) and Elisma (8) watched



The attack occurred on Thursday night at Randridge farm in Randfontein. The killers left without taking anything. pic.twitter.com/2uY3jAocLX  End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 7, 2023

Image: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
A few days ago, it was revealed that Vintage publishers had placed a "trigger warning" on a number of classic 20th-century novels. Among them was Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, his 1939 debut novel introducing the private detective Phillip Marlowe. Evidently, Marlowe used terms other than "person of color"; failed to utilize the proper pronouns; and identified some characters as "women," whatever that is.

I failed to see how hinky all this actually was until I got a glimpse of the cover of the Vintage edition, which bears the line, "Introduction by James Ellroy."

Ellroy, for those not in the know, is one of Chandler's latter-day descendants, a 21st-century advocate of the bare-knuckle, hard-boiled school pioneered by Chandler and Dashiell Hammett in pulps such as Black Mask during the 1930s. Ellroy had a lengthy career as a petty criminal before taking up writing, as he describes in his memoir My Dark Places. Novels such as The Big Nowhere, Suicide Hill, and LA Confidential reflect this. His mission can be viewed as one of taking the hard-boiled school straight over the top.

One irritating tic of Ellroy lies in his telegraphic style, which in his case is no metaphor, but simply a straight description. A typical Ellroy scene goes like this:

Sound of car horns on freeway. Footsteps outside. An intake of breath. He pauses, turns. Racking of shotgun. A roar, then smell of cordite. He ducks and rolls. "What the hell..."

It goes on like this, page after page, often 600 or more. (Jimmy likes writing 'em long.)

But apart from that, what's notable is the nature of the language. Ellroy's books are sagas consisting of savage violence (surgical in description), abject perversity, cruelty, viciousness, and psychosis. After reading a couple of these, it occurred to me that they're actually taking place in Hell  a Hell that matches the real world in most particulars. And the language matches that vision.

There is no P.C. or wokeism in these books. Nobody is a person of color, and pronouns are what they have always been. It's a world populated solely by n****rs, s**cs, f*****ts, and every possible vile term for women. It is constant, unrelenting, and absolutely unrelieved. Everybody talks this way, from the gutter up to the governor's mansion. If a pope appeared in one of Ellroy's books, he'd say the same things. (I've read few of his later books, so this may well have happened.)

I wasted part of my youth in some rough or outre places (including some time in the West Village), and I've heard quite a few things, but I have to confess that Ellroy introduced me to two new derogatory terms for homosexuals, for which I am properly grateful.

Compare this to Chandler. His stuff was considered rough at the time, but this was, after all, the late '30s, when standards were a lot more elevated than you'll find today. Reading The Big Sleep in the 21st century amounts to an exercise in sedateness.

So a few questions arise:

What are the exact criteria that find Chandler unacceptable but give Ellroy a pass?

Was the trigger warning ever mentioned to Ellroy before he wrote his introduction?

Has anybody asked Ellroy about his opinion regarding this?

When, exactly, are Ellroy's books getting their "trigger warning"? (All things being fair, this would need to be about twelve pages long.)

Now I just need it explained to me what it was that Virginia Woolf, lesbian and feminist icon, did to earn a trigger warning. I'm all ears.

Image: Vintage Books, fair use.
It was a satisfying video for those who see America sinking into a criminal abyss: a brazen robber was systematically working his way through a Stockton, California convenience store's cigarette shelves, pouring hundreds of packs into a huge garbage can on wheels. Eventually, one clerk grappled with him, and another began whacking his legs with a long stick. The clerks are now being investigated for assault under the theory that you cannot use deadly force to protect commercial property. That's just wrong.

The video is striking (literally and figuratively). The person filming and narrating tells the clerks they cannot do anything to stop the robber (with the subtext being that California is a lawless state), only to cheer once they have the robber on the ground and mete out instant punishment. (The following is the best video I could find, although you must watch it on YouTube.)

According to Deda, the man who made the videotape, when the clerks approached the man, he reached for his waistband as if he had a gun. And while it's hard to hear on the video, Deda says the man threatened them:

"He kind of said, 'I've got a strap. Back up,'" Deda recalled.

At the end of the robber's moment with instant justice, he had bruised legs  in other words, the clerks' attack was carefully calibrated not to threaten the man's life.

Nevertheless, police are investigating the clerks for criminal assault. These are the same police who never showed up during the robbery itself, despite being immediately across the street from the store.

In common law, the principles applicable here are simple: you cannot use deadly force in defense of commercial (or otherwise unoccupied) property. However, you can use appropriate force in defense of property. Since the clerks only bruised the man's legs and made no effort to strike him on other body parts, it's obvious that they were not using disproportionate force.

Technically, as the Modesto Bee points out in an editorial hostile to the clerks, California also hews to the "proportionate force for commercial property crimes" rule:

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. [snip] Readers of The Modesto Bee recently learned the ins and outs of citizen's 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.

As for the police failing to show, the same editorial notes that they're "busy with weighty matters. ... Petty theft often doesn't get the cops' attention[.]" And therein lies the rub.

It may be petty to some spoiled, college-educated twit sitting in a news office, but it is not petty to the men whose livelihoods depend on a functioning store. As this video explains (and note the talking head's horror), the same thief has been at the store repeatedly, with no consequences:

Did I call it or what? pic.twitter.com/hK24ISu0NO  Jeff Charles, King of the Nonwhites (@jeffcharlesjr) August 6, 2023

When the government encourages lawlessness, as California clearly does, we are no longer witnessing mere property crimes. Instead, we are witnessing the slow death of the people whose property is under endless assault from brazen robbers who know they cannot be touched.

For the Sikh men, the loss of a job during the shabby Biden economy has the real potential to mean the end of their lives: the end of their having a home, raising a family...heck, even feeding their family. When crime becomes the norm, everyone's life is at stake.

I sincerely hope that the police conclude that the Sikh men used entirely proportionate force to stop a person who has slowly been killing them. But since this is California and, as in Superman's Bizarro World, everything is backward in the most evil way, I fully expect the robber to get a pass because "he's been punished enough," while the brave Sikhs who stepped up in a law enforcement vacuum find themselves caught in the California "justice" system.



Image: Instant justice for brazen robber. YouTube screen grab.
The beautiful 16th century Veerabhadra temple, also known as Lepakshi temple, is located in the small historical village of Lepakshi in the Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, India, about 15 km east of Hindupur and approximately 120 km north of Bangalore. Built in the typical style of Vijayanagara architecture, the temple features many exquisite sculptures of god, goddesses, dancers and musicians, and hundreds of paintings all over the walls, columns and ceiling depicting stories from the epics of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Puranas. This includes a 24 feet by 14 feet fresco of Veerabhadra, the fiery god created by Shiva, on the ceiling, which is the largest fresco of any single figure in India. At the front of the temple is a large Nandi (bull), the mount of Shiva, which is carved from a single block of stone, and is said to be one of the largest of its type in the world.

Visitors demonstrating the hanging pillar of Lepakshi temple. Photo credit: unknown

Veerabhadra temple is famed for another engineering wonder. Among the 70 stone pillars, there is one that hangs from the ceiling. The base of the pillar barely touches the ground and is possible to pass objects such as a thin sheet of paper or a piece of cloth from one side to the other. It is said that the pillar is a bit dislodged from its original position when a British engineer tried to move it in an unsuccessful attempt to uncover the secret of its support.

Veerabhadra temple was built by the brothers Viranna and Virupanna, who were Governors under the Vijayanagar Empire during the reign of King Achutaraya.

The village Lepakshi holds a significant place in the great Indian epic Ramayana. Legend has it that the bird Jatayu, wounded by the king of Lanka, Ravana, fell here after a futile battle against the king who was carrying away Sita, the wife of Rama, the king of Ayodhya. When Rama reached the spot, he saw the bird and said compassionately to him, Le Pakshi  meaning Arise, bird in Telegu.

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Sources: The Hindu / Navrang India
Ever since their introduction, Chromebooks have become a popular choice among parents who want to give their kids the basic functionalities of a laptop without having to splurge on expensive Windows computers. However, a new report from the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) reveals that despite Google discontinuing support for several Chromebook models that reached their automatic update expiration (AUE) date in June and over the summer, major online stores, including Amazon and Walmart, continue to list these expired Chromebooks.

Lucas Rockett Gutterman, the US PIRGs Designed to Last director, expressed his concerns that companies are taking advantage of consumers, including parents and teachers, buying back-to-school laptops who are often unaware of the specific details. Moreover, this situation also raises questions about the accountability of online marketplaces like Amazon, as they are offering these expired Chromebooks at a significant discount. For instance, the Acer Chromebook 11, one of the models on the expired list, is currently available for as low as $64.95.

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Parents and teachers buying back-to-school laptops dont expect devices to have a death date, and sellers dont advertise the lack of support. Its absurd that a new laptop, with all the features students need to do basic school work, is already unsupported. Students, and the planet, deserve better, said Gutterman.

What can Google do?

In a letter to Google, the PIRG has urged the company to take responsibility and double the life of Chromebooks by providing much-needed technical support. This is because such a step would not only save valuable money for parents and schools but also help prevent an alarming amount of electronic waste from filling landfills.

However, until Google or marketplaces like Amazon take action, it becomes essential for consumers to exercise caution and conduct thorough research before making tech purchases.

Retailers should include support end-of-life dates for all tech products that they sell, but Chromebooks are particularly important to indicate because support ends after an expiration date rather than due to hardware requirements, said Gutterman.
Google seems to be working on a new Nest Wifi model. The folks at 9to5Google spotted multiple references to the unannounced Wi-Fi router in the latest version of the Google Home app (v3.4), which is currently rolling out via the Play Store. Not much information is available about the device itself, though.

According to the publication, the latest update for the Google Home app contains strings related to a Nest Wifi device with the codename Breeza. It believes the codename has been misspelled in this instance and should be the Italian word brezza, which translates to breeze. We have attached the string below.

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<string name=ws_check_wan_breeza_a11y>The WAN and LAN ports are found behind your Nest Wifi. The WAN port is on the left and the LAN port is on the right.</string>

Separately, the publication found the same device being referred to as BRZA, which appears to be a shorthand for Breeza/Brezza. It could also identify the model number GS4VD for the device. From the available evidence, the new model doesnt have any notable differences from the Nest Wifi Pro, which debuted last fall.

The Google Home app treats this new model almost exactly as it does the current Nest Wifi Pro, the report states. However, Google will likely offer something to differentiate the Breeza/Brezza from the existing models in the Nest Wifi lineup. There are a few ways it could do that.

For example, the Nest Wifi Pro brought the latest Wi-Fi 6E technology and Google expectedly bumped the asking price. However, it still lacked support for a Google Assistant speaker in the mesh points, something found in the original Nest Wifi. The company could restore that with the upcoming model, though there are no signs of it yet.

The new Nest Wifi could be a refreshed version of an existing model

Google has a history of relaunching older routers at a reduced price point a few years down the line. The popular Google wifi, which debuted in late 2016, saw a refresh in 2020 with a distinct model code. So it wont be completely out of bounds if the Breeza/Brezza is a refresh of an existing Nest Wifi model.

Unfortunately, details are scarce, so we cant say anything for sure. But if Google is planning to release the new device this fall alongside the Piel 8 series, or even in early 2024, we should soon get to know more about it. Meanwhile, you can check out these best Wi-Fi routers for your home internet system.
Many of you are probably eagerly awaiting for Apple to announce its new iPhones. Well, a trusted source has just revealed when will that happen, by sharing the iPhone 15 announcement, pre-order and launch dates.

The iPhone 15 announcement date has been revealed, along with pre-order & launch dates

This information comes from Bloombergs Mark Gurman, a well-known source for Apple-related info. He claims that the new iPhones will get announced on either September 12 or 13.

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Furthermore, he said that pre-orders for them will go live a few days later, on Friday, which is September 15. When it comes to an actual launch, were looking at September 22. Thats when the devices will be available to purchase.

It seems like the rumor claiming some delays for the Pro iPhones was not accurate. Well, it could still turn out to be accurate if the Pro iPhones dont end up shipping on September 22, of course. Well see.

Do note that a report from last week claimed that the new iPhones will launch on September 13. Apparently, some US carriers asked employees not to take the day off on September 13, due to a major smartphone announcement.

All iPhone 15 models will offer a Dynamic Island, and a Type-C USB port

All new iPhone 15 models will feature a Dynamic Island, and also a Type-C USB port. Those will be the first iPhones ever to include a Type-C port, by the way. The EU kind of forced Apple to ditch the Lightning port.

That being said, the Pro models will stand out. They will not only have noticeably thinner bezels, but will also have better camera setups, and a frame made out of titanium. The Pro Max model will even get a periscope telephoto camera, which is also a first for iPhones.

Were about a month away from Apples launch event at this point. Theres not much left to hide at this point, at least as far as design and hardware features are concerned.
Google Play Store is considered to be the safest place to download and use Android apps. However, despite having robust security measures in place, the company has acknowledged that bad actors have some methods to bypass the security protocols and infect Android devices with malware.

The technique used by hackers is called Versioning, and it works in two ways. First, it might find its way to the victims device through updates to the already installed apps. The second method is by loading the malicious code from a server that the hackers directly control. This method is known as dynamic code loading (DCL).

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Through these methods, a bad actor can deploy malicious payloads as native, Dalvik, or JavaScript code on Android and bypass the Play Stores static analysis checks. Google says all applications submitted to the Play Store go through PHA (Potentially Harmful Application) screening. However, the company acknowledged that some apps might be able to bypass security checks through DCL.

Hackers use Versioning tactic to infect Google Play Store apps with malware

According to Google explanations, Versioning occurs when a developer releases an initial version of an app on the Google Play Store that appears legitimate and passes our checks, but later receives an update from a third-party server changing the code on the end-user device that enables malicious activity.

All apps must use the update mechanism provided by Google Play. Offering any other way to update an Android app is extremely prohibited.

Google also prevents apps from downloading executable code from external sources to the official Android App Store. Applications that violate Google Play Deceptive Behavior policy are labeled as backdoors and will be removed from the store.

One example of this tactic was a banking malware called SharkBot, which was discovered in October 2021. The malware could bypass Play Store security checks by releasing versions with limited functionality. Once the app was installed on the victims devices, it downloaded a full malware version. SharkBot was available in the Play Store as an Android antivirus software.

The FBI recently warned that AI made it much easier for hackers to write and distribute malware. Likewise, Google blamed manufacturers delay in fixing security issues in their devices and apps. As an Android user, you should be more careful with the apps you download.
Its no secret that ransomware attacks have become a common phenomenon over the past few years, with several companies and organisations falling for it. However, a new report from cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes now highlights the true scale of this pandemic, indicating a staggering 75% increase in ransomware attacks compared to the previous year, with the US accounting for more than 43% of the reported incidents.

While countries like Germany, France, and the UK also experienced a rise in ransomware attacks, they pale in comparison to the numbers faced by the US. This is because, within the observed period, the US suffered a total of 1462 ransomware attacks from 48 different ransomware groups, targeting companies, government entities, and regular consumers. And more recently, the attackers targeted the US healthcare system, rendering several hospitals and medical facilities inoperative on Thursday.

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When talking about other countries on the list, the United Kingdom emerged as the second-most targeted country, experiencing nearly 200 ransomware attacks, and Germany remained the fourth most attacked country globally and the most targeted nation outside English-speaking territories. However, France faced the highest number of attacks on its government sector.

New CLOP group

Although LockBit had been the dominant Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider in the US for over a year, a new CLOP group with ties to Russia has recently emerged. Over the past year, this group has exploited two separate zero-day vulnerabilities in GoAnywhere MFT and MOVEit Transfer to breach servers of numerous companies, including the largest US pension fund.

The use of zero-day vulnerabilities by ransomware groups like CL0P may trigger a significant shift in ransomware strategies, mirroring the adoption of the double extortion tactic in 2019, reads the report.

However, this report once again highlights the importance of implementing stringent security measures for organizations. This includes conducting comprehensive security assessments, prioritizing regular software updates, and investing in reliable cybersecurity solutions.
Moroccan Scout Lina Mestari, third from left, poses with her friends at the Delta zone of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Sunday. Courtesy of Ministry of Gender Equality and Family



Nevertheless, there are people enjoying World Jamboree in Korea



By Jun Ji-hye



SAEMANGEUM, North Jeolla Province  While the 25th World Scout Jamboree taking place in Korea has faced a torrent of bad news about heat illnesses and hygiene issues, participants are still having fun making new friends and learning about different cultures during the event.



On Sunday, the sixth day of the largest international youth camp held in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, The Korea Times spoke with young Scouts and adult volunteers who were spending time in the Delta zone, the only location where onsite media access is allowed.



At the Delta zone, a number of booths were installed to introduce the cultures of each participating nation. Drums and other musical instruments resounded in the background. Young Scouts were gathering in small groups, chatting and laughing with each other.





Participants of the 25th World Scout Jamboree rest in a plant tunnel at the Delta zone in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Jun Ji-hye

Some participants were sitting or lying down in shade tunnels covered with plants that had been installed by the organizer to provide shelter from the unrelenting sunlight. Some grooved while listening to music, while others closed their eyes and relaxed.



Participants said the conditions were initially quite hard, due mainly to the searing heat wave gripping the country in the middle of summer, but things have since improved considerably.



Regarding the withdrawal of the Scouts from Britain and the United States from the campsite over the weekend due to the weather conditions, the participants said they understood the decision, but at the same time, were sad about not being able to spend time with the friends they had made that had left.



David Yao from Sweden said the weather was a "shock" at first, as the climate is a lot cooler in his home country. But he is getting used to the high temperatures and can now enjoy making new friends from around the world.



"We have recently gotten a lot of cold water, which we are very happy for. We also got some free electric fans. Honestly, things are improving," the 15-year-old said during an interview in front of a souvenir shop at the Delta zone. "I know some other groups had very bad food, but it wasn't too many. In Sweden in general, everyone is quite happy."





David Yao, a Scout from Sweden, poses at the Delta zone of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Sunday. Courtesy of Ministry of Gender Equality and Family



Yao said he has been actively engaging in cultural exchanges with Scouts from other countries and participating in various activities.



"Today, we met some Brazilians. They gave us some food. We also played a game together," he said. "We also went to a kimchi factory. We made kimchi and tasted it. And we went to a museum in Buan. I really liked that."



Lina Mestari from Morocco, who was spending time at a booth representing Brazil, said the weather was not a big problem for her because it is also hot in Morocco.



"It's kind of hotter here, but we survive. We are Scouts. We don't have problems," the 17-year-old said.



She noted that 120 participants came from her home country and the organizer has offered halal meals for them.



"As we are Muslims, they give us halal food. We make out of it something always. For example, they give us some chickens and vegetables so we make some plates," she said. "We have so many choices. We are pretty satisfied."









She added that the sanitation problems raised by some participants earlier have been addressed.



"Toilets are cleaner," she said. "We see people trying to clean everywhere."



In response to mounting complaints over sanitation problems, the organizing committee has drastically increased the number of cleaners from 70 to 900 to clean toilets and other facilities every hour and enhance pest control.



Regarding the decision made by Britain and the U.S. to pull out their Scouts from the campsite due mainly to concerns over the health conditions of their teenagers, Mestari said the decision was understandable as it would have been more difficult for people living in the northern hemisphere to cope. But she added, "It is really sad as we have some friends from the U.K. and the U.S."



Yara Straatman, a 20-year-old International Service Team (IST) volunteer from the Netherlands, who was resting in a plant tunnel, also said it was quite hard on the first day, but it is a bit better now.





Yara Straatman, an International Service Team volunteer from the Netherlands, poses in a plant tunnel at the Delta zone of the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Sunday. Courtesy of Ministry of Gender Equality and Family



"They are handing out enough water for the participants. That's better," she said, noting that cleaning services for IST members still need improvement.



Straatman is working in the Jamboree hospital as a nurse. When talking about the withdrawal of British and U.S. Scouts from the site, she said, "I understand why they left because they wanted to protect their participants."



But she also noted, "I spoke to patients from the U.S. and the U.K.  they were quite sad about it."



The World Scout Jamboree, which is held every four years, is taking place at an 8.84-square-kilometer campsite on reclaimed land along the country's west coast. It aims to provide a chance for young Scouts from around the world to learn about each other's cultures and build friendships through outdoor camping and a variety of activities.



But this year's event saw over 1,000 participants treated for heat-related illnesses.



Following increasing complaints, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for all-out efforts to ensure the sanitation at the Jamboree campsite amid the scorching heat and asked for special care against any incidents, such as food poisoning, according to the presidential office, Sunday.



Yoon also told Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Foreign Minister Park Jin to make sure the British and U.S. contingents, who are staying in Seoul and a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, respectively, safely experience various cultural activities during the remainder of their stay in Korea.



Various outdoor programs





Participants of the 25th World Scout Jamboree lay on hammocks at Gosapo Beach in Buan, North Jeolla Province, Monday. Korea Times photo by Jun Ji-hye



At Gosapo Beach near the campsite, some 800 participants gathered on Monday to participate in outdoor programs offering activities such as forest rope courses, marine activities and making eco-friendly camping supplies.





Elora Brandt from Sweden poses after participating in a survival swimming program at Gosapo Beach in Buan, North Jeolla Province, Monday. Korea Times photo by Jun Ji-hye

Yang Eun-jung, a project manager of the Off-site Program Team, said young Scouts visiting the place are enjoying the programs.



"Those who want to take a rest just can lay on hammocks installed in shade," she said.



Elora Brandt from Sweden who participated in a survival swimming program said it was a "really fun experience."



"Plus, it is not as hot as when I got here. I feel cooler now," the 17-year-old said after coming out of the water.



Johana Momm, a 24-year-old IST member from Germany, said the ongoing event is her second Jamboree after one in Japan when she participated as a young Scout in 2015. As an activity leader, she is taking care of young people taking part in marine activities this time.



"You can be a participant only once. I participate as an IST this time because I want other little children to have the same-grade experience that I had in Japan," she said. "That was why I came here to volunteer for this Jamboree."





Johana Momm from Germany poses at Gosapo Beach in Buan, North Jeolla Province, Monday. Korea Times photo by Jun Ji-hye
(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 7 - Milan prosecutors have opened a probe into instigation to commit suicide in relation to the death at the weekend of Luca Ruffino, the president of publishing company Visibilia Editore, sources said Monday.

The 60-year-old is thought to have shot himself dead on the night between Saturday and Sunday at his Milan home.

His body was found by one of his children.

The opening of a probe is a formality that enables prosecutors to run certain checks and carry out an autopsy and does not mean they think there was foul play, the sources said.

Ruffino did not have economic or personal problems but he did have health issues, the sources added.

They said he left a letter of goodbye for his loved ones.

Visibilia Editore was founded by Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche.

Ruffino bought her stake in the company in October 2022.

Santanche recently fended off a no-confidence motion in the Senate that opposition parties presented after it emerged she is under investigation in relation to her business activities.

(ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 7 - The Italian foreign ministry said Monday that evacuations of people taking part in the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, will start on Tuesday.

Hundreds of participants have had health problems after the area was hit by a major heatwave.

The evacuations are taking place ahead of the possible arrival of typhoon Khanun.

The ministry said the Italian contingent at the event was 1,200 strong.

It added that there were no major problems with any of the Italians taking part in the event.

It said the scouts would be moved to other parts of South Korea by bus on Monday. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 7 - European People's Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber said Monday that Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party were very different to Germany's far-right AfD group.

"Meloni is now respected and accepted internationally," Weber said of Italy's first woman premier, who was sworn in last October, in an interview with Germany's Zdf television.

"She supported the Lisbon Treaty in the Italian parliament and the Migration Pact and she wants to shape Europe.

"I think we would make a big mistake if we put AfD and Giorgia Meloni on the same level".

Weber added that FdI's admission to the centre-right EPP "is not under discussion at the moment.

"I believe that Giorgia Meloni and Fratelli d'Italia must demonstrate in the coming weeks and months that they are at the side of this Europe," he said. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 7 - Premier Giorgia Meloni is "not happy" about a major political row sparked by Marcello De Angelis, the head of communications for the Lazio regional government, saying that three of the far-right terrorists convicted of the 1980 Bologna train station bombing are innocent, Lazio Governor Francesco Rocca said Monday.

The attack killed 85 people and injured 200 more, making it the worst of Italy's 'Years of Lead' of political violence in the 1970s and 80s.

De Angelis said via social media that he knew "for certain" that three of the five people convicted of the bombing, Giusva Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro and Luigi Ciavardini, former members of the NAR right-wing terrorist group, "had nothing to do with the Bologna massacre".

He said the August 2 anniversary of the bombing "is always a very difficult day for anyone who knows the truth, which every year is trampled over, even by the highest figures of the State".

"I'll see Marcello De Angelis and I'll listen to what he has to say," Rocca said on the sidelines of an event in Latina.

"De Angelis made a big mistake by talking about certainty, even if he was speaking only for himself.

"I'll make my evaluations, although he does not have a political role in the regional administration.

"I speak to Meloni very often and we have had the opportunity to talk.

"She asked me to clarify and she certainly was not happy about what happened".

The comments sparked outrage from the parties opposed to Rocca's right-wing regional executive in Lazio, who said De Angelis was trying to re-write history and called for him to quit or be fired.

De Angelis, a former member of the Terza Posizione (Third Position) neo-fascist group, responded to the row by comparing himself to Giordano Bruno, the Italian philosopher burned at the stake in 1600 by the Catholic Church for heresy.

"I said what I think without fear of the consequences," De Angelis said on Facebook.

"If I have to pay for this and be set alight like Giordano Bruno for having breached a dogma, I am proud to do so".

Meloni, the leader of the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, came under fire from several opposition politicians on the 43rd anniversary of the Bologna bombing last week for not specifying that the attack was of a neo-fascist nature, something President Sergio Mattarella did. (ANSA).


Tens of thousands of school leavers could miss out on top A-level grades they might have expected last year, it has been suggested.

The Government has said the number of and A* and A grades awarded in England should fall back to pre-pandemic levels as exams return to normal.

However, an education expert predicts they are unlikely to fall back to 2019 levels because teachers developed a taste for awarding top grades in some subjects during the pandemic which markers will be reluctant to relinquish.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, suggested 59,154 fewer A* grades and 35,505 fewer A grades will be awarded to sixth-formers this year compared with last year.

The report adds that nearly 50,000 students could miss out on getting the A* and A grades they could have expected last year if this summers grading returns to pre-pandemic standards.

The professor predicts around 10% of grades will be an A* and around 27.5% will be an A this year, compared with 14.6% of last years grades being an A* and 36.4% being an A.

In 2019 7.8% of grades were an A* and 25.5% were an A.

Prof Smithers expects the number of top grades to fall significantly but not by quite as much as the Government requested, as was the case last year.

He said: Teacher assessment has given subjective subjects a taste for awarding top grades, which they will be reluctant to relinquish.

There are many who would welcome slower progress including lots of parents who are worried that their sons and daughters will miss out on university places that would have been open to them last year or the year before.

During the teacher assessment years many students and their parents will have developed unreasonable expectations.

Whatever the extent to which top grades are brought down this year, the drop will lead to a lot of disappointment and probably a huge increase in the number of appeals.

The number of pupils achieving top grades is expected to fall this year (David Davies/PA)

Prof Smithers also said disruption from teacher strikes may have led exam boards to be more lenient.

He said the percentage of top grades in performing arts and practical subjects rose sharply during the pandemic years when grades were based on teacher assessments.

That figure rose less steeply for science and maths because pupils studying those subjects were already getting more top grades before the pandemic.

However, last year more top grades were awarded for music and performing arts than physics and chemistry despite the return of exams, suggesting a profound change has taken place which may make it more difficult to cut the number of top grades awarded back to 2019 levels.

This trend led to girls receiving far more A* grades than boys, who had previously had the edge because far more of them studied subjects where pupils can manifestly amass right answers.

If more A* grades continue to be awarded for arts and humanities than before the pandemic, this could mean boys do not regain their lead.

Prof Smithers said he expects pupils in Northern Ireland to get the best results, as they have done for many years, followed by those in Wales then England.

In Wales and Northern Ireland pupils will still have some idea of the questions they will be asked, as was the case for pupils in England last year.

This could also make it more difficult to bring grades down across the UK.

Figures reveal maths was the most popular A-level subject this year while English came fourth behind biology and psychology.

Fewer pupils than ever are studying a foreign language at A-level with entries for French being a quarter of their 1992 level and take-up of German falling to a fifth of its level that year.

Spanish has overtaken French in popularity in recent years while German has become the least popular of all 30 A-level subjects.

Biology and chemistry are more popular now than in 1992 with physics having returned to around that years take-up following a slump and subsequent rise in popularity.

Social sciences have burgeoned in popularity with psychology being the third most-studied subject and sociology being in fifth place.

Double the number of pupils are studying politics than in 2001, which Prof Smithers suggested could be because it is now constantly in the spotlight, while economics is almost as popular as it was in 1992 having recovered from a large slump in take-up.

He added that the growth of social sciences has coincided with universities becoming known as hotbeds of activism and wokery.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: This year GCSE and A-level grading is largely returning to normal, in line with plans set out by Ofqual almost two years ago, to make sure qualifications maintain their value and students get the opportunities they deserve.

This means national results are expected to be similar to those in pre-pandemic years, and a student should be just as likely to achieve a particular grade this year as they would have been before the pandemic.

The number of top grades also has no bearing on the number of university places available.

A spokeswoman for Ofqual, which regulates exams, said: This year we expect exam grades to go back to similar levels to 2019, which was the last year before the pandemic.

This is part of a planned two-year programme of returning exams to normal.

Because of the disruption students have faced there are still grade protections in place which mean a student will be just as likely to achieve a particular grade this year as they would have been before the pandemic.
The Government has cut ties with Greenpeace following an anti-oil protest targeting Rishi Sunaks constituency home.

No 10 said the environmental group should not be given a seat at the table in discussions of climate-related issues across Whitehall after the stunt last Thursday.

The move expands on orders given to civil servants in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last week to end engagement with Greenpeace until further notice.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: We obviously dont think that people who are accused of breaking the law should have a seat at the table in discussions with Government.

Greenpeace activists moving fabric on the roof of Rishi Sunaks house in Richmond, North Yorkshire (Danny Lawson/PA)

My understanding is that Defra arent engaging with Greenpeace because of those actions.

I dont think its unusual for Defra or other agencies to engage with climate action groups  thats taken place for a number of years.

But clearly, given their actions and the arrests last week, we dont think its appropriate to engage with them.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero cut ties with Greenpeace some months ago.

A Government spokesman said: Greenpeaces criminal activity last week demonstrates that they are not a serious organisation, therefore, we do not think its appropriate to engage with them.

Greenpeace defended the protest amid a backlash as carefully and meticulously planned for when the Prime Minister, his wife and children were on holiday in California, amid a backlash over security concerns.

The group said ending engagement with its representatives isnt going to work as it accused ministers of espousing a bunker mentality about climate issues.

Will McCallum, UK co-executive director of Greenpeace, said: Burying your head in the sand isnt going to make the climate crisis go away.

Its precisely because the Government has effectively shut the door to civil society groups, like Greenpeace, as well as ignoring warnings from the UN, its own advisers and the International Energy Agency, that we need to protest in the way that we do.

Theres been a lot of noise about us climbing on the roof of one of the Prime Ministers many homes. Theres just one message wed like you to remember. New oil and gas WILL NOT lower our bills! Heres why #NoNewOil #StopRosebank #Greenpeace pic.twitter.com/9FPzhVwzuf  Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) August 5, 2023

The bunker mentality on display from this current Government is deeply damaging  cutting ties with Greenpeace isnt going to help. We represent the views of millions of our supporters and have a mandate to hold the Government to account.

A group of demonstrators had scaled Mr Sunaks Grade II-listed constituency manor house to protest against plans to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

The activists draped an oil-black fabric from the roof, staying there from about 8am to 1.15pm, when they were arrested and later bailed amid an ongoing investigation by North Yorkshire Police.
Former Love Island star Zara McDermott is the latest famous face to be announced for the Strictly Come Dancing 2023 line-up.

The 26-year-old, who has made a series of TV documentaries since appearing on the ITV dating show, was unveiled on BBC Radio 1 on Monday afternoon.

McDermott is the seventh contestant to be confirmed for the upcoming series of the dancing competition after actress Amanda Abbington, Bad Education star Layton Williams, broadcaster Angela Rippon, journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, comedian Eddie Kadi and Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon were previously announced.

We've got a text! @bbcthree documentary maker and former Love Island contestant Zara McDermott is joining the cast of #Strictly 2023  https://t.co/Tc4IgUx9I3 pic.twitter.com/QsryZdYpZ5  BBC Strictly  (@bbcstrictly) August 7, 2023

Appearing on BBC Radio 1, the TV presenter revealed that she has been rewatching previous episodes analysing everything.

I am nervous, excited, every single emotion honestly  I cannot wait, she added.

Since appearing on Love Island in 2018, McDermott has made documentaries about revenge porn, sexual assault and disordered eating for the BBC.

She noted that Strictly is such a far cry from her day job and feels this is the furthest she has ever pushed herself out of her own comfort zone.

Ive been making documentaries now for the past three years and its such a tiny team and if I say the wrong thing during an interview I can redo it  but this is live, you cannot make a mistake, she said.

Zara McDermott (Doug Peters/PA)

Youve got one take and one take only. This is just so far out of my comfort zone.

Ive done this throughout my whole 20s, Ive just constantly thrown myself out of my comfort zone and this is just the pinnacle now.

I cannot dance. Honestly, I have zero dance experience, to the point where I dont even dance in a nightclub, Im that petrified of how my body moves so this is going to be like the ultimate test for me.

Despite her lack of dance experience, she admitted she is excited for the theatrics of the show, adding: I feel like theres not many times in life we get to just go on stage and act and be a character.

McDermott also previously featured in Made In Chelsea alongside her boyfriend Sam Thompson, who is a Hits Radio presenter and a panellist on Love Islands Aftersun programme.

BBC Radio 1 presenter Jamie Laing, who competed on the 18th series of the show and appeared in Made In Chelsea alongside McDermott, advised her during her reveal interview to leave all embarrassment or insecurities at the door.

Just really go this is what Im here to do and really believe in yourself. It sounds a bit cheesy but really believing in what you can do, thats the best thing  going for it, he added.

We can't wait to see Angela Scanlon hit the dance floor! She's our sixth celebrity for #Strictly 2023. https://t.co/cDA0pYywc5 @angelascanlon  pic.twitter.com/rPhu6uENwj  BBC Strictly  (@bbcstrictly) August 7, 2023

Earlier on Monday, TV presenter Scanlon was unveiled on BBC Radio 2s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show where she admitted the prospect of taking to the dancefloor had been in the ether for a number of years.

She explained: Truthfully, we wanted to have another baby, we were trying to have a baby, I was then pregnant, then I had a very small child and now, it just felt right this year.

I believe in feelings and timing and all of those sorts of things. Im not particularly fit. I have no idea how my pelvic floor is going to react to that level of jumping.

Ive never done any of these dances in my life bar a drunken jive at a family wedding, so it certainly feels like theres room to learn and really push myself.

Scanlon said she had spoken to Ted Lasso actress Ellie Taylor, who took part in the show last year, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, who appeared in the 2020 series.

She said: Ellie has a little girl whos the same age as my eldest child and so I thought itd be good to know realistically when youre in the trenches with children, whats the reality of this because I think Ive had a kind of dreamy idea.

I travel a bit, I do a chat show in Ireland, I travel over and back to that so the idea of being in the same place for an extended period of time feels a bit luxurious.

Angela Scanlon is the sixth contestant announced for Strictly Come Dancing 2023 (Ian West/PA)

But I dont know if Im totally deluded about the level of work, but she has kind of said, its intense, hardest thing she has ever done, but was so thrilled that she did it.

And then Clara did it in 2020 and a similar thing, she said its insane, she said lean heavily in which I intend to, I find it hard to lean out.

The TV presenter is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.

Scanlon, who married businessman Roy Horgan in 2014, with whom she shares two daughters, is also a published author and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.

In 2022, she published her part memoir, part self-help book Joyrider, which charts her own journey into the world of self-development  dipping into the anxiety and imposter syndrome she grappled with throughout her teens and 20s, and the bulimia she lived with for 15 years.

Strictly Come Dancing returns to screens this autumn and will be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.

Last year, the competition was won by British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin and professional dancer Jowita Przystal.
Three people were killed after two helicopters dispatched to help fight a fire in California collided on Sunday, sending one crashing to the ground.

Firefighters were responding to a blaze in the Southern California community of Cabazon when it was reported that the fire had extended into vegetation, requiring a "full wildland fire dispatch," including fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, CalFire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said in a news conference.

Firefighters with both CalFire and the Riverside County Fire Department were involved in the response, he said.

While engaged in the firefight, two helicopters responding to the incident collided, Fulcher said.

The first helicopter was able to land safely nearby, but the second crashed, killing all three people onboard, he said. The three killed were identified only as a CalFire division chief, a CalFire captain and a contracted pilot.

Fulcher said the crash also caused an additional four-acre fire, which firefighters were able to extinguish.

"This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service committee and Cal Fire Riverside County Fire Department," Fulcher said.

He said the cause of the collision was still under investigation, with the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the crash.

The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter, that it was in "close coordination" with CalFire after the helicopter crash.
About 70 million people remained under heat alerts Monday afternoon after a record-breaking weekend of warmth across much of the U.S. South.

The National Weather Service said it expects dangerously hot daytime temperatures expanding from the desert Southwest into Texas and extending eastward along the Gulf Coast into parts of the Southeast and Florida on Monday and into Tuesday.

In cities like Phoenix, New Orleans, Miami, Houston and El Paso, Texas, the temperatures for Monday into Tuesday are forecast at 5 to 15 degrees above average, with daily highs expected to reach into the 90s and the 100s. Temperatures that feel more like 105 to 115 are possible across the South in areas with high humidity.

The National Weather Service has forecast some relief from the heat in parts of the Southwest and the Southeast as the week continues. But in cities across the southern Plains, concentrated in New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana, the extreme heat is expected to continue throughout the week.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will have its 10th consecutive day at or above 100 after it officially broke its streak set in 1921 on Sunday, and nearby New Orleans is expected to continue breaking daily record highs this week, with temperatures just below 100.

In Houston, temperatures will be at or above 100 for the ninth straight day, reaching 104 on Monday and hovering in the 100s through the week. The heat has become unbearable even for some Houston residents who typically endure sweltering summers.

A resident plays basketball during a heat wave in Corpus Christi, Texas on July 20, 2023. (Eddie Seal / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This is the hottest summer I can recall, Houston native Courtney Barrett told NBC News correspondent Priscilla Thompson in an interview for the TODAY show. Even going outside around 6 oclock isnt an option this year. Its just too hot.

The National Weather Service has also warned residents in parts of the Four Corners states and parts of Texas of elevated fire weather risk due to extreme heat combined with dry ground conditions and gusty winds.

While heat sweeps the Southern tier of the country, the Northeast is expected to get some severe storms over the next two days. Eighty-seven million people are at risk for severe weather Monday, with the National Weather Service forecasting increased threats for severe thunderstorms and flash flooding from the Tennessee and upper Ohio River valleys into much of the Eastern U.S.

The region most at risk stretches from Virginia up through Pennsylvania, which is likely to get damaging winds, heavy rain and potentially large hail and a few tornadoes. Through Tuesday, up to 4 inches of rain is possible in some locations, including northwest New Jersey, western New York and eastern New Hampshire into Maine.
Hong Kong: Tse Chin-wan starts bay area trip

Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan today visited the Department of Ecology & Environment of Guangdong Province and toured an eco-industrial park in Guangzhou.

Mr Tse met Department of Ecology & Environment representatives on work related to ecological conservation, environmental pollution prevention and combating climate change to deepen the co-operation between Hong Kong and Guangdong on environmental issues.

He then proceeded to the Guangzhou Public Transport Group's Yanling new energy eco-industrial park and Guangzhou public transport command centre where he was briefed on the operation of electric public transport and electric taxis to learn about the city's experiences in promoting green transport.

Noting that transportation accounts for about 20% of Hong Kong's total carbon emissions, the environment chief said the Hong Kong Roadmap on Popularisation of Electric Vehicles, the Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035 and Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050 cover policy directions in promoting new energy transport technologies to guide Hong Kong towards zero vehicular emissions.

Mr Tse will continue his trip to the Greater Bay Area tomorrow, including visits to the Nanhai Hydrogen Center and hydrogen fuel cell tram in Gaoming district in Foshan, and the exhibition hall of the Huawei Digital Power AntoHill Headquarters in Shenzhen.

This story has been published on: 2023-08-07. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
ASEAN-China Week kicks off, reaffirming cooperation and closer ties

10:11, August 07, 2023 By Wang Qi in Fuzhou ( Global Times

Photo: Courtesy of ASEAN-China Center

China and ASEAN reaffirmed the importance of solidarity and cooperation in the face of challenges and vowed closer and stronger ties in the future as the first ASEAN-China Week 2023 unfolded in East China's Fuzhou on Friday, two days before ASEAN Day 2023, the organization's 56th birthday.

The event is co-hosted by the ASEAN-China Center (ACC) and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Fujian Provincial Government and Fuzhou Municipal Government. Over 300 senior government officials, diplomatic envoys, entrepreneurs and think tank experts from ASEAN and China attended the event that will last until August 11.

During the main themed forum on a "Forward-looking ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the New Era," representatives of both China and ASEAN countries stressed the importance of regional peace and stability.

During the ASEAN-China (Fujian) Forum on Trade and Investment Cooperation on Sunday afternoon, three public service platforms under the China-Indonesia "Two Countries, Twin Parks"were unveiled. Strategic cooperation framework agreements for nine projects under "Two Countries, Twin Parks" were also signed.

Sessions like a gourmet carnival, ASEAN film week and an ASEAN-China symphony concert were held during on opening day. The Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou offered food from ASEAN countries and China for participants to enjoy, with majority of whom used chopsticks instead of knives and forks, while films from ASEAN nations were introduced on a huge screen.

Despite the complexities in the international situation, ASEAN has successfully managed to maintain peace and stability of the region and sustain good growth momentum, Shi Zhongjun, Secretary-General of the ASEAN-China Center, said in his opening speech on Sunday.

Shi said that ASEAN is one of the most dynamic regions and is leading the post-pandemic recovery of the world. The success of ASEAN "lies in its right choice of progress over regression, cooperation over confrontation and openness over isolation [it] lies in its adhering to solidarity and independence, in its cherishing peace and development."

The year 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of China's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), and the 10th anniversary of an initiative for China to work with ASEAN countries for a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and for a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

Ambassador of Thailand to China Arthayudh Srisamoothailed the ASEAN-China Week's role in creating more knowledge and understandings about ASEAN culture, as the Chinese public will have an opportunity to learn about ASEAN, products and meet new people through the event.

2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Ambassador Srisamoot hailed the initiative's role in fostering connectivity between nations.

The free flow of Thai exports has enjoyed very good market access in China the BRI provides an ideal neighboring environment for the two countries to cooperate, not only in transportation, logistics, but also in people-to-people exchanges of culture and youth between two nations, the ambassador told the Global Times.

Ong Tee Keat, senior fellow with the Taihe Institute and chairman of Malaysia-based think tank the Center for New Inclusive Asia, told the Global Times on Sunday that since the relationship between China and ASEAN has been upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership, it becomes more necessary to develop all-round and multi-dimensional relations.

Non-political sessions during the event seek to break down barriers between the people to avoid unnecessary suspicion, just in case a third party sows discord and inciting populism when there's misunderstanding, Ong said.

Ong is former deputy speaker of Malaysia's lower house of parliament, Malaysian transport minister and president of the Malaysian Chinese Association. He believes that the "Track II diplomacy," which stresses people-to-people and cultural exchanges and non-official contact, is crucial for China to deepen ties with ASEAN.

ASEAN-China Week, which came after the Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Jakarta in July, is viewed as an important event to promote other China-ASEAN exchanges in the second half of 2023.

The 2023 ASEAN-China Summit is scheduled to be held in September, followed by the 20th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. The APEC Summit in November will be also attended by ASEAN nations and China.

Benito Gosiaco Techico, special envoy of Philippines president to China for trade, investment and tourism, told the Global Times on Sunday that Manila is looking forward to more investment collaboration with China, particularly in the field of agriculture, information, technology, tourism, manufacturing and renewable energy.

"The prospect is definitely positive," he added.

ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for three consecutive years. In the first half of 2023, trade with ASEAN countries accounted for 15.3 percent of China's total trade, reaching 3.08 trillion yuan ($428.96 billion), up 5.4 percent from 2022.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Seen is an image of the moon's Hermite-A crater taken by Danuri's high-resolution camera on July 9. Courtesy of Ministry of Science and ICT



By Baek Byung-yeul



Danuri or Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KLPO) unveiled photos of the moon, including exotic craters, to mark the first anniversary of its launch from Earth on August 5, 2022, to orbit the moon and conduct scientific research, the science ministry said Monday.



The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) held a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary and released images of the moon taken by Danuri's cameras.



The photos include images of Hermite-A Crater, which is expected to contain large amounts of ice, taken by a high-resolution camera, and Sverdrup Crater, a permanently shadowed area on the moon's South Pole, taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ShadowCam equipment.





Seen is a photo of Sverdrup Crater on the Moon taken by Danuri's ShadowCam equipment on Feb. 16. Courtesy of Ministry of Science and ICT



"Danuri was launched at 8:08 a.m., Friday, August 5, last year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, U.S., and finally succeeded in entering the lunar mission orbit on December 27, 2022, following a 145-day Earth-moon voyage," the ministry said.



"Korea became the world's seventh country to launch and operate a lunar orbiter and to realize various scientific and technological achievements, including the country's first photo of Earth and the moon and the world's first transmission of video and photo data through the space internet," the ministry added.



The country's first lunar orbiter began its mission on Feb. 4 and has been conducting various assignments, including an exploration of the area around the lunar landing site, science research and space internet technology verification.





Seen is a photo of Humboldt Crater on the Moon taken by Danuri's high-resolution camera on July 27. Courtesy of Ministry of Science and ICT
Apple was fined about $4,200 by a Russian court for hosting "inaccurate" content. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Russia has fined Apple and the publisher of Wikipedia for hosting "inaccurate" news.

They were penalized under a law that holds companies responsible for hosting "untruthful" content.

Violations of the law are punishable by fines of up to $85,000.

A Russian court has fined Apple and the publisher of Wikipedia for hosting "inaccurate" content about the war in Ukraine.

The court fined both companies under a 2020 law that requires internet companies to block access to information banned in Russia. That law specifically prohibits "information disrespectful to state authorities," as well as "untruthful socially significant information," with fines as high as 8 million rubles, or about $85,000.

Apple was determined to be "liable for the committal of an administrative offense," Judge Timur Vakhrameev said, according to a state news report, and ordered to pay a fine of 400,000 rubles, or roughly $4,200.

The Wikimedia Foundation was also found guilty of the same offense, per Reuters, and assessed a fine of 300,000 rubles, or just under $32,000, for hosting "inaccurate" content.

Jacob Rogers, an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, accused Russia of seeking "to limit the spread of reliable, well-sourced information in the country."

"Since March 2022, the Wikimedia Foundation has continued to receive a steady stream of demands from the Russian government to remove information from Wikipedia that is largely related to the Russian government's invasion of Ukraine," Rogers said in a statement. "We have not complied with any of these orders from the Russian government to date."

The fine against Apple  which pulled out of Russia following the February 2022 invasion  comes after Moscow recently moved to prohibit state employees from using iPhones, claiming the devices are susceptible to hacking from the West. Apple has denied the charge and independent researchers have found no evidence that the company provides any intelligence service access to user data.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
Yao Dai fled from the cold weather of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to the Sunshine State in 2008 in pursuit of the American Dream that led him and his wife, Min Zhang, to leave their homes in Beijing, China, years before.

Dai discovered Floridas sunny beaches, calm living and future home on a trip to Orlando, Miami and Key West in 2008. In love, the couple moved to Gainesville six months later. There they bought a house, have happily raised their two American-born Chinese children, and made the community their permanent home.

On most days Dai prefers to ignore one aspect of living in Florida, choosing to not pay too much attention to the often polarizing politics that grip the state. Instead, he focuses on teaching a group of about 150 school-age kids how to speak Mandarin Chinese as principal of the Huagen Chinese School in Gainesville.

Now in court: Chinese Floridians, real estate company sue over DeSantis' foreign land ownership law

Context: Chinese influence bill passes Legislature, signed by DeSantis, despite discrimination concerns

Yao Dai, third person from the left, has served as principal of the Huagen Chinese School in Gainesville for years. There, a group of teachers, volunteers and about 150 students gather on Sundays for Chinese language classes and recreational activities, such as golf.

But lately, political chatter has become harder to ignore, and Dai can see that some parents at the school are concerned about being caught in the crossfire of new Florida laws aimed at curbing the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on the state.

I personally tend to avoid political things, because politics are complicated, Dai said. In terms of emotions, because we are Chinese, China is our mother country so we are really kind of in a catch 22, and have some conflict standing in between.

Florida laws take aim at Chinese government influence

Two new Florida laws preventing Chinese nationals from purchasing property in the state, and prohibiting partnerships between universities and colleges with programs that have ties to the Chinese Communist Party, went into effect July 1.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 31 touted Floridas new laws that prevent the purchase of land by members of the Chinese Communist Party, while he unveiled a tough-on-China economic plan if elected president. The laws also address the potential for influence by the Chinese government on the education system.

He promised further action if elected president, such as putting an end to preferential Chinas trade status..

"China has become more authoritarian, more powerful, and more ambitious," DeSantis said. "Weve seen our relationship marred by the theft of our intellectual property. Trade dumping. Currency manipulation, and espionage."

The abusive relationship, the asymmetric relationship between our two countries must come to an end," he said. "No more massive trade deficits. No more importing of goods with stolen intellectual property, no more preferential trade status. We need to incentivize the repatriation of American capital and investment here in the United States."

One law, SB 264, prohibits foreign nationals from seven countries of concern  China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria  from owning property located within 10 miles of any military installation or critical infrastructure in the state. It also prohibits the purchase of agricultural land.

A foreign national who purchases property, and persons selling the property to them, commit a second degree misdemeanor, punishable with up to 60 days in prison and a $500 fine.

But the law goes one step further when it comes to nationals of the Peoples Republic of China, and denies them the ability to purchase property in Florida entirely. It also imposes harsher punishments specifically on Chinese nationals who violate the law.

They are subject to a third degree felony punishable with up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Those who sell the property to Chinese nationals could be charged with a first degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Anyone who already owns such property may continue to do so, but must register with the Department of Economic Opportunity or be subject to a $1,000 per day fine.

Immigration: 'What are we going to do?' Two migrants share fears for the future in Florida crackdown

More: New immigration law sparks fear and worker exodus from Florida

The law does allow persons with a verified immigrant U.S. Visa or who has been granted asylum in the U.S. to purchase one residential property no larger than two acres in size provided that it is not located within five miles of any military installation. The exemption does not apply to travel-only Visas.

The law is being challenged in court  where the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a Statement of Interest in court stating that the United States considers SB 264 a violation of the 14th amendment of the constitution.

Another law, SB 846, prohibits state universities and colleges from accepting any grants from or forming agreements with the seven foreign countries of concern. Research and academic collaboration agreements are prohibited as of July 1, and prohibitions on partnerships such as student exchange, study abroad, recruitment and dual degree programs go into effect Dec. 1.

History of concern at universities

Concern about the Chinese governments influence on American universities can be traced back to at least 2014, when the American Association of University Professors published a report raising concern over possible Chinese Communist Party influence on the education system through Confucius Institutes. There were about 90 American and Canadian universities that hosted the institutes at the time, according to the report, although many have closed.

Sen. Marco Rubio drew attention to the matter in 2018, when he sent letters to Miami Dade College, the University of North Florida, the University of South Florida, the University of West Florida and Cypress Bay High School asking them to terminate their agreements with Confucius Institutes. All six schools complied by the end of 2019.

Although the University of Central Florida was not among those schools, the university has closed four cases since 2016 where researchers were found to have ties to the Chinese government. One was terminated and three others resigned. The most notable case is that of Dr. Zinzhang Wu, who resigned only with handwritten notice delivered by his wife to the university and fled the country in 2018.

In February 2021 a researcher at the University of Florida was indicted for fraudulently obtaining $1.75 million in federal grant funds from the National Institutes of Health by concealing support from the Chinese government and a company he founded in China to profit from that research.

Rubio stepped into the debate once again in early June and introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress that prohibits U.S. Department of Defense funding for colleges that host Confucius Institutes. It is meant to counter creation of a waiver program to approve or deny Confucius Institutes by the DoD earlier this year.

"Confucius Institutes, which are directed by Beijing, have plagued college campuses in our nation with the CCP's propaganda, Rubio said in a press release issued on June 7. There is no reason why the DoD should support these institutes.

Chasing the American Dream

A group of students from the Huagen Chinese School show off their artwork.

In Gainesville, where no Confucius Institute has ever existed, its many of the parents who have children enrolled at the Huagen Chinese School who are among the most affected.

There is no idyllic school house  instead they rent space from the Oak Hall School  but a group of about 20 teachers, 30 parent volunteers, and 150 cheerful kids make the most of four hours every Sunday afternoon.

Gainesville is a campus town, said Dai, who volunteers his time as principal of the Huagen Chinese School. Thats why more than 80 percent of the Chinese school parents are faculty or medical professionals from the university and affiliated hospital.

They are highly educated, he said. So lots of parents are working as volunteers for our school. Not only myself, but we also have a whole committee which has around 12 parents. We are working for free, but our goal is just to make sure the school is running smoothly because it benefits everybody.

But I can tell some of our Chinese School parents, they are still graduate students with F-1 Visas, which is an international student, he said. And some of them have visiting scholar Visas, which is a J-1 Visa. Those are the populations that are most affected.

A former scholar himself, Dai immigrated from China in 2008 at the age of 29 to work as a staff scientist at the University of Michigan.

I stayed there for two years and a half and worked as a staff scientist at UMich, Dai said. Its too cold in An Arbor, so my wife doesnt like the weather, thats why we looked around to find a warmer place. Eventually we liked Florida.

Once in Gainesville, Dai continued his work as a staff scientist at the University of Florida. In 2014 he earned a green card and began the process of changing careers, another step in his pursuit of the American dream. In 2021 he committed full time to his business offering financial consulting for immigrant families learning how to pay taxes or manage finances in the U.S.

After I got my green card I decided to switch my career here, he said. So now I have my own business right now, so I am no longer working at the university, because I like the American Dream and I like the flexibility.

Dai says he understands consternation about the Chinese Communist Partys influence, and conflict between the two countries. He even understood when politicians started to use the word China virus or Wuhan virus to describe COVID-19.

He said he felt caught in the middle of a conflict between two cultures.

I think some of the Confucius Institutes, they say, have some type of political purpose, Dai said. I can understand why the U.S. government would want to abandon that.

But it is a little bit of a sensitive subject because its going to limit opportunities for international students to come to the U.S., he said. I feel like its not good to block their opportunities, I think we should provide talented graduate students more opportunities to come to the U.S. to learn."

"But on the other hand I personally understand why they are getting more strict," he said. "I understand, but it doesnt mean I fully agree with it.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Chinese scholars targeted by new Florida laws that take aim at China
In his only interview since being accused of sexual assaults, Chris Noth maintains his sole transgression was cheating on his wife.

Though hed like people to believe that and to resume his career, Noth knows ugly allegations about him linger.

"I strayed on my wife, and it's devastating to her and not a very pretty picture," he says. "What it isn't is a crime."

The story about two womens sexual assault accusations against the actor surfaced in December 2021, a week after the premiere of Max's "And Just Like That," the sequel to "Sex and the City," in which his character, Carrie Bradshaw's husband John "Mr. Big" Preston, dies of a heart attack. Another three women came forward, saying he also assaulted them. Stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon issued a statement saying they supported and commended the women for coming forward.

Noth lost a $12 million deal for his tequila brand, was fired from CBS drama "The Equalizer," was dropped from a Peloton ad, was cut from the season finale of "And Just Like That" and was shunned by the industry.

As of today, the actor, 68, has a new venture. Hes the face of Samuelsohn, a bespoke suit company launching a campaign to raise awareness about mens mental health. This interview stems from his role in the campaign, for which he is being paid in clothes, not cash. Samuelsohn has pledged donations to men's mental health. More than 6 million men in the U.S. suffer from depression, according to Mental Health America.

Noth stands by his initial statement that any sexual encounters he was involved in were consensual and says the worst thing he did was commit adultery.

"You give yourself the same excuses that many men do; it's just a little side dance, and it's fun," he says. "You're not hurting anybody. No one's going to know about this, you know, and sex is just enjoyable. And suddenly, a lot of people want to have sex with you. It's like, 'Well, I'm not going to get this chance again.'"

No criminal charges have been filed. Thats hardly an anomaly: The National Sexual Violence Resource Center estimates that 63% of rapes are not reported to police. Gloria Allred, the lawyer representing some of the women, declined to comment for this story.

Still, this isnt going away. Noth acknowledges that civil lawsuits remain a distinct possibility.

"That's a money train for a lot of people," he says.

Chris Noth attends HBO Max's premiere of "And Just Like That" at Museum of Modern Art on December 08, 2021 in New York City.

Although Noth initially didn't want to comment beyond repeating his original statement, he elaborates for the first time on the scandal and its effects. The allegations from women in Los Angeles and New York date back to 2004.

"There's nothing I can say to change anyone's mind when you have that kind of a tidal wave," Noth says. "It sounds defensive. I'm not. There's no criminal court. There's no criminal trial. There's nothing for me to get on the stand about and get my story out, get witnesses. And there's even more absurd add-ons that are completely ridiculous, that have absolutely no basis in fact. And I don't like talking about it because as soon as I do, you'll get the Daily Mail or someone grabbing a part of it and doing it, and I don't want my kids seeing that."

Over Zoom from Toronto, Samuelsohn CEO Stephen Granovsky explains the concept behind the mental health campaign and choosing Noth.

"When we embarked on how to celebrate our hundredth birthday, we wanted to do it with purpose," Granovsky says. "We really believe in our people feeling good about what they're doing and our customers feeling good about what they're wearing. And frankly, when it comes to us, it's really about how it fits and making you feel comfortable in your own skin, and that goes a long way to giving you the confidence to do so much."

As for the actor, "there just isn't another character in modern times that looks better, feels better, is more proud to wear a suit than Chris was in 'Sex and the City,'" Granovsky says. "Today, many years later, he looks every bit as good. He wears it with such confidence and such pride that I'm proud to have him wear the suit."

Chris Noth is promoting Samuelsohn suits and its campaign for men's mental health.

Noth, wearing a blue Samuelsohn suit at a SoHo hotel restaurant this summer, says he has laid low because he's intent on protecting his sons and wife. The 3-year-old is too young to understand what has happened, which Noth describes as "being slimed." He has had heart-to-heart talks with his 15-year-old. Since the allegations and fallout, Noth says, he has tended to his mental health by spending time with his family, hiking and meditating.

Before playing Carrie Bradshaw's Mr. Big and Alicia Florrick's philandering husband on CBS drama "The Good Wife," Noth was Mike Logan, the hard-boiled detective on NBC's "Law & Order." He also appeared on several other shows produced by Dick Wolf, another person Noth says he hasn't heard from since the accusations surfaced.

Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall and Chris Noth as William Bishop in "The Equalizer."

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Noth has acted in many plays, including two on Broadway. He's now directing and performing in Ionescos "Rhinoceros" at a theater in Massachusetts' Berkshire mountains area.

"I'm not going to lay down and just say it's over," he says. "It's a salacious story, but it's just not a true one. And I can't just say 'Well, OK, that's it for me' because of that. I'm an actor. I have other things that I want to do creatively. And I have children to support. I can't just rest on my laurels. So yeah, I have enough to let a year drift, but I don't know how to gauge or judge getting back into the club, the business, because corporations are frightened.

"People are afraid of all this. Fear is the overriding operative word when it comes to whether they believe it or not. ... I have to just continue on. It's rough, because people are scared, and their fear leads them. And I have to just persevere because I still have a creative life."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Noth, 'Sex and the City' star, talks about sex abuse allegations
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.

Its part of a wave of legal challenges Republicans have leveled at the Biden administrations 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.

Its 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 wasnt authorized by Congress and didnt 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 policys legal authority nor considered its exorbitant price tag.

The conservative groups say Bidens 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 Bidens 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 Bidens pause on student loan payments, which is scheduled to end this fall with payments resuming Oct. 1.

___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Ron DeSantis continues to defend newly approved curriculum guidelines in Florida instructing students to learn that enslaved people developed skills that could be applied for personal benefit.

That means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery, the governor told NBC News in a recent interview to air on NBC Nightly News on 7 August.

It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended, he added.

Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has dismissed criticism from Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic and Republican members of Congress urging Florida officials to amend the states African American history standards and reflect an honest history of race and racism in school curricula.

The vice president has also rejected an invitation from Mr DeSantis to discuss the standards, telling a crowd in Orlando earlier this month that there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: there were no redeeming qualities of slavery.

Mr DeSantis had previously stated he wasnt involved with the guidelines approved by the states appointed Board of Education. He said the standards are probably going to show some of the folks  enslaved people  that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.

The development of such skills would not have benefited the millions of enslaved people in the US in the decades before slaverys abolition.

Another controversial 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.

Adults know what slavery really was. It involved rape, it involved torture, it involved taking a baby from their mother, it involved some of the worst examples of depriving humanity of people in our world, Ms Harris said in her remarks in Jacksonville last month.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, echoed Ms Harris in his criticism of the standards, stressing that slavery was defined by separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives.

It was just devastating, said Mr Scott, who is also seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. So I would hope that every person in our country  and certainly running for president  would appreciate that.

Mr DeSantis told NBC in response: Dont take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Dont indulge those lies.

The new standards join the governors overhaul of public education and a parents rights agenda that targets honest lessons on race and racism and gender and sexuality, which the governor told NBC amounts to indoctrination.

Those standards were not political at all, he added. The legislature didnt dictate any of that. [The] governors office didnt dictate anything of that.

Last week, before thousands of high school students enrolled in advanced placement courses begin classes for the 2023-2024 school year, the DeSantis administration criticised the College Boards warning that Florida education officials had effectively banned AP Psychology courses in the state under the Parental Rights in Education Act, what opponents have derided as the Dont Say Gay law.
A developer is planning to demolish a 1980s hotel to bring more housing to Raleighs Blue Ridge corridor.

Dallas-based Trinsic Residential has filed site plans for a new 370-unit apartment complex, Aura Blue Ridge, and a 550-space parking deck at 1520 Blue Ridge Road.

A Ramada by Wyndham currently operates on the 4.6-acre site with an assessed value of roughly $7.5 million.

Ryan Stewart, Trinsic Residential managing director  Carolinas, said the company is pushing ahead with the citys approval process and expects to close on the propertys purchase sometime in late 2024. The hotels demolition would likely begin immediately afterward, he said.

The projects price tag: $115 million, with first units expected to be delivered in 2025.

But heres the fine print: Despite the complexs proximity to North Carolina State University West Campus, and a student housing development called The Station less than a mile away, these apartments wont be student housing.

They will target graduate students and professionals. If theres a rush of applications from undergraduates applying for units, he said the company would restrict the age limit to 21 and older.

This corridor has plenty of student housing, Stewart told The N&O. Theres not much supply of quality market-rate units for the broader community. Thats what were trying to fill.

Raleighs Blue Ridge corridor

Raleighs Blue Ridge corridor is a three-mile stretch of Blue Ridge Road in West Raleigh. Its positioned just minutes from major venues, such as PNC Arena, Carter-Finley Stadium, and the N.C. State Fairgrounds.

In recent years, its also emerged as one of Raleighs fastest-growing urban centers. Bandwidths new 40-acre office campus is set to open at 2230 Bandmate Way this week. And the state Department of Health and Human Services is building an 11-story tower for its new headquarters on the corner of Blue Ridge and Reedy Creek roads, across from the N.C. Museum of Art.

Trinsic Residential said its new complex will cater to those working in the area.

The proposed five-story building will include 77 studios, 162 one-bedroom units and 131 two-bedroom units. Some units will also come with dens and balconies, with the average size around 900 square feet. Two main courtyards will serve as a communal area, with 12,000 square feet of amenities, including pool and co-working space.

Stewart couldnt specify exact pricing at this time, but said rents would be market rate.

That could be anywhere from $1,500 to above $2000, depending on the number of rooms, based on rents for apartments down Blue Ridge Road two miles south. Unlike some of its other projects, however, It will not include affordable housing for low-income residents.

Trinsic Residential has quickly grown its presence in the Triangle since it opened a satellite office in Durham in August 2019.

The company already has 15 projects  some 5,000 units  in the works for North Carolina. Of those 15 projects, 13 are in the Triangle, Stewart said. The two others are in Charlotte. We plan to focus a large percentage of our future pipeline in the Carolinas.

Three developments are already under construction. They include Aura 509 in Durham, Aura Chapel Hill and Aura Farrington 54 in Chapel Hill.

Leasing opened for Aura 509 last month, and Stewart said demand has been strong. Weve signed 40 leases in six weeks. It exceeded our expectations.

Out-of-state developers swarm Triangle

Trinsic Residential is among a handful of out-of-state developers buying up land or properties to redevelop for housing across the greater Triangle.

Arizona-based Meritage Homes recently paid an undisclosed sum for three tracts for its Raleigh division. Its planning a 25-acre development in Durham County, 57-acre development in Harnett County and 166-acre development in Wake County.

Separately, California-based homebuilder Tri Pointe Homes purchased close to 8.5 acres of mostly wooded land along Crescent Drive in Durham for around $5.9 million. Its preparing to build a 102-unit townhome community.

That influx of new housing cant come soon enough, say experts. While inventory is edging up slowly and the market is starting to normalize, the Triangle still has too little housing to meet demand. The Raleigh metro area alone needs at least 17,000 more units, according to a recent Zillow study.
Former U.S. President and Republican candidate Donald Trump gestures at a Republican fundraising dinner in South Carolina in 6 August

Donald Trump has said he will ask the judge in his alleged election fraud case to step aside on what he called "very powerful grounds".

He claimed that "there is no way I can get a fair trial" unless he has a different judge.

His call came after the prosecution requested a court order that would limit what he can publicly say about the case.

The judge, Tanya Chutkan, was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday morning, describing the case as "the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case" and saying that his legal team would immediately be asking for recusal of the judge.

He gave no details of his grounds for asking her to step down.

Judge Chutkan, appointed in 2014, previously ruled against Mr Trump's efforts to shield evidence from the House January 6 Committee.

The 61-year-old judge has won a reputation for harsh sentences for those convicted of participation in the riots. According to Associated Press news agency she is one of the toughest punishers.

Under US federal law, any judge of the United States must disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

Recusal of the judge was not the only thing Mr Trump said he would request. He also said he wanted a "venue change" and for his case to be moved out of Washington.

He previously said there would be "no way I can get a fair trial, or even close to a fair trial, in Washington", which he describes as "anti-Trump", and has previously described the Department of Justice as "highly partisan and very corrupt".

Mr Trump's lawyer, John Lauro, said on Sunday that the former president "believed in his heart of hearts" that he had won the 2020 election - and that prosecutors will not be able to prove that Mr Trump did not believe this.

Speaking to US TV networks, Mr Lauro said Mr Trump was being attacked for exercising his constitutional First Amendment right to free speech.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump wrote in capital letters, "If you go after me, I am coming after you!" on Truth Social, just a day after he pleaded not guilty to four charges in the alleged election fraud case.

And the same night, the prosecutors said they feared there was a chance Mr Trump might disclose confidential evidence and asked for a protective order to prevent "the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public".

Judge Chutkan gave Mr Trump's legal team until 17:00 local time on Monday to respond to the submission. Mr Trump's lawyers asked for three more days, but the judge denied their request.

Judge Tanya Chutkan was appointed in 2014

Judge Chutkan is expected to call in attorneys from both sides on 28 August to discuss setting a trial date.

The charges - which include conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens - stem from the former president's actions in the wake of the 2020 election.

Mr Trump now faces five upcoming trials - three criminal trials which include his alleged mishandling of classified documents, accounting fraud and these election charges; and two civil trials over business practices and alleged defamation of a woman who accused him of rape.
Germany's OHB said U.S. financial investor KKR was buying a minority stake in the space company, which plans to delist to give it more flexibility to capitalise on a boom in the commercial satellite market.

KKR will give OHB, which is the biggest customer for Elon Musk's SpaceX launchers for institutional satellites in Europe, the chance to focus on its operational business, OHB CEO Marco Fuchs told Reuters, adding that being a listed company slowed down decision-making.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - JULY 28: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Jupiter 3 satellite lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on July 28, 2023 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite, built by Maxar Technologies for Hughes Network Systems, is the largest commercial communications satellite ever to launch into geostationary orbit. (Photo by Paul Hennesy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"In a family business, you can take decisions pretty quickly (...) while a listed company is subject to certain regulations, a certain complexity, a certain caution in the decision-making process," Fuchs said.

In addition, OHB had felt for some time that its share price did not reflect the company's fair value, Fuchs said.

KKR offer

OHB said KKR plans a voluntary public tender offer for all its outstanding shares at a price of 44 euros ($48.34), valuing the company at 768 million euros. Its shares, which closed at 32.2 euros on Friday, were up 10% to 42.15 euros at 1155 GMT.

The Fuchs family, which holds just under 70% of OHB, will keep its shares and remain majority shareholders, with Marco Fuchs staying on as chief executive for a further five years.

In total, KKR is putting up to 338 million euros into OHB with the offer, alongside a capital increase of 10% and a capital injection for the OHB space subsidiary Rocket Factory.

Fuchs said the deal could be completed in spring 2024 and underlined that his family aimed to keep a majority stake.

He called SpaceX a partner and role model from whom the Bremen-based firm could learn a lot, adding that he also expects OHB to capitalise on increased military spending since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"If an adversary has space capabilities, we are talking about a completely different situation than in the past when we were speaking of an asymmetric threat, when we saw the Taliban as the only possible adversary," he said.

Accept offer

He singled out space-based early warning systems against ballistic and hypersonic missiles as one area that had gained a new urgency, noting that OHB was leading a European consortium aiming to develop a system called Odin's Eye for this.

OHB said its executive and supervisory boards supported the offer and intended to recommend shareholders accept it.

OHB aims to become the leading space provider for governments and commercial customers in Europe and last year had sales of more than a billion euros, with 3,000 employees.

"The global market for space solutions will continue to grow. We see great potential in Europe," said Christian Ollig, partner and head of the German-speaking region at KKR.

OHB posted a first half pre-tax profit of 19.6 million euros and said its order backlog was at 1.8 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9102 euros)

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner, Rachel More and Sabine Siebold; Editing by Miranda Murray, Kirsten Donovan and Alexander Smith)
High-level Ukraine peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia wrapped up over the weekend yielding little progress in ending the war, but they did focus attention on one global power broker: China.

In the view of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and China itself, merely having a Beijing delegation at the summit was a major cause for optimism. China skipped the last Ukraine-related meeting in Denmark, but it showed up in Saudi Arabia even though Russia, its ally, was explicitly not being invited.

Chinas attendance shows it supports substantive efforts to end the war through negotiation and diplomacy, said Victor Gao, a prominent Chinese political analyst with strong links to the ruling Communist Party. China will listen carefully to any idea or proposal that is helpful to the peaceful settlement of the war.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday that the Saudi event had further consolidated international consensus, Reuters reported. It did not elaborate on what that consensus was. And the central problem for all of these peace talks is that in reality there is none.

But others are deeply skeptical of Chinas ability, or perhaps even desire, to mediate a conflict in which Ukraines and Russias demands remain diametrically opposed. They also question Beijings motives in attending a conference led by the Global South.

Someone looking for cracks in Chinas no-limits partnership with Russia would have been rebutted last week after almost a dozen of the countries ships took part in an exercise in the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska, which Moscow said simulated blowing up an enemy submarine.

Still, China recently spoke out against the treatment of five of its citizens who were denied entry into Russia despite having visas.

With Russia and Ukraine still very far from agreeing to any sort of deal, China was most likely burnishing its credentials among non-Western countries it is seeking to influence, if not lead, said Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London.

The Chinese, Saudi and U.S. delegations at a National Security advisors' meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 6, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AFP - Getty Images)

For Beijing, the meeting was all about building engagement with the Global South, rather than trying to find an actual solution to the war, he said, referring to non-Western nations in the Middle East, Africa, South America and parts of Asia.

If they seriously want to find a solution, would they really just be following the lead of the Saudis, Tsang added, when Xi Jinping could be doing shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv? (Xi is Chinas president.)

Russia, which was not invited to the talks, hit out at the negotiations, which Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called nothing but a meaningless ultimatum to Russia, aimed at prolonging hostilities.

The summit in the Red Sea port of Jeddah involved 42 nations. The U.S. and other Western countries attended, but it was seen as more of an attempt by Ukraine to court nations outside Washingtons sphere of influence.

Mohammed bin Salman - Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting in Jeddah (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

We are not looking at these talks as generating any concrete deliverables, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Wednesday. Instead, it was a chance for a number of countries around the world to hear directly from Ukraine about the horrors their country has suffered at the hands of Russian aggression.

Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys chief of staff, said in a statement Sunday that they had an extremely honest, open conversation and very productive consultations.

Ukraine has presented its own peace plan  in effect calling for nothing short of total Ukrainian victory. Russia has shown no sign that it will ever accept that.

Yermak did not detail Chinas contributions directly. But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday the news that China was sending a delegation to the talks was a super breakthrough.

China has, indeed, been flexing its diplomatic muscles in recent years, having brokered a deal this year to restore relations between archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. It also sent Li Hui, tasked with being its envoy on the Russia-Ukraine war, on a tour of Europe in June, which yielded few results. It was Li, a senior diplomat with decades of experience in the old Soviet Union and its remnants after it collapsed, who journeyed to Saudi Arabia with his delegation over the weekend.

Though China has signaled its desire to act as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war, Xi has also publicly thrown his support behind his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Chinese officials have blamed NATO for tensions leading to the war while criticizing the U.S. for prolonging it.

Image: (Libkos / AP)

Chinese officials skipped the previous peace summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June because it was an anti-Russian alliance, said Wang Yiwei, a professor at the Center for European Studies at Chinas Renmin University.

However, Saudi Arabia  often referred to as one of the swing countries whose alliances over the war in Ukraine are not ironclad  has a high degree of independence and autonomy and will not become a surrogate of the United States, Gao said.

Western analysts are looking for cracks in the Sino-Russian bond, but Xi is still as committed as ever to Putin, Tsang said.

What is most important to Xi Jinping is that he and people like him do not get challenged, he said. If Putin can lose power, what kind of example is that going to set?
A rendered image of Lotte Energy Materials' copper foil factory to be built in Catalonia, Spain / Courtesy of Lotte Energy Materials



By Park Jae-hyuk



SK and Lotte appear to be playing dirty in their public relations announcements related to their copper foil operations.



On Monday, Lotte Energy Materials issued a press release announcing its business plans for the European market, just two hours after SK Nexilis issued a press release on its copper foil supply agreement with German battery maker Varta, for its accelerated expansion in the European market.



SK Nexilis said in its press release that it has been signing supply agreements with European clients, making it the only manufacturer that can supply high-quality products to the European market.



Lotte Energy Materials, on the other hand, said in its press release that it will complete construction by 2025 on its Spanish factory which will have an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons. It also expressed confidence in being the "first vendor" for European clients, based on its high-end products made with its differentiated technologies.



This is not the first time that the two companies have put out announcements as part of their respective PR campaigns on the same day.



When Lotte Energy Materials held a press conference on the morning of July 4 to announce its growth strategies, SKC, the parent of SK Nexilis, held its CEO Investor Day event for institutional investors and securities analysts here and overseas, to introduce its own growth strategies, including the plans for SK Nexilis' copper foil business,.



SKC posted its presentation materials on its website that afternoon, thereby making the news of Lotte's press conference less visible on major internet portals.



Last October, Lotte Chemical signed an agreement to acquire Iljin Materials, which is now Lotte Energy Materials, on the same day SK Nexilis invited journalists to its factory in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province.



Because Lotte announced the acquisition deal during the SK factory press tour, most reporters at the venue had to cover the news from both companies. In addition, SK had to answer questions about the forthcoming competition with Lotte in the copper foil market.



At that time, SKC CEO Park Won-cheol expressed confidence in defeating the Lotte affiliate, saying his company "open-mindedly" welcomed Lotte's decision.



Lotte Energy Materials CEO Kim Yeon-seop, however, said in July's press conference that his company will outperform its competitors due to its thinner copper foil with higher intensity and elongation.



As of now, SK Nexilis holds the largest share in the global copper foil market, followed by China's Watson Copper Foil and Taiwan's Chang Chun Group. Lotte Energy Materials is the world's fourth-largest copper foil maker in terms of market share.


Tourists visit the Acropolis hill, with the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the left (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Visits to the Acropolis of Athens, Greece's most popular archaeological site, will be capped from next month, with a maximum of 20,000 each day and varying hourly entry limits, the Greek government has confirmed.

Culture minister Lina Mendoni said the controls were needed to prevent bottlenecks and overcrowding at the Unesco World Heritage site. As many as 23,000 people a day have been squeezing into the monument complex, mostly large groups visiting before noon.

That's a huge number, Ms Mendoni said in an interview with the Real FM radio network. Obviously tourism is desirable for the country, for all of us. But we must work out how excessive tourism won't harm the monument.

The new entry limits will be implemented on a trial basis from 4 September and will come permanently into effect from 1 April 2024, the minister said. There will be no limit on how long visits may last, although Mendoni said people who come with organised tours or from cruise ships  who account for about 50 per cent of the daily visitor count  spend an average 45 minutes at the site.

Different numbers of visitors will be allowed in hourly during the site's 8am8pm opening hours. Half of the Acropolis' foot traffic currently arrives between 8am and noon, Mendoni said. Under the new system, 3,000 people will be granted access from 89am, 2,000 during the next hour, and the numbers will vary during the rest of the day.

The measure will address the need to protect the monument, which is the main thing for us, as well as [improving] visitors' experience of the site, she added.

Similar caps will be imposed for other popular archaeological sites, Mendoni said. The decision for the Acropolis followed consultations with tour and cruise operators, and was delayed due to Greece's 25 June general election, she added.

More than 3 million people visited the site last year, according to Greece's statistical authority.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.
Though it was 30 years ago, Margarita Quinones-Pena still remembers hugging her grandfather goodbye when her pregnant mother took her and her older sister by the hand to make their way to Chicago from Mexico to meet their father.

She was 3 years old. Though the memories are blurred, the feeling of leaving the place she knew as home has never faded, she said.

She is now 33 and still has not been able to return. Tita, as she was called by her beloved grandfather, is undocumented. She was brought to this country unauthorized as a child. For a long time, she was ashamed of her status and felt powerless, until she eventually realized that thanks to her familys resilience, they had created a home of their own in Chicagos Little Village neighborhood, despite all their struggles and sacrifices.

There is nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, be proud of the sacrifices our parents have made and our resilience to succeed despite being undocumented, said Quinones-Pena, now a software engineer, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and a yoga instructor. Thankfully, she said, in 2012 she became a Dreamer, or a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created under then-President Barack Obama, which provided her with a work permit and protection from deportation.

Her journey, she said, was in fact a homecoming. And it is one that she shares with hundreds of other children of immigrants, whether they were brought here decades ago or are children of the migrants who are now arriving in Chicago by the thousands.

Homecoming is the name of the childrens book Quinones wrote based on her story to honor her journey and to empower herself, her family and other undocumented children, she said. I want them to know what is possible, she said.

All of the books proceeds will be donated to help immigrants currently seeking asylum in Chicago, Quinones-Pena said.

On a recent Sunday, Quinones-Pena celebrated her book launch by reading it to a group of migrant children who live at a community-run shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood, with her parents by her side.

In Chicago, more than 11,000 asylum-seekers have arrived over the last year. Many families with children continue to live in temporary shelters.

The book, which includes an illustration of Quinones-Pena and her family looking at the historic Little Village Arch, is in Spanish and English. She shares her memories of crossing the border on a Halloween night dressed up as a princess with her mother and older sister, who was 4. She recalls those who helped them along the way and describes eventually reuniting with her father in Chicago.

At the end of the book, Quinones-Pena shares the origin of the story with pictures of her family. It is followed by a portion where children who read it can write their own immigration journey.

The project, she said, was born out of love for her family and the desire to come to terms with her own story. Sharing her truth and finding power in it was liberating, Quinones-Pena said.

There are hundreds of people who have experienced this, but we feel the need to hide it. Or we just never talk about it out of shame or fear that we will be judged or even punished for it, she said.

There are about 600,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., but nearly 3 million undocumented youths are eligible for relief, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Even if they are eligible, most cannot apply to the program because it was halted during former President Donald Trumps administration and is working its way through the courts.

As a child, I didnt fully understand what was happening, but it was this journey that dictated who I would become, Quinones-Pena wrote in the book. Although we are currently protected from deportation, we live with limited rights and despite our contributions and knowing no other home, we do not yet have a path to citizenship.

For most of her life, she was secretive about her status, afraid of stigma and judgment, not even sharing it with her partner.

With the book, she wants recently arrived children to know that there is nothing wrong with being undocumented. They, too, can call this city a home, she said.

For most of her life, Quinones-Pena did not know the full story of how her mother was able to cross the southern border, pregnant and with two toddlers. About two years ago, Quinones-Pena finally decided to ask her mom, she said.

With tears in her eyes, her mother, Antonia Quinones, opened up while the two sat in the kitchen. It wasnt easy, recalled her mother, now 63. It was a memory that she had buried away, trying to forget the painful experience.

But it was incredible, Quinones-Pena said, Instead of being embarrassed or ashamed, I realized it was such a beautiful story because of the intentionality and community that came together to help us get here from the beginning.

That needs to be celebrated, Quinones-Pena said.

In 1993, Antonia Quinones decided to leave their native town of Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, Mexico, to meet with her husband, Eduardo Quinones, in Chicago. For years, Eduardo had traveled back and forth, but it wasnt enough to keep the family together, Antonia recalled.

I wanted my family to be together, she said. But I also knew that their father returning to live in Mexico was not realistic.

So even though she was pregnant, she made her way to the border.

It was a sacrifice, but it was worth it, she said. I know many people dont understand it, but as parents, we make those decisions for our children; it was all for them.

The family settled in Little Village, or La Villita, and Antonia worked in maintenance and care, and Eduardo, now 66, as a factory worker, among other jobs. Despite their undocumented status, they were able to put their three daughters through college.

When Quinones-Pena gifted the book to her mother on Mothers Day, she said Antonia had no words. She did not want her daughter to publish the book, worried that Margarita would be criticized.

But Quinones-Pena was inspired when the first few buses of asylum-seekers began to arrive in the city. So she taught extra yoga classes and saved as much money as possible to get the project started.

Im so proud of my daughter because she is so strong, said her father.

Quinones-Pena is the only one in her family who is still undocumented. Though she has DACA, she does not have a path to citizenship, one that would allow her to visit Mexico. Her parents became citizens after a family member sponsored them, but due to complicated immigration policies, Quinones-Pena could not be included in the process. Her older sister, Maria Cecilia Quinones-Pena, 34, is now a citizen by marriage and her younger sister, Veronica Quinones, 29, is a citizen because she was born in Chicago.

But I dont lose hope, Quinones-Pena said. It was a promise she made to her now-deceased grandfather. She has faith that one day she will return to the place where she was born, to the plaza where her grandfather used to sell seeds to make a living while she played with her older sister.

Regardless of her residency status, Quinones-Pena said, the Southwest Side of Chicago will forever be home.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com
When liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court this year, giving liberals their first majority in 15 years, it put an end to the bitterest and most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history.

But when Protasiewicz was sworn in last week, formally tipping the ideological balance of the court to the left, tensions on the bench erupted anew into public view.

First, the courts nascent liberal majority fired a longtime court officer. The move triggered blistering blowback from the new conservative minority  and quickly led to days of rancorous news releases and tweets from the justices, trading insults and accusations of partisanship.

A day later, a suit challenging the states heavily gerrymandered legislative maps, which disproportionately favor Republicans, was filed directly to the high court. The existing maps were enacted last year by the courts previous conservative majority, putting a highly partisan issue before the new majority almost immediately.

It's the first of many cases about hot-button issues, most notably abortion rights, that are expected to reach the court this term and ratchet up the tension. And aspects of the 2024 presidential race in Wisconsin, a perennial battleground state, could find their way before the new liberal majority, as well.

Wisconsin Supreme Court justices  and the court itself  are technically nonpartisan. But some, including Protasiewicz, have taken public stances on divisive political issues and received backing from the state's major political parties during their campaigns, allowing them to signal their political allegiances.

Acrimony, divisions and allegations of partisanship have plagued the court for years, however. And the latest developments suggest that the partisan attacks on broad display during the 2023 campaign will continue, just as those politically charged cases make their way to the court.

At the end of the day, Wisconsin is a deeply and bitterly divided state, politically, and those divisions are very much reflected on the state Supreme Court, said an expert on the states politics and courts, Anthony Chergosky, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The flip in majority control was inevitably going to be jarring  it was bound to be a dramatic transition. And it has been.

Tensions on the court flared pretty much the moment Protasiewicz was sworn in to a 10-year term Tuesday night.

The night before, liberal Justice Jill Karofsky called State Courts Director Randy Koschnick, whom conservatives appointed in 2017, to warn that the courts new majority would have the votes to fire you tomorrow. Koschnick, who didnt return a call seeking comment, relayed the story to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and conservative talk show host Dan ODonnell.

A short letter to Koschnick on Wednesday signed by liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley on behalf of the court said his job as the top nonjudicial officer of the state court system would end that day.

Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, a conservative (the chief justice in Wisconsin doesnt necessarily have to be a member of the majority), then issued a blistering letter blasting her liberal colleagues unauthorized action as flawed procedurally, legally, and on its merits, reckless and dysfunctional and saying the message was the product of secret discussions.

My colleagues unprecedented dangerous conduct is the raw exercise of overreaching power. It is shameful. I fear this is only the beginning, she wrote. Ziegler said the fact that the liberal justices made the moves outside a formal court conference "violates" the state constitution.

Then in an unusual flurry of evening news releases, the court revealed Friday that the liberal majority had voted to curtail Ziegler's power as chief judge, a move it said was necessary for "transparency" and inclusivity, while conservatives accused the liberals of going "rogue."

The liberal bloc stripped the chief judge of the power to appoint the state courts director, granting the power to a majority vote of justices. And it gave other of her responsibilities  like making appointments to the Wisconsin Judicial College and reviewing the courts budget  to a new committee of Ziegler and two justices selected by the liberal majority.

Liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet said in a statement that the majority had voted to advance a number of transparency and accountability measures that were designed to make Court decision-making more inclusive, timely, and responsive.

In a second statement, Dallet ripped Ziegler for litigating "internal issues, through the media." Dallet said the liberal justices had been asking Ziegler for months to schedule a conference in August but that she declined to do so several times. It is deeply inappropriate for the Chief Justice to continue to refuse to engage with her colleagues, but instead to publicly litigate these issues, Dallet said.

A person familiar with the situation said the liberal majority wanted the new procedures in place before the court begins hearing cases next month.

Ziegler responded with another letter, accusing four rogue members of the court of having met in a secret, unscheduled, illegitimate closed meeting in an attempt to gut the Chief Justices constitutional authority as administrator of the court.

Another conservative justice, Rebecca Bradley, later tweeted that the cabal of extreme leftists had met in secret to usurp the power the people gave the Chief Justice.

Court-watchers nevertheless said the new majority most likely had the right to terminate Koschnick and make changes in protocol and that it didnt break any rules, but they said the move would do little to dim the accusations of partisanship the court has faced.

Even if the liberal majority was looking to make this change, there are different ways that they could have gone about that and different timetables that they could work on, Chergosky said.

Throughout her campaign, Protasiewicz made it clear that her positions on many issues, most prominently abortion rights, aligned with those of the Democratic Party (though she repeatedly said her personal values wouldnt dictate how she would rule in cases before the court).

Conservatives, including her opponent, Daniel Kelly, criticized her endlessly for that approach, alleging that she had already decided on cases that will or that are likely to come before the court and that she had effectively betrayed her ability to hear cases fairly.

The bitterness of the campaign, however, wasnt a new development for the court, which, for years, has seen instances of partisan moves  and even physical aggression  among its jurists.

In 2015, for example, the court's conservative bloc ousted the longtime chief justice, who was a liberal, and replaced her with a conservative, just moments after voters changed the process for selecting the chief justice.

And in 2011, an altercation between David Prosser, a conservative justice, and Bradley, a liberal justice, allegedly became physical during a tense conversation about a ruling regarding a law enacted by then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, that eliminated collective bargaining for most public workers.

The court has been a contentious place, by some measures, for a decade, said Michael Wagner, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But I do think its in the courts interest to demonstrate how the decisions they make are rooted in the law and not rooted in politics.

Its a difficult thing to do, he added.

Protasiewiczs win in April was resounding  she defeated Kelly by 11 percentage points in a state President Joe Biden won by just 0.6 percentage points in 2020.

And on Wednesday, a day after she was sworn in, a left-leaning law firm filed a suit challenging Wisconsins legislative maps. Because it skipped over lower courts and was taken directly to the state Supreme Court, the suit could be heard and decided before the 2024 elections. A court order to redraw the maps could have a dramatic effect on whether Democrats retake the majority in the Legislature.

During the campaign, Protasiewicz said the current maps were rigged  a position that regularly drew condemnation from conservatives.

Republicans in the state were quick to tie the timing of the suit to Protasiewiczs investiture on the court.

The timing of this lawsuit questions the integrity of the court, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a statement Wednesday. Liberal Democrats are counting on judicial fiat to help them gain power.

In addition, the Supreme Court is widely expected in the coming months to decide the fate of an 1849 state law banning abortion in almost all cases, which snapped back into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

A suit filed by the states Democratic attorney general that said the ban is unenforceable is being heard in a state court. And conservative groups have vowed to appeal an unfavorable ruling to the state Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is also likely to hear challenges to existing election laws, and it may also hear cases related to recounts, absentee ballots and other facets of election administration that could materially affect the outcomes of close elections.

The new balance of the court could have a huge effect on any ruling on the issue: In December 2020, the conservative majority narrowly upheld Biden's win over Donald Trump in the state on a 4-3 vote.
Mercy Hospital in Iowa City

The University of Iowa has revealed plans to acquire Mercy Hospital on the heels of the organization's recent bankruptcy filing.

Mercy "voluntarily" filed a bankruptcy petition, the company announced in a press release Monday morning. The 194-bed facility has served area residents since 1873.

Mercy Iowa City believes this plan is the best path forward to preserve our hospital operations, saidTom Clancy, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mercy Iowa City in a press release. As we implement this plan, our dedicated Mercy Iowa City staff remain steadfast in their commitment to provide compassionate care toour community.

The State of Iowa Board of Regents will consider the university's proposed $20 million acquisition of Mercy's facilities and business operations at Tuesday morning's special session.

In an attached letter of intent filed in bankruptcy court, the hospital said the university plans to integrate the Mercy system into UI Health Care.

The University of Iowa's acquisition would integrate 14 buildings largely located on the Mercy Iowa City campus in addition to smaller offices in North Liberty, Kalona, Tipton and Williamsburg.

We have always maintained great respect for Mercy Iowa City, knowing the vital role it has played in our community since 1873. As members of the same community, many of us know and care about people who work at Mercy Iowa City, the University of Iowa presidents office said in a statement early Monday.

We want you to know that leaders from the University of Iowa, UI Health Care, and Mercy Iowa City are working together to avoid significant disruption. Although many decisions will be in the hands of the bankruptcy court, we share a goal to preserve and enhance local and regional access to quality health care and jobs.

Mercy will remain operating at its usual capacity with no plans to close. The bankruptcy court will decide many of the deal's specifics in the coming months.

In the meantime, Mercy Iowa City will continue to see patients as its hospital proceeds through bankruptcy and we will prepare, to the extent permissible, for a potential future where our entities join as one to continue to serve the health care needs of Iowans," the University of Iowa president's office said it in its statement.

Texas company tried to buy out Mercy last month

Dallas-based Preston Hollow Community filed a motion last month to try and take over business operations of Mercy Hospital.

Preston Hollow Community Capital officials accused Mercy Iowa City's board of directors and management of making a series of decisions that jeopardized the facility's ability to pay off its debts, including $62 million in publicly issued bonds and $40 million in pension plans.

Mercy Iowa Citys decision to file for bankruptcy is the result of years of financial mismanagement and an ongoing refusal to take the necessary steps to restructure and stabilize its operations," Preston Hollow said in a news release provided to the Press-Citizen on Monday. "Even now, after years of inaction on their part, the hospital chooses to point fingers at others rather than take any accountability for their financial losses or demonstrate any willingness to seriously address the factors that led to those losses,

Mercy management alluded to issues with financial creditors in their announcement Monday.

The recent actions of one of our largest creditors has significantly and negatively impacted the hospital and resulted in this bankruptcy filing, Mercy Hospital Chief Restructuring Officer Mark. E Toney said in a press release. The board and management moved rapidly to secure a partner to maintain health care in our community.

Mercy has struggled financially for years

Preston Hollow said Mercy Iowa City was in financial freefall" in its July petition to the court.

The company invested more than $40 million in Mercy in 2018 but said the hospital was suffering unsustainable losses, including a $2.6 million monthly cash burn.

Mercy Iowa City's financial projections show that by Sept. 29, its liquid assets will fall below $5 million, a mark they feel cannot sufficiently maintain operations.

Mercy Iowa City revealed they had tried resolving their differences with Preston Hollow before talks broke down a few days before the firm's court petition.

Preston Hollow officials said they provided a suitable plan for the future, but Mercy didn't follow through.

The Preston Hollow Community Capital team has consistently advised and encouraged Mercy Iowa City to develop and implement a substantive plan to rehabilitate and recapitalize the hospital," the company added in Monday's release. "The fact that they chose not to do so is the fault of Mercy Iowa City and no one else.

Preston Hollow Community Capital remains committed to ensuring families in Johnson County have access to high-quality, affordable health care services and will take the steps necessary, including legal steps, to ensure that outcome is achieved.

The hospital announced plans to leave its partnership with MercyOne, the largest statewide healthcare system, in April, less than seven years after joining. Previous plans to exit the MercyOne partnership failed in 2021.

The hospitals credit rating was downgraded in March by Moodys, a financial services company that analyzes credit ratings and provides risk analysis for investors. The company's analysis said the hospital is experiencing "continued weak cash metrics" and a "limited clinical array" compared to its in-town competitor, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

In April, the Register reported that Mercy Iowa City hired New York-based financial management firm ToneyKorf Partners, a company specializing in helping struggling healthcare systems improve their operations.

Michaela Ramm contributed reporting.

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: Mercy files for bankruptcy, UI seeks approval to purchase for $20M
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was met with jeers from the crowd while delivering remarks in his home state at the annual Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday, a rowdy annual event where attendees of both parties cheer and jeer.

In widely circulated video clips on social media, the crowd is heard booing and chanting retire and lost the Senate as McConnell, who has long been a target of criticism from his party's right wing, especially after he turned on former President Donald Trump, said that he and his wife, Elaine, are excited to be back at the event featuring Democratic and Republican speakers.

My friends, Ill be honest, its not hard for Republicans to look good these days, McConnell said amid boos.

McConnell did not acknowledge the jeers from the crowd throughout his speech. He criticized Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who sat behind him during his remarks and is up for re-election this year, for Covid-19 restrictions.

Beshear and state Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron also received cheers and boos during the event, which are all in the name of Kentucky tradition, according to an NBC affiliate.

Hours before delivering his remarks that drew jeers from the crowd, McConnell appeared at the Fancy Farm breakfast where he received a standing ovation and applause, the affiliate reported.

This is my 28th Fancy Farm and I want to assure you its not my last, McConnell told the crowd Saturday morning, the affiliate reported. The people of this state have chosen me seven times to do this job, and I want you to know how grateful I am, he added.

Reached by NBC News for comment, a spokesperson for McConnell said: "It wouldnt be Fancy Farm if Democrats werent heckling every Republican and vice versa  its been a very spirited event for decades."

Trump, whom McConnell fell out with after he condemned the then-president after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, mocked the GOP leader in a Truth Social post on Monday.

I AGREE!," Trump, a Republican presidential candidate wrote.

BOOOOORETIRE, RETIRE, RETIREBOOOOO!!!

McConnell spoke at the annual event amid intensified concerns over his health. He appeared to freeze for 19 seconds during a weekly Republican leadership news conference last month, went silent and was walked away by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a top McConnell deputy.

He walked back to the news conference a few minutes later. Asked about his health, he said he was fine. Asked whether he can do his job, he said: Yeah. His office said he felt lightheaded and stepped away briefly.

McConnell swiftly sought to tamp down speculation about his future and vowed to serve his full term as Republican leader after the health incident. His two-year term as Senate GOP leader ends in early January 2025. He became the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history earlier this year.

The health incident added to a series of others this year, which began in March when he was hospitalized with a concussion and a minor rib fracture and was discharged days later before he entered rehab. He didnt return to the Senate, however, until mid-April. Earlier this month, he tripped and fell at a Washington, D.C., airport, NBC News reported. He was not seriously injured.
BENGALURU (Reuters) -A subsidiary of China's Ant Financial will sell a 10.3% stake in India's Paytm, with the company's founder and CEO intending to boost his holding to simplify the ownership structure of one of India's largest payment firms.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma will buy a 10.3% stake from Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. valued at $628 million, the fintech company said in a filing on Monday.

Shares of Paytm rose as much as 11.4% on Monday after the announcement and have gained more than 50% so far this year.

Sharma's stake purchase from Antfin (Netherlands) Holding B.V. is priced at Paytm's last closing price of 796.6 rupees a share.

Following the stake sale, Antfin will cease to be the largest shareholder in the company, with its holding reduced to 13.5%.

In February, China's Alibaba sold its entire stake in Paytm to exit the company.

Japanese investment firm Softbank Group Corp has also been reducing its stake in Paytm through open market deals, with its shareholding reduced to 9.18% after its latest deal.

Paytm founder Sharma will now be the largest shareholder in the digital payments firm with a holding of 19.42%.

"No cash payment will be made for this acquisition, and neither will any pledge, guarantee, or other value assurance be provided by Mr Sharma, directly or otherwise," Paytm said in a statement.

The company added that there would be no change in the management or control of Paytm, with Sharma and the existing board continuing in their roles.

Resilient Asset Management, Sharma's overseas entity, will issue optionally convertible debentures to Antfin in consideration for the acquisiton.

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Eileen Soreng and Lincoln Feast)
By James Oliphant and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The first Republican debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign is shaping up as a crucial moment for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who badly needs some momentum in his challenge to former President Donald Trump for the party's nomination.

Complicating the matter for DeSantis: Trump, by far the front-runner in the race for the right to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, appears unwilling to provide him with a target.

Trump has said he plans to skip the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee. If that happens, DeSantis himself likely would become the focus of attacks from other candidates looking to climb past him and brand themselves as voters' primary alternative to Trump, according to interviews with rival campaigns, Republican political advisers and a former presidential candidate.

A Republican strategist close to Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is also seeking the nomination, said the field is likely to treat Trump "gingerly" and instead train their fire on DeSantis, who is expected to occupy the center slot on the stage.

"The guy on the stage in the No. 1 spot is probably going to be taking more heat than the others," said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity and was offering his views on the Republican field in general and not about Haley's strategy in particular.

Rival campaigns smell blood in the water as DeSantis has faced questions over profligate campaign spending and his readiness for the national stage.

In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, released last week, Trump held 47% of the Republican vote nationally, with DeSantis dropping 6 percentage points from July down to just 13%. None of the other candidates due to attend the debate have broken out of single digits.

Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting the 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.

Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator and Republican presidential candidate who participated in a series of debates in the 2012 election, said DeSantis will need to be ready for an "onslaught" of attacks.

During the early primaries when Santorum briefly held center stage as the front-runner, he was widely viewed as having a tough night trying to defend his record in Congress.

"I didn't prepare to be the center of attention," Santorum said. "I didn't prepare enough for the attacks and where the attacks were going to come from. And it cost me."

The DeSantis campaign declined to comment on his debate preparations.

A former U.S. Navy attorney who graduated from Harvard Law School, DeSantis can be an effective sparring partner, said Justin Sayfie, who served as a top adviser to Republican Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and presidential candidate.

"I have to believe he will be well prepared to punch back hard when he gets punched," Sayfie said.

THE TRUMP QUANDARY

Beyond Trump and DeSantis, at least five other candidates appeared to be on track to qualify for the debate: Haley, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, U.S. Senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former Vice President Mike Pence had struggled to reach the debate's requirement of 40,000 individual donors, but Fox News, which is hosting the debate, reported late on Monday that he had met the threshold and would join the others on stage.

Trump has questioned whether he should show up and lend their candidacies credence. His absence would present a quandary for his lesser-known rivals as they get a chance to introduce themselves to a national television audience of millions: Do they attack Trump in absentia with no risk of return fire or do they focus on those on stage?

With the exception of Christie and Pence, Republican candidates largely have stood by Trump as he has faced a mounting wave of legal troubles, the most recent a four-count federal indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

DeSantis has largely avoided talking specifics about the latest Trump case, but he has criticized the process as "politicized" and implied he would pardon Trump. While Trump does not feature in stump speeches by DeSantis, the governor in recent weeks has subtly upped his criticisms of the former president's conduct when questioned about him on the campaign trail.

In an excerpt of an interview with NBC News to be aired on Monday, DeSantis said that Trump "of course" lost the 2020 election to Biden. Trump has made false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud, a view embraced by many Republican voters.

Santorum said the candidates need to take advantage of the moment to go after the front-runner - Trump - and try to peel off some of his support.

"If I was on that stage, I would be going after Trump," Santorum said. "That's where the votes are."

Aaron Kall, an expert on presidential debates at the University of Michigan, agreed.

"When Trump is not on the stage, it's time to do it. It's then or never," Kall said. "It's easier when he's not there, to not have to look him in the eye."

(Reporting by James Oliphant and Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Will Dunham, Alistair Bell and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
A spray of pink retardant marked a rocky hillside in Riverside County on Monday where, only hours earlier, two firefighting helicopters were involved in a rare and fatal collision while battling a small blaze  and it could be years before officials determine how it happened.

The tragedy in the skies over Cabazon left three people dead and authorities scrambling to discern what could have gone wrong. The two choppers struck each other at 6:55 p.m. Sunday, with one crashing and the other landing safely.

"This is clearly a failure of command and control to have two airplanes in the vicinity of the fire at the same time," said Robert Ditchey, an aviation expert who reviewed the incident. "Somebody really screwed up."

The three people killed in the crash were identified as California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Assistant Chief Joshua Bischof, 46, Cal Fire Capt. Tim Rodriguez, 44, and contract pilot Tony Sousa, 55.

The aircraft that crashed was a Bell 407 helicopter that was responsible for observation and coordination, officials said. The second helicopter  a Sikorsky S-64E, also called a Skycrane  was able to make a safe landing with two people on board.

Cal Fire Assistant Chief Joshua Bischof, shown at the unveiling of an S-70i Firehawk helicopter at Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base, was among those killed in Sunday night's collision. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Facebook page)

Although firefighting aircraft have been involved in crashes in the past, experts say the midair collision of two helicopters is highly unusual.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Monday afternoon to document evidence at the scene and examine the aircraft. The investigation also will examine radar data, weather, maintenance records and the pilots medical records, spokesperson Jennifer Gabris said.

Eleazar Nepomuceno, an aviation accident investigator with the NTSB, said the full investigation could take up to two years to complete, at the end of which the board would issue its final determination on the cause of the collision.

Nepomuceno was part of the investigation team dispatched to Cabazon on Monday. Others involved included an FAA official and representatives for the manufacturers and companies that operated the helicopters.

"Our plan," he said, "is to document the wreckage before relocating [it] to a secure facility in Arizona."

Nepomuceno said investigators had gathered witness reports of the crash but asked anyone else who might have witnessed the incident to contact them by emailing witness@ntsb.gov.

After the wreckage is recovered, Nepomuceno said investigators would look at the certifications held by the pilots,their flight training history, the components of the aircraft  such as the airframe and engine  and the weather conditions during the crash.

At this early stage of an investigation, NTSB does not state a cause but will provide factual information when available, Gabris said. A preliminary report is likely within 15 business days.

Nick Schuler, deputy director of communications and emergency incident awareness with Cal Fire, said he "couldn't even begin to speculate what caused [the collision] to occur.

Read more:Three men died in the Cabazon helicopter crash. Here's what we know about them

Debris was still smoldering in a yard on nearby Broadway on Monday afternoon. A patch of trees had blackened trunks, and retardant stained a wash next to the home.

Battalion Chief Isaac Sanchez said the Bell had been serving as a helicopter coordinator.

What that means is well try to spread the workload around. Well bring additional resources in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the air tactical supervisor, he said. And so in this case they are there to deal directly with the helicopters that are on the fire, and then report to and take direction from the air tactical supervisor.

But aircraft usually follow very prescribed paths that are set by incident commanders on the ground, said Ditchey, the aviation expert. It was likely that the Bell chopper was not in the proper position, he said.

Im guessing that the pilot of the Sikorsky Skycrane was focused on the fire to make the run in. He or she was not looking for any other aircraft in the area because thats normally a highly coordinated thing, he said. You wouldnt expect the Sikorsky to be looking around to see if theres another airplane on that very critical path.

He said, however, he did not think the pilots were to blame.

This should never happen because nobody should be there without the specific approval of the fire control chief, Ditchey said. This is a command-and-control problem, in my opinion.

For that reason, the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administrationinvestigations will probably focus on the ground command, he said. He added that visibility did not seem to be an issue as the crash happened during daylight hours in apparently clear conditions, and mechanical failure did not seem likely.

Skies were mostly clear Sunday evening, with no visibility restrictions around the time of the crash, the National Weather Service said Monday. Winds were blowing out of the south and southwest about 15 to 20 mph. Sanchez said it was unclear, however, whether smoke from the fire might have affected visibilty.

Read more:Night-flying helicopters prepare to battle wildfire as heat wave bakes California

The crash occurred not long after Cal Fire and the Riverside County Fire Department were dispatched to a reported structure fire around 6 p.m. Sunday near Broadway Street and Esperanza Avenue in Cabazon, according to David Fulcher, Cal Fire's southern region chief.

A full wildland fire response team, including fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, was dispatched to the scene because the fire  dubbed the Broadway fire  was reported to have spread to vegetation, Fulcher said.

The crash ignited a separate 4-acre blaze, called the Bonita fire, which was extinguished, Fulcher said. He did not elaborate on the type of fuel that caught fire but described it as "the typical grass and vegetation in the Cabazon area."

Although such a robust response to a wildfire is not uncommon, Ditchey said the number of aircraft seemed like a lot for a small blaze, and it may reflect a heightened concern about what was in the fire's path. Satellite imagery of the area shows a skate park, an elementary school and nearby homes.

Read more:Firefighting helicopter crash kills pilot, sparks 50-acre fire in Fresno County

Officials said the helicopters involved were among 24 exclusive aircraft secured by Gov. Gavin Newsom this year to help bolster Cal Fire's fleet. The aircraft were contracted for a period of 90 to 120 days.

"These aircraft have been strategically located in communities across California and will be pre-positioned to meet the needs of potential fire activity throughout the state," the agency said in a July 1 news release about the program, which was funded as part of a $72-million investment from the governor to enhance firefighting response.

Cal Fire has the largest civil aerial firefighting fleet in the world, including more than 60 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

In a statement Monday, Newsom said flags at the state Capitol would be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims.

"On behalf of all Californians, our thoughts and heartfelt sympathies are with the loved ones, friends and Cal Fire colleagues mourning the loss of Assistant Chief Bischof, Fire Captain Rodriguez and Pilot Sousa," Newsom said. "This terrible tragedy is a reminder of the dangers our courageous firefighters face daily while working to keep our communities safe. We owe them our deepest respect and gratitude and will always honor their bravery and sacrifices."

Bischof, who was only recently promoted to assistant fire chief in Riverside County, had spent years in planes and helicopters directing aerial attacks of fires. He routinely posted photos from high above blazes.

Rodriguez was a fire captain with Hemet Ryan Air Attack Base. He had a wife and children, according to a family member who asked not to be identified.

His life was firefighting, the family member said. He loved doing it, and he loved training and training people.

Fewer details were known about Sousa, but a union known as Storey County Professional Fire Fighters posted on Facebook that he was among the victims.

Everyone in the fire service knows the dangers, but all accept the risk, as we all want to help others in their time of need, the post said.

Read more:3 reported dead after firefighting helicopters collide over Cabazon

Sanchez, the battalion chief, said all members of the department were grappling with the loss.

So is it difficult? Absolutely. And this is having repercussions not only locally for the fire industry in the Riverside County area but across the entire state. This is something that nobody wants to have to deal with.

Schuler, of Cal Fire, said the agency dropped more than 15 million gallons of water and 9 million gallons of retardant over wildfires in 2022.

This is something we do every single day, and our pilots are highly proficient, he said. Our folks are world-renowned aviators. Obviously, its a tragic loss.

In 2014, a Cal Fire air tanker crashed while battling the Dog Rock fire near Yosemite National Park, killing the pilot. In 2008, a Sikorsky firefighting helicopter operated by the U.S. Forest Service collided with trees and terrain during takeoff near Weaverville, killing nine and seriously injuring four others.

In 2020, the pilot of a UH-1 helicopter died on a water-dropping mission while battling the 1,500-acre Hills fire in Fresno County. And in 2022, a helicopter assisting with firefighting operations in the Fairview fire near Hemet crashed while attempting to land at the Banning Airport, injuring the pilot and two others.

But Schuler said he could not recall any similar incidents involving two aircraft colliding.

Its so, so rare that these things occur, he said.

Times staff writer Jeremy Childs contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
California regulators have fined Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood $75,000 for "deficient practices" that led to the death of a patient admitted for labor and delivery. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)

California regulators have fined Centinela Hospital Medical Center $75,000 after faulting the Inglewood hospital for "deficient practices" that led to a patient dying while admitted there for labor and delivery.

The California Department of Public Health found the hospital failed to ensure the patient was properly assessed and treated to prevent blood clots, did not follow up appropriately on her complaints about leg heaviness, and failed to alert her physician when her vital signs had veered out of normal parameters, among other lapses.

The state agency did not name the patient who died as a result of those failures, but its report lays out a string of events leading to a female patient dying on Jan. 10  the same day that a 31-year-old woman named April Valentine died at the Inglewood hospital.

The death of Valentine, who left behind bereft friends and family, a grieving boyfriend and a newborn daughter named Aniya, spurred a public outcry and calls for investigation. In California and across the country, Black women like Valentine have been at disproportionate risk of dying of pregnancy complications.

"The findings of the Department of Public Health clearly show that Centinela's gross negligence led to the tragic death of April Valentine during her labor and delivery," said attorney Andrew J. Marton, who is representing Aniya and her father, Nigha Robertson, who was Valentine's boyfriend.

The $75,000 fine will not bring them justice, Marton said, "but it is a step in the right direction as we must hold Centinela accountable and ensure that such preventable tragedies never happen again."

Read more:State investigators found lapses that could threaten patients at Inglewood hospital

Centinela Hospital is part of the Prime Healthcare system, which said in a statement that it is "in continual pursuit of ensuring the highest quality of care and forwarding health equity for all patients and our community" and cited recent accolades for the Inglewood hospital.

The healthcare system did not comment directly on the fine, but Prime Healthcare's vice president of communications and public relations, Elizabeth Nikels, said in an email, "We continue to express our deepest condolences to the family of Ms. Valentine."

Roughly two weeks after Valentine died, the California Department of Public Health made an unannounced visit to the Inglewood hospital to investigate a complaint alleging "inadequate care" led to the death of a patient who was admitted there for labor, according to its report.

Its findings, which prompted the $75,000 penalty, echoed those of a state team that surveyed the Inglewood hospital in February to check if it was meeting specific requirements for federal programs that reimburse hospitals. That investigation found that for several patients in the Centinela labor and delivery unit, medical records did not show appropriate steps being taken to address the risk of blood clots, which are one of the most common causes of pregnancy-related death in the United States.

Valentine's cousin Mykesha Mack said the family was grateful to see something happen in response to such failures, but "what is $75,000 compared to a life that we know we'll never, ever get back?" Mack said she is still waiting on the results of investigations from other regulatory bodies.

"There's still so much more work to be done," she said.

Centinela will soon be transferring maternity services to another hospital affiliated with Prime  St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood  according to a Prime Healthcare spokesperson, who said the Inglewood hospital had seen declining demand for labor and delivery services. A public notice issued by the hospital said the closure of the unit at Centinela would affect "17 perinatal beds, nine NICU beds, and the newborn nursery."

"This transfer of services, effective late October, will allow Centinela to serve more patients and expand bed capacity to areas of community need, such as behavioral health services, general medical surgical services, and more," Nikels said in a statement. St. Francis already provides labor and delivery care, "with plans to expand perinatal and high-risk OB care."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A worker walks by a blue pipe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, also known as TEPCO, in Futaba town, northeastern Japan, July 14. AP-Yonhap



Japan plans to start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean as early as late August, Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily reported on Monday, citing unnamed government sources.



The release will likely come shortly after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in the United States next week and explain to them about the safety of the water in question, it said.



Japan's nuclear regulator last month granted approval for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power to start releasing the water - which Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency say is safe but nearby countries fear it may contaminate food.



Bottom trawling fishing is scheduled to start off Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, in September, and the government aims to start the water discharge before the fishing season gets underway, the newspaper said. (Reuters)


"In the beginning, he's very focused and ambitious, and that is why you want him to succeed," Kumail Nanjiani says of his character in the limited series "Welcome to Chippendales." "But it's those very same qualities that lead him to do all this bad stuff." (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Chippendales. The name conjures up either visions of finely crafted furniture or gyrating men in G-strings, depending on your point of reference. Hulus true-crime limited series Welcome to Chippendales focuses on the latter as it recounts the rise of Americas first successful all-male strip revue for women  and the downfall of the unlikely mastermind behind the show's success, Somen "Steve" Banerjee.

Kumail Nanjiani plays the Mumbai native who emigrated in the 1970s to Los Angeles, where he bought a failing Westside bar on Overland Avenue. There the former gas station attendant launched a Male Exotic Dance Night for Ladies Only." He inexplicably named it Chippendales. The first of its kind, the hard-bodied strip spectacle blossomed into a national empire replete with hunk-of-the-month calendars and lucrative dance tours. But the fun ended when Banerjee was charged with orchestrating the 1987 murder of the strip shows former choreographer, Nick De Noia (played by Murray Bartlett). Sentenced to 26 years in prison, Banerjee was found dead in his cell in 1994 of an apparent suicide.

Nominated for five Primetime Emmys, including for Nanjiani and Bartlett, Welcome to Chippendales chronicles Banerjee's fish-out-of-water journey through campy 1980s L.A., with all its hedonism, glitz and rampant cocaine use. Its a fascinating way to look at the American dream and how it's sold to people outside of America, Nanjiani says. I remember growing up in Pakistan in the 80s, and the image we had in our head was that America had streets paved with gold and everyone is equal. If you work really hard you can make it, but obviously that's not true. To have Banerjee negotiate the fantasy version of it with the reality was really interesting to me.

Read more:'Welcome to Chippendales' is an engrossing trip back in time to seedy 1980s L.A.

Leg warmers, big hair and short shorts (on men) animate this gripping eight-part series from Robert Siegel (Pam & Tommy), capturing a time when anything goes  as long as it made money. Though its a period drama, Nanjiani argues that many of the series themes resonate today. The version of success [Banerjee] had in his head was very white and very corporate: No company is ever the right size because the only right size is bigger than it was yesterday, he says by phone just before the actors' strike was launched.

Its the moment we're in right now, where all these streamers need to keep growing, but eventually you run out of places to grow. Steve embodies that mind-set. It's never enough for him. He is very successful, but he's been completely corrupted by what he sees around him. Chippendales is huge. He created this thing out of nothing and it's an international sensation, but it's not enough."

Calling attention to characters who might otherwise blend in with the wallpaper is Nanjianis superpower. His notable roles include tech nerd Dinesh in HBOs comedy series Silicon Valley and the love-struck Uber driver in the film The Big Sick. The cosmic-powered Kingo in Marvels The Eternals is another story  . But here on Earth, the role of the brilliant, socially awkward Banerjee was perhaps his most challenging to date.

The lurid story behind the burlesque show captivated the actor when he read the script in 2017, but he grappled with how to portray the unremarkableness of his character amid the clubs screaming flamboyance. He found the answer while looking through old photos from the clubs heyday.

It was from a photo shoot of all these Adonises and [choreographer] Nick, and then this guy who just looked very different from them, Nanjiani says. "He was the boss of people who would otherwise never allow him to be part of their group. To play him, I wanted his physicality to be in opposition to everyone around him. Everyone is very fabulous and graceful and in touch with their bodies. I thought he should be the opposite. He's completely cut off from everything below his neck."

The series, which has also earned a nomination for its period costumes, plays up the outlandish wardrobe of the clubs dancers and the cringey 1980s styles of its patrons. Banerjee's wardrobe is quiet in comparison, which spoke volumes to Nanjiani. Honestly, when I did my first fitting in those suits, I felt like I really understood the character, he says. Everyone else in the show is so in touch with themselves, but hes really stiff and really cut off from himself. He has all this emotion inside of him: anger, of course, but mostly his fear and sadness. Every molecule in his body is fighting to keep that from getting out. Because if he lets go for a second, all his molecules are going to blow apart.

Soon enough, a dispute over touring rights of the massively successful show caused a rift between Banerjee and De Noia. Increasingly paranoid that he was going to lose his empire, Banerjee decided De Noia had to be removed and hired a hitman to take the choreographer out. De Noia was shot to death in his New York office in April 1987. Banerjee hid his crime well, but he wasn't done. Believing he'd gotten away with murder, he then plotted to kill three former Chippendales performers who had joined a competing dance troupe. That poisoning scheme was foiled when the FBI got involved and arrested Banerjee in 1993.

In the beginning, he's very focused and ambitious, and that is why you want him to succeed," Nanjiani says. "But it's those very same qualities that lead him to do all this bad stuff. The ways in which he changes are not as significant as the ways in which he doesn't change. That's what leads him down the path of destruction. Thats the tragedy of the story.

Nanjiani has stretched as an actor since his roots as a stand-up comedian in Chicagos club circuit. He got his first big break in 2009 when a series he was writing for and starring in, Michael & Michael Have Issues, was picked up by Comedy Central. From there he appeared in The Colbert Report and other shows across multiple networks, including Veep. He landed Silicon Valley in 2014, which launched his career to new levels.Three years later Nanjiani starred in his own self-made romantic comedy The Big Sick, which he wrote with his wife, Emily V. Gordon. The film was nominated for an original screenplay Oscar. The couple later co-developed the charming AppleTV+ anthology series Little America, shining a light on the immigrant experience through the re-creation of true stories. It was 2021 when Nanjiani became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Nanjiani counts himself lucky. It's very easy in this industry to get put into a box, he says. Obviously, if you're not white, you get put into a box, but also it's an industry that likes to classify [all] performers. This person can play a nerd. This person can play an action star. It's allergic to taking risks and having true imagination and vision when it comes to casting. So it is challenging.

"My priority has been to do different types of things and stuff that is difficult for me because I find that more satisfying. I always want to take on a job that allows me to go at least 10% further than I've ever gone before. I want to read a script and say, 'I don't exactly know how I'm going to do this, but I want to figure it out.' Figuring it out is the fun part.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Two days after a federal appeals court blocked a new city of Miami voting map drawn by community groups from being used in the November elections, those Miami community groups have challenged that decision.

On Sunday, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers representing the Miami community groups requested that the U.S. Supreme Court step in to vacate the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta and reject using the citys map in November. To allow the map to remain in effect would result in November elections occurring under a system that explicitly and unconstitutionally sorts Miamians by race, the groups said.

READ MORE: Whats my district? Appeals court makes ruling in Miami voting-map lawsuit

The ACLU also urged the court to rule on the matter by Friday.

The Eleventh Circuit imposes a blatantly unconstitutional map that a federal court found intentionally divides Miami residents by race, assigning residents to districts to match the faces of their representative, in an overt system of racial balancing supposedly designed to achieve diversity of representation and harmony in our city,  the ACLUs latest filing says.

In late July, Judge K. Michael Moore of the U.S. Southern District of Florida found the citys map unconstitutional. The city then created another map that the ACLU alleges intentionally replicates the same constitutional violations.

READ MORE: Judge rejects Miami voting map, adopts new boundaries that pose a problem for Carollo

According to the ACLUs filings, the Miami-Dade Elections Department hasnt yet reassigned voters into new districts nor has it mailed out information about the upcoming election.

For the ACLU, that means the court could still implement the redrawn map.

The City Commission engaged in egregious, explicit, and unapologetic race-based sorting of its residents, the ACLU filing says. ...Commissioners brazenly explained over the course of a half-dozen public meetings that Miamis City Commission must continue to have three Hispanic seats, one Black seat, and one Anglo [non-Hispanic white] seat.

Previous decisions in city map debacle

On Friday, a three-judge appellate panel blocked the groups redrawn map in a move that adopted a city-approved map for the November elections. The community groups sued the city over a 2022 voting map that they alleged is racially gerrymandered and unconstitutionally packed Hispanic and Black voters into certain districts.

Though the lawsuit is expected to go to trial in 2024, the city needed a map to use for the November elections after the federal judge invalidated the citys previous map. The judge ordered the city to adopt the map drawn by community groups only to have the appeals court side with the city on Friday.

Under the citys map, District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollos home in northeast Coconut Grove remains inside his district. Under the community groups redrawn map, Carollos home would have been in District 2, which would create a problem for the commissioner because city law requires commissioners to live inside their districts.

Miami Herald staff writer Joey Flechas contributed to this report.
By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) -Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao was sentenced on Monday to 4-3/4 years in prison for aiding and abetting manslaughter in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was pinned to the ground by another officer's knee during a botched arrest.

The sentence, meted out by Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, was more than the 4-1/4 years requested by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

"I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgment of some responsibility," Cahill said before handing down the sentence.

The sentence will run concurrently with the 3-1/2 years Thao previously received on a federal conviction of violating Floyd's civil rights.

Cahill in May found Thao guilty of one count of aiding and abetting manslaughter in the second degree for his role in Floyd's death. Thao, a nine-year veteran of the police force, was the fourth and final officer sentenced in the killing.

"I didn't intend on doing any malice or ... try hurt anyone. That was never my intent. I did the best that I thought I could," Thao said in court before he was sentenced.

Derek Chauvin, a white officer captured on cellphone video kneeling on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, was found guilty of murder in 2021. Thao held back a small crowd of bystanders while Chauvin and two other officers were subduing Floyd, who police suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby store.

The killing ignited a wave of protests over racism and police brutality across the United States and around the world.

Lawyers for Thao did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The other two officers at the scene, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, restrained Floyd's knees and buttocks while Chauvin knelt on his neck. Lane and Kueng last year pleaded guilty in state court to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison. Kueng was sentenced to three years.

At a federal trial last year, Kueng and Lane were also found guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights. Lane was sentenced to 2-1/2 years and Kueng to three years in federal prison, to run concurrently with the state sentence.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in state prison for the unintentional second-degree murder of Floyd. Last year, he received a concurrent sentence of 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd's civil rights.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCool)
Two sisters allegedly brought nearly five kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. during an MSC Cruises sailing last month, an affidavit from a federal investigator said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found four packages of a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for the drug among Takeia Herder and Schneeka Parkers belongings during a July 23 enforcement operation on the MSC Seascape ship in Miami. The ship had returned from a cruise with stops including the Bahamas, Jamaica and Mexico.

The siblings were arrested that same day, and are facing charges of conspiracy to import a controlled substance and importation of a controlled substance, according to court documents.

The affidavit was signed by Summer Louis, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security. The complaint did not state what prompted law enforcement to conduct the search.

Officers found the packages inside two dark-colored Samsonite backpacks with an anomaly sewed inside the lining in each, the affidavit said. Herder and Parker denied any knowledge of the narcotics in the backpacks and said they were not asked or paid to smuggle narcotics, the affidavit said. Attorneys listed for the sisters did not immediately return USA TODAYs requests for comment.

DHS, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida and MSC Cruises also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the document, Louis estimated the street value of a kilogram of cocaine to be between roughly $15,000 and $40,000, depending on its purity and where it is sold.

Security camera footage reviewed by CBP officers showed Herder and Parker carrying dark-colored backpacks when they checked in for the cruise, and when disembarking and returning to the ship during stops in the Bahamas and Jamaica. During a stop in Mexico, the footage showed the sisters with smaller bags when disembarking from the ship, the affidavit said.

Cruise cabins: What are the most and least expensive staterooms? Here's what to know

Herder told law enforcement officials that she invited Parker on the sailing, and that a friend helped Herder pay for it. They met up with that friend  who is not named in the affidavit  and another person during the stop in Jamaica, and went to a restaurant. Herder used the restroom and left her backpack behind. When she picked it up later, she said she noticed it was heavier than before.

Parker said one of Herders friends asked her if she wanted a bag to put her towels and other items in, but that she did not notice anything suspicious about it because she did not see anything inside it, according to the affidavit.

In a search of the sisters cell phones, law enforcement found WhatsApp voice calls, video calls and messages with a phone number that had a Jamaica area code in Herders phone. She also sent a message to a contact listed in the device as Kenny Jamaica two days before the cruise departed. The message read, in part, ... I dont know what u doing but am not doing it no more so what ever u got going on let it stop playing with me and now you not going to pick up the phone. The message did not get a response.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Two sisters allegedly snuck cocaine into US on an MSC cruise
By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) -Tyson Foods is shutting four more chicken plants - in Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri - to cut costs, a blow to small communities in the U.S. heartland that depend on the meatpacker for nearly 3,000 jobs.

The company, which reaped big profits as meat prices soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now adjusting to a decline and to slowing demand for some products. Tyson closed two other chicken plants, in Arkansas and Virginia, with almost 1,700 employees this year, and has also laid off corporate employees.

The decision by Tyson, the largest U.S. meat producer by sales, to shutter facilities surprised and saddened local officials, who said the four plants have been fixtures for more than 50 years.

Tyson said it will move the work done at the closing plants - located in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; Dexter, Missouri; and Noel, Missouri - to newer facilities closer to its customers. The plants are slated to close in late 2023 or early 2024, according to Tyson.

The four facilities account for about 10% of Tyson's chicken-slaughter capacity, Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson told analysts on a call.

The company employs roughly 1,500 workers at the facility in Noel, tucked in Missouri's southwest corner, Mayor Terry Lance said. The city's total population: about 2,100 people.

"It's going to impact the city pretty hard," Lance said.

About 683 people work at the facility in Dexter, a city with a population of about 8,000, City Administrator David Wyman said. Wyman said he hopes to connect workers with other local employers so they do not leave town.

"People need a job and those jobs are now not here," Wyman added.

Tyson's decision has already put on hold Dexter's planning for a new wastewater treatment plant that could cost $18 million, Wyman said. The city had been working on the project with plant management, Wyman added.

The closure also affects about 29 local farmers who own chicken houses to supply the facility, along with grain growers who produce chicken feed, Wyman said.

Tyson declined to say how many plant employees will be affected. It said it will help relocate workers and encouraged them to apply for other positions at Tyson.

"These moves are difficult certainly," CFO Tyson said in an interview. "For the long term of Tyson, this is a move that should allow us to be better, more efficient and serve our customers better."

CEO Donnie King said on the call with analysts the plants are typically smaller and "in need of major capital to make them viable."

Local officials said the latest closures affect about 300 plant workers in North Little Rock and more than 500 jobs in Corydon, Indiana.

"When large corporations make business decisions like this, there simply isn't much we can do," said Bruce Cunningham, town manager of Corydon. "The decision has been made and it is up to us to move forward."

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Will Dunham and Louise Heavens)
A Russian and Chinese naval patrol consisting of several vessels operated off the coast of Alaska last week, defense officials and lawmakers said over the weekend  a show of force that prompted a US military response but did not pose a threat to the US or Canada, a US Northern Command spokesperson told CNN.

NORTHCOM and the North American Aerospace Defense Command deployed planes and ships to monitor the Russian and Chinese patrol, which stayed in international waters, the spokesperson said.

Alaskas Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski said in a statement Saturday that a total of 11 Russian and Chinese vessels had been operating near the Aleutian Islands, and were met in response by four US Navy destroyers. Murkowski said that she and Sullivan had been in close contact with leadership from Alaska Command for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting U.S. waters in the Aleutians.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told CNN in a statement that according to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean. This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation.

Sullivan said that Chinese and Russian vessels came similarly close to Alaska last summer and were encountered by a US Coast Guard ship on a routine patrol at the time  a tepid response, the senator added, that led him to press senior military leaders to be ready with a more robust response in the future.

For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to (Chinese President) Xi Jinping and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska, Sullivan said.

Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Center in Australia, echoed the NORTHCOM repsonse that the Chinese and Russian warships were not a threat and acted according to international law just as US Navy vessels do when operating off the Chinese or Russian coasts.

But he said the US statement affirming the navigation rights of the foreign warships was in contrast to reactions from Beijing to similar US Navy sailings.

Chinese responses to similar operations in the Indo-Pacific  hype up imagined threats and broadcast their military response as efforts to eject invaders from their waters, Herzinger said.

Russia and China have intensified their defense and economic partnership considerably since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to a July US intelligence report, and the countries have repeatedly pledged to strengthen their military ties.

CNNs Brad Lendon in Seoul contributed to this report.

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By Abdel-Kader Mazou and Boureima Balima

NIAMEY (Reuters) -West African leaders will discuss Niger on Thursday after the junta that seized power there on July 26 defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president or face the threat of military intervention, the regional bloc said on Monday.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has sent military forces into troubled member states in the past, had told the junta to stand down by Sunday, but coup leaders instead closed Niger's airspace and pledged to defend the country.

"Niger's armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory," a junta representative said in a statement on national television.

Coup leaders also called on young Nigeriens to be ready to serve their country in its time of need - a rallying call that several students at the capital's Abdou Moumouni university said on Monday they would heed.

"No sacrifice is too much ... for our country, we are ready to give our lives," said economics masters student Soumaila Hamadou on the rain-drenched campus.

ECOWAS said it would hold an extraordinary summit to discuss the Niger crisis on Thursday in Abuja, the Nigerian capital where it has its headquarters, but its statement made no direct reference to the missed deadline.

Niger's capital Niamey appeared calm on Monday with people going about their business as usual, but the closure of Nigerien airspace has already disrupted the skies.

Landlocked Niger is more than twice the size of France and many flight paths across Africa would normally pass above it. Air France suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali, which both border Niger, until Aug. 11 and warned that some flight times would increase.

ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The credibility of the 15-nation club is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows.

ECOWAS defence chiefs agreed on Friday on a possible military action plan if the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, was not released and reinstated, although they said operational decisions would be decided by heads of states.

But the bloc's unity has been broken by a promise from the ruling juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso, both member states, to come to Niger's defence if needed.

Both countries were sending delegations to Niamey to show solidarity, the Malian army said on social media on Monday, and flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed a Burkina Faso military plane arriving in Niamey at around 1120 GMT.

A fracture within ECOWAS and escalation of the stand-off with Niger would further destabilise one of the world's poorest regions, already facing a hunger crisis and an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Niger's uranium and oil reserves and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants in the Sahel region give it economic and strategic importance for the United States, Europe, China and Russia.

HOPE FOR DIPLOMACY

African and Western allies have imposed sanctions and cut aid to Niger in attempts to pressure the junta to step down. Germany said on Monday that sanctions were on the table and described the junta's flight ban as a setback.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, however, said in an interview published on Monday that ECOWAS should extend its deadline for the reinstatement of Bazoum.

"The only way is the diplomatic one," Tajani told La Stampa newspaper.

"It is right that he (Bazoum) should be freed, but we cannot do it. The United States are very cautious about this, it is unthinkable that they would start a military intervention in Niger," Tajani added.

The junta appears to enjoy support from at least part of the population. At pro-coup rallies in Niamey, some participants have cast the situation as a patriotic battle by the former French colony to retain its independence in the face of imperialist interference. Some have held up Russian flags and expressed anti-French sentiment.

France warned its citizens against all travel to Niger, while the Chinese Embassy in Niamey said its nationals in Niger should leave for a third country or return home if they had no reason to stay.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called for "the immediate restoration of Niger's democratically elected government", and said the U.S. would pause certain foreign assistance programmes that benefit the government of Niger.

"There is a rather extraordinary alignment of the West, and of Africa... to condemn what is happening," French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone said on Monday.

"I hope that we will be able to restore democracy and the constitution without blood and in peace," she said on French television channel LCI.

(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Alvise Armellini in Rome and Ingrid Melander in Paris; Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Nellie Peyton and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Toby Chopra, Nick Macfie, Conor Humphries and Alex Richardson)
Police are searching for a Maryland teacher who was reported missing more than a week ago after she disappeared after going on a walk, authorities said.

Mariame Toure Sylla, 59, was last seen in Greenbelt, Maryland, on July 29 around 8 p.m., the Greenbelt Police Department said in a statement Monday. Police described Sylla as a Black woman, about 5 feet 5 inches tall and about 135 pounds, police said.

Sylla, who is also known as Madame Sylla, is a teacher at Dora Kennedy French Immersion School in the Prince George's County Public Schools district in Greenbelt.

We hope and pray for Mariame Toure Sylla's safe return," the school district said in a statement Friday. Our hearts are with the Dora Kennedy French Immersion School community.

Rachel Morin: Officials believe body found near Maryland trail where woman went missing is Morin

Maryland teacher Mariame Sylla has been reported missing.

Maryland community holds vigil for Mariame Sylla

On Friday, students, parents and the Greenbelt community held a vigil for Sylla almost a week after she was reported missing.

At the vigil, Greenbelt Police Chief Rick Bowers said Sylla took regular walks, from 30 to 45 minutes, ending before sunset, local station WTOP reported. Police said she went for a walk the day she disappeared, the station reported.

The Greenbelt Police Department is searching for a Maryland teacher, Mariame Sylla, who was reported missing on July 29, 2023.

Police are asking the public to contact them with any information on Sylla's disappearance.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mariame Sylla: Greenbelt, Maryland, community look for missing teacher
By Philip Pullella

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Catholic Church is open to everyone, including the gay community, and that it has a duty to accompany them on a personal path of spirituality but within the framework of its rules.

Francis, speaking to reporters on the plane returning to Rome from Portugal, also said his health was good following surgery for an abdominal hernia in June. He said his stitches had been removed but had to wear an abdominal band for another two or three months until his muscles strengthened.

Flying back from the World Youth Day Catholic festival in Portugal, the 86-year-old pope appeared in good form as he took questions for about half an hour at his customary freewheeling post-trip press conference while seated at the front of the reporters' section in the rear part of the plane.

One reporter reminded him that during the trip, he said the Church was open to "everyone, everyone, everyone" and asked if it was not incoherent that some, such as women and gay people, did not have the same rights and could not receive some sacraments.

This was an apparent reference to women not being allowed to become priests through the sacrament of Holy Orders and same-sex couples not allowed to contract marriage, which is also a sacrament.

"The Church is open to everyone but there are laws that regulate life inside the church," he said.

"According to the legislation, they cannot partake in (some) sacraments. This does not mean that it is closed. Each person encounters God in their own way inside the Church," he said.

He said ministers in the Church had to accompany all people, including those not conforming to the rules, with the patience and love of a mother.

The Church teaches that women cannot become priests because Jesus chose only men as his apostles.

The Church does not allow same-sex marriage or even blessings for same-sex couples, but Francis supports civil legislation that gives same-sex couples rights in areas such as pensions, health insurance and inheritance.

It teaches that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are.

Since the start of his papacy, Francis has been trying to make the Church more welcoming and less condemning, including to members of the LGBT community, but without changing teachings that urge those with same-sex attraction to be chaste.

During one event during the trip to Portugal, he told a crowd that the Church had room for everyone, "including those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle", and led the crowd in a chant of "Todos, todos, todos!" (Everyone, everyone, everyone!).

In another section of the news conference, referring to young people, he said: "Who among us has not made a moral error at some point in their lives?"

Francis has pushed a series of reforms since he became pope 10 years ago, including giving more roles to women, particularly in high-ranking Vatican positions, but faces a delicate balance between appealing to more liberal believers and upsetting conservatives.

On the plane, he said he was rejuvenated by what he had seen at the World Youth Day Catholic festival in Portugal, including by the orderly nature of the crowds and their size.

About 1.5 million people attended his closing Mass at a riverside park in the Portuguese capital on Sunday. Many of the faithful slept outdoors, having attended a vigil there on Saturday night, and they gathered in sweltering heat.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
A crew member of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball observes one of seven foreign vessels encountered in the Bering Sea, Sept. 19, 2022, in this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard District 17. AP-Yonhap



Four U.S. Navy destroyers encountered 11 Russian and Chinese military vessels near Alaska's Aleutian Islands last week.



Alaskan Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan said they have been briefed on the incident, alleging that the vessels were operating in U.S. waters. In a statement Saturday, Sullivan called the incident an "incursion."



"The incursion by 11 Chinese and Russian warships operating together - off the coast of Alaska - is yet another reminder that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow," he said.



"In recognition of this reality and our state's unrivaled strategic location, for years, I've been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure to host these assets, like the deep-water port of Nome."



While the senators claim the vessels were in U.S. waters, the U.S. Northern Command told the Wall Street Journal the activity remained in international waters."



A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the United States said in a statement that the Chinese and Russian militaries were conducting joint maritime patrols in "relevant waters" in the western and northern Pacific Ocean. They clarified that the operation was "not targeted at any third party."



"This is a stark reminder of Alaska's proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty," Murkowski said in a statement.



"Incursions like this are why we are working so hard to secure funding and resources to expand our military's capacity and capabilities in Alaska, and why our colleagues must join us in supporting those investments." (UPI)


The reason for his hospitalization at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear.

Senegals jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been on a hunger strike in prison to protest criminal charges against him, was hospitalized Sunday, his party said.

Sonko was imprisoned last week in advance of criminal proceedings against him on charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The reason for his hospitalization at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear. Prior to his imprisonment, he was in good health and had no known illnesses, said the statement from Sonkos now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party.

FILE  Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko addresses journalists following his release from police custody in Dakar, Senegal, on March 8, 2021. Sonko has been charged with conspiracy against the state and calls for insurrections among other offenses, said the public prosecutor on Saturday, July 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui, File)

Sonko announced July 30 on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would start his hunger strike. The announcement came a day before a judge in the capital of Dakar ordered his imprisonment.

The latest charges against Sonko came weeks after a judge convicted him in a separate case of corrupting youth and sentenced him to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation. Last week, at least four people died and several were injured in fresh protests after Sonko was detained in a prison just outside Dakar.

Sonko placed third in Senegals 2019 presidential election and is popular with the countrys youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

Sonkos health emergency comes the day after his lawyer, Juan Branco, was arrested in Mauritania and extradited to Senegal, where he is in a Dakar prison, according to Brancos lawyer, Robin Bindard.

Bindard said Sunday that Branco is being held for alleged dissemination of false information, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The mission of a lawyer is sacred, and you cant reproach a lawyer for defending his client, said Bindard.

Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome announced Brancos arrest to applause in a National Assembly meeting Saturday.

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The post Senegals opposition leader Ousmane Sonko hospitalized a week into prison hunger strike appeared first on TheGrio.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, officials said Monday.

More than 1,000 vehicles will be used starting Tuesday morning to move 36,000 scouts  mostly teenagers  from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Koreas Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area, he said. Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.

Officials at Camp Humphreys, a major U.S. military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, did not immediately confirm reports that thousands of scouts from Sweden, Norway and Denmark were to be transferred to its facilities.

The base is already accommodating hundreds of American scouts, who were moved over the weekend because of heat concerns as South Korea grapples with one of its hottest summers in years.

The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the scouts from the storms path and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.

South Koreas government did not immediately specify any venues where the scouts will be staying. David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.

An official from Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's biggest province surrounding Seoul, said they were working to secure accommodation based on the potential relocation of around 15,000 scouts to the region. The possible venues include the Korea International Exhibition Center, a major convention facility in Goyang, according to the official, who did not want to be named because the plans weren't finalized.

Khanun has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japans southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and train services. On Monday afternoon, it had sustained winds of 108 kph (67 mph), with higher gusts, and was forecast to maintain that strength as it brushed Japans main island of Kyushu this week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

South Koreas weather agency reported that Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, potentially packing winds as strong as 118 to 154 kph (73 to 95 mph). Large swaths of the countrys south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.

The plans to evacuate the scouts were announced hours after President Yoon Suk Yeols office said he called for contingency plans, including relocating them to hotels and other facilities in the greater capital area.

The Japanese weather agency said the storm was about 160 kilometers (99 miles) east of Amami city on Japans southern main island of Kyushu and moving gradually toward the north as of Monday afternoon. It warned residents in affected regions to watch out for mudslides, high winds and rough seas.

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the countrys Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Due to the forecast of harsh weather in the region, West Japan Railway Co. said there was a possibility of suspending Shinkansen bullet train services from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

The South Korean Safety Ministry said the storm will unleash strong winds and rain throughout the country from Wednesday to Friday and instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other sectors vulnerable to flooding.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. The British scouts were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts were moved to Camp Humphreys.

Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday. Long before the event started, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.

Geir Olav Kaase, leader of the 700-member Norwegian contingent, said Norwegian scouts had already started leaving the campsite on Monday evening to avoid any chaos that may arise in the event of a joint evacuation. Kasse said the evacuations were proceeding in close cooperation with the Danish contingent, but he did not specify whether the Danes have started to leave too.

We do all we can to ensure that the scouts are safe and well, and that the transfer goes as smoothly as possible. We help each other and keep our spirits up, Kaase said in a statement.

The Swedish news agency TT said some 1,500 scouts from Sweden will be relocated to Camp Humphreys along with Norwegian and Danish scouts.

Kim Hyun-sook, South Koreas minister of gender equality and family, said officials are trying to arrange new cultural events and activities for the scouts before they leave, including a possible K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium on Friday to go with the closing ceremony.

We dont see it that way, Kim said when asked whether the scouts departure from Buan should be seen as an early end for the jamboree. We are creating new programs with regional governments away from the campsite, so it could be said the jamboree is widening.

Organizers earlier on Monday were scurrying to come up with plans to evacuate the scouts ahead of the storms arrival but werent committing to abandoning the campsite entirely.

Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamborees organizing committee, said organizers have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.

About 40,000 scouts came to the jamboree. About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while about 1,000 were from the United States.

South Korea categorizes Khanun as a typhoon, defined as a tropical storm with winds stronger than 61 kph (38 mph). South Koreas weather agency expects Khanun to weaken to a storm within the next five days.

___

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
A growing number of states are ending "period" or "pink" taxes.

Texas will eliminate sales tax on menstrual products, as well as a handful of maternity products, this September, joining a growing number of states removing "period" or "pink" taxes.

Senate Bill 379, which passed in the 2023 legislative session, will end the sales tax of baby wipes, diapers, bottles, menstrual products, nursing bras and maternity clothes. The bill will go into effect next month.

Texas joins 23 other states and the District of Columbia that specifically ban a tax on period products and 17 other states that ban a tax on diapers (in addition to the five states without any sales tax).

What states tax period products?

Currently, 21 states tax period products. The taxes range from 4% to 7% according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. Five states do not have sales tax (Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Vermont and Delaware) and 24 states and the District of Columbia have created tax exemptions for period products.

Michigan was the first state to create a tax exemption for period products in 1981, followed by Pennsylvania in 1991.

The organization estimates that people who menstruate require about 40 period products per cycle.

Fight to end period poverty

Experts stress making period products affordable is critical to ending period poverty, defined as the inability to access period supplies and/or receive adequate menstrual health education.

In the U.S. today, one in four people who menstruate struggle to afford period products, according to Alliance for Period Supplies.

And a 2021 study from the nonprofit's founding sponsor, U by Kotex, showed that two in five people have struggled to purchase period products in their lifetime because of a lack of income  a 35% increase from 2018 research. Black, Latina and low-income respondents were among those impacted by period poverty the most, the study found.

What states tax diapers?

As of 2023, 18 states and the District of Columbia have tax exemptions for diapers, according to the National Diaper Bank Network. The taxes range from 4% to 7%, though local taxes can push that rate toward 9% in some areas.

The organization estimates that children require 50 diaper changes per week or 200 diaper changes per month.

Contributing: Wyatte Grantham-Philips

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Tampon tax': Texas is latest state to end taxes on period products
Donald Trumps lawyer on Sunday previewed a legal defence his client may make in court when his upcoming trial for his actions leading up to January 6 begins next year.

Appearing on all the major networks, John Lauro fielded questions from journalists about the idea that Mr Trump was acting illegally when he approached then-Vice President Mike Pence with his plan for Mr Pence to halt or reverse the Senates certification of the 2020 election, allowing slates of false electors to be named to replace those set to vote for Joe Biden.

Mr Lauro told journalists on NBC that Mr Trump had not directed his vice president to use his power as president of the Senate to interfere with the chambers process  instead, he characterised it as an aspirational request by the president.

Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. Its core free speech, argued Mr Lauro on CNN, a remark which drew a laugh from State of the Union host Dana Bash.

When it comes to political speech, you can not only advocate for a position, but you can take action, you can petition, you can ask even your vice president to pause the vote, Mr Lauro claimed.

But you cant break the law, which is what this indictment alleges, Bash shot back.

He went on to argue that Mr Pences refusal to comply with the request or demand was evidence itself that it had been the former.

Im not saying that [the January 6 riot] was in any way appropriate, but the ultimate power of the presidency was transferred to Mr Biden, he told CNNs Dana Bash.

It was the exact same language he used to describe Mr Trumps overtures to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was revealed to have been pressured by the president to intercede in that state after Joe Biden was declared the lawful victor.

On a now-famous phone call, Mr Trump suggested that Mr Raffensperger would be able to find more than 10,000 votes for him that would push him past Mr Bidens total in the state.

"That wasn't a threat at all, Mr Lauro claimed on NBC. He was asking for [him] to get the truth...That was an aspirational ask."

WATCH: Why did fmr. Pres. Trump threaten Georgia Sec. of State Raffensperger with a criminal charge? @chucktodd asks.



Trump lawyer John Lauro: "That wasn't a threat at all. ... He was asking for [him] to get the truth. ... That was an aspirational ask." pic.twitter.com/fqAOqlCOda  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 6, 2023

He would go on to claim that asking Mr Pence to commit an act that violated the US Constitution was not inherently a crime. However, some crimes simultaneously represent violations of ones constitutional rights, and in the case of Mr Trump this argument could falls flat given that the government will argue that an obstruction of the Senates ability to certify the election essentially represented a violation of every Americans right to be represented by the lawfully-elected president.

WATCH: Trump attorney John Lauro says Pence never said he thought Trump was acting criminally.@chucktodd: He said the president asked him to violate the Constitution.



Lauro: No  a technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law. pic.twitter.com/feMuDu9N5t  Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 6, 2023

Mr Lauros whirlwind Sunday media tour comes as he and the Trump legal team are set to respond to a new filing by the Justice Department seeking to limit what Donald Trump can say publicly about his ongoing prosecution.

The federal government has argued that Mr Trumps recent comments on Truth Social vowing vengeance against those involved with the investigation will have a chilling effect on witnesses; the ex-president is already charged with witness tampering among the dozens of counts he faces.
An attorney for Donald Trump has indicated that another indictment for the former president is imminent in the investigations into his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential elections in Georgia.

Alina Habba told Fox News Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo that Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, who is spearheading a criminal investigation into Mr Trump, will want her moment through the case.

Are you expecting an indictment in the coming two or three weeks from Georgia? the Fox News anchor asked her.

Yes, I think that its been highly spoken about, Ms Habba replied.

I think if you look at the barricades, the fact that shes got her PR team doing fresh pictures for her, its a good indicator that Fani wants her moment, and she will get on the bandwagon with the rest of the corrupt DAs and AGs that weve seen out of this country.

After an extensive investigation spanning more than two and a half years into Mr Trumps purported efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the Fulton County grand jury is nearing a decision regarding another potential indictment.

If Mr Trump gets indicted again, it will become his fourth one this year following federal charges in New York state court for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, an indictment by a Washington DC court into efforts to overturn the 2020 elections and another over the mishandling of classified documents.

The charges in Georgia stem from Mr Trumps leaked phone call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger in which he asked officials to find votes for him, as well as the breach of voting machines by a group of Trump-connected operatives.

Prosecutors also could charge Mr Trump or others with voter fraud-related crimes.

Mr Trump, who has denied wrongdoing in any of the cases, chose to criticise the state of the nations capital  the latest in his personal feud with Washington DCs administration.

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, he said on the tarmac of Reagan National Airport in Virginia, just a few miles away.

This is not the place that I left. Its a very sad thing to see it.
KYIV  Ukraine said Monday it had detained an informant who was sharing intelligence with Russia as part of a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The woman "was preparing an enemy airstrike on Mykolaiv region" during a recent visit by Zelenskyy, Ukraines security service, the SBU, said in a statement released online.

The SBU said the woman, who was not identified, was collecting information including the time and list of locations that the Ukrainian leader planned to attend in the southern region.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Clodah Kilcoyne / AFP - Getty Images)

A spokesperson for the SBU confirmed to NBC News that Ukraine was saying Zelenskyy was the target of the attack.

However, the SBU said it learned of the alleged plot in time and that "additional security measures were taken during the visit."

A woman, center, being detained by law enforcement after she was accused of plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Ukraine's Security Services)

Zelenskyy regularly moves around the country, visiting front lines and liberated cities, under strict security. In the early days of the war, the Ukrainian leader was thought to be a primary target for Moscows forces and the subject of a number of foiled assassination attempts.

The SBUs statement said it continued to document the womans actions to learn more about her alleged Russian handlers, and learned that she was also instructed to locate Ukraine armys strategic assets near the town of Ochakiv in Mykolaiv region, which the SBU claimed the Russians were planning to use to launch a massive air strike on the region.

The woman was ultimately apprehended "red-handed" as she was trying to pass intelligence to the Russians, the statement said.

She was only identified as a resident of Ochakiv and a former military shop saleswoman. She is facing up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

NBC News has not independently verified the Ukrainian claims. There was no immediate public reaction from the Kremlin.

In May, Russia claimed Ukraine tried to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin, which Ukraine denied. Unlike Zelenskyy, Putin rarely makes public appearances near the front lines or even inside Russia.

Both Kyiv and Moscow have been striking deep behind each other's defensive lines in recent weeks while Ukraine's counteroffensive has so far failed to produce a clear breakthrough on the battlefield.

Artem Grudinin reported from Kyiv, and Yuliya Talmazan reported from London.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned of Russias nuclear threat and reaffirmed a pledge to work to make the world free of nuclear weapons in a speech marking 78 years since the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on Sunday.

As the only country to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war, Japan will press on tirelessly with its efforts to bring about a world without nuclear weapons, Kishida said in remarks delivered in Hiroshima, in a tribute to the victims, their families and those still suffering aftereffects of the bomb.

He further warned that while Russias threat and other concerns make that road all the more difficult, its even more important to refocus efforts on the mission.

The widening division within the international community over approaches to nuclear disarmament, the nuclear threat made by Russia and other concerns now make that road all the more difficult. But it is precisely because of these circumstances that it is imperative for us to reinvigorate international momentum once more towards the realization of a world without nuclear weapons, Kishida said.

Kishida pointed to the recent Group of Seven Hiroshima Summit, during which world leaders heard from bomb survivors, and said the starting point for progress is accurately understanding the tragic realities of the atomic bombings.

Russia has recently escalated its nuclear position against Ukraine and the West, recently transferring nuclear tactical weapons to Belarus for the first time since 1962.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also recently said that if Ukraine is successful in its counteroffensive against Russia to take back its land, Russia would have to use nuclear weapons.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A judge in Southern California was arrested last week in connection with the death of his wife, according to local authorities.

The Anaheim Police Department said they responded Thursday night to reports of a shooting at a home in the neighborhood of Anaheim Hills, where they found 65-year-old Sheryl Ferguson inside with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

Police said officers contacted 72-year-old Jeffrey Ferguson, an Orange County Superior Court judge, at the home and arrested him without incident. Ferguson was booked into the Anaheim Police Departments Detection Facility and held on $1 million bail, police said.

According to online records with the Orange County Sheriffs Office, Ferguson posted bond Friday and was released. He has not yet been formally charged.

Anaheim police Sgt. Jon McClintock told The Associated Press that one other person was home at the time of the shooting, but declined to say who that person was or whether they were one of the callers who had notified authorities.

Police said detectives will not be disclosing any further details as the investigation is ongoing.

Elected as a judge in 2014, Ferguson presides over criminal cases in an Orange County courthouse in the city of Fullerton.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
An intense marine heat wave has developed off the U.S. West Coast, pushing sea surface temperatures more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal.

The expanse of warm water in the Pacific Ocean, being tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, first formed and started growing more than 1,000 miles offshore in May. In recent weeks, changing wind patterns have altered the oceans circulation, pushing the warm water to the coasts, said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at NOAAs Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

Theres a big swath of water thats over 4 degrees Celsius [7.2 degrees F] above normal, and its like a few hundred miles off coast, but thats not that far, he said. That could reach the coast in the next week or so.

The Pacific's waters that are hotter than usual add to global sea surface temperatures that have repeatedly shattered records over the past five months. Parts of the North Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico have been exceptionally warm, with waters off the coast of Florida topping 100 degrees F multiple times last month.

The exceptional warmth of the worlds oceans have, in some ways, mirrored long and brutal heat waves that have unfolded across almost all continents  including in South America, where it is currently the middle of winter.

Marine heat waves are not altogether uncommon, but scientists track these events closely because warmer-than-usual ocean temperatures can fuel extreme weather, accelerate the loss of polar ice and exacerbate rising sea levels.

Researchers are also concerned about the health of the worlds oceans because these bodies of water are crucial for the planets ability to store heat. Studies have found that the oceans have absorbed about 90% of the heat trapped on the planet from greenhouse gas emissions since 1970.

As such, when oceans heat up, there can be far-reaching consequences.

The extent of the current marine heat wave in the Pacific remains to be seen, but Leising projected that it could end up being the second- or third-most powerful heat wave on record for the region.

He added that the marine heat wave will likely dissipate this fall but said there are some unknowns that muddy the forecast. The main wild card, he said, is the potential influence of El Nino.

The return of El Nino conditions this year is expected to increase average air and sea temperatures around the world, compounding background warming from climate change. El Nino is a natural climate cycle characterized by warmer-than-usual waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, which can have a significant effect on rainfall, hurricanes and other extreme weather.

Leising said its not yet clear what impact El Nino will have on ocean temperatures for the remainder of the year but added that in 2014, when a vast and lengthy marine heat wave that came to be known as The Blob simmered in the northeast Pacific, it occurred during an El Nino event.

So there is a hypothesis that El Nino may be able to affect atmospheric patterns in such a way that it could actually reinforce and sustain this current heat wave, he said.

That could have enormous implications for marine ecosystems and fisheries. Warm waters tend to fuel the growth of harmful algal blooms that can be toxic to humans, birds, fish, shellfish and marine mammals, Leising said. A recent die-off that littered huge amounts of dead fish on the beaches of a town on northern Mexico's Pacific coast was blamed on a toxic algae bloom, The Associated Press reported.

Algal blooms can affect harvests of razor clams, mussels and even Dungeness crabs, he added.

Thats a big one, because Dungeness crab is a huge West Coast fishery, Leising said.

If warmer-than-usual waters persist, these conditions could also affect the migration patterns of sea life, including salmon and whales.

Such impacts could be widespread and long-lasting, Leising said.

This is pretty severe, he said. I dont really expect it to become as severe as the 2014 Blob, but its still going to be impactful.
A New York City cancer doctor killed herself and her baby in her home early Saturday, police said.

Dr. Krystal Cascetta, an oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, shot her baby and then herself at their home in Somers, a town about 50 miles northeast of New York City, around 7 a.m., New York State Police said.

State police said that "the scene is consistent with a murder/suicide."

Dr. Krystal Cascetta. (via Facebook)

It is unclear how old the baby was.

Trooper Steven Nevel said he was not permitted to release more details but said: "We know, 100%, without a doubt, that it was a murder-suicide."

Nevel said the 911 call came from someone inside the residence, who, upon hearing the first gunshot, rushed to the baby's room, thinking something had fallen. The unidentified caller heard a second gunshot before arriving at the room, broke down the locked door and found the dead mother and baby inside, Nevel said.

According to Mount Sinai's website, Cascetta treated breast, bone, gynecological and gastrointestinal cancers. She worked as site chief of the Mount Sinai Queens Infusion Center, a treatment center for cancer and blood disorders, and as an assistant professor of medicine in the hematology and medical oncology division at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Cascetta graduated from Albany Medical College, where she was inducted into a national honor society "for demonstrating excellence in humanistic clinical care, leadership, compassion and dedication to service," according to her Mount Sinai webpage. She had also been studying for a master of health administration degree at Cornell University as of last year.

A spokesperson for Mount Sinai Health System said in a statement: "The Mount Sinai community is greatly saddened by the tragic loss of a Mount Sinai Health System doctor and her child. We extend our deepest sympathies to Dr. Cascettas family, friends, colleagues, and patients."

If you are pregnant or a new mother and you are in crisis, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline provides free, confidential support 24/7 in English and Spanish. Call or text the hotline at 833-TLC-MAMA (833-852-6262).

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
The company logo is seen on the Micron Technology offices in Shanghai, China, May 25. Reuters-Yonhap





Beijing's ambitions of joining the world's top memory-chip makers, and replacing imports with local products in the domestic market, look increasingly at risk as the world's leading players adopt cutting-edge technologies while China's ability to catch up is hampered by U.S. sanctions, according to analysts and industry insiders.



This, in turn, could seriously hinder China's ability to develop large artificial intelligence (AI) models when the country is already reliant on U.S. suppliers such as Nvidia for sanctions-compliant versions of graphics processing units, or GPUs, they said.



Not long ago, China was seen as catching up quickly with international suppliers in the field of advanced 3D NAND flash and DRAM memory chips, but the gap could have widened again in the era of ChatGPT as Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC) and ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) are unable to press ahead with catch up efforts due to the U.S. export restrictions.



In comparison, U.S.-based Micron Technology, which is banned by Chinese authorities from selling certain products to some local clients, last month announced samples of its high-bandwidth memory 3 (HBM3) Gen2 die to support generative AI applications. Samsung Electronics said last month it has completed development of GDDR7 DRAM for AI applications, and it will double down on high-bandwidth memory in 2024 to meet growing demand in AI applications. Meanwhile, rival SK Hynix, which tops the global HBM market with a 50 percent market share, is also set to double its HBM production next year for AI servers.



Analysts and industry professionals told the South China Morning Post that Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix remain the default choice for many downstream buyers and that Beijing's restrictions on Micron, which previously had about a 15 percent market share in China's server DRAM market, mostly benefited its two Korean competitors.





In this illustration picture, a Chinese flag is displayed next to a "Made in China" sign seen on a printed circuit board with semiconductor chips, Feb. 17. Reuters-Yonhap
YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, ARMENPRESS. Member of the European Parliament Costas Mavrides (Cyprus) has accused Azerbaijan of committing a war crime in Nagorno-Karabakh by blocking the Lachin Corridor and called on the international community to impose sanctions against Baku.

Asked on the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, MEP Mavrides told ARMENPRESS Brussels correspondent Lilit Gasparyan that the blockade of the Lachin Corridor since last December is a humanitarian emergency and a blatant violation of international law by Azerbaijan.

He added that the blockade constitutes a war crime under international law.

The current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh with the blockage of the Lachin Corridor since last December is a humanitarian emergency and a blatant violation of the international law by Azerbaijan. 120,000 native Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh including 30.000 children, with no medicines, no food, were blockaded by the Azerbaijanis. Following that, we had the binding International Court of Justice order that requires Azerbaijan to take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons. And what has Azerbaijan done since then? Nothing. The complete and arbitrary blockade of the Lachin Corridor, in particular the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian cargos for the basic needs of the people of Nagorno Karabakh under siege, is considered a war crime under international law, the MEP said.

Mavrides recalled his recent questions to EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

In the relevant debate last month, in June, with the HR/VP Joseph Borrell, during the plenary session of the European Parliament, I posed to him the following questions: With all the understanding, do you consider today Azerbaijan as a reliable partner? Second question, which is very specific: Based on the facts, is Azerbaijan committing a crime like ethnic cleansing, yes or no? And do you consider the response of the EU so far as proportionate to the crime in the making? European Parliament has a strong position on this, urging Azerbaijan to respect the relevant decisions and immediately reopen the Lachin corridor. Though decisions on the foreign policy and sanctions are taken on the European Council level where the Heads of State and Government participate and the High Representative can have an important political role, MEP Costas Mavrides added.

The Member of the European Parliament described the EU monitoring mission in Armenia (EUMA) as an important step for political and practical reasons, and called on the international community and the EU to take drastic measures such as imposing sanctions against Azerbaijan.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, ARMENPRESS. A group of UN experts today expressed alarm over the ongoing blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan, which has led to a dire humanitarian crisis in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The blockade, obstructing the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia for the past seven months, has left the population facing acute shortages of food staples, medication, and hygiene products, impacted the functioning of medical and educational institutions, and placed the lives of the residents  especially children, persons with disabilities, older persons, pregnant women, and the sick  at significant risk.

The blockade of the Lachin Corridor is a humanitarian emergency that has created severe shortages of essential food staples including sunflower oil, fish, chicken, dairy products, cereal, sugar and baby formula, the experts said.

They warned that the region was rapidly depleting its medical reserves, and hospitals were struggling to provide care as the operation of ambulances has been hampered due to declining fuel supplies.

The experts urged authorities in Azerbaijan to immediately restore the free and secure movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo moving along the Lachin corridor in both directions, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement of November 2020.

They also called on Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in the region, to protect the corridor under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

By lifting the blockade, the 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 said.

"We urge the Government of Azerbaijan to uphold its international obligations to respect and protect human rights, including the right to food, health, education and life. We also emphasise the importance of cooperation and dialogue among all parties involved to find a peaceful and sustainable resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the experts said.

The experts: Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Gerard Quinn, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Disqualifying Rahul Gandhi within 26 hours of the Surat courts verdict was an act as much in indecent haste as it was not in good faith.

Democracies are fragile, wrote Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, academics and best-selling authors, in their 2018 book How Democracies Die. India is no exception. Of the three pillars that contain and uphold democracy, the judiciary  from the district court in Surat to the Supreme Court in New Delhi  has worked on how the balance is maintained.

One more test of its fragility or strength will play out from August 8 in the Lok Sabha, when the no-confidence motion tabled by the Opposition now in a newly-formed alliance, INDIA, is inevitably defeated. The test, therefore, is neither in fact that the motion was tabled, nor in its predictable defeat. The test will be on the quality of the debate in the Lok Sabha, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will face Rahul Gandhi, now that his disqualification has been rescinded by the Speaker, Om Birla. The disqualification of the Wayanad MP was based on the Surat courts conviction and two-year sentence that automatically triggered his exclusion under the Representation of the People Act 1951.

Disqualifying Rahul Gandhi within 26 hours of the Surat courts verdict was an act as much in indecent haste as it was not in good faith. The Surat court had concluded that the maximum sentence should be imposed on Rahul Gandhi for a statement that was as tasteless as it was a meaningless, sweeping generalisation. As it happens, the two-year jail term handed down to Rahul Gandhi as an MP triggered a harsher punishment; under Election Commission rules the Wayanad MP was disqualified for eight years as a contestant in any election.

Acting in good faith, lifting the disqualification before the no-confidence motion debate was politically necessary for the ruling BJP. A head-to-head debate between Mr Modi and Rahul Gandhi will be the high point of the debate. Mr Modi has managed to duck being present in the Lok Sabha for most of the Monsoon Session, even as the INDIA alliance demanded that he speak on the now three-month horrific carnage raging in Manipur. The Speaker, having wrestled with the Opposition over the duration of a debate on Manipur, where the BJP is also in power, the formality of a no-confidence motion is a critical moment for Prime Minister Modi.

Having declared that India is the mother of democracy, it is up to Mr Modi to demonstrate that it is indeed so. Democracies are not only about winning majorities that put the BJP in power in the double-engine model that Mr Modi values so much. Democracies are also about debate and accountability.

The Supreme Court verdict and the rescinded disqualification allows Rahul Gandhi to be a candidate in the 2024 general election. The sooner Rahul Gandhi returns to the Lok Sabha the better.

The Speaker and his office have set a seriously bad precedent for future office-holders intent on acting in bad faith. Mr Birla is singularly partial to a large number of alleged wrong-doers even as he has been extraordinarily tough on Rahul Gandhi. Under Mr Birlas watch, there are some 116 MPs from the BJP, 29 MPs from the Congress, 13 MPs from the Janata Dal (United), 10 from the DMK and nine from the Trinamul Congress who have criminal cases against them. It can be safely assumed that many on this list, put together by Association of Democratic Rights in 2019, long before Rahul Gandhi was found guilty, continue to serve as MPs because there are stay orders issued by a judicial authority pending final disposal of the case.

The neutrality of the Speaker is a difficult matter; it has been tested in Indias Parliament. It cost Somnath Chatterjee his membership of the CPI(M) when he refused to resign from his post as his party wanted him to do, in line with its withdrawal of support for the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government over the civil nuclear deal with the United States in 2008. Mr Chatterjee was adamant that as Speaker, he belonged to no party. Mr Birla is being tested against Mr Chatterjees standard.

The larger question that the Supreme Court in its judgment has raised is about the rights of the people. For the Supreme Court, Wayanads non- representation because of the automatic disqualification triggered by the Surat Court decision was a relevant factor. Rightly so; the automatic disqualification penalised people living within the Wayanad constituency and not only the MP, an individual.

The Supreme Court has raised another question: can the judiciary fail to justify its decision? Clearly, the apex court felt that it was irrational of the Surat court to hold the position that Rahul Gandhi was a habitual offender, because except the admonition to the petitioner by this court (Supreme Court) in a contempt proceeding, no other reason has been granted by the learned trial judge. In doing so, the Supreme Court has drawn attention to the duration of the punishment and an alternative scenario had the Surat court handed down a punishment for 729 days instead of 730 days.

The over-the-top labelling of Rahul Gandhi confirms that in Indias democracy today, the ruling side considers the Opposition, especially the Congress Party, as an enemy, an object to be despised and hated rather than a rival and a competitor. There is serious danger to the institutional structure as well as the expectation that those who work within these institutions will act, at all times, in good faith. The issue is not limited to the efficacy of the mechanism of balance and the checks that hold it in place; it goes deeper than that.

The 13 cases of criminal defamation filed against Rahul Gandhi are about the BJPs perception on the distance that separates Narendra Modi from the rest of his class, that is, MPs of the Lok Sabha. Its obsession with power and the prestige that cocoons the powerful have been on display for a while.

To them, Mr Modi is not first among equals, which is how parliamentary democracy defines the office and the office-holder. To the BJP, Mr Modi is the person who keeps it in power. He is not just another political leader, with a fixed term in office. He is so up and above the rest, so far removed from the ranks of mere MPs, like Rahul Gandhi, that he has acquired cult status. Democracies are cruel in that everyone is equal and no one is special. Any exercise, direct or indirect, that attempts to make an individual special increases the danger to the fragility of democracy.
News of the day: Japan remembers the Hiroshima bombing. Hun Manet set to succeed his father as Cambodias prime minister. In Thailand a buffalo race marks the start of the rice harvest. Train derails in Pakistan. Israeli rockets hit Syria. Almost 30,000 Russian soldiers have died in the war, but the real figure could be twice as high.

SOUTH KOREA

The organisers of the Scouts Jamboree in South Korea announced an early end to the event citing a potential typhoon. Thousands of scouts had already left because of the searing heat. Some 43,000 scouts from 155 countries had gathered in North Jeolla province but hundreds fell ill from a heatwave. Typhoon Khanun is expected to land in the country this week.

JAPAN

Yesterday Japan marked the 78th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima during World War II, which killed at least 140,000 people. The city's mayor described nuclear deterrence as "folly". This follows a recent statement by G7 countries backing the policy at a time of growing fears of nuclear war following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

CAMBODIA

It is official. Hun Manet, the son of Cambodian strongman Hun Sen who has ruled the country for the past 38 years, will be the new prime minister after the publication of a royal decree by Cambodian King Norodom Simahoni. Hun Manet is the current commander-in-chief of the Cambodian Royal Army. The 45-year-old has been preparing for years to succeed his father, who will remain leader of the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

THAILAND

A water buffalo race was held yesterday in Thailand to mark the start of the rice growing season, a tradition that dates back to the 19th century. In Napa, a subdistrict in Chonburi province, about 80 km south-east of the capital Bangkok, at least 60 buffaloes and their owners ran on a 200-metre dirt track to honour the animal's role in rice cultivation.

PAKISTAN

At least 30 people were killed and 80 injured in a train derailment in Nawabshah, in the southern province of Sindh. Pakistan's railways are often involved in accidents. In recent years, successive Pakistani governments have tried to finance infrastructure projects through China's Belt and Road Initiative.

ISRAEL  SYRIA

At least four Syrian soldiers were killed and four wounded in an Israeli rocket attack near the capital Damascus. Although Israel has not yet issued any statement, its forces have been targeting Iranian assets in Syria for years after Iran boosted its influence with and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

RUSSIA

The BBCs Russian service and Mediazona have released data on Russian casualties in Ukraine. The names of some 29,217 Russian soldiers were ascertained using various open sources, although the real figure could be twice as high. One in three were conscripts. Casualties are mounting among artillery units, officers, including some generals.

KAZAKHSTAN

Many deposits of gold, coal, iron, oil and copper have been returned to state ownership. Auctions held in the current year netted 1.5 billion tenge (US$ 3.3 million) for the countrys coffers, many from foreign investors, mostly Chinese.
The next WYD will see Asias Catholic Church resume normal activities after the pandemic (and the cancellation of Asian Youth Day in India in 2020). Contacts between the Vatican and South Korea have already begun, ahead of an event that can boost the GDP of the host country. Young South Koreans travelling home from Portugal are full of enthusiasm. With the coming edition, hope is possible for a "spring of peace on the Korean peninsula".

Seoul (AsiaNews)  South Korea, the second most Catholic country in Asia after the Philippines, will host the next edition of World Youth Day. Pope Francis made the announcement in Lisbon yesterday after the final Mass of the 37th WYD.

For Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taick of Seoul, OCD, the 2027 meeting will provide Catholics and non-Catholics an opportunity to share in fellowship. On this occasion, many young people" will be able to "encounter" the "wonders and depths of the Korean Church.

The prelate hopes to see many young people come from all over Asia, a continent in which most countries are not Catholic, where the faithful only lately rediscovered a "life of faith" after the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan for the next WYD in Seoul, in 2027, has already been met with enthusiasm and high expectations from young South Koreans, two of whom attended the Lisbon edition that ended yesterday.

Raphael Son Hee-hyun, 26, saw things get back to normal after the pandemic, and the Lisbon WYD "is the beginning of that".

"It was a special experience that allowed us to feel a deep connection despite our differences, such as race and language, he explained. We hope that this experience will contribute to the WYD in Seoul in 2027.

Bernadette Park Ha-eun, 16, is equally eager and looking forward to the big event. If we hold WYD in Seoul, we will attract more youth, she believes. When I go back to Korea, I want to share with many people what WYD is like and what I liked about it and invite them (as Pope Francis did) to WYD in Seoul."

Young people and the laity played a crucial role in the rebirth of the Korean Church in the wake of the time of persecution, this according to Fr Yang Joo-yeol, director of the Institute for Integrated Pastoral Studies of the Archdiocese of Seoul.

Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tens of thousands of Catholics were martyred, and no religious freedom exists in North Korea to this day.

The efforts and practices of the young people of that era to search for the truth led to the formation of today's Korean Church, he explained. Todays brothers and sisters have created a new Christian community from the bottom up, with people from every background.

I hope that the young people of this age will also discover and practise the truth in their own lives, he added. I would like to invite all young people to Korea to become the stage for this."

A few hours after the announcement, the first official reactions were reported in South Korea.

Foreign Minister Park Jin already met with his Vatican counterpart, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, head of the Secretariat for Relations with States and International Organisations, to ask the Vatican to support South Korea.

For National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, Seoul's selection is a "cause for celebration, not just for the Korean Catholic Church, but for the entire nation." Young people from around the world will be able to talk about their faith but also about climate change, poverty and world peace.

Kim added that Pope Francis has expressed interest in visiting North Korea. Hopefully, steps toward peace taken by Pope Francis and young people in this divided country will become a great journey that ushers in a spring of peace on the Korean Peninsula."

The Archdiocese of Seoul expects between 700,000 and more than a million young people, including 300,000 from abroad. Large numbers, but hardly close to past WYDs, like the one in Manila in 1995 which set the record for a religious gathering at more than five million people during a Mass celebrated by Saint John Paul II.

The Polish pope was the first pontiff to visit South Korea (in 1984 and 1989), while Francis's apostolic journey took place in 2014.

Government sources suggest that the WYD will also boost the countrys economy. Early figures from the PwC Portugal consulting group report that the WYD in Lisbon added 564 million (US$ 622 million) to Portugals GDP.

For young Asian Catholics, Lisbon was the first opportunity to come together since the last Asian Youth Day in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2017. The one scheduled in India for 2020, was cancelled by the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) out of political considerations.

Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, signs of religious intolerance were visible under the government led by the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Now the Asian and World Youth Days will become one single, major event in Seoul in 2027.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The permit allowed NGOs to raise funds from foreign sources to help the most disadvantaged groups in the country. In recent years, scores of NGOs have lost this permit. Last year, Save the Children was criticised by a government ministry for its fundraising campaign on malnutrition. Now Sister Dorothy Fernandes asks, who will take care of the children.

New Delhi (AsiaNews)  After Greenpeace, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Save the Children has lost its permit to receive foreign funding under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), following a decision by Indias Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Indian branch of the humanitarian organisation founded in the United Kingdom in 1919 is known as Bal Raksha Bharat. Since 2008 it has been present in at least 16 Indian states, providing health and educational services to children in disadvantaged areas.

Its fundraising campaign on malnutrition came under fire last year. Indias Ministry of Women and Child Development objected to it, claiming that it was already vigorously involved in this area.

The FCRA permit is essential to obtain funds from abroad. In recent years, scores of NGOs have failed to have their permit renewed.

As of this morning, Save the Children is no longer on the list of organisations with a valid FCRA permit; the latter is regularly updated on the Ministry of Home Affairs website.

We are pained and upset that so many NGOs lost their FCRA (permit); this is a matter of great concern," said Sister Dorothy Fernandes, speaking to AsiaNews.

For the woman religious, who is a social activist working with marginalised communities in Patna, a city in the northeastern state of Bihar, This is really a bad move.

Now the question that comes up is who will take care of the children who need help and support. Why does the government, which realises that different groups are needed to help the marginalised living on the margins, take away from them the support that safeguards their dignity?"

For the Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "Indian rules should help correct violations, but such aggressive policies benefit no one. We should facilitate, not obstruct.
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What looks like a centipede, moves like one, but is a world-first electric vehicle that promises to be, for all intents and purposes, unstoppable? That would be 18Wheels, an ATV that you probably had no idea existed.

Photo: 18Wheels

ATV

Photo: 18Wheels

Photo: 18Wheels

Photo: 18Wheels

An electric 18-wheel all-terrain vehicle that can glide over rocks and tree trunks is being developed in Finland pic.twitter.com/iIDB6RfFKh  Reuters (@Reuters) July 17, 2023

The name "might" have tipped you off, but we're saying it either way: 18Wheels is an 18-wheeler, an all-electric all-terrain vehicle that can go over fallen trees and rocks, across sand and gravel, and even waddle its way through shallow waters. It's tough and unstoppable, and as of last month, it's one step closer to reaching production stage.The company behind it is also called 18Wheels and is comprised of scientists, engineers, and mechanics from all over the world, working out of Helsinki, Finland. The idea for such a vehicle took root in 2021 and was followed by the first working prototype in 2022, with the current plan being to have a pre-production model before the year's end.That prototype is shown in action in the video below, which went viral last month. It offered the company international exposure for a product that, they believe, will change the way we think of off-road all-terrain vehicles by offering multiple functionality in a rugged, compact, and sustainable package.The main selling point of theis that it can go through or over whatever obstacle comes its way. Because it rolls on 18 wheels, each with independent suspension and in-built motor, it's very stable and remains so whether it's crawling over rocks or going over fallen trees.It can also move through water, though not on it. 18Wheels has waterproof casings for all 18 motors and the ability to move through water at the same speed as it does on land. This ATV has "significantly better dynamic performance and cross-country ability than any ATV," reads an official description online.Perhaps the best part is that the 18Wheels ATV is constantly improving.The prototype shown below has metal arms with unidirectional movement that act as suspension springs for the wheels. It's stable as it moves over larger obstacles at a moderate speed, in the sense that it doesn't lose speed and it doesn't tumble. But calling it comfortable for the operator would be a gross exaggeration.The second prototype, which will be revealed to the public later this year, has a different suspension system, with more complex arms hanging sideways, each with monoshocks for better dampening and increased comfort. It will also bring improved steering. All improvements are the result of six months of real-life and computer testing.The designers believe that the 18 wheels will allow the ATV to roll as if on treads, including over obstacles as high as 200 mm (7.9 inches). Sure enough, you can do that with any other tracked vehicle as well, but the ATV has the upper hand on those because it can do that "without considerable loss of speed." 18Wheels tells one trade publication that the ATV will be able to top 68 mph (109.5 kph). It's highly unlikely it'll tackle oversize obstacles at this speed, but it is a good point of reference.The other selling point of the 18Wheels ATV is that it's sustainable. Not only is it made from recyclable material, but it moves with minimal disruption to the environment it explores. That's also due to the patented 18-wheel drivetrain, as it distributes weight over a larger surface and allows it to crawl over all surfaces without leaving much of a trace. Plus, it's electric, so there will be no emissions and no noise as it moves.The current prototype, the 2022 one, looks like a jet ski sitting on a wider metal platform. It has a certain improvised air about it, which is to be expected. The next generation prototype will come with a sleeker silhouette, as the body will be slightly wider and thus stretch over the entirety of the platform. As per the same media outlet, this one will also be able to seat two people, thus offering enhanced functionality.18Wheels is considering offering two battery options, with a targeted per-charge range of 124 miles (200 km).18Wheels plans to unveil the second prototype in October 2023 but offers the date as a rough estimate subject to change, depending on ongoing tests and developments. The good news is that they're confident enough in the prototype to open a waiting list for test drives  either that, or they're just trying to gauge interest in the machine Locations for these test drives, a possible timeline for the start of production, or details like pricing are not available as of the time of writing. It's probably naive to think it will enter the market at an affordable price, assuming it makes that far in the first place. But it's a project worth keeping an eye out for.
kW

The legendary off-roader was presented as the J300 Land Cruiser in the summer of 2021, but that series was only available in certain regions, not worldwide. Finally, two years later, the Japanese automaker has rectified that mistake and opted for the 'light duty' variant, now dubbed J250, to appear just about everywhere  at home in Japan, Australia, Europe, China, and also return following a short, three-year hiatus, to North America.There it has some interesting characteristics  such as the two different font styles based on trims, plus the exclusive use of the 2.4-liter hybrid turbo i-Force Max powertrain inherited from the latest 2024 Tacoma with 326 electrified ponies. Other regions get slightly different flavors of the new model, though. For example, at home in Japan, the nameplate is ' Land Cruiser 250 ' to ensure it's not confused with the larger J300 Land Cruiser.In Australia or parts of Europe, meanwhile, it keeps the classic ' Land Cruiser Prado ' moniker and is motivated by a completely different powertrain  a 2.8-liter packing 150(201 hp/204 ps) mated to a new eight-speed Direct Shift automatic transmission and able to tow up to 3,500 kg (7,716 lbs). From early 2025, this diesel will also mix up with 48-Volt mild hybrid technology to make it a tiny bit more sustainable.The association between a turbo diesel and its formidable off-road chops is natural, of course. Still, we bet that Aussies and maybe even the diehard Old Continent fans would love the 2024 Prado even more if the Land Cruiser had a cargo bed perched behind the reduced-size cabin. And perhaps they wouldn't even feel the need for a new Hilux if that happened.Well, slim chances of that ever happening in the real world, given the development costs and the fact that, most likely, Toyota will continue down the Hilux line for a long while. But the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is fine with retconning true facts. So, this virtual artist, known as Theottle on social media, has resorted to CGI slicing and dicing the 2024 Land Cruiser to make it commercially ready.He did so according to fan requests after his followers were impressed by his treatment of the 2024 Land Cruiser returning to CGI roots and morphing into a feisty open-top three-door Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler competitor. Plus, the pixel master recently took good care of the related TNGA-F-based 2024 Lexus GX 550 when it, too, got transformed into something that would make the Ford F-150 tremble and shiver with anxiety.
The American military officially has six branches, after the creation of the Space Force not long ago. Of them all though the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is the most active, not only when it comes to military operations, but also as far as its efforts of keeping the people of the world amazed go.

Aerobatic F-16 Fighting Falcons buzz Mount Rainier

Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Dakota Carter

HH-60G Pave Hawk flexes its muscles during sling load training

Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Darius Sostre-Miroir

B-2 Spirit points its nose up in rare takeoff pic

Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan

Fighter jets can drop bombs too

Photo: USAF/Senior Master Sgt. Kwan-Young Ho

F-16 Fighting Falcon gets shot and we get to see how

Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Zachary Rufus

For a long time now the USAF has made a habit of releasing a bunch of photos at the end of each week showing what its personnel and gear have been up to recently. They are always spectacular pics showing incredible machines and people, and they're very much needed, especially these days, when America needs to project its power pretty much everywhere to keep foes at bay.Many of these images deserve a closer look because they always show machines we regular Joes will never get to experience firsthand.And a closer look we're having now at what the USAF released at the end of last week, a bunch of pics showing types of incredible military aircraft doing their thing at the hands of their very well-trained handlers. These are, if you will, this week's top five reasons the USAF is the most impressive in the world.Ever since 1953 the American skies (and at times foreign ones as well) have been the playground for a group of daredevil pilots called Thunderbirds . Now based at the Nellis Air Force in Nevada, the crew is a constant presence at air shows and aviation-related events across America, and often time makes it into the official USAF releases.Last week the Air Force decided to share a pic of the Thunderbirds pilots and their aircraft of choice, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, as they were buzzing Mount Rainier in Washington. Somehow, the USAF managed to get a photographer in the perfect position to snap the airplanes as they flew formation with the summit of the Washington mountain as a background.The Thunderbirds were captured in this image back in July, as they were headed back to Nellis after taking part in the JBLM Air Show and Warrior Expo at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.For the remainder of the year (meaning by November, when the air show season ends), the Thunderbirds have no less than 14 other appearances left, so plenty of chances for Americans to experience what these guys can do firsthand.We've been watching the weekly USAF releases for a while now, and when it comes to them featuring the HH-60G Pave Hawk we noticed these photos almost always show the helicopter hoisting things and humans up, or lowering them to the ground. And this image is no exception.The Pave Hawk is a version of the Sikorsky Black Hawk, and it has been primarily envisioned as a medium-lift helo - that of course explains the many similar instances we get to see the helicopter in.The machine can lift a total of 22,000 pounds (9,900 kilograms) at takeoff, and it does so thanks to the pair of General Electric engines that spin its blades.In this image we see a Pave Hawk hovering over the heads of logistics soldiers as they try to attach the payload to the underbelly of the helicopter during sling load training that took place at the end of July at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida.This approach allows the helo to lift weights greater than what it's capable of getting airborne at takeoff  an extra 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) can be carried this way.One of the members of America's Bomber Trifecta (alongside the B-1B Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress) is the B-2 Spirit . It is also the most alien-looking of them all, thanks to its flying wing configuration, low profile, and long body,America has had the Spirit since the late 1980s, meaning quite recently, and not many of them have been sent on active duty since they began flying missions in the late 1990s (there are just 20 of them). That makes any and every instance of the plane in action quite spectacular and reason for aviation enthusiasts to rejoice.Last week the USAF treated us with a pic of the bomber as it departed Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska in mid-July. The plane was leaving at the time on a combat training exercise.We the uninitiated often see the likes of the F-35A Lightning II and the F-16 Fighting Falcon as fighter jets. We imagine them shooting off rockets into the distance, to chase away or bring down some unseen enemy aircraft, or to strike some ground target far far away.But both of them can carry bombs as well, and quite a large variety of them, from combined effect munitions to small diameter and even nuclear ones. Because they very rarely though make it over enemy territory to drop such things, we rarely see these planes doing bomb runs.Yet exactly a glimpse of that is what we get here, in this USAF pic showing the F-35 flying alongside the F-16 as they both release munitions from their underside.The photo was snapped during a live-fire training exercise that took place over South Korean waters at the end of July. The F-35 belongs to the South Korean Air Force, while the F-16 is flown by America's Air Force.Given how the USAF often releases images of its aircraft in action, we're used to enjoying them in incredible stills. Yet not always do we get a behind-the-scenes look at how these images are shot.The pic we have here shows an airman with the 57th Wing pointing a camera at an F-16 Fighting Falcon as it takes off from the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The camera was there to capture the plane in action as it headed off for the Red Flag 23-3 exercise which took place at the base.We're yet to see the video that was captured on that camera, but given how the exercise was centered around "defensive counter-air, offensive counter-air suppression of enemy air defenses and offensive counter-air-to-air interdiction" we expect some really interesting images to come out of it.So there you have it, the most interesting pics released last week by the USAF, all of them showing just how impressive America's flying arsenal is. Stay tuned next week for more of the same.
Ever wonder what happens when you take the abilities of an automotive racing group and throw them into a camper? Well, that's what's happening with the limited edition Walkinshaw Camper, the one and the same Walkinshaw that has their fingers in the Ford, Chevy (GMSV), and VW pie.

Photo: New Age Caravans

Photo: New Age Caravans

Folks, the name Walkinshaw may not ring a whole lot of bells if you live outside of the UK or Australia, but this automotive engineering, manufacturing, and racing group has been active in the industry for decades. But, a recent collaboration has sparked the rise of a camper, one designed to handle the unforgiving Australian outback.At this time, Australia's New Age Caravans (the brand responsible for the camper itself) is proud to brandish the statement that they are "the only ones in the world that feature a Walkinshaw hot dip galvanized chassis." How is this puppy different from most others on the market? Well, one feature is that it's crafted as one continuous piece and uses a rolled, not welded, A-frame.From here, New Age throws on a tried and tested suspension system that has proven its worth in countless other brands and units, a Cruismaster XT with twin G40 shock absorbers, according to images found on New Age's website. What more could you want ? Mud flaps? DO35 hitch? Bumpers and stabilizer legs? All of it's there, so don't worry.Once you've trekked across forbidden landscapes, you'll finally reach your destination and begin to unravel all that is a New Age camper. Note that this crew has been on the Australian market since 2004, so they've had time to perfect their units.With that in mind, take note that the Walkinshaw is a pop-top camper, and that means quite a bit for you and your experience. First of all, there's the whole improved mileage you'll get from pulling along a camper that's half its livable size, not like a massive fifth wheel or hardshell campers. But, there is a drawback Because units like these often rely on a tent canvas or other composite materials to create a flexible wall, it also means a harder time fending off the elements. But, fear not, the Australian outback has taught New Age how to craft a wicked machine, just don't expect to be camping during the colder months in this thing. Luckily, you won't have to break a dang sweat to send this unit into full bloom; just press a button, and the roof lifts without you burning a single calorie.Once the roof is in place, it's time to unfurl the rest of this magic. To do so, you'll need to extend two platforms in order to create two bedrooms inside the unit. Those are to be positioned at the outermost edges of the camper, and smack dab in the middle, a massive dinette, a lounge, and a galley block. In short, everything you need to survive out in the middle of nowhere. OH, and it's even suitable for up to six people, made possible by those two beds and modular seating.However, that interior also hides an array of features and gear designed to keep you comfortable , happy, and ready for adventure. There's a gas cooktop, 105 l fridge, microwave, smart TV and DVD player, countless safety systems, and a BMS, too, not to mention LED and reading lights, power sockets, and countless others. Regarding a toilet, you'll need to grab one on your own, and don't worry about storage; the exterior is ready beyond belief.If you have any idea how they like to do things down in Australia, then you have some idea of what to expect from the rest of this unit. If you don't, let me just point out that the Walkinshaw, like most other Aussieland units, is aimed at outdoor living. With that in mind, I need to point out a few important exterior features.First off, two 80 l (21 gals) water tanks ensure you can survive out in the wild for a few days, and yes, there's an outdoor shower in place too. Hidden in those lockers tattered around the unit will also be a 100 Ah lithium battery, space to bring along more than just the standard 200 W New Age throws in, and maybe, just maybe, another outdoor galley set up on a slide-out (not a standard feature).With all that at your disposal, and then some - consider a bike or kayak rack - and what do you have? one hell of a capable and outdoor-ready unit. Just imagine you riding around the local woods on an e-bike in the morning and coming back around noon to a unit that's just waiting to help you rest your bones, feed yourself and the group, and rest up for sunset kayaking on the lake nearby. Heck, external speakers will even help you enjoy your favorite jam as you do all of the above. Extend the awning and pitch an outdoor dining set.Now, there's a bit of a catch I need to let you in on. New Age is an Australian brand that, at the moment, doesn't seem to be shipping outside of that country. That means that you'll need to go down there and get one yourself. Oh, and when you do, you've got to make sure it is suitable for roads in your home country.Nonetheless, if we consider that these babies start at a price of just $58,000 Australian, which is roughly $38,200 American, there's definitely some wiggle room. So, what are you waiting for? Book that ticket and fly over to the land down under for one wicked off-grid machine.
With major eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) manufacturers well on their way to certification, infrastructure has become the main focus this year in the AAM (advanced air mobility) sector. Electric air taxis require dedicated airports, commonly referred to as vertiports. In Europe, one operator is getting very close to officially launching what could become the first eVTOL airport network on the continent.

AWS

Aeroporti di Roma, SAVE Group, Aeroporto di Bologna, and Aeroports de la Cote d'Azur joined forces to set up a dedicated AAM infrastructure company called UrbanV. Their goal is to complete a pioneering vertiport by the end of 2024 and kick off operations as soon as 2025, in time for the upcoming Jubilee. This traditional Catholic event is expected to bring an impressive number of tourists to Italy, with Rome taking center stage.A busy event like the 2025 Jubilee is the perfect opportunity to launch innovative means of transportation. UrbanV will offer air taxi services for tourists traveling from the Rome Fiumicino Airport to central Rome. The anticipated success of the event will then become the starting point for an entire network covering multiple areas around Rome. UrbanV plans to operate no less than ten vertiports by 2026.A collaboration with Lilium, the German manufacturer of the world's only eVTOL jet, will also provide zero-emission transportation for tourists flying from Italy to the French Riviera. The founding partners will initially set up a wide network connecting these two countries. Still, the plan is to eventually expand all over Europe and beyond its borders.As exciting as it sounds to try out this brand-new type of aircraft, successful AAM operations require much more than a powerful, certified air vehicle. Top-level passenger experience is one of them. UrbanV is now working on an automation process that will make this experience as good as possible for future passengers and also effective for the vertiport operators.Things like simplified check-in operations and automatic adjustments in case of flight delays are just some of the benefits that contemporary flight customers expect. This is why UrbanV partnered with(Amazon Web Services). An established cloud provider for conventional airports and airlines, AWS will help build an operating model that can be scaled up once UrbanV expands its network in the coming years.Last year, the Italian AAM company launched another major partnership with Enel X Way, Enel's electric mobility company. The two have initiated a comprehensive study for integrating an electricity network across the future vertiports in Rome and beyond.According to Enel, it became the first operator in Italy to provide charging solutions for electric aviation  a trailblazing achievement that goes hand in hand with Fiumicino's goal of becoming the first operational vertiport on the continent.
They officially call it Commander Moonikin Campos, and to date it is the only humanoid-shaped thingy to have traveled to the Moon on board an Artemis mission. It did so because the commander is nothing more than a test dummy meant to validate gear and procedures for actual crewed missions to Earth's satellite.

The dummy got its name back in 2021, and it honors Arturo Campos, the man considered partially responsible for saving the Apollo 13 mission. He did so by devising a contingency plan meant to tackle the possibility of the service module oxygen tank failing  which is exactly what happened during that mission back in 1970. Campos flew on board the Artemis I mission dressed in a suit called the Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS)  the same one that will be worn by the actual astronauts during launch and re-entry, the most critical phases of the lunar missions.The ride up there was meant as a means for NASA engineers to test everything that needed to be tested in light of the first crewed missions of the program. The dummy did its thing wonderfully, but work on it and the help and insight it can provide from that are far from over.The dummy is presently at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio where it is subjected to acceleration tests. Engineers do this using a sled, as they try to figure out how restraint systems, the OCSS, and the seats the astronauts will be using will perform during the extreme acceleration of launch and landing.Just to give you an idea of what the dummy has to go through just consider the hundreds of feet long sled over at Wright-Patterson is capable of accelerating the Campos dummy to 19 times the force of gravity.What happens to the mannequin during these runs is recorded by high-speed cameras (1,000 frames per second). The images and findings of these tests are used, as per NASA , to improve the safety of suit, helmet, and seat for future Artemis missions, but also to help design them in such a way as to be more comfortable for astronauts.Whatever lessons NASA learns from these tests on the Campos dummy will first be put to the test during the Artemis II mission. It is scheduled to depart in November of next year, taking four people on a trip around the Moon: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.Although they will not actually land on the Moon, the four brave souls will travel during their ten-day mission to the farthest distance from Earth any human has reached: 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the Moon and 230,000 miles (370,000 km) away from home.
A BMW M6 sold for $40,000. It may not sound like there is anything special about the sale. And it isn't until you see the year it was manufactured. The car is 16 years old and went for double the price an M6 of its age usually goes for.

Photo: Collecting Cars

The BMW M6 E63 had it all

Photo: Collecting Cars

The 2007 BMW M6 was only serviced by BMW its entire life

Photo: Collecting Cars

BMW is slowly but surely killing the 6 Series just about everywhere in the world. The car was dropped from the online configurator market after market. Slow sales and the risk of cannibalization with the newer, sleeker 8 Series are the reasons that convinced the Munich-based premium carmaker to give up on it, together with its performance version. The last of the M6s saw the light of day in 2018. The M8 took its place just months later.But the old (not that old, really) 6 Series lives on. And apparently, the value of the performance version of the 6 Series has been rising over the years, as the car is heading toward a youngtimer classic status. This might explain why a 2007 BMW M6 went for $40,000.So we are dealing with a BMW M6 that rolled off the assembly line 16 years ago, in the first year of production of the code-named E63 generation. It arrived after a 16-year production hiatus, following in the footsteps of Paul Bracq's iconic E24 M6 from the 1980s. Quit big shoes to fill for the new M6.BMW put an almighty S85 5.0-liter V10 engine under that sculpted hood and mated it to an SMG-III automated manual gearbox with paddle shifters mounted behind the steering wheel for the extra fun factor. The front-mounted V10 roared out 500 horsepower (507 PS) and 383 lb-ft (520 Nm), steered to the rear axle.It measured 191.8 inches (4.872 millimeters) in length, 73 inches (1,854 millimeters) in width, and 54.2 inches (1,377 millimeters) in height, sporting a wheelbase of 109.5 inches (2,781 millimeters). It was 66 pounds (30 kilograms) lighter than the standard 6 Series. And it had the right proportions for a performance sedan, yet it came as a convertible and coupe, with an elongated sleek silhouette.2005-2011 was the period the E63 stayed in production. The last of the series drove through the factory gate in 2011. During the five-year run of the model, BMW sold 9,097 coupes and 5,065 convertibles.Designed by Karl Elmitt, the M6 had it all. It had the looks, and, above all, it had the power. And what enticed customers was the fact that it came with two power modes. The P400 released 394 horsepower (400 PS), while the P500 mode brought along 500 horsepower (507 PS).The M6 E63 could do the 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) run in 4.6 seconds. Top speed was electronically limited to 155 mph (250 kph). The optional M Driver's Package took the needle of the odometer all the way to 190 mph (305 kph).If this car is still able to hit such figures, the one who bought it will find out sooner or later. For its entire life, it had three owners, but now has found number 4. They all pampered it and did not overcharge it. How do we know? Well, it only traveled 14,602 miles (23,500 kilometers), so it has a particularly low mileage.Finished in Indianapolis Red over a Silver II Leather interior with carbon fiber inserts, the BMW 6 Series has only been serviced by BMW from new. It rides on 19-inch twin fie-spoke alloy wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport tires.The equipment list includes factory-fitted front and rear parking assistance, cruise control, heated and electronically adjustable front seats, dual-zone air conditioning, and satellite navigation.The seller reported that the car was fully repainted. It displayed some minor imperfections in the paint. Light wear showed up on the steering wheel buttons. As for mechanical faults, there is none the seller was aware of. The latest roadworthiness inspection was conducted ten months ago, and the car was cleared.Last service was in July 2022 by BMW Albamocion, when the odometer showed 12,509 miles (20,132 kilometers). Mechanics replaced the engine oil, front brakes, microfilter, air filter, brake fluid, and spark plugs.For the new owner's peace of mind, the listing revealed every single service since 2007 and the exact number of miles the BMW had every time. It was probably what convinced them to buy the car in the first place. Together with the looks and that roaring short-tempered V10, of course.The car was in Grinchem, the Netherlands, and left for a new home after someone fell in love with it and paid $40,000. That is an incredibly high price for a model of its nature. On CarGurus, for instance, BMW M6s from the era go for around $20,000.
SUV

Less than a month ago, Hyundai staged one of its usual preview launches of an all-new model they are about to sell sometime next year. That's not the first time they have done the staggered presentation, with a quick look at the exterior and interior followed by a proper reveal with all tech goodies in tow.However, this time something changed. The model in question was the all-new, fifth-generation MX5 Hyundai Santa Fe , and it premiered the latest styling dare from the South Korean automaker. It seems the designers keep innovating and pushing the boundaries in the best kind of way, as Hyundai has some quirky and daring models currently in its lineup  including the zero-emissions Ioniq 5 and 6, the Tucson compact crossover, or the Elantra sedan, among others.Interestingly, Hyundai decided that a change of styling pace would be welcomed for the fifth iteration of the mid-size crossover SUV named after a place in the United States and is credited with vastly encouraging Americans to adopt the brand during the early 2000s. Now, instead of sweeping cues, we have a fully-fledged boxy design that was quickly linked to Land Rover's modern style of the iconic Defender.However, it's (probably) still a unibody mid-size pickup truck with gasoline, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid powertrains. We don't know for sure because the company only discussed the "bold new design optimized for effortless outdoor lifestyles" during the initial styling preview. Luckily, we also took a peek inside the seven-seat cabin. Otherwise, we were left staring at the white and bronze hues of the exterior.Now, the upcoming Toyota Grand Highlander and Honda Pilot three-row competitor is almost ready to share all of its secrets, according to Hyundai's 'Worldwide' social media channels. On YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook (at least), the company set to show us the all-new Santa Fe digital world premiere teaser, which curiously doesn't feature the vehicle even for a second and instead takes cues from the namesake city and the 'old Santa Fe trail' to garner hype.Well, at least the cat is already out of the bag, and we'll know what its nine lives are destined for soon enough. More precisely, the official worldwide introduction will take place on August 10 at 18:00 (Seoul), 11:00 (Frankfurt), 10:00 (London), 05:00 (New York), and 02:00 (Los Angeles). Right then and there, hopefully, we will get to find out more about the platform, interior features, powertrain goodies, and availability across its most important markets and regions. If not, I'm going to be thoroughly disappointed
6x6

Designed in 1941, the CCKW entered production the same year and was built until the end of WW2 in 1945. The company made about 572,500 trucks, most of which were 2.5-tonhaulers with off-road capability. The lineup included both long and short-wheelbase models.The CCKW was very successful during WW2, amounting to almost a quarter of the total US truck production and about 70% of the total 2.5-ton haulers. Its main 6x6 rival was the Studebaker US6 , which also saw production from 1941 to 1945. Studebaker and REO built more than 200,000 trucks, but most of them were exported to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program since the CCKW proved to be more suitable for Western Front conditions.While production of the GMC hauler stopped in 1945, the truck served in the Korean War (1950-1953) and remained in active US Army service until the mid-1960s. It was replaced by the M35 series, designed by REO Motors.While most CCKWs left the factory as general-purpose cargo models, GMC also built many specialized variants. At the same time, other trucks were converted in the field. In all, there were more than 25 variations, including surgical and repair vans, bomb service and chemical handling trucks, and radio and fire engines . Some were also converted for fuel, oil, and water hauling duty.Oil tankers carried from 660 to 750 gallons (2,498 to 2,839 liters), while water trucks were rated at 700 gallons (2,650 liters). The fuel and gas haulers had 750-gallon tanks. These trucks are extremely rare nowadays, with only a handful believed to still exist in one piece. All told you need a ton of good luck to see one in the metal.But if you're into WW2 trucks, an even bigger and rarer CCKW tanker is spending its retirement years in Alaska. I'm talking about a tractor and trailer tanker that can carry up to 2,000 gallons (7,571 kg) of fuel and was used to refuel Boeing B-17 bombers during the war. It's unclear whether it was deployed to the Western Front or used on US soil only, but it's highly original, and it still runs and drives. And that's downright amazing for a vehicle that's precisely 80 years old as of 2023.Moreover, it doesn't display as much rust as you'd think, and the engine is still potent enough to haul the empty yet still heavy trailer in addition to the 8,800-pound (3,392 kg) truck. Regarding firepower, the CCKW got a 270-cubic-inch (4.4-liter) straight-six mill. Part of GMC's first line of in-house-built six-cylinder powerplants, the CCKW's 270 delivered 92 or 104 horsepower and 216 pound-feet (293 Nm) of torque. Paired with a five-speed manual gearbox, it propelled the truck toward a top speed of 45 mph (72 kph).But that's enough history for today. Hit the play button below to watch this WW2 behemoth stretching its wheels on Alaskan back roads . It's a sight to behold because both the truck and the trailer are in surprisingly good shape, given that they haven't been restored.
The tiny living movement has revolutionized the way people live and work as compact dwellings allow us all to embrace mobility and a sense of freedom. There is something adventurous about being able to have a complete home that you can tow behind a vehicle and take it along with you wherever you go.

Photo: Larry Windes

Photo: Larry Windes

Photo: Larry Windes

Moreover, tiny houses, be they on wheels or park models, offer practical solutions to the housing affordability crisis many nations are currently facing. In general, tiny dwellings on wheels are constructed on trailers designed to road-legal dimensions, which in most states means they cannot exceed 8.5 feet in width, 13.5 feet in height, and 30 feet plus in length.Obviously, this means a limited interior space that designers do their best to use at its full potential by incorporating space-saving solutions and multifunctional furniture. Often, the inherent space limitations of tiny homes can make them less convenient for long-term living, especially for families with multiple members who need their own personal space.Many tiny home dwellers claim they are happy with the decision to go tiny, but it's no denying they must be very conscious of the space they are using in their tiny homes, and adapting to the new downsized lifestyle takes some getting used to.Architect Larry Windes has come up with an innovative portable tiny house design that allows people to experience tiny home living without too many compromises on comfort. Called Fold-A-Mansion, or FAM for short, his solution is an expanding, fold-out home built on a trailer that, once parked, can more than double in size to offer a big kitchen, a spacious bathroom with tub, an ample living area, and three sleeping spaces.Fold-A-Mansion was built as a one-off concept to show the possibilities of living more intentionally and responsibly without compromising on creature comforts. This home on wheels stands out from traditional tiny houses as it is not actually that tiny. When unfolded, the FAM has twice the floor and cubic area of a standard 30-foot-long tiny house on wheels and boasts a ground floor and a lifted loft. The layout contains a real U-shaped kitchen, a spacious living/dining area, a luxurious bathroom, two bedrooms, and a standing-height loft.Once leveled up, the house can be used as any standard tiny house on wheels, but the fold-down and fold-up process can only be made by professionals to ensure safety, so there are no details available about the expanding mechanism.The expandable home is currently located on an acre of land in Santa Maria de Dota, Costa Rica, and is available for short-term rentals or for sale at $130,000 (without the land). Boasting a green-and-orange color scheme on the outside, the expandable home's design matches the natural environment, as the house is surrounded by coffee mountains.At the entrance, there is a screened-in porch that can serve as a great outdoor living and dining space. Moreover, every exterior wall and porch around the house features a minimum 2-foot wide roof overhang, guaranteeing comfort and cleanliness, especially in wet climates.Though there is no information on the materials used in the construction process, the designer says the FAM is lightweight and heavily insulated, which helps keep the interior warm in winter and cool in summer. It also ensures inhabitants enjoy comfortable living conditions in various environments and climates.As you enter the house, right in front is the large U-shaped kitchen, which is equipped with a full-height refrigerator, 24" range/oven, microwave, dishwasher, and sink. There is also a countertop bar with three stools.Next to the kitchen, there is a cozy open space that houses a living area and one of the downstairs bedrooms. It includes a queen size bed and a walk-in closet. It might seem odd that there are no walls separating the sleeping space, which means zero privacy, but considering the house is located in Costa Rica, where there is a tropical climate, closed-off spaces would have been harder to keep fresh and airy. We assume proper airflow and humidity management were a bigger priority than creating separate areas in this house, which is intended as a guest/rental house anyway.The second ground-floor bedroom has a single Murphy bed and a wardrobe closet. A flip-down table transforms the space into a nice office area A ladder in the kitchen leads up to the sleeping loft, which is also fitted with a queen-size bed. Thanks to the lifted roof, you can easily stand upright in the lofted bedroom. In total, up to eight people can sleep comfortably inside this expanding house on wheels.The bathroom of this home is also spacious and features a full bathtub/shower, a vanity with a glass over-counter sink, a toilet, and a washer/dryer combo unit.We would have liked to learn more about the expanding mechanism and dimensions of this not-so-tiny home on wheels, but there is little information available. Instead, architect Larry Windes offers a more in-depth description Fold-A-Mansion and its potential in his book, titled Little House For a Grand Life.
Most users believe Google is the king of the navigation world, as Google Maps is the number one mobile navigation solution. The battle for the leading mapping platform doesn't come down to mobile domination exclusively, and overall, Google has a hard time securing the number one spot.

Photo: autoevolution

ADAS

Photo: autoevolution

Recent research conducted by TechInsights puts HERE in pole position in the mapping race, as it obtained a better score in most categories, including map freshness, vision growth, and sustainability. Google ranked better in the non-automotive category.The analysis also includes a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of every location platform, and in HERE's case, its main problem is the limited consumer brand.HERE has been betting big on collaborations with carmakers worldwide, focusing less on consumers. It recently launched mobile navigation apps , but its audience is still very limited, especially as the mapping services offered to car manufacturers and the connected services continue to bring home the bacon.Compared to Google and Google Maps , HERE is seriously lagging behind rivals in terms of consumers, though the race for profits seems to focus mainly on automotive collaborations.HERE also struggles in its relationship with developers, especially when looking at how Google expanded in this direction. Google Maps is the dominating mapping platform in the developer community, while HERE is almost a non-existent name. It isn't surprising, though: HERE turned partnerships with carmakers into its number one priority, so developers don't receive much attention.TechInsights also reminds us that HERE is involved in an upper management shuffle, as it is still searching for a new CEO to replace Edzard Overbeek.HERE's main strength is its momentum in the automotive business. The company is a leader in ISA (Intelligent Speed Assist), and its solutions are recording skyrocketing adoption following the new regulations coming into effect in Europe. Theand HD Map adoption is also increasing, with HERE becoming the leading map provider in North America and Western Europe. The study reveals HERE had approximately 70 percent market in 2022 in these two large markets.HERE's product offering isn't limited to these regions, though. The company has a strong presence in China, Japan, and South Korea  Google loses precious points for not offering its services to Chinese customers, while HERE works with local companies to expand in this country.TechInsights notes that HERE has a strong growth vision and product lines beyond automotive, though I believe the company can do more on this front. Despite offering impressive navigation capabilities, its consumer focus is very limited, so improving the mobile navigation solutions and providing Android and iPhone users with new-generation features should become a priority.Additionally, HERE has become independent and open, eventually paving the way for partnerships with carmakers, especially as its ISA, ADAS, and HD Map products keep gaining traction in the automotive world.This massive expansion is not a surprise, TechInsights says. HERE has a very strong message on privacy, and given the obsession for data, the company rapidly wins customers' hearts worldwide. On the other hand, Google loses precious points on this front, as the company is known for its data appetite. Some users avoid installing Google Maps mainly because of its data collection practices, so the search giant loses market share in favor of rivals like HERE.Additionally, the analysis emphasizes that HERE is not a small firm. It has over 6,000 employees worldwide, and its annual revenue reached 946 million Euros last year. It has large enterprise customers, such as Amazon and Microsoft.Eventually, HERE ended up dominating a market simply because it's investing in a more efficient side of the location platform battle. Google is slowly but surely expanding in the automotive industry, though the search giant uses a different approach. While its strategy involves working together with carmakers (something that HERE already excels at), Google has a much harder time convincing auto manufacturers that it's worth their trust. Google's Android Automotive requires carmakers to give in control of the infotainment to the search giant, and some companies, such as BMW, aren't big fans of this concept.BMW has decided to adopt Android Automotive without GAS, meaning that Google's services won't be available in its cars. The German carmaker will stick with a third-party store and offer alternatives to Google services to maintain control of the infotainment system.TechInsights explains that some carmakers see Google as a potential rival, though the search giant hasn't yet expressed its intention of building a full car. Apple embraced this strategy, as the iPhone maker is expected to unveil its first vehicle built from scratch in 2025 or 2026.Meanwhile, HERE keeps growing, while companies like Google, TomTom, and Mapbox follow in their footsteps with investments in new-generation technology to bring home the bacon in the short and the long term.
In an August 6 interview with Nagorno-Karabakhs Public Television Arayik Harutiunian also cautioned Armenia against taking any steps that would question the self-determination of Karabakh Armenians.

Speaking about the current blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan Harutiunian claimed that it was already a siege warfare employed by Baku.

Azerbaijan continues to exert pressure to extract maximum [concessions]. Azerbaijan is seeking to hold Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in some sense hostage, while simultaneously committing genocide and putting pressure on the Armenian authorities and international actors in terms of having a more privileged version of the Zangezur road, the Karabakh leader said, referring to what Armenians perceive as Bakus plans to get an extraterritorial corridor to its western Nakhichevan exclave via the southern part of Armenia.

Armenia insists that a road via its Syunik province (also called Zangezur in both Armenia and Azerbaijan), which is part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement, should remain under Armenian sovereignty. In contrast, Yerevan stresses that the Lachin corridor must remain under the control of Russian peacekeepers in accordance with the terms of the trilateral statement that put an end to a 44-day Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh in which nearly 7,000 soldiers were killed from both sides.

Yerevan and Stepanakert accused Baku of violating the terms of the agreement by installing a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor in April and then tightening the effective blockade of the Armenian-populated region in June.

The blockade, which has effectively been in place since last December when a group of pro-government Azerbaijani activists began a protest in the Lachin corridor, cutting off Nagorno-Karabakhs connection with Armenia, has resulted in severe shortages of foodstuffs, medicines and other essentials in the region populated by some 120,000 Armenians.

Authorities in Stepanakert stress that Nagorno-Karabakhs population is increasingly suffering from malnutrition and facing the imminent threat of starvation. They have already reported cases of people fainting while standing in queues for rationed bread.

In his latest interview Harutiunian said that Azerbaijans actions amounted to genocide. Baku routinely denies such claims.

The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for an immediate end to the blockade. Baku has dismissed their appeals, saying that the Karabakh Armenians should only be supplied with food and other basic items from Azerbaijan.

The Karabakh leader, however, again rejected Bakus offer of an alternative route for humanitarian supplies passing through Azerbaijan-controlled Agdam. He said that Azerbaijan, whom Stepanakert views as the cause of the situation, cannot be the one to offer a remedy.

First they turn it into a concentration camp, and then they start offering what they want and as much as they want, Harutiunian said. Any proposal addressed to us must first of all respect our dignity, be within the framework of our dignity and comply with international humanitarian standards, he added.

The Karabakh leader confirmed the news that a meeting between representatives of Stepanakert and Baku, which was supposed to take place on August 1 in Bratislava with the mediation of the West, did not take place. He claimed it was Azerbaijan who refused to hold the meeting.

Armenia insists that a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be found through an internationally visible dialogue between representatives of Stepanakert and Baku that would discuss the rights and security of the regions ethnic Armenian population. Armenia views this as an essential prerequisite for a durable peace agreement with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan insists that no special treatment is required for Karabakh Armenians, while pledging that if reintegrated they will enjoy all the rights that other citizens of Azerbaijan, including ethnic minorities, have.
Problems with shortages of foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods have remained acute in Nagorno-Karabakh for weeks as Azerbaijan continues to keep a convoy of Armenian trucks with humanitarian supplies stranded at the entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia with the region on which Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint in April and tightened the effective blockade several weeks later.

The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for an immediate end to the blockade of the corridor that Yerevan and Stepanakert insist must remain only under the control of Russian peacekeepers in accordance with the terms of a Moscow-brokered trilateral ceasefire agreement that put an end to a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

Baku has dismissed such appeals, saying that the Karabakh Armenians should only be supplied with food and other basic items from Azerbaijan.

A number of international organizations have also issued appeals urging the reopening of the Lachin Corridor. Among them was the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

In a tweet on Monday a spokesperson for Armenias Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to a PACE resolution adopted on June 22 that was based on the report of one of its members, Paul Gavan.

Now clear steps are needed to implement all international calls and decisions, Ani Badalian wrote, without elaborating. She cited Gavan, an Irish politician, as saying that what we are witnessing now is a deliberate attempt to ethnically cleanse the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Edmon Marukian, Armenias ambassador-at-large, also recently wrote on Twitter that people in Nagorno-Karabakh faint on a daily basis due to malnutrition, publishing a photograph of one such reported incident.

The leadership of Azerbaijan bears direct responsibility for this and the international community is sharing this responsibility by doing nothing to save peoples lives, Marukian contended.

Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian on August 6 described the Azerbaijani blockade of access to the region for goods from Armenia as a genocidal policy. He again ruled out the possibility of humanitarian supplies to the region that seeks independence from Baku by Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left ethnic Armenians in control of the predominantly Armenian-populated region and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.

Decades of internationally mediated talks failed to result in a diplomatic solution and the simmering conflict led to another war in 2020 in which nearly 7,000 soldiers were killed on both sides.

The 44-day war in which Azerbaijan regained all of the Armenian-controlled areas outside of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as chunks of territory inside the Soviet-era autonomous oblast proper ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire under which Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

Tensions along the restive Armenian-Azerbaijani border and around Nagorno-Karabakh leading to sporadic fighting and loss of life have persisted despite the ceasefire and publicly stated willingness of the leaders of both countries to work towards a negotiated peace.
In a written reply to participants of the planned protest on buses a deputy commander of the peacekeeping force reportedly said that the terms of the deployment of the Russian military under a trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in November 2020 to end a six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh did not provide for the possibility of escorting protests on wheels and ensuring the security of various demonstrations and rallies.

Peacekeepers are there to check for prohibited items, in particular, firearms and explosives, among participants of traffic at checkpoints, Russian officer Sazonov, who introduced himself only by his surname, wrote, as quoted by Artur Osipian, a Karabakh activist engaged in the local movement against the Azerbaijani blockade.

The Russian representative also reportedly dismissed claims being disseminated on social media in Azerbaijan that Russian troops intended to use force against Azerbaijani officers at the checkpoint of the Hakari bridge on the pretext of providing the security for a peaceful Karabakh Armenian protest. Sazonov, as presented by Osipian, stressed that peaceful protests were not grounds for holding any military operation by the Russian peacekeeping force.

Having a written reply from Alexander Lentsov, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces, was the demand of members of the movement for unblocking the Lachin corridor that they presented to the command of the Russian contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh last Friday.

Participants of the movement say that the intended goal of their action is to show to the world that [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev is lying when he says that the road is open.

It is unclear yet whether members of the movement will attempt their announced protest on dozens of buses towards the Azerbaijani checkpoints in the coming days, but activist Osipian said that they remained adamant despite the reply of the Russian peacekeeping force command that he described as preposterous.

Now let the Russians explain how providing the security of a dozen or a hundred civilian vehicles is different from providing the security of one civilian vehicle, Osipian said in a Facebook video.

The activist claimed that with this latest development the Kremlin has revealed its true face, showing that the Russians are together with Azerbaijan.

We have great suspicions now that along with Azerbaijan it is the Russian peacekeepers, or should I say occupation troops, which they are, who subject us to a blockade We do not lose heart, we will continue our struggle, Osipian said.

Amid severe shortages of food, medicines, fuel and other basic products brought on by the Azerbaijani blockade Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian authorities stressed last week that while they were not part of the civil initiative and did not provide it with logistics, they treated with understanding the demands of the movement.

Meanwhile, at least one opposition member of the regions parliament, Metakse Hakobian, claimed last week that the theatrical initiative was being guided by authorities in Stepanakert and Yerevan to discredit the Russian peacekeepers.

Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement have increasingly been criticized in Stepanakert and Yerevan for their inability to act in accordance with their mission stated in the document, that is, to protect the security of the local population.

They are also blamed for effectively ceding control of the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, to Azerbaijan earlier this year amid a perceived weakening of Russias political and military positions in the region due to its largely failing invasion of Ukraine.

Echoing this widely held belief, Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian acknowledged on Sunday that Russias inability to implement the most important provision [of the ceasefire agreement] concerning the Lachin corridor is a consequence of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
David Ishkhanian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a minority group in the 32-member Karabakh parliament, was installed to the top legislative post by a secret ballot of 22 to 9 on Monday, nine days after former speaker Artur Tovmasian announced his resignation.

The ruling Free Homeland  United Civil Bloc faction, of which Tovmasian was a member, denied any political motives behind his resignation, saying that it was his personal decision driven by health matters.

Tovmasian himself acknowledged that it was his personal decision, but stressed that despite his resignation he remained committed to the cause of self-determination of the region that proclaimed its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991.

The change in Nagorno-Karabakhs main political body comes amid a continuing blockade of the region by Azerbaijan that has installed a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor connecting it with Armenia and effectively blocked all cargoes coming to Nagorno-Karabakh from there.

Azerbaijans cutting off the transport link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and thus tightening its grip on the region that it considers to be part of its sovereign territory is the latest in a series of similar steps that Baku has taken since the Armenian defeat in a war three years ago.

Stepanakert and Yerevan insist that the Lachin corridor must remain under the control of Russian peacekeepers that were deployed in the region following a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that put an end to six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.

The current blockade has also revealed some growing differences between the ethnic Armenian leadership in Stepanakert and the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Armenia. In particular, Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian government has repeatedly cautioned Pashinian against questioning the regions self-determination by recognizing it as part of Azerbaijan  a condition that Baku puts forward for a peace treaty to be signed with Armenia.

Incidentally, Dashnaktsutyun is also in opposition to Pashinian in Armenia and demands that the current Armenian government refuse to pursue a policy that would jeopardize Nagorno-Karabakhs self-determination.

Metakse Hakobian, a member of the Karabakh parliaments opposition Justice faction who said she had voted for Ishkhanians candidacy, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that the oppositionists nomination for the post was a cunning move on the part of Nagorno-Karabakhs President Arayik Harutiunian.

In the hopeless situation in which he [Harutiunian] has found himself in now and which he is no longer able to cope with, he also considers this as a lifeline, thinking that over time there will emerge a structure, a person who will be able to more confidently oppose the authorities in Armenia. This is a cunning move, because Arayik Harutyunyan has never done anything for the good of the state or based on the interests of the state, the opposition lawmaker claimed.

Hakobian said that the Justice faction voted for Ishkhanians candidacy and welcomes his election because it hopes that a parliament speaker representing Dashnaktsutyun will be able to act more independently and turn the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament into a separate decision-making political entity.

At the same time, Hakobian claimed that an opposition candidates election as parliament speaker could also be designed by Harutiunian as a step to split the local opposition, something that she said the authorities would not be able to achieve.

Meanwhile, Marcel Petrosian, who heads the second largest faction in Nagorno-Karabakhs parliament, United Homeland, which is linked with former secretary of the regions Security Council Samvel Babayan, said that they voted against the candidacy of Ishkhanian because the ruling faction did not consult them before his nomination.

Thats not how things are done. In fact, it turns out that they have brought the opposition to power in a roundabout way, he said.

Attempts by RFE/RLs Armenian Service to contact the leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh parliaments pro-government Free Homeland  United Civil Bloc faction during the day were unsuccessful.

It emerged later that Harutiunian and two former Karabakh presidents Arkady Ghukasian and Bako Sahakian had approached Dashnaktsutyun with an offer to have Ishkhanian elected parliament speaker in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Gegham Manukian, a Dashnak lawmaker in the Armenian parliament, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that after long discussions the party gave its consent, considering the crucial moment for Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh  ed.].

Manukian made it clear, however, that the Dashnak representative would be free to resign in case of differences with Nagorno-Karabakhs government on key issues.

Meanwhile, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian congratulated Ishkhanian on the election as Nagorno-Karabakhs parliament speaker in a telephone conversation reported by the press office of Armenias National Assembly today.
7 August 2023 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

In November 2020, after liberating its sovereign territory, Azerbaijan first expressed its desire to sign a peace treaty with Armenia. Nevertheless, Armenia, unable to come to reconcile with its humiliating defeat, initially opposed Azerbaijan's proposal. But Pashinyan, who later realized that pressure is useless, he and his cabinet then declared their recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

Russia, which participated throughout these processes, also showed its support and its necessary participation in this matter. However, seeing that Russia was partially weakened after the war with Ukaina, Western forces also favored a peaceful attitude in the South Caucasus region. Even unlike Russia, the European countries that constantly follow the events through Armenia stated that "Baku and Yerevan will be able to sign a peace agreement in the coming weeks and months."

Not even a day later, Russia, or rather the director of the fourth department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Denis Gonchar, made a statement that the hasty signing of the peace process would lead to big conflicts in the South Caucasus region.

According to him, the agreement should not be signed quickly, but in a balanced way, as a result of mutually acceptable decisions.

The diplomat also spoke about the importance of progress in agreeing on ways to unblock transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia, on the implementation of concrete steps to restore and organize railway communication along the Yeraskh (Arazdayan) - Julfa - Mehri - Horadiz route.

"The fact is that Russia will try to do everything to leave its troops on the territory of Azerbaijan under the pretext of "peacekeeping". Russia is an imperialist regime and will maintain its influence in Azerbaijan in any way. I am sure that the leadership of Azerbaijan understands this very well and sees what Russia's strategy is. Therefore, the only correct way out, in line with the national interests of Azerbaijan, is to restore full sovereignty and control over the entire territory of the state as soon as possible and, for this, achieve the speedy withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Azerbaijan."

A Ukrainian political analyst, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Oleksandr Oleksandrovich Merezhko, told AZERNEWS, while making a comment on the issue. He added that Russia will look for any excuse to stay and continue to try to influence the situation in Garabagh.

Then the expert told about unblocking transport communications between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and called this step in the right direction. "That is, we are talking about the normalization of relations between the two states. But this must be done in such a way that the sovereignty and national interests of Azerbaijan do not suffer. So that this unblocking does not become a tool for preserving any elements of the occupation of Azerbaijan's territory," Merezhko said.

Further, the Ukrainian expert, speaking about the actions of Armenia, noted that Armenia should follow its national interests, and not the interests of Russia. And at the same time, it must act in a way that does not violate international law.

"In my opinion, the true national interests of Armenia are to completely get rid of Russian influence, not to allow themselves to be used as an instrument of Russian imperialist policy, and to restore normal, civilized relations with Azerbaijan and Turkiye based on the observance of the norms and principles of international law. If Armenia manages to build peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with Azerbaijan, then it has a future," the Ukrainian expert underlined.

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Follow Rena Murshud on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
7 August 2023 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

Elnur Enveroglu Read more

Every time when an article is written or a post is shared about the failed policy of Armenia and the reasons for its defeat in the Second Garabagh War, some jingoistic bloggers, politicians and patriots fervently reject the idea and even try to boycott it.

However, it is very significant to remind that when the Soviet Socialist Empire collapsed, all post-Soviet countries were in the same situation, but also in a state of crisis. Among them, Armenia had certain opportunities because it was not completely separated from Russia's administrative system. Even at that time, due to the certain military support of Russia, it was able to occupy the territories of Azerbaijan by pursuing an expansionist policy.

And finally, Armenia, which was able to keep the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation for 30 years, tried to ignite a new war in Azerbaijans territories with the desire to go further with the next attempt. Armenia, which was not yet recovered from the mood of the 1990s, forgot that there was a 30-year historical gap between them when they started the Second Garabagh War. This was just not considering both the economic and military potential of the other party. Azerbaijan did not want war, it had only one demand - restoration of territorial integrity and peace in the region.

Unfortunately, as the Armenian blogger Roman Bagdasaryan admitted, Armenia chose the wrong path and the result is obvious. Armenian mouthpieces and social network heroes will no longer have anything to say. Because the true heroes from within themselves did not leave a chance to us to explain something. Even if we told them, they wouldn't believe it...

In the video shared by the Armenian blogger, he talked about the corruption and embezzlements committed by Armenians during 30 years. In the video he prepared, he evaluated the strategy established by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev only in 20 years and exposed the lust of bribery and disloyalty of the former Armenian leaders to their homeland. Indeed, Bagdasaryan emphasizes a true statement by showing the Armenian soldiers who were killed in the Second Karabakh War. He sees the guilt of the fallen Armenian soldiers in the Armenian officials who live a luxurious life in the background, and blames them for the current situation of Armenia.

In addition, the blogger Roman tried to show the real difference between the two countries by emphasizing a number of quotes from the recent interview of President Ilham Aliyev to the Euronews TV channel. The blogger who said "Ilham Aliyev was right" added: "Azerbaijanis build cities, and Armenians build villas."

"After the first Karabakh war, our officials and soldiers imagined themselves as eternal winners.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Arkady Ghukasyan was buying hotels in St. Petersburg.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Bako Saakyan bought himself the "Arsakh" hotel in Moscow (named of the so-called regime in Garabagh), a three-story palace for his driver, a shopping center, shops and commercial facilities.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Arayik Harutyunyan was building houses and hotels in Stavropol Territory, and buying apartments in Dubai and Paris.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Artur Aghabekyan opened a fund, stole money and spent it on girls and banquets.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Robert Kocharyan bought an island, hotel, and hundreds of objects in Greece for his son Levon.

While Ilham Aliyev was building cities, Ara Abramyan sent the money he collected to strengthen "Arsakh" to build villas and luxurious places," Bagdasaryan said.

Of course, these expressions of the Armenian blogger do not come from his love for Azerbaijan. Since Armenia and Armenians know Azerbaijan as a rival and even an enemy country, blogger Bagdasaryan emphasized such a comparison from the point of view of rivalry and jealousy. The blogger simply forgot to tell one truth, which is that Armenia wasted 30 years of occupying the lands of Azerbaijan and did not turn back from its non-constructive path even after the defeat. On behalf of Azerbaijan, we thank the Armenian blogger from the bottom of our hearts for bringing the truth to the world and opening the Armenian people's eyes.

It's good that there is at least one person among the Armenian society who can see such truths. We hope that Roman will soon give an answer to Pashinyan's question about the rapidly ongoing reconstruction works of Azerbaijan in the lands freed from occupation. We understand that the building and construction works are a novelty for Armenia, and in this field, the leadership of Armenia still needs to learn a lot from the President of Azerbaijan. We hope that Roman Baghdasaryan will closely assist the leadership of his country in this matter as well. Thanks, Bagdasaryan!

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

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In a break from his usual Hollywood blockbusters, Christopher Nolans latest release offers a dramatic and tense look at the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the bomb, exploring the politics of McCarthy-era America along the way.

Director Christopher Nolans latest epic, Oppenheimer, may appear an unusual subject for a summer blockbuster: a three-hour long biopic of Julius Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), the American physicist who oversaw the development of the first atomic bomb.

This has certainly not dissuaded cinemagoers, however, with the film grossing over $80 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

A star-studded cast; online hype encouraging viewing as a double-feature, alongside tongue-in-cheek release Barbie; and Nolans well-earned reputation for making intense thrillers with impressive set-pieces: all of these ingredients, together, are a recipe for big profits.

And no doubt studio bosses will be grateful for this cash injection, given the strikes that are currently rocking Hollywood.

Battles

Based heavily on the biography American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolans film aims to cover the eponymous physicists complex life at a blistering pace, whilst maintaining excruciating dramatic tension throughout.

Murphys performance is particularly captivating  especially as Oppenheimer comes to face not only personal and professional adversity, but also battles with his own conscience, as he realises the reality of the potential destruction that he has helped to unleash.

Nolans features often see spectacle triumph over substance. But Oppenheimer generally manages to avoid this. In fact, what is most surprising (besides former Nickelodeon child actor Josh Pecks cameo) is just how political the film is.

CPUSA

The storyline hinges around the investigation into Oppenheimers past associations with members of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and the revocation of his security clearance in 1954  which effectively ended his career  during the peak of the McCarthyite witch-hunt that pervaded America.

The film uses this investigation as a means to explore how the physicists own moral values shifted before and after he became the father of the A-bomb. But in doing so, it also provides an insight into the shifting aims of US imperialism, as it became the worlds predominant superpower.

Given the well-known anti-communist hysteria of the post-war period, it may seem crazy to the modern viewer that Oppenheimer  a man whose brother, wife, lover, and numerous friends and colleagues were all CPUSA members  was ever allowed to head up the top-secret Manhattan Project.

The CPUSA grew rapidly throughout the 1930s and 40s, especially following the Great Depression and the ensuing industrial tumult. Consequently, it came to hold important positions within the US labour movement  though unfortunately often playing a lamentable role.

At the same time, the party also gained a considerable reach amongst the US intelligentsia, such as the academics that surrounded Oppenheimer during his time at Berkeley, as the film portrays.

Oppenheimer himself, though never a card-carrying CPUSA member, was certainly a fellow traveller. He was a sympathiser of many working-class causes, such as that of Spanish republicanism, and the film also shows how he aided his university colleagues in their unionisation efforts.

The CPUSAs Stalinist Popular Frontism, however, no doubt also had some influence on him. The physicist therefore had few qualms about accepting the US governments invitation to join its top-secret programme to develop the bomb before the Nazis.

Put into historical context then, one can see how Oppenheimer ended up leading the Manhattan Project.

His belief that the bombs sole purpose, in the hands of US imperialism, would be to beat back the fascists and end the war was soon to unravel, however.

Cold War

The strategists of US imperialism feared the USSR as a potential rival world power. The film shows how this was the real motivation behind the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki / Image public domain

American imperialists knew that there was a risk of potential leaks to the USSR, via communist-sympathising scientists such as Oppenheimer and his colleagues.

But they were willing to take this gamble, in order to build and demonstrate the nuclear bomb as quickly as possible  not only before the Nazis could, but also to gain an upper hand over the Soviets.

Nolan does well to show how the battle lines of the Cold War were already being drawn before World War Two had even finished.

Stalin had dissolved the Communist International in 1943, and had vociferously disavowed the cause of international socialist revolution. Nevertheless, the strategists of US imperialism feared the USSR as a potential rival world power.

The film shows how this was the real motivation behind the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese imperialists were ready to surrender, but the US cynically used the country to showcase its deadly new weapon  as a warning to the Soviet Union, and as a demonstration to the world that American imperialism was now top dog.

Within a matter of years, however, the Soviets also gained nuclear capability, due to leaks from the Manhattan Project. As a result, the Cold War picked up pace, especially following the Korean War.

Red Scare

The arms race was then on for developing the hydrogen bomb, a nuclear weapon of even greater power than the original atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer vocally opposed the US pursuit of the H-bomb. And the film shows his naive hope that as the father of the bomb, he was entitled to a say over his child.

The scientists vocal opposition became cause for concern for the authorities, and his loyalties began to be called into question.

At the same time, anti-communist hysteria was being whipped up everywhere, reaching its zenith with the Red Scare of the early 1950s.

The lives and livelihoods of thousands of CPUSA members and sympathisers were ruined, as they lost their jobs and effectively became exiles in their own country. Hundreds were also jailed.

It was in this context, spurred on by petty professional rivalries, that an investigation into Oppenheimers life and beliefs was launched, with a subsequent kangaroo court finding the eminent professor guilty of being a disloyal citizen.

Anti-communist hysteria reached its zenith with the Red Scare of the early 1950s / Image: public domain

His security clearance was revoked, bringing to an end his role as advisor on the Atomic Energy Commission. This resulted in a swift fall from grace, with Oppenheimer rapidly losing any influence that he had previously held in Washington.

Horror and destruction

The biopics ending (SPOILER ALERT) has Oppenheimer musing as to whether his creation has potentially set in motion events leading to inevitable nuclear armageddon, with Nolan depicting his horrifying vision.

With the ongoing war in Ukraine provoking such Cold-War-era fears, this is clearly intended as a reminder to audiences of just what a modern-day nuclear exchange would entail.

The Mutually Assured Destruction that would result if the worlds imperialist powers were to deploy their atomic arsenals, however, is enough to prevent the ruling classes everywhere from ever pressing the button. After all, there would be little profit to be made if the planet was transformed into a radioactive husk.

Alongside the enormous  and growing  strength of the working class, this MAD outcome is just one factor that rules out World War Three.

But this does not preclude wars altogether. Every year, across the world, tens of thousands die in battles over profits, markets, resources, and spheres of influence  such as the civil wars in Sudan or Ethiopia today.

In fact, as capitalism plunges further into crisis, the coming period will see an intensification of proxy wars and regional conflicts between the imperialist powers, as in Ukraine, or Syria before it.

There is only one force on Earth that can put an end to this horror without end, as Lenin described it: the international working class.

To do this, the working class must first become conscious of its potential power and strength, and organise to overthrow capitalism  the true destroyer of worlds.

Originally published at socialist.net
7 August 2023 20:00 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

The 44-day war proved that Armenia's 30-year domestic and foreign policy was a failure. Moreover, the country's state policy was shortsighted and based on self-praise. Prior to the war, Armenians relied on two things  the so-called undefeatable Armenian military and the Armenian diaspora. They did believe that even if the Armenian army had been defeated, due to the influence of the Armenian diaspora the would run to help them. However, in 2020, non of these happened. Armenia enjoyed the humiliating defeat and no one cared about it.

After their biggest frustration, Armenia started a new policy  playing the victim card and getting all western forces involved in the process and put pressure on Azerbaijan through it. They started to make a fuss about the so-called "humanitarian crisis in Khankendi" and sent 19 trucks "filled with aid" to the Lachin border checkpoint. To exaggerate the situation, they organized a trip of foreign diplomats to Yerevan to accompany the trucks. Since that day, the Armenian media has been circulating this trip as the support of the Armenian policy by the diplomats in Yerevan.

In a comment to Azernews political analyst, Sector head at the Social Research Center Ilyas Huseynov noted that it is a provocation and the main goal of this incitement is not to aid the Armenian minority in Garabagh.

"It should be noted that Armenia continues its provocative actions against Azerbaijan, and its main goal is to defame Azerbaijan, achieve the cancellation of important contracts signed by Azerbaijan in the energy field, and thereby strengthen its position in the South Caucasus. However, the sending of 19 trucks to the Lachin BCP is not only a show but also a part of political provocation to involve the diplomats accredited in Armenia and the EU civilian mission in the Armenian cunning actions," he said.

He pointed out that it is certainly regrettable that these diplomats have become elements of provocation in Armenia. However, these diplomats and the people accompanying this process certainly cannot be an obstacle to regional integration, peace, and security transformation.

"Maybe the diplomats accepted the offer to look good to the Armenian authorities, but the result is obvious. Azerbaijan offers a route of movement in its territory in accordance with its legislation, constitution, and jurisprudence. This route is in the direction of Aghdam Khankendi. Any foreign routes, Lachin-Khankendi road, attempts to transport goods to Azerbaijan from other countries' territory and attempts to forcibly accept it into Azerbaijan will not be fulfilled," he noted.

He also touched on a tweet posted by the French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies over the Lachin BCP and noted that it would be better if the ambassador expressed his thought about the violation of human rights in France. Ilyas Huseynov reminded the atrocity committed by France in Africa as well.

"Here, another noteworthy point is that Olivier Decottignies, the French ambassador to Armenia, is calling for the opening of the Lachin BCP from his social page. It would be better if the French ambassador paid attention to gross violations of human rights, police violence, and inhumane behavior against protestors in demonstrations. And it would be better if the ambassador posted a tweet about the massacres committed by France over many years and the continuation of this policy in parallel with modern global contexts," he said.

Huseynov also drew attention to the hypocritic policy of France. He noted that France turns a blind eye to the Armenian crimes.

"Nakhchivan has been under blockade for more than 30 years, and as a result of the occupation, Armenia has committed culturicide, urbicide, and ecocide. It has implemented the policy of erasing Azerbaijan's heritage and making it its own. For some reason, the French government and ambassadors were silent. We observed the process of covering up and complicity in the crime. Therefore, France continues to operate its double standards and thereby tries to secure its interests in the South Caucasus with the help of Armenia," he added.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

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7 August 2023 10:07 (UTC+04:00)

The Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC) will hold its meeting in Turkiye, Azernews reports.

As part of the visit of the NGIC secretariat to Turkiye, the members of the Center held meetings with former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Volkan Bozkir, former Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin.

The meetings saw discussions on the XXVI High-Level Meeting and the XI Global Baku Forum, which will be held in September 2023 in New York City as part of the UN General Assembly as well as highlighted the importance of holding a high-level meeting in Turkiye in 2024 with the participation of NGIC members.

Organized by NGIC as part of the UN General Assembly, the XXVI High-Level Meeting under the theme Shaping the Future Rebooting Multilateralism will bring together more than 30 current and former heads of states and governments from over 40 countries.

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7 August 2023 16:57 (UTC+04:00)

As a result of the farsighted and targeted policy of President Ilham Aliyev, consistent reforms are being carried out in all areas of the country's economy and society, including the healthcare system and the pharmaceutical industries.

Within the framework of these reforms, the construction strategy of modern pharmaceutical factories is currently being implemented in Azerbaijan, the main goal of which is to quickly develop local drug production and provide the population with effective drugs at more affordable prices.

At the same time, it is also considered a method of creating an import substitute that can reduce the burden on the country's foreign exchange resources.

In accordance with the task, the construction of the first pharmaceutical factory in Azerbaijan "Scandens Pharmaceutical Industries LTD" LLC is being successfully implemented and is in the stage of completion.

"Scandens PI Ltd" LLC will initially produce more than 90 types of solid pharmaceuticals in the form of tablets, capsules and granules.

It is also planned to produce sterile solutions in the form of infusion preparations, ampoules, vials and eye drops.

In the second stage, the production of antibiotics is planned, and in the later stages, oncological preparations.

The plant will carry out a full cycle of production of medicines from primary raw materials to finished products.

Using of the most modern high-tech equipment of well-known world manufacturers, such as Bosh-Syntegon, Uhlmann, Fette, Glatt, Flaktgroup, Stilmass and others, Scandens PI will allow the production of medicines in Azerbaijan in full compliance with WHO GMP and Eu GMP international standards.

More than 200 highly qualified specialists will work at the "Scandens PI Ltd" pharmaceutical plant.

On July 31, 2023, the agreement signed in Budapest between Scandens PI Ltd of Azerbaijan and Gedeon Richter, one of the oldest manufacturing companies in Europe with a history of 125 years, was a great historical step for the pharmaceutical industry of Azerbaijan. So, according to the Agreement, Gedeon Richter company will produce its medicines together with "Scandens PI Ltd" at the production base of "Scandens PI LTD" in Azerbaijan.

Gedeon Richter products have been presented at the Azerbaijan market for more than 30 years and have gained great trust among the medical community of the Republic due to their quality and effectiveness.

Under the agreement, it is planned to produce original products developed by Gedeon Richter under their license, as well as generic drugs that are necessary to meet the needs of the market.

The pharmaceutical industry is highly innovative and requires deep research, development, innovation and application of the latest technology.

One of the important directions in the policy of Scandens is the training of highly qualified personnel.

Due to this an agreement was drawn up for Azerbaijani students to study and practice at the University of Pecs in Hungary - "Pecsi Quinqueecclesiensis Alapitvany" and Panon Pharma Company, which is considered as educational base for students and masters studying at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Europe.

In turn, on the basis of the Scandens plant, all conditions will be created for the internship of students of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Azerbaijan Medical University.

We believe that the implementation of the plans defined by "Scandens PI Ltd" will lead to the production of high-quality pharmaceutical products in Azerbaijan and the increase of professional personnel for the pharmaceutical industry.

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7 August 2023 12:50 (UTC+04:00)

The Municipality of Western Azerbaijan, as an organization representing Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia and defending their right to return, strongly condemns the false accusations made by the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Azernews reports.

The Municipality's declaration reads:

We, the Western Azerbaijan Community, the organization representing the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia and advocating for their right to return, strongly condemn the false allegations made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia, the Community said in a statement.

As it became clear from the video footage of the press conference of 25 July 2023, which was published a few days ago, Prime Minister Pashinyan made a baseless and contradictory claim of a voluntary departure of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and payment of compensation. First of all, it should be noted that compensation implies acknowledgment of wrongdoing and loss, which contradicts the assertion of a voluntary departure. If the mass exodus was truly voluntary, why would compensation be offered? Secondly, we categorically refute the claim that Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia received any form of compensation in exchange for renouncing their right to return.

As a community that has suffered greatly due to forced expulsion, we stand firm in our demand for the right to return to our ancestral lands in Armenia.

The mentioned allegations are yet another attempt by the Armenian Prime Minister to distort the truth and evade responsibility for the injustices that Armenia committed against our community. Armenian Governments unfounded claims only deepen the pain of expelled Azerbaijanis, further complicating the path to peace and reconciliation. The Armenian Government's refusal to enable the realization of the universally recognized right of the expelled Azerbaijanis to return to their homes exposes how insincere they are in their claim to be committed to democratic values and human rights. This refusal on the part of Armenia unequivocally proves that Armenia practices Azerbaijan-phobic ethnic discrimination, and pursues a policy of "no national minority, no problem".

We urge Armenia to take inspiration from Azerbaijan, which, in a significant move, enabled the safe return of ethnic Armenians to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan after the end of the conflict in 2020. Armenia has to demonstrate the same level of respect for human rights and international law and enable the right of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to return to their homes in safety and with dignity.

We demand that the Government of Armenia cease spreading false allegations and engage in meaningful dialogue with our Community to address the legitimate concerns of the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia."

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7 August 2023 10:29 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended a ceremony to launch the water supply and sewerage systems in the city of Gazakh.

Chairman of the Azerbaijan State Water Reserves Agency Zaur Mikayilov informed the head of state of the work done under the project.

The project is part of the National Water Supply and Sanitation in 6 districts in Azerbaijan program jointly financed by the Government of Azerbaijan and Islamic Development Bank.

The project is designed to improve the use of drinking water supply and sewerage services for 26,000 people in the city of Gazakh, taking into account the prospective development until 2035.

The implementation of the Reconstruction of drinking water supply and sewerage systems of the city of Gazakh project started in 2019.

A 119-kilometer water distribution network was built in the city. An 83-kilometer-long sewerage network and a 3.8-kilometer-long sewerage collector were constructed in the city.

President Ilham Aliyev pressed a button symbolizing the commissioning of the water supply and sewerage systems in the city of Gazakh.

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7 August 2023 11:22 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of the 102 km-long Ganja-Gazakhbeyli section upgraded as part of the Project to widen to 4 lanes of the Ganja-Gazakh-Georgia state border section (130.15 km) of the Baku-Gazakh-Georgia state border highway.

The head of state was informed of the work carried out here.

The construction of 67 underpasses, 17 junctions and 20 bridges were completed on this section of the 4-lane road.

The head of state watched a video highlighting the work done.

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7 August 2023 14:32 (UTC+04:00)

In accordance with the training plan for 2023, combat training sessions are being conducted in the tank units of the Azerbaijan Army, Azernews reports, citing the Ministry.

Prior to the start of the sessions, the safety rules were delivered to the crew members.

Reports on the decisions made on the terrain model board were heard. Then the tank platoon fulfilled the tasks of fire control in defense, as well as attack from depth on an imaginary enemy.

During the control of combat vehicles, the tankmen overcame natural and artificial obstacles in the area and successfully accomplished the assigned tasks.

Activities on improving the servicemens knowledge, abilities, and combat skills continue.

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7 August 2023 14:11 (UTC+04:00)

The first voyage of the Aframax tanker named Shusha, which was acquired by SA Maritime AFEZCO, a joint venture established on a parity basis with the approval of the Supervisory Board of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), has been successfully completed. Azernews reports, citing ASCO.

The vessel, managed by ASCO Ship Management AFEZCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASCO, was successfully loaded with crude oil in the Libyan port of Es Sider on 29 July and headed for the port of Augusta, Italy.

The first voyage of the Aframax tanker has been successfully completed and the cargo has been safely offloaded from the vessel at the port of destination.

It is important to note that each of the 3 Aframax tankers purchased by the SA Maritime AFEZCO joint venture has a deadweight (gross tonnage) of about 115,000 tonnes and they will be operated under the flag of Azerbaijan in waters outside the Caspian Sea.

It should also be added that the purchase of Aframax tankers was made possible with the direct support and attention of President Ilham Aliyev. In addition, these huge vessels were named in honor of our historical lands of great importance for the Azerbaijani people, in accordance with the recommendations and instructions of the head of the country.

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7 August 2023 15:18 (UTC+04:00)

A meeting was held between Ziba Mustafayeva, Vice President of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), and Jafar Babayev, Deputy Head of the State Service for Antimonopoly Supervision and Consumer Market Control under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing SOCAR.

At the meeting, they discussed possibilities of cooperation in various directions, such as the involvement of SOCAR specialists working in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry in the accreditation process as experts, exchange of knowledge and experience, training of technical specialists, organization of joint training in the field of conformity assessment.

Finally, a Memorandum of Understanding on mutual cooperation was signed between SOCAR's Training, Education, and Certification Department and the Azerbaijan Accreditation Centre under the State Service for Antimonopoly Supervision and Consumer Market Control.

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7 August 2023 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the inauguration of a new building of the secondary lyceum school with humanities and natural orientation named after Muhammad Fuzuli in the city of Shamkir.

The head of state informed of the conditions created at the school.

The secondary lyceum school with humanities and natural orientation named after Muhammad Fuzuli, operational since 1958, has been completely rebuilt. The 1,600- seat school has 65 classrooms, physics, chemistry and biology laboratories, a library, canteen, assembly hall and a gym.

Landscaping work was carried out, green areas were laid out in the territory of the lyceum school.

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7 August 2023 17:31 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan Rural Women's Association has launched the "Digital Empowerment of Rural Women" campaign to facilitate the access of women farmers and entrepreneurs to e-commerce.

The main purpose of the campaign is to provide rural women with training aimed at increasing digital skills, to satisfy their need for digital devices and, as a result, to increase their activity in social networks and commercial portals, Azernews reports, citing Azertag.

Launched a year ago with the slogan "Smart women create smart communities", the USA T-Mobile company, the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, the Azerbaijani Embassy in the South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co, the USAID Private Sector Development Project, the United Nations participated in this campaign.

Food and Agriculture Organization and Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business Development Agency also contributed to this project.

Currently, according to the association's request, the training session on "Digital skills enhancement" organized by the USAID Private Sector Development Project for Women's Cooperatives, Women's Development and Enterprise Groups operating in the regions and female farmers continues its work in Lankaran.

In addition to Women's Cooperatives and Women's Development and Enterprise Groups operating in Beylagan, Saatli, Sabirabad, Masalli and Lankaran regions, representatives of Women's Resource Centers and NGOs in the region were also involved in these sessions conducted by the trainers of "FemTech" company.

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7 August 2023 15:24 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree awarding Yuli Gusman with the "Sharaf" Order for his great merits in the development of cultural ties between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation.

Yuli Gusman is a Soviet, Russian and Azerbaijani film director and actor. He worked at Azerbaijanfilm where he created and directed stage performances. In the 1970s and the 1980s he worked as manager and director of the Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy and the Song Theatre. He has directed seven films.

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7 August 2023 18:00 (UTC+04:00)

The Chairman of the Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA), Orhan Mammadov, recently met with Hamit Eldeleklioglu, Director of Turkish Airlines for Azerbaijan. The two discussed the potential for cooperation between the two countries in order to promote the development of the SME sector, Azernews reports, citing KOBIA.

KOBIA informed, that at the meeting they exchanged views on increasing the role of local SMEs in the tourism sector and opportunities for interaction with the company at events organized by KOBIA.

The meeting follows a series of other meetings that Mammadov has held with various international partners. In April, Mammadov met with Siavosh Dirakhti, Chairman of UMAF Sweden, to discuss the startup ecosystem in Azerbaijan and the role of business incubators and mentors in the development of youth and promotion of entrepreneurship. In June, Mammadov met with the Deputy Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, Badr Albadr, to exchange views on the future prospects of business and investment in Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia. Most recently, Mammadov met with the Director General of the Russian Federal Corporation for Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Alexander Isaevich, to discuss the prospects of cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan for the development of the SME sector.

Mammadov's meetings with international partners demonstrate the commitment of KOBIA to promote the development of the SME sector in Azerbaijan. With the number of private entrepreneurs in the country exceeding 1 million 275 thousand, KOBIA is working to ensure that entrepreneurs have access to the resources and support they need to succeed.

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7 August 2023 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the reconstructed Garapapag-Chayli road in the district of Gazakh.

Chairman of the Board of the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads Saleh Mammadov briefed the head of state on the works done.

The 19-km Garapapag-Chayli road connecting three residential settlements facilitated the commuting for over 14 thousand people, passenger and cargo transportation.

A Farahli road reconstruction project was presented to President Ilham Aliyev.

The Farahli road branches off at the 13th section of the Gazakh-Yukhari Askipara road. The road is 5.8 meters in width.

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7 August 2023 20:40 (UTC+04:00)

Kyrgyzstan will host an international bike ride "Silk Road Mountin Race 2023" from 12 to 26 August the Department of Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic said, Azernews reports, citing Kabar.

The bike ride will start on August 12 in the city of Karakol and ends on August 26 in the city of Cholpon-Ata.

According to preliminary data, over 200 cyclists from many countries of the world will take part in the competition. The total length of the route will be 1,800 km, of which 30,640 m is climbing.

The international bike ride "Silk Road Mountin Race" in Kyrgyzstan has been held since 2018 with the support of the Department of Tourism and domestic tourism companies, in which about 200 cyclists from more than 30 countries of the world take part.

The importance of promoting this kind of competition on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic attracts great attention and the flow of foreign tourists, which stimulates the development of tourism in our country, the report said.

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7 August 2023 19:35 (UTC+04:00)

In the first half of the year, the passenger traffic of Tashkent International Airport increased by almost 40%, the press service of Uzbekistan Airports reports, Azernews reports, citing Kun.uz news agency.

In January-June, the total passenger traffic amounted to 4.7 million people, an increase of 35% compared to the same period last year. Another 4.5 million passengers are expected to arrive by the end of the year.

In particular, passenger traffic at the capitals airport increased by 40%, to 3 million people. An additional 4 million passengers will arrive in the second half of the year.

The number of airlines flying to local airports increased to 59, including 7 resident companies.

In the first half of the year, the number of flights increased by 30%, reaching 800 per week.

At the same time, the total profit of Uzbekistan Airports increased by 30% over six months, and the volume of tax deductions  by 47%.

To date, a concept and a feasibility study (FS) have been prepared and submitted for approval to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade for modernizing two airports  in Bukhara and Urgench. The concept and feasibility study for the Namangan airport is at the development stage, and active work is underway on the Tashkent airport project together with consultants from the Singapore Changi airport.

Recently, the Ministry of Transport announced the emergence of four new airlines since the beginning of the year. In addition to Centrum Air and Silk Avia, which have already started operating flights, Asia Union Airlines and Tashkent Air were re-established.

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7 August 2023 18:30 (UTC+04:00)

Russia said on Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly 50 years, Azernews reports, citing Al Arabiya.

The launch, which is scheduled for the early hours of Friday, comes as Russias Ukraine offensive stretches into a second year, sparking huge tensions with the West.

With the Luna-25 lander, Russias first since 1976, Moscow is keen to restart and build upon a pioneering Soviet-era lunar program.

The Russian space agency said that a Soyuz rocket had been as-sembled at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the launch of the Luna-25.

The launch is on August 11, Roscosmos said in a statement.



The Luna-25 will have to practise soft landing, take, and analyze soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research, the statement added.

The four-legged lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms, is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole. By contrast, most Moon landings occur near the lunar equator.

The launch is the first mission of Moscows new lunar program and comes as Russia looks to strengthen cooperation in space with China amid ruptured ties with the West.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as future 26 and 27 missions.

Despite the pullout, Moscow said at the time it would go ahead with its lunar plans and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific instruments.

Speaking at the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite total sanctions. He insisted Moscow would develop its lunar program despite current Western sanctions.

We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside, Putin said at the time.

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7 August 2023 19:00 (UTC+04:00)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the violence in Ethiopia's Amhara region, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

"WHO is concerned about the ongoing violence in Amhara, Ethiopias second most populous region," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He stressed that humanitarian access was difficult due to roadblocks and suspension of internet service.

"Conflicts have an immediate impact on people's health and can have grave, long-lasting consequences on health systems," the WHO chief added, calling for peace and "uninterrupted access and protection of health care in Amhara, so WHO and partners can continue our work."

Amid the escalating conflict in Amhara, the region's internet remains down as of Friday, according to internet monitoring sites. Residents have also reported a surge in arrests in the Eastern African country.

In response to the escalating clashes in Amhara, the government of Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency in the countrys second-largest region, taking urgent measures to restore order and security.

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7 August 2023 22:05 (UTC+04:00)

Market prices in Somalia increased after Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, Azernews reports, citing Yeni Safak.

In Africa, 25 countries currently rely on Russia and Ukraine for over one-third of their imported wheat.

In some countries, the dependency on external sources for grain has surpassed 90%.

During the Russia-Africa Summit on July 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country will provide free grain to six African countries in the next three to four months.

"We will be ready in the coming months, in the next three to four months, to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea with 25,000-50,000 tons of grain free of charge. We will also provide free delivery of this product to consumers," Putin said during his opening speech at the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg.

On July 17, Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, saying the Russian part of the agreement was not implemented. It sought the loosening of banking restrictions and the ability to ship its fertilizer before returning to the agreement.

The agreement, signed in July 2022 in Istanbul by Turkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine, was aimed at resuming grain exports from Ukrainian ports halted due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022.

Turkiye has said that Western countries should try to address Russia's complaints and that it hopes Russia returns to the deal.

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Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. Potential for flooding rains. High 79F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Bands of heavy rain showers along with strong wind gusts at times, especially early. Potential for flooding rains. Low 69F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph, becoming ESE and decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. High 77F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 69F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.
It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios? Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything. No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now. I just observe; with this thoughtful observation: What will happen "when the Vikings are breeching our walls;" how do the Woke react? 770 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal . The author of this post is Alex Baltzegar On Tuesday, the North Carolina Senate passed House Bill 750 (H.B. 750), a bill that prohibits the use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria from being a factor in state investment decisions, by a vote of 29-18.The bill also bans economically targeted investments (ETI) requirements in state employment decisions.All Senate Democrats present voted against the bill, while all Senate Republicans voted in favor.When H.B. 750 passed the House, five Democrats voted in favor: Reps. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, Frances Jackson, D-Cumberland, Ray Jeffers, D-Durham, Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, and Michael Wray, D-Northampton.Sen. Dave Craven, R-Randolph, said.Craven has an investment background and holds the titleat Fidelity Bank.N.C. Treasurer Dale Folwell credited Craven as being instrumental in getting H.B. 750 passed, calling CravenCraven said in a committee hearing.The House bill sponsors are Reps. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, Celeste Cairns, R-Carteret, and Neal Jackson, Randolph.Proponents of the bill argue that it is necessary to safeguard the financial interests of the state and its beneficiaries. Rep. Cairns, R-Carteret, emphasized the importance of prioritizing the maximization and security of state assets.Cairns said.Opponents, on the other hand, express concerns about the potential limitations on considering non-financial factors in investment and employment decisions. Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, raised the issues of climate change and social justice.However, supporters of the bill argue that it does not prohibit the consideration of ESG factors if they align with the goal of achieving the highest rate of return.John Hood, president of the John William Pope Foundation said.North Carolina joins a growing number of states that have enacted laws or adopted regulations to restrict the use of ESG criteria in state investments.The debate surrounding ESG investing has also gained attention at the national level.In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced an alliance with 18 other Republican governors toThe Biden administration recently requested the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging a Department of Labor rule that allows retirement plans to consider ESG factors when selecting investments.H.B. 750 will one more vote in the Senate before being sent to Governor Roy Cooper's desk. Given its support has fallen mostly along partisan lines, Cooper is expected to veto the bill.However, H.B. 750 passed with enough support in both House and Senate chambers to override Cooper's veto.
U.S. After scanning thousands of photographs and cross-referencing facial features with political affiliation, researchers have discovered a bizarre connection between being liberal and have enormous, googly eyes.wondered lead researcher Dr. Michael Zorn.According to sources on the team, the shocking connection became immediately apparent as soon as they began reviewing pictures of liberals.said assistant Jamie Reynolds.While other facial features showed no association with any political leaning, possessing crazy eyes demonstrated a consistent, strong correlation with being liberal.reported Dr. Zorn.At publishing time, the team had decided to do something far more important for society, like determine if conservative women are hotter than liberal women.
Resolution in Defense of Election Integrity

Written by Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage to be ratified on August 7, 2023 and sent by email to all members of the North Carolina General Assembly, and to all members of the North Carolina congressional delegation.

Do you consider Election Integrity an issue of some real importance, or just another conspiracy theory interfering with Democratic Socialist political hegemony? No, complete access to everyone voting, even in a willy nilly manner, is more important than getting it right by limiting access to those that would commit Voter Fraud. Yes, the most inalienable right of real citizens of this Democratic Republic is the Right to Vote, and that right shall remain sacrosanct for perpetuity. Again, I don't vote and I don't care. 709 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



Just last month, at the July 10, 2023 general meeting of the Beaufort County Commissioners, a majority of the commissioners voted 5 unto 2 in the negative to endorse, or lend any manner of support for election integrity as presented by Commissioner Hood Richardson, who offered for their consideration a mere premise to a resolution supporting the abject integrity of our democratic process ... the elected representatives of a self-governed people.The premise to that resolve for local support of free and fair elections was simply the good will sentiment of the elder commissioner, Hood Richardson, still needing a rounding of the words of advice and consent on this matter of honestly choosing our elected leaders. The commissioner in the negative offered not advice, no consent and just summarily voted, with few reasonable words expressing why the negative sentiment.Tonight at this August 6th general meeting , these same commissioners will get a second opportunity to express their resolve for real election integrity, and this time they will be offered a brief, but full resolution, leaving naught to the imagination of what to offer or add. Just the opportunity for a secondto affirm that integrity of what is all American citizens' grandest right - the right to fairly choose our representatives to be self-governed.Here below is that aforementioned resolution to be rightfully represented.in this Constitutional Republic of the United States of America, elections are conceived to be administered by state legislatures, Article I, Section 4, Clause 1, and whereby Beaufort County, as a body politic of the state of North Carolina, is charged with the local administration of these democratic elections for all local, state and federal elected offices, and;in all recent elections since 2016, where most notably the federal bureaucracy, in particular the Department of Justice and the FBI, have used their ominous offices of public power to commit Election Interference to sway public opinion to elect their preferred candidates, and;a majority of the Free Press and Big Tech Social Media and Search, guaranteed by the First Amendment's free speech provision, is proved to have colluded with not only the FBI and Department of Justice, but also, while not limited to, the Democratic Socialist Party, their most notable politicians, and the Deep State to create and channel the elevation of their preferred speech; while restricting non preferred Free Speech by all means available, including political speech that is contrary to their colluded mission, and;in a Constitutionally mandated Representative Republic, it is imperative that the public have the equal opportunity to know what is true about their government, and their representative political leaders; so that the most basic guaranteed freedom - the RIght to Vote to be fairly represented in this Representative Republic - is preserved now and for future generations so they may choose wisely when voting, and;even in North Carolina, where Beaufort County is an integral part, election irregularities did exist across the state in the administration of the 2020 general election, therefore,that the Beaufort County Commissioners do hereby formally request that our elected representatives to the North Carolina General Assembly do all that is politically possible to insure that all future elections be free and fair, while conducted by the utmost integrity, and furthermore, that the North Carolina congressional delegation do all that is within the scope of their constitutional powers to eliminate all corruption from our federal institutions within our government of this Constitutional Republic of we, a self-governed people.
China-made NEV sales make up 60% global share in H1, total auto exports may surpass Japan by year-end

Global Times) 10:16, August 07, 2023

Sales of China-produced new-energy vehicles (NEVs) reached 3.65 million in the first half of 2023, up 48 percent year-on-year and accounting for more than 60 percent of the global NEV market.

Experts said that the strong momentum will persist for the rest of the year, and China may become the largest exporter of all types of vehicles and surpass Japan by the end of 2023, as China's auto manufacturing gets a boost from NEV making.

First-half global NEV sales grew by 45 percent year-on-year to 6.05 million, amid the expiration of government subsidies in various countries, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), on Saturday.

"Thanks to an advanced industrial supply chain, China-produced NEVs made remarkable achievements in the first half of 2023, helping lift sales in both domestic and overseas markets," said Cui.

The structure of the global auto market remains stable, and the strong growth momentum of China's auto exports will be extended to the end of 2023, Cui said.

China overtook Japan as the world's top auto export in the first quarter of 2023.

Data from China's General Administration of Customs showed that China exported 1.07 million vehicles in the first quarter, while Japan exported 950,000 vehicles, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

"Based on the current situation in China's auto industry, the nation's annual auto exports may surpass Japan's by the year-end," Wu Shuocheng, a veteran automobile analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that China now leads the global green energy transformation.

However, Cui commented that building stable trade relations with as many countries as possible are necessary to consolidate the achievements of China's auto exports.

According to the Politico, France is pushing the EU to hit back at alleged "unfair exports" of electric vehicles by some countries.

Amid possible headwinds, Wu suggested that Chinese auto brands should invest more in overseas markets by investing in manufacturing and strategic centers overseas to defuse risks caused by trade protectionism and exchange rate volatility.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
By Matt McGregor, Reporter writing at The Epoch Times

In her new position as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director, the former North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said she intends to rebuild trust in the public.

However, medical professionals in the statein recalling her actions during the pandemicsay that wont happen.

In an interview with NPR, Dr. Cohen said, Trust is a critical foundation for a healthy society. Trust in institutions, such as government, or media, or business, has been eroding in recent years. This lack of trust has led to polarization, to division.

Dr. Cohen outlined three steps to mend the relationship between the CDC and the public, the first being transparency.

Were having clear communications that are simple and accurate, that folks can understand, that they know that there are common sense solutions for them to protect their health, Dr. Cohen said. And the second is making sure that we execute or have good performance in what the CDC is meant to do. And so, making sure that we are doing what we say were going to do.

Third, Dr. Cohen said she intends to build relationships and partnerships.

Protecting the health of this country is a team sport, she said.

Though NPR carried water for federal agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, it acknowledgedat the very leastCDCs conflicting information.

Im wondering if you think that instead public health officials should sometimes say, We dont know the answer, NPR asked.

Dr. Cohen gave the pat science-changes response, stating, I think its important to be clear about what you know, what you dont know, and what youre working on. Science and data is going to be constantly evolving.

Her focus this fall, despite the multitude of concerns the COVID-19 vaccines have raised, is not to address those concerns but to continue to promote vaccinations.

Dr. Cohen recently told Spectrum News that the CDC would probably be coming out with guidance in the fall for annual COVID-19 boosters.

Were just on the precipice of that, so I dont want to get ahead of where our scientists are here and doing that evaluation work, but yes, we anticipate that COVID will become similar to flu shots, where it is going to be you get your annual flu shot, and you get your annual COVID shot, she said. Were not quite there yet but stay tuned. I think within the next couple of weeks, month were going to hear more from our experts on COVID shots.

She went on to state that shes concerned about vaccine distrust.

Im very worried about parents not vaccinating kids, she said. I got my kids vaccinated from the circulating viruses. Theres plenty of other things that are hard as parents that we cant do. This is one we can do to protect our kids.

Unfit for the Position

Her comment on making the COVID-19 vaccine an annual shot drew the concern of Ohio Congressman and physician Brad Wenstrup, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee who has launched an investigation into how federal agencies carried out the coercive policies of Biden administrations vaccine mandates.

On August 2, Dr. Wenstrup sent a letter (pdf) to Dr. Cohen stating that its unclear if the science supports such a recommendation, adding that it marks a significant change in policy.

To better understand this potential decision, Dr. Wenstrup requested a communications and document request to be sent by Aug. 16, 2023.

In July, three days before Cohen was sworn in to succeed Rochelle Walensky, 22 Republican House members and six Republican senators issued a joint statement (pdf) to President Joe Biden urging him not to appoint her as director, calling her unfit for the position.

Throughout her career, Dr. Cohen has politized science, disregarded civil liberties, and spread misinformation about the efficacy and necessity of COVID vaccinations and the necessity of masks during her time as Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the letter stated. She also has a history of engaging in partisan left-wing politics.

The letter alluded to a North Carolina school district that refused to comply with Dr. Cohens largely hysterical quarantine policies, which resulted in her threatening to bring legal action against the district.

Dr. Cohens willingness to threaten the school district put politics over the well-being of children and is just another example of the litany of public health abuses the American people endured at the hands of bureaucrats throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the letter stated.

Union County Public Schools

The school district Dr. Cohen threatened was Union County Public Schools (UCPS), which, in the fall of 2021, refused the states mandate for school districts to mandate masks.

The Union County Board of Education faced heated criticism for voting to keep masks optional in July of that year, which continued as it stood its ground on the issue.

Throughout this time, the district saw decreasing cases as it stayed the course on mask optional.

Instead of acknowledging the district for its decreasing cases, Dr. Cohen sent a letter (pdf) warning UCPS Chair Melissa Merrell that she would take legal action if it didnt reverse its vote in September 2021.

This honestly made me laugh because not only were our COVID [cases] decreasing, but we were also just named the number one performing school district in North Carolina, Ms. Merrell told The Epoch Times in 2021.

Gut it From the Top Down

Brandi Smith is a nurse in Union County who sits on the advisory board for the North Carolina Physicians for Freedom.

She worked on the frontlines of COVID while feeding data to Merrell and the board of education, she said, so they had facts to stand on.

Gov. Roy Coopers mask mandate for the state expired that summer, so 55 schools voted for mask optional, Ms. Smith said. Cooper did not like that, so he sent a letter to all 55 schools. Fifty of those schools rescinded their mask mandate. That left five of us.

Thats when Dr. Cohen stepped in and changed the quarantine rules for mask-optional schools, making it more difficult for them, Ms. Smith said.

This hurt our children excessively, Ms. Smith said. The new guidelines sent thousands more home than they would have if masks were required.

In one week, there were over 7,000 teachers and students out because of the quarantine rules Dr. Cohen put on mask-optional schools.

Ms. Smiths own daughter had to quarantine for 14 days because she was in class with a student who tested positive, she said, even though she tested negative.

Thats a big problem for working parents, Ms. Smith said.

Though local public health officials didnt agree with what Dr. Cohen and Gov. Cooper were doing, they were too scared to speak up, Ms. Smith said.

But not Melissa Merrell, Ms. Smith said. She went head-to-head and didnt hesitate to stand up for the kids and parents of Union County.

All the while, COVID cases in the district were lower than they were in other districts in the state, yet Dr. Cohen denied UCPSs request to decrease the days required for quarantine.

In the face of the threat of litigation, Ms. Smith said, Ms. Merrell called their bluff.

With no facts, data, or studies on their side, Dr. Cohen, she said, had no leg to stand on.

On her stated goal to reestablish trust with the public, Ms. Smith said, I just dont think its possible.

For three years, I watched people die who didnt have to die because these institutions like the CDC, Ms. Smith said. They put profit over patients and put things into place that had no scientific data or evidence to support it. They lied on numerous occasions.

The ramifications of what Ms. Smith called its dictatorship continue to reverberate through the lives of those who got caught in the web of its conflicting narratives, narratives to which Dr. Cohen contributed, she said.

I dont know how the CDC would come back from this, Ms. Smith said. I say gut it. Gut it from the top down. Mandy Cohen will never build the trust back with the CDC. She was a part of the problem on a local level, and now they just gave her more power.

The Antithesis of Transparency

The policies Dr. Joseph Guarino in Reidsville, North Carolina, observed throughout the pandemic contradicted what he learned when he studied public health.

When the lockdowns began, and I saw what Dr. Cohen was doing in this state, I thought, Gee, I dont remember any of this in my training, he told The Epoch Times.

He even pulled out his old textbooks to confirm, he said.

I can tell you that everything she did was, for the most, part wrong, Dr. Guarino said. And she did it without a whole lot of opposition, even though Republicans controlled the state legislature there.

Dr. Guarino doesnt think there will be much of a difference in how shell operate on a federal level, he said, pointing to her floating the annual COVID-19 vaccine.

The field of public health has a fairly defined set of ethical ground rules and a set of best practices that practitioners are supposed to follow, and when you look at those individual pieces, Dr. Cohen failed pretty much every single one, Dr. Guarino said. As a result, there was a massive violation of public health ethics, and a lot of people got hurt in a lot of different ways.

On whether Dr. Cohen can rebuild trust, Dr. Guarino said it could only be done by deception and untruth.

If she does on a national level what she did here, it means she would be ingratiating herself with the Republican legislators, charming and deceiving them while giving the appearance of being transparent when shes really not being transparent, Dr. Guarino said.

Theres an ethical requirement to be transparent about the ground rules for public health, which he said didnt take place in the state or federal government.

The most blatant lack of transparency was when federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies covered up the adverse reactions from the vaccines, yet continued to push them without giving informed consent.

Thats really the antithesis of transparency, he said.

Inconsistent Narratives

Retired pediatrician Dr. Bose Ravenel shared Dr. Guarinos view.

Dr. Ravenel has up to 5,000 hours of studying COVID, and what he witnessed during the pandemic was a deviation from basic commonsense practices on the part of Dr. Cohen and other public health officials, he said.

In her tenure as HHS secretary, the governors office repeatedly produced narratives that werent consistent with the actual published studies when analyzed carefully, Dr. Ravenel said. Under her leadership, the narratives that we were given were misleading and went unsupported by rigorous scientific study.

On whether Dr. Cohen can gain the trust back of the public as CDC director, Dr. Ravenel answered, No, absolutely not. The regulators have been in a revolving door with Big Pharma positions.

The Epoch Times contacted the CDC for comment.

Ross Muscato and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Arnold, Md.-based physician Ron Elfenbein, MD, has been convicted for submitting more than $15 million in fraudulent claims for patients who received COVID-19 tests at his medical centers.

Dr. Elfenbein operated multiple COVID-19 drive-thru testing sites and instructed his employees to fraudulently bill for high-level evaluation and management visits along with the COVID-19 tests, according to an Aug. 4 news release from the Justice Department.

He ordered these high-level visits to be billed for all patients who were getting tested for COVID-19 for employment or travel requirements.

He is convicted of five counts of healthcare fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count
Rockville Centre, N.Y. based Catholic Health opened an ambulatory and urgent care center in Centereach, N.Y.

The 63,000-square-foot facility is part of Catholic Health's $17 million development project, according to an Aug. 2 news release.

Services provided at the facility include primary care, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and orthopedics.

Catholic Health plans to build another ambulatory care center in Riverhead, N.Y., in the coming months, the release said.
Affordable Dentures & Implants, a brand of Morrisville, N.C.-based Affordable Care, opened a location in Midlothian, Va.

Stephanie Harding, DDS, is the practice owner and Mansi Mehta, DMD, is the managing dentist, according to an Aug. 7 news release.

The practice offers services including tooth extractions, partial dentures, full dentures and dental implants. The location also has an on-site dental laboratory.

Affordable Dentures & Implants has more than 400 practice locations across 42 states, the release said.
Little Rock-based Arkansas Children's received its largest donation, a $25 million gift from the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, to fund expansion projects and create an endowment.

The health system will use $12.5 million to support expansion projects and $12.5 million to create an endowment. In honor of the gift, Springdale-based Arkansas Children's Northwest will be named the Pat Walker Campus.

The donation is the largest the Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation has ever made, according to an Aug. 4 Arkansas Children's news release. In the past, the foundation has supported Arkansas Children's with $11 million in philanthropic support.
Oregon Health & Science University in Portland evacuated its Richmond Family Health Center after receiving a bomb threat Aug. 3, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The center, which includes a primary care clinic and family medicine walk-in clinic, remained closed for in-person visits Aug. 4 "out of an abundance of caution," an OHSU spokesperson told Becker's. Patients could still access the clinic's pharmacy and conduct virtual visits. The health center is one of a few facilities at OHSU that offers gender-affirming care.

The bomb threat came after far-right, anti-trans groups posted online about a cancer patient who was allegedly dismissed by OHSU for remarks she made at the clinic about the LGBTQ community, according to an email sent to unionized hospital employees obtained by OPB.

In the email, AFSCME Chapter President Michael Stewart said a breast cancer patient grew upset after noticing a transgender flag hanging in the clinic's reception area. She reportedly engaged in a verbal conflict with staff and detailed her experience in posts online, which were picked up by several far-right groups.

The woman said OHSU sent her a letter notifying her that she was being dropped as a patient "because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff."

An OHSU spokesperson told Becker's that the organization is legally prohibited from confirming whether someone is a patient.

"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," the health system said of its policies.

OHSU has implemented additional security members at the clinic since the threat and is offering other wellness resources to staff, the spokesperson said.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services are monitoring the cyberattack affecting Prospect Medical Holdings, a 16-hospital system, according to an Aug. 5 report from CNN.

The Culver City, Calif.-based hospital system began experiencing data security incidents on Aug. 3, and healthcare services have been halted at affiliated hospitals in at least three states, according to an Aug. 5 report from The The New York Times.

The White House and HHS are monitoring the attack, according to CNN, and offering federal assistance to Prospect, aiming to provide the health system support in returning its wide range of hospitals and clinics to normal operations. Additionally, third-party cybersecurity specialists are conducting an investigation with Prospect, according to a statement obtained by the Times.

The FBI in Connecticut, where several of the affected hospitals are located, is also investigating the attack, according to a report from WTNH.
Bellevue, Wash.-based Overlake Hospital Medical Center is facing a lawsuit for allegedly using pixel tracking technology on its website that allowed third parties to gain access to some patients' protected health information, The Record reported Aug. 4.

The lawsuit, filed by Jacq Nienaber on Aug. 3, alleges that Overlake embedded a pixel tracker, dubbed Meta Pixel, onto its website.

According to the suit, the tracker was able to intercept patients' information via their "discussions with doctors and online health service requests."

Ryan Hodges, spokesperson for Overlake Hospital Medical Center, said the health system has not been informed of the lawsuit.

"Until that happens, we would need more information and time to be able to formulate an appropriate response to the allegations detailed in this case," he told the publication.

Mr. Hodges also told Becker's that although it is not able to comment on pending litigation, Overlake takes protecting patient information very seriously.

"We have a robust information systems program that strives to always protect patients' privacy and follow all regulatory guidelines to ensure patients' private health information is secure," he said.

Overlake Hospital Medical Center is one of many hospitals and health systems around the U.S. facing lawsuits for allegedly sharing healthcare data with third parties through pixel tracking technologies.
Epic Systems has been requiring its workers to go back into the office every day since January 2022, with a company employee stating that the mandate is its "true North Star" in ensuring its team is helping physicians and nurses do their best work, Wisconsin State Journal reported Aug. 4.

Epic's policy requires its 13,000 employees to work in the office almost every day, with employees being granted 10 half-days a year to work remotely.

Nate Bubb, technical services division lead at Epic, told the publication that in-person work was the only "viable" way the company could move forward. Mr. Bubb said for Epic, the in-person work is here to stay.

"Being able to walk down the hall and hop into a room, do complex things together, that's the majority of the time," Mr. Bubb said. "That will be the way we continue to serve our community."
Members of SEIU Healthcare Illinois entered the second week of a strike Aug. 7 over what they allege are substandard wages and the urgent need for safe staffing at Chicago-based Loretto Hospital.

The union represents about 200 workers, according to a statement shared with Becker's earlier this month on behalf of SEIU Healthcare Illinois. Loretto Hospital is a nonprofit community-based organization located on Chicago's West Side.

The union members' contract expired June 30, and they had an extension until July 25, according to the statement. The union and hospital have been negotiating a new labor contract since May. On July 19, healthcare workers at Loretto Hospital delivered a 10-day strike notice to the hospital, and the strike began July 31. An Aug. 7 news release from the union, which was shared with Becker's, said the parties met over the weekend but were unable to reach an agreement.

"Loretto is facing a significant staffing crisis," the union said in the latest release, which cited high vacancy and turnover rates.

The release also said the hospital is lagging behind other facilities on wages, despite receiving funding from the state to address recruitment and retention.

Loretto, in a statement shared with Becker's on Aug. 7, said it presented another counteroffer Aug. 5 in the hopes of getting its team members back to work.

"The hospital offer met the SEIU start rates requested, but over a two-year period rather than in the first year of the new agreement," the statement reads.

"Loretto's latest offer meets the SEIU start rate wage demands without putting an unrealistic financial strain on the hospital. The first year of the new agreement would focus on bringing our lowest paid front-line workers to their requested rate and focus on the retention of hard-to-fill technical positions. The second year would focus on elevating the wages for all other team members."

Loretto also noted its average turnover rate for fiscal year 2023 was 14.5 percent, and that it received a "B" safety grade in the spring 2023 Leapfrog ratings.

Editor's Note: This article was updated at 3:57 p.m. CDT on Aug. 7.






Members of Service Employees International Union Healthcare Michigan went on strike Aug. 4 at Trinity Health Grand Haven (Mich.) Hospital.

The union represents about 200 workers. Trinity Health Grand Haven is part of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health.

Union members previously authorized a strike. The union and hospital began negotiating a new labor contract about seven months ago, according to Fox 17. Trinity Health Michigan, in a statement shared with Becker's, said there have recently been "numerous complaints of intimidation, bullying and harassment by union supporters against our hospital colleagues."

The statement added that at least 30 percent of current union colleagues filed a petition July 31 with the National Labor Relations Board requesting an election to vote on whether to remain part of the SEIU.

"In light of this news, we decided to pause further negotiations," Trinity Health Michigan said. "We will respect whatever the colleagues decide in a fair election, overseen by the NLRB, and resume negotiations if necessary."

The union said on its Facebook page that its members seek competitive wages, safe staffing and quality patient care. It contends that Trinity Health Michigan has engaged in bad faith bargaining and violated workers' rights, according to news station WWMT. Specific allegations the union is making include pressuring workers to sign anti-union petitions as well as promises of employee benefits if workers support the decertification petition.

"It's clear that Trinity Health is more focused on violating workers' rights rather than solving problems and coming to an agreement on a fair contract. We cannot recruit and retain staff at our hospital until Trinity raises wages that are competitive with what other West Michigan hospital workers make. We are ready to strike [Aug. 4] and demand that our rights are respected," Erin Dexter, an ultrasound tech at Trinity Health Grand Haven, said, according to WWMT.

Trinity Health Michigan said Trinity Health Grand Haven is well prepared for the strike and that all necessary services at the hospital, including the emergency department, will remain open during the strike. Trinity Health Michigan also said the hospital is prepared to provide fully staffed EMS services and has arranged for assistance from Trinity Health Muskegon EMS.










A Texas federal judge has sided with the Texas Medical Association for a third time in its series of legal challenges over the No Surprises Act, this time over a 600 percent hike in administrative fees when seeking dispute resolutions.

The TMA filed the lawsuit in January  its fourth challenging provisions of the rule  arguing that the fee hike restricts many physicians' ability to seek arbitration when an insurer offers insufficient payment for care. The lawsuit came after federal agencies announced in October the administrative fees would remain $50 in 2023. Two months later, the agencies announced the fee would increase to $350 beginning in January 2023 "due to supplemental data analysis and increasing expenditures in carrying out the federal [independent dispute resolution] process since the development of the prior 2023 guidance."

The medical group also disputed interim final rules that narrow the No Surprises Act's stipulations on "batching" claims for arbitration, which it argued Congress had authorized to encourage efficiency and minimize costs in the independent dispute resolution process

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernolde ruled Aug. 3 that federal agencies did not follow notice and comment requirements when hiking administrative fees. He also invalidated certain rules narrowing batching claims for arbitration.

HHS said that as a result of the ruling the IDR process has been temporarily suspended, including the ability to initiate new disputes, until the federal agencies can provide additional instructions.

"While the court declined to provide deadline extensions and certain other requested relief, we remain pleased with the overall outcome," TMA President Rick Snyder II, MD, said in an Aug. 4 statement. "[The] decisions on batching rule provisions and administrative fees will aid in reducing barriers to physician access to the laws arbitration process, which is vital to both patient access to care and practice viability."

The TMA filed its first No Surprises Act lawsuit in October 2021, successfully arguing that requiring arbitrators to heavily weigh figures created by insurers conflicted with the law and provided insurers with an unfair advantage unintended by Congress.

The group filed a second lawsuit in September, arguing the final rule will "unfairly advantage health insurers by requiring arbitrators to give outsized weight or consideration to the [qualifying payment amount]." The court sided with TMA in that case, which is currently being appealed by the federal government to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The third lawsuit came in November, with the TMA alleging portions of the rule "artificially deflate the qualifying payment amount." That lawsuit is awaiting a decision.
Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare Central Region's student nurse advanced pipeline program provides individuals enrolled in local nursing programs with a four-part progression plan that steers them toward their first full-time hospital position after licensure.

The program, conceived in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and rolled out in 2022, offers student nurses the ability to be part of the healthcare team at the earliest stages of their training, Roxanne Aldi-Quaresima, MSN, APRN, regional nursing director of nursing professional development and education, told Becker's.

In their first and second years of nursing training, students get a close-up view of the inner workings of a hospital by working in patient experience associate roles. When they get to their junior year, Ms. Aldi-Quaresima said, they become student nurse technicians. As rising seniors, they have the opportunity to enter a student nurse fellowship, which truly gets them ready for their careers.

"And then comes where we see our return on investment," she said. "Our goal is to ensure these new nurses are hired within the Hartford HealthCare Central Region and join our team. This succession plan is really helping us to grow our pipeline and get people involved with our culture as early as possible."

Partnering with Robert Weiss, regional business operations manager of the healthcare system, Ms. Aldi-Quaresima spends a lot of time out in the community, at schools and meeting with organizations. Together, they are positioning Hartford HealthCare Central Region as an employer of choice for people who are looking to pursue healthcare careers.

Mr. Weiss heads up a program to encourage people to take on per diem or part time general operations associate roles  in environmental services, transport, or food and nutrition. These individuals are trained in two of those areas. After a short trial period, if everyone is happy, they are invited to join the staff full-time. Many are cross-trained to help out where needed in these high-turnover departments.

Individuals who have been taking advantage of the opportunity to join the program are 18 and older who are looking for their next step after high school graduation.

"This is all budget neutral because of high vacancies in these areas," Mr. Weiss told Becker's. "We bring these people in to fill shifts that would otherwise not be covered. This also reduces overtime."

The operations associate program also feeds the system's nursing pipeline, Ms. Aldi-Quaresima said, because once they are working in the hospital, some of the people may decide to pursue positions as certified nursing aides. To this end, the hospital's tuition program can help them to get trained.
Health officials in Missouri are warning the public about a risk of possible measles exposure at three different locations  including at Barnes Jewish Hospital, an urgent care clinic and a fitness center in the greater St. Louis region in late July, according to an Aug. 7 news release.

The case has been confirmed to be internationally imported, officials say. Additional testing from the CDC is also taking place to determine the strain of the virus.

Public exposure to the infected individual is said to have occurred between July 21 and July 25, the release states.

Becker's reached out to Barnes Jewish Hospital to request a comment and received the following reply: "We cannot discuss specific patient cases in accordance with privacy guidelines," a spokesperson for the hospital said via email. "The health and safety of our patients, families and staff is our top priority. We work closely with the health department and follow CDC guidelines to ensure the safety of our teams and our community."
Every year in the U.S., there may be more than 500,000 cases of fungal infections caused by Coccidioides  more than three times the amount of previous estimates, according to CDC data cited by CBS News in an Aug. 4 report.

The 500,000 is a draft figure shared by the CDC during a presentation last fall to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Valley fever,or coccidioidomycosis, is thought to be endemic in the Southwestern U.S., with about 97 percent of cases confirmed in Arizona and California.

More and more cases are popping up outside of these regions, however, with researchers anticipating warming temperatures could push the disease east by the end of the century, making it endemic in regions like the Great Plains.

CDC officials told CBS only a fraction of cases are reported, and even those numbers have been increasing. Early estimates indicate there were 20,197 cases through the end of 2021, the highest single-year record since the last peak in 2011.

"When you compare the numbers now and in 2021 to 2014, they've increased pretty drastically since then. Within Arizona, it's basically doubled, and within California, more than tripled," Samantha Williams, PhD, an epidemiologist in the CDC's mycotic diseases branch, told the news outlet.

The fungus that causes Valley fever lives in dry, hot soil and can be contracted when people breathe in microscopic fungal spores from the air. Symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and rash, and typically develop between one and three weeks after breathing in the fungal spores. Many people recover on their own, though some may require antifungal medication.

"Recognizing it early to treat it early is really important," Dr. Williams said.

Health agencies are ramping up efforts to encourage the development of a vaccine for the fungal infection.
Ask anyone to name healthcare's emerging disruptors, and Amazon will be among the top three  if not No. 1. The company with a $6.7 billion Q2 profit has a strong chokehold on the industry's hypothetical thinking.

When leaders in legacy healthcare discuss Amazon's power, the tone is often defeated: This faceless, looming force will end up controlling most aspects of our lives anyway, right?

But looking at Amazon's moves into other industries, there might be some evidence to suggest that healthcare leaders and professionals need not give up the ship  at least not yet. A time of great workforce fragility in healthcare is not the time to prematurely credit the e-commerce goliath with more mindshare than it deserves.

Consider Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods Market. When the upscale grocery chain sought a buyer, it courted Warren Buffet and prompted consideration from Albertsons before Amazon ponied up $13.4 billion to acquire its nearly 500 locations in 2017. At the time, the deal was described as one that would "instantly transform the company that pioneered online shopping into a merchant with physical outposts in hundreds of neighborhoods across the country," as The New York Times put it.

Six years later, Amazon's changes to the Whole Foods business are readily apparent. It has added more local brands. It executed rounds of grocery price cuts to counter the "Whole Paycheck Foods" nickname. It lowered the price premium gap with other regional grocery chains, but remained higher than national chains. Last year, Whole Foods got a new CEO for the first time since 1980.

Beyond corporate minutiae, Amazon's moves in grocery may have thrilled futuristic tech enthusiasts but added little to its value proposition in the eyes of everyday customers. In many ways, the acquisition has been less of a transformation and more of a science experiment, as online grocery shopping continues to remain less common than in-person shopping.

"[Amazon's] best-known addition to the retail experience is the 'just walk out' technology in physical stores, equivalent to its one-click shopping online. Yet cashierless supermarkets sound like something more beloved of geeks than grocers," The Economist wrote.

Amazon's cashierless, palm-scanning transaction technology has been installed at "more than 30" stores operated by other companies in the U.S., according to The Information, which characterized the tech's takeoff as a "stumble." (The modest uptake is in line with consumer disappointment with self-checkout, which dates back to the early 1990s, has not revolutionized the grocery experience as once expected, and can be described as unloved.)

When the former executive of British supermarket chain Tesco was hired by Amazon in 2022 to bring more human touch to its QR code, data-collecting and surveillanced customer experience, he visited an Amazon Fresh store to find "the fresh-meat and -fish counters were so barren they looked like part of a going-out-of-business sale," according to The Economist. "He bought one of the three rotisserie chickens on display out of sympathy, because he feared they had been there all day."

As for grocery access, Walmart continues to dominate with about 4,700 outlets, compared with 530 Whole Foods, 44 Amazon Fresh and 22 Amazon Go shops. Amazon Fresh is accessible to just over a third of Americans while 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart, one broker calculated for The Economist. Whole Foods is Amazon's successful brick-and-mortar presence because it closed all of its 4-star, Books and Pop Up stores.

Missteps can be harder to feel when half a trillion dollars in annual revenue is streaming in. Amazon's grocery and brick-and-mortar venture was first seen as a conventional move, and arguably would be more successful if it had stayed that way. Instead, things got wacky and esoteric. Common sense steps like meaningful price improvements or more storefronts were muted as palm-reading technology was pushed, as if it were something customers couldn't wait to experience.

Amazon's attempt to strip human interaction from brick-and-mortar shopping paints a dark picture for what it could do in healthcare, which faces a dual challenge: its humanity is essential and it is short on humans to do the work. Amazon might be able to solve the latter challenge, but what it could cost healthcare's humanity is painful to think about. Patients and those caring for them deserve more than anything resembling a soulless experience of shopping for sad rotisserie chicken.

As civility shrinks and differences grow, it's tempting to think the tech giants that once spelled less-than-great news for healthcare might actually be a source of salvation. Virtual this, virtual that; scan your palm here, talk to a bot there. The Vision Pro Apple released in 2023 is a great sign of our times  a 0.8-pound piece of hardware for your face to blend digital and real worlds. Just what society needs: one more way to avoid eye contact and reality.

Medical professionals and workers who care for patients deserve confident leadership from people with feet firmly planted on the ground who do not shiver at the thought of Amazon, Apple or Silicon Valley's next move. The people who continue to power healthcare deserve more recognition, attention and concern than a company, Amazon, whose CEO devoted all of 100 words to healthcare in its latest earnings call.

Many big tech moves will be declared as "transformational" before results prove it. (Compare this to the work of U.S. academic medical centers, where research with potential to change lives receives a fraction of the same notoriety.) Outsized bravado for big tech can leave these companies holding more space in healthcare leaders' minds than they deserve. The big talking point today is that technology doesn't need to compromise humanity, but the bigger talking point is that it certainly can.

Health system leaders should fully embrace their humanity right now, listen closely to what patients, workers and communities say, respect and uphold the expertise and specialization of their medical teams. These leaders should look just as intently at the next 10 days as they do the next 10 years, and manage their enthusiasm for flashy, first-of-its-kind technology. Leaders who can't shake the big tech obsession may continue the hand-wringing and what-iffing. Leaders who keep it in check and focus on people and their goals and concerns  big and small  will be the ones who truly lead.

For what it's worth, I shopped at Whole Foods throughout the pandemic. I made a point to check out with one specific cashier if he was working. He would ask my name before sharing his, recommended what has become my favorite chocolate bar, and could recite poems on the spot, even going so far as to write short ones on the back of my receipt if I enjoyed them.

It is people, not tech, that surprise and delight me most.
Owensboro (Ky.) Health Regional Hospital has implemented MedSitter, a virtual care platform and clinical surveillance system to enhance patient monitoring.

The hospital is adding 10 MedSitter carts with two-way audio-visual interfaces to continuously observe at-risk patients. The implementation will almost double Owensboro's ability to monitor patients, as it currently has 15 in-person observers and one MedSitter cart can observe 10 patients at once.

Constant virtual monitoring decreases the risk of a safety event, as staff can identify early warning signs and intervene when necessary without the need for in-room observers. MedSitter carts work to minimize risks by allowing clinicians to input information about each patient's behavior and potential risk indicators, according to an Aug. 3 news release from Owensboro Health.
While implementing strategies to attract and retain bedside nurses continues to be a top priority, it's not the only staffing challenge hospitals are facing, Robert Weiss, regional business operations manager at Connecticut's Hartford HealthCare Central Region, told Becker's.

The healthcare system created a general operations associate role to give people in the community a chance to see if they would like to pursue a career in a hospital  a move that also provides individuals with on-the-job training in departments with high turnover.

Mr. Weiss is actively working with organizations in underserved areas to give people the opportunity to have a career they might not have ever thought about pursuing, said Roxanne Aldi-Quaresima, MSN, APRN, regional nursing director of Hartford HealthCare Central Region's nursing professional development and education program.

Ms. Aldi-Quaresima and Mr. Weiss are working together on a two-pronged approach to encouraging people to consider the health system as the first or next stop on their career path. While Mr. Weiss focuses on the general operations associate program, the nurse leader and her team are inviting nursing students in area schools to join the "student nurse advanced pipeline."

The new per diem and part-time operations hires are able to "try out" positions in multiple support services departments  transport, food and nutrition, and environmental services  to see if they can find a job they enjoy. Individuals who have been taking advantage of the opportunity to join the program are 18 and older who are looking for their next step after high school graduation.

"This is all budget neutral because of high vacancies in these areas," Mr. Weiss said. "We bring these people in to fill shifts that would otherwise not be covered. This also reduces overtime."

Mr. Weiss works with community organizations who are helping people find employment. Anyone interested in becoming a general operations associate has the opportunity to choose one of the three departments and work there for a couple of months.

"Then we evaluate the situation. Are they happy? If they are, we see if we can backfill an open position. If not, we give them a chance to try out another department," Mr. Weiss said.

The employees start out per diem or part-time, and the goal is to hire them into full-time open positions. "We give them a financial incentive if they are willing to be cross-trained so they can flip back and forth between two positions," he said.

Ms. Aldi-Quaresima said she and Mr. Weiss are working together to make the healthcare system a go-to resource for career opportunities. "We are working with schools and organizations and talking with people to let them know, 'We really want the chance to work with you  to give you a career opportunity. Come join us,''' she said.
Recent shootings and other attacks in healthcare settings have called attention to violence in the industry.

One such shooting occurred July 22 at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Ore.

Police shot PoniaX Kane Calles, 33, after he allegedly shot a security guard at the hospital, identified as Bobby Smallwood, 44, who died after being transferred to another facility. A second hospital employee was injured, treated at Good Samaritan and released to go home July 22. Officers located Mr. Calles in a vehicle in Gresham, Ore., where he died after an officer-involved shooting, police said. No officers were injured.

In another shooting, a physician was injured July 25 by a gunman who fired inside of Cedar Hill, Texas-based Methodist Family Health Center. And a man was charged last month in connection with the shooting and death of an orthopedic surgeon at Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics in Collierville, Tenn. Police allege that Larry Pickens, 29, of Memphis, Tenn., shot and killed Benjamin Mauck, MD, in an exam room on July 11.

Such gun violence, which also includes a 2022 shooting inside a medical office building on the Saint Francis Health System campus in Tulsa, Okla., have helped contribute to rising violence in healthcare.

There have been attacks outside of gun violence as well. An April 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics fact sheet found that healthcare workers accounted for 73 percent of all nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to violence in 2018. This number has been steadily growing since 2011, the first year for tracking of these specific events.

Hospitals, health systems and states have worked to address the issue. Portland, Ore.-based Legacy Health is increasing security at its hospitals after the fatal shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital. These efforts include installing metal detectors with bag search at every system hospital, and installing bullet-slow film on hospital main entrances and emergency departments and on glass in internal entrances. Hospitals in Tennessee also adopted additional security measures after the shooting at Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics.

Overall, about 40 states have laws that establish or enhance penalties for assaults on healthcare workers, according to the American Nurses Association. KFF Health News reported in May that lawmakers in various states had also approved or were working on laws that allow hospitals to establish campus police forces. Groups representing nurses and hospitals point to benefits of such laws, while critics warn against pitfalls of establishing hospital police forces.
Stabilizing the revenue cycle was the first priority for Ed Tufaro, interim CEO of Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, Philadelphia Business Journal reported Aug. 7.

Mr. Tufaro stepped into the leadership role in March after past CEO Christopher Olivia, MD, exited the post after two years. He praised Dr. Olivia's leadership but said the transition wasn't easy.

"Chris came in new to the company and with a very different style," Mr. Tufaro said in the report. "Chris is a brilliant, experienced leader. He's a strategic thinker and was really focused on a big picture.  I think for our employees, after having a guy who was here for a long time, it created a sense of, 'We don't know our CEO.'"

In the months since joining, Mr. Tufaro has tackled challenges including centralizing electronic medical records into one system, handling an 18-person layoff and implementing an expansion strategy.

Rothman is recovering from its initial COVID-19 caseload drop, and in the first half of 2023 the practice has seen a 4 percent increase in patient visits and surgeries year over year. The company is also reworking its expansion plans and plans to leave Bergen County in New Jersey in September after a group of physicians "chose to move on" from Rothman.

Through everything, Mr. Tufaro remains focused on physician interests and meets with the physician owners' group monthly. He also prioritizes communication with employees.

"I don't believe I can understand how the company's doing from a corporate office in Center City," he said. "I need to get out. I need to hear and listen and see. I would say that's part of what I've tried to change. And I also think during a period of transition, there's a desire for just facts. People want to know what's really going on. So, I try to just deliver straight facts."
U.S. News & World Report has named its top 50 orthopedic hospitals in the U.S. for 2023 and 2024, including five hospitals in Illinois.

Here are are some of the top leaders at the five best orthopedic hospitals in Illinois:

Omar Lateef, DO, is the president and CEO of Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center, the eighth best hospital for orthopedics. Dr. Lateef, who is also president and CEO of the Rush health system, has led the hospital since 2019. Previously, he served as Rush's chief medical officer. He is a pulmonary and critical care specialist.

Howard Chrisman, MD, is the president and CEO of Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, whose Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the 19th best hospital for orthopedics in the nation. Dr. Chrisman oversees Northwestern's 11 hospitals, 200 ASCs and 30,000 employees. He previously served as president and chief operating officer at Northwestern Memorial.

Gerald Gallagher is the president and CEO of Chicago-based NorthShore Health System Edward-Elmhurst Health, whose hospitals were ranked the 40th best for orthopedics in the nation. Mr. Gallagher leads a 25,000 member team that serves 1.5 million patients across over 300 sites. He has been an executive at NorthShore since 2017, leading growth and operations.

Allison Wyler is the president of Downers Grove-based Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, the 46th best hospital for orthopedic surgery. She has served as president for just over two years, originally joining the Advocate system in 2010 as an administrative fellow.

Karen Lambert is the president of Barrington-based Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, which is the 49th best hospital for orthopedic surgery. She has served as president since 2001, earning the system several major distinctions. In 2017, she led the system through the largest modernization process in its history.
A north Down womens group is seeking funding to turn a derelict Danske Bank in Bangor into a community and business centre.

Last year Kilcooley Womens Centre acquired the iconic listed Victorian building on Main Street Bangor, and since then have been investigating sources of funding to revitalise the building and support a programme of interventions, while attracting more footfall into the centre of Bangor.

In July, an opportunity arose to apply for funding under the UK governments Shared Prosperity Community Ownership Fund, with a closing date of 12 July.

Alison Blayney, Chief Executive of Kilcooley Womens Centre contacted the Ards North Down Council Head of Economic Development seeking a letter of support for the application.

The endorsement will also help with funding from sources such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Biffa Awards.

The council letter of support to the womens centre states: The building has been placed on the Heritage at Risk list by the Department of Communities Historic Environment Division, and we are keen to assist and support the Womens Centres reversal of this designation, through the refurbishment and innovative programmes it delivers to the community.

This type of multi-function building, open to the community and businesses, will not only bring footfall to the Main Street and city centre, but will be a valuable contribution to the regeneration of Bangor.

As you are aware, Ards and North Down Borough Council is currently working on and supporting projects to redevelop and transform Bangor waterfront and the surrounding area.

Your project will enhance and complement all efforts being made to revitalise and renew the city centre and we would support your application, as the repurposing of this key city centre asset will be of benefit to the wider Bangor community. We hope and look forward to your application being successful and to work being able to start the buildings transformation as soon as possible.

The former Northern Bank building, which dates back to the 1800s is at the junction of Hamilton Rd and Main Street. The building was originally a market place, then a courthouse, then around 1890 it was transformed into Ward Male, Female and Infant School.

In 1933 it became Bangors town hall, until 1952, was then sold to the Belfast Banking Company, and later became the Northern Bank, and finally the Danske Bank.

At the most recent meeting of the full Ards and North Down Borough Council, DUP Councillor Alistair Cathcart told the chamber: This is terrific. I have recently been in the former Danske Bank, or Market House as it is again being called, and there are indeed workspaces upstairs where people can co-work.

For self-employed people and people who are based in their own home but may not have the space, this provides an ideal location in the heart of Bangor. I am aware of a gentleman from Bangor who will be the first to set up there, and I wish everyone all the very best on the regeneration. It will be great to see this place active again, it is such an iconic building in Bangor.

The results of the Kilcooley Womens Centres application for the Shared Prosperity Community Ownership Fund is still pending.
Aine Toner spills the jeans on denim prices

When it comes to a wardrobe staple, denim is key  and specifically a perfectly fitting pair of jeans. Whats great is that most websites will have a guide to the perfect jeans fit so you wont get mixed up between wide leg, skinny and everything in between.

In this weeks pricewatch, weve opted  as far as possible  for the least expensive pair from each brand. Its not always possible: for example, we couldnt find a pair of wide leg jeans from Dunnes in their usual range, meaning the 45 high waisted ones from the Paul Costelloe range look significantly different in price.

Speaking of Dunnes, its most affordable denim is great but there are some options to upgrade your fit if thats your thing. The Gallery brand, exclusive to Dunnes, offers define and lift jeans for 25, a cost of up to 8 more per pair.

Its worth noting the Tesco prices are for a new denim collection from F&F which is due to drop in-store and online from the beginning of September. That said, current prices wont be widely different from what is currently in store.

Matalan has an affordable range of Everyday Essentials which includes items such as T-shirts, joggers, trousers, blouses and jeans. You can pick up a bargain pair for a little over a tenner, but there are plenty of options if youre willing to part with a wee bit more cash. Weve opted for Matalans own brand denim here, but on its website, you can also purchase jeans from Wrangler, Jack and Jones and Lee. The brand also has a lot of discounts online, so the prices you see here could be less expensive when you log on.

Similarly, the Tu website offers not just own branded jeans in a range of fits and colours but also denim options from Sosandar (at the time of checking, saving up to a third on the RRP) and Brakeburn.

Read more Payday purchases

Turning to M&S and its denim range is made with responsibly sourced cotton and less water.

Offering a range of styles, yes, the price are more expensive than what youd pay for but theres also a lot of choice when it comes to cost. The brand offers Magic Fit denim, a premium bi-stretch fabric for comfort and support  but if fit is important this may be the one for you. Denim is also available in a range of candy colours who says jeans just have to be blue?

Turning to Asda and much like M&Ss Magic Fit, the supermarket offers Wonderfit, sourced as responsible cotton. By choosing the brands cotton products, youre supporting its investment in Better Cottons mission. There are plenty of bargains to be found online at Asda: the day we checked, there were high waisted skinny jeans for 5 and Wonderfit skinny jeans reduced from 20 to 12.

For all online purchases, note that in-store availability, prices and promotions may vary from those online.
Robert Beck (main pic) faces charges of threatening to kill Jamie Bryson (inset) and breaching a restraining order not to contact him

A man who allegedly threatened to kill Jamie Bryson and other loyalists by having them whacked must remain in custody, Northern Irelands most senior judge ruled today.

Robert Beck was refused High Court bail on charges of making a menacing telephone call and warning on social media that they are legitimate targets who will be attacked on sight.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said she had no confidence the 60-year-old would comply with any release conditions amid claims he sent police on a wild goose chase to track down a mobile phone.

Beck, of Seacliff Road in Bangor, Co Down, faces counts of threatening to kill Mr Bryson and breaching a restraining order not to contact him.

He was arrested after the high-profile loyalist activist received a call from an unknown number on June 1.

Mr Bryson recognised the voice of a man who identified himself as Bobby Beck, according to the prosecution.

The caller allegedly declared that he and a number of other men had until midnight before they would be whacked.

Mr Bryson, who recorded the final part of the call, took it as a threat against his life.

Thirty minutes later he was made aware of a posting on Facebook said to refer to him and other individuals.

It stated they need to look over their shoulders, they are targets and will be attacked on sight, the gloves are off, the court heard.

When arrested Beck denied making any threats and claimed to have lost his phone.

He maintained someone else must have been responsible and that he was the victim of a plot to frame him.

Beck had previously been granted bail, but was returned to custody for allegedly flouting the terms of his residence, curfew and a prohibition on having a mobile phone.

One of the suspected breaches related to the discovery of two devices at his home.

A defence barrister argued that one of the phones was defunct, while the other mobile belonged to another man who left it behind after staying with Beck a number of weeks ago.

His bid to be re-released had been adjourned for a week so police could try to establish ownership of the device.

Despite indications from Beck that it belonged to a man from the New Lodge area of Belfast, all investigations have drawn a blank.

Prosecution counsel told the court there were 29 people with the same name on the police system, but none in that area of the city.

Six individuals were contacted as part of a further trawl, but none of them knew anything about Beck or the mobile.

Dame Siobhan said: It looks like police have been sent on something of a wild goose chase to try to find (out about) this other phone.

Refusing bail, the Chief Justice held that the defendants explanation lacked any real credibility.

She added: That means I could not be confident that bail conditions would be adhered to.
The PSNI are appealing for information (PA)

A 1,000 reward has been offered for information after two dogs were found dead in a lake in Co Tyrone.

The USPCA said the two German Shepherd dogs were tied together and weighed down with a dumbbell in a lough near Aughnacloy on Friday evening.

The animal welfare charity is appealing to members of the public with any information to come forward immediately and alert the PSNI.

A 1,000 reward has been offered for information leading to a successful conviction/convictions.

USPCA chief executive, Nora Smith, described a horrific sickening case of animal cruelty.

We are appalled to see such barbaric abuse, she said.

We cannot comprehend the motives of anyone who can carry out such brutal attacks against vulnerable animals like this.

Unfortunately, this is a stark reminder of the many challenges we are facing with regards to animal welfare in Northern Ireland.

We are encouraging anyone with information that may assist the PSNI in their investigation to contact them on the 101 number.

A police spokesperson said they received a report around the incident at a lake in the Carricklongfield Road area of Aughnacloy.

The PSNI said a post-mortem examination will be carried out and they were in touch with the local dog warden.

Officers received a report that the dogs were found weighted down in the water shortly after 7pm on Friday August 4, a spokesperson said.

The dogs were removed from the lake and have been taken to a vet where a post-mortem will be carried out in due course. We are engaging with the local dog warden.

Anyone who noticed anything suspicious is asked to contact police on 101, quoting reference number 1562 of 04/08/23.

A report can be submitted online through the PSNIs non-emergency reporting form, or by contacting Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online.
Material was removed from the site of a controversial anti-internment bonfire in the Galliagh area of Londonderry on Monday morning, the PSNI has confirmed.

Police and other contractors were pictured at the bonfire site where material had been gathered for a number of weeks on a large green space close to the homes of residents in the area.

The land at Galliaghs Linear Park is owned by the Department for Communities which confirmed the material had been removed for public safety reasons.

The gathering at the site included pallets and other wood which was building up ahead of the bonfire on August 15.

In a statement, the PSNI confirmed it attended the scene alongside contractors from the department in order to prevent a breach of the peace and ensure the safety of everyone.

It is understood a forklift, tractor and lorry was used by the department to assist workers with removing the material.

Contractors employed by the Department for Communities removed material from the site in Galliagh on Monday, 7th August, the PSNI said.

"Police were present to prevent a breach of the peace and ensure the safety of everyone.

Traditionally, a bonfire is lit on August 15 in Derry to mark a Catholic feast day celebrating the assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.

In recent times however the fire has become a source of contention and associated with anti-social behaviour in the city.

Last year, the Galliagh pyre was avoided after agencies intervened to remove material from the site.

In a statement, the Department for Communities said: We can confirm that bonfire material at the Galliagh Linear Park site has been removed this morning for public safety reasons.

This action is in line with the expressed wishes of the local community  in particular the residents directly affected by the bonfire, and the associated anti-social behaviour  and the advice of partner statutory agencies.

The Department has taken the decision with care, informed by extensive engagement with community groups, residents and partner organisations.
Man arrested for attempted murder after Co Down stabbing
Declan Kearney said he was "proud to join the family, friends (and) comrades of Thomas McElwee (inset) to mark his 42nd anniversary".

Sinn Feins national chairperson has been criticised after sharing a social media tribute to a hunger striker who killed a young mother.

South Antrim MLA Declan Kearney took to Twitter to share photographs of himself at a memorial for Thomas McElwee on the 42nd anniversary of his death, writing he was filled with hope and aspiration and ambitious for himself and community.

In 1976, McElwee was charged for manslaughter for his involvement in an incendiary bombing of a shop in Ballymena which killed a worker, mother of three, 23-year-old Yvonne Dunlop.

She shouted a warning to her nine-year-old son who escaped, but she could not get out and was burned to death.

The Bellaghy republican died on August 8, 1981 in prison at the age of 23, after 62 days on hunger strike.

Proud to join the family, friends (and) comrades of Thomas McElwee to mark his 42nd anniversary, wrote Mr Kearney on social media.

He also shared photographs of a memorial which took place at the IRA bombers grave in Bellaghy Cemetery, Co Londonderry.

Mr Kearneys post faced criticism with multiple replies under his tweet referring to the death of Ms Dunlop and asking if she was mentioned at the commemorative service.

"Shameful to have such a selective memory and to ignore his victims. He did nothing in my name, wrote one person.

Another said: This speaks volumes for Sinn Feins regard for victims.

"Any other organisation would be ashamed of McElwee, not Sinn Fein. They continue to hold him up as a hero and disregard the pain these actions cause.

"Shame on every last of them, he had a choice his victims did not.

The MLAs post comes after Sinn Fein were accused of doubling down on its rewriting of history and celebration of terrorism last year, after one of its MPs also paid tribute to a hunger striker on social media.

In August 2022, Mid-Ulster MP Francie Molloy shared a photograph of McElwee writing A rare picture of Thomas McElwee who died on this day 1981 after 62 days on Hunger Strike. He was only 23. RIP.

In 2021, Sinn Fein also defended their decision to mark McElwees death in a commemorative video on social media. It described him as a political prisoner, unbowed and unbroken.

The then Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill was also criticised that year for paying a public tribute to McElwee, saying he had died for Irish freedom.

McElwee and his cousin Francis Hughes, also a hunger striker who died in May 1981, carried out bomb attacks for a number of years in the mid-1970s on various towns in counties Londonderry and Antrim.

The 23-year-old was captured in December 1976 after a bomb he was transporting prematurely exploded.

McElwee, who lost an eye in the premature explosion, had just turned 19 when he was arrested.

He was later convicted of the murder of Ms Dunlop. It was reduced to manslaughter on appeal.

Sinn Fein have been contacted for comment.
The Alliance Party had lodged an election petition following the local government election in May 2023.

A recount of votes after a disputed council election result in Londonderry will take place on Wednesday, a court has ruled.

The dispute centres around the outcome of the May election in the Waterside area, part of the Derry City and Strabane District.

An election petition in respect of the count was lodged by the Alliance Party in June.

It came after the party lost both its sitting councillors  Rachael Ferguson and Philip McKinney  with the latter losing out by fewer than 50 votes to SDLP councillor Martin Reilly.

It is understood a significant number of uncounted votes could have affected the outcome in the close-run contest.

Votes are set to be recounted from Stage 7 of the count until its conclusion, it has been reported.

Sealed ballot papers will be opened on Wednesday, with the recount beginning at 10am in Foyle Arena.

As well as representatives of the affected candidates, two representatives of the other original candidates may also enter the counting room if desired, with extra attendees subject to the discretion of Deputy Returning Officer John Kelpie.

Following the conclusion of the count process, a report will be provided by the Deputy Returning Officer to the election court which will sit again on Thursday, August 17.

Sinn Feins Caitlin Deeney topped the poll in the Waterside with 1,949 votes and was elected, along with the UUPs Darren Guy on the first count.

Ms Deeneys surplus then brought party colleague Christopher Jackson over the line, with Chelsea Cooke (DUP), Niree McMorris (DUP) then deemed elected on Stage 6 of the count.

Sean Mooney and Martin Reilly (both SDLP) were the final two candidates elected after their total was in excess of McKinneys 1,105.05.

Reilly was elected with 1,154.21 votes.

Alliance believes there should have been a further count to allow for the surplus of the two elected DUP councillors to be distributed.

Around 150 votes had yet to be transferred.

Prior to losing both its council seats, Alliance had opened a new North-West office in the city in March, the first of two offices planned for the west.

Former councillor Rachael Ferguson said the office  officially opened by former Alliance leader David Forde  would act as a satellite office of Alliance Party HQ in Belfast.

"It will be a great resource for the public, a place for constituents to meet Alliance councillors; a place where we can hold clinics for local people; and where we can hold our own party meetings, she said.

But the May result appeared to throw a spanner in the works of Alliances westward ambitions, with the loss of the partys only two candidates in Derry an anomaly in an election of otherwise good results.

The Alliance Party and SDLP have been approached for comment.

In a statement, the Electoral Office said: "An election petition was lodged in respect of the outcome of the Local Council elections in the Waterside DEA within Derry City & Strabane District Council.

"An initial hearing of the election court took place today (Monday 7 August) and the court directed that the sealed ballot papers should be opened and the Waterside DEA count continue from stage 7 until conclusion.

"This will take place on Wednesday 9 August at 10am in Foyle Arena.

"No other statement can be made at this time due to the ongoing election court process."
The first migrants have moved on to the Bibby Stockholm barge (Ben Birchall/PA)

The first migrants have moved on to the Bibby Stockholm barge.

The group arrived at the accommodation vessel moored in Portland Port, Dorset, on Monday, with more people expected later in the day, the PA news agency understands.

Campaigners were seen waving at coaches carrying passengers as they drove into the port, while pictures showed men with luggage accompanied by staff in high-vis jackets as they walked up a gangway onto the barge.

However, according to refugee charity Care4Calais, around 20 asylum seekers did not board the barge because their transfers were cancelled by lawyers.

Meanwhile, it emerged one of the coaches appeared to be operating without a valid MOT as, according to the gov.uk website, this was overdue.

It comes after Home Office minister Sarah Dines said the barge would be in use imminently, despite a series of delays.

She also confirmed all possibilities for tackling the migrant crisis are being examined, following reports that the Government is considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island.

Human rights campaigners condemned using the barge to house asylum seekers.

Care4Calais chief executive Steve Smith said: None of the asylum seekers we are supporting have gone to the Bibby Stockholm today as legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled.

Amongst our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea. To house any human being in a quasi floating prison like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel. Even just receiving the notices is causing them a great deal of anxiety.

Human beings should be housed in communities, not barges. The Government could just get on with processing peoples asylum claims; instead they are playing to a gallery that seems to thrive on human suffering. We will continue supporting people to challenge their decision.

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UKs refugee and migrant rights director, said: It seems theres nothing this Government wont do to make people seeking asylum feel unwelcome and unsafe in this country.

Reminiscent of the prison hulks from the Victorian era, the Bibby Stockholm is an utterly shameful way to house people whove fled terror, conflict and persecution.

Housing people on a floating barge is likely to be re-traumatising and there should be major concerns about confining each person to living quarters the typical size of a car parking space.

While only a small number of migrants are expected to be housed on the barge at first, Ms Dines indicated it could increase rapidly to its capacity of around 500 men.

Pressed on whether all of them could be on board by the end of the week, Ms Dines told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.

But Downing Street appeared to suggest she had misspoken, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks official spokesman saying that while no limit has been set on how many people will board the barge this week, the Governments plan is to reach the capacity over time, adding: I dont think we are aiming to do it by the weekend.

The Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port in Dorset could house up to 500 people (James Manning/PA)

The Home Office later clarified that the total will be reached over a longer period of time and not by the end of the week.

The Government hopes the use of the barge and former military bases to house asylum seekers will reduce the cost of hotel bills.

Ms Dines said those arriving in the country via unauthorised means should have basic but proper accommodation and that they cant expect to stay in a four-star hotel.

The developments came during the Governments small boats week, in which it is making a series of announcements on the issue that Mr Sunak has promised to solve.

Fines for employers and landlords who allow people who arrive by irregular means to work for them or live in their properties are to be hugely increased.

Civil penalties for employers will be increased up to a maximum of 45,000 per worker for a first breach and 60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.

Landlords face fines going from 1,000 per occupier to 10,000, with repeat breaches going from 3,000 to 20,000. Penalties relating to lodgers will also be increased.

More than 15,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel, Government figures show.

Some 339 people made the journey on Friday and Saturday after an eight-day hiatus amid poor weather conditions at sea, taking the provisional total for 2023 to date to 15,071.

According to the Home Office, no crossings were recorded on Sunday.
Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao, left, was sentenced to four years and nine months for his role in the death of George Floyd (David Joles/Star Tribune/AP)

Tou Thao, the last former Minneapolis police officer convicted for his role in the killing of George Floyd, was sentenced to four years and nine months.

Thao had testified that he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered around as former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyds neck for nine and a half minutes while the black man pleaded for his life on May 25 2020.

In a video captured by a bystander Floyd can be heard crying I cant breathe.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in May.

In his 177-page ruling, Judge Cahill said Thaos actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

The judge wrote: There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances.

He concluded: Thaos actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.

Tou Thao had rejected a plea bargain saying that it would be lying to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong (Hennepin County Sheriffs Office/AP)

Thao had rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong.

The sentence he handed down will run concurrently with Thaos three-and-a-half-year sentence for a separate conviction on a federal civil rights charge.

His state sentence was more than the four years recommended under state guidelines.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole.

There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behaviour.
The blaze has taken hold near Limassol, southwestern Cyprus (AP)

Lebanon is sending two helicopters to join Greek and Jordanian aircraft in helping European Union member Cyprus fight a blaze that has scorched miles of mountainous terrain, an official has said.

Cypriot foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said neighbouring Lebanon is expected to send a pair of choppers as the wildfire continues to reignite on several fronts.

Two Greek Canadair aircraft have been dispatched to help douse the fire in the mountains about 11 miles north of the coastal town of Limassol.

Jordan is sending three aircraft of its own, including two Super Puma helicopters and a Russian-made Mi26 helicopter.

Two helicopters operate over the fire in Apesia (AP)

The multinational effort is battling a blaze that has scorched as much as four square miles of land.

Environment secretary Andreas Gregoriou, who is coordinating firefighting efforts, told the state-run Cyprus News Agency that talks are ongoing with Israel for additional air support if needed.

Greeces civil protection ministry said 20 tonnes of fire retardant is also on its way to Cyprus.

Fire department spokesman Andreas Kettis posted on the platform known as X, formerly Twitter, that although the fire was brought under partial control, it rekindled along several areas, forcing air and ground crews to again mobilize.

The spokesman had earlier posted that ground crews were working to hem in the blaze by building firebreaks.

Officials expressed concerns that the fire could rekindle because of expected strong winds later in the day.

Greece has dispatched two Canadair fire-fighting aircraft after the call for assistance (AP)

Interior minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted on X that he has given instructions for an initial estimate of the damage to private and state-owned property.

Officials said the residents of three villages have returned to their homes after being instructed to evacuate as a precaution.

Mr Gregoriou, who surveyed the area by helicopter along with the countrys fire chief, told state broadcaster CyBC that hundreds of firefighters, including volunteers, managed to contain the fire overnight because winds had died down considerably.

The fire started on Friday, but authorities said a day later it had been contained.

Mr Gregoriou said the blaze apparently reignited on its own, dispelling suggestions that it could have been the work of arsonists.
Missile strikes in Pokrovsk, Ukraine killed five people and injured 31 including 19 policemen and a child (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Two Russian missile strikes hit the city centre of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Monday, killing five people and wounding at least 31, Ukrainian officials have said.

The strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, occurred within 40 minutes of each other, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

The attack damaged nine- and five-story buildings, residential houses, a hotel where foreign journalists used to stay, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, he said.

Ukraines Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said one of the strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, killed four civilians, and the other killed the deputy head of the regional branch of Ukraines State Emergency Service.

At least 31 people  including 19 policemen, five rescuers and one child  have been wounded in the attack, Mr Klymenko said.

The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but broken and scorched stones in eastern Ukraine.

His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has become Ukraines unexpected trump card in the war against Russia (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP)

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine.

Russias Foreign Ministry denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  was not invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.

The Kremlins demands include Kyiv recognising its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, ruled out Moscows previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

He said that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced on Monday that it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

Emergency services work at a scene of destroyed residential area after a Russian attack in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Details of Mr Zelenskys visit to the city last month were the target of a Russian informant, who has been detained by authorities (Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP)

It claimed the woman was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskys visit.

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskys route, times and visits in the region.

She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Mr Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscows forces approached.

He has been one of Ukraines unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognisable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Mr Prokudin said Kherson had endured a tough night as the Russians covered the central part of the city with fire.

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the north-eastern Kharkiv province, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Theres plenty of room for improvement at Belfast city centre Japanese noodle bar

After the closure of my favourite noodle place in Belfast I wondered where all the ramen had gone  only to discover, they havent gone away you know...

Nestled among the hustle and bustle of central Belfasts Church Lane is Ragin Ramen, a small, trendy Japanese-style noodle bar.

The space is hip and cosy with exposed brickwork, tight tables, the odd neon sign and contemporary art on the walls.

Japanese noodle bars often utilise every inch of their dining space in order to maximise profitability and Ragin Ramen is no different.

Ragin' Ramen is a cosy space

We tucked ourselves into a cute little bar style booth off to the side of the dining area and ordered from their impressive cocktail menu.

A rare child-free evening for my partner and I meant we could indulge in more than one cocktail each which was handy as the offerings on the menu were very enticing.

The Ragin Marg with mango-infused Jose Cuervo tequila and the Hentai Martini with Japanese yuzu fruit, pineapple juice and a shot of plum wine, were both fabulously fruity.

Selection of cocktails in Ragin' Ramen

Sipping them gently over the menus, we picked a scatter of starters and two noodle dishes and decided to share the lot.

To start we shared chicken K-Pop, mushroom J-Pop and a portion of Tokyo Twisters.

The two pop dishes are both Karaage, Japanese fried chicken (or mushroom in one case), prepared with different sauces and garnish.

The chicken K-Pop dish came with sweet and spicy maple syrup gochujang sauce, pickled cucumber, spring onion and vegan mayo. Delicious, tender and juicy, they were fabulous.

Our mushroom J-Pop was a much simpler affair, served with just shichimi toragashi seasoning, lemon and vegan nori mayo, but the taste was just as good.

Both were crunchy and packed full of flavour but unfortunately, the Tokyo Twisters were a little disappointing. Served with curry furikake seasoning, teriyaki sauce, nori vegan mayo, chilli, spring onion and sesame seeds, they are, after all, just curly fries.

For mains we picked the Astro Boy and Sailor Moon ramen noodle dishes and both of us were desperately excited to try them as it had been so long since we had proper ramen.

Sadly both were a little underwhelming and wouldnt encourage me to go back.

The Astro Boy comes with crispy pork belly, allegedly aromatic spicy miso tare, charred corn, spring onion, soy egg, chilli oil and pork tantanmen broth.

I wasnt getting half those flavours and the broth tasted more like cream of mushroom soup.

My partners Sailor Moon was served with crispy tofu, again the aromatic spicy miso tare, charred corn and spring onion, plus pak choi and vegan tantanmen broth.

Again, my partner was very disappointed with the flavour of her broth and we were left feeling a little, well, ragin.

Ragin Ramen

24-26 Church Lane, Belfast

Tel: 028 9018 4092

The food:

Chicken K-Pop 8

Mushroom J-Pop 8

Tokyo Twisters 6

Astro Boy ramen 14

Sailor Moon ramen 14

Extra veg 2

Cocktails x5 60

Total 112

The rating:

Service 5/5

Food 4/5

Decor 4/5

Vegetarian 3/5
Sustainable activewear entrepreneur urges others to go for it in business

Co Tyrone woman Sarah-Jane Murray recalls repeating a mantra to herself: If I dont go for it now, Ill live to regret it.

She was juggling one of the biggest decisions of her life  whether or not to follow her dream of launching her sustainable activewear business, Vocus Vit.

Until that point, the Omagh entrepreneur, who was living in Australia, had a clear vision for the future of her business and had already made a significant investment in merchandise.

As the business was set to launch, Sarah-Jane discovered she was pregnant and was immediately filled with doubt about investing in her start-up when she would have a baby to support. Her first decisive action was to return home to Northern Ireland and following the birth of little Albie, Sarah-Jane decided she was going to follow her heart and start up her business.

Sarah-Jane and her son, Albie

Vocus Vit offers premium activewear for ladies with a focus on sustainability. All of the range is made from recycled plastic bottles without compromising on comfort, fit and style.

To place my first order, which was for 300 units, I had to pay 50% of the 8,000 balance up front, and I did this whilst I was in Australia, says Sarah-Jane.

By the time I was back home in Omagh I had to pay the remaining balance and get the order shipped there instead of my address in Melbourne. I remember sitting at home questioning if clearing the balance was the best use of my money now I had Albie to support. But I had worked hard for those savings to be put aside for my business, so I decided it was the right thing to do.

Sarah-Jane, who had lived in England for five years before moving to Australia, after she studied criminology at university in Liverpool, began investigating the help that was available to start-ups in Northern Ireland.

Its not until you actually start to research that you realise there are good support networks available to start-ups. I also signed up for the Go For It Programme and it was here I was signposted to the British Business Bank.

One of my biggest challenges was cashflow and I needed a loan to help me get set up. I remember thinking there is no way I am going to be successful in getting a loan, but I applied to the British Business Banks Start Up Loans programme and I was successful in getting a 10,000 loan.

A Start Up Loan is a government-backed personal loan available to individuals looking to start or grow a business in the UK. In addition to finance, successful applicants receive 12 months of free mentoring and access to resources to help them succeed.

One of the big benefits of the loan has been the flexibility, she says. A problem I have is when I place an order it takes three months for it to arrive, meaning there is no income for the business until I have the merchandise in stock. Another benefit has been the mentoring you receive. I have learnt about profit and loss forecasts and social media marketing, which for someone new to business, has been invaluable.

Models showcase Sarah-Jane's Vocus Vit range

Sarah-Jane is encouraging other entrepreneurs to take the leap as the support is here in Northern Ireland to help them get started.

I think a big realisation for me is that you have to spend money to make money. I have never been in debt in my life, so it was pretty nerve-wracking to take out a 10,000 loan, but I knew it was what the business needed, she says. If youre like me and nervous about taking on debt, I would say, dont let this hold you back. You are investing in the future success of your business.

Now 15 months old, little Albie is finding his feet just like Vocus Vit, which is beginning to create a community of fans of the brand.

The business is solely online at the minute but one day in the future we might think about opening a shop, adds Sarah-Jane. For now, our focus is really getting out there, letting people know about the brand and what we offer.

I really want to empower women and I think a big part of that is listening to them. I want to really build our community and be in a position to respond to our customers needs.

Models showcase Sarah-Jane's Vocus Vit range

To find out more about how a Start Up Loan can help you realise your ambition of starting your own business, visit www.startuploans.co.uk. To find out more about Vocus Vit and Sarah-Janes story, visit www.vocusvit.com
Nine people now claim to be victims of alleged fraud

More alleged victims have come forward who claim they were cheated out of thousands of pounds in pension transfer scams.

To date nine people have contacted Sunday Life to say they are out money after agreeing to move their workplace pensions into what are known as small self-administered schemes (SSAS).

Some of those who got in touch have also now contacted the police about their claims, which go back several years.

Of those who say they were cheated out of five-figure sums, some worked for Royal Mail while others transferred local government pensions and even Ministry of Defence funds into the schemes.

They also allege the pension scheme has seen them been hit with large tax bills from HMRC  some as much as six-figures  which they were not told about before they agreed to transfer their retirement pots.

It follows the development that two men have been charged and appeared in court accused of defrauding individuals in the same way.

Paul Ferrin (67), of Saintfield Road in Co Down, and a 41-year-old co-accused  who is not being named at this stage  face a total of 19 charges between them, dated from January 2013 to December 2015.

Ferrin is charged with failing to tell those who signed up for the pension transfer they would have to pay tax on sums paid out as it could be viewed as cashing in the funds.

It is further alleged he did not disclose the fact the transfer would mean the men would have to become company directors and trustees in these SSAS arrangements.

He is also charged with carrying out a regulated financial activity despite not being an authorised person or having his communications approved by an authorised person.

Its also alleged he told participants their funds would be available as tax-free loans or invested in property while failing to disclose they may be liable for tax on scheme payments.

His co-defendant is accused of misleading one man into believing that once his funds had been transferred, a tax-free loan would be made available. It is alleged that he did this on two occasions between June 2013 and July 2014, once in breach of the Financial Services Act and once in breach of the Fraud Act.

The pair are awaiting a hearing to have their case sent to Belfast Crown Court which will take place later this year.

Read more Man charged over huge Northern Ireland pension pot fraud

A SSAS scheme allows up to 11 people to become trustees of their own pension fund and decide how it is invested to fund their retirement.

There is no pension provider involved and each trustee is responsible for how the money is invested.
Protestors demands the abolition of the Digital Security Act and the release of all those imprisoned under the act at a demonstration near Dhaka University, in Dhaka, July 16, 2023.

Bangladeshs cabinet has approved a proposal to dilute the Digital Security Act, a minister said Monday about the law that critics worldwide have lambasted for its use to silence dissent, imprison critics and repress a free media.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina greenlighted a new draft law, the Cyber Security Bill-2023, to replace the DSA, and the bill will be introduced for passage in Parliament during its session next month, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters.

The Cyber Security Bill has been framed to replace the Digital Security Act, he said after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The Cyber Security Bill has been sent to the legislative division under the Ministry of Law, Kustice and Parliamentary Affairs for vetting  Hopefully, we will place the bill for passage at the September session of parliament.

The announcement comes as Bangladeshs faces increasing international scrutiny in the run-up to a general election, including a recent call from the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights to scrap the Digital Security Law.

Huq was asked about what would happen to cases currently filed under the DSA, when and if Parliament passes the new bill. He said these cases would be disposed of under the new Cyber Security Bill-2023 after it is passed.

Several activists, including those who were thrown into jail under the law, claimed the governments move to dilute law was a victory that resulted from their ceaseless protests and international pressure.

But some human rights groups were more guarded and said they preferred to wait and see the provisions of the bill, whose draft has not been made public yet.

The Digital Security Act, passed in September 2018  the year Hasinas Awami League returned to power for a third consecutive term  empowers law enforcement to arrest people without a warrant based merely on suspicion that a crime has been committed online.

More than 7,000 cases had been filed under the Digital Security Act since its enactment until Jan. 31 this year, the law minister told Parliament in June. Cases were filed for perceived online criticism of officials, including Hasina, and her father, the countrys founder, according to rights organizations.

Students and activists attend a torchlight procession as they protest the death of a Bangladeshi writer Mushtaq Ahmed in prison, after his arrest under the Digital Security Act, in Dhaka, , Feb. 26, 2021. [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

In April, the United States expressed concern to Bangladesh about threats and physical attacks against the media, including under the digital law, ahead of national elections, scheduled for December 2023 or January 2024. It called the act one of the worlds most draconian laws for journalists.

And in March, U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Turk called on Bangladesh to suspend the act immediately, saying he was concerned it was being used to arrest, harass and intimidate journalists and human rights defenders, and to muzzle critical voices online.

Act has not been scrapped

Bangladeshs law minister played down the reason for changing the act, saying the government had decided to modernize and also stop the misuse and abuse of the DSA, local news outlet The Daily Star reported.

Here, I want to make one issue clear: the Digital Security Act has not been scrapped; we just changed it, Huq told reporters.

The title and many of the sections of the Digital Security Act will be changed. You will see those changes.

He noted two changes in the Cyber Security Bill-2023.

Under the new bill, defamation will constitute a civil offense and not a criminal offense. Defamation will be punished with only a fine but no prison term.

No journalist or any person will face a jail term for defamation suits, Huq told BenarNews.

Under the Digital Security Act, defamation is a criminal offense and carries a prison term of three to five years, as well as a fine.

In the second change, Huq noted that the bill proposed lowering the maximum punishment for hurting religious sentiments to two years in prison, from five years under the DSA.

Moral defeat of the government

The governments move is an admission of defeat, according to Shafiqul Islam Kajol, a photographer who faces three cases related to alleged DSA violations for sharing a link on his Facebook page to a news story that criticized an MP.

This is a moral victory for the activists and the victims who take to the streets to see the law scrapped. But we have paid a heavy price, he told BenarNews.

Even changing the Digital Security Act is a moral defeat of the government: this proves that it a black law, a draconian law used to gag the press and curtail the peoples constitutional rights of freedom of expression.

Kajol said hundreds of innocent people had been languishing in jails on false charges of defamation under the Digital Security Act.

One activist, Hasant Qaiyum, of the Rastra Sangshkar Andolon, scoffed at the law ministers statement that the act had not been scrapped.

When a law is replaced with another fresh law with a new title, it means that the previous law is scrapped. But the government does not admit it for political reasons: they think a confession may mean their political defeat to the rights activists and the opposition groups, he told BenarNews.

The government has actually scrapped the Digital Security Act due to the pressure from the domestic rights activists and the international community, no matter whatever explanation the law minister gives in this case.

He was still cautious though and said he was waiting to see the provisions of the new bill.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International said it welcomed the Bangladesh government move to repeal the Digital Security Act (DSA).

The watchdog said the act had been weaponized by the ruling party and its affiliates to stifle dissent and thwart freedom of expression online.

The government must ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient opportunity to scrutinize and make recommendations on the proposed new law before it is enacted, Amnesty said.

Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh said it cautiously applauded the cabinets decision to repeal the act in the wake of continuous demands by stakeholders.

The group said in a statement that the new proposed law must not become a reflection of the Digital Security Act

We have come to know from media sources that the honorable law minister has said that many sections of the digital security law will be added to the cyber security law, the statement quoted Transparency International Bangladeshs executive director as saying.

That is where our fear lies.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center left) and his wife Iriana disembark from their plane upon arrival at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Chengdu, China, July 27, 2023.

Indonesias relationship with China will be a key issue in the 2024 presidential election, with two of the three candidates appearing to have a pro-Beijing tilt, a new policy brief says.

The future leader will have to navigate tricky terrain because China is Indonesias top foreign source of investment while also viewed as a threat to the territorial sovereignty of Southeast Asias largest country.

The three Indonesian presidential hopefuls are vying to succeed Joko Jokowi Widodo, who has forged a close relationship with Beijing, Jakarta think-tank CELIOS said in its brief released on Friday.

Among the contenders, former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan seems to be the only one skeptical of China, which is vying with its number one rival, United States, for influence in Southeast Asia.

Candidate Ganjar Pranowo, who is from Jokowis party and is governor of Central Java province, is expected to continue his predecessors policy, according to CELIOS.

And on the face of it, it appears that the third contender, Prabowo Subianto, the defense minister who is a former army general, may also continue Jokowis policy, CELIOS said. For instance, Prabowo, as defense chief, sought to boost military cooperation with Beijing.

But the think-tank added a caveat: All of Prabowos actions were really those of the Jokowi administration, so they ought to be viewed in that light, and if elected president, it is possible Prabowo may change direction.

Then-Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan poses with residents along a street in Jakarta, Nov. 1, 2020. [Goh Chai Hin/AFP file photo]

CELIOS said the candidate who would most likely transform the current governments foreign policy if he wins is Anies.

Anies appears more interested in building relations with the United States and Western countries, said he think-tanks researcher, Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat.

During his tenure as a Governor of Jakarta, Anies has visited several European countries to solicit cooperation, starting from the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to collaborative smart city, Zulfikar said during a webinar hosted by CELIOS in Jakarta last week.

He noted that despite the Jokowi government leaning towards China, Anies has regularly been engaging with the West  he visited Britain, Germany, France, and Luxembourg in 2022.

According to CELIOS, Anies may feel closer to the West because he lived and studied in the U.S. for many years.

Anies ostensibly understands that with the steady anti-China sentiment in society, Indonesian politicians who have close ties with the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) generally experience defeat at the polls, the policy brief said.

It could be that not being labelled as a Chinese lackey can be a surefire way to gain public sympathy.

CELIO was referring to Chinas massive infrastructure projects in Indonesia, which are often dogged by controversies to do with labor conditions, environmental impact and the possibility of drawing Indonesia into a debt-trap.

Anies wants to change the way Indonesian people view the government, which has been criticized by the public for being overly pro-China, Zulfiqar said.

Ganjar Pranowo, the Central Java governor who is the candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) in the 2024 presidential election, delivers a speech during the PDIP meeting at Batu Tulis palace in Bogor, Indonesia, April 21, 2023. [Jafar Umar Zaman/Handout via Reuters]

By contrast, Ganjar has publicly proclaimed he would carry on with Jokowis policies if elected, CELIOS researcher Zulfikar said.

Jokowi and Ganjars party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have a history of warm ties.

Jokowi himself has a close relationship with China, as witnessed by the focus of Indonesias foreign policy during his leadership which was more inclined towards China, especially in development and infrastructure sectors, Zulfikar said during a webinar hosted by CELIOS in Jakarta on Friday.

Jokowis infrastructure focus was in line with Chinas worldwide infrastructure-building program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the think-tank said.

Geopolitically, Indonesia has a strategic geographical advantage and a large market share to

absorb and realize China's interests in implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.  The growing ties between the two countries have continued to develop throughout Jokowi's second term, the policy brief said.

Besides, Ganjar, as Central Java governor, has had frequent contact with China and frequently praises China, Zulfikar said.

Central Java Province has signed various cooperative programs with China in the scope of regional partnerships.

For instance, dozens of Chinese investors in the wood and furniture sectors invested nearly U.S. $2 billion in the Central Java economy in 2019.

In May 2023, Ganjar also signed an investment deal with the Chinese for the construction of an energy factory at Batang Industrial Estate, which is expected to create jobs for at least 10,000 local workers, CELIOS said.

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto speaks during a news conference in Jakarta, Nov. 21, 2022. [Willy Kurniawan/Pool/Reuters file photo]

As for incumbent Defense Minister Prabowo, CELIOS said he is part of a system in which the current government's foreign policy is closely aligned with China's interests.

While Prabowo stressed to his Chinese counterpart in September 2022  during a time of escalation of tensions in the disputed South China Sea  that Jakarta would continue to uphold its free and active foreign policy, most of his other meetings with Chinese officials have been about defense cooperation, the think tank said.

The frequency of Prabowo's interactions with China so far is noteworthy as an indicator of the potential direction of Indonesia's foreign policy in the future, if he is elected president, the policy brief said.

However, it should be stressed that the relationship that exists is inseparable from the fact that many of these engagements were carried out as part of his official position as minister in Jokowi's cabinet.

President-elect must be firm on South China Sea

The think-tank noted that in recent years, the China Coast Guard and Chinese ships have been very active in illegally patrolling around Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ)  to the point of entering the North Natuna waters.

Nevertheless, the Indonesian navy did not prevent these vessels from entering and only monitored from a distance of less than a mile, the policy brief said.

The president-elect must be firm and consistent in dealing with China's aggressiveness in the South China Sea.

Indonesia does not have any territorial disputes with China, but it has repeatedly lodged protests against Chinese fishing boats and coast guard vessels entering its EEZ near the Natuna Islands.

Yeta Purnama, another analyst at CELIOS, said the next president also needed to renegotiate projects that could potentially lead Indonesia into a debt trap, including the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project.

The most concerning issue is the miscalculation that leads to increases in construction costs which could potentially become a debt trap, Yeta said during the webinar.

The next Indonesian president needed to uphold Jakartas free and active foreign policy and maintain a certain distance from China, said Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar, a political scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia.

If Indonesia gets too close to China, we will fail to maintain our position in the battle of superpower countries, he said at the webinar.

It will not have a good impact in the long term.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela (left), joined by National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya, and Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar, speaks to reporters about the nations response to the China Coast Guards actions in the South China Sea on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2023.

A war of words heated up Monday as Manila summoned Beijings ambassador to complain about the China Coast Guard firing water cannon at a Philippine Coast Guard ship while it escorted a civilian convoy in the South China Sea.

In response, the Chinese government reiterated its demand that the Philippines remove the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusty World War II-era naval ship that Manila deliberately ran aground in the Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) in 1999 to serve as a military outpost in those contested waters.

A convoy of Philippine ships was on a mission Saturday to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to troops stationed aboard the BRP Sierra Madre when the incident occurred near the shoal.

While meeting with the Chinese envoy on Monday morning, Manila conveyed the strong protest of the Philippine government to the blocking and water cannon operation by the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese maritime militia vessels against Philippine indigenous boats, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Ma. Teresa Daza told reporters.

The Philippine convoy was conducting [a] regular rotation and resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal, she said.

The Philippine government also expressed disappointment that it was not able to reach Chinas foreign ministry through a hotline established between the countries earlier this year to improve communication during incidents related to the South China Sea, she said.

The incident, which lasted more than an hour, was the latest in a growing number of perceived aggressive actions by China in the South China Sea, an important maritime trade route subject to overlapping territorial claims from China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China asserts sovereignty over most of the sea and has for years militarized artificial islands while deploying coast guard boats, navy ships and a state-backed maritime militia around disputed areas.

Daza said Ayungin Shoal was well within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, as recognized in a 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court.

Chinas dangerous maneuvers breached international maritime law by restricting the Philippine ships navigational path, thereby increasing the risk of collision, she said.

The foreign ministry firmly asked China to direct its vessels to stop their illegal actions against Philippine vessels, and to stop interfering in legitimate Philippine government activities while complying with relevant international laws, according to Daza.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry claimed the shoal, which it calls Renai Jiao, had always belonged to China.

In 1999, the Philippines sent a military vessel and deliberately ran it aground at Renai Jiao, attempting to change the status quo of Renai Jiao illegally. China immediately made serious demarches to the Philippines, demanding the removal of the vessel, a ministry spokesman said Monday.

The Philippines promised several times to tow it away, but has yet to act. Not only that, the Philippines sought to overhaul and reinforce the military vessel in order to permanently occupy Renai Jiao.

As for Saturdays confrontation at sea, such actions violated Chinas sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, the spokesman said. The China Coast Guard vessels stopped them in accordance with law and warned them off through appropriate law enforcement measures. Their maneuvers were professional, restrained and beyond reproach.

Dangerous and unlawful

Meanwhile, the Philippines ambassador to China delivered a diplomatic protest in Beijing on Monday morning.

The Philippines since 2020 has sent 445 diplomatic protests to China relating to occupation or harassment in the South China Sea, Daza said. A total of 35 have been sent since Jan. 1.

On Monday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called a command meeting with the coast guard and military to discuss the fresh incident.

We continue to assert our sovereignty, we continue to assert our territorial rights in the face of all these challenges, Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of a Philippine Army event.

Jonathan Malaya, spokesman for a Philippine task force on the South China Sea, characterized the Chinese action on Saturday near Ayungin Shoal as aggressive, dangerous and unlawful.

At one point, he said, one of the six China Coast Guard ships came within 20 yards (18.3 meters) as it blocked the path of a Philippine boat, officials said.

The Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese militia vessels have no right whatsoever to place a blockade or impede, or otherwise control, the movement of the Philippine Coast Guard in Ayungin Shoal or anywhere else in the West Philippine Sea, especially when they are undertaking a mission to resupply our troops stationed there, Malaya told a press briefing.

While one Philippine supply boat was blocked, another was able to break through and successfully delivered some of the supplies, Malaya said.

Only weeks earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard had accused its Chinese counterpart of dangerous maneuvers that, the Filipino side alleged, could have caused a collision during a similar resupply mission.

Two China Coast Guard ships intercepted Philippine patrol boats and exhibited aggressive tactics and at one point, the Chinese ship came to just 50 yards of a Philippine ship.

Camille Elemia in Manila contributed to this report.
Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew (right) and Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul (second from right) toast with other party leaders during their first meeting, July 22, 2023.

Pheu Thai said Monday it was joining forces with the royalist Bhumjaithai Party, a member of the outgoing government, as it tries to build a ruling coalition without the party that won the most seats in Thailands election.

The former rivals said the move was aimed at unlocking the political impasse over the outcome of the May 14 election.

Pheu Thai Party and Bhumjaithai Party will jointly form a government with support from other parties and their members and senators, Cholnan Srikaew, Pheu Thai party leader, told reporters following a meeting at his partys office.

Chances are we are highly likely to be successful in forming a new government with the Bhumjaithai rather than with the Move Forward Party, Cholnan said, noting he expects many senators to welcome the new alliance. The 250 senators were appointed by the junta prior to the last election and, under laws put in place at that time, participate in choosing the prime minister.

Cholnan abandoned his former ally after senators blocked Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrats two attempts to become the countrys new prime minister.

For many Thais, Move Forward embodied hope that Thailand would soon see its first government without military ties since the 2014 coup.

Reconciliation, harmony is the best solution, Cholnan said, defending the move.

Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai won a combined total of 212 seats in the 500-member house of representatives. They need at least 375 votes from the combined house and senate to seat a new prime minister.

Speaking to reporters, Bhumjaithais leader said that Pheu Thai had accepted its major conditions.

We acknowledged that Pheu Thai agreed with the three conditions, that there be no amendment of Article 112 [the Lese-Majeste law], we are not a minority government and no Move Forward Party, Anutin Charnvirakul said.

Pheu Thai can add 71 seats from Bhumjaithai to its existing tally of 141 in order to make it a precursor to talk to other parties, Anutin said, adding that Pheu Thai would lead in forming a new government.

The prime minister candidate will still be Pheu Thais Srettha Thavisin, a former property tycoon, Cholnan said.

No date has been set for the vote but it appears likely to occur after Aug. 16, when the Constitutional Court is expected to rule on a petition challenging parliaments blocking of a second vote on Pitas nomination to serve as prime minister.

In May 2014, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatras Pheu Thai government was ousted by a military junta led by Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha. He has served as prime minister since then and was elected to the office following the 2019 election.

Prayuth recently quit as a member of the United Thai Nation Party.

The country has been polarized into pro-democracy and pro-military royalist camps.

So, now is the time that the country needs the government. This country needs to move on. So we have to finish all those disputes, Anutin said in response to a question about the popular votes.

And if possible, you dont want to see the country in factions like this. If there is any chance that we can unite together and move on, we have to do it for the sake of our country and the people.

An academic said Pheu Thai has formed the alliance in a bid to redeem its past glory.

Pheu Thai may think this is the last chance to revitalize its popularity and their past success, but they will be attacked by some people.  There may be resistance and protests, Thannapat Jarernpanit, a professor at Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University, told BenarNews.

But if it succeeds, Pheu Thai can bring Thaksin home and restore its popularity, she said, referring to Yinglucks brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006. His daughter recently announced he would return to Thailand on Aug. 10 after 15 years in self-imposed exile.

But on Saturday, Thaksin declared that he would delay his return for a couple of weeks due to a medical appointment. Also on Saturday, Thaksin and Yingluck attended a birthday party in Phnom Penh for outgoing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to media reports.
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WINDSOR  Karen Schiltz noticed an immediate jump in her electricity bill as soon as she moved to Windsor in the spring of 2022 from Pittsfield.

Her bills have run $300 to $350 a month.

Energy saving tips for the summer Keep air conditioners set as warm as comfort allows. For every degree higher on the thermostat, the air conditioner will use 1-3 percent less electricity.

Dont block air flow. Keep air vents clear of obstructions such as furniture, curtains and rugs.

Operate major appliances during the cooler parts of the day. Energy is conserved by using appliances like clothes washers and dryers early in the morning or late in the evening when there is also less demand on the electric system.

Keep blinds closed when its hot out to prevent unwanted heat from entering a home through windows. Using curtains, shades, and blinds can lower indoor temperatures by up to 20 degrees.

Switch to ENERGY STAR-certified LED lights. The energy-efficient bulbs run cooler and last up to 25 times longer than incandescent lights.

Set ceiling fans to rotate counterclockwise and at a higher speed in the summer to circulate the air more effectively, creating a cooling, wind chill effect. Remember to turn the fan off when leaving the room. Source: Eversource

We have a tiny little house, Schiltz said. We dont run air conditioners at all. We dont run computers all the time. Its just the two of us, and the bill is pretty much twice as much as my one in Pittsfield.

She and her adult son moved from a four-bedroom house in Pittsfield, with two full bathrooms and air conditioning. The only drain on electricity in her Windsor home, she said, might be a dehumidifier.

Shes mystified by a chart she received showing shes used 75 percent more electricity than last summer, and we havent done anything different.

It makes absolutely no sense, she said. It is really making us angry. It basically makes it very difficult to afford to live here.

Since 2018, Pittsfield has had an approved municipal aggregation plan, which resembles a buyers club  with electricity customers banding together as a single entity to negotiate for electricity.

In Pittsfield, residents have collectively saved approximately $8,390,000 and businesses have saved approximately $5,076,000 for a total savings of $13,466,000, according to a May 2023 news release.

Windsor has been waiting since March 2022 for approval from the state Department of Public Utilities for its municipal aggregation plan. Schiltz said she placed a call to the governors office in hopes that might hurry along the process.

The town approved the municipal aggregation plan at town meeting in June 2021. In March 2022, Colonial Power Group submitted the plan to the DPU. A public hearing was held in November of that year. A first round of clarifying questions from a hearing officer came in March 2023, for which Colonial Power Group prepared answers, responding in April.

Everything seems to have just stalled, said Jan Bradley, a member of the towns Green Committee, who started a letter-writing campaign to urge approval. On July 20, a hearing officer requested Windsor answer questions a second time with a deadline of Aug. 3 for answers.

Schiltz said she placed a phone call to the governors office after the social media campaign, even though she doesnt fully understand the benefits of the plan.

Windsor isnt the only town waiting for approval.

The Middlesex County town of Weston has been waiting the longest, since October 2020. The communities of Bolton, Tewksbury, Quincy, Chelsea, Beverly, Amesbury, Sherborn and Andover have also been waiting since 2020 or 2021.

Help at Eversource for high bills The New Start Program can help income-eligible, electric and gas customers reduce or eliminate their outstanding balance in as little as 12 months when they make on-time monthly payments and Eversource will make up the difference by eliminating or forgiving a portion of the total balance enrolled in the program  reducing the amount owed each month.

Flexible payment plans are available to all customers, regardless of income, to pay their past-due balance over a period of time.

Budget billing plansare also available and can help customers avoid seasonal spikes on their energy bill by paying a fixed amount each month based on their average annual usage.

A discount rate is available to customers receiving public assistance benefits and have a household income at or below 60% of the state median income. These customers may be eligible for a 42% discount on their monthly electric bill or a 25% discount on their monthly natural gas bill. Customers may call 877-963-2632 (Western Massachusetts), or visit Eversource.com/BillHelp to find the right plan for them and enroll online. Source: Eversource

Municipal aggregation has its benefits, including cost savings, according to a March 2023 report by a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts. The report called, Community Choice Electricity Programs: A Survey of Massachusetts Municipalities, documented the experience of communities. Among benefits, it noted, about 80% of the communities achieved savings. Among challenges, it noted that 26 percent experienced delays associated with approval from the Department of Public Utilities.

A spokeswoman for the department acknowledged the need for quicker action.

Leadership at the DPU understands the need for swift review and streamlining the process regarding municipal aggregation, Danielle Burney wrote in an Aug. 1 email. They are working urgently to review existing applications and simplify the process going forward.

Eversource spokesman Chris McKinnon said the electricity rate went down as of July 1 to 14.85 cents per kilowatt hour from the winter rate of 21.99 cents per kilowatt hour.

He said global markets for natural gas forced up the price of electricity during the winter months. The rate this summer, he said, is actually lower than it was a year ago, when it was 15.4 cents per kilowatt hour due to a drop in cost for natural gas, used in generating electricity.

Ultimately, a customers total bill does come down to their usage, he said, adding that Eversource is willing to check electricity meters if customers suspect they may be broken. A typical customer in Massachusetts uses about 40 percent more electricity while theyre trying to stay cool in summer months.

With a drop in price for electricity in effect from July 1 to Dec. 1 of this year, customers in Western Massachusetts should see a savings of roughly $42, or 18 percent, on their bills, according to a May news release from Eversource.

Windsor resident Shenna Welch has a hot tub, two refrigerators, two freezers and two garages on her property.

But you know, last year or the year before, our bills were nowhere near this, she said, referring to electricity bills this spring and summer that topped $500 for March and then came down to the high $200s. Previous years bills ranged from $180 to $220, she said.

This summer, she told her family not to use ceiling fans and window fans at the same time, unplugged toasters when not in use, and has cut down on the number of laundry loads per week. She said her usage hasnt changed.

A colleague from Pittsfield shared a bill with Welch showing $85 was due. Noting the difference between her own bills and those of her colleague, Welch lamented the delay in approval of Windsors municipal aggregation plan.

Its upsetting to know that because were not in it," she said. "Were paying so much more it seems.
Ruth Bass is an award-winning journalist. Her website is www.ruthbass.com. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of The Berkshire Eagle.
Cannes: malgre les appels a annulation, le rappeur Lomepal, accuse de viol, s'est produit aux Plages electroniques

Plusieurs associations feministes avaient demande l'annulation du concert du rappeur, accuse de viol.
Bill proposes to amend 183 provisions to be decriminalised in 42 Central Acts administered by 19 Ministries/Departments

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023 was passed in Lok Sabha on 27th June 2023 and Rajya Sabha on 2nd August 2023, with removal of stringent punishments such as imprisonment from some of the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the Pharmacy Act, 1948.

The Jan Vishwas Bill was drafted to amend 42 laws administered by 19 ministries. The objective behind the Bill is to do away with "outdated rules" of criminal punishment and imprisonment for several minor offences.

The Bill seeks to make two amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, of 1940  the Act that regulates the import, manufacture and distribution of drugs in India.

Currently, the Act defines four categories of offences adulterated drugs, spurious drugs, mislabeled drugs, and Not of Standard Quality drugs (NSQs)  and lays out degrees of punishment (a combination of prison time and fine) based on the degree of offence.

Section 27(d) specifically deals with offenses of misbranding and Not of Standard Quality Drugs (NSQs), which currently require up to two years of imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 20,000.

According to the Bill passed by the Lok Sabha, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 will have a few provisions where the imprisonment will be substituted with provisions for penalty.

Under the Pharmacy Act, 1948, one of the amendments is to remove provisions for imprisonment for six months or fine of one thousand ruppes or both, to penalty up to Rs. 1 lakh under Section 26A. Similarly a new section will be inserted after Section 43, named as 43A to deal with adjudication of penalties.
Grey Advertising Africa and Burger King proudly introduce their newest Radio Campaign, Small Pleasures. South Africans are going through the most right now. Paying for electricity that's only on when we're asleep or at work. Our economy is going through mid-month blues, mampara week, every week, the entire month. It feels as though there is very little to be happy about at the moment.

The King Value Meals at Burger King are meals big on value; they are small pleasures that can be enjoyed no matter what. Thats where the concept for this campaign came from. We took everyday scenarios that are relatable for many South Africans and told stories about how there is a small pleasure that can be enjoyed even in those moments. Whether its not having to sit in the front middle seat in the taxi, where you would then have to remember Calculus and Bodmas (Brackets, Orders, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction) to count the fare, or simply getting a call from a private number to find out that the anticipated telesales call is your grandma who mistakenly blocked her caller ID as they usually do, says TJ Njozela, creative director at Grey Advertising Africa. The campaign shows that all small pleasures are meant to be enjoyed, and the King Value Meals that start at a small R39.90 are the small pleasure you need.

Sometimes its relishing in tiny indignation and getting that last word in. On one of the radio spots, we meet uSista Gal, who has just completed her morning school run. She gets the middle finger from one of the bosses of the road, a taxi driver, as he passes her on the emergency lane. As karma would have it, the taxi gets pulled over by the traffic police, and she cant help but call him a moemish  a small pleasure.

In the simultaneous ages of 'indoda must' and cash-strapped consumers, you can only imagine a guy's joy when his hun says all she wants for date night is to stay home and watch moviesa small pleasure.

We read a stat that revealed that 72% of South Africans said they are extremely concerned about their financial situation, all while prices are soaring and the average take-home pay has decreased by 4%*. Add ongoing load shedding to this; its no secret that South Africans are battling financially. As a brand that prides itself on offering customers exceptional value, Burger King couldnt ignore this. This was our starting point; how can Burger King help lighten the heavy load that South Africans are carrying right now? added Julia Ridderhof, strategist at Grey Advertising Africa.

The campaign is about the small pleasures we experience daily, and at the top of the small pleasures list is value for money, which is what Burger King and King Value Meals offer. Our 'Small Pleasures' campaign celebrates the simple joys in life and acknowledges the current economic situation in South Africa. We aim to provide comfort and enjoyment to our customers through Burger King's King Value Meals, which offer affordable and satisfying options. Our team understands the financial concerns and pressures that many South Africans face, and we are committed to providing exceptional value and support during these challenging times, concludes Ezelna Jones, marketing executive at Burger King South Africa.

To learn more about Grey Advertising Africa, visit https://www.grey.co.za or follow them on social media.

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The ongoing taxi strike in the Cape Metropole, accompanied by violence and transportation disruption in rural areas, has plunged the region into a state of crisis. As a consequence, numerous health facilities have been forced to close, services have been suspended, and the region is grappling with a significant reduction in capacity.

The morning of 7 August witnessed a multitude of staff members unable to reach their workplaces due to road closures and violence flaring in certain areas, exacerbating the situation further.

According to the police, a motorist opened fire following an incident where they were hit with stones on Airport Approach, resulting in one fatality and three others sustaining injuries.

The City of Cape Town further reported the arrest of 35 individuals allegedly involved in violence linked to the ongoing taxi strike. Among the arrests, 27 individuals were apprehended in connection with a taxi blockade on the N2, causing significant traffic disruptions. Additionally, eight taxi drivers were arrested in Mfuleni.

Elective surgeries were postponed at the central hospitals of Tygerberg, Red Cross and Groote Schuur Hospital, the community health centres and clinics of Phillipi, Nyanga, Crossroads, Nolungile, and Gugulethu have been closed, and community-based care in these areas has also been suspended. Regarding emergency medical services and forensic pathology services, access to red zone areas have only been possible with a law enforcement escort.

The stay-away is being led by the South African National Taxi Council in the Western Cape (Santaco-WC).

Despite urgent negotiations initiated last Thursday, a resolution to the taxi strike remains elusive. As a result, Cabinet has committed to convening daily to address the pressing situation and find a way forward.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde took charge of a special provincial Cabinet meeting this morning. The meeting aimed to provide updates on the extensive engagements and interventions undertaken since the strike's inception.

Strike impact on critical services

I am angry that as a result of the strike, residents have been unable to get home to their families or to work, school, shops, clinics and other critical sites. Many government services, including health and social development, are having to close facilities and are unable to provide desperately needed services to our communities. Our schooling system is also being affected. This is not acceptable, the premier stated.

We welcome Santacos condemnation of the levels of violence associated with the strike. However, we remain deeply concerned by the violence, loss of life and destruction of property that has been associated with the strike.

"We are calling for calm, and urge all parties to go back to the negotiating table in order to urgently find an agreed way forward." - @go2Michelle, ActionSA Western Cape Provincial Chairperson #TaxiStrikehttps://t.co/HrxpiNorSh  ActionSA (@Action4SA) August 7, 2023

Santacos leadership must ensure that the violence associated with the strike ends immediately. We also note and support the interdict granted by the Western Cape High Court to Golden Arrow Bus Services against Santaco and its affiliates. The Western Cape Government is also pursuing legal action, along with the City of Cape Town, to interdict the violence.

The Premier continued, The ongoing violence is making it very difficult for negotiations to proceed. We are a government that stands for the rule of law. A withdrawal of services is an important Constitutional right, but violence, intimidation and destruction of property are not.

This is non-negotiable. We want to bring all stakeholders back to the negotiations, but this has to be in an environment of calm. We must also not allow this issue to be politicised as this will only further complicate matters.

All law enforcement agencies have been mobilised since the strike was called. The maximum number of personnel and resources have been deployed to respond to acts of violence and protect what services are able to be offered amid the industrial action.

Santaco has confirmed the national taxi strike will continue until Wednesday, 9 August.
Meg McCulloch, originally from Vancouver, Canada, is the co-founder of Jack Black's Brewery Co. , a craft beer specialty company located in Cape Town. Alongside her husband and business partner, Ross, she embarked on an exciting journey when they decided to move to South Africa to pursue their venture.

McCulloch draws inspiration from the design and manufacturing prowess of South Africa. One of her missions is to challenge the stereotype that women do not have an affinity for beer. Through her work with Jack Black's Brewery Co., she aims to break down these preconceptions and promote inclusivity in the world of beer appreciation.

Meg McCulloch is the co-founder of Jack Black Beer. Source: Supplied.

How and why did you get interested in craft beer?

Although I studied law at university, my passion was actually in the wine industry, where I became a sommelier and had a lot of fun consulting and travelling abroad as a journalist. Fast forward to meeting my husband and partner Ross, we soon visited South Africa (where Ross grew up) and it was clear that, while South Africa had a lot of incredible wine, this was not the case for local beer! We saw a massive opportunity to bring South Africans a delicious local beer  and our dream grew from there.

Take us through the journey of starting Jack Black with your partner.

When we say we started on a shoestring, we mean it! It was just the two of us, and since we couldnt afford a brewery, we began brewing our own recipe with a contract brewer with the vision of one day having our own brewery. Our first sales were hand-to-hand at farmers markets, beginning with The Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock.

Markets were a great place to share our story with consumers that were interested in local, high-quality beer. Soon after starting our bottle business, we shifted our focus to draught beer and stood behind many bar counters serving fresh pints. From there, we moved into the restaurant world  and there began the love affair with Jack Black on Tap.

What are the challenges of running a brewery?

Gosh, weve faced quite a few in recent years. Id say outside of the challenges beyond our control (such as water shortages, prohibitions, and load shedding)  we deal with the same type of everyday challenges most medium-sized businesses face.

The added challenge, but excitement, is that while were a production business (brewing is at the heart of what we do), we also have components of marketing, sales, and distribution in addition to our taproom, which is a combined restaurant and event space.

What have been the highlights?

Over the years, weve become smarter about what were doing, and how were doing it  and we have an incredible team that allows us to do so. Looking back on our 15-year journey, a major highlight was opening our brewery, and welcoming all the folks that supported us throughout our first ten years who enabled us to reach that milestone.

Another highlight was our move to sustainable packaging, which meant higher input costs, but its a journey were fully committed to  and we know our consumers are too. Weve built a brand through strong partnerships and community support, and our Pint for Purpose programme (where proceeds from our taps are donated to local organisations) has also been super fulfilling and fun.

I believe this is a traditionally male-dominated industry. Are there any barriers you have had to overcome?

While the beer business was once considered a male-dominated industry, those stereotypes have largely been broken down over the last two decades. Id say the next stereotype we need to break is that women dont love beer! Youd be surprised how many women try craft beer for the first time and love it. We have a variety of beers now, including fruit-inspired beers, which has created a lot of excitement for new consumers.

What inspires you?

Over and above the daily inspiration from our team, Im super inspired by our wider community  we are so fortunate to meet so many people doing extraordinary things every day. As a foreigner, I have an external view of South Africa and I truly find it a place of opportunity. I believe Africa has so much to offer globally, but locally as well, whether its design, production, manufacturing and so much more  its inspiring and fulfilling to support local brands and businesses. Yes, South Africa has its fair set of challenges, but the resilience and dynamism of this country cant be beaten.

What advice do you have for women pursuing careers in this industry, or those who want to start up a business?

When I think about all the obstacles weve faced, the old adage comes to mind, that most businesses fail just before success  thats something thats stuck with us. Ultimately its about believing in your dream and pursuing it, even when times are tough.

My advice, to anyone really, is to just start  I feel we often chase perfection (something Im very guilty of) but when it comes to entrepreneurship, my opinion is that those who ultimately succeed are the ones willing to start, adapt, make mistakes and learn from them.

What are your future plans for yourself and your business?

As a business, our future plans are to continue growing our community of loyal Jack Black drinkers and to encourage as much discovery and trial of craft beer as possible. While were no longer hand-selling at the Old Biscuit Mill, its those types of opportunities  where people can try craft beer for the first time, discover what makes it special, and make a connection  that makes it all worth it! Beer is a sharing occasion for special moments in our lives. Whether its the end of a project or the end of the week, those moments deserve to be treated as such  with a delicious local beer.
Clever. Creative. Brand-centric. Inspired... and inspiring. These are the words used by the judges of the 2023 Prism Awards to describe what sets Paddington Station and its consumer campaigns apart as the agency scooped 11 awards.

The prestigious event, held at the Galleria in Sandton on 29 July 2023, brought together the leading figures of the South African public relations (PR) and communication industry to celebrate and honour the shining stars driving excellence in the field. Among the brightest stars of the night was Paddington Station, which received a remarkable haul of 11 awards, closely trailing the two biggest winners, Flow Communications and Tribeca, with 13 awards each.

The stage was set for an extraordinary night of recognition, as Paddington Station won the coveted Gold for Best Small PR Agency and the prestigious Silver for Best PR Professional awarded to Dirk Slabbert. But the triumph did not stop there  the agency went on to win an additional nine awards, showcasing its prowess across diverse categories and reinforcing its position as a leader in strategic storytelling and unrivalled excellence in FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) communication delivery.

According to Landiwe Manana, Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (Prisa) general manager and Prism Awards chairperson, the competition was fierce, with a record-breaking 390 entries evaluated by a panel of 70 judges. "This year's Prism Awards boasted the largest number of entries in its history, and this outstanding participation showcases the credibility and stature of the Prism Awards within the industry," she said.

Paddington Station managing director Paul Reynell attributes these accolades to the agencys passion and dedication. As a consumer-focused agency, we put a lot of time and resources into understanding consumers, and keeping this at the forefront of everything we do is what drives results, he says. Our successes with content triggers and engagement flow from this focus.

L to R: Julian Hurley (creative director), Paul Reynell (managing director), Laylaa Trevor (digital director) and Dirk Slabbert (account director).

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the agencys remarkable sweep of the entire Food & Beverage Category, where they claimed Bronze, Silver, and Gold honours for their ground-breaking campaigns in the highly competitive alcoholic beverage sector.

Again, this is a testament to our efforts to understand consumer profiling and our ability to break through the content clutter in the digital space to deliver impactful results for our clients, says Reynell, who was also announced as the Chief Judge for the 2024 Prism Awards.

The biggest brand winner of the evening was beverage company DGB with seven awards, represented in its campaigns by Paddington Station. Both the cream liqueur and cocktail sectors are extremely competitive and cluttered, but were incredibly fortunate to be working with a client that shares our vision and excitement about the possibilities available to them, explains Reynell. This is evident in the quality of their products and projects we partner on, and we love pushing the limits and conceptualising new campaigns and content, year after year.

This vision is backed up by top-class technical skills, says the agencys creative director, Julian Hurley: "We bring our ideas to life and execute them at the highest industry standard. Despite being a smaller agency, we possess our in-house photographic studio, film equipment, and cutting-edge tech, allowing us to rival even the largest players in the field."

Taking the whole Food & Beverage Category (Gold, Silver & Bronze)

The agency's stellar performance extended into both the digital space  winning Silver for Social Media and Silver for Best Use of Creative  and into the experiential space, where they received Gold for the ground-breaking SA launch of Angostura Orange & Cocoa bitters. This 20-minute immersive experience set new standards for innovation and proved once again why Paddington Station remains the go-to partner for brands seeking impactful and inspired communications.

According to Prism Judge Allison McDonald, the agency's ingenious, creative, and market-focused approach not only earns accolades but also pushes the boundaries of brand-centric communication strategies: The team at Paddington Station runs a clever, creative, market-focused, inspired and inspiring communication service, setting the bar high. Its a professional pleasure being associated with the people who call this agency their vocational home.

The 11 Prism Awards represent the culmination of Paddington Station's relentless pursuit of excellence, their ability to connect with audiences on a deeper level, and their unwavering commitment to delivering outstanding communication solutions. With its ever-expanding list of accolades, the agency reaffirms its position as an industry leader and the ultimate choice for businesses seeking unparalleled brand success.
Learning how to drive and passing your driver's licence is a major life milestone. Once you have that little card in your hands - the next step is to get your own set of wheels. Buying your first car can be quite daunting - here are five tips from motus.cars to help you through the process.

1. Do your research before and during the car-buying process

Car-buying research includes searching for the make and model of your desired car and making sure there arent any major consumer complaints, recalls, or safety-related defects. Just because you like the look doesnt mean its a good first-time car. Its important to keep your emotions at bay when researching your ideal first vehicle. Research the costs of fuel consumption, maintenance, and repairs. The blog section on motus.cars is a great source of the latest information on news and new models while the vehicle comparison tool helps you accurately compare vehicles on your shortlist taking every detail into account

2. Establish a budget

Be realistic with your car budget. If you have to pay for the car yourself, this is an important time to demonstrate responsibility. While the best option would be to pay cash, usually thats just not possible. Most car buyers need some sort of financing.

Remember that you dont only need enough for the monthly repayments, you also need to take into account other fixed expenses such as insurance, maintenance, registration, repairs and of course petrol. South Africans currently spend more on fuel than on new cars.

The finance calculator on motus.cars is a great tool for establishing exactly how much you can afford.

3. Consider a pre-owned vehicle

Your budget will be the biggest factor in determining if you can buy a new car or if you should opt for a pre-owned vehicle. Certified pre-owned vehicles are the best kind of used car you can buy and offer excellent value for money. All the pre-owned vehicles available through the motus network are listed on motus.cars allowing you to shop and compare and choose from thousands of vehicles easily and conveniently thanks to enhanced website functionality and search filters.

4. Inspect the car, inside and out

While online shopping makes the hunt for your next set of wheels so much easier. The next step is visiting dealerships and physically inspecting the cars on your shortlist. In addition to a visual inspection of the inside and outside of the car, youll want to take it for a test drive. Now is the time to find out the history of the vehicle  ask questions like if the car has been in an accident, if it has a full-service history and if any major repairs or maintenance was recently done.

5. Know who you are dealing with

The most important part of the car buying process is making sure that you are dealing with a reputable seller.

Dealing with a trusted brand such as Motus and their extensive dealer network will ensure that you can choose from an unrivalled variety of cars and that you can shop with peace of mind knowing that you are dealing with the actual owner of the car.

Motus, South Africas largest and leading automotive group, owns and operates more than 300 dealerships, which result in Motus selling approximately one in every five new vehicles in South Africa.

In order to achieve this, the Motus new car dealer network represents 33 OEM brands across passenger, commercial vehicles, and motorcycles.

In addition, Motus retail a large amount of pre-owned vehicles through a dedicated and extensive pre-owned dealership network. The Motus pre-owned dealer network includes trusted brands such as Motus Select and Auto Pedigree, of which there are over 100 facilities in South Africa, as well as OEM pre-owned facilities.

Motus also operate 39 mega sites or so called multi franchises in all the major cities around South Africa. Multi franchise dealerships consists of a variety of new car brands as well as pre-owned offerings and several shared services, all located on the same site. This concept gives customers a wide variety to choose from when shopping for a new or pre-owned vehicle, in one convenient location.

Multi-franchises ensure that customers are offered a wide variety of vehicles, covering every segment and price point, within walking distance of each other, which ensures that they can easily find the car that matches their needs and budget best and make a truly informed purchasing decision. Another advantage of a multi-franchise is that it gives customers exposure to a variety of brands when visiting the dealership, such as when booking their car in for a service and facilitates the trading in of vehicles across brands seamlessly.

The pre-owned vehicle offerings available throughout the Motus dealer network include the well-known brands Motus Select and Auto Pedigree.

Motus Select pride themselves in offering good quality pre-owned vehicles that adhere to strict criteria that guarantees the quality and allows motorists to shop with confidence. This includes a 110-point quality check.

Auto Pedigree has been selling high quality pre-owned vehicles to South African motorists for over 40 years. During this time Auto Pedigree has developed a reputation for offering quality used vehicles and great service. All vehicles sold through Auto Pedigree are subjected to a thorough mechanical and electrical test to ensure that they are in excellent condition before going on sale.

All vehicles offered for sale by the Motus dealer network, both new and pre-owned, are also listed on motus.cars. Motus.cars is SAs only true online vehicle aggregator and here shoppers can search for their next car via a variety of search filters, compare cars, calculate finance and shop with confidence knowing that they are dealing with SAs largest dealer group who own all the cars that they offer for sale.

For more info and tips, visit our blog and join the conversation on Facebook. For interesting videos, check out YouTube.




In a strategic move to strengthen its presence in Southern Africa, Boehringer Ingelheim, a global leader in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, has announced the appointment of Cesar Nieto as the general manager and head of Human Pharma for the region.

Source: Supplied. Boehringer Ingelheim's new general manager and head of Human Pharma, Cesar Nieto.

As part of his responsibilities, Nieto will manage the Southern Africa region which includes South Africa and sub-Saharan African countries.

A qualified physician, Nieto has previously held senior leadership positions with the company in North and Central America, Caribbean, United Arab Emirates, and the companys headquarters in Germany.

Mohammed Tawil, regional managing director and head of Human Pharma for Boehringer Ingelheim's India, Middle East, Turkey and Africa (Imeta) region, said, Nieto has a proven track record of success in driving growth for Boehringer Ingelheim.

His diverse experience will be key to our ability to drive sustainable growth and we are confident that he will help us fulfil our purpose of transforming lives for generations by bringing innovative healthcare solutions to address areas of unmet medical needs in the region.

Commenting on his appointment, Nieto said, Through strong partnerships with our stakeholders and Boehringer Ingelheim team, Im confident that we can positively impact the patients and communities and contribute to healthcare innovation.

Nieto was previously the regional cardiovascular therapeutic area lead at Boehringer Ingelheim Imeta, where he played a key role in the transformation of the companys cardiovascular and stroke portfolio. His strategy in this role served as a blueprint for other regions such as Brazil, Mexico, UK and Ireland, and led to an increase in profitability in Imeta.

Boehringer Ingelheim has been in the South African market since 1962 and later grew the network into Namibia and Botswana. Recently, the regional headquarters has extended its representation to the sub-Saharan African region.
Calling all ambitious and visionary South African entrepreneurs! The stage is set, and the countdown is on! With just four weeks remaining until the entry deadline, seize this golden opportunity to showcase your unwavering determination and entrepreneurial success at the prestigious Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

This extraordinary event aims to honor and celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of small business owners who have triumphed over challenges and achieved excellence in the face of adversity.

The Entrepreneur of the Year awards offer an unparalleled platform to recognise the achievements of South African entrepreneurs and SMEs. We invite all tenacious and innovative minds to share their inspiring success stories and be rewarded for their exceptional contributions to the dynamic business landscape.

Don't miss your chance to be part of the 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year competition. Visit EOY.CO.ZA now to participate and stand a chance to win a share of an impressive R2m in prizes, fueling your entrepreneurial ambitions and fostering growth within South Africa.

Embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship and be the driving force behind innovation, economic growth, and positive change in your business community. Enter the Entrepreneur of the Year competition today!

About the Entrepreneur of The Year Competition:

The Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding business excellence demonstrated by South African entrepreneurs and SMEs. By sharing their success stories and offering well-deserved rewards, this prestigious event fosters the growth and development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Africa.

Click here to enter the Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 Awards.
Topco Media, a leading media company focused on empowering entrepreneurs, is thrilled to announce the winners of the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER Cape Town event. This marks the first stop in the EmpowHER Development Series, with the second having taken place in Durban and the final event to follow in the North West in August.

The Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER series aims to build communities and provide networking opportunities for aspiring women entrepreneurs. By equipping women with the skills and knowledge needed to drive economic development, this series empowers them to build successful enterprises in South Africa. The Cape Town event has set the stage for a series of inspiring sessions featuring successful Top Women Award winners and entrepreneurs.

Inspiring speakers and engaging discussions

The Cape Town event, held at The Hyatt Regency Cape Town on Thursday, 25 May 2023, was a platform for an exceptional lineup of renowned speakers who captivated the audience with their valuable insights and experiences. Attendees were inspired by the industry expertise and knowledge shared by Sheila Yabo, head of ecosystem development for Ayoba, MTN's SuperApp, former head of UCT GSB's Entrepreneurship Centre, and SA country director for University Impact. They were also privileged to hear from Adri Williams, managing director of Khayelitsha Cookies and recipient of the prestigious Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER award in 2022.

The presence and contributions of these speakers added tremendous value to the event, creating an engaging and insightful experience for all participants.

Pitching den showcases exceptional entrepreneurs and inspires success

One of the standout moments of the Cape Town event was the highly anticipated pitching den, where ten exceptional entrepreneurs, carefully selected in advance, had the opportunity to showcase their promising business models. These talented individuals delivered captivating three-minute elevator pitches, followed by engaging five-minute Q&A sessions with a panel of respected judges. The esteemed judging panel consisted of Naledzani Mosomane, the head of enterprise development at Standard Bank, Fikile Kgobe, the lead global markets SA (BCB/PPB) at Standard Bank, Fiona Wakelin, the group editor at Topco Media, Adri Williams, the managing director of Khayelitsha Cookies, and Zinzi Magoda, a lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

The winners from all three regional events, including Cape Town, Durban and Sun City, will be attending the Standard Bank Top Women Awards in November 2023, taking place in Johannesburg. The ultimate winner will be bestowed with the highly sought-after trophy and an impressive cash prize of R50,000.

Winners

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER Cape Town event. These exceptional entrepreneurs impressed the judges with their innovative business models and demonstrated outstanding potential for growth.

"We are thrilled with the tremendous success of the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER event. The caliber of finalists was exceptional, showcasing the incredible talent and innovation among women entrepreneurs in South Africa. Congratulations to all the winners for their remarkable achievements and for inspiring us with their outstanding business models. We are proud to celebrate their success and look forward to their continued growth and contributions to the business landscape," commends Ralf Fletcher, CEO of Topco Media.

Congratulations to:

Winner: Denise Stubbs  Thokozani Winelands Investments PTY LTD

First runner-up: Mahlatse Mamaila  INO-Biodiesel

Second runner-up: Fezeka Stuurman  Cultiver Group

Their achievements and dedication serve as an inspiration to aspiring women entrepreneurs across the country.

Final event: Join us in North West

As we near the culmination of the EmpowHER Development Series, we extend a warm invitation to all business and corporate women in South Africa to participate in an empowering event in the North West. This transformative experience will be held at Sun City, a venue renowned for its blend of business and leisure. It presents an exceptional opportunity for networking, acquiring knowledge, and personal growth.

To secure your spot at the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER Regional Conference in North West, please sign up using the application form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DV35PPY. Additionally, tickets can be purchased at https://qkt.io/AWYT87. We encourage all attendees to take advantage of the 20% discount exclusively available to Standard Bank customers using their BIN numbers as a promo code (first six numbers on your card).

Seize the opportunity to network with accomplished entrepreneurs, acquire invaluable knowledge, and propel your business to new heights. Be a part of the vibrant community of empowered women who are actively contributing to the economic growth of South Africa. Don't miss out on the final event of the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER series, where you can make meaningful connections and gain insights that will drive your success.

Sponsors, partners, and lifestyle partners

"We are immensely grateful to our sponsors and partners for their invaluable support in making the Standard Bank Top Women EmpowHER series a resounding success. Their unwavering commitment and partnership have been instrumental in empowering women entrepreneurs and driving positive change. We extend our heartfelt thanks for their invaluable contribution," expresses Fletcher.

Platinum Sponsor:

Standard Bank Lifestyle Partners:

Eskamel



Hado Labo Tokyo



Softlips



Woolworths



African Extracts



Ocean Basket



Skin Creamery



RKP ATTORNEYS INC



Chardine



Starz Unlimited



Propel Photo Booths



MLT Car Rental




Digital Marketing is now the linchpin of success for businesses across the globe.

From small brands to established enterprises, the ability to excel in digital marketing is crucial for gaining a competitive edge and reaching a vast audience. And this aspect is super evident in the bustling metropolis of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Johannesburg, also known as the City of Gold, is the economic heart of South Africa. It is a thriving hub for digital innovation and creativity.

And as brands in this region increasingly recognise the importance of online marketing, the demand for the best digital Marketing Agencies has heightened. These agencies drive traffic for the brands and convert leads into loyal customers.

So, we present a carefully curated list of the top 5 digital marketing agencies in Johannesburg, providing insights into their services, achievements, and unique selling points.

Why choose a digital marketing agency?

Top 5 digital marketing agencies in Johannesburg

Here is a curated list of Johannesburg's most impactful digital marketing agencies. These agencies combine creativity, strategy, and cutting-edge technology to elevate brands to new heights in the digital world.

Burnesseo

Burnesseo is highly influential and powerful in digital marketing, offering comprehensive services designed to elevate brands in the digital sphere.

Their expertise spans different types of search engine optimisation (SEO), social media marketing, and Google My Business Optimiastion.

In addition, Burnesseo has an impressive portfolio that features an array of happy clients from various industries. They have two years of eminent working experience and have steered startups and established brands to even greater heights.

What sets Burnesseo apart is its attention-to-detail and data-driven approach. They merge creativity with analytics. Plus, they dive deep into market insights and harness the power of data to craft personalised strategies for each client.

So, their dedication to innovation and results help them earn a reputation as the best digital marketing agency in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Isilumko Activate

Isilumko Activate is an integrated and multi-award-winning digital marketing agency. They offer a spectrum of services designed to ignite brand growth and engagement.

They offer 360 holistic marketing services, such as brand activations, experiential marketing, event marketing, traditional trade solutions, media Strategies, loyalty programs, and CSR marketing.

Isilumko Activate boasts 26 years of working experience and an impressive account of notable clients, ranging from local setups to internationally recognised brands. They can increase the engagement of brands by 200%, generating widespread buzz and positing the brands in the industry.

Moreover, Isilumko Activate has an unparalleled knack for crafting immersive brand experiences that leave a lasting impact. This USP transforms brand interactions into memorable experiences, generating heightened brand awareness and long-term customer advocacy.

Webness

Webness has emerged as the #1 web solution and digital marketing agency in South Africa, offering many services meticulously crafted to enhance the brands' online visibility.

Their comprehensive offerings include creating professional website designs, video production services and video editing. With a keen eye for aesthetics and functionality, Webness transforms digital landscapes into engaging and results-driven platforms.

Their portfolio is remarkable and illustrates their ability to cater to a range of business needs. They have collaborated with various brands in South Africa, such as Southern Proper, Scistaff and Luxor Tech.

What makes them different is their commitment to blending artistic innovation with technical excellence. They create digital solutions that captivate users and drive meaningful interactions.

Studio Four Sixty

Studio Four Sixty is a creative powerhouse within the digital marketing landscape of South Africa, offering detailed services designed to amplify brand storytelling and engagement.

Their skillset extends to services like hand-coded websites, social media marketing, branding, packaging, presentations, video editing, motion graphics and more.

Moreover, their portfolio is outstanding - having 20 years of experience, 50+ happy clients, and 12000+ completed projects.

Their clientele comprises both emerging startups and renowned brands. They have various success stories and have collaborated with brands like Pizza Hut and Cadbury.

In addition, Studio Four Sixty harnesses the power of visual storytelling to evoke genuine emotional connections. This narrative sets them apart from competitors and garners recognition within the industry.

Robust

Robust is a versatile, vibrant and resourceful video production company in South Africa. Their offer dynamic to empower businesses in the digital ecosystem by integrating creativity, strategy and technology.

Their comprehensive suite of services involves designing captivating videos, skillful video editing, stunning photography, breathtaking aerial shots, and top-notch drone work.

They showcase an exceptional work portfolio comprising a diverse array of businesses. They have collaborated with KFC, South African Breweries, Castle Lite and Carpomore South Africa.

Robust's distinctive edge lies in its commitment to transforming the ordinary into extraordinary using visual storytelling and data-driven strategies. They analyse emerging trends, consumer behaviors, and performance metrics to create bespoke and creative solutions that deliver tangible results.

Role of AI and automation in the digital marketing excellence

In an era of rapid technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences, the role of AI and automation is much more significant in achieving digital marketing excellence.

As digital marketing is becoming increasingly intricate and competitive, the usage of AI and automation has become an absolute necessity.

These transformative technologies are reshaping the way digital marketing agencies work, empowering them to master data analysis, customer engagement and campaign optimisation.

So, in this dynamic digital world, understanding and implementing the role of AI and automation has become the cornerstone of a digital marketing strategy.

AI-driven personalisation

AI-driven personalisation has emerged as a game-changer for digital marketing agencies in Johannesburg.

By using the power of artificial intelligence, these agencies can analyse vast amounts of customer data to personalise experiences.

Through advanced algorithms - AI identifies the consumers' preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns. It enables the delivery of highly relevant content, recommendations, and offers.

This level of customisation enhances customer engagement and conversion rates.

Whether it's custom-tailored email campaigns, targeted social media ads, or personalised product recommendations, AI-driven personalisation is redefining digital marketing excellence by ensuring each customer feels valued and understood.

Marketing automation

Efficiency and precision are at the heart of modern digital marketing and automation tools have become the linchpin of success for these agencies.

These tools streamline repetitive tasks like social media posting, email marketing, and lead nurturing. By automating these tasks, digital marketing agencies can free up their valuable time and resources, allowing their employees to focus on creative brainstorming, strategic planning and campaign optimisation.

The result is enhanced productivity and more consistent and cohesive brand messaging across multiple channels. With automation technology, digital marketing agencies can create a balance between technology and human creativity, delivering impactful campaigns resonating with their target audiences.

Predictive analysis

Understanding market trends and customer behaviors have always been essential to effective marketing. In Johannesburg's top digital marketing agencies, predictive analytics has taken these metrics to a new level.

Analysing market trends, historical data, and customer interactions, agencies make data-driven predictions about future consumer behaviour.

This foresight empowers them to design highly-targeted and proactive digital marketing campaigns, maximising the impact of their efforts.

Whether it's predicting future industry trends or identifying segments of customers likely to make a purchase, predictive analytics allows these agencies to deliver campaigns that resonate deeply with their audience.

This data-driven approach enhances campaign effectiveness and cements these agencies as trailblazers in the digital marketing world.

Staying ahead in the digital marketing game

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

How much are digital marketing services in South Africa?

The pricing of digital marketing services in South Africa varies depending on factors such as the size of the agency, the scope of services, and the peculiar needs of brands.

However, brands can expect to invest anywhere from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of rands per month. These services include social media management, search engine optimisation (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, content creation, and analytics tracking.

We recommend you get quotes from different agencies and discuss personalised packages to get the most suitable and cost-effective price for your business.

Is it worth it to hire a digital marketing agency?

Hiring a digital marketing agency is worth it for brands seeking to efficiently master online platforms, increase their visibility, and reach a wider audience.

These agencies have expertise in various digital marketing channels. They have access to specialised marketing tools and the ability to develop personalised strategies.

So, hiring these agencies leads to improved brand visibility, increased website traffic and higher conversion rates. However, the final decision should be based on the goals and resources of your brand, as well as careful evaluation of the agency's previous experiences and alignment with your brand's objectives.

Can you make money with digital marketing in SA?

Yes, it is possible to make money with digital marketing in South Africa. As more people and brands engage online, there is an increasing demand for effective digital marketing strategies.

By offering services such as search engine optimisation (SEO), social media management, content creation and online advertising, individuals and agencies can generate good income. They can help businesses improve online awareness, attract customers and drive sales.

Success in digital marketing depends on expertise, creativity and staying up-to-date with digital trends plus consumer behaviours.

Bottom-line

In conclusion, Johannesburg, the City of Gold, is the home to some truly remarkable agencies, each contributing their expertise to the dynamic world of digital marketing.

From enhancing social media engagement to improving search engine visibility and delivering impressive Return-on-Investment (ROI), these agencies have shown what marketing excellence truly means.

We hope this blog post becomes a valuable resource for your brand's Marketing excellence in Johannesburg, South Africa.

As you embrace digital marketing and implement strategies from these top agencies, may your business soar to new heights of success.

Thank you for reading, and we wish you the best of luck in your digital marketing endeavors and hope your business flourishes brightly in the City of Gold and beyond.
ICT is the backbone of innovation and progress. Yet, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals in the technology industry. That is why BET Software is proud to launch its 2024 'Dare To Dream' bursary programme, to enable students to be part of the digital revolution shaping the future.

Nothando Zwane Nowinile Ngubo

Candidates meeting the following requirements are eligible to apply:

South African citizenship



Completing or completed Matric



Studying or met admission to study towards a Higher Education qualification in the following ICT-related fields: Information Technology and Information Systems

Computer Science

Information Systems

System and Network Administration

Software Engineering

Computer Engineering

Cybersecurity

Studying or registered to study at a recognised Higher Learning Institute in South Africa



Achieved a minimum overall average of 65% for the current year of study

Recipients can apply for further funding with each additional year of study. Once bursary recipients have successfully completed their studies, they can also apply to join the BET Software graduate programme, which offers potential work-back experience.

Michael Collins, general manager at BET Software, says that a degree in ICT encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and adaptability, which are essential skills in todays rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Technology plays a pivotal role in solving societal problems and improving the quality of life. By applying for our 'Dare To Dream' bursaries, students have the opportunity to contribute to solutions that address social, environmental, and economic challenges, he explains.

Every year, the goal of the company is to make a tangible difference in the lives of students through the bursaries.

Nowinile Ngubo, a bursary recipient studying towards a Business Information Technology Diploma at the University of Johannesburg, says that being awarded the 'Dare To Dream' bursary has been life-changing. The bursary has offered essential financial support and encouragement to pursue my tech dream with unwavering focus and determination. It has evoked a sense of assurance and security, its like a parent saying go and get your dreams, and I will take care of the rest, she asserts.

Nothando Zwane, another bursary recipient doing her final year at the University of Pretoria, says it is important to dare to dream because dreaming has given her a sense of purpose. My dreams allow me to think outside the box. They encourage ideas and goals. By daring to dream, I can learn more skills to better myself. Thank you, BET Software, she adds.

Interested students can apply here. Applications close 31 October 2023.




Botswana's state diamond company is planning to diversify how it sells precious stones to the market as it gears up to receive far more supply under a multi-year deal the country struck with producer De Beers in July.

The Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) currently sells 25% of the gems produced by the Botswanan government's Debswana joint venture with Anglo American unit De Beers via an auction process.

ODC's share of rough stones from Debswana will rise to 50% over the next decade due to Botswana's new deal with De Beers, but selling large volumes will be hard due to an uncertain economic outlook, and in the face of competition from laboratory-grown gems.

Botswana, the world's number one diamond producer by value, generates about 30% of its revenue and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings from diamonds, making its economy heavily exposed to prices of the precious stones, which have fallen around 12% in the last six months.

"ODC auctions are too big and need to be optimised," ODC managing director Mmetla Masire told Reuters via email. "We also need to de-risk the business and support other customers that want alternative selling channels."

While ODC is not moving away from the open tender model, the new channel should complement and work in parallel with auctions, Masire added.

"We are not shifting away from the auction channel, we are looking at running the auction and adding another channel to complement and work in parallel with auctions," he said.

With auctions, "apart from the logistical challenges of tendering such huge volumes of diamonds, technically what happens when the market is bad like today, you tender a large amount of diamonds you can't sell", said James Campbell, managing director of mining group Botswana Diamonds.

Alternative selling channel

De Beers uses an alternative selling channel that involves offering boxes of unpolished gems to customers such as manufacturers and diamond magnates at sales known as "sights" held about ten times a year. This helps when the market is weak.

"ODC will have the freedom to sell to customers directly in a way that they haven't had before," De Beers CEO Al Cook told Reuters in an interview.

"In practical terms, that does provide a structure for ensuring that we get rid of the peaks and troughs that characterise selling by tender or auction," he added, referring to De Beers' selling channel.

Debswana's rough diamond sales dropped 17% in the first six months of the year, data released by the central bank showed, as prices for the stones dropped sharply.
Mozillas Open Policy & Advocacy blog has news about a worrying proposal from the French government:

In a well-intentioned yet dangerous move to fight online fraud, France is on the verge of forcing browsers to create a dystopian technical capability. Article 6 (para II and III) of the SREN Bill would force browser providers to create the means to mandatorily block websites present on a government provided list.

The post explains why this is an extremely dangerous approach:

A world in which browsers can be forced to incorporate a list of banned websites at the software-level that simply do not open, either in a region or globally, is a worrying prospect that raises serious concerns around freedom of expression. If it successfully passes into law, the precedent this would set would make it much harder for browsers to reject such requests from other governments.

If a capability to block any site on a government blacklist were required by law to be built in to all browsers, then repressive governments would be given an enormously powerful tool. There would be no way around that censorship, short of hacking the browser code. That might be an option for open source coders, but it certainly wont be for the vast majority of ordinary users. As the Mozilla post points out:

Such a move will overturn decades of established content moderation norms and provide a playbook for authoritarian governments that will easily negate the existence of censorship circumvention tools.

It is even worse than that. If such a capability to block any site were built in to browsers, its not just authoritarian governments that would be rubbing their hands with glee: the copyright industry would doubtless push for allegedly infringing sites to be included on the block list too. We know this, because it has already done it in the past, as discussed in Walled Culture the book (free digital versions).

Not many people now remember, but in 2004, BT (British Telecom) caused something of a storm when it created CleanFeed:

British Telecom has taken the unprecedented step of blocking all illegal child pornography websites in a crackdown on abuse online. The decision by Britains largest high-speed internet provider will lead to the first mass censorship of the web attempted in a Western democracy.

Heres how it worked:

Subscribers to British Telecoms internet services such as BTYahoo and BTInternet who attempt to access illegal sites will receive an error message as if the page was unavailable. BT will register the number of attempts but will not be able to record details of those accessing the sites.

The key justification for what the Guardian called the first mass censorship of the web attempted in a Western democracy was that it only blocked illegal child sexual abuse material Web sites. It was therefore an extreme situation requiring an exceptional solution. But seven years later, the copyright industry were able to convince a High Court judge to ignore that justification, and to take advantage of CleanFeed to block a site, Newzbin 2, that had nothing to do with child sexual abuse material, and therefore did not require exceptional solutions:

Justice Arnold ruled that BT must use its blocking technology CleanFeed  which is currently used to prevent access to websites featuring child sexual abuse  to block Newzbin 2.

Exactly the logic used by copyright companies to subvert CleanFeed could be used to co-opt the censorship capabilities of browsers with built-in Web blocking lists. As with CleanFeed, the copyright industry would doubtless argue that since the technology already exists, why not to apply it to tackling copyright infringement too?

That very real threat is another reason to fight this pernicious, misguided French proposal. Because if it is implemented, it will be very hard to stop it becoming yet another technology that the copyright world demands should be bent to its own selfish purposes.

Follow me @glynmoody on Mastodon. Originally published to Walled Culture.


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There have been 20,000 prosecutions in the first six months of this year as a result of various crimes occurring in Dublin city centre, figures released from the Department of Justice show.

For the same period, there were 13,255 charges, 7,654 summonses issued and 8.6 million drug seizures in the core city centre and 34 million in drugs across the wider city.

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There has also been over 10,500 foot patrols since January as part of Operation Citizen, which focuses on high visibility policing in Dublin city centre.

Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis has also said Operation Citizen has 68 gardai and eight sergeants dedicated to just foot and beat patrols.

Assistant Commissioner Willis, according to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, said that up to 48 new gardai from the class will graduate on July 28th and will be assigned to the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR).

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The 48 for the DMR includes 11 to the North Central Division, headquartered in Store Street, and 10 to the South Central Division, headquartered in Pearse Street.

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The remainder will be allocated across the Dublin Metropolitan Region by the Garda Commissioner.

Justice Minister McEntee said these figures show the value of police work in the area in response to calls by a former Lord Mayor of Dublin north inner city Independent councillor Christy Burke for more to be done to stop there being no go areas in the city centre.

Cllr Burke wrote to the Minister following the brutal attack on Stephen Termini, 57, from Buffalo, New York, who had been staying at a guesthouse on Talbot St who had just left his accommodation when the unprovoked attack occurred by a gang of youths at 10.40pm on nearby Store Street three weeks ago, seeking another Garda station in the area to be opened.

The father was viciously beaten and kicked. Emergency services were called to the scene and the man was taken to Beaumont Hospital with life altering injuries.

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Cllr Burke is demanding that there should have been another Garda station along Talbot and Store Streets for years but for some unknown reason this has not happened. Perhaps its down to the fact so many gardai are leaving the force. I dont want to see the city being run by thugs".

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The number of gardai based in Dublin's north inner city is down almost 4 per cent since the start of the year which is the biggest reduction of any Garda division.

(L to R) Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe TD, during a press brieifng at Store Street Garda Station, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

A Garda presence has been badly needed for years, not just recently. For example, Talbot Street is known by residents and business people as the street of fear, said Cllr Burke.

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People will not walk up Talbot and Store Streets especially at nighttime and indeed think twice about it in daylight hours. Theres so much anti-social activity day and night there including, on street drinking and drug dealing and quite often blatant mugging.

The Minister said that she condemns, in the strongest terms, the brutal attack on an American national and wish the victim a speedy recovery. A juvenile has been arrested and charged in relation to this incident and is before the Courts. A second juvenile has also been arrested in connection with this incident.

Whilst I cannot comment on ongoing Court proceedings, I commend the swift and diligent police work by members of An Garda Siochana so far in this case. Investigations are ongoing.

People must have confidence they can safely walk the streets of our capital and a firm response will send out the message that we will not tolerate this thuggery on our streets.

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Minister McEntee pointed out that the newly opened Garda Station on OConnell Street is providing a welcome, visible presence on the capitals main thoroughfare, with around 420 proactive foot and bike patrols under the ongoing Operation Citizen from the station since it opened in March.

This followed the reopening of Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station in July 2022  it includes a bespoke Crime Victim Support Suite, the first of its kind in Ireland.

She said that she is determined to build stronger, safer communities and increase safety on our streets by strengthening An Garda Siochana, introducing tough new laws and ensuring that communities have a real say in making their areas safer.

The Minister highlighted that many of the issues in the city centre cannot be addressed by An Garda Siochana alone, and gardai work closely with Dublin City Centre, Ana Liffey North Inner City Partnership and others.

In addition, Dublins North Inner City is one of three pilot locations for the new Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs).

The Partnerships will build upon and replace the existing Joint Policing Committees, bringing together Gardai, local representatives, community organisations and representatives, and the Local Authorities and other State bodies, to draft a Community Safety Plan tailored to the community's needs.

No one knows better than those who live in the community what is needed. The Dublin LCSP is due to launch their plan shortly, the Minister noted.

The Partnerships recognise that community safety is not solely the responsibility of the gardai, or the Department of Justice alone, rather it is a whole of Government responsibility. This is central to my Community Safety Policy.

Minister McEntee noted that she is progressing the development of 400 additional prison spaces which would provide space for 620 prisoners as part of our prison modernisation programme".
Waiting lists for children's spinal surgery and crime in Dublin are among the topics that feature on Monday's front pages.

The Irish Times leads with a story on the waiting list for spinal surgery for children, which has doubled. A story on crime problems in Dublin city centre also makes the front page.

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The Irish Examiner reports Noel Long's DNA could be used in UK cold cases.

An audit has found dementia patients in nursing homes may have been overprescribed anti-psychotics, the Irish Independent reports.

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The Echo leads with a story on the homeless crisis in Cork city.

Gardai have removed 24-hour protection for Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch's brother Patsy, according to the Irish Daily Star.

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Our bank holiday Monday front page pic.twitter.com/7yzWRHzk7r  Irish Daily Star (@isfearranstar) August 7, 2023

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The Irish Sun leads with a story on a garda raid targeting gangland crime.

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The Irish Sun front page for Monday August 7. @SteBreen pic.twitter.com/Ib3146DTv2  The Irish Sun (@IrishSunOnline) August 7, 2023

A 'Kinahan gunman' caught with a large quantity of drugs is the subject of the main story in The Herald.

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In the North, the Belfast Telegraph leads with a story on BBC Northern Ireland being hit with legal fees of 500,000 after cases taken against the broadcaster by presenters.

The Irish News leads with a story on poll support for a Sinn Fein/Fianna Fail coalition in Northern Ireland.

Stories on the UK governments plans for migrants, the renting crisis and a laboratory preparing for the next pandemic feature on the front pages of Britains newspapers.

The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express say businesses who hire migrants illegally could face severe fines of up to 60,000.

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph:



'Bosses who hire illegal migrants face ruin'#TomorrowsPapersToday



Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomry pic.twitter.com/RXGSeyTf5Z Advertisement  The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 6, 2023

Migrants could be sent to Ascension Island if the Rwanda deportation plan is stopped, according to the Daily Mail.

The Metro leads with Labour saying they would temporarily house migrants on barges if they win the next UK general election.

Tomorrow's Paper Today 



LABOUR: WE'LL USE MIGRANT BARGES TOO



 Paedo rock star held hostage and stabbed in jail.

 Triathletes struck down by E-Coli from sea swim. pic.twitter.com/uM070J9Giw  Metro (@MetroUK) August 6, 2023

The Independent says renters are paying nearly four times more than homeowners on housing, with millions of people spending at least half of their income on rent.

The i features a story on a laboratory in Porton Down that has started developing vaccines to prepare for another viral outbreak.

Monday's front page: Secret Lab's vaccine plan to prevent bird flu pandemic#TomorrowsPapersToday



Latest by @janemerrick23: https://t.co/1qscieKVKK(opens in a new tab) pic.twitter.com/CtHmRPy5Qo Advertisement  i newspaper (@theipaper) August 6, 2023

Meanwhile, analysis from the Financial Times shows European companies have lost 100 billion in their operations in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine last year.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times UK edition Monday August 7 https://t.co/rBNHvH2GZ5 pic.twitter.com/5VvtEIR78G  Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) August 6, 2023

The Daily Mirror shares its poll results on dangerous dogs, with 74 per cent of readers demanding tougher action to stop deadly attacks.

The Guardian reports that the most lucrative media and consultancy work goes to the Tories, mainly driven by Boris Johnsons earnings.

Guardian front page, Monday 7 August 2023: MPs defy anger over second jobs with outside earnings of 10m pic.twitter.com/rmCmxdW0yH  The Guardian (@guardian) August 6, 2023

And, the Daily Star disagrees with Star Trek actor William Shatner, who believes aliens have not visited earth.
The British government is reportedly considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive to the UK by unauthorised means to Ascension Island.

Multiple reports say ministers and officials are considering the island as a plan B if the scheme to send migrants to Rwanda fails.

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The small, volcanic island could host an asylum processing centre in an attempt to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel.

(PA Graphics)

 Where is Ascension Island?

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Ascension Island is a British Overseas Territory, located about 4,000 miles from the UK and situated in the South Atlantic Ocean.

It is east of Brazil and west of Angola.

The island is around 807 miles northwest of St Helena and just under 34 square miles in size.

 Who lives on Ascension Island?

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There is no permanent or Indigenous population on the island, rather it is made up of employees and their families who work on the island.

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There are around 800 people living on the island at any point in time, made up of St Helenians, Americans and Britons.

 What amenities are on the island?

The island has two settlements, Georgetown and Two Boats.

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The island has two settlements (Alamy/PA)

It has two military bases, which are home to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Air Force, along with an airfield and a BBC relay station.

Ascension Island has a handful of shops, gyms and swimming pools, and even a cinema and an array of outdoor activities.

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 Who governs the island?

Ascension Island is not a part of the UK, rather it has its own Constitution that it shares with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha and is self-governing. The UK is responsible for defence, international relations and security on the island.

Ascension Island has five councillors and the Governor of St Helena, Nigel Phillips.

The currency on the island is the St Helena pound which has the same worth as the pound sterling.

The island was used as a base by the US during the Second World War and as a support base for the RAF during the Falklands War.

 What is the environment like on the island?

The temperature of the island ranges from 20C to 38C with a wet season during January to April.

The island has the Green Mountain, which has a peak of 859 metres, as well as low coastal areas and an array of native wildlife including turtles, seabirds and crustaceans.
Cambodias king has officially appointed army chief Hun Manet to succeed his father Hun Sen as the nations leader later this month after their party sealed victory in a one-sided election last month.

The royal decree signed by King Norodom Sihamoni means the 45-year-old Hun Manet is officially the incoming Prime Minister and will take office on August 22 when the new National Assembly adopts the new cabinet.

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Hun Manet thanked the king for his trust and said in a Telegram post that it was his lifes highest honour to serve the nation and its people.

He added that he was determined to fulfil his duties and promised to keep raising Cambodians living standards and the nations prestige.



The one-sided elections came in for criticism internationally (AP)

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His appointment came after Cambodias electoral body on Saturday announced the final results of last months election.

The polls that gave Hun Sens party a mandate for the next five years were criticised by Western governments and rights groups as neither free nor fair because the main credible opposition party was barred from participating.

Hun Manet won his first seat in parliament in the election, and the handover from his father is part of a larger, generational shift. Many younger legislators are expected to take up ministerial positions, including Hun Sens youngest son and others related to older party members.

Many were educated in the West, like Hun Manet, who has a bachelors degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a masters degree from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University, all in economics.

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After the royal decree was announced, Hun Sen posted on Telegram and the X social media platform that he was stepping down to give a chance to the successors to lead.



Hun Manet is also the chief of the army, as well as being the previous leaders son (AP)

Hun Sen, who turned 71 on Saturday, noted that he took office at age 32 as the youngest prime minister in the world at the time.

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He added that stepping down as prime minister is not the end yet and he would serve in other positions at least until 2033, which would bring him to a half-century in office.

Hun Sen is expected to retain a large amount of control as president of his Cambodian Peoples Party and as the Senate president.

I will still have the ability to serve the interests of the people and help the government oversee the countrys security and public order, as well as joining them in guiding the development of the country, Hun Sen said on July 26, the day he announced the widely expected succession plan.

Cambodia under Hun Sen has ushered in a free-market economy that raised living standards, but the gap between Cambodias rich and poor has widened and land grabs by Hun Sens domestic allies and foreign investors are widespread.

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After a strong election challenge from the opposition in 2013 that the CPP barely overcame, Hun Sen targeted the oppositions leaders and the main party was dissolved by Cambodias sympathetic courts.

The pattern of crushing any serious opposition followed this year when the main challenger was banned on a technicality before the vote.

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The European Union said the election was conducted in a restricted political and civic space where the opposition, civil society and the media were unable to function effectively without hindrance.

The US went further, imposing visa restrictions on individuals it considered responsible and pausing foreign assistance programmes.
The first Republican debate of the 2024 US presidential campaign is shaping up to be a crucial moment for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who badly needs some momentum in his challenge to former president Donald Trump for the partys nomination.

Complicating the matter for Mr DeSantis: Mr Trump, the front-runner in the race by far, appears unwilling to provide him with a target.

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Mr Trump has said he plans to skip the August 23rd debate in Milwaukee. If that happens, Mr DeSantis will likely become the focus of attacks from other candidates looking to climb past him and brand themselves as voters' primary alternative to Mr Trump, according to interviews with rival campaigns, Republican political advisers and a former presidential candidate.

An adviser to Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations who is also seeking the nomination, said the field is likely to treat Mr Trump gingerly and instead train their fire on Mr DeSantis, who is expected to occupy the centre slot on the stage.

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The guy on the stage on the No 1 spot is probably going to be taking more heat than the others, said the adviser, who requested anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters.

Rival campaigns smell blood in the water as Mr DeSantis has faced questions over profligate campaign spending and his readiness for the national stage.

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Polls

In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, released last week, Mr Trump held 47 per cent of the Republican vote nationally, with Mr DeSantis dropping six points from July down to just 13 per cent. None of the other candidates who will attend the debate have broken out of single digits.

Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting Mr 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.

Rick Santorum, a former US senator and Republican presidential candidate who participated in a series of debates in the 2012 election, said Mr DeSantis will need to be ready for an onslaught of attacks.

During the early primaries when Mr Santorum briefly held centre stage as the front-runner, he was widely viewed as having a tough night trying to defend his record in Congress.

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I didnt prepare to be the centre of attention, Mr Santorum said. I didnt prepare enough for the attacks and where the attacks were going to come from. And it cost me.

Mr DeSantis campaign would not comment on his debate preparations.

A former federal attorney who graduated from Harvard Law School, Mr DeSantis can be an effective sparring partner, said Justin Sayfie, who served as a top adviser to Republican Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and presidential candidate.

I have to believe he will be well-prepared to punch back hard when he gets punched, Mr Sayfie said.

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In a debate last year during his successful gubernatorial re-election campaign, Mr DeSantis called his opponent, Democrat Charlie Crist, a worn-out donkey.

The Trump quandary

Beyond Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis, at least five other candidates appear to be on track to qualify for the debate, including Ms Haley, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, US senator Tim Scott and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former vice president Mike Pence has struggled to reach the debate's requirement of 40,000 individual donors, but his campaign said it is confident Mr Pence will ultimately make it.

Mr Trump has questioned whether he should show up and lend their candidacies credence.

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His absence will present a quandary for his lesser-known rivals as they get a chance to introduce themselves to a national television audience of millions: Do they attack Mr Trump in absentia with no risk of return fire or do they focus on those on stage?

With the exception of Mr Christie and Mr Pence, Republican candidates have largely stood by Mr Trump as he has faced a mounting wave of legal troubles, the most recent a four-count federal indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Mr Santorum said the candidates need to take advantage of the moment to go after the front-runner and try to peel off some of his support.

If I was on that stage, I would be going after Trump, Mr Santorum said. Thats where the votes are.

Aaron Kall, an expert on presidential debates at the University of Michigan, agreed.

When Trump is not on the stage, its time to do it. Its then or never, Mr Kall said. "Its easier when hes not there, to not have to look him in the eye."

Mr Christie has made clear in interviews that Mr Trump will be his quarry whether or not he is on the stage. Mr Christie has said he will focus on the federal and state cases against the former president and how donors are paying Mr Trumps legal bills.

A former prosecutor known for his bluntness, Mr Christie famously took down Marco Rubio, a US senator, during a debate in the 2016 presidential race in a moment that was seen as mortally damaging to Mr Rubios prospects.

Mr Christie is preparing for both Trump scenarios, a source close to the campaign said, while recognising most of the pressure at the debate will be on Mr DeSantis to perform, not him.
The Philippine government has presented a strongly-worded protest to the Chinese ambassador over the Chinese coast guards use of a water cannon against a Filipino supply boat in the disputed South China Sea.

The Philippine military has condemned the Chinese coast guard ships excessive and offensive use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering a new batch of troops, food, water and fuel to the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed waters.

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The United States, the European Union and their key allies including Australia and Japan expressed support to the Philippines and concern over the Chinese ships actions.

Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its long-time treaty ally if Filipino public vessels and forces come under an armed attack including in the South China Sea.

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The Philippine military on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard ships actions as excessive and offensive (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)

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On Monday, the Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference at which they revealed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal.

One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons.

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Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.



Commodore Jay Tarriela, left, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, speaks beside Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson for the National Security Council, and Col Medel Aguilar, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Pool via AP)

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This was like a David and Goliath situation, Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

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Mr Malaya emphasised that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of foreign affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said Chinas ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, Ms Daza said.

The Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorisation into the shoal, which Beijing calls Renai Jiao.

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It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

In order to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective, water cannons were used as a warning. The on-site operation was professional and restrained, which is beyond reproach, the Chinese coast guard said.



The Philippine government summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday to convey a diplomatic protest over the incident (Pool via AP)

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China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still-commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

The tense confrontation on Saturday was the latest flare-up in the long-seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The protest underlines how the Chinese coast guard ships action violated international regulations aimed at avoiding collisions at sea and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, said one official.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway despite international rulings that invalidated Beijings vast territorial claims, such as that in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague. China rejects that ruling.
A senior US official says coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet with the West African countrys democratically elected president, whom she described as under virtual house arrest.

Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland also described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to US calls to return the country to civilian rule.

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She spoke to reporters after a two-hour meeting on the ground in Nigers capital, Niamey, with some leaders of the two-week military takeover in Niger, a vital counter-terrorism partner of the United States.
Australian actor Zoe Terakes has described as dehumanising and heartbreaking Kuwaits decision to ban the horror film Talk To Me solely because it features a trans actor in the cast rather than anything on screen.

Representation is hope. Representation is a light at the end of the tunnel: Zoe Terakes as Hayley in Talk to Me. Credit: Maslow

The Wentworth and Nine Perfect Strangers star, who identifies as non-binary and trans masculine, plays a student hosting a seance in an Australian film that has become a critical and commercial hit in the US and Australia.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kuwait and other Gulf states have regularly banned films featuring LGBTQ+ scenes or references, including Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Thor: Love and Thunder, Lightyear, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Eternals and West Side Story.

But this is believed to be the first time a film has been banned because of the gender identity of a cast member, which is not referenced in the movie.
PwCs former chief executive, Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers, denies knowing about the leak of confidential tax plans embroiling the firm despite meetings with the tax office in the years after it knew of the leaks.

I was working through a number of issues with the ATO [Australian Tax Office], but a breach of a confidentiality agreement was not one of them. I was not aware of the existence of a confidentiality agreement signed by [former PwC partner] Peter Collins until I read about it in the media this year, Sayers said in a statement.

Carlton president and former PwC CEO Luke Sayers.

Collins, a former tax partner at PwC, was deregistered in November 2022 as a tax agent for integrity breaches associated with the leak, including a two-year ban on becoming a registered tax practitioner.

Sayers said he did not recall a suggestion from the ATOs second commissioner, Jeremy Hirschhorn, to review a cache of internal emails regarding the firms tax work. These may have revealed the evidence that Collins, and other PwC partners, had used confidential tax information to market workarounds to some of the worlds largest tech companies.

I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO.

Read the full story.
Australia hasnt witnessed a corporate bin fire like the one thats engulfed big-four consulting firm PwC since James Packers Crown Resorts self-combusted in a blaze of greed, hubris and illegality.

So, CBD found it curious to see the PwC partner in charge of reputation, regulation and risk at the time it was engaging in highly risky and reputation-trashing behaviour snag a new role at  where else  Crown.

Crown Melbourne. The casino operator has endured a torrid few years. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Theres been no public announcement, but corporate documents show Mary Waldron was appointed as a director at Crown Melbourne Limited  the entity chaired by former AustralianSuper boss Ian Silk that (only just) holds its Melbourne casino licence  on June 29.

Waldron worked at PwC Australia under former boss Luke Sayers (the Dan Andrews confidant who also left before the tax scandal erupted), as managing partner for the three-Rs from 2012 to 2016 and then as PwCs global chief risk officer from 2016 until she left in 2021.
The public gallery of a Dubbo courtroom broke into applause as the man who brutally and callously murdered schoolgirl Michelle Bright and attacked another teenager was jailed for a maximum of 32 years.

Wearing her daughters favourite colours of purple and yellow and clutching a framed photograph outside court, Loraine Bright said she had brought Michelle for the sentence. After hearing it, she just broke down.

Michelle Bright was murdered by Craig Rumsby as she walked home in Gulgong.

Im not spiritual, but I thought, bring us something, darling, Loraine Bright said.

I was scared that we werent going to get what we wanted, but we got it.
Australia must establish a watchdog to police its scientists, an inquiry into one of the countrys worst research misconduct scandals has found.

The proposed body would have the power to investigate allegations of research misconduct  such as falsifying data or running unethical experiments  and could directly sanction researchers found to have done the wrong thing.

An inquiry that investigated cancer researcher Mark Smyth, from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, found that scientists and researchers needed to be policed by an independent body.

The finding, by former South Australian Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander, increases pressure on the federal government to finally establish the equivalent of the United States Office of Research Integrity.

A review of the Australian Research Council  which the government is still considering  recommended it be given a legislated role in policing research misconduct.
Five boys who died in a house fire on an island off Brisbane have been remembered as beautiful souls, as the community rallies around their grieving family struggling to come to grips with the tragedy.

Wayne Godinet, 34, and his five children, aged between three and 11, were killed when a fire ripped through their Todman Street home on Russell Island on Sunday morning.

Samantha Stephenson, 28, Godinets partner and the boys mother, escaped the blaze, alongside another woman, and rushed for help. Both were taken to hospital but were released on Monday.

Family from New Zealand, Melbourne and Sydney were expected to fly in to help the family.
The family of a woman found dead in her Bedford home on Monday has spoken out about their anger over losing their loved one in a suspected domestic violence incident.

Tiffany Woodley, 35, was discovered deceased in a horrific and confronting scene inside her Birkett Street home by police around 5pm on Monday.

Tiffany Woodley was discovered dead inside her Bedford home on Monday. Her image has been published with the consent of her family.

The womans on-again, off-again partner, 37, was arrested at the house and later charged with her murder. He will face court on Wednesday morning.

WA Police Inspector Geoff DeSanges said the victim suffered horrific injuries in what he described as a confronting scene.
Chinese traders expected to gradually resume Australian barley imports

10:18, August 07, 2023 By Yin Yeping ( Global Times

Chinese traders are ready to resume Australian barley imports, after China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced an end to anti-dumping and countervailing duties on the crop from Saturday, industry sources told the Global Times.

The change was a fresh response to the changing market situation and reflected bilateral efforts to get the two nations' trade ties back on normal track, experts said.

The MOFCOM said in a statement on Friday that it is no longer necessary to continue collecting duties on imports of barley originating in Australia, in view of changes in the Chinese barley market.

A manager with a large Chinese grain trading company told the Global Times on Sunday on condition of anonymity that the company noticed the policy change, and will gradually resume imports.

The company mainly imports Australian barley to sell to domestic beer breweries.

Due to the temporary halt in Australian barley imports, the company sought alternative supplies, such as from France and the Black Sea region, which are major barley producing areas.

"However, Australian barley has a competitive advantage due to its lower price and shorter transportation distance, so imports will gradually pick up," the manager said.

Another domestic trader told the Global Times on Sunday that the company had stopped importing Australian barley in favor of Canadian barley, which is cheaper and of equally good quality.

"We have a considerable amount of Canadian barley in our warehouse at the moment and may only consider resuming imports of Australian barley after the inventories are used up," the trader said

Barley, as a cereal crop, is mainly used for beer brewing and producing animal feed in China. Australia was China's largest source of barley in 2019.

In May 2020, the MOFCOM imposed a 73.6 percent anti-dumping duty and a 6.9 percent countervailing duty on imported Australian barley for a five-year period. Imports from Australia plunged as a result.

In response to a request from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association in April, the ministry reviewed the need for maintaining the duties. After evaluating the changing conditions in the Chinese barley market, the MOFCOM decided that continued imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley imports was no longer necessary.

The decision is anticipated to have a positive impact on China-Australia relations, helping bolster bilateral trade and economic exchanges, expert said.

The development in barley trade came against the backdrop of thawing China-Australia relations as both sides have adopted a more pragmatic and rational approach to address trade frictions, including frank consultation and communication, resulting in the positive outcome, Ning Tuanhui, an assistant research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The restoration of barley trade also indicates the success of the Labor government's strategy in handling relations with China, as it led to the resolution of some trade issues that could not be solved amid soured relations during the previous Morrison administration, Ning said.

In response to China's decision to end the barley duties, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Friday, "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."

However, an expert noted that while improving bilateral relations sets a basis for communication and trade problem-solving, it won't instantly solve all trade issues.

"They (the trade issues) involve various technical matters, such as the dumping issue of some Australian goods in China," Ning noted.

Moving forward, the commerce departments of both countries are expected to continue to address the issues at the working level, engaging in step-by-step discussions to resolve the remaining trade issues including wine, Ning said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
He said the government had sought advice about whether Sofronoff had breached the Inquiries Act and, asked whether he would like to see him charged, the chief minister responded: Were considering our options. Unfortunately, whilst the recommendations, I believe, are sound, and we have accepted them, the whole process  the leaking, the engagement with journalists on the way through, leaves in the minds of many people, questions. Significant questions. And it is just so disappointing, Barr said. Comment has been sought from Drumgold, who on Sunday disputed many of the findings against him, denying that he had acted in a dishonest or underhanded way. Although I accept my conduct was less than perfect, my decisions were all made in good faith, under intense and sometimes crippling pressure, conducted within increasingly unmanageable workloads, he said in a statement.

Sofronoff declined to comment. Loading Bruce Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins, his former colleague, in the Parliament House office of their then-boss, former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds, after a night out drinking with friends in March 2019. The trial was aborted in October due to juror misconduct and a retrial was abandoned due to concerns over Higgins mental health, with the charge dropped. Lehrmann maintains his innocence and is preparing to sue the ACT government over the prosecution. Sofronoff found that Drumgolds suspicions about police were baseless and had caused lasting pain to many.

The adverse suspicions that Mr Drumgold formed during his early interactions with the investigators predisposed him to see non-existent malignancy in benign interactions between the police and the defence at the trial, he said in the report. The cost of a six-month public inquiry  in time and money, in lost work and personal and professional consequences  has been huge. Sofronoff found Drumgold lied to ACT Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucy McCallum in the lead-up to the trial over notes made of a meeting with television personality Lisa Wilkinson ahead of a Logies speech that caused the trial to be delayed. Drumgold  who has been criticised over whether he properly warned Wilkinson against making the speech  accepted during the inquiry that he had misled the court into believing the note was a contemporaneous account of the meeting, when it was compiled after her speech.

Drumgold said his conduct was unintentional, however, Sofronoff found he knowingly lied to the chief justice. Loading According to Sofronoffs report, Drumgold also preyed on the inexperience of a junior solicitor who he asked to draft an affidavit supporting a wrongful legal privilege claim over police investigative notes that were critical of Higgins. The inquiry chair was also critical of Drumgolds handling of Higgins confidential counselling notes, which he tried to ensure Lehrmanns defence team did not see after police mistakenly included them in the brief of evidence. As a result of the findings, the ACT government undertook a preliminary review of other cases Drumgold had been involved in but Rattenbury said at this point it did not believe a more detailed examination was warranted.

Sofronoff also found police had made mistakes, and while the investigation was thorough, parts of it caused unnecessary pain to Ms Higgins and others. ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates was subject to unjustified public criticism due to the lack of understanding over her role, he said. The ACT government has agreed to most of Sofronoffs recommendations, including overhauling laws around the handling of counselling notes, and clarifying the threshold to charging someone with an offence, following misgivings from many police involved in investigating Lehrmann. Rattenbury said the ACT had failed to meet the needs of sexual assault survivors, but the report itself did not uncover fundamental issues with the territorys justice system. It found instances of poor individual behaviour and poor choices compounded by our heightened media and political environment, he said. McCallum issued a note to all legal practitioners in the territory on Monday, warning against the oppressive and unfair toll of public scrutiny on lawyers in the justice system.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia will push for an additional $3.3 billion in its funding negotiations with the federal government when talks are expedited over the powerful lobby groups uproar about Labors 60-day prescription policy.

The public dispute between federal Health Minister Mark Butler and the influential lobby soured on Monday, with Butler blasting the guild for running a self-serving and cynical campaign and the guild accusing the minister of breaking pre-election commitments.

But negotiations will soon begin behind the scenes, after the health minister vowed to bring forward by a year the governments talks with pharmacies in an attempt to placate the sector and assure concerned crossbench senators that he is dealing in good faith.

Health Minister Mark Butler says he is desperately worried about the campaign against 60-day scripts. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The guild said Butlers agreement to come to the table early to negotiate a new Community Pharmacy Agreement  which deals with overall pharmacy funding and is up for renewal in 2025  was an admission the government announced its cheaper medicine package in a rush and failed to consider its impact on businesses.
The Coalition will offer bipartisan support for stronger Australian government action against Japanese child abductions, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the pain that Australian families are experiencing as immense.

In their strongest comments to date on a growing international dispute between Australia and one of its closest trading partners, Wong and opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said they wanted children who had been abducted by their Japanese parent to be reunited with their Australian families.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham and Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong in Parliament House. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

These situations are extremely painful for those parents directly affected, Birmingham said. Hearing their stories and years of struggle is deeply impactful.

In March, this masthead and 60 Minutes revealed at least 82 Australian children had been taken by their Japanese parent since 2004. Dozens have disappeared without ever being able to contact their Australian parent again. Under Japans sole custody laws, one parent has total control over the child  including the ability to hide their location from the other parent and cut them off from visitation.
Moscow: Russia will launch its first lunar landing spacecraft in 47 years on Friday in a race with India to the south pole of the moon, a potential source of water to support a future human presence there.

Residents of a village in Russias far-east will be evacuated from their homes at 7.30am because of a one in a million chance that one of the rocket stages that launches Luna-25 could fall to earth there, an official said.

An artists depiction of Russias Luna-25 moon lander. Credit: NASA

Alexei Maslov told Russian news outlet Business FM that the 26 inhabitants of Shakhtinsky would be taken to a place where they could watch the launch and get a free breakfast, and return within 3 hours. He said fishermen and hunters in the region had also been warned.

India sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander, due to touch down at the pole on August 23.
Latest News Can physical advertising still generate leads for brokers? Broker shares his marketing wins

Prospa recognised as a great place to work It also got its 2023 certification as a Great Place to Work in Australia and New Zealand

Commonwealth Bank has announced the launch of an Australian-first police referral pilot in NSW that will set new standards for how banks report technology-facilitated abuse to law enforcement.

CBA has leveraged its capability in artificial intelligence and other technologies to detect and block abuse in transaction descriptions to develop, in collaboration with the NSW Police, a new streamlined process that will allow the bank to report abuse with the consent of the victim-survivor.

The latest initiative delivered by CommBank Next Chapter will start by mid-September, providing a tailored escalation path to enable impacted customers in NSW to report their abuser easily and quickly.

Since implementing abusive transaction monitoring in June 2020, CBA has blocked nearly 400,000 transactions annually by the automatic filter that prevents offensive language being used in transaction descriptions on the CommBank app and NetBank.

CBA said the technology is augmented by an AI model that reviews transactions and annually detects around 1,500 perpetrators that send potentially abusive messages, which the bank then manually reviews to determine severity and the appropriate action required.

In the pilot, once a customer is detected to be receiving repeated abuse in transaction descriptions, that customer will be contacted by the Next Chapter team to ask if they would like CBA to report the abuse on their behalf to NSW Police. If the customer has consented, CBA will initiate a report to the NSW Police. Victims of this kind of abuse can also contact CBA and ask the bank to report these instances of abuse on their behalf.

Angela Macmillan (pictured above left), CBA group customer advocate, said the latest CBA initiative will help provide better support for customers experiencing abuse.

Technology-facilitated abuse continues to be a serious problem, and this collaboration with NSW Police enables us to act  not only in supporting victims, but in the prevention of abuse, MacMillan said. This is a first of its kind initiative between the banking industry and law enforcement, and we hope this paves the way for more effective collaboration in the fight against domestic and financial abuse.

Anna Bligh (pictured above right), CEO of the Australian Banking Association, said the collaboration between CBA and the NSW Police meant critical information can now be shared when financial transactions are being used to threaten, harass, or intimidate victims of domestic violence.

This trial will provide valuable insights for police services and other banks about how to better combat the scourge of domestic violence, Bligh said.

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Latest News Can physical advertising still generate leads for brokers? Broker shares his marketing wins

Prospa recognised as a great place to work It also got its 2023 certification as a Great Place to Work in Australia and New Zealand

An industry event for Sri Lankan brokers and finance professionals celebrated its sixth networking lunch last week, empowering the community in Australia while supporting initiatives back in the island nation.

A couple of years ago, finance professional Anthony Wick (pictured) organised the Sri Lankan Broker Networking Lunch, aiming to create a strong and supportive community for mortgage brokers of Sri Lankan heritage with tailored initiatives.

Now the event has plans to expand across various states and provides an ecosystem of business referrals, fostering growth and collaboration among professionals, from brokers and real estate agents to lawyers and accountants.

As a proud Sri Lankan finance professional, my journey in the industry has been enriched with valuable experiences, said Wick, who has previously worked for ANZ, Liberty, and is now partnerships manager for broker aggregator National Mortgage Brokers (nMB).

It came to my attention that many Sri Lankan brokers felt isolated as a minority group, and I was driven to shine a light on their talents and foster a cohesive community.

Brokers gathered at the recent Sri Lankan Broker Networking at Upalis restaurant in Melbourne

The Sri Lankan community has deep roots in Australia. The latest Census in 2021 recorded over 147,000 Sri Lanka-born people in Australia making it among the top 10 countries for overseas migration.

Net overseas migration from Sri Lanka to Australia steadily grew from financial year 2009 to 2021, according to Statistica. However, the COVID-19 pandemic saw the first year of negative net overseas migration from Sri Lanka as people returned to their home countries to wait out the pandemic.

Now, Wick said the event not only served as a platform for new-to-industry brokers to gain valuable insights and connections within their community but it also attracted and recruited talented individuals into the mortgage broking industry.

Our primary goal is to shine a light on the Sri Lankan finance professionals and the Australian community that support them, said Wick. But we also aim to bring together Sri Lankan female finance professionals and provide them with a sense of belonging, support, and empowerment.

Additionally, we aim to showcase Australia as an ideal destination for those seeking financial independence and career opportunities.

By offering a large support network, we want to attract aspiring professionals from Sri Lanka to explore their potential in the Australian finance industry.

The unwavering support from the networks dedicated Sri Lankan brokers has not only made a positive impact locally but has even gained national attention.

Our successful #ihelpedrebuildsrilanka fundraiser, covered by leading news outlets in Sri Lanka, stands as a testament to the collective power and determination of our community, said Wick, referencing the initiative that raised funds for medical supplies after the country fell into a humanitarian crisis last year.

Anthony Wick (centre left) with some of those who attended the Sri Lankan Broker Networking Lunch in Melbourne

Push for CPD point accreditation

Looking ahead, Wick envisions offering tailored training and educational sessions to address the specific needs and challenges faced by Sri Lankan mortgage brokers.

My vision includes collaborating with industry bodies FBAA and MFAA to offer CPD points for these sessions, elevating the professional growth opportunities for our members, Wick said.

Wick said once the network grows to encompass attendees from various states, the group plans to leverage its connections to invite keynote speakers and industry experts to participate at the events.

Topics will range from the latest industry trends and innovations to personal development and best practices in mortgage broking. Involvement from lenders and support from industry bodies FBAA and MFAA will further enhance the event's value and impact, Wick said.

Wick said he was thrilled to witness the remarkable journey of this initiative from its inception to its current growth.

This entire endeavour has been nothing short of a dream, and I am overjoyed to see it gradually turning into a reality, with the potential to expand our vision and impact even further. Together, we will continue to foster growth, unity, and prosperity among Sri Lankan mortgage brokers in Australia, leaving a lasting legacy of excellence and support.
In the bid to motivate the potentially rich MSMEs for the successful chase of the 5 Trillion Dollar Economy target, Honble Union Minister for MSME, Shri Narayan Rane inaugurated the collaborative program of SMEStreet and DealPlexus - Ek Nayi Udaan - MSME Influencers Forum 2023 on 4th August 2023, at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.The event showcased theunder the theme of Ek Nayi UdaanOn this occasion, felicitations were made to recognise MSME Influencers who have contributed towards the development of Indias MSMEs growth in their respective areas of expertise.Union Minister of MSME, Shri Narayan T Rane, launched the initiative through a video message and congratulated SMEStreet and DealPlexus for taking this initiative of contributing into MSMEs growth and he stated, I congratulate SMEStreet and DealPlexus for their joint initiative of Ek Nayi Udaan - MSME Influencers Forum 2023 as such initiatives shall bring great thrust to motivate MSMEs and build them towards a bigger and brighter tomorrow. Indian MSMEs in todays time are experiencing a golden opportunity era. All they need to do is to focus on their core expertise and deliver their products and services with the best possible quality.Ms Mercy Epao, Joint Secretary, Ministry of MSME attended the event as Guest of Honor and shared an overview on MSME Minstrys line of actions for MSME sector development in her special keynote address. In addition, Shri Ajay Thakur, Head BSE SME & Startups, BSE India had attended the event as Guest of Hounor. Shri Amitabh Kant, Sherpa G20 India, was also invited as the Guest of honour for the evening. But due to some unavoidable commitments he shared his best wishes for MSME development and the initiative of Ek Nayi Udaan - MSME Influencers Forum 2023.The launch event witnessed close to 150 delegates including industry leaders, think tanks, and MSMEs under one roof and discussed the opportunities and potential for MSMEs.CA Deepak Maheshwari , Co-Founder DealPlexus commented, and said, It's important to understand that MSMEs play a crucial role in the growth and development of the economy, and their active participation is essential to achieve such ambitious goals. With this partnership with SMEStreet, we intend to create a much-needed platform which will educate and enable the MSME sector to be future-ready.Dr Faiz Askari , Founder and Chief Editor of SMEStreet and Co-Founder of Vertical Business Media Pvt. Ltd. commented, I am excited to be part of this entire journey, which is aimed to enable the MSME sector. Ek Nayi Udaan and MSME Influencers Forum 2023 shall become the platform for MSMEs to uplift their capabilities and enhance their contribution to the 5 Trillion Dollar Economy. DealPlexus multi-dimensional expertise for delivering business growth shall be a great enabler for Indian MSMEs.The Event witnessed great amount of knowledge sharing through multiple sessions including, a Power packed candid one-on-one Power talk session between Shri Ajay Thakur and Dr Faiz Askari showcasing the offerings of BSE India for Indian MSMEs.There were two panel discussions on the topics of Digital Transformation of MSMEs to drive USD 5 Trillion Economy for India and New Age Credit Enablement for MSMEs to drive USD 5 Trillion Economy for India. Eminent personalities and founders from the MSME ecosystem participated actively in the panel discussions, where very useful insights were shared.The event was supported and sponsored by Weaddo - the business acceleration studio, Tally Solutions - India's leading business management software solution company, which enables more than 2 million businesses worldwide. SGN Software - a leading technology consulting and software solutions company, The Office Pass - Coworking & Managed Offices company and Nutki Personalised luxury gifting company.
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Independence Day 2023 Speech Ideas For Students

Independence Day is approaching and there is no better time to take advantage of the opportunity to deliver a speech on this promising day! India will be celebrating its 76th Independence Day this year on August 15, 2023. As we proceed towards this auspicious day, the youth across the country are eagerly waiting to come up with their perspectives and thoughts on Independence Day. Careerindia is providing some of the speech ideas on Independence Day that will aid the students to deliver their patriotic fervor:

1. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, pride, and tenacity as we assemble here to commemorate India's 76th Independence Day, respected Principal, Teachers, Judges, and my beloved friends. Let's honor the courageous men and women who gave their lives and battled valiantly for the freedom that we value today on this historic day. All of you who have assembled here to celebrate this magnificent festival are cordially invited. I send my warmest congratulations to everyone in attendance as we mark 76 years of an amazing and independent India.

We celebrate Independence Day as a special occasion that honors the sacrifices made by our real heroes and freedom warriors. On this day, which will always be remembered as a turning point in our nation's history, thousands of freedom warriors devoted their lives to securing its independence. Since more than 200 years of British rule in India were spent there, many independence-related actions were carried out during that time, and many of our freedom fighters gave their lives in the process.

Today, we pay tribute to all of those soldiers and attempt to sum up their selfless acts in a few sentences, which is probably impossible. I urge all Indians to learn as much as they can about him and to honor him. Since I am also an Indian, I will share with you a speech for Independence Day that details the struggles of the country's freedom fighters and their ultimate sacrifice. I am unable to adequately characterize their sacrifice, but I am writing this piece to make this day memorable for you. Read the essay carefully and show respect for your country's freedom fighters if you wish to learn what is written there. To all my Indian friends: Happy Independence Day!

2. Respected Principal, Esteemed Dignitaries, Respected Teachers, Dear Fellow Students, and Fellow Citizens,

Our hearts are filled with an immense sense of pride and appreciation as we assemble here to celebrate the 76th anniversary of Indian Independence Day. We stand as one, honoring the gallant patriots who battled and gave so much of themselves to free our dear nation from British colonial rule. This day represents not only a turning point in history but also the triumph of bravery, togetherness, and tenacity. It also stands for our inalienable right to self-determination and the universal values of humanity that unite us as a people.

On the shoulders of legends like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Lal Bahadur Shastri, who led us with the admirable ideals of nonviolence, justice, and inclusivity, we stand here today. They continue to inspire us today with their unrelenting dedication to justice and the truth.

India's strength is its incomparable diversity, which includes a wide range of cultures, traditions, languages, and religious perspectives. Let's make a commitment to cherishing this gem and maintaining the unity in diversity for which we are renowned.

The challenging and lengthy road to India's independence was paved with steadfast resolve, selfless sacrifices, and devotion to a goal greater than oneself: a free and democratic India. As responsible citizens, it is our duty to maintain India's democratic ideals, secular norms, and justice-based tenets. Let's promise to live lawfully, compassionately, and sustainably as the future of our amazing India.

The foundation for the advancement of our country is education. It is a potent tool for empowerment. It gives our children the tools they need to reach new levels of intelligence, creativity, and invention. Let us reaffirm our commitment to serving our motherland's residents to the best of our ability as we commemorate our freedom. Let's pledge, as the educated youth of our nation, to use the power of knowledge and literacy to assist the oppressed in rising to their feet. The Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore very truly stated:

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Into that heaven of freedom my Lord, let my country awake."

Jai Hind!

3. Respected Principal, Teachers, Dignitaries, and my Dear Friends!

Heartiest wishes on Independence Day!

On August 15, 1947, India became independent from 200 years of brutal British colonial rule. Let us remember our responsibilities to Bharat Mata as we commemorate this day of patriotism.

A sobering remembrance of the bravery and selflessness of our freedom fighters who fought for generations to achieve our independence, this day is more than just a celebration of joy. As a result, we must make a commitment to our motherland's pride and dignity as well as to one another that we will uphold every day. Let's all pledge to work for India's advancement!

4. Respected Principal, Educators, Judges, and my dear friends,

As we assemble today to celebrate India's 77th Independence Day, my heart is filled with joy and the echo of Bal Gangadhar Tilak's motto, "Freedom is my birthright and I shall have it!"

This day is not usual. With the celebration of Indian Independence Day on August 15, we reach a significant turning point in our history. We pay tribute to the sacrifices made by our forefathers who battled valiantly to rid their country of colonial oppression. We were given this priceless gift of democracy because of the persistent dedication of visionary leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, and Bose.

As we hoist our tricolor flag, we must uphold the inclusivity, diversity, and unity that were the cornerstones of our independence campaign. In order to create the powerful nation we are today, people of many castes, creeds, faiths, cultures, and backgrounds came together.

While we are celebrating our freedom, we must not overlook the issues of inequality, poverty, and illiteracy that still exist. Together, let's fight communalism and corruption to keep the peace.

In commemoration of our freedom fighters, we thus affirm our commitment to advancing our country while respecting the principles of democracy, equality, and justice as well as unity in diversity. Let's celebrate the nation's independence today, but let's also accept our responsibility for India's future. Together, we can make India a global force and an example for the rest of the globe.
The Competition Commission of India has published a job advertisement for a Management Trainee.

The CCI Jobs announcement has been issued for 93 vacancies. Aspirants with a B.Sc, CA, Graduate, MBA, or Post Graduate certificate degree in a relevant discipline from a recognised institute/board can apply before the form submission deadline. The deadline is August 13, 2023.

Overview

Organization Name Cement Corporation of India Limited

Job Type CCI Recruitment

Total Posts 93

Official Site http://www.cci.gov.in

Notification

All individuals who are looking for a Central Government job and meet the eligibility criteria can apply for the position by filling out the online application on The Cotton Corporation Of India Ltd's main website. After reviewing all of the details such as age limit, selection method, educational qualification, provided income, and so forth. Candidates should go to the official website of The Cotton Corporation Of India Ltd.

How to Apply ?

Candidates should visit the official website, https://cotcorp.org.in/.

Then, navigate to The Cotton Corporation Of India Ltd's website Notification panel and look for the link to the specific CCI Recruitment 2023 Notification.

If you are eligible, then click the Apply Online button.

A new tab with an Application cost will be opened.

Fill out the form with the essential details from the candidate's paperwork according to the instructions.

Pay the Application Fee following the Notification's requirements.

To submit the Application form, click the Submit button.

Download it and print the Application form for future reference and usage.

Vacancy

Management Trainee (Mktg) 6

Management Trainee (Accounts) 6

Junior Commercial Executive 81

Total 93

Salary

Rs. 22000-120000/-
Mitsubishi has named its new compact crossover the Xforce. Rolling out for the Indonesian market first, but confirmed for the Philippines as...
Photo: BC Wildfire Service Rossmoore Lake wildfire south of Kamloops.

The days of fighting wildfires are long and exhausting, so when crews return to camp, the last thing they want to do is search out a place to sleep or find something to eat.

Behind the firefighters battling what is B.C.'s most destructive wildfire season is an army of more than 1,400 contracted support staff, doing everything from first aid to sandwich making.

Among them is Susanne Callihoo, who manages the Takla incident camp in north-central B.C. for the contract service agency Horizon North.

Her job, she explained, is to ensure the camp runs smoothly, that fire crews have all their essential needs met and are as "comfortable" as possible when they finish a shift on the fire lines.

"They're away from home  so we want to keep them well fed and housed," she said.

The small camp has a staff of about eight workers, which includes a chef, cooks, a health staffer, a janitor, a maintenance worker and a designated sandwich maker whose sole job is to ensure each firefighter is equipped with about four sandwiches per day.

Shawn McKerry, a former wildland firefighter in Alberta, knows what these people need for support. Now the dean of Lakeland College emergency training centre in Vermilion, Alta., McKerry previously helped battle some of Alberta's most ferocious and historic wildfires.

That included the 2011 Slave Lake wildfire that destroyed more than 400 buildings and the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire that forced nearly 90,000 people to flee Canada's oilsands region and reduced thousands of homes to ash.

After a gruelling day on the fire lines, he said most firefighters are completely exhausted and camp is their refuge.

"If you want to keep them motivated, high morale and keep them working, you've got to try to be able to support them where (you) can," he said in an interview.

"Camps aren't the most ideal experience, (but) fortunately, you've got a lot of motivated people who want to go out and help, that are willing to sacrifice some of those comforts  or almost all of those comforts  to get out there and assist in the effort."

Those efforts continue to be tested as crews across Canada battle the worst season on record. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre has reported more than 131,000 square kilometres of land and forest have been scorched across the country.

B.C. is experiencing its most destructive season on record for area burned with more than 15,000 square kilometres charred, surpassing the previous record of 13,543 square kilometres set in 2018.

In a social media post last month, the BC Wildfire Service highlighted the contracted staffers it said play "critical" roles in the provincial fire fight.

Such jobs include heavy equipment operators, First Nations crew members, first aid attendants and medics, camp and facility managers, kitchen staff, danger tree assessors, fallers, food service staff, forest industry experts, contract firefighters, pilots and air support staff, as well as various other trades, the service said.

Provincial fire information officer Mike McCulley said such workers are often easily overlooked by those outside the service.

"It's a really complex organization and there are many moving pieces to the puzzle," he said in an interview. "I think folks just think that it's just firefighters on the ground fighting fire and that's so far from the truth."

McKerry said, after a day in the field, most firefighters needs are simple.

"When you get back to camp, the best luxury you can have is clean washrooms and access to food," he said.

At the Takla camp, Callihoo said most firefighters sleep in tents, but working showers, washrooms and a workable kitchen equipped with a dining area are set up on site.

Food quantities are determined based on the number of firefighters on scene, with groceries delivered once a week, she said.

"It's a juggling process because you want to make sure you have enough food for everybody," Callihoo said.

Excess is much better than not having enough, and any unused food will be sent to another camp, she said, noting that numbers at the camp change quickly as the service often rearranges how many firefighters are at each site based on needs.

"It's a day-by-day operation here," Callihoo said.

She added that most of the problematic fires are burning elsewhere in the province.

"Fires here, to my understanding, are a little bit more controlled, but they don't want to leave them. With warmer weather coming up, it may cause sparks so we're going to leave a team here until we start seeing what's going to go on."

McKerry said such camps are often only used when fires are burning in rural locations and it is not possible for staff to stay at hotels.

"It's about accessibility," he said. "From an emergency management perspective, if you have access to hotels, that's a godsend because then you're not relying on those other pieces of infrastructure."

But when camping is necessary, firefighters always recognize the value of staffers like Callihoo, he said.

"It's all the things you may not necessarily think about, but it's beautiful to have those people there that just come in and ultimately make everybody else's life a little bit more easy and comfortable.
In a recent letter addressed to the priests of Rome, Pope Francis issued a solemn warning about the perils of spiritual worldliness, ... continue reading

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As infants, Monica and Cristian Moya were hovering on the verge of death. But after their mother consecrated them to the Virgin Mary, they ... continue reading
Bangladesh sets a target export revenue of US$15m in FY23-24

07 August 2023

Bangladesh had set a higher target export revenue of US$15m against US$13.66m earned in the last fiscal year of FY22-23. The encouraging figure/trend of July 2023 would lead the target, experts reported.

Bangladesh has achieved 104.2 per cent YoY growth in cement export revenue to US$1.47m in the first month of FY23-24 (July 2023-June 2024). This compares to US$0.72m in the same month a year earlier. According to the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), this figure includes minor amounts of salt, stone and related products.

Historically, most cement exports from Bangladesh are shipped to India, particularly from the northeastern states of Bangladesh. Other popular destinations include Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. In FY22-23 Bangladesh saw total export revenue of all merchandise of US$55.55bn, up 6.7 per cent YoY on the US$52.08bn reported in the previous year. While in July 2023, it stands at US$4.59bn, a rise of 15.3 per cent YoY.

Published under
Buzzi SpA reports consolidated EBITDA up 58% in 1H23

07 August 2023

Buzzi SpA announced its 1H23 results reporting that consolidated EBITDA stood at EUR575.3m, up 57.6 per cent compared to EUR365.1m of the previous year. The figure for the period under review includes non-recurring income of EUR3.6m.

Profit before tax amounted to EUR552.9m (EUR119.8m in the previous year), considering a contribution of EUR80.6m from equity earnings (EUR57.6m in 2022) and positive net finance costs of EUR24.9m (-EUR56m negative in 2022). After income taxes of EUR121.7m (EUR31.2m in 2022) the income statement closed with a net profit of EUR431.2m (EUR88.7m in the 1H22).

Cement sales reached 13.1Mt, down 8.3 per cent compared to the same period of 2022. The decline already noted at the beginning of the year was also confirmed in the following three months. The steadiness of volumes in Italy, Ukraine and Russia was not able to compensate for the slowdown observed in central Europe, eastern Europe and to some extent in the USA.

Ready-mix concrete output throughout June was also below the level achieved last year, reaching 5.1Mm3 (-12.3 per cent versus 2022). In this sector, the development was particularly negative in central and eastern Europe, while in Italy and the US the decline was more limited.

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Rwanda commissions new cement plant

ICR Newsroom By 07 August 2023

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, inaugurated on 3 August 2023 the AnJia Cement Factory, a Chinese-funded cement plant Muhanga Industrial park, Southern Province, Rwanda.



The AnJia Cement Factory was built by AnJia Prefabricated Construction Rwanda Co Ltd, a subsidiary of West International Holding, the African business of West China Cement Ltd.



West China Cement has invested US$50m in the grinding unit, which has a cement capacity of 1Mta. At present the plant provides employment to 205 people, but this is expected to increase to 250 people by the end of the year as production of the plant is ramped up from 2255tpd currently.



It is expected that the new facility will enable Rwanda to become self-sufficient in cement, reducing the reliance on imports and expanding the market in the neighbouring countries. In 2022 the countrys cement demand was estimated at 0.95Mta with domestic supply estimated at 0.48Mta.



Due to the commissioning of the new unit, cement prices are also forecast to decrease from their present RWF12,500 (US$10.67) for 32.5 grade cement and RWF13,000 (42.5 grade) to RWF9750 and RWF10,500, respectively.

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Police responded to McCallie Avenue about a disorder involving a softball umpire and parents. Upon arrival, an officer spoke with the umpire who reported that parents were upset with how he called a game. According to the umpire, he was subjected to a racial slur and was physically chest bumped by a man. The umpire was visibly upset by the situation. The officer spoke with another man who explained that he intended to discuss a call he disagreed with, but the conversation escalated, and the umpire chest bumped him. In addition, the first man claimed that he attempted to de-escalate the situation between the umpire and other man, but he too was chest bumped by the umpire. Two women also reported being chest bumped by the umpire. Despite the physical altercations, no one involved wanted to press charges.

* * *

A man on Tunnel Boulevard told police he gave his eight-month-old daughter to his cousin around 2 p.m. and she was supposed to bring her back around 10-11 p.m., but had not. Police were about to send out a BOLO when she texted him and then called him, saying she was on her way home.

* * *

A man and his wife on Judy Ann Drive got into an argument. The wife moved out, but returned with her sister and cousin causing a disorder. The man wanted police to know so he wouldn't get in trouble.

* * *

A man on Maude Street told police his 2000 Chevy S14 was stolen from in front of his house. He said the doors were unlocked and his keys were in the center console. The man said the vehicle displayed an incorrect tag registering under his name to a 1983 Chevy S10. The man said he didnt see the theft and didnt have any suspect information. The vehicle and tag were entered into NCIC as stolen.

* * *

Police saw a large crowd of homeless people trespassing on Peeples Street. When the group saw police they scattered from the area. Police did talk to one woman who was told that if she returned to the property she would be arrested for trespassing.

* * *

A woman at Northgate Mall told police when she returned to her car in the parking lot, she found a yellow dot sticker on the windshield with the number 450. She's not sure what this is about but she wanted to report the suspicious activity. She told mall security about this as well.

* * *

A man on Standifer Gap Road told police over the phone he had confirmed with the Post Office that some mail (package and letters) was delivered to his mailbox. He later realized that the mail had been stolen and he's not sure what the package was or how many letters there were. He suspects it could have been homeless people that stole it because they walk up and down his street a lot.

* * *

A man on Mountain Creek Road asked police to stand by while he retrieved his belongings from his ex-girlfriend's apartment. Police arrived and spoke with the ex-girlfriend who said she was fine with the man getting his things. The man collected his property without incident and left the apartment.

* * *

A woman called police and said she was parked at Sandy's Mini Mart at 2402 Glass St. and, when she returned to her car, she noticed her glove box had been rummaged through. The woman said there was no damage to her vehicle but her 9mm Taurus G3 was stolen. She described the Taurus as all black with a magazine with one bullet in it. The Taurus was entered in NCIC as stolen.

* * *

Police were called to E. 18th Street where there was a front gate entrance unlocked and opened. Police secured the area and didnt find anything unusual or any damage. Police secured the front gate by closing it with a padlock.

* * *

An officer responded to a suspicious activity at 3500 Bonny Oaks Dr. Prior to arrival, the officer spoke with the security guard who said there was a suspicious vehicle driving around the shop. She said it was a white, dual-wheeled, F250 with a white female driver and an orange light bar on top. The truck had no tag and it appeared as if the woman was attempting to find gaps in the fence to get inside. She didnt physically see the woman enter the property, only looking around it. She said there have been a lot of thefts from this property recently. She also found a shoe attachment that is used to climb trees in the area. She wanted the property to be added to the watch list. The officer attempted to make contact with the owner of the property but was unable to leave a message.

* * *

A woman told police over the phone there was a white SUV with tinted windows parked partially in the street at Gadd Road near Hwy. 153. Police arrived and found the vehicle was slightly in the roadway and a business parking lot. Staff at the business said that they didnt know whose vehicle it was and that it had been there when they arrived at work. Shortly afterward, the owner of the car showed up and moved it.

* * *

An officer responded to a call for a homeless man sleeping outside of Go Dogs at 255 W. 20th St. The officer met with the man who was asleep by his wheelchair and using the building's electrical outlet to charge the chair. The officer woke him up, had him collect his belongings and leave the property.

* * *

Police found a red Chevy Malibu on Bellview Avenue with a temporary tag. The tag had been altered from 7/26/23 to 8/26/23 with a black marker. The wheels were spray painted black as well.

* * *

Police were dispatched to Leroys Beer Lounge at 304 Cherokee Blvd. where a white male was talking to himself. An officer spoke with the man, who was not making sense when he was speaking. The officer didnt feel he was in danger to himself or others. He could answer direct questions. The man left without incident.

* * *

A woman on Wilson Street called police to say her boyfriend wouldnt leave the apartment and she told him to go. Shortly after this was told to police, the woman told the call-taker that he left. When police arrived, the woman said she and her boyfriend got into an argument over a dog and she wanted him to not come back. The woman said he had a key to her apartment and didnt want him at the residence anymore. Police asked if her boyfriend helped pay bills, and she said that he bought groceries. Purchasing groceries for a household does not constitute tenancy, therefore he could be trespassed. The woman told police she just wanted her key back and for him not to return. Police called her boyfriend and told him the woman wanted her key back and for him not to come back. He said they did get into an argument about their dog and that she pulled on a knife on him, but he did not elaborate on any details, provide any evidence, and it's essentially his word versus hers, said police. The man told police that he will pick his belongings after work.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom loved music of many kinds and often played LPs on our hi-fi at home. LPs? Hi-fi? What are they, right? She had learned to play the piano as a girl, and we had an electric organ in our living room that she played.

I have a black-and-white photo of myself as a toddler, holding little drumsticks. As a pre-teen I would pull pots out of the cupboard and bang on them with a spoon. Finally, Mom bought me a cheap snare drum since I was always drumming up business. When I stuck with it, she paid for drum lessons and bought me a drum set.

That led to my joining the percussion section of our high school band, where I received exposure to different kinds of music in the marching, dance and concert bands. I enjoyed performing Sousa marches, jazz tunes and light classical music. Although I never became a polished musician, music has remained a significant part of my life.

That being said, it was a bit of a challenge to adjust to contemporary Christian praise music being presented in many of our churches today. My childhood church experience was with the old hymns, like Rock of Ages, The Churchs One Foundation, A Mighty Fortress and Blessed Assurance. Even before I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, I appreciated the theological richness of their lyrics.

Like many people, the first times I heard guitars and drums during a worship service were a shock  even with my background as a drummer. Some praise songs, Id have to say, caused me to wonder who the object of praise really was. Their lyrics contained pronouns like me and I and my a lot more than references to God. They seemed more concerned with me-ology than theology.

Thankfully, over time Ive discovered there are quite a few Christian artists who understand the importance of emphasizing that our praise should be centered on the Lord and who He is with less focus on what He can do for us.

Theres even a tune called This Is My Song weve sung a lot at our church, originally performed by Health Balitzglier, Mac Powell and North Point Worship. The lyrics, interestingly, consist primarily of the titles of old hymns many of us seasoned in the faith remember. It begins, I remember those melodies, the words we sang when I first believed.

It continues, And I sang in Christ alone my solid ground, Oh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound, on that rugged cross Jesus paid it all, because He lives this is my song. Its sad that many younger believers have never actually heard the old hymns referenced. However, increasingly some of the vintage hymns and songs are being reconfigured into more upbeat rhythms without losing their theological depth.

Thinking about this evolution of church music has caused me to wonder what God thinks about it, what He considers to be music to His ears. Music in the sanctuary can be one of the dividing points for many congregations, but if the music is intended for the Lord, His opinion should matter most.

A couple passages, while they dont directly address the progression of musical traditions and styles, seem to give us insight into what God thinks. One of them, as translated in the old King James Version, says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Come into His presence with singing. (Psalm 100:1-2). Even years ago, I found this very encouraging, because my singing at best can be described a a joyful noise.

* * *
An elderly persons foot was run over by a vehicle driving through the Walmart parking lot. The person was transported to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

An alarm was activated at the St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, in the 10200 block of Lee Highway. Everything checked out okay.



An unknown 911 call came in from the 10900 block of Apison Pike. The area was checked but no emergencies were found.



Two fraudulent withdrawals from March were reported from the Truist Bank, in the 9200 block of Lee Highway.



A traffic stop in the 5700 block of Main Street resulted in the driver being charged with driving on a suspended license.



Police responded to a hit and run crash in the 5000 block of Little Debbie Parkway.

One driver alleged that they were rear ended by another vehicle before it fled the scene.A report was filed regarding an anonymous social media post associated with Southern Adventist University regarding firearms.East Ridge police made contact with a Collegedale fugitive wanted on two bond revocation warrants for failure to appear and driving on a suspended license. The individual was transported to the jail.A Collegedale fugitive was transported from the Bradley County Jail to the Hamilton County Jail.A citizen reported that someone had parked their car on the sidewalk in the 5600 block of Tucker Road. The vehicle had been moved into a driveway when an officer checked the area.A business owner in the 5900 block of Elementary Way called to have two homeless individuals trespassed from their property after they had been discovered sleeping behind the business. Both were gone when officers arrived.A traffic stop in the 5500 block of Little Debbie Parkway led to the drivers arrest for driving on a suspended license, as well as a Collegedale warrant for possession of marijuana.Police were called to keep the peace while an individual retrieved personal property from a residence in the Hills Parc apartment complex.An officer assisted a family with a disabled vehicle in the 5300 block of Little Debbie Parkway.A traffic stop in the 9200 block of Lee Highway resulted in the driver being arrested for driving on a revoked license. The passenger was also arrested for criminal impersonation as well as a Hamilton County warrant.A Collegedale fugitive was booked on a petition to revoke bond warrant for possession of marijuana.A concerned citizen reported a suspicious vehicle in the 5000 block of University Drive. Contact was made with the vehicle and its driver, who had come to assist another driver fix their car.Hamilton County Sheriffs Office made contact with a Collegedale fugitive wanted for failure to appear and a bond revocation warrant from a charge of driving on a revoked license. The fugitive was booked on their warrants and released on bond.An officer responded to a single vehicle crash in the 5200 block of Blair Road after a pickup truck went off road and landed on its side in a ditch. No injuries were reported.An officer assisted with a disabled vehicle in the 9900 block of Lee Highway.A traffic stop in the 9200 block of Lee Highway made after receiving an alert from license plate reader cameras regarding a driver with warrants resulted in the driver being found in possession of illegal narcotics and charged. The driver was also found to be a fugitive out of Georgia, but the warrants were non-extraditable.A Collegedale fugitive was transported from Gainesville, Georgia to the Hamilton County Jail and booked on their charges.Police were called to keep the peace in the Walmart grocery pick up area after customers started becoming disgruntled when services fell behind after a brief storm came through the area.A traffic stop in the 9200 block of Lee Highway resulted in the driver being charged with driving on a revoked license.An individual reported that their vehicle had been damaged in the Walmart parking lot last Wednesday.Walmart reported a theft. The suspect was identified and charges are pending.Police responded to the sounds of gunfire in the 5300 block of Little Debbie Parkway. Nothing was located.Collegedale police stood by at a residence in the 4900 block of Sandy Trail while a Chattanooga police officer attempted to make contact with a suspect from a disorder. No contact was made.K9 Krino was requested to assist the sheriffs office with a drug sniff of a stopped car on I-75. Krino detected the odor of narcotics and as a result of his efforts, methamphetamines were recovered.
MG (Ret) Bill Raines, John Sevier Chapter, congratulates his son, Mr. Philip Raines, on his induction into the SAR during Saturdays Patriot marker dedication ceremony honoring their patriot ancestor Captain John Rains. The Patriot Marker dedication was held on Aug. 5 at Collier Cemetery, South of Pikeville in Bledsoe County. photo by Tim Adams, John Sevier Chapter Descendants of Patriot Captain John Rains and members of TNSSARs Color Guard stand for a picture at the Patriot Marker dedicated on Saturday, Aug. 5 at Collier Cemetery, South of Pikeville in Bledsoe County photo by Tim Adams, John Sevier Chapter Gen (Ret) B.B. Bell, John Sevier Chapter, presents SAR America 250th Celebration Flag Streamers to Mrs. Gayle Burrows (left), regent of Chickamauga Chapter, NSDAR and Mrs. Sherri Manker (center), officer of Sequatchie Valley Chapter, NSDAR, for their chapters support and participation in John Sevier Chapters hosted events honoring area Patriots during the SARs America 250th celebration series. photo by Tim Adams, John Sevier Chapter Previous Next

The John Sevier Chapter of the Tennessee Society Sons of the American Revolution conducted a Patriot Grave Marker dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday honoring the service of Captain John Rains, a veteran of the Revolution, at Collier Cemetery, near Pikeville in Bledsoe County. The ceremony included the unveiling by descendants of the Patriot Marker, induction into the SAR of Mr. Philip Raines, posting of a new flag at the honored grave site of the Patriot, a musket salute with TAPs to honor the Patriot and the awarding of America 250th celebration streamers to the Chickamauga and Sequatchie Valley chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution.Captain John Rains, from Randolph County, NC, served in the Revolutionary War, initially as a soldier of the county militia, and later as captain of the mounted Ranger Company, patrolling what is now a four-county area in the state of North Carolina. He may have been at the battle of Briar Creek on March 3, 1779, and later was engaged in some 22 actions in his area of operation, serving as a ranger commander by the end of 1782. Following the revolution, he settled in Bledsoe County, Tennessee. On Nov. 13, 1832, at age 73, he applied for a pension which Congress had granted to Revolutionary War soldiers, swearing to his service in this capacity. He was awarded a pension and land grant, and his descendants to this day farm on part of the land he was granted for service in the Revolution.The SAR celebrates the people and events of the American Revolution, including 250th anniversary commemoration events continuing through the end of 2033. Any community members or organizations who may wish to participate in any of these celebrations are invited to do so. Contact the John Sevier Chapter via the TNSSAR website




Barnes & Noble Book Store in Hamilton Place Mall announces a good signins on Sunday, Sept. 10 from 2-4 p.m. by author Deborah Levine."Enjoy her use of the science of storytelling to develop social and emotional awareness in youth and teach respect," organizers said. "In her book, 'Bunny Bear Teaching Guide: Adventures in Diversity Land,' there are engaging stories that make you laugh and make you sigh. Topics include: welcoming newcomers, understanding differences, dealing with bullying, and valuing compassion and kindness.The stories are accompanied by discussion questions that promote critical thinking and empathy.In her book, 'Inspire Your Inner Global Leader: True Stories for New Leaders,' Deborahs storytelling teaches how to shape the future with a blend of family, history, humor and training in a 'cant-put-It-down' guide."These entertaining and instructive stories help facilitate dialogue about difficult subjects like bullying, race, identity, and discrimination, said Kim Wayans, actress, In Living Color and author of Amy Hodgepodge Childrens Stories.Dr. Mark Mendenhall, The J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership at UTC, said of Ms. Levin, "[Her] use of storytelling as a way to get teenagers to consider ideas that dont come naturally to them is powerful. [She's] onto something that most people don't focus on except in snippets in their training - storytelling [her] stories are riveting, written in a conversational style; its as if the reader is hearing you tell it."About the author:Deborah Levine is founder/editor of the American Diversity Report, an award-winning author (18 books), documentary creator and a Forbes Top Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazer. Brought up in Bermuda, she has lived, studied and worked across the U.S. Headquartered in Chattanooga, she is a sought-after speaker, consultant and educator.
Here are the new business licenses from the County Clerk's office:

3DPM CHARLES E MCMILLIAN 6503 PATTY LN HARRISON TN 37341



552 PRODUCTIONS LLC JEREMIAH REDDEN 1423 E BROW RD SIGNAL MOUNTAIN TN 37377



815 S SCENIC HWY SUSAN R STAPLETON 815 S SCENIC HWY CHATTANOOGA TN 37409



ADONAI PAINTING JUAN FELIX PAXTOR 105 WESTWIND CIR APT 2 DALTON GA 30721



AKAN HVAC CONSTRUCTION LLC ALEXANDER LOPEZ SONTAY 8739 CHERLEE DR OOLTEWAH TN 37363



ALEX GRIFFIN CONSTRUCTION ALEXANDER GRIFFIN 1343 W NICKAJACK RD RINGGOLD GA 30726



B & E SERVICES LLC ASTRID A RIVERA DIAZ 1224 FRANKLIN DR CHATTANOOGA TN 37421



BALD MAN PRINTING & PROMOTIONS EDWARD S MCCONNON 8102 MIDDLE VALLEY RD STE A HIXSON TN 37343



BLACK EXCELLENCE UNIVERSITY HUNTER MOSS 8287 CLAUDINE CIR OOLTEWAH TN 37363



BLUES CITY CARRIERS, INC ADAM ROBERTSON 10607 LEE HWY MC DONALD TN 37353



CAMELOT PROPERTIES MELINDA PALOTTA 4709 MURRAY LAKE LN CHATTANOOGA TN 37416



CARVANA LLC PAUL BREAUX 6032 RELOCATION WAY OOLTEWAH TN 37363



CONSULTING SCOTT E PELFREY 8270 PRUETT RD HIXSON TN 37343



CROWNED ONE PRODUCTIONS, LLC STEPHEN KAWAKAMI 9529 IMPERIAL DR OOLTEWAH TN 37363



CUTS AND FADES MARIE K HICKS 4830 HIGHWAY 58 STE 126 CHATTANOOGA TN 37416



DELIAS MEXICAN FOOD DAVID HERNANDEZ 8363 DAYTON PIKE SODDY DAISY TN 37379



DELTA'S BED AND BREAKFAST JACKIE L RAY 3814 MONTVIEW DR CHATTANOOGA TN 37411



DR.

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As students return to school this month, the internet will be their constant companion. From in-class assignments to homework to after school activities, making sure our kids can complete these tasks safely is a critical issue. Its no secret that children and teenagers are more glued to their screens than ever before  children ages 8 to 12 spend an average of over five hours per day on their screens while teenagers spend an average of over eight hours on their screens every day. When your child is online, they are the product, and websites like Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat are trying every method possible to harvest and sell your kids data. Every parent and grandparent should feel uneasy about this. Thats why I am working to protect kids and teens online, and raising as much awareness as I can about the various steps you can take to protect their virtual you.

Your first plan of action as a parent or grandparent should be to have your child delete TikTok. It may seem like harmless fun, but in reality, their data may not be safe. The Chinese Communist Party has access to TikTok creators data, and according to a former employee, the Chinese company maintains access to TikTok user data in its entirety.

Secondly, families must be vigilant about bad actors online. Every day, scammers and predators are taking advantage of vulnerable kids and teens. This is a significant issue  in 2021, kids under the age of 20 lost over $100 million to online scams. To protect your childs identity online, encourage your child to keep their software up to date and use strong and unique passwords, reinforced by multi-factor authentication, for every one of their accounts. Teach your child to avoid clicking on unknown links and not to give money to unknown people or organizations. If your child is the victim of a scam or attack, contact law enforcement immediately.

Finally, create guidelines for your kids. Explain to them the dangers of sharing personal information and talking to strangers online. Double check the privacy settings on your kids profiles, and dont forget that if your child is under 13 years old, they need your permission before creating profiles on most platforms.

Parents should do all they can to enforce that age limit. The statistics regarding social media use and mental health issues among youth are staggering. Almost half of U.S. teens have experienced bullying or harassment online, according to a 2022 Pew survey. Between 2010 and 2019, teen depression rates doubled, with teenage girls seeing the sharpest increase. In 2021, the CDC reported that almost a third of girls said they seriously considered attempting suicide.

I have heard from countless parents, particularly mothers, whose children have experienced online abuse. Some of these terrible incidents have even resulted in loss of life. Kristin Bride lost her 16-year-old son after he was cyberbullied, and 15-year-old Mason Bogard died after trying to mimic a choking challenge he saw on social media. Tracy Kemps son experienced persistent racial bullying online. These stories are only a drop in the bucket. When Senator Blumenthal and I led the Commerce Committees Consumer Protection Subcommittee, we held five hearings where we investigated the dangers children face online. During those hearings, we produced over 500 pages of testimony from dozens of witnesses that showed the pernicious impact that Big Tech has had on kids and teens. The evidence before us could not be more clear: Big Tech has refused to protect our kids. These hearings only further motivated Senator Blumenthal and I to continue to push for legislative action.

Protecting kids online has been a key priority of mine for over a decade. In the House, I led the fight to enact consumer data privacy legislation and rein in techs Section 230 immunity shield. Now in the Senate, I am continuing this work. My bipartisan legislation with Senator Richard Blumenthal  the Kids Online Safety Act  unanimously passed the Senate Commerce Committee and is advancing to the Senate floor. The bill would mandate that social media companies enable the strongest safety settings by default, give children the ability to turn off addictive product features and opt out of algorithmic recommendations, and would equip parents with new tools to protect their childs safety online. These are life-saving reforms that will positively transform the online landscape for families.

This journey has been far from easy. We have stood our ground in the face of aggressive lobbying and flagrant lies from big tech companies, uniting 43 members of the U.S. Senate and gathering the endorsements of over 240 organizations, including parents, tech experts, faith leaders, pediatricians and child psychologists in support of our legislation. As our nations children strap on their backpacks and prepare for another school year, I look forward to getting the Kids Online Safety Act across the finish line. Our precious children deserve it.

Senator Marsha Blackburn
Chattanooga 2.0 staff announced Monday that applications for Quality Matters Fund child care teacher tuition assistance are now open. Child care teachers who both live within Hamilton County and work in a child care program located in Hamilton County are eligible for up to $1,200 in tuition and fees at one of two local colleges.

QMF tuition assistance can be applied towards early childhood classes at either UTC or Chattanooga State Community College. Chattanooga State conducts early childhood classes that run in 7-week or 15-week increments, with evening times available for virtual or in-person courses.

Early childhood leaders from the Early Matters action team, local universities, and local government aim to increase the retention of quality child care teachers in the county through higher education and increased pay.

There is a child care staffing shortage and we know that hourly pay below a living wage is one of the key reasons talented, long-time child care teachers are leaving the profession, said Jennifer Andrews, Chattanooga 2.0 director of early childhood strategies. Teachers have also shared with us that tuition is one of the greatest barriers to continuing their higher education. With the Quality Matters Fund, we hope to remove the tuition barrier and increase the number of teachers on the WAGE$ pay scale.

Child Care WAGE$ is a statewide program for child care teachers operated by the Tennessee Department of Human Services and managed by Signal Centers, which is located in Chattanooga.

The program rewards early childhood educators with financial incentives based on their education and continuity of employment. The more classes a teacher takes, the higher their twice-annual stipend from the state. To get on the pay scale, teachers must be employed at the same location for six months and have at least two higher education courses in early childhood education.

The QMF funds may also be used to cover the TECTA co-pay at Chattanooga State as well as CDA portfolio and exam assistance through the college.

Teachers interested in applying for tuition assistance should visit www.chatt2.org/qmf to learn more. A technical assistance webinar during which teachers can ask questions and hear about the Chattanooga State early education program will be held Monday at 6 p.m.




Luigi Chinetti, Jr. photo by Jacqueline Tardif Luigi Chinetti Jr. and Bob Grossman drove this Ferrari 365 Daytona to a fifth overall in the 1973 24 Hours of Daytona photo by Chinetti Archives Brian Redman photo by Indira Flack image Corky Coker photo by Cameron Coker image Lyn St. James photo by LSJ Collection image Previous Next

Luigi Chinetti, Jr., who grew up tagging along with his parents to races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where his father Luigi Sr. had won three times, has been named grand marshal of the 2023 Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. Luigi Jr. went on to make his own mark on the sport and business as a racing driver and designer.

The fourth annual event, sponsored by Millennium Bank and held in the heart of the city of Chattanooga, is scheduled for Oct. 13-15.

Mr. Chinetti becomes the fourth grand marshal since the Festival was established in 2019, following Brian Redman, Corky Coker and Lyn St. James, respectively. Due to the pandemic, the Festival was not held in 2020.

Nine-time sports-car racing champion Mr. Redman returns again this year as grand ambassador. Mr. Coker, a local businessman and car collector, and Ms. St. James, the 1992 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, will be recognized as grand marshal emeriti.

We at the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival are honored to have Luigi Chinetti Jr. as grand marshal of our fourth annual Festival, said Byron DeFoor, founder of the event. He is a great ambassador to the sport, with a great history with Ferrari as a driver, businessman and designer. His racing achievements and contributions to the sport are recognized around the world.

Mr. Chinetti has distinguished himself both as a driver and designer. He has been connected with extraordinary automobiles and the often special people surrounding them most of his life. His fathers pre-World War II involvement in Milan and Paris with Alfa Romeo and Talbot Lago, and his three Le Mans victories  his third win in 1949 was the first for Ferrari  led to the senior Chinetti's becoming the exclusive North American importer of Ferrari automobiles and the founder of the North American Racing Team.

NART gave Mr. Chinetti the opportunity to fulfill his own ambitions of racing and designing automobiles. He has done both, finishing fifth overall and first in GT at the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ferrari Daytona, as well as winning his class at the 24 Hours of Daytona twice  once in a Ferrari 312P in 1971, with a body he designed himself, and again in 1973 in a Ferrari Daytona. In addition, he has designed a number of unique Ferrari automobiles for private clients, and overseen the restoration of a number of highly significant Ferrari racing cars.

At home he was surrounded by his dad's Le Mans victory trophies, including the one from 1965 when the NART 250LM won, which inspired Mr. Chinetti to drive at Le Mans, where he competed three times for NART. He then went on to establish a number of world records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1974 with a Ferrari 512M and a 365 Daytona, along with Graham Hill and Paul Newman.

He's been a tireless ambassador for Ferrari and the NART legacy.

"Being the grand marshal is an absolutely wonderful opportunity," said Mr. Chinetti. "Im told the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival is a spectacular event. From what I hear, the warmth of the people is probably the most interesting aspect. I look forward to meeting everyone and sharing great Ferrari stories with the fans and the Ferrari car owners."

Mr. DeFoor added: Were also privileged to have Brian Redman continue to support the Festival. Hes been an integral part of the operation since the beginning, and his input is invaluable. And, what can I say about Corky Coker and Lyn St. James? Corky is our local hero, and Lyn has been a strong supporter of the Festival. We acknowledge her achievements and we welcome both of them back to this year's Festival with gratitude."

It is a pleasure and an honor to return to the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival as grand ambassador," said Mr. Redman. "With multiple automobile-related attractions, Byron DeFoor and his team have established the Festival as one of the premier 'go-to' events in America.

Each year our Chattanooga Motorcar Festival gets bigger and better," said Mr. Coker. "I cant wait for October 13-15 to experience all that is in store! As a grand marshal emeritus, all I can say is 'start your engines, here we go!!!'"

Added Ms. St. James, "While many communities are creating new concours and automotive-themed events, they're learning that it's more difficult than it appears, especially to be able to maintain the momentum to do it annually. The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival team has done an amazing job of creating and sustaining the excitement of a 'must be there' event. The variety of activities supporting an important cause while visiting the lovely city of Chattanooga are all reasons to put this event on one's calendar. See you there!"

The Festival supports neuroscience research through the Fifty Plus Foundation, Inc.

For more information about the festival and its activities, visit https://chattanoogamotorcar.com/.






YouTube/Moody Admissions | The Solheim Center at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, March 3, 2017

The Moody Bible Institute, a Christian college in Chicago, has filed an opening brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to defend its religious beliefs about men and women in leadership positions. This comes in response to a lawsuit by a former employee, Janay Garrick, who accused the college of discrimination.

The college requires its staff to adhere to its core statement of faith, which includes the belief that both men and women are called to religious ministry, but the office of pastor is reserved for men. Garrick knew about the school's position when she joined the faculty and signed an application each year affirming her support for the college's beliefs.

However, during her employment, Garrick assisted female students in lodging a Title IX complaint against the college for prohibiting women from entering Moody's Pastoral Ministry Program. She also founded a group advocating against the college's position on women in ministry.

After a meeting expressing concerns about her alignment with the college's doctrinal statement, the college decided not to renew Garrick's contract for the next year. She filed a lawsuit claiming discrimination on the basis of sex, which was initially dismissed due to its religious nature. The case eventually proceeded to determine if Moody had discriminated based on sex.

Now, the college is appealing to the Seventh Circuit, arguing that federal courts should not interfere in internal religious disputes and that the case should be considered under the "church autonomy doctrine" and "Title VII's religious exemption."

The outcome of the case could have significant implications for religious colleges and their ability to operate according to their belief systems. The college's defense argues that if claimants can reword a religious dispute and bring the same institution before the court, it would undermine First Amendment and federal civil rights protections for religious freedom. This, in turn, could pose financial burdens for many religious institutions unable to afford lengthy litigation processes.
Deep in the countryside of Miaoli County, Taiwan, Brenda Carter has lived among the Hakka people for more than 30 years. Part of the Chinese Han population, the Hakka trace their lineage back to northern China. Their name is a nod to their migration south and can be translated as guest worker or sojourner. The four million Hakka in Taiwan make up about 15 percent of the countrys population.

A native of Florida, Carter describes her role in the community as a matchmaker, a title she uses intentionallyas well as non-traditionally.

I am not here as a preacher. I am here as a matchmaker. The job of a matchmaker is to introduce two people, giving them a chance to get to know each other and build a relationship. But the matchmaker cannot force them, said Carter. I came to give people the opportunity to get to know the God who created and loves them, to build a beautiful relationship with God.

In the past, some Hakka people traditionally lived in tulou, which are large, circular residences often three to four stories high. Multiple generations lived within a unit and the largest could hold up to 800 people.

The Hakka community is like their tulou buildings. To protect themselves, there are very few windows facing outward, and it is difficult for outsiders to fight their way in, she said. But rather than saying the Hakka community is hard soil for the gospel, perhaps we ought to say that they are a neglected community.

A love of the people

Carter first came to Taiwan in 1986 and spent two years teaching alongside numerous foreign missionaries at Christ s College Taipei. But her heart was for those the school was not already reaching.

Christian leaders soon explained to her that reaching the Hakka people with the gospel was challenging, and that society often stereotyped the community as stubborn. As a girl, Carters father had always said the same of her, so she wondered if encountering the Hakka community was Gods intention all along. God very naturally turned my heart towards Sanyi, she said, referring to one of Taiwans main Hakka settlements.

Carter returned to America for a year to raise funds and came back to Taiwan at the end of 1989. She studied Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University, where part of her new routine included twice-a-week trips to Hakka communities, building relationships by teaching English.

After going back and forth for a year and a half, Carter, along with several Hakka friends, moved to Sanyi to assist a missionary couple there. In 1993, Carter joined the staff of Sanyi Hakka Church, a non-denominational congregation that was specifically trying to make inroads with the community.

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At the beginning of her time in Taiwan, Carter lived with a Christian Hakka friend while continuing to learn Chinese. Although the friend was a Christian, her mother had raised her family with traditional folk beliefs, and the friend and her mother had only ever spoken about faith in the Mandarin language, never in Hakka.

One day, Carter challenged her friend to pray with her mother in Hakka. The mother was moved to tears. Your God understands Hakka too? she asked. Carter realized then the importance of prayer and worship in ones heart languageand regretted not being fluent in the language herself.

Today, many churches in Hakka communities no longer hold services in their native tongue. Many local pastors cannot speak the language, and many church attendees cant understand it. But in rural areas, however, Carter says that when churches dont offer Hakka services, more non-Hakka end up attending who arent able to help or serve Hakka people, and local Hakka people end up viewing Christianity as a non-Hakka faith.

The heart language of many of the older people is still Hakka, she said.

In the early days of her matchmaking ministry, Carter insisted that her church translate from Mandarin to Hakka. But because so many Hakka are comfortable in Mandarin, translation to Hakka has gradually decreased, much to Carters disappointment.

Twenty-five years ago, Carter had been trying to share the gospel with a 70-year-old Hakka neighbor. One Sunday, this neighbor unexpectedly came to church by himself, but the service that day happened to have no Hakka translation. The minute he heard Mandarin, he turned around to leave. Carter did her best to convince him to stay, but he responded, I thought you were a Hakka church, and left.

Resilience through trials

Sanyi is well-known for its woodcarving industry, a trade that the Japanese built up during their occupation of Taiwan (18851945) through training locals. This craft has since become part of Hakka livelihood and is sometimes tied to folk religion and ancestral worship.

For this reason, converting to Christianity presents the Hakka with an agonizing decision. Many people appreciate the gospel after hearing it, says Carter, but once they consider the pressures they will have to face, they back away, because the cost is too great.

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No matter the environment, Carter diligently continues the work of sowing the gospel. She was fairly introverted as a child, and was so quiet compared to her five siblings that people would forget she was present. But her mission work has forced her to constantly think about how to build relationships and share the gospel with people. Over time, God has given her the ability to start conversations with anyone.



Even when youre first meeting her, she feels like a longtime friend, said Juma Wu, who participated in Carter s Bible study group for several years and now works with her on the churchs staff. Over half the old people in Sanyi know her.

Carters personality, however, cant always save her from conflict.

Around 20 years ago, Carter nearly left her post over conflict with her coworkers. At that time, God turned her attention to Jesus, she says, through the words of Isaiah 53:5: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

During times of conflict with coworkers, Carter could initially only see their wrongs and her rights. But God finally broke down her self-righteous heart. Carter says she realized that even if she was in the right, if she lacked love and the fruit of the Spirit, she was still in the wrong before God.

I realized that for many years, I was seeking to accomplish spiritual things by the efforts of my flesh. But Christians are 100 percent reliant on Jesus to accomplish our all, said Carter. When I want to prove that I am right or defend myself, and so establish my righteousness, then I am casting aside the gospel and Jesus, and have an attitude of building righteousness through works.

Carter says that the Holy Spirit has helped continually remind her that, because of the gospel, she can face her true self and doesnt need to defend or justify herself. Shes told critics, If you truly knew me, you would know that I am much worse than you just said. The sense of security that comes with this perspective has also offered her the confidence and humility to acknowledge to others her own helplessness and pride.

Carters many years of serving people who didnt want to leave behind their cultural practices, of experiencing difficulties with coworkers, and of dealing with her own personal trials has made her better able to sympathize with other people s struggles.

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Today, when she teaches Taiwanese preachers, she always begins by asking, Do you describe your ministry as peaceful, light, and easy?

If the answer is no, she reminds them of Jesus words: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28).

In the same passage, Jesus describes his yoke as easy and his burden as light. When asked why Christians sometimes dont experience this, Carter responded, Because we have not turned our hearts to God alone. We want to avoid or escape trials, but many things that try us are also molding us, so that we become more and more like Jesus.

Contextualizing honor and respect

Carter believes that missions happens most effectively by honoring Hakka culture and values. But this is not always easy. Carter and fellow Christian leaders have faced the difficult challenge of contextualizing the Christian faith while respecting Hakka values.

For example, Hakka funeralswhich have elements of Taoism, Buddhism, folk religion, and ancestral worshipare an important part of the culture. Respect for one s ancestors is a Chinese tradition, and the Hakka people particularly esteem their ancestors.

But Carter realized that Hakka Christians were falling short in their funereal duties. Early on, she heard rural elders complain that Christian funerals were done minimally and hastily.

Funerals do not need to cost a lot of money, but they must have dignity, she said.

In attempts to contextualize, some church families have added Christian lyrics to Hakka funeral songs. Like non-Christian Hakkas, they also follow the tradition of building ling peng (a temporary structure erected outside a home during times for mourning). By playing the modified songs in the ling peng, relatives can hear the praise music without entering a church service.

Leading up to the burial, the refrigerated coffin is kept in the family living room, and Carter will use those one or two weeks to spend time with the family. Traditionally, mourners are not allowed to sleep when keeping vigil, so Carter intentionally visits at midnight to stay up with the family.

That is the best time to visit and share the gospel, because no one else dares come, she said. It is a rare occasion for the whole family to be present, and she can lead them to share more deeply with each other about more serious matters.

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And during the Qingming Festival, a springtime holiday where families traditionally visit loved ones tombs, Carter endorses the Hakka rites of pouring water, offering flowers, and lighting candles to remember one s ancestors and honor God.

Although some Christians object, believing it excessively emphasizes local tradition, Carter thinks that using such ceremonies help people feel a sense of solemnness. It does not go against the Bible, and non-Christians are willing to participate, so Christians then have the opportunity to share the gospel.

Decades of diverse service

Carters love for the Hakka has taken many shapes and forms during her over 30 years of ministry. In her first years, she started English classes to build relationships with local residents. Rather than using the school fees as income, she established an emergency fund for the church, which was used to pay church workers and support missionary ministry for several years.

Yang Yumin, a former Hakka pastor at Sanyi Hakka Church, affirms Carters effort and diligence, and believes this is why she has been able to gather many people into the church. Teacher Carter played the role of a mother, bringing up her children. The church stumbled forward for many years, and it was truly not easy to hold fast.

In 2000, Carter was part of a group that founded the Christian Hakka Seminary, where she still teaches from time to time. Additionally, she encourages and accompanies Hakka missionaries abroad and helps train local workers. During summer and winter breaks, Carter travels to different Hakka communities, mobilizing young people to evangelize.

As a missionary, Carter embodies the Matthew 10:8 concept, freely you have received, freely give. She keeps her houseaffectionately known as Brendas hostelopen for others, including for short-term missions teams. And she keeps a transportation card loaded with the equivalent of about $100 in her car, so that whoever is using her car can easily pay parking fees.

Carters life testifies to the love of Christ, who loved her first so that she could love the Hakka people. Carter may have served as a matchmaker by introducing the Hakka to the gospel, but she was also matched to them.

This article has been edited from an article first published in Taiwan Church News.

English translation by Christine Emmert

[ This article is also available in  and . ]
Pastor Samson Doreliens ministers right in the middle of the violence in Port-au-Prince, the site of the July 27th kidnapping of an American nurse and her daughter who remain missing.

The 600 active congregants of the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti (MEBSH) Church of Cote Plage are torn by the gang violence that has overtaken the city, Doreliens told Baptist Press.

Some are drawn closer to God because they believe it is God only who can do something to take the pain away, he said of the congregation. Others are discouraged, questioning why God is letting all kinds of things happen to the country: violence, natural disasters, etc.

Florida Baptist Haitian Fellowship President Jackson Voltaire helped organize the Baptist Missionary Confraternity of Haiti (Confraternite Missionaire Baptiste dHaiti) (CMBH), a convention of hundreds of churches spread across six regions there.

Those in the Western Region including Port-au-Prince worship under tremendous safety risks, he said, while those in rural communities can minister more freely.

They hold worship services with a great deal of difficulty, he said. But thank God thats happening mainly in the metropolitan areas where Port-au-Prince is. In that region, the Western Region, we have hundreds of churches operating, but again  with great difficulty.

Attendance has dropped at the MEBSH Church of Cote Plage, Doreliens said, where many members have lost their jobs or simply cant travel to work amid the violence. Sunday offerings are donated to the poor and widows.

Churches have reduced the frequency of worship services and Bible study and have cancelled evening events. Community outreach continues only with the risk of pastors being kidnapped or shot, Voltaire said, but many remain hopeful.



Out of the many conversations I have with the pastors, Voltaire told Baptist Press, and not only with the pastors, I would say the Haitian people in general, they are very hopeful. And if you consider it, the country cannot go any lower than the way it is now.

In addition to such highly publicized kidnappings as that of El Roi Haiti ministry nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter, numerous kidnappings occur daily in the capital city, Voltaire said. Gangs who control the city typically kidnap residents for ransom while pressuring families to remain silent.

Dorsainvil, a nurse who relocated from New Hampshire to work for the ministry whose director is her husband, is being held under a $1 million ransom, area residents told the Associated Press.

El Roi Haiti continues to pray for Dorsainvils release as the US State Departments and others actively seek her freedom.

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 blogged August 3.

We are so thankful for the very knowledgeable and experienced professionals God has brought together to complete the task of securing their freedom.

While Haiti remains under a do not travel advisory from the US State Department, Voltaire said many pastors look forward to the day when Southern Baptists can return to Haiti.

Theres hope because God is in Haiti as well. And I am sure that there are things that the Haitian people themselves need to do, Voltaire said, referencing 2 Chronicles 7:14.

He encouraged Southern Baptists to be patient and be prepared to return to Haiti when violence subsides.

As far as the CMBH, as far as the Florida Haitian Baptist Fellowship, we are organizing ourselves in a way that whenever God allows the missions to resume, when the greater Southern Baptist family is ready to come to Haiti, they will come to a much better, more productive environment where we can do ministry and really impact that side of the island for the Lord.
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.
Christian anti-war activist leads vigil to protest Biden sending cluster bombs to Ukraine

A Christian anti-war activist led a nonviolent demonstration outside the White House to protest President Joe Bidens decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine and pray for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.

The Rev. Patrick Mahoney, the director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, led a demonstration Friday on the public sidewalk outside of the White House. The event, "Say No To Cluster Bombs/White House Peace & Prayer Vigil, was held in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Biden's announcement that his administration is arming Ukrainian forces with cluster munitions.

Mahoney, a longtime pro-life and anti-war activist, contends that supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions is a "dangerous escalation in the Ukraine-Russian war that will put innocent families and their children at risk.

First of all, as Christians, we believe that the greatest transformative agent we have for change is prayer, the activist told The Christian Post in a Friday interview. I often say we don't have to be the victims of history, but through prayer, we can see God shift, shape and transform history.

According to Mahoney, around eight people, including members of his organization, attended the demonstration. In addition to members of Mahoneys group, Catholic peace workers and an Ethiopian organization also joined the protest.

The Christian activist explained that demonstrators prayed against the shipping of cluster munitions and for a peace proposal to come forward from the Biden administration.

And we also stood as a prophetic witness for peace, for human rights, and for justice, Mahoney said.

Last month, Biden told CNN opinion host Fareed Zakaria that he followed his Defense Departments recommendation to temporarily supply Ukraine with cluster munitions until the United States can produce more 155 mm howitzer artillery munitions. The U.S. had already supplied Ukraine with more than 1.5 million rounds of the munitions but Ukraine wants more, The Associated Press reported in April.

As CNN reported, the United States and Ukraine are not signatories under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which outlawed munitions in more than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Biden made the decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine as the war rages on after a year-and-a-half without a peace agreement between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Theyre trying to get through those trenches and stop those tanks from rolling. But it was not an easy decision, Biden told Zakaria. Were not signatories to that agreement, but it took me a while to be convinced to do it.

But the main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now  keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas  or they dont, he continued. And I think they needed them.

In June, a coalition of U.S. organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, sent a letter to Biden expressing concerns about the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine. The letter urged Biden to reject calls from Congress and Ukrainian leaders to transfer the weapons, citing the potential harm to civilians and the international prohibition on cluster munitions.

Cluster munitions have been used repeatedly by the Russian military since its full-scale invasion in February of 2022, with devastating impacts on civilians and civilian objects, including homes, hospitals, and schools, according to Human Rights Watch, the letter states. The Ukrainian military has also used cluster munitions on multiple occasions.

In the document, the organizations highlighted an April 2022 attack by Russia involving cluster munitions that killed at least 58 civilians and injured over 100 others in the city of Kramatorsk. According to the letter, this is one of many reported cluster munition attacks in Ukraine since the invasion began in February 2022.

Were the United States to transfer these prohibited weapons, it would run counter to the global consensus, embodied in the 123 countries who are signatories or states parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of these weapons, the organizations warned.

The organizations believe that this would make the United States a global outlier and harm efforts to promote arms control agreements and maintain coalitions that have helped with supporting Ukraine.

According to data recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were 23,606 civilian casualties in Ukraine from Feb. 24, 2022, to May 7 of this year, with the organization reporting 8,791 deaths and 14,815 injuries.
Ketanji Brown Jackson to speak at 16th Street Baptist Church marking 60th anniversary of Birmingham church bombing

United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to sit on the highest court in the nation, will speak at an event in Alabama commemorating the 60th anniversary of when a church was bombed, killing four children.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church of Birmingham will hold an event on Sept. 15 commemorating the 60th anniversary of when it was bombed by white supremacists, resulting in the deaths of four black girls and sparking national outrage.

Jackson will give the keynote address for the event, which will also feature music from the Carlton Reese Memorial and Miles College choirs and a litany and time of reflection.

The church gathering is part of a series of events happening in Birmingham on the week of Sept. 10-16 in remembrance of the tragedy, according to city officials.

Known as the 2023 Forging Justice Commemoration Week, several events will be taking place at various locations throughout the city, including discussions, speeches, a film screening and visits from international dignitaries.

In the aftermath of that fateful day on September 15, 1963, our city and our nation had to take a hard look at itself and reckon with the devasting effects of hate and racism, said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin in a press release.

Today, in the spirit of the Four Little Girls, we work to be better and honor them by preserving our history and building a future worthy of their sacrifice.

On the morning of Sept. 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, an African American congregation that had supported civil rights activism.

When the bomb went off, it killed four girls: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, and injured several others, including Sarah Collins Rudolph, Addies sister.

It was a shocking, terrifying day in the history of Birmingham and a day that forced white leaders to further come to grips with the citys bitter racist reputation, the church recounted on its website.

The tragedy of that Sunday produced outpourings of sympathy, concern and financial contributions from all parts of the world. More than $300,000.00 was contributed for the restoration of the damaged church.

The tragedy gave the civil rights struggle international attention, and became a rallying point for many activists in the United States, adding momentum to the effort to successfully pass the Civil Rights Act.

Eventually, the church reopened for worship on June 7, 1964, with a donated stained-glass window from Wales that depicted a black Jesus Christ being crucified.

The investigation and conviction of the KKK members involved in the bombing took several years, mainly because locals refused to cooperate with federal authorities.

For his part in the bombing, Robert E. Chambliss was sentenced to life in prison in 1977, while Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas E. Blanton Jr. were later sentenced to life for their involvement in 2002 and 2001, respectively.
Police ask for publics help in search for missing Texas pastor

A Texas pastor has gone missing, sparking a statewide search by law enforcement and causing deep concern among his congregation and family. The 47-year-old was last seen on Wednesday morning when he left for work at an oil and gas company.

The Corpus Christi Police Department is actively searching for Pastor Phillip Loveday, KRIS 6 News reported.

Concerns arose when Loveday accidentally left his cell phone behind at home while heading to work at Kinder Morgan, an oil and gas company, the media outlet said. His wife discovered the phone later in the day, ringing in the bathroom, which was not an uncommon occurrence as he occasionally forgot his phone. However, what raised red flags was his unusual lack of communication with the family throughout the day.

Lovedays boss at Kinder Morgan informed the family that he never arrived at work that morning, further intensifying their concerns.

His oldest daughter, Kayleigh Purnell, expressed her worries, believing he might have encountered an accident while working outside in the scorching South Texas heat.

Desperate to find their beloved shepherd, members of Faith Christian Center Church, where Loveday serves as a pastor, anxiously awaited his arrival for Wednesday night service but grew alarmed when he didnt appear. Instead of proceeding with the scheduled Bible study, the congregation gathered to pray for his safety and well-being, deeply missing his guiding presence.

The family shared information about Loveday's vehicle, a white 2016 Ford F-250 work truck that has two Texas license plate numbers associated with the vehicle, HTN9773 and PPN1389, in circulation to aid in the search, according to Heavy.com.

The CCPD has assigned a detective to the case and is coordinating a statewide search with other community police departments, the Department of Public Safety and county sheriffs. While no indication of foul play has surfaced, the vast terrain between his home and work site makes it challenging to draw conclusions.

Loveday is described as roughly 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing about 200 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark blue long-sleeve shirt, Wrangler pants, and steel-toed boots. The family is urging residents living between Corpus Christi and Freer to inspect their surveillance cameras and be vigilant around their properties for any signs of Loveday.

In a show of solidarity and hope, local residents came together for a community prayer on Thursday evening, according to Freshers Live.

The CCPD has urged anyone possessing any information that could be pertinent to this case to contact them at either 361-886-2840 or 361-886-2600.
Thousands join search for missing Texas pastor 5 days after he left home

A massive search continued Monday for 47-year-old Texas Pastor Phillip Loveday five days after he left his home for his secular job at Kinder Morgan but never showed up and he hasnt contacted his family since.

Loveday, who is senior pastor at Faith Christian Center in Freer, Texas, left home for work at about 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, the Corpus Christi Police Department said in a statement on Facebook. His wife, Melea Loveday, told police that she became concerned after she received a phone call that he did not show up for work or church.

Lovedays family told KRIS 6 that he appeared to have forgotten his phone at home the day he went missing but they initially didnt think anything of it because he would always find a way to contact them during the day. This time, however, he did not.

"He would definitely always just answer back, so that was, right off the bat, very suspicious. It was just, Oh why didnt he answer? That never ever happens, Loveday's oldest daughter, Kayleigh Purnell, told the news outlet.

The pastor is described as about 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs some 200 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes.

He was also driving a white 2016 Ford F-250 displaying either Texas license plate numbers HTN9773 or PPN1389. Police urged tipsters to call Corpus Christi Police Department at (361) 886-2840 or (361) 886-2600 with any information that can help them find Loveday.

The church also established a Facebook page called Finding Phillip Loveday, which had more than 8,000 followers as of Monday morning, and everyone is being encouraged to participate in the ongoing search for Loveday.

We are continuing to search and encourage you to as well! Thanks to everyone who has offered to check their own properties. If theres an area we have covered, please continue to search there anyway. We are hopeful that tomorrow will lead to more answers.

Please continue to pray for Phillips return and for his family, the group administrator said in a message on Sunday night.

Purnell believes her father may have had some kind of accident and gotten stuck somewhere.

"I dont think that he just disappeared. Im kind of assuming that he had an accident, maybe rolled over into the brush, she said. Its hot in South Texas, and Texas in general, and hes outside working, so maybe he just got stuck somewhere or hurt somewhere and cant get help."

Members of Faith Christian Center Church told KRIS 6 that Loveday was expected to preach at the church last Wednesday and when he didn't show up, they prayed for his health and safety.

"He was the one who kept us going. When we were hurting, he was hurting as well, church member Emily Massey said. He was our shepherd, and now were a flock missing our shepherd.

Travis Pace, public information officer with the CCPD, also told KRIS 6 that even though the pastor is missing, they have seen no signs so far that indicate foul play.

"Im not seeing anything that might indicate foul play, he said. But then again theres a lot of territory between here and his work site so its hard to tell."
Missionary Students Escape From Niger, DeSantis Agrees To Debate Newsom, Christian Perspective On Gerwig's 'Barbie' Movie

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Top headlines for Monday, August 7, 2023



In today's episode, we have some heartwarming news regarding a group of student missionaries from Harmony Hill Baptist Church, who were finally able to return to the U.S after a political crisis in Niger delayed their journey. In political news, Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom of California are set for a long-anticipated debate, which comes amid their states' increasingly divergent policies. Finally, we delve into cinema; though Greta Gerwig's new Barbie film is visually stunning, we'll discuss why its worldview might necessitate cautious viewing from a Christian perspective.

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Top headlines for Monday, August 7, 2023



In today's episode, we have some heartwarming news regarding a group of student missionaries from Harmony Hill Baptist Church, who were finally able to return to the U.S after a political crisis in Niger delayed their journey. In political news, Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom of California are set for a long-anticipated debate, which comes amid their states' increasingly divergent policies. Finally, we delve into cinema; though Greta Gerwig's new Barbie film is visually stunning, we'll discuss why its worldview might necessitate cautious viewing from a Christian perspective.
Trans-ing kids: These Congress members need to be held accountable

A national reckoning is underway over the chemical and surgical trans-ing of children and teens. And while many players are culpable, ignorance is no excuse because they cannot say they were not warned.

If the July 27 Congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on gender-affirming care was any indication, some politicians are digging in their heels in denial because for them to admit the awful truth likely means facing paralyzing shame. In order to avoid that profound regret, they must continue refusing to acknowledge that gruesome medical atrocities are presently occurring nationwide and instead defend them as "care," even when living breathing evidence in the form of a teen victim of such atrocities is right there under their noses.

With an icy glare in her eyes and spouting talking points that typify the Democratic party's preening posture on these issues, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania) smugly styled herself as a champion of "science," insisting that the experimental drugs that sterilize and surgeries that mutilate confused children are clinically approved medical treatments and are, therefore, "not up for debate." The committee hearing scrutinizing these practices, she said, was a waste of time.

Mere feet away from her was detransitioner Chloe Cole, whose courage is truly astonishing. Cole spent her 19th birthday testifying before federal lawmakers about how she and her parents were misled about treatment options when she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria as an adolescent, and how an unscrupulous surgeon amputated her breasts when she was only 15. Before undergoing a bilateral mastectomy, she was prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that have caused sexual dysfunction, among other serious health complications.

One has to wonder what was going through Scanlon's and her Democratic colleagues' minds when House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) included as part of his opening remarks a few minutes of stomach-turning video footage showing Dr. Blair Peters, a pink-haired gender surgeon from Oregon, being interviewed in a recent podcast.

Peters, who speaks with an excruciatingly narcissistic affectation and grating vocal fry, described the practices he carries out on the bodies of children at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, including how he inverts the underdeveloped sex organs of pubertal-suppressed boys. These grotesque operations are part of a series that his university team is reportedly assembling, and he admitted that they do not entirely know what they are doing.

Since these young boys have had their physiological development arrested with hormone blockers, there is often not enough tissue with which to construct a facsimile of a female sex organ. Not to worry though, he continues, because at OHSU they are using a robot to do intra-abdominal surgery to harvest the peritoneum (membrane lining the abdominal cavity) to line the newly-constructed canal simulating a vagina in the boys crotch area.

When Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Florida) tried to play that exact clip of the same surgeon in a separate committee hearing, chaos erupted and Democrat legislators fussed, but the footage was ultimately allowed to be shown. For if this surgery is life-saving and medically necessary so as to prevent trans-identified children from dying by suicide, as trans activists like to claim, why was it so objectionable that a description of the surgical process be seen?

I have to believe that it is because the Democrats all know deep down that these are monstrous acts worthy of being adjudicated at Nuremberg-like tribunals. The stealthy, information-suppressing tactics of trans activists and their corporate media allies seem to be increasingly ineffective and the appalling realities have risen to the surface. It is significant that this latest hearing took place at the national level; it follows approximately 20 state legislatures implementing a ban of some kind on these experimental medical practices.

In a word that warned of Gods judgment against Assyrias arrogance, the prophet Isaiah declared, asking: What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? (Isaiah 10:3).

Those same questions must be put to not only the politicians promoting this grave moral evil but the doctors who are a disgrace to their profession. Physicians that have sterilized and disfigured young, vulnerable people in keeping with the dictates of an insane ideology while profiting from irreversibly damaging their bodies must be held to account.

Formal actions contesting this medical malpractice are mounting and let's hope that a legal disaster befalls these practitioners and that their riches are left with those whom they have harmed. For her part, Cole is suing the doctors that drugged and maimed her as is Layla Jane Lovdahl, whose breasts were amputated when she was only 13 years old.

Detransitioners Prisha Mosley and Soren Aldaco are two more young women who are the latest to file lawsuits against the doctors that misled and exploited them. Both women are represented by Campbell, Miller, Payne, PLLC, a new law firm that was launched exclusively for the purpose of helping detransitioners receive justice.

The Democratic politicians (and even a few craven Republicans in some states) that still defend this barbaric, pseudoscientific nonsense will not be able to say they did not know how terrible this was because many Democrat voters repeatedly warned them. Political liberals including radical feminists, lefty gays and lesbians, and many left-wing parents of gender-non-conforming teenagers have for years implored their elected representatives to listen to their concerns to no avail.

Among those who have done so relentlessly and at considerable personal cost is Kara Dansky, the author of the 2021 book The Abolition of Sex: How the Transgender Agenda Harms Women and Girls and whose upcoming book with the working title The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls mercilessly skewers her own party.

"Democratic party leaders are going to tell us that they didnt know. They are going to tell us that they couldnt have known. They are going to tell us that the science has changed in ways that they couldnt have anticipated, Dansky told CP in an email Thursday.

Dont believe them and dont let them get away with it. I know they know because I have told them directly. I say that as a Democrat and a feminist, she added.

As Cole finished her impassioned remarks before Congress at the end of July, she concluded with these pointed, prophetic words: Let me be your final warning.

Those who framed this depraved, unmitigated child abuse as evidence-based healthcare or as trans rights under the banner of civil liberties must face the music. In my view, the only acceptable outcome is a complete and total defeat of gender ideology; it must be purged from every single one of our institutions.

May this brewing reckoning grow, and may God hasten the day when this scourge is regarded as the abominable horror that it is.
Artificial intelligence opening door for predators to sexually abuse children, experts warn

Artificial intelligence has made it easier for predators to sexually abuse children and harder for law enforcement agencies to hold these bad actors accountable, according to a recent report.

Britains top law enforcement agency, the National Crime Agency, warned that there are between 680 to 830,000 adults in the United Kingdom that pose a sexual risk to children.

NCA Director General Graeme Biggar said in a recent speech that the agency highlighted how the number is roughly 10 times the prison population and noted that it illustrates the dangers of the internet.

Due to the internet, sexual predators can easily access or share videos and images of child sexual abuse, and now, with AI, NCA has started seeing hyper-realistic images and videos of this type of content.

The use of AI for child sexual abuse will make it harder for us to identify real children who need protecting and further normalize abuse, Biggar said. And that matters because we assess that the viewing of these images  whether real or AI-generated  materially increases the risk of offenders moving on to sexually abusing children themselves.

There is also no doubt that our work is being made harder as major technology companies develop their services, including rolling out end-to-end encryption, in a way that they know will make it more difficult for law enforcement to detect and investigate crime and protect children."

The Internet Watchdog Foundation, an organization that ensures the internet is safe for children by removing child sex abuse imagery, called for the implementation of stronger online safeguards in response to NCAs report.

Increasing online activity by offenders, described as the new front line by the NCA, means we cannot expect children to safely navigate the risks online on their own, IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves OBE said in a statement last month. We need to ensure technological safeguards are in place to protect children.

Hargreaves emphasized that it is vital for companies that use or plan to use end-to-end encryption to also introduce safeguards to prevent online abuse of children.

"Some online platforms continue to provide predators with a way to initiate contact with children, enabling opportunities for grooming, online child sexual abuse and physical abuse, she continued.

"There is a danger that if technology companies introduce end-to-end encryption on their platforms, it will make it even harder to identify and stop online predators."

As the IWF explains on its website, end-to-end encryption is a form of online privacy, but it goes further than standard encryption, noting that, on social media, "messages which are end-to-end encrypted can only ever be seen by the sender and receiver."

Theoretically, that sounds fine, IWF stated. But without additional safeguards, there is no opportunity, even for the company providing the messaging platform, to spot and prevent criminal content such as child sexual abuse imagery from being shared.

In June, the FBI issued a warning about how malicious actors may use AI to edit images or videos of people to make them appear more sexual, and some of the victims in these sextortion cases have been minors. Sextortion is a crime that involves manipulating a victim through the use of sexually explicit imagery or videos.

"Malicious actors use content manipulation technologies and services to exploit photos and videos  typically captured from an individual's social media account, open internet or requested from the victim  into sexually-themed images that appear true-to-life in likeness to a victim, then circulate them on social media, public forums or pornographic websites, the FBI warned, as reported by Fox News.

According to the FBI, the victims are often unaware that someone has manipulated their likeness and circulated it around the internet. The agency also noted a 463% increase in reported sextortion cases from 2021 to 2022, noting that AI has made it easier for predators to exploit victims.

However, Yaron Litwin, executive of Canopy, has reportedly developed AI software that blocks these kinds of manipulated images and sends out alerts.

"Our technology is an AI platform that has been developed over 14 years  and can recognize images with video and an image in split seconds," Litwin told Fox News Digital.

"The platform itself will also filter out in real time any explicit image as you're browsing through a website or an app and really prevent a lot of pornography from appearing online."
Many young adults say marriage is an 'outdated tradition': survey

While a significant number of millennials and Gen Zers view marriage as an outdated tradition" and are opting for cohabitation instead, many still plan to marry someday, according to a recent survey.

As a survey conducted by the Thriving Center of Psychology found earlier this summer, two in five millennials and Gen Zers view marriage as an outdated tradition, a mindset held by 41% of men and 52% of women. Eighty-five percent said marriage is not necessary to have a fulfilled and committed relationship, while another 73% believe that getting married in the current economy is too expensive.

Among the list of most marriage-averse cities, Toledo, Ohio, was No. 1 and Seattle, Washington, came in at No. 2. Next on the list were Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.

The study surveyed 906 unmarried Gen Zers and millennials who reported being in a relationship but not married. Respondents' ages ranged from 18 to 42, with an average age of 29.

Researchers also analyzed 100 of the most populous cities in the United States with data available from the U.S. Census Bureau on the number of cohabitating couples.

Lisa Anderson, director of young adults for the Christian organization Focus on the Family and host of The Boundless Show radio program, told The Christian Post in a statement that she believes many young adults are settling for conditional or toxic relationships.

With many being part of the largest divorce generation in history, an increasing number of young adults now view marriage as a prize thats unwinnable," Anderson said.

"But instead of letting them simply stumble into defeat, we at Boundless are offering them a vision for marriage that begins with personal growth, relational commitment and a determination to see marriage as a journey, not a capstone."

"Healthy individuals attract healthy individuals, and healthy men and women make great marriages," she added.

Anderson manages Boundless, a Focus on the Family program that helps young adults in their 20s or 30s prepare for marriage and connect with their faith, and the ministry aims to help these individuals grow up.

The Christian radio host cited God as the "biggest fan of marriage," and asserted that great matches are still within the Lord's realm of work, saying that sometimes people "just need a cheering section around us to say it can still be done."

"Boundless has been rooting for and offering practical, biblical insights to young adults for 25 years, and we continue to do so despite what the culture says about them and their marriage potential," Anderson said.

According to the June survey, three in five unmarried couples live with their partners, and the trend appears to be more popular among millennials (65%) than with Gen Zers (35%). Sixty percent of cohabitating couples move in together after dating for a year or less, and 85% moved in because thats what they wanted.

In a Tuesday statement provided to CP, Anderson noted how many young adults appear to be putting off marriage until later in life.

The average age of first marriage has increased by almost a decade in the last two generations, to 28 and 30 years old for women and men, respectively, Anderson said.

Yet many young adults still value marriage, so theyre using cohabitation as a hopeful placeholder until they get their proverbial ducks in a row.

Anderson warned that "rather than preparing them for a life-long love," practices like "cohabitation, serial dating and other popular relational patterns are more likely to stall young couples out completely.

As the survey noted, even if many see marriage as outdated, 83% of Gen Zers and millennials expect to marry at some point, although 17% do not plan to marry, with more millennials (21%) holding this opinion compared to Gen Zers (7%).

Some respondents admitted they werent fully happy about the decision to live with their partner, with 29% acknowledging that they wished they had communicated their expectations more clearly before moving in together. One in 10 participants admitted they regretted the choice to share a home with their partner, and nearly one in six felt as if they and their partner moved in together too fast.

Women (69%) were more likely than men (27%) to say they felt judged for their decision to move in with their partner. In terms of their views on being asked about their marriage plans, 68% of respondents feel its an intrusive question. Another 77% said that its nosy to ask about other peoples plans for children.

As to why many couples opted to live together instead of marrying, the survey found that finances were the reason for 54% of people, with this being true for 61% of millennials and 39% of Gen Z. Nineteen percent of respondents said they share a bank account with their partner, and 16% said that the couple share a credit card.

However, 50% revealed that the mortgage or rent is not split equally between them and their partner, and 37% stated that they feel their relationship with their partner is financially unequal.

In terms of dependents, 15% of respondents have a child with their partner, 89% do not have any plans for a child if they dont remain with their partner.
China denies legal visits to detained preacher; family raises alarm over human rights

Details have emerged surrounding the April arrest of a house church preacher from Chinas Yunnan region who was arrested by local officials and has not returned home.

The government has reportedly refrained from issuing a formal written notice of the arrest of Chang Hao or charges to his family, and has repeatedly denied visitation requests, including those from the familys legal representation, the U.S.-based group China Aid reported.

Changs family and lawyer have unsuccessfully attempted to secure meetings with him four times since his arrest, said the group, which monitors human rights violations inside China.

The preachers daughter, Chang Zhiling, voiced her concerns about the authorities handling of her fathers case in a prayer bulletin last month. She said the lack of formal documentation or communication about her fathers detainment was equivalent to holding him hostage.

Following his arrest, local police reportedly confiscated personal belongings, including two mobile phones, a laptop, nearly a hundred copies of the Bible and all of his Christian literature.

The family learned about the charges against Chang only after they hired a lawyer, discovering he was detained for purportedly picking quarrels and provoking trouble, a charge the government selectively employs to target specific individuals, leading to unjust imprisonments.

Changs legal counsel has met resistance from the detention center staff, who have cited orders from higher-ups regarding the special nature of the case as reasons for refusing visitation. This refusal directly violates Chinese law, including the Criminal Procedure Law and Regulations on Detention Centers, which guarantee a lawyers right to meet with their defendant, China Aid pointed out.

Chang, known for his work in the congregation of a house church in Zhaotong area in Yunnan, was dedicated to social justice in China and had a particular interest in the support of persecuted churches. His activities, which involved distributing COVID-19 masks inscribed with Bible verses, became popular in the region, but local Communist Party officials found his activism disturbing, according to UCA News.

His wife, Enlin, informed the Bitter Winter magazine that following the April 14 raid, police seized Bibles, Christian literature and the inscribed masks. They denied the family and their lawyer the right to see Chang after his detention. After three days, the police informed them he would be detained for a further three days pending re-evaluation. This evolved into an administrative detention of eight days, which later became a criminal detention, with police offering no elaboration on the charges.

Changs case is in the stage of prosecutorial review. Due to the lack of evidence, it has been sent back for further investigation.

The family remains deeply concerned for his well-being, given Changs physical disability and diabetes.

His situation is indicative of the increased crackdown on religious groups since President Xi Jinping took charge in 2013 and particularly after China adopted repressive Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018.

China is ranked No. 16 on Open Doors' 2023 World Watch List of the countries where its most difficult to be a Christian.

Open Doors also warned in its latest report that a growing number of countries are emulating the China model.

China is trying not just to dominate the international agenda, but also to re-interpret existing (and coining new) human rights. China is trying to push this revisionism into the mainstream of international diplomacy, partly by attempting to re-define the tasks of the United Nations  and, most importantly, by filtering who is allowed to participate in debates on how human rights should be shaped in the future, says the report.
Meet The Texas Pastor Running For President: 'God Really Spoke To My Heart'

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Texas pastor Ryan Binkley isn't just on a mission for God. The preacher and businessman has also decided to run for president, with his faith distinguishing him as an intriguing candidate.

The Christian Post's Ryan Foley sat down with Binkley to explain Binkley's motivation, God-given passion, and why he's running amid the crowded Republican field.

Among other things, the preacher is concerned about America's financial situation.



"Our country is really falling behind. You may know that Chinas loaning money to countries everywhere from Latin America to Europe, [and] Africa and were borrowing money," he told Foley. "So we have to make some significant changes in our country financially."

Foley joins the show to break it all down.

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Texas pastor Ryan Binkley isn't just on a mission for God. The preacher and businessman has also decided to run for president, with his faith distinguishing him as an intriguing candidate.

The Christian Post's Ryan Foley sat down with Binkley to explain Binkley's motivation, God-given passion, and why he's running amid the crowded Republican field.

Among other things, the preacher is concerned about America's financial situation.

"Our country is really falling behind. You may know that Chinas loaning money to countries everywhere from Latin America to Europe, [and] Africa and were borrowing money," he told Foley. "So we have to make some significant changes in our country financially."

Foley joins the show to break it all down.
Anne Graham Lotz, Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright on End Times, their health, their ministry

Like mother, like daughter: Anne Graham Lotz and Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright, the daughter and granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham, are both Bible teachers and have both endured serious medical conditions.

Lotz and Wright even share the same social media posts. Each recently forwarded a video, recorded on an airplane, of a young evangelist declaring to his fellow passengers that "Jesus is coming back really soon."

With their seemingly melded minds, it's no wonder they would collaborate on writing projects together. Their second joint book, "Preparing to Meet Jesus: A 21-Day Challenge to Move from Salvation to Transformation," is set to release on Aug. 8.

Lotz, 75, wrote the introduction and the epilogue and rounded off each of the 21 chapters with a prayer. Her daughter, 48, wrote about the book's main focus, the character of the soon-to-be-bride Rebekah, found in the Bible's Book of Genesis.

Lotz started AnGeL Ministries in 1988, creating Bible studies and daily devotions. Wright leads one of those Bible studies, which grew in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, to reach thousands of people online. Earlier this year, they traveled with 115 women on AnGeL Ministries' tour of Israel, where Wright taught on Mount Carmel about the prophet Elijah and Lotz spoke from aboard a boat on the Sea of Galilee.

Lotz, a member of a Calvary Chapel church, and Wright, a member of a Southern Baptist congregation, talked with Religion News Service Tuesday about End Times, illness and whether there's a succession plan in place for Lotz's ministry.

The interview was edited for length and clarity.

Anne, someone just seeing the title "Preparing to Meet Jesus" might think it refers to your feeling you could be nearing the end of your life. Would that be correct or not?

Lotz: That would be right  I'm 75  but I think it applies to Rachel-Ruth, who has had two back-to-back heart attacks. You never know when you're going to step into eternity, and I also believe Jesus is soon to come back. So it could be through my death or it could be through the rapture, but I'm going to see him.

You mention in a recent interview that you've made a shift by preaching about End Times. How has your traditional audience responded to that emphasis in your message?

Lotz: I think people are fascinated right now with prophecy  what the Bible says about what's going on today and where we're headed. When I first felt like he (God) gave me the freedom to do that, it was about 10 years ago. One of the messages he's laid on my heart now, and I put it at the end of this book, is Matthew 25, which is the story of the 10 young women  five of them were ready and five were not. We're living at the end of history as we know it. And it's time for us to get ready.

Why did the two of you choose the Genesis story of Rebekah, who is selected as the wife of Isaac, as a model for today's Christians?

Wright: I was teaching Genesis in my Bible study, and I just love that chapter. And shortly after, I was invited to come speak at a bridal shower. I'd pulled out all these characteristics, just to share with the bride and then, we were thinking about the next book. I thought there were so many lessons we could see in Rebekah  it's not like Rebekah is perfect. I felt like the Lord just downloaded each chapter each day, with the characteristics that we could just look inside of ourselves and see if we can do it better than we are.

You both have had medical challenges in recent years with Anne's breast cancer diagnosis and Rachel-Ruth's heart attacks.

Lotz: When I looked at my breast cancer  when I was first diagnosed  I felt very strongly that God had given me that as a platform for a broader testimony in ministry. Looking back, that's exactly what he did. So I thank him for taking me through. I never want to go through chemotherapy again, but he brought me through and has been faithful, and Rachel-Ruth is sitting here. To be honest, it's a miracle that she's here because I stood beside her in the hospital. And I knew she was going. I mean, fast. And she was dying in front of my eyes. And God brought her back. And I have my fifth-year checkup, by the way, in September, so I'm hoping I'll get a clean bill of health.

Wright: I had, a year and a half ago, two heart attacks called spontaneous coronary artery dissections. For four days, I had this chest pain and then went into the hospital and they said, "Oh, you're having a heart attack." And I had no idea. I was healthy, exercised. I thought it was acid reflux or something, but it was intense.

I had the first heart attack that Sunday morning, and they left me in the hospital, which was a miracle, because if I had gone home, I would have died for sure. But the next day the second one was a massive heart attack where one of my arteries shredded from top to bottom, and I was dying. My last prayer was: "Lord, just take care of my girls." And God, I felt like he put his finger on my heart literally and all of a sudden, the blood came back and I could feel again and I could move and they rushed me to the OR, and I've got massive stents in my heart now.

Rachel-Ruth, you mentioned the influence of your grandfather Billy Graham in addressing your personal times of anxiety. Is that something that continues to this day?

Wright: I was having horrible chest pain again. I was, like, "Not again," and the Lord brought a (Bible) verse to my mind. And so I was thinking about that verse and had just chosen to go to bed that night because I was just going to claim the verse that the Lord was going to take care of me. The next morning, I got up and read a verse out of (the Bible's Book of) Isaiah. Then a friend of mine sent me a video of my grandfather in which he quoted those two verses. And I was so blown away because God used even the words of my grandfather, after he'd gone to heaven, to still minister to me, and that is the power of God's word.

Anne, in a video Bible study based on your previous book, "Jesus Followers," there was footage of the home where you grew up with your famous parents. Is that empty now?

Lotz: It is totally empty. I don't think there's even a folding chair. Maybe in the kitchen, there might be a folding chair. But there's nothing in it. I love to use that as the basis for that Bible study. My father didn't believe in possessions or material things. That's not his legacy. His legacy is the legacy of faith and legacy of the gospel.

Rachel-Ruth serves on the board and chairs a weekly prayer team at AnGeL Ministries. Is there a succession process where Rachel-Ruth will one day be in charge of AnGeL Ministries?

Lotz: I'm going to leave that to the Lord. We've certainly talked about it. And the board of AnGeL Ministries is 150% behind Rachel-Ruth. The staff loves her. And so, if that time comes, then it'll come. But right now she's doing more and more.

Rachel-Ruth, is there an advantage of a mother and daughter in ministry together?

Wright: Well, it's really like Paul and Timothy, where my mom has discipled me all these years. What she's taught me and fed into me, is now coming out, as I speak. And I just, I feel like, with what you were talking about earlier, I have no aspirations to be somebody, to be the next person in ministry. I don't care. And I probably get this from watching Mom: I just want to do what the Lord wants me to do and say what he wants me to say. I feel like he's using a very weak vessel in me, but I know he's called me, and it's just a privilege to serve him.

 Religion News Service
Another inhumane atrocity surfaces from Manipur

Two more young Christian tribal women were victimized, brutalized, and killed on the same day as the horrifying incident on May 4 that saw tribal Christian women in Manipur sexually assaulted, gang raped, and paraded by a Hindu Meitei mob.

The victims, aged 21 and 24, whose identities have not been made public, worked at the Gamma car wash in the Konung Mamang area of Imphal East district, around 40 kilometres away from the scene of the prior horrific incident. According to a police complaint made by one of the victim's families, tragically, the two young women's commitment to work became the spark for their awful fate when they were attacked by a hostile mob on May 4.

According to eyewitness accounts, the two women at the car wash were violently attacked by a big group of men and some women. Surprisingly, it was claimed that the ladies in the crowd provoked the men into taking the victims into a room where they were sexually assaulted.

Eyewitnesses reported that the ladies were being attacked by the mob when they were discovered hiding beneath a bed. The mob took the women to a room, turned the lights off and choked them with clothes to stifle their cries for help.

The victims' nightmare ordeal lasted around an hour and a half until they were mercilessly dumped next to a sawmill, their bodies mutilated, their clothing torn, and their blood spilled. And this is how police located them. They were then taken to the hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.

The victims' identities were first kept a secret out of concern for the societal stigma attached to sexual assault. However, one victim's mother found the fortitude to submit a Zero FIR at the Saikul police station on May 16, driven by tenacity and the need for justice. The FIR was eventually forwarded to Porompat police station in Imphal East district and specifically stated the violent rape, torture, and death of the two women.

The victims' remains, which have not yet been returned to their families, are being housed in a mortuary at a hospital in the Imphal Valley. Tragically, because of the ongoing ethnic tensions in the state since May 3, the family is unable to attend the hospital. They are thus unable to carry out the last rituals and express their grief at their loved ones' passing.

Police sources told the media that no arrests have yet been made in relation to this horrific incident.

According to media sources, two activists and the North American Manipur Tribal Association have complained about this event to the National Commission for Women.

These heartbreaking horror stories are a part of a more extensive and terrible chain of incidents that have occurred in Manipur since May 3. Religious ethnic conflict there has resulted in the deaths of over 140 individuals and the displacement of over 70,000 people.

 Christian Today India
Charges filed against man who prayed silently in abortion clinic buffer zone

Local authorities in Bournemouth have decided to press charges against a father and army veteran who prayed silently in an abortion clinic 'buffer zone'.

The buffer zone forbids protesting, harassing, intimidating or photographing visitors or staff within 150m of the abortion clinic. The restrictions cover prayer, counselling and offering information or help to women visiting the clinic.

Adam Smith-Connor received a fixed penalty notice last December for allegedly breaching the terms of the buffer zone the previous month.

He says he was praying silently for his deceased son who was aborted over 20 years ago. He regrets paying for the abortion for his ex-girlfriend and now spends time praying for people affected by abortion and those contemplating having one.

ADF, which is representing Smith-Connor, said the charges "come as a surprise" after Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council refrained from pursuing prosecution within the statutory time-limit. ADF says that police also previously informed Smith-Connor that he was not breaking the law.

His first hearing will take place at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court on 9 August, where a court date will be set for his trial. He is expected to enter a plea of 'not guilty' at the hearing.

Commenting on news of his prosecution, Smith-Connor said, "Nobody should be prosecuted for silent prayer. 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.

"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 UK."

His legal counsel, Jeremiah Igunnubole of ADF UK, said the case "has no place in a country with a historical and proud commitment to the rule of law".

"In permitting the prosecution of silent prayer, we are sailing into dangerous waters regarding human rights protections in the UK," he said.

"Censorship zones are inherently wrong and engender unhelpful legal confusion regarding the right to free thought. 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.

"In various 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."
Millions of suffering children: the ugly truth behind the billion-dollar beauty industry

A report from international Christian charity, World Vision, has revealed the terrible price paid by some of the world's most vulnerable children to put beauty products, often labelled as 'cruelty-free', on the shelves of retailers and bathrooms across the world.

In the report, titled 'The High Price of Beauty', World Vision examines the convoluted supply chains involved in delivering mined and agricultural products that make up around 30 per cent of the ingredients in cosmetics, with the demand for agricultural products rising due to the growth of the natural beauty industry.

World Vision said that this often involves the use of child labourers, either working to support their families, or the victims of trafficking.

"Research shows that there are six commonly used ingredients that are at risk of using child labour: palm oil, cocoa, vanilla, shea, mica, copper," World Vision said.

"Instead of going to school, many children help grow, harvest, mine and transport these ingredients. They work in dangerous places at risk of injury, heatstroke, diseases and even death. And sometimes for as little as $2 a day."

It is calling on companies and governments to take steps to save the 140 million children it estimates will still be victims of child labour by 2025.

"The shocking reality is that vulnerable children in deprived areas of the world are working in dangerous, illegal mines to dig for minerals for cosmetics, causing huge suffering and even resulting in deaths," Mark Sheard, the CEO of World Vision UK, said.

"It's a shared responsibility ... We should not turn a blind eye to the reality of where some of their ingredients have come from, as this will not erase the consequences  brands must be held accountable."

World Vision's investigation into the policies of major beauty companies found that some progress has been made. However, it also found massive increases in children working to gather ingredients used in cosmetics, such as cocoa.

"Improved supply chain legislation has helped improve the practices of companies on paper in recent years, but we're still waiting to see that translate into change that can ultimately help eliminate child exploitation ... we believe that every child has a right to a happy and fulfilling childhood," Mr Sheard said.
Pastor, wife and 3-year-old son jailed on charges of luring innocent people to Christianity

(CP) 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, India's 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 Pradesh's 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 India's Constitution "guarantees religious freedom to all persons," Uttar Pradesh's 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 India's 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 Pradesh's 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."

 The Christian Post
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People's Daily Online journalists visit Russia for in-depth coverage of BRI

People's Daily Online) 10:54, August 07, 2023

People's Daily Online journalists visit the Bely Rast Terminal Logistics Center in Moscow, Russia. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

Journalists from People's Daily Online, participating in a reporting project on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), recently visited Moscow, Russia's capital city.

The team explored various sites in Moscow, including the China Cultural Center, the Bely Rast Terminal Logistics Center, the China Trade Center, the Krasny Oktyabr confectionery factory, and the Michurinsky Prospekt station on the Moscow Metro. Their reporting highlighted the people-to-people bonds and shared development between China and Russia.

Located 30 kilometers north of Moscow, the Bely Rast Terminal Logistics Center was bustling with activity. China-Europe freight trains originating from over 30 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Xi'an, Chongqing, Hefei, and Yiwu, routinely arrive here, laden with containers filled with automobiles, machinery, small commodities, and more.

As a key logistics infrastructure project between China and Russia, the sprawling 1.79-million-square-meter logistics hub is a critical overseas station for China-Europe freight trains.

At the China Trade Center in Moscow, the journalists encountered young Russians visiting the popular landmark. The Chinese-style architecture, featuring arched gates, pavilions, stacked stones, and weeping willows, has become a picturesque and popular spot for social media selfies.

The journalists also toured the Greenwood International Trade Center, where Chinese goods such as home appliances, auto parts, and clothing were displayed for sale. Hosting over 300 enterprises from more than 14 countries and regions, including over 170 Chinese companies, the center facilitates nearly $5 billion in annual trade between China and Russia.

Since it was unveiled in 2012, the China Cultural Center in Moscow has been the venue for numerous cultural activities designed to foster mutual understanding between the peoples of China and Russia.

The reporting activity, organized by People's Daily Online, divided journalists into two teams  one focusing on domestic reporting and the other embarking on an overseas trip to 17 countries.

In Russia, the journalists are scheduled to continue their journey to St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in the coming days.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
BT Group has never forgotten its beginnings as a company ensuring that everyone in the UK could have access to a new invention called the telegraph.

Finally, a farmer in the Midlands could communicate with his cousin in Brighton, and a dock worker in Sunderland was able to receive the latest news from Westminster.

In the age of apps and smartphones, BT Group is still an organization using the latest innovations to change the world  building a strong technological foundation for clients to modernize and simplify.

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But in the early part of this decade, the companys human resources (HR) systems were not aligning with BT Groups mission as a digital and technology leader.

The Group was dependent on a complex HR technology architecture driving inconsistent, manual processes  forcing HR teams to engage in time-consuming tasks like completing Word and Excel documents, emails, and phoning colleagues. Team information could only be obtained through monthly reports provided by HR business partners.

The legacy technologies that had once worked so well were complicated, inflexible, and expensive to update and maintain. This meant that a truly digital-led colleague experience couldnt be delivered, impacting the Groups ability to attract and retain the best talent. HR teams were left with little time to provide value-added services and partner with their business functions to drive a strategic talent agenda.

For the HR team, these shortcomings hurt BT Group as a company. After all, it strove to attract and retain top talent while protecting national infrastructure and changing the world by investing in things like drone super-highways  and helping customers reduce their global carbon footprint.

To continue to meet the demands of its very diverse businesses, the Group was going to have to create a single, integrated digital platform to complete all HR lifecycle activities  at any time, on any device.

A global digital experience

Founded in 1846 as the Electric Telegraph Company, BT Group is the worlds oldest communications company.

It remains a centerpiece of British culture, operating 80 percent of the UKs communications infrastructure and employing 100,000 workers  in addition to more than 30,000 contingent employees.

Despite BT Groups many milestones, the My HR platform for HR services would be one of the most complex HR technology transformations the organization experienced, said Nick Hawkes, the companys HR Technology Director.

To drive process simplification and system standardization, BT Group would partner with Accenture, a Dublin-based professional services company specializing in information technology and consulting.

Both companies already had a long history with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software leader SAP.

As a result, BT Group could integrate its existing SAP technologies with SAP SuccessFactors Human Capital Management (HCM) for assistance in HR and payroll, talent and sales performance management, and analytics and workforce planning, among other areas.

HR teams would be able to access the platform for assistance in anything along the HR lifecycle, from colleague selection to onboarding to career development and learning.

Software as a Service (SaaS) technology would be used to deliver applications over the internet and further provide the kind of compelling digital colleague experience at the global scale that BT Group required.

Connected to the future

The deployment of the My HR platform in September 2022 was transformative.

Instantly, 30 legacy systems were decommissioned, while 200 HR processes were streamlined and standardized to fewer than 90, enabling HR managers, teams, and colleagues to use the solution intuitively, efficiently, and flexibly.

For example, managers can now complete changes within minutes, as opposed to being dependent on lengthy phone calls to the HR Services team.

Instead of the five-day wait for Service Level Agreements (SLAs), HR reports are generated immediately through self-service access to the system, delivering insight and information to inform decision-making for line managers and HR partners.

And the cloud technology has saved the company more than a million productivity hours annually, freeing up employees to engage in activities that continue to move BT Group forward.

We are changing the way HR gets done, said Elaine Bergin, BT Groups Director of Colleague Experience, by putting our colleagues in the driving seat  whether for lifecycle moments or navigating their career.

10th anniversary superstar winner of the SAP Innovation Awards

For creating the definitive digital colleague experience, BT Group received a distinct honor, being designated the 10thAnniversary Superstar winner at the decade-old SAP Innovation Awards in 2023.

The annual ceremony singles out organizations using SAP technologies to transform industries as well as society. You can read more about what BT Group accomplished to earn this top honor in their pitch deck.
Business today runs on data. And for many enterprises, Wipro, a valued VMware partner, is the company of choice to deliver and maintain their data centers. With over 75 years of experience helping businesses, Wipro maintains a continued focus on innovation that delivers growth for the VMware partner  and its clients.

Its this drive to help customers grow and succeed that led Wipro to launch a dedicated business unit focused on streamlining VMware implementations and accelerating deployments of applications to quickly deliver clients ROI. The business unit offers a full portfolio of digital transformation services globally that among others, includes VMware Cross-Cloud managed services.

As a result of Wipros commitment to the VMware partnership, innovation in the cloud, and helping its clients speed time-to-value from their investment in VMware solutions, Wipro received this years Worldwide Cloud Innovation & SaaS Transformation Award in the 2023 VMware Partner Achievement Awards. In these annual awards, VMware honors a distinguished group of VMware ecosystem partners from around the world for delivering exceptional results and innovation using VMware products and solutions.

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In particular, the award recognized Wipro for its work helping a global market intelligence company reduce the complexity of digital transformation by implementing Wipros innovative Boundaryless Enterprise framework powered by VMware Tanzu.

Accelerating digital transformation in the cloud

The partnership between Wipro and VMware is valuable for our clients and us. VMware has a solid history of enabling enterprise IT, developing strong roadmaps for Cross-Cloud managed services, and accelerating time-to-value for our clients, says Jason Eichenholz, Wipros senior vice president and global head of ecosystems and partnerships.

To help companies continue to innovate by adopting agile and cost-effective multi-cloud strategies, Wipro goes beyond traditional data center services. The VMware partner first assesses what each client needs and then matches them with the right solutions: data and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), core computing and storage, or a mix of everything. Were moving data centers to the public cloud with VMware multi-cloud, which then frees up clients budgets and teams for broader digital transformation, Eichenholz says.

If needed, Wipro also helps its clients employees develop the right skills to better support the recommended systems. For many Wipro clients, however, using managed services makes more sense than developing in-house capacity. Because Wipro is a VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Provider, clients can count on the VMware partner to help with digital transformation and modernization in the cloud.

Being a VMware Cross-Cloud Managed Services Provider is almost like a seal of approval that accelerates client conversations and gets us past a lot of concerns companies typically express when trying to reinvent their data center operations, says Eichenholz. As such, many of the questions that clients previously came to the table with are answered preemptively, which shortens sales cycles and raises confidence.

Wipro also takes full advantage of the larger VMware partner ecosystem. They create consortiums to develop standard frameworks on Tanzu to build, run, and manage any apps on any cloud. The company also works closely with hyperscalers to migrate virtual machines to the public cloud. Even when Wipro develops modern applications, they integrate them with the many ISV partners within the VMware partner ecosystem rather than limiting them only to Wipro environments.

The companys dedication to multi-cloud and building the best framework for clients led to Wipros new Boundaryless Enterprise framework for managing both on- and off-premises enterprise technology. With it, we can provide clients a single pane of glass to manage all their cloud spend, no matter where it is, says Eichenholz.

Helping clients achieve unity and cost savings

The accomplishments that the partnership between VMware and Wipro can achieve are clearly demonstrated in their work with one of their many joint clients  in this case, a security device manufacturer that operates in more than 60 countries worldwide. In the past few decades, the client has acquired more than 250 companies. Each new acquisition creates unique challenges for the client to smoothly onboard, integrate processes and systems, and become a more seamless, well-connected global organization.

After working with this client for many years, Wipro noticed high capital expenditures, no chargebacks, and challenges with tracking IT costs. On top of that, lengthy provisioning times meant the clients continued acquisitions were becoming increasingly costly and time-consuming to manage.

To solve the clients problems, Wipro deployed their Boundaryless Enterprise framework, including a VMware Cloud Foundation environment for testing. As a result, the client was able to integrate new acquisitions four times faster, significantly accelerate environmental upgrade deployments, and realize cost savings of between 25% and 30%.

Provisioning times were cut from three to four weeks to a matter of hours, says Eichenholz, and we were able to completely track costs through chargeback models because of the visibility that VMware gave us. This is just one example of how our close, ongoing partnership with VMware delivers real value for us and our clients.

CTA: To learn more about transformative, customer-centric companies like Wipro, visit the resources on VMware Partner Executive Edge, and check out our Cloud Smart Strategy whitepaper.
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Job Description

The FAO-UNDP Joint Project Emergency support for agri-producers in the context of socio-economic and energy crisis - is expected to support Outcomes 2 and 3 of the Moldova 2030 SDGs Partnership Fund.

Outcome 2. The people of Moldova, in particular the most vulnerable, have access to enhanced livelihood opportunities, decent work and productive employment, generated by sustainable, inclusive and equitable economic growth.

Outcome 3. The people of Moldova, in particular the most vulnerable, benefit from enhanced environmental governance, energy security, sustainable management of natural resources, and climate and disaster resilient development.

The Joint Project has the goal to improve food security of the country, and to adresss regional impact of the current socio-economic crisis caused by the military conflict in Ukraine by supporting the most vulnerable small farmers (particularly women-led farms and young people) in rural areas of Moldova with inputs and improved capacities for resilient production.

UNDP Moldova will provide tailored support to women groups - small agricultural producers in order to increase knowledge and skills for sustainable and resilient agriculture and forest practices and to explore alternative income generation activities in the respective sectors with sustainable and green aspects mainstreamed. Also, women agri-producers will be supported in implementation of renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies (biomass boilers in greenhouses, photovoltaic, among others). The Project duration is envisaged between October 2022- August 2024 with support from Austrian Development Agency.

Additional top-ups are however in the process to materialize from SDC and from the Japane Government through the Japan Suplimentary Budget financing instrument. The top ups will increase the total budget dedicated to the emergency support to agro-producrers in the area of energy efficiency and reneawables to up to approx. 1.8 mln USD.

Scope of Work

Working under the overall guidance of the EECC Cluster Associate and Programme Analyst and the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Associate, in close coordination with the project team, is expected to exercise full compliance with UNDP programming, financial, procurement and administrative rules, regulations, policies and strategies, as well as implementation of the effective internal control systems.

Administrative management

Pro-actively contribute to day-to-day project implementation and ensure conformity to expected results and project work-plans;

Provide support to international consultants in the implementation of their tasks for the achievement of project results (communication, contracts, agenda, visas, accommodation, etc);

Maintain records on all project personnel/national consultants and their respective status (contracts, ToRs, and attendance  if appropriate, etc.) in accordance with accepted policies and procedures;

Coordinate other support staff, the project driver, translators, and short-term consultants.

Prepare and issue contracts;

Make pertinent logistical arrangements for the prompt and effective implementation of the programme activities;

Draft minutes of Project Board and other project related meetings;

Assume overall responsibility for administrative matters of a more general nature, such as registry and maintenance of project files and records;

Prepare Travel Authorizations and F10 claims for Project staff and consultants;

Arrange and coordinate translation services/Projects;

Arrange external and internal meetings (including the meetings of the Project Board, Technical level, as well as other relevant meetings etc.).

Financial management

Prepare requests for advance of funds and/or direct payments;

Monitor budget expenditures and maintain a proper record of approved project budgets and their revisions;

Prepare proposals for budget revisions;

Prepare and submit expenditure and programme budget status reports;

Respond to queries from the Government and UNDP with respect to financial aspects of the programme, liaise with UNDP-appointed and external auditors wherever required;

Prepare recurring reports as scheduled and special reports as required for budget preparations and audit;

Advise and assist international advisors and national consultants on all aspects of allowances, travel claims and other financial matters and calculate payments due for claims and services;

Assist the auditing performed by the project managers over the funds allocated to project. Ensure the compliance of allocated funds with the UNDP norms and regulations.

If necessary, travel for control and auditing purposes to the project.

Undertake other financial and administrative tasks on an ad hoc basis.

Procurement

In accordance with the Work Plan arrange for procurement of equipment, supplies and services;

Create and manage e-requisitions in Quantum;

Prepare the procurement plans for the projects and monitoring of their implementation;

Prepare the submissions to the Contract, Asset and Procurement Committee (CAP);

Ensure that contractual processes follow the stipulated UNDP procedures;

Physically clear and ensure delivery of equipment and supplies procured for the various programme sites;

Maintain the equipment and spare inventory including verification and transfer when required.

Other duties as assigned.

Assume full responsibility for and manage effectively and efficiently financial, physical / material assets, etc. in order to meet expected results. b) Apply UNDP programming tools utilization, and namely, introduce and control over the financial data in Quantum.

Institutional Arrangement

Direct supervisor: Project Manager

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager and overall guidance of the Programme Analyst, the incumbent assists in the effective management of the project through a range of actions contributing to the design, planning, management and monitoring of project activities. The Project

Associate applies and promotes the principles of results-based management (RBM), as well as a client-oriented approach consistent with UNDP rules and regulations.

Project Associate works in close collaboration with the Programme, Operations, Communications and other project teams in the Country Office (CO) for effective achievement of results, anticipating and resolving complex project-related issues and information delivery.

Core Competencies

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination



Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Thematic Area Name Definition Business Management Customer Satisfaction/Client Management Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solution, and deliver timely and quality results ans/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy Look for ways to add value beyond clients immediate requests Ability to anticipate clients upcoming needs and concerns. Administration and Operations Entitlement travel Knowledge of policy and procedures related to entitlement travel, including the identification of entitlement for lump sum for UNDP as well as other UN agencies Administration & Operations Events management (including retreats, trainings and meetings) Ability to manage events, including venue identification, accommodation, logistics, catering, transportation, and cash disbursements, etc Administration & Operations Travel contract management Knowledge of policy and procedures related to contract management, incl. oversight of the Long Term Agreement (LTA) with the Travel Management Services (TMS) provider; UN airline agreement management covering all major and rail providers; ability to negotiate airline discounts Finance Budget management Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets. Finance Financial planning and budgeting Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP's long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analysing and reporting Procurement Procure-to-Pay Knowledge of purchase-to-pay cycles, concepts, principles and policies, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations.

Minimum Academic Education

Secondary Education.

Bachelor Degree in economics, finance, accounting, public administration or other related field would be desired.

Long-listed candidates may be required to undergo the UNDP Accountancy & Finance Test (AFT).

Min. years of relevant Work experience

Minimum 6 years (with Secondary Education) or minimum 3 years (with Bachelors Degree) of experience in administrative work, accounting/finance, economics, in development assistance or related work for a donor organization, consulting company, or NGO experience is required.

Required skills

Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Experience in providing effective administrative and logistical support.

Experience in office maintenance and assets management.

Desired additional skills

Experience in compilation and preparation of briefing and presentation materials, reports.

Previous experience in organization of procurement processes.

Experience to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, to obtain, evaluate and interpret factual data and to prepare accurate and complete reports and other documents.

Experience in maintenance of the filing system ensuring safekeeping of confidential materials.

Required Language(s)

Fluency in oral and written English, Romanian Russian.

Knowledge of one or more minority languages relevant for Moldova, including Romani, Gagauzian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and sign language is an asset.

Required Documents

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.

Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.

Disclaimer

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Non-discrimination

UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

Data de incheiere a postului vacant : 21 august 2023

Pentru a aplica, va rugam sa adresati link-ul: Apply Now
The UKs largest healthcare charitys costs and income both rose by around a quarter last year, with energy prices pushing up its expenditure, according to its recently filed accounts.

Nuffield Healths total income increased to 1.24bn in the 2022 calendar year, up from 996,000 in 2021, the first time it has exceeded 1bn.

Income from its hospital and wellbeing services both increased by more than 100m on the year to 826m and 342m respectively.

However, the charitys costs also rose by 27% to 1.30bn, driven by a 180m increase in expenditure across its hospital services.

This left Nuffield Health with a 62.6m deficit last year, almost double the 32.8m it recorded in 2021.

CEO pay halves

The charitys chief executive Steve Grays pay halved to between 620,0000 and 630,000, compared to between 1.22m and 1.23m the year before .

In an introduction to the accounts, Gray said a 10% increase in the charitys gym memberships as well as growth in its hospital activity led to the income rise.

However, the 2022 results were impacted by our decision to give all employees a pay increase, prioritising those on a lower salary, and factors such as the sharp increase in energy prices, he said.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling in favour of Nuffield Health to receive a mandatory 80% relief from business rates for one of its members-only gyms.

Staff costs increase

The charitys staff costs increased by 86m to 486m last year, with its number of full-time equivalent employees increasing by 759, to 11,074.

Gray said the organisation proactively supported and invested in our people to help them cope with the impact of cost-of-living rises, prioritising those on lower salaries.

All employees received a pay increase, and the implementation of the Nuffield Health living wage resulted in just over one third receiving an 11% pay rise, he said.

Employees in lower salary brackets were also given a one-off cost-of-living payment.

Meanwhile, the charity reported that its gender pay gap decreased to 3.4% compared to 5.9% the year before.

It also recorded an ethnicity pay gap of 4.4% in favour of non-white employees, compared to 5.7% the year before.

sign up to receive the free Civil Society daily news bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Rain continued to pelt northeastern China in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri on Saturday, as authorities reported more fatalities and missing people while evacuating thousands more.

Six people died and four went missing in the city of Shulan in Jilin province, which has seen five straight days of rainfall, according to state media.

Over 18,900 people were evacuated from the city of more than 700,000, according to the local disaster relief agency. State news agency China News Service showed images of waterlogged streets around homes and factories. The average precipitation in the city had reached 111.7 mm (4.4 inches) by Friday afternoon.

China is struggling with record-breaking rainfall in some areas while others suffer scorching summer heat and drought that threatens crops. The heavy rains  remnants of Typhoon Doksuri  have battered northern China since late July, disrupting the lives of millions. Flooding near Beijing and in neighboring Hebei province this week killed at least 22 people.

In northeastern Heilongjiang province, which is known as Chinas great northern granary, rain inundated farms and flooded streets, leading to the evacuation of thousands.

In the city of Shangzhi, heavy rainfall turned roads into rivers and inundated thousands of households.

National emergency management authorities said 25 rivers across Heilongjiang threatened to burst their banks, while disaster relief groups have been dispatched to the province.

In Heilongjiangs capital of Harbin, more than 53,000 people had to be evacuated as multiple reservoirs and rivers exceeded safety levels while some 41,600 hectares (103,000 acres) of crops were damaged.

In the city of Yushu in Jilin province, about 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) south of Harbin, flooding forced the evacuation of around 19,000 people.

Meanwhile, in Hebei province around Beijing, which saw some of the region`s worst flooding in the past few weeks, authorities issued fresh alerts for rainstorms on Saturday.

Floodwaters in Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, started to recede Saturday, state media reported, allowing some of the 125,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes.

The death toll in the 11 million-strong city of Baoding reached 10 while another 18 people are still missing, local authorities said Saturday.

Floods damaged roads and washed away bridges in the citys Yesanpo Scenic Area, a national park known for its gorges and mountains.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Texas appellate court threw out a trial court order that approved a plaintiffs overly broad discovery request in an employees personal injury lawsuit against Home Depot.

A panel of the 9th Court of Appeals in Beaumont vacated a judges discovery order as requested by Home Depot, whose lawyers called Brandon Giards discovery request a textbook fishing expedition.

Even though we recognize that parties have some latitude in fashioning proper discovery requests, the trial courts order compels Home Depot to produce over a hundred items Home Depot used during Giards training that might possibly be said to relate to safety in a general sense, but given the documents titles, we cannot see how subjects ranging from defibrillators to workplace violence are relevant to the facts of consequence in this dispute, the opinion, released Thursday, says.

Giard alleges he severely injured his back while pushing a Cub Cadet Zero-Turn lawn mower up onto a customers trailer at the retailers store in The Woodlands, Texas. The 570-lb. riding mower rolled backward onto Giard when customers let go of it, the suit says. He says he had to undergo back surgery for his injury.

Home Depot does not subscribe to Texas workers compensation system, which is voluntary for employers. Work injury claims are often settled through personal injury suits.

Giards attorneys sent Home Depot a request to make a corporate representative available to answer a wide range of questions, including how many zero-turn lawnmowers it sold at The Woodlands store, all safety training offered to employees what kind of equipment could feasibly be used to assist employees in loading riding mowers onto customers vehicles.

Home Depot objected to specific requests that went beyond the dispute at hand, but did not seek a protective order before making a store manager available for questioning during a deposition. Defense attorneys objected when the plaintiffs attorney asked questions about irrelevant subjects and instructed store manager Zulema Portillo not to answer them. She complied.

Giards team responded by filing a motion to compel testimony on the requested topics. Judge Kristin Bays, with the 284th District Court in Montgomery County, ruled that by failing to request a protective order, Home Depot had waived its right to object to the discovery requests.

Home Depot appealed. It argued that nothing in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure require it to file a request for a protective order before objecting to a discovery request as overly broad.

The appellate panel agreed. The opinion says Rule 199.5 specifically allows defense attorneys to object when attorneys during a deposition ask questions that go beyond the scope of permissible discovery. The appellate panel said it also agreed with Home Depot that Giards discovery request went well outside the proper bounds of discovery.

The appellate panel remanded the case back to Judge Bays saying it is confident that she will vacate her order granting Giards motion to compel discovery. The panel said it will grant Home Depots requested writ of mandamus only if she does not.
BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Despite warnings of bad weather, the skies cleared for the long-anticipated dedication of the bell tower by the Brunswick Area Historical Society at Heritage Farm Sunday (Aug. 6).

A small crowd gathered as the Rev. John Mills, former pastor of First Christian Church, gave the prayer for the bell that was housed at the Disciples of Christ Church in Brunswick for 184 years.

In 2019, the church on Center Road was sold to Cuyahoga Community College. The congregation donated the bell and other artifacts to the historical society for their preservation for future generations. The stone plaque that was in the churchs old bell tower is now featured in the center of the new structure at Heritage Farm.

At nearly the same time, the school district was razing the Edwards Middle School building, which had served as the high school until 1967. The schools donated bricks to the historical society. All the bricks were cleaned of their old mortar by volunteers.

Superintendent Jason A. Niedermeyer was in attendance at the bell tower dedication, as was former Superintendent James Hayas.

Historical Society President Carl Bilski took on the job of building a new bell tower. By selling engraved bricks, he was able to see the fruition of all the work on Sunday.

As a veteran, he also enlisted veteran organizations and families to buy bricks. The combination of church, school and community names makes the new bell tower a unique structure. The bell tower bricks contain names of current residents, past residents, organizations and memorials.

At the ceremony, Edward Zackery, director/service officer of the Medina County Veterans Services Office, spoke about that connection. Those who served our country, he explained, fought to preserve the right to worship, to be educated and to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- all now incorporated into the new structure.

City Council member Kristy Piper, who is also a school music teacher, expressed her appreciation for the tower because it represents so much of the community. Piper heads the committee that oversees the Heritage Farm property and congratulated all who participated.

Historical Society Vice President Judy Galo noted that the bell is not meant to be rung any longer, but wondered if it could be rung this once.

John Clouse, the mason whose crew placed the bricks on the structure, managed to find a stick and climbed high enough to ring the bell.

For the Ruf family, including Grace Ruf, who was in the audience with her daughter, it was a tearful but happy moment.

Everyone in attendance was treated to a custom-made cookie with a photo of the bell tower created by Cookie Chameleon and Brunswick graduate Kimberly Chasko, who is a vendor at the societys Sunday at the Farm farmers market.

Heritage Farm is the historical society portion of the citys South Park. Sunday at the Farm gives people the opportunity to tour the historic farmhouse and barn, with tours available other days by appointment.

More information is available at https://brunswickhistory.com/ A video of the ceremony will be available on the website soon.

Read more from the Brunswick Sun.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Two East Cleveland police officers admitted Monday to stealing more than $14,000 from residents while on duty.

Alfonzo Cole, 35, and Willie Warner-Sims, 32, each pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to four counts of robbery and one count of theft in office. Authorities said they fleeced six victims between July 2000 and July 2021.

Timothy McGinty, who is serving as a visiting judge, will sentence the former officers Sept. 11. Under Ohio law, the men could receive as much as five years for each robbery charge.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve the public, Michael OMalley, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, said in a statement. These officers took an oath to serve and protect the public and with their actions they violated that oath. The citizens of East Cleveland deserve better and today demonstrates that public corruption of any kind will not be tolerated in Cuyahoga County.

The pleas are among the first involving a longstanding investigation into the department. County prosecutors have charged more than 10 officers, including the departments former chief, Scott Gardner, who has denied the charges. He is accused of tax charges and theft in office.

The allegations against Cole and Warner-Sims are some of the most egregious the departments officers have faced. The officers came under investigation in July 2021 after several people filed complaints accusing Cole and Warner-Sims of stealing from them during traffic stops.

Prosecutors said Warner-Sims responded to a disturbance July 7, 2020, at a gas station between a man and a woman and stole $3,850 he found in the mans car.

Cole pulled over a man on Sept. 22, 2020, and stole $800 in cash and about $400 worth of marijuana from him, then wrote him a ticket, prosecutors said. The ticket had the signatures of both Cole and an unidentified East Cleveland police supervisor on it, prosecutors said. Warner-Sims stole $1,300 that he found during a Nov. 8, 2020, traffic stop, prosecutors said.

Cole stole guns from two men on June 22, 2021, prosecutors said. He took $4,000 in cash, a gun and marijuana from a man he stopped on Bender Avenue, prosecutors said. Later, he stopped a man and his mother and asked if there was a gun in the car, prosecutors said. He searched the car and found a gun under the seat and kept it, prosecutors said.

On July 8, 2021, Warner-Sims pulled over the same man he stole from in November 2020 and pocketed $781 of the mans money and marijuana edibles, prosecutors said.

Later that same day, Cole and Warner-Sims stopped a man who said he was on his way to a funeral home to pay for his mothers services when the officers grabbed $4,000 of the mans cash, officials and prosecutors said.

East Cleveland police said the officers had no body camera videos from the interactions.

At least they were accountable, said Mariah Crenshaw, a longtime critic of the department. But Im not going to get excited until I learn how much time theyll get. This is something, no doubt. I just wonder how many other victims there were.

cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer late Monday afternoon reached out to Rufus Sims, who represents Cole.

Henry Hilow, who represents Warner-Sims with Daniel Misiewicz, said: Willie accepts responsibility for his actions, and he hopes to move on with his life.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio  A Garfield Heights woman was found dead on the side of the road early Friday, according to police.

Ashley Delgado, 29, was found at 5 a.m. in the 4700 block of Osborn Road, according to police and the office of the Cuyahoga County medical examiner. Neither police nor the medical examiners office released the cause of Delgados death.
LOWER PAXTON TOWNSHIP, Pa.  Multiple people are dead and more are injured following a charter bus crash near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, state police said.

The crash around 11:49 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 81 in Lower Paxton Township, located about 10 miles northeast of Harrisburg. The bus flipped on its side and the crash also involved a passenger vehicle.

Multiple passengers on the bus are deceased. Multiple people have been transported to Hershey Medical center for varying injuries, Pennsylvania State Police said, per CNN.

Passengers injuries ranged from minor to critical, police said, though the number of injured people remains unclear, according to NBC News. There were about 50 people on board the bus at the time of the crash.

RELATED: 3 dead, 14 injured in Greyhound bus crash on I-70 in Illinois

I-81 southbound was closed between exits 77 and 72 as of 4 a.m. Monday morning, WGAL in Pennsylvania reports.

The Chamber Hills Fire Department in Harrisburg and the Red Cross are assisting in reunification of the passengers and their families. More information will be shared as it becomes available, police said.
WASHINGTON, D. C. - Hundreds of military promotions around the country including several at Daytons Wright-Patterson Air Force Base have been stalled for months by a U.S. Senator who objects to the Defense Departments policy of funding abortion-related travel and paid time off for service members.

The hold from U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, is delaying pay raises and job transfers for 301 officers around the country, says Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. For those who are relocating between military bases, Tubervilles hold has left their moves, spousal job searches, and childrens school enrollment decisions in limbo, says Singh.

We have folks that could be moving from Colorado, to Japan or Africa, says Singh. Their moves are on hold. Their spouses need to get jobs in their new states or countries, and their kids need to be enrolled in school, but it is hard to do that if you dont know where youre going to be living.

Singh said five of the stalled promotions affect officers who are remaining at the Ohio military base or are due to be transferred there, with even more likely to be affected the longer Tuberville refuses to allow the promotions to occur without individual votes until the Pentagon follows the law or changes the law.

Those are the two conditions that would get me to drop the hold, Tuberville continued. So, until these conditions are met, I object.

Tuberville says the Defense Departments authority to pay for abortions is legally limited to cases of rape, incest, or pregnancies that threaten the life of the mother. He said a third-party study estimated the new policy could drastically increase the number of taxpayer subsidized abortions for defense personnel and their dependents.

He says his hold forces the Senate to consider and vote on the nominations by regular order, considering each one individually, instead of approving them in batches by unanimous consent. Doing so would greatly increase the time it takes for approvals. Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed of Rhode Island says it it would take months and months of exclusive voting on these nominations to clear this list, while another list is building up.

Singh says the policy that Tuberville objects to was implemented after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade precedent that had legalized abortion nationwide, and individual states began to enact abortion restrictions. She said the Pentagon enacted its policy to allow travel for abortion to ensure that all service members have the same access to reproductive health care, no matter where they are based. She said the travel policy can be used to get other treatments that are not abortion related, such as egg harvesting or in-vitro fertilization, that may be restricted in some states.

Our service members dont have a choice of the state theyre assigned to, said Singh. If they are serving in Texas, they should have the same health care rights as someone serving in California.

None of the Wright-Patterson officers whose transfers and promotions have been held up responded to requests for comment made through public affairs officers at Wright-Patterson and the Pentagon.

As this is a political matter, we politely decline comment, said an Air Force spokesman at Wright-Patterson.

According to the Pentagon, the first Wright-Patterson promotion affected by the hold was Col. Jason D. Voorheis Jan. 26 nomination to become a brigadier general. Voorheis currently serves as the senior military assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon. When his promotion goes through, hed be Special Assistant to Commander at Wright-Pattersons Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

On Feb. 3, President Joe Biden nominated Col. Michael T. McGinley, who currently serves as the mobilization assistant to the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, to be a brigadier general who would remain at the base.

In March, Biden nominated Brig. Gen. Scott A. Cain, who currently serves as director of Air, Space and Cyberspace Operations at the Wright-Patterson Headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command, to become a major general who would serve as commander of the bases Air Force Research Laboratory.

In May, Biden nominated Maj. Gen. Linda S. Hurry to move up from her current post in the Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection office at Air Force headquarters in Washington, D.C., to become a lieutenant general assigned as deputy commander of Wright-Pattersons Air Force Materiel Command.

Also in May, Biden nominated Lt. Gen. Donna D. Shipton, who currently serves in the Pentagons Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), to instead be assigned as commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Pattersons Air Force Materiel Command without a change in rank.

Biden has repeatedly protested Tubervilles hold on military promotions and urged the Senate to approve all outstanding military nominees as quickly as possible.

It has long been an article of faith in this country that supporting our servicemembers and their families, and providing for the strength of our national defense, transcends politics, said a statement from Biden. What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrongit is dangerous. In this moment of rapidly evolving security environments and intense competition, he is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, objects to Tubervilles hold on military promotions and accused him of using the issue to score political points.

Blocking these promotions leaves vacancies in our military leadership and makes our country less safe, said a statement Brown posted on social media. Tuberville needs to do the right thing and stop holding up the well-deserved promotions of those who protect our country.

U.S. Sen. JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican, has expressed support for Tubervilles hold. He cosponsored a resolution Tuberville filed in the U.S. Senate that would rescind the Veterans Administrations policy on abortion-related care. He told Fox News that Congress and the president make abortion policy and it is not the job of the military brass.

The US military should focus on defending Americas national security interests, said a social media post from Vance. That does not include paying for abortion with taxpayer money.

Vance put his own hold on U.S. Senate approval of all Justice Department nominees as a protest of the unprecedented political prosecution of former President Donald Trump by Bidens Department of Justice. Vances action affects far fewer nominees than Tubervilles.

Air Force Sec. Charles Q. Brown Jr., whose appointment to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff could be held up by Tuberville, last month told the Senate Armed Services committee that he expects the military will lose talent as junior officers whose promotions are currently too low-level to require Senate confirmation decide to leave the military before they reach that level rather than having their lives put in limbo by a Senate hold.

He also said it is hurting the ability of younger officers to get experience and gain promotions and is keeping officers who want to retire from leaving their posts to help the military mitigate the challenge of not being able to fill vacancies that would be created by their departures.

I think that we do need to think about is how it impacts our families because it has an impact not just for the senior officer, but all their staff and all those below them, said Brown.

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
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Australia has urged China to abolish all remaining trade restrictions after Beijing lifted tariffs on its barley imports, pointing to signs of a normalization in bilateral ties. Canberra is expecting its largest trading partner to next drop tariffs on Australian wine imports that were introduced in March 2021. At the peak of diplomatic tensions in 2020 and 2021, Beijing slapped import tariffs on several Australian exports from wine and red meat to lobsters and timber. "We want all of the impediments removed, that currently affect our trading relationship with China," Trade Minister Don Farrell told CNBC Monday.

We think with some goodwill on both sides, that we can completely stabilize this relationship. Don Farrell Australian trade minister

"We always saw the barley application and the suspension of the barley application before the [World Trade Organisation] as a template for dealing with the wine issue," he said. "So I think now's the opportunity to have some further talks with the Chinese government." A decision on wine tariffs is "not very far away," according to Farrell. "And of course, we're extremely confident that the 220% tariffs that were applied to Australian wine will be removed."

Thawing tensions

In April, Australia agreed to "temporarily suspend" its World Trade Organization complaint against China for its 2020 decision to impose 80.5% duties on Australian barley trade that was once worth about 1.5 billion Australian dollars ($988.1 million). It paved the way for Beijing to expediate its review of the tariff decision. Last Friday, the Chinese Commerce Ministry announced it was dropping all anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley starting Saturday  more than three years after they were imposed. The ministry cited "changes in the Chinese market" but did not further explain.

Bottles of wine imported from Australia are displayed for sale at a supermarket in Nantong Free Trade Zone on November 27, 2020 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province of China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

On Monday, Farrell said a "range of factors" were at play, with Chinese beer consumers and barley importers "very strongly in favor" of reintroducing Australian barley. The move underscored thawing tensions between Australia and China, following the first meeting between China's President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders' summit in Bali in November. Since then, Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong and trade minister Farrell have visited Beijing and have had direct meetings with their direct counterparts.

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Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is seen before docking with the International Space Station on May 20, 2022 during the uncrewed OFT-2 mission.

Boeing said Monday it aims to be ready to fly NASA astronauts with its Starliner capsule for the first time by March, resetting its timeline after the company delayed a planned launch this summer.

"Based on the current plans, we're anticipating that we're going to be ready with the spacecraft in early March," Boeing VP and Starliner manager Mark Nappi said during a press conference.

"That does not mean we have a launch date in early March," Nappi added. "We're now working with NASA  Commercial Crew program and [International Space Station]  and ULA [United Launch Alliance] on potential launch dates based on our readiness ... we'll work throughout the next several weeks and see where we can get fit in and then then we'll set a launch date."

The company continues to work toward Starliner's crew flight test, which is planned to carry NASA astronauts to the ISS in a final demonstration before beginning regular spaceflights.

Boeing delayed the launch twice this year  most recently due to issues with the spacecraft's parachutes and a type of tape used in its assembly  and now expects the capsule won't fly crew until next year.

On Monday, representatives from NASA and Boeing said work to replace the problematic tape is expected to be complete by the end of September, and a parachute drop test is planned for "mid-to-late" November. Boeing's Nappi noted that the parachute work "is the critical path" toward being ready in March.

NASA's Commercial Crew manager Steve Stich said Starliner is 98% complete in terms of progress toward the agency certifying the spacecraft to carry its astronauts.

As for the timing of Boeing's first operational flight, Stich deferred, saying it depends on the timing and outcome of the final test flight.

"Could we fit it into the end of next year? It's probably a little too early to tell whether we could fit that flight in or not," Stich said.

Starliner continues to be a costly and behind-schedule endeavor for Boeing. Due to the years of delays and development cost overruns, Boeing last month reported that it's absorbed about $1.5 billion in overrun costs to date.
Fish swim around a coral reef in Key West, Florida on July 13, 2023. The coral reef, the largest in the continental US, is considered a barrier reef and is around 350 miles (563.27 km) wide from the Dry Tortugas National Park to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County, Florida. Joseph Prezioso | Afp | Getty Images

The world's ocean temperatures have climbed to their hottest level on record, according to data from the European Union's climate monitor, prompting scientists to warn of immediate and wide-ranging consequences for the planet. The average daily global sea surface temperature rose to 20.98 degrees Celsius (69.76 Fahrenheit) on Aug. 4, according to the latest data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, far above the average for this time of year. This extends an alarming run of increasingly higher temperatures for the planet's oceans in early August, with the record heat appearing to show no signs of abating anytime soon. The average surface temperature of the world's oceans hit 20.96 degrees Celsius in late July, surpassing a previous record logged in 2016, before gradually rising closer to 21 degrees on each of the first four days of August. Copernicus data stretches back to 1979. The surface temperature of the world's oceans would typically be expected to reach their highest in March rather than in August, sparking alarm among climate scientists. "The recent ocean warming is genuinely concerning," said Rowan Sutton, professor of climate science at the University of Reading. Sutton said that the latest sea surface temperature data showed that "we may be experiencing not just a record-breaking extreme event but a record-shattering one."

"Whilst there are certainly short-term factors, the major long-term cause is without any doubt the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels," Sutton said. "This is yet another alarm bell that screams out for the most urgent actions to limit future warming and to adapt to the serious changes that are unfolding before our eyes," he added. The ocean heat record comes as part of a recent trend of extreme heat stretching across the globe, with this July poised to be recognized as the hottest month in history.

'Exceptionally and unseasonably warm'
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When Dr. Tra'chella Johnson Foy greets her patients, she sits across from them facing away from the computer in the exam room. Then, she pulls out her phone, and asks for permission to record the appointment. "It listens in on our visit so I can pay more attention to you," explains Foy, a family physician at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, while looking straight at her patient. Foy and other doctors at Baptist Health have been using the DAX app, powered by artificial intelligence, from Microsoft's Nuance division since last year. The program transcribes doctors' and patients' comments, then creates a clinical physician summary formatted for an electronic health record.

Dr. Trachella Johnson CNBC

The app frees doctors from having to type up notes during patient visits, and from having to finish them up at night. A practice so common doctors have a nickname for it. "Pajama time  which should be the time where you're getting ready to wind down and go to bed. We're usually still charting and noting and doing things that are going to enhance the life of the patient but not necessarily our own quality of life," Foy said.

The cost of tackling burnout

Harnessing AI programs to put pajama time to rest, and helping doctors and nurses fight burnout, is a top priority for Baptist Health's chief digital and information officer, Aaron Miri. "There's new economies of scale ... that health care will be able to get into [by] leveraging AI," Miri said. "You eliminate all the administrative redundancy, and bureaucracy overhead, and you allow folks to work at top of license." Administrative processes like documenting visits, requesting insurance pre-authorization for procedures, and processing bills account for about 25% of health-care costs, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study. The researchers estimate adopting AI to simplify those tasks could help hospitals cut their total costs by 5% to 11% in the next five years, while physician groups could achieve up to 8% savings, and health insurers up to 10%. But the upfront investment won't be cheap: An Advisory Board survey of health-care executives last year found that 1 in 4 expected to see costs for artificial intelligence and analytics increase 25%. Larger health systems like Baptist may be in a better position to fund that investment than smaller hospitals, and more likely to have the tech staffing to help integrate the new generative AI solutions. "If it cost me X, but I just made my patients a whole lot happier and my physicians a whole lot more productive? Well, there's an answer right there by itself," said Miri.

Keeping people in the mix

Right now, hospital systems working with the new generative AI programs to automate administrative tasks are requiring doctors and nurses to check over the automated documents before they're included in medical records. "What organizations are doing is they're looking at these high-impact use cases, but also making sure that they mitigate the risks and looking at ways that we can choose the scenarios where we put a human in the middle," said Dr. David Rhew, chief medical officer and vice president of health care for Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business. But there are concerns that as organizations look to cut costs and boost efficiency, automation could take humans out of the mix. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb worries that generative AI could eventually eliminate some doctors' jobs by creating "large language models that operate fully automated, parsing the entirety of a patient's medical record to diagnose conditions and prescribe treatments directly to the patient, without a physician in the loop." Patients are also wary of how the technology could be used for their own care. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in CNBC's All America Survey last month said they would be uncomfortable with AI being used to diagnose medical issues. Dr. Lloyd Minor, the dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, worries more about how the fast-moving technology could be used to impact patient access to care. "My deepest fear is that medical data is used in a pernicious way, either to block access to the appropriate health care, or to distort the way that health care is delivered," said Minor, who helped launch an initiative to promote responsible use of AI. Last month, health insurers Cigna and UnitedHealthcare were each sued over the use of conventional computer algorithms to deny medical claims.
E. Jean Carroll exits the Manhattan Federal Court following the verdict in the civil rape accusation case against former U.S. President Donald Trump, New York City, May 9, 2023.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a defamation counterclaim by Donald Trump against writer E. Jean Carroll in her pending lawsuit that accuses the former president of defaming her after she wrote that he had raped her.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, in a separate order made public Monday, ruled that Carroll's lawyers can give the Manhattan District Attorney's office a videotape and transcript of the deposition of Trump they took last fall for the lawsuit.

That order raises the chance that Trump's sworn testimony in Carroll's case could be used against the former president as part of the DA's pending criminal prosecution.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. charged Trump, 77, earlier this year with falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. That case, in which Trump has pleaded not guilty, is set to go to trial next May.

Trump's counterclaim in the Carroll suit focused on what he argued were her false statements, which he alleged badly harmed his reputation, a day after a jury verdict in May in her favor for $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation in a related civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Carroll during a CNN interview said that she thought, "Oh, yes, he did  oh, yes, he did"  after jurors in that case did not find that Trump had raped her.

In the same interview, Carroll described her encounter in court with Trump's lawyer Joseph Tacopina right after the jury verdict, when Tacopina shook hands with her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge.

"Well, Joe Tacopina is very likeable. He's sort of like an 18th century strutting peacock," Carroll said on CNN. "So, he sticks out his hand  first he congratulated Robbie. And then, he was congratulating people on the team. And as I put my hand forward, I said, 'He did it and you know it.' Then we shook hands, I passed on."

Judge Kaplan, in dismissing the counterclaim, wrote that Carroll's statements repeating a claim that Trump had raped her were "substantially true" because the jury had found he digitally penetrated her, even if it did not find that he had penetrated her with his penis, as is required for a rape charge under New York law.

"In fact, both acts constitute 'rape' in common parlance, its definition in some dictionaries, in some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere," Kaplan wrote.

Roberta Kaplan, in a statement on the judge's ruling, said, "We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump's counterclaim."

"That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldn't take very long to complete," Roberta Kaplan said. "E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019."

Trump's lawyer Alina Habba said, "We strongly disagree with the flawed decision and will be filing an appeal shortly."

Bragg's office in May issued a subpoena for the videotape and transcript of the deposition Trump gave in Carroll's civil case last fall.

Trump's lawyers then asked a New York state court judge to block the subpoena.

The judge last month ruled that Kaplan, who is overseeing Carroll's case, should decide whether a protective order covering the deposition precluded it from being given to the DA's office by her lawyers.

Kaplan, in his order made public Monday, said Carroll's lawyers could comply with the subpoena.

Although Trump's lawyers had argued in the state court action that the deposition was covered by the protective order, they did not renew that argument to Kaplan.

Carroll's lawyers declined to comment Monday on the district attorney's subpoena.

Bragg's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the judge's order allowing him to obtain the deposition.

The deposition Trump gave features an exchange he had with Roberta Kaplan, who asked him about the infamous "Access Hollywood" comment made years earlier. In those comments, Trump bragged about sexually groping women without asking for their consent and getting away with it because he was a "star."

"Well, historically, that's true with stars," Trump answered.

Roberta Kaplan then asked him if was "true with stars that they can grab women" by their genitals.

"Well, that's what  if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately, or fortunately," Trump replied.
If you ask Everette Taylor how he became CEO of crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, he'll tell you: "I got lucky." The 34-year-old spent a chunk of his teen and young adult years battling homelessness and hustling to make ends meet, he says. He dropped out of Virginia Tech and founded an event marketing startup. Then, he sold the company and landed a VP of marketing job at another startup. Taylor parlayed those experiences into a career in serial entrepreneurship and marketing strategy, ultimately helping him land the top job at Kickstarter in September 2022. Two soft skills helped him navigate that journey, he says: empathy and risk taking. "I'm driven by risk," he tells CNBC Make It. "And in terms of getting me to where I am now, empathy is key." Here's why Taylor says risk-taking and empathy are so important, and how you can cultivate both skills.

'Every failure is a part of the puzzle'

As a child, Taylor was fearless  at least, that's what his mom tells him, he says. As an adult, his approach to risk is more calculated. "I take a step back and say that if I take this path, or I take this [other] path, this is where my life is going to end up," Taylor says. "My appetite for risk is higher, because I know that the impact that I want to leave on the world and the people around me requires taking chances." At Kickstarter, Taylor recently implemented a four-day workweek for his employees, a risk that comes with pros and cons. It can improve employee productivity and morale, according to businesses that have tried it. It can also hinder time management, pose scheduling challenges and cause burnout, Boston University organizational psychologist Constance Hadley told the school's website last year. For now, it's paying off, Taylor told Time in June: "We've been just as productive or even more productive with a four-day workweek." Other risks aren't worth taking, Taylor says. He regrets selling drugs as a teenager, a job that could have landed him in jail if his mother hadn't intervened and "really forced me to get a [real] job," he told LinkedIn's "The Path" newsletter in June. That job was as a junior marketing assistant for bookstores and museums across Virginia, the first step in a marketing career that eventually led to Taylor's CEO position. His takeaway: Embracing your failures can make taking risks less scary. "Every failure is part of the puzzle that leads you to the overall picture that is supposed to be your life," Taylor says now. "[I don't] focus on what could go wrong. I think more optimistically. There's always going to be another job, there's always going to be another opportunity out there. Why not go for it when you can?"

Empathy is an 'essential skill set'
Here are Monday's biggest calls on Wall Street. Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's sticking with its overweight rating after Apple's quarterly 10-Q report. "Balance sheet inventory growth reflects Apple's strategic component prepurchases, which we believe will help support sequentially expanding gross margins into F1H24." DA Davidson reiterates Amazon as buy DA Davidson said it's standing by its buy rating after the company's earnings report last week. "On last Thursday's 2Q23 earnings call, CEO, President, and Director, Andy Jassy, provided, what we considered to be, the clearest and most overt description of his vision for the future of Amazon over the course of nearly 15 minutes." Wells Fargo upgrades DraftKings to overweight from equal weight Wells Fargo upgraded the stock after its earnings report last week and said the "bull thesis is playing out." "We learned a lot last week: DKNG is capturing share, capitalizing on an improved product, and limiting opex growth." Read more about this call here. UBS upgrades DaVita to buy from neutral UBS said the kidney and dialysis stock is underappreciated. "Further, our differentiated view that DVA will resume share repurchase in 4Q should serve as a positive catalyst and an accelerant to 2024 EPS not reflected in consensus estimates." Read more about this call here. UBS reiterates Meta as buy UBS said it's bullish heading into the Meta Connect event in September. "We expect Meta to introduce genAI consumer chatbots across WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook by the end of next month at the Meta Connect event." Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy Bank of America said it's standing by its buy rating ahead of earnings later this month. "Maintain Buy, top sector pick and $550 PO on NVDA ahead of its F2Q (Jul) earnings call given its dominant position and multi-year runway in transforming the $1Tn+ in traditional global data centers to AI/accelerated compute." Morgan Stanley upgrades Laureate to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the education company is a beneficiary of nearshoring. "We believe Laureate should benefit directly and indirectly from nearshoring, but it might incur some expansion CAPEX. We raise enrollment estimates and upgrade the stock to Overweight." Raymond James reiterates Charles Schwab as outperform Raymond James said it's expecting a "strong EPS rebound in 2024 and beyond" for Charles Schwab . "We believe strong revenue growth will be paired with elevated incremental margins, particularly in 2024 and 2025." Raymond James upgrades EchoStar to strong buy from outperform Raymond James said the satellite company is very well-positioned. "We are upgrading EchoStar to Strong Buy, from Outperform, as we think the company is positioned very well at a critical juncture for the U.S. Satellite industry, driven by significant capacity being brought online with the Jupiter 3 satellite, a very strong balance sheet with $1.7B in cash and -$0.2B in net debt, and significant fallow S-Band spectrum holdings." Morgan Stanley reiterates Palo Alto Networks as overweight Morgan Stanley said the company has a "differentiated" and "disruptive" platform. " Palo Alto Networks offers a disruptive platform, well positioned to address the evolving threat landscape." Redburn upgrades United Airlines to buy from neutral Redburn said it likes the airline's international exposure. "We upgrade United t o Buy (target price $80) owing to our preference for international and our more positive view on the impact of fewer narrow-body deliveries on both capex and growth over the coming years." UBS upgrades Wayfair to buy from neutral UBS said it sees a favorable "intermediate term" setup for Wayfair. "While sentiment on the stock has improved lately, we believe the market will be surprised by the degree of profit upside that W is likely to generate in the coming periods." UBS upgrades PG & E to buy from neutral UBS said in its upgrade of the utility company that it sees numerous positive catalysts ahead. "We upgrade PCG to Buy, with five drivers: 1) Top quartile EPS growth of 9%; 2) Improving credit metrics; 3) Better wildfire risk mitigation; 4) A 25% group P/ E discount based on our $1.49 in '25 and 5) Several catalysts." Guggenheim upgrades Fortinet to buy from neutral Guggenheim said the cybersecurity company has a wide moat. "While we recognize Fortinet faces several headwinds heading into the second half of the year, we do not believe the company is structurally impaired, nor do we believe its competitive positioning has deteriorated." Read more about this call here . UBS reiterates Berkshire Hathaway as buy UBS said it's standing by its buy rating on shares of Berkshire Hathaway after its earnings report Saturday. The firm raised its price target on the stock to $621,591 from $608,000 on Class A shares. "Insurance outperformed with strong underwriting results driven largely by reserve releases and lower than expected catastrophe losses, as well as better than expected NII (net interest income)." Morgan Stanley reiterates Cinemark as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's standing by its overweight rating on Cinemark as the success of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" has "squashed" the theatrical bear case. "Conviction in studios and consumers embracing theatrical has been further reinforced by the Barbenheimer summer. At the same time, the ongoing dual labor strikes have created new uncertainty over the slate. Balancing the permanence of the good news with the transience of the bad news keeps us OW." Read more about this call here. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. Truist upgrades Camping World to buy from neutral Truist said in its upgrade of the RV company that it sees a compelling entry point. "We are upgrading CWH shares to Buy & raising our 12-mo PT to $35 (from $28). In our opinion, the recent post 2Q pullback, combined with now de-risked 2H expectations, an airing of its modified capital allocation framework, and - what we believe could be - material upside to '24 Street ests., presents a more compelling entry point for investors." Piper Sandler upgrades Monster Beverage to overweight from neutral Piper Sandler said the beverage stock is well-positioned. "We remain bullish on the energy drink category specifically, especially with no private label presence, and expect MNST to continue to be well-positioned, and the Monster brand (~90% of sales) has very strong brand equity." Morgan Stanley upgrades Curtiss-Wright to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said in its upgrade of the aerospace and defense company that it's a "premium asset in a scarce pool." "The Pivot to Growth continues and endmarket demand remains robust, positioning CW for underappreciated topline expansion."
Despite those losses, WTI is up 1% for August, on pace for its third straight monthly gain. In July it rallied more than 15%.

Global benchmark Brent futures traded lower by 0.7% at $85.63 a barrel after reaching their highest level since April. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures dipped 0.7% to $82.24 per barrel.

Earlier in the session, crude rose following an attack on a key Russian oil export hub and extended production cuts by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Over the weekend, Ukraine launched a naval drone attack on Russia's port of Novorossiysk, a critical hub on the Black Sea for Russian oil exports. Ukraine did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

In addition, the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia last Thursday extended its voluntary crude oil output cut of a million barrels per day to the end of September. Saudi Arabia's million barrel per day cut was implemented in July through to August, and the cut "can be extended or extended and deepened," the state-owned Saudi Press Agency said last week.

"Now that we've seen supplies come off, I think I think we'll see much higher prices," said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests, an oil and gas investment firm.

Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, also pledged Thursday to voluntarily trim oil exports by 300,000 million barrels per day in September.

"I actually think they're going to be quite volatile," Young said, adding that prices will be much higher over the next five years. "We might see all time-highs and prices crash as we go through this dynamic of insufficient supply relative to demand."

Citi's Ed Morse was slightly more optimistic about crude oil supplies after September.

Morse, global head of commodity research at the bank, says Saudi Arabia and Russian output is "likely to come back" in October, and that oil prices will hit $90 per barrel at most this quarter.

"We just don't see demand growth being that spectacular
Smoke billows from an unauthorized steel factory, foreground, on November 4, 2016 in Inner Mongolia, China. To meet China's targets to slash emissions of carbon dioxide, authorities are pushing to shut down privately owned steel, coal, and other high-polluting factories scattered across rural areas. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Developing nations will need more than $1 trillion each year to make significant progress in climate transition, according Mari Pangestu, a former World Bank official.

"The estimate is like $1 [trillion] to $3 trillion a year for developing countries to be able to transition," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Thursday.

The lack of funding has made it difficult for those countries to reduce their high carbon emissions and shift to clean energy, Pangestu added. This has led to tensions between developing nations and the developed world, which are pushing for more progress in climate related issues.

"This debate is going to continue unless developed countries can see that this is about development and climate  not just about climate," Pangestu, a former trade and tourism minister for Indonesia, said.

"And that has been the source of tension. You can't separate the two," she added, underlining the "key word is actually  transition."

"How do you transition from the high emission now to clean energy? It will require us to have resources."

This was "part of the bone of contention," for the lack of progress made in the recently concluded Group of 20 climate ministers meeting in India, Pangestu said.
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.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday rejected Donald Trump's claim that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election in his most forceful comments to date on the matter.

"Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner," DeSantis told NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns in his first broadcast network interview since he launched his presidential campaign.

DeSantis continued to discuss all the ways he believed the previous presidential election was not perfect. But pressed further, he clearly stated that Trump lost.

"But respectfully, you did not clearly answer that question," Burns said. "And if you can't give a 'yes' or 'no' on whether or not he lost "

"No, of course he lost," DeSantis said, adding, "Joe Biden's the president."

Tune in for the interview Monday on "TODAY" and "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt." Additional segments will air throughout the day on MSNBC and NBC News NOW. The full interview will also be available on NBCNews.com.

DeSantis' comments come just days after Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And at a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday, DeSantis also strongly dismissed theories that the election was stolen, saying they "did not prove to be true."

Still, DeSantis made sure to point out in Sunday's interview that he saw a number of problems with the 2020 election, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's grants for election administration, the widespread availability of mail-in ballots, state laws that allow third parties to collect and return voters' ballots, and how social media outlets de-emphasized a story about the laptop of President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden.

"I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. ... I don't think it was a good-run election," DeSantis said. "But I also think Republicans didn't fight back. You've got to fight back when that is happening."

But DeSantis also took aim at Trump, saying he set the stage for his own loss by signing the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill in response to the Covid-19 crisis. About $400 million of that money went to help states with election administration  and many states made voting by mail more widely available during the pandemic.

"But here's the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because of Trump turned the government over to Fauci," DeSantis said, referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leader of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."

Florida has long allowed anyone who wants to vote by mail to do so, including in the 2020 election.

Trump has been a vocal opponent of mail-in voting. For the 2024 election, the Republican National Committee has been attempting a "change of culture" to get GOP voters to embrace early voting, including voting by mail, after years of Trump's demonizing the practice.
In this photo illustration, the Sage Therapeutics logo of a biopharmaceutical company seen on a smartphone and on a pc screen.

Shares of Sage Therapeutics fell more than 50% on Monday after the Food and Drug Administration approved the biotech company's oral drug zuranolone for postpartum depression, but not for major depressive disorder, a bigger potential market.

Shares of Biogen , which jointly developed the treatment with Sage, were up modestly.

The FDA's approval late Friday made zuranolone the first oral treatment for postpartum depression, a common complication that affects 1 in 8 women during and after pregnancy and hinders their ability to function normally.

The two companies also applied for approval of zuranolone for major depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression. But the FDA said they did not provide enough evidence of the drug's effectiveness in treating the condition, which affects a much larger population of patients.

Clinical depression afflicts approximately 17.3 million American adults, or about 7% of the people ages 18 and older, in a given year.

Zuranolone had the potential for $1 billion in peak sales, compared with $250 million to $500 million for postpartum depression, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note Sunday.

He said clinical depression "was really the big upside driver here" for the companies, while postpartum depression is "much smaller and may not be hugely profitable."
Bernie Kerik, the disgraced New York City police commissioner, met Monday with investigators at special counsel Jack Smith's office for around five hours to discuss efforts by Donald Trump's campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, his lawyer told NBC News.

Kerik's sitdown with Smith's team came almost a week after the special counsel obtained a criminal indictment against the former president related to the election reversal effort.

That indictment details the work of one alleged co-conspirator who appears to be Giuliani.

Kerik served as NYPD commissioner during Giuliani's tenure as mayor of New York. He worked with Giuliani in the bid to reverse Trump's electoral loss to President Joe Biden.
As former President Donald Trump battles prosecutors in three states and a half dozen Republican primary candidates, he and his allies are waging another war, this one against the political network financed largely by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch.

Armed with over $70 million, much of it from Charles Koch chaired- Koch Industries, the super PAC Americans for Prosperity Action is running digital ads and other forms of voter outreach against Trump in the 2024 election.

For Trump and Koch, it represents the latest chapter in the on again, off again relationship between the two parties. Koch, who is personally worth around $60 billion, traditionally backs Republican candidates. But not this Republican.

The theme of the ads is simple: Trump can't win, and with Trump as the Republican nominee, President Joe Biden will be reelected.

The ads have landed the Koch network squarely on Trump's list of enemies, literally.

"The special interests, the globalists, the Koch brothers, George Soros, the Paul Ryans of the Republican Party - RINO's, are now going to try even harder to stop us and stop our great movement," Trump said in a campaign fundraising video that was blasted out recently.

In a separate memo, the Trump campaign falsely accused Koch-backed groups of supporting his primary opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"Club for No Growth and Koch Brothers operations spending tens of millions of dollars to prop up Ron DeSantis while attacking President Trump," the July 17 memo claimed.

But neither the Koch network nor the Club for Growth has endorsed a Republican primary candidate.

The Trump campaign's reference to "brothers" is also misleading. David Koch, who was Charles' brother and partner in political and philanthropic projects, died in 2019.

Trump's closest surrogates are also amplifying the case against Koch.
The Ukrainian city of Kherson was blasted overnight, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that air defense systems supplied by Germany and the U.S. were "very effective."

Zelenskyy highlighted the IRIS-T and Patriot drones in his nightly address Sunday, and thanked all allies who had contributed resources to Ukraine's defenses.

More than 40 countries came together over the weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss a possible formula for bringing a peaceful conclusion to Russia's war in Ukraine. Delegations from the United States, China and India were present for the talks, which senior Ukrainian government official Andriy Yermak described as "productive."

Meanwhile, Russia's deputy foreign minister said the West's efforts to mobilize the international community to support a peace deal are "doomed to failure," according to state-owned media agency Tass.
A Ukrainian soldier of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo, operates the test flight a new FPV drone in the training area as soldiers test their new military equipment as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on August 03, 2023. Wojciech Grzedzinski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The war between Russia and Ukraine entered a new phase this summer when Kyiv launched its much-anticipated counteroffensive, and there were hopes Ukraine would regain the upper hand. Instead, its forces are facing a 600-mile front line and extensive Russian defensive fortifications  in some places up to 19 miles deep  that were built in winter while Ukraine was waiting for more heavy weaponry from its allies before launching its counteroffensive in June. It's become clear that the counteroffensive won't produce quick results and that success  however that might be measured in terms of retaking Russian-occupied territory  is not guaranteed. Military experts warn that this means the war is likely to be prolonged, putting immense pressure on Ukraine to fight for several more years to come, potentially, and on its international partners to commit billions of dollars more in military, humanitarian and financial resources. "Ukraine has to show it can make progress, but everybody knows that, given the size of the force that they have, that they are not going to throw every Russian out of Ukraine in 2023," retired British Gen. Richard Barrons, the former commander of the U.K.'s Joint Forces Command, told CNBC. "By the end of this year, both sides will think they still have more to gain by fighting. Russia cannot give up, it can't lose, because of the desperate consequences for the Russian regime, and Ukraine has not run out of the will to fight and isn't prepared to give up the territory that's been occupied, it just wants more help to take it back. And that will take us into 2024 and possibly into 2025," he added.

Ukrainian soldiers transport shells into a camouflaged tank on the Bakhmut front line as the Ukrainian army conducts an operation to target trenches of Russian forces through the Donetsk region on July 24, 2023. Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Ukraine's counteroffensive is likely to make some progress in the remainder of this year, Barrons said  but nowhere near enough to end the occupation. "To some degree, we have to accept that it is a proof of concept that Ukraine can win on the battlefield. But then it is going to take this major effort [to continue to support Ukraine] and by major effort, I think we mean about $100 billion a year in total from all its supporters, at least, in 2024 and 2025."

No end in sight

There were hopes that Ukraine's counteroffensive would turn the tide in its favor, but Russian forces have dug in along the front line spanning east to south Ukraine, creating deep defensive lines that are in parts made up of networks of mines, bunkers, trenches and layers of anti-tank obstacles. Since the counteroffensive was launched in June, only a handful of villages have been recaptured. And while Ukraine's Defense Ministry says its forces have made advances near Bakhmut in Donetsk in the east, and have retaken 204.7 square kilometers of territory in the south, its troops face an immense challenge trying to break through Russian defenses in a bid to advance south toward the port cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol on the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian soldiers from the 60th Battalion of Territorial Defense shoot rounds into Russian positions, outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, on June 19, 2023. Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Nick Reynolds, research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense and security think tank, told CNBC that it should come as no surprise that the counteroffensive is proving difficult. "The Russian armed forces were given a substantial opportunity in the first months of this year to dig in extensively, and if you look at the sort of the scale of the defenses they built up, then these were always going to be a formidable challenge for the Ukrainians to crack, especially given that the Ukrainian Air Force is not able to operate over Russian lines."

One of Ukraine's main aims is to sever the Russian "land bridge" that stretches from Russia and across the occupied part of southern Ukraine to Crimea, but that's an area where Russia's fortifications are among the heaviest. "Literally, they're [the Ukrainian forces] just running into the first line of defenses now, but that's a 30 kilometer deep belt of minefields and trenches and counter attacks. From where they are now to the sea is about 60 miles, and they've made 5 miles so far, so this is a really big ask," Barrons said. "The Russian strategy is to stick and hold on to the land they've occupied and they'll be very stubborn about it, believing two things: One is that the Ukrainian will to die for this struggle for 15% of the country will deplete when they start to lose the sorts of numbers that normally come with an offensive. And secondly, that the West's enthusiasm for paying the bill will decline because we want to spend our money on other things."

How could it end?

Defense experts say it's unlikely the counteroffensive will see any breakthroughs this year. But they note it's crucial for Ukraine to be able to show at least some gains in order to maintain Western support for the war into 2024  and perhaps beyond. "Clearly, from a Ukrainian perspective, you've got to at least have some significant successes so that you can go to NATO and the United States and say, 'Look, guys, sorry it wasn't as successful as we wanted it to be but with the weapons you've given us ... we've done enough to cut the Russian forces in two so that you can invest in another goal in spring 2024, to keep hope alive,'" Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official and international defense and security expert at think tank Chatham House, told CNBC. "I think the danger for Ukrainians is if they really do end up with a stalemate, where they've gained very, very little territory where a lot of the equipment supplied by the West has been written off with Ukrainians having suffered very significant casualties," Shea said. That scenario could embolden critics of the war; increase public discontent with continued funding for Ukraine; and pose a problem in terms of arms production and supplies for the West.

A meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council during the NATO summit on July 12, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

For now, at least, Ukraine's allies are standing firmly beside it, saying they will support it "whatever it takes" while Russia too is "nowhere near giving up," Barrons said. Meanwhile, any prospect of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine look slim despite efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table. Senior officials from around 40 countries, including China, and India, held talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the weekend with the aim of agreeing on key principles that could underline a future settlement of the war. Russia was not present at the discussions, however, and U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby stated ahead of the talks that the White House did not expect any "tangible deliverables."

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At some point, Ukraine will have to decide if there's a military solution to the conflict or if it has to look for another way out without conceding any kind of defeat, Barrons said. One way to do that is with an armistice, a temporary agreement to cease military operations, but one that does not conclude the war decisively. "One outcome is that this war is fought out because Ukraine gets the help to do it. Another outcome is Ukraine decides to freeze the fighting, but we're nowhere near that right now. Then there's a bit in the middle where, and this happens to lots of wars, they just arrive at a grudging stalemate and you then glare at each other for a generation," he said, citing Greece and Turkey's conflict over Cyprus and North and South Korea as examples of stalemates in which neither side really wants to reignite a conflict.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 6)  Lawmakers and foreign envoys have condemned Chinas latest aggression in the West Philippine Sea  this time for its use of water cannons against Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels escorting indigenous boats during a resupply mission on Saturday.

READ: Chinese coast guard fired water cannons on PH vessels en route to Ayungin Shoal  PCG

Chinas repeated provocations are in complete violation of UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award. I call on our regional neighbors and the broader international community to join the Philippines in condemning this dangerous behavior, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said.

She also wants the Philippines to begin joint patrols with other claimant countries in the South China Sea, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, saying that these nations need to cooperate to halt Chinas aggression.

On Friday, a National Security Council official said the Philippines and the United States may begin joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea in the next few months.

Minority Leader Sen. Koko Pimentel said the latest incident should be resolved through diplomacy and intelligent tactics.

Pimentel also cautioned against the invocation of the countrys Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States over the incident, which stipulates that Manila and Washington would come to each others aid in the event of an attack by an external party.

Majority Leader Sen. Joel Villanueva, Sen. JV Ejercito and brother Sen. Jinggoy Estrada called on the government to heed the Senate's resolution condemning Beijing for its bullying and illegal activities over the contested waters.

"Our government, through the DFA, should seriously consider responding to Senate Resolution 718 and act swiftly. Malinaw na malinaw na hindi nirerespesto ng China ang PCG, ang mga karapatan natin, ang soberanya ng bansa," Estrada said in a statement.

[Translation: It is very clear that China does not respect the PCG, our rights, the sovereignty of the country.]

The measure, adopted just five days before the latest water cannon incident, urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to enforce Philippine sovereignty over the disputed area, and to raise Chinas continued harassment to the United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go condemned Beijing's action and reminded the Chinese government of former president Rodrigo Duterte's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jin Ping.

"Kakapunta lang po ni dating pangulong Duterte diyan sa inyo. Stop bullying us. Nakikiusap po ako. Alam n'yo naging mabuti naman po ang ating gobyerno nung panahon ni Pangulong Duterte sa inyo," Go said.

[Translation: Former president Duterte just visited your country. Stop bullying us. I'm begging you. You know that our government during the time of President Duterte was good to you.]

Xi reportedly acknowledged Duterte's "important contributions to friendly exchanges between the two countries" during their meeting.

Envoys slam China

Foreign diplomats condemned Beijing and voiced their support for the 2016 arbitral ruling under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in favor of Manila, which negated Beijings sweeping claims in the South China Sea.

Japans ambassador to the Philippines Kazuhiko Koshikawa said Chinas latest transgression was totally unacceptable, and endangered navigational safety.

Australian ambassador HK Yu expressed her countrys concern over Chinas actions which she described as dangerous and destabilizing.

The German Embassy in Manila also expressed concern as it stressed that "disputes must be resolved peacefully not by force or coercion."
By SA Commercial Prop News

Limpopo's liquidity and solvency challenge has been solved and payments to suppliers have begun returning to normal, while a number of provincial departments that were last year placed under administration have been able to reduce overspending, the National Treasury told Parliament on Wednesday.

Kenneth Brown, the National Treasury's Deputy Director General of Intergovernmental Relations, detailed figures that showed that the National Treasury's interventions to assist provincial departments placed under administration last year were beginning to show progress.

Briefing the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration on the financial status of provincial departments under administration, Brown said the Departments of Education in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo and both the provincial Treasury in the Free State and Limpopo had began making a turnaround.

However, the Department of Education in Gauteng and a number of Limpopo departments still had some way to go before showing an improved financial position, he said.

The National Treasury had also instructed the Free State's Department of Police, Roads and Transport to initiate a forensic investigation into 23 road projects that it had entered into illegally and without funded contractual commitments.

Turning to Limpopo, Brown said the province's treasury had improved from a shortfall in November to close at a positive of R231 million in March 2012.

"Although the total payments outstanding are R1.1 billion in terms of the audited financial statements, the bank balances now exceed this amount," he said.

A notice had been posted in local media requesting that suppliers still waiting for payment submit their invoices and purchase orders directly to the provincial treasury so that these can be verified and settled.

Brown said outstanding textbooks were being delivered to learners this month.

"Going forward, the payment intervals of the province will be aligned to receipts from national government in order to avoid future liquidity problems," he said, adding that a credible budget had been drafted and tabled in March by the province.

Brown said added to this:

- A revenue enhancement strategy is being finalised and a human resources team set up to control personnel-related pressures.

- A detailed plan has been developed to capacitate the budget planning and cash management functions within the provincial treasury.

- A recruitment process is under way to fill the vacant head of department position and other critical positions in the provincial treasury.

- An integrated support plan to assist departments is being finalised.

He said Limpopo's Education Department had lowered overspending from 2.6% of its budget for compensation of employees in 2010/11 to 0.4% in the last financial year.

The Free State's provincial Treasury had also improved its financial performance - moving from a figure of 3.8% in underspending of its budget in 2010/11 to underspending of 1.7% in the last financial year (2011/12), he said.

The provincial treasury had completed a capacity evaluation assessment and prepared a remedial plan to address identified skills gaps and critical posts had also been filled in the provincial treasury.

The Department of Education in the Eastern Cape has also improved and had as of March 31, cut overspending on salaries, from a budget overrun of R500 million to an overrun of just over R350 million. The department had effectively reduced overspending from a 2.9% surplus to 1.9% surplus of the budgeted salaries.

But Brown noted that because of the poor management of personnel by the department, the capital budget was still effectively subsidising the budget for the compensation of employees.

To remedy this, the finance section of the department had been temporarily stabilised by the deployment of national and provincial treasury officials to the positions of chief financial officer as well as to supply chain, risk and internal control and internal audit positions.

A project plan had also been finalised between the Departments of Basic Education and Public Services and Administration, the National Treasury and the province's Education Department.

The plan includes a headcount audit and clean up and audit of those on the payroll system.

Brown noted that there had been a number of turnaround plans and strategies drafted for the province's Education Department before, but pointed out that the key to success in this instance would be improved co-operation with districts as well as better labour relations.

However, for Gauteng's Department of Health, he said the budget outcomes indicated that the department's financial position remained a significant challenge and it would take time to fully stabilise the department.

He said the draft audited financial statements for 2011/12 reflected accumulated unauthorised of R3.6 billion.

An amount of R1.5 billion had since March been made available to the department by the provincial treasury which had helped in restoring the supply of medicines and medical consumables to Gauteng hospitals.

Brown said austerity measures focusing on contract management and core services were expected to yield savings of R2.1 billion, which will be redirected to offset accruals during the current financial year.

He said added to this, the national Department of Health was assisting the department in carrying out a review of its organisational structure.

A team is also working on addressing contract management practices within the department.

Detailing the measures that the departments under financial administration in Limpopo were taking, Brown said in the Health Department a clean-up of the payroll system was under way, a new record-keeping system was being designed and a new contract management process and verification process for payments was being designed and implemented.

In the Department of Roads and Transport, a review is under way to create a new organisational structure, appropriate job descriptions and a project-based learning programme.

Brown said the provincial Department of Public Works needed to address irregularities in lease management - as it was paying higher than market rates for property leases, while the immovable asset register was incomplete.

The Director General of the Department of Public Services and Administration, Mashwahle Diphofa, said as part of steps to stabilise Limpopo departments, steps had been taken to reduce the budget for the compensation of employees by two percent by doing away with funded vacancies and by deferring the filling of posts.

Diphofa said the budgets for travel and subsistence, cellphone calls and goods and services had been cut, while better control measures around payments had been put in place.

However, the large number of vacancies which had not been filled in the last 12 months, remained a concern.

For example, as of March 31, the vacancy rate at the Department of Education had increased - from 37% in October last year to 38%, as had the vacancy rate for the Education Department, from 30% to 31% and for Public Works - from 4% to 6%.

The vacancy rate for roads and transport had, however, come down, from 21% to 18%, as had the vacancy rate at provincial treasury - from 16% to 11%.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  Many parts of Bulacan are still experiencing heavy flooding, resulting in illness among some residents, in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Egay which exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility last July 27.

Medyo masakit na ang tyan kasi ang tubig na-stuck na or mabaho na, Adrian Salido, a resident Barangay Siling Bata in Pandi town, said. He was referring to his children. He and his family are preparing to leave their flooded home.

[Translation: They are experiencing stomach aches because of stagnant water, which is also beginning to stink.]

Residents of Pandi said that the flooding in their town is the worst in recent years.

Tulungan sana kami ng gobyerno na malagyan ng drainage na hindi maapektuhan ng palayan. Para tuloy-tuloy ang daloy ng tubig namin dito ay tatapon talaga doon, Marisa Yapi, a barangay homeowners association official in Pandi, told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: We hope the government helps us install drainage so that rice crops wont be affected. So that the water that continues to flow here will be dumped elsewhere.]

Pandi town Mayor Rico Roque said that the area is a catch-basin for water overflowing from the Balagtas river.

Problema is hindi makalabas ang water sa Balagtas river. So pinakamaganda is lakihan yung mga drainage namin para makalabas, at tanggalin yung mga basura rin, Roque said.

[Translation: The problem is that water from the Balagtas river cant be released. So, it would be best to enlarge our drainage so this can be released, and also to remove the trash.]

The provincial government declared a province-wide state of calamity in Bulacan last Monday due to heavy flooding brought by Super Typhoon Egay. Some 228,000 families across 17 barangays were affected.

READ: Bulacan placed under state of calamity due to 'Egay' floods

CNN Philippines correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) aims to finally introduce mall voting in the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, believing that it will make it easier for Filipinos to exercise their right to vote.

Around 300,000 people will be able to cast their votes in malls on October 30 after the poll body signed a deal with two major mall operators in the country on Monday.

Fourteen malls will serve as venues for the first-ever mall voting exercise, including Robinsons Magnolia, Robinsons Las Pinas, Robinsons Ermita, Robinsons Metro East, SM North EDSA, SM Manila, SM Sucat, SM Legazpi, Robinsons Cebu, and SM Consolacion Cebu.

"Ang gusto po natin ilapit, mas lalong padaliin para sa mga kababayan natin. Lalo na sa mga nakatatanda saka mga may kapansanan, sa mga heavily pregnant women," Comelec chairman George Garcia. "Sila po ay gusto nating mapabilis ang kanilang pagboto."

[Translation: We want to bring it closer, make the process easier for our countrymen, especially for older people, persons with disability, and heavily pregnant women. We want to make voting easier for them.]

Garcia said not a single peso will be spent for the venue since mall operators will provide the space and security personnel.

A simulation will be held on Aug. 19 in Robinsons Ermita, Robinsons Cebu, SM Manila, and SM Legazpi.

If the pilot run is successful, the Comelec said it would seek to expand mall voting nationwide.

Meanwhile, the poll body will simulate automated barangay and SK elections on Tuesday in Quezon City and Dasmarinas, Cavite.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 6)  The governor of Eastern Samar is urging concerned government agencies to look into the activities of mining companies in the province, citing violations of environmental laws, among others.

In a statement on Monday, Governor Ben Evardone said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geoscience Bureau (MGB) should look into the mining firms, which have not been religiously observing all environmental and social protection laws.

He added that the mining companies are not paying real property tax.

Despite repeated demands, the province has yet to receive its share from excise tax amounting to (133 million) that our province needs for its people, Evardone said.

Evardone said it was the DENR and the MGB, not the local government, which approved the operation of the mining companies.

The (DENR) Secretary shall have the authority to enter into numeral agreements on behalf of the Government upon the recommendation of the (MGB) Director, promulgate such rules and regulations, Evardone said citing the Philippines Mining Act of 1995.

According to Fr. James Abella, Caritas director in Borongan, four mining companies are now operating on Homonhon Island.

Abella also said there is a looming resumption of other mining activities on Manicani Island, and mining exploration on Calabyong Island, Western Samar.

Techiron Resources, Inc., Emir Mineral Resources Corp., King Resources Mining Corp., and Global Min-met Resources, Inc. are now operating on Homonhon Island, while Hinatuan Mining Corp. is operating on Manicani Island.

On Monday, hundreds of residents staged a prayer rally against mining activities in the Samar Islands.

Dubbed as Jericho Walk, participants gathered at the provincial capitol grounds of Eastern Samar then marched to the Borongan Cathedral for a mass presided by Bishop Crispin Varquez.

"Together we make sacrifices, together we continue our appeal sa mga ahensiya sa gobyerno, from national, provincial, sa mga towns ngan mga barangays nga kunta ipatigil na ang tanan nga operations sa mina, ngan waray mag-endorse hit application para sa mining operation," Bishop Varquez said during the program after the prayer walk.

[Translation: Together we make sacrifices, together we continue our appeal to the national and provincial government agencies, even government officials in towns and barangays, to stop mining operations and to reject the endorsement of applications of mining operations.]

The participants of the prayer rally strongly opposed the ongoing mining operations on the historic islands of Homonhon and Manicani.

Homonhon is known as the first landing site of Ferdinand Magellans crew while finding a navigational route to Moluccas Islands, while Manicani was used by the Allied forces as a naval base during the liberation period in World War II.

In his homily, Varquez urged officials to promote and create agri-tourism-related programs and initiatives, which he said are not only more viable and sustainable, but contribute more to both local and national economies.

On Sunday prior to the prayer rally, some groups on Manicani Island expressed their support for mining.

A pro-mining unity walk was held in four villages on Manicani Island by members of the Manicani Response for Progress, Protection and Stability Organization Inc.

The group said jobs in the mining companies provide a steady income for their families.

CNN Philippines multiplatform news writer Mariel Celine Serquina and stringer Wil Mark Amazona contributed to this story.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Nine Imus police personnel were relieved from their posts while under investigation after a video went viral on social media showing them ransacking the house of a retired professor suspected of involvement in illegal drugs, the Cavite Police Provincial Office reported Monday.

The unidentified police personnel in the CCTV footage could be seen taking out motorcycle tires and other things out of the residence.

To our chiefs of police, let us religiously remind our personnel to refrain from engaging in any illegal activities of whatever forms and we do not tolerate any of these under any circumstances, Cavite Police Office Provincial Director PCol Christopher Olazo said.

If warranted, we will file administrative charges against erring Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel who are found guilty of any unlawful acts up to the extent of dismissing them outrightly from the PNP service, he added.

Last Wednesday, Station Drug Enforcement Unit (SDEU) operatives of Imus conducted an anti-illegal drug operation at around 8:10 p.m. in Barangay Alapan 1-A that resulted in the arrest of one street value individual and her accomplice.

Authorities were said to have recovered six heat-sealed transparent plastic sachets containing around 20 grams of suspected shabu with a street value of 136,000.00, one black pouch, and a 500 peso bill used as buy-bust money.

The retired professor was arrested and currently detained at the Imus Police Station for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Some netizens doubt that the son of the retired professor, is involved in illegal drug activities. The son also alleged that the policemen stole jewelry, ATM cards, gadgets, and motorcycle documents, among others.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday urged the government to take appropriate actions to mitigate the rising cost of rice.

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. has said the country should secure more supply of rice as it expects the price of the commodity to increase by as much as 4 per kilogram amid tight supply in the global market.

Speaking to CNN Philippines The Source, Cayetano said it is important for Malacanang to send a strong message to rice smugglers, like the use of very, very strong language by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his second State of the Nation Address.

Cayetano was referring to the warning issued by the chief executive to smugglers that their days are numbered. He also noted the action being done by the Department of Justice against the smuggling syndicates.

The senator said the government also needs to have other contingency plans, aside from rolling out Kadiwa stores which are not really available in many areas across the country.

Cayetano also said the departments budget should be used to help farmers procure the latest farming equipment.

Kailangan talaga (We really need) complete modernization. We have to completely changethe way we think about agriculture, he said.

The senator also urged authorities to provide immediate assistance to farmers this coming planting season.

According to the Department of Agricultures Aug. 4 price monitoring, a kilogram of rice in Metro Manila markets could cost as much as 62 depending on the variant. This is higher than 60 per kilogram recorded a week before.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Vice President Sara Duterte said Monday the Department of Education (DepEd) needs confidential funds as the sector is intertwined with national security.

Duterte, who also heads the DepEd, is seeking 150 million in confidential funds.

Napakahalaga na (Its very important that) we mold children who are patriotic, children who will love our country and who will defend our country, she said.

Duterte did not disclose the breakdown of the budget but stressed there is a guideline on how the government should use it.

Nakalatag doon kung paano siya i-liquidate and by its nature, its confidential fund so we cannot discuss kung paano siya ginagamit sa operations, she said.

[Translation: Its laid out there how it should be liquidated, and by its nature, its a confidential fund so we cannot discuss how we use it in operations.]

The Marcos administration is targeting to have 10.14 billion in confidential and intelligence funds next year, 4.5 billion of which is proposed to be earmarked for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.s office.

READ: Marcos admin seeks 10.14B in confidential, intel funds for 2024

Some solons, however, were not pleased with the proposed budget, stressing the multibillion-peso allocations must be provided to social services instead.

READ: Lawmakers flag 10.14-B confidential, intel funds in 2024 budget
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 7)  Senate President Migz Zubiri wants to invite several officials from the executive branch to discuss the recent water cannon incident near the Ayungin shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

In a privilege speech on Monday, Zubiri said that while it is the president that makes decisions on foreign policy, the Senate cannot remain quiet on the issue.

He said instead of military action, the government should lessen economic transactions with China.

"But how can we not speak up when the very troops who secure our borders and stand on harms way have been airing their disgust? We can learn from our neighbor Vietnam. Vietnam, they decided to boycott all Chinese-made products. They decided to veer away from China as its number one trading partner," he said.

Senator and former Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa, meanwhile, said even if no guns were fired by the Chinese Coast Guard, its actions were still very dangerous.

"Tambaloslos. Sobra na tayong ginagago ng China. Alam nila na hindi sila pwedeng magpaputok sa ating tropa doon, sa ating Coast guard because it will trigger the mutual defense treaty with the US," he said. "Ang ginagawa nila binomobomba lang nila tayo ng tubig. Pareho lang rin iyan sa pagpapaputok, kapag ikaw ay tinamaan ng high pressure na tubig na yan pwedeng mabali ang braso, leeg mo so ganoon na rin ang epekto."

[Translation: China is making a fool of us. They know they can't fire at our troops there, at the coast guard because it will trigger the mutual defense treaty with the US. What they're doing is using water cannons. It's the same as opening fire, when you're hit by a high-pressure jet of water, you can break an arm, your neck...the effect is the same.]

Sen. Robin Padilla again pushed for the amendment of the Constitution to allow the president to declare martial law in the face of imminent danger.

He asked fellow senators, why should we wait for an invasion by China?

Padilla also volunteered to set sail for the West Philippine Sea and report to the Senate his experience there to aid in the Senate investigation.

CNN Philippines' Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
Niamey, Niger (CNN)  Nigers armed forces have been bringing in reinforcements to the capital to prepare for a potential invasion, a military source told CNN, just hours after the military junta running the country refused to abide by an influential regional blocs deadline to cede power.

A convoy of about 40 pick-up trucks arrived at nightfall on Sunday evening, bringing troops from other parts of the country to both reassure a nervous public and prepare for potential battle.

Niger has been thrown in to political chaos since late last month, when President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup detat by the presidential guard. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) responded days later by enacting sanctions and issuing an ultimatum to the ruling military junta: stand down within a week or face a potential military intervention.

That deadline came and went Sunday without any change in the political situation. Bazoum remains deposed and his whereabouts are still unknown to the public. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the juntas formal name, is still effectively in charge of Niger. A junta leader said Sunday that Nigers armed forces would be closing the countrys airspace due to the threat of military intervention.

What comes next is unclear. ECOWAS leaders say their preference is find a diplomatic solution to the crisis but have maintained they willing to resort to the use of force as a last resort to return Nigers democratically elected government to power.

The uncertainty has rattled residents in Niamey, the capital. Some people flocked to supermarkets purchase staples like rice and cooking oil in bulk, while others attempted to flee. Employees of local bus companies said most lines out of the capital were fully booked.

Pro-junta demonstrators, meanwhile, gathered Sunday at a 30,000-seat stadium in Niamey to voice their support for the military government and their opposition to ECOWAS sanctions.

Despite its wealth of resources, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Many Nigeriens, especially in the younger generation, still see France as an imperial power responsible for the prevailing poverty levels in their country. Those who back the new military government see its rule as an opportunity to distance itself diplomatically from French influence.

The future of Nigers elected government is of particular importance to the countrys democratic neighbors and Western partners. The United States and France stationed hundreds of troops, many of whom assist with counterterrorism missions, on the basis that Niger was a relatively stable democracy in a region fraught with political upheaval, terrorism and Islamist insurgencies.

Russia has attempted in recent years to capitalize on the geopolitical situation in West Africa to gain clout and influence, especially through the mercenary group Wagner. Wagner has a presence in several countries, including in neighboring Mali, where a military government took charge after a coup in 2021. Wagner forces have been contracted to help local defense forces against rebellions and insurgencies, and suppress opposition.

The French Foreign Ministry said that Wagner had been in touch with the coup leaders in Niger, but it was unclear if the two sides were moving toward a partnership.

We can see that Wagner is in an opportunistic and predatory logic, so they may be tempted to take advantage of the whole situation, a spokesperson for the ministry told journalists.

Shortly after the putsch, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin celebrated the coup and appeared to pitch the private military company to Nigers new leaders.

Nigers democratic neighbors worry the coup could have a domino effect given the fragility of West African democracies like those in Mali and Burkina Faso, where a coup took place in 2022.

Both countries are now backing the Nigerien junta. They said in a joint statement last week that they would consider any military intervention in Niger an act of war against all three countries.

Both countries are sending delegations to Nigers capital Niamey, in solidarity with the people of Niger, according to the Malian Armed Forces.

Burkina Faso has not yet publicly commented on sending delegations to Niger and Burkina Fasos Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet responded to CNNs request to confirm their attendance.

This story was first published on CNN.com. Niger military deploys reinforcements to capital after ignoring deadline to cede power
AUCKLAND, 7 August 2023 - Enprise Group (NZX: ENS ) advises that with respect to the margin dispute with MYOB, Kilimanjaro Consulting Pty Limited (KCAU) has been granted an interlocutory injunction.

Kilimanjaro Consulting support the largest MYOB Exo install base of any partner in Australia or New Zealand.

KCAU at a hearing on 4 August 2023 has been granted an interlocutory injunction application. His Honour, Australian Federal Court Justice Jackman, made the following orders (where MYOB is referred to as the respondent, and KCAU is referred to as the applicant):

1.Until further order, the respondent is restrained from taking any action for breach of contract under the Business Partner Agreement, by reason only of the applicant paying the respondent the Annual Licence Fee margin as documented in the 2018 Business Partner Agreement.

2.Until further order the respondent is restrained from withholding licence codes for the use of the MYOB Exo by any End User which is a customer of the applicant, by reason only of the applicant retaining the Annual Licence Fee margin as documented in the 2018 Business Partner Agreement.

3.Costs of the application are to be costs in the cause.

The practical effect of these orders is that KCAU can retain and utilise the MYOB Exo margin as documented in the 2018 Business Partner Agreement until such time as these proceedings are finally resolved, which in turn means that KCAU has no need to change its current business model or take any steps to try and absorb or counter MYOB's reduction in the MYOB Exo margin as detailed in the announcement dated 1 August 2022, which had quantified the purported reduction in margin at approximately $935,000 per annum.

The above orders apply only in Australia and not New Zealand. However, KCAU has sought undertakings from MYOB that will have the same practical effect in relation to the New Zealand entity, Kilimanjaro Consulting Limited, as the orders made in favour of KCAU. If these undertakings are not given, Kilimanjaro Consulting Limited will apply to join the proceedings and seek the same orders as those made by the Court in favour of KCAU.

The case highlights that there are serious questions to answer about whether the Business Partner Agreement (BPA) falls under the ambit of the Franchising Code, and whether MYOB has unconstrained power to alter the terms of the agreement. The case also will focus on MYOBs statutory duties of good faith and unconscionability. The judge accepted that KCAUs case is serious and arguable. The full trial on the points in dispute is expected to be held in April 2024.

The injunction provides Kilimanjaro with an extended window in which to transition from an Exo-centric business, and to continue to develop other revenue streams to contribute meaningfully to the profitability of the business.

The court action emphasises that Kilimanjaro has done its level best to keep a client focussed business model in place, including providing its customers the choice to move to the cloud as and when they choose.

Elliot Cooper

Chief Executive Officer

Enprise Group Limited

0275615501

Ends.

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(CNN)  A Russian and Chinese naval patrol consisting of several vessels operated off the coast of Alaska last week, defense officials and lawmakers said over the weekend  a show of force that prompted a US military response but did not pose a threat to the US or Canada, a US Northern Command spokesperson told CNN.





NORTHCOM and the North American Aerospace Defense Command deployed planes and ships to monitor the Russian and Chinese patrol, which stayed in international waters, the spokesperson said.

Alaskas Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski said in a statement Saturday that a total of 11 Russian and Chinese vessels had been operating near the Aleutian Islands, and were met in response by four US Navy destroyers. Murkowski said that she and Sullivan had been in close contact with leadership from Alaska Command for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting U.S. waters in the Aleutians.

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told CNN in a statement that according to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean. This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation.

Sullivan said that Chinese and Russian vessels came similarly close to Alaska last summer and were encountered by a US Coast Guard ship on a routine patrol at the time  a tepid response, the senator added, that led him to press senior military leaders to be ready with a more robust response in the future.

For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to (Chinese President) Xi Jinping and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska, Sullivan said.

Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Center in Australia, echoed the NORTHCOM repsonse that the Chinese and Russian warships were not a threat and acted according to international law just as US Navy vessels do when operating off the Chinese or Russian coasts.

But he said the US statement affirming the navigation rights of the foreign warships was in contrast to reactions from Beijing to similar US Navy sailings.

Chinese responses to similar operations in the Indo-Pacific  hype up imagined threats and broadcast their military response as efforts to eject invaders from their waters, Herzinger said.

Russia and China have intensified their defense and economic partnership considerably since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to a July US intelligence report, and the countries have repeatedly pledged to strengthen their military ties.

This story was first published on CNN.com. US military responded to Chinese and Russian vessels near Alaska
Charles Hall 22 is combining his passion for helping students learn English with his desire to gain experience abroad by working in Costa Rica with the Peace Corps. He is part of the first Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteer group to return to Costa Rica following the COVID pandemic.

Hall, a political science major, did not choose Costa Rica when applying for the program, but says he is incredibility grateful to be placed there. I initially put down for an opening to serve in Northern Macedonia doing Economic Development, as I assumed Eastern Europe would be less competitive and more niche. However, to my surprise and pleasure, I was selected to teach English in Costa Rica instead. This was a better fit as I had taken some Spanish classes at Colorado College and had experience working with kids.

At CC, Hall was co-chair of the Aprender Mediante Amistad (AMA) club, where CC students mentored and worked on homework with local K-12 students whose parents did not speak English fluently and were often limited in their ability to help their children with homework. This experience helped prepare him for his current work in Costa Rica.

Hall has been in Costa Rica for almost six months now. He spent three months training in San Jose before moving to his site in southern Costa Rica, about an hour away from the Panama border. He works full-time at a local elementary school near the village, where he focuses on teaching English to students, increasing local teachers English proficiency, and creating opportunities for people in the community to learn English.

Hall originally applied to the Peace Corps to obtain regional experience abroad and to get his foot in the door with the federal government.

Although the Peace Corps Application process was long and arduous, CC helped me tremendously, Hall says. Joe Derdzinski and Dr. John Gould gave me the idea to apply. Gretchen Wardell walked me through the Peace Corps Prep Certification. I would not be here without Dr. Sofia Fenner, who wrote a letter of recommendation that was integral to my acceptance into the program. Lastly, I must thank Dr. Diana Norton and the CC Spanish Department for taking me, a slow language learner with no prior experience studying Spanish, and transforming me into a confident speaker.

Through the Block Plan curriculum, I was able to do something that I did not believe was possible for me: I became able to communicate with others in a second language! Peace Corps service is, at times, challenging but well worth it. I am grateful that Colorado College prepared me to face oncoming hardships with mental fortitude and compassion for the world around me.

When he isnt working, Hall participates in cultural exchanges such as spending time with his host family or hanging out with local friends.
Today is Aug. 7, 2023, and here's what you need to know:

Colorado Republicans on Saturday voted down a proposal that would have made it easier for the state GOP to cancel next year's primary election to prevent unaffiliated voters from having a say in the party's nominees.

The proposed amendment to the Colorado GOP's bylaws would have changed party rules so that absent or nonvoting members of the state party's central committee would automatically be counted as votes in favor of canceling the primary at a future meeting.

The state GOP's governing body rejected the amendment near the end of an all-day meeting at The Rock, a nondenominational church in Castle Rock.

After nearly two hours of sometimes heated debate on the amendment, the proposal received support from 55% of the party's state central committee members present, falling short of the required two-thirds needed to pass a bylaws amendment.

The vote was 186.83 in favor and 149.16 against, with some counties casting fractional votes because they have multiple Republicans filling party officer positions.

Lawyers and judges from across the country descended on Denver this week for the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, where topics included misconduct in the legal profession, judges' tips for handling high-profile cases and threats to government officials from domestic extremists.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also spoke about his personal and professional initiatives since taking office in 2019. On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will deliver an address to attendees.

One member of Colorado's bench, Denver District Court Judge Adam J. Espinosa, appeared on a panel to discuss Colorado's system of addressing attorney and judicial misconduct, with the message that failing to take action on problematic behavior is itself harmful.

The Colorado Republican in charge of a lawsuit aimed at preventing unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in state primaries told Colorado Politics that the state GOP's lead attorney in the case is "the right man for the job," despite the lawyer's appearance this week as a co-conspirator in a federal felony indictment, which alleged that former President Donald Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Former top Trump legal advisor John Eastman has the experience and know-how to represent Colorado Republicans in the legal action, said former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, the head of a party committee overseeing the lawsuit.

"I don't have any qualms about it," Lundberg said Friday in an interview. "Hes competent and qualified and the right man for the job, I believe."

Colorado officials credit persistence, a constant focus on Space Command's military mission, and the increased importance of that mission in a more dangerous world for keeping the command headquartered in Colorado Springs at the end of a review process that lasted more than two years.

It's been a long road for an installation that hasn't moved an inch.

Established in 2019 with temporary headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base, Space Command employs about 1,200 people from across the military services to provide deterrence in space, and, if necessary, to defend U.S. space assets. It is separate from U.S. Space Force, the newest military branch.

When the Pentagon and White House announced on July 31 that the combatant command would stay at Peterson instead of moving to Redstone Arsenal, an Army base in Huntsville, Ala., local and state elected officials say they were as surprised as anyone, in part because it appears the military hasn't reversed a basing decision of that magnitude in memory.

It took a relentless, bipartisan effort from Democrats and Republicans who stuck to the same points amid a political firestorm surrounding the decision, from former President Donald Trump's initial order to relocate the command in the final days of his administration to the Biden administration's lengthy review.

Democratic state legislators passed a law this year to prohibit so-called "abortion reversal" treatment, moving to make Colorado the first state in the nation to ban the controversial practice.

But that plan now faces a major hurdle from state medical boards.

Senate Bill 190, signed in April, classifies abortion reversal treatment as unprofessional conduct, subjecting medical workers who provide the treatment to professional discipline. But the bill allowed abortion reversal to be reclassified as professional conduct if the state medical, nursing and pharmacy boards all agree that its a valid medical practice.

In a draft rule, the boards did not declare abortion reversal as an accepted practice  but they also declined to punish medical workers just for providing abortion reversal treatment. Instead, the draft proposes that the boards should review individual complaints to determine if specific instances of abortion reversal qualify as unprofessional conduct.

"The board does not regularly adopt rules establishing a single standard of care applicable to all situations," the draft says. "The board will investigate all complaints related to medication abortion reversal in the same manner that it investigates other alleged deviations from generally accepted standards of medical practice."
Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
As Microsoft revealed tidbits of its post-mortem investigation into a Chinese attack against US government agencies via Microsoft, two details stand out: the company violated its own policy and did not store security keys within a Hardware Security Module (HSM)  and the keys were successfully used by attackers even though they had expired years earlier.

This is simply the latest example of Microsoft quietly cutting corners on cybersecurity and then only telling anyone when it gets caught.

Tenable CEO Amit Yoran wrote a powerful post on LinkedIn last week and described a repeated pattern of negligent cybersecurity practices. Microsofts lack of transparency applies to breaches, irresponsible security practices and to vulnerabilities, all of which expose their customers to risks they are deliberately kept in the dark about.

He then referenced his own companys dealings with Microsoft:

In March 2023, a member of Tenables Research team was investigating Microsofts Azure platform and related services. The researcher discovered an issue (detailed here) which would enable an unauthenticated attacker to access cross-tenant applications and sensitive data, such as authentication secrets. To give you an idea of how bad this is, our team very quickly discovered authentication secrets to a bank. They were so concerned about the seriousness and the ethics of the issue that we immediately notified Microsoft. Did Microsoft quickly fix the issue that could effectively lead to the breach of multiple customers' networks and services? Of course not. They took more than 90 days to implement a partial fix  and only for new applications loaded in the service. That means that as of today, the bank I referenced above is still vulnerable, more than 120 days since we reported the issue, as are all of the other organizations that had launched the service prior to the fix.

The Tenable example could be dismissed as an isolated incident if I hadnt recently heard from multiple security researchers about other security holes they discovered and their talks with Microsoft about the issues. This is a troubling pattern.

Microsoft plays fast and loose when it comes to transparency and their responsibilities in cybersecurity. Their pace for remediation is not world class, Yoran said in an interview. Once they patch, they have a history of not disclosing that there ever was a hole. They have a moral responsibility to disclose.

Back in the 1990s, a common and true adage among enterprise IT execs was the cliched, You can never get fired for hiring IBM. Today, that statement is still true, if you swap out Microsoft for IBM.

Heres why that is such a problem. It seems all but certain that the cybersecurity corner-cuttings that happened in the China attack were done by some mid-level manager. That manager was confident that opting for a slight cost reduction (along with a small boost in efficiency at the expense of violating Microsoft security policy) would not be a job risk. Had there been a legitimate fear of getting fired or even just having their career advancement halted, that manager would have not chosen to violate security policy.

The sad truth, though, is that the manager confidently knew that Microsoft values margin and market share far more than cybersecurity. Think of any company you believe takes cybersecurity seriously, such as RSA or Boeing. Would a manager there ever dare to openly violate cybersecurity rules?

If this is all true, why dont enterprises take their business elsewhere? This brings us back to the you cant get fired for hiring Microsoft adage. If your enterprise uses the Microsoft cloud  or, for that matter, cloud services at Google or Amazon  and theres a cybersecurity disaster, chances are excellent senior management will blame Microsoft. Had you chosen a smaller company that takes security more seriously  and that company screwed up  there is a good chance you would be blamed for having taken a chance.

Chris Krebs, former director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and now cofounder of Krebs Stamos Group, puts this attack into a broader global context. Krebs said China government attackers were not looking at Microsoft as a software vendor as much as the owner of one of the top three cloud platforms. They see those hyperscale cloud providers as an easy way to access data from a massive number of companies.

And cloud architectures are insanely complex. You think you know how the cloud works? You dont, Krebs said in an interview. But he argued the cloud is a game-changing for cybersecurity for a simple reason: What is so different is that the cloud is effectively the first technology that the (US) government has not been able to roll out itself, he said. They are entirely dependent on the private sector.

China knows that only too well.

Lets look at what happened with Microsoft and the China attack.

This is from Microsofts explanation:

The China attackers acquired an inactive MSA consumer signing key and used it to forge authentication tokens for Azure AD enterprise and MSA consumer to access OWA and Outlook.com. All MSA keys active prior to the incident  including the actor-acquired MSA signing key  have been invalidated. Azure AD keys were not impacted. Though the key was intended only for MSA accounts, a validation issue allowed this key to be trusted for signing Azure AD tokens. The actor was able to obtain new access tokens by presenting one previously issued from this API due to a design flaw. This flaw in the GetAccessTokenForResourceAPI has since been fixed to only accept tokens issued from Azure AD or MSA respectively. The actor used these tokens to retrieve mail messages from the OWA API.

How did an expired key still function? Cybersecurity specialists pointed to various possibilities, including whether caching played a role. But they all agreed that Microsoft didnt sufficiently test its own environment.

Why would an expired drivers license still work in a bar? Its because they are not checking expiration dates, said cryptography expert and Harvard lecturer Bruce Schneier. Why do people leave their doors unlocked? People do things. Someone screwed up and someone didnt notice.

Michael Oberlaender, who has been CISO for eight enterprises and served on the board of the FIDO Alliance, said its likely Microsoft had automated code that is running the sites that did not validate the certificates properly. This was not tested right. If that proper signing key validation  including the scope and function of the key  is not happening in the PKI key chain hierarchy, then its not working as intended.

Another security specialist, Prashanth Samudrala, vice president of products at AutoRabit, argued that the expiration date could have become irrelevant if the initial coding was not executed properly.

During development, developers often hard code access to their systems for machine identities, Samudrala said. These automated processes can bypass traditional authentication requirements that break security protocols  Zero Trust mandates or otherwise. And once these scripts are written, they keep going until they are manually shut down.

Theres no way to know for sure what happened with Microsofts outdated encryption key, Samudrala said, but this would explain how access could continue after the point of a key expiring. CISOs are becoming increasingly aware of the vulnerabilities posed by all SaaS Applications.

The expiration problem was not the only issue.

It sure sounds like the key was cached somewhere, so it wasnt being served up  which would be an opportunity to say No, that key isnt supposed to be used anymore, said Phil Smith III, senior architect, product manager and distinguished technologist for Open Text Cybersecurity. If its being used to decrypt data, it might still be needed depending on the flow, this caching might have been perfectly reasonable.

The bigger errors were mixing consumer and .gov credential processes and then allowing the .gov tokens from the old key to be accepted, he said. This runs into one of the common differences between consumer encryption and corporate versus gov[ernment] encryption: consumer stuff isnt as controlled, so its a lot harder to say You cant use this because you left it too long. Just because Joe User hadnt logged since before the key expired doesnt mean you tell him he cant now.

Smith stressed that a common reaction to a key flaw such as the Microsoft one would be to increase the frequency of key rotation. He argued that such a move might be a bad idea.

Although events like this make the case for rollover in some use cases, its just foolish in others  like re-encrypting huge volumes of data just because it was encrypted a while ago, when theres no reason for the key to have had any significant risk of exposure. This is like being in a bunker during a war and deciding you should take off all your clothes and run to another bunker just because youve been in this one awhile: the risk youre adding during that run/rollover is significant and not necessarily worthwhile, Smith said.

The point is that many standards say, Roll keys every n months/years without regard for the risk involved., he said. If the keys have been distributed to external endpoints, then sure, there needs to be a rollover strategy, because you dont have any way to assess how careful those folks are. But this needs to be planned from the beginning: Hey, re-protect this 50TB of data by next month isnt realistic. If keys have only gone to hardened, internal endpoints, risk is lower. If the encryption/decryption has only taken place remotely  say, via web services  then theres little to no risk, since if someone compromised those servers, youre already toast.

Beyond the expired key that still worked, the biggest issue here is that Microsoft violated its own security rules and did not store the keys in an HSM. The most likely reason? Storing anything in an HSM is labor-intensive, costs more and can degrade performance.

There is a very small bit of latency drop over the network, Samudrala said. Yes, (HSMs) are expensive and, yes, there is a performance degradation. When you have legacy systems, HSMs could be very, very expensive and eat into a products roadmap. Companies seek to use cloud-based key management services rather than HSM. Why? (HSMs) are too damn hard, take a lot of time, a lot of costs, a lot of complexity.

The importance of Microsofts failure to use an HSM cannot be overstated, said Oberlaender. Had they stored and managed in an HSM, this whole (China) thing would not have been possible, he said, adding that corporate communications disconnects might have played a role. Communications often gets blurry in big enterprises, with different entities often not talking with each other.

Whatever the reasoning and rationales, Microsoft is starting to be seen as an organization that tolerates sloppy security implementation. Although such a perception is bad for any business, it could be disastrous for Microsoft, specifically because it uses its marketing clout to scream that its environments are ultra-secure for the planets largest enterprises.

If Microsoft doesnt clean up its act quickly  and hope that no more massive breaches get disclosed anytime soon  its contract-saving adage could be flipped on its head. Could Microsofts brand be to cybersecurity what Uber, Meta and TikTok are to privacy?
US President Joe Biden is telling his Cabinet members to get federal employees back into the office beginning this fall, according to a White House email obtained last week by Axios.

"We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people," Biden wrote in an email.

The email from White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said that with the end of the COVID-19 health emergency and with fall approaching, agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work. This is a priority of the President  and I am looking to each of you to aggressively execute this shift in September and October, Zients wrote.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Computerworld.

The latest White House missive follows a similar one in April that called for leaders to increase meaningful in-person work, particularly at agency headquarters in order to improve customer service, according to The Washington Post. The move doesn't mean an end to remote or hybrid work among federal employees, according to the email; Instead, its calling for workers to spend more time in the office to build a strong culture, trust, and interpersonal connections."

Due to remote work policies, only 25% or less of federal buildings were fully utilized at one point last year, according to a Government Accountability Office study of three separate weeks from January to March 2022. Underutilized office space has financial and environmental costs," the GAO said. "Federal agencies spend about $2 billion a year to operate and maintain federal office buildings regardless of the buildings utilization. In addition, agencies spend about $5 billion annually to lease office buildings."

The Biden edict mirrors a trend in the private sector. Bosses are imposing more strict in-office mandates as new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed productivity slumped slightly since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, productivity declined 1.9%, according to BLS, the sharpest two-year decline in over 75 years of recorded data.

"While remote work tends to increase individual productivity, in-person work seems to drive collective or collaborative productivity. As a result, leaders in the private sector and government have been calling for more in-person interaction in offices," said J.P. Gownder, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

There's a perception  often unproven  that more days in the office will lead to better overall outcomes, according to Gownder. "But we know that there are diminishing returns to the number of days spent in-office; after a certain point, employees are coming in just for the sake of coming in, rather than for any real collaborative purpose," he said.

Studies have shown that most bosses believe remote work hurts worker productivity. A survey of 20,000 people in 11 countries by Microsoft this spring found that 85% of business leaders believe the shift to hybrid work made it harder to remain confident employees are being productive.

The dip in productivity was in stark contrast to the pandemic, when it actually rose. Between the second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021, labor productivity increased by 1.8%, compared with an average annual increase of 1.4% from 2005 to 2019.

According to Kastle Systems, a provider of key fob security technology for 2,600 buildings in 47 states, the 10-city average occupancy rate on the companys so-called Back to Work Barometer was 49.2% last week. While it was a slight drop from a week earlier when occupancy was at 50.2%, it remained close to the highest occupancy rate since March 2020. Additionally, every city on the Back to Work Barometer saw occupancy gains this year. (The Barometer includes cities such as Chicago, New York City metro, Dallas metro, Los Angeles and San Francisco.)

On average, employees save 72 minutes in commute time every day when theyre allowed to work from home rather than in the office, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA) study performed by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). And recent studies have shown when employees dont commute, they more often use the additional time to work.

On average, those who work from home devote 40% of their commute time savings to primary and secondary job tasks, 34% to leisure, and 11% to caregiving.

Research from Gartner found flexible hybrid-work models outperform others in terms of employee outcomes such as intent to stay at an organization, fatigue, and performance. All three translate directly to an organizations bottom line.

Progressive organizations recognize this; they will not only be able to capitalize on the benefits of hybrid work, but also be employers of choice on the talent market, Caitlin Duffy, director of Gartner Researchs HR practice, said in an earlier interview. Employees want the autonomy, flexibility, and freedom to integrate work into their lives in the way that works best for them, and organizations can provide it by transitioning to hybrid and remote-work models.

While hybrid has won in the marketplace overall and is an effective policy for many employers and employees, there are trade-offs to mandating more days in the office, according to Forrester's Gownder.

"Altogether, agencies must balance the flexibility that drives up employee experience and employee productivity against the cultural and team-based gains associated with in-office work, according to Gownder. One example, he said, is the US government needs to take care to remain competitive in labor markets.

"It can't always pay as high a salary as the private sector, so benefits like effective, generous hybrid work policies can help it attract and retain top talent," Gownder said.
Kuwait: Indian Envoy Adarsh Swaika discusses bilateral relations with National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Al-Sadoun

Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Adarsh Swaika on Sunday met Ahmed Al-Sadoun, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the State of Kuwait, and appraised him of the state and prospects of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Indian envoy Adarsh Swaika meets Kuwait's National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Al-Sadoun. Photo Courtesy: Adarsh Swaika Twitter page

"An honour to call on the Speaker of the National Assembly of the State of Kuwait H.E Ahmed Al-Sadoun. Apprised him of the state and prospects of bilateral relations between, including parliamentary cooperation. @MajlesAlOmmah," the Indian envoy wrote on X.

He also met Jassim Mustafa Boodai, Gulf Banks Chairman, and discussed possibilities of collaboration with Indian companies.

He wrote: "Pleasure to meet Jassim Mustafa Boodai, Chairman of #Gulf Bank and CEO of #IntegratedlogisticsCo. of Kuwait. Discussed possibilities of collaboration with #Indian companies. Happy to learn about the value addition by Indian workers in the integrated logistics Co."

The year 2020-21 marked the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries.

Both nations have maintained high-level contacts.
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For a lot of people these days, their work/life balance is severely out of whack, if not non-existent altogether. The internet and cell phones have brought everyone in contact with each other at all times, and unfortunately, that includes your boss. If youre in a good work situation, you might be able to set some healthy boundaries on how often and when youre available. At the same time, plenty of even the coolest sort of start-up jobs have CEOs whose best and most urgent ideas always seem to come after the stroke of midnight. Sure, youve got a ping-pong table, but its just going to taunt you every night while you work until 8 p.m., lest you demonstrate a lack of grindset.

Those extra hours of unpaid productivity have resulted in a widespread labor movement were seeing now across multiple industries. It isnt the first time something like this has happened, either. It seems like the bigwigs can never resist the creep of harmful labor conditions, attempting to boil a workforce of industrious frogs degree by degree. The cigar-chompers of yesteryear, though, didnt have access to email or Slack or omnipresent cell service to control their workers. So they had to invent a different way to control their workers 24/7, and what they created were company towns, genuine fake cities that were completely controlled by the employer of the people who lived there.

Here are five such company towns, including a couple from today

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5 Pullman, Illinois Public Domain If your workers have a drumline, you're in trouble. Maybe the most impactful company town in history was Pullman, Illinois, built by George Pullman for employees of his luxury train car company. He spouted, in what is a consistent and still recognizable bit of bullshit, that he was trying to create a utopia for his workers. See, wouldnt it be so much simpler to let him control every aspect of your life? It sounds like the pitch of an evil son trying to get an elderly relative to sign over power of attorney. Advertisement Still, the town came into being, and rapidly exposed itself for what it was. First of all, there was only one church in town, with one religion. When paychecks were delivered, two men came to your door: one to hand you the check, and one to immediately collect the rent that you owed the same company. None of this felt like the American dream, employer-issued white picket fences aside. The real breaking point, though, came when a recession in 1894 forced Pullman to lower wages but keep rent and store prices the same. This caused the Pullman strike, which turned into a greater railroad workers strike that ended with the National Guard breaking the strike with force. Not that it was a clean win: Pullman himself had to have his grave covered in concrete because he was so hated that there was serious concern that people might dig him up and desecrate his body. Advertisement

4 Steinway Village, New York Public Domain These are your gods now! If youre at all familiar with pianos, or just have a habit of hanging out in fancy hotel lobbies, youre probably familiar with Steinway & Sons. Theyve manufactured pianos in New York City since 1853, and theyre still around today, should you have somewhere in the realm of 100 grand to blow on one. Unlike Pullman sleeping cars, they remain a respected, beloved and sought-after brand, and that might be why the slightly dodgy history of Steinway Village in Astoria, Queens is a little harder to get an honest read on. Advertisement I cant explain why, but it feels strange to think that a piano maker would be the same kind of overbearing, union-hating businessman that youd expect in the steel industry. Pianos are so tinkly and nice! You want them to be made by a 4-foot-tall, kindly, elf-adjacent old man with pince-nez. Someone who would offer your choice of treat out of a tin of cookies when you visit his office. But in 1870, as strikes popped up across the country, Henry Steinway wanted no part of it, and so moved his factory from Manhattan to Astoria, along with all the workers. He provided them housing, which also neatly allowed him to evict anyone who was planning a strike. Advertisement Wow, its almost like having your boss also be your landlord isnt ideal!

3 Hershey, Pennsylvania Public Domain His first idea was a town made entirely of chocolate, but the sun scrapped that. If the image of a domineering piano artisan was hard to come to terms with, the next entry might be even tougher. That is because, unfortunately, we are dipping our toes into the chocolate business, specifically that of its god-emperor, Milton Hershey. After all, you wouldnt want to find out that Willy Wonka personally came down to break a strike with strokes of his cane on the backs of Oompa Loompas. To be fair, Hershey and Hershey, Pennsylvania, probably represents the rosiest possible outcome of a company town. This is partly thanks to Hersheys investments in the continued well-being and future of the town outside of pure profit, even taking losses to provide a healthy living space for workers. Advertisement Advertisement However, the fact that Hershey went about as well as possible and still ended with unpleasant (I refuse to type the phrase less-than-sweet anywhere in this entry) repercussions might serve as a final indictment of the idea of a company town. It turns out the reason company towns dont work might be just as simple as it seems: Having one singular person responsible for every facet of your life also means they become a mental whipping post for everyones problems. This led to the chocolate workers unionizing, and after the union organizers were quickly cut loose from the company, to a full-blown strike, that ended in a violent brawl.

2 Lake Buena Vista, Florida Public Domain The employee of the month gets to live at the top. Advertisement Now, legally, we should clarify that Lake Buena Vista, Florida is not a company town, because company towns are illegal. Rumors of the demise of company towns in the United States, however, have been greatly exaggerated. Their illegality, it seems, is heavily based around the use of scrip, meaning that the occupants basically live on a company-controlled currency like industrious little Neopets. An intellectual property were shocked that Disney, the overseers of Lake Buena Vista, havent turned into a middling movie yet. In reality, Disney has an incredible amount of control over the land around their theme parks, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Theyve effectively turned the area that their Florida theme parks are in into a strange little nation-state that serves turkey legs and character brunch. Just how weird this whole arrangement is has come into the national spotlight thanks to their public clashes with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a Lego-haired void of a man with the charisma of a white-noise machine. In this case, Disneys side of the fight is an easy one to get behind, since DeSantis motivation is basically to put the collective LGBTQ community in stocks for political clout. Advertisement Still, it should make you a little uneasy that corporations can take on our government and its basically a fair fight.
Noise Week Stories about New Yorkers who make it, are trying to stop it, and are losing their minds over it. Illustration: Michele Febbraio

Joyce Cohen lives in a soft apartment. Plush rugs line the floors of the Upper West Side one-bedroom she shares with her husband, and there are cloth place mats draped over the kitchen counters. An alternating system  plastic, then glass, plastic, then glass  orders the bottles in the fridge, which rest on top of vinyl shelf liners. I know people who have gotten catastrophically injured by glass bottles clinking together, Cohen tells me. In the bathroom, the shower curtain is terrycloth, as is the toilet-seat cover. We cant have two hard things together, her husband explains. Call it a house rule.

Cohen has hyperacusis, or acoustic trauma, a rare condition in which ordinary sounds can cause discomfort and, in severe cases, extraordinary pain. Hyperacusis remains little understood, but it is a disruption in the way the brains central auditory processing center perceives noise, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology. There are emerging theories about what causes it: Damage to auditory nerves. A problem with the facial nerves that control sound intensity. Some as-yet-undiscovered other trigger. (Researchers are so far from understanding hyperacusis and its onset, a professor of otology at Harvard Medical School said in 2013, that its not productive to make anybody think theres an answer.) Its a small community of people who have it  one in 50,000, by some estimates  and Cohen and her husband, who met through an online hyperacusis message board, are among an even smaller contingent who have this extreme sensitivity to noise and live in New York City. Its a loud place  among the loudest in the country. Why live here if you can avoid it?

Cohen says her acoustic trauma started around 16 years ago, after prolonged exposure to a loud workplace fan. She is also a carrier of a noise-susceptibility gene, which may impact between 10 to 20 percent of the population. (Her husband says his symptoms first developed after years of going to concerts  hyperacusis is closely associated with tinnitus  and some workplace noise exposure.) Cohen found the early years of dealing with the extraordinary pain almost like grieving, writing once that she began giving things away, like people supposedly do before they die. Her ability to manage her condition improved over time, as she learned how to navigate life in a way that minimized noise.

I am not the first person to ask Cohen why she lives in New York City. For one thing, density is on her side: Living elsewhere would likely require her to drive. A car is, she says, really just a noise-making machine. Here she has access to the things she needs with little friction: Shops are close, delivery is plentiful. But living comfortably in a city of sirens and 4 a.m. door buzzers did take some retrofitting. We made the inside of the apartment as quiet as humanly possible, Cohen says. She counts herself lucky: The rent-stabilized apartment shes lived in for nearly 30 years happens to be on a quiet side street, and the building doesnt have any kids, dogs, or elevators. Theyve installed soundproof windows and solid interior doors to try to block out the noise of errant ice-cream trucks, impatient drivers, or excited teenagers. Protective earmuffs are their saving grace and are basically part of the interior design: In each room, a pair sits within arms reach in case a fire truck blows by. Theyre all over the house in case something happens, Cohen says. I look like a baggage handler wearing them.

Cohen, a freelance real-estate reporter, works from home, but can generally move around the city if she needs to, even taking the subway on occasion. Before walking out the door, she arms herself: earplugs inside of industrial earmuffs. Shes developed a number of tricks to help her navigate the loud streets  looking up the status of digging permits to avoid loud construction; ducking into the lobby of nearby buildings when a siren goes by. Typically the doormen are nice about it, but if she gets any pushback, shell pretend to slowly tie her shoes until the noise passes. Peoples sympathies can vary: She once asked a subway performer to pause his drumming to no avail. But the employees at her preferred Gap will now turn the music down for her, and the manager at her local Fairway tries to make sure theres no one using power tools while shes inside. But there are parts of the city that are pretty much off limits. She and her husband avoid restaurants and movie theaters, but sometimes they will take late-night walks in Central Park. (Even those can be hazardous  people whistling for their dogs, bikers ringing their bells.)

Restaurants are similarly a nightmare for Gina Briggs, who lives in Boerum Hill and has a much milder condition  she is sensitive to sound but doesnt feel pain. (It makes me irritable, almost like the feeling you get when you have a pebble in your shoe, she says.) She first realized she might have an issue with noise while having brunch one day. I felt myself get kind of enraged, Briggs says of the restaurant  all hard, clattering surfaces, music blasting, and a rowdy bridal shower eating nearby. I was like, This is not normal. Ive got to figure out whats going on. In an effort to ease her own experience of the city and share that information with others who might need it, Briggs created a site called Quiet City Maps where she took decibel readings of different establishments. (She reminisces fondly about a monastery-themed bar called Burp Castle, where bartenders would kick people out for making too much noise. I spoke to them and was like, Oh my God, this is such a civilized place.) She doesnt wear ear protection when she walks around, but she does often have earplugs on hand for situations like an office party. For sudden noises  a subway screech, an ear-piercing siren  a relatively lo-fi method works: She plugs her ears with her fingers.

Not every New Yorker with a noise condition makes the same choices as Cohen and Briggs, though. Jon Wallace, a calm and careful talker who works for a hedge fund, says he believes he developed hyperacusis after a number of banal events  ear pressure from a flight, a crate slamming down from a truck on the city street. The last straw, he tells me, was accidentally putting his headphones in at full volume while quarantining in Connecticut during early COVID. I kind of laughed it off, but within 24 hours I was on a work call and bam, it was like a light switch  the whole world changed, Wallace says. I had tinnitus, and suddenly I found that I was sensitive to all sorts of sounds.

It took Wallace a year and a half after the headphone incident before he could even step back into Manhattan. His few trips to the office took planning  he had to perfectly execute every move: ear protection everywhere, routes that minimized time on the street. It wasnt long before he realized he needed to leave permanently: There are just so many surprising ambulance or car sounds or construction noises. It was no way for me to live.

But is any place truly quiet if every noise is a potential hazard? Cohen sees tradeoffs everywhere. The country has birdsong and cicadas; the suburbs mean leaf blowers and lawn mowers. You end up trading one noise for another, she says. Though she did consider moving out of the city, at least temporarily to avoid a nearby construction project. There was a house in a rural part of Connecticut that seemed promising. Then she talked to the only neighbor, trying to understand the local noise landscape. She only needed to hear one word, she says, before deciding the place wasnt for her: Woodpeckers.
Jeddah talks on Ukraine crisis conclude, highlight continuing peace efforts

Xinhua) 11:19, August 07, 2023

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The talks on the Ukraine crisis concluded on Sunday in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, where participants called for continuing international efforts to build a common ground for peace, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The participants also emphasized the importance of benefiting from views and positive suggestions presented during the two-day meeting.

The meeting, chaired by Saudi Minister of State and National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, was attended by security advisers and representatives from more than 40 countries and international organizations, including China and the United Nations.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
by Sanchita Bhattacharya

On July 31, 2023, the Taliban detained three journalists  Najib Faryad from Ariana News, and two local journalists, Hatef Aryan and Sebghatullah Turan  in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh Province. Till the time of writing, local Taliban officials in the province had not provided any official statement regarding this incident.





On July 12, 2023, Radio Safa reporter Irfanullah Bidar was arrested by the Talibans General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) from Jalalabad, Nangarhar province.





On June 18, 2023, journalist Reza Shahir was arrested by the Taliban as he crossed the border from Iran into Afghanistan in Zabul District. After his arrest, he was taken to an unknown location, where he was interrogated and tortured. It remains unclear whether Shahir was released or if he escaped in the night of June 19. Shahir, a reporter with Rah-e-Farda TV, left Afghanistan at the start of Taliban control in August 2021, taking refuge in Iran.





Afghan journalists attend a meeting in the Tolo newsroom, in Kabul, Afghanistan September 7, 2018. Picture taken September 7, 2018. [REUTERS/Omar Sobhani]





On May 9, 2023, the Taliban detained four journalists (names not available) in Khost Province. While one was from Gharghesht Television Network, the other three (one each) were from three different private local radio stations, Chinar, Wolus Ghazh (Peoples Voice) and Nan (Today).





On April 6, 2023, the Taliban arrested three journalists  Gholam-Ali Wahdat, from the Tanwir television network; Safiullah Wafa and Noor-Agha from Radio Television Afghanistan  from their respective homes in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital city of Baghlan Province.





On January 7, 2023, Mortaza Behboudi, a French-American journalist was arrested by the Taliban in Kabul.





According to partial data collated by Institute for Conflict Management, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, at least 12 journalists have been arrested in seven incidents (data till August 6, 2023).





However, a May 2, 2023, Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) report claimed that 70 journalists  of which at least two reporters (Murtaza Behbudi and Khairullah Parhar) are still in Taliban custody  had been arrested just since the previous World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2022. The report added that the findings of AFJC indicate that, during this period, at least 213 incidents of violence, threats, and detention of journalists had been recorded in the country.





Apart from frequent arrest and detention of journalists on March 12, 2023, three persons were killed and 30 were injured in an Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP) orchestrated bomb blast carried out during a ceremony to honour journalists at the Tebyan Cultural Center in Police District2 of Mazar-e-Sharif, capital city of Balkh Province.





In the almost two years since the Talibans return to power in August 2021, journalists, reporters, and media personnel have experienced a dramatic increase in arrests, harassment, and coercion, especially stemming directly from Taliban forces or the GDI.





Commenting on the present situation on July 25, 2023, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) observed,





The all too common disappearances, arrests, and attacks suffered by media workers under Taliban rule continue to quash press freedom and create a highly dangerous environment for journalists doing their jobs. The IFJ condemns Irfanullah Bidars detention and urges the Taliban to release all jailed journalists and cease its intimidation of Afghanistans media.





Apart from individual journalist, media outlets as a whole have also been targeted. As reported by BBC on March 21, 2023, Afghan media have faced multiple difficulties since the Talibans return to power. Outlets have endured severe restrictions, an economic crisis and waning Western support. There is growing self-censorship and editorial appeasement of the Taliban. Freedom of expression has largely disappeared. More than 300 media outlets have closed and many journalists and media activists have left the country. The AFJC report of May 2, 2023, also claimed that roughly half of 600 media outlets have ceased operation due to restrictions imposed by the ruling regime as well as economic problems.





The Paris-based, Reporters Without Borders stated on May 3, 2023,





The fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 radically changed the media landscape. In the space of three months, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Of the 10,780 people working in Afghan newsrooms (8,290 men and 2,490 women) at the beginning of August, only 4,360 were still working in December (3,950 men and 410 women), or four out of ten journalists.





It is pertinent to recall here that, on November 21, 2021, just a few months after coming to power, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) Zabihullah Mujahid had declared that all media outlets must observe Islamic values. The media outlets have the status of a tribune and should work to enlighten the public and the new generation, Zabihullah Mujahid asserted, at a joint meeting of the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Ministry of Ethics. Then, in July, 2022, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada went further, warning reporters that they would be punished for defaming government officials.





The insecurity and safety anxieties that have defined the Talibans control over Afghanistan have resulted in a growing Afghan journalist exodus, with hundreds escaping into neighbouring Iran, Pakistan or beyond, undermining the medias capacity to articulate public opinion and important coverage, particularly in newspapers, on various Taliban activities. The Taliban want to suppress the voice of reason and, in doing so, target the media, creating enormous pressure on journalists and media organisations.





The Taliban has issued various directives for journalists at provincial levels as well. For instance, on July 15, 2023, local media officials and journalists revealed that, in the Badghis Province, the Taliban had prohibited them from reporting on suicide attacks and targeted killings in the province, though the number of such incidents continued to rise. Journalists are only allowed to cover events if accompanied by Taliban officials, and reporting on such incidents requires Taliban approval, they added. Earlier, on February 20, 2023, a decree issued by Mufti Muhammad Edris Anwari, the Talibans deputy-governor in Parwan, stated that all media outlets must publish content approved by the Bakhtar News Agency. Also, on December 8, 2022, following a gathering organised between the government and media in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province, the officials imposed further restrictions on media outlets, instead of introducing a comprehensive roadmap.





We have experienced limitations on media after the takeover of the current regime. Unfortunately, these restrictions will further push the media to the margin, said Khawja Abdul Baseer Abid, head of a private media outlet in Balkh Province.





Women have suffered most in the carnage inflicted on Afghan journalism and have disappeared completely from the media landscape in 11 of Afghanistans 34 provinces  Badghis, Daikundi, Ghazni, Nimroz, Zabul, Nuristan, Paktika, Wardak, Paktia, Samangan and Helmand. Allegations of immorality or conduct contrary to societys values are widely used as excuses for harassing women journalists and sending them home. This fundamentalist worldview in the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistans official discourse resulted in women TV presenters being made to cover their faces while on camera. A December 2021 report, In Their Own Words: Afghan Women Journalist Speaks, from the IFJ, found that 95 per cent of Afghan women journalists had become unemployed.





As expected, the overall crackdown on the media means that some of Afghanistans most important stories are going unreported and its citizens are left uninformed. For example, issues like womens rights, brutal use of force against people not obeying strict Sharia rules, food shortages, and school curriculums being overhauled by the Taliban, are either not reported or reported in a muted manner under Taliban dictates.





Social media is also not safe from Taliban control. As the Taliban has grown more tech-savvy, social media accounts are also regularly monitored. The Talibans GDI has monitored influential social media accounts and has detained individuals for posting criticism online. For instance, on February 12, 2023, Taliban arrested social media influencer Imran Ahmadzai from Kabul. Earlier on June 5, 2022, Taliban arrested an Afghan model and social media influencer, Ajmal Haqiqi, for allegedly insulting Islamic sacred value as the model, along with three others, had reportedly used the verses of Quran in a humorous manner in a video.





The Taliban is not only stifling media houses, but every independent voice coming out of Afghanistan. The voices of resistance, reason, protest and independence are violently crushed and silenced by the regime, especially by GDI. The courage of the common man is being challenged daily in a long drawn battle between the Talibans Islamist repression and the freedom of the Afghan citizen.





Sanchita Bhattacharya is a Research Fellow at Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, India
EXCLUSIVE

by Our Correspondent in Colombo

In a recent revelation, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has expressed profound dissatisfaction with Sri Lanka for failing to utilize the 100 million emergency fund provided by the bank for the purchase of crucial emergency medicines over a year ago. This inaction has resulted in severe drug shortages within the country, leading to dire consequences for the population.





During an evaluation visit to Colombo, the special team representing AIIB confronted the responsible authorities of the Sri Lankan government about the gross mismanagement of the emergency funds earmarked for essential medicines. The lack of accountability and misuse of funds have raised serious concerns over the well-being of the citizens who are now facing the consequences of pharmaceutical shortages.





Image Credit: Institute of Policy Studies





The situation further worsened when it was revealed that certain responsible officials, in collusion with corrupt business entities, were involved in the manufacturing of this crisis. This intricate web of corruption has allowed mafia-like gangs to manipulate drug deals and disrupt the establishment of essential medication supply chains between states, putting the lives of the Sri Lankan people at risk.





The AIIB donor delegation found evidence indicating that a specific doctor in charge of overseeing the related project had completely evaded his official responsibilities. Furthermore, the efforts of the Director General of Health Services to remove the negligent doctor were thwarted by various politicians who allegedly supported and protected the individual. As a consequence of the doctors corrupt activities, pharmaceutical companies and their henchmen have contributed to the scarcity of medicines in the country.





The implications of this drug shortage crisis are profound, affecting the lives of countless Sri Lankans who rely on these medications for their well-being and survival. It has raised serious questions about the efficacy and transparency of the Sri Lankan healthcare system, demanding immediate and thorough investigations into the corruption allegations.





The AIIB has expressed its strong disapproval and called upon the Sri Lankan government to take swift and decisive action to rectify the situation, ensuring the proper utilization of the emergency funds and holding the responsible parties accountable for their actions.





As the international community watches closely, it is crucial for the Sri Lankan government to address these allegations promptly, uphold transparency, and prioritize the health and well-being of its citizens by resolving the medication shortage crisis and bringing the involved parties to justice.
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.

Publication of the decision to issue a voluntary public

takeover offer pursuant to Sec. 10 (1) in conjunction with Sections 29, 34 of the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (WpUG)

Bidder:

Orchid Lux HoldCo S.a r.l.

2, rue Edward Steichen

L-2540 Luxembourg

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Target:

OHB SE

Manfred-Fuchs-Platz 2-4

28359 Bremen

Germany

registered with the commercial register of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Bremen under HRB 30268 HB

ISIN: DE0005936124 (WKN: 593612)

Today, Orchid Lux HoldCo S.a r.l. ("Bidder"), a holding company controlled by investment funds, vehicles and/or accounts advised and managed by various subsidiaries of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co L.P., has decided to offer to the shareholders of OHB SE ("OHB") by way of a voluntary public takeover offer ("Takeover Offer") to acquire all no-par value bearer shares in OHB with a proportionate interest in the share capital of EUR 1.00 per share ("OHB Shares"). The Bidder intends to offer a cash consideration in the amount of EUR 44.00 per OHB Share. This represents a premium of 39 % to the volume-weighted Xetra average price of the OHB Shares over the past three months.

Today, the Bidder and OHB signed an Investment Agreement regarding the terms and conditions of a strategic investment by the Bidder in OHB. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board of OHB, which have approved the conclusion of the Investment Agreement today, explicitly welcome and support the Takeover Offer, subject to their review of the offer document yet to be published by the Bidder and their fiduciary duties. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board intend to recommend the acceptance of the Takeover Offer to the shareholders of OHB. Also today, the Bidder and the Fuchs Family Foundation (as majority shareholder of OHB) and investment companies beneficially owned by members of the Fuchs Family (collectively, the "Majority Shareholders") have entered into a Cooperation Agreement. According to the Cooperation Agreement, the Majority Shareholders will not accept the Takeover Offer for the OHB shares held by them as part of the voting pool and will thus continue to hold a majority stake in OHB. They shall retain permanent control over the company. Going forward and subject to the consummation of the Takeover Offer, the Bidder and the Majority Shareholders will align their interest with regard to OHB through a Shareholders' Agreement and jointly exercise their voting rights.

The Takeover Offer will be subject to customary conditions, including merger control and other regulatory clearances, and will not be subject to a minimum acceptance threshold. The Bidder has committed to OHB not to enter into a domination and/or profit and loss transfer agreement.

The offer document for the Takeover Offer (in German and a non-binding English translation) and further information on the Takeover Offer will be published and available on the internet at www.orchid-offer.com.

Important Information:

This announcement is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell OHB Shares. The final terms of the Takeover Offer as well as other provisions relating to the Takeover Offer will be communicated in the offer document after the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) has permitted the publication of the offer document. The Bidder reserves the right to deviate from the key items presented here in the final terms and conditions of the Takeover Offer to the extent legally permissible. Investors and holders of OHB Shares are strongly advised to read the offer document and all other documents relating to the Takeover Offer as soon as they have been made public, as they will contain important information. The offer document for the Takeover Offer (in German and a non-binding English translation) with the detailed terms and conditions and other information on the Takeover Offer will be published after approval by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht) amongst other information on the internet at www.orchid-offer.com.

The Takeover Offer will be implemented exclusively on the basis of the applicable provisions of German law, in particular the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (Wertpapiererwerbs- und Ubernahmegesetz - WpUG), and certain securities law provisions of the United States of America relating to cross-border takeover offers. The Takeover Offer will not be conducted in accordance with the legal requirements of jurisdictions other than the Federal Republic of Germany or the United States of America (as applicable). Accordingly, no notices, filings, approvals or authorizations for the Takeover Offer have been filed, caused to be filed or granted outside the Federal Republic of Germany or the United States of America (as applicable). Investors and holders of OHB Shares cannot rely on being protected by the investor protection laws of any jurisdiction other than the Federal Republic of Germany or the United States of America (as applicable). Subject to the exceptions described in the offer document and, where applicable, any exemptions to be granted by the respective regulatory authorities, no takeover offer will be made, directly or indirectly, in those jurisdictions in which this would constitute a violation of applicable law. This announcement may not be released or otherwise distributed in whole or in part, in any jurisdiction in which the Takeover Offer would be prohibited by applicable law.

The Bidder reserves the right, to the extent permitted by law, to directly or indirectly acquire additional OHB Shares outside the Takeover Offer on or off the stock exchange, provided that such acquisitions or arrangements to acquire are not made in the United States, will comply with the applicable German statutory provisions, in particular the WpUG, and the Offer Price is increased in accordance with the WpUG, to match any consideration paid outside of the Offer if higher than the Offer Price. If such acquisitions take place, information on such acquisitions, including the number of OHB Shares acquired or to be acquired and the consideration paid or agreed, will be published without undue delay if and to the extent required under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States or any other relevant jurisdiction. The Takeover Offer announced in this announcement will relate to shares in a German company admitted to trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and will be subject to the disclosure requirements, rules and practices applicable to companies listed in the Federal Republic of Germany, which differ from those of the United States and other jurisdictions in certain material respects. This announcement has been prepared in accordance with German style and practice for the purposes of complying with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. The financial information relating to the Bidder and OHB included elsewhere, including in the offer document, will be prepared in accordance with provisions applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany and will not be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States; therefore, it may not be comparable to financial information relating to United States companies or companies from other jurisdictions outside the Federal Republic of Germany. The Takeover Offer will be made in the United States pursuant to Section 14(e) of, and Regulation 14E under, the Exchange Act, and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. Shareholders from the United States should note that OHB is not listed on a United States securities exchange, is not subject to the periodic requirements of the Exchange Act and is not required to, and does not, file any reports with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any contract entered into with the Bidder as a result of the acceptance of the planned Takeover Offer will be governed exclusively by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be difficult for shareholders from the United States (or from elsewhere outside of Germany) to enforce certain rights and claims arising in connection with the Takeover Offer under United States federal securities laws (or other laws they are acquainted with) since the Bidder and OHB are located outside the United States (or the jurisdiction where the shareholder resides), and their respective officers and directors reside outside the United States (or the jurisdiction where the shareholder resides). It may not be possible to sue a non-United States company or its officers or directors in a non-United States court for violations of United States securities laws. It also may not be possible to compel a non-United States company or its subsidiaries to submit themselves to a United States courts judgment.

To the extent that this document contains forward-looking statements, they are not statements of fact and are identified by the words "intend", "will" and similar expressions. These statements express the intentions, beliefs or current expectations and assumptions of the Bidder and the persons acting in concert with it. Such forward-looking statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections made by the Bidder and the persons acting in concert with it to the best of their knowledge, but are not guarantees of future accuracy (this applies in particular to circumstances beyond the control of the Bidder or the persons acting in concert with it). Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and are usually beyond the Bidder's control or the control of the persons acting in concert with it. It should be taken into account that actual results or consequences in the future may differ materially from those indicated or contained in the forward-looking statements. It cannot be ruled out that the Bidder and the persons acting in concert with it will change their intentions and estimates stated in documents or notifications or in the offer document yet to be published after publication of the documents, notifications or the offer document.

Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, 7 August 2023



Orchid Lux HoldCo S.a r.l.
The King has been invited to visit the newly renovated Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne on his forthcoming state visit to Paris.

The last time Charles set foot there was in 1972 when he accompanied his mother to see her uncle weeks before he died.

The late Queen was offered the bureau upon which Edward VIII signed the 1936 instrument of abdication, to which she coolly replied: 'Why would I want an abdication desk?'

King Charles has been invited to visit the newly renovated Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne on his forthcoming state visit to Paris

Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson will be unhappy with LBC's revelation that pilots are considering strike action, warning: 'There could soon be political pressure for the airline given that Captain Warren Braverman, brother-in-law of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, is on the Virgin Atlantic pilot roster  while James Mordaunt, brother of Leader of the House of Commons Penny, is a flight service manager.' Will Beardie settle before it's too late?

Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson (pictured) will be unhappy with LBC's revelation that pilots are considering strike action

When did the Duchess of Sussex first suffer a dip in her universal UK popularity? More than two years before her and Harry's departure from the Royal Family, according to biographer Tom Bower. At Christmas 2018, walking to the service at Sandringham, Meghan was photographed in a navy coat by Victoria Beckham. Victoria was 'dismayed' after this had zero effect on sales, says Bower, who is writing a biography of the Beckhams. She tried again in March 2020 with a custom-made white coat and dress for Meghan, then pregnant, to wear for her last official appearance at Westminster Abbey. 'By then,' writes Bower, 'Meghan's popularity was failing. Her endorsement of Victoria's label failed to improve sales.'

When did the Duchess of Sussex (pictured) first suffer a dip in her universal UK popularity? More than two years before her and Harry's departure from the Royal Family, according to biographer Tom Bower

Polymath Mark Lawson manages to elevate a rant about the cost of televised Premier League games by citing LS Lowry's 1953 painting Going to the Match. 'From the packed stands and sense of late arrivals running to turnstiles, the scene can reliably be timed to around 2.55pm on the first day of the weekend,' he calculates. 'If an artist did a Lowry homage now, only microscopic inspection of wristwatches could hope to expose the day or time.' What's that all about, Mark?

Galloping to the defence of co-star Amanda Abbington after the Strictly-bound Sherlock actress faced accusations of past 'transphobia', firecracker Frances Barber announces: 'I've seen some stupid nonsensical nonsense about the wonderful Amanda Abbington doing Strictly. She's an absolute diamond. And oh boy, watch her dance!'

After reading H Montgomery Hyde's The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry experienced a eureka moment. 'I started to gasp and pant and feel simultaneously triumphant and terribly, terribly worried,' he tells Radio Times. 'As I read that, I knew that I was gay.' But the final confirmation occurred watching the 1952 film of The Importance of Being Earnest. 'It was like a bomb going off in my head,' he gushes. 'Whatever PG Wodehouse had done for me, this was the megaton version.' Have you been sitting too near the screen during Oppenheimer, Stephen?
How to treat your bras is a topic that has long divided the nation - but if you're torn between washing them every day, wearing them for the long haul, or even how best to clean then, we've got an expert offering advice.

Georgina Bibby, a lingerie tech expert at clothing store Next, has revealed how often you should wash your bras as well as how to store them, adding that a little 'TLC' will have them lasting longer.

She says: 'It will depend on the wearer and your everyday activities but washing your bra after every two to three wears is a good general rule to go by.

'As well as maintaining your bras, you should also be looking at replacing the old ones. The general rule of thumb is to replace bras after about 180 wears.'

Georgina Bibby, a lingerie tech expert at clothing store Next, says you should wash your bra after every two to three wears

Georgina also revealed how to keep your lingerie safe in the wash, saying: 'Many bras are made from delicate material and can also snag other garments if washed in a big load.

'When washing your bra, be sure to clasp it and use a mesh garment bag to cushion the bra and keep it from twisting and tangling in your washing machine'.

'Washing it on a gentle cycle with cold water, avoiding the dryer, and resorting to air drying and storing them flat instead of rolling them up will ensure the bra keeps its shape and quality'.

But for some, after coming home from a long, hard day - cleaning a bra is probably furthest from their minds.

Georgina says the average age of a womens bra is 5.5 years, while a whopping one million UK women own a bra thats more than 20 years old

Last year, Australian influencer Renee Hogan sparked a debate when she revealed that she only washed her bra once a week.

Another online user revealed that she wore her bras 'many, many times' before putting them in the wash - adding that her undergarments 'never seemed obviously dirty', nor did they keep 'any kind of scent'.

These women's habits could be seen by some as a move to save money, but whatever the reason may be, Georgina suggests the practice could cost you your bra in the long run.

'Showing your bra a little tender loving care means youll be able to enjoy it for much longer,' says Georgina.

But she adds: 'Our research shows that were a nation of bra hoarders.

'The average age of a womens bra is 5.5 years, and a whopping one million UK women own a bra thats more than 20 years old.'

Keep a lookout for tell-tale signs that your bra is overused, including the back band being stretched out, cups being stretched out, damaged fabric, visible elastic threads and general discomfort when wearing.
When Sony began selling radios today, back in 1955, did its executives have a vision of it becoming a tech giant?

Its success was due to a combination of timing, innovative ideas and skill. Luck, on its own, is rarely enough. Theres always an element of risk involved: plus belief and a certain amount of inspiration.

The Sun-Jupiter link indicates todays a perfect day to dream big.

Aries

Mar 21 - Apr 20

Some people have to borrow with little hope of being able to pay their debt back. The strange irony is that the folk who have the best credit scores are often those who dont need extra assistance. Some of us make promises well never be able to keep, while others keep promises they should never have made. Youre entitled to help, but you have to ask to get it. If you do, know your request will be honoured. Make the most of the gifts coming your way.

For excellent advice to guide you through the twists and turns of the coming week, call your LATEST week ahead forecast: 0906 751 5601.

The Sun-Jupiter link indicates todays a perfect day to dream big, says Oscar Cainer

Taurus

Apr 21 - May 21

We tend to dismiss daydreaming as a waste of time and energy. Whats the point of whiling the hours away lost in fantasies that wont come true? Surely wed be better off investing our thoughts in more pragmatic issues? Yet its essential to let our imaginations run wild sometimes. We create visions of how things could be, and then we can take steps to make those visions reality. Theres a sprinkle of fairy dust in the air today. So dont dismiss a far-fetched thought. It could be a game-changer. How can you stay focused and happy?

Your LATEST weekly forecast will give you the help you need. Call 0906 751 5602.

Gemini

May 22 - June 22

Even in parts of the world where the climate is predictable, the weather is a source of conversation. We all use it to break the ice with people. And conversations dont have to be meaningful to be agreeable and gratifying; sometimes, a meteorological chat is enough to make us feel as if were relating to the world in a positive way. And it can open the door to conversations about more personal issues. An important insight can emerge from a trivial exchange today. Theres no need to worry. Theres no need to worry.

All you need is some guidance. Your LATEST week-ahead forecast can help. Call 0906 751 5603.

Cancer

June 23 - July 23

Youre less than happy about a certain persons behaviour. You feel astounded . . . even outraged. How dare they act so selfishly? Their actions have impacted other peoples lives, and its made you cross and upset. But carrying these emotions so close to your heart isnt going to help anyone. If you let them go, youll be clearer about what you can do to improve this situation. Todays Sun-Jupiter link reminds you of your power to effect positive change. Use the strength of your feelings to encourage healing.

Your LATEST week-ahead forecast has encouraging news. Move towards a brighter future. Call 0906 751 5604.

Leo

July 24 - Aug 23

I wish . . . I should have . . . Why didnt I . . ? At some point, we all find ourselves looking back at a past decision. But our mistakes are learning tools. When we look at them in the right way, they help us reach new understandings. And we can always make amends for past wrongdoings. Someone in your world might appreciate the chance to excuse themselves for past actions. As your ruler, the Sun, links with Jupiter, if you extend the hand of friendship, a fresh start is possible.

For excellent advice to guide you through the twists and turns of the coming week, call your LATEST week-ahead forecast: 0906 751 5605.

Virgo

Aug 24 - Sep 23

Imagine if every time we came back from a trip, we needed to enter a password or a PIN number and clear security before being welcomed back into our workplaces and homes. Hopefully, despite the fact that technology geeks seem to doubt the human ability to recognise one another just by looking, that will never happen. Something irritating is standing between you and an attainable goal. You need to comply with a series of annoying (unnecessary) protocols. But once theyre complete, youll be flying free. How can you stay focused and happy?

Your LATEST weekly forecast will give you the help you need. Call 0906 751 5606.

Horoscope today: Daily guide to what the stars have in store for YOU - August 7, 2023

Libra

Sep 24 - Oct 23

Imagine going to great lengths to acquire the seed of a rare and valuable flower. You plant it, you nourish and water the soil, but nothing happens. What do you do? Dig it up and buy yourself a bouquet? Or prepare to be patient? You have a plan. You might not have a clear timescale. You might not be sure it will come to fruition. But you sense that it holds a seed of potential. Trust that instinct. Even though it could be a while before it fully blossoms, if you stay positive, and look for signs of hope, they will soon appear.

Theres no need to worry. All you need is some guidance. Your LATEST week-ahead forecast can help. Call 0906 751 5607.

Scorpio

Oct 24 - Nov 22

We never run out of reasons to feel annoyed, impatient or frustrated. Fortunately, we also dont run out of reasons to be considerate, empathic or forgiving. If we were always perfect, life would be dull. And if we allow our resentments and anxieties to dominate our thoughts and feelings, life is miserable. Youve been dealing with more than your fair share of difficulties. Today, though, brings a flash of insight and a piece of welcome news. Something wonderful is happening. Your mood is about to improve.

Your LATEST week-ahead forecast has encouraging news. Move towards a brighter future. Call 0906 751 5608.

Sagittarius

Nov 23 - Dec 21

There is no doubt that lots of people are drawn to you. Theres something about your enthusiasm thats appealing. Your challenge is to distinguish between those who are worthy of your time and those who come to bask in your light. As the Sun links with your ruler, Jupiter, be selective about who you share your thoughts with. Its by not giving away too much of yourself that youll attract people who want to know more about the authentic you.

For excellent advice to guide you through the twists and turns of the coming week, call your LATEST week-ahead forecast: 0906 751 5609.

Capricorn

Dec 22 - Jan 20

We dont need to be full of ideas to have a good conversation. Sometimes, its enjoyable to repeat something weve talked about before. Like following a script, we know what were going to say  and we know what the response is going to be. Its comforting. This works when everyone involved is happy with the topic of conversation, but not so well if its about something difficult. With a few, clear words today, you can move a difficult situation into a healthier space from which healing can occur.

How can you stay focused and happy? Your LATEST weekly forecast will give you the help you need. Call 0906 751 5610.

Aquarius

Jan 21 - Feb 19

Youre famous for your tendency to analyse situations. Even if people sometimes tease you for the time you take on a decision, they admire your ability to choose wisely (and stick to that choice). To make a good decision, you need as much information as possible. Todays Sun-Jupiter conjunction brings an essential fact youve been missing. Once youve fitted it into what you already know, youll be able to act. The choice youre about to make is well-informed  and brilliant.

Theres no need to worry. All you need is some guidance. Your LATEST week-ahead forecast can help. Call 0906 751 5611.

Pisces

Feb 20 - Mar 20

I wonder who started the myth about power being attractive. Surely, they must have been in a position of power. Its the kind of misconception that could only be circulated by someone attempting to cover their behaviour with a veil of mystery. What we do know is that power corrupts. But should you be worried about the power coming into your life? As the Sun aligns with Jupiter, you have a chance to reset the balance in a relationship. Make sure generosity and justice are the principles of this new start.

Your LATEST week-ahead forecast has encouraging news. Move towards a brighter future. Call 0906 751 5612.
Fashion editor Suzy Menkes recently called the Princess of Wales' use of the royal jewellery collection a 'disappointment', bemoaning that she wears its pieces only 'when she absolutely has to'.

But Kate raiding the royal vault solely for occasions such as state banquets is a considered move.

Her love of demi-fine and even costume jewellery  something previous royals would never wear  is all down to the 'Kate effect'.

Whatever the Princess is snapped wearing flies off the shelves, and Kate chooses to wield this power to champion British brands.

Stylish: The Princess of Wales wearing Emily Mortimer earrings in October 2022

The past decade has seen the emergence of a bevy of female-founded, mid-market jewellery design outlets, and the Princess has been at the forefront of their success.

The future Queen wearing garnet earrings plated in gold? Unsurprising. Their price tag of just 55? I say! Here's our edit of Kate's go-to British bling brands.

Accessorize

Earrings, 16, accessorize.com

Ring, 10, accessorize.com

Earrings 10, accessorize.com

The iconic High Street shop favoured by tweens and grannies alike is a firm go-to for Kate: the Princess has worn Accessorize earrings four times.

One pair she wore for a museum trip in 2022 were just 2.10. Earrings cheaper than your average coffee  whoever said royals don't love a bargain?

Its current collection of beaded earrings rival Oscar de la Renta's.

Freya Rose

Earrings 125, freya rose.com

Earrings, 67.50, freyarose.com

Originally founded in 2010 as a shoe brand, founder Freya Rose made the pivotal decision to design a complementary line of jewellery when the pandemic hit shoe sales.

It was a risk that paid off. The Princess of Wales carried out her first engagement out of lockdown  a visit to Wolverhampton in May 2021  wearing a pair of the brand's mini pearl hoops (125).

She since worn them twice more. Freya says: 'Her Highness's support earned us an influx of new recognition and sales in 2021, which turned what could have been a disastrous year into an extraordinary one of growth.

I was able to invest in the business's marketing and wholesale development in ways that weren't possible in the past, resulting in our online reach growing globally.'

Who can turn around a business by merely wearing a pair of the brand's earrings? Only Kate.

Emily Mortimer

Electra earrings, 225, emilymortimer.co.uk

Founder Emily Foskett says: 'I always design with the idea that my pieces are for women to wear for ever; to be timeless with a contemporary feel.'

In a fashion landscape dominated by throwaway culture, this is an ethos that no doubt appealed to Kate, who is no slave to a trend.

That said, Emily's brand was born from the desire to create jewellery to suit the differing styles of her three sisters. Consequently, there's something for everyone.

Classicists like the Princess will go for the diamond designs, while chrysoprase  a vibrant green gemstone  and topaz will tempt modernists.

Kate chose the Hera earrings (main picture) for a visit to a maternity unit in October 2022.

Named after the goddess of women and childbirth, they were an occasion-appropriate nod to female empowerment.

Astley Clarke

Jewellery, from 195, astley clarke.com

Pendant, 160, astleyclarke.com

Design, innovation and colour are the cornerstones of Astley Clarke.

Working mainly with gemstones  always semi-precious or precious  this is luxury jewellery made modern.

The brand's price point is decidedly modern, too, based on its belief that jewellery shouldn't be saved for special occasions.

For maximalists, there are gobstopper cocktail rings in riotous colours; for the more understated, small gemstone necklaces like the lapis pendant favoured by Kate  she's worn it nine times since January 2021.

Monica Vinader

Jewellery, from 135, monica vinader. com

With head offices in Holkham, just up the road from the Wales' Norfolk home at Anmer, Monica Vinader burst onto the scene in 2008 and revolutionised the way women buy jewellery.

Many of her pieces are gold vermeil  sterling silver layered with 18ct gold. This technique gives the appearance of pure gold but at a much lower price, and thus created a new niche in the market for 'demi' fine jewellery.

Suddenly, bling was democratised. Accessible and luxurious? It'san oxymoron the Princess of Wales is on board with.

The brand's Nura pearl necklace (125) is a favourite of Kate's, while she's worn its green Siren earrings (also 125) on repeat.

Auree

Bracelet, 95, auree jewellery. com

Earrings, 40, auree jewellery. com

Amelia Carmichael's company is named after her grandmother, whose middle name, Auree, means 'golden one' in Italian.

And the name perfectly encapsulates the brand's aesthetic: think dainty gold chains with flashes of colour.

The Princess of Wales' pick? A necklace and pair of earrings featuring her January birthstone  she wore them in a Jubilee baking video.

Amelia called it a 'wonderful surprise', saying: 'The Princess is a brilliant supporter of so many small British designers.

'Not only is this hugely encouraging to young brands, many of which are run by women and mothers, but it gives such recognition and credibility to the British jewellery industry.'

Style, affordability and the feel-good factor of supporting an independent brand? Triple tick.
Were I forced to pick my best purchase of summer 2022, Id probably have to go with my big straw bag.

Were not talking about a French market basket, although those never go out of style. This is a different league of straw bag, and everyone from Saint Laurent to Marks & Spencer has done at least a couple of straw styles this season.

They know what I discovered  that the right straw bag makes whatever youre wearing look 70 per cent more interesting, original and summery.

Mine is a hand-loomed natural jute (hessian) tote with a criss-cross stripe in shades of purple black and beige from the brand Maison Bengal (58, maisonbengal.co.uk).

This one is big  35cm high, 45cm long  with a striped lining and useful internal zip pockets, and comes in different patterns and colours (I love the one with the dark red central stripe), though you might fancy the club bag with double length handles in shades of blue and orange (74), the smaller jute bag with brown and yellow vertical stripes (48) or something less capacious and more like a two-tone bucket bag (48).

Were I forced to pick my best purchase of summer 2022, Id probably have to go with my big straw bag. Pictured: Reese Witherspoon

Recently, Ive been stopped several times wearing mine by people who say what a nice bag in a surprised tone. Pictured: Sofia Vergara

Id recommend sticking with something substantial: a bag you can hook over your shoulder, rather than carry by the handles, thats got the physical presence to give you that 70 per cent lift.

Recently, Ive been stopped several times wearing mine by people who say what a nice bag in a surprised tone.

I know exactly what they mean: how can a simple straw tote add so much? Youre not wearing anything out of the ordinary but somehow the bag gives you bags of style.

I spotted a woman last week with two straw totes slung over her shoulder  one smaller than the other; one covered in a starry print and one natural with a bit of black detailing  and I felt the same way.

Why is harder to pin down. These bags are special partly because you can use them only for a couple of months a year (straw doesnt stand up well to rain) and their texture suits summer clothes so much better than leather.

Theyre light, they look cool and bohemian without being remotely scruffy, they add texture and colour, and theyre something a bit different from your normal everyday bag.

I honestly couldnt tell you what else the straw basket woman was wearing, so... they work.

I know exactly what they mean: how can a simple straw tote add so much? Youre not wearing anything out of the ordinary but somehow the bag gives you bags of style. Pictured: Jerry Hall

Ideally, get one thats lined, and avoid those baskets with broad, firm bases. Big and deep is good; unwieldy and stiff is not. Pictured: Eleanor Tomlinson

A couple of tips. It pays to pay a little bit more, if you can, because the cheaper basket bags tend to lose their shape. Also, be careful how you store it come autumn. Dont do as I did and squeeze it into a too-small plastic box which means its now curled at the edges.

Ideally, get one thats lined, and avoid those baskets with broad, firm bases. Big and deep is good; unwieldy and stiff is not.

You can find great straw bags everywhere on the High Street. I like Marks & Spencers straw cross-body bag with its attractive red, navy and white webbing strap (29.50, marks andspencer.com), or its straw duffel cross-body bag with a tan leather strap (35).

At the smarter end of the spectrum, theres La Redoutes basket bag with black leather double handles and side pouch (77, laredoute.co.uk), or Jigsaws raffia navy black and neutral striped tote (96, jigsaw-online.com).

Straw bags: The rules Get a large size tote.

Go for bold stripes on natural backgrounds.

Look for cotton linings.

Dont fold it when you put it away for autumn. Advertisement

Straw bags are intrinsically casual, but a bag like this you can easily wear with suiting or a black dress for as long as it feels like summer.

What can look very chic is natural straw with a graphic black pattern. The Colombian brand Wati make good-looking casual totes out of cotton and fique (a bit like sackcloth) in natural and black (40, watistudio.com).

A natural hessian shopper with a bold green and red stripe (28, wyselondon.com) could be your second straw bag, to go with a smarter oversize plain straw tote with black and off-white herringbone strap handles (37.50, Accessorize for asos.com).

If youd rather stick with a classic leather-trimmed straw basket of the sort Jane Birkin favoured back in the day, head to & Other Stories (85, stories.com).

Actually, Birkin was a big fan of a wicker shopping basket, but thats to be avoided unless youre under 30 and drifting around the South of France.

Dont be tempted by slogans or embroidered cherries  they are strictly for the beach, and were taking these baskets everywhere, for now.
An Aussie barber shop claiming to be 'the last male sanctuary' is applying for an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act hoping to ban women from entering its doors.

Robbie's Chop Shop, in Adelaide's affluent suburb of Unley, is fighting for its dream of a male-only space.

In an open letter shared to Instagram on July 28 the award-winning barber urged those who believe keeping the shop as a male sanctuary was important to write 'a little testimonial'.

The move comes after a complaints were made to the Equal Opportunity SA against the King William Road barber regarding its request that women observe its male-only policy.

The barber shop, located on King William Road in Unley, Adelaide, is applying for an exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act

'Whilst we feel that this complaint is misconceived, we are doing our best to resolve the situation in a respectful and understanding manner to the satisfaction of all involved,' the letter said.

'Unfortunately, this is not the first complaint of this type we have received, so in order to deal with them once and for all, we have decided to make an application for an exemption to (the) Equal Opportunity Act.'

The barber shop said it wanted to maintain a safe space for men to come together and discuss issues and confirmed women are not allowed to wait on the premises.

'We ask that they wait outside,' a spokesperson told the Advertiser. 'Everyone's been understanding'.

The post, which has received more than 360 likes and over 270 comments, has divided social media users, with some expressing support and others disapproval.

One woman wrote: 'If having an 'all male' space is discrimination then discriminate away! I love the idea of an all male barber. It allows you to master your craft and give men a safe space to be.. men!

'We have our own space as women, we don't need yours. I go to my hairdresser to whinge about men, why would I want one there? Same goes for the guys! They can't talk s**t about you if you're there so let them have their space! I love that this exists.'

The barber shop said it wanted to maintain a safe space for men to come together and discuss issues (pictured)

'Dudes like this will complain about safe spaces for marginalised groups and then cry about needing a men's only barber as if they need it for anything other than to talk shit about women and not be called out on their misogyny,' a second person argued.

'Men will literally ask for exemptions to the Equal Opportunity Act instead of just going to therapy,' a third person commented.

'I wonder if this happens to places like female only gyms? What an absolute joke this has happened,' another person added.

A mum of three-year-old boy said she has 'not once' been 'disrespected or made to feel not welcome' whenever she brings her son to Robbie's Chop Shop.
Holly Willoughby has found solace in crystals and PDAs with her husband after jetting off to Portugal for a summer break following a tumultuous year.

The TV presenter, 42, often takes a summer holiday from This Morning with her husband Dan Baldwin and children Harry, 14, Belle, 12, and Chester, eight.

But this year, the ITV stalwart is clearly focused on healing after a tough 12 months that saw her co-host Phillip Schofield embroiled in scandal that forced him to step down from his role.

The presenter headed to the Iberian peninsula to enjoy a two-month break at a 2million mansion in the sunshine, with Dermot OLeary and Alison Hammond stepping in to cover her on This Morning.

Since the star has put on a brave face making appearances in the very sunny Algarve shopping in a gorgeous yellow dress, having a dip in the sea and heading out with her family.

While the star usually keeps her family life very private she's shared snaps online of a PDA with her producer husband, while also penning insights into their marriage on her lifestyle blog Wylde Moon.

Holly has also shared how she's used aura cleansing and meditation crystals to feel better during the tough time.

Beach babe: Holly Willoughby looked nothing short of sensational as she hit the beach during her family holiday in Portugal on Sunday

The TV presenter, 42, often takes a summer holiday away from This Morning with her husband Dan Baldwin and children Harry, 14, Belle, 12, and Chester, eight

The TV presenter set up her lifestyle brand Wylde Moon has in September 2021 and she often promotes crystal energies and meditation in blog posts and social media videos.

In May, Wylde Moon has shared a video of healer Emma Lucy Knowles speaking about 'tuning' your aura' and 'cleansing meditation' after Holly's co-star Phillip quit ITV.

In the video, shared to Holly's brand's Instagram page, Emma spoke about the importance of meditation and 'cleansing' energies.

She said: 'If you're ready to work with us to go into that lovely meditative space where you can feel your aura or work out how best to tune into your aura, then join us over on the website.'

While a caption added: 'Ever wondered how you can see your aura? Join Emma Lucy in a guided aura viewing and cleansing meditation.

'Tune in to the colour, texture and vibe of your own unique energy.'

Last week Holly also gave a rare insight into her marriage to TV producer Dan, 48, ahead of their 16th anniversary - hinting that he's helped her heal from the difficultly of the last year.

Marriage: The This Morning host, 42, tied the knot with her husband at Amberley Castle in Sussex on August 4, 2007, and they have since welcomed three children together

Last week Holly also gave a rare insight into her marriage to TV producer Dan, 48, ahead of their 16th anniversary - hinting that he's helped her heal from the difficultly of the last year

'It will be 16 years this year, which feels crazy in so many ways. I often think about us and the glue that binds us together. Every relationship is so unique and different; what works for one couple may not for another.

'It's a bit like developing your own personal recipe that you adapt together and personalise along the way.

'I love nothing better than finding out what my friends/parents believe the secret to their relationship success is  and would love to hear your wisdom too!

'Mine would have to be remembering to carve out real time for each other within the madness of everyday life; everything from making time to talk over dinner at home to date nights. Whatever you do to keep the spark alive, keep it up!'

Alongside the sweet message, Holly shared a photograph of herself and Dan kissing on the beach, as well as a shot of her walking down the aisle on her wedding day.

While the star clearly finds solace in Portugal, it will be a stark contrast to usual years as she is there without her former co-host Phillip.

Holly often spends time at her Portuguese holiday home with her family and for many years, she has done so with former co-host Phillip at his adjacent villa.

A source close to Holly Willoughby has revealed that, far from quitting, the presenter is set to sign a lucrative new contract  and with it save the show. Pictured: On holiday in Portugal on Saturday)

Meditation: The TV presenter, 42, set up her lifestyle brand in September 2021 and she often promotes crystal energies and meditation (Holly is pictured in a post from April)

However, after he admitted he had an affair with a much younger colleague - the pair have fallen out.

Holly, who works Monday to Thursday, typically works a five day working week on her last week before her summer break.

While Phillip was still in good graces, the pair used the final show to sign off and give a goodbye message to fans before their six-week summer break.

In 2021 they knocked back eight wines during the show before heading abroad on a joint holiday to Portugal.

However in a break from tradition, the star signed off with her usual farewell message to viewers 'see you, bye', without mentioning her upcoming holiday last month.

Things could be set to get even more awkward after Phillip has revealed will not sell his Portuguese home and will continue to enjoy sunshine breaks there.

Sources have claimed Phillip is planning a trip at his villa, which is situated on the exclusive resort despite his and Holly's bust up - which began when he didn't tell her about his paedophile brother's court case, which saw him being found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy over a three-year period.

When Holly returns from her long holiday in September, This Morning will be centred around the presenter, after ITV bosses decided not to make a big money hiring to replace Phillip Schofield.
Beat the muffled drum, command the bagpipers to skirl their saddest lament. A report that Prince William hates the kilt and will not wear one even when he ascends the throne has cast gloom in the glens and ire in the shires of Scotland.

What is his problem? Many consider Highland dress to be a thing of beauty, guaranteed to turn even the most unpromising milksop into a bonny broth of a boy. However, this belief is clearly not shared by the Prince of Wales.

After being traumatised by being forced into one as a child, William has apparently carved out a kiltfree future for himself. He is a kilt denier, he is antikilt, he is so Just Stop Kilts that he is considering gluing his shortbread fingers to his Trossachs in protest.

For William and the kilt it is going to be Lochaber no more. Balmoral no more. Braemar Games no more. Not this summer or the next, nor for a thousand Scottish summers hence. Not even when he becomes king and has to perform kingly duties in Scotland where he will, in fact, be the King of Scotland.

And I just dont know what my fellow Scots are going to think about that.

Prince William (pictured front centre as a child with members of the Royal Family) has sworn off wearing a kilt in his current role as Prince of Wales and in future when he ascends the throne, but JAN MOIR hopes he might reconsider

Since becoming Prince of Wales, William has already inherited a loaded quiver of Scottish titles, including Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince & Great Steward of Scotland.

How can he undertake these positions and not the sartorial traditions that go with them?

His nonkilt position is certainly going to blow the minds of the more fervent SNP supporters, who will be furious and insulted that Prince William doesnt want to wear a kilt, alongside being furious and insulted because they believe he has no right to wear one in the first place.

His antipathy would be easy to understand if William had been just another little English rich boy with nothing in his southern counties, prep school, cream bun, blazer-wearing young life to prepare him for kilt-dom, but that is not the case. He grew up marinated in 'tartanalia'.

Not only did he go to St Andrews University  a kiltrich area deep in kilt country  his grandfather, father, uncles and assorted serving royal equerries all regularly wore kilts, too.

Indeed, his father took to the kilt like an otter takes to the peat burn, slipping into its knife pleat folds like he was coming home. Only this weekend he was raising a wee dram of whisky in his Prince Charles Edward Stewart tartan at the Mey Highland Games.

After all, King Charles is the kind of man who appreciates craftsmanship and worships traditional skills; none of the glory of the worsted wool, the buckled leather straps and sporrans, the hand-knitted socks or the carved horn buttons is lost on him.

Also, Charles has just a dash more personal style and sartorial flair than William, whose off duty leisure wear suggests a lovably bland, dad-dancing dud, right down to his regulation chinos and button-down blue shirts.

Surely William must realise that costume and regalia is a major part of his ceremonial role?

King Charles (pictured) appreciates craftsmanship and worships traditional skills, and is happy to don a kilt when the occasion requires

Kilts have a proud history that dates back to the 16th century, writes JAN MOIR. Kilt + sporran, macgregorandmacduff.co.uk; socks, cordings.co.uk; shoes, berwickshoes.com.

He has certainly trundled about in the billowing Robes of the Garter often enough, which means he not only understands the value of theatre, but also what it feels like to wear a pair of theatre curtains.

And he has form in the costume department. In the past he has worn velvet hats with pluming feathers and caps adorned with leeks. In 2019 he wore a traditional sherwani, a knee-length button up coat, on an official visit to Pakistan.

In Japan he wore a happi outfit while taking part in a sake barrel-breaking ceremony. On another trip he even wore a jinbaori complete with a kabuto samurai warrior helmet.

Im ready for action, he joked.

In addition, William has regularly worn a top hat to Ascot, and surely nothing looks more ridiculous than that?

Given all this, you have to wonder what his excuse might be for eschewing something as comely as the kilt, not to mention its proud history that stretches back to the 16th century.

He must have his reasons. Theyd better be good. But in the meantime, can I take this opportunity to urge him to think again? For the truth is that Prince William, despite his reluctance, would look wonderful in a kilt. Completely fabulous, in fact.

Consider the evidence. Hes fit, hes tall and hes got strong, long, polo playing legs. Hes got the mandatory pair of big, hairy knees without which no kilt wearing is complete. His shoulders dont sag. His hips dont lie. No one can deny that he has all-round serious sporran potential.

So please bonny Prince William, dont suffer from kilt guilt or accept defeat by pleat.

The truth is that you were born to wear a kilt by destiny and by luck, so by God, dont let us down now.
Celebrity chef Cat Cora has revealed the rather surprising way she became 'buddies' with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as she chatted with Lance Armstrong about the most famous numbers in their phones during an upcoming episode of Stars on Mars.

The Iron Chef star, 56, got candid about how she was introduced to the famous couple during a chat with former professional road racing cyclist, Armstrong.

In an exclusive clip from Monday night's episode, Armstrong brought up an earlier conversation in which they had been discussing 'the most famous person on your phone'.

One of the big names included Oprah, and Cora stated: 'Yeah, she'll text me once in a while and ask me if I can do something. Or I'll text her on her birthday and stuff like that.'

Guess who? Celebrity chef Cat Cora opens up about how she became 'buddies' with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Rubbing shoulders: The Iron Chef star, 56, was introduced to the famous couple by Oprah Winfrey; pictured with the Sussexes in May 2022

The TV chef then explained how Oprah connected her with the Duke and the former Suits actress as she continued: 'One time last year, I hear my phone go "Oprah is calling" and she said "Cat, it's Harry's birthday" - Harry and Meghan, you know - "and I need you to cook for them."'

Cora joked about the fact she had only been given two days notice to organize what she needed for the birthday meal before she continued: 'So I cooked for them and they've become buddies. They are really nice.'

Her comment appeared to take Armstrong by surprise as he replied: 'They are? Interesting.'

Cora then stressed her love for the late Queen Elizabeth II, to which Armstrong quipped: 'Girl, you're from Mississippi. What are you talking about the queen for?'

The chef defended herself as she responded: 'She was really sweet, she was like an old grandma.'

Lance then responded stating, 'We're Americans', before the pair laughed together.

In May 2022, the chef revealed her acquaintance with the Sussexes after sharing pictures of them speaking at a polo match at Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club.

Cora's caption from the annual Harry East Memorial Tournament revealed her excitement at being able to attend as she wrote: 'My Pretty Woman dreams came true! I got to stomp divets this weekend with my amazing friends, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to support local charities at the Santa Barbara polo fields. The Duke and his team won! Viva Los Padres!!'

Big fan: The TV personality stated that the couple are 'very nice'; pictured in May 2022

Debrief: The reality star explained all to fellow Stars on Mars contestant Lance Armstrong

Just months later, she also revealed her admiration for the Queen when she died aged 96.

She wrote in tribute: 'Today the world says goodbye to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning female Monarch in the world. She was the Queen of our generation, but also a wife, sister, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

'Her brilliance as a leader in the UK and the world was truly inspiring. She captivated the world with her eloquent words as we were allowed glimpses into the life of Her Majesty and the Royal family.'

She continued: 'I have such fond memories of watching her on television in her elegant jewels and beautiful and colorful dresses and suits.

Best buds: The chef revealed that Oprah Winfrey was the most famous person on her phone and that the pair would regularly message each other

Tune in: Stars On Mars will return next Monday on Fox

'My heart is with all the members of the Royal family today. Rest in peace Your Majesty, God Save The Queen'.

Stars on Mars was filmed in South Australia and saw celebrity 'astronauts' living together in a habitat in the desert locale of Coober Pedy in the Australian Outback.

The previous episode saw Cora decide to eliminate comedian Andy Richter from the 'Mars' habitat.

Stars On Mars will return next Monday on Fox.
Social media users have branded the latest update as being 'heartbreaking'

The three-year-old was finally adopted last month - but it wasn't meant to be

The internet has been left heartbroken after a dog who waited 500 days for adoption was returned to the shelter just one week later.

The American pit bull, named Drogo, was originally taken to the Austin Animal Center, Texas, in March 2022 after his owner was evicted, according to Newsweek.

But they never returned to collect him and the three-year-old had been struggling to find a home ever since.

Last month, after waiting nearly two years, he was finally adopted but it wasn't meant to be - with the internet branding the latest development as 'heartbreaking.'

The American pit bull, named Drogo, was originally taken to the Austin Animal Center, Texas, in March 2022 after his owner was evicted - and has been struggling to find a home ever since

The Austin Animal Center, which shares regular updates on social media, has been documenting Drogo's journey.

Workers have said that the pooch, who is house trained, leash trained and loves car rides, is often overlooked by potential owners.

In July, however, it seemed as though he was finally going to get his chance as part of a loving family when someone came forward.

But just one week later his new owners returned him after he 'nipped' the adopter.

The shelter shared a heartbreaking clip to TikTok, which has been viewed more than 99,000 times, in which they wrote: 'When you wait 500 days to find a home and then get returned after one week.

'Shelter dogs need time to adjust to a new home. Drogo didn't even get the chance.

'Now he's back at the shelter again waiting for his real forever family.'

It also added in the caption: 'We are all crushed that Drogo was returned to the shelter so quickly.

The shelter shared a heartbreaking clip to TikTok, which has been viewed more than 99,000 times, in which they wrote: 'When you wait 500 days to find a home and then get returned after one week'

'He was one of the longest stay dogs at the shelter and now he's back again. He's devastated. It's not fair.'

Employee Kelsey Cler told Newsweek: 'He seems bummed to be back at the shelter. There hasn't been any interest.'

And dozens of other social media users rushed to the comments to share their sadness.

One wrote: 'How heartbreaking. I would totally adopt him if I could. I pray his forever family gets him soon.'

Another added: 'I'm sorry Drogo but your forever family out there. Hoping they get to you sooner now so you don't have to keep waiting so long.'

And a third said: 'Nooo. That's so sad!! He deserves the best and most loving family.'

The Austin Animal Center, which shares regular updates on social media, has been documenting Drogo's journey

And dozens of other social media users rushed to the comments to share their sadness about Drogo being returned

Drogo is currently still up for adoption - with no fee required.

His profile page on the shelter's website states: 'Drogo is a charmer, and meets people so gently that it is difficult not to fall in love with him at the first encounter.

'When he helps train new volunteers at the shelter you can hear the oohs and awws around the room...

'When you bring him back home, he will want to chill out with you on the couch. He thinks that he is a lap dog and no one had the heart to tell him otherwise.'

It continued: 'This affectionate boy is dreaming of a home where he can get unlimited pets and love from his people.'
The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is not a single nation, but a federation of seven emirates created in the 1960s when Britain withdrew its military forces from the region and a suddenly aggressive Iran made moves to take control. This compelled the emirates to unite and seek a new foreign ally. The United States stepped in and based military forces in the emirates in order to protect the continued independence of the UAE. The American presence was welcomed and that relationship continues.

Each of the emirates is a monarchy but the seven emirates jointly elect and operate the UAE government. Currently the UAE has a population of about 10 million but less than 12 percent of those are citizens of the various emirates. The rest of the population are expatriates from other nations who come to the UAE as contract employees to run the government and much of the economy. The emirates make this work because otherwise they would not exist as an independent entity. The UAE survives by being practical and useful to neighbors, allies and trading partners. The UAE provides enticing opportunities to attract its foreign workforce, many of them skilled contractors who prosper by making the UAE economy work. The UAE economy is dominated by local entrepreneurs who seek opportunities to keep the UAE prosperous and an attractive place to do business. While the UAE has oil for export, it achieves its high GDP more by offering much less corrupt, and arguably honest, business services for other nations in the region. Currently the UAE has one of the most prosperous economies in the region with a per-capita income of $88,000.

Among the many businesses the UAE has created or owns there are several that manufacture and market military vehicles. This began in the 1990s with the founding of NIMR Automotive. The UAE contracted Russian firms to help establish NIMR and provide assistance in developing and manufacturing competitive vehicles for export. It took over a decade to get this operation working and using NIMR as a model, UAE entrepreneurs have created several additional manufacturing companies. One of the more successful of these has been Calidus, a Defense Technology Development and Manufacturing Company founded in 2015 to produce vehicles as well as components for aircraft and other high value vehicles. This includes armored vehicles like the nine-ton 4x4 MCAV-20 armored truck. The armor protects against small arms fire and shell fragments as well as roadside bombs. The UAE introduced the MCAV-20 in 2021 and manufactures it at a plant located in the UAE.

MCAV-20 is not the first armored truck the UAE has introduced. In 2017 the UAE firm NIMR Automotive made its first sales outside the Arab world by obtaining an order from Turkmenistan for an undisclosed number of its new LRSOV (Long Range Special Operations Vehicle) 4x4 armored vehicle. LRSOV was designed for cross country operations and is an update of the Ajban armored version of the popular NIMR military truck. This Ajban SOV (Special Operations Vehicle) entered service in 2016 and featured an open top vehicle meant for reconnaissance, border patrol or any mission that required the mobility of a 4x4 military vehicle plus some armor protection. Ajban SOV is a 7.5 ton vehicle with a 2.5 ton payload. That can vary depending on the degree of armor protection carried. In 2017 the LRSOV showed up. It was an upgraded Ajban SOV. There here various technical improvements as well as a higher (three ton) payload. The LRSOV is an eight ton vehicle with a longer range (700 kilometers over relatively flat terrain at speeds of up to 100 kilometers an hour). It has four seats with an option for a fifth one. Standard equipment includes tires that can change configuration to deal with different terrain and run-flat inserts. Optional equipment includes armor add-ons (like a belly armor kit) and electronic options for battery monitoring and additional sensors.

The SOV vehicles are based on the original 2005 NIMR military truck. This is a 4x4 vehicle similar to the American Hummer and designed to cope with the high heat and abundant sand and dust found in the Middle East. The original NIMR weighs 4.4 tons, can carry 1.5 tons (or up to eight people), and can be equipped with a RWS (remote weapons station) 12.7mm machine-gun turret. Top speed is 140 kilometers an hour on roads. This version costs about $82,000 each. There is a larger 6x6 version for carrying cargo. There is also an anti-aircraft version armed with four Mistral missiles ready-to-fire and four more as reloads. An anti-tank version comes equipped with four Milan ATGM (anti-tank guided missiles) ready to fire and four more as reloads. All NIMRs are equipped to take a variety of armor kits (providing different degrees of protection against bullets and explosions). The SOV models can mount a machine-gun and come in configurations for carrying cargo.

NIMR development began in the late 1990s and production began in 2005. NIMR was designed with the help of Russian automotive company GAZ, which also helped set up the manufacturing operation and supplied some of the components. The original MIMR is basically a variant of the GAZ Tigr, which is very much a Russian version of the American hummer. The UAE sold over 3,000 NIMR vehicles, mainly for the UAE armed forces. Some sales have been made to Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Algeria. NIMR, SOV and RIV vehicles are produced in an assembly plant in Jordan and another plant in Algeria.

NIMR, Calidus and several other manufacturing operations are part of an effort by oil-rich Arab countries to develop their economies and not just be dependent on exporting oil and gas. This is difficult because most Arab countries, especially the oil-rich Gulf States, dont have much industrial infrastructure or a population with the motivation or skills to create one. The UAE is an exception in that it has much less corruption and has always been more entrepreneurial.

Earlier in 2017 NIMR revealed a new special operations ATV (all-terrain vehicles) vehicle. This market has long been dominated by American and British firms. The NIMR RIV (Rapid Intervention Vehicle) is a four ton vehicle with a 1.5 ton payload. RIV is a 4.9 meters (15.6 feet) long four seater that can mount a 12.7mm machine-gun atop the roll bars.

The RIV is similar in layout to the existing (and very popular with Western troops MRZR4 which weighs 1.5 tons (loaded with nearly 700 kg of fuel, passengers, and cargo). MRZR4 is a 4x4 vehicle that is 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) long and has no doors, four seats, and a steel framework on top which is usually left open for maximum visibility. The vehicle is optimized for cross country operations and powered by an 88 horsepower engine. Fuel capacity is 7.25 gallons (27.4 liters) and range depends on what sort of terrain is being crossed. MRZRs can tow a load of up to 680 kg. Cost per vehicle varies depending on accessories. MRZR can be equipped with various electronic navigation and night movement equipment. The latest versions have improved electronic automatic power steering. There are a lot of accessories for storing different types of cargo on a MRZR.

RIV has a more powerful 300 horsepower engine giving it a top speed of 160 kilometers an hour on roads. RIV is built to use quickly attached lightweight bullet proof panels and comes standard with a blast resistant bottom. RIV is appealing to the special operations and special (SWAT type) police units in Moslem countries where special operations capability is often part of regular police work. RIV is built to operate on paved roads and at high speed while still capable of cross-country patrols.

The vehicles NIMR has produced so far show the company pays attention to its target market, but must still compete with foreign firms in the West and Far East (Japan and South Korea) that have a head start and have established reputations and customer loyalty. That is why the Turkmenistan sale is so important (although it may simply be a political gesture of encouragement). The symbolism is important, as was the NIMR plant built and operating in Algeria.
It should be said bend-on

Bendon is one of the biggest names in lingerie on the planet - but most people aren't pronouncing it right.

The iconic New Zealand brand is best known for its huge range of bras with everything from top drawer essentials to the most luxurious date night specials.

But most people pronounce the brand too quickly. Ben-d'n.

According to Kirstin Sweeney the General Manager Sales at the New Zealand born brand it is said 'bend-on' because it was made to bend onto the body.

The Bendon group was founded in 1947 and had been mispronounced in different markets in the decades since.

Bendon is one of the biggest names in lingerie on the planet - but most people aren't pronouncing it right

Bendon has been operating since 1947 when it launched in New Zealand

Other major brands have called out common mispronunciations recently - with popular companies like adidas leaving many in shock.

It is pronounced 'a-DEE-das' with the emphasis on the second syllable, not 'AH-dee-das', which is the common mispronunciation.

FASHION

Hermes is the most commonly mispronounced fashion brand. The name of this brand can be difficult if you don't speak the native language, but it is correctly pronounced 'EHR-mez'.

Another French luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, has been a real tongue twister for some, and is correctly pronounced 'lou-ee VWEE-tah-n'.

Versace is also one of the most mispronounced brand names. The epitome of Italian luxury, founded by Gianni Versace in 1978, is currently creatively led by his sister, Donatella.

What are our three favourite picks from Bendon? 1 - The seam free contour bra - perfect for when you need a smooth t-shirt bra 2 - The My fit lace graduated push up bra - for when you want luxury, an eye catching boost and comfort 3- Yvette underwire bra - classic style which is elegant and comfortable Advertisement

The designer and businesswoman has even called out mispronouncing people in an iconic video where she cleared things up saying: It's not 'ver-sah-chee,' it's 'Ver-sah-CHEH.'

Similarly sporting brand Nike has caused much debate about the pronunciation of its name, taken from the Greek goddess of victory.

The name is pronounced 'ni-key' not 'nyke' as it is commonly known.

This was made clear in June 2014 when Philip Knight, the chairman of the board of directors at Nike, was sent a letter asking him to circle whether Nike is pronounced as 'Nike' or 'Nikey'.

Ben Martin and Kendal Peters, who sent the letter, posted a photo of the returned sheet where the latter is circled.

Another faux pas is referring to French brand Givenchy as 'ga-vin-chee'. Those wanting to master this pronunciation need to affect a slight French accent and say: 'zhee-von-she'. Favourtie of the Kardashians, Balmain is pronounced 'bal-ma' and Balenciaga has a soft 'C' - pronounced 'bah-len-see-ah-gah.'

Also very confusing for some is Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot.

Though to we Brits it may read as 'hub-lot', the correct way to pronounce the name is 'oo-blow'.

Italian brand Bulgari, known for its jewellery, watches and fragrance is also commonly referred to as 'bul-gar-ree', which is incorrect. It should in fact be pronounced: 'bul-guh-ree'.

BEAUTY

Beauty brands can also leave some people tongue-tied.

The uber popular American brand Glossier has been leaving people scratching their heads as to how to say its name, with some pronouncing it: 'Gloss-ee-ur.'

The correct way to pronounce it is actually 'gloss-ee-yay.'

Many people have been confused about how to pronounce L'Occitane, the name of the French beauty retailer.

If you've ever wondered how to pronounce the Provence-inspired brand, chances are you're not alone. The right way to pronounce is 'lox-EE-tahn'.

CeraVe has also proved thorny for some. The brand is known for its skincare products formulated to help restore the skin's protective barrier.

FEMAIL reveals how to actually pronounce the names of these brands, which have left Brits stumbling over the years

If you weren't sure how to say it, the correct pronunciation is 'CER-ah-vee'.

FOOD AND DRINK

Nutella, which has long been Britain's favourite hazelnut chocolate spread, is officially pronounced 'new-tell-uh' - not 'nuh-tell-uh' as many UK fans use.

This announcement made headlines back in September 2015 when the Italian manufacturer Ferrero made the revelation on the official Nutella website in the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Popular lager Stella Artois often has people fooled with it's French name. While is common for people to pronounce the 'S' on the end, the correct way to order this drink is 'stel-ah ar-twa'.

Hoegaarden, producers of a wheat beer from Belgium, is normally pronounced 'ho-gar-den' by Brits ordering the drink. However, in the country where it is made it is referred to as 'who-gar-den.'

CARS

Car brands can also prove tricky to pronounce. German automobile manufacturer Porsche is pronounced 'por-sha', not 'porsh', and South Korean car company Hyundai should be said 'hun-day', not 'hi-yun-dai.'

German Volkswagen is also a bit of a tongue-twister. The 'L' is, in fact, silent, so the word is pronounced 'vo-ks var-gen'.

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He issues a warning to other travellers about what can happen

After the 25-hour journey he was shocked to find his legs has swelled

An Aussie traveller has spoken about a 'really bad' painful side effect he experienced after a long-haul flight.

Tom Dowling was travelling back home to Sydney from a summer holiday in Europe and felt prepared for his departure from Mykonos, Greece.

However following the 25-hour journey, he was shocked to find his legs had swelled over his socks and shoes.

'Holy f*** my legs have swollen so much from that flight. They [look] like chunky little hooves! That is disgusting!' he said, expressing his shock in a TikTok video.

Tom Dowling (pictured) was shocked to find his legs were swollen after arriving back home in Sydney following a long-haul flight from Europe. His legs had swelled over his socks and shoes but went back to normal after 24 hours

'My ankle was popping over my converse. My calves were double the size and I could barely take my shoe off. I thought it was quite funny and was laughing with my room mate, making jokes,' Tom told Yahoo News Australia.

'I haven't done a long flight in years because of Covid and what not.'

Thankfully his legs went back to normal within 24 hours of arriving safely back home.

According to Mayo Clinic, leg and foot swelling tends to occur for a number of reasons and is a common side effect travellers experience. Typically inactivity during a flight causes the swelling.

However, the swelling is usually harmless and tends to go back to normal on its own.

The best way to prevent or relieve swelling is to wear loose-fitting clothing, take a short walk every few hours, flex calf muscles and drink water.

Why do legs swell on planes? Leg and foot swelling during air travel is common and typically harmless. The most likely culprit is inactivity during a flight. Sitting with your feet on the floor for a long period causes blood to pool in your leg veins. The position of your legs when you are seated also increases pressure in your leg veins. This contributes to foot swelling by causing fluid to leave the blood and move into the surrounding soft tissues. To relieve foot swelling during a flight: Wear loose-fitting clothing

Take a short walk every hour or so

Flex and extend your ankles and knees frequently while you're seated

Flex your calf muscles

Shift your position in your seat as much as possible, being careful to avoid crossing your legs

Drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration

Avoid alcohol and sedatives, which could make you too sleepy or unsteady to walk around the cabin Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement

The video has since exceeded more than 210,000 views and Tom encouraged others to use compression socks when travelling.

'This happened to me when I flew to the UK last year and it was the first time it happened. I freaked out a bit,' one person commented.

'This is why I always get aisle seats for long flights from Australia. I can stand up and walk around to get circulation flowing when needed!' another said.

'Ok maybe I'll get a pair of compression socks,' a third added.

Someone else warned: 'If you feel pain or shortness of breath rush to the hospital immediately.'

If the swelling doesn't go away on it's own, seek medical assistance as some travellers could be more at risk of blood clots.
An MRI scan six months later revealed she had a bone cancer, osteosarcoma

But help from physiotherapists, an osteopath and chiropractor did not resolve it

A 27-year-old woman was diagnosed with cancer after initially assuming her sore knee was down to a horse-riding injury.

Amy Haigh, from New Zealand, suffered the accident in March 2022 but didn't get checked out until she found herself struggling to work-out in the gym.

She noticed her knee would swell and felt a 'dull ache' whenever she exercised. Ms Haigh claimed that she also felt 'really off'.

But the teacher, who is currently unable to work, was left in pain after getting no relief from physiotherapists, a chiropractor and an osteopath.

It was only after a personal trainer recommended she undergo a scan on her leg that the true cause of her pain was uncovered.

Amy Haigh, from New Zealand, suffered the accident in March 2022 but didn't get checked out until she found herself struggling to work-out in the gym. She noticed her knee would swell and felt a 'dull ache' whenever she exercised. Ms Haigh claimed that she also felt 'really off'

But the teacher, who is currently unable to work, was left in pain after getting no relief from physiotherapists, a chiropractor and an osteopath. It was only after a personal trainer recommended she undergo a scan on her leg that the true cause of her pain was uncovered

An MRI scan revealed in September that same year revealed she had osteosarcoma, a high-grade bone cancer. Ms Haigh, who is now cancer-free after an operation that saw her lose part of her femur, said: 'I lived a very active and healthy lifestyle and never, ever had any health issues besides from the occasional cold. I had been training in the gym since 2019, I was an avid horse rider, I would spend the weekends walking my dogs or at the beach, and my job was also quite physically demanding.'

By the end of October 2022, Ms Haigh began two rounds chemotherapy, each involving a 35-day cycle including a two week hospital stay. Ms Haigh said: 'I found these stays absolutely awful because I felt so lonely and isolated. My doctors and nurses were absolutely incredible, though.'

An MRI scan revealed in September that same year revealed she had osteosarcoma, a high-grade bone cancer.

Ms Haigh, who is now cancer-free after an operation that saw her lose part of her femur, said: 'I lived a very active and healthy lifestyle and never, ever had any health issues besides from the occasional cold.

'I had been training in the gym since 2019, I was an avid horse rider, I would spend the weekends walking my dogs or at the beach, and my job was also quite physically demanding.'

Following the diagnosis, she was 'inconsolable', she added.

'I cried in my car every day, I cried on my lunch break, and cried in the bathroom.

What is osteosarcoma? Osteosarcoma is a type of bone cancer. It is more common in older children over five and in teenagers. The cancer often starts at the end of long bones, where new tissue forms as the bone grows. The most common sites for the tumour to grow are in the arms and legs, particularly around the knee and shoulder joints. What are the symptoms? Persistent bone pain that gets worse over time.

Difficulty moving a joint due to swelling and redness over a bone.

A noticeable lump over a bone.

Problems walking, such as having a limp.

A weak bone that breaks more easily. How is it treated? Chemotherapy, a cancer-killing medicine is used to shrink the tumour.

Radiotherapy is also used to destroy cancerous cells.

Surgery can be used to remove the section of cancerous bone. And it is often possible to replace the bone that has been removed.

But amputation is sometimes necessary. If the cancer has spread to beyond a bone to blood vessels or nerves or if it is impossible to remove just the cancerous section. Source: NHS Advertisement

'I was horrified it was cancer, but there was also some relief because I had been trying to get to the bottom of this knee pain for so long,' she said.

'I knew something was wrong and I was unfortunately proven right.'

Osteosarcoma, the most common type of primary bone cancer, usually develops in growing bones and often affects teenagers and young adults.

But it can occur at any age. In adults, it is most likely to be diagnosed over the age of 60.

Around 550 new cases of bone sarcoma are diagnosed and 370 deaths recorded in the UK annually, according to Cancer Research UK.

The American Cancer Society estimates just under 4,000 new cases of primary cancer of the bones and joints, will be diagnosed in 2023, while just over 2,000 deaths will be recorded.

Pain is the most common symptom of bone cancer. But the symptoms might vary, depending on where the cancer is.

By the end of October 2022, Ms Haigh began two rounds chemotherapy, each involving a 35-day cycle including a two week hospital stay.

Ms Haigh said: 'I found these stays absolutely awful because I felt so lonely and isolated.

'My doctors and nurses were absolutely incredible, though.

'After my first round of chemotherapy, I was so sick, they had to lower my dose for the next cycle so I still had some quality of life.

'I also had to have a PET scan which shows if the cancer has gone anywhere else in your body.

'My family were absolutely terrified as I had been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer.' The scan came back clear.

In January this year, Ms Haigh had an eight-hour operation on her leg to remove the cancerous part of her femur.

It was replaced with a donor's bone from the US  now one plate and 11 screws hold that part of her leg together.

She feared that she would have to have a knee replacement which was one of the risks of surgery.

She said: 'There was a risk that they would have to do a full knee replacement which would have been devastating as a 27-year-old, as then I would have to have surgeries for the rest of my life.

'My surgeon was incredible and managed to not only remove all of the cancerous bone but also save my knee joint.

'I remember waking up after the surgery and asking if he had saved my knee joint, and he said he had. There was so much relief and big emotions.

'When they took out the bone it went to the lab for processing.'

Ms Haigh said: 'After my first round of chemotherapy, I was so sick, they had to lower my dose for the next cycle so I still had some quality of life. 'I also had to have a PET scan which shows if the cancer has gone anywhere else in your body

Amy struggled mentally following the surgery and the after-effects of her cancer journey. She said: 'I hated being reliant on other people but it was something that I had to quickly get used to. My family, my friends and my boyfriend were all incredibly supportive of me. My closest relationships grew even stronger, something I am very grateful for.' Pictured, Amy Haigh with her sister

Earlier this year in January, she had surgery to remove the cancerous part of the femur. The surgery took around eight hours and surgeons removed part of the bone that was cancerous. It was replaced with a donor's bone from the USA  now one plate and 11 screws hold that part of her leg together

She added: 'It showed that all of the cancerous bone was removed and also that the cancer was a far lower grade than they thought.

'It showed that the strong chemo they had me on that targeted aggressive cancers with high cell turnover actually did nothing.

'They then said because the cancer was removed and there were no more cancerous cells in my body, that I was-cancer free.'

In March she was declared officially cancer free. However, Ms Haigh has struggled mentally following the surgery.

She said: 'I was such an independent, carefree and spirited person who suddenly couldn't do anything for herself.

'I loved my career, I loved life and within a few weeks, it was all cruelly snatched away from me.

'I went from being in the gym every day to hardly being able to lift my head up off the couch.

'I hated being reliant on other people but it was something that I had to quickly get used to.

'My family, my friends and my boyfriend were all incredibly supportive of me.

'My closest relationships grew even stronger, something I am very grateful for.'

She has since started therapy and has learnt to adjust to life with reduced mobility. She is currently not working while her leg heals.

Ms Haigh will also require a further surgery to remove scar tissue from her knee joint.

She added: 'I am doing better now, it has taken a lot to get me to this point. Therapy has been so helpful.

'This isn't a normal thing for someone to go through, I can't have worked through these emotions on my own.

'There was a lot of despair, so much grief for the life I had, the woman I was.

'I was so hurt at losing my hair, it felt like I lost myself. I miss the carefree girl who didn't have to think about those things.

'But I have also done so much growing in the last few months, I am so much stronger than I ever thought I was.

She added: 'I have come out of this with an entirely new view of the world.

'I want to go out and live my life, to say yes to the things I would say no to before. To travel and live for myself. After all, I definitely deserve it.

'My hair has started to grow back, thicker and more luscious than it ever had before - my hair was so thin.

'There has to be a silver lining to all of this. Even though I went through so much, I can still see the good in my experience.

'I hope that sharing my story either comforts someone else who is experiencing the same thing or encourages another person to go to the doctor and get that sore leg checked out.'
One Brit has died in a mysterious E. coli outbreak that is predominantly affecting children, MailOnline understands.

Another six have been hospitalised by an exceptionally rare strain of the diarrhoea-causing bug.

Health officials are scrambling to find the source of the outbreak, which is thought to have emerged towards the end of May. Investigations are ongoing.

Patients reported eating grated hard cheese before being sickened, it was claimed. Others mentioned having strawberries, cucumbers, peppers and watermelon.

But officials insist there is no proof any of the foods are responsible.

They have, however, ruled out a family adventure farm park in Surrey which had to close a fortnight ago due to an E. coli outbreak that left three children ill.

Symptoms vary from mild to bloody diarrhoea, the UK Health Security Agency says. Vomiting, fever and stomach cramps are other tell-tale signs. But, in severe cases, the bug can cause haemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening condition that can lead to kidney failure

Officials have ruled out a family adventure farm park in Surrey which had to close a fortnight ago due to an E. coli outbreak that left three children ill. Hobbledown, near Epsom in Surrey, has been shut since July 27 while investigations take place

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) did not reveal the age of the patient who died, or any of the six hospitalised.

The body, which is tasked with thwarting any infectious disease threats, said the ages of the affected patients ranged from 'under one to 74'.

But the UKHSA, which is working alongside the Food Standards Agency (FSA), added that the 'majority' of patients were children.

Amy Douglas, its incident director, said: 'The outbreaks source has not yet been identified. But we are working with partners to investigate.

'Washing hands thoroughly with soap and water and ensuring to help young children with handwashing is the best way to stop the bug spreading.

Everything you need to know about the E. coli outbreak What bug is causing the outbreak? Britain's ongoing outbreak is caused by shiga toxin-producing E coli O183  a strain that causes gastroenteritis. The strain is very rare. Before the current cluster, only 15 cases had been reported in Britain since 2016. What are the symptoms? Symptoms vary from mild to bloody diarrhoea, the UK Health Security Agency says. Vomiting, fever and stomach cramps are other tell-tale signs. But in severe cases, the bug can cause haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition that can lead to kidney failure. Most of those affected by the bug will get better without NHS care within a week. They are advised to drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated. Where have the cases been spotted? Of the 25 cases spotted in recent weeks, 19 were in England. Scotland and Northern Ireland both logged two, with one in Wales. Advertisement

'Children under five shouldn't attend school/nursery/group childcare until they have been free of sickness or diarrhoea for two days.

'Visits to hospitals or care home settings should be avoided if you are feeling unwell.'

Britain's ongoing outbreak is caused by shiga toxin-producing E coli O183  a strain that causes gastroenteritis.

Symptoms vary from mild to bloody diarrhoea, the UKHSA says. Vomiting, fever and stomach cramps are other tell-tale signs.

But in severe cases, the bug can cause haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition that can lead to kidney failure.

The strain is very rare. Before the current cluster, only 15 cases had been reported in Britain since 2016.

Of the 25 cases spotted in recent weeks, 19 were in England. All of the home nations have logged cases.

The UKHSA did not reveal whether the patient who died did so because of, or with, the infection.

Officials are now reminding Brits to contact NHS 111 if they or their kids have bloody diarrhoea.

Most of those sickened with the bug will get better without NHS care within a week. They are advised to drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated.

STEC, or shiga toxin-producing E. coli, is spread by eating contaminated foods, such as raw leafy vegetables or undercooked meat.

The very infectious bacteria can also be spread by touching infected animals or their faeces and coming into contact with other people who are sick.

Cattle are the biggest reservoir of the most common type of STEC seen in the UK  a strain known as 0157.

But the bug has also been found in deer, rabbits, horses, pigs and wild birds.

Large outbreaks have been linked with foodborne transmission, the UKHSA says.

Rajwinder Ubhi, head of incidents at the FSA, said: 'The FSA is working with the UKHSA and other partners in response to recent reports of 0183 E. coli STEC reported across the UK.

'However, the source of the outbreak has not yet been confirmed.

'Whilst multi-agency investigations continue, its important to follow our usual food hygiene advice to limit the spread of STEC, to help avoid cross-contamination and risk of illness including thoroughly cooking meat and meat products like burgers and sausages, and washing fruit and vegetables before eating them.'
A woman who had her surgery cancelled after insisting on same-sex care says she could have been killed by the delay.

Teresa Steele had her operation at The Princess Grace Hospital scrapped after she requested that only biological women be involved in her post-operative care.

Ms Steele, a former solicitor, had made the demand after a trans nurse entered her pre-op examination room uninvited.

The private hospital in central London has since apologised for breaching her privacy and dignity after it originally accused her of discrimination. She claims the stress of the incident led her to develop an abscess.

She also alleges she was the victim of discrimination and suffered direct harm because of the decision to cancel her operation.

Teresa Steele had her operation at The Princess Grace Hospital scrapped after she requested that only biological women be involved in her post-operative care. Ms Steele is pictured discussing her ordeal on GB News last year

The Princess Grace Hospital has since apologised for breaching her privacy and dignity after it originally accused her of discrimination

But she is willing to waive legal action if the hospital - owned by private provider HCA - puts in place protections for other patients. She said she had been psychologically and emotionally bolstered by all the support she had received over her case.

She told the Daily Telegraph: I was very traumatised and on the point of collapse following the cancellation. An abscess that had not been visible on scans only a short time earlier had suddenly appeared.

They endangered my life by cancelling that operation. Ms Steele had required single-sex lavatories and said she would not discuss pronouns in her admission forms for her operation on October 10 last year. She believes she was targeted over her gender-critical views when a trans nurse wearing a blonde wig and bright scarlet lipstick and not involved in her care entered her private examination room.

After her complaint, emails between hospital staff said they perceive the patients  rationale as a discrimination on gender and sex against hospital employees. The following evening, she was told the operation was being cancelled because they did not share her beliefs and were not able to adhere to your requests.

After mass protests, she was offered surgery on October 31 at HCAs Wellington Hospital. But surgeons found she had an abscess and abandoned the procedure. It was finally done in February but has taken months to recover from and left deep scarring. Ms Steele is calling on HCA to ensure patients are given protections based on their sex-based rights.

She said the women who supported her had saved my life and added: Ive been contacted by many women, including disabled women and parents of disabled daughters, some of whom have had healthcare withdrawn for asking for single sex care. Its terrifying for them.

A spokesman for The Princess Grace Hospital said the privacy and dignity of our patients is incredibly important and added that Ms Steele had been invited to contribute to a policy review.
The infection is caused by a fungus typically endemic to the Southwest

More than triple the number of Americans predicted could fall ill each year

A deadly fungus for which there is no vaccine is expected to surge over the coming decades, according to alarming official predictions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the coming decades, Valley Fever could infect more than half a million Americans each year - compared to around 20,000 who currently fall sick annually.

The agency said that due to rising temperatures across the globe, the endemic region of the disease will spread north to include dry western areas. Other experts fear that it could be endemic in 17 states by 2100.

Valley fever - which got its name because 97 percent of cases are found in Arizona and California - is caused by the fungus Coccidioides, which releases spores in the air when soil is disturbed. The spores are then inhaled by people.

The infection - which kills one in 100 who fall ill - is commonly misdiagnosed and often mistaken for pneumonia. Symptoms include fatigue, cough, fever, aching muscles and breathlessness.

Valley Fever is already endemic in Southwestern states, but the CDC believes the fungus which causes the disease also exists in Northern states

The infection was dubbed Valley Fever because 97 percent of cases are found in Arizona and California

DailyMail.com previously spoke to Nick Duggan, an Australian man who was told by doctors he'd 'never walk or hold his kids again' after he contracted the deadly disease in 2010.

The preliminary CDC figures were disclosed in a presentation by the health agency to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in November 2022 but have only recently come to light.

It is not clear when the CDC expect cases to hit 500,000 annually. DailyMail.com has approached the agency for clarification.

Samantha Williams, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Mycotic Diseases Branch, told CBS News: 'There's just not a ton of awareness or knowledge about the disease.

'We do see a lot of travel-associated cases; we've seen reports of cases popping up in places where we wouldn't have typically expected Valley fever to be endemic.'

Dr Williams is on the team made the estimates, part of the CDC's new initiative to tackle the illness.

Only a small amount of yearly cases are reported to the CDC, but this number has been growing since 2014.

The number of cases in 2021 - 20,971 - is the most on record for a single year since cases last peaked in 2011.

Most people with the mild form of infection will not realize because its symptoms  fatigue, cough, fever, aching muscles and breathlessness  mimic those of a respiratory virus infection.

The disease can often get missed by doctors and misdiagnosed as pneumonia.

Other symptoms include night sweats, joint aches and a red rash, usually on the legs but occasionally on the chest, arms and back.

But up to ten percent of cases become severe and take months to recover from.

In these cases, known as disseminated coccidioidomycosis, the disease can spread through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, including the brain, skin and liver. If it infects the membranes and fluid around the brain, it can cause meningitis.

And in areas that are historically Valley Fever hotspots, health officials have been warning of evidence of cases rising already.

Dr Williams said: 'When you compare the numbers now and in 2021 to 2014, they've increased pretty drastically since then. Within Arizona, it's basically doubled, and within California, more than tripled.'

The fungus spore is whipped up into the air when the soil is disturbed by the wind or digging. When humans or animals breathe in the spores, they travel through the respiratory tract and into the lungs, where they reproduce

Meanwhile, Dr John Galgiani, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, said: 'Right now, if youre diagnosed with pneumonia, there is about a one in five chance that your pneumonia is caused by Valley fever.'

He added: 'If you live in Arizona and you get pneumonia, you should be tested for Valley fever.'

Coccidioidomycosis or cocci originates from a fungus that grows in the soil in some areas of California and the southwestern US.

The fungus spore is whipped up into the air when the soil is disturbed by the wind or digging.

When humans or animals breathe in the spores, they travel through the respiratory tract and into the lungs, where they reproduce, causing further disease.

Most infections are mild and clear up on their own within a few days or weeks, and the disease cannot be passed between people or animals.

Mr Duggan, the Australian native who caught Valley Fever in 2010, told DailyMail.com he most likely contracted the illness while quad biking in the San Diego desert, where he was visiting his wife's family.

He thinks he inhaled the fungus spores kicked up in the dust. By the time doctors had figured out what it was, the infection had spread to his spine and brain and caused meningitis, which left him bedridden for four months and in and out of the hospital for five years.

Valley fever is already tricky to treat, and there is no vaccine for it. Patients might have to take antifungal medication for months and endure unpleasant side effects such as hair loss and scaly skin.

Scientists have been trying to formulate a Valley Fever vaccine for decades, but a shot tested in humans in the 1980s did not perform well.

In the past few years, scientists from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson have created a vaccine that works in dogs, who are also at risk of the infection.

The US Department of Agriculture could approve the shot for canines by early 2024, which would be the first one to protect against a fungal infection in humans or animals in America.
This should be coupled with at least 2.5 hours of vigorous exercise, plus weights

Experts recommend up to 1.25 hours of moderate exercise like jogging per week

The exact amount of exercise needed to optimize your life expectancy has been revealed in a major study.

Researchers from Spain, Australia, Canada and Denmark examined the medical records and survey answers of half a million healthy Americans over the age of 18.

They checked death records from 2019 to work out the optimal time and type of exercise to reduce the risk of dying from different conditions.

They found the sweet spot for reducing the risk of early death by any cause was a combination of moderate and intense cardio, supplemented by weight training.

The optimal combination was a weekly routine involving one hour and 15 minutes of moderate exercise like brisk walking, at least two and a half hours of vigorous exercise such as running or swimming, and at least two sessions of muscle-strengthening activity like lifting weights.

This correlated to a 50 percent lower risk of death by any cause.

The experts revealed that the optimum routine to reduce your chance of an early death is one hour and 15 minutes of brisk walking, two hours and 30 minutes of running or swimming and two sessions of carrying heavy shopping bags, yoga or lifting weights

To reduce your risk of dying by heart disease, stroke or cancer, experts recommend at least two sessions of muscle-strengthening activity like weight lifting per week

But doing some physical activity is still better than doing none, as a recent study suggested walking briskly for just 11 minutes a day can slash the chances of dying early by almost a quarter.

In the latest study, researchers pulled data from 22 rounds of the US National Health Interview Survey, carried out between 1997 and 2018, in which participants were asked how much of certain types of exercise they did.

The participants had an average age of 46 and were mainly female and white.

Weekly workout routine to reduce your risk of an early death 1 hour 15 mins of brisk walking

2 hours 30 mins of running or swimming

Two sessions of carrying heavy shopping bags, yoga or lifting weights Advertisement

Participants' causes of death were tracked and looked at alongside how much of each type of exercise they had done.

They excluded people with current conditions such as cancer, heart disease, lung disease and stroke, and people who died in the first two years of follow-up.

Researchers designed 48 categories that included all possible combinations of moderate aerobic exercise, vigorous aerobic exercise and muscle-strengthening exercise.

They found that for all-cause mortality, 'the highest statistically significant risk reduction was observed for the exposure category corresponding to more than zero to 75 minutes of moderate aerobic physical activity combined with more than 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic physical activity and two or more muscle-strengthening activity sessions per week.'

Currently, the World Health Organization suggests at least two and a half hours of moderate exercise, at least one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise and muscle-strengthening activity at least twice a week.

The new findings suggest that actually less moderate exercise and more vigorous exercise is needed.

To reduce the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke, the optimal combination found in the study was between two and a half and three hours and 45 minutes of moderate exercise, up to one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise and at least two sessions of muscle strengthening a week.

This routine appeared to lower the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke by 70 percent.

The weekly combination which reduced participants' risk of dying from cancer the most was more than five hours of moderate exercise, one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous exercise and at least two sessions of muscle strengthening.

It was linked to a reduced the risk by 56 percent. The study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
A major New York City grocery chain will stop selling YouTuber Logan Paul's energy drink due to concerns for children's health.

John Catsimatidis, CEO of Big Apple grocery store chains Gristedes and DAgostino, announced the 28 popular stores across the city will no longer stock the drink that launched this year and has been a top-seller among young people.

The move comes less than a month after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began a probe into the drink's sky-high levels of caffeine.

The drink contain 200 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces - six times the amount in a can of Coca-Cola and double a regular Red Bull.

Mere days after the drink hit UK shelves, a child in Wales suffered a cardiac arrest after guzzling the drink and doctors had to pump their stomach.

While the drink is meant to be sold only to over-18s, it is still accessible and appealing to children with flavors like blue raspberry, tropical punch, and lemon lime. This tees up a tough battle for the FDA in its quest to better regulate the drink, an issue reminiscent of widespread youth use of flavored e-cigarettes.

John Catsimatidis, CEO of Big Apple grocery store chains Gristedes and DAgostino has chosen to pull Prime energy drinks from shelves across nearly 30 stores in New York City

The drink, by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul, is under heightened scrutiny by the Food and Drug Administration over concerns that sky-high caffeine concentrations are harming children to whom the drink is marketed

Prime was co-founded by YouTube star Logan Paul and KSI and has gained popularity through feverish social media and influencer marketing.

By pulling the drinks from 28 stores city-wide, Mr Catsimatidis has taken a step further than the FDA in what he considers to be an important step toward protecting childrens health.

He said: We listen to our customers and we have fears about the concerns for the health of kids as it relates to Prime and the beverages caffeine levels and marketing, so will not be stocking it at this time.

We could always reconsider, but we would put our own warning labels on the shelf.

Prime has 200 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces - six times that of a can of Coca-Cola and double a regular Red Bull. And it is wildly popular among children.

Those who consume the beverage can suffer a rapid heart rate and disturbed sleep in the short-term and anxiety and difficulty sleeping in the long-term.

School administrators including Rebecca Brown, health services coordinator for the Wilmington, Massachusetts' school district have said child 'entrepreneurs' have taken to bringing them to school and selling them to classmates at lunch.

Ms Brown said the drinks - which sold like gangbusters with the students - immediately started to give them health problems.

'Not long after drinking them, the students showed up in the health office saying they didn't feel good and that their hearts were racing,' Brown added.

Eventually, she had to send a note to parents in the school district asking them to not send their students to school with the drinks.

The drinks have already been banned in schools across the United Kingdom and Australia.

Prime was launched by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul who have 24.1million and 23.6million followers, respectively

According to a warning on the drinks official website, it is not recommended for children under 18, pregnant or nursing women, or individuals who are sensitive to caffeine.

However, there are no known restrictions for purchasing the drink in the US. In the UK, on the other hand, the minimum age to buy them is 16.

A young student in Wales allegedly suffered a 'cardiac episode' upon downing the beverage back in May.

Administrators at the school sent a letter to parents about the incident, saying: 'This morning a parent has reported that their child has had a cardiac episode over the weekend after drinking a Prime energy drink.

'The child had to have their stomach pumped and although better now the parent wanted us to share this as a reminder of the potential harmful effects.'
What does racism in the NHS look like? A damning report commissioned by the Health Service identified racial health inequalities 'at every stage . . . from birth to death'.

This negatively affected the health of millions of black, Asian and minority ethnic patients, concluded the NHS Race and Health Observatory report last year.

Three weeks ago, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Adrian James, warned that racism in the NHS is having a 'pernicious' effect' on colleagues, 'who are leaving the NHS in droves'.

And it pains me, as a doctor and one of a family of six siblings who all work in the NHS, to say my family knows exactly what racism in the NHS means, as our 75-year-old mother, Fauzia Ahsan, experienced it when she was being cared for by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) on October 23, 2019.

What happened to our mother was not the first time my siblings and I had seen racism in the NHS  I'm an A&E doctor, two of my siblings are GPs, one is a consultant paediatrician, one is a pharmacist and one is a junior doctor.

Our 75-year-old mother, Fauzia Ahsan (pictured), experienced racism when she was being cared for by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) on October 23, 2019, writes Dr Saleyha Ahsan

And while the vast majority of those we've worked with have been wonderful, caring and dedicated professionals, we've faced and witnessed racist behaviour, including from a minority of patients ('I don't want a doctor in a headscarf, I want a white doctor' is something my sisters and I, for example, have heard throughout our careers).

In one particularly distressing example, my sister, the consultant paediatrician, when she was a very new junior doctor on an obstetrics ward, witnessed a midwife shouting, with her hand raised as if to strike a frightened, heavily pregnant Asian woman who didn't speak English and was suffering complications.

Bravely, my sister spoke up about this, and a serious incident investigation was conducted and the midwife was then monitored (though remained on the unit).

Then our mother was at the receiving end. She'd been admitted to hospital in October with a urine infection  at the time, a consultant discreetly advised us that someone from the family should always remain with my mother.

I understood why he said that: shamefully, elderly patients without advocates present can be vulnerable in accessing care. And elderly black, Asian and minority ethnic patients can be even more vulnerable: last year's report confirmed what the consultant and I already knew.

So the family arranged for a carer to stay with her at night and we took turns in the day. Her carer later told us that, despite our precautions and her presence, my mother had been roughly handled and called a 'bloody fool' by one of the night nurses.

Although suffering from breathlessness, when she was offered a chance to go home, my mother took it  keen not to remain in this environment.

One of my sisters drove her home but by the time they got there, my mother was struggling.

What happened to our mother was not the first time my siblings and I had seen racism in the NHS, writes Dr Saleyha Ahsan (pictured)

This sister, an experienced GP, called 999 at 7.23pm, describing severe shortness of breath, agitation and a recent discharge from hospital following sepsis, all red flags to a call handler or indeed any healthcare professional.

To the ambulance service's credit, within nine minutes a crew had arrived  a junior, newly qualified paramedic one year into her two-year probationary period, and a trainee technician (someone who's not medically trained to the same degree).

My mother was by then experiencing severe breathing problems  the signs are not subtle: as my sister noted in a letter of complaint to the LAS, our mother was 'frightened, panicked, gasping, unable to speak properly, chest wall rising and falling rapidly, sweaty and clammy skin'. Failure to manage this situation can lead to a respiratory and cardiac arrest.

A patient like this needs immediate assessment, measuring breathing rate, pulse and oxygen levels  not 20 minutes later, as happened in my mother's case. She needed oxygen delivered through a face mask specific for emergencies, instead she had low-dose oxygen via two nasal prongs.

In medicine we use a scoring system to assess how sick a patient is. The crew underscored the severity of my mother's illness.

Indeed, as my GP sister later wrote in her complaint, the crew declared in front of her and our mother 'that they could have responded to a 'genuine' blue light call if they didn't have to see Mum'.

And yet as the LAS itself later acknowledged, she should have been treated as an emergency, including 'blue lighting' her to hospital. 'We accept that . . . she should have been taken there under emergency conditions,' it confirmed.

Instead, the journey took around 30 minutes. And once in A&E, the crew took my mother to a corridor to wait  all the while, they talked to each other and scrolled through their phones while ignoring the patient deteriorating in front of them and my sister's requests that they alert the nurses because she needed emergency intervention.

The signs my mother was displaying would have alerted anyone, even inexperienced staff that something was significantly wrong.

It wasn't only the inadequate care, it was the unkindness that's so upsetting. My mother tried to hold on to the paramedic's hand because she was scared. It is so painful to know that the paramedic shook my mum's hand off and said 'don't push me'.

'It hurts that the paramedics thought it was OK to scold her continuously,' my sister, who witnessed it all, wrote to the LAS.

Three weeks ago, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Adrian James (pictured), warned that racism in the NHS is having a 'pernicious' effect' on colleagues, 'who are leaving the NHS in droves'

This alternated with laughing at her  this distressed my mother. 'They were laughing at me, because I couldn't breathe,' my mother said to me later. The LAS state the crew deny this. My mother was finally booked in to A&E to be seen at 9.10pm  far too long for a patient who is visibly unable to breathe.

I arrived shortly after to find her, clearly distressed and unable to breathe, hanging on to the rails of her hospital trolley  which was right beside the nurses station.

Finally, someone who did care, the night shift medical registrar, arrived after 10pm, and started the correct emergency life-saving treatment. Four days later my mother died.

While what happened to her that day was not the cause of her death, we as a family of medical professionals felt her treatment had been deeply concerning and unsafe. And it was avoidable.

In the British Army, where I served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, my soldiers were combat medic technicians who worked with the utmost professionalism and care.

Later I spent a year in North Wales, working with Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust paramedics whose work was characterised by kindness, empathy and dedication to their patients. The contrast with my mother's care couldn't have been more stark.

The tragedy is that while many in the NHS are doing their best, too many families across the UK are having similar, awful experiences of failures in care every day, attributed to mainly unprecedented pressures  but some, as our family found out, are due to racism.

For what makes our experience not just another story of failed care is what the LAS then told us: 'The crew explained there were a number of family members on scene trying to give them information and although they tried to engage with Ms Ahsan, she understandably preferred to speak to you in her first language.'

Now here lies the crux of the matter. The only person in my mother's ground-floor bedroom was my sister. (The only other people at home were my father, who is immobile and was being comforted by my brother at the back of the house and did not leave his room.)

We are not a bilingual family. Never have been. We have many gifts and skills, but one of them is not linguistics. We were indeed speaking in our first language  English. Our only language.

My mother was born in Kenya and was a British citizen since birth. She was brought up speaking English. Her father was a civil servant for the British Government, awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. My mother was a retired teacher who taught English at a primary school in London.

My parents had made a conscious decision to have English as our sole language. It was the only language we spoke to them in (my parents even spoke to each other in English most of the time).

But what if my mother hadn't spoken English? What if many members of the family had been present? Does that justify the shameful and belittling care?

LAS chief executive Daniel Elkeles apologised for the distress caused to my family.

'While complaints of this nature are uncommon, we were keen to learn lessons and have taken a number of steps to ensure a similar situation does not happen again.

'This includes introducing mandatory training for every member of staff to tackle discrimination and promote equality and inclusivity, and increasing the diversity of our workforce,' he told Good Health.

'We're proud to serve a diverse city, and recognise there is no room for racism in the work we do.'

Having witnessed humbling acts of dedicated selflessness and professionalism from across the NHS, we understand that sentiment.

But while it may be that complaints about such cases are rare, that doesn't mean such behaviour is rare: following last year's NHS report and Dr James's speech, I now believe others may have suffered like my mother. Indeed, since our experience, others have contacted our family with their own stories.

Our complaint against the LAS is being investigated. Meanwhile, my GP sister, who'd worked for NHS 111 and GP Out of Hours in the area covered by the LAS, has now opted to work elsewhere in the NHS, finding it too painful.

By contrast, the crew were able to continue their work.
When Labour narrowly lost out on the by-election result for Uxbridge to the Conservatives last month, leader Sir Kier Starmer blamed Sadiq Khan and his controversial expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

He said it was clear ULEZ was the reason for their shock loss in Boris Johnson's former seat and urged the London Mayor to 'reflect' on his plans to expand the zone in August.

However, exclusive data shared with This is Money suggests more than three quarters of cars registered in the West London town are compliant with ULEZ and would see drivers avoid the 12.50-a-day charge.

How many cars in Uxbridge won't be charged ULEZ? Following Labour's loss in the recent by-electric, which Kier Starmer blamed on Sadiq Khan's zone expansion, we reveal how many motors in the West London town are compliant

Speaking shortly after confirmation of the by-election result in Uxbridge, Starmer said: 'We know that [was the reason for defeat]. We heard that on the doors. And we've all got to reflect on that  including the mayor.'

Asked what he meant by saying Mr Khan needed to 'reflect' on the zone's expansion, Sir Keir said: 'We've got to look at the result. The mayor needs to reflect. And it's too early to say what should happen next.'

But new data shows that less than one in four motorists in Uxbridge will be hit by the zone expansion on 29 August.

In fact, the research from automotive data experts at cap hpi shows motorists are already making greener choices in the West London town well before talk of an expansion to cover all 32 boroughs - including Uxbridge's borough of Hillingdon - was announced.

Cap hpi said it has examined car parc data for the town using Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency figures and 'additional data sources from across the industry' to identify just how many vehicles are going to be stung by ULEZ later this month.

It found that the number of non-compliant vehicles dropped from 33 per cent in 2020 to just 23.3 per cent in 2023.

More than three quarters (76.7%) of all cars registered in Uxbridge are already ULEZ compliant, according to data sourced by cap hpi

In fact, the town has seen a recent surge in transitions to 'electrified' vehicles.

The data shows that the number of pure electric cars has increased from 2,600 to 9,800 over the three-year period.

Hybrid vehicles also increased from 10,700 in 2020 to 21,600 in 2023.

And the stats show clear evidence that drivers in the town are rapidly ditching diesel vehicles, with overall numbers dropping from 92,600 in 2020 to 79,400 this year.

That means diesels represent 31.5 per cent of all motors registered in Uxbridge today, compared to 38 per cent three years earlier.

And the number of newer cars has increased, too.

Just 7,700 vehicles registered in the town were two-to-four years old in 2020, but that number has grown to 18,700 this year. All of these cars will be ULEZ compliant as they meet the latest Euro 6 emissions standard.

The data also shows that the number of pure electric cars registered in Uxbridge has increased from 2,600 in 2020 to 9,800 in 2023 ahead of the ULEZ expansion later this month

Mark Turnbull, global head of consulting at cap hpi, said: 'It's essential that motorists, along with local and national government, have the accurate information they need to make decisions about clean air zones.

'Overall it's clear that passenger vehicles have become greener in Uxbridge over the last three years, and the data suggests this is likely to continue.'

While drivers in Uxbridge appear to have been gradually switching to 'greener' cars, the data shows that the move to lower-emission vans has been markedly slower.

In 2020, 63.2 per cent of vans (around 15,100) were non-compliant; today, the number has fallen to 44.6 percent non-compliant (11,000) commercial vehicles.

The slower shift is blamed on there being 'fewer choices of fully electric vans' compared to battery-only cars.

The report comes just days after Sadiq Khan confirmed he is to extend to eligibility for the ULEZ Scrappage Scheme, which has been introduced to encourage drivers to ditch their non-compliant cars with the offer of 2,000 to go towards the cost of a replacement vehicle that meets the ULEZ standards.

The mayor initially drew 110million from City Hall reserves for the scheme, which had originally only been offered to those on benefits.

What are the ULEZ compliancy standards for different fuel types? 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 READ MORE: What is the ULEZ vehicle scrappage scheme

But to widen the pool to allow all Londoners with non-compliant cars to apply for the grant, he is set to spend another 50million.

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.

'I have continued to listen to the concerns of Londoners over recent months, and today [Friday 4 August] 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.

'As we continue to build a greener and healthier London for everyone, I'm determined that no Londoner and no London business is left behind.

'We need to take people with us on the path to a sustainable future. We are ensuring that help is now available for everyone  and I urge Londoners to come and get it.'

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 30 January 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 Londoners want to receive the four-figure grant.
MZILIKAZI  Lugongolweni Member of Parliament (MP) nominee Sihle Dlamini suspects bad omen, after furniture and clothing items valued at E40 000 were burnt on Saturday night, at his home in Mzilikazi.

He said it was not clear what might have started the fire. Dlamini said he was away in Johannesburg, South Africa, when he received a call from a neighbour, informing him that his house was burning. The aspiring MP suspected that a bad omen may have befallen him ahead of the primary elections, as he also dodged bullets in the recent shooting at the Manzini Bus Rank. He said bed, television set, refrigerator and clothing items, were burnt in the fire. I received a call around midnight, informing me about my burning house. They told me that they tried to put out the flames but already the bed and clothes, including the television set, had been burnt. This is the second incident to take place as I also dodged bullets in Manzini when trying to intervene during an altercation of a man and his girlfriend, he said. Dlamini stated that the latest developments had only taken place after he was nominated.

Claimed

He claimed that there were people who were behind this and wanted him dead. However, he declined to elaborate when asked how a random shooting had anything to do with people who wanted him dead. He stated that his twin brother, Simphiwe, also rushed to his home after being informed about the fire. The Siteki Eswatini National Fire Rscue and Emergency Services Station personnel acted swiftly and attended to the scene and put out the fire. I also conducted an inspection after my arrival from Johannesburg to ascertain the cause of the fire but I failed to get any clues. Electricity cables are all in good condition, including electricity appliances and they were not plugged, the aspiring MP said.

Meanwhile, in March this year, this publication reported about a man who admitted in court that he was a witch who could burn peoples property with a mysterious fire known as lubane.

As a result of his admission or confession to practising witchcraft, the Siteki Magistrate Court fined Eric Mtshelele Mdvoti E1 000 or two years imprisonment. He was convicted of contravening the Crimes Act of 1889 (Chapter 4  Witchcraft). The magistrate could have sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment if he had invoked Section 79 without leniency. The section reads: Any person who, on the advice of a witchdoctor or his pretended knowledge of witchcraft and with intent to injure, uses or causes to be put into operation such means or processes as he believes to be calculated to injure any person or property, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of E1 000 or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years.

The Times Sunday visited Gucuka near Siphofaneni to interview the man who was so bold that he admitted to practising witchcraft. Mdvoti (45) confirmed to this newspaper that he actually admitted to that he used lubane to burn Ntjege Mambas three-bedroom house at Gucuka on March 17, 2013. Mamba (63) is a headman of the community. A bedroom, kitchen, clothes and wedding gifts (umhlambiso) belonging to Mambas wife were damaged.
New figures reveal the providers that have racked up the most customer issues

Britons have been complaining to the regulator over how airlines treat their bags

There are few greater annoyances for travellers than something happening to their luggage, especially if the airline is less than helpful.

Now the most complained-about airlines for luggage problems have been revealed in research from financial comparison firm Forbes Advisor.

Ryanair passengers have made the most complaints about luggage being lost, stolen or damaged, research shows - with British Airways and EasyJet in second and third place.

Many This is Money readers have already told us of their luggage woes, including suitcases being sent on 12,400-mile trips and baggage being destroyed while the airline refused to help.

Baggage bother: Travellers have been complaining about how airlines protect their luggage

Budget airline Ryanair received close to 1,000 luggage related complaints between 2018 and the third quarter of 2022, according to Forbes Advisor.

And British Airways, the largest UK airline, was found to be the second worst when it came to luggage complaints, with 844 in the past five years.

The figures do not take into account the number of passengers each airline carries.

The findings analysed complaints figures from the airline regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

While the overall number of luggage complaints per passenger is low, making a CAA complaint is the last step a traveller can make if their airline does not help them.

Is your airline refusing to help with your lost or damaged luggage? Email editor@thisismoney.co.uk

Three low-cost airlines, EasyJet, Wizz Air, and Norwegian, round out the top five.

Kevin Pratt, travel insurance expert at Forbes Advisor, said: 'While the number of complaints is relatively small relative to the thousands of flights these firms operate, we should remember that each one will have been a source of significant inconvenience to the traveller concerned - enough for them to escalate their complaint all the way to the Civil Aviation Authority.'

Airlines with the most luggage complaints in the past five years Ranking Airline Number of complaints 1. Ryanair 954 2. British Airways 844 3. easyJet 565 4. Wizz Air 552 5. Norwegian 419 6. Flybe 297 7. Turkish Airlines 195 8. Virgin Atlantic 182 9. Tap Portugal 160 10. Iberia 105 Source: Civil Aviation Authority complaints figures of flights through UK airports

A Ryanair spokesperson said: 'Ryanair operates over 3,200 daily flights across more than 230 destinations and leads the industry with fewest lost bags  one bag mishandled per almost 10,000 passengers. Any claims to the contrary are false, including this Forbes study which does not take into account the volume of passengers each airline carries.'

A spokesperson for British Airways said: 'Every day we take great pride in carrying thousands of bags safely and speedily to their final destination where the vast majority arrive on time.

'When bags are delayed our teams do everything they can to reunite customers with their belongings and look at various methods of transportation to achieve this as quickly as possible. We also help with essentials while customers wait for their bags to arrive.'

An easyJet spokesperson said: 'Between 2018  2022, the period covered by the study, easyJet transported around 322million customers and their baggage across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

'As the figures confirm, incidents of delayed baggage are extremely low and reports by World Tracer, the independent system used by the industry for luggage tracking, show that easyJet has one of the best performances in the industry.'

Your rights if your luggage is damaged, lost or delayed

Airlines are responsible for your losses when hold luggage is lost, delayed or damaged, according to the Civil Aviation Authority. However, there are no rules that fix the amount of compensation you should receive.

In addition, airlines may not cover the entire cost of replacing your items if anything does happen to your luggage. This means that taking out travel insurance that covers loss or damage may be a safer bet.

Before you go

Before you pack, visit the airport or airline's website to ensure that you're up to date with current security restrictions. This means you won't be caught out when you're going through security or customs.

Photograph and scan important documents such as passports, travel insurance policies and accommodation reservations, in case these are lost.

And take photographs of valuable items such as jewellery, as this may be useful if you need to make a claim.

Do not put valuables like money, insurance documents and other important items in your checked-in luggage  you should put these items in your hand luggage.

Remember to label your luggage with your name and contact details.

Safe keeping: Valuables should be kept with you in the aircraft cabin, not left in the hold

If you're concerned about security and unhappy about including personal information such as your address, then you should at least include your full name and mobile number so that you can be contacted.

Remove old airline tags from previous trips where your luggage was in the hold. Tags from previous flights can cause confusion when routing luggage.

Make sure you're covered

You should make sure that you've got adequate travel insurance. By law, airlines only have to cover a specified minimum amount for your baggage so it's important that your travel insurance covers for loss, damage or delay.

Otherwise, you could be stranded on holiday with only the clothes you flew in to wear.

Most policies will cover for your personal belongings, but you should take out separate or additional cover for any items that are of high value.

If your luggage is lost or delayed

If you find that your luggage has been lost then the first thing you should do is inform the airline and request a Property Irregularity Report. Your bags are considered lost after 21 days, but fill in a PIR form immediately.

Once you've completed the PIR you then need to send this to your travel insurance provider, who will speak with the airline to sort out your compensation for any lost items.

Unless you made a 'special declaration of interest in the delivery of your luggage,' the most an airline will pay you is 1,000.

However, many airlines have separate policies and it is unlikely that you will get anywhere near this amount.

If you need to claim for damage compensation then you should write to the airline within seven days of receiving your luggage. If your luggage has been delayed then you should write within 21 days from when you checked in your luggage.

If your bag is stolen then you should report the incident to the local police and obtain a crime reference number  you will need this when you're making your insurance claim.

Make sure you keep any receipts for items that you buy as a result of losing your luggage as this will make the claiming process easier.

If your claim is unsuccessful, you can then turn to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Forbes Advisor's Pratt said: 'It's easy to imagine the annoyance and frustration of your bags being lost or their contents damaged. That's why it's worth making sure everything is properly labelled and tagged before they disappear along the conveyor belt at check-in.

'And it's also important, where possible, to keep valuables in your hand luggage, especially if items contain personal information that could be exploited if it fell into the wrong hands.'
Page Group has warned that workers are becoming more reluctant to accept jobs due to the economic climate.

The recruiting giant reported that it is on track to meet expectations, but that the market had become more challenging in the last half year.

Revenue increased 5.8 per cent to just over 1bn in the six months to the end of June.

Jobs threat: Page Group reported that it is on track to meet expectations, but that the market had become more challenging in the last half year

But pre-tax profit was down nearly 45 per cent to 63.3million as the firm also revealed it had cut 450 jobs this year after a slowdown in demand.

Page added that there had been some reluctance to accept offers among clients on its books.

Profit in Europe, the Middle East and Africa  which makes up 55 per centof Page Groups total  was up 8.1 per cent.

The company saw worse performances in the Americas - down 5.5 per cent - Asia-Pacific - off 18.3 per cent - and the UK - a fall of 13.2 per cent.

Boss Nicholas Kirk said: Looking forward, there remains a high level of global macro-economic and political uncertainty in the majority of our markets.
UK fund managers have come under fire after it emerged many had cut back their holdings in major British defence stocks since Russias invasion of Ukraine last year.

Fund managers based in the UK have slashed their holdings in companies including BAE Systems and Qinetiq by an average of 9 per cent since the start of 2022, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.

At the same time, EU investors increased their ownership of British defence groups by 9 per cent while raising exposure to European companies by 4 per cent.

The move by British fund managers underlines major concerns in Westminster that the sector lacks support in the City of London.

The decisions have also puzzled military observers, particularly as many firms have seen demand boom after the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Flying the flag: BAE Systems makes parts for the RAF Typhoon fighter jet - but UK investors have been dumping stock in British defence firms

The experience of the last 18 months in Ukraine shows we must have a sound defence industrial base in order to build the ships and vehicles we need, said Lord Dannatt, a former Chief of the General Staff.

He added: It is disappointing that Britain is de-investing in major companies like BAE Systems. We must ensure our defence industrial base is strong and that BAE remains part of our future.

A breakdown of the figures shows the amount of shares held in BAE by UK fund managers had dropped from 34 per cent in July 2021 to just under 30 per cent at the end of last month.

And Qinetiq saw its percentage drop even more sharply, falling from just over 70 per cent in August 2021 to just 36 per cent, according to the data.

Others in the sector also had funds pull back their investments, with engineer Senior dropping from 48 per cent to 43 per cent.

The moves have also sparked concerns that environmental, social and governance (ESG) guidelines are blocking firms from investing in the sector.

ESG investing  also known as socially responsible investing, impact investing and sustainable investing  aims to optimise the effect of investing on the environment, society and corporate governance.

Investments must include consideration of human wellbeing and the environment.

As a result, some investors are taking their money out of tobacco firms or oil giants.

But others  including the Church of England and Legal & General  are also avoiding the defence sector on ethical grounds.

City Minister Andrew Griffith said it was morally wrong for investors to shift funds out of these companies.

'Whether it is deliberate or the unthinking application of ESG policies, UK investors defunding defence is the opposite of social responsibility when peace and democracy is under threat, he wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The concerns were echoed by Kevin Craven, boss of defence industry trade body ADS Group, who said overcautious or misapplied ESG considerations were drastically impacting the ability of the defence sector to secure financing.

ADS also said it was aware of strong anecdotal examples of lenders withdrawing banking services or refusing loans to businesses due to their involvement with the defence industry.
'Could it be that Joe  through all of his son's struggles  was still relying on him to be the bagman?'

All politicians are liars, but doddering Dark Brandon is in a category all by himself.

The Big Guy has been living a big lie.

And now, as his huckster son's slimy partner in international grift has started singing like canary, it's harder for President Joe's exhausted minders to keep cleaning up on aisle jive.

Yes, it's long past time for us to ask: Who is the REAL Joe Biden?

The last stop for Hunter's prison-bound buddy before the Graybar hotel was a closed-door meeting with the House Oversight Committee last week.

Devon Archer squawked that Hunty's daddy called into his morally bankrupt child's con jobs  I mean, business meetings  at least 20 times to chat up the prospective suckers and discuss the weather.

Archer said that Joe's calls showed shady operators from Kyiv to Beijing that Hunter could reach out and touch the old man (eww!) any time of day or night.

But the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr. promised that he never spoke to his son about business. What gives?

Could it be that mumbling Joe is not the selfless public servant, doting father, and child-nibbling granddad the mainstream media slobbers over?

President Biden has long cultivated an image of empathy because no matter what pain you're feeling God's cruel tricks have robbed him of more.

Tragedy first struck in December 1972 when Senator-Elect Biden's wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident at what should've been one of the happiest moments of his life.

All politicians are liars, but doddering Dark Brandon is in a category all by himself. The Big Guy has been living a big lie.

And now, as his huckster son's slimy partner (above far left, Devon Archer) in international grift has started singing like canary, it's harder for President Joe's exhausted minders to keep cleaning up on aisle jive.

The deadly accident spared Joe's sons, brilliant Beau, who would go on to make his dad proud at every turn, and hapless Hunter, who would embarrass his dad in equal measure.

In the depths of his pain, he made the image of his suffering, hospitalized son, Beau the backdrop of his senatorial swearing-in ceremony.

It was the picture of a grieving father.

Fast-forward a few decades. Hunter, who claims he had his first glass of champagne at eight years old, somehow landed a plum job at a financial services giant in Delaware. That's the state where his father was senator. What a coincidence.

It was the start of something beautiful; if you think trading on access is beautiful.

Sweaty cretins always gravitate toward each other, so Hunter soon found a pack of pals in Archer, Chris Heinz (the stepson of private-plane-loving John Kerry) and others.

They were a ragtag bunch of fancy lads, who had connections and schemes, but best of all, access.

They would slither around D.C. and the globe cooking up pay-for-play rackets to separate oligarchs and commies from the spoils of authoritarianism, all the while introducing Dear Old Dad to power-hungry, leg-humpers.

Maybe Hunter needed to beef up his bonafides to legitimize appearances, so he joined the Navy Reserve in 2014, but he was quickly booted after dancing with the devil's dandruff. He'd have to sniff out dishonorable pursuits elsewhere, and so he did.

Piggybacking with Vice President Dad on Air Force Two to China to meet with questionable access seekers?

OK, sure.

Dinners at Georgetown's Cafe Milano with Hunter's Ukrainian Burisma executives?

Yeah, Joe's down.

In the depths of his pain, he made the image of his suffering, hospitalized son, Beau the backdrop of his senatorial swearing-in ceremony. (photo above)

Archer said that Joe's calls showed shady operators from Kyiv to Beijing that Hunter could reach out and touch the old man (eww!) any time of day or night. (Above) Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky

Sweaty cretins always gravitate toward each other, so Hunter soon found a pack of pals in Archer (above, right), Chris Heinz (the stepson of private-plane-loving John Kerry) and others.

Throw in Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, a Mexican Ambassador and some Kazakhstanis and the whole evening had an absurd Borat feel.

Hunter was the annoying chubby kid from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, who could have anything he wanted because he's daddy's special little guy. Daddy Joebucks was going to help get him Pee Wee's bike and millions of dollars in questionable, overseas deals.

But, as Hunter recently revealed in court, the wagon has always been a bit slippery. He's visited rehab at least six time in 20 years.

So, Joe, if your stripper-shtupping son is too coked out to function, yet is living the material life of gilded drug lord, how do you not ask questions about where the money is coming from and how it's being spent?

And what of the $17 million that an IRS whistleblower swore under oath has flowed from foreigners into 20 shell companies linked to your family and their business associates?

Kennedy is a Fox News commentator, former MTV VJ and host of the podcast 'Kennedy Saves the World'

This all makes Joe incredibly incompetent to the point of co-dependent paralysis or he was in on the whole damn thing.

Then, tragically, amid all this cash-grabbing, the good son Beau passed from a brain tumor.

It rocked Biden's world. But he has since jumbled up and stretched that story by stating on far too many occasions that Beau died in Iraq.

Actually, Beau's sad death from glioblastoma occurred in Walter Reed Medical Center, and his honorable service in Iraq and brave life did not need to be embellished.

Beau also really wanted his dad to be president. So, reportedly, Joe was sure to pass along his son's dying wish to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

You know, for Beau.

Joe was persevering until Hunter, always the headache, the kind of distraction that gets in the way, left his fickle laptop a little too long at the fix-it shop.

I'll be darned if it didn't provide a rich and bottomless roadmap to a damaged man drunk on hookers and guns and a family on the take.

Hunter admitted in an email to his daughter Naomi that he gave 'half' his salary to 'pop'.

Why? Could it be that Joe  through all of his son's struggles  was still relying on him to be the bagman?

With a straight and confused face, Joe says things like, 'family is life's greatest blessing and responsibility,' yet the entire Biden family, until recently, went out of its way to cruelly ignore Hunter's daughter Navy Joan Roberts.

She happens to be the product of Hunter's temporary union with a former erotic bump-and-grinder, but this child is not some inconvenient consequence of a bad choice, like some disposable American Girl Doll.

If Joe were the good Catholic and the decent empathizer he so claims, he wouldn't have so easily cast aside a sweet grandchild, while Hunter's lawyers worked out the details. But as long as she wasn't making money for the Big Guy, there was no point to her pity.

No, this mendacious Mister Magoo had a plan all along, and it was always about his ambition and greed.
Beatrice Borromeo has been anointed most stylish European royal by society bible Tatler, because she cuts an elegant figure everywhere she goes  whether its a red carpet, a royal appearance or simply yacht-hopping.

The 37-year-old married into Monacos glamorous royal family in 2015, when she wed Pierre Casiraghi, the youngest child of Princess Caroline and grandson of the late Hollywood beauty Grace Kelly.

She is a former journalist - and it is a journalistic enterprise that has put her under the spotlight in recent months: a Netflix documentary about a sensational murder case involving Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the heir to the Italian throne.

Beatrice, who is the daughter of Italian aristocrat Don Carlo Ferdinando, was photographed last week at an event to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Prince Rainier III.

Beatrice Borromeo photographed at Lake Maggiore on her wedding day with husband Pierre Casiraghi, grandson of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier

Beatrice is striking in red at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006

Beatrice on the day after her wedding on the Borromean Islands in August 2015

The clutch bag leaves us in no doubt who she is - or who she's just married

Beatrice modelling at the Blumarine ready to wear show in 2004

Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco in 1956 when she retired from acting to marry the prince. In 1982, she tragically lost her life in a car accident.

In an apparent tribute to her late grandmother-in-law, who was a lifelong fan of the French fashion house, Beatrice was dressed in a chic belted pink Dior shirt dress at the event.

Over the course of her 50 years in the public eye, Princess Grace was pictured wearing dozens of couture Christian Dior dresses, including the famous black-and-white one she wore to the 1954 premiere of Hitchcocks Rear Window, one of her most famous films.

Both Beatrice and Pierre are now ambassadors for the brand, with Beatrice starring in a glossy black-and-white campaign earlier this year to promote its 6,000 Lady Dior handbag.

Prior to marrying Pierre, Beatrice, whose family owns the Borromean Islands in Lake Maggiore near Milan, along with land in the Lombardy and Piedmont countryside, worked as a newspaper and broadcast journalist in her native Italy.

On her wedding day in 2015  dubbed the chicest of the summer by Vogue - she wore four couture gowns, two by Valentino for a civil service in Monaco and two by Armani Prive for a religious service at Lake Maggiore.

Her family still own the Roca Borromeo castle where the reception took place.

She and Pierre have since become parents to two sons, Stefano, five, and Francesco, four.

She has now turned her hand to documentary making, recently debuting the three-episode series The King Who Never Was on Netflix.

The series focuses on an event in August 1978 which remains a mystery to this day.

Rocca Borromeo Castle, still owned by Beatrice's family, where the reception took place

Another diaphanous wedding shot at Lake Maggiore in Italy, 2015

Beatrice, right, is seen with Princess Charlene at the 2014 Rose Ball in Monte Carlo,

Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the last heir to the Italian throne, was holidaying at his summer residence on the island of Cavallo, France, when, enraged by a group of Italians partying on nearby boats, he produced a rifle.

He shot a young German tourist, Dirk Hamer, who was sleeping on the desk of one of the boats.

Victor Emmanuel was acquitted of murder charges in November 1991, following a lengthy court battle brought about by Dirks sister, Birgit Hamer  who was one of Beatrices mother Paola Marzottos oldest friends.

The Prince was convicted only of a firearms offence and given a suspended jail sentence of six months.

[The story] was a part of my family for as long as I can remember, Beatrice has said.

In 2011, while working for an Italian newspaper, she leaked a secretly recorded video of Victor Emmanuel allegedly confessing to the killing.

Victor, or Vittorio, Emanuele is part of the House of Savoy, which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946, when they were displaced by the Italian Republic.

For her next project, Beatrice is making a film about the origins of the family she has married into: the Grimaldis of Monaco, Europes longest-standing royal family.

My company Astrea Films is producing the film about the seizure of the fortress of Monaco by the Grimaldi family in the Middle Ages, she said.
A flamboyant Philadelphia socialite who schmoozed the city's Republican elite with extravagant fundraisers before gaining infamy for a $20 million insurance fraud has died.

Claire Risoldi, 76, known for her bouffant hairstyle, mirrored aviators and six-bedroom estate named Clairemont, passed away on July 14 before she could serve any jail time for the huge fraud.

No information on a cause of death has been released.

Risoldi was known for looking younger than her years thanks to a penchant for thick makeup, eye-catching fashion - and a tight-skinned but plumped-up face that suggested a fondness for cosmetic surgery.

The matriarch of one of Philly's best-known families, Risoldi was convicted in 2019 after masterminding a plot along with several relatives to claim insurance payouts worth $20 million after a fire at their home.

She was charged alongside her late husband, Thomas French, a retired sheriff's deputy who took his life three weeks before the trial and left a note which said the 'pressure [had] reached its peak'.

Before her fall from grace, Risoldi was a key player in Philadelphia's GOP circles and would host glitzy fundraisers at Clairemont for political candidates - complete with Cher impersonators and Mummers.

Risoldi, pictured in court in 2016, had a penchant for thick makeup, eye-catching fashion - and a tight-skinned but plumped-up face that suggested a fondness for cosmetic surgery

Claire Risoldi, 71, known for her bouffant hairstyle, mirrored aviators and six-bedroom estate named Clairemont, passed away on July 14 before she could serve any jail time for a huge fraud

Risoldi splashed the cash from her fraud plot on luxury vehicles, including at least six Ferraris and two Rolls Royces, and even a garish, hand-painted ceiling mural which portrayed her in classical Roman dress (pictured)

A picture shows work underway on the garish ceiling mural that Risoldi funded with fraud cash

Infamous Philadelphia socialite Claire Risoldi has died aged 76. Risoldi was famed for her extravagant looks and for masterminding multiple insurance frauds

Risoldi's Philadelphia mansion is pictured ablaze. She made millions of dollars of fraudulent insurance claims after several fires at the property

Risoldi won over the city's great and good with her no-nonsense personality and gregarious nature. She was so well-connected that after her charge in the fraud case, the entire Bucks County judiciary recused themselves from the case and a judge from another county had to be appointed.

She went on trial in March 2015 with her two adult children, her daughter-in-law and two others. An investigation into the family's claims began after a 2013 fire at the stately home in Doylestown. It was the third blaze in five years at the property.

After the fires, the family allegedly lived large on trumped-up insurance claims and attempted to intimidate witnesses when they learned that investigations into the payouts were underway.

Risoldi also falsely accused firefighters who responded to the 2013 fire of stealing $10 million worth of jewelry.

The family splashed the cash on luxury vehicles, including at least six Ferraris and two Rolls Royces, and even a garish, hand-painted ceiling mural which portrayed Risoldi in classical Roman dress.

Risoldi was sentenced to between 11-and-a-half and 23 months in prison but never served any time after a series of appeals stalled the sentence. She was still locked in the legal battle when she died.

She was also ordered to pay $10.4 million in restitution. The amount was later reduced by a judge to $2.7 million on appeal.

The roof of the property is pictured being repaired in 2015 after one of the blazes that damaged it

Risoldi's husband Thomas French - a retired sheriff's deputy - killed himself three weeks before their trial for fraud was due to begin

A mansion that the Risoldi's rented while their home was being repaired is pictured

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is now the state governor, said after Risoldi was sentenced in May 2019: 'This defendant masterminded a multi-million dollar insurance fraud scheme to fund her own excessive lifestyle.'

Risoldi was forced to hand over Clairemont to cover part of the restitution order and the property, set in 10 acres, was sold at auction in 2019 for $750,000.

The home, which boasted a pool and pool house, was renovated and later sold by a real estate company for $3 million.

Risoldi was twice-widowed after her first husband, Carl P. Risoldi, once the patriarch of the family, also died in 2001 aged 58.

She was raised in Trenton, New Jersey, and in the 1970s ran a ticket agency which promoted rock concerts.

The source of the family's wealth is murky, but Risoldi had claimed her first husband collected disability payments and also said he made 'millions' as a stonemason.

She also had a 1990 sentence for two counts of felony mail fraud after using false medical documents to defraud an insurer out of $13,028.

Risoldi had said she was working on a book about her life following her convictions.
A former stripper who became Hunter Bidens best pal and lover has revealed the First Son's obsession with all-over spray tans, his frantic final weeks before getting sober and his relentless pursuit of his father Joe's approval.

Allie Kennedy's revelations include new details of how Hunter craved his father's love and attention and how he always felt second-best to his older brother Beau.

And when Beau died of cancer in 2015 Hunter went into a self-destructive spiral which led to the years of embarrassing headlines of shady business dealings, heavy drug use and sex with prostitutes that have dogged Joe Biden's presidency.

Speaking to DailyMail.com last Monday, Kennedy, 35, described Hunter as a little boy lost who was his father's 'whipping boy'.

I truly think that he's been lost since he was a little boy,' she said. Hed say that he was the black sheep and hed always been second to Beau.

'Beau is the hero, the white knight.'

Former stripper Allie Kennedy told DailyMail.com she believes Hunter is the 'whipping boy' of the Biden family who 'just wanted his father's love and attention'

The couple took several raunchy pictures including these mirror selfies where Hunter is completely naked

Heavily tattooed Allie Kennedy was cover girl on the September 2011 issue of Inked magazine

I truly think that he's been lost since he was a little boy,' Allie Kennedy told DailyMail.com. Hed say that he was the black sheep and hed always been second to Beau'

Hunters a soft person and when his brother died, I think everything fell apart for him,' Kennedy said.

I've had very deep conversations with him,' she added. 'Hes kind of the whipping boy of the family. I don't think that the man was ever properly loved by his parents.

I think for his fathers approval, he would do anything. I think thats how he was stupid enough to get tied into that Russia, China, Ukraine business. He just wanted his fathers approval and love.

She said Hunter never discussed his overseas business dealings with her  but was generous spending the proceeds.

I saw him hand out money like it was nothing. We would be driving down the street in Los Angeles and he would pull over and give a homeless man $100.'

Heavily tattooed Kennedy has modeled, appeared on the cover of Inked Magazine and was a featured patient for Miami plastic surgeon Dr. Leonard Hochstein, husband of Real Housewives star Lisa Hochstein.

Now a New York esthetician who specializes in spray tans, she said she met Hunter in 2017 when she was working as a stripper in Manhattan.

Though several pictures of them in compromising positions appeared on the laptop he abandoned in a Delaware computer shop, she insists they only had sex once, right at the end of their two-year friendship.

She says they met after she got a call from a girlfriend, saying a rich man was offering $500 to get a spray tan in his hotel room. She jumped at the chance for the big tip, on a job for which she usually charged $60.

He needed a spray tan at like nine o'clock at night. Now we know he was probably cracked out, she said. I show up and its three girls in his room. I guess he was living in the hotel at this point.

I did the spray tan, he tipped me $500. And then he gave me an extra $300 to do the other girls. I was like, oh my god, I just made $800 in 20 minutes. Of course I took his card.

Kennedy said that when she spray tanned Hunter 'he tipped me $500. And then he gave me an extra $300 to do the other girls. I was like, oh my god, I just made $800 in 20 minutes. Of course I took his card

We just became friends,' Kennedy said. 'Anytime that he was in town, he would call me up, I'd spray tan him and then we would go to dinners. I never noticed anything weird. He did a very good job of presenting himself to be a decent human

Despite the raunchy photos that Kennedy sent Hunter, she insists they didn't have sex until on single night at the very end of their friendship

Kennedy texted Hunter a topless picture to celebrate her graduation in January 2019, saying her mother was joining her to celebrate

She said he was charming and friendly  but showed one giant red flag from that first meeting.

He was like, do you smoke? I was like hell yeah I smoke, she said. We go out onto the balcony and I expect him to pull out pot, and this motherf***er pulls out a crack pipe. I was like wait a minute no I dont smoke that.

But I dont judge people. I danced in Manhattan for 10 years, I've seen it all.

I thought it was a party thing. I didnt know he was addicted until a month into our friendship when I realized, wait a second, are you always on crack?

She said the drugged-up Presidents son messed up his first tan that night and paid $500 again for another the next day, then started taking her out to dinners, including at STK steakhouse in Manhattan.

We just became friends. Anytime that he was in town, he would call me up, I'd spray tan him and then we would go to dinners, she said.

I never noticed anything weird. He did a very good job of presenting himself to be a decent human.

Though she enjoyed his generosity, Kennedy was perturbed by his relationship with Hallie, the widow of former Delaware Attorney General Beau.

She said Hallie, 50, smoked crack with Hunter and got nude spray tans from Kennedy together and joined them at dinners.

One night he left me and Hallie at the table together at dinner,' Kennedy told DailyMail.com. 'She slid next to me and said I know it looks weird. You're probably judging me. But I never cheated on my husband.

She wanted to make it very clear to me. I was like, cheated on your husband or not, this is your brother in law. This is so frickin' weird.

She told me that they started hooking up kind of like a trauma bond.

She was also on crack, she was probably paranoid that I was judging her.

That night she was smoking crack and saying I never do this. I was like, I dont know girl, you look like you know what youre doing to me.

In texts and recorded phone conversations on Hunters laptop, Hallie also refers to buying and using crack.

Hunter asked Kennedy to send him a 'FaceTime shower show'. They also texted several naked pictures of themselves

Pictures on Hunter's abandoned laptop showed him posing nude with Kennedy, although she says they weren't lovers until a one-night stand right at the end of their friendship

Hunter appeared in court in Delaware last week, when he admitted he had been to rehab six times for alcohol and drug abuse but said he has been sober since 2019

Hunter married South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen in 2019 just a week after first meeting her. They have a three-year-old son they named Beau in tribute to his late brother

Hunter and son Beau were front and center on the Truman Balcony at the White House to watch the July 4 fireworks display

Hunter Biden's laptop contained a number of images of him using drugs. He also detailed his crack and alcohol addiction in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things

Several pictures of Hunter drugged out were found on the laptop that he abandoned at a Delaware computer store after taking it in to be fixed

Kennedy told DailyMail.com how she tried to keep the First Son off drugs, but said he devolved into a secret life of debauchery with prostitutes and crack cocaine.

She said Hunter was 'obsessed' with the drug, even claiming that its purity made it 'healthy'.

He would talk about how crack was the greatest drug, more pure than cocaine.

'He'd say its not a poor mans drug and hed give me all these crazy facts about crack. He really loves crack. Its kind of weird.

Hed say actually, its the purest form. It's way healthier for you than cocaine. I was like, listen to that sentence Hunter. Stop talking.

Kennedy was friends with Hunter for two years from 2017 to 2019 but then he dropped her just as his father Joe was starting his run for the presidency.

The mother and ex-magazine model, said that despite lying to her, trying to take back money he gave her and attempting to swear her to silence, she still has a soft spot for Hunter, 53, and argued for more compassion for addicts.

Records on Hunters laptop show 13 payments to Kennedy totaling $18,600, from January 2018 to January 2019, as well as tickets flying her from Los Angeles to New York first class.

Kennedy said she soon began to notice Hunters addiction.

I noticed that the drugs were an issue, not just a recreational thing, she said.

That's when, as a friend would, I started to try to step in and help him out. I would check on him every day, make sure that he was staying sober. Any time that he was feeling he wanted to use, hed give me a call.

Kennedy said she and Hunter were very close, and that their relationship was mostly platonic besides a one night stand in Los Angeles towards the end of their friendship.

Kennedy introduced Hunter to lingerie designer Zoe Kestan, 29, but says the pair went on a drug binge in luxury Los Angeles hotels

Kestan uses the handle weed_slut_420 on her social media. She gave evidence to a grand jury in Delaware about how he learned to cook crack cocaine at the Chateau Marmont

After Beau Biden died in 2015 from brain cancer at age 46, his widow Hallie began an affair with her brother-in-law Hunter

Texts on the abandoned laptop show the two sent each other naked pictures. She referred to having licked lots of places on Hunters body and she facetimed him in the shower.

I flirted with him regularly to keep his attention and keep him closer so he wasnt going out with girls from the club who had bad intentions, taking pictures of him passed out, she told DailyMail.com.

But he knew I was all talk. Thats probably the one thing that kept him trailing me for so long.

Kennedy said she introduced Hunter to her then friend Zoe Kestan, but that Kestan, 29, used him, hoping he would become her sugar daddy, and instead of helping keep him sober she enabled him on another drug binge in Los Angeles in 2018.

The story allegedly differs from lingerie designer Kestans testimony to a grand jury in Hunters criminal tax probe.

Kestan, who uses the username weed_slut_420 on her social media, reportedly told the grand jury she urged Hunter to get off drugs, after spending time with him at top hotels such as the Four Seasons and Mercer in Manhattan and the Hollywood Roosevelt and Chateau Marmont in LA, seeing his lavish spending and debauched activities.

I didnt see him or hear from him for two months. I found out he was in LA with Zoe on a drug binge, Kennedy said.

She was an enabler. I didn't want people around him that had bad intentions. She thought he would be her sugar daddy. I said more importantly we want him to be alive.

The esthetician said Hunter apologized profusely for lying to her about his drug use, and they patched up their friendship. For months she believed he was on the straight and narrow, until she caught him using again at a party.

On my best friend's birthday, we were all getting ready, doing our makeup, she said. Hunter was in the bathroom with the door closed, and I could smell the disgusting smell. Youll never forget that smell.

I knocked on the door. He said Ill be right out, and then I heard him scuffling around.

I went to the desk drawer and saw the pens were gone, and I knew immediately what he was doing. He used to take pens apart and use them to smoke crack.

So I kicked the door open and smacked him across his face as hard as I could.

I cried, I was like how could you do this to me? And I walked out. Apparently a couple days later he went to rehab again.

Kennedy said that in late 2018 Hunter started frequently acting panicked, and told her secrets about him were going to be revealed in the media.

In December 2018 the New York Times published a story revealing his business dealings with a Chinese government-linked oil company, CEFC  that would later become the center of allegations of the Presidents involvement in Hunters foreign ventures.

Hunter told Kennedy that she was his 'only friend' in a 2018 text. He also explained how he was going back into rehab for his addictions

Hunter asked Kennedy if she could 'spray tan me all over' in text messages discovered on his abandoned laptop

Kennedy sent Hunter raunchy photos in text messages and told him she loved him

One WhatsApp conversation showed Hunter sent Kennedy $800 for a 'webcam training shower edition'

Towards the end of our friendship in late 2018, early 2019, every time I talked to him he was in some kind of a panic about something that was going to come out in the media, Kennedy said.

He was also under increasing financial stress, even resorting to asking his friend for $1,000 one day when his bank account was empty. Kennedy refused to give him money.

She said the last time she saw him was around April 2019, in Philadelphia  the month before he met and married South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen.

He drove his dads truck to come see me, she said. He said he had to take me to dinner and he had to tell me something. He was acting erratic. I knew that he was back on drugs again.

He comes to dinner, his daughter was there. He was running in and out, sweating profusely, on his phone the whole time and panicky.

That conversation was kind of like him saying, this is the last time you're gonna hear from me because my dad's gonna be the president.

He just begged that I didn't try to go to the media and say bad things about him. Then I never heard from him again.

Around the same time, Hunter abandoned his laptop at a Delaware computer repair store. It eventually ended up in the medias hands in September 2020.

Kennedy said that when she saw photos of herself from the laptop circulating online, posing with Hunters prostitutes, she was upset that he didnt publicly defend her.

That was in 2019. And here we are in 2023 and he hasn't said a damn word. No apologies. Nothing, she said. For him to not even try to protect me a little bit, what a scumbag!

But Kennedy added that she forgives Hunter for lying about his addiction  and said that the alleged corruption and shady foreign dealings on the First Sons laptop deserve more attention than his drug use.

After seeing the things I saw on the laptop, Im like, why did I vouch for you? What a shady dude, she said.

But I just want him to know that I forgive him. I still have compassion for him. We need to be more kind and gentle when it comes to addicts.

I think he's had a hard life. At his core he is a soft and very easily manipulated person. Hes been used by his father. I think it hurts his heart because he knows that, and thats why hes so self-destructive.
When Andy Malkinson learned that he could be charged for his 'bed and board' during the 17 years he served in prison for a crime he did not commit, he was 'apoplectic'.

For him it crystallised the idea that something was rotten - inhumane, even - at the heart of the British justice system.

'I don't think even the Chinese do that to their prisoners. I remember thinking I'd like to sit down with the architects of that rule and say, "You are not chimpanzees. You are human beings. Can you not see this is morally, ethically, wrong?" It cemented something for me - a complete ignorance of the pain they have caused. The lack of empathy.

'For all those years that was something they accused me of. Because I would not accept guilt I was told "you have no empathy". "You must be a psychopath". All those things they threw at me  and they were guilty of them.'

After Prime Minister Rishi Sunak heard about the bed and board rule potentially being applied in Malkinson's case, he asked for a meeting with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Andrew Malkinson In Holland on August 3, 2023

Andrew Malkinson and ex-girlfriend, Karin Schuitemaker

Yesterday, there was an astonishing volte-face, with the MoJ announcing that the wrongly convicted will no longer face having 'saved living costs' deducted from their compensation. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: 'This common-sense change will ensure victims do not face paying twice for crimes they did not commit.'

A battle won then, for Andy, and for those who will come after him? 'It says a lot about our justice system that this perverse rule was introduced in the first place,' he says.

'I hope the minister will now meet with me to discuss the many other reforms needed to stop others having to fight for 20 years to get justice.'

It is just over a week since Andy - victim of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice this country has seen - had his rape conviction quashed.

Yet his fight for what he calls 'true justice' - namely, for those who put him behind bars to be held to account, and for the system that allowed an innocent man to be treated thus - continues.

When you meet him you sense that, although several of his fights may be over and won, the war has barely begun.

What does two decades of being wrongly branded a sex offender - a rapist - do to a man? Where to start?

Let's begin with geography. The fact this softly-spoken, intelligent, articulate man isn't in the UK when he tells me of his ordeal is significant.

As soon as he could, he left Britain for the Netherlands, where he is staying with friends. He is disgusted with how he was treated. We should all be.

Wrongly convicted in 2004, Andy served 17 years, four months and 16 days in jail before being released in 2020 - over twice as long as he needed to spend behind bars because of his steadfast refusal to accept that he was guilty.

On the day he walked from prison his lawyer drove him to a beach and he marvelled at the fresh air.

Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, after being cleared by the Court of Appeal. Picture date: Wednesday July 26, 2023

Andrew Malkinson, 57, (pictured) was found guilty of the 2003 attack on a woman in Greater Manchester and the following year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent

'You don't get wind in prison. The stale air of institution seeps into your very being,' he says.

But he knew that he wasn't really free. He was facing the rest of his life on the sex offenders' register, probably unemployable, certainly a pariah to the rest of society.

'Branded,' as he puts it today. Only last week was true freedom his, in law at least. His long-fought appeal was upheld, and his conviction quashed. An innocent man, then, who had committed no crime at all.

From the moment he was first questioned by police, Andy had always argued his innocence.

He did not match the initial description of the attacker given by the victim, a young woman dragged down a motorway embankment, raped, strangled to the point of unconsciousness and left for dead.

There was not a single piece of forensic evidence to link him to the crime. Indeed, when DNA evidence did emerge, after years of digging by a small legal charity ('and even then with the help of pure luck because of the wanton destruction of evidence,' he points out), it exonerated Andy.

That it could take so long for the truth to be acknowledged is horrifying. 'I was 38,' says Andy. 'I am 57 now. Those years are gone.'

Even at the stage where there was clear evidence that something had gone terribly wrong in this case, the police doubled down.

'They fought my legal team every inch of the way,' says Andy. Last month Sarah Jackson, the Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, acknowledged that 'the justice system failed' and offered an unequivocal apology. She offered to meet Andy to say sorry in person.

He says: 'I do not want to be in the room with anyone from that police force, of whatever rank.

I do not want to see their faces. Those people are not my friends. Your friends do not kidnap you, gag you, hold you hostage in a tiny concrete box that makes you feel you are suffocating.

They don't imprison you for the best part of two decades. To suddenly show contrition now, at the 11th hour, seems very hollow. I do not believe them. And I do not think they care about me, or about the truth.'

He says he is doing this interview because, in his airless cell, he made a promise. 'I told myself that if I ever managed to get the evidence that I was innocent, I would stand on the rooftops and shout about it.

'I want everyone to know what can happen and what does happen. It was a terrible, terrible thing they did.'

Quite how Andy - now jobless and homeless, having spent the past two years of 'freedom' trying and failing to regain a foothold in society - will be compensated for those lost years is unclear.

The most likely next step is a claim to the MoJ. The maximum amount of compensation payable under the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme is 1 million for ten or more years' imprisonment.

He could sue for malicious prosecution or negligence, but this route would be fraught with issues. Either way, it could be years before Andy will be recompensed, if at all.

One of the saddest things is that before his arrest, Andy was a gentle free spirit who always saw the best in human nature.

His ordeal did its best to destroy that. 'The worst that could happen did happen,' he says. 'I don't know how you get over that.'

Mr Malkinson's mother Trisha Hose outside the Royal Courts of Justice last month after he was cleared

Mr Malkinson's half-sister Sarah embraces him after he was cleared of rape after 17 years

He says he has been called 'the worst things possible'. Like? 'F*****g nonce, dirty rapist, women hater. All of the negative, most spiteful things human beings come out with.'

Little wonder that he contemplated suicide in jail. 'Without going into the gory details, yes, I'd planned how I would do it.' He didn't, partly because it would be taken as evidence of his guilt.

'I knew they'd think, "Oh, you see, he couldn't live with himself because of what he had done."' His family, whose efforts to support him have been heroic, were a factor. 'I didn't want to hurt them.

Particularly my mother. I knew if someone had to go to the door to tell her, that would destroy her.'

Andy's ordeal began in 2003 when he had moved back to Grimsby after temporarily working as a security guard in a Manchester shopping centre.

Two officers had remembered pulling him over when he was riding on the back of a motorbike weeks before the attack, but there is no logical reason why they should have connected him with this attack.

Although he was alarmed to be tracked down like this, he was confident the system would support him.

'How could it not, since I knew I hadn't done what they said I had done. I could never have done that. I have always respected women. I am a pacifist. Even the idea of hurting someone is alien to me.'

His mum Trish was horrified, 'but never doubted me, never'. Ditto, his Dutch ex-girlfriend Karin, who has stood by him throughout. 'She knew there was no way on this Earth.'

Andy's conviction hinged on the fact the victim and two other witnesses picked him out of an identity parade, and placed him at the scene.

A key part of his appeal hinged on the fact that both witnesses had long criminal histories. One had been arrested on the night he claimed to have seen Andy.

But there were inconsistencies from the off. The victim had claimed she had broken a nail while scratching her attacker's face, but a doctor testified (incorrectly) that the nail was not broken, leaving the jury in doubt.

Photographs have since emerged supporting the victim's account.

How does Andy feel now about the victim, who clearly made a mistake in identifying him?

'At first I was confused. I couldn't understand why she would say that, but now, having studied these things, I know more about how the human brain works. It is not a video that accurately replays what happens.

'What happened to her was not her fault. The blame lies with the police.'

In 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of seven years.

At first he thought that someone - a kindly prison officer, perhaps - would be able to see from his demeanour, from his account of his life story, that he was innocent. How naive.

'The sex offenders are the lowest of the low. [Prison officers] treat you as something they have found under their shoe.

'The female officers treated me, well, there was just no humanity there at all, no kindness.

'Not from the male ones either. I shouldn't single out the female ones. They have total mastery over you.

'It's like being in a North Korean totalitarian state with Big Brother watching over you. They are creative in making your life a living hell.

E-fit of the suspect in the rape case (left) and a mugshot of Malkinson shortly after he was arrested (right)

'Everything is about causing suffering. Even the food, which is despicably bad. They boil all the nutrients out of everything, and it doesn't have to be that way.'

As a person convicted of a sex offence, he was on a VP (Vulnerable Prisoners) wing.

'You'd think that would offer some protection, but in fact there are prisoners who have been transferred from the mains.' You were scared of being attacked? 'All the time. I spent a lot of the time being terrified.

'You know when you are on the bus and there is one lunatic who wants to sit beside you, and everyone tries to avoid him? It's like that, but you can't get off the bus. There was a murder on the wing.

'There were people who hanged themselves. You feel you could easily be stabbed. Someone could come in at any moment and shank you.'

He wasn't physically attacked, but the threat was there. 'There is this thing where they add boiling water to sugar and it goes gloopy.

'When it's thrown over you it sticks like napalm. Or they cut you with a double-bladed knife so you can't be sewn up again easily. It's horrific, a war zone.'

For the first seven years, the focus was on getting him to confront his 'crime'. He refused to take part in soul-baring group sessions, which scuppered his chance of an early release. 'I couldn't, wouldn't, confess, because I did not do it.'

His coping mechanism was to 'retreat inward'. He read voraciously, science books to start with, but then books about law.

He did an Open University degree in maths. Then there were the letters he wrote, begging for help.

His mum Trish, who didn't even have a laptop, would troop to the library to research legal matters.

Initially, he banned his mother from visiting him because it was too distressing. It wasn't until towards the end of his sentence, when he was in 'open conditions' that his mother was able to visit him.

He has vivid memories of the day, in 2017, that he received a letter from a small legal charity called Appeal saying they would take on his case. 'That was the breakthrough,' he says. 'I knew I couldn't do it on my own.'

It still took years. Twice, he applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body charged with investigating miscarriages of justice, but his case was rejected.

There has been no apology from them yet, but Andy deems them 'not fit for purpose'. 'My conviction was quashed in spite of them, not because of them.'

He despaired when he learned key evidence  underwear  had been destroyed, despite this being unlawful.

The big breakthrough came when fragments were found in the forensic archive.

Testing revealed evidence of another man's DNA. 'If it hadn't been for that, I would not have had my conviction quashed,' says Andy.

We return to the subject of him being 'branded' a sex offender. Isn't branding permanent? 'It will never go away,' he nods.

'It's a historical fact that I was once branded like that. You can heal, to a point, but I will never forget it. And I think it will always be there.'

Of course it will. His professional life has been trashed. Ditto his personal life.

He has a grown-up son (understandably, he'd like to keep him out of the limelight), but says he would have liked a daughter, a family life. 'That's gone.'

What of a relationship? He admits he has struggled with how to deal with women since his release.

To hug or not to hug? 'I've had this weird thing of being observed, feeling under surveillance, but... I can't never speak to a woman again. That would be absurd.'

Does he feel he can ever have a relationship again? 'I don't know if I'm too damaged, because I am damaged. It would be nice to think that I could, but I can't see it yet.

The most precious things in life are time, liberty and love, and those are the things they took from me.

Mr Malkinson said it has been 20 years since he was arrested and it has 'taken a huge toll on his life'

'Prison is loveless. Joyless. To the point where you just can't bounce out and say "hey ho" .'

On the court steps last month, Andy had another supporter, his lawyer's excitable spaniel Basil.

He pops up on a Zoom screen as we are doing our interview, tail wagging furiously at the sound of Andy's voice.

The joke among the legal team was that if they could have called Basil as a character witness, the case would have been over long before. Andy calls him 'the best trauma dog ever'.

'Dogs don't judge you. They love you unconditionally. They snuggle up to you when you need warmth. They are so... human, in a funny way.' More so, perhaps.

Andy has a petition seeking an apology and accountability from the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that is supposed to identify miscarriages of justice: change.org/p/help-me-get-accountability-for-the-years-i-spent-wrongly-imprisoned or visit appeal.org.uk.
Sunrise host Natalie Barr has declared 'something's going wrong' in the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, given polling shows more Australians are planning to vote No - even in a rusted-on Labor state like Victoria.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and shadow Veteran Affairs minister Barnaby Joyce had a fiery exchange about the Voice on Monday morning's show.

Mr Joyce said many Australians were not prepared to vote for the Voice in the upcoming referendum without its powers being defined and limited.

The Sunrise host concurred and said there must be some hesitation in the public's mind given polling figures.

'The Newspoll could be wrong but in a state like Victoria it's tied, the voting is tied, in a Labor state like Victoria so there's something going wrong, isn't there?,' she asked.

The Yes vote sits at 43 per cent nationally, while the No vote is at 56 per cent, according to a recent Newspoll.

Ms Plibersek blamed the weak public support on a 'scare campaign' being pushed by the Opposition.

Natalie Barr has declared 'something's going wrong' when it comes to campaigning for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament with current polling suggesting more Australians are planning to vote No

'This is about two really simple things, it's about changing our Constitution to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been here a long time and it's also about setting up a committee that would give advice to the Parliament,' she said.

She then said the Voice would have sufficient powers to reduce Aboriginal 'gaps in life expectancy, health outcomes and education'.

'What the No campaign are saying is that we should just keep doing what we're doing, it should just be more of the same and of course I don't agree with that.'

Ms Barr then asked Mr Joyce why he thought the Yes campaign was 'failing so badly' and he said the public rejects racial politics.

'It differentiates Australia on race which I think is an anathema in 2023,' he said.

'No one has described to us - they say it's going to make certain issues like health and education better - but they haven't described exactly how it's going to do that.

'Why can't we do that now? Why do we need it to go to the Constitution. It's overreach.'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he intends to fully implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which discusses a treaty and financial settlement.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seen speaking with Yolngu Elder Mr. Djawa Yunupingu at the Garma Festival last week

The Uluru statement discussed 'reparations for past criminal acts and compensation for present and future criminal acts'.

The Yes campaign has publicly tried to distance the Voice proposal from reparations and treaties, but it has been easy for the No campaign to connect them given Labor's public support for the Uluru statement.

'When you create a void it is filled by information, that's what the Opposition is doing in this case,' Ms Barr put to Ms Plibersek. 'They're saying ''we don't have the information'', and they're the ones filling it and they're the ones winning.

'Will there be a financial settlement as part of a percentage of GDP, that's actually talked about isn't it? And a treaty.'

Ms Plibersek dodged the question, as Labor has throughout the campaign, and said votes should focus narrowly on whether Australia's Constitution should recognise Indigenous Australians.

Barr then said: 'People are saying they want to see it before they vote on it. And in a state like Victoria which is Labor it's tied, in a Labor state like Victoria, so there's something going wrong isn't there.'

Ms Plibersek ended by saying Labor would continue campaigning.
A woman who cooked a meal that resulted in the death of three people from suspected mushroom poisoning did not get sick herself, police say.

Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson, along with Mrs Wilkinson's sister and brother-in-law, Gail and Don Patterson, became ill after they ate a lunch that included hand-picked mushrooms at a property in Leongatha, in Victoria's Gippsland region, on July 29.

All four went to hospital the next day as their condition drastically worsened with the two sisters, aged 70 and 66, dying on Friday. Mr Patterson, 70, died on Saturday night.

Mr Wilkinson, 68, remains in a critical condition in hospital and is believed to be waiting on a liver transplant.

Detectives from the homicide squad searched the home where the lunch was held on Saturday and questioned Erin Patterson, the daughter-in-law of the Pattersons. She has since been released pending further inquiries.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector for the Homicide Squad, Dean Thomas, confirmed the 48-year-old is a person of interest as she had cooked the meal.

'She hasn't presented with any symptoms but we have to keep an open mind in relation to this, that it could be very innocent but again we just don't know at this point,' he said on Monday.

Charges are not expected to be laid at this stage of the investigation.

Ian Wilkinson and Heather Wilkinson (both pictured) became severely ill after they ate wild mushrooms. Mrs Wilkinson died on Friday while her husband remains in a critical condition in hospital

Gail and Don Patterson died after eating the mushrooms

Detectives from the homicide squad searched the home where the lunch was held on Saturday and questioned Erin Patterson, the daughter-in-law of the Pattersons

Mr Thomas added that while investigations into the trio's deaths did not mean they were necessarily being treated as suspicious, they are 'unexplained'.

The 48-year-old's two children were also present at the lunch but Mr Thomas said they ate different meals to the adults and did not experience any illnesses.

Those two children were taken to hospital as a precaution and have been removed from their mother's care.

Mr Thomas said police were 'presuming' the deaths were from mushrooms, adding the symptoms presented are linked to death cap mushrooms.

'We've seized a number of exhibits in relation to the matter, a lot of the items we have seized will be forensically tested in the hope that they can shed some light on what's occurred,' he said.

The house where the deadly lunch occurred, above

Investigators say it is not yet known whether the matter is suspicious as they are still trying to establish the circumstances surrounding the case (pictured: foraged mushroom)

Mr Thomas earlier told Radio 3AW that officers were working to determine if any 'nefarious activity' had occurred,

'Or if it's  in this case ... an accidental-type situation where these people have passed away from some form of poisoning, you know, not at the hands of somebody else. So, we don't know yet,' he said.

'We will be working closely with medical experts, toxicologists ... in the hope we can understand exactly what has gone on and provide some answers to the family.

'We're trying to understand who ate what at the lunch, whether that person that did not become ill did or did not eat the mushrooms ... And of course, we're trying to ascertain what it is that has actually caused the poisoning ... to the four people that attended.'

Urgent warning about eating foraged mushrooms

GP Ginni Mansberg told Sunrise on Monday, that mushroom poisonings occur from foraged mushrooms and not those purchased at supermarkets.

Detectives have questioned a local woman, 48, who is believed to have cooked the meal but she has since been released

'There is no risk from the supermarket. We have this incredible variety that is completely safe, that have none of the toxins that have tragically caused these deaths,' Dr Mansberg said.

'This all comes down to foraging wild mushrooms. It's just so difficult to tell the difference between what is a perfectly safe mushroom and one that could end in tragedy.

'Even experts can find it really difficult. I know there are a number of apps you can get that Geo locate you and then you can take a photo.

'They all have disclaimers on them all telling you not to eat the mushrooms because the worst-case scenario is just so bad and it's an awful death.'

GP Ginni Mansberg (pictured) says mushroom poisonings occur from foraged mushrooms and not those purchased at supermarkets

COMMON SYMPTOMS OF MUSHROOM POISONING - Nausea - Vomiting - Stomach pain - Diarrhoea Source: NSW Poisons Information Centre Advertisement

The GP warned that although wild mushrooms are eaten overseas, toxins in Australia cannot be destroyed by cooking or washing.

When digested, the toxins work through the human body and destroy the liver.

Medical Director of the NSW Poisons Information Centre, Darren Roberts, in April, wrote about the dangers of picking mushrooms.

'Toxic mushrooms can resemble edible ones, and might look different according to where they grow, including across continents,' Mr Roberts wrote in The Conversation.

'Mushroom identification apps do not appear to be accurate enough in Australia. It's also not clear how useful mushroom-identification books are at helping people distinguish the edible from the toxic.

'Australia also has poisonous mushrooms that can kill, or cause permanent liver or kidney failure.

'That's because they contain toxins that kill liver, kidney and other cells in essential organs of the body that the body cannot repair.'

He said examples of such mushrooms is the death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides), which is found in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

Earlier this year Victoria Health also warned people not to pick dangerous mushrooms after weeks of wet weather.

On Sunday the Wilkinson and Patterson families released a statement on the tragedy.

'The past week has been a time of shock and grief for us all,' it read, as reported in the local paper, the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times.

'They were parents, grandparents, siblings, children, and pillars of faith within our community.'

'Their love, steadfast faith, and selfless service have left an indelible mark on our families, the Korumburra Baptist Church, the local community, and indeed, people around the globe.'

'Our families will assist appropriate authorities in any way we can and respect any necessary processes amidst this tragedy.'
MBABANE - A row over the awarding of a tender in respect of construction supervision services for Mpakeni Dam and associated works, including the main access road, has ensued.

This comes after the Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE) reportedly awarded a 10- month contract to PG Consulting Engineers and Nippom Koei in association with ED Simelane and Associated. Dissatisfied with ESWADEs decision, Studio Ing G Pietrangeli S.L Consulting Engineers (SP), a company from Italy, has filed an urgent application at the High Court, where it is seeking an order reviewing and setting aside the formers decision of awarding the temporary contract. The company (Studio Ing G Pietrangeli S.L Consulting Engineers) contended that the temporary decision was blatantly invalid and unlawful. It was further its submission that, this was surprising if regard had to be taken to ESWADEs conduct throughout the tender process.

Registered

Studio Ing G Pietrangeli S.L Consulting Engineers (SP) is a private company duly registered in accordance with the laws of Italy, having a registered office at Via Cicerone 28, Rome, Italy. It is an engineering firm that provides services in relation to inter alia, dams hydroelectric power plants, hydraulic projects and power transmission lines. Respondents in the matter are ESWADE, Knight Piesold Swaziland and Dlamini Gibb Consortium, PG Consulting Engineers, Nippom Koei in association with ED Simelane and associated, Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency, Eswatini Public Procurement Agencys Independent Committee, chairperson of ESWADE Tender Board and the chairperson of the Eswatini Tender Board. The applicant (Studio Ing G Pietrangeli S.L Consulting) wants the High Court to interdict and restrain ESWADE from awarding the tender to the third and fourth respondents (PG Consulting Engineers and Nippom Koei in association with ED Simelane and associated).

Application

In his founding affidavit, the applicants director, Giorgio Pietrangeli, brought it to the attention of the court that the application related to Tender No. 0610 for the construction supervision for Mpakeni Dam and associated works, including main access road, that was issued by ESWADE in October 2022. He told the court that SP, the consortium and an entity known as Nippom Koei and Suyapi in association with ZMK, were the only entities that subsequently submitted bids and reached the advanced stages of the tender procurement process. He submitted that after the completion of the evaluation process in respect of the tender, ESWADE took and communicated two decisions; a decision to reject the bid submitted by SP, in response to the tender and a decision to award a contract in terms of the consortium. According to the deponent (Pietrangeli), SP subsequently formed the view that the first and second impugned decisions were invalid and irrational and initiated review proceedings in terms of Section 47 of the Act.

Submitted

He brought it to the attention of the court that ESWADEs chief executive officer(CEO) allegedly dismissed SPs administrative review in terms of Section 47 of the Act. Pietrangeli informed the court that SP prepared an administrative review application to be submitted to Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ESPPRA), to inter alia; have the first and second impugned decisions reviewed and set aside and substituted with a decision awarding the tender to SP. A day before the first administrative review application was submitted to ESPPRA by SP, ESWADE communicated a decision to reject all the bids in respect of the tender (including SPs bid) and to cancel the tender in its entirety, purportedly in terms of Clause 27(2) (f) of the Act, contended Pietrangeli. He averred that, SP formed the view that the cancellation decision was invalid and unlawful, as the requirements set out in Clauses 27(2) were allegedly not met and the cancellation decision was only taken by ESWADE in order to render the first administrative review application nugatory and moot.

He alleged that ESWADE also did this to avoid the consequences that would flow from the reviewing and setting aside and/or annulment of the first and second impugned decisions.

Accordingly, SP filed the first administrative review application with ESPPRA and subsequently updated its papers to include grounds and order to have the cancellation decision reviewed and set aside and/or annulled and to have the impugned decision and the cancellation decision substituted with an order awarding the tender to SP, submitted the director.

He went on to submit that, after the exchange of various affidavits between SP and ESWADE, the first administrative review application was set down for hearing before the ESPPRA Independent Review Commission (IRC) on July 4, 2023.

Pietrangeli claimed that, he was advised by SPs legal representatives that at the hearing of the first administrative review application before the IRC on July 4, 2023, ESWADEs legal representative duly and sensibly conceded the invalidity and unlawfulness of the first and second impugned decisions, with the result that SPs relief for the reviewing and setting aside and/or annulment of those decisions was no longer opposed. The deponent further highlighted that he was advised by SPs legal representatives that the issue that remained controversial and were argued by the parties, were the validity of the cancellation decision and remedy, particularly the substitution order sought by SP. At the end of the hearing, the chairperson of the IRC indicated that the IRC would deliver its ruling in due course. At the time I deposed to this affidavit, the IRC had not delivered the ruling. However, considering the exigency with which the administrative review application is intended to be concluded in terms of the Act. SP expects the IRC to deliver the anticipated ruling within the few weeks at least, he argued. He argued that the court application was necessitated by the fact that SP had now learnt that ESWADE had taken a decision to award a 10-month contract to PG Consulting and the joint venture, in respect of a portion of the scope of work contemplated in the tender.

Awarded

The matter is pending in court and appearing for the applicant is senior lawyer Kenneth Motsa of Robinson Bertram. The main tender for the construction of the dam was awarded to Sakhalive JV. Sakhalive JV is a joint venture company established by two giant construction firms based in China that is, Yellow River Co. LTD and Sinohydro Bureau 3 Co. LTD.

The contract is valued at about E3 billion (US$136 million) and the construction period is 51 months. The scope of the project comprises of the construction of a 52 metre-high clay core rockfill embankment dam and associated works including a 15km main access road. The project will contribute to local infrastructure, socio-economic and agricultural development.
ABC host Virginia Trioli has lashed out at Daniel Andrews after the Victorian Premier again refused to appear on her Radio Melbourne show.

The radio host labelled Mr Andrews as 'the other politician' and implied he had been deliberately dodging invitations to appear on her program for more than 10 months.

Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto was on her show for his monthly interview last Friday, but Trioli made it clear how unhappy she was at Mr Andrews' absence.

'The Premier of the state is welcome to come on at any stage. He refuses to at this stage,' Trioli said, before interviewing Mr Pesutto.

'So I just don't want to be seen unfairly as one politician getting a more elevated platform over another.

ABC host Virginia Trioli has lashed out against Daniel Andrews (pictured with his wife Catherine) after the Victorian Premier again refused to appear on her Radio Melbourne show

'The other politician, the Premier of the state, has declined that platform. But to repeat the invitation, Mr Premier, you're welcome here any time.'

The long running battle between the radio presenter and the Victorian Premier goes back at least 10 months, but even then there were serious tensions between the pair.

In their last encounter in October 2022, a month before the state election, Trioli gave him a direct verbal lashing and went beyond the agreed bounds of the interview.

'Now look, Premier, you've requested not to be asked about policy or politics today, you say, out of respect to those who are dealing with the floods,' she said.

'But it has been, I just checked, almost a year to the day when you were last in this studio or on this show for an interview.

'Can you give an assurance to the listeners that you will be back here for a proper, in-depth interview within a couple of weeks?'

Despite many requests, Mr Andrews has not been on Trioli's show since.

She was at pains on Friday to lay the blame for that firmly at the Premier's door.

'In the interests of balance and fairness, and also accountability, I just want to remind you that we regularly invite the Premier on this program,' Trioli said.

'We are regularly turned down. We invited him again on the program this morning. It took a little while to even get a response. But when we did, the answer was no.'

She implied a journalist of her standing anywhere else in the world would be able to get regular interviews with the head of state.

'The offer stands  the offer stands permanently, as it does on any show like this, in any city or country like this,' Trioli said.

With her anger approaching a festering rage over the latest no show and what seems like a boycott, Trioli (pictured) got personal and referred to Mr Andrews as 'the other politician'

The ABC host then made plain what she sees as a key difference between the Premier and Mr Pesutto, saying the Liberal leader is 'always happy to take your calls'.

Trioli is not alone in finding it hard to get Mr Andrews on her program - the Premier has not appeared on Neil Mitchell's 3AW show for six years.

Mr Andrews has not appeared on Mitchell's 3AW breakfast show since 2017.

'The last interview was pretty aggressive. It was about Skyrail (elevated train line) and he was conducting a survey into Skyrail before they built it,' Mitchell said in a radio interview with Channel Nine's Tony Jones last November.

'I said 'You're going to build it' and he said 'Yes' and I said 'Well, why are you doing the bloody study then? 'And he got quite grumpy about that.'

Jones asked about a rumour regarding a story that caused Mr Andrews to tell Mitchell he would never talk to him again if the host ran it on his show.

'No, he didn't say that. I did run the story, which we won't repeat because he might still want to sue.

'But I did run the story and I rang him to tell him I was going to do it,' Mitchell replied.

Radio host Neill Mitchell (pictured) has had a long-running feud with Premier Daniel Andrews

He said there was another major story that led to his eventual banning by the Premier.

'I also rang him to tell him, and I did broadcast this, when he went up to his father's farm during the (2014) election campaign and his father was dying, and he took the bus up there to take film of the dad selling off the farm.

'And I told him I thought it was wrong and I rang him to tell him that,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the ABC, Trioli and Mr Andrews for comment.
Australia's first jihadi bride has had her Australian citizenship formally restored, with taxpayers to pay her legal fees.

Zehra Duman, a former student at Isik College Keysborough in Melbourne, became a notorious online supporter of the Islamic militant group ISIS after moving to Syria in 2014 to marry Melbourne jihadist Mahmoud Abdullatif.

Abdullatif, known as the 'playboy jihadi', was killed in 2015 and Duman is believed to have married twice more to other ISIS fighters.

Duman was a key ISIS recruiter on social media, posing with machine guns and on the bonnets of luxury cars stolen by the terrorists, urging other Westerners to join the fanatical Islamist regime.

She also sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter after she was contacted about a number of concerning posts she made on Twitter in 2015.

Australia's first jihadi bride, Zehra Duman (pictured), has had her Australian citizenship formally restored

Mahmoud Abdullatif , known as the 'playboy jihadi', was killed in 2015 and Duman is believed to have married twice more to other ISIS fighters

In 2019, Duman was notified her Australian citizenship had been revoked as a result of her membership of and support for ISIS.

She lodged an appeal against that ruling, for herself and her two children, in 2020.

The case was not formally resolved until last week, when the High Court signed off on a consent order which read: 'The court declares that the first plaintiff is an Australian citizen.'

The Commonwealth of Australia was ordered to pay her legal fees, according to The Australian.

It is understood Duman and her family were living in Turkey after she escaped the al-Hawl detention camp for ISIS families in 2021 and travelled across the Turkey-Syria border.

She was taken into custody but released shortly afterwards.

During her time in Syria, Duman used social media to advocate for attacks on Western targets, calling for opposers of the ISIS regime to be killed and attacks launched on Australia, the UK and the US.

In 2015, Duman sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter after she was contacted for comment.

She told Daily Mail Australia at the time: 'All you have to know is that the next time I will ever step into Australia, is when we come and make it a part of the Islamic State bi'thnillah.

'Oh and do I miss my family? Well I think you will miss yours soon (sic). Thank you and have a great day mate!'

Duman sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter on January 22, 2015 (pictured)

Duman was a key ISIS recruiter on social media, posing with machine guns and on the bonnets of stolen luxury cars

Duman left Melbourne aged 19 to join the terror group. Pictured: Duman alongside aid workers

The restoration of Duman's citizenship comes almost a year after the federal government advised her legal team it would not dispute her claim to have her citizenship restored.

READ MORE: Beholden to a warped ideology, Jihadi bride Zehra Duman sent a threatening message to senior reporter Daniel Piotrowski In 2015, ISIS fanatic Duman, then just 19 and married to a terrorist known as 'the Playboy jihadi', was so sure of the Islamic State's success she directly threatened Australia - and a Daily Mail Australia reporter's family. Duman posted pictures on social media threatening the West from Syria (above) Advertisement

It followed the winding up of the previous Coalition government's citizenship cessation laws in June last year, which were found by the High Court to be invalid because they relied on a ministerial decision instead of a judicial one.

The invalidation of those laws meant about a dozen ISIS fighters, members and supporters were eligible to have their citizenship reinstated immediately.

While Dumans was the first such appeal lodged against the laws, the case which brought the legislation down involved Delil Alexander, who is jailed in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

His family launched an appeal for him and his case was upheld in June last year.

Both Alexander and Duman are dual Turkish-Australian nationals.

The government intends to plug the loophole left by the ending of the citizenship cessation laws with legislation that would require a court order to strip citizenship from an Australian dual nationals.

In 2015, a Twitter account believed to be run by Duman posted pictures of ISIS women carrying assault rifles and standing next to luxury cars, head to toe in Islamic burqas.

In one tweet, Duman said: 'US + Australia, how does it feel that all 5 of us were born n raised in your lands, & now here thirsty for ur blood?'

In other tweets, Duman called for violence against 'kuffars' or non-Muslims.

'Stab them and poison them. Poison your teachers, go to haram restaurants and poison the food in large quantities,' she wrote.

ISIS was finally defeated in 2018 after several years of fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The defeat displaced thousands of jihadi brides who had fled their home countries to join the fight and marry ISIS soldiers.
A woman has opened up on the devastating toll the rental crisis has taken on her mental health after applying to live in more than 300 homes.

Eliza Phillips, who asked her real name not be used, was forced to sleep in a car after struggling to find a place to rent in South Australia, for the past two months.

The 34-year-old disability pensioner has been pushed to breaking point and has admitted herself to psychiatric care.

A woman in South Australia who is homeless and is living on a disability pension has struggled to find a place to live after she applied for 300 homes to rent a property

Ms Phillips has been homeless since July after getting kicked out by her landlord from a property she was leasing.

The woman was told that the landlord's family members would be moving in which forced her to look for a new place.

She has since spent weeks, applying for a home but was told by real estate agents that she would have to outbid other tenants to afford places to live.

At one point, Ms Phillips was told by agents she would have to pay $150 more to afford a rental property, after other bidders offered an extra $100.

Ms Phillips told the agents that she could not afford the asking price of the weekly rent.

'I can't,' she said. 'That would take up my entire pension'.

She told 7News, the situation has been difficult to bear.

'What am I meant to do'? she said. 'We don't live in a Third World Country but it feels that way'.

'I've offered them $15 more, and they say that's not going to do anything'.

Ms Phillips is receiving a disability pension after she broke her neck.

She was admitted to a psychiatric ward in July, as the stress of finding a home and the constant rejections took a heavy toll on her mental health.

Ms Phillips, who has been working since she left high school, said housing is a human right after she couldn't afford to live in other dwellings.

Hotels and caravan parks in the state are charging rent between $600 to $900 with the price well out of range for many renters.

Despite coming close to finding a place to stay, South Australia Housing Authority rejected her request to cover the bond and first week's rent on Ms Phillip's behalf.

SA Housing told Daily Mail Australia in a statement that all claims are thoroughly assessed including claims processed by residents such as Ms Phillips.

'Our focus is connecting people with the right housing support for them, and staff are working closely with Ms Phillips to assist her and to ensure the most appropriate solution for her needs'.

'There are eligibility criteria for the Private Rental Assistance Program, and we need to be sure that rent is affordable for any customer applying for assistance.'

34-for-year-old woman known only as Eliza Phillips broke her neck a while ago and is now living on a disability pension as she struggles to find a home, with the ordeal taking a toll on her health after she was admitted to a psychiatric ward in July after she couldn't find a place to live

Ms Phillips from South Australia, has tried various places to stay, including a hotel and caravan park before SA Housing refused to provide a bond and cover a week of rent despite Ms Phillips finding a place to live only for it to be deemed 'expensive' by the state's housing authority

Daily Mail Australia has contacted SA Housing Authority for comment.

A SA Housing Authority spokesperson said funding has increased to provide people with accommodation for those who are unable to afford a home.

According to SA Housing Authority, close $11 million is spent annually on emergency and motel accommodation.

Almost 200 people and families are provided with a place to live under the scheme per night.

'This is in addition to around $75 million per annum for Specialist Homelessness Services that help people avoid becoming homeless and provide support if they have lost their home,' the spokesperson said.

SA Housing Authority also said they have increased the weekly rent limit they pay for, which has gone up from $450 to $600.

Vacancy Rates across Australia increased by 0.02 per-cent to 1.45 per-cent in July according to data from PropTrack.

However, national rents have increased by 27.4 per-cent on average according to CoreLogic.

It means, rents are paying an extra $127 to live in an average rental property.

Australia is in the midst of a major housing crisis as supply shortages cripple the market for property buyers forced a massive spike in rents.

Building approvals have spiraled across the country with the the Australian Capital Territory seeing the worst fall by a huge 35.3 per cent.
Europe's battle against wildfires is raging on as more than 1,000 firefighters tackled a blaze in central Portugal amid 104F heat.

Around 17,000 acres were destroyed in the Castelo Branco district in the centre of the country yesterday as 11 people were reported injured in the blaze.

Temperatures exceeded 40C in some regions of Portugal and authorities said wildfire risks would remain 'very high or at maximum level across the entire country' over the coming days.

It comes as wildfires caused chaos in other parts of Europe, destroying lives in areas such as Posada, Italy and the northeastern coast of Spain.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes on Friday as massive fires blazed across both Spain and Portugal amid a heatwave that's been gripping much of Europe.

Jose Gulherme, the commander of the firefighting operation in Portugal, said the fire could spread as far as 'more than 20,000 hectares' - equivalent to 49,000 acres.

People watch as an aggressive forest fire rages on in Portugal, destroying acres of land

Firefighters try to extinguish a wild blaze in Portugal amid temperatures of 104F

Firefighters battle a wildfire in Carrascal, Proenca a Nova. Wildfires are causing chaos across Europe

A man tries to put out a fire in front of his house in Posada in the province of Nuoro, Italy

Jose Gulherme, the commander of the firefighting operation in Portugal, said the fire could spread as far as 'more than 20,000 hectares' - more than 49,000 acres

A wildfire burns in Posada, Italy, tearing through trees and bushes and blocking roads

Civil security official Tiago Bugio said the flames in Odemira were being beaten back on Sunday

'It's a very extensive area with many isolated homes and villages,' he said, adding that the fire perimeter already extended 60 kilometres (40 miles).

Smoke and ash from the blaze, which started on Friday, had spread more than 130 kilometres east on Saturday to the town of Fatima, where Pope Francis was holding a service at a revered Catholic shrine with more than 200,000 pilgrims.

A further 400 firefighters were deployed to battle a separate wildfire in Odemira, near the southwest coast.

Civil security official Tiago Bugio said the flames in Odemira were being beaten back on Sunday. Two fronts were still active but a third, which had been heading toward the southern tourist mecca of the Algarve, was now under control.

Authorities warned the risk of wildfires remained extremely high across the country.

In Spain, at least five water bomber planes were deployed to a large-scale fire that threatened homes near the southern cities of Puerto Real and Cadiz, a popular tourist destination.

On the northeastern coast of Spain, a blaze that started on Friday in Catalonia and destroyed nearly 600 hectares of land, was mostly under control on Sunday despite strong winds.

An elderly man watches the flames advancing towards his home during the wildfire in Posada

A volunteer helps an woman during the wildfire in Posada as the blaze causes chaos

A man tries to put out a fire approaching the front of his house in Posada

A volunteer at work trying to extinguish a wildfire in Posada in the province of Nuoro

Two shepherds attempt to save their flock of sheep during the aggrressive wildfire that hit the village in Italy

Men push a car during a wildfire that has threatened the lives of many across Europe

Firefighters at work trying to extinguish a wildfire in Posada that has destroyed acres of land

A wildfire blocks a road and causes chaos in Portugal, destroying lands and leaving people injured

Smoke thickens the air in Portugal as the aggressive wildfire rages on

The fire gets close to people's homes and burns through trees and bushes

Early assessments by government suggest over 1,000 hectares have been blackened by fires in Spain over the last three days.

Temperatures in the southernmost Andalusia region approached nearly 40C on Sunday and the country was bracing for a further heatwave on Monday.

More than 1,100 firefighters and 14 water-carrying aircraft battled a wildfire in central Portugal's Castelo Branco area on Saturday as civil protection authorities said hot, windy conditions meant it could take days to put out.

Extreme weather in July has caused havoc across the planet, with record temperatures in China, the United States and parts of southern Europe sparking fires, water shortages and a rise in heat-related hospital admissions.

The increasingly extreme summers seen across the world are as a result of climate change, which is caused by human-induced global warming.

The world recorded its hottest July on record this year, as global temperatures continue to spiral out of control, endangering wildlife and humans alike.

Smoke from the blaze in Portugal, which has destroyed some 60 square km (23 square miles) of forest and undergrowth, reached the Fatima Sanctuary about 100 km (60 miles) away where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered to see Pope Francis on Saturday.

Authorities have evacuated about 100 villagers as a precaution, but Civil Defence Commander Jody Rato told reporters no casualties or damage to homes have been reported due to the fire.
An award-winning newspaper columnist was right to be terrified when he lashed out with his foot at a dog that had chased him into a Chemist Warehouse, a magistrate has found.

Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick fought for almost two years to clear his name after being charged with committing an act of animal cruelty.

Patrick always denied harming the dog Rosie - described as looking like a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier - and was acquitted in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.

Police had alleged Patrick nudged Rosie in the ribs with his shin then kicked at at her face in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, shortly after 6pm on November 27, 2021.

Patrick was then chased by the dog's owner, Surry Hills tattooist Caleb Harrower, and another man across Riley Street into Chemist Warehouse where he turned and swung his right leg towards Rosie.

Award-winning newspaper columnist Aaron Patrick (above) was right to be terrified when he lashed out with his foot at a dog that had chased him into a Chemist Warehouse, a magistrate has found

The 52-year-old got into the witness box on Monday to give his version of events after Mr Harrower told police he was in New York and could not appear in court.

Patrick said he was eating a kebab as he strolled down Oxford Street when he encountered Mr Harrower and his friends Yanick George and Ines English.

'As I was walking along I came across a dog straining on a leash,' he said. As Patrick walked between Rosie and a wall he made 'casual contact' with the dog.

'A man approached me and some other people stood close to me,' Patrick said. 'The man spoke to me. He said words to the effect of 'Get the f*** away from my dog you c***".'

Patrick said he was surrounded by Mr Harrower and his group as the dog owner took a step closer towards him.

'I became scared and I thought this man and his dog may be about to attack me,' he said. 'Instinctively I tried to shoo the dog away with my right leg. The man attempted to strike me.'

Patrick said he did not make contact with Rosie before he ran across Riley Street with Mr Harrower and Mr George chasing him.

'They grabbed me as I was running and my glasses fell out of my pocket,' he said. 'I ran into a pharmacy for safety.'

Patrick always denied harming the dog Rosie - described as looking like a Pitbull or Staffordshire Bull Terrier - and was acquitted in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Monday. Rosie is pictured

Asked by his counsel, Maurice Neil KC, how he felt at that time, Patrick said 'terrified'.

'I'd been attacked without reason by a man and a dog,' he said. 'The dog had chased after me down the street with the man. I was worried it was going to bite me.'

Patrick ran into the Chemist Warehouse where he said Mr Harrower attempted to block his exit and Rosie remained 'menacing'.

'He had advanced towards me and he had a very angry look on his face,' Patrick said. 'I was concerned he he was going to continue to assault me.'

Patrick kicked out with his right leg at Rosie but again said he did not make contact. 'I called out, "Call the police, call the police",' he said. 'Eventually I was able to make my way out of the pharmacy.'

CCTV footage tendered in court did not show Patrick make contact with Rosie on any of the three occasions police alleged but he had told police he kicked the animal.

Body-worn camera footage of Patrick's arrest showed Patrick tell Senior Constable Mathew Clarkson what had happened with Rosie.

'It was a big dog and I was fearful of what the dog was going to do with me so I kicked the dog to try and get it away from me,' he told the officer.

'But it was in self-defence because I was fearful for my safety.'

Patrick got into the witness box on Monday to give his version of events after Rosie's owner Caleb Harrower told police he was in New York and could not appear in court

Patrick said while Rosie was on a leash she was not under the control of Mr Harrower who he claimed had attempted to hit him.

'If you're going to charge me with animal cruelty I think it's fair you charge him with assault,' told told Senior Constable Clarkson.

Senior Constable Clarkson then told Patrick, 'I'd probably try to punch you in the face too if you kicked my dog'.

Before being taken into custody, Patrick said, 'I don't have an weapons on me and I don't use drugs'.

'Are you seriously going to handcuff me for kicking a dog?' Patrick asked Senior Constable Clarkson, who did just that and took him to Surry Hills police station.

On Monday, Patrick confirmed he had never previously been arrested or convicted of any crime.

Mr Neil: 'Do you put yourself before the court as a man of good character and honesty?'

Patrick: 'I do.'

Under cross-examination by police prosecutor Sergeant Jas Poonia, Patrick denied ever kicking Rosie, who the court heard was not injured during their encounters.

Patrick also rejected Sergeant Poonia's suggestion he had told Mr Harrower, 'I'll do it again' after first making 'casual contact' with Rosie.

He was unsure at what precise point he came to fear Rosie and at one stage told the court, 'I don't know what was in the dog's mind'.

Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick was fearful for his safety when he lashed out with his leg at a dog at this Chemist Warehouse in inner-city Darlinghurst

Several times while being questioned Patrick said 'I'm not going to answer yes or know' and 'I don't agree with the proposition you're putting to me'.

In his closing submissions Mr Neil said his client was 'minding his own business... eating his early dinner' when the 'totally unanticipated events occurred'.

'It's quite a fearsome scene of two men chasing another man,' Mr Neil said. 'One at least gabbing him and the dog facing towards Mr Patrick.'

'He's in fear, confused. The situation has taken him totally by surprise. He was terrified.'

Mr Neil said police had not shown Patrick's actions were unreasonable, unnecessary or unjustifiable in what he called 'this sorry saga'.

'What would explain why he would deliberately go out of his way attacking some dog in the street for no reason?' he asked.

Magistrate Rana Daher accepted Patrick's version of events in dismissing the charge.

'It is clear from the CCTV the accused was in fear,' she said. 'He was being chased by two men, one of them them with a dog.'

Patrick is billed as the 'senior correspondent' for the AFR where he writes about politics and business from the paper's Sydney newsroom.

He has previously written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, having started his journalistic career on Melbourne's Herald-Sun.

As well as writing for the Nine newspaper, Patrick also penned the book 'Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party's Civil War' which was released last year.

He has also published works on the previous Morrison government, the downfall of the Labor Party after the Rudd-Gillard era and the unravelling of Tony Abbott's government.
A father who died with his five sons in a house fire near Brisbane was jailed for a domestic violence assault, and his partner previously had a restraining order against him, it can be revealed.

Wayne Godinet, 34, was killed alongside his twins Kyza and Koa, age four, three-year-old Nicky, and his two stepsons Zack, 11, and Harry, 10, after 6am on Sunday when the blaze tore through a rental property on Queensland's Russell Island.

The boys' mother Samantha Stephenson, 28, and her 21-year-old sister Connie escaped the burning home and were released from hospital on Monday.

During a press conference on Monday morning, Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said investigators were looking into the cause of the blaze and would not rule out suspicious activity.

Det Supt Massingham also said Mr Godinet was 'known to police' and that officers had been called to the Todman Street rental multiple times before the fire, but he would not say why.

Wayne Godinet (pictured, left, with Samantha Stephenson), 34, was killed alongside his twins Kyza and Koa, age four, three-year-old Nicky, and his two stepsons Zack, 11, and Harry, 10

Ms Godinet (pictured) died after he re-entered the home to retrieve his sons from the blaze

The blaze was so intense firefighters were only able to pick through the remains of the house in the late afternoon after battling it from 6:18am

He also wouldn't say whether the father-of-five was allowed to be at the home on Sunday morning.

In May 2017, an apprehended violence order was taken out against Mr Godinet on Ms Stephenson's behalf.

Three months later, he was sentenced in Lismore District Court to ten months in prison for domestic violence, with a non-parole period of six months.

He was sentenced to a further four months for failing to comply with his bail conditions. The victim of the assault was not specified.

Mr Godinet was hit with a raft of restrictions in relation to the order, including one stating he must not approach her for 'at least 12 hours after drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs'.

The restraining order was supposed to expire in May 2018.

In December 2018, the pair celebrated the birth of their first children together, twins Kyza and Koa Godinet. A year later, they welcomed Nicky Godinet into the world.

Mr Godinet (pictured with his son) became trapped upstairs with the boys moments before the second storey of the Russell Island home collapsed

Ms Stephenson (pictured) was found outside the home in a distressed

Speaking with media outlets on Monday, the day after the fire, close family friend Peter MacLoughlin recalled a conversation he had with Ms Stephenson.

'Despite her saying they did have problems she said the family were so close and absolutely loved each other,' he said.

Ms Stephenson's close friend Lilly Salter set up a Go Fund Me to help the mum out with expenses, including the six funerals she will have to fund.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Salter said: 'Samantha just wants the world to know - check your smoke alarms and hold your babies.'

Neighbours said Ms Stephenson had been sleeping upstairs with the children, while Mr Godinet slept downstairs.

She had managed to escape the flames with her sister, who said they jumped out of a second-floor window.

But when Ms Stephenson tried to run back inside to get her sons - Mr Godinet stopped her, and bolted back into the burning building himself.

The blaze completely destroyed the property it originated from and spread to two other houses

Tributes have been left at the scene of the deadly fire

He became trapped upstairs with twins Kyza and Koa, aged four, his three-year-old son Nicky, and stepsons, Zack, 11 and Harry, 10, before the second storey collapsed.

Police confirmed on Sunday afternoon that six bodies had been found in the wreckage.

The young mum was released from hospital on Monday morning and is cooperating with investigators, as they try to determine the cause of the fire.

Police have not yet determined whether the blaze is suspicious or not.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham also revealed on Monday there were several elements of the house fire that required 'further scrutiny' by police.

'In terms of best investigative processes, the elements that need further investigation or clarification must remain confidential at this stage,' he said.

Officers were stationed outside the home overnight on Sunday to guard the six bodies police believe remain inside the charred wreckage.

'Today we're hopeful of removing the bodies of the six people who tragically perished in this fire yesterday,' Det Supt Massingham said.

Fire investigators remain at the scene of the deadly house fire that claimed the lives of five young boys and their father on an island off Brisbane

Officers are still investigating the circumstances around the fire

'A crime scene has been declared at Todman Street and fire investigators and scene of crime staff are there. Our disaster victim identification squad has been called in to assist in that process.'

Officers were stationed outside the home overnight on Sunday to guard the six bodies police believe remain inside the charred wreckage.

The blaze began at about 6am on Sunday and spread to two other houses, sending plumes of thick smoke billowing into the sky.

One home collapsed while firefighters worked to douse the flames on another.

About 20 firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on a third home.

Anyone with information or relevant footage of the incident are being urged to come forward as an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

Russell Island Rural Fire Brigade was the first to respond to the blaze, with witnesses then seeing ambulance and fire trucks boarding a barge to the island to assist.
The ABC was forced to issue a clarification after airing claims that the official 'No' campaign used 'AI-generated aboriginals' in their advertisements.

On Sunday, the ABC's Insiders aired a special program to discuss the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, where guest John Paul Janke made the extraordinary claim.

Mr Janke, host of NITVs flagship program The Point, said the No campaign had 'multiple social media pages'.

'Some of them now are using AI with black, Indigenous characters to try and look like it's an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign,' he said.

'No' campaign leaders Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine (pictured) reacted with fury over the claims they had used AI-generated Aboriginals in their advertisements, branding them a 'complete and utter lie'

Insiders host David Speers asked him to clarify if that was coming from the 'No' campaign.

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Mr Janke insisted it was, adding: 'They are supporting obviously different voices and they are under the guise of moderate voices against the Voice, like it's Australians for Unity but they are using AI of a black character that is supporting the No case.'

Australians for Unity is the name of the joint campaign fronted by shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and businessman Warren Mundine.

Insiders host Speers did not query Mr Janke's claim nor ask for any evidence to back up the assertions.

But shortly after the program aired the ABC was forced to issue a clarification.

'Insiders: On the program broadcast on Sunday, August 6, panellist John Paul Janke described the use of AI generated videos by some opponents of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament,' the clarification read.

'The ABC wishes to clarify that the campaign coordinated by Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price - Australians for Unity, is not affiliated with the videos being referred to.'

'No' campaign co-leader Jacinta Nampijinpa Price branded Mr Janke's comments a 'complete and utter lie'.

'Of all the racist, offensive, inaccurate things that have been said about the No campaign, this is probably the worst,' she said.

The ABC was later forced to issue a clarification over Mr Janke's false claims

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'According to the ABC, the No campaign has created AI fake indigenous Australians who are voting no. A complete and utter lie!'

Her No campaign co-leader Warren Mundine also said the claims were a 'lie'.

'How low can the ABC and the Yes campaign sink!'

Daily Mail Australia asked Mr Janke to provide evidence to back up his claim but did not receive a response.

His Twitter page is locked, although it is unclear when he took that action.

It is understood he stands by his reporting.

SBS later responded on his behalf.

'On Insiders yesterday, John Paul Janke called out some of the questionable activity that is taking place on social media by those campaigning "No" for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

'Some of these videos using AI have attracted over 85,000 views and his comments highlight the important discussion needed around the nature of such campaign techniques.

'On NITV and through our coverage across the SBS network, were focused on ensuring all Australians have access to accurate news and information during this debate, which includes countering misinformation and disinformation.

'We support John Paul for continuing to raise awareness and understanding of the nature of what he and the NITV team are seeing and experiencing on social media, and the impact of this on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.'

Mr Janke, who also runs his own construction firm Rork Projects, was the former Co-chair of National NAIDOC Committee.

Constitutional Equality, a fringe 'No' campaign organisation, has admitted to using AI on its Facebook page.

'I wonder what is wrong with using an affordable video production technique that uses an AI avatar?', the group posted on Sunday.

'Do you think that our Avatar is trying to impersonate indigenous people? Or does it reflect the everyday person in our multi-cultural society?

'Are these accusations fair? Is the YES campaign realising it has no rational case for changing the constitution and resorting to vilification?'

The No campaign - under its previous name of Fair Australia before it merged with Recognise a Better Way to create Australians for Unity - did use stock images of Aboriginal families rather than real people in one of their pamphlets.
Read more: Why your electric car is nowhere near as green as you think

Proposals pay communities for having electricity pylons built near their homes would gain more support from men than women, a survey shows.

The poll revealed that 67 per cent of male respondents would be in favour of the idea compared to 55 per cent of their female counterparts.

People with higher levels of education were also more likely to support a community fund while there was a link to age for the level of backing.

Only 50 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds said the payments would sway them to back pylons within five miles of their home. That rose for older groups, peaking at 72 per cent for those aged 55 to 64.

Overall 64 per cent were in favour of new electricity grid infrastructure.

The poll revealed that 67 per cent of male respondents would be in favour of the idea compared to 55 per cent of their female counterparts (Stock Photo)

The survey of 1,039 people by Survation comes days after a report put forward payments to households and communities as a way to build support for the UKs energy grid.

It will need to massively expand to cope with green policies as electricity will need to be transported across the country for heat pumps, cars and to keep the lights on.
Residents are being urged to join a water bill boycott to protest against sewage contamination in a river flowing through some of Britain's most beautiful countryside.

The River Swale in the Yorkshire Dales is suffering devastating harm from pollution blamed on the regional water company and local farmers.

Waters that were once packed with brown trout and grayling are now sparsely populated due to the state of the river, say campaigners.

A Save Our Swale clean-up campaign has been launched by residents determined to force a change. And increasingly, customers are refusing to pay wastewater charges on their bills from Yorkshire Water.

The bill boycott action is also taking place across the country in a bid to force water firms to reduce sewage discharges into the sea and rivers  with many of the boycotters threatened with legal action and debt collection enforcement.

Angler Ron Wood, chairman of Gilling West Fly Fishers, recalled how thousands of litres of slurry were released in to the river, turning it black. 'I have never seen such a shocking sight,' he said

The River Swale (pictured) in the Yorkshire Dales is suffering devastating harm from pollution blamed on the regional water company and local farmers

Last month more than 100 people filled the Town Hall in Richmond, North Yorkshire, for a campaign launch meeting.

Campaigners have accused Yorkshire Water in a public letter of 'persistently releasing untreated sewage into the River Swale'.

This was adding to the pollution caused by the local farming industry, with the introduction of more trees and fences to keep livestock away from the river banks.

The 73-mile-long river, which flows in to the River Ouse, is currently failing pollution tests in all three of its catchment areas.

It follows a major pollution incident on April 13 this year, which is said to have killed thousands of fish, including rare species.

Angler Ron Wood, chairman of Gilling West Fly Fishers, recalled how thousands of litres of slurry were released in to the river, turning it black. 'I have never seen such a shocking sight,' he said.

The Environment Agency described the incident as the most serious level of pollution. Yorkshire Water declined to comment on the campaign, but said efforts were being made to reduce sewage.
Anita Carey, who starred in Coronation Street and Doctors, has died at the age of 75 after a battle with breast cancer.

The actress, who played Joyce Smedley on the long running soap in 1996 and 1997, passed away on July 19 after a 13-year fight with the disease, reports the Guardian.

Ms Carey, who also played Vivian March in Doctors from 2007 to 2009, was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 but continued to work on stage and television in the United States.

Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in 1946, Carey originally made her name as an actress by performing in British comedy series such as I Didn't Know You Cared in the early 70s.

However, she later decided to move into more dramatic roles, earning plaudits for her performance in The Spoils of War in 1980 and 1981, as well as in political drama First Among Equals in 1986.

Anita Carey as Vivien March in BBC soap drama Doctors, where she was a regular between 2007 and 2009

Carey played Joyce Smedley (right) in Coronation Street between 1996 and 1997 before being written off the soap by producers

Anita Carey as Vivien in Doctors, alongside Gregory Parker (played by Frank Ellis, centre) and Jimmi Clay (played by Adrian Lewis Morgan, right)

But it was on Coronation Street where she became best known to British audiences, which she played two roles decades apart.

Her first role on the show came as Brenda Summers - a domestic violence victim who became a friend of Emily Bishop (played by Eileen Derbyshire) in 1978.

Nearly two decades later, she returned as Joyce Smedley - mother of Judy Mallett (played by Gaynor Faye) - in 1996 and 1997.

She was famously killed off from the show when she was run over by a car chasing after her dog Scamper.

She would return to soaps in 2007 when she was cast as Vivien March, a receptionist at Mill Health Centre for BBC drama Doctors.

She earned plaudits and awards for her portrayal of Vivien having to deal with the aftermath of being raped by a burglar.

Away from the screen Carey was married to British actor and director Mark Wing-Davey, with the pair meeting at a production of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the Sheffield Crucible in 1973.

They married in 2002 and have two children, Zanna and Isabella.

She followed her husband in moving to the United States after he took up a position at New York University's theatre school in 2008.

However, she continued to act in stage shows over the pond, even after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.
MANZINI  Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula has dashed to report intimidation and death threats to law enforcers, allegedly issued by some businesspeople, along with some high ranking civil servants.

Matsebula, whose office recommended that a forensic investigation be pursued in light of the shortage of medical drugs and pharmaceutical supplies in public health facilities, is said to be receiving declarations of an intention to inflict damage, punish or hurt him. The threats are said to have connotations instructing him to supposedly desist from proceeding with the investigations relating to the causes of the drugs shortage in the country.

Insistence

These investigations were instituted at the insistence of government, through the Neal Rijkenberg-led Ministry of Finance, as means to establish the root cause of the shortage of medical supplies. Subsequent to that, Matsebula reported to government that his findings were that when projected to the population of public health facilities, the total of missing and unaccounted for pharmaceuticals amounted to E151.6 million. He also reported that during the investigation, he observed that there was missing stock of medicines and or unaccounted for pharmaceuticals amounting to E18 793 823.99 in the fiscal years ended March 31, 2021 and 2022. His findings were that there was missing stock of medical drugs amounting to E5 977 042.11, which was made up of E5 848 589.89 in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 and E128 452.22 in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, as reported in the Trading Account.

It was said his findings further detailed that the financial statement disclosed the missing stock as a difference between physical count by the Central Medical Stores (CMS) and the Government Accounting System. Matsebula was said to have observed that pharmaceuticals amounting to E12 812 281.28, which were acquired during the financial years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022, were not accounted for. This preliminary investigation led to Funduzi Forensic Services being recruited through the Eswatini Government Tender Board. As the company engaged in its investigations, there were dissatisfactions on how the investigation was being carried out, resulting in the matter going to court.

Meanwhile, as the matter played itself in the public domain through the courts, Matsebula is said to have started receiving death threats from some senior ranking government officials and entrepreneurs supposedly advising him that if he did not cease and desist from pursuing the investigation into the shortage of drugs, his life would be in danger.

Threatening

The communication relaying the threatening message is said to be from unknown telephone numbers to him. As such, the AG was said to have reported the matter to the police and according to sources, the matter has been referred to prosecutors as well. The threats are against the backdrop of Matsebula reporting to law enforcers that his email account, used to store valuable government information, had been hacked; which was reported by Eswatini News over the weekend. Eswatini News quoted the AG expressing suspicions that the people behind hacking his email were linked to the probe into the theft of medical drugs and pharmaceutical supplies. It was reported that Matsebula said he was alerted of the hacking by a former employee at his office, who is now based in the Republic of South Africa. The AG said a number of email accounts using his name were being used to send messages to his various colleagues. His suspicions were, according to Eswatini News, that the perpetrators were impersonating him in anticipation of getting confidential government information.

Matsebula was said to have insinuated that his office was aware that there were people who were against the probe into the theft of medical drugs and as such, his suspicions were that these people were behind the hacking of the email account. The death threats and the hacking of the AGs email account were reported to the police just as when the Minister of Finance issued a statement relaying that on August 1, 2023, Cabinet met with Matsebula and representatives from Funduzi Forensic Services (Proprietary) Limited.

Assist

This, he said, was set to assist government satisfy itself on the engagement process of Funduzi to conduct a forensic investigation. Rijkenberg reported that Cabinet also needed to satisfy itself that recent media concerns did not have any impact on the possible outcomes of the forensic investigation, while also ensuring that the process was not tainted with illegality. Aligned to the information shared with Cabinet and his office, Rijkenberg confirmed that the engagement of Charles Kwezera, who was an independent contractor to Funduzi, was summarily terminated after the allegations of his improper and unlawful conduct were exposed. Kwezera is the same person who was accused by some CMS employees of demanding bribes, allegedly to exonerate them in the findings of the investigations.

Cops investigating intimidation, death threats towards Matsebula

MANZINI  The death threats towards the life of the Auditor General, Timothy Matsebula, are expeditiously being dealt with by the police.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said the law enforcers had received reports of the death threats and were investigating them. Vilakati said as the matter was ongoing, she could not delve into details other than to confirm that they (police officers) were investigating it. It is worth noting that Matsebula, in his proposal for a forensic investigation on the notification of suspected irregularities into the acquisition and distribution of medicines to public health facilities, underscored a crisis reported by nurses and members of the public.

There were allegations that public health facilities were without medical drugs and pharmaceutical supplies to the benefit of retail pharmacies, which some had links with personnel in the health sector. The shortage persisted despite that government in 2022 increased the budget for drugs to E1.035 billion. This was after the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, in his 2022 budget speech, which was at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, said: Government has allocated E2.42 billion to the Ministry of Health. This translates to about E2 069 spending per capita, putting us in the top 10 per cent of health spending in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the increment in resources, the challenges in public health facilities persisted, such that in the 2023/24 national budget, Rijkenberg announced that government had allocated E2.76 billion to the Ministry of Health.

Medication

In fact, despite the Ministry of Health being one of the most catered for departments, it has seen even its clients (patients) petitioning it in agitation of not being afforded medication. This played itself out at the Mbabane Government Hospital in the past weeks. The acute shortage of medical drugs and supplies in public health facilities is expected to be a thing of the past as the entire ministrys suppliers have reportedly been paid. Rijkenberg recently said the Ministry of Healths suppliers, whose invoices were supplied to the Treasury Department, were 100 per cent paid. He explained that unfortunately, the Lizzie Nkosi-led Ministry of Health gave large orders to suppliers and did not process the paperwork until the order was supplied in full.

Rijkenberg explained that suppliers of the Ministry of Health supplied three quarters of their orders and delayed delivering on the balance, which resulted in delayed payments. He said due to the principle applied by the Ministry of Health, there were delayed orders; however, there was a task team set up to aggressively deal with the supply of medical drugs and pharmaceutical supplies to all public health institutions in the country. To date, Rijkenberg said huge amounts of medicines had been supplied to the public health facilities in the last two weeks. He said the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health, Dr Simon Zwane, was very influential in ensuring the delivery of the medical drugs.
Prison and probation service staffing levels are approaching 'dangerously low levels', the Ministry of Justice has accidentally admitted.

In an apparent blunder, the MoJ aired its concerns in the description of a recruitment contract on the government procurement website.

The 8million contract blamed 'government commitments on prison expansion and high staff attrition' for the shortages.

It warned a third of regions in England and Wales have less than 80 per cent of the probation officers they need.

And it said 15 per cent of prisons were lacking more than a fifth of the prison officers or support staff they require.

The 8million contract blamed 'government commitments on prison expansion and high staff attrition' for the shortages (Stock Photo)

The MoJ contract also outlines the challenges facing ministers due to the shortages in the prison and probation services. It states: 'Prison and probation staffing is approaching dangerously low levels.

'This is made more acute by government commitments on prison expansion and high staff attrition levels.'

Labour's justice spokesman Steve Reed said last night: 'If a third of the country has 'dangerously low levels' of probation officers, we risk seeing even more cases where violent criminals who never should have been released from prison in the first place are allowed to strike again.'

But a government source hit back, telling the Mail it was 'great to hear Steve Reed backs tougher parole measures'.

An MoJ spokesman said it had hired 'a record 4,000 probation officers since 2021 and will recruit up to 5,000 more prison officers by the mid-2020s'.
Five boys, aged between three and 11, died

The heartbroken family of the five children and father killed in a house fire have broken their silence, as police reveal the key questions about the blaze.

Wayne Godinet, 34, died alongside his twins Kyza and Koa, aged four, his three-year-old son Nicky, and his stepsons, Zack, 11 and Harry, 10, when their Todman Street home on Queensland's Russell Island went up in flames after 6am on Sunday.

The children's mother Samantha Stephenson, 28, and a 21-year-old female relative, believed to be Ms Stephenson's sister, managed to escape the burning rental property and were released from hospital on Monday.

Emma-Lee Headrick, the children's aunt, wrote on social media on Monday morning that she had been awake all night mourning the loss of 'Waynie boy' and her 'beautiful' nephews.

'I stayed awake, mourning the loss of 6 beautiful souls,' she wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of the father and his sons floating on pink clouds.

'We have suffered a great loss. I find comfort knowing you rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord. With Grumpy and Nicky.

'To my whanau in Queensland, I feel your pain and aroha. I'll be there soon.'

It comes as Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham revealed there were several elements of the house fire that required 'further scrutiny' by police.

Relative Emma-Lee Headrick said she had been awake all night mourning the loss of 'Waynie boy' and her six 'beautiful' nephews in a Facebook post on Monday (pictured)

Father Wayne Godinet, 34, and his five sons (pictured) perished after they were trapped in a deadly fire on Queensland's Russell Island

He said police have made no determination on whether the blaze was suspicious or not and that investigators were keeping an open mind about its cause.

'In terms of best investigative processes, the elements that need further investigation or clarification must remain confidential at this stage,' he said.

Mr Godinet and Ms Stephenson had been sleeping on the ground floor while the children and female relative, 21, had been upstairs when the fire broke out.

The woman was forced to jump from a second-storey window to escape the flames.

Officers will retrieve the bodies from the charred remains of the two-storey home on Monday to allow formal identification processes to begin.

Superintendent Massingham said the 'male victim' was known to police and that officers had been called to the residence on several occasions before the blaze.

The superintendent was asked if the male victim was allowed to be at the house.

'In terms of that aspect of it, were still investigating that but I can confirm that police happen to the residents in the past but the nature and frequency of our attendance there is subject to internal review,' he said.

Meanwhile, a letter from the acting principal of Russell Island State School Leanne McMahon was sent to parents and caregivers on Sunday.

The two eldest sons, Zack and Harry, were students at the local school.

'Many of you will be aware of a tragic house fire this morning in our community. It has been reported that some residents, including young people, remain unaccounted for. We extend our sincere sympathies to the affected families and their loved ones at this difficult time,' the letter read.

The children's mother, Samantha Stephenson, 28 (right with Mr Godinet), and a female relative, 21, were released from hospital after the pair miraculously escaped the blaze

The blaze was so intense firefighters were only able to pick through the remains of the house in the late afternoon after battling it from 6:18am

Ms McMahon said she understood children would be distressed by the news and that support and counselling would be provided by the school.

'As a community, we will rally together and support each other through this challenging period,' she wrote.

Officers were stationed outside the home overnight on Sunday to guard the six bodies police believe remain inside the charred wreckage.

'Today we're hopeful of removing the bodies of the six people who tragically perished in this fire yesterday,' Superintendent Massingham said.

'A crime scene has been declared at Todman Street and fire investigators and scene of crime staff are there. Our disaster victim identification squad has been called in to assist in that process.'

In total, nine people were treated at the scene after the fire spread to two other properties on Todman Street, about 60km southeast of Brisbane.

Police confirmed on Sunday afternoon that six bodies had been found in the smouldering wreckage.

Mr Godinet (pictured with his two children) ran inside the house to try and save the five kids

Mr Godinet (pictured with his son) became trapped upstairs with the boys moments before the second storey of the Russell Island home collapsed

Family friend Peter Macloughlin visited the remains of the family home on Sunday.

'The mother came out very distressed saying the children were inside as was her partner there was nothing I could do,' he told Nine news.

Mr Macloughlin said he was 'devastated' for the family.

'(They were) great kids, the older one I just gave him a bike yesterday,' he said.

The blaze was so intense firefighters were only able to pick through the remains of the house in the late afternoon after battling it from 6:18am.

Police were only able to clear the rubble and find the charred remains at night.

'Once the fire was extinguished this afternoon by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services an initial examination of the scene located the bodies of six people, believed to be a man and five children,' police said.

'A port-mortem and scientific examination will take place to confirm the identities of the deceased.'

On Sunday, Superintendent Matthew Kelly said Ms Stephenson was 'very distressed' but in a stable condition as she recovered in hospital.

'These are young boys that could have become men in the future and a man has lost his life as well,' the superintendent said.

'We are still speaking with this lady, who has lost her entire family. It is truly tragic.'

A GoFundMe page has been raised by family friend Lily Salter.

'On this tragic morning Samantha lost her 5 beautiful boys and there father to a house fire,' the post reads.

'We have started this go fund me to assist Samantha in the cost to putting her beautiful family to rest. Whatever you can donate will be appreciated.

Ms Stephenson (pictured) was found outside the home in a distressed

The blaze completely destroyed the property it originated from and spread to two other houses

'This a horrific circumstance and we appreciate any assistance you may be able to give.

'Samantha will also be in need of the essential like clothes , personal hygiene products ect.

'She had lost everything. We also appreciate you giving Samantha some time and space to grieve at this time as you can imagine.'

Supt Kelly said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

'We are not treating it as suspicious at this stage, preliminary investigations do not suggest that,' he said.

Emergency services described the scene as 'confronting'.

One local said he heard an 'explosion' before he saw black smoke pouring into the sky.

'Heard explosions earlier this morning and then saw the black smoke,' they wrote in a local Facebook group.

'I am saddened by the whole thing.'

Ms Godinet perished after he re-entered the home to retrieve his sons from the

The blaze then spread to two other houses, sending plumes of thick smoke billowing into the sky.

One home collapsed while firefighters worked to douse the flames on another.

About 20 firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on a third home.

Anyone with information or relevant footage of the incident are being urged to come forward as an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

'Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the fire,' police said.

Russell Island Rural Fire Brigade was the first to respond to the blaze, with witnesses then seeing ambulance and fire trucks boarding a barge to the island to assist.

Nine people, including neighbours, were treated at the scene by paramedics.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has criticized the San Francisco court system for 'freeing drug dealers'

San Francisco's District Attorney has blasted criminal courts for 'freeing drug dealers' and judges for not taking the fentanyl crisis seriously.

DA Brooke Jenkins ripped into the courts system during a public safety town hall meeting earlier this week as the city continues to battle an opioid-fueled crime epidemic.

Alongside a panel including Police Chief Bill Scott and Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, Jenkins said that arrests for drug dealings are up, and her office has requested that repeat offenders be detained while awaiting trial, with little being granted.

Jenkins said: 'The courts are the biggest barrier. We do everything we can and you can see the same person out on the street the same day.

'Repeat and chronic offenders are selling the most deadly substance weve seen in this city.'

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins speaks at a press conference outside City Hall in San Francisco on Thursday, June 8, 2023

The California city is currently dealing with a major opioid crisis, which is fueling a rise in crime also

'That tells you something about what has been going on in the courtrooms of this city,' Jenkins continued. 'The judges are not taking this seriously. The judges are ignoring it.

'It's taking four open cases -- so that means the police have to arrest the same person four times on average before the court will agree to hold them in custody,' she added.

The panel had been met with more than 100 people who crammed into a meeting room at the St. Anthony Foundation in the city.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that prior to the meeting a man was critically wounded in the Tenderloin area, which had been the topic of discussion for the panel.

Business owner Del Seymour told the meeting: 'We got seniors that can't or won't come outside. We got children that can't play outside anymore. We want our neighborhood back.'

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.

There were 647 accidental drug overdose deaths in San Francisco in 2022, and over 70 percent of those deaths were attributable to fentanyl, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city - an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

More than 79 percent of those deaths were attributable to fentanyl, according to data from the medical examiner's office.

The panel had met inside the St Anthony Foundation to discuss public safety amid soaring crime and drug problems

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet

Open drug use is now common in the city, something which the police are cracking down on

Earlier this year, democratic Mayor London Breed launched the police operation against open-air drug use across the California city which has been hit with an opioid-fueled crime epidemic.

Despite their efforts, over 70,000 residents have fled San Francisco since the start of the pandemic to escape the crumbling city's drug and crime crisis.

Due to the ongoing problems the city is dealing with, the city is currently dealing with a retail exodus, with tourism also down.

Westfield shopping center announced it had stopped making mortgage payments due to crime and tanking sales - defaulting on its $558million loan and handing it back to the lender.

This was sparked by the decision from Nordstrom, the mall's anchor tenant, to close this month - which Westfield blamed in large part on 'unsafe conditions' and a 'lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity'.

This map shows a small selection of the big-name departures who have decided to vacate the city

Other major firms such as Banana Republic, Office Depot, Old Navy, H&M and Whole Foods Market have either left the area or announced plans to leave in the coming months.

In June, Park Hotels & Resorts announced it was stopping mortgage payments on two hotels, the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco and the 1,024-room Park 55, saying: 'Now more than ever, we believe San Francisco's path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges.'
Labour would use barges to house asylum seekers for a 'very short' period while the backlog is tackled, the shadow immigration minister has said.

Stephen Kinnock said former military bases would also continue to be used for a period of possibly around six months during work to bring down claims delays from a record high.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has previously indicated she would not be able to immediately shut down the sites but declined to be explicit about the policy.

Yesterday, Mr Kinnock told BBC Breakfast: 'The reality is that we've got tens of thousands of people in hotels, we need to get them out of hotels and we need to get them off the barges and out of the military camps too.

Mr Kinnock said he cannot give a specific timeline as ministers work to bring down the decisions backlog from a record high of more than 172,000 cases.

Stephen Kinnock (pictured) said former military bases would also continue to be used for a period of possibly around six months during work to bring down claims delays from a record high

Yesterday, Mr Kinnock told BBC Breakfast: 'The reality is that we've got tens of thousands of people in hotels, we need to get them out of hotels and we need to get them off the barges and out of the military camps too'

The Labour MP added: 'Because of the complete and utter chaos and shambles of the Tory asylum crisis, we are going to have to continue in a very short-term period to use the infrastructure that is there, including the barges and the hotels.

'We will be forced to use these contingency measures because of the mess the Government has made.

'I'm confident that within six months of a Labour government we will be getting on top of the backlog and clearing people out of hotels and putting them into suitable accommodation, or removing them from the country properly because they have no right to be here.'

Mr Kinnock also told Sky News that he was 'deeply unhappy' the barges would have to be used temporarily, adding: 'This is the last thing we would want to be doing because we believe that people who are applying for asylum should be in appropriate accommodation.'

The Bibby Stockholm in Portland Port, Dorset, is the first barge the Government has procured to house asylum seekers while their claims are processed.

After a series of delays, it still has no migrants living on it amid continued safety fears centring on plans to house about 500 people on it - far over its original capacity.

But the first asylum seekers could be housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge as soon as this week as ministers push on with the repeatedly delayed plans despite safety concerns.

Around 50 people are expected to be in the first group of migrants to board the vessel docked in Portland Port, Dorset, despite local opposition.

The Government is also considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island, according to multiple reports.

The proposals to use the British Overseas Territory are apparently being considered by ministers and officials as a 'plan B' if the Rwanda scheme fails.

Situated in the South Atlantic, the volcanic island could house an asylum processing centre as an attempt to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel.

The Bibby Stockholm will eventually host about 500 people at a time in Portland, Dorset - despite intense opposition from the local community

The plans to remove asylum seekers who arrive by unauthorised means to Rwanda have been stalled by legal challenges that will end up in the Supreme Court.

The developments came during the Government's 'small boats week' in which it is making a series of announcements on the issue that Rishi Sunak has promised to solve.

Fines for employers and landlords who allow people who arrive by irregular means to work for them or live in their properties are to be hugely increased.

Civil penalties for employers will be increased up to a maximum of 45,000 per worker for a first breach and 60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.

Landlords face fines going from 1,000 per occupier to 10,000, with repeat breaches going from 3,000 to 20,000. Penalties relating to lodgers will also be hiked.

Protesters outside the entrance to Portland Port in Dorset, where the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge is moored up

Dorset Council is receiving 3,500 per occupied bedspace on the Bibby Stockholm, with additional funding provided to the local NHS and police, the Home Office said

Protesters gather in Portland on Friday to protest against the controversial barge

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the Bibby Stockholm will accept its first occupants 'in the coming days' but refused to confirm whether they would move in as soon as Monday.

The Home Office did nothing to dampen suggestions the arrivals could come on Monday. Various expected dates have been given and then missed in the past, however.

Mr Jenrick offered a guarantee that it is a 'safe facility' after the firefighters' union warned it is a 'potential deathtrap', citing concerns including overcrowding and access to fire exits.

'We hope that the first migrants will go on to the boat in the coming days, I'm not going to give you an exact date - but very soon,' he told Sky News.

He said increasing the numbers on the barge to the capacity of around 500 is still the plan despite concerns from the Fire Brigades Union over the vessel initially designed to house about 200.
Have you been impacted by crime in Alice Springs? Email brittany.chain@mailonline.com

Festival was used to promote the upcoming Voice referendum

Under-siege Alice Springs residents were forced to endure another terrifying weekend of out-of-control crime while the nation's top politicians mingled at a $5,000-a-piece festival in the Top End.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and several high profile Voice campaigners were among attendees at the Garma Festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory - the nation's single largest Indigenous gathering.

Tickets to the festival cost up to $5,000 for a ticket, and much of the celebrations centred on a push for a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament. Australians will be asked to vote on the proposal at a referendum between October and December this year.

But 1,700km south of the festival, Alice Springs was gripped by a crime spree which saw a nursing home bus stolen, the airport and university broken into and several car windows shattered.

Locals reported the Alice Springs Old Timers Aged Care Home shuttle bus was stolen overnight on Saturday - the same night CCTV footage shows children loitering inside the airport hangar.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and several high profile Voice campaigners were among attendees at the Garma Festival in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory

'Residents at the village look forward to their bus trips, even [those] who live with dementia know what days the bus trips are,' one person said.

'Unfortunately this is our only bus for Old Timers residents. Don't these kids realise that they are possibly stealing from their own Grandparents/elders.

'It is extremely upsetting and disappointing! Now we will have to explain why we can't go on the bus for who knows how long.'

Extraordinary CCTV footage shows the Alice Springs Aero Club was targeted a short while later.

Four offenders roamed the hangar where three small planes were located, using torches on their phones to snoop around the premises.

At least one of the people caught on tape appeared to be wielding an axe.

His face was partially covered by a face mask and a black hood from his jumper as he reached up with the axe toward the CCTV camera.

Four offenders roamed the hangar where three small planes were located, using torches on their phones to snoop around the premises

Several car windows were shattered at the weekend

Mr Albanese repeated his promise to hold the referendum this year, despite calls to hold off amid declining support for the 'Yes' vote

Police revealed a commercial vehicle was stolen from the site, and are calling for anyone with information to come forward.

The incident has sparked mass concerns in the community that the planes may have been 'tampered with'. Others have questioned whether the incident should be branded an 'act of terrorism'.

Charles Sturt University campus in Sadadeen was also broken into the same night, just after 1am. There, the offenders 'caused significant damage to the building and its contents,' police said.

Another incident occurred 15 minutes later at a government office.

Frustrated locals say they're at their wits' end, noting politicians were in the NT at the weekend celebrating at the Garma Festival and touting their Voice to Parliament.

Tickets for the festival started at $1,650 for school students, $2,750 for adults, and $5,000 for a corporate pass.

Pictures show broken windows at the office that was targeted

Garma is an annual festival held on sacred Gumatj Bunggul ground in Gulkula every year in August.

Mr Albanese, who struggled to contain his emotions several times during the impassioned address, used it as a rallying call for Australians to vote Yes at the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

'The form of constitutional recognition they are asking for is a Voice, not our sympathy, not a symbol, but a vehicle for progress,' he told the crowd.

'A practical tool to make their children's lives better. Not just something that will feel good, something that will do good, that will make a positive difference.

'Australian people should be equally clear of what voting no means.

'It is more of the same. Not only rejecting the opportunity to do better, but accepting that what we have is somehow good enough.'

Mr Albanese, who struggled to contain his emotions several times during the impassioned address, used it as a rallying call for Australians to vote Yes at the referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament

Mr Albanese repeated his promise to hold the referendum this year, despite calls to hold off amid declining support for the 'Yes' vote.

'There will be no delaying or deferring of this referendum,' he said.

'We will not deny the urgency of this moment. We will not kick the can down the road, we will not abandon substance for symbolism or retreat to platitudes the expense of progress'.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton declined an invitation to the festival on the grounds the event will be a 'love-in' for the Yes campaign.
Ukraine has replaced the Soviet hammer and sickle with the country's trident coat of arms on one of the nation's most recognisable landmarks.

Standing a whopping 335ft and weighing some 560 tonnes, the 'Motherland' statue depicts an imposing woman - known colloquially as 'Baba', or 'Grandma' - holding a shield and sword aloft above her head as she surveys the nation's capital with a prideful, protective gaze.

Built in 1981, the incredible monument is the centrepiece of Ukraine's National Museum of the Second World War, paying tribute to the millions of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who gave their lives in the fight against Nazi Germany's fearsome Wehrmacht.

The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine's cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia's ongoing invasion.

The monument was put up in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing the national World War II museum in Kyiv.

Ukraine has replaced the Soviet hammer and sickle with the country's trident coat of arms on one of the nation's most recognisable landmarks

The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine's cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia's ongoing invasion. Pictured: The previous coat of arms

Now instead of the hammer-and-sickle emblem, the shield features the Ukrainian tryzub, the trident that was adopted as the coat of arms of independent Ukraine on February 19, 1992

The 200-foot monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow

Workers were pictured fixing the new coat of arms to the huge statue this afternoon

Now instead of the hammer-and-sickle emblem, the shield features the Ukrainian tryzub, the trident that was adopted as the coat of arms of independent Ukraine on February 19, 1992.

The 200-foot monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow.

Created in the image of a fearless female warrior, the statue holds a sword and a shield.

Workers began removing the old emblem in late July but poor weather and ongoing air raids delayed the work. The completed sculpture will be officially unveiled on August 24, which is Ukraine's Independence Day.

The revamp also coincides with a new name for the statue, which was previously known as the Motherland Monument when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

It will now be known as Mother Ukraine.

A team on the ground helped hoist the massive trident coat of arms to the top of the statue

Steeplejacks installed the Ukrainian official coat of arms, also known as the tryzub, replacing the coat of arms of the former Soviet Union, which was removed last week

They celebrated by waving the Ukrainian flag above the monument in Kyiv

The statue is 335ft tall. The sword right hand is 52ft and weighs nine tons, while the shield is 43ft high and 26ft across

The change is just one part of a long effort in Ukraine to erase the vestiges of Soviet and Russian influence from its public spaces - often by removing monuments and renaming streets to honor Ukrainian artists, poets, and soldiers instead of Russian cultural figures.

Most Soviet and Communist Party symbols were outlawed in Ukraine in 2015, but this did not include World War II monuments such as the Mother Ukraine statue.

A huge majority Ukrainians (85 per cent) backed the removal of the hammer and sickle from the landmark, according to data from the country's Culture Ministry released last year.

For many in Ukraine, the Soviet past is synonymous with Russian imperialism, the oppression of the Ukrainian language, and the Holodomor, a man-made famine under Josef Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians and has been recognised as an act of genocide by both the European Parliament and the United States.

The movement away from Soviet symbols has accelerated since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022, where assertions of national identity have become an important show of unity as the country struggles under the horror of war.

In a statement about the emblem's removal, the website of Ukraine's national World War II museum described the Soviet coat of arms as a symbol of a totalitarian regime that 'destroyed millions of people.'

'Together with the coat of arms, we've disposed the markers of our belonging to the ''post-Soviet space''. We are not ''post-'', but sovereign, independent and free Ukraine.'



Workers dismount a Soviet emblem from the shield of the 'Motherland' monument, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a compound of the World War II museum in Kyiv, Ukraine August 1, 2023

Workers remove the former Soviet Union's coat of arms from the Motherland Monument

Workers stand around hammer and sickle, part of a Soviet emblem dismounted from the shield of the 'Motherland' monument, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a compound of the World War II museum in Kyiv

Standing a whopping 335ft and weighing some 560 tonnes, the 'Motherland' statue depicts an imposing and resilient woman - known colloquially as 'Baba', or 'Grandma' - holding a shield and sword aloft above her head as she surveys the nation's capital city

Built in 1981, the incredible monument is the centrepiece of Ukraine's National Museum of the Second World War

The idea of replacing the instantly recognisable Soviet hammer and sickle emblazoned on the Motherland Monument's shield was first floated by Volodymyr Viatrovych, the director of Ukraine's Institute for National Remembrance, in 2017, but nothing came of it.

That is, however, until May 2022, when the Ministry of Culture revived the plans off the back of Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send troops and tanks rolling across the border two months prior.

Stunning images showed how workers were lifted hundreds of feet in the air by crane and inched towards the statue's shield, where they set about dismantling the accoutrements, stripping them away from the metal latticework beneath.

Workers were later seen standing in a circle looking down upon the iconic Soviet emblem as it lay on the floor of the national WWII museum following its removal.

Workers remove the Soviet coat of arms from the Motherland Monument on August 1, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine

A view of the Motherland Monument with partially removed Soviet shield on August 1, 2023

Part of the Soviet symbols, which was removed from the shield of the Motherland Monument

A general view shows the 'Motherland' monument during the dismount of a Soviet emblem from its shield, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a compound of the World War II museum in Kyiv, Ukraine August 1, 2023

In a social media post, museum director Yury Savchuk shared a clip of the work, writing: 'This is the moment that millions of Ukrainians, generations of Ukrainians have dreamed about...

'This is the moment we dismantle the empire - the symbol of the Soviet Union - opening up a fresh perspective not only on the wonderful scenery of the Dnieper, but for a new life in a free family of European nations.'

The project to replace the shield is set to cost 28 million hryvnias ($758,000), though Ukrainian officials stress it will be paid for by corporate donations, not state funds.

The arts minister who had backed the project resigned last month amid official criticism of the cost of arts projects in wartime.
The owner of a Long Island castle hotel has offered his second hotel in upstate New York to the NYC Mayor Eric Adams as a migrant shelter - but says he is yet to hear back.

Gary Melius, owner of both the Oheka Castle and a Quality Inn in Massena, near the Canadian border, said he made the offer of the Quality Inn to Adams several weeks ago.

Melius said the 115-room budget hotel, where rooms are around $115 a night, is struggling and only has a 40 percent occupancy rate.

He said that he could do with the city money, and the city needs the rooms.

Melius said he does not understand why the Adams administration, which is battling to find rooms for all the migrants, does not take him up on his offer.

Gary Melius owns both the Oheka Castle and a Quality Inn in upstate New York, on the Canadian border. He is offering the Quality Inn as a migrant shelter

Melius is offering this Quality Inn hotel in Massena to the city of New York as a migrant shelter

Rooms at the Quality Inn are usually around $115 a night

Nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since spring 2022, and more than 56,000 migrants are currently in the city's shelter system.

The city pays hotel owners an agreed rate to use their facilities.

'I keep trying. We could take 180 people. I don't get it. It doesn't make sense to me,' said Melius.

A spokesman for Adams said they were looking at Melius's offer.

'My place is ideal,' said Melius, in an interview with The New York Post.

'The hotel is in the center of town. You don't need any transit once you get here.

'I have a kitchen. I have a restaurant. I have a catering hall.

'This would be very good for me, it would be very good for the city and very good for the migrants. It's a win-win.'

Brad Gerstman, a lobbyist who works with Melius, told the paper he had asked all hotel owners he knew if they had any space available for the city to house migrants.

'I want to help the city I love, so I scoured all my clients and those I have other business relationships with to find more space for the migrants,' said Gerstman.

Melius also owns the Oheka Castle Hotel on Long Island - a popular hotel and site for weddings and events

The Oheka Castle was built in 1919. Rooms start at $495 a night via the hotel website

Al D'Amato, a senator for New York from 1981 to 1999 and the last Republican to represent New York in Congress, said he was a regular at the Oheka Castle Hotel and supported Melius's offer.

'It makes sense for Gary and the mayor,' said D'Amato, who has worked as a lobbyist since leaving Washington DC.

'The city is overwhelmed. This is the federal government's fault for not securing the border, and it will keep getting worse if they don't get the border under control.'

Adams this weekend opened up a temporary shelter in McCarren Park in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint, and bused at least 60 migrant men to a Sunset Park community center.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, says the city is struggling to cope with the influx of migrants

Migrants are seen camped outside the Roosevelt Hotel on August 2 in midtown Manhattan

Nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City since spring 2022. Migrants are seen outside the Roosevelt Hotel on August 2

Crowds of migrants are pictured outside the Roosevelt Hotel on August 2

An encampment also has been set up on the grounds of the state Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village, and more than 100 hotels in New York City have been repurposed into migrant shelters - notably the 1,000-room Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

A spokesman for Adams told the Post they were exploring all options, but needed more help from the state and federal authorities.

'As we've said multiple times, with more than 95,000 asylum seekers coming through our intake system since last spring, all options remain on the table,' the spokesman said.

'We continue to call on our state and federal partners to provide the necessary support.'
Drivers are being hit with higher parking charges for paying in cash by a Lib Dem council.

Sutton Council, in south London, sparked widespread fury and was urged by the Government to reconsider its policy, while the RAC described the measure as 'discriminatory'.

The local authority increased its car park prices in June for people using machines to pay, however froze them for those who use an app or automated telephone line, analysis by the PA news agency found.

Drivers using Sutton Council-run car parks are charged 3 an hour if paying with cash. However, using the RingGo app sees the price fall to just 2. The RAC described the measure as 'discriminatory'

The council said this was in response to the rising cost of providing the machines.

Following the change, using the borough's council-owned car parks for an hour costs 3 if paid for at a machine but just 2 via the RingGo app or phone service.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, headed up by Michael Gove, said: 'This practice unfairly penalises those who choose to pay at parking machines, and we ask that Sutton Council reconsiders their policy.

'Councils have a duty to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities.'

Conservative MP Greg Smith, who is a member of the Transport Select Committee, said: 'Councils should not seek to rip off those who still want to use a pay and display machine.

'Whilst the vast majority of us now use parking apps, there are many who can't or don't want to.'

RAC spokesman Rod Dennis described making the cheapest parking available only to those who use a service such as RingGo as 'nothing short of discriminatory'.

He said: 'While there's no denying that parking apps can make drivers' lives easier, as everyone with a mobile phone knows, the technology is far from infallible.

'If the signal fails or isn't strong enough, drivers who have made every effort to pay to park are left in an impossible position.

'It can't be right that those who find themselves in this situation, or who struggle with technology in the first place, end up having to pay more just to park their cars.'

Nearly a fifth of drivers who responded to a recent RAC survey said their local authority had either scrapped parking payment machines or was consulting on doing so

Mr Dennis also expressed concern that Sutton's 'promotional parking' prices could be a 'precursor to the council removing machines for good'.

Nearly a fifth of drivers who responded to a recent RAC survey said their local authority had either scrapped parking payment machines or was consulting on doing so.

Caroline Abrahams, a director at charity Age UK, said: 'Charging considerably more for parking if you pay with cash unfairly penalises people who aren't online or who don't have a smartphone, hitting older generations particularly hard.

'There are hundreds of thousands of older people who depend on their cars but who don't use computers.

'Hiking their parking costs is a disincentive to them getting out and about, and engaging fully in society.'

Barry Lewis, who chairs Sutton Council's environment and sustainable transport committee, said the borough has 'some of the lowest parking charges across London'.

He continued: 'In order to keep our prices low, we are encouraging all our residents and visitors to go cashless when paying for parking, with the incentive being a discounted rate.

'Maintaining the cash machines and collecting the money from our car parks has become more expensive.

'The charge for paying for parking by cash has increased to cover these costs.

'We understand concerns about people who don't have a smartphone but you can also pay using a dedicated phone line.

'This means that those who do not have a smartphone are not excluded from benefiting from the discounted rate.

'Unlike other councils who have completely removed the option for people to pay by cash, residents and visitors to Sutton still have the option to pay by cash at our parking machines.'
New archaeological findings may reveal how women fought as warriors in the Iron Age.

Scientists gained new insights into the role of women after examining 2,000-year-old artefacts on a burial site in the Isles of Scilly.

Discovered in 1999, the site had been somewhat of an enigma - however, archaeologists unearthed a sword and shield alongside the remains of an individual.

While these objects would typically be associated with a man, there was also a brooch and bronze mirror - typically objects which belonged to women - found alongside the individual.

Dr Sarah Stark, human skeletal biologist at Historic England, believes this could be proof that there were female warriors in the Iron Age.

For years, the mirror and sword have puzzled experts, as in other burials of the same period, swords are normally found with males and mirrors with females

The mystery of this prehistoric grave has finally been solved after years of scientific debate

'This could suggest that female involvement in raiding and other types of violence was more common in Iron Age society than we'd previously thought,' she told The Times.

'Our findings offer an exciting opportunity to re-interpret this important burial. They provide evidence of a leading role for a woman in warfare on Iron Age Scilly.

'Given the degraded state of the bones, it's remarkable to get such a strong result.

'It makes you wonder what could be discovered by revisiting other badly degraded burials.'

Dr Stark added that while we can never completely know about the symbolism of the objects found in the graves, the sword and mirror may indicate this woman had high status within her community.

It could also suggest that these materials could have played a role in local warfare, organising or leading raids on rival groups.

This image shows the detail on the sword which was recovered from the Iron Age burial site

The Iron Age burial site is 2,000 years old and is situated on the Isles of Scilly, Britain
Police are investigating the 'suspicious' blaze that destroyed Britain's wonkiest pub - amid claims that intruders were spotted in the 18th-Century boozer the night before the fire.

Fire crews were alerted to reports of a fire at the Crooked House pub in Himley, West Midlands on Saturday night, which destroyed what used to be an unlikely tourist attraction due to its uneven floors and surfaces.

The fire came days after the brewery confirmed that the pub was bought by developers and would no longer operate as a pub.

Staffordshire Police confirmed that an investigation has been launched to try and get to the bottom of the fire's cause - amid local claims it was started on purpose.

According to The Telegraph, one local said that intruders had been seen inside the closed pub and seemed to be partying and playing music.

Police are investigating the 'suspicious' blaze that destroyed Britain's wonkiest pub

Staffordshire Police confirmed that an investigation had been launched to try and get to the bottom of the fire's cause

According to The Telegraph, one local said that intruders had been seen inside the closed pub, and seemed to be partying and playing music

Others questioned the timing of the blaze, which came a few days after the historic property was sold.

Staffordshire Police said in a statement: 'We are appealing for information after a fire at a derelict building in Himley late Saturday evening.

'Officers were called to a report of a fire at what used to be the Crooked House pub on Himley Road at 10:45pm last night.

'Crews from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were already in attendance and had extinguished the blaze. No one was believed to be inside the building and no one has been reported injured.

Others questioned the timing of the fire, which happened to come just days after the historic property was sold to developers

The blaze completely destroyed the pub, which used to be a popular tourist attraction

Staffordshire Police said in a statement: 'We are appealing for information after a fire at a derelict building in Himley late Saturday evening'

'We are now working with fire investigators to establish the cause of the fire. Fire investigators are inspecting the scene this morning and officers are making local enquiries to secure any information that might help the investigation.

'Anyone who may have any information that could help with the investigation are asked to get in touch.'

Ash Smith, a local who claims to have contacted officials about the fire, told the Express and Star that he discovered the fire after going to his yard to check on his horses.

He recalled how he saw a 'lot of smoke coming from the area of The Crooked House'. He said that he then 'drove closer to have a look and could see that it was on fire'.

Mr Smith alleged that crews were unable to get their fire trucks near the building because the lane up to the pub off of Himley Road had been blocked.

He told the newspaper shortly after midnight: 'Six fire engines are there and they are pumping water all the way down the lane with hoses and pumping water from the local stream.'

A police forensics team have since been spotted in the pub car park as they probe the fire.
The UAE-based Al Ansari Financial Services has presented a formal proposal to acquire a majority stake in one of Omans prominent exchange companies.

The group has received an initial approval subject to meeting the necessary regulatory conditions. This strategic move is in line with Al Ansari Financial Services Groups geographic expansion plans to grow market share in the attractive GCC region, the company said.

The acquisition process is still in its initial stage and is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals and due diligence. The anticipated schedule for the acquisition is set for Q1 2024. Nevertheless, any developments regarding this issue will be appropriately shared with the market as they unfold, it said without revealing the name of the company it proposes to acquire.

Oman's booming economy, combined with its enhanced global economic and business partnerships, has led to a surge in the demand for reliable exchange services. Recognising the potential of the Omani market, Al Ansari Financial Services aims to leverage its expertise and experience to provide state-of-the-art financial solutions to the country's residents and businesses.

Rashed A Al Ansari, Group CEO of Al Ansari Financial Services, said: The Omani market is very attractive and one that we believe will support our goal of expanding our footprint in countries with a significant expat population and a resilient economy. We are confident that this expansion will contribute to further broadening our customer base. The planned acquisition of a prominent exchange in Oman will provide us with the opportunity to bring the best of Al Ansari Financial Services to a new and exciting market given our deep expertise and market experience.

We are committed to delivering on our strategic roadmap designed to unlock shareholder value by exploring various growth and expansion opportunities, including inorganic growth through acquiring businesses to gain access to new markets, Al Ansari added.

Oman will be the groups second expansion in the region following Kuwait. The group continues to bolster its presence in the region by opening more branches in the UAE and seeks to further develop a financial service ecosystem, offering clients a more integrated and seamless experience, it said. - TradeArabia News Service
Germany's spy agencies should be more like GCHQ, two ex-spy chiefs, who also complained about the 'sprawling bureaucracy' in the country, have said.

August Hanning, 77, and Gerhard Schindler, 70, former chiefs of the German foreign intelligence service BND, wrote in tabloid Bild that German spy agencies were suffering under an 'excess of oversight'.

This includes seven different committees and ombudsmen the agencies have to respond to, which Hanning and Schindler described this as a 'sprawling bureaucracy of control' that is the 'sister of inefficiency'.

They highlighted that politicians and courts shouldn't be allowed to label intelligence services as a threat to the freedoms of the German people.

Instead, the country's domestic, foreign and military agencies should be treated as an 'indispensable part' of the German defence front and be part of the ministry of defence.

August Hanning (pictured), 77, and Gerhard Schindler, 70, former chiefs of the German foreign intelligence service BND, wrote in tabloid Bild that German spy agencies were suffering under an 'excess of oversight'

This includes seven different committees and ombudsmen the agencies have to respond to, which Hanning and Schindler (pictured) described this as a 'sprawling bureaucracy of control' that is the 'sister of inefficiency'

The efficiency of the German foreign intelligence agency BND - which Hanning headed from 1998 to 2005 and Schindler from 2011 to 2016 - has been questioned since scandals came to light amid the invasion of Ukraine by Russia

They said: 'Our intelligence agencies protect the country, the German people and our armed forces; they are part of the solution and not part of the problem.'

Hanning and Schindler also argued Germany's intelligence services should focus more on signals intelligence, explaining: 'We need a new technical intelligence service based on the successful models of the NSA in the US and GCHQ in the UK.

'We cannot afford to outsource terrorism investigations in Germany and the protection of our soldiers on deployments to foreign services in the long run.'

The German intelligence services would have to get back to the same level as foreign ones like the GCHQ and NSA.

Effective intelligence services don't shy away from using human sources close to the action - the closer the more valuable the information they can provide, but the German agencies are told to avoid risks as much as possible, the ex-chiefs said.

'The change of times should also be used in intelligence services, where new ways to protect our country and its population should be treated as the highest priority', Hanning and Schindler concluded.

Former CIA agent John Sipher called the BND - which has long been seen as a weak link in the intelligence community in the west - 'arrogant, incompetent and useless'.

Nathalie Vogel, a security expert at the Institute of World Politics, said the challenges for the German spy agencies go even deeper than Hanning and Schindler suggested.

She told the Telegraph: 'They want to establish a system after the British model of oversight committees, but an intelligence service is only as good as the worst member who sits on an oversight committee.

'In Germany you have far-left and AfD MPs who maintain direct relationships with Moscow, visit the Russian embassy and even make trips to [Russian occupied] Donbas.'

The current BND head, Bruno Kahl (pictured), found himself in the middle of a scandal himself when it emerged that he was stranded in Kyiv for 'urgent talks' when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022

She also criticised the BND's bad relationship with allies in Central and Eastern Europe, because these countries would now 'think twice before exchanging information with the Germans'.

The efficiency of the German foreign intelligence agency BND - which Hanning headed from 1998 to 2005 and Schindler from 2011 to 2016 - has been questioned since scandals came to light amid the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Among those scandals is the case of Carsten Linke, an experienced agent with alleged far-right sympathies, who was leaking secrets to Moscow that could help them win the war in Ukraine.

The father of two had gained respect within the BND, where he oversaw units for spying on foreign communications and internal security.

He is suspected of handing over top-secret intelligence to Russia, some of which is believed to be linked to Ukraine, according to the newspaper Der Spiegel.

His arrest raised doubts for Western allies sharing intelligence during the time of an intense ground war in Europe.

Before his arrest, Mr Linke was thought to be in line to become one of the BND's top officials and had access to highly sensitive intelligence that was being shared among Western spies.

With the assistance of a courier, he was alleged to have used the role to pass over intelligence to Russia on two separate occasions in autumn 2022.

The current BND head, Bruno Kahl, found himself in the middle of a scandal himself when it emerged that he was stranded in Kyiv for 'urgent talks' when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

His extraction took two days as he had to be evacuated by special forces via land because the airspace over Ukraine was closed.

The BND said in a statement at the time: 'This was a difficult and lengthy journey because of the streams of refugees going in the same direction. He is back in the European Union and is expected in Berlin today.'
An Arizona woman has been accused of trying to kill her US Air Force worker husband by poisoning his coffee with bleach - after he set up secret cameras in their home to catch her.

Melody Felicano Johnson allegedly poured a toxic substance into her husband Roby Johnson's morning coffee at their home on multiple occasions. The dad believes that she was doing it to try and collect his death benefits.

She was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree attempted murder, attempting to commit aggravated assault and poisoning food or drink.

Johnson was stationed in Germany for work in March 2023 when he thought his coffee started tasting 'very bad.'

His wife would prep his coffee the night before, so in the mornings he just had to turn it on to have his caffeine fix.

Melody Felicano Johnson was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree attempted murder, attempting to commit aggravated assault and poisoning food or drink

Because of his suspicions, he bought pool testing strips, dipped them in his coffee pot, which showed 'high levels of chlorine.'

He also set up cameras, which showed his wife Melody pouring something into the coffee pot.

According to the report, he continued to pretend to drink the coffee but did not file a police report until he arrived back in the Davis Monthan Air Force Base in the US in July.

He set up more cameras at their permanent stateside home - one over the coffee machine, in the laundry room where the bleach is kept, and another showing the route from the laundry to the coffee maker.

After collecting all the footage, Johnson went back to the police and showed them his evidence.

Police then arrested Melody at the home, and a search warrant reported that the coffee pot smelt like bleach.

The documents also revealed that the husband thought she was trying to kill him 'to collect death benefits.'

The pair were still living together with their child, but were going through a divorce.

At an arraignment on Friday, Melody Johnson pleaded not guilty.

She is being held at the Pima County Jail on a bond of $250,000.

The mom is set to appear in court on September 6.

According to the prosecution, Johnson had just bought a house in the Philippines, and was therefore seek as a flight risk.
The CEO of a mining company that blew up a sacred Aboriginal heritage site has paid $5,000 for a corporate ticket to attend the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land.

Rio Tinto boss Kellie Parker is among the high-profile guests who has visited the Garma Festival on East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory over the weekend.

Tickets sold for $2,750 for a adult, $5,000 for a corporate ticket, and a staggering $1,650 for students aged under 18.

Ms Parker's appearance comes more than three years after her company, which was run by Simon Thompson at the time, blew up a sacred site in May 2020.

Ms Parker took over the reins at Rio in 2021 after Mr Thompson quit, accepting blame for the destruction of the 46,000 year-old Indigenous rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in May 2020.

The CEO of Rio Tinto, which blew up a sacred Aboriginal heritage site in WA in 2020, has paid $5,000 to attend an Indigenous festival in the Northern Territory. Rio's chief executive Kellie Parker is pictured at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory, Sunday, August 6, 2023

Rio Tinto boss Kellie Parker is among the high-profile guests who has visited the Garma Festival (pictured) on East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory over the weekend

Rio's turnover in 2022 was $55.5billion and it has donated $2million to back the Yes side in the upcoming Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.

It was the second year in a row Ms Parker attended the Garma Festival - a gathering of leaders that counts the Prime Minister among its guests - that is held every August.

READ MORE: How mining giant Rio Tinto's obliteration of 46,000 year old caves with priceless Aboriginal artefacts was 'like destroying Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids' Mining giant Rio Tinto has been compared to the Taliban after the multi-billion dollar company destroyed sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in Western Australia. In May 2020, the mining giant blew up two shelters that showed human occupancy going back 46,000 years to access higher-grade iron ore at at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region. Advertisement

An independent report from consultants ERM found that in some instances Rio Tinto management is still not meeting expectations for cultural heritage standards.

The report - commissioned after the rock shelters at the Brockman 4 iron ore mine in the Pilbara were blown up - showed the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people were not properly consulted.

ERM consulting director Stefani Eagle said though there were some examples of good cultural heritage practice, Rio Tinto still needed to do better.

'There are further improvements that are required to meet their internal standards and ensure all assets have appropriate foundations, underpinned by the principles of co-design,' Ms Eagle said.

Ms Parker said the priority was to fix problems in Australia and then expand the new cultural model across the business worldwide in countries such as Peru, Mongolia and Madagascar.

Speaking at the festival on Saturday, Ms Parker said Rio Tinto was committed to cultural heritage protection after learning the lessons of the Pilbara disaster.

'Some of the lessons that we learned around Juukan was not just to be legally right but to have further commitments with traditional owners that we're doing the right thing,' she said.

When the audit was released earlier this year, she told The West Australian that it highlighted 'some good progress, in particular in Australia.'

It was the second year in a row Ms Parker attended the Garma Festival - a gathering of leaders that counts the Prime Minister among its guests - that is held every August

Ms Parker took over the reins at Rio in 2021 after the previous chairman Simon Thompson quit , accepting blame for the destruction of the 46,000 years old Indigenous rock shelters at Juukan Gorge (pictured) in Western Australia

Who attended the Garma Festival? Kellie Parker is among several high profile guests who attended the four-day event over the weekend. Below is a list of some of the prominent Australians who visited: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health and Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles Independent member for Mulka in the NT legislative assembly, Yingiya Mark Guyula Business associates have also made the trek with Telstra, Virgin Australia, Qantas, Woolworths, Westpac, NAB, Rio Tinto, Amazon Australia and the CSIRO represented Advertisement

'The report gives us areas for further improvement across our global operations, and we will adopt all of its recommendations,' she said.

The audit found 19 per cent of Rio Tinto's assets were up to 20 years behind in their knowledge base and a quarter of its operations didn't have a cultural heritage management plan.

'Consequently, there is a risk that current and emerging impacts to cultural heritage are not being readily identified and/or appropriately managed,' the report said.

It found resourcing at almost half of its sites did not have enough resources to deal with cultural heritage and 30 per cent of engagement activities and 50 per cent of grievances were not properly managed.

There was also a lack of management around restoring sites back to traditional habitats, the report said.

'Although training is being rolled out at assets, the audit found that in a number of instances (22 per cent) the training does not incorporate information on asset specific cultural heritage values and appropriate management strategies.'

Rio was condemned around the world after the sacred site destruction, ultimately leading to a change to Australian law.

Introducing the bill to parliament last November, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek compared Rio's actions to Islamist fundamentalists in Afghanistan.

'When those beautiful Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban, there was an international outcry,' she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a tweet that 'Juukan Gorge, a site of huge significance to First Nations people, was destroyed'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a tweet at the time that 'Juukan Gorge, a site of huge significance to First Nations people, was destroyed two years ago.

'But no laws were broken. It's wrong. So we're changing it.'

Rio Tinto is one of the most prominent corporate supporters backing a Yes vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, donating $2million to the campaign.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton slammed the company for doing so.

'There are a lot of CEOs and chairs who have very different conversations with you in private than what they say publicly,' he said in July.

Ms Parker said Rio's support for the Voice followed the 'massive mistake' at Juukan which had shown the company had 'stopped listening'.

'It is a deep lesson in how you listen with intent,' she said. 'And that is what the Voice is  it is listening.

'It is listening to a minority voice that is deeply connected to country, and their culture, and deserves respect.'

The Garma Festival is a four-day long event that runs in the Northern Territory with tickets going for as much as $5,000

In her speech to the Garma Festival over the weekend, Ms Parker made it clear that Rio Tinto is working in cooperation with the local people.

She referred to how Rio had operated the nearby Gove mine since 2007, and its predecessors had done so for 40 years before that.

'Later this decade, that chapter will come to an end, and the land will be handed back to the Traditional Owners so their connection can be re-established,' she said.

'As we prepare for the future beyond mining, I have seen a deepening of relationships between partners and stakeholders, built on respect and listening with intent.'

Ms Parker said all sides are working in partnership to ensure there is a strong future for the area and that 350 people are doing remediation work on the Gove site, where 900,000 trees will be planted over the next decade.
More than a third of Britons do not know that transgender women were born men and are biologically male, a new poll revealed today.

The shock data suggests that understanding on the issue is poor because many members of the public simply do not know what some politically correct terms mean.

A survey has found that 35 per cent of people incorrectly believe that a 'transgender woman' is someone who is female from birth, or that they were unclear on terms such as 'transgender woman' or ' trans woman '.

The research, which was carried out by policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM), showed that there was greater confusion with the term 'trans woman', with 40 per cent incorrectly defining the term.

MBM blamed institutions, such as the BBC, for using the terms during gender debates without considering that the public are not entirely sure what they mean.

Experts say terms like 'trans woman' are 'intentionally' confusing and adopted after trans rights activists argued that it was discriminatory and offensive to refer to a transgender person's true biological sex.

A survey has found that 35 per cent of people believe that a 'transgender woman' is someone who is female from birth

Campaigners suggested that the research, from the Edinburgh-based organisation, showed that the public did not know what the politically correct gender terms meant.

Politicians, journalists and pollsters were urged by campaigners to provide greater clarity on the terms, which they believed were not explicit enough.

Lisa Mackenzie, one of MBM's founders, told the Daily Telegraph: 'Using these terms, without spelling out what they mean for a person's sex as matter of course, will leave a large minority of people at best uncertain.

'At worst, they will have a back-to-front understanding of what they are being told or asked.'

She added: 'These results show that to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, journalists and others need to spell out clearly what sex of person is being referred to, in any context where sex matters.

'We also hope organisations which need to communicate with the public will commission further research as necessary, to understand how language here may confuse or clarify.'

The survey showed that the understanding of the terms varied by age, with 25-34 year olds understanding them the least. Only 55 per cent of people in that age group correctly identified a trans woman as someone born male.

Politicians, journalists and pollsters were urged by campaigners to provide greater clarity on the terms, which they believed were not explicit enough

Younger people aged 18 to 24 showed a better understanding of the terms, while 62 per cent of those aged 55 or older correctly defined 'trans woman', and around 70 percent understood what 'transgender woman' meant.

Maya Forstater, director of the Sex Matters campaign group, said that it was 'very worrying' that commonly used terms were so widely misunderstood.

She told the Daily Telegraph: 'When policy decisions are being made and rules are explained it is crucial that people understand what is meant.

'Whether it is accuracy in a news story, politicians explaining a policy or service providers communicating a rule, they need to spell out clearly whether the person is male or female.

'Terms like 'trans woman' and 'transgender woman' are confusing  intentionally so.'
The 25-year-old was travelling with his best friend

A 25-year-old man from Sydney, Gabriel Gregory, tragically lost his life in Malaysia while on vacation with his best friend after being struck down by a car on Sunday.

He is being remembered for having a 'profound zest for life' and the 'biggest heart' by heartbroken family and friends.

His friend Teahne Lyons said Gabe brought joy to every person he met, with all those who knew him 'utterly heartbroken' by the tragic news.

Gabriel 'Gabe' Gregory, 25, (pictured) was killed after being struck by a car while travelling in Malaysia

'Oh, what joy he brought to every person who had the pleasure of meeting him,' Ms Lyons wrote.

'Gabe was a beautiful man with the biggest heart, who had a profound zest for life that was contagious. He was always thinking about what he wanted to do next.

'He never failed to make you smile. His presence was calming and uplifting, and he always saw the good, even in the worst of situations.

She added the young man was honest, humble, thoughtful and 'awfully' generous, going to the 'ends of the earth' to help out his family and friends.

Ms Lyons said Gabe knew what he wanted in life: to experience it to the fullest.

'He was ridiculously intelligent and knew what he wanted out of life,' Ms Lyons wrote.

'All he wanted was to live his life to the fullest, to travel and see the world, to experience life and push himself out of his comfort zone.'

His grieving family are now desperately trying to bring Gabe home but is stuck with funeral expenses and the astronomical cost of transporting his body back to Australia.

Ms Lyons estimated the total cost of bringing Gabe home and laying him to rest would cost $80,000.

The 25-year-old, is being remembered for having a 'profound zest for life' with the 'biggest heart'

A GofundMe page has been organised to raise money to bring him home and lay Gabe (left) to rest. Funeral expenses and transporting the young man's body back to Australia is estimated to cost a whopping $80,000

She explained Gabe will be buried at Waverly cemetery, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, as two of their friends who have died over the last few years are also buried there.

'We want to put Gabe next to his friends, so we can visit them all together, and so he can rest with those closest to him,' Ms Lyons said.

Ms Lyons started a GoFundMe page to help raise money to give him the 'burial he deserves', with any left over funds being donated to charity.

'His best friends and I have organised this to try and support Gabes family in doing this,'Ms Lyons wrote.

'[We'll] donate any remaining funds to Headspace, where nearly all of our friends have attended, and we believe that it would be what Gabe would have wanted.'

'If recent times have taught us anything, community is everything, and we need our community to help us bring Gabe home and lay him to rest with his best friends.

'We are so appreciative of any support that you can give during this time, big or small, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.'

The fund has a goal of raising $80,000 and at the time of writing has received more than 100 donations totalling $10,455.
NSW is considering controversial changes to environmental rules to allow aerial shooting of brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park as its wild horse population balloons.

The government is seeking feedback on a proposed change to the park's wild horse management plan that would green light shooting of brumbies from the air.

It 'would be an additional option for the control of wild horses alongside the existing methods such as trapping and rehoming, and ground shooting,' the government said in a statement said on Monday.

The highest concentration of brumbies - or roaming feral horses - is found in Australia's alpine region, and their fate has long been the subject of heated debate

'Kosciuszko National Park's ecosystems are under threat.

'There is widespread recognition of the urgent need to reduce numbers of wild horses to protect more than 30 native threatened species.'

The consultation comes amid surging numbers of wild horses in the state's alpine region and long-running opposition from brumby activists to stricter control measures.

The government says it must cut the brumby population to 3000 in part of the park by mid 2027, and estimates up to about 23,000 wild horses are in the park.

Park authorities say they prioritise passive trapping and rehoming, while shooting from the ground is also permitted but aerial culls are banned.

Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said without action wild horses could tip threatened species into extinction.

'There are simply too many wild horses for the park to cope,' Ms Sharpe said.

'We must consider the introduction of aerial shooting, carried out by skilled, highly trained shooters to the highest animal-welfare standards.'

NSW Greens environment spokesperson Sue Higginson backed the move, saying the government had a responsibility to manage invasive species in the park.

A pack of brumbies grazing in Kosciuszko, above

The Greens have claimed the former coalition government was held captive by the Nationals to opposing brumby culls, resulting in lax policy in the area.

'It is not acceptable that feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park are pushing critically endangered species to extinction,' Ms Higginson said.

Opposition environment spokesperson Kellie Sloane has been contacted for comment.

Jack Gough, from the Invasive Species Council - a lobby group for stronger environmental laws - said the announcement was an important decision.

'(It) reflects that the public mood has shifted on this issue,' Mr Gough said.

'No one likes to see animals killed, but the sad reality is that we have a choice to make between urgently reducing the numbers of feral horses or accepting the destruction of sensitive alpine ecosystems and habitats.'

Nature Conservation Council of NSW said wild horses had a devastating impact on alpine ecosystems and Indigenous heritage.

'Based on the best available evidence, ground and aerial shooting represent the most humane and effective population control methods,' the group's CEO Jacqui Mumford said.

Feedback on the proposed changes closes on September 11.

The debate on managing wild horses crosses state boundaries, with opponents of a wild horse cull in Victoria losing a legal bid earlier this year to have the practice outlawed.

Parks Victoria, which allows some aerial culling, has said feral horses can cause long-term damage to native alpine plants and animals.
A new poll has laid bare which types of Australians are voting Yes and No to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament - with data showing the two camps are divided by education, home ownership and income.

A Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper on Monday, showed the 'Yes' camp hasn't secured an absolute majority in any state or territory - when it is required to win both a majority of states and a majority of Australians.

Mr Albanese brushed off suggestions that 'Yes' vote at the referendum was in trouble, saying there was a long way to go before Australians cast their ballots.

'We have a range of (no) campaigns designed to create confusion, really, in the community,' he told ABC Radio.

'There is nothing to fear from this process and everything to gain.'

Demographic analysis revealed a stark divide is forming among Australians.

It found those most likely to support the Indigenous advisory body were higher-income earners, the university-educated, renters and the young.

Those opposed to the Voice included voters with no tertiary education, retirees, mortgagees and people who owned their home outright.

While the race was still close, a referendum based on current attitudes would fail to meet the threshold for success.

Who is voting Yes to the Voice * High income earners * Renters * University-educated Australians * Young people Advertisement

Who is voting No to the Voice * Voters who aren't tertiary educated * People who own their homes outright * Retirees * Mortgage-holders Advertisement

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the polling reflected people's wishes for more information about the voice.

'There are a lot more Indigenous Australians out there who don't feel like they've been represented through the Uluru Statement from the Heart,' she said.

But former Nationals MP Andrew Gee, who quit the party due to its opposition to the voice, said large groups of voters were being alienated as a result of the coalition's position.

'I think the Voice will succeed, I think we will get it over the line, but if it does not there will be a real emptiness about what has happened,' he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese brushed off suggestions that 'Yes' vote at the referendum was in trouble, saying there was a long way to go before Australians cast their ballots

Opposition politician Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claims the polling reflects Australians' wish for more information about the Voice

'I think it's a very short-sighted attitude (for the coalition) to take and I think longer term when the history books are written, history will judge them very poorly for it.'

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said she felt a momentum in favour of the voice that was not reflected in the polls.

'Every day there is someone significant coming out supporting the 'yes' campaign ... everywhere I go, I feel that momentum,' she said.

Ms Burney said the opposition was trying to muddy the waters with questions about things the voice would not be about.

She said the debate was taking a toll on Indigenous Australians, particularly young people.

'(The voice) will make a practical difference to the lives of Aboriginal people ... that is why it is worth going forward with this referendum,' she said.

'I've been involved in Aboriginal politics for 44 years and I have seen many, many things and I can tell you that this chance at constitutional reform is our shot in the locker that's going to make a difference.'

The referendum is due to be held in the last quarter of the year and the prime minister will announce the date in coming weeks.
For two decades, the family of slain teenager Michelle Bright was tormented by thoughts of her killer being free.

On Monday morning, they finally saw Craig Henry Rumsby sentenced to at least 19 years' jail for the murder of the 17-year-old in the early hours of February 27, 1999.

Rumsby attacked Ms Bright, who was a high school student, as she walked home after a friend's birthday party in Gulgong, central western NSW.

Acting Justice Robert Hulme found Ms Bright likely died through strangulation or suffocation, a type of violence that ensures a victim will suffer.

It must have been 'horrific and terrifying' for Ms Bright, the judge said.

17-year-old high school student Michelle Bright (pictured) was murdered February 27, 1999

'The perpetrator must realise that the victim's life is in their hands and thereby has a choice to desist at any point,' Acting Justice Hulme told the NSW Supreme Court in Dubbo on Monday.

'In this case - brutally and carelessly - the offender chose to continue until Ms Bright's young body was lifeless.

'This is a very grave example of the crime of murder.'

Her body was found in long grass on Barneys Reef Road three days after her death, less than two kilometres from where her family lived at the time.

Rumsby confessed to undercover police in 2020, but his defence team argued the admissions were unreliable.

In June, a jury found the 56-year-old former truck driver guilty of Ms Bright's murder and of a terrifying attempted rape of another teenager on New Year's Day 1998.

The judge sentenced Rumsby to at least seven-and-a-half years' jail for the 1998 attempted rape.

'The incident must have been utterly terrifying for (the woman),' Acting Justice Hulme said.

'The Crown correctly described the attack as ferocious.'

Craig Henry Rumsby was on Monday sentenced to at least 19 years' jail for the murder of Ms Bright

During a sentence hearing last week, Ms Bright's family spoke of enduring 20 years without answers about what happened to 'Shell'.

'(We tried) to navigate life without Shell, while the monster that took her away from us continued to live their life,' her brother Leslie told the court during a victim impact statement.

While Rumsby was free, he assaulted and harassed several young women.

Court documents show he was convicted of indecent assault and non-consensual sexual touching in 2014 and 2020 for groping and licking a retail worker and forcibly kissing a woman he approached on a train.

He also performed a sex act in a park in Sydney in 2019.

Rumsby committed those crimes while he was free on bonds after a long history of offensive behaviour, robbery, drink driving and assault.

For Ms Bright's murder and the attempted rape, Rumsby will spend a total of at least 24 years in jail, with a maximum term of 32 years.

He will be eligible for parole in August 2044.
Mitch McConnell was publicly humiliated on Saturday while attempting to make a speech, as he was drowned out by merciless booing and shouts for him to retire.

The 81-year-old Senate Minority Leader had been speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic, one of Kentucky's main political events.

McConnell had attended the picnic amid recent questions about his health and political future after he froze mid-sentence during a press conference last month.

On Saturday, that sentiment was continued by a large number of people in the audience who booed and jeered the Kentucky native.

In video footage of his speech, McConnell is completely unintelligible as the shouting of 'RETIRE' is head around the room, which then descends into booing.

NEW: Republican Senator Mitch McConnell gets humiliated during a speech as Kentuckians completely drown him out, telling him to retire



Mitch McConnell is the definition of The Swamp.



McConnell is 81 years old, has spent nearly 4 decades as a Senator and has a net worth of pic.twitter.com/UY29EsTwoF  Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 6, 2023

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during the annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, on Saturday, Aug 5

BREAKING: Mitch McConnell met with chants of "Retire" today at Kentucky's Fancy Farm Picnic 2023 pic.twitter.com/BbGpB9IMeq   Tess T. Eccles-Brown, PhD - she/they  (@TTEcclesBrown) August 6, 2023

McConnell does his best to continue through the incessant jeering and according to CNN later told the crowd: 'This is my 28th Fancy Farm and I want to assure you it's not my last.

'The people of this state have chosen me seven times to do this job, and I want you to know how grateful I am.'

On Truth Social, former President Trump also shared the footage from his speech and said: 'I AGREE!'

McConnell froze for twenty seconds late last month while speaking at his leadership briefing, being unable to complete his sentence.

'Are you OK?' asked Sen. John Barrasso, a former orthopedic surgeon and the third most senior Republican in the Senate, as he took his arm. 'Anything else you want to say or should we just go back to your office?'

After a few moments, he guided McConnell away from the lectern towards his office.

Another GOP Senator John Thune carried on with the press conference, before McConnell returned and said: 'I'm fine'.

When a reporter asked if he felt he can fully do his job, McConnell said 'yes' and continued.

It raised fresh questions about his ability to do his job and the advanced age of so many of the nation's political leaders including President Biden.

Aides later said McConnell had been feeling 'light-headed' prior to making his remarks.

Later, McConnell told reporters that the president had called to ask after his well-being.

He said he told Biden he had been 'sandbagged,' a reference to president's quip after stumbling over two sandbags at an Air Force Academy graduation in June.

Former President Trump posted on Sunday night that he believed McConnell should resign from his role

McConnell, left, is assisted by Sen. John Barrasso, second from right, and a Capitol Police officer after the GOP leader froze

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell suddenly stopped talking and had to be walked away from the podium during his press conference

In the weeks leading up to him freezing during the press conference, McConnell had also fallen multiple times.

McConnell had fallen while getting off a plane at Washington's Reagan Airport just a few days prior in a spat of incidents raising concerns about his health.

McConnell has fallen two other times this year, according to multiple reports, one of which resulted in a concussion and has led to speculation over whether he has been neurologically impacted by the spills.

The first fall this year, according to a new CNN report, happened in February while McConnell was in Helsinki with a U.S. delegation. The Kentucky Republican tripped and fell while getting out of his car on a snowy day as he was walking to meet the Finnish president.

Just days later in March, McConnell fell again at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, D.C., leading to a concussion after hitting his head during the tumble.

He also broke some ribs at the hotel and was out of Congress for nearly six weeks recovering.

'It's good to be back,' he said after returning to work. 'Suffice to say, this wasn't the first time being hard-headed has served me very well.'
A new alcoholic version of the popular soft drink Solo has led to a formal complaint due to concerns that it might attract underage drinkers.

The Cancer Council of Western Australia filed the complaint with the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) Scheme.

The complaint argues that the manufacturer, Asahi, violated the section of the code that prohibits alcoholic beverages from having a 'strong and evident appeal' to minors.

A new alcoholic version of the popular soft drink Solo has led to a formal complaint due to concerns that it might attract underage drinkers

Alcohol producers voluntarily commit to following the code when promoting their products. An update to the code on August 1 addressed growing concerns about the use of soft drink and confectionery flavours and the marketing of alcoholic products.

'Solo is a well-known soft drink brand in Australia, is popular with children and teenagers, and has highly recognisable branding, packaging, and advertising,' the complaint said.

'The Hard Solo product is an extension of the soft drink brand, using the same brand colours, icon and font on the packaging and the same can shape as the Solo soft drink.'

There are no fines or penalties for breaches of the code.

Hayden Turner, the head of marketing at Asahi's subsidiary CUB Premium Beverages, stated that distinct black cans and prominent alcohol markings prevent confusion with the iconic lemon squash drink.

Mr Turner added the product had received pre-vetting approval from ABAC.

Caterina Giorgi, the chief executive of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, expressed concerns that alcohol companies are increasingly targeting the youth market.

The complaint argues that the manufacturer, Asahi, violated the section of the code that prohibits alcoholic beverages from having a 'strong and evident appeal' to minors

'This is one of the first [examples] that we're aware of here in Australia,' Ms Giorgi told The Herald.

'It's a taste and a product that people are familiar with, including young people, and so they're really trying to cash in on that particular market.'

Blind taste tests of the new beverage on TikTok have garnered thousands of views, with many users stating that they cannot detect the alcohol in the drink.

'It's quite concerning, if I was a kid and I just picked this up, I wouldn't know the difference.'

Each 375ml can of Hard Solo contains 4.5 per cent alcohol content  or about 1.3 standard drinks.
Beyond Green, a global portfolio of planet Earths most sustainable hotels, resorts, and lodges, has launched four new itineraries as part of the brands Plan Your Trip programme, which provides custom, turnkey booking and facilitation services for travellers seeking holiday experiences that support sustainable tourism.

The all-inclusive trips have been designed in partnership with Nomadic Expeditions and will include Mongolia, Bhutan, Nepal, and India as the host destinations.

Each meticulously crafted journey is designed to have a positive impact on nature, uplift local communities, and preserve cultural heritage, aligning with Beyond Green's steadfast commitment to making travel a force for good.

Nomadic Expeditions - renowned for their transformative travel experiences and as a premier provider of customised travel services to Mongolia, India, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan - will provide travellers with an unparalleled level of personalised service to seamlessly book both pre-designed itineraries and tailor-made expeditions incorporating Beyond Green member properties and other hotels on Beyond Greens itinerary booking platform. Their dedicated team keeps travellers well-informed and inspired, assisting with activity arrangements, transfers, reservations, and tours guided by experts, along with help navigating any relevant travel restrictions, if needed.

The new carefully curated travel experiences are ready for booking on the dedicated Plan Your Trip platform at StayBeyondGreen.com/plan-your-trip/asia and include:

 7-day Bhutan Explorer Journey (season: September  April): Experience Bhutans unparalleled natural beauty and rich cultural heritage through a range of activities, including hiking through lush forests, exploring ancient monasteries, and savouring local cuisine. Highlights of the trip include discovering the countrys capital of Thimphu; visiting Punakha Dzong, one of the most beautiful and well preserved dzongs (fortress) in Bhutan; taking an awe-inspiring hike to the legendary Tigers Nest; and seeing the black-necked cranes of Phobjikha. Visitors will also learn about local sustainability initiatives, including conservation of Bhutanese culture and heritage, waste reduction and management, local sourcing of food, and community engagement.

 12-day Iconic Nepal (on demand departures from September  April): This cultural tour begins by exploring the sites in and around Nepals Kathmandu Valley. Travellers will wander the ancient temples and bazaars of Kathmandu, meet with the Tibetan Buddhist community at Bodnath, and explore the Hindu temple complex at Bhaktpur and Patan. After experiencing the best of Kathmandu, visitors will head to Pokhara, the second largest city in Nepal. Nestled in the lushly forested Pokhara Valley, the city of Pokhara is surrounded by the towering Himalaya mountain range, including several of the ranges legendary peaks  Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, the iconic fish-tail peak of Machhapucchare, and the redoubtable Annapurnas. The tour ends in the Terai, the plains and jungles of Nepal, for four days that will blend relaxation with the thrill of a safari in Chitwan National Park.

 9-day Mongolia Explorer (private journey offered from May-October): This journey offers travellers the opportunity to explore the storied realm of nomadic adventure, ancient culture, and otherworldly beauty that is Mongolia. Guests will connect deeply with one of the wildest places on Earth by strolling through the monastery grounds and museums of the capital of Ulaanbaatar, camel trekking across seas of dunes, discovering fossils at the iconic Flaming Cliffs, and taking in the natural beauty of Yol Valley National Park and Terelj National Park. Guests will stay in luxuriously appointed traditional gers and meet eminently hospitable local people to embrace a timeless way of life.

 12-day India - Exploring Rajasthan (private departures From September  March): A region abounding with magnificent forts and palaces, Rajasthan is the fabled land of the Maharajas of India. This tour offers a captivating journey through the enchanting state of Rajasthan with immersive experiences showcasing the region's rich cultural heritage, breathtaking landscapes, and sustainable initiatives. The tour begins with a visit to Jaipur, the vibrant capital city known for its palaces and bustling markets. From there, participants will venture into the rural heartland, exploring traditional villages and witnessing the authentic lifestyle of the locals. The itinerary also includes visits to iconic landmarks such as the majestic Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur and the exquisite Lake Palace in Udaipur. Along the way, guests will engage in meaningful activities like wildlife conservation and eco-friendly initiatives, promoting sustainable practices and supporting local communities. This tour offers a unique perspective on Rajasthan, allowing travellers to delve deep into its cultural tapestry while contributing to its preservation for future generations.

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Along the way, travellers can stop at Beyond Greens five exceptional and eco-conscious hotels and resorts in California and Nevada to experience the breathtaking beauty of the West Coast while minimising their environmental footprint. For an international adventure to Europe, wanderlusters can embark on a road trip across the Italian countryside, savouring each regions unique landscapes, history, culture, and cuisines while experiencing Beyond Green's exceptional collection of sustainable accommodations in Tuscany, Piedmont, Lake Garda and the Dolomites.

Continuing its dedication to leveraging travel as a positive force, Beyond Green also recently introduced a new e-directory that can be found here. This empowering platform enables travellers to make conscious travel choices by providing easy access to a comprehensive directory of the brands sustainable hotels, resorts, and lodges around the globe. With detailed information about each property's unique amenities, experiences, and sustainability initiatives, the e-directory enables travellers to foster deeper connections with the people and places they encounter, thereby creating more meaningful experiences along their way. - TradeArabia News Service
Do you know more? Email tips@dailymail.com

Her partner Wayne Godinet, also died in the house fire

A young mother whose partner and five sons died in a house fire near Brisbane has urged every parent to 'check your smoke alarms and hold your babies'.

Samantha Stephenson, 28, could only watch as her family's rental home on Queensland's Russell Island burned to the ground just after 6am on Sunday - with her partner Wayne Godinet, 34, and her children still inside.

She had managed to escape the flames with a 21-year-old relative, believed to be her sister, but - when she tried to run back inside to get her sons - Mr Godinet stopped her, and fatefully bolted back into the burning building himself.

He became trapped upstairs with twins Kyza and Koa, aged four, his three-year-old son Nicky, and stepsons, Zack, 11 and Harry, 10, before the second storey collapsed.

Police confirmed on Sunday afternoon that six bodies had been found in the wreckage.

Ms Stephenson's close friend Lilly Slater set up a Go Fund Me to help the mum out with expenses, including the six upcoming funerals.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Slater said: 'Samantha just wants the world to know - check your smoke alarms and hold your babies.'

Samantha Stephenson is pictured with her partner Wayne Godinet and their sons, Koa and Kyza

Emma-Lee Headrick, the children's aunt, said she had been awake all night mourning the loss of 'Waynie boy' and her six 'beautiful' nephews in a Facebook post on Monday (pictured)

Ms Stephenson (pictured) was found outside the home - neighbours said she tried to run back in, but Mr Godinet stopped her

Neighbours said Mr Godinet was sleeping in a downstairs section of the home while Ms Stephenson slept upstairs with the kids when the blaze started.

The young mum was released from hospital on Monday morning and is cooperating with investigators, as they try to determine the cause of the fire.

Police have not yet determined whether the blaze is suspicious or not.

Peter MacLoughlin, a close family friend, told media that he heard about the blaze from Ms Stephenson's mother's partner and immediately jumped in the car.

'Sam came running out of the house. She was just screaming 'my children, my children,' I can never forgot that,' he said on Monday.

Earlier, the children's aunt Emma-Lee Headrick took to social media to say she had been awake all night mourning the loss of 'Waynie boy' and her 'beautiful' nephews.

'I stayed awake, mourning the loss of 6 beautiful souls,' she wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of the father and the five boys floating on pink clouds.

'We have suffered a great loss. I find comfort knowing you rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord. With Grumpy and Nicky.

'To my whanau in Queensland, I feel your pain and aroha. I'll be there soon.'

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham also revealed on Monday there were several elements of the house fire that required 'further scrutiny' by police.

'In terms of best investigative processes, the elements that need further investigation or clarification must remain confidential at this stage,' he said.

Father Wayne Godinet, 34, and his five sons (pictured) perished after they were trapped in a deadly fire on Queensland's Russell Island

The blaze was so intense firefighters were only able to pick through the remains of the house in the late afternoon after battling it from 6:18am

The rental property on Todman Street, Russell Island, was largely destroyed in the blaze (pictured)

Officers will retrieve the bodies from the charred remains on Monday to allow formal identification processes to begin.

Det Supt Massingham said Mr Godinet was known to police and that officers had been called to the residence on several prior occasions.

The superintendent was asked if the male victim was allowed to be at the house.

'In terms of that aspect of it, we're still investigating that but I can confirm that police happen to the residents in the past but the nature and frequency of our attendance there is subject to internal review,' he said.

Meanwhile, a letter from the acting principal of Russell Island State School Leanne McMahon was sent to parents and caregivers on Sunday.

The two eldest sons, Zack and Harry, were students at the local school.

'Many of you will be aware of a tragic house fire this morning in our community. It has been reported that some residents, including young people, remain unaccounted for. We extend our sincere sympathies to the affected families and their loved ones at this difficult time,' the letter read.

Ms McMahon said she understood children would be distressed by the news and that support and counselling would be provided by the school.

'As a community, we will rally together and support each other through this challenging period,' she wrote.

Pictured: The remains of the home, after a fire tore though on Sunday morning

Mr Godinet (pictured with his two children) ran inside the house to try and save the five kids

Mr Godinet (pictured with his son) became trapped upstairs with the boys moments before the second storey of the Russell Island home collapsed

Officers were stationed outside the home overnight on Sunday to guard the six bodies police believe remain inside the charred wreckage.

'Today we're hopeful of removing the bodies of the six people who tragically perished in this fire yesterday,' Superintendent Massingham said.

'A crime scene has been declared at Todman Street and fire investigators and scene of crime staff are there. Our disaster victim identification squad has been called in to assist in that process.'

In total, nine people were treated at the scene after the fire spread to two other properties on Todman Street.

On Sunday, Superintendent Matthew Kelly said Ms Stephenson was 'very distressed' but in a stable condition as she recovered in hospital.

'These are young boys that could have become men in the future and a man has lost his life as well,' the superintendent said.

'We are still speaking with this lady, who has lost her entire family. It is truly tragic.'

In the fundraiser, Ms Slater wrote: 'Samantha lost her five beautiful boys and there father to a house fire.'

'We have started this go fund me to assist Samantha in the cost to putting her beautiful family to rest. Whatever you can donate will be appreciated.

Pictured: The charred remains of the family home, which was destroyed in a fire n Sunday

Detectives flooded the area on Sunday and Monday, trying to determine the cause of the blaze

Members of the community left tributes for the children and their father on Monday (pictured)

'Samantha will also be in need of the essential like clothes , personal hygiene products etc.

'She had lost everything. We also appreciate you giving Samantha some time and space to grieve at this time as you can imagine.'

The blaze began at about 6am on Sunday and spread to two other houses, sending plumes of thick smoke billowing into the sky.

One home collapsed while firefighters worked to douse the flames on another.

About 20 firefighters were able to extinguish the flames on a third home.

Anyone with information or relevant footage of the incident are being urged to come forward as an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.

Russell Island Rural Fire Brigade was the first to respond to the blaze, with witnesses then seeing ambulance and fire trucks boarding a barge to the island to assist.
The director of a collapsed construction firm has posted a job advertisement at a new company while holidaying in Bangkok.

Damien Clancy, the director of the defunct Modco Residential, posted a now-deleted job advertisement to LinkedIn on Friday for a senior drafter for an opening at Perth-based construction company Nautic Commercial Builders.

Mr Clancy oversaw Modco as it collapsed earlier this year, with complaints of six-figure bills being left unpaid by the company stretching back to April of last year.

The company was founded by glamour couple Cynthia Lu and Yusuf Khan and launched with an exclusive VIP party in 2020 before cratering three years later.

Nautic prides itself on providing cutting-edge steel frames for commercial properties, the same technology which Modco Residential used.

Director of the now-defunct construction company Modco, Damien Clancy (pictured), has posted a job advertisement for a similar construction company called Nautic

Former clients of Modco fear Nautic may become a repeat of the prior company due to the similarities in branding their technology and Mr Clancy's involvement.

Mr Clancy does not have Nautic as part of his job history on LinkedIn.

Despite being a commercial construction company, the job advertisement describes Nautic as 'not your typical builder' and one that is at the 'forefront of innovative home construction in Perth'.

'Each home showcases an emphasis on high architectural design, prompting you to test your mettle by producing precise drawings and solutions,' the advertisement reads.

'Our focus centres on distinctive and ambitious undertakings, frequently involving infill locations with intricate site challenges and unique design objectives.'

Sources close to Mr Clancy confirmed to The West Australian he is currently in Thailand after leaving for Bangkok in the months leading up to Modco's collapse.

The company's website lists 312A Selby Street, in Osborne Park, as its place of business, the same address as Modco headquarters before the company was forced to move after falling behind on rent.

The job listing states that Nautic operates as part of an umbrella group specialising in civil works, fabrication and construction.

Former clients of Modco have taken up legal action against the construction company while Building and Energy have also claimed they've received several complaints against the company by both contactors and homeowners.

'The last thing anyone that has dealt with Modco would want to hear is that they have set up a new business,' a former client of Modco told The West Australian.

'This makes me so mad.'

Mr Clancy took to LinkedIn (pictured) to search for a senior drafter in Bangkok to work for Nautic in Perth, which closely resembles Modco's cutting-edge steel frame technology

He oversaw the company's collapse in July, only having been started by glamour-couple Cynthia Ly and Yusuf Khan (pictured) in 2020 with an exclusive VIP party

Modco left a trail of over $1million in debts upon their closure in July, having only been opened three years prior.

Founders Ms Lu and Mr Khan flaunted their lavish lifestyle over the past couple of years, flying business class and taking photos with luxury cars.

In a statement announcing the company being placed into administration, Mr Clancy blamed 'rapid and unforeseen external challenges' and a 'series of controversial articles' as the reason the company had faltered.

'What initially started as a nationwide industry challenge of increased costs of materials and labour and shortage of skilled trade forcing many builders into administration in the past financial year, was then exacerbated by the intense media scrutiny targeting Modco Residential creating distrust amongst our trades, vendors, staff, shareholders, clients and the industry insurer QBE,' he wrote.

'Despite our efforts to overcome adversities expected in building a growing business, the rapid and unforeseen external challenges ranging from unprecedented industry challenges, perpetuated by a series of controversial articles that created distrust amongst stakeholders became an insurmountable challenge.'

'In this moment of profound sadness for all that have been affected, we hope the close of Modco will be a catalyst to highlight the need for systemic change and industry support to address the issues that persist within the construction sector.'

Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Clancy and Nautic for comment.
Victorian public servants could be forced to work to support the Voice despite rules forbidding them from engaging in any campaign activities at the workplace.

New guidance issued by the Victorian Public Sector Commissioner (VPSC) has claimed staff could be asked to work in support of the Yes campaign.

'In the lead-up to the referendum, some employees in the Victorian public sector may be asked to undertake work that supports the Victorian government's alignment with the national cabinet Statement of Intent,' it reads.

'The government of the day can lawfully ask public sector employees (other than employees in special bodies) to do this as these employees must implement the policies and programs of the elected government.'

In February, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews signed a Statement of Intent committing the Commonwealth and all states and territories to support an Indigenous Voice to the federal parliament.

But under previous rules, Victorian government public servants were told 'you should not engage in any campaign activities within the workplace'.

Public servants are facing the confusing situation of possibly being forced to do work to support a Yes vote in the Indigenous Voice, but to at the same time not personally support it in the workplace

This includes 'holding events which seek to encourage your colleagues to vote a particular way in the referendum'.

Public servants have also been warned not to 'wear or display any campaign material in the workplace'.

The instruction is followed by the line: 'You can, however, continue to wear materials that demonstrate support for First Nations staff without expressing a position on the Voice referendum.'

The state government said it has not asked public servants to undertake work to support a Yes vote in the referendum.

Despite that, some government employees have already expressed their fears of what is to come once a date for the referendum is announced.

'Anyone who disagrees will have their card marked,' a senior public servant told the Herald Sun.

While it is understood Victorian public servants with ideological objections can ask not to be be rostered for referendum-related work, that may not be granted.

Liberal spokesman David Davis said the VPSC guidance 'effectively mobilises on a war footing the tens of thousands of public servants who will either join the campaign or be ostracised'.

Mr Davis said Mr Andrews' government is 'weak' and 'pathetic' in wanting to use the public service in 'partisan campaigning for the Yes case'.

Daniel Andrews (pictured with his wife Catherine) has been accused of running a government that is 'weak' and 'pathetic' in wanting to use the public service in 'partisan campaigning for the Yes case'

He said those who hold opposing views could find their 'career will be stunted' if they do not work to support the Yes case and will be 'given special duties in the naughty corner'.

The rules for public servants do not stop them for working on either side of the referendum on their own time.

'Victorian public sector employees have the freedom to participate in the referendum process in their private capacity, including engaging in public discussion.

'At the same time, all public sector employees need to also continue to comply with the seven public sector values in the Public Administration Act (2004).'

Those seven values public servants must uphold are responsiveness, integrity, impartiality, accountability, respect, leadership and human rights.
Trucking giant Yellow Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, burdened with a heavy debt load after a series of mergers and following tense contract negotiations with the Teamsters Union.

One of the most prominent names in short-haul trucking, Yellow Corp accounted for 15 percent of its market - delivering goods to sellers like Home Depot and Walmart for nearly a century.

Last week, The Nashville-based company - which received $700 million in federal COVID relief funds in 2020 - announced it is preparing to file for bankruptcy and would cease operations immediately.

The bankruptcy filing in a Delaware court lists estimated assets and liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion and creditors of more than 100,000.

'It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business,' Yellow's CEO, Darren Hawkins, said in a statement.

Trucking giant Yellow Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, burdened with a heavy debt load after a series of mergers and following tense contract negotiations with the Teamsters Union

Yellow, formerly called YRC Worldwide, is one of the largest U.S. trucking companies and a dominant player in the 'less-than-truckload' (LTL) segment that hauls cargo for multiple customers on a single truck.

Some have paused shipments to the company on fears they could be lost or stranded if the carrier went bankrupt.

Yellow's bankruptcy filing comes after Teamsters Union said late last month that it was notified that the company was ceasing operations.

The company has been in contentious negotiations with the union over an internal restructuring initiative meant to boost efficiency.

It recently averted a strike by 22,000 Teamsters-represented workers.

Before resolving the strike threat, Yellow sued the union in Kansas federal court, seeking to block a strike and saying that union's refusal to negotiate had pushed the company to the 'brink of extinction.'

In June, the company said that the Teamsters Union was blocking restructuring and modernization efforts, collectively known as 'One Yellow', which it said were critical for Yellow's survival and ability to refinance about $1.3 billion of debt due to be repaid by 2024.

'Combined with months of refusals to negotiate, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) leaders' campaign against Yellow caused grave concern among investors, drove away customers, and put 30,000 jobs at risk,' Yellow said on Sunday.

A sign informs customers and union employees that the Yellow Corp. facility lot is closed after the freight trucking company ceased all operations

One of the most prominent names in short-haul trucking , Yellow Corp accounted for 15 percent of its market - delivering goods to sellers like Home Depot and Walmart for nearly a century

Yellow, saddled with liabilities from its purchases of Roadway in 2003 and USF in 2005, reported total debt of $1.5 billion last year, according to Refinitiv data.

U.S. taxpayers face potential losses if the company does not repay a $700 million-loan the administration of former President Donald Trump issued to bail out the long-troubled and poorly managed trucking firm in 2020 under a pandemic relief program.

Tim Livesay, a forklift operator with Yellow, told The Wall Street Journal last week that business ground to a halt shortly before the collapse of the company.

'There was nothing to move,' he said, explaining that there was no freight on the dock for three days.

'We were sitting there waiting for our demise.'

Tim Livesay, a forklift operator for Yellow, said that the work dried up several days before the company collapsed, so they knew the end was nigh

Safety vests line the fence at a Yellow freight terminal in St. Louis, as a makeshift memorial to the company

Last Sunday morning, many staff were told by the company that operations would cease at midday.

But Chris Gordon, a 17-year veteran of Yellow, who most recently worked as a truck driver, said he had no idea his company had collapsed and received no message from his supervisors.

He showed up for work on Monday to learn the firm was no more.

'What I thought was, a good company fell out from under me,' said Gordon, 49.

'The company had good benefits, and I thought I could retire from here.'

Some Yellow employees left their safety vests on the fence surrounding one yard as a moving memorial to their careers at the firm, many of which spanned decades.

Analysts said that the collapse is set to put of dollars in business up for grabs in a weakened freight market - good news for the companies poised to take its place in coming months.

Deutsche Bank analyst Amit Mehrotra on Monday said companies such as FedEx and Old Dominion to compete to absorb the freight.

'This development is clearly very positive for the companies that remain open for business,' said Mehrotra in a report, adding that as these trucking firms compete, a reduction in excess capacity may allow carriers to raise prices.

Mehrotra, a seasoned transportation and shipping analyst, said Yellow's swift decline punctuates a dip in the US freight market in general - one that can be traced back the pandemic.

Chris Gordon, 49, worked for Yellow for 17 years. He said he had no idea the company had collapsed until he turned up for work on Monday

The 99-year-old American trucking business ceased business at midday on Sunday, leaving 30,000 workers without jobs

But like several other analysts and industry leaders, Mehrotra added that Yellows money problems are more due more to preexisting problems rather than greater trends affecting the industry.

Thomas Wadewitz, an analyst with UBS, said the collapse had long been on the cards.

He said it will help other trucking companies that specialize in 'less-than-truckload service'.

'While this disruption has been anticipated for a while, we believe the boost to volume and pricing for other less-than-truckload companies is likely to provide support' to stock prices for competitor such as Saia, Fed Ex, and Old Dominion.

Lee Klaskow, a transportation and logistics analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, also cited Old Dominion - as well as Connecticut-based XPO - as possible beneficiaries to the sudden change in the shipping landscape.

The closure is the biggest in terms of jobs and revenue in the U.S. trucking industry, according to The Wall Street Journal - which first reported its shutdown.

Since 2021, the struggling brand has implemented a cost-cutting plan that executives hoped would put the business back on track.

The company's circumstances have become all the more dire as shipping demand across the freight sector declined substantially this year.

The Teamsters blamed the executives for poor management.

'Teamsters have kept this company afloat for more than a decade through billions of dollars in wage, pension and work-rule concessions,' a union spokesman said.

'Yellow couldn't manage itself, and it wasn't up to Teamsters to do it for them.'

Stan Koniszewski, a union leader for Teamsters Local 294, said it was 'a sad day in the freight industry.'

He said the union 'will be there with whatever support we can give', helping them file unemployment claims and trying to find them new jobs.

'Whatever we do, we will do together as a family - a strong 294 family,' he said.

In a memo sent out on Friday, Teamsters told local unions that 'likelihood that Yellow will survive is increasingly bleak.'

They urged employees to gather their personal things and prepare for the worst.

In Friday's memo to staff, Yellow wrote: 'The company is shutting down its regular operations on July 28, 2023, closing and/or laying off employees at all of its locations, including yours.'

On Sunday, Yellow blamed the union for its intransigence.

A spokeswoman for Yellow said it had not asked the union for concessions in its recent restructuring.

'Yellow offered to pay its employees more,' she said. The union 'refused to negotiate for nine months.'

Last week, a company official told the New York Times that the company was preparing for 'a range of contingencies.' By Friday, a company spokesperson would not tell the Times anything more.

Yellow was saddled with some $1.5 billion in debt as of late March, including $729.2 million owed to the federal government for a controversial pandemic-era loan the Treasury Department extended on national security grounds in 2020

Teamsters threatened to strike when they learned the company had stopped making pension and benefits payments last week

Yellow is saddled with some $1.5 billion in debt as of late March, including $729.2 million owed to the federal government for a controversial pandemic-era loan the Treasury Department extended on national security grounds in 2020.

A June 2023 congressional report concluded the Treasury Department dodged its own policies to issue the loan and the previous administration had made a mistake in doing so.

In May, Yellow reported a loss of $54.6 million, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.

An investors note from financial service firm Stephens last week estimated that Yellow could be burning between $9 million and $10 million each day.

Using a liquidity disclosure from earlier this month, Yellow had roughly $100 million in cash at the end of June, the note added - estimating that the company has been burning through increasing amounts of money through July.

'It is reasonable to believe that the company could breach its $35 mil. liquidity requirement at any moment,' Stephens analyst Jack Atkins and associate Grant Smith wrote.

The reports of bankruptcy preparations arrive just days after a strike from the Teamsters, which represents Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, was averted.

Yellow's CEO Darren Hawkins is pictured. His company collapsed on Sunday

A series of heated exchanges have built up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was 'unjustifiably blocking' restructuring plans needed for the company's survival.

The Teamsters called the litigation 'baseless' - with general president Sean O'Brien pointing to Yellow's 'decades of gross mismanagement,' which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan.

On July 23, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, averting a strike - and giving Yellow '30 days to pay its bills,' notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15, the union stated.

While the strike didn't occur, talks of a walkout may have caused some Yellow customers to pull back, Chan said.

If Yellow files for bankruptcy and customers continue to take their shipments to other carriers, like FedEx or ABF Freight, prices will go up.
A 20-year-old hair stylist has been hailed a 'miracle' after surviving a fall from a seven-storey building.

Tominey Reid, 20, plunged 21 metres from a hotel balcony in the early hours of Saturday July, 31.

Incredibly, she survived and has undergone several life-saving surgeries at the Intensive Care Unit at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.

Tominey Reid (pictured), 20, plunged 21 metres from a hotel balcony in the early hours of Saturday, July 31

Her father said he had 'lost count' of the number of surgeries and procedures she has undergone after her miraculous survival

'Tominey truly is the definition of a survivor and every person from the first responders to all the hospital staff have called it a miracle,' wrote her aunt, Sarah Small.

Ms Small has set up a GoFundMe page, which has so far raised over $40,000, for Tominey's long road to recovery.

'Described by hospital staff as sweet, clever, brave, and with her sense of humour definitely intact, Tominey's personality radiates warmth and resilience even during these trying times,' added Ms Small.

The hair stylist, who works at the Prahran Bouda Hair Boutique salon in Melbourne's south-east, faces further surgeries and procedures.

Hospital staff have reportedly described the hair stylist as 'sweet, clever, brave, and with her sense of humour definitely intact'

The extent of her injuries is not yet clear.

Tominey's father Brad shared the news of her accident on Facebook and said he had 'lost count' of the number of surgeries his daughter had gone through.

'Last Saturday 29th July around 1.30am I received the terrifying news my youngest daughter Tominey had fallen from a 7 story building!', he wrote.

'After the longest week of lifesaving surgeries she has miraculously defied the odds and [is] still with us,' he wrote on Saturday.

'She has the biggest fight ahead of her but is one of the strongest people I know and is ready for this fight! T-Bomb will come out of this stronger than ever!'

The circumstances of Tominey's fall are not yet clear.
The body of missing Melbourne woman Maryam Hamka is believed to have been found in bushland more than two years after she vanished.

Victoria Police Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan will front a press conference on Monday in relation to the discovery of a body in Cape Schanck earlier today.

The discovery comes a year after Toby Loughnane was ordered to stand trial over the killing his former partner in April 2021.

A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed human remains, believed to be Ms Hamka, were located about 10.30am on Monday in bushland off Rogers Road near Patterson Road.

Loughnane pleaded not guilty to his former partner's murder and faces a Supreme Court of Victoria trial.

Melbourne woman Maryam Hamka (pictured) vanished without in April 2021. Her bodywas found on Monday

Ms Hamka, 36, was last seen leaving a Woolworths supermarket in inner-city Brunswick on April 10, 2021 after telling family she was going to visit a friend in Brighton.

Inspector Dunstan said his heartfelt thoughts were with Ms Hamka's family and friends.

'The past two years have been incredibly difficult for them. The investigation had been an arduous and long one over the last couple of years and the efforts of the Missing Persons Squad has resulted in the finding of the remains earlier today,' he said.

'We know this has been an incredibly difficult time for Maryam's family and traumatic and we hope this will bring some closure to finally let Maryam rest in peace.'

During his preliminary hearing last year, the court heard a significant stain with a blood-like appearance was found on a section of carpet at the bottom of the stairs in Loughnane's Brighton home.

Maryam Hamka was captured on CCTV leaving a Woolworths supermarket in inner-city Brunswick on April 10, 2021. It was the last time she was seen alive

Maryam Hamka (pictured) vanished without a trace after telling family she was going to visit a friend in Brighton

But no DNA profile could be obtained from the sample, forensic expert Maxwell Jones told the court.

That could have been because a small amount of blood was spread out, consistent with situations where a person has tried to clean up blood, he said.

'That may be one explanation as to why we got such a broad luminol reaction in that area of carpet,' he said.

Magistrate Johanna Metcalf found after a committal hearing that began in May that there was sufficient evidence to support a murder conviction even without Ms Hamka's remains.

Another man, Oscar Newman, will also stand trial charged with assisting Loughnane to avoid apprehension between April 11 and 15.

He has also pleaded not guilty.

Loughnane remains behind bars in custody while Newman remains on bail.
Andrew Tate's brother Tristan has claimed that 'the dream of the West is dying' - insisting that the future lies in the Middle East because the United States has become too crime-ridden and woke.

The 35-year-old former kickboxer and influencer was arrested by Romanian police alongside his brother on charges of people trafficking, rape and running an organized crime network.

The younger Tate, in an interview with Tucker Carlson which aired on Sunday, insisted the prosecutors had no evidence to charge him and said he expected to be cleared.

From the house in Romania where he and his brother, 36, remained under house arrest - which was lifted on Friday, but they must not leave the country - Tate told Carlson that he was looking forward to returning to the Middle East on business.

'What does New York have that Dubai doesn't?' said Tate, who has British and U.S. citizenship, and describes himself as an international businessman.

Tristan Tate, 35, spoke to Tucker Carlson from his home in Romania, where he was under house arrest at the time. On Friday the restriction was lifted, but he still cannot leave the country

Tate told Carlson that he did not feel safe in the United States, and the future was in the Middle East

Tristan (left) is pictured with his brother Andrew, 36, at the court of appeal in Bucharest on August 1

The website tristan-tate.com calls him 'an excellent business and family man', adding: 'We could almost say that Tate is the real life James Bond.'

Tate told Carlson: 'Dubai has everything. It's a wonderful place. The United Arab Emirates is a wonderful place. Saudi Arabia is opening up recently. And give it five, six, seven years - they've got the money.

'Saudi Arabia is going to have nice, clean, beautiful, pretty, safe cities that every millionaire or billionaire in the world can enjoy.

'And they can go there and enjoy the amenities and live their lives without the threat of some psychopath on the subway attacking you.

'And if you defend yourself, then what happens to you? Maybe 20 years - we're about to find out. In two cases. It's sickening.'

Tate, who declined to say what his business interests in the Middle East were, said he appreciated the strict system of law and order in the region.

'They understand on a base level the issues that affect society's downfall,' he told Carlson.

'Go try and buy drugs in the Middle East. I dare you.

'They know that when you let morality slip, society falls apart.'

Tate, who claimed the 92 days he had spent in a Romanian jail awaiting trial cost him 'upwards of $50 million in lost income', told Carlson he felt safe in the Middle East.

'I can drive my $5 million car around the Middle East, with my $2 million watch on.

'I can go to various cafes, bars, have a few drinks, leave the car there, walk home. Leave the car unlocked.

'No one steals. Because they deal with crime and immorality in a very serious way.'

Tate did not elaborate on his business dealings in the Middle East, but claimed his 92-day jail time cost him $50 million

Tate, who was born in Chicago but moved to the British city of Luton when he was eight, said he was dismayed by the state of U.S. cities today.

He said the West had lost its luster, and he fully supported the slogan of making America great again.

Tate, who told Carlson how he considers studying history essential to understanding the present, said he felt America was moving in the wrong direction.

'New York, back in the 70s, 80s, California - probably the best places in the world to live. Quite literally,' said Tate.

'Now you have a billionaire living in New York, or a multi millionaire living in New York, he's older, he's retired.

'But what - he can't walk the streets at all? He has to stay in his apartment? He needs bodyguards to go to the store, the supermarket. He's like: why not Dubai?'

Tate, who said he became a Christian when he moved to Romania and found himself aligned with the traditional family values of the church, said he felt religion gave the Middle East its backbone.

'I'll give the credit to religion. I'll give the credit to the Islamic faith,' he said, arguing that the Middle East had no rows about LGBTQ issues or drag queen storytimes.

'They don't want that bulls*** in the country. They don't want their kids being taught immorality in their school.

'So if you have kids, and you're a very busy man, and maybe your wife is very busy too, and you want a comfortable environment where you know that your kids can go to school and learn things like math, and history, and geography, without drag queens reading stories to them.

'You can go to the Middle East and be assured of what is happening in your school, in your home, in your family, on the streets.'

Tristan (right) and Andrew Tate are seen on July 17 arriving in court in Bucharest

Tate told Carlson that he understood why, 50 years ago, people dreamed of moving to the United States.

But he felt the dream had gone, and said he felt unsafe in America.

'I feel like the dream of the West is dying,' he said.

'So it's like, where can I live the dream?

'What's the dream? Nice, happy life, beautiful wife, healthy kids, good healthcare, safe, schools are fine, mass crime doesn't exist, drug use isn't prevalent.

'It's crazy that that's now the dream. Isn't it sad what's happened?

'To use a famous slogan, I really hope somebody can make America great again.

'But even I haven't liked the US in a long time.

'I go to the US and feel unsafe. I feel unsafe walking around the streets. I see the pandemic of homelessness and drug use.

'How is this the capital of the free world? I look at the leadership and it makes me sick, on every level.

'So yeah, the Middle East is the place to be for now.

'Maybe one day, in 20 years time, the United States will be the place to be again.'
Three people have been killed after two helicopters crashed mid-air while battling a blaze in Riverside County, Southern California, officials have announced.

The helicopters were reportedly among six aircraft working to extinguish a blaze covering about three acres, which began on Sunday as a structure fire before spreading to vegetation in Cabazon.

'While engaged in the firefight, two helicopters collided. The first helicopter was able to land safely nearby,' CalFire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said during a news conference.

'Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed and tragically all three members perished.'

The victims included a contracted pilot, a CalFire division chief and a CalFire captain, Fulcher said.

It was unclear whether a large burn area at the crash site was a result of the ongoing fires there or due to the impact of the collision

Footage taken shortly after the crash showed smoke rising from the site at the area of Pipeline Road and Apache Trail

'I would like to express our deepest sympathies and sorrow to the families and coworkers of the personnel,' Fulcher said, according to CNN.

'This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service community and CalFire and Riverside County Fire Department.

He went on: 'We have lost three great individuals. Three fathers, three husbands, three friends, three sons,' he said.

'Daughters have lost their fathers, sons have lost their fathers'.

The victims have not yet been identified.

Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department resources were dispatched to a reported structure fire near the intersection of Broadway Street and South Ronda Avenue in the community of Cabazon, Mr Fulcher said.

Shortly after the arrival of the first engine company, the fire was reported to have extended into the vegetation and a full wildland fire dispatch was initiated, which included fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.

While battling the blaze, the two helicopters collided.

The crash caused an additional four-acre fire, which was later extinguished.

'Although this was a tragic event, we are also thankful today that it wasn't worse,' Mr Fulcher said.

'The individuals in the first helicopter were able to able to land safely without incident and no-one else was hurt.'

The helicopters were working to extinguish fires covering 20 acres of Native American land in Cabazon, south of the Morongo Casino, when the crash happened on Sunday

Sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene of the crash in the area of Pipeline Road and Apache trail at around 7.20pm, the Riverside County Sheriff's office said on Twitter

The helicopter pilot was performing work under contract with the California department of forestry and fire protection, fire captain and spokesman Richard Cordova said on Sunday evening.

The crash is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

Sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene of the crash in the area of Pipeline Road and Apache trail at around 7.20pm, the Riverside County Sheriff's office said on Twitter.

The aircraft was under contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the fire captain and spokesman added.

Emergency responders rushed to the scene and had to put out a blaze caused by the crash

As details of the incident were first emerging, Richard Cordova, Information Officer with Cal Fire Riverside County said: 'We do know it was a CWN helicopter, which is a call-when-needed helicopter.

'We utilize these helicopters to help us on bigger incidents throughout the state. We also utilize these helicopters to boost our air program throughout the state.

He added of the fires, in comments made at the scene and reported by CBS LA: 'It is a risk not only to the firefighters on the ground but the firefighters in the air.

'We rely on each other to help each other out, to keep each other safe.'
A map has revealed which regions across Britain are set to swelter the most in the coming days as the mercury is set to reach a scorching 28C (82F) after Storm Antoni wreaked havoc across the country.

Britain will have a taste of summer on Wednesday, with the mercury expected to soar to highs of 25C (77F). The Met Office suggests temperatures may rise again on Thursday to 28C.

Residents in Reading and the east of London can expect to see some of the hottest temperatures in the country during the latter part of the week.

This would be the first time the UK has seen highs above 25C since early last month, which was the wettest July on record in some areas.

But, before the UK gets relief from the gloomy weather that kicked off the month, the country was hit with another round of sunny spells and scattered showers today.

The unsettled weather hitting the UK is in stark contrast to the extreme heat experienced by most of Europe, as back-to-back heatwaves ushered in record-breaking temperatures and wildfires across the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu.

Some parts of the UK will see temperatures reach as hot as 25C on Thursday afternoon

Britain will have a taste of summer on Wednesday, with the mercury expected to soar to highs of 25C. Some forecasters suggest temperatures may rise again on Thursday to 28C. A woman is pictured walking in the sunshine along Westminster Bridge today

This would be the first time the UK has seen highs above 25C (77F) since early last month, which was the wettest July on record in some areas. People are pictured using pedal boats in Greenwich Park today

Beachgoers enjoy the warm weather today in Studland, Dorset

People are basking in the sunny weather around Tower Bridge, London, after days of wet and windy weather

The Met Office says the showers are focused more towards the North, with many southern areas remaining dry. The forecast is drier today but northerly winds should make some areas feel distinctly cool.

A few showers are expected throughout the night but they will be mainly confined to Scotland, Wales and south-west England. It is also going to be largely cloudy in these areas, as well as in Northern Ireland.

The East of England and Scotland is expected to remain mainly dry and quite clear.

Tomorrow is expected to be a drier day for Northern Ireland and most of Scotland. However south England, Wales and the Highlands will see more persistent rain, with a chance of a heavy downpour or two in some places.

Temperatures will rise this week reaching into the mid to high twenties on Wednesday (pictured) and Thursday briefly before turning cooler on Friday as cloud and rain returns

Around 7pm on Wednesday, residents in Reading and the east of London are expected to experience some of the warming temperatures in the UK

Temperature will remain warm in some parts of the country on Friday

Britons will finally get to bask in summer-like heat this week. A woman and her dog are pictured enjoying the sunshine in Greenwich Park today

Warm sunny weather around London Bridge this morning after days of rain and wind

Sunny spells are set for many in the late afternoon and evening tomorrow, accompanied by light to gentle winds.. Pictured: A parkgoer enjoys the sunshine in Greenwich today

Sunny spells are set for many in the late afternoon and evening tomorrow, accompanied by light to gentle winds.

It is going to be drier and brighter on Wednesday and Thursday, with the chance of one or two isolated showers for some.

Temperatures will rise, reaching into the mid to high twenties briefly before turning cooler on Friday as cloud and rain returns. Another spell of wet and windy weather is also predicted for Saturday.

The culprit continues to be the jet stream which remains stuck across the British Isles  sending waves of rainy Atlantic weather systems our way, just as it locks Mediterranean holiday destinations into heatwave conditions.

But the Met Office says there are 'early signs' that the weather could become more settled and warm by the end of next week.

Last month was the wettest July in Britain since 2009, with 140.1mm (5.5in) of rain falling  170 per cent of the average amount.

Over the weekend Storm Antoni caused floods and misery across the country, causing the Met Office to put weather warnings in place for parts of England and Wales.

Boats move along the River Thames this morning as London experiences sunny weather

It is going to be drier and brighter on Wednesday and Thursday, with the chance of one or two isolated showers for some. A man is seen crossing Westminster Bridge in the sunshine today

A man is pictured during his run through Greenwich Park today

A parkgoer checks his phone while enjoying the sunny weather in Greenwich Park today

The frightening storm was the first in the UK that has been serious enough to be named since February last year and forced Brits to batten down the hatches amid danger to live warnings.

Homes had to be evacuated amid torrential rain and strong winds, with entire streets flooded in parts of the country such as North Yorkshire.

Unlucky holidaymakers were forced to shelter between downpours while some campers slept in their cars or even drove home.

Lisa Vickery, who owns MacDonald's Farm campsite near Padstow, told BBC Radio Cornwall 'quite a few' visitors had left due to rain or cancelled at the last minute.

'Everyone wakes up praying that today's going to be a dry day, but we've never seen weather like this in the four years we've been here,' she said.

Up the coast in East Prawle, Devon, one camper was considering going back home after recovering from a 'horrific night'.

He said: 'The tent could cope with the rain  but not the gales.

'I have four children... they abandoned the tent to sleep in the car.'

Floods were seen in Loftus, North Yorkshire, on Saturday, leaving residents furious with the town's drainage system

Britons will finally get to bask in summer-like heat after having battled hours of torrential rain, gale force winds and flood warnings last week. Pictured: People sheltering with an umbrella at a waterlogged Wimbledon Common in south London on Saturday

Racegoers at the Goodwood festival of speed in West Sussex were also left holding onto their hats as sudden gusts of wind blew in.

The wettest areas yesterday were Flamborough and nearby Bridlington in East Yorkshire which by last night had been deluged by 41mm and 37mm of rain respectively, the Met Office said.

But meteorologists warn worse may be to come with another deep Atlantic depression forecast to be blown in just in time for the weekend.

A storm system called Patricia by French meteorologists saw winds of up to 60mph hit parts of the south coast.
The chief minister of the ACT has slammed retired judge Walter Sofronoff for 'breaching his good faith to me' by releasing his Board of Inquiry report into the Bruce Lehrmann trial early.

The former Queensland judge has admitted releasing his report to two journalists - one at The Australian newspaper, and another at the ABC - under embargo, before the report was released by the territory's government.

The media outlets have declined to comment on their sources.

The chief minister of the ACT has slammed retired judge Walter Sofronoff (pictured) for 'breaching his good faith to me' by releasing his Board of Inquiry report into the Bruce Lehrmann trial early

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said at a media conference on Monday that he was 'very clear' with Mr Sofronoff that his report would not be redacted or suppressed in any way.

'He breached his good faith to me by releasing that report ahead of getting it to who he was meant to under the legislation,' said Mr Barr.

When asked if he would like to see Mr Sofronoff charged, Mr Barr said: 'We are considering our options, as I've outlined'.

Mr Barr said he had not received an apology from the retired judge.

'He has sought to provide an explanation,' he added.

Mr Sofronoff's 839-page report was formally released by the government on Monday - days after its contents were widely described in the press.

It was set up to examine accusations from police and prosecutors about each other's conduct during Mr Lehrmann's high-profile rape trial.

Brittany Higgins accused Mr Lehrmann, her former colleague, of raping her inside a ministerial office at Parliament House after a night out in 2019.

Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegation.

The ACT government has agreed to eight of 10 of the Board of Inquiry's recommendations and agreed in principle to two further matters.

It found it was appropriate to prosecute the case, on the information available to ACT Policing and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold.

However, the report was scathing about Mr Drumgold's behaviour during the trial.

He has since stepped down.
The head of the UK Scouts has blasted the organisers behind a disastrous jamboree in South Korea which has been plagued by issues.

Officials in the country are preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of teenagers from the coastal camp ahead of an incoming tropical storm.

The jamboree has already been marred by hot temperatures which forced many - including 4,500 British scouts - off the site and into hotels at the cost of 1million.

Matt Hyde, chief executive of UK Scouts, said the group had been 'let down by the organisers' and described the huge camp in the south-western county of Buan as having dirty toilets and a general lack of hygiene, while one parent of a teenager at the event said his daughter found a snake under her bed.

Hundreds of participants have been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday, with 2,500 falling sick with ailments including bug bites, skin rashes and heat exhaustion.

There has also reportedly been an outbreak of Covid-19.

British scouts arrive at a hotel in Seoul on August 5, 2023, after leaving the World Scout Jamboree in Buan due to high temperatures

Tents are pitched at a scout camping site during the World Scout Jamboree. The campsite is now in the path of an incoming storm

An ambulance drives out of the campsite of the World Scout Jamboree, days after it started last week

Now, as Tropical Storm Khanun bears down on the camp, the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it will be evacuating all participants, bringing an end to the event.

That means using buses to move some 36,000 scouts - mostly teenagers - from 158 countries out of the storm's path and to safer locations.

Khanun is expected to hit the country by Thursday morning, bringing winds of up to 95mph (153kph).

Large swathes of the country's south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the country's Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Due to the forecast, Japanese rail bosses said 'Shinkansen' bullet train services could be suspended from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

South Korea's president Yoon Suk Yeol has called for 'contingency' plans, which could include relocating scouts to hotels in the capital, Seoul, and other cities.

Long before the event started, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hyde said his organisation had brought their concerns to the event's organisers, and described the dire conditions at the camp.

'We are both disappointed and feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went.

'We were promised things were going to be put in place.

'If you can imagine, toilets that are being used by thousands and thousands of people are not being cleaned with the regularity you would expect, you can imagine the sort of things that people were seeing.

'It wasn't just that, it was actually the lack of soap as well, so again it's the compounding impact of all these things together but like all of these things, when you're put in a position where you have to make difficult decisions there are choices.'

He added: 'We have at this point had to make the difficult choice of investing our money to ensure that young people are safe. That is the right thing to do and the board took that decision and stand by it 100 per cent and unanimously.'

No details have been given on where the participants will stay until they return home. However Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamboree's organising committee, said they have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.

About 40,000 scouts, mostly teenagers, from 158 countries came to the Jamboree at a campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea.

About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while 1,000 were from the United States.

Those from the UK and the US were moved into hotels over the weekend.

In a separate video posted to the Scout's Instagram, Mr Hyde again hit out at the organisers, expressing his disappointment while praising the efforts of young scouts and the adult volunteers for continuing their 'jamboree journey' in Seoul.

He added: 'The reason why we've taken [the decision to move] is because we were concerned about young people and adult volunteers' safety.

'The first [reason] is that we were particularly concerned about sanitation and the cleanliness of toilets that were causing severe concerns for us from a health and safety point of view. In addition to that, we were worried about food and those with dietary requirements in particular, and the amount of food that was available.

'We were concerned also about the heat. It's punishingly hot here in Korea, it's an unprecedented heatwave, but we were concerned about the heat relief measures that were being put in place.

'And finally, we were concerned about medical services. Those four areas gave us concerns about whether young people and our adult volunteers were safe and that's why we've relocated our jamboree journey to here in Seoul.'

He added: 'We are disappointed in the organisers and the organisation and we do feel let down.'

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (third-right) poses with Scouts yesterday

British scout members leave the World Scout Jamboree campsite in Buan

Gareth Weir, British deputy ambassador to South Korea, greets scout members of his country as they arrive from the World Scout Jamboree camp site to a hotel

US scout members prepare to leave the World Scout Jamboree campsite

Praising Seoul as a 'remarkable city', Mr Hyde continued: 'Last night a local football team reached out, offered us 4,000 tickets for our participants to go and watch a game of football, and I am truly inspired by the response of our adult volunteers and our young people.

'When I arrived upstairs in a hall yesterday as young people were arriving, it was so inspiring just to see their response. They were singing campfire songs, there was someone on the piano, they are a credit to scouting and a credit to the UK.'

Parents of children at the jamboree have also spoken of the conditions at the camp.

Olaf Clayton's daughter, Gabriela, 16, travelled from the family's home in Madrid, Spain, with British Scouting Overseas to join the jamboree.

He said his daughter had spent 18 months conducting bake sales, teaching English and working in catering while the 1st British Scouts Madrid ran fundraising events for her to save the money to attend.

She also learned Korean phrases and studied its culture.

He said she had been 'absolutely devastated' to hear they were being pulled out, but that the sanitary and climactic situation worsened quickly.

'By the time they were leaving it was hell - kids were fainting waiting for the buses to arrive,' he said. 'There was no shade, all activities were cancelled and there were huge mosquitoes.

'Gabriela is quite a tough cookie but she said there were "funny things" coming out of the ground. There was a snake under her bed - thankfully the Bangladeshi scouts knew just how to deal with snakes.'

He said he and his wife had had no qualms about their daughter travelling to South Korea, a 'massive scouting nation and a first world country known for its organisation'.

'Gabriela will have war stories and learned a lot from it, so there are positives but not so much for South Korea and its reputation for hosting this kind of thing,' he said.

MailOnline revealed over the weekend how volunteers have been left 'incandescent at the lack of leadership' amid the chaos at the jamboree.

Before news of the incoming storm, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement called for the event to be shelved and asked South Korean organisers to 'consider alternative options to end the event earlier than scheduled'.

But the South Korean government conducted spot inspections on Saturday and found conditions were no longer as dire as has been claimed, prime minister Han Duck-soo said.

Former jamboree leaders and volunteers have blasted the UK contingent for preventing youngsters and leaders from exposing 'the true scale of the mess', while one parent said their child thought 'they were going to die' amid the blistering heat.

A volunteer, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: 'I am absolutely incandescent with the lack of leadership at the very top.'

She added that the chaos was being masked by leaders - and several volunteers believe that 'had the true position come to light earlier, the situation may have been much better'.

Scouts UK said it was 'unaware' of any form of censoring going on.

Temperatures hit 35C (95F) in Saemangeum, near the city of Buan on South Korea's west coast, where 43,000 participants were camping as of Friday.

Flags are displayed at a viewing deck overlooking the campsite of the World Scout Jamboree

Other parts of South Korea have topped 38C (100.4F), forcing the government to issue the highest heat warning in four years.

Among those in attendance is adventurer Bear Grylls - the UK's chief scout since 2009 - who was filmed dripping in sweat as he delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. He urged people to remain calm before the UK pulled members out.

Saturday saw thousands of British children, aged 14 to 17, packing their bags at the campsite. The first wave of children arrived at hotels in Seoul - where they were met by Gareth Weir - the British deputy ambassador to South Korea.

British scouts continued to evacuate to hotels across the weekend.
Tens of thousands of school leavers could miss out on top A-level grades they might have expected last year, an expert suggested today as students prepare to pick up exam results in ten days' time.

The Government has insisted that the number of and A* and A grades awarded in England should fall back to pre-pandemic levels as exams return to normal.

However, education expert Professor Alan Smithers predicts they are unlikely to fall back to 2019 levels because teachers developed a 'taste for awarding top grades' in some subjects during the pandemic which markers will be 'reluctant to relinquish'.

Professor Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, suggested 59,154 fewer A* grades and 35,505 fewer A grades will be awarded to sixth-formers this year compared with last year.

The report adds that nearly 50,000 students could miss out on getting the A* and A grades they could have expected last year if this summer's grading returns to pre-pandemic standards.

He predicts 10 per cent of grades will be an A* and 27.5 per cent will be an A this year, compared with 14.6 per cent of last year's grades being an A* and 36.4 per cent being an A. In 2019 7.8 per cent of grades were an A* and 25.5 per cent were an A.

Pupils celebrate with their A-level results last year at Norwich School on August 18, 2022

Professor Smithers expects the number of top grades to fall significantly but not by quite as much as the Government requested, as was the case last year.

Prediction for A-levels grades this year Professor Alan Smithers has predicted these A-level results this year: 59,154 fewer A* grades than 2022

35,505 fewer A grades than 2022 10% of grades A* (14.6% in 2022 and 7.8% in 2019)

27.5% of grades will be A (36.4% in 2022 and 25.5% in 2019) Advertisement

He said: 'Teacher assessment has given subjective subjects a taste for awarding top grades, which they will be reluctant to relinquish.

'There are many who would welcome slower progress including lots of parents who are worried that their sons and daughters will miss out on university places that would have been open to them last year or the year before.

'During the teacher assessment years many students and their parents will have developed unreasonable expectations.

'Whatever the extent to which top grades are brought down this year, the drop will lead to a lot of disappointment and probably a huge increase in the number of appeals.'

Professor Smithers also said disruption from teacher strikes may have led exam boards to be more lenient.

He said the percentage of top grades in performing arts and practical subjects rose sharply during the pandemic years when grades were based on teacher assessments.

That figure rose less steeply for science and maths because pupils studying those subjects were already getting more top grades before the pandemic.

Two students react after reading their A-level results at Norwich School on August 18, 2022

However, last year more top grades were awarded for music and performing arts than physics and chemistry despite the return of exams, suggesting a 'profound change' has taken place which may make it more difficult to cut the number of top grades awarded back to 2019 levels.

Education expert Professor Alan Smithers, of the University of Buckingham, predicts grades are unlikely to fall back to 2019 levels

This trend led to girls receiving far more A* grades than boys, who had previously had the edge because far more of them studied subjects where pupils can 'manifestly amass right answers.'

If more A* grades continue to be awarded for arts and humanities than before the pandemic, this could mean boys do not regain their lead.

Professor Smithers said he expects pupils in Northern Ireland to get the best results, as they have done for many years, followed by those in Wales then England.

In Wales and Northern Ireland pupils will still have some idea of the questions they will be asked, as was the case for pupils in England last year.

This could also make it more difficult to bring grades down across the UK.

Today, the chief regulator of Ofqual has said 'the grading arrangements that we've made have been made absolutely with disadvantaged students in mind'.

This graph issued by Ofqual last year shows the percentage of candidates awarded at least a grade A in all subjects between 2017 and 2022, split by centre type (eg academy or sixth form)

On this year's exam marking, Dr Jo Saxton told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I understand that people are concerned but I would like to point out that similar predicting was going on at this point last year and nevertheless even though there were lower grades than seen during the pandemic years over 80% of students achieved their first place at university.

When are the A-level and GCSE results days this year? AS level, A-level and T Level results day this year is Thursday, August 17, 2023

GCSE results day this year is on Thursday, August 24, 2023 Advertisement

'And actually there are fewer 18-year-olds from the UK applying to university this year than last. The grading arrangements that we've made have been made absolutely with disadvantaged students in mind.'

On how this year's grading will not detract from that group's chances, she added: 'First of all this has been a two-year planned programme, it has been developed with the sector, universities have been aware how the grading would work at the point of making offers to young people.

'And in terms of how the actual protection in terms of grading is put in place, senior examiners are looking back at the quality of work from 2019, what it took to achieve a grade in 2019, and as chief regulator I've instructed them to bear in mind the context of this exam series, to bear in mind the disruptions students have suffered.

'Absolutely the pandemic has cast a long shadow but I think it's important to remember that there were gaps between student results, between different types of schools and different parts of the countries prior to the pandemic.'

Figures reveal maths was the most popular A-level subject this year while English came fourth behind biology and psychology.

Students check their results at Peter Symonds College in Winchester on August 18, 2022

Fewer pupils than ever are studying a foreign language at A-level with entries for French being a quarter of their 1992 level and take-up of German falling to a fifth of its level that year.

Spanish has overtaken French in popularity in recent years while German has become the least popular of all 30 A-level subjects.

Biology and chemistry are more popular now than in 1992 with physics having returned to around that year's take-up following a slump and subsequent rise in popularity.

Social sciences have burgeoned in popularity with psychology being the third most-studied subject and sociology being in fifth place.

Double the number of pupils are studying politics than in 2001, which Prof Smithers suggested could be because it is 'now constantly in the spotlight', while economics is almost as popular as it was in 1992 having recovered from a large slump in take-up.

He added that the growth of social sciences 'has coincided with universities becoming known as hotbeds of activism and wokery.'

A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'This year GCSE and A-level grading is largely returning to normal, in line with plans set out by Ofqual almost two years ago, to make sure qualifications maintain their value and students get the opportunities they deserve.

'This means national results are expected to be similar to those in pre-pandemic years, and a student should be just as likely to achieve a particular grade this year as they would have been before the pandemic.

'The number of top grades also has no bearing on the number of university places available.'

A spokeswoman for Ofqual, which regulates exams, said: 'This year we expect exam grades to go back to similar levels to 2019, which was the last year before the pandemic.

'This is part of a planned two-year programme of returning exams to normal.

'Because of the disruption students have faced there are still grade protections in place which mean a student will be just as likely to achieve a particular grade this year as they would have been before the pandemic.'
A heartbroken mother has expressed her anguish after her teenage daughter's remains were discovered on a bush track three months after her disappearance.

The body of Shyanne-Lee Tatnell, 14, was found in remote bushland at Nabowla, a rural locality in Tasmania's north-east, on July 26.

Farmer Chris Jordan, 36, who was not known to her family, has since been charged with her alleged murder.

Friends and family celebrated what would've been Shyanne-Lee's 15th birthday with a picnic at City Park in Launceston over the weekend.

Her grieving mother, Bobbi-Lee Ketchell, broke down in tears as she spoke publicly for the first time since her daughter's body had been found.

Heartbroken mother Bobbi-Lee Ketchell (pictured) has expressed her anguish over the death of her 14-year-old daughter, Shyanne-Lee Tatnell

'This was not the outcome that we had hoped (for),' she told 7News.

'But I'm a blessed mum to have my child, to be able to farewell her. And she was taken too soon and she had her life ahead of her.'

Shyanne-Lee vanished while walking to a friend's house along a dark industrial road in Launceston on the evening of on April 30.

She was found 52km away in Nabowla after a mammoth three-month police investigation.

Police will allege Jordan came across Shyanne-Lee in the moments after she was last seen on CCTV about 8.30pm on April 30 before the pair went back to his Scottsdale property, a 60km drive north east.

The father-of-one then allegedly killed her there before dumping her body on a remote dirt trail 15km west at Nabowla.

Jordan was arrested and charged on Thursday, July 27 - the day after Shyanne's remains were found following a tip-off to police.

He faced Launceston Local Court a day later - last Friday - where he was remanded in custody to next appear on August 16.

Ms Ketchell said that it 'doesn't make it hurt any less' that her body had finally been discovered.

Shyanne-Lee Tatnell (pictured) was found in remote bushland at Nabowla, a rural locality in Tasmania's north-east, on July 26 - three months after she disappeared

Friends and family celebrated what would've been Shyanne-Lee's 15th birthday with a picnic at City Park in Launceston on the weekend

Farmer Christopher Jordan, 36, (pictured) has been charged over the alleged murder

Her sister, Lakeesha, described the teenager as a 'nice sister' and a 'nice friend'.

The farewell picnic prominently featured teal which was Shyanne-Lee's favourite colour.

Ms Ketchell thanked the local community and her friends and family for their support, along with emergency services for working to find her daughter.

Tributes and flowers placed by the community along Henry St Bridge, where Shyanne-Lee was last seen, have been packed up and kept by the family.

Ms Ketchell said she couldn't thank people enough for the memorial to her daughter on the bridge.

She has implored parents to hold their children close and ensure they're safe as a way to honour her daughter's legacy.

Shyanne-Lee's funeral will be held on Saturday. Her family has asked mourners to bring messages of love to the service.

'Shyanne's family would love to farewell her with messages of love from all her family and friends, so please feel welcome to bring a written message to be placed with her,' her funeral notice reads.

It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed some of the slain teenager's relatives had clashed over a memorial site set up by kind-hearted strangers to mark the spot where she was last seen.

One woman took to a local Facebook page seeking advice on ways the community could commemorate the young girl and let her loved ones know they were not alone in their grief.

'I don't want hate for this, it's just an idea,' she began.

Shyanne-Lee (left) is pictured with her mother Bobbie Ketchell (centre) and grandmother Tracey Ketchell (right)

'I wanted to contact Shyanne's mum out of respect but I thought as a community there could be one day where we all get together and place teddy bears, flowers and candles at the bridge for Shyanne where she was last seen?

'Not sure who to contact about this.'

The post sparked heavy debate with some suggesting the woman would first need to contact the family for permission, while others said the family should be left alone to grieve.

However, the woman's query quickly caught the attention of Shyanne-Lee's paternal grandmother Michelle Hubbard, who was touched by the sentiment.

'I think this would be a beautiful gesture in honour of Shyanne's life,' Ms Hubbard said.

'Shyanne's story has touched the lives of so many and her family do so much appreciate the love shown during the past three months for her and her family and during this horrific time now.

'If people want to leave flowers, teddies and candles to help with their own grief over this shocking end result, then please do.'

Shyanne-Lee's paternal grandmother Michelle Hubbard (pictured) was touched by members of the community leaving tributes to her granddaughter along a bridge in Launceston

However, maternal grandmother Tracey Ketchell said she did not want locals to associate the bridge with Shyanne-Lee's disappearance

Ms Hubbard said the family was aware of the toll Shyanne's death had taken on the whole community and this 'horror story' would 'impact all Tasmanians for many, many years to come'.

'Nobody ever wants their child to be remembered in this way as the dear little innocent girl that was [allegedly] murdered and dumped to rot,' she said.

'We would be honoured for you to begin a floral memorial for Shyanne on Henry St.

'Thank you from her family. It does give us some comfort to know just how much our baby girl was thought of and loved.'

However, Shyanne-Lee's maternal grandmother Tracey Ketchell disagreed.

'Sorry to upset anyone here. I'm not treating the bridge as a memorial site. I just can't,' Ms Ketchell commented.

'I'm not saying you can't do it, as I know many people have been touched by Shyanne, I just don't wish for Shyanne to be remembered as the girl that went missing from there as people pass over it.'

Tributes seen on the Henry Street bridge where Shyanne was last seen on the night of her disappearance

The spot where she was last seen and the bridge - about 20m away - have been turned into makeshift memorials, with community members leaving teddy bears, flowers and notes

Prior to the woman's post, a collection of flowers, notes and teddy bears had already begun to accumulate on the bridge as locals stopped by the scene in the pouring rain to pay their respects to the young girl.

A second memorial site was set up about 20 metres down the road to mark the spot where Shyanne was last captured on security footage, with dozens of girls' hair ribbons tied to a wire fence.

'Rest peacefully, beautiful girl, taken from this cruel world too soon,' one note left at the site read.

'Fly high with the angels.'

Another began: 'Rest in peace, Shyanne.

'I am so sad for your family and for your innocent soul [allegedly] taken away. You will forever be in our hearts.'

Meanwhile, as the nation continues to comes to terms with the tragedy, people from across Australia left lights on in their homes last Saturday night as a tribute to Shyanne.
The daughter of British pensioner David Hunter, who killed his cancer-stricken wife after she 'begged' him, today admitted her father would have done anything her mother asked him because that's how much he loved her.

The 76-year-old was released from custody in Cyprus last week after a court sentenced him to two years in jail for the manslaughter of Janice, 74, his spouse of 52 years.

He was allowed to walk free within 15 minutes of being sentenced at Paphos District Court due to time already served and good behaviour.

Mr Hunter spent 19 months in prison before being cleared of premeditated murder by a three-judge panel, but found guilty of manslaughter. Today, he and his daughter Lesley Cawthorne both spoke to ITV's Good Morning Britain about their experiences.

Ms Cawthorne said she understood why her father had acted to end her pain.

She said: 'I know how much they loved each other, I know how devoted they were to one other and I can completely imagine and understand my dad doing anything my mum asked of him because that's how much he loved her, that's how much he loves her still.'

After David killed his desperately ill wife Janice - suffocating her when she 'begged' him repeatedly to end her pain - he swallowed every pill in the house, chasing them down with brandy

David pictured leaving Paphos District Court in Cyprus after he was released from custody by Cypriot prison authorities

Lesley was asked about when she found out that he had killed her mother, and how

She said: 'We'd been out for a family meal, I'd been out with my husband and my daughter, and we were coming back to our house, it was a week before Christmas, it was dark.

'As we turned onto our road, the phone rang and it was the police and they said 'could you get back to your house as soon as possible'. And I thought 'oh, we've been burgled'. We got to the house and it was swarming with police.

'I looked up and I could see the burglar alarm and it was fine, so I thought 'oh, we haven't been burgled', and my husband and daughter were with me, so I know they're safe. So my first thought was 'is this my parents?'

'And the first thing I said to the officer was 'have my parents been killed'? And I thought they'd been in a car accident. And his demeanour changed straight away, he said 'what do you know?' I was like 'I don't know anything'.'

She said police were 'going through the house' and she was 'begging them to tell me what was happened' but they said: 'Well, we need to get a negotiator to your dad'.

Ms Cawthorne continued: 'And I thought, a negotiator? What, has my dad taken people taking hostage? It doesn't make sense, what's going on? They just wouldn't tell me. I was hysterical because it was just horrible, there were so many police in the house.

'And then my uncle phoned and told me. He just told me. He was very distraught and he told me what happened. And I can remember I was standing behind the sofa and I remember holding onto the sofa try to keep upright. It was a nightmare from then on.

'And the worst thing was I did speak to my dad on Facetime. at that point the police encouraged me, is the kind word to use, to do that. My dad had tried to take his own life and he'd (been) really firm and definite to do that.

'So they thought if I spoke to him then maybe I could kind of keep him conscious until help arrived. The police had actually just arrived before I spoke to dad because I could see they were in the room.'

Asked what she said to her father, Ms Cawthorne said: 'I was like a wounded animal and I just told him I loved him, I was begging him to stay with us. My dad was out of it, he was barely conscious, and he didn't recognise his own daughter of 50 years.

'And he's known he was in that condition, that was the condition he was in when they took a statement from him. It's all been very hard. And then the Facetime ended, the police left our house and it was almost 24 hours later until someone told me whether he was alive.'

Ms Cawthorne was also quizzed on whether she knew what was happening with her parents.

David Hunter's daughter Ms Cawthorne spoke to Good Morning Britain today, and revealed the moment that she found out about what had happened

David Hunter told Good Morning Britain today that he refused his wife's pleas for six weeks before her death

The Hunters sold their home in Ashington in 2001 to live permanently in Paphos (pictured with their daughter Lesley)

David pictured with his wife Janice on their wedding day in 1969 after courting for about three years

And she said: 'I didn't know anything because my parents have always been really, really protective and they didn't want to worry me. And they have always been really good at protecting me. They are amazing parents and they did it well, they hid it from me completely so i didn't have a clue.

'They were together a long time. I'm the only person who knows them this well. I'm the only person who has lived with in a house with them and have seen them together, seen the kind of relationship they have'.

She was also asked whether, if she had been in a position where her mother had asked her to take her life, would she have done it.

And Ms Cawthorne said: 'I don't know what I would have done in that position. I think I would have found it incredibly difficult to have seen my mum in that much pain and that desperate to have a peaceful end.

'And have her dignity back because things like the chronic diarrhoea, the nosebleeds, everything robbed her of her dignity. She was a very proud woman. I think I would have found it very difficult to have not helped had she asked.'

Asked whether there should be a law change, she continued: 'In terms of law change, I think it's something we need to continue having a really adult conversation about in the country. I think there has to be a better way. I think we can't keep outsourcing compassion.

'So many people have asked me why didn't they go to Dignitas, why didn't they go to Switzerland? There are many reasons why lots and lots of families can't do that. To travel to Dignitas will cost roughly between 9,000 and 14,000, and that's putting a financial burden on people who are often not in a good position to do that because they've lost their income due to illness, they've lost their savings due to illness.

'And then, the thing is, so many people are just too unwell, as would have been the case with my mum, many people are too unwell to do that - or they have to make the decision to travel when they're well enough, so they go earlier than they would have chosen.'

Mr Hunter was also interviewed on Good Morning Britain today, speaking from Paphos.

Mr and Mrs Hunter were married for 52 years after meeting at a miners' hall party

He said Janice had started asking him to help her die for about six weeks but he had repeatedly told her: 'I couldn't take my wife's life'.

Mr Huntesaid: 'I kept saying no. I said: 'Keep fighting. I don't want to hurt you' and she replied: 'You can't hurt me any more than the pain I have now'.'

The couple were married for more than 50 years and Mr Hunter described the heartbreaking moment he finally agreed to assist her death. He suffocated her in December 2021 and then tried to kill himself with a drugs overdose.

He said: 'She kept asking me. I kept refusing. In the last two weeks she was pressuring me, begging me and at one point became quite hysterical. And I said: 'Ok. I'll help you. But I won't tell you when and I won't tell you how'. But I didn't want to do it. I hoped that it would pacify her and she would change her mind. But she didn't'.

Mr Hunter then ended his wife's life in December 2021 after her pain and suffering became too great.

He was sentenced to two years but judges ruled that, after 19 months in prison, he had served enough time

Today, Mr Hunter admitted he was still shocked to be free having expected to spend another five years in prison.

But he had wept on the steps of Pathos District Court in Cyprus last week after he was convicted of manslaughter for killing his childhood sweetheart Janice - but released from jail.

Judges ruled that after 19 months in Nicosia prison, he had served enough time. And he immediately went to visit his wife's grave for the first time.

Janice's grave is around 7km north of Paphos, the cemetery lies in the village of Tremithousa, where he and his late wife lived.

The Northumberland-born retired miner said he finally felt his wife could 'rest in peace'.

Mr and Mrs Hunter were married for 52 years after first meeting at a miners' hall party.

The couple went on to marry at St John's Church in Ashington in 1969 and bought a property in Cyprus 30 years later, before moving to the island to retire there.

But in 2016 Mrs Hunter was diagnosed with blood cancer and by late 2021 she was reduced to wearing nappies, covered in skin lesions and could no longer stand.

Mr Hunter told the court in Paphos how his wife had 'cried and begged' him to end her life and 'liberate' her as she endured agonising pain from blood cancer.

He was put on trial for murder but last month judges dismissed this charge and convicted him of manslaughter.

He was sentenced to two years yesterday and was freed after Cyprus authorities deemed he had already served his time in jail.

Delivering his sentence, Judge Michalis Droussiotis said: 'Before us is a unique case of taking human life on the basis of feelings of love, with the aim of relieving a person of their suffering that came due to their illness.'
An Arkansas police officer was arrested in a child trafficking sting after saying he likes being 'the one that our young people can come and talk to'.

Telvin Wilson, 31, was one of three suspects arrested during the sting in Texarkana, Texas and he was charged with online solicitation of a minor, with his bond set at $100,000.

The Texarkana Texas Police Department detailed the two-day operation in a Facebook post, explaining that officers originally placed a fake ad on a website known to offer prostitution services and then posed as an underage girl when men responded.

The department wrote: 'Even though the "girl" told each of them that she talked to that she was underage, each of the three men still wanted to come meet up with her and offered to pay her for sex.

'When the guys showed up and knocked, they were shocked when several police officers answered the door instead of the young girl they were expecting.'

Telvin Wilson, 31, was one of three suspects arrested during a child sex trafficking sting in Texarkana, Texas and he was charged with online solicitation of a minor

Wilson was charged with online solicitation of a minor (sexual conduct) and his bond was set at $100,000

Wilson had worked for the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department since 2016.

The police department told Fox News Digital that Wilson was terminated immediately after they learned about the arrest.

In an old Facebook post, Wilson wrote that he became a police officer to make a difference in his community.

'I have always wanted to be that officer that is able to communicate with the public and be comfortable while doing so,' a department Facebook post from February reads.

'I like that I stand in the gap and be the one that our young people can come and talk to.'

James Willis, 37, was charged with online solicitation of a minor, delivery of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and evading arrest. Willis was also arrested for abandoning/endangering a child with intent to return and possession of a controlled substance

Adarius Wills, 33, was charged with online solicitation of a minor and delivery of marijuana and his bond was set at $85,000

The other two suspects were Adarius Wills, 33, and James Willis, 37.

Wills was charged with online solicitation of a minor and delivery of marijuana and his bond was set at $85,000.

Willis was charged with online solicitation of a minor, delivery of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and evading arrest.

He was also charged with abandoning/endangering a child with intent to return and possession of a controlled substance. His bond has not been set.

The department also thanked the investigators with the Bowie County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety for helping with the operation.
Russians fighting Vladimir Putin claim to have blown up a fuel and ammunition depot inside occupied Ukraine as they widen their attacks following strikes in border regions.

The Freedom of Russia Legion - which was formed in spring 2022 to fight for Ukraine - claimed a mortar strike on the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region.

Dramatic drone footage captured the moment that the depot was transformed into a raging inferno as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky.

The anti-Putin group said the strike hit a depot where mines and shells were stashed by Russian forces. The Russian defence ministry did not comment on the attack.

The legion's drone operators in the 1st UAV company and a mortar battery platoon were behind the strike.

It appears the group have widened their attacks after targeting border regions in recent months

Dramatic drone footage captured the moment the depot was transformed into a raging inferno as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky

The organisation, which consists of hundreds of Russian military volunteers, have until now targeted border Russian regions such as Belgorod and Kursk, but they appear to be widening their assaults on Putin's army.

Ukrainian military intelligence said the attacks in Belgorod involved only Russian citizens and were designed to create a 'security zone' to protect Ukrainian civilians.

The Freedom of Russia Legion says it co-operates with the Ukrainian armed forces and operates under Ukrainian command. It's goal is to free their country from tyranny.

In May, the Freedom of Russia Legion claimed responsibility for daring attacks on Belgorod along with another anti-Kremlin militia, the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Using armoured vehicles, small arms and a pair of tanks, they surged over the border from Ukraine's Kharkiv region and took a string of urban settlements to occupy up to five miles of Russian soil.

They later launched a pair of drone attacks on FSB and Russian interior ministry buildings in Belgorod city, prompting regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov to order the evacuation of nine Russian towns and the Kremlin to admit 'serious cause for concern'.

Russia's defence ministry later claimed it had 'wiped out' the rebels, whom they refused to acknowledge as Russian and instead described as Ukrainian nationalists.

The Freedom of Russia Legion says it co-operates with the Ukrainian armed forces and operates under Ukrainian command

The anti-Putin group said that the strike hit a depot where mines and shells were stashed by Russian forces

Caesar, who has killed Russian soldiers on the battlefield, has been dubbed an extremist and a Nazi by Russian state media

The Freedom of Russia Legion - which was formed in spring 2022 to fight for Ukraine against 'Putin's armed gang' - claimed a mortar strike on the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region

In an interview last month, the commander of the legion said it was planning other attacks as it sought to capitalise on the aborted uprising against Putin of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner mercenary force.

Caesar, a spokesman for the paramilitary group, told The Observer: 'There will be a further surprise in the next month or so. It will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.'

The legion carried out attacks in May and early June, occupying border villages near Belgorod. It took ten Russian soldiers captive but two members of the anti-Kremlin militia were killed.

Caesar, whose real name is Maximillian Andronnikov, has been dubbed an extremist and a Nazi by Russian state media.

Russian sources have warned he could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Russia.

Critics have labelled the legion as a PR project instigated by Ukraine's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov.

The attack on the depot comes after Ukrainian troops damaged two key bridges leading into Russian-occupied Crimea with 'Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK' yesterday.

The Chonhar bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged and a small bridge across the Tonky Strait was also shelled.

Attacks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's forces are making it increasingly hard for Putin's invading army to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

The missile strikes came after Russia carried out three waves of attacks on Ukraine the night before.
This is the shocking moment a British tourist and his son were brutally beaten by bouncers outside a bar in Thailand's 'Sin City' of Pattaya.

Holidaymaker Ian Thomas, 60, and his son Gregory, 37, had entered the Matador Bar in the city's Soi Buakhao red light street but were allegedly asked to leave by the bar owner at around 1.35am on August 5.

The pair were ushered outside by bouncers when their heated argument descended into a physical brawl, with Gregory first being beaten up. CCTV footage shows how he was hit and pulled to the ground where he was then kicked repeatedly.

Footage then shows how the older Brit Ian, in a black shirt, then slapped a guard across the face, sparking more chaos as the staff pushed him to the ground while repeatedly kicking him in the head.

Gregory, in a checkered polo, was seen trying to help his father but was again attacked and beaten, with his father left in a heap in the road.

This is the shocking a British tourist and his son were attacked by bouncers outside a bar in Thailand's 'Sin City' Pattaya

Later footage from the scene showed Gregory recounting the events.

The 37-year-old said: 'The bouncer became aggressive with me and I said 'do you want to fight me?'. He started fighting me. I came outside and he pushed me to the ground and my shoe came off.

'I stood up and my shoe came off. I stood up and said 'sorry, sorry' and I gave him 2,000 Baht. Everything was OK.'

Pattaya police officers arrived at the scene to intervene following reports from worried bystanders.

They found Gregory tending to an injured Ian, who was lying on the ground with a wounded left eyebrow and broken glasses.

They took the tourists and bouncer Natthakarn Boonprasom, 27, to the police station for questioning.

Holidaymaker Ian Thomas, 60, and his son Gregory, 37, were ushered outside when their heated argument descended into a physical brawl, with Gregory first being beaten up by a pair of bouncers (shown in this CCTV footage)

Pictured: Gregory is seen falling to the floor as he is attacked by a bouncer

A heated argument between Gregory (seen in the checked shirt) and his father Ian (seen to the left of Gregory) led to the father lashing out at one of the two bouncers, who this time attacked Ian in retaliation, hitting him and pushing him to the floor

Ian Thomas is seen lying on the ground outside the bar after being attacked by the bouncers

Natthakarn said the bar owner had ordered him to escort the British revellers out of the bar, but Ian shoved him, sparking the chaotic fight.

It was not clear why the tourists were kicked out of the bar.

At the station, Ian complained of chest pains and had to be rushed to the Pattaya Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Cops said he and his son were under the influence of alcohol, and were scheduled for interrogation at a later date.

A crowd is seen having gathered around British father Ian Thomas and his son Gregory after the pain got into a fight with bouncers at the Matador Bar in Pattaya, Thailand's 'Sin City'

Gregory Thomas is seen standing over his injured father Ian outside the bar in Pattaya

Thailand's current military government has made efforts to clean up Pattaya (pictured) after it was dubbed the 'sex capital' of the world and a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah

Police Captain Nattapol Saengsee said officers had checked CCTV from the incident to 'find a resolution'. He added: 'We are mediating between the two groups to ensure that the situation is resolved.'

Thailand's current military government has made efforts to clean up Pattaya after it was dubbed the 'sex capital' of the world and a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

However, the city's lucrative shadow economy based on sex, crime, drink and drugs has proved difficult to tame in the once-sleepy coastal city.

A large number of British ex-pats have also set up bars in the sun-drenched resort, which has become an attractive place for pensioners to retire.
Pubs and restaurants will no longer be able to sell takeaway pints after the Government announced it would wind down rules introduced during the Covid era.

Regulations that were temporarily relaxed to keep hospitality businesses afloat during the pandemic will revert on September 30.

The changes were brought in to allow pubs to keep trading by selling drinks through windows while they were required to close their premises during lockdown, but have since continued to be used by businesses as an extra revenue stream.

The decision, which will mean pubs will need to seek permission from their local authority to continue selling takeaway pints, has 'disappointed' the British Beer and Pub Association.

Its chief executive Emma McClarkin said the Government ought to be allowing premises to innovate rather than adding more red tape.

Pubs will no longer be allowed to sell pints to be taken off their premises from the end of September

Rules were relaxed during the pandemic to allow businesses to keep trading while they were unable to serve customers inside

As many as 12,800 pubs would opt to keep takeaway sales if permitted, according to Government projections

Councils will be asked to treat applications for takeaway sales as a minor change to a licence, which would take less time and cost owners less, the Home Office has said.

Up to 12,800 pubs could keep selling pints on the go if they were granted permission, according to Government projections.

Industry bosses had previously welcomed the decision last year to extend the Covid-era regime into 2023, saying it would help the sector recover.

A consultation of councils, retailers and neighbourhood groups indicated that a majority were in favour of going back to pre-pandemic rules, despite attracting just 174 responses.

But the Night Time Industries Association said the Government had left businesses little time to organise themselves before the September cut-off.

Its chairperson, Michael Kill, told the BBC he was 'slightly bemused' by the decision to let the Covid-era rules lapse, which he said had led to a more cafe-style, cosmopolitan culture.

The change will also affect some restaurants and hotels, which will lose their licence to allow customers to take their pints off the premises.
Britons have been left stranded in Africa today with 'no information' after Niger coup leaders closed the country's airspace affecting a large section of the continent.

Airlines were forced to divert aircraft 'six hours into flights' when the military leaders who took over the West African country suddenly stopped all flights late last night, citing the threat of a military intervention.

Some 500 passengers making their way back to the UK this morning saw their British Airways flight diverted back to Johannesburg.

They said that when the plane landed people were wandering aimlessly around the airport, with some crying.

Another Brit had been on board a flight for six hours before the pilot was forced to make a U-turn, and will now have to spend 14 hours in the terminal before taking another 12-hour flight.

A handful of British Airways flights were disrupted by the closure, with it also impacting Virgin Atlantic.

One Virgin Atlantic flight from Johannesburg was affected but was able to arrive at London Heathrow three hours and 50 minutes after its scheduled arrival time, due to alternative routing and following a refuelling stop in Lagos, Nigeria.

The online plane tracker Flightradar24 said the closure of Niger's airspace meant flights between Europe and southern Africa had to add 620 miles to their journeys. Flights must already take a detour around Libya and Sudan, so Niger's move has created a huge no-go area

Members of a military council that staged a coup in Niger attend a rally at a stadium in Niamey, Niger. Regional tensions have mounted since mutinous soldiers overthrew Niger's democratically elected president nearly two weeks ago

The political crisis in Libya and the conflict in Sudan means those countries are already closed to commercial flights, with the latter extending its ban until the end of the month.

Now the shutdown of Niger's airspace means the area in central Africa where commercial flights are off limits has been widened.

As a result, flights between Europe and southern Africa will have to travel an extra 620 miles, according to plane-tracking website Flightradar24.

It comes after Niger's coup leaders were given a week to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum or face the possibility of military action from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).

After the deadline passed last night, Niger's mutinous military closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, and said any attempt to fly over the country would be met with 'an energetic and immediate response'.

John Foreman had been on a London Heathrow-bound British Airways flight with 500 or so passengers for ten hours when the pilot announced the plane would be landing back in Johannesburg.

Mr Foreman told MailOnline he was travelling with 13 other family members  including children  after a one-week holiday and was expecting the flight to land in the UK within the next hour.

We had done the full flight and thought we were going to land in London and were told we had gone back to Johannesburg - I mean, it was quite right [the airline crew] didnt want to tell anyone, he said.

It was a bit of a shock and you thought, Why cant they go somewhere else?. Apparently they didnt have enough fuel.

Mr Foreman said that when he landed in the South African city, there was no one from British Airways to help them and absolute chaos in the airport.

He said there was no information for passengers, with hundreds wandering aimlessly around - some in tears  and congregating around the bus station after rumours began to swirl the airline would be transporting them to a hotel.

Some people were crying and they were incredibly upset, confused, and frightened. They didnt have a clue what was going on, he said.

Passengers to took to Twitter to vent their frustration after their flights were forced to divert following the closure of Niger's airspace

Venting his fury at British Airways, he added: Why was the airline not prepared? Everyone knew the deadline [Nigers coup leaders were given] and that this was a serious possibility. But yet the flight takes off and then this the unpreparedness. It was like chickens with heads cut off.

If it had been easyJet or Ryanair they would have had their own staff on the ground.

Mr Foreman was eventually transported to a hotel with his family, but he still has no idea when he will be on a flight back home.

He said: Still there is no one telling you anything. I guess they [British Airways] are trying to organise flights and figure it out. But they didnt even tell people how to get a bus [to the hotel].

We were okay as we were in a group. Its much worse for those who are by themselves. I take a lot of comfort in that.

Another Brit - who did not want to be named - told MailOnline she had been on a two-week family holiday in Mauritius with her husband and two children, aged seven and 11.

'The pilot woke us up around six hours into the flight to tell us he was having to turn round as we couldnt go round or divert anywhere,' she said.

'Everyone was fine and calm on board as what else can you do? There were people who were going to miss their connecting flights, though.

'The crew were updated when we landed and they had to rush off to get rest for the rerun journey, so havent seen them since.

'We have been lucky in that we have paid to go into a lounge at the airport so we can get a shower and my husband can use the wifi for a meeting he should have been at this afternoon.

'We have also been and bought some new clothes to help freshen up - but appreciate this is a luxury that others wont be able to do.

'The staff in the airport have been useless and gave out vouchers for food in alphabetical order so it took three hours for us to get to them, by which time we had paid to go into the lounge anyway.

'They havent told us directly when the return flight would be, but as I have good wifi in the lounge I received an email from British Airways so only knew via that.

'All in all we had a 12-hour flight, 14 and a half hours in the airport and then a 12-and-a-half-hour flight home due to the route we now have to take back.

'The people in the lounge at the airport have been great, though, and one of the employees even gave my son his own phone so he could watch the England match.

'Everyone in the main terminal seems quite calm and are just accepting it.

'We are all just very tired.'

Others took to Twitter confused that their flights had returned to where they had jetted off from 'without any warning'.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: 'Weve apologised to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys. Our teams are working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.'

Regional tensions have mounted since mutinous soldiers overthrew Niger's democratically elected president nearly two weeks ago, detaining him and installing General Abdourahmane Tchiani as head of state. General Tchiani was head of the presidential guard, and is accused of leading the coup with several members of his unit.

Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between him and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what Ecowas will do now that the deadline has passed, especially because the region is divided on a course of action.

On Saturday, Nigeria's Senate pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's chairman, to explore options other than the use of force. Ecowas can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

An Ecowas delegation sent to Niger last week for talks was not allowed to leave the airport, and met only representatives of General Tchiani.

On Sunday, junta leaders appeared at a rally in the capital, Niamey, promising the thousands of supporters present that their loyalty would not be betrayed.

'We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed,' said junta member Brigadier-General Mohamed Toumba said.

MailOnline has contacted Virgin Atlantic and the Foreign Office for comment.
A mother-of-two has been refused entry to a beachfront bar and restaurant because of the tattoos she has on her back.

Katie Hally was planning a night out to celebrate her friend's 45th birthday at the Burleigh Pavilion in Gold Coast on Saturday.

But after making her way inside the venue, she was suddenly called back to the entrance by security who told her that she wasn't allowed in due to their tattoo policy, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.

Katie Hally was planning a night out to celebrate her friend's 45th birthday at the Burleigh Pavilion in Gold Coast suburb on Saturday

But after making her way inside the venue, she was suddenly called back to the entrance by security who told her that she wasn't allowed in due to their tattoo policy

Ms Hally has Chinese lettering tattooed along her upper back which translates to 'family, love and happiness'.

The mum claims the doorman told her: 'We're very sorry but we can't let you in because of your neck tattoos. I'm going to call the manager down to talk to you'.'

She was subsequently asked to leave by the manager, and return once she had covered up.

Burleigh Pavilion's tattoo policy says guests with tattoos are allowed to enter, unless they are 'intimidating, aggressive or offensive'.

'I got the first one  happiness  almost thirteen years ago after I got divorced. The second one, 'family' I got done with my sister and the third one I did last, 'love', in the hopes I could find love again,' Ms Hally explained.

'I understand why the policy exists, but the manager could have used her discretion, she could have been more caring and assess people on a case-by-case basis but they didn't.'

Burleigh Pavilion's tattoo policy says guests with tattoos are allowed to enter, unless they are 'intimidating, aggressive or offensive'.

A 'disappointed and insulted' Ms Hally later returned once she had changed into a collared shirt.

Last year, face-tattooed Maori woman Jadene Kini was refused entry to Burleigh Pavilion with her friend NRLW Titans star Madison Bartlett.

Moko kauae are traditional female chin tattoos which in Maori culture are believed to be a manifestation of a deeper identity.

A spokesperson for the venue told Daily Mail Australia: 'The Burleigh Pavilion has contacted Gold Coast resident, Katie Hally to apologise for being refused entry to the venue over the weekend.

'Management became aware of the incident after media reports and acknowledge that in accordance with its policy, Katie should have been welcomed into the venue.

'Burleigh Pavilions house policy is in place to create a comfortable and enjoyable environment for our guests.'
China donates 151,000 USD to boost aid delivery in Somalia

Xinhua) 11:20, August 07, 2023

MOGADISHU, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) on Sunday received a 150,996-U.S.-dollar donation from China to support delivery of emergency aid to victims of conflict and national disasters in the country.

Mahamud Moallim Abdulle, SoDMA commissioner, hailed China for the donation, stressing the vitality of the long term relationship between the two nations.

"The Chinese government and the people of Somalia share historical supportive relations and solidarity and it is not the first time we received such donations," Abdulle said in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Fei Shengchao, the Chinese Ambassador to Somalia, said the support for victims of disasters and strife shows Beijing's commitment to strengthen cooperation with Mogadishu.

"As we all know China and Somalia have a long standing relationship that has withstood the test of times and changes in the region and international arena," Fei said.

The donation comes amid warning from the United Nations that a credible risk of famine persists among displaced and pastoral populations in the areas of Somalia that were worst impacted by the recent drought.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
New Delhi, Aug 7 (UNI) Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the appeal filed by the Resolution Professional (RP) of Go First against the Delhi High Court's order and upheld the single judge's order allowing the airline's lessors to inspect the aircraft.

The Court observed that the lessors own the planes.

Go First stopped flying since May 3, 2023, and approached voluntarily for initiation of CIRP against it, as it was unable to fly due to technical difficulties faced by the non-availability of engines from Pratt & Whitney and a severe financial crisis.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, refused to entertain the appeal filed by Go First RP, in its order.

"The lessors own the aircraft, it is their aircraft. We will not entertain this appeal (filed by Go First RP). Since proceedings are pending before the Delhi High Court, where petitions being argued on day-to-day basis. We are not entertaining this at the present stage. Let the jurisdictional issues also be addressed before the single judge," the CJI Dr Chandrachud said in the order.

Earlier on August 2, Go First moved the Supreme Court by filing an appeal against the Delhi High Court division bench's order, which upheld the single judge's order allowing the airline's lessors to inspect the aircraft.

Senior lawyer, Shyam Divan, appearing for the RP, said that the approval by DGCA has been granted and it is backed by 100 percent approval of CoC. So the DGCA says this is the broad way forward and now I am under broad mandate of NCLT to see that this particular airline is revived and fly.

"I have to try and ensure that this airline operate. It is my duty to ensure this. I am duty bound to do," Divan argued before the Supreme Court.

Go First claimed before the Supreme Court that it is the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), not the High Court that has the jurisdiction to hear the case.

The CoC includes Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank. The airline owes financial creditors worth a whopping of more than Rs 6,500 crore.

UNI SM CS1400
Bruce Lehrmann is set unleash on the handling of his rape trail in an upcoming TV interview following an explosive a month-long inquiry into the case.

Former Judge Walter Sofronoff's 839-page report was formally released by the government on Monday - days after its scathing contents critical of ACT's Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, were widely described in the press.

The public probe was held to examine the conduct of police and prosecutors in Mr Lehrmann's rape trial, held in the ACT Supreme Court in October last year.

Brittany Higgins alleged he raped her in Parliament House when they were colleagues in 2019 - which he strongly denies.

The first trial was called off due to a rogue juror, before the charge was dropped entirely due to Ms Higgins' mental health.

Bruce Lehrmann has promised an explosive interview on Channel Seven following the fallout to his 2022 rape trial

At a media conference on Monday, the chief minister of the ACT slammed Mr Sofronoff for 'breaching his good faith' by releasing the Board of Inquiry report early and sharing it with journalists.

Mr Lehrmann told Daily Mail Australia details of the full saga will soon be revealed.

'I have plenty to say after today's mess of a press conference but I'll wait until I sit down with Liam Bartlett again this Sunday on 7News Spotlight,' he said.

The interview is set to focus on Mr Lehrmann's upcoming legal action against the ACT and his reaction to the 'damning' inquiry findings against the man who tried and failed to prosecute him, Mr Drumgold.

In advertisement for the program Mr Lehrmann says to camera; 'We knew were were being played, just not how badly'.

Meanwhile, Minister Barr revealed he is examining what action to take against Mr Sofronoff.

He admitted releasing his report to two journalists - one at The Australian newspaper, and another at the ABC - under embargo, before the report was released by the territory's government.

The chief minister of the ACT has slammed retired judge Walter Sofronoff (pictured) for 'breaching his good faith to me' by releasing his Board of Inquiry report into the Bruce Lehrmann trial early

Britanny Higgins accused Mr Lehrmann of raping her in Parliament House when they were both Liberal staffers in 2019

Following the leaking of a damning report into his conduct Shane Drumgold resigned as ACT DPP

The media outlets have declined to comment on their sources.

Minister Barr said he was 'very clear' with Mr Sofronoff that his report would not be redacted or suppressed in any way.

'He breached his good faith to me by releasing that report ahead of getting it to who he was meant to under the legislation,' Mr Barr said.

When asked if he would like to see Mr Sofronoff charged, Mr Barr said: 'We are considering our options, as I've outlined'.

Mr Barr said he had not received an apology from the retired judge.

'He has sought to provide an explanation,' he added.

The ACT government has agreed to eight of 10 of the Board of Inquiry's recommendations and agreed in principle to two further matters.

It found it was appropriate to prosecute the case, on the information available to ACT Policing and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Drumgold.

However, the report was scathing about Mr Drumgold's behaviour during the trial.

He has since stepped down.
Sky News commentator Peta Credlin has aimed a spray at colleague Chris Kenny over his support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quoted his unlikely ally Kenny in Parliament while defending the proposed advisory body, potentially with the belief it would gain him credit in right-wing circles.

'You know, a Labor PM's in trouble when he quotes anyone on the right to defend himself under fire in the chamber,' Credlin said.

'But if he thinks quoting Chris Kenny is a winner for conservatives, well, he's kidding himself. On this issue Chris is anything but a conservative and viewers know it.'

The referendum, to be held later this year, aims to enshrine First Nations People in the Constitution and to establish an advisory body to inform Parliament on issues facing Indigenous Australians.

While the majority of regular Sky News commentators have spoken out against the Voice, Kenny has been a consistently outspoken advocate.

Sky News Host Chris Kenny has come under attack by a fellow host at the conservative news network over his advocacy for the Voice

In his weekend column for The Australian, Kenny accused Coalition leaders of being 'ugly' and 'cynical' in using the Voice as 'a partisan, political weapon' against the federal Labor government.

'Senior Coalition figures now see defeating the referendum as their primary political priority to inflict political damage on the Prime Minister,' Kenny wrote.

Credlin was less than impressed by her fellow host's assertions.

'His (Kenny's) commentary ... was that it was somehow wrong or disingenuous for the Opposition to use Question Time last week and again, today, to demand answers about the Voice from a prime minister that has been, to date, unwilling to give any of them,' Credlin said.

'Well, Chris's position was hard to fathom.'

Peta Credlin said Kenny's views on the Voice were not 'conservative' and were 'hard to fathom'

Although his strongest criticisms were aimed at the Coalition, Kenny did not let the government off the hook with polls showing the No vote gaining a comfortably winning position.

'There is no doubt the Yes case has been poorly argued,' Kenny said.

'Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney barely sticks to a script and shows no capacity to rebut criticisms or fashion arguments on the run.'

'Albanese has stubbornly resisted getting into the nitty-gritty of explaining how the voice will operate in practical terms because he wants to stay above the fray.

'That will not cut it; he needs to be the lead advocate, the furphies must be refuted and, while the cries for more detail are largely disingenuous, voters are entitled to hear more about the basic principles.'

For her part Credlin argued in Saturday's Daily Telegraph that Mr Albanese had been 'lying' about the Voice being a purely advisory body when it was a first step towards radically transforming Australia through a treaty with Indigenous peoples.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured centre) called on Kenny's commentary to defend the Voice in Parliament

'The proposed indigenous Voice, to be voted on later this year, is not yet doomed; but it deserves to be, because its advocates have failed to be straight with the Australian people,' Credlin wrote.

'As is now abundantly clear, the coming referendum is not about recognition; it's an attempt to undo the last 240 years since settlement, and to retrofit Australia as a country that still belongs primarily to Aboriginal people, and we should just be grateful they let us live here.'

The referendum, which is expected to be held in October or November, needs to be passed by a majority of voters and by a majority of states to be successful.
Jeremy Corbyn has dropped yet another hint he could run against the party at the next election with an attack on Keir Starmer's 'pessimism'.

The former Labour leader, who has sat as an independent since 2020, used a local newspaper column to lash out at his successor's attitude to child poverty.

He rallied against the two-child benefits cap introduced by the Tories and spoke about opposing it in the Commons. Sir Keir last month refused to bow to pressure to say he would abandon the cap if elected prime minister.

Mr Corbyn, 74, has been blocked from running again for Labour in Islington North, the seat he has held since 1983, because he has refused to apologise for remarks he made about an investigation into anti-Semitism during his time as leader.

But in the Islington Tribune he again suggested he could still stand as an independent, writing: 'How are the electorate meant to make sense of an opposition that, on one hand, insists the Tories has destroyed this country, yet on the other, agrees with their method of destruction?

'Austerity will always be a war against the poorest in our society, no matter who wages it.

'Ultimately, when faced with a choice between a politics of incompetence and a politics of pessimism, the people of Islington North will look elsewhere for a vision worth voting for.'

Jeremy Corbyn, who has sat as an independent since a 2020 row over anti-Semitism, used a local newspaper column to last out at his successor's attitude to child poverty.

The former Labour leader, who has been blocked from running again for Labour in Islington North, attacked Keir Starmer's 'pessimism'

Mr Corbyn has previously hinted he could mount an independent run.

While he is no longer a Labour MP, he remains a party member and any formal announcement would see him expelled, along with any local members who help him.

He has sat as an independent MP since losing the whip in October 2020, when he said that allegations of anti-Semitism during his time in charge had been exaggerated by his political opponents.

Since then he has also seen several of his supporters on the Labour Left lose the whip or lose their seats in boundary reviews due to take effect at the next election.

Under Mr Corbyn's leadership in 2019, Labour suffered its worst result since the 1930s, handing Boris Johnson an 80-seat majority.

A furious row erupted among Labour MPs last month after Sir Keir said he would retain the Conservatives' benefit cap, which critics say pushes families into poverty.

It prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third or any additional child born after April 2017.

Despite a backlash, the Labour leader insisted that he had to make 'tough decisions' to ensure his party is in a good place to fight the next election.

In a conversation with former prime minister Sir Tony Blair at the Future of Britain conference, he said: 'My first reaction is we keep saying collectively as a party that we have to make tough decisions.

'And in the abstract, everyone says, ''That's right Keir''.

'But then we get into the tough decision, we've been in one of those for the last few days, and they say, 'We don't like that, can we just not make that one, I'm sure there is another tough decision somewhere else we can make". But we have to take the tough decisions.'

He later said the party has had to make 'really ruthless' decisions since he took the reins to ensure Labour was in a good place to contest the next election.
A British man has been seriously injured in a fatal stabbing in the Costa Blanca town of Torrevieja.

The 40-year-old was rushed to hospital with head injures and a knife wound to his abdomen.

A Dutch man of the same age died in the incident, which is under police investigation, and a Finnish man aged 48 was left fighting for his life.

Neighbours sounded the alarm around 3am on Saturday morning after hearing shouting coming from a semi-detached house at a residential estate called Torreta III on the outskirts of Torrevieja.

The Dutch victim, initially confused for another Brit, is understood to have received several stab wounds which affected his vital organs.

Neighbours on an estate called 'Torreta III' sounded the alarm at around 3am on Saturday morning

The Dutch man reportedly died after he was stabbed several times in his vital organs

A Finn and a Brit are currently fighting for their lives after they were taken to a hospital following the stabbing

He was already dead by the time emergency responders arrived and stabilised the two injured men before getting them to hospital.

The Civil Guard has opened an ongoing investigation into the incident, in which a number of knives and a hammer were reportedly used as weapons.

The Finnish man, who was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit, is understood to live at the property where the deadly fight occurred and initial reports point to the possibility he caused the Dutch man's death.

The other two men had called round for reasons which police have to elaborate on.

The residential area the homicide occurred in once featured heavily a Spanish prime-time television game show in which contestants competed for money and other prizes.

The Civil Guard said that several knives and a hammer were used in the horrific attack

The Dutch man, who was also 40, sadly died before paramedics could treat him

The Brit has not yet been named by the city's Civil Guard, who are expected to make a statement when the hospitalised men are better

La Torreta was the estate picked by the show, called 'Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez' in Spanish, to gift winners houses.

It was the first television show format exported outside Spain, with versions aired in the UK as well as Portugal and the Netherlands.

The economic crisis of 2008 led to many residents falling behind on their mortgage payments and squatters moving in to occupy properties seized by banks.

The Civil Guard has yet to formally comment on Saturday mornings incident but is expected to make a statement as and when the two survivors are well enough to be questioned.
Bike thieves have been jailed for throwing missiles, boiling water and radiators at police who came to arrest them at their flat, while also making a sick taunt about the death of an officer.

The thugs even tried to set fire to the gas meter at the entrance of the property, hoping it would cause an explosion.

The violent stand-off lasted for four hours and caused about 5,000 worth of damage to the flat, with items such as the microwave and sofa being thrown down the stairs in an attempt to barricade the property.

Vuitton Robbins, 18, known as Tom, and Akay Coaker, 20, were sentenced at Reading Crown Court Friday, August 4, for several counts of thefts, burglary, and violent disorder offences.

A third defendant, Reiss James, 21, was also due to be sentenced but his hearing has been adjourned due to the delay in obtaining a pre-sentence report.

PC Harper was killed after responding to a report of a burglary when he was dragged behind a car for a mile

The violent disorder incident occurred on December 8 last year in Reading, Berkshire, at flat 145A on Caversham Road. Pictured, a general view of Caversham Road, Reading

During the stand-off, Robbins could be heard shouting: 'An officer is getting murdered, don't worry its a Newbury thing!

'Come on, get in here, let's play. There's no way you're getting in here, I'll blow your head off.'

Prosecution barrister Mark Trafford said this was in reference to PC Andrew Harper who was killed in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, on August 15, 2019, The Telegraph reported.

Harper was killed after responding to a report of a burglary when he was dragged behind a car for a mile.

The violent disorder incident occurred on December 8 last year in Reading, Berkshire, on Caversham Road.

Police arrived at the address at about 5.40 am to arrest the three men for a string of bike and electric bike thefts across Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

But instead of surrendering, the three men barricaded the door and began to launch missiles at police officers on the street.

Two radiators were torn off the walls of their flats and thrown out their window, with one of them hitting an officer on the head.

Fortunately, the officer's injury was not life-threatening.

Police had to quickly close the road and a nearby primary school was forced to shut down for the day because of the disorder caused by the men.

After four hours, the men were eventually arrested and remanded in custody.

Judge Sarah Campbell, sentencing at Reading Crown Court yesterday, heard that Robbins was the main instigator, with Reiss providing him support.

Coaker, on the other hand, was previously acquitted of violent disorder by a jury but did plead guilty to damaging the flat during the incident.

Robbins pleaded guilty to six thefts to an estimated value of 19,748.98 and five burglaries to the proven value of 10,360.

One of the defendants could be heard making a sick taunt about Andrew Harper who was killed in the line of duty. Pictured, PC Harper and his widow

He also admitted arson, criminal damage and two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm.

James pleaded guilty to seven thefts to the estimated value of 18,289.98 and five burglaries to the proven value of 3,860. He also admitted violent disorder and criminal damage.

Defending Robbins, Nadia Chbat said he was 'emotionally volatile' at the time of the offence and had only resisted arrest in attempts to see his daughter being born.

She said: 'He has expressed some regret. He has come from a difficult background and has always felt he must commit offences to make money.'

But Judge Sarah Campbell decided to jail Robbins, of Reading, for five years and six months in a youth offenders' institution.

Coaker, of Reading, was sentenced to 22 months in a youth offenders' institution.

James, also in Reading, will be sentenced on September 6.
Two Britons have been accused of tipping a Spanish holidaymaker out of her sun lounger when she took their spot by a hotel pool.

The British men, in their 60s and 30s, allegedly pushed the mother of two and shoved her daughters in a row over sunbeds.

The Spanish family, who were staying in Fuerteventura, say they were 'afraid' and plan to press charges against the Britons.

It comes after reports of 'sunbed wars' in Spain - with people claiming sunbeds in the middle of the night, 'reserving' them with towels and leaving them empty for hours.

Spanish newspaper Diario de Avisos says the latest 'violent episode' brought 'hammock wars' to the limit on the Canary Islands.

The anonymous Spanish mother, 53, said the two British tourists tipped her out of her sunbed

The alleged attack, which took place on Monday afternoon, happened when a 53-year-old woman and her two daughters went to the pool at the unnamed hotel.

The woman, who 'doesn't know any English', was sitting on an empty sun lounger when two British men 'started insulting her' and claimed she was sitting on their sunbed.

The older Brit allegedly overturned her hammock, which fell on her foot, her husband claimed. She got scared and didn't understand what was happening, he told Diario de Avisos.

The Britons then pushed her daughters, aged 18 and 22.

He said other hotel guests who were in the pool at the time immediately criticised the violent attitude of the two men.

'I went down and two seconds later the Civil Guard arrived, which separated everyone,' he said.

Details of all parties involved were taken.

The family said they refused to stay in the hotel as they were scared and asked to be moved to a different hotel instead.

They say they will be filing an official complaint when they return to their home in Albacete on the Spanish mainland.

They will also be seeking a medical report on the mother, saying she has suffered ankle and back pain.

The hotel declined to make a comment to the Spanish newspaper.
The UK government intended to introduce a five year trial which would see asylum seekers sent to Rwanda via a one way ticket, where they could claim asylum.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said from January 1, 2022, 'anyone entering the UK illegally' could be relocated to Rwanda.

But on June 19, 2023, the Court of Appeal ruled the government's plans to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda as unlawful.

The government is set to challenge this ruling in the highest court in the country - the Supreme Court.

But in case their Rwanda scheme falters, it is said the government is in the early stages of a radical 'Plan B', which will see illegal migrants transferred 4,000 away to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.

But where is Ascension Island? What is the population of the territory? And will it be Rwanda's plan 'B'?

If the Rwanda scheme falters, a radical 'Plan B' could see illegal migrants transferred 4,000 miles away to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic

Ascension island is an isolated volcanic island, that is a part of the UK overseas territory of St Helena, Tristan de Cunha. It was previously described by Charles Darwin as 'hideous'

Where is Ascension Island?

Ascension island is an isolated volcanic island, which is a part of the UK overseas territory of St Helena, Tristan de Cunha.

It sits in the South Atlantic ocean, halfway between Angola and Brazil, and is about 1000 miles off the coast of sub-Saharan Africa.

The 34-square-mile island was first discovered in 1501 by a Portuguese navigator, Joao da Nova. It was discovered again two years later by Afonso de Albuquerque on Ascension Day, thus the reasoning behind the island's name.

The island remained a ghost town, with no inhabitants for over 200 years, it was also previously described by Charles Darwin as 'hideous'.

But the island did not remain unused forever. During the Second World War it was used as a base by the US, and later on during the Falklands War it was used by the RAF as a support base.

The church of St Marys in Georgetown overlooks the airfield on Ascension Island. Most residents work at the British and US air bases, but there is no hospital on the island

What is the population?

Ascension Island has no indigenous population. There are 800 residents on the territory, but they tend to originally come from the nearby island of St Helena.

Most of these residents are working on the island at the British and US air bases, or at a space tracking station operated by NASA.

It is not only the RAF, NASA and British and US air bases that have called Ascension Island home. The land mass has also served the European Space Agency and British and American intelligence organizations, according to Britannica.

For those who live and work on the island, there is an array of venues for recreational activities, including swimming pools, cinema and a few stores.

To pay for these items and activity, the island's adopted the St Helena pound as its currency. This type of currency is worth the exact same as British pound sterling.

However, there is no hospital on the island.

The island, which sits halfway Angola and Brazil, has no indigenous population. It has 800 residents

Ascension Island is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (pictured: The Post Office in Georgetown, Ascension Island)

How do you get to Ascension Island?

Previously, you could only reach the territory if you were a guest of a resident military personnel, or alternatively, if you were there via invitation or business purposes.

The Wideawake Airfield is now open for domestic commercial aircraft travelling from St Helena to Ascension, but the airway is closed off to private and commercial aircrafts in emergency situations.

Aeroplane journeys from the UK to Ascension Island happen twice a week, as do return journeys.

Flights typically leave the UK to the territory on Wednesday's and Sunday's, and return flights take place on Tuesday's and Friday's.

For more information on departure and arrival times from Ascension Island you can visit the RAF Brize Nation or Mount Pleasant Airfield.

Will Ascension Island be 'Rwanda's Plan B'?

In case the Rwanda plan has to be abandoned - due to its persistent legal issues - government officials and ministers have been in talks about using British overseas territories as a potential alternative.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman told The Mail on Sunday that 'all options were on the table' if the Rwanda project cannot continue.

These alternative plans would see migrants sent to Ascension Island for processing only. Asylum seekers would not be sent to the territory in the South Atlantic permanently.

Those seeking asylum in the UK would be returned back to the country once their claim was approved.

It has not been made clear what would happen to those whose claims were denied.

Ministers are under the impression potential relocation to the remote Ascension Island could discourage people from attempting the journey across the English Channel.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman told The Mail on Sunday yesterday that 'all options were on the table' if the Rwanda project cannot go on

A senior government source told The Times: 'It's pragmatic to consider all options and it makes sense to draw up proposals to stop the boats that could work alongside our Rwanda policy.

We're still confident that our Rwanda scheme is lawful, but having alternative proposals on the table would provide us with a back-up if we're frustrated legally.'

Up to five other countries  all believed to be in Africa  are in negotiations with the Home Office to take those who arrive to the UK via illegal channels.

The country of Niger was also on the list of potential countries, however as the country has descended into a military coup, it seems increasingly doubtful.

Prior to the Rwanda scheme last year, Britain was in similar discussions with Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria and Namibia over similar plans to take asylum seekers who arrive in the UK.
A Royal Navy veteran has been hailed a hero after he suffered a fatal heart attack on a busy motorway, but managed to safely pull his car over to save his grandson's life.

Dave Nutter, 63, was able to steer to safety despite experiencing intense pain to protect nine-year-old Tristin Vallender-Phillips, who was in the passenger seat.

After ensuring that his grandson was out of danger, the retired sailor was rushed to hospital where he died.

His family have praised the Gulf War veteran for his 'heroic' actions, which also protected the lives of other motorists.

Mr Nutter, from Fareham, Hampshire, had been driving to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to give his five-year-old grandson Archie Jenvey-Vallender a present for being brave during surgery for a major skull injury.

Dave Nutter with his grandsonArchie. He was on his way to visit the youngster with a present after the five-year-old had surgery for a major skull injury

Dave with his two grandsons Archie (middle) and Tristin, nine

The incident happened on the M27 near Fareham, with Mr Nutter dying nine days later. Quick-thinking Tristin had managed to flag down other drivers.

Mr Nutter, a chief petty officer in the Navy who served for 22 years, will now get a hero's send-off at his funeral.

His son Mark Whitear, 42, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: 'You could tell he did all he could, even in those few seconds, as we believe it happened in a matter of seconds.

'During that time, my dad not only protected Tristin's life, but those of other motorists as well.'

Kathryn Jenvey-Vallender, Mr Nutter's daughter and the mother of Tristin and Archie, said her family had been 'blown away' by people's generosity after more than 3,000 was donated towards his funeral.

Chief Petty Officer Dave Nutter (left) during his service with the Royal Navy

Dave with his daughter Kathryn Jenvey-Vallender, 28

The 28-year-old from Park Gate, near Southampton, Hampshire, said: 'We are now able to give my dad the send-off he deserves.

'We didn't know if it was going to be possible because it was all so unexpected.

'The costs of a funeral is astronomical, but we have had so many people reaching out and helping us.

'You can really see how loved Dad was, and not just by us. He has touched so many people's hearts.'

As part of his send-off, Mr Nutter will be flanked by a motorbike convoy on approach to the crematorium and will have flags draped over his coffin after his long career in the Navy.

He leaves behind his wife Carole, whom he married in 1986.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for the costs of his funeral.
At least three people are dead after a bus collided with another vehicle in a Sunday night crash on a stretch of Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania.

Several other passengers on the bus, which was carrying 45-50 people, were also critically injured in the collision, officials said.

The bus was travelling through the Lower Paxton Township of Dauphin County when it hit another passenger vehicle and overturned at around 11.49pm. Pictures from the scene show it came to a halt on its side at a roadside berm.

At least three passengers were killed after the bus collided with another vehicle and overturned

A huge emergency response was mounted with dozens of people reportedly taken to hospital

Trooper Megan Frazer said: 'Multiple passengers on the bus are deceased. Multiple people have been transported to Hershey Medical center for varying injuries.'

The identities of the casualties have not been released and police are currently working to inform their next of kin.

A huge emergency response was launched, with dozens of people reportedly taken to hospital, and the I-81 was closed between exits 77 and 72 for several hours.

Police are continuing to investigate the crash and the casualties have not yet been named

A badly-damaged car with smashed windows was also spotted at the roadside after the crash

The nearby Chambers Hill Fire Department has been used as a reunification center and the Red Cross has also aided the response.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.
A British family who spent 18,000 on their holiday to a Mexican resort have blasted the trip from 'hell' after their ten-year-old son was 'almost impaled by a sliding glass door' in his room.

The Johnson family, from Middleton in Leeds, visited the Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun for 13 days.

But they said the holiday was 'ruined' following a string of issues including 'eggy smelling' seaweed and muddy water on the sandy beaches outside.

Grandmother Teresa - who was on the holiday with her husband Robert, son Gavin, his wife Emma and her grandchildren Ollie, ten, Luke, eight and Ashton, five - said it was 'dreadful from day one'.

She told LeedsLive: 'It was the hotel from hell.'

Ollie, ten, (pictured) was left bleeding from his head after he walked into a fragile glass door that did not have a warning sign near it

His grandmother, Teresa, said he was 'hard as nails' after suffering the injury

The family said the sliding door had no warning signs anywhere that would've been visible

Staff at the hotel told the Johnsons that one of their rooms had one fewer bed, meaning that Robert and Teresa would have to sleep in the same bed as their youngest grandchild.

The furious family said this was 'unacceptable' as they had already paid full price for the beds, and they were forced to wait for 30 minutes before being given a room with the correct number of beds.

But even when they managed to get their correct rooms, they were hit with a 'disgusting' smell that they say was caused by decaying seaweed stacked 'ten feet high' on the beach, behind a wall close to the pool and their room.

They then discovered that the seaweed was being scraped off a separate beach reserved for guests who had paid a premium.

Teresa said: 'The eggy smell was vile, absolutely disgusting. It was off-putting. We enjoy a beach holiday and we've never had this in Mexico before, you couldn't even get down on the beach.

'It was our five-year-old's very first beach holiday, he'd never been on the sand before and still hasn't now. We even brought his own bucket and spades from England.'

The Johnsons discovered that seaweed from the premium beach was being piled on their beach

The Leeds family were furious that they were not told about the preferential treatment before they spent an eyewatering 18,000 on their holiday

The family were in Cancun for 13 days after flying out to Mexico from the UK

The Mail has contacted the hotel's owners, Karisma Hotels & Resorts, for comment

'It absolutely disgusting, if we'd had been warned that we weren't allowed down on the premium beach, we probably would have put up with that being dumped - but why should we? We were never told about it.

'We know there is a problem on the island with seaweed, every other hotel we've been to there had the same problem and they'd buried it.

'They stockpiled it, it was ten-foot high. It was decayed, it looked like it had been there for months. There were flies. Oh, it was awful.

'The seaweed was that thick and piled high, we couldn't even see any sand. Where was the white beaches and blue seas that they showed us on the pictures?'

The holiday later worsened when grandson Ollie walked headfirst into a glass door in his room.

Teresa and Robert said she heard a blood-curdling scream when they were down at the pool.

She said: 'It was horrific, I've seen nothing like it in my life. I was expecting little shards of glass like off a car windscreen - but it wasn't. It was massive big three-foot shards of glass.

'Luckily, [Ollie] bounced off the door and fell backwards. If he'd have slipped or fallen forward, I'm kidding you not, he would have been dead. I just can't help thinking "what if?"'

Cancun is known for being a top holiday destination for travellers who flock to the region from across the world

They said the door had no visible warning signs, only 'one tiny blue square' on the fixed door which was 'hidden' behind a net curtain.

'He walked into it headfirst. The head injuries took the blunt of the glass and that shattered it,' she said.

'Well it wasn't even "shattered". There were big shards of glass of about a metre long. He was covered in blood, all over his head, feet, stomach and hands. His mum couldn't bear to look at him, she was just crying.

'We had to pick glass out of the cuts and we couldn't even put pressure on the cuts because of the glass that was in them. We still believe he's got glass in his finger.

'I had to keep my emotions under control when looking at him. If he sees anyone else crying, that's when he gets emotional. He was still upset, he was crying and he really is hard as nails that kid.'

The Johnson family went to LeedsLive before reporting the issues to travel agency TUI. The travel group says they will be 'following up' with the family directly.

A spokesperson for TUI told LeedsLive: 'We are very sorry to hear about Ms Johnson's family holiday experience in Mexico.

'We are working with our hotel partner to investigate some of the claims and we will be following up with the customer directly to update on the circumstances.

'At TUI we aim to give our customers an exceptional experience and we'd like to reassure customers that health and safety is our highest priority.'

Hotel owners Karisma Hotels & Resorts has been approached for comment.
How to enjoy SF

San Francisco is a place that defies legibility. Its hard, yet very fun to love  and definitely not for everyone. Its the postcard city with the bridge, the piers, and the museums, but its also the shit-stained hell hole much decried on Twitter, and also the has-been tech hub so often lamented in Goodbye SF medium posts from tech guys who lived in SOMA for three years, yet somehow also the bastion of radical social progressivism.

All of these faces of SF exist as someones truth, but theyre not mine. Theyre not the reason I fell in love with the place many years ago, and certainly not the cause for my continuously renewed passion. To me  SF has always been about a kind of low key, unabashed passion for niches, a place where people are deeply and weirdly interested in things for no other motivation than the joy of being interested. Its the quiet, intense, and sometimes awkward passion rolling off from people sitting at a cafe on their laptop reading papers on days so nice it should be illegal to be anywhere but outside.

And the more it deviates from that  which it cant help but do every decade like clockwork  the worse it gets. In meme format, it goes something like this:

You can substitue "nerds" for "peope with niche passions", but it just doesn't work well in a meme

So this is my attempt to show you the parts of SF that compell me. This will be a two part guide where Ill walk through first what I would recommend if youre trying to visit and want to enjoy the city, then spend part two digging into the mentality required to truly enjoy the city for the long run. This is by no means an easy guide to follow. In fact, it would probably take several months. Its what makes SF illegible. But if youre the kind of person Im writing for, and you make an effort to experience SF like this, I think you will love it as much as I do.

Pt 1: Enjoying SF with your body

Though SF has a tendency to attract people who live like theyre brains in a vat, it is not without its charm! If youre here for the first time, take your body outside!

Doing stuff

Seward street slides! Photo from Chantal Lamers on Instagram.

So lets start niche: there are some very pretty stairs and slides. If this is your kind of thing, you can make a whole day out of hunting for these steps. For most people though, Id recommend bookmarking these on your map and checking them out when youre nearby

Then there are the parks: Lands end is my top pick if you dont have a lot of time. You can also pair it with a trip to the Legion of Honor  a smaller Fine Art mueseum that is just the right size to be interesting, but not so big that its a chore. Presidio is huge and a little hard to experience as a tourist, but if you have to pick one spot, Lovers Lane is gorgeous. Golden gate park is really nice and pairs easily with a trip to De Young museum

If youre staying at a place with a kitchen, you should shop at a local grocery like Rainbow / Birite /Berkeley Bowl / Guss, and cook yourself a meal. California produce is out of this world  especially in the summer! Lower commitment version of this is picking something up from Birite, and going for a picnic at Dolores Park.

In the evenings, its fun to move your body a bit. Mission Fusion is a great spot for some very SF kind of dancing  its loosey goosey, and each dancer will tend to bring a little of their own background and experience into it  so every dance is a little bit of an improvisation. The church in which the dances are usually held is also really cool! If a little bit more structure is your thing, head to the Church of 8 wheels. Its a roller skating rink also in a church! Something about SF makes people want to do silly things with their bodies in churches.

Outdoorsy / sporty things

Mt Tam. It's a pic from Unsplash, but it do be like this in real life too.

Theres a type of SF guy (gender neutral) youll often hear about whos into climbing and endurance sport. If youre here, try to be that person for a bit  this city is made for runs, rides, swims, and climbs!

Most accessible among all of these is likely Midnight Runners. Available in many cities of course, but the SF one has a lot of people, and they typically go hit up a bar afterwards to hang too, providing a great chance to meet people. One step up (haha) from running is climbing. Yosemite being the birthplace of climbing, SF is naturally full of climbing gyms. If youre visiting the Presidio, would recommend going to Movement for the views. Otherwise, a morning climb + lunch in the mission is always a great way to start the day too.

Though more effortful, my favorite way to see the sights around here is through a bike ride in Marin: yes, its streanuous and youll likely need to be here for longer than a week to justify this, but the ride up Mt Tam, or the seven sisters, or down to Stinson Beach is just ineffably beautiful!

Equally effortful and fun is open Water swimming in Aquatic Park / Berkeley Pier. Swimming here is a great cultural contrast to SoCal. The water is cold, the beaches suck, and its often gloomy  but the whole thing is surprisingly popular with NorCal people. Its intense, but also very meditative. Forces you to be present and focused on your body!

Pastries

Brioche feuilletee de la Maison Nico 

As someone who grew up in Montreal, I feel like I have a reasonably high bar for pastries. San Francisco probably has one of the highest concentrations of excellent pastry shops per square mile outside of Paris. Almost every neighbourhood has a world class patisserie, with some like the mission boasting up to 4-5! Some favorites below:

Maison Nico: a recent favorite for me. Incredibly luxurious pastries paired with some of the most delicately beautiful French aspic geles, tartines, and other savoury goods. Theyre quite under-reported by the local food media for how amazing they are, but I think thats changing now.

Tartine: Perhaps a classic at this point, and well deserved! To me, they have deeply American take to viennoserie in the best possible way. Everything is big, bold, crispy, flavourful  yet somehow still refined!

Arsicault: probably top croissant in the city for me, best enjoyed with a coffee, after bike ride up Hawk Hill. To me, Arsicault is the opposite of Tartine. Where the former is bold and rustique, Arsicault is more refined and classic.

Arizmendi  more homey, but still fun because theyre a coop, which imo is a very SF thing.

Breadbelly and Jina Bakes are both incredible Asian flavoured French-style bakeries. Breadbelly has a super good kaya bun (rare to find kaya anything in SF!). Jina has a collab with Daeho for a galbijim croissant.

Craftman & Wolves  a little pretentious, but they kinda deserve it. Muffin thing with egg inside is incredibe. Particularly delightful to me that it comes with a tiny bit of salt and pickles.

Coffee

I wont get into this too much, since the guides are quite good. My only tip is to avoid blue bottle and Philz even though they started here because theyre ubiquitous now. For local chains, try Sightglass and Equator instead. For small shops, go to: Saint Frank, Four barrel, Wrecking Ball, Coffee Movement, Sextant, Ritual, Linea, etc.

Chinese food

Honestly, the chinese food in SF is not that good compared to NYC and LA, which is sad. South and East bay have all the best spots. Especially overrated spots that I would avoid: Mission Chinese, China Live, literally all the dimsum spots in the city (except Dragon Beaux, Palette Teahouse and Koi Palace), San Tung, and most of the old school spots that usually pop up in guides. Dont trust reviews when it comes to Chinese in the Bay Area, not on Yelp, not on Eater. I feel like the reviewers feel some kind of cultural obligation to put some of the old school joints in the list, despite them not being that good.

If you must eat Chinese: Yuanbao jiaozi, Z&Y, and Mr. Jius are great. In a pinch, I will cook you some good Chinese food if youre craving it.

East Bay

Fried glutinous rice balls, or savoury .

Some East Bay favorites: Wojia, Good to eat dumpling, East Ocean HK seafood restaurant, Mam Hanoi, Bhan Mae Vane in Alameda, Soba Ichi, Fournee, Flowerland, Tokyo fish market, Berkeley horticultural nursery, Thai Temple on Sunday, Bake sum, Sunday bake shop, ordinarie wine, La guerreras kitchen. Berkeley bowl (my goodness!), Nyum bai, Church of mushroom some day Ill make a real list for the east bay. Its just too big to fit in a single section!

Pt 2: The Spirit of the City

Ok so you read all of this and somewhere in the back of your mind youre like  wait these sound fun, but I can get some version of most of the above in [insert city] but cheaper or better. Thats true! At the end of the day, if youre living in SF in pursuit of the highest quality of life per dollar, youve already lost. Every day here is a reminder that you must want more out of life than to live well.

SF wants you to be interesting, weird, ambitious  anything other than to be simply content because the price of contentment in this city makes no sense.

More than ever before, this city now selects for a certain crop of people. Theres no name to this scene, but you know it once youre in it. As my friend Evan describes it, its the rats, the post-rats, tpot, its yimbys and progress studies, EAs and e/accs, startup people and ai people, its jhana seekers but not in a grasping way, its the commons, the neighborhood, solaris and the group houses, its everyone who shows up to a stripe press pop up and designs their apartment layout in Figma. Its everyone who reads gwern or astral star codex or lesswrong and has a manifold market account.

And with the advent of remote work, and the slow decline of public services and physical infrastructure in the city, it seems that all but the most committed adherants of this scene have moved to New York, Seattle, or Austin. This reminds me of what PG once said about Berkeley and Cambridge. Youd think Berkeley has the same intellectual life as Cambridge but with nice weather, but it turns out Cambridge with nice weather is just not Cambridge. Because of how boring and unpleasant both Cambridge and SF are, theres a strong selection effect for people who value its social fauna above everything else.

Bring Your Own Big Wheel, a classic example of someone who took their weird idea unreasonably far

Ok, so what does this mean for someone whos trying to become an SF enjoyoor? Be whole heartedly interested in niches, derive your enjoyment from pursuing your whims, create your own experiences, have way too many hobbies, go unreasonably far when pursuing them, bring a friend or five along (maybe its a startup, maybe its an art car  it doesnt matter), stay up far too late completely sober doing projects with your friends, celebrate outrageous ideas whether they work or not, when they inevitably do not work embrace the experience as type 2 (or is it 3) fun.

None of these are easy things to do, but thats what makes SF fun!
Boots has announced the locations of more store closures as part of its plans to shut 300 outlets.

The high street chain announced in June that its portfolio would shrink from 2,200 to 1,900 in a move to be more efficient.

In July the popular high street brand confirmed the first locations where stores would be axed - with some of the closures already taking place.

Now another two locations have been added to the list, according to The Sun.

The Boots pharmacy at Jardine Crescent in Coventry will close later this year while the branch on Front Street in Prudhoe, Northumberland, will also be shut down.

It comes as another blow to Britain's beleaguered shopping districts, which have already seen sweeping closures caused by the pandemic and resulting cost-of-living crisis, with high-street favourites Iceland, Argos and Boots shutting scores of stores.

Pictured, the Boots chain in Prudhoe, Northumberland, which is under threat of closure. It comes as many high-street chains are facing huge pressure

Jardine Crescent in Coventry, pictured, will close later this year. Britain is still being hit financial pressures caused by the cost of living crisis and big brands are not immune

A petition to save the Coventry branch has been started by MP Taiwo Owatemi, who represents Coventry North West

Ms Owatemi said she was 'disappointed and concerned' by the closure, writing on Facebook: 'Before becoming your Member of Parliament, I worked as a cancer pharmacist, I know first-hand the important role pharmacists play.

'This news is deeply worrying for many elderly people in the local area who use this store and all those who rely on the support and advice provided by staff in their local Boots pharmacy.

'As the only pharmacy in Jardine Crescent, the closure will not only impact patient access to medicine but will exacerbate health inequality in the area.'

Prudhoe councillor Gordon Stewart told The Hexham Courant he had asked for staff to be redeployed to its other store in the town.

The announced closures come despite a 13.4 per cent jump in retail sales in the three months to May, compared to the same time last year.

The UK Boots branches closing and when Holywell, Flintshire (Wales) - August 26

Windhill Road, Wakefield - October 6

Upper Warrengate, Wakefield - October 7

Glastonbury - October 13

Guildford Road, Woking - end of October

Gorleston, Great Yarmouth - November

Jardine Crescent in Tile Hill, Coventry

Front Street, Prudhoe, Northumberland

Salford Shopping Centre, Greater Manchester - CLOSED

Church Street, Malvern - CLOSED

The Port Arcades Shopping Centre, Ellesmere - CLOSED

King William Street, London - CLOSED

Heathside Road, Woking - CLOSED

UEA campus, Norwich - CLOSED

Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff-on-Sea - CLOSED Advertisement

'The high streets throughout the world are changing and a lot of work is being done to support local businesses and to encourage new ones to replace those that are leaving, it's not an easy task but one that we are taking seriously, I wish to encourage everyone to please shop locally whenever they can,' he said.

The announced closures come despite a 13.4 per cent jump in retail sales in the three months to May, compared to the same time last year.

Reflecting on its latest quarterly results, the chain said: 'Over the next year Boots will continue to consolidate a number of stores in close proximity to each other.

'Evolving the store estate in this way allows Boots to concentrate its team members where they are needed and focus investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering an excellent and reliable service in a fresh and up to date environment.'

James Kehoe, global chief financial officer at Boots parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, told analysts in June: 'We will continue to optimise our locations and opening hours, and expect to close an additional 300 locations in the UK and 150 locations in the US.'

Previously, Boots said it would be shutting down more than 200 stores over an 18-month period beginning in 2019.

Several of the closures were because they were loss-making and two thirds of them were within walking distance of each other, the chain said.

In 2020, Boots announced 48 opticians were shutting down, with the loss of 4,000 jobs.

The news comes after Wilko announced that 12,000 jobs across 400 stores could be in the firing line after the high street chain signalled it faced insolvency proceedings.

The privately owned firm, which sells everything from stationery to hardware items, has filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators at the High Court after spending weeks hunting for a rescue deal.

Wilko started from a single hardware store in 1930. At the beginning of this year it secured a reported 40million lifeline from Hilco UK, the owner of Homebase.

Business experts claimed Wilko's downfall has been caused by 'other big players' such as B&M and Home Bargains stealing their customers by offering cheaper prices.

The financial struggles come as Britons continue to be punished by crippling interest rates and high inflation, with many shoppers forced to switch their normal shopping habits.

Cut-price retailers have not been immune to the tough economic situation, with a series of well-known budget retailers such as Iceland, Poundland and B&M Bargains having to close some UK stores.

Iceland has shut the doors to more than 12 shops this year and Boots said it was closing 300 branches. Argos announced plans to close another of its UK stores, meaning it will close eight shops across Britain this autumn.
More than 1,000 flights have been canceled across the US as the Eastern seaboard and nearly 120million Americans are battered by severe thunderstorms on Monday.

The storm system is heading east after walloping the Ohio River Valley Sunday, bringing potentially severe weather to areas east of the Mississippi River and will likely include high winds and large hail in addition to downpours and even possible tornadoes.

The worst hit areas will likely be in the mid-Atlantic region, including southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Baltimore, New York, and Washington, DC.

An area stretching from northern Alabama to southern New York, which includes Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Binghamton, New York City, has been placed under an enhanced risk for severe storming.

'In the areas of thunderstorms, severe weather and flash flooding will be a threat,' said the National Weather Service.

Storm prediction map for the US on Monday, August 8. Severe weather is expected along the eastern seaboard

Over the weekend, there were about 280 severe storm reports from across the country, including eight tornadoes.

Across the central Plains and Mississippi River Valley, there was another nearly 100 reports of strong winds, as well as reports of large hail.

As the East braces for summer storms, southern states from Florida to California continue to contend with dangerous heat this week.

'Numerous record high temperatures and record high morning minimum temperatures are likely over the next few days with no end in sight going into the later part of this week,' said the National Weather Service.

Heat warnings and advisories have been in effect across the southern parts of the US for several weeks and will likely remain in effect 'for the foreseeable future as there is no relief in sight to the heat for the remainder of the week across these areas,' the weather service said.

Record-breaking heatwaves have descended on states ranging from Louisiana and Mississippi to Nevada, Texas and California this summer.

Austin, Texas, hit 105 degrees on Sunday, marking the 30th consecutive day with a high temperature of over 100 degrees.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, hit a high of 102 on Saturday - the hottest August day ever in the city.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, city officials have warned that extremely high humidity levels will mean temperatures will 'feel like' 115 degrees or higher. Cooling centers were open for residents without adequate means to keep out of the heat.

'The forecasted excessive heat warning for Monday, Aug. 7 will mark the 17th excessive heat warning issued for 2023 so far, beating the previous record of five warnings in 2021,' city officials said.

Phoenix, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, have seen some of their hottest ever days on record in the last week, with the heat wave expected to continue through the next few days

Residents of Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and California have been finding ways to cool down amid record high temperatures this summer

In the Dallas-Forth Worth area of Texas, the scalding heatwave is expected to last another week, at least.

Like Austin, Dallas has experienced temperatures of 100 degrees of hotter every day since July 24.

The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning across all of Northern Texas through 8pm on Monday. Heat index values are expected to peak around 114 degrees.

A warm front is then expected to roll in on Tuesday, increasing temperatures again into midweek.

The electrical grid operator for most of the state, ERCOT, issued a 'weather watch' for Sunday and Monday 'due to forecasted higher temps, higher electrical demand and the potential for lower reserves.'

According to grid data, power demand has hit all-time highs multiple days during this heatwave - peaking last Tuesday at 83,593 megawatts.
Ron DeSantis rejected Donald Trump's claim he actually won the 2020 election, saying that Joe Biden was the president.

In his most forceful comments to date, DeSantis, in an interview with NBC News that aired on Monday, dismissed Trump's false claims about the 2020 contest and warned Republicans their party will lose the upcoming election if it's a referendum on the former president.

'Of course he lost,' the Florida governor said of Trump. 'Joe Biden's the president.'

'Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner,' he noted in the interview which will air Monday night on NBC's Nightly News.

Trump has made the 2020 election a litmus test for Republicans who want his support - and the support of his MAGA faithful.

And DeSantis' remarks come just days after Trump was indicted on charges related to the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed to be the winner of the 2020 election, arguing he was the victim of massive voter fraud. Multiple recounts and lawsuits confirmed Biden's victory.

'Of course he lost,' Ron DeSantis told NBC's Dasha Burns of Donald Trump and the 2020 election. 'Joe Biden's the president.'

The Florida governor, who is trailing Trump in polls for the Republican presidential nomination by double digits, also had a stark warning about the 2024 presidential contest.

He warned election cannot be about Trump, his false claims, or the mulitple charges he faces, including one for posession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.

'The election is not about January 20th, 2025, but January 6th, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if it's a referendum on that, we are going to lose,' he told NBC's Dasha Burns.

'If the election is a referendum on Joe Biden's policies and the failures that we've seen, and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around.'

DeSantis did not attack Trump directly, unlike the former president who has nicknamed the Florida governor 'Ron Desanctimonious' and criticized his campaign for setting 'money on fire' and collapsing in the polling.

But he did question several of Trump's decisions as president.

'Donald Trump signed that bill that funded the mail ballots that all the Republicans have been so concerned about,' he pointed out.

And DeSantis, who raised his national profile by keeping Florida open during COVID and questioning infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, questioned Trump's handling of the pandemic.

'Trump turned the government over to Fauci; they embraced lockdowns,' he said.

Still, in the interview, DeSantis did say the 2020 election wasn't 'perfect.'

He criticized Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for censoring Republicans, warned against the widespread availability of mail-in ballots, slammed 'ballot harvesting,' which is when third parties to collect and return voters' ballots, and said social media outlets buried news on Hunter Biden.

'I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. ... I don't think it was a good-run election,' DeSantis said. 'But I also think Republicans didn't fight back. You've got to fight back when that is happening.'

Donald Trump has criticized Ron DeSantis repeatedly in the battle for the GOP nomination

Ron DeSantis warned Republicans if the 2024 election is about January 6th then the party will lose to Joe Biden

He also argued he is most viable GOP candidate to beat Biden in the election, saying the contest will come down to independent voters, a group he won in his last gubernatorial election in Florida.

'If you look at how Independent voters broke, they broke for Biden against Donald Trump,' he said. 'If Trump had just won Independent voters, he would have won the Electoral College. And I think in Florida, what we showed is, yeah, we won Independent voters by 18 percentage points. You cannot win a national election just with Republicans. You got to have appeal beyond that. And if we do that, we'll be able to win.'

DeSantis and Biden are essentially tied in the RealClearPolitics polling average of a matchup between the two. Trump and Biden also are tied in their matchup.

But Trump leads DeSantis by 38 points in the RealClearPolitics average of the Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis is the only other contender to garner double digits.

His interview with NBC News comes as his campaign is in the midst of a reset after faltering out of the starting gate. Some staff have been fired and the campaign has pivoted to an economic message.

Additionally, DeSantis and his team are focusing on Iowa, a state Trump lost in the 2016 Republican primary contest. DeSantis has made some gains in the polls in Iowa with his refocus on that state.

The interview also comes ahead of the first Republican debate on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.
A German man has been arrested in France after his wife was found naked inside a 'torture room' with her head shaved and her legs and fingers broken.

The 55-year-old is accused of holding his 53-year-old wife captive in a flat since 2011, when she claims he kidnapped her.

The woman, also German, was found in the flat in the northern French town of Forbach, which sits on the country's border with Germany, and was immediately rushed to hospital.

The man was arrested this morning on suspicion of kidnap and torture.

Reports said the woman was able to steal her husband's mobile phone and call German police from the flat yesterday.

A German man has been arrested in France after his wife was found naked inside a 'torture room' in a flat in this building on Saint-Remy Avenue in Forbach, according to local media. The woman, whose head had been shaved and her legs and fingers broken, was immediately rushed to hospital

Officers alerted their French counterparts across the border in the Moselle region, who conducted a search of the Forbach flat today.

When confronted by police, the man is understood to have refused officers entry into the flat. Nevertheless, the officials were able to get in.

Inside, they made the terrible discovery, finding the frightened victim locked inside a 'screened room', French media reported, citing a police source.

Her hair had been shaved off, there were signs her legs and fingers had been broken, and it appeared tht she had not eaten in a long time.

Police said the bedroom was closed off with metal wire.

She was treated by medics and taken was immediately to hospital, while the man - who was not previously known to the police - was taken into custody.

A case has been opened by investigators from the judicial police of Metz, who are reported to have found a 'torture bench' inside the dwelling, as well as a notebook in which the man is said to have noted the time he fed the alleged victim.

Officials also found metal reinforcements installed on the windows.

The man facing charges of kidnapping, aggravated rape and acts of torture and barbarity, reports say.
Thirteen Australian children have been saved from a paedophile ring that was sharing horrific child abuse material across the globe on the dark web.

The extraordinary cross-border investigation, which has led to 19 people being charged, began when two FBI agents were shot dead on the doorstep of a Florida apartment in February 2021.

Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were preparing to execute a search warrant for child abuse material at the home of reclusive IT worker David Lee Huber, 55, when he opened fire, wounding three other agents before turning the gun on himself.

Subsequent inquiries uncovered that Huber was part of a sick network of child predators with links to Australia - with many members found to have professional IT or specialist computing skills to avoid detection.

After being tipped off, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) partnered with the American law agency to close down the ring under the codename Operation Bakis.

One of 19 Australian men charged in connection with a global paedophile ring is pictured

'Two Australian offenders have been sentenced with others remaining before the courts,' the AFP said in a statement.

'A public servant living in the ACT was sentenced in June 2023 to 14 years and six months jail after pleading guilty to 24 charges in the ACT Supreme Court.'

The statement did not reveal the sentence handed down to the other offender.

Two other men face 54 charges in the ACT where five children, where removed from harm.

In NSW, two children were saved and five alleged offenders will face 13 charges.

Four children were removed from harm in Queensland with five offenders facing 45 charges.

In South Australia, two children were rescued and five alleged offenders face 16 charges.

FBI agent Daniel Alfin was also killed by Lee Huber in a tragic loss of life that moved US President Joe Biden to send his condolences to the families

FBI agent Laura Schwartzenberger was gunned down by Florida computer programmer David Lee Huber as she attempted to search his property in connection with the paedophile ring

One alleged offender is facing five charges in Tasmania as is one in Western Australia.

It will be alleged some Australian children had been directly abused and others relocated as a precautionary measure.

The AFP said most of the Australian men arrested were employed in IT or communications occupations and the ages of the 16 ranged from 32 to 81.

'Members used software to anonymously share files, chat on message boards and access websites within the network,' the AFP statement said.

Queensland Acting Detective Superintendent Glen Donaldson had a warning for others thinking they could hide child sex abuse behind high-tech walls.

Computer equipment was seized by police with the AFP saying most of the Australian men charged had hi-tech jobs in communications or IT

'Everything you do online leaves a trace,' he said.

'To those predators who seek to exploit children online, remember the next person you engage with online could be a police officer.'

Det Supt Donaldson said Task Force Argos and its international law enforcement partners would relentlessly target predators using technology to commit crimes against children.

'These arrests are a testament to the commitment of QPS and law enforcement agencies globally, to work together to put alleged perpetrators before court and rescue any children in harm's way,' he said.

FBI legal attache Nitiana Mann said the FBI and the AFP's close working relationship was key to uncovering the heinous crimes.

Two of the phones seized by the AFP in connection with the paedophile ring, which so far has seen two men sentenced

'The complexity and anonymity of these platforms means that no agency or country can fight these threats alone,' she said.

AFP Commander Helen Schneider said such cases were cracked only by the tireless efforts of personnel 'who never give up working to identify children who are being sexually assaulted or living with someone who is sharing child abuse material'.

'Criminals using encryption and the dark web are a challenge for law enforcement, but Operation Bakis shows that when we work together we can bring alleged offenders before the courts,'' Commander Schneider said.

Senior police in the ACT, Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania worked in cooperation on the case.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800.

For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
People living in California should avoid answering calls from 213 numbers, while New York residents should be careful of 917 calls, new research has revealed.

Analysis of hoax calls by data search firm BeenVerified has uncovered the top phone scam area code number for each state across the US.

The organization collated more than 150,000 phone numbers reported by users of its reverse phone tool in the past two years. The tool allows users to look up a mystery number to find out who is behind an unknown call or text - and to help them decide whether or not to respond.

The warning comes amid a surge in hoax callers and scam texts - with fraudsters using increasingly extreme tactics to get Americans to hand over their personal information.

In 2022, consumers lost more than $326 million from scam texts alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Analysis of hoax calls by data search firm BeenVerified has uncovered the top phone scam area code number for each state across the US

Texans should avoid messages from 469 numbers, according to the study, while people living in Florida should be wary of 786 callers.

Out of the more than 150,000 suspicious numbers analyzed by BeenVerified, the company revealed the top 12 numbers across the whole country which were most commonly reported as scams.

Nine of the 'Dirty Dozen' numbers were related to unwanted text messages which tried to get users to click on a suspicious link or call a phone number.

Often, the scammers tried to play with victims' minds by asking them to take immediate action, BeenVerified warned. If a message asks you to do something urgently, it is likely to be a con.

Four of the top 12 reported numbers impersonated communication from banks or credit card companies, it found, including Wells Fargo and Chase.

Some messages warned victims their bank account had been temporarily locked and they should get in contact right away, while others claimed that a target's debit card had been frozen due to 'a potential risk related to your account.'

While delivery scams soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, these cons are still common, according to the study, with three of the top 12 scams impersonating major delivery firms such as DHL or FedEx.

Meanwhile, two of the 'Dirty Dozen' numbers attempted to lure in Americans by saying they have won a contest, a prize or even free cash.

'Consumers must remain vigilant when it comes to phone calls or text messages,' Robert Lowry, vice president of security at BeenVerified told DailyMail.com.

'Be skeptical about anyone demanding immediate payment or sensitive personal information. Never disclose banking details or personal data to anyone over a call or message.

'If in doubt, hang up and independently find official contact details and reach out to verify.'

In 2022, consumers lost more than $326 million from scam texts alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

BeenVerified analyzed more than 150,000 phone numbers reported by users of its reverse phone tool in the past two years to reveal the top area codes scammers use by state

It comes as fraudsters are using increasingly extreme tactics to dupe unsuspecting victims into handing over personal information including bank details, credit card information or even a social security number.

Earlier this year, an Arizona mom received a call from an unknown number with what sounded like her daughter screaming in the background, and a 'kidnapper' demanding $1 million in ransom money.

In reality, her daughter was safe on a ski trip and her voice had been cloned by AI technology.

A woman from Pennsylvania also issued a stark warning after being duped into sending $500 to a hoax caller who claimed he had kidnapped her sister.

Beth Royce said she was woken up by a phone call that appeared to be from her sister, but was an imposter scam.

She detailed her 'terrifying' experience on social media in a bid to prevent the same thing happening to others.
Police in Stockton, California, said 'a video of two 7-Eleven employees assaulting a robbery suspect has been circulating'

The two employees were filmed beating the suspect after he'd targeted the store for the third time in two days

7-Eleven workers who were praised for restraining a would-be thief and battering him with a stick are now under investigation for assault, police said

Two Sikh 7-Eleven workers who attacked a thief after he repeatedly targeted their store are under investigation for assault, police in California have said.

In a now-viral video, the workers are seen smacking the suspect with a stick after he entered the store in Stockton with a garbage can and began filling it with tobacco products from behind the counter.

The attempted theft on July 29 was allegedly the third time in two days the man had targeted the store. On a previous occasion, he tried to intimidate staff by claiming he had a handgun.

Despite widespread praise for the workers for defending the business, Stockton Police Department said they are now under investigation for assault. A robbery probe is also underway.

'It has been brought to our attention that a video of two 7-Eleven employees assaulting a robbery suspect has been circulating. We are aware of the incident and the investigation is ongoing,' a statement on Saturday said.

A pair of 7-Eleven workers in California who took action to stop a brazen burglar now face a police investigation for assault

Witness Louis Benton, who filmed the viral footage, said 'Those two workers who protected their store, they did a courageous act. I believe that if I wasn't there that guy would probably be more hurt than he was

The witness who recorded the fracas has since praised the 'courageous' response of the workers. Police said the incident followed several thefts at the store by the same suspect.

On July 28 at 3.41am, staff at the 7-Eleven reported a man entered the store, 'went behind the counter, and threatened to shoot the victim if he intervened,' police said.

'The suspect then took several packs of cigarettes and other items and placed them in a large garbage bag before fleeing.'

The following day, at 12.27am, the same man returned and 'demanded money while simulating having a handgun'.

'The employee did not comply; therefore, the suspect grabbed several food items and placed them in a garbage bag before fleeing,' police said.

The thief then returned several hours later with the trashcan and tried to fill it with cigarettes, before the staff were filmed beating him up.

He left the shop and later sought medical help for his injuries.

'On July 29, 2023, at 3:05 a.m, officers responded to the area of Center St/Market St, to meet with Stockton Fire Dept who was with a male [the suspect] requesting medical aid and complained of pain to his leg and shoulder,' police said.

'The male did not know if he had been assaulted. The male was then transported to an area hospital to be treated for a complaint of pain.

'At the time this was reported, Officers could not confirm if the male was a victim of an assault, or a suspect related to the series of robberies at the 7-Eleven.'

Police added: 'On Thursday August 3, 2023, thanks to the diligence of a witness recording the July 29 robbery and assault, the Stockton Police Department was able to combine the investigations of the suspected robberies and suspected assault.

'The case has been assigned to our Investigations Bureau for follow up interviews and evidence review. Once the investigations are complete the findings will be forwarded to the San Joaquin County District Attorney for review.'

The suspect had targeted the store several times in the days before the dramatic incident

The second 7-Eleven staff member arrived and hit the thief with a large wooden stick

Witness Louis Benton, who filmed the viral footage, told abc10: 'I was shocked, so that's why I really didn't say anything in the video.

'I really just posted it on my (Instagram) stories and then from there someone took it off my stories and it just went viral.

'It came to a point where it got a little excessive so I was kind of like, 'Yo, you know, we got to chill, we got to relax.

'Those two workers who protected their store, they did a courageous act. I believe that if I wasn't there that guy would probably be more hurt than he was.

'The police station is right across the street. Why is there no presence over there?

'The community needs to take care of each other and we need to make sure that we are morally doing the right things. We've got to change.'

The suspect, who wrapped a blue sheet across his face, screamed in agony as the store workers beat him. Stockton Police Department's HQ is directly across the street from the store.
This is the terrifying moment a Sherwin-Williams paint plant exploded, sending balls of fire into the night sky.

Explosions could be heard as far as five miles to the north of the Garland, Texas plant, NBC DFW reports, before fire department and hazmat crews rushed to the scene early Monday morning.

Officials say the explosions started at 1.21am, and caused a massive fire at the plant. Crews were then able to extinguish the blaze after an hour and a half.

All of the employees were evacuated and accounted for, but one employee was injured and treated on the scene.

No air quality warnings have been released, but residents are encouraged to call the Garland Fire Department if they smell anything. The cause of the explosions remains unclear.

A Sherwin-Williams paint plant in Garland, Texas burst into flames in the early morning hours Monday

Explosions at the paint plant caused balls of fire to spread into the night sky

Residents described how the night sky lit up in 'bright fiery red, orange and black smoke'

Smoke billowed across the sky after the fire was extinguished early Monday morning

Garrison Fire Department and hazmat crews rushed to the scene, and were able to put out the blaze after an hour and a half

One neighbor, Jim Norris, described what he heard when the plant exploded.

'A loud boom, followed by multiple loud booms  I lost count over 15,' he told NBC DFW. 'And big bellows of smoke and fire balls.'

'All you see is the sky just keeps lighting up  it's exploding,' another local resident said. 'It's bright fiery red, orange and black smoke. It was scary.'

'You could just smell it,' she added. 'It was just a nasty smell. You know what paint smells like when you paint your house? That's what it smelled like. It was nasty.'

Dave Casper, an employee of Aston Global, a bathroom supply company located in the same area also shared how the building started to shake, and debris started to fall from the ceiling.

'It was really intense this morning,' the man told CBS Texas, noting that he is a combat veteran. 'I have never felt a blast like this in my life... That was serious.'

Jim Norris, who lives near the plant, described hearing more than 15 explosions

Fire crews are seen here trying to extinguish the blaze early Monday morning

Major roadways around the paint plant in Garland, Texas (pictured) remained closed

Major roadways around the paint plant remained closed as of 9.35am EST.

Health Department officials are now expected to arrive on the scene to assess the threat to the public.
Former President Donald Trump hit his former Vice President Mike Pence with an insult he once leveled at nemesis Adam Schiff, mocking him as 'liddle' amid their clash over Trump's demands over his role on January 6.

Trump tore into Pence after a series of escalating comments by his former VP, who said he didn't have the authority to reject votes certified by states, and that no one is 'above the constitution'  even while faulting Trump for listening to 'crackpot' lawyers.

'I never said anything bad or even slightly inappropriate to Liddle' Mike Pence. What I did do was make him, over the many people who wanted it, Vice President of the United States. Disloyalty in politics is alive and well. MAGA!!!' Trump wrote.

Trump had also deployed the slight Saturday, even while his legal team was fending off a legal filing from special counsel Jack Smith after a federal judge warned him against doing anything to intimidate a potential witness following his third indictment.

Former President Donald Trump attacked former Vice President Mike Pence as 'liddle,' after calling him disloyal and accusing him of having gone to the 'Dark Side'

'WOW, it's finally happened!' Trump posted Saturday. 'Liddle' Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side.'

Schiff was a key figure in Trump's first impeachment.

Trump also specifically denied a statement from the indictment, about a phone call where he allegedly told Pence, 'You're too honest' in a New Year's Day, 2020 call while demanding he act refuse to accept the votes that would make Joe Biden president on January 6.

'I never told a newly embolded  Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was 'too honest.' He's delusional, and now he wants to show he's a tough guy,' Trump wrote.

Trump's fresh attack came after Pence in comments to CBS 'Face the Nation' didn't rule out being a witness for prosecutors who obtained a grand jury indictment against Trump for obstruction and interfering with an official government proceeding over his election overturn effort.

Pence, seen praying before lunch during a stop at the Indiana State Fair, hasn't ruled out testifying for the prosecution against Trump in Washington, D.C.

Trump accused Pence of disloyalty in a Monday post

Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Trump a 'liar and a coward.' He was reportedly on Trump's VP short list when Pence was under consideration

Pence told the network he had 'no plans' to testify, using language that didn't rule out testimony. The latest indictment quotes from contemporaneous notes kept by Pence leading up to January 6.

'But people can be confident we'll obey the law, we'll respond to the call of law, if it comes, and we'll just tell the truth,' said Pence said.

Pence is far behind Trump in the polls nationally and in swing states as both men seek to be the Republican presidential nominee, but his testimony could be powerful evidence in the case.

Pence told Fox News last week, after being featured conspicuously in the Trump indictment.

'The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn't just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election,' he said.

Had Trump listened to 'his gaggle of crackpot lawyers,' Pence predicted, 'literally chaos would have ensued.'

Trump's comment about elevating Pence 'over the many people who wanted it' recalls his vice presidential selection process in 2016. Besides Pence, two other reported finalists were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Gingrich has remained a Trump loyalist. Christie is running against him for the nomination, and last month denounced him a 'liar and a coward.'
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at the weekend accused Washington of arming and funding the Ukrainian armed forces in return for payments made to Hunter Biden by the energy company Burisma.

Ramaswamy has been repeatedly skeptical of the U.S. role in Ukraine as he sells himself as an America First patriot modeled on a more competent version of Donald Trump.

On Saturday he joined dots between Biden business interests and Ukraine's effort to repel Russian invaders.

'The purpose of the U.S. military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland,' he told a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Saturday, 'not to aimlessly fight some random war that's arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5 million from Burisma.'

He offered no further evidence to support his claim.

Ukrainian soldiers prepare a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer to fire at Russian positions in Kherson region, Ukraine. Washington is the biggest supporter of Ukraine's armed forces and has committed more than $60 billion in aid since the beginning of Russia's invasion last year

But Burisma has been at the center of conspiracy theories advanced by Trump and his allies dating back to the former president's first impeachment.

Joe Biden's son spent five years on the board of the company, beginning in 2014 when his father was vice president and had a leading role in Ukraine policy.

He reportedly earned up to $50,000 a month.

At the same time, Biden joined with other Western leaders in demanding the removal of the country's top prosecutor over concerns that he was insufficiently tough on corruption.

Trump instead claimed that the Bidens wanted him dismissed in order to protect their own interests.

Among some Republicans that theory has now morphed into the idea that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knew about corruption allegations and was using them to extort funding from the Biden administration, or that President Biden was compromised by millions of dollars in foreign bribes.

Both ideas have been debunked.

However, they are receiving attention in town hall meetings during the Republican primary as candidates vie to out-Trump Trump.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has found his Trump-inspired message, and skepticism about arming Ukraine, resonating with voters

Republicans have for years tried to tie the Bidens to corruption in Ukraine. The latest theory links Hunter Biden's time at Burisma to his father's backing for Ukraine against Russia

'Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt? Absolutely it was,' said Ramaswamy, whose stock is on the rise.

'Do I think that it has some relationship towards our posture toward Ukraine? I think it's likely that it does.'

The U.S. is the biggest backer of Ukraine in its war against Russia. It has committed more than $60 billion in aid since the beginning of Russia's invasion last year, including $43 billion in military aid.

In an interview with NBC News after his town hall event, Ramaswamy set out more of the connections that he sees between Ukraine and the Bidens.

'I think it is a hard fact that a Ukrainian affiliated company, a Ukraine state affiliated company, made a $5 million payment to the son of a sitting vice president, who's now the president of the United States, who is now sending $200 billion of aid to a country without ever identifying what the clear national objective is that we're advancing by spending that money,' he said.

A firefighter works at a site of an attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, given as Starokostiantyniv, Khmelnytskyi Region, Ukraine, in this handout photo released on August 6

Ramaswamy has seen his support grow. And he is popular with Trump supports in particular

'Everything I just told you is fact. Now it is also further my perspective that this war does not advance American interests.

'We are further driving Russia into China's hands, we are increasing the risk of nuclear war, and we're depleting capabilities that we may better use in other circumstances.

'Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt. Absolutely. It was.

'Do I think that it has some relationship to our posture towards Ukraine? I think it's likely that it does.'

In fact, Biden  along with other Western leaders  has been clear about how backing Ukraine is in U.S. national interests.

He says it is crucial to holding Russian leader and other tyrants in check. Failure to support Ukraine now means the next wars will be fought closer to home.

'We stand at an inflection point in history where the choices we make now are going to shape the direction of our world for decades to come,' he said at a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, last month.

'The world has changed. Will we turn back naked, unchecked aggression today to deter other world-would-be -aggressors tomorrow?'
by O. Del Fabbro

I met Kseniia during my second visit to Ukraine, in June 2023. The moment I met her, I knew that this thirty-four-year-old woman is a special one. Kseniia belongs to the type of women who made Molotov cocktails to help defend Kyiv in March 2022. I had some romantic idea to create these Molotov cocktails, because I heard that it might come to urban warfare, and I wanted to help. We spent a whole day making them, but the smell of petrol was awful. Nevertheless, Kseniia made several boxes.

The concept of women making Molotov cocktails was something I only knew from news reports, and I distinctly remember the impression that such women made on my perception of the willingness of Ukrainians to not only resist but also fight the aggressor. To suddenly be sitting in front of such a woman seemed surreal to me.

The more I listened to Kseniias numerous stories, the more it occurred to me that she was much more than just a simple activist. Kensiia is a hub of different intense experiences: sadness, happiness, danger, beauty. Kseniia, I believe, has seen it all; and her stories speak for themselves.

The Saddest Experience

Kseniia opened and still runs two aid organizations. One supplies the military and civilians with food, clothes, drones, night vision goggles, whatever people contact her for. The other organization repairs roofs of destroyed houses, especially in the countryside, and supplies the military with used cars. So far, the later organization called livyj bereh  which means the left bank of the river  has repaired two hundred roofs and donated more than forty cars to the military. In total, she raised more than half a million euros. Pink Floyd sent us some money too, says Kseniia with a little pride. The controversy around the provocative statements on the war of the former Pink Floyd member, Roger Waters, is something Kseniia has no clue about and also does not care.

Kseniia is dedicated to her cause, thats it.

One day, in February 2023, she got contacted by a commander of a unit, who ordered around one hundred shoes. Kseniia had met him earlier in autumn 2022 and was impressed by his care for his soldiers. His unit had about one hundred and fifty soldiers and Kseniia provided them with winter clothes, sleeping bags and so on. In February, the unit was fighting in Soledar, but the situation there was hell. They managed to get out alive and needed one hundred pairs of shoes.

Kseniia immediately started a fundraiser, but unfortunately, it progressed very slowly. In March, she was finally able to buy about thirty pairs of shoes. Quite happy to finally have gathered some material, she wrote the commander saying that the next seventy pairs would be arriving the following week.

The commanders reply: Theres nobody left to give these shoes to.

The whole unit was dead.

Once the unit got out of Soledar, they were stationed near Bachmut for a month. From one hellhole to another. Their mission was to hold the position, but the Russians killed them all with artillery.

That is my saddest story, Kseniia tells me tearing up a little.

She knew some of the soldiers personally because they had come to the headquarters of her organization in Kyiv. Eventually, the shoes ended up with another unit near Bachmut, Soledar and in the Luhansk region, because there is always a high demand.

Kseniia was devastated, and hearing that many of her fellow humanitarian workers had similar experiences only made things worse. Its not about my efforts, its about losing those soldiers. After that incident Kseniia admits that she needed a lot of therapy sessions. She was afraid that such an event would repeat itself; meaning that while she was collecting money, people would just die off.

The solution to her problems: Raise more and more money and keep going, she says laughing. The fear of repetition never really went away, but at the same time she realized that she needed to go on and fight. It worked out. Everything is ok now.

The Most Dangerous Experience

On February 24 2022, when Kseniia woke up to explosions, she immediately understood that the war had started. She also knew that she wanted to help her country to fight the enemy and to win the war. Since that day, Kseniia has constantly been active and driving to liberated territories to restore destroyed roofs of houses. While Kseniia has mostly been active around Kyiv and in the Kharkov region, in March 2023 she and her friend decided to drive to the Kherson region to see whether there was any need for help.

Contrarily to Kharkov, Kherson is closer to the frontline and much more dangerous to drive around. After exploring for a day, the aim was to get to Mykolaiv and spend the night there, because its safer than Kherson. Yet, their GPS sent them through Kherson. Upon recommendation by locals, Kseniia and her friend took another route that led them through the countryside on bumpy and narrow roads. However, due to electronic warfare that blocks the usage of all electronic devices such as drones and phones, their GPS stopped working. Kseniia and her friend kept driving until they realized that they were in the midst of a mine field. They saw abandoned Russian positions and explosive remnants. The road was too narrow to turn around and the danger of hitting a mine too high. We had no other choice but to keep going in one direction.

For forty minutes Kseniia was on an emotional rollercoaster: laughing, crying, and thinking about life. Then, they arrived at a crossroad and saw a sign that said that the territory they were coming from was prohibited to enter. Red and white ribbons actually would have told Kseniia that it is a mined field, but the wind blew them all off. Thats why we entered the field, because we didnt see the ribbons.

By now it was almost dark and that means curfew starts. A second field had to be crossed but Kseniia didnt care anymore. Exhausted from all the adventure, she would have even gone to Kherson to sleep.

This is the most dangerous experience I had, but also the craziest one. She has never been that close to the frontline. She heard many explosions of artillery. In that moment I understood that I could die. A lot of adrenaline, my heart was speeding, and I realized that every next meter could be the last one. What made it worse emotionally was that she ended up in that dangerous situation by accident. Her friend on the contrary was rather calm and quiet and didnt say much. He was also scared, but he concentrated on driving and made jokes from time to time. It helped Kseniia to accept the situation and get used to it and make the most of it.

But the scenery got more dramatic. On another thin country road their car got hit by an Ukrainian military truck that ripped off the side mirror of their car. On top of that, it had started to rain heavily; and then there was, still, the roaring sounds of artillery lighting up the dark sky. The atmosphere was sinister. When we finally arrived in Mykolaiv we were done, exhausted.

Kseniia does not believe in God but is also no atheist. She believes that some power, some energy exists in the universe. Sometimes there is disbalance, but the force always balances it out. Amidst this constant re-balancing is Kseniia, the adventurer and explorer. I like to discover, to meet new people, to explore new places, to have new feelings. I like to travel.

But isnt it something different to travel through a minefield than going to the Bahamas?

Im a patriotic traveler, she says smiling.

I found out that I am adrenaline addicted. If I stay too long in Kyiv and do paperwork, I get bored and I need to go somewhere to explore. Whoever follows Kseniia on her Instagram knows this. But Kseniia also has a warning system. There is a button inside of me that says: ok its enough. We need to go back.

The Most Beautiful Experience

Kseniia loves flowers. Before the war, she was the co-owner of a flower shop where she worked as a florist. Then everything changed. Today, the store is the headquarters of her volunteer organizations. Reopening the flower shop is not an option. For one, all of her former clients left Kyiv, and secondly, people dont have the money to buy flowers. Its not the first thing you want to buy during the war. But even if it would be possible to re-open the store, Kseniia still believes that with her help the victory of Ukraine will happen quicker. Selling flowers is useless.

One day, shortly after the Khakovka dam was blown up at the beginning of June 2023, she got contacted to help in that region and so she went there, yet, at some point Kseniia realized, while driving through the countryside, that she ended up on the same road that she experienced a couple of weeks earlier as her most dangerous and craziest experience. Same villages, same road, and the same friend driving. The only difference was the car. Kseniia was back in Kherson region, and it took them six hours for one hundred fifty kilometers because the road was bumpy and muddy.

But why is this the most beautiful story?

Because the fields were mined and untouched, and therefore bloomy. So for six hours I was looking at the most beautiful fields I have ever seen in my life. Red poppy, yellow rapeseed, violet salvia, blue chicory, colored the fields. It was really beautiful.

This time Kseniia was also better prepared. The connection worked and she had a map drawn by locals. She knew where she was going. I was relaxed and I looked at the beautiful flowers.

At the same time Kseniia got closure  psychologically speaking. The frightening experience of last time was now overshadowed by the beauty of these picturesque fields.

But doesnt it also have a degree of tragedy? The flowers, the endless Kherson steppe, yes, but its full of danger, and possible death.

Yes, its beautiful and tragic. Last summer all these fields were under Russian control, but thanks to our military it has been freed. Yet unfortunately, it cant be used and who knows when it can ever be used again. Its tragic, yes.

The Happiest Experience

Kseniias happiest experience is a tricky one. Contrarily to all other experiences, she somehow cannot decide which one to choose. It sounds crazy but I had so many happy moments during the war.

And yet, it seems clear that Kseniia is the happiest when she can help people. For example, we rebuilt a school in Chernihiv region. The principal of the school was very happy and the children as well, because the school could be re-opened. Kseniias organization redid the windows, bought equipment for the cantina in the school. Its the third school they rebuilt. When we help in the villages, the villagers share their happiness with us and we accept it. I grew up in a village near Dnipro. I am very fond of village culture, the beautiful fields and forests. When people are happy with their new roofs, new hospitals, new schools, we share the happiness and enjoy it at the same time.

What also makes Kseniia happy, is when she closes a fundraising. Ive been collecting money for sixteen months now, and a few days ago, I closed a huge fundraising, that was running for ten months. I felt happiness and relief. It was so important for Kseniia to close it that she decided to create a bouquet for the highest donation; and three other bouquets as lottery. Accidently, the flowers helped me to close the fundraising. It gave me joy that it ended like this, because I was able to create beauty. A serendipitous moment, also because it awakened old memories and habits for Kseniia. I went to my old suppliers and we cut the flowers together.

Kseniia tries to be optimistic in her life and to see all the beauty around her. War is a terrible thing and yet you have many happy moments in a terrible environment. This is my way of seeing the world. I dont see it through pink glasses though. Not everything is fine. But I try to keep the happiest moments close to me and enjoy them, without cutting off the saddest.

Thats what keeps her going.

Many times, Kseniia thought about joining the military, and she still does. But she is good in what she does. Fundraising, organizing reconstruction and so on. She thinks that she is more useful like this. But if something would happen to one of my closest friends or family, I would go and fight. To avenge.

But dont you already know people that died?

Yes.

Many?

Kseniia is silent. Then she utters softly: Unfortunately.

***

These were Kseniias most intense experiences. She would have many more to tell, and no matter which Ukrainian you would ask, she or he would probably also have an intense experience to share  maybe because war simply is intense. But maybe also because  apart from the experiences of subjects there is nothing, nothing, nothing, bare nothingness.[1] That is why listening, publishing and reading about Kseniias experiences is important, and, after all, her stories speak for themselves.

[1] Alfred N. Whitehead, 1978, Process and Reality, An Essay in Cosmology, New York: Free Press, p. 167.
New footage captured the moment a black man smacked a white boater with a chair during a brawl in Alabama between black staff from a cruise and white pleasure craft owners.

The brawl at Montgomery's Riverfront Park has gone viral, with social media sharing images from different angles of the violent altercation on Saturday.

The newly emerged angle taken from inside the cruise shows an unidentified black man repeatedly hitting a white man with a chair.

Despite the shocking violence, the Montgomery Police Department told DailyMail.com they have not made any arrests and are not releasing names as of Monday.

'There are 4 active warrants at this time and there's a possibility more will follow after the review of additional video,' police said.

New footage captured the moment a black man smacked a white boater with a chair during a brawl in Alabama between black staff from a cruise and white pleasure craft owners

A boy named Aaren has been dubbed the 'Black Aquaman' after swimming across a Montgomery river to help a black security guard in a fight with a group of white people

One of the men involved in the brawl has been identified by the public and local media as Zachary Shipman, owner of the Vasser's Mini Mart in Selma (far left)

A witness claimed the fight started with an argument over a pontoon boat that was blocking the dock where a riverboat was trying to moor

This sound fit too good  pic.twitter.com/FC73BsvLHY  bria celest (@55mmbae) August 7, 2023

Mayor Steven Reed said on Monday police would provide more information on Tuesday.

A witness claimed the fight started with an argument over a pontoon boat that was blocking the dock where a riverboat was trying to moor.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-boy has been dubbed 'Black Aquaman' after he was filmed swimming across the Montgomery river to help the black security guard after he started being hit by the white group of boaters.

Aaren, who chose to be identified only by his first name, issued a statement on Monday saying he did 'what he was taught to do' during the brawl on the Montgomery riverfront on Saturday night.

His publicist Makina Lashea called Aaren a 'cherished young hero' and called his actions a 'remarkable act of bravery and compassion.'

The statement read: 'In the face of adversity, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years. We are immensely proud of his actions and the values he exemplifies, standing as an inspiration to us all.

'We, the publicist team, his parents, along with his extended family want to extend our sincerest gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering support during this time.

'Your messages and gestures of appreciation have not gone unnoticed, and they have left a lasting impact on Aaren and his family.'

Aaren's spokesman then asked the public for privacy for 'Aaren to process and reflect on the whirlwind of emotions he's experiencing.

'We assure you that he will continue being a force for good in the world.'

Meanwhile, one of the men involved in the brawl has been identified by the public and local media as Zachary Shipman, owner of the Vasser's Mini Mart in Selma.

Shipman received backlash after posting video of the brawl online, claiming he tried getting away from it, as reported by the Selma Times-Journal.

He wrote: 'I am sure most of you have seen the news about the riverboat incident. Yes, I was there but I was the first to try to get away.

'You can see in the video I attached, and I do not condone what happened. I tried to stop it and realized that I could not, so I tried to get away. There is a video of me being the first to run away because what was happening was wrong and I did not want to be a part of it.

'I realize I have a business to run and represent and no charges were filed against me because I was not involved.'

But commenters said the footage showed Shipman was more involved than he was admitting to, and have started flooding his business page with bad reviews.

DailyMail.com made several attempts to contact Vasser's Mini Mart but the phone appears to have been disconnected.

Footage of the incident shows Shipman was one of the people detained at the scene.

Commenters said the footage showed that Shipman was more involved than he was admitting to, and have started flooding his business (pictured) page with bad reviews

'I realize I have a business to run and represent and no charges were filed against me because I was not involved,' Shipman claimed

Video of the brawl shared on social media shows horrifying scenes of violence spill over, with sides seemingly divided over racial lines - although it is not yet clear whether the melee was racially aggravated.

Men are seen gouging eyes and hurling punches to each others' heads, while one woman lies stricken on the floor as a man smashes a chair across her head in a vicious assault.

Montgomery police said they responded to reports of a disturbance at the riverfront at around 7pm Saturday.

The mayor's office told DailyMail.com on Monday: 'The Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants are being signed and justice will be served.

'This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violent actions will be held accountable by our criminal justice system.'

Footage appears to show the fight start in a tussle between two men at the end of the boardwalk.

The altercation is under investigation by local police as they come through multiple videos provided by the public

Video of the brawl shared on social media shows horrifying scenes of violence spill over, with sides seemingly divided over racial lines - although it is not yet clear whether the melee was racially aggravated

The worker had been onboard the Harriot II Riverboat in Montgomery, Alabama, when he decided to untie a boat blocking them from docking

In a flamboyant gesture, one man flings off his cap into a watching crowd above, seemingly in anticipation of a brawl.

Scenes quickly turn sour as the pair exchange blows before another white man in red shorts tackles the black man to the floor, before several others join the fray.

Some appear to be trying to break up the fight, while others also throw punches.

At that point, a man can be seen swimming across the river to climb onto the boardwalk.

In separate footage, a group of men are seen approaching another in a small motorboat moored to the pontoon.

Another fight soon breaks out and at one point, a woman is thrown into the water with her assailant egged on by those filming the fight.

Another video shows the brawl spreading to the center of the boardwalk, outside a larger boat called Harriott II.

Photos shared on social media appear to show a group of white men sitting on the boardwalk in handcuffs, with others being led away from the scene by officers.

The altercation is under investigation by local police as they come through multiple videos provided by the public, as well as the City of Montgomery's video surveillance.
A tribal Aboriginal woman has revealed why she hates Australia's 'Welcome to Country' acknowledgement being read out before public events.

Aunty Narelle McRobbie spoke about her view in a video question on ABC's Q+A program on Monday night, broadcast from the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land.

'I am a tribal Aboriginal woman and I hate the Welcome to Country,' she said.

'As a tribal person, why? Welcome every other b*****d on country when I, as an Aboriginal person have never felt welcomed on my ground.

'On my own dirt, never been felt welcomed.'

'Welcome everyone in to continue to take, take, take, take. What do you reckon?' she asked.

Tribal Aboriginal woman Aunty Narelle McRobbie (pictured) expressed her hatred of the 'Welcome to Country' acknowledgment during a video question recorded for an episode of the ABC's Q+A program

Indigenous journalist and writer, Ben Abbatangelo, who was one of the panelists on the show, noted that the acknowledgement has been embraced in Parliament.

'We see welcome to countries in Canberra for policymakers then to go and institute rations cards, or to finance fossil fuel companies against the wishes of Indigenous peoples,' he said.

He used an example of the Santos gas project, which has seen opposition from the Larrakia and Tiwi traditional owners in the Northern Territory.

'I love the way that she's reframed it and I think it causes paucity in the thinking. Maybe it's time we stopped being so welcoming,' he added.

Voice architect and Indigenous Studies professor, Marcia Langton, who was another panellist, referred to the discrimination Aboriginal people face.

'I think many Aboriginal people around the country who do not have their land rights and face the kind of racism that our interlocutor would face in North Queensland...I imagine she feel she can't welcome people to her country until she has formal rights in her own country,' she said.

Voice architect and Indigenous Studies professor, Marcia Langton (pictured), spoke about the lack of land rights and racism Aboriginals face in her response to the question

There has been a significant uptick in Welcome to Country practices over the past decade, everywhere from the workplace and seminars to national sporting events (stock image)

Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, said there was a 'much bigger message' in Aunty Narelle's question.

'If First Nations people do not wish to welcome, they have a choice to say no when invited or asked to do so,' she said.

Mr Abbatangelo agreed with the point that Indigenous people did not need to welcome if they did not wish to do so.

'I mean how undignifying is that, to think that you are obliged to provide safe passage, to welcome people, when you don't even feel safe or sound on your own soils, when you are trampled on?' he added.

A Welcome to Country can only be conducted by traditional owners or custodians of the land on which an event is taking place. In circumstances where a traditional owner is unavailable, an Acknowledgement of Country can instead be performed.

According to Reconciliation Australia, an Acknowledgement of Country 'should be delivered at significant/large internal meetings or meetings with external participants'.

It is intended to highlight the significance of the area for First Nations people.

There has been a significant uptick in Welcome to Country practices over the past decade, everywhere from the workplace and seminars to national sporting events.
Republicans are accusing the Biden administration of withholding information on federal employee telework numbers as the White House prepares to end its COVID-era remote work policy.

In a letter Friday to all Cabinet heads, Biden's Chief of Staff Jeff Zients stated that all federal employees would be expected to return to the office this fall after years of remote work.

'We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people,' Zients reportedly wrote in the letter, adding that it is a 'priority of the president.'

House Republicans separately wrote to Biden agency heads Friday, re-upping their demands for information on precisely how many federal employees continue to work from home three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They say they've been stonewalled by the administration so far.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., blasted the Biden administration for 'intentionally withholding' the information from Congress.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer has written federal agencies demanding information on how many employees they have teleworking

'One of two options is currently playing out: either federal agencies are withholding information from Congress or federal agencies are not tracking telework and remote work policies as required by the law. Both possibilities are deeply concerning,' say Comer, Sessions and Boebert.

They threatened 'compulsory measures' if the administration does not provide the requested information. That could come in the form of official subpoenas.

Comer told DailyMail.com that it's 'past time' for the Biden administration to get federal workers back into the office.

'Its unacceptable that the Biden Administration has continued pandemic-era telework policies when the pandemic has been over for some time,' he continued.

They are seeking occupancy rates on their Washington, D.C., offices  and in a hint at maintaining resources, ask if they have made plans to adjust their 'real estate footprint' based on current plans.

The letter references D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's demand in her inauguration address this year for 'decisive action' from the White House to 'get most federal workers back to the office most of the time' or take a look at the government's array of real estate in the city.

Comer cited reports that just a third of federal employees are back in the office since the start of the pandemic.

In February, the House passed the SHOWUP Act, which seeks to restore pre-pandemic telework levels.

In the Senate, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a companion bill to the SHOWUP Act.

She said: 'Its illogical that VA employees are able to work from a bubble bath, while organizations across the country have safely re-opened.'

The effort to force out more information about the arrangements is not new. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent out similar letters in 2021.

Johnson told DailyMail.com that with 'few exceptions,' 34 federal agencies 'ignored' his requests to provide the number of employees teleworking.

'The Biden Administrations grossly inadequate responses to even the most basic, legitimate oversight questions highlights this administrations lack of transparency and apparent disdain for Congressional oversight,' he continued.

The Biden administration officially ended the COVID-19 emergency in May.

The White House said ending the federal telework policy is a 'priority of the president'

Republicans are threatening 'compulsory measures' if the administration does not provide the requested information

Republicans grilled Office Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja at a March hearing on federal telework policies  at a time when agencies are facing retirements and retention issues.

'While COVID is no longer driving our workforce decisions, employers have updated tools and knowledge about managing employees in hybrid work environments and the benefits to their customers,' she said.

Ahuja said the policies have had a 'positive impact workplace flexibilities have on areas such as productivity, engagement and diversifying the talent pool.'

Without explicitly saying workers are slacking off, the letter asks agency heads to 'describe the management protocols your agency has implemented to ensure workers are either adhering to the provisions of a telework agreement or are otherwise fulfilling their official duties.'
More than 3,000 United States military personnel have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships, part of a beefed up response from Washington after tanker seizures by Iran, the US Navy said on Monday.

The deployment adds to a growing US military buildup in tense Gulf waterways vital to the global oil trade and led Tehran on Monday to accuse the US of inflaming regional instability.

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.

The US sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea on Sunday after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

They arrived on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, providing 'greater flexibility and maritime capability' to the Fifth Fleet, the statement from the Bahrain-based command added.

US Navy sailor from USS Bataan (LHD 5) monitoring as the amphibious assault ship transits the Suez Canal with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) in a handout photo released on August 6, 2023 by the US Defence Visual Information Distribution Service

The deployment adds to efforts 'to deter destabilising activity and de-escalate regional tensions caused by Iran's harassment and seizures of merchant vessels,' Fifth Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins told AFP.

USS Bataan is an amphibious assault ship which can carry fixed-wing and rotary aircraft as well as landing craft. The USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, transports Marines, their gear, and lands them ashore.

In a Monday press conference, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said US deployments are only serving Washington's interests.

'The US government's military presence in the region has never created security. Their interests in this region have always compelled them to fuel instability and insecurity,' he told reporters.

'We are deeply convinced that the countries of the Persian Gulf are capable of ensuring their own security.'

The latest deployment comes after Washington said its forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5.

The maritime services in Iran said one of the two tankers, the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, had collided with an Iranian vessel, seriously injuring five crew members, according to state news agency IRNA.

Amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) transiting the Suez Canal in a handout photo released on August 6, 2023 by the US Defence Visual Information Distribution Service

In April and early May, Iran seized two oil tankers within a week in regional waters.

Those incidents came after Israel and the United States blamed Iran in November for what they said was a drone strike against a tanker operated by an Israeli-owned firm carrying gas oil off the coast of Oman.

The US announced last month that it would deploy a destroyer, F-35 and F-16 warplanes, along with the Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit, to the Middle East to deter Iran from seizing ships in the Gulf.

Last week, a US official told AFP that Washington is also preparing to put Marines and Navy personnel aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as an added layer of defence.

Washington's stepped-up military response comes at a time of deepening engagement between the region and China, which brokered a shock detente between Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in March.

Tehran's relations with other Arab Gulf states are also growing. The president of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait's foreign minister were both offered invitations to visit the Islamic Republic last week.

'Security will remain a friction point in US-Gulf relations even if the threat posed by Iranian attacks against shipping eases in the short term,' said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

'The perception that the US isn't doing enough to deter Iranian attacks against international shipping will persist,' he told AFP.

'The need for a new approach is evident'.
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is urging his Democratic colleagues to jump in the presidential race because voters don't want a 'coronation' in the primary.

'Democrats are telling me that they want, not a coronation, but they want a competition,' Phillips, 54, said on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday. He cited New York Times polling that shows 64 percent of Democrats don't want President Biden at the top of their ticket in 2024.

'If we don't heed that call, shame on us. And the consequences, I believe, are going to be disastrous,' Phillips said.

Biden is currently facing Democratic challenges from self-help author Marianne Williamson and environmental attorney and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips is urging his Democratic colleagues to jump in the presidential race because voters don't want a 'coronation' in the primary

Phillips, a moderate Democrat, recently met with donors in New York to discuss a potential run for the presidency. But on CBS he tamped down the idea that he might launch a run this cycle.

'I think I'm well positioned to be president [of] the United States,' said the congressman. 'I do not believe I'm well positioned to run for it right now. People who are should jump in because we need to meet the moment.'

Phillips has already said he won't back Biden in 2024.

'No,' Phillips replied when asked by a radio station late last month. 'I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up.'

Democrats are telling me that they want, not a coronation, but they want a competition,' Phillips, 54, said on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday

Biden currently has two competitors in the Democratic primary: Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

.@RepDeanPhillips (D-MN) says he doesnt yet know if he will run for president, but is calling on other Democrats to jump in to the race because Democrats and the country need competition. pic.twitter.com/wmZXuXpFrX  Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2023

The congressman said he is 'pleased' Biden has competitors in RFK Jr. and Williamson, but Kennedy, Biden's closest rival, is 'not the one that I'm looking for. I don't believe him to be a Democrat.'

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has not shot down rumors that he might run for the highest office in 2024, teasing a third party run by attending a No Labels event in New Hampshire last month.

No Labels is openly considering whether to launch a third-party "unity" ticket in next year's race.

According to FiveThirtyEight's polling average Kennedy has about 15 percent support from Democratic voters compared to Biden's 64 percent.
Do YOU know this person? Email Melissa.Koenig@mailonline.com

Police said they are aware of the video, and it is under review

Video posted online shows a New York City police officer smashing a teenager's face into the back window of a taxi cab during a riot Friday night

This is the shocking moment NYPD cops smash a youngster's face through the back window of a cab at the Kai Cenat riots in New York City.

Crowds descended on Union Square on Friday after the Twitch streamer told his millions of fans he would give away free PlayStation 5s.

The ensuing riot saw cars destroyed as fights broke out among thousands of people gathered in downtown Manhattan.

In one video from the scene, a cop could be seen grabbing a teenager by the arms and slamming him against the back window of a taxi cab, smashing the glass.

Police then grabbed another man, who struggled as he was surrounded by cops who pinned him to the ground.

The NYPD told DailyMail.com it is 'aware of the video, and it is under internal review,' after Mayor Eric Adams suggested 'outside agitators' could have been to blame.

Video posted online showed a cop shoving a teenager's head into the back window of a taxi cab at a riot in New York City on Friday

The unidentified teenager is pictured here with blood dripping down his face

The unidentified teenager was apparently taken into custody in the aftermath. The NYPD said the video is under review

Cenat, 21, has been charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly after he announced a gaming giveaway along with fellow streamer Fanum scheduled for 4pm Friday.

He had promised to give out free PlayStation 5 consoles, computers, accessories and gift cards during the Twitch stream.

In his Twitch broadcast, Cenat told his 20million followers: 'We're making sure to have good like protection and s***. You already know, we're trying to chill and s***.

'All my New York n******, I f****** love you n****** to death,' he said. 'But ya'll n****** are wild. Ya'll n****** are animals, bro. Let's be real, bro. When you n****** get too lit, when there's too much going on, like, n****** start violating s***.

'That s*** might end really quick depending on how rowdy you get and s*** like that.'

He added: 'Now, look - it is a public area. So anything can happen, bro. Anything can happen.

'Make sure you pull up with somebody. Just make sure you pull up with a friend to make sure ya'll are good and st like that.

'New York is f***** insane, n-r. But I need all my New York n****** out there. We're gonna go crazy, bro.'

He added that he picked Union Square because the event 'would get shut down ASAP' if it was held at a more crowded New York landmark such as Times Square.

Influencer Kai Cenat told millions of fans on the streaming platform Twitch that 'we're gonna go crazy' just days before his gaming giveaway turned into a riot at Union Square

Video from the riot showed police grabbing the unidentified teenager by the arm

The boy seemed scared as police tried to cajole him after a cop slammed his face into the taxi cab's back window

Police then grabbed another man, who struggled as he was surrounded by cops who pinned him to the ground

Rioters are seen on Friday throwing ceramic plates and water bottles at police officers

Others grabbed trash bins and threw them at cops who responded to the scene

A rioter jumped on the roof of a car in Union Square, New York City, as other young people filmed him at the riot

People film as a man karate kicks the windows of a car parked near Union Square

The popular streamer was freed from police custody just hours after he was arrested for inciting the riot in which 65 people were arrested and at least seven were injured. Of those arrested, 30 were juveniles.

He has been given a desk-appearance ticket and is due back in court August 18, the Manhattan DA's office said Sunday.

Shocking photos and videos from Friday's riot show fights breaking out among a crowd of thousands of people gathered in downtown Manhattan.

Some hurled fire extinguishers while others senselessly pounded away at cars that were parked on the street.

Cenat could be seen emerging from an SUV worming his way through the crowd and directing his followers to a nearby truck with a see-through back that contained boxes labeled PS5.

Half of the crowd followed the truck, the other half continued to follow the social media star. When the car got to 17th street, it picked up speed and drove away from the scene.

Cops were forced to hold up pieces of plywood and take cover behind cars as people threw objects at them, according to Eyewitness News.

It's unclear when and why the crowd turned violent.

Cenat and his friends reacted to the wild scene on a live stream that seemed to show them reveling in the crowd.

'Look at this!' Cenat said, as he showed a picture of the crowd to the camera.

'They standing like in f****** unity, bro.'

He added: 'Everybody for themselves, it's a war out there man.'

Cenat announced the giveaway alongside video game streamer Fanum, but the pair did not have a permit for the event, police said

Cenat could be seen emerging from an SUV worming his way through the crowd and directing his followers to a nearby truck with a see-through back that contained boxes labeled PS5

Crowds descended on Union Square on Friday after Twitch streamer Kai Cenat told his millions of fans he would give away free PlayStation 5s

Police installed barricades in a bid to control the crowd, and made multiple arrests

A massive brawl broke out during the PlayStation giveaway in Union Square on Friday

At a press conference following the riots, NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said: 'You had people were walking around with shovels, axes... a lot of young people got hurt.'

'I had officers who were hit and were hurt, but they stayed to help us resolve this.

'We're not against young people having a good time but it can't be to this level.'

Mayor Eric Adams later said that 'outside agitators' may have been to blame for the violence.

He said Cenat 'had a substantial number of followers' and 'people came from outside of the city to be there.'

'We are further looking into were there even some outside agitators,' the mayor said at a news conference on a separate matter Sunday.

'You don't come to get free Game Boys and bring smoke bombs and bring M-80s and bring other disruptive items. We believe there were some outside influencers that may have attempted to aggravate this situation.'

He also warned of the negative effects social media can have on the young, admitting that it is difficult for parents but that 'our children cannot get their values, their beliefs from social media and other outside entities.

'Our children are being inundated by influencers, by those who consider themselves to be credible messengers,' he said.

During a press conference on a separate issue, Mayor Adams commented that the influencer 'had a substantial number of followers' and 'people came from outside of the city to be there'

The riot broke at New York City 's Union Square after YouTuber Kai Cenat announced he would be handing out free PlayStation 5s at the landmark in downtown Manhattan

On Saturday, the public relations company working with Cenat apologized for the riot.

In a statement that did not mention the streamer by name, AMP Group claimed the firm had organized giveaway events before and 'never experienced anything at the scale of what took place' at Union Square.

'Yesterday members of AMP hoped to create a positive experience for fans and give back as a show of appreciation for their support,' AMP Vice President Erica Tucker said in the statement.

'We recognize that our audience and influence are growing, and with that comes greater responsibility. We are deeply disheartened by the outbreak of disorderly conduct that affected innocent people and businesses, and do not condone that behavior.'

'We apologize to all of those impacted. We are fully cooperating with local authorities,' she said.
A bear ran amok on a passenger plane after it broke free of its cage in the cargo hold right before the aircraft took off from Dubai last week.

Terrified passengers had to be evacuated after the animal escaped on an Iraqi Airways plane flying between Baghdad International Airport and Dubai International Airport on August 4.

Flight 123 had reportedly arrived in Dubai and was set to travel back to Baghdad, Iraq's capital, when crews learned that the bear had broken out of its shipping crate - delaying the flight as authorities dispatched animal control specialists.

Now, Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shayya' Sabbar al Sudani has waded into the row over who is responsible for the shocking incident, ordering an investigation.

The return flight to the Iraqi capital was delayed three hours and thirty minutes as a result, with footage circulating on social media capturing audio of the plane's captain apologising to passengers for the disruption to their journey.

A bear ran amok on a plane after it broke free of its cage in the cargo hold right before the aircraft took off from Dubai last week (pictured). Footage shows that one staff member even managed to pet the beast's head despite the incident terrifying passengers

The bear could be seen pacing around the cargo hold of the plane, but showed little sign of wanting to come out on its own accord

Another video recorded by a ground crew member shows the bear wandering within the cargo hold of the 737 aeroplane.

The footage shows that one staff member even managed to pet the beast's head despite the incident terrifying passengers and causing the severe delay.

Another clip appears to show disgruntled passengers complaining about the lengthy delay. One man is seen standing impatiently between the seats and fanning himself with a piece of paper to keep cool, waiting for news.

Iraqi Airways apologised to its passengers, although it claimed it was not to blame for the animal's escape.

The airline claimed the bear's transport was carried out in accordance with the law and with procedures and standards approved by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Iraqi Airways stated: 'The administration of the company apologizes to the travellers of the flight from Baghdad International Airport to Dubai Airport... for reasons beyond the control of the company, regarding a shipment [a bear] in the cargo hold.

'Upon arrival at Dubai Airport, the animal escaped the crate specified for its shipment,' it added.

'The plane crew coordinated with UAE's authority who sent a specialised team to sedate the animal and take it off the plane.

Another clip appears to show disgruntled passengers complaining about the lengthy delay. One man is seen standing impatiently between the seats and fanning himself with a piece of paper to keep cool, waiting for news

'After checking the plane and making sure there is no damage from this incident, the flight returned to Baghdad.'

It is unclear why the animal was being transported on the plane or who its owner is.

Keeping wild animals as pets has become especially popular among the wealthy in Iraq, despite authorities' struggles to enforce legal ways to protect them.

In the past, Baghdad's police have called on citizens to help authorities in preventing dangerous animals from being let loose onto the city's streets.
Passengers stood in shock and one even tried to open the tube door and get off

An entire train was left 'flabbergasted' last weekend when they ended up at an abandoned tube station, which has been closed for almost 25 years.

These unassuming commuters thought they were on an ordinary Jubilee Line service on July 30, but one wrong turn meant they ended up at Charing Cross Jubilee Station.

Charing Cross Jubilee station has been closed since November 19, 1999.

One 'blown away' passenger boarded the train at Green Park with the intention of reaching Westminster.

They told Reddit how they thought something looked 'unusual' about what they originally though was the Westminster stop.

They wrote: 'As the train came out of the tunnel, I noticed that Westminster station looked unusual and as the train slowed I noticed the roundels said Charing Cross and not Westminster.'

Passengers were left 'flabbergasted' when their train stopped at a tube station which has been disused for 25 years (pictured Charing Cross station)

The train ended up at Charing Cross tube station because of a mistake at the Green Park control room, according to the Reddit user

The train driver admitted via intercom that they had no clue what had happened. Passengers stood in shock, while one even tried to open the door, but they weren't allowed to alight.

Shortly after, the tube driver returned giggling, explaining to travelers that the Green Park control room sent the train down the wrong path.

Because of the wrong turn, they then had to turn the train into a Northbound train, returning to Green Park where all the passengers hoped off, the Reddit user explained.

Some people on the platforms were envious they weren't on the strange journey too.

One user commented: 'That's kind of awesome. I love stuff like this. I wish I'd been this tube.'

Another even brought the Marvel Universe into it and said: 'You've solved the mystery as to how Thor got from Charing Cross to Greenwich on one tube.'

A friend of another traveler onboard took to Twitter to share an eerie photo of the abandoned station.

'London Underground cursed image as my friend's train somehow went to the wrong stop after Green Park. how often does this happen on the Jubilee?'

London Underground cursed image as my friend's train somehow went to the wrong stop after Green Park. how often does this happen on the Jubilee? pic.twitter.com/XJdAiz1khL  transit 'awesome' ist (@joandidiyonic) July 30, 2023

Charing Cross station (pictured) closed its doors for the final time in November 19, 1999. It is still used for tours by the London Transport Museum. Some visitors pay up to 44 to visit the abandoned station

A TfL spokesperson said: 'A Jubilee line train was sent from Green Park station to sidings at Charing Cross on Sunday afternoon as part of a plan to restore the timetabled service after some trains ran later than scheduled.

'Due to a miscommunication, the doors closed before all customers had left the train and it continued to the sidings before returning straight back to Green Park to allow those customers to leave the train.

'We apologise for the disruption this caused to their journeys, and we can assure Londoners that this train movement was routine, entirely safe and controlled by our signaling system.'

The Charing Cross Jubilee Line Station closed it's doors for the final time nearly quarter of a century ago.

Until the 1970's the Jubilee line operated eastbound to westbound, running through tunnels beneath the Strand part of the station.

Charing Cross tube station was originally separated into two, with the Jubilee section travelling between the Northern Line and Bakerloo tunnels.

On April 30, 1979 , the Jubilee Line was opened by a young King Charles, sealed with an inaugural train route also from Green Park to Charing Cross.

However, 20 years later the station was shut for construction that never eventually came to fruition.

More complex path and curves required to extend the Jubilee line south to Waterloo via Charing Cross, would have rendered the route illogical.

Then Prince Charles opened the Charing Cross Jubilee station on April 30, 1979. Pictured here on the inaugural train route from Green Park to Charing Cross

Charles, then Prince of Wales, going up the escalators in Charing Cross tube station. One anonymous passenger said they were still 'blown away' by the free trip to the disused station

Therefore, the decision was made to create a new route from Green Park, thus closing Charing Cross Jubilee station.

The station is sometimes used by drivers to inconspicuously reverse their trains from southbound to northbound.

Some people even pay up to 44 to visit the disused Charing Cross station, so some passengers were happy to get the visit for free.

A passenger who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC: 'I'm still blown away at what happened, maybe because I got a free trip to an abandoned Tube station.'
The president of the American Library Association, who began her tenure in July by declaring herself a 'Marxist lesbian' when she was elected, now faces staunch criticism by conservatives and states are cutting ties with her group.

In April 2022, following her election to her current post, Emily Drabinski, 48, tweeted (and has since deleted): 'I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary'

'I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD. I love you mom.'

Republican lawmakers have zeroed in on the tweet as cause, in part, for their respective states to defund and abandon the ALA, which is the oldest and largest nonprofit trade organization for libraries.

In July, Montana officially became the first state to sever ties completely with the ALA, an 'organization led by a Marxist,' according to the state's Library Commission.

Republican lawmakers in Washington have also begun petitioning to halt federal funding to the ALA. They receive funding through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which was awarded at least $211million for fiscal year 2023.

Emily Drabinski, 48, assumed her role as the president of the American Library Association in July and is facing significant political backlash from those who object to her admittedly Marxist politics

Montana official severed its connections with the ALA, as other states push for the same thing

Conservative politicians in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming have encouraged their states' libraries to withdraw from the nonprofit.

Republicans have asserted librarians and library professionals who follow the ALA's lead have been captured and influenced by a 'woke' ideology.

They have further labeled the organization 'radical' and claimed it is pushing a sexual agenda on children.

Despite the backlash, Drabinski, who is queer, says she will not hide her political opinions or sexuality.

'I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me, and are often under a lot of scrutiny,' Drabinski said during her first interview since assuming her yearlong post.

She said she was excited to display a sense of pride to her peers and colleagues who share her political identity with her.

'I didnt anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasnt happening right now,' she said.

Drabinski has also said she wants to make sure that black people and members of the LGBTQ community see themselves reflected in the books on their local library shelves.

'So many of us find ourselves at the ends of our worlds. The consequences of decades of unchecked climate change, class war, white supremacy, and imperialism have led us here. If we want a world that includes public goods like the library, we must organize our collective power and wield it,' she said last year.

'Social and economic justice and racial equity requires that we make a material difference in the lives of library workers and patrons who have for too long been denied power and opportunity on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, national origin, spoken language, and disability.'

The new president of the organization believes that she has stepped into her role at a time when right-wing politicians and activists are taking special aim at libraries in an effort to restrict the books on their shelves that feature LGBTQ-themes that are deemed inappropriate for children.

Last year, the ALA documented the highest number of suggested book cans since it began keeping a record of such efforts in 2001.

In Florida, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania criminal complaints have been filed against librarians attempting to get them arrested and charged with obscenity. None have succeeded so far.

Trustees of the Montana State Library Commission debated leaving the ALA at their meeting last month, when one member said their oath of office forbade them from being part of a group led by a Marxist

In response to the criticism of her personal politics, Drabinski said: 'My own personal political viewpoint is a target right now, but my personal agenda doesnt drive the association. It's the agenda of all of us together'

Recently, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, and Mike Braun of Indiana demanded that federal funding to the ALA be halted.

They are also pushing for the government to launch an investigation into the organization for allegedly advising librarians to discriminate against a Christian book publisher.

Drabinski says that these pushes by conservative critics are an 'organized pro-censorship efforts' by individuals who 'want to erode support for public institutions that enable access to information for everyone.'

'My own personal political viewpoint is a target right now, but my personal agenda doesnt drive the association. It's the agenda of all of us together,' she added.

The organization says it plans to strengthen its support for libraries that are facing political backlash, including raising money to hire attorneys and providing crisis communications teams.

ALA is also launching a campaign to support people 'who believe in intellectual freedom' who are running for school board and library boards.

The effort follows a significant push across the US for conservatives and parents who disagree with public school policies on issues ranging from COVID to the treatment of the two genders to gain seats on school boards.

This coming January, the ALA will host an intellectual freedom summit in Washington, DC. The last time it held such a summit was during the McCarthy era, when authors and teachers were being accused of communist sympathies.

At the time, libraries were being forced to give specific labels to books that were considered 'un-American.'

The last time state chapters withdrew from the ALA was during the Jim Crew era, after the national office said it would not hosts events in segregated states, said the organization.

Tom Burnett, a member of the Montana State Library Commission, said at last month's meeting that their oath of office forbids them from being associated with a group led by a Marxist

Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, a First Amendment advocacy organization, says that the targeting of the ALA 'isn't about the figurehead,' meaning Drabinski.

'Its much more about sending a chilling message to a larger number of people to put them on notice about what happens to people who stand up for freedom of expression or freedom of identity.

'Its a really alarming precedent that theyre proposing here, which would be some kind of litmus test for the politics of all organizations that receive state funding, the likes of which havent really been adopted before in the United States,' he said.

Tom Burnett, a member of the Montana State Library Commission, said at last month's meeting that their oath of office forbids them from being associated with a group led by a Marxist.
The boss of an Italian cheesemaking company was crushed to death after 15,000 wheels of cheese buried him in his own factory.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, was tragically found dead by firefighters after a shelf broke in his factory in the northern Lombardy region on Sunday at around 9pm and caused a deadly domino effect that brought down a total of 15,000 wheels of Grana Padano.

The wheels of the cheese, which is very similar to Parmigiano Reggiano, can each weigh up to 40 kg.

118 rescuers, made up of firefighters and paramedics, were forced to work through the night to find the body of the cheesemaker, who was working inside the warehouse at the time of the shocking incident.

Around 15,000 wheels of cheese collapsed after one shelf started a deadly domino effect in his factory (pictured)

Cheesemaker Giacomo Chiapparini (left) leaves behind his wife, two kids and several grandchildren

Firefighter Antonio Dusi from Bergamo told AFP that the rescuers spent a gruelling 12 hours moving 'the cheeses and the shelves by hand' before the grandfather's body was finally found at around 9am on Monday.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that Chiapparini, who leaves behind his wife, two children and several grandchildren, was trying to control a robot that automates the cleaning process for the wheels of maturing cheese.

But Italian cops are still investigating, and are trying to reconstruct exactly how the tragedy played out

Giacomo's daughter, Mary, previously told a dairy industry group that he had worked in cheesemaking for his entire life.

He worked his own dad's farm as a sharecropper with his brother before eventually branching off in 1977 and buying his own farm.

He then spent several decades winning awards for his cheesemaking skills.
by Tim Sommers

Judges judge. The way to tell that someone is a judge, as opposed to a legislator, is to examine whether the judge judges actual ongoing controversies between particular people who have incurred, or will incur, specific harms  or not. In that sense, the difference between legislating and judging is locus standi  or standing. Article III of the U.S. Constitution extends to the judicial branch of the US government only the power to decide cases and controversies. To seek a judicial remedy, one must demonstrate a sufficient connection to a harm to them personally that is a result of a law, or action, that is the subject of their case.

Civil Rights Activists were forced to commit civil disobedience, to openly break laws, and be punished for doing so, because law testing is (or, rather, was) not allowed. To have standing in cases where people of color were denied the right to be in certain spaces, someone of color had to go into and physically occupy those spaces, then face the legal, and often actual physical, peril that resulted. In other words, Civil Rights Activists were not allowed to challenge the Constitutionality of laws in an American court without standing. And they couldnt get standing without breaking the (relevant) law.

But thats all done with now. Now, you are free to pursue a case all the way up to the Supreme Court on the theory that hypothetically someone might one day break that law or merely disagree with it on policy or political grounds. This is what I mean by the death of standing. Ill just give two examples from the last session of the Supreme Court. But there are other recent cases suggesting standing is no longer a thing.

In 303 Creative v Elenis, Lorie Smith was planning to, in the future sometime, expand her graphic design business to include a business (that she was currently not involved in) which would create websites for weddings, if someone happened to ask her to do so later on. In Colorado, where she was located, theres a public accommodation law that forbids business, in the ordinary course of doing business, from declining to service customers who identify as homosexual or trans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 already forbids discrimination based on national origin, sex, religion, color, or race, of course, so you might think that sex discrimination already covered homosexuality and people who identify as non-cis gendered. Theres certainly precedent to treat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender-identification as sex discrimination (Seem, my article on Bostock v Clayton.) But the state of Colorado went the extra mile to explicitly treat people who identify as gay or trans as a protected class. Since Smith planned to violate that statue, and discriminate against gay and trans people, at some time in the future, she sought explicit permission from the courts to do so  which they gave her. The SCOTUS majority in their decision characterized her suit like this, To clarify her rights, Ms. Smith filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the State from forcing her to create websites celebrating marriages that defy her belief that marriage should be reserved to unions between one man and one woman.

Again, she was not currently being forced to do anything. No one had asked her to do any kind of wedding website. But the jaw-dropping bit is the explicit description of her aim as To clarify her rights Its basically an open admission that she doesnt have, or have to have, standing.

Although from a legal perspective this next bit is inconsequential, from a human perspective it makes things even worse. As I said, in court filings, Smith had admitted previously that no one had asked her to make a website for a gay marriage. Then, by a remarkable coincidence, she received just such a request the night before the first day of the trial. In a less remarkable denouement, after the SCOTUS decision the person she had identified as having asked for the website denied making the request, denied knowing the plaintiff, and said that, while he supports LGBTQ+ rights, he was straight and married to a woman.

Among other things, this case showed that SCOTUS is prepared to allow people seeking to clarify their rights to file cases even where they lack standing, presumably, so SCOTUS (as opposed to Colorado or Congress) can decide what the law should be.

Consider also Biden v Nebraska (which in addition to being the name of a SCOTUS case is a pretty apt description of the political moment). The Biden administration claimed that under Title IV of the Higher Education act of 1965 Title IV and the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) they had the ability to forgive billions of dollars in student loans without further Congressional authorization. The act read in part that the Secretary of Education may waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programsdeem[ed] necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency. The court decided that waive and modify did not mean waive or modify, or at least it meant dont waive or modify in any way which is inconsistent with the current policy positions of the Republican party. (Its also true that the case was allowed to skip the normal procedures to bring a suit to the court and the law was decided by SCOTUS before the facts were decided. But I want to focus on standing.)

The suit was brought by a number of state Attorney Generals who wanted to prevent the loan forgiveness program. They knew that they needed particularized harms to specific persons, or entities, to gain standing, but it was hard to say who was being harmed by free money. Also, its a well-established bit of common-law that the government misusing your tax money doesnt give you standing (and must be dealt with through ordinary legislative processes), neither does saying that your State is affected by some Federal action that also applies equally to all states give you standing (for basically the same reason, it is a matter for ordinary legislative processes). So, heres what the AGs came up with. They decided to sue on behalf of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA), one of the largest holders and servicers of student loans in the United States.

They argued that MOHELA was the specific entity that had suffered an identifiable harm in this case. Only they didnt and dont work for MOHELA or own MOHLA, neither were they hired nor retained by MOHELA for legal services, nor was MOHELA suing or in anyway involved in the suit in which they were being named. Which is crazy enough, but then there is this. The final result of Bidens program would have been to increase MOHELAs bottom line. How is making more money a harm?

Deciding what the law will be without considering any particular case, or the plight of any specific individual, is legislating. When the law is, not applied, but is made in this way, by unelected judges with life-time appointments to positions explicitly without any code of ethics, any oversight, or any chance of further appeal, this is not democratic.

Hence, the death of standing is the death of democracy.
The surgeon who operated on the father of three children said there is 'less than 1% of the return of motor and sensitive functions'

The 42-year-old underwent surgery Saturday to stabilized his neck and is in stable condition

Dramatic video footage captured the moment a man was seriously injured by a bodybuilding machine at a gym in Brazil, leaving him with a 1 percent chance of ever walking again.

Regilanio da Silva, 42, had just taken a break in between his workout and was sitting on the bench when the machine holding 330 pounds of plates collapsed over his neck on Friday at a training center in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara.

Three men can see seen quickly removing the lever off da Silva's back and signaling for help while he remained sitting on the bench.

Da Silva, a father of three children, underwent emergency for four hours at Santo Antonio Hospital to stabilize his neck.

Regilanio da Silva sits on the squat machine bench moments before a lever with 300 pounds of plates fell on stop of his neck at a gym in Ceara, Brazil, on Friday. The doctor who performed surgery on the 42-year-old man on Saturday said that there is less than 1 percent of a chance that he may walk again

Regilanio da Silva suffered a serious neck injury when a squat machine lever holding more than 300 pounds of plates fell on top of his neck at a Brazilian gym on Friday

The last medical updated indicated that he was in stable condition, but he has no mobility in his legs.

His sister, Maria das Dores, said that he has mobility in his arms.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Jose Correia suggested that the chances of him being able to walk again are very slim.

'It depends a lot on the degree of injury at first, the level of return of previous functions,' Dr. Correia said, as quoted by Brazilian news outlet G1.

'There are neither motor nor sensitive components, unfortunately. It is the most serious injury there is from the point of view of neurological damage. The chance is, statistically, less than 1% of the return of motor and sensitive functions.'

Dr. Correia added that 'the thoracolumbar junction, which is the transition from the rib cage to the lumbar region, has lost bone continuity. It doesn't touch one bone to another.'

According to 220 FIT gym, the machine was purchased less than 60 days ago and was in perfect condition.

Gym customers rush to help 42-year-old Regilanio da Silva as soon as the bodybuilding machine's lever collapsed on top of his neck

Quick-thinking gym customers lift the lever off Regilanio da Silva's neck moments after it fell over him

Cicero Aparecido, a manager at the training facility, said the equipment has plates on the side with a center lock and that customers performed 'conventional squats on the machine rather than freestyle squats.'

Da Silva's family said that loved ones and the gym split the cost of the $7,000 surgery.

Since then they have set up an account on the crowdfunding site, Vakinha, to raise funds for da Silva's recovery.

'Let's pray that Regi recovers quickly and that his progress is blessed by divine grace to regain leg movement,' the family said.
A woman who was reportedly planning the assassination of Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Ukraine.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) detained the unnamed woman and began questioning her about her alleged involvement in a plot to kill the Ukrainian president during his visit to the port city of Mykolaiv last month.

The woman was a Russian informant who was collecting intelligence about Mr Zelensky's planned visit, SBU officials said.

She is accused of trying to find out where and when the president was travelling and reportedly filmed the locations of Ukrainian facilities, including ammunition depots and electronic warfare systems.

The woman was caught 'red-handed' by authorities while trying to pass over the collected intelligence to Russia, the SBU claimed. If convicted, she could face 12 years in prison.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) detained the unnamed woman and began questioning her about her involvement in a plot to kill Zelensky during his visit (pictured) to the port city of Mykolaiv last month

Zelensky awards Ukrainian service members as he visits a military hospital near Mykolaiv

The suspect was living in the Ukrainian city of Ochakiv - a small city in the southern Mykolaiv region. She is understood to have been a former saleswoman in a store for one of the region's military units.

The SBU allege that she was gathering the information as part of a plot to carry out an air strike on Mykolaiv and assassinate Zelensky.

When detectives learned of the woman's plans, 'additional security measures' were taken to protect Zelensky, officials said.

'The Ukrainian Security Service continued to document the criminal actions of the enemy accomplice in order to obtain new data about her Russian 'curators' and the tasks received,' they said in a statement on Monday.

Mr Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow's forces approached.

It came as Russian shelling struck a nine-storey residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Kherson had endured a 'tough night' as the Russians 'covered the central part of the city with fire'.

In the north-eastern Kharkiv province, a 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in Russian shelling.

Mr Zelensky has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow's forces approached

Ukrainian soldiers fire the M777 artillery at their artillery position

It comes after Ukraine damaged two key bridges leading into Russian-occupied Crimea with 'Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK'.

The Chonhar bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged and a small bridge across the Tonky Strait was also shelled.

Continuing attacks by Mr Zelensky's forces are making it increasingly hard for Putin's invading army to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Russia is also facing a revolt from its own nationals - with anti-Putin militia groups claiming to have blown up a fuel and ammunition depot inside occupied Ukraine.

The Freedom of Russia Legion - which was formed in spring 2022 to fight for Ukraine - claimed a mortar strike on the village of Zaitseve in the Donetsk region.

Dramatic drone footage captured the moment that the depot was transformed into a raging inferno as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky.

The attack came in the wake of Russia staging three waves of attacks on Sunday morning on a Ukrainian air base believed to house British- and French-supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

The Freedom of Russia Legion has announced the destruction of an ammunition depot in Zaitsevo, Donetsk region

A triple attack saw explosions in the vicinity of Starokonstantinov air base in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi region, according to reports.

The scale of any damage was not clear but Sergei Gamaly, the head of Ukraine's regional military administration, said a 'series of explosions' had hit the area.

Russia had sent up seven Tu-95 nuclear-capable strategic bombers to unleash strikes with conventional Kh-101 missiles, reports said.

Russian sources said the Starokonstantinov base was used by Ukrainian Su-24 warplanes to fire Storm Shadows and French version SCALP-EGs at occupied lands.

The devastating attack came as grain silos were, again, targeted overnight in Kharkiv, and during a national celebration of Ukraine's Air Force, with Zelensky taking time to praise his 'heroes of the sky' on social media.
A frantic mother has pleaded for help finding her shy, introverted teenage daughter a month after she vanished without her phone from her home in Saratoga, California.

Katherine Schneider, 17, was last seen driving off in her white 2019 Honda Accord on July 5. Police continue to search for clues on what happened to the teen and where she went.

Her family has heard nothing from the teen who is 5-foot-5-inches tall, with straight blonde hair and blue eyes.

'As a family, we know Katie to be so much more than a pretty face,' wrote mom Nola Schneider on Instagram.

'Please reach out to us if you know anything that might suggest her whereabouts. Much love.'

Katie (left) pictured on a beach with her sister just days before her disappearance on July 5

Katie Schneider has not been seen since leaving her Saratoga home more than a month ago

Katie pictured with her mother Nola (left) who has pleaded with the public for information on the disappearance

Nola said her daughter had no ID, money or credit cards on her when she disappeared and the family immediately informed police.

'We think she didn't expect to be gone for long,' she wrote.

'She left without informing us of her plans, and left her belongings behind, making it incredibly challenging for us to locate or establish communication with her.

'I am missing my daughter so much.

'If you have any information that may be helpful please contact us.'

Police immediately launched a hunt for the girl and have now released a photo of the white Honda with tinted windows she disappeared driving. The California license plate reads 8KLK251.

'The Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office is seeking the publics assistance in locating a missing juvenile from the City of Saratoga,' a spokesman wrote.

'Katherine Schneider was last seen leaving her residence on July 5, 2023, driving a white 2019 Honda Accord (CA License Plate #8KLK251) with tinted windows.

The white 2019 Hinda Accord hybrid with distinctive tinted windows and registration plate 8KLK251 driven by Katie on the day of her disappearance

Katie left with no money, phone or ID when she vanished nearly a month ago.

Nola has released a series of heartbreaking pictures of her daughter as she appeals for the public's help

Katie running barefoot in an Instagram post released by her mother

Katie's family wrestled with the need to protect her privacy before releasing the pictures

'Katherine is described as a 17-year-old white female juvenile, with straight blonde mid-back-length hair, and blue eyes.

Nola has posted a series of heartbreaking photos of her missing daughter on Instagram, including one of Katie with her sister on a beach just days before she disappeared.

'We reported Katie's disappearance immediately to law enforcement and have subsequently followed their guidance and direction,' she wrote on Saturday.

'We continue to work closely with law enforcement and have delayed going public in part because we wished to honor their efforts to find Katie.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is leading the hunt

'At the same time, because Katie is a shy, introverted child, we have tried to protect her privacy, and to do whatever we can to find her.'

'Keep calling out to you...please come home...please show me where you are, my baby....

A police spokesman said: Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office at (408) 808-4500.

'Alternatively, you can contact the Sheriffs Office Investigative Services anonymous tip line at phone number (408) 808-4431, or email: PIO@shf.sccgov.org.'
The fourth and final former Minneapolis cop has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for his role in the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

The sentence handed to Tou Thao, 37, by the county judge was six months longer than the sentence proposed by Minneapolis prosecutors.

'I was hoping for a little more remorse, regret, acknowledgment of some responsibility. And less preaching,' Judge Peter Cahill said to Thao during sentencing on Monday.

It comes three months after Thao, a nine-year veteran of the force, was found guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Thao testified that he served as a 'human traffic cone' when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as fellow officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck.

Tou Thao speaks during his sentencing hearing in Hennepin County District Court on Monday

Kueng and his fellow officers Tou Thao and Thomas Lane were previously found guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights by not intervening when Chauvin kneeled on the back of Floyd's neck. All four are pictured during the incident in 2020

The fourth and final former Minneapolis cop, Tou Thao, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison for his role in the 2020 killing of George Floyd

Thao was also sentenced last year to three and a half years over federal charges that he deprived Floyd of his civil rights. Cops involved in Floyd's killing have faced federal and state charges - both incur prison time but can be served concurrently.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other prosecutors handling the state charges had asked the judge to sentence Thao to 51 months in prison.

In his 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thao's actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

'There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances,' Cahill wrote.

He concluded: 'Thao's actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers' excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.'

Lawyers for Thao were not immediately available for comment on Monday.

Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in 2021. The other two officers, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, restrained Floyd's knees and buttocks while Chauvin knelt on his neck.

Tou Thao listens as prosecutor Erin Eldridge speaks during his sentencing hearing in Hennepin County District Court on August 7

Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao (left) and his attorney arrive for sentencing for violating George Floyd's civil rights outside the federal courthouse in July, 2022

Thao was also sentenced last year to three and a half years over federal charges that he deprived Floyd of his civil rights

Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discriminating against black and Native American people following an investigation prompted by the killing of George Floyd (pictured)

Last year, Lane (right) and Kueng (left) pleaded guilty in state court to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, while Kueng was sentenced to three years

Thao previously rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, claiming 'it would be lying' to plead guilty when he didn't think he was in the wrong.

He instead agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvin's 2021 murder trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Lane and Kueng.

Last year, Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty in state court to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Lane was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, while Kueng was sentenced to three years.

At a federal trial last year, Kueng and Lane were also found guilty of violating Floyd's civil rights.

Lane was sentenced to two and a half years and Kueng to three years in federal prison, to run concurrently with the state sentence.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in state prison for the unintentional second-degree murder of Floyd. Last year, he also received a concurrent sentence of 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd's civil rights.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.
Three hillwalkers have been found dead after failing to return from a trip to Glencoe, Scotland.

Two men and a woman have been confirmed dead after an extensive search.

The alarm was raised just after 9.05pm on Saturday, August 5, when the group failed to return from Aonach Eagach Ridge.

According to Time and Date, the conditions were rainy and chilly for August, with highs of just 15C and lows of 5C overnight.

Glencoe and RAF mountain rescue teams were scrambled along with HM Coastguard.

But unfortunately, Police Scotland said the bodies were discovered during the search operation.

Pictured, Aonach Eagach Ridge which is is said to be one of the narrowest ridges on the British mainland

A major rescue operation was launched but unfortunately the walkers' dead bodies were found (pictured, Coastguard rescue helicopter at Glencoe in 2019)

Aonach Eagach is said to be one of the narrowest ridges on the British mainland. Pictured, Glencoe on the map

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'We were made aware of concern for a group of three hillwalkers who had not returned from the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe shortly after 9.05pm on Saturday, August 5.

'A search was carried out and the bodies of three people were found. HM Coastguard as well as Glencoe and RAF mountain rescue teams assisted with the recovery operation.

'There do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.'

Aonach Eagach is said to be one of the narrowest ridges on the British mainland.

The ridge stretches east-west for several miles and includes two Munro summits - Sgurr nam Fiannaidh at 967m (3,175 ft) high, and Meall Dearg at 952m (3,124 ft) high.

The ridge is very rocky and the route along it requires scrambling ability. The slopes to each side are extremely dangerous, with steep grass-and-scree slopes hiding even steeper slopes which end in cliffs on both north and south sides of the ridge.

It is one of the worst multiple fatalities involving hillwalkers from one incident in Scottish mountains

The coastguard helicopter from Inverness and mountain rescue teams assisted with the operation.

The helicopter from Prestwick provided further support to police and rescue teams Sunday morning.

It is one of the worst multiple fatalities involving hillwalkers from one incident in Scottish mountains.

This comes after a climber was airlifted to hospital after a fall on Aonach Eagach Ridge in July when he tumbled an unknown distance.

Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team were alerted after the alarm was raised around 1.30pm on July 9.

The Inverness-based search and rescue helicopter airlifted the climber to the care of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team at Torlundy.

He was taken to Belford Hospital in Fort William.

Also in September a climber died after falling more than 650 feet on the mountain.

The 36-year-old man was near the top of the Aonach Eagach Ridge when a rock he went to grip gave way.

A few days earlier the body of a man who went missing almost a year earlier was found in a gully near Aonach Eagach Ridge.

According to Time and Date, the conditions were rainy and chilly for August, with highs of just 15C and lows of 5C overnight

Alan Taylor, 57, had been missing from Dundee since September 2021.

Britain's worst mountaineering disaster happened on November 20, 1971.

Five teenage school pupils and their 18-year-old guide froze to death on the Cairngorm plateau, one of the highest and most inhospitable places in Britain.

In total 14 Edinburgh students and their three leaders set off on a school climbing expedition in the Cairngorms.

But it was to be a trip steeped in tragedy. It came to be known as the 'Cairngorm Plateau disaster', Britain's worst mountaineering accident, which left six dead, two fighting for their lives, and many more scared, scarred and heartbroken.

The group of 14 teenagers set off from Ainslie Park School in East Pilton with the school's outdoor instructor Ben Beattie, who at just 23 was the oldest of the group, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Catherine Davidson in sole charge.

The fatal accident inquiry was held in Banff in February 1972.

It was revealed that the consent forms issued to parents did not say there would be winter mountaineering.

It concluded parents should in future get more information about expeditions, called for the establishment of a better training and certification regime for instructors, and recommended that experts should advise on whether high-level shelters should be removed to stop people relying on them in emergencies.
Yet more financial ties between Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein have been uncovered on top of the $158million he paid him for 'tax advice' and $62million he gave US Virgin Island prosecutors to avoid being involved in litigation against the late pedophile's estate.

A lengthy Air Mail investigation published this weekend also reveals that in 2015, Black donated $10million to Gratitude America, a charity run by Jeffrey Epstein with the vague mission of 'supporting the expression of gratitude for the ideals of America.'

It was the only donation the charity had received at the time despite having existed for three years.

In the same month, Guzel Ganieva - a Russian model who was Black's mistress - received the first of what was supposed to be many $100,000 monthly payments to stay quiet about their relationship.

Billionaire Leon Black paid Epstein $158million for 'tax advice' but also gave his charity $10million in 2015. It was the only donation the charity received

It came from a mysterious 'E trust', whereas all of the other money she'd received from Black was from his bank account.

In total, she was due to receive $20million from Black as part of their deal.

In exchange, she signed an NDA agreeing to never speak of their romance, which involved meet-ups at an Upper East Side apartment across the street from where Black lives with his wife, Debra, and their children.

Guzen Ganieva went public with rape claims against Black in 2021, six years after agreeing to an NDA deal that would have paid her $20million total

Ganieva was given extravagant cash gifts, a Steinway piano and treated to expensive evenings out with Black.

He had also agreed to help her obtain British legal status and was paying for her to go to college too.

In 2021, after Epstein's death and the #MeToo movement that took down Harvey Weinstein, who frequently transacted in NDAs with accusers, Ganieva went public with her rape and harassment allegations.

She first tweeted her claims, then - after he accused her of lying - sued for defamation.

In the lawsuit, she shared more details of their affair.

They had 'countless' meals out in Manhattan where she said he showed no regard or concern for his wife becoming aware of his infidelity.

She also described the alleged sexual abuse, though many of her specific claims were redacted.

She called Black a 'sadist' whose sexual proclivities were 'abnormal'.

Black publicly admitting his affair with Ganieva, which he called 'foolish', but he denied the rape allegations.

The case was eventually dismissed.

Ganieva's lawsuit is one of three to have been directed towards Black by a woman who says he raped her.

The other two, filed by Cheri Pierson in 2022 and a Jane Doe with mosaic Down syndrome who says he raped her when she was 16, are still being litigated. They both say the attacks happened at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion.

In 2016, a year after he gave Epstein's charity $10million and Ganieva received the first of her $100k payments from the 'E trust', money was transferred back from Epstein to Black, according to Air Mail.

It was in the form of a donation from Epstein's Gratitude America charity to Black's Melanoma research charity in the amount of $225,000.

Because Black was the sole donor to Epstein's charity, he effectively donated the funds to his own organization.

Black remains married to his wife Debra. The lawsuit filed by Ganieva claims he went to no effort to conceal his affairs from her

Black, once a high flyer in Manhattan society, has seen his reputation sullied by his many deep ties to Epstein. He is shown with Donald Trump in 1996 during a trip to Russia

There is also reference to an additional $5million Black is said to have donated to Gratitude America, but the only proof of it is in a letter of thanks from the charity, prompting questions of whether he did indeed pay the donation and, crucially, if he claimed it as a tax deduction.

Caribbean prosecutors say Epstein's criminal enterprise hinged on money stored in Southern Trust Company from 2013 to 2017.

The total was $158million - the same Black had given Epstein between 2012 and 2017.

Black's ties with Epstein are being more closely scrutinized now in light of not just the lawsuit filed by Jane Doe, but also the $158million he paid Epstein for 'tax advice'.

The Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether Black met his tax obligations through the payments.

Why Black - a titan of Wall Street with his own firm - would seek such advice from Epstein, whose own financial credentials were far less impressive, remains a mystery to many.

Black's representatives have always maintained that the payments were legitimate, that he trusted Epstein foolishly and that he was never involved in Epstein's sex trafficking of young girls.

He has been given until September 1 to cooperate with the Senate Finance Committee investigation.
Mystery surrounds why a mound of dirt blocked a rural road and restricted access for firefighters rushing to a blaze that gutted Britain's 'wonkiest pub'.

Intruders were also seen by one eyewitness inside The Crooked House pub in Himley, near Dudley, appearing to be partying before it was engulfed in flames at around 10pm on Saturday, August 5.

The pub had only been sold to developers weeks before the devastating fire left it just a shell with images showing the roof completely gone.

But mystery surrounds why firefighters were hampered from getting to the scene when a mound of dirt blocked a rural road and restricted access to the building as they rushed in vain to save the much-loved pub.

It meant 40 lengths of hose reels had to be rolled out in order to get to a working water supply, as flames took hold of the building.

Staffordshire police and fire services are now investigating the cause of blaze.

Chris Green had worked for the fire service for 16 years, of which the last 12 he has been watch commander at Tipton fire station.

He told The Mirror: 'When we got there the lads had to work so hard because there were mounds of dirt that had been put in the road blocking the lane. They could have been put there as a security measure.'

The remains of The Crooked House pub in Himley, Dudley, after a fire took hold on Saturday night. It had operated as a public house for 192 years despite its wonky appearance

Police say nobody was injured and no one was found inside the building when they arrived on the scene at 10.45pm on Saturday. An investigation is underway into the cause

Firefighters struggled to get to the pub when a mound of dirt blocked a rural road. Crews had to roll out 40 lengths of hose to access a working water supply

While one local claimed to have seen intruders inside the pub and appeared to be playing loud music, according to the Telegraph.

The mayor of the West Midlands says there are 'a lot of questions that need answering' after the 18th century farmhouse-turned-pub dubbed 'Britain's wonkiest' burned down.

Andy Street has branded the loss of pub a 'tragedy'.

Locals have lamented the loss of The Crooked House, which attracted visitors from across the world because one side of the building sat four feet lower than the other, but believe it can be rebuilt despite extensive damage.

Subsidence caused by mining works in the early 19th century caused the structure to sink into the ground on one side, and it was propped up with buttresses so it could operate as a watering hole.

Writing about the fire on his official Twitter profile, Conservative mayor Mr Street has called for the building to be restored to its former glory, branding it an 'iconic Black Country landmark'.

Mr Street said: 'A lot of questions surrounding the Crooked House fire that need answering, and I'm sure the authorities will get to the truth.

'Today all we can say is what a tragedy, and I sincerely hope this iconic Black Country landmark can be restored and preserved.'

Images from the scene on Monday show the inside of the pub has been completely gutted by the blaze.

Aerial images make clear the extent of the destruction: the roof has collapsed into the interior and few traces remain that the building was a pub at all.

Only the Crooked House signage on the outside, and painted advertisements for Banks's Ales on the brickwork, indicate what the building had been before it was destroyed.

The Crooked House was put up for sale in January as part of a cost-cutting exercise by owner Marston's, and bought by a private buyer for an undisclosed sum last month.

Conservative West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has branded the incident a 'tragedy', saying there are 'a lot of questions that need answering'

 Slide me  The signage and paintwork on the front of the pub are all that is left of its 192-year-old history as a world-famous drinking spot. Police are investigating the cause of the blaze

Prior to the weekend tragedy, a petition had been launched to save The Crooked House by local Paul Turner.

Following the fire, he has also called for what remains of the building to be restored and preserved. Before the fire, the petition had around 4,000 signatures  a figure that has doubled since.

Writing on the Change.org page, Mr Turner said: 'The job of saving The Crooked House just became a lot bigger, but it is still possible.

'The shell of the building is still standing and, although engineers would need to confirm this, it appears to be possible to rebuild it.

'Therefore I believe that the petition should continue with the aim of restoring this piece of history.

'Let's not give up, please keep sharing the petition and asking your friends to sign it and share it too.'

Six fire crews from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue and the West Midlands Fire Service attended the incident at around 10.45pm on Saturday.

No one was injured in the fire, the cause of which is now being investigated by police and fire investigators.

The outgoing landlord, Lee Goodchild, announced following the sale that the pub was closing for good after nearly 200 years, and would not re-open as the new owner was pursuing an 'alternative purpose' for the site.

He said following the fire: 'They've sold off one of the oldest pubs around. It's massively known in the area and worldwide in fact, but it's their pub to sell, and it was an expensive place to run - but obviously, does the unique heritage of the site outweigh the cost?

'It's disappointing that the place has gone up in flames. It's a shame, especially given the time and money that has gone into it. The roof has been replaced at Marston's' cost, and the kitchen too, but it all seems a little bit worthless now.'

A spokesperson for Marstons told PA: 'The sale of the Crooked House, as a going concern, was announced in January this year on the open market.

'It was well-publicised and completed two weeks ago.

'We are shocked and disappointed to learn about the fire which has caused so much damage to a landmark building which is so well known in the area.'

Pub chain Marston's sold The Crooked House to a private buyer for an undisclosed sum last month. It says it is 'shocked and disappointed' to learn the pub has been destroyed

Locals started a petition calling for the pub to be saved after a sale was announced to a private buyer who intended to pursue an 'alternative purpose' for the site. They have since doubled down on calling for The Crooked House to be restored

Aerial images show the extent of the destruction wreaked by the fire on August 5

An extension built to the rear contained a restaurant space. It was also completely destroyed in the fire, with just traces of the roof remaining

Emergency services reportedly struggled to reach the former watering hole because the path leading to the venue had allegedly been blocked.

Lord Ian Austin, an independent peer and former Labour MP for Dudley North, tweeted on Sunday that 'the lane to the pub [was] apparently blocked' during the blaze, and urged the emergency services to 'investigate and prosecute'.

He added: 'Can Marstons tell us to whom this Grade II Listed Black Country landmark was sold please so that we can commiserate with them on the loss of the historic building they bought just a few days ago?'

Staffordshire Police has urged anyone with information which could help the investigation to contact the force on 101, quoting incident number 761 of August 5.

A statement issued by the force on Sunday read: 'We are now working with fire investigators to establish the cause of the fire. Fire investigators are inspecting the scene this morning and officers are making local enquiries to secure any information that might help the investigation.'
Former President Donald Trump hit back at Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday morning accusing him of leaking case details and demanding that he face a protective order.

Trump pleaded not guilty in court last week to four federal charges related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election result.

On Friday, Smith asked a Washington, D.C., court for an order barring Trump and his lawyers from sharing discovery materials with unauthorized people.

He said a post by Trump on social media suggested the former president might publicly reveal secret material obtained from prosecutors as the case proceeds.

Trump's lawyers have until 5pm on Monday to respond.

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday sought a protective order to prevent former President Donald Trump and his team sharing discovery materials with unauthorized people

Trump's legal team has until 5pm Monday to respond. The former president offered his response earlier, claiming it would threaten his right to free speech

But Trump took to his own Truth Social platform to issue his own response earlier in the day.

'No, I shouldnt have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to FREE SPEECH,' he wrote.

'Deranged Jack Smith and the Department of Injustice should, however, because they are illegally "leaking" all over the place!'

He offered no evidence that Smith or his team had leaked details of the case.

Trump  who is favorite to win the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination  also faces allegations of trying to intimidate witnesses being lined-up to testify against him.

On Friday he posted: 'IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU.'

Within hours, Smith used it to demand a protective order, offering it as evidence that Trump was determined to attack his critics by any means necessary.

He said measures must be taken to ensure that Trump did not use 'discovery' materials  the evidence against them  in an inappropriate way.

Trump's message on Friday triggered a legal move by the special counsel in the case

'All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public,' Smith wrote.

'Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.

'And in recent days, regarding this case, the defendant has issued multiple posts - either specifically or by implication - including the following, which the defendant posted just hours ago.'

Smith then included a screenshot of the Truth Social post.

A Trump spokesperson said the post was 'political speech' and dismissed claims that it was threatening.

'What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything. He asked him in an aspirational way,' attorney John Lauro told CNN Sunday morning

'The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech and was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch Brothers and the Club for No Growth,' they said.

After making his Truth Social threat, Trump on Friday night was on stage at a rally in Montgomery, Alabama, where he mocked Smith.

'Deranged Jack Smith. Doesn't he look deranged?' Trump asked the crowd.

'You've seen the pictures with the purple robe. He's a deranged human being.

'Somebody said you should treat him nicer, maybe he'd be nice. But let me tell you.

'This guy is a lost soul. Bad guy. He's a deranged sick person.'

One of Trump's lawyers hit the Sunday news shows to defend his client against charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory, depriving U.S. voters of their right to a fair election.

'Every single thing that President Trump is being prosecuted for involved aspirational asks: Asking state legislatures, asking state governors, asking state electoral officials to do the right thing,' he told Fox News

'In fact, even asking Vice President Pence was protected by free speech.'
Nancy Pelosi thinks that the U.S. is doomed if Donald Trump becomes president again and says the latest indictment of the ex-President stands the best chance of getting him into prison rather than the White House.

The former House Speaker launched the war of words with Trump after claiming he looked like a 'scared puppy' during his D.C. court appearance on Thursday.

She also called the third and latest indictment against Trump 'beautiful' and said he knows he is going to have to face the music for trying to overturn the 2020 election results.

If Trump were to become president again, Pelosi claims, the U.S. as we know it will no longer exist.

Nancy Pelosi said that if Donald Trump became president again it would be like 'the world being on fire.' She added: 'It cannot happen, or we will not be the United States of America'

After the ex-House Speaker said Trump looked like a 'scared puppy' at his arraignment on Thursday, the former president called Pelosi the 'Wicked Witch'

Trump shot back at Pelosi's 'scared puppy' comments by calling her the 'Wicked Witch' who will 'somebody live in hell.'

When asked about the potential of Trump getting a second shot in the White House, Pelosi told New York Magazine: 'Don't even think of that.'

'Don't think of the world being on fire,' the California Democrat added in the article published on Monday. 'It cannot happen, or we will not be the United States of America.'

'If he were to be president, it would be a criminal enterprise in the White House.'

Trump now has three indictments against him, the first from March when he was indicted for his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. The second came in June in regards to his mishandling of classified information. And the latest this month saw the ex-President charged with four counts for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results.

'The indictments against the president are exquisite,' Pelosi told NYMag when referencing the latest charges and the few dozen in the classified document case.

She added: 'They're beautiful and intricate, and they probably have a better chance of conviction than anything that I would come up with.'

Pelosi, while still House Speaker, oversaw two impeachments against Trump in the lower chamber. Both times Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

While picking apart Trump's tough guy image, Pelosi said that the Republican 2024 frontrunner looked like a 'scared puppy' during his court appearance Thursday.

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 lived for four years.

Trump appeared in court in Washington, D.C. on Thursday for an arraignment in his third and most recent indictment. Pelosi said 'When I saw his coming out of his car... I saw a scared puppy'

'He looked very, very, very concerned about the fate,' Pelosi told MSNBC host 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.'

Trump said now that Pelosi has come after him, he can go after her. He claimed that he wanted to remain respectful when it came to the story involving her husband falling victim to a home invasion.

'I purposely didn't comment on Nancy Pelosi's very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious,' Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social.

He said it was 'mean a thing to say.'

'She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her,' Trump wrote. 'She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!'
MrBeast Burger's ghost kitchen has filed a $100million lawsuit against the YouTuber - days after he sued them for allegedly selling undercooked meals.

The star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, sued the company last week as he seeks to terminate their deal, alleging they were selling 'disgusting' and 'inedible' food.

Now, Virtual Dining Concepts - the company that operated the virtual fast-food chain - claims the creator has made false statements against them and bullied them.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in New York and obtained by Variety, the company accused MrBeast of failing to honor his contractual obligations and intentional tortious interference.

'This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence,' the suit reads.

MrBeast Burger's ghost kitchen has filed a $100million lawsuit against the superstar YouTuber

It comes after he sued Virtual Dining Concepts for allegedly selling undercooked meals that have damaged his reputation. His suit included snippets of reviews from customers to illustrate this dissatisfaction

'He is mistaken.' The suit goes on to claim MrBeast failed to support the business and made 'untruthful or misleading' statements that undermined the brand.

It cites at least one now-deleted tweet by MrBeast where he wrote: 'the company I partnered with won't let me stop even though it's terrible for my brand.. Young beast signed a bad deal.'

In a different tweet, he said: 'If I had the ability to close it, I would have done so a long time ago sadly. Sometimes when ur [sic] young you sign s*** deal.'

'Donaldson's baseless and unlawful disparagement had the intended effect: MrBeast Burger's reputation was materially damaged if not destroyed, customers abandoned the Brand, Plaintiffs' hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to Plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson's own statements regarding the value of MrBeast Burger, are in the nine-figure range,' the suit added.

It comes after MrBeast filed his own lawsuit against Virtual Dining Concepts, demanding MrBeast Burgers be shut down.

The Florida-based company partnered with the 25-year-old to launch the food-based venture back in 2020, using storefronts of other existing restaurants to cook up the sandwiches.

Known as 'ghost kitchens', the concept was initially a hit - with MrBeast successfully parlaying his fame so that a mass of more than 10,000 lined up for the opening of the first MrBeast Burger location in New Jersey's American Dream mall.

It also saw more than a million burgers sold before Donaldson even had the opportunity to advertise them.

But his suit claims that since then Virtual Dining Concepts has repeatedly damaged the YouTuber's reputation by not ensuring the burgers' quality - at times even serving up raw food. It also claims that Donaldson has yet to receive 'a dime' from the venture.

The suit included snippets of reviews from customers to illustrate this dissatisfaction - roughly a month after MrBeast abruptly called an end to the experiment last month, citing 'quality issues' with participating ghost kitchens.

'Customers have referred to the burgers as being 'disgusting,' 'revolting,' and 'inedible,'' a section of federal filing reads, claiming Virtual Dining's alleged failures in monitoring its ghost kitchens has irrevocably harmed the YouTuber's reputation.

It goes on to add that those unhappy patrons have aired gripes such as 'it is sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,' and that they had 'never had something so nasty.'

Other quoted criticisms of the roughly $10 burger included claims of 'inaccurate marketing', 'big name, poor food,' and 'very upsetting for the high price.'

One simply called the food 'the worst burger I have ever had.'

Using the chorus of public opinion, the complaint seeks to allow MrBeast to terminate his agreement with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) effective immediately, shutting down one of the largest virtual brands in the US in the process.

MrBeast initially successfully parlayed his fame so that a mass of more than 10,000 lined up for the opening of the first MrBeast Burger location in New Jersey's American Dream mall

Now looking forward to be 'vindicated in court' founders Trish Giordano and Robert and Robbie Earl said the YouTuber's recent lawsuit comes 'to the detriment of approximately ten million happy MrBeast Burger customers' they say have enjoyed the branded MrBeast Burgers

It cites how more than half of the more than 1,000 MrBeast Burger virtual restaurants 'have less than two (out of five) stars,' a marker Donaldson's lawyers wrote 'is well-below the median score of four stars across the platform [Yelp].'

MrBeast has yet to publicly comment on the suit, but has been doing so through a spokesperson.

The firm, whose past celebrity partnerships include Mariah Carey and Jersey Shore star Pauly D, said: 'In reality, Mr. Donaldson's notoriety has grown exponentially over the life of the MrBeast Burger brand, in part because of the MrBeast Burger brand itself.'

It adds that contrary to MrBeast's claims, 'VDC takes quality and customer reviews very seriously' and 'consistently strives to improve quality and customer satisfaction'.

'Any negative customer reviews reflect the experience and opinion of a very small minority of MrBeast Burger customers,' New York lawyers Richard A. Edlin and Mathew S. Rosengart wrote, adding 'VDC looks forward to being vindicated in court.'

'In the meantime, it is business as usual for MrBeast Burger and VDC,' the statement added of the operation's 1,000 or so still participating restaurants across the country.

'We had hoped Mr. Donaldson would act honorably. Instead, having elevated greed over his word and the truth, he will face the consequences in court when VDC files it claims against him.'

Last July, about two years into the venture, Donaldson bragged about the astonishing amount of money the burger chain has earned in the US thus far, then tapped at $100million.

The firm started with 300 locations in the US, but quickly expanded to 1000 locations across North America.

In January, the cash earnings from the operation stood at $150,000,000 in revenue.

However, after accounting for the 30 percent fee paid to actual locations, as well as the cost of ingredients, packaging, shipping, storing, and other expenses, the net profit was somewhere around $30,000,000 - an amount supposed to be split between MrBeast and Virtual Dining Concepts.

It is not clear how much the operation has made in the six months since. The suit is currently ongoing.
The conviction of a man who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit was 'unsafe' because police withheld crucial information from jurors during his trial, Court of Appeal judges have ruled.

Andrew Malkinson was found guilty of raping a woman in Greater Manchester in 2003 and the following year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years. Because he maintained his innocence, he was sentenced to an extra 10 years.

At the time of Mr Malkinson's trial, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime and the prosecution case against him was based only on identification evidence.

However, on July 26 this year his conviction was quashed after DNA evidence linking another man to the crime came to light.

Now, a full judgement from the Court of Appeal has found Mr Malkinson's right to a fair trial had been breached when police failed to hand over crucial evidence to his defence team.

Andrew Malkinson In Holland on August 3, 2023

Andrew Malkinson and ex-girlfriend, Karin Schuitemaker

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Sir Robin Spencer, said last month that Mr Malkinson's legal team 'raised a number of substantial and important points' in other parts of his appeal that would be decided in writing.

In a ruling on Monday, the three judges said Mr Malkinson's conviction was also unsafe because of failures to disclose evidence.

Edward Henry KC, for Mr Malkinson, previously described these as 'deplorable disclosure failures, which mostly lay at the door of the Greater Manchester Police'.

They include police photographs of the victim's left hand, which supported her evidence that she broke a nail scratching the face of her attacker, and the fact the two eyewitnesses who identified Mr Malkinson had convictions for dishonesty offences.

None of this was available to Mr Malkinson's defence team at his trial and Mr Henry said the failure to disclose the photographs 'deprived' Mr Malkinson of his 'strongest defence point - his lack of any facial injury'.

Overturning Mr Malkinson's convictions, for two counts of rape and one of choking or strangling with intent to commit rape, Lord Justice Holroyde said he could 'leave the court free and no longer be subject to the conditions of licence'.

In Monday's ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde ruled in Mr Malkinson's favour on a further two grounds.

He said: 'In the very particular circumstances of this case, the non-disclosure of the two relevant photographs prevented the appellant from putting his case forward in its best light, and strengthened the prosecution case against him in a manner which the photographs show to have been mistaken.'

The judge added: 'Cross-examination about the witnesses' previous convictions would have been capable of casting doubt on their general honesty and capable of affecting the jury's view as to whether they were civic-minded persons doing their best to assist.'

Mr Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, after being cleared by the Court of Appeal. Picture date: Wednesday July 26, 2023

Mr Malkinson, 57, was found guilty of the 2003 attack on a woman in Greater Manchester and the following year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years but remained in prison for a further 10 because he maintained he was innocent

Mr Malkinson said it has been 20 years since he was arrested and it has 'taken a huge toll on his life'

However, the three judges at the Court of Appeal denied Mr Malkinson's bid on two other arguments over one of the witnesses' drug use and sentencing for a motoring offence.

Lord Justice Holroyde also said: 'The stark reality is that the appellant has spent very many years in prison, having been convicted on identification evidence which he always disputed and which cannot now be regarded as providing a safe basis for the jury's verdicts.

'We regret that this court cannot alter that fact.'

Andrew Malkinson said he feels 'vindicated' after the Court of Appeal ruled in his favour on more parts of his challenge.

He said: 'I feel vindicated by the court's finding that Greater Manchester Police unlawfully withheld evidence, denying me a fair trial and causing my wrongful conviction nightmare.

'The evidence needed to overturn my conviction has been sitting in police files for the past two decades.

'Yet the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) did not bother to look and it fell to the small charity Appeal to bring it to light.'

Mr Malkinson asked for the CCRC's chair Helen Pitcher to apologise 'and take accountability for the CCRC's failures, which cost me extra years behind bars for a crime I did not commit'.

He added: 'I want politicians to give people seeking to prove their innocence a right to access the evidence on their case - since the police and CCRC have proved they cannot be trusted.'

Wrongly convicted in 2004, Andy served 17 years, four months and 16 days in jail before being released in 2020 - over twice as long as he needed to spend behind bars because of his steadfast refusal to accept that he was guilty.

Mr Malkinson's mother Trisha Hose outside the Royal Courts of Justice last month after he was cleared

Mr Malkinson's half-sister Sarah embraces him after he was cleared of rape after 17 years

E-fit of the suspect in the rape case (left) and a mugshot of Malkinson shortly after he was arrested (right)

Andy's ordeal began in 2003 when he had moved back to Grimsby after temporarily working as a security guard in a Manchester shopping centre.

Two officers had remembered pulling him over when he was riding on the back of a motorbike weeks before the attack, but there is no logical reason why they should have connected him with this attack.

Andy's conviction hinged on the fact the victim and two other witnesses picked him out of an identity parade, and placed him at the scene.

A key part of his appeal hinged on the fact that both witnesses had long criminal histories. One had been arrested on the night he claimed to have seen Andy.

The most likely next step is a claim to the MoJ. The maximum amount of compensation payable under the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme is 1 million for ten or more years' imprisonment.
The husband of Fox News anchor Julie Banderas has been cleared of criminal charges after she accused him of putting a steak knife to her throat during an argument over mashed potatoes, DailyMail.com can reveal.

A town judge in Southampton, New York, found Andrew Sansone not guilty after hearing evidence in a non-jury trial, after he claimed he only grabbed the knife in jest and never actually menaced her after she ate potatoes he'd prepared for the children's dinner.

Sansone, 55, however, said his wife cooked up the story during their messy divorce battle.

'This malicious accusation against my client was a blatant misuse of the criminal justice system, using it as a sword and not a shield, purely to gain leverage in divorce court,' his attorney Edward Burke told DailyMail.com Monday.

A judge found Julie Banderas' husband not guilty of criminal charges after she accused him of putting a knife to her throat, DailyMail.com can reveal

In February the Fox News anchor announced live on Greg Gutfeld that she was getting a divorce , saying 'F**k Valentine's Day'. Banderas posted a selfie teasing her divorce announcement on Gutfeld

But her lawyer Frank Blangiardo countered.

'Spousal abuse is not a joking matter,' he said.

'Control and jealousy in divorce are abundant. After a year of divorce litigation an estranged spouse should not point a knife at his wife, period.'

Julie's last word After DailyMail.com initially published this article, Julie Banderas issued a statement on the result of her case: 'I am deeply disappointed in the Judge's decision but I have profound respect for our justice system and understand how extraordinarily high the burden of proof is in criminal matters. 'I chose not to present compelling evidence during the hearing in order to protect my family's privacy. 'I encourage every woman in toxic and controlling relationships who are victimized with threats and abuse, to continue to have faith in the system and not be dissuaded by what happened to me.' Advertisement

Sansone was arrested and charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon for the alleged incident at their home in the Hamptons the night of December 14.

The Fox host, 49, accused him of flying into a rage, pointing the blade at her neck, causing her to fear for her life. Their children, ages 6, 10 and 12, were reportedly elsewhere in the house at the time.

She took five days before she called police on December 19 and her husband of 14 years was led out of the home in handcuffs. A judge later granted a restraining order prohibiting him from having further contact with his wife.

According to the police report, the couple were arguing earlier in the day about money  a common flashpoint as they battled over their pending divorce and child custody issues.

The criminal charges were hashed out during a June trial, where the warring spouses presented their competing versions of the mashed potatoes incident.

Judge Gary Weber, in his ruling on July 25, recapped the arguments, noting that Sansone had prepared a new recipe and Banderas was sampling it by taking several spoonfuls from the mixing bowl.

According to Banderas's testimony, it was the third scoop that set him off. She maintained that her husband grabbed the knife from the counter and held it 'right up against my throat but not touching my skin' after he warned, 'Stop, don't touch the potatoes no more.'

'F**k Valentine's Day,' Banderas said on Gutfeld in February. 'Yeah, it's stupid. Even when I was married, I didn't get s**t for Valentine's Day... well, I'm getting a divorce, I'm going to go ahead and say it right here for the first time.'

Banderas, who joined the Fox News Channel in 2005, serves as a substitute weekday anchor on Outnumbered. She was awarded the 'Outstanding Single Newscast' Emmy for her coverage of the Republican National Convention in 2004

'What the f**k are you doing?' Banderas said she shouted, to which he replied, 'I thought you had a sense of humor. I was just kidding.'

Sansone told the court that his wife rubbed up against him, and that he told her in a 'playful, sarcastic way' to wait for dinner, gesturing with the knife from arm's length.

The judge pointed out that Sansone also presented a contemporaneous text message to the friend who gave him the recipe, with a photo of the dish, while declaring the spicing was a hit.

Sansone testified that his wife sat down for dinner with the family afterwards, and later went out with friends to drink in a local bar until 2 in the morning. He claimed she twisted the innocent interaction into a criminal complaint.

Banderas testified that she did not eat with the family that night and went up to her bedroom alone before heading out.

During cross examination, Banderas admitted that she'd previously threatened to plant a 'really juicy story' about her husband in the media to leverage her position in the divorce, according to the judge's recap.

'These candid admissions might be viewed as bearing upon the complainant's credibility,' Judge Weber wrote in his July 25 ruling.

The judge also wrote that there were no other witnesses to substantiate Banderas's claims, and that 'there has been no evidence of a history of violence or threats of violence that tends to impeach the defendant's testimony.'

'For all of these reasons,' the judge ruled, 'the court finds that the People have failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant possessed the steak knife with the intent to use the same unlawfully against another or to place another in reasonable fear of physical injury or death.'

Banderas, who joined the Fox News Channel in 2005, serves as a substitute weekday anchor on Outnumbered. She was awarded the 'Outstanding Single Newscast' Emmy for her coverage of the Republican National Convention in 2004.

She married Andrew Sansone in 2009 and the pair share three children together. Banderas's social media posts are often filled with photos of her children, but little of Sansone

Sansone, 55, said his wife cooked up the story during their messy divorce and custody battle over their three kids

She filled in for Harris Faulkner on The Faulkner Focus on Monday when she defended Donald Trump in his legal battle with special counsel Jack Smith.

'It's not a crime to tell lies,' she pointed out. 'Being a narcissist isn't a crime. Hatching schemes to stay in office is not a crime. Claiming you won an election you know you lost is not a crime.'

Banderas issued a statement in which she said she was disappointed in the result but said she did not present some evidence 'to protect my family's privacy' (see sidebar).

Sansone, a financial advisor, filed for divorce in March 2022.

Banderas announced their split on her Twitter account on December 9, saying her husband was her 'soon to be ex,' in response to a fan telling her the couple had left them in 'stitches.'

It was five days later that Sansone allegedly threatened her with the knife.

Then in February, the Fox anchor sensationally announced live on Gutfeld that she was getting a divorce.

The mother-of-three was seen laughing when host Greg Gutfeld asked if she was going to get anything for Valentine's Day.

'F**k Valentine's Day,' she replied, as she sat coolly with her arm propped up on the back of the chair. 'Yeah, it's stupid. Even when I was married, I didn't get s**t for Valentine's Day... well, I'm getting a divorce, I'm going to go ahead and say it right here for the first time.

'Congratulations are in order, if you know me, you'd clap That was breaking news right there,' joked the 18-year Fox veteran, who married Sansone in 2009.
A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain.

Lance O'Connor, of Plaistow in east London, was accused of being 'aggressive and intimidating' towards organisers and attendees - and making a series of comments that were motivated by 'hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity'.

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday of the offence - comments which were considered hate speech - against one of the gallery's operations managers, Matthew Rowan.

But she found O'Connor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis, who he also directed several comments at, which made Pc De Santis 'uncomfortable'.

Lance O'Connor (pictured), of Plaistow in east London, was accused of being 'aggressive and intimidating' towards organisers and attendees - and making a series of comments that were motivated by 'hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity'

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted O'Connor (pictured above) at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday of the offence - comments which were considered hate speech - against one of the gallery's operations managers, Matthew Rowan

The judge said the defendant's comments to Mr Rowan went 'beyond freedom of expression into hate speech'.

O'Connor will be sentenced at the same court on September 11.

The Tate, in Millbank, central London, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallery's website as 'the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery'.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

The prosecution told Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday that the defendant, who identified himself as 'Lance', was part of a group of five people who went to Tate Britain to protest against the story-telling session.

The group were refused entry to the event after organisers decided on the day to only admit families with children wanting to attend, the court heard.

Protesters at the event were standing outside the Tate Britain in February and held up signs saying 'Drag Reading Shutdown'

The Tate Britain hosted a Drag Queen Story Hour event in February, where O'Connor protested outside

O'Connor was accused of being 'aggressive and intimidating' towards Mr Rowan, who was standing outside the event doors, and of displaying the same behaviour to members of the public trying to attend.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said: 'At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the Crown say that the defendant said words to the effect of 'They are indoctrinating children in there. There's a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles'.

'The defendant, the Crown say, also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of 'Do you think it's appropriate for a man to wear women's clothing?' and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.'

Pc De Santis arrived at the scene after being notified of a 'commotion' and heard the defendant make a comment about attendees indoctrinating young children into paedophilia.

And when the officer confronted O'Connor about the comment, the defendant allegedly confirmed that is what he said.

The court heard that O'Connor was arrested the same day for his 'words and behaviour' and denied during police interviews that he said: 'Gay people dressed as women are paedophiles.'

The Tate, in Millbank, central London, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallery's website as 'the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery'

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan, called the defendant's demeanour 'quite aggressive' and said he accused him of crossing the line into 'hate speech'.

Asked how he felt after the interaction, the gallery operations manager said: 'It was quite upsetting.

'To be in my place of work, which should be a safe place for everyone, to then have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.

'As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up.'

He added that it 'hurt' to hear those kinds of accusations because 'those sort of things were said to me in the past in the '80s as I was growing up'.

After O'Connor made the first alleged comment, Mr Rowan told the court: 'At this point I informed Mr O'Connor that he had crossed the line from being rude into hate speech and we weren't going to continue the conversation anymore.'

Pc De Santis told the court he was 'very uncomfortable' and 'alarmed' after hearing O'Connor's comments.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, O'Connor denied intending to cause anyone, including Mr Rowan and Pc De Santis, harassment, alarm or distress and denied being 'aggressive'

Sundeep Pankhania, defending, said his client 'does not hold any non-trans ideologies' and was protesting that day because of a 'link' he believed existed between Aida H Dee and an alleged convicted paedophile - Darren Moore - whom the court heard is now dead.

The defendant confirmed he was motivated by the storyteller's 'very close links' to Moore.

'He done a eulogy for him on the internet and also he done a GoFundMe page (for his funeral),' O'Connor said when giving evidence.

He added that he wanted to make parents 'aware' of the links and was 'trying to protect the children'.

He denied intending to cause anyone, including Mr Rowan and Pc De Santis, harassment, alarm or distress and denied being 'aggressive'.

O'Connor said: 'My hand has been on my Bible every question I have answered. I don't tell lies.'

'I'm a truthful man,' he added. 'I consider myself an honourable man.'
A popular florist was stabbed to death by his girlfriend's son after the killer blamed him for his mother's suicide, a court has heard.

James Peppiatt, 23, allegedly murdered 55-year-old Tony Eastlake, known as the 'Flower Man of Islington' by customers, in Essex Road, Islington, on May 29, 2021.

Mr Eastlake was stabbed in the lower back shortly after finishing work and collapsed, later dying in the street.

The florist, who separated from his wife in 2018, had started a relationship with Peppiatt's mother, Alicia Callaghan, in 2018. Three years later she took her own life, the Old Bailey heard.

'Her suicide clearly had a great impact upon James Peppiatt and Tony Eastlake, both of whom were greatly upset and affected by her death,' said Julian Evans, KC, prosecuting.

Tony Eastlake (pictured) was stabbed to death in the street close to his flower stall on Essex Road, Islington

James Peppiatt, 21, allegedly murdered Tony Eastlake, 55

'According to a friend of Tony Eastlake, Alisha's death caused something of a rift in the relationship between Tony Eastlake and James Peppiatt.

'Tony Eastlake told his friend that James Peppiatt blamed him for his mother's death.'

Peppiatt, who lives in Islington, London, denies murdering the 55-year-old.

Mr Evans told jurors: On 29 May 2021, Tony Eastlake had been working on his flower stall on Essex Road, and shortly after 5pm that afternoon he began to pack up the stall and just before 4.45pm he made a telephone call from his mobile phone.

He called James Peppiatt and that call lasted for about 2 minutes.

Mr Eastlake then made his way along Essex Road heading in the direction of Elmore Street where he met Peppiatt and the pair began walking down Ecclesbourne Road.

'The two men were standing together on Ecclesbourne Road, and at one point Tony Eastlake, in the course of the conversation between the two men, said something along the lines of 'don't p*** me off, I've took a lot, I've kept quiet'.

'James Peppiatt reacted to these words and with an outstretched arm he moved at speed towards Tony Eastlake and, although exactly what the happened between the two men at that point can't be seen entirely on the CCTV it is clear the two of them started to have a fight.'

Jurors heard the fight between the pair lasted for between 30-40 seconds, and both men seemed to suffer injuries.

Mr Eastlake tried to walk away as Peppiatt asked him 'where are you going?'

Peppiatt then followed Mr Eastlake as he turned down Haliford Road, the court heard.

Eye witness, David Johnston, was leaving his address on Halliford Street when he saw the two men in the middle of the street walking in the direction of Essex Road.

'Initially Mr Johnston thought the two men were messing around with each other, he saw Tony Eastlake turn around and look towards James Peppiatt with a half-smile.

Tributes at a vigil for Tony Eastlake at his stall at Essex Road Station in London organised by the Islington Community Group on Facebook

Tributes at a vigil for Tony Eastlake at his stall at Essex Road Station in London

Tony Eastlake's daughter Paige Eastlake at a vigil at his stall at Essex Road Station in London organised by the Islington Community Group on Facebook

Tributes at a vigil for Tony Eastlake at his stall at Essex Road Station in London

Pictured: The detectives who carried out the swoop on the house after his death

'Mr Johnson then heard James Peppiatt say something like 'don't f***ing talk to me like that'.

'Mr Johnston then saw James Peppiatt approach Mr Eastlake from behind and punch him once in the back on the left side.

'It is the prosecution's case that as James Peppiatt approached Tony Eastlake from behind on that street, he, James Peppiatt was holding a knife and rather than punching Tony Eastlake in the back, James Peppiatt stabbed him once in the back from behind with a knife and it caused a wound which proved fatal,' said Mr Evans.

After the stabbing Peppiatt turned back and retraced his steps as Mr Eastlake continued towards Essex Road before collapsing in a car park.

Members of the public, including some who knew Mr Eastlake, ran to help him and one called the emergency services. Despite their best efforts Mr Eastlake died just before 6pm.

The stab wound was found to be 6.5cm deep and had caused damage to the thoracic aorta, the main blood vessel in the body, jurors heard.

Three days later, on June 1, Peppiatt handed himself in at Islington Police Station.

He was arrested on suspicion of murder before he was interviewed in the presence of a solicitor and answered 'no comment' to the questions he was asked.

Mr Eastlake had worked at the same market stall on Essex Road since he was 14.

Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects at a vigil at his flower stand, Florence & Fleur, on May 31. The trial continues.
A mother begged to have her family moved out of their mould-infested home before somebody dies just weeks ahead of her fit and healthy sons death from pneumonia, an inquest heard on Monday.

Luke Brooks, 27, had no health issues, the hearing was told, but after he and his mother Patricia moved into the rented property in Oldham, Greater Manchester, he began suffering regular colds, she said.

The property was freezing but their private landlord failed to fix the broken boiler and defective radiators, or multiple leaks in the roof and a bathroom, she told the hearing.

Friends said Mr Brooks bedroom  in which he spent most of the day playing video games  and the bathroom had black spots on the walls and ceilings.

In October last year he came down with flu symptoms and began suffering from a rash, the inquest was told.

Three days later his condition seemed to be improving, but then he unexpectedly suffered a seizure, and although an ambulance was called he was later pronounced dead.

Luke Brooks, 27, had no health issues, the hearing was told, but after he and his mother Patricia moved into the rented property in Oldham, Greater Manchester, he began suffering regular colds

A post mortem later made a preliminary finding that Mr Brooks had been suffering from pneumonia leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome brought on by living in heavily-mould infested accommodation.

The investigation comes just months after an outcry over the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak caused by being exposed to mould at his parents housing association flat in nearby Rochdale.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley  who is also hearing Mr Brooks inquest  said after that hearing that Awaabs tragic death should be a defining moment for the housing sector.

This weeks inquest is expected to hear evidence about the scale of the problem of mould and damp in the private rental sector.

Giving evidence, Mrs Brooks told how a bathroom at the two-bedroom property  which was shared by six adults, three dogs and a cat - was covered in mould, while rain came in through holes in the roof.

She said she pleaded with staff from Oldham council to rehouse them.

I begged them to move us out of that place before somebody died, she said.

Mrs Brooks said she told a support worker: For Gods sake would you please get us out of that house before someone dies.

A couple of months later, somebody did, she added.

Mrs Brooks told how a bathroom at the two-bedroom property  which was shared by six adults, three dogs and a cat - was covered in mould, while rain came in through holes in the roof

She told Rochdale Coroners Court that she was hospitalised herself four years earlier, adding: It nearly killed me.

Mrs Brooks said when they moved into the property in 2014 the boiler wasnt working, describing it as always cold and damp.

But she said the landlord  referred to as Mr Sharples  did not respond to pleas for repairs to be made.

There was water leaking from the roof, seeping out of pipes, she said.

About a year after they moved in, she noticed mould in the upstairs bathroom, saying there was all black stuff all over the ceiling.

She said a new boiler was finally installed in 2017 but only the top of the radiators would warm up.

Mr Brooks shared his bedroom with a male friend and spent much of his time playing video games such as Tomb Raider, his mother told the hearing.

He had not had a job since leaving school and became a recluse in the months before his death, regularly smoking cannabis and drinking, she said.

She described her son as happy-go-lucky and clever and kind-hearted, saying he would help with shopping and cooking as her unofficial carer.

He was a healthy child and never needed to go to the doctor, she said, but his health deteriorated when they moved into the property in 2014.

Every year you could guarantee he would come down with a cold, she said.

Family and friends of Luke Brooks leave Rochdale Coroners Court, including his mother Patricia (left), father James (right) and friend Chris Haycock (centre)

But she avoided going into the bedroom, saying he would leave empty drink cans and food packets on the floor.

Friend Jenny Harrington told the hearing at Rochdale Coroners Court that Lukes room was freezing with black mould on the walls and ceiling.

Workers from a housing charity carried out home visits and helped her apply to Oldham council to be rehomed.

But there were no suitable properties, Mrs Brooks said.

They contacted the landlord and asked him to carry out repairs, but that just amounted to the odd socket, the odd light switch, she said.

At the time of Lukes death they were not on the waiting list to be rehomed, she said.

In October last year, Mr Brooks came down with flu symptoms and began suffering from a rash, the inquest was told.

On October 22 his mother called 111 and was advised he should attend A&E, but he didnt want to go.

He was scared of doctors, he was scared of hospitals, she said.

Three days later his condition seemed to be improving, but then he unexpectedly suffered a seizure and an ambulance was called.

In October last year, Mr Brooks came down with flu symptoms and began suffering from a rash, the inquest was told

The case comes after the tragedy of Awaab Ishak who died in December 2020 after being exposed to mould at his housing association flat in nearby Rochdale.

His parents  who had claimed asylum after coming to Britain from Sudan - repeatedly begged housing officials and medical professionals to help.

But through a mixture of bureaucracy and allegations of racism, nothing was done to stop the appalling mould problem spreading across the walls and ceilings of their flat.

A report later found that staff at social housing provider RBH held prejudices, lazy assumptions and an attitude towards asylum seekers and refugees.

Campaigners demanded ministers introduce an Awaabs Law to protect social housing tenants, winning the backing of Housing Secretary Michael Gove.

New rules came into law last month requiring social housing landlords to fix damp and mould issues to strict deadlines or rehouse tenants in safe accommodation.

This weeks hearing will hear evidence from an expert on aspergillus, a type of mould linked to the pneumonia Mr Brooks suffered from before his death.

The familys landlord is due to give evidence on Wednesday.

The hearing, which is expected to last all week, continues.
The Co-op has come under fire from animal welfare activists after footage shows what is claimed to be malformed chickens at three of its supplier farms.

Campaign group Open Cages said it secretly took videos and photos at three Lincolnshire farms that supply the supermarket between August and November last year.

It said the footage shows birds looking deformed, injured and filthy - as well as workers emptying bags loaded with corpses into bins.

The activists claimed some birds were found near death, unable to eat or drink, while others had visibly untreated wounds.

They also claim one of the sites - Sheffield Farm - has been identified as identical to a farm featured in a video produced and promoted by Co-op on its website and in the press, showing healthy-looking chickens raised in clean, spacious conditions.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

An animal rights group has released footage it claims shows 'dying and abused frankenchickens' at three intensive farms supplying Co-op supermarkets

Activists at Open Cages say that they covertly filmed the 'deformed and dying' birds 'collapsing in agony' at three farms in Lincolnshire

Footage also shows hundreds of dead chickens being tossed into maggot-filled bins by 'laughing' workers, and one 'black and blue' dead bird buried in litter in the later stages of decomposition

Footage shows hundreds of dead chickens being tossed into maggot-filled bins by 'laughing' workers, and one 'black and blue' dead bird buried in litter in the later stages of decomposition.

The footage follows an intense debate within the company over the sale of selectively bred fast-growing chickens.

At the company's annual meeting in May, 96 per cent of Co-op's 31,000 voting members called for an end to the practice over animal welfare concerns, though this vote was dismissed by the company's board.

Managing director Matt Hood told the AGM that he would not currently advocate adopting a slower growing breed due to the cost being around 30-35 per cent more expensive.

He argued that the extra cost would likely be passed onto consumers amid the cost-of-living crisis, although the option remains open for the future.

The motion in May also asked for the Co-op board to 'improve welfare standards for chickens and request the board to consider adopting the Better Chicken Commitment in full'.

The motion called for the supermarket to improve stock density - the amount of space birds have on farms.

The Co-op said it supported the motion and it is now being actioned after members voted it through.

The supermarket has committed to improving the stock density, saying the measures will take effect in 2024.

Co-op is unique among UK businesses due to it's cooperative structure, which allows 'members' to vote on business practices.

Co-op member Hannah Dickson said: 'The footage makes me appalled that our Co-op has decided to keep profiting from these sick and suffering animals.

Open Cages claims its shocking undercover footage filmed between August and November 2022 shows some birds at the three locations near death and unable to eat or drink

Around 97 per cent of the chicken sold in Co-op stores allegedly comes from fast-growing 'frankenchickens', genetically selected over decades to prioritise fast growth

The footage follows an intense debate within the company over the sale of selectively bred fast-growing chickens. At the company's annual meeting in May 96 per cent of Co-op's 31,000 voting members called for an end to the practice over animal welfare concerns, though this vote was dismissed by the company's board

'The membership voted to change the breed. While more space is good, it isn't good enough when these chickens are dropping dead of organ failure and struggle to walk.

'The cost of living crisis presents challenges, but these don't justify blatant animal cruelty.

'If the Co-op acts ethically only when it's convenient, then they aren't an ethical supermarket at all.'

A film featuring the undercover footage was narrated by actor Peter Egan, known for his role in hit TV drama Downton Abbey.

Around 97 per cent of the chicken sold in Co-op stores allegedly comes from fast-growing 'frankenchickens', genetically selected over decades to prioritise fast growth.

As a result of their rapid growth, the chickens can suffer from a wide range of health and welfare issues - including heart attacks, organ failure, lameness, bone deformities, muscle diseases and burns.

More than 350 businesses in the UK and EU have committed to the Better Chicken Commitment which prohibits the sale of frankenchickens.

That includes major food companies like KFC, Nando's, Greggs, Marks and Spencer, and Waitrose.

As a result of their rapid growth, the chickens can suffer from a wide range of health and welfare issues - including heart attacks, organ failure, lameness, bone deformities, muscle diseases and burns

Open Cages chief Connor Jackson said: 'Co-op's loyal members and customers are being fed a deceptive and misleading fairy tale'

He added: 'These images prove that behind the carefully polished, ''ethical'' image we all know, sick frankenchickens are being condemned to lives of unnecessary pain, misery and stress on intensive mega farms'

The CEO added: 'These birds simply grow too fast to lead any sort of decent life. For years, we have tried to convince Co-op's decision makers to address this and yet nothing has changed, whilst the most forward thinking retailers like M&S and Waitrose pledged to address this years ago'

Speaking previously, a Co-op spokesperson said: 'As a leading ethical retailer, animal welfare is a priority for us, our customers and members.' Pictured: A body of a dead chicken at one of the farms

They added: 'All our fresh chicken is in line with, or exceeds, industry and Government-approved standards, we also have our own strict welfare policies and Co-op Free-Range chicken already meets the Better Chicken Commitment standard'

Open Cages chief Connor Jackson said: 'Co-op's loyal members and customers are being fed a deceptive and misleading fairy tale.

'These images prove that behind the carefully polished, ''ethical'' image we all know, sick frankenchickens are being condemned to lives of unnecessary pain, misery and stress on intensive mega farms.

'These birds simply grow too fast to lead any sort of decent life.

'For years, we have tried to convince Co-op's decision makers to address this and yet nothing has changed, whilst the most forward thinking retailers like M&S and Waitrose pledged to address this years ago.'

The Co-op and the owner of the farms, 2Sisters Food Group, said the sites have all recently been inspected by the Red Tractor Assurance Scheme - which inspects food standards - with no animal welfare issues identified.

Red Tractor also reviewed the footage and does not believe there is cause for concern or a re-audit of the farm is required.

A Co-op spokesperson said: 'Ensuring the animals in our supply chain are looked after is a priority for us, and all our fresh chicken meets or exceeds Red Tractor or RSPCA Assured standards, supported by our new commitment, to improve and lower stocking density to give the chickens 20 per cent more space and a healthier life.

'We are proud supporters of British Farming, allowing us to conveniently provide great quality, 100 per cent British poultry for our members and customers.'

A Red Tractor spokesperson said: 'Each of these three farms was subject to a regular independent inspection earlier this year and found to comply with Red Tractor core standards.

'Our team have viewed the footage but have not found evidence that supports further investigation.'

A spokesman for the farms said: 'We maintain a zero-tolerance approach to any verifiable welfare non-compliances, although in this case we cannot confirm this footage, filmed a year ago, was taken inside our premises.

'However, for the record, the farms in question are all accredited and have been subject to multiple independent inspections as recently as June 2023.'
The woman behind the shocking 'that motherf***er back there is not real' airplane meltdown has been unmasked as a 38-year-old Dallas marketing executive.

Tiffany Gomas became erratic over an argument with the relatives she was traveling with, she reportedly told police.

The Dallas resident had accused her relatives of stealing her Airpods, per a police report.

The July 2 viral incident happened on Flight 1009 from Fort Worth to Orlando, Florida.

After she claimed her relatives had stolen her AirPods, Gomas began to say the airplane was not safe and would not make it to its destination.

Official documents say she was not willing to leave the plane and had to be removed by American Airlines staff following the outburst, as broken by journalist Bree A. Dail on Substack and first reported by the New York Post.

Tiffany Gomas' meltdown was caught on video as she frantically demanded to get off a plane and claimed someone in the back of the aircraft was not real

The police document states: 'The female then started claiming the aircraft was not safe and did not want the aircraft to leave due to her believing it would not make it to its destination.

'Due to the statements the flight attendants felt the aircraft needed to be rescreened. [The airline manager] explained that the passenger was denied boarding and they wanted her escorted to the public side.'

Passengers turned their head as she seemed to point to the back of the plane while speaking about a guy who 'was not real'

She is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and lives in a $2 million home in the Lakewood neighborhood of Dallas

Passengers on the plane were forced to deplane and be screened through security again as a precaution.

'TSA personnel arrived at the scene to conduct a full rescreening of the aircraft,' the police report states.

Gomas was eventually escorted to the non-secure area of the airport - but then attempted to get back in through TSA screening several times, per the report.

Gomas was eventually escorted to the non-secure area of the airport - but then attempted to get back in through TSA screening several times, per the report

But when officers with the Dallas-Fort Worth Department of Public Safety arrived, an 'extremely distraught' Gomas refused to speak to them and she tried to get back on the plane.

Police then tracked her to a terminal curb where she was waiting for an Uber.

Gomas was issued a ticket for criminal trespass notice but refused to sign it. She was never arrested.

The marketing executive was deemed a 'rising star' in 2017, when she served as Vice President of Client Services at Elevate Brand Marketing.

She is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and lives in a $2 million home in Lakewood neighborhood, according to public records.

Gomes is the founder of a marketing firm in Dallas, Uppercut Marketing

DailyMail.com has reached out to Elevate Marketing and Uppercut Marketing for comment.

The incident sparked massive interest online as Americans wondered what Gomas was referring to during her meltdown.

Footage shared on TikTok showed her in distress aboard the plane as she screamed about someone who 'wasn't real.'

'I'm telling you, I'm getting the f*** off and there's a reason why I'm getting the f*** off and everyone can either believe it or they can not believe it,' the unidentified woman is heard saying as she walks to the front of the plane.

'I don't give two f****, but I am telling you right now - that m*****f***** back there is NOT real,' she adds, pointing towards the back of the plane.

'And you can sit on this plane and you can die with them or not. I'm not going to.'

Comedian Carrot Top claimed he was aboard the plane when the viral incident happened.

'The fking nutjob just lost her mind in front of the whole plane,' he said.

Carrot Top had previously shared the incident on social media, writing: 'I hope she's happy!!! We're all stuck in Dallas now because of her.'

He said the woman was upset because she 'lost her earbud,' but did not elaborate.

'I hope you're having a relaxing evening behind bars in Dallas Texas and hope you enjoyed your little stunt,' the comedian said on Instagram.

'Five hours later we're here in Orlando,' Carrot Top added. 'I missed the fireworks and everything tonight.'
Days after former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to his third set of criminal charges, police in Atlanta set up barriers Monday around the city's courthouse as the city braces for an indictment in yet another case related the 2020 election.

Officers closed roads, dogs patroled the area and food trucks stayed away from the normally busy court district.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is in the final stages of her investigation into Trump's efforts to reverse his defeat in the key swing state of Georgia.

If he is indicted, it will the fourth time he has been criminally charged since March.

Last week, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat set out what he called a 'protective plan.'

Police close roads and patrolled with dogs around the Atlanta courthouse on Monday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is believed to be in the final stages of her probe into Trump

If he is indicted in Fulton County, it will the fourth time former President Donald Trump has been criminally charged since March

'Our goal is to have all the services we normally have open and operational but at the same time create a safe environment for those that we actually service,' he told a press conference.

The precautions reflect how a divided country is entering uncharted territory, with the potential for mass demonstrations or a repeat of the violence that broke out on January 6, 2021.

Trump, 77, remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican Party's 2024 nomination.

But his election timetable must now accommodate a slew of court hearings.

Last week he appeared in federal court in Washington to plead not guilty to charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory, depriving U.S. voters of their right to a fair election.

Earlier in the summer it was Miami. There he pleaded not guilty to charges related to his handling of government documents and an alleged cover-up.

And in April he surrendered to authorities in New York where he is accused of falsifying business records as part of a hush money payment to a porn star. He pleaded not guilty in that case.

Now Atlanta could be the next setting for his criminal battles.

On Monday, the front of the courthouse had been lined with rows of orange plastic barricades as well as steel fencing.

Food carts stayed away and the usually bustling district was empty on Monday

There was a heavy law enforcement presence outside the courthouse amid reports that an indictment will come this week in Fulton County, Georgia

An anti-Trump protester made his feelings clear, urging the prosecutor to get on with it

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is in the final stages of her investigation into Trump's efforts to reverse his defeat in the key swing state of Georgia

Local media are reporting that an indictment is expected this week.

Willis has not given away much about the case she is building but lawyers familiar with her history say they believe she will invoke Georgia's racketeering laws.

It is modeled on the federal R.I.C.O. laws which were introduced to help connect mob bosses to crimes carried out by their subordinates.

The state was a focus of Trump and his allies as they sought to cling to power in the wake of his 2020 election vote.

The then president was caught on tape urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him.

'The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,' he said in audio obtained by the Washington Post. 'And theres nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that youve recalculated.'

Raffensperger insisted that Trump's data was not correct but the president insisted: 'I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.'
The moment a police officer drove at more than 80mph in a 30mph zone before knocking down and killing a woman has been captured on CCTV.

PC Nadeem Patel was driving at high speeds in his patrol car before the vehicle struck Shante Daniel-Folkes, 25, on Stockwell Road in Brixton, south London, on the evening of June 9, 2021.

Ms Daniel-Folkes had been crossing the road at around 11:20pm near a pedestrian crossing when a second patrol car, driven by PC Patel's colleague PC Gary Thomson, passed with its emergency lights and siren activated.

Around three to four second later, Ms Daniel-Folkes continued to cross and was struck by PC Patel's vehicle. He had switched off his front emergency lights earlier so not to affect PC Thomson's vision in the lead vehicle, but the sirens were activated.

Ms Daniel-Folkes was knocked unconscious immediately. Despite all efforts from officers and paramedics, she died at the scene.

The footage shows the patrol car speeding down the road with its emergency lights flashing. Other vehicles can be seen travelling down the other side of the road.

The footage shows the patrol car speeding down the road with its emergency lights flashing. Other vehicles can be seen travelling down the other side of the road

Ms Daniel-Folkes had been crossing the road at around 11:20pm near a pedestrian crossing when a second patrol car, driven by PC Patel's colleague PC Gary Thomson, passed with its emergency lights and siren activated

Although exempt from the 30mph limit, PC Patel had reached a peak speed of 83.9mph on Stockwell Road just 115 metres from the car's final stopping point.

The car was travelling at around 55mph at the time of the collision after PC Patel applied the break from a speed of more than 81mph.

The vehicle being driven by PC Thomson passed Ms Daniel-Folkes at speeds between 70 to 79mph.

In February, Patel, 28, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to three years in prison and disqualified from driving for 54 months.

PC Gary Thomson, 30, who was driving the lead car and was not involved in the collision, was charged with dangerous driving.

He was cleared of dangerous driving following a trial at the Old Bailey and convicted of careless driving, fined 500, given five penalty points and ordered to pay costs of 500.

Sentencing PC Patel, Judge Mark Lucraft KC told him: 'It is clear from the investigation that has been conducted that you drove at grossly excessive speed, over a not insignificant distance, far in excess of that which was safe given the prevailing road conditions, even making allowance for the fact of responding to an emergency call and not being bound by the speed limit'.

Sentencing PC Thomson, the judge called for a review of the speeds at which officers can travel in residential areas.

PC Nadeem Patel was driving at high speeds in his patrol car before the vehicle struck Shante Daniel-Folkes, 25, (pictured) on Stockwell Road in Brixton, south London, on the evening of June 9, 2021

Ms Daniel-Folkes was knocked unconscious immediately. Despite all efforts from officers and paramedics, she died at the scene

Footage shows Ms Daniel-Folkes walking down the residential road in Brixton

'I note there is no clear guidance provided by the Metropolitan Police on speeds police cars should not exceed in responding to emergency calls when driving in residential areas or roads subject to a speed limit of 30 mph', he said.

'In my judgment further thought should be given to this issue particularly as the speed limits in many residential areas are being further reduced to 20mph.

'Driving at speeds in excess of motorway speeds along roads with the characteristics of Stockwell Road, whist classified as an A road, poses obvious risks.'

At PC Patel's sentencing earlier this year, Judge Lucraft referred to the 'moving' statements from the family of Ms Daniel-Folkes, who described her as 'kind, funny, loving and very creative'.

'She is described as bubbly and carefree - a lover of life and someone who was ambitious', he said. 'She loved fashion and design. She was a mentor, an artist, a certified nail technician looking forward to opening her own salon and to a bright future for herself and her young son who she adored.

'She was much loved by all who knew her.

'The family are devastated by the loss of Shante. They express a numb and empty feeling at Shante's loss and speak about the long-lasting impact on the family and that on Shante's young son in particular - a son she will not see grow up and make his own way in life.'

PC Gary Thomson, 30, was cleared of dangerous driving following a trial at the Old Bailey (pictured) and convicted of careless driving, fined 500, given five penalty points and ordered to pay costs of 500

Rosemary Ainslie, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Shante Daniel-Folkes following this avoidable tragedy.

'Both officers, although not bound by the 30mph speed limit while responding to a 999 call, were driving at motorway speeds in a built-up urban area, with a number of potential hazards in the vicinity.

'These included pedestrians, cyclists, and cars travelling in the other direction, as well as an open convenience store directly at the scene and a nearby pub in which 30-40 customers were present for a quiz night.

'There was an obvious risk of injury to a person from vehicles travelling at that speed in the dark, and both officers fell below the expected standard of a competent and careful driver that evening.

'Pc Patel admitted causing the death of Ms Daniel-Folkes by driving dangerously and I hope his sentence, along with today's verdict for Pc Thomson, offers some comfort to her family at this extremely difficult time.'

Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) director Amanda Rowe said: 'This incident has had a devastating impact on the lives of Shante Daniel-Folkes' family and friends and our sympathies remain with them and all those affected by this.

'Pc Patel drove at excessive speeds at night-time throughout busy south London streets and, though he was responding to a report of an emergency incident, it does not excuse his dangerous driving behaviour which tragically resulted in a young woman's death.

'The convictions of these officers shows that they have been held accountable.'

The IOPC said its investigation following the incident identified potential learning for the Met around creating a policy on speed caps for officers responding to incidents.

It now plans to make a formal learning recommendation on a speed cap policy, and has recommended the Met review its current practices when officers are driving in convoy or tandem while responding to incidents. The recommendations have been accepted and changes have been made, the IOPC said.

PC Patel was dismissed with immediate effect from the Met in May 2023 after an accelerated misconduct hearing and placed on the College of Policing's barred list, meaning he cannot serve as an officer again.

The IOPC found PC Thomson had a case to answer for gross misconduct in relation to his driving prior to the collision and will progress misconduct proceedings against him following the verdict at the Old Bailey.
As the deadline approaches for the 2023 RSPCA Young Photographer of the Year, these previous entries are sure to get you excited for this year's winner.

The incredible set of snaps were taken by youngsters aged 18 and under and entered as submissions to the prestigious contest.

They range from an adorable pooch giving puppy dog eyes to a pair of amorous puffins.

One lamb appears to have been watched too many superhero films on the farm as it takes flight over a bundle of hay.

Also featured in the collection is a slightly terrifying and surly-looking owl whose bright yellow eyes pierce through your soul.

Budding photographers have until 15 August to enter awards, which is now celebrating its 33rd year. The winners will be announced in December 2023, at an awards ceremony hosted by Packham at the Tower of London.

This hilarious pet portrait was taken by Demmi Havenhand, aged 18 from Bedlington in Northumberland, for the 2022 Young Photographer Awards

Hugo Napier, aged 10 from York, photographed this lovely moment of human-animal connection as an orphaned squirrel is given a feed and a warm blanket

Daniel Zhang, aged 15 from Hendon in London, won the aged 12-15 category in 2019 for snapping this bird looking for his supper

Molly Tollson, aged 14 from Biggar in Scotland, photographed the surreal moment she saw a lamb do its best Superman impression over a bundle of hay

Joshu Myers aged 15 from Sheffield, shot this incredible but terrifying photo in 2018 and claimed the runner up position in the aged 12-15 category

Kathryn Walton, aged 12 from Northampton, took this warm fuzzy photo in 2020 and won the runner up prize for the aged 12-15 mobile phone and devices category

Gideon Knight, aged 18 from Essex, captured this comic photo of a seagull 'enjoying' the great British summertime

Clara Drycz, aged 15 from Rochdale, caught the longing in her puppy's eyes - as if he was wishing for just one white Christmas!

This tender moment between two puffins was captured by Jake Kneale, aged 16 from Pewsey, in Wiltshire

Hattie Pearce, aged 18 from Solihull, was commended in the 2022 Pet Personalities category for her photo of a joyful puppy enjoying some summer sand
Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan has predicted former Fox News host Tucker Carlson would be hard to beat if firebrand host decides to run for US President in 2028.

Speaking to commentator Patrick Bet-David, he claimed if Donald Trump wins the presidency next year, Carlson, 54, has the experience and appeal to succeed him in the White House.

'If Tucker went to run in 2028, he could win, because it would be kind of carrying those policies,' he said.

'But also hes sort of a no-nonsense guy who exposes b*******, you know, pretty humorous way and a very insightful and biting way, he added.

The podcaster on the latest edition of the Joe Rogan Experience added to growing speculation the conservative firebrand may put his popularity to the test.

Speculation is mounting about Tucker Carlson's presidential ambitions since the right-wing commentator was axed by Fox News in April

'And hes also got a very popular voice,' Rogan said.

'Like if he decided to run for president  lets just make a scenario. Trump wins in 2024. He has four years. If Tucker went to run in 2028, he could win.'

Carlson began his TV career with CNN and helped set up the conservative Daily Caller website in 2011.

But it was at Fox News that he became a darling of the right, helping propel Donald Trump to the White House and becoming one of the former president's favorite interviewers in a series of high-profile encounters.

'I love Trump, personally,' Carlson said last month.

Poll DO YOU THINK TUCKER CARLSON WILL RUN IN 2028? YES NO? DO YOU THINK TUCKER CARLSON WILL RUN IN 2028? YES 83 votes

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'I think we're going to see Trump's emergence as the most significant thing to happen in American politics in 100 years, because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders.'

Carlson has also been pictured spending time with Trump in social settings in recent months.

But speculation about Carlson's own political ambitions have soared since he was terminated by Fox News in the wake of its $787million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over voting fraud allegations in April.

Within days Carlson said he was enjoying his new-found freedom, telling DailyMail.com: 'I havent eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.'

He has taken his show to Twitter, where he has 10 million followers, broadcasting from a studio at his home in Woodstock, Maine.

But he is also reportedly raising money to start his own media empire after the loss of his $20million yearly salary in the wake of his departure from Fox.

Married for more than 30 years to wife Susan, the native Californian had a privileged but unconventional childhood, with a journalist father who would take him along to murder scenes, according to a new biography.

Recently, Carlson teased a reporter who asked him if he was seeking the White House, telling him: 'Yes. Announcing Friday in New Hampshire.'

The anchor was replying to a text in May from Insider journalist Mattathias Schwartz about his presidential ambitions.

Carlson then admitted he was 'totally kidding', adding: 'I can never control myself.

'I'm fundamentally a d**k. My apologies.'

Joe Rogan hailed Carlson's political prospects during a chat with Patrick Bet-David on the on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast. 'If Tucker went to run in 2028, he could win,' Rogan said

But speculation about Carlson's own political ambitions have soared since he was terminated by Fox News in the wake of its $787million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over voting fraud allegations in April

Fox's Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged a record 5.3million viewers a night in its 8pm weeknight slot, but figures have slumped since he was replaced by Jesse Waters.

Recent guests on Carlson's Twitter show have included Russell Brand, Andrew Tate's brother Tristan, and Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer

Fox's Tucker Carlson Tonight averaged a record 5.3million viewers a night in its 8pm weeknight slot, but figures have slumped since he was replaced by Jesse Waters.

While on air, Carlson dismissed claims that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and was outwardly loyal to former president Donald Trump.

But the lawsuit with Dominion exposed a trove of awkward internal emails and texts, including messages in which Carlson revealed that he 'passionately hated Donald Trump and complained about senior executives, allegedly labelling one a c***.

Recent guests on Carlson's Twitter show have included Russell Brand, Andrew Tate's brother Tristan, and Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer.

Rogan told his listeners that Carlson has 'red-pilled a lot of left-wing people', as he discussed the anchor's prospects with his guest.

'Do you get the vibes from Tucker that Tucker wants to be a Netanyahu, a Churchill, a guy that is, you know, a journalist thats been debating everybody has been reading every issue for the last 20, 30 years,' Bet-David asked him.

'You think its actually maybe he wants to make a run for 2028?'

'Well, what hes doing is very profitable, right?' Rogan suggested.

'Like, what hes doing makes a tremendous amount of money talking about things from his perspective.

'I think hes going to continue to do that. Whether or not he decides to become a politician, I dont know if he has any aspirations about that.'
More than 11,000 city workers in Los Angeles are set to go on strike - further paralyzing a city beset by walkouts staged by multiple trade unions.

On Tuesday morning, sanitation workers, traffic officers and mechanics will picket across the city, including outside the LA City Hall and LAX Airport, their union SEIU Local 721 said.

The union, which represents city and county employees in Southern California, said the one-day strike is a response to the city's 'refusal to bargain in good faith' during negotiations for higher wages.

It noted its membership includes more than a thousand airport workers, including custodians, mechanics and shuttle drivers. If it goes ahead it would be the first major city worker strike in at least 15 years.

The city workers will be joining Hollywood actors and writers, who are striking simultaneously for the first time in more than 50 years - shutting down the country's film and television industry.

More than 11,000 city workers in Los Angeles are set to go on strike - further paralyzing a city beset by walkouts staged by multiple trade unions. Pictured is a hotel worker strike in LA on July 21

Sanitation workers, traffic officers and mechanics will picket across the city, including outside the LA City Hall (pictured) and LAX Airport on Tuesday morning

Hotel workers in LA also staged a strike for three days last month, coordinated by Unite HERE Local 11, which represents thousands of cooks, maids, dishwashers and servers from 46 LA hotels.

This year unemployment levels in the US have been at their lowest in around 54 years, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Low unemployment is a sign demand for labor in the U.S. is high. Workers are therefore less replaceable and likely to wield greater bargaining power in negotiating with their employers.

Los Angeles City Hall is experiencing a more than 20 percent job vacancy rate across some departments, according to ABC7.

SEIU Local 721 union members voted 98 percent in favor of the action to launch an Unfair Labor Practice strike if negotiations stalled.

Union officials said the workers will meet at 11am outside City Hall but that picket lines would begin as early as 4am at other sites throughout the city.

'Despite repeated attempts by city workers to engage management in a fair bargaining process, the City has flat-out refused to honor previous agreements at the bargaining table, prompting workers to file charges alleging unfair labor practices with the city of Los Angeles Employee Relations Board,' SEIU 721 officials said in a statement last week.

SAG-AFTRA actors and Writers Guild of America strike outside Netflix offices in Los Angeles, California, on August 4

The strike on Tuesday is expected to create disruptions at LAX (pictured), the Port of Los Angeles and City Hall

LA Mayor Karen Bass said the city was actively seeking a resolution.

'City workers are vital to the function of services for millions of Angelenos every day and to our local economy. They deserve fair contracts and we have been bargaining in good faith with SEIU 721 since January,' Bass said in a statement on Friday.

'The City will always be available to make progress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,' it read.

'We're going to shut down the city of Los Angeles,' David Green, the executive director and president SEIU Local 721, told The Washington Post.

'The message we're sending is that our workers are just fed up. They've reached a breaking point. And we need these folks in the city to come back to the table for the good of the city.'
The sister of the missing Maryland mother who was found dead on a hiking trail on Sunday revealed her death is the second the family has suffered within a week - after their brother lost his infant daughter to SIDS.

In a Facebook post, Rebekah Morin wrote: 'My brother Nathan and his wife Magan lost their sweet Lily Beth a week ago. So our whole family has been hit with back to back losses.'

Rachel Morin, 37, was found dead Sunday after leaving to go for a walk around 6pm. It's unclear who she was hiking with, but her new boyfriend Richard Tobin, 27, reported her missing.

No motive has yet been identified in the death of the mother-of-five, but investigators believe it may have been a homicide.

Police and family have not shared details of the scene where Rachel was found, but Rebekah wrote that 'this was not an accidental death, and she did not go willingly.'

Rachel Morin, 37, was found dead on a Maryland hiking trail Sunday afternoon after disappearing the evening before. Her new boyfriend called in her disappearance Saturday night

Morin's sister revealed that Rachel's mysterious death is the second tragedy to plague the family in a week, after their brother's infant daughter passed away unexpectedly of SIDS. Pictured here are Magan Morin (Rachel's sister-in-law), Nathan Morin, and baby Lily Beth, who sadly passed last week

On Sunday, Magan Morin - Rebekah and Rachel's sister-in-law - shared a statement on Facebook thanking those who have offered support in the time following her daughter's unexpected death from sudden infant death syndrome.

'I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has loved and supported us in the unexpected passing of our sweet Lily Beth. I will eventually thank each of you individually for all you have done.'

'For now, please know we are so very thankful for every phone call, message, comment, visit, food delivery, grocery delivery, monetary donation, etc.,' she wrote.

On Sunday, Harford County Sheriff officials said in a statement: 'At approximately 1:07 pm, a female was located deceased off of the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air. The identity of the victim, as well as the cause, and manner of death are still under investigation.

'We firmly believe this is the body of Rachel Morin. But that final determination belongs with the medical examiner and that has not happened yet.

'Thankfully we don't have too much violent crime in Harford County, but when we have one, I prefer when I can stand here and tell you that the suspect has been arrested or that it's a targeted crime.

'I can't tell you that is the case.'

'Im not going to go into what, physically, they observed at the scene. But investigators believe sadly that its a homicide case.'

Just days before her disappearance and death, Rachel shared snaps of her and her new boyfriend Richard, taking the relationship public for the first time.

She wrote, along with two smiley images: 'Only started taking pics few weeks ago.. but these are a few of my favorites. From the beach to the mountains.'

As questions about the woman's death arose on Sunday, Tobin took to social media to insist he had nothing to do with passing.

Rachel's sister, Rebekah Morin, shared a GoFundMe to help support the costs of Rachel's funeral after her tragic passing. The effort has raised about $30,000

Rebekah Morin, Rachel's sister, announced that the sudden loss of Rachel was the second tragedy the family had experienced inside of a week, following the passing of their brother's daughter from SIDS

Rachel Morin's new boyfriend, Richard Tobin, has a significant criminal history and immediately claimed innocence following the police discovery of her body on Sunday

Rachel and her new boyfriend Richard Tobin. Tobin wrote in an update underneath their relationship status: 'I love Rachel, I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve'

Police said a homicide investigation was launched - despite the fact a medical examiner had not confirmed the body was definitely Morin's - based on what officers 'physically observed at the scene'

'I love Rachel. I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve. Yes, I have a past but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please.'

Tobin has been arrested 14 times since 2014 on a variety of charges including drug dealing, assault, disorderly conduct and refusing arrest.

His lengthy rap sheet includes two arrests for criminal second degree assault, violating restraining orders, drug possession, and malicious destruction of property.

Tobin also has a number of traffic offenses, a fugitive from justice offense, resisting arrest, and disorderly intoxication and conduct marks on his record, documents show.

His most recent misdemeanor on record - second degree assault - occurred on March 14, 2020.

Tributes have flooded in for the much-loved mother.

One person wrote: 'I just saw Rachel a few days ago. I have known her and her daughters for several years. She was always nice to me.

'I wish I could do more, then again I wish this never happened. Condolences to family and friends and above all her children. Rest in peace Rachel.'

Another said: 'I am so sorry for her family's loss. Thinking of all of her loved ones, and children especially.'

A third added: 'We knew Rachel and her children well, and we will definitely miss them.'

A GoFundMe for Rachel's funeral expenses had raised $30,000 by Monday afternoon. One for Lily Beth's funeral costs had raised nearly $4,000.
A Manhattan judge dismissed Donald Trump's counterclaim against writer E. Jean Carroll, who is seeking at least $10 million in a defamation suit.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Carroll's statements, made on CNN the day after she won $5 million jury verdict against Trump for defamation and sexual abuse, were at least 'substantially true.'

He added that Trump's team failed to show in their counterclaim for a second defamation lawsuit that the 79-year-old writer made her comments against him with actual malice.

The dismissal comes just days after Trump pleaded not guilty in his third criminal indictment.

A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's defamation counterclaim against the writer E. Jean Carroll. The former president claims he was defamed when she repeated claims on CNN he raped her in a dressing room

Dismissal comes days after Trump appeared in court in D.C. to plea not guilty on four counts related to his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and efforts to overturn 2020 election

Trump lawyer Alina Habba said 'We strongly disagree with the flawed decision and will be filing an appeal shortly.'

After being awarded millions, Carroll is seeing at least $10 million more from the 77-year-old frontrunner 2024 Republican candidate.

A trial is scheduled for January 15, 2024.

Trump also pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in his third and latest indictment. On Thursday, the ex-President appeared in court in Washington, D.C. to be arraigned on four counts related to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot and conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results.

Two other indictments include his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and his mishandling of classified documents.

He also objected to Carroll recounting how she had told his lawyer 'he did it and you know it' soon after the verdict was read.

Kaplan had previously found convincing proof that Trump 'deliberately and forcibly' penetrated Carroll's vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long-lasting emotional and psychological harm.

The verdict reflected that 'Mr. Trump 'raped' her, albeit digitally rather than with his penis,' Kaplan wrote on Monday. 'Thus, it establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms. Carroll's 'rape' accusations.'

Kaplan also struck some of Trump's affirmative defenses, including that he had 'absolute presidential immunity' and that Carroll was ineligible for punitive damages.

Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll and is not related to the judge, said she was pleased with Monday's decision, which means the January trial 'shouldn't take very long to complete.'

Both lawsuits stemmed from Trump's denials that he forced himself upon and raped Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

Carroll is suing over Trump's comments in June 2019 that he had not known her, that she was not his 'type,' and that she lied to boost sales of her memoir.

The $5 million verdict stemmed from a similar denial in an October 2022 social media post, where Trump branded the incident a 'Hoax and a lie' and a 'complete Scam.'

Carroll amended her lawsuit after Trump disparaged her as a 'whack job' in a CNN town hall following the verdict.

The lawsuit is Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-07311.
'You all need to resign immediately,' said a father of deceased Staff Sgt. Hoover

The family members of the U.S. troops killed during a suicide bombing attack during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal are slamming President Biden and his military leadership as 'incompetent, cowards, evil.'

The gold star families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, participated in a public forum Monday in Escondido, California, organized by Rep. Darrell Issa.

A suicide bomber detonated his deadly payload outside of the Abbey Gate at Kabul's international airport on August 26, 2021, killing 13 American service members and at least 170 Afghans amid the chaos of the exit. The families are seeking accountability and closure from the Biden administration almost two years later.

Kelly Barnett, Gold Star mother of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover called Biden and his military leadership 'incompetent, cowards, evil.'

'I want justice. I want accountability,' she added during her tearful testimony.

Not a single Biden administration official has taken the blame for the horrors that unfolded during the withdrawal.

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, said that the Biden administration's labeling of the withdrawal as a 'success' is like a 'knife in the heart'

The gold star families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, participated in a public forum Tuesday in Escondido, California, organized by Rep. Darrell Issa

Darin Hoover, the father of Sgt. Hoover, called out President Biden and his military leaders including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and demanded they resign 'immediately.'

'Do what our son did. Be a grown a** man and admit your mistakes, so that this never ever ever ever happens again.

'You all need to resign immediately,' he added.

'Our sons and daughters have more integrity in their little toes than every one of them combined. You owe it to our families here today.'

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, said that the Biden administration's labeling of the withdrawal as a 'success' is like a 'knife in the heart.'

'We want to make sure that while we can't bring our children back, the next ones will be treated with more respect. The respect that they earned by dying for our country.'

'When our leaders - including Secretary of Defense and our commander in chief - called this evacuation a sucess, as if there should be celebration, it is like a knife in the heart for our families and for the people who came back. And for every service member who served over this 20-year war.

'These deaths were preventable, my daughter could be with us today,' she said.

It was 'many decisions' that led to her death, Shamblin added.

'Calling it a success is an ultimate disrespect for the very people who deserve every ounce of respect we can give them.'

Cheryl Rex, mother of Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola said during her testimony: 'When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were, 'My wife, Jill and I, know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag draped coffin.''

'My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side. How could someone be so heartless to say he knew how I felt,' she continued.

The seven survivors of the blast at Abbey Gate have since committed suicide and were never honored by the Biden administration, added Coral Briseno - mother of Cpl. Humberto Sanchez.

'The testimony we heard today from Gold Star Families is just the beginning,' Issa said after the hearing.

'To the families who came so far to share their stories: thank you. As a witness to your testimony, I will retell your stories and continue to work until every question you have is answered.'

The congressman added that many of the families have yet to receive personal belongings from their deceased loved ones.

Last month, during a congressional hearing into what went wrong during the withdrawal, the family members were asked whether the Biden administration had taken ownership of the botched exit.

They shook their heads in unison during a powerful moment.

'To the families sitting behind you, that are still clearly morning, by nodding your head, yes or no,' Rep. Brian Mast asked: 'Do you feel like this administration has taken ownership and accountability?'

They shook their heads.

'I didn't think so,' he said.

Biden has previously been criticized for appearing to look at his watch just seconds after a salute honoring the return of the 13 US service members killed in Kabul.

He had made the unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware ss the caskets of the 13 service members killed in the attack were brought back to the United States.

He stood in silence, his right hand to his chest, as a succession of flag draped transfer coffins were carried past him from a C-17 Globemaster plane.

But during the ceremony, Biden appears to jerk his left arm up and look down at his watch.

'Looks like he was being inconvenienced by having to show some respect for these American Heroes [sic],' wrote Desert Storm Army veteran Samuel Williams at the time.

The State Department releases a scathing 87-page report on Afghanistan withdrawal failures in early July, immediately before the long July Fourth holiday weekend.

The Americans killed in the blast were: (left to right, starting with top row) Cpl. Daegan W. Page - Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo - Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover - Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza - Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum - Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui - Cpl. Hunter Lopez - Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz - Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss - Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez - Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak - Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola - Sgt. Nicole L. Gee

President Biden appeared to check his watch during an event honoring the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan

The investigation found serious pitfalls in leadership and questions about who was in charge before and during the mayhem, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and hundreds of Afghan civilians.

'It's no coincidence that President Biden's State Department waited until Friday evening, before a long weekend, to drop its assessment of the United States' disastrous and embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan,' Rep. Greg Murphy told DailyMail.com.

'That type of behavior conveys guilt and acceptance that the Biden Administration is culpable,' Murphy, R-N.C., added.

'Of course, they don't want you to know that, so they attempted to bury it in plain sight while Americans were gearing up to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends.'

And Biden has stood by his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and shrugged off the report.

'Remember what I said? I said al-Qaeda wouldn't be there. I said we'd get help from the Taliban. What's happening now? What's going on? Read your press. I was right,' Biden said during a press event.

However, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, took issue with Biden's statement that al-Qaeda is no longer operating in Afghanistan - calling it 'divorced from reality.'

'It is completely divorced from reality for President Biden to claim that al Qaeda is no longer operating in Afghanistan or that the Taliban has somehow become our national security partner in the region,' McCaul said in a statement Thursday.

The chairman noted that Al Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, was discovered living in the capital city of Kabul in a home owned by a senior Taliban official.

The U.S. took out the leader last year in a drone strike.

He continued to say that al-Qaeda's capabilities are growing rapidly and are 'aided by the Taliban' through funding and 'security cooperation.'

'President Biden's words can only be interpreted as an attempt to whitewash the Taliban and al Qaeda's longstanding ties, and may even ben an attempt to get America on the path of recognizing the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan,' warned McCaul.

Murphy added that House Republicans back McCaul and Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., of the House Armed Services Committee's commitment to stand up to the administration and the Taliban's growing influence.

'President Biden and Secretary Blinken can keep running interference, but we will do everything in our power to expose their abject failure in leadership that cost the lives of 13 service members, stranded Americans and Afghans that served alongside us, and left behind $85 billion of U. S. military equipment for the Taliban,' Murphy told DailyMail.com.

The Biden administration failed to plan properly and didn't foresee the rapid collapse of Kabul during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, a damning State Department report has concluded.

The US Marine Corps posted a photo to Twitter of the flag-draped caskets of their fallen brethren killed in the suicide bomb attack in Kabul, after the coffins arrived back on home soil on August 29, 2021

The State Department report repeatedly blamed the administrations of both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden for their efforts before and after the August 2021 departure of U.S. forces from Kabul.

'The decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security,' the report says.

'Those decisions are beyond the scope of this review, but the (review) team found that during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.'

It also outlined several strategic failures as the Taliban overran cities - saying there wasn't enough consideration given to 'worst-case scenarios.'

As a result, thousands of allies who helped the U.S. in the war were left behind, and there was chaos at Hamid Karzai International Airport as men, women and children tried desperately to flee.

Even though planning for the evacuation of Kabul began 'some time' beforehand, the State Department was 'hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the Department had the lead.'
She is one of the last surviving female naval officers who fought for Britain during the Second World War.

Now at the age of 103, former Wren Christian Lamb has taken to the skies in a Miles Magister plane  84 years after she was offered a lift home from a party in one by a Polish officer.

Mrs Lamb, who joined the Women's Royal Naval Service aged 19, looked thrilled as she soared into the air in the two-seater aerobatic aircraft.

She was watched by her family and friends as she re-lived her daring flight at the Shuttleworth Trust Air Show.

In 1939, Mrs Lamb had been on a training course in Bath, Somerset, when she missed the train back to her Navy base in Plymouth.

She is one of the last surviving female naval officers who fought for Britain during the Second World War. Now at the age of 103, former Wren Christian Lamb (pictured) has taken to the skies in a Miles Magister plane  84 years after she was offered a lift home from a party in one by a Polish officer

She was watched by her family and friends as she re-lived her daring flight at the Shuttleworth Trust Air Show

In 1939, Mrs Lamb had been on a training course in Bath, Somerset, when she missed the train back to her Navy base in Plymouth. Luckily she was saved by a 'delightful Polish officer' whom she had met at a party the night before. Mrs Lamb recalled how she had to sit on her parachute in the back and the trip was made extra-thrilling by the pilot 'dive-bombing cows'

Luckily she was saved by a 'delightful Polish officer' whom she had met at a party the night before.

Mrs Lamb recalled how she had to sit on her parachute in the back and the trip was made extra-thrilling by the pilot 'dive-bombing cows'.

She wrote in her memoir Beyond the Sea: 'He astonished me by saying, 'Shall I take you back in the old crate?'

'I was nearly speechless when I realised, he meant his aeroplane. I stammered out my rapturous acceptance.'

She added: 'Flying in an open plane, low down over the River Tamar and seeing the whole estuary and coast as on a map, was an experience I'd like to relive even today.'

Yesterday Mrs Lamb, who lives in London, finally got the chance to be a passenger once more on the Miles Magister, saying it was 'a lot nosier' than she remembered.

She said: 'That was the most incredible and never-to-be-repeated experience, to be so free up in the air and the wind in my face, it was thrilling and I feel so lucky to have had this chance again at 103.'

Yesterday Mrs Lamb, who lives in London, finally got the chance to be a passenger once more on the Miles Magister, saying it was 'a lot nosier' than she remembered

Mrs Lamb who was a plotting and operations officer in the Battle of the Atlantic and helped to plan the D-Day landings

As a plotting officer, she charted the progress of convoys crossing the Atlantic Ocean amid constant danger from German U-boats.

She later helped in the planning of the D-Day landings from Churchill's war room in London.

In 2021, Mrs Lamb told the BBC that her war work as 'very, very exciting but very, very secret'.

She added that she did not speak of her key role in the conflict 'for about 50 years'.
Decades before his close friend and associate Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in jail, financier Leon Black grieved the loss of his father, Eli, who committed suicide to avoid a scandal of his own.

Eli Black took his own life in February 1975, when Leon was just 24, leaping through the window of his midtown office after smashing the glass with his briefcase.

At the time, Eli - a failed rabbi who moved to the US from Poland with his parents - was the chairman of the multi-billion dollar company United Brands.

The company's prized product were the Chiquita bananas it imported from Honduras.

Eli Black (center), Leon Black's father, was the chairman of United Brands. He led the company to huge profits with the acquisition of United Fruit and specifically the Chiquita banana brand, but became engulfed in a scandal in the 1970s

Black, 53, killed himself in February 1975. Company lawyers had disclosed how he oversaw a bribe to a Honduran economic minister to lower export taxes on the bananas

When Black took over, the bananas promised billions for investors. But by the time of his death, a scandal was brewing.

Hurricane Fifi had flattened the fields where the fruit grew and the tax on importing them had skyrocketed.

To try to get around it, Black oversaw a bribe to the Honduras Economic Minister.

When he took his own life by jumping from the window of his 44th floor Manhattan office, the company's lawyers had disclosed it to federal investigators.

Black, eager to support his artist mother and his sister, turned to Wall Street.

'After my father died, we were pretty much wiped out, financially, as a family. So I decided to give finance a try,' he said, according to Air Mail.

By the time he and Epstein became entangled in business, he had built a personal net worth of $10.5billion.

Now his many payments to Epstein are under scrutiny from the Senate Finance Committee, and he has been accused of raping two women in Epstein's home.

Eli Black took his own life in February 1975, when Leon was just 24, leaping through the window of his midtown office after smashing the glass with his briefcase

He also paid prosecutors in the US Virgin Islands $62million to avoid involvement in any future litigation involving Epstein or his estate.

Black has denied all wrongdoing and claims his $158million payments to Epstein were legitimate.

Yet more financial ties between Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein have been uncovered on top of the $158million he paid him for 'tax advice' and $62million he gave US Virgin Island prosecutors to avoid being involved in litigation against the late pedophile's estate.

A lengthy Air Mail investigation published this weekend also reveals that in 2015, Black donated $10million to Gratitude America, a charity run by Jeffrey Epstein with the vague mission of 'supporting the expression of gratitude for the ideals of America.'

It was the only donation the charity had received at the time despite having existed for three years.

In the same month, Guzel Ganieva - a Russian model who was Black's mistress - received the first of what was supposed to be many $100,000 monthly payments to stay quiet about their relationship.

Leon Black was 24 when his father died

Billionaire Leon Black paid Epstein $158million for 'tax advice' but also gave his charity $10million in 2015. It was the only donation the charity received

It came from a mysterious 'E trust', whereas all of the other money she'd received from Black was from his bank account.

In total, she was due to receive $20million from Black as part of their deal.

In exchange, she signed an NDA agreeing to never speak of their romance, which involved meet-ups at an Upper East Side apartment across the street from where Black lives with his wife, Debra, and their children.

Guzen Ganieva went public with rape claims against Black in 2021, six years after agreeing to an NDA deal that would have paid her $20million total

Ganieva was given extravagant cash gifts, a Steinway piano and treated to expensive evenings out with Black.

He had also agreed to help her obtain British legal status and was paying for her to go to college too.

In 2021, after Epstein's death and the #MeToo movement that took down Harvey Weinstein, who frequently transacted in NDAs with accusers, Ganieva went public with her rape and harassment allegations.

She first tweeted her claims, then - after he accused her of lying - sued for defamation.

In the lawsuit, she shared more details of their affair.

They had 'countless' meals out in Manhattan where she said he showed no regard or concern for his wife becoming aware of his infidelity.

She also described the alleged sexual abuse, though many of her specific claims were redacted.

She called Black a 'sadist' whose sexual proclivities were 'abnormal'.

Black publicly admitting his affair with Ganieva, which he called 'foolish', but he denied the rape allegations.

The case was eventually dismissed.

Ganieva's lawsuit is one of three to have been directed towards Black by a woman who says he raped her.

The other two, filed by Cheri Pierson in 2022 and a Jane Doe with mosaic Down syndrome who says he raped her when she was 16, are still being litigated. They both say the attacks happened at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion.

In 2016, a year after he gave Epstein's charity $10million and Ganieva received the first of her $100k payments from the 'E trust', money was transferred back from Epstein to Black, according to Air Mail.

It was in the form of a donation from Epstein's Gratitude America charity to Black's Melanoma research charity in the amount of $225,000.

Because Black was the sole donor to Epstein's charity, he effectively donated the funds to his own organization.
Nursing pillows have been linked to at least 162 infant deaths since 2007 as their parents fell asleep nearby, a devastating new investigation has found.

Most of those babies were under four months old, while the the youngest was just three days old, according to the analysis of public records and internal federal data by NBC News.

Some slumped down on the pillows or arched backward off of them, constricting their airways, while others turned their faces into the plush surfaces and suffocated.

At least three cases involved mothers who fell asleep while feeding their baby and awoke to find they could not rouse their child.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is now considering issuing new regulations on the popular maternity products, as an advocacy group funded by the pillow manufacturers fights back.

Nursing pillows (like the one seen here) have been linked to at least 162 infant deaths since 2007, a new study found

The horseshoe-shaped cushions are marketed as an essential item for newborns, who need to be fed frequently

The horseshoe-shaped cushions are marketed as an essential item for newborns, who need to be fed frequently.

Approximately 1.34million pillows are sold each year, according to industry estimates.

Most nursing pillows have labels against using them unsupervised or for sleep, but some have also been labeled or marketed as places for infants to practice 'tummy time,' laying on their stomach, or as a support for sitting or reclining.

'The Boppy pillow is not limited to breastfeeding; it offers a range of versatile uses,' the Boppy company writes on its website.

Critics argue that such ads may encourage mothers or other caregivers to use the pillows for sleep.

Dr. Rachel Moon,who leads the SIDS task force for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says it is the manufacturers' responsibility to make sure their products are not deadly

Among the 162 babies who died were Sterling Gerber, who was just shy of seven months old when a daycare worker in Oklahoma set him down on a nursing pillow, and he fell asleep. The daycare center shut down in the aftermath.

William Allen Cruz Lowe was also just 19 days old in June 2021 when his mom propped him up on a nursing pillow to sleep.

He had the 'sniffles,' his mother Courtney McBride said, and she figured the elevated angle would help him breathe. But the boy's father found him the next morning unresponsive.

Lowe's cause of death was bronchopneumonia, with a medical examiner noting that the unsafe sleep environment 'likely contributed to the demise.'

Dr. Rachel Moon, who leads the SIDS task force for the American Academy of Pediatrics, now says it is the manufacturers' responsibility to make sure their products are not deadly.

'You have to make sure that it's going to still be safe, even if people don't use it correctly,' she said. 'Because these are babies  the babies can't protect themselves and they can't make those decisions.'

Courtney Griffin, the director of consumer product safety for the Consumer Federation of America, added: 'Any infant death is too many, and any number beyond that is outrageous.'

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is preparing to create new rules to make the pillows safer, with a proposal expected in the coming weeks

The CPSC had previously tried to regulate nursing pillows.

In 1992, the agency banned beanbag-like infant cushions after dozens of babies died.

By 2004, it also issued a recall of the Boston Billow pillow, which was filled with plastic beads designed to mold to the shape of a baby's head and body.

But the company fought back, and in 2008, federal regulators reversed course and ruled that the Billow  and other 'substantially similar' nursing pillows  were exempt from the infant cushion ban.

The CPSC said at the time that nursing pillows served a useful purpose and that infants were unlikely to suffocate if the pillows were used properly for breastfeeding.

Yet infants continued to die on the pillows, with a December 2019 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifying 141 deaths of babies who had been set down to sleep on or with the pillows over a 12-year period.

It determined that the pillows were directly to blame for airway constriction in at least nine of the cases.

The following October, the CPSC issued a general warning against using the 'pillow-like products' for sleep. It mentioned that deaths were 'possibly associated' with the pillows' but did not specify how many.

The agency is now once again preparing to create new rules to make the pillows safer, with a proposal expected in the coming weeks.

But the Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance, which formed last year is leading a lobbying and public relations push against any regulations.

The Breastfeeding Infant Development Support Alliance, which formed last year is leading a lobbying and public relations push against any regulations

Its funders include The Boppy Company and Snuggle Me Organic, two nursing pillow makers, which have spent about $150,000 on lobbying since last year.

The group is framing their efforts as a feminist fight.

'Women's rights are being gutted  and the ability for women and parents to choose how to feed their baby is next on the chopping block,' its website says.

It also warned that federal regulators want to 'impose the will of the government over the needs of mothers,' requiring such drastic changes that the products would have to be pulled from the market, which could 'have a negative impact' on breastfeeding or prompt caregivers to find makeshift solutions that could be even more dangerous.

'It is imperative to have safe products on the market that properly assist parents in caring for their babies,' the group said in a statement to NBC News.

It also suggested that, rather than implement new regulations on the pillows, the CPSC should 'invest in an extensive campaign to educate consumers on safe sleep practices' and defer to voluntary safety standards.

Meanwhile, The Boppy Company is being sued by the family of a three month old who died on a nursing pillow in New Jersey in 2020.

The family argues that Boppy and its parent company, Artsana, knew or should have known about the product's 'defective and unreasonably dangerous design' but continued to sell it.

The company has denied those claims, and argued in court documents that the baby's parents were 'guilty of negligence, which either caused or contributed' to their infant's death. That court case is ongoing.
Staff at a leading university have been encouraged to ditch the phrases 'black sheep', 'blackball' or 'Indian summer'.

Academics at the University of Surrey have been handed examples of 'non-inclusive words and phrases to be aware of'.

These include swapping the phrase 'black sheep' for 'renegade', and to use 'ostracise' instead of 'blackball', to avoid causing offence.

The guidance, created by Mental Health First Aid England, reads: 'This guide aims to empower you to have supportive, inclusive conversations about race.

'Consider the origins and implications of the words you choose. Do they reinforce bias, or challenge it?

Academics at the University of Surrey have been handed examples of 'non-inclusive words and phrases to be aware of'

'One way to help eliminate bias is to change our language to no longer use 'black' and 'dark' to mean 'bad'.'

Other phrases include swapping 'black and blue' for 'bruised'.

While academics should use 'warm autumn' or 'late summer; instead of 'Indian summer'.

The institution said the guidance is not university policy  but that the inclusive language document was published by an individual as 'good practice'.

It comes amid a rise of 'campus wokery' that has seen academics encouraged to 'decolonise' degree courses.

Teaching staff at Durham have access to a 'woke toolkit' aimed at ridding lessons of any content deemed to be insufficiently inclusive.

And at Kings College London, employees are told there is a difference between being 'not racist' and 'anti-racist'.

A University of Surrey spokesman said: 'We conduct research all over the world and welcome a diverse community of UK and international students.

'We are committed to freedom of speech and encourage colleagues to be courteous in their use of language at all times and can see the Mental Health First Aid England guidance was shared at a department level in that spirit.'
Dallas-Fort Worth is the fastest growing metro area in the US, having added more than 170,000 people between 2021 and 2022.

Migration to the area is being driven largely by the relocation of businesses, according to Axios, which reported that 265 have made the move since 2020.

Dallas and Forth Worth are the 9th and 13th largest cities in the country, with populations of approximately 1.3 and 1 million respectively.

Together with other cities including Arlington, Plano and Garland, they make up a chunk of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which has a total population of 7.9 million.

While its population is currently the fourth largest in the county, an analysis by moving services site moveBuddha, published in June, predicted that by the year 2100 it would be the largest, with a population of more than 30 million.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the fastest growing metro area in the US, having added more than 170,000 people between 2021 and 2022. Pictured is the downtown area of Dallas, a white-collar business hub

Driving the migration of people is the relocation of businesses. Fort Worth has a reputation for being a destination for the oil and gas, aerospace and defense industries. Pictured are Motorola employees assembling Moto X phones

Not only was Dallas-Fort Wort the fastest expanding metro in the country, but Fort Worth itself was the fastest growing city - adding 19,000 people between July 2021 and 2022.

Robert Sturns, director of economic development for the city, told Axios that Fort Worth is attractive to business leaders because of its well-established identity.

'We have a definable character. We're Cowtown,' he said. 'That's not something we shy away from.'

Fort Worth has a reputation for being a destination for the oil and gas, aerospace and defense industries, whereas Dallas is considered a white-collar business hub with a specialism in financial services and real estate.

Despite the rapid growth of Fort Worth, Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development for the Dallas Regional Chamber, told Axios the health of Dallas is still important to the various satellite cities.

In June 2022, Caterpillar announced it would relocate its headquarters from Illinois to Irving Pictured are its previous headquarters in Illinois

Pictured is the inside of a General Electric manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas

'It is important that the core city, the branded city, is healthy and vibrant and has a positive ring to it. That helps a Frisco. That helps a Plano,' Rosa told the outlet.

In June 2022, Caterpillar announced it would relocate its headquarters from Illinois to Irving - the fifth largest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and not far from Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

At the time the company told Fox News that it estimated most of its roughly 230 Deerfield corporate employees will move with it.

Caterpillar - which boasts more than 100,000 employees globally - had been based in Illinois since 1925. The move made it the 54th Fortune 500 to be based in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott noted at the time.

Axios reported that Irving alone saw more than 20 business expansions since 2020.
press release

The African Development Bank Group has provided training on debt reporting, management and sustainability in Africa to financial sector experts drawn from several member countries.

The training, the fifth, formed part of executive series organized quarterly by the African Development Institute's Public Finance Management Academy to strengthen the leadership skills and technical capacities of public finance managers. About 110 participants from 45 African countries attended the training.

Participants commended the training.

Stephen K. Moore, an assistant director for budget at the Central Bank of Liberia, said, "The debt management training was relevant in expanding my exposure to budget allocation efficiency and expenditure commitment controls, reducing expenditure arrears, reducing administrative delays in processing payments, and lowering the risks of deliberate payments deferral and budget line overruns."

He added that the training was essential. "Liberia and many other African countries are faced with significant challenges in managing their high external debt levels with the limited expertise in debt management practices exposing them to high vulnerability and debt distress," he said.

Warona Seile, Finance Manager for Revenue at the Botswana United Revenue Service, said the training was timely as African countries are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, which depleted public finances.

"The debt management programme raised some important techniques which are to be followed and used when a country intends to raise debts finances whether locally raised debt or internationally raised debts finances, there are some risks attached to each debt type and always long-term public benefits should always exceed risks attached," she said.

Debt financing, mostly used for major infrastructural projects, requires specific skills and management.

Abdoulaye Coulibaly, African Development Bank Director for Governance and Financial Management, said African countries have continued to face the challenges of low fiscal revenues, illicit financial flows, and weak capacity for public financial management, especially public debt management.

"These challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, as well as financing pressures emanating from conflict and insecurity, which are affecting the ability of countries to meet their development aspirations and reduce poverty," Coulibaly said. He spoke on behalf of Prof. Kevin Urama, African Development Bank Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management.

He said despite rising debt levels, African governments need additional finance to the tune of $432 billion to address the socioeconomic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and support recovery in 2022 and 2023. As a result, sovereign debt is expected to remain elevated across the continent at around 65 percent in 2023 and 2024.

Coulibaly said these challenges call for improved capacity for debt management and prudence in public finances while intensifying efforts at mobilizing additional revenues.

Africa's current public debt is estimated at $546 billion or about one-quarter of the continent's GDP and higher than combined annual government revenues, which are $501 billion. According to the Bank's data, the continent's gross government debt as a percentage of GDP nearly doubled between 2010 and 2020, from 36% to 70%.

The training took place took place from 27th to 30th March 2023.
The driver suspected of injuring ten pedestrians when he rammed his car into them near New York City's Grand Central appeared emotional in court as a judge ordered he be held on $50,000 bail.

Kyle Fernandez, 20, sobbed as he stood before the judge in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday during his bail hearing.

Fernandez, who has a prior rap sheet that includes two gun charges and a history of drugs, now faces 12 counts of reckless endangerment, criminal possession of stolen property, operating a motor vehicle while with drugs and resisting arrest.

Last week, police say Fernandez plowed a car he had stolen in the Bronx into a crowd of pedestrians on Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street intersection. He had been driving in the wrong direction.

At the time, he was trying to evade police as they tried to pull him over for a traffic violation. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault.

The pedestrians, including two minors aged 5 and 7, were taken to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Kyle Fernandez, 20, was handcuffed during his court appearance on Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court during his bail hearing

Fernandez sobbed as the judge ordered to jail and held on $50,000 bail

Fernandez was arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault in the near-death collision in midtown Manhattan

The chaos unfold when around 5:30pm at Third Avenue and 43rd Street, near Grand Central Station. Officers were alerted that there was a stolen car in the area by their automated license plate reader.

Authorities said that the vehicle was stolen on July 31, the day before the melee took place.

It was later revealed that Fernandez was fleeing police officers in Manhattan while driving the stolen 2018 Hyundai Tucson SUV that had Illinois license plates.

One witness at the Grand Central scene claimed to have seen a victim 'flying through the air' at the East 42nd and Lexington Avenue collision, which reportedly involved three vehicles.

Chaotic images and video showed a black and red vehicle in what appeared to have been a head-on collision.

Another video showed one female victim being stretchered out from the area - as passers-by gawk at the active crime scene.

Fernandez was taken into custody after at least ten people were plowed down by a vehicle believed to have been stolen in the Bronx

Chaotic images and video from the busy intersection show a black and red vehicle in what appears to have been a head-on collision

At least ten people were plowed down by a vehicle believed to have been stolen in the Bronx

The suspect bolted from the area after the crash. Video showed Fernandez running through the streets as some bystanders are overheard yelling, 'go get him,' as others chased.

A group of pedestrians tackled him to the group and held him there until the police arrived at the scene.

Eyewitness Michael Discioarro told the New York Post, 'when the cops showed up, the guy they took into custody was trying to fight with the cops  trying to push the cops away.'

Citizen reported police at the scene described the female passenger who fled as white or Hispanic, approximately 100lbs with black hair. Police continue to search for that passenger.

She is thought to have been wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and black and white sneakers and was carrying a satchel when she fled westbound on 42nd Street, according to Citizen reports.
The body of a Mexican woman who disappeared in Germany late last month was found floating in a canal.

Authorities said the body of Maria Fernanda Sanchez, 24, was spotted by a person who was walking along a bridge in the Berlin neighborhood of Adlershof on Saturday.

In a statement, police said that 'no third-party blame can be assumed' and that the investigation was ongoing.

Authorities are awaiting the results of an autopsy.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry communicated on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that authorities in Berlin reported the discovery of a deceased woman that fit Sanchez's description.

Maria Fernanda Sanchez was found dead in a Berlin canal near a bridge on Saturday. The 24-year-old Mexico student arrived in Germany five months ago for a master's degree program in media design

Maria Fernanda Sanchez was reported missing July 23, a day after she is said to have left the student residence in the Berlin district of Treptow-Kopenick

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week that he was going to ask German Frank-Walter Steinmeier to step up effort for the young woman's search.

Sanchez, who was known to her friends as 'Maffy,' graduated with a degree in Communication from Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private university.

She made the move to Berlin five months ago for master's degree program in media design at the University of Applied Sciences and was reported missing July 23 after her family contacted the staff at the student residence where she was living after failing to hear from her, according to El Pais newspaper.

Sanchez was supposed to attend a LGTB+ party July 22, but decided instead to stay in to work on an assignment. She is said to have left the residence, located in the Treptow-Kopenick district, but no one saw her leaving.

Javier Sanchez, the young woman's father, told the outlet that she lived in a room located in the first floor and that the balcony had a view of the street.

Maria Fernanda Sanchez was known to her friends as 'Maffy' and graduated with a degree in Communication from Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private university

According to El Pais, Maria Fernanda Sanchez left her cellphone on her bed and that her personal property in the room had been moved around when police arrived to investigate.

Berlin authorities used dogs from their K-9 units and divers to check waterways in the city. At least 125 volunteers also participated in the search, attaching posters with Maria Fernanda Sanchez's likeness.

In the early stages of the search, the Berlin police described Maria Fernanda Sanchez as a person who was 'under the influence of exceptional psychological situation.'

But her father said she was just 'very homesick.'
The mother of one of the 13 US service members killed in the suicide bomb blast during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan tore into President Joe Biden for his 'heartless' reaction to her son's death.

Gold Star mother Cheryl Rex revealed during gut-wrenching testimony that Biden told her his son Beau had also been 'brought home' in a flag-draped coffin - even though he died in hospital from cancer.

Rex said she started 'shaking' with rage at the interaction just after her 20-year-old son Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola was killed by the explosion outside Hamid Kharzai Airport on August 25, 2021.

She made the heartbreaking revelation on Monday during a Congressional hearing in California for the families of the 11 Marines, Army soldier, and Navy corpsman killed on the frontlines while trying to evacuate thousands of Afghans.

The grieving relatives condemned the Biden administration for the botched evacuation and the response to the deadliest attack involving the US military in 10 years.

'When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were, "My wife, Jill & I, know how you feel. We also lost our son and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin",' Rex said during the field hearing organized by California Republican Rep. Darrel Issa.

'My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side.'

'How could someone be so heartless to say he knew how I felt a little over 24 hours after learning of my son's death?' she asked.

Gold Star mother Cheryl Rex revealed during gut-wrenching testimony that Biden told her his son Beau had also been 'brought home' in a flag-draped coffin - even though he died in hospital from cancer

Beau passed away from brain cancer at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2015. But the president has been known to say his son died in Iraq.

The congressional forum, put on by Rep. Darrell Issa, R, in Escondido, California, was the first time relatives of all 13 service members had been brought together to talk about the loss they suffered as a result of the withdrawal.

Rex said she started 'shaking' with rage at the interaction just after her 20-year-old son Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola (pictured) was killed by the explosion outside Hamid Kharzai Airport on August 25, 2021

Merola was a Marine from Rancho Cucamonga, California.

'After this encounter, I have never had any personal correspondence nor has my son been honored or his name spoken by this commander-in-chief,' Rex went on.

A suicide bomber detonated his deadly payload outside of the Abbey Gate at Kabul's international airport on August 26, 2021, killing 13 American service members and at least 170 Afghans amid the chaos of the exit. The families are seeking accountability and closure from the Biden administration almost two years later.

Joe Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, an illness his father has attributed to exposure to military burn pits in Iraq.

Biden has previously been criticized for appearing to look at his watch just seconds after a salute honoring the return of the 13 US service members killed in Kabul.

He had made the unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as the caskets of the 13 service members killed in the attack were brought back to the United States.

He stood in silence, his right hand to his chest, as a succession of flag draped transfer coffins were carried past him from a C-17 Globemaster plane - before looking down toward his wrist.

Another mother, Kelly Barnett, said between sobs that she'd been lied to by the Pentagon - first told her son had died on impact and later, by witnesses, told he had lived for a while after the explosion.

Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, had concerns that 'began the moment that he landed' there for his final deployment. He saw 'chaos, no communication, lack of leadership,' Barnett said.

President Biden appeared to check his watch during an event honoring the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan

Beau passed away from brain cancer at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2015. The president has been known to say his son died in Iraq

The Americans killed in the blast were: (left to right, starting with top row) Cpl. Daegan W. Page - Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo - Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover - Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza - Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum - Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui - Cpl. Hunter Lopez - Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz - Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss - Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez - Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak - Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola - Sgt. Nicole L. Gee

The visibly angry and grief-stricken mother said her son had been told before his death to 'clean up the airport' because 'we can't leave it dirty for the Taliban.'

'What kind of disrespect? What kind of hatred for our military? What kind of mess?' she cried out.

The families of the fallen were then 'told lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect,' according to the grief-stricken mother.

'I was told to my face, he died on impact. That's not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth,' Barnett claimed. 'I was lied to and basically told to shut up.'

'He lived for a little whilehe was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet at around his leg. I don't understand the reasoning of that lie. It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don't know.'
A father who is accused of murdering his missing daughter was sentenced in a separate case involving stolen guns on Monday.

Adam Montgomery, whose daughter Harmony Montgomery disappeared in 2019 and has since been declared dead, will spend between 15 to 30 years behind bars for each of two armed career criminal counts, to be held 'consecutive to each other,' Judge Amy B. Messer ruled.

He will also serve seven and a half to 15 years each on two counts of stealing the guns, with five years suspended on each count under the condition of good behavior.

Those sentences would be served concurrently but 'consecutive to the armed career criminal charges.'

Montgomery, 33, is also facing charges for the murder of his young daughter. Jury selection in that case is scheduled to begin on November 20, according to the Boston Globe.

As he awaited his sentencing on Monday, Montgomery begged the judge not to consider those charges  claiming he loves his daughter 'unconditionally' as he blamed his legal troubles on drug addiction.

Adam Montgomery, 33, was sentenced Monday to 15 to 30 years behind bars of each of two armed career criminal counts, to be held 'consecutive to each other'

He pleaded with a judge not to consider the pending murder charges against him. Pictured: Montgomery in court

Montgomery is accused of killing his young daughter, Harmony Montgomery (pictured)

Inside the New Hampshire Superior Court, prosecutors and defense attorneys argued about whether Montgomery should get the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison  as his attorneys requested  or a longer term.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin J. Agati pointed out that the career criminal was 'convicted 16 years ago of pointing a knife at a 15-year-old girl.'

He was also convicted '15 years ago during an armed home invasion holding the neck [of] a victim demanding money, and then pointing that gun at the chest of a police officer... who was able to knock the gun out of his hand and wrestle him to the ground.'

In that case, Agati said, Montgomery 'held a gun to a woman's neck inside her home in front of her child.'

The prosecutor argued a 'minimum sentence is not appropriate when you have the defendant who then, after this, stabs another man with a knife 15 years ago, and then eight years ago does another armed robbery with a conviction of armed assault to murder for shooting a man in the face.'

In the New Hampshire stolen gun case, for which he was sentenced Monday after being convicted in June, Montgomery called the weapons 'the big boys,' saying he could 'turn around and sell them to other convicted felons for money or for drugs, which he did.'

But speaking directly to the judge, Montgomery seemed to blame his run-ins with the law on his drug addiction as he asked the judge to not consider the murder charges against him.

'So I understand that I was found guilty by the jury. I'm not here to dispute that at all,' he said. 'The only consideration that I ask of you this morning is for you not to consider anything as it relates to the case regarding my daughter, Harmony.'

'You probably won't believe me when I tell you that I didn't wake up one morning and chose to become an addict,' he said, apparently shifting gears. 'And I will spend my time in prison utilizing it to the best of my ability to change things about myself.

'I could have had a meaningful life, and I blew that opportunity through drugs,' he continued.

'But I love my daughter unconditionally and I did not kill her. Please don't consider anything that relates to those charges. Only consider the facts of this case.'

Montgomery was found guilty in June on six stolen weapons charges

Ultimately, that is what Messer did when she handed down her sentence Monday afternoon.

She insisted she would not consider the murder charges, only the gun and armed career criminal charges for which he was found guilty, as well as his 'egregious' prior history of violence.

'The court notes that there are a significant number of aggravating factors here,' she said citing 'significantly violent behavior' involving other weapons Montgomery used to commit crimes.

'Your prior conduct over the 15 years may be some of the most violent and egregious that I have ever seen,' the judge continued.

'It involves a knife to the throat of a 15-year-old, a gun pointed at a woman with a child in the home during a home invasion, a gun pointed at a police officer and an armed robbery where the victim was shot in the face,' Messer said, noting Montgomery was also shot in that last case.

'These predicate offenses are particularly egregious,' she said, adding that the stolen guns 'were sold to and bought back from a convicted sex offender and ultimately one of those guns was discovered in the hands of an individual who was apparently trafficking in both guns and drugs.

'You bragged about the guns,' she told the convict. 'You talked about them being hidden in the walls of your home.

'Trafficking of guns in the community, the violence that we see as a result of those guns being in the wrong hands cannot be minimized.'

Harmony had lived with her father, and his criminal wife, Kayla Montgomery, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance

Crystal Sorey (right) - Harmony's biological mother - lost custody of the young girl in 2018 because of her drug addiction

Montgomery will now remain behind bars as he faces another criminal trial for allegedly murdering his daughter.

Harmony vanished and is believed to have been killed around December 2019. Cops were only made aware of her disappearance two years later.

An FBI investigation later ensued - and led cops to arrest Adam Montgomery in January 2022, in connection with a second-degree assault charge involving his daughter prior to her disappearance.

Harmony had lived with her father, and his criminal wife, Kayla Montgomery, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

The young girl, who was blind in one eye, was in her father's care at the time of her disappearance after her mother, Crystal Sorey, lost custody in July 2018 due to substance abuse.

Investigators revealed earlier this year that Harmony had been homeless and living out of a car with her family in the days before her disappearance.

The family had been evicted from their Union Street apartment in Manchester, New Hampshire, on November 27 - a date that falls within the span of the girl's disappearance.

Investigators now say they believe the girl was fatally beaten by Montgomery after she had a toileting accident in a his car on December 7, 2019.

Harmony vanished and is believed to have been killed around December 2019, but cops were only made aware of her disappearance two years later.

A recently-unsealed affidavit based on interviews with Kayla claims the father was driving to a fast food restaurant when he turned around and repeatedly punched Harmony in the face and head because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car.

Kayla claims Montgomery then told her: 'I think I really hurt her this time. I think I did something.'

She also old police that Harmony began making a moaning noise for about five minutes and then stopped.

The affidavit says later that day, the two realized Harmony was dead and put her body in a duffel bag.

For the next three months, investigators allege, Montgomery moved the body from container to container and place to place.

According to his wife, the locations included the trunk of a friend's car, a cooler in the hallway of his mother-in-law's apartment building, the ceiling vent of a homeless shelter and an apartment freezer.

At one point, the remains were kept in a tote bag from a hospital maternity ward, and Kayla said she placed it in between her own young children in a stroller and brought it to her husband's workplace.

An employee at the now-closed restaurant told police he saw it there but never questioned Montgomery 'since he knew he had children.'

Investigators allege that Montgomery disposed of the body in early March 2020 using a rented moving truck.

Toll data shows the truck in question crossed the Tobin Bridge in Boston multiple times, but the affidavit has no other location information to indicate the location of Harmony's body. In April, police searched a marshy area in Revere, Massachusetts.

Kayla Montgomery, pictured here, was sentenced in November to at least 18 months in prison after lying to a grand jury. She later cooperated with authorities investigating Harmony's murder

Earlier this year the search for Harmony was moved from their Manchester house to wetlands in Revere

Kayla Montgomery was sentenced in November to at least 18 months in prison.

She had pleaded guilty to charges that she lied to a grand jury about working at a doughnut shop on Nov. 30, 2019, the day she said she last saw Harmony.

As part of that plea deal, she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, who dropped charges that she lied to state health officials about having the child in her care in order to collect welfare benefits and that she received stolen firearms.

The search for Harmony's body continues with pictures from the last known residence of Harmony being stormed by the FBI who were seen hauling out evidence, including a fridge, from the apartment.

Cops had then been seen removing evidence, including a full-sized refrigerator, from the Manchester home, as well as a plethora of other items that were covered up in various packaging.

Earlier this year, officers began searching wetlands in Revere for the body of Harmony, that has yet to be recovered.
A former FBI agent accused by U.S. prosecutors of working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska may change his plea in relation to criminal charges of evading U.S. sanctions and money laundering, court records showed on Monday.

Charles McGonigal had previously pleaded not guilty. A change of plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden in Manhattan has been scheduled for Aug. 15.

McGonigal served as a top FBI counterintelligence official in New York during the Russia probe of former President Donald Trump.

McGonigal's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York, is expected to change his plea after being accused of working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

During a status conference last week, McGonigal lawyer Seth DuCharme said there was a 'decent chance the case is going to be resolved.'

Prosecutors in January said McGonigal, who led the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, received concealed payments from Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch and unsuccessfully pushed in 2019 to lift U.S. sanctions on Deripaska.

The charges against McGonigal came as U.S. prosecutors ramped up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal , was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

Trump has regularly attacked the Russia probe. McGonigal got concealed payments from a Russian oligarch after its conclusion

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.

Among the areas probed by former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators is Deripaska's relationship with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.

Mueller's report said Manafort told associates to provide Deripaska with internal polling data.

According to prosecutors, McGonigal pocketed $25,000 as an investigator for a law firm, then got payments of $51,000 and $41,790 doing work for Deripaska, during a period from August 2021 to November 2021.

He would try to conceal his employer's identity by referring to him as 'the big guy,' the Washington Times reported.
Tories have challenged Sir Keir Starmer to return 1.5 million in donations from Just Stop Oil backer Dale Vince after the Labour leader condemned the protest group's actions as 'contemptible'.

Sir Keir hit out at the eco-activists for causing 'chaos' for the public with high-profile stunts in which they disrupted major sporting events and blocked roads in their quest to ban new oil and gas licences.

He said a Labour government would not revoke any existing licences but would instead block new oil and gas developments in the North Sea.

Experts have said blocking all new developments would be likely to make tens of thousands of oil workers jobless.

They said such a move would also likely undermine UK energy security, making Britain more reliant on imported energy.

Tories have challenged Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) to return 1.5 million in donations from Just Stop Oil backer Dale Vince after the Labour leader condemned the protest group's actions as 'contemptible'

Writing in The Times, Sir Keir said: 'The likes of Just Stop Oil want us to simply turn off the taps in the North Sea, creating the same chaos for working people that they do on our roads. It's contemptible.'

He added: 'On the North Sea, Labour's plan is pragmatic and fair. To secure a managed transition, we will need our existing oil and gas fields for decades to come.

'We won't revoke any licences issued by this government because, unlike them, we take investor certainty and legal obligations seriously.'

Tory Party deputy chairman Matt Vickers last night [mon] accused Sir Keir of being beholden to the protesters, and called on him to hand back the cash from green entrepreneur Mr Vince.

He said: 'Slippery Starmer will clearly say or do anything so long as the politics suits him.

'They can try and hide it, but Labour are so caught up with Just Stop Oil they have these eco-zealots writing their energy surrender plan for them.

Sir Keir hit out at the eco-activists for causing 'chaos' for the public with high-profile stunts in which they blocked roads in their quest to ban new oil and gas licences

'If Sir Keir is serious about trying to distance himself from these loons he should hand back the 1.5 million he pocketed from Just Stop Oil's funder-in-chief Dale Vince.'

Roads minister Richard Holden said the Labour leader had 'sold out' the hundreds of thousands of people working in the oil sector.

Just Stop Oil previously described Labour's plan to ban future North Sea oil drilling as a 'victory' in their campaign, and the Daily Mail revealed last week that senior protesters boasted about shaping the party's policy.

But the group appeared to take issue with Sir Keir's latest intervention on the subject.

They wrote: 'We're not demanding the taps are turned off overnight.

'We are (also) demanding a managed decline of North Sea oil, starting with no more licences for new projects.

'It's the bare minimum our politicians should do. We have to stop new oil and gas.'

Rishi Sunak vowed last week to 'max out' North Sea oil reserves.

The Prime Minister said the Government was gearing up to issue 'hundreds' of licences for domestic oil and gas extraction in defiance of both Labour, Just Stop Oil and Scottish protest group This Is Rigged.

But senior figures within Labour said the party would not revoke new drilling licences despite opposing them.
When nature calls, it appears us Britons can't help but pick up our phones.

Nearly one in two people admit calling or texting while on the toilet.

The dirty habit is among the top three unsociable places we use the device, alongside while talking to loved ones or while on a night out.

Doctors have warned the unhealthy practice can not only increase the bacteria on phone screens but also increase the risk of haemorrhoids.

The poll of 2,000 people found 43 per cent used their phones when they went to the loo.

Nearly one in two people admit calling or texting while on the toilet, it has been revealed (File image)

There was slightly more decorum among older generations however, with those over the age of 55 least likely to do so. Those aged 35 to 44 were the most likely.

The survey by Mobile Phones Direct also that one in ten people even risked taking their mobile phone into the shower - rising to a quarter for those in Generation Z.

It comes a week a YouGov poll looked at the use of phones on the toilets across the world. China found to have the highest number doing so by quite some margin, with 62 per cent saying they looked at their phone fairly or very often. Australia and Italy came in second and third place.

Health experts warn that taking your phone to the loo could then transfer bacteria to the phone, which can lead to illness if it gets into your body from your hands or touching your mouth.

Doctors have warned the unhealthy practice can not only increase the bacteria on phone screens but also increase the risk of haemorrhoids (File image)

One surgeon, Dr Karen Zaghiya, recently warned sitting on the toilet for long periods of time while looking at your phone could also lead to piles.

Martin Thorpe, head of networks at Mobile Phones Direct, said: 'It's not surprising that people can't resist taking their phones along with them for even the most mundane tasks, but using your mobile while on the toilet is not a good idea for lots of reasons, including hygiene and the risk of dropping it.

'Over the years mobile phones have become an essential part of everyday lives, but our survey has showed just how important they are to people now.

'While it's important for people to make sure they're not missing out on key moments in life, these figures also serve to remind us that our phones don't have to be there for every second, especially those best left private! '
Hospital consultants pursuing a 54 per cent pay rise will strike for two days in September as they extend industrial action into a third month.

The British Medical Association said senior doctors will walk out on September 19 and 20 if the Government 'refuses to agree to pay talks' and fails to make a 'credible' new offer.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak awarded consultants a 6 per cent rise last month, taking their average NHS income to 134,000 a year.

But the union described the sum as 'insulting' and 'derisory'.

Consultants staged a two day walkout on July 20 and 21 and have already announced plans to picket again on August 24 and 25.

Striking NHS junior doctors on the picket line outside Leicester Royal Infirmary

(File Photo) The British Medical Association said senior doctors will walk out on September 19 and 20 if the Government 'refuses to agree to pay talks'

The BMA said it has written to health secretary Steve Barclay to invite him to discuss pay and reform of the doctors' pay review body.

However, Mr Sunak has indicated there will be no more negotiations, insisting the 6 per cent figure is 'final'.

Industrial action by the likes of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and radiographers has so far led to the cancellation of more than 835,000 appointments and operations and seen NHS waiting lists rocket to a record 7.5 million.

Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the BMA's consultants committee, said: 'It is now 133 days since the Secretary of State last met with us, demonstrating the Government's complete disregard for the expertise and value of consultants, and the very future of the health service and its patients.

'We are once again appealing to the Health Secretary to return to the table and discuss both pay and reform of the rigged pay review process, so that we can reach a point where strikes are not necessary.

'Consultants will go out on strike at the end of this month, and for a further two days in September - demonstrating our resolve and clearly signalling to government that we're in this for the long haul.

'However, neither of these strikes need to take place at all if the Government drops its intransigent position.' The BMA said the September dates have been announced in advance to ensure that hospitals have enough time to prepare and prioritise patients who need care the most.

The walkouts will consist of 'Christmas Day' cover, meaning the doctors will provide emergency care only.

The BMA claims consultants' pay has fallen by around 35 per cent since 2008 and it is seeking 'full restoration', which would require a pay rise of 54 per cent.

Co-chairs of the BMA's junior doctors' committee Vivek Trivedi (left) and Rob Laurenson speak to the media outside the Department Of Health And Social Care

Junior doctors are staging a separate four-day strike from 7am on Friday, but their action is more hardline than their senior colleagues as they will even refuse to deliver emergency care.

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: 'This new round of strike action in September - just weeks after walkouts by junior doctors and consultants in August - will pile the pressure on the NHS and lead to more disruption for patients and trusts.

'Over 835,000 operations and appointments have been delayed since December due to nine months of back-to-back industrial action.

'But the knock-on disruption will be felt for months to come with many more patients not being booked in for appointments during strike days and others having their appointments rescheduled.

'Each wave of strikes sets back efforts to cut record high waiting lists, delays care for patients, and leads to mounting costs for trusts.

'Trust leaders understand the strength of feeling among striking staff. We need the Government and unions to find a solution fast, and ideally before the really challenging winter months.'
Two men have been arrested and replica handguns seized after a fight between two women erupted at a shopping centre.

Police were called to the Westfield shopping centre on Carlisle Avenue in Mount Druitt, in Sydney's west, just after 4pm on Monday following reports of a fight.

Two women were seen brawling on the ground, shoving and grabbing each other by the shirt in footage obtained by Nine News.

A man then intervened by allegedly hitting one of the women over the head with what appeared to be a firearm, before pointing it at her head.

A man has been charged after he allegedly pointed a replica handgun at a woman during a brawl at a shopping centre in Mount Druitt

Bystanders were then seen quickly fleeing the area after noticing what appeared to be a weapon.

The man, aged 20, fled the scene but was tracked down by police a short time later, allegedly with a replica handgun in his possession.

He was charged with seven offences including carrying a firearm in a manner likely to injure and possessing prohibited drugs.

A second man, also aged 20, from Ropes Crossing was arrested. Another replica handgun was found in a bedroom at a home in the suburb.

He was charged with four offences with both men refused bail to face Mount Druitt Local Court on Tuesday.
Airports across swathes of the Eastern Seaboard came to a standstill on Monday afternoon as ground stops were put in place due to storms.

Some of the busiest airports in the United States were affected - among them Atlanta, Philadelphia, Charlotte, JFK and Newark.

As of 6pm EST, almost 6,000 flights within, into or out of the United States had been delayed, and 1,350 canceled.

Almost 900,000 people were without power by 7pm EST - a figure which could rise to two million by the morning, CNN reported.

New York City was warning residents to prepare for thunderstorms and heavy rain.

'New Yorkers are encouraged to prepare for potential heavy rain impacting NYC this evening, 8/7,' the city account, Notify NYC, tweeted.

'During periods of heavy rain, move to higher ground. If in a basement, move to a higher floor. If you must travel, use caution.'

Earlier on Monday, at 3.30pm EST, the National Weather Service announced five Tornado Watches and two Severe Thunderstorm Watches.

The storm system is heading east after walloping the Ohio River Valley on Sunday, bringing potentially severe weather to areas east of the Mississippi River.

The storm will likely bring high winds and large hail, in addition to heavy downpours - and even possible tornadoes.

The worst hit areas will likely be in the mid-Atlantic region, including southern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Baltimore, New York, and Washington, DC.

An area stretching from northern Alabama to southern New York, which includes Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Binghamton, New York City, has been placed under an enhanced risk for severe storming.

'In the areas of thunderstorms, severe weather and flash flooding will be a threat,' said the National Weather Service.

Atlanta declared a ground stop at 5:04pm, and said it expects the order to remain in place until 7pm.

Baltimore, Charlotte, DC, Newark, JFK, LaGuardia, and Philadelphia all followed suit.

By 6:50pm, the storm was above Philadelphia.

Most of the restrictions were due to lift around 7:30 or 8pm.

Passengers were advised to check travel plans with their airlines.

Storm prediction map for the US on Monday, August 8. Severe weather is expected along the eastern seaboard

Over the weekend, there were about 280 severe storm reports from across the country, including eight tornadoes.

Across the central plains and Mississippi River Valley, there were another nearly 100 reports of strong winds, as well as reports of large hail.

As the east of the country braces for summer storms, southern states from Florida to California continue to contend with dangerous heat this week.

'Numerous record high temperatures and record high morning minimum temperatures are likely over the next few days with no end in sight going into the later part of this week,' said the National Weather Service.

Heat warnings and advisories have been in effect across the southern parts of the US for several weeks, and will likely remain in effect 'for the foreseeable future as there is no relief in sight to the heat for the remainder of the week across these areas,' the weather service said.

Record-breaking heatwaves have descended on states ranging from Louisiana and Mississippi to Nevada, Texas and California this summer.

Austin, Texas, hit 105 degrees on Sunday, marking the 30th consecutive day with a high temperature of over 100 degrees.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, hit a high of 102 on Saturday - the hottest August day ever in the city.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, city officials have warned that extremely high humidity levels will mean temperatures will 'feel like' 115 degrees or higher.

Cooling centers were open for residents without adequate means to keep out of the heat.

'The forecasted excessive heat warning for Monday, August 7 will mark the 17th excessive heat warning issued for 2023 so far, beating the previous record of five warnings in 2021,' city officials said.

Phoenix, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, have seen some of their hottest ever days on record in the last week, with the heat wave expected to continue through the next few days

Residents of Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico and California have been finding ways to cool down amid record high temperatures this summer

In the Dallas-Forth Worth area of Texas, the scalding heatwave is expected to last another week, at least.

Like Austin, Dallas has experienced temperatures of 100 degrees of hotter every day since July 24.

The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning across all of Northern Texas through 8pm on Monday. Heat index values are expected to peak around 114 degrees.

A warm front is then expected to roll in on Tuesday, increasing temperatures again into midweek.

The electrical grid operator for most of the state, ERCOT, issued a 'weather watch' for Sunday and Monday 'due to forecasted higher temps, higher electrical demand and the potential for lower reserves.'

According to grid data, power demand has hit all-time highs multiple days during this heatwave - peaking last Tuesday at 83,593 megawatts.
The Nigerian Senate is screening the ministerial nominees President Bola Tinubu submitted for confirmation to fill Cabinate and sub-cabinet post in his administrastion.

Washington, DC  Early appointments have given some hope to Nigerians. A major one  the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  is pending.

Africa's most populous country faces the greatest threat to its future in over half a century, when the southeastern region, known as Biafra, attempted to succeed from Nigeria a few years after its independence from British rule.

Two and a half years of war in the late 1960s is reported to have killed a million people  some estimates of deaths are three times that, many from starvation  and battlefield casualties were accompanied by massacres around the country. The conflict divided European colonial powers as well, with the United Kingdom supporting the federal government, while the French favored oil-rich Biafra.

Today an estimated 25 million Nigerians face starvation, due to erratic rains and flooding, lack of jobs, and armed conflict that has displaced millions, especially in the northeast region. Farmers and herders alike have been driven from their traditional lands. Kidnapping for ransom has spread nationwide.

All those factors fueled a youth wave of social media savvy voters, pressing for politicians they believed would "serve the people" better than previous administrations. One of the beneficiaries was third-party presidential candidate Peter Obi, whose decade-old Labour Party won an unprecedented 42 National Assembly seats.

Despite legal challenges to the national and state-level elections in March, Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria's president on 29 May. Although his administration faces enormous challenges, Nigeria's resource wealth and innovative citizenry present opportunities.

The country has Africa's second largest oil reserves, after Libya, and more exploration has begun. Abundant sunshine could provide off-grid solar power to millions in rural areas, and longer-term investment in renewables could make Nigeria an electricity exporter. Yet Nigerians have the world's worst access to energy, according to international organizations. Untapped strategic minerals could generate further riches, but most Nigerians remain desperately poor.

Appointees can bring hope. Their performance can sustain it.

What will it take to bring hope to a public disillusioned by years of patronage among politicians, as conditions worsened for the majority of people?

On his first day in office, the 71-year-old president said: "We shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide, better training, equipment, pay, and firepower."

Shortly afterwards, he declared a state of emergency to address a ravaged economy and the poverty and insecurity afflicting 200 million Nigerians. Special advisor Dele Alake promised that the government would take immediate steps to address food insecurity and the faster price rises that followed the president's removal of an unsustainable fuel subsidy.

While some Nigerians have been disappointed at the heavy presence of controversial "old career politicians" on the list of ministers, even some sceptics have been encouraged by Tinubu's earliest appointments, in particular in the security arena. Nuhu Ribadu is the President's National Security Adviser. He began his career as a police officer in some of the most violent areas of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and largest city, Eventually he became head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, overseeing over a thousand employees, including young anti-corruption activists, until forced into temporary exile by multiple assassination attempts.

Ribadu spent some of his time abroad as a senior fellow at Oxford University. After his return, he conducted a government-commissioned investigation about the squandering of US$38 billion in Nigeria's oil industry, but no action followed. Now, he pledges, he will use his senior position to subdue insecurity.

This month's cabinet nominees have attracted attention as well. Questioning of the nominees by the Senate is underway and could take weeks or months, but the group is serving as presidential advisors in the meantime. Only after the Senate confirms the appointments will their portfolios be announced, but several are obvious.

If 'health is wealth', Nigeria is one of the world's poorest countries. It has more deaths of children five and under "than any other country in the world, including more populous India and China and countries experiencing widespread long-term conflict, such as Somalia".

Nigeria's maternal death rate is second only to India's, despite the existence of an inexpensive drug, tranexamic acid, to stop the bleeding during childbirth that is a major contributor to those deaths.

A physician turns down top international job to return to Nigeria.

Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate is expected to be the new Minister of Health. In addition to his medical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases, he holds a Masters of Business Administration from Duke University and a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Pate was Minister of State (junior minister) in the health ministry from 2011 to 2013, after he headed the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. In one of his most notable achievements, he conducted Nigeria's successful campaign to eradicate polio against breathtaking odds, including the murder of vaccinators in northern Nigeria, where the crippling disease was endemic.

Taking a community-based approach of convening meetings that included religious leaders, he persuaded wary citizens that vaccinations were not a plot to reduce births among the predominantly Muslim northern population. Although as in other countries around the world that still use live vaccines as the fastest way to control the disease, there is an occasional case spread largely through water contaminated by poor sanitation  a but all those cases have been contained rapidly.

Leaving Nigeria after concluding that his position lacked the authority to continue essential health progress, Pate taught at Duke University's Center for Global Health and at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He headed Big Win Philanthropy, whose founder Jamie Cooper took a collaborative approach to giving, and he has advised such donors as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on funding that empowers the recipients to make decisions for themselves.

He also was Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice of the World Bank and the Director of Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Covid-19.

Pate's willingness to return to Nigeria was a surprise that prompted some dismay outside Nigeria. He had accepted the job to head Gavi  the Vaccine Alliance  an international organization that cooperates with the World Health Organization and arranges distribution of life-saving vaccines, including for Covid, in countries that were discriminated against in transfers of available supplies, which was most of Africa.

Advocates for women and for Africa-wide health progress mourned what they saw as a loss to nations of the global south. It was a difficult decision to withdraw, Ali Pate told the Gavi board, but he believed he had a special responsibility to Nigeria at this critical time.

Global financial markets are expected to be comfortable with the likelihood of Adebayo Olawale Edun, the former chair of a Lagos-based investment bank, as Minister of Finance. When President Tinubu was governor of Lagos, Edun was commissioner of finance, where he doubled the state's internal revenue.

Like Pate, Edun has an international profile, holding degrees from two British universities. While earning his Master's degree in development economics at the University of Sussex, he did research at its Institute of Development Studies. Tapped for the World Bank/International Monetary Fund's young professionals programme, he worked on financial aid packages for several countries.

Another Nigerian whose possible return to national service has been speculated is Professor Kingsley Moghalu. A respected scholar who has taught international business and economic policy at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, he began his career as a lawyer and journalist in Nigeria but was quickly courted to work in international organizations. After serving in high-level United Nations positions including as head of global partnerships and resource mobilization at the $14 billion United Nations Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria based in Geneva, he moved into the private sector, founding Sogato Strategies S.A. in Geneva and Washington DC and advising some of the world's biggest multinationals, global banks, and institutional investors on macroeconomic trends and risk management to enhance investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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He was headhunted by then Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and President Umaru Yar'Adua to become Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009 after the global financial crisis, giving him expertise in Nigeria's monetary policy. Moghalu played a key role as Sanusi's deputy responsible for implementing the country's banking-sector reforms as well as payment system reforms that triggered an explosion of the fintech industry. After that service, he was appointed a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, recruited by its dean at the time, the retired four-star Admiral and former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, James Stavridis, and to panels and positions such as United Nations Development Program Special Envoy on Post-Covid Development Finance for Africa. As a close protege of the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from Ghana, Moghalu was widely regarded as a potential Secretary General himself.

But Nigerian commentators have argued that he should be appointed CBN Governor  a move that would likely be popular among foreign investors and at home with Nigerians jaded by economic theft by officials. In June, former Governor Godwin Emefiele was suspended and hours later was arrested by the secret police. The presidency cited an "ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the banking sector".

An appointment of Moghalu, known for a modest lifestyle and for integrity, also would be welcomed in Europe, North America and such international organizations as the World Bank, who fear the consequences of economic implosion in Nigeria.

The Tinubu administration needs all the help it can get from people who Nigerians already respect for their honesty and expertise.

Last year the British medical journal The Lancet's Nigeria Commission, warned that Tinubu has no time to waste to put right the failed policies that have led to poor health, a climate crisis, and the despair that feeds conflict.

"With Nigeria's large and growing population, ongoing governance and security challenges, and potential leadership role in Africa and globally," it said, "the decisions made today will determine whether Africa's most populous country will become a success story or a cautionary tale."
The federal judge in Donald Trump's classified documents case on Monday asked prosecutors why they had used grand juries in Florida and in Washington to build their case when charges were filed in South Florida.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, asked Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team to respond by August 22.

'The response shall address the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district,' she wrote in a court filing.

Cannon's decision is a setback for Smith and could lead to a delay in the classified documents trial.

Trump appeared in Miami federal court in June to plead not guilty to charges related to his handling of government documents and an alleged cover-up.

Since then, the indictment has been expanded to accuse him and two aides  Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveria  of trying to evade government efforts to retrieve some 32 classified documents.

Judge Aileen Cannon (seen here in video during Senate testimony) on Monday asked Special Counsel Jack Smith why he used grand juries in Florida and in Washington to build their case when charges were filed in South Florida

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday sought a protective order to prevent former President Donald Trump and his team sharing discovery materials with unauthorized people

Much of the case was built in Washington, D.C., where prosecutors questioned witnesses in front of a grand jury.

But in June, reports surfaced that a second grand jury, this time in Miami, had begun hearing evidence.

Legal experts suggested it might mean that charges could be brought in both Florida and Washington.

In a recent court filing, prosecutors said they continued to use the grand jury in Washington even after Trump had been charged in June as they probed allegations of obstruction.

Cannon asked Smith to justify using the two grand juries in a court order that dealt a blow to the special counsel's strategy.

He had asked to introduce additional evidence 'under seal'  preventing it being published  in order to protect the secrecy of a grand jury, and he asked the judge for a hearing to determine whether Nauta's attorney had too many conflicts of interest to guarantee proper representation of his client.

Cannon knocked back his request to introduce evidence under seal.

Cannon knocked back Smith's request to introduce evidence under seal in an order filed Monday, and asked for an explanation about the two grand juries

Trump appeared with Walta Nauta in Des Moines Iowa at the end of last month

Carlos De Oliveira, personal aide to former US President Donald Trump and the head of maintenance at Mar-a-Lago, arrived at federal court in Miami. He is charged in conspiracy to obstruct a classified documents probe

'The motion for leave and the supplement plainly fail to satisfy the burden of establishing a sufficient legal or factual basis to warrant sealing the motion and supplement,' she wrote.

The case is just one of three that Trump must contend with, even as the race for 2024 heats up.

The 77-year-old former president is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Last week he appeared in federal court in Washington to plead not guilty to charges that he conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory, depriving U.S. voters of their right to a fair election.

Police close roads and patrolled with dogs around the Atlanta courthouse on Monday. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is believed to be in the final stages of her probe into Trump

Food carts stayed away and the usually bustling district was empty on Monday

And in April he surrendered to authorities in New York where he is accused of falsifying business records as part of a hush money payment to a porn star. He pleaded not guilty in that case.

Meanwhile police in Atlanta set up barriers Monday around the city's courthouse as the city braces for an indictment in yet another case related the 2020 election.

Officers closed roads, dogs patroled the area and food trucks stayed away from the normally busy court district.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is in the final stages of her investigation into Trump's efforts to reverse his defeat in the key swing state of Georgia.

If he is indicted, it will the fourth time he has been criminally charged since March.
A Labour by-election candidate has been unmasked as a Greenpeace eco-clown who posed as a zombie during a protest in November.

Alistair Strathern, 33, wore face paint and pretended to be a mindless undead ghoul in a demonstration outside the Home Office last year.

It comes as the Government cut ties with Greenpeace following an anti-oil protest that saw eco zealots from the group climb on the roof of Rishi Sunak's constituency home.

Sir Keir Starmer was told to get rid of eco zealot Mr Strathern by Energy Security and Net Zero minister Grant Shapps last night.

He said that 'one minute [Greenpeace eco activists] are climbing the PM's house, next they've got a Labour rosette on'.

Labour candidate Alistair Strathern, 33, (third from right) pretended to be a zombie in an eco stunt for Greenpeace last year

The eco-zealot (centre) was pictured smiling alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner in July this year

On Monday the eco-zealot was canvassing in Bedfordshire as he tried to win votes ahead of the by-election

The eco-zealot is running for Labour to replace Nadine Dorries once she leaves Parliament (pictured, his by-election campaign advert)

Sir Keir Starmer was told to get rid of eco zealot Mr Strathern (pictured) by Cabinet minister Grant Shapps this evening

He said that 'one minute [Greenpeace eco activists] are climbing the PM's house, next they've got a Labour rosette on'

The Labour candidate posed outside Parliament last year, where he hopes to win a seat

The Conservative MP told The Sun that Labour leader Starmer needed to ban the 'eco-mob' from running as candidates for his party.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: 'A vote for Labour is literally a vote for the eco-zealots.'

Mr Strathern is Labour's candidate to contest the Mid Bedfordshire seat set for a by-election once Nadine Dorries stops being an MP.

His partner Megan Corton-Scott is a political campaigner for Greenpeace.

Mr Strathern also protested outside Parliament against laws aimed at preventing disruption caused by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.

After the protest on the Prime Minister's roof, a Government spokesman said: 'Greenpeace's criminal activity last week demonstrates that they are not a serious organisation, therefore, we do not think it's appropriate to engage with them.'

Greenpeace activists moving fabric on the roof of Rishi Sunaks house in Richmond, North Yorkshire (Danny Lawson/PA)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home in Richmond is targeted by Greenpeace

A group of demonstrators had scaled Mr Sunak's Grade II-listed constituency manor house to protest against plans to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

The activists draped an oil-black fabric from the roof, staying there from about 8am to 1.15pm, when they were arrested and later bailed amid an ongoing investigation by North Yorkshire Police.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We obviously don't think that people who are accused of breaking the law should have a seat at the table in discussions with Government.

'My understanding is that Defra aren't engaging with Greenpeace because of those actions.

'I don't think it's unusual for Defra or other agencies to engage with climate action groups  that's taken place for a number of years.

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond, North Yorkshire, last week

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond

Greenpeace activists on the roof of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's house in Richmond

The protesters carry out the stunt on the Prime Minister's mansion in Yorkshire

'But clearly, given their actions and the arrests last week, we don't think it's appropriate to engage with them.'

Greenpeace defended the protest amid a backlash as 'carefully and meticulously' planned for when the Prime Minister, his wife and children were on holiday in California, amid a backlash over security concerns.

The group said ending engagement with its representatives 'isn't going to work' as it accused ministers of espousing a 'bunker mentality' about climate issues.

Will McCallum, UK co-executive director of Greenpeace, said: 'Burying your head in the sand isn't going to make the climate crisis go away.

'It's precisely because the Government has effectively shut the door to civil society groups, like Greenpeace, as well as ignoring warnings from the UN, its own advisers and the International Energy Agency, that we need to protest in the way that we do.

'The bunker mentality on display from this current Government is deeply damaging  cutting ties with Greenpeace isn't going to help. We represent the views of millions of our supporters and have a mandate to hold the Government to account.'

A Labour Party spokesperson said: 'Targeting a politicians home is never acceptable and Greenpeace were totally wrong to do this.

'The people of Mid Bedfordshire are sick of being taken for granted by the Tories and its time for change. They deserve an opportunity to elect a local, hardworking, full time MP, and that is exactly what Labour is offering.'

MailOnline has contacted Greenpeace and Mr Strathern for comment.
Amerie Jo Garza, 10

Amerie Jo Garza (right)

Amerie Jo Garza, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary, was one of 19 students confirmed to be killed Tuesday morning by Ramos, who cops say was carrying a handgun and an AR-15 during the attack that also killed two teachers in the classroom.

Her grandmother, Berlinda Irene Arreola, said the 10-year-old was killed as she tried to phone 911 while sitting next to her best friend, who ended up 'covered in her blood.'

Arreola said Ramos told the students and staffers inside the room, 'You're going to die,' before opening fire - shooting her granddaughter dead as she tried to phone for help.

'So the gunman went in and he told the children, 'You're going to die,' Berlinda told The Daily Beast.

'And [Amerie] had her phone and she called 911. And instead of grabbing it and breaking it or taking it from her, he shot her. She was sitting right next to her best friend. Her best friend was covered in her blood.'

Uziyah Garcia

Uziyah Garcia, 8

Uziyah Garcia, the youngest victim at age eight, was also killed in the attack.

The child's family announced he was killed hours after announcing he was among the many children unaccounted for following the tragedy.

The boy's grandfather, Manny Renfro, broke the news early Wednesday after being notified by authorities.

'[He was] the sweetest little boy that I've ever known,' Renfro said. 'I'm not just saying that because he was my grandkid.'

Renfro recalled how Uziyah last visited him in San Angelo over spring break.

'We started throwing the football together and I was teaching him pass patterns.

'Such a fast little boy and he could catch a ball so good,' the grieving grandad said.

'There were certain plays that I would call that he would remember and he would do it exactly like we practiced.'

Makenna Elrod, 10

Makenna Lee Elrod

Makenna Elrod, 10, had also been among the missing in the chaos that followed the massacre, with her father, Brandon Elrod telling reporters at the time he feared 'she may not be alive.'

Her death was eventually confirmed by a family friend on Wednesday. 'It's pretty sad what this world's coming to,' the girl's father told local outlet KTRK after the shooting.

A mother of one of Makenna's friends lamented the loss in a post to Facebook.

'Sweet Makenna Rest in Paradise!! My heart is shattered as my daughter Chloe loved her so much!!' the mom wrote. A relative Wednesday confirmed that the girl had been among the victims.

Xavier Lopez, 10

Xavier Lopez

Xavier Lopez, 10, was the first student victim to be identified as one of Ramos' victims.

The child's mother, Felicha Martinez, told the Washington Post Tuesday that just hours before the massacre, the mom had been at the school to see her son participate an honor roll ceremony.

She took a picture showing her son showing off his certificate.

In the last exchange she had with the child, the mom heartbreakingly told the boy that she was proud of him and that she loved him, giving him a hug goodbye - not knowing it would be the last time she would see him alive.

'He was funny, never serious and his smile that smile I will never forget,' she recalled after learning of his death from police. 'It would always cheer anyone up.'

The boy's cousin, Lisa Garza, 54, of Arlington, said Xavier enjoyed swimming and had been looking forward to the summer.

'He was just a loving 10-year-old little boy, just enjoying life, not knowing that this tragedy was going to happen today,' she said.

'He was very bubbly, loved to dance with his brothers, his mom. This has just taken a toll on all of us.'

Amelia Sandoval, Lopez's grandmother, said: 'It's just so hard... you send your kids to school thinking they are going to make it back home but they're not.'

Eliahana Torres, 10

Eliahana Cruz Torres

Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10, had also been missing for hours until she was confirmed to be among the dead.

Adolfo Cruz, her great-grandfather, said she didn't want to attend school the day of the shooting - but was told by her family that she had to attend.

He said he remained outside the school gates throughout the night until he leanrned of her fate from local authorities.

'I hope she is alive,' he said at the time.

Torres was an avid baseball player and played the sport in a local little league.

Ellie Lugo, 10

Ellie Lugo

Ellie Lugo was named as a victim of Tuesday's attack by her parents, with Steven Garcia and Jennifer Lugo confirming her death several hours after she was listed among the missing.

'It's hard to issue out a statement on anything right now my mind is going at 1000 miles per hour but I do wanna send our thoughts and prayers to those who also didn't make it home tonight!!! Our Ellie was a doll and was the happiest ever,' Steven Lugo said Wednesday.

'Mom and Dad love you never forget that and please try and stay by our side.'

Nevaeh Bravo, 10

Nevaeh Bravo

Nevaeh Bravo was confirmed to be among the dead late Tuesday, after her cousin posted on social media following the shooting to ask for helping the girl.

Around 9 pm, she broke the news on Twitter.

'Unfortunately my beautiful Nevaeh was one of the many victims from todays tragedy,' she wrote.

Sje said the schoolchild was 'flying high' and asked for the family to be kept in people's prayers

'Our Nevaeh has been found. She is flying with the angels above. We love you Navaeh very much princess.'

'Thank you for the support and help,' she wrote. 'Rest in peace my sweet girl, you didn't deserve this.'

Bravo's age could not immediately be confirmed.

Tess Marie Mata

Tess Marie Mata

Tess Marie Mata was also among those to perish in the attack, her sister, Faith Mata, revealed in a post to Facebook Wednesday.

'I honestly have no words just sadness, confusion, and anger,' she wrote.

'I'm sad because we will never get to tag team on mom and dad again and tell each other how much we mean to each other, I'm confused because how can something like this happen to my sweet, caring, and beautiful sister, and I'm angry because a coward took you from us.'

Photos shared with the post showed Tess smiling in a baby photo, snuggling with a cat, doing gymnastics, flashing a peace sign, and posing in front of a large heart mural.

'Sissy I miss you so much, I just want to hold you and tell you how pretty you are, I want to take you outside and practice softball, I want to go on one last family vacation, I want to hear your contagious laugh, and I want you to hear me tell you how much I love you,' she wrote.

Her age could not immediately be confirmed.

Rojelio Torres, 10

Rojelio Torres

Rojelio Torres, 10, was initially reported missing by his father, but on Wednesday was confirmed dead by his family.

A person who said she was the boy's cousin wrote on Twitter: 'It breaks my heart to say my rojelio is now with the angels I'll forever miss you and love you my angel.'

The child's father , Federico Torres, told Houston reporters that he was at work when he learned about the shooting and immediately raced to the school.

'They sent us to the hospital, to the civic center, to the hospital and here again, nothing, not even in San Antonio,' he said. 'They don't tell us anything, only a photo, wait, hope that everything is well.'

Nearly half a day later, cops broke the news to the boy's family.

'Our entire family waited almost 12 hours since the shooting to find out Rojelio Torres, my 10-year-old nephew, was killed in this tragedy,' Torres' aunt, Precious Perez, told KSAT. 'We are devastated and heartbroken. Rojer was a very intelligent, hard-working and helpful person. He will be missed and never forgotten.'

Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10

Jayce Luevanos

Jayce Luevanos, 10, died in the shooting along with his ten-year-old cousin, Jailah, the child's mother said Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, uncle Unberto Gonzalez shared photos of both kids while offering a touching tribute.

'My babies going to miss them like crazy!!!,' Gonzalez wrote. 'We luv y'all so much!!! I'm just lost right now!!! Fly high my beautiful Angels!!'

Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10

Jailah Nicole Silguero

Ten-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero was also killed in the shooting, her mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully revealed to Univision Wednesday.

She also lost her 10-year-old nephew Jayce to the tragedy.

She said Jailah loved to dance and film videos on TikTok.

The child reportedly also asked her mom the morning of the shooting if she could stay home from school - a request the now mourning mom rebuffed.

'I took her to school, but she didn't want to go. She told her father, 'Can I stay home?'' Luevanos said, noting that it was not a common occurrence for her daughter to make such a request. 'I think she knew something would happen.'

Luevanos' mom confirmed the loss on Facebook Wednesday.

'Fly high my angels. We're going to miss yall so much,' wrote Veronica Luevanos - whose dad had died just a week earlier.

'I'm so heart broken,' she wrote with a photo of her daughter and nephew.

'My baby I love u so much  fly high baby girl.'

Alithia Ramirez, 10

Alithia Ramirez

Fourth grader Alithia Ramirez was confirmed dead early Wednesday by her father, Ryan Ramirez, who shared a post to Facebook showing the 10-year-old with angel's wings. He had used the same photo the previous day as he pleaded for help finding her after the massacre

He had heartbreakingly used the same photo the previous day as he desperately pleaded for help finding her after the massacre.

'Trying to find my daughter Alithia. I called all the hospitals and nothing,' he wrote at the time.

He also reporters during his frantic search, 'I'm trying to find out where my baby's at.'

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, was another killed by Ramos Tuesday - along with her cousin, who has yet to be identified.

Annabell's father spent the afternoon after the shooting in frantic search for his daughter.

Speaking to KHOU11 Tuesday, he lamented at how he was at a loss as to what do, having little success with the search.

'They're not letting us in at the hospital right now so we don't know where to go.'

She has since been declared to be among the dead.

Miranda Mathis, 11

Miranda Mathis

Miranda Mathis, 11, was also confirmed as another casualty from the mass shooting early Wednesday, in a Facebook post by an older cousin who earlier that day had posted a desperate plea for help in locating the child.

'My sweet baby cousin we loved u dearly,' Deanna Miller wrote alongside a photo of the child with angel wings.

'I'm so sorry this happen to u baby please keep my family in your prayers,' she grieved.

Miller's kids had also been at the school at the time of the shooting, but survived the attack.

One of her sons told her that they were ushered out of a window by staffers during the attack and subsequently ran to a nearby funeral home after 'he heard the shooter say he was gonna kill all the kids.'

Alexandria 'Lexi' Aniyah Rubio, 10

Alexandria Aniyah Rubio

Alexandria Aniyah Rubio - who was better known to friends as 'Lexi' - was confirmed dead just before midnight on Tuesday.

The ten-year-old was shot dead just hours after posing for a photo with her parents at the school's honor roll ceremony.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the girl's mother, wrote of the loss: 'My beautiful, smart, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio was recognized today for All-A honor roll. She also received the good citizen award. We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye.'

Maite Yuleana

Maite Yuleana

Maite Yuleana was another student to die in the attack that had attended the honor roll ceremony just hours before.

A cousin of the girl's mother, Ana Rodriguez, announced the loss Wednesday.

'It is with a heavy heart I come on here on behalf of my cousin Ana who lost her sweet baby girl in yesterday's senseless shooting.

'We are deeply saddened by the lose [sic] of this sweet smart little girl. God bless and may she R.I.P Maite Rodriguez we love you.'

Another relative shared a photo of Maite with her honor roll certificate.

Her age could not immediately be confirmed.

Jose Flores Jr, 10

Jose Flores

Jose Flores, 10, was also killed in the shooting after attending the honor roll ceremony, where he was pictured triumphantly clutching a certificate celebrating the accomplishment.

Uncle Christopher Salazar confirmed to the Washington Post Wednesday that his 10-year-old nephew was among the dead, after sharing a tribute to the child on Facebook.

'I love you and I miss you,' Salazar wrote in the post.

The boy's father described Jose to CNN as an amazing boy and big brother to his two younger siblings.

'He was always fill of energy,' Jose Flores Sr. said. 'Ready to play till the night.'

He said the boy loved playing baseball and video games.

Jackie Cazares

Jackie Cazares, 10

Jackie Cazares, 10, was another to be killed during the vicious attack at the elementary school.

Her father Jacinto confirmed she lost her life inside her fourth-grade classroom.

'My baby girl has been taken away from my family and I,' the grieving father said in an online post.

'We're devastated in ways I hope no one ever goes through. ... It hurts us to our souls.'

Cazares said his daughter, who was with her cousin, Annabell Rodriguez, when she died, was 'full of life and love'.

Layla Salazar, 10

The 10-year-old student was the last of the slaying victims to be identified.

Vincent Salazar told the Philadelphia Inquirer his young daughter was among those killed.

He said she was 'a lot of fun' and recalled how they sang along to 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns 'n' Roses whenever he drove her to school.

Layla Salazar

Irma Garcia, 46 - fourth grade teacher

Irma Garcia

Irma Garcia, who co-taught with Mireles for the last five year, had been at Robb Elementary for 23 years.

Married to Joe for 24 years, she was a mother of four - Cristian, completing Marine boot camp; Jose, attending Texas State university University; Lyliana, a sophomore in high school; and Alysandra, a 7th grader.

'My tia did not make it, she sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom, i beg of you to keep my family including all of her family in y'all's prayers , IRMA GARCIA IS HER NAME and she died a HERO,' tweeted her nephew John.

'She was loved by many and will truly be missed.'

She was nominated as teacher of the year for the 2018-19 awards, organized by Trinity University.

Eva Mireles, 44 - fourth grade teacher

Eva Mireles

Eva Mireles, a fourth grade teacher, was identified by her family as being one of the staff members shot dead. She had worked in education for 17 years.

Her husband Ruben Ruiz, a veteran detective and SWAT team member currently serving as a police officer with the school district, held regular active shooter drills for the schools - most recently at the end of March.
Homes in Glasgow have been evacuated and a bomb team was called after a 'hazardous substance' was found in a block of flats.

Residents have told of fleeing in their pyjamas as up to 100 people were removed from their homes on Altyre Street, in the Shettleston area of the city, on Monday night.

Numerous emergency service vehicles, including a bomb disposal team, have been at the scene dealing with the incident.

It was claimed electrical equipment, ethanol and white powder in bags was found shortly after 6pm on Monday evening.

Reports said that airspace has been restricted over the area and a temporary 'No Fly Zone' is in place.

Resident Betty Davidson, 62, said: 'It was like being in a movie - everyone just bolted in the same direction.

Homes in Glasgow have been evacuated and a bomb team were called after a 'hazardous substance' was found in a block of flats

Numerous emergency service vehicles, including a bomb disposal team, have been at the scene dealing with the incident

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Police and emergency services are at a flat in Altyre St, Shettleston, following the discovery of potentially hazardous substances'

'There was kids crying as well because nobody actually had a clue what was going on - all the police were doing was shouting get back as far as you can.

'We all instantly headed for the swimming baths across the road.

'It looks like we're going to spend the night here as well - a copper I spoke to said this is going to be going on for hours.'

Another woman said: 'I ran in shear panic because I could hear the police telling people to get away as far as they could.

'I'm here in my pyjamas, no chance was I getting changed, I didn't have any idea what was going on.

It is understood electrical equipment, ethanol and white powder in bags was found shortly after 6pm on Monday evening

Residents have told of fleeing the street in their pyjamas, with one woman saying it was like a scene from a film

'I just followed everyone in the direction they were heading. Supposedly suspicious items have been found in a flat.'

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: 'We have been assisting the emergency services following the evacuation of residents from a number of flats in the Shettleston area.

'Up to 100 residents have been taken in at an emergency rest centre set up at Tollcross International Swimming Centre and we continue to liaise closely with colleagues in the emergency services.'

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Police and emergency services are at a flat in Altyre St, Shettleston, following the discovery of potentially hazardous substances.

'Some residents have been evacuated as a precaution and local roads closed.

'Please avoid the area. Enquiries continuing.'

MailOnline has contacted Police Scotland for more information.
A suspected Russian spy has been detained after a plot emerged to kill Ukraine's president in an air strike.

Official sources in Kyiv said the woman was caught 'red-handed' attempting to pass Volodymyr Zelensky's travel plans to the Kremlin.

She was intercepted the night before he was due to visit Mykolaiv province in southern Ukraine. If found guilty of espionage she faces a 12-year prison sentence.

Based on the inside information she obtained, Russia apparently intended to launch a precision missile, with the objective of killing Mr Zelensky.

Since the conflict began last year he has survived at least 12 assassination attempts, some of which were identified in advance by Western intelligence services.

The woman, pictured centre, was detained by Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) over an alleged plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky

President Zelensky, pictured at a NATO leaders summit in Lithuania in July, has survived 12 assassination attempts since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

Killing or capturing Mr Zelensky was a priority for Russia in the early days of the invasion, when it hoped to install a puppet regime.

He famously declined a US invite to be spirited out of Ukraine for his own safety, saying: 'I need ammunition, not a ride.'

READ MORE HERE: Woman 'preparing assassination of President Zelensky' is arrested in Ukraine Advertisement

Since then further plots have emerged involving insiders and Chechen mercenaries.

The Wagner paramilitary group may also be planning a mission to eliminate Mr Zelensky.

The suspected spy is a resident of the fishing resort of Ochakiv, which is close to where the president was due to visit in July.

She is alleged to have used her connections locally to make enquiries about Mr Zelensky's itinerary.

She also identified ammunition depots, electronic warfare installations and other Ukrainian military facilities.

The woman, who previously worked in a military clothing store, was arrested before the information was handed over.

She remains in custody.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the security service of Ukraine, which released footage of the arrest, said: 'The SSU apprehended the traitor red-handed when she was trying to pass intelligence to the invaders.

'To gather intelligence, the enemy agent drove in the target area, taking photos or video footage of Ukrainian facilities.'

Pictured: President Zelensky with Ukrainian service members during his visit to Ochakiv in Mykolaiv region last month

Her arrest and court appearance came as Russia continued its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities  but with only partial success due to the air defence systems provided by the US and Germany.

Russia denies targeting civilian infrastructure saying the damage to residential areas and medical facilities is caused by Ukrainian defence systems malfunctioning.

Meanwhile Poland is to send another 1,000 troops to its border with Belarus to counter the threat posed by Wagner.

Soldiers from the mercenary group have appeared near the border, potentially destabilising Nato's eastern flank.

The number of persons trying to enter Poland from Belarus illegally has also risen in recent months.
An AFP investigation has led to a former childcare worker being charged with 1623 child abuse offences against 91 children - including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 - in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas between 2007 and 2022.

The Gold Coast man, 45, has been in custody in Queensland since August 2022 when the AFP arrested and charged him initially with two counts of making child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service for child pornography material.

The case is scheduled for a mention in Brisbane Magistrates Court on 21 August, 2023.

After the man was charged last year, the AFP will allege further self-produced child abuse material was identified on electronic devices allegedly owned by the man. The AFP launched Operation Tenterfield immediately after arresting the man on 21 August last year.

Operation Tenterfield has in part focused on identifying the children in the alleged child abuse material recorded at childcare centres in Queensland (10) and NSW (one), and an early learning centre attached to a school overseas.

The AFP alleges the man recorded his offending on phones and cameras while working in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane between 2007 to 2013, and 2018 to 2022; an overseas location in 2013 and 2014; and one centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017. All the children allegedly offended against were pre-pubescent girls. The man worked at other childcare centres but the AFP is highly-confident the man did not allegedly offend at those centres.

The AFP is also highly-confident that all 87 Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified. The AFP believes the man recorded all his alleged offending.

The parents of all the Australian children recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been informed of the investigation. Some of the individuals identified in the alleged child abuse material are now aged over 18 years and have been informed. Support services have been offered and continue to be provided.

The AFP is working with international authorities to help identify four children recorded in alleged child abuse material created overseas.

The AFP Queensland Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) and victim identification specialists from the AFP and Queensland Police Service (QPS) have been working tirelessly since the man's arrest last year to identify all children in the alleged child abuse material.

In November, 2022, the AFP provided evidence to NSW Police Force (NSWPF) to enable an investigation for the alleged offending in NSW. NSWPF launched Strike Force Boorong to investigate alleged offending in Sydney. With the assistance of the AFP, NSWPF notified families and individuals identified under Operation Tenterfield.

Operation Tenterfield with the assistance of Strike Force Boorong has undertaken detailed forensic investigations of more than 4000 images and videos containing alleged child abuse material, which was allegedly created by the man.

In July, 2023, the AFP laid further charges against the man (on top of the three original charges) for the alleged offending against 64 children in Queensland and four children overseas.

Those charges include:

In June, 2023, NSWPF laid charges for alleged offending against 23 children in NSW. Charges include:

NSWPF has issued a first instance warrant for the man's future extradition.

Operation Tenterfield has been complex and has involved highly-skilled victim identification specialists. Up to 35 AFP members have been involved in the investigation since August 2022.

The AFP thanks QPS and NSWPF for dedicating resources to the investigation.

The genesis of Operation Tenterfield is linked to QPS locating alleged child abuse images and videos on the dark web in 2014.

QPS posted them on an international victim identification database, seeking assistance from the global victim-identification community.

The AFP and other agencies examined the images but they contained few distinguishable clues for investigators to follow.

But in August, 2022, the AFP was able to trace objects identified in the background of the alleged images and videos posted on the dark web between 2013 and 2014 to a Brisbane childcare centre.

Following inquiries with the childcare centre, the AFP executed a search warrant on 20 August, 2022, in Brisbane, and arrested the man in Brisbane's southwestern suburbs. He was charged with making and distributing child abuse material that was allegedly posted on the dark web.

In the next 48 hours, the AFP executed two further search warrants including at the man's Gold Coast home and seized electronic devices allegedly containing child abuse material created by the man.

In September 2022, the AFP coordinated a joint-agency taskforce with QPS at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) to review nearly 4000 seized images and videos the man had allegedly created.

Victim identification specialists helped identify 91 children who had allegedly been offended against by the man.

The childcare centres will not be named to help protect the identity of alleged victims.

AFP Northern Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said the AFP and other agencies were providing ongoing support to parents and children.

'The AFP, working with support services, has ensured parents and carers have received as much information as possible as this investigation continues,' Assistant Commissioner Gough said.

'I can assure members of the Australian public that if you have not been contacted by law enforcement, it is extremely unlikely your child was allegedly offended against by the man.

'The AFP is highly-confident that all the Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified.

'The AFP and our partners never gave up trying to identify the alleged offender and the children in the alleged abuse material.

'Given there were so many alleged images and videos of children recorded over 15 years on the alleged offender's devices, the process of identification took time, skill and determination.

'While I am extremely proud of law enforcements' persistence and their unwavering dedication to identify this alleged offender, and stop further abuse, this is chilling news.

'It is with a heavy-heart that the AFP and other law enforcement dedicate so much time and resources to prevent and take action against individuals who commit heinous crimes against children.

'There is not much solace I can give parents and children who have been identified under Operation Tenterfield, but I can tell you that we never gave up, and we never will when it comes to protecting children.

'This is a distressing time for families, carers and the community broadly.

'We know this type of news can re-traumatise survivors of sexual abuse, and, please, I urge those survivors to seek support, or talk to a trusted network, if today's news has caused distress.'

Queensland Police Service Acting Assistant Commissioner Col Briggs said this outcome was the culmination of years of dedicated and complex investigation across jurisdictions.

'From the moment Argos located images of victim children being shared on the dark web in 2014 an extensive examination was launched to identify the children in the pictures,' Acting Assistant Commissioner Briggs said.

'The challenges posed by an investigation of this type were significant and officers never gave up on identifying this alleged offender, reminding themselves that everything you do online leaves a trace.

'In recent years investigators engaged the support of a joint-agency Victim Identification Taskforce at the ACCCE, with several agencies working together to ensure the victims and their families were located.

'These allegations are horrific and confronting, but I commend all investigators from each jurisdiction in their relentless efforts to ensure that our community is made safer as a result of the arrest of the alleged perpetrator.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald from the NSWPF State Crime Command confirmed the man would also be facing child sex abuse related charges in NSW.

'Today we announce that the NSW Police Force have issued a warrant for this man's arrest in our home state, where he faces 180 child sex abuse charges against 23 victims aged one to five,' Assistant Commissioner Fitzgerald said.

'Once this man faces the AFP charges in Queensland, we will be seeking to extradite him to Sydney to face the full force of the law in New South Wales.

'This is one of the most horrific cases of alleged child abuse our detectives have seen, and we will continue to relentlessly pursue this matter on behalf of the 23 victims of NSW, who remain our number one priority.

'Alongside our partner agencies, we are absolutely committed to prosecuting anyone who goes after our community's most vulnerable.'

The AFP urges anyone in the community who needs to access support to visit the ACCCE website  www.accce.gov.au - for a full list of available support services with contact details.

Members of the public who have information about people involved in child abuse and exploitation are urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.accce.gov.au/report. If you know abuse is happening right now or a child is at risk, call police immediately on 000.

Research conducted by the ACCCE in 2020 revealed only about half of parents talked to their children about online safety.

If you or someone you know are impacted by child sexual abuse and online exploitation there are support services available at www.accce.gov.au/support.

Advice and support for parents and carers about how they can help protect children online can be found at www.thinkuknow.org.au, an AFP-led education program designed to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
Chong pleaded not guilty to the crimes

A man accused of keeping a woman as a slave has been committed to stand trial after failing to pay a lawyer to represent him and his wife at court.

Chee Kit 'Max' Chong, 44, pleaded not guilty on Monday in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court to three slavery charges after being denied an adjournment so that he could pay his barrister to represent him at the preliminary hearing.

While represented by top criminal barrister Elizabeth McKinnon, the court heard she had not been paid and had practically no information to even run Chong's case.

Chee Kit Chong, 44, and Angie Yeh Ling Liaw, 29, are accused of committing crimes against humanity

Two AFP officers escort Chee Kit Chong after his arrest last year

In farcical scenes, Chong's wife Angie Yeh Ling Liaw, 29, told the court her husband had assured her Ms McKinnon would also represent her - a claim the experienced barrister flatly refuted on Monday.

'The lawyer that represents my husband, I heard that they found a lawyer that will represent me as well,' Liaw said through an interpreter.

'This matter is very unfair to me ... the information came from my husband.'

The court heard the married couple had repeatedly delayed the preliminary hearing by failing to pay various lawyers.

A fed-up Magistrate Belinda Franjic told the couple she refused to delay the hearing any further, demanding Liaw represent herself without a lawyer.

The annoyed magistrate said Chong had delayed the court since November last year when he was charged with the crimes.

Liaw was little better, appearing in court four times and adjourning each time due to complications with obtaining a lawyer.

Magistrate Franjic said she had warned the couple she would not delay the matter again as their alleged victim had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

'I consider the fact that the prosecution has a complainant who has a diagnosis of a terminal illness which gives the matter a significant amount of urgency,' she said.

The preliminary hearing allows accused offenders to call witnesses and have their lawyers cross examine them in the chance the charges will not be sent to a higher court for trial.

Ms McKinnon declined to call any witnesses or make any submissions on Chong's behalf, leaving him to be committed to stand trial at the County Court of Victoria.

Chee Kit Chong is accused of keeping a woman as a slave

But while Chong quickly answered not guilty to all charges, his befuddled wife had no clue what was being asked of her by the magistrate when she was asked to enter a plea.

Liaw told the court she had evidence that supported her claims the couple's alleged victim was not held in slavery.

'I have pictures of her on outings with us,' she told the court.

Liaw told the court she wanted to enter the witness box and give evidence to the court.

The matter was stood down to allow Liaw to come to court after she appeared earlier via videolink from a different location to that of her husband.

The Point Cook couple - in Melbourne's western suburbs - both face charges of possessing a slave, using coercion and threats to cause another person to remain in servitude and exercising control over a slave.

The pair face up to 25 years in jail, with slavery considered a 'crime against humanity'.

Chee Kit Chong has pleaded not guilty to slavery charges

In 2021, Melbourne couple Kumuthini and Kandasamy Kannan were both found guilty by a Supreme Court jury for possessing a slave and exercising power over a slave and were sentenced to eight and six years prison respectively.

The court heard the Point Cook couple's alleged slave was identified by medical professionals, some of whom were expected to give evidence at the preliminary hearing.

It is understood the couple's alleged slave, who cannot be named, had been staying in Australia with the couple on a temporary visa.

The couple's arrest followed an eight month investigation by Australian Federal Police, which proudly paraded Chong' for media during his arrest.

Authorities were tipped off in October 2022 by a healthcare worker who visited the address and had concerns the woman was allegedly 'exhibiting indicators of human trafficking'.

The AFP alleges the woman was 'kept in domestic servitude' at the couple's Point Cook home between January and October 2022.

Officers raided the property on October 27 last year and charged Chong the following month.

His wife was not charged until April this year.

Angie Yeh Ling Liaw was arrested months after AFP officers swooped on her husband

AFP officers paraded Chee Kit 'Max' Chong upon his arrest

AFP officers raided the property on October 27, 2022 after a healthcare worker visited the address and raised concerns

In May, AFP Detective Superintendent Simone Butcher said the AFP does training for first responders, healthcare professionals, and the community to recognise indicators of human trafficking and slavery.

'Everyone can play a role in stopping human trafficking. We encourage anyone who suspects human trafficking or sees something suspicious to report it,' Det Supt Butcher said.

'Without the assistance of the community - in this case healthcare professionals - victims may go undetected and we would not be able to provide victims the help and support they need.'

If you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking or slavery offences, you can make a report to the AFP by calling 131 AFP (131 237).
A former historic Balliol Oxford College barge that was also used as a viewing platform at Henley Regatta is now a converted houseboat that is up for grabs for 135,000.

The stylish houseboat dates back to the early 1800s and retains many original features after being beautifully renovated.

The houseboat is being sold by Absolute Homes, which described it as an 'amazing home' and a 'piece of history'.

The former historic Balliol Oxford College barge is on the market with a price tag of 135,000

The stylish houseboat dates back to the early 1800s and retains many original features after being beautifully renovated

The agent explained: 'Not only were these barges very agreeable meeting places and viewing platforms during Eights Week, they were commonly towed down to Henley to serve the same purpose during the Royal Regatta.

'The final abandonment of barges between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s were all in favour of land-based boathouses, making the remaining vessels rare items.

'Balliol College Oxford, purchased this barge in 1837 from the City of London Livery Skinners' Company to use as changing rooms, common room and viewing stand.

'It is only one of six known to still be in existence and was the last barge to be built.'

During the past five years, the vessel has been fully refurbished and includes a 31 foot entertaining space

The open-plan living room boasts sash windows on both sides as well as a barrelled and vaulted oak ceiling

During the past five years, the vessel has been fully refurbished and includes a 31 foot entertaining space.

This area includes an open-plan kitchen and sash windows on both sides as well as a barrelled and vaulted oak ceiling.

The luxury fitted kitchen has white wall and base cabinets and a contrasting dark worktop - and there are two double bedrooms, both with en-suites.

The boat is currently moored in Thames Ditton and its asking price is significantly cheaper than the average house price.

Its 135,000 price tag is almost a third of the average price of a property sold in Britain during the past year - which is 353,507, according to property website Zoopla.

However, the houseboat's new buyer will need somewhere to moor the boat and mooring costs can soon add up - sometimes running into tens of thousands of pounds a year.

This vessel is currently at Barge Walk in Thames Ditton's Ferry Lane and is available to buy as a 'boat only' to be moved away to another mooring or on a mooring at Barge Walk by separate agreement.

That agreement would be with the area's marina and would be for an annually renewable and payable mooring fee of 12,600, plus VAT.

The sale is for the boat only and the mooring is available by a separate agreement

There are two double bedrooms, both with en-suites with modern fixtures and fittings

This bright double bedroom includes plenty of windows that allow the light to flood in

It comes as figures show a significant number of people continue to choose to live on boats.

The Canal and River Trust found that the number of people using their boat as a home to live on stood at 21 per cent in 2022, falling from a peak of 28 per cent in 2019.

The trust's Matthew Symonds warned that living on a boat is not for everyone.

He said: 'Boat living can be a fantastic way of life and remains a popular choice among boaters, particularly in our cities.

'It comes with its own challenges - having to fill up with water, empty your toilets, and do lots of hands-on maintenance.

Sometimes people can get a bit of a shock when they realise it's not just a floating house, their toilet tank is full, their engine is broken, and they are moored far away from the nearest facilities

'There's also a significant time cost involved if you don't have a home mooring as you have to move your boat every 14 days to somewhere new and, in busier areas, may find yourself struggling to find a convenient spot. This can almost be like a part-time job.

'Sometimes people can get a bit of a shock when they realise it's not just a floating house, their toilet tank is full, their engine is broken, and they are moored far away from the nearest facilities.

'So we advise that you should only move aboard if you really love the lifestyle.'

Those living on a boat can opt for a permanent mooring, which is somewhere they can keep their boat all the time. But this can be expensive.

Alternatively, they must keep moving to a new spot every fortnight.

Mr Symonds added: 'If they are not tied to an area they can do what's known as continuously cruise - being on a genuine journey, moving at least every 14 days.

'Legally you can't go back and forth between two spots, and we recommend that your range should be at least 20 miles a year.

'Obviously this type of roaming lifestyle isn't for everyone and can take a lot of planning if you have to get to a place regularly for work.'
Musk continues his efforts to make X (formerly Twitter) a place for free speech

Elon Musk has promised to foot the bill for anyone who has been 'unfairly treated' by their employer for liking posts on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The billionaire said there will be 'no limit' to how much monetary legal aid his firm will provide, even though the platform is said to be still struggling financially.

It's unclear how affected people can appeal for assistance or claim their money, although some have stated their interest by replying to Musk's post.

Musk took over Twitter in October and has just changed its name to X as part of plans to turn it into what he's described as an 'everything' app.

A shiny 'X' logo was installed at the platform's headquarters in San Francisco before being removed due to complaints from local residents.

It's not clear how users who are embroiled in legal action with former employer can claim their money

Elon Musk (pictured) took over Twitter in October and has just changed the social network's name to X

READ MORE: Why is Twitter 'X' now? Fans fume after Elon Musk rolls out rebrand The Twitter app is now officially X - and millions of users are fuming Advertisement

Musk made the statement in a post  formerly known as a tweet  on Sunday that got more than 100 million views.

'If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill,' Musk said.

'No limit. Please let us know.'

Many times people have been fired for liking or otherwise appearing to endorse a tweet by liking or retweeting it, or an account just by following it.

One example is US video game employee Kara Lynne, who was fired by Limited Run Games for 'following transphobic accounts' and 'voicing excitement over Harry Potter game'.

Lynne  whose termination was triggered by a complaint from trans activist Jessica Blank  was tagged in Musk's post and he replied by asking her for more details.

Another example is Sasha White, a literary assistant agent from New York, who said she'd been fired by The Tobias Literary Agency after retweeting a comment about trans women.

Musk has a habit of making outlandish promises that don't come to fruition, so it's worth taking this one with a grain of salt.

As the owner of Tesla, he's garnered a reputation for optimistic release schedules that come and go without any sign of the product, including the Cybertruck.

But the notion of giving financial aid to people who have been affected in similar fashion will be applauded by many who argue in favour of free speech.

A shiny 'X' logo was installed at the platform's headquarters in San Francisco before being removed due to complaints from local residents

Elon Musk's broken promises 2013: As Tesla owner, Musk said 'supercharging is and always will be' - but went back on this a few years later 2017: Musk said full self-driving Tesla cars will be ready in six months - but 'full self-driving' software upgrades came four years later 2019: Tesla unveils Cybertruck which is said to be released in 2021 - but the first one for customers wasn't even manufactured until July 2023 2021: As SpaceX CEO, Musk predicted his Starship would go into orbit in January 2022 - but the first (failed) orbital launch didn't happen until April 2023 Advertisement

Musk has repeatedly cited a desire for free speech on the social media platform and has reinstated the accounts of figures who were banned under the old ownership.

In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, although Trump has yet to use the platform again.

The ex-president was banned from Twitter in early 2021 for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a group of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, according to media reports.

Last year, West, who now goes professionally by Ye, posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and Musk suspended the artist from the platform.

Musk has granted a reprieve to banned accounts as he envisions X.com as 'a trusted digital town square' where a wide range of views are 'tolerated provided people don't break the law or spam'.

Despite this, Musk does threaten legal action against owners of accounts that have tweeted things that he doesn't agree with.

Musk is currently suing British nonprofit organisation the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which has alleged hate speech has flourished at the platform since he took over.

In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, although Trump has yet to use the platform again and prefers Truth Social, a platform the ex-president founded. Truth Social (pictured) looks rather a lot like X (formerly Twitter)

The entrepreneur has accused the CCDH of generating 'flawed' studies that have cost the tycoon's tech firm tens of millions of dollars, a copy of the lawsuit showed.

Also this weekend, Musk said his alleged cage fight with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg will be streamed on X with 'all proceeds going to charity'.

Talks of a fight between the two have escalated in the last few months since Zuckerberg released Threads, a rival social network that looks a lot like X.
Hidden half a mile below ground, a Yorkshire mine is now a hub of scientific activity.

That's because it houses a bustling research centre and a newly-created Mars simulation habitat aimed at studying how humans will survive during future missions to the Red Planet.

But British scientists don't want their exploration of the solar system to end there.

They also want to help solve the universe's greatest mystery by building a giant particle detector at the working mine in Boulby to uncover the source of dark matter.

This enigmatic material is believed to make up around 85 per cent of the universe but has never been directly observed.

Aim: British scientists want to help solve the universe's greatest mystery by building a giant particle detector at a working mine in Boulby Yorkshire to uncover the source of dark matter

The mine (pictured) already houses a research centre and a newly-created Mars simulation habitat aimed at studying how humans will survive during future missions to the Red Planet

WHAT IS DARK MATTER? Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 85 per cent of the universe. The enigmatic material is invisible because it does not reflect light, and has never been directly observed by scientists. Astronomers know it to be out there because of its gravitational effects on known matter. The European Space Agency says: 'Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only what the torch illuminates. 'That does not mean that the room around you does not exist. 'Similarly we know dark matter exists but have never observed it directly.' The material is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together. Calculations show that many galaxies would be torn apart instead of rotating if they weren't held together by a large amount of dark matter. Just five per cent the observable universe consists of known matter such as atoms and subatomic particles. Advertisement

Astronomers know it to be out there because of its gravitational effects on known matter  they can see that galaxies are held together in clusters when they should be flying apart.

Most experts believe that the source of this dark matter is particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs).

They got their name because they are thought to react with normal matter, but only rarely, which makes WIMPs incredibly hard to detect.

For two decades scientists have tried, but despite building more and more sensitive detectors they have had no luck.

That's why a global project is under way to build a new particle detector under ground  and Yorkshire is among the sites where it could happen.

A mine in South Dakota and Italy's state-of-the-art underground laboratory 80 miles from Rome are also in the running for the new International Dark Matter Centre.

However, scientists say time is running out to spot WIMPs because once detectors reach a certain level of sensitivity, which is what will happen with then next generation of devices, they will start to pick up other signals too.

This is known as the 'neutrino fog', because it creates confusion as to whether what has been seen is a WIMP or a signal from neutrinos  subatomic particles that are similar to an electron but with no electrical charge and a very small mass.

'We are entering the last-chance saloon to show that these particles are the cause of dark matter, and we want to make sure Britain is at the heart of that work by building the final generation of these detectors,' physicist Professor Chamkaur Ghag of University College London told the Observer.

There are currently scientific sites across the world trying to identify WIMPS, but because time is of the essence research groups have agreed to put their heads together to select one hub to concentrate resources.

Known as the XLZD experiments, scientists here hope Britain will be chosen to host it.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham are already using the Boulby mine to see what it takes to survive and thrive on other planets.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham are also using the Boulby mine to see what it takes to survive and thrive on other planets

The mine's Mars simulation, known as the 'Bio-SPHERE project', has been launched in a 3,000-metre tunnel network through 250 million-year-old salt deposits.

The salty conditions and subsurface location provide similar conditions to those experienced in caverns on both the Red Planet and the moon.

Scientists will be based within a 9ft-wide (three metre-wide) module, designed specifically to try out medical procedures used to treat tissue damage.

Polymer-based medicines, hydrogels and various other fluids will be tested here, which can be used for wound dressings and injury prevention.

The base will also be used to see whether underground homes are key to dodging dangerous deep-space radiation and extreme temperatures on other worlds.
NCS boss says any transit goods through the Nigeria customs territory should be stopped if they are headed to the Niger Republic.

The acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, has warned his officers in Ogun State to be vigilant at Nigerian borders with Benin Republic, Cameron and others as the Nigerian government continues to monitor the political situation in Niger Republic.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that following a military takeover in the Niger Republic on 26 June, President Bola Tinubu ordered the Nigeria-Niger border closure.

This was part of measures to force the military junta in the West African country to restore the democratic order.

The Customs boss also directed that any goods transiting through the Nigeria customs territory should be stopped if they are headed to the Niger Republic.

Mr Adeniyi said this while addressing his officers and men of the NCS during his working visit to the headquarters of the Ogun Area 1 Command of the NCS at Idiroko, Ogun State.

He stressed that criminals smuggling arms into the Niger Republic might explore land borders like those of the Benin Republic and Cameroon.

He called on customs officials at the borders to be alert and vigilant and resist any attempt to jeopardise Nigerian national security.

"We are all aware of the situation in our northern neighbour, Republic of Niger. In response to the directive from President Bola Tinubu, as our president and as the Chairman of the ECOWAS authorities of heads of states, we are monitoring the situation in Niger closely, and one of the decisions taken in the wisdoms of the heads of state is the closure of our borders with Niger.

"Over the last week, I paid a working visit to some of those borders, and I can assure you that the implementation of that measure there is 100 per cent. And when that happens, people who want to smuggle things into that country may want to explore openings in other borders.

"This is why it is important for you to be very, very vigilant. Anywhere we have borders, there could be a compromise, and there could be attempts to use routes that are not necessarily normal for them to cross things into Niger. All transit goods going into Niger, for now, are to be stopped anywhere you see them.

"Any transit goods through the Nigeria customs territory should be stopped if they are headed to the Niger Republic. And this is also a time for us to remain very, very vigilant. Because the enemies of the state are still at work. Those who are bent on destabilising the country, they are still at work.

"You recall the incidents of about two weeks ago, when some elements smuggled ammunition across, using some of the plans we have here. So this is, therefore, a reminder that you cannot afford to relax at any point in time. Your level of vigilance and the level of alertness must be 100 per cent.

"You must be ready all the time. You must cultivate very, very credible and useful intelligence from amongst the community that you live. And you must learn to synergise and cooperate with other agencies who are working together with you to enhance national security," Mr Adeniyi said.

The customs boss, who also met with heads of other security agencies and security chiefs from the Benin Republic, called for collaboration to fight criminals in both countries.

"As agencies, we should show readiness to work together and fight criminals in both countries," he said.

Mr Adeniyi, during the visit, paid homage to the Onipokia of Ipokia, Yisa Olaniyan; the Oniko of Ikolaje, John Ojo, and other monarchs in Ipokia Local Government Area.

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At the palace of the Oniko of Ikolaje, the monarch complained about the federal government's ban on petrol in border communities.

The monarch lamented the suffering of his people due to the lingering ban on fuel supply.

Mr Ojo said a litre of fuel is being sold for N1,000 in the communities.

The customs boss responded, saying that the NCS would seek a review of the fuel supply ban to the border communities following the removal of the fuel subsidy.

Mr Adeniyi said: "This directive was given by the Office of the National Security Adviser. It was given before the removal of subsidy. So, now that the subsidy has been removed, there should be the need for a review of that policy. I can assure the community that will make appropriate recommendation and request a review of the policy and make recommendations known.

"I am optimistic that we are going to have some positive review."
A commercial flight occurred June but this will be the first for a paying customer

A six-person crew will travel into space Thursday including three 'space tourists'

One of the biggest days in the history of Sir Richard Branson's space firm Virgin Galactic is nearly here  the first flight for a paying 'space tourist'.

The 'Galactic 02' mission will send a crew of six into orbit  including three tourists  aboard the VSS Unity spaceplane when it blasts off from New Mexico on Thursday.

If successful, it will herald a huge step in the era of space tourism  where the rich pay thousands of dollars for trips into orbit for recreational purposes.

Hundreds of tickets to space have been snapped up since they were put on sale by the firm over a decade ago  with some paying up to $450,000 for the ride.

Here's everything you need to know about the Galactic 02 historic launch, including who exactly is on board, when it takes place and how you can watch it.

'Galactic 02', to blast off from New Mexico on Thursday, will carry a crew of six people into orbit, including three 'space tourists'

Unlike NASA's launches, which are typically vertical, Virgin Galactic releases a spaceplane called VSS Unity (pictured) from a carrier aircraft

READ MORE: Virgin Galactic performs its first commercial space flight Galactic 01 carried astronauts from the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council Advertisement

WHAT IS GALACTIC 02?

Galactic 02 is the next crewed flight into orbit operated by Richard Branson's space firm Virgin Galactic.

It follows the firm's final test flight in May when it sent a crew of four company employees more than 50 miles above Earth and its first commercial flight, Galactic 01, the following month.

Galactic 01 was dubbed the firm's first commercial flight, but it carried astronauts from the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council.

Galactic 02, in comparison, will mark the first to carry someone who has actually paid for their ticket.

So Galactic 02 means customers who have splashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars on a trip to space are finally going to get what they paid for.

WHO IS ON BOARD GALACTIC 02?

Galactic 02 will have six people on board, including three Virgin Galactic employees  Commander Frederick Sturckow, Pilot Kelly Latimer, and Astronaut instructor Beth Moses.

One of the three tourists is retired British Olympian Jon Goodwin, the first Olympian to travel to space, having competed in the 1972 Munich Games as a slalom canoeist.

British Olympian Jon Goodwin (centre) joins mother and daughter Keisha Schahaff (right) and Anastatia Mayers (left) as the three tourists on VSS Unity this week

Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter Anastasia Mayers, will be the first mother and daughter ever to make a trip to space after winning two coveted places

After entering a lottery for the Virgin Galactic flights, Keisha received a surprise visit from Richard Branson

Jon Godwin spent his life as a daredevil, winning races in the Arctic Circle and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, before being diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2014

READ MORE: Mother who will travel into SPACE with 18-year-old daughter reveals how they're preparing for the 'dream' voyage Keisha Schahaff, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter Anastasia Mayers, will be the first mother and daughter ever to make a trip to space after winning two coveted places Advertisement

Goodwin, 80  who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014  receives his trip 18 years after reportedly spending $250,000 (194,500) to secure his seat.

Since his diagnosis he has been dedicated to raising awareness for Parkinson's and the importance of research into finding a cure  and hopes that taking part in this mission will help shine a spotlight on the condition.

The other two tourists making up the team are mother-daughter duo from Antigua, Keisha Schahaff and Anastasia Mayers.

Mother Keisha won a sweepstakes with Omaze, a US for-profit fundraising company, for the once-in-a-lifetime commercial trip.

Daughter Anastasia is studying philosophy and physics at Aberdeen University and wants to become an astrobiologist.

At 18, she will be the second youngest person to travel to space, following Oliver Daemen, who flew aboard a Blue Origin rocket at 18 in July 2021.

WHEN WILL GALACTIC 02 BLAST OFF?

A launch window for Galactic 02 will open on Thursday, August 10, Virgin Galactic announced last month.

Although the company has not confirmed a specific time, it says its livestream of the event will commence at 9am local time (11am EDT or 4pm BST).

Virgin Galactic says its livestream of the event will commence at 9am local time (11am EDT or 4pm BST)

VSS Unity (pictured) is Virgin Galactic's spaceplane used for commercial space flights. It first reached space as defined by the US (above 50 miles) in December 2018

Virgin Galactic flights Ticket price: $450,000 (360,000) Takes off from: Spaceport America, New Mexico Experience lasts: 90 minutes Cost per minute: 4,000 Can you float? Just, approximately 5 minutes of weightlessness Good views? There are 17 windows to catch a glimpse of the Earth Altitude: 50 miles (80km) Craft: VSS Unity spaceplane Passengers: Up to 6 plus 2 pilots Advertisement

WHERE WILL THE LAUNCH TAKE PLACE?

The VSS Unity spaceplane will take off from Spaceport America, around 45 miles north of Las Cruces in New Mexico, USA.

Just like any launch, the event should draw locals and tourists from far and wide who compete for the perfect snap to share on social media.

Spaceport America was the location of the Galactic 01 launch, although the first rocket launch at the site occurred in September 2006.

HOW CAN I WATCH THE LAUNCH?

Virgin Galactic's livestream of the mission will be live on the company's website and YouTube channel.

On YouTube, fans can already bookmark the livestream before it starts and be notified of any updates.

HOW DOES VSS UNITY LAUNCH?

Virgin Galactic's launch method is different from SpaceX and Blue Origin, which perform classic vertical rocket launches much like NASA.

Virgin Galactic uses a carrier aircraft called White Knight Two with two pilots who take off from a runway and then gain high altitude.

This still image from a Virgin Galactic video shows the Galactic 01 mission spacecraft returning to Earth in June 2023

READ MORE: Inside Virgin Galactic's spaceplane that costs $450,000 to ride Each seat in the six-person cabin has two personal windows for a view of Earth Advertisement

When at just under 10 miles high (50,000 feet), White Knight Two releases its rocket-powered crewed spaceplane VSS Unity, which ignites its rocket motor and soars even higher.

VSS Unity is able to reach the boundary of space as defined by the US Air Force and NASA by going over 50 miles (80.5 km) above sea level.

However, it is unable to go above the Karman line, the space boundary of 62.1 miles (100km), as defined by international record-keeping body the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI).

The plane shuts off once it reaches its highest point, providing passengers with silence, weightlessness and an aerial view of Earth.

Once the rocket motor shuts down, passengers can unbuckle their seatbelts and enjoy the weightless feeling of zero gravity.

The spaceship has 17 windows, providing 'an incredible view of planet Earth' for passengers as they float by for a few precious minutes.

Once VSS Unity has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, it glides back to the runway it took off from, giving passengers 'a smooth and comfortable end to their thrilling ride', the company says.

Virgin Galactic's passenger rocket plane VSS Unity is towed to the hangar after billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and his crew, reached the edge of space, at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, July 11, 2021

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity is pictured with two carrier aircraft either side of it as it departs Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California, in February 2020

The spaceship has 17 windows, providing 'an incredible view of planet Earth' for passengers as they float by for a few precious minutes

HAS VIRGIN GALACTIC CONDUCTED FLIGHTS BEFORE?

Virgin Galactic, founded in 2004, conducted its first successful flight to space in December 2018 with VSS Unity.

The spaceplane, which was manned with two pilots, reached outer space for first time (according to the US definition of the space border).

Richard Branson himself made the same trip along with five crewmates in July 2021  which the founder called an 'experience of a lifetime'.

The flamboyant billionaire, who was 70 at the time, became the second oldest person to travel to space after 77-year-old John Glenn in 1998.

That same year, federal aviation authorities banned Virgin Galactic launches after Branson's flight led to an investigation.

The spaceplane veered off course during its descent back to the runway in the New Mexico desert, although the firm was later cleared.

Branson delivering a message from space aboard SpaceShip Two Unity 22 during their flight after take off from Spaceport America in July 2021

Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight comes almost two years after founder Richard Branson (left) soared to the final frontier in a test flight

Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, is hoping to finally get the nascent space tourism industry off the ground

WHO ELSE HAS PAID FOR FLIGHTS?

2023 marks the start of commercial flights, customers will finally get what they paid for, although at up to $450,000 a ticket, the experience is at the moment limited to the very rich.

According to Business Insider, some of the famous stars who are due to fly on VSS Unity are Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Russell Brand, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Ashton Kutcher.

Some of Virgin Galactic's ticket holders have been waiting over 14 years for their trip, according to Reuters.

WHEN IS THE NEXT VIRGIN GALACTIC FLIGHT?

Virgin Galactic plans monthly flights to space after the Galactic 02 launch to ensure paying customers get their reward as soon as possible.

However, there's a chance they could be delayed, depending on the success of Thursday's mission.

The firm is yet to reveal who will fly on Galactic 03 or when exactly it will happen.
The launch of Apple's latest iPhone model is just weeks away from being launched and available for purchase.

The tech giant is expected to reveal the iPhone 15 during a launch event on either Sept. 12 or 13 at its Cupertino, California headquarters, and the new phone will go on sale around Sept. 22.

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.
She has been posting photos to her Instagram page a lot lately for her 100K followers (fans include Paris and Nicky Hilton).

And in the fun images, this budding star looks a lot like her very famous mother thanks to her long hair and photogenic face.

It looks like she may follow in her mother's footsteps one day by becoming a top model as she often poses in high-end fashion - Anja has already appeared in a London Fog ad with her mom.

Her mother is a world famous supermodel who has worked for Vogue and Victoria's Secret - and this leggy wonder even has her own swimsuit line.

The model mom is not from the United States but spends most of her time in Southern California.

And this girl's mama has quite the following - her fans are Kim Kardashian, Gisele Bundchen, Elsa Hosk, Candice Swanepoel and Adriana Lima.

Can you guess who this cute teenaged mini me is and who her mother is?

A new model? She has been posting photos to her Instagram page a lot lately. And in the fun images, this budding star looks a lot like her very famous mother thanks to her long hair and photogenic face

Like mom: Her mother is a world famous supermodel who has worked for Vogue and Victoria's Secret - and this leggy wonder even has her own swimsuit line. The model mom is not from the United States but spends most of her time in Southern California

She is Anja Ambrosio.

The up-and-coming star is the only daughter of powerhouse catwalk queen Alessandra Ambrosio from Brazil.

Anja - full name Anja Louise Ambrosio Mazur - is one of two children from the model and her ex, photographer turned designer Jamie Mazur.

The couple split in 2018.

Anja also has a 10-year-old brother named Noah Phoenix.

Anja is a teenager going to high school in Los Angeles, but lately she has fired up her Instagram page with images from her travels with mom.

This summer they have been on a fun beach vacation with friends like in Ibiza, Spain.

Anja and her mom Alessandra also posed together often, which highlights their similarities.

In July the ladies looked like carbon copies of each other as they had the same high cheekbones and almond eyes as well as light brown hair as they posed side by side for a selfie.

So similar: She is Anja Ambrosio. The up-and-coming star is the only daughter of powerhouse catwalk queen Alessandra Ambrosio from Brazil. Anja - full name Anja Louise Ambrosio Mazur - is one of two children from the model and her ex, photographer turned designer Jamie Mazur. The couple split in 2018. Anja also has a 10-year-old brother named Noah Phoenix

Anja has already worked! It looks like she may follow in her mother's footsteps one day by becoming a top model as she often poses in high-end fashion - Anja has already appeared in a London Fog ad with her mom

Anja is very active on Instagram, often sharing selfies and photos from family vacations.

The family lives in Los Angeles and Anja is attending high school in the Santa Monica/Brentwood neighborhood.

This comes after Alessandra showed off her incredible assets once again as she plugged her popular swimwear line GAL Floripa - which she launched with her sister and best friend in 2019.

The international lingerie model made the most of a tiny mint green bikini that put her abs and trim waistline on display.

Fun together: Anja - full name Anja Louise Ambrosio Mazur - is the daughter the Victoria's Secret regular had with her ex, photographer turned designer Jamie Mazur

Sweet time: Alessandra often brings her children with her when she travels to Brazil

Taking a selfie in a mirror: Anja looked like a typical teen in this snapshot with beaded jewelry on

Still a kid: She showed off her teen spirit with high top sneakers paired with a dress

Alessandra has had an enduring career.

Last year she told Harper's Bazaar that 'I didn't think modelling would last.'

But fame has not changed her much: 'In my personal life, I keep things simple. Im a Brazilian girl, even though I now live in LA, so swimsuits and simple beachwear is my style. I love fashion but I dont have to go crazy with buying items. Im happy with what makes me comfortable.'

And she named her top style icons: 'Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, because they carried themselves with confidence and a sense of fun.

'They also embraced a timeless look.'

She rocked it: Alessandra put her stunning curves on display in Ibiza as the bikini designer showed off one of her new designs for her company Gal Floripa

And the leggy lady shared some style advice.

'I think the best advice would be to remain authentic,' said the star who loves to wear athleisure.

'You can be playful and follow your instincts. You cant abandon yourself entirely; you have to stay true to who you are, even when youre wearing something that you wouldnt normally choose.'

And she said she wants her kids to dress how they like.

'I want them to feel happy and comfortable in their own skin, so I would gently guide them if I felt they were trying to be someone theyre not. But Im happy for them to take their own journey. Its the only way.'
In recent years, Damian Hurley, 21, has been eagerly following in his mother Elizabeth's footsteps, landing a slew of big-money fashion and TV deals.

Actress Elizabeth, 58, raised her son as a single parent and he quickly developed a taste for the spotlight after being by her side at glitzy events.

Since he kickstarted his modelling career at the age of 17, Damian has delved into acting and directing, and now boasts an estimated net worth of $500,000.

Yet Damian isn't the typical nepo baby, with the 21-year-old not just following his mother's career but also helping out with hers, working alongside her in movies and acting as photographer for her striking bikini snaps.

MailOnline takes a look at how the mother and son have been supporting one another in their bid to take over Hollywood...

Inside the House of Hurley: How Elizabeth has helped son Damian, 21, achieve a $500k net worth while he's scored her movie roles (pictured on August 3)

Two of a kind: In recent years, Damian Hurley, 21, has been eagerly following in his mother Elizabeth's footsteps, landing a slew of big-money fashion and TV deals

Modelling

Damian has followed in his mother's fashionable footsteps, becoming one of the most sought after male models in the UK.

He made his modelling debut back in 2019 by posing for renowned British makeup artist Pat McGrath.

Writing on Instagram at the time, he said: 'So excited to show you guys something secret I've been working on with the divine @PatMcGrathReal !! Shot by #StevenMeisel, here's #SublimePerfection; available in stores 7.26.19.'

He is signed to the London arm of IMG Models, which also represents US sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Christie Blinkley.

As well as posing for multiple campaigns with Pat McGrath, he has also appeared on Double Vision's Spring 2021 issue, and YOU Magazine alongside his famous mother.

It's estimated that models signed to IMG can earn up to $201,072 a year.

Damian has learnt from the best, with Elizabeth starring in several high profile campaigns while she's also covered British Vogue three times.

She previously revealed that her modelling career came from 'out of the blue', when she was asked to become an Estee Lauder spokesmodel in 1995.

Photography

Multi-talented Damian is just as comfortable behind the camera as he is in front of it, acting as his mother's favourite photographer.

In recent years, he has honed his skills by taking his mum's sexy bikini-clad snaps.

In 2015, Elizabeth explained: 'He doesn't take all my bikini photos. Some of them are professional, some of them are my sister, anybody who I can get.

'When we're on holiday together, sure he'll take some pictures. And you know, he's got a really good eye and he's studying photography and it's ridiculous.'

She also admitted that Damian told her to 'just do it' when she was hesitant about posing in a bikini because of the cold British weather, after being unable to travel to her sunny holiday destinations during the Covid lockdown.

Speaking on PeopleTV, Elizabeth said: 'He said, mum, "Just do it." But it's good. I had him on task, especially during lockdown.'

Look at the shadows: Multi-talented Damian is just as comfortable behind the camera as he is in front of it, acting as his mother's favourite photographer for her bikini snaps

Social media

While Elizabeth has an incredible online presence, boasting 2.6 million Instagram followers, Damian is quickly following on behind.

His account is littered with striking modelling shots, glimpses at his every day life and selfies with his famous friends.

While Elizabeth also features regularly on his account, she was previously against her son using social media.

Speaking about her standpoint when Damian was 14, she explained: 'I've always said absolutely not.

'It has to be private because you're putting up, as you should be, silly pictures of you and your friends at school and they're private because you don't want anyone looking at that.

'But now he's had his first professional job. he's now going to have a public profile different to his personal one.'

Since then, Damian has amassed 142,000 Instagram followers, and with such a backing he could earn at least $1,420/month on brand deals.

Big money: Damian has amassed 142,000 Instagram followers, and with such a backing he could earn at least $1,420/month on brand deals

Acting

Thanks to his famous mother, Damian kickstarted his acting career at the age of 14 when he landed a guest role in Elizabeth's series The Royals.

The talented teen played spoiled German monarch, Prince Hansel, who begun a new career as a reality star.

Proud mother Elizabeth revealed that Damian would be making his acting debut when she shared a sweet snap of the pair together.

She captioned the image: 'Mama taking a back seat tomorrow on the set of #TheRoyals. Passing the baton to my son, who is guest starring as Prince Hansel von Liechtenstein.'

Damian first appeared in The Royals in 2016 in the episode named Aye, There's the Rub, before reprising his role in 2018 in the episode My News Shall Be the Fruit to That Great Feast.

According to The Screen Actors Guild  American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a guest actor can earn $5,951 per week for a half an hour episode and $9,522 for an hour-long episode. Both of Damien's episodes were 43 minutes long.

Elizabeth is no stranger to the acting scene, landing her first role in a big budget film in 1992 with Passenger 57.

Since then she has starred in the likes of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Bedazzled.

Most recently she has been working in Damian's projects after he expressed an interest in directing.

As seen on screen: Thanks to his famous mother, Damian kickstarted his acting career at the age of 14 when he landed a role in Elizabeth's series The Royals

Directing

Damian has long been making short films and unsurprisingly, his mother has been more than happy to help out with his work.

Damian documented work on one of their projects in 2022, when shared snaps of the pair behind the scenes.

He captioned the gallery: 'And thats a wrap on The Boy on the Beach !! I started making shorts when I was 8, running around with a camcorder, begging my long-suffering family and friends to be in them.

'12 years later, to be able to work with the brilliant crew at @msrmedia is genuinely a dream come true. To make this even more perfect, my crazily talented (and insanely kind) mother @ElizabethHurley1 (also the star of my first ever short in 2010) flew out to film .

'Huge thanks to everyone involved for going the extra mile with me. I put my all into this short (possibly overboard- writing/directing/acting/editing). Watch this space, lots more coming very soon x'

Last month, Damian marked his writing and directorial feature debut with upcoming mystery drama Strictly Confidential.

The mystery drama follows Mia, played by CBBC star Georgia Lock, as she is drawn into a 'world of sex, duplicity and betrayal' while trying to uncover the mystery surrounding her best friend Rebecca's suicide.

Risque pictures showed his model mum Elizabeth, who plays Lily, appearing to be seduced by Natasha, played by young actress Pear Chiravara.

Damian praised his mum for sticking to her promise to be in his first film when shooting wrapped in December.

Sharing snaps on Instagram, he wrote: Everyone involved deserves public declarations of adoration (all of which will come in due course) but right now I want to worship @ElizabethHurley1 who, during the making of my first ever short film back in 2010 (when I was 8) promised me shed be in my first feature; true to her word, the minute this film was greenlit, Mama dropped everything and raced out to the beautiful Caribbean to help. Working together was a dream.

Helping hand: Damian has long been making short films and unsurprisingly, his mother has been more than happy to help out with his work (pictured on set of his short film The Boy on the Beach in 2022)

Finances

Despite his solid earnings from his acting and fashion work, Damian missed out on a 180 million inheritance.

In July 2021, it was revealed that Damian will not receive a penny from his late dad Steve Bing, who died by suicide in 2020, after he was disinherited.

Damian and Steve's relationship had almost been non-existent for most of the teen's life, but in the weeks before his death, the multi-millionaire businessman had made tentative steps towards establishing a father-son bond, calling him for the first time on his 18th birthday.

Steve died thinking that his two children  Damian and older half-sister Kira  would be financially secure.

He had recently won a court battle, overturning his own father's attempt to exclude them both from family trust funds believed to be worth up to a billion dollars (725 million).

Yet the Mail exclusively revealed that Damian wouldn't receive a penny, after his grandfather succeeded in appealing the decision.

Instead, the fortune will be split between the two children of Steves sister Mary, who crucially, unlike their cousins, were born in wedlock.

It is a betrayal that horrified and devastated Elizabeth, not just that Damian has been deprived of a share that could have reached $250 million (around 180 million) but also that he has been effectively disowned by his fathers family.

During an emotionally turbulent year, she maintained a dignified silence, but so appalled was she by the callous treatment of her son by his own grandfather that she gave a statement to the Mail.

She shared: When Stephen took his own life, he died thinking his children were going to be taken care of.

What Stephen wanted has now been callously reversed. I know Stephen would have been devastated.
Former Block stars Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie have been slammed by real estate professionals for featuring 'compromised' homes at 'inflated' prices on their new reality show.

The professional house flippers attracted criticism from the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association (REBAA) for a number of properties auctioned on Location, Location, Location.

One of the properties is situated in a potential flood zone in Queensland while another is located on a busy main road in Melbourne, known as a major truck route.

Meanwhile, representatives from REBAA have claimed that buyers were not informed properly ahead of auctions about possible issues with the homes.

'They didnt appear to mind selecting poor quality locations such as main roads in Melbourne and potential flood zones in Queensland,' Cate Bakos, President of REBAA told The Daily Telegraph..

Former Block stars Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie have been slammed by real estate professionals for featuring 'compromised' homes at 'inflated' prices on their new reality show

The professional house flippers attracted criticism from the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association (REBAA) for a number of properties auctioned on Location, Location, Location. One of the properties is situated in a potential flood zone in Queensland while another is located on a busy main road in Melbourne , known as a major truck route

A REBAA representative, Melinda Jennison of Queensland, criticised Mitch and Mark's show for failing to disclose on air that a Bulimba, Brisbane property was on the Brisbane River Flood Overlay (pictured)

Another REBAA representative, Melinda Jennison of Queensland, criticised Mitch and Mark's show for failing to disclose on air that a Bulimba, Brisbane property was on the Brisbane River Flood Overlay.

Jennison also claimed buyers were not properly informed after receiving renovation advice on the show.

She said another Brisbane property featured on the show may not have been suitable for a ground floor conversion, since their are strict height regulations in Brisbane.

Jennison said the rules and potential problems were never discussed on the show.

REBAA also criticised the show for not covering engineering reports, building inspections or how the value of each home was assessed before auction.

Producers of Location, Location, Location, Endemol Shine Australia, responded to the REBAA claims by stating licensed buyer's agents were part of the show's research team.

Their work, the producers said, made sure of legal and financial checks to ensure the best process for buyers.

Pictured: The Bulimba property

Pictured: Mitch and Mark in a scene from Location, Location, Location

'Mitch and Mark worked extensively with our property research team and with the couples to fully understand their brief, budget, and parameters, to ensure that everyone was entirely comfortable and understood the process completely,' an Endemol Shine Australia representative told the publication.

They continued: 'All negotiations as part of the auction or private sale process were carefully considered and followed extensive research and experience by Mitch, Mark and the broader team.'

Mitch and Mark, who have renovated 20 houses in 20 years, first rose to fame after winning The Block in 2021.

Location, Location, Location, currently airing on Channel 10, is a revamp of a previous format that aired on the Lifestyle Channel for Foxtel with the pair guiding Aussies to their dream home.
Fresh off celebrating Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's engagement on a yacht off Italy's Amalfi Coast, Kris Jenner and Corey Gamble are now getting in some alone time.

The couple was spotted heading to a restaurant for a romantic dinner for two in the village of Portofino, on the Italian Riviera at Ristorante Puny.

Jenner, 67, was the picture of chic style while making her way across the piazza in a black-patterned minidress with accents of gold and burgundy and black sandals.

In a perfect match, she also donned a pair of gold hoops earrings and a small black purse with touches of red, white and gold.

Romantic dinner: Kris Jenner, 67, and longtime partner Corey Gamble, 42, made their way to a restaurant for a romantic dinner for two in the village of Portofino, on the Italian Riviera

After soaking up the summer rays all afternoon, the Kardashian-Jenner matriarch also sported cool dark sunglasses, and had her raven tresses styled in her trademark short cut pushed back off her face and over her ears.

Jenner looked rested and relaxed as she chatted with her beau while never breaking a stride en route to the establishment that has a menu of Italian and Northern-Italian cuisine.

Gamble, 42, was all about cool summer fashion decked out in a turquoise ensemble consisting of draw-string shorts and a matching button-down shirt.

In keeping with his relaxed mood, the Atlanta, Georgia native also wore a pair of white sneakers that he left loose and untied.

And like his partner of nine years, Gamble also donned dark sunglasses for their time walking out and about in the stunning fishing village on the Italian Riviera coastline, which is southeast of Genoa city.

The area near the restaurant is surrounded by pastel-colored houses, high-end boutiques and plenty of other seafood restaurants.

Stylin': The Kardashian-Jenner matriarch oozed chic in a black minidress with accents of burgundy and gold, and black sandals

Head turners: The famous couple continued to catch the attention of people who noticed them while en route to Ristorante Puny, which has a menu of Italian and Northern-Italian cuisine

Cool: Gamble was all about cool summer fashion decked out in a turquoise ensemble consisting of draw-string shorts, a matching button-down shirt and white sneakers

Chic: The star seen rocking the elegant ensemble

Statement earrings: The star rocked large gold earrings

Beaming: Not long after sitting down, the former Keeping Up With The Kardashians star could be seen flashing a big beaming smile while enjoying cocktails and the tasty Italian cuisine

Engagement party: Lauren Sanchez (seen in white) has shared a series of photos from her star-studded engagement party with fiance Jeff Bezos Wednesday, which includes a shot with Kris Jenner (bottom left) and Bumble boss Whitney Wolfe Herd (bottom right). Also seen posing are (from top left) Veronica Smiley, Lydia Kives, and fashion designer Sarah Staudinge

Not long later, the former Keeping Up With The Kardashians star could be seen flashing a big beaming smile while enjoying cocktails and the tasty Italian cuisine.

The couple have reason to celebrate considering it was nearly nine years to the day that they met at designer Riccardo Tiscis 40th birthday party in Ibiza, Spain.

Just days earlier, Jenner and Gamble joined the Sanchez-Bezos engagement party aboard his $500million mega-yacht while situated off Italy's Amalfi Coast.

'Best week ever!!! @laurenwsanchez @jeffbezos we love you! @whitney @lydiakives @veronicagrazer @staud,' Jenner shared in the caption of a photo she posted on Instagram that was taken aboard the yacht.

The secret celebration came two months after the couple got engaged in May, on a boat believed to be the largest sailing vessel in the world, which notably has a wooden sculpture that resembles Bezos' soon-to-be second wife on the prow.
Hollyoaks star Ki Griffinhas confirmed they have split from their fiance Sorcha Osborne just over a year after getting engaged.

The actor, who rose to fame for playing Ripley Lennox on the popular Channel 4 soap, shared the news on Instagram in a post talking about Pride.

Ki and law student Sorcha also appear to have scrubbed one another from their social media accounts as they move on from their relationship.

The pair enjoyed a two-and-a-half year romance before calling it quits.

Speaking to fans, Ki wrote: 'Late to the party as usual, I just wanted to thank @prideinlondon for inviting me and my siblings to be a part of the #nevermarchalone campaign.

It's over: Hollyoaks star Ki Griffinhas confirmed they have split from their fiance Sorcha Osborne just over a year after getting engaged

Speaking to fans, Ki wrote: 'I've had a hard year with many ups and downs much like a lot of my trans siblings out there, I started my medical transition, broke up with my fiance'

'I've had a hard year with many ups and downs much like a lot of my trans siblings out there, I started my medical transition, broke up with my fiance and supported my mum through her stroke recovery which all played a part in my non-attendance of pride marches this year.

'However that hasn't stopped people coming through for me as intersex trans person, including the long-term support I have from my siblings.

'Thank you @felixpilgrimphotos for capturing our first sibling photos since I started my transition - these images truly mean the world to me.'

Ki was the first intersex and non-binary actor to join Hollyoaks when they joined the cast in 2020.

Speaking to The Sun at the time, Ki said: 'I grew up thinking there would never be a place for me in the film and TV industry unless I was behind the camera.

'But in recent years seeing the lengths those in the industry are going to in order to have not only representation, but positive representation for some of the most marginalised groups in society.

'Now being able to represent not only the LGBT+ community but also people of colour has really given me faith that the industry is changing for the better.'

Ki quit the show in August 2022 when the character Ripley began working with homeless transgender teenagers and left the village.

Hollyoaks has been a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ characters and actors, and was the first soap to cast a transgender woman as a trans character.

Split: Ki and law student Sorcha also appear to have scrubbed one another from their social media accounts as they move on from their relationship

Career: Ki was the first intersex and non-binary actor to join Hollyoaks when they joined the cast in 2020

Ki told PinkNews: 'I think we're definitely moving in the right direction. There is so much more opportunity for trans and non-binary people, there is so much more space for them to play meaningful characters that aren't simply tokens, and that is wonderful.'

We need to make sure the people behind the scenes, the crew  and when Im talking crew Im not just talking your director, your assistant director, Im talking your boom operator  why arent they trans when were working on a huge trans story?

Its really important that behind the scenes of media-making reflects whats on the screen as much as possible because making those authentic working environments does make better media.

Since then, Ki has gone on to star in an immersive short film titled Kindred, which tells the true story of Syd, the first non-binary person to have successfully adopted a child in the UK.
The Block judge Neale Whitaker has criticised producers for editing his emotional farewell speech during Sunday's season premiere.

The 61-year-old revealed to Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer during the episode that he would be cutting back on his judging weeks, however his explanation as to why he was stepping away never made it to air.

Nonetheless, his fellow judges drew Whitaker in for a heartfelt embrace before telling him they fully supported his decision.

Reposting a clip of the scene to Instagram after the episode aired, Whitaker clarified that he'd actually told Blaze and Palmer he wanted to spend more time with his partner David, who was experiencing health issues.

'There's nothing more frustrating than an unexplained decision or an incomplete narrative  especially where health and family are concerned,' the interior design expert began.

The Block judge Neale Whitaker, 61, (pictured) has criticised producers for editing his emotional farewell speech during Sunday's season premiere

During the episode, Whitaker revealed to Shaynna Blaze (left) and Darren Palmer (right) during the episode that he would be cutting back on his judging weeks, however his explanation as to why he was stepping away never made it to air

'This is what went to air tonight on the first episode of The Block's 19th season, my 17th. I broke the news to Shaynna and Darren that I would be unable to join them each week and explained my reasons. It was an emotional conversation for all of us,' he continued.

'Unfortunately those important reasons didn't make the cut so here goes,' he went on, before explaining that he'd chosen to 'put family first'.

'David, my partner of 20 years, has been experiencing some serious and ongoing health issues and we knew my place was at home, he said.

Reposting a clip of the scene to Instagram after the episode aired, Whitaker clarified that he'd actually told Blaze and Palmer he wanted to spend more time with his partner David (left) who was experiencing health issues

'There's nothing more frustrating than an unexplained decision or an incomplete narrative  especially where health and family are concerned,' the interior design expert wrote on Instagram next to a clip of the scene

The decor expert clarified that David has made 'great progress' in his recovery, and that his 'Block family have been fully supportive' of his decision to step away.

He also officially welcomed new judge Marty Fox, a top Melbourne real estate agent, who will be filling in for him during his absence this season.

Fans may remember Marty from the 2020 season of the show, when he sold Harry and Tash Pavlou's stunning home.

To conclude, Whitaker promised that fans would see him back to normal on the show in 2024 for The Block's 20th anniversary season.

Whitaker had previously announced he would be paring back his role on The Block to spend time with David in a similar Instagram post last month.
Riley Keough was seen spending quality time with her father, Danny Keough, as they enjoyed a spa day in L.A. on Sunday after becoming the sole trustee of late mother, Lisa Marie Presley's, estate.

The Daisy Jones & The Six actress, 34, who recently marked the third anniversary of her brother, Benjamin's, tragic passing, opted for casual comfort as she strolled alongside the musician, 58.

The star donned a dark gray, oversized T-shirt dress that fell down towards her knees and contained slits on the sides.

She additionally slipped into a pair of black shorts and slipped into comfy, open-toed sandals for the relaxing outing with her father.

Her locks were easily pulled back into a simple ponytail while a large, tan-colored purse was slung over her right shoulder to hold items she needed during the day.

Relaxing outing: Riley Keough, 34, was seen spending quality time with her father, Danny, 58, as they enjoyed a spa day in L.A. on Sunday after becoming the sole trustee of late mother, Lisa Marie Presley's, estate

Keeping it casual: The Daisy Jones & The Six actress opted for casual comfort in a T-shirt dress

Riley was seen holding her smartphone in her hand as she held a conversation with the Cabin By The Lake actor who also kept it casual.

He was seen wearing a pair of black shorts along with a dark green, short-sleeved shirt to stay cool in the summer heat.

Danny also slipped into a pair of brown, open-toed sandals and strolled close to his daughter as they made their way towards a crowded parking lot after getting pampered at the Nirvana Day Spa.

The musician tied the knot with Lisa Marie in 1988, however, their divorce was finalized in 1994. Throughout the course of their marriage, they welcomed daughter Riley and son, Benjamin - who passed away by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27.

The daughter of Elvis Presley and Priscilla was also married to Michael Jackson from 1995 to 1996; actor Nicolas Cage from 2002 to 2004; and also Michael Lockwood from 2006 until their divorce in 2021. Lisa welcomed twin daughters Harper and Finley, 14, with Lockwood.

Riley and her father, Danny, appear to have a close relationship, with the actress sharing a tribute to the musician in June in celebration of Father's Day.

At the time, she uploaded throwback snaps of the two, with one image showing Danny playing guitar next to a younger Riley. The beauty typed out, 'Dad,' followed by a red heart emoji.

The latest outing with her father comes shortly after the star became the sole heir of her late mother, Lisa's, estate and is also now the owner of Graceland.

Dressing down: Her locks were easily pulled back into a simple ponytail while a large, tan-colored purse was slung over her right shoulder to hold items she needed during the day

Bonding time: She additionally slipped into a pair of black shorts and slipped into comfy, open-toed sandals for the relaxing outing

Staying cool: Danny was seen wearing a pair of black shorts along with a dark green, short-sleeved shirt to stay cool in the summer heat

On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynn Healey Scaduto, approved a settlement that Riley had proposed back in June, per Deadline.

Earlier this year in January - the same month that Lisa Marie shockingly passed away due to a cardiac arrest at the age of 54 - Priscilla had challenged the validity of an amendment that the late star had made to her will in 2016.

The change notably took off both Priscilla and her former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees, and had put Riley and Benjamin as the heirs.

In June, an agreement had been made between Riley and her grandmother amid a months-long legal battle, with the actress paying Priscilla $1.4 million.

With Riley now the sole trustee of Lisa's estate and the current owner of Graceland, her grandmother will still have the role as a special advisor and will additionally receive a monthly installment.

Priscilla will also be allowed to be buried at Graceland, the Memphis home of Elvis Presley.

Riley now additionally presides over the sub-trusts for her half sisters Harper and Finley Lockwood, daughters of Lisa Marie's fourth husband Michael Lockwood.

The whole rancorous legal battle came in the wake of the death of Lisa Marie who died suddenly at her Calabasas home.

Family: Through the course of their marriage, Danny and the late Lisa Marie welcomed daughter Riley and son, Benjamin - who passed away by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27

Spa day: The father daughter dup made their way towards a crowded parking lot after getting pampered at the Nirvana Day Spa

Close bond: Riley and her father, Danny, appear to have a close relationship, with the actress sharing a tribute to the musician in June in celebration of Father's Day

Throwback time: At the time, she uploaded throwback snaps of the two, with one image showing Danny playing guitar next to a younger Riley

Tragic loss: Lisa Marie Presley shockingly passed away due to a cardiac arrest at the age of 54; seen just two days before her death on January 10 in Beverly Hills

Grandchildren: Priscilla is grandmother to Riley, as well as twins Harper and Finley, 14, that Lisa welcomed with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood

Sources close to Keough previously told DailyMail.com that she was 'still grieving' the loss of her mom and was angry when her grandmother filed a legal challenge to the will.

When the legal tussle broke out between Keough and Priscilla, Keough 'was hoping they could reach a settlement quickly,' the source added.

The source said the tension with Priscilla 'has been very tough for' Keough, who is mother to a baby daughter -born in 2022 - with husband Ben Smith-Petersen.

Last month in July, Riley marked the third anniversary of her younger brother's death by taking to her Instagram stories to share a black and white photo of Benjamin with their mother, Lisa Marie.

Towards the bottom of the image, the mother of one had heartbrokenly typed out, 'Missing you both,' followed by a red heart emoji.

Priscilla had also marked the anniversary of her grandson's tragic passing, and shared a red rose emoji on Instagram at the time.

'Needless to say, this has been a very solemn day for me - the anniversary of the passing of my sweet grandson Ben. Words cannot express how much you are missed - Nona,' she had written in the caption.

Sole heir: With Riley now the sole trustee of Lisa's estate and the current owner of Graceland, her grandmother will still have the role of a special advisor and will additionally receive a monthly installment

Third anniversary: Last month in July, Riley marked the third anniversary of her younger brother's death by taking to her Instagram stories to share a black and white photo of Benjamin with their mother, Lisa Marie

Honored: Following Riley's recent court victory, the star also celebrated her first Emmy nomination for her leading role in Daisy Jones & The Six for her titular role

Following Riley's recent court victory, the star also celebrated her first Emmy nomination for her leading role in Daisy Jones & The Six as the titular role.

At the time of the big news, she took to her Instagram stories and reposted the nomination as well as her own message of excitement. 'Feeling very blessed. Thank you.'

She also stepped behind the camera to co-direct the film, War Pony, with Gina Gammell, which has received a positive critical response since its release on July 28.

The premise of the drama follows, 'The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation,' per IMDB.
Bachelor Nation couple Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick were 'saddened with heavy hearts' to announce the amicable end of their two-year engagement on Sunday.

The Canadian 38-year-old and the 34-year-old New York native - who met in 2018 at her Off the Vine podcast - would 'love' if their fans would 'say some sort of prayer for both of our hearts' as they 'go through our individual journeys to heal.'

And while the Nashville-based couple never had children, Kaitlyn and Jason wrote that they'll split custody of their Golden Retrievers Ramen and Pinot, who 'will continue to be cared for together as brothers' amid their 'life-altering decision.'

'Continuing our friendship is incredibly important to both of us. We feel grateful to be ending our engagement with love and respect for each other,' Bristowe and Tartick noted.

'It's heartbreaking and sad to say goodbye, but our care and admiration for one another will never die. We are beyond thankful for the memories made together, and for your support of us and the boys throughout the years.

It's over: Bachelor Nation couple Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick were 'saddened with heavy hearts' to announce the amicable end of their two-year engagement on Sunday

'We would love that': The Canadian 38-year-old and the 34-year-old New York native - who met in 2018 at her Off the Vine podcast - asked their fans to 'say some sort of prayer for both of our hearts' as they 'go through our individual journeys to heal'

'Moving forward we will always have that level of support for each other. We don't know what the future holds so please try to hold space for us in your hearts.'

Before announcing an official social media break on Sunday, the DWTS Mirrorball #29 champ Instastoried a teary-looking selfie with her nose reddened captioned: 'See you soon. Bye for now!'

Meanwhile, the Trading Secrets Podcaster Instastoried that he was 'beyond heartbroken' and vowed to 'forever be grateful for this beautiful person that was brought into my life.'

The reality TV stars' split came a little over two months after Kaitlyn discussed her bisexuality during an episode of the Out & About podcast and revealed how a psychologist employed by ABC warned her not to disclose it on season 19 of The Bachelor.

'I had to sit with her for three hours,' Bristowe - who was eliminated after week nine - told hosts Pat McAuliffe and Joey Camasta.

'They go through a whole [questionnaire] and then she was like, "Don't tell them you're into women, they might spin it." But then she got fired because I think she was too much on [the contestants'] side, for like our mental health.'

Last November, the former spin instructor gave an update on how the wedding planning, specifically the reception menu, was going with Jason.

'Jason was like, it has to be very Buffalo and Canadian. So he wants to have the best of the best buffalo wings as the late-night snack. I'm like, "Okay, we'll do buffalo wings and poutine and make it Canadian and Buffalo!"' Kaitlyn told People.

Fur babies: And while the Nashville-based couple never had children, Kaitlyn and Jason wrote that they'll split custody of their Golden Retrievers Ramen and Pinot, who 'will continue to be cared for together as brothers' amid their 'life-altering decision'

Bristowe and Tartick noted: 'Continuing our friendship is incredibly important to both of us. We feel grateful to be ending our engagement with love and respect for each other'

They continued: 'It's heartbreaking and sad to say goodbye, but our care and admiration for one another will never die. We are beyond thankful for the memories made together, and for your support of us and the boys throughout the years. Moving forward we will always have that level of support for each other. We don't know what the future holds so please try to hold space for us in your hearts'

Before announcing an official social media break on Sunday, the DWTS Mirrorball #29 champ Instastoried a teary-looking selfie with her nose reddened captioned: 'See you soon. Bye for now!'

Going through it: Meanwhile, the Trading Secrets Podcaster Instastoried that he was 'beyond heartbroken' and vowed to 'forever be grateful for this beautiful person that was brought into my life'

'Don't tell them you're into women': The reality TV stars' split came a little over two months after Kaitlyn discussed her bisexuality during an episode of the Out & About podcast and revealed how a psychologist employed by ABC warned her not to disclose it on season 19 of The Bachelor

Three time's a charm? It was the former spin instructor's second engagement after splitting with her Bachelorette season 11 winner Shawn Booth (R) - who also happens to love Golden Retrievers - in 2018 after three years of dating

Last flame: Jason previously vied for the heart of The Bachelorette #14 Becca Kufrin (R), but he was eliminated after the ninth week in 2018

'The hardest thing was honestly picking a date because, at first, we were like, "It's going to be Nashville." And then Jason kind of switched his mind. And then just putting together a guest list, because Jason wants it really big, and I was trying to keep it on the smaller side, so I feel like, I don't know, I'm being cutthroat kicking people off the list left and right.'

It was Bristowe's second engagement after splitting with her Bachelorette season 11 winner Shawn Booth - who also happens to love Golden Retrievers - in 2018 after three years of dating.

And Tartick previously vied for the heart of The Bachelorette #14 Becca Kufrin, but he was eliminated after the ninth week in 2018.

It's worth noting that only four couples from The Bachelorette have remained together after 20 seasons - most notably Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, who share two children.

The Bachelor has the absolute worst track record with only three remaining couples still together after 27 seasons while 12 winning couples are still together after eight seasons of spin-off Bachelor in Paradise.
Gender advocates further explained the rationale behind the continued underrepresentation.

Following the low representation of women in President Bola Tinubu's ministerial list, gender experts have highlighted reasons Nigerian women remain marginalised in governance.

Mr Tinubu had nominated only nine women in his 48 member cabinet, a list that was criticised by Nigerian women.

In a media conference organised by Women Radio on Saturday night, titled 'President Tinubu's 18% Female Ministers Vs Campaign Promises', Gender advocates further explained the rationale behind the continued underrepresentation.

The Manager, Project and Lagos field office, Action Aid Nigeria, Vivian Efem-Bassey, mentioned patriarchy, a mainstreamed factor in the society that sees women only in support roles.

She said: "I believe patriarchy comes to play which believes in the practice of male dominance. Little wonder our politics toes the patriarchal line. Women are given support roles like mobilising fellow women to vote for party flag bearers who are usually the men. Women are also seen in welfare positions and organising events.

"It was only recently that we saw women in spokesperson positions. This contributes to why women are in the background and not seen at the same power positions where you find men."

Likewise, Muhammad Yahaya, the Executive Director of Dispute Resolution and Development Initiative noted that godfatherism still plays a vital role in the nomination of women into political offices.

He said: "We need to look at the strategic positions of the women. Politicians at the time they are campaigning, are looking at people around them who have contributed to their successes. It depends on who your godfather is. If you don't have godfather, forget it."

The experts also shared ways elected politicians can be 'punished' when they renege on their promises.

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Mr Tinubu had in his manifesto, during his campaign, promised 35 per cent affirmative action to women in all government appointive positions.

Reacting to this, the Executive Director of Invictus Africa, Bukky Shonibare, noted that Nigerian women expected that Mr Tinubu would have taken a cue from "the trend of women's low representation in governance, juxtaposing it with the advocacies on women representation and aligning it in what he has said and in line with prevalent laws".

Going forward, she said gender experts and Nigerian women "will keep watching to see other aspects of the President's promises regarding women like fighting Gender Based Violence. This would let us know if we can trust him after analysing his 100 days in office".

For Mrs Efem-Bassey, the continued non-fulfillment of promises is caused by "lack of accountability on the part of the political office holders and lack of demand from the citizens. Now, what respected platforms are available to keep public office holders to account? We don't hold them accountable to the offices they occupy."

She further noted that people hold the notion that "half bread is better than none and not wanting to push too much so they don't lose it all" contribute to lack of accountability on public office holders.

She, however, canvassed for a system that judges elected officers based on their performance and not sentiments.

"Let there be midterm elections to know what mark has been met by politicians for people to know if they are going forward or are to be withdrawn," she added.
Christine McGuinness showcased her sizzling figure in a racy red dress and shared a sweet snap with her mother Joanne in Spain on Monday.

The Real Housewives of Cheshire star, 35, looked nothing short of sensational in a bodycon dress which showcased her slender physique.

She flaunted her surgically-enhanced breasts in a tight-fitted ensemble as she posed against the idyllic backdrop.

The reality star, who has been enjoying a relaxing holiday with her mother, showcased her impeccable figure as she posed up a storm on her balcony.

Christine also shared a sweet selfie with Joanne who also opted for a red attire as they enjoyed their last few days in Majorca.

Incredible: Christine McGuinness showcased her figure in a racy red dress and shared a sweet snap with her mother Joanne in Spain on Monday

Cute! Christine also shared a sweet selfie with Joanne who also opted for a red attire as they enjoyed their last few days in Majorca

She captioned her post: 'A little mini break with my mum in Majorca time with just the two of us has been lovely.

'I'm so grateful she's here, happy and healthy.'

Their mother-daughter trip comes after Joanne's breast cancer battle, following her diagnosis in 2020.

In 2021, Christine confirmed that she was in remission and that she herself received a negative test for the BRCA (breast cancer gene).

Christine took to Instagram to share more snaps from their precious holiday.

In one snap, she looked as happy as ever standing next to Joanne as they pair were giggling throughout their photos being taken.

In another photo, Christine showed off her toned back and bronzed skin in a strapless black dress.

She positioned her arms on the sea wall and turned her face backwards for the photo.

Stunning: In another photo, Christine showed off her toned back and bronzed skin in a strapless black dress

Adorable: In one snap, she looked as happy as ever standing next to Joanne as they pair were giggling throughout their photos being taken

Chilled: Christine looked gorgeous in a morning sunrise snap as she sat on the balcony leaned up against the window wearing an oversized white T-shirt

Sweet: She captioned her post: 'A little mini break with my mum in Majorca time with just the two of us has been lovely

In her carousel of pictures, the mother-of-three looked happy and relaxed to spend some quality time with her mother.

Christine looked gorgeous in a morning sunrise snap as she sat on the balcony leaned up against the window wearing an oversized white T-shirt.

Christine is reportedly set to launch a business venture which could see her compete with the likes of Kylie Jenner.

The influencer has trademarked the name Lifestyle by Christine under which she could launch a variety of products, including her own make-up line.

Television personality Christine, who launched her own swimwear range earlier this year, has also trademarked names for yoga gear and cooling muscle gels, hair and energy gummies, sleep and calming gummies, collagen gummies, and skin and gut health products, according to The Sun .

And Christine could be quids in if she has even a fraction of the success of Kylie Jenner, 25, whose cosmetics company is valued at a massive $900million (706million).

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Christine for comment.
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker were pictured in their native Calabasas Sunday, as they're preparing to welcome their first child together.

The Kardashians star, 44, and the Blink-182 drummer, 47, were pictured driving in a custom-made Barbie-inspired pink Bronco (estimated to be worth in between $250,000 and $350,000) on the summer day in the upscale Southern California suburb.

The reality star donned a patterned maxi dress with pink, light blue and black patterns on the summer day, also donning black sunglasses and brown sandals.

The eldest of the Kardashian sisters, who showed off her baby bump to her 224 million followers over the weekend, had her blacks pulled back with braids.

Barker kept the rays out of his face in a gray print bucket hat with black sunglasses while wearing a white T-shirt with a graphic promoting the rock band The Cramps.

The latest: Kourtney Kardashian, 44, and Travis Barker, 47, were pictured in their native Calabasas, California Sunday, as they're preparing to welcome their first child together

The percussionist, a Fontana, California native, donned baggy black pants with black Adidas sneakers on the daytime outing.

He was seen with coffee in hand as he exited the vehicle and walked around to hold the door open for his pregnant spouse. Barker then draped his arm around her shoulders as they headed toward their destination.

The celeb couple is preparing for the arrival of their first child together, as they have six children from previous relationships.

Barker is father to three children with his Shanna Moakler, 48: stepdaughter Atiana, 24, (who Moakler had with Oscar De La Hoya); son Landon, 19 and daughter Alabama, 17.

Kardashian is mother to three kids with ex Scott Disick, 40: son Mason, 13, daughter Penelope, 11, and sons Reign, eight.

The celebrity couple revealed they were expecting their first child with one another earlier this summer during a Blink-182 concert in Los Angeles in June.

In the announcement, Kardashian upheld a sign that read 'Travis I'm pregnant' in reference to the video for the band's hit All The Small Things.

They subsequently announced they were expecting a boy in a gender reveal bash with a musical theme.

The Kardashians star and the Blink-182 drummer were pictured driving in a custom-made Barbie-inspired pink Bronco estimated to be worth in between $250,000 and $350,000 on the summer day in the upscale Southern California suburb

Barker then draped his arm around her shoulders as they headed toward their destination

The celeb couple is preparing for the arrival of their first child together, as they have six children from previous relationships

The reality star donned a patterned maxi dress with pink, light blue and black patterns on the summer day, also donning black sunglasses and brown sandals

The eldest of the Kardashian sisters had her blacks pulled back with braids

Barker kept the rays out of his face in a gray print bucket hat with black sunglasses while wearing a white T-shirt with a graphic promoting the rock band The Cramps

He walked around to hold the door open for his pregnant spouse

The unique vehicle is a collaboration between the companies LoveShackFancy and the Georgia-based vehicle company Vintage Broncos

According to the company, the model has features such as 'custom floral leather, hand painted accents [and] Wimbledon White trim'

The customized retro Bronco also features modern amenities including power steps, power windows, Bluetooth stereo, backup camera, AC, heated seats, USB, powered by a brand new modern 5.0L V8 paired with a 10-speed transmission

The companies showed off the odometer of the vehicle in a clip on Instagram

The unique vehicle is a collaboration between the companies LoveShackFancy and the Georgia-based vehicle company Vintage Broncos.

According to the company, the model has features such as 'custom floral leather, hand painted accents [and] Wimbledon White trim.'

The customized retro Bronco also features modern amenities including power steps, power windows, Bluetooth stereo, backup camera, AC, heated seats, USB, powered by a brand new modern 5.0L V8 paired with a 10-speed transmission.
Sarah Paulson looked all business as she filled her SUV up with gas on Saturday in Los Angeles.

The Ratched alum, 48, had a new, shorter hairstyle. She also appeared to have lightened her hair several shades.

The American Crime Story actress - who is making her return to Broadway after 13 years - wore a black blazer and wide-legged black pants over a black top.

She slipped her feet into a pair of trainers and accessorized with layered turquoise, silver and gold necklaces.

New hairdo: Sarah Paulson looked all business as she filled her SUV up with gas on Saturday in Los Angeles. The Ratched alum, 48, had a new, shorter hairstyle. She also appeared to have lightened her hair several shades

The film and television actress is returning to Broadway to star in Appropriate.

The play marks her first run on the Great White Way since her 2010 run in Donald Margulies' Collected Stories.

Appropriate was written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose Off-Broadway plays, Gloria and Everybody were both Pulitzer Prize finalists, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

Paulson will take on the role of Toni Layfayette, who returns home with her brother Bo, to settle their father's estate.

The siblings reminisce about the time they spent with their father until their brother Franz returns and brings with him secrets from the past that have been buried for decades.

Paulson has had a long career in Hollywood and counts actor Pedro Pascal, 48, as one of her oldest friends.

Paulson and Pascal met in 1993 when both were living in New York City and hoping to make it big in Hollywood.

And while Paulson's acting career took off before Pascal's, she's always been there for him.

All business: The American Crime Story actress - who is making her return to Broadway after 13 years - wore a black blazer and wide-legged black pants over a black top. She slipped her feet into a pair of trainers and accessorized with layered turquoise, silver and gold necklaces

Friends: Sarah and The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal have been friends since 1993

Longtime love: Sarah and actress Holland Taylor have been in a relationship since 2015

'He's talked about this publicly,' Paulson told Esquire in a profile on Pascal.

'But there were times when I would give him my per diem from a job I was working on so that he could have money to feed himself. '

Paulson is thrilled for her friend's recent successes, saying: 'Hes a part of some spectacularly successful things. But sometimes in those situations, the show is the superstar.

'Its really exciting to see that he is the thing that is becoming the superstar out of this.'
It's one of the biggest Australian TV exports ever.

And now Bluey could be soon making its big screen debut.

One of the stars of the ABC hit children's series has teased that a movie version of the animated show is under way, reported New Idea on Monday.

Bluey follows the adventures of a loveable six-year-old Blue Heeler dog along with her family, which includes her mum, dad and younger sister.

'I do think it's time for a Bluey movie,' star Melanie Zanetti told the publication.

Bluey is ready to hit the big screen says the show's Melanie Zanetti Pictured: A scene from the ABC's animated family favourite Bluey

Pictured: Melanie Zanetti, who plays Bluey's um Chilli in the hit series, on the red carpet at the Logies in Sydney last month. The actress told New Idea on Monday that the timing was right for a feature film version of Bluey

'I would be 1000% percent be open to doing that,' the actress, who plays Bluey's mum, Chilli.

'The show is just very universal in the way that it follows a family. I've spent a lot of time in the US and they all have the same reception to the show.' she continued.

'So many people tell me that it's like watching a little bit of Australia move by in a little window, which is so lovely.'

The outlet also reported the movie could 'expect' to 'attract a line-up of megastar voice cameos.

Bluey counts Hollywood and recording stars like Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman, Eva Mendes and Billy Joel among its high profile fans.

The movie could 'expect' to 'attract a line-up of megastar voice cameos. Pictured: Bluey fan Ryan Gosling

It comes after the team behind the family favourite reassured fans on last month that the series will return for a fourth season.

Executive producer Daley Pearson said the beloved show is currently in top form so the creative team behind it wanted to continue producing high quality episodes.

'We have all agreed we wouldn't keep making it if wasn't as good as the one that came before, so we want to make sure we keep doing that,' Pearson told The Courier Mail.

'There will definitely be more Bluey. The amount of families who have taken Bluey in is a privilege that we don't, and have never, taken that lightly.'

Natalie Portman - pictured - is a huge fan of Bluey

The latest season of the beloved animated series drew in a staggering 11 million viewers

The latest season of the beloved animated series drew in a staggering 11 million viewers.

These figures combine the total audience who viewed the show across all platforms on the ABC and ABC iview since April.

The total audience figures comes from adding ratings from the five major capital cities, viewers in the regional centres, encore viewing and hours streamed on playback (VPM).

The show has even captured the hearts and minds of schoolchildren across America and is changing the way they speak, with reports of American children speaking in an Aussie accent after watching the show.
19 Kids and Counting alum Jill Duggar Dillard attended the funeral of close friend - PassionForSavings.com founder Heather Schisler - at Cross Church in Springdale, AR last Friday.

'Cannot believe she's gone,' the 32-year-old Arkansas native - who boasts 2.5M social media followers - wrote via Instastory.

'The service and the reception were so beautiful [in] honoring who Heather was and [it] totally had the all-in Heather flare!'

Heather - whom Jill called 'the sweetest' - tragically died, age 39, on July 30 'after a hard-fought battle' with stage 4 metastatic cancer which spread to her lungs and liver.

'We have [known] each other for years and were in the same small group at church for several years,' Dillard wrote after her death.

Condolences: 19 Kids and Counting alum Jill Duggar Dillard attended the funeral of close friend - PassionForSavings.com founder Heather Schisler - at Cross Church in Springdale, AR last Friday (pictured June 6)

'We were pregnant together last year and had our babes just a couple weeks apart. Please join us in praying for their entire family.'

Schisler is survived by her husband of 17 years, Jonathan Schisler, and their four children - Zachary, Hailey, Madden, and Breelyn.

Last month, the Counting On alum finished recording the audio version of her second book Counting the Cost, which she co-wrote with author Craig Borlase and her husband of nine years, Derick Dillard.

Jill's 288-page tell-all - hitting shelves September 12 - is about how she found the courage to stop ignoring the red flags and secrets surrounding her famous family and detail what really happened behind the scenes.

TLC canceled the reality show 19 Kids and Counting in 2015 after the Duggars' eldest son Josh confessed to 'improperly touching' five minors (including two of his sisters).

In 2015, Dillard confessed on The Kelly File that her parents - former Republican congressman Jim Bob Duggar and housemaker Michelle Duggar - told her she was one of the two sisters Josh had molested as a teen while asleep.

The homeschooled mother-of-three previously spoke about the 57-year-old patriarch's close ties to Christian fundamentalist group the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) in Amazon four-episode docuseries called Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.

Among its many strict teachings, IBLP dictates that men be the head of their households and that women generally are not to have power or be involved in much beyond child-rearing and other domestic duties.

The 32-year-old Arkansas native wrote via Instastory: 'Cannot believe she's gone. The service and the reception were so beautiful [in] honoring who Heather was and [it] totally had the all-in Heather flare!'

'Heartbreaking': Heather - whom Jill called 'the sweetest' - tragically died, age 39, on July 30 'after a hard-fought battle' with stage 4 metastatic cancer which spread to her lungs and liver

'We were pregnant together last year': Schisler (pictured July 17) is survived by her husband of 17 years, Jonathan Schisler, and their four children - Zachary, Hailey, Madden, and Breelyn

All done! Last month, Dillard finished recording the audio version of her second book Counting the Cost, which she co-wrote with author Craig Borlase and her husband of nine years, Derick Dillard (pictured July 29)

Hitting shelves September 12! The Counting On alum's 288-page tell-all is about how she found the courage to stop ignoring the red flags and secrets surrounding her famous family and detail what really happened behind the scenes

Scandal: TLC canceled the reality show 19 Kids and Counting in 2015 after the Duggars' eldest son Josh confessed to 'improperly touching' five minors (including Jill)

Spilling the T! Dillard previously spoke about her father Jim Bob Duggar's close ties to Christian fundamentalist group the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) in Amazon four-episode docuseries called Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets

'The best chance to repair damaged relationships is through love in a private setting': On June 1, the 57-year-old former Republican congressman and his wife Michelle blasted the 'derogatory and sensationalized' docuseries and said the creators had 'ill intentions hurting people we love' (pictured in 2021)

Still going strong! It was Jim Bob who first introduced his daughter to the 34-year-old Oklahoma District 27 Assistant District Attorney (M, pictured July 12) with whom she has three sons - Israel, 8; Samuel, 5; and Frederick, 13 months

On June 1, Jim Bob and Michelle released an official statement blasting the 'derogatory and sensationalized' docuseries and said the creators had 'ill intentions hurting people we love.'

'We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships, or to reconcile differences, is through love in a private setting,' the married couple of 38 years wrote on the Duggar Family website.

'We love every member of our family and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one. Through both the triumphs and the trials we have clung to our faith all the more and discovered that through the love and grace of Jesus, we find strength, comfort, and purpose.'

It was Jim Bob who first introduced Jill to the 34-year-old Oklahoma District 27 Assistant District Attorney with whom she has three sons - Israel, 8; Samuel, 5; and Frederick, 13 months.
Princess Mary's nephew Count Nikolai of Denmark has been spotted in Sydney as he prepares to start a new chapter of his life in Australia, after being stripped of his royal HRH title by his grandmother.

On Saturday, Nikolai, 23, was seen heading out for a morning coffee with a sporty friend in the harbour city.

Wearing light brown pants and a leather jacket over a blue knit jumper, the Danish royal looked stylish.

Nikolai looked like he is adapting well to the laidback Aussie lifestyle as he laughed with his pal.

The count has travelled Down Under to study on exchange at University of Technology Sydney for a semester, accompanied by his glamorous designer girlfriend Benedikte Thoustrup.

The pair live together in Copenhagen, but have moved to Sydney to study from August 1 to November 30.

Count Nikolai of Monpezat, 23 (pictured right), has moved to Australia and was seen heading out for a morning coffee with a friend in Sydney on Saturday

Wearing light brown pants and a leather jacket over a blue knit jumper, the Danish royal looked stylish

Nikolai, whose father is Prince Joachim of Denmark, is seventh in line to the Danish throne.

In March, Count Nikolai of Denmark launched a new Instagram account to promote his modelling career after being stripped of his 'HRH' status by his grandmother, Queen Margrethe.

It was a tumultuous year for the Danish Royal Family after the monarch controversially took the title from Prince Joachim's eldest son, as well as also taking the prince and princess titles from his younger children Athena, 11, Prince Felix, 20, and Prince Henrik, 13.

Nikolai, whose father is Prince Joachim of Denmark, is seventh in line to the Danish throne

The handsome model enjoyed a coffee from the local cafe as he took in the sights of Sydney

The Count has travelled Down Under to study on exchange at University of Technology Sydney for a semester

Nikolai looked like he is adapting well to the laidback Aussie lifestyle as he laughed with his friend

Nikolai will be studying alongside his glamorous designer girlfriend, Benedikte Thoustrup (pictured)

They are now Counts and Countess and referred to as Their Excellencies - and in January this year the Danish Royal Family updated their website to show the new status.

The Queen insisted the move will be 'good for them in their future' and allow the children - who have maintained their positions in the line of succession - to 'shape their own lives without being limited by the special considerations and duties' that a formal affiliation with the Danish Royal Family involves.

Following his grandmother's move to strip him and his siblings of their titles 'for their own good', Count Nikolai said that he was sad, shocked and confused.

The Count has carved out a successful modelling career, previously walking the runway for Dior and Burberry

Pictured is Tasmanian-born Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, who is married to Frederik, the Crown Prince of Denmark and is aunt to young Nikolai

Count Nikolai of Denmark is pictured walking in the Burberry show at London Fashion Week back in 2018. In March, he launched a new Instagram account to promote his modelling career after being stripped of his 'HRH' status by his grandmother, Queen Margrethe

'My whole family and I are of course very sad. We are, as my parents have also stated, in shock at this decision and at how quickly it has actually gone,' he told Danish newspaper Extrabladet.

'I am very confused as to why it has to happen like this,' he told reporters from outside the Copenhagen apartment where he lives with his girlfriend.

Countess Alexandra, mother to Count Nikolai and Count Felix, was also 'very sad' and 'shocked' about the decision.

'She can't believe why and why now, because there's no good reason,' Helle von Wildenrath Lvgreen, press secretary to Countess Alexandra told CNN.

'They would lose their titles anyway when they get married one day.

Following his grandmother's move to strip him and his siblings of their titles 'for their own good', Nikolai said that he was sad, shocked and confused

'Her sons are young men so maybe they might get married in the near future so why shouldn't it wait until that day so that the titles would disappear on a happy day?'

Prince Joachim told Ekstra Bladet that his children had been 'hurt' by the decision - and claimed he had only been given a few days to break the news to them before the announcement was made publicly.

Prince Joachim, the brother of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, is now married to Princess Marie of Denmark.
Cynthia Bailey returned to the show and revealed she was focused on rebuilding her life after her second divorce on Sunday's Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo.

Headlines flashed across the screen that Cynthia, 56, had settled her divorce with Mike Hill, 52. Cynthia told Kandi Burruss, 47, over dinner at Blaze Steak and Seafood that she didn't want to get into everything that happened but just wanted to move on.

'This is my second divorce,' Cynthia said. 'On one hand, I don't want to stay in something if I'm not happy, but then I wake up. The reality is I'm a 55-year-old woman. And I'm a Pisces so I'm always going to live for love.'

Kandi invited Cynthia to her sexy event to celebrate over ten years of Bedroom Kandi. She also told Cynthia about her heated argument with Drew Sidora, 38, where she denied ever having a threesome and kissing LaToya Forever, 36.

'I don't even understand why Drew is going so hard to deny it,' Kandi said in a confessional. 'I don't believe in outing anybody but maybe because she's married.'

Cynthia returns: Cynthia Bailey returned to the show and revealed she was focused on rebuilding her life after her second divorce on Sunday's Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo

Drew's kiss: Kandi invited Cynthia to her sexy event to celebrate over ten years of Bedroom Kandi. She also told Cynthia about her heated argument with Drew Sidora, 38, where she denied ever having a threesome and kissing LaToya Forever, 36

Event: Kandi invited Cynthia to her sexy event to celebrate over ten years of Bedroom Kandi. She also told Cynthia about her heated argument with Drew Sidora, 38, where she denied ever having a threesome and kissing LaToya Forever, 36

Denying: 'I don't even understand why Drew is going so hard to deny it,' Kandi said in a confessional. 'I don't believe in outing anybody but maybe because she's married'

Kandi said that LaToya even admitted that they kissed during the reunion special.

Drew was at her house working on organizing her closet with assistants when she called husband Ralph Pittman, 40, over to talk. A producer asked her if she had spoken to Ralph about what happened while he was in Vegas and Drew laughed.

'I did asked him what happened in Vegas and he said he was working but I'm just not really trusting him, at this point, ' Drew said. 'Pretty much anything can place a wedge between us now because we're not on solid foundation.'

Drew told Ralph she was having a great time in Portugal until Kandi said that she had kissed LaToya. Ralph said he didn't understand why it was such a big deal. Drew said she didn't kiss LaToya and that Marlo Hampton, 47, secretly taped her and sent it to LaToya.

Drew said she also thought Ralph's cousin Courtney Rhodes, 48, should have stepped in to defend Ralph's name on the trip but didn't.

Sheree Whitfield, 53, went to catch up with Kandi who asked her about her new boobs.

'They need to drop,' Sheree said. 'They are still a little sensitive.'

'You got some new perkies,' Kandi said. '

Kandi said: Kandi said that LaToya even admitted that they kissed during the reunion special

Drew: Drew was at her house working on organizing her closet with assistants when she called husband Ralph Pittman, 40, over to talk. A producer asked her if she had spoken to Ralph about what happened while he was in Vegas and Drew laughed

Ralph: Ralph said he didn't understand why it was such a big deal

Ralph's cousin: Drew said she also thought Ralph's cousin Courtney Rhodes, 48, should have stepped in to defend Ralph's name on the trip but didn't

New boobs: Sheree Whitfield, 53, went to catch up with Kandi who asked her about her new boobs

'I got to put them to work, girl,' Sheree said.

Sheree said in a confessional that she ended up going to Kenya and Kandi's doctor after her previous implant had hardened.

'The first time he did them I wasn't so happy about them, but the second time, I like them, ' Sheree said. 'And Martel likes them, too.'

Kandi said she saw the kiss and didn't appreciate Drew calling her a liar. Sheree said that Drew insisted she was lying and said that maybe Kandi was just 'producing' for her movie.

'She lost her f***ing mind,' Kandi said.

Kandi said she hoped people wouldn't be messy at her Kandi's Peach Social. She said she also invited LaToya to the party.

'Lord, Jesus help me keep it together,' Kandi said.

The party featured Kandi's Peach Fuzz Museum at the original selfie museum with scantily dressed models.

New doctor: Sheree said in a confessional that she ended up going to Kenya and Kandi's doctor after her previous implant had hardened

First time: 'The first time he did them I wasn't so happy about them, but the second time, I like them, ' Sheree said. 'And Martel likes them, too'

Kandi saw: Kandi said she saw the kiss and didn't appreciate Drew calling her a liar. Sheree said that Drew insisted she was lying and said that maybe Kandi was just 'producing' for her movie

Party: The party featured Kandi's Peach Fuzz Museum at the original selfie museum with scantily dressed models

'I definitely feel like I'm a sex positive pioneer,' Kandi said in a confessional. 'Ten years ago when we started Bedroom Kandi, it was kind of taboo for Black women to talk about having a sex toy. I am responsible for hundreds of thousands of orgasm across America and I am very pleased to say so.'

Kandi showed the women her peach sex toy that they can use when they were giving someone head and it would vibrate their whole jaw and told them about other sexual uses for it.

'I'm going to use it and I'm going to tell you all how it went,' Sanya Richards-Ross, 38, said.

Cynthia arrived and said now that she was single this was definitely a party that she didn't want to miss. Cynthia said in the confessional that she fell out with Kenya Moore, 52, after they taped the Ultimate Girls trip and that it took several months before they even had a conversation. Kenya said they reconnected at Teresa Giudice's wedding.

'I'm never, ever going to not be there for her,' Kenya said in a confessional.

Drew and Ralph were almost the last to arrive. When Drew arrived, Cynthia said they were just talking about her. Ralph went to the bar with Marlo and he told her that he was upset when he heard his name was brought up a lot on the girls trip.

Marlo said she only said that she did the same job as him and that they were both in technology.

'Was that that bad?' Marlo Hampton, 47, said.

Pioneer: 'I definitely feel like I'm a sex positive pioneer,' Kandi said in a confessional. 'Ten years ago when we started Bedroom Kandi, it was kind of taboo for Black women to talk about having a sex toy. I am responsible for hundreds of thousands of orgasm across America and I am very pleased to say so'

Peach toy: Kandi showed the women her peach sex toy that they can use when they were giving someone head and it would vibrate their whole jaw and told them about other sexual uses for it

Use it: 'I'm going to use it and I'm going to tell you all how it went,' Sanya Richards-Ross, 38, said

Ralph: Drew and Ralph were almost the last to arrive. When Drew arrived, Cynthia said they were just talking about her. Ralph went to the bar with Marlo and he told her that he was upset when he heard his name was brought up a lot on the girls trip

Marlo said: Marlo said she only said that she did the same job as him and that they were both in technology

'I just heard it was a lot just two days straight just talking about me,' Ralph said.

'Ralph knows his wife's a liar,' Marlo said in a confessional.

LaToya showed up. Drew said in a confessional she was ready to set the record straight. LaToya told Kandi that she was upset with her.

Kandi, LaToya and Drew went upstairs to talk. They insisted that Marlo come and join them. LaToya said her relationship with Drew started out toxic.

'Your relationship with Drew is definitely bipolar, or bi,' Kandi said in a confessional.

Marlo came upstairs and said she just sent the videos so LaToya could see what Drew was saying about her. Drew said the videos were edited.

'You are a liar,' Marlo said.

Marlo walked out. Marlo said that Drew was the one who edited everything.

LaToya: LaToya showed up. Drew said in a confessional she was ready to set the record straight. LaToya told Kandi that she was upset with her

Toxic: Kandi, LaToya and Drew went upstairs to talk. They insisted that Marlo come and join them. LaToya said her relationship with Drew started out toxic

Edited: Marlo walked out. Marlo said that Drew was the one who edited everything

Lying: 'I just don't like people lying on me,' Drew said

'Why does Drew look like she is 22 on Instagram, but a whole jump scare in person,' Marlo said.

Kandi said she wasn't 'producing stories' and didn't make up anything about Drew. Drew said she just thought Kandi was fantasizing when she said that she saw Drew and Kandi kissing.

'We're hot girls,' Drew said in a confessional.

'We are going to agree to disagree,' Drew said.

Drew instead in a confessional that she never kissed LaToya.

'I just don't like people lying on me,' Drew said.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta will return next Sunday on Bravo.

All episodes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta are available on Hayu
Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice and her husband Luis Ruelas, 48, celebrated one year of marriage with a trip to Italy.

The 51-year-old shared a short slideshow of their time in Sardinia on her official Instagram profile.

The picture-perfect snaps of the Italian sunset looked like postcards as the couple stood in front of a fence with the sea glittering in the background and yachts bobbing on the water.

She captioned the post: 'Happy Anniversary #sardegna #summerlove #happyanniversary #italy,' and added a white heart emoji.

The mother of four looked beautiful in a white chiffon halter neck sundress that was open on the sides of the bodice.

Kiss kiss: Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice and her husband Luis Ruelas, 48, celebrated one year of marriage with a trip to Italy

The color of the dress set off the Bravolebrity's deep, dark tan. Teresa's long raven hair fell in loose waves.

Teresa carried a large, white, Chanel tote bag that retails for $3,750.

The couple stood in front of a fence with the sea behind them and boats and yachts bobbing in the water.

She set the slideshow to Sade's Kiss of Life, enhancing the romantic tone of the post.

The sunset was drenched in shades of orange and purple on the Italian island of Sardinia.

The couple have been on vacation with Teresa's daughter Gia, 22, Gabriella, 19, Milania, 17, and Audriana, 13.

The family spent time in Greece before Teresa and Luis took a side trip to Italy to celebrate their anniversary.

Both of the lovebirds have shared sweet and touching tributes to their marriage over the last few days.

Ruelas shared a short clip of his wife enjoying a glass of wine on his Instagram.

Gorgeous sunset: The 51-year-old shared a short slideshow of their time in Sardinia on her official Instagram profile

Anniversary: The picture-perfect snaps of the Italian sunset looked like postcards as the couple stood in front of a fence with the sea glittering in the background and yachts bobbing on the water

Italian getaway:The mother of four looked beautiful in a white chiffon halter neck sundress that was open on the sides of the bodice

Italian island: The sunset the couple posed in front of looked like an oil painting

She captioned the post: 'Happy Anniversary #sardegna #summerlove #happyanniversary #italy,' and added a white heart emoji

He captioned the post: 'Love is like a fine wine,' he wrote in the caption that had UB40s Red Red Wine playing in the background. 'It gets better with time and a wife is the glass that holds it all together.'

Teresa replied to the post: 'Babe, I love you so much.'

Teresa and Luis said 'I do' last August at the Park Chateau in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

The wedding came about two years after Teresa split from her ex-husband Joe Guidice, who she'd been married to for 21 years.
Brynn Whitfield broke down crying detailing her childhood neglect on Sunday's The Real Housewives of New York on Bravo.

'The bad stuff, this is like super, super f***ed up,' Brynn, 36, said. 'There was abuse and neglect and I wasn't picked up for like six days or that my diaper wasn't changed.'

Brynn shared with the other housewives her abusive early childhood when Sai De Silva, 42, hosted a Brynnsgiving after she heard that Brynn had no family to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with. Brynn told them that her mother, who was white, was only a only a teenager when she had her and that her father, who was Black, was older. She said for a time they lived in Section 8 housing.

'It wasn't a good situation,' Brynn said. ' We were poor as f*** welfare, food stamps, everything.'

She said her parents got into trouble but didn't elaborate. Brynn cried in a confessional and didn't want to tell the producer any more details. Brynn said she was obsessed about the fact that the two people who were supposed to love her didn't or couldn't.

Brynn broke down: Brynn Whitfield broke down crying detailing her childhood neglect on Sunday's The Real Housewives of New York on Bravo

Confession: Brynn cried in a confessional and didn't want to tell the producer any more details

No love: Brynn said she was obsessed about the fact that the two people who were supposed to love her didn't or couldn't

The episode titled The Most Brynnteresting Girl in the Room opened with Jenna Lyons, 55, deciding what she was going to wear to breakfast during the girls trip in the Hamptons. She came down for breakfast in Erin Dana Lichy's Sag Harbor house wearing multiple diamond bracelets.

'Have you heard of the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's?' Jenna said in a confessional.

Erin finally cooked up her Shakshuka and Ubah Hassan, 39, brought out her line of hot sauces for everyone to try. She said she later learned that her hot sauces were one of Oprah's favorite things. The women discussed what they would be doing for Thanksgiving.

Brynn said she was going to London for the week and that she might go with her third ex-fiance Gideon.

'Had I been married, I think I would have been on my third divorce right now,' Brynn said in a confessional. 'Statistically, I'm actually setting myself up for success, because I never want to get a divorce.'

Brynn said in a confessional that she's not close to any of her relatives but wanted to have a family of her own. After breakfast, the women packed up to go back to the city.

'I cannot wait to get the f*** out here,' Jessel Taank, 43, said.

Jenna said in a confessional that she would give this girls trip a 'C.'

Breakfast attire: The episode titled The Most Brynnteresting Girl in the Room opened with Jenna Lyons, 55, deciding what she was going to wear to breakfast during the girls trip in the Hampton

Breakfast confession: 'Have you heard of the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's?' Jenna said in a confessional

Erin cooked: Erin finally cooked up her Shakshuka and Ubah Hassan, 39, brought out her line of hot sauces for everyone to try. She said she later learned that her hot sauces were one of Oprah's favorite things. The women discussed what they would be doing for Thanksgiving

Brynn confesses: 'Had I been married, I think I would have been on my third divorce right now,' Brynn said in a confessional. 'Statistically, I'm actually setting myself up for success, because I never want to get a divorce'

'It was really fun but it wasn't particularly relaxing,' Erin said.

Back in the city, Erin shared in a confessional that it was natural for her to get into real estate because that was what both her parents did. She said her mother sold 3 Lincoln Center.

'Back when I was little, I remember coloring in. Like the conference room while she was showing it to Tom Clancy, and Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow,' Erin said.

Erin said she got her real estate license when she was 19 and by 23 had sold three buildings and later joined Fredrik Eklund's team. She said she now helps people design properties to increase property values.

Brynn went to get her hair done. She said she goes to the salon every week and that it takes three to six hours to straighten her hair. Brynn shared that she hadn't relaxed her hair in probably eight years.

'My grandmother, she was white so she didn't, you know, raising three biracial kids,' Brynn said. 'My mom's mom raised me. My mom's white. My dad's Black.'

Brynn said her father and his family were never in the picture. Brynn said her grandmother used to drop her off at a Black hair salon every week and she loved the exposure to learn about her heritage.

'Growing up I was embarrassed sometimes admitting that I was Black,' Brynn said. ' I didn't know how it would be received. It was nice going to the beauty salon because that was my one exposure.'

Erin shares: Back in the city, Erin shared in a confessional that it was natural for her to get into real estate because that was what both her parents did. She said her mother sold 3 Lincoln Center

Conference room: 'Back when I was little, I remember coloring in. Like the conference room while she was showing it to Tom Clancy, and Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow,' Erin said

Design: Erin said she got her real estate license when she was 19 and by 23 had sold three buildings and later joined Fredrik Eklund's team. She said she now helps people design properties to increase property values

Brynn's hair: Brynn went to get her hair done. She said she goes to the salon every week and that it takes three to six hours to straighten her hair. Brynn shared that she hadn't relaxed her hair in probably eight years

Biracial: 'My grandmother, she was white so she didn't, you know, raising three biracial kids,' Brynn said. 'My mom's mom raised me. My mom's white. My dad's Black'

Embarassed: 'Growing up I was embarrassed sometimes admitting that I was Black,' Brynn said. ' I didn't know how it would be received. It was nice going to the beauty salon because that was my one exposure'

Ubah met with her friend Kathleen at her apartment to talk about how to take Ubah Hot to the next level. She wanted an investor to help her expand. Ubah got upset thinking about how she didn't have her mother to help her navigate things anymore.

'I miss my mom,' Ubah said crying in a confessional.

Sai De Silva, 42, told her husband David that she felt bad that Brynn had no family to be with for the holidays.

'She had a very hard upbringing, grew up with food stamps, didn't have a lot,' Sai said.

'That's like you,' David said.

Sai said she wanted to have a Brynnsgiving, a Friendsgiving with the other housewives. Brynn appreciated it. Sai and Brynn discussed why Jessel was so agitated on the trip. David suggested Jessel and her husband needed some alone time.

At Jessel's house, she discussed with her husband Pavit about looking forward to their twin boys going to preschool. Jessel wanted them to go to private Montessori school but her Pavit wanted them to go to public school.

'Pavit will always push for the cheapest option,' Jessel said.

Kathleen: Ubah met with her friend Kathleen at her apartment to talk about how to take Ubah Hot to the next level. She wanted an investor to help her expand. Ubah got upset thinking about how she didn't have her mother to help her navigate things anymore

Miss mom: 'I miss my mom,' Ubah said crying in a confessional

Sai: Sai De Silva, 42, told her husband David that she felt bad that Brynn had no family to be with for the holidays

Brynnsgiving: Sai said she wanted to have a Brynnsgiving, a Friendsgiving with the other housewives. Brynn appreciated it

Jessel and Pavit: At Jessel's house, she discussed with her husband Pavit about looking forward to their twin boys going to preschool. Jessel wanted them to go to private Montessori school but her Pavit wanted them to go to public school

Pavit: Jessel told him about the girl's weekend and how it started with her saying that her room was cold. Pavit said her tone of voice can be cold.

B***h: 'So you're calling me a b****?' Jessel said

Jessel told him about the girl's weekend and how it started with her saying that her room was cold. Pavit said her tone of voice can be cold.

'So you're calling me a b****?' Jessel said.

'I would never say that,' Pavit said.

Jenna went over to Erin's house and told her that Jessel apologized for her behavior but that she felt the 'cackling hags' were ganging up on her. Erin said Jessel was so different from her.

'I think she needs to get f***ed,' Erin said.

Pavit told Jessel that had no time except to eat and sleep. Jessel said in a confessional that they needed to prioritize their sex life and 'get back into the bedroom.'

Sai had a chef and bartender come to the house to prepare for Brynnsgiving. Brynn asked both the bartender and chef if they were married and they said they were. Sai made everyone take off their shoes. Erin was not impressed.

'I would never make people take their shoes off,' Erin said in a confessional.

Erin said she had a very emotional day at her grandmother's memorial. Jessel said that was very unfortunate but hoped that her day went well. Erin told the other women how Jessel had called them 'cackling hags.' Sai said she really wanted to put this together to support Brynn. Brynn started to get upset talking about the holidays.

The Real Housewives of New York will return next Sunday on Bravo.
She is a busy mother-of-four, but Rebecca Judd always makes sure to find time for fun.

During her recent family trip to Europe, the AFL WAG left her children with her husband Chris to go raving with her girlfriends in Ibiza.

The 40-year-old posted a video of her trip to the party island and big night out on her Instagram page.

She showed off her incredible abs in an orange two-piece as she partied with gal pals Jessica Roberts and Lana Wilkinson.

Bec also put her stunning tan on display in the neon crop top and matching longline skirt.

During her recent family trip to Europe, AFL WAG Rebecca Judd left her children with her husband Chris to go raving with her girlfriends in Ibiza

She showed off her incredible abs in an orange two-piece as she partied with gal pals Jessica Roberts and Lana Wilkinson

She teamed the outfit with some Chanel sandals and a black leather Chanel quilted bag.

She wore her bronde locks out in waves and minimal makeup on her visage.

Before the girls headed out to the outdoor rave at Ushuaia beach club they enjoyed some Verve Cliquot champagne at their villa Cancuo.

Rebecca took six weeks off social media as she enjoyed a lavish family holiday in Europe.

The 40-year-old posted a video of her trip to the party island and big night out on her Instagram page

The girls danced the night away at Ushuaia beach club

On Friday, the media personality shared another highlight reel from her trip with her fans and followers on Instagram.

Bec, who enjoyed a break in London, Ibiza, and Corfu, Greece, could be seen in an image cosying up to her AFL star husband Chris by the pool as they lapped up the sun on the Greek Island.

Bec looked incredible as she showed off her model figure wearing a tiny pink bikini and sunglasses.

Former Carlton star Chris, 39, went shirtless and wore matching pink boardshorts as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

Before the girls headed out to the outdoor rave at Ushuaia beach club they enjoyed some Verve Cliquot champagne at their villa Cancuo

Bec also put her stunning tan on display in the neon crop top and matching longline skirt. She is seen posing with her daughter before heading on her big night out

She also posed for a happy snap with her twin boys, Tom and Darcy

In another image, Bec stripped off into a red triangle bikini which she teamed with a pair of cut-off denim shorts during a boating trip.

In the next, they were seen walking around a quaint European town, where Chris kissed Bec as they posed up for a photo.

She looked incredible in an orange and pink silk outfit with a white Fendi bag over her shoulders.

Bec also showed off her incredible figure in a black bikini as she posed for photos in the family's pricey villa

The social media sensation teamed her two-piece with a Loewe bucket hat

On Friday, the media personality shared another highlight reel from her trip with her fans and followers on Instagram. Bec, who enjoyed a break in London, Ibiza, and Corfu, Greece , could be seen in an image cosying up to her AFL star husband Chris by the pool as they lapped up the sun on the Greek Island

Bec looked incredible as she showed off her model figure wearing a tiny red bikini and cut-off denim shorts

'I made some little videos of our Euro trip but never got around to posting,' her post began.

She added: 'Here is part 1: London the first time + Corfu (we came back to London at the end of the trip and stayed longer).'

Last month, Bec shared a photo of herself in an airport and revealed why she had taken a break from social media, writing: 'I've been gone for 6 weeks. Now I'm back.'

A subsequent post revealed Judd had been on holiday in Europe since early June.

The accompanying photos showed the mother-of-four showing off her slender frame in a series of skimpy bikinis while enjoying the Northern hemisphere's summer.

One ensemble saw the wife of Chris Judd in a red bikini with racy cutouts under the bust.

The model said there was a 'mix' of reasons why she took a social media hiatus and one of these is that she hates paparazzi and she wanted some privacy.

The Footy WAG recently took six weeks off social media as she enjoyed a lavish family holiday in Europe

Responding to the question, she wrote: 'A mix of secret work stuff and also for privacy/security reasons. I hate papps.'

'I hate being followed. I hate reading clickbait/fake news about me and so I just wanted to chill and enjoy myself and not deal with all the intrusive crap for a few weeks.

'After learning the hard way, I now know never to post while I'm on holiday and save it for when I get home.'
Abandoned oil town in NW China turns into popular astronomical observation base

People's Daily Online) 13:49, August 07, 2023

Lenghu town, located in Mangya city, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province, was once an important oil production base in China. Due to the depletion of its resources, the town found itself on the wane.

Today, Lenghu is making a comeback as an astronomical observation site.

The small town is surrounded by Yardang landform and earth forest landscapes. It has a permanent population of just over 300.

Fifteen kilometers southwest of Lenghu town is the former site of an oil production base, where abandoned residential houses can be found. In the hinterland of the Gobi desert, buildings of an abandoned mining company, school and hospital are still recognizable.

Photo shows the astronomical observation base in Lenghu town, Mangya city, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (People's Daily/Jia Fengfeng)

In September 1958, a drilling team discovered large quantities of crude oil in Lenghu town and an oil exploration project was launched.

Despite the harsh environment, the project went ahead at full steam. In February 1959, the first vehicle loaded with oil left the town.

By the end of 1959, the annual production of oil fields in the town approached 300,000 tonnes, accounting for about 12 percent of the country's total.

At one point, more than 20,000 people worked on the oil fields in Lenghu. A new town emerged in the hinterland of the desert.

However, from the end of the 1970s, most of the oil fields in Lenghu started to stop production as a result of resource depletion. After an oil field was discovered in Qinghai and an oil production base was built in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province, oil exploration workers and their families left Lenghu.

In 2015, Tian Cairang, then deputy director of the housing and urban-rural development bureau of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was appointed deputy head of the administrative committee of Lenghu town. One of the thorniest issues he faced was how to develop the town.

Tian and his colleagues had thought about developing tourism. However, few culture and tourism companies were willing to invest in Lenghu due to its poor accessibility, despite having rich tourism resources including Yardang landform and the Gobi desert.

In 2017, Tian encountered Qu Xiangdong, president of Xingzhi Group, a cultural development company based in Beijing. Tian showed pictures of the beautiful scenery in Lenghu to Qu, who was captivated by its beauty, and realized that Lenghu bore a great resemblance to Mars.

Soon after that, a new highway traversing the Gobi desert and a "Mars campsite" were built in Lenghu.

Photo shows a lake at the "Mars campsite" in Lenghu town, Mangya city, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (People's Visual/Cao Chunlin)

"The campsite can host 72 people in sleeping capsules and 100 people in tents. Its restaurant can also accommodate 60 visitors," said Yuan Zhenmin from Xingzhi Group, who is stationed in Lenghu.

Since it was put into operation in March 2019, the "Mars campsite" has become a hit with tourists, especially teenagers. It once received 100,000 visitors in a year, 7,800 of whom had come to take part in science popularization activities.

One night in 2017, Tian and his colleagues slept in a tent after they became lost during an inspection tour. They were mesmerized by the astounding scenery of the starry sky above the vast desert. The stars that were so visible to the naked eye made Tian think that Lenghu could be suitable for astronomical observation.

Tian visited Deng Licai, a researcher from the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences who was working to advance the Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) plan in Delingha city of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Deng did not believe Delingha was a good place to build the telescope as the city lights would affect its operation.

In October 2017, Deng visited Lenghu, accompanied by Tian, and found that Lenghu would be a suitable place to build the telescope. In the following months, Deng led a team to carry out on-site monitoring at Saishiteng Mountain in Lenghu. They found that 70 percent of days there had clear night skies and astronomical observation could be carried out 300 days in a year.

Photo shows a meteorological and environmental monitoring site at the astronomical observation base in Lenghu town, Mangya city, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Photo courtesy of the management committee of the Lenghu industrial park)

After that, Deng and his team submitted their survey results and the Lenghu astronomical observation base project was approved. Today, 12 astronomical telescope projects have been implemented in Lenghu, under which planning is underway to build 43 telescopes. Of these, four have been built, 29 have completed construction of observation towers and main bodies of telescopes and the remaining 10 are currently under development.

"As more infrastructure is built here and the telescopes are further tested, I believe Lenghu will gradually become an important base for international astronomical observation and a place where scientific achievements are made," said Deng.

In 2018, the "Lenghu lab" project was launched. By working with school labs, the project provides online and offline astronomy courses for middle and primary school students around the country.

(Web editor: Chang Sha, Liang Jun)
The move to amend the standing rules, however, failed as many senators opposed it.

The Senate on Saturday proposed to amend its standing rules to accommodate an open ballot system of voting for the election of presiding officers.

The amendment was proposed at a closed-door session which started at about 7:10 p.m. and lasted for several hours after the conclusion of the screening of the ministerial nominees.

The move to amend the document, however, failed as many senators opposed it.

The last election of the presiding officers in the upper chamber on 13 June was conducted by secret ballot and keenly contested between former Akwa-Ibom governor Godswill Akpabio and former Zamfara governor Abdulaziz Yari.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) supported Mr Akpabio but was unable to persuade all senators of the ruling party to back the Akwa-Ibom senator for the senate presidency.

Mr Yari did not only leverage the division but also capitalise on the fact that the ruling party has a slim majority in the Senate.

However, Mr Akpabio eventually won the election and became the senate president after securing 63 votes against Mr Yari's 46 votes.

The senator representing Kano North, Barau Jibrin, was elected unopposed as the deputy senate president.

The APC has 59 senators, while the other six opposition parties have altogether 50 in the 109-member upper house.

Proposed amendment

The Akpabio-led Senate is now proposing an open ballot voting apparently to force senators from its party to obey the party's decision in the election of presiding officers in the upper house of the National Assembly.

According to the document proposing the amendment obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the Senate is proposing to amend Order 3 (3) (i) of its standing rules on the election of presiding officers.

The proposed amendment indicated that the election of presiding officers and other officers in the Senate would be conducted openly and supervised by the Clerks-at-Table.

"Voting by open ballot which shall be conducted by the Clerks-at-Table using the list of Senators-elect of the Senate, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his/her vote, with the proposer's seconders as tellers," the amendment reads.

Opposition

One of the senators who attended the closed-door session where the amendment was proposed and requested not to be named hinted that the majority of the senators rejected the amendment when it was proposed.

The senator gave the example of Mohammed Onawo (PDP, Nasarawa South), who raised a point of order rejecting the amendment because the amendment process violates the Senate standing Order 109, Rule 1-5.

Order 109 of the Senate standing order states that "(1) any senator desiring to amend any part of the rules or adding any new clause shall give notice of such amendments in writing to the senate president giving details of the proposed amendment.

(2) The president of the senate shall within seven working days of the receipt of the notice, cause the amendments to be printed and circulated to members. Thereafter, it shall be printed in the order paper of the Senate.

(3) The mover or movers of the amendments shall be allowed to explain in detail the proposed amendments, thereafter, the Senate shall decide by simple majority votes whether the amendments should be considered or rejected.

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(4) If the decision is to consider the amendment, then another date shall be set aside by the Rules and Business Committee, whereby opportunity will be given to senators to further propose amendments but must strictly confined to their original amendments.

(5) Two-thirds majority shall decide the amendment, and such amendments shall form part of the rule of the Senate."

After the consideration of the amendment process and rejection from the majority of the senators, the senate president subsequently stepped it down till the next legislative day.

Before going into closed doors, the Senate had earlier adjourned to Monday, 7 August, for the continuation of the screening of the ministerial nominees.
Married At First Sight's Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson have returned to Skye Suites for the first time since filming the Channel Nine dating show.

The couple, who met on the Channel Nine experiment back in 2021, checked into the luxury Sydney serviced apartments for a staycation over the weekend.

And while their previous stay may have been an experience they wanted to forget, the couple were excited to finally be able to let down their guard - without cameras.

While some fans may suspect that the lovebirds were back on set to film a MAFS reunion special, Daily Mail Australia understands that they were just enjoying some leisure time on their own.

Bryce, 34, enthusiastically took to his Instagram account to share photos of himself enjoying the spa and taking a relaxing dip in the pool.

Married At First Sight's Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson have returned to Skye Suites for the first time since filming the Channel Nine dating show. (Pictured in 2020)

The couple, who met on the Channel Nine experiment back in 2021, checked into the luxury Sydney serviced apartments for a staycation over the weekend

His partner, Melissa, also 34, shared glimpses of her stay, showing off an impressive makeup transformation in their spacious room.

'Different type of filming this time 'round,' she teased in a video, which showed her makeup-free in a bathrobe, before transforming into full glam.

The couple were not the only ones to revisit the Skye Suites.

Hobart-based nurse Tayla Winter, another participant from the show, expressed her excitement at being back, despite her prior filming experience being 'probably the worst time in my life.'

Melissa, also 34, shared glimpses of her stay, showing off an impressive makeup transformation in their spacious room

'Different type of filming this time 'round,' she teased in a video, which showed her makeup-free in a bathrobe, before transforming into full glam

She warmly praised Skye Suites for providing a luxurious stay and thanked them for having her and the others.

Winter also shared joyful footage of herself jumping on co-star Joshua White, who was equally thrilled about the reunion.

For the past four years, the cast of Married At First Sight have been 'living' at the CBD complex while filming the show.

Located on Sydney's Kent Street, each deluxe apartment comes in with a $450-a-night price tag.

Their temporary new home at the premium boutique hotel features heavily in the program as viewers follow each couple in their quest to find everlasting love.

Tayla Winter, another participant from the show, expressed her excitement at being back, despite her prior filming experience being 'probably the worst time in my life'

'I never thought I would be back here...' she wrote alongside a photo of a champagne bottle and chocolate box

Winter also shared joyful footage of herself jumping on co-star Joshua White, who was equally thrilled about the reunion

The complex offers a 24-hour concierge service, five-star fitness centre and swimming pool, and plenty of local amenities.

Each self-catered room comes with its own kitchen, lounge and balcony.

It also has an underground car park and entrance, ensuring privacy from paparazzi.

When they weren't required on set, the participants would often go shopping in the city or relax in one of several nearby cafes.

For the past four years, the cast of Married At First Sight have been 'living' at the CBD complex while filming the show

The complex offers a 24-hour concierge service, five-star fitness centre and swimming pool and plenty of local amenities
Mortified Italians have slammed Kanye West's 'wife' Bianca Censori for wearing extremely revealing outfits during the couple's visit to the European nation.

The Australian architect, 28, arrived in Italy with Kanye, 46, last week, and has stepped out on several occasions with her bare breasts clearly visible beneath see-through mesh outfits.

Italian locals have since branded the Kim Kardashian lookalike's outfits 'disrespectful' on social media, with some saying 'immodest' Bianca and Kanye weren't welcome in a country known for its conservative Catholic heritage.

'We don't need this trash in Italy,' one Italian user commented, while another branded Bianca's outfits as 'classless' and 'vulgar'.

Users from other parts of the world echoed this sentiment, with one commenting: 'Planning a trip to Italy, I have read several times that Italians are very fashionable and are fairly conservative in their clothing choices. Wonder what they think of this exhibitionist?'

Mortified Italians have slammed Kanye West's (right) 'wife' Bianca Censori, 28, (left) for wearing extremely revealing outfits during the couple's visit to the European nation. Pictured in Tuscany with Kanye on Saturday

'The classy Italians wont be impressed that is for sure. What an absolute mess!' another wrote, as someone else added: 'The Italians will be horrified'.

'This is sexy at home between adults, but trashy in public,' another wrote, while one pointed out Bianca should be dressed appropriately in a conservative Catholic country.

'Someone forgot to tell ex "Reverend" Kanye that they are in a conservative Catholic nation, not Miami or NYC...' they said.

'We don't need this trash in Italy,' one Italian user commented, while another branded Bianca's outfits as 'classless' and 'vulgar'. Pictured without Kanye in Florence on Wednesday

'Absolutely disrespectful and awful outfit. I don't care he's dressing her, she doesn't have to let it happen. I thought Italy is one of the many European countries you can get prosecuted in for not wearing appropriate clothing?' one asked, while another raged that it was 'hugely disrespectful to other people by going out virtually naked'.

During a visit to Florence on Wednesday, Bianca was spotted visiting a restaurant with Kanye wearing a see-through mesh top that revealed her bare breasts, matched with a low-waist maxi dress and no shoes.

A day later she emerged barefoot once again, this time sporting a pair of black leggings and a skimpy bikini top that barely covered her nipples.

Bianca put on another raunchy display on Saturday as she toured around Tuscany with Kanye in a see-through unitard and heels.

Her bare breasts were yet again visible beneath the tight, diaphanous material.

Kanye and Bianca wed in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills in January, about two months after the rapper's divorce to Kim Kardashian was finalised.

Kanye and Bianca wed in a private ceremony in Beverly Hills in January, about two months after the rapper's divorce to Kim Kardashian was finalised

However, the legality of the union is in question, as they did not file a marriage certificate.

Bianca has a degree in architecture and worked Kanye's design company Yeezy prior to their getting together.

She joined the company in 2020, according to Marie Claire. It's unclear whether she still works at Yeezy.
Shark Tank producer-star Mark Cuban might boast an eye-popping $5.1B fortune - but he still does most of his own driving, laundry, and cooking due to 'privacy' concerns.

This blew the mind of The Really Good Podcast host Bobbi Althoff, who couldn't believe the Pittsburgh-born 65-year-old didn't employ a butler.

'I just try to be the same person I mean as I was when I was poor,' explained Mark - whose early jobs included disco dancing instructor, bartender, and party promoter.

'When I was broke, I had a blast. I mean, I loved my life and so, you know, I could wake up smiling. Back then you just had to not answer the phone because it would be a bill collector. But at least you're having fun!'

Cuban said he doesn't hire chauffeurs because he likes to drive himself: 'I like the privacy. You know I've been around people who hire somebody to do everything for them and that's just, like, no privacy. It's hard enough to have privacy...as it is.'

Fuss free: Shark Tank producer-star Mark Cuban might boast an eye-popping $5.1B fortune - but he still does most of his own driving, laundry, and cooking due to 'privacy' concerns

Say what? This blew the mind of The Really Good Podcast host Bobbi Althoff (R), who couldn't believe the Pittsburgh-born 65-year-old didn't employ a butler

The six-time Emmy nominee added: 'I have security if I'm someplace I think I need it but, typically, no.'

And while Mark admitted he doesn't do the wash at his $13M 10-bedroom mansion in Dallas, he does his own laundry whenever he stays at his $19M six-bedroom mansion in Laguna Beach.

'I'm capable, yeah, it takes two seconds. It's just easier. I don't have that much laundry,' Cuban insisted Thursday.

'Look at this. It's, like, workout gear, shorts, and T-shirts. That's it.'

The towering 6ft4in tycoon also noted that all three of his children - daughter Alexis, 19; daughter Alyssa, 17; and son Jake, 12 - are responsible for their own laundry.

'Even my son Jake did his own laundry the other day. I told him, "You know what? I'm proud of you,"' Mark said.

Cuban admitted he occasionally employs a private chef at his Dallas residence to make him 'healthy' meals, but he prepares his own lunches and dinners in Laguna.

'My meals are really simple,' The League executive producer said. 'I eat the same things over and over.'

Mark - whose early jobs included disco dancing instructor, bartender, and party promoter - explained: 'I just try to be the same person I mean as I was when I was poor. When I was broke, I had a blast. I mean, I loved my life and so, you know, I could wake up smiling. Back then you just had to not answer the phone because it would be a bill collector. But at least you're having fun!'

Cuban said he doesn't hire chauffeurs because he likes to drive himself: 'I like the privacy. You know I've been around people who hire somebody to do everything for them and that's just, like, no privacy. It's hard enough to have privacy...as it is'

The six-time Emmy nominee added: 'I have security if I'm someplace I think I need it but, typically, no'

'It takes two seconds. It's just easier!' And while Mark admitted he doesn't do the wash at his $13M 10-bedroom mansion in Dallas, he does his own laundry whenever he stays at his $19M six-bedroom mansion in Laguna Beach

I told him, "You know what? I'm proud of you"': Cuban also noted that all three of his children - daughter Alexis, 19; daughter Alyssa, 17; and son Jake (R, pictured in 2021), 12 - are responsible for their own laundry

'My meals are really simple!' The Dallas Mavericks owner admitted he occasionally employs a private chef at his Dallas residence to make him 'healthy' meals, but he prepares his own lunches and dinners in Laguna

Met at a gym in 1997! Specifically cooking for the family is Mark's wife Tiffany Stewart (R, pictured in 2015), with whom he'll celebrate 21 years of marriage on September 21.

Cuban - who bought the entire 77-acre town of Mustang, TX in 2021 - admitted: 'I've got the houses. I've got planes. For me, the plane is about saving time. But I love it. Yeah I love it. It's my best toy...I have [Boeing] 757 for the Mavs, I've got a [Gulfstream G550] and a Bombardier [Global Express] 6000' (pictured in 2014)

Specifically cooking for the family is Mark's wife Tiffany Stewart, with whom he'll celebrate 21 years of marriage on September 21.

Cuban is proud to 'tell the same stupid a** stories and do the same stupid s***' with his longtime circle of guy friends - rather than 'weird' fellow billionaires who spend their money on things like yachts.

'I don't like boats...I've got the houses. I've got planes,' the Dallas Mavericks owner - who bought the entire 77-acre town of Mustang, TX in 2021 - admitted.

'For me, the plane is about saving time. But I love it. Yeah I love it. It's my best toy...I have [Boeing] 757 for the Mavs, I've got a [Gulfstream G550] and a Bombardier [Global Express] 6000.'
Kanye West and his 'wife' of eight months, Bianca Censori, shared a loving embrace in a slew of new Instagram photos shared on Sunday.

The Flashing Lights rapper, 46, who recently put on an affectionate display with the Yeezy architect, 28, could be seen posing with Censori in images uploaded by the Instagram account @arkangel.

In the first snap, the performer - also known as Ye - sported a pair of black, loose-fitting trousers along with a black blazer to complete his monochromatic look.

He opted to ditch his shoes and went barefoot as he paused for the pictures while standing outside on a brick sidewalk.

The star's arms wrapped around his wife's waist as she turned her back towards the camera and draped her own hands around his neck.

She could be seen wearing a figure-hugging, light blue leotard along with matching, sheer leggings that clung to her curvy frame.

Bianca chose to not go barefoot for the images like the rapper had done, and slipped into a pair of sleek, white heels.

The Yeezy architect added a brown toque to partially cover her short, brunette locks for a finishing touch to her outfit.

In the second image, the pair could be seen standing side-by-side while sharing a laugh. The picture had been taken as Kanye and his wife were moving, causing their faces to become out slightly blurred.

The final snap added to the photo series, which was also a little blurred, showed the couple sharing a loving kiss. In the caption of the post, the account simply typed out, 'ye & bianca.'

The two lovebirds have been spending quality time together in Italy, and were recently seen in Tuscany on Saturday after visiting the city of Florence.

The Heartless rapper was spotted wearing a similar, all-black ensemble while Censori put on another sultry display in a nude-colored leotard along with sheer, matching leggings.

However, Bianca has recently sparked outrage from Italians who have labeled her rather revealing outfits as 'disrespectful.'

Tying the knot: In January, Bianca said 'I do' to Kanye during an intimate ceremony. However, there are rumours calling the legal status of their union into question

In January, Censori said 'I do' to Kanye during an intimate ceremony but there are rumours calling the legal status of their union into question.

Kanye, who suffered serious public and financial losses after making several antisemitic comments last fall has been working toward a comeback.

The Sun reported he has leased a 7,400 square foot showroom on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles which will serve as a Yeezy headquarters, according to an insider.

The building is reportedly just a few doors away from an Adidas store. The shoemaker ended its collaboration with Kanye last year after he made the antisemitic remarks.

'The vision for its use has changed to being multi-purpose, it's not just going to be a store,' the source claimed in May.

They revealed that the rapper, who changed his name to Ye, had been hosting parties at the venue and gave away sample pieces from his latest collection.

The insider reported the Bound 2 artist had also hosted movie nights for friends and Sunday Service sessions with students from his Donda Academy performing.

The outlet reported the Grammy winner has been dealing with numerous lawsuits filed by staff from the private Christian academy that accuse it of racial discrimination and labor violations.

Comeback: Kanye, who suffered serious public and financial losses after making several antisemitic comments last fall has been working toward a comeback; seen in October 2022 in Paris

In the past: Before his marriage to 'wife' Bianca, the rapper was married to Kim Kardashian from 2014 until their divorce was finalized in November 2022; seen in 2020 in Beverly Hills

Special trip: While Kanye himself didn't jump to social media to share an assortment of snaps from the getaway and with his in-laws, her family uploaded content from the vacation

Last month in July, West and Bianca reached a big milestone in terms of their relationship when Kanye had the chance to meet his Australian in-laws during a trip to Tokyo.

The rapper, whose divorce from the SKIMS founder was finalized in November 2022, was introduced to both her mother and father, Leo and Alexandra, as well as her sister Angelina.

While Kanye himself didn't jump to social media to share an assortment of snaps from the getaway and with his in-laws, her family uploaded content from the vacation.

Bianca's sister, Angelina, shared a photo of both Kanye and his 'wife' as they posed for a snap together and uploaded another image of the pair as they shopped at a Hello Kitty store with his daughter, North, 10.
Catherine Zeta Jones put on a very leggy display on Monday in a blue maxi dress as she relaxed on a yacht in Capri.

The Welsh superstar, 53, took to Instagram as she relaxed on a sofa in the patterned cover-up which boasted a daring waist high split.

She looked effortlessly stylish in the dress, which she threw over a black swimsuit and accessorised with a matching headband.

Catherine turned up the holiday glamour by wearing a dazzling necklace and a pair of large hoop earrings.

The beauty kept comfy in a pair of flip flops and shielded from the bright sun behind a pair of rounded sunglasses as she moved around the Amalfi Coast.

Catherine Zeta Jones put on a very leggy display on Instagram on Monday as she posed in a blue maxi dress while soaking up the sun on a lavish yacht in Capri

The Welsh superstar, 53, also shared a stunning selfie as she put on a busty display in a plunging halterneck khaki swimsuit

In another photo shared to her 5.4million followers, Catherine put on a busty display in a plunging halterneck khaki swimsuit.

She pouted to the camera while hiding beneath a huge beige woven sun hat and rocked a pair of black sunglasses.

The stunner showed off her glowing bronzed tan in the one-piece as she posed up a storm for a second selfie.

Catherine has been enjoying the lavish sun-soaked Italian getaway with husband Michael Douglas, 78.

It comes as the famous couple took a boat to Conca del Sogno, a high-end beach club in the picturesque seaside village of in Nerano.

The Fatal Attraction star and the Wednesday actress, who is 25 years his junior, have been married since 2000.

The couple tied the knot at the Plaza Hotel in NYC after they began dating two years earlier, and have grown into one of Hollywood's most enduring couples.

In 2001, Catherine told Larry King of how their relationship began: 'We met in 1996 at the Deauville Film Festival...I think it was 1996!'

Showing off her bronzed tan in the one-piece, the beauty pouted to the camera while hiding beneath a huge beige woven sun hat and rocked a pair of black sunglasses

'I had been told Michael Douglas wanted to meet me. I was a little nervous because I didn't quite know what he wanted to meet me about.'

Douglas was promoting A Perfect Murder and Zeta-Jones was promoting The Mask of Zorro.

Their friends Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith - who used to be married - introduced the actors at a private dinner.

Michael asked Catherine if he could sit next to her.

He famously told her he was going to be the father of her children which shocked her, and he sent flowers soon after to apologize. They started a friendship.

'Nine months later, I'm still having long conversations with him on the phone, having great dinner dates, constantly wondering, "Why are we not together?"' she told King.

'We looked at each other one day and said, "We're having a lot of fun together,"' she said.

Michael proposed at his Aspen home on New Year's Eve in 1999 with a $1 million diamond ring.

'Both of us were sick as dogs because we had [the] flu,' the actor told ITV's Ross King in 2016.

Together, Catherine and Michael have son Dylan, 22, and daughter Carys, 20. Michael also has son Cameron Douglas, 43, from his first marriage with Diandra Luker.
The Morning Show star Karen Ledbury has opened up about the terrifying ordeal she went through after receiving a text at work saying her husband Aidan had a stroke.

The veteran presenter told co-hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur that back in 2022 she was finishing a shift at work and knew something was wrong when she checked her phone.

'There were 37 missed calls from both of my eldest sons and two of my husband's best friends. I knew something was up and then the text messages came,' she began.

'They said, "SOS, please help me" from my son Jordan. I thought something had happened to him so I rang him and he said I need to get to the hospital.'

Ledbury said Jordan told her that Aidan had had a stroke and the doctor's didn't expect him to make it, so she was told to go to the hospital to say her goodbyes.

The Morning Show star Karen Ledbury (pictured) has opened up about the terrifying ordeal she went through after receiving a text at work saying her husband Aidan had a stroke

'He said, "they are not expecting him to last another half an hour",' she added.

She said the news absolutely shocked her so she immediately rushed to the hospital and was told by the doctor's that Aidan would likely die.

Ledbury then said although Aidan made a miracle recovery he was now having to relearn how to walk and life had not been the same for her family since.

'There have been some tough and really dark days. Day to day it's tough. I'm both Mum and Dad. I'm working to support the family.

The veteran presenter told co-hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur that back in 2022 she was finishing a shift at work and knew something was wrong when she checked her phone

'It is an ongoing process. Fourteen months down the track, people get on with their lives and you are still living that every single day. I think that's the toughest,' she added.

Karen later took to Instagram to thank her fans for their outpouring of support following her sharing the tragic news.

'All the messages of support from you all make the dark days a little sunnier,' she wrote.

Ledbury has been married to Aidan for over 20 years and shares three sons with him.

'There were 37 missed calls from both of my eldest sons and two of my husband's best friends. I knew something up and then the text messages came,' Karen began. Pictured: Karen and Aidan in happier times
Melinda Messenger has confirmed her engagement to survival expert Dr. Raj Joshi after he proposed during their current stay in New Zealand.

The former Page 3 girl, 52, broke the unexpected news in an Instagram post on Monday morning and revealed wedding plans are already well underway.

She wrote: 'We've got some very happy news to share. @raj.joshi.expedition and I got engaged in beautiful New Zealand at Matariki, the Maori New year, and we are getting married next year!'

Melinda revealed her engagement alongside a picture of the couple arm-in-arm before a sweeping, mountainous view of the New Zealand countryside.

The ex-glamour model, a mother-of-three, is thought to have met Joshi, 47, while preparing for a 48-mile hike across Nepal in a bid to finance the construction of a residential school for deaf children.

Happy news: Melinda Messenger has confirmed her engagement to survivalist Dr. Raj Joshi after he proposed during their current stay in New Zealand

Here's to us: The happy couple are pictured enjoying a glass of celebratory wine after confirming their engagement on Monday

The pair climbed Welsh landmark Mount Snowdon together as part of her preparations for the expedition through Nepal's Langtang Valley, close to the border with Tibet, which has altitudes of up to 12,600ft.

In an interview with The Mirror, she said: 'Being in your 50s is such an important and powerful stage in life. And the challenge is to keep on growing and developing.

'You shouldn't stop when you get to a certain age. It's good to keep challenging yourself. As I have got older, I am much happier and I don't care what I look like if I fail.'

Melinda chose Nepal for her trek because she fell in love with the country 10-years ago when she visited her brother - who lives there.

Joshi, an exhibition leader, organised the trip through his own travel company The Adventure Boutique, a London-based business that offers 'tailor-made trips, embedded with taste, that are a little out of the ordinary.'

The survivalist has previously worked with David Beckham on one-off documentary Into The Unknown, in which the former footballer journeys across rural Brazil with two friends.

Additionally, he has worked alongside a host of celebrities for BBC show Kilimanjaro: The Big Red Nose Climb - among them Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Love Island winner Dani Dyer and former BBC Breakfast presenter Dan Walker.

In June he shared a photo of his new fiancee as she attended a special Hindu and Buddhist ceremony during her charity trip to South Asia.

Old times: Melinda divorced husband of 14-years Wayne Roberts, with whom she shares three children, in 2012 and admitted last year that she wanted to start dating again

Previously: In June, Joshi shared a photo of his new fiancee as she attended a special ceremony during her charity trip to Nepal in South Asia, where she raised money for the construction of a local school for the deaf

There she is: Melinda also appears in a recent post added to the official Instagram account for his London-based travel company, The Adventure Boutique

Captioning the post, he wrote: 'Heres a quick shot of Melinda Messenger and some of the group at the Puja for their blessing during our trekking challenge to the Langtang region of Nepal

'Puja is a special ceremony that is performed to avert and clear the three types of obstacles (worldly obstacles, inner obstacles and secret obstacles), these prevent us from achieving our worldly and spiritual goals.

'Removing these obstacles will help us to achieve happiness and good fortune in all our activities.

'We are so blessed to have been a part of this special ceremony.'

Responding to the post, Melinda wrote: 'This was such a special experience in so many different ways, we were very lucky.'

Melinda is a mother to sons Morgan, 22, Flynn, 20, and 18-year old daughter Evie with ex-husband Wayne Roberts, and she admitted last year that she wanted to start dating again.

Previously: Melinda embarked on a relationship with ski instructor Warren Smith after meeting on the set of reality show The Jump, but later admitted the romance was a 'whirlwind'

Don't mind me: Following her split with Smith she attended The Float Like a Butterfly Ball with hunky lawyer Joel Mason in 2017 - Melinda later insisted they were not dating

The couple divorced in 2012 after 14-years of marriage, with Melinda later embarking on a relationship with ski instructor Warren Smith after meeting on the set of Channel 4 reality show The Jump.

She later admitted the relationship was a 'whirlwind' and went from 'zero to a hundred' with the pair sharing a room and all the contestants knowing they were together.

Melinda and Warren eventually sold their separate homes and bought a six bedroom Berkshire property together in July 2014.

But the former glamour model said within days of moving in she began to have doubts over their long-term future.

'I just said, Right, thats it, I cant do this any more,' she told The Sun. 'Its a real shame that I had to end it. But we both had very different lives and they werent compatible.

'I would be happy at home in between work but Warren has had a much different lifestyle, he travels constantly.'

All over: Her last known relationship, with photographer Chris Harding - who she met after signing up for Celebrity First Dates - ended in 2019

Unexpected: In a bizarre twist of fate, Harding later claimed he had served as wedding photographer for Melinda and ex-husband Roberts during their 1998 marriage ceremony

Following their separation, a spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Its been a very tough time for Melinda but now she is looking forward to a happy 2018 with her children and pursuing her career in TV.

'She has been studying psychotherapy for the past few years and hopes to merge this into her TV career and use it moving forward to help with producing programmes about mental health issues which affect all of us at one time or another.'

Her last known relationship, with photographer Chris Harding - who she met after signing up for Celebrity First Dates - ended in 2019.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Harding later claimed he served as wedding photographer for Melinda and ex-husband Roberts during their 1998 marriage ceremony in Bali.

The former glamour model has since dismissed the claim by confirming her wedding photographer was Alan Strutt.
Fans today rallied round the Hairy Bikers after cancer-stricken Dave Myers and his co-star Si King announced they were taking a well-earned break from their hit podcast Agony Uncles as they shared a montage of their best bits.

The break was announced in an Instagram post on Friday promoting the latest episode of the show, titled the Best Of Confidential Corner Pt 1.

Producer Mark Jeeves, also known as the Thin White Duke, dubbed the episode as an 'annual favourite' that highlights the four 'most listened to and commented on' problems submitted by listeners over the last year.

The montage, which based on its name may have follow-up instalments, was launched as Dave, Si and their 'sidekick' Posh Tash embark on summer holidays.

The break comes after Dave, 65, went public with his cancer diagnosis in May 2022. He has since told how he had to 'learn how to walk again' amid his health struggles.

Fans say they will miss the Hairy Bikers as they rally behind Dave Myers and Si King after their hit podcast Agony Uncles announced the pair are taking a 'well-earned break'. Si and Dave are pictured together at the Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival last month

The break comes after Dave, 65, went public with his cancer diagnosis in May 2022. He is pictured in a podcast episode that was featured in a montage video promoting the podcast's The Best of Confidential Corner episode

The video montage, which was posted to the podcast's Instagram account on Friday, was used to highlight to most recent episode of Agony Uncles and announce the show's holiday break.

In the post, the duo told fans: 'Those hardworking Agony Uncles are taking a well earned break which gives us the chance to look back on a busy year of problem solving.'

Singing off, the pair added: 'Listen to this week's best off through all the streaming services!'

Fans, reacting to the news, shared how they are 'excited' to see the pair 'again later this year' - although a timetable for the podcast's return has not yet been unveiled.

One said: 'Will miss you both. All good wishes to you and your families.'

'Two legends of television,' another replied. 'Hope all is going well, get plenty of rest.'

Another fan added: 'Sad to hear that Dave Myers is battling cancer, hope all goes well with his treatment. As they both are legends in cooking on TV.'

The Best of Confidential Corner episode revisits four segments where Dave, Si and Tash helped viewers tackle their problems.

In one bit, titled The Recipe of Love, the pair offer their advice to a couple having problems in the bedroom.

The compilation episode revisits a bit titled The Swinging Mum & Dad which sees Dave, Si and Tash react to a listener who found love letters hidden in the floor boards of her childhood home.

However, the letters appeared to detail how the listener's mother and father would attend swingers parties while the children stayed with their grandparents.

Fans took to Twitter to wish the pair well after news broke that they were taking a break

The third segment in the episode, the group answered a problem from a listener who recently started dating a woman who is adventurous with food in the bedroom.

The listener, whose tale was highlighted in a bit called the Pinot Piles, shared how the last time he and his lover were intimate, she poured wine on his genitals which irritated his haemorrhoids.

He said he was 'sacred for his bum' and asked the show for advice on how to address the situation with his girlfriend as he didn't want to 'put her off'.

Concluding the montage, the show revisits what the pair have called a 'toe-curler' episode from March titled Caught In The Act.

The viewer shared how she is worried about facing her parents who will visiting the flat she shares with her boyfriend in a week's time.

She detailed how she her parents had video called to discuss arrangements for their trip while she and her boyfriend were being intimate. The pair quickly got dressed and answered the FaceTime call.

After the conversation finished the listener shut her laptop, thinking she ended the call, and they resumed having sex. However, the call had not actually ended and the woman's father could hear their activities.

She asked the podcast for advice on what she should do when her parents, whom she highly suspects saw them having sex, get into town.

Sad: The Hairy Bikers have confirmed that they are taking a 'break' amid Dave Myers' ongoing cancer battle

Health: Dave, 65, went public with his cancer diagnosis in May 2022 and has since told how he had to 'learn how to walk again' amid his health struggles

The Hairy Bikers rose to fame with their popular cooking programmes but have slowed down their busy schedule due to Dave's health.

Dave last month told of the tearful moment he was able to get back on his motorbike again for the first time since his cancer diagnosis.

He recalled the emotional moment as he gave a health update, admitting he and Si were both left in tears when he was able to ride again.

He told the Yorkshire Post: 'It's been hard but I'm not the only one and I'm getting through it and I'm back at work.

'I've had to learn to walk again and ride my bike again, and to get on my bike again with Kingy in the sunshine brought tears to both our eyes.'

Si added: 'He's a proper scrapper and he's on good form. It's been an emotional rollercoaster for everybody who loves and cares about Dave.'

Dave was finally been able to get back on his motorbike after buying himself a brand new vehicle earlier this year as he shared his hopes of getting back in the saddle.

He purchased a new motorbike, a 4,699 RE Bullet Trials 500, back in February and was joined by Si, 56, to look at the vehicle.

Dave took to Instagram at the time to share a snap of himself and Si grinning as they stood in front of his new purchase in Arnolds Motorcycles in Burton.

Alongside the snap, Dave penned: 'Big step forward in getting back in the saddle.

'Si came with me to take a look at my new bike, a 500cc royal Enfield bullet trials bike. Very exciting, thank you Arnold's motorcycles of Burton. Love Dave.'

Milestone: Dave recently told of the tearful moment he was able to get back on his motorbike again for the first time since his cancer diagnosis

Purchase: Dave has finally been able to get back on his motorbike after buying himself a brand new vehicle earlier this year - a 4,699 RE Bullet Trials 500 (pictured with the bike and Si King)

Elsewhere, Dave gave another update on his cancer battle last month, describing it as a 'work in progress'.

Dave, who has not revealed what type of cancer he has, detailed having endured '30 lots' of chemotherapy over the past year.

Staying positive amid his journey, Dave added that he reckoned his cancer was 'going the right way' while sharing his gruelling schedule for treatment.

He told The Times: 'I'm doing all right. It's a work in progress. We've had some hard years but this one's been I've had 30 lots of chemo, spread over three weeks and then a week off. It's going the right way.'

Detailing what's ahead amid his cancer journey, he went on: 'So that's five sessions every other week and then I go film in Scotland for two weeks, then go back on chemo, but that'll be twice a month.'

Dave has previously told how at times he was too ill to walk and unable to ride his motorcycle due to being unsteady amid his health struggles.

'By God, the chemotherapy doesn't half age you quickly. Because your balance goes, so for someone with a motorbike that's a disaster and my walking has been affected quite a lot, really,' he told the How To Be 60 podcast.

'It's neuropathy in your feet, so it's hard to stand. So I've had to learn to walk again properly.

Plans: Dave and Si are due film a BBC Two travel series, Hairy Bikers Go West, which will see the duo travel from Scotland to Devon across eight episodes

'It's a funny thing chemotherapy, it's one of life's great levellers. It doesn't matter if you're on the telly or on the dole, if you get that then you're in the s**t. And sometimes the chemo does make you depressed.

'It's a type of chemical depression, and that's really hard, because everyone is telling you to be positive, but when the chemistry in your body is not telling you that story, that's harsh.

'Hopefully there will be more positive chapters beyond this.'

Dave and Si are due film a BBC Two travel series, Hairy Bikers Go West, which will see the duo travel from Scotland to Devon across eight episodes.
On Sunday, Charlotte Dawson was seen for the first time since giving birth to baby Jude, just one week ago.

The TV personality, 30, welcomed her second child, another baby boy, with her fiance Matthew Sarsfield, last weekend.

And Charlotte, who is already mum to two-year-old Noah, displayed her amazing postpartum figure in a chic summer dress as she took her boys for Sunday lunch.

The Ex On The Beach star looked fabulous in the white frock alongside her two sons, as they joined friends at Lytham House restaurant in St Annes, Lancashire.

Charlotte's gorgeous midi dress boasted a sweetheart neckline and ruffled sleeves, and she teamed the garment with a pair of white slides.

Gorgeous: On Sunday, Charlotte Dawson, 30, was seen for the first time since giving birth to baby Jude, her second child, just one week ago

Sunday funday: The Ex On The Beach star looked fabulous in the white frock as she and her two sons joined friends at Lytham House restaurant in St Annes, Lancashire

Mum-and-sons time: Charlotte, who is already mum to two-year-old Noah, displayed her amazing postpartum figure in a chic summer dress as she took her boys for Sunday lunch

Taking to Instagram on Friday, Charlotte shared a breastfeeding photo and gave fans a glimpse of how she was feeling as she opened up on her 'hormonal' first week with her newborn son, and admitted she 'can't stop crying'.

Appearing teary-eyed, she asked followers: 'Guys is it normal to just cry... all the time? I can't stop crying. I don't know what's up with me.

'I'm crying because I've not got Noah in my bed. I'm crying because I've not got Matthew in bed. I'm crying because I love Jude so much.

'I'm crying because I feel like I've not got enough time for Noah. I'm crying because I'm in pain. I'm crying happy tears, obviously. But it's just mad isn't it with your hormones just everywhere? It's crazy.'

Sharing another snap with her two boys, Charlotte issued fans with another update about her 'breastfeeding week'.

Charlotte looked happier than ever as she posed alongside her sons whilst she fed Jude, while she penned: 'I just love this natural pic my friend captured yesterday.. me with both my boys. this is my life right now.

'As its breastfeeding week Im loving my journey this time round with Jude, even though I forgot how bloody toe curling the first week is, nipples are cracked but Im keeping going I did 8 months with Noah.. but not putting pressure on myself.

'But like Ive said a fed baby is a happy baby whatever we choose to do.'

Chic: Charlotte's gorgeous midi dress boasted a sweetheart neckline and ruffled sleeves

'Our family is complete': Charlotte and Matt already share son Noah, two, and welcomed their second child Jude last weekend, after suffering a miscarriage at 10 weeks in April 2022

Candid: She shared a breastfeeding photo over the weekend as she opened up on her 'hormonal' first week with her newborn son

Charlotte revealed she had named her new baby boy Jude Dawson Sarsfield on Monday, as she told her followers he arrived just an hour after they reached the hospital.

Sharing a gallery of snaps following her speedy labour, Charlotte revealed she originally planned to have a caesarean section, but ended up having a natural birth without pain relief after her son's head 'came out on the theatre table.'

Charlotte and Matt already share son Noah, and welcomed their second child after suffering a miscarriage at 10 weeks in April 2022.

In her post, Charlotte wrote: 'He's here our little rainbow Jude Dawson Sarsfield came into the world on the 30th July at 02:13am, weighing 8lb 8oz.

'He made his speedy entrance in an hour of us getting to hospital.. I was adamant for a section but his head came out on the theatre table with no chuffin pain relief guys!!!

'Everybody did warn me saying your second baby flies out hahahaha I wish I did listen, well my birthing plan went completely the other way...

'I pushed nearly a 9 pounder out, but our little judey baby is a dream come true, happy & healthy and we are so in love.

'I can't wait for Noah to meet him & be the best big brother... special they had the same hats on when they were born, massive thank you to Blackpool midwives, nurses & doctors for being amazing & listening to me scream the hospital down.

'Love you all thank you for all your messages, currently in our little baba bubble, crazy to think I was having contractions this time last night...

But thought it was another false alarm, deffo wasn't HES CHUFFIN ERE our boyo @matt_sarsfield our family is now complete.. the 4 musketeers.'

Charlotte also shared a gallery of snaps cradling her newborn son, including one taken mere seconds after he was born.
Jennifer Aniston has turned off the comments on her Instagram in the wake of the scandal surrounding Jamie Foxx's controversial Instagram post.

Scandal erupted last week when the actor, 55, took to the photosharing site to post an emotional message reading: 'They killed this dude called Jesus... what do you think they'll do to you???!' followed by the hashtags #fakefriends and #fakelove.

The message, which was deemed antisemitic by a number of followers, appeared to have been liked by Jennifer, who quickly acted to distance herself from the scandal.

Jennifer created a post of her own to distance herself from the perceived contention, after which Jamie followed with a statement clarifying that he did not have the Jewish community in mind when he uploaded the note.

Prior to turning off her comments, the Friends star quickly denounced the post and denied any connection to it in her Instagram Stories, writing: 'This really makes me sick. I did not "like" this post on purpose or by accident'.

Denounced: Jennifer Aniston has turned off the comments on her Instagram in the wake of the scandal surrounding Jamie Foxx's controversial Instagram post (Pictured in New York In September 2022)

Controversy: The controversy began when the Jewish group A Wider Frame labeled Jamie's now-deleted post antisemitic and someone named Jennifer Aniston 'liked' it. The Morning Show actress denied any connection and denounced antisemitism

Apology: Jamie, who has been recovering from a health scare, apologized for his choice of words and clarified the meaning of the previous post, explaining he was calling out a 'fake friend' and not the Jewish community

Association: Jennifer and Jamie are pictured at the premiere of Horrible Bosses in 2011

The fury surrounding the original statement stems from the centuries-old blame placed on Jews for the death of Jesus, and the alleged deicide has been used as an excuse for oppression and violence against them.

An account using the title Jennifer Aniston appeared to 'like' the remarks, which were subsequently labeled antisemitic.

Beady-eyed users behind the A Wide Frame account spotted the offensive post and shared a screenshot alongside words: 'Actor Jamie Foxx posts horrifically antisemitic message to his 16.7 million followers'.

There are dozens of fan accounts on social media under the name Jennifer Aniston.

In her post, Jennifer continued: 'And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feeds  I do NOT support any form of antisemitism. And I truly don't tolerate HATE of any kind. Period.'

On Saturday, Jamie, who has been recovering from a hospitalization and health scare, tried to rectify things by writing his own explanation of his now-deleted post.

He wrote: 'I want to apologize to the Jewish community and to everyone who was offended by my post. I now know my words of choice have caused offense and I'm sorry. That was never my intent...

'To clarify, I was betrayed by a fake friend and that's what I meant with "they" not anything more. I only have love in my heart for everyone...

'I love and support the Jewish community. My deepest apologies to anyone who was offended. Nothing but love always, Jamie Foxx.'

Following the furore, a slew of celebrities, friends, and fans have came to Jamie's defense after he apologized. Stars including model Winnie Harlow, the comedian Jay Pharoah and rapper Waka Flocka have spoken out in support of Foxx.

Supportive: A slew of celebrities, friends, and fans have come to Jamie's defense after he apologized for a controversial Instagram post

Speaking up: Winnie Harlow and Jay Pharoah both reacted to Foxx's apology. Harlow thought it was 'so clear' what he meant, while Pharoah thought he was forced to apologize

Jennifer's take: The Friends star confusingly said she did not like the post 'on purpose or by accident'

To Harlow, the confusion over Foxx's post was mystifying, as she penned: 'Im so confused .. its so clear what you were saying.

Many believe the actor was pressured to issue an unwarranted apology.

Pharoah wrote on Twitter, 'When you have to apologize for the truth, your voice is the minority', while Kenya Barris wrote: 'Love you bro!!! Waitin' on ya!!' while Waka tweeted, 'This so cap.'

Meanwhile, National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted to thank Jamie for his apology.

'We welcome @iamjamiefoxx's apology and thank him for his clarification. Furthermore, we wish him well as he recovers from his prior hospitalization,' he wrote online.

One supportive person on Twitter confidently said, 'Any black person growing up in the south will tell you that Jamie Foxx wasn't referring to Jewish people.'

It was added that Foxx simply meant, "If Jesus can be betrayed, so can you." He genuinely meant fake friends/fake people. So quick to reach, it's ridiculous,' the user @Nine2x opined.

One person chalked up the misunderstanding to colloquialism.

Impassioned: Multiple stars including model Winnie Harlow , rapper Waka Flocka, and comic Jay Pharoah have spoken out in support of Foxx

Unwarranted apology accepted: National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted to thank Jamie for his apology

Explanation: One person confidently said 'Jamie Foxx wasn't referring to Jewish people'

Meme: The situation spurred a meme that said, 'Me trying to find the Anti Semitism Jennifer Aniston saw in Jamie Foxx's instagram story

Coming to his defense: One person chalked up the misunderstanding to colloquialism

'Wild': Someone else explained, 'Black folks use [the term 'they'] in our community for ages when someone gets outta pocket'

'Just silly': Huffington Post editor Philip Lewis weighed and said Aniston owes Foxx an apology

More Aniston backlash: One spectator called the actress a 'fake friend'

Hot take: Someone else referred to Jennifer's reaction as 'I'm calling the manager mode'

'We really be living in two different worlds. Cause how is a common Black colloquialism being interpreted this way?' someone with the handle @carolinerenard_ questioned.

Caroline added, 'And now Jamie Foxx has to apologize? I need y'all to actually know Black people in real life.'

Jamie's pal Adam Weitsman was among the first to come to his defense as he wrote on Instagram, 'I know you personally, Im Jewish and know you are the last person that would EVER act Anti Semetic [sic].'

'Your[sic] kind and thoughtful to everyone. I would vouch for you always.'
"A military intervention aimed at regime change in Niger is costly and infeasible and would lead to catastrophically counterproductive consequences for West Africa."

A Nigerian government think tank, Office for Strategic Preparedness and Resilience (OSPRE), has described the plan to intervene militarily in Niger as costly and infeasible.

"A military intervention aimed at regime change in Niger is costly and infeasible and would lead to catastrophically counterproductive consequences for West Africa," it said in a 12-page document seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

OSPRE, Nigeria's national centre for the coordination of early warning and response, added that a non-military approach should be prioritised.

It said ECOWAS should not only suspend the military option but also prohibit any military intervention in Niger by foreign forces as that will likely turn the country into a vortex of instability in the region.

OSPRE advised that potential approaches should be in Nigeria's national interest and consistent with the overall security and stability of the subregion.

It said Nigeria as the current head of ECOWAS must consider three major points while making its decisions, including the possible withdrawal of Niger from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).

"Any armed hostile action against the regime could provoke it into withdrawing from the MNJTF thereby collapsing a crucial component of the regional coalition against the insurgents and immediately resulting in a reversal of the gains of the counterinsurgency campaign," the think tank explained.

Also, the stability of Niger and the state of Nigerian refugees in Niger should inform the actions of the bloc, OSPRE advised, adding that a stable Niger, among other things, acts as a crucial buffer between Nigeria and the chaos of Libya.

"Precipitate military action against the new regime will most certainly destabilise Niger and by extension the greater Sahel," it warned.

Possible effects of a military intervention

Because Nigeria is expected to supply the bulk of the foot soldiers needed for an intervention, OSPRE warns that this will lead to the stretching of the already stretched Nigerian military to a breaking point.

The Nigerian military is currently deployed on internal security operations in at least 32 states of the federation and is confronting insurgencies in the north-east, north-west and south-east.

"Any external commitment on the scale required to approach even a remotely feasible military operation would significantly weaken a heavily militarized internal security architecture and create vacuums that would be exploited by hostile non-state actors," it said.

Nigeria also risks positioning itself as a proxy of France and the West. This may reinforce the perceived dichotomy between Anglophone West Africa and Francophone West Africa, it said.

Given the increasing anti-French sentiments within Francophone West Africa, the Nigerian/ECOWAS military risks being seen as an occupation force rather than as liberators.

This may also see the disintegration of ECOWAS. Signs are already visible especially with Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso openly declaring their support for Niger and also being absent from the meeting of chiefs of defence staff of ECOWAS.

"In the event of a military intervention, ECOWAS would merely be providing these regimes with the compelling justification for retreating even further from democracy," it added.

Way Forward

OSPRE insists that military intervention in Niger would be a costly strategic misadventure that will destabilise the region and unravel ECOWAS. Therefore, non-military options are required to address the situation.

It commended ECOWAS for engaging diplomatically, advising that engagements should focus on two objectives including securing the release of President Mohamed Bazoum.

"The first priority should be to secure the release of President Bazoum and grant him and his family asylum in West Africa," it said.

Secondly, negotiating a transition timetable for the exit of the new regime and a return to democratic governance.

Additionally, contingency plans should be made not only for the evacuation of Nigerians from Niger but also from other francophone countries where they may be at risk.

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Apart from OSPRE, many other Nigerians, groups and organisations have also warned against military intervention in Niger.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Nigerian Senate Saturday opposed military intervention in Niger.

Also, the JNI, an association of Islamic organisations in Nigeria, in a statement Saturday also opposed military intervention."We wish to raise a word of caution against the pursuit of military action as a means to restore democracy. The interlaced landscape of the northern states of Nigeria and the Republic of Niger necessitates a more circumspect and thoughtful action and/or approach.

"With several Nigerian states sharing borders with Niger Republic, military intervention could have unintended consequences that may impact the peace and stability of both nations," JNI stated.

The head of the JNI and Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar, was a member of the three-person delegation sent by ECOWAS to Niger last week to convince the putschists to allow a return to democratic governance. The delegation was, however, not able to convince the coup plotters to either release President Bazoum or allow a return to democracy.
Zara McDermott has been confirmed as the seventh celebrity taking part in the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The former Love Island star, 26, was announced during Vick Hope and Jordan North's Radio 1 afternoon show on Monday.

Following the announcement Zara said: 'I am so excited to be joining the world of Strictly! I grew up watching it every year with my nan and she was the biggest Strictly fan'.

'We would dance around the house and I have such fond memories of that time in my life. I even remember the first ever series, and being mesmerised by all the beautiful dresses!'

Before adding: 'I can't wait to throw myself into this experience and start training. It's going to be incredible'.

Taking to the floor! Zara McDermott, 26, has been confirmed as the seventh celebrity taking part in the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing

Big news! The former Love Island star was announced during Vick Hope and Jordan North's Radio 1 show on Monday

Chatting on Radio 1 she told Vick and stand-in host Jamie Laing: 'Hello I'm Zara and I'm going to be on Strictly this year! I am nervous, excited and every single emotion.'

Asked what dances she thinks she will prefer she added: 'I think ballroom the more emotional stuff I will be good at! I need to ask you guys for tips and advice!'

Zara added of her nerves: 'It is so far from my day job making documentaries. But this is live and so far out of my comfort zone.

'I have zero experience. I don't even dance in a club I am that petrified of how my body moves! But I am excited for the theatrics of it and to play a character.'

Jamie and Vick who have both already competed on the show then offered her some advice and information on what to expect.

Asked if it was hard to keep a secret she said: 'I didn't even tell my own family until this weekend! It's been so hard to keep it a secret but my grandparents were so so happy! They are listening now!'

She joins already announced stars Angela Rippon, Amanda Abbington, Layton Williams, Krishnan Guru-Murphy Eddie Kadi and Angela Scanlon.

In July MailOnline exclusively revealed that documentary maker Zara would become the first ever Love Island contestant to appear on the BBC show.

Bosses believed having her on the programme will attract more younger people to watch the show and give her the opportunity to further her career with the broadcaster.

First time: In July MailOnline exclusively revealed that documentary maker Zara would become the first ever Love Island contestant to appear on the BBC show

Lovebirds: However, it is unlikely that she will fall victim to the infamous Strictly curse because she is dating Made In Chelsea star Sam Thompson , 30, with whom she has starred alongside on the E4 show

However, it is unlikely that she will fall victim to the infamous Strictly curse because she is dating Made In Chelsea star Sam Thompson, 30, with whom she has starred alongside on the E4 show.

The influencer has a large social media following after rising to fame on Love Island in 2018 and competing on The X Factor: Celebrity the following year, performing for Simon Cowell on the ITV series.

Zara's audience has since grown, with the star amassing over 1.7million followers, as she continues to team up with boyfriend and TV presenter Sam on TikTok and Instagram videos, which often feature the pair showcasing their dance moves.

Up until now, the BBC has not recruited anyone who has found fame on Love Island to compete for the Glitterball trophy, but they believe due to her focus on documentary making that Zara fits the bill.

Zara has fronted several documentaries for BBC Three including about her experience of revenge porn and the rise of eating disorders among teens, which are topics that resonate with her young fanbase.

Loose Women star Sophie Morgan has also reportedly signed up, becoming the show's first ever wheelchair-using contestant.

While Angela Rippon, 79, is set to be the oldest ever contestant following Johnny Ball's 2012 appearance aged 74.

Last year's competition saw wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin win the show alongside professional dancer Jowita Przystal.
Jon Gosselin's ex-girlfriend Colleen Conrad has spoken out to defend his son Collin after his mother Kate accused him of being 'violent and unpredictable'.

Taking to Instagram over the weekend, Colleen, 53, shared a collage of photos of her with Collin, 19, as well as with his sister Hannah and her own children, and wrote a very lengthy caption alongside them.

Not only did she refer to Collin as 'kind and respectful', but Colleen also denied that he is 'dangerous' and said that his 'character deserves praise, not unfounded accusations'.

Colleen was in a relationship with Jon, 46, for almost seven years up until August 2021, and she has now revealed that Collin continued living with her, even after the split.

On July 21, Kate, 48, issued a sensational statement against her teenage son in the wake of his appearance in VICE TV docuseries, Dark Side of the 2000s, in which he claimed his mother had 'abused' him as a child and kept him separated from his seven siblings following her split from his dad Jon.

Kind words: Jon Gosselin's ex-girlfriend Colleen Conrad has spoken out to defend his son Collin

Happier times: Colleen pictured with her ex-boyfriend Jon and a younger Collin in 2019

Mom talk: Kate Gosselin branded her son Collin as 'violent' in a statement she released in July

The mother-of-eight broke her silence on her child's shocking claims and said that she believes 'Collin remains a very troubled young man who continues to need a lot of help'.

In her own Instagram statement, Colleen completely rubbished Kate's words while gushing about Collin and confirming that they are still in contact with one another.

She wrote: 'I recently learned of derogatory statements made about Collin Gosselin and felt compelled to defend him. These statements were made by family members who have been estranged from his life since he was 12.

'Collin is not only someone I love dearly but has also been a significant figure in my familys life. He is currently at boot camp for the Marines and he's unable to defend himself.

'After Jon and I separated, and Jon moved out, Collin lived with me until he turned 18 so I saw him every day. He thrived and was always kind and respectful. He never talked back to me. He was never violent and is far from being considered dangerous.'

Collen continued: 'He is there for me when I need him, even bringing me white roses every time he visits. I could tag a multitude of people who have spent time with Collin, and they would all attest to what an amazing person he is.

'He has overcome more challenges than any one person should ever have to endure. Despite being institutionalized for 3 years alone with only 3 visits from his mother and not receiving proper education, he achieved a 4.0 GPA and won the highest GPA award at his ROTC banquet. I'm so incredibly proud of his accomplishments,' she claimed.

Colleen continued: 'Collin's dream to join the Marines seemed impossible given his background, but he never gave up. He went off all medication two years ago and continued to thrive in school and working jobs.

In his own words: Collin recently appeared in the VICE TV docuseries Dark Side of the 2000's where he spoke about his upbringing

Back then: Jon and Colleen pictured with his son Collin and daughter Hannah in 2020

Blended family: Colleen shared a collage of photos of with Collin, his sister Hannah, and her own two children

Mommy's girls: Kate pictured with her two older children in 2019, twins Cara and Mady

'He sought private psychiatric evaluations as an adult that disproved all the previous diagnoses. It was his determination that led him to the Marines, where he's now fulfilling his dream. He wouldn't be there if he hadn't proved those diagnoses wrong.

'I have received letters from Collin during his time in boot camp, and he admits that it is challenging, but he is happy and proud to be there. He is a testament to strength and courage, and I am honored to have him in my life,' she added.

'Collin will always be part of my family, and I'll support him, no matter what comes our way. That's what family does. The truth about Collin's character deserves praise, not unfounded accusations from those estranged from his life.'

Colleen's followers were quick to comment on the post, including her son Jesse, who wrote: 'Mom, Love you and Collin,' alongside a red heart emoji.

Someone else said: 'I am so glad you spoke up. Collin is so lucky to have had a motherly influence in his teenage years through you,' and a third commented: 'THIS is what a post from a mother looks like about their child.'

Another Instagram user agreed and wrote: 'Now THIS IS A MOMMA!!!! Thank you for standing up for the TRUTH!!! Colin is so lucky to have you in his life (sic).'

Collin has been estranged from his mother Kate and six of his siblings for several years now and accused her of being 'controlling'.

Speaking on the VICE TV series, he claimed: 'I think my mom kind of drove a social barrier between us. She told them the story one way, and obviously I see the story a different way.'

Looking forward: Collen confirmed that Collin is currently at boot camp for the Marines

Her point of view: Kate believes that Collin is a 'very troubled young man' and claims that he needs 'a lot of help'

Proud dad: Jon, pictured here with Hannah and Collin, is estranged from his other six children

Following Jon and Kate's acrimonious split in 2009, the couple's eight children remained living with their mother - until 2016, when Collin was sent to Fairmont Behavioral Health Institute in Philadelphia.

Jon previously claimed that while Collin was 'caged' for three years, his callous mother only visited him three times - less than two hours in total - while refusing to tell him where their son was.

Collin was later moved to another facility in Pittsburgh, and this is when Jon began a $1 million legal battle to gain custody. He also won custody of Collin's sister Hannah.

Hannah, also 19, spoke out in the docuseries as well and confirmed that her brothers and sisters are aware of what happened to Collin.

'We did not talk to Collin for years while he was in the facility, we didn't even know where he was,' she explained.

Hannah is somewhat making amends with Kate and revealed: 'I would say we're trying to fix our relationship, talk to each other more.'

The teenager, who launched her own beauty line Gosselin Girl Beauty in 2022, is in the process of making amends with her mother Kate and revealed: 'I would say we're trying to fix our relationship, talk to each other more.'

And it seems Collin would like to do the same as he admitted: 'I love them to death. I really, really hope one day that we can all reconnect and put the show behind us and just be siblings again, take back that time we didn't have.'

However, his 22-year-old sister Mady appears to have no desire to have a relationship with her brother as she also spoke out against him in July and accused him of using 'physical violence and hate speech'.
Lottie Moss and Adam Collard put on a cosy display as they departed the Chiltern Firehouse holding hands and headed to a hotel together over the weekend.

The pair, who are both appearing on the new series of Celebs Go Dating, looked to be on a date as they left the popular London restaurant.

The model, 25, and former Love Island star, 27, both looked in good spirits as they made their way to a nearby hotel for the night.

Lottie looked incredible for her night out, putting on a leggy display in a long-sleeved grey mini dress.

The garment featured a cut out detail along the chest while Lottie also wore a pair of black boots.

New couple alert? Lottie Moss and Adam Collard put on a cosy display as they departed the Chiltern Firehouse holding hands and headed to a hotel together over the weekend

Cosy: The pair, who are both appearing on the new series of Celebs Go Dating, looked to be on a date as they left the popular London restaurant

Intimate: The model, 25, and former Love Island star, 27, both looked in good spirits as they made their way to a nearby hotel for the night

Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, the beauty completed her outfit with a black handbag.

Adam cut a casual figure for the outing as he sported a black top along with a pair of dark blue jeans.

The outing comes after Lottie and Adam were both confirmed to be a part of the line-up for the new series of Celebs Go Dating.

Joining them on the show are presenter Vanessa Feltz, Love Island's Chloe Burrows, comedian Spuddz and Made In Chelseas Mark-Francis Vandelli.

The reality stars will seek advice from dating experts Anna Williamson and Paul Carrick Brunson.

TikTok sensation Dr Tara Suwinyattichaiporn will appear on the show for the first time to dish out some expert advice.

Adam spoke to MailOnline about filming the show, saying: 'Celebs Go Dating is a lot of fun, a really good cast it's a lot more lighthearted and less serious.

'It's actually nice to do a show at home. The cast really get on and we went out the other night, me, Spuddz, Chloe and Lottie.

Style: Lottie looked incredible for her night out, putting on a leggy display in a long-sleeved grey mini dress

Outfit: The garment featured a cut out detail along the chest while Lottie also wore a pair of black boots

Looking good: Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, the beauty completed her outfit with a black handbag

Laid back: Adam cut a casual figure for the outing as he sported a black top along with a pair of dark blue jeans

Looking for love: The outing comes after Lottie and Adam were both confirmed to be a part of the line-up for the new series of Celebs Go Dating

Interview: Adam spoke to MailOnline about filming the show, saying: 'Celebs Go Dating is a lot of fun, a really good cast it's a lot more lighthearted and less serious'

He added: 'It's actually nice to do a show at home. The cast really get on and we went out the other night, me, Spuddz, Chloe and Lottie'

'With Celebs Go Dating it matches me as an individual, I can go there come away and tell my family and friends about it, like who I went on a date with, what were they like.

'It's nice to go home and talk about it instead of after 12 weeks being like this is who I'm with. Imagine being in a relationship with someone and asking for their number.

'But I'm sure viewers will find it [Celebs Go Dating] really really funny'.

Adam has revealed he hopes to settle down in the future and wants to get married 'as much as the next person'.

He said: 'With Celebs Go Dating it matches me as an individual, I can go there come away and tell my family and friends about it, like who I went on a date with, what were they like'

Future: Adam has revealed he hopes to settle down in the future and wants to get married 'as much as the next person'

Split: Adam, who split from girlfriend Paige Thorne earlier this year, earned a reputation as a lothario during his stint on the 2018 series and later returned for the 2022 series

Change: Adam acknowledged he has been 'ruthless' in past relationships but hopes to turn a new leaf

Date night? Last month, Lottie was spotted leaving the Chiltern Firehouse aongside American lawyer Christian Leathley

The Love Island star, who split from girlfriend Paige Thorne earlier this year, earned a reputation as a lothario during his stint on the 2018 series and later returned for the 2022 series.

Speaking to The Sun, Adam acknowledged he has been 'ruthless' in past relationships but hopes to turn a new leaf.

Last month, Lottie was spotted leaving the Chiltern Firehouse aongside American lawyer Christian Leathley.

According to his Linkedin profile Christian is based in New York boasts particular expertise in international arbitration and public international law - with 20 years experience.
Netflix viewers have been left divided over the 'shocking' ending of a newly-added British crime film.

Titled Bull, the revenge thriller tells the story of a gangster enforcer who manages to survive an attempt on his life.

After spending 10 years away, the title character, played by Neil Maskell (Hijack, Kill List, Utopia), returns to get revenge on his former gang that double-crossed him and to track down his now estranged son.

Written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams (The Cottage, London to Brighton), the film, which was released during the pandemic in 2021, has only just been added to the streaming giant.

The flick has already charged its way to the number one spot on Netflix's most-watched.

Controversial? Netflix viewers have been left divided over the 'shocking' ending of newly-added British crime film Bull (pictured: Neil Maskell)

Upon its initial release, Bull received rave reviews from critics - earning a 93 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score.

In fact, the film's force of nature Maskell, its hard-hitting violence and its surprising screenplay have likened the movie to some other modern British crime classics such as Dead Man's Shoes and Kill List.

Since its release on Netflix, plenty of fans have finally picked up on the film after missing it the first time round.

But taking to social media, it was clear to see that viewers left divided over the film's plot twist ending.

'Watched Bull on Netflix and yeah, it's incredible,' wrote one fan. 'What an ending.'

Another commented: 'Anyone who likes revenge films...Bull, on Netflix is rather good. 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes...Reminded of the great Dead Man's Shoes.'

'Don't know how a brutal revenge flick starring Neil Maskell got past me two years ago, but fortunately Bull is #1 on Netflix now,' put a third.

While someone else added: 'Bull is excellent! It's like Dead Man's Shoes reborn as nightmare and it doesn't let up from start to finish. Another superb turn from Neil Maskell too!

Plot: The revenge thriller tells the story of a gangster enforcer who manages to survive an attempt on his life and returns after 10 years to seek revenge (pictured: David Hayman and Lois Brabin-Platt)

'It's on Netflix now. Highly recommended!'

'Watched Bull on netflix, not sure how something can be so bad but so good at the same time', another wrote.

Another fan added: 'Bull on Netflix is a gory, well acted revenge movie with not one character who didn't deserve a gruesome fate.

'But very little point and a twist at the end that makes it all seem rather silly.'

Another said: 'Just watched Bull on Netflix. It's mad. Nobody will see the ending coming.'

A synopsis for the film reads: 'Ten years after he was last seen, a vicious mob enforcer returns home to find his son and methodically track down the gang that double-crossed him.

'His quest for revenge soon leads to a savage showdown between his wife and her mob boss father.'
Gino DAcampo has come under fire for his latest promotional post to plug his own-brand 450 pizza ovens and 30 skillet pans.

In a video shared with his 1.6million Instagram followers, the TV chef, 47, is seen taking a perfectly cooked roast chicken out of his oven on one of his skillet pans - however it appeared the oven was not even turned on.

Looking at the camera, Gino proudly presented his work and said: 'Look at that guys, just cooked roast chicken with fresh lemon and cherry tomatoes in the Gino D'Acampo skillets because pizza ovens are not just for pizza.'

Enraged fans swiftly dominated the comments section however, with many insisting the roast chicken could not be cooked in such a manner by a pizza over while others noted the varied shades of the 'freshly-cooked' foods.

A host of fans penned: 'I'm sorry but that isn't just cooked in the pizza oven, it may look nice but be honest please... cooked in a proper oven and made it look like is coming out form there... Yes I know lol. Who's he trying to kid lol...

Not true? Gino DAcampo has come under fire for his latest promotional post to plug his own-brand 450 pizza ovens and 30 skillet pans

Turn me on? It seemed the pizza oven was turned to off, with the dial pointed to off

Tasty: He shared his claims about what could be cooked in a pizza oven

Hmm... In a video shared with his 1.6million Instagram followers, the TV chef, 47, is seen taking a perfectly cooked roast chicken out of his oven on one of his skillet pans

Outrage: Fans were left outraged by the alleged falsities

'Sorry mate but that doesn't look like it just came out of the that oven... Next time turn the oven on if youre going to try and fake it...

'I would believe it if I see the whole process. I am cooking a lot and this doesnt look to be cooked in this oven. Instead of fake advertising, its better to be honest...

'Your audience are not stupid!... Looks like you coloured the lemon with a blow torch... That wasnt cooked in that oven... That oven didnt cook that food... Deffo not just cooked in that oven at all'.

In the caption for the snap, Gino penned: 'Who said pizza ovens are just for cooking Pizza? With my @ginopizzaovens and skillet pans, you can cook meat, fish, vegetables and more Available now at Ginopizzaovens.com #GinoPizzaOvens'.

MailOnline has contacted Gino's representatives for comment.

The apparent gaffe comes after one of Gino's eight eateries was given a hygiene rating of just one star out of a possible five by the Food Standards Agency.

Earlier this year, the restaurant which is located on Liverpool's Old Hall Street, was inspected by the association, who weren't impressed.

Giving the establishment a review of 'major improvement necessary', the FSA did not provide further detail on why the second worst rating possible was given.

Delicious! Looking at the camera, Gino proudly presented his work and said: 'Look at that guys, just cooked roast chicken with fresh lemon and cherry tomatoes in the Gino D'Acampo skillets because pizza ovens are not just for pizza'

Hmm... Fans penned: 'Sorry mate but that doesn't look like it just came out of the that oven... Next time turn the oven on if youre going to try and fake it'

Boasting not only a restaurant but a 360 sky bar too, the Liverpool location is inside of four-star hotel INNSiDE By Melia.

According to the FSA's public record, they carried out an inspection on January 17. With the lowest rating a 0 and the highest 5, Gino's restaurant was given a 1, which means major improvement is necessary.

While the report provided little detail on why, this usually means that there are consistent breaches of hygiene rules and often a lack of training in the organisation.

A spokesperson for Gino DAcampo Hotels and Leisure told Liverpool Echo at the time: Were extremely disappointed with this rating and have taken immediate action to address the points raised.

Our expert consultants have since conducted a robust audit and were satisfied that corrective measures have been met.

A re-inspection has already been invited and we are confident of seeing a return to higher scores in line with our sibling restaurants.



Not great: The apparent gaffe comes after one of Gino's eight eateries was given a hygiene rating of just one star out of a possible five by the Food Standards Agency (pictured in the Liverpool restaurant)
Brooke Shields and her new puppy seem to be inseparable.

The actress, 58, who hung out with Mariska Hargitay at her fourth annual Joyful Heart Walk last week, took part in another charity event Sunday in the Hamptons.

The Blue Lagoon actress put herself and young Tuzi through their paces in the Hope for Depression Research Foundations annual 5K race in Southampton.

Brooke, who introduced her fans to the sweet new four-legged family member July 7, brought the little black and white dog as her race partner.

Page Six spoke with a source who told them the pooch was too pooped to finish the 3.1 mile course 'and Brooke carried her puppy across the finish line.'

She was also heard saying that she adopted the dog because no one else wanted her as she has a twisted tail.

Inseparable: Brooke Shields and her new puppy seem to be inseparable. The Blue Lagoon actress, 58, put herself and young Tuzi through their paces in the Hope for Depression Research Foundations annual 5K race in Southampton Sunday

Walk ready: The Holiday Harmony actress was spotted wearing a long sleeve yellow shirt with Hope emblazoned across the front. She stayed comfortable in black leggings and sneakers

The Holiday Harmony actress was spotted wearing a long sleeve yellow shirt with Hope emblazoned across the front.

She stayed comfortable in black leggings and sneakers.

Brooke covered up with a white billed hat and yellow framed sunglasses.

The A Castle for Christmas star was also overheard sharing a few more details about Tuzi.

'Our new puppys name is Tuzi, and she has a twisted tail' she told some friends.

'We picked her because no one else wanted her,' before joking, 'We have so many twisted tales in our family.'

Brooke's daughter Grier, 17, was a teen grand marshal for the event.

She was overheard telling pals, 'Tuzi is an American Staffordshire Terrier.  Its like a pit bull.'

Twisted: 'Our new puppys name is Tuzi, and she has a twisted tail' Brooke was heard telling some friends. 'We picked her because no one else wanted her,' before joking, 'We have so many twisted tales in our family'

Doting: Brooke has been doting on the new four-legged family member since adopting Tuzi following the death of her beloved dog Pepper. 'You know we couldnt go long without puppy love in our house' she wrote on Instagram as she introduced the pooch to her fans

The American Kennel Club refers to the dogs as American Staffordshire Terrier, but the according to Wikipedia, The United Kennel Club refers to them as American Pit Bull Terrier.

The dogs are known for their loyalty, devotion and courage.

According to the Race of Hope website, Brooke wasn't the only dog parent at the event designed to raise money for depression research and treatment.

Some 600 people took part, many of them walking dogs or pushing baby strollers.

Brooke and her family adopted Tuzi after the death of their beloved pooch Pepper.

'World, meet Tuzi. Tuzi, meet world,' the All Dogs Go to Heaven actress wrote next to a set of sweet snaps on social media.

'You know we couldnt go long without puppy love in our house.'
Kim Kardashian has faced criticism from the family of the late Steve Thomas after she spoke out in support of C-Murder, the rapper serving a life sentence for Steve's 2002 killing.

Speaking with TMZ Hip Hop, Thomas' brother George Thomas described the pain of hearing celebrities like Kim stand up for C-Murder, who was convicted of second-degree murder in Steve's death in 2009, according to AP. He has long maintained his innocence.

Thomas said their support for the convicted rapper opens old wounds for family, and their advocacy makes it difficult for them to adequately grieve the loss of their loved one, who was just 16 at the time of his death.

According to Thomas, he believes only celebrities want to see C-Murder exonerated, and not the everyday individual. He also says there is a plethora of evidence demonstrating C-Murder was the one who killed Steve.

While George approves of Kim, 42, using her platform to help exonerate innocent people, he insists she has found the wrong person to help in the case of C-Murder.

Painful memories: Kim Kardashian has faced criticism from the family of the late Steve Thomas after she spoke out in support of C-Murder, the rapper serving a life sentence for Steve's 2002 killing

C-Murder, pictured 2006, is serving a life sentence for the murder of 16-year-old Steve Thomas

In 2009, Miller was convicted for killing Thomas during a brawl outside the Platinum Club in Harvey, Louisiana on Jan. 12, 2002.

The judge who overheard the initial trial in 2003 threw out the guilty verdict after it was discovered that prosecutors withheld information about the criminal background of a witness.

In the second trial of the shooting death in 2009, Miller was convicted by a 10-2 verdict.

Since his conviction in 2003, C-Murder (real name Corey Miller) has maintained his innocence and many believe he is the victim of multiple missteps during the case's investigation and his trial.

The rapper - who is the brother of Master P - and his case sparked newfound interest in 2020 after it was featured on the No Limit Chronicles, which showcased the two famous Miller brother's rise to fame.

Kim expressed her support for C-Murder in 2020, and brought up his conviction last week in light of a new Louisiana law which allows jailed individuals to demonstrate their innocence, according to TMZ.

'I wanted to shed some light on a case that Ive been working on for years,' Kim tweeted last week. '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, whom 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.

'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. Millers 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. The States 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.

'Even with the lack of a vigorous defense, the jury recognized obvious issues with the States case and deliberated for over 24 hours. After being sequestered overnight, the jury attempted to return a 10-2 verdict, with one juror stating she was only voting guilty under duress. The court returned the jury to deliberations and the juror changed her vote from guilty under duress to guilty. The same juror spoke to the local newspaper the day after the verdict and confirmed that she did not believe the State proved Mr. Miller was guilty, but voted guilty to end deliberations. Mr. Miller was convicted by a 10-2 verdict, which the Supreme Court has since held violates the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury, while not applying retroactively.

'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.

Speaking up: Kim shared her support for C-Murder once again in light of a new Louisiana law allowing jailed individuals to demonstrate their innocence

'Corey Miller deserves a day in court to test the veracity of the recanted statements and to prove that he did not shoot Steve Thomas.

'If you agree that Corey Miller deserves his day in court please repost this.

'While I strongly believe in Corey's innocence, my heart goes out to the victims- and I pray for their healing and the closure that they deserve.'

C-Murder thanked Kim for her efforts in attempting to reverse his conviction back in 2020.

'Seven months ago I called @monicadenise & she conferenced in @kimkardashian ! I did not know Moses had been working to reach Kim,' he posted to Instagram.

'After our call for the first time in 19 years, I slept!! You can rest behind these walls but never do you actually sleep! My case had been stagnant for years! So I published multiple books to help feed my kids & pay lawyers bare minimum!

'I am a man so it was no one's responsibility to save me & no one attempted to!

'But when you trust God he will send his angels! This message is To any man or woman fighting the injustices of the system, [DON'T] EVER GIVE UP!!! And do as I am. Focus on the Blessings, Not the Betrayals!'

The rapper added the hashtags #TruStory and #FREECoreyMiller.

Kardashian has previously visited the White House to discuss criminal justice reform with former President Donald Trump and worked to grant clemency to Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz and Judith Negron.

Famously, she helped influence Trump's decision to enact the First Step Act last January and brought nation-wide attention to Alice Marie Johnson's case.
Gogglebox's Ellie Warner shared a rare snap of partner Nat Eddleston with their two- -month-old son Ezra on Sunday.

Taking to Instagram the doting dad could be seen proudly balancing the tot, who was born June 2, on his knee.

The little one cut a cute and stylish figure in a colourful knitted cardigan and adorable bucket hat.

Ellie, 31, captioning the post: 'Happy pride day #loveislove #leedspride'.

The post comes just a over a year after a horror car crash that left Nat fighting for his life.

Doting dad: Gogglebox's Ellie Warner shared a rare snap of partner Nat Eddleston with their two- -month-old son Ezra on Sunday

Pride: She captioned the post: 'Happy pride day #loveislove #leedspride'.

The plumber suffered a broken neck and back, two collapsed lungs, and needed life support following the horror smash in March last year.

It was feared that Nat would be left brain damaged and spent weeks in intensive care - but he has since made a full recovery.

It comes after Ellie revealed she was recently rushed to hospital after experiencing a burst abscess that left her in 'so much pain.'

The TV personality shared a candid post explaining her breastfeeding journey with baby Ezra.

Taking to Instagram, Ella wrote that Ezra had tongue tie which she sought treatment for when he was three weeks old.

Alongside a snap of her son laying across her legs in hospital, Ella penned: 'By this point I'd developed a blocked duct and tried various methods to clear it but nothing worked.

'Eventually it turned into mastitis. I went to the GP who prescribed antibiotics but after 10 days, it turned into an abscess.'

She continued: 'The morning that the abscess burst, I was in so much pain that I was crying. I was scared to feed off the affected boob and couldn't get seen by my own GP.

Health update: It comes after Ellie revealed she was recently rushed to hospital after experiencing a burst abscess that left her in 'so much pain.

Alongside a snap of her son laying across her legs in hospital, Ella penned: 'The morning that the abscess burst, I was in so much pain that I was crying. I was scared to feed off the affected boob and couldn't get seen by my own GP'

'I managed to get an appointment at the out-of-hours GP, who told me to go to A&E. I was beside myself and in a lot of pain, but the consultant in A&E was kind and referred me to the breast clinic the next day.

'I didn't want this to be the end of my breastfeeding journey, as I wasn't ready to stop. I was proud of what I'd achieved so far.'

It comes after Ellie shared a sweet moment breastfeeding her newborn son Ezra in a sling.

The star took to Instagram to share the revealing snap of her son feeding while wrapped up tightly in a sling.

Ellie revealed she had Mastitis which is an inflammation in breast pain among women who are breastfeeding, which can cause swelling, warmth and redness.

She captioned the post: 'Today at the sling library! Can't wait to take it out for a test drive. Got a bit of mastitis, but it's getting better now thank god.'
Karen Hauer revealed she hasn't decided if she wants children as she enjoys 'living in the moment' with husband Jordan Wyn-Jones.

The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 41, married the fitness professional, 34, in a lavish ceremony in Hampshire last year.

Karen admitted she isn't ready to have kids like her BBC co-stars Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara and Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez.

However, Karen gushed that she loves spending time with her pet pooches including rescue dog, Betty, who she describes as her 'little baby'.

She told Hello! magazine: 'There's always the possibility but right now I'm really happy living in the moment with my husband and with the dogs.

'I'm really happy living in the moment': Karen Hauer revealed she hasn't decided if she wants children as she enjoys 'living in the moment' with husband Jordan Wyn-Jones

Loved-up: The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 41, married the fitness professional, 34, in a lavish ceremony in Hampshire last year

'Nothing compares to a love of a dog. No matter how you wake up, the dogs are always happy to see you with their tails wagging.

'I know it's going to sound weird but it's like having a child but its a furry child.'

It comes after her ex husband Kevin welcomed his first child a daughter Minnie with partner Stacey in January.

Karen split from him in March 2018, after three years of marriage and Kevin and Stacey met on Strictly Come Dancing later that same year, and months later it was revealed the pair were dating.

Speaking in a new interview, Karen recalled the 'toughest period of her life' and credited her rescue dog, Betty, for getting her through.

She told The Sun: 'I am structured and I am disciplined but when emotional things happen to you, nothing you do on the outside helps.'

Karen continued: 'I went through a really tough divorce, and it was the most difficult thing Ive faced on my own  and, I guess, in a spotlight.

'Betty saved my life, pretty much. Having that unconditional love and having her there to help me actually get up out of bed.'

Speaking in 2021, Karen said she would 'never, never have let go of her marriage' to Kevin and wanted to fight to keep it going.

'Nothing compares to a love of a dog': She admitted she isn't ready to have kids like her BBC co-stars but gushed that she loves spending time with her pet pooches, who she describes as her 'little babies'

New dad: It comes after her ex husband Kevin welcomed his first child a daughter Minnie with partner Stacey in January

Karen told The Divorce Club podcast with Samantha Baines that the couple split after 'things got really nasty overnight' after becoming jealous at not getting enough attention from her partner.

She said: 'Obviously, other things happen, there are other factors that happened, that really hurt us both. But I thought... I would have never let go of it. I wouldnt have never, never let go of it.

'I would have liked to have fought for it. It took me a year after we separated to actually let go of him.

She was also previously married to her former dance partner Matthew Hauer.

In June 2022, Karen and Jordan got hitched at the five-star Chewton Glen hotel, an 18th century country house bordering the New Forest.

The couple went public with their relationship last year when Jordan shared a post asking how he could 'get so lucky' as to be with Karen.

He said: '32 years definitely worth all that life could throw at me so that I could have you in my arms. How can a donut like me get so lucky to have met my person. Can't wait to have you home.'
Shirley Ballas has revealed how she was forced to seek counselling after receiving a torrent of vile abuse during the last series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The head judge and Latin expert, 62, was subjected to much criticism last year, where trolls slammed her decisions and accused her of both ageism and sexism.

Though Shirley has confirmed she will appear on the new 2023 series, she previously told how she even toyed with the idea of not returning.

But ahead of her return, she has opened up on how she got through the abuse, and admitted she 'wouldn't want it for anyone'.

Speaking to OK! magazine, she explained: 'I've had down and dark days throughout my whole life but I've always had music and I've always had dancing. And of course I've got my mother and we're glued at the hip.

Tough: Shirley Ballas has revealed how she was forced to seek counselling after receiving a torrent of vile abuse during the last series of Strictly Come Dancing

'What it [the trolling] did to me on the last series, I wouldn't want that for anyone.'

The star has been undergoing counselling for over two decades.

Explaining her attitude towards it, she said: 'I'm not embarrassed to say that now, although I was in the past as I thought people might think I was weak.

'But you know what? Sometimes counselling is just about having someone there to listen. So there's nothing wrong with reaching out for help.'

Though she has been fighting her own mental health battles, Shirley will be taking on a series of challenges to raise money and awareness for suicide. donating the funds to charity CALM.

Shirley's brother, David, tragically took his own life back in 2003 aged 44.

Shirley also revealed that a close friend also lost their life recently to suicide.

The Strictly Come Dancing star will do a Skyathlon challenge  a zipline, a 700ft wing walk and 15,000ft skydive throughout the week.

Difficult: The head judge and Latin expert, 62, was subjected to much criticism last year in which trolls slammed her decisions and accused of ageism and sexism

Hard time: Ahead of her return, she has opened up on how she got through the abuse, and admitted she 'wouldn't want it for anyone'

Hint: Though she is set to appear on the new 2023 series, the star even toyed with the idea of not returning (pictured with Anton Du Beke, Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood)

Appearing on BBC Breakfast on Monday, the Rumba queen explained that even though she was scared of heights, she was 'more terrified at the thought of losing another person to suicide'.

She said on air: 'I would not want anyone out there to experience what my mother and I have experienced through losing someone to suicide.

'I just want to do something that's way out of the comfort zone. I didn't want to bake a cake or cut grass. So I thought what could I do that people are going to look at and say 'she's totally bonkers' but they understand the cause which I'm doing it.'

She tearfully continued: 'I'm doing it for everybody out there who's got somebody living miserably or somebody that has taken their own life I'm getting all emotional. I'm doing this for all of you.'

In March earlier this year, Shirley hinted that she may never return to Strictly Come Dancing following the torrent of abuse she received during the last series.

The head judge was subjected to much criticism last year.

And as a result, in a candid interview, Shirley indicated that the previous series may have been her last as she'd hit an 'all-time low' after the abuse 'snowballed out of control'.

The ballroom dancer told how she was constantly left in tears after every show and struggled in silence, telling how it was 'the most negativity' she had ever faced.

She told The Mirror: 'Last year I was struggling. It wasn't just a little bit, it was a lot  the majority of it was in silence. I felt the abuse snowballed out of control and impacted me in such a negative way. I'm a pretty stoic person, and I tend to hold everything in.'

Tragic: Shirley's brother, David, from Wallasey, Merseyside, took his own life aged 44 in 2003 after suffering from depression, leaving Shirley and her family heartbroken

Hesitant: In March earlier this year, Shirley hinted that she may never return to Strictly Come Dancing following the torrent of abuse she received during the last series

'Cruel': The dancing icon decided not to do panto last year, explaining how a scary incident which saw a letter being hand delivered to the theatre last year has affected her decision (pictured in 2021)

She explained that when the abuse began, it seemed 'larger than anything else', with the star telling how it left her 'crying and emotional', while she was 'embarrassed' about how she felt and didn't confide in anyone.

Shirley added: 'And that was an all-time low since I joined the show  it was the most negativity I'd ever experienced. The BBC were brilliant, checking in on me and offering counselling and support.'

When asked if she'd considered quitting Strictly, she replied: 'It was a difficult series, I'll leave it at that... Will I go back to Strictly? I always take one step at a time.'

She went on to say that she 'absolutely loved' her job and if it was just down to her judging with none of the trolling involved, it would be the most 'rewarding' job she could think of to do.

The Queen of Latin went on to say that after Strictly finished in 2022, she to a 'break' from TV for 're-focus' on her own industry as well as to 'protect her sanity'.

Shirley went on to reveal the shocking extent of the messages she received - of which one in five were hateful - saying that the thousands of comments she got whenever she sent someone home were 'truly awful'.

She added that she was accused of not liking young people or old, men or women, noting that it 'didn't matter' what she'd do, she could 'never win'.

However, she proudly said that she stood by her decisions and never 'regretted' sending anyone home based on how they performed in the dance off, noting she could 'sleep at night' with her choices.
With the sustained aerial bombardments on their locations and hideouts by men of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), notorious bandit kingpins in North-Western States of Nigeria have begged for dialogue and amnesty from the government.

According to a news distribution platform, PRNigeria, intelligence sources said the bandit kingpins in Katsina and Zamfara States sent delegations to a meeting held at Gusami village in Birnin Magaji local government area of Zamfara State.

The meeting had in attendance some of the kingpins and their representatives including Usman Ruga Kachallah, Alaji Shingi, Lauwali Dumbulu, Shehu Bagiwaye, Sehu Karmuwal and Jarmi Danda.

The source said: "They met towards uniting their forces and opting for peace with the government after suffering major casualties from military attacks. They promised to surrender their weapons for a peace deal.

"They also expressed their regret that while they are ready to embrace peace with the new administrations in their respective states, their morale has been dampened by the continuous attacks from the Nigerian Airforce that targeted their homes, families, animals and storages."

In their latest meeting, PRNigeria gathered that the bandit leaders agreed to key into peace initiatives by surrendering parts of their weapons to the government forces while they bury some pending when all the kingpins in other locations would also do so.

According to a source, the bandit leaders insisted that they had to keep some of their weapons for fear that other bandit leaders in parts of Zamfara and Sokoto States including border areas with Niger Republic might come and attack them afterwards.

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They also requested that officials of recognised and registered Fulani groups, like Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) can be involved in brokering the peace process and the Amnesty Programme.

LEADERSHIP recently reported that airstrikes by Nigerian Military eliminated scores of footsoldiers of the notorious bandit kingpin, Dankarami.

Another separate military air interdiction also targetted the enclave of Ado Aliero, also a terrorist kingpin in Zamfara, near Asola Mountain in Tsafe local government of the State, killing over a dozen armed bandits.

Bombardments by the Air Component of Operation Hadarin Daji have recently been heightened in the North-West, as part of effort to rid the region of terrorists and their activities.

Some of the recent airstrikes were conducted in various locations in Zurmi, Tsafe, Faskari and Jibia local government areas (LGAs) in Zamfara and Katsina States, respectively.
Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp has recalled the moment he came out as gay to co-star Millie Bobby Brown.

Speaking with Variety, Schnapp described Millie's elated reaction to the news as he FaceTimed her from a Party City store.

Brown, 19, had made it onto a list Schnapp, 18, compiled of people he needed to come out to, but he struggled to tell her in person.

'I kept trying to do it in person with her, and it was too hard,' Noah said. 'So then I just FaceTimed her one day in the middle of a Party City and I was like, "Millie, Im gay." And she was like, "Oh, Schnapper! You told me finally!"'

'You told me finally!' Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp has recalled the moment he came out as gay to co-star Millie Bobby Brown

True self: Schnapp described Brown's elated reaction to his FaceTime call; pictured May 2022

Schnapp publicly came out via social media in January 2023. In the clip, Schnapp lay in bed with the message written above him, 'When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was "we know."'

'I guess I'm more similar to Will Byers than I thought!' he captioned the post.

At the time, Noah had recently confirmed his character in Stranger Things, Will Byer, was gay and in love with his best friend Mike Wheeler.

'It was always kind of there, but you never really knew, is it just him growing up slower than his friends?' the Tender Fix founder told Variety back in January.

'Now that hes gotten older, they made it a very real, obvious thing. Now its 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike.'

Schnapp first came out to his twin sister, Chloe Schnapp, before concealing his sexuality once again as he headed off to college, a process he described as incredibly difficult.

'Being fully aware of it and just completely, blatantly hiding it, it was really hard,' he said in his latest interview with Variety. 'It just made everything miserable for those months.'

His behavior sparked concerns from his mother, who he eventually came out to when she visited him in school.

Being himself! Schnapp celebrated his first Pride over the summer

The video had come after Noah confirmed his character in Stranger Things, Will Byer, was gay and in love with his best friend Mike Wheeler; Schnapp pictured left

'I couldnt tell her how I was feeling without telling her what the problem was, so just one night at dinner, I was like, "This is it."'

Schnapp was relieved to learn his mother had long suspected he was a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

'She was like, "Finally, you told me!" She said that she would talk to her friend when I was 12 and be like, "I know my son is gay. Do I have to ask him? How do I do it?" The friend was like, "Oh, you just let him be and let him figure it out himself."'

'Just to know that I finally got it off my chest and she knew it was like, ugh!' he said. 'The biggest breath of relief of my life!'

Soon after, he came out to his father, friends, Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy, and eventually the world.

Schnapp believes his coming out will influence the way he portrays Byer in season five: 'I think the way I act in Season 5, honestly, might be a little different. I will be fully aware of who I am. Knowing all of that about myself and being able to invest that in my character, Im honestly just excited.'

In June, Schnapp took part in his first Pride, posting jubilant photos of him celebrating the occasion in New York City.

He wore a rainbow print 'Straight Outta The Closet' tank top as he cooled down in the Washington Square Fountain, splashed around in a pool, and kissed his mother Karine Schnapp on the cheek.

'First pride,' he captioned the post with a red heart emoji.
Jada Pinkett Smith has been rocking a bald look for a while, but some changes appear to be in the works.

The actress, 51, who has written a memoir of her life, shared some recent photos of herself on social media, showing her hair has been growing back.

'This here hair is actn like its tryn a make a come back. Still have some trouble spots but  well see' she wrote next to the set of snaps.

The first photo uploaded Monday on Instagram showed the beginnings of new growth. The Matrix Resurrections star stared into the camera wearing a white fuzzy jacket and a diamond necklace.

In the past she has said she suffers from alopecia but it 'comes and goes.' Alopecia is the medical term for bald.

New look: Jada Pinkett Smith, 51, shared some recent photos of herself on social media, showing her hair has been growing back. 'This here hair is actn like its tryn a make a come back. Still have some trouble spots but  well see' she wrote next to the set of snaps

A slight smile was on her face, highlighted by a soft pink lip.

The next photo showed slightly longer tresses, some of which had been bleached a platinum blonde.

Jada blocked all comments on the post.

The new growth was visible in the June 29 post on Instagram when Jada announced her new memoir, Worth, would be released in October.

It was Chris Rock's poorly placed 'GI Jane' jab at Jada's bald head at the 2022 Oscars ceremony which lead to an infuriated Will Smith slapping the host on live TV.

It was revealed after the fracas that Jada suffered from alopecia, an autoimmune condition that can lead to hair loss.

According to the National Institutes of Health, there is no cure for alopecia, but as long as hair follicles are not destroyed, the potential for regrowth remains.

The FDA approved the use of a drug for alopecia patients in June 2022, that blocks the body's immune system from attacking hair follicles.

Blonde: A second photo showed slightly longer tresses, some of which had been bleached a platinum blonde

Memoir: The new growth was visible in the June 29th post on Instagram when Jada announced her new memoir, Worth, would be released in October

Slap: It was Chris Rock's poorly placed 'GI Jane' jab at Jada's bald head at the 2022 Oscars ceremony which lead to an infuriated Will Smith slapping the host on live TV

Alopecia: It was revealed after the fracas that Jada suffered from alopecia, an autoimmune condition that can lead to hair loss. According to the National Institutes of Health, there is no cure, but as long as hair follicles are not destroyed, the potential for regrowth remains

Two other medicines currently being used for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions are also seeking approval from the agency, according to The New York Times.

Jada has not said anything about how the regrowth began.

The actress has signed on to reprise her role as Lisa Cooper, in Girls Trip 2, with pals Tiffany Haddish and Queen Latifah.

The film is listed as being in pre-production on IMDB, but work on the comedy has been shut down due to the writers and actors strikes in Hollywood.

It is the first time both actors and writers have walked off the job concurrently since 1960.
Icon Hollywood director William Friedkin passed away on Monday morning in Los Angeles at the age of 87.

The news was shared by a friend of his 79-year-old wife, Sherry Lansing, who was a movie producer and a powerful studio head.

Sources have told TMZ he died from pneumonia.

The Oscar-winner had directed the big hit film The French Connection with Gene Hackman in 1971 that landed him a Best Director Oscar.

And he was at the helm of the horror classic blockbuster The Exorcist starring Linda Blair in 1973.

William had also worked on 1977s Sorcerer, 1985s To Live And Die in L.A. and 2006s Bug.

Sad loss for Hollywood: William Friedkin passed away on Monday morning in Los Angeles at the age of 87. The news was shared by his wife, Sherry Lansing, who was a movie producer and studio head who now works with charities; seen in the 1970s

In recent years: Seen in 2019 in Italy at the presentation of Friedkin Uncut - Un diavolo di regista (A Devil Of Director)

He was born in Chicago in 1935, the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants.

In the 1960s he headed to Hollywood for a career in film.

One of his first big gigs was directing an episode of the classic TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Soon he was on to feature films. He oversaw the 1967 musical comedy Good Times with the pop duo Sonny and Cher.

The he directed The Birthday Party (1968) and The Night They Raided Minskys (1968).

He got a hit with 1970s The Boys in the Band based on Crowley's 1968 Off-Broadway play of the same name.

Then Friedkin was handed the job of a lifetime: directing Hollywood A-lister Gene Hackman as Detective Popeye Doyle in the 1971 classic The French Connection.

It was a slow burn thriller brought to life with daring car-chase scenes, and it earned William raves and an Academy Award for Best Director.

The film won four other Oscars including Best Picture.

Never a dull moment: He was handed the job of directing Hollywood A lister Gene Hackman as Detective Popeye Doyle in the 1971 classic The French Connection

A winner: He won the Best Director Oscar for his work on The French Connection

Then he got behind the 1973 horror film The Exorcist starring Linda Blair as a teenager possessed by the devil.

She levitates and her head spins as a priest (Max von Sydow) tries to save her.

The film won Oscars for Lead Actress Ellen Burstyn and screenwriter William Peter Blatty and also scored Supporting nominations for Blair and Jason Miller.

And it hauled in over $500million, making it one of the most successful horror films of all time.

In 1997 he directed Sorcerer with Roy Scheider of Jaws fame.

At work: Here he is seen in 1974 explaining the next scene to Linda Blair during the making of the Exorcist

As scary as it gets: She levitates and her head spins as a priest (Max von Sydow) tries to save her

The movie was about four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous Latin American jungle.

In 1980 he got a chance to direct acclaimed actor Al Pacino - hot off The Godfather - for the movie Cruising about a police detective goes undercover in the underground S&M gay subculture of New York City to catch a serial killer who is preying on gay men.

In 1985 he directed what is now the cult classic, To Live And Die in LA, about corruption in the City Of Angels.

The synopsis: A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.

Not a hit: In 1980 he got a chance to direct acclaimed actor Al Pacino - hot off The Godfather - for the movie Cruising about a police detective goes undercover in the underground S&M gay subculture of New York City to catch a serial killer who is preying on gay men

Dark LA: In 1985 he directed what is now the cult classic, To Live And Die in LA, about corruption in the City Of Angels. The synopsis: A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner

Gritty crime: In 1995 he directed Chazz Palminteri and Linda Fiorentino (pictured) in the thriller Jade about a bright assistant D.A. that investigates a gruesome hatchet murder set in San Francisco

A solid hit: Friedkin directed Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson in Rules Of Engagement in 2000. The film was about an attorney that defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a Middle Eastern country

Creepy feel: In 2006 he worked on Bug with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr. The horror thriller was about an unhinged war veteran holes up with a lonely woman in a spooky Oklahoma motel room

The film starred William Petersen as U.S. Secret Service agent Richard Chance, and Willem Dafoe as the twisted counterfeit artist Eric Masters.

William then helmed Rampage in 1987, The Guardian in 1990 and an episode of Tales From The Crypt in 1992.

In 1995 he worked with David Caruso, Chazz Palminteri and Linda Fiorentino in the thriller Jade about a bright assistant D.A. that investigates a gruesome hatchet murder set in San Francisco.

He won kudos for overseeing the TV movie 12 Angry Men starring the veteran greats Jack Lemmon, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and George C Scott as well as Sopranos breakout James Gandolfini in 1997.

Then went on to director Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson in Rules Of Engagement in 2000.

The film was about an attorney that defends an officer on trial for ordering his troops to fire on civilians after they stormed a U.S. embassy in a Middle Eastern country.

Matteo time: In 2012 he came out with Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey (pictured), Emile Hirsch and Juno Temple

Standout: The movie was about a cop (McConaughey) who moonlights as a hit man agrees to kill the hated mother of a desperate drug dealer (Hirsch) in exchange for time with the young man's virginal sister (Temple)

In 2006 he worked on Bug with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr.

The horror thriller was about an unhinged war veteran holes up with a lonely woman in a spooky Oklahoma motel room. The line between reality and delusion is blurred as they discover a bug infestation.

In 2012 he came out with Killer Joe starring Emile Hirsch and Juno Temple. The movie was about a cop (Matthew McConaughey) who moonlights as a hit man agrees to kill the hated mother of a desperate drug dealer (Emile Hirsch) in exchange for time with the young man's virginal sister (Juno Temple).

His last released movie was The Devil & Father Amorth about a priest who performs exorcisms on nine Italian women.

His final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, starring Kiefer Sutherland, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

His powerful wife: Here he is seen with spouse Sherry Lansing at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills in 2017

'I personally believe that within each of us there are these forces of good and evil constantly battling for our souls,' Friedkin said in 2012.

'We all have a dark side and we all have a better side. The Exorcist' is a metaphor for that.'

Friedkin suffered a heart attack in 1981 that he later blamed on his fondness for deep-dish pizza and hot dogs.

Friedkin married actress-turned-studio boss Sherry Lansing in 1991 after failed marriages to actresses Jeanne Moreau and Lesley-Anne Down and newscaster Kelly Lange.

Lansing is a philanthropist and retired film studio executive.

She is the chairwoman of the Universal Music Group, and was the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and president of production at 20th Century Fox. From 1999 to 2022, she was on the University of California Board of Regents.
Love Island's Catherine Agbaje and Scott van-der-Sluis 'left the reunion together in a taxi' after refusing to deny a romance between the pair on Sunday night.

Catherine, 22, and her rumoured love interest Scott, 22, were all smiles as they arrived at the after party together after a dramatic reunion episode.

A fan, who was watching live in the studio, revealed how close the pair were. She wrote on Twitter: 'Guys I was at the reunion tonight and can confirm Scott and Catherine left in the same taxi, laughing away, with Elom in the back.'

Catherine and Scott were a solid couple before this year's Casa Amor but she returned from her time apart from Scott with bombshell Elom Ahlijah-Wilson, leaving Scott fighting back tears and their union in tatters.

However, after Catherine and Elom decided to split and remain friends soon after they returned to the UK following their villa dumping last month, Scott and Catherine are said to have slid into each other's DMs.

Back on? Love Island's Catherine Agbaje and Scott van-der-Sluis reportedly 'left the reunion together in a taxi' after refusing to deny a romance between the pair during the show on Sunday night

Ex: Catherine and Scott were a solid couple before this year's Casa Amor but she returned from her time apart from Scott with bombshell Elom Ahlijah-Wilson, leaving Scott fighting back tears and their union in tatters

A fan, who was watching live in the studio, revealed how close the pair were. She wrote on Twitter: 'Guys I was at the reunion tonight and can confirm Scott and Catherine left in the same taxi, laughing away, with Elom in the back.'

The pair were quizzed by Made In Chelsea star Sam Thompson on the status of their relationship during Love Island: The Reunion this weekend while Elom was awkwardly sat right next them.

Scott said: 'We're in a good place with it. We were friends before Catherine left the villa.'

However, he refused to give much more away, attempting to hide his smile as Sam pushed him for more information.

The moment delighted fans, with many taking to Twitter to express their delight at a possible reunion between Catherine and Scott.

One person wrote: 'Oh Catherine & Scott have a lil something going on FOR SURE!'

Another shared: 'THE LOOK???? THE SILENCE????? THE TENSION???? 'DO YOU WANT TO START' CATHERINE & SCOTT ARE KILLING ME.'

Someone else insisted: 'Catherine & Scott should just kiss man.'

While another viewer wrote: 'Did y'all peep the chemistry between Catherine & Scott. Wheeeww chile.'

'Catherine & Scott could have gone to the final together,' commented someone else, while another viewer posted: 'We were robbed of a Catherine & Scott easy win.'

Someone else posted: 'Awwwww Catherine & Scott are so cute!!!!!! I really hope they get back together!'

While another viewer wrote: 'Not Catherine & Scott rekindling their connection right next to Elom.'

It comes after Catherine said she and Scott both wish Casa Amor had 'never happened'.

Beaming: The pair were all smiles as they arrived at the after party together after a dramatic reunion episode

Former flames: Catherine and Scott were a solid couple before this year's Casa Amor but she returned from her time apart from Scott with bombshell Elom Ahlijah-Wilson (left)

Joy: The moment delighted fans, with many taking to Twitter to express their delight at a possible reunion between Catherine and Scott

During a TikTok live with fellow Love Island star Montel McKenzie, she said: 'I think Scott and I both wish Casa [Amor] never happened.

'It was actually a hard time. As easy as it looked it wasn't. Even speaking to other Islanders today, they literally said Casa Amor was the hardest part.'

She insisted they would have been the couple to beat of they had all just stayed in the same villa for the series.

Catherine said: 'I wish we just had our villa life. It just felt as if like we were the couple to ruin. I don't know if you get me. Let me not talk too much. Catch me at the reunion.'

It comes after Catherine and Scott made a surprise appearance on a billboard in the middle of New York's Times Square on Wednesday.

In a Streetcam clip posted on Twitter, one eagle-eyed fan noticed a romantic montage of the pair made a 15-second cameo on a billboard on 1568 Broadway.

The video sent many fans into a frenzy as they lauded the fact that Scott and Catherine had reached global exposure, even though neither of them even made it to the final.

The TSX Broadway screen is available for fans to rent for a small fee, with users able to send in a 15-second video through an app in the hope that they'll make an appearance.

Posting a video of the loved-up edit, the fan tweeted: 'SOMEONE PAID TO HAVE A SCOTT AND CATHERINE EDIT PLAY IN TIMES SQUARE NYC IM SCREAMING!!'

Catherine and Elom went their separate ways just days after leaving the villa, with insiders claiming it was 'over before it even really started'.

Look who it is! Scott and Catherine made an unlikely move across the pond, as they made a cameo on a New York City billboard

Fan favourites: Their romance was formed during Casa Amor, with Catherine opting to recouple rather than stick with Scott van-der-Sluis

It's the latest shock twist to befall the couple after they were suddenly evicted two weeks ago in an extremely abrupt and unexpected dumping.

A source told The Sun : 'The pair struggled to make it work in the real world and barely saw each other since the show ended.

'They kept up a bit of a pretence, while they did the podcast circuit, but everyone knew it was over before it even really started.

'Catherine's sister made no secret about her feelings towards Elom so it's no surprise she cooled things off straight away.'
EastEnders fans were stunned when they saw one legend return to the soap after six years on Monday night's episode.

Angela Wynter, 66, who plays Yolande Trueman in the BBC soap, made a shock return to see ex Patrick.

Turning up to see her onscreen ex husband, who plays Rudolph Walker, she revealed she was getting divorced after her secret affair with Patrick was discovered.

An insider told The Sun: 'This will be a huge thrill for EastEnders fans as she is considered something of a favourite among devotees.

'Shes just one of several characters making a return to Albert Square and though she might not be as high profile as Ian and Cindy, she will certainly get just as rapturous a reception from veteran viewers.'

Shock return: EastEnders fans were stunned when they saw one legend return to the soap after six years on Monday night's episode (pictured left Yolande Trueman)

She made her debut on Albert Square as Patrick's lover in 2003 before later getting engaged.

The actress has feuded with Pat Evans, played by Pam St Clement, after it was revealed that the soap matriarch had an affair with Patrtick.

In 2008 she left the Square for a new job and later returned for a brief reappearance in 2017.

Fans were thrilled to see Yolande return to the soap and took to Twitter to highlight their excitement.

Viewers wrote: 'So happy Yolande is back'

'So happy she is back, I love this character, Yolande is amazing'

'AHHHHH YOLANDEEE'

'SHES BACK #EastEnders'

Excited: Fans were thrilled to see Yolande return to the soap and took to Twitter to highlight their excitement

Onscreen lovers: Turning up to see her onscreen ex husband, who plays Rudolph Walker, she revealed she was getting divorced after her secret affair with Patrick was discovered

Following Yolande's return, the soap has had a major cast-shape with the likes of Shona McGarty, 31, who plays Whitney Dean, quitting the show.

Shona, who joined the BBC drama at the age of 16 in 2008, will have her final scenes broadcasted in early 2024.

A spokesperson for EastEnders told MailOnline: 'Shona is leaving, and bosses have decided to write the character of Karen out. We're not adding anything further at this stage.'

Speaking to The Sun on Sunday about her decision to leave Albert Square, Shona said: 'I have decided to spread my wings and will be leaving EastEnders. I have loved my years in the show.'

A source told the publication that the decision 'wasn't easy decision' but that Shona feels now is the right time to 'try something new.'

They added: 'She is hoping the door will be left open for her character to return one day, but nothing is guaranteed and it is all in the hands of the scriptwriters.'
Krishnan Guru-Murthy has left BBC bosses unhappy by criticising the broadcaster in a podcast appearance prior to signing up for Strictly Come Dancing.

The Channel 4 newsreader, 53, was announced as the fourth star appearing in the upcoming series during Strictly host Claudia Winkelman's BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday morning.

But BBC bosses are reportedly 'not happy' with Krishnan after he slated them on a recent podcast. He said: 'I worked for them for ten years but I do relish it when they are in trouble.

'There may be a boss you knew 20 years ago that you might enjoy watching screw up. There are grudges in the media obviously.'

A source has now told The Sun: 'A place on Strictly is one of TV's golden tickets so it's far from a good look that one of the cast has been criticising the BBC and even worse when the channel made their name.

In hot water? Krishnan Guru-Murthy has left BBC bosses unhappy by criticising the broadcaster in a podcast appearance prior to signing up for Strictly Come Dancing

'Everyone was excited to get Krishnan on board but this has cast a bit of a shadow. The bosses are not happy.'

MailOnline has contacted the BBC and Krishnan's representatives for comment.

Confirming he has signed up for the BBC One dance programme, the journalist, 53, said: 'It's me Krishnan!'

When Claudia asked why he's signed up for the show, he said: 'You only live once. I'm here for the joy for the fun. I love my job, I speak to amazing people and go to incredible places. But this was just irresistible.

'I told my wife first and she said definitely do it. I have an 18-year-old daughter who said it is a great idea but my 16-year-old son is applauded.

'I haven't been an avid viewer because I'm either working or on the way home but when Bill Bailey did it I thought he was amazing!'

Speaking about his concerns, he added: 'I'm slightly worried about my health, I'm not that fit I'm slightly overweight and I have a heart condition.

Krishnan is best known as the main anchor of Channel 4 News, as well as reporting for the foreign affairs series Unreported World and hosting live debates for Channel 4 during elections, referendums and major crises.

He also won the Royal Television Society Journalism Award for best Network Presenter in 2022.

After the announcement, Krishnan said: 'I'm surprised, delighted and slightly confused to find myself taking part in Strictly on the basis of 'you only live once!' and I can't wait to start learning to dance, but I am slightly worried about my general decrepitude.

'I know I'm going to love it and have a brilliant time and just hope I'm not the only one enjoying my participation.'

It comes after Angela Rippon, Amanda Abbington and Layton Williams were 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.

Signed up: The Channel 4 newsreader, 53, was announced as the fourth star appearing in the upcoming series during Strictly host Claudia Winkelman's BBC Radio 2 show on Saturday morning

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.

'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.

Signed up! Angela Rippon has been confirmed as taking part on the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing

Well practiced: The former newsreader hosted Come Dancing between 1988 and 1991, before returning in 1998 when the show ended for good

'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.'

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.

Twinkle-toed: The BBC also announced during The One Show on Friday that Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington will also be joining the line up

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'

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.'

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.

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

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

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.
Chris Noth has firmly denied multiple allegation allegations of sexual misconduct in his first interview about the charges that infamously put his career on hold.

The actor, 68, who insists he is still close to his former Sex and the City co-stars, told USA Today that any encounters he has had outside his marriage were consensual.

'I strayed on my wife, and it's devastating to her and not a very pretty picture,' he told the outlet. 'What it isn't, is a crime.'

The former Law and Order star has been married to his wife, Tara Wilson, 38, since 2012. The couple were together for 10 years before tying the knot and are parents to three children - Orion, 15, and Keats, three. Noth said he has spoken to his teenager about the situation.

The SAG nominee admitted his infidelity saying, 'You give yourself the same excuses that many men do; it's just a little side dance, and it's fun.

Denial: Chris Noth firmly denied multiple allegation allegations of sexual misconduct in his first interview about the charges that have put his career on hold in his first interview since his career was put on hold

He said he justified by telling himself, 'You're not hurting anybody. No one's going to know about this, you know, and sex is just enjoyable.'

'And suddenly, a lot of people want to have sex with you. It's like, 'Well, I'm not going to get this chance again."'

Four women have told very different stories about their experiences with the Sex and the City star.

In Dec. 2021, just weeks after his character was killed off on the in the SATC spin-off And Just Like That, two women went public with their allegations of sexual misconduct.

One claimed he raped her in 2015 after she met the actor while working as a server at a nightclub.

The second told The Hollywood Reporter Noth of raped her in 2004.

The actor's rep called the allegations 'categorically false.'

A third woman came forward shortly after the THR article, and told The Daily Beast she had been assaulted by the Gone actor when she was 18 and working at a restaurant in New York.

Noth has been married to Tara Wilson, 38, since 2012. The couple share two sons, Orion, 15 and Keats, three. The actor admits cheating on his wife, but claims all encounters outside his relationship with her were consensual (Pictures in New York in December 2021)

Allegations: Four women have come forward alleging sexual misconduct, including charges of rape and assault

Noth denied those allegations, along with the claims of a fourth woman who also accused him of misconduct.

Noth's character, Big,' was killed off in the first episode of the Sex and the City spinoff And Just Like That, a move that was planned as part of the plotline.

The veteran star was fired from his job on the CBS drama The Equalizer shortly after the allegations were made public.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis issued a joint statement saying, 'We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experiences. We know it must be a very difficult thing to do and we commend them for it.'

No criminal charges have been filed yet. New York does not have a statute of limitations on rape.

The actor hinted the women who accused him may have a financial motive.

Fired: Noth was fired from his job on the CBS drama The Equalizer after four women accused him of sexual misconduct

Work: Noth's character, Big,' was killed off in the first episode of And Just Like That, a move that was planned as part of the plotline. The veteran star was fired from his job on the CBS drama The Equalizer shortly after the rape allegations were made public

'That's a money train for a lot of people,' he said.

No lawsuits against the Manhunt actor have been filed.

'There's nothing I can say to change anyone's mind when you have that kind of a tidal wave,' he claimed.

'It sounds defensive. I'm not. There's no criminal court. There's no criminal trial. There's nothing for me to get on the stand about and get my story out, get witnesses.'

The Good Wife actor has been directing and performing at a theater in Massachusetts.

He was working for Samuelsohn, a suit company launching a campaign to raise awareness about men's mental health when he spoke with the reporter from USA Today.

Jobs: Finding work has been difficult for Noth. He attended the Vienna Opera Ball in February, and has been directing and acting at a theater in Massachusetts

'I'm an actor,' he stated.

'I have other things that I want to do creatively. And I have children to support. I can't just rest on my laurels,' he said of the limited opportunities that have come his way in he past year or so.

'I have enough to let a year drift, but I don't know how to gauge or judge getting back into the club, the business, because corporations are frightened.'

'Fear is the overriding operative word when it comes to whether they believe it or not,' he explained.

'I have to just continue on. It's rough, because people are scared, and their fear leads them. And I have to just persevere because I still have a creative life.'
Sandra Bullock's longtime partner Bryan Randall has died aged 57 following a private three-year battle with ALS, (known as MND in the UK) it has been confirmed.

The Hollywood actress first met Bryan - a model-turned-photographer - in 2015, after he photographed her son Louis's birthday. It came five years after her messy divorce from Jesse James.

On their last public sighting together, in July, 2020, the former model was pictured gazing adoringly at his love as they arrived to an intimate gathering in studio city with her two children.

'It is with great sadness that we share that on Aug. 5, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS,' his family shared to PEOPLE.

'Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.'

Last family outing: Sandra Bullock and her longtime partner Bryan Randall were last seen out together in Studio City in July, 2020 along with her two adopted children Louis, 13, and Laila, 11. Randall died on August 5 following a private three-year battle with ALS

Heartbreaking: The photographer, seen beaming here three years ago, wanted to keep his journey with ALS private, his family shared on Monday

'We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours,' the family statement continued.

'At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan.'

The statement was signed off by 'His Loving Family.'

Randall's family have asked for donations to the ALS Association and the Massachusetts General Hospital in lieu of flowers, according to People. .

There is no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS - and the disease is fatal, but it progresses at different speeds in patients.

People with ALS are expected to live two to five years after the symptoms first manifest, although 10 percent of sufferers live at least 10 years. It is also known in some countries as motor-neurone disease.

The disease is also referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease after the US baseball player when he was diagnosed in 1939 at just 36 years old.

The couple do not have any children together, but Bullock has two adopted children  son Louis, 13, and daughter Laila, 11  and Bryan has an adult daughter named Skylar from a previous relationship.

Sandra and Bryan began dating several months after first meeting, and even attended Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux's wedding that same year.

Rare outing: The couple, who kept their relationship out of the spotlight, pictured at the world premiere of Oceans 8 in 2018

Her plus one: The couple seen at the London premiere of Oceans 8 in 2018

The actress was in the process of adopting her second child when things got serious with Bryan.

Though Sandra and Bryan have kept their romance very private, the silver screen star gushed about her beau in 2021 on Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk, where she also discussed her divorce from ex-husband Jesse James in 2010.

During the appearance Bullock said: 'I am someone who went through the divorce process.'

'I found the love of my life,' she continued. 'We share two beautiful children  three children, his older daughter. It's the best thing ever.'

Sandra met Bryan when she hired him as a photographer to take pictures at her son's birthday, and described him as a 'saint' after she informed him she was adopting a second child when they 'hadn't been together that long.'

'I said, "Remember that NDA you signed when you photographed my son?" I said, "You know, that still holds." He said "Why?" I said, "I'm bringing a child home when I come back from Toronto,'" Sandra explained.

Family time: Bullock has two adopted children  son Louis, 13, and daughter Laila, 11  and Bryan has an adult daughter named Skylar from a previous relationship (seen in 2018)

'He was so happy, but he was scared. I'm a bulldozer. My life was already on the track and here's this beautiful human being who doesn't want anything to do with my life, but the right human being to be there.'

She also described her partner as being 'very Christian' and a great example to the children. 'I don't always agree with him and he doesn't always agree with me,' she said, adding: 'But if they can take away from that and that is where they feel drawn to, he's the exact right parent to be in this position.'

Before her relationship with Randall, Bullock was in a high-profile romance with Monster Garage host Jesse James.

They met after she brought her motorcycle-obsessed godson on a trip to West Coast Choppers's Long Beach headquarters in 2003. The pair ultimately wed in 2005, in front of 270 of their closest friends and family at a ranch in the San Ynez Valley.

In March 2010, days after she took home an Academy Award for her performance in The Blind Side, several women came forward about their affairs with Jesse.

A month later, Jesse checked himself into a rehab facility in Arizona for sex addiction after apologizing profusely to Bullock, although that wasn't enough to save the marriage  they divorced the following June.

In 2017, he told DailyMail.com: 'Yeah, I did cheat on my wife, yeah... I stood up and took accountability for it and apologized. And that's [the] end of story.'

Bullock other exes include Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling, Bob Schneider, Matthew McConaughey, Don Padilla, Troy Aikman and Tate Donovan.

Randall began his career as a model before becoming a photographer

Randall in a 1992 shoot from his fashion days, before he stepped behind the camera
DJ Arielle Free made her return to BBC Radio 1 on Monday after an incident which saw her pulled off air by Charlie Hedges during her Saturday's Dance Anthems broadcast live from the Ibiza Rocks hotel last month.

Problems arose when a worse for wear Arielle, 36, told Charlie, 37, while on air that she 'hated' a song she had just played and kept interrupting her.

Charlie then told Arielle to put down the mic, 'have some respect' and get out of her DJ booth.

Taking to Instagram ahead of her two-hour radio slot on Monday, Arielle did not address the incident, but she shared a throwback snap of herself in her school uniform as she told her followers what she would be covering on her Radio 1 Relax show.

She wrote: 'Tonight on your radio its all things chilled in the run up to tomorrow's Scottish Highers, advanced highers and national 5's exam results. A time I remember all too well.

Hitting the airwaves: DJ Arielle Free made her return to BBC Radio 1 on Monday after an incident which saw her pulled off air in Ibiza at the end of July (pictured on Monday)

Chaotic: Problems arose when a worse for wear Arielle, 36, told fellow DJ Charlie Hedges, 37, while on air during her Saturday's Dance Anthems broadcast that she 'hated' a song she played (Arielle pictured)

'The track selection tonight is designed to help take your mind away from how ever you may be feeling right now. So expect some soul soothers, mood boosters and loads more yumminess.

'Two whole hours of one big musical hug.

'Plus here's a gift of the only high school picture my mum I ever bought because I somehow mastered having terrible ones done every other year. Come join!'

After the June 29 Ibiza incident, it was decided following talks with the BBC, Scottish DJ Arielle, who joined the broadcaster in 2019, would not be hosting the early breakfast show last week.

All had seemed well at first when Arielle came on the show and said to Charlie: 'Hi, yeah I sound great don't I?', as Charlie laughed, because Arielle was losing her voice.

'You've sounded better,' Charlie responded. 'But it's OK.'

Seeming out of sorts, Arielle said: 'Well this is what happened. You play on Friday and you play on Saturday and then your voice just goes.'

She then suddenly said: 'Can I be honest with you Charlie?... I expected better of you... '

Throwback: On Instagram on Monday, Arielle did not address the incident, but she shared a snap of herself in her school uniform as she prepared to discuss exam results on her show

Spat: Arielle had told Charlie, (pictured): 'I don't like this song,' referring to HorsegiirL's My Barn, My Rules and kept interrupting the host before she took her off air (file image)

Charlie interjected: 'What? To sound better, like you?'

Arielle said back: 'I don't like this song,' referring to Charlie's song choice of HorsegiirL's My Barn, My Rules.

Charlie replied: 'Oh really?'

And Arielle responded: 'I hate it!...[Interrupting further]. I'm sorrrryy.'

In that moment, an outraged Charlie said: 'Sorry I'm taking your mic down, it's my show Arielle, have some respect please.

'See you later. Get out of here,' ordering her out of the DJ booth.

A spokesman for Radio 1 told MailOnline: 'Whilst we would not comment on individual matters, we have strict codes of behaviour for staff and presenters, and any breaches are taken extremely seriously.'

DJ Arielle famously co-hosted the official Love Island podcast Love Island: The Morning After since 2018.

She joined BBC Radio 1 in 2019 to host the early weekend breakfast slot. She now hosts Monday to Thursday earlies and is the voice of Radio 1's Dance stream.

On air: DJ Arielle famously co-hosted the official Love Island podcast Love Island: The Morning After since 2018 before joining BBC Radio 1 in 2019 (pictured in February)

Charlie famously got her big break on KISS FM. In January 2016, where she launched the music podcast Skiddle to Mixcloud.

She hosted the KISS FM Breakfast Show for 10 years with Rickie and Melvin.

Then, in 2018, they moved over to the BBC to replace Charlie Sloth's mid-evening slot, which later moved to the mid-morning section.

Charlie now presents Saturday's Dance Anthems.
Russell Brand has reflected on his marriage to his 'amazing' ex-wife Katy Perry.

The British comedian, 48, was married to the pop star, 38, for just over one year after tying the knot in India in 2010, with the former couple's divorce being finalised in 2012.

Russell is now remarried to wife Laura and the couple have two daughters, while Katy has a baby daughter named Daisy with actor fiance Orlando Bloom, 44.

During the most recent instalment of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge, the English actor/comedian opened up about his former marriage to the pop star and his struggles with fame at the time.

'Some aspects of it were like amazing. She's an amazing person, and it was kind of incredible to live for a moment in that eye of the cyclone-type aspect of fame.

Opening up: Russell Brand has reflected on his marriage to his 'amazing' ex-wife Katy Perry

Ex: The British comedian, 48, was married to the pop star, 38, for just over one year after tying the knot in India in 2010, with the former couple's divorce being finalised in 2012

'Aside from my sort of feelings of affection for Katy, it's a time that I remember being a little bit chaotic and a bit, for me, to speak for myself, a little disconnected.'

Previously answering questions from the public on TikTok this week, Russell was asked about his first marriage and insisted he has 'nothing but positive feelings for her [Katy]'.

'I really tried in that relationship,' he admitted, adding: 'I have nothing but positive feelings for her.'

Last year, Katy gave her own thoughts on her ill-fated marriage to Russell, admitting the mix of success and love at such a young age was 'like a tornado'.

Speaking in an interview on Australian 60 Minutes in August 2020, Katy said: 'I was having great success at 23, 24 and 25 and then I met someone that was interesting and stimulating.

'It was just like a tornado, it was everything happening at once.'

Katy acknowledged that the marriage was not easy as she said she 'always resonated with friction and resistance and challenges'.

'He's a very smart man, and I was in love with him when I married him,' Katy previously told Vogue magazine.

Happiness: Katy has a baby daughter named Daisy with actor fiance Orlando Bloom

'Let's just say I haven't heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011.'

Katy was first linked to fiance Orlando when they were seen flirting at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2016, and went public with their relationship a few months later in May at the Cannes Film Festival.

The couple parted ways just over a year later in March 2017, but the split wasn't to last and they got back together later that year.

The actor proposed to his long-term love on Valentine's Day in 2019 when he popped the question with a $5 million flower-shaped ring in front of Katy's entire family.

Katy and Orlando announced they were expecting their first child together last year, and welcomed baby daughter Daisy Dove Bloom into the world in August 2020.

It comes after Russel revealed he is expecting his third child with his wife Laura.

The comedian appeared with Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast , who made the announcement on his behalf.

Russell, who is proud dad to daughters Mabel, six, and Peggy, four, gave a rare insight into fatherhood and at one point, broke down in tears.

Stephen told him: 'You fell in love and you've got two children. You've got a third on the way, around the corner. That's a very special love you have found.'

Doting dad: Russell, who is proud dad to daughters Mabel, six, and Peggy, four, gave a rare insight into fatherhood and at one point, broke down in tears (pictured with wife in 2018)

Of being a father, Russell said: 'It taught me there is a lot more important in this world than me.

'There's a lot more important stuff in this world then what I want, think or reckon.

'It taught me that love is real. It teaches you everything to become a father. All lessons are there.'

The TV star then became emotional and fought back tears as he spoke about a 'future he won't be a part of', which Steven quizzed him on.

Not making much sense, he said: 'Any old man, any old woman. My little girls, it's just so beautiful.'

The couple married in 2017 at an intimate service near their home in Henley-on-Thames.
Kilimanjaro  COFFEE production in Tanzania has received a fresh impetus following introduction and launching of a coffee production curriculum for training agricultural extension officers.

Dubbed 'the Tanzania National Coffee Sustainability', the curriculum is to strengthen delivery of the extension services to smallholder farmers.

Speaking here on the weekend, Cafe Africa Operations Manager Mr Samora Mnyaonga said the curriculum will be used to train extension officers who will be responsible for providing education on coffee production to farmers.

He said the curriculum was prepared by Cafe Africa in collaboration with other coffee stakeholders including the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB) and the Tanzania Coffee Association (TCA). The curriculum was launched by the Minister for Agriculture Mr Hussein Bashe during a stakeholders meeting held in Dodoma, recently.

"The curriculum will target public and private sector extension officers involved mostly in coffee production sector in all districts and regions in the country," he said.

According to Mr Mnyaonga, curriculum is expected to strengthen the delivery of extension services to coffee farmers by supporting the national institutions in setting and maintaining minimum standards for delivering extension services to coffee farmers resulting in higher productivity, increased coffee quality and better livelihood for farmers.

He further disclosed that the curriculum features views of coffee stakeholders regarding changes and needs in the production and trade of coffee in the country and the world in general. He noted that it includes existence and balance of understanding among farmers as far as coffee production in the country is concerned.

TCB Director General Primus Kimaryo described the curriculum as a guide that will enable the country to produce coffee in abundance.

"The introduction of the curriculum is important, especially when putting into consideration the country's projection of producing 300,000 tons of coffee by the year 2025," he said.

Rolling out of the curriculum is an ongoing process that is supported by the Global Coffee Platform, which works in partnership with the Tanzanian stakeholders to support a more sustainable coffee sector.
Gemma Collins issued an update on Monday following a 'scary few days' after her mum Joan was rushed to hospital.

The reality TV personality, 42, shared a photo to Instagram of her mother, 67, arriving home with her wheeled walking frame.

Joan appeared to be on the mend as she hugged her grandson Hayden during a family get together.

Gemma penned: 'Mums home and I have Tom Griffin here for some healing. Welcome home nanny.'

It comes after Gemma shared a snap of her mother with a breathing tube in her nose after being admitted to Queens Hospital in Essex.

Health update: Gemma Collins issued an update on Monday following a 'scary few days' after her mum Joan was rushed to hospital

Sweet: Joan appeared to be on the mend as she hugged her grandson Hayden during a family get together

She penned: 'Such a scary moment when Mum comes to hospital. Thank you Queens Hospital Romford for all you're doing.'

Sharing another snap of her mother on her grid, she added: 'Love your parents as hard as you can. Thank you to everyone looking after mum @joancollins1 at QUEENS HOSPITAL ROMFORD.'

Many of Gemma's followers shared their own messages of support in the comments, with Jedward writing: 'Your mom is the most loving and caring soul ever - sending healing energy.'

In March, Gemma revealed she was having a life-saving gene test after Joan was diagnosed with breast cancer .

The Diva Forever star was left shaken after learning her mum Joan found a cancerous lump between her breast and armpit.

Gemma, who has also lost a family member to cancer, has spoken to her doctor about undergoing a BRCA gene test, which screens her DNA to see if she has inherited a faulty gene which means she may be more susceptible to cancer.

Former The Only Way Is Essex star told The Sun she broke down in tears the moment her mother told her she'd had cancer over the phone.

On the mend: The reality TV personality, 42, shared a photo to Instagram of her mother, 67, arriving home

She explained: 'It was over the phone. I was in the back of a taxi in London and I was like, 'Are you all right, mum? Where are you?'  as we say every day, ten times a day.

'She said, 'Ah I didn't want to tell you, but I've had a lump in my breast'. I was like, 'What?', and she said, 'But it's fine I've got the all-clear'. I was like, 'Oh, my God. Why didn't you tell me?''

Gemma said Joan chose not to tell her daughter about her diagnosis as she was filming Diva Forever at the time.

Former Celebrity Big Brother housemate Gemma said her mother found the lump on the right side of her breast and doctors caught it 'in the nick of time'.

She added: 'She knew that I would have fallen apart in the worst-case scenario so she kept it to herself because she didn't want to upset me  but she was very scared.'

Gemma praised the NHS for their swift action, saying they removed the lump straight away.

Joan was diagnosed in 2016 with ductal carcinoma in situ, which means the cells in the lining of the breast tissue become cancerous, and she now attends a screening every year.

The cancerous cells are contained inside the milk ducts and have not spread to the surrounding breast tissue.

Hereditary breast cancer is most commonly caused by an inherited mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

Love: Sharing some more photos to her Story, Joan could be seen with her husband and Gemma's dad Alan, as he sat by his wife's side

Worry: Earlier in the day, Gemma explained her mum had contracted a mystery illness: 'Such a scary moment when Mum comes to hospital. Thank you Queens Hospital Romford'

If a woman has inherited a mutated copy of these genes from either parent, they are at a greater risk of developing breast cancer, with up to a 70 per cent chance of getting the disease by the age of 80.

Gemma noted that her mother is lucky to be a breast cancer survivor and she hopes telling her story will encourage other people to go for checks.

Screen star is currently taking part in The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer and has decided only now to speak out about her mother's ordeal.

It comes after Gemma revealed she is having ice spa sessions after enduring a heart attack scare.

She ended up in hospital after having palpitations last year as she battles what she thinks is long COVID and has been plunging herself in sub-zero temperatures in a bid to combat the issue and rebuild her immune system.

She told OK! Magazine : 'The palpitations got so bad I thought I was having a heart attack.

'I called an ambulance and the paramedics did an ECG [electrocardiogram] and said, 'We need to take you to hospital.' I said to myself, 'Great, this is it. My time is up.'

'But, thank God, it was a condition called costochondritis, which can cause severe chest pain and happens because of coughing or an infection.

Scare: In March, Gemma revealed she was having a life-saving gene test after Joan was diagnosed with breast cancer

'I think I got it from being constantly run down and ill. I do think I've got long Covid because I haven't been able to shift it and it's been in my system for months.

'I've been so unwell and it doesn't matter what I take or do, it's not going. I've been going for loads of sessions at Ice Health Cryotherapy in Kensington and I use this thermal shock machine, which you get into standing up and your head pops out of the top. It goes from a temperature of +70C to -196C in seconds.'

Gemma went on to add that the practice of Cryotheraphy can help with 'any illness' and would like to have her own machine at home if money were no object.

She added: 'Cryotherapy helps with any illness and it really boosts your immune system. I'd love my own machine at home but they're about 250,000 to buy.'
Barclays downgraded shares of Telefonica Deutschland (OTCMKTS:TELDF  Free Report) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Telefonica Deutschland to an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Telefonica Deutschland from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Telefonica Deutschland to 3.60 ($3.96) in a report on Tuesday, April 18th. Finally, HSBC lowered Telefonica Deutschland from a hold rating to a reduce rating in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $3.35.

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Telefonica Deutschland Stock Up 6.3 %

TELDF opened at $2.68 on Thursday. Telefonica Deutschland has a 12-month low of $1.96 and a 12-month high of $3.35. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $2.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.93.

About Telefonica Deutschland

Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers mobile and stationery voice and data services; very high data rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) internet services; fiber-to-the-home lines; broadband services, consisting of VDSL, cable, fiber, and fixed mobile substitution services; and machine to machine communication and managed connectivity services.

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Hippo (NYSE:HIPO  Get Free Report) will be announcing its earnings results before the market opens on Tuesday, August 8th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of ($2.31) per share for the quarter. Hippo has set its FY 2023 guidance at EPS.Individual interested in listening to the companys earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Hippo (NYSE:HIPO  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 9th. The company reported ($3.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($2.64) by ($0.37). Hippo had a negative net margin of 248.59% and a negative return on equity of 44.09%. The company had revenue of $39.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $30.00 million.

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Hippo Stock Down 6.8 %

NYSE:HIPO opened at $15.28 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $355.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.04 and a beta of 0.89. Hippo has a 52 week low of $11.30 and a 52 week high of $27.25. The stocks fifty day moving average is $16.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.87.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hippo

About Hippo

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HIPO. Royal Bank of Canada acquired a new position in shares of Hippo during the 1st quarter worth $34,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new stake in Hippo during the 2nd quarter worth about $37,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hippo by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 2,080 shares of the companys stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Hippo by 219.1% in the 2nd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 49,453 shares of the companys stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 33,957 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Hippo in the 1st quarter valued at about $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.22% of the companys stock.

(Get Free Report)

Hippo Holdings Inc provides home protection insurance in the United States and the District of Columbia. Its insurance products include homeowners' insurance against risks of fire, wind, and theft; and personal and commercial insurance products. The company distributes insurance products and services through its technology platform; and offers its policies online, over the phone, or through licensed insurance agents.

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IDACORP (NYSE:IDA  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $4.95-$5.15 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on IDA. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of IDACORP from $112.00 to $108.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of IDACORP from $107.00 to $105.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of IDACORP from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday.

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IDACORP Stock Performance

IDA stock traded down $1.92 on Friday, reaching $98.61. 201,460 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 245,806. IDACORP has a 12 month low of $93.53 and a 12 month high of $115.92. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $103.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $105.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.29, a PEG ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.63.

IDACORP Announces Dividend

IDACORP ( NYSE:IDA Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The energy company reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.13. IDACORP had a net margin of 15.31% and a return on equity of 9.72%. The business had revenue of $413.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $359.32 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that IDACORP will post 5.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 1st. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. IDACORPs dividend payout ratio is currently 58.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDACORP

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of IDACORP in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of IDACORP by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 400 shares of the energy companys stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of IDACORP in the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of IDACORP in the 2nd quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of IDACORP by 70.0% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 962 shares of the energy companys stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.03% of the companys stock.

IDACORP Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

IDACORP, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, purchase, and sale of electric energy in the United States. The company operates 17 hydropower generating plants located in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon; three natural gas-fired plants in southern Idaho; and interests in two coal-fired steam electric generating plants located in Wyoming and Nevada.

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WealthShield Partners LLC raised its position in Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (NYSEARCA:RSP  Free Report) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,736 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the quarter. WealthShield Partners LLCs holdings in Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF were worth $3,143,000 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. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF by 59.6% in the 1st quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 8,585 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,354,000 after purchasing an additional 3,207 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 170,508 shares of the companys stock valued at $26,891,000 after acquiring an additional 663 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF by 25.7% in the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 11,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,735,000 after buying an additional 2,250 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF by 46.5% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 333,958 shares of the companys stock worth $52,669,000 after purchasing an additional 105,955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in shares of Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF by 89.8% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 2,604 shares of the companys stock worth $411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232 shares in the last quarter.

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Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF Price Performance

RSP opened at $151.34 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.48. Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF has a fifty-two week low of $124.92 and a fifty-two week high of $155.77.

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF Company Profile

Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, formerly Rydex S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, seeks to replicate as closely as possible, the daily performance of the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index (the Index). The Index is a capitalization-weighted index covering 500 industrial, utility, transportation and financial companies of the United States markets (mostly NYSE Euronext issues).

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Madison Wealth Management lessened its position in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV  Free Report) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,778 shares of the companys stock after selling 27 shares during the period. Madison Wealth Managements holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF were worth $3,198,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Means Investment CO. Inc. boosted its position in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 9.5% in the first quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc. now owns 1,825 shares of the companys stock worth $750,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. WealthShield Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 6.8% in the first quarter. WealthShield Partners LLC now owns 68,713 shares of the companys stock worth $28,247,000 after buying an additional 4,390 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 11.4% in the first quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 35,303 shares of the companys stock valued at $14,512,000 after purchasing an additional 3,608 shares during the last quarter. Camden National Bank boosted its holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 62.0% in the first quarter. Camden National Bank now owns 2,778 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,063 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 2.5% in the first quarter. Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC now owns 140,704 shares of the companys stock valued at $57,841,000 after purchasing an additional 3,383 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSEARCA IVV opened at $449.09 on Friday. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $442.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $419.91. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has a 52-week low of $349.53 and a 52-week high of $461.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $347.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.43 and a beta of 1.00.

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Profile

iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors 500 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the United States equity market.

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TLW Wealth Management LLC cut its position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT  Free Report) by 0.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,021 shares of the retailers stock after selling 392 shares during the quarter. Walmart makes up about 5.7% of TLW Wealth Management LLCs holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. TLW Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Walmart were worth $7,523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sageworth Trust Co boosted its holdings in Walmart by 2,414.3% in the 1st quarter. Sageworth Trust Co now owns 176 shares of the retailers stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Walmart in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Walmart by 105.3% during the 4th quarter. Ulland Investment Advisors LLC now owns 195 shares of the retailers stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Walmart by 58.3% during the 1st quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 190 shares of the retailers stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Walmart by 387.8% during the 1st quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 200 shares of the retailers stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. 31.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Walmart Price Performance

Shares of WMT stock traded down $0.92 on Friday, reaching $158.34. The company had a trading volume of 4,754,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,486,391. The stock has a market capitalization of $426.38 billion, a PE ratio of 38.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.50. The businesss 50-day moving average is $155.06 and its 200 day moving average is $148.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Walmart Inc. has a one year low of $125.12 and a one year high of $160.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at Walmart

Walmart ( NYSE:WMT Get Free Report ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 18th. The retailer reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $152.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $147.91 billion. Walmart had a net margin of 1.82% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.30 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Walmart Inc. will post 6.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other news, EVP John D. Rainey sold 1,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.48, for a total transaction of $159,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 170,735 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $27,228,817.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP David Chojnowski sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.74, for a total value of $626,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 39,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,265,681.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP John D. Rainey sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.48, for a total value of $159,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 170,735 shares in the company, valued at $27,228,817.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,219,373 shares of company stock valued at $1,422,922,576. 46.51% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $170.00 to $175.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 25th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Walmart from an accumulate rating to a buy rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $165.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 19th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $165.00 to $175.00 in a report on Friday, May 19th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Walmart from $160.00 to $166.00 in a report on Friday, May 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $169.94.

Walmart Company Profile

(Free Report)

Walmart Inc engages in the operation of retail, wholesale, and other units worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam's Club. It operates supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash and carry stores, and discount stores under Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Market brands; membership-only warehouse clubs; ecommerce websites, such as walmart.com, walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, and samsclub.com; and mobile commerce applications.

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Ambrx Biopharma Inc. (NYSE:AMAM  Get Free Report) has received an average recommendation of Moderate Buy from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.33.

AMAM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Ambrx Biopharma in a report on Monday, July 31st. They set an outperform rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on shares of Ambrx Biopharma in a research note on Friday, May 19th. They issued an overweight rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of Ambrx Biopharma in a research note on Thursday, June 1st. They issued an outperform rating and a $30.00 target price for the company. Finally, B. Riley began coverage on shares of Ambrx Biopharma in a research note on Tuesday, June 13th. They issued a buy rating and a $26.00 target price for the company.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ambrx Biopharma

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AMAM. Commodore Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Ambrx Biopharma during the first quarter worth $42,847,000. Darwin Global Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ambrx Biopharma by 49.0% during the first quarter. Darwin Global Management Ltd. now owns 11,304,573 shares of the companys stock worth $100,837,000 after acquiring an additional 3,720,084 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ambrx Biopharma in the 1st quarter valued at $3,220,000. Ghost Tree Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Ambrx Biopharma in the 1st quarter valued at $2,230,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD acquired a new stake in Ambrx Biopharma in the 1st quarter valued at $1,879,000.

Ambrx Biopharma Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AMAM opened at $14.48 on Monday. Ambrx Biopharma has a 1 year low of $0.38 and a 1 year high of $16.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $15.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $10.46.

Ambrx Biopharma (NYSE:AMAM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ambrx Biopharma will post -1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Ambrx Biopharma Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Ambrx Biopharma Inc, a clinical-stage biologics company, discovers and develops engineered precision biologics using its proprietary expanded genetic code technology platform. The company's lead product candidate is ARX788, an anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), which is investigated in various clinical trials for the treatment of breast cancer, gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancer, and other solid tumors, including ongoing Phase 2/3 clinical trials for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and gastric cancer.

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Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT  Get Free Report) insider Joseph E. Creed sold 7,286 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.25, for a total value of $2,078,331.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Caterpillar Trading Down 1.8 %

CAT stock opened at $276.44 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Caterpillar Inc. has a 52 week low of $160.60 and a 52 week high of $293.88. The company has a market cap of $142.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.20, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $235.77.

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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 analysts consensus estimates of $4.57 by $0.98. The business had revenue of $17.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.46 billion. Caterpillar had a return on equity of 55.93% and a net margin of 12.91%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.18 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Caterpillar Inc. will post 19.05 EPS for the current year.

Caterpillar Increases Dividend

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 20th will be issued a dividend of $1.30 per share. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 19th. This is an increase from Caterpillars previous quarterly dividend of $1.20. Caterpillars dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.36%.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $287.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Caterpillar from $228.00 to $225.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Caterpillar from $183.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Barclays upped their target price on Caterpillar from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Caterpillar from $275.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Caterpillar currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $267.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Caterpillar

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Argent Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 102.4% during the second quarter. Argent Advisors Inc. now owns 8,512 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,094,000 after buying an additional 4,307 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Caterpillar by 7.3% in the second quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,866 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $4,018,000 after purchasing an additional 1,146 shares during the period. Sandy Spring Bank raised its holdings in Caterpillar by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sandy Spring Bank now owns 14,108 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $3,471,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Smith Salley & Associates raised its stake in shares of Caterpillar by 12.0% in the second quarter. Smith Salley & Associates now owns 9,861 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $2,426,000 after purchasing an additional 1,055 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Markel Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Caterpillar by 1.9% in the second quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 293,000 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $72,093,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 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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Big Yellow Group (OTCMKTS:BYLOF  Get Free Report) and Mapletree Logistics Trust (OTCMKTS:MAPGF  Get Free Report) are both real estate companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

53.1% of Big Yellow Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.9% of Mapletree Logistics Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

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Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Big Yellow Group and Mapletree Logistics Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Big Yellow Group 0 1 3 0 2.75 Mapletree Logistics Trust 0 1 0 0 2.00

Profitability

Big Yellow Group currently has a consensus target price of $1,208.33, indicating a potential upside of 8,817.59%. Given Big Yellow Groups stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Big Yellow Group is more favorable than Mapletree Logistics Trust.

This table compares Big Yellow Group and Mapletree Logistics Trusts net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Big Yellow Group N/A N/A N/A Mapletree Logistics Trust N/A N/A N/A

Dividends

Big Yellow Group pays an annual dividend of $0.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mapletree Logistics Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Big Yellow Group pays out 23.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mapletree Logistics Trust pays out 39.1% 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Big Yellow Group and Mapletree Logistics Trusts revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Big Yellow Group N/A N/A N/A $0.43 31.80 Mapletree Logistics Trust N/A N/A N/A $0.12 9.94

Mapletree Logistics Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Big Yellow Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Big Yellow Group beats Mapletree Logistics Trust on 7 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Big Yellow Group

(Get Free Report)

Big Yellow is the UK's brand leader in self storage. Big Yellow now operates from a platform of 108 stores, including 24 stores branded as Armadillo Self Storage. We have a pipeline of 0.9 million sq ft comprising 11 proposed Big Yellow self storage facilities. The current maximum lettable area of the existing platform (including Armadillo) is 6.3 million sq ft. When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 7.2 million sq ft of flexible storage space. 99% of our stores and sites by value are held freehold and long leasehold, with the remaining 1% short leasehold. The Group has pioneered the development of the latest generation of self storage facilities, which utilise state of the art technology and are located in high profile, accessible, main road locations. Our focus on the location and visibility of our stores, with excellent customer service, a market-leading online platform, and significant and increasing investment in sustainability, has created in Big Yellow the most recognised brand name in the UK self storage industry.

About Mapletree Logistics Trust

(Get Free Report)

MLT, the first Asia-focused logistics REIT in Singapore, was listed on the SGX-ST Main Board on 28 July 2005. MLT's principal strategy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of income-producing logistics real estate and real estate-related assets. As at 31 March 2023, it has a portfolio of 185 properties in Singapore, Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam with assets under management of S$12.8 billion. MLT is managed by Mapletree Logistics Trust Management Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd.

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An unnamed man has become the third casualty of the growing unrest in Cape Town, as the taxi strikes which began to gather pace last week.

Security personnel clashed with looters outside a Shoprite in the township of Mfuleni when a truck delivering alcohol was stopped, raided and set alight.

Shots were fired after looters threw stones at the security guards. An unnamed man, who was not a security guard, was pronounced dead at the scene, while another woman was injured in the clash.

Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Pojie, Western Cape police spokesperson, confirmed that a murder investigation has been opened.

"Dockets for murder, attempted murder and public violence have been opened for investigation after preliminary reports indicate that members of the community looted a delivery truck and pelted security forces with stones," said Lieutenant-Colonel Pojie.

He said the provincial serious and violent crime investigations unit has been assigned to probe the circumstances.

In response to escalating violence in the area, the public order police had to intervene to stabilise the situation.

"The public order police had to use stun grenades to disperse the rioting crowd and the investigation is ongoing," he said.

The incident is just one of many that have occurred since the taxi strikes began on Thursday.

That day, an unnamed man was shot and killed. The victim was said to be driving home when his car was stopped by looters and stoned before he was shot.

On Friday, a Cape Town Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in Nyanga. Zanikhaya Kwinana, 32, was shot dead by unknown gunmen whilst driving down Miller Road.

While the motive for the shooting is unknown, police have not ruled out that it was related to the ongoing strike.

Tensions boiled over on Thursday when several taxis were impounded by law enforcement officials, leading to violent clashes with taxi drivers.

Since then, several buses, trucks and private cars have been stoned and torched by rioters.
Kodiak Gas Services (NYSE:KGS  Get Free Report) and Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM  Get Free Report) are both oils/energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

51.0% of Antero Midstream shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Antero Midstream shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

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Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Kodiak Gas Services and Antero Midstream, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Kodiak Gas Services 0 1 6 0 2.86 Antero Midstream 3 1 1 0 1.60

Profitability

Kodiak Gas Services presently has a consensus price target of $22.86, indicating a potential upside of 19.30%. Antero Midstream has a consensus price target of $12.25, indicating a potential upside of 4.43%. Given Kodiak Gas Services stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Kodiak Gas Services is more favorable than Antero Midstream.

This table compares Kodiak Gas Services and Antero Midstreams net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Kodiak Gas Services N/A N/A N/A Antero Midstream 34.36% 18.13% 6.92%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Kodiak Gas Services and Antero Midstreams top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Kodiak Gas Services N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Antero Midstream $919.98 million 6.12 $326.24 million $0.70 16.76

Antero Midstream has higher revenue and earnings than Kodiak Gas Services.

Summary

Antero Midstream beats Kodiak Gas Services on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kodiak Gas Services

(Get Free Report)

Kodiak Gas Services, LLC provides contract compression infrastructure services for the oil and gas industry in the United States. The company was founded in 2010 and is based in Montgomery, Texas. Kodiak Gas Services, LLC is a subsidiary of Kodiak Gas Services, Inc.

About Antero Midstream

(Get Free Report)

Antero Midstream Corporation owns, operates, and develops midstream energy infrastructure in the Appalachian Basin. It operates through Gathering and Processing, and Water Handling segments. The Gathering and Processing segment includes a network of gathering pipelines and compressor stations that collects and processes production from Antero Resources' wells in West Virginia and Ohio. The Water Handling segment delivers fresh water from sources, including the Ohio River, local reservoirs, and various regional waterways; uses water handling systems to transport flowback and produced water; and offers pumping stations, water storage, and blending facilities. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

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Shares of Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE:KOS  Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $130.42.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on KOS shares. StockNews.com started coverage on Kosmos Energy in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a sell rating on the stock. Redburn Partners initiated coverage on Kosmos Energy in a report on Thursday, July 20th. They issued a buy rating and a $9.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TheStreet raised Kosmos Energy from a c rating to a b- rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 23rd.

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Kosmos Energy Price Performance

NYSE KOS opened at $7.31 on Wednesday. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $6.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.52. The company has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a PE ratio of 11.25, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 2.78. Kosmos Energy has a 1 year low of $4.64 and a 1 year high of $8.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

Kosmos Energy ( NYSE:KOS Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $393.87 million for the quarter. Kosmos Energy had a return on equity of 51.10% and a net margin of 15.16%. On average, analysts predict that Kosmos Energy will post 0.92 EPS for the current year.

In other Kosmos Energy news, Director Deanna L. Goodwin sold 112,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.69, for a total transaction of $749,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 99,532 shares of the companys stock, valued at $665,869.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.79% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kosmos Energy

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kosmos Energy by 143.6% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,579 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 2,110 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Kosmos Energy by 50.1% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,394 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,467 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Kosmos Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Kosmos Energy by 33.0% in the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 7,054 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accel Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Kosmos Energy in the first quarter valued at $69,000. 91.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kosmos Energy Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Kosmos Energy Ltd. engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas properties along the Atlantic Margins in the United States. The company's primary assets include production projects located in offshore Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as well as a gas projects located in offshore Mauritania and Senegal.

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Shares of Taylor Wimpey plc (LON:TW  Get Free Report) have received an average rating of Hold from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 121.33 ($1.56).

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on TW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Taylor Wimpey from GBX 130 ($1.67) to GBX 94 ($1.21) and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 4th. Berenberg Bank increased their price target on shares of Taylor Wimpey from GBX 111 ($1.43) to GBX 122 ($1.57) and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Friday, May 12th. Barclays upped their target price on Taylor Wimpey from GBX 125 ($1.60) to GBX 131 ($1.68) and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Taylor Wimpey from GBX 154 ($1.98) to GBX 141 ($1.81) and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd.

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Taylor Wimpey Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of LON:TW opened at GBX 119 ($1.53) on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 110.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of GBX 116.56. The company has a market capitalization of 4.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 661.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.99 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 4.71. Taylor Wimpey has a 52-week low of GBX 80.64 ($1.04) and a 52-week high of GBX 132.07 ($1.70).

Taylor Wimpey Increases Dividend

Insider Activity at Taylor Wimpey

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 12th will be given a GBX 4.79 ($0.06) dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 4.2%. This is an increase from Taylor Wimpeys previous dividend of $4.78. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 12th. Taylor Wimpeys payout ratio is presently 5,000.00%.

In related news, insider Mark Castle bought 1,559 shares of Taylor Wimpey stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 126 ($1.62) per share, with a total value of 1,964.34 ($2,521.94). 0.91% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Taylor Wimpey

(Get Free Report

Taylor Wimpey plc operates a residential developer in the United Kingdom and Spain. It builds and delivers various homes and communities. Taylor Wimpey plc was incorporated in 1935 and is based in High Wycombe, the United Kingdom.

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Tourmaline Oil (TSE:TOU  Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Stifel Nicolaus from C$75.00 to C$77.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, BayStreet.CA reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock.

TOU has been the topic of a number of other research reports. National Bankshares reduced their target price on Tourmaline Oil from C$80.00 to C$75.00 in a report on Thursday, June 29th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Tourmaline Oil from C$75.00 to C$73.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Tourmaline Oil from C$70.00 to C$75.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Tourmaline Oil from C$90.00 to C$85.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Tourmaline Oil from C$85.00 to C$75.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Tourmaline Oil currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of C$81.40.

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Tourmaline Oil Stock Performance

TSE TOU opened at C$69.08 on Thursday. The businesss 50-day moving average price is C$63.20 and its 200 day moving average price is C$60.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.49. Tourmaline Oil has a twelve month low of C$52.34 and a twelve month high of C$84.33. The company has a market capitalization of C$23.43 billion, a PE ratio of 5.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.62.

Tourmaline Oil Increases Dividend

Tourmaline Oil Company Profile

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. This is a boost from Tourmaline Oils previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Tourmaline Oils dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.78%.

(Get Free Report)

Tourmaline Oil Corp. explores for and develops oil and natural gas properties in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It holds interests in properties located in the Alberta Deep Basin, Northeast British Columbia Montney, and the Peace River High Triassic oil complex. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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Wayfair (NYSE:W  Get Free Report) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $45.00 to $90.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Morgan Stanleys target price would suggest a potential upside of 8.10% from the stocks previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Wayfair from $40.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Wayfair from $60.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Wayfair from $50.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Wayfair from $49.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Friday, May 5th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Wayfair from a neutral rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $79.11.

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Wayfair Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of W stock traded up $0.17 on Monday, reaching $83.26. The stock had a trading volume of 4,141,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,828,389. The firms 50-day moving average is $61.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.72 and a beta of 3.19. Wayfair has a 12 month low of $28.11 and a 12 month high of $90.71.

Insider Activity

Wayfair ( NYSE:W Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported ($2.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($3.14) by $0.64. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.74 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Wayfair will post -8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, CFO Kate Gulliver sold 17,720 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.12, for a total transaction of $1,136,206.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,064,038.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Wayfair news, COO Thomas Netzer sold 10,000 shares of Wayfair stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.22, for a total value of $522,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 86,919 shares of the companys stock, valued at $4,538,910.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kate Gulliver sold 17,720 shares of Wayfair stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.12, for a total transaction of $1,136,206.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,064,038.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 127,489 shares of company stock worth $7,540,837 over the last three months. 26.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wayfair

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in W. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. raised its position in shares of Wayfair by 8.3% in the second quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 39,822 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,548,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Wayfair by 7.9% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,842 shares of the companys stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Wayfair by 17.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,943 shares of the companys stock valued at $126,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Wayfair by 7.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 265,804 shares of the companys stock valued at $17,280,000 after purchasing an additional 18,366 shares during the period. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its position in shares of Wayfair by 17.6% in the second quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 59,420 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 8,909 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.35% of the companys stock.

About Wayfair

(Get Free Report)

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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LONDON - England - Prepare to leave the capital city as Jeremy Corbyn gears up to bid for the role of London Mayor.

As if it was not bad enough living in the dystopian nightmare hell of London under Sadiq Khan, now Comrade Corbyn, (Agent Cobb) is looking to become London Mayor. Not only will this precipitate a mass exodus from the capital city, but for those who have no choice but to stay, it will involve an even more horrible existence.

Just when you thought things could not get worse than mass London crime; daily stabbings, machete attacks, indiscriminate shooting, vandalism, arson and brutally violent theft as well as carjacking, bumper to bumper traffic, punitive taxation, impossible prices for everyday utilities, food prices through the roof, soaring energy bills, surveillance cameras everywhere that do nothing, ULEZ taxation, and Marxist LGBTQP, BLM, Trans indoctrination everywhere starting in kindergarten.

Permanent Stasi Lockdown

Former Stasi agent, Jeremy Corbyn has a plan for London, and it will resemble something like East Berlin during the Cold War. There are rumours that the London Mayor wants surveillance cameras not only on the streets but directly in homes. There are also plans to build a 200-foot-high wall around the M25 with armed guard towers.

Many of Generation Z, who have no idea of privacy and are huge Corbyn fans, calmly agree to being monitored indoors as well as outdoors.

CCTV In Homes

I dont mind if Jeremy Corbyn and his wonderful Stasi loons watch me wiping my arse in the toilet. I can even show the camera the sweetcorn left on the soiled toilet paper. Whatever they want to watch, its all fine with me, Jenny Seamore, a BLM activist and member of her student communist party, revealed to the BBC.

Its hard to find anyone who speaks English in many parts of London these days, but things will get worse even than Sadiq Khans third world policies. Jeremy Corbyn would invite even more poor unskilled unemployable people from all the third world nations across the globe to London. Forget about the NHS, or ever seeing a GP ever again, or sending your kid to a school.

There is only one solution  exodus.
In a heated controversy over the Bank of Ghana's recent write-off of a GH32 billion debt owed by the Government, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Hon. Isaac Adongo, has issued a stern warning to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Ernest Addison.

Adongo, who is known for his financial acumen, hinted that the NDC, upon assuming power, would arrest and prosecute these officials for breaching the law.

Adongo argued that the decision to write off such a colossal debt without parliamentary approval is a violation of the Bank of Ghana Act.

He emphasized that the law requires any debt write-off to go through Parliament for scrutiny. Therefore, the recent write-off was a mere imagination and called for accountability.

He pointed out that once the NDC takes control, it will hold the implicated officials accountable for their actions.

However, he acknowledged that the NDC is cautious in choosing its battles, as taking legal action against powerful individuals in the current government would be a challenging endeavor.

The Bank of Ghana announced the write-off through the implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

Nevertheless, the Minority in Parliament disputed the move, arguing that parliamentary approval was necessary for such actions.

In response to the accusations, the Bank of Ghana defended its actions, asserting that no wrongdoing occurred during the debt write-off.

However, the controversy continues to intensify, with the NDC firmly committed to seeking accountability and justice for what they consider a breach of the law.
King Misuzulu kaZwelithini of the Zulu Nation and his spokesperson have found themselves blocked from paying a hospital visit to Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

The Prime Minister's security team has received strict orders not to grant King Misuzulu access, as Buthelezi holds the king accountable for his ailment.

Scrolla.Africa reported last week that Buthelezi had beenadmitted to an intensive care unit and had lost the abilityto communicate.

Family spokesperson Bhekuyise Buthelezi said last week that Buthelezi had developed complications after a procedure for back pain.

On Sunday, Scrolla.Africa learned from reliable sources that King Misuzulu kaZwelithini wanted to visit Buthelezi at a Richards Bay hospital before he was moved to a Durban facility, but was told not to bother.

"One of Buthelezi's daughters gave clear instructions to the king during a phone call that he must not visit him because the reason Buthelezi is sick is because of him and Prince Afrika Zulu. She didn't tell him that Buthelezi had been moved to a Durban hospital," the source said.

Early this year, Buthelezi told the royal family that King Misuzulu kaZwelithini had turned his back on him and that he felt the king no longer respected him.

He revealed that at some point King Misuzulu had shouted at him and used the term "bullshit".

Last week, Prince Afrika told Scrolla.Africa that the king can't visit his traditional prime minister in hospital because the culture doesn't allow him to do so. He said the king doesn't go to places where there are dead people and can't go to funerals.

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On Sunday, he denied that he and the king had been barred from paying visits, and claimed that Buthelezi has a good relationship with Buthelezi's office and they are kept updated about the prime minister's health.

"It is not true that we have been banned from visiting our traditional prime minister in hospital. Actually, his spokesperson, Liezl Van der Merwe, keeps us constantly updated. The king has also asked the nation to pray for Prince Buthelezi because he still plays a vital role in the nation and is a very important member of the Zulu royal family who is loved by all the people," Prince Afrika said.

Attempts to get hold of Bhekuyise Buthelezi yesterday for comment were unsuccessful, as his phone rang unanswered. Buthelezi's spokesperson did not respond to a WhatsApp message sent to her.
AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. (DC)

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has sounded confident that the Centre may release Rs 17,000 crore by the end of this month for implementation of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package.

This would benefit the families displaced by the Polavaram irrigation project up to the 41.15 metres contour and to expedite the project works to help complete the whole project by June 2025. This would enable supply of water to the farmers for the kharif season, the Chief Minister said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy interacted with the flood-hit people from Kunavaram and VR Puram mandals of Alluri Sitarama Raju district at Kunavaram and with those from Kukunoor mandal of Eluru district, in separate sessions at Gommugudem village on Monday.

Addressing the flood-affected, the CM said, "I am confident the Central Cabinet would give its approval for release of `17,000 crore to AP by the end of this month. Our government has been pressing the Centre to release the money for quite some time now. I personally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Central ministers several times in this connection. Once we get the amount, we will implement the R and R package."

Jagan Mohan Reddy promised to release `5,200 crore immediately after receiving the Central funds, so as to implement the R and R package to the displaced families from 48 habitations in 32 villages. They were joined fresh to the existing list of PDFs after a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) survey. This was to ensure that no affected family would be left out from getting the relief.

The Chief Minister said he would release `800 crore from the state government for implementation of R and R package to nearly 8,000 project-displaced families and to nearly 47,000 farmers who sacrificed their lands for the project by accepting just Rs 1.10 lakh or Rs 1.50 lakh per acre during the land acquisition process.

The land was acquired for the project during the term of his father and former chief minister, late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

The CM had promised to enhance the land cost to Rs 5 lakh per acre. He also promised to release the balance amount of the relief package of Rs 3.2 lakh, as a sum of Rs 6.8 lakh was paid out of the total Rs 10 lakh per head.

Jagan Mohan Reddy slammed the previous Telugu Desam government for the promise it made to the Centre to take up execution of the Polavaram project at the 2013-2014 price level even as the cost of R and R package, land acquisition and the cost of construction of the project had, over the years, gone up tremendously.

He said the Centre was now asking the state government to explain the cost escalation in the project as the previous TD government gave an undertaking to Delhi to take up the project at the old price level.

Expressing concern over the delay in implementation of the R and R package, the CM said, "I am not constructing the Polavaram project. If I were taking it up, I should have given first preference to implementation of R and R package for the benefit of you all. Anyhow, our government is making all efforts to get the money from the Centre. Our government will also release funds to complete the project at 41.15 metre contour in the first phase."

The Chief Minister lambasted the previous TD government for causing inordinate delay in the execution of the project by committing several mistakes in the construction of the spillway, the upper and lower coffer dams and the diaphragm wall without following the order of preference, resulting in scouring of parts of D-wall and also the coffer dam.

He said that this forced the present government to take up a study on the D-wall to identify the damage and finally take a decision to construct a new D-wall based on directions from all the stakeholder agencies like Central Water Commission.
Courtesy: Twitter

Bhopal: Amid growing concern over the death of nine cheetahs in Kuno National Park (KNP) in Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh in a span of six months, Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav has reiterated that there was no plan to relocate the felines from their new habitat, KNP.

"There is no plan going on to relocate the cheetahs. I can say with great confidence that we are seriously engaged in this (cheetah reintroduction) project", Mr Yadav said in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh late on Saturday night.

Referring to death of nine cheetahs since the translocation of first batch of eight cheetahs to KNP from Namibia on September 17, last year, Mr Yadav said that this is a long term project in which cheetahs have to come every year and the government has accepted the sensitivity of the ambitious project.

"We are fully concerned about each cheetah", he added.

Referring to the death of some cheetahs due to maggot infection, he said that the issue was being addressed.

"The infection caused by insects due to the monsoon has come to our notice. We have lost two cheetahs due to infections. We have also shared the information with experts of South Africa and Namibia and we are moving forward on its management", the Union minister told reporters.

Mr Yadav said that this was the first year of the cheetah introduction project and all the forest officials and veterinarians are working very hard at KNP and looking into the issues regarding weather conditions here and its effect.

He reiterated the governments commitment to make the cheetah project successful.

Eight cheetahs were brought from Namibia to KNP in September last and twelve cheetahs were translocated to the park from South Africa in February this year.

Of them, six cheetahs have died so far.

In March this year, four cubs were born to a Namibian cheetah couple.

Of them, only one female cub survived.

The park is now left with 14 adult cheetahs and the lone surviving cub.
Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji (Facebook)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas of Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji and his wife challenging the Madras High Court's judgment which held his arrest legal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case.

A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh while dismissing the plea of Balaji allowed his custodial interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate in cash for a job scam.

Last week, the bench reserved its order on a plea filed by Balaji and his wife challenging the Madras High Court's judgment.

The Madras High Court, on July 14 held legal the EDs arrest of Balaji and subsequent judicial custody granted by a lower court on money laundering charges linked to the cash-for-jobs scam. The High Court order came on the habeas corpus petition filed by Megala, wife of Senthil Balaji.

The High Court found the habeas corpus plea not maintainable in law.

It further clarified that time spent by Balaji under medical treatment in a private hospital would be excluded from the period of custody allowed to the ED.

The ED had arrested Senthil Balaji last month in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam that occurred in the state's transport department, and he continues to be a Minister without portfolio.

The ED had earlier approached the apex court contending that the Madras High Court erred in entertaining a habeas corpus petition filed by Balaji's wife and allowing him to be moved to a private hospital in Chennai from the government hospital following his arrest by the ED.

After a division bench of the Madras High Court gave a split verdict on the habeas corpus plea filed by wife Balaji for his release in a case registered by ED, the Supreme Court asked the Chief Justice of the High Court to place the matter before the three-judge bench at the earliest.

The Minister for Electricity as well as Prohibition and Excise, Balaji, was arrested on June 14 and admitted to a government hospital in Chennai after he complained of chest pain. He was allowed by the Madras High Court on June 15 to be shifted to a private hospital of his choice.

He was later taken from the Tamil Nadu government Multi Super Speciality Hospital to Kauvery Hospital at Alwarpet. Doctors attending to him have recommended bypass surgery.

The interim order of the High Court was passed on a habeas corpus petition filed by the Ministers wife, who accused probe agency officials of not having followed due procedures, such as intimating the grounds of arrest, under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

His wife wanted the arrest itself to be declared illegal for the EDs failure to comply with the legal procedures.

The ED had arrested Balaji in connection with an Enforcement Case Information Register (ECIR) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2021.

The ECIR was registered on the basis of three FIRs lodged against him by the local police in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a cash-for-job case when he was the Transport Minister in Jayalalithaas Cabinet in 2015.

The charges date back to his tenure as transport minister during the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government from 2011 to 2015.
Zaheer Ali Khan

HYDERABAD: Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, managing editor of The Siasat Daily, died after suffering a massive cardiac arrest while he was in the funeral procession of the balladeer Gaddar, said to be his close friend for several years, here on Monday.

Zaheeruddin Ali Khan, a 62-year-old veteran journalist, with over four decades in the profession, is survived by his wife and two sons. The death has shocked the media fraternity.

He reportedly suffered a massive stroke and collapsed in the procession. Many people tried to revive him and rushed him to a nearby private hospital, where he succumbed.

Prayers will be held at Fazr (5.30 am) on Tuesday at the Public Garden mosque and body will be laid to rest at Akhirat Manzil, Aghapura, near Darussalam.

Khan had accompanied the final journey of Gaddar from LB stadium. Gaddar was closely associated with the Siasat management and used to frequent its office. They has participated in several agitations against human rights violations.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, expressing grief at the sudden demise, recalled the role played by the senior journalist during the Telangana agitation.

BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, while expressing his condolences to the bereaved family, said that, in his death, Urdu journalism has lost an icon.

TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said Khans death was a huge loss to Telangana.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi at AICC headquarters (PTI)

New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders and party workers on Monday hailed Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, saying it is a victory of truth and justice.As soon as the Lok Sabha membership of Gandhi was restored, celebrations broke out at the AICC headquarters here with workers dancing and raising slogans in favour of the former Congress president.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge distributed sweets among leaders of the opposition bloc INDIA during a meeting in his chamber ahead of the commencement of the House proceedings.

The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step.



It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad.



Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than pic.twitter.com/kikcZqfFvn  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 7, 2023

In a tweet, he said, "The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad."

"Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders," he said.

AICC general secretary, Organisation, KC Venugopal said, "Democracy has won! India wins".

"Sh. @RahulGandhi ji will continue his parliamentary journey by speaking the truth without any hesitation. He is the voice of India, he can never be silenced," he said.

Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore said, "Welcome decision. Conspiracy defeated. RG returns."

Reacting to the development, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies has been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun."

With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!@INCIndia @ProfCong  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 7, 2023

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi also hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP.

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

He represents Wayanad in the lower house.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi arrives at Parliament House complex during Monsoon Session, in New Delhi. (PTI Photo/Shahbaz Khan)

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was back in Parliament on Monday after four months, as his membership of the Lower House was restored by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, after the Supreme Court last week stayed his conviction in a defamation case.

Gandhis return just before the No-Trust motion against the Narendra Modi government came as a boost to the entire Opposition. The Lok Sabha will on Tuesday take-up the No-Confidence Motion moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi. Gandhi is likely to be one of the key speakers of the Opposition bloc INDIA.

Gandhi reached Parliament House and offered floral tributes at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi before entering the House around noon.

Gandhi was accorded a warm welcome by the Congress and other Opposition MPs, but the House was adjourned within minutes.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge hailed Gandhis reinstatement as an MP, saying that the decision was a "welcome step" and it brings relief to the people of India. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also hailed her brothers return.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. (Twitter)

HYDERABAD: Stating that Telangana is a role model for many states in terms of development in the country, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday said that they would implement the Telangana model in Maharashtra, as a number of sarpanchs and public representatives of local bodies joined BRS in the city. Rao said that the BRS ruling government introduced a number of people's friendly policies and schemes.

The Telangana state is a role model for many states in the country in terms ofdevelopment. "We will implement similar schemes in Maharashtra and request all the sarpanchs to work in respective places to strengthen the BRS in Maharashtra," he said. Rao called upon the Solapur constituency sarpanchs to work on people's issues by mingling with them. The BRS would support the Maharashtra unit and cadre.

Even though the Godavari and Krishna started from Maharashtra, the people living in the state are facing drinking water issue for the past decades. People depend on lifting water from wells in many districts in that state. "The country has plenty ofwater sources and 1.40 lakh TMC water is available in the country. But, we utilise only 19 TMCs water and remaining 51 TMCs water merging into seas. We must plan to build irrigation projects to reserve water for drinking and irrigation," the Chief Minister said.

Chandrasekhar Rao said that many IAS officers in Maharashtra suggested the government to implement policies like Telangana to serve better in Maharashtra. In Telangana, the ruling BRS government is implementing free power supply for agriculture sector, Dalit Bandu, Rythu Bhima, paddy procurement, cancellation of water tax from people, "The BJP government at Centre encourages corporate businessmen Adani and Ambani in handing over nationalised institutions. The BJP government at Centre failed to bring people related schemes," the chief minister alleged.

At least 200 persons including sarpanches, local body public representatives from Solapur of Maharashtra.
Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM  Get Free Report) (TSE:BAM.A) is set to announce its earnings results before the market opens on Wednesday, August 9th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.33 per share for the quarter. Individual that are interested in participating in the companys earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM  Get Free Report) (TSE:BAM.A) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 10th. The financial services provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $966.00 million for the quarter. On average, analysts expect Brookfield Asset Management to post $1 EPS for the current fiscal year and $2 EPS for the next fiscal year.

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Brookfield Asset Management Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BAM opened at $32.90 on Monday. The firms 50 day moving average price is $32.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.58. Brookfield Asset Management has a twelve month low of $26.76 and a twelve month high of $36.50.

Brookfield Asset Management Announces Dividend

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 31st were issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 30th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%.

A number of research firms have commented on BAM. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Brookfield Asset Management to an underperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 18th. TD Securities cut their price target on Brookfield Asset Management from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an action list buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com started coverage on Brookfield Asset Management in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Brookfield Asset Management in a research report on Tuesday, May 30th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on Brookfield Asset Management in a research note on Thursday, July 13th. They set an outperform rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $39.86.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Brookfield Asset Management

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BAM. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA grew its holdings in Brookfield Asset Management by 35.5% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 1,057 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management by 185.7% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,317 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 1,506 shares during the last quarter. Eqis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management in the first quarter worth approximately $257,000. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Brookfield Asset Management in the second quarter worth approximately $209,000. Finally, Eudaimonia Partners LLC acquired a new position in Brookfield Asset Management during the first quarter worth $282,000. 57.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Brookfield Asset Management

(Get Free Report)

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. provides alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the ownership, operation, and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, and energy transition power generating assets. The company's infrastructure business engages in the ownership, operation, and development of utilities, transport, midstream, data and sustainable resource assets.

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Former President Jacob Zuma has no plans to give up on his dream to privately prosecute prosecutor Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan.

Zuma has submitted a notice to appeal a Pietermaritzburg High Court decision that sought to block him from attempting to prosecute the two in the future.

Msholozi is accusing Downer of sharing details of his medical records with Maughan, despite this being against the law.

His appeal of the court's decision on Thursday means Downer and Maughan, who were scheduled to appear in court on Friday, must appear in court as scheduled.

Zuma recently returned from Russia, where he was apparently receiving medical attention. He is accused of using these appeals to delay his prosecution for allegedly soliciting bribes from a French company that won contracts in South Africa's R60-billion arms deal.

Meanwhile, the Department of Correctional Services said it will announce on Thursday whether Zuma will return to jail to finish his sentence.

Last month, the Constitutional Court dismissed an application by the prisons department appealing a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal, which found Zuma's release on medical parole was unlawful.

The Apex Court dismissed the application, but left the final decision on whether Zuma should return to jail to Correctional Services boss Makgothi Thobakgale.

"The next phase is for the national commissioner, Makgothi Thobakgale, to consider every material received, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal and prescripts within the space of Corrections. Commissioner Thobakgale is to make his decision on or before August 10 and it will be communicated publicly," said department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.

Zuma was sentenced to prison for defying a Concourt order to appear before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

He was illegally released by former Correctional Services chief Arthur Fraser, who overruled a decision of the Medical Parole Advisory Board that found Zuma should not be released on medical parole.
Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $28.42.

HUN has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Huntsman in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. VNET Group reissued a maintains rating on shares of Huntsman in a research report on Tuesday, May 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. 58.com reissued an initiates rating on shares of Huntsman in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Huntsman from $29.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th.

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Huntsman Stock Up 0.0 %

Huntsman stock opened at $28.65 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $26.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 2.14. Huntsman has a 52-week low of $23.52 and a 52-week high of $33.46. The firm has a market cap of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.84 and a beta of 1.14.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

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 return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 2.64%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Huntsman will post 0.93 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a $0.2375 dividend. This represents a $0.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. Huntsmans payout ratio is 98.96%.

Insider Transactions at Huntsman

In other news, VP David M. Stryker bought 2,500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 2nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $24.50 per share, with a total value of $61,250.00. Following the acquisition, the vice president now owns 385,502 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $9,444,799. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.60% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of Huntsman

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Miller Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 2,870.0% in the 1st quarter. Miller Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 594 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 574 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new stake in Huntsman during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised 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 valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Huntsman in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Huntsman in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 85.53% of the companys stock.

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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Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Molson Coors Beverage (NYSE:TAP  Free Report) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 321,504 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 4,260 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned 0.15% of Molson Coors Beverage worth $16,613,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TAP. AlphaMark Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Molson Coors Beverage by 21.6% during the 1st quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,015 shares of the companys stock worth $156,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Molson Coors Beverage by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 44,959 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,323,000 after buying an additional 4,244 shares during the last quarter. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Molson Coors Beverage in the 1st quarter valued at $1,976,573,000. Ziegler Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Molson Coors Beverage by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 28,088 shares of the companys stock worth $1,468,000 after purchasing an additional 3,823 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in Molson Coors Beverage by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 173,821 shares of the companys stock worth $8,983,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364 shares during the period. 77.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Geoffrey E. Molson sold 1,840 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.62, for a total transaction of $111,540.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 25,904 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,570,300.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Molson Coors Beverage Stock Performance

Molson Coors Beverage Dividend Announcement

NYSE:TAP opened at $65.31 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $14.12 billion, a PE ratio of 408.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.86. Molson Coors Beverage has a 1-year low of $46.69 and a 1-year high of $70.90.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.41 per share. This represents a $1.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 31st. Molson Coors Beverages dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 1,025.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on TAP shares. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $70.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $53.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $74.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $47.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Molson Coors Beverage from $67.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday, June 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $61.59.

Molson Coors Beverage Company Profile

(Free Report)

Molson Coors Beverage Company manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers flavored malt beverages including hard seltzers, craft, and ready to drink beverages. It provides its products under Aspall Cider, Blue Moon, Coors Original, Hop Valley brands, Leinenkugel's, Miller Genuine Draft, Molson Ultra, Sharp's, Staropramen, and Vizzy Hard Seltzer above premier brands; Bergenbier, Borsodi, Carling, Coors Banquet, Coors Light, Jelen, Kamenitza, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian Lager, Molson Dry, Molson Export, and Niksicko, Ozujsko under the premium brands; and Branik, Icehouse, Keystone, Miller High Life, Milwaukee's Best, and Steel Reserve under the economy brands.

Further Reading

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PHX Energy Services (OTCMKTS:PHXHF  Get Free Report) and Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR  Get Free Report) are both energy companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for PHX Energy Services and Nabors Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score PHX Energy Services 0 0 0 0 N/A Nabors Industries 1 4 2 0 2.14

PHX Energy Services currently has a consensus price target of $11.25, suggesting a potential upside of 111.86%. Nabors Industries has a consensus price target of $145.00, suggesting a potential upside of 22.76%. Given PHX Energy Services higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe PHX Energy Services is more favorable than Nabors Industries.

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets PHX Energy Services N/A N/A N/A Nabors Industries -0.96% -17.98% -2.22%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

This table compares PHX Energy Services and Nabors Industries net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

38.3% of PHX Energy Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of Nabors Industries shares are held by institutional investors. 7.1% of Nabors Industries shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PHX Energy Services and Nabors Industries revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio PHX Energy Services N/A N/A N/A $1.32 4.02 Nabors Industries $2.67 billion 0.42 -$350.26 million ($5.87) -20.12

PHX Energy Services has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Nabors Industries. Nabors Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PHX Energy Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

PHX Energy Services beats Nabors Industries on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PHX Energy Services

(Get Free Report)

PHX Energy Services Corp. provides horizontal and directional drilling technology and services to oil and natural gas exploration and development companies in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It offers Velocity Real-Time Systems that provide downhole guidance systems; Atlas motors; PowerDrive Orbit RSS, a rotary steerable system; P-360 Positive Pulse MWD System, a measurement while drilling (MWD) tool; and E-360 EM MWD System, an MWD tool that transmits electric signals through geological formations. The company also provides 360 CV MWD System, a clear vision tool, which surveys inclination and gamma in real-time closer to the bit; 360 RWD System, a resistivity while drilling sub; and North Seeking Gyro that offers real-time QA/QC checks downhole. The company was formerly known as Phoenix Technology Income Fund and changed its name to PHX Energy Services Corp. PHX Energy Services Corp. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

About Nabors Industries

(Get Free Report)

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. The company also offers ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. The company marketed approximately 300 rigs for land-based drilling operations; and 29 rigs for offshore platform drilling operations. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

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Derry City and Strabane District Council have announced a series of events to mark Heritage Week which takes place from August 12-20.

The theme for the Ireland wide initiative is Living Heritage and the varied programme invites the public to explore the traditions, practices, knowledge and skills that have been passed down through generations.

The City Walls, the River Foyle, Strabane, the iconic Guildhall and The Tower Museum will all feature during the week which aims to bring together communities, families, organisations, cultural institutions, academics and enthusiasts to build awareness about the value of heritage and support its conservation.

The programme includes the Strabane Heritage Trail and virtual tours of the Guildhall while the public can also explore the history of the citys walls where the historic cannons are currently being repainted with financial assistance from the Heritage Council.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Patricia Logue, welcomed Councils involvement in the initiative which received a Heritage Week Award for its online element last year.

Im delighted to welcome back our Heritage Week programme which will see both online and physical events and tours returning across Derry and Strabane, she said.

I think sometimes we can take for granted just how lucky we are to live in an area so rich in history and heritage, and through these events and exhibitions, we can learn so much more about what is on our doorstep.

This years theme of Living Heritage is particularly apt for a City and District like ours that is steeped in generations of history with many of the buildings and structures from our past still intact and in use today.

For more information, visit heritageweek.ie and follow the events on social media using #heritageweek2023, #LoveHeritageNI and following @heritageweek2023

You can find further details on the Derry and Strabane District Heritage Plan here - https://tinyurl.com/2vxxzu2y
The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) has announced the return of the much-loved Tea Dances for the year ahead, as she bids to raise money for her two chosen charities.

The ever-popular Mayors Tea Dances will return to Derry and Strabane from September. They will be held on a Wednesday afternoon from 2pm until 4pm and guests will be treated to live music from local musicians while enjoying a sweet treat as well as tea or coffee.

Mayor of DCSDC, Cllr Patricia Logue said she was thrilled to bring the tea dances back and was excited to get her dancing shoes on in September.

I am really excited to welcome back the Tea Dances and add them to our charity events this year," she said. "I have heard from previous mayors, and from members of the community, just how much people love and support these events and its great to be able to provide that space for those who enjoy the social event.

"It is wonderful to be able to bring people together for some dancing, live music, a hot cuppa and a catch-up with their friends.

These events create a fabulous sense of community spirit and positive atmosphere which is infectious when you are there. I am really looking forward to attending and getting out on to the dance floor for a jive, swing and waltz!

The Tea Dances will take place in the Guildhall on the following dates: September 6, October 11, November 1 and December 6, 7th, February, March 20, April 10 and May 8, 2024.

The Mayors Christmas Tea Dance will take place in the St Pats Hall, Strabane on Tuesday, December 12 from 2pm until 4pm. A special Tea Dance will also take place in The Alley Theatre on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.

While the Tea Dances remain a free event, donations to the Mayors charities are welcome. Mayor Logue is committed to raising much-needed funds for the Foyle Hospice and The Ryan McBride Foundation while she is in office.

Registration for the events is essential and you can do so by contacting the Mayors Office either by calling 028 71376508 or email mayor@derrystrabane.com.

PICTURED ABOVE: The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Patricia Logue pictured at the Mayor's Parlour, Guildhall on Monday morning for the launch of the Mayor's Tea Dances, first of which will be in September. Included in the photo are Jason Blackburn and Joanne McMenamin, Council staff members at the Guildhall.
Reliance has announced the date of its Annual General Meeting. The meeting, Reliance AGM 2023 will be held later this month and it is the 46th meeting of the company. This years General Meeting is also expected to be live-streamed on Youtube. It is rumoured that Reliance might unveil the Jio Phone 5G in the AGM 2023.

In the AGM 2023, the CEO, Mukesh Ambani is expected to announce the growth of the company. Along with that, he could also announce new 5G plans for Jio users, and as I mentioned above, there are chances that Mukesh Ambani might also announce the Jio Phone 5G.

Also read: Jio Phone 5G expected to be the cheapest 5G phone in India: Here's how much it could cost

Back in 2020, Mukesh Ambani had announced a collaboration with Google to introduce affordable 5G smartphones in India under the Jio brand. Now there are strong speculations that the Jio 5G smartphone could be launched in the AGM 2023. The device was previously spotted on Geekbench. The reports revealed the Snapdragon 480+ chipset Android 12 OS in the Jio Phone 5G. Recently some new renders have also been leaked which indicates imminent launch.

Next in line is the Jio 5G plans. Jio 5G connectivity has already been implemented in various cities. However, the 5G plans have not been announced yet, and users have been accessing 5G services from existing 4G plans. The AGM 2023 might finally unveil the 5G plans, which are expected to be priced similarly to current 4G plans.

Also read: Reliance AGM 2022 is slated for August 29: Jio 5G and Jio Phone 5G expected



Another product that Jio had announced previously is the Jio AirFiber 5G hotspot device. The 2023 AGM is expected to reveal the device's price and availability. The Jio AirFiber is designed to provide ultra-high-speed 5G connectivity, similar to a wireless fibre connection, for home or office use.
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LatenceTech: pioneering the future of ultra-low latency wireless connectivity

As wireless technology evolves and grows ever more seamlessly into the fabric of our daily lives, there remain significant problems to solve. Discrepancies in connection speed, known as latency, may only seem like a nuisance when on a video call, but can have major ramifications for emerging applications. Industrial IoT solutions require a near-instant and uninterrupted flow of data for optimal efficiency; autonomous vehicles will need to communicate with each other with minimal delay in order to guarantee safe operation; telemedical surgery absolutely calls for low-latency communication as human life hangs in the balance. LatenceTech, a Canada-based startup, aims to serve this growing market through novel analytics software.

LatenceTech, founded in 2020 by telecom industry veteran Benoit Gendron, a former sales director at Ericsson in Canada, stands at the forefront of the emerging "smart" wireless communication wave. With a focus on measuring and analyzing latency, the startup has developed a cloud-native container-based active monitoring solution that empowers mobile operators, telecom vendors, and industries with real-time insights into their network quality and latency metrics.

"These new innovations require between five and 25 milliseconds of stable, low latency connection to function at their best," explained Gendron in an interview with DIGITIMES. "If there's too much variation, and that's what we measure, then they can have issues that affect operational success." The solution Gendron and his team developed has a wide potential user base. "We initially built the software for mobile operators, but we saw that there are many other verticals, like mining and telemetry in cars, that need this technology."

A Ready Solution for an Expanding Market

LatenceTech's core offering is its cloud-native active monitoring solution. It is designed to track, predict, and analyze the quality and latency of public and private 5G networks. Comprising three essential components, the solution can be swiftly tailored to meet specific end-to-end network and application monitoring needs.

LatenceTech's innovation is in its specific active monitoring tool, which Gendron explains: "It's software that measures the quality and performance of the connectivity, and transfers the results to an analytics platform. This enables real-time 24/7 monitoring, forecasting, diagnostics and cost evaluation. It's a container-based software agent that we put inside the 5G modem, IoT device or the connected equipment. Then we measure these different aspects of latency and reliability of the network through active monitoring  meaning that we generate or we emulate the connectivity characteristics of the connected robot, car, etc. We perform our measurements in real-time with multiple network, IP and industrial protocols, aimed at a target positioned at the other end of the network, as if it were the connected equipment, and continuously receive time-stamped responses back. We base our measurements off these responses. That's why it's called active monitoring."

LatenceTech's focus on ultra-low latency connectivity has been driven by the realization that many new innovative services and industrial equipment require stable upper bounded latency connectivity to function optimally. Whether it's teleoperation, telemedicine, or autonomous equipment, safety, security, and business continuity rely on continuous tracking of latency. LatenceTech's software-based active monitoring and analytics solution appeals to numerous markets looking to access real-time tracking, prediction, diagnostics, and optimization insights for wireless connectivity. "We're working with Swedish manufacturers," says Gendron. "For example, with a company called Veoneer. They are an ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) supplier to automotive OEMs. With them and Ericsson, we have done a proof-of-concept to collect and predict cellular network latency used as a new input to car's self-driving systems paving the way for full autonomy and connected mobility."

Incorporating AI to Serve Customer Needs

LatenceTech's real-time cloud-native monitoring solution delivers valuable insights using multiple IP and industrial protocols. One key advantage is the platform's use of AI to enhance its operational efficacy. "We use AI, for example, to highlight anomalies," explains Gendron. "So we can detect an anomaly within 20 milliseconds and send an alarm to the connected equipment. That's the first application of AI. It can assess and determine what is and isn't a latency anomaly. The second use is in forecasting. Today, we can forecast the network latency for the next 90 seconds with a high level of confidence. If our forecast exceeds some pre-set thresholds that is required for connected equipment, or service we can send an immediate alarm to help prevent potential issues or make sure the service, such as an autonomous car or collaborative robot would remain safe."

A noteworthy aspect of LatenceTech's offerings is its user-friendly and modifiable real-time dashboards, enabling visualization of connectivity metrics related to low latency levels, volatility, reliability, bandwidth, and more. This allows users to make continuous improvements and track SLA commitments effectively, as we can see below:

Monetizing the Benefits of Ultra-Low Latency

LatenceTech's focus on ultra-low latency goes beyond technical improvements; the startup has also developed a groundbreaking business model innovation to monetize sustained low latency 5G connectivity for the industrial sector. This new approach allows mobile carriers to promote "Premium 5G" plans with latency guarantees, providing them with a competitive edge and the potential to increase B2B market share and revenue.

The benefits of measuring and accurately predicting connectivity latency are not lost on manufacturing industry insiders. Gendron and his company are always looking for opportunities to expand and show off their technology to prospective users, and those within the Asian tech supply chain are starting to catch on. "In Taiwan, they're so advanced in automated manufacturing with robots that many companies are starting to see the advantages in this area," said Gendron. "We already have contacts with manufacturers there. In Europe, we have interest from ABB and some motor and robot manufacturers." Mobile operators remain another important market for LatenceTech.

The Future of Ultra-Low Latency Connectivity

Looking ahead, LatenceTech's vision remains centered on the continuous evolution of wireless connectivity. The startup continues to explore new partnerships and collaborations to support innovations such as autonomous cars and connected industrial equipment. By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning-based methods, LatenceTech can identify sources and factors affecting network latency, ensuring stable and reliable wireless connectivity to unlock the full potential of low-latency 5G networks. As the demand for ultra-low latency connectivity continues to rise with new innovations and services, LatenceTech remains committed to shaping the wireless landscape of the future, driving progress and redefining what's possible in the world of wireless communication.
Amaqubelo Bakery is one of hundreds of businesses at risk of going under in Cape Town, as the violent city's taxi strike rages on.

The ongoing strike in Cape Town is a devastating blow for businesses that are struggling to survive after suffering significant financial losses.

Local business owner Thembile Ngqwala from Amaqobelo Bakery said they are feeling the impact firsthand as they grapple with the consequences of disrupted transport services.

"I had scones and muffins ready for my clients, but they couldn't reach me as cars were being stoned and torched, making it impossible for me to deliver the orders. I was left with R5,000 worth of unsold stock," said Ngqwala.

"I tried to sell everything at half price to avoid throwing it away. In the end, I even had to give some items away for free."

Ngqwala has a team of 11 employees who depend on him to pay their salaries at the end of the month. "I have to think of my staff; giving everything away costs me a lot," he said.

"We also sell at the taxi rank, but we couldn't do that because the taxis are not operating.".

Unfortunately, like Amaqobelo Bakery, other businesses also couldn't rely on their usual sales at the taxi rank. Loyiso Basso, the owner of KwaMgoli fast food and restaurant in Khayelitsha, voiced his frustration.

"More than 20 customers from outside our area placed orders but they couldn't come in. It's disheartening that we are suffering, and there seems to be no assistance available for the losses we are enduring. We are left to fend for ourselves," he said.

"We understand the frustrations of the taxi owners, but we appeal to them to reach an agreement so that things can get back to normal. With the country's high unemployment rate already a big problem, we cannot afford to lose jobs due to difficulties with transport." The impact of the taxi strike also affects street vendors.

A woman who relies on her daily earnings to feed her family said she was scared. "I hate being a burden on people, but if the taxi strike continues, I will have no choice but to ask my neighbours for food," she said.

As Cape Town's business community continues to suffer, all eyes are on the authorities and the striking parties to find a resolution.
President William Ruto steered clear from commenting on the upcoming bipartsian talks as he embraked on his five-day tour of the Mt.Kenya region.

Nairobi  President William Ruto has said that his administration has managed to stabilize the economy despite criticism from his detractors that the economic outlook has worsened during his regime.

President Ruto has pointed out that his government has moved away from sponsoring the budget of the current financial year through borrowing and focused on funding the budget through taxes imposed on Kenyans.

"We have stabilized the economy of the people of Kenya. We must build this country on a solid foundation not on a foundation of debt. The economy is now stabilized," said Ruto.

Ruto was speaking during an interdenominational church service at Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.

The Head of State buttressed that the government has moved forward to make plans of settling foreign debts before their maturity to ensure the nation is not caught off guard due to an unmitigated crisis.

President Ruto expressed that failure to initiate early plans to repay the foreign loans would have risked the country to default on the loan.

"We sat down and planned and said that we won't wait until next year June. Those rogue credit rating agencies, those who are used to use fishy ways to increase debt have now written to us questioning why we are paying the loan early," said Ruto.

The key risk that Kenya will face is in 2024 when a Eurobond comes up for repayment.

Ruto's government, which took over in September, has pledged to curb expensive commercial borrowing in favor of cheaper sources like the World Bank to reduce debt servicing pressures.

The country has been ranked the sixth country most likely to default on its public debt in new findings based on Bloomberg data.

Public debts, which is money owed to the country by domestic and foreign lenders, now account for a significant portion of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.
Nairobi  Azimio Leader Raila Odinga on Sunday inaugurated the Engoko Centre, a poultry farm and eatery located in Kitutu Masaba, Nyamira County.

Accompanied by his spouse, Ida, and a group of leaders led by Nyamira Senator Okong'o Omogeni, the former Prime Minister participated in the center's official opening.

Raila said the establishment serves as a vital platform for empowering the residents of Nyamira by providing them with chickens.

"It's a terrific spot to eat fresh chicken as well as a nexus for farmers in the area to learn from and share information about poultry farming," he said.

Raila also participated in a fundraising event at Kerubo Parish Church in the County.

The opposition leader recently paused the nationwide protests as he decided to give dialogue with the government another chance.

The protests aimed to address the pressing issues affecting the country, notably the soaring cost of living under President William Ruto's administration.

Both the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza coalitions have already established five-member teams each to lead the talks.

The bipartisan team is scheduled to convene this week to determine the modalities that will govern the terms of engagement.
Air-conditioned protective vests used by outdoor grid workers in Jiangsu

Xinhua) 14:00, August 07, 2023

NANJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Electricians in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, have been equipped with air-conditioned protective vests when maintaining the power grid in the scorching summer heat.

The surging electricity consumption in Jiangsu since mid-summer has put huge pressure on the grid, causing occasional failures. To minimize disruptions in power supplies to residents, electricians operate without shutting down the power supply when trouble-shooting, which requires them to wear insulation protective clothing.

However, working at a height of more than 10 meters above the ground in insulation clothing weighing about 3.5 kg can easily lead to fatigue and even heat stroke. "It's like a thick raincoat," said Fan Fan, a worker of the State Grid Nanjing Power Supply Company. "Each time when we finish the operation and strip off the protective coats, we find our entire bodies soaked in sweat."

The State Grid Nanjing Power Supply Company has sourced six sets of air-conditioned vests for its front-line electricians this year.

The vests, developed and produced by a company based in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, use an air conditioner compressor to cool the temperature and infuse the cooling water into the circulation channels inside the vests to achieve further cooling effects.

Test results showed that the vests can reduce the body surface temperature by nearly 10 degrees Celcius, and the cooling effects can last for nearly one hour.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Judge orders Mogale City to immediately reinstate the water supply to Krugersdorp school

Mogale City Municipality must immediately restore water supply to John Martin Catholic School in Krugersdorp, the High Court has ordered.

The school has been fetching water for its almost 500 learners from a nearby church since April.

The municipality had not taken the matter seriously, the judge said, ordering the municipal manager and his attorneys to say why they should not personally pay the costs of the court application.

A Johannesburg High Court judge has ordered Mogale City Municipality to immediately reinstate the water supply to a local school.

The John Martin Catholic School in Krugersdorp, in an urgent application which came before acting Judge Zubair Khan, said since the water was cut off in April this year, almost 500 learners and staff were forced to fetch water in buckets for ablution from a nearby church.

While the municipality opposed the application, Judge Khan said neither its municipal manager nor its attorneys had taken the matter seriously, in spite of it concerning the constitutional rights of children. The judge has put them on terms to file affidavits to explain why they should not have to personally pay the costs of the application.

He also reported the advocate acting for the municipality to the Legal Practice Council for his conduct during the proceedings.

In his ruling, which he gave extempore and which has been transcribed, Judge Khan said the school was situated in an impoverished area and catered largely for underprivileged children.

Whilst it was a private school, it charged fees of only R4,000 a year.

There had been mismanagement, but a proper system had now been put in place and a new board was attempting to "clean up the mess".

He said there had been protracted negotiations with the local authority over the water bill but, in April this year, the water was cut off.

Since then, water was collected in buckets from a Catholic church across the road.

The papers indicated that the municipality had dug in its heels, and was demanding money for estimated consumption readings, some of which had become prescribed, as well as other sundry charges.

He said at one stage, when he stood the matter down for representatives of the school to be in attendance, the advocate for the municipality, Emmanuel Sithole, had become agitated, "complaining loudly".

"He slapped his papers down on the desk. He smacked his hand on the table," Judge Khan said.

Sithole had also said he was appearing in another court on the same day.

Having regard to the Constitution and the rights of children, Judge Khan said he directed the municipality to give the school all of its municipal accounts, dating back to 2017, by 4pm on that day.

But these were never handed over.

The judge also ordered that the municipality's legal manager come to court the following week, with the hope of resolving the impasse through negotiation but no one arrived.

When the matter was called, counsel for the school handed up a draft settlement agreement and said advocate Sithole needed to simply forward an email confirming that it could be made an order of court.

But no email came.

Judge Khan said, "My registrar called his number repeatedly between 1pm and 1:40 pm and Mr Sithole did not take any phone calls despite his cellphone ringing."

Sithole then sent an email to the registrar saying he could not attend court, suggesting an online hearing, and that he had to fetch his child from school.

"I refrain from making further comments regarding this email but believe that such conduct of Mr Sithole must be reported to professional bodies," Judge Khan said.

He said it was clear that there was an ongoing dispute about the bill and charges which had been unilaterally raised without explanation.

It was perplexing that the municipality had still not produced the accounts, as directed by the court, he said.

"This is in clear contravention of their obligations in terms of the Municipal Systems Act read with the relevant bylaws. The applicant [the school] says that they have been attempting to procure municipal accounts for many months and have been unsuccessful."

The judge said the municipality was not taking the matter seriously and had distanced itself from its constitutional obligations.

He said the school had offered to pay over R400,000 immediately, albeit in protest, and the municipality had failed to "snatch this bargain".

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His registrar, when he could not contact Sithole, had also attempted to contact the municipality's attorneys, Madhlopa Thenge Inc, but these calls were also unanswered and nobody returned the calls, in spite of him leaving messages.

The attorneys had also not attended court which was "further shocking conduct where an attorney merely acts as a labour broker to pass work from a client to an advocate without partaking in the legal process".

He said the attorneys and the City manager could file affidavits explaining why they should not be held personally responsible for the costs of the application, which he granted on a punitive scale.

He directed the municipality to immediately restore the water at the school and directed that the school take legal action within 30 days against the municipality to finally sort out the billing mess.

He also ordered the municipality to rectify the school's account and remove certain charges, including those that had become prescribed.

He directed that the school make the R400,000 payment as a "pre-estimation of any monies which may be due".
The premiere of a ground-breaking short film, Homofonia was held in the Pavilion cinema in Cork city in recent weeks.

The innovative film by filmmakers Alana Daly Mulligan and Luke K. Murphy delves into the complexities of a closeted relationship set against a traditional Irish backdrop, showcasing struggles with language and identity.

Filming took place at Terence MacSwiney Community College in Hollyhill over two days last May and the film tells the story of a closeted couple who must sort their domestic issues as Gaeilge to prevent their classmates from knowing theyre an item.

Sean and Catherine Daly at the film premiere of the new Irish film Homofonia which was screened at the Pavillion cinema in Cork. Picture: David Creedon

However, translation issues leave their relationship in jeopardy.

Ms Daly Mulligan, who is a freelance media producer based in Cork, said it is the first film of its kind.

It is the first half English/half Irish film that is truly bilingual. It is the first film of its kind. It is all shot in Cork.

Three of the six actors are from Cork and all the background extras were actual students on set. It is aimed at young people.

It is all about providing positive role models for people growing up in Ireland and trying to figure themselves out.

We say it is an LGBTQ film, but the word gay isnt mentioned in the film once. It is just good vibes, she said.

Elaine O'Mahony, producer Alana Daly Mulligan and Michele Power at the film premiere of the new Irish film Homofonia which was screened at the Pavillion cinema in Cork. Picture: David Creedon

Ms Daly Mulligan, who hails from Waterford, completed her third-level studies at UCC and has lived in Cork for several years.

She said the film will act as an entry point for people who are feeling misunderstood.

I think a lot of people wouldnt necessarily sit down and watch an all-Irish film.

We wanted to make it an entry point for people to experience the language but also to draw the comparison that often many people are frustrated with the lack of understanding of the Irish language like the experience that LGBTQ people have in everyday society, feeling misunderstood and not really knowing where they fit in.

Fiona Buckley and Grett O'Connor at the film premiere of the new Irish film Homofonia which was screened at the Pavillion cinema in Cork. - Picture: David Creedon

As part of the Cork Pride 2023 celebrations, a screening of Homofonia and a panel discussion was also held at Cork City Library on Grand Parade.

The panel discussion was moderated by book influencer and bookseller Caoimhe Coleman and featured discussion between award-winning activist and author Orla Egan and Alana Daly Mulligan on the state of queer Irish literature, its power to start conversations and change the status quo with regard to LGBTQ issues.

The film will be showcased at various film festivals in Ireland and internationally over the next year.

Louise Crowley, Carolyn White and Celine Griffin at the film premiere of the new Irish film Homofonia which was screened at the Pavillion cinema in Cork. Picture: David Creedon

Ms Daly Mulligan said they have exciting plans for the film.

These plans include potentially rolling it out to secondary schools nationwide before the end of next year.

We have big plans for the project.

We are going to work with an organisation called Creativity and Change and hold several workshops over the next six months with young people.

We will formulate a booklet that will be presented along with the film.

We hope to roll it out in secondary schools and youth groups nationwide by the end of 2024.

It will promote being proud of your country and not being afraid to be different.

Mary O'Donnell and Caoimhe Coleman at the film premiere of the new Irish film Homofonia which was screened at the Pavillion cinema in Cork. Picture: David Creedon

There is a lot of language telling us how we should be Irish and what is right and wrong.

This film is telling us there are lots of ways to be Irish, love our culture and our community.

It's a completely unique project, merging Gaeilge and gayness for an educational audience, she added.
Leesiders have been encouraged to come out in force and celebrate Cork's All-Ireland winning camogie team as they return to the city this evening.

The team is back as All-Ireland senior camogie champions for the first time since 2018, after their stunning victory against Waterford yesterday.

The Rebels will make their triumphant return this evening with a special homecoming event planned in celebration.

Hello Cork Fans - what a weekend and we have a special day today of course the HOMECOMING! We would ask all Cork fans to celebrate a famous win with the team this evening in Cork city - the plan is as follows:



Train with the team is leaving Dublin @ 3pm. pic.twitter.com/ZQCVwvUT38  OfficialCorkCamogie (@CorkCamogie) August 7, 2023

Posting on social media today, Cork Camogie encouraged fans to celebrate the win with the team.

The team will be leaving Dublin by train at 3pm this afternoon and making a stop off in Mallow before arriving into Kent Station at around 6.10pm.

There will be an open top bus parade heading down Patrick St and onto Grand Parade and South Mall before stopping outside the Imperial Hotel, where there will be a reception for the team.

"Let's get a sea of red in Cork this evening on an occasion young and old can enjoy," Cork Camogie tweeted.
LOCAL authorities in Cork spent more than 600,000 in recent years to allow staff to work from home, it has been revealed.

Working from home fast became the norm in early 2020, as the world responded to the covid-19 pandemic.

Despite many workplaces and other aspects of everyday life returning to normal in late 2021/early 2022, the appeal of working from home remained for many. As a result, some workplaces adopted a work-from-home policy or a blended approach.

Information obtained from Cork City Council shows the local authority spent 185,000 on remote working in 2020, around 99,000 in 2021, and 54,000 in 2022. The local authority said this spend was related to both software and hardware costs.

Meanwhile, information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows Cork County Council spent almost 300,000 to facilitate council staff to work from home over an 18-month period.

The data shows that Cork County Council spent 245,000 in 2022 and 26,000 in the first six months of 2023 to allow staff to work from home during this period.

In a statement to The Echo, sent with the requested information, Cork County Council said that the money spent relates to the supply of adjustable office chairs, laptop risers, keyboards, computer mice, and footrests where required.

It should be noted that the councils blended working policy came into effect on September 19, 2022, the local authority stated.

All instances of working from home prior to that date are deemed to be in the context of the response to the covid-19 pandemic.

In accordance with its blended working policy, Cork County Council ordered necessary equipment for employees, based on workstation assessments.

The county council also provided data on the number of employees who were approved to work from home under the blended working policy. The local authority said some 1,449 staff members were approved for the scheme, with 1,045 taking the opportunity to work from home on occasion.

Of the 1.2m required work hours during this period, around 335,000 were completed from home, and around 27% of rostered hours were completed from home, according to the county councils data.

Of those approved, only 72% worked from home in the period between September 19, 2022, [the effective date for commencement of approved blended working arrangements] and the end of May 2023, the council stated.

The total hours due to be worked in the period are those hours due to be worked by those approved under the policy.
Waiting lists for children's spinal surgery and crime in Dublin are among the topics that feature on Monday's front pages.

The Irish Times leads with a story on the waiting list for spinal surgery for children, which has doubled. A story on crime problems in Dublin city centre also makes the front page.

The Irish Examiner reports Noel Long's DNA could be used in UK cold cases.

An audit has found dementia patients in nursing homes may have been overprescribed anti-psychotics, the Irish Independent reports.

The Echo leads with a story on the homeless crisis in Cork city.

Gardai have removed 24-hour protection for Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch's brother Patsy, according to the Irish Daily Star.

Our bank holiday Monday front page pic.twitter.com/7yzWRHzk7r  Irish Daily Star (@isfearranstar) August 7, 2023

The Irish Sun leads with a story on a garda raid targeting gangland crime.

The Irish Sun front page for Monday August 7. @SteBreen pic.twitter.com/Ib3146DTv2  The Irish Sun (@IrishSunOnline) August 7, 2023

A 'Kinahan gunman' caught with a large quantity of drugs is the subject of the main story in The Herald.

In the North, the Belfast Telegraph leads with a story on BBC Northern Ireland being hit with legal fees of 500,000 after cases taken against the broadcaster by presenters.

The Irish News leads with a story on poll support for a Sinn Fein/Fianna Fail coalition in Northern Ireland.

Stories on the UK governments plans for migrants, the renting crisis and a laboratory preparing for the next pandemic feature on the front pages of Britains newspapers.

The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express say businesses who hire migrants illegally could face severe fines of up to 60,000.

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph:



'Bosses who hire illegal migrants face ruin'#TomorrowsPapersToday



Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomry pic.twitter.com/RXGSeyTf5Z  The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 6, 2023

Migrants could be sent to Ascension Island if the Rwanda deportation plan is stopped, according to the Daily Mail.

The Metro leads with Labour saying they would temporarily house migrants on barges if they win the next UK general election.

Tomorrow's Paper Today 



LABOUR: WE'LL USE MIGRANT BARGES TOO



 Paedo rock star held hostage and stabbed in jail.

 Triathletes struck down by E-Coli from sea swim. pic.twitter.com/uM070J9Giw  Metro (@MetroUK) August 6, 2023

The Independent says renters are paying nearly four times more than homeowners on housing, with millions of people spending at least half of their income on rent.

The i features a story on a laboratory in Porton Down that has started developing vaccines to prepare for another viral outbreak.

Monday's front page: Secret Lab's vaccine plan to prevent bird flu pandemic#TomorrowsPapersToday



Latest by @janemerrick23: https://t.co/1qscieKVKK(opens in a new tab) pic.twitter.com/CtHmRPy5Qo  i newspaper (@theipaper) August 6, 2023

Meanwhile, analysis from the Financial Times shows European companies have lost 100 billion in their operations in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine last year.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times UK edition Monday August 7 https://t.co/rBNHvH2GZ5 pic.twitter.com/5VvtEIR78G  Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) August 6, 2023

The Daily Mirror shares its poll results on dangerous dogs, with 74 per cent of readers demanding tougher action to stop deadly attacks.

The Guardian reports that the most lucrative media and consultancy work goes to the Tories, mainly driven by Boris Johnsons earnings.

Guardian front page, Monday 7 August 2023: MPs defy anger over second jobs with outside earnings of 10m pic.twitter.com/rmCmxdW0yH  The Guardian (@guardian) August 6, 2023

And, the Daily Star disagrees with Star Trek actor William Shatner, who believes aliens have not visited earth.




Regulatory approvals await Bunge's takeover of Viterra in nearly 30 countries

Bunge's acquisition of Viterra is expected to require regulatory clearance in at least 29 countries, according to documents filed recently by the company with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The 547-page preliminary proxy statement includes new details on how the deal was reached, and how Bunge expects it will proceed.

The list of jurisdictions where Bunge said it must receive approval from antitrust or competition regulators includes Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, COMESA (trade area for eastern and southern Africa) nations, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United States, Uruguay and Vietnam. The company added it plans to voluntarily notify governments in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

In Canada, the Competition Bureau is expected to look at Bunge's minority stake  believed to be a 25% share  in Winnipeg, Manitoba-based grain company G3 Global Grain Group. G3 owns at least 17 grain elevators in Western Canada and a port terminal in Vancouver, while Viterra has six port terminals and 67 grain storage and handling facilities across Canada. It remains to be seen whether the Competition Bureau will view Bunge's stake in G3 as "significant interest"  a term that is not clearly defined in the Competition Act. Bunge's SEC filing does not contain any mention G3.

The Competition Bureau's scrutiny is expected to extend to canola crush assets in Manitoba, as Viterra owns a canola processing facility at Ste. Agathe, less than 75 kilometres from Bunge's newly-expanded canola crush facility at Altona. Viterra is also planning to build the world's largest integrated canola processing facility in Regina, Saskatchewan.



- Real Agriculture




Meeting between Vietnam and Norway's ambassadors aim to share Norwegian expertise in aquaculture

The Norwegian Seafood Council recently held a special meeting in Norway, featuring Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Hilde Solbakken and Vietnamese Ambassador to Norway Dinh Nho Hung, to share its expertise about aquaculture and the fishing industry.

Norway always wants to share its seafood development experience with Vietnam, especially in the fields of management and technology transfer of the world's leading aquaculture, said Solbakken.

According to the Seafood from Norway Vietnam's Facebook post, both ambassadors conveyed their expectations that invited Vietnamese press journalists will get to learn more about the process of producing high-quality seafood products, the philosophy of transparent management, sustainable development and environmental protection measures.

Solbakken hoped that the information would deliver to the Vietnamese public, thus contributing to promoting the special cooperation between Norway and Vietnam.



- Seafood from Norway Vietnam
The DA says the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality is shifting blame from its own obligations to fix the crisis

Residents of Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga are battling water outages and rationing as the municipality is embroiled in battles over the supply of its drinking water.

The municipality has recently written to the South African Human Rights Commission to intervene and order the City of Tshwane to supply it with the amount of water set out in its contractual agreement.

The City of Tshwane has conceded that it is not meeting the requirements of the contract.

Officials at the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality in Mpumalanga are accusing the City of Tshwane of reneging on a contract to supply its residents with drinking water. Now they want the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to intervene in a bid to end the water crisis in the region.

In Kwaggafontein, the town in which the local municipality's main offices are situated, residents have been battling water shortages for years.

Sibusiso Ntuli and Themba Mtenyane own a hair salon near Kwagga Plaza. They complained that they spend a considerable amount of time walking about 800 metres to collect water in containers on a daily basis so they can continue to run their business.

"We push buckets full of water in a trolley or a wheelbarrow every day. The water we fetch finishes quickly and this badly affects our business. We don't have enough water to serve all our customers every day," said Ntuli.

Another resident, Nomvula Masuku said: "We get running water from taps in our homes for 30 minutes a day. It is not enough."

In November 2021, the SAHRC released a report finding the municipality and the Department of Water and Sanitation had violated residents' rights to basic water supply.

The SAHRC ordered the local municipality to submit a revised, council-approved plan for addressing water access challenges. It also said the municipality should report on its borehole projects and work with the department to reconsider the bulk water project.

Emmanuel Nkonde, senior legal officer at the SAHRC in Mpumalanga, confirmed the Commission had received a request from the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality to enforce the contract it has with the City of Tshwane.

"To a large extent, the City is underperforming in terms of its contractual obligations. We wrote to the municipality requesting to see the contract. We got the contract on 28 July and are currently looking into it before we can act," he said.

The local muncipality has three sources of water: boreholes, the City of Tshwane and Rand Water. DA councillor in Thembisile Hani, David Sibanyoni, said the municipality had 204 boreholes, though none of them are fully operational.

He said the municipality had not implemented the recommendations of the SAHRC. "The situation is worse now," he said.

Municipal spokesperson, Simphiwe Mokako, told GroundUp that the City of Tshwane had failed to supply the local municipality with drinking water in accordance with the contract of sale.

"We agreed that the City would supply Thembisile Hani Local Municipality with 16.6 megalitres of water per day."

"I cannot say how much water we are getting now because the amounts they give us differ every day," said Mokako.

"Our legal department submitted a report to the SAHRC to deal with this issue. The SAHRC often gets complaints against us from our communities because of our water challenges. The municipality will be in a position to respond at length [to GroundUp's questions] once all processes with the SAHRC have concluded," said Mokako.

Earlier this year, Mokako told GroundUp that Thembisile Hani had a total demand of 99 megalitres of water per day, but was only able to supply 41.7 megalitres per day. She said the local municipality was therefore only able to supply water to communities on a weekly basis through water rationing.

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According to Mokako, the municipality was working on implementing short-term and long-term projects to address the bulk water shortages. She said one of the long-term projects is the Loskop bulk water supply scheme which is expected to be completed in November 2024.

City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo conceded that the amount of water supplied to Thembisile Hani Local Municipality is below the amount in its contract.

Mashigo blamed inefficiencies at the Bronkhorstspruit water treatment plant for its inability to meet water supply targets. "The reality is that the plant is old and requires urgent refurbishment. An upgrade project is at the procurement stage to ensure reliability of supply."

The City sells water to Thembisile Hani at R14.25 per kilolitre, Mashigo said. He did not confirm or deny any knowledge of the municipality's request to the SAHRC.




Canada invests about US$747,000 to strengthen pork industry against African swine fever threat



The Government of Canada has announced a significant investment of CAD 944,340 (~US$706,000; CAD 1 = US$0.75) in the Manitoba Pork Council through the African Swine Fever Industry Preparedness Programme (ASFIPP), aimed at enhancing Canada's pork industry's readiness to combat the potential entry of African swine fever (ASF) into the country, Benzinga reported.

Through this investment, the Manitoba Pork Council will embark on a series of strategic projects intended to intensify efforts to manage wild swine populations in the province, formulate a comprehensive response plan encompassing animal welfare, disease management, and sector recovery, and promote the adoption of optimal management practices to enhance biosecurity measures through targeted public awareness initiatives.

ASF is a contagious and highly fatal viral disease affecting both domestic and wild swine. It's important to note that ASF does not pose a threat to human health and cannot be transmitted from swine to humans. ASF does not pose any food safety concerns. Despite its significant impact in regions of Asia, Europe, and even the Caribbean since 2018, ASF has not been detected in Canada or the US.

In the face of this potential threat, the Canadian government is taking the matter seriously by making strategic investments like this one to reinforce mitigation and preparedness measures. This proactive approach aims to safeguard the pork industry and ensure the well-being of rural communities that depend on it.

Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, said that the collaboration between federal, provincial, and territorial governments as well as industry stakeholders is crucial for prioritising prevention and preparedness actions to combat the devastating impact of this animal disease.

Acknowledging the significant risk that ASF poses to Manitoba's hog sector, Rick Prejet, chairman of Manitoba Pork, commended the federal government's financial support for producers and the sector. He also highlighted the ongoing partnership between the government and stakeholders to optimize preparedness efforts.

The ASFIPP, launched in 2022 with a funding allocation of CAD 23.4 million (~US$17.4 million), is specifically tailored to enhance Canada's pork industry's capacity to handle the potential introduction of ASF. The programme supports a variety of initiatives, ranging from biosecurity assessments and improvements to wild swine management, abattoir renovations, sector analysis, and ASF-related research projects.

- Benzinga




Escalating attacks during Russo-Ukrainian war raise uncertainty for corn, wheat markets

Corn and wheat prices continue to be impacted by the increase in recent attacks between Russia and Ukraine.

"Just since the end of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, strikes carried out by Russia have destroyed 180-thousand tons of grain inside Ukraine, including 40-thousand tonnes of grain just in 24 hours," said Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the United States State Department.

Dave Salmonsen with American Farm Bureau said he's concerned about the ability to move corn and wheat out of Ukraine.

"What had seemed to be a fairly stable, within a war zone  if there's anything such as known as stable inside a conflict  way of moving grain, has now been stopped. And Ukraine has to find other ways of getting their grain out," said Salmonsen.

Miller said Russia's actions aren't just affecting Ukrainethey're also affecting global food supplies.

On August 4, it was reported that Ukraine attacked a Russian warship and a major naval base in Russia, a factor blamed for driving corn and wheat prices higher in the grain markets.

Since the expiration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17, Ukrainian officials said Russia has hit 26 port facilities and destroyed almost 200-thousand tonnes of grain.



- Hoosier Ag Today




Professor gets grant for project focused on collaboration between Australian, Vietnamese beef cattle sectors

An associate professor from Australia's Griffith Agribusiness has been awarded an Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Grant (AVEG) for the project, "Reimagining collaboration in the Australian and Vietnam beef cattle sectors."

Researchers from Griffith Agribusiness, Focus Group Go and Vietnam's Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSAR) will collaborate with government and industry representatives from both countries to support the deepening of collaboration between Vietnam and Australia's cattle and beef industries, and to develop stronger partnerships for increased trade, investment and innovation.

"Australia has been a major player in supplying beef and live cattle to Vietnam, particularly in the last decade, but the post-pandemic period has seen increased formalisation of trade patterns coupled with increasing consumer demands for higher meat quality, traceability and food safety," associate professor Dominic Smith said.

"The rapid evolution of cattle and beef value chains and consumer demand across the region, combined with changes in profitability of short-term lot feeding Australian cattle in Vietnam, means that the trading relationship between the two countries needs to evolve into a collaborative partnership.

"We aim to establish a multi-stakeholder analysis platform in Vietnam which will undertake research to increase understanding and provide critical evidence, insights and guidance to government and industry.

"An associated information gathering network across Southeast Asia will collect market data and intelligence through beef and cattle supply chains, including formal and informal channels."

The $550,000 project is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under the AustraliaVietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy, and formally commenced with a kick-off meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in July.

In addition to the multi-stakeholder platform, it will also include a major international symposium in the city in November 2023 and a visit to Australia by key industry and government representatives in May 2024.

The project will conclude with a bilateral Policy Dialogue scheduled for late May 2024.



- Griffith University




New Zealand sees 12% drop in red meat exports in June

New Zealand's red meat exports declined 12% in value in June compared to last year as global markets remained volatile.

Red meat exports reached $935 million in June.

Compared to last June, the value of overall exports decreased by 21% to China to $302 million, 41% to Japan to $41 million and 23% to the United Kingdom to $34 million.

However, there were significant increases in overall exports to Taiwan, Canada and the United States.

Exports to the US were driven by beef, up 60% by volume to 21,673 tonnes and 43% by value to $200 million, the highest monthly value since March 2015.

Sirma Karapeeva, chief executive of the Meat Industry Association, said that the improved US results indicated an easing of the drought in the country, resulting in a reduction in domestic beef production and tightening supply.

"We are also now seeing the benefits of (New Zealand's) free trade agreement with the UK, which came into force on May 31," Karapeeva said. "Overall, beef exports to the UK were worth $3.3 million in June. Previously, beef exports would have likely been under one of the quotas with a tariff rate of 20%, so we have already seen tariff savings of around $650,000 in the first month of the FTA."

Total beef exports were up 12% on June 2022 to 52,773 tonnes but the value was down 3% to $477 million. Beef exports to most of the major North Asian markets were down in June compared to last year, reflecting the pattern of recent months.

China was down 26% to $158 million, Japan down 48% to $23 million and South Korea down 70% to $8 million. This compares to historically very high exports to Japan and South Korea in June 2022, although the value of exports is still below most recent June months.

Taiwan saw a 35% increase to $21 million and Canada a 247% increase to $18 million from a very low level of exports last June.

Total red meat exports for the year's second quarter were worth $3.0 billion, down 5% from last year's second quarter.

- NZ Herald
Zanzibar  ZANZIBAR President Dr Hussein Mwinyi has highlighted the importance of empowering women engineers and promoting inclusion in the field of engineering to drive sustainable development in Tanzania.

"We believe that these conventions have contributed greatly to our government's efforts to develop scientific innovations and engineering works that contribute to the development of our nation," Dr Mwinyi said during the 8th Tanzania Women Engineers Convention and Exhibitions (TAWECE) held in Zanzibar at the weekend.

He encouraged women engineers to continue to collaborate and contribute to the development of the country, especially to achieve the goal of having an upper middle class economy by 2025.

The theme of the convention is "The Power of Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering Workforce: Women Perspectives"

President Mwinyi acknowledged the important role played by the Ministry of Works and Transport in administering the construction policy and allocating funds for practical training of graduate engineers, especially women engineers.

He reiterated government's commitment to support girls studying science in secondary education and vocational training colleges to increase the number of women engineers in the country.

Speaking during the event, AngloGold Ashanti - Geita Gold Mining Limited (GGML) Vice-President of Sustainability for Ghana and Tanzania Mr Simon Shayo promised to cooperate with the government in increasing the number of women's participation in the development of the country by enabling them to master the field of engineering.

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He emphasised the company's belief in the value women bring to the engineering field and their vital role in driving innovation and success.

"We believe that the presence of women engineers enriches the capabilities of our company, and we have continued to create an environment that respects differences and allows all employees to reach their full potential, regardless of gender or background," said Shayo.

He added that, GGML actively supported initiatives that encouraged more women to pursue careers in engineering, offering scholarships, mentorships and internships to break gender stereotypes and create equal opportunities for all.

"The company worked to increase women's representation in the mining sector and contributed significantly to development efforts, particularly in education.

It invested in projects that promoted science education for girls, enabling them to fully participate and achieve their goals in science and engineering fields," he said.

President of the Institution of Engineers Tanzania, Women Chapter, Eng Dr Gemma Modu who spearheaded this year's event, said, statistics showed that women's participation in engineering was still very low compared to men.

She said the Institute of Engineers Tanzania Women's Chapter (IET Women Chapter) functions to fulfill the institution's objectives, including the promotion and development of engineering among girls and women to increase the participation of women in the engineering workforce."

The convention, which was attended by over 800 participants from mainland Tanzania as well as international guests from Zambia and Ghana, provided a platform to promote gender equality and women's empowerment in engineering.
Isle of Man to ban fossil fuel heating in new buildings

The Isle of Man is taking its next step towards net zero with a ban on fossil fuel heating in new buildings from 2025.

Plans for new buildings and extensions in the Isle of Man will be required to feature low-carbon heating systems from January 1, 2024.

As part of the Islands commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, building control authorities will reject new applications for new buildings and extensions containing fossil fuel heating systems, instead new builds will need to include low-carbon heating systems.

According to the Isle of Man Government, this change is in preparation for the legal ban, which is set for the January 1, 2025. This is when it will be illegal to install a fossil fuel heating system in new buildings and extensions, including where planning permission or building control has already been granted.

Daphne Caine MHK, Chair of Climate Change Transformation Board said: If we are to meet the Islands net zero target, which is enshrined in law, it is essential we take swift action to move away from fossil fuels in building developments.

Some developers have already made this move. Rejecting plans in 2024 will allow for a transition period, meaning we dont continue to grant approval for new buildings with fossil fuel heating systems in the lead up to the ban in 2025.

Moving away from heating buildings by burning fossil fuels will have a significant impact on reducing carbon emissions. Those who buy new homes can be assured that their home is future-proofed against the need to have to switch heating systems at a later date.
SQR's making waves for a safer world with a fraud-free future

SQR Group Ltd has been awarded certified Identity Services Provider (IDSP) and Attributes Service Provider (ASP) status on the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF).

The DIATF was developed by the UK government to create an ecosystem where Digital identities can be trusted by organisations and individuals alike, and used in place of traditional physical ID documents such as passports and driving licences.

Awarded to SQR at its headquarters in the Isle of Man by Dion Allen, Scheme Manager at BSI Group; the renowned certification body which undertook SQRs comprehensive nine-day audit.

His Excellency, Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer and Lady Lorimer, were also in attendance as they share a keen interest in innovative technology.

Shelley Langan-Newton, CEO of SQR Group Ltd said: "We are immensely proud to have received this certification.

Trust is imperative within the digital ID ecosystem, given the sensitive nature of the data collected, managed and stored, so achieving certification on the Trust Framework was an absolute non-negotiable for us.
Scientists at a federally funded research center in the US have successfully conducted a second nuclear fusion reaction experiment that resulted in a net energy gain. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) said scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) generated a higher energy yield than in their December breakthrough , as Reuters reports.

The nuclear fusion approach is very similar to the process that results in stars being able to emit light and heat. The scientists used a laser aimed at fuel to combine two light atoms into a denser one. This releases a great deal of energy. The process is said to have a lot of potential as a source of sustainable, low-carbon energy that could help combat climate change.

In the initial experiment in December, the laser delivered 2.05 megajoules to the target. The scientists achieved fusion ignition by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output. That's a net yield of around 1.1 megajoules, which is equivalent to 0.31kWh  enough energy to power a 50-watt LED TV for six hours.

It's not yet clear exactly how much of a net energy yield was obtained from the latest successful experiment, which was carried out on July 30th. An LLNL spokesperson told Reuters that researchers are still analyzing the final results.

There's quite some way to go until fusion ignition becomes a viable option for mainstream energy production with the capability of powering homes. For one thing, scientists will have to scale up the system substantially. In any case, showing that it was possible to repeat the experiment and surpass the previous results is a positive step forward for clean energy.
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Police minister and mining officials meet community following protests over violence blamed on informal miners

The week that started with the community of Riverlea shutting down their township in protest, ended with a meeting attended by Minister of Police Bheki Cele and other officials.

Police moved into the area after five bodies, believed to be informal miners, were discovered last Saturday. Residents said they felt like prisoners in their own homes because of the violence associated with illegal mining.

Police spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said 194 suspects have been arrested since Tuesday.

Residents, also from Pennyville and Zamimphilo informal settlement, attended the meeting on Friday at the Riverlea recreation centre.

Long-time resident Bishop Anthony Sherman said the police presence this past week had made the community confident that something could be done. He thanked the police. However, he warned that permanent and sustainable solutions needed to be found if there was to be safety and stability.

Rejoice Sefatsa, 68, demanded that open mine shafts be closed. She said the Department of Mineral Resources was failing in its duties regarding old mines.

She asked who owned the abandoned mines and why they were not closed. "Who is gaining from this? And who are these zama zamas working for? ... There are big people behind this that are benefiting from the sweat of all those people," said Sefatsa.

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She said her home shakes at night from blasting and digging by informal miners.

Chief director at the Department of Mineral Resources, Andries Moatshe, who was present, said Minister Gwede Mantashe had given an order that the mine shafts be sealed.

"We have found around 26 open shafts in this area. We have closed 14 of them. Our investigations indicated that the other shafts have people in them and we need to have them removed before filling them," said Moatshe.

Earlier, on a walkabout, Cele was shown shafts that had been closed on Tuesday but were already dug open again.

Moatshe said the permanent sealing of mines will begin in the second week of August. "Definitely by the middle of September all holes will be closed permanently," he said.

Riverlea community leader Njabulo Sikota said that if the various departments did not honour the promises they had just made, the community would take matters into its own hands.
Cine

Marvel confirma las 6 peliculas y series en las que Maquina de Guerra ya era un skrull antes de Invasion Secreta
Fairfield, MT (59436)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. High 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
UPDATE, AUG. 18:

The Bruce Fire crossed Stony Creek and has burned across the face of Stony Hill and is now established in the head of the Tin Creek.

According to the Forest Service, the Bruce Fire is estimated to have grown 1,500 acres since Aug. 16.

Defensive firing operations were conducted to improve point protection between the Bruce Fire and the Stony Communications Site.

These firing operations reduced the available fuels between the active fire edge and communication site, reducing the speed of fire growth as it approaches the site.

Notable growth has been seen on the southeastern flanks of the Sullivan Fire and the Bruce Fire.

UPDATE, AUG. 17:

Fires burning in the Tin Soldier Complex have burned a total estimated 3,361 acres. Containment on the fires remains at 0%.

Hot and dry weather in the fire areas is expected to increase fire behavior across the complex.

The Bruce and Sullivan fires were active on Wednesday, with the most notable growth on the southeastern flanks of the fires.

An update from the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team says the Sullivan Fire, formerly the Kah Mountain and Sullivan Fires, moved toward the head of the Soldier Creek Drainage.

The Bruce Fire crossed Stony Creek near the mouth of the creek and has burned across the face of Stony Hill and has also established in the head of Tin Creek to the north.

Thursdays actions include ongoing structure protection efforts for the commercial guest ranches, Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound, Heinrude residential community, and other infrastructure in the area.

Crews will continue daily testing and pre-treatment with the sprinkler systems and water pumps for identified values at risk and conducting additional firing operations as necessary.

UPDATE, AUG. 16:

The Kah Mountain and Sullivan fires have merged, and will now be known as the Sullivan Fire.

As of Wednesday morning, the Tin Soldier Complex is estimated to be 2,880 acres large and is 0% contained.

Fire behavior is expected to increase across the complex in the coming days as hot and dry weather is projected.

Wednesdays actions will include ongoing structure protection efforts for the commercial guest ranches, Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound, Heinrude residential community, and other infrastructure in the area.

Crews will continue fuels reduction, slash removal, structure prep, and daily testing of the sprinkler systems and water pumps for all values at risk.

Mechanical equipment finished the fuel break to the north, south and west side of FS Road #895 adjacent to the Heinrude community.

Structure protection for Spotted Bear Lookout is complete.

UPDATE, AUG. 13:

An infrared flight found the total acreage of the fires burning in the Tin Soldier Complex to have grown 62 acres over the last few days.

Acres burned as of the morning of Sunday, Aug. 13:

Bruce Fire  1,002 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  451 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  1,241 acres at 0% containment

A warming and drying trend is expected to begin Monday, with Wednesday being likely to bring critical fire weather conditions.

Sundays actions will include ongoing structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch, Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound, and the Heinrude residential community.

Mechanical equipment finished the fuel break to the north and south of the Heinrude community and is continuing to establish a fuel break on the west side of FS Road #895.

A crew is working to complete wrapping the Spotted Bear Lookout Sunday.

UPDATE, AUG. 12:

As of Saturday morning, the fires burning in the Tin Soldier Complex are estimated at 2,632 acres in size and are 0% contained.

Acres burned:

Bruce Fire  993 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  430 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  1,209 acres at 0% containment

Ongoing structure protection efforts are planned for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch, Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound, and the Heinrude residential community Saturday.

The Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team says mechanical equipment will finish the fuel break to the south, continue establishing the fuel break to the north and start establishing a fuel break on the west side of the FS Road #895 in the area around the community.

Additionally, fire personnel have finished laying

in hose line and sprinklers around structures within the Heinrude community. A crew will resume work to wrap the Spotted Bear Lookout.

UPDATE, AUG. 11:

Structure protection efforts against fires burning in the Tin Soldier Complex will continue Friday.

Fire personnel have finished laying in hose line and sprinklers around structures within the Heinrude community, according to an update from the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team.

A crew will resume work to wrap the Spotted Bear Lookout.

The following restrictions and closures are in place:

Stage 2 fire restrictions are in effect as of August 5th.

An area closure is in effect for the Hungry Horse Reservoir, the front country of the Spotted Bear district as well the Gorge Creek drainage within the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, including Feather, Inspiration, Gorge, Canyon Trickle, and Stadium Creeks.

A Temporary Flight Restriction is in place for air space over the Tin Soldier Complex to provide a safe environment for firefighting aircraft operating in the area. This includes the Spotted Bear and Meadow Creek Airstrips.

UPDATE, AUG. 10:

No containment has been made on the Tin Soldier Complex.

An update from the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team says planned actions for Thursday include ongoing structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch, Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound, and the Heinrude residential community.

Mechanical equipment continues to establish a fuel break to the south and re-establish fuel breaks to the north end in the area around the community.

Additionally, fire personnel continue to lay hose line and sprinklers around structures within the Heinrude community.

A crew will resume work to wrap the Spotted Bear Lookout.

UPDATE, AUG. 9:

Work continues to manage the Bruce, Kah and Sullivan fires with point source protection to protect nearby structures.

Additional personnel from the Spotted Bear District are on loan and assisting with fire related operations, according to the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team. Priority will be given for initial attack if any other fires on the Spotted Bear District are detected.

Fire personnel continue structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Structure protection efforts for the Heinrude residential community began yesterday and will continue into today.

Mechanical equipment was utilized to start establishing a fuel break to the south and reestablishing fuel breaks the north ending the area around the community.

Additionally, fire personnel began laying hose line and sprinklers around structures within the Heinrude community.

Those efforts will continue into Wednesday.

A crew will be flown to Spotted Bear Lookout today to start wrapping the lookout.

UPDATE, AUG. 8:

The Tin Soldier Compex is sitting at 2,631 acres burned with 0% containment.

Right now, Hungry Horse Reservoir will be closed as well as all National Forest System lands in the area of FS Road #38 and FS Road #895.

Fire activity Monday was minimal between the 3 fires. An IR flight detected an increase of 51 acres of growth across all three fires with Kah Mountain and Sullivan being the most active.

Current Acres burned as of the morning of Tuesday, August 8:

Bruce Fire  993 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  407 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  1,208 acres at 0% containment

Con Kelly Fire  0.25 acres  Out.

The Bruce, Kah and Sullivan fires are being managed with point source protection to protect values at risk.

Values at risk include Stony Communications Site, hydro-electric plant, Heinrude residential community, commercial guest ranches and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Todays plan of action is fire personnel are continuing structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Fire personnel have developed a structure plan for the Heinrude residential community; the plan for today will focus on reducing fuels with mechanical equipment on the south end and reestablishing fuel breaks on the north end in the area around the community

UPDATE, AUG. 7:

An evacuation has been issued by the Flathead County Sheriff for Heinrude community.

And to provide for public and firefighter safety, the East Side South Fork Road #38 is closed to public travel and the West Side South Fork Road #895 is closed to public travel near the 15 mile just past the Lid Creek Campground.

The Tin Soldier fire is sitting at 2,580 acres and is currently 0% contained.

Current Acres burned as of the morning of Monday, August 7 th .

Bruce Fire  989 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  407 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  1,184 acres at 0% containment

Con Kelly Fire  0.25 acres  Out.

Fire activity Sunday was moderated between the 3 fires and an IR flight was done last night and found an increase of 212 acres with growth on all three fires.

Kah Mountain and Sullivan have been the most active out of the three.

While the lower temperatures and higher relative humidity's have lessened fire activity for the time being, potential for fire activity is still high.

The cooler weather we have been receiving is allowing firefighters to install additional structure protection around the values at place.

There is a potential for increased fire activity in the future as temperatures and winds increase.

The Bruce, Kah and Sullivan fires are being managed with point source protection to protect values at risk; values at risk include Stony Communications Site, hydro-electric plant, Heinrude residential community, commercial guest ranches and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Fire personnel have conducted initial assessments and preparations for structure protection in the above identified areas.

UPDATE, AUG. 6:

Fire activity between the three fires part of the Tin Soldier Complex was low Saturday.

Updated acreage on the fire perimeters is expected to be updated later in the day on Sunday.

According to the Flathead National Forest, the Bruce, Kah and Sullivan fires are being managed with point source protection to protect values at risk.

Fire personnel are continuing structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

A safety zone has been established on the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Crews will continue installing hose line and sprinkler systems around the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Fire personnel are developing a structure plan for the Heinrude residential community.

The Heinrude community is still under evacuation.

The following restrictions and closures are in place:

Stage2 fire restrictions are in effect as of August 5th.

A road restriction is in effect for the East and West Side South Fork Roads.

An area closure is in effect for the front country of the Spotted Bear district as well the Gorge Creek drainage within the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, including Feather, Inspiration, Gorge, Canyon Trickle, and Stadium Creeks.

A Temporary Flight Restriction is in place for air space over the Tin Soldier Complex to provide a safe environment for firefighting aircraft operating in the area.This includes the Spotted Bear and Meadow Creek Airstrips! Remember that temporary flight restrictions also apply to UAS or drones. If you fly, we cant!

UPDATE, AUG. 5:

The three fires still burning in the Tin Soldier Complex include the Bruce Frie, the Kah Mtn Fire and Sullivan Fire.

There was no updated acreage provided as there was no infrared flight over the fires Friday night.

As of Saturday morning, the Heinrude community is still under evacuation by the Flathead County Sheriffs Office.

Stage 2 fire restrictions went into effect Saturday, restricting campfires, smoking and more across parts of western Montana.

A road restriction is in place for the East and West Side South Fork Roads, and an area closure is in effect for the front country of the Spotted Bear district as well as the Gorge Creek drainage with the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, including Feather, Inspiration, Gorge, Canyon Trickle and Stadium Creeks.

According to the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team, the following actions are planned for Saturday:

A masticator and heavy equipment task force are utilized to establish a fuel break around the Wilderness Lodgeand the hydro-electric facility.

A hoseline has been laid along the established fuel break and sprinklers have been set up around the Wilderness Lodge.Exposed wood on the hydro-electric facility was wrapped and sprinklers were installed along Addition Bridge.

Fire personnel have started structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compounds that will continue into today.

A safety zone is being established on the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compounds that should be completed today.

Crews will continue to work on improving previous fuel breaks and installing hose line and sprinkler systems around the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

UPDATE, AUG. 4:

Fires in the Tin Soldier complex have grown to a total of 2,368 acres.

As of Friday morning, the following is the current acres burned by each fire:

Bruce Fire  977 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  304 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  1,087acres at 0% containment

Con Kelly Fire  0.25 acres  Out

Fire growth Thursday was reportedly moderate between the three active fires. The call was made that the Con Kelly Fire is out as of Thursday morning.

The Stony Communications Site, hydro-electric plant, Heinrude residential community, commercial guest ranches and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound are still at risk from the other fires.

According to the Flathead Interagency Type 3 Team, the following are planned actions against the fires Friday:

A masticator and heavy equipment task force are utilized to establish a fuel break around the Wilderness Lodge and the hydro-electric facility.

A hoseline has been laid along the established fuel break and sprinklers have been set up around the Wilderness Lodge.

Exposed wood on the hydro-electric facility was wrapped yesterday and sprinklers were installed along Addition Bridge. Fire personnel have started initial structure protection efforts for the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compounds that will continue into today.

A safety zone is being established on the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound. Crews continue to work on improving previous fuel breaks around the Spotted Bear Ranch, Diamond R Ranch and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

Additional planned activities for today will include installing hose line and sprinkler systems at these facilities.

UPDATE, AUG. 3:

Due to the Tin Soldier Complex of fires, the West Side South Fork Road #895 will be closed to public travel at the 42 mile mark and the East Side South Fork Road #38 will be closed to public travel at the 37.5 mile mark.

Four fires burning around 2,061 acres make up the Tin Soldier Complex, which is burning on the Spotted Bear Ranger District of the Flathead National Forests.

As of Thursday morning, the following is the current acres burned by each fire:

Bruce Fire  889 acres at 0% containment

Kah Mtn Fire  257 acres at 0% containment

Sullivan Fire  914 acres at 0% containment

Con Kelly Fire  0.25 acres Contained and controlled

The Bruce, Kah and Sullivan fires are being managed with point source protection to protect values at risk, which includes the Stony Communications Site, hydro-electric plant, Heinrude residential community, commercial guest ranches and the Spotted Bear Ranger Station compound.

The Heinrude Community has been issued an evacuation by the Flathead County Sheriffs Office.

Stage 1 fire restrictions are in effect, with Stage 2 restrictions taking effect Aug. 5.

A road restriction is in effect for the East andWest Side South Fork Roads.

A closure is effective for the front country of the Spotted Bear district.

Temporary Flight Restrictions are in place for air space over the Tin Soldier Complex to provide a safe environment for firefighting aircraft operating in the area.

People are being reminded that temporary flight restrictions also apply to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones.

The following is a Facebook post by the Flathead National Forest:

There have now been 17 fires reported since the dry lightning storm between July 29 and July 30.

The Kah Mountain and Bruce fires on the Spotted Bear Ranger District are being combined with two smaller starts into the Tin Soldier Complex. A Type 3 Incident Management Team will take command of the Tin Soldier Complex, cumulatively estimated at 80-100 acres.

Spotted Bear Ranger District has seven reported fires at this time. Alcove and Stadium Creek Fires are in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. The 0.5-acre Elam Fire is along the West Side Road on the Hungry Horse Reservoir and firefighters have constructed containment lines around the perimeter.

The Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District has nine reported fires, one of which is in controlled and two are now contained, including the 0.10-acre fire near Lion Lake reported this morning July 31.

- The Logan Fire is contained and is approximately 0.10 acre, located in timber with an active timber sale to the south. Aerial resources delivered buckets of water this morning, slowing the fire spread in support of the firefighters who successfully constructed containment line around the fire.

- The Doris Point Fire is estimated at 0.5 acre and is burning on 80-90% slope in thick timber and vegetation with prevalent large-diameter dead trees. Fire personnel were able to approach the fire on Sunday but the risk to firefighter safety is very high due to the fires location. Fire personnel are working to evaluate opportunities and suppression plans that prioritize safety and probability of success.

- The Ridge Fire is estimated at 20-30 acres, actively backing down towards Embry drainage in mature timber with high quantities of both dead and down trees and standing dead snags. This is a full suppression fire and fire personnel are assessing control features, utilizing old logging roads. Heavy equipment has been ordered to support firefighting efforts.

- The Abbot Fire is a single tree snag burning less than half a mile from the Ridge Fire and has been incorporated into the Ridge Fire response strategy.

- The Emery Fire is estimated at 0.10 south of the ridge fire and is successfully controlled.

Stage 1 Fire Restrictions are in place and there are currently no fire-related area or road closures on the Flathead National Forest.
Experts from one of Europes largest veterinary groups are calling for greater government support for UK dairy farmers following a drastic fall in milk prices.

Vets from VetPartners, which looks after a number of the UKs dairy herds, are lobbying MPs to address the volatility of the milk market.

It comes at a time when dairy farmers are facing increased labour costs and the price of fuel, equipment, energy and rents have risen.

The average farmgate price for milk slipped to 37.6p per litre in May, according to government figures  a near-8% decrease on the same month a year earlier  leading to many farmers leaving the sector.

Farm vets are calling for a minimum farmgate price to be implemented to ensure a fair deal for dairy farmers.

VetPartners farm director, Ian Cure is among the farm vets who have written to their MP voicing concerns about the future of dairy farming.

He said: This industry volatility makes it incredibly difficult for farmers to invest in their rural businesses and plan for the future.

"The five-year, rolling average farmgate price for milk as of May 2023 was 33.65ppl, and this has changed very little over the last six years.

"It is well documented that in recent times, costs across all sectors have increased with labour costs, fuel, equipment, rents and rates at an all-time high."

This now means that the industry estimates the cost of production to be in the region of 40-45ppl, Mr Cure explained.

He added: "It is therefore clear that this is not sustainable, and something must be done to support British farming, and ensure food security for our country."

Many farmers have left the sector for economic reasons, with industry leaders calling for more support, including the implementation of a minimum farmgate price to ensure a fairer deal.

There have also been calls for processors and supermarkets to burden their fair share of the costs.

"It cannot be right that critical primary producers always bear the brunt of market fluctuations," Mr Cure said.

He warned that import trade deals from South America and Australia had left farmers fearing further damage prices farmers receive for their goods.

These vital rural businesses are currently feeling the strain and do not, at present feel they are receiving adequate government support.

"Minimum milk pricing to the cost of production is the least we owe them and is vital to ensure the survival of these businesses and our countrys ongoing food security.
Zanzibar  THE Sino-Africa Youth (SAY) Foundation has donated smartphones, school bags, and colored drawing pencils to be shared among students and teachers undertaking the Chinese language course in eight secondary schools in Unguja Island.

Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training Mr Ali Abdulghulam Hussein received the teaching equipment to be distributed to Kiponda, Hasnuu-Makame, Jendele, Tumbatu, Regeza-Mwendo, Dunda, Chwaka and Makoba.

The donation includes 232 Chinese textbooks for students and local teachers, 65-inch television set for teachers, and 250 school bags, and 250 parcels containing color pencils for drawing, 250 pieces of sketch books and 14 smartphones for teachers.

"We are grateful to the SAY foundation for the donation which aims to motivate teachers and students. The equipment, particularly the smartphones will definitely make a big difference in language teaching," said the deputy minister at the event held at SAY Foundation offices situated at Tomondo area.

Ms Fatima Fungo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation (ZMBF), which was established by the Isles First Lady Mama Maryam Mwinyi, was present at the handing over event.

Ms Fungo praised SAY Foundation and Chinese community at large for continued support to Zanzibar development.
Donald Trump has vowed to ask the judge in his alleged election fraud case to step down.

Donald Trump has vowed to ask the judge in his alleged election fraud case to step down

The 77-year-old former US president is facing charges including conspiracy to defraud America, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, stemming from his actions in the wake of the 2020 election, after he was indicted for a record third time.

He said he has very powerful grounds for his demand to change judges in his latest case and claimed there is no way I can get a fair trial unless he has a different lawmaker.

Trumps call came after the prosecution requested a court order that would limit what he can publicly say about the case.

He also said he would also request a venue change and for his case to be moved out of Washington D.C..

The judge on his case, Tanya Chutkan, was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Sunday (06.08.23) morning he wanted her replaced and dismisses his case as based on "the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections.

He has said there would be no way I can get a fair trial, or even close to a fair trial, in Washington, which he describes as an anti-Trump area.

Trumps lawyer John Lauro said the former president believed in his heart of hearts hed won the 2020 election and prosecutors will not be able to prove this wasnt his belief.

He gave no other details of his grounds for asking the judge to step aside.

Judge Chutkan, appointed in 2014, previously ruled against Trump's efforts to shield evidence from the House January 6 Committee.

She is the only federal judge in Washington to delivered sentences against defendants in cases related to the Capitol riot on 6 January that are longer than the sentences demanded by the Department of Justice.

Judge Chutkan is expected to call in attorneys from both sides on 28 August to discuss setting a trial date against the former president.

Trump now faces five upcoming trials.

They include three criminal trials which include his alleged mishandling of classified documents, accounting fraud and these election charges.

He also faces two civil trials over business practices and alleged defamation of a woman who has accused him of rape.
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The Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office (PMO) yesterday asked authorities to create an environment to raise export of leather and leather goods to $5 billion by 2027 from $1.7 billion now. PM's principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah chaired the meeting.

The order followed a meeting on upgrading the environmental compliance of tanneries in Savar, the central effluent treatment plant (CETP) there and solid waste management to the standards of the Leather Working Group (LWG), a global multi-stakeholder community committed to building a sustainable future with responsible leather, Bangladesh media outlets reported.

The Bangladesh PMO yesterday asked authorities to try to raise export of leather and leather goods to $5 billion by 2027 from $1.7 billion now. Upgrading the central effluent treatment plant in Savar Tannery Estate is essential for global compliance, PM's principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah, who chaired a meeting on compliance of tanneries, said.

Upgrading of the CETP in Savar Tannery Estate is quite essential for global compliance, Hossain emphasised.

Both the public sector and private sector have an important role to create this environment, he said.

The chairman of Bangladesh Small Cottage and Industries (BSCIC), and representatives from tannery owners and leather goods manufacturers participated in the meeting.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
In June 2023, German exports decreased by 1.9 per cent and imports fell by 11.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Moreover, exports were up 0.1 per cent and imports were down 3.4 per cent on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis compared with May 2023, as per provisional data by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

After calendar and seasonal adjustment, Germany exported goods to the total value of 131.3 billion and imported goods to the value of 112.6 billion in June 2023. The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 18.7 billion in June 2023. The calendar and seasonally adjusted surplus stood at 14.6 billion in May 2023 and 6.4 billion in June 2022, Destatis said in a press release.

In June 2023, German exports fell by 1.9 per cent, and imports decreased by 11.6 per cent YoY, as per provisional data by Destatis. The foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 18.7 billion. Seasonally adjusted exports to EU countries rose by 1.3 per cent, while imports fell by 3.1 per cent. Exports to third countries declined by 1.1 per cent.

On a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis, Germany exported goods to the value of 71.5 billion to the member states of the European Union (EU) in June 2023, while it imported goods to the value of 60.0 billion from these countries. Compared with May 2023, calendar and seasonally adjusted exports to EU countries rose by 1.3 per cent, while imports from these countries fell by 3.1 per cent.

The value of the goods exported to euro area countries totalled 50.3 billion at 1.8 per cent in June 2023, and the value of the goods imported from these countries was 39.6 billion at -4.1 per cent. In June 2023, goods to the value of 21.2 billion at -0.1 per cent were exported to EU countries not belonging to the euro area, while the value of the goods imported from these countries was 20.4 billion at -1.0 per cent, on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis.

Exports of goods to countries outside the EU (third countries) amounted to 59.8 billion in June 2023, while imports from these countries totalled 52.6 billion, on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis. Compared with May 2023, exports to third countries declined by 1.1 per cent and imports from third countries fell by 3.7 per cent.

Most German exports in June 2023 went to the US. After seasonal and calendar adjustment, exports of goods to the US were down 0.2 per cent compared with May 2023, with the value of exports to the US dropping to 12.7 billion. Exports to China decreased by 5.9 per cent to 8.2 billion and exports to the UK fell by 0.2 per cent to 6.5 billion.

Most imports in June 2023 came from China. Goods to the value of 14.0 billion were imported from there, which represented a 5.3 per cent increase compared with the previous month, after calendar and seasonal adjustment. Imports from the US fell by 1.2 per cent to 7.5 billion. Imports from the UK dropped by 4.4 per cent to 3.1 billion during the same period.

Exports to Russia declined a calendar and seasonally adjusted 2.3 per cent to 0.7 billion in June 2023 compared with May 2023. Compared with June 2022, when exports to Russia decreased dramatically as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine, exports fell by 41.1 per cent. Imports from Russia rose by 16.5 per cent to 0.3 billion in June 2023 from May 2023, and were down 91.3 per cent compared with June 2022.

Germany exported goods to the value of 138.6 billion and imported goods to the value of 116.4 billion on a nominal basis (not adjusted for calendar or seasonal effects) in June 2023. Compared with June 2022, exports in June 2023 therefore increased by 1.5 per cent, and imports fell by 9.5 per cent. The unadjusted foreign trade balance showed a surplus of 22.2 billion in June 2023. In June 2022, the surplus was 8.0 billion.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)
Mrunal Thakur is a well-known actress in Hindi cinema and has also worked in a few Telugu and Marathi films. Her acting skills were highly praised for her role in the romantic drama Sita Raman in Telugu. Her fans will be thrilled to know that the actress has now landed a significant role in a Tamil movie.As per reports, Mrunal has been chosen for the main role in a Sivakarthikeyan movie, which will be directed by AR Murugadoss, known for his successful action thrillers such as Ghajini, Darbar, and Thuppakki. This will be Mrunal's first appearance in a Tamil film.Actor Sivakarthikeyan and director AR Murugadoss are collaborating for the first time in a movie referred to as SK22. The film has a patriotic theme and features music composed by the talented Anirudh Ravichander, who has previously worked with both Murugadoss and Sivakarthikeyan, delivering numerous major hits. The movie is yet to be titled.Meanwhile, on the work front, Mrunal will next be seen in the Telugu film Hi Nanna alongside Nani. The film is directed by Shouryuvis and will be released on December 21.
Tragic Passing Of Spandana Vijay Raghavendra: In a heartbreaking turn of events, Spandana Vijay Raghavendra, the beloved spouse of renowned Kannada actor Vijaya Raghavendra, has tragically passed away in Bangkok due to a sudden heart attack.

Spandana was the daughter of retired ACP BK Shivaram, a distinguished figure in Karnataka's police force known for his work in crime investigation and the authorship of crime-related books.

Hailing from Bangalore and being the daughter of the esteemed former police officer BK Shivaram, Spandana married actor Vijay Raghavendra in 2007.

Beyond her role as a wife, she shone in the film industry, starring in the 2016 movie "Apoorva" alongside Ravichandran. She also exhibited her talents as a producer for some of Vijay Raghavendra's projects.

The actor's family and friends are currently coordinating the repatriation of Spandana's mortal remains to Bangalore for her final rites, where her untimely departure will be solemnly acknowledged.

Spandana's father has already left for Bangkok, and her mortal remains are anticipated to be returned to India on Tuesday.

Love's Tale Remembered

Spandana and Vijay Raghavendra's marriage is a blend of love and arrangement. Vijay's heart was captured by Spandana at their very first meeting. The two took the time to understand each other before involving their families in their journey.

In 2007, they formalised their bond through marriage. This couple quickly became one of the most celebrated pairs in the Sandalwood industry, setting a high standard for romantic connections. Their endearing pictures, which flooded the internet, caught the eyes of their fans, showcasing them as an absolutely adorable pair.

Counting Down To Their Anniversary

Honey Rose Sets The Record Straight On Alleged Mohanlal Statement In An Interview With Akhil Marar

Spandana and her husband, actor Vijay Raghavendra, were on the verge of marking their 16th wedding anniversary in a mere 19 days. Sadly, fate had other plans as Spandana passed away.

Vijay Raghavendra was born into the family of S. A. Chinne Gowda, a prominent Indian film producer and distributor in the Kannada film industry, and his wife Jayamma. He shares a cousinship with Puneeth Rajkumar, Shiva Rajkumar, and Raghavendra Rajkumar. Adding to the creative legacy, his younger brother, Sriimurali, is also an actor in the Kannada film industry.

Lokesh Kanakaraj's Rajinikanth Film 'Thalaivar 171': Shooting Schedule Update Unveiled!

In a heartbreaking coincidence, Puneeth Rajkumar, a celebrated Kannada actor and Vijay's cousin, also lost his life to a heart attack in October 2021. The family is now grappling with yet another significant loss, while their close friends and well-wishers are extending heartfelt condolences to support them through this challenging period.
Actor Sriimurali Provides Insights On Spandana Vijay Raghavendra's Death: Amid a family trip to Bangkok, Spandana Vijay Raghavendra, the cherished wife of renowned Kannada actor Vijaya Raghavendra, tragically suffered a heart attack, leading to her untimely demise.

Honey Rose Sets The Record Straight On Alleged Mohanlal Statement In An Interview With Akhil Marar

During this journey, Spandana's life took a tragic turn when she suffered a heart attack, ultimately leading to her untimely passing. Her brother-in-law, Sriimurali, has come forward to shed light on the unfortunate incident.

Questions surrounding the circumstances of Spandana's passing have emerged. Sriimurali stepped forward to clarify the situation, revealing that she had travelled with her family while Vijay was occupied with his shooting commitments.

Explaining the sequence of events, Sriimurali shared that Spandana, who slept on the night of August 6, did not wake up the next morning due to low blood pressure. "We will provide more information tomorrow," he informed the media.

Spandana was the daughter of retired ACP BK Shivaram, a distinguished figure in Karnataka's police force known for his work in crime investigation and the authorship of crime-related books.

Born in Bangalore, Spandana married actor Vijay Raghavendra in 2007. Beyond her marital life, she showcased her talents in the film industry, notably in the 2016 film "Apoorva," where she shared the screen with Ravichandran. She also ventured into film production for some of Vijay Raghavendra's projects.

The actor's family and friends are currently coordinating the repatriation of Spandana's remains to Bangalore for her final rites. Meanwhile, Vijaya Raghavendra, who was set to promote the upcoming film 'Kadda,' slated for release on August 25, is in Bengaluru.

Spandana's father has already departed for Bangkok, and her mortal remains are anticipated to arrive in India on Tuesday.

Bala Opens Up About Divorce With Amritha: Did Anyone Ask Why We Broke Up? I Gave Up For...

Family Grieves Another Tragic Loss

This unfortunate incident draws parallels to the passing of Vijay's cousin and celebrated Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar, who also succumbed to a heart attack on October 29, 2021. As the family faces another painful loss, their close ones and well-wishers offer heartfelt condolences.
mPrest teams up with Endeavour Energy of NSW, Australia, to offer a dynamic grid topology aware DERMS, for the management of the first community microgrid of its kind in NSW.

SYDNEY, NSW, Australia, and TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- mPrest, a leading developer and provider of dynamic grid aware Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) has been chosen by Endeavour Energy to provide an energy software solution for the Bawley Point and Kioloa community microgrid, the first of its kind in NSW.

The microgrid, which is on track to be operational by the end of the year, will deliver a stand-alone and renewable electricity supply, while reducing the number of power outages in the picturesque south coast villages.

The $8 million community microgrid includes contributions from the Australian and NSW Government's Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, Endeavour Energy along with local residents.

The microgrid is made up of a grid connected battery, and subsidised home solar and batteries, as well as water heating load control, generating a renewable and reliable electricity supply which will help to build resilience in the face of increasing adverse weather events.

Endeavour Energy's Future Grid Systems Manager, Albert Pors, said the microgrid would be critical in building resilience within the community.

"The microgrid leverages grid scale energy storage and customer Distributed Energy Resources, combined with mPrest's DERMS solution, to support the network during peak holiday periods and creating an island of power when the community is impacted by weather extremes. This is where future grid technology meets resilience," he said.

"What's unique about this project is that the microgrid has been co-designed with the community from the outset."

mPrest's Chief Executive Officer, Natan Barak, said Australia is a global leader in the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) market.

"Australia is leading the world Distributed Energy Resource (DER) market. This first of its kind microgrid for Endeavour Energy and NSW combines high penetration of DERs, grid storage, flexible load and Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). We are pleased to partner our DERMS technology with Endeavour Energy on this project" he said.

mPrest's Chief Commercial Officer, Ron Halpern, welcomed the opportunity to work with Endeavour Energy on the first community microgrid of its kind in NSW.

"The advanced Australian market, which is driven by prosumer and VPP market participation in energy and ancillary services trading, creates a joint opportunity for Endeavour Energy and mPrest to integrate Dynamic Operating Envelops (DOEs) analytics under mPrest's DERMS Orchestration Platform," he said.

"DOEs are power envelopes that the distribution utility can apply to grid imports and exports, thus enabling dynamic management of grid constraints with minimal impacts on customers. Integrating DOEs is yet another example of how the Australian market is trailblazing the global DERMS market."

About Endeavour Energy

Supplies safe, reliable and affordable power to over 2.7 million people living and working in Sydney's Greater West, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Illawarra and the South Coast of NSW.

Independently rated the most efficient DNSP in NSW with a reliability of 99.999%.

Customer base spans over 25,000 square kilometres and is made up of 430,000 power poles. and street light columns, 202 major substations and 32,600 distribution substations.

Connected by nearly 60,600 kilometres of underground and overhead cables.

Integrates with renewable energy sources including 250,000 residential solar connections, industrial solar and embedded large-scale batteries.

About mPrest: Empower Digital Transformation. Now.

Leveraging its unparalleled experience and expertise in real-time mission-critical command and control software, mPrest has developed the world-leading distributed asset orchestration and optimization software. mPrest's micro-services based, real-time orchestration and optimization platform brings the power of AI and IoT to the digital transformation of the energy and other industrial IOT markets. mPrest's applications suite, including Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems (DERMS) and Asset Health Management (AHM) are deployed on premise or in the cloud in record time in the most forward-looking and efficient organizations worldwide, including some of the world's largest energy companies. mPrest's vendor-agnostic product suite interfaces with millions of sensors, devices, machines, assets, subsystems, IT and OT applications, creating a system of systems that provides end-to-end visibility and control over complex and distributed operations. Visit us at www.mprest.com.

Contact:

info@mprest.com

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mprest-selected-as-derms-provider-for-endeavour-energy-301894212.html
The Bell Tower on 34th, an events venue in Houston, has announced the opening of its Carillon Ballroom for corporate functions.

Houston, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - The events management team at The Bell Tower on 34th has long considered The Carillon Ballroom the crown of the venue, which is why it has previously been reserved exclusively for weddings and upscale private events. Now, it is making the space available to corporate clients who are looking to hold a corporate gala, mixer, fundraiser, conference, networking event, or other event in the space.

More information is available at https://thebelltoweron34th.com





Houston's The Bell Tower On 34th Opens Grand Ballroom For Corporate EventsTo view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/176336_f259d9c93457986a_001full.jpg

The Carillon Ballroom boasts a large statement marble staircase, Italian marble floors, bold antique chandeliers, high ceilings, and elegant appointments, making it a popular choice among brides and grooms who aim to provide their guests with a luxurious experience. In recent years, the events team at The Bell Tower on 34th has noticed that corporate clients increasingly prioritize atmosphere cultivation and guest experiences, leading to the decision to open up the space for businesses.

Corporate clients who book The Carillon Ballroom for their events will have the opportunity to create their own design concept, which the staff at The Bell Tower on 34th can then bring to life. Leveraging their expertise in hosting weddings and corporate events, the venue's events team believes they can assist corporate clients in maximizing the elegance and grandeur of The Carillon Ballroom, ensuring their event aligns perfectly with their corporate image.

In addition to making the space available to corporate clients, The Bell Tower on 34th has introduced new customizable corporate packages. Organizations interested in hosting an event can now choose between hourly rentals or block rentals and can select from various inclusions, such as AV equipment, decor, and catering. Furthermore, all events hosted in The Carillon Ballroom include on-site security and valet parking for guests.

Damaris de Leon, one of the venue's event producers, said, "Whether it's an international conference, a lavish mixer, or an exclusive gala, The Carillon Ballroom's marble staircase will make your guests feel like royalty from the moment they step into the ballroom. Its sheer beauty is enough to take any guest's breath away. The splendor and magnificence of The Carillon Ballroom cannot be overstated."

Interested readers can find out more at https://thebelltoweron34th.com/corporate-events

Contact Info:

Name: Roger Igo

Email: roger@bell34.com

Organization: The Bell Tower on 34th

Address: 901 West 34th Street, Houston, TX 77018, United States

Website: https://thebelltoweron34th.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176336
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Industrial production from Germany and investor confidence from the euro area are due on Monday, headlining a light day for the European economic news. At 1.45 am ET, Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs is slated to issue unemployment data for July. The jobless rate is forecast to rise slightly to 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent in June. At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is scheduled to publish Germany's industrial production for June. Economists expect industrial output to fall 0.4 percent on month, faster than the 0.2 percent drop in May. In the meantime, UK Halifax house price data is due. At 3.00 am ET, the Czech Statistical Office releases industrial production and foreign trade data for June. At 4.30 am ET, Eurozone Sentix investor confidence survey results are due. The investor sentiment index is expected to fall to -23.4 in August from -22.5 in July. 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.
Former Power Utility CEO Lands New Job at Yale University

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has secured a new position at Yale University in the U.S., following his departure from the troubled power utility, reports TimesLive. At Yale, he will be teaching courses on subjects like renewable energy. De Ruyter had previously highlighted the impact of corruption on Eskom, estimating that around R1 billion per month was being lost. Eskom has responded by cancelling coal supply agreements and construction contracts worth billions of rands in an effort to combat corruption.

Treasury Warns of Fiscal Challenges, Announces Budget Cuts

The South African Treasury has informed all government departments that they will face budget cuts across the board in 2024, and no new spending will be allocated, reports News24. This is due to the government's fiscal challenges, which include lower-than-expected growth, falling revenue, and a rising cost of borrowing. The cuts will affect all government departments, including education and health. The Treasury is working to find savings in the budget process, but some of this work will only have an impact in the medium term.

63-Year-Old Woman Arrested at Cape Town Airport for Smuggling Heroin

A 63-year-old woman was arrested at Cape Town International Airport for attempting to smuggle 3.5kg of heroin from South Africa to Europe, reports News24. The arrest was made by a collaborative effort involving the Hawks Narcotics Enforcement Bureau team, the Border Policing Unit, and Gauteng Crime Intelligence, just before she could board an Ethiopian Airlines flight. The value of the seized drugs is estimated at R1.6 million. Acting on a tip, law enforcement intercepted the suspected drug courier, discovering the heroin in her luggage before she could check-in. The woman is scheduled to appear in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Monday to face charges related to drug dealing.

Student Financial Aid Scheme Cuts Funding for 45K Students Over Direct Payment Dispute

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), backed by the Department of Higher Education, has defunded 45,927 students nationwide, including those who provided false information during their financial aid applications, reports TimesLive. Designed to aid underprivileged students, NSFAS introduced a controversial direct payment system for allowances, resulting in protests and disruptions at various universities due to excessive bank charges and delays. While some universities reported successful allowance distributions, others faced challenges, prompting protests and online learning implementations. NSFAS says it is not aware of all of the complaints from students and will investigate.

More South African news
Sonfu Digital Solutions has announced its database reactivation service for small businesses wanting to improve lead generation and conversion.

Colonial Heights, Virginia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - The new service from Sonfu Digital Solutions is designed to reconnect with dormant or unresponsive clients and drive them back to the company website - with fully managed prospect outreach and automatic scheduling.

More information can be found at https://go.sonfudigital.com/vsl.





Sonfu Digital Solutions Announces Database Customer Reactivation For SMBs

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The new announcement aims to help small business owners combat rising customer acquisition costs, which have increased by 60% in the last five years - according to Recur. As such, the agency aims to offer a cost-effective marketing solution to improve audience engagement and drive conversion.

Sonfu Digital Solutions also helps clients to build stronger consumer relationships and re-engage dormant leads without additional advertising spend. The database reactivation service utilizes proprietary technology to identify website visitors and former customers who have gone cold. It then systematically reconnects with these leads, automatically filling out contact forms and scheduling appointments on the business's calendar.

This allows companies to restart conversations with prospects who may have previously bounced or approached a competitor - with segmented marketing strategies helping to rebuild trust and rapport with each unique lead profile.

Additional details are provided at https://go.sonfudigital.com/vsl-2.

At the core of the service is a robust lead nurturing program that sends customized messaging on a preset schedule. The goal is to gradually build deeper connections with disengaged prospects and encourage them to convert to repeat buyers.

The service empowers businesses to target reactivation efforts based on criteria such as length of inactivity, purchase history, demographics, and more. By reviving relationships with once-promising leads, companies can improve conversion results without the high costs of paid advertising and lead generation. The Sonfu Digital Solutions database reactivation system delivers messaging that is personalized, strategic, and designed to build more personalized relationships.

Company founder, Sonnie Donaby, states: "I have over 20 years in technology-based applications with 10 years of providing web services to small businesses. I also specialize in implementing high-ROI marketing systems and strategies. Now I'm on a mission to help business owners take advantage of this proven and effective system."

Interested parties can learn more at https://www.sonfudigital.com/blog/b/bringing-the-dead-back-to-life-how-to-effectively-reactivate-customers.

Contact Info:

Name: Sonnie Donaby

Email: sonnie@sonfudigital.com

Organization: Sonfu Digital Solutions LLC

Address: 84 Southgate Square #1022, Colonial Heights, VA 23834, United States

Website: https://www.sonfudigital.com

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CHICAGO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The report "Cellulose Ether & Derivatives Market by Product Type (Methyl Cellulose & Derivatives, Carboxymethyl Cellulose, HEC, HPC, EC), Application (Construction, Pharmaceutical, Personal Care, Food & Beverage), Region - Forecast to 2028", is estimated at USD 8.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 12.5 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 9.1% from 2023 to 2028. The cellulose ether & its derivatives are used in a number of applications in pharmaceutical, personal care, food, construction, oil & gas, and other end-use industries, which helps the market to grow rapidly. In addition to this, the growing demand for cellulose ether & derivatives in various end-use industries from emerging economies such as China and India is also propelling the growth of the market.

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The Carboxymethyl Cellulose type segment is expected to account for the second largest market share during the forecasted period.

The carboxymethyl cellulose segment accounted for a major share of the global market in 2022. Carboxymethyl cellulose is a prominent cellulose ether used for commercial applications. It has wide applications owing to its properties, such as water solubility and excellent UV and solvent resistance. It is used in the production of paints, dyes, inks, and adhesives. It is also utilized in personal care and cosmetics products. Rising investment in research and development, technological advancements, rise in disposable income of consumers, and greater demand from emerging economies would contribute to the growth of this segment during the forecast period.

The personal care application of methylcellulose & derivatives segment is expected to account for the third largest share in the cellulose ether & derivatives market during the forecast period in terms of value.

Polymer blends & alloys are widely used in consumer goods applications, including appliances, electronic devices, furniture, sporting goods, toys, personal care products, and home goods. They offer versatility, design flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, making them ideal for creating durable and attractive products. These materials provide lightweight solutions, impact resistance, vibrant colors, and properties such as scratch resistance and ease of maintenance. Polymer blends & alloys enable manufacturers to produce consumer goods that meet the demands of consumers in terms of aesthetics, functionality, and performance.

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Europe is expected to account for the third largest share in 2022.

The cellulose ether & derivatives market has been studied in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. The European cellulose ether & derivatives market is driven by the growing need for cellulose ether & derivatives in construction, pharmaceutical, personal care, food and beverage, and paints and coatings industries. The increasing requirements for various personal care and cosmetic products in the European market space will augment the demand for cellulose ether & derivatives. The increased penetration of cosmetic producers in the region has led to an increase in the consumption of products, such as hair care formulations, skin care creams, lotions, and makeup products. Cellulose ether & derivatives find applications in the European food and beverage industry as well. They are used as thickening agents, stabilizers, and emulsion stabilizers in various food products, including dairy products, sauces, dressings, and baked goods. The demand for natural and plant-based ingredients in the food industry further drives the use of cellulose ethers.

Prominent companies include The Dow Chemical Company (US), Ashland Global Holdings, Inc. (US), Rayonier Advanced Materials (US), Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Japan), LOTTE Fine Chemicals (South Korea), DKS Co. Ltd. (Japan), Nouryon Chemical Holdings B.V. (The Netherlands), J.M. Huber Corporation (US), Shandong Head Co., Ltd. (China), Colorcon (US), FENCHEM (China), Lamberti S.p.A. (US), J. RETTENMAIER & SOHNE GmbH + Co KG (Germany), among others.

Browse Adjacent Market: Bulk Chemicals and Inorganics Market Research Reports

Related Reports:

Cellulose Acetate Market - Global Forecast to 2026

Nanocellulose Market - Global Forecast to 2030

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.

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SINGAPORE, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OKX, a leading crypto exchange and Web3 technology company, today announced its title sponsorship of TOKEN2049, Asia's premier Web3 and crypto conference, as well as its slate of headline speakers for the event which takes place in Singapore on 13-14 September.

OKX President Hong Fang, Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique, and Global Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai will speak at TOKEN2049.

Two prominent OKX Ambassadors, Daniel Ricciardo, Scuderia AlphaTauri Formula One driver, and Scotty James, Olympic snowboarder, will join a TOKEN2049 'fireside chat' with Haider Rafique on the first day of the conference.

OKX President Hong Fang said: "TOKEN2049 Singapore is an excellent opportunity for the industry to come together and advocate for making crypto ever more accessible to those who will benefit from it most. As we move from trust-based systems to trustless ones, this conference will be an important (and fun) way to share our vision for how we will jumpstart further adoption in Asia and beyond."

OKX Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique said: "This is the second year for us to combine TOKEN2049 and Singapore Grand Prix. The event is a great starter to the weekend and will bring crypto and F1 fans together in a big way. This year has been about helping people see the future of Web3 through our latest "rewrite the system" campaign and Singapore will be a prime venue for us to amplify our efforts. Danny, Scotty and I might even have a surprise for attendees during our fireside chat."

OKX Global Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai said: "Singapore is the perfect place to bring together a diverse group of Web3 innovators for TOKEN2049 - all of whom are playing an important role in building the foundation for the industry's further growth. I'm looking forward to discussing how the regulatory landscape is evolving in the region, and contributing to discussions about how Web3 companies can build trust with users and regulators alike by emphasizing transparency, security and compliance."

TOKEN2049 is set to welcome over 10,000 attendees, making it the largest event of its kind this year.

About OKX

OKX is a leading global crypto exchange and Web3 ecosystem. Trusted by more than 50 million global users, OKX is known for being the fastest and most reliable crypto trading app for traders everywhere.

As a top partner of English Premier League champions Manchester City FC, McLaren Formula 1, Olympian Scotty James, and F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, OKX aims to supercharge the fan experience with new engagement opportunities. OKX is also the top partner of the Tribeca Festival as part of an initiative to bring more creators into web3.

Beyond OKX's exchange, the OKX Wallet is the platform's latest offering for people looking to explore the world of NFTs and the metaverse while trading GameFi and DeFi tokens.

OKX is committed to transparency and security and publishes its Proof of Reserves on a monthly basis.

To learn more about OKX, download our app or visit: okx.com

Disclaimer

This announcement is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide any investment, tax, or legal advice, nor should it be considered an offer to purchase, sell, hold or offer any services relating to digital assets. Digital assets, including stablecoins, involve a high degree of risk, can fluctuate greatly, and can even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you in light of your financial condition and risk tolerance. OKX does not provide investment or asset recommendations. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions, and OKX is not responsible for any potential losses. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professional for questions about your specific circumstances.

CONTACT: Media@okx.com

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CHICAGO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In the near future, the blood culture tests industry is poised for remarkable advancements driven by cutting-edge technologies and innovative research. With a growing emphasis on personalized medicine and rapid diagnostic solutions, blood culture tests will witness a transformative shift towards faster, more accurate, and comprehensive detection of infectious agents. Microfluidic-based platforms will become increasingly prevalent, enabling higher-throughput analysis and reduced turnaround times, crucial for early detection and effective treatment of infections. Additionally, advancements in machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence will facilitate the real-time analysis of vast datasets, improving pathogen identification and antibiotic resistance profiling. Furthermore, the integration of point-of-care blood culture devices with telemedicine and cloud-based platforms will enhance accessibility and facilitate seamless communication between healthcare providers and patients. As the industry continues to thrive, these advancements will play a pivotal role in revolutionizing infectious disease diagnosis and treatment, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes and global healthcare systems.

Blood Culture Tests Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $5.2 billion in 2023 and is poised to reach $7.6 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 8.0% from 2023 to 2028 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

Growth in this market is primarily fueled by growing demand for rapid diagnostic techniques, high prevalence of infectious diseases, growing incidence of sepsis cases and high-cost treatment, rising geriatric population and high incidence of bloodstream infections. Alternatively, lack of trained laboratory technicians and high cost of automated instruments are expected to restrain the market growth in the upcoming years.

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Blood Culture Tests Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $5.2 billion Estimated Value by 2028 $7.6 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 8.0% Market Size Available for 2021-2028 Forecast Period 2023-2028 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Product, Method, Technology, Application, End User & Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunities Growth opportunities in emerging economies Key Market Drivers Growing incidence of sepsis cases and high cost of treatment

The Automated Blood Culture Tests segment is expected to grow the highest during the forecast period

Based on method, conventional/manual blood culture and automated blood culture methods are the different blood culture tests market segments. The automated blood culture segment is expected to grow the highest during the forecast period. The quick turnaround time and reduced risk of contamination due to low manual intervention drives the growth of the automated blood culture method segment in the blood culture tests market.

The Consumables segment is expected to grow the highest during the forecast period

Based on product, the consumables, instruments, and software and services, make up the major market segments for blood culture tests market. The consumables segment not only has the largest share but is also expected to grow the highest during the forecast period. The large share of this segment is attributed to the repeated purchase of media for the detection of bacteria, fungi, and yeast and increase in drug-resistant infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing bacteria.

The Molecular Technologies segment is to witness the highest growth during the forecast period

Based on technology, the blood culture tests market is categorized into distinct segments, including molecular technologies, proteomics and culture-based technologies. Among these, molecular technologies segment is to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. This can be attributed to several factors, such as the increasing incidence of sepsis, which demands rapid diagnostic techniques for detecting the presence of fungi, bacteria, and mycobacteria from blood samples.

The Bacteremia segment is expected to look for the highest growth during the forecast period

Based on application, the market for blood culture tests is divided into fungemia, mycobacterial detection and bacteremia. Bacteremia segment is expected to look for the highest growth in the blood culture tests market. The highest growth of this segment is primarily attributed to the increasing number of bloodstream infections and the growing number of sepsis cases worldwide.

The Hospital Laboratories segment has accounted for the largest share during the forecast period

Based on end users, the bloodculture tests market is bifurcated into reference laboratories,hospital laboratories, academic research laboratories, and other laboratories (includes physician office laboratories (POLS), pathology laboratories, independent research laboratories and bacteriological laboratories). The hospital laboratories segment has accounted for the largest share in this market. This is due to the rising number of sepsis cases in emergency departments (EDs), as sepsis is most commonly observed in EDs.

Asia-Pacific is to witness the highest growth during the forecast period.

The Asia-pacific blood culture tests market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2023-2028. The high growth rate of this market can be attributed to the high prevalence of sepsis and government initiatives to increase its awareness, increasing demand for effective diagnostic techniques, and growing regulatory approvals and availability of blood culture test products in the region.

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Blood Culture Tests Market Dynamics:

Drivers:

Growing incidence of sepsis cases and high cost of treatment

Restraints:

Lack of trained laboratory technicians

Opportunities:

Growth opportunities in emerging economies

Challenges:

Market Cannibalization for conventional products

Key Market Players:

The major players in this market are Biosystems, Inc (US), BINDER GmBH (Germany), Biobase Biotech (Jinan) Co., Ltd. (China), Scenker Biological Technology Co., Ltd. (China), Bulldog Bio (England), Anaerobe Systems, Inc. (US), Himedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. (India), Autobio Diagnostics Co., Ltd. (China), Axiom Laboratories (India), Mikroscan Technologies, Inc. (US), Labotronics Ltd. (UK), Hardy Diagnostics (US), OpGen, Inc. (US), Meditech Technologies India Private Limited (India), Iridica (US), Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Danaher (US), Luminex Corporation (US), Bruker (US), Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland), Carl Zeiss AG (Germany), Nikon Corporation (Japan), Terumo Corporation (Japan), Becton, Dickinson and Company (US) and BioMerieux (France).

Recent Developments:

In 2023, BioMerieux, announced that it has submitted a 510(k) premarket notification to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the VITEK REVEAL, formerly known as SPECIFIC REVEALRapid AST System. This rapid, modular, antimicrobial-susceptibility test platform that can deliver actionable results for Gram-negative bacteria directly from positive blood cultures in an average of five and a half hours1 enabling same-day treatment decision-making for patients suffering from bacteremia sepsis.

In 2023, Bruker introduces fast next-generation MALDI Biotyper IVD Software. The MBT Compass HT IVD software provides a high sample throughput for microbial identification with time-to-result of ~5 minutes for 96 sample spots. Because of a fast sample target exchange, the MBT system can now analyze up to 600 samples per hour, while covering over 4,600 species in the reference library.

In 2022, BioMerieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, has entered into an agreement to acquire Specific Diagnostics, a privately held US based company that has developed a rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) system that delivers phenotypic AST directly from positive blood cultures. BioMerieux has held a minority stake in Specific Diagnostics since 2019, and the two companies had signed a co-distribution agreement covering the European market in 2021. With the addition of SPECIFIC REVEAL Rapid AST, the unique and comprehensive BioMerieux Sepsis Solution allows same-day AST results for Gram-negative bacteria to enable more targeted therapy and improve patient outcomes.

In 2022, Beckman Coulter, partnered with Germany-based company Smart4Diagnostics to close the preanalytical data gap between blood collection and laboratory analysis due to errors that take place before the sample arrives in the laboratory, such as sample collection, patient identification, sample handling, sample transportation, sample loss, etc.

In 2020, Becton, Dickinson and Company obtained the CE mark approval for the BD Vacutainer UltraTouch Push Button Blood Collection Set (BCS) with Preattached Holder. The one-handed safety activation of the push button allows clinicians to activate the safety mechanism while still attending to the patient and venipuncture site.

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Blood Culture Tests Market Advantages:

Early Detection of Infections: Blood culture tests are highly sensitive and can detect a wide range of bacterial, fungal, and viral infections in the bloodstream, even before symptoms become apparent. Early detection allows for prompt initiation of appropriate treatment, improving patient outcomes and reducing the risk of complications.

Guiding Targeted Antibiotic Therapy: Identifying the specific pathogen causing the infection enables healthcare providers to prescribe targeted antibiotic therapy. This approach minimizes the unnecessary use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance and preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics for future use.

Monitoring Treatment Effectiveness: Blood culture tests enable healthcare professionals to monitor the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment over time. Serial blood cultures can show a decline in pathogen levels, indicating successful therapy, or the emergence of antibiotic resistance, prompting adjustments to the treatment plan.

Infection Control in Healthcare Settings: Blood culture tests play a vital role in identifying outbreaks of infectious diseases in healthcare facilities. Timely detection and appropriate infection control measures help prevent the spread of infections among patients and healthcare workers.

Impact on Public Health: Blood culture tests contribute valuable data to public health surveillance systems, aiding in the identification and tracking of emerging infectious diseases. This information assists health authorities in implementing targeted interventions and preventive measures at a broader level.

Personalized Medicine: With advancements in technology, blood culture tests are becoming more accessible and adaptable to individual patient needs. This fosters the concept of personalized medicine, tailoring treatment plans based on the specific pathogens and their drug resistance profiles found in a patient's bloodstream.

Non-Invasive Alternatives: In some cases, blood culture tests can replace more invasive diagnostic procedures, such as tissue biopsies or lumbar punctures, reducing patient discomfort and potential complications.

Research and Development: Blood culture test data fuels ongoing research and development efforts, leading to the creation of improved diagnostic tools, new antimicrobial agents, and enhanced treatment strategies.

In conclusion, the blood culture tests market's advantages lie in its ability to offer early and accurate detection of infections, guide targeted therapies, contribute to infection control and public health efforts, foster personalized medicine, and support medical research and development. These benefits collectively contribute to better patient care, improved public health outcomes, and the advancement of medical knowledge in the field of infectious diseases.

Related Reports:

Blood Collection Devices Market - Global Forecasts to 2027

Sepsis Diagnostics Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Blood Screening Market - Global Forecasts to 2026

Clinical Microbiology Market - Global Forecasts to 2025

Patient Blood Management Market - Global Forecasts to 2024

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

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Global Airlines, the world's newest airline, and Laurent Perrier, one of the world's most prestigious champagne brands, announces new partnership.

The champagne, known for its quality and craftmanship since 1812, is set to be the premier brand on the airline.

Laurent Perrier was the official champagne of the airlines "Welcome Onboard" event, held at Kettner's, Soho House, in London on July 27 th .

. Global is set to launch its first transatlantic services from London Gatwick in 2024

London, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From 2024, Laurent Perrier Champagne will be the premier champagne on all Global Airlines Transatlantic flights.

The over 200 year old, historic champagne house, world renown for its fresh and elegant taste, is now working with the team at the airline to provide a wide selection of their products on the A380.

Additionally, as Global starts to recruit and train cabin crew, the two organisations will collaborate to ensure that each glass is poured to perfection and accompanied by complimentary canapes. With an ambition to provide the best champagne service in the sky.

Commenting on the partnership James Asquith, CEO and Founder of Global Airlines said: "A great champagne is a huge part of an amazing onboard experience and I am delighted that Laurent Perrier have agreed to be our partners.

"It is a brand that is known the world over, and our intention is to offer LP brands to passengers across our 3 cabins, and, if we can make it work, that absolutely includes in economy.

"We are committed to providing the best food and beverage offer on Transatlantic services and more exciting announcements on this are in the pipeline."

Speaking on behalf of Laurent Perrier, their Travel Retail Director Jean-Christian de la Chevalerie said: "Global's vision for air travel is compelling, and one that perfectly aligns with Laurent Perriers.

"In the months ahead, we look forward to working with James and his team on selecting a range of our award winning champagnes, but not only that, exploring how we can make this a really unique , meaningful, partnership that excites our customers."

Laurent Perrier La Cuvee was the exclusive champagne of the airlines "Welcome Onboard" event on July 27th at Kettner's, Soho House.

Over 200 guests attended including industry partners, investors, media, and Members of Parliament. At the event, Global announced its partnership with American Express on payments processing and on curating exclusive benefits for cardholders.

About Global Airlines

Global Airlines was launched in 2023 with an aspiration to offer passengers the best way to fly. The airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of Holiday Swap and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The airline is led by CEO James Asquith and backed by aviation experts and investors around the world. The airline has commenced an aircraft acquisition programme with one A380 secured and more to follow in the summer of 2023. The inaugural transatlantic flights are expected in 2024.

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MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - Ukraine security service has claimed that it has thwarted an attempt by Russia to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky late last month.



The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement that a Russian informant was gathering intelligence about the planned visit of Zelensky in Mykolaiv at the end of July.



The alleged informant was a woman, who was living in the southern Ukrainian region of Ochakov, it added.



She 'tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region,' the statement says.



The alleged informant also tried to identify the location of ammunition warehouses and electronic warfare systems of the armed forces.



However, SBU says it arrested her before she could hand over the information to Russia, which was preparing an airstrike in Mykolaiv during Zelensky's visit to the region.



The unnamed woman could face up to 12 years' imprisonment, according to the Ukrainian security agency.



This is not the first time that the Ukrainian President is targeted.



In March, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksiy Danilov revealed that Chechen Special Forces had planned an assassination plot against Zelensky, and it was foiled because members of Russia's Federal Security Service, who do not support the war, leaked the information to Ukrainian authorities.



Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are continuing counter attacks on Russian targets, reports say.



Two key bridges connecting Russian-occupied parts of Kherson to Crimea were attacked on Sunday.



Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Cambrian Works, a leading company specializing in space networking and edge-computing hardware and software solutions, has been selected by EOI Space to supply state-of-the-art GigRouter hardware for their ultra-high-resolution Earth imaging Stingray satellites.

RESTON, VA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Cambrian Works, a leading company specializing in Space networking and edge-computing hardware and software solutions, has been selected by EOI Space to supply state-of-the-art GigRouter hardware for their ultra-high-resolution Earth imaging Stingray satellites.





Cambrian Works - GigRouter

Satellite router provides a multitude of ethernet ports with high performance computing and storage capability will be delivered





Cambrian Works' engineering model GigRouters are slated for delivery to EOI Space in Q4 2023, with flight models delivered ahead of their first planned launch in 2024. This delivery provides a tailored mix of 1G and 10G ethernet interfaces and provides each of EOI Space's Stingray satellites with a total of 18 standard GigE ports. Each GigRouter supports over 4 terabytes of memory and 200 TFLOPS of compute capability for scalable data analytics within the same unit. "It is an exciting time at Cambrian Works as we ramp up production of GigRouters at our new facility in Santa Clara, CA. We have been working closely with the EOI Space team and are excited to deliver our hardware as an integral piece of their Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite constellation," said Simon Lee, COO of Cambrian Works.

EOI Space is set to launch the first U.S.-based commercial constellation into VLEO, an altitude about half that of other satellites. This lower orbit brings many benefits, including the ability to image at 15 cm resolution. The GigRouter plays a key role by enabling fast on-orbit image processing and analytics, bringing even greater value to EOI Space's customers.

"Use of GigRouters aboard EOI Space's satellites expedites the time between image collection and delivery to end users, which is a critical factor for applications like global monitoring and disaster response. Cambrian Works' GigRouters provide EOI Space with an internal networking solution to achieve transfer rates and processing capacity necessary to deliver a high volume of image data and information to our end customers," commented Joshua Cole, Director of Space Segment. "We're excited to fly Cambrian Works' GigRouters in VLEO and look forward to our continued partnership.

To learn more about Cambrian Works' and EOI's collaboration click on this case study: https://eoi.space/cambrian-works-case-study-2023

About Cambrian Works, Inc.

Cambrian Works was founded in 2020 to develop and deploy foundational technologies and infrastructure for the emerging space economy. Cambrian Works is focused on interoperable software-defined networking for space and routers to deploy networking; a real-time, digital constellation twin capability supporting development and operations; and leveraging space networks to support new space market sectors. Targeted sectors include networked, high bandwidth, Earth-observing data relay, In-space Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM), and space debris mitigation. Cambrian Works' products are a combination of leading-edge development and tailored adaptation of commercial products for use in space. Deployments begin in 2024. Learn more at: https://cambrianworks.com.

About EOI Space

Based in Louisville, Colorado, EOI Space is developing a unique low-flying constellation of small satellites to collect ultra-high-resolution imagery to support a wide range of earth observation applications in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) using its patented electric propulsion technology. By operating closer to Earth than ever before, EOI Space captures the highest commercially-available views of Earth from Space for real-time intelligence, asset monitoring, and situational awareness. Learn more at: https://eoi.space

Contact Information

Jason Mellein

CEO

jason@cambrianworks.com

(617) 803-6955

Simon Lee

COO

simon@cambrianworks.com

(805) 801-9223?

SOURCE: Cambrian Works

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772559/EOI-Space-to-Fly-Cambrian-Works-GigRouter-Hardware-in-VLEO
LONDON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

Currently living in the UK? Do nothing, you are already included.

Currently living outside the UK? You must act now to participate.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has decided that a claim filed on behalf of rail passengers against the company Govia Thameslink Railway Limited ("GTR") and its parent companies which runs the Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern, and Gatwick Express rail franchises may proceed to a full trial. The class representative, Mr. Gutmann, alleges that GTR has breached competition law by charging TfL Travelcard holders too much for travel on their routes.

In general terms, the class includes all persons who, since 24 November 2015, held a TfL Travelcard but also bought a separate train ticket for a train operated by one of the above franchises that passed through the zones for which their Travelcard was valid.

More specifically, the class is all those who, at any point during the period between 24 November 2015 and the date of final judgment or earlier settlement of the Claims (the "Relevant Period") purchased or paid for a rail fare for themselves and/or another person, which was not a Boundary Fare1 or a fare for the portion of their journey from the last station covered by their Travelcard to their destination, where:

the person for whom the fare was purchased held a Travelcard (or Travelcards) valid for travel within one or several of TfL's fare zones (the " Zones ") at the time of their journey or, where the fare was a season ticket, for at least the period of validity of that season ticket fare; and

") at the time of their journey or, where the fare was a season ticket, for at least the period of validity of that season ticket fare; and the rail fare (including a fare for a return journey and a season ticket fare) was for travel in whole or in part on the services of the First Defendant from a station within (but not on the outer boundary of) those Zones to a destination beyond the outer boundary of those Zones.

No money is available now and there is no guarantee that money will be available in the future. This claim will have to be proved in the Tribunal at trial or concluded by way of an earlier settlement agreed between the class representative and GTR.

Class members have several options:

Stay in the Claim: If you are currently living in the UK as of 19 October 2021 and meet the description of the class, you do not need to do anything at this time to be eligible to claim a share of any money that may become available in the future. By doing nothing, you give up the right to make an individual claim against GTR in respect of the legal claims in this case and you agree to be bound by judgments the Tribunal may issue in this case.

Opt-Out: If you are currently living in the UK as of 19 October 2021 you have the right to "opt-out" or request to be excluded from the claim by 07 November 2023. By opting-out you keep the right to bring your own separate claim against GTR. However, if you opt-out you will not be able to get any money from this claim (if money becomes available). More information on how to Opt-Out can be found at www.BoundaryFares.com.

Opt-In: If you are living outside the UK as of 19 October 2021, you will need to "opt- in" to the claim. Complete an Opt-In Form by visiting www.BoundaryFares.com. The deadline for opting-in is by 07 November 2023.

To read the Tribunal's full Collective Proceedings Order and judgement and see other information about the claim, visit www.BoundaryFares.com or www.catribunal.org.uk.

1 "Boundary Fare" means a fare valid for travel to or from the outer boundaries of TfL's fare zones, intended to be combined with a Travelcard whose validity stretches to the relevant zone boundary.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/tfl-travelcard-holders-who-travelled-on-thameslink-southern-great-northern-or-gatwick-express-could-benefit-from-proposed-claim-301894243.html
Regulated Information - Denominator

Atlas Special Opportunities, LLChas converted 8convertible bonds in Oxurion resulting in a EUR 200,000capital 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 7, 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 127,877,237 new ordinary shares on August 7, 2023, for a total amount of EUR 200,000, as the result of the conversion of 8 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 1,843,786,331 outstanding ordinary shares carrying voting rights (compared to 1,715,909,094 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) 81,506,161.32



Total number of securities with voting rights (all ordinary shares) 1,843,786,331 Total number of ordinary shares (= denominator) 1,843,786,331 Number of outstanding, granted rights to subscribe to securities carrying voting rights not yet issued: 590,500 subscription rights ("SRs") issued on November 20, 2017, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 590,500 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);

604,405 SRs issued on December 30, 2021, entitling their holders to subscribe to a total number of 604,405 securities carrying voting rights (all ordinary shares);

160 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
CRN Recognizes the Top IT Channel Providers for Outstanding Performance & Growth

NEW CITY, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / BCM One, a leading provider of NextGen Communications and Managed Services for IT leaders and resellers, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named BCM One to its 2023 Fast Growth 150 list in 35th place. With this list, CRN recognizes the fastest-growing North American technology integrators, solution providers, and IT consultants for their substantial growth and meaningful performance over the previous two years.





CRN Fast Growth Award

BCM One Award





To maintain consistent growth within the highly competitive and rapidly advancing IT industry, solution providers need to constantly evolve to keep ahead of consistent changes within the market. CRN's Fast Growth 150 list acknowledges companies that have crossed this threshold and demonstrated an ongoing dedication toward success and innovation.

"We continue to focus on delivering the technology that allows businesses to innovate and grow, even in a challenging market, and on providing the enablement for channel partners to thrive," stated Geoff Bloss, CEO of BCM One. "We're proud to be recognized for growth and performance, because it reflects the success of our partners and their customers."

"With the highly competitive and rapidly growing IT industry, CRN's 2023 Fast Growth 150 list highlights industry-leading companies and their ability to outpace an ever-evolving landscape," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "All of the companies on this year's list represent the very best in business intelligence and strategy, inspiring fellow industry members and proving that with perseverance, sustained growth is an attainable achievement in even the most chaotic business climates."

A sample of the 2023 Fast Growth 150 list will be featured in the August issue of CRN Magazine. You can also view the complete list online at www.crn.com/fastgrowth150.

###

ABOUT BCM ONE

Founded in 1992, BCM One is the leading NextGen Communications and Managed Services provider. Serving over 20,000 customers worldwide and 5,000+ channel partners, BCM One offers telecom solutions supporting the critical network infrastructure of global businesses, including: Enterprise Teams, Global Managed Connectivity, UCaaS, SIP Trunking, Managed SD-WAN, Security-as-a Service and Technology Expense Optimization. To learn more about BCM One, visit www.bcmone.com.

ABOUT THE CHANNEL COMPANY

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end-users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com

 2023 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Contact Information

Paula Como Kauth

Chief Marketing Officer

pckauth@bcmone.com

212-906-7255

SOURCE: BCM One

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772671/BCM-One-Places-No-35-on-the-2023-CRN-Fast-Growth-150-List
Mariya Mahmud is a medical doctor and Kano's former commissioner for higher education.

President Bola Tinubu has nominated Mariya Mahmud from Kano State for appointment as minister. If the Senate confirms her appointment, the medical doctor will become the second woman from northern Nigeria's most populous state to be a minister since 1999.

Mrs Mahmud replaced another woman and her schoolmate, Maryam Shettima, on the list as one of the two nominees from Kano State.

The replacement was contained in correspondence from Mr Tinubu and read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at plenary on Friday.

Mrs Mahmud was the commissioner for Higher Education in the administration of former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

The last female minister from Kano was Aisha Isma'il, appointed in 1999 by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mrs Ismail served as Minister of Women Affairs and Youth Development from 1999 until 2003. She worked on the passage of the 2003 Child Rights Act.

She was a member of the defunct opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) but was appointed as part of a government of national unity following Nigeria's return to civil rule after 16 years of a military interregnum.

Replacement of ministerial nominees is not new in Kano

In 2014, former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Ibrahim Shekarau as Minister of Education, although a woman, Jamila Salik, was reportedly pencilled initially down for the position.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Mr Shekarau, a former Kano State governor, was compensated with the appointment for his defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Shekarau had left the APC over his dispute over the control of the newly formed party with Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Mrs Salik, a former associate of Mr Kwankwaso, contested unsuccessfully for a seat in the state House of Assembly in 2007 on the platform of the PDP. After falling out with Mr Kwankwaso, she became the darling of the PDP at the national level, which led to her ministerial nomination before the arrival of Mr Shekarau in the party dimmed her light

Profile of the new nominee from Kano

Mrs Mahmoud was born in Bunkure Local Government Area of Kano State 1976. She attended Bunkure Gari Primary School, went to Tudun/Wada Dankadai for her junior secondary education and then went to Girls Science College Garko, graduating in 1995.

She attended the College for Remedial Studies, where she took the IJMB examination in 1996. In 1997, she was offered admission to study Medicine at Bayero University Kano.

Later, she furthered her education to become a consultant in family medicine at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. She is a consultant in family medicine and has over 20 years of experience in the field.

Mrs Mahmud is also a member of the National Postgraduate Medical College and the West African College of Physicians.

She was appointed the commissioner for Higher Education in Kano State in 2020. In that role, she oversaw the state's tertiary education system. She is a strong advocate for women's empowerment and education.

Mrs Mahmud is a member of several women's organisations and has spoken out on the importance of education for girls and women. She is also a role model for young women in Kano State.
Costa Rica, a nation celebrated for its breathtaking natural landscapes, unwavering dedication to sustainability, and boundless innovation. Amid this backdrop of progress, emerges a pioneering event known as Blockchain Jungle.

San Jose, Costa Rica--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - Scheduled for November 16, 2023, in the heart of San Jose, Costa Rica, Blockchain Jungle is a visionary one-day conference. Assembling luminaries from the global blockchain arena alongside local stakeholders, the event aims to explore the boundless potential of blockchain technology and its alignment with Costa Rica's ambitious sustainability goals.





Blockchain Jungle



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9405/176122_blockchainjungle-001.jpg

Juan C. Guerrero, the visionary Chief Executive Director of Blockchain Jungle, shares his enthusiasm, stating, "Blockchain is not just a technology, it's a movement. In Costa Rica, we're combining that movement with our rich tradition of sustainability. The result is Blockchain Jungle - a beacon for the world showing how technology and eco-consciousness can shape the future together."

Expect a tapestry of captivating speakers, including blockchain pioneers Nick Szabo, Perianne Boring, and Diego Borgo, sharing their insights at the conference. Engaging workshops, collaborative breakout sessions, and a grand celebratory concert will enrich the experience.

Beyond the conference's realm, Blockchain Jungle will host a series of side events, ranging from hackathons and pitch competitions to networking receptions. These diverse activities empower participants to stay abreast of the latest blockchain trends, forge connections with industry stalwarts, and forge the bonds for transformative ventures.

What to Expect at Blockchain Jungle 2023

Blockchain Jungle 2023 is a one-day event that will feature a variety of speakers, workshops, and networking opportunities. Here is a sneak peek at what attendees can expect:

Opening Ceremony: The event will kick off with an opening ceremony featuring keynote speeches from global leaders in the blockchain industry.

Keynote Speeches: Throughout the day, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from some of the biggest names in blockchain technology. Speakers will discuss a variety of topics, including the future of blockchain, the potential of blockchain for sustainability, and the latest trends in the blockchain industry.

Workshops: Blockchain Jungle will also feature a variety of workshops that will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn more about specific aspects of blockchain technology. Workshops will cover topics such as green mining, decentralized finance (DeFi), and blockchain for supply chain management.

Networking Opportunities: Blockchain Jungle is a great opportunity to network with other professionals in the blockchain industry. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet new people and learn about their work.

Grand Concert Celebration: The day will end with a grand concert celebration featuring live music from local and international artists.

Why Attend Blockchain Jungle 2023

There are many reasons to attend Blockchain Jungle 2023. Here are just a few:

Learn from the experts: Blockchain Jungle will bring together some of the brightest minds in the blockchain industry. This is a great opportunity to learn from the experts and get their insights on the future of blockchain technology.

Network with other professionals: Blockchain Jungle is a great opportunity to network with other professionals in the blockchain industry. This is a great way to make new connections and learn about new opportunities.

Experience Costa Rica: Blockchain Jungle will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica. This is a beautiful country with a lot to offer visitors. In addition to attending the conference, attendees have the opportunity to explore Costa Rica's natural beauty, learn about its culture, and experience its delicious food.

How to Attend Blockchain Jungle 2023

Blockchain Jungle 2023 is a ticketed event. Tickets are available now on the Blockchain Jungle website. Blockchain Jungle 2023 is a unique event that will bring together the brightest minds in the blockchain industry to discuss the future of blockchain technology and its potential to help Costa Rica achieve its sustainability goals.

Witness the metamorphosis unfold as Blockchain Jungle shapes the destiny of blockchain technology and its profound impact on sustainability. For those intrigued by the prospects of a more sustainable future, attending this landmark event is an unmissable opportunity.

MEDIA CONTACT

Contact Person: Juan C. Guererro

Company Name: Blockchain Jungle

E-mail: hola@juancguerrero.com

Phone: +506 7200 3807

Website: https://blockchainjungle.com/

Linkedin Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juancguerreroe/

Linkedin Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockchainjungle/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176122
Bazaars, a Dubai, UAE-based peer-to-peer marketplace for cryptocommerce, secured seed funding valued at $15m.

Backers included Amir Sarhangi, ex-Ripple XRP VP of Products and CEO Supermojo, and F Al-Tamimi, a Saudi entrepreneur.

The company intends to use the funds to

Expand its operations into new markets, including Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Develop new products and features, such as a peer-to-peer lending platform and a crypto-backed lending platform.

Build out its team by hiring more engineers, product managers, and marketing professionals.

Bazaars is a peer-to-peer marketplace for cryptocommerce. The platform allows users to buy, sell, and trade physical and digital assets using cryptocurrencies. It is built on a blockchain network, which ensures that transactions are secure and transparent.

FinSMEs

07/08/2023
CoreMedia, a Hamburg, Germany-based provider of Digital Experience Platform (DXP) and Content Management software solutions, acquired BySide, a Porto, Portugal-based provider of SaaS customer journey, engagement, and personalization solutions, and Smarkio, a Porto, Portugal-based provider of SaaS chatbot solutions to B2C brands.

The financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.

The acquisitions of BySide and Smarkio reinforce CoreMedias position as an end-to-end solution for composing, managing, delivering, and optimizing digital experiences for customers. Specifically, the add-on investments expand CoreMedias real-time personalization and automation capabilities. Together, they help solidify CoreMedias leadership in the DXP market, covering all aspects of the customer journey and experience.

A portfolio company of OpenGate Capital, CoreMedia is a global leader in Content Management Systems (CMS) and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) solutions serving Global B2C and B2B brands, including John Deere, Deckers Brands, Under Armour, Luxottica, T-Mobile, and Finnair.

FinSMEs

07/08/2023
Morgan Stanley, a global banking group, has put India on the top spot from the sixth position and has upgraded the countrys rating to Overweight from equalweight, marking a significant shift in its assessment.

Morgan Stanleys Chief Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Strategist Jonathan Garner said, It is time for foreign investors to re-engage with the Indian market.

In an interview to CNBCTV18, Garner said, India has underperformed the rest of Asia and emerging markets in aggregate over the last nine months, it has been a volatile period of performance relative. But when we reran our process, it was strongly indicating taking profits in particular in Taiwan, moving to the sidelines on China, going underweight Australia, whereas for India, some of the secular drivers of the market are really falling into place.

Why Morgan Stanley upgraded India?

India has been upgraded by Morgan Stanley for its secular leadership as the banking group sees a secular trend towards sustained superior EPS growth in USD terms compared to other Emerging Markets and a young demographic, which supports equity inflows.

Stable rupee

Garner pointed out another key aspect of Indias market stability. He said The tendency of the Indian rupee to be far more stable than in the past and to actually appreciate in real effective exchange rate terms versus the currency basket, which is in sharp contrast to the Chinese renminbi that is now structurally starting to depreciate,

A sharp rally in the Indian equity markets from their lows in March is also giving fillip to the Indias upgraded ranking.

The Nifty 50 index saw a gain of over 3,000 points and came quite close to reaching the 20,000-mark. While there has been a correction of around 500 points from the highs, the index remains positive on a year-to-date basis.

So, the market is not as expensive, particularly on a relative basis as it was last October, when relative to Taiwan and Korea, its probably the most expensive we have ever seen, Garner said.

Its clearly not at any kind of low valuation, but there are so many positives in the market right now that we suspect investors will be happy with the multiple.
Prince Harry and Meghan are taking a detour from their normal work by producing a fiction movie in a potential $3million deal. The film is based on a novel called Meet Me at the Lake. The Mirror report says, what seems charming at first, actually contains some steamy sex scenes and drug use. Regardless, its been a money-making machine, selling 37,000 copies in its first week alone.

The books description on Amazon reads: A random connection sends two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects, in this breathtaking new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After.

The author of the book, Carley Fortune explores themes of childhood trauma, mental health, and post-natal depression. For Meghan and Harry fans, one of the most standout plot points is the death of a parent in a car crash. The themes of the book gripped the couple, an insider told The Sun.

The rights for the book have been valued at up to $3 million, according to PR expert Mark Borkowski when speaking with The Sun. Hes not confident that Harry and Meghan were the right choice for this acquisition, believing that this prize asset would be better in the hands of some amazing drama producers out there.

In the meantime, Harry and Meghan are said to be tracking down the Hollywood enemy who sabotaged them. Not too long ago when the Primetime Emmy Award shortlists were unveiled, it was noticed that Meghan and Harrys Netflix docuseries  Harry & Meghan  didnt make the cut, which likely left them devastated.

On the other hand, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly considering the possibility of relocating to a new residence in Los Angeles. Rumours suggest they are exploring the idea of purchasing a property in the picturesque region of Malibu, which would bring them closer to the heart of Los Angeles. Currently residing in their 11.4-million (120 crore) mansion in Montecito, it can take them up to three hours to travel to central Los Angeles.
Over the past few years, there has been a steady decline in the divorce rate in the United States. But the number of elderly Americans living alone is growing.

The term grey divorce refers to the recent trend of increasingly long-lasting marriages ending.

In the US, there were around 16 million adults 65 and older who lived alone in 2022, which is three times more than there were in the 1960s, according to CNN. This figure is anticipated to increase as Baby Boomers age, generating serious concerns about the future of the nation.

So, what exactly is grey divorce? Lets take a closer look.

Also read: Couples that sleep apart stay together? Sleep divorce, the new social media trend, explained

All about grey divorce

Grey divorces are those that involve spouses who are older than 50 and have been married for quite a long time, according to highswartz.com.

Most older couples choose to divorce for a variety of reasons, including that the marriage is no longer working, that one or both partners feel the need for financial independence, or that there is no longer any chemistry or willingness to share responsibility.

Krista Jordan, PhD, a couples therapist in Austin, Texas told the sexual health platform Giddy, When there is a grey divorce, usually the couple has had dissatisfaction in the marriage for many years. Careers and children are convenient distractions from the marital issues, and by focusing on these things, partners limp along in a relationship that is actually not viable long-term.

The US Census Bureau reports that the divorce rate for people over 50 has nearly doubled over the last three decades. According to a survey, more than half (54 per cent) of Americans who filed for divorce in 2020 were over 50, which is twice the rate of any other age group.

When they initially discovered the tendency, experts were taken aback. In an interview with CNN, Susan L. Brown, co-director of the National Centre for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, said, We were just floored by our findings.

About ten years have passed since Browns research made the term grey divorce prominent; it was previously uncommon but is now far more prevalent.

The revolution

In the US, the divorce rate for those over 50 doubled between 1990 and 2010, The Washington Post cited research by sociologists Brown and I-Fen Lin. They came up with the term the grey divorce revolution.

For everyone, from celebrities to regular people, the trend is still going strong.

Most recently, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau (51), and his wife Sophie Gregoire (48) announced separation. Last year, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and his producer/director wife Kiran Rao divorced after 15 years of marriage. After 27 years of marriage, Bill (67) and Melinda Gates (58), a millionaire couple, announced their divorce in 2021. Director Priyadarshan (66) and his actor wife Lissy, 56, divorced in 2016.

The divorce rate is still increasing among those over 65. CNN quoted Brown as saying, This means more and more people will likely be ageing alone and without marriage, without a doubt.

Over 50 per cent of people end up living alone in the initial years following a grey divorce, claims Brown.

Also read: What is no-fault divorce? Why are US conservatives against it?

Causes

A divorce is a difficult process.

Grey divorces have increased as a result of shifting societal attitudes, despite the fact that marriage is an institution that ties two people together for the rest of their lives. This shift has a number of causes, including the economic advantages women had when they entered the workforce and shifting perspectives on marriage.

Jaclyn Gullotta, PhD, a licensed mental health counsellor and a qualified mental health supervisor in the Orlando area told Giddy, Grey divorces may happen when people have more time to think about what they want in life. Self-reflection may become more of a priority once people find themselves less busy with their careers ad taking care of a family. With this, each person may realise they have less in common than desired for their relationship.

Houston-based divorce attorney Susan Myres claims that some older individuals file for divorce because they have drifted too far apart from their spouses, while others do so because they have experienced abuse or learned disturbing secrets about their partners.

According to CNN, Myres prefers using the term silver splitters rather than grey divorces since it also hints at the benefit of starting again regardless of age.

Intensifying trend

The percentage of seniors living alone in recent years has remained largely stable. It is circling about its present value of 28 per cent.

However, due to the size of the Baby Boomer group, which comprises individuals between the ages of 50 and 77, the overall number of elderly persons living alone is rising and is anticipated to continue doing so.

Experts believe that if more isnt done to improve social services, this might have a big impact on communities all over the nation.

Markus Schafer, a sociology associate professor at Baylor University who specialises in ageing and health, refers to it as a two-sided phenomenon.

A lot of people really find it appealing to have autonomy  to not have daily squabbles over how the dishwasher gets loaded or where the toothbrush goes. On the other hand consistently research finds that even though a lot of people fare well living alone, people who live alone report higher levels of loneliness across the board, and its definitely more pronounced later in life, CNN quoted him as saying.

The concern

Researchers and campaigners are working to find solutions to aid ageing people living alone before its too late, because of the well-established and significant health implications linked to loneliness and social isolation.

Theres a lot of innovation and startup money for robo-companionship  things like robotic dogs, the metaverse and artificial intelligence. This is really taking off in Japan. Theyre kind of showing us what the future of ageing may look like here, Schafer said.

According to Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing and Ageing Society at Harvard Universitys Joint Centre for Housing Studies, the future of ageing in the US will undoubtedly see millions of people living alone.

By 2038, the number of single-person households led by persons over 75 is expected to top 14 million, according to projections from the centre. As Baby Boomers age, this figure is expected to rise dramatically in the following years.

With inputs from agencies
After a few months of calm, a new COVID-19 strain has appeared in the United Kingdom and is spreading quickly, raising alarms about the devastating pandemic that killed millions of people worldwide over three years ago.

The EG.5.1 variant, code-named Eris, was discovered for the first time in the British nation last month, reported news agency PTI.

However, it currently accounts for one in seven new coronavirus cases.

But what exactly is the Eris variant? How deadly is it? Lets take a closer look.

Also read: Why is US seeing a surge of COVID hospitalisations?

Eris  The new COVID-19 variant

The Eris variant, which bears the name of the Greek goddess of strife and discord, is a descendant of the quickly spreading Omicron, reported Business Today. In comparison to other strains, it has demonstrated a notable growth advantage.

According to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), it is currently the second most common variation in the UK, following the Arcturus XBB.1.16 variant, which accounts for almost half of all infection cases with a 39.4 per cent prevalence.

However, not only has it recently been found in the UK, but also in a number of other countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. There is currently a ninth wave of the virus in Japan, according to Republic World.

Eris was first flagged as a signal in monitoring on 3 July, according to the countrys Health Security Agency, as a result of a rise in reports globally, mainly from Asia.

According to data as of 27 July, 11.8 per cent of UK sequences in the week starting July 10 had been designated as Eris. According to the most recent data, the cases of the new variant now account for 14.6 per cent of all cases.

The UKHSA said in a report, COVID-19 case rates continued to increase this week compared to our previous report. 5.4 per cent of 4,396 respiratory specimens reported through the Respiratory DataMart System were identified as COVID-19. This is compared to 3.7 per cent of 4,403 from the previous report.

Also read: WHO says COVID-19 emergency is over: What does this decision mean?

Symptoms

According to the Zoe Health Study, which calculates statistics on UK COVID infections, the most common symptoms of the COVID variant are:

Runny nose Headache Fatigue (mild or severe) Sneezing Sore throat

It spreads quickly

UKHSA chiefs claim it has already a 20.5 per cent growth advantage, reported Business Today.

Despite this, experts underline that there is currently no data to support the notion that Eris is more harmful or causes more severe disease than earlier forms.

EG.5.1 has been added to the group of variations being watched by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Zoe Health Study reports that expected numbers for COVID cases increased by about 200,000 in the previous month, from 606,656 predicted cases on 4 July to 785,980 on 27 July.

Also read: Why junior doctors in UK are on longest-ever strike in NHS history

The cause of rising cases

Experts agree that severe weather has a significant impact on the current increase in coronavirus cases, even though the underlying cause is still unknown.

We continue to see a rise in COVID-19 cases in this weeks report. We have also seen a small rise in hospital admission rates in most age groups, particularly among the elderly. Overall levels of admission still remain extremely low and we are not currently seeing a similar increase in ICU admission, said Dr Mary Ramsay, UKHSAs Head of Immunisation, according to NDTV.

Officials claim they are closely monitoring the situation.

Although vaccinations and prior infection provide better protection for people, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that nations should not relax their security measures.

WHO continues to advise people at high risk to wear a mask in crowded places, to get boosters when recommended, and to ensure adequate ventilation indoors, And we urge governments to maintain and not dismantle the systems they built for COVID-19, Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying by Sky News.

Also read: BMC COVID-19 centres case: ED arrests businessman Sujit Patkar, friend of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut

Expert opinion

Omicron subvariants  Arcturus, and Eris, declining immunity, and unfavourable weather, according to independent Sage member Prof Christina Pagel, are definitely starting another wave in the UK.

She told The Independent, The wet weather over the last few weeks probably isnt helping either as it keeps people inside.

However, there is a possibility that the spread of the variant may slow down over the summer holidays with schools closed and people travelling abroad. It is likely to be dominant by September when kids return to school and adults to work or university, plus we start spending much more time inside, the COVID expert said.

She believes most people are now over 18 months out from their last vaccine and most people are several months out from their last infection too. Thus, the wave may grow faster in September.

However, Imperial College Londons head of primary care and public health, Professor Azeem Majeed, downplayed the concerns with the Eris variant.

I dont feel that people should be unduly worried by the recent increase in COVID-19 cases. Case numbers will fluctuate and there will be periods when the number of cases in the UK increases, he told The Independent, adding that EG.5.1 is an Omicron variant that first surfaced in the UK around the end of 2021, and according to WHO, EG.5 is a variant under monitoring (VUM) but not a variant of concern (VOC).

This means we need to continue to monitor EG.5.1 to see what impact it has on outcomes such as the number of infections, hospital admissions and deaths, he added.

According to Wion News, Prof. Rowland Kao, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, stressed the deterioration in surveillance even further. He said, With seasonal flu, we have of course a certain amount of predictability with the many years of data. However, with Covid, now that we dont have those multiple data streams to rely on, its harder to say what is happening (in the general population).

With inputs from agencies
Delhi has decided to stop its efforts to capture and conceal numerous stray dogs in preparation for the upcoming G20 summit, a local official said Sunday.

Since India took over the G20 presidency last year, Delhi has been undergoing extensive beautifying efforts. One such plan included to remove stray dogs near G20 venues, which was announced last week only to be withdrawn with an immediate effect after it upset the Delhi residents and animal rights activists.

Action plan issued by this office (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) regarding picking of stray dogs from the vicinity of prominent locations of Delhi in view of the G-20 Summit is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect, MCDs Department of Veterinary Services announced through a circular on 5 August.

we realised that there is no special need for picking up all the dogs from the areas mentioned in the previous action plan due to the G20 Summit due to which we decided to withdraw our action plan, The Indian Express reports an MCD official saying.

Last week, on Wednesday, MCD released a circular stating that a large sterilising programme for dogs will begin on Thursday (last week) and will remain until 30 August.

According to the circular, New Delhis municipal government would round up canines outside boutique hotels and popular tourist hotspots, and keep them at animal sterilisation centres until the summit was over.

The aim was to temporarily keep the stray dogs at the Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre before releasing them back to the same locations where they were picked up after the G20 summit.

However, the MCD decided to drop the proposal over the weekend, without stating a reason for abandoning their plan.

Illegal and impractical

Local media reported that the dog-catching scheme had aroused opposition from Delhi residents and animal rights activists.

Ambika Shukla, a PFA Trustee termed the action as arbitrary and said that catching and confinement of stray dogs is both cruel and unnecessary.

Shukla Said in a statement: Clearly, no planning or thought has gone into this initiative. No notice, no consultation, no procurement of nets, no staff training, no nothing. All ABC units are opposing this move as it is illegal, impractical and unwarranted.

The statement further said that apart from being unnecessary, it is also illegal to pick up sterilised dogs, which is impractical.

ABC centres are quick-release facilities and they do not have the space, staff, or infrastructure to house dogs for a month safely. The dogs are severely at risk from catching infections in such close and prolonged confinement, the statement added.

Delhis strays

More than 60,000 stray dogs live on Delhis streets according to Indias Livestock Census of 2012, the most recent available government figures.

Sterilisation campaigns have been regularly employed by local authorities to keep the canine population in check, though dog packs remain present in parks and residential neighbourhoods around the city.

Many of Delhis strays are beloved by their adopted neighbourhoods despite lacking formal owners, with some dogs clothed in special canine jackets to keep warm during the citys harsh winters.

GOOD NEWS MCD order withdrawn  A delegation of @PFAppf @pfaindia met with the Mayor of Delhi yesterday and raised concerns about the proposed drive to remove street dogs. The order issued by MCD on 4.8.2023, which was issued in suppression of the Action Plan of 3.8.2023 is pic.twitter.com/QR3dOsDFTf  Gauri Maulekhi (@gauri_maulekhi) August 5, 2023

But they are also a hazard to humans, with local media regularly reporting on the mauling of young children by aggressive dog packs across the country.

Roughly 17 million dog bites are reported across India each year and the World Health Organisation says that nearly 20,000 people nationwide die of rabies annually.

The Delhi metropolitan area, where about 30 million people live, has been working really hard to make the city more beautiful after India became the president of the G20.

Authorities have removed illegal slums near the places where the summit is going to happen. They have also improved the main roads in the city that are usually very crowded. The summit, happening in September, will gather leaders from the world's most important economies.

With inputs from AFP
The murder of Sheena Bora is one of the most talked about and argued cases involving former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, who allegedly killed her daughter in the mid-2010s. Everyone is perplexed by the case, and the twists and turns even now send a wave of intrigue.

After spending more than six years in jail on charges of murdering her daughter Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea now attempts to put her side of the story forward with a bare-all memoir in which she claims that the person she is accused of killing is alive and out there.

On 18 May, last year, the Supreme Court granted Mukerjea bail, stating that her stay in prison was excessive and that the trial in the case would not be completed anytime soon. She has always rejected the murder charge.

In her book Unbroken: The Untold Story, Mukerjea strips away the layers of sensationalism that surrounded me and reveal the raw truth of my experiences.

Shortly after Sheena Bora, a Mumbai Metro executive, went missing in 2015, Mumbai Police arrested Indrani Mukerjea, her then-husband Peter Mukerjea, and her driver, Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, for allegedly kidnapping, killing, and burning her body.

Things changed after I become strict

Through the book, she says she wants to reach out to anyone who has faced adversity and believed they were beyond repair.

Mukerjea says though she and Sheena looked really similar and even liked similar food, they didnt have a conventional parent-child relationship.

I discovered what Sheena was like only when she was 15 years of age. Right from the start, we bonded like friends. Sheena considered my mother as her parent because she grew up with my parents; she saw me more as a sibling, Mukerjea writes in the book, published by HarperCollins India.

She goes on to say that both she and Sheena invested in creating a bond.

Over the years, our bond intensified. We shared everything  from food to jewellery to clothes, the book says.

But that was unfortunately short-lived, claims Mukerjea.

I didnt know the challenges of being a parent to a 21-year-old. The minute I stopped playing the cool parent and became the strict one, things changed, she writes.

I respected Sheenas decisions

Mukerjea claims she never expressed her rage to Sheena.

She was my kid who could do no wrong. I treated her like an adult and respected her decisions. I was strict but I also trusted her to handle her life and conflicts with maturity and tenacity.

So, when she decided to not stay in touch, I respected her space. I knew badgering her would get us nowhere. Just like the first time, the effort to reconcile had to come from her end. And then, 2015 happened, she writes.

On 25 August, 2015, Mukerjea was accosted by a team of Mumbai Police on the charge of murdering Sheena.

And what about Sheena? The child of mine I allegedly throttled with my own hands. Sheena and I have the same soul. We carried the same pain, with a smile big enough to hide all of it underneath the shine. She was bright and warm, loving and kind. She had inherited my strength of spirit, she writes.

Sheena is alive

Then making the startling claim, she says, I am now at peace after Sheena was spotted at the Guwahati airport by my friend  Saveena. Being an advocate herself, her quick thinking got us the footage of Sheena from the airport

She goes on to add: Something changed in me after this information came to the fore. The person I am accused of killing is out and about, while I was rotting in jail. Why hasnt she come out openly? I dont know. I am sure there are reasons and pressures holding her back. But this is the second time I have been told Sheena is alive.

When I was in prison, an inmate at Byculla Jail too claimed to have seen Sheena in Kashmir. She was a female government official. I, through my lawyer Sana (Raees Khan), urged the CBI to probe this. It went nowhere. But when Saveena saw her, recently, we knew we had to look for her.

A special court in Mumbai asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to secure the CCTV footage of Guwahati airport and find out the identity of the girl who allegedly looked like Sheena.

Also Read: From divorcing Peter to claiming daughter is alive, all times Indrani Mukerjea hit headlines in jail

Special CBI judge S P Naik Nimbalkar asked, What is the harm? He directed the AAI to hand over footage of 5 January, between 5.30 am and 6 am near the boarding gate of Guwahati airport. This gave ground to what I was feeling all along  Sheena is alive and out there, writes Mukerjea.

In the book, she also alleges that more than men, women tried to pull her down.

After the first charge sheet came out, people from all corners of our social life descended upon me with their claws out. In all my years in Mumbai, I had never felt any animosity against me, maybe because I didnt ever focus on other people

She also says that the moment she was arrested, it seemed like people came out and said everything they had been feeling about me for a decade and more. It felt like they were waiting for me to fall, adding, And what was really jarring was that most of these people didnt really know me, but aired their opinions freely about me, anyway.

With inputs from PTI
Will he or wont he? Thats the question everyone is asking as all eyes turn to Lok Sabha today. Many are wondering if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will return to Parliament after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark, paving the way the way for a possible reinstatement as Wayanad MP.

Interestingly, if Rahul is to return to Lok Sabha today, his timing will be impeccable. From Tuesday (8 August), the debate on the no-trust motion moved by the Opposition over the ongoing ethnic-clashes in Manipur will begin. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply to the debate on 10 August (Thursday).

Hours before the session begins today in the Lower House of Parliament, heres what we know about Rahuls return and why his so-called return may not even take place today.

Awaiting Speakers approval

Last Friday, the Supreme Court put Rahul Gandhis conviction  he was sentenced to two years in prison  for his all thieves are Modi remark on hold. At the time, the apex court 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 ramifications of disqualification not just affects the rights of the individual but also the electorate, the judges had also said.

Following this, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury appealed to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP and allow him to attend proceedings from Monday. Notably, Rahul, according to his lawyer, has already lost122 days of Parliament.

The speed with which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified should be the same to reinstate him, Chowdhury had told ANI news agency. Futhermore, Chowdhury sent the relevant court documents to the Speakers secretariat on Saturday morning and urging that Rahuls reinstatement be done at lightning speed.

According to a Times of India report, Chowdhury said the Speaker had asked him to get in touch on Saturday morning, and when he did, he was directed to submit the papers to the LS secretary general.

Chowdhury said when he contacted the secretary general, he was informed that the office was closed on Saturday, and the papers should be sent to the Speaker. Chowdhury then mailed the documents to the LS secretariat.

A Lok Sabha secretariat functionary said that as the Supreme Courts order had come on a Friday evening and the LS Secretariat is shut on Saturdays and Sundays, the papers will now be reviewed on Monday, following which a merit-based decision will be taken.

Interestingly, in the previous case of Lakshadweep MP PP Mohammed Faizal, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party, his reinstatement had taken a month. The MP, who had been disqualified in January, had moved the Supreme Court when he was not restored to Parliament. It was only in March that he was able to return to the Lok Sabha.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi gets reprieve in one Modi surname case. But there are more pending

Congress Speaks

Amid this, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh questioned the delay in reinstating Rahuls MP status and even posted about it on the now-rebranded social media platform X.

He wrote, 26 hours after @RahulGandhi was convicted by the Sessions Court in Surat, the notification of his disqualification as MP was issued. 26 hours have passed since the Supreme Court stayed his wholly unjustified conviction. Why hasnt his position as MP been restored yet?

26 hours after @RahulGandhi was convicted by the Sessions Court in Surat, the notification of his disqualification as MP was issued. 26 hours have passed since the Supreme Court stayed his wholly unjustified conviction. Why hasnt his position as MP been restored yet? Is  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 5, 2023

Sources close to the Congress also told NDTV that they would go to court in case of a delay and additionally the united Opposition, INDIA, would add the issue to the list they are flagging in Parliament, if the Speaker doesnt restore Rahuls membership.

On Monday prior to the Lok Sabha proceedings, the Congress has also called for a meeting its Lok Sabha MPs to discuss its demand of reinstating Rahul Gandhi as a member of Parliament.

MK Stalin, the Tamil Nadu chief minister and head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham party, also questioned the delay in restoring Rahul Gandhis membership. Why hasnt Thiru @RahulGandhi been restored as an MP despite the Supreme Court staying his conviction? Why the urgency shown to disqualify him is missing now? Is the BJP afraid of brother #RahulGandhis presence in Parliament? he said on X (formerly Twitter).

Rahuls Modi surname defamation case

All of this stems from a remark that Rahul Gandhi had made in 2019 at an election rally in Karnatakas Kolar. Taking a dig at PM Modi, Rahul had then said: How come all the thieves have Modi as a common surname?

Following this, a criminal defamation case was filed by Purnesh Modi, a member of the BJP and also a former state minister in Gujarat. On 23 March, the Surat court had found the Congress leader guilty and sentenced him to two-years in prison. Owing to this conviction, Rahul was suspended from Parliament on basis of the Representation of the People Act.

Rahul then approached the Supreme Court and on Friday (4 August), the apex court had put his conviction on stay, paving the way for his return to Parliament.

Also read: Off-centre | Going, going back! The strange case of Rahul Gandhis defamation conviction

Reacting to the news, Rahul had then said: Come what may, my duty remains the same. Protect the idea of India.

Other Congress and INDIA alliance leaders had also hailed the Supreme Courts order with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee saying, I am happy with the news about the MP-ship of Rahul Gandhi. This will further strengthen the resolve of the INDIA alliance to unitedly fight for our motherland and win. A victory of the judiciary!

Supriya Sule of the NCP had also said: In the pursuit of truth, the essence of Satyamev Jayate resonates once more. The unwavering voice of truth shall never be subdued. The Hon'ble Supreme Courts decision on Rahul Gandhi Jis case is a herald of justice, warmly embraced. A hearty welcome back to Parliament!

With inputs from agencies
The male suspect excreted 82 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.822kgs in five excretions, while Ms Ilonzeh egested 101 wraps in four excretions.

A fake couple purportedly going for medical treatment in India has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The 'couple' who ingested 184 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.322 kilogrammes, with 100 grammes of the drug also concealed in the woman's pubic area, was intercepted in the airport in Lagos.

Femi Babafemi, the agency's spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday.

The drug agency also disclosed that its operatives intercepted heroin, meth consignments concealed in beads, soap bars, and an MP3 Player going to New Zealand, Greece and Hong Kong.

Fake couple

The fake couple, identified as Ilonzeh Kingsley Onyebuchi and Ilonzeh Roseline Nonyelum, was intercepted at Screening Point 1, Terminal 1 of the international wing of the Lagos airport on 1 August while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to India.

The male suspect excreted 82 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.822kgs in five excretions, while Ms Ilonzeh egested 101 wraps in four excretions.

Although their travel documents show consistency in their names and depict them as a couple, preliminary investigation revealed that the intended passengers were not a couple but obtained the travel papers in the same surname to beat security checks at the airport.

The woman later gave her real name as Nkechi Ngogbike, the agency said.

At the screening point, the NDLEA operatives subjected them to a body scan.

"The scan confirmed they both ingested drugs, as a result of which they were later placed on excretion observation at the agency's facility," the statement read.

Confession

According to the anti-narcotic agency, the female suspect confessed that she was recruited in her church in Aba, Abia State, where she lives.

"The suspect, Ilonzeh Roseline Nonyelum (aka Ngogbike Nkechi), stated further that she is a divorcee and that Kingsley with whom she was travelling is not her husband but connected only for the illicit drug business trip," Mr Babafemi said.

"She revealed that her arranged husband, Kingsley, brought the pellets of cocaine to her in her room to ingest in the hotel where they were both lodged in separate rooms the previous day, Monday 31st July.

"After their arrest, a thorough search conducted on her led to the discovery of a big size wrap of cocaine that weighed 100 grams she inserted into her private part. She confessed that she was promised Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000) upon successful delivery of the drug in India."

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Her counterpart, who trades clothes in Onitsha, Anambra State, claimed he was promised $2,000 after successfully delivering the drug in India.

Mr Babafemi said their investigation shows that the male suspect had been arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on 19 March 2022 for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.243kgs upon his arrival from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on board an Ethiopian airline flight.

"His travel documents then contained his real name: Uwaezuoke Ikenna Christian," the statement said.

"After his arrest at the Abuja airport on 19th March 2022 along with another suspect, Iro Elvis Uche, who also ingested 65 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.376kgs, Uwaezuoke was subsequently arraigned before Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Federal High Court Abuja with charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/438/2022.

"He was eventually granted bail by the court pending the conclusion of his trial. He was still on the court bail when he was arrested at the Lagos airport for a similar offence on Tuesday 1st August."

The agency also recovered 272 grammes of dextromethorphan mixed with heroin going to Greece from white neck beads, and 665 grammes of cannabis being shipped to Hong Kong were hidden in bathing soap bars.
The Centre has come out swinging at US tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham.

Union minister Anurag Thakur, citing a report from The New York Times, has accused Singham of funding the website NewsClick and having direct ties with the Communist Party of Chinas propaganda arm and the Chinese media firm Maku Group.

They present fake news in the name of free news. Congress and other parties are supporting them, Thakur, claiming they are linked by anti-India umbilical cord, alleged.

But who is Singham? And what does The New York Times report say about him?

Lets take a closer look:

Early years and career

As per NDTV, Singham was born on 13 May, 1954.

Singham is the son of leftist academic Archibald Singham, as per The New York Times.

Archibald was a political science professor at City University, Brooklyn College, New York, as per NDTV.

Archibald took to task US interventions in communist Grenada, as per News18.

Singham has been politically active since his youth when he joined the League of Revolutionary Black Workers  a Black nationalist-Maoist group in Detroit.

Singham worked as a strategic technical consultant for Huawei from 2001 to 2008.

Singhams LinkedIn profile describes him as the founder and former chairperson of ThoughtWorks Inc  an Information Technology firm based in Chicago.

ThoughtWorks company website describes the company as a leading global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and software engineering to enable enterprises and technology disruptors to thrive.

Singham a few years ago sold his company to a private equity firm for $785 million, as per The New York Times.

I decided that at my age and extreme privilege, the best thing I could do was to give away most of my money in my lifetime, Singham said in a statement.

Family

Singham married former Democratic political adviser and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans in 2017.

The ceremony was attended by celebrities including Democracy Now host Amy Goodman, Ben & Jerrys co-founder Ben Cohon and Vagina Monologues author V (formerly known as Eve Ensler).

As per The New York Times, the wedding, held in Jamaica, also doubled as a meet.

An invite to the soiree noted a panel discussion to be held entitled The Future of the Left.

Singhams son works for Massachusetts-based think tank Tricontinental, as per News18.

What is the report claiming?

The New York Times in its report entitled A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul claimed that the news portal NewsClick is part of a global network that received funding from Singham  who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media machine.

In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singhams network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.

Chinas history continues to inspire the working classes, one video said, The New York Times report noted.

The report also states that Singham, 69, is now based in Shanghai.

It details how one outlet in his web is co-producing a YouTube show financed at least in part by the propaganda department, while others are working alongside a Chinese university to spread Chinas voice to the world.

Singham says he does not work at the direction of the Chinese government. But the line between him and the propaganda apparatus is so blurry that he shares office space  and his groups share staff members  with a company whose goal is to educate foreigners about the miracles that China has created on the world stage, the report states.

The report notes how Singham in June was present at a propaganda forum of the CPC.

A photo showed Singham jotting down points in a notebook adorned with a red hammer and sickle, the report states.

What is the Centre saying?

The government has claimed vindication and slammed the Congress.

Addressing a press conference along with Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the BJP headquarters , Thakur said India was telling the world that NewsClick was a dangerous global network of propaganda.

When Enforcement Directorate raids were conducted against NewsClick two years ago, he said, the Congress and other Opposition parties stood by the news portal and questioned the governments action, raising the issue of press freedom.

The newspaper (NYT), about which Congress and opposition parties talk big, has confirmed what India had said two years ago. In 2021, we exposed NewsClick and how foreign hand was working against India, Thakur said.

The Congress and opposition parties had then come in support of the anti-India, break India campaign, he charged. Congress, China and NewsClick are part of one anti-India umbilical cord, Thakur alleged, adding Chinese goods are being sold in Rahul Gandhi jis fake Mohabbat ki Dukan (shop of love).

The minister said, If you see the funding network of NewsClick, it was funded by a foreigner, Neville Roy Singham, and he gets funds from China. Neville Roy Singham has direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese media company Maku Group, he said.

They present fake news in the name of free news. Congress and other parties are supporting them, he alleged.

Earlier in the day, BJP member Nishikant Dubey mentioned in Lok Sabha the New York Times report.

There was no immediate reaction available from the news portal or Congress.

With inputs from agencies
Its been almost three months that the northeastern state of Manipur has been in the grips of violence. Amid this volatile situation, Chief Minister N Biren Singh stood resolute with the support of his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and his alliance members, until now.

Now, the Biren Singh government seems to be on shaky ground, with not only the Kuki community losing faith in him, but also the Meiteis expressing their discontent with him. It now remains to be seen if the chief minister is able to turn around the situation or will he have to step down from his position of power.

A boycott of Biren Singh administration

On Sunday (6 August), the Kuki Peoples Alliance, which is an ally of the government in the state, withdrew support to the Biren Singh government. In a letter addressed to Governor Anusuiya Uikey, KPA president Tongmang Haokip wrote: After careful consideration of the current conflagration, the continued support for the incumbent government of Manipur led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh is no longer fructuous.

Accordingly, the support of the KPA to the government of Manipur is hereby withdrawn and can be considered null and void, the letter further said.

The KPA general secretary, W Lalam Hangshing, told The Print, We had given outside support, we were never a part of the government. In the present circumstances, it is but natural, and a moral obligation to our Kuki-Zomi brothers and sisters, to withdraw support from the Biren Singh-led government in Manipur.

He further said, They did not need us in the first place. It is more of a symbolic stance that we are withdrawing support. And when we have already raised demand for a separate administration, this is the de-facto separation. This decision will have no political implication or effect on the government.

Also read: Why Manipur CM Biren Singh has hit out at Mizorams Zoramthanga

Interestingly, the withdrawal of support by the KPA in the 60-member Manipur Assembly doesnt really impact the dynamics of power. This is because the KPA had only two MLAs in the current administration.

However, its not just the KPA that has expressed its discontent with the Manipur government. On Sunday, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI)  an umbrella body of several Imphal-based civil society organisations  also announced its decision to boycott the government for its inept handling of the ongoing unrest in the state that has claimed over 160 lives.

COCOMI convener Jeetendra Ningomba said he was disappointed with the government for not heeding to its demand for an emergency assembly session before 5 August to seek a peaceful resolution to the current turmoil. He further explained that COCOMI would not cooperate with any activities initiated by the state government.

Interestingly, COCOMI is made up of several Meitei groups, who until now supported Biren Singh. Their support to Biren Singh was clearly displayed when they urged him not to resign back in the first week of July. In fact, their members had torn up his resignation letter in public view.

VIDEO | Supporters of Manipur CM N Biren Singh block road urging him not to resign. pic.twitter.com/jAZYne5Gvt  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 30, 2023

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Fresh violence in Manipur

Since Saturday, the state has seen a fresh wave of violence in which six people, including a father-son duo, have been killed, and another 16 have been injured. Incidents of arson were also reported from various parts of the northeastern state and officials have said that at least 15 houses have been burnt down.

In Kwakta, a small town in Bishnupur, three were killed, with the police officials saying those responsible for the killings were suspected to be from the Kuki community. This has put the town on edge.

Following this, retaliatory attacks began with armed men reportedly opening fire in Kwakta's two neighbouring villages, Phoujang and Songdo, which fall in the Churachandpur district, killing two people and injuring a few others.

At the same time, one other person was killed in Terakhongsangbi in Bishnupur.

In the wake of renewed violence, the district administration has clamped curfew from 10.30 am in the twin Imphal districts. Instead of curfew relaxation from 5 am to 6 pm in the twin Imphal districts, it has now been shortened to 5 am to 10.30 am, an official said.

Moreover, additional troops of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to the state. Sources were quoted as telling Imphal Free Press that at least 10 companies of CAPF drawn from BSF, ITBP and CRPF are expected in the latest reinforcement.

Unrest in Manipur

The violence in Manipur began back on 3 May and ever since then has refused to quell, raising fears that the peace in the entire northeastern area could be disrupted. The worst of the violence came on 19 July when a video surfaced on social media platforms showing two Kuki women being stripped and paraded by a mob.

The situation became so severe that even the Supreme Court intervened in the matter and expressed concern over the incident. Since the video surfaced, Manipur Police has suspended five police personnel including the station incharge of the area. The state police has also ordered a time-bound inquiry under an Inspector General of Police to probe events leading to the looting of an armoury on 3 August in Bishnupur.

According to some, the situation in Manipur is reminiscent of a civil war; people have been burnt out of their homes, villages are raked with gunfire, and men, women and children are beaten by angry mobs.

Also read: Manipur women horror: How rape and sexual violence are used as a weapon in conflict

At the crux of the matter is the demand for Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community and the Kuki tribe opposing it.

The unrest in the state has also rocked Parliament with proceedings being disrupted daily. So much so, that the Opposition alliance, INDIA, has also called for a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his poor handling of the situation. The debate on the no-trust motion will begin on 8 August (Tuesday) and the PM will respond to it on 10 August (Thursday).

It is left to be seen if peace returns to the area, but if the current conditions persist, it remains almost impossible for calm to return to the area.

With inputs from agencies
In April, Rahul Gandhi vacated his official 12 Tughlaq Lane bungalow in Lutyens Delhi.

The development came after Rahul was disqualified from the Lok Sabha for his conviction in a 2019 defamation case.

Now, with the Supreme Court putting a stay on Rahuls conviction, the Congress leader has been reinstated to the Lok Sabha.

Rahul represents Wayanad (in Kerala) in the Lower House.

The question that some are now asking  will Rahul get his bungalow back?

Lets take a closer look:

According to NDTV, to get his Tughlaq Lane bungalow back, Rahul will need to reapply to the parliamentary housing committee.

The bungalow is yet to be given to anyone.

NDTV reported that senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary told the Lok Sabha housing committee he wanted to apply on Rahuls behalf but was told that only Rahul could apply for it under the rules.

Sources told the Hindustan Times that Rahul, after he applies, would be given the bungalow back again.

Hindustan Times also reported that Rahul had been living in the bungalow in the National Capital since 2005.

According to the newspaper, Rahul vacated the bungalow on 22 April after the court gave him a two-year sentence.

A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker from Parliament.

According to the newspaper, MPs can retain their official residences for a month after being disqualified.

Rahul was convicted in a case brought by a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over 2019 comments deemed insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others with the same name, including the lawmaker.

Rahul at an election rally at Kolar in Karnataka had said, Why do all the thieves, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi, have Modi as the common surname?

A BJP MLA from Surat, Purnesh Modi, had filed criminal defamation suit against Rahul over the remark.

Rahul on 23 March was given a two-year prison term by a Surat metropolitan court which found him guilty of defamation but granted him bail.

The Supreme Court last week suspended the conviction, allowing Rahul to return to parliament and contest a general election due next year.

Rahul has sought to overturn the conviction but his challenge has yet to be heard by a lower court.

Rahul, at the time he vacated the bungalow, claimed he was paying the price for speaking the truth.

He vowed to continue to raise peoples issues.

I have paid the price for speaking the truth, I am ready to pay any price, Rahul said.

He added that he would continue to raise issues of price rise and corruption with double the force.

Rahul had shifted to his mother Sonia Gandhis residence at 10 Janpath.

Rahul Gandhi on Monday changed his Twitter bio to Member of Parliament from the earlier DisQualified MP description.

His Twitter bio now describes him as a member of the Indian National Congress and Member of Parliament.

Soon after the move, Rahul reached Parliament House and offered floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhis statue.

Rahul also attended Lok Sabha proceedings after it resumed at noon but it got adjourned within minutes.

He was accorded a warm welcome by Congress and other opposition MPs on his arrival in Parliament.

Congress celebrates, BJP says temporary relief

Senior Congress leaders and party workers on Monday hailed Rahul Gandhis reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, saying it is a victory for truth and justice.

As soon as the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was restored on Monday, celebrations broke out at the AICC headquarters here with workers dancing and raising slogans in favour of Rahul.

Reacting to the development, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, Truth has triumphed, and lies has been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun. In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy! Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi also hailed Gandhis reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP.

But BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Monday said the reinstatement of Rahul Gandhis Lok Sabha membership is a temporary relief to the Congress leader till the matter is finally settled.

Asked about it, Surya told PTI, This is a temporary relief till the final hearing takes place and matter is finally settled. As a consequence of this interim order of the Supreme Court, Rahul Gandhis Lok Sabha membership has been temporarily reinstated. If the Supreme Court upholds the conviction of the Gujarat HC, then naturally Rahul Gandhis membership will stand cancelled another time. As long as it exists, he may be happy with that, said Surya, who is the Lok Sabha member from Bengaluru South.

With inputs from agencies
Two terrorist are believed to have been killed in a gunfight after Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) scuttled an infiltration attempt from across the border in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district early Monday, officials said.

Troops in Degwar sector noticed the movement of some terrorists attempting to sneak into this side under the cover of darkness in the early hours of the day and engaged them in an encounter, the officials said.

They said two terrorists are believed to have been killed in the gunfight but their bodies are yet to be retrieved from the scene.

Jammu-based defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said the two infiltrating terrorists were engaged by the joint team of Army and police in Garhi Battalion area around 2 am.

One terrorist fell down immediately while the second terrorist tried to run back to LoC, engaged and hit and was seen falling down on the ground, the officer said.

The movement of the terrorists was picked up in the general area Degwar Terva, he said, adding the operation is in progress and further details are awaited.
The Lok Sabha is set to witness a fierce debate on the no-confidence motion against the BJP-led government on Tuesday with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whose membership was restored following a Supreme Court direction, likely to be the chief speaker of opposition bloc INDIA.

Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogois motion of no-confidence has been listed as agenda item three in the List of Business and takes place under the shadow of the ethnic violence in Manipur, which has led to repeated disruptions in both the Houses of Parliament this session.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to reply to the debate on Thursday. The numbers are comfortably stacked in favour of the government and the Opposition is expected to utilise the opportunity to demonstrate its newly firmed up unity to take on the Modi-led BJP in the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.

Definitely, he will speak (zaroor bolenge), Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters when asked whether Gandhi will speak during the no-trust motion on Tuesday.

Political observers believe that the Opposition had given a platform to the Prime Minister, who is known for his oratorical skills, to forcefully make his point during the reply to the debate on the no-trust motion.

Gandhi returned to a rousing welcome in Parliament on Monday afternoon soon after the Lok Sabha revoked his disqualification as member after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case in which he was awarded a maximum two-year sentence.

The maximum jail term to Gandhi had triggered provisions of the Representation of the People Act leading to his automatic disqualification from the Lok Sabha on March 24. Gandhi had approached the Supreme Court after he failed to get relief from the Gujarat High Court.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament has witnessed repeated disruptions over the issue of ethnic violence in Manipur and the Opposition insisting on a statement from the Prime Minister in the House.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has told Parliament that he was ready to respond to any debate on Manipur, an offer the Opposition had rejected.

The BJP is expected to raise the issue of electoral violence in West Bengal and incidents of atrocities against women in Rajasthan.
A four-member team of BJP women MPs on Sunday met the family members of the 14-year-old victim in the Bhilwara rape-murder case and questioned why Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have not visited them. They also met the district collector and superintendent of police and inquired about the progress of the investigation.

Countering the BJP, AICC national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said political parties should desist from doing politics on this issue.

Superintendent of Police Adarsh Sidhu said seven people, including a woman, have been arrested in this case. Two minors have also been apprehended.

According to a report in The Indian Express, police have registered a case of gang-rape and murder against the accused. They have also booked them under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Further, they said that investigations showed that four women, including the wives of the two accused of gangrape, had helped in burning the victims body in the furnace, the report said.

Amid allegations of police apathy, a station house officer and the duty officer in the matter have been suspended and two constables taken off active duty.

The 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped, killed and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthans Bhilwara district on Wednesday.

BJP national president J P Nadda had deputed the team of MPs led by Saroj Pandey and comprising Rekha Sharma, Kanta Kardam and Locket Chatterjee. The team reached Kotri town on Sunday afternoon. Speaking to reporters, Pandey targeted Vadra, saying that she gave the slogan Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon but is silent over the incident in Rajasthan.

When there is any incident in Uttar Pradesh, both brother and sister reach there. But today on this incident, I would like to ask Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and their leaders that why did they not come here, the BJP MP said.

She also hit out at the Gehlot government over the rising crimes against women in Rajasthan. This government has no sensitivity left. At least they should meet the aggrieved family, she said.

Crime is at its peak in Rajasthan and the chief minister is also the home minister there are no words to condemn this incident. The chief minister should not do politics on women. He should answer why Rajasthan is on top in crime, Pandey said.

Facing flak over the Bhilwara case, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had on Saturday said his government takes such incidents very seriously and has directed the police to deal strictly with people involved in crimes against women.

Pandey said that no compensation has been paid to the victim till now.

BJP MP Kanta Kardam said the villagers and the girls family told them that she could have been saved but the police did not pay attention to their complaint. She said that people will give an apt reply to the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections.

AICC national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said no party should do politics in the name of getting the victim justice as she was the daughter of India and not any party or organisation.

He said a compensation of Rs 53.50 lakh will be given to the victims family by the government, political parties and social organisations. One member of the family would also be given a job on contract basis.

In order to bring the accused to book, police will file the charge sheet in the case within 15 days.

Police have arrested Kalu (25), his brother Kanha Kalbeliya (21), Kalus wife Lad alias Jiji (25), Pappu (35), Sanjay (20), Kamlesh (30) and Prabhu (40) in connection with the case. A married minor and a teenager have also been held, SP Sidhu said.

The BJP team also visited the site of the incident. It will prepare a report and submit it to Nadda. BJP national secretary Alka Gurjar and Mahila Morcha state president Raksha Bhandari accompanied the team.

We will present the immediate report to BJP national president J P Nadda within 24 hours, Pandey said.

(With inputs from PTI)
The BJP on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Congress citing a New York Times expose on tech mughal Neville Roy Singhams involvement in pushing Chinese propaganda worldwide, including in India through the website NewsClick.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur led the charge attacking the Congress for rushing to the defence of NewsClick when the BJP had clearly revealed its pro-China tilt back in 2021.

Addressing the reporters on Monday, he said that Congress, China and NewsClick are part of an umbilical cord.

In Rahul Gandhis Nakli Mohabbat Ki Dukaan Chinese goods can be seen clearly. His love for China can be seen. They were running an anti-India agenda, said Thakur.

In 2021, we exposed NewsClick as to how foreign propaganda is against India. In this anti-India campaign, Congress and other opposition parties came in their support Chinese companies were funding NewsClick through Mogul Neville Roy Singham but their salesmen were some people from India, who came in their support when action was taken against them, he added.

Taking to Twitter earlier, the minister had said, Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world.

Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world. Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that pic.twitter.com/3MtA4UTWkn  Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 6, 2023

Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that NewsClick is a dangerous global web of Chinese propaganda. Supported by like-minded forces, Neville has been furthering a dubious anti-India agenda.

He said way back in the year 2021, when Indias law enforcement agencies initiated an inquiry against NewsClick based on strong evidence of money laundering, the Congress and the entire Left-Liberal ecosystem came to defend it.

It is natural for the Congress to defend Neville and NewsClick because national interest never matters to its leadership. Isnt it the same Congress Party that signed an MoU with the CPC in the year 2008 to promote Chinese interest in India and allegedly accepted donations for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) from the Chinese embassy? the minister asked.

He said that the UPA may change its name a thousand times but people are aware that the nation will not be safe in the hands of GHAMANDIA gathbandhan.

New York Times reported that Neville Roy Singham is working with the Chinese government media machine and financing its propaganda worldwide. US non-profits are being used to push Chinese talking points.

In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singhams network financed NewsClick that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese talking points, the report read.

From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organisations in India and Brazil, the NYT report tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.

Some, like No Cold War, popped up in recent years. Others, like the American antiwar group Code Pink, have morphed over time. Code Pink once criticised Chinas rights record but now defends its internment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, which human rights experts have labeled a crime against humanity, added the report.

These groups are funded through American nonprofits flush with at least $275 million in donations.

But Singham, 69, himself sits in Shanghai, where one outlet in his network is co-producing a YouTube show financed in part by the citys propaganda department. Two others are working with a Chinese university to spread Chinas voice to the world. And last month, Singham joined a Communist Party workshop about promoting the party internationally.

Singham says he does not work at the direction of the Chinese government. But the line between him and the propaganda apparatus is so blurry that he shares office space  and his groups share staff members  with a company whose goal is to educate foreigners about the miracles that China has created on the world stage, the report added.

With inputs from agencies
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hit out at the Congress, saying it could not understand for four decades after Independence how important it was to implement the Panchayati Raj system in villages.

#WATCH |  For 4 decades after independence, the Congress did not understand that how necessary it is to implement the Panchayati Raj system in the villages. The District Panchayat system that was formed after this, it was left to its own fate during the Congress rule: Prime pic.twitter.com/uj0eICswZt  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

After inaugurating the Haryana Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad, a two-day BJP event, via video conference, he said, For four decades after independence, the Congress did not understand that how necessary it is to implement the Panchayati Raj system in the villages. The district panchayat system that was formed after this, it was left to its own fate during the Congress rule.

PM Modi said the country today is moving ahead unitedly to realise the goal of a developed India and to fulfil the resolutions of Amrit Kaal.

VIDEO | Today, the country is moving ahead unitedly, with full enthusiasm to build a developed India and to fulfill the resolutions of Amrit Kaal, says PM Modi while addressing the Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in Haryana. (Source: Third Party) pic.twitter.com/wfyJT81omm  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 7, 2023

During the 25 years of journey of this Amrit Kaal, we have to keep in mind the experiences of past decades, he said.

The road to a developed India goes through tier 2 and tier 3 cities and through villages which are becoming modern, he said, adding a new hope and energy is visible in the hinterland and in small towns.

The Congress could not understand for four decades after Independence how important it was to implement the Panchayati Raj system in villages, said Modi.

They also left the Zila Panchayat system to its own fate, he added.

Attacking the Congress for corruption, he said even after seven decades of Independence, electricity could not reach in 18,000 villages.

Over 16 crore rural centres had become the hub of corruption for Congress and its like-minded parties, the Prime Minister added.

VIDEO | Even after seven decades of Independence, electricity could not reach in 18,000 villages. Over 16 crore rural centres had become the hub of corruption for Congress and its like-minded parties, says PM Modi as he addresses Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in Haryana. pic.twitter.com/Jf0Eodu5Wu  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 7, 2023

BJP chief JP Nadda, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, state BJP chief OP Dhankhar and other BJP leaders were present during the event in Faridabads Surajkund.

With inputs from agencies
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will introduce the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha today, following the Delhi services bills easy passage through the Lok Sabha.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been seeking opposition parties support against the ordinance, has issued issued a three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha members, asking them to be present in the House on 7 and 8 August .

Meanwhile, the Congress has also issued a three-lined whip to its MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment on Monday.

In Rajya Sabha, there are a total of 245 seats out of which eight are currently vacant. This means the current strength is at 237.Thus, the majority mark to pass the bill in the Upper House will be 119.

On the other hand, the combined strength of all the parties who have extended support to AAP, including the Congress, is 105.

YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has extended their support to the bill which will be tabled in Rajya Sabha now where the NDA does not have the majority.

The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the lower house of Parliament on 3 August after a walkout by members of the I.N.D.IA alliance.

The Bill sailed through the Lower House of Parliament easily as the BJP-led NDA has the majority.

However, the Opposition bloc- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has cleared it stand to oppose the bill in the Upper House.

I.N.D.I.A has a clear stand on this bill, we are against it, said Congress leader Pramod Tiwari.

The ordinance on the control of services in Delhi was promulgated in May days after the Supreme Court verdict on the issue.

The Bill empowers the Central Government to make rules in connection with the affairs of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi including the functions, terms and other conditions of service of officers and employees.

Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking the support of opposition parties against the bill, especially in the Rajya Sabha.

AAP Minister Gopal Rai said that all the opposition parties will together protest against this Bill.

Central government is trying to forcefully take the rights of Delhi. All the opposition parties will together protest against this bill tomorrow, he said.

Floor leaders of the newly formed Opposition alliance the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) will meet at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament today to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House.

The meeting of the floor leaders will be held at 10 am.

The following very important issues will be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday 7th August, 2023 and Tuesday, 8th August. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023  Discussion and Passing, the whip notice issued by AAP Chief whip Sushil Kumar Gupta read.

The notice further asked its Upper House MPs to be present in the House as it is the most important issue.

All members of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the house from 11 AM onwards until the adjournment of the House from August 7 to August 8 without fail and support the party stand. This may be treated as MOST IMPORTANT, it added.

The Bill holds a significance as the Central government and the Delhi government have locked their horn over this bill.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress chief whip in the Upper House, issued the three-lined whip on 4 August, saying that very important issues will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday i.e. August 7, 2023.

All members of Congress Party in Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023, without fail and support the party stand, the chief whip said.

This may be treated as most important, Ramesh added.

On Sunday, a reminder was also sent to the partys MPs in Rajya Sabha.

Be present positively in Rajya Sabha from 10:45 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday i.e. August 7, 2023, and support the party stand, as important items of Legislative Business will be taken up for voting. Three-line whip in this regard has already been issued, the reminder said.

In his reply to the debate in Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said that opposition parties did not take part in the debate on any Bill passed in the House and kept protesting on their demands over the debate on the Manipur situation.

Pointing towards the opposition benches, he asked what has changed that they were taking part in the Bill concerning Delhi.

The oppositions priority is to save their alliance. The opposition is not worried about ManipurEveryone is talking about the rights of a state. But which state? Delhi is not a state but a Union TerritoryThe Parliament has the right to make laws for Delhi, Amit Shah said.

Union Minister Amit Shah, on Thursday in Lok Sabha said the Opposition parties belonging to I.N.D.I.A came together to oppose the Bill for the sake of their alliance and not for democracy, the country or its people.

With inputs from agencies
The government does not intend to recognise the cow as the national animal of India, Union Minister of Culture G Kishan Reddy informed the Parliament on Monday.

Kishan Reddy was responding to a host of questions raised BJP MP Bhagirath Choudhary.

Choudhary had asked the culture ministry whether the government intends to recognise Gaumata (cow), as a national animal, considering protection and revival of the Indian and Sanatan culture by bringing a legislation in Parliament.

Responding to Choudhary, Kishan Reddy said the Government of India had notified tiger and peacock as national animal and national bird, respectively, and that both these had been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

Government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF&CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as National Animal and National Bird, respectively, on 30th May 2011, Kishan Reddy added.

The Culture Minister was asked whether some bird, flower, animal in the country have been designated as national bird, national flower and national animal and have been given protection along with the special status keeping in view the sentiments of people across the country.

Responding to a specific question whether the high court of Allahabad and Jaipur had ordered and commented to expedite the process of declaring Gaumata as national animal, Kishan Reddy said these matters depended on the states legislative authorities.

In order to complement and supplement the efforts made by the states and UTs (Union Territories) the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and protection of indigenous breeds including indigenous breeds of cattle. The mission is leading to increase in availability of indigenous breeds including cattle in the country. The Department has also established the Animal Welfare Board of India for protecting animals including cow and its progeny, the Union Minister added.
He said the president only contacted him following a backlash on social media that greeted her nomination.

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has explained how President Bola Tinubu, was "misled" into nominating Maryam Shetty, the ministerial nominee from Kano, whose nomination was withdrawn.

Mr Ganduje, the immediate past governor of Kano State, said the president never consulted him before Ms Shetty's nomination.

He said the president only contacted him after the public outcry about some of Ms Shetty's posts on social media.

He said this in a recorded radio interview aired by multiple stations, monitored by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday night in Kano.

Ms Shetty had arrived at the Senate awaiting to be screened until news broke that her nomination had been withdrawn and another person, Mariya Mahmud, a former Commissioner for Higher Education in Mr Ganduje's administration in Kano, was named in her stead.

Her nomination, which generated excitement and created a social media buzz among her supporters, also provoked intense criticism and condemnation.

Mr Ganduje said contrary to other people's belief that he was responsible for her replacement, he said he knew little about her, and he did not question why the President nominated her from Kano without consulting him.

He said the president only contacted him following a backlash on social media that greeted her nomination.

"In the selection of ministerial nominees, the president has people that are giving him advice across States, and the president has the power to nominate whoever he likes, and he also has the power to make consultations on the persons he had chosen to serve in his cabinet from the people of that particular state.

"You know, in a palace (presidency), some people claimed to know much about something, but they did not; we just saw Ms Shetty's name like any other Nigerian; we are followers of the president, we are careful, we did not challenge the choice of Ms Shetty because we did not know much about her personality and capabilities to deliver on the job that makes us remain mum.

"But problems started when her social media post started to cause a stir. Social media always kept a record of what you and what you have even forgot you posted. People on social media started challenging her personality in representing the people of Kano and her capability for the job. This brings about the problem.

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"This is how the issue came around. I am not involved in it the president was disturbed about it, and he later contacted me and asked whether I nominated her (Ms Shetty). I said no, and he queried how she was nominated.

"I do not have the monopoly of knowing Kano better, People from Kano can advise the President on the nomination, but we ought to have consulted for such an appointment, Mr Ganduje said.

How the replacement happened

Mr Ganduje said the president, after reaching out to him about Ms Shetty, tasked him to look for her replacement which must also be a female nominee from Kano.

"We have women who have worked with us in the administration of Kano state, one of them is Mariya Mahmud Bunkure, a medical doctor, who served as commissioner for Higher Education for four years, she came from Kano south, they have been crying for marginalisation in Kano, even though, I have bridged the gap during my tenure as governor.

"I saw the need for Doctor Mariya, who hails from Kano South, to fit in for the replacement, and now she is being screened for the position by the Senate, this is what led to the change.

"I did not explain this in detail to hurt anyone or to paint them (Ms Shetty) in a bad light; I was never part of the people who questioned her capacity because I don't know much about her; it is the outcry from Kano, and this did not disqualify her from holding other positions because she has contributed to the success of the APC and she will be treated as such, the former governor said.
It has almost been 76 years since India got independence from the British Raj. However, ending 2Mangal Pandey00 years of British rule from 1757 to 1947 took a lot of sacrifice from hundreds of revolutionaries, who dedicated their lives to get their country free. It was the sacrifice of each and every one of them that made India what it is today.

Commemorating the special occasion, let us turn back the clock and revisit these iconic figures who played a crucial part in Indias journey to independence.

Tilka Majhi (1750-1758)

Tilka Majhi was an Indian freedom fighter and the first Adivasi leader from Santal community. He was responsible for organising the Adivasis to form an armed group that fought against the exploitation of the British. However, in 1784, he was caught by the British, who tied him to the tail of a horse and dragged him all the way to the collectors residence at Bhagalpur. He was hung from a Banyan tree there.

Gangu Mehtar (Died in 1859)

Gangu Mehtar, popularly called Gangu Baba, was an Indian revolutionary known to have killed around 150 British soldiers alone during the 1857 revolt. In 1878, he was tied to a horse by British soldiers and was dragged up to Kanpur, where he was hanged in Chunniganj.

Tantia Tope (1814-1859)

Tantia Tope is known to have fought around 150 battles against the British Raj. The rebellion also helped Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and these two succeeded in seizing the city of Gwalior. In the end, he was executed by the British Government at Sipri on 18 April 1859.

The Chapekar Brothers

The Chapekar Brothers were Indian revolutionaries involved in assassinating WC Rand, the British Plague Commissioner of Pune. They were later charged with the murders. Found guilty, they were hanged to death.

Kunwar Singh (1777- 1858)

Kunwar Singh was the military commander during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He was the chief organiser of the fight against the British government in Bihar.

Vasudev Balwant Phadke (1845-1883)

Vasudev Balwant Phadke created a movement against British rule in 1875. The group raided wealthy European businessmen to gain funds for their movement.

Tirot Sing (1802- 1835)

Tirot Sing fought against the British empire in an attempt to take over control of the Khasi Hills. He was sent to a prison in Dhaka where he died in 1835.

Mangal Pandey (827-1857)

Mangal Pandey was a soldier in the Bengal Army and played a key role in the outbreak of the First Wat of Indian Independence in 1857. He was executed the same year for inciting the soldiers to munity against their superior officers.
The Indian Navys undersea combatant arm has been grappling with a significant disparity between its ambitions and capabilities as the proposal to procure a minimum of six nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) remains pending government approval for almost four years, creating a challenging situation for the navy.

With the lease of the Russian Akula class nuclear-powered submarine concluding in 2021, the Indian Navy presently lacks any SSNs in its fleet. To address this critical gap, India has initiated discussions with France, exploring the possibility of a collaborative project to construct the required six SSNs.

China boasts an extensive submarine fleet comprising over 70 submarines, encompassing seven nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), 12 nuclear attack submarines (SSN), and more than 50 diesel attack submarines (SSKs). On the other hand, Indias conventional submarine fleet mainly dates back to the 1980s, raising concerns about its ageing capabilities.

To address the increasing prowess of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), India recognizes the significance of nuclear-powered submarines.

This realization has led to reports that India has put its plans for building a 65,000-ton Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC)-2 on hold, prioritizing the development of its SSN project instead. SSNs are considered the underwater equivalent of fighter jets, and their integration into the Indian Navy is seen as a critical step to maintaining strategic balance and countering potential threats.

SSNs are a game changer. They are powerful platforms with stealth and unlimited endurance. They can remain underwater indefinitely and operate far away from the port for long periods and at high speeds. They can move along as part of the carrier battlegroup. Armed with long-range missiles, they can change the shape of maritime battle, a former Indian Navy submariner Commodore Anil Jai Singh told the EurAsian Times.

The SSN, in comparison to the slower and shorter-ranged diesel submarine, possesses superior reach, endurance, and speed. It has the capability to stay submerged for extended periods, whereas conventional diesel engine-cum-battery propelled boats, even those equipped with Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP), can only remain submerged for hours or days.

Deep beneath the waters, the SSNs stealth makes it challenging to detect, and its remarkable speed allows it to outpace and overtake most other submarines or warships, if necessary, a feat that diesel submarines cannot achieve.

SSNs have historically played crucial roles in protecting carrier battle groups and tracking enemy SSBNs, while also serving as versatile platforms for anti-ship operations, land-attack missions, and surveillance activities.

In 2019, India entered a US$3 billion deal with Russia for acquiring another nuclear-powered Akula class attack submarine. However, due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the leases commencement is likely to miss its deadline of 2026. On the other hand, the development of indigenous SSNs is contingent on government approval, and if granted, it is estimated to take another 10-15 years before the first one becomes combat-ready.

Realistically speaking, the first domestically-built SSN is expected to join the Indian Navys fleet by 2040. The Indian Navy has received in-principle approval for six SSNs and awaits the go-ahead from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) to initiate the construction process.

In July, the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) joined forces, signing an agreement to develop 11 types of control systems and multifunction consoles.

This collaboration aims to enhance the efficiency of SSN-related tasks and bolster Indias nuclear triad, which supports the established nuclear warfighting doctrine.

Currently, India possesses two nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), which primarily serve as instruments of the countrys nuclear deterrence and cannot be deployed for tactical missions.

However, the introduction of SSNs plays a vital role in countering numerically superior navies. These submarines possess the capability to stealthily track and follow targets, and their near invulnerability makes them a formidable weapon in the nations arsenal.

A prime example of their strategic deployment is Indias only Russian Akula class submarine, renamed INS Chakra, which was stationed on the eastern side of the Indian Ocean during a past decades border standoff with China, showcasing their versatility and significance in bolstering Indias maritime security.

The Indian nuclear-powered submarine program has faced delays due to bureaucratic challenges, while the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China has been making significant advancements to bolster its undersea capabilities.

A US Naval Institute assessment reveals that Chinas current Shang class SSN exhibits noise levels comparable to Soviet designs from the 1970s. However, if the PLAN manages to deploy super-quiet SSNs equivalent to the best US and Russian submarines, it would mark a significant strategic shift.

Such advanced capabilities would not only enhance Chinas ability to defend itself on the open ocean but also enable the country to threaten US naval forces well beyond the first island chain, granting transoceanic reach without the need for extensive logistical support or overseas bases as required by a carrier strike group.

Since 2009, the PLANs presence in the Indian Ocean has been steadily growing, with a primary focus on countering piracy and safeguarding its commercial interests.

China has been actively deploying Sea Wing Underwater Unmanned Vehicles to gather valuable data on currents, acoustics, and the maritime environment, aiding its submarines in charting navigational courses.

Since 2017, the deployment of submarines, survey ships, and hydrographic vessels in the Indian Ocean by the PLAN has become a regular occurrence.

The increasing presence of Chinese state-run hydrographic ships and survey vessels is believed to pave the way for potential future deployments of Chinese SSBNs and SSNs in the region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a new revolution has come in the country regarding Swadeshi, and urged the citizens to give further push to local products during the forthcoming festivals.

VIDEO | The Swadeshi movement started today. It was a big reason why our government decided to celebrate today as National Handloom Day, says PM Modi in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/tKZKdiwagO  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 7, 2023

In an apparent swipe at the Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A, Modi said the country in one voice is now asking ills like corruption, dynasty politics and appeasement to Quit India.

Referring to the increasing adoption of Khadi in the country, Modi said the sales have now increased to Rs 1.30 lakh crore from about Rs 25,000-30,000 crore before 2014.It is our endeavour to make Indias handloom, Khadi, the textile sector a world champion, he said.

The prime minister further said through One District, One Product initiative, unique products made in different districts are being promoted, and Ekta Malls are being set up similar to the one at Statue of Unity in Gujarat, across the country.

Modi also called upon the textile and fashion industry to expand their scope and work significantly to take India in the worlds three top economies.
In Bihars Purnia, a man allegedly killed his daughters boyfriend and burned his body with acid to avoid identification after reportedly seeing a love letter sent by the deceased.

Rajesh Kumars body, found in a field in Katihar 12 days ago, identified on Monday.

The victims family alleges that he was involved in a love affair with a girl, and her father threatened to kill him after finding their love letter.

Shockingly, Rajeshs mother has confessed to murdering him with a knife and then burning his body with acid to hide his identity.

The tragic incident took place in the Kodha police station area of Katihar. The police initially believed the body to be unclaimed and cremated it after three days.

However, on Sunday, Rajeshs relatives were able to identify him from photographs shared by the police.

They noticed sharp knife wounds on his wrists and abdomen, indicating that he was brutally murdered before his face was disfigured with acid.

According to the victims family, Rajesh left his home in Verma Colony of Maranga police station area at around 5:30 am on July 25, without informing anyone.

His mobile and purse were found in his room, raising puzzling questions about his sudden disappearance.

Just two days before his disappearance, Rajesh had mentioned to his family that he had received death threats, but he didnt reveal any further details.

The investigation took a turn towards a possible love angle when it was discovered that Rajesh had written a love letter to a girl who frequented a nearby cafe.

The letter fell into the hands of the girls family, who threatened Rajesh. Additionally, another person named Manish also threatened him over a shop-related dispute.

The police are looking into these angles as part of their investigation.

Rajeshs mother Geeta Devi fondly remembers her eldest son, who used to take care of his brothers and loved taking them on bike rides.

She believes that if the police had taken the matter seriously and coordinated with nearby police stations after their complaint, they might have been able to see Rajesh for the last time.

Maranga Police Station President Mithilesh Kumar has assured that the case is under thorough investigation, and its too early to draw conclusions.

As the investigation progresses, more details may come to light, but for now, the community waits anxiously for justice to be served.
The Supreme Court on Monday announced the setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to look into relief and rehabilitation of those affected in violence-hit Manipur.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and include Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon.

The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the effort of the apex court is to restore a sense of confidence and faith in the rule of law in the state.

It said besides the judicial panel that will oversee relief and rehabilitation efforts among other things, senior police officers will be asked to supervise the investigation in criminal cases to be probed by the state SITs.

The bench said a detailed order will be uploaded on the apex court website later in the evening.

During the hearing, Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh appeared before the bench to answer queries on the ethnic violence and the steps taken by the administration so far to check it, besides the segregation of cases for the purpose of effective investigation.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, submitted a report, which the apex court had sought on August 1, on issues including the segregation of cases.

The government is handling the situation at a very mature level, the attorney general told the bench.

The government law officers said the state government proposed to set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs), headed by the superintendent of police at the district level, to probe sensitive cases. The CBI has been asked to investigate 11 cases.

On August 1, the top court had said there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.

It had rapped the state police for a tardy and lethargic probe of incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, had summoned the DGP to answer its queries on August 7.

The Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

The bench is hearing around 10 petitions related to the spiralling violence, including those seeking court-monitored probes into cases, besides measures for relief and rehabilitation.

With inputs from PTI.
In what came as relief for the Union government, the Supreme Court on Monday said that there was no valid reason to question the government on the measures being taken to reintroduce cheetahs in India. The apex courts remark came after a petition on the death of nine cheetahs this year in the Kuno National Park.

The nine cheetahs that have died at the national park in Madhya Pradesh, include three cubs. In September last year, the Kuno national park had seen the reintroduction of 20 adult cheetahs brought from Namibia and South Africa.

Four cubs had been born in the national park there since then.

Cheetahs were brought to the park as part of a reintroduction project after the species was declared extinct from the country in 1952.

This is the first year since the cheetahs have been translocated (from Namibia and South Africa in September 2022 and February this year respectively), the government said, adding that continuous work is going on regarding the weather conditions here and its effects.

There is a lot of preparation. Every year there will be 12-14 new cheetahs brought in. There are problems but nothing alarming, representatives of the government told the Supreme Court.

Wildlife experts have attributed the deaths to sub-standard radio collars used on the cheetahs. While the government has dismissed the charges as speculation and hearsay without scientific evidence, television channel NDTV accessed footage that shows authorities examining the collar and a maggot-infested wound on the neck of Suraj, who had died on July 14.

The Centre in the Supreme Court on Monday, denied any lapses and said that foreign wildlife experts had been consulted before making the arrangements.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Javed Ahmed rubbished charges of his alleged involvement in the murder of Bajrang Dal activist Pradeep Sharma during the Nuh violence and claimed that he was 100 km away at the time of the incident.

He also termed it political propaganda and an attempt to malign him as well as his party.

Anurag Dhanda, the vice-president of AAPs Haryana unit also rubbished the allegations against Ahmed, saying a false FIR has been registered against him.

In a video message, Dhanda said, The entire country knows which party incites riots and makes people fight. First, they vitiate the atmosphere and then file false FIR against leaders of other parties.

Javed Ahmed is a leader of our party. A false FIR has been registered against him on the Nuh issue, he said.

Ahmed claimed that he has CCTV footage of the toll plazas he crossed and I have shown this to the police too.

As far as the question goes where I was, I was 100 km away. The incident happened three hours after I left. I returned the next day on August 1, the AAP leader from Sohna in Gurugram district said.

The allegations against me are to malign me and my party. It is a political propaganda, Ahmed said.

When pointed out that he has been named as an accused in the case, Ahmed said, It is a very sad incident. Those who did it, be they of any party, should be given strict punishment As far as Pradeep bhai is concerned, I am saddened We want justice for him.

Javed Ahmed has been named as accused after Bajrang Dal activist Pradeep Sharma was allegedly attacked in Sohna during the communal clashes that spread from Haryanas Nuh earlier his week, police said on Saturday but did not mention his political affiliation in the FIR.

Sharma died while undergoing treatment at Delhis Safdarjung Hospital two days later on August 2.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, have died in the clashes that erupted in Nuh over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) procession and spread to Gurugram last week.

The FIR was lodged based on a complaint by Pawan Kumar, a Bajrang Dal activist, who was accompanying Sharma in a car when the alleged attack occurred on July 31 in Sohna.

AAPs Haryana unit vice-president Dhanda said, When the incident occurred, about which there is a mention in the FIR, Javed Ahmed was 100-150 km away and he has proof  videos of his location and other evidence. All of these have been given to police.

He said the AAP has no hesitation over any probe.

But it should also be investigated why on the day of the Nuh clashes, the chief minister call more than 100 policemen for VIP duty in another district. Why was the leave of then Nuh SP (Varun Singla) sanctioned at that time, Dhanda said.

The CID is saying they had given information about possible clashes 10 days earlier. CID reports to the chief minister. Haryana Home Minister (Anil Vij) is saying that CID did not give any report to him.

Why did the chief minister hide the CID report? Why was a home guard jawan (among the six who died) sent from Fatehabad to Nuh All these things need to be investigated, Dhanda said.
Following Protests over a demeaning statement made by Cabinet Minister Swatantra Dev Singh regarding the Tyagi fraternity, the situation among the community members has become political as they themselves have divided into two factions.

One group, led by Mangeram Tyagi, is firm in accepting the ministers apology and seeks a share in political seats. On the other hand, the faction led by Shrikant Tyagi insists on a public apology from the minister.

Shrikant Tyagi has set a deadline of 21 August for the minister to apologize publicly in front of the media.

If the apology doesnt come, the Tyagi fraternity led by Shrikant Tyagi plans to hold a demonstration in Shukrtal.

What did UP minister Swatantra Dev Singh said about Tyagis?

On July 22, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and cabinet minister Swatantra Dev Singh had inaugurated various schemes in Shuktirth, the mythological religious city of Muzaffarnagar.

Swatantra Dev Singh addressed the public meeting in the presence of CM during this period. While addressing the public meeting, he had commented on the law and order before the BJP rule in the state.

In his remarks, he said to prove the existing law and order situation of the BJP regime better that allegedly before 2017, daughters of Kashyap, Saini and Tyagi communities were picked up and raped.

Shrikant Tyagi expressed his determination to bring attention to the issue and indicated that the situation may escalate if the apology is not received.

On 5 August, Mangeram Tyagi and his supporters staged a protest outside Mansarovar Bhawan in Ghaziabad while the BJPs panchayat training camp was underway inside.

State President Bhupendra Chaudhary was present at the camp. The situation became tense as Mangeram Tyagis supporters blocked the path of Bhupendra Chaudhary, leading to Minister Swatantra Dev releasing a video in which he apologized for his statement.

Following this, Mangeram Tyagis supporters accepted the apology but demanded a share in political seats for the Tyagi Samaj.

On 6 August, the Nationalist Democratic Forum organized a mahapanchayat at Tyagi Hostel in Meerut, attended by members of the Tyagi community from three states.

During the gathering, Shrikant Tyagi was unanimously chosen as the leader of the society.

Shrikant Tyagi addressed three main issues during the mahapanchayat.

Firstly, he emphasized the importance of a public apology from Minister Swatantra Dev. Secondly, he called for the ministers removal from the Yogi cabinet. Lastly, Shrikant Tyagi demanded a fair distribution of political tickets among the Tyagi community.

Mangeram Tyagi did not attend the mahapanchayat, stating that the focus should be on the stake in political representation rather than holding such gatherings.

He clarified that he has already forgiven the minister.

Earlier, Mangeram Tyagi had played a significant role in mobilizing the Tyagi community during Shrikant Tyagis previous troubles when he was arrested for abusing a neighbour in Noida society. The incident and arrest of Tyagi led to various agitations across Western Uttar Pradesh.
The population of tigers in the country has increased from 1,411 in 2006 to 3,682 in 2022, the government informed the Parliament on Monday.

Union Minister of Culture G Kishan Reddy said this in a written response in the Lok Sabha.

Reddy was asked whether certain bird, flower, animal etc. in the country have been designated as national bird, national flower and national animal and provided protection along with the special status keeping in view the sentiments of common people across the country.

As informed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), the Government of India had notified tigers and peacocks as National Animal and National Bird respectively, the minister said in his response.

As the said notifications of the Government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF & CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as National Animal and National Bird respectively, on 30th May 2011, he added.

Tigers and peacocks have been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby according to them the highest degree of protection from hunting. In addition, important habitats of these animals have also been declared as Protected Areas, he said in his response.

The population of tigers in the country has increased from 1,411 in 2006 to 3,682 in 2022, the minister said.
Kuki Peoples Alliance (KPA) president Tongmang Haokip on Monday said that they had to withdraw support from the Biren Singh government in Manipur as the present government had turned anti-Kuki.

The situation now has changed because the present government is anti-Kuki. Even the CM himself has openly denounced the Kukis as a terrorist group, narco-terrorists and outsider or foreigner and also poppy cultivators and drug smugglers and whatnot In this situation, we have no way out other than withdrawing our support from the present government, said Haokip.

#WATCH | On Kuki Peoples Alliance (KPA) withdrawing support from the Manipur government, KPA president Tongmang Haokip says, The situation now has changed because the present government is anti-Kuki people. Even the CM himself has openly denounced the Kukis as a terrorist pic.twitter.com/Ug9jBGyJtC  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

On Sunday, in a letter to Governor Anusuiya Uikey, the KPA president informed about the partys decision to snap ties with the BJP-led government in Manipur, where ethnic rioting since the last three months has claimed more than 160 lives.

The development, however, will have no impact on the stability of the government, as the BJP has 37 members in the 60-member Manipur Assembly.

After careful consideration of the current conflagration, the continued support for the incumbent government of Manipur led by Chief Minister N Biren SIngh is no longer fructuous.

Accordingly, the support of the KPA to the Government of Manipur is hereby withdrawn and can be considered null and void, Haokip said in the letter.

The KPA has two MLAs in the Assembly  Kimneo Haokip Hangshing from Saikul and Chinlunthang from Singhat.

The NPP has seven MLAs and the NPF has five. The Congress, too, has five legislators.

KPA general secretary W Lalam Hangshing said, We have sent the letter to the Governor by e-mail. We have two MLAs, and had given outside support to the government. In view of the present situation, the association is infructuous.

With inputs from agencies
Mr Tunji-Ojo, presented an NYSC certificate with discrepancies that raised questions as to its authentication.

Another ministerial nominee of President Bola Tinubu, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, is currently enmeshed in a controversy surrounding the authenticity of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate he submitted for his screening by the Nigerian Senate.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported how another nominee, Hannatu Musawa, who had earlier been rejected by the same National Assembly for a similar reason when offered an appointment by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, was simply requested to take a bow by the Senate during her screening exercise last week.

During her confirmation hearing, Ms Musawa was not asked why she failed to participate in the NYSC scheme. But when Mr Tunji-Ojo's appeared at the Senate on Tuesday, the Senator representing Kwara North Senatorial District, Sadiq Umar, flagged some discrepancies in his NYSC certificate.

Mr Umar sought to know why the nominee participated in the NYSC scheme at 37 and why the discharge certificate he tendered carries a suspicious date.

"This is the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So we want to be sure that when we clear you, we've done a very good job," Mr Umar said.

But Mr Tunji-Ojo quickly dismissed the lawmaker's concerns, explaining that eligible individuals for NYSC could participate anytime after their date of graduation provided they graduate before the age of 30. This, he said, was his case.

Mr Tunji-Ojo claimed to have participated in the scheme between November 2019 and November 2020. His claim is strange given that he was a sitting member of the House of Representatives during the same period.

He was elected into the house in 2019 and re-elected in 2023, representing Akoko North East/Akoko North-West Federal Constituency of Ondo State.

But in his explanation, Mr Tunji-Ojo, however, failed to state why his NYSC certificate, a programme he claimed to have completed in 2020, carries February 2023 as the date of issuance.

It is also unclear where Mr Tunji-Ojo served as his Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) during the NYSC programme, and whether he received the monthly allowances paid to corps members.

Some former and present NYSC officials said it is unlikely for the corps to mobilise a serving politician for national service at the same time he or she is in office.

"National service is a full-time job," one official said, asking not to be named because she is not the official spokesperson of the NYSC. "if it turns out that he indeed served while also being a federal lawmaker, those who mobilised him have a lot of explanations to make."

"He too (Tunji-Ojo) must tell us where he was camped for orientation, where he did his primary assignment, what his community development service was and the bank account through which he was paid his allowances."

What NYSC law says

Established by Decree number 24 of 2 May 1973, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was created for "proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity".

The decree, which mandates all Nigerians who graduate from a university in or outside Nigeria to undergo the programme for a period of 12 months, has however been reviewed by the legislature since the return to democracy.

According to Section 2(2) of the NYSC Act (2004), the only excluded Nigerians from the mandatory participation in the scheme are those who attained the age of 30 before their date of graduation; those who served in the Nigerian armed forces or the Police for more than nine months; staff of Nigerian security organisations, and those conferred with national honours.

Mr Tunji-Ojo, however, does not belong to the categories of those exempted.

According to his Curriculum Vitae, which he submitted to the National Assembly, the lawmaker said he completed his first degree at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University) in 2005 at the age of 23, making him eligible to participate in the scheme.

Until now, Mr Tunji-Ojo's NYSC status or certificate has never come under scrutiny.

Holes in Mr Tunji-Ojo's NYSC certificate

PREMIUM TIMES scrutinised the certificate and found major discrepancies that some officials of the NYSC described as 'very strange'.

The dates of the year of service as contained in the certificate correlate with the 2019 Batch C corps members. The batch has two streams.

The first stream passed out on 15 October 2020 and their certificates carry 4th November 2020 as the date of completion. The second stream passed out on 28 October and their certificates carry 27 November.

Mr Tunji-Ojo's certificate also bears 27 November as the date of completion of service, indicating that he may have served as part of the 2019 Batch C, Stream II NYSC members.

However, PREMIUM TIMES' comparison of Mr Tunji-Ojo's NYSC certificate with others who served and passed out in the same batch, showed multiple differences.

Mr Tunji-Ojo's certificate was issued in February 2023, and not November 2020 like other 2019 Batch C, Stream II corps members.

Also, Mr Tunji-Ojo's certificate carries a different signature.

The nominee's certificate was signed by Yushau Ahmed, a Brigadier General, who only became NYSC Director-General (DG) in January. The serving DG when the nominee claimed to have served was Shuaib Ibrahim, also a brigadier general.

The NYSC issues certificates to corp members only once. The organisation said it doesn't replace lost or damaged certificates. Instead, it issues letters of confirmation of service.

"It is the NYSC's policy not to reprint lost or burnt certificates," the NYSC states on its website. "The Letters of Confirmation are issued instead."

Meanwhile, there are three NYSC batches a year -- Batch A, B, and C.

For each batch, the management of the NYSC produces an end-of-service year magazine/photo album in each state and the federal capital territory (FCT). The magazine contains among other things, the name, state code, and passport photographs of outgoing corps members.

PREMIUM TIMES got a copy of the 'FCT KOPA' 2019 Batch C, Stream II Magazine produced in October 2020 which contains the details of all the outgoing corps members of the period.

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But the state code on Mr Tunji-Ojo's certificate -9466- was conspicuously missing in the magazine. The corps members' details were arranged in chronological order of their state codes. But Mr Tunji-Ojo's state code is not the only one missing.

According to an official of the NYSC, who does not want to be quoted because he had no permission to speak to the media, there could be several reasons for the omission of a corp member's name from the magazine. It could be due to a corps members' failure to fill some documents or production errors. The official, however, said it was not enough to conclude that such a person did not participate in the scheme.

Nominee keeps mum

Efforts to reach Mr Tunji-Ojo have been unsuccessful as calls to his known telephone line did not connect.

Also, messages sent to him via SMS and WhatsApp were not replied as of the time of filing this report. Similarly, Mr Tunji-Ojo failed to respond to an email sent to him by this newspaper.

We're investigating -NYSC

Meanwhile, the management of the NYSC said it is also probing into Mr Tunji-Ojo's claims.

The organisation's spokesman, Eddy Megwa, told PREMIUM TIMES' reporter in his office on Friday that as soon as the investigation is concluded, it would make its findings public.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
The controversial Delhi Services Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha late on Monday night despite bitter resistance by the Opposition, following an exhaustive and bitter debate.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by 131 to 102 votes, with support from Naveen Patnaiks Biju Janata Dal and Andhra Pradeshs ruling YSR Congress. The bill is aimed at replacing the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government.

The bill has already been passed by Lok Sabha.

Initiating a discussion on the bill, which was moved by Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said no government in the past had ever tried to overrule the status of the Delhi government and accused the current dispensation of being a control freak.

Terming the bill as unconstitutional and anti-democratic and appealed to all opposition parties in Rajya Sabha to oppose it with the warning that someday this anti-federal knock will come at their door too.

He accused the government of bringing the bill out of vendetta and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench.

This bill is completely unconstitutional. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is a frontal assault on the regional voice and the regional aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability, all models of assembly based democracy. It violates the basic structure, he asserted.

He said that no government since 1992, when Delhis special constitutional status was created, tried to overrule two judgments of the Supreme Court constitution bench on the status of National Capital Territory.

This government and this bill have done it all, something not done earlier, he said, adding such a step has now been taken because of the control freak nature of the government whose visiting card appears to be vendetta, whose identity badge is of a graceless and fuming electoral loser.

He said the approach of the government is to control by hook or crook, usually more by crook and less by hook.

Singhvi criticised the provisions of the bill which he said seeks the creation of an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a Super CM and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies.

Stating that this is not about any particular government in the NCT, he said, It is the deliberate regression from a peoples government guaranteed to the people of Delhi 30 years ago. And hence it is a decimation of the most fundamental constitutional values.

Asking all parties to collectively rise to oppose the bill, he said, Someday this anti-federal knock will come at your door.

This is a matter to ponder for those who are supporting this bill, he said, adding what is happening with the Delhi government today could happen to you soon.

Singhvi made an apparent reference to the Nazi rule and warned those who are supporting or have announced support to the bill by quoting Martin Niemoller, First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me and for you, and there was not one left to speak for us (sic).

The Aam Aadmi Party also opposed the bill. Senior party leader Raghav Chadha said it is an insult to the constitution and the judgment of the Supreme Court. It is intended to give all power to Delhi Lieutenant Governor, he said.

Chadha said it was BJP and its veteran leaders including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani who had talked about giving full statehood to Delhi but now the same BJP is snatching the power of the Delhi government.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of TMC, K. Keshav Rao of BRS, Aneel Hegde of JD(U), Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya of CPI(M) and Manoj Jha of RJD also spoke against the Bill while BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi supported it. Another party member Radha Mohan Das also raised the issue of alleged corruption and inefficiency of the Delhi Government. V. Vijaisai Reddy of YSRC and Sasmit Patra of BJD also supported the bill.

Trivedi said that it was a much-needed bill because of the attempts by the AAP government in Delhi to threaten the bureaucracy and cover up the alleged corruption.

In May, the Centre had promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, which effectively nullified a Supreme Court judgment that handed over control of services in the NCT administration to the Delhi government.

Earlier, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party had issued whips to their MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment.

With inputs from agencies.
Opposition leaders from the INDIA alliance were seen celebrating Rahul Gandhis reentry into the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament on Monday.

Demonstrating his joy, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was seen playfully feeding sweets to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The video has now gone viral on social media.

In another video, Kharge was seen feeding sweets to other leaders. The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders, he tweeted.

The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than pic.twitter.com/kikcZqfFvn  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 7, 2023

Senior party leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and our democracy!.

With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!@INCIndia @ProfCong  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 7, 2023

The Supreme Court on 4 August stayed the conviction of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a criminal defamation case for the Modi surname remark he allegedly made during a political rally in 2019.
A massive fire broke out in the endoscopy room of AIIMS, New Delhi on Monday.

Information regarding the blaze was received at around 11:54 am, following which a total of eight fire tenders have been rushed to the site, said Delhi Fire Service.

#WATCH | Delhi: A fire broke out in the endoscopy room of AIIMS. All people evacuated. More than 6 fire tenders sent, say Delhi Fire Service Further details are awaited. pic.twitter.com/u8iomkvEpX  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

All people have been evacuated and the area has been cordoned off to avoid panic among people.

The visuals shared online show thick plumes of smoke coming out from the second floor of the building at AIIMS, Delhi.

"Fire in second floor main building/ old Raj Kumari OPD building. Blaze is in under control now, search operation continues," Delhi Fire Services told media.

Inside visuals of AIIMS, New Delhi fire

With inputs from agencies
An inspiring international conference of young Buddhist scholars was successfully organised in Delhi by the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.

The conference, focused on the theme of Significance of Buddhist Pilgrimage, brought together a diverse group of young academicians and researchers who delved into the relevance of Buddhist pilgrimage for the youth today.

As per Bhutan Live, the primary objective of this conference was to create a dynamic platform for budding researchers to share their profound insights, engage in scholarly pursuits, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Buddhism.

It also aimed to ignite the passion of the next generation to explore the eight Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India and conduct research on other sacred sites both within the country and overseas.

Over 70 young scholars from various nationalities, representing esteemed Buddhist institutions, attended the conference. Distinguished academicians and researchers from across the globe gathered to explore the multi-dimensional aspects of Buddhist Pilgrimage and exchanged valuable perspectives on the topic, Bhutan Live reported.
Nuh was a powder keg waiting to explode, going by media investigations. The build-up on social media, availability of weapons and strategic choice of targets increasingly point to advance planning. Yet, the palpably incendiary situation on the ground was apparently invisible to the local administration.

Whats baffling is the gratuitous violence in and around Gurugram, a city where the only ideology that counts is ease of doing business.

Communal violence is rarely spontaneous; passions are deliberately ignited by rumour-mongering or provocative speeches or aggressive displays of religiosity, amplified by social media. Both sides play into the hands of insidious forces looking to stir the pot for their own benefit.

The claim that Nuh represents a failure of intelligence is correct insofar as the police displayed a remarkable lack of mental capacity. Intel was available, according to reports, as the state intelligence agency had informed the police that violence was likely to erupt during the Vishwa Hindu Parishads Brij Mandal Yatra.

While earlier yatras had passed off without incident, this year was different. Simmering tensions had come to a boil, and certain elements appear to have been spoiling for a fight.

Inflammatory social media content and rumours that the cow vigilante Manu Manesar was participating in the procession, provoked the Mewati Muslims.

What happened next, however, appears to have been pre-planned. Going by media reports, the motorcycle-borne youth who converged on the yatra were armed not just with sticks and stones, but with revolvers and crude bombs. Shooters were strategically placed on the surrounding highlands. The subsequent attack on the Cyber Crime police station was clearly neither spur of the moment, nor random.

How did Nuh (formerly Mewat), which has historically been free of communal tension despite a high proportion of Muslims, become polarised? The Meos, who are believed to have converted to Islam under the influence of Sufi saints from the Ghaznavi invasions (1001-1027 CE) onwards, co-existed peacefully for centuries, while hanging on to Hindu traditions and maintaining a liberal ethos.

But in the 1990s, external elements from both sides of the religious divide began fomenting mistrust and violence. The hapless cow was at the centre of it all.

The day after the Babri Masjid demolition, a politician associated with the Janata Dal put forth rumours that Hindus had distributed sweets in Nuh. Hoodlums imported into the district went on a rampage in the villages, torching temples. Some of them put together a mob to attack a goshala, burning one cow alive and driving out the rest.

Then, as now, the police allowed the violence. Post-facto, they came down on the denizens of Nuh like a tonne of bricks.

Cut to 2014, when the death of a youth in a road accident sparked a riot in Tauru town near Gurugram. By this time, according to Economic and Political Weekly, intrusion of petrodollars from some Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia had led to a string of mosques and madrasas in Mewat.

The article quoted a social activist as saying that radicalisation was distancing the Meo community from contemporary social and political trends, and retrogressive attitudes were taking hold, to the detriment of female education and freedoms.

By 2020, the VHP and Bajrang Dal had become active in Mewat. Claiming atrocities against members of the majority community and a thriving illegal beef trade in the region, they pressured chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to put protective measures in place.

Cow vigilantism escalated, and resentment festered. The police attempted to defuse the situation by conducting awareness drives and holding village-level meetings at which residents agreed to boycott those involved in the illegal trade. But the murder of alleged cow smugglers early this year intensified anger against the VHP and by extension, the BJP government.

In addition to the cow slaughter ban, the recent crackdown on cybercrime in Nuh  believed to have been involved in 28,000 cases of cyber fraud totalling Rs 100 crore  had infuriated the Mewati youth. Some 40 villages were raided and 125 hackers detained. Nothing stokes resentment like a loss of livelihood, be it through legal or illegal means.

The stage was set for violence. The timing of the Nuh riots has led to speculation that it amounts to chunaav ka tanaav. While religious polarisation generally benefits the BJP by consolidating Hindu votes, such a strategy is unlikely in this case. Because here, polarisation is along caste lines: Jat vs non-Jat.

The Oppositions Jat leadership stands to benefit by pointing out that if they had been in charge, the breakdown in law and order would not have occurred. Maintaining peace in Gurugram, home to a plethora of MNCs, is an imperative for any government in Haryana.

If the government per se had nothing to gain from the communal violence, why did the police fail to take pre-emptive or prompt action? They certainly had access to social media content showing gas cylinders and other explosive material, while threatening to burn everything.

The parallels with the North-East Delhi riots are striking. Violence was preceded by incendiary speeches from both sides and provocative social media posts; petrol bombs, stones and other weapons stockpiled, and security personnel targeted.

Freedom of speech and the right to public assembly gives miscreants on both sides a free run. And social media, as French President Emmanuel Macron observed during the riots in Paris, play a considerable role in encouraging acts of violence.

Religious conflicts usually have three elements in common: A gradual build-up, an abject failure of law enforcement and hidden agendas. The violence in Mewat is marked by all three. But we still dont know what lies beneath.

The author is a freelance writer and author of Gurus: Stories of Indias Leading Babas and Just Transferred: The Untold Story of Ashok Khemka. A journalist since 1986, she has written extensively on national politics. 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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The recurrent disruption of parliamentary proceedings in the ongoing Monsoon session arises from the persistent behaviour of the Opposition to derail the smooth conduct of parliamentary business in both Houses. While the Opposition is hell-bent on a speech from the prime minister on the floor of the House, the prime minister, in unequivocal terms, has already expressed his unequivocal stance on the matter, deeming the incident a disgrace to the nation. The prime minister made his point very clear when he said the incident had shamed India and that no guilty will be spared and what happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven. Union home minister Amit Shah has already visited the state once and is closely monitoring the prevailing situation.

The predicaments afflicting Manipur transcend a mere conflict between two opposing communities. They delve into far more profound depths. These challenges are rooted in historical legacies of colonial and post-colonial eras, encompassing designs for religious conversions and the resultant neglect of the Hindu community. The extensive 1,600-kilometre porous border shared with Myanmar exposes the region to external influences. Concurrently, the surge in opium cultivation within the region has witnessed an alarming fourfold increase in recent years, thereby amplifying vulnerabilities. Compounding these concerns is the infiltration of Chinese interests through the borders of Myanmar.

Furthermore, the assertive endeavours of Christian missionaries, driven by aggressive initiatives and substantial financial backing, exacerbate the climate of large-scale conversions. The proliferation of unlawful migrants, including a substantial number of Rohingyas, seeking refuge within the volatile domains of Manipur, intensifies the existing turmoil. Hence, it is imperative to acknowledge that addressing these multifaceted issues is far more intricate than mere rhetoric.

The conflict presents a multifaceted interplay of social and political factors.

Among the most fitting institutions for addressing this complexity is the Parliament, where continued debates and discussions could have facilitated the search for amicable solutions. However, the Opposition opted for a different approach, centering their attention on the demand for the prime ministers statement on Manipur in the House. Notably, the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has witnessed marked improvements in the issues of the North East. A range of initiatives has effectively tackled social, economic and geographical disparities.

Reasons of current crisis

The existing crisis finds its roots in historical antecedents. The contemporary turmoil in Manipur originated from a pivotal event on 20 April, 2023, when the Manipur High Court recommended the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list. This development triggered apprehensions within the Kuki community, who expressed concerns that conferring ST status upon the Meiteis might lead to land acquisition in hilly areas, currently prohibited. Escalating tensions ensued as the Kukis initiated protests against the Meiteis quest for official tribal recognition, which the former argued could augment their existing influence over government and society, potentially enabling land purchases or settlement in predominantly Kuki territories.

But there are myriad underlying reasons.

The Kukis assert that the Meitei-led governments anti-drug campaign serves as a facade for dislodging their communities. Chief Minister Biren Singh has adopted stringent measures against drug cartels. The surge in illegal migration from Myanmar has intensified tensions. Meitei, Kuki and Naga militias have engaged in prolonged conflicts stemming from divergent territorial claims and religious disparities, often resulting in confrontations with Indias security forces. The present escalation, however, primarily involves the Meitei and Kuki factions. Meiteis have historical ties to Manipur, Myanmar and adjacent regions, predominantly adhering to Hinduism.

In contrast, the mostly Christian Kuki populace has dispersed across Indias northeastern expanse, with many in Manipur tracing their origins to Myanmar as well. While Meiteis predominantly inhabit the Imphal valley, Kukis reside in the encompassing hills and beyond.

Manipur, situated in northeastern India with a population of approximately three million, finds itself entangled in an enduring ethnic conflict since early May. This strife ensues between the predominant Meitei community and the smaller Kuki tribe. The northeastern states of India bear a historical backdrop of ethnic rivalries preceding the nations independence in 1947. Within Manipur, clashes have recurrently erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities. The recent spate of ethnic violence in Manipur, India, demonstrates a direct linkage between poppy cultivation and drug trafficking. Notably, poppy cultivation has surged significantly in the hill regions of Manipur, with the patronage of Myanmarese drug syndicates.

Conversion issue

Religious conversion stands as a poignant concern in Manipur, a matter often overlooked by the mainstream media. This region, alongside significant parts of northeastern India, is imbued with a Hindu cultural fabric that leaves a robust impression. At its core, the ongoing conflict in Manipur can be traced to the persistent trend of tribal and Hindu conversions in the region. Known as the city of jewels, Manipur boasts a history steeped in antiquity, stretching back to the era of the Mahabharata. The religious landscape predominantly featured Hinduism, with numerous monarchs embracing Vaishnavism. The illustrious Manipuri dance, a classical art form, vividly portrays the Raas Leela of Krishna, a testament to Vaishnavisms profound sway in the area.

However, the course of events underwent a transformation with the advent of the British during the late 19th century, accompanied by the influx of missionaries. While conversions in Manipur commenced later compared to Nagaland and Mizoram, the region captured missionary attention as an untapped terrain. William Pettigrew, a British Christian minister hailing from the Arthington Aborigines Missionary group, arrived in India in 1894, marking the onset of conversions. Remarkably, this trend endured even beyond the conclusion of British colonial rule.

As time elapsed, Manipurs demographic landscape underwent substantial transformations. The Kuki populace, facilitated by unauthorised migration from Burma, saw a notable rise to 41 per cent, equating the number of Hindu Meities and reshaping the regions populace. The Kukis, achieving Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and predominantly embracing Christianity, were juxtaposed with the Hindu population categorised under Other Backward Classes (OBC), resulting in restricted access to land and resources.

Meiteis, the Hindu community, became confined to the Imphal Valley, encompassing merely 10 per cent of the states territory, while tribal groups governed the reserved hilly expanses that constituted the remaining 90 per cent. Christian tribal groups encountered no constraints in settling within the valley and even established a prominent presence in government positions, facilitated by continuous financial aid from American Baptist Churches. These disparities, coupled with the influx of illicit funds, prompted certain Kukis to take up arms, organising militant factions with the dual objective of Hindu eradication and the pursuit of a distinct homeland.

Conclusion

The Manipur situation is intrinsically linked with national security. The Kuki communitys call for a separate administrative unit presents a difficult scenario with the potential to set a dangerous precedent, fuelling future demands for multiple states. The involvement of external influences, compounded by drug trafficking, exacerbates the complexity. Former Army Chief General MM Naravane has highlighted the plausible engagement of foreign entities in the Manipur unrest, particularly citing potential Chinese aid to various insurgent groups.

Thus, a meticulous and nationalist perspective is imperative in addressing the Manipur conundrum, as indulging in partisan politics risks exacerbating the violence. The historical legacy of colonialism and the post-independence political framework has already eroded the identities of northeastern states, fostering diversity at the expense of national unity and integration. Parliamentary deliberations should therefore encompass these crucial facets, essential not only for resolving the present Manipur issue but also for healing the wounds that have endured for centuries.

The writer is a professor of Political Science, IGNOU, New Delhi. 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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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday launched a scathing attack on Opposition Congress, with Union Minister Anurag Thakur calling China, Congress, and NewsClick (a news portal) part of one umbilical cord.

Addressing a press conference following a report in The New York Times alleging a global nexus of spreading Chinese propaganda, Thakur demanded Congress MP Rahul Gandhi come clean about his and his partys connections with China.

The New York Times, in a report, named NewsClick and alleged that it was part of the global network that received funding from China-based American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, who is reportedly involved with the Chinese government.

In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singhams network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points. Chinas history continues to inspire the working classes, one video said, NYT said in its investigation, report.

BJPs 10 charges against Congress

1- In 2021, we exposed NewsClick as to how foreign propaganda is against India. In this anti-India campaign, Congress and other opposition parties came in their support Chinese companies were funding NewsClick through Mogul Neville Roy Singham but their salesmen were some people from India, who came in their support when action was taken against them said Anurag Thakur

2- The Congress and its allies had come in support of NewsClick when we had flagged the issue. They used to say that the Government of India is working against the freedom of press, Thakur said

3- The money that came to NewsClick was given to Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, charged under UAPA. When the ED works against NewsClick, they (Opposition) raise questions against it. It is a war against misinformation and this war should continue, the Union Minister said

4- The entire Congress was defending News Click. Have they stooped this low in their hunger for power? From 1962 to 2023, Congress has not changed a bit, Thakur said

5- When there was Olympics, Sonia, Rahul and the Gandhi family were invited. They visited China. Khel dekhne gaye thy, Khel kar ke aa gaye. They signed an agreement there in which there was a decision taken on high-level exchange between the two parties, Anurag Thakur said

6- It is being said that when the agreement was inked in 2008, a payment was also made to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. The agreement was signed by Xi Jinping and Rahul Gandhi, the Union Minister said

7- Rahul Gandhi was with Chinese diplomats when Doklam happened, Thakur said

8- In Rahul Gandhis Nakli Mohabbat Ki Dukaan Chinese goods can be seen clearly. His love for China can be seen. They were running an anti-India agenda, Thakur added

9- This anti-India, break India agenda will not work, Thakur said, adding, The Congress hasnt changed yet Soros se Singham, China to Congress these are alliance partners with anti-India agenda

10- We had seen in Cambridge how Rahul Gandhi praised China The Indian American Muslim Council, which hosted Rahul Gandhi, was also in support of NewsClick. Many senior journalists have also got the money to propagate Chinas agenda, Thakur said.

Shri @ianuragthakur and Shri @Rajeev_GoI jointly address a press conference at party headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/snbiiHvrHT  BJP (@BJP4India) August 7, 2023

Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar who was also present at the press conference said: This is not new revelationWe have been speaking about it for many yearsMany accounts were suspended in the past who were trying to destabilise India. They fan a consistent narrative and the same narrative being spread by a leader called Rahul Gandhi. This a conspiracy to oppose Indias growing presence in every aspect of development.

With inputs from agencies
Sixteen migrants have died in shipwrecks off the coasts of Tunisia and Western Sahara, officials said on Monday, as North Africa faces a spike in Europe-bound sea journeys.

Much of the North African coast has become a major gateway for irregular migrants and asylum seekers primarily from other parts of the continent, attempting dangerous voyages in rickety boats in the hope of a better life.

At least 11 migrants died in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisias second city of Sfax, said local court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi, revising an earlier count of four deaths.

Another 44 are missing while two others were rescued from the boat that had 57 people on board, all of them from sub-Saharan African countries, Masmoudi added.

Survivors of the sinking, near Tunisias Kerkennah Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, said the makeshift boat had departed over the weekend from a beach north of the coastal city of Sfax.

Masmoudi told AFP coastguard units were searching for more survivors.

The distance between Sfax and Italys Lampedusa island is only about 130 km (80 miles).

Authorities in Morocco meanwhile said the bodies of five migrants, all from Senegal, had been recovered while 189 had been rescued after their boat capsized off Western Sahara.

The five bodies as well as 11 migrants in critical condition were transferred to a hospital in Dakhla, the disputed Western Saharas second city on the Atlantic coast, a military source told Rabats state-owned MAP news agency. According to the source, the boat had embarked from a country located south of the kingdom and was headed towards Spains Canary Islands before being discovered off the coast of Guerguart, just north of Mauritania.

The migrants who were rescued, including at least one woman, were taken to Dakhla on Sunday and handed over to Moroccan authorities.

Deadliest migration route

Migrant deaths have surged in recent years as thousands flee war or crushing poverty, seeking to cross the Mediterranean in the hopes of finding better lives in Europe.

The central Mediterranean migrant crossing from North Africa to Europe is the worlds deadliest with more than 20,000 fatalities since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.

According to survivor testimony, at least 30 migrants are missing after two unrelated sinkings near Lampedusa of boats that departed last week from Sfax.

Authorities in Tunisia found the bodies of 12 migrants that washed ashore north of Sfax between Friday and Sunday, but it wasnt immediately clear whether they were related to the shipwreck near the Kerkennah Islands, located just across from Sfax.

Masmoudi said authorities were investigating whether there have been other shipwrecks in this area.

According to Tunisias interior ministry, 901 bodies had been recovered this year by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean, while 34,290 migrants had been rescued or intercepted.

Most of them came from sub-Saharan African countries, it said.

Nearly 90,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year, according to UN refugee agency, with most of them having embarked from Tunisia or neighbouring Libya.
China recently premiered Chasing Dreams, an extensive eight-part docuseries on state broadcaster CCTV, showcasing the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) preparations for a potential attack on Taiwan.

The documentary, released to commemorate the PLAs 96th anniversary, highlights military drills and includes poignant testimonials from numerous soldiers, with several pledging their unwavering dedication, even if it means sacrificing their lives in defence of Beijings stance against Taiwan, reported The Associated Press.

China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary.

State media and the PLA frequently release propaganda materials promoting the armys modernisation as well as sleek videos of military drills.

The materials serve to fan rising Chinese nationalism and display military confidence against Taiwan and, implicitly, its ties with the United States. While the US doesnt recognise Taiwan as a sovereign country, it has pledged to help the island defend itself in case of an invasion.

Last month, the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taiwan. The move, which experts said drew on lessons from the US military assistance to Ukraine, was criticized by Beijing.

The Chasing Dreams documentary showcased, among other things, the PLAs Joint Sword drills, which simulated precision strikes against Taiwan. The exercises were undertaken around the self-governed island in April after a visit by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to the US.

Among the more dramatic parts of the program are pledges by PLA soldiers from various divisions to relinquish life in a potential attack on Taiwan.

If war broke out and the conditions were too difficult to safely remove the naval mines in actual combat, we would use our own bodies to clear a safe pathway for our (landing) forces, Zuo Feng, a frogman with the PLA Navys minesweeper unit, said in a testimonial.

Li Peng, a pilot from Wang Hai Squadron under the PLA Air Force, echoed his statement, saying his fighter jet would be the last missile rushing towards the enemy if in a real battle, I had used up all my ammunition.

Fan Lizhong, a special tactics unit commander, said in the docuseries that while losing comrades is painful, he has to remain calm to respond to emergencies and always be ready to fight.

The documentary also features Shandong, one of Chinas three aircraft carriers, sailing in formation with several other warships.

The PLA has repeatedly dispatched Shandong to the Taiwan Strait over the past few months as a threat to Taiwan. PLA jets have also crossed the straits median line, an informal demarcation zone between China and Taiwan, relatively often over the past couple of years, especially in reaction to exchanges between Taiwan and the US that have angered Beijing.

With inputs from agencies
Four Syrian soldiers were killed and four others wounded in Israeli air strikes near the capital Damascus early Monday, state media said, citing a military source.

At 2:20 am (2320 GMT Sunday), the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting areas in the vicinity of Damascus, state news agency SANA reported.

The attack killed four soldiers and wounded four others, it said, reporting unspecified material damage and adding that Syrian air defences intercepted some of the missiles.

An AFP correspondent in the capital reported hearing the sound of explosions.

During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow its archfoe Iran to expand its footprint there.

On July 19, Israeli air strikes near Damascus killed three pro-government fighters and wounded four others, a war monitor said at the time.

SANA had reported two soldiers were wounded in those strikes. It quoted a military source as saying the bombing targeted certain positions in the vicinity of Damascus.

Syrias foreign ministry had condemned that attack in the strongest terms.

In a statement carried by SANA, it called on the United Nations and the Security Council to take immediate action to oblige Israel to desist from these criminal policies.

Early last month, state media said Israel had carried out air strikes near the government-held city of Homs.

The Israeli army later said it struck an anti-aircraft battery after rocket fire.

On June 14, Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus wounding a soldier, according to SANA.

Previous Israeli strikes have put both Damascus and Aleppo airports out of service.

And in late March and early April, Israel stepped up its strikes on Syria with four raids on government-held areas in less than a week, targeting positions of Syrian government forces and pro-Iran groups.
Best-selling panda products attract athletes in Chengdu

Ecns.cn) 14:38, August 07, 2023

Panda products are displayed in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

As one of the most popular tourist destinations during the FISU World University Games, the Chengdu panda base attracts international athletes to have a close encounter with giant pandas and select creative panda products.

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

Panda products are displayed in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

International athletes and officers shop in a souvenir store at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 5, 2023. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Zhankun)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
At least four persons have died after a mining site collapsed on them in Yadagungume, a community in Ningi local government area of Bauchi State.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the illegal miners lost their lives over the weekend after the site caved in on them.

An eye witness who pleaded for anonymity said the illegal miners have been working on the site for the past for over a month.

He confirmed to this medium that the four miners died instantly after they were dug out from the collapsed site.

Confirming the incident, caretaker chairman Ningi local government area, Ibrahim Zubairu, who confirmed the incident, said four people have been trapped in the pit and three died instantly.

Zubairu said that the illegal mining site is located at Kogo Kadage forest, seven kilometres away from Yadagungume town.

"Yesterday (Saturday), I was informed that about four people were trapped in a mining pit, I directed that they should try and do something and later on, they reported back to me that they recovered three bodies.

"I don't know the illegal activities on the site after we have banned all sort of illegal mining in the local government. It came to my surprise when I got the report of the incident," the chairman said.

Zubairu said a constituted a committee tasked with the responsibilities of checkmating the mining activities and land related matters and also directed Burra Divisional Police Officer for supervision of the mining sites.

He warned people to desist from illegal mining activities as the government would not spare anyone caught wanton.

The chairman who condoled with the families of the deceased prayed for eternal rest and asked the families to bear the irreparable lost.

By Kamal Ibrahim Bauchi

At least four persons have died after a mining site collapsed on them in Yadagungume, a community in Ningi local government area of Bauchi State.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the illegal miners lost their lives over the weekend after the site caved in on them.

An eye witness who pleaded for anonymity said the illegal miners have been working on the site for the past for over a month.

He confirmed to this medium that the four miners died instantly after they were dug out from the collapsed site.

Confirming the incident, caretaker chairman Ningi local government area, Ibrahim Zubairu, who confirmed the incident, said four people have been trapped in the pit and three died instantly.

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Zubairu said that the illegal mining site is located at Kogo Kadage forest, seven kilometres away from Yadagungume town.

"Yesterday (Saturday), I was informed that about four people were trapped in a mining pit, I directed that they should try and do something and later on, they reported back to me that they recovered three bodies.

"I don't know the illegal activities on the site after we have banned all sort of illegal mining in the local government. It came to my surprise when I got the report of the incident," the chairman said.

Zubairu said a constituted a committee tasked with the responsibilities of checkmating the mining activities and land related matters and also directed Burra Divisional Police Officer for supervision of the mining sites.

He warned people to desist from illegal mining activities as the government would not spare anyone caught wanton.

The chairman who condoled with the families of the deceased prayed for eternal rest and asked the families to bear the irreparable lost.
For the first time, a member of German Chancellor Olaf Sholtzs ruling party has demanded that Berlin send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.

In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Social Democrats (SDP) lawmaker Andreas Schwarz suggested that his nation supply Ukraine Taurus cruise missiles, an air-launched weapon with a 500-kilometer range, to aid its ailing counteroffensive.

Germany will still decide on the transfer of Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine , Spiegel claims, citing his own sources. pic.twitter.com/d9WaTc5sqV  Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) August 7, 2023

As Ukrainian military forces prepared to begin the eagerly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian troops, which started the next month, Ukraine first asked Germany for Taurus missiles in May.

By killing Ukrainian tanks and other armoured vehicles, extensive Russian mining of the battlefield has slowed down the counteroffensive and compelled Kyiv to alter its tactics.

The Ukrainian military is currently concentrating on weakening Russia's fighting capability by targeting ammunition stockpiles and command-and-control centres. Taurus missiles have the range to demolish bunkers buried deep below in addition to hitting such valuable targets far from the front lines.

UK-supplied Storm Shadow long-range missiles are now in use by Ukraine.

The US has yet to provide Ukraine with its ATACMS long-range missiles out of concern that Kiev would use them to attack military targets within Russia.
Slamming former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) chairman Pervez Khattak alleged that he wanted a puppet chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Khattak said that the PTI chief wanted a puppet Chief Minister in KP and I was not a puppet CM.

The former CM of KP said that PTI had four opportunities for holding elections and every party was ready for election in July. The talks were held with the government team and with former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa but the PTI chairman was not agreeing even on easy conditions, Khattak said.

He further said that if the PTI chief had agreed on the election date with the government the May 9 violence would not have happened. The PTI chairman did not want someone else to get more popular than him in the party, he added.

Khattak was expelled from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), over his statement against the party chief. Following this, the former defence minister launched a new political party under the name of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Parliamentarians, ARY News reported.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after he was found guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years in prison.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed that party chief and former prime minister Imran Khans life is in danger and the jail authorities are not even providing meals to him.

He added that Lahore police immediately reached Zaman Parks residence to arrest the PTI chief when the order was issued to the IG Islamabad.

Qureshi said the court directed the authorities concerned to keep the PTI chief at the Adiala Jail but he was shifted to the Attock Jail. He added that there is lack of facilities at the Attock Jail where B Class facilities are not provided, ARY News reported.

Claiming that the former premier was imprisoned in a C Class prison cell, Qureshi said the lawyers were not given access to Imran Khan in jail. He added that they cannot file an appeal for the PTI chiefs release without having his signature on the power of attorney.

Imran Khan was not taken to the Poly Clinics medical board for his medical examination which is a mandatory right of each inmate and the responsibility of the jail administration, Qureshi said.

He demanded the judiciary to take notice as Khans life is in danger.

On Saturday, Imran Khan was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after he was found guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years in prison.

The PTI chief was shifted to Attock jail after his arrest in the Toshakhana case, ARY News reported. The court also imposed PKR 100,000 fine and declared the former prime minister ineligible to hold public office for five years.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that talks between India and China to ease tension along the border have not halted and the meeting between the two countries will be held soon.

We have made progress on key tension points in the last three years, said the External Affairs Minister in an interaction with journalists on Monday.

India-China border talks not halted, meeting will be held soon. We have made progress on key tension points in the last three years, says External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

He said that the Modi government has significantly enhanced border infrastructure in the last nine years, including along the frontier with China.

The minister said that the infrastructure push along the Northern border is going to determine Indias response to national security challenges.

Jaishankar said India is boosting connectivity with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The External Affairs Minister said India is in talks with Bhutan for a rail link between that country and Assam.

We are in talks on the rail link between Bhutan and Assam, Bhutan is very keen to open more points for tourists and it is very good for Assam, said Jaishanakr.

The border situation with Myanmar is challenging. Sittwe Port is operational, and we are hopeful to conclude the coastal shipping agreement this year. Myanmar Trilateral highway is a big challenge due to the law and order situation, we are engaging with Myanmar authorities to  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

On Bhutan-China talks, he said, As far as Bhutan-China talks are concerned, they are having negotiations, and 24 rounds have been completed. They will be holding more rounds. We track carefully what affects us. It is for them to determine the pace.

He said the border situation with Myanmar is challenging and India is engaging with it to resolve issues

Sittwe Port is operational, and we are hopeful to conclude the coastal shipping agreement this year. Myanmar Trilateral highway is a big challenge due to the law and order situation, we are engaging with Myanmar authorities to meet challenges, the EAM said.

With inputs from agencies
The Indian Navy has placed its locally built guided missile destroyer, INS Chennai, in a key location within the Red Sea as part of a strong commitment to safeguarding secure marine environments. This mission is a crucial step in preserving the worlds oceans.

The INS Chennai made a crucial port call to Jeddah between August 3 and August 5, strengthening the sense of camaraderie and diverse defence ties between India and Saudi Arabia. The Jeddah Border Guards Commander and the Commanding Officer of INS Chennai had a productive conversation during this port visit. Mohd Shahid Alam, CGI Jeddah, inspected the ship and learned about its operating prowess, furthering the diplomatic cooperation.

The vessel was warmly welcomed upon arrival by dignitaries from the Royal Saudi Naval forces, Border Guards and the Indian embassy.

On August 5, the INS Chennai set sail from Jeddah for its next destination and participated in a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) alongside the Royal Saudi Naval Ship HMS Al Jubail. Off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this collaborative operation involved complex tactical manoeuvres, skillful seamanship developments, and rigorous communication drills.

These joint efforts strengthened not only the foundation of mutual dependence but also the operational chemistry between the two maritime forces. Additionally, this drill was a demonstration of the growing interoperability between the Saudi Navy and its Indian counterpart.

The mission of INS Chennai takes crucial relevance in a world where the waters are a witness to several difficulties. Indias commitment to maritime security and global security is embodied by its critical location within the Red Sea. Additionally, the joint exercise with HMS Al Jubail highlights the shared dedication of the two countries to foster long-lasting friendships in addition to protecting their waters.

A collaborative effort can be heard throughout the nautical expanse as the waves of the Red Sea encircle the INS Chennai and the echoes of joint manoeuvres reverberate with the HMS Al Jubail.
At least eight Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) supporters were arrested and 20 more were booked for allegedly blocking roads and staging protests in Rawalpindi against the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan.

ASI Mohammad Latif lodged an FIR with Kotli Sattian police and said that the PTI workers raised slogans and blocked roads. He further alleged that the workers also collected stones, but were overpowered by the police.

But, some workers managed to escape, according to Dawn.

In another incident, 13 PTI workers, including an aide to the party chairman Imran Khan, were booked by the Racecourse police for offering resistance during the arrest of their party chief at Zaman Park on Saturday.

Inspector Rehan Anwar alleged that the booked suspects attacked the policemen when they reached Imran Khans Zaman Park residence to arrest him, Dawn reported.

The workers hurled threats at the police and attacked and snatched the official guns from the policemen. They were later overpowered by the police and subsequently arrested. Cases were also lodged against them.

In a similar incident in Patriata, protesters raised anti-government slogans and demanded the release of Imran Khan. Four PTI supporters were detained by the police while five managed to escape, Dawn reported.

However, no such protest was reported in Rawalpindi city as police continents patrolled the roads on Saturday.

On the other hand, the Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner extended Section 144 in the district till August 12 to avoid a law and order situation similar to May 9.

A notification issued by Deputy Commissioner Hassan Waqar Cheema stated that on the information of the District Intelligence Committee and the local police, there was an imminent threat within the limits of Rawalpindi district of a potential law and order situation entailing likely damage to human life and property.

Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after he was found guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years in prison. The former PM was shifted to Attock jail after his arrest in the Toshakhana case, ARY News reported.

The court also imposed PKR 100,000 fine on the convicted PTI chief. The court also declared the former prime minister ineligible to hold public office for five years.
Pakistan has temporarily shelved the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project to import cheap energy from neighbouring Iran, apparently under pressure from the US which has imposed sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme, according to a media report on Monday.

The development comes as Pakistan struggles to put its cash-strapped economy in order with the help of the International Monetary Fund, which agreed to provide USD 3 billion in loan.

The project was initially conceived as an India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, but later, India left it and became a bilateral project between Pakistan and Iran.

The sanctions imposed by the US on Iran over its nuclear programme have deterred Pakistan from constructing the pipeline.

The Dawn newspaper reported that Pakistan had issued a notice of Force Majeure and Excusing Event to Iran to suspend its contractual obligation on completion of the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project because of external factors outside Islamabads control.

Pakistan has expressed its inability to pursue the project as long as US sanctions on Iran remain in place or Washington tacitly green-lights Islamabad to go ahead with the project that has been in cold storage for almost a decade despite acute energy shortages in the South Asian nation of 240 million people, the paper reported.

Pakistan has issued a Force Majeure and Excusing Event notice to Iran under the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA), which resultantly suspends Pakistans obligations under the GSPA, according to a written testimony Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik has given to the National Assembly.

In a policy statement placed on the floor of the lower house of Parliament, the minister also put on record that Iran disputed the notice of force majeure and excusing event. The statement came in response to questions from lawmaker Muhammad Jamal-ud-Din from Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal party, who wanted to know if the government of

Pakistan had a target completion date for the cross-border energy project and whether fines were due in case of delays and if other regional nations were enhancing trade relations despite UN sanctions.

The Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project is stalled due to international sanctions on Iran, said Malik clarifying the project activities will begin once sanctions on Iran are removed and there is no threat that State Owned Entities (SOEs) would be hit by sanctions.

Given that, no date and deadline can be given for the completion of the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project, he added.
Manila summoned Beijings envoy Monday after the China Coast Guard blocked and water cannoned Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos said.

The incident happened Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies for Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law in blocking and firing water cannon at the re-supply mission, which prevented one of the charter boats reaching the shoal.

China said it had taken necessary controls against Philippines boats that had illegally entered its waters.

Our Secretary of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Huang today and gave him a note verbale including pictures, video about what happened and we are awaiting their reply, Marcos told reporters.

The position of China, of course, is they say this is ours so we are defending it and we, for our part, are saying no, we own it so we are defending it. So that becomes a grey area that we are discussing.

The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese actions, saying they were carried out by the coast guard and maritime militia, and that they directly threatened regional peace and stability.

Britain, Australia, Canada and the European Union also criticised Beijings actions.

Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from Chinas nearest major landmass of Hainan island.

Chinas coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the contested waters, Manila says.

Saturdays incident was the first time since November 2021 that the Chinese coast guard had used water cannon against a Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal.

Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes over the South China Sea.

However then Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who was in power from 2016 to 2022, was reluctant to criticise his more powerful neighbour as he sought closer ties with Beijing in the hope of attracting investment.

Marcos has insisted since succeeding Duterte tha he will not let China trample on his countrys maritime rights.

He has gravitated towards the United States, seeking to strengthen defence ties with the Philippines former colonial ruler and longtime ally.
Russia is all set to evacuate a village in its far east on August 11 as part of the launch of its first lunar lander mission in nearly half a century, a local official said on Monday.

The mission, named Luna-25, marks a significant milestone for Russia as its their first lunar lander since 1976. The launch is scheduled to take place from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, located approximately 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow, as confirmed by Russias Roscosmos space agency.

To ensure the safety of the residents, the Shakhtinskyi settlement in Russias Khabarovsk region, southeast of the launch site, will be evacuated early in the morning on August 11. The decision to evacuate is a precautionary measure since the village falls within the projected area where the rocket boosters are expected to descend after separation.

The mouth of the Umalta, Ussamakh, Lepikan, Tastakh, Saganar rivers and the area of the ferry crossing on the Bureya River fall into the predicted (booster) fall zone, Alexei Maslov, head of the Verkhnebureinskyi district in the Khabarovsk region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

The residents of Shakhtinskyi will be evacuated.Luna-25 will launch on a Soyuz-2 Fregat booster and will be the first lander to arrive on the South Pole of the moon, Roscosmos has said.

The main objective of the mission will be the development of soft-landing technologies, research of the internal structure of the Moon and exploration for resources, including water.

The lander is expected to operate on the lunar surface for one year.

With inputs from Reuters.
Senegals jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been on a hunger strike in prison to protest criminal charges against him, was hospitalised Sunday, his party said.

Sonko was imprisoned last week in advance of criminal proceedings against him on charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The reason for his hospitalisation at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear.

Prior to his imprisonment, he was in good health and had no known illnesses, said the statement from Sonkos now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party.

Sonko announced 30 July on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would start his hunger strike. The announcement came a day before a judge in the capital of Dakar ordered his imprisonment.

The latest charges against Sonko came weeks after a judge convicted him in a separate case of corrupting youth and sentenced him to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation. Last week, at least four people died and several were injured in fresh protests after Sonko was detained in a prison just outside Dakar.

Sonko placed third in Senegals 2019 presidential election and is popular with the countrys youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

Sonkos health emergency comes the day after his lawyer, Juan Branco, was arrested in Mauritania and extradited to Senegal, where he is in a Dakar prison, according to Brancos lawyer, Robin Bindard.

Bindard said Sunday that Branco is being held for alleged dissemination of false information, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The mission of a lawyer is sacred, and you cant reproach a lawyer for defending his client, said Bindard.

Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome announced Brancos arrest to applause in a National Assembly meeting Saturday.
PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has called on financial institutions to continue designing products and services aimed at solving challenges facing farmers to boost the sector's contribution to the economy.

The Prime Minister made the call and commendations over the weekend when he visited the NBC booth at the Nanenane Agriculture Exhibition held at the John Mwakangale grounds in Mbeya.

According to him, the provision of low-interest loans for farming equipment will help stimulate agricultural revolution by increasing production and incomes for farmers.

"The government has always been urging and requesting various financial institutions to increase their efforts in innovating their services in order to come up with solutions for various economic groups according to their specific needs.

This is why I congratulate NBC, where through the NBC Shambani product, they are able to support farmers get loans for important agricultural equipment...well done NBC," he praised.

NBC Bank Head of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), product and Agriculture, Raymond Urassa, said that through a partnership with Agricom, an agricultural input company, the bank has already provided loans for agricultural equipment worth 2.3bn/- to various farmers in the country.

"Our efforts are just a continuation of many of our efforts that we focus on in the agricultural sector to support government's efforts in promoting agriculture in the country," said Urassa.

Furthermore, to prove their commitment, the bank handed over a loan comprising a tractor and a plow worth 62.1 million to a rice farmer Evarist Msasi from Mbarali District in Mbeya during a brief handover ceremony at the event grounds.

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Speaking during the ceremony, Urassa stated that since the partnership with Agricom, NBC has empowered farmers with loans for 20 tractors, 15 combine harvesters, and 10 power tillers.

"NBC will continue to support the government's commitment to achieving the growth of the agricultural sector from 5 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030," Mr Urassa said, inviting farmers to take advantage of the opportunity to receive agricultural equipment loans and open their NBC Shambani accounts.

Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of the Tanzania Sisal Board (TSB), Saddy Kambona, who was the guest of honour, congratulated NBC and Agricom for supporting the government's efforts to uplift the agriculture sector in the country.

He stated that the government's goal is to ensure that farmers move away from traditional agriculture, which is not profitable for individual income and used the opportunity to urge farmers to invest more in better farming tools.

On his part, the Executive Director of Agricom, Alex Duffar, expressed his gratitude to NBC for being a good partner, noting that, in a short period of time, the company has managed to increase its sales by ten times compared to last year thanks to the bank's partnership.
At least two people  a woman and her one-year-old baby  died and 30 others went missing after two ships carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The two boats left from the Tunisian port city of Sfax carrying 48 and 42 people, BBC reported.

The Italian coastguards have recovered the bodies of the Ivory Coast woman and her baby.

Meanwhile, Tunisian officials informed that they found the bodies of 10 migrants on a beach near Sfax.

They were found between Friday and Saturday during a windstorm that may have sunken their boat, officials told AFP.

The port city is a popular gateway for migrants seeking a better life, authorities said.
The United Kingdom on Monday began moving a number of migrants on to a large residential barge on its southern coast as part of plans to save money and remove what the government called the pull of hotels for those arriving in small boats.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made cracking down on illegal migration a priority ahead of a national election expected next year, pitching his Conservatives as being tougher on the issue than the opposition Labour Party, which enjoys a strong lead in opinion polls.

Seeking to deter people from arriving in Britain, it is moving migrants on to disused military sites and barges like the grey, three-story Bibby Stockholm in Portland which can house around 500 people in more than 200 bedrooms.

It is also trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, although that plan has been bogged down in the courts and still hinges on a ruling by the Supreme Court on its legality.

A person familiar with the situation said the first migrants had started boarding the Bibby Stockholm barge around midday, with more expected to arrive later on Monday.

More than 50,000 asylum seekers are living in hotels after they made the final part of their journey in small dinghies across the Channel from France. The government says that hotels are costing more than 6 million pounds ($7.6 million) a day. Home Office minister Sarah Dines told Sky News that the barge sends a message that Britain will give proper accommodation but not luxurious.

The policy has divided local communities, with some describing the housing for people arriving from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan or Albania as inhumane. Others have been angered by the impact on local services and have questioned whether the sites will become targets for protests.

Local authorities said on Monday they were investigating letters sent to some people and businesses in the area around Portland Port, suggesting they could be targeted if they offered support to asylum seekers on the barge.

The welfare of asylum seekers in our care is of the upmost importance, a spokesperson for the Home Office, or interior ministry, said.

(We) continue to work closely with the local police and our partners on-the-ground to ensure the safety of any individuals housed on the site and the wider community.

Government figures show that nearly 46,000 asylum seekers made the dangerous crossing from France to the southern coast of England on small boats last year. The number so far this year stands at nearly 15,000.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled a voluntary collaboration between social media companies and the UK government to intensify efforts in tackling people smuggling content online, such as criminals sharing information about illegal English Channel crossings.

The partnership aims to address the issue of criminals using social media platforms to disseminate information about illegal English Channel crossings.

In an announcement over the weekend, Sunak emphasized that this joint initiative is vital in achieving the stop the boats objective, which aims to curtail illegal migration facilitated by human traffickers charging exorbitant fees for perilous sea crossings.

The focus of the partnership will be on addressing various forms of online content that exploit vulnerable individuals for profit, including discount offers for groups of people, false documents, and deceptive claims of safe passage.

By targeting such content, the government aims to protect vulnerable people from falling victim to dangerous and illegal journeys, ultimately safeguarding lives and curbing the illicit activities of human traffickers.

To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source, said Sunak in a statement released by 10 Downing Street.

That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk. This new commitment from tech firms will see us redouble our efforts to fight back against these criminals, working together to shut down their vile trade, he said.

Figures from the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) claim that over 90 per cent of online content linked to people smuggling is taken down when social media companies are notified. The new partnership between tech firms and the UK government is aimed at driving forward efforts to further crackdown on the tactics being used by criminal gangs who abuse the internet to lure people into paying for crossings.

Heartless people smugglers are using social media to promote their despicable services and charge people thousands of pounds to make the illegal journey into the UK in unsafe boats. They must not succeed, said UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

This strengthened collaboration between the National Crime Agency, government and social media companies will ensure content promoting dangerous and illegal Channel crossings doesnt see the light of day, she said.

Under the new initiative, social media companies will look to increase cooperation with the NCA to find and remove criminal content and step up the sharing of best practices both across the industry and with law enforcement. Alongside the partnership, the government will also set up a new centre led by the NCA and Home Office to increase the capacity and capability of law enforcement to identify this content on social media platforms.

Known as the Online Capability Centre, backed by 11 million pound state funding, its work will focus on undermining and disrupting the business model of organised crime groups responsible for illegal crossings and using the internet to facilitate these journeys by intensifying efforts to combat their online activity.

The move comes as UK media reports indicate that the first set of migrants will begin being housed on a barge docked in Portland, south-west England. The Bibby Stockholm large floating accommodation has remained empty as reported health and safety concerns of housing asylum seekers aboard were assessed.

Now, reports indicate that the government believes the barge is ready to house migrants as part of efforts to cut down on soaring British taxpayer-funded hotel bills.

Sunak has made stop the boats one of his governments top priorities as he pledged to clamp down on migrants landing up on the countrys shores illegally and facilitating their swift removal through so-called returns agreements with European countries such as Albania.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) announced that they have arrested an individual believed to be a Russian informant, purportedly involved in planning a potential airstrike within the Mykolaiv region during the visit of Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The SBU said, that the alleged informant on the eve of the recent trip of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv region, was gathering intelligence about the planned visit, reported Daily Express.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present in the region during the end of July.

According to an official statement from the SBU, the informant attempted to ascertain both the timing and specific locations along the anticipated route of the Head of State in the territory of the region.

Notably, SBU operatives intercepted information concerning the subversive activities of the suspect and promptly enacted additional security protocols.

Through surveillance of the individuals communications, the SBU found that the informant was also tasked with identifying the whereabouts of electronic warfare systems and depots containing military supplies for the armed forces.

The ongoing investigation indicates that the alleged perpetrator hailed from Ochakov, a town in southern Ukraine, and had previously worked as a saleswoman in a military store situated on the territory of one of the military units of the region.

It is alleged that she travelled around the district, and captured footage of various Ukrainian facilities.

As of now, the identity of the woman remains undisclosed.

With inputs from agencies
Russia carried out several waves of attacks on Ukraine overnight, while Kyiv hit bridges in occupied territories on Sunday.

The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down 30 out of the 40 cruise missiles and all Shahed drones launched by Russia. In total, the enemy used 70 air attack weapons in several waves in the night from Saturday to Sunday, said a statement.

It added that Russia had launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not say if they had been destroyed.

The Ukrainian armed forces did not specify which sites were hit by the missiles that got through air defences.

The Russian army however said it had struck Ukrainian armed forces airbases around the settlements of Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region and Dubno in the Rivne region.

Home to a major airbase, the western Khmelnytskyi region, located hundreds of kilometres from the front lines of the fighting, has been repeatedly targeted during the war.

Since yesterday evening, the Khmelnytskyi region has been attacked three times most missiles were shot down, said local official Sergiy Tyurin.

Several buildings and the bus station were damaged, he said on Telegram.

He also posted pictures of a crumbling building engulfed in flames, saying a corn waste warehouse had caught fire.

Meanwhile in the Rivne region that Russia said it hit, only a few private households were damaged, according to regional head Vitaliy Koval.

Bridges hit

On Saturday, Ukraine said Russian forces had struck a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were dead and wounded from the attack. This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, he added.

The reported strike came shortly after Zelensky said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscows invasion.

Russian air defences were also at work on Sunday, as Ukraine targeted two bridges on occupied territory.

The enemy launched a missile attack near the Chongar bridge that connects southern Ukraine to the annexed Crimean peninsula, Moscow-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

One hit, some missiles were shot down, Aksyonov said, adding that repair work was ongoing.

A separate attack on a bridge near Genichesk in southern Kherson wounded a civilian and damaged a gas pipeline, cutting supplies for about 20,000 residents, Moscow-installed official Vladimir Saldo said.

Russian air defence said it had also shot down a drone approaching the Russian capital, which until recent months was almost never targeted.

It downed the drone without any casualties or damage, and restrictions on flights at Moscows Vnukovo airport were quickly lifted.

There have been an increased number of drone attacks not only on regions bordering Ukraine, but also on Moscow.

Productive talks

A Ukrainian drone had hit a Russian oil tanker south of the Kerch Strait in the night between Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday morning, repair work was being carried out on the vessel that was still afloat, according to Russias Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport.

Attacks have multiplied on both sides of the Black Sea since Russia exited a deal protecting grain exports there, brokered by the UN and Turkey.

Russia has hit port infrastructure on the Black Sea and the Danube, while Ukraine has targeted Russias Black Sea Fleet.

While combat continues, the likelihood of securing peace looks extremely thin.

Saudi Arabia nevertheless hosted talks on the Ukraine war Saturday, with organisers bringing together representatives of the four members of the influential BRICS bloc  Brazil, India, China and South Africa  but not Russia.

We had an extremely honest, open conversation, a statement on the Ukrainian presidency website said Sunday, calling the consultation very productive despite different views.

The Ukrainian delegation headed by Andriy Yermak is held more bilateral meetings Sunday.

Later Sunday, the official Saudi Press Agency said more than 40 countries and international organisations had taken part in the talks.

It said they agreed on the importance of continuing international consultation and exchanging views in a way that contributes to building common ground that paves the way for peace.
Despite waves of Russian air attacks that Kyiv claims targeted civilians and residential buildings, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed on Sunday that Ukraine is witnessing significant results from American and German air defence systems.

In the third such strike in a week, Russia claimed to have shot down a drone headed for Moscow, while officials on both sides said Ukraine had hit two bridges connecting Crimea to the mainland.

As Ukraine attempts to drive out Russian soldiers who have become entrenched throughout southern and eastern Ukraine since their invasion last year, both nations have increased strikes against each others military personnel, equipment, and support systems for the conflict.

The Chonhar bridge, which connects the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, was reportedly damaged by a missile strike, according to the leader of Crimea designated by Moscow.

According to a Moscow-appointed official, one of the three road connections between the Crimea and the Russian-occupied regions of mainland Ukraine was shelled close to the town of Henichesk. A civilian driver was injured.

Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video address on Sunday that modern air defence systems, including as the German IRIS-T and the American Patriot, were highly effective and had already yielded significant results.

Zelenskiy claimed that Ukraine has successfully shot down a substantial portion of Russias recent raids, which included 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds, and 65 missiles of various types.

Ukraines military said later that Russia had launched 30 missiles and 48 air strikes.

Unfortunately, there are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure suffered destruction, the military said in a statement.

The bombings came after what Zelenskiy claimed was a late-night Saturday bombing of a blood transfusion facility in Kupiansk, around 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region. He called the attack a war crime. Reuters was unable to quickly confirm the claim.

In its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths, millions of evictions, and the destruction of cities, Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians or military hospitals.

Moscows Vnukovo airport in Russia cancelled all flights on Sunday, blaming unidentified outside factors. Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, reported that a drone had been shot down south of the city.

The western Rivne and Khmelnytskyi areas, as well as the southern Zaporizhzhia region, were the targets of effective attacks on Ukrainian air bases, according to the Russian defence ministry earlier. It claimed that all of the targets in a group strike carried out by its military utilising long-range and sea-based precision weaponry had been neutralised.

One of the objectives, according to Serhiy Tiurin, the Khmelnytskyi regions deputy governor, was a military airstrip near Starokostiantyniv. He claimed that while the majority of the missiles were shot down, some houses, a cultural centre, and the bus station were damaged by explosions, and a grain silo caught fire.

Ukraine has been engaged in a rigorous counteroffensive for two months in an effort to drive out Russian forces that have taken over nearly 5% of its territory.

The weekend Russian missile assaults, according to Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podoliak, were in retaliation for Ukraines outreach to countries in the Global South who had been unwilling to join sides in a conflict that had harmed the world economy.

On Saturday and Sunday, senior officials from over 40 nations, including the United States, China, and India, held discussions regarding the conflict in Saudi Arabia. However, the summit didnt result in any specific actions beyond a pledge to further discussions.

The meeting was a component of Ukraines diplomatic effort to seek support outside of its primary Western backers. Andriy Yermak, the head of staff for Zelenskiy, claimed that the discussions had been really fruitful but he didnt elaborate.

Russia did not attend. Its deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said the meeting reflected the Wests doomed efforts to mobilise developing nations behind Zelenskiy.

(With agency inputs)
Tata Play, formerly known as Tata Sky, joined forces with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to launch the GSAT-24 satellite in June 2022. Now, Tata Play said that it is ready to utilize the satellite to provide its users with enhanced picture and sound quality, along with 50% more channels, making it the largest satellite bandwidth provider among all Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms.

The inauguration ceremony, held at Tata Plays Broadcast Centre in New Delhi, was attended by dignitaries, including the Secretary of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, who hailed the event as a significant step towards self-reliance in the space and communication sector.

GSAT-24, a 24-Ku band communication satellite built by ISRO, will cater exclusively to the DTH application needs of Tata Play. The satellites successful implementation marks a revolution in Indias telecommunications space, driven by cutting-edge indigenous technology.

NSIL, the commercial arm of the Department of Space (DOS), played a pivotal role in the missions success, and the satellites capacity has been leased entirely to Tata Play.

With this strategic collaboration, Tata Play aims to deliver exceptional services to its DTH subscribers and reinforce its dedication to the Make in India initiative.

Commenting on the momentous occasion, Tata Plays MD & CEO, Harit Nagpal said,

Viewing experience has been Tata Plays key priority. This collaboration with NSIL will provide our DTH subscribers with an even better video and audio quality and many more channels and services. It also strengthens our commitment to Linear TV in a country where approximately ~140 Mn homes are yet to buy their first TV. We have always delivered all our services on indigenously produced satellites by DOS and this capacity enhancement is a reaffirmation of our commitment to Make in India.

Commenting on the momentous occasion, S. Somanath, Chairman ISRO, said,

GSAT-24 a 4-tonne class communication satellite built by ISRO for providing DTH services, is fully operational at its maximum satellite capacity, following exhaustive in-orbit testing. This momentous achievement signifies a revolution in Indias telecommunications space, driven by cutting-edge indigenous technology. It serves as a tribute to our nations aerospace prowess and heralds Indias successful entry into the Demand Driven Mission segment.

Commenting on the momentous occasion, Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director NSIL, said,
analysis

If he cold-blooded murder of Isolezwe photographer Bongani Mbatha in KwaZulu-Natal is part of a trend to silence the journalist messengers in South Africa, then our country's robust media freedom is under threat

It's difficult to measure a trend. But on the night of 18 July a photographer from Independent Media's Isolezwe newspaper, Bongani Mbatha, was gunned down in cold blood in KwaZulu-Natal. a suspicion that his murder may be related to his work. We are told there is an investigation to establish who his killers were. Investigations into murders and prosecutions take time, especially if the victims are whistle-blowers, journalists or photographers. We don't have a history of journalists being murdered or jailed in the democracy age in South Africa, unlike in many parts of the world. However, this may become a trend to watch out for.

In May this year, Ralikonelo Joki, an investigative radio journalist in Lesotho, was shot 13 times, and killed, after leaving work one night. He was a well-known journalist at the privately owned Ts'enolo FM. His killers are still at large.

Internationally, murders of journalists were up 50% in 2022 compared with the year before, according to Unesco. This translates to 86, or one killing every four days.

So often, journalist bodies and NGOs in the media space ask the police and investigating officers: was this a criminal act, or was it done because the journalist...
According to Statista, between 20 million and 22 million South Africans were using smartphones by January this year. As the use of smartphones with near-field communication has increased, so too have related fraudulent incidents.

The banking ombud, Reana Steyn, has sounded an alert after her office recently received about 124 near-field communication (NFC) fraud-related complaints. She said that the losses suffered are in the millions, with customers' accounts fraudulently drained through tap-and-go purchases made with smart devices in mostly foreign jurisdictions such as Dubai, France and Spain while the legitimate cardholders were in South Africa.

"This is a clear indication that an international crime syndicate is operating within this space and has South African consumers in its sights," Steyn warns.

She says one of the major banks in South Africa has confirmed with her office that it received more than 6,000 NFC fraud-related complaints in the 18 months between January last year and the beginning of June this year. The bank's stats show that in the first six months of last year, about 553 customers fell victim to this fraud with their losses amounting to about R430,000. This year the number of victims jumped to more than 5,450 with combined monetary losses exceeding R6.5-million.

"These are highly concerning numbers and the devastation of the losses caused has the potential of causing bank customers serious financial hardships which in some instances may be impossible to...
Western Cape commuters have again been left in limbo as talks to halt the ongoing taxi strike could not deliver any good news on Sunday. This comes after a weekend of sporadic violence, including the murder of a law enforcement officer on Friday and the torching of more vehicles

Talks between the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) and the Western Cape Government (WCG) failed to resolve the taxi strike impasse on Sunday evening.

This means the taxi stayaway continues until 9 August as planned.

City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility Roberto Quintas and Western Cape MEC of Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie met with Santaco Western Cape leadership on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

At Friday's meeting, the WCG said it put forward a proposal to alleviate the impact of vehicle impoundments on taxi operators, while it worked to resolve the complex challenges surrounding operating licences and other issues.

Santaco took this proposal to its members on Saturday for internal engagement.

"At the latest meeting on Sunday afternoon, further progress was made with resolving the ongoing minibus taxi strike, until the suspension of negotiations in the early evening," the WCG said.

"Both City and provincial governments are committed to further urgent engagement with Santaco leadership in the interest of resolving the current situation. All parties have reiterated the call for calm and for no further violence and that there should be no interference with other public transport operators," it said.

Santaco said it went to the...
The answers given by Barry have been on the site for a long time, and they form the basis of what the site is about. Yet many good Geographs do not fulfil any of those criteria, and two are almost contradictory (at close up and being useful in interpreting a map).It is important to realise that the site has grown way beyond what was first envisaged, and so the site's definition of Geography is now very wide, incorporating a lot of social history, ecology, geology and other allied subjects. This is encouraged but it means that the definition of a Geograph has become broader.So a Geograph is any photograph, accurately geoloacted, that depicts the Geography of a square, or any aspect of the Geography of the square, shown in some form of context. A description is useful and encouraged, especially for photographs in which the geography is not obvious, but it is not essential.Some other photographs are still extremely welcome and contain useful geographical information but may not be classified as Geographs*, and listed below:Firstly, it was felt that it was very important that every square should be actually visited and not just 'view-bagged' from a distance. So, Geographs must be taken within the square. Nevertheless, certain views can only be seen from outside a square. These cross-grid shots are classified as "Cross Grid".Secondly, some photographs don't have much context. These are usually details of large objects, but they may just be very small objects or they could be large objects that are not shown completely. Most mods would agree that the smaller the object the more context that is needed to make it a Geograph. These close-ups are classified as "Close Look"*. The largest objects that tend to be classed as shown in close-up or incompletely are buildings. Most mods believe that to be a Geograph a building photograph should the whole building or some context, although some mods would prefer both.Thirdly, indoor shots are classified as "Inside". They can add useful information, but indoors, being an entirely human environment, is on the fringe of the site's definition. Only public indoor areas are acceptable.Fourthly, shots taken from the air are classified as "Aerial". They are often useful, but they approach the subject of Geography in a different way than was originally envisaged.Finally some shots are classified as "Extra" these include:SilhouettesSunsets and sunrisesCloudscapes, sky, auroras, celestial bodies etcThings in the sky such as birds, aircraft, balloons etc.Things on the sea that are not permanently fixed to the sea bed for extended periods of time such as boats, windsurfers, inflatables*(From 11 May 2016 the Supplemental Classification is replaced by Image Type Tags:see http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Image-Type-Tags-update ).
Arusha  ZANZIBAR House of Representatives Speaker Zuberi Ali Maulid has urged farmers to use the Nanenane agricultural exhibitions to unleash their potential.

Mr Maulid made the call midweek, when he toured the Nanenane grounds, Njiro area, Arusha.

Mr Maulid emphasised that the Nanenane Exhibition offered a valuable learning opportunity to improve agricultural productivity.

He highlighted that an impressive 98 percent of the population in the northern region are engaged in farming and livestock rearing noting that the exhibition would also serve as a platform for knowledge and experience sharing.

"Do not take these exhibitions lightly, instead, use them as opportunities to learn from others," he urged.

Mr Maulid further acknowledged government's efforts of enhancing agricultural conditions and infrastructure in the region, particularly through the provision of subsidized fertilizers to boost productivity.

He equally rallied Arusha residents to support the government in implementing numerous development projects.

According to the speaker, the Nanenane exhibitions serve as a platform to showcase opportunities in the agriculture, livestock, and fishing sectors.

"It aims to improve the knowledge of farmers, enabling them to enhance productivity significantly," he observed.

Nanenane fairs are a national event celebrated to recognize farmers' contribution to the Tanzanian economy.

They provide an opportunity for farmers and other stakeholders to exchange knowledge and business and are observed on August 8, every year.

The first week of August is all about agriculture in Tanzania. From August 1 onwards, agricultural fairs are organised all over the country, culminating in the national holiday Nanenane on August 8. At national level, this year's event will be marked at John Mwakangale grounds in Mbeya region.
An All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain in Lagos, Ambassador Abayomi Mumuni, has urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to shelve any military intervention in Niger.

The security expert urged ECOWAS to intensify efforts to secure the release of ousted Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum rather than military intervention.Gistmania recalls that Bazoum has been held hostage following the military takeover of the Niger Republic since July 26.President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Chairman of ECOWAS, had described the coup as unacceptable, giving the junta a deadline to restore democratic rule.Mumuni, in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Sunday through his Media Aide, Rasheed Abubakar, advised Tinubu that war is not the answer.He added that Tinubu should not be surprised if other Francophone nations in the association later pitch their tents with Niger if war were to break out.Mumuni said,

Quote

The first thing that should have been on the priority list of ECOWAS when the coup was announced is securing the release of President Mohamed Bazoum. And this should be done through robust diplomatic engagements and persuasive communications.



War or military intervention is not the answer. I think ECOWAS can do better to manage the crisis rather than setting for a war whose consequences would be untold and brutal. Therefore, the ECOWAS chieftains should intensify diplomatic engagements and persuasive communications with the junta. They should not be deterred by the fact that the last diplomatic engagement failed.



In all of these crises, the life of the ousted president is most precious. He should come out alive first. Any declaration of war may see him killed, which would defeat the essence of the whole thing. Bazoums release should top the priorities of ECOWAS. They should do more and continue to press for his release by the junta.



President Tinubu should resist temptations to deploy ECOWAS troops to Niger. He should not be surprised if other Francophone nations in the association later pitch their tents with Niger if War were to break out. We have quite different orientations. They were colonised by France and Nigeria was a British colony. Though our military establishment is fierce and strong in the African community, it has been overstretched by internal terrorism. We shouldnt add more burden with the Niger crisis that effective diplomatic engagements and strategies can solve.



Right now, the Western gladiators are seeing this as another opportunity to see Africa go into war against itself. We must never allow that happen.
felicilin at 7-08-2023 02:42 PM (1 week ago) (f)

A 40-year-old banker, Andrew Nwadiashi, and eight internet fraudsters were on Friday, August 4, 2023, convicted and sentenced to prison by Justice M. Itsueli of the Edo State High Court sitting in Benin City.

A 40-year-old banker, Andrew Nwadiashi, and eight internet fraudsters were on Friday, August 4, 2023, convicted and sentenced to prison by Justice M. Itsueli of the Edo State High Court sitting in Benin City.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed this in a statement on Monday, August 7.



According to the EFCC, the others are Osawa Marvellous, Etinosa Ogieva, Erharruyi Osaigbovo, Isaac Godstime Eghosa, Obasohan Kelvin, Evans Jessa Mike, Timothy Odion and Festus Efe Iyengunmwena.



The anti-graft agency said Nwadiashi was arrested following a petition by First Bank sometime in 2020.



The EFCC said that as Head, Non-Financial Transaction at Warri branch of the bank in Delta State, the convict allegedly disregarded banking policy and debited a customers account to the tune of N9, 354,000.00.



The EFCC said that the banker confessed to the offence during investigation.



The eight other defendants were arrested following intelligence which linked them to internet fraud activities, the EFCC agency said.



The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed this in a statement on Monday, August 7.According to the EFCC, the others are Osawa Marvellous, Etinosa Ogieva, Erharruyi Osaigbovo, Isaac Godstime Eghosa, Obasohan Kelvin, Evans Jessa Mike, Timothy Odion and Festus Efe Iyengunmwena.The anti-graft agency said Nwadiashi was arrested following a petition by First Bank sometime in 2020.The EFCC said that as Head, Non-Financial Transaction at Warri branch of the bank in Delta State, the convict allegedly disregarded banking policy and debited a customers account to the tune of N9, 354,000.00.The EFCC said that the banker confessed to the offence during investigation.The eight other defendants were arrested following intelligence which linked them to internet fraud activities, the EFCC agency said. Quote



Upon arraignment, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges, prompting the prosecution counsel, I. M Elodi, IK Agwai, K.Y. Bello and Ibrahim Faisal to ask the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly.



Justice Itsueli convicted and sentenced Nwadiashi to two years imprisonment or a fine of N200,000. The defendant had fully paid the aggregate sum N9, 654,000.00, being the principal sum and interest, in restitution to the victim of crime.



The court convicted and sentenced Marvellous, Odion, Ogieva and Iyengunmwena to three years imprisonment with an option of Three Hundred Thousand Naira as fine.



The duo of Osaigbovo and Mike were each sentenced to three years imprisonment with an option of Two Hundred Thousand Naira fine.



Eghosa and Kelvin, each bagged one month imprisonment and a fine of Two Hundred Thousand Naira.



Justice Itsueli ordered that a Toyota Lexus ES 330; Lexus E350, phone, laptops and the balance in the convicts bank accounts be forfeited to the Federal government of Nigeria, They were subsequently arraigned on separate one count charges bordering on stealing, retention of proceeds of illegal activities and unlawful possession of fraudulent documents by the Benin Zonal Command of the EFCC.Upon arraignment, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges, prompting the prosecution counsel, I. M Elodi, IK Agwai, K.Y. Bello and Ibrahim Faisal to ask the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly.Justice Itsueli convicted and sentenced Nwadiashi to two years imprisonment or a fine of N200,000. The defendant had fully paid the aggregate sum N9, 654,000.00, being the principal sum and interest, in restitution to the victim of crime.The court convicted and sentenced Marvellous, Odion, Ogieva and Iyengunmwena to three years imprisonment with an option of Three Hundred Thousand Naira as fine.The duo of Osaigbovo and Mike were each sentenced to three years imprisonment with an option of Two Hundred Thousand Naira fine.Eghosa and Kelvin, each bagged one month imprisonment and a fine of Two Hundred Thousand Naira.Justice Itsueli ordered that a Toyota Lexus ES 330; Lexus E350, phone, laptops and the balance in the convicts bank accounts be forfeited to the Federal government of Nigeria,

Post Reply Posted: at 7-08-2023 02:42 PM (1 week ago) | Addicted Hero
Google Introduces AI-Powered Grammar Checker to Google Search: Heres How It Works News oi -Kabir Jain

Google has once again raised the bar for search engine functionality with its latest addition: an AI-powered grammar checker. This feature, available to both desktop and mobile users of Google Search, ensures that the sentences and phrases entered into the search box are grammatically accurate.

How the Grammar Checker Works

The AI-based grammar checker diligently examines the input sentence or phrase and provides corrected versions if they are grammatically incorrect. If the sentence is accurate, the tool displays the top search result with a reassuring green checkmark, indicating that there are no grammatical errors.

It is important to note that, at present, this feature exclusively supports the English language. However, there are expectations that Google will soon expand its language support to cater to a broader audience.

Limitations of the Grammar Checker

While the grammar checker is a significant step forward in refining search accuracy, Google acknowledges that it may not achieve 100% accuracy, especially when dealing with incomplete sentences entered in the search box. Despite the automation of the grammar check, it might occasionally fail to appear in some instances.

Moreover, Google has laid out specific conditions under which the grammar check will not function. These include sentences or queries containing dangerous content, harassment, hate speech, medical information, sexually explicit material, terrorist content, violence, gore, and other sensitive topics. These limitations are in place to ensure a safe and respectful online environment.

User Feedback and Improvement

To continuously improve the system's accuracy and performance, Google actively encourages users to provide feedback on the grammar checks. A convenient "Feedback" button is located in the bottom right corner of the grammar check result box.

Users can select from various feedback categories, such as "This is helpful," "This isn't relevant," "Suggestion is incorrect," and "Suggestion is offensive." They are also invited to include their comments or suggestions and submit them with a simple click on "Send."

How To Use Grammar Check

Google Search's grammar check is primarily an automated process designed to present users with corrected results when it detects grammatical errors. However, as with any automated system, it might not be foolproof and could have occasional limitations.

To initiate the grammar check manually, users can include the phrases "check grammar" or "grammar check" in their sentences. This option allows users to double-check their grammar and ensure that their queries yield the most accurate results.

Source

Via

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JioPhone 5G Launch, Availability Hinted: Price Suggests It Would Be The Most Affordable 5G Smartphone News oi -Alap Naik Desai

Reliance Jio has been actively testing its JioPhone 5G, a budget Android smartphone optimized for the telecom operator's "True 5G" networks. Although Jio is yet to confirm the launch date of JioPhone 5G, it should arrive this month.

The JioPhone 5G could launch as the "most affordable (cheapest?) 5G smartphone". Let's look at the expected launch date, price, and availability of the JioPhone 5G.

JioPhone 5G To launch On August 28, 2023?

The JioPhone 5G has been making multiple appearances on social media platforms. Reliance Jio, the telecom operator that will launch the smartphone mainly for its Indian subscribers, hasn't even acknowledged the existence of the device yet.

However, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Jio's parent company, has announced the date for its Annual General Meeting (AGM). This year's AGM will be held on August 28, 2023, at 2 PM (IST).

Jio hasn't been separated from Reliance Industries. Hence, rumors claim the telecom service provider will launch the JioPhone 5G at RIL's AGM.

The JioPhone 5G won't be the only product launched at the event at the end of this month. Reliance should also announce new plans for its 5G services. Jio has been offering complimentary access to its 5G networks to a few of its users via the "Jio Welcome Offer".

Reliance is also expected to announce additional details of its Jio AirFiber service as well. Jio AirFiber is essentially a home broadband service that relies on Jio's 5G networks. It offers an external 5G dish and a small device that will sit inside the house and offer Wi-Fi connectivity.

JioPhone 5G Specifications, Features, Price, And Availability (Leaked)

The JioPhone 5G is tipped to feature a 6.5-inch IPS LCD HD+ display with a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels. The Jio smartphone could be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chipset, accompanied by 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage.

There could be an 8MP front-facing camera on the JioPhone 5G. The Jio smartphone appears to have a dual-camera setup on the back, comprising a 13MP main sensor and a 2MP macro sensor.

The JioPhone 5G is expected to pack a large 5000mAh battery with support for 18W wired fast charging Some notable connectivity features of the JioPhone 5G include a side-fitted fingerprint sensor, a microSD card slot, and dual SIM support.

Jio is expected to restrict the primary SIM card slot for its SIM card. However, the secondary SIM card could be used as per the user's choice.

The JioPhone 5G is expected to support 5G bands, such as n3, n5, n28, n40, and n78 bands. Needless to say, Jio has secured all these bands across India for a seamless 5G experience.

The JioPhone 5G may be priced under 10,000 (approx. $121). If the leaked price is accurate, this would make the JioPhone 5G the cheapest 5G smartphone in India. The Jio smartphone should be available for purchase in the last quarter of 2023.

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Zimbabwe's ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Johannes Tomana has died.

He was aged 56

According to Foreign Affairs and International Trade Spokesperson, Livit Mugejo,the envoy, who also served as the country's Prosecutor General died in Honde Valley, Zimbabwe after a short illness.

Reports say he complained of stomach pains after attending a family funeral.

Tomana served as the Attorney General from 2008 to 2013.

He was appointed the Prosecutor General in 2013.

Tomana then served as a diplomat from September 2020 until the time of his death.

Between 2015-2016 Tomana had a fallout with the late former president Robert Mugabe who eventually fired him in 2017 for misconduct and incompetence after setting a tribunal which recommended his dismissal.

He was indicted for trial in 2016 but was awarded "unconditional liberty" by the High Court following State's failure to prosecute him.
U.S. Support for the Philippines in the South China Sea

US Department of State

Press Statement

Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson

August 5, 2023

The United States stands with our Philippine allies in the face of dangerous actions by the Coast Guard and maritime militia of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to obstruct an August 5 Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. Firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, PRC ships interfered with the Philippines' lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew.

Such actions by the PRC are inconsistent with international law and are the latest in repeated threats to the status quo in the South China Sea, directly threatening regional peace and stability. By impeding necessary provisions from reaching the Filipino servicemembers stationed at Second Thomas Shoal, the PRC has also undertaken unwarranted interference in lawful Philippine maritime operations.

As made clear by an international tribunal's legally binding decision issued in July 2016, the PRC has no lawful claim to the maritime area around Second Thomas Shoal, which is located well within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

The United States reiterates, pursuant to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the arbitral decision is final and legally binding on the PRC and the Philippines. The United States calls upon the PRC to abide by the arbitral ruling as well as to respect the freedom of navigation - a right to which all states are entitled.

The United States reaffirms an armed attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forcesincluding those of its Coast Guard in the South China Seawould invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.



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US Official Calls for Free, Fair Elections, End to Political Violence in Zimbabwe

By Blessing Zulu August 05, 2023

Editor's note: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee gave an interview to VOA Zimbabwe Service's Blessing Zulu on Thursday.

As Zimbabwe prepares to host general elections scheduled for Aug. 23, a top U.S. official said Thursday that what is happening on the ground suggests that a free and fair election in the southern African nation is in doubt because of laws limiting civic space. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee said in an interview with VOA Zimbabwe Service's Blessing Zulu that opposition political parties and citizens are being harassed and prevented from organizing and campaigning freely. Phee said the U.S. has conveyed its concerns in discussions with President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration and said that the U.S. will be sending observers to monitor the election. These highlights are excerpts from the conversation and have been edited for brevity and clarity.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee: I would like to recall that the President of Zimbabwe, President [Emmerson] Mnangagwa, has said repeatedly that he wants his country to hold free and fair elections, and we believe that would be the best path to promote peace and prosperity in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, we have seen a fact pattern over recent months that suggests that a free and fair election is in doubt, and I can give you some examples of why we are concerned about that possibility.

VOA Blessing Zulu: If you may highlight your concerns.

MP: Well, as you know, last month's new legislation, called the Patriotic Act, was adopted, and in fact, that legislation imposes restrictions on basic political freedoms agreed in Zimbabwe's constitution and African Union protocols and in U.N. protocols. Those include freedom of assembly that allows citizens and political parties to meet and prepare to engage in an election process. It also includes restrictions on speech and expression, both by citizens, political parties and journalists. So, those are the types of actions that concern us. We've also seen opposition political parties and citizens actively harassed and prevented from exercising their political freedoms, that should be guaranteed by those regimes that I've described, the regimes under the Zimbabwean constitution and as expressed by the African Union and the United Nations. So, that's why we're concerned that the election won't achieve the standard highlighted by the president.

VOA: But talking to officials in Harare, they are saying that the U.S. actually has a similar law that penalizes those who commit acts that can be deemed to be treasonous to the state.

MP: I don't think that's a fair comparison. We do have legislation that shares the same name, but the content of the law is very different, and I think they may be referring to a different law. In the United States, we take very seriously the freedoms of assembly, the freedoms of expression. We have had our own challenges, as you have seen in recent years in terms of conducting our elections. But we have institutions that are, for example, primarily our judiciary as well as congressional investigative action to check on our own election activities. Because as [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden has said, he believes that democracy is the best form of government to unlock the potential of every human being to treat all equal before the law and to pave the way for stability that allows economic development.

VOA: But is there any communication about these concerns between Harare and Washington?

MP: Yes, we have conveyed those concerns in our discussions with the government. We've also talked about them publicly. I would say we have welcomed the invitation of the government for observers to the election. We will be having an observer team from our embassy in Harare and as well it's my understanding that there'll be several. International observers, for example the Carter Center from the United States, as well as from the European Union and the African Union. So we hope that those observers are able to conduct their traditional duties to ensure that on the day of the election voters are able to reach the polls freely, they're not harassed and that the electoral process is conducted in a way that reflects the actual vote.

VOA: Why is it important for Harare to have free and fair elections that are accepted by Zimbabweans and the international community?

MP: Well, again, first a free and fair election is what is expressed in the constitution of Zimbabwe and what has been called for by the president. In our experience in the United States and in our assessment of global experience, the best path for peace and prosperity is through a democratic system that respects all communities in a country, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of religion, regardless of any other category. That everyone is treated equal and allowed to participate freely in defining the future of their country. When you have political stability that results from a system such as I've described, then you have an opportunity to have good economic growth. We know and appreciate and respect Zimbabwe's complicated political history in the 20th century, but we also know that Zimbabwe has a rich history of success, enormous human talent, enormous natural resources. Zimbabwe has the potential to be a great leader in southern Africa and indeed to be a great participant in global conversation. So, that's what we would like to see for the people and country of Zimbabwe.

VOA: And let's turn to political violence. An opposition Citizens Coalition for Change supporter was killed in Harare, allegedly by ruling ZANU-PF supporters. What is your take on the issue of political violence?

MP: Well, obviously, I oppose political violence, both in my own country and in Zimbabwe and in any other country. You cannot have a functioning, healthy democracy if people are intimidated by violence. I know we've seen examples earlier this year of political parties and citizens exercising their democratic rights being detained, being beaten up by police forces. The example you've just described of vigilante forces by the political party, all of that is disturbing and should be unacceptable for a government and a society committed to a true, free and fair election.

VOA: But the ruling party is saying that Mr. Mnangagwa has been calling for peace and nonviolence. Is it not enough?

MP: Well, I think the example you just cited and the examples I have cited suggest that his rhetoric is not yet being translated into action and we would urge the government to follow the rhetoric outlined by the president.

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China Coast Guard drives away Philippine vessels intruding into waters of China's Nansha Islands

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Aug 06, 2023 06:07 PM

China Coast Guard (CCG) on Saturday drove away Philippine vessels intruding into waters near Ren'ai Jiao of China's Nansha Islands.

Two supply ships and two coast guard vessels of the Philippines intruded into waters near Ren'ai Jiao of China's Nansha Islands on August 5, said CCG spokesperson Gan Yu.

CCG carried out necessary management and control in accordance with law and blocked the Philippine ships carrying illegal building materials. China urges the Philippine side to stop its encroachment in the sea area immediately. China has indisputable sovereignty over Nansha Islands, including Ren'ai Jiao, and its surrounding waters. CCG will continue to perform law enforcement in waters under Chinese jurisdiction, said Gan.

Gan's remarks came as the Armed Forces of the Philippines said that a Chinese coast guard vessel on Saturday blocked and water-cannoned the chartered Philippine boat on a routine troop rotation and resupply mission.

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Niger's junta suspends military agreements with France, ECOWAS defense chiefs call for dialogue

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:04, August 06, 2023

ABUJA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Niger's junta announced on Thursday the suspension of various military cooperation agreements with France, while the defense chiefs of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said Friday that dialogue and negotiation "should be at the forefront."

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 has 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.

A joint statement by the ECOWAS defense chiefs after a three-day extraordinary meeting said the committee had examined the immediate implication of the coup in Niger and its potential ripple effects across the ECOWAS region collectively while recognizing the gravity of the situation in Niger and the urgent need for a well-coordinated response.

The statement said regional security architecture should be strengthened to enhance the collective response to security challenges, but "dialogue and negotiations should be at the forefront of our approach in resolving the crisis in the Republic of Niger."

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who is the chairman of the authority of heads of state and government of the ECOWAS, on Friday formally notified the country's senate of the recent resolutions of West African leaders on the situation in Niger which culminated in the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum by the military. He also said the regional bloc had agreed to impose sanctions on Niger's military leaders involved in the recent coup.

Niger's military forces said last week that soldiers in the country had overthrown President 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.

The coup has drawn condemnations from international and regional organizations, some of which, for example the ECOWAS, have imposed sanctions on the junta and threatened to restore order in Niger by force.

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Niger coup leaders close country's airspace citing threat of ECOWAS military intervention

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 11:22 PM

Niger's coup leaders have closed the country's airspace after a bloc of West African countries threatened to militarily intervene if the Nigerien president is not reinstated.

Niger's military has been holding the country's ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, since last month in the seventh coup to hit Africa's Sahel region in recent years, with General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the powerful presidential guard, declaring himself leader.

On July 30, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the coup leaders a week to return power to the country's civilian authorities or face consequences, including the use of force. Sunday was the last day of the deadline.

"In the face of the threat of intervention [from ECOWAS] that is becoming more apparent ... Nigerien airspace is closed effective from today," a junta representative said in a Sunday evening statement on the national television.

"Niger's armed forces and all our defense and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory," the unnamed representative added.

The junta also warned that any attempt to violate the country's airspace would be met with an "energetic and immediate response."

In a separate statement, the now-ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, which comprises the generals who have taken power, said a "pre-deployment in preparation for the intervention has been made in two countries of Central Africa," without naming them.

The council warned, "Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent."

The West African bloc's military threat has triggered fears of further conflict in the region as any military intervention could be complicated by a promise from juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to Niger's defense if needed.

The new development came after earlier on Sunday, thousands of junta supporters flocked to a stadium in the capital Niamey, cheering the military leaders' decision not to cave in to external pressure.

On Saturday, Niger's former colonial power France said it would support regional efforts to overturn the coup, without specifying if that included military assistance.

Niger's junta has accused France of planning a military invasion. Last week, the country revoked military cooperation agreements with France, which has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops on the ground in Niger.

On Saturday, Niger's ousted prime minister said he was still hopeful that the coup leaders might give in to diplomatic overtures.

"We are still hopeful," Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, who was in Rome when the coup occurred, told Reuters from Paris.

"We expect President Bazoum to be released, reinstated, and all institutions that were allegedly dissolved to be restored in their entirety," the premier said.

He also shrugged off the threat of military intervention from Niger's neighbors, saying that to go to Niger, they would have to cross through the militant groups that "they have not succeeded in fighting."

"So for us, it's an empty threat," Mahamadou added.

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Israeli forces, settlers waged 900 attacks on Palestinians in July: Report

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 7:22 AM

Israeli occupation forces and Zionist settlers perpetrated nearly 900 attacks on Palestinians and their holy sites last month, a new report has unveiled.

The Israeli attacks ranged from direct assaults on Palestinian people, vandalism of property, razing lands, storming villages, uprooting trees and seizing property, the Palestinian Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission declared in its monthly report.

The commission further noted that most of the 897 attacks were carried out in the occupied al-Quds with 148 cases, followed by Nablus with 140 and al-Khalil with 113 attacks, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Sunday.

The commission also pointed out that Israeli settlers conducted 202 attacks in various parts of the occupied West Bank, but mainly in Nablus, Ramallah and Ramallah.

The monthly report goes on to underline that 139 orders for demolition, stop construction, and evacuation of Palestinian facilities were issued by the Israeli regime in July, describing them as "a record rise that warns of many more demolitions in the next period."

The occupation forces demolished 41 homes and commercial structures, mainly in al-Khalil and al-Quds, the commission said, adding that Israeli forces and Zionist settlers also vandalized a total of 2,552 trees by cutting and uprooting them, mainly in Nablus.

It also noted that the Israeli regime's authorities considered a total of 33 structural plans for Zionist settlers in July, during which the construction of 310 settlement units was approved, while a total of 622 settlement units were proposed, affecting 925,328 dunums of occupied Palestinian land.

The Western-backed Tel-Aviv regime has already occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand new illegal settler units in various areas across the West Bank.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel's settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

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Niger coup could still be overturned through diplomacy: Ousted prime minister

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 2:42 AM

Niger's ousted prime minister says he is still hopeful that the leaders of the country's recent coup, who have overthrown the civilian rulers, might still give in to diplomatic overtures.

"We are still hopeful," Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, who was in Rome when the coup occurred, said on Saturday.

Niger's military has been holding the country's president, Mohamed Bazoum, since last month in the seventh coup to hit Africa's Sahel region in recent years. General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the powerful presidential guard, has declared himself leader.

"We expect President Bazoum to be released, reinstated, and all institutions that were allegedly dissolved to be restored in their entirety," the premier said.

On Wednesday, the self-declared new leader of Niger said the junta would not bow to pressure to reinstate the deposed head of state, intensifying a standoff with the main West African bloc of countries, which has threatened to intervene.

On July 30, the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the coup leaders a week to return power to the country's civilian authorities or face consequences, including the use of force.

Their pledge has raised the specter of further conflict in the region.

Also on Saturday, Niger's former colonial power France said it would support efforts to overturn the coup, without specifying whether its backing would entail military assistance for an ECOWAS intervention.

Niger's junta has accused France of planning a military invasion.

Taking aim at Paris late last month, the junta said, "In its search for ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger, France, with the complicity of some Nigeriens, held a meeting with the chief of staff of the Nigerien National Guard to obtain the necessary political and military authorization."

The ousted prime minister, however, shrugged off the threat from Niger's neighbors, saying that to go to Niger, they would have to cross through the militant groups that "they have not succeeded in fighting."

"So for us, it's an empty threat," Mahamadou added.

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Chinese fire water cannons at Philippine Coast Guard in disputed sea

Manila condemns 'dangerous maneuvers'; China claims ships carried illegal building materials.

By BenarNews staff 2023.08.06 -- Manila on Sunday protested the China Coast Guard's use of water cannons against a Philippine Coast Guard vessel escorting civilian supply boats delivering goods to a military post in the South China Sea.

The Filipino vessels were on a mission Saturday to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to troops stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre when the incident occurred near Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal). The World War II-era naval ship was deliberately run aground in the shoal in 1999 to serve as the country's military post there.

Manila "strongly condemns the China Coast Guard's (CCG's) dangerous maneuvers and illegal use of water cannons against the PCG vessels escorting the indigenous boats chartered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines yesterday, 05 August 2023," Commodore Jay Tarriela, the coast guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said in a statement.

Tarriela said the action disregarded the safety of Filipino sailors and violated international law, including a 2016 arbitral award in favor of Manila that nullified China's claims to the South China Sea.

"The PCG calls on the China Coast Guard to restrain its forces, respect the sovereign rights of the Philippines in its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, refrain from hampering freedom of navigation, and take appropriate actions against the individuals involved in this unlawful incident," he said.

The Philippines also demanded that Beijing "cease all illegal activities within the maritime zones of the Philippines," Tarriela said.

Armed forces spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said that because of the Chinese harassment, the second Filipino supply supply boat was unable to unload its supplies and could not complete the mission.

"We call on the China Coast Guard and the Central Military Commission to act with prudence and be responsible in their actions to prevent miscalculations and accidents that will endanger peoples' lives," Aguilar added.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila has not responded to reporters' requests for comment. But Chinese media reports quoted the Chinese Coast Guard as confirming the incident and saying the two Filipino supply ships were carrying "illegal building materials.

"CCG carried out necessary management and control in accordance with law and blocked the Philippine ships carrying illegal building materials. China urges the Philippine side to stop its encroachment in the sea area immediately," Global Times quoted CCG spokesperson Gan Yu as saying.

The U.S. Department of State said that Chinese ships clearly interfered with the Philippines' "lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation." It noted that the action was the latest in a string of "repeated threats" to the status quo in the South China Sea.

"The United States calls upon the PRC (China) to abide by the arbitral ruling as well as to respect freedom of navigation - a right to which all states are entitled," the department said in a statement late Saturday.

"The United States reaffirms an armed attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft and armed forces - including those of its Coast Guard in the South China Sea - would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty," it said.

China's action came after lawmakers last week unanimously adopted a resolution condemning China's continued harassment of Filipino fishermen and its persistent incursions in the contested waters.

The resolution, which expresses the sentiment of the upper chamber but is non-binding, also urged the Philippine government "to take appropriate action in asserting and securing" the country's sovereign rights, and "to call on China to stop its illegal activities."

"This bipartisan effort tells the Filipino people that when it comes to matters of national sovereignty, we will never be bullied into submission," said Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the senators who filed the resolution.

On Sunday, Hontiveros called on the international community to condemn the latest incident. She also said that it may be high time for the Philippines, as well as other claimant countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, to work together on joint patrols against China. Indonesia has a separate dispute with China, while Taiwan is also a party to the South China Sea wrangling.

Just weeks earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard accused its Chinese counterpart of dangerous maneuvers that could have caused a collision during a resupply mission also on Ayungin Shoal.

In that incident, two China Coast Guard vessels intercepted Philippine patrol boats and "exhibited aggressive tactics" and at one point, the Chinese vessel came to just 50 yards of a Philippine vessel.

On April 21, a Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy vessel with the bow number 549 crossed paths with Philippine vessels near Pag-asa Island, while in February another Chinese Coast Guard ship directed a military-grade laser light twice at a Filipino ship, causing temporary blindness to the crew at the bridge.

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US Northern Command Denies Russian-Chinese Naval Patrol Entered Alaskan Waters

Sputnik News

20230806

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Northern Command has denied in a response to a Sputnik query there was an incursion by a joint Russian-Chinese naval patrol after Republican senators suggested as much on Saturday.

Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski issued a joint statement on Saturday night claiming they were briefed by the Alaska Command about the passing of 11 Russian and Chinese warships near the state's coast earlier in the week in what they said was an "incursion."

"NORAD and USNORTHCOM actively monitored the Russian and Chinese combined naval patrol that operated near Alaska earlier this week... The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat," a US Northern Command spokesperson said Sunday.

The spokesperson said the Command's air and maritime assets "conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada." The senators said the Russian and Chinese vessels were met by four US Navy destroyers.

 Sputnik

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Nigerian Senate Urges ECOWAS to Seek Diplomatic Solutions to Situation in Niger

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Nigeria's Senate has urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to seek diplomatic solutions to the Nigerien military takeover, Senate President Godswill Akpabio said.

On August 4, a Nigerian news agency reported that Nigerian President and ECOWAS Chairman Bola Ahmed Tinubu had briefed the country's parliament on the organization's proposed military action plans and sanctions against Niger amid the military takeover.

The Senate called on the Nigerian president to urge other ECOWAS leaders to strengthen political and diplomatic opportunities to address the political problems in Niger, Akpabio said during Saturday's plenary session.

At the same time, Akpabio said the Senate admitted that Tinubu did not seek parliamentary approval to "start a war" in his August 4 letter.

On July 26, Niger's presidential guard ousted and detained President Mohamed Bazoum. The guard's commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, proclaimed himself interim leader and the president of the caretaker National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). The ECOWAS has condemned the takeover, suspended financial aid to the country, and gave Niger's coup leaders one week to reinstate the detained president, or the community would use "all measures," including military, to restore order in the African nation.

 Sputnik

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CITIZENS Coalition for Change's (CCC) Epworth North parliamentary candidate Zivai Mhetu has urged the opposition party's supporters not to hesitate taking Zanu PF goodies including maize meal and fast food as their taxes are already paying for them.

Mhetu, who was speaking at a constituency rally at Epworth's Overspill Shopping Centre, said opposition supporters should not resist whenever Zanu PF orders them around but just punish the ruling party on August 23 when they vote.

His constituency is one of those which have recorded acts of politically motivated violence aimed at opposition supporters.

"You are the ones who told me not to worry about Passion Java who organised people in this constituency and promised them mastondido. You told me not to worry about Kembo Mohadi's visit saying you knew he was just trying to confuse you," said Mhetu.

"Mohadi organised people and gave them mealie meal. Take that mealie meal whenever it is handed out, that is ours, we paid for that its not theirs to give.

"Wherever there is a meeting where people are given Chicken Inn, do not resist go and take it, that is our money, you will be spending your money.

"Remember you are not fools, you are clever, just punish them on August 23, vote them out and ensure a brighter future for your children."

A Zanu PF supporter holding a loaf of bread, branded with the party's logo and slogans at one of the ruling party's rallies recently.

His comment comes as reports that some Zanu PF officials are force marching villagers to party rallies have been confirmed.

CCC President Nelson Chamisa has been preaching what he calls 'the mango strategy' (green on the outside to represent Zanu PF and yellow on the inside to represent CCC).

The strategy involves opposition supporters engaging in modes that ensure their safety such as attending Zanu PF rallies especially those residing in political hotbeds.

Zanu PF rallies are often characterised by dishing out of goodies after President Emmerson Mnangagwa's address.

In Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, where Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube will be running for Parliament, Zanu PF supporters where given loaves of bread in plastics that had Mnangagwa's face printed on them.
Canada to Suspend Direct Development Assistance to Niger Over Military Takeover

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Canada will suspend direct development assistance to the government of Niger in response to the military takeover in the country, Global Affairs Canada said Saturday.

"In response to the attempted coup d'etat in Niger, the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development announced today that Canada will suspend development assistance that directly supports the Government of Niger," the ministry said in a statement.

"In the current context, it would be impossible to maintain direct support to the Government of Niger while ensuring an effective and intentional use of funds."

The ministry specified that only direct budgetary support of Canada to the government of Niger will be suspended, while "health, education, economic and gender equality assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable populations will continue."

Ottawa reiterated its solidarity with the people of Niger and its support for democracy, peace, inclusive governance and the rule of law. Canada also supported the mediation efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and called on the military junta in Niger "to release President Bazoum and his family and restore the democratically elected government," the statement read.

On July 26, Niger's presidential guard ousted and detained Bazoum. The guard's commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, proclaimed himself interim leader and the president of the caretaker National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.

ECOWAS condemned the coup, suspended financial aid to the country, and gave Niger's coup leaders one week to reinstate detained president, or the community would use "all measures," including military, to restore order in the African nation. Several counties across the world, including the United States, have also suspended aid to Niger and evacuated its citizens.

 Sputnik

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Afghan Taliban Chief Deems Cross-Border Attacks on Pakistan Forbidden

By Ayaz Gul August 06, 2023

The supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has labeled cross-border attacks, including those on Pakistan, as "haram" or forbidden under Islam.

Senior Taliban leaders communicated the "diktat" or decree from Hibatullah Akhundzada to Pakistani officials during recent bilateral talks to underscore their determination not to allow anyone to threaten other countries from Afghan soil, highly placed official sources in Islamabad told VOA.

The issue figured prominently during the three-day meetings Asif Durrani, the special representative on Afghanistan, and his delegation held last month with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, among others, in the capital, Kabul.

The visit took place amid a surge in deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians, with the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claiming responsibility for plotting much of the violence.

A senior Pakistani official privy to the Kabul meetings told VOA that TTP bases and activities in Afghanistan had dominated the discussions. He spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

"Sheikh Hibatullah's diktats bind all groups pledging allegiance to him, and his diktat is that attacking Pakistan is haram," the official quoted Taliban hosts as telling the delegates.

The Pakistani side urged the Taliban to make the diktat public to help deter TTP and its Afghan supporters from conducting activities that undermine relations between the two countries.

"We have circulated it among our people, among the [security] formations, and intelligence," Taliban leaders responded, according to the Pakistani official who spoke to VOA.

The Taliban did not immediately comment on the reported Pakistani assertions.

The official Afghan television station aired audio of a speech Saturday by Taliban Defense Minister Muhammad Yaqoob, in which he revealed for the first time a few details about Hibatullah's order regarding cross-border violence.

Yaqoob said, without naming any country, that the Taliban supreme leader had terminated the jihad or holy war, and "obedience" to his decree is mandatory" for all. Yaqoob was speaking to a gathering of Taliban commanders and security forces.

"If someone still leaves Afghanistan intending to wage jihad abroad, it cannot be considered jihad anymore. If Mujahideen [Taliban forces] continue to fight despite orders from the emir to stop, it is not jihad but rather hostility," Yaqoob said, using Hibatullah's official title.

The Taliban call their two decadeslong insurgency against the United States and NATO forces a jihad against "the occupation" of Afghanistan and its supporters, citing their Islamic beliefs. Hibatullah announced the termination of the so-called jihad after his hardline group reclaimed power in August 2021 when all international forces departed the country.

Islamabad alleges that TTP leaders, known to have pledged allegiance to Hibatullah, and other insurgent groups have moved their operation bases to Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul and intensified terrorism in Pakistan, allegations the Taliban reject as unfounded.

Last week, a suicide bomber struck a political rally in the northwestern border town of Khar, killing 63 Pakistanis and injuring dozens more. Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or IS-K, an Afghan-based affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, claimed responsibility for that bombing.

Pakistani authorities have stated the TTP was behind a July 12 raid against a military base in the southwestern city of Zhob, saying three heavily armed fighters linked to the Afghan Taliban were among some five assailants. The attack killed at least nine Pakistani soldiers and all the assailants in the ensuing hourslong gun battles.

The Pakistani foreign ministry reported last week that investigators had identified the three slain Afghans as residents of the southern Kandahar province in Afghanistan, and it had asked the Afghan Embassy to receive their bodies.

The Taliban urged Pakistan during the recent meetings to restart talks with TTP to find a negotiated settlement to the militant violence. Pakistani officials declined the offer, saying previous negotiations, brokered and hosted by Kabul last year, "miserably failed" because the TTP had refused "to surrender their arms and owe allegiance" to the constitution of Pakistan.

"These are the conditions. Whether they [TTP] like it, they must fulfill them. We cannot allow non-state actors to dictate their agenda," said the Pakistani official who shared details of the talks in Kabul.

Pakistani officials report a 70% increase in TTP-led terrorist attacks over the past two years. This year alone, the violence has killed more than 450 people, including security forces. The army has confirmed the deaths of more than 120 officers and soldiers in the first seven months of 2023.

The Taliban reportedly told the Pakistani delegation that they plan to move TTP members and families away from the Afghan border regions to address Islamabad's counterterrorism concerns. They also reiterated that Kabul would need financial assistance for relocating and resettling the militants in other parts of Afghanistan.

A recent U.N. Security Council report has also confirmed the relocation of TTP by Kabul authorities.

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 report said. It noted that up to 6,000 TTP members operate out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban takeover has "emboldened" them.

The U.N. report warned that the TTP could become a regional threat if it continues to have a safe operating base in Afghanistan.

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Thailand Bans Book on King Before Publication

By Zsombor Peter August 06, 2023

Thailand has banned a forthcoming book on the country's King Maha Vajiralongkorn, claiming it mocks the monarchy, a topic of growing political friction in a nation with one of the toughest royal defamation laws in the world.

Rights groups have joined the book's exiled Thai editor, a vocal critic of Thailand's monarchy and conservative political elite, in panning the move as an affront to the free speech and expression rights the country claims to uphold.

The government announced its ban on the order and import of the book, Rama X: The Thai Monarchy under King Vajiralongkorn, in the Royal Gazette.

Signed by police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapas, the order states that "the cover and the articles represent the attitude of the author to defame, insult or threaten the King, the Queen, the Heir to the throne or the Regent; or to undermine national security, social stability or good morals."

It cites the 2007 Printing Recordation Act and says anyone breaking the law could face up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of about $1,730. Copies that do make it into the country may be seized and destroyed.

By the book

The order calls Pavin the book's writer and author. Pavin, however, told VOA he was the editor of the book, an anthology of chapters from several authors, including himself.

He said he believed the Thai authorities had not read the book, due out in hardcopy this fall, and that only he and the American publisher, Yale University's Council on Southeast Asia Studies, have seen the full final draft. An e-book of the volume will follow a few months later, he added.

"This is ridiculous that they have not seen the content of the book and they decided to ban. Once again, this is exactly because of my name and, as they claim, the cover of the book," said Pavin, an associate professor at Japan's Kyoto University.

In 2014, following a military coup in Thailand, the regime that seized power ordered the overseas academic to report to authorities and issued an arrest warrant after he failed to show. The regime revoked his passport soon afterward.

In 2020, the Thai government convinced Facebook to block access inside the country to a page run by Pavin hosting critical debate about the Thai monarchy.

The cover of the forthcoming book includes images of the king, Thailand's Democracy Monument, and the bottom half of a military-type tank.

Erik Harms, who chairs Yale's Council on Southeast Asia Studies, said the publisher was standing by the book.

"The book is based on scholarly research conducted by renowned experts in Thai studies, and it was peer-reviewed in a process that followed the highest academic standards," he told VOA.

The standard practice for refuting such work, he added, was to have other experts write and publish their views in other reputable, peer-reviewed journals.

"Banning a book does not seem to me to be a very thoughtful way of engaging with academic perspectives one disagrees with," Harms said, adding that "readers who end up reading it should be free to determine on their own whether the choice to ban it has any merit."

Sovereign silence

Both Harms and Pavin said they were never contacted by any Thai authorities about the book.

Spokespersons for the Thai police and government did not answer VOA's multiple calls or messages seeking comment.

Rights groups say banning the book tramples on the basic principles of free speech and expression.

The ban will have a "chilling effect" that "stifles debate on legitimate issues of public interest," said Ross Holder, the Asia-Pacific lead for PEN International, a U.K.-based group promoting the free exchange of ideas.

"By silencing dissenting voices, the Thai authorities are contributing to a climate of self-censorship that stymies the open exchange of ideas  vital for any democratic society  and runs contrary to Thailand's international human rights obligations," he told VOA.

Human Rights Watch says Thailand has banned about a dozen books over the past 20 years, most of them for their alleged offense of the monarchy.

The group's senior researcher in Thailand, Sunai Phasuk, called the bans part of a concerted effort by Thai authorities to not just shield the monarchy but stifle growing demands for democratic reform.

"But such draconian censorship can't catch up with the reality in Thailand that demands for monarchy reform has spread to all corners of the society. Discussions about the monarchy can't be silenced anymore," he told VOA.

Critical debate of the monarchy has long been taboo in Thailand, protected by a constitution that holds the king beyond reproach and a royal defamation law that metes out up to 15 years in jail for insulting the king, queen, heir or regent.

A young generation of activists shattered that taboo during a wave of pro-democracy protests in 2020, adding reform of the country's constitutional monarchy to their list of demands. They see a royal palace playing an outsized role in the country's politics and want new rules to rein it in. Authorities have since charged over 250 people with breaking the law on royal defamation for pressing those demands.

Courting the king

Move Forward, a party proposing to restrict the royal defamation law's use  and alleged misuse  won the most seats in elections to fill the House of Representatives in May. However, conservative lawmakers in the House and in the military-appointed Senate denied party leader Pita Limjaroenrat's bid for the prime minister's seat in a joint session last month.

Most of the lawmakers who spoke against Pita's bid railed against his party's proposal to amend the royal defamation law.

Last month the Constitutional Court also accepted a complaint accusing Move Forward of seeking to overthrow the constitutional monarchy for proposing the amendments. If found guilty, the court could order the party dissolved. Analysts fear a return of the mass protests of 2020 if it does.

The latest book ban echoes the pro-military government's use of the royal defamation law, said Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, a legal scholar at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University.

He said the military has long used to the monarchy's legal status to condone a history of political meddling, including 13 coups in the past nine decades.

"The military always justifies their intervention in Thai politics as to protect the monarchy. This is where the [military's] legitimacy is derived," he told VOA. "Although the ban is futile, it shows that the government is loyal and proactive in safeguarding the monarchy, hence the reason for their existence."

Warangkana Chomchuen contributed to this report.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 06 August 2023 - Day 529

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 the annual celebrations of Russia's Airborne Forces (VDV) Day on 2 August 2023 have been overshadowed by an apparently unsanctioned disclosure of the scope of the casualties the elite force has suffered in Ukraine.

In a recorded address for VDV Day, the VDV's Commander-in-Chief General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky said that 8500 paratroopers had been wounded and later returned to duty or had refused to leave the front line at all. The video was quickly deleted from the Russian MoD's official channels.

He did not comment on how many troops had been killed or were too seriously wounded to return to duty. However, extrapolating Teplinksy's figures endorses the assessment that at least 50 per cent of the 30,000 paratroopers who deployed to Ukraine in 2022 have been killed or wounded.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day, Russian forces launched 30 missile and 48 air strikes, fired 32 MLRS attacks at the positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements. As a result of the Russian terrorist attacks, unfortunately, there are dead and wounded among the civilian population, residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed.

The probability of launching missile and air strikes on the entire territory of Ukraine remains high.

There were 30x combat engagements during the day of August 6.

On the Volyn and Polissya axes, the operational situation has not changed significantly.

In the Siverskyi and Slobozhanskyi axes, Russian forces shelled more than 30x settlements, in particular Buchky, Hremyach (Chernihiv oblast); Bobylivka, Vyshenki, Svarkove, Timofiivka, Pavlivka (Sumy oblast) and Odnorobivka, Kozacha Lopan, Ohirtseve, Varvarivka, Khatnye (Kharkiv oblast).

In the Kupyanskyi axis, Ukrainian soldiers are firmly holding the defense, successfully repulsed Russian attacks in the area east of Petropavlivka, (Kharkiv oblast). Russian forces carried out airstrikes in the Petropavlivka and Podoly districts of the Kharkiv oblast. The Russian invaders fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Kamyanka, Novomlynsk, Zapadne, Petropavlivka, and Kupyansk-Vuzlovy (Kharkiv oblast).

On the Lymanskyi axis, Russian forces carried out airstrikes in the areas of Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast) and Spirne and Rozdolivka (Donetsk oblast). The settlements of Kuzmine, Bilohorivka of the Luhansk oblast and Torske, Verkhnyokamianske, Rozdolivka of the Donetsk oblast were hit by Russian artillery fire.

In the direction of Bakhmut, defense forces are restraining Russian forces in the area northeast of Diliivka. More than 10[ settlements, including Orihovo-Vasylivka, Markove, Chasiv Yar, Predtechyne, Bila Hora and New York of the Donetsk oblast, were affected by Russian artillery shelling.

In the Avdiivka axis, under heavy fire from the Russian forces' aircraft and artillery, Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled attacks by russian troops in the Avdiivka area. Avdiivka and Pervomaiske of the Donetsk oblast were hit by artillery fire.

In the Maryinka axis, the defense forces continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the areas of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka. Russian forces launched an airstrike in the Krasnohorivka district of the Donetsk oblast. Krasnohorivka, Hostre, Heorhiivka, Maryinka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk oblast were hit by artillery fire.

On the Shakhtarskyi axis, Russian forces launched an air strike in the Staromayorske area. Vodyane, Vuhledar, Blahodatne and Staromayorske of the Donetsk oblast were hit by artillery fire.

In the Zaporizhzhia direction, Russian forces carried out unsuccessful offensive actions in the Robotyne district of the Zaporizhzhia oblast. Russian forces carried out airstrikes near Mala Tokmachka, Robotyne, and Orikhiv. Artillery shelling was experienced more than 10[ settlements, including Novodarivka, Malynivka, Hulyaipole, Vesele, Mali Shcherbaky, and Pyatykhatkt of the Zaporizhzhia oblast, as well as Nikopol of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast.

On the Kherson axis, Russian forces launched an airstrike in the Olhivka area of the Kherson oblast. Russian forces were subjected to more than artillery fire 15[ settlements, including Zolota Balka, Novooleksandrivka, Dudchany, Zmiivka, Tokarivka, Kherson and Kizomys of the Kherson oblast.

At the same time, the Defense Forces of Ukraine continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk axes, are entrenched at the reached boundaries, and carry out counter-battery countermeasures.

Over the past day, the aviation of the defense forces has struck 10x strikes on areas where the Russian forces' personnel, weapons and military equipment are concentrated, and 2x strikes on the occupiers' anti-aircraft missile complexes.

During the day, units of missile forces and artillery hit 2x control points, 2x areas of concentration of personnel, 2x artillery means in firing positions and one radio-electronic warfare station of the Russian forces.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the previous night the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group strike with long-range air- and sea-based precision weapons against AFU air bases close to Starokonstantinov (Khmelnitsky region) and Dubno (Rovno region).

The goal of the attack has been reached. All the assigned targets have been neutralised.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued the special military operation, defeating and repelling enemy offensive attempts in Donetsk, Kupyansk, Krasny Liman, South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions.

In Kupyansk direction, assault detachments of the Zapad Group of Forces continued to improve the tactical situation in the area of responsibility.

Eight attacks and counterattacks by AFU units have been successfully repelled near Sinkovka and Olshana (Kharkov region) and Novosyolovskoye (Lugansk People's Republic).

As a result of actions by Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, as well as artillery, enemy manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Novomlynsk, Sinkovka, Timkovka, Tabaevka (Kharkov region) and Artyomovka (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 50 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, two U.S.-manufactured M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers, one Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled artillery system, and two Msta-B howitzers.

In Donetsk direction, as a result of actions by units of the Yug Group of Forces, Operational-Tactical Aviation, artillery, and heavy flamethrower systems, five enemy attacks have been repelled close to Kleshcheevka, Pervomayskoye, Nevelskoye, and Maryinka (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Avdeevka, Kleshcheevka, Staromikhailovka, Maryinka, and Krasnogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 170 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, five motor vehicles, and one Polish-manufactured Krab self-propelled howitzer.

In Krasny Liman direction, as a result of coordinated actions by units of the Tsentr Group of Forces, Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, as well as artillery, two attacks by AFU assault groups have been successfully repelled south-west of Kovalyovka (Lugansk People's Republic) and close to Serebryansky forestry.

In addition, manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Torskoye, Yampol (Donetsk People's Republic), Petrovskoye, and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 110 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system and one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer.

In South Donetsk direction, as a result of actions by aviation and artillery, as well as units of the Vostok Group of Forces, an enemy attack by an assault group has been repelled close to Urozhainoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware have been hit near Staromayorskoye and Storozhevoye (Donetsk People's Republic), and Levadnoye (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 150 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, one Grad MLRS combat vehicle, and one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system.

In Zaporozhye direction, as a result of by the actions of units, aviation and artillery of the Russian grouping of forces, two enemy attacks have been repelled near Rabotino (Zaporozhye region).

In addition, AFU units have been hit near Novopokrovka, Rabotino and Novoandreevka (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer.

In Kherson direction, the enemy losses were up to 40 Ukrainian servicemen, as well as eight motor vehicles.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 136 artillery units at their firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 145 areas.

One munition depot of missile and artillery weapons of the 9th Army Corps of the AFU has been destroyed close to Zaporozhye.

In addition, hangars with AFU aircraft equipment have been hit at Zaporozhye airfield.

One command post of the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the AFU has been neutralised near Paraskovievka (Donetsk People's Republic).

Air defence facilities have intercepted 11 HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system projectiles and one HARM anti-radar missile.

In addition, 16 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been shot down close to Belogorovka, Ploshchanka, Rubezhnoye, Novovodyanoye (Lugansk People's Republic), Krasnaya Gora, Lidievka (Donetsk People's Republic), Ternovoye, Mirnoye (Zaporozhye region) and Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson region).

In total, 458 airplanes, 245 helicopters, 5,534 unmanned aerial vehicles, 428 air defence missile systems, 11,143 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,143 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 5,778 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 12,098 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 07 August 2023 - Day 530

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 the Russian Air Force continues to consistently deploy considerable resources in support of land operations in Ukraine, but without decisive operational effect.

Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defences. Russia has attempted to overcome this issue by increasingly using basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments. Aircraft can release these many kilometres from their targets, but they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy.

At the start of Ukraine's southern counter-offensive from June 2023, Russian attack helicopters proved effective. However, in recent weeks Russia appears to have been less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day August 7, Russian forces carried out 2x missile and 33x air strikes, launched 50x MLRS attacks on Ukrainian cities and Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result of Russian attacks, there are dead and wounded among the civilians.

The threat of missile and air strikes remains high across Ukraine.

28x combat clashes took place throughout the day.

Volyn' and Polissya axes: no significant changes detected.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: Russian forces shelled with mortars and artillery more than 25x settlements, in particular, Mikhalchyna Sloboda, Khrinivka of the Chernihiv Oblast; Basivka, Stepok, Pavlivka in Sumy Oblast and Udy, Okhrimivka and Neskuchne in Kharkiv Oblast.

Kup'yans'k axis: Ukrainian soldiers are firmly holding the defense, successfully repulsed Russian attacks in the areas of Synkivka, north of Ivanivka in the Kharkiv Oblast and south of Novoselivskyi in the Luhansk Oblast. Russian forces launched airstrikes in the Kruglyakivka and Kucherivka districts of the Kharkiv Oblast. Russian forces shelled with artillery and mortars 10x settlements, among them Dvorichna, Zapadne, Krasne Pershe, Petropavlivka, Kup'yans'ke, Vuzlovy of Kharkiv Oblast.

Lyman axis: the settlements of Kuz'mine, Belogorivka of the Luhansk Oblast and Verkhn'yokam'ians'ke, Spirne, Rozdolivka of the Donetsk Oblast were shelled by Russian artillery.

Bakhmut axis: Russian forces carried out unsuccessful offensive actions in Andriivka, Kurdyumivka and Druzhba districts of Donetsk Oblast. More than 10 settlements were affected by Russian artillery shelling, including Orihovo-Vasylivka, Markove, and Chasiv Yar.

Avdiivka axis: under heavy fire from the Russian aircraft and artillery, UAF successfully repelled attacks by Russian troops at Avdiivka. Nevels'ke, Novobakhmutivka, Avdiivka, Severna, Novokalynove, Pervomais'ke 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 Mar'inka. Russian forces launched an air strike there. Krasnohorivka, Hostre, Georgiivka, Mar'inka and Novomykhailivka of the Donetsk Oblast got under artillery fire.

Shakhtars'k axis: Russian forces carried out an air strike at Odradny Oblast of the Donetsk Oblast. Vodyane, Vugledar, Prechistivka, Velyka Novosilka, Blagodatne, Staromayorske, Rivnopil' of the Donetsk Oblast were shelled by artillery.

Zaporizhzhia axis: the Russian forces carried out unsuccessful offensives at Robotyn of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Russian forces carried out airstrikes at Hulyaipilske, Mala Tokmachka and Orihiv. They shelled more than 10x settlements, including Novodarivka, Levadne, Komyshuvakha, Orihiv, Pyatikhatky of the Zaporizhia Oblast and Nikopol' of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Kherson axis: Russian forces carried out an air strike at Odradokamyanka area of the Kherson Oblast. More than 10x settlements, including Ol'hivka, Sadove, Kherson and Kizomys of the Kherson Oblast, were shelled by Russian artillery.

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.

Ukrainian Air Force conducted 9x strikes on manpower, weapons and military equipment concentrations.

Ukrainian missile and artillery units hit 2x control points, 1x manpower, weapons and military equipment concentration, 5x artillery units at firing positions and one radar station of the Russian forces .

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Kupyansk direction, the Zapad Group of Forces' assault detachments, in the course of conducting offensive operations on a wide front line, have improved the situation along the front line close to Olshana and Pershotravnyovoye (Kharkov region).

Within the last three days, the Russian troops' advance towards Kupyansk direction has been 11 km along the front line and more than 3 km in depth of the enemy defence.

12 counter-attacks of the AFU 14th, 32th and 67th mechanised brigades have been successfully repelled near Sinkovka (Kharkov region), Novosyolovskoye, and Stelmakhovka (Lugansk People's Republic).

In addition, as a result of actions of Ground-Attack and Army aviation, and artillery, AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit close to Kupyansk, Kotlyarovka, and Berestovoye (Kharkov region).

The enemy losses were up to 110 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system, as well as one U.S.-manufactured AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station.

The AFU continued unsuccessful attempts at offensive actions in Zaporozhye, Donetsk, South Donetsk, and Krasny Liman directions.

In Zaporozhye direction, as a result of effective actions, conducted by the Russian troops, aviation, and artillery, three enemy attacks have been repelled near Uspenovka

and Rabotino (Zaporozhye region).

In addition, the actions of one Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have been disrupted close to Novosyolovka (Zaporozhye region).

In addition, the enemy units have been hit close to Yablonevoye and Novodanilovka (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy losses were up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen, three armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer.

In Donetsk direction, the Yug Group of Forces' units in close cooperation with artillery and aviation have successfully repelled the AFU 81st Aeromobile Brigade near Belogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas have been hit near Bogdanovka, Vesyoloye, Kleshcheevka, Maryinka, and Krasnogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 135 servicemen, two tanks, six infantry fighting vehicle, three motor vehicles, one U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system, as well as Msta-B and D-30 howitzers.

In South Donetsk direction, as a result of actions by aviation and artillery, as well as units of the Vostok Group of Forces, an enemy attack by an assault group has been repelled close to Urozhainoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

Army Aviation has launched attacks at five manpower and hardware concentration areas of the AFU 31st Mechanised Brigade close to Staromayorskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 225Ukrainian servicemen, three tanks, four armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and one D-30 howitzer.

In Krasny Liman direction, as a result of the Tsentr Group of Forces' units, artillery, aviation, and heavy flamethrower systems' coordinated actions, one attack of the AFU 42nd Mechanised Brigade's assault groups has been successfully repelled near Serebryanskoye forestry.

In addition, a comprehensive fire attack has been carried out at enemy manpower and hardware concentration areas close to Raigorodok, Petrovskoye, Ploshchanka, and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic).

More than 65 Ukrainian militants, two armoured fighting vehicles and one D-30 howitzer have been destroyed.

In Kherson direction, the enemy losses were up to 20 Ukrainian servicemen, three motor vehicles, as well as two D-30 howitzers.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 107 artillery units at their firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 126 areas.

In addition, three ammunition depots of the AFU 117th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 14th and 43th mechanised brigades have been destroyed near Seredina-Buda, Sumy region, and Cherneshchina, Sinkovka (Kharkov region).

One command post of the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the AFU has been neutralised near Yampol (Donetsk People's Republic).

Air defense facilities have intercepted nine Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile and four HIMARS multiple-laucnh rocket system projectiles.

In addition, 14 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been destroyed close to Kremennaya (Lugansk People's Republic), Kirillovka, Staromlynovka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Pologi (Zaporozhye region).

In total, 458 airplanes, 245 helicopters, 5,548 unmanned aerial vehicles, 428 air defence missile systems, 11,165 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,143 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 5,787 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 12,116 special military motor vehicles have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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US claims on Iran's nuclear program 'repetition of a big lie': FM spox

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Aug 6, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- Claims against Iran's nuclear program by the United States, as the only country that has used nuclear weapons, are a deliberate repetition of a big lie, says Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman.

In a post on his social media account on Sunday, Nasser Kanaani noted that the US is the only government with a dark history of using nukes as weapons of mass destruction and aiding an illegitimate regime with the largest nuclear arsenal in the region.

"Is it fit to be the flag bearer of a nuclear weapons ban?" Kanaani hastened to add. "Its claims about Iran's nuclear program are a deliberate repetition of a big lie."

The US dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroying the entire city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000.

Meanwhile, Washington has throughout the years created a commotion over Iran's civilian nuclear program, whose peaceful nature has been certified repeatedly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

4354**9417

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Qadir, Nasir cruise missiles handed over to IRGC Navy

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sun / 6 August 2023 / 12:46

Tehran (ISNA) - The Qadir and Nasir cruise missiles, manufactured by Iran's Defense Ministry, were handed over to the IRGC Navy on Sunday.

Qadir is a new generation of cruise missiles capable of destroying marine targets with high precision and power. It can be fired from both coasts and vessels.

High readiness and rapid response capability, low flight altitude, high accuracy in navigation and hitting targets, high ability to destroy targets, high anti-jamming ability due to its advanced radar are among the features of the Nasir missile.

It should be noted that the most important point in Iranian cruise missiles is their speed.

End Item

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Iranian Navy proved high seas belong to all nations: Ayatollah Khamenei

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 1:23 PM

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has hailed the round-the-globe mission by the Iranian Navy's 86th flotilla of warships.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks on Sunday while addressing the commanders and crew as well as the families of the Iranian Navy's 86th flotilla, which accomplished its round-the-world voyage and entered the Iranian territorial waters in May.

The Leader said the Navy's presence in remote waters such as the Pacific and Atlantic oceans contribute to national security.

"The United States and other superpowers monopolize general issues pertaining to mankind. If they could, those powers would even claim the seas in their name so that others would not have access to the natural resource," Ayatollah Khamenei stated.

"However, by your presence and your vigilance in countering their hostile behavior in order to thwart your voyage, you proved that the high seas belong to all."

The Leader pointed to the obstacles created by the US in maritime transportation, saying it made no sense for them to claim they would not allow ships to pass through certain straits.

"The sea and the air must be free for all nations and security of shipping and maritime transport must be ensured for all," the Leader stated.

Ayatollah Khamenei censured the US for targeting oil tankers and helping smugglers in the region and beyond, saying such measures are a serious breach of international humanitarian norms.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader said the successful mission of the 86th flotilla resulted from "hard work, determination, self-confidence, advanced military know-how, efficient management and courage as well as endurance in the face of difficulties."

The Leader honored the flotilla and its personnel, comprising domestically-manufactured Dena destroyer and Makran forward base ship.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the flotilla's sailing of virtually 65,000 kilometers in about eight months was "unprecedented in the history of Iranian seafaring."

"The profound job done by the flotilla should not be taken for granted and seen as merely a military and naval operation given the invaluable lessons learned from the voyage," the Leader stated.

Ayatollah Khamenei said by accomplishing the mission the 86th flotilla "elevated the level of the country's military capabilities."

Considering the fact that virtually 90 percent of global trade is conducted via maritime transport. the Leader said, Iranian officials need to work for the better use of maritime capacities of the Islamic Republic in order to serve national interests.

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IRGC adds Ghadir, Nasir cruise missiles to naval fleet

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 9:09 AM

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has taken delivery of Ghadir and Nasir cruise missiles developed at the Defense Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Defense Ministry.

Iranian media reported the development on Sunday, a few days after the force held drills in the Persian Gulf in defense of the country's triple islands.

With a range of up to 300 kilometers, Ghadir (CM-300) missile is widely used in coastal launchers and naval combat vessels.

It employs an inertial guidance system for its initial phase and an active radar guidance for its final phase.

Ghadir missile weighs 700 kilograms and is comprised of a 165-kilogram warhead.

The missile receives the position of sea targets from radars and moves toward them using an internal guidance system or inertia based on the accelerometer and gyroscope.

After reaching the target, the missile locks onto it while guided in the form of an active radar.

Nasir (CM-90) missile has a turbojet engine and a maximum range of 90 kilometers.

It can be launched from coastal and marine platforms.

Weighing 351 kilograms, the missile is capable of carrying a 130-kilogram warhead at a maximum speed of Mach 8, which is 8 times the speed of sound.

Iranian military experts and engineers have in recent years made remarkable breakthroughs in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient.

Iranian officials have made clear that the country will not hesitate to strengthen its military capabilities, including its missile power, which are entirely meant for defense.

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One killed as Turkey launches drone strike against PKK targets in northern Iraq

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 4:27 PM

At least one person has been killed and another injured in a Turkish drone strike in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, as Ankara ramps up its cross-border raids in the Arab country.

A security source said that the strike targeted a post for a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in the town of Chamchamal, west of the city of Sulaimaniya.

There has been a long-running Turkish campaign in Iraq against members of the PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist group by Ankara.

The central government in Baghdad has frequently condemned Turkish attacks on its northern Kurdistan region.

Militants of the PKK a designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union a regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

Turkish ground and air forces frequently carry out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.

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Nairobi  President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday made a courtesy visit to Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni at State House, Entebbe.

Kenyatta visited in his capacity as the Facilitator of the East Africa Community (EAC) for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Peace Process.

Kenyatta's office stated that the two leaders discussed "the ongoing Peace Processes aimed at achieving lasting peace and stability in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo."

Museveni disclosed that they had "meaningful discussions" and thanked Kenyatta for visiting.

Kenyatta is currently taking on the role of a mediator in the troubled eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a conflict has resulted in the displacement of approximately 3.3 million people since March 2022.

Militias and rebel groups have plagued much of the region for decades, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.
Israel's Netanyahu Vows to Scale Back Judicial Reform Amid Protests

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would drop some of the controversial judicial reform proposals that his government unveiled at the start of the year, sparking nationwide protests.

Speaking to a American broadcaster in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he wanted to reform the makeup of the committee that selects judges before putting a stop to the campaign that has roiled the country for months, making it an investment risk.

"That's basically what's left a because other things I think we should not legislate," the 73-year-old prime minister conceded.

The government wants there to be a balance, he went on to say, adding, "That's what we're trying to restore."

Netanyahu also argued that the Israeli economy was "undervalued" and called on investors to follow the "smart money" he said was coming to Israel.

The Israeli parliament has so far passed only one bill that seeks to limit the ability of judges to overturn government decisions that they deem unreasonable. The government also planned to grant the legislature the power to overrule Supreme Court decisions and allow ministers to appoint their own legal advisers.

A Sputnik

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Israel Expects to Make Peace With Saudis Despite Palestinian Problem

Sputnik News

20230806

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told an online Arabic daily that he did not expect the Palestinian problem to be an obstacle to Israel making peace with Saudi Arabia.

Israel has reenergized attempts to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia after the rich Gulf monarchy blindsided the Jewish state in March by agreeing to restore diplomatic ties with Iran, Israel's main regional adversary, after seven years of estrangement.

"The Palestinian issue will not be an obstacle to peace with Saudi Arabia," the Israeli minister said in a rare interview published Sunday.

Cohen said a peace agreement between the two countries would make history and promised that a visit by the Saudi foreign minister would be a day of celebration for the Israeli government.

The top Israeli diplomat also claimed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government was committed to restoring the Palestinian economy. Israel has been in control of the Palestinian-majority West Bank in what the United Nations sees as a de facto annexation.

A Sputnik

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1st LD: Pakistani court sentences former PM Imran Khan for 3-year jail term

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:00, August 06, 2023

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A local court in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to a three-year jail term for hiding his financial assets.

A local court judge announced a short order to sentence Khan, chairman of the former ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in a case concerning the illegal selling of state gifts and disqualified him for five years from holding any office.

The judge said that the detailed verdict would be shared later.

The judge also imposed a fine of 100,000 rupees (around 355 U.S. dollars) on Khan, and if it is not paid, he would have to spend six more months in jail.

The court has also released arrest warrants for Khan.

The former prime minister was not present in the court when the decision was announced. According to local media reports, Khan is at his home in the eastern city of Lahore and police have cordoned off his residence to arrest him.

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Kremlin Spokesman Calls Presidential Election 'Costly Bureaucracy' In Rare Honest Assessment

By RFE/RL's Russian Service August 06, 2023

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to disparage the state of Russian democracy, a rare honest assessment from a man who has spent years spinning truths about elections and freedom at home.

In an interview with The New York Times, he said the Russian presidential election "is not really democracy, it is costly bureaucracy."

Russia will hold a presidential election next year that authoritarian President Vladimir Putin is expected to win amid the most severe political repression since Soviet times.

Peskov told The New York Times that Putin "will be reelected next year with more than 90 percent of the vote."

Putin, who has been Russia's premier leader since the end of 1999, has largely dismantled the elements of democracy and freedom that took root following the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago.

He has jailed opponents, co-opted the judicial system, and crushed freedom of the press, turning elections largely into farces with ballot stuffing and voting-result manipulation common features.

However, the Kremlin has continued to insist that Russian elections are fair and free. Following the publication of The New York Times article on August 6, Peskov claimed he was misquoted by the U.S. news outlet.

In an interview with the RBK news agency later in the day, Peskov tried to reframe his comments, saying that Russia "theoretically" didn't need to hold presidential elections because "it's obvious that Putin will be reelected."

It is unclear who will seek to challenge Putin in an environment where almost any criticism of the Russian leaders leads to harassment and investigations.

Russia last week extended the jail sentence of the most popular opposition leader, Aleksei Navalny, to 19 years, meaning he will remain behind bars until 2040.

Navalny, who investigated corruption in the highest echelons of the Russian government, was convicted of extremism charges that he calls nonsense.

He is just one of several opposition leaders who have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms on trumped-up charges since Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine 17 months ago.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-peskov-interview- democracy/32536544.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 Accuses US-Led Coalition in Syria of Dangerous Drone Fly-Bys

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A senior Russian military official at the Syrian reconciliation center accused the US-led coalition on Sunday of flying its drones dangerously close to Russian fighter jets over Syria.

"Russian pilots acted extremely professionally taking timely measures to avoid a collision with the coalition's UAVs," Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit told a news briefing.

A large MQ-9 Reaper drone closed in on a Russian Su-35 jet in the sky over Raqqa on Saturday morning. The second instance of dangerous behavior by another US-made Reaper drone happened near the northwestern town of Ed Dana in Idlib province just hours later when the unmanned aircraft flew less than 100 meters (328 feet) away from a Su-35.

A Sputnik

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Jeddah talks wind down as long-term efforts needed for peace in Ukraine conflict

Global Times

By Xu Yelu Published: Aug 06, 2023 09:20 PM

As the talks hosted by Saudi Arabia over the Ukraine issue wound down, Chinese experts said on Sunday that a political solution is the most appropriate and least damaging approach to solve the Ukraine conflict.

Senior officials from some 40 countries including the US, China and India held talks in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday welcomed the wide range of countries represented in the talks, including developing countries hit hard by the surge in food prices triggered by the war.

Russia did not attend the talks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying on Sunday the meeting is "a reflection of the West's attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelensky formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset."

A European Union official said there would be no joint statement after the meeting, but that the Saudis would present a plan for further talks, with working groups to discuss issues such as global food security, nuclear safety and prisoner releases.

Chinese Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui attended the talks. "We have many disagreements and we have heard different positions, but it is important that our principles are shared," he said, according to Reuters.

China's attendance of the conference demonstrates its considerable influence and respect from all parties. In other words, Saudi Arabia clearly understands that without China's participation, the impact of the talks would be diminished, and the results obtained would be less significant, Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict, China has maintained a mediating posture, acting as a communication bridge, Cui said.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is not just a dispute between the two countries, but also a security conflict between Russia and US-led NATO. Therefore, China has always advocated for negotiations and a prompt end to the conflict, a cease-fire, and a resolution to the Russia-Ukraine dispute, to alleviate the pressures on both countries' societies, as well as Europe and the world, Zhang Hong, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

As a responsible major power, China seeks regional and global stability, Zhang said. "China has no geopolitical demands in this conflict and does not seek to contain or exhaust Russia like the West. At the same time, China does not seek to take advantage of the situation. Plainly put, China acts in the interest of world peace and stability," he said.

Experts believe that understanding the interests and security concerns of all parties can lead to solutions in a complex environment.

Both China and Saudi Arabia hope to promote peace talks. However, experts pointed out that the time is not yet ripe for direct peace negotiations, as the gap in the bottom line demands of the parties involved is too large.

The current priority should be de-escalating the conflict, specifically refraining from attacking civilian infrastructure and civilians so as to lay the groundwork for future negotiations, Cui said.

On the same day, Russia condemned a Ukrainian strike on one of its civilian vessels in the Kerch Strait near the strategic bridge. Calling it a "terrorist attack," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday that Russia will respond and punish those responsible.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's air defense authority reported a "massive missile attack" during the night of August 5-6, saying at least 70 missiles and suicide drones targeted sites around the country.

Avoiding conflict through diplomatic means is essential, as resorting to war can lead to uncontrollable risks and challenges, Zhang said. Therefore, the peaceful resolution method actively promoted by China and Saudi Arabia and other countries is the most appropriate and least damaging approach.

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Meeting on Ukraine crisis begins in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:52, August 06, 2023

RIYADH, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A meeting on the Ukraine crisis began on Saturday in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

A source from the Ukrainian delegation told Al Arabiya News that during the meeting, the 10-point peace plan proposed by Ukraine was backed by several countries.

The meeting, attended by security advisors and representatives from some 40 countries, aims to work out a solution that will achieve permanent peace and reduce the humanitarian repercussions of the Ukraine crisis, according to Al Ekhbariya News.

Through the meeting, the Saudi government looks forward to reinforcing dialogue and cooperation at the international level.

It also aims to ensure a solution to the crisis through political and diplomatic means and in a way that strengthens international peace and security.

Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui attended the meeting at the invitation of Saudi Arabia.

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Facts about Ukraine crisis: Meeting on Ukraine crisis begins in Saudi Arabia

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:49, August 06, 2023

MOSCOW/KIEV/RIYADH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments related to the Ukraine crisis:

A meeting on the Ukraine crisis began on Saturday in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

A source from the Ukrainian delegation told Al Arabiya News that during the meeting, the 10-point peace plan proposed by Ukraine was backed by several countries.

The meeting, attended by security advisors and representatives from some 40 countries, aims to work out a solution that will achieve permanent peace and reduce the humanitarian repercussions of the Ukraine crisis, according to Al Ekhbariya News.

Through the meeting, the Saudi government looks forward to reinforcing dialogue and cooperation at the international level.

- - - -

Ukraine's conflict-related budget expenditures will reach about 1.8 trillion hryvnia (about 49.2 billion U.S. dollars) this year, the government press service has reported, citing Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

"A hundred percent of taxes paid by businesses and citizens go to support the needs of the security and defense forces," Shmyhal said.

Besides, Ukraine has already attracted 28 billion dollars in financial aid from partners this year, he added.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Ukraine's military expenditures reached about 44 billion dollars last year.

- - - -

A Russian tanker was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kerch Strait, Russia's Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said Saturday.

The attack caused damage to the engine room of Russia's SIG tanker, but no casualties were reported.

Tugboats were deployed to assist the tanker, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

According to the report, the attack didn't result in a fuel leak from the tanker.

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Russia repels Ukraine drone attacks, launches retaliatory air strikes

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 11:30 AM

Russia on Sunday repelled Ukraine's latest drone attacks and launched a multi-wave overnight retaliatory operation against targets in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian drone has been destroyed by an air defense system in the Podolsk district of the Moscow region with no casualties or damage reported.

"At 11:27 a.m. [08:27 GMT] today, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] against facilities in the Moscow region was foiled. The UAV was destroyed by air defense forces on the territory of the Podolsk district," the ministry said.

Also, Russian air defense destroyed two aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles over the Karachevsky district of the Bryansk region, according to governor Alexander Bogomaz.

"The Russian Armed Forces' air defense system destroyed two aircraft-type UAVs over the Karachevsky district. There are no destruction and no casualties," Bogomaz wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

Ukraine has been stepping up drone attacks against Russia as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week hinted a change in Kiev's tactics.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Zelensky is compromising the United States by conducting terrorist attacks against civilian buildings, trying to blackmail the White House into sending Kiev more money, weapons and munitions.

Meanwhile, Kiev's Air Force said on Telegram on Sunday that Russian forces launched a wave of retaliatory air attacks launching dozens of Russian missiles and drones at Ukrainian targets.

"In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug 5 to the morning of Aug 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons."

It claimed Ukraine's air defense systems shot down 30 out of 40 of the cruise missiles and all 27 drones that were launched by Russia overnight.

It was still unclear where the cruise missiles that passed through the Western-supplied defense systems had hit.

The Air Force also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, but did not disclose further information on them either.

However, the deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine, Serhiy Tiurin, said that a military airfield in Starokostiantyniv was targeted in the attacks.

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Ukraine shells civilian targets in Donetsk with cluster bombs twice in a day: Report

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 8:36 AM

Ukrainian armed forces shelled civilian targets, including a university, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk City with banned cluster munitions twice on Saturday, according to a report.

The report by the mission of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Issues Related to Ukrainian War Crimes (JCCC) said the bombardment was recorded in the Kievsky District.

One bombardment was recorded at 23:45 Moscow time (20:45 GMT) and the one before that was registered at 22:05 Moscow time (19:05 GMT), the report said.

155mm cluster bombs were fired in four rounds into the center of the City, triggering fires in three districts, it added.

Donetsk Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said in a Telegram post that the Donetsk University of Economics and Trades was a target of the shelling.

"As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire," Kulemzin said.

"We are using 12 water tanks, three ladders, and 100 firefighters," said Alexei Kostrubitsky, Donetsk emergency minister, adding there were no people inside the building during the shelling.

The development comes after a Ukrainian bombardment on Monday which killed at least three people and wounded ten.

Despite a global ban on the use of cluster bombs, the United States supplied the controversial weapons of mass destruction to Ukraine last month.

After receiving the munitions Ukraine pledged to only use them to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.

"[The munition] will not be used on Russian territory...They will be used only in areas where Russian military forces are concentrated in order to break through enemy defenses," Valeryi Shershen, a spokesman for the Tavria, or southern, military district said at the time.

Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm caused to civilians by cluster munitions through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.

The weapons can contain dozens of smaller bomblets, dispersing over vast areas, often killing and maiming civilians. The CCMs are banned because unexploded bomblets can pose a risk to civilians for years after the fighting is over.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which took effect in 2010, bans all use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster bombs. More than 100 countries have signed the treaty, but the US, Russia, and Ukraine are not among the signatories.

The use of cluster munitions in populated areas violates the laws of war due to the indiscriminate nature of the weapon and may amount to war crimes.

Ukrainian government forces also used cluster munitions in populated areas in Donetsk city in October 2014.

Donetsk and other Donbass cities have been under constant Ukrainian attacks since 2014 when the region broke away from Kiev after a Western-backed coup in the Ukrainian capital.

After Moscow began its military operation against Kiev in February 2022, Ukraine intensified its attacks on the area, leaving scores of civilians killed and delivering major damage to infrastructure.

Donetsk became a part of Russia last October along with Lugansk and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions in a referendum in which the local population voted in favor of the move.

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interview

Rwanda welcomed over 200 Sudanese students from the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) of Khartoum, Sudan, on August 2 to complete their studies following the current insecurities in their country.

They will be placed at the University of Rwanda (UR) - School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The New Times' Alice Kagina had an exclusive interview with Prof. Mamoun Homeida, Chairman Board of Trustees at UMST, Khartoum to shed light on the work of the university, the reason behind choosing Rwanda, and future plans for the partnership.

Below are excerpts.

Who is Prof Mamoun Homeida and tell us about your work in Khartoum?

I am a Sudanese born doctor , trained both in the UK and in Sudan. I have taught at Bristol University- Uk and I also taught and had the honor to be the Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum.

In 1996, I left Khartoum University to establish a University of Medical Science and Technology (UMST) with a broad vision of excellence. I am a mix of love for education and medicine combined into the practice of medicine and education at the higher level of universities and post-university.

Moreover, I have been doing research mainly in tropical diseases and also forefront research in ultrasound and riverblindness.

I have been the Chair of the WHO Technical Consultative Committee for 17 years in Burkina Faso, where I joined a project between WHO and World Bank for control of river blindness in 30 countries in Africa. It is considered a big public health project by WHO because it succeeded toeradicate river blindness from many African countries.

I have been a consultant to WHO in Geneva on many committees, mainly in research. I have a life of a mixture of education and research on one side and practiced medicine for a long time. I introduced ultrasound and endoscopy for the first time in Sudan in 1982. As well as CT scans and MRI scanners which all together made huge changes in human life.

You've demonstrated efforts in championing quality education on the continent, how do you assess the current education system, where do you see loopholes and how can they be fixed?

Africans are researching tropical diseases better than anyone in the world because it is our disease of concern. As far as development is concerned, it has to be based on education.

After the periods of colonization in Africa, education waslagging behind as it was very young.

We have certain areas where education started earlier like in Sudan, it started 1908, also in Uganda it started early, but most of the universities in other African countries were born in the 60s. We need to support each other in Africa and we need to share the knowledge and technology.

At UMST, our slogan is 'go Africa' meaning we have to mix with Africans which is why we have a centre in South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Rwanda . We don't claim making discoveries but we believe our expertise can be shared with and we benefit from each other's.

After this war, we found that its Africans who embraced us.

So, let's go together, we need to go far and this requires us to go together as the African proverb say: if you want to go far go together.

Covid-19 has brought to light the need for Africa's self-reliance in the medical field, prompting critical investments in this area over the last three years, what is your take on that?

Well, Africa always has a special place in my heart, and I know what should be done, not on the political scenery but in development of education and medicine.

What we are doing now in most African countries is vertical development which may take time and appears very glamorous, and yes, it does some work, but it's not something sustainable because most of what we do is either imported from the West or run by the West.

As a scientist, I believe context matters and we have to grow things organically in our countries and this will help us to benefit from the advances in the West. The way I see things is close collaboration with the west.

This will benefit them as well as we know our context better and we can adapt the methods and use of technology better to our societies especially since the world is a small village and you can't simply ignore Africa.

We need to look at the world as one connected ecosystem.

Africa should do its its part and collaborate with the west. I am looking for interdependency relationship and not being dependent, and up to now I cannot feel happy about the development of education and medicine in Africa.

There have been a lot of efforts but it is neither based on research nor good training of people and it is not supported enough by our governments, so we need to look into that.

Recently, Rwanda received Sudanese medical students to continue their studies here.

Why did you choose Rwanda to accommodate the UMST students?

Rwanda managed to overcome its past) and make a substantial leap into a better and sustainable future for its people. This means that Rwanda is open to development and education.

We needed a country where we get the students trained in the best way. I have been to Rwanda many times and I have seen the development, you could not get blind that what was happening is new but firm and consistent.

There is law and order, and good governance.

We came here three years before the war to develop this centre, which is now running smoothly. So, knowing the type of people I know from Rwanda, I knew I would get a good reception.

Are there students left at the university, if yes, what's their fate?

There are some students who are in humanities, business administration, and economics, among others.

They are being taught online as I try to explore more opportunities to accommodate them to finish their education. Unfortunately, 90 percent of students are losing their future. This is huge responsibility on my shoulders and I will not shy away from doing my best to help them.

What are your expectations at the end of this partnership?

We met with different officials and our suggestion is to make this a win-win situation. Sudan has expertise and lecturerswith expertise in medical faculties with high-level specialization. We are trying to get lecturers here either to practice in the medical field or to teach in Rwandan universities.

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I am getting all the expert staff from there to come and initiate links between the two countries. We need Rwanda and I am sure we can offer great things for the development of this country.

We are looking for a long lasting relationship that will continue even when the war stops in my country.

It's a win-win partnership but what's the investment cost on your side?

We see this project as an investment in our people and future generations. The Capital and operation expenditures are in millions but as I said I will not shy away from any investment.

That university had a lot of accreditation across the world and if we transfer that university here, we can train many Rwandese and other Africans and offer a lot of post-graduate studies which are not yet available here.

Any parting message?

I would like, on behalf of the Sudanese, to thank the government of Rwanda and particularly his excellency President Paul Kagame, the Minister of education Dr Valentine Uwamariya and minister of health Dr Sabin Nsanzimana , Many thanks to Dr Muganga Kayihura the Vice Chancellor of University of Rwanda as well as the media for capturing the spirit of our coming here.

Thank you to the people of Rwanda, we feel home and we want this to be our home.
Russia's Medvedev slams Kiev's drone attacks on Black Sea tanker, vows reprisal raids

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 06 August 2023 6:52 AM

Russia's senior national security official and ex-president has suggested further reprisal attacks in western Ukraine in response to Kiev's recent drone raids against cities and a chemical tanker in the Black Sea threatening an environmental disaster, saying Kiev only understands language of "cruelty and force."

"Scumbags and freaks understand only cruelty and force," said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, in a social media post, cited in a RT report on Saturday while blasting Kiev's Western-backed government for its recent targeting of Russian cities and commercial shipping near Crimea coastline, endangering the region with possible environmental tragedy.

"Apparently, the strikes on Odessa, Izmail, and other places were not enough for them," Medvedev added, further warning that if Kiev intends to generate an ecological disaster in the Black Sea region, Moscow would then retaliate by creating one in Western Ukraine that would spill into Poland and cause such huge detrimental impact that would last for centuries.

"If the Kiev scum wants to create an ecological disaster in the Black Sea, they should get one on the part of their territory that will soon fall to Poland and that will stink for centuries after that," he emphasized in his post.

The top official further pointed out that attacking Russian fuel tankers signals the cancelling of any talks leading to the resumption of the 2022 Black Sea grain deal that allowed safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea during the raging conflict between the two neighbors. Moscow quit the deal on July 17.

Ukraine has repeatedly used naval drones laden with explosives to attack Russian naval fleets that dominate the Black Sea, prompting Moscow to block Ukrainian grain exports through its favored export route.

Kremlin also underlined that Kiev was using the grain export corridor in the deal as a cover to launch attacks against Russian targets.

Prior to Kiev's latest drone strike damaging the Russian fuel tanker in the Black Sea, Moscow had said it was ready to return to the grain deal if the West meets its obligations, including the ability to export its own food and fertilizers.

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Moscow Again Closes Major Airport, As Ukraine Reports Massive Overnight Air Strikes

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service August 06, 2023

For the second time in the last week, Moscow's Vnukovo airport was temporarily closed on August 6 after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that a drone strike on the Russian capital had been parried.

The closure came after Ukraine's military reported a massive countrywide missile-and-drone attack overnight.

"For reasons beyond the airport's control, temporary restrictions on arrivals and departures have been introduced," the airport's press service said, according to Russia's state-controlled TASS news agency.

The airport was briefly closed on July 30 following a Ukrainian drone strike that damaged two prominent Moscow office buildings.

Ukraine's air defense earlier reported a "massive missile attack" during the night of August 5-6, saying at least 70 missiles and suicide drones targeted sites around the country.

Kyiv said its air defenses had neutralized 12 of 14 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles before they could reach their targets. In addition, Russia fired at least three Kinzhal air-launched missiles from Tu-95 strategic bombers flying in the Caspian region.

All 27 Shahed drones were destroyed, Ukraine's Air Force reported.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Inhat told Ukrainian state television that the Khmelnytskiy region was a particular focus of Russian attention.

"The Starokostyantyniv airfield haunts the enemy now," Inhat said.

The Khmelnytskiy region -- in western Ukraine and far from the front lines -- has been targeted by Russian missile attacks for the past few days.

Meanwhile, the governor of Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, reported on Telegram that two drones had been shot down without causing casualties or damage.

In the Russian-occupied region of Crimea, Kyiv said on August 6 that it hit two bridges connecting the Black Sea Peninsula to mainland Ukraine. Russia claimed Ukraine used long-range Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the United Kingdom to hit the bridges.

Ukraine last month hit the bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland for the second time in two months. Russia has militarized the peninsula since it annexed the region in 2014.

Ukraine's ability to hit the bridges could potentially distrupt Russia's supply route to its forces in Ukraine's south, where fighting is intensive.

Over the past month, Kyiv has been focusing on degrading Russia's fighting capacity with the use of long-range weapons and artillary after the attempt to storm Russian positions at the outset of its June counteroffensive proved difficult due to extensive mining of the territory.

A member of Germany's ruling party for the first time called on Berlin to hand over long-range missiles to Ukraine to help its counteroffensive succeed.

RFE/RL could not independently verify the reports.

In its daily assessment on August 6, Britain's Defense Ministry estimated that Russia may have lost about half of the airborne forces it has deployed in Ukraine since Moscow's massive invasion in February 2022. The ministry estimated that about 15,000 paratroopers had been killed or wounded over the last 17 months.

On August 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that a "guided air bomb" had struck a blood-transfusion center in the Kharkiv region, causing an unknown number of deaths and injuries.

The same day, an oil tanker became the second Russian vessel to be damaged in the last 72 hours in what was described as a sea-based drone attack in the Kerch Strait, close to the bridge that links the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea with Russia.

The Ukrainian state agency for navigation and hydrographic services warned on August 5 that six Russian Black Sea ports -- Anapa, Novorossiisk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi, and Taman -- were inside the "war-risk area."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-missile-attack- russia/32536225.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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Member Of German Ruling Party Calls For Giving Ukraine Long-Range Missiles

By RFE/RL August 06, 2023

A member of German Chancellor Olaf Sholtz's ruling party has for the first time called for Berlin to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles.

Andreas Schwarz, a member of parliament representing the Social Demcrats (SDP), told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview that his country should give Ukraine Taurus cruise missiles, an air-launched weapon with a range of some 500 kilometers, to help its struggling counteroffensive.

Ukraine first requested Taurus missiles from Germany in May as its armed forces prepared to launch the much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian troops, which began the following month.

That counteroffensive has been slowed down in part by extensive Russian mining of the battlefield, destroying Ukrainian tanks and other armored vehicles, and forcing Kyiv to switch tactics.

The Ukrainian military is now focusing on degrading Russia's fighting capacity by bombing command-and-control centers as well as munitions depots. Taurus missiles have the range to hit such high-value targets deep behind the front lines as well as destroy bunkers buried deep underground.

Ukraine is currently using Storm Shadow long-range missiles supplied by the United Kingdom.

The United States has so far refrained from giving Ukraine its long-range missiles, known as ATACMS, for fear Kyiv may use them to target military objects inside Russia.

With reporting by Der Spiegel

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-germany-taurus- missiles/32536497.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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Zelensky Confirms Ukraine Received Long-Range French Missiles

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on social media on Sunday demonstrating a long-range Scalp missile that his French counterpart vowed to supply to Kiev last month.

President Emmanuel Macron announced in mid-July that his government had decided to join the United Kingdom in giving Ukraine Scalp missiles. Like Storm Shadows, they have a range of over 250 kilometers (155 miles). Germany has so far refused to follow suit.

Western countries have been arming Ukraine since the start of the Russian military operation in February 2022. The support has evolved from light artillery munitions to heavier weapons, including tanks. In recent months, Ukraine has been pressing the West to give it fighter jets. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against further arms deliveries to Kiev.

A Sputnik

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Ukrainian Forces Terrorize Civilians by Striking Bridges, School

Sputnik News

20230806

Andrei Dergalin

Unable to attain tangible success during its so-called counteroffensive, the regime in Kiev has resorted to its tried and tested tactic of attacking civilian targets in Russia.

Ukrainian forces fired several missiles at the bridge across the Tonkiy Strait this August 6, which connects the nearby city of Genichesk with the Arabat Spit, Kherson Region's Acting Governor Vladimir Saldo announced on social media.

According to Saldo, Ukraine launched a total of twelve missiles, nine of which were intercepted by Russian air defense forces.

The attack caused damage to the bridge and to the nearby pipeline that supplies natural gas to Genichesk, leaving 20,000 city residents without gas.

One civilian who was driving across the bridge during the time of the attack was injured.

Noting that the damaged bridge has no significant military value, Saldo argued that Kiev is resorting to "state terrorism" and deliberately attacks civilian infrastructure.

He added that preliminary reports suggest that the damage inflicted by this attack is minor and that repairs necessitated by this act of terror will be completed soon.

Saldo also mentioned that Ukrainian forces used Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain to attack the Chongar Bridge and the nearby village of Chongar, where one of these missiles hit a school.

A Sputnik

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Ukrainian Drone Destroyed in Moscow Region - Russian Defense Ministry

Sputnik News

20230806

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - No casualties or damage occurred as a result of the foiled terrorist attack, the ministry added

A Ukrainian drone has been destroyed by an air defense system in the Podolsk district of Moscow region with no casualties or damage reported, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

"At 11:27 a.m. [08:27 GMT] today, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle against facilities in the Moscow region was foiled. The UAV was destroyed by air defense forces on the territory of the Podolsk district," the ministry said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin also said that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attempted to infiltrate Moscow on Sunday was destroyed on the approach.

Earlier in the day, Moscow's Vnukovo airport told Sputnik that it had introduced restrictions on aircraft arrivals and departures and diverted some flights to other airports in the city from 10:26 local time for security reasons. However, the restrictions were lifted at 11:55 local time.

This is the second drone attack on the Russian capital in a week.

On Monday night, several drones, on their way to the Russian capital, were shot down by air defenses, but one hit a skyscraper housing government ministries in the Moscow-City business center.

No casualties were reported after the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the attack, adding that two drones were shot down, and the third one was suppressed by electronic warfare systems and fell on non-residential buildings in the business center. Ukraine neither confirmed nor denied the attack.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is compromising the United States by conducting terrorist attacks against civil infrastructure, trying to blackmail the White House to receive more assistance.

A Sputnik

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Ukraine needs strength and maximum focus on achieving victory - address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine

6 August 2023 - 20:16

Good health to you, fellow Ukrainians!

Today, I was honored to congratulate all our warriors of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on their professional day. All of our pilots and anti-aircraft gunners, specialists who provide the technical side of our aviation and air defense... This is the day of true Ukrainian heroes who save lives and protect our cities and villages from Russian terror against all odds. What is very important is that our Air Force warriors give not only us, but also the entire free world a clear confidence that Russian terror can be defeated.

Today, I heard a report on the use of advanced air defense systems - Patriots and IRIS-T, which we received from our partners - by our warriors. I am grateful to every country, every leader who helped us with them! These are powerful systems, very effective... They have already yielded significant results. And not only for Ukraine. Because every destruction of Russian missiles in our skies, especially air-launched ballistic "Kinzhals", which Russian terrorists have long boasted about... Every success of our warriors is a reassurance to the world that a terrorist state is not able to undermine common security.

In this week alone, Russian terrorists have already used 65 different missiles and 178 attack drones against us, including 87 "Shaheds". We managed to shoot down a significant number of them. We will do our best to make the Ukrainian sky shield only stronger. Here, in our skies, we can prove that terror is losing. All together we can prove it - all partners. The responsible position of each partner in supplying air defense systems and missiles to them is very important. Complete protection against terror is needed here, so that later there is no need to think about protecting other nations from it. Ukraine can win this battle, and our sky shield will eventually guarantee security for the whole of Europe.

Today, I awarded our Air Force servicemen and talked to them. We are equally eager to see F-16s in action in the Ukrainian skies as soon as possible. We are doing everything for this. Today, I also handed over the Gold Stars of the Hero of Ukraine to the families of the pilots killed in action for the sake of our country. Eternal memory to every hero and eternal gratitude to every Ukrainian family that gave our people such heroes... May Ukraine's victory in this terrible war be the highest honor to all those who chose the defense of our people as their destiny!

We are already preparing for the next week to further strengthen our state and our positions.

There will be new communication with partners on defense packages for Ukraine. We will add even more content to the international events of August and September that have already been planned. These include the Crimea Platform, the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, and our participation in the UN General Assembly. Of course, we will also continue the internal purge of our state from those who, unfortunately, weaken Ukraine through their abuses.

Ukraine needs only strength, only maximum focus on achieving victory. If someone already thinks that the war is "somewhere over there" and that someone else has to win the war, then they need to come back to reality. Only as a nation can we pull through. Every day we need to deliver results for Ukraine and for all those who are fighting for Ukraine. I am grateful to everyone who is bringing our victory closer in this way! Glory to our warriors! Glory to our people! To the strong and beautiful people! And once again, congratulations on the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!

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Andriy Yermak discussed topical issues of bilateral relations with the participants of the meeting on the implementation of the Peace Formula

President of Ukraine

6 August 2023 - 19:54

Andriy Yermak discussed topical issues of bilateral relations with the participants of the meeting on the implementation of the Peace Formula

In the framework of the meeting on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which took place on August 5-6 in Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) at the level of national security and foreign policy advisors, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak met with the heads of more than 30 delegations.

In particular, on August 5, bilateral meetings were held with the heads of delegations from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Japan, Qatar, France, Germany, Spain, Norway, TArkiye, Poland, and Slovakia.

During the meeting with National Security Advisor to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan, the parties discussed Ukraine's priority defense needs, in particular, the strengthening of Ukrainian air defense to protect the port infrastructure of the south of Ukraine. The interlocutors agreed on joint actions in the context of the implementation of the Peace Formula and preparations for the Global Peace Summit. They also exchanged views on the outcome of the NATO Summit in Vilnius and further steps towards Ukraine's integration into the Alliance. Andriy Yermak positively assessed the start of negotiations with the United States on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.

At the meeting with Secretary General and Chief of Cabinet of the President of Finland Hiski Haukkala, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine thanked for the support of the Republic of Finland for the Ukrainian Peace Formula and its willingness to join its practical implementation. The parties discussed security issues and current needs of Ukrainian defenders, as well as Finland's involvement in humanitarian demining.

Andriy Yermak thanked Finland for joining the G7 Joint Declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine adopted in Vilnius and emphasized the importance of working together to conclude a relevant bilateral agreement.

During the meeting with National Security Advisor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, the Head of the Presidential Office thanked for supporting Ukraine in the context of Russia's armed aggression and for organizing the meeting in Jeddah.

The interlocutors exchanged views on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the possibilities of involving the Kingdom in this process.

Andriy Yermak noted that Saudi Arabia could make an effective contribution to the release of Ukrainian captives and food security, including the extension of the grain deal.

The parties also discussed the possibilities of expanding bilateral cooperation in the areas of common interest, as well as Saudi Arabia's involvement in promising projects in the investment, agricultural and energy sectors.

At the meeting with Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Spain Emma Aparici, the parties discussed further security support for Ukraine from that country, as well as interaction with the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Head of the Presidential Office thanked for Spain's accession to the Joint Declaration of the G7 on security guarantees for Ukraine and Madrid's readiness to join the implementation of the Peace Formula.

During a meeting with Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Shigeo Yamada, Andriy Yermak expressed gratitude for the strong support of Ukraine in the framework of Japan's G7 Presidency. The interlocutors discussed Japan's practical involvement in the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the preparation of the Global Peace Summit. The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine expressed hope that negotiations on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine would soon be launched as a follow-up to the G7 Joint Declaration adopted in Vilnius.

At a meeting with Director General of the International Department of the Office of the Prime Minister of Norway Kjersti Andersen, Andriy Yermak thanked Norway for its significant assistance in countering Russian aggression, including the approval of a five-year program of humanitarian and security support for Ukraine. The parties discussed further steps towards the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula. The Head of the President's Office thanked for Norway's readiness to join the implementation of the item of the Formula on radiation and nuclear security.

The joint meeting with National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Timothy Barrow, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Federal Chancellor of Germany Jens PlAtner, Diplomatic Advisor to the President of France Emmanuel Bonn and National Security Advisor to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan was devoted to further steps towards the preparation of the Global Peace Summit and practical involvement of these countries in the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula. Andriy Yermak expressed expectations that negotiations on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine will be launched in the near future as a follow-up to the G7 Joint Declaration on support for our country adopted in Vilnius on July 12.

During the meeting with National Security Advisor to the Emir of Qatar Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Misnad, the parties exchanged views on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the possibility of involving as many countries as possible, including Qatar, in this process.

The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine noted that Qatar could make an effective contribution to the release of Ukrainian captives, the return of deported children and food security, including the extension of the grain deal.

The parties also discussed the possibility of expanding bilateral cooperation, Qatar's participation in the post-war recovery of Ukraine, and further political dialogue.

During the negotiations with Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the European Council Simon Mordue, Andriy Yermak noted the significant support for Ukraine from the EU and personally from President of the European Council Charles Michel in countering Russian armed aggression against our country.

Particular attention was paid to Ukraine's progress on the path to EU membership and progress in implementing the seven recommendations of the European Commission, which will form the basis for the launch of accession negotiations. Ukraine's membership in the EU is an integral part of security guarantees for our country and a guarantee of lasting peace on the European continent. The Head of the Presidential Office called on the European partners to develop the next, 12th package of EU restrictive measures against Russia.

During the meeting with Chief Foreign Policy and Security Advisor to the President of TArkiye Akif KAlAA, the key focus was on joint steps to ensure the functioning of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Andriy Yermak thanked for TArkiye's readiness to take the lead in implementing the food security clause of the Peace Formula. The interlocutors also exchanged views on Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration and the importance of providing our country with security guarantees for the period before Ukraine becomes a member of the Alliance.

During a meeting with Secretary of State - Head of the International Policy Bureau at the Presidential Chancellery of the Republic of Poland Marcin Przydacz, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine expressed gratitude to Polish partners for their comprehensive assistance and solidarity with Ukraine in countering Russian armed aggression. Andriy Yermak praised Poland's readiness to join the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula. The interlocutors discussed in detail the issue of ensuring the export of Ukrainian grain by land to the EU countries in the context of the continued blockade of Ukrainian ports. The Head of the President's Office expressed hope that Ukraine's neighboring countries would refrain from imposing unilateral restrictive measures on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15.

During the meeting with Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic Jana KobzovA, the parties discussed cooperation between the two countries in the context of the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and preparation for the upcoming Global Peace Summit. Andriy Yermak expressed gratitude to the Slovak side for supporting Ukraine and strengthening our country's defense capabilities in countering Russian aggression. Particular attention was paid to the importance of unimpeded export of Ukrainian grain by land to the EU countries in the context of the blockade of Ukrainian ports. The Head of the Office of the President emphasized that Ukraine counts on a balanced and unified approach of the EU in the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.

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President on the occasion of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Ukraine can fight and live because there are warriors who clear our skies of Russian evil

President of Ukraine

6 August 2023 - 14:31

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the events on the occasion of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and presented high state awards, honorary insignia and battle flags to military units.

"Today we are celebrating an important day for our beloved Ukraine - the professional day of the forces whose main task is to save lives. And the servicemen of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine honorably fulfill this important task, achieve the powerful results our state needs and gain real glory for each and every one of us, for the whole of Ukraine," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, addressing the servicemen of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the President, during the full-scale war, Ukrainian pilots have carried out more than 14 thousand combat missions, the Air Force has shot down more than 3.5 thousand aircraft, helicopters and missiles of the occupiers and more than 2 thousand enemy attack drones.

"I thank all of you, Ukrainian warriors, for every downed Russian missile and every destroyed enemy drone," the Head of State said.

Separately, the President noted the important success of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in destroying Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, with which Russia has long tried to intimidate not only Ukraine, but also Europe and the whole world.

"This cult has been debunked forever. Our warriors have clearly proved that if the defenders of life have the Cossack character, our domestic air defense systems, and the air defense systems of our partners, then the terrorists do not stand a chance. No "Kinzhal" will help Moscow," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

The Head of State said that Ukraine is working every day to create a reliable sky shield for our country, which can become the basis of a sky shield for the whole of Europe.

"And it is only a matter of time before we have F-16s in the Ukrainian skies, which will add even more power to our defense. The Ukrainian Air Force has already become the most powerful in all the years of its existence, and it will become even more powerful," he added.

At the same time, as the President emphasized, any equipment is worth something only in the hands of brave, worthy and professional warriors, such as the Air Force servicemen. According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, since the beginning of the Russian aggression, 42 defenders of Ukrainian skies have been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, 26 of them posthumously. State awards have been presented to 3198 servicemen of the Air Force, posthumously to 280 of them.

The attendees observed a minute of silence in memory of the Air Force servicemen who gave their lives for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also expressed gratitude to everyone in the world who helps protect Ukrainian skies and people's lives.

"When we talk about our Air Force, we talk about lifesavers. When we congratulate the Air Force on their professional holiday, we thank them for the thousands of lives saved in cities and villages, in every corner of independent Ukraine. Ukraine can fight and live because of our warriors who are clearing our skies of Russian evil. And the time will come when there will be no place in the Ukrainian skies for any Russian fighter jet, any Russian missile or any occupier's drone," the President is convinced.

The President presented state awards to the Air Force servicemen.

In particular, he handed over the "Gold Star" Orders to the relatives of Colonel Mykhailo Matiushenko and Major Yuriy Krasylnikov. The pilots were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. On June 26, 2022, their crew, as the most experienced, performed a dangerous mission to destroy the enemy's Pantsir anti-aircraft missile system on Zmiinyi Island despite difficult conditions and shelling. The military coped with the task, but their aircraft was hit by enemy air defense systems and crashed in the Black Sea near Zmiinyi.

The Head of State also presented the "Gold Star" of the Hero of Ukraine to Chief of Staff - Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Shamko. Since the beginning of Russia's armed aggression, he has been directly involved in the organization of air defense, in particular in the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Dnipro, etc. Vyacheslav Shamko constantly organizes and supervises the use of air defense forces and means, as well as measures to find the best ways to improve the effectiveness of the state's air defense. Thanks to the skillful command of the Lieutenant General, the subordinate units of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed more than 3 thousand enemy air targets.

Lieutenant Colonel Rostyslav Lazarenko, who has performed more than 360 combat missions since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, also received the highest state award from the President. He personally destroyed more than 100 pieces of enemy equipment (tanks, armored vehicles, motor vehicles, fuel and lubricant tanks). The group under his personal leadership performed more than 2.7 thousand combat missions with minimal losses of personnel.

In addition, the President awarded the servicemen of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the Orders of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi of the I, II and III degrees, the Orders "For Courage" of the II and III degrees, the Order of Danylo Halytskyi, medals "For Military Service to Ukraine" and "For Impeccable Service" of the III degree.

In order to recognize the combat merits, courage and bravery of the personnel of the military units, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also presented the Presidential Insignia "For Courage and Bravery" to the 204th Sevastopol tactical aviation brigade of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 540th Ivan Vyhovskyi Lviv anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Honorary names were also awarded: "Pivdenobuzka" - to the 19th separate brigade of radio and radio-technical intelligence of the special purpose of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "Nikopol" - to the 301st anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "named after Colonel Ruslan Tiukh" - to the 34th separate aviation squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles of the 383rd separate brigade of unmanned aerial vehicles of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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International consultations on key principles of peace for Ukraine took place in Jeddah

President of Ukraine

6 August 2023 - 13:07

On August 5, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, hosted the second meeting of diplomatic national security advisors and political directors of foreign policy departments of the world's leading countries on the key principles of restoring lasting and just peace for Ukraine, following the launch of the relevant format in Copenhagen in June.

On the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian delegation to Jeddah was headed by Andriy Yermak, Head of the Presidential Office.

The format of the consultations included in-person and online participation of national security advisors and political directors from Saudi Arabia, Australia, Argentina, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, the European Union, Egypt, India, Spain, Italy, Jordan, Canada, Qatar, China, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of South Africa, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, the Union of the Comoros, the United States of America, TArkiye, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Chile, Sweden, Japan, and the United Nations.

In total, more than 40 states were represented in Jeddah, almost three times as many as at the Copenhagen consultations. This indicates the world's great interest in establishing a sustainable and lasting peace.

"We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built. We had an extremely honest, open conversation, during which representatives of each country could voice their position and vision. There were different views, but all the participants demonstrated their countries' commitment to the principles of the UN Charter, international law, and respect for the sovereignty and inviolability of the territorial integrity of states. And it is on these principles that President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula is built, which we have described in detail," said Andriy Yermak.

The meeting in Jeddah was a step towards the practical implementation of peace initiatives proposed by Ukraine. Each state participating in the consultations has the opportunity to show leadership in global efforts for peace. And most of them have already defined their role in the implementation of certain points of the Formula.

The parties agreed to continue working at various representative levels to establish a just and comprehensive peace.

As part of the consultations in Jeddah, the Ukrainian delegation headed by Andriy Yermak held a series of bilateral meetings that will continue on Sunday. The Ukrainian side is discussing with its partners the details of implementing peace initiatives and cooperation in this area.

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Int'l community makes fresh efforts to resolve Ukraine crisis in Jeddah

Xinhua) 15:30, August 07, 2023

RIYADH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Security advisors and representatives from 43 countries on Sunday concluded a two-day meeting in Jeddah, a coastal city in western Saudi Arabia, where they discussed solutions to the Ukraine crisis that has dragged on for more than a year.

The closed-door meeting was attended by quite a number of developing countries, many of which have primarily stayed neutral in the crisis. Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui also attended the meeting.

Analysts said that China's participation reflects its role as a responsible major country in promoting peace, and the meeting represents the latest efforts by the international community in solving the crisis.

Li Xinggang, a researcher at the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, believes that the Jeddah meeting will push for a greater international peace force to resolve the crisis, and allow more international actors to participate in it, so as to find fair, just and lasting solutions to the crisis.

Abdullah Otaibi, an expert on international issues in Saudi Arabia, pointed out that although the Ukraine crisis is unlikely to end soon, the convening of the Jeddah meeting is an important step in the right direction toward resolving the crisis and an important opportunity to enhance consensus among all parties and seek a practical and feasible solution.

Wang Guangyuan, an associate professor at the Middle East College of Beijing Language and Culture University, said that the Jeddah meeting, a transitional event linking the past and the future, paves the way for the next peace conference that can include Russia.

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of Ukraine's presidential office, said in a statement that the meeting's participants had conducted "very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built."

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, said that a peace proposal can have a chance of success only if both sides of the conflict participate, the historical context is considered, and the current realities are taken into account.

The participation of the Chinese delegation in the meeting has attracted a lot of attention.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said prior to the meeting that 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.

Otaibi pointed out that China's position on resolving the Ukrainian crisis has always been valued by the international community and will play a positive role in formulating agreements and principles to end the conflict.

Ahmed Ibrahim, a Saudi political analyst, said that China is an important force to promote world peace and development.

China has been in contact with all relevant parties on the Ukraine crisis, actively promoting peace talks, and has been calling on relevant parties to respond to the call of the international community, gradually accumulating and creating conditions for the final resolution of the crisis, which attests to China's role as a responsible major country, he said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
analysis

Germany has developed a stable partnership with Niger over the past few years. The recent coup threatens to upset existing relationships with EU nations and further destabilize a volatile region.

There was a time when Niger, an important country of transit for people wanting to reach Europe, seemed to be the perfect partner for Germany.

After former German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited in 2016, Mahamadou Issoufou, who was president of Niger until 2021, intensified efforts to seal off one of the main migration routes through the Sahara.

The country's strategic location was also seen as important for tackling the growing threat from extremists in neighboring Mali in particular, and preventing the expansion of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

Continued good relationships seemed to be assured when Issoufou handed power over to his elected successor, Mohamed Bazoum, in 2021.

The peaceful transfer of power took place just months after the military in neighboring Mali launched a coup. Mali went on to distance itself from its former Western partners. The following year, a coup was also launched in Burkina Faso, to Mali's south. Former colonial power France and other European states, including Germany, started to deploy military units to Niger and set up training missions there.

There was an atmosphere of mutual respect. When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Niger in May 2022, he insisted that the country "counts a lot for us."

"Across multiple domains, Niger was actually a very good choice," said Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at the international consultancy Development Reimagined. "It just so happened that disgruntled and ambitious military officers took advantage of the opportunity and weakness of the Nigerien state for their power grab."

The coup in Niger took place on July 26 and President Bazoum was detained. The country's new rulers, under self-proclaimed leader General Abdourahamane Tiani, now also want to distance themselves from France.

A delegation of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, to which Niger belongs, recently left the country without being able to meet Tiani. Observers fear the situation could escalate as the West African bloc has condemned the coup and is not expected to accept the new junta. Many Western countries have already begun to evacuate their citizens.

Resentment towards former colonial power France

The first reaction of the West was also to condemn the coup. Germany, France and the European Union have suspended development aid and budget support to Niger.

But in the country's capital Niamey, demonstrators have expressed their support for those behind the coup and there have been protests in front of the French embassy. Several thousand French troops are stationed in Niger still. France has strong economic interests in Niger, from which it exports uranium.

There were reports in the media that the demonstrations were quelled with tear gas.

"Of course, anti-French resentment is a major problem for the reputation of the entire West in the Sahel," said Matthias Basedau, director of the GIGA Institute for African Studies in Hamburg. He said that the resentment, which was partially justified, was being fueled by Russia, which had expanded its influence in Mali and Burkina Faso.

But Germany did not have the same problem as France, he noted. It "doesn't have these spheres of influence and interests in Africa, and that's why it's always been relatively well regarded," he explained, saying that Germany's formula had been to cooperate intensively on development and to provide money without imposing that many political conditions.

West has an 'image problem'

Those who have launched coups in the Sahel have also benefitted from the fact that international military missions have failed there and that there is growing frustration among the people of the region. Basedau said that this was not enough to explain the coup in Niger but gave the West good reason to reflect on its approach.

"One should avoid any action that could give the impression that geopolitical interests are at play or there is neocolonialist interference," he said, adding that the West really had an "image problem."

"European countries interested in having some form of relationship with Sahelian countries because of their own national interests, need to find a way to not necessarily distance themselves from France, but to really make sure people are aware of the policy differences that they may have," agreed Eguegu.

He said that in this way Germany and others could maintain their influence. "They are not burning EU flags in Bamako or in Niamey or in Ouagadougou. It is specifically the French flag that you see. If they can get the French flag, they [could] of course get the European Union flag or write slogans to explain their dissatisfaction. So there really needs to be the understanding that anti-French sentiment should not be mistaken for anti-European sentiment."

Realpolitik: Germany could maintain relations

For the moment, German Bundeswehr troops are still at their training camp at a military base in Tillia, Niger. If they had to leave, as is the case in Mali where German troops are due to withdraw by 2024, an alternative base would have to be found. Germany would have to rethink the deployment of troops in the region.

The tri-border region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is a hotspot for extremist attacks. The closest countries would be Mauritania to the west and Chad to the east, neither of which are members of ECOWAS. Nor are they particularly stable democracies. Furthermore, control over the migration route via Niger would be at stake.

Basedau explained that it would be costly to move German troops from country to country, coup for coup as it were, and not particularly helpful in the long term.

For Eguegu, "the best thing for the Western countries to do is to actually assess themselves and ask: 'Why have we been chased out? Could we stay here and achive our objectives if we adapt to present political realities?'"

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Eguegu added that the current dilemma provided an opportunity to find agreement because there were dependencies on both sides and the fact that the security situation had deteriorated, despite Western interventions, did not change this. "The question is why it was getting worse and if things are going to get better without the West," he argued. "And that is debatable."

Eguegu also said that although weapons might become more accessible and there might be more military leeway thanks to partnerships with Russia, this would not improve the situation in Niger.

"The solution to the Sahel is not just military," he said. "There's an economic component to it, there is a governance component to it. State building and investing in peace building, investing in national development will cost a lot of money. But the Russians are not in a position to fund that. And that really is the main risk in their strategy of aligning themselves with, or pivoting towards, Russia."

Eguegu predicted that it would be difficult for the West if Niger followed the example of its neighbors and opted to align more closely with Russia. But if the new self-proclaimed rulers of the country rapidly agreed to a transitional phase toward democratic elections, then the West might find a way of coming to terms with this.

This article was originally written in German.
Latest in Ukraine: Jeddah Summit Wraps, More Peace Talks Planned

By VOA News August 06, 2023

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

At least 50% of the 30,000 Russian paratroopers deployed to Ukraine in 2022 have likely been killed or wounded, the U.K. Defense Ministry wrote in its intelligence update on Aug. 6.

Russia called the Jeddah peace talks on Ukraine a doomed attempt by the West to rally the Global South behind Kyiv, the state news agency TASS reported.

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov saying Sunday. His comments came after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.

The Jeddah summit on finding a peaceful end to Russia's war against Ukraine concluded Sunday, with the participants agreeing to continue discussions toward peace, according to a closing statement released by host Saudi Arabia.

Senior officials from 42 countries participated in the two-day Jeddah peace summit, but none were from Russia.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's head of staff, Andriy Yermak, on Sunday called talks held in Jeddah "very productive," while Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to sway the Global South behind Kyiv.

The high-level talks included delegates from the world economies of the BRICS group, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

The head of Brazil's delegation, foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim, stressed, however, that "any real negotiation must include all parties," including Russia, according to a copy of his statement shared with AFP.

"Although Ukraine is the biggest victim, if we really want peace, we have to involve Moscow in this process in some form," he said.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan led Washington's delegation at Jeddah, a senior White House official said.

Western officials and analysts said Saudi diplomacy had been important in securing China's presence at the talks.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, the kingdom has kept ties with both sides presenting itself as a mediator and seeking a bigger role on the world stage.

In his nightly video address from Jeddah, Zelenskyy said, "The greater the consolidation of the world for the sake of restoring a just peace is, the sooner an end will be put to the bombs and missiles with which Moscow wants to replace the norms of international law."

Russia was not involved in this weekend's talks and said it wouldn't be part of the summit planned for the fall.

Beyond its Western backers, Ukraine hoped to garner diplomatic support from more Global South countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey emphasizing how food prices have risen after Russia quit the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal last month and began attacking Ukrainian port facilities.

Russia-Ukraine attacks

At least six people were killed from Russian and Ukrainian shelling overnight, while at least four others were injured.

Ukraine's armed forces using missiles struck the Chonhar bridge connecting occupied Crimea and the occupied part of the Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, while Russia pummeled western Ukraine with drones and missiles Sunday.

The Chonhar bridge attack came after Ukrainian naval drones struck a Russian fuel tanker and another vessel near the Crimean Kerch bridge overnight from Friday to Saturday, halting traffic.

The strikes on these ground lines of communication could create severe logistical challenges for Russian forces in southern Ukraine and facilitate the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said a drone was shot down Sunday south of Moscow, while Moscow's Vnukovo airport suspended flights the same day.

Meanwhile, Russia followed through on its promise to retaliate for Ukrainian drone attacks on the tanker.

Ukraine's air force reported that Russia launched 70 drones and missiles, including cruise missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Zelenskyy thanked Western allies for the advanced air defense systems a including the U.S.-built Patriot and Germany's IRIS-T a that were proving "highly effective" and had "already yielded significant results," protecting Ukrainian skies.

He said Ukraine had shot down "a significant part" of Russia's attacks over the past week, including 65 missiles of various kinds, and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds.

However, at least 10 Russian missiles appear to have broken through Ukraine's air defenses in the overnight attack.

Russian airstrikes targeted a blood transfusion center in the town of Kupiansk in the eastern Kharkiv region late Saturday.

"There are dead and wounded," Zelenskyy said Saturday on his Telegram channel. Kupiansk is a railway hub fewer than 16 kilometers (9.9 miles) from the front line. Zelenskyy said rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene and described the strike as a "war crime."

Zelenskyy did not specify how many casualties there were or whether they were military or civilian.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Observers Say Ukraine Peace Talks Point to Growing Saudi Prominence

By Dale Gavlak August 06, 2023

Saudi Arabia's hosting of talks aimed at finding a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine, observers say, points to further strengthening the oil-rich kingdom's growing prominence in international affairs. Saudi Arabia has drawn 40 disparate countries, including the U.S., China, and India, and others from the Global South, to discuss the conflict.

Day 2 of the Saudi-hosted conference in Jeddah sees bilateral talks taking place. Senior officials from Ukraine and its Western backers, such as the U.S. and the European Union, are present as well as members of the Global South, who have been neutral or even allies of Russia over the conflict. This is China's first time participating in such a forum. Beijing has kept close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia, rejecting international calls to condemn Moscow. Russia is not present but is monitoring the talks.

Observers and Western officials say Saudi diplomacy had been important in securing China's presence at the talks.

Analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib, head of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building in Beirut, told VOA that Middle East jitters that America has been withdrawing from the region encouraged Saudi Arabia to expand its relationships elsewhere. China is its biggest trading partner and helped patch relations with rival Iran. However Khatib says, it's also been the U.S. that wants to engage with Saudi Arabia and encourage its diplomatic forays.

"Saudi willingly wants to diversify its friends and not rely on the U.S. It has been successful doing that. It's reached out to China, Russia. It's trying to build relations with Turkey, with Iran. On the other side, the U.S. is courting Saudi. We will help you gain a prominent role. The U.S. encouraged everyone to come and sent their national security adviser."

Saudi officials see the talks as capping the country's success in adopting a policy of strong ties to Ukraine, China and Russia.

Joost Hiltermann, who directs the International Crisis Group Middle East Program, told Agence France-Presse, that Saudi Arabia "wants to be in the company of an India or a Brazil, because only as a club can these middle powers hope to have impact on the world stage." He added, though, "Whether they will be able to agree on all things, such as the Ukraine war, is a big question."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged there were differences among the participants and urged restoration of the rules-based international order.

A European official told Reuters that the talks have been positive and there was "agreement that respect of territorial integrity and [the] sovereignty of Ukraine needs to be at the heart of any peace settlement."

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Westford, USA, Aug. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to SkyQuest, algae, as a primary photosynthesizer on earth, holds significant commercial value as a natural colorant across several key end-use industries. These industries include food and beverages, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, aquaculture, and cosmetics. Algae-derived natural colorants are gaining traction owing to their unique advantages while synthetic colorants have been widely used in algal pigments market

Browse in-depth TOC on "Algal Pigments Market"

Pages - 211

Tables - 96

Figures  76

Algal pigments have been recognized as natural coloring agents and additives in the food and beverages industry. These pigments offer various food products vibrant and visually appealing hues, replacing synthetic colorants in the algal pigments market. In addition, with the growing demand for clean-label and natural ingredients, algal pigments provide a sustainable alternative that aligns with consumer preferences.

Get a sample copy of this report:

https://www.skyquestt.com/sample-request/algal-pigments-market

Prominent Players in Algal Pigments Market

Cyanotech Corporation

BASF SE

Chr. Hansen Holding A/S

Algatech LTD

DIC Corporation

Dohler Group

Sensient Technologies Corporation

E.I.D. - Parry (India) Limited

Givaudan S.A.

Kemin Industries, Inc.

FMC Corporation

Naturex SA

Kalsec Inc.

Royal DSM N.V.

Far East Flora Holding Pte Ltd

Phycocyanin Technologies LLC

Algix, LLC

Heliae Development, LLC

AlgaeCan Biotech Ltd.

Tianjin Norland Biotech Co., Ltd.

Browse summary of the report and Complete Table of Contents (ToC):

https://www.skyquestt.com/report/algal-pigments-market

Food and Beverage Segment is Expected to Grow the Market Due to the Growing Consumer Demand for Plant-Based and Natural Ingredients

The dominance of food and beverage applications segment in the algae pigments market can be attributed to several factors. There is a growing consumer demand for plant-based and natural ingredients in food products. In addition, algae-derived pigments offer a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic dyes, meeting the preferences of health-conscious consumers.

The markets in the Europe are anticipated to hold the largest share of the global algal pigments market, closely followed by North America. This dominant position can be attributed to several key factors. Firstly, Europe boasts a substantial food and beverages industry, presenting a significant market.

Beta Carotene Segment is Expected to Dominate the Market Due to its Versatile Applications

Beta carotene is a key player in the algal pigments market, accounting for the largest share. This dominance can be attributed to its versatile applications across various industries. Beta carotene is extensively used as a food colouring agent, imparting vibrant yellow to orange hues to different food products. In addition, its natural origin and ability to meet clean-label requirements make it a preferred choice in the food industry.

Regional markets in the Asia-Pacific region are poised to experience substantial growth in the algae pigments market during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to several factors unique to the region. Numerous local and regional players in the algae industry contribute to the market's expansion. These players bring innovation, expertise, and a deep understanding of the local market dynamics, driving the demand for algae-based pigments.

A comprehensive analysis of the major players in the algal pigments 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.

Speak to Analyst for your custom requirements:

https://www.skyquestt.com/speak-with-analyst/algal-pigments-market

Key Developments in Algal Pigments Market

The dry-form segment has recently been projected to hold the largest share of the global algae pigments market. This significant market dominance can be attributed to several key factors. Firstly, the dry form of algae products offers a longer shelf life than other forms, such as liquid or fresh algae.

Key Questions Answered in Algal Pigments 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 Drug of Abuse Testing Market

Global Essential Oils & Plant Extract For Livestock Market

Global Cedarwood Market

Global CoQ10 Supplement Market

Global Orphan Drug Market

About Us:

SkyQuest Technology is leading growth consulting firm providing market intelligence, commercialization and technology services. It has 450+ happy clients globally.

Address:

1 Apache Way, Westford, Massachusetts 01886

Phone:

USA (+1) 617-230-0741

Email: sales@skyquestt.com
Basildon, UK, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

YongSeok Choi has been appointed as the General Manager for Korea and Japan

YongSeok, who will be based in Korea, will help further grow Pharmanovia throughout the APAC region, as the company continues to expand its global presence

Pharmanovia, a global pharmaceutical company that commercialises novel medicines and revitalises, extends and expands the lifecycle of established medicines, has today confirmed the appointment of YongSeok Choi, who will take the role of General Manager for Korea and Japan.

With an impressive career spanning over 24 years within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, YongSeok brings an extensive breadth of knowledge and experience in strategy, business management and operations, and product development. Before joining Pharmanovia, YongSeok was the Chief Executive Officer of BioGraphene Inc, a biotech start-up focused on new drug development for neurodegenerative disorders. Prior to this, YongSeok was a Business Development and Strategy Director at Takeda Korea and held various roles at AstraZeneca.

YongSeok holds a B.S. in Life Science and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from POSTECH, Korea.

In his new role, YongSeok will be based in Korea and will work closely with Pharmanovias global and regional teams, as well as partners in Korea and Japan, to drive the companys growth and identify new business development opportunities.

Dimitri Pimbert, Vice President, APAC, commented: "We are thrilled to welcome YongSeok to the Pharmanovia team. His strategic acumen and expertise within the field of innovative medicines will be fundamental as we look to expand our reach within APAC. We are confident that YongSeok's leadership and knowledge of these key markets will further strengthen our position as a speciality pharmaceutical company.

YongSeok added: It is incredibly exciting to join Pharmanovia as a General Manager, especially during this period of phenomenal progress. I am honoured to lead the charge in growing our Korean operations and building out our presence and capabilities in Japan, where I am confident that we can make a significant impact on patients' lives. I look forward to working with Pharmanovias global and regional leaders and teams to seize opportunities in this dynamic, promising space."

-Ends-

Notes to editors

For further information, please contact:

Alison Dyson, Director of Communications, Pharmanovia

07442 256310/ Alison.dyson@pharmanovia.com

Or pharmanovia@67health.co.uk

About Pharmanovia

Pharmanovia is a global lifecycle management healthcare company. Our purpose is to make medicines fit for tomorrow, to improve the lives of patients globally.

We do this by rediscovering, repurposing or re-engineering established medicines to improve patient outcomes and experiences as well as identifying new chemical entities that complement our existing portfolio to address unmet need.

With a diverse and growing team in over 160 countries across the globe, we deliver high-quality solutions, ethically and sustainably, across our four core therapeutic areas  Endocrinology, Neurology, Cardiovascular and Oncology.

Attachment
SIKA ACQUIRES CHEMA  A LEADING MORTAR MANUFACTURER IN PERU

Sika has agreed to acquire a leading manufacturer of tile setting materials operating under the umbrella brand Chema in Peru. The acquisition strengthens Sikas position in the fast-growing mortar market and provides major cross-selling opportunities through increased presence in the distribution channel. In addition, it significantly extends Sikas manufacturing footprint. In 2022, the business to be acquired generated sales of CHF 50 million.

Chema is a family-owned, high-performing business with strong, well-established brands in the Peruvian mortar market. The company provides a wide range of tile adhesives, tile grouts, as well as other complementary products renowned for their high quality and ease of application. Chema has a strong presence in the distribution channel serving home centers, builders merchants, hardware stores, and smaller retailers. The wide, loyal customer base appreciates the efficient logistic organization and reliability of supply coupled with a top product offering. Four modern plants and seven warehouses allow a nationwide manufacturing and distribution coverage.

The acquisition accelerates the development of Sikas Building Finishing portfolio and significantly strengthens its presence in the distribution channel in Peru, providing exciting cross-selling opportunities for complementary products such as sealants, adhesives, liquid applied membranes, and waterproofing products. Chemas manufacturing footprint perfectly complements the one of Sika Peru. With the combined presence, Sika will have a nationwide manufacturing coverage that will enhance its ability to serve and supply customers with its products throughout the country. The transaction is subject to clearance by the local anti-trust authorities.

Christoph Ganz, Regional Manager Americas: With our combined businesses and the improved market access, we will have an excellent platform to further grow and strengthen our presence in the Peruvian market. The nationwide geographical footprint will support our strategic focus on big cities and enable us to better serve new and existing customers with complete solutions. We are looking forward to welcoming the Chema employees to the Sika family and are excited to develop our business together in the future.

CONTACT

Dominik Slappnig

Corporate Communications &

Investor Relations

+41 58 436 68 21

slappnig.dominik@ch.sika.com

SIKA CORPORATE PROFILE

Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a globally leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing, and protecting in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 103 countries, manufactures in over 400 factories, and develops innovative technologies for customers around the world that facilitate the sustainable transformation of the construction and transportation industries. With more than 33,000 employees, the company generated annual sales of CHF 10.5 billion in 2022.

The media release can be downloaded from the following link:

Media Release




















Company Announcement No 17/2023



Peberlyk 4

6200 Aabenraa

Denmark







Tel +45 74 37 37 37

Fax +45 74 37 35 36







Sydbank A/S

CVR No DK 12626509, Aabenraa

sydbank.dk











7 August 2023

Dear Sirs

Sydbank share buyback programme: transactions in w e ek 3 1

On 6 July 2023 Sydbank announced a share buyback programme of DKK 600m. The share buyback programme commenced on 10 July 2023 and will be completed by 31 January 2024.

The purpose of the share buyback programme is to reduce the share capital of Sydbank and the programme is executed in compliance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 of 8 March 2016, collectively referred to as the Safe Harbour rules.

The following transactions have been made under the share buyback programme:

Number of shares VWAP Gross value (DKK) Accumulated, most recent

announcement



289,000



92,633,170.00 31 July 2023

1 August 2023

2 August 2023

3 August 2023

4 August 2023 18,000

17,000

17,000

17,000

14,800 324.49

325.76

323.70

325.00

334.06 5,840,820.00

5,537,920.00

5,502,900.00

5,525,000.00

4,944,088.00 Total over week 31 83,800 27,350,728.00 Total accumulated during the share buyback programme



372,800



119,983,898.00

All transactions were made under ISIN DK 0010311471 and effected by Danske Bank A/S on behalf of Sydbank A/S. Further information about the transactions, cf Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market abuse and Commission delegated regulation, is available in the attachment.

Following the above transactions, Sydbank holds a total of 380,133 own shares, equal to 0.67% of the Banks share capital.



Yours sincerely



Karen Frsig Jrn Adam Mller

CEO Deputy Group Chief Executive

Attachment
Pune, India, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Fortune Business Insights, global quantum cryptography market size was valued at USD 111.6 million in 2022. The market is projected to grow from USD 128.9 million in 2023 to USD 455.3 million by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 19.8% during the forecast period. Rising Emphasis on Enhancing Cybersecurity to Boost Market Development. Fortune Business Insights presents this information in their report titled "Global Quantum Cryptography Market Forecast, 2023-2030."





Request a Free Sample PDF: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/quantum-cryptography-market-100211





Quantum technologies consist of three key areas, namely communications, computing, and sensing. Quantum Communications, also known as QComms is a process that involves the safe and secure transfer of confidential data across space with the help of quantum mechanics. This process enhances security by using quantum cryptography, which is an encryption method utilizing the principles of quantum mechanics to encode and transfer all kinds of data securely. Since, more industries are understanding the significance of quantum technologies, the quantum cryptography market growth is expected to pick up immense pace.

Key Industry Development:

May 2023 - IBM launched an initiative worth USD 100 million in collaboration with the Japanese and U.S. universities to create a quantum-centric supercomputer in the future. The company also intends to address the challenging task of integrating quantum and classical computers.





Key Takeaways

Quantum Cryptography Market size in North America was USD 45.6 million in 2022

Digitization Increased During COVID-19, Boosting the Demand for Better Security During Communication

Widespread Applications Across Industries to Boost the Use of Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum Cryptography Technologies to Find Robust Application in Healthcare and Government Sectors





Discover the Leading Players Featured in the Report:

Companies leading the global Quantum Cryptography Market are QuintessenceLabs.(Australia), Quside Technologies (Spain), MagiQ Technologies (U.S.), Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Japan), QNu Labs Private Limited. (India), KETS QUANTUM SECURITY LTD. (U.K.), LuxQuanta Technologies S.L. (Spain), Quantum Xchange. (U.S.), ID Quantique (Switzerland), Qrypt (U.S.)





Report Scope & Segmentation

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023 to 2030 Forecast Period 2023 to 2030 CAGR 19.8% 2030 Value Projection USD 455.3 million Base Year 2022 Quantum Cryptography Market Size in 2022 USD 111.6 million Historical Data for 2019 to 2021 No. of Pages 180 Segments covered Type, Security Type, Industry, and Region





Browse Complete Report Details: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/quantum-cryptography-market-100211





Drivers and Restraints:

Rising Emphasis on Enhancing Cybersecurity to Boost Market Development

The prevalence of cyberattacks has increased considerably in recent years, especially during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Many countries across the world are boosting their investments in quantum-safe technologies to boost the cybersecurity of their virtual systems. This factor is expected to enhance the adoption of quantum cryptography technologies.

However, errors in the existing cryptographic algorithms and severe lack of skilled professionals are expected to impede the market progress.





Segmentation

By Type

Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum Random Number Generation

Others

By Security Type

Application Security

Network Security

By Industry

BFSI

Cloud & Data center

Government

Energy & Utilities

Healthcare

Automotive

Others (Gaming, Retail & Consumer Goods, and others)

By Region

North America (the US and Canada)

Europe (the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe)

Asia Pacific (including Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia, and the remaining countries in the region)

South America (including Brazil, Mexico, and the rest of South America) Europe, Asia, and Africa (South Africa, GCC, and Rest of the Middle East & Africa)





Regional Insights:

North America to Dominate Global Market Due to Rising Number of Startups

North America captured a dominant position in the global market in 2022 due to the growing network of startups dealing with quantum communications and rising number of research projects in the U.S.

Europe is also closely following the U.S. with respect to the number of QComms startups, thereby making it a lucrative market for quantum cryptography.





Quick Buy - Quantum Cryptography Market Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/compare-plan/100211





Competitive Landscape:

Key Market Players to Increase Focus on Corporate Growth Strategies to Keep Pace With Changing Technologies

Some of the key players operating in this market are shifting their focus toward entering crucial strategic partnerships and collaborations as no one company can create a complete quantum solution. These strategic partnerships will help them combine their strongest capabilities with their partners expertise. Moreover, these organizations are heavily investing in boosting the skills of their existing workforce, which will further amplify the market growth.





FAQs

How big is the Quantum Cryptography Market?

The Quantum Cryptography Market size was USD 111.6 million in 2022. It is expected to reach USD 455.3 million by 2030.

How fast is the Quantum Cryptography Market growing?

The Quantum Cryptography Market will exhibit a CAGR of 19.8%during the forecast period, 2023-2030.





Related Reports:

Quantum Computing Market Size, Share, Revenue Forecast and Opportunities

Cyber Security Market Overview, Industry Share and Forecast





About Us:

Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them to address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

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Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd.

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Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com
Burlingame, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coherent Market Insights published a report, titled, Car Rental Market, By Category (Intercity/Local Usage, On-Airport, Intra-City/Outstation, Others), By Car Type (Luxury Cars, Executive Cars, Economy Cars, SUV's, MUV's), - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2020  2027, According to the report, the global car rental market is estimated to be valued at $80.0 billion in 2019 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.6% during the forecast period.



Request Sample copy of this Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/3901

Analysts Views on Global Car Rental Market

Car rental refers to the practice of renting a car from a car rental company for the specified period of time, usually ranging from a few hours to several weeks. A car rental agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time and it is a popular service for tourists, travelers, and/or people who need a temporary means of transportation without owning the car. Customers typically choose from a variety of vehicle types, such as compact cars, sedans, SUVs, vans, or even luxury cars, depending on their needs and budget. A variety of car rental services are available worldwide. Customers can rent a vehicle on an hourly, daily, or monthly basis. It is largely practiced at tourist places, where travelers come to visit the city or country.

Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Car Rental Market:

Rising Internet penetration across both developing as well as developed countries is one of the key trends expected to augment the growth of the global car rental market. Players in the market have launched their mobile apps through which customers can easily choose vehicles from portfolio and book the vehicle. For instance, in India, Zoomcar has 20+ different vehicle makes to choose from and offers self-drive services across 24 cities. Its all about customer flexibility as Zoomcar offers individuals the option to pick up a vehicle from a conveniently located parking station or through a doorstep delivery to a location of choice.

Global Car Rental Market  Drivers

Increasing demand for car rental services to augment market growth

In the last few years, the usage of online car rental services has increased in many cities across the world due to the increasing initiative of the service operators. For instance, several market players have adopted advanced mobile technologies meet the transportation needs of consumers. In May 2023, Car Karlo Mobility Technologies, a mobility technology company, announced the launch of its self-driven car rental services in Pune (India) to bring a more customer-centric approach to the car rental market. Customers in Pune can now book a car online by visiting www.carkarlo.in or by downloading the Car Karlo Android app from the Google Play Store.

Car Rental Market Report Coverage

Report Coverage Details Base Year: 2019 Market Size in 2019: US$ 80.0 Bn Historical Data for: 2016 to 2019 Forecast Period: 2020 to 2027 Forecast Period 2020 to 2027 CAGR: 13.6% 2027 Value Projection: US$ 220.0 Bn Geographies covered (27): North America: U.S., Canada

U.S., Canada Europe: Germany, U.K., Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe

Germany, U.K., Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe Asia Pacific: China, India, Japan, Rest of Asia Pacific

China, India, Japan, Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the World Segments covered: By Material Type: Intercity/Local Usage, On-Airport, Intra-City/Outstation, Others

Intercity/Local Usage, On-Airport, Intra-City/Outstation, Others By Car Type: Luxury Cars, Executive Cars, Economy Cars, SUV's, MUV's Companies covered (8): Enterprise Holdings, The Hertz Corporation, Avis Budget Group, Europcar Group, Carzonrent, Sixt SE, Al Futtaim Group, Localiza - Rent a Car, Eco Rent a Car, and GlobalCARS Growth Drivers: Ease in booking via online service owing increasing penetration of smartphones and rising use of internet

Growth in the tourism industry across the globe

Increasing per capita income of the consumers in the developing countrie Restraints & Challenges: Fluctuating prices of crude oil due to the gap between demand and supply

Low cost of public transportation services such as buses and trains

Shift in consumer preference toward rental services to propel market growth

Professionals across the globe are increasingly preferring to drive rented cars, giving up the burden of owning a car. People are also renting cars for weekend getaways and vacations as well, on the highway. Given the fact that owning the car is expensive and comes with a lot of responsibilities, individuals are opting for rental cars. In April 2022, Siemens UK launched an automated car rental program for its staff through Enterprise. The scheme gives over 15,000 employees access to more than 1,400 on-street vehicles in 200 locations across the United Kingdom, as well as dedicated car club vehicles already on-site at Siemens offices across the country.

Global Car Rental Market  Restrain

Environmental concerns to hamper the market growth

One of the key factors expected to hinder growth of the global car rental market is the low cost of public transportation services such as buses and trains and fluctuating prices of crude oil due to the gap between demand and supply. Public transportation is usually cheaper than renting a car. Public transportation fares are usually fixed, while rental car rates can vary depending on the type of car, rental duration, and location. Moreover, with public transportation, individuals dont have to worry about additional expenses such as fuel cost, parking fees, and insurance.

However, car rental is more convenient than public transportation as it gives a lot more flexibility and freedom when it comes to exploring a destination.

Global Car Rental Market  Opportunities

Increasing tourism across the globe is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for players in the global car rental market.

Car rental is growing in popularity around the world due to increase in global tourism, availability of online platforms, ease of booking, and access to the Internet & smartphones. The United States, United Kingdom, and Italy are some of the major countries where car rental services are prominent because these countries have many nearby tourist destinations and also tourists from all over the world visit these tourist places throughout the year. In June 2022, Virtuo announced the launch of car rental service across Italy. This expansion makes a gradual integration of compact vehicles and those that can accommodate up to seven people.

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Global Car Rental Market - Key Developments

In November 2021, Hertz rentals partnered with Tesla Motors to supply around 100,000 Model 3S by 2022, and half of these vehicles are expected to be rented out to Uber drivers.

In May 2021, Leasys launched the new e-commerce feature that will make it possible to complete the purchase of used cars online, in an even easier and faster way in Italy.

In February 2021, Virtuo expanded its rental services across Italy and the company also dealt with several car manufacturers, offering high-end vehicles, to customers.

In April 2021, GoAir and Eco Europcar announced the launch of car rental services across 100 cities in India, including 25 airports.

Key Market Takeaways:

Global car rental market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.6% over the forecast period. The global car rental market is growing rapidly in response to the rise in the number of people taking business and leisure trips across the globe.

On the basis of Material Type: Intra-City/Outstation Segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period and this is attributed to the increase in global tourism and/or increasing number of tourists across the globe.

On the basis of Car Type: Luxury Cars Segment is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period and this is attributed to the rising disposable incomes and rising expenditure on business travel.

On the basis of Region, North America and Europe are expected to hold a dominant position during the forecast period due increasing demand for car rental services, consumer preference toward rental services, and rapid growth in tourism in these regions.

Competitive Landscape:

Key players operating in the global car rental market include Enterprise Holdings, The Hertz Corporation, Avis Budget Group, Europcar Group, Carzonrent, Sixt SE, Al Futtaim Group, Localiza - Rent a Car, Eco Rent a Car, and GlobalCARS, among others.

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Detailed Segmentation:

Global Car Rental Market, By Category: Intercity/Local Usage On-Airport Intra-City/Outstation Others

Global Car Rental Market, By Car Type: Luxury Cars Executive Cars Economy Cars SUV's MUV's

Global Car Rental Market, By Region: North America By Country: U.S. Canada Latin America By Country: Brazil Mexico Argentina Rest of Latin America Europe By Country: Germany U.K. France Italy Spain Russia Rest of Europe Asia Pacific By Country China India Japan Australia South Korea ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East By Country: GCC Countries Israel Rest of Middle East Africa By Country/Region: South Africa Central Africa North Africa



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New York, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "MicroRNA Research Tools, Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Global Markets" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p02403047/?utm_source=GNW

This study focuses on the global market of miRNA tools and provides an updated review including its applications in various arenas of diagnostics and therapeutics.



The report deals with miRNA tools covering technologies used in the biomedical industry. These products are miRNA quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, next-generation sequencing, microarray, fluorescent in situ hybridization, isolation and purification tools and other tools like inhibitors, probes and vectors.



The report also covers miRNA tools by end user and application.The end users for miRNA tools are categorized as academic and other research institutes, life science industry, and service sectors.



The report covers market application areas, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, immune diseases, neurological disorders, metabolic disorders, and others (virology, liver diseases, genetic diseases among others).



The scope of the study is global.Current and projected market forecasts during the forecast period (2023 to 2028) are discussed.



Figures for 2023 are estimated, except where actual results have been reported. This report includes forecasts by technology type, end user, application and region from 2023 through 2028.



The report also includes an analysis of leading and emerging competitors in the current worldwide miRNA research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics market.Profiles of manufacturers of leading products as well as biotechnology companies with novel products in development, are analyzed to define the specific product strategies employed.



This report also assesses emerging trends and technologies in the market.



Report Includes:

- 33 data tables and 43 additional tables

- An up-to-date overview and industry analysis of the global markets for microRNA (miRNA) research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics

- Analyses of the global market trends, with historical market revenue data (sales figures) for 2020-2022, estimates for 2023, forecasts for 2024, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2028

- Estimation of the actual market size and revenue forecast for the global miRNA tools markets, and corresponding market share analysis based on technology type, application (therapeutic area), end user, and region

- Updated information on key market drivers and opportunities, industry shifts and regulations, and other region and industry specific macroeconomic variables that will influence this market demand in the coming years (2023-2028)

- Insight into the recent industry structure, competitive aspects of each product segments, increasing investment on R&D activities, market growth strategies, and company revenue share analysis

- Review of the selected new miRNA products, research tools and diagnostics services, recent drug candidates, clinical trial applications, and new trends and developments in the biomedical industry

- Examination of the extensive portfolio of miRNA pathway drug candidates, some already in Phase II clinical trials, showing promising clinical data in various arenas of diagnostics and therapeutics, including cancer, hepatitis infections, and cardiovascular diseases etc.

- Identification of leading and emerging competitors in the current worldwide market for miRNA research tools, diagnostics, and therapeutics, and analysis of their competitive landscape based on recent developments and segmental revenues

- Descriptive company profiles of the leading global players, including Agilent Technologies Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Illumina Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Merck KGaA, Qiagen N.V., and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.



Summary:

microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNA that play pivotal role in gene silencing and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. Studies have shown that thousands of human protein-coding genes are regulated by miRNAs, indicating that miRNAs have regulatory roles in diverse cellular functions, such as apoptosis, proliferation and differentiationall of which have shown to be contributing factor in diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular conditions. These features make it a potential diagnostic and therapeutic candidate. Currently, more than 2,500 mature microRNAs have been identified in the human genome. An important factor for success in miRNA research is access to high-performance tools and technologies.



Several tools and technologies are used in the miRNA research continuum, from isolation through discovery, profiling, quantitation, validation and functional analysis. Sensitive and advanced laboratory analysis methods [quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT- qPCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS), and microarray] and tools (probes, reagents, and kits) for miRNA isolation, discovery, profiling, quantitation, validation and functional analysis are being largely used globally.



Most known miRNAs have been identified by random cloning and sequencing.There is an estimated REDACTED% chance of uncovering a unique miRNA using this methodthus making discovery efforts very time-consuming and laborious.



Recent studies have focused on bioinformatics, where algorithms predict miRNAs based on the presence of hairpins and other structures associated with the presence of miRNAs.



The miRNA tools market has observed moderate growth recently and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of REDACTED% from 2023 to 2028.The need for new research tools is constant as users deepen scientific understanding and search for the next breakthrough.



MiRNA profiling is quickly becoming a promising technique in many research fields, such as translational research. It can provide useful information on the role of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of human diseases such as cancers, metabolic diseases, neurological disorders and infectious diseases.



The miRNA tools market growth is attributed to increased research at the genetic level, increased use of miRNA for therapeutic and diagnostic research purposes, the rise in R&D funding, and increased demand for advanced analysis techniques and assay methods. Microarray technology and the advent of NGS in the early 2000s significantly broadened our understanding of miRNAs and introduced new opportunities for clinical applications.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p02403047/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Dublin, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Medical Writing Market (2023-2028) by Type, Application, End-User, and Geography, Competitive Analysis, Impact of Covid-19, Impact of Economic Slowdown & Impending Recession with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Medical Writing Market is estimated to be USD 4.73 Bn in 2023 and is expected to reach USD 8.38 Bn by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 12.1%.

Competitive Quadrant



The report includes a Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis



The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Medical Writing Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.



The analyst analyses the Global Medical Writing Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Medical Writing Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model, PESTLE Analysis, and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 and the impact of economic slowdown & impending recession on the market are also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains a competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's competitive positioning tool.

Report Highlights:

A complete analysis of the market, including the parent industry

Important market dynamics and trends

Market segmentation

Historical, current, and projected size of the market based on value and volume

Market shares and strategies of key players

Recommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the market

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 176 Forecast Period 2023 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $4.74 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $8.39 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 12.1% Regions Covered Global

Market Dynamics







Drivers

Rapid Growth in the Medical Sciences

Increasing Demand for Outsourcing of Medical Writing Capabilities

Growth in Drafting Trial Regulation and Patent Registration Documents

Restraints

Lack of Standardized Guidance Concerning Acknowledgment for the Medical Writer's Specific Contributions

Opportunities

Role of New Technologies in Medical Writing

Increasing Dependence Upon the Internet and Digital Communications

Growth in Medical Device Regulations

Challenges

Lack of Quality Evaluation Instruments and Challenges Involved in Regulatory Medical Writing







Companies Mentioned

Cactus Communications

Cardinal Health

Certara (EQT)

Clinexa Life Sciences Pvt

Covance

Freyr Solutions

Icon PLC

InClin, Inc.

Indegene

InfocusRx

Intertek Group PLC

IQVIA Holdings, Inc.

MakroCare

Nucleus Global (Huntsworth)

OMICS International

Parexel International Corporation (Pamplona Capital)

Quanticate

SIRO Clinpharm Pvt. Ltd.

Synchrogenix (Certara)

Syneos Health

Trilogy Writing & Consulting

UDG Healthcare PLC

Market Segmentation



The Global Medical Writing Market is segmented based on Type, Application, End-User, and Geography.

By Type, the market is classified into Regulatory Writing, Scientific Writing, Clinical Writing, and Others.

By Application, the market is classified into Medical Journalism, Medical Education, and Medico Marketing Writing.

By End-User, the market is classified into Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Companies, And Contract Research Organizations (CROs).

By Geography, the market is classified into Americas, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/r6m9zr

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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The Nigerian army is expected to lead any possible Ecowas military action against Niger's junta.

The military junta said it shuttered the country's airspace because of the "threat of intervention." An ECOWAS demand to restore President Bazoum or risk military action has now expired.

Niger's military junta has announced the closure of the country's airspace, expectant of a West African bloc's threat to carry out a military intervention in the country should ousted President Mohamed Bazoum not be released and reinstated.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had given the coup leaders until Sunday to reverse their military takeover and restore Bazoum's rule.

The deadline has now passed, with the junta organizing large shows of support in the capital Niamey in the run-up to its expiration.

What did the junta say?

The junta said it was closing Niger's airspace "for all aircraft until further notice" as of Sunday, citing "the threat of intervention" as its motive.

It warned that any attempt to violate the country's airspace would be met with an "energetic and immediate response."

The so-called National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, a council of generals who have taken power, said it had seen indications of a "pre-deployment in preparation for intervention" by two Central African countries it did not name.

It warned that "any state involved will be considered co-belligerent."

ECOWAS deadline passes

On July 30, ECOWAS defense chiefs said they had agreed to intervene if the junta did not meet its demands within one week and return the country to normal constitutional order.

On Friday, the bloc's defense ministers said that they had reached a plan for military action against Niger's junta.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Niger Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

But on Saturday, the junta, led by the former head of the presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani continued its move to consolidate power by appointing military insiders to key government positions.

Tchiani named himself president after announcing the suspension of the constitution and dissolution of government institutions.

The junta has also seen support among some of the country's youth, who have begun to band together into a citizens' militia.

On Sunday, thousands of coup supporters rallied at a stadium in the capital Niamey to support the military generals' defiance. Coup leaders greeted the crowd, in a venue draped in Russian flags and decorated with portraits of the generals.

Tchiani, formerly the head of the presidential guard who set off the coup by detaining the man he was assigned to protect, was the guest of honor.

(AFP, Reuters)
Raleigh, North Carolina, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vontier Corporation (NYSE: VNT), a leading global provider of critical technologies and solutions to connect, manage and scale the mobility ecosystem, and Veeder-Root, a subsidiary of Vontier and worldwide leader in fuel management and environmental technology, announced today that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved the In-Station Diagnostics (ISD) certification for Veeder-Roots TLS-450PLUS Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG). The certification took effect on July 28, 2023.

Under CARB regulations, California gas stations with an annual throughput of more than 600,000 gallons must be equipped with an approved In-Station Diagnostic system. The approval of the TLS-450PLUS positions Veeder-Roots ISD as the only certified solution that supports all vapor processor configurations and all certified vapor recovery nozzles. California fuel retailers now have the opportunity to upgrade their ATG systems to the latest technology the industry has to offer, while staying compliant with all ISD performance requirements as defined by CP-201.

Vontier is committed to supporting our customers as they adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and industry trends by leveraging our broad portfolio of market-leading solutions, said Mark Morelli, President & CEO of Vontier. Sustainability is key to our strategy as we pave the way to a cleaner, more secure, and more connected mobility ecosystem. At the same time, delivering differentiated solutions that increase our customers productivity is equally as critical, and the TLS-450PLUS enables both.

The TLS-450PLUS platform brings retailers additional capabilities that improve operational efficiency, including remote monitoring and management, enhance network security, and lower cost of ownership while still providing the same reliability of the TLS-350 system they know so well. The TLS-450PLUS also provides extended record retention, role-based access management, and an intuitive user interface via the integral touch screen or a web browser.

"Were excited to bring the TLS-450PLUS to this important market, said Dave Coombe, President of Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Fueling Solutions. This certification is the result of close coordination and collaboration between our engineering team and CARB. Were proud to continue our 150-year legacy of providing innovative, expandable solutions and look forward to supporting our California customers with the TLS-450PLUS for years to come.

ABOUT VONTIER

Vontier (NYSE: VNT) is a global industrial technology company uniting critical mobility and multi-energy technologies and solutions to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving, more connected mobility ecosystem. Leveraging leading market positions, decades of domain expertise and unparalleled portfolio breadth, Vontier enables the way the world moves  delivering smart, safe and sustainable solutions to our customers and the planet. Vontier has a culture of continuous improvement built upon the foundation of the Vontier Business System and embraced by over 8,500 colleagues worldwide. Additional information about Vontier is available on the Companys website at www.vontier.com.

ABOUT VEEDER-ROOT

Veeder-Root, a Vontier business, is a leading global supplier of fuel management and environmental solutions with a tradition of excellence in the petroleum industry. Our portfolio of market leading products includes: Veeder-Root Automatic Tank Gauges, probes and sensors, Red Jacket submersible pumps and pressurized line leak detectors, HydrX Fuel Conditioning System, EMR meter registers, and stage II vapor recovery solutions. Our products improve profitability and abate risk for customers by delivering solutions to manage onsite operations, compliance reporting, fuel procurement, inventory reconciliation, and accounting processes. Veeder-Root products and services are installed in over 500,000 tanks globally and responsible for 22 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually. To find out more about Veeder-Root, visit veeder.com.

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VALHALLA, N.Y., Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USI Insurance Services (USI), a world leader in risk management, employee benefit and retirement consulting, has been recognized as a Top Insurance Employer for the sixth consecutive year by Insurance Business America (IBA). Now in its sixth year, IBAs annual Top Insurance Employer program recognizes leading U.S. insurance organizations based on a series of employee satisfaction metrics, including benefits, compensation, culture, employee development and commitment to diversity and inclusion.



Commenting on the announcement, Michael Sicard, chairman and chief executive officer for USI, stated: We are honored to once again be recognized among Insurance Business Americas leading insurance industry employers for the sixth consecutive year. I want to congratulate our more than 10,000 team members who make this multi-year industry recognition possible and thank them for the invaluable contributions they bring to our organization and the clients and communities we serve each day.



Kim Van Orman, senior vice president and chief human resources officer for USI, added: We are proud to have cultivated a supportive and inclusive culture at USI that rewards and empowers our people to recognize their full potential and grow both personally and professionally. This multi-year industry achievement serves as continued motivation for us to consistently raise the bar when it comes to innovating an exceptional employee experience that drives satisfaction, engagement and superior business results.



IBAs Top Insurance Employer program consists of a two-phase qualification process, including an employer form submission and an anonymous employee satisfaction survey. Company results are distributed across four categories based on the number of employees and overall employee satisfaction scores. Learn more about IBAs Top Insurance Employers program.



About USI

USI is one of the largest insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the world, delivering property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, program and retirement solutions to large risk management clients, middle market companies, smaller firms and individuals. Headquartered in Valhalla, New York, USI connects over 10,000 industry-leading professionals from more than 200 offices to serve clients local, national and international needs. USI has become a premier insurance brokerage and consulting firm by leveraging the USI ONE Advantage, an interactive platform that integrates proprietary and innovative client solutions, networked local resources and enterprise-wide collaboration to deliver customized results with positive, bottom-line impact. USI attracts best-in-class industry talent with a long history of deep and continuing investment in our local communities. For more information, visit usi.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

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BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restb.ai , a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision solutions for the real estate industry, today announced a strategic partnership with Bradford Technologies , a pioneer in providing innovative solutions for Valuation Professionals. As part of the partnership, Restb.ai's advanced computer vision and machine learning technology will be integrated into Bradford Technologies' report quality control processes.



This collaboration, announced today from the Valuation Expo in Las Vegas, marks a significant step in the enhancement of appraisal modernization. Integrating Restb.ai's cutting-edge AI technology with Bradford's solutions aims to automate and bolster quality control processes, including detecting image issues such as out-of-focus images and other problematic content.

Working with Bradford, we are providing the newest and most advanced AI technology to accelerate the modernization of the appraisal process, said Tony Pistilli, General Manager, Valuations for Restb.ai and one of the appraisal industrys most respected voices.

Restb.ais Visual Insights artificial intelligence technology takes a photo and converts it into detailed information. This is a service every appraiser needs to improve their inspection efficiency, said Jeff Bradford, CEO of Bradford Technologies. "We have been providing innovative services to our customers for over 35 years and are proud to partner with restb.ai to again, provide a trailblazing service to our appraiser customers, he added.

Restb.ai's quality control solution is a key component of its new Valuation Product Suite, an innovative product lineup designed explicitly for the appraisal industry. The suite encompasses advanced technology for Comparable Properties, Data Collection, Form Pre-Population/Validation, and Restb.ais proprietary Appraisal Complexity Score.

Restb.ai is unveiling its new Valuation Product Suite at the 20th Annual Valuation Expo, held August 7-9 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Nathan Brannen, Chief Product Officer at Restb.ai and one of real estates most experienced artificial intelligence veterans, is scheduled to speak at the expo .

About Restb.ai

Restb.ai, the leader in AI and computer vision for real estate, provides image recognition and data enrichment solutions for many of the industrys top brands and leading innovators. Its advanced AI-powered technology automatically analyzes property imagery to unlock visual insights at scale that empowers real estate companies with relevant and actionable property intelligence. Restb.ai is like having a real estate expert instantly research and provide a deep insight into each of the 1 million property photos uploaded daily.

About Bradford Technologies

For over 35 years, Bradford Technologies has been dedicated to producing innovative solutions for Valuation Professionals. Ranging from ClickFORMS, the most intuitive appraisal application available to cutting-edge Computer-Aided Appraisal Software. Bradford Technologies continues to develop trailblazing products that set the benchmark for the industry. For more information on Bradford Technologies, call 800-622-8727 or visit www.BradfordSoftware.com.

For more information on Restb.ai, visit its website . For Restb.ai-related media inquiries, please reach out to Maya Makarem at contact@restb.ai or maya@restb.ai or Kevin Hawkins at 1-206-866-1220 or kevin@wavgroup.com .

Media contacts:

Kevin Hawkins 1+ (206) 866-1220

kevin@wavgroup.com or

Maya Makarem

maya@restb.ai

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fd6b8759-59fe-4432-9087-066e942729c8

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ff6609dc-c683-4b4f-93d5-8a5b1968d1ba

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2b2dda5b-01ea-4d8b-8de9-f915740ac097
New York, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "AI in Pathology Market by Component, Neural Network, Application, End User, & Region - Global Forecast to 2028" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06482912/?utm_source=GNW

AI models can analysed clinical data, genomic information, and pathology images to predict patient prognosis and disease progression. These models assist in personalized treatment planning, identifying high-risk patients, and optimizing healthcare resource allocation. It involves the use of advanced computational algorithms, machine learning techniques, and computer vision methods to analyse pathology images, extract relevant information, and assist pathologists in diagnostic decision-making.



The drug discovery segment accounted for the largest share during the forecast period, by application.

In 2022, the drug discovery segment held the largest share of the AI in pathology market.The significant growth in this segment can be attributed to various factors, including the advancements in high throughput screening and imaging technologies, the increasing utilization of AI in toxicology testing for illicit drugs, the rising expenditure on pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development (R&D), and the ability of AI in pathology to accelerate the development of new therapeutics, improve diagnostic accuracy, and enhance approaches to personalized medicine.



These factors contribute to the substantial share of the drug discovery application segment in the AI in pathology market.



Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies is the fastest growing end-user segment in the AI in pathology market in 2022.

The AI in pathology market is divided into different end-user segments, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals and reference laboratories, and academic and research institutes.Among these, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies segment is projected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.



This segments significant share and rapid growth can be attributed to the advancement of drug discovery and development processes, as well as the increasing utilization of AI in pathology for drug toxicology testing. Biotechnology companies rely on AI-based digital pathology for various purposes, including biobanking, biopharmaceutical studies, molecular assays, and the development of individualized medicine.



North America to witness the highest growth rate and accounted for largest share during the forecast period.

During the forecast period, the North America market is anticipated to exhibit the highest growth rate.The growth of the market in the North America region can be attributed to several factors.



Firstly, there have been substantial investments to modernize pathology infrastructure in the region, which is driving market growth.Additionally, there is an increasing adoption of digital pathology solutions in North America, contributing to the overall market expansion.



Moreover, the continuous expansion of the healthcare infrastructure and the growing availability of advanced AI technologies in the market are further boosting the growth in this region. The increasing focus on technology, patient safety, and quality improvement, combined with technological advancements in medical devices and government initiatives, continues to drive the adoption of AI in pathology market in North America.



The break-down of primary participants is as mentioned below:

 By Company Type - Tier 1: 45%, Tier 2: 30%, and Tier 3: 25%

 By Designation - C-level: 42%, Director-level: 31%, and Others: 27%

 By Region - North America: 32%, Asia Pacific: 26%, Europe: 32%, Middle East & Africa: 5%, Latin America: 5%



Key Players in the AI in Pathology Market

The key players functioning in the AI in pathology market include Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Hologic, Inc. (US), Akoya Biosciences, Inc. (US), Aiforia Technologies Plc (Finland), Indica Labs Inc. (US), OptraScan (US), Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. (Israel), Mindpeak GmbH (Germany), Tribun Health (France), Techcyte, Inc. (US), Deep Bio Inc. (Korea), Lumea Inc. (US), Visiopharm (Denmark), aetherAI (Taiwan), Aiosyn (Netherlands), Paige AI, Inc. (US), Proscia Inc. (US), PathAI, Inc. (US), Tempus Labs, Inc. (US), Konfoong Biotech International Co., Ltd. (China), DoMore Diagnostics AS (Norway), Verily Life Sciences, LLC (US), deepPath (US), and 4D Path Inc (US).



Research Coverage:

The report analyses the AI in pathology market.It aims to estimate the market size and future growth potential of various market segments based on components, neural network, application, end-user, and region.



The report also provides a competitive analysis of the key players in this market, along with their company profiles, product offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.



Reasons to Buy the Report

This report will enrich established firms and new entrants/smaller firms to gauge the markets pulse, which, in turn, would help them garner a greater share of the market. Firms purchasing the report could use one or a combination of the below-mentioned strategies to strengthen their positions in the market.



This report provides insights on:

 Analysis of key drivers: (Increasing adoption of AI in pathology to enhance lab efficiency, growing digitization of pathology, augmenting telepathology with AI advancements, rise in cases of misdiagnoses, and technology advancements in deep learning enabling synergy with artificial intelligence (AI) in pathology space), restraints (high cost of digital pathology systems, lack of skilled AI workforce and ambiguous regulatory guidelines for medical software), opportunities (growing demand of personalized medicines, shortage of skilled pathologists), and challenges (lack of sufficient data to train the AI algorithms, data privacy concerns, lack of transparency and interoperability) influencing the growth of the AI in pathology market.

 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product & service launches in the AI in pathology market.

 Market Development: Comprehensive information on the lucrative emerging markets, component, neural network, applications, end-user, and region.

 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about the product portfolios, growing geographies, recent developments, and investments in the AI in pathology market.

 Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, growth strategies, product offerings, and capabilities of the leading players in the AI in pathology market like Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Hologic, Inc. (US).

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06482912/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Lake City, Colo., Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Our planet needs our protection now more than ever, and when we spend time outdoors, its impossible not to fall in love with natures magic and mysteries. Thats why Green Builder Media has brought back our Fall in Love with Nature campaign for the second year, making it easy for you to play outside!

Take a moment to unplug from the world of humans and reconnect with the natural world. Release your mind for a while and allow your soul to take over. While in that frame of mind, shoot a short video of yourself (10 seconds is just fine!) letting us know what you love most about nature and what youre doing to protect the planet.

Send us your video and youll be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 REI gift card! (Helpful hint: When you click the link to enter you can watch last year's contest winner's video to get inspiration for yours.)

No action is too small, and big actions rock! Green Builder Media wants to celebrate them all. The contest ends August 25, so don't delay: Enter the contest today and share with your friends!

Were inspired by the incredible stories that people are sharing with us about what theyre doing to combat climate change," says Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman. "We love seeing how passionate people are about protecting the planet. This is a favorite project of mine because reaching our climate goals is an all-hands-on-deck effort. Join usupload your video and help us spread the word that everyday actions make a big difference!

About Green Builder Media

Green Builder Media is North Americas leading media company focused on green building and sustainable living, affecting positive change by providing inspirational information to over 200,000 progressive building professionals and millions of early-adopter and first-mover consumers who are interested in sustainable living. Green Builder Media generates award-winning editorial, including breaking news, prominent market research, original insights, and visionary thought pieces. With a comprehensive suite of content marketing, digital, social, and print media options, high-profile demonstration projects, market intelligence, and data services, and live events, Green Builder Media offers a blend of visionary and practical information covering a broad spectrum of sustainable living topics, including Internet of Things, smart home technologies, energy efficiency, intelligent water, indoor air quality, resilient housing, renewables, and clean transportation.







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Allen, Texas, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heroes on the Water is hosting its 4th annual kayak fishing tournament named in memory of founder, Jim Dolan. The tournament runs from Sep 16th to Oct 1st this year and is open to everyone. It is a virtual kayak fishing tournament, which means anglers can fish anywhere in the U.S.

There are seven tournaments, both saltwater and freshwater, across 4 regions. It is $50 to sign up for any tournament of your choosing. All proceeds go towards supporting veterans, law enforcement officers, and first responders through Heroes on the Water programs across the country. Great prize packages can be won, provided by our generous sponsors Plano, Abu Garcia, and 13 Fishing.

In addition to the tournament, limited edition t-shirts and decals can be purchased until Aug 28th, after which the raffle opens. Check back for fun raffle prizes! Additional sponsors for the tournament include Veteran Car Donations, Sportsmans Adventures and YakAttack.

This years tournament director is Captain Scott Null. Capt. Scott has been fishing the Texas coast for over fifty years and currently guides out of Port OConnor. He specializes in sight casting to redfish from his Sabine poling skiff on the clear water grass flats and back lakes in the area. He is also co-host of the Bite Me, a popular Saltwater Fishing Podcast, and has written numerous articles for Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, Tide, among others.

Capt. Scott has been a supporter and volunteer for Heroes on the Water since inception. He was one of the guides to help execute the first kayak fishing trip on the Texas coast with patients from BAMC. As a retired Houston Homicide detective, he understands the need for time outdoors to reset and relax when time permits. Kayak fishing has been a part of his life since 2003.

When you support Heroes on the Water, you are supporting the mental health and well-being of U.S. military veterans, law enforcement officers, first responders and their families. This annual kayak fishing tournament is a fun way to give back to heroes who help keep our communities and country safe.

Heroes on the Water chapters across the U.S. hold monthly kayak fishing events at no cost. These events provide a safe space for veterans, law enforcement officers, and first responders to share their experiences, decompress and connect with others who share similar backgrounds.

Heroes on the Water introduces participants to the calming effects of being out on the water and provides tools that help cope with trauma, stress, and other injuries. Kayak fishing and outdoor recreational therapy is proven to alleviate stress and anxiety, improve relationships and increase confidence.

Heroes on the Water is a 501(c)3 charity with over 50 volunteer-led chapters across the United States, and 6 therapeutic programs. To learn more about the tournament, register, buy a shirt or raffle tickets, go to: https://heroesonthewater.org/2023tournament/



###

Founded in 2007, Heroes on the Water is a 501(c)3 non-profit that provides recreational wellness experiences to veterans, first responders and their families. Our primary modality is kayak fishing which has proven cognitive and emotional benefits. These programs incorporate structured activities in a pressure-free environment creating opportunities for community building and personal healing. Our participants receive much needed camaraderie and support.

HeroesontheWater.org | Videos | Success Stories

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Portland, Oregon, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Rock Coffee Bar continues to expand its presence in Arizona with the opening of a new store in Laveen. This will be the boutique coffee chains 34th location in the state and 30th in the greater Phoenix metro area. Known for its premium roasted coffees, teas, smoothies, and Fuel Energy drinks, the new Black Rock Coffee Bar location is set to open on Friday, August 11th.

Located in Maricopa Country approximately eight miles southwest of Central Phoenix at the intersection of 35th and Baseline on 3515 West Baseline Road, the new Black Rock Coffee Bar store will celebrate its grand opening by offering all customers $2.00 medium drinks all day at this location as well as other specials throughout the following week.

We are thrilled to be a part of the Laveen community and are eager to serve and support our neighbors, said Daniel Brand, Co-Founder Black Rock Coffee Bar. The Phoenix market is our second home as a brand, and the place that Ive called home personally for the last six years. Every new store we open in Arizona is close to my heart. As we do with all our stores, we aim to create a welcoming environment where the community can come together, connect and build meaningful relationships.

The new 2000-square-foot Black Rock Coffee Bar store incorporates Black Rocks signature industrial modern design.

With more than 115 stores across the U.S., the popular coffee chain is set to become the go-to destination for all coffee enthusiasts seeking fast and friendly service. The skilled team of baristas at Black Rock are committed to enhancing the overall customer experience making it their mission to brighten their customers' day.

Black Rock Coffee Bar is guided by three principles - coffee, community and connection. Its mission is to be a positive force in the communities it serves.

Founded in 2008 in Portland, Oregon, an area of the Pacific Northwest known for its coffee excellence, Black Rock Coffee Bar continues its rapid expansion in the West and into the Sunbelt with locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The boutique coffee chain recently was named the Fastest Growing Private Company in Oregon and SW Washington in 2021 by the Portland Business Journal. Last year, Black Rock Coffee Bar ranked 837th among Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companies by Inc. Magazines 5000 Annual List.

The Black Rock culture prides itself on providing opportunities for young people to learn how to lead, run a business, and develop people skills.

About Black Rock Coffee Bar

Black Rock Coffee Bar is a national boutique coffee shop that is known for its premium roasted coffees, teas, smoothies and flavorful Fuel energy drinks. Founded as a family owned and operated business in Oregon in 2008, Black Rock Coffee Bar has grown to more than 100 retail locations in seven states. The Black Rock culture prides itself on not only being a positive force for the communities it serves, but also the team members that fuel their locations day in and day out. An important aspect of their team mission is to recognize those that go above and beyond by displaying the 4Gs of Black Rock - grit, growth, gratitude, and grace.

For more information, visit https://br.coffee/

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Niger's junta has revoked a draft of military cooperation agreements with France - a move that could drastically reshape a fight against Islamist insurgents in the region - as ousted President Mohamed Bazoum has warned of the coup' d'etat's "devastatingconsequences".

In keeping with recent coups in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, last week's military takeover in Niger has come amid a growing wave of anti-French sentiment with many residents accusing the former colonial ruler of interfering in their affairs.

France has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops in Niger, helping to fight a decade-long insurgency by led by groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State armed group that has destabilised West Africa's Sahel region.

A decision about the revocation of five military deals with France dating from between 1977 and 2020 was read out on national television late on Thursday by junta representative Amadou Abdramane.

Abdramane added that a diplomatic notice will be sent to France to that effect.

There has been no immediate response from Paris to the announcement.

#Niger: The National Council for the Protection of Homeland (NSP) has terminated the duties of several personalities including Ambassadors namely; Nigeria, USA, France and TOGOLESE Republic. pic.twitter.com/z2hhQkRaA1-- Zagazola (@ZagazOlaMakama) August 4, 2023

This comes as Niger's regional and Western partners - including France - have imposed sweeping sanctions in an effort to pressure the coup leaders to restore constitutional order after Bazoum's overthrow last week - the seventh coup in West and Central Africa since 2020.

However, junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, has said he will not back down.

Tiani has won the backing of the juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso and cited persistent insecurity as his main justification for seizing power, although recent data on attacks in the country shows that security has actually been improving.

Devastating consequences

Meanwhile, president Bazoum said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post that he is being held hostage and has called on the international community to restore constitutional order.

Bazoum wrote on Thursday, "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."

 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 who have been arbitrarily imprisoned  @mohamedbazoum addresses the US @washingtonpost https://t.co/jCOPK3FXvU-- Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) August 4, 2023

This comes as Niger's ambassador to Washington also called on the junta to "come to reason" and return power to President Bazoum before the country and the wider region collapse.

"If Niger collapses, the entire Sahel will collapse, will be destabilized," Ambassador Kiari Liman-Tinguiri said in an interview on Niger's independence day.

"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.

Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Niger Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

Only a few hours later, the junta in Niamey announced that it was sacking Liman-Tinguiri as well as Niger's ambassadors to France, Nigeria and Togo.

 RFI et France 24 s'indignent de la suspension de leur diffusion au Niger. France Medias Monde denonce une decision prise hors de tout cadre conventionnel et legal...  #information #afrique #libertedelapresse #pluralisme pic.twitter.com/uqc4NHI7xs-- France Medias Monde (@France_MM) August 3, 2023

French state media 'off the air'

In a further sign of the junta's resistance to one-time allies, Niger has suspended the broadcasts of France 24 and Radio France Internationale - drawing condemnation from the French foreign ministry.

The move echoes similar post-coup crackdowns on French media outlets by the juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso, who have also kicked out French troops, many of whom are now stationed in Niger.
Trading Symbols: TSX/NYSE AMERICAN: SVM

ASX: ORR

VANCOUVER, BC and PERTH, Australia, Aug. 6, 2023 /CNW/ - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp") (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM) and OreCorp Limited (ASX: ORR) ("OreCorp") are pleased to announce the signing of a binding scheme implementation deed (the "Agreement") whereby Silvercorp will acquire all fully-paid ordinary shares of OreCorp not held by Silvercorp or its associates (the "OreCorp Shares"), pursuant to an Australian scheme of arrangement under Part 5.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the "Scheme"), subject to the satisfaction of various conditions.

Transaction Highlights

OreCorp shareholders to receive A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share (valued at A$0.45) for each OreCorp Share held, representing total consideration with an implied value of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share. 1

OreCorp's Board unanimously recommends OreCorp shareholders vote in favour of the Scheme, subject to no Superior Proposal 2 emerging for OreCorp and an independent expert concluding, and continuing to conclude, that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders.

emerging for OreCorp and an independent expert concluding, and continuing to conclude, that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Silvercorp to provide OreCorp with approximately A$28 million in funding via an equity placement (more fully described below) to immediately advance development of its Nyanzaga Gold Project in Tanzania ("Nyanzaga"), including progressing resettlement activities and early project works.

The Agreement aims to:

Create a diversified, highly profitable precious metals company with a pro forma market cap of US$630 million 3 , a robust growth pipeline and exposure to a highly prospective emerging mining jurisdiction;

, a robust growth pipeline and exposure to a highly prospective emerging mining jurisdiction;

Provide a re-rating opportunity on the successful development of Nyanzaga, which is expected to commence commercial gold production in H2 2025; and



Enable OreCorp and Silvercorp shareholders to participate in a larger company with greater access to capital, higher liquidity, increased scale and enhanced capital markets relevance.

Silvercorp has the balance sheet strength to fund construction and aggressive exploration of Nyanzaga, as well as pursue regional M&A opportunities.

Silvercorp's best-in-class technical team has the track record and expertise to build Nyanzaga and pursue opportunities for optimization.

Consideration mix preserves Silvercorp's strong balance sheet, allowing funds to be deployed for development of Nyanzaga, managing risk and optimizing future opportunities.

Existing OreCorp shareholders will own 17.8% of Silvercorp's common shares outstanding on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis following implementation of the Scheme.

The Scheme is subject to various customary closing conditions, including OreCorp shareholder approval and Court approval.

Silvercorp has agreed to use reasonable endeavours to apply for admission of Silvercorp to the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange (the "ASX").

Proposed development of Nyanzaga by Silvercorp supported by Tanzania Government Authorities.

____________________________ 1 Value attributed to Silvercorp share and implied value attributed to OreCorp Share calculated based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 2 As defined in the Agreement. 3 The pro forma financial information is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to represent the future financial position of the combined entity.



Nyanzaga Highlights

OreCorp holds an 84% interest in the Nyanzaga Gold Project located in the Mwanza region, Tanzania, in partnership with the Government of Tanzania. Key permits are in place to develop Nyanzaga for first gold in H2 2025. A definitive feasibility study, announced in August 2022, estimated that Nyanzaga could deliver 2.5 million ounces of gold over a 10.7 year life.4 As reported in OreCorp's June 2023 Quarterly Activities Report released on July 21, 2023, Nyanzaga's post-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate is US$905 million and the internal rate of return is 32%, using a recent spot gold price of US$2,000/oz.5

Nyanzaga is located approximately 40 km north east of the Bulyanhulu mine, one of Barrick Gold Corporation's two gold mines in the Lake Victoria Goldfields, which together with the North Mara mine produced approximately 547,000 ounces of gold in 2022.6 The Geita Gold Mine, one of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.'s flagship mines, located 80 km west of Nyanzaga, produced 521,000 ounces of gold in 2022.7

Silvercorp Chairman and CEO, Dr. Rui Feng, said:

"This transaction will create a new globally diversified precious metals producer. We believe this is a rare opportunity to leverage our technical expertise and strong balance sheet to unlock value for all shareholders by bringing Nyanzaga into commercial production by H2 2025. Under the leadership of Her Excellency, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania is becoming an attractive place for foreign investment. We look forward to partnering with the Government of Tanzania and leveraging OreCorp's existing team and relationships to ensure a successful development that benefits all stakeholders."

OreCorp Managing Director and CEO, Henk Diederichs, said:

"This transaction provides our shareholders with an immediate and significant upfront premium and exposure to a geographically diverse mid-tier precious metals company. With a strong operating history, solid balance sheet and significant mine building and operational experience, Silvercorp's management team is well-positioned to fund and advance Nyanzaga into commercial production."

Honorable Minister of Minerals, Dr. Doto Mashaka Biteko, said:

"The Tanzanian Government is supportive of the proposed partnership between OreCorp and Silvercorp and looks forward to working together to develop Nyanzaga as a robust project delivering beneficial outcomes to the people of Tanzania and other stakeholders."

____________________________ 4 Cautionary Statement - based on a gold price of US$1,750/oz. Refer OreCorp ASX announcement dated 22 August 2022 ("Nyanzaga DFS Delivers Robust Results"). The production target referred to in the DFS and this announcement comprises 92% Probable Ore Reserves and 8% Inferred Mineral Resources. There is a low level of geological confidence associated with Inferred Mineral Resources, and there is no certainty that further exploration work will result in the determination of Indicated Mineral Resources or that the production target itself will be realised. 5 Refer OreCorp ASX announcement dated 21 July 2023 ("June 2023 Quarterly Activities Report"). 6 Barrick Gold Corp. (2022) Annual Report 2022. 7 AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (2022) Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Report as at 31 December 2022.



Benefits for OreCorp Shareholders

Total implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share (being A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share valued at A$0.45), 8 representing:

representing: a 41.7% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price ("VWAP") of OreCorp's shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023; 9 and

and

a 31.5% premium to OreCorp's closing share price of A$0.435 on the ASX on August 4, 2023 10 .

. Share consideration provides enhanced trading liquidity, re-rating potential and opportunity to participate in further upside from Nyanzaga and Silvercorp's existing portfolio;

Significantly reduces development and operational risk at Nyanzaga by leveraging Silvercorp's technical expertise and ESG track record;

Strong pro forma balance sheet removes immediate funding uncertainty and mitigates risk of significant dilution; and

Enhanced capital markets profile with a pro forma market cap of US$630 million11 and listings on the TSX, NYSE and, subject to successful admission and quotation, the ASX.

Benefits for Silvercorp Shareholders

Accretive transaction on a net asset value basis;

Provides immediate geographic and metal diversification;

Addition of a largely de-risked, low-cost gold project that has key permits in place and is on track for first gold in H2 2025;

Re-rating opportunity due to enhanced scale, asset diversification, production and exploration upside as well as a foothold in an emerging, mining-friendly jurisdiction; and

Meaningfully grows Silvercorp's mineral reserves and resources profile.

____________________________ 8 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 9 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE and OreCorp's ordinary shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023. 10 Based on the closing price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE and OreCorp's ordinary shares on the ASX as of August 4, 2023. 11 The pro forma financial information is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to represent the future financial position of the combined entity.



Transaction Summary

Under the terms of the Agreement, Silvercorp or a wholly owned subsidiary will, subject to the satisfaction of various conditions, acquire the OreCorp Shares by means of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 5.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), whereby each holder of OreCorp Shares will receive, for each OreCorp Share held, A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share valued at A$0.45 for a total implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share.12

The implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp share represents a 41.7% premium to the 20-day VWAP of OreCorp's shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023 and values OreCorp at approximately A$242 million on a fully-diluted-in-the-money basis. Existing OreCorp shareholders will own 17.8% of Silvercorp's common shares outstanding on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis following implementation of the Scheme.

Concurrent with entering into the Agreement, Silvercorp and OreCorp have also entered into a placement agreement, whereby 70,411,334 new fully-paid ordinary shares of OreCorp will be issued to Silvercorp at a price of A$0.40 per OreCorp Share for aggregate proceeds of approximately A$28 million (the "Placement"). The Placement will occur in two tranches, with the first tranche (for aggregate proceeds of A$18 million) to complete on the third business day after execution of the Agreement and the second tranche (for aggregate proceeds of approximately A$10 million) to complete 10 business days thereafter. Upon completion of the Placement, Silvercorp will hold approximately 15% of the total outstanding ordinary shares of OreCorp. Proceeds from the Placement will be used to immediately commence resettlement activities as contemplated in the Relocation Action Plan, facilitating the prompt development of Nyanzaga.

Boards Approvals and Recommendations

The OreCorp Board has unanimously approved the transaction and recommends that all OreCorp shareholders vote in favour of the Scheme at the meeting of the shareholders of OreCorp (the "Scheme Meeting"), in the absence of a Superior Proposal and subject to the independent expert to be appointed by OreCorp (the "Independent Expert") concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Subject to those same qualifications, each director of OreCorp intends to vote, or cause to be voted, all OreCorp Shares held or controlled by them (representing 4.6% of OreCorp's issued shares as at the date of this announcement) in favour of the Scheme at the Scheme Meeting.13

The Silvercorp Board has also unanimously approved the transaction.

____________________________ 12 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 13 OreCorp Directors hold an aggregate of 18,487,960 OreCorp Shares, representing 4.6% of shares on issue as at the date of this announcement which, together with 1,864,482 Performance Rights held by OreCorp Directors, represent 5.1% on a fully diluted basis as at the date of the announcement (calculations exclude options which will be cancelled if the Scheme proceeds).



Key Shareholder Support

Rollason Pty Ltd (Rollason), which controls 49,136,589 OreCorp Shares (representing approximately 12.3% of the OreCorp Shares as at the date of this announcement), has provided a signed voting intention statement to OreCorp (Voting Intention Statement) indicating that Rollason intends to vote, or cause to be voted, all OreCorp Shares held or controlled by it or its associates at the time of the Scheme meeting in favour of the Scheme, in the absence of a Superior Proposal and subject to the Independent Expert concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Rollason has consented to OreCorp publicly announcing its voting intention.

Tanzanian Government Support

OreCorp and Silvercorp met with key Tanzanian Government stakeholders including the Treasury Registrar and the Minister of Minerals. The Government is supportive of the transaction, underpinning Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan's mantra that Tanzania is open for international investment. The companies are looking forward to the continued support from key Government stakeholders.

Honorable Minister of Minerals, Dr. Doto Mashaka Biteko with Chairman of OreCorp, Matthew Yates (left) and Chairman and CEO of Silvercorp, Rui Feng (right)

Transaction Structure and Certain Terms of the Agreement

The Scheme is subject to customary closing conditions for a transaction of this nature, including:

OreCorp shareholders approving the Scheme at the Scheme Meeting;

Approval of the Federal Court of Australia;

Completion of the Placement;

The Independent Expert issuing an Independent Expert's Report which concludes (and continues to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders;

Tanzanian Fair Competition Commission and any other applicable approvals;

Foreign Investment Review Board approval in Australia, if required;

OreCorp performance rights and OreCorp options being dealt with such that none will remain in existence on completion of the Scheme;

No material adverse change and no prescribed occurrence in relation to either Silvercorp or OreCorp;

Approval for quotation on TSX and NYSE of the Silvercorp common shares to be issued to OreCorp shareholders as the scrip component of the consideration; and

Other customary conditions.

Under the Agreement, Silvercorp has agreed to use reasonable endeavours to apply for admission of Silvercorp to the official list of Australian Securities Exchange (the "ASX"). If ASX has provided Silvercorp with conditional approval for admission to the official list of ASX by the business day before the date of the second court hearing, OreCorp shareholders (other than ineligible shareholders) may elect to receive the scrip component of the consideration in the form of CHESS Depositary Interests (which may be traded on ASX) instead of in the form of Silvercorp common shares. If conditional approval is not provided by ASX by the business day before the date of the second court hearing, all OreCorp shareholders (other than ineligible shareholders) would receive the scrip component of the consideration in the form of Silvercorp shares, tradable on the TSX and NYSE.

The Agreement also contains customary deal protection mechanisms, including no talk and no due diligence provisions, (subject to a fiduciary out exception) and no shop, as well as notification and matching rights for Silvercorp in the event of a Competing Proposal14. The transaction may incur a capital gains tax payable under Tanzanian legislation. A break fee of approximately A$2.8 million shall be payable by OreCorp to Silvercorp if the Agreement is terminated as a result of certain specified circumstances.

A copy of the Agreement, which sets out the terms and conditions of the Scheme and associated matters, will be filed on Silvercorp's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

Timetable and Next Steps

OreCorp shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the Scheme at this stage.

A Scheme booklet setting out the key terms of the transaction, including the Scheme, Independent Expert's Report, Investigating Accountant's Report and the reasons for the recommendation of the OreCorp Board will be sent to all OreCorp shareholders in due course. The Scheme Meeting to consider the Scheme is expected to be held in November 2023 and the Scheme is expected to be implemented before the end of 2023 subject to satisfaction of all conditions and receipt of all necessary approvals. The Scheme is conditional on, among other things, approval by a majority in number of OreCorp shareholders who vote at the Scheme Meeting and at least 75% of all votes cast at the Scheme Meeting. Silvercorp is excluded from voting at the Scheme Meeting.

____________________________ 14 As defined in the Agreement.



An indicative timetable is set out below:

Action Estimated Date First Court Date Early-mid October 2023 Dispatch scheme booklet to OreCorp shareholders Early-mid October 2023 Scheme Meeting Mid November 2023 Second Court Date Mid November 2023 Effective Date End of November/early December 2023 Record Date End of November/early December 2023 Implementation Date End of November/early December 2023

Advisors and Counsel

Canaccord Genuity Corp. is acting as financial advisor to Silvercorp. King & Wood Mallesons, Australia and A&K Tanzania are acting as Silvercorp's Australian and Tanzanian legal advisors, respectively.

CIBC Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to OreCorp. Allen & Overy and REX Attorneys are acting as OreCorp's Australian and Tanzanian legal advisors, respectively.

Conference Call / Webinar Details

Silvercorp and OreCorp will host a joint conference call today at 10.00 am Australian Eastern Standard Time / 8.00 am Australian Western Standard Time / 8.00 pm North American Eastern Standard Time / 5.00 pm North American Pacific Standard Time to discuss the transaction. Participants are advised to dial in five minutes prior to the scheduled start time of the call. A presentation will be made available on both companies' websites prior to the webcast.

Webinar details

Presenters: OreCorp Executive Chairman, Matthew Yates and Managing Director and CEO, Henk Diederichs, with Silvercorp Vice President Lon Shaver

Date/time:

Monday 7 August at 8:00am AWST (10:00am AEST)

Sunday 6 August at 5:00pm PST (8:00pm EST)

Register to join via zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B8jehfTbT1OSPVfzbrmjQQ

Dial in via telephone:

Please use one of the following numbers and when prompted enter the webinar ID 868 9291 7099.

Australia:

+61 3 7018 2005 or

+61 7 3185 3730 or

+61 8 6119 3900 or

+61 8 7150 1149 or

+61 2 8015 6011

Canada:

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A recording of the conference call will be available on both companies' websites following the call.

About Silvercorp

Silvercorp is a Canadian mining company producing silver, gold, lead, and zinc with a long history of profitability and growth potential. Silvercorp's strategy is to create shareholder value by 1) focusing on generating free cashflow from long life mines; 2) organic growth through extensive drilling for discovery; 3) ongoing merger and acquisition efforts to unlock value; and 4) long term commitment to responsible mining and ESG.

About OreCorp

OreCorp is a Western Australian based mining exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code ORR. OreCorp's key project is the Nyanzaga Gold Project in northwest Tanzania.

This announcement has been approved for distribution by the Board of Directors of each of Silvercorp and OreCorp.

For further information

Silvercorp Metals Inc. OreCorp Limited Media Lon Shaver Henk Diederichs Nathan Ryan Vice President CEO and Managing Director Phone: +61 420 582 887 Phone: (604) 669-9397 Phone: +61 8 9381 9997 Email: nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au Toll Free 1(888) 224-1881 Email: orecorp@orecorp.com.au

Email: investor@silvercorp.ca Website: https://orecorp.com.au/

Website: www.silvercorp.ca











COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

The information in this announcement relating to OreCorp's Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga is extracted from the ASX announcement dated 22 August 2022 ("Nyanzaga DFS Delivers Robust Results") which is available to view on OreCorp's website www.orecorp.com.au. OreCorp confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original announcement and, in the case of Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga (and any forecast financial information derived from the production target) in the original announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. OreCorp confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person's (being Mr Allan Earl) findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original announcement.

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER - FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain of the statements and information in this announcement may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: creating shareholder value; generating free cashflow from long life mines; organic growth; mergers and acquisitions; and estimated production from Silvercorp or OreCorp mines.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks relating to: social and economic impacts of COVID-19; completion and timing of the transactions described above; receiving the necessary approvals to satisfy the conditions to the transactions; the determination of capital gains tax; fluctuating commodity prices; calculation of resources, reserves and mineralization and precious and base metal recovery; interpretations and assumptions of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; exploration and development programs; feasibility and engineering reports; permits and licences; title to properties; property interests; joint venture partners; acquisition of commercially mineable mineral rights; financing; recent market events and conditions; economic factors; timing, estimated amount, capital and operating expenditures and economic returns of future production; integration of future acquisitions into existing operations; competition; operations and political conditions; regulatory environment in China, Canada, Australia and Tanzania; environmental risks; legislative and regulatory initiatives addressing global climate change or other environmental concerns; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; insurance; risks and hazards of mining operations; key personnel; conflicts of interest; dependence on management; internal control over financial reporting; and bringing actions and enforcing judgments under U.S. and/or Australian securities laws.

This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Silvercorp or OreCorp's forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those referred to in Silvercorp's Annual Information Form under the heading "Risk Factors". Although Silvercorp and OreCorp have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by either Silvercorp or OreCorp that any forward-looking statement will be achieved or proved to be correct.

The forward-looking statements are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this announcement, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, neither Silvercorp nor OreCorp assumes any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or changes in any other events affecting such statements. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information related to Silvercorp, including Silvercorp's Annual Information Form, can be obtained under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov, and on the Silvercorp website at www.silvercorpmetals.com.

Additional information related to OreCorp can be obtained under the Company's profile on ASX at www.asx.com.au and on OreCorp's website at www.orecorp.com.au.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

Resource estimates included in this news release have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Minerals Council of Australia. Silvercorp's reserve and resource estimates have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for public disclosure by a Canadian company of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects.

Australian standards and Canadian standards each differ significantly from the disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission under subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K, and mineral reserve and resource information included in this news release may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by U.S. companies.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/silvercorp-to-acquire-orecorp-creating-a-diversified-high-growth-precious-metals-company-301894223.html

SOURCE Silvercorp Metals Inc.
COLORADO SPRINGS, August 7, 2023 - Fortitude Gold Corp. (OTCQB:FTCO) (the "Company") declares its monthly dividend of $0.04 per common share payable on August 31, 2023 to shareholders of record as of August 21, 2023. Fortitude Gold is a gold producer, developer, and explorer with operations in Nevada, U.S.A. offering investors exposure to both gold production and dividend yield.

Dividends may vary in amount and consistency or be discontinued at the Board of Directors' discretion depending on variables including but not limited to operational cash flows, Company development requirements and strategies, construction, spot gold and silver prices, taxation, general market conditions and other factors described in the Company's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Fortitude Gold Corp.:

Fortitude Gold is a U.S. based gold producer targeting projects with low operating costs, high margins, and strong returns on capital. The Company's strategy is to grow organically, remain debt-free and distribute substantial dividends. The Company's Nevada Mining Unit consists of five high-grade gold properties located in the Walker Lane Mineral Belt and a sixth high-grade gold property in west central Nevada. The Isabella Pearl gold mine, located on the Isabella Pearl mineralized trend, is currently in production. Nevada, U.S.A. is among the world's premier mining friendly jurisdictions.

Cautionary Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. If you are risk-averse you should NOT buy shares in Fortitude Gold Corp. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "target", "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding the Company's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to the Company on the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release.

Contact:

Greg Patterson

719-717-9825

greg.patterson@fortitudegold.com

www.Fortitudegold.com

SOURCE: Fortitude Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/772535/Fortitude-Gold-Declares-August-Monthly-Dividend
VANCOUVER, Aug. 7, 2023 - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (the "Company") - (TSX: ITH) (NYSE American: THM) today announced that it has filed its unaudited second quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three- and six-month period ended June 30, 2023.

As of June 30, 2023, the Company had working capital of US$3.1 million.

Shareholders can obtain copies of the Company's unaudited second quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Form 10-Q on SEDAR at: www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at: www.ithmines.com. The Company will also provide hard copies of these documents, free of charge, to shareholders who request a copy directly from the Company.

About International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has a 100% interest in its Livengood Gold Project located along the paved Elliott Highway, 70 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

On behalf of

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

(signed) Karl L. Hanneman

Chief Executive Officer

This news release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/international-tower-hill-mines-files-2023-second-quarter-financial-results-301894138.html

SOURCE International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.
EXIM Bank has reiterated its commitment to continue investing in technology as part of its commitment to enhance its service offerings to customers across its branch network in and outside Tanzania.

The Bank's Chief Financial Officer Shani Kinswaga said yesterday that the bank earlier this year upgraded its core banking system to a more resilient and robust infrastructure, a move geared towards enriching its offerings and delivering customers a heightened sense of security, efficiency, and innovation.

"This re-affirms our unwavering dedication to evolving into more than just a conventional banking establishment.

As a bank, we are committed to delve into the complete capabilities of our enhanced systems and our commitment persists in delivering beyond conventional banking services to our valued customers and the community we serve," he stated.

Exim Bank Group's profit before tax rose by 16.9 per cent from the same period last year to 36.60bn/- according to the bank's unaudited results for the period ended June this year, released recently.

Mr Kinswaga in a statement availed to the media yesterday said the first half results reflect the bank's unwavering commitment to operational excellence following successful implementation of the bank's strategy. Embracing a holistic approach, the bank endeavours to create lasting value for customers and the surrounding community alike.

"The impressive achievements witnessed in the bank's performance during the first half of the year serve as a catalyst for this move, intended to establish the bank as a frontrunner in the financial sector," he said.

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The Group's Net Interest Income increased by 9.6 per cent to 66.20bn/- for the six months ended 30 June 2023 as compared to 60.4bn/- recorded during the same period last year.

Mr Kinswaga said the positive macroeconomic environment has contributed to the bank's positive financial and operational performance in the first half of this year.

"Our consistency in investing in technology and innovation enabled us to deliver world-class services that enhance the customer experience.

We remain committed to leverage this growth and success to create value for all our stakeholders," he added.

He said the group's customer deposits as of June this year increased by 9.20 per cent to 1.9trn/- while the shareholders fund also increased by 23.90 per cent to 291bn/- compared to the same period last year.

The Group's Non-Funded Income (NFI) grew by 24.8 per cent to 45.30bn/- while loan advances increased by 11.11 per cent to 1.3tri/- compared to the same period last year.

The bank during the first six months this year continued to implement its Corporate Social Responsibilities.

He said the community social investment strategy programmes is geared towards creating a shared value for stakeholders including communities where the bank operates.
Ibrahim Ngaroua was taken hostage by Boko Haram in 2017 in the north of Cameroon, and finally escaped the terrorist group four years later. He was one survivor to recently share their harrowing experiences with students from a local peace institute.

The wind blows in all directions, hurling dusty air into Ibrahim Ngaroua's eyes and nostrils. He frequently blows his nose to get rid of the grit.

Seated under a neem tree to shelter from the searing heat of the sun in northern Cameroon, the former Boko Haram hostage recounts the distressing story of his capture by and escape from members of the terrorist organisation.

Gathered to hear him are students from the Yaounde-based Heritage Higher Institute of Peace and Development Studies (HHIPDS), on a field trip to the Zamai camp for internally displaced people in the Far North region of Cameroon to hear witness accounts of the conflict.

"Hundreds of Boko Haram attackers struck our village in 2017," Ngaroua recalls, as his fellow survivors listen and nod.

"They took almost everybody in the village to their camp in Nigeria," he says.

Boko Haram started attacks in Nigeria in 2009, but its murderous campaign soon spread to the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The insurgents began their raids in Cameroon in 2014.

As of July this year, over 3,000 Cameroonians have been killed, according to the International Crisis Group. Another 250,000 have been displaced.

When Ngaroua, a 45-year old father of 12 and husband to six wives, recounts his four-year stay in the hands of his captors, the pain is palpable.

He says the women were separated from the men and everybody was forced to read the Koran.

"You couldn't say no, because that would attract heavy punishment. Anyone who did something wrong was taken to the public square and flogged to serve as a lesson to others," he said.

Women abused

Ngaroua was a frequent witness to these public flogging sessions, and when pressed, he points to scars on his back and blisters on his soles.

"They were so painful that they made me cry," he says.

The women, he says, were compelled to wear burqas.

"They sewed burqas for the women so that they were covered from head to toe - only their eyes were visible," he says.

He adds that while the men were required to carry out all the chores - fetching water, gathering wood and doing farm work - the women weren't allowed to go out.

They stayed at home, and many of them were used as sex slaves.

'I just want to die'

Such accounts have been verified by local development organisation ADELPA.

The NGO quotes one anonymous victim as saying: "After having fled Boko Haram, we came here for refuge. We saw how armed men entered our village at night. They set our houses on fires and we started to run.

"All of a sudden, they captured us, tortured us and threatened to kill us. We were repeatedly raped by several men," the victim said.

"Nowadays, I just want to die. I feel like a walking cadaver. I have been rejected by my husband and by my family. I am already dead on the inside, and society looks at me differently since this has happened. I wanted to kill myself, but I told myself to pass this horrible story on to someone."

She told ADELPA she hopes speaking out can help prevent this kind of atrocity from happening again - "so that nobody after me will have to live with this kind of shame, ever again".

Child victims

Child marriages were also common.

Aminatou, a 17-year-old survivor, was married off to a Boko Haram fighter.

"I had barely turned 13 when I was forced to marry one of the fighters," she recalls.

Asked how her so-called husband treated her, Aminatou simply shook her head.

"It was a hard life," she said. "Every night was a night of painful rape. I couldn't say no, because the subsequent beating was merciless.

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"I lost my virginity in a rather ruthless manner," she told RFI.

Escaping Boko Haram

Ngaroua recalls how his family made their escape in 2021. The military raided the camp and everybody, including the Boko Haram fighters, ran in different directions.

"Either you ran along with Boko Haram, or you ran towards the military. Either way, you could be killed," he told RFI.

"My family and I took our chance with the military," he said, a faint smile sweeping his face.

"Sometimes if the military figured out that you were not armed, they let you go and that is how we were able to escape," he said.

First he and his family returned to their home in Zeleved in Cameroon's Far North region, but they found it deserted.

"It was like a ghost village: there was no one left," Ngaroua recalls. He says he then reached out to the authorities who relocated them, along with 600 others, to the Zamai camp.

"We feel safe here," he says, "but it's so painful to be living on the charity of others."
Speaking to RFI, French Foreign Minister Christine Colonna urged the leaders of a coup in Niger to abandon their takeover attempt before a deadline set by the West African bloc Ecowas expires on Sunday. She said the threat of regional military intervention should be taken "very seriously".

Ecowas has given the junta until Sunday to reinstate the elected president of Niger or face the potential use of force.

With hours to go until the ultimatum, Colonna met Niger's official prime minister, Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou, in Paris on Saturday.

Military officers claim to have deposed Mahamadou and President Mohamed Bazoum, and replaced the government with a military council.

Bazoum remains at his palace in Niamey, where members of the presidential guard have been holding him captive since 26 July.

"The international community, like the other countries in the region, are unanimous in condemning this attempt, this adventure led by a part of the military in Niger," Colonna told RFI following her meeting with Mahamadou, whose government France considers the only legitimate power in Niger.

The foreign minister said that the threat of a military intervention by Ecowas "must be taken very seriously".

'Adventurism'

While France backs the regional bloc's efforts to apply pressure, Colonna stressed that it was not involved in plans for military action.

Ecowas said on Friday that it had agreed on a contingency plan for a possible intervention. That includes "the resources needed, and including the how and when we are going to deploy the force", according to Ecowas commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah.

"The unanimous request of the international community is, I repeat, to restore democracy immediately and before the deadline set by the other countries in the region expires tomorrow," Colonna said.

"So they have until tomorrow to abandon this adventurism, these personal adventures, and restore democracy in Niger."

The junta in Niger has warned that it will meet force with force.

Mali and Burkina Faso, where military leaders have also taken power in coups since 2020, have warned any regional intervention would be tantamount to a "declaration of war" against them.

Fears for civil liberties

France has suspended civil and military cooperation with Niger, which until recently was its primary partner in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel region. Around 1,500 French troops are based there.

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Niger's new junta said it had suspended military pacts with France, a decision that Paris says it is not entitled to make.

"Obviously we don't recognise decisions taken by putschists, we only recognise the decisions of legitimate authorities," Colonna said.

The minister said France was also concerned about "the repression underway" in Niger, including attacks on the freedom of the press and arrests of government officials.

Broadcasts by RFI and its sister TV station France24 have been blocked in the country, while several local reporters have reported being threatened or attacked.

Meanwhile several senior politicians have been detained, including the minister for mining, the head of the ruling party and the oil minister, among others.

"Niger elected its president democratically and it must return to constitutional order - the will of the Nigerien people must be respected," Colonna said.

"That is the message from France, from the countries in the region, from the United Nations and the entire international community. There is no place for coups d'etat."
Black Gender Disparities Map



< 50%

100%

> 150%

Over 2x more (typically prisons or military)

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Akron, OH Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Albuquerque, NM Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Amarillo, TX Anchorage, AK Ann Arbor, MI Appleton, WI Asheville, NC Athens-Clarke County, GA Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Austin-Round Rock, TX Bakersfield, CA Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Barnstable Town, MA Baton Rouge, LA Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX Bellingham, WA Binghamton, NY Birmingham-Hoover, AL Boise City, ID Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Boulder, CO Bremerton-Silverdale, WA Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Burlington-South Burlington, VT Canton-Massillon, OH Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Cedar Rapids, IA Champaign-Urbana, IL Charleston, WV Charleston-North Charleston, SC Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Charlottesville, VA Chattanooga, TN-GA Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Chico, CA Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN Clarksville, TN-KY Cleveland-Elyria, OH College Station-Bryan, TX Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, SC Columbus, GA-AL Columbus, OH Corpus Christi, TX Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Dayton, OH Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Duluth, MN-WI Durham-Chapel Hill, NC El Paso, TX Elkhart-Goshen, IN Erie, PA Eugene, OR Evansville, IN-KY Fargo, ND-MN Fayetteville, NC Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO Flint, MI Florence, SC Fort Collins, CO Fort Smith, AR-OK Fort Wayne, IN Fresno, CA Gainesville, FL Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI Greeley, CO Green Bay, WI Greensboro-High Point, NC Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort, SC Houma-Thibodaux, LA Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Huntsville, AL Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN Jackson, MS Jacksonville, FL Johnson City, TN Kalamazoo-Portage, MI Kansas City, MO-KS Kennewick-Richland, WA Killeen-Temple, TX Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA Knoxville, TN Lafayette, LA Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN Lake Charles, LA Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL Lancaster, PA Lansing-East Lansing, MI Laredo, TX Las Cruces, NM Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Lexington-Fayette, KY Lincoln, NE Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR Longview, TX Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN Lubbock, TX Lynchburg, VA Macon-Bibb County, GA Madison, WI Manchester-Nashua, NH McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX Medford, OR Memphis, TN-MS-AR Merced, CA Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Mobile, AL Modesto, CA Montgomery, AL Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, FL Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN New Haven-Milford, CT New Orleans-Metairie, LA New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL Norwich-New London, CT Ocala, FL Ogden-Clearfield, UT Oklahoma City, OK Olympia-Tumwater, WA Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL Peoria, IL Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ Pittsburgh, PA Port St. Lucie, FL Portland-South Portland, ME Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Prescott, AZ Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Provo-Orem, UT Raleigh, NC Reading, PA Reno, NV Richmond, VA Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Roanoke, VA Rochester, MN Rochester, NY Rockford, IL Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Salem, OR Salinas, CA Salisbury, MD-DE Salt Lake City, UT San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX San Diego-Carlsbad, CA San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, CA Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Santa Rosa, CA Savannah, GA Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton, PA Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Shreveport-Bossier City, LA Sioux Falls, SD South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI Spartanburg, SC Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA Springfield, IL Springfield, MA Springfield, MO St. Louis, MO-IL Stockton-Lodi, CA Syracuse, NY Tallahassee, FL Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Toledo, OH Topeka, KS Trenton, NJ Tucson, AZ Tulsa, OK Tuscaloosa, AL Tyler, TX Urban Honolulu, HI Utica-Rome, NY Vallejo-Fairfield, CA Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Visalia-Porterville, CA Waco, TX Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Wichita, KS Wilmington, NC Winston-Salem, NC Worcester, MA-CT Yakima, WA York-Hanover, PA Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA Yuma, AZ

Something is demographically amiss in parts of eastern DeKalb County, just outside of Atlanta. In several predominantly African-American neighborhoods , there are only about three black men for every five black women under age 65. That sort of gender imbalance reflects a number of factors, primarily mass incarceration and high mortality, and its present in hundreds of communities across the country. Nationally, the Census Bureau counts 88 black male adults for every 100 black women, while the ratio for whites is a more equal 97 men for every 100 women.reviewed the latest population estimates for all black adults ages 18 to 64 in Census tracts where they totaled at least 2,000. In those neighborhoods, there were only a median of 81 black men for every 100 black women. The imbalance was greatest in 380 neighborhoods, where there were fewer than two adult black men for every three adult black women under age 65. In contrast to the numbers for adults, Census estimates show that nationally, there are marginally more African-American boys than girls under age 18.Communities where large numbers of black men appear to have vanished arent confined to a few regions, and are found in states throughout the country. And disparities arent present just in isolated enclaves, but in many cases span entire small cities. Among these are Calumet City, Ill., and Douglasville, Ga., two suburban jurisdictions with sizable black populations, where there are about two-thirds as many black men as women.The single biggest driver behind the absence of many black men is mass incarceration. A few academics have held up ratios of black men to women as a proxy for incarceration. Despite recent declines in prison populations, disparities remain massive. African-American males are imprisoned in state and federal facilities at six times the rate of white men, and about 25 times that of black women, according to figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.Black men, underrepresented in the overwhelming majority of neighborhoods, are instead heavily concentrated in relatively few places, and those tend to be home to prisons. We identified 79 such Census tracts with more than twice as many black men as women.Black men are further subject to high mortality. Homicides drive up rates, along with higher risks of dying from diabetes, kidney disease and sepsis than other men. In all, the latest average life expectancy at birth for black men, 71.5 years as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trails the expectancy for white men by nearly five years and for black women by more than six years.But mortality and incarceration rates alone dont explain why so many black men seem to be missing in communities. Alford Young, a sociology professor at the University of Michigan, notes that they frequently lack permanent addresses. Women, particularly those with children, are likely to obtain support services, and thus to get counted, while black men are not and may become homeless. Young also says a subset prefers to be mobile and undocumented, mostly stemming from fears of law enforcement. Its really a challenge with official counts to make sense of where black men are, he says.The ramifications of all this are far-reaching. Partners and families of the missing men face a host of negative social and economic consequences, such as a shortage of income and assets. Huge numbers of women have ties to incarcerated family members: One in every 2.5 black women has a family member in prison, more than three times the number for white women, according to a Scholars Strategy Network report . For children, research suggests growing up with an incarcerated parent increases the likelihood of learning disabilities, behavioral problems and other challenges.But the consequences of all this extend beyond families. The absence of adult males means fewer constructive relationships for local children and fewer resources for communities in general. Its not simply large numbers of men not being present around their children or their partners, Young says, but what it means in a community context to be invisible. View larger map .)
Andretti saga outcome expected in September

The saga of whether Andretti-Cadillac will be welcomed to the Formula 1 grid is still the subject of a tug-of-war between the sport's two separate authorities.

Belgian GP 2023

 Alfa Romeo

Originally, the FIA set a late June deadline for an announcement about whether up to two new teams will be given the green light for 2025 or 2026.

We pushed the deadline back because some of the teams asked for more time. And we don't want to exclude anyone, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem told motorsport-total.com.

He admitted that some of the existing teams are not happy with the idea of having their value or incomes diluted, but said the FIA must be fair in assessing the potential new entrants.

We have a contract that says we can have up to 12 teams, he said. And we don't break any rules. On the contrary, we follow them exactly.

Ben Sulayem admitted that a manufacturer team from the USA would be difficult to turn away.

The owner of the sport's commercial rights, however, appears willing to see Andretti-Cadillac turned away.

I think (F1 CEO) Stefano (Domenicali) and I agree that there are 10 great teams in Formula 1 already, Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media, told investors during a financial conference call.

The process of selecting new teams has been launched, but the bar is set very high, he said. And it's completely unclear what value the new team could add.

Maffei admits that Liberty and the FIA are not on the same page.

We have had a productive discussion with the FIA on these issues, he said. "Have we reached agreement on all the issues? No.

The discussion continues, and I hope that we will resolve everything.

F1 CEO Domenicali expects the outcome of the saga to be known in September .

We will find an agreement together, said the Italian, because the value of the teams and Formula 1 is very, very high these days.

Former F1 driver and German-language pundit Ralf Schumacher thinks Liberty and the FIA will ultimately agree on the outcome.
Red Bull's Marko tells Andretti to buy Alpine

Dr Helmut Marko thinks he has the ideal solution for Formula 1's Andretti-Cadillac dilemma.

Helmut Marko, Belgian GP 2023

 Red Bull

On the one hand, an American team with the involvement of a new car manufacturer appears to be ideal for Formula 1 at present.

But on the other hand, while the FIA appears to want to give Andretti-Cadillac the green light, Liberty Media and several existing teams are opposed to the idea for mainly financial reasons.

Red Bull's Marko told Sport1 that he sees the solution.

Andretti should buy the Alpine team, he told Sport1, amid the management chaos that is currently unfolding at the Renault-owned outfit.

That would be best for everyone. Formula 1 would keep its 10 teams, Andretti could finally get in and Renault can still be involved.

However, Michael Andretti said recently that he has actually approached all of the existing teams - and none of them want to sell.

Even amid the unfolding management crisis at the Enstone and Viry-based team, Renault's group CEO Luca de Meo appears determined to stay the course in F1.

Alpine will become the French Ferrari of F1, he told Italian reporters in Locorotondo.

De Meo admits, however, that France's passion for Formula 1 is dwarfed by a country like Italy.

The reason is that the French do not have a symbol to cheer on like Ferrari is for Italy, he said. "Our goal with Alpine is to link our colours to that passion.

It's a bit like when we re-proposed the Fiat 500, added de Meo, referring to his time with the Italian car giant. "It was a hook to tie people to their own history.

Because the people must be involved, de Meo added.

But at present, management turmoil isn't Alpine's only problem in Formula 1. Another is that, even with Red Bull's initial backing, Renault has failed in its efforts so far to be allowed to catch up with the sport's other engines amid the development freeze.

We weren't against it in the Renault case, Marko said.

"But it must be clearly demonstrated that the performance gap is significant. And it must be ensured that the measures taken do not weaken the rest of us.

That's why the application has been put on hold at the moment, said the Austrian.

However, Marko says he still has sympathy for Renault's situation.

I can understand their problems, he said. "Because it's not just about engine performance.
Meet Nana Afua Serwaa, the only female on the Accra to London road trip

Graphic Showbiz Showbiz News Aug - 07 - 2023 , 11:28

The story of Wanderlust Ghana tourism enthusiasts who embarked on the Accra to London road trip, with a female, Nana Afua Serwaa Adusei, has not only been making headlines in Ghana but international news including BBC.

The squad has been enjoying all the attention and Nana Afua Serwaa Adusei has been hugely commended for the feat.

So who is Nana Afua Serwaa Edusei?

In a short profile shared by Eve International Gh to celebrate Nana Afua Serwaa, who is a member, on Facebook on Saturday, August 5, it described her a trailblazing advocate and visionary in the world of vocational and creative skills education.

She is the founder and driving force behind the Shecanic movement, and on a relentless mission to empower young girls to defy stereotypes and embrace their passion for mechanics and car design.

Below is the profile shared on the page:

Nana Afua Serwaa Adusei is a trailblazing advocate and visionary in the world of vocational and creative skills education. As the founder and driving force behind the Shecanic movement, she is on a relentless mission to empower young girls to defy stereotypes and embrace their passion for mechanics and car design.

With a resolute belief that vocational education is not limited to school dropouts, Nana Afua seeks to break glass ceilings, especially in male- dominated fields like STEM. Inspired by remarkable women like Patrice Banks and Supercar Blondie, she is determined to instill a love for STEM in young girls and challenge societal norms, one car at a time.

Nana Afuas influence shines through her greatest quest, as she strives to empowered numerous females to start their own businesses in the auto industry through mentorship and advocacy.

Her story serves as a powerful beacon of hope, proving that with determination and support, females can excel in any field they choose to conquer, dismantling barriers and forging a path of empowerment for generations to come.

Nana Afua Serwaa Aduseis dedication and passion have earned her widespread recognition and respect. As the face of the Shecanic revolution, she embodies strength, resilience, and the unwavering belief that gender should never limit ones potential.

Her transformative impact is evident in the lives she has touched, inspiring countless young girls to embrace their unique talents and pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated industries.

In a post on her Facebook page, Shecanic, on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, Nana Afua wrote about her anticipation for the trip.

Embarking on an epic road trip from East Legon to Casablanca! Exploring diverse cultures, breathtaking landscapes, border shocks, connecting with fellow car enthusiasts and adventurers. Exciting content awaits!!!! she wrote.

Wanderlust Ghana is a group of philanthropists and tourism enthusiasts. They started the expedition of driving from one continent to the other from Accra on Sunday [July 23, 2023] through Aburi, Nsawam, Kumasi, Sunyani to Dormaa and then entered Cote d'Ivoire via Gonokrom.

They were 12 people when they started the journey but one person dropped off in Senegal because of work related reasons and two others also dropped off in Morocco.

By Friday [August 4, 2023], they were at the outskirts of Monaco in Europe and were about to enter France, having moved through five African countries, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco and entered Europe by a ferry on the Mediterranean to Algeciras in Spain, before driving to Barcelona via Valencia. They spent three days in country in Morocco.

The Wanderlust Ghana team who embarked on the Accra-London trip

They reached their destination of London on Sunday, August 6.

Pictures credit: Facebook

Related article: Accra to London over land for adventure, charity, the story of Wanderlust Ghana tourism enthusiasts
MUSIGA elections holds tomorrow

Gifty Owusu-Amoah Showbiz News Aug - 07 - 2023 , 15:12

About 500 delegates across the country are expected to vote when the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) hold its national and regional elections tomorrow, August 8, 2023.

Tomorrows elections, which will be supervised by the Electoral Commission, is coming off after years of court injunctions and internal bickering delayed it.

Contesting for Presidency are Bessa Simons (Acting MUSIGA President) and Ras Caleb Appiah Levi (Greater Accra Regional Chairman for MUSIGA).

Gospel musician Thomas Yawson, will be contesting unopposed for the 1st Vice President position.

Stella Ganyo and gospel artiste Abena Ruthy are vying for the 2nd Vice President seat while Samuel Kofi Agyemang and Francis Derman Dogbatse are contesting the General Secretary position.

Chizzy Wailer, Gifty Oppong Ghansah, Edward Edusa Eyison are also going unopposed for the National Organiser, Welfare Officer and Treasurer positions respectively.

In the Greater Accra Region, the elections will be held at the Accra Tourist Information Centre (ATIC).

The process for tomorrows elections started with the opening of the voters register on Monday, March 20, which ended on April 3. The new directive was intended to allow members to check their status and eligibility.

Thereafter, the new voters register for the election was compiled from April 4 to April 18. This was also followed by the exhibition of the new voter register from April 20 to April 23.

Contestants had the period between April till today to run their campaigns for the elections.

The upcoming elections which was supposed to have been held in 2019 had been stalled with many challenges including allegations of Bessa Simons, who is the Acting President of MUSIGA, working to get the outcome of the elections in his favour.

However, in an interview with Graphic Showbiz in May this year, Bessa Simons told Graphic Showbiz that his role as the acting President of MUSIGA was to fill a vacuum and to ensure the continuous administration of the union.

We have an election committee, led by Mr Peter Marfo, who are doing a good job. They are free handedly conducting the election. Im just doing what all the aspirants are doing and nothing else. Everything any aspirant is doing is the same thing Im doing.

Before the court ruling, the Arbitration Committee also set the rules and the Election Committee will be guided by the constitution, he said at the time.

Related article: Im not in charge of MUSIGA elections -Bessa Simons
Accra to London over land - Kwabena Peprah's explanation of the 10,000km land journey

Kwabena Peprah Opinion Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:30

Below is Kwabena Peprah's post on Facebook explaining how it all started and the plan. Chale this is long. I wont add pictures. If you dont read too, youll lack context when you begin seeing pictures on our timelines. To read or not to read?

10,000km OVERLAND (ACCRA to LONDON)

Richard Anim The details of how this idea started are quite fuzzy but I am certain there was alcohol involved somehow and then theres definitely. The only thing I remember is that around 2018, this idea was birthed.

Kwadwo Saka It was just an idea and I kept talking about it and inviting all my friends to come along. There are those like Kow who rubbished the idea outright and then around 2019 I mentioned it to. He jumped immediately and said, why not? Lets go. We began preparing towards a summer 2020 trip.

In choosing vehicles for the trip, we considered all options but initially, the whole idea was to get any of the auto marketing companies to sponsor the trip by providing a vehicle and then for them to own the media output for their promotionals. In my mind, a vivid picture of a very dirty Ghanaian registered off roader parked in front of Harrods or Trafalgar Square seemed like a very good idea for billboards in Ghana. I felt theyd speak to the reliability of whichever vehicle was pictured on that billboard.

Tsigliwigliadzi Kormetorkpor Ometahidior We flirted with almost every major car dealer in Ghana and they all literally told us to fork off.tried to bring in Kantanka so we promote made in Ghana but the CEO wouldnt even meet with us. We decided to go with whichever vehicles we had at the time and so we selected July 25th 2020 as departure date.

Then COVID hit and Fellow Gheneiens locked down the land borders for a good while. Truth is, many countries did same and with the travel restrictions around the world, the idea had to be shelved.

Since this travel bug had bitten us so badly, we had no choice but to begin a series of domesticated road trips to while away the time and acquire enough experience. To date, we have circled Ghana so many times that I have lost count. I know its somewhere in a high double digit figure.

Anytime weve spoken about this, weve had recruits and our numbers kept rising but from our experience with local road trips, we knew a lot would fall by the wayside before D day and we were not wrong. Many are those who get a hard on at the mention of anything exciting but then get flaccid as soon as push comes to shove. I used the word flaccid here again for one of my favorite friends who seems to like this word so much.

We eventually had a final list of committed travelers and we did a couple of trial runs across the West African sub region. That in itself has been a lot of fun.

The vehicles were; my Landcruiser, Cyprians Landcruiser, Kwadwos Raptor, Freds Defender, Joes G63 and Franks RX350 (the most vilified machine in the list).

A lot of factors conspired to make us depart a day earlier and without Fred and the plan has changed a bit somehow. Work related issues will make some of the participants fly out back to Accra from Dakar and Casablanca, others will have to fly out to South Africa and the Netherlands as well. We also expect to pick up some passengers in Bamako, Casablanca and Amsterdam. The number of people expected to arrive in the UK are 9 in all.

Ill be writing in real time as events unfold and sometimes, at the end of day. Due to security and other concerns, the first public post will be when we enter Europe and it will be an aggregation of all my daily compilations. From there, I will give real time and daily updates as and when necessary.

As usual, I will not edit my writing and so they will be raw. If bad grammar, typos and the contents rub off wrongly on you, Im sure you can find one of the unfriend, unfollow or block buttons to prevent yourself from being assaulted by my BS.

THE ROUTE Our planned route is to take a long drive on day 1 to Bouake in Cote dIvoire, using the border at Gonokrom near Dormaa Ahenkro.

Day 2, Bamako, Mali. Day 3, Dakar, Senegal. We will stay an extra day to service the cars etc. Day 5, Nouakchott, Mauritania. Day 6, Dakhla, Morocco. Day 7, Guelmim, Morocco. Day 8, Casablanca, Morocco. Day 9, Tangier, Morocco. Day 10, We will cross from Tangier to Algeciras in Spain with the ferry and continue to sleep in Valencia. Day 11, Monaco. Day 12, Lake Como. Day 13, Frankfurt. Day 14, Amsterdam. I have some business meetings in Amsterdam and my business partner would have flown ahead to begin them. My responsibility is to close these meetings so I will arrive at the tail end. We can chill and work at the same time just as we can walk and chew gum at the same time. I will stay an extra day. Day 16, London, via Calais / Dover.

As with all things, we have carefully assessed the risks, made mitigation plans and even though we know that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, we are in good spirits.

My favorite question is, what is the worst that could happen?

1. We could have a road accident. As long as we sit in cars daily, thats a high possibility and we can only try to be careful. If it happens, it does. No biggie. 2. We could have mechanical damage on any of the cars. If it does, we just carpool and leave that vehicle somewhere for my mechanic to go fix and bring it back at his convenience. Nothing spoil. This option is only available as long as the potential damage is before Mauritania since the process of getting a visa for my mechanic will be quite long. If it happens after Mauritania, we will be on the coast so we just tow said car to the closest port and ship it home. We moove. 3. Terrorists or bandits could kidnap us for ransom. We are all Ghanaians and no one will come pay any ransom on our behalf. Theyll get tired and let us go or they can take all our money and cars, and leave us by the roadside to hitchhike home. If they kill us, that one dierrr no problem because after all everyone will die someday. Despite these thoughts, we have still done a lot of homework and are quite prepared for this. 4. Another risk factor is that our vehicles will not be allowed into either Morocco or Europe for a myriad of technicalities. If this does happen, it is what it is. Again, ship the cars home from the closest port and fly on to london to have a great time. Life goes on.

A lot of people are rooting for us. If it is genuine, whichever deity you believe in should reward you plenty for your good thoughts.

If you even think WKHKYD much less say it, your MORDA!!!

If you wish us to fail for any reason so you can say you told us so, or to reaffirm your impossibility filled thoughts, you too your MORDA some. Get a life. If you dont let your friend cut 9, you too you wont cut 10. Read that in Twi.

D-DAY MINUS 1 SATURDAY 22 JULY 2023 TARGET - SUNYANI 360km

My people are playing with the 10am departure time we agreed on. Its raining and cloudy in most parts. Everyone is here apart from the Ayirebi crew. At 10, we will move and theyll have to catch up. After all, we are going to Sunyani pe.

Eusbett Hotel, Sunyani #koobipizza We set off at a leisurely pace at 10am without them and asked them to try and catch us up in the Aburi mountains. They did catch up in Aburi. We continued into Nsawam and then connected to the N6 headed to Kumasi. It was rainy, misty and visibility was poor all around so we took our fine time. After all, the destination for today is Sunyani and as usual, our accommodation has to be at. Of course,will cry.

In this 5 car convoy, Ive driven with each and every one of them on road trips but this is the first time we are all driving together. The chemistry between Saka and I is such that we can literally do a road trip blindfolded and wed know what to do at every turn. I have also done this route twice already in the last as many months so I became the lead car with him pushing the rear guard. We have strict road protocols and we communicate with two way radios.

We ate fufuo at Jofel, Anyinam and got to KNUST on schedule. Uneventful trip but for the usual suspects of idiots and psychopaths sitting behind steering wheels in this country of ours.

Robert Mensah We continued into Sunyani on time and Eusbett has not disappointed. The ever affablealways manages to exceed our increasingly erratic and odd demands with that shy smile of his. God bless you my boss.

DAY 1 SUNDAY 23 JULY 2023 TARGET, BOUAKE CI 540km

Robert made sure we got breakfast at 5:30. We are on our way now. Nice cool weather. Sun roofs open, the cool breeze is making the engines purrrr quietly yet eating up the kilometers aggressively.

30 minutes into the journey and Joe has radioed that hes having some braking issues on the G63. We have stopped and inspection is on going.

Kwame determined that the brakes had been bled by someone and one of the bleeder nozzles had not been tightened well. He did the honors topped up the lost fluid and we set off again. Now, Joe says he had taken the vehicle to the authorized dealers in Accra for inspection and servicing earlier. If they are the ones who did this work, Im not getting any good vibes from their noise about the dealership coup at all. All noise and no substance. But again, that is Ghana for you.

Border crossing in Ghana was not too difficult. Paperwork on the customs entries which will allow us to clear the cars at the harbour took a little bit of time but we were soon on our way. We all had Lassez Passezs from our recent trips into CI so we didnt delay on the other end either.

Immigration at Takikro on the CI side however, was a different story. A raggedly bunch of unkempt, non uniformed men, hanging around in a dirty mud hut planned to extort us before granting us entry.

We as usual, decided to use the longer Yamoussoukro - Bouake road instead of the shorter but bad bandit road. At Franks Waterloo area, his new, higher profile tyres tore through the potholes with a vengeance. We literally cleared that stretch in a convoy with speeds topping 180km/h. He shouted over the radio with elation when nothing happened to his tyres. The Lexus is a survivor.

We have arrived at Hotel Mon Afrik. Fred and I came here on our last visit because it came highly recommended by someone I know in this blue compound house. We didnt inspect the rooms. We just paid a deposit to lock them for today. This was around 2 months ago. The environment was and still is very nice.

The rooms however, are a different story. This prompted me to make a post about the fine line between shabby and rustic. I mean if you want rustic, using broken tiles on the floor screams crassness and cheapskate at me. I wouldnt mind baked earth floor in that vein but broken tiles paaa dierr, I beg, shift make I pass. We have no choice though and since we are leaving at 4am, no biggie.

DAY 2 MONDAY 24th JULY 2023 TARGET, BAMAKO 790km

This morning, we are ready to leave at 4am as agreed. We are driving almost 800km to Bamako through the Tingrela border.

The road is all clear and in very good condition with the exception of a constant supply of speed rumps. Day light is about 2.5 hours away so we are being careful with speed but weve found a Camry who seems to know his way around these roads. Hes not being a slouch either so he is our marker. His tail lights tell us what to do when he slows down or bobs up and down on a rump. Life is easy now we dont have to strain or worry about reading the road.

We are at Tingrela border now and as usual, Africans are trying to find a way to extort where theres nothing wrong. A port health guy has just been bullied into his corner by Saka and he is sitting with his tail in between his legs.

Its raining and their building is small so our small crowd has taken over all the space. They have a very laborious way of recording all our details for immigration purposes. The boss conducted a short interview on me via a translator and instructed them to take pictures of all our documents and vehicles.

We started applauding them on their pro activeness since we thought they were going to complete the foolscap books when we are gone. WRONG! They are filling each and everyone all over again by hand but we have patience so we will wait.

Done here now. We have to drive for 15 minutes or so to the Malian border post.

The Malians are very thorough with their processes. The lassez passez didnt take long but the search process of our belongings and cars did. Every bag has to be searched thoroughly and for the cars, its as if they are using a fine tooth comb.

From our numerous research, we expected this. We are finally off and we are hungry. Our target is to stop over midway for some quick bites and also to fuel up. We stopped in Bougouni to do the honours. We found some beer as well.

Now, let me take my heart off to the staff of the Ghanaian Mission in Bamako for the immense help they gave to us. The Consul himself met us and escorted us to Bamako. He was very gracious and helpful. He helped us book a hotel, organized some meals for us and really made us feel at home.

Approaching Bamako, Frank mentioned over the radio that his brakes were feeling funny. Team Ayirebi reported same. We stopped to check.

The Lexus brake pads had heated up badly and wasnt being effective.

Team Ayirebis front brakes had worn through to the metal and the rotors were being given the scouring of their lives.

We were not far from the town so we decided to take it very easy to get in whilst our escort organized a mechanic to meet us at the Consulate to take a look. Luckily, everyone had spare brake pads.

We were in the process of taking it easy when I also began hearing noises from one of my rear brakes. This is now Bamako in rush hour traffic. A loud grating noise in my rear reacted to every press of the brake pedal.

My father used to have a 1974 model Toyota Corona. It is this car which my brother Kwame and I used to learn how to drive in the mid 80s when we were well below the legal driving age. By the early 90s when we got our licenses, this car was a dilapidated piece of junk and we cheekily named it the Limo.

Now this is a manual, non power steering car whose temperamental first gear, would pop out when you moved. Thus, you are supposed to keep your hand on the gear lever to prevent it from popping out, shift into second as soon as possible and then bring up your right hand to assist in turning the steering wheel when necessary. Any move from standstill at an intersection where one needed to turn right or left was an exercise in multi tasking.

This was the experience I had to call on to maneuver us slowly through the maze called traffic in Bamako to the High Commission.

Essentially, I wasnt supposed to touch the brakes. I used a combination of the hand brake and tiptronic shifting to move and stop the vehicle without touching the brake pedal.

We finally entered the Mission and boy, the constant hard driving and rapid stopping had taken a toll on all the brakes. One of our rear brake pads had actually fallen out and so the grating noise I heard was the piston meeting the rotor.

The mechanic showed up, replaced for two of the cars whilst Kwame also replaced for the other two. Only the G63 hadnt worn through his brakes and incidentally, he didnt have spares anyway so if he had needed one, wed have been really hot.

DAY 3 TUESDAY 25th JULY 2023 TARGET, KAYES 620km

If theres anything which ticks me off about Bamako, its the flies and mosquitoes. Its a beautiful morning and we are fueling up at a station on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue. The truth is you cant stand still for 30 seconds. They are all over the place.

We are moving in a northerly direction to turn westwards at Diema towards Kayes. The Consul has again, offered to escort us all the way to Kayes (a 10-11 hour trip) to return the next day so we continue to the Senegalese border and then on to Dakar.

In daylight, Bamako is such a naturally beautiful town. The different elevations of the town makes for a very beautiful vista as the sun hits differently on different protruding rocks and valleys. Its spectacular.

The highway appears newly done but the crazy thing are the type of and quantity of speed rumps on it. They are more like mini mountains and a lot of them. Our worn rotors are having to bite into the new pads to create new grooves to match the deformation. The process creates serious vibrations whenever the brakes are used. We have a whole rest day ion Dakar so we will have the brakes looked at again there.

We are midway through the journey and the good road has ended. What lies before us is really not a road. Its like an oware board for the gods. Swerve one, catch three for free. This road wins hands down over Wa - Tumu.

We have realized that the locals have created parallel roads in the mud on the sides of the road and these are a bit better. The road itself is elevated just like the Akosombo road whilst the sides are depressed since this is naturally a low lying area.

If you manage to get off the main potholed road into the plains, you can play in the mud all the way till you meet a culvert then you climb up unto the bad road again until you can descend and start all over again.

There are three active terrorist areas in this stretch where attacks are known to happen. We have been warned to stop far away anytime we see a herd of cattle crossing the road and to back up, prepared to turn and fire away at the slightest hint of trouble.

Apparently, the terrorists are able to cross the road with cattle to stop you whilst they flank you and deal with you mercilessly. We encountered around six of such roadblocks and we were ready for evasive action but luckily, they were all innocent cattle crossings.

Frank began to have fading brakes again because he had to drive very fast to keep up and stop quickly to prevent falling into holes. When he got over frustrated, he decided to join us in the off-roading heaven we were in.

A Lexus RX350 doesnt have the skid plates all the other cars had so the inevitable eventually happened. Sump kissed the ground somewhere. Not broken or burst but dented badly at the oil intake point.

As the oil pump suffers to suck the oil, it reports low oil pressure which causes the ECU to disable the all wheel drive system amongst many others. Luckily its not broken so we can limp slowly towards Kayes and hopefully, find another mechanic to fix it.

Just before nightfall, we drove into Kayes and found one. He was shown what to do and then to replace the brakes as well.

On this same road, we began to have a small misfire. We couldnt tell which cylinder or even the cause but 8 cylinders are plenty so we brute forced our way to Kayes. We couldnt diagnose what was wrong and since there was no check engine light, we decided to look at it later.

We have just eaten some poor excuse for a steak and this hotel looks and feels like one of those old brothels around Accra New Town back in the day. Fully carpeted and stinking from years of abuse but we have no choice so we deal with it. Waiting patiently for dawn so we set off again.

DAY 4 WEDNESDAY 26th JULY 2023 TARGET, DAKAR 888km

This morning, we left Kayes at 5am and by 6:15, wed covered the almost 100km to the border.

Weve gone through the Malian side in Diboli and are waiting for some big man to come and process us into Senegal at Kidra.

The 780km or so from the border into Dakar is made of EXCELLENT roads. Im so envious. The worst is over in terms of security concerns.

Our research shows that Senegalese police are quite troublesome so we are being careful but interestingly, weve gotten nothing but love from them so far. Let me not jinx it by speaking too soon.

J Kosi Degbor Joe wanted some assistance with driving after we crossed Tambacounda so I obliged since Kwame was driving our team. That G63 is one hell of a machine. I enjoyed the deep rumbling sound and exceptional acceleration but I found out too quickly that theres a limiter programmed to 127mph. Maybe when we return, we will ship the ECU off toto let his man work some magic on it but even as it it now, the acceleration is crazy.

We discovered a tolled super highway before Dakar and the car came into its own. I took off like a bat out of hell and Frank gave me a hot chase. We played some fun and games. Eventually, we slowed down for the others to catch up.

Whilst we were coasting cooly around 160kmh, Frank came over the radio that some Maserati was misbehaving and needed to be taught a lesson. I couldnt say no. Its not everyday that one gets a super machine with unlimited roads.

Dude zipped past quickly. Maserati Levante. I hit the gas. I could see Joe gripping the arm rest from the corner of my eye but I no mind am sef. The chase was on. Dude saw us coming and increased speed but his ass was toast already.

We smoked him on the freeway till we entered light traffic where we could weave at top speed with stability and I could see him in the back struggling to corner.

At every stretch, we took him. Our advantage was the rapid acceleration since with our 127mph limiter we couldnt attain any proper top speeds but we held high the flag of Ghana on a foreign road, built with the money of rich taxpayers like the Levante dude.

Solomon Kusi It took google asking us to turn off the highway, for us to relent and then wait for the rest of the team. Then in the evening I sawsaying AMG edieben dieben and I laughed. Driving that car brought back the akonta, yee di nduiii joke. Sorry if youve not heard it nor understand. Thats your loss.

Bob Kotei Dakar is just an awesome town. In fact, Senegal is super lovely and Ill definitely be coming back soon for a bit more time.met us in our hotel and later took us for dinner.

Our hotel had a night club and Kwadwo ended up there. Apparently, the clubs come alive after 2am opana had a blast. I was fast asleep.

DAY 5 THURSDAY 27th JULY 2023 DAKAR REST AND MECHANIC DAY

We have a few issues. The G63 has a cracked windscreen and we want to replace it. Our misfire has gotten worse. We all need a new set of brakes.

Bob sent a translator and mechanic to assist us in their version of Abossey Okai. My signature chale wote, shorts and T shirt blended in nicely at the market and we got some really good deals.

It was determined that our plugs were faulty so we replaced them. Thats where everything fell apart. The mechanic installing the plugs inadvertently broke a connector from one of the oil control valves. This threw a check engine which in turn turned on the blinking low range gearbox light.

After changing the plugs, we got our power back but the lights stayed on. We couldnt get the appropriate socket to buy so Kwame inserted the contacts directly into the valves and filled it with bostic. It held, even though the light is still on.

We will find a solution in Nouakchott tomorrow. We should be there very early and probably in time for lunch.

DAY 6 FRIDAY 28th JULY 2023 TARGET, NOUAKCHOTT 588km

Its 4am in Dakar. My engine is running. Im waiting for the rest of the team. The car park is full because our hotel has a night club which only comes awake after 2am. People keep trooping in even at this time. Ok, leaving now.

Senegalese roads are excellent and we have covered the journey of 400km to the border town of Diama already. Its just 7:45ish. The Senegalese officials here are very friendly. We are almost ready to cross a dam which separates Senegal from Mauritania.

We got to the Mauritanian side about 10 minutes ago and the officials are so hostile. Both their verbal and non verbal language are full of anger and bitterness.

The boss says he cant let us cross so we should go to another town called Rosso. Its apparently about 140km away. I have no energy to argue this but we have a lot of fuel so we will go.

Dont forget we have already been exited from Senegal so we have to return for them to give us back our lassez passez so we can exit again from Rosso. That was easy. Senegal is a nice place.

9am We arrived in Rosso a while ago and the process for crossing is so haphazard. As a result, goro business thrives. Theres this guy who is trying to sort us out. He doesnt want to discuss his fee, he says, until he is done. I dont like business like that.

10:30 Biometrics done in Senegal, our goro boy has managed to get all 5 cars on one vessel. I guess I forgot to mention that the border crossing is by ferry. Its smaller than any ferry Ive seen or used in Ghana but half a loaf, 

Our goro boy (Madike is his name), begins the process with vigor at the Mauritanian side. The officials are all corrupt, conniving thieves and every step commands some money. They mention figures and after you look at the person, you ask yourself whether his whole family has ever seen that amount before.

An example is the lassez passez. All through from Cote dIvoire, Mali and Senegal, the average we pay is CFA50,000 to 75,000 (ghs1,000 to 1,500) for all 5 cars. This guy standing in the middle of this filth and fly infested structure called a border post wants 1,750 EUROS for the 5 cars. After frustrating us for so long, they accepted $500.

Then theres charges for EVERYTHING. If they could charge for breathing Im sure theyd do so. None of the outrageous charges is also receipted so you get the drift.

Saka was the first car out of the border and we followed. A police patrol team had been laying in wait at a junction and have stopped us. I wont even get down to go and talk to them. Im sure Saka will sort it out.

Dude says we have tinted cars and its an offense so we should follow him to the station. The way about 6 idiots in the bucket of their Hilux are brandishing AK47s, Im not comfortable koraaa.

The rest of the cars inside the border have been called to take off their tints because they cant arrest them u til they enter the country through the gate.

We are at the police station. Officer says we have to take the tint off and we do it. Then he says theres a fine for it and we say we are ready to pay. Now he gets on the phone and rattles his language in a staccato tone for close to 10 minutes. He now says his boss says he should keep the cars for 48 hours before he releases them in addition to the fine et all.

One of the policemen who speaks passable English surreptitiously told us to get someone to speak to his boss so released a telephone number. When the boss heard the story, he refused to pick all other calls.

This same cop came to tell us not to sleep in that town under any circumstances. Its already 5pm. We could have slept in a hotel and waited out the 48 hours but the agent also came to repeat the same story. I am worried now.

Every now and again, a Hilux passes by with gun toting renegades and it doesnt sit well at all. We called the Ghanaian Consul in Nouakchott and he is making some calls to try and get us released.

I suggested to my guys that we should leave the 2 cars and go to Nouakchott. We can come back the next day with people from the consulate to try and solve it. The drive is just 250km (Accra - Kumasi) away. Soon, the consul asked us to go back for our cars.

They took us through some extra delaying tactics and confusion which ended up with my car running backwards into the Raptor and denting my bumper but that was no issue. We needed to get out of there now because its almost 7:30pm.

The dust settled and we hit the road with Takashi. We entered Nouakchott a little after 10pm. We went to visit the Consul and guess what, he had fufuo, banku, light soup with so many different types of fish and smoked Turkey groundnut soup. Chale, all the wahala of the day vanished and we dug into them.

He promised to escort us to the border with Morocco but that needed to be done in two stages because the country is so large. He actually is a businessman who also serves as our honorary consul so he took us midway to his base of operations Nouadibou. Ill find time to write about Me. Felix Hattor one of these days but suffice to say, he blew me away with the scale of his operations.

DAY 7 SATURDAY 29th JULY 2023 TARGET, NOUADHIBOU 490km

We slept in till late (thats 7am for me) and I went out looking for a car wash. I wont describe what I found but I managed to clean the car just a little bit.

Our host took us with chale wotes and everything into Paul for breakfast. Quite some bougie stuff.

We then set off for Nouadibou after noon. He was in the lead with his diplomatic plated Landcruiser and we followed in a very fast convoy. If salutes could feed a person, Im sure we wouldnt eat again for the rest of our lives.

The drive was quite stressful because we encountered extreme heat and strong winds. The air was so hot that the cars performances dropped rapidly. Intake temperatures were so hot so fuel burn was crazy. The wind threatening to push you off the tarmac into the sand dunes on the sides meant that you drove straight with the steering wheel turned to one side to avoid being swept off.

Funny thing is that there are some places where the dunes have formed some high walls on the sides of the road. These momentarily break the wind when you pass through them and your initial correction becomes a turn. If you over correct this new turn, fishtail be that. Whilst you are struggling with this, you emerge back into the desert plains and the initial correction must be done all over again. However, you get used to this very quickly and your reflexes take over.

Despite all the research and preparation we did, theres one thing which never occurred to any of us and which eventually failed us. We didnt know the power of fine sand laden winds on paintwork.

We saw locals driving with all the front of their cars covered in a paste. Apparently, the paste prevents sandblasting as you speed through the dust. Because we didnt know and so couldnt prepare, all the forward facing parts of our cars like the bikers and lights appear as if some fine sandpaper has been used to take off all the lacquer. Sprayers in Accra will get work when the cars return anyway.

DAY 8 SUNDAY 30th JULY 2023 TARGET, LAAYOUNE 920km

We woke up to a 6:30 breakfast because our projected time to the border is about 30 minutes. The border opens at 8 so the idea is to leave at 7:30.

We got to the border around 8:40. Our Consul smoothened all the channels for us and in no time, we were ready to go to the Moroccan side. This is where he left us and we have been so grateful for all his assistance. We have promised to retaliate whenever he sets foot in Accra.

The Moroccan border crossing went smoothly with no drama at all. Its just like getting into an airport. The gendarmes are also so nice. They actually walk up to you and offer assistance if they see you dont understand whats going on. If only their next door neigbours would learn. The cars were scanned through some giant scanners and we were sent on our way.

Im no geo political enthusiast and in all the research I did, there was a country called Western Sahara sandwiched in between Morocco and Mauritania. Its a wasteland of nothing, unless of course but I hear they have a lot of phosphates.

Apparently, theres some maneuvering going on and so where we entered is no longer Western Sahara but rather, Morocco now. The distance between this border and original Morocco is over 800km of absolutely nothing. If you attempt to drive in that area without extra cans of petrol, you are toast. I now understood why most vehicles in the area were diesel powered. They have longer range and so they can survive the long distances between stations.

The wind has gotten worse and its extremely cold. We have driven for a while and we are all quite tired. We have decided to call off the trip to Laayoune but rather to stop in Dakhla. We want to rest and take off early to attempt to go beyond Laayoune.

At Dakhla junction, it was still light and we asked some police men whether there was any town ahead with a hotel. They did the usual things our people in the villages do when you ask how far a place is. They usually say its right here.

When we got the road, we discovered that they had sent us towards a 300km journey. We hit the road. At a point in time, I vaguely remember a very nice feeling and I was so relaxed. I was actually dreaming and it took Kwames screams to bring me back awake to realize I was fast asleep and heading off the road at 160kmh and over. I woke up shaken but full of adrenalin which boosted me up and we kept on going as if nothing had happened.

We arrived at the town called Boujdour. We had some passable meal bi and during that time, asked around for their best hotel. One was highly recommended so we went there. It was crappy and they didnt have enough rooms for all of us so Saka, Kwame, Richard and myself set off looking for another one.

We found one and as soon as they said they could give us 4 rooms, we took our stuff, paid and went up to the rooms.

FARK!!!!!! Dirt, stench and noise greeted us when we entered the rooms. I couldnt even bring myself to touch anything so I walked with my bag back out. I met Kwame in the corridor and he said he was coming for the car key to go and sleep in it. I told him to join the queue. We both went down and crashed in the two front seats.

The wind was so strong that it kept rocking the car all night so I didnt really sleep well. Sakas truck was parked directly in front of me. At a point in time, I heard the engine grunt to life.

I just hit the brake pedal, started the engine whilst at the same time, lifting up the back of my seat. I lowered the window and said Kwadwo lets go. It was 5am.

Richard ambled down. Apparently, he couldnt bring himself to touch the bed either so he sat on his suitcase and did some work all through the night.

We hit the road to pick the other guys from the other forkin hotel and that was it. I dont touch any water to even brush my teeth all day till we arrived at our new destination, Agadir late afternoon.

We found a motel which had a full Total service station, restaurant and most importantly, was right next to the highway for rapid exit at dawn. Oil service, fuel fill-up, car wash, a hot meal, shower and then bed, in that order. Sleep came fast.

DAY 9 MONDAY 31st JULY 2023 TARGET, CASABLANCA 500km

My brother Kwame has a meeting in Amsterdam on Wednesday so I have to drop him at Casablanca airport, 4hrs away from our hotel. We left at 4am. The idea was to drop him, meet up the other guys and then go to town and sleep.

For varied reasons, some team members will be crossing into Algeciras after August 3rd.

After dropping Kwame off, I spoke with Saka and we agreed to visit the Ghanaian High Commissioner in Rabat since its so close. I got there, Saka and Frank came in and we had a good interaction with the Embassy staff.

I met two young ladies there who had an issue and were looking to to get assistance from the Mission. One was 32 years old. Been in Morocco for the past 20 months. Her uncle in Spain paid for her to come but the connection men took her to Morocco and abandoned her. Her objective now is to hustle and get some connection to Spain.

The second one is 18 years old. She graduated SSS and got a job at one of these Airbnb brothels. If you are familiar with that market in Accra, she worked specifically at the one near Shiashie. The very one where you dare not go near with your car because youll be tagged but I digress.

Whilst working there, she met a Moroccan lady who became her friend. This woman eventually told her to save money and shed bring her to Morocco to work as a nanny.

She paid ghs4,800 to the woman and she was brought in. She works for the womans sister. Visa expired, no salary, and starving. She complained and they locked her out so she went to the embassy to report. The staff are trying to find an amicable solution to this.

My daughter is 17 so this story broke my heart. I offered to buy her a ticket to Ghana and she declined. She rather wanted to hide in our car boot to London or at least, just across the sea to Spain.

No amount of education I gave her would make her change her mind. Eventually, I saw what the challenge was. She had sold all she had to come. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father moved on with a new wife who sacked her from home. Shes hustled all her life.

When she came here, she took lots of pictures for the gram and all her friends know shes making it big. Going back home beaten and bruised by life is not the kind of shame she wants to face in her life now.

When we finished at the embassy, we realized that the distance back to Casablanca was the same as onward to Tanger Med so we decided to push forward to see if we could buy tickets in advance for tomorrow.

We got here, got tickets for immediately and boarded. As I type, Im on the way to Algeciras but Saka and Frank will be on the next one because the guy inspecting their queue was slow.

To be or not to be? Will the Spanish authorities allow a GH registered car into their country?

If they do, we move. If they dont, we ship the cars from Algeciras and fly to london to party anyway. Cheers
Between Blyden and Bagbin, Case for an African Personality

Harold Wilson Hubert Opinion Aug - 07 - 2023 , 11:03

The Speaker of the Eighth Parliament of Ghana, Alban S K Bagbin, symbolises a radical transformation in the political leadership of the country.

He is the first Speaker of the honourable House who belongs to the minority side of government.

He has also dropped the long robe in favour of various traditional African attire, from the fugu to the agbada to the ceremonial adinkra and kente worn by traditional Ghanaian chiefs and it appears he has by his leadership wooed his deputies, as well as the clerks atthe table to follow suit.

By this act of defiance, Mr Bagbin has simply indicated a desire to give his high office as Speaker of Parliament and by extension the Parliament of Ghana a traditional Ghanaian character.

Mr Bagbin said during his first address at the first sitting of the Eighth Parliament that the long gown, the headgear and bib, that his predecessors wore while in the Speakers chair constitute the ceremonial dress of the Speaker.

We inherited it from the British . Mr Bagbin certainly is not in favour of maintaining a practice that, even the British, as he said, have long been abandoned.

The use of the robes, perhaps, constituted, as Ngugi Wa Thiongo said, a servile worship of what is dead.

Vision

Beyond the colonial robes, the Speaker did not mince words in equivocating his vision of a Parliament with a Ghanaian flavour;

 this is the Parliament of Ghana, he said. It is a unique made-in-Ghana product and we must showcase and market it to the world as a brand.

We must create a unique set of values and norms that would give a unique character to our Parliament to set it apart from the colonial legacies of the British system. My outfit today, he added,  is to set in motion this agenda.

Mr Bagbin was careful to desist from crediting himself with any pioneering role in this sankofa crusade.

According to him, the Speaker of the First Parliament of the First Republic of Ghana, Mr Joseph Richard Asiedu appreciated and wore such traditional Ghanaian attire.

In fact, the dominant dress code of members of the National Assembly of independent Ghana, according to him, was native costume.

Dr Nkrumah

Further into history, Mr Bagbin situated his crusade in the propositions of the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the other founding members of the first Republic.

Crediting Dr Nkrumah, who was among the leading pan- Africanist of his generation, with equivocating the projection of African culture and personality, was to be expected.

It should, however, be reiterated that the roots of pan-Africanism go deeper than Nkrumahs founding efforts.

These roots are etched in the works of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the Carribean  Liberian who many consider the father of pan -Africanism.

Several of the intellectuals who proposed pan Africanism in their works owed their ideological formulations to his teachings in the 19th Century.

Mr Blyden was initially one of the leading proponents of the colonialisation of Africans by Caucasians.

In 1888, Blyden, a pioneering educator, educational theorist and politician, published a pivotal collection of essays advocating, more or less, the indiscriminate political, intellectual and religious colonisation of Africans by Europeans. But by 1908, Blyden had changed his mind. He had made a complete turnaround.

African people

In his writings thereafter, Blyden turned to articulating an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the African people.

For Blyden, who was touted as the father of pan  Africanism, Western civilisation was intended to make the African a caricature of European society.

As a result of such colonial influences, the situation of the African under colonial rule, according to him, had become one of chaos as he lived in strict psychological conflicts.

The colonialists, Blyden added, had a clear view of what they were doing when they subverted African culture and projected their own.

The actual aim of colonialism, as Ngugi wrote, was to `` control the wealth of the colonised, and the most effective weapon apart from their raids and conquests was the domination of the mental universe of the colonised.

The colonialists were aware, as Ngugi intimates, that  to control a peoples culture is to control their tools of self  definition in relation to others, hence their determined efforts at colonising this mental universe of Africans.

The colonialists controlled this universe of how the colonised Africans perceived themselves and their relationship with the world, through acculturation.

Against these odds, revival of the African personality, according to Blyden, is a solution to the distorted manhood of the African and a path to his future progress.

Indeed, the uniqueness of African cultural identity stood as a more dominant aspect of Blyden's philosophy and following his lead, the African intellectuals of Nkrumahs generation undertook forceful crusades against notions of black inferiority and backwardness.

By putting away the colonial robe, Mr Bagbin has once again reiterated that critical need for a black revolution (a neo cultural renaissance) among Africans of this epoch.

For this reason, his profound act of defiance of this lingering chain of subjugation and caricature ought to be commended highly and emulated boldly by other African political leaders and their people.
Gomer Pyle Syndrome? - Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd) writes

Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd) Opinion Aug - 07 - 2023 , 12:45

To say the last week of July 2023 was eventful both home and abroad might probably be an understatement.

ECOWAS leaders issued an ultimatum to the coup leaders in Niger to reinstate former President Bazoum in seven days or be attacked by ECOWAS.

Burkina Faso and Mali countered this threat saying an attack on Niger would be seen as an attack on them. Meanwhile President Macky Sall of Senegal abolished the Opposition party PASTEF of Ousmanne Sonko.

In Ghana, the reported theft by two house-helps of one-million dollars and three-hundred-thousand Euros and millions of cedis from a ministers house continues to generate discussion.

The Bank of Ghana attributed the loss of 60 billion cedis in 2022 to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. Finally, in the mid-year budget review we were told the economy has turned the corner!

Gomer Pyle

As young officers in the early 1970s whose home was the Arakan Officers Mess, we spent Saturday evenings watching a comedy programme we named after the lead actor Gomer Pyle (real name Jim Nabors)! This was in an era where colour TV had not arrived in Ghana. Indeed, most of us did not own TVs.

The only TV was a black-and-white one at the Officers Mess, just as the only telephone was! On nights when Ghana Television showed Gomer Pyle therefore, we all assembled in the Mess in our long-sleeve-shirts and tie, with the option to wear a coat/jacket.

Gomer played the role of an innocent, naive, funny, dull-witted/stupid Marine private soldier (in the US Marine Corps) who bore the brunt of jokes from his colleagues. His brain appeared to be differently wired from everyone elses, and often responded and operated in the reverse gear.

For example, during a Map Reading exercise starting at the beach, they were required to take compass bearings to their next locations. After taking his bearing, Gomer turned around and started walking into the sea. Asked why that, he simply told his Platoon Sergeant, Sgt Carter, that was where his compass indicated he must go!

Turned the corner?

As I listened to the news on radio/TV that, we had turned the corner in our economic woes, I felt like Gomer Pyle, absolutely incredulous. My investment as an individual bondholder was due to mature in 2023. It has been rescheduled five years hence to 2028!

If the English phrase turning the corner remains what I was taught at school to mean to pass the critical point and start to improve, (Wikipedia) then unlike Gomer Pyle, hopefully my compass bearing will head towards land and not to the sea! Unfortunately, no payment has been made into my account either as principal or coupon.

While one may not operate in the realm of finance, one is guided by the writer Ralph Waldo Emersons quote that, What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say! The saying a leopard does not change its spots also rings in my ears.

From the assurance there will be no haircut, we were given a Full-Head-cut, which in modern day parlance, has totally dislocated my financial ecosystem. Indeed, when former Chief Justice Madame Sophia Akuffo joined individual bondholders to picket, she was disrespectfully addressed for her action. In a counter-offensive, she taught Ghanaians the word pin-head.

So, are we to understand that, what is due in 2023 will be given, and not wait to 2028, as we have turned the corner?

Summary

Discussions on the ultimatum by ECOWAS to the Niger coup leaders to reinstate former President Bazoum or be attacked, seem to suggest that, the decision was taken without considering Chapter 8 of the United Nations Charter on enforcement action by regional organisations. It is particularly so when ECOWAS has been silent on developments in Senegal, and President Macky Salls abolition of the Opposition Party. ECOWAS leadership has been accused of double standards where the preservation of their own is their priority, and not democracy!

For us at home who have been told we have turned the corner, we look forward to the reflection in our pockets and improved purchasing power! Of particular interest is the payment to us individual bondholders, particularly pensioners, of both principal and coupons on maturity.

In an earlier article, I quoted what a senior colleague told us young officers about Truth, in the Sinai Desert in 1975 when we served with the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) 2. He stated that if someone takes you for a fool, make him aware that, you are not as foolish as he thinks. You have only chosen to look so for the sake of peace! But it will not last forever! He emphasized the need to be truthful at all times, as any apparent gain from lies is only temporary. The truth will ultimately come out! Any semblance of a Gomer Pyle Syndrome is temporary!

Democracy

The founding fathers of Democracy in Political Philosophy in 17th-18th like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Paul Sartre conceived Democracy as a truthful enterprise which would lift man from life being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, like pertains in the animal kingdom, into one of decent human existence!

At home, while no law prevents individuals from keeping money at home, the huge quantities of both foreign money and cedis in the house of top officials raises serious commonsensical questions.

Is democracy what we saw displayed all over at the end of July 2023? Gomer Pyle will certainly not understand it, and not only him!

Leadership, LEAD! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!

The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya and Council Chairman, Family Health University College, Accra
Juan Branco, a French lawyer helping to represent Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, has been detained on charges of conspiracy, spreading fake news and endangering public safety, his lawyers announced on Sunday.

Branco was arrested near the border with Mauritania on Saturday, five days after Sonko was charged with fomenting insurrection and placed in detention.

Sonko has faced multiple charges in the past two years, which he claims are designed to keep him out of politics as Senegal prepares for a presidential election in February 2024.

Branco is one of several lawyers defending the opposition figure.

He appeared before a judge in Dakar on Sunday and was charged with attacks, conspiracy, dissemination of fake news and actions liable to compromise public safety or cause serious political disturbance, the lawyers representing him said.

International arrest warrant

He has been wanted in Senegal since mid-July, when authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest in connection with deadly riots that broke out in June after Sonko was sentenced to prison for "corrupting youth".

During the unrest, Branco announced that he would seek to take Senegal's President Macky Sall and other prominent members of his government to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

Branco's French defence team claimed that the charges against him were politically motivated and said they had asked the UN's working group on arbitrary arrest to investigate.

Left-wing activist

Branco was not in Senegal when the warrant was issued, but made a surprise appearance at a press conference held by Sonko's defence team in Dakar on 30 July, having entered the country in secret.

"We came here to tell you that we're not afraid," Branco posted on Twitter at the time.

The lawyer then took flight and is understood to have hired a fishing boat to take him across the Mauritanian border when he was arrested.

Branco, who also has Spanish nationality, is well-known in France as a left-wing political activist, media commentator and former candidate for the hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed).

He has worked on several high-profile legal cases, including defending members of the Yellow Vest protest movement.
Watch out! Fake olive oils on market

Charles Benoni Okine Opinion Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:36

I wish to draw the attention of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to a development in the market that requires attention.

While at the market at Okasishie in Accra to buy olive oil, I chanced upon this brand and noticed an anomaly, which clearly pointed to the fact that the product was fake.

Two bottles, one bigger than the other, were both labelled as 70ml.

That was not only strange, but a clear demonstration of a deliberate attempt to sell to the unsuspecting public, fake olive oils.

Olive oil comes from olive fruit and contains monounsaturated fatty acids.

Fatty acids in olive oil seem to decrease cholesterol levels and have anti-inflammatory effects.

Olive oil is commonly used in foods.

As a medicine, people most commonly use olive oil for heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Spiritually, olive oil produces a great flame with less smoke.

In Jewish tradition, olive oil symbolises the divine presence.

In the biblical text, olive oil is the main element of anointing.

It is used in the royal sacraments and the sacrament of baptism.

From these known uses for olive oils, it is clear that fake ones on the market could be injurious to human health, thats for those who use them for cooking.

The FDA must act now to stop this practice.

There are too many fake products in the open and the time to rid the markets of these products should be now.

Charles Benoni Okine

Dansoman, Accra
Niger junta closes airspace as ECOWAS deadline expires

International News Aug - 07 - 2023 , 12:24

The military junta said it shuttered the country's airspace because of the "threat of intervention." An ECOWAS demand to restore President Bazoum or risk military action has now expired.

Niger's military junta has announced the closure of the country's airspace, expectant of a West African bloc's threat to carry out a military intervention in the country should ousted President Mohamed Bazoum not be released and reinstated.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had given the coup leaders until Sunday to reverse their military takeover and restore Bazoum's rule. The deadline has now passed, with the junta organizing large shows of support in the capital Niamey in the run-up to its expiration.

The regional bloc was expected to release a statement in response on Monday.

What did the junta say?

The junta said it was closing Niger's airspace "for all aircraft until further notice" as of Sunday, citing "the threat of intervention" as its motive.

It warned that any attempt to violate the country's airspace would be met with an "energetic and immediate response."

The so-called National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, a council of generals who have taken power, said it had seen indications of a "pre-deployment in preparation for intervention" by two Central African countries it did not name.

How did other countries react?

France discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, where the military also took power by force in 2022 and 2020.

Germany and Italy called for an extension of the ECOWAS deadline and urged seeking a diplomatic solution. "The only path is a diplomatic one," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa newspaper.

Germany's Foreign Ministry said that ECOWAS mediation efforts were "still ongoing."

"We hope that these efforts will ultimately lead to success and that constitutional order will be restored in Niger," a ministry spokesman told a press briefing.

Berlin also warned Niger's junta against acts of violence against Bazoum, saying that coup plotters "will have to face severe personal consequences" if such acts occur.

Meanwhile, the junta's top allies Mali and Burkina Faso, said they were sending a joint official delegation in a show of solidarity with Niger on Monday.

It warned that "any state involved will be considered co-belligerent."

ECOWAS deadline passes

On July 30, ECOWAS defense chiefs said they had agreed to intervene if the junta did not meet its demands within one week and return the country to normal constitutional order.

On Friday, the bloc's defense ministers said that they had reached a plan for military action against Niger's junta.

But on Saturday, the junta, led by the former head of the presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tchiani continued its move to consolidate power by appointing military insiders to key government positions.
11 things you should never put in your v*gina

www.dailystar.co.uk Life Aug - 06 - 2023 , 08:34

It goes without saying that you should be careful around your intimate areas.

But this hasn't stopped some from experimenting in the bedroom with whipped cream, sexy syrups or even vegetables.

Be warned though, as genitals are incredibly sensitive.

And no one wants to spent a night in the hospital while doctors remove an unconventional item from their orifices.

Read on for a list of items that should never, under any circumstances, find their way into your vagina.

What should you never put in your vagina?

1. Tea tree oil

Previously, Dr Shree Datta told women not to use tea tree oil on their vaginas.

Her warning came after ladies used the natural product in a bid to eliminate odours.

But worryingly, the essential oil can burn your nether regions.

It can also mess with the pH of your body, increasing the likelihood of nasty infections developing.

2. Douches

Using a douche to clean can cause an imbalance of the bacteria usually found in a vagina and could lead to infection.

Conditions called pelvic inflammatory disease and bacterial vaginosis are both commonly linked to douching.

3. Chocolate syrup

While it may seem sexy to melt some chocolate in the bedroom, the aftermath can be anything but.

Sugary items can change the bacteria in your vagina and could well lead to a yeast infection, irritate the skin or both.

The outcome of this then is likely to be nasty irritation or an infection, so it's best avoided at all costs.

4. Whipped cream

The same sugar issue applies once again here, but just add dairy.

While it may be a well-known sexual act to put whipped cream on your body, it is very important you make sure it doesn't find its way inside it.

This is, like syrup, is a great way to get an infection so make sure you avoid it.

5. Vaseline

Vaseline is a petroleum-based lubricant, while designated sex lubricants tend to be water-based.

Stick to water-based if you want to avoid any complications.

6. Fruits and vegetables

Most fruit and vegetables spend their time growing being repeatedly sprayed with pesticides so if one finds its way into your vagina there's a good chance it will be bringing its lovely bug killer with it.

If it's enough to kill a bug it's probably enough to cause some issues in the human body too.

You also run the risk of it breaking while inside which could lead to smaller fragments getting stuck and causing infection.

Stick to sex toys that have been safety tested, people.

7. Any sharp objects

This one really doesn't need much explanation. The skin in the vagina can, like any other bit of skin, be cut.

Cuts to the vagina could not only be incredibly painful but also get infected.

To make matters worse, the vagina can bleed huge amounts.

8. Hairbrush handles

Did you forget your favourite sex toy while travelling?

Whatever you do, don't try and use a hairbrush handle as a replacement!

Things that get used every day are likely to gather dirt over time, with any nooks and crannies having the possibility to harbour a whole host of germs.

9. Alcohol-soaked tampons

Alcohol-infused sanitary products first emerged in Helsinki back in 1999 with teen girls hoping to get tipsy without their parents smelling the booze on their breath.

The craze quickly caught on, with more young women attempting it in a bid to get drunk faster.

Jumping on the bandwagon isnt advisable  as you could do some serious damage to your downstairs.

Dr Toli Onon, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists told Daily Star Online: Alcohol is an antiseptic and disturbing the balance of good bacteria inside the vagina in this way can increase the risk of infection, such as bacterial vaginosis or thrush.

Alcohol can also be very irritant to the vaginal skin, and may cause stinging pain and inflammation.

10. Your mobile phone

The vibration may have an air of temptation, but your phone is one of the most unclean things in the home.

They go everywhere and are touched throughout the day, often regardless of the cleanliness of the holder's hands at the time.

This means that phones can harbour a huge number of germs and so, like the hairbrush, avoid them at all costs.

11. Electric toothbrushes

Like a phone the same rules apply, and if you must use it, do so clitorally rather than penetratively.
WASSCE-SC practical progresses smoothly

Emmanuel Bonney & Linda Sah Education Aug - 07 - 2023 , 11:03

The practical section of this years Ghana Only West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC) is progressing smoothly in the various senior high schools (SHSs) throughout the country.

In a visit to some schools in Accra, candidates were seen in their working gears busily undertaking various projects that they have been required to do in response to questions posed in the examination.

In undertaking the projects, the candidates were seen using various tools including chisels, scissors, cutters, needles, threads, awls, pliers, hammers, tape measures, mallets and office pins, to their work in Leather and Sculpture, Graphic Designs and Textiles.

Requirements

While others stood to do their practical, others sat, depending on what they were required to do per the question they were responding to.

The questions were given to the candidates two weeks ahead of time to study them and then respond appropriately.

Present to observe the examination were invigilators and supervisors.

The schools the Daily Graphic team visited included the Accra High School, Labone Senior High School and the St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School.

At the Accra High School 85 candidates are taking part in the examination while 143 others were at the Labone SHS and 90 at the St Thomas Aquinas.

Absentee

There was no absentee at the Accra High School while there was one each at the St Thomas Aquinas and the Labone SHS.

The supervisor at the Accra High School, Noble Tu, told the Daily Graphic that the examination was going on smoothly.

He said the entire last week was devoted for Leather and Sculpture and this week would be for Graphic Designs and Textiles and other week being Picture Making.

Two students of the school  Kelvin Owusu and John Atter - said they did not have any problem as far as the examination was concerned.

They expressed the hope of excelling in the examination.

At the Labone SHS, Bernard Ayivi and Johanna Bubune were also hopeful of passing in the examination.

At the St Thomas Aquinas, the supervisor  Dennis Kodie, also confirmed the smooth conduct of the examination in the schools.

He said the school recorded an absentee after one of the candidates was involved in an accident.

Success

A student at the school, Sylvester Affram, said at the end of the day, their efforts would be crowned with success.

The Ghana Only version of the WASSCE-SC 2023 began on July 31, 2023 in the country with project works in Basketry, Ceramics and Graphic Design.

In all, a total of 447,204 candidates, comprising 211,834 males and 235,370 females will sit for the examination at 834 centres across the country.

The total candidature represents an increase of 24,321 over last years candidature of 422,883.

In all, final-year students from 975 second cycle schools will participate in the examination, which is being written for the second time in Ghana.

There will be a total of 834 supervisors, 2,243 assistant supervisors and 14,907 invigilators to man the examination.

Ghanaian candidates are writing the Ghana only WASSCE-SC for the second successive time because the other four-member countries of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC)  Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia  have returned to the May/June calendar and had administered the WASSCE for their school candidates.

The four countries have had their academic calendars streamlined to enable them to write the examination in May/June, as Ghana sticks to the new normal calendar occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

At a press conference in March this year, WAEC said the rules and regulations for dealing with cases of irregularity in the councils examinations for both the WASSCE and the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) had been revised, and that they included destruction of exhibits, posting live questions on the Internet, refusal to grant timely access to the school premises and the misconduct of examination officials.

It said the revised rules were available on the councils website and heads of schools were urged to sensitise their candidates to them.
Cabinet approves lithium-policy - it covers other green minerals

Timothy Ngnenbe Aug - 07 - 2023 , 12:00

Cabinet has approved a new policy for the exploitation, management and regulation of lithium and other green minerals in the country.

Often referred to as minerals of the future, green minerals are metals and other mineral resources that are needed to support the transition to clean energy technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

A wide range of minerals that fall under the umbrella of green minerals include bauxite, cobalt, copper, lithium, granite, manganese and nickel.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, told the Daily Graphic last Thursday that Cabinet approved the policy on July 27 this year after a rigorous interrogation.

The new Green Minerals Policy, thus, amends the Mining and Minerals Policy of 2014 to include robust and progressive regimes that would enable the country to reap optimum benefits from lithium and other green minerals.

Mr Jinapor said the new policy would lead to legislative interventions by Parliament, including an amendment of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), with the relevant processes already begun.

For instance, he said, while Act 703 set the rate for mineral royalties at between three and five per cent, the new policy would see a different royalty regime for green minerals.

I wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission last week and asked him to present to me a strategy document within a week for the implementation of the tenets of this policy. We want to get on with this as quickly as possible, the minister said.

Policy implications

"For some reasons, I will not give the rate for green mineral royalties yet, but suffice to say that it is going to be higher than what we have now relating to gold. The point is that we will have a different royalty regime for green minerals as opposed to gold and others," Mr Jinapor said.

The minister also said the new policy would insist on a higher level of local participation in the green minerals value chain as opposed to the 10 per cent vested interest the state had currently in mining entities.

"We will insist on a certain minimum Ghanaian participation that will obviously be more and better than the 10 per cent. I am reluctant to put specific figures out now on this. There is a Cabinet decision on a baseline, and we will not go below that in any negotiation for our lithium and other green minerals," he said.

Mr Jinapor added that the overarching goal of the new policy was anchored on the principle that the exploitation of green minerals must benefit Ghanaians who were the true owners of the resource.

He said in view of that principle, the building blocks for the green minerals exploitation would be different from what existed with gold in particular.

Value addition

The minister stressed that the focus of the new policy was on value addition to ensure that Ghanaians participated actively in the value chain.

"Therefore, mining and export of lithium in its raw form is a triple no," he stressed.

Mr Jinapor said the policy was also focused on putting in place incentives and measures to attract the needed investments, adding that stabilisation clauses, development agreements and other measures would be put in place to give investors the comfort to put their resources in the sector.

He said the arrangement would be done in a manner that would ensure a fair balance to have a win-win situation for both the country and the investor community.

"We will do negotiations on a case-by-case basis, and this will be within the context of this new policy," he said.

Aside from green minerals such as bauxite, manganese, graphite and cobalt, Ghana has discovered commercial quantities of lithium, especially at Ewoyaa in the Central Region.

Lithium



African countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali also have commercial deposits of lithium, while Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania and Namibia have graphite.

Globally, it is estimated that the lithium industry alone is valued at $11 billion at the mining stage, with the value of the industry at the highest end estimated at $7 trillion.

Against that backdrop, Mr Jinapor said the green minerals policy was specifically targeted at adding value to lithium before exporting it.

He said contrary to reports that some licences had been issued for mining lithium, the government had not given out any licence.

"No person or company has any permit or licence to mine or exploit lithium. The licences that were granted were for exploration, which is different from exploitation," he stressed.

He said it was through the exploration activities that lithium was discovered in commercial quantities at Ewoyaa.

Mr Jinapor said although the next stage was to mine the mineral resource, the government's focus was to put in place the policy framework before moving into mining.
Girl, 16, refurbishes KG classroom block for Adidiso community

Ezekiel E. Sottie Aug - 07 - 2023 , 03:31

A-Sixteen-year-old girl and a student of the SOS-Hermann Gmeiner International College in Tema, Maame Afua Asabea Yeboah, has refurbished and provided furniture and teaching and learning materials to the Kindergarten classroom block of the Adidiso Municipal Assembly Basic School near Nankese in the Suhum Municipality in the Eastern Region.

The ceiling of the kindergarten block was repaired and painted, including the entire classroom. In addition, cupboards for keeping their teaching and learning materials, including books and poster colours, were supplied, as well as furniture for the kids at a total cost of GH6,000.

Maame Afua Yeboah said she was able to do the project for the school through funds she raised from selling snacks in her school and lemonade outside the school, as well as the salary she received from her mothers stores during weekends and holidays, among other menial jobs.

According to the benefactor who is a native of the Adidiso community, she decided to assist the kindergarten classroom block of the school due to the condition of the classroom block she saw when she visited the school a few months ago.

Rationale for the project

I decided to do this project single-handedly because when I came to the community recently with my parents and I visited the school, the state of the kindergarten classroom block was not pleasant to me.

Usually, kindergarten classrooms are lively and colourful, and they incite learners.

However, that of the Adidiso School was dull.

More than that, the kindergarten classroom block was dirty, with the ceilings falling in and that was not the kind of kindergarten classroom we have in the school that I attended, and that motivated me to learn.

Therefore, I decided to sacrifice and raise funds to work on the project to motivate my younger sisters and brothers in the school, and for them to also experience the kind of joy that I experienced in kindergarten which has enhanced my learning she explained.

Advic

At a short but impressive ceremony attended by the executives of the School Management Committee (SMC), Parents Teacher Association (PTA) members, as well as parents of the school community, Maame Afua Yeboah entreated the parents to ensure they helped their children to attain the highest level in education for their future.

I have done this as a young girl not because I have money, but because I want to give the same opportunity I have through quality education to my younger brothers and sisters so that they can also get a solid and sound foundation in their education, she added.

The Headmaster of the school, Samuel Omane Boampong, was grateful to the benefactor for changing the situation of the kindergarten block which would go a long way in promoting effective and quality teaching and learning.

Hitherto, the kindergarten block and classroom, did not look like it should be, but I can confidently say we have a befitting kindergarten classroom and I promise, on behalf of the school, to ensure maintenance culture for a longer life span, Mr Boampong assured.

The Assemblyman for the Adidiso Electoral Area, Daniel Agbeko, appealed to individuals and organisations to help the electoral area with an information centre to disseminate very important information to the communities in the electoral area.

The benefactor was accompanied by her parents, Dr Johnson Yeboah and Oheneba Mercy Akosua Yeboah, as well as her siblings.
Governance and Business Leadership Awards: Siaw-Agyepong receives Woman Entrepreneur Award

Daily Graphic Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:54

Some business leaders and organisations that have distinguished themselves in their line of operation have been honoured at the third edition of the National Governance and Business Leadership Awards (NGBLA 2023).

Among the awardees are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Asian African Consortium (AAC), Adelaide A. Siaw-Agyepong, and the General Manager, Human Resources and Administration of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Augustine Appiah.

While Mrs Siaw-Agyepong was honoured with the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, Mr Appiah received the Human Resources Business Leader of the Decade.

The event also highlighted the significant contributions of social entrepreneurs and individuals dedicated to making a positive impact on others through their charitable causes, with 20 other individuals and organisations also being honoured.

Awards

The National Governance & Business Leadership Awards is a distinguished, C-level high-impact, economic development and strategic leadership awards programme created by the Governance & Business Boardroom, which aims to champion and celebrate good corporate governance, outstanding leadership, economic empowerment and job creation in Ghana.

It recognises and honours top CEOs, Board chairs, procurement leaders, HR leaders, business executives, companies and organisations that exemplify excellence in their respective fields.

This years ceremony, held last Friday (August 4) at the La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra, was on the theme "Transformational Leadership; Passion, Vision & Strategic Management for Development".

It celebrated leaders across various sectors of the Ghanaian economy, encompassing energy, finance, manufacturing, trade, transport, education, agri-business, logistics and telecommunications, among others.

The criteria for selecting the CEO of the year is rigorous, covering visionary leadership, strategic planning, innovation and creativity, financial performance, corporate social responsibility, industry impact and personal integrity.

Lets inspire young women

Receiving her award, Mrs Siaw-Agyepong expressed her gratitude for the recognition, acknowledging the significance of the award as a driving force for even greater achievements.

"I thought I was doing my little in my corner, but I have been recognised, and this honour has challenged me to do more," she said.

Mrs Siaw-Agyepong encouraged other female executives to continue striving for excellence in all their endeavours as, in due course, their hard work and dedication would undoubtedly be recognised by both humanity and the heavens.

As an inspiring role model and advocate of women's empowerment, the AAC CEO reinforced the need for women executives to shine brightly wherever they were to serve as mentors to the young females who aspired to be up the ladder.
Igbo King pledges support for anti-breast cancer campaign

Daily Graphic Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:25

The King of the Igbo community in Ghana, Eze Dr Chukwudi Ihenetu, has promised to collaborate and support Breast Care Internationals (BCI) nationwide campaign against the spread of breast cancer.

He said the fight against breast cancer was a collective effort, and he and his community would dedicate themselves to the campaign against it.

Dr Ihenetu was speaking when a 23-member BCI delegation led by the Founder and President, Dr Beatrice Wiafe Addai, called on him at his palace in Accra to formally invite him to participate in the annual BCI flagship walk against breast cancer, scheduled to take place on October 7, 2023, in Accra.

A philanthropist and a campaigner against drug abuse, Dr Ihenetu accepted the invitation and promised to collaborate with BCI to bring relief and hope to afflicted persons.

He declared: Breast cancer is survivable.

Over the years, I have monitored your passion to contain this debilitating disease in Ghana and we accept your invitation to participate in the walk.

Convinced that the painful cry of patients is a summon to all to bring relief, we cant stand and stare.

He added: We will rally behind your noble campaign against breast cancer in our firm resolution that service to humanity is a shared and common responsibility imposed on us all by nature.

Social amenities

Dr Ihenetu said the provision of basic social amenities for deprived communities was critical to the quality of life and recalled social interventions his palace had undertaken in the Central Region, including the construction of places of convenience and a vigorous public education programme against the use of illicit drugs.

He announced an upcoming Yam festival on September 17, this year, at the Childrens Park in Accra, and invited the BCI medical outreach unit to participate and screen women who throng the annual event.

Commendation

Dr Wiafe Addai accepted the invitation and commended him for his selflessness, generosity and spirit of unity.

We pledge, in all sincerity, to commit whatever assistance you offer to the good of the countless, indigent breast cancer patients spread across the country, she stated.
KNUST student stabbed to death during altercation

Beatrice Laryea Aug - 07 - 2023 , 13:26

A second-year student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Lambert Frimpong, has been stabbed to death at Kronum-Kwapra in the Suame Municipality in Kumasi.

According to reports, the deceased, aged 24, died after being stabbed multiple times with a knife during a fight.

The fight according to some people was over a missing T-shirt.

The incident happened on Saturday, August 5, 2023 and some have said it was a friend of the deceased who stabbed him.

Frimpong was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The body has been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital morgue.

The police in Kumasi are on a manhunt for the suspect.

Frimpong was studying Politics and History at KNUST and had gone home where the incident happened.

The incident reportedly happened in a friend's house around the deceased's neighbourhood.

While in the friend's house, another colleague is said to have entered the house and some neighbours overheard them engaged in an argument which later resulted in a fight.

The Assembly member for the area confirmed the incident in a radio interview.
Man in uniform stabs, assaults Bolt driver for questioning careless driver in traffic

Graphic.com.gh Aug - 07 - 2023 , 13:34

For daring to question another driver on what he perceived to be careless driving in traffic, an Accra driver with the ride-hailing app Bolt, had to be resuscitated in hospital after he was beaten by a man dressed like a soldier who was sitting in the vehicle said to have done the wrongful overtaking.

The Bolt driver bled after the assault, losing a considerable amount of blood.

When he was resuscitated in a nearby hospital, the medical personnel detected that he was stabbed in addition to the slaps to the face and the punches to the abdomen and other parts of the body.

The man suspected to be a soldier was in the four-wheel vehicle that reportedly did a wrongful overtaken and crossed the Bolt driver's car.

That nearly reportedly resulted in an accident.

When they arrived at the next traffic stop, the Bolt driver, who was not happy with what happened allegedly confronted the driver of the four-wheel vehicle and asked him to use his traffic indicators when overtaking and crossing others.

Unknown to the Bolt driver, there was a soldier in the said four-wheel vehicle, who was not enthused with the admonishment from the Bolt driver.

The man in uniform got out of the four-wheel vehicle, pull the Bolt driver out, reportedly stabbed him on the head before subjecting him to severe beatings.

The victim was rushed to the Deseret Hospital at Santa Maria in Accra where he was revived by a team of medical officers.

A passenger in the Bolt, Michelle Frimpong, in a radio interview with Accra-based Citi FM narrated what she saw: There was this 44 that was behind us, and he did a wrongful overtaking and got in the middle of the road. So then it was too obvious, either we skid off the road or we allow him to use his car to scratch our car. Then the bolt driver stretched out his hand and touched the back of his car. And we said that if you wanted a way, show a traffic indicator and dont do a wrongful overtaking.

So just a few minutes, we saw that they had come to park in front of our car. Then this man came down, opened the door of our car and pulled the bolt driver out of the car. Then the soldier guy came out of the car pulled him back and closed the car. So it was the people around who said that he was stabbed so when I got out of the passengers side I realised blood oozing out of his head. So we had to rush him to the hospital.

credit: Citifmonline
Nairobi  President William Ruto is presently participating in an interdenominational church service at Sagana State Lodge in Nyeri County.

The event takes place during the second day of his developmental tour in the Mt. Kenya region.

Notable leaders, including his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, are accompanying him on this tour.

The President's visit to the region spans five days, during which he has already inaugurated various projects in Githurai, Kiambu County, Ndia constituency, and Mathira constituency.

Sunday's church service will also present President Ruto with an opportunity to outline some of the key priorities and goals of his administration for the nation.
Niger: ECOWAS sets August 10 for another Extraordinary Summit

Zadok Kwame Gyesi Aug - 07 - 2023 , 15:45

The ECOWAS group of West African states have convened another Extraordinary Summit on Thursday, August 10 on the political situation in Niger.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President of Nigeria and Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has convened the meeting, expected to take place in Abuja. Niger's coup leaders have already closed the country's airspace until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention from their neighbours.

It comes after the ECOWAS group of West African states demanded President Mohamed Bazoum be reinstated by Sunday.

ECOWAS had warned that the junta could face military action and will now meet on Thursday to discuss next steps.

Meanwhile Mali and Burkina Faso, both also ruled by juntas, said they would send officials to Niger in solidarity.

ECOWAS in a statement issued today [Monday, August 7, 2023], said the ECOWAS Leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger during the Summit.

Niger's military junta has announced the closure of the country's airspace, expectant of a West African bloc's threat to carry out a military intervention in the country should ousted President Mohamed Bazoum not be released and reinstated.

ECOWAS had given the coup leaders until Sunday to reverse their military takeover and restore Bazoum's rule. The deadline has now passed, with the junta organizing large shows of support in the capital Niamey.
No need to own cylinder: Pick up, pay for content

Beatrice Laryea Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:55

From September this year, residents of Accra and selected parts of the country do not have to own a cylinder to use gas.

Gas users only have to pick filled up cylinders and pay for the content, the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), after registering with their National Identity Card.

This is due to the phased implementation of the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) being championed by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and its partners, under the supervision of the Ministry of Energy.

The rollout will begin in Accra and Kumasi next month and gradually spread across the country.

At a press briefing last Thursday, a Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Perry Okudzeto, explained that the model had been well piloted, the system streamlined and the infrastructure was now in place to ensure the safe delivery and use of LPG across the operational areas.

As part of this, the NPA commissioned a pilot programme with the existing infrastructure.

The pilot programme was done in the Eastern Region around the Kwaebibrem (Kade) area in the Ashanti Region within the Obuasi Zone and then in the Northern Region in the Yendi Zone, he said.

The programme taught us quite a number of lessons and that has gone into shaping the framework for the implementation of the new policy, Mr Okudzeto added.

The Deputy NPA Chief Executive explained that the registration with the Ghana Card at the exchange points was important to collect data on consumers for traceability.

How CRM works

Ahead of the implementation in September, he said, four CRM Bottling facilities  GOIL Bottling Plant in Tema and Kumasi, as well the BlueOcean and Newgas facilities were ready to take off.

Also ready for the rollout are APPEB Cylinder Manufacturing Company in Awutu Senya, SIGMA Cylinder Manufacturing Company in Accra and the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company at Spintex, which would be producing the cylinders to be distributed nationwide.

Per the CRM policy, cylinders procured from manufacturing companies would be sent to bottling plants to be filled.

Some officers of the NPA inspecting a cylinder manufacturing plant

The filled cylinders will be transported in bulk to exchange depots for holding and sorting before transporting them in quantities to cylinder exchange points where consumers can register and pay for any quantity for domestic and commercial consumption.

Specialised trucks will be used to transport the filled cylinders from the bottling plants to the retail stations or exchange points, where consumers will exchange their empty cylinders for filled up ones.

The CRM is to ensure that at least 50 per cent of Ghanaians have access to safe, clean and environmentally-friendly LPG by 2030.

It is also meant to improve access to LPG, improve safety in the distribution of LPG and to increase adoption of LPG.

Additionally, it is a policy shift to stop the unnecessary loss of lives and property, as well as gas filling stations, mostly due to human error.

So far, since 2017, the first step has been to construct bottling plants that will be the main pivot around which the policy will operate, since under the new policy, cylinders are going to be filled with LPG and sent to exchange points for distribution, Mr Okudzeto stated.

Pricing

The NPA deputy chief executive stressed that the model would not affect the price of LPG.

We are still going to use the same price build-up for the implementation of the policy.

What is going to change is the distribution network and how you access LPG.

Nothing in the price build-up is going to change, Mr Okudzeto stated.

The CRM policy will have various sizes of cylinders displayed at the exchange points to enable consumers to buy any amount they could afford.

Mr Okudzeto said consumers would also not bear the responsibility for fixing faulty cylinders, adding all we need from you is the Ghana Card and money to buy the LPG.

Transition, engagements

The deputy chief executive further explained that the existing distribution module would continue to run alongside the model until a suitable timeline was agreed upon by all stakeholders for the withdrawal of the old system.

We are still discussing the transition period.

Some people prefer 10 years, others want seven years, while some want five years.

There are varied views but the authority is looking at what is practical, Mr Okudzeto stated.

We are trying to accommodate everybodys concern so that we can roll out smoothly.

Since we are going to run both policies side-by-side theres the bulk load players and the new business for cylinder transportation until we find a suitable time for the transition, he said.

Mr Okudzeto said all industry players had been engaged, their ideas had been taken on board and the framework had been designed with their inputs.

He said the industry players were ready to offer their support to ensure the success of the project.

This is a policy that started in 2013, so players in this industry are very much aware of everything we are doing, he said.

Under this government alone, its been seven years of engagement, he insisted, recounting the committee of 50 people, including LPG Marketing Companies (LPGMCs).

The NPA, Mr Okudzeto said, had also engaged the banks through their umbrella body, the Ghana Association of Bankers, for the role they would play in financing the investment by various actors.

This we did because our industry mainly survives on finance and the engagement was to brief the banks on where we are in the implementation of the policy and what kind of support the industry and petroleum service providers require from the banks, he explained further.

Licensing

Henceforth, the NPA will be moving to the next stage of licensing businesses to start marketing LPG on the new policy.

The NPA later led the media for a guided tour of the facilities at the GOIL Cylinder Recirculation Facility, a bottling company at Tema, and the Sigma Cylinder Manufacturing Company in Accra, where production was ongoing, to ascertain how ready the NPA was to roll out the project.

Also at the press briefing were the Director, Policy at the NPA, Dr Sheila Addo; the Director Corporate Affairs, Mariam Oquaye, and the Communications Manager, Mohammed Abdul Kudus, among others.
Report bribe-taking court officials - Chief Justice urges public

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson Aug - 07 - 2023 , 07:06

The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, has advised the public not to pay bribes to court officials who request money ostensibly on behalf of judges for favourable decisions.

She said oftentimes such money was actually not requested by judges or given to them, but merely served as a ploy by unscrupulous court staff to enrich themselves.

Justice Torkornoo consequently urged the public to report to the Judicial Service any court staff who would request money under the guise of conveying it to a judge.

Event

She made the appeal at separate Chief Justice Community Sensitisation programmes at Akwatia in the Demkyembour District and Kraboa Coaltar in the Ayensuono District, both in the Eastern Region.

The programme is an initiative of Justice Torkornoo where she interacts directly with the public in communities to explain the work of the Judiciary and the basic principles of the law.

It is meant to demystify the work of the judiciary, and let the public have a better understanding and appreciation of the third arm of government.

Justice Torkornoo said cooperation from the public in reporting cases of bribe, as demanded by court staff, would help the Judicial Service to stop the despicable and unpatriotic activities of court officials who created a market of siphoning money from court users on the pretence of giving it to judges.

Any court registrar, interpreter, clerk, recorder or any staff who asks for money to be given to a judge is a thief.

The truth is that in majority of these instances, the judges have not requested any money; the money does not go to them, and they are not even aware.

Report such staff to the police and the Judicial Service.

We will investigate, and I will sack them if they are culpable and also ensure that they are decisively dealt with.

This is a bad culture destroying the image of the Judiciary, and we are determined to stamp it out, she said.

Public complaints

The Chief Justice said it was a crime and against the standards of the Judicial Service for court officials to demand money before performing their duties, meant to enhance justice delivery, to the public.

Bring those people to our attention, and I will not hesitate to sack them, while they also face the full rigours of the law, she said.

She said the doors of the Judicial Service were open to receive and act on complaints against staff of the service.

There is a revamped Public Complaints Directorate with public complaints units at all courts.

My office accepts and acts on petitions daily.

Every day, not less than 10 petitions arrive on my desk, and we act on all of them.

If you are aggrieved by the work of a registrar, clerk, judge or any court staff, let us know, and we will deal with it, she said.

Measures

The Chief Justice announced that as part of efforts to make the public understand the work of the Judiciary, the Judicial Service would soon come out with courts user guides that would explain the jurisdictions of the various courts.

The guides, she explained, would be made available at all court buildings so that the public could access them and understand in simple terms what a particular court could do.

She said the Judicial Service would also post on court premises the fees for the various services it provided to ensure transparency and to prevent staff from demanding more than what was appropriate.

Let us allow the courts to serve us well.

We must come together and stop all the bottlenecks that frustrate people with the judicial system.

When the Judiciary succeeds, we will all have peace and prosperity, the Chief Justice added.

As part of the sensitisation programme, participants are allowed to ask the Chief Justice questions relating to the work of the Judiciary, with the Chief Justice answering and explaining the initiatives being implemented by the Judicial Service to improve access to justice and openness and fairness in justice delivery.

On the theme: Improving Justice Delivery through Community Engagement, the overall objective of the sensitisation programme is to educate the public and strengthen trust and confidence in the Judiciary.

The Chief Justice normally engages in the sensitisation programmes when she visits towns and villages to perform official functions such as the inauguration of new court buildings and infrastructure for the Judiciary.

So far, the programme has been organised in six communities, three in the Greater Accra Region, namely Baastonaa, Ada and Kwabenya, with the rest in the Eastern Region  New Abirem, Akwatia and Kraboa Coaltar.

ADR

One of the main issues discussed by the Chief Justice at Akwatia and Kraboa Coaltar was the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and its significance in peaceful resolution of conflicts and litigations.

Justice Torkornoo urged litigants to take advantage of courts connected to the ADR system to resolve their differences, describing it as a faster and less cumbersome means of settling disputes.

Apart from the speedy process, she said, ADR also ensured that relationships between parties did not totally deteriorate as a result of dispute.

ADR is private; it is your own solution, and it helps to preserve relationship which otherwise would become strained during laborious litigation in the normal court setting, she said.
Mahama questions Akufo-Addo's decision to abandon Saglemi Housing but building National Cathedral

Getrude Ankah Nyavi Politics Aug - 07 - 2023 , 17:51

Former President John Mahama has condemned President Akufo-Addos decision to abandon the Saglemi Housing Project and allocate over GHc500 million to the National Cathedral project.

"It is unacceptable for Akufo-Addo to spend over half a billion cedis on a national cathedral project that has ultimately failed due to corruption and is now abandoned, yet refuses to commit funds to complete a housing project that will benefit thousands of Ghanaian families", he said in a Facebook post on Monday.

President Akufo-Addo last week cut the sod for the construction of 8000 affordable housing units at Pokuase in Greater Accra.

Dubbed the Pokuase Housing project, it is an initiative under the governments new National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP).

Read also: Pokuase: 8000 Housing units project under Revised National Affordable Housing Programme takes off

Through a strategic partnership with the private sector, the Pokuase project aims at providing 8,000 housing units to cater for the housing needs of Ghanaians, especially low-to-medium income earners.

At the sod cutting ceremony, President Akufo-Addo said the government would have incurred more debt in an attempt to complete the Saglami Housing Project.

We are aware of the delays and setbacks encountered during the execution of this project. The issues about the scope of work and the money expended on the Saglemi project have been taken to the Criminal Investigations Division of the Ghana Police Service for investigation which has resulted in criminal judicial proceedings. However, in the meantime, to forestall the project from deteriorating, the Minister of Works and Housing has actively engaged the government, cabinet, the Ministry of Finance, and the office of the Attorney General on the completion of the project.

Mahama reaction

Reacting to the government's decision to hand over the Saglemi project to private developers, former President Mahama said the current government was abandoning it because it was a project started by the Mahama-led government.

"Knowing the NPP government, they did not want to complete the Saglemi housing project simply because it was initiated by John Mahama and an NDC administration".

He added that the governments priorities seem misplaced, as it is willing to invest in a massive civil excavation for the National Cathedral but neglects a housing project that aims to provide affordable homes for Ghanaians.

Read the full Facebook post below:

It is unacceptable for Akufo-Addo to spend over half a billion cedis on a national cathedral project that has ultimately failed due to corruption and is now abandoned, yet refuses to commit funds to complete a housing project that will benefit thousands of Ghanaian families.

Knowing the NPP government, they did not want to complete the Saglemi housing project simply because it was initiated by John Mahama and an NDC administration. Leaders must always prioritise the well-being of their citizens and ensure that they benefit from government resources and projects, regardless of who initiated them. The misplaced priorities of a government that claims it is unable to raise money to complete the Saglemi housing project and yet is willing to spend half a billion cedis on the largest civil excavation in Africa is a humiliating slap in the face of Ghanaians who entrusted Akufo Addo with their mandate.
Nana Asare files to contest Asuogyaman NPP primary

From Ezekiel E. Sottie Politics Aug - 07 - 2023 , 06:14

A New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary aspirant for Asuogyaman Constituency in the Eastern Region, Nana Abrokwa Asare, has filed his nomination form at the constituency office with a call on the youth and his followers in particular to campaign based on issues devoid of insults and intimidation.

He said all the four aspirants in the constituency belonged to the NPP stock, and as such there was no need for them to quarrel and trade in insults and intimidation during their campaigns prior to the delegates conference which would elect one of them to represent the constituency in the 2024 general election.

Nana Asare was addressing the media after submitting his nomination form at the partys office at Atimpoku last Friday.

Feedback

Nana Asare who is the Administrator of the National Premix Fuel Secretariat in Accra said, as the youngest aspirant among the four, he had the hope that he was going to win the election due to the feedback he was receiving on his campaign tour int the constituency, a pointer to the fact that the people in the constituency wanted to change the narrative regarding what he described as the old stock.

He said there were a lot of challenges in Asuogyaman with regard to infrastructure, education, job creation, tourism potential and agriculture, among others, and the constituency needed the type of leader who would lead the people for holistic development, adding I am sure I am the one to lead the constituency to victory.

Skills development

Mr Asare said, he was a businessman who had a lot of businesses dotted around the constituency in addition to his big time farming activities which had given some of the youth jobs.

He said a lot of the youth had benefited from the skills development training he instituted via his foundation, which included dressmaking, sewing, tailoring and others.

What I started doing as a young patriotic citizen for the benefit of both the young and the old , especially the youth of Asuogyaman, is enough to guarantee my success at the primary.

In a related development, two parliamentary aspirants of the NPP for Lower Manya Krobo Constituency, the municipal chief executive (MCE), Simon Kweku Tetteh, and a presidential staffer, Robert Tetteyfio Adjase, also submitted their nomination forms at the party office at Odumase-Krobo.

Lower Manya Krobo

The MCE, Mr Tetteh, cautioned his followers at the party office on the need for a clean campaign, and that he had the track record as the MCE for eight years, assemblyman for Nuaso Newtown for 12 years, an assistant constituency secretary for 12 years, polling station chairman for four years and above all a member of the partys communication team for 20 years.

He also mentioned a number of development activities across the length and breadth of Lower Manya Krobo Municipality since he became the MCE.

Mr Adjase, for his part, was full of hope that he was going to be the parliamentary candidate based on a number of roles he played in the development of the Lower Manya Krobo Constituency which many were in favour of to push the NDC candidate out of the system come the next election.

In my case, it is not only the delegates who are supporting me but the general public in the constituency, and I know that I shall not disappoint them when I am given the nod to represent them in Parliament, he assured.
Parliament approves loan to improve agriculture

Daniel Kenu & Nana Konadu Agyeman Politics Aug - 07 - 2023 , 02:20

Parliament has approved a $52.5 million loan agreement between the government of Ghana and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to finance the Promoting Rural Opportunities, Sustainable Profits and Environmental Resilience (PROSPER) project.

The loan is made up of a blended loan of $35.175 million and a concessional loan of $17.33 million.

The facility is to address the pressing challenges and vulnerabilities in the Agriculture sector and to promote increased productivity.

Presentation

The agreement was presented to the House on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, by the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, in accordance with Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution and section 56 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016.

Pursuant to Article 103 of the constitution and Orders 169 and 171 of the Standing Orders of the House, the agreement was referred to the Finance Committee and Leadership of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs for consideration and report.

Motion

Presenting the report to Parliament and moving the motion for approval before the House rose last Thursday, the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah, said agriculture remained the central component of the government's economic transformation agenda.

"To this end, the government has embarked on a number of policy interventions, including Planting for Food and Jobs, Rearing for Food and Jobs, increased supply of extension services, warehousing and receipt schemes, credit guarantee schemes and the commodity exchange platform to expand agriculture, increase food production and promoting food security," he said.

Reading from the report, the MP said the interventions were intended to address key impediments in the sector and revolutionise agriculture in Ghana.

Mr Boamah said to address the challenges, the government and its partners, including IFAD, proposed to implement the PROSPER project.

The goal of the project includes strengthening the integration, climate resilience and environmental sustainability of smallholder farmers and businesses in the priority Value Chain in the Northern and Middle Ecological belt taking advantage of the increased demand created by the national agro-processing strategy.

Outcome

The project will concentrate on two mutually supportive technical components  increasing the real demand for sustainably grown produce by significant numbers of people living in poor rural communities while enhancing their capacity to meet this demand through more efficient climate-resilient agricultural and natural resource management practices, to mitigate the negative impact of climate change.

The overall intended outcome is to increase incomes, improve food and nutrition security, and improve the health status of the beneficiary communities.

The primary aim of the PROSPER project is to improve agricultural growth in Ghana.

The lead project implementation agency will be the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The total cost of the project is $147,20 million of which the government will have to fund the gap.
The Nikkei reports that Japan plans to more than double the output of electric vehicle chargers used at highway service areas. Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will require operators to increase the output to at least 90 kWmore than twice the current averageby 2030.

For high traffic areas and other places of heavy demand, plans call for chargers of about 150 kW.

Draft guidelines will be compiled soon.

METI says that existing fast chargers have an average output of around 40 kW. The ministry will subsidize the costs for operators to switch their chargers to 90 kW. The guidelines also will require installation of chargers every 70 kilometers.

The ministry will also promote the introduction of measurement systems with subsidies and other means, and increase the number of pay-as-you-go setups based on the actual charge amount by about fiscal 2025. In other countries, pay-as-you-go has become the norm.

Japan trails the US, Europe and China in the introduction of electric vehicles, with charging less convenient than in other countries. Tesla is installing its own 250 kW chargers. In the US, new federally funded EV charging infrastructure projects (earlier post) must now deliver up to 150kW, as requested by the EV.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a massive expansion of the scrappage scheme to every Londoner affected by the imminent ULEZ expansion, along with a number of other significant changes.

In November 2022, Khan announced the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) (earlier post) London-wide (earlier post). The expansion of ULEZ, which comes into effect on 29 August 2023, will operate across all London boroughs up to the existing Low Emission Zone boundary for large and heavy vehicles.





Khan said that expanding the ULEZ London-wide was a difficult decision but that he remains committed to pushing ahead on 29 August. ULEZ is a highly targeted scheme that aims to take the most polluting vehicles off Londons roads. 90 percent of cars seen driving in outer London on an average day are already compliant.

However, after listening to the concerns of Londoners over recent months and the impact of the growing cost-of-living crisis, the Mayor announced that to make the transition easier, the scrappage scheme will be widened to every Londoner affected by ULEZ along with a host of other significant changes. This means from 21 August:

Every Londoner with a non ULEZ-compliant car will be eligible for a 2,000 grant;

Small businesses and sole traders will be able to receive up to 21,000 in grants to scrap up to three vans; and

Charities will be able to receive up to 27,000 in grants to scrap up to three minibuses.

From 4 August:

Small businesses and charities with a non-compliant van will receive increased payments of 7,000 (up from 5,000);

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 electric van increase from 7,500 to 9,500;

Grants to replace a non-compliant minibus with an electric minibus increase from 9,500 to 11,500; and

Retrofit grants increase from 5k to 6k, typically enough to cover the whole cost of retrofitting

This will bring the total amount the Mayor has invested in the latest scrappage scheme to 160 million (US$204 million), and, in addition to the 60 million previously invested in the scrappage scheme, would be the most generous scrappage scheme ever seen in the UK.

The scrappage scheme will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis, with low income and disabled Londoners having already had seven months to apply. While the government has provided hundreds of millions in scrappage funding to other cities in the UK implementing clean air zones, it has not provided any to London. The Mayor continues to call on the government to provide money for people in the areas outside London to scrap their vehicles, in the way they have done across the country.
A summer of extreme weather in the northern hemisphere is causing major damage to people's health and the environment, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported on Monday, as countries from the United States to China battle intense heat.

Record temperatures have been reported on land and in the sea, while wildfires have sparked devastation, caused dozens of casualties, and forced thousands to be evacuated.

Last week, scientists from the UN agency and the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service said new data showed that July was on track to be the warmest month on record.

'The new normal'

WMO said the temperature in Xinjiang province in China reached 52.2 C on 16 July, setting a new national record. The US city of Phoenix also experienced 31 consecutive days of temperatures above 110 F, roughly 43.3 C.

Sea surface temperatures have hit new records, with severe marine heatwaves in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Florida. Many parts of the US state, including the city of Miami, have been hit by an extended, record-breaking heatwave.

"The extreme weather - an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate - is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies. This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible," said Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General.

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"In addition, we have to step up efforts to help society adapt to what is unfortunately becoming the new normal."

Wildfires and evacuations

WMO said France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Algeria and Tunisia also reported new peaks in daytime and nighttime temperatures.

For example, in Figueres, Spain, a record temperature of 45.4C was recorded on 18 July, while the mercury reached 48.2C on 24 July in Sardinia, Italy. Algeria and Tunisia recorded temperatures of 48.7C and 49.0C, respectively, on 23 July.

Meanwhile, wildfires have prompted the evacuation of hundreds of residents and from three Greek islands - Rhodes, Evia and Corfu - since 17 July. Fires also caused several dozen casualties in Algeria.

Fires in the Arctic

Hot, dry conditions were also behind an early and intense wildfire season in Canada, where more than 120,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

More than 1.1 million hectares have already burnt, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, compared to the 10-year average of about 800,000 hectares.

Smoke from the fires polluted the air, affecting millions across North America. Additionally, numerous fires have broken out within Canada's Arctic Circle in recent days.

In response to extreme weather, WMO and partners are providing forecasts and warnings to protect lives and livelihoods, in line with a UN plan towards ensuring all people on the planet are covered by early warning systems by 2027.
Nio, the Chinese EV car manufacturer, announced that it's working on a smartphone last year and rumors suggested it will feature a flagship chip and 100W fast charging. Now a benchmark scorecard confirms the premium SoC and suggest the phone itself is just around the corner.

Nio's upcoming phone stopped by AnTuTu giving Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip a chance to flex its computational muscle. The chip was paired with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage in the tested device.

Interestingly enough, the handset's performance is below the average SD 8 Gen 2 in our database, which could mean that Nio still has some work to do on the software side. On the other hand, the phone already obtained a Chinese MIIT license, so a release can't be far away.

A rumor from earlier this year suggested that the car manufacturer is readying a smartwatch to go with the phone and it will be a cool addition to the ecosystem if it can unlock your Nio car as well. Previously Oppo, vivo and OnePlus phones were enabled to work as car keys.

Via
Samsung Galaxy F34



Released 2023, August 12

208g, 8.8mm thickness

Android 13, One UI 5.1

128GB storage, microSDXC

24% 134,346 hits

19 Become a fan

6.5" 1080x2340 pixels

50 MP 2160p

6/8 GB RAM Exynos 1280

6000 mAh Li-Po

Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. Read more
Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab S9 series two weeks ago, and the line-up saw three tablets - vanilla, Plus, and Ultra. Now, the company is preparing for the FE (Fan Edition) branch, which is supposed to offer better value for money.

A leak by Roland Quandt on Twitter.com suggests the least powerful Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE will cost INR 63,000 in India, which is equivalent to $763. For comparison, the base price of the Galaxy Tab S9 is $799.

The Indian price is for a 6/128 GB memory variant with no LTE, meaning the cost will increase from then on.



Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE, images courtesy of Mediapeanut

We should mention that Indian customers normally pay a lot more for Samsung tablets than Americans. The Korean manufacturer does have the biggest smartphone factory in the world in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, but slates are still built primarily in Vietnam, from where they are shipped across the globe.

Adjusting the leaked price tag would put the Galaxy Tab S9 FE at about $600, which is still way more than the $529 cost of the previous Fan Edition tablet, the Galaxy Tab S7 FE.



Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Global variant certified on FCC

The Galaxy S9 FE was certified at FCC with an EP-TA800 charger, meaning the new slate will support 25W fast charging. Leaked renders also revealed this tablet will share the same height and width as the regular Galaxy Tab S9 but will have a thicker profile, likely making room for a bigger battery.

The major difference between the flagships and the FE variants will come from the Exynos 1380 chipset, which is less powerful, but should still do just fine for the majority of tasks.

Via
To help provide students a safe and conducive outdoor environment, the Guam Community College has officially unveiled a concrete canopy in front of their student center at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday morning.

Today, we celebrate the GCC students, said Dr. Mary Okada, GCC president. This project may seem like a small project based on the magnitude of the projects that weve been rolling out in the years. However, this particular project will definitely have a big impact on our students.

Okada added the canopy could be used to combat natural elements.

Everybody knows that on any given day here in Guam, its either too hot or it rains. Imagine that this center stage was built no canopy, we didnt see much use from the students, added Okada.

Okada further noted there is more to come for GCCs mission as they aspire to be a leader in career and technical workforce development while providing the highest standard of education and job training.

Team GCC, buckle up because were going to get busier in the next few weeks, months and perhaps, even a couple more years, concluded Okada. We have numerous projects coming our way, and I want all of us to focus on student success and the tasks at hand. We have another ribbon-cutting ceremony coming up. Were extremely excited for what we have to share soon.

Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio, an alumnus of GCC, shared his sentiment that GCC has properly transitioned from being a commuter college to a community college.

This facility gets us more into the kind of things that we would expect when we go to college and having opportunities to share and work together alongside classmates and build community, said Tenorio. We hear construction going on, so theres clearly a vision for the community college.

Tenorio further added that the vision will help enable Guams collective leadership vision.

Our vision for the community is to diversify our economy, added Tenorio. In order to diverse it, you need to have an educated workforce in an institution that is able to grasp everything that has been going on with technology and structure it into reliable curriculum, which is what GCC is an expert at doing.

Tenorio concluded that GCCs motivated leadership is able to understand what the community needs and quickly create programs to catch up.

Technology is rapidly changing. Our workforce needs to be able to understand all the opportunities in large investments and infrastructure, concluded Tenorio. They have to be ready to insert themselves into a competitive environment and be able to be relevant so students can continue to come here.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero echoed Tenorios sentiment in the students high need for the canopy.

This is an area of bonding, discussions and socialization, which is very important in an academic environment. This becomes more conducive and less stressful from the heat, so were excited for that, said Leon Guerrero. This is very important because we want a safe and conducive learning environment. All the work that is done here in academics, field work or in the advancement of structures is for community.

The governor concluded that the community colleges continued infrastructure development has a long-lasting impact.

I am so proud and honored to be here celebrating progress of GCC. It means improving the quality of life and our people, not just here in Guam, but through out the region of Micronesia, added the governor. When students are happy, they will be successful. I look forward to more of the exciting things that are coming forward.

According to GCC, the canopy, which was designed by the Taniguchi Ruth Makio Architects, also contains a wireless multi-color stage lighting technology for events.

BME & Sons was awarded the construction project.
The Guam Department of Education will be hosting a second registration fair from Tuesday to Thursday, according to a press release from GDOE.

The Lagu district registration fair will take place in the center court of the Micronesia Mall from noon to 3 p.m.

As school sites continue to prepare for inspection and the upcoming school year, school administrators and their teams coordinated a registration fair to conveniently assist parents with transfers, withdrawals or registration of their students for SY 2023-2024.

The list of participating schools are:

Astumbo Elementary School

Chief Brodie Memorial Elementary School

D.L. Perez Elementary School

Finegayan Elementary School

Juan M. Guerrero Elementary School

Liguan Elementary School

Machanaonao Elementary School

Maria A. Ulloa Elementary School

Wettengel Elementary School

Vicente S.A. Benavente Middle School

The Chief Nurse of DOE, HeadStart and Outreach teams will also be available at the registration fair to assist students and their families. GDOE would like to remind all parents and guardians to bring the following documents to ensure a smooth process for registration, transfer or withdrawal:

Valid ID (parents/guardians)

Original birth certificate

Mayors verification or utility bill

Physical exam (within one year) or appointment card

Immunization record

TB test (within one year)

Below are helpful links to download forms if registering, transferring or withdrawing your child(ren):

For kindergarten students: Registration Form (Kindergarten)

For transfer students (off-island or private school):

For transfer students from another GDOE school:

For more information, contact your childs respective school. You can also email Michelle A.T. Franquez at matfranquez@gdoe.net or, email info@gdoe.net.
The Guam Police Department is investigating an accident that happened around 7 p.m. Monday

Emergency personnel with the Guam Fire Department responded to reports of an auto-pedestrian accident on Marine Corps Drive in Anigua. Upon arrival, medics found a female, approximately 60 years old, unconscious and unresponsive.

The woman was transported to Naval Hospital Guam with CPR conducted en route.

Police spokeswoman Berlyn Savella said that the departments Highway Patrol Division has been activated, and the investigation continues.

The Anigua incident is the second serious accident of the day. Earlier in Yigo, in videos widely circulated on social media, a car traveling at high speed launched into the air, and auto parts were strewn for about 100 yards in the parking lot of a business complex.

Savella said only that police were investigating a serious traffic crash.

The Guam Fire Department released the following:

At 1406 GFD Units responded to Route 1/Payless, Yigo for a reported auto accident with serious injuries. Upon arrival, units found one female occupant unconscious and unresponsive. The patient was transported to GRMC, with CPR being conducted.

At 1914 GFD Units responded to Route 1/ Siam Restaurant, Anigua for an auto vs pedestrian with serious injuries. Upon arrival units found a an approx 60 year old female unconscious and unresponsive. The patient was transported to Naval Hospital with CPR being conducted en route. Central Precinct Officers responded to a serious traffic crash (auto-ped) Rt. 1 by 76 Anigua. Our HPD has been activated.
The University of Guam Board of Regents and Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez last week executed the contract officially appointing her as the 12th president of UOG, according to a press release from the university.

Enriquez assumed her new role as President effective Sunday, following a search process that began with 30 U.S. and international applicants and was later whittled down to three finalists. She moves to the presidency after serving as the senior vice president and provost at UOG for the last 10 years.

The Board is excited about the future of the University under her capable leadership, said Chairperson Liza Provido. We are confident that she will bring a wealth of experience, leadership, and vision to her new role, leading UOG to even greater heights.

Over her 30-year career at UOG, Enriquez has held other administrator positions including serving as the first female CHamoru dean of the UOG School of Business and Public Administration, interim director of the Center for Continuing Education and Outreach Programs, and most recently, the senior vice president and provost.

In addition to her career in academia, Enriquez has extensive private sector experience in organizational management and marketing and as an entrepreneur. She believes her careers in private enterprise and public service fuels her passion for workforce and economic development for the island and the rest of Micronesia.

The University of Guam is a conduit that energizes our economy, provides our community opportunities for social mobility, informs public policy, and cultivates our future thought leaders, said Enriquez.

Thankful for the Boards vote of confidence, Enriquez said she will be guided by Guams cultural values of respect, of compassion, of community.

The Universitys mission is Ina, Deskubre, Setbe  To Enlighten, To Discover, To Serve, she said. Student-centered focus and service to our island and region is woven into everything we do as a university.

Enriquez holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from University of Maryland Global Campus, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Guam, and a Doctor of Business Administration in International Business Administration (Marketing) from Alliant International University.

Enriquez is the second woman to become president in the 71-year history of UOG. The late Rosa Carter was president of the university from 1977 to 1983.

The transition in leadership follows the completion of former President Thomas W. Krises five-year term on Aug. 5.

The schedule for Dr. Enriquezs investiture ceremony will be announced in the coming weeks.
Taiwan-based semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC, is in the process of finalizing plans to establish a manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany.

Recent deliberations by its Board of Directors point towards Dresden as the probable location, a sentiment further reinforced by government sources.

Financial arrangements for the establishment of this facility have been meticulously mapped out. The federal government has pledged a substantial five billion euros from the Federal Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). Complementing this, TSMC has committed to invest an amount nearing ten billion euros.

Upon completion, the Dresden chip facility will rank as the second-largest financial investment in Germany's semiconductor sector, with only Intel's Magdeburg facility preceding it in terms of cost. Construction is slated to commence in 2024. Notably, the project is projected to be a collaborative effort involving Bosch, Infineon, and the Dutch-based NXP, with each entity acquiring a 10 percent ownership, contingent upon receiving the green light from the European Commission.

Although initial planning for this establishment traces back to 2021, external factors, notably the Ukraine conflict, led to an adjustment in the project's timeline. The factory is engineered with a specific focus on the fabrication of 28nm chips. These microcontrollers (MCUs) are primarily tailored for the automotive sector, playing a pivotal role in regulating electric motors and automotive battery systems. The timeline suggests that these chips could enter the production phase by 2025, if not earlier.






UN food security agencies on Tuesday warned that South Sudan faces a severe humanitarian crisis, unless immediate action and investment are taken to address food insecurity, climate challenges, and insecurity.

During a three-day visit to the country, Qu Dongyu, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP); and Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) witnessed the devastating effects of severe weather events and a lack of infrastructure on communities.

"Conflict, climate change, and soaring costs in South Sudan are causing some of the highest levels of hunger in the world," said Ms. McCain.

She added that just handing out food is not the solution.

"We must break the cycle and empower communities to plant the seeds of hope, opportunity, and economic development. With peace and stability, the potential of South Sudan is incredible," she stressed.

The visit comes after a joint UN report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023, which found that over 120 million more people are suffering chronic malnourishment since 2019.

Potential breadbasket of east Africa

South Sudan offers huge potential as a major food producing country, but years of conflict, compounded by climate change, poor infrastructure, low education and high unemployment, stymie any progress, according to FAO.

"South Sudan has the potential to be the breadbasket of East Africa, but the climate crisis, poor agriculture infrastructure, instability, and economic shocks continue to disrupt agricultural and livestock productivity and food availability," said Mr. Qu, noting the importance of new funding.

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"Investments and enabling policies that will improve on longer term food security, resilience and climate adaptation are urgently needed," he added.

Massive investments needed

Collaboration among the three UN agencies and with the Government and other partners in the country have helped stave off famine in recent years and enabled farmers to increase their food production and incomes.

However, scaled-up and sustained action is needed to respond to the ongoing hunger crisis, avoid further setbacks, and mitigate future crises, the agencies said.

"To do this we need to mobilize massive investments and implement best practices to combat food insecurity and adapt to climate change. This will also greatly improve rural employment. But we need to act now," said Mr. Lario.




Haiti - Crisis : Why Kenya have the support of the USA, Canada and France?





Following the declaration of Alfred Mutua, the Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs "[...] Kenya has accepted to positively consider leading a Multi-National Force to Haiti. Kenya's commitment is to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police restore normalcy in the country and protect strategic installations." https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40134-haiti-flash-kenya-agrees-to-deploy-1-000-police-officers-in-haiti.html USA, France and Canada do not did not hesitate to offer their support to Kenya...



Lets recall that in recent years, Kenya has specialized with UN agencies in peacekeeping in war zones, such as Somalia, Congo or Afghanistan. It is this expertise of Kenya in terms of external military intervention, which has earned it the support of the USA, Canada and France, among others.



Moreover, for the Kenyan Government to be at the head of a multinational intervention force in Haiti is a strong symbol because Kenya is an economic power, has a robust army and is respected in Africa. This multinational force in Haiti also represents for Kenya a significant source of income for its economy...



Beyond the reluctance of part of the Haitian population, this possible intervention force under development (if the Security Council votes in favor) should ultimately be more easily accepted by Haitians who will be able to identify more to Kenyan police officers, than to French, Canadian or American ones



Read also about the possible international force led by Kenya :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40187-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40184-haiti-politic-declaration-on-the-multinational-force-to-support-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40175-haiti-crisis-to-date-5-countries-are-involved-in-the-international-intervention-in-haiti.html

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 - News : Zapping...





2 members of the "Kokorat San Ras" gang arrested

On Saturday August 5, the Gonaives Intervention Brigade arrested 2 members of the "Kokorat San Ras" gang, Zephyrin Ednel and Charles Bendjouly, they are accused of theft, rape and kidnapping.



A Dominican soldier attacked with knives by 2 Haitians

Sunday, August 6, the Specialized Land Border Security Corps (CESFRONT) reported that two Haitians attacked a soldier assigned to this unit, wounding him with knives and stealing his weapon before fleeing...



Release of Dr. Reynold Grand-Pierre

Sunday August 6, 2023, Dr. Reynold Grand-Pierre, gynecologist and obstetrician, kidnapped on July 23 in Tabarre https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40101-haiti-news-zapping.html was released by his captors.



61st Anniversary of Jamaican Independence

"This August 6th brings back the 61st anniversary of the independence of a sister Nation: Jamaica. On this special occasion, on behalf of the Haitian people, I wish Jamaica a happy independence day. May the frank cooperation existing between our two countries grow stronger over time and continue to bear fruit," Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry



115,600 Haitian children on the brink of death

According to figures published by Unicef, gang violence in Haiti has caused a 30% increase in one year of severe acute malnutrition among children. One in four children now suffers from chronic malnutrition, and 115,600 children are expected to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition in 2023.



Message of condolences

"President Boniface Alexandre has offered his entire professional life to Haiti, with rectitude and a sense of state. His passing will leave a huge void. Thank you sir for being up to it. Haiti will remember it forever. A special thought to the bereaved family," former Secretary General of the Council of Ministers under Jovenel Moise.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2023/08/06

Ahead of its much-anticipated debut on Netflix on August 18, upcoming series Mask Girl is setting the stage for its intriguing story through three main posters and a new trailer.

Advertisement

The trailer grips viewers' attention right from the start, with main character Kim Mo-mi accepting her sins in a chilling voice. What follows is a roller coaster ride through Mo-mi's life, from her unassuming life as an office worker, to becoming a popular cam model masked girl, and ultimately ending up as Prisoner Number 1047, who appears repentant yet dreams of escape. This rapid succession of her multiple identities leaves viewers craving to know more about the mysterious story behind her many faces.

In an impressive display of talent, three actors - Go Hyun-jung, Nana, and a new talent yet to be revealed - portray Kim Mo-mi in distinct phases of her life. Each actor contributes a unique shade to this character as she transforms throughout the series.

The suspense-filled series also features an ensemble of vivid characters. Here's a snapshot of the key players.

Go Hyun-jung

Nana

Kim Mo-mi: Forced to live three lives under three different names - Kim Mo-mi the corporate employee, showgirl A-reum, and Prisoner Number 1047 - this enigmatic character relishes the applause and adoration from her online audience, even as her life off-camera is filled with unhappiness due to her complex appearance. An unforeseen incident triggers her transformation into a murderer, adding yet another identity to her tumultuous life.

Joo Oh-nam: Played by Ahn Jae-hong, he is an office worker whose only pleasure is watching internet broadcasts after work. When he realizes Mask Girl is his co-worker Kim Mo-mi, he develops a fixation that takes over his life. Ahn describes his character as "a company employee who wants to erase his presence during the day, and to show his presence in his own world at night". The actor focused on depicting "a man's heart that started with the wrong direction right from the beginning", raising anticipation for his portrayal of the character's hidden depths.

Kim Kyeong-ja: Portrayed by Yeom Hye-ran from "The Glory", she is a mother whose entire world revolves around her son. When her son goes missing, she begins a relentless pursuit to find him. Yeom says: "I hoped that Kim Kyeong-ja's revenge would not be motivated only by her motherhood. I wanted to include various complex conflicts originating from her age, religion, and other beliefs, and I had many discussions about these conflicts, which arise as she rushes towards a large and clear goal called revenge". Her nuanced analysis has sparked curiosity about the character.

Director Kim Yong-hoon-I describes these characters as "injured, marginalized individuals", each tangled in the web of a murder mystery. The blurred lines between good and evil create a captivating narrative filled with ambiguity.

With its layered characters and intricate plot, "Mask Girl" is set to redefine mystery-thrillers. Prepare to unmask the truth of "Mask Girl", beginning August 18, only on Netflix.

Overview

Title: Mask Girl

Directed & Written by: Kim Yong-hoon-I

Starring: Go Hyun-jung, Ahn Jae-hong, Yeom Hye-ran, Nana

Distributed by: Netflix

Production: House of Impression, BONFACTORY

Release Date: August 18, 2023
The threat of famine, with people slowly starving to death, must be considered a red line for international peace and security, the UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator said on Thursday, warning that warring groups deliberately use hunger as a tactic of war.

Globally, over 250 million people suffered acute hunger in 2022, the highest in recent years, with about 376,000 people facing famine-like conditions in seven countries - all affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence. Another 35 million people are on the edge, Reena Ghelani said.

Hunger and conflict "feed off of each other," she continued, briefing the Security Council open debate on famine and conflict-induced global food insecurity convened by the United States during its August presidency.

"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.

Ms. Ghelani added that food insecurity itself also fuels instability, citing research that shows how food insecurity, when coupled with pre-existing grievances, poverty and inequality, causes people to choose violence over peace.

"It is the straw that breaks the camel's back, leading to conflict," she said.

Humanitarians under attack

Those helping people and providing assistance to stave off famine are also not spared by the fighting, Ms. Ghelani noted further.

Hundreds of humanitarians are killed, injured and kidnapped in conflict situations every year, and aid facilities and supplies are often attacked, looted or used for military purposes.

"The difficulties the United Nations, NGOs, and its partners are facing in Sudan is a stark example," Ms. Ghelani said, offering condolences to the families of the 11 humanitarian workers killed there in recent weeks.

Climate change a threat multiplier

Climate change and economic shocks further compound the crisis.

"Climate change is increasingly becoming a threat multiplier," Ms. Ghelani added, with stress over water and other natural resources leading to competition over dwindling natural resources, displacement, and, ultimately, conflicts and hunger.

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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.

With key steps, progress is possible

Ms. Ghelani emphasized that despite overwhelming challenges, progress is possible, and outlined key steps that must be taken to address the crisis.

These include ensuring parties to conflicts respect international humanitarian law, especially protecting food and water systems and facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access.

She also urged better use of early warning systems, with effective follow-up; adequate humanitarian funding; and being bold and creative in finding ways to mitigate the impact of war on the most vulnerable.

At the same time, women and girls must be at the centre of our efforts, Ms. Ghelani said.

"Crises and hunger affect them disproportionately, and they also hold the key to lasting solutions. Research shows that involving local women in peacebuilding increases the probability that violence will end by 24 per cent," she highlighted.

'Eerie silence is deafening'

In conclusion, Ms. Ghelani recounted a personal experience where she visited communities teetering on the brink of famine.

"I have sat with mothers in too many nutrition wards, in too many displaced camps. And as their small children fought for their lives, they were too weak to cry, even make a sound [...] that eerie silence is deafening. It never leaves you," she said.
Kajsa Rosqvist , a project manager at the climate division of the City of Helsinki, stated to YLE last week that in the long term it is important to also adapt to the extreme weather events.

RESIDENTS of Helsinki will have to prepare especially for floods, downpours and sustained heatwaves caused by the climate crisis, indicates an analysis of climate challenges conducted by the capital city of Finland.

In addition to combating climate change, its necessary to adapt to the new normal. The climate has already changed, she said on 1 August.

The City of Helsinki has drafted a plan for adapting to the climate crisis, placing particular emphasis on the storm waters that linger on streets after downpours. Rosqvist pointed out that while new residential areas in the outskirts of the city have separate pipes for storm and waste water, downtown areas are more vulnerable to heavy rains because of their joint pipe systems and amount of land covered in asphalt.

The greatest flood risk is in downtown areas because the piping capacity doesnt suffice to control the masses of water, she told the public broadcasting company.

The city is expected to finalise the first version of its plan for responding to heavy rains in the autumn.

It also has a storm-water strategy based on the principle that the waters are dealt with where they occur rather than channelled to other parts of the city. The waters should be either absorbed by the soil and vegetation or, at the very least, their flow should be slowed down so that floods do not occur in bottleneck locations, according to Rosqvist.

Due to the high cost of replacing old pipe systems, greenery will have a key role in preventing future floods, she estimated. Helsinki is in a fairly good position compared to other cities in Europe, given that it has about 200,000 trees in parks and 30,000 along roads in addition to its forested areas.

There are nevertheless also areas with less vegetation.

Well need to set aside more space for green structures in zoning, acknowledged Rosqvist.

The City of Helsinki will evaluate the effectiveness of green areas for preventing floods in the autumn by transforming 17 parking spots into green squares in the neighbourhoods of Kamppi, Kallio, Alppiharju and Vallila. Increasing vegetation is challenging, though, due to the space requirements of roots on the one hand and underground cables, pipes and other infrastructure on the other.

At the same time, we know that trees do the best job at absorbing water, delaying the flow of storm waters, provide shade and cool the air through evaporation, remarked Rosqvist.

The city has already sought to incorporate greenery and nature to urban development: Vegetation covers the roof of its urban development division in Jatkasaari. On Makelankatu, the tram rails are covered by lawn and the surrounding cobblestones have holes that enable the soil and roots to absorb rain water.

Also buildings themselves will be tested by the climate crisis. Helsinki is currently reviewing hospitals, nursing homes and other social and health care facilities to make sure the indoor temperatures are tolerable also during heatwaves.

Id say that were in a hurry and need more resources. Luckily discussion on the topic has increased in recent times, and Im hopeful we can make progress even quite quickly, said Rosqvist.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT
In the government program announced on June 20, 2023, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo 's administration outlined the intention to change the temporary half-price fairway fee, currently levied on merchant vessels operating in Finland, into a permanent measure.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications is calling for feedback on the government's draft proposal to temporarily halve fairway fees from 2024 to 2027. The consultation period ends on September 1, 2023. Simultaneously, a legislative amendment process will begin to make the fee reduction permanent.

This amendment aims to stabilize the fairway fees, maintaining the level set since 2015.

The permanent halving will be implemented in two phases to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and overlapping preparations. The initial phase will temporarily reduce the fairway fees from 2024 to 2027. In the second phase, the temporary reduction will be lifted, and the permanent half-price fairway fee will be introduced starting from the beginning of 2025.

"The permanent halving of fairway fees is one of the means by which the government ensures the competitiveness of Finland's economic backbone  the export industry  and thereby secures Finnish jobs. This measure will have a particularly positive impact on coastal regions from Kotka to Kemi. The government will be implementing numerous legislation and investment projects that strengthen the entire country. Our ministry is already rolling up its sleeves, and our progress should be closely followed," stated Minister of Transport and Communications, Lulu Ranne.

The fairway fee has been levied at half-price since 2015 under temporary laws, initially introduced to compensate for the costs related to the sulfur directive in maritime transport. Subsequently, the continuation of the fee reduction has been justified as a means to support competitiveness and aid economic recovery from the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current temporary law is set to expire on December 31, 2023. Without legislative action, the fairway fee schedule that was in effect in 2014 would come into force on January 1, 2024.

What's Next?

The consultation period ends on September 1, 2023. All organizations and citizens are encouraged to provide feedback at www.lausuntopalvelu.fi. Following the consultation round, preparations will continue as part of official government work. The legislative proposal is intended to be submitted to Parliament in conjunction with the autumn 2023 budget laws. The temporary law would come into effect on January 1, 2024, and remain in force until December 31, 2027.

The proposal for the permanent halving of fairway fees is planned to be presented to the Council of State and Parliament alongside the autumn 2024 budget laws. The legislative changes would take effect from January 1, 2025.

A fairway route refers to a navigable pathway across oceans, seas, or other bodies of water, systematically charted for the movement of ships and vessels. These routes have been crucial throughout history for facilitating international trade, exploration, and travel, connecting distant regions and cultures. Maritime routes are often determined by factors like ocean currents, wind patterns, geographical features, and the locations of ports. They serve as essential conduits for transporting goods, raw materials, and people between continents, fostering global interconnectedness and shaping the course of human civilization.

HT
Commissioners endorse Deputy Ryan Hendrix Bridge on U.S. 64

Henderson County commissioners on Monday night took one of the final steps to name the countys most heavily traveled interstate overpass bridge for Sheriffs Deputy Ryan P. Hendrix, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was killed in the line of duty on Sept. 10, 2020.

Hendrix, 34, died when a gunman opened fire on deputies investigating a car break-in the predawn hours of Sept. 10. Other officers returned fire, killing the shooter.

Hendersonville City Council member Jennifer Hensley first brought the idea to Sheriff Lowell Griffin when she learned while serving on the French Broad MPO how the NCDOT names roads and bridges.

I just thought it would be a really cool and awesome way to honor him, she said. I reached out to the sheriffs office to make a suggestion and they were just ecstatic at the possibility. I knew Ryan personally. Im just happy to see the sheriffs office honor him.

When the sign is up, thousands of motorists will see it as they approach the busiest overpass bridge in the county. An average of 30,000-35,000 cars and trucks travel on U.S. 64 daily, according to a traffic engineering study of Hendersonvilles streets and highways in 2022. Interviewed Saturday at a charity softball game pitting sheriffs deputies against a mens senior softball league team, Griffin turned the praise back on Hensley.

Credit has been handed to me but behind the scenes thats Jennifer Hensley, he said. She was the one that made that happen.



What he did that morning, his service in the military, his sacrifice, his familys sacrifice  its really important that theyre not forgotten, he said. And I think its tremendous. We are extremely happy about it. Its tragic that it has to be there. Every day 30,000 cars will traverse that and Ryan wont be forgotten. Thats pretty special.

The Hendersonville City Council is expected to adopt same resolution urging the NCDOT to name the bridge for Hendrix.

The son of Heidi and Don Hendrix, Ryan joined the Marines in 2004 and volunteered to serve a tour of duty in Iraq in 2006. He joined the sheriffs office as a detention officer in June 2012 before rising through the ranks as a patrol deputy, training officer, SWAT team member and shift detective. Even in death, the resolution says, Deputy Ryan P. Hendrix continued to exemplify a servants heart as an organ donor helping countless strangers.
President William Ruto steered clear from commenting on the upcoming bipartsian talks as he embraked on his five-day tour of the Mt.Kenya region.

Nairobi  National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa has assured that the political goodwill between the Azimio La Umoja and the ruling coalition will ensure there no chaotic demonstration that will be staged in the country.

Ichungwah says that a political consensus has been reached to ensure no anarchy will be sponsored by any political outfit in the country.

"We have committed that there shall be no more violence, no more anarchy, no more bloodshed in our political discourse. We also agreed that we shall have no handshake or nusu mkate," he said.

Ichungwah who was appointed to lead Kenya Kwanza Alliance in the bi-partisan talks revealed that the consensus on peaceful political undertaking was reached following talks between President William Ruto and Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga.

"We are crossing over to a place where economic prosperity and respect to the rule of law, and constitutionalism," the Majority Leader said.

The Opposition Coalition called off the anti-government demonstrations after former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo brokered a pact between President Ruto and Azimio leader Raila Odinga to facilitate a ten-member team to hold talks aimed at ending the social, economic and political situation facing Kenyans.

The intial talks for the bi-partisan talks is set to commence next week even though the two opposing sides have not agreed on the date for the dialogue.

Azimio La Umoja One Kenya had written to Ichung'wah seeking an initial joint meeting with the Kenya Kwanza Alliance on Monday, August 7 to kick start the proposed dialogue.

In a letter, Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka who is leading Azimio's five-member team in the dialogue called for a speedy resolution of the standoff between the two opposing sides citing anxiety among Kenyans.

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Kenya Kwanza has tabled a counter-proposal on the initial meeting for bipartisan talks with the opposition Azimio Coalition, suggesting August 10 as its preferred date to kick-start inter-party dialogue.

Responding to Kalonzo Musyoka's request to convene talks at Nairobi's Serena Hotel on Monday, August 7, the ruling coalition's head of delegation, House Majority Leader Ichung'wah said Kenya Kwanza had a scheduled induction session.

The ruling coalition also rejected Azimio's proposal to have talks held at Nairobi's Serena Hotel citing austerity measures.

They proposed Parliament's County Hall or the Kenya School of Government as alternatives.

The Ichung'wah-led team includes Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot (UDA), Embu Governor and UDA Party Chairperson Cecily Mbarire, EALA MP Hassan Omar (UDA) and Bungoma Woman Representative Catherine Wambilanga (Ford Kenya).

Musyoka's team includes National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi (ODM), Malindi MP Amina Mnyanzi (ODM), Democratic Action Party Leader Eugene Wamalwa and Nyamira Senator Okong'o Omogeni (ODM).

The renewed attempt for dialogue follows the collapsed of a parliamentary process initiated in April after President William Ruto agreed on talks following a spate of violent opposition protests.

Azimio side bolted out of structured talks on the reconstitution of the electoral commission, IEBC, sparking another round of protests over what Odinga termed as high cost of living.
The UN human rights office in Uganda will cease operations on Sunday after the Government decided not to renew the host country agreement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday, affirming that he "remains committed" to working in the country, in line with his global mandate.

The closure of the office in Kampala follows the recent closure of sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto sub-offices.

In February, the Government decided to terminate the mandate of the High Commissioner's Office, OHCHR, in Uganda. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights defenders denounced the move and had called for its reversal, according to media reports.

"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," Volker Turk said in a news release.

"On our part, the UN human rights office remains committed to working on human rights in Uganda, in line with my global mandate," he added.

Progress, but challenges remain

High Commissioner Turk recalled the engagement with the Government and partners, including integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in national planning, and the adoption of a national action plan on business and human rights.

"Much progress has been made in the country over the years, but serious human rights challenges remain in the path to full enjoyment of human rights for all," he said.

In particular, Mr. Turk expressed concern about the period ahead of the 2026 elections, given an increasingly hostile environment in which human rights defenders, civil society actors and journalists are operating.

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Earlier this year, other UN human rights mechanisms, such as the Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, also expressed concerns, including over the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May 2023 that criminalises consenting sexual relations between adults of the same sex and provides severe sanctions, including the death penalty.

'Chronic' underfunding of national rights body

Mr. Turk called on the Government to ensure the Uganda Human Rights Commission can function effectively and independently, as the main body tasked with human rights oversight in the country.

"[The Commission], our long-standing partner in the protection and promotion of human rights in the country, is chronically under-funded and under-staffed, and reports of political interference in its mandate undermine its legitimacy, independence and impartiality," he said.

"I urge the Ugandan government to provide the Commission with adequate human, technical and financial resources so that it may more effectively execute its important mandate."

Established in 2005

OHCHR's Uganda office was established in July 2005 with offices in Gulu, Kitgum, Kotido, Lira, Pader, Soroti, and the head office in Kampala.

Its initial mandate focused on the human rights situation in the conflict-affected areas of Northern and Northeastern Uganda. In 2009, the mandate was extended to cover the entire country and all human rights issues.

The OHCHR office in Uganda was among the largest stand-alone UN human rights presences in Africa.
The IT industry in India is known to be highly competitive. In such a scenario, when a company manages to have a glorious run for 25 long years, one can confidently assert that it has done a lot of things right. Launched in the mid 90s as a company that would offer world-class IT solutions to consumers and enable them to do business by adopting new technologies and solutions, COMnet was the result of an entrepreneurship dream envisioned by its two founders, Sanjay Divekar and Mangesh M. Pardeshi.

Talking about the eventful journey COMnet has had, co-founder Sanjay Divekar says, COMnet was launched with the idea to bring fresh ideas and a new approach in the field of the end user computing and network domain. We firmly believe that innovation has been the driving factor behind the companys success. As a team, we tried to create an unmatched experience for the customer, which contributed to our growth. Our unique approach and emphasis on developing futuristic technology helped us expand our customer base. Our market share keeps growing significantly as we work in every vertical and across multiple industries.

One of the primary reasons behind COMnets growth is the conviction and expertise of each of its two founders. While Sanjay Divekar has more than 25 years of expertise in the eld of information technology and is known for his exceptional leadership qualities and technical prowess, Mangesh M. Pardeshi is an accomplished business leader who has a deep understanding of the industry's landscape and knows how to build strong partnerships and alliances. Amit Khanna, who joined the leadership team a few years back, has over two decades of IT experience with Global IT/ITeS firms and has received over 30 IT Industry felicitations from leading media houses as one of the leading global CIO.

Reflecting upon the kind of contribution the professionals working for the company have made over the years, Mangesh states, Every individual working in COMnet is expected to be a self-driven leader responsible for managing their own PNL. We firmly believe in the importance of cultivating thought leadership that will elevate our organization to new heights. We encourage each employee and team to embrace their leadership potential, build their own PNL, and share our collective vision. By forming their own team, they have worked towards propelling the organization towards greater success.

Among other things, COMnets diversification efforts have proved to be a blueprint for many Indian companies that offer IT solutions. Apart from providing hardware - based solutions, COMnet has also been offering services and support pertaining to infrastructure security, managed services, and software application development. The strategic expansion undertaken by the company reflects its commitment to continual development and our pursuit of solutions within the industry.

Elaborating on what COMnet plans to do in the future, Amit says, As we approach our 25th year, our unwavering belief in creating value for our customers remains at the core of our business. Unlike our competitors, our approach is centred on engaging with customers directly. We initiate conversations, deeply comprehend their infrastructure, establish objectives, and conduct comprehensive gap analyses. Our focus goes beyond mere transactions as we strive to build long-term partnerships with our customers, accompanying them on their journey of success.

There are several factors that have helped COMnet get an edge over its competitors. The company has always delivered on its promise of being a steadfast partner throughout its clients' growth journeys. It offers unwavering support, guidance, and assistance to its clients in every step of the way. It has very successfully managed to foster long-lasting relationships that, in turn, has led to customer retention and satisfaction. COMnets successful journey over 25 years is the most important testimony to the fact that it delivers high-quality solutions to its clients and keeps upgrading its services with time.

Please visit to know more about COMnet https://comnetinfo.com/

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 article below focuses on reviewing top 5 management assignment help in Australia platforms, helping students get valuable insights to make an informed decision and select the best service provider to address their management assignment needs in time.

Complex tasks and tight deadlines make seeking help from the best management assignment expert essential. Professional assistance ensures better understanding and higher grades in a challenging subject like this. Below you will find a list of top 5 management assignment helper websites chosen keeping a variety of factors in mind!

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List Of 5 Best Online Management Assignment Help Australia Websites

1. TheStudentHelpline.io

2. AssesmentHelp.com

3. CourseworkHelp.com.au

4. HelpAssignmentOnline.com

5. HelpAssignment.com.au

Best Management Assignment Help Online

Best Management Assignment Help Service By Top 5 Websites In Australia!

Looking at the challenges students face while working on their management assignments, SicarioAds a reliable digital marketing company, took the initiative of finding the most reliable management assignment help Australia. Selecting these management assignment help websites was not an easy task and took more than 4 months. Considering several factors like reliability, turnaround time, user reviews and ratings, and a survey with a sample size of 70,000 students,SicarioAds concluded the list of 5 best websites to provide you an incredible experience while seeking help with management assignment out of a thousand other competitors online!

The Student Helpline: No. 1 Management Assignment Help in Australia!

The Student Helpline is an affordable management assignment helper that delivers excellent value for money to students across all academic levels. Established in 2013, it boasts one of the largest teams of 304 professional management assignment writers online.

Whether you need help with management assignment because of the topics complexity or the confusion in the format, The Student Helpline is here to assist you with the best of its writers online.

According to our research The Student Helpline can provide students with:

Project management assignment help

Business management assignment help

Marketing management assignment help

Assignment help business management

Brand management assignment help

Change management assignment help

Construction management assignment help

Database management assignment help

Financial management assignment help

Human resource management assignment help

One of the remarkable aspects of The Student Helpline is its consistently low prices across all turnaround times. Alongside flawless grammar, this management assignment help Australia focuses on what you receive is well-researched and coherent.

Overall, The Student Helpline is a comprehensive and budget-friendly university management assignment help that offers top-quality assistance without burdening students financially.

Quality:

With a remarkable quality rating of 9.4/10, The Student Helpline, an affordable management assignment writing service in Australia, managed to gather more than 43,243 positive reviews from students all across the globe .

Most of the students stated that the management assignment writer demonstrated exceptional professionalism, delivering a well-developed management assignment, which not only met the deadline but also successfully passed a Turnitin check.

Customer Reviews:

The Student Helpline boasts an impressive social media following and receives thousands of positive reviews. With over 12,343 reviews on SiteJabber customers, on average, rate The Student Helpline 4.8 stars out of 5.

This management assignment writing service in Australia garners praise for its affordability and professionalism, consistently adhering to deadlines.

Price:

The Student Helpline possesses affordable management assignment writers, offering competitive prices for various academic levels. They have three different categories to cater students coming from different types of financial backgrounds.

The Student Helpline possesses affordable management assignment writers, offering competitive prices for various academic levels.

Assesment Help: Best Management Assignment Help Services

Our research experts chose Assesment Help as the next best option to seek management assignment assistance because of its incredible rating of 9.2/10 on TrustPilot and the free samples we saw online.This website has built a strong reputation for providing high quality management assignment help Australia across a wide range of subjects like:

Help with project management assignment

IT management assignment help

Management accounting assignment help

Operations management assignment help

Risk management assignment help

Strategic management assignment help

Customer relationship management assignment help

Event management assignment help

Healthcare management assignment help

Despite not being as widely known as some other options, Assessment Help consistently delivers top-notch management assignment writing help on time, making it a noteworthy and affordable writing service deserving your attention.

Quality: With a quality rating of 9.2 out of 10, most of the students stated that their journey with Assesment Help was smooth and hassle-free. According to our research, the writer assigned for a particular management assignment possesses in-depth knowledge of the subject and is well trained to communicate the progress in the right manner.

Customer Review: Assesment Help receives high praise from both college and high school students for its professionalism and punctuality while providing management assignment help in Australia. Across various platforms like Reviews.io, where it holds a perfect 5-star rating, and SiteJabber, where it's just shy of perfection by one point, customers highlight the timely delivery and originality of their management assignment.

Price: Assessment Help, slightly pricier than our top pick The Student Helpline which offers different pricing tiers.

Type of management assignment help and prices

Considering that most affordable online management assignment websites charge similar prices, we find Assesment Help to be reasonably priced.

Coursework Help: Affordable Management Assignment Helper In Australia

Coursework Help, an affordable management assignment help Australia, can be your saviour if you face an urgent deadline and have to make a submission in just a few hours. With Coursework Help, you can connect with professional college management assignment writers who can swiftly create fantastic assignments on any topic you like.

Their impressive record of 45,000 orders completed in a year speaks for their efficiency in providing timely delivery for management assignments. While being cost-effective, Coursework Help upholds quality and caters to various subjects in management like:

strategic resource management assignment help

supply chain management assignment help

healthcare management assignment help

higher business management assignment help

hospitality management assignment help

management project assignment help

portfolio management assignment help

Being the best management assignment help Australia, their user friendly platform, allows students to quickly make an order and not waste time navigating here and there for assignment help.

Quality:With a quality rating of 8.7 out of 10, the management assignment help students received from Coursework Help was commendable. According to the survey that was conducted, students stated that the management assignment helper demonstrated a deep understanding of the subject matter and presented compelling arguments effectively.

Customer Review: Upon reviewing SiteJabber, we found that Coursework Help boasts an impressive rating, falling just two points short of a perfect score, with over 13,900 reviews. Additionally, the platform enjoys positive reviews on sites like Reviews.io and Reseller Ratings, making it one of the most popular management assignment help service in Australia.

Overall, customers of Coursework Help express great satisfaction with the service's performance on their assignments, particularly praising the low prices.

Price: Coursework Help offers custom management assignment helper services at competitive prices.

Coursework Help offers custom management assignment helper services at competitive prices.

Help Assignment Online: Your Answer To Instant Management Assignment Help!

Help Assignment Online is a fine management assignment writing service in Australia known for its 99% on-time delivery rate. Their team of 1245+ management assignment writers have successfully completed nearly 23,000 management assignments, including subjects like :

Hotel management assignment help

Behaviour management assignment help

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Corporate financial management assignment help

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Help with assignment on brand management

Hospitality operations management assignment help

With professional services offered at reasonable rates, Help Assignment Online regularly earns a spot on top-quality management assignment help rankings across multiple review sites, particularly those focusing on thesis and dissertations related tasks.

This service provider helps students with an instant management assignment help feature which comes with a few extra dollars and highly reasonable prices for a request to be completed in just a few hours!

Quality: Our research experts, while researching, took out time to read their samples and order management assignment help for a student in need. After placing an order for a management essay, they received the requirements within a few hours. Help Assignment Online offered free revisions but they did not need any! Overall, the performance result was good and the student got decent grades after the submission of their management assignment.

Customer Review: Help Assignment Online enjoys popularity on social media, particularly on Reddit, where it has a significant fan following for delivering quality help with management assignment. On SiteJabber, it boasts an almost perfect star score, missing just a few points. Customers of Help Assignment Online commend the company for delivering well-researched management assignments promptly.

Price: As they are well known for their instant management assignment help, they charge an additional cost especially when the time frame given to complete the assignment is just a few hours.

Help Assignment Online services and prices

Overall, their prices are decent and this is the exact reason why we chose them for our list of top 5 management assignment experts in Australia!

Help Assignment: A Trusted Management Assignment Helper In Australia!

Help Assignment offers impeccable help, catering not only to standard help with management assignment and research papers but also excelling in written speeches, and application management assignment in subjects like:

Innovation management assignment help

Leadership management assignment help

Logistics management assignment help

Management employee relations assignment help

Operation management assignment help

Encountering any unpleasant challenges in the process is unlikely. You can easily chat with them for your management assignment help queries and contact them on call if you wish to give more details.

You have the option to let the Help Assignment team choose your writer, or you can select one yourself. Throughout the process, Help Assignment will provide regular updates on the progress of your assignment even if you are seeking their online management assignment help.

Quality: Our research experts found that their management assignment help Australia is tailored to your specifications. The assignment not only highlighted clients personality, and academic achievements but also skillfully conveyed their unique traits and characters. We were thoroughly impressed with the writer's ability to capture our client's essence and succinctly present their personality while writing a management essay.

Customer Review: Merely three points away from a perfect rating on TrustPilot and one point away on SiteJabber, this management assignment helper is highly reliable. Customers value its personalized approach and meticulous attention to detail.

Price: Irrespective of your chosen academic level, the price for seeking online management assignment remains constant, ranging from $38 to $43 per page, determined by the deadline.

List Of 5 Best Online Management Assignment Help Australia Websites (1)

List Of 5 Best Online Management Assignment Help Australia Websites (2)

In conclusion, The Student Helpline stands as the paramount choice for management assignment help Australia. Throughout our extensive evaluation of various management assignment writing services, The Student Helpline consistently outshined its competitors, cementing its position as the top website in this domain for Australia. Its unparalleled commitment to academic excellence, extensive experience in the field, and a team of highly qualified subject experts are testament to the quality of service it provides.

The platform's personalized approach ensures that each management assignment is meticulously crafted to meet individual requirements and academic goals. Moreover, The Student Helpline's affordable pricing structures and adherence to strict deadlines further reinforce its status as the best choice for students seeking management assignment help Australia.

Customer reviews and ratings overwhelmingly praise The Student Helpline for delivering well-researched, original, and high-quality management assignments that consistently garner top grades. The platform's dedication to customer satisfaction and continuous improvement further solidifies its reputation as the top website for management assignment help.

In light of these factors, we confidently recommend The Student Helpline to students seeking impeccable management assignment assistance and a seamless academic journey.

FAQs

What Is Management Assignment Help?

Management assignment help is a service that provides academic support and guidance to students studying management subjects. It assists them in understanding complex concepts, completing assignments, and achieving better grades by offering expert assistance from qualified professionals in the field of management. If you are looking for an affordable management assignment help then, The Student Helpline can be of great help!

Can Someone Help Me With Me Management Assignment?

Certainly! Assistance with your management assignment is readily available from experienced professionals at The Student Helpline. As per our research, The Student Helpline is recognized as one of the best websites providing excellent help with management assignment, adept at resolving intricate queries related to all your management assignment concerns.

How To Do Assignment For Management?

Why understand the process when the professionals of The Student Helpline are right here to assist you! Their professional management assignment writers, ensure to never let a student down even if their requirements are urgent. With the ability to deliver best quality assignments under the given time frame, they manage to keep everyone happy under all circumstances.

How Do I Choose Management Assignment Help?

Choosing the best management assignment helper can be a tedious task especially when you have the best service providers in front of you. Our suggestion would be to jot down your requirements and what you expect out of your management assignment writer at first and then begin shortlisting the websites according to your needs!

Which Is The Best Management Assignment Help Website?

Although we have mentioned the top 5 management assignment writing services above, if you are looking for a single answer then, consider The Student Helpline! Out of all the services researched by SicarioAds, we feel that The Student Helpline has a huge customer base, excellent reviews and ratings and a 24/7 customer care service which gives you access to unlimited revisions and query clarifications!

What Is The Average Word Count Of Management Assignment?

The average word count of a management assignment is typically between 1500 to 2500 words, although it may vary depending on the specific guidelines provided by your instructor or educational institution. For more information on the specific word count requirements or help with management assignment, visit Coursework Help, where you can find expert guidance and assistance tailored to your academic needs.

Why Do I Need Management Assignment Help?

Management assignment help websites like Assesment Help, helps you draft a professional version of your assignment. If you think you are stuck somewhere and want to pay someone to do my assignment then, professional management assignment assistance can be of help. They will not only cater to your needs but ensure that there are no changes required once you get the final draft in your hands!

What Is Average Cost Of Hiring A Management Assignment Helper?

The average cost of hiring a management assignment helper can vary depending on factors such as the level of complexity, deadline, and the reputation of the service provider. If you hire professionals like Help Assignment Online then, it will cost you somewhere around $40-$48/ page to complete your management assignment. For an exact pricing list, we recommend you to visit Help Assignment Online directly!

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.
Zomato's share price continued its impressive rally, surging by more than 7% on Monday. This follows the food delivery platform announcing its inaugural net profit for the June quarter of FY24. Zomato's share price soared by as much as 7.77%, reaching a new 52-week high of 102.85 per share on the BSE. Zomato. (File PTI photo)

At the time of writing this report at 2pm, Zomato shares were trading over 4 per cent higher at 99.92.

Zomato witnessed heightened investor interest following its recent profit announcement.

ALSO READ: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyals special delivery for customers, executives on Friendship Day

The food delivery platform yesterday reported a consolidated net profit of 2 crore for the April-June quarter of 2023 against a loss of 186 crore in the same quarter last year, data showed. It reported a loss of 189 crore in the January-March 2023 quarter.

Consolidated revenue from operations in the first quarter of the current fiscal was at 2,416 crore, as against 1,414 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

ALSO READ: Zomato agent in Bengaluru seen eating food from delivery bag. Internet divided

Total expenses were higher at 2,612 crore, as compared to 1,768 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

In a letter to shareholders, Zomato Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal said the company has been working hard to make its business less complex, and putting the right people at the right spots within its businesses.

He had said in May that the company was confident of achieving profitability for the entire business in the next four quarters.

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In a shocking incident, Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendras wife Spandana breathed her last on Monday in Bangkok. She reportedly suffered a massive heart attack while she was on a vacation in Bangkok. Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife Spandana passes away in Bangkok (File photo)

Also Read - Zomato agent in Bengaluru seen eating food from delivery bag. Internet divided

According to local media, Spandana was immediately rushed to a hospital on Monday morning, soon after she collapsed. After reaching the hospital, she was declared dead. The mortal remains of Spandana are likely to reach on Tuesday and final rites will be performed in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar paid condolences to the family. In an X post, Siddaramaiah wrote, The news of the untimely death of famous Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife Spandana has come as a shock. I pray for the eternal peace of the departed soul. My condolences to the families of Vijaya Raghavendra and BK Shivaram who are saddened by the loss of Spandana.

Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar also said that he met the couple a few days ago and expressed his grief about the unfortunate incident. He said, I am deeply saddened to know that the wife of famous Kannada actor Shri Vijay Raghavendra, Mrs. Spandana Raghavendra, has passed away suddenly in Bangkok. Recently the couple met me and wished me well. I pray for Spandana's soul to rest in peace. My condolences to his family and friends. Many prominent people from politics and Kannada film industry expressed shock on the demise of Spandana and paid their tributes.
Karnataka Housing and Minority Welfare Minister Jameer Ahmed Khan on Sunday inspected the residential complex constructed by the Mumbai Slum Rehabilitation Authority in a private-public partnership. Congress leader Jameer Ahmed Khan

Also Read - Delhi mohalla clinic overhyped: Karnataka health minister disappointed after visit

He viewed the residential complex constructed in the Teachers Colony of Saibaba Nagar in Andheri East, Mumbai, and collected information.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Mumbai Slum Rehabilitation Authority, a slum dwellers cooperative society has been established and a residential complex is being constructed under an agreement with the contractor.

Out of the total area, 50 per cent of the land has been given to the leasing company. Once the beneficiaries need a bank loan arrangement under the scheme, the contracting organization contacts the bank head and arranges it.

Apart from this, till the construction of a housing complex in the slum area, the organization will take the responsibility of shifting those slum-dwellers elsewhere as well as pay rent for houses to live in temporarily, the minister said.

On the same occasion, the Minister instructed to conduct a study on whether a similar model can be implemented in the Slum Development Board, and Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation projects in Karnataka, and review the pros and cons.

The Minister invited officials of the Mumbai Slum Rehabilitation Authority to visit Karnataka.

Housing Department Secretary Naveen Raj Singh, former MP Harban Singh, authority officers Ashish Chaudhary, Balaji Munde, Abhay Ram, and others were present.

The minister also visited Shirke's cement precast centre and residential complex in the Taloja area of Navi Mumbai.

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A day after Chandigarh Police booked a sub-inspector (SI), along with three others, for kidnapping a Bathinda-based businessman and extorting 1.01 crore from him, police on Monday arrested a constable in the case. Chandigarh Police had sought his remand, contending that  26 lakh of the extorted amount was yet to be recovered and Varinder may help trace the whereabouts of the absconding accused. (HT Photo)

The accused, identified as constable Varinder, is deployed at a beat box in Sector 41. He is accused of accompanying SI Naveen Phogat, along with another constable, when he extorted the money from the victim, Sanjay Goyal, in Sector 40 on August 4.

SI Phogat, meanwhile, remains at large. Posted as additional station house officer (SHO) at the Sector 39 police station, the SI was only recently reinstated after being acquitted of raping a Mumbai-based model.

He had escaped from the police station on August 5, after the victim, who deals in wholesale of split chickpeas (chana dal) in Bathinda, arrived to lodge a complaint against him. Police have recovered 75 lakh of the total extorted amount that Phogat had reportedly returned to Goyal for maintaining silence.

On Sunday, the SI, along with other accused, including Sarvesh of Bathinda, who is into the business of currency exchange, Ankit Gill and Jitender, both of Phase 11, Mohali, were booked for extortion, kidnapping, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy on the complaint of the victim. Jitender runs an immigration consultancy in Aerocity, Mohali, said police.

Sent to three-day remand

A local court sent constable Varinder to three-day police custody on Monday.

Police had sought his remand, contending that 26 lakh of the extorted amount was yet to be recovered and Varinder may help trace the whereabouts of the absconding accused.

His counsel, Gaurav Sahota, argued in court that his client was called to the spot by Phogat, his senior, and he was not already with him. There are no call records between Varinder and Phogat regarding the pending 26 lakh, which are yet to be recovered as claimed by the police. Had he been involved, he would have been in touch with the SI, the lawyer said.

Earlier, the court recorded the statements of the victim, along with his driver Raj Kumar and business partner Rajeev, alias Happy.

Another cop wanted, gangster link not ruled out

Meanwhile, police are also on the trail of another absconding constable.

Sources said this constable was deployed as the personal security officer (PSO) of Parveen Shah, brother of Rajveer, alias Sonu Shah, who was shot dead in his office in Burail in broad daylight in September 2019.

Sonu, a property dealer and a history sheeter, was killed by members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The deceaseds cousin Monty Shah was also arrested in the case.

Monty had fired six bullet shots at Parveen, a witness in the Sonu Shah murder case, in 2020, but he had escaped unhurt.

According to sources, both Parveen and his PSO are absconding.

Involvement of gangsters may emerge during investigation. There is a possibility that some notorious person planned to bring the victim to Chandigarh with 1 crore and extort the money by threatening him, an officer said.

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The local court has awarded seven years in jail to a Dhanas resident for stabbing his wife that led to her death in 2021. Sunny was initially booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC on the complaint of the womans father, Ram Lal. But the court found him guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. (iStockphoto)

The court of additional sessions judge Jaibir Singh also imposed a fine of 25,000 on Sunny, who was held guilty under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Sunny was initially booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC on the complaint of the womans father, Ram Lal.

The complainant stated that his daughter had married Sunny on October 30, 2019. On March 7, 2021, he received a call from Sunnys father that his daughter got injured during a fight with her husband.

Ram Lal said when he reached the hospital where his daughter was taken, she revealed that Sunny stabbed her in the stomach. His daughter had eventually succumbed to the injuries.

The defence counsel argued that there was no motive for Sunny to kill his wife.

After hearing the arguments, the court held Sunny guilty for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced him to seven years in jail.

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The Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday foiled an infiltration bid and killed a terrorist along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district, officials said. An Indian Army soldier patrolling near the Line of Control in Poonch. (AP Photo)

An infiltration bid was foiled in Poonch district. In a joint operation by the Indian Army and police around 2am in Degwar Treva area along the LoC, two infiltrating terrorists were engaged by security forces. One terrorist fell down immediately while another tried to run back to LoC. He was engaged and hit. He was seen falling down near the LoC, Jammu-based Defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said.

On Sunday, additional director general of police Mukesh Singh said that 2-3 groups of terrorists were still active in Poonch and Rajouri districts and anti-insurgency operations are on to eliminate them.

Though exact figures of terrorists who are active Rajouri and Poonch region are available, its clear that they get support from Pakistan to vitiate peace and harmony in the region, he said.

On Saturday, a terrorist was killed in in Bariyama area of Khawas in Rajouri district; his body was recovered on Sunday morning. Special Forces were brought in to aid the operation.

Bartwal informed that the army recovered 1 AK series rifle, 5 magazines, 4 hand grenades, and 1 bag of clothes with Pakistani markings from the site of encounter in Bariyama.

Throughout the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, terrorist made repeated attempts to break through the cordon but were thwarted through controlled fire. Security forces utilised advanced technology such as night-enabled quadcopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and sniffer dogs to enhance their capabilities during the operation, the spokesperson said.

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Global food prices rose for the first time in months following the collapse of the landmark agreement to ship grain from war-torn Ukraine to the rest of the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday.

The UN agency has issued its latest Food Price Index (FPI), which tracks the monthly international prices of cereals, vegetable oil, dairy, meat and sugar.

The Index averaged 123.9 points in July, up 1.3 per cent from June, driven by an increase in vegetable oil and rice prices.

End of a lifeline

FAO's Vegetable Oil Price Index registered a 12.1 per cent jump in July after seven months of consecutive declines.

Sunflower oil prices rebounded by 15 per cent due to uncertainties sparked by Russia's decision to pull out of the Black Sea Initiative on grain and fertilizer exports.

The UN-brokered deal, together with a parallel accord between the UN and Russia, provided a lifeline for hundreds of millions worldwide facing hunger and spiralling food costs, including in countries such as Afghanistan and Ethiopia.

Wheat prices rise

The Cereal Price Index declined by 0.5 per cent in June. This was largely the result of two factors: a nearly five per cent drop in coarse grain quotations due to increased seasonal supplies of maize from Argentina and Brazil, and potentially higher-than-anticipated production in the United States.

However, wheat prices rose for the first time in nine months due to uncertainty over exports from Ukraine and continued dry conditions in North America.

Meanwhile, rice prices increased by 2.8 per cent in July and by almost 20 per cent over the past year after India prohibited exports. FAO warned that the move "raises substantial food security concerns for a large swathe of the world population, especially those that are most poor and who dedicate a larger share of their incomes to purchase food".

The Sugar Price Index declined by nearly four per cent, the result of good progress in Brazil's sugarcane harvest, improved rains across most growing areas in India, and subdued demand from Indonesia and China, the world's top importers.

There was also a 0.4 per cent slide in the Dairy Price Index, which is more than 20 per cent below the July 2022 value. Similarly, meat prices dropped 0.3 per cent since June.
Ten days after a 19-year-old man went missing under mysterious circumstances, the Ladhowal police lodged a kidnapping case against unidentified accused. Police have registered a case under sections 365 (kidnapping) of the IPC against unidentified accused. (HT FILE)

The man had gone to the banks of Sutlej River with his two friends on June 27, but did not return. However, his friends returned to their homes.

The victim has been identified as Gurmanjot Singh, 19, of Khaira Bet village. He was scheduled to go to Canada on August 30.

The FIR was lodged on Sunday on the complaint of Jagjeet Singh, father of the victim, who runs an auto parts workshop. Jagjeet stated that his son had gone to the river with his two friends, Gursimran and Gurraj Singh, on June 27.

Gursimran and Gurraj returned home in the evening, but Gurmanjot did not. When asked, the duo stated that while they were standing at the banks of the river, Gurraj talked to someone over a phone call and then jumped into the river. Gursimran rushed towards the village to call someone for help. He said that when Gursimran returned at the banks of the river, he did not find Gurmanjot at the spot. Though, with the help of unidentified persons, he managed to rescue Gurraj from the river.

The family of victim searched him in the river for at least six days with the help of divers and even a team of NDRF but could not find anything.

The complainant suspected that someone had kidnapped his son and murdered him. He also said that his sons two friends know something about Gurmanjot, which they were hiding.

Sub inspector Gurmeet Singh, who is investigating the case, said that the police have registered a case under sections 365 (kidnapping) of the IPC against unidentified accused.

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Banks and ATMs will reopen on a trial basis in Haryana's Nuh on Monday, a week after clashes broke out in the district over a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession, an official has said. After the communal violence in Nuh, Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been deployed in sector-57 near Tigra Village to maintain law & order, in Gurugram, India, on Sunday. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Financial institutions in Nuh, Tauru, Punhana, Ferozepur Jhirka, Pingawan and municipal corporation areas will open for a short window on Monday, the official said.

According to an order issued by District Magistrate Dhirender Khadgata on Sunday, it has been decided to open banks and ATMs on August 7 on a trial basis. Financial transactions in banks will take place from 11 am to 2 pm while ATMs will be open till 3 pm.

'Normality returning'

Government offices will also function smoothly on August 7. Employees can enter their workplaces by showing their identity cards. Normality is returning in the district and the situation is under control, Khadgata said.

In addition, a free bus service were provided to CET examination centres in five districts -- Kurukshetra, Panchkula, Karnal, Hisar and Panipat -- on Sunday.

This service will be available for examinees on Monday as well. Five bus services were provided on routes such as Nuh-Alwar-Jaipur, Nuh-Alwar and Nuh-Gurugram.

A police spokesperson said 56 FIRs were registered and 147 people arrested following clashes that erupted in Nuh over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession on Monday. Six people were killed and 88 injured in the violence.

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All websites associated with Punjab Police are inaccessible as the department failed to renew the secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates in time. Apart from Punjab Police website, district police websites, cybercrime portal of Punjab Police is also not functioning.

The official website of Punjab Police is not accessible since August 2, while the websites of all district police offices are non-functional since Saturday.

Non-functional websites are proving to be a major setback for the Punjab police department, which is promoting digitisation and introducing numerous online services to cater to the needs of residents.

People are dependent on official websites for passport verification, police-clearing certificates, no-objection certificates, paying fine against traffic challans and updates regarding other police services.

Apart from Punjab Police website, district police websites, cybercrime portal of Punjab Police is also not functioning. The cybercrime portal was launched by the police on April 25, 2002 and residents were asked to file their cybercrime related complaints online through the portal.

The expired SSL certificates not only highlight security issues, but also raise questions on the reliability of the Punjab police departments digital infrastructure. Concerns have been raised about potential breach of sensitive information and the delays it could cause in legal proceedings and investigations.

Varun Goyal, a local, said in this technologically-advancing era, it is imperative for government departments to prioritise maintenance and security of their digital platforms. The Punjab police department must take this recent setback as an opportunity to enhance efficiency and accessibility of their online presence, ensuring the provision of seamless services to the citizens of Punjab.

Headquarters deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rupinder Singh said he was not aware about the issue. He said he will look into the matter and make sure that the websites are made functional soon.

Technical services additional director general of police (ADGP) Ram Singh said there must be some technical error and he will get it checked.

Secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a websites identity and enables an encrypted connection.

It is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser.

The companies and organisations need to add SSL certificates to their websites to secure online transactions and keep visitors information private and secure.

An IT expert, Suyash Gupta, said SSL keeps Internet connections secure and prevents criminals from reading or modifying information transferred between two systems.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tarsem Singh Deogan Tarsem Singh Deogan is a senior reporter at Ludhiana. He has 16 years of experience in journalism. He has covered all beats and now focuses on crime reporting. ...view detail
A snatching accused fractured his arm in a bid to escape before he was arrested along with his aide by police in a raid. Snatching accused in the custody of division number 5 police in Ludhiana. (HT PHOTO)

The Division number 5 police also recovered as many as 10 mobile phones from their possession, which they had snatched from commuters.

The accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Mani of Islamganj and Raj Visht of Vishwakarma colony.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, Civil Lines) Jasroop Kaur Bath said that police on Sunday conducted a raid near Manjit Nagar for the arrest of the accused following a tip-off.

On seeing the police team, the accused, Gurpreet, tried to scale the wall constructed alongside a railway track but fell on the tracks and fractured his right arm.

The ACP said that the accused are drug addicts and indulged in crime to meet their need for drugs. The accused used to target commuters and snatch mobile phones and other valuables from them by threatening them with sharp-edged weapons. The accused used to sell mobile phones further for money.

A case under sections 379-B and 411 of the IPC has been lodged against the accused at Division number 5 police station.

Inspector Neeraj Chaudhary, SHO at Division number 5 police station, said that Gurpreet Singh is already facing a trial in three cases of snatching and burglary.

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In yet another hit-and-run accident in Mohali, a 37-year-old taxi driver was killed after a speeding truck hit his vehicle near Chhat light point on the Zirakpur-Patiala road in the wee hours of Monday. A case under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code against the unidentified truck driver has been booked at the Zirakpur police station. (iStock)

The deceased, Varinder Singh, 37, hailed from Haryana. Police said he was driving from Rajpura to Zirakpur, when a rashly driven truck, coming from Dera Bassi, rammed into his car around 4 am.

The truck initially collided with the traffic lights, before ploughing into the deceaseds vehicle. He drove off leaving Singh bleeding behind.

Singhs brother Surender, who also drives a taxi, told police that he was waiting for him at the Chhat light point, as they had to go somewhere together.

Surender rushed his brother to a private hospital, where staff referred him to GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh, due to his critical condition. But he succumbed to his injuries before reaching the hospital.

Police have registered a case under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code against the unidentified truck driver at the Zirakpur police station.

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Two men in their late 20s were murdered by their fellow workers following separate drunken brawls in Manimajra in the wee hours of Monday. Police booked both accused under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at the Manimajra police station. (iStock)

Both victims were having drinks with their colleagues into the morning, when altercations erupted and ended with their murders, both with sharp-edged weapons, said police.

In the first case, the victim, Hemant Patel, 29, was a salesman at a liquor vend near NAC, Manimajra. He hailed from Uttar Pradesh.

The accused, identified as Karan Thakur, alias Avi, 25, of Amritsar, has been arrested.

According to police, the accused, along with other liquor vend workers, including Patel, was having drinks inside the shuttered shop around 2.45 am.

While drinking, an altercation broke out between Thakur and Patel, who exchanged blows with each other, before they were sent outside by the other staff.

After they were ousted from the liquor vend, their brawl became more violent, when Thakur smashed a beer bottle on Patels head and stabbed him in the stomach, causing fatal injuries, a police officer said.

After Patel collapsed, Thakur, along with another man, rushed him to the Manimajra civil hospital in a car around 3.30 am. But the doctors declared Patel dead, following which both men escaped from the hospital.

After receiving information, Manimajra police responded to the scene, with a team of the crime branch and forensic examiners, who collected evidence, including fingerprints.

Police gathered CCTV footage from the spot that showed the accused, victim and other men drinking inside the liquor vend.

Within hours, police traced Thakur and arrested him. Meanwhile during interrogation, the crime branch didnt find criminal involvement of the other worker, who accompanied Thakur to the hospital. The other man was in Manimajra to visit a cousin. He was detained, but is not involved in the murder, so he will be released, an officer said. Patels family in Uttar Pradesh has been informed.

The same night, a 28-year-old motor mechanic was stabbed to death by his colleague near Shankar A/C Motor market in Manimajra, said police.

The victim, Lakhbir Singh of Indira Colony, Manimajra, was found lying unconscious by a passer-by around 4.30 am on Monday.

After being informed, PCR cops took Singh to PGIMER, Chandigarh, but doctors declared him dead. The accused in the case, Sunny, was arrested later in the day.

According to sources, the victim was having drinks with Sunny, also a mechanic, in the market on Sunday night.

An argument broke out between the two and Sunny stabbed Singh in the back with a sharp-edged weapon, a cop privy to the investigation said.

The victim is survived by his pregnant wife, whom he had married last year.

Police have booked both accused under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at the Manimajra police station.

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A drone carrying a 2.5-kilogram payload (blood component) from AIIMS Rishikesh to Base Hospital at Kotdwar in Pauri Garhwal district crashed nearly 15 to 20 km short of its destination due to bad weather on Monday, said officials from AIIMS Rishikesh The local police have recovered the drone. (HT Photo)

Harish Thapliyal, public relations officer AIIMS Rishikesh, said as part of the institutes efforts to ensure quick delivery of medicines and samples in remote hilly areas of the state, a drone was sent with a 2.5 kg load of blood components to Kotdwar Base Hospital, over nearly 55 km away. This distance normally takes over three hours by road, but the drone covers it in just one hour. But due to bad weather, the drone crashed 15 to 20 km before the Kotdwar hospital, hitting the Eucalyptus trees at Jashodpur. The local police have recovered the drone,he said

He said the 25-kg drone had flown from AIIMS Rishikesh at 12.45pm for Kotdwar Base Hospital. Local people informed police about the incident, he added

He said it was the third trial this year. Earlier drone test flights taking medicines and samples were successfully held between AIIMS Rishikesh and Tehri district and a village near Neelkant shrine near Rishikesh, he said

In May last year, Redcliffe Labs, a medical diagnostic company conducted a test drone flight, bringing a sample from Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

Redcliffe Labs, a medical diagnostic company will start operating two drone flights daily for both routine and specialised tests sample collection from Uttarkashi to Dehradun district from June 10. The test drone flight was conducted by the company on May 19, bringing a sample from Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

On Thursday, the Uttarakhand government approved Drone Policy 2023 to promote drone manufacturing and drone-based services in the state. The state government is also planning to develop drone corridors in the state, especially for remote areas, people familiar with the matter said. For this, the Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA), a state government undertaking agency under the administrative control of the department of information technology, has sought proposals from drone operating and manufacturing companies.

In April, Uttarakhand Police joined hands with Gurugram-based drone delivery company Skye Air Mobility for UTM software an unmanned traffic management system for drones  to check unauthorised drone activities in the air.

UTM, which is a cloud-based Aerial traffic management system that connects and communicates with all types of drones (nano, micro, small), provides situational awareness, autonomous navigation, risk assessment, and traffic management to all drone/other aerial mobility operators across the airspace. In December last year, ITDA also announced that drone schools will be opened in all 13 districts of the state
A fire broke out in the emergency ward of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi on Monday afternoon, following which several fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire was brought under control after an hour of the incident, the fire department said. Fire breaks out at AIIMS in Delhi, patients evacuated

It said that the incident happened on the second-floor of the main building. As per ANI, fire broke out in the endoscopy room, and all the patients were evacuated.

A fire call was received from the emergency ward of AIIMS 11.54 am, the Delhi Fire Services director Atul Garg said, adding that a total of 8 fire tenders were engaged to douse the fire.

Also Read: Wait for MRI at AIIMS Delhi still up to one year despite 24x7 tests

Fire is in under control now and the search operation continues, the DFS said.

Visuals surfaced from the hospital premises showing evacuated patients being shifted to safer places.

The public medical research university and hospital is located at Sri Aurobindo Marg in Delhi's Ansari Nagar East, and is the most prominent government hospital in the country. Every day, around 30,000 patients from all over the nation seek medical attention here.

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Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has approved a proposal of the revenue department to hike the circle rates for agricultural land in Delhi and those adjacent to the Yamuna barrage, officials aware of the matter said on Monday. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. (HT Photo)

From the earlier uniform agricultural land circle rate of 53 lakh per acre, the government has increased them depending upon the districts they are located in.

The circle rate for agricultural land will be 5 crore per acre in the South and New Delhi districts, 3 crore per acre in North Delhi, West Delhi, North West, and South West Delhi; 2.5 crore per acre in Central and South East Delhi; and 2.25 crore per acre in Shahadra, North East, and East Delhi. Barring urbanised villages in South West Delhi where the circle rate will be 4 crore, the rates remain the same across green belt, rural and urbanised villages.

The new rates were announced by revenue minister Atishi during a press conference at the Delhi secretariat on Monday. These have been sent to the lieutenant governor (LG) for approval.

If approved by the LG, the revised rates  last done in 2008 will mean greater revenue for both landowners and the government. While landowners will get more money when the land is sold or acquired, the latter will also see increased cash flow in the form of registration charges.

The circle rate is the minimum value fixed by the government at which a property has to be registered in case of its transfer.

Also Read | Reinforces peoples trust in democracy': Delhi CM Kejriwal on SC relief to Rahul Gandhi

Kejriwal said farmers have long been demanding a rate hike. The farmers of Delhi have been asking for a long time that the rates of their agricultural land be increased. A few years ago, we increased them, but due to some reasons, they could not be implemented at that time. Today, I am happy to inform all farmers of Delhi that your demand has been fulfilled, he said in a tweet.

Revenue minister Atishi described the move as a momentous decision in favour of the farmers.

LG VK Saxenas office did not respond to HTs attempts seeking his response to the announcement.

Delhi currently has 360 villages, according to revenue department records. Of these, farming is carried out in about 200 villages, while the rest of them are largely urbanised, officials said.

A revenue department official said the hiked rates are likely to speed up land acquisition for infrastructure projects and other public purposes. Until now, farmers were being compensated on acquisition of their land based on the 2008 rates, which were significantly lower than the prevailing market rates, making owners unwilling to give up their lands, officials said.

Since 2008, the circle rate for agricultural land in Delhi has remained stagnant at 53 lakh per acre. This lack of revision deprived farmers of fair compensation for their lands, Atishi said.

Devinder Singh, a farmer at village Nangal Thakran in Narela, said, If the government is really concerned about the farmers of Delhi, then why are they not providing us subsidies like are available for rest of the farmers in India? This enhancement of circle rates is nothing but propaganda.

Experts suggested that the government should bring land reforms to help villagers and farmers for their development.

... the land reforms can help villagers and farmers by providing them opportunities for securing a village development plan with planned land use change to get residential area for their family and commercial space for livelihood as income from farming is not lucrative anymore owing to decrease in land ownership in families, said Paras Tyagi, co-founder of Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment, which also conducts research and is involved in advocacy for rights of village people in Delhi.
A day after Delhi University closed the first round of seat allocations for its undergraduate programmes, the varsity on Monday released a list of vacant seats, with only around 13% of the seats yet to be filled, officials aware of the development said. Several colleges like Shri Ram College of Commerce, St Stephens College, Hindu College, and Lady Shri Ram College have closed admission to most courses (HT Archive)

Several top colleges, including Shri Ram College of Commerce, St Stephens College, Hindu College, and Lady Shri Ram College have already closed admission to most of the courses that they offer.

Haneet Gandhi, dean of admissions, said of the 71,000 undergraduate seats on offer, 62,008 had been filled by Monday evening. She said the university shared the list of vacant seats on its admission website after the completion of the first round of allocations.

According to Gandhi, 40,701 students opted to upgrade their seats by Monday evening, while 12,733 students opted to freeze their admission. She added that the upgrade option will not be available for those who have been allocated their first preference of course and college.

Candidates who upgrade their seat will be considered for upgradation to a higher preference submitted by them, while candidates who submit a freeze request will no longer be taken into consideration for the following round of seat allocations.

Students have time till Tuesday to choose a higher preference, following which the second round of allocations will be done on Thursday, officials said.

A perusal of the list of vacant seats released by the university shows that Shri Ram College of Commerce, Hindu College, Miranda House, Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College, Hansraj College and St Stephens College have closed admissions in the general category for popular courses like BA (Hons) English, Economics, History, Political Science, and BCom (Hons).

Across colleges, the most admissions have taken place at Dyal Singh College, Hansraj College, Gargi College, Ramjas College, and Kirori Mal College. The most popular courses were BCom (Hons), BCom, BA (Hons) Political Science, BA (Hons) Economics, and BA (Hons) English.

However, some of these colleges have vacant seats in science courses. For instance, St Stephens has five vacant seats for BSc (Hons) Chemistry, seven for BSc (Hons) Physics, and two in BSc (Programme) physical science with computer science programme.

Ramjas, meanwhile, has 16 vacant seats for BSc (Hons) Physics, 16 for BSc (programme) Life Science, Chemistry, and eight for BSc (Hons) Zoology.

Hindu College has 11 vacant seats in BSc (Hons) Botany, seven in BSc (H) Chemistry, and 13 in BSc (H) Zoology. At Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the number of vacant seats in the unreserved category across all courses stands at 8.

Manoj Khanna, principal of Ramjas, said only a handful seats are still left at his college. Most of the seats are filled. Only in science courses, around 10% of admissions are left. Earlier, it would take us at least four lists to arrive at the seat scenario that we are witnessing now after the first list, said Khanna, saying that since the admission process was centralised, admissions were taking place in a systematic manner.
Christine, her son, and her mother are among 100,000 refugees, mostly women and children, living in a camp in northwestern Uganda, served by the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners, which are providing critical assistance to breastfeeding mothers.

On the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week, Christine explained how she is helping other nursing mothers through a UN-supported programme in the Rhino Camp.

"I feel like the proudest mother in the world when I breastfeed him," said Christine, from South Sudan. "I know that breastfeeding him will help him grow into a strong and healthy and intelligent boy. He is my future."

Each morning, inside her small house, she gets herself and young son ready for the day. With 12-month-old Alvin snuggled into a wrap tied across her back, she makes her way to the local health centre just a few minutes' walk from her house. There she is greeted by a small group of women, most of whom have tiny babies in their arms or on their backs.

Christine comes here each day, where she earns a small income as a community worker, mentoring other breastfeeding mothers. She is here to help give her son the best start at life and to help other women do the same.

Lifeline in fragile settings

Breastfeeding is always important, but in fragile settings like this, it's a lifeline. It not only provides all the nutrients a baby needs for the first six months of life, it's also free of charge and almost always available.

In 2016, when Christine was a 25-year-old college student and aspiring teacher, rebels attacked her hometown of Yei, in South Sudan. She and her family fled into the bush, but shortly afterwards, her father was killed while looking for medicine for a sick family member. Fearing for their lives, Christine and her family fled to Uganda, eventually settling in Rhino Camp.

Her husband has since returned to South Sudan, but Christine has stayed on. In South Sudan, two thirds of the population are facing crisis levels of hunger, the highest number ever, and there is no sign of the situation improving soon.

She has found some stability in Uganda, for herself and her son. She said she was happy with the life she is building there.

Cash for breastfeeding mothers

Last year, while heavily pregnant, Christine became one of 13,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women from both refugee and host communities to receive Nutricash.

Part of the Swedish-funded Child Sensitive Social Protection Programme, under which the World Food Programme (WFP) collaborates with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Government of Uganda, the project provides each woman with $13 to help meet food and nutrition needs and $4 that is put into savings.

Christine has used some of her savings to plant avocado trees and cassava. She plans to go back to school one day and become a teacher. She hopes her savings will make this a reality. Other women use the money to buy goats and pay for school fees.

Breaking cycles of poverty

"By supporting breastfeeding mothers, through cash and nutrition assistance and counselling, we are breaking a vicious poverty cycle and giving the opportunity to these mothers to send their kids to school, to invest in their small business and in the near future, to become fully self-reliant," said Abdirahman Meygag, WFP's country director in Uganda.

After receiving nutrition training from WFP's partner, Save the Children, Christine started supporting women to breastfeed.

"Some women, especially younger mothers, are often scared to breastfeed," she explained. "Often, they don't know how to place their babies, and they want to give up because it's too painful. They have a lot of chores that cause stress, and they don't produce enough breastmilk."

Knowledge is power

Breastfeeding is one of the simplest, smartest, and most cost-effective ways of ensuring that children survive and thrive. Breastfeeding has broad benefits, and can help to prevent infant death and childhood illness.

Each week, Christine and members of the Joy Care Group come together for friendship, to share information on breastfeeding and to support and comfort each other.

The women gather under the shade of a tree, holding their babies in their laps as they share their struggles, worries and fears. From time to time, they breastfeed their young babies.

Group member Jemma said knowledge is key.

"I know my child is going to be well and not only my child, but everyone's child in the group," she said. "Because we have the knowledge and since we are coming together, every week we learn more."

Learn more about how the UN supports women and their children during World Breastfeeding Week and throughout the year here.

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World Breastfeeding Week

Marked annually from 1 to 7 August, World Breastfeeding Week focuses on the invaluable benefits of nursing. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF recommend: early initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth; exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life; and the introduction of nutritionally-adequate and safe complementary, solid foods at six months together with continued breastfeeding up to two years of age or beyond. This year's theme is on working and nursing.

Here are some quick facts:
Dengue cases continue to rise in the national Capital with Delhi reporting 105 new cases over the last week, the mosquito borne disease report issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Monday stated. The current level of dengue case count is the highest reported in the last six years. (HT Photo)

The weekly count continues to double over the last three weeks with Delhi reporting 56 cases and 24 cases respectively in the preceding two weekly cycles.

With the addition of 105 new cases, the overall count of dengue cases reported so far this year stands at 348 cases.

The current level of dengue case count is the highest reported in the last six years.

Also Read: Dengue cases in Delhi rise to 56 last week, total 243 cases reported this year

In comparison to the 348 dengue cases reported between January 1 and August 5, 2023, the city had reported 174 cases in the corresponding period in 2022, 55 cases in 2021, 35 in 2020, 47 cases in 2019 and 64 cases in 2018.

The zonal distribution of these 348 cases shows that 191 of these cases have emerged in MCD areas, 32 in NDMC region and 19 cases in Delhi cantonment areas, six under Railways while 110 remained untraced after investigation.

Within the MCD jurisdiction areas, the west zone, south zone and Najafgarh zones have reported the maximum cases.

In 2021, Delhi recorded 9,613 dengue cases and 23 fatalities due to dengue which was the second highest number of case load and deaths due to the disease.

The city witnessed its worst dengue outbreak in 2015 when 15,867 cases and 60 deaths were reported.

The health department of Delhi government had conducted genome sequencing of the dengue virus and found that 19 out of 20 samples were of type 2 dengue, which is considered more dangerous.

There are four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4).

Type-2 is considered the most severe.

Doctors suggest prevention is the only alternative in cases of severe dengue.

Dr Sumit Ray, head of the department of critical care medicine and medical director at Holy Family Hospital said healthcare workers only focus on symptomatic treatment.

Besides leading to low platelets, it can also lead to shock in the patient and capillary leak syndrome. Usually, dengue cases see spike in September-October but due to waterlogging and flooding in the city due to heavy rainfall, more water accumulation sites could have led to increase in the mosquitogenic conditions, he added.

Dr Ray said that it was important to control the disease through preventive steps at this stage.

While stating that there is no emergency like situation at this stage, the Delhi government last week decided to reserve 5% of beds in government hospitals for dengue patients.

The health ministry has asked the hospitals to create separate dengue wards.

As part of its efforts to check the spread of dengue, the government has increased fines for unchecked mosquito breeding to 1,000 for households and 5,000 for commercial establishments.

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The Capitals third waste-to-art theme park, conceptualised last year to mark 75 years of Independence, is set for inauguration on Tuesday, Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials aware of the matter said. The park features galleries and sculptures that showcase Indian freedom struggle made of scrap material, officials said. (HT Photo)

Shaheedi Park, located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, has been built at a cost of around 16.5 crore and has utilised 250 tonnes of scrap material to feature galleries and sculptures that showcase Indian freedom struggle, officials said.

A municipal official said that lieutenant governor VK Saxena has been invited as the chief guest for its inauguration, while chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will be the special guest at the opening of the park, which was conceptualised last year to mark 75 years of Independence. Built at a cost of around 16.5 crore, the park has utilised 250 tonnes of scrap material to feature galleries and sculptures that showcase Indian freedom struggle

The entry ticket for the park will be 100 for adults and 50 for children, officials said.

An MCD official overseeing the project said that the park has been branded as countrys first open air museum park which will not only act as a recreational space but will also provide educational experiences. It is a tribute to heroes of the freedom struggle and while walking along the pathways laid in the middle of 56,000 plants and shrubs, the users will be able to witness the chronological story of developments in India, the official said.

At the park, MCD has developed an amphitheatre where light and sound shows will be held, while an audio tour is also under development, the official said. The theme of these shows will be based on nationalism and the story of Indian independence. We are also setting up a childrens play zone and a food court at one end of the facility, the official added.

This will be the third waste-to-art themed park in the city after the Waste to Wonder park at Sarai Kale Khan and the Bharat Darshan Park at Punjabi Bagh, which feature replicas of the seven wonders of the world, and Indian heritage monuments, respectively. The corporation is also planning to develop a dinosaur themed park and a Bollywood park on similar themes.

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Three motorcycle-borne assailants stabbed and robbed three men, including two septuagenarians, within nearly 10 minutes in three separate lanes of a congested residential neighbourhood of Sagarpur in southwest Delhi on Monday morning. One of the elderly men died in the attack, police officers said. One of the badly injured victims was 74-year-old Mohan Lal Chhabra, who allegedly suffered more than a dozen stab injuries. He succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment, police said. (HT Photo)

The suspects had fled after the robberies, which took place a few kilometres from Janakpuri. But, they were arrested by afternoon from the nearby Manglapuri, Palam and Dabri areas, police said.

They had robbed the victims of cash, jewellery, watch and other items, police added.

One of the badly injured victims was 74-year-old Mohan Lal Chhabra, who allegedly suffered more than a dozen stab injuries. He succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment, police said.

The other two victims were taken for treatment, and their condition is said to be stable, officers said.

Deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Manoj C said that three separate first information reports (FIRs), including one for murder, were registered against the three at the Sagarpur police station.

Street crimes, such as robbery and snatching, remain a serious issue in the Capital, as in some cases victims have either lost their lives or have been critically injured while trying to resist the crime bid.

According to Delhi Police data available till July 15 last year, on an average, at least six cases of robbery and 25 of snatching were registered everyday in the city in 2022. In 2021, at least five cases of robbery and 22 of snatching were reported till the same period.

In Monday mornings series of stabbings and robberies, the first incident took place at around 5.15am, when 54-year-old Ashok Kumar, who works in a private company, stepped out of his Jagdamba Vihar residence for a morning walk. The three accused, wearing helmets and cap, and riding a black Hero motorcycle, waylaid him in a lane and tried to rob him, police said

As Kumar tried to resist, two of them stabbed him three to four times. They removed his wristwatch and took out his wallet containing some cash and documents. Thereafter, they sped away while Kumar was bleeding and asking people for help, said a local resident, who did not want to be identified.

DCP Manoj said that police received a call about the stabbing and robbery at around 5.17am. By the time they reached the spot, Kumar had already been taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital in a police patrol van.

Within 10 minutes, Chhabra and Om Dutt Singh, 76, were also stabbed multiple times and then robbed in separate areas of the neighbourhood, police said.

During the time of the attack, Chhabra, who formerly worked as a street vendor, was on his way to a physiotherapy clinic in Janakpuri, his family said.

He had walked some 200 metres away from our house in Gali No 2A, Durga Park, when two robbers wearing helmets waylaid him in Gali No 5, Mohan Block. In a CCTV footage, the two robbers are seen cornering my father and then dragging him away from the cameras view. They stabbed him more than 12 times and robbed him of his gold ring, a pair of gold earrings, around 20,000 in cash and a bag that contained a glass, a bedsheet, and his medical documents, said one of his sons Mahender Chhabra, who works in a private company in Gurugram.

According to Mahender, after the robbers fled, his father managed to phone his younger son number as his mobile was not robbed.

My brother reached there in his taxi and rushed him to a private hospital. He succumbed to his injuries nearly 15 minutes after reaching there hospital, added Mahender.

A few minutes after attacking Chhabra, the robbers attacked Singh in Durga Park while he was also going for a morning walk.

The robbers took away 500 in cash and some documents from him. Singh was also admitted to DDU hospital, from where he was discharged in the evening, police said.

On getting information, police formed five teams to identify and nab the suspects, who were arrested within 10 hours from Manglapuri, Palam and Dabri, said DCP Manoj.

They were identified as Akshay Kumar, 36, who was previously involved in 42 crimes, Vaibhav Shrivastava,32, also a habitual criminal, and Sonu alias Fussi,26, who has no criminal past, the officer said.

One of the two knives used in the crime was recovered. Police also recovered the stolen wristwatch, some cash and documents.

Akshay, being a habitual offender, was under constant police vigil. The beat officer had visited his home for inspection just two hours before Mondays crime. Akshay and Shrivastava were booked under preventive arrest last month, the police officer said.

On the reasons behind the rise in street crimes, former Delhi Police Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ashok Chand, said, The practice of burking of crimes to keep the crime statistics under control is one of the reasons why criminals are going berserk. But in my opinion, all crimes should be converted into FIRs, only then the real situation of crimes happening in the city can be accessed, and preventive measures can be taken accordingly. The other measures such as increased police patrolling and keeping vigil on habitual criminals can be helpful only when the ground reality is known.

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The members of the committee that was formed in Sundays mahapanchayat in Tigra village met Gurugram deputy commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav and senior police officers at the mini secretariat and handed over a memorandum for the immediate release of four alleged rioters on Monday. Gurugram DC Nishant Yadav meets mahapanchayat members on Monday. (HT Photo)

The committee members also sought a thorough investigation into the mosque attack in Gurugram last week in the aftermath of the communal flare-up in Nuh.

The members demanded the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the attack on Anjuman Jama Masjid in Sector 57 and the murder of its naib imam.

Karamvir Singh, a resident of Tigra village in Sector 57, said that they want a fair and unbiased investigation against the locals who have been named in the FIR for the murder. Four men have been arrested from Tigra, but they were not seen in the CCTV footage recovered from the spot. We want police to arrest the real culprits and release the innocent men at the earliest. They have randomly picked the men and framed them in the case, he said.

Sube Singh Bohra, former sarpanch of Wazirabad village in Sector 57, said they want peace in their area but there are multiple issues that are bothering them after the attack on the mosque and subsequent arrests. We want the mosque to shut or be shifted from here. Since there is a lot of angst amongst the locals, it is not wise to allow the Muslim community to offer prayers here. The situation is such that violence can erupt in the slightest of provocation, he said.

Mahesh Dayma, a former councillor of ward number 30, said if their demands are not met, they will meet chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. We have given the police a weeks time to complete their investigation. If our men are not released by then, then we will hit the road to protest against the injustice, he said.

The deputy commissioner confirmed that they have received a memorandum and it has been sent to the state government. We are examining the issues raised by the mahapanchayat members and police are also accessing footage based on which the four men from Tigra village were arrested, Yadav said.

Bhupinder Singh, deputy commissioner of police (west), who attended the meeting at the mini secretariat, said that they have already formed teams who are conducting a fair investigation. Police have not picked anyone randomly, the probe involves a lot of factors such as footage, call detail records, locations and statements of people who either saw them or were identified on social media. A thorough investigation will be carried out. We have arrested the four men on the basis of evidence, he said.

Hundreds of people from villages in and around Gurugram gathered on Sunday in violation of prohibitory orders in Sector 57  where a mosque was attacked and a deputy imam murdered during the communal violence last week  and called for an economic and social boycott of Muslims. The members had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the police to release the men who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the desecration of the mosque. Furthermore, the mahapanchayat also called for the removal of the mosque by citing its location in a predominantly Hindu area.

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BJP leader Mahesh Baghel regained consciousness even as doctors in Agra told family members that nothing more could be done to bring him back to life. Baghel, who earlier showed no sign of life, regained consciousness when his family was preparing for his last rites. UP BJP leader Mahesh Baghel revived at his home in Agra after his family members thought he was dead. (Twitter)

The brother of the former BJP district head said doctors of a local hospital, where Baghel was admitted, had told family members that not much could be done and it was better to take him home. The family members followed doctors' instructions and thought he was dead as he showed no signs of life.

Family members prepared for last rites but some movement was seen in his body and thus he was admitted to another hospital where he remains in serious condition, the brother said.

He is said to be diagnosed with a chest infection and receiving treatment for the same. After Baghel's remarkable reviving back to life incident, many local BJP leaders gathered at the hospital and prayed for his good health.

Mumbai man found alive in mortuary

In a similar case, a 50-year-old homeless man regained consciousness just before post-mortem at a Mumbai hospital back in 2015. The man, identified as Prakash, was brought to the hospital by policemen who insisted he was dead. He was sent to the mortuary for an autopsy. An attendant at the mortuary realised the man was alive after he detected some movement. The man died two days later at the same hospital.

Lazarus effect

The Lazarus effect or autoresuscitation could be behind such cases of reviving back to life. According to Discover Magazine, it happens when a patient usually regains blood flow within 10 minutes of CPR, though there are some cases where patients awake hours later.
Praveen Patel, 27, has made more than 10,000 paintings in the past eight years, 3000 of which display the culture and heritage of Varanasis famous Ghats. Praveen Patel at work on Varanasi ghat (sourced)

Through the ages, culture and spiritual excellence of Kashi has been interpreted differently by various writers and painters. Books have been written on this aspect and paintings drawn on this, said Patel while speaking to HT on Monday.

Patel is in Lucknow at present for an art exhibition Avimukta that was inaugurated at a city hotel on Monday. The exhibition is supported by Neha Singh of Lucknow Public School group. It will continue till the Independence Day, August 15.

My work captures how Kashis Ghats depict a global culture, drawing people from all parts of the globe to these majestic ghats, he said.

These people, both global and local, who arrive at these ghats pray in different ways. Some are in search of moksha (salvation), some seek solace, eternal peace while many are drawn to experience pleasures. All through these famed Ghats maintain a fine balance between the physical and spiritual. I have attempted to display the same through my paintings, he said.

May be thats why foreigners purchase my paintings, he added.

When I came to Varanasi from Bihars Bhabhua district, I only had the blessings of my farmer father and mother. They allowed me to study fine arts because I was very good at it, he said.

Patel said, he completed his MFA from BHU and then opened his studio near the Hyderabad Gate. I started making paintings when I was a student. When I started teaching those paintings to students who were preparing for admission to fine arts courses, I realised how important it is to capture the spirit of a city. I decided to reveal hidden secrets of Varanasi Ghats through my paintings, he said.

He said his paintings capture the changing moods of ghats as they change through the day as per the weather, he said.

My paintings also portray the excellence of Kashi culture which welcomes everyone with open arms. That is why though I was born in Bihar, Varanasi runs in my blood, he said.

This is why I will never leave Varanasi not because it is the cultural capital of India but because of its unique culture which makes everyone its own. All of Varanasi Ghats have a story which I have displayed through my paintings, he said.

I hope my exhibition helps satisfy the thirst of art and culture enthusiasts who want to learn about various aspects of Varanasi, he said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anupam Srivastava Anupam Srivastava is a Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times, Lucknow. Has produced exclusive stories in medical, civil aviation, civic, political and other issues for over 20 years. ...view detail
The OPD services at Mohanlalganj community health centre (CHC) remained suspended for about three-hours on Monday due to protest by ASHA workers. Asha workers protesting outside Mohanlalganj CHC, OPD remained closed (Sourced picture)

ASHA workers reached CHC at around 7 am and did not allow the locks of doctors chambers to be opened. They were irked with delay in action against a doctor who allegedly slapped an ASHA on August 4.

The incident, against which ASHA workers had lodged a complaint was related to ultrasound of a woman patient. The ASHA said in her complaint that the doctor demanded money for ultrasound and its report, which the patient denied. Following exchange of heated words, the doctor allegedly slapped the ASHA after which a complaint was lodged. Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak ordered chief medical officer of Lucknow Dr Manoj Agrawal to conduct probe.

On Monday, ASHAs reached the CHC and sat before the channel gate of the OPD section of the CHC. They raised slogans demanding swift action in the case.

If an ASHA is not safe inside a health facility, how can we expect safety of pregnant women we bring for medical consultation and diagnosis. Most of them are from village and come solely dependent upon us, said Asha Sharma, an ASHA attached to the Mohanlalganj CHC.

The OPD services could resume only at 10.30 am after police and administrative officials assured of action by August 10.

The details of complaint, evidence from the CHC campus and primary report has been sent to state administration that will now decide upon action against the guilty, said Dr Ashok in charge superintendent of the CHC.

We will wait till August 10, and if nothing happens, we will go to chief minister for help, said Asha Sharma.

The average OPD footfall is over 150 a day at the CHC.

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The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Monday created noisy scenes in the Vidhan Parishad, demanding the chair to accept its censure motion on the Manipur violence. Chairman Kunwar Manvendra Singh rejected the demand saying rules did not permit discussion in the house here on a matter related to any other state. Led by party president Akhilesh Yadav, SP members arrive in the Vidhan Bhawan on the first day of the monsoon session of the state legislature in Lucknow on August 7. (Deepak Gupta/HT)

The agitated members continued to disrupt proceedings for two hours till the house was adjourned till the next day even as the chairman disposed of business of the day after the question hour amid the uproar.

As soon as the house opened to the question hour at 11 in the morning, SP members trooped into the well with placards in hands, insisting on moving the censure motion on the issue of atrocities against women in the north-east state of Manipur.

They displayed placards with slogans written in Hindi, like The censure motion be accepted and We will save daughters, will make the I.N.D.I.A win.

The chairman adjourned the house for half-an-hour after his repeated pleas to the SP members for allowing the question hour to run did not work. But the SP members again trooped in the well and shouted slogans aloud immediately after the house reassembled. The house was adjourned again only to witness the same scenes later.

The chairman finally adjourned the house till the next day when the SP members did not relent even as also disposed some business quickly amid the continuing noise.

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The University of Lucknow, synonymous with student unrest till a decade back, is fast refurbishing its image. If this years number of applications of foreign students is anything to go by then things are looking rosy for the century-old university. Foreign students completing admission formalities on the university campus on Monday (HT Photo)

Prior to the pandemic (session 2019-20), the university had received only 53 applications from foreign students. This year, the university has received applications from 1,465 foreign students from 76 countries against last years 826 forms from 52 countries.

After the pandemic, the scenario changed. Students have come forward from countries like the USA, Ukraine, Mexico, Bhutan, Palestine, Togo, Albania, Somalia, Senegal, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Turkmenistan, Jordon, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and others to study at LU.

With prospects of a brighter future, foreign students have started coming to Lucknow University to pursue various courses ranging from undergraduate to PhD.

Legiena Nangolo, who came from Namibia to study B Sc, said, For the short time that I have been here, I love India and I love the way they welcomed us and Im hoping for the best throughout my studies. Heard a lot about this university and decided to study here.

Fanuel Ndashaaloko, also from Namibia, who has enrolled in B Com, said, There is no other feeling than studying in the country of my dreams, India. I honestly felt more positive to be admitted to Lucknow University. The beautiful university is full of kind people. I cant wait to begin my first year. I deeply appreciate the professor who makes it possible for my dream.

Ritika Chaurasiya from Birgunj, Nepal, is here to pursue MBA from LU. MBA is a valued course at LU and it will help shape my career, said Ritika, who graduated from Birganj, Nepal. She loved the clean green campus.

Petrus Petrus, from Namibia, who enrolled in B Com, said, As an international student, the University of Lucknow gave me a great opportunity, with a strong commitment to academic excellence, and a warm welcome from local students. Good communication all over. I expect to be equipped with skills and expertise from the university. I feel honoured to pursue my future career at this top institution.

Andualem Gezahegn, who came from Ethiopia, said, I have got admission in PhD in management at University of Lucknow under ICCR African scholarship scheme. The good thing here is people are highly friendly and supportive. I am happy to be a member of Lucknow University hoping that I will have a lovely academic time.

Naemi Nghipandwa of Namibia, enrolled in the B Sc course, said that foreign students from the country are happy to be here at LU. Amalia Ekandjo from Namibia) enrolled in B Com said, Its a pleasure to be here in Lucknow University. Im hoping for the best in my studies.

Amena - Omwene V Petrus from Namibia who wants to pursue M Ed said, I have come from a country on the southwestern coast of Africa (Namibia). India is an absolutely beautiful country with amazing, welcoming, and loving people. I have made friends with people from all walks of life and am glad they are kind and that made me love the city even more. Only the weather is so hot and humid. I cant wait to begin classes.

The diverse group of students are going through the admission process which will continue until the end of this month.

Prof RP Singh, director of International Collaboration and Student Affairs, said, We are committed to providing them with a world-class educational experience that nurtures cultural diversity and fosters global connections.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has called upon the opposition parties for a healthy debate on public issues during the monsoon session of the state legislative assembly that got underway on Monday. The state government is ready to answer the questions raised by the members on the floor of the House, he said. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath at the Vidhan Sabha on the opening day of monsoon session of the legislative assembly in Lucknow on August 7. (Deepak Gupta/HT photo)

Addressing a press conference in Vidhan Bhawan before the start of the monsoon session, the CM said, The government is fully prepared for a healthy discussion in the House for the overall development of Uttar Pradesh and to solve public issues.

An all-party meeting was held on Sunday to discuss meaningful engagement with the opposition parties on issues of development of the state and welfare of the people during the monsoon session. The state government is also ready to welcome suggestions from all parties to deal with problems like floods and drought, Yogi added.

The House is an important platform to raise the issues of the general public as well as to attract the attention of the government towards it, the CM said. Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state has scaled new heights of development in the last six years, he added.

Yogi further said the perception about Uttar Pradesh had changed. He added said that the youth and other citizens no longer faced any identity crisis in the state which they did in the past due to the ill-conceived politics of the opposition parties.

The state government has been successful in doubling the states economy as well as the per capita income of the state in the last six years, the CM said.

U.P. has emerged from the category of Bimaru state and is advancing forward to become the leading economy of the country. The double-engine government is working with full commitment towards the 25 crore people of the state and is moving forward, Yogi added.

At present, Uttar Pradesh is facing floods in western parts while there are 40 districts where the problem of drought is a big challenge. We are ready to discuss this important issue in the House with the permission of the Speaker and the consent of the members of the opposition, he said.

I have full faith that all the members will make the House a centre of healthy discussion keeping in mind the sentiments of the general public. In addition, work will be done to strengthen the legislature through a meaningful discussion, the CM said.

On the first day of the proceedings of the legislature, the CM welcomed all the members and expressed his belief that according to the sentiments of the general public, the members will present their views effectively on the floor of the House. The state government is ready to cooperate and answer every question, he added.

Deputy chief ministers Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya as well as parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna were present on the occasion.

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Gaborone, Botswana  Botswana's parliament on Tuesday abandoned debate on a bill that if passed would decriminalize same-sex relations. In 2019, Botswana's High Court and Court of Appeal ruled that laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relations were unconstitutional. But religious groups protested the attempt to amend the country's laws.

Minister of Justice Machana Shamukuni told parliament Tuesday that public concerns over introduction of the bill have necessitated further consultation on the matter.

"I therefore seek to satisfy myself that the views and concerns of all stakeholders pertaining to the interpretation of the constitution are considered and that the provisions of the revision of law act have been thoroughly interrogated and made clear," said Shamukuni.

He said as a result the bill will be removed from pending debate in parliament but could be brought back at a later stage. However, this is not expected during the current sitting of the National Assembly, which concludes at the end of August.

"Mr. Speaker, it is on the basis of the above, that I beg to defer the Penal Code Amendment Bill 29 of 2022 to allow for intensive interrogation of the consultation issues raised with my ministry regarding the Bill," said Shamukuni.

A coalition of mostly Christian churches under the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, or EFB, recently staged protests over any attempt to decriminalize homosexuality in the southern African nation. EFB chairman Pulafela Siele led a recent march to the parliament building. He said the church wants a referendum on the matter.

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"EFB will continue monitoring and the whole church at large, developments on the proposed bill and shall deploy appropriate measures to preserve society against any anti-social behavior and practices," said Siele.

The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS, known as BONELA, was part of the 2019 court case in support of the LGBTQ community.

Cindy Kelemi is BONELA's executive director and said the matter should not be debated in parliament.

"We reiterate that this approach was not necessary. It was going to plunge our country into a constitutional crisis. As far as we are concerned, once the highest court in the land, the Court of Appeal, has issued a judgment, all that is left is for all people and all institutions to comply with such a law. We did not understand why Parliament would want to open a discussion on a matter that has been decided by our courts," said Kelemi.

With the Court of Appeal reaffirming the lower court's ruling in 2021, Botswana became one of few African countries to legally allow same-sex relations.

Several other countries -- most prominently Uganda -- have instead passed stiffer legislation against homosexuality.
LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday ordered that new state guest houses be set up in Bengaluru, Delhi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath issued a directive in this regard while reviewing the functioning of the estate department. (File Photo)

He issued a directive in this regard while reviewing the functioning of the estate department. Land for the new state guest house should be identified in Bengaluru, Adityanath said and added that guest houses in Prayagraj and Ayodhya were required for state guests.

The state government expects tourist footfalls and VIP visits to grow in Ayodhya and Prayagraj.

Despite the availability of UP Bhawan and UP Sadan in Delhi as well as the newly dedicated guest house Indraprastha in Dwarka, there is need for a new guest house there, Adityanath added. He pointed out that suitable land is available for this in Sector 148 of Gautam Buddh Nagar. He also asked officials to expedite completion of the under-construction Gomti, the special guest house at Lucknows Vikramaditya Marg.

While reviewing the arrangement of MLAs residences and guest houses, the CM laid special emphasis on facilities and security at these places. He also said that visitors coming to state governments guest houses in various states, including UP, should have a pleasant experience - right from hospitality to food and room service.

Necessary arrangements should be made while ensuring security of buildings, including CCTV cams and fire safety, the CM was quoted as saying in a media handout. He also directed officials to ensure availability of standard residential facilities in every MLA residence.

Emphasising on high-level services in guest houses, the CM advised officials to consult experts in this regard. He said through outsourcing, qualified and skilled youth in the hospitality sector should be deployed in guest houses.

He also instructed officials regarding deployment of regular employees in guest houses on the basis of their qualification and efficiency. Regarding transfers, the CM directed officials to follow the policy of the department concerned.

Adityanath gave instructions for police verification of personnel providing services through outsourcing and stressed on the arrangement of hospitality for governors, judges, foreign guests and other special guests, according to the protocol.

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Mumbai: An adrift Yemeni fishing vessel was found 160 km away from the Maharashtra coast on August 5. The unmanned vessel caused a scare, but after verification with the Yemeni Coast Guard and the master of the vessel, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) learnt that the vessel had lost its power. An investigation by the ICG ship revealed that the fishing vessel was found with ropes and fishing nets and was adrift at Sea for a longer duration due to rough weather. (HT Photo)

An ICG officer said that they were tipped off about the unmanned adrift fishing boat by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), who were informed about it by an official of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission.

An investigation by the ICG ship revealed that the fishing vessel was found with ropes and fishing nets and was adrift at Sea for a longer duration due to rough weather. The vessel, which appeared to be the Yemeni vessel Al Azher-1, was thoroughly searched for any suspicious activity.

Further investigations were carried out by the regional headquarters of Mumbai with Yemen authorities and the owner of the fishing boat. The documents of the vessel were verified by Yemen authorities. The credentials of the boat were established as bonafide, and there is no security angle involved, said a coast guard officer.

Authorities in Yemen and the owner of the boat confirmed that the boat Al Azher-1 was on passage from Socotra Port to Al Shihir Port in Yemen and suffered propulsion failure off Socotra. Five crew onboard were rescued by another fishing boat on June 30.

As per the southwest monsoon current and drift, the boat drifted to the Arabian Sea and was detected by ICG. The vessel is partially sunk and heavily listed to port due to the ingress of water and limited fuel. The vessel is adrift and the likelihood of the vessel running aground off North Maharashtra due to prevalent drift by Tuesday on the coast cannot be ruled out. There appears to be no pollution threat by the fishing boat. All stakeholders have been intimated of the findings, said the officer.

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Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) members reciting Hanuman Chalisa on Monday staged a protest outside Ghaziabads Nandgram police station demanding the release of a person held for allegedly putting up banners and posters calling for a boycott of Muslim traders late on Sunday. Hindu groups staged a protest outside a police station demanding the release of the man arrested. (HT Photo)

Police said that banners and posters put up in Nandgram locality and near a farmhouse were removed and that two cases were filed under Indian Penal Codes Sections 147 (rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race), 295 (damage or defilement of a place of worship or an object held sacred with intent to insult religion) and 298 (words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings).

We filed the cases after the posters and banners were put up at several places and also spread on social media. These have been removed for maintaining law and order. We have detained one person [Sagar Chauhan] for questioning. Our teams are active in the area and keeping a close watch. We will not allow any deterioration of law and order, said deputy police commissioner (city) Nipun Agarwal

Bajrang Dals Ghaziabad convener Neeraj Bajrangi said the protest was held against Chauhans detention. He claimed Chauhan was forcibly taken away from his house late Sunday night. Police also misbehaved with women of his family. We demand his immediate release and action against police officers who misbehaved. He added the posters and banners did not mention any specific community.

Agarwal denied Bajrangis allegations.

VHP Ghaziabad president Alok Garg said they told police that they should find the people who have put up the banners and posters. The banners mention no names...[Chauhan] should be let off and they should scrap the non-bailable and stringent sections involved against him.

On August 2, VHP and Bajrang Dal took out marches in Ghaziabad following the communal violence in Haryana.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)s Gujarat unit chief Isudan Gadhvi on Monday said that his party and the Congress will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state together under the Oppositions newly forged Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Aam Aadmi Party Gujarat unit chief Isudan Gadhvi. (File Photo)

Speaking to reporters, Gadhvi said that discussions on seat-sharing are still in preliminary stages and the AAPs Gujarat unit has already initiated research to identify potential constituencies for fielding candidates.

If everything goes as planned, I guarantee that the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will not be able to win all 26 seats in Gujarat this time, said the journalist-turned politician, who was the AAPs chief ministerial face in the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections.

However, responding to Gadhvis statement, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, It is for the national leaders at the INDIA alliance to decide on the seat-sharing strategy for the state and it is not in the hands of the local leadership.

The BJP, on the other hand, labelled the AAP as the B team of the Congress and said the party remains undaunted by the Opposition alliances potential impact on their electoral prospects.

Gujarat BJP spokesperson Rutvij Patel said, The central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not scared of any such alliance. We are confident of winning the polls.

He said their party has a track record of winning all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat for the last two terms and their aim is to secure victory with a margin of 5 lakh votes this time, expressing confidence in the Central governments performance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress and the AAP contested separately in the 2022 Gujarat elections and won 17 and five seats, respectively. Both the parties had contested against each other in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after disagreements over seat sharing in Delhi and Punjab.

The third meeting of the 26-party INDIA alliance will be held in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1, where it is expected to form a coordination committee. .
GORAKHPUR Police personnel stationed at 26 police stations near the Indo-Nepal border in six districts, including four in eastern Uttar Pradesh, will undergo transfers every six months. Officials have said that 26 police stations across four districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh will fall under the purview of this new system. (HT Photo)

This new system was introduced by ADG Zone Akhil Kumar on Monday, aiming to prevent any potential relationship between personnel and smugglers or anti-social elements active in the border regions.

ADG Zone Akhil Kumar confirmed that a letter to this effect has been sent to the Superintendents of Police in the four districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh that border Nepal.

Officials have said that 26 police stations across four districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh will fall under the purview of this new system. Elaborating on the police stations and the corresponding districts in the Gorakhpur Zone, they mentioned that seven police stations in Maharajganj district, including Nichloal, Thuthibari, Newtown, Sunauli, Kulhi, Persamalik, and Bargadva; five police stations in Siddharthnagar district, including Mohna, Kapil Vastu, Lotan, Shohrat Garh, and Deburahuva; five police stations in Bahraich, including Rupaidiha, Sujouli, Nawabganj, Motipur, and Murtihani; and seven police stations in Balrampur District, including Jarwa, Tulsipur, Gainsari, Pachperwa, Hariya, Malhipur, and Sirsiya, will come under the new system.

Officials have suggested that after the confession of Pakistani woman Seema Haider, who entered India through the Khunkhiva Border in Sidharthnagar district, and the apprehension of several other foreigners attempting to enter India through the open Indo-Nepal Border, the secretary in the ministry of home affairs stressed the need for a joint operation involving SSB Jawans and civil police to prevent such incidents.

Although officials are yet to confirm it, sources suggest that an inquiry has been initiated against SSB Jawans deployed on duty at the Khukhiva Border between May 12th and 15th for alleged dereliction of duty, which facilitated Seema Haiders entry into India on May 13th, along with her four children.

Shakti Singh, an SSB officer deployed at the border, indicated that a high-level inquiry has been initiated after a recent visit by SSB commanding officer RK Dongra.

Meanwhile, security measures at the open border have been further tightened. Metal detectors and CCTV cameras have been installed, and thorough checking of identification papers for every person crossing the border is being conducted.

SP Siddharthnagar, Amit Kumar, said that both police personnel and SSB jawans are on high alert, maintaining close surveillance in the border areas.
The Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) has given an ultimatum to the government to boycott outdoor patient department (OPD) duty on August 18 and 19, while asking doctors to wear black badge to work on August 16 and 17, if the state health department did not heed its seven-point charter of demands by August 12, said its president Dr Mahesh Prasad Singh, after its core committee meeting in Patna on Sunday. Patients outside OPD counters at Patna Medical College and Hospital. The Bihar Health Services Association has given an ultimatum to the government to boycott OPD duty on August 18 and 19 if the state health department did not heed its seven-point charter of demands by August 12. (HT Archives)

BHSA comprises around 6,000 government doctors from the primary health centres (PHC) to district hospitals (DH) across the state.

Our demands include ensuring adequate security to doctors by raising a dedicated health police force, not taking disciplinary action against 12 doctors, prematurely sent off from a training in Gaya, not to force biometric attendance on government doctors till the government stipulates their duration of work and makes arrangement for residential facilities, reservation of 30 per cent seats for in-service doctors in post graduate and DNB (diplomate national board) exams, choice or home-posting, as also same location posting of doctor couples, besides ensuring regular promotion and implementation of dynamic assured career progression (DACP), said Dr Singh.

Insiders, however, said what triggered the emergent core committee meeting on Sunday was the Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD), a government institute of training and research, writing to the additional chief secretary, health, for taking action against 12 doctors, who were packed off from a recent training after they allegedly committed ruckus and misbehaved with officials at the training centre.

The six-day training of the seventh batch of government doctors between July 31 and August 5 in Gaya was mired in controversy after doctors alleged poor facilities at the centre.

Two doctors were asked to accommodate on a single bed in a single occupancy room. When incidents of fungal infection, scabies and eye flu is high, we requested the authorities to at least provide us two separate beds in single-seater rooms. We were not even given packaged drinking water. Besides, the quality of food, hygiene and sanitation at the hostel was poor, said Dr Rupesh Kumar, deputy superintendent of sub-divisional hospital, Madhepura, who was among the 12 doctors relieved from the training on the first day itself.

Another affected doctor, Kumar Saurabh, medical officer at a PHC in Madhepura district said, The trainees were also made to sign a 15-20 point bond, which among others mentioned that BIPARD will not be responsible for any injury or death of the participants.

Dr Shahid Raza Ansari, medical officer, Kishanganj, was suffering from eye flu, but still not allotted a single room, he added.

BHSA additional secretary Dr Hasrat Abbas and its spokesperson Dr Vinay Kumar requested the government to consider the doctors demands sympathetically and also urged the health department to not send any more batches of doctors for training to BIPARD till it improved the conditions.

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PATNA: Lok Sabha member from Jamui, Chirag Paswan, who heads Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) faction of the party founded by his father, on Monday said his party will field candidates from six parliamentaary seats in Bihar next year and that his mother Reena Paswan should contest as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat. Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan speaks to the media at Parliament House during the Monsoon Session, in New Delhi on July 31 (ANI FILE)

Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, the pocket borough of the family, was represented by his father Ram Vilas Paswan nine times. Chiraj Paswans estranged uncle and union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, fought from the seat in the 2019 elections and won. The LJP split after Ram Vilas Paswan death in 2020; Paras heads the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party.

Chirag Paswan told reporters on Monday that his mother had the first claim to contest from Hajipur.

As the sitting MP, it is natural for him (Paras) to stake claim to the seat. But for us, Hajipur has an emotional pull. I consider the land as my mother. In the absence of my father, it is natural for me that I take care of the constituency the way my late father did in his life time A final decision is yet to be taken within the alliance (NDA) on seat sharing and candidature. But I want my mother (Reena Paswan) to contest from there (Hajipur). After my father, she has the first claim on that seat, he said.

The two LJP factions are part of the NDA. In 2019, the united LJP won six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar as an NDA constituent.

Pashupati Kumar Paras has often claimed that he contested from Hajipur at the insistence of his elder brother Ramvilas Paswan, who said he, and not Chirag Paswan, was his political heir.

On Sunday, Chirag Paswan told a gathering in Jamui that he will not back down. I came here as a youngster and will be here till I grow old, said the younger Paswan, who first won the seat in 2014.

Bihar BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel said the issue will be sorted out. NDA is united and any issue within the alliance will be sorted. As far as LJP is concerned , it is their internal issue and we are confident they will also resolve the issue before elections.

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The Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS), one of the centres of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has got the nod to begin the phase II clinical drug trial of a new kala-azar drug, code named LXE408, officials said on Sunday. Muzaffarpur and Patna are the two locations in India where the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a Geneva-based organisation, has chosen to conduct the phase II trials for new kala-azar drug. (Bloomberg)

RMRIMS will join the Kala-Azar Medical Research Centre (KAMRC), a charitable trust in Bihars Muzaffarpur district, where the trial was initiated last August, said Dr Krishna Pandey, director of ICMR-RMRI centre at Agamkuan in Patna.

Dr Shyam Sundar, retired professor and head, department of medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, heads KAMRC.

Muzaffarpur and Patna are the two locations in India where the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a Geneva-based organisation, has chosen to conduct the phase II trials. Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company, is collaborating with DNDi in this.

Phase I trial on healthy volunteers was done in the US.

DNDi completed its three-day site initiation visit of our centre on August 5. Depending on the availability of patients, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria fixed by the Drug Controller General of India, and their consent, we will begin the phase II trials shortly after finalisation of the randomisation list of patients, said Dr Pandey, also the principal investigator of the trial.

The sample size of around 100 patients in the phase II trial is to ascertain the appropriate dosage of the drug under investigation.

In this study, one set of adult kala-azar patients will be administered a seven-day course and another set a 14-day course of LXE408, and compared with single-dose AmBisome injection, the current first-line treatment of kala-azar in India, said Dr Pandey.

The phase III trial to check the efficacy and toxicity of the drug will begin after completion of phase II trial in one more year. Thereafter, the final phase IV trial, which is post-marketing surveillance, will begin on a larger target group of 500-plus patients, he added.

LXE408 is a tablet, believed to have better patient compliance due to a shorter regimen than the only available oral drug, Miltefosine, which is currently not being recommended as monotherapy. It is expected to change the way patients are now treated through injectables.

Kala-azar is a disease caused by an infection with protozoan parasite that enters the body through the bite of an infected female sand fly, called balu makhi in local parlance.

Bihar is among the four kala-azar endemic states along with Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. With an average prevalence rate of 0.5 cases per 10,000 population, the Centre has set a target to eliminate kala-azar by 2024. The criteria is to sustain a prevalence rate of up to 1 case per 10,000 population for three years.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ruchir Kumar Ruchir writes on health, aviation, power and myriad other issues. An ex-TOI, he has worked both on Desk and in reporting. He over 25 years of broadcast and print journalism experience in Assam, Jharkhand & Bihar. ...view detail
PUNE Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis urged all the political leaders in Pune district to keep aside their personal agendas and support the Puradar airport project. Central government has given all the required permissions for the Purandar airport, Dy CM Fadnavis said. (HT PHOTO)

Fadnavis was speaking during an event Shasan Aplya Dari (government at your doorstep scheme) at Jejuri on Monday, where Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and MLAs from the Pune district were present.

Fadnavis said, There is an urgent need for another airport for Pune district. If the Purandar airport will start, it will become an export hub for agriculture and industry.

Central government has given all the required permissions for the Purandar airport. Despite having all the permissions, the work is pending, he said.

During the event, Pawar raised the issue of water problem in rural Pune. In Pune district, especially rural areas many face inconvenience due to irregular water supply, said Pawar.

We plan to do hundred per cent treatment on sewage water generated in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations. In the next three years, we will be able to implement this project. This will be additional water for Pune, Fadnavis said.

Meanwhile, Shinde did the groundbreaking for the 109 crore works for Jejuri pilgrimage development.
The Hadapsar police on Monday evening arrested Shailaja Darade, former deputy commissioner and commissioner in-charge, Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC), in connection with a bribery case. The Hadapsar police on Monday evening arrested Shailaja Darade, former deputy commissioner and commissioner in-charge, Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC), in connection with a bribery case (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

On February 22, 2023, an FIR was filed at Hadapsar police station against Darade and her brother Dadasaheb Darade following a complaint filed by Popat Sukhdev Suryavanshi (50) of Khanjonwadi in Atpadi tehsil of Sangli district.

Chetan Thorbole, assistant inspector, Hadapsar police station, said, As per the complaint filed by Suryavanshi, we had registered an FIR and initiated investigation. We arrested Shailaja at around 4 pm on Monday and will produce her in court on Tuesday.

Thorbole said that the police probe found that Shailaja had taken bribe from 44 people of 4.85 crore by promising them jobs as school teachers in the education department.

Suryavanshi while working as a teacher had met Shailaja who was an administrative officer in the education department in 2019 to get a teachers job for his relatives Pooja Popat Yadav and Nita Pandurang Randive.

The complainant alleged that Shailaja had demanded 12.15 lakh for each job appointment.

On June 15, 2019, the complainant handed over 27 lakh to Shailaja at Hadapsar on the Pune-Solapur highway. However, Shailaja failed to facilitate job or return the money, forcing Suryavanshi to approach the police.

A case was registered at Hadapsar police station under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.

MSEC conducts school scholarship examinations in the state.

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analysis

Johannesburg  China's People's 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 China's support for the guerilla movement -- now the ruling party -- that fought for the country's 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 Zimbabwe's 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," Zimbabwe's 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.

"You're 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, Zimbabwe's 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 Africa's 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 China's 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.

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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.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated process to take over the investigation in the alleged terror plot case currently probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), said officials. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated process to take over the investigation in the alleged terror plot case (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The ATS officials on Monday confirmed that the process to take over the Pune case originally registered at Kothrud police station by the NIA has been initiated and soon all five accused  Mohammad Imran Mohammad Yunus Khan and Mohammad Yunus Mohammad Yakub Saki hailing from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh (MP), Kadir Dastagir Pathan arrested from Gondia, SN Kazi held from Ratnagiri, and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala  will be handed over to central agency.

A senior Maharashtra ATS officer said, Notification related to the case was issued by the government last week and, accordingly, on Monday the NIA officials approached the court in Pune to initiate the process. After the requisite procedure, we will hand over all accused in the case to the NIA.

The ATS had previously claimed that of the five suspects it has arrested so far, two were planning to carry out terror activities in different parts of the country.

Khan and Saki were arrested during routine patrolling from Kothrud area in Pune while both were trying to steal a bike on July 18. Their accomplice identified as Mohammed Shahnawaz Shafiurrehman Alam fled when the police reached their flat in Kondhwa for house search.

The case was transferred to the ATS on July 24 after being found that both the accused were wanted by the NIA in a Rajasthan terror module case while investigation.

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Satyaki Savarkar, grandnephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, on Saturday, has filed an application before the sessions court demanding transfer of defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to the competent court. Satyaki moved an application through his lawyer Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Satyaki had filed a criminal defamation application against Gandhi before the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class for allegedly making defamatory claims about Savarkar during an event in London.

Satyaki moved an application through his lawyer Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar where he submitted that There is strong apprehension lurking in the mind of applicant that fair and reasonable justice will not be served. Hence applicant amongst other grounds mentioned hereinafter seeking relief of transferring the said proceeding to another competent court.

Savarkar has listed the grounds for the transfer of proceeding which includes that he is under strong apprehension that the justice will not be served by learned presiding officer, that if the date sheet if perused, it is clear in the minds of applicant that the learned JMFC court was strictly not adhering to the provisions laid down in Criminal Procedure Code while entertaining the complaint.

The petition further added, That learned JMFC directing applicant to argue his entitlement for examination u/s 200 of CrPC and directing to brought all evidences on record is nothing but abuse of process and the act of Ld. JMFC is unwarranted as CrPC does not dictate to produce all evidences at the time of filing of complaint and at initial stage but instead to look into the complaint as to whether prima facie cause is made out or not.

Kolhatkar said, The matter is before the district judge and it was listed for hearing today. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the case will be taken up tomorrow (Tuesday).

The substance for filing complaint is already on record in the said proceedings still Ld. JMFC is directing to argue on the point of whether statement u/s 200 of CrPC is to be recorded or not which is clearly contrary to the provisions of CrPC. Also, conclusion can be drawn that Ld. JMFC is trying to evaluate the entire evidence at very initial stage that whether the said evidence will lead to conviction of accused or not and same is not applicable as per CrPC as evaluation of evidence has to be done at the stage of trial.. That if the request of transfer of the said proceedings from existing Ld. JMFC code will be allowed, then no prejudice or injustice will be caused to either party.., the petition added.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhis travails with a criminal defamation case, which finally ended last week when the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, has a larger takeaway that affects the public, but has little to do with his imminent return to Parliament after 134 days. It is about the outdated provisions of the criminal defamation statute, which was first instituted by the British in 1860, with the express aim of protecting the interests of the colonial government, and thwarting any push towards free public debate using the miasma of public order and State security. Defined by sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code that spell out a punishment of a maximum of two years in prison and a fine, criminal defamation is often seen as an anachronistic and disproportionate remedy against what is essentially a speech offence, and for which a civil recourse already exists. Despite many modern democracies having done away with the statute  including, for most cases, in the United Kingdom  criminal defamation has resisted legal challenges in India . In 2016, the top court dismissed a batch of petitions from politicians and activists who argued that the colonial provision undermined free speech, and held that a persons right to personal reputation was part of the fundamental right to life. PREMIUM There are two main points to note. One, the offence is broadly drafted  a feature that helped the British government throw Indian freedom fighters in jail on vague charges  and hence proceedings can be easily instituted. (Stock)

There are two main points to note. One, the offence is broadly drafted  a feature that helped the British government throw Indian freedom fighters in jail on vague charges  and hence proceedings can be easily instituted. Despite the apex court asking magistrates to be more discerning while adjudicating such cases and ensuring that generic statements are not prosecuted against, in practice, the process becomes the punishment. Moreover, as long as the provision stays on the books, it has a chilling effect on free speech.

The second aspect deals with the peculiar nature of the offence that is essentially a private remedy (which means that only another individual or group can bring the charge of criminal defamation against someone, not the State). Yet, the question of who can file a criminal defamation complaint is often left open  allowing a large and indeterminate class of people to initiate proceedings. Even if such cases are later dismissed, the damage is done. If one of the most high-profile politicians in the country and a leader of the countrys largest Opposition party had to come to the highest court of the land for relief, imagine what a common person has to go through. Civil defamation might be a valuable check to safeguard reputations, but the criminal provision is an unwieldy sledgehammer. It warrants a relook.
Bihar Public Service Commission will release the admit card for the BPSC Teacher Recruitment examination 2023 on August 10. Candidates will be able to download the admit card from the official website at www.bpsc.bih.nic.in. BPSC Teacher Recruitment 2023 admit card to be released on August 10; Know how to download(Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

The BPSC School Teacher Recruitment 2023 examination will be conducted from August 24 to August 26. The examination will be conducted in two shifts from 10 am to 12 pm and from 3: 30 pm to 5: 30 pm.

The recruitment drive is being conducted to fill up 1,70,461 Teacher positions. The detailed information regarding the examination centre will be available from August 21. From August 10 to August 20 candidates will be able to download the hall tickets.

BPSC Teachers Recruitment 2023: Know how to download admit card

Visit the official website of BPSC at onlinebpsc.bihar.gov.in

On the homepage, click on the admit card link

Key in your login details

Your admit card will be displayed on the screen

Download and take the print out for future reference.

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Kerala Law Entrance Examination (KLEE) 2023 preliminary answer key was made available by the Commissioner for Entrance Examination (CEE), Kerala today, August 7. The KLEE answer key 2023 is available on the official website, cee.kerala.gov.in, for candidates who took the entrance exam. Kerala KLEE 2023 answer key for 5-year LLB out at cee.kerala.gov.in

KLEE 2023 was conducted on August 6 for admission to the five-year integrated LLB programs that the state's law universities offer.

The Answer Key of the Entrance Examinations for Admission to Integrated Five Year LLB 2023-24 held on 06.08.2023 (Sunday) at various centres across Kerala has been published on the website www.cee.kerala.gov.in, reads the official notification.

Candidates can raise objections to the answer keys till August 11. Candidates have to pay 100 per question as an objection fee through a Demand Draft (DD) and submit supporting documents to the office commissioner of exams by post or physically.

KLEE 2023 answer key: Know how to check

Visit the official website of CEE at cee.kerala.gov.in

On the homepage, click on the Integrated Five Year LL.B 2023 - Candidate Portal

Next, click on the answer key tab

Log in with your credentials

KLEE 2023 answer key will be displayed

Check the answer keys and take the print for future reference.

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The online registration process for 3,578 Constable vacancies in Rajasthan Police begins today, August 7. Eligible and interested candidates can apply for this recruitment drive on the official website of Rajasthan Police, police.rajasthan.gov.in. Rajasthan Police Constable Recruitment: Apply for 3578 posts from today

The last date to apply is August 27. Candidates who successfully submit their forms on or before the last date can edit it between August 28 and 30.

The application fee is 600 for general, BC and OBC creamy layer and candidates outside Rajasthan.

For non-creamy layer BC, OBC, SC, ST, EWS candidates of Rajasthan, the fee is 400.

Candidates who have passed Class 12 or equivalent from a recognised school education board can apply for these vacancies.

For Rajasthan Police Telecom, candidates are required to pass Class 12 or equivalent in the Science stream, with Physics and Mathematics/ Computer as subjects.

In addition, candidates are required to meet other eligiblility conditions, including physical fitness. For more information on eligibility criteria and for district-wise vacancies, check the notification below.

Rajasthan Police Constable recruitment notification 2023.

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Alia Bhatt has come a full circle in her career. She made her debut with Karan Johar's 2012 campus caper Student of the Year. And now, she's delivered a hit with the director's romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. As a bonus, she's also making her international debut with Tom Harper's Heart of Stone, co-starring Gal Gadot. Alia Bhatt in Heart of Stone

(Also Read: Gal Gadot interview: Alia Bhatt is super ready to break into Hollywood)

From the trailer of the spy thriller, it looks like Alia is playing the villain. Her character Keya Dhawan is chasing the Heart, sort of a technological brahmastra (pardon the pun) that can make her control the world. In one, she's seen devilishly raising a toast to Gal's character in one shot, and in another shot, is pointing a gun at the camera. Interestingly, this is Alia's first turn as a baddie on screen.

Playing the villain

A lot of that (how to play the villain) comes with the writing ya. You just have to commit to the direction, whatever the direction is. But I think there's a lot of purpose and dedication in being the bad guy because to me, I'm not the bad guy. To me, I'm the right guy. Keya's passion, her requirement, need or want for the Heart has reason, it has purpose. And she believes in that. For her, she's not the bad guy. So you need to fully commit to that moment as an actor. I think it's about displaying both her sides with clarity and focus," Alia told Hindustan Times in an exclusive interview.

But Alia also added that playing Keya wasn't all work, and no play. Of course, there are those in-between moments where she's being sassy and a bit heavy-handed with the sarcasm, which is great. It's built into the writing. And it's a first for me. So I had a lot of fun really juicing those moments, Alia said.

Women backing women

Heart of Stone also has its moments of sisterhood. Alia's camaraderie with Gal off screen is also quite evident, as the Hollywood star has been rooting for Alia, who makes her inroads into a new market, like the Wonder Woman star once did. A crucial scene in the film has Gal saying she feels bad for men who would never have what she does: Someone watching your back.

Alia's maiden film as a producer, under her banner Eternal Sunshine Productions, was Darlings, another film that promoted sisterhood. Jasmeet K Reen's dark comedy on Netflix India, that released almost exactly a year ago, had Shefali Shah and Alia bond as mother and daughter as they're seen putting her wife-beating husband in his place.

But Alia insisted that as a producer, she would like to be a part of films that endorse not only sisterhood, but harmony of any kind across genders. Of course, I for one want to tell stories of women backing each other. But I also want to tell stories of men backing each other. I want to tell stories of people being there for each other. It should not be limited to one gender. It should just be different people, their personal journeys and their coming together. We want to tell a truly equal-footing kind of cinema. So I don't think it should be skewed to one side in particular, Alia said.

However, she's all for showing women characters in fresh light. Alia explained, "I definitely feel there's merit in showing women in unexpected shades. It's way more entertaining to see two women fight and outsmart each other. Of course, those dynamics are way more interesting than to see them sitting and gossiping at lunchtime. Those things are interesting to play with. But I think it should be a balance of both.

Heart of Stone will premiere on Netflix this Friday on August 11.

Watch the full interview here:
A few months ago, 'a self-proclaimed Hindi film critic and journalist' from Pakistan Umair Sandhu had shared derogatory tweets about actor Celina Jaitly, and claimed that she 'slept with both father (Feroz Khan) and son (Fardeen Khan) many times'. In a new interview with India Today, Celina opened up about when and why she decide to file an official complaint with National Commission of Woman (NCW), and how Twitter (now X) 'did nothing' to stop the man's 'baseless, untrue character assassination via his tweets'. Also read: Celina Jaitly escalates the case against Pak journalist Celina Jaitly currently lives in Austria with husband and three sons.

Twitter claimed no issues with his tweets

Celina told India Today that on April 12, 2023 she filed an official complaint with NCW, adding, "This person created the fake viral content maligning me, thousands of people, including myself, lodged a complaint with Twitter to ban his account. Twitter's auto-generated responses claimed no issues with all his tweets, encouraging him to go on a horrifying spree of baseless, untrue, character assassination via his tweets. He made multiple tweets at my expense, garnering him massive views the whole day, and Twitter still did not do anything... The height of stupidity is that some of the most reputable and credible media outlets report on the lies spread by a Pakistani imposter... He might as well be an ISI agent who is trying to infiltrate the Indian media outlets."

Celina said she had no idea who Umair Sandhu was until April 11, 2023, when her 'Twitter account blew up' and she saw 'horrific and viral content' about her that he had generated. Celina said she was tagged by hundreds of people, who brought her attention to Umair Sandhus 'bizarre claims'. She slammed him for making content that 'is nothing short of online violence just for personal gain'.

Celina on why she sought NCW's help

Further speaking about how the self-proclaimed journalist 'was hiding in Pakistan', taking legal recourse was not possible for her even as continued to 'assault her with verbal violence'. Celina said that after much deliberation, she took the matter to the NCW in India. She added that she doesn't know what the laws in Pakistan are, but is hopeful that laws against cyberbullying are stringent there.

Celina said in the same interview, I am very grateful that MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) has responded with full support. We need to understand that all processes have their protocols and even my complaint must go through its due process. I have attached MEAs response to Ms Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, NCW. I will wait for the process to take its due course. I do not know what the laws in Pakistan are, but I am sure the laws for protection of women against cyberbullying, verbal and mental abuse, character assassination are stringent and the Pakistan High Commission will act in accordance with their countrys laws against such crimes.

Umair Sandhu's tweets against Celina

Earlier this year, Umair Sandhu wrote in a tweet, Celina Jaitley is the only actress in Bollywood who slept with both father (Feroz Khan) and son (Fardeen Khan) many times.

Late actor-filmmaker Feroz Khan gave Celina her big break alongside his son, Fardeen Khan in Janasheen, which released in 2003.

Celina had responded to Umair Sandhu's tweet in July, "A few months ago, a self-proclaimed Hindi film critic and journalist from Pakistan named Umair Sandhu took to Twitter to make viral untrue horrific claims about me which included bizarre allegations like my relations with both my mentor Feroz Khan and his son Fardeen, in addition he made claims targeting me and my familys safety and security even in Austria. My response to his harassment and fake claims from Pakistan went viral and garnered support from millions of Twitterati including Pakistani nationals who were appalled at his behaviour...

She also took the opportunity to thank NCW, especially NCW chief Rekha Sharma and NCW member Khushbu Sundar.

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Luv Sinha has said that there were times when he and his family struggled with limited money and his father Shatrughan Sinha had to choose between his meals and a bus ride at times due to lack of financial resources. Talking to Sidharth Kannan, Luv recalled his younger days, when Shatrughan had trouble managing his finances. (Also read: Luv Sinha says Bollywood gives opportunities to actors who 'cant speak Hindi') Luv Sinha recalls the struggles of his father, Shatrughan Sinha.

Shatrughan's struggles

Asked to talk about the struggles of his father and sister, Luv said that Sonakshi Sinha did not have to struggle a lot as she became a star right from her first film. He shared a few memories from the time when his father Shatrughan faced financial crisis, and said, "There were times when he had to choose either travelling by bus for his meetings or saving the money for food. Sometimes he would eat and walk miles and sometimes, to save time, he would let go of food. He talks about the time when doubted himself, and thought if it was the right decision to leave Patna and move to Mumbai for his dreams and ambitions. There were times when he was at his peak that our house, even though small at that time, was filled with people. And then when his films were not working, no one would be around. I have seen both the rise and the fall, closely.

Shatrughan, Sonakshi never recommended Luv for a role

Luv also reiterated that neither Shatrughan nor Sonakshi ever requested or asked anyone to cast Luv in any of their films. It may look beautiful from the outside, but that is not how easily things worked for him, the actor added. There have been times when I landed somewhere for an audition but got the feeling that something else is going on here. Like, maybe I do not fit the role, but I have been also called for the audition. just for the sake of it. Aise hi bulaya gaya hai, 'aa jaiye kar dijiye par uske baad dekha jaega (Come and give the audition, but we'l see how things go after that)'. So, that is an advantage one has having been born in the industry. You understand how things do not always work on merit alone. Everyone around knows that, and there is no point getting frustrated or becoming an alcoholic or something like that over this.

Luv also talked about the off and on friendship between his father and Amitabh Bachchan. He said that competition is bound to happen ,when you have two outstanding actors, however, there was nothing personal between them and therefore they got back together.

Luv Sinha's film career

Luv Sinha now awaits the release of Gadar 2. He will be seen alongside Sunny Deol, Utkarsh Gupta and Ameesha Patel in the film that is slated for an August 11 release in theatres. The film has been directed by Anil Sharma, who also directed the first Gadar - Gadar Ek Prem Katah which released in 2001.

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Actor Sunny Deol has compared his character Tara Singh from the upcoming film Gadar 2 with Hulk and Superman. Speaking during a session on the last day of the 2023 Jagran Film Festival in New Delhi, Sunny said that every person wants to watch a superhero on screen who 'will set things right'. (Also Read | Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel dance to Main Nikla Gaddi Leke at Gadar 2 event) Sunny Deol said how his Gadar 2 character Tara Singh is similar to Hulk and Superman.

Sunny compares Tara Singh with Hulk, Superman

As quoted by news agency PTI, Sunny said, "Tara Singh is our Hulk, Superman. Every man wants to watch Hulk and Superman. He believes that (the hero) on screen will set things right. Like there are Marvel Comics, here is Tara Singh. You don't draw these powers from working out. These are emotional powers."

Sunny talks about a character facing a difficult choice

Citing the example of the famous Hindustan Zindabad sequence from Gadar, Sunny said that when a character is faced with a difficult choice, God comes on screen to show the way and then one can move ahead. He added that 'it is the superpower of honesty, earnestness, and simplicity. That's what superheroes are all about'.

Sunny talks about him as an actor

Talking about how he doesn't believe in preparing for a role, Sunny continued, "It is in your genes or you have it. You can enhance it through technique but you can't become an actor by doing bodybuilding or dancing. Every person has all kinds of emotions. As actors, we are blessed when a character comes to us, so we are able to present those emotions outside. That's when it feels real."

All about Gadar 2

In Gadar 2, Sunny reprises his role of Tara Singh from his 2001 hit Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Filmmaker Anil Sharma, who also helmed the original, has directed the follow-up which will hit the screens on August 11. The film also stars Ameesha Patel and Utkarsh Sharma. The sequel is set in 1971 about 17 years after the events of Gadar.

Recently, Sunny shared the trailer on Instagram. The three-minute-long trailer showcases Tara Singh and Sakeena's legacy, set amidst the tumultuous Crush India Movement of 1971. In the trailer, Tara Singh went all the way to Pakistan to save his son, Charan Jeet Singh (played by Utkrash Sharma) from the Pakistani Army.

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Kampala, Uganda  Following the success of the event last year, the National Conference on Communications (NCC) shall return for its eighth edition this October.

The NCC 2023 shall be held at the Central Teaching Facility (CTF), Kyambogo University from October 3-4, 2023.

This will be the first time, the conference is being hosted by the Faculty of Engineering, Kyambogo University. The last three editions had been hosted by the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University.

Established by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) in October 2010, NCC is a forum that aims to strengthen Information and Communications Technology (ICT) based research and innovations, particularly of locally relevant solutions.

The conference's objective is to present peer-reviewed research work, discuss engineering solutions to local challenges, and understand industry trends and needs.

This year's edition will be held under the theme, "Sustainable ICTs in Uganda - Growth Through Responsible Innovative Solutions". This theme was chosen to emphasise the importance of sustainable development of the sector through innovative solutions and the protection of biodiversity.
Gal Gadot is synonymous with Wonder Woman today. But only the Israeli actor knows the years of persistence she put in to bag the superhero role in a big-budget studio franchise. From getting rejected in an audition for the Bond girl in Quantum of Solace (2008) to finally crystallising her name for posterity with a star on the coveted Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gal has come a really long way. Gal Gadot in Heart of Stone

(Also Read: Alia Bhatt interview on Heart of Stone: Theres a lot of purpose and dedication in playing the bad guy')

Even rarer is for her to have done it in the film industry of a country she wasn't born in. In that sense, her journey is similar to her Heart of Stone co-star Alia Bhatt. Alia, who made her acting debut in Bollywood back in 2012 with Karan Johar's Student of the Year, has taken great strides in a decade. Her latest feat is making her international debut alongside Gal Gadot in Tom Harper's upcoming spy thriller Heart of Stone.

Gal Gadot's pep talk for Alia

In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Gal agreed that watching Alia navigate the early stages of Hollywood does remind her of her own struggle. We share so much in common. From the very first time we met, I felt we connected. Not just because both of us are from different countries and English is not our native language and the culture we come from is very different, but she brings a lot of warmth with her. Also a lot of, if I can say, cut the bullsh*t attitude. She's always blunt. For me, as an Isareli, it's delightful. You get what you see, Gal told Hindustan Times.

A word of advice for Alia

Gal is quite confident that Alia is equipped enough to make inroads into Hollywood on her own. I don't think Alia needs any word of advice. She comes with such experience, working for over a decade in India. And India, you guys are massive! So she knows how to handle the heat. Breaking into the American market is going to be a smooth, healthy evolution or transition for Alia. I think she's super ready. If she ever needs anything, she's my buddy, she's my sister, she has my number, she has my address. I'm always here for her, Gal added.

Another parallel with Alia

Alia was pregnant when she was filming the action scenes of Heart of Stone. Interestingly, Gal had to turn down an action part in Zack Snyder's 2013 superhero film Man of Steel because she was pregnant then. We're not complaining because she went on to become Wonder Woman in the same DC Extended Universe, but Gal is glad that safety standards on Hollywood sets have progressed immensely in the last decade.

We were completely set on the safety aspect 1,000%. We went on to filming this movie after there had been a tragedy on another set, Gal said, referring to the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin on the sets of the Western, Rust.

It's always important to keep your cast and crew safe. But after such a tragedy, it becomes even more important to check what you usually check, times five. We were not allowed to do stunts that were overboard. We were surrounded by people who made sure we were safe and we were going to stay in one piece. That's why you surround yourself with professionals who know how to do these things, Gal added.

Heart of Stone will premiere on Netflix this Friday on August 11.

Watch the full video interview here:
Actor Ishaan Khatter says he had a great experience filming his Hollywood debut series The Perfect Couple, headlined by global star Nicole Kidman. Khatter said he has finished shooting for a major portion of the Netflix series, based on American author Elin Hilderbrand's novel of the same name. It is directed by Birdbox fame filmmaker Susanne Bier. Nicole Kidman will be seen with Ishaan Khatter in The Perfect Couple.

"I've shot a large part of it and it's my foray into Hollywood. It's been a great experience. Of course, Nicole is one of the most iconic film stars that we all know and we love in India as well.

"So, I understand that there's a lot of curiosity about her. And there are many more awesome cast members, wonderful actors. And that will also be out for the people to see on Netflix next year," the 27-year-old actor told PTI in a group interview on the sidelines of the Jagran Film Festival (JFF) here on Saturday.

Also featuring Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning and Eve Hewson, The Perfect Couple follows Amelia (Hewson) who is about to marry into a wealthy Nantucket Winbury family, to the disapproval of their matriarch novelist (Kidman).

Khatter, known for movies Beyond the Clouds, Dhadak, Phone Bhoot and Khaali Peeli, essays the role of Shooter Dival, the best friend of the groom Benji Winbury (Billy Howle).

The show marks the second international project for Khatter following Netflix's Mira Nair-directed miniseries A Suitable Boy (2020).

Working on the The Perfect Couple was "not very different from what it's like to make movies and tell stories" in India, Khatter said.

"It's just a great opportunity. I taped my audition and they liked it which is why they called me I guess," he added.

At home, the actor is looking forward to his next feature film Pippa, a biopic on Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta, a veteran of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron, who, along with his siblings, fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

Directed by Raja Krishna Menon, the movie is based on Brigadier Mehtas book The Burning Chaffees. Its title is taken from the Russian amphibious war tank called the PT-76, popularly known as Pippa, which was used in the 1971 War.

Khatter said the film, which also stars Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli and Soni Razdan, will "come out soon".

"We have made the film with all hard work and thorough research. We got the opportunity to do two camps with the Army. It required a lot of preparation and I interacted a lot with Balram sir.

"It is an important story that needs to be taken to the audiences, especially the youth. I personally know that a lot of people don't know about this chapter of our history. It focuses on the Bangladesh liberation war in which India played an important role," the actor added.

Khatter said when he started his journey in cinema five years ago with Majid Majidi's Beyond the Clouds he was just following his instincts.

"The modus operandi was earlier not in place. It was very scattered. I was trying to expand my understanding of acting, storytelling, and cinema. Anything that I felt gave me an opportunity to do that and to grow as an actor, I took that opportunity."

He added that he has "more clarity of the kind of work" he wants to do going forward.

"Hopefully there will be more of a modus operandi in place. But the fact is that I've also been very lucky to get diverse work. It's rare as a young actor to be allowed to play such diverse characters. I don't know what it is that people are able to see me in these different parts.

"I've had a crack at them. Some have been loved more than others and I hope I've learned in these five years exactly the path I want to take forward so that I can hopefully surprise you every time," Khatter said.
A day after concluding his D-Day concert, BTS member Suga announced his plans for military enlistment. Taking to Weverse, BTS agency BigHit Music shared a post on Monday. It said that Suga started the process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement. The official dates are yet to be announced. (Also Read | BTS' Suga finally reveals 7 tattoo on final day of D-Day concert, breaks down onstage. Watch) BTS' Suga made an announcement on Monday.

Suga's military enlistment

The statement read, "Hello. This is BigHit Music. We would like to inform our fans that Suga has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement. We will inform you of further updates in due course."

It also added, "We ask you for your continued love and support for Suga until he completes his military service and safely returns. Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artist. Thank you."

Suga cried at his Seoul concert

At his concert on Sunday, Suga was seen crying while performing. He later took to Weverse and held a live session. As translated by Twitter user @ryuminating, Suga said, I really am not the type to cry, but starting from Snooze, I felt it. The members were there and my sunbaenims came too. Before, I had dreams while watching many sunbaenims and now I have become someones sunbae. And those 10 years flew past me. And thats when the tears came."

Suga hinted it was his last concert

He hinted that the Seoul concert was his last performance on stage. He also talked about getting reunited with the other BTS members RM, Jin, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook in 2025. If I say 'soon', that feels like a lie. So lets see each other again in 2025. All right? Please wait a bit. 2025, lets see each other then. You did great. Bye!" Suga said.

BTS fans react

Reacting to the news, a fan wrote on Twitter (now X), "We love you Yoongi! We will wait for you always. Please be safe and take care of your health." A comment read, "I am crying." A Twitter user wrote, "Man, I don't even know what to say. Wasn't the thump of yesterday's show not enough???? I just wanted to hug my boy and not let go." "This breaks my heart. Stay safe Yoongi," tweeted another person.

About BTS and military enlistment

Currently, Jin and J-Hope are serving in the South Korean military. In South Korea, all able-bodied men, aged 18-28, are required to serve in the military for about two years. All BTS members were allowed to put off starting their military service until they turned 30. The group -- known for hit songs such as Blood Sweat Tears, Boy in Luv, ON and Dynamite among many others-- announced their hiatus last June and the members hope to reconvene as a unit around 2025 following their service commitment.

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Vijay Raghavendras brother Sriimurali opened up about the death of the actor's wife Spandana. Spandana died on Monday in Bangkok where she was on a vacation. While reports claimed she suffered a heart attack, Sriimurali said details of the unfortunate incident will be provided on Tuesday. Also read: Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife passes away in Bangkok, CM and deputy CM pay condolences Vijay Raghavendras brother Sriimurali on Spandana's death in Bangkok.

Spandana death in Bangkok

Spandana married Vijay in 2007 after they fell in love. They reportedly have two kids. While Vijay is one of the popular actors in the Kannada film industry, Spandana also briefly appeared in the 2016 film Apoorva, alongside Ravichandran. Vijay is the cousin of late actor Puneeth Rajkumar who died in 2021 following a heart attack.

Sriimurali on Spandana death

Talking about Spandana's death, Sriimurali briefly addressed the media in Karnataka. He told them that Spandana was travelling with her family in Bangkok while Vijay was occupied with shoots in India. He said, "Spandana slept on the night of August 6, and did not wake up the next morning due to low blood pressure. We will provide more information tomorrow."

Spandana's last rites

According to local reports, Spandana was immediately taken to a hospital on Monday morning after she collapsed. However, she was declared dead upon reaching the hospital. Reportedly Vijay and her father have reached Bangkok to bring back her mortal remains. They are expected to reach India on Tuesday when her last rites will be performed in Bengaluru as well.

Mourning the death of Spandana, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah tweeted, "The news of the untimely death of famous Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife Spandana has come as a shock. I pray for the eternal peace of the departed soul. My condolences to the families of Vijaya Raghavendra and BK Shivaram who are saddened by the loss of Spandana.

Meanwhile, fans were seen extending condolences to the actor and his family. An old video of Vijay and Spandana has surfaced online. The video features the actor getting emotional while talking about his wife on stage at an event. He talked about Spandana's support in his life and grew teary-eyed. The video is two-months-old.

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A video has gone viral in which Tamannaah Bhatia is seen leaving an event in Kerala, when an enthusiastic fan tried to jump at her in order to greet her. The security at the event promptly pulled him back, before Tamannaah calmed him down, offered to shake his hands and posed for a selfie with him. (Also Read: Vijay Varma told Tamannaah Bhatia that news about her ' 2 crore diamond ring' upset him: I messaged her') A Tamannaah Bhatia jumped over barricades to meet her.

What actually happened

In a video that's now doing the rounds on social media, Tamannaah is seen gracing an event in Kerala. She's seen wearing a green sari and pink blouse with heavy embroidery on borders, along with heavy jewellery. Tamanaah is seen waving at her fans, accompanied by heavy security, while exiting the aisle that has hoards of fans on both sides.

A fan then jumps over the barricade onto the aisle. He offers a handshake to Tamannaah. While the actor happily obliges, the security pulls the fan back, much to Tamannaah's surprise. She then explains the fan's eagerness to the security, calms him down and resumes the handshake. She then calmly and gracefully poses for a selfie with the fan, before bidding him goodbye and walking ahead.

Response to Tamanaah's gesture

Tamannaah's sweet gesture not only got a loud applause from the live audience, but also got her a lot of praise on social media. A Twitter user commented on the video, The way she handled the situation (in-love emoji) She is soo sweet and grounded person. Another wrote, Tamannah is a humble person.

Another internet user pointed out how this sets a dangerous precedent. They wrote, What he did is too disgraceful and inappropriate, though his reactions were as though he did a heroic deed. Its the actress's kindness which saved him. The organizers too is to be blamed here for letting something of this sort to happen. Another user supported the argument, Security should handle the situation better. She walks to those places trusting no acts from those crazy people.. everybody can watch her from little far away.. why cant he? It is true that.. she is an actress and people watch their movies and make them success.... but their is alot of dedication behind it.. why their is no Mohanlal? Mammotty? Because of their their dedication and love to their work.. so does Thamana..

Tamannaah Bhatia will next be seen in Nelson's Tamil black comedy action film Jailer, opposite Rajinikanth.

ott:10

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The Hunt for Veerappan, a new four-part docuseries on the dreaded bandit of the 1990s and early 2000s, has been receiving a lot of acclaim. In an exclusive interview, director Selvamani Selvaraj and producers Apoorva Bakshi and Monisha Thyagarajan, also a force behind the International Emmy Award-winning fiction series Delhi Crime, talk about their attempt to investigate into Veerappan's past, politics and philosophies. Still from the teaser of The Hunt for Veerappan

Edited excerpts below:

All I knew about Veerappan before I watched this docu-series was a faint visual of him from the newspaper, the unforgettable moustache and the fact that everyone was struggling to nab him. What was your hook while researching that saw you through the creative process?

Selvamani: The reason to tell the story was pretty straightforward, where you were before you watched it, that we only knew so much. Personally, I wanted to know what made the man, why he's a dreaded criminal on one side and how he can be loved on the other side. I grew up on the story of Veerappan and the residue of that story was there was a section of society who loved him. To them, he was a hero, despite knowing that he killed so many people and smuggled so many animals. This polarising view on him is what made me want to know more about how could somebody be both. To know Veerappan, you have to know all the people in his life. So it was a simple search that led us down this journey.

Apoorva: There's a lot of material out there on Veerappan. But none of the myriad versions felt authentic. It didn't present a complete picture of the man. So we wanted to explore the truth ourselves.

My favourite part of the docuseries is his wife Muthulakshmi. To me, she feels turned on by Veerappan. Why were her inputs crucial?

Monisha: What the wife offers is an access no one else could. While we had the gang members across different phases of his life, she came in at a point in his life when she saw him up close and personal. She's spent so much time in the forest. Even when she was away from him, she was still somehow connected to him. She held on to that feeling for so long. I think she was looking for the right medium to share something so close to her heart. There's also a female presence in the story, otherwise there are mostly men talking.

Apoorva: Also, there was deep love. It was not just fascination or attraction. There was something beyond that. She got married at 15 so her coming-of-age is with the story.

You also met a lot of forest officials and reporters who lived to tell the tale. How did you trace and gain access to them?

Selvamani: Going to his hometown Gopinathan was the starting point. We got to know his early life. Then one person led to another

But even in the docuseries, we see everyone in his hometown is scared to talk about Veerappan. How did you crack that?

Selvamani: With just honesty. We don't have any agenda here. We just want to tell your story. You witnessed it, what do you feel? When they realised that's what we want, they started talking.

Apoorva: At that time, we were undeterred on the fact that this is not our story. We don't have a lens or a point of view. As filmmakers, we were just the medium of a story they wanted to tell for a long time. That's what storytellers do.

By now, we've seen a lot of docuseries on modern, urban criminals, like hackers. But Veerappan was a highly learned man who lived in the jungles. How do you think that set him apart?

Monisha: I think his weapon of choice was survival. Just the terrain and the circumstances that he had to endure. And the fact that he also had to be very aware of what was happening outside. He built that wealth of knowledge over the course of time. It was his way of making sure he and his gang were self-sufficient.

Selvamani: Everything about the story is very primal. To live in the jungles, but still expose the systems and structures that we built, that was always fascinating.

Veerappan also took advantage of the geopolitics by almost pitting Tamil Nadu against Karnataka through his war policy. Do you see him as a politician, even though he never contested an election?

Selvamani: Everybody is political. You don't have to read and learn, sometimes life teaches you politics. I find Muthulakshmi extremely political in her views. Just survival teaches you so much about politics: what power is, and where you are in the power structure. The way he felt for the Tamil language, he wanted to build an image and he was quite successful at it. He'll always be talked about in power circles. If it's an arrest, a court orders it and a constable executes. His arrest became an election manifesto point. So what was supposed to be the role of a constable, rose to the level of chief ministers. So you cannot separate that from his story. He was inherently political.

Monisha: Also, the fact that anything happening in the power corridors is bound to affect everyone everywhere. I guess it's a fact they realised over the course of time that anything happening there would drastically impact their lives. So he made sure he was politically aware.

What do you think was the commonality between Veerappan and Dr. Rajkumar? One is a bandit in the forest, the other a Kannada superstar. Was there something more to their bond than the Stockholm Syndrome?

Monisha: Somewhere, we get to know that he had deep respect for Dr. Rajkumar. He was making sure he was sleeping with them, feeding them well. That came from a place of respect. There was a point they wanted to put across. The intention was never to harm. Veerappan was a big fan of cinema. So I guess they had a lot to discuss there as well.

Selvamani: Veerappan had this animosity built in towards Karnataka and he wanted to be able to explain that in a story. He did that in Tamil Nadu. But he felt he was misunderstood in Karnataka. He's a great storyteller from what we know. So he shared his entire life story with Dr. Rajkumar. He wanted empathy from a revered figure in the state. Dr. Rajkumar was a superstar, he got some time to spend in the forest. He did feel extremely concerned that so much was happening because of his abduction, but personally, he liked the time off from the city. He really liked being in the nature.

What do you think led to the downfall of Veerappan? Was it his urge to be known, that led to his photographs surfacing. Or was it him turning emotional after meeting his grown-up daughter, that tempted him to exchange his elusive life for a normal one?

Selvamani: He wanted his story to be told. He got to say it, and at least in the two states, everybody listened. Even though he was hiding, people got to know his story from his mouth. And him wanting a normal life is what makes him unique. He's an extremely emotional bandit. The only way you can appeal to him is through his emotions. That's something we can take away from his story: Yes, he's done everything, but what did he want at the end of it? A normal life.

But do you think that also diluted his strength? Because he got caught immediately after that realisation.

He was looking for a way out. That's also the name of the last episode.

At the end, the interviewer tells Muthulakshmi that he doesn't like to celebrate anyone who kills. But that applies to both Veerappan and the state who killed him. How do you want Veerappan to be remembered as?

This is our attempt. That there was a perception, and we wanted to offer a perspective. It's upto you, how you see it. Our intent was never to change the perception, but offer a fresh perspective.

The Hunt for Veerappan is streaming on Netflix.

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Chennai: The 2024 general elections will decide if the country will continue to be a democracy, which is why the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has started to raise its voice, said chief minister M K Stalin, after a peace march in held Chennai on Monday, the fifth death anniversary of his father and five-time chief minister M Karunanidhi. Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin and other DMK leaders take part in a peace march to Karunanidhi Memorial on his 5th death anniversary in Chennai on Aug 7. (PTI)

This is not an election that comes once in five years, Stalin said in a four-minute video. It is not an answer to the question on this party or that party. This election is to decide whether India will be a democracy or not? You (Karunanidhi) always said we should give voice for India from Tamil Nadu, and we are just following your words now.

This comes days after Stalin told DMK party cadre to stay united to resist an aggressive BJP in Tamil Nadu. The DMK president has been alleging that the BJP was targeting the DMK because of its prime role in bringing the opposition parties together.

Stalin and his senior-most colleagues including party general secretary Durai Murugan, MPs T R Baalu and Kanimozhi Karunandihi led a silent march for two km to pay respects at Karunanidhis mausoleum on the Marina Beach. The party recently got the Supreme Courts nod to erect a fountain pen in the ocean off the beach in memory of Karunanidhi.

DMK is a regional party. And it is time to realise your (Karunanidhi) dream that the DMK should always function as a party that ensures that states get their due rights, Stalin said. Your centenary year is the time to fulfil your dreams.

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai pulled out an old video of public works minister E V Velu saying that the name India is in some place north doesnt have any impact on the DMK and posted it to Twitter. This is the true face of parties in the I.N.D.I.A alliance, said Annamalai. Once a separatist, always a separatist.

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The Agra district and sessions court on Monday stayed the conviction of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian and former Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria in a 2011 case, lifting the threat of disqualification from the Lok Sabha. Ramshankar Katheria (PTI)

On Saturday, a special court had convicted Katheria sections 147 (riot) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to two years in jail in a case connected to alleged violence against the officials of a power company. This put his Lok Sabha membership under danger.

Any elected representative who is sentenced for any offence for a period of two years or more faces immediate disqualification under the Representation of People Act, 1951 (RP Act). One provision of the Act that granted three months protection from disqualification was struck down in 2013 as ultra vires by the Supreme Court in the Lily Thomas case.

But on Monday, the court of Agra district and sessions judge Vivek Sangal said that the applications for stay and bail were being considered without entering into merits of the order passed by the lower court.

The judge asked the MP to submit an undertaking for the stay to continue till the disposal of his appeal.

The court also granted bail to Katheria till the disposal of an appeal on the submission of a personal bond of 20,000 and sureties within one week.

The District Government Counsel (DGC) was not able to oppose positively on technical issue raised by appellant that FIR was registered on 16.11.2011 but order for cognizance passed on 06.12.2016 which is time barred, held the Court of District and Session Judge in its order passed on Monday while staying the order by lower court.

Justice has been imparted to me. I respect the order passed by the court today (Monday). The FIR and case registered against me, which led to my conviction by the lower court, was politically motivated. I had been taking up issues related to the common man and will continue to do so, Katheria said.

On Saturday, the court of the special magistrate (MP/MLA) in Agra sentenced Katheria to two years imprisonment and imposed a penalty of 50,000. WHAT DID IT SAY? WHAT WERE THE CHARGES? WHAT WERE THE REASONS?

On November 16, 2011, a case was registered at the Hari Parvat police station in Agra on the complaint of the staff of Torrent Power Limited, a private power distribution company which which looks after power supply in Agra. The first information report (FIR) said Katheria allegedly thrashed Torrent officials while they were hearing complaints in their office. The case was registered under Sections 147 (riot) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. Katheria was the the BJP MP from Agra at the time.

After the special courts verdict on Saturday, Katheria filed an appeal in the court of the Agra district and sessions judge on Monday. The BJP MP also moved application number 7B under section 389 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code and complained that the maximum punishment in the relevant crime was awarded by the lower court without providing sufficient ground for doing so. Thus, he sought a stay against implementation of the order.

REACTIONS.

The Opposition also referred to the fate of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had to wait 134 days for his conviction in a criminal defamation case to be stayed, by the Supreme Court. ANY QUOTE

The BJP fielded Katheria from the Agra reserved constituency in 2009 when the Bahujan Samaj Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh. He won the seat and retained it in 2014. He was sworn in as Union minister of state for human resource development and remained in office till 2016. He later became chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in New Delhi. He was asked to contest from Etawah in 2019 and won.

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For National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the Jeddah peace summit was not only to push Prime Minister Narendra Modis dialogue and diplomacy formula to end the 17-month-long Ukraine war but also to ensure that India-US agreements signed during June 23 visit to Washington are on implementation track. Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and US NSA Jake Sullivan

The Ukraine dialogue hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was attended by 40 senior officials including 33 NSA of other countries including US, France, UK, EU and Chinas special envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui. Even though no consensus was reached on principles to end the Ukraine war, the senior officials recorded a forward momentum by understanding each others key positions while agreeing that the war was economically a disaster for the Global South.

While White House is still to come out with a statement on the two day Jeddah summit, it is understood that NSA Doval met his US counterpart Jake Sullivan on the sidelines to review the key decisions taken during PM Modis visit and Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) dialogue earlier this year. The NSA apparently met his key counterparts including the French official during the summit and exchanged each others positions on other global issues.

While Doval and Sullivan have a hotline between them, the two NSAs are also the guiding force on the major India-US initiatives unveiled this year. The GE f414 jet engine deal, MoU for which was signed between HAL and GE during the visit, is awaiting approval in the US Congress and progress is being made on Indias plans to acquire General Atomics MQ 9B high altitude long endurance drones for the Indian armed forces. General Atomics will also set-up a comprehensive Global Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility within India to boost the country's indigenous defence capabilities. The two NSAs apparently also exchanged notes on Indo-Pacific and terrorism.

The Jeddah summit was also important for NSA level interactions, a month before India hosts the G-20 summit on September 9-10. With representatives of virtually all G-20 countries barring Russia present at Jeddah, India has been able to assess the global mood on Ukraine and what steps that are needed to be taken for global economic recovery with special focus on Global South.

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Hyderabad Andhra PradesH: The opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh criticised the appointment of Karunakar Reddy Bhumana as the new chairman of TTD, alleging that he had Christian leanings. (ANI)

The opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh on Monday criticised the appointment of senior YSR Congress party MLA from Tirupati Karunakar Reddy Bhumana as the new chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, alleging that he had Christian leanings.

The Andhra Pradesh government issued orders on Saturday evening appointing Bhumana as the TTD chief, in place of Y V Subba Reddy, whose two-time tenure came to an end on Monday.

Bhumana, who had a darshan of Lord Venkateshwara on Tirumala hills, took part in the last meeting of the present TTD trust board chaired by Subba Reddy in the morning. He would take charge as the new TTD trust board chairman on August 10, officials familiar with the matter said.

This will be the second time that Bhumana, a two-time MLA from Tirupati, will be occupying the most coveted TTD chairmanship position. He was earlier appointed as the TTD chairman between 2006-2008 by the Congress party government headed by the then chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy.

However, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) criticised the appointment of Bhumana as the TTD chief. How can he be made the TTD chief though he did not have any faith in Hinduism? Everybody knows Bhumana has Christian connections, TDP state secretary Buchi Ram Prasad said on Monday.

We have all the evidence to prove that Bhumana has Christian connections. In the past, there was marriage at his residence, which took place completely as per Christian traditions, Prasad added.

The TDP leader further said Bhumana had been a Naxalite activist before coming into politics and he had made blasphemous comments on Lord Venkateshwara in the past. How can such a person be appointed to head the TTD, hurting the sentiments of Hindus? he asked.

Even during the previous regime as the TTD chief, Bhumana had hurt the sentiments of the Hindus by declaring that Tirumala did not comprise seven hills but only five hills. He had to backtrack after encountering protests from devotees and Hindu organisations, he said.

Former chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and Bharatiya Janata Party leader I Y R Krishna Rao, too, criticised the Jagan government for appointing Bhumana as the TTD chief.

In a statement on Monday, Rao, who had also worked as the TTD executive officer in the past, said it was unfortunate that the TTD trust board chief post had become a political appointment. Only those who had immense faith in the Lord should be appointed as the TTD chairman, he said.

The retired IAS officer said the government was behaving like nobody would question it even if it took controversial decisions on Hindu organisations. The sooner the government keeps away from the control of Hindu religious institutions, the better for Hindu Dharma, Rao said.

While Bhumana could not be reached for his comments on the allegations made by the opposition parties, senior YSRC leader from Rayalaseema G Srikanth Reddy said there was absolutely no controversy over the Tirupati MLAs religious faith.

People of his constituency know what he is and how his lifestyle is. The opposition is unnecessarily creating an issue out of a non-issue, Reddy added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Srinivasa Rao Apparasu Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience. ...view detail
Kampala, Uganda  President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday afternoon held bilateral talks with the visiting Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yoshimasa Hayashi and his delegation at State House Entebbe.

The two leaders discussed how Japan can support Uganda specifically on value addition. It is here that Museveni encouraged Japanese investors to set up in Uganda, as opposed to importing raw materials which leaves Ugandans with less profits and benefits.

"This perennial haemorrhage that Africa is undergoing is responsible for Africa's stunting due to our bankrupt planners, coupled with external parasites who manipulate, interfere politically and work with traitors to retard Africa," Museveni said.

"I, therefore, welcome Japanese companies to come here. We are producing electric cars with Kiira Motors and have lithium so, what we need are the batteries. I am happy the Minister has taken this up and I thank them in advance," he added.

Earlier in the day, the delegation was hosted by Gen Jeje Odongo - Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry Head Quarters in Kampala where strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries was the focal point.

Speaking to the media after the meeting at Serena Hotel, Yoshimasa's Press Secretary, ONO Hikariko said that the Japanese government attaches great importance to listening to the voices of African nations to elevate development.
At a check post in Moirang between Bishnupur and Kangvai in Manipur, Assam Rifles personnel have been replaced with civil police and CRPF, according to an order issued by the Manipur police on Monday. Women stage a protest against the ongoing violence in Manipur (ANI)

While the order does not mention why the force was replaced, the development is significant in the backdrop of Meira Paibis (a collective of elderly Meitei women) holding a day-long protest in Imphal East and West districts demanding the removal of the force from Manipur. Over the last few days, the women groups have accused Assam Rifles of being biased in discharging their duty. The women also accused the security arm of using excessive force in dealing with Meitei protesters.

Also on Saturday, a video of a Manipur police team engaged in a heated confrontation with Assam Rifles was widely circulated on social media. In the video, the police officers were seen accusing Assam Rifles of interfering in their operation of chasing armed miscreants. An Assam Rifles officer is heard saying that he is only doing his duty.

Also Read: Fresh Manipur Police vs Assam Rifles; 15 houses torched, 1 person shot

The polices order to replace Assam Rifles with another force, which was signed by the additional director general of police (law and order), said, In partial modification of this offices order dated August 3, 2023, the naka/check point at Moirang Lamkhai on the Bishnupur to Kangvai road shall be manned by civil police and CRPF in place of 9 Assam Rifles with immediate effect and until further orders.

One Assam Rifles officer, who did not wish to be named, said, The place was never manned by the Assam Rifles in the first place. A force which has saved members of both communities alike in the initial days of conflict, how can they be termed biased? Inescapable calibrated use of bare minimum force at certain locations may have been done, predominantly by forces actually mandated for crowd control. Such actions by central forces are generally to prevent violence. Assam Rifles in most of these baseless allegations werent even at the site.

Manipur police and Spear Corps did not comment on the development.

To be sure, the order pertains to only one check point. Assam Rifles and other paramilitary forces are still posted across the state to restore normalcy. Currently CRPF, BSF, SSB, ITBP and Assam Rifles, and the Indian Army are posted in Manipur, which has been roiled by ethnic clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups.

At least 160 people have died in the ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kukis that started on May 3.

The forces are working under a unified interagency command to restore normalcy, headed by security adviser to the Manipur government, Kuldiep Singh.

Meanwhile, the Manipur police on Monday night said there was exchange of fire with armed miscreants at different places such as Mualngat, Terakhongsangbi, Gothol, Pholjang and Kwakta ward 8. Security forces retaliated and repelled the miscreants. Search operations were also conducted in the adjoining areas in which 9 arms were recovered, police said. Kwatka and Pholjang are the two places where three Meiteis and three Kukis were killed by armed miscreants on Saturday.

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NEW DELHI: A visiting delegation of Bangladeshs ruling Awami League party met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda on Monday and discussed issues such as bilateral relations and measures to curb militancy. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, a member of Awami Leagues presidium and the agriculture minister, is heading the five-member delegation (X/JPNadda)

Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, a member of Awami Leagues presidium and the agriculture minister, is heading the five-member delegation that includes party joint general secretary and information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud, party organising secretary Sujit Roy Nandi, and women MPs Aroma Dutta and Marina Jahan.

Nadda said at the meeting held at his residence that the BJP and the Awami League will work for the greater interest of the region, according to a statement from the Bangladesh high commission.

The BJP has a historic relation with the Awami League since long and we want to carry forward our relations by strengthening party-level contacts in the days to come, Nadda was quoted as saying to the Awami League delegation.

Among issues discussed at the meeting were political stability in the region, curbing militancy, Bangladeshs economic development and India-Bangladesh ties, the statement said.

Nadda described Indias ties with Bangladesh from the inception of the neighbouring country in 1971 as historic and emotional. These relations reached new heights under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, he added.

In this context, Nadda noted that long-standing land and maritime boundary disputes and the crisis in Indias northeastern states were addressed during the tenure of the two prime ministers. He further said the crisis in Indias northeastern states were solved due to the proactive initiative of the Awami League government.

Bangladeshs successes in socio-economic sectors are considered an example for other countries in the region, he added.

Mahmud said after the meeting, which lasted more than 90 minutes, that the Awami League and the BJP enjoy very good relations and both parties played a role in resolving outstanding issues through discussions.

The Awami League delegation also held a formal meeting at BJP headquarters with a team led by party general secretary Vinod Tawde. The two parties discussed ways to strengthen relations, including the exchange of delegations.

The delegation also met external affairs minister S Jaishankar at Parliament House and discussed various issues.

The Awami League team is visiting the country during August 6-9 under the Know the BJP initiative.
Bhutan has requested India to allow rice export to the Himalayan kingdom, following Indias July 20 ban on overseas shipments of non-basmati varieties of the grain , a person aware of the matter has said. Indias decision has sent global rice prices soaring. In September last year, India also banned the export of broken rice, but it has allowed exports to some countries (PTI)

The worlds biggest rice exporter imposed the ban over growing concerns of El Nino, a weather pattern whose effects ripple around the globe, affecting the Indian monsoon and hitting rice output, and Russias blockade of Ukraines grain shipments.

Bhutan has made a diplomatic request to India for rice shipments of up to 90,000 tonnes, the person said. Global prices have hit a 12-year high following Indias ban. The FAOs All-Rice Price Index leapt 129.7 points in July 2023, up 19.6% from a year ago. Indias share in global rice exports is nearly 40%.

Indias rice ban allows for exemptions for export under conditional government-to-government deals and in case of requests made by friendly countries which have genuine food-security needs, the person cited above said. The same relaxations also apply to the wheat-export ban instituted in May 2022.

The conditions also stipulate that food exported by India under such exemptions cannot be used for trade and has to be utilized for domestic consumption, the person added.

Such diplomatic requests are first reviewed by the ministry of external affairs, a second person said, adding Bhutans request for rice is very likely to be acceded to. Once the proposal is sent to the food ministry, the Food Corporation of India, the Centres main food agency, will process the request and release the stocks.

Immediately after the wheat ban last year, food minister Piyush Goyal had said that India wasnt a significant exporter of wheat, yet the country would cater to genuine food-security needs of any friendly country.

In September last year, India also banned the export of broken rice, but it has allowed exports to some countries.

In the case of rice also, India will take up requests of any country that may face a dire need of food and seeks humanitarian assistance. This especially applies to our neighbours, the second person added.

Since imposing the wheat and broken rice bans, India cleared over 300,000 tonnes of wheat shipments to Nepal, 200,000 tonnes of broken rice to Indonesia, 500,000 tonnes of broken rice to Senegal and 50,000 tonnes of broken rice to Gambia under humanitarian food assistance.

Global supplies have tightened since Ukraine is a major supplier of all types of grain and Russias blockade of its food shipments has caused a rally in global cereal prices. On July 17, Russia announced it was pulling out of the so-called Black Sea grain deal under which Ukraine could operate its ports. Days later, India clamped a ban on rice exports.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Zia Haq Zia Haq reports on public policy, economy and agriculture. Particularly interested in development economics and growth theories. ...view detail
A session court in Agra has stayed the conviction of BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria in a 12-year-old case of assault and rioting. Katheria welcomed the order and said that justice has been done to him. A local court had sentenced Katheria to two years in jail for thrashing staff of a private power firm in 2011.(PTI)

The former Minister of State for Human Resource Development was facing disqualification from the Lok Sabha after Special Magistrate MP/MLA Court held Katheria guilty of the charges and sentenced him to two years in jail. The lawmaker from UP's Etawah was booked for thrashing the staff of Torrent Power Limited in Agra in 2011 when the state was governed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Recounting the incident that took place on November 16, 2011, Katheria on Saturday said, It was a matter related to an SC woman, who irons clothes on the Shamsabad road in Agra. She had complained to me about getting excessive electricity bill from Torrent.

"One day the woman came to my office and threatened to commit suicide over the excessive bill," he said.

The MP said that after he heard the woman's complaint, he approached the Torrent office and asked officials there to reconsider the bills.

"In 2011, it was BSP's government in Uttar Pradesh and many fake cases were registered against me. However, I have full respect for the court," he said.

The opposition leaders had been pressing for immediate disqualification of Katheria citing a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi in which he was disqualified from the lower house within 24 hours of the trial court verdict. Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath sought Katheria's disqualification as Lok Sabha MP from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh claiming his conviction was for an offence graver than what Rahul Gandhi was accused of.

"He (Ram Shankar Katheria) should be disqualified. The law is equal for everyone. Now the Supreme Court decision has also come in the case of Rahul Gandhi. There is a big difference between what he (Katheria) did and what Rahul Gandhi is accused of, Nath told PTI.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday targeted the Congress in Lok Sabha over a New York Times investigation on China pumping money into various countries including India for pushing its propaganda. Citing media portal NewsClick, which was named in the NYT report for allegedly receiving Chinese funds, the BJP said that the opposition party and some independent journalists have ties with Chinese propaganda. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey in Lok Sabha on Monday. (ANI)

BJP member of Parliament Nishikant Dubey said, The New York Times has revealed the details about the ED raid on Newsclick. Newsclick- the anti-national, tukde- tukde gang who want to destroy India has been exposed for their funding. It has been revealed how the money was given by the Chinese to Naxalites, Maoists., Rohini Singh, Swati Chaturvedi (both independent journalists) to create an atmosphere in India.

The NYT investigation revealed a well-funded network at the behest of American billionaire Neville Roy Singham spreading Chinese propaganda in various countries.

Dubey alleged that the Congress has always taken funds from China and they should be investigated. Whenever there was a problem in the country from 2005 to 2014, the Chinese government gave money to the Congress. In 2008, they invited both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. In 2016, they were talking to the Chinese during the Doklam crisis They want to divide India through the Chinese government and journalists... The Government of India should investigate the Chinese funding of the Congress party and close the Congress shop, Dubey said.

Rahul Gandhis hate shop has Chinese goods, he added.

Following the BJP MPs comments, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla demanding that under Rule 380, Dubeys remarks be expunged in full and that an inquiry be conducted into how such an allegation was permitted to be raised on record.

Responding to the BJP MPs comments, Rohini Singh wrote on X (formerly Twitter): Nishikant Dubey has lost his mental balance! Neither have I ever worked for NewsClick nor do I have any relation with them If Nishikant Dubey, who is misusing the parliamentary privilege, has the courage, then he should come out of Parliament and tell this lie. Indias most wretched MP, with whom people are afraid to even sit, is now speaking the language of a second-rate troll in Parliament.

Swati Chaturvedi tweeted: My journalistic income is an open book scrutinised every year by Income Tax @nsitharaman (Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman) get a special audit done & let @nishikant_dubey the coward who misused his Parliamentary privilege to slander apologise. I have nothing to do with @newsclickin

Earlier, Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur said, Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world. Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that NewsClick is a dangerous global web of Chinese propaganda. Supported by like-minded forces, Neville has been furthering a dubious anti-India agenda.

In 2021, when Indian enforcement agencies launched an investigation against Newsclick based on strong evidence of money laundering, Congress and the entire left-liberal public defended it. Congress, China and NewsClick are part of an umbilical cord. In Rahul Gandhis Nakli Mohabbat Ki Dukaan (fake shop of love) Chinese goods can be seen clearly. His love for China can be seen. They were running an anti-India agenda. NewsClick diverted the attention of the people through fake propaganda in the name of free news. This is not free news but fake news and the Congress and the other parties came together under the guise of press freedom to push their propaganda, Thakur said while addressing a press conference.

Taking aim at Indian human right activist Gautam Navlakha, Thakur said that the former had a big hand in funding NewsClick. The money that was supplied to NewsClick has been routed through Gautam Navlakha who was booked under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case and he is still under house arrest. Right after NewsClick started, crores of rupees were given to them and moreover 1.5 crore was given to one electrician. How did Congress, and Rahul Gandhi not raise any objection to it. And not only that, this-loss making companys shares were bought at an artificially enhanced premium. But no questions were asked by the Opposition, he said.

Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship and electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said, These narratives that are put out by platforms like NewsClick and other platforms that are operating in concert are echoed almost blandly in a similar fashion by this political leader, Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and says exactly the same things-democracy is under danger, judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out... This is a complex conspiracy. This is a network of operators being funded, being fanned by vested interests outside the country, who are opposed to Indias rise.

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Rahul Gandhis parliament membership was restored after a stay on his conviction by Supreme Court, a development that may embolden the opposition leader as he seeks to challenge the ruling party in the 2024 elections. Rahul Gandhi parliament membership was restored on Monday(X/INCIndia)

READ HERE- Rahul Gandhi is MP again: What Lok Sabha Secretariat notification said

Gandhi, 53, the leader of the main opposition Congress party, was sentenced to two years in jail by a lower court for making defamatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modis surname during an election rally in 2019. He can now contest elections after the Supreme Court suspended his conviction.

The secretariat of the lower house of parliament issued a notification on Monday saying his disqualification, which ran for four months, has been revoked.

ALSO READ: Congress celebrates victory of love against hate after Rahul Gandhi's MP status restored

He can now participate in the current session of parliament, in which a no-confidence motion against the Modi government will be debated this week following deadly violence in the eastern state of Manipur. The no-confidence vote doesnt pose a threat to the government as the ruling coalition has enough members to defeat the motion.

Still, Gandhis legal troubles arent over. A court in the state of Gujarat is yet to rule on the merits of the defamation case.

Indian law bars anyone sentenced to a prison term of two or more years from contesting elections for six years after the end of their sentence. Following his conviction by a lower court in March, Gandhi was almost immediately disqualified as a lawmaker in line with the rules.

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.

ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi vacated his Delhi bungalow after disqualification. Will he get it back?

The politicians initial disqualification from parliament, and elections, became a political flash point. More than two dozen opposition parties have united with Congress and vowed to defeat Modi in the national elections next summer.
The Lok Sabha on Monday saw unprecedented scenes during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament after Bharatiya Janata Party member Nishikant Dubey raised the issue of a news report in The New York Times which claimed that web portal NewsClick has received 38 crore funding and the money has been used to create an anti-India environment. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI)

When the Lok Sabha met at 12pm, Congress MPs entered the House with Rahul Gandhi, whose Lok Sabha membership was restored on Monday, shouting slogans including Bharat Jodo Bharat Jodo and Rahul Gandhi Zindabad Zindabad. Dubey then raised the issue of The New York Times report, claiming web portal NewsClick is a member of the anti-India Tukde Tukde gang, and demanded that the government investigate the beneficiaries of the funding.

Between 2005 and 2014, whenever there was a crisis, the Congress had received money from China. In 2008, they had invited both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. In 2016, they were talking to the Chinese during the Doklam crisis, the MP said.

He also took the names of Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Randeep Surjewala. Dubey also alleged that claimed that NYT report explained how money was given to Maoists and journalists such as Rohini Singh Swati Chaturvedi.

Responding to the BJP leader's allegations, Chaturvedi tweeted, "Open challenge to @nishikant_dubey who slandered me just now in Parliament I have nothing to do with @newsclickin have not even appeared ever on any programme, have not received a penny from them for anything. @PMOIndia please investigate & act against coward Dubey misusing Parliamentary privilege.

My journalistic income is an open book scrutinised every year by Income Tax @nsitharaman get a special audit done & let @nishikant_dubey the coward who misused his Parliamentary privilege to slander apologise. I have nothing to do with @newsclickin, she added.

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Speaker, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called Dubeys allegations libellous and defamatory, and demanded that the BJP MPs remarks be expunged from records.

When the Acting Chair was giving the floor to ministers to lay papers on the table, Shri Nishikant Dubeys microphone was switched on. He proceeded to level libellous and defamatory charges against the Congress Party and Shri Rahul Gandhi, a member of the House, without having given any notice, let alone taken the permission of the Chair. His allegations were a flagrant violation of Rule 353 of the Rules of Procedure ad Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha, Chowdhury wrote.

We therefore demand, under Rule 350, that his remarks be expunged in full and that an inquiry be conducted into how such an allegation was permitted to be raised on the record, the Congress leader added.

Anurag Thakur alleges China-Congress links over NYT expose

Addressing a press conference, Union minister Anurag Thakur alleged that the Congress, China and NewsClick are part of an "umbilical cord". "In Rahul Gandhi's 'Nakli Mohabbat Ki Dukaan' Chinese goods can be seen clearly. His love for China can be seen. They were running an anti-India agenda," Thakur said.

"In 2021, we exposed NewsClick as to how foreign propaganda is against India. In this anti-India campaign, Congress and other opposition parties came in their support... Chinese companies were funding NewsClick through Mogul Neville Roy Singham but their salesmen were some people from India, who came in their support when action was taken against them..." he added.

Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Monday amid sloganeering by treasury and opposition benches over a report on Chinese funds coming to India. Rahul Gandhi was present in the House when Dubey raised the issue.

As members from the opposition and treasury benches continued to be on their feet, Kirit Solanki, who was chairing the proceedings, adjourned the Lok Sabha till 2 pm.

What did New York Times claim?

US-based newspaper The New York Times had in a recent report claimed that one person, identified as Neville Roy Singham by the daily as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, has worked closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing the Chinese propaganda worldwide.

The NYT report has claimed that under Chinese President Xi Jinping, China has expanded state media operations, teamed up with outlets based in other nations and cultivated foreign influencers. Their aim is to disguise propaganda as independent content.

According to the report in the US daily, Singhams groups have produced YouTube videos that have garnered millions of views. They also seek to influence real-world politics by meeting with congressional aides, training lawmakers in Africa, running candidates in South African polls and organizing protests like the one in London that erupted into violence.

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Chennai: The Independent Enquiry Committee constituted by the Kalakshetra Foundation to probe into allegations of sexual misconduct on campus, has recommended major punishment for the main accused, senior faculty Hari Padman. They described him as a delinquent employee, The committee in its report recommended major punishment for the accused, Hari Padman .

The committee comprising retired justice (of Punjab & Haryana HC) K Kannan as presiding officer, former Tamil Nadu director general of police, Letika Saran, and Dr Shobha Varthaman was constituted by the Chairman of Kalakshetra, S Ramadorai. The committee set up in April, was one of the demands of the students who wished for an independent probe.

to add justice Kannan quote

The three-member committee has submitted a report with annexure to the institution recommending that it be kept confidential for the reason that it contains extremely sensitive information which if revealed, would invade the privacy of the individuals namely students, alumni and staff.

However, the concluding part of the report will be disclosed soon as it will become necessary for the delinquent employee Hari Padman to show cause against the findings of the report and the major punishment recommended by us, the committee said in a statement on Monday.

The concluding part also contains considerable recommendations for reforms in the administrative setup and (to) tune the activities of the institution that will assure safety to students, by focusing to promote Kalakshetra Foundation primarily as an institution of higher learning and not showcase it as an institution of public performers.

Since early this year, the premium performing arts institution in Chennai has been in the spotlight after students went on protests alleging sexual harassment by four teachers.

Padman, an assistant professor, was the first to be accused for several months by students of the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (in the Kalakshetra campus).

The Chennai police arrested Padman, on a complaint filed by an alumna in April that he sexually harassed her when she was a student. He was booked under sections 354A (sexual harassment) 509 (use of acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Women Harassment Act, 2013.

The institutes governing board suspended Padman and dismissed three other instructors Sanjith Lal, Sai Krishnan, and Sreenath.

Padman has been on bail since June. However, the arrest, the state governments investigation, and the boards decision came weeks after denial.

On March 19, Kalakshetras administration released a statement that said their ICC found no truth in the allegations.

The students began protesting on March 30 demanding that four teachers including Padman be suspended for alleged sexual harassment against female and male students. On March 25, Kalakshetras director Revathi Ramachandran met then DGP Sylendra Babu to share details of the ICCs report and maintain that the allegations were rumours to spoil the image of the arts institution.

The protest was temporarily called off on March 31 following the intervention of the head of the Tamil Nadu state women commission chief AS Kumari. Kumari has submitted her report to the state government and in a sealed cover to the Madras high court.

The committee had spoken to scores of students, alumni in person and through online conversations.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Divya Chandrababu Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs. ...view detail
Patna: Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan on Monday said his party will contest no less than six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, and that he wants his mother to fight next years General Elections from Hajipur seat. Chirag Paswan says his party will contest at least six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. (PTI)

The Hajipur seat is currently occupied by Paswans estranged uncle and Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, both of whom have been locked in a tussle after the latter split the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) into two factions in 2021.

The two sides have been claiming the legacy of Paswans father and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan, who passed away in 2020.

Soon, the Election Commission recognised the group headed by Chirag as Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the one helmed by Paras came to be known as Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party.

Speaking to reports in Patna, Chirag Paswan, an MP from Jamui, said: My party will contest no less than six parliamentary seats in Bihar.

Asked about Paras digging in his heels on the issue of Hajipur, Chirag Paswan said: As the sitting MP, it is natural for him (Paras) to stake claim on the seat. But for us, Hajipur has an emotional connection. I consider the land as my mother. In the absence of my father, it is natural for me to take care of the constituency the way my late father did in this lifetime.

He added: A final decision is yet to be taken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on seat sharing and candidature. But I want my mother (Reena Paswan) to contest from there (Hajipur). After my father, she has the first claim on that seat.

The Hajipur seat was represented by Ram Vilas Paswan 10 times since 1977.

Chirag Paswans remarks came even as Paras, in the past, claimed that his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan insisted that he contest the Hajipur seat as he, and not his son, was the political heir.

Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party national spokesperson Shrawan Agarwal said: This is unacceptable. Come what may, Pashupati Paras will contest from Hajipur. Late Ram Vilas Paswan had also announced Paras as his successor from Hajipur. The late leader showed faith in him and had said that Chirag will serve Jamui. Voters of Hajipur will not accept any other leader other than Pashupati Paras. Chirag keeps on floating such ideas.

Both LJP factions are currently part of the NDA. While Parass faction has been part of the alliance since 2019, Chirag Paswans camp returned to the fold last month. The latter had walked out of the NDA ahead of the state elections in Bihar in 2020 over disagreements with chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was also earlier with the bloc.

In the 2019 elections, a united LJP won six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar as an NDA constituent. While Paras won from Hajipur, Chirag emerged as winner from Jamui.

The prolonged tussle between Chirag Paswan and Paras may spell worry for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the NDA.

State BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel said: The NDA is united and any issue within the alliance will be sorted. As far as LJP is concerned, it is their internal issue and we are confident they will also resolve the issue before elections.

Chirag Paswan had earlier indicated that he expected the BJP to stick to the same seat-sharing arrangement as in 2019 when the undivided LJP had contested on six Lok Sabha seats and was given a Rajya Sabha seat as well.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Chirag Paswan told a gathering in Jamui that he wouldnt desert the seat. I came here as a youngster and will be here till I grow old, Chirag Paswan, who first won the seat in 2014, said.

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The Congress party on Monday hit out at former Chief Justice of India and member of Parliament Ranjan Gogoi for terming the basic structure doctrine of the Indian Constitution debatable. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal wondered whether it was a ruling BJP's trick to begin the full-fledged dismantling of the Constitution. Rajya Sabha MP and former CJI Ranjan Gogoi speaks in the House on The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.(ANI)

Shocking that a former CJI questions the jurisprudence of the basic structure of the Constitution, Venugopal said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Is this the BJP's trick to begin the full-fledged dismantling of the Constitution of India? Does it think that democracy, equality, secularism, federalism, judicial independence are all 'debatable' ideas?

During his maiden speech in the Upper House supporting the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, nominated Rajya Sabha member Ranjan Gogoi claimed that the basic structure doctrine has a very debatable jurisprudential basis. While there is no mention of the term Basic Structure in the Constitution, the Supreme Court, in its landmark judgment on the famous Kesavananda Bharati case, listed some basic structures and held that they "could not be abrogated even by a constitutional amendment.

Reacting to Gogoi's remarks, Venugopal said, Not surprising that those who have no regard for constitutional principles are now propping up a former CJI with a debatable track record to begin their attack on the Constitution through this very dangerous throwaway line.

What is Mr. Gogoi's argument? Is he saying that there is nothing called the basic structure that should be protected? the Congress leader wrote, asking the government whether it endorses his views.

They must categorically oppose this line of thought, or it will be clear that the BJP has now started a process to destroy the core tenets of our Constitution, he added.

Speaking in favour of the contentious bill to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government, Gogoi said that the matter is not sub judice and what is pending before the Supreme Court is the validity of the ordinance.

Several women leaders of the Congress-led grouping, I.N.D.I.A, staged a walkout over the sexual harassment allegations against the former CJI which was later cleared by the Supreme Court in 2019.

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Luanda  The former ambassador of Angola to the United Nations, Ismael Martins, has said in the Province of Luanda that he hopes for an Angolan presidency in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to be dynamic and participatory, focused on peace and economic development in the region.

Ismael Martis was speaking on the occasion of the 43rd Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government, held in Luanda, on the 17th of this month, in which Angola will take over the rotating presidency of the region, for two years.

For the retired ambassador, it is good that the countries of the region look to Angola as an important partner to solve the problems of peace and security and above all those linked to the economy.

He considered it essential that during Angola's mandate the region becomes a base for the production of goods for the rest of the continent and the world.

For the diplomat Angola is "a very important country in the region" and which must focus on tough issues in order to grow and assert itself, as well as gather the necessary resources to bring solutions to many problems common to SADC Member States

He recommended the strengthening of relations with countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The regional organization comprises Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Angola takes over the rotating leadership of SADC this month, for a period of two years, after having already done so in 2012.

The Acting Chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an intergovernmental organization created in 1992 and focused on social and economic cooperation and integration, as well as cooperation regarding politics and security issues.

JFS/AL/MRA/jmc
Congress leader Rahul Gandhis Lok Sabha membership has been restored as the House secretariat issued a notification revoking his disqualification on Monday, 137 days after he was disqualified on March 24. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (PTI)

READ HERE- Rahul Gandhi is MP again: What Lok Sabha Secretariat notification said

Gandhis membership was reinstated days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.

On March 24, the secretariat issued an order disqualifying Gandhi. The new order on Monday withdrew the previous one. Gandhi is also now eligible for the return of his bungalow.

The stay on Gandhis conviction made him eligible to return to the Lok Sabha as per the law. But he had to wait for a formal order from the secretariat to re-enter the Lok Sabha, where he has been a member since 2004.

Gandhis return to the Lok Sabha is crucial as the party wants him to participate in the no-confidence debate, which is expected to be initiated by Congresss deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi. Gandhi spoke last in the House during the discussion on the Presidents speech on February 7.

ALSO READ: Congress celebrates victory of love against hate after Rahul Gandhi's MP status restored

Hours after the Supreme Court order, the Lok Sabha secretariat received a photocopy of the order, but as per the rules, it had to wait for an authenticated copy of the order. Lok Sabha officials argued that due to the weekend, no official work could be undertaken to expedite the process of Gandhis reinstatement.

On Friday, after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, Congress started building up pressure for immediate revocation of the earlier order of the Lok Sabha secretariat issued that disqualified him from March 23.

The process included creating a file on the subject, which had the Supreme Court order along with a note on the possible steps. The file was cleared by top authorities before the circular was issued by an official to withdraw the March 24 order.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge stressed that the revocation of the disqualification should happen early. It has to be seen as to how much time the Lok Sabha will take in reinstating Rahul Gandhi as a member, he said, pointing out that when a Surat court convicted Gandhi on March 23, the Lok Sabha secretariat disqualified him the next day.

ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi vacated his Delhi bungalow after disqualification. Will he get it back?

Kharge said the Gujarat court was hundreds of kilometers away while the Supreme Court is just a few kilometers from Parliament, insisting that there was no reason for delay.

Gandhi was disqualified for speaking. Now he is qualified to speak! Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

ALSO READ: Boost to I.N.D.I.A? What Rahul Gandhi's return as MP means for Opposition

Congress Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Chowdhury met Speaker Om Birla on Saturday to urge him to expedite the process.

Supreme Court said that it is staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi. What does it mean? It means that he will get the opportunity to participate in the Parliamentary proceedings once again...The speed with which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified, should be the same to reinstate him, Chowdhury said on Saturday.

He added that he called up the Speaker the previous night. The Speaker suggested meeting him the next day. As per his suggestion, when I called him up once again this morning, he told me to speak to the Secretary-General and submit the documents to his office. I called up the Secretary-General who said that his office is closed today and told me to submit the letter to the Speaker...I sent the letter by post. They signed the letter but did not stamp it. The House should function and Rahul Gandhi comes back there. When he has been granted relief by the Court, we are requesting the Speaker to see that he faces no issue in coming back.

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The convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter who was smashed with a rock to death, during the 2002 Gujarat riots chased her with a blood thirsty approach to hunt Muslims and kill them, Banos lawyer told the Supreme Court on Monday. Bilkis Bano was five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots (HT)

The apex court started hearing petitions challenging the remission order granted by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, in August last year. Banos lawyer said the remission came amid strong disapproval to the move by a trial court in Mumbai that pronounced the convicts guilty, the investigating agency CBI and the Gujarat police.

Also Read: Supreme Court judge decries bid to delay Bilkis Bano case verdict

The perpetrators who committed a crime of this nature, are they entitled to any leniency shown by the state? advocate Shobha Gupta, representing Bano, told a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan.

She kept pleading that she is like a sister to them as she knew all of them. They were from around the area...It was not a spur of the moment incident. The convicts were chasing Bilkis with a blood thirsty approach to hunt Muslims and kill them, Gupta said. They raised slogans  these are Muslims, kill them. The high court has taken note that the crime committed by them was rare, uncommon and driven by communal hatred.

Also Read: Top court seeks files on Bilkis convicts release

Bilkis Bano was five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Her seven family members, including her first child, were also murdered.

The advocate added that under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), before considering remission, the views of the trial court, investigating agency and local police where the accused resides are taken. In the present case, all three recommended that the accused do not deserve any leniency, Gupta told the bench, which will resume hearing on Tuesday.
Kolkata: The central committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), on Sunday allowed its West Bengal unit to field candidates against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with other state being free to formulate strategies that suit the purpose of INDIA, the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition of regional and national parties. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury during addressing the media after the Opposition parties meet, in Bengaluru on Tuesday.(ANI)

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told central committee members in Delhi after a three-day meeting that the ground reality in Bengal is quite different from other states. He said although isolating BJP is the sole purpose of the opposition alliance, the CPI(M) Bengal unit cannot turn into an ally of TMC, its principal adversary, a senior CPI(M) leader said on condition of anonymity.

In Bengal, where BJP has set a target of winning 35 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, up from the 18 it did in 2019, the opposition coalition faces an interesting challenge.

CPI(M) politburo member and Bengal state secretary Md Salim said: The binary is clear. BJP thinks it will get the anti-TMC votes. That cannot be allowed. Let Congress take its decision on Bengal. We have made ours.

Incidentally, in the 2011 assembly polls in which TMC unseated the 34-year-old Left Front government, Mamata Banerjee was an ally of the Congress. The national party later walked out of the coalition government.

CPI(M)s stand triggered speculation that the Congress may adopt a similar strategy.

Going for an electoral alliance with TMC, against which we have contested all polls since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, will only help BJP, cefeating the core purpose of INDIA; all anti-TMC votes may land in the BJPs kitty, a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

The peculiar situation in Bengal has been discussed by the Congress national leadership as well, the leader added.

 People opposed to TMC will not waste their votes on us if we become allies of the ruling party. Having been in power at the Centre since 2014, BJP may become the natural choice for the electorate, the Congress leader added.

A staunch critic of Mamata Banerjee, Bengal state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has often accused the chief minister of having a close understanding with BJP, did not want to comment on having an alliance with TMC.

The BJP is free to make its calculations on loss and gain. We are far away from any alliance as of now. Whats the point in speculating? Chowdhury said.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP took its tally in the state from two (in 2014) to 18. The TMCs tally came down from 34 to 22 while the Congress lost two seats and retained two. The CPI(M) lost both seats and has no Lok Sabha member from the eastern state.

The BJPs tally however has come down to 16. Babul Supriyo resigned from the Lok Sabha and joined TMC in 2021. His Asansol seat was won for TMC by actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha in a bypoll. Another MP, Arjun Singh, returned to TMC in 2022 without resigning from the Lok Sabha.

In terms of vote share, BJP secured 40% against TMCs 43% in 2019.

A Bengal BJP leader, who did not want to be named, said: In the recent July 8 panchayat polls, TMC won around 57% of Bengals 73887 seats across all three tiers. BJP won almost twice as much gram panchayat seats won together by Left and Congress in 17 of Bengals 22 districts. The INDIA alliance will help us further.

Bengal BJPs chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya claimed that even if TMC forms an alliance with Congress, voters will still support Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

Although he did not reject the idea of forging an alliance with anti-BJP forces, TMCs veteran Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy claimed his party does not need allies to win in 2024.

Irrespective of whether the INDIA alliance works out in Bengal or not, BJP will find it tough to retain more than seven to eight seats. The panchayat results showed the reality. Mamata alone is capable of winning all seats.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tanmay Chatterjee Tanmay Chatterjee has spent more than three decades covering regional and national politics, internal security, intelligence, defence and corruption. He also plans and edits special features on subjects ranging from elections to festivals. ...view detail
BHARATPUR: Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constables were arrested late on Sunday on charges of killing the woman constables husband during a visit to Delhi and burying his body 200km away in Rajasthans Alwar, the Bharatpur police said on Monday. Poonam Devi was recruited as a constable in CRPF in 2014, four years after her marriage to Sanjay Singh of Bharatpur districts Khoh locality (Sourced)

Girraj, Khoh station house officer said the two accused, identified Ram Pratap Gurjar, 31, and Poonam Devi, 32, were constables in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). They got to know each other when they were posted in Srinagar and had been in a relationship for more than two years.

They were arrested late on Sunday after Gurjar led them to the body of Poonam Devis husband, Sanjay Singh, which was buried on a parcel of land in Alwar districts Bansur.

According to preliminary investigation, police said the accused allegedly decided to kill Sanjay Singh after he learnt about his wifes relationship and thrashed her when she last came home.

Police said Poonam Devi, who was posted in Delhi, called her husband to national capital on July 31. She and Gurjar strangled him soon after he reached. Once the two allegedly killed him, she went back to work while Gurjar drove back to Alwar with the body where he buried him.

Sanjay Singh, a resident of Khoh area in Bharatpur, told his father on July 31 that he was going to Delhi to meet his wife Poonam and expected to be away for three days.

His father Maniram Singh told the police that he last spoke to Sanjay when he was at the Ballabhgarh metro station, and that he could not get in touch with his son again. His phone was switched off. Maniram finally approached the Khoh police for help on August 1 after Poonam Devi insisted that he hadnt showed up.

Maniram Singh said Poonam Devi, and her two sisters from Uttar Pradeshs Mathura district, married his three sons in 2010. The family supported Poonam Devi get recruited to the CRPF in 2014, he added.

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Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday took a dig at the Congress while replying to the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, saying Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will quit the I.N.D.I.A bloc once the bill is passed. (FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES) Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the proceedings of Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday. (ANI )

The home minister targeted Congress over joining hands with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in opposing the Ordinance bill saying, The Congress was opposing the bill which was in consonance with the law it had enacted.

If you have a conscience, you will support the bill but you want to save the alliance," he added.

Amit Shah also slammed AAP, saying that the Kejriwal-led party was born to oppose the Congress and it will continue to do so.

Amit Shah's top quotes from his reply in Rajya Sabha on the Delhi Services Bill

The objective of the bill was only and only to provide efficient, corruption-free governance and popular government. Delhi is a Union Territory with an assembly with limited powers. In the future, whoever fights elections in Delhi need to understand this character. Delhi services bill brought as AAP govt does not adhere to rules. AAP govt doesn't convene Delhi cabinet meetings regularly, held only 6 in 2022, including 3 on budget, and only 2 in 2023 so far. We have not brought the bill to usurp power. This is to stop the encroachment of the Delhi government on the Centre's powers. After the SC ruling, the AAP govt ordered immediate transfers in the vigilance dept as it was probing scams, including in the CM house renovation. They (opposition parties) say we get directions from Nagpur. At least, Nagpur is part of India, unlike Russia and China from where they get instructions. Since the Supreme Court has also accepted that the Parliament has the right to pass a law on any subject of Delhi. I want to ask whether Services do not fall in the category of subjects. We have been accused of issuing the ordinance when Supreme Court was on vacation. They don't know that there is also a vacation bench. They are foisting a false chronology to hide the chronology of the acts they committed to get rid of the files of spending 6 times more than the officially allocated amount on Sheesh Mahal. They (opposition parties) are together because they know that they cannot achieve anything electorally as individual parties. But they have united just to show numbers. But even then Modi Ji will win the election in 2024.

What is the Delhi services bill?

In May, the Centre passed an ordinance in Delhi that created an authority - independent of the elected Delhi government - for the transfer and posting of senior civil service officers in the national capital. This came shortly after the Supreme Court held that the AAP government should be allowed legislative and executive control of administrative services in the national capital, with the exception of those related to land, law and public order, and police.

The move was strongly opposed by the AAP, and was followed by several protests from the opposition parties. Kejriwal also put in efforts to bring all the opposition parties together against the ordinance.
Rajya Sabha Highlights: The Delhi Services Bill has been passed in the Rajya Sabha. The bill aims to replace the ordinance governing transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government. AAP's Raghav Chadha earlier criticized the bill during a spirited debate in the Rajya Sabha, calling it a "political fraud" and a "constitutional sin" that would lead to an administrative logjam. The debate highlights the ongoing political tensions between the ruling BJP and the AAP in Delhi. Opposition MPs during the discussion on The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.(ANI)

Days after the Delhi services bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minster Amit Shah moved the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The Bill, which replaces the Ordinance over control of bureaucrats in the Delhi government, was passed by a voice vote on Thursday amid a walkout by newly formed Opposition bloc the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.IA). The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been seeking opposition parties' support against the Ordinance, had issued a three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha members, asking them to be present in the House on Monday and Tuesday. The Congress had also issued a three-lined whip to its MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment on Monday.

Read: Anything can happen: BJP v/s INDIA bloc spat before Delhi Bill is moved in RS

Floor leaders of I.N.D.I.A met at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament on Monday morning to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House.
Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 replacing the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government with 131 votes in favour against 102. Union home minister Amit Shah replies on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.(PTI)

Replying to the debate on the contentious bill in Rajya Sabha, Union home minister Amit Shah asserted that the bill in no way violates the Supreme Court judgement. Shah said the bill is aimed at effective, corruption-free governance in the national capital. He also assured the members that there is not even a single provision that changes the status of the system prevailing since the Congress regime.

The minister defended the ordinance alleging the AAP-led Delhi government transferred officers of the vigilance department as liquor scam files were with it.

So much haste was shown concerning the vigilance department by Delhi government because it had files related to 'excise policy scam' and 'sheesh-mahal', he said.

Taking a swipe at Congress for joining hands with the Aap Aadmi Party, Shah said AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal will quit the opposition bloc INDIA once the Delhi services bill is passed. He said that the bill has not been brought to impose Emergency or take away the rights of people.

"Earlier, there were no fights over transfer postings in Delhi, no CMs had any problemsIn 2015, a govt came up after an 'Andolan'Some people said that the Centre wants to take power into its hands. The Centre doesn't need to do so as the people of India have given us the power and the right," Shah said.

Earlier today, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said the bill is a political fraud, constitutional sin and will create an administrative logjam. Chadha said that the BJP had been demanding statehood for Delhi for almost 40 years and promised the same in its election manifesto. The AAP leader said that the BJP has destroyed the 40 years of hard work of its leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishan Advani to make Delhi a full state.

Taking potshots at Union home minister Amit Shah invoking first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to back the bill, Chadha said the BJP leader should become Adavanivadi and not Nehruvadi.

Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi opposed the legislation saying it is a "retrogressive bill" that is "completely unconstitutional".

He also said it is a "frontal assault on the people of Delhi and violates federalism".

Drama over motion moved by Raghav Chadha

A drama ensued in the House when the opposition's motion to send the contentious bill to a select committee was taken up. Some members, including BJD MP Sasmit Patra and BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, said their names were included in the motion moved by AAP MP Raghav Chadha without their consent.

Now it is a matter of investigation how the motion was signed, Shah said.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said that a probe will be ordered into complaints of some Rajya Sabha MPs on the inclusion of their names without consent.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kunal Gaurav Kunal Gaurav is a multimedia journalist with Hindustan Times, New Delhi. He handles daily editorial operations for the digital news desk, including news tracking, news prioritisation, writing and editing. ...view detail
Congress leader and former MP from Delhi Sandeep Dikshit, in toeing a different line from his partys position as he has once again extended his support to the Central governments ordinance bill adding that opposing this bill is wrong. Former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit.(PTI)

"It was confirmed that this bill will be passed in the Lok Sabha, as the govt has a majority there. When this bill will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, though the govt doesn't have a majority here but just like in Lok Sabha if some other parties will support this bill, then it will be passed...In my opinion, opposing this bill is wrong," Dikshit said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is all set to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Earlier on August 3, the Bill was passed in Lok Sabha by a voice vote after a walkout by members of I.N.D.I.A alliance.

Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking the support of opposition parties against the bill, especially in the Rajya Sabha.

Launching an attack on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Sandeep Dikshit said that they themselves are trapped.

"Who is Aam Aadmi Party to attack any party, they themselves are trapped. They don't even know that their big party leaders will be outside jail or in jail. They should worry about themselves. Congress party is with them just for this bill," he added.

Further, the Congress leader stated that Arvind Kejriwal has fooled the people of Delhi.

"The way Arvind Kejriwal has fooled the people of Delhi, he is now fooling members of the alliance and the whole country," Dikshit said.

The BJP-led central government had this May brought the ordinance on the transfer and posting of bureaucrats in Delhi in May, virtually negating a Supreme Court verdict giving the elected government in Delhi control over services.

The Centre on May 19 promulgated the Ordinance to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi, which the AAP government has said goes against the Supreme Court verdict on control of services.

Transfer and postings of all officers of the Delhi government were under the executive control of the Lieutenant Governor before the May 11 verdict of the apex court.

The Congress had earlier made its stand clear stating that they will oppose the Centre's ordinance on administrative services in Delhi if a bill is brought to replace the ordinance in the Parliament.

The Bill is expected to be taken up by Parliament this week as it is on the government's agenda in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking the support of opposition parties against the Ordinance. Members of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance have said they will oppose the Bill in Parliament.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to the Parliament in a wheelchair to participate in the crucial Rajya Sabha session where The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 is being discussed. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh attends proceedings in the Rajya Sabha. (PTI)

The bill empowers the Central Government to make rules in connection with the affairs of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, including the functions, terms, and other conditions of service of officers and employees.

The Congress party has issued a three-line whip for its MPs, urging them to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. "Very important issues will be taken up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha tomorrow, i.e. Monday, August 7, 2023," Congress stated in a notification of August 4 which was made public on Sunday.

It further said that, "All members of Congress party in the Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11:00 A.M. onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023 without fail and support the party stand." This may be treated as most important, it added.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, for passage in the House after opposition members moved a resolution disapproving the ordinance brought by the government in May this year. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha last week.

Opposition parties, who are in I.N.D.I.A bloc, are opposed to the bill. The House is seeing an orderly debate on the bill. Rajya Sabha has seen daily disruptions during the monsoon session of Parliament over oppositions demand for detailed discussion on Manipur situation and statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Human rights activists have raised concern after the United Nations Human Rights Office in Uganda officially closed business in the country on Saturday.

Earlier this year, the Ugandan government decided not to renew the mandate of the United Nations Human Rights office in the country and on Saturday, the office officially closed business in the country.

However, according to human rights and political activists, the closure of the office will have lasting implication on the country.

These say the commission's departure raises apprehensions about the future of human rights protection and oversight in Uganda.

According human rights lawyer, Nicholas Opiyo, the closure of the UN Human Rights office spells doom for the country.

Throughout its tenure, the United Nations human rights mission played a vital role in monitoring and advocating for the respect and preservation of human rights in the country.

Opiyo said he was worried about the absence of an international body overseeing human rights in a country like Uganda.

Other activists raised concern over the potential tough times ahead for Ugandan citizens especially ahead of the 2026 elections, casting doubt about the Uganda human right commission to be fully independent.

However, Kabyanga Godfrey, the state minister for information noted that the country shall manage even without the UN human rights since it has the Uganda human rights commission and other non-governmental organizations in the same line.
Nominated Rajya Sabha member and former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in his maiden speech in the Upper House on Monday supported the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 even as several women leaders from opposition parties walked out of Parliament over alleged sexual harassment charges against him. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Supreme Court in 2019. Rajya Sabha MP and former CJI Ranjan Gogoi (ANI)

In my respectful submission, the bill is perfectly valid. The position in my perception is this  the state legislature makes laws for the states, Parliament makes laws for the Union territories. For NCT of Delhi, the legislature makes laws on state subjects except three. By virtue of 239AA(3)(b), Parliament has the power to frame laws beyond these three. That is exactly what the bill is seeking to do. Therefore, there is no question of overreaching (SC order). As a layman, it is not subjudice, what is pending before the SC is the validity of the Ordinance and specifically two questions referred to the Constitution Bench, and has nothing to do with what is being discussed in the House, Gogoi said, explaining why the bill should be passed.

Gogoi also said that the Centres Ordinance as it stands today cannot be called an encroachment against the Supreme Courts decision. Gogoi spoke for the first time in the Rajya Sabha since he became a member in 2020. Four MPs, Samajwadi Party leader Jaya Bachchan, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray factions Priyanka Chaturvedi, Nationalist Congress Partys Vandana Chavan and TMCs Sushmita Dev walked out of the Rajya Sabha in protest when Gogoi got up to speak.

Back in April 2019, a former junior court officer alleged she was sexually harassed by Gogoi; a month later, a three-member in-house committee of Supreme Court judges, led by justice SA Bobde, unanimously cleared him of the sexual harassment charges.

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The Supreme Court on Monday ordered to constitute a three-member judicial committee headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal along with retired justices Asha Menon and Shalini P Joshi to oversee the remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation in relation to various incidents of ethnic violence in Manipur. Supreme Court of India (File Photo)(HT_PRINT)

Follow Manipur SC hearing LIVE Updates here

"The broad outline is to use whatever in our power is to restore faith in rule of law. We will appoint a committee of 3 former HC judges. This committee of three judges will look at the investigation, relief, remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation. It is a broad-based committee. it will look at the relief camps (also)," the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, reported Bar and Bench.

The top court will finalise and release its order later in the evening today.

The bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also ordered a retired IPS officer, Dattatray Padsalgikar, former deputy national security advisor and ex-Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) to supervise the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case.

The court further said that senior police officers of DIG rank from outside Manipur will supervise and oversee the Special Investigation Teams (SITs) investigating the criminal cases, and, CBI teams probing the criminal cases should also have senior officials from outside the violence-hit northeastern state.

Read here: Manipur violence: CBI to probe all 12 cases of crime against women, says govt

The court resumed the hearing on a batch of petitions pertaining to ethnic violence in Manipur with the state government saying that the CBI will probe all 12 FIRs relating to the crimes against women.

Manipur Director General of Police Rajiv Singh was present during the hearing to answer queries on the ethnic violence and steps taken by the administration so far, besides the segregation of cases for the purposes of effective investigation.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, respectively, submitted a report on issues including the segregation of cases, which the apex court had sought on August 1.

"The government is handling the situation at a very mature level," the attorney general told the bench.

The state government proposed to set up SITs, headed by the superintendent of police at the district level, to probe sensitive cases. The CBI has been asked to investigate 12 cases.

On August 1, the supreme court said there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.

The Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, the FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

Read here: More forces rushed to tense Manipur; tribal body likely to meet Amit Shah today

According to a report accessed by Hindustan Times, a total of 12 cases documenting crime against women during the ethnic clashes in Manipur shows grisly incidents including the gang-rape of five women, murder of four women, and assault with intent to outrage the modesty of 10 other women.

Ethnic clashes between Kukis and Meiteis broke out in Manipur on May 3, and have been continuing for the last three months, claiming over 160 lives.

(With inputs from agencies)
The national animal of India is Tiger and the government does not intend to recognise cow as the national animal, Union culture minister G Kishan Reddy told Parliament on Monday. Union culture minister G Kishan Reddy. (File Photo)

Reddy was replying to a slew of questions raised by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) Bhagirath Choudhary, who asked the culture ministry whether the government intends to recognise Gaumata (cow), an integral part of Indian culture, as a national animal, considering protection and revival of the Indian and Sanatan culture by bringing a legislation in Parliament.

To that, Reddy clarified that the Government of India had notified Tiger and Peacock as National Animal and National Bird, respectively, and that both these had been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

Government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF&CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as National Animal and National Bird, respectively, on 30th May 2011, he added.

On a specific question whether the high court of Allahabad and Jaipur had ordered and commented to expedite the process of declaring Gaumata as national animal, Reddy noted that these matters rested in the hands of the states legislative authorities, while adding, In order to complement and supplement the efforts made by the states and UTs (Union Territories) the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and protection of indigenous breeds including indigenous breeds of cattle. The mission is leading to increase in availability of indigenous breeds including cattle in the country. The Department has also established the Animal Welfare Board of India for protecting animals including cow and its progeny.

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New Delhi: The Union government is not considering reviving the quota for Members of Parliament (MP) for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) across the country as of now, the education ministry said on Monday. HT Image

The governments statement came in response to a query by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Sarmistha Sethi in Lok Sabha on plans to revive the discretionary quota that was scrapped last year.

There is no such proposal, at present, to revive the quota for Members of Parliament for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Union minister of state for education Annpurna Devi said in a written response.

There is no such proposal under consideration since the admission under some special provisions, including Honble Members of Parliaments quota, were granted over and above sanctioned strength of the student strength of 40 per section which was adversely affecting learning due to high pupil teacher ratio in classes, she added.

Under KVS Special Dispensation Admission Scheme or MP quota, which was introduced in 1975, an MP in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha could recommend a maximum of 10 students from their respective constituencies every academic year for admission in classes 1 to 9.

With 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha, a total of 7,880 admissions every year were possible against this quota across 1,248 KVs in India.

The Union government scrapped the discretionary quota for admissions to KVs last year, days after the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan put it on hold. Officials cited excessive admissions under the quota as the reason behind its removal.

At least 1.43 million million students are currently studying in KVs across the country.

In her response in the Lower House, Devi said KVs are primarily opened to cater to the educational needs of wards of transferable central government employees, including defence and paramilitary personnel, central autonomous bodies, central public sector undertakings (PSUs) and central institute of higher learning (IHL), by providing a common programme of education throughout the country.

The National Educational Policy 2020 mandates reconfiguration of existing academic and administrative practices. This includes maintaining a healthy pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) at the foundational level to achieve desired learning outcomes, she added.
The government is not considering reviving the quota for members of Parliament (MPs) for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Union ministry of education informed Parliament on Monday. Union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi. (File Photo)

In a written response to a question raised by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Sarmistha Seth on the governments plan to revive the discretionary quota that was scrapped last year, Union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi said, There is no such proposal under consideration since the admission under some special provisions including Honble members of Parliaments quota were granted over and above sanctioned strength of the student strength of 40 per section, which was adversely affecting learning due to high pupil teacher ratio in classes.

The Union government had last year scrapped the discretionary MP quota for admissions to the KVs, and released revised admission guidelines. Officials cited excessive admissions under the quota as the reason behind the move.

Under the MP quota, which was introduced in 1975, a parliamentarian could recommend a maximum of 10 students from their respective constituencies every academic year for admission in classes 1 to 9. With 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha, a total of 7,880 admissions every year were possible against this quota across 1,248 KVs in India.

In her response, the minister said that KVs are primarily opened to cater to the educational needs of the wards of transferable central government employees including Defence and Paramilitary personnel, central autonomous bodies, central public sector undertakings (PSUs) and central institutes of higher learning (IHL) by providing a common programme of education throughout the country.

The National Educational Policy 2020 mandates reconfiguration of existing academic and administrative practices. This includes maintaining a healthy pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) at the foundational level to achieve desired learning outcomes, she added.
The Karnataka government has handed over investigation into the washroom video case of a college in Udupi, to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), where three girl students, studying an optometry course in the Netrajyothi Paramedical College, allegedly videographed a fellow student in the washroom. Due to the sensitivity of the case, it has been handed over to the CID for further investigation (ANI)

On Monday, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah posted that there is an allegation that a video was filmed in the toilet of a private college in Udupi. Due to the sensitivity of the case, it has been handed over to the CID for further investigation.

His tweet said, There is an allegation that a video was filmed in the toilet of a private college in Udupi, and as this is a sensitive case, the case has been handed over to the CID for further investigation.

On July 18, three Muslim female students allegedly recorded a video of a Hindu girl in the college washroom.

A suo motu police case was filed in this connection on July 26. The Malpe police registered an FIR against the accused students - Shabnaz, Alfia, Aleema, and the institute under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), section 204 (destruction of 1[document or electronic record] to prevent its production as evidence), section 175 (omission to produce document or electronic record to public servant by person legally bound to produce it) and section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66(E) (punishment for violation of privacy) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

The incident occurred at Netra Jyothi Institute of Allied Health Sciences, where the three students were in second year of a diploma course in optometry.

After the victim, a Hindu student, told her friends about the incident, they informed the college management, who then reported it to the police and also handed over the phone used for recording to them.

Soon after, the incident took a communal turn as right-wing groups claimed that the suspended students, who were Muslims, used hidden cameras to shoot private videos of Hindu girls, intending to circulate them among Muslim men as part of a Jihadi conspiracy.

However, the Udupi police strongly denied these claims.

The decision to hand over the case to the CID came after the Karnataka government appointed S Belliyappa, deputy superintendent of police (SP) of Kundapur, as the new investigation officer (IO) to handle the case, following protests from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Opposition BJP condemned the incident and demanded a judicial probe into the matter. I suspect the role of PFI in the case. After the ban on PFI, we think that a PFI womens wing has become active. The accused students might be a part of this operation. I dont trust the investigation done by the state government. They should hand over the case to the central government, Udupi MLA Yashpal Suvarna said.
A team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials resumed the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi at 10.30 am on Monday. There was a slight delay today owing to it being the fifth Monday of 'Sawan' month (considered one of the most auspicious periods by Hindus), Sudhir Tripathi, an advocate representing the Hindu side, told news agency ANI. Scientific tests of the area under the three domes of Gyanvapi mosque were conducted on Sunday. (HT/Rajesh Kumar)

He added that the work is progressing and the Anjuman Intezamia Committee, which manages the mosque, is cooperating with the survey.

Sharing an update on the ASI survey, Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, another lawyer from the Hindu side, told ANI that the work is being done in a 'systematic' manner and that the measurements will take some time.

Top updates on the Gyanvapi mosque complex survey by ASI:

Scientific tests of the area under the three domes of Gyanvapi mosque were conducted on Sunday to determine if the 17th-century masjid was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple. The Hindu side's lawyer, Vishnu Shankar Jain, said that the photography, mapping and measurement of the area has been completed along with cleaning of a few basements. Later, Jain added that representatives of the Hindu side will not comment on the findings of the survey as it is being done under the court's supervision.

The primary stage of the court-ordered survey is over and the secondary stage has begun with "machines" including radars. Tripathi said on Saturday that the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and other techniques were employed for the work. The Hindu side is satisfied with the survey so far, he added.

Ahmad on Sunday slammed the Hindu representatives for allegedly spreading rumours that fragments of Hindu idols have been found in the debris inside the complex. "Rumours are being spread even for areas where a survey is yet to be done... When the public sees this, there will be a frenzy... " Ahmad told ANI.

Syed Mohammad Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, also accused a section of media of falsely claiming that idols, 'trishul' and 'kalash' were found during the survey of the 'tahkhaanaa' (basement) on Saturday. "If such acts are not contained, the Muslim side will once again boycott the survey work," he said.

The scientific survey of the complex, adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple, excluding Wuzu Khana, began on Friday, following Allahabad high court's order, which allowed the ASI to conduct the exercise. The Muslim side did not participate in the survey on Friday.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad HC order, an exercise that the Muslim side says will "reopen wounds of the past".

(With inputs from PTI)

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A delegation of senior Haryana Congress leaders led by party's state unit chief Udai Bhan plan to visit Nuh district on Tuesday. The party said the purpose of the visit is to re-establish peace and brotherhood in the area, hit by communal violence. Workers remove the debris and stone from the road near the bus stand in Gurugram after communal violence in Nuh. (HT File)

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, were killed after communal clashes broke out in Nuh when some people allegedly pelted stones on a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession on July 31. The violence also spread to neighbouring Gurugram.

"A delegation of senior party leaders led by Haryana Congress president Chaudhary Udai Bhan will visit Nuh on Tuesday where it will meet the violence-affected victims and the people of the of the area" a statement issued by the party's state unit said on Monday.

Former Haryana chief minister and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be part of the delegation, it said.

"The purpose of this visit is to re-establish peace and brotherhood in the area and find out the truth," it said.

The Congress has demanded a judicial inquiry into the Nuh violence under the supervision of a high court judge.

Targeting the BJP-JJP government, Hooda said if it had taken "proper steps" on time and the sensitivity of the situation seriously, the violence would not have happened.

He alleged that the government has proved to be a "complete failure" in fulfilling its responsibility.

A judicial inquiry is necessary to ensure that the guilty in the case are not spared and no innocent person faces any trouble, Hooda said.

Haryana Congress chief Bhan claimed that there is a lack of coordination between the chief minister and the home Minister on the Nuh issue.

"The chief minister says the police cannot provide security to all and the home minister says he cannot respond to questions on the violence...In such a situation, the question before the people of the state is, who is responsible for the law and order," he said.

Bhan said the Congress will not allow the BJP-JJP government "to play with the lives and the property of the people as well as the brotherhood and harmony of the state".
NEW DELHI: The governments focus on border infrastructure and connectivity over the past nine years has significantly improved Indias ability to respond to Chinas actions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Monday. External affairs minister S Jaishankar interacts with the media regarding the issue of border infrastructure in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)

India and China remain engaged in talks to resolve the standoff in Ladakh sector after addressing tensions at five to six focal points on the LAC, he said during an interaction with reporters that focused on the Modi governments work to ramp up border infrastructure.

The two sides have been locked in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020. Bilateral ties plummeted to a six-decade low after a brutal skirmish in Galwan Valley killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops. Jaishankar has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalised without restoring peace and tranquillity on the border.

China had the first mover advantage because it steadily improved infrastructure on its side of the LAC from the 1990s and India suffered due to a flawed view within previous governments that leaving border regions undeveloped would deter incursions, Jaishankar said. The improvement of infrastructure led to increased contestation and patrolling by the Chinese side, he said.

The current standoff, he said, was triggered by the intentions of the Chinese side, and not Indias construction of infrastructure in its own territory.

In the past, [Chinese] troops would come in vehicles while our troops used mule tracks. Now, if we can deploy our troops in large numbers, one big reason is infrastructure. China had the first mover advantage, and now we will do what needs to be done, whether they like it or not, he said.

Pointing to the annual budget for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) being ramped up from 3,782 crore in 2013-14 to 14,387 crore in 2023-24, Jaishankar said: After 2014, [is the] Indian military able to deploy and counter any Chinese movement better? Absolutely, no question about it.

Indian troops were able to deploy speedily in 2020 because border infrastructure had improved, he contended. If the same thing had happened in 2014, we would have been at a huge disadvantage. They developed infrastructure and we did not match it, he said.

A total of 6,806 km of roads was built in border areas during 2014-22, whereas the figure for 2008-14 was 3,610 km. Another 1,800 km of roads will be built in Arunachal Pradesh at a cost of 30,000 crore, while five strategic tunnels have been completed in the past three years to improve access to key mountain passes, which now remain closed for a shorter period every year. Work on 10 tunnels is underway and five more are being planned.

These developments on the ground will determine the quality of our response to national security challenges, Jaishankar said, while acknowledging that there were complexities in negotiations to resolve the standoff on the LAC.

Rejecting the oppositions criticism of the government over the border row, he said: It was said that we wont be able to do anything, the talks wont be successful, there wont be any progress, disengagement cant take place. But solutions were found at some focal points for tensions in the past three years.

Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake and Hot Springs are among the places where tensions were addressed. While there has been no complete solution, diplomacy and negotiations take time as they are complicated, Jaishankar said.

Responding to a question, Jaishankar said the Indian side carefully tracks negotiations between Bhutan and China to resolve their border row. Bhutan and China have had 24 rounds of border since the 1980s and it is for them to determine the issue, he said.

Jaishankar said China has developed a large number of border villages, some close to the LAC and others in interior areas. The Indian side too made an allocation in its last budget to develop vibrant villages. This was done to provide better amenities, including road and digital connectivity, so that residents of border regions wont move to interior areas, he said.

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A terrorist was gunned down in a gunfight as Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday scuttled an infiltration attempt from across the border in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district, officials said. Poonch: Security personnel during a search and cordon operation in Poonch district.(PTI)

The alert troops in Degwar sector noticed the movement of some terrorists attempting to sneak into this side under the cover of darkness in the early hours of the day and engaged them in an encounter, the officials said.

They said one terrorist was gunned down but his body was yet to be retrieved from the scene.

Jammu-based defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said an army ambush party established contact with terrorists in Garhi battalion area around 2 am.

Two individuals were observed moving across LoC in the general area Degwar Terva. In the ensuing firefight, one terrorist was seen dropping while the second moved towards Pintu Nala, the officer said.

The whole area was cordoned off and a search operation is underway, officials said, adding further details are awaited.
Washington  Somalia reopened the National Blood Bank Saturday for the first time in more than 30 years, in a significant move to address the shortage of blood supplies and save lives.

Somalia Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, who inaugurated the fresh start for the center in Mogadishu, said it's a crucial achievement for his nation, which has been grappling with frequent disasters and violent incidents that require adequate blood supplies.

The country's health minister, Dr. Ali Haji Adam, told VOA the revival of the center signifies a turning point in the country's health care system.

"With the reopening of the national blood bank, we can now adequately address the overwhelming demand for blood in emergency situations and enhance the chances of saving precious lives." Adam said.

The minister said the center will have the capacity to store hundreds of thousands of blood donations, all made by the public.

"In the past, when tragic accidents like the Zobe 1 and Zobe 2 explosions occurred in 2017 and in 2022, the public rushed to donate blood, but unfortunately there was no adequate storage facility to store the donated blood. Today that changes," Adam explained.

The health minister highlighted the critical impact of the lack of access to safe blood in Somalia, particularly in connection with child mortality.

"The second cause of maternal death during childbirth is bleeding, but with the reopening of [the] blood bank, mothers will have access to this lifesaving resource," Adam said.

Hospitals across Somalia have faced immense challenges in obtaining sufficient blood supplies.

Medical officials say they are optimistic that the blood bank will not only serve the immediate needs of people injured in accidents and disasters but will also prove beneficial for anemic children in Somalia.

Established in 1976, the national blood bank had not been operating for nearly three decades due to conflicts, leaving the war-torn nation without a reliable source of blood for critical medical emergencies.
Four women MPs walked out of Rajya Sabha on Monday protesting the maiden speech of nominated member Ranjan Gogoi, who had faced sexual harassment allegations during his stint as Chief Justice of India. The four women MPs who walked out of the Upper House in protest were Jaya Bachchan, Samajwadi Party; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena (UBT); Vandana Chavan, NCP; and Sushmita Dev, TMC. Nominated member Ranjan Gogoi speaks in the Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.(PTI)

In 2019, Gogoi faced charges of sexual misconduct from a former staffer in his office that brought back the spotlight on the #MeToo movement, in which women across the board spoke about episodes of sexual harassment at the workplace. Gogoi had denied allegations claiming it was an attempt by a bigger force to deactivate the office of the Chief Justice of India because sensitive matters were to be heard by the court.

There is a bigger force behind this. They want to deactivate the office of the Chief Justice of India because I am hearing sensitive matters next week. Independence of judiciary is under very serious threat, it is pathetic, said Gogoi during the hearing in April 2019.

The Supreme Court-appointed committee conducting an in-house inquiry into sexual harassment charges cleared Gogoi, finding no substance" in the accusations levelled by a former employee in his office. Gogoi, however, faced criticism for constituting an emergency bench to hear the allegations against himself and later constituting an alternative bench that attacked the character of the complainant.

On Monday, Gogoi for the first time participated in the discussion in Rajya Sabha where he supported the contentious Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

What is pending before the Supreme Court is the validity of the ordinance, and the two questions referred to the Constitution bench, and that has nothing to do with what is being debated in the House, Gogoi said.

The law doesn't appear to be arbitrary. In my respectful submission, the bill is perfectly valid, he concluded.

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Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday held separate meetings with legislators in the state to address the concerns raised by disgruntled legislators. The step comes days after a group of legislators expressed their dissatisfaction over alleged negligence and lack of response from cabinet ministers on matters related to release of funds and transfer of officers, among others. Siddaramaiah aims to ensure maximum cooperation among the ministers and has received valuable feedback from the MLAs (ANI)

To address the situation, the chief minister conducted separate meetings with MLAs at the Vidhana Soudha throughout the day. From 11 am to 2 pm, Siddaramaiah met with MLAs, ministers, and in-charges from Tumakuru, Yadgir, and Chitradurga districts. In the evening, from 4 pm to 7 pm, he held meetings with MLAs, representatives, and concerned ministers from Bagalkot, Ballary, and Dharwad districts.

The party has taken the proactive approach to address any issues MLAs have at an early stage by organising these meetings. The goal is to ensure we work as a unit ahead of the Lok Sabha election. The MLAs from the respective districts were given a fair opportunity to voice their opinions on the ministers, highlighting any issues or problems they are facing, said a senior Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office bearer, requesting anonymity.

According to the leader, Siddaramaiah aims to ensure maximum cooperation among the ministers and has received valuable feedback from the MLAs.

During the discussions, the chief minister requested the MLAs not to press for immediate funds allocation for developmental activities. Instead, the partys priority lies in delivering on all five guarantee schemes and implementing major projects in the state.

We are all united. We came here to discuss development in our respective constituencies. To our demands, the chief minister has responded positively. Regarding the allocations, whatever they can give they have given and he has assured that more funds will be allocated in the next budget, said Challakere MLA D Sudhakar after the meeting.

A letter allegedly written by Congress MLA BR Patil on July 24and 11 other party legislators had alleged various concerns against cabinet ministers, including lack of response and funds. However, Patil has claimed that the letter is fake and has lodged a police complaint regarding the same.

Meanwhile, the top Congress leadership discussed the partys strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with senior party leaders from Karnataka on Wednesday, in New Delhi.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi participated in the discussions, along with Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar, and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge for Karnataka, Randeep Surjewala. The meetings in Bengaluru are said to be a result of the discussions held in New Delhi to address the concerns of MLAs.

Hungud MLA Vijayanand Kashappanavar, who attended the meeting, said that the government has called for the meeting to ensure there is good governance in the state. The previous government had not done any development in our region claiming Covid and others. Today (Monday) we had a fruitful discussion about what can be done for our region, said the leader from Bagalkote.

HD Ranganath, an MLA from Kunigal said that he reminded the chief minister about the promises the party had made to his constituency. I am very happy that our voices were heard and responded to, he said refusing the comments on the concerns over transfers of officers and lack of funds raised by other MLAs.
Indias handloom industry, one of the key contributors in uplifting the poor, expanded from 30,000 crore to 1.3 lakh crore in the past nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, urging people to adopt swadeshi (indigenous) products and emulate the resolve of the Quit India Movement in rejecting corruption, dynastic rule and appeasement politics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the National Handloom Day celebrations, at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi (ANI)

Khadi is not just a piece of cloth but also a weapon for those with self-respect, those who are proud of the nation, and who dream of Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), the PM said at the ninth National Handloom Day at Bharat Mandapam, two days ahead of the anniversary of the Quit India Movement that took place in 1942.

Referring to August 7 as Swadeshi movement day, Modi said a day after today is the 9th August, which witnessed the biggest movement of Indias fight for Independence.

On August 9 [1942], under the leadership of Respected Bapu, Quit India Movement was launched, asking the British to vacate the country, and it became a nationwide awakening, forcing the English people to leave India. Today, this is the demand of the time to inspire citizens to exhibit the same will power and use the same mantra to force unwarranted elements to leave the country as they are the obstacles in realising the dream of a developed Bharat, Modi said.

Some evils block our way in achieving this resolve. That is why, Bharat today, in one voice, tells these evils Quit India  today Bharat says corruption, quit India dynasty, quit India appeasement, quit India These menaces in India are big threats to the nation Big challenge to the country, he said.

Speaking about the need to revive the domestic textile sector, he said, Friends, it was unfortunate that the textile industry, which was so strong in past decades, did not get adequate attention to remain robust. The condition was such that khadi was left on the verge of death. People looked down upon those who put on khadi clothes. After 2014, our government is making endeavours to change this thinking.

After his appeal to the people to purchase khadi items in 2015, there was over three-times growth in production and the sale of khadi clothes surged by over five times, with growing demand in both domestic and overseas markets, the PM said. Friends, nine years ago, sale of khadi was around 25,000- 30,000 crore, today it has surpassed 1.3 lakh crore, he added.

This additional 1 lakh crore that came in the sector in the last nine years benefited the poor, the handloom weavers in villages, and tribal people, he said. And today, when the Niti Aayog says that in the last five years about 13.5 crore [135 million] people have come out of poverty, the contribution of this [promotion of handloom] is also acknowledged, he added.

Repeating his call to go vocal for local to promote the handloom sector, he said the slogan has become a mass movement. He asked the Indian industry to promote local supply chains instead of importing finished products from overseas.

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A male passenger was caught smoking inside the toilet of Mumbai-bound IndiGo flight midair that was flying from Dubai on August 3, news agency ANI reported. An IndiGo Airlines plane. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

The passenger identified as Kavraj Tagat Singh, a resident of Rajasthan, was found smoking in the toilet of flight after one of the crew members got cigarette smell coming from the loo.

After the investigation, a burnt cigarette was found in the loo and the passenger was asked by the crew as to why he had smoked after he gave them a lighter and a cigarette pack.

The incident prompted the flight crew to immediately intervene and report the matter to Mumbai's Sahara police station after the flight landed.

As per the official, as soon as the flight landed in Mumbai, a case was registered at Sahar Police Station under the section 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for endangering life or personal safety of others and Section 25 of the Aircraft Rules.

This is not the first case of passenger being caught smoking cigarettes inside the flight.

In March 2023, a passenger was arrested at the Bengaluru airport after she was caught smoking inside a IndiGo flight that was flying from Kolkata. The cabin crew inside the flight found a cigarette in the dustbin. A case was registered against her after she was handed over to the police for endangering human life or the personal safety of other passengers.

(With inputs from ANI)

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The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will probe all 12 FIRs relating to the crimes against women in violence-hit Manipur. The top court is currently hearing petitions relating to the ethnic violence in the northeastern state that has claimed over 160 lives. (FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES) Protest in Manipur's Churachandpur over crimes against women(PTI)

Earlier on August 1, the Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta - who are appearing for the Centre and the state government - submitted a report to the apex court on issues including the segregation of cases. The AG also told the bench - comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra - that the state government has proposed to set up SITs to probe the cases.

The government is handling the situation at a very mature level, the attorney general said.

Cases of crimes against women in Manipur

According to a report accessed by Hindustan Times, a total of 12 cases documenting crime against women during the ethnic clashes in Manipur shows grisly incidents including the gang-rape of five women, murder of four women, and assault with intent to outrage the modesty of 10 other women.

The report also stated that there has been no arrest to date in the case of gang rape and murder of two women in Imphal East on May 4. It added there has not been any detention in another case of gang rape where an 18-year-old woman came forward to narrate the ordeal herself.
Manipur violence Supreme Court hearing highlights: The Supreme Court resumed hearing on Monday on a batch of petitions in connection with the ongoing ethnic-violence in Manipur. Labelling the investigation into the loss of human lives in the conflict as lethargic and tardy" in the previous hearing, the Supreme Court summoned the director general of police to furnish an explanation in this regard in on Monday's hearing. Activists hold placards during a candlelight vigil while protesting against the central government condemning the recent atrocities on women and violence in Manipur and other issues, in Bengaluru.(PTI)

The top court also demanded the director general of police to furnish records of incident records, FIRs, arrests, and victim statements. It questioned solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, representing the N Biren Singh government, about the two-month delay in FIR registrations in the shocking sexual assault case of two women on May 4, lamenting that the state has seen an absolute breakdown of constitutional machinery for two months.

On May 3, violent clashes erupted between the dominant Meitei community and the tribal Kukis in a region. The unrest occurred amidst a protest organised in opposition to a high court order proposing to grant scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meiteis.
Hyderabad Hyderabad:Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday blamed on Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the inordinate delay in the completion of Polavaram major irrigation project (PTI)

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday blamed on Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the inordinate delay in the completion of Polavaram major irrigation project on Godavari river, which he said was the lifeline of the state.

Amid tight security and restrictions, Naidu visited the Polavaram project for the first time in the last four years. The police, who allowed only a small batch of TDP leaders led by Naidu, arrested several leaders who tried to accompany their party president at Polavaram village in West Godavari district.

Naidu walked along the 1.8 km-long dam and inspected the project works, including the recently damaged guide bund. The visit to Polavaram was part of his Yudha Bheri programme, a war against the state governments alleged negligence towards the ongoing irrigation projects in the state.

Later, Naidu made a power-point presentation on the prevailing condition of the irrigation projects in West Godavari district to the party leaders and reporters.

Speaking to reporters, Naidu alleged that the Polavaram project had got delayed due to the vengeful attitude of the state government towards previous contractors engaged during the TDP regime. He pointed out that the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) had found fault with the reverse tendering decision of the present government to appoint a new contractor.

On August 13, 2019, the PPA said that there was no need to replace the existing contractor who was doing an excellent job. It also pointed out how the head-works had come to a standstill due to replacement of the contractor, he said.

He said the project works has been facing several issues only due to Jagans adamant attitude in changing the contractor without heeding to the advice of the PPA. Now, people should know the facts about Polavaram and who is responsible for the present state of affairs, he said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government would complete the Polavaram project as per the originally projected design, but in a phased manner. In the first phase, the height of the water storage would be limited to 41.5 metres and the relief and rehabilitation package would be implemented for all villages and families keeping in mind the first phase contour levels of flood threat, he said.

As the dam height goes up further during the second and third phases, more areas and families would come under the R&R package, he said.

While the Central government would give a compensation of 6.8 lakh per acre to each displaced family, the state government would add another 3.2 lakh. We are putting pressure on the Centre to clear the R&R package at the earliest, he said.

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The Haryana Police has arrested several Rohingya refugees in connection with the recent communal violence in Nuh district. Narender Bijarniya, Nuh superintendent of police, said Rohingya refugees had illegally occupied the land of Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran in Tauru due to which the demolition drive was carried out but some of them have also been identified for pelting stones and being part of the mob on July 31 violence. Rohingya refugees after shanties located in Nuhs Tauru area were bulldozed on Thursday by the administration following the Nuh communal violence.(Leena Dhankhar/HT Photo)

We have identified a list of them who were involved in the violence and we have evidence for it and based on it the teams have arrested them, he told HT.

Sabber Kyaw Min, founder and director of Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (an NGO that works for the betterment of the community) said most refugees in these camps work as rickshaw pullers, ragpickers, and vegetable sellers.

The FRRO officers had informed at the refugee camp that they had a list of at least 17 refugees and had picked some of them who were identified by them for their involvement in the violence, he said.

Min said the surprise demolition with heavily armed forces started on Thursday and the refugees were thrown out of their space. The community fear arbitrary detention as some of them were asked to appear before a special branch of the police.

Min added that if any refugee is involved in illegal activities, the NGO will assist the police, but conducting such raids makes them feel unsafe and harassed. This is an unfair practice and act of discrimination against them. The situation at the camps is grim and people live in fear. They are being treated as if they are dacoits or criminals. They are trying to make their ends meet, he claimed.

Who are Rohingya?

Rohingya are predominantly Muslim refugees from Myanmar who fled their homeland following the targeted 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.

Rohingya shanties bulldozed

On Thursday, shanties in Rohingya camps located in Nuhs Tauru area were bulldozed, local police said, adding they had identified suspects among Rohingya refugees who were allegedly involved in July 31 violence in the area.

Over 50 illegal properties occupied by the Rohingyas were identified across Nuh, Prashant Pawar, Nuh deputy commissioner said, adding that the demolition drive was carried out by relevant agencies and police provided manpower and security.

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As Rahul Gandhi returned to the Parliament on Monday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the opposition will be analysing all failures of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government tomorrow onwards. Tharoor said that he has no doubt there will be strong participation from the Congress. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (PTI file)

I hope Rahul Gandhi will speak and we will have a vigorous debate on the question of the government's failure starting with the Manipur which is a main issue we all want to be discussed, Shashi Tharoor told news agency ANI.

Rahul Gandhi's return to Parliament

Rahul Gandhi returned to Parliament on Monday after his membership as an MP of the lower house was restored in the wake of the Supreme Court staying his conviction in the 2019 Modi surname defamation case.

The Congress leader was disqualified as an MP in March after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail - based on a complaint filed by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi in 2019 over his "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" remark made during an election rally in Karnataka Kolar in 2019. Notably, a punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker as per the law.

The 53-year-old lawmaker from Wayanad, Kerala is now set to deliver a speech on the upcoming no-confidence motion against the Centre in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. He is also likely to open the debate from the Congress side.

Cong's warm welcome for Rahul Gandhi

As Rahul Gandhi reached the Parliament House, he was accorded with a warm welcome from the Congress and other opposition MPs. Massive celebrations also broke out at the AICC headquarters in the national capital with the party workers dancing and raising slogans in favour of Gandhi.

(With inputs from ANI)
PANAJI: The opposition in the state called on the Goa government to scrap the ongoing work to lay a parallel track along the existing south-western railway line that runs between Tinaighat in Karnataka and Vasco da Gama and onward to Mormugao Port in Goa. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant rejected Vijai Sardesais (in photo) demand, saying the work will continue in areas not covered by the Supreme Courts verdict

Opposition leaders in Goa demanded that the government halt the construction of a parallel railway track along the existing south-western line between Tinaighat in Karnataka and Vasco da Gama, which leads to Mormugao Port in Goa.

Opposition leaders led by Vijai Sardesai questioned why the government was rushing to acquire the land despite the Supreme Court cancelling its forest clearances and questioning the need for the project.

Acquisition of land is on for 14 metres from the centre of the existing track. The railway will reach right inside peoples houses. Karnataka has one major port and 12 minor ports. Why dont you take it (the coal) there? Finally, this coal is for Karnataka only, it is not for Goa. It has no benefit for Goa. Karnataka is 56 times bigger than Goa. This will lead to destruction if it goes forward, Sardesai said.

In May last year, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no substantial basis for the railways to undertake the doubling of the Tinaighat to Vasco da Gama route cutting across the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and revoked the environmental clearances for the project.

Activists in Goa have alleged that the double tracking is being carried out only to facilitate the transport of coal between Goas Mormugao Port and Karnatakas Bellary district.

Congress leader Carlos Ferreira said the state government was pushing forward with the project despite the Supreme Court pointing out that even the existing capacity was being underutilised.

The Supreme Court has said -- and Im reading from the SC judgement -- the current movement of the railway rakes is 20%. The capacity and utilisation of the line is below 50%. A third railway line from Toranagallu to Krishnapatnam port would be a better alternative than connecting Mormugao Port to the Industrial Belt of Bellary District. Four-laning of National Highway 4A along the same route was being undertaken. NTCA approval is needed. If all these things are noted and you cannot complete the ghat section, what is your urgency in completing the [land] acquisition in the lower section, Ferreira said.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, however, said that work will continue in areas not covered by the Supreme Courts verdict.

Whatever the SC has banned we have stopped. Nothing is being taken forward. It is not our intention to damage anybodys house and we will be going forward preserving as much as possible. Whatever the SC has said to stop will be stopped. The environmental impact study is ongoing. But what has not been banned by the Supreme Court continues, Sawant said.

The Ministry of Railways or RVNL have failed to provide any substantial basis for the requirement of doubling the railway line by addressing the impact which it would have on the habitat and the damage that it would cause to the environment, the three-judge Supreme Court bench said on May 9 last year.

The court, however, left a window open for the railways to submit a fresh proposal to the Standing Committee of NBWL after carrying out a detailed analysis on the impact of the proposed project on the biodiversity and ecology of the protected areas under the wildlife sanctuary which the court said shall be considered in accordance with law.

If that (the ghat section of the project) is stopped, why are you insisting on completing this (the coastal section)? Scrap the project. This is a chain, it is a link. If this cannot be done, what is the use of doing the first part? Ferreira said.
Orissa high court chief justice Dr S Muralidhar demitted office on Monday, bringing the curtain down on his 17-year illustrious career which saw him pass some crucial judgments in sensitive matters. Justice S Muralidhar started his tenure as the chief justice of Orissa high court from January 4, 2021 (HT)

A full court farewell reference on Monday afternoon at Cuttack saw the outgoing chief justice express his gratitude to his colleagues at the Orissa high court and elsewhere for their support, with a special mention of justice (retired) Akil Kureshi, former chief justice of Rajasthan high court who was present on the occasion, in his speech.

I must here acknowledge some of my former colleagues who have been a great source of inspiration. One of them, not a former colleague, who has been a great source of inspiration is sitting right in front of me  Chief Justice Akil Kureshi, former chief justice of the Rajasthan high court, justice Muralidhar said.

Over the years, the postings and transfers of justices Muralidhar and Kureshi have ruffled some feathers. Justice Kureshi, who retired from Rajasthan high court last year, was overlooked for Supreme Court judgeship like justice Muralidhar.

Justice Subhasis Talapatra, who will succeed justice Muralidhar, will be sworn in as the new chief justice on Tuesday.

In 17 years as a judge, I have several colleagues. I must say, these colleagues in the Orissa high court have become very dear to me. I salute and thank each of them. I consider myself most fortunate to have been sent to this wonderful state of Odisha as its chief justice, he said during the farewell event, which saw participation of his fellow brother and sister judges of the high court as well as members of the Bar.

During his tenure as the chief justice of Orissa high court starting January 4, 2021, justice Muralidhar took several measures including introduction of paperless courts in Odisha. Some of the other initiatives during his tenure included setting up of e-filing web portal, 20 virtual courts at different places in the state, live-streaming of proceedings on high courts official YouTube channel, among others.

Justice Muralidhar started his law practice in 1984 in Chennai before shifting base to Delhi in 1987. He was appointed a judge of Delhi high court in May 2006 where he served until February 27, 2020, when the Union government in a late-night order notified his transfer to Punjab & Haryana high court.

Just hours before the government issued orders for his transfer, Justice Muralidhar had held a midnight hearing at his residence to order the Delhi Police to rescue 22 people stuck in a hospital in north-east Delhi during communal riots.

On February 26, 2020, justice Muralidhar had led the bench that took the Delhi Police to task for not registering FIRs against BJP politicians and others for hate speeches recorded on tape.

At the Delhi high court, justice Muralidhar had passed crucial judgments in sensitive matters. He was part of the bench which had, in 2009, decriminalized homosexuality by striking down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. This judgment was later overruled by the Supreme Court in 2013 before the top court eventually struck down the provision in September 2018 in another case.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday criticised the Congress party, saying that the principal opposition party did not take any substantial step to empower Panchayati Raj institutions in India for decades. Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed a Panchayati Raj event held in Haryanas Surajkund. (PTI Photo)

Addressing the two-day regional Panchayati Raj council held in Haryanas Surajkund on Monday, Modi gave the example of Jammu and Kashmir, saying that democracy has been established in the union territory at the ground level since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

During the Congresss regime, there were no concrete efforts made to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions. Maximum work was limited to figures and documents. Jammu and Kashmir is the biggest example. In the year 2019, after Article 370 was abrogated, it was for the first time that elections were held there from the gram panchayat (village) level to the zila (district) level, in which, over 33,000 local public representatives have been elected, Modi said in a virtual address.

He added, For the first time, democracy has been established on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir ceased to be a state and became two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh -in October, 2019, after Parliament revoked the special status under Article 370 on August 6, 2019.

Attacking the Congress party, Modi said, This is the reason why even after seven decades of the countrys Independence, electricity couldnt reach over 18,000 villages across the country. It was due to the Congress and other parties with similar ideology and their corrupt leaders, who had made more than 16 crore rural houses a hub of adjustment.

PM Modi emphasised that in the 25-year- journey of the Amrit Kaal, one must learn from past decades. The road to a developed India goes through tier 2 and tier 3 cities and through villages which are becoming modern, adding a new hope and energy is visible in the hinterland and in small towns, he said.

Promoting the Vocal for Local campaign, he said, Today has been a very important day in the history of freedom struggle. The Swadeshi Movement started today itself. Every panchayat member of BJP has to be vocal for local, promote local products.

He urged party members to take the benefits of the Panchayat system to the last mile of society. I would request all of you that you should go and stay at some small place in your area for 2 nights in a week, sit with the people there, Modi added emphasising that the Panchayati Raj system is a strong pillar of Indian democracy.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the countrys handloom industry, one of the key contributors in uplifting the poor, has expanded from 30,000 crore to 1,30,000 crore in the last nine years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited an exhibition organised on the occasion of National Handloom Day. (PTI Photo)

PM Modi was speaking at the ninth National Handloom Day at Bharat Mandapam in the Pragati Maidan complex, two days ahead of the anniversary of the Quit India Movement which took place in 1942.

This khadi is not just a piece of cloth but also a weapon for those with self-respect, who is proud of the nation, and who dreams of Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India), PM Modi said.

The prime minister also urged people to adopt swadeshi and emulate the resolve of Quit India Movement in rejecting corruption, dynastic rule and appeasement politics.

Also Read: PM launches railway revamp, slams Oppn

Referring to August 7 as Swadeshi movement of Mahatma Gandhi, he said, A day after today is 9 August  which witnessed the biggest movement of Indias fight for independence.

On August 9 [1942], under the leadership of Respected Bapu, Quit India Movement was launched asking Britishers to vacate the country, and it became a nationwide awakening, forcing the English people to leave India. Today, this is the demand of the time to inspire citizens to exhibit the same willpower and use the same mantra to force unwarranted elements to leave the country as they are the obstacles in realising the dream of a developed Bharat, he said.

Some evils block our ways in achieving this resolve. That is why, Bharat today, in one voice, tells these evils Quit India  today Bharat says corruption, quit India dynasty, quit India appeasement, quit India These menaces in India are big threats to the nation Big challenge to the country, he said.

Speaking about the need to revive domestic textile sector, he said, Friends, it was unfortunate that the textile industry -- which was so strong in past decades did not get adequate attention to remain robust. The condition was such that khadi was left on the verge of death. People looked down upon those who put on khadi clothes. After 2014, our government is making endeavours to change this thinking.

He stressed on the fact how the sales of khadi increased since 2015.

Friends, nine years ago, sales of khadi was around 25,000-30,000 crore, today it has surpassed 1.30 lakh crore, he added.

The additional 1lakh crore benefited the poor, the handloom weavers in villages and the tribals, he said.

And today, when the Niti Aayog says that in the last five years about 13.5 crore [135 million] have come out of poverty, the contribution of this [promotion of handloom] is also acknowledged, he added.

Emphasising on his call for vocal for local to promote handloom sector, he said the slogan has become a mass movement.

He again appealed to the people to buy Made in India products such as khadi in the coming festive season.

He also urged the Indian industries to promote local supply chains instead of importing finished products from overseas and sell in the domestic market.

Invoking Mahatma Gandhis focus on swadeshi, PM Modi said, It is not the right route to bring [finished goods] from overseas for living. The doyens of this sector cannot resort to such excuses. For a better future, we will have to invest today in the local supply chain. This is the way to make India a developed nation, he said adding that this will pave the way for the Indias goal of reaching the $5 trillion economy-mark, which will put India in the list of top three economies.
The Chamarajanagara police have stepped up security in the night to keep a watch on tomato thieves amid prices sky rocketing in the market, officers said. The police have decided to step up the night duty in tomato growing areas. (HT Photo)

The move comes after some miscreants, last week, destroyed tomato crops of a farmer due to personal rivalry.

According to the police, on July 31, miscreants destroyed one and half acre tomato crop belonging to farmer Manjunath in Kebbepura of Chamarajanagar taluk. The farmer had grown tomatoes in three acres of land of which miscreants destroyed crop in one and half acres.

The miscreants used sickle and cut tomato plants which resulted in a loss of over 20 lakh, as the tomato prices have touched the peak of 160 per kilogram. The police have not yet identified the miscreants, but the officials have provided protection to the crop following a request by the farmer.

It is impossible to provide security to all the tomato farms, but we have instructed police to step up their night duty in tomato growing areas, Chamarajanagara district superintendent of police (SP) Padmini Sahoo told HT.

She said they have provided one policeman to guard a tomato farm as the farmer lost lakhs of rupees last week.

Tomato is being grown in 1,250 hectares of farm in Chamarajanagara district. It is a four-month crop and after the price went up more number of farmers are showing interest to grow it. The district produces 30,000 tonnes of tomatoes approximately. The hybrid variety yields more while the desi variety yields less and has more resistance to diseases, District horticulture department deputy director Shiva Prakash told HT.

Meanwhile, two young farmers in Chamarajanagara have grown tomatoes on a total of 12 acres and earned 40 lakh.

Rajesh and Nagesh, brothers from Lakshmipur in Chamarajanagar taluk, have harvested a good crop in their farm. The brothers discontinued their education and took up agriculture. They grew tomatoes on a lease of 10 acres of land in addition to their own two acres of land.

They have been growing tomatoes since four years and this time, they got a good harvest by selling 50-60 tonnes.

For the last four years, we have been growing tomatoes in a total of 12 acres. This time we have got a good price. We have sold 2,000 boxes of tomatoes so far. This has given us a total income of 40 lakhs, Rajesh said.

This time we have seen the highest profit in four years. My family worked together in the field late into the night. This time we have paid off our debts, he said, expressing his happiness.

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For the first time, close to half the total area under paddy cultivation in Punjab has been sown with PR-126, a variety of the crop that matures faster and leaves behind less stubble, raising the hope that it could lead to milder farm fires and reduce the annual pollution impact on the national capital after cultivation this November. HT Image

Typically, farmers in Punjab -- where 75-80% of the summer crop is usually of paddy -- use what is known as the Pusa-44 variety, which produces roughly 10-15% more stubble and takes at least 35 days longer to mature.

Due to floods in early July, the crop transplanted initially was washed away and farmers were left with no option but to re-sow the short duration variety (PR-126). It came like a blessing in disguise, said Punjabs agriculture department Gurvinder Singh.

The total area over which paddy crops have been sown is 3.1 million hectare, of which 2.5 million hectare are of the coarse grain, with the remaining being the premium, aromatic basmati variety. It is the course grain that is eligible to be bought by government, which fixes every year a floor price, or minimum support price (MSP), that makes it a safe bet for farmers.

The Pusa-44 variety, though requiring more water, has been a preferred choice for its higher yield, experts said, despite efforts by the state government to wean farmers off it due to its higher ecological impact.

Typically, the quicker PR-126 variety has accounted for 10-15%% of the sowing every year. This year, of the 2.5 million hectare, an estimated 1.2 million hectare, or nearly 50%, of area is under the PR-126 type.

During the Kharif  or summer crop -- harvest in October-November, farmers usually have a shorter window in which they need to clear their fields for the winter crop. Invariably, many choose to burn the paddy stubble left behind after harvest, sending up plumes of smoke that drifts over to large population centres, sinks and chokes settlements in toxic smog.

The crisis often pushes Delhis air into the severe category, with air quality index (AQI) climbing past 400 and even 450, to reach severe and severe-plus categories, especially when this period coincides with the festival of Diwali. The concentration of ultrafine PM2.5 particles, which can reach deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, shoots up to levels unfit for breathing. To make matters worse, the crisis plays out when pre-winter weather conditions mean winds die down, taking away most of the scope for the pollutants to be blown away.

According to vice-chancellor of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Dr SS Gosal, PR-126 variety developed by the university produces less residue (stubble) and requires less water. The variety will cut down on the stubble mass. It is a good beginning and we hope that in upcoming kharif seasons farmers across the state will adopt the variety, said Gosal.

He added that PR-126 grows (seed to seed) in 123 days (about 4 months) against the Pusa varietys duration of 160 days (about 5 and a half months). 37 days (about 1 month 6 days) of short variety means one-fourth less irrigation but the yield is the same, he said.

The average height of PR variety is 100cm and that of Pusa-44 is 115cm --- the shorter the paddy stubble, the less of it has to be burned.

But the change may not be lasting. The new variety is a cause of concern for owners of 4,500-plus paddy shelling mills in Punjab as they apprehend less rice yield. Pusa-44 gives up to 71% of rice in the given quantity of paddy while PR-126 give 62-64%, said rice millers association president Tarsem Saini.

Farmer unions have routinely called on the government to compensate them for the extra effort taken to not burn the paddy residue.

According to Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads a faction of Bhartiya Kisan union, farmers had to put extra labour in mixing stubble in the soil and evacuating it from their farms. So, farmers need to be compensated in the form of a bonus of 100 per quintal over and above the MSP, he said, reiterating a long-standing demand. MSP of 2,183 per quintal is offered on paddy this year, an increase of 143 from last years support price.

Short-duration varieties are being grown in Haryana too. Sowing was delayed because of delayed monsoon. PR 126 will result in maintenance of same yield, said Rajender Singh, a Rohtak-based former Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) scientist.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gurpreet Singh Nibber Gurpreet Singh Nibber is an Assistant Editor with the Punjab bureau. He covers politics, agriculture, power sector, environment, Sikh religious affairs and the Punjabi diaspora. ...view detail
The Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was restored on Monday, days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with his sister and party leader Priyanka Gandhi at AICC headquarters.(Hindustan Times)

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored.

"In continuation of notification ... dated 24th March, 2023, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8644/2023, staying the conviction of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala, which was ordered by the judgment dated 23.03.2023 of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat...

"In view of order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Shri Rahul Gandhi ... in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," the notification read.

Following restoration of his membership, the Congress said it would like him to be a key speaker in the debate on no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 24, with effect from March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

He represents Wayanad in the lower house.

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Rahul Gandhi was reinstated as a Member of Parliament on Monday after the Lok Sabha secretariat issued a new order. The new order effectively withdraws the previous one that had led to Gandhi's disqualification from his parliamentary position following his conviction in the 'Modi surname' case. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leaves after a meeting at AICC headquarters, in New Delhi, on 4 August, 2023. (PTI)

The developments follow the Supreme Court's relief to Gandhi on Friday as it stayed his conviction in an interim order.

The earlier notification was issued on March 24, a day after Gandhi was convicted by a Surat court in Gujarat in the criminal defamation case dating back to 2019.

Rahul Gandhi to get his Delhi bungalow back

With setting his foot back in the Parliament a day ahead of the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi government, Gandhi will also get back his official residence in Delhi that was allotted to him as an MP. He earlier official residence was 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow in the national capital since 2005.

He had vacated the residence on April 22, a month after his conviction, in which he was awarded a two-year sentence by the court. A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker. Following the disqualification, MPs are allowed to retain their official residences for a maximum period of one month.

After the former Congress chief had moved his belongings, the Congress party wrote on Twitter then, This country is the home of Rahul Gandhi. Rahul who resides in the hearts of people. Rahul whose relation with the public is unbreakable. Some see in him their son, some brother, some their leader... Rahul belongs to everyone and everyone belongs to Rahul. This is the reason why today the country is saying- Rahul ji, my house-your house. #MeraGharAapkaGhar."

Today, following the new order, the party tweeted Parliament membership of Rahul Gandhi ji has been restored. This is the victory of truth, the victory of the people of India. Happy moment. It also shared a video of the party president Mallikarjun Kharge and other leaders celebrating the news and sharing sweets at the Opposition bloc's meeting in Parliament.

Rahul Gandhi represents Wayanad in the lower house.

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Congress's Rahul Gandhi was reinstated as Wayanad MP by the Lok Sabha secretariat after the Supreme Court's relief in the 2019 Modi surname defamation case. The Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored. Mumbai Congress workers celebrate in Azad Maidan after the Supreme Court of India on Friday stayed the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT)(Hindustan Times)

"In continuation of Notification No. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B), dated the 24th March, 2023, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8644/2023, staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala, which was ordered by the judgment dated23.03.2023 of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat in C.C./ 18712/2019," an official notification issued by Lok Sabha secretariat read.

"In view of order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, notified vide Gazette Notification no. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B) dated the 24th March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to furtherjudicial pronouncements," it added.

Reacting to the development, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the move brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad.

The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders, Kharge tweeted.

Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies has been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun."

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi also hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP.

On August 4, the apex court had stayed Gandhi's conviction in the case, paving the way for his reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in Kerala. Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP on March 24 after the metropolitan court in Surat in Gujarat sentenced him to two years in jail in the case a day earlier.

On July 7, the Gujarat High Court dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the conviction, after which he approached the apex court on July 15.

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All eyes will be on the Lok Sabha secretariat on Monday as it will begin the process to reinstate Congress's Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Courts order on Friday staying his conviction in a criminal defamation case. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at AICC headquarters during a press conference after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark on Friday,(PTI)

Lok Sabha officials said the authenticated copy of the Supreme Court order will be reviewed and necessary action taken. After the order is studied, the process usually takes less than 30 minutes. The proforma for such notifications are readily available with the secretariat, an official told HT.

The Congress has called for a meeting of its Lok Sabha MPs in the party's parliamentary office at 10:30am on Monday where it is likely to raise its demand of reinstating Rahul Gandhi as a member of Parliament after the Supreme Court verdict in Modi surname remark case.

A copy of the Supreme Court order, that stayed Gandhis conviction by a Surat court, was formally handed over to the Lok Sabha secretariat, Congress Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on Saturday. 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 reinstatement, however, can turn into a lengthy process if the secretariat decides to seek the law ministrys opinion, as it happened in Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Md Faizals case earlier this year.

The Lakshadweep MP got a stay in his conviction from Kerala high court in January but waited for nearly two months before he could return to the Lok Sabha. But chances of such a move are remote. This is an order of the Supreme Court, said a senior official of the Lok Sabha, asking not to be named.

INDIA alliance parties meet today

Floor leaders of the newly formed Opposition alliance the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or I.N.D.I.A will meet at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament on Monday to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House. The meeting will be held at 10 am.

In both the meetings  of the I.N.D.I.A. and Congress  Opposition leaders will discuss plans for future moves if Gandhis disqualification is not revoked at the earliest. We all expect the Lok Sabha Speaker to take the right decision at the earliest, said Congress Lok Sabha lawmaker Manickam Tagore.

Why Rahul Gandhi's membership not restored: Stalin

DMK president and chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday asked why the BJP regime at the Centre has not restored the Lok Sabha membership of Rahul Gandhi and asked if it was afraid of him.

Why hasn't Thiru @RahulGandhi been restored as an MP despite the Supreme Court staying his conviction? Why the urgency shown to disqualify him is missing now? Is the BJP afraid of brother #RahulGandhi's presence in Parliament? he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narayanan Thirupathy in a tweet said: "Parliament has got its rules and regulations.@RahulGandhi was a member who violated it's rules. He is not supreme. Democracy is supreme. His presence makes no difference as the world knows he speaks and then winks."

Trinamools Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, said, "Its been over 48 hours since the Supreme Court stayed the unlawful conviction of Shri Rahul Gandhi. The Lok Sabha secretariat must immediately comply with the Supreme Courts order. Any delay is unjust and in defiance of Indias highest court.

(With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji in New Delhi)

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The Congress on Monday called it a victory of love against hate after Rahul Gandhi was reinstated to Parliament after the Supreme Court's relief in the Modi surname defamation case. Gandhis Wayanad MP status was restored and the Congress leader will be back in the Lok Sabha, amid continuous disruptions of the monsoon session over the Opposition alliances demand for a discussion on Manipur violence. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi after a press conference at AICC headquarters, in New Delhi.(HT Photo)

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called it a welcome step and suggested that the Modi government should focus on real governance in whatever time they have left in their tenure. In an X (formerly Twitter) post, he wrote, The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also reacted to the announcement by calling it a victory for democracy. He wrote on X, With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of Rahul Gandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!

Congress MP P. Chidambaram also expressed his happiness on Gandhi being able to attend the Lok Sabha.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav congratulated Congress, Supreme Court and Gandhi for the restoration of the membership and said that the decision has increased the faith in democracy and the courts.

Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot wrote, "Truth wonThe voice of the public will again be raised in the Parliament. @RahulGandhi With the restoration of G's membership of the Parliament, the struggle being done to save democracy and to raise the issues of the people will get new strength. Together we will move forward in the direction of empowering India, laying the foundation for a bright future."

Celebrations were also underway at the Congress headquarters in Delhi and during the INDIA bloc's meet to discuss the day's strategy for Parliament.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under the illusion that he is Prime Minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindus, which is a very dangerous thing, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said PM Narendra Modi has been elected in a democracy and the Congress party has maintained the rule of votes (PTI)

The Prime Minister is under the illusion that I am the Prime Minister of BJP, his behaviour, speech and body language is such as if he is the Prime Minister of a party. He is the Prime Minister of Hindus only; this is a very dangerous thing, said Gehlot at an event organised for the inauguration of 17 new districts in the state at Birla Auditorium in Jaipur.

Modi has been elected in a democracy and the Congress party has maintained the rule of votes, Gehlot said. Why does Modi consider himself as the Prime Minister of BJP and Hindus? he asked.

The opposition BJP said Gehlot was making baseless allegations. The statement of Gehlot is encouraging appeasement, party spokesman Ram Lal Sharma said. The PM has worked for the development and welfare of all, and his schemes has catered to all sections of society.

Modi gets respect in foreign countries because people know that he is from the country of Mahatma Gandhi, where the rule of democracy has been kept alive by the Congress, the chief minister said. It is said that Modi has become a big leader in the world. You (people) find out what the people in America, Germany are thinking about the incident in Manipur, he said.

When the Supreme Court commented on what was happening in Manipur, the Prime Minister mentioned the names of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, both ruled by the Congress, with Manipur, which, Gehlot said, was an insult. The answer to violence cannot be violence, he said.

Do Modis party and RSS people understand this? (Rabindranath) Tagore, whom they believe in, had said that humanity is greater than nationality. If there is no love, where will the nation be? he asked. RSS, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

Calling himself an ascetic, Gehlot took a dig at the Prime Minister, saying: The people of the state should trust mewhatever I say, I say from my heart. I am a fakir like Modi ji. Modi ji, I am a bigger fakir than you. You must have noted that Modi ji does not repeat the dress he wears once. Dont know if the dress would be changed once, twice or thrice a day. I keep my dress the same, am I not a fakir?

I have not bought a plot in my life. Havent bought a flat. I have not bought a single gram of gold. Would he be a fakir bigger than me? His spectacles cost 2.5 lakh. What do they want to hear from me? Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had called it a government of suit boot. When he became PM for the first time, Modis suit was made from London. It was a suit worth 10 lakh, Gehlot said. As soon as Gandhi attacked the government by calling it a suit and boot government, that coat had to be sold.

Gehlot also spoke on the his recent statement that he wanted to leave the post of chief minister but the post is not leaving him. In the beneficiary interaction programme of Chiranjeevi scheme, Dhapu Devi of Alwar, who got her heart transplant, asked me to become the CM again and again. I said that Dhapu Deviji, I want to leave the post of chief minister, but this post is not leaving me. The Chiranjeevi Yojana is a health insurance scheme of the Rajasthan government.
The Rajya Sabha cleared the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, with 131 votes in support and 102 against, dealing a blow to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government by cementing the Union governments control over the Capitals bureaucracy. Opposition MPs during the discussion on The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament. (ANI)

The bill was cleared by a division of votes a little after 10pm, following an eight-hour debate that was marked by noisy protests and acerbic political swipes between the treasury and the opposition benches.

Union home minister Amit Shah who piloted the bill, said the Oppositions claims that the bill seeks to wrest control were unsubstantiated, as was the assertion that similar moves will be made in other Opposition-ruled states as well. No lawmaker will change their mind after hearing that such things will happen in other states. Such changes can happen only in Union territory and not in any state. We need to change the mindset that one is fighting elections of a UT but seeking powers of a state, he said in his reply to a fiery discussion on the issue in the Upper House.

The Opposition bloc that put up spirited fight against the bill sought a division of votes, but a technical glitch forced the voting to take place through paper slips. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Rajya Sabha member Shibu Soren, who has been unwell, and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, 90, attended the House in a wheelchair as part of oppositions measures to squeeze in every possible vote.

In a televised address, minutes after the Rajya Sabha session ended, Kejriwal accused said it was a black day for INDIAs democracy, and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in particular Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union home minister, of stabbing the people of Delhi in the back.

They realised that it was difficult to defeat AAP in Delhi, thus tried to grab power through the back door, he said.

During his speech, Shah slammed the AAP, which had rallied opposition parties, including the Congress, together for weeks now. There have been various parties in power over the years, and the issues of transfer and posting that are mentioned here, all these are followed in practice. No CMs got into a power struggle with the centre, decisions were taken and no CMs had a problem... They didnt want to grab power.

AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha, during the debate, called the bill a political fraud that it is against the spirit of federalism. He also cited the BJPs election manifestos demanding statehood for Delhi. This bill is an insult not only to democracy and the Constitution but also to (BJP leaders) Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madan Lal Khurana, Sushma Swaraj and their 40 years of struggle, Chadha said.

Chadha later said the AAP will challenge the law in court.

Hitting out at the Congress, which has opposed the Bill, Shah said the party has joined hands with the AAP, which was borne out of opposition to the grand old party. The bill has not been brought to impose Emergency or take away the rights of people. It has been brought to fight for the rights of the people, he said, slamming the Congress for pointing out that the bill was undemocratic.

The Congress has no right to speak on democracy...we have not brought the bill to restore the membership of a former PM. Three lakh plus political leaders were jailed during Emergency, there was censorship of the newspapers, he said.

Earlier, Congress lawmaker Abhishek Singhvi, who represented the Delhi government in the Supreme Court, accused the government of seeking to create an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a Super CM and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies.

Shah, in his attack on AAP, said officers of the vigilance department were arbitrarily transferred as files related to the alleged liquor scam were being probed. So much haste was shown concerning the vigilance department by Delhi government because it had files related to excise policy scam and sheesh-mahal, he said, purportedly referring to the CMs residence, which has been in controversy for undergoing an expensive renovation.

Arvind Kejriwal will do a volte face after the bill is passed. Shah said amid thumping from the government side as he targeted the larger opposition alliance under the banner INDIA.

Pointing to the Opposition camps internal rivalries, he pointed to arch-rivals Trinamol Congress and the Communist parties, and the Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) being together. They (TMC) broke away with the Congress because Narasimha Rao tied up with the communists... JDUs Lallan Singh used to say he wont ever go with RJD, why did they come together?, he said amid uproar from the opposition.

The outcome was expected even though the Bharatiya Janata Party does not have a majority of its own or as part of the National Democratic Alliance. What tilted the scales was the declarations of Telugu Desam Party, YSR Congress party (YSRCP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) that they would back the government on the legislation.

In a house with 237 members, their declarations had meant that the government was assured of at least 124 votes.

Speaking to media persons after the vote, Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti leader Keshava Rao pinned the blame on the BJD and the YSRCP for the Oppositions loss. The BRS, which has seven lawmakers, had issued a whip to vote against the passage of the bill, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha last week.

There were three members who did not vote, Kapil Sibal was absent, the deputy chairperson did not vote and one more member from the JD(U) was indisposed. And had the YSRCP and the BJD not voted with the government, the opposition would have prevailed, said DMK leader T Siva.

The debate was marked by strong contentions split across political lines, with both sides claiming a deep constitutional implication of the outcome. I appeal to the House not to proceed with this bill because this bill (Delhi services bill) is unconstitutional. Law ministry knows it is unconstitutional. This government will face a spectacular failure when this bill is taken up, said Congress MP Chidambaram.

Former chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, nominated to the Upper House by the Modi government, said: : ...I am concerned as a nominated member not belonging to any political party, I am only concerned with whether the bill is constitutionally valid, and there I have made a speech saying that it is constitutionally valid I didnt speak on the necessity (of the bill), I spoke on legality...

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 represents perhaps the most seismic clash between the Union government and the AAP.

The spat between the elected government of Delhi and the lieutenant governor, who reports to the Union home ministry, over control of the bureaucracy began in 2015 and reached the Supreme Court the next year. In 2018, the top court said that land, police and public order were under the Centre and the rest of the departments under the elected Delhi government. But the tussle continued, and in May this year, the top court affirmed its earlier verdict.

Eight days later, the Union government brought the 2023 Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Ordinance that effectively overrode the Supreme Courts verdict and gave powers over the bureaucracy to the Centre and the LG. Challenges to the ordinance are pending before the top court, which has sent them to a Constitution bench.

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The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) five-day custody of Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji until August 12 for questioning over money laundering charges he faces. ED obtained Balajis 15-day custody after his arrest but could not get it as he was hospitalised for bypass surgery. (PTI)

A bench of justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh dismissed Balajis petition challenging Madras high courts July 4 and 14 orders dismissing his plea challenging EDs power to take his custody. Under Section 167(2) [of Code of Criminal Procedure or CrPC], such custody will include police custody or custody with any other investigating agency.

Balaji, who was arrested on June 14, argued ED is not police under CrPCs Section 167(2) and that a magistrate can grant custody only to police.

ED obtained Balajis 15-day police custody from a magistrate court after his arrest but could not get it as he was hospitalised for bypass surgery. It told the top court that the 60-day period for completing the investigation will expire on August 14. ED cited a fresh order and said Balajis police custody will expire on August 12.

Balajis wife moved a separate appeal challenging the high courts dismissal of her habeas corpus petition, which is filed in cases of illegal detention, over her husbands arrest. The top court upheld the dismissal saying a court granted Balajis remand to ED.

The court said the order of remand could have been challenged before a higher court in the event there was any non-compliance with Section 167(2) or Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which relates to EDs power to arrest.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Balaji and his wife, argued the EDs 15-day custody ended on June 14 and that the agency could have interrogated him in the hospital. They argued ED cannot get custody for a second time under Section 167 of CrPC.

The lawyers cited the 1992 Supreme Court judgment in the Central Bureau of Investigation versus Ankur Kulkarni case in which custody beyond the 15-day period was refused after the accused was hospitalised.

The bench said the curtailment of the 15-day custody period due to any reason or act of God will not restrain the investigating agency from seeking further custody. Section 167(2) CrPC is a bridge between liberty and investigation. It said a larger bench needs to reconsider the 1992 judgment.

The allegations against Balaji related to bribery for jobs date back to 2011-15 when he was the transport minister in the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government.

On May 16, the Supreme Court allowed ED to proceed with the investigation against Balaji. In his petition, Balaji claimed that PMLA is a regulatory law that does not empower officers to keep a person in custody.

ED rejected his arguments as fallacious pointing out that the Supreme Court in the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case allowed the agency to arrest and prosecute money laundering offences. It pointed out ED has obtained custody beyond 15 days in PMLA cases.
Minister of State for civil aviation Gen. (Retd) VK Singh on Monday informed that a total of 338 technical snags were reported in domestic airlines till July this year. From the data shared by the minister, IndiGo suffered the highest technical snags this year till July, followed by Air India, Go Air, SpiceJet, and Akasa Air. This year, 338 technical snags were reported in domestic airlines till July.(PTI)

List of airlines with respective reported technical snags:

Airline 2023 (till July) 2022 2021 IndiGo 206 215 179 Air India Fleet B 40 00 5 Go Air 22 7 11 Spice Jet 21 143 170 Akasa Air 18 6 - Vistara 10 97 85 Air India Fleet A 9 64 71 Air Asia 8 8 12 Blue Dart Aviation 2 1 1 Alliance Air 1 3 4

Last year also, IndiGo contributed the highest to the total number of technical snags among the domestic airlines, with Spice Jet and Vistara following the lead. A total of 546 technical snags were reported in 2022.

In 2021, IndiGo again reported the highest snags in aeroplanes by a narrow margin when compared to Spice Jet. As many as 544 cases of technical snags were recorded that year.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, the minister added that technical snags in an aircraft may be caused due to malfunctioning components or equipment fitted on the aircraft and require rectification action by the airlines before the aircraft is released for operation.

The statement added that regulations require the operator to report all such occurrences of snags to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). These occurrences may be a result of equipment malfunction, due to weather, etc. Some of the occurrences such as air turn back, aborted takeoff or a go-around are actions taken by the pilot keeping the safety of operations in view, and are usually taken to avert serious incident/accident, informed the minister.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Democratic Progressive Azad Party chief, Ghulam Nabi Azad, on Sunday said those opposing the abrogation of Article 370 are ignorant of the history and geography of the Union territory. Former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad (File photo)

He made the remark amid the Supreme Court hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity behind the Centre's move on August 5, 2019 to strip the erstwhile state of its special status guaranteed under Article 370.

Marking the fourth anniversary of the much-debated move this month, the BJP hailed the new era of peace, development and prosperity in Kashmir since the revocation of Article 370.

Speaking to ANI in Doda, Azad took a swipe at regional parties without naming them.

"Those who are opposing (the revocation of Article 370 in Supreme Court) are ignorant of the situation on the ground, as well as the history and geography of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 370 was not meant for any particular area, province or religion but was equally beneficial to all," the former Congress leader said.

"I have full faith in the Supreme Court. I believe it will look into all aspects of this (abrogation of Article 370) move," Azad added.

Earlier, the BJP, in an official release, stated, "The abrogation of Article 370 has brought peace, development, and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir."

On the fourth anniverary of the revocation of Article 370, on August 5, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief, Mehbooba Mufti, claimed she was put under "house arrest" along with other senior party leaders.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked during one of the hearings earlier, "How can a provision (Article 370), which was specifically mentioned as a temporary provision in the Constitution, become permanent after the tenure of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly came to an end in 1957?"

The bench contended that the Parliament could not have declared itself to be the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir in order to facilitate the abrogation of Article 370, as Article 354 of the Constitution does not authorise such an exercise of power.

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In a heartwarming gesture, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Sunday extended his wishes to a small girl whom he met during a train journey and had an endearing conversation a day ago. Tripura chief minister Manik Saha. (PTI Photo)

The girl, Shriyadita Das, a Class 4 student, had a conversation with the Chief Minister while traveling from Kumarghat to Agartala on Saturday evening.

'Surprise'

During this conversation, the girl mentioned that her birthday falls on 6 August. The Chief Minister took note of it and extended greetings to the birthday girl on social media on Sunday taking her to a great surprise.

During the train journey as a common man, Saha took the time to engage with the little girl, showing a genuine interest in her thoughts and experiences. This act of Saha made the young girl feel special and valued, leaving a lasting impression on the child and her family.

The Chief Minister's compassionate gesture has won the hearts of many, earning him praises for his down-to-earth and approachable nature on social media.

Furthermore, Chief Minister also conveyed birthday wishes to the little girl, adding a delightful surprise to her special day on Sunday.

His thoughtfulness and consideration have touched the hearts of people across the state and beyond, demonstrating his commitment to making a positive impact on the lives of ordinary citizens.

In a time when public figures often seem distant and inaccessible, Saha's gesture serves as an inspiring example of leadership with empathy. It shows that even high-ranking officials can connect with the people they serve on a personal level, fostering a sense of trust and camaraderie between the government and its citizens.

Later, on Facebook, Chief Minister wrote, On the way back from Kumarghat to Agartala yesterday in the train, I spoke to this little friend Ms. Shriadita Das who is studying in fourth standard and got to know that today is her happy birthday. A very happy birthday Shriadita. I pray to God for her bright future.
A 22-year-old woman allegedly hanged herself with a saree here in Rajpur Nevri locality on Sunday because she was not allowed to go to her parents' home by her in-laws, police said on Sunday. Nisha, the deceased, wanted to go to her parents' house after her husband, a navy man, had gone away to join duty, but was refused, police said.

Police have registered a case of dowry murder against six persons including the woman's husband at the complaint of her father.

Nisha, the deceased, wanted to go to her parents' house after her husband, a navy man, had gone away to join duty, but was refused, police said.

Her in-laws were allegedly not ready to send her immediately and were talking of a 'muhurat' (auspicious time) to allow her to visit her paternal house, they said.

Kotwali Police Station SHO Rajiv Singh said that on the complaint filed by Nisha's father Dhruv Prasad Verma, a case of dowry murder has been registered against six persons including her husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law.

Nisha had married Amit on December 2, 2022, police said.

Her body has been sent for a post mortem examination, they added.

(If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to your nearest mental health specialist. Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050 and Sanjivini: 011-24311918, Roshni Foundation (Secundrabad) Contact Nos: 040-66202001, 040-66202000, ONE LIFE: Contact No: 78930 78930, SEVA: Contact No: 09441778290)
Soon after Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday distributed sweets among leaders of the Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A. during a meeting in his chamber ahead of the commencement of the House proceedings. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge offers sweets to TMC MP Derek O'Brien during celebrations of party leader Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership, (PTI)

In a tweet, Kharge said, The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders."

The Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored. Senior Congress leaders and party workers hailed Gandhi's reinstatement, saying it is a victory of truth and justice.

Celebrations broke out at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi with workers dancing and raising slogans in favour of the former Congress president.

AICC general secretary, Organisation, KC Venugopal said, "Democracy has won! India wins".

"Sh. @RahulGandhi ji will continue his parliamentary journey by speaking the truth without any hesitation. He is the voice of India, he can never be silenced," he said.

Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore said, "Welcome decision. Conspiracy defeated. RG returns."

Reacting to the development, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies has been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun."

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi also hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP. Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

The 53-year-old Congress party leader was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in March in a case that critics flagged as an effort to stifle political opposition in the world's largest democracy.

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 Parliament, forcing Gandhi's expulsion from the body in March.

He was turfed out of Parliament as a result but stayed out of jail while appealing the case at the Supreme Court in New Delhi.

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The Centre on Monday assured the Supreme Court that foreign experts will be consulted to prevent cheetah deaths in the future as the court refused to thrust any experts of its own on the existing steering committee. The court order came on an application moved by wildlife expert MK Ranjitsinh (PTI)

Nine cheetahs, including three cubs born in India, have died at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh since March 2023.

A bench headed by justice BR Gavai said, Whether a particular person be nominated to the committee is left exclusively to the Union of India and we do not wish to thrust any person on the committee...

The court order came on an application moved by wildlife expert MK Ranjitsinh who told the court that cheetah deaths at the Kuno National Park are a matter of concern as international experts are not being consulted and none among the 11-member Cheetah Project Steering Committee is an expert on cheetahs.

The Centre represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati told the court that media reports of nine cheetah deaths is incorrect as only six of the 20 that were brought to the country from Africa have died, and the other three deaths are that of cubs born in India who developed an infection on being exposed to the harsh summer. The cubs developed a winter coat in anticipation of African winter, during summer in India, Bhati added.

The additional solicitor general also disputed a letter produced by Ranjitsinh written on behalf of four South African cheetah experts on July 15, expressed concern over the management of Project Cheetah and alleged that expert opinion was being ignored by the Project Steering Committee.

Bhati cited an email dated July 20 where two of the said experts sought withdrawal of the letter as it was issued without their consent. She informed the court that inter-continental translocation of cheetahs is happening for the first time in the world and though their survival is expected to be low, the deaths are not alarming as a lot of positive news is emerging from Kuno on how well the cheetahs are adapting in the wild.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen who appeared for Ranjitsinh suggested that his client as well as another wildlife expert YS Jhala be added to the committee.

The bench, also comprising justices PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra said, This area is best left to experts in the field as we do not possess any expertise. We see no reason to disbelieve the Centre. The court added that lack of cheetah experts is obvious as cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952.

Senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen who appeared for Ranjitsinh suggested that his client as well as another wildlife expert YS Jhala be added to the committee.

The bench, also comprising justices PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra said, This area is best left to experts in the field as we do not possess any expertise. We see no reason to disbelieve the Centre. Moreover, the Court said that the lack of cheetah experts is obvious as they were declared extinct in India in 1952. Maybe, all the experts are on the same page on what is to be done. Why should we disbelieve the government. Merely because you feel you are an expert, should you be there, the Court told Ranjitsinhs lawyer.

The Court allowed Sen to make any further suggestions to the Centre and directed that the same be taken up in the right earnest.

Bhati said that cheetah is a vulnerable species and though the Government seeks to reintroduce 12-14 cheetahs every year, a lot of preparation has to precede that in setting up alternate habitats. The Court had on earlier occasions suggested if the deaths could be averted by shifting some of the cheetahs to alternate sites.

Bhati said, The project is very much in the stage of positive progression and there is nothing which is a cause for alarm. So far, there is no negative interaction of cheetahs with humans. These cheetahs are chasing, hunting, mating, courting and fighting other carnivores for survival, she said, adding, in this negative media publicity over deaths, it is imperative to see what we have achieved.

Of the 14 translocated cheetahs still surviving along with a cub, Bhati said that the committee has undertaken a review of the project and monitoring their medical status. In an affidavit filed on July 31, the Centre suggested that the death of six cheetahs is due to natural causes and there is nothing to be unduly alarmed as the survival rate of cheetahs in their natural habitat is about 50%. This rate drops in translocated environment.

At one point during the hearing, the bench did ask, The sum and substance of what you are saying is everything is well...Point is the concern of the general public and NGOs. What steps have you taken after death of six cheetahs. Have you taken stock of the situation? The Court told Bhati that the death of cubs due to harsh climatic conditions should have been a factor calculated before translocating cheetahs and wondered if the Committee was alive to these concerns.

Bhati said that as far as cubs are concerned, there can be hardly any intervention as they remain in den. As regards the cheetahs in the wild, she said inputs are taken from experts, including those from Namibia and South Africa, to ensure death of cheetahs can be prevented and managed in a proper manner.

After the translocation of cheetahs in two batches in September 2022 from Namibia and in February this year from South Africa, the top court has been monitoring the implementation of Project Cheetah. In 2020, the Court had allowed for re-introduction of cheetahs at Kuno and directed a committee headed by Ranjitsinh to assist with the successful implementation of Project Cheetah. Later, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Centre informed the Court that they will take assistance of the Court-appointed committee as and when required

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August 8 will be a busy day for the staff at the Bihar Museum in Patna as they open the doors to visitors in the morning. On Monday, the museum inaugurated three different art programmes that will run contiguously till December: Works of artists from the 20 member countries of the G20 summit, including Russia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and China will be exhibited; the second iteration of the Bihar Museum Biennale will showcase works from four Indian museums as well as six international collections; and, to mark Bihar Foundation Day, the museum will showcase works of five Padma Shri folk artists, as well as exhibitions that storify its own making and the citys changing museum landscape. PREMIUM Cheap rice, an installation by Subodh Gupta (The Bihar Museum Biennale)

In all, artworks from over 20 countries will be shown at the museum. Works by well-known contemporary Indian artists, including Sudarshan Shetty, Subodh Gupta, Ravinder Reddy, Arpana Caur and Himmat Shah among others will also be on display. What I am most happy about is what all my small team at the museum has learnt in the past six months, when we started work on putting these exhibitions up, said Anjani Kumar Singh, former chief secretary of the state and current chairperson for the advisory council of the Bihar Museum. The exposure to [best practices], the nuances of various laws of different countries have been tremendous. And when the international artists and museum representatives start arriving from Monday, their learning will continue, Singh said. India plays host to the G20 summit this year. At least 15 artists from the member countries will participate in an exhibition titled Together We Art. The works showcased range across mediums from paintings to sculptures to videos and installations.

A sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi, by Chinese sculptor Wu Weishan (The Bihar Museum Biennale)

The works include a sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi made by the director of the National Art Museum of China, Wu Weishan (known for his oversized sculptures of Confucius), a scroll painting by Misako Shine from Japan, which will travel to Hiroshima after it is displayed at the Patna museum, as well as a site-specific installation titled Econario, a five-metre-tall robotic plant that grows or declines based on biodiversity prediction data from the Natural History Museum, UK. The work, made by Thijs Biersteker, uses a Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) developed by the UK museum which indicates the future of biodiversity in 2050 based on our present-day political choices.

Alka Pande, chief curator of the museum biennale and the G20 culture track exhibition, oversaw various aspects such as liaisoning with artists and working with the scenographers, to writing the catalogue, and installing the works. Art transcends all boundaries, and people who live not in tier one but tier two cities are also getting to see the best in the world. How many international artists go to smaller cities? Pande said. While the three programmes will run contiguously, the G20 exhibition has been supported by the Union ministry of culture, and the other two  the biennale and the Bihar Museums own programming  are supported by the Bihar state government. The Bihar Foundation day and the Museum Biennale costs came to 5 crore, and weve received another 5 crore from the Union ministry for the G20 exhibition, Singh added.

Econario, a robotic plant that grows or declines based on biodiversity prediction data, made by Thijs Biersteker(The Bihar Museum Biennale)

The biennale will see the participation of four Indian museums and collections, including the privately owned Kiran Nadar Museum in New Delhi, the upcoming National Maritime Heritage Complex museum in Lothal, the Salar Jung museum in Hyderabad and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai. It will also host exhibitions from countries like Nepal, Israel and Costa Rica and Panama, among others.

This is the second iteration of the biennale  but the first being held physically. Batul Raj Mehta, who is the chief of strategy for the biennale said that various events like symposiums have also been planned over the course of the four months. We collaborated with Kilkari, a children's hobby centre and Pratham to engage audiences across the museum and outside. Education programmes for schools across the country and for audiences with special needs have also been planned, she added. The biennale is our effort to make a platform for museums around the world, and within India, to come together and share best practices, and knowledge. For example, we have a few pieces from the Salar Jung museum  no one knows of the [excellent] conservation work they do there, Singh said. The biggest learning, however, Singh added, was that work on the 2025 biennale needs to start now.

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A chronologically placed series of maps, some of which seem like that of a distant land, at the 'Festival of Libraries' here shows the slow and tedious progression of India's map to its current form. President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the Festival of Libraries at the Pragati Maidan here on Saturday. It is being organised by the Ministry of Culture with the aim to promote the development and digitisation of libraries and cultivate the culture of reading. President Droupadi Murmu with Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal inaugurated the Festival of Libraries 2023 at Pragati Maidan. (PIB)

The exhibition "Mapped: Great Trigonometric Survey" by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai and Past Present Heritage Management has put on display a selection of maps of India, created before and after the great trigonometrical survey by the East India Company in 1802.

Murmu said the development of libraries is correlated to the development of society and culture. It is also a measure of the progress of civilizations, she said. She stated history is full of references in which the invaders considered it necessary to destroy the libraries.

"This shows that libraries have been considered a symbol of the collective consciousness and intellect of a country or society. Such incidents do not happen in the modern era but there are incidents of disappearance of rare manuscripts and books," she said.

"In ancient and medieval periods, people of many countries carried books from India, translated those and gained knowledge. At the heart of such efforts is the thought that books and libraries are the common heritage of humanity. A small book has the potential to change the course of world history," she said.

Through a series of 10 maps, the earliest dating back to 1700, the exhibition has shown how the current Indian map came to existence since colonial powers started taking active interest in the country.

"Mapped" is but one part of the larger exhibition on rare maps and cartographic material by the National Archives of India which has displayed a number of maps series, including 'Historical Map Series', 'Forest Map Series', 'Map Records and Issue Office Miscellaneous Maps Collection', 'The Revenue Map Series', and 'Printed and Published Map Series'.

The two-day event aims to initiate a dialogue on "the modernisation and digitisation of libraries" and is also a treat for book lovers with several exhibitions, author sessions and other interactions lined up.

"The festival aims to initiate a dialogue on the modernisation and digitisation of libraries and ignite a resurgence of the reading culture in India. By facilitating advocacy for action-oriented policies, the festival seeks to develop model libraries even at the village and community levels, ensuring that knowledge reaches every nook and corner of the nation," said Mugdha Sinha. joint secretary, Ministry of Culture.

Apart from the exhibition on rare maps, the visitors can also witness collections of rare books from the Museum of Word from Kolkata, ancient encyclopaedias, cultural archives, tribal fonts, literature proscribed during the British rule, calligraphy, cursive writing, and illustrated manuscripts.

Another section of the event focuses on rare manuscripts composed in the Indian subcontinent from the 5th century CE to the 20th century.

The manuscripts in the collection deal with different subjects encompassing Indian philosophy, spirituality, yoga, medicine, language and grammar, religious texts, Sufism, and legislation.

A collection of illustrated manuscripts, dating between 14th-19th century, contains pages from the Ramayana translated in Persian by Sumer Chand in 1715 CE, pages of Razmnama, a persian translation of Mahabharata commissioned by Akbar in 1580 CE, and pages from the various Ragamala paintings that depict a range of musical melodies in the form of Ragas and Ragini.

The event will also facilitate panel discussions among organisers of about eight literature festivals, publishing houses, young authors, representatives of literary residencies and retreats as well as librarians from G20 and SCO countries.

The festival will culminate with a valedictory function chaired by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who will release the first volume of the Directory of Libraries and Biblio-on-Demand scheme as part of the One Nation, One Subscription policy.

Dhankhar will also attend the virtual ground-breaking ceremony for the modernisation of the Delhi Public Library.
Kriti Sanon stepped out in Mumbai last night for a work schedule and got clicked by the paparazzi. The photos and videos show her dressed in a traditional look. She chose a simply elegant silk salwar kameez for the outing. It is the perfect look for attending a puja ceremony at home or the upcoming Raksha Bandhan festivities with your siblings. Scroll through to check out Kriti's snippets. Kriti Sanon's traditional look in elegant salwar kameez for an outing is perfect for Raksha Bandhan. (HT Photo/Varinder Chawla)

Kriti Sanon looks gorgeous in an elegant salwar kameez

The paparazzi page snippets shows Kriti Sanon arriving for a work schedule in Mumbai, greeting the media, and posing for them before leaving. A paparazzi page shared her video with the caption, "Paramsundari #KritiSanon slaying in a salwar that's simply stunning." She styled the ethnic attire with minimal accessories and glam picks. Read our download on her look and steal some styling tips from her for the upcoming Raksha Bandhan festival.

Kriti Sanon's Raksha Bandhan-ready salwar kameez

Kriti's deep emerald green-coloured salwar kameez set features a kurta, palazzo and dupatta. While the top features a round neckline, button closures on the torso, full-length sleeves, gold brocade embroidery, side slits, and a figure-skimming silhouette, the pants have a flared silhouette. Lastly, the organza dupatta has brocade embroidery and scalloped hems adorned with gota patti work.

Kriti Sanon clicked by the paparazzi on an outing in Mumbai. (HT Photo/Varinder Chawla)

Kriti accessorised the traditional ensemble with minimal accessories, including dainty jhumkis and Kolhapuri sandals. In the end, Kriti chose sleek black eyeliner, feathered brows, nude lip shade, mascara on the lashes, rouged cheekbones, glowing skin, and kohl-lined eyes for the glam picks. Side-parted open silky straight locks gave the finishing touch to the ethnic look.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kriti Sanon was last seen in Adipurush with Prabhas and Safi Ali Khan. Her upcoming projects include The Crew with Kareena Kapoor, Tabu, and Diljit Dosanjh, an untitled film with Shahid Kapoor, Ganapath with Amitabh Bachchan and Tiger Shroff, and Do Patti with Kajol.
The pandemic has eased but newer variants of Covid keep emerging. EG.5.1 or Eris that was first identified in May has been raising the number of Covid cases in UK and currently 1 out of 10 Covid cases in UK are due to this latest strain which is not currently listed as variant of concern. Eris has been contributing to hospitalisation cases in UK albeit mostly among elderly. (Also read: Omicron variant Eris sparks concerns, puts UK on Covid alert) Experts opine that there is a need to keep a close eye on this new strain which is of Omicron lineage and spreads faster than the original Covid-19 virus.

Experts opine that there is a need to keep a close eye on this new strain which is of Omicron lineage and spreads faster than the original Covid-19 virus. However, there is no reason to believe that EG.5.1 is deadlier than previous strain. The rise in cases could be due to waning immunity from previous infections or vaccinations and it's important to take booster shots to build up a defence against the virus.

Eris raising hospitalisation cases among elderly

"As seasons are changing and Covid virus continues to spread, newer variants continue to emerge worldwide. One of the recent variants that has been identified is Eris variant which has recognised to be come out of UK where it has been known to cause 1 in 10 of the Covid cases. This is showing an increase in number of cases in UK, with a somewhat higher levels of hospitalisation for people who are seniors even if they are vaccinated. So, it is something which we need to keep an eye on. This is strain of the Omicron variant which itself was significantly mutated compared to the original Covid 19 virus that came in 2019," says Dr Pavithra Venkatagopalan, corona-virologist and Covid awareness specialist at Rotary Club of Madras NextGen.

Symptoms of new Covid variant Eris

This variant has very similar symptoms compared to previous variants as per Dr Pavithra.

Running nose

Sneezing

Cough

Fever

Fatigue (mild or severe depending on the person's composition).

Preventive measures

Dr Pavithra says people need to take booster shots if they haven't done already and get tested in case of any symptoms to contain the spread.

"We have to keep an eye on spread of this variant. However treatment and preventive measures continue to be the same. Unvaccinated people should get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible. Booster shots have to be taken if not done so far. If people are known to be showing symptoms, they need to be isolated, get tested if needed. More importantly, now that the schools have started in full swing, the wave will see increase in number of cases. But whether this will result in hospitalisation of the younger population we do not know," says the expert.
Even after being cured of hepatitis C, those who recover have a much higher chance of dying than the general populationbetween three and fourteen times higher, depending on the severity of their liver illness. People with hepatitis C cure still face risk of death: Study(Twitter/Journalofclin12)

The study's findings were published in The BMJ.

The findings, based on a database of over 20,000 people who have been cured of hepatitis C, show that drug- and liver-related causes of death accounted for the majority of excess fatalities. This emphasises the importance of ongoing assistance in reaping the full benefits of a hepatitis C cure.

ALSO READ: World Hepatitis Day 2023: Hepatitis B vs Hepatitis C; which is more dangerous?

Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver and cause significant and potentially fatal liver damage over time if treatment is not received.

Historically, interferon-based therapy was used to treat hepatitis C, which was frequently ineffective. However, new medications known as direct-acting antivirals (DAA) were developed in 2011. More than 95 per cent of DAA-treated patients now achieve a "virological cure" and have a significantly lower risk of death than untreated patients.

However, the question of what prognosis cured patients can expect in comparison to the general population is still being debated.

To investigate further, a team of UK and Canadian researchers set out to measure mortality rates in people who had a hepatitis C cure and compare them to the general population.

They examined data from three population studies conducted in British Columbia (Canada), Scotland, and England involving 21,790 people who were cured of hepatitis C between 2014 and 2019.

Individuals were divided into three groups based on the severity of their liver disease at the time of cure: pre-cirrhosis (only in the British Columbia and Scotland studies), compensated cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease.

Over an average follow-up period of 2-4 years, data were linked to national medical registries and several causes of death were examined, including liver cancer, liver failure, drug-related death, external causes (primarily accidents, homicides, and suicides), and circulatory system diseases.

After age was taken into account, death rates were significantly higher than in the general population across all disease severity groups and settings.

In Scotland, for example, the rate for all patients was 4.5 times higher than the general population (442 deaths observed versus 98 expected), whereas rates in British Columbia were 3.9 times higher (821 deaths observed versus 209 expected).

Rates also increased significantly with the severity of the liver disease. In British Columbia, for example, rates were three times higher in people without cirrhosis and fourteen times higher in patients with end-stage liver disease.

The leading cause of excess death in patients without cirrhosis was drug-related, whereas the two leading drivers in patients with cirrhosis were liver cancer and liver failure.

Older age, recent substance use, alcohol use, and pre-existing conditions (comorbidities) were all associated with higher death rates across all disease stages and settings.

These are preliminary findings, and the researchers acknowledge that they may not be applicable in all settings, particularly where injecting drug use is not the predominant mode of hepatitis C transmission.
It was a pleasant afternoon in 1994, but our minds were disturbed. We were on our way to a Kuki village that had been set on fire a few hours prior. Those were the days of the Kuki-Naga clashes. The entire country, and the people who live in Manipur, are looking forward to a long term solution.(Photo by Sanjeev Verma/ Hindustan Times)

The Manipur assembly election was near. The state was under Presidents rule for a couple of months, but the assembly had not been dissolved. Even before the polls, Rishang Keishing was appointed chief minister with the assistance of New Delhi. A tussle between him and then governor, Lieutenant General VK Nayar was known to all. Nayar, whose sympathies lay with the insurgent Naga factions, believed Keishing was not fulfilling his constitutional duties. But the government in New Delhi turned a deaf ear to Nayar, who resigned shortly before the elections.

We spent nearly a week in conflict-torn Manipur and Nagaland. Poverty and insecurity were rampant in both states. On one side were separatist factions, while on the other were uniformed gunmen. Both caused problems for the people.

Let me give an example.

We had gone out with a CRPF team on a night patrol. The state-wide undeclared-unannounced night curfew was in effect. We were moving forward cautiously over slippery, steep terrain, when suddenly two young men appeared at a bend. They were taken aback by the large number of uniformed personnel.

The patrol team had rounded them up before they could understand what was happening or could explain anything. Under the guise of searching, the men were being literally mauled. I later complained to a top officer, but all he did was smile. What was the meaning of his smile: Disobedience, defiance, or disdain? Whatever it may be, it disturbs me till date.

I have witnessed the war against terrorism in Punjab and in Kashmir, but the situation here was different. There, money was being showered from the government coffers in the guise of development. Gunmen from both sides were always on the lookout for ways to prevent this help from reaching the population.

Were they allies or foes?

A lot of water has flowed down the rivers since then. I couldnt return to Manipur, but the increasing number of tourists there reassured me that the situation had normalised. This illusion has been destroyed in the last three months. Compare it with the situation in 1993-1994. Only the faces have altered. Previously, Naga and Kuki were at odds; now, Meitei and Kuki are in conflict. Manipur has returned to the grip of the gun culture. It is pointless to wish for peace in that region in a hurry.

It takes longer for old wounds to heal. Most Meitis in Manipur are Krishna devotees; they should not forget the Mahabharata. A disaster was caused by the disrobing of Draupadi. This time, all the daughters have become victims of the same vile intentions. Its no surprise that the ruling partys Kuki MLAs are suddenly calling for a separate state. Both New Delhi and Imphal are going through challenging times.

The Manipur issue is impeding Parliaments work during the monsoon session. The Opposition is adamant that the Prime Minister make a statement on the matter, while home minister Amit Shah has stated that he is prepared to speak on all its aspects in the House. Shah is personally involved in this issue. He is the first home minister to visit troubled Manipur for three days; 30,000 armed troops were deployed in less than 36 hours to put an end to the violence, exodus, and malpractices. Nityanand Rai, his colleague, stayed there for 22 days and oversaw the entire arrangement. While doing so, both leaders recognised that it would take time to restore peace, but that immediate action was required.

This is why, despite the fact that no significant news of mob violence has emerged in recent days, the political temperature in Delhi has risen. Both Houses of Parliament are gripped by unparalleled political animosity. The Opposition parties have moved a no-confidence motion against the government. On Tuesday and Wednesday, there will be a discussion on this. During the talks, both parties are free to say whatever they want, but will it be enough to alleviate Manipuris pain? The heart-wrenching questions I raised three decades ago while experiencing the sorrow of that area have yet to be answered.

This is the responsibility of all factions of the political spectrum. Meanwhile, the countrys Supreme Court has taken up the case. Its harsh remarks on the matter may be valid but Manipur requires a long-term solution. The entire country, and the people who live there, are looking forward to it.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. The views expressed are personal
On June 15, 2018, Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Yogi Adityanath had made a courtesy call on six eminent people from Lucknow under the Bhartiya Janata Partys (BJP)  sampark for samarthan  programme. The Lok Sabha elections were due in April-May 2019. PREMIUM Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on Pasmanda (meaning backwards or left behind in Persian) Muslims at the partys Hyderabad meeting in July 2022, the BJP in UP has attempted to woo them with representation in local bodies. (Photo by Santosh Kumar / Hindustan Times/ Representational)

One of them was Padma Shri awardee and renowned cardiologist Dr Mansoor Hasan who is considered an authority on the epic Mahabharat and can recite its spiritual message with fluency. Yogis decision to make the first courtesy call on a Muslim had taken many by surprise.

The BJP swept the polls winning 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats (including two of its ally Apna Dal-Sonelal). The BJP claims that they received support from Muslim women who supported the party for its commitment to abolish triple talaq by including it in the poll manifesto.

Within months of getting elected for the second time in 2019, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government declared triple talaq (the practice of divorcing women by repeating the talaq word thrice) unconstitutional and punishable, a move that was also upheld by the apex court.

The governments decision on July 31, 2019, however, evoked a mixed response from the community with some dubbing it an interference in their personal laws.

The debate was still ongoing when on December 11, 2019, Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), triggering violent protests across the country as they feared being rendered stateless. Anti-CAA protests claimed the lives of 22 people in Uttar Pradesh, several were injured and properties were vandalised.

The wounds are still fresh in the communitys memory as the government publicly named and shamed the protestors by putting up hoardings at vantage locations.

Its August 2023 and the Lok Sabha elections are barely months away.

And, now, the BJP is launching a Pasmanda Muslim Sneh Yatra in their quest to reach out to the community amid the ongoing legal battle over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Kashi, the controversial Uniform Civil Code (UCC) besides other issues of safety and security.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on Pasmanda (meaning backwards or left behind in Persian) Muslims at the partys Hyderabad meeting in July 2022, the BJP in UP has attempted to woo them with representation in local bodies.

Members of the Pasmanda have been offered tickets to fight local bodies elections and they have been nominated for the UP Legislative Council, which for the first time has four Muslim BJP MLCs  two of them Pasmandas.

Former Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor has been appointed national vice-president by BJP national president JP Nadda in a recent organisational shake-up; Mansoor is a Pasmanda as well.

The question that Muslims would want to ask BJP, however, is whether the party will allot even a single ticket to the community for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections: In 2014, not even a single Muslim MP had reached Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. While the BJP did not give tickets to any Muslim candidate, the ones fielded by opposition parties lost in the polls.

Yogi, when earlier asked the same question by HT, had said: It will depend on their support for the party.

This dual messaging from BJP is sending out mixed signals to Muslims: Caught between aggressive Hinduism and simultaneous political overtures, the community is at a crossroads.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) has 403 assembly constituencies and Muslims form 19.06% of the states population of 22.42 crore. They account for 30 to 40% of the population in about 10 districts and 12 to 30% in 33 of the 75 districts with the majority from the community living in western UP.

Muslims account for about 30% of 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. That explains the BJPs desperate bid to create a wedge in a vote bank that has by and large voted en bloc in elections, and that too for opposition parties.

Though the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is not a part of the opposition conglomerate called I.N.D.I.A, the coming together of Congress and the Samajwadi Party can avert a split in Muslim votes.

The BJPs plan is to carve out a chunk of the Muslim vote as the Pasmandas, for example, form 75% of the total Muslim population in India. The plan is to woo them through welfare schemes.

Danish Azad Ansari, minorities welfare minister in the Yogi government, insists that the basic issues Muslims face today are welfare and progress. For instance, Muslim weavers from Kashi had consistently demanded flat rates for their looms, which Yogi sanctioned earlier this year.

While more complicated issues like Uniform Civil Code and Gyanvapi mosque will be decided by the courts, Muslims are also noting BJPs efforts to reward them with various positions in boards like Madrasa Board, Urdu academy, Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards etc.

For instance, Ansari, a Pasmanda, replaced Mohsin Raza, a Shia in the council of ministers though the latter was equally active and vociferous on community issues.

That Muslims, at least some in the community, have started supporting BJP is reflected in the elections of BJP candidates in Azamgarh and Rampur by-polls in which the party wrested the seats from the Samajwadi Party.

Fear of getting marginalised

Since the 2019 general elections, many in the Muslim community have been apprehensive about becoming politically isolated and marginalised if they were not part of the political mainstream.

Its not BJPs politics alone that worries the community.

The watering down of the Muslim agenda  or issues that are particular to the community  by the opposition parties worries them. Temple run (What is a temple run?) is fine, but no one is raising our issues. There was a time when political parties vied with each other in offering quotas to Muslims from 4% to 9%. Today, we are the new untouchables, " said a Muslim trader, who did not wish to be named, from Gonda.

A student in Kaiserganj, Mohammad Akeel, had told HT before the 2019 polls, We have always been a vote bank. But today, our support may be valuable but no more indispensable. We have lost constituencies with 50% of our votes.

A Muslim resident of Bahraich, who also asked not to be named, said angrily, It is understandable that the politics of the state has taken such an unusual turn that even non-BJP parties do not wish to be publicly identified with Muslims as they fear it alienates Hindus from them. Why? Arent we getting completely isolated in the process?

Aftab, an educated youth, said, We live in constant fear on the street and in trains. Mob lynching is scary.

Waseem Ansari of the weaver-dominated Shahpur village in Barabanki said, We are beneficiaries of PMs scheme but their hate speeches worry us.

We, as a community, have nothing against the BJP. But they should also take some steps to win our confidence by dropping divisive issues, added Ansari. Is anyone listening? Nothing has changed since then, they assert.

The ally route

In the May 2023 by-elections, the BJP had carried out a successful experiment in the Muslim-dominated Rampur district.

Its ally, Apna Dal (Soneylal) contested the crucial Suar assembly seat (vacated by the disqualification of Abdullah Azam, son of senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan). The Apna Dal (Soneylal) fielded a Pasmanda Muslim candidate Shariq Ahmad Ansari, who comfortably defeated the Samajwadi Party nominee amid allegations of misuse of the official machinery.

Though seat-sharing with allies is easier in assembly elections as compared to Lok Sabha, the BJPs ally Nishad party has already offered them tickets in their weak areas.

Nishad Party chief Dr Sanjay Nishad had told HT that a large section of Pasmanda Muslims is willing to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

"During our meetings in Muslim-dominated areas, we are highlighting that the Pasmanda community was forcibly converted to Islam by ruling Islamic dynasties. Members of the Nishad community, who used to weave fishing nets, were referred to as 'jullahas' (weavers) after their conversion to Islam. Now, the Nishad Party has opened its door to the Pasmanda community," he said.

Nishad added, I am in contact with Pasmanda Muslim leaders since the launch of the All India Backward and Minorities Welfare Mission. The Nishad Party will focus on Muslim-dominated seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The Nishad Party-BJP alliance will win a majority of the seats.

However, there is also the view that backward Muslims, despite the BJPs overtures, are upset at being harassed by the local administration.
Amazon's Great Freedom Festival Sale has commenced, offering an exclusive 10 per cent instant discount on SBI Credit Card purchases and EMI transactions until August 8. Below, there is a curated list of five budget-friendly smartphones deals available in the sale: Amazon's Great Freedom Festival Sale will run till August 8.(REUTERS)

ALSO READ: Amazon Great Freedom Festival Sale 2023: Grab affordable deals on tablets

1. Realme Narzo N53: With an 18% discount, the Realme Narzo N53 is priced at 8,999 during the ongoing sale. Equipped with a 6.74-inch 90Hz refresh rate screen, it features a 50MP AI triple camera setup and a powerful 5,000mAh battery with 33-watt SuperVOOC charging.

2. Nokia G11: Currently available for 7,999, the Nokia G11 boasts a 3-day battery life thanks to its 5,050mAh battery. The phone features a 6.5-inch 90Hz refresh rate display, 50MP dual AI rear camera, and is powered by the Unisoc T606 processor.

ALSO READ: Amazon shares surge 8% as e-commerce and cloud-computing thrive

3. Itel S23: The ongoing sale presents the Itel S23 for 8,499. It is equipped with a 6.6-inch HD+ IPS display with a 90Hz refresh rate, 8GB RAM, 128GB ROM, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a substantial 5,000mAh battery.

4. Lava Blaze 2: The Lava Blaze 2 is available for 8,999 in the Great Freedom Festival sale. It features a 5,000mAh battery, Unisoc T616 processor, a 6.5-inch screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, and runs on Android 12.

5. Redmi 11 Prime: During the Amazon sale, the Redmi 11 Prime is offered at 8,999. The smartphone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 processor. It showcases a 50MP AI triple camera setup, along with a 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro camera.

Amazon's Great Freedom Festival Sale provides an excellent opportunity to grab these smartphones at discounted rates.

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Harrys, a prominent American brand known for men's grooming products, has found itself at the center of a heated debate after teaming up with trans man and digital creator Luke Wesley Pearson for a Pride-centered promotion. Pearson's Instagram reel unveiling the collaboration garnered both praise and criticism, igniting a debate about corporate activism and LGBTQ+ representation. Harry's Razors faces backlash for LGBTQ+ partnership with trans creator. Pride-centered promotion sparks debates on corporate activism and representation.(Twitter)

In a social media move that raised eyebrows, Pearson took to Instagram to announce his partnership with Harrys Razors. The reel features Pearson showcasing the new Harrys 2023 Face & Body Shave Set, designed in collaboration with LGBTQ+ advocate Ohni Lisle. The set includes razors for both facial and body grooming, with all profits pledged to benefit the Trevor Project, an organization supporting gender transitioning.

Conservatives backlash and calls for boycott

While Pearson's message of celebrating his first Pride with facial hair was met with support from the LGBTQ+ community, it also attracted a wave of backlash from conservative circles. Many critics accused Harrys of being overly woke and aligning itself with a political agenda.

Social media platforms were flooded with posts and comments from individuals vowing to boycott Harrys Razors due to its collaboration with Pearson and its support for the Trevor Project. Some expressed their discontent by canceling their subscriptions, with one user stating, I have used Harrys razors for over 5 years. No more. Subscription cancelled.

Amid the turmoil, there were voices of support as well. Advocates of LGBTQ+ rights defended Harrys decision to support the Trevor Project, emphasizing the organization's role in preventing suicide among LGBTQ+ youth. One tweet read, "If you're going to boycott Harry's Razors because of their donations to the Trevor Project, you're outright saying you would prefer LGBTQ+ youths kill themselves than get help. There is no argument here."

Also Read:

From Bud Light to Harrys Razors: A trend of controversy

The backlash against Harrys Razors is not an isolated incident. Earlier this year, beer brand Bud Light faced a boycott for collaborating with trans-TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The incident ignited conversations about the role of corporations in promoting social causes and the challenges they may face when navigating such contentious issues.

The Harrys Razors controversy highlights the ongoing tension between corporate activism, inclusivity, and public opinion. As debates continue, the broader conversation about the responsibility of brands to reflect diverse identities and values remains at the forefront.
A woman with a severe nut allergy had to buy 48 peanut packets on a flight. But why? She wanted to prevent anyone from opening them as she has a nut allergy. A woman had to buy 48 peanut packets on a flight due to her severe allergy.(Unsplash)

On July 13 when 27-year-old Leah Williams was travelling with Eurowings from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Heathrow Airport in London she had to buy these peanut packets.

She had taken a flight earlier that day on a business journey from London to Dusseldorf. She said that the flight's cabin crew was happy to make an announcement about her allergy and avoided providing nuts to passengers. (Also Read: Woman applies mehendi onboard a plane, netizens have mixed reactions)

Williams, however, said that when she boarded the trip back to London, the cabin crew denied her request to make an announcement. She said that she was informed by a flight attendant that it was against airline rules, reported Insider.

According to the Mirror, the cabin crew dismissed her concerns. So, in the end, Williams ended up buying all the peanut bags from them which cost her three euros per packet (approximately 200.)

"He wasn't even looking me in the eye. I think he was getting frustrated I was holding up the line. I said: 'I'll buy them all so you can't serve them. I don't care how much it is. If you're not willing to help me this is the only thing I can do. The worst thing was they actually asked if I wanted to take the peanuts, and I said obviously not," Williams told the Insider.

Williams also said to the Mirror, "Eurowings should be ashamed of how they handled this situation and for the way they made me feel.

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The release of Barbie and Oppenheimer has been met with enthusiasm from fans, giving rise to playful rivalries between Team Barbie and Team Oppenheimer. However, with even world leaders expressing their preferences, the excitement surrounding the movies' knew no bounds. Controversial influencer Andrew Tate shares his take on world leaders such as UK PM Rishi Sunak and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau watching Barbie.(Twitter/Cobratate)

Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister, and Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, took to social media to support their chosen sides. Sunak's family photo showed solidarity with Barbie and he wrote, The family vote was only ever going one way, while Trudeau posted a photo of him and his son heading to watch Barbie with the caption, We're team Barbie.

Yet, this enthusiasm hasn't been shared by everyone. Andrew Tate, a social media influencer with controversial views, voiced his discontentment at world leaders discussing a movie choice. He suggested that there might be unseen influences behind this, using phrases like the "homosexual mafia" and "satanists." Tate implied that these expressions were attempts to assert control and dominance. His tweet read:

I have never seen western world leaders speak about going to the movies before. However, the satanists demand that you publicly sacrifice any remnant of masculinity to the homosexual mafia. The overlords want your soul. They also want you to tell the world that they own you.

Tate also stated that his resolute masculinity had made him a target of criticism, and he claimed to have rejected offers and opportunities in exchange for his silence on certain matters. They hate me, and attack me because my masculine essence makes it very clear that I havnt sold out. They invited me  Private parties, Private islands, Celebrity parties, Special Agents and Managers Even sponsorship contracts if I dont discuss certain things. $50,000,000. I said no to everything. Then I went to jail, he continued.

Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, are currently facing charges related to human trafficking and rape. They were arrested in December and were shifted to house arrest three months later in Romania. Their detention has been lifted and they are allowed to move freely around the capital, Bucharest, and the Ilfov district where they live.
A spider purgatory might ensue. Social media is in a frenzy after an Arizona biologist shared a video showcasing the incapacitating effects of a spider wasp's sting. The infamous sting of this wasp scores a shocking 4 on the Schmidt Pain Index.

The wasp specialist was referring to the tarantula hawk, a sparrow-sized wasp that lives in the American Southwest and is notorious for its sting, which can paralyze its arachnid namesake for months on end.

"It's like something out of a science fiction movie!" exclaimed Andrew Wesley Legan, 30, a postdoctoral student at the University of Arizona's entomology department in Tuscon, whose TikTok video showcasing the insect's astounding knockout power is being watched by millions across the world.

The Tuscon native was on a walk with his dog in his front yard, when he stumbled upon a stung Tarantula. "I found a tarantula hawk wasp with her prey, the tarantula," Legan says in the video. "The tarantula was completely immobile."

I collected the tarantula after it was stung but before the wasp laid egg, so I've had the opportunity to observe the tarantula's recovery, said the biologist.

Have you seen Alien? the incapacitating process of this spider is similar to that of this 1979, Ridley Scott horror flick. After stinging its prey, it lays eggs inside its body, which then burst out and feed on it, while the prey is still alive.

The infamous sting of this wasp scores a shocking 4 on the Schmidt Pain Index, right under the agony-inducing bullet ant. It is also capable of inducing extreme paralysis.

The video showed the wasp flying away from the scene of the sting while its hairy victim lay motionless in the sand. Andrew rescued the tarantula and brought it home to take care of its paralysis.

As per his experience, this state of paralysis can last from two hours to two months, depending on the species of the wasp. At the end of the video, the biologist commented that the Tarantula remained unresponsive after five days of being rescued.

In a follow-up video, shot 17 days after, the Tarantula remained motionless, even when Legan lifted its legs with a paintbrush. A review article compared different species of spider wasps and a tarantula stung by tarantula hawk wasps took up to 8 months to recover.

The scientist fed it some water to check if it was alive. Thankfully, it appeared t drink the water droplets that were squeezed on his fangs."The tarantula can go for long periods of time without food, but it needs water to survive," Legan explained.

In a final video, shot 38 days later, the little crawler was seen taking groggy steps, learning to walk again.

Now, more than a month after it was stung, the tarantula is just beginning to slightly move its legs and fangs, explained Legan.

As always, social media users did not disappoint in their quirky and fun commentary on this scary journey of rebirth.

Bro is in spider purgatory, said one while the other wondered if the tarantula was now permeated with Spiderman-esque powers.

Many were seen thanking Legan for the kind gesture of saving the spider: Thank you so much for looking after this beautiful creature. Ive been really taken by his journey back to health.
Poland's government on Monday accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating another migration influx into the European Union via the Polish border in order to destabilise the region. Migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region.(AFP)

"We're talking about an operation organised by the Russian and Belarusian secret services that is getting more and more intense," Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told reporters.

Tomasz Praga, the head of the Polish border guard, added that the Belarusian services had become "a criminal group that is masterminding illegal migration".

"Of course, they are making huge profits from it," he told reporters.

During a previous border crisis, starting in the summer of 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees -- mostly from the Middle East -- crossed or attempted to cross into Poland from neighbouring Belarus.

At the time the West accused the Belarusian regime of orchestrating the influx with its ally Russia in a "hybrid" attack, a type of warfare using non-military tactics -- a charge Minsk denied.

Poland reacted then by setting up a no-access zone at the border, which lasted for nine months and banned non-residents including migrants, aid workers and media from the area.

It also sent thousands of troops and police officers to reinforce border guard patrols at the height of the crisis, built a steel wall along the border and approved a law allowing migrants to be forced back into Belarus.

Wasik said the situation "is not as chaotic today as it was two years ago".

According to Praga, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus so far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022.

Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border.

In response, the border guard on Monday called on the defence ministry to send 1,000 additional troops to the border.

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French police on Monday said they had arrested a German national after his wife was discovered after 12 years of captivity in the couple's home. The 53-year-old woman had managed to call police in Germany, who in turn alerted their French colleagues, a police source said.(Representative image)

A police source said the woman, also German, was naked with her head shaved when they found her in a bedroom in the apartment, and had multiple injuries, including broken bones.

She had probably been tortured, the source said.

Police said the bedroom was closed off with metal wire at the residence in Forbach, eastern France, which is close to the German border.

The 53-year-old woman had managed to call police in Germany, who in turn alerted their French colleagues, a police source said.

The source said the woman was believed to have found access to a phone and called police in Wiesbaden, western Germany.

She has been rushed to hospital with fractures in both legs, and her fingers.

The man, 55, was is accused of kidnapping, aggravated rape, and acts of torture and barbarism, French broadcaster BFMTV said.

A police source in the eastern city of Metz, where the man was being held, told AFP that investigators were still piecing together the events.

"Several checks are underway, and I'd like to remain cautious," the source said.

Broadcaster RMC said police found a diary-type notebook in the flat, in which it was believed the man kept a record of his actions, and of the times he gave his wife food.

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An enormous blue whale, considered the largest animal on Earth, has washed up onto a beach in southern Chile, probably after dying at sea, local authorities said Sunday. Handout picture released by Defendamos Chiloe environmentalist organization showing a Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) stranded on the beach of Ancud, on Chiloe island, Los Lagos region, Chile.(AFP)

Residents of the city of Ancud, on Chiloe island, first spotted the giant marine mammal Saturday on a Pacific ocean beach some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Agents of the Chilean national fishing agency Sernapesca, sent to investigate, confirmed the carcass was that of "a large cetacean of the family of Balaenopteridae," they posted on the X platform formerly known as Twitter.

"We helped identify the specimen and, based on preliminary evidence, it is a blue whale," the agency added.

Sernapesca's regional director Cristian Hudson told local media that "given its condition, the whale must have died at sea some time ago and drifted in that state."

Environmental groups noted that the area's waters are heavily used by the fishing industry and maritime traffic, and they called for an investigation to determine whether the creature was the victim of a collision.

According to the non-governmental Cetacean Conservation Center (CCC) of Chile, the family of Balaenopteridae, or rorquals, includes a variety of species, ranging from the nine-meter (30-foot) minke whale to the blue whale -- which at up to 30 meters is considered the largest animal on Earth.

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Iran's government is sending women who defy the strict hijab law for counselling as healthcare organisations warned that the country's judiciary is using mental medicine for this purpose, France 24 reported. As more and more women flout the stringent restrictions including Iranian actress Afsaneh Bayegan who has repeatedly posted photos of her unveiled hair on Instagram and recently attended a public ceremony without a hijab, Iran's government continues to crackdown on dissent. Iran Hijab Law: An Iranian flag flutters.(Reuters)

Afsaneh Bayegan, 61, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and told to go to a "psychological centre" once a week to treat her anti-family personality disorder, it was reported after a court in Tehran province sentenced another woman to spend a month cleaning corpses in a morgue when she was caught driving without a hijab.

Read more: Huge blue whale washes up on beach in southern Chile

The sentence that [Bayegan] was given sets an example, Azadeh Kian, an Iran specialist and professor of political science at Universite Paris Cite, explained after many women in the country chose to give up wearing the hijab since the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. She was detained by Irans morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf. Other Iranian celebrities, athletes and actresses have followed suit in solidarity.

Iranian judges recently diagnosed actress Azadeh Samadi with an antisocial personality disorder after she wore a hat instead of a hijab at a funeral. She will also have to seek therapy weekly in a psychological centre, the court ruled.

In an open letter sent to the head of the countrys judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei- the presidents of four mental health organisations in Iran- accused authorities of exploiting psychiatry for other purposes.

Diagnosing mental health disorders is the responsibility of psychiatrists, not judges, the letter read.

What other measures have been taken by Iran?

Authorities have been handing out hefty fines, sending text messages if women are spotted driving without a hijab, confiscating vehicles and even pressuring employers to get women fired, the report claimed. Women not wearing a hijab have even been refused hospital treatment as well and shops catering to them have been forced to shut down, France 24 reported.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" ...view detail
A former NYPD cold case detective has suggested that a secluded stretch of woods situated blocks from the home of alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann may be hiding more bodies. Joseph Giacalone, a retired sergeant from Long Island and author of The Cold Case Handbook, has urged authorities to comb the area with cadaver dogs. Rex Heuermann appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Riverhead, N.Y. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)(AP)

The Massapequa Preserve, a 430-acre expanse of trails that stretches six miles from Merrick Road to the Southern State Parkway, is very close to Rexs home. It also connects to the two-lane Bethpage State Parkway to the north.

There is this long, dark road that you can take and you could just pull off on the side of the road, do what you got to do, get back in the car and go, said Joseph, according to New York Post. No cameras, nothing like that. No traffic lights. Its an ideal place.

Serial killers have a cool-off period, but not 10 or 11 years

The area is reportedly overgrown and secluded like Ocean Parkway, where bodies of three of Rexs alleged victims were discovered in 2010. Through 2011, more than 10 sets of remains were discovered in the area.

Usually serial killers have a cool-off period, but not 10 or 11 years, said Joseph. It would be kind of unheard of. So it would mean to me that the person would have to find a new place to dispose of his bodies.

Rex has been arrested as a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders. The 59-year-old married dad was caught by plainclothes cops as he strolled down a Midtown sidewalk on Thursday night, July 13. Rex hadworked in Midtown for several years at his own company, RH Architecture.

Rexs arrest is tied to the Gilgo Four, referring to the four women whose bodies were found within days of each other in 2010. The women in question were Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
After Elon Musk shared the details of his potential in-person fight with Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday, announcing that it would be streamed on his social media site X (formerly Twitter), the Meta owner took a dig at 'X' on his rival site 'Threads'. This combo of file images shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. (AP)

Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X, Musk wrote in a post on the 'X' platform. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans," he added.

In response, Zuckerberg shared a screenshot of Musk's post on Threads and remarked Shouldn't we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?

Zuckerberg's scathing dig referred to a series of problems 'X' has been facing since Musk took over the platform last year. These included massive layoffs, reinstating previously suspended right-wing accounts, a chaotic verification badge system on the platform among others, which led several advertisers to turn elsewhere.

Mark Zuckerberg responds to Elon Musk on their potential cage fight.(Threads)

Cage fight

The conversation started off as a joke in June when the news of Threads' launch surfaced online. Musk had taken a dig at Zuckerberg's saying I'm sure Earth can't wait to be exclusively under Zuck's thumb with no other options

When a user asked Musk to be careful since Zuckerberg is enthusiastic about Brazilian jiu-jitsu  a form of Mixed Martial Arts; the X owner replied ""I'm up for a cage match if he is lol."

Zuckerberg's Meta launched its Twitter-like Threads platform in early July, bringing the two billionaires in direct competition with each other. The two tech giants have clashed over the years on issues ranging from politics to artificial intelligence.

Musk bought the social networking site for $44 billion in October last year and has introduced a series of changes in a bid to turn it profitable; however the launch of Threads has added to its challenges.

The latest change on the platform was its rebranding from Twitter to X last month. Musk said he aims to ultimately turn it into the everything app.

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A massive brawl broke out on Saturday, August 5, on a dock in Alabama. Dozens of people were involved in the fight, which has been captured on video. The battle began aftera group of boaters attacked a Montgomery Riverfront dock worker, according to witnesses, New York Post reported. The battle began after a group of boaters attacked a Montgomery Riverfront dock worker, according to witnesses (@_dreadadon/X)

People were thrown in the river and many were hit with a folding chair. Many ended up in handcuffs, as per footage posted to social media. As many as four active warrants were issued by Montogomery police as of Sunday, August 6. More warrants will possibly be issued after the videos are reviewed, local NBC affiliate station WSFA reported.

The incident took place at the 200 block of Coosa Street at about 7 pm on Saturday, police have confirmed. As per a witness, the group of boaters refused to move their pontoon to allow the Harriott II Riverboat to dock. Some tweets suggested that the fight was racial as white people jumped this black security guard, but there is no official statement on racism being involved.

What does the video show?

In the video, a shirtless man is seen starting the fight, running up andpunching the dock worker in the face. The two then struggle, before two more men join in to assault the staffer. A woman is heard screaming and urging others to help.

A man is then seen running to the dock and jumping in the river, swimming over to help the staffer being beaten up. Several other people quickly approach the area, trying to defend the worker, and the video ends.

A different video of the incident shows agroup of people approaching the pontoon with the opposing groups starting to throw punches. People pull each others hair, and a woman is tossed into the water. Bystanders are heard yelling.

A third video shows men and women joining the fight, with one man hitting another with a folding chair. Finally, officers are seen grabbing and cuffing him, as well as several other pontoon boaters

Montgomery mayor Steven Reed took to X to issue a statement on the incident. Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served, Mayor Steven L. Reed wrote.

This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system, the mayor added.
McDonald's iced tea is one of the most sought after beverages at the food company's outlets. An employee of the company has made a sensational revelation about the making of iced tea which might force customers to think twice before consuming it. McDonald's restaurant sign(REUTERS)

TikTok user @gia2bad shared a video which shows her emptying a bag of White Satin sugar into a bucket of tea and stirring it up. The video has gone viral and received millions of views on TikTok.

If yall were wondering why the sweet tea so sweet at McDonalds, Gia wrote in the text over the video.

Yes we use a whole bag sometimes 2, she added in the caption referring to bag of sugar.

As the video went viral, customers of the food chain company and TikTok users expressed shock at the explosive revelation.

Jaw = dropped thats literally cancer, wrote one user.

Im about to get diabetes, another user commented.

ALSO READ| United States sent 4 destroyers while China and Russia conducted joint naval exercise near Alaska recently: Report

However, some users claiming to be employees at McDonald's rejected the claims by Gia. The users claimed that at different locations, the iced tea is made differently.

Notably, according to US Food and Drug Administration's guidelines, added sugars should make up less than 10% of total daily calories.

Meanwhile, the website of McDonald's claims that a large size of sweet tea contains 40 grams of sugar.
Mary MacCarthy and her daughter were travelling on a Southwest Airlines flight in 2021 for her brother's funeral when she was accused of human trafficking by an airline employee present on the scene. Following the event, she filed a lawsuit against the airlines for racial profiling. Mary and her daughter were pulled aside and questioned by police in what she calls is a case of racial profiling

In October 2021, Mary took a flight from San Jose, California to Denver, Colorado with her 10-year-old daughter. Upon their arrival in Denver, Mary and her daughter were separately confronted by armed police and a Southwest staff who suspected she was trafficking her biological biracial daughter.

Mary V/S Southwest

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday in the District Court of Colorado, Mary has accused Southwest of racial discrimination.

The complaint claims that Southwest employees reported her to law enforcement based on a racist assumption about a biracial family.

David Lane, the attorney representing Mary, said the lawsuit is designed to have the airline re-examine its policy and bring some accountability to the company.

Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of colour based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling in using law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did, Lane added.

In 2021 the airline said that it was conducting an internal review of the incident and that its employees do undergo robust training on human trafficking. No further comment has been made by them due to the pending litigation.

Denver police received racially charged information

Post boarding the flight, a Southwest flight attendant reported Mary to the police as she was suspicious of the pair. The two were last to board the flight and did not speak during the voyage, she said.

Therefore, upon reaching Denver the pair was surrounded by Denver Police Department officers and a member of the airline staff who began to question them.

A video from the incident showed the airline employee and an officer speaking to the pair about their suspicious behaviour while the cries of Mary's daughter could be heard from the background.

"While they were in the air, a Southwest employee called the Denver Police Department to report Ms MacCarthy for suspected child trafficking for no reason other than the different color of her daughters skin from her own," the complaint alleges.

The incident has proven to be extremely traumatic for the 10-year-old girl, according to the complaint.

Are racial discrimination lawsuits not new for Southwest?

In January of the same year, Southwest employees pulled a white father, travelling with his black daughter, off a plane for questioning.

The father filed a complaint with Southwest following the event, but the business "did not take steps to correct the racist assumptions its employees make" about mixed families travelling together, according to the lawsuit.

"Southwest again claimed that the fact that a white parent was travelling with a Black child was evidence, in and of itself, of human trafficking," the lawsuit alleges.

This incident has also been mentioned in Mary's lawsuit, advocating to the fact that the airline employees are racially discriminative.
Russia said Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander later this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly fifty years. Technicians finishing to assemble a Soyuz 2.1b rocket carrying the Luna-25 lander ahead of its launch scheduled for August 11, 2023, at the Vostochny cosmodrome. (AFP)

"A Soyuz (rocket) for the launch of the Luna-25 (lander) has been assembled," the Russian space agency said, ahead of what will be Moscow's first lunar mission since 1976. The launch is on August 11.

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More than 3,000 United States military personnel have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships, part of a beefed up response from Washington after tanker seizures by Iran, the US Navy said Monday. This handout photo released on August 6, 2023 by the US Defence Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows A US Navy sailor from USS Bataan (LHD 5) monitoring as the amphibious assault ship transits the Suez Canal with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).(AFP)

The deployment adds to a growing US military buildup in tense Gulf waterways vital to the global oil trade and led Tehran on Monday to accuse the US of inflaming regional instability.

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.

The US sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea on Sunday after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

They arrived on board the USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall warships, providing "greater flexibility and maritime capability" to the Fifth Fleet, the statement from the Bahrain-based command added.

The deployment adds to efforts "to deter destabilising activity and de-escalate regional tensions caused by Iran's harassment and seizures of merchant vessels," Fifth Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins told AFP.

USS Bataan is an amphibious assault ship which can carry fixed-wing and rotary aircraft as well as landing craft. The USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, transports Marines, their gear, and lands them ashore.

In a Monday news conference, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said US deployments are only serving Washington's interests.

"The US government's military presence in the region has never created security. Their interests in this region have always compelled them to fuel instability and insecurity," he told reporters.

"We are deeply convinced that the countries of the Persian Gulf are capable of ensuring their own security."

The spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ramazan Sharif, meanwhile said the Islamic republic "has reached a level of strength and power that can reciprocate any vicious act by the US, such as seizing ships", according to state news agency IRNA.

New approach

The latest deployment comes after Washington said its forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5.

The maritime services in Iran said one of the two tankers, the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, had collided with an Iranian vessel, seriously injuring five crew members, according to IRNA.

In April and early May, Iran seized two oil tankers within a week in regional waters.

Those incidents came after Israel and the United States blamed Iran in November for what they said was a drone strike against a tanker operated by an Israeli-owned firm off the coast of Oman.

The US announced last month that it would deploy a destroyer, F-35 and F-16 warplanes, along with the Amphibious Readiness Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit, to the Middle East to deter Iran from seizing ships in the Gulf.

Last week, a US official told AFP that Washington is also preparing to put Marines and Navy personnel aboard commercial tankers transiting the Gulf as an added layer of defence.

Washington's stepped-up military response comes at a time of deepening engagement between the region and China, which brokered a shock detente between Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran in March.

Tehran's relations with other Gulf Arab states are also growing. The president of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait's foreign minister were both offered invitations to visit the Islamic republic last week.

"Security will remain a friction point in US-Gulf relations even if the threat posed by Iranian attacks against shipping eases in the short term," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft.

"The perception that the US isn't doing enough to deter Iranian attacks against international shipping will persist," he told AFP.

"The need for a new approach is evident".
United States responded aggressively to a joint naval exercise by China and Russia near the coast of Alaska earlier this week, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The report says that eleven Russian and Chinese ships neared the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska, but the fleet didn't enter US waters. Representational Picture(Getty Images)

It is a historical first. Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative, Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain, told the oulet.

In response to the naval exercise near its backyard, US sent four US destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.

Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat, the US Northern Command said in a statement.

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A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told the Journal in a statement: "According to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean."

"This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation," added the spokesman.

Meanwhile, Alaska's senators namely Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan reacted to the news and highlighted the threat to America and the strategic location of their state to safeguard the nation's sovereignty.

"This is a stark reminder of Alaska's proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty," said Murkowski as quoted by ABC News.

"We have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow. In recognition of this reality and our state's unrivaled strategic location, for years, I've been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure," said Sullivan.

Notably, America's ties with Russia and China are strained amid the war in Ukraine and tensions surrounding Taiwan.
Oregon has lifted a ban on self-service dating back to 1951 which prohibited customers from pumping their own fuel at gas stations in the state. The new law, House Bill 2426, was signed on Friday by Governor of Oregon Tina Kotek and it became effective immediately. Representational Picture(Bloomberg)

The full service will not be phased out completely in Oregons 16 most populous counties. As per the new law, no more than half of pumps at any service station be self-serve. And at least one staff must be available at the gas station in those communities at all times to pump gas. Gas stations cannot charge more for full service.

The old law was in place in Oregon for reasons ranging from flammable liquid safety to preserving the jobs of gas station attendants. After the new law has come into effect, the state government has come under criticism too especially for undermining the interest of workers.

Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555, the union that represents grocery store workers in Oregon spoke on the matter.

This bill is clear favoritism for big oil companies over the interests of workers, said Clay as quoted by CNN.

ALSO READ| Florida Steakhouse chain is first in the United States to sell 'vegan steak': Report

According to a report by CNN, there have been mixed reactions to the lifting of the ban. A driver named Steven Brown talked to CNN affiliate KATU and said: Not so interested in self-serve because Im old. I mean, its actually a job to get out and pump your own gas.

It being busy and having to wait on the gas station attendants was sometimes really annoying. So, having it as an option is sweet, California native Erik Atienza told KATU at a service station in Portland.

Interestingly, New Jersey is now the only state in the United States where service station customers cant pump their own fuel.

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A US woman has been charged with first-degree attempted murder after she was accused of poisoning her husband's coffee every day for months with bleach. The woman's husband decided to investigate his wife's actions when he began noticing a foul taste in his coffee back in March while they were stationed in Germany. A US woman from Arizona has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, attempting to commit aggravated assault and poisoning food or drink.(CNN/ Pima County Sheriff's Office)

Roby Johnson, who is serving in the US air force, and his wife Melody Felicano Johnson were going through a divorce but living together with their child, reported CNN.

How did the husband collect evidence?

The court documents stated that Roby Johnson used pool testing strips to discover his coffee pot showed high levels of chlorine. He also allegedly used a hidden camera to discover his wife pouring an unknown substance into the coffee maker. Johnson said he pretended to continue drinking the coffee so he could wait until they returned to the US before filing a police report.

Upon return to the US, Johnson said he used multiple hidden cameras over several days showing Melody take bleach, pour it into a container and then walk over and pour it into the coffee maker.

Why did she attempt to kill her husband?

As per investigators, the husband believes she was trying to kill him to collect death benefits. However, the accused wife pleaded not guilty at an arraignment last week. She has been assigned a public defender and has been lodged at the Pima County Jail pending her next scheduled court appearance on September 6.

As per the report, the bond for the woman is set at $250,000 as prosecutors told the judge a high bond was necessary because the suspect recently bought a house in the Philippines near family and is considered a flight risk.
As a prospective student, you may associate the fall season with the beginning of an academic journey. However, theres a growing trend that is challenging this convention  starting your studies in the winter semester. Starting your learning journey in the winter offers unique advantages that can enhance your experience, open doors to exciting opportunities, and provide a fresh perspective on your educational path. In this article, we'll delve into why starting in the winter semester is a great idea.

Welcome back to school ! Top reasons to start studying in February at EHL

1. Smaller class sizes

Traditionally, fewer students enroll in the winter intake, which means smaller class sizes, and a more enriched learning experience. With fewer students, youll have more opportunities to contribute, ask questions and engage in discussions. Professors will also be able to dedicate more time to address individual needs, and tailor their teaching methods for your success. Additionally, smaller classes allow for closer collaboration with classmates, encouraging diverse perspectives and the development of interpersonal skills.

2. Time for extra experience

Embarking on your academic journey in the winter semester grants you a valuable gap-semester to pursue a part-time job or internship at a restaurant, hotel, or service-oriented company. This will help you jump-start your learning with practical experience and equip you with real-world insights, practical skills, and industry exposure. With some real-world industry experience under your belt, not only will your learning be more relevant and meaningful, but youll gain a competitive edge on the job market. It's a win-win situation for your personal growth and future career prospects.

3. Improved job prospects

We know the job market can be tough, especially for young graduates. The good news is that graduating in a non-traditional month may make your job search just that little bit easier - as youll stand out from the majority of students who complete their studies in the summer months. Being an off-season graduate raises your visibility to employers and increases your chances of landing your dream job.

After high school, I set out to explore South America. I completed a bus road trip from Uruguay, through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador to finally end my journey in Colombia. I learned a lot about different cultures and became more grateful for the life that I live.

WHO I AM

4. Enhanced networking

With a smaller student population, youll have the opportunity to foster closer relationships and forge more meaningful connections with both your peers and faculty members. This intimate environment promotes a stronger support network, facilitates increased collaboration on projects and assignments, and creates a conducive atmosphere for building valuable professional connections that can benefit you throughout your academic journey and beyond.

5. Financial preparation

Having a few extra months to work and save money can help you feel better financially prepared before your program kicks off. That way, you can enter the year with financial confidence, and dedicate your full attention to your studies knowing that you have taken the necessary steps to be prepared. It's a smart move that sets you up for success in your educational journey  and beyond.

6. Broadens horizons

Before diving into your studies, take the opportunity to travel and explore the world. Embrace your wanderlust, gain fresh perspectives, and immerse yourself in different cultures. This adventure will fuel personal growth, boost global awareness, and enrich your overall world view. By starting your educational journey with a global mindset, you'll bring a unique perspective to the classroom, making your learning experience even more dynamic and impactful.

7. Enhanced English proficiency

Choosing a February intake gives you extra months post-graduation to concentrate specifically on enhancing your English skills. This approach reduces application stress, fosters your academic success, and better equips you for an increasingly English-dominant global workspace.

A number of students choose to differ their application to February intake in order to take language courses in the US, Australia, England or Ireland. These extra months allow them to focus on English studies, giving them the opportunity to score a much better results at TOEFL, IELST or C1 Advanced exams. Naomi Depaux-Corny, Senior Admissions Manager

8. A seamless transition

If you're wrapping up high school at the end of the calendar year, the February intake might actually be perfect for you. Theres no need to wait, and you can dive right into your program  after enjoying well-deserved month off of course! It's a seamless transition that ensures you make the most of your time and start your academic adventure on the right foot.

After graduating from high school in Singapore in December, I had plenty of time to spend with my friends and family and even traveled around Europe before joining the school. It was snowing when I first arrived in Switzerland and coming from Singapore this was a nice change.

WHO I AM

Did you know that at EHL, the Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management has two intake periods? With start dates in both September and February, we offer flexibility for future students to tailor their timeline according to their individual needs. The admissions criteria and the courses offered are the same for both intakes, so really - the choice is yours!'

What makes EHLs bachelor program different?'

As the worlds leading Hospitality Business School, EHL boasts award-winning hospitality training facilities, three campuses for a truly international learning experience, a world-class faculty and an alumni network that spans over 150 countries.

But EHL is about much more than that. Its a world of endless possibilities. Students and parents are often surprised when they first set foot on campus because its not a typical university setting; its a dynamic business school with hospitality at its core. At EHL, our profound passion for the industry permeates every aspect of our educational approach, and we incorporate cutting-edge teachings with hands-on experiences and real-world simulations to shape ambitious students into future CEOs, entrepreneurs and leaders.

And thanks to our reputation for delivering best-in-class training, EHL opens doors for extraordinary career opportunities  both within the hospitality industry, and beyond. Our graduates are actively recruited by companies such as Apple, LVMH, LOreal, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Tesla, and 96% land a job within 6 months of graduating.

Are you ready for the journey?

About EHL Group

EHL Group is the global reference in education, innovation and consulting for the hospitality and service sector.

With expertise dating back to 1893, EHL Group now offers a wide range of leading educational programs from apprenticeships to master's degrees, as well as professional and executive education, on three campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. EHL Group also offers consulting and certification services to companies and learning centers around the world. True to its values and committed to building a sustainable world, EHL Group's purpose is to provide education, services and working environments that are people-centered and open to the world. www.ehlgroup.com

EHL Hospitality Business School

Communications Department

+41 21 785 1354

EHL

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Countries included: United States, United Kingdom, China, Italy, Curacao, Singapore, Ireland, Egypt.

U.S. Performance

In the final week of July, U.S. hotel occupancy reached 72.2%, which represented a slight decline of 0.7 percentage points (ppts) from the prior weeks post-pandemic high of 72.9%. Compared to a year ago, occupancy was up 0.4ppts. Occupancy for the same week in 2019 was 77.2%.

Monthly to date through 29 July, occupancy of 69.7% was just a smidge below last year (69.9%). As we move into August, leisure travel in the U.S. will start to wane with approximately 10% of U.S. K-12 students starting school next week according to STRs 2023-2024 School Break Report.

 Source: STR

Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 2.9% year over year (YoY), driven by a 2.3% increase in average daily rate (ADR). That ADR increase was the largest in six weeks.

As has been seen for most of the year, the Top 25 Markets recorded stronger occupancy growth compared to the rest of the country, rising 2.2ppts YoY to 76.4% and matching the previous weeks level, which was the highest since late 2019. Outside the Top 25, occupancy was 70%, which was down slightly YoY (-0.5ppts) and 0.9ppts lower than the prior week.

RevPAR for the Top 25 Markets increased a healthy 5.8%, which was the second highest YoY gain this summer fueled by the above-mentioned strong occupancy and solid ADR increase of 2.8%. For the rest of the country, ADR increased 1.6%, resulting in a 0.9% RevPAR gain.

Weekday (Monday-Wednesday) occupancy produced the strongest YoY occupancy increase (+0.7ppts) across all markets followed by the weekend (Friday and Saturday), which was up 0.4ppts. Shoulder days (Sunday and Thursday) were unchanged YoY.

The Top 25 Markets dominated weekday occupancy growth, increasing 2.7ppts YoY.

Weekend occupancy for the Top 25 Markets was also strong, increasing 2.0ppts YoY.

Combining the strong Top 25 Market occupancy with equally strong ADR gains resulted in weekday and weekend RevPAR gains of 6.5% and 6.2%, respectively.

Outside the Top 25, RevPAR increased 1.5% for weekdays and 0.9% for weekends.

Two Top 25 Markets reached significant occupancy levels:

Oahu led the nation in occupancy at 90.7%, which was its highest level since January 2020 (92.0%).

Anaheim (Orange County) hit 87%, which was the markets highest level since August 2019.

 Source: STR

Outside the Top 25, Buffalo (86.8%) and Albany (82.2%) each recorded their highest occupancy since January 2019. Over half (55%) of the 167 STR-defined markets posted occupancy above 70%.

Occupancy performance across the six chain scales formed a tidy pattern from high to low with Luxury chains seeing the greatest occupancy increase down to Economy chains seeing the greatest decrease. RevPAR changes were not as tidy.

While Luxury occupancy was up 3.0ppts YoY to 71.5%, RevPAR was up just 1.5%

Upper Upscale chains increased occupancy 2.7ppts YoY to 76.2% with RevPAR up 4.8%.

Upscale chains posted the highest occupancy (78.6%), up 2.4ppts YoY with the greatest RevPAR increase of 5.7%.

Upper Midscale was closest to the average occupancy for the industry at +0.6ppts to 76%, with RevPAR up 3.0%.

Midscale occupancy at 69.1% was essentially flat (0.1ppts YoY) as was RevPAR (+0.1%).

Economy (61.9% occupancy) continued a trend of declines, down 2ppts in occupancy and 2.6% in RevPAR.

Group demand among Luxury and Upper Upscale hotels, which is generally slow during this time of year, increased 2% compared to the same week last year, demonstrating the continued strength seen for group business in 2023. St. Louis posted exceptional results with a 72.4% increase in group occupancy, impacted by a major religious youth conference with nearly 40,000 attendees.

Global Performance

Global occupancy (excluding the U.S) climbed 0.3ppts to 72.8%, resulting in another post-pandemic high and a YoY gain of 5.2ppts. Comparing against pre-pandemic times, the matched week in July 2019 marked the high point of global occupancy at 75.9% (+3.1ppts higher compared to 2023). Global ADR remained over US$150 at US$154, which was up 10.5% YoY with RevPAR of US$111 up 19% YoY.

 Source: STR

Occupancy for the top 10 countries based on total supply grew 6.4ppts YoY to 75.2%, which was the third highest level of the year. ADR grew YoY 6.8% to US$142, resulting in RevPAR of US$107 (+16.6% YoY).

Combined occupancy for countries outside of the top 10 has been climbing throughout the year and produced the highest post-pandemic result of 69% (+3.3ppts YoY).

Excluding national holidays, China recorded a post-pandemic occupancy high of 76.1%, which was up 10.4ppts YoY as this time in 2022 still had large Chinese cities facing lockdowns and closed loop manufacturing.

The U.K. continued to lead the Top 10 with occupancy at 83.2%, and after the first week of the summer holidays, YoY growth held at +0.8ppts for occupancy and +6% for ADR.

Italy continued to see some of the largest YoY gains in ADR throughout all of Europe, up 12.3% YoY, likely assisted by boosted transatlantic travel from dollarized countries.

 Source: STR

Outside of the Top 10, the top performers in occupancy from each continent were:

Curacao at 82.1% (-0.2ppts YoY)

Singapore at 88.9% (+13.3ppts)

Ireland at 89% (+1.9ppts)

Egypt at 72.7% (+1.3ppts)

Final thoughts

While slower than a year ago, U.S. demand has advanced, especially in the Top 25 Markets and on the weekdays. With summers end on the horizon, business/group travel will have to advance a bit more to continue the industrys recovery. Outside the U.S., growth is strong on easier comparisons, which will linger through most of the year.

Looking ahead

The absolute level of U.S. occupancy will begin trending down in the coming weeks, hitting a summer seasonal low in the week containing Labor Day. Then a gradual rise is expected but to a level lower than what we have seen over the summer. Global occupancy will likely reach its peak in the coming weeks and then also trend down as school begins in many parts of the world.

 Source: STR

*Analysis by Chris Klauda and William Anns.

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the commercial and residential property markets. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.

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Sandpiper Hospitality  a Virginia-based hotel management company with vast expertise in the extended-stay segment  is excited to announce that it has been awarded the management contract for the Courtyard by Marriott Fort Collins.

The hotel is owned by a subsidiary of 44 Group Hospitality Investments.

The stylish Courtyard by Marriott Fort Collins offers a prime northern Colorado location, offering easy access to Colorado State University, New Belgium Brewery and downtown Fort Collins, which served as the inspiration for Main Street USA at Disneyland.

The hotel features 112 spacious guest rooms, all with luxury bedding, a well-lit work space and complimentary WiFi. Amenities at the dog-friendly hotel include an indoor pool and hot tub, outdoor fire pits, a fitness center and a convenience store.

The hotel will undergo a major renovation starting later this year.

Sandpiper Hospitality is approved by Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Extended Stay America to manage their select-service and extended stay brands and now manages over 10 different brands in its burgeoning portfolio.

We are thrilled to add this Colorado hotel to our portfolio and look forward to a successful long-term relationship, said Sandpiper Hospitality Vice President of Business Development, Victor Cruz. This is our first third-party management contract for a Marriott-branded hotel and we see great potential to continue expanding the Sandpiper Hospitality footprint with third-party management. Our team is deep, talented and extremely focused on client ROI.

Sandpiper Hospitality continues to expand its roster of hotels, adding 17 new properties to its management portfolio in the past 12 months, including three newly developed Wyndham Hotels & Resorts properties in Texas. The additions include a first-of its kind dual-branded La Quinta Inn / Hawthorn Suites in Pflugerville, TX, along with the WoodSpring Suites Orlando I-4 & Convention Center in Florida for new client Sunburst Hospitality.

Sandpiper Hospitality has a portfolio of over 60 hotels open or under contract with over 20 under management for third-party clients. Sandpiper Hospitality continues to demonstrate its unique ability to combine a flexible approach to third-party management with extra-ordinary financial results for its investors and clients. For more information, please visit www.sandpiperhospitality.com.
Radisson RED Tbilisi

The first Radisson RED hotel in Eastern Europe has arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia. Situated in a 100-year-old former post office building on the iconic Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue, Radisson RED Tbilisi blends culture, history, and contemporary design. The hotel is also a culinary destination thanks to its modern and cozy Posta Restaurant & Bar which fuses Georgian, Asian, and international flavors, and serves as a social hub with unique style, dynamic atmosphere, and friendly service.

Georgia is known for its traditional architecture, gastronomy, the arts, and its stunning location where the Caucasus Mountains meet the Black Sea beaches. The country's capital, Tbilisi reflects the city's long, complicated history. Its diverse architecture encompasses Eastern Orthodox churches, ornate art nouveau buildings, Soviet Modernist structures, and a historic, cobblestoned old town. Monuments such as the Bridge of Peace, the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, and Narikala Fortress, a reconstructed 4th-century fortress, which overlooks the city, as well as museums and theaters such as the Georgian National Museum, National Gallery, Lado Gudiashvili Exhibition Hall, Marjanishvili Theatre, Vaso Abashidze State New Theatre, Rustaveli Theatre, and the Opera and Ballet Theatre of Tbilisi, can all be explored by day or night as the city comes alive in lights.

The new Radisson RED Tbilisi's home, a historic post office building, dates back to 1920s and features an imposing facade with wrought iron balconies and modern, black, Crittal-like windows. It is located close to the many important cultural institutions in the city, making it the perfect base for immersing oneself in the local culture. Radisson RED Tbilisi offers guests a unique opportunity to experience the city's rich history, art, and gastronomy within the hotel itself, and its surrounding area.

The 4-storey hotel includes 111 rooms spanning from standard to junior suites, all featuring Radisson RED's signature design focused on cutting-edge solutions. In line with the Radisson RED brand's focus on the local creative and cultural scene, guests can find a series of paintings by a local artist inspired by historic Tbilisi throughout the hotel, as well as traditional Georgian Shushabandi balconies and a courtyard inspired by the unique Tbilisi design. Radisson RED Tbilisi also has three fully equipped meeting rooms for up to 70 people, perfect for events and private gatherings, as well as a courtyard that accommodates up to 500 guests.

The ground floor of Radisson RED Tbilisi is home to Posta Restaurant & Bar which features traditional Georgian, Asian, and international flavors. Posta is the hotel's social hub where guests and locals meet, work, eat, and drink. On warm days, guests can dine al fresco in the courtyard, relax or catch up with friends, order snacks and drinks, and soak up the local surroundings. The restaurant's team is led by Tina Vashakidze, a teacher at the Georgian Culinary Academy, the well-established cooking school in Georgia, along with her experienced colleagues from the same academy.

Antoine Moubarak, Regional Director Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan & Eastern Europe, Radisson Hotel Group, says: "The Radisson RED brand and Tbilisi are a perfect fit. The hotel is located on one of the main avenues in the city which has a vibrant atmosphere and energy. The historic former post office building has undergone an incredible renovation to combine original and modern vibes to the spot in the lead up to the opening of Radisson RED Tbilisi. Our team has worked very hard to create an unforgettable experience for locals and visitors, and we look forward to welcoming them through our doors."

Husnu Tayanc, Curator (also known as General Manager), Radisson RED Tbilisi, says "When I first saw the plans for Radisson RED Tbilisi, I fell in love with the building's history and the opportunity to create a lifestyle experience for guests to feel the energy and vibrant atmosphere in Tbilisi. I would like to thank the investment group, Telegraph Company, namely Kniaz Desani, for bringing up this unique project to Tbilisi. The renovation project managed to maintain the historical elements and add modern ones, while also creating opportunity for the local employment."
Rendering of the L7 Hotels by Lotte West Lake Hanoi

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.

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.

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.
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Sales assistant Dan Raftery, interim Dalton Fire Chief Robert Czerwinski and Girardi Distributors branch manager Mark Mason with cans of emergency water donated to the Fire Department.

Dalton Fire Department Receives Emergency Drinking Water Donation

DALTON, Mass.  The Fire Department received a donation of more than 2,352 cans of emergency drinking water from Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors on Friday morning.

The donation will be stored in the department's cooler and distributed at fire scenes on hot summer days or made readily available to the firefighters when combating a fire, interim Fire Chief Robert Czerwinski said.

Anheuser-Busch partners with the National Volunteer Fire Council to provide emergency drinking water to volunteer fire departments so they can focus their limited resources on other things.

This donation goes a long way because it allows the department to save money by not having to buy extra drinking water, Czerwinski said.

Supplying this water to volunteer departments is Anheuser-Busch and Girardi Distributors way of showing that they are part of the community, Girardi Distributors branch manager Mark Mason said.

"It's a big cost to have to supply your own water, we know that. So, if we can make it easier and cost effective for the volunteer fire departments, they can put their resources into other areas," Mason said.

"You know, buying other equipment that's more beneficial for them instead of spending hundreds of dollars on water, whatever we can do helps a little bit."

"More than two-thirds of America's firefighters are volunteers, often serving on the frontlines in their local communities with limited resources and staffing," Anheuser-Busch's press release said.

The water hails from Anheuser-Busch's brewery in Cartersville, Ga., which periodically pauses its beer production to can clean, safe drinking water for the donation efforts.

The national organization, Anheuser-Busch, makes more than 100 brands of beer including Budweiser.

Girardi Distributors in Pittsfield has also recently delivered donated water to Becket, Clarksburg and Hinsdale. Girardi Distributors in Athol has also delivered donated water to fire departments in that area, Mason said.

Anheuser-Busch has a long history of community engagement and support, examples being aiding in disaster relief and preparedness, its partnership with the Red Cross, and its emergency drinking water program.

The brewer has donated more than 6.4 million cans of clean, safe drinking water to more than 960 volunteer fire departments across 49 states since launching the collaboration with the NVFC and its wholesaler in 2019.

This year, Anheuser-Busch intends on donating more than 2.5 million cans to volunteer fire departments across the country, which is more than ever before.
Phishing is a term regularly heard in the news. Its cybercriminals go-to infiltration technique, because its simple, and because it works.

Basically, phishing is a type of Internet fraud that seeks to acquire a users credentials by deception. It includes theft of passwords, credit card numbers, bank account details and other confidential information.

Cybercriminals follow trends. They know the latest topics they can effectively piggyback on. Its a social engineering technique that plays on our human minds, thats why its difficult to resist clicking an unknown link, which may eventually turn out to be malicious, says Adrian Hia, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

For instance, in 2022, key phishing topics monitored by Kaspersky experts related to compensations, bonuses, and even refunds.

Bonuses and compensation are hard to deny in times of crisis and instability, which is why financial assistance is frequently promised by con artists to swindle users out of their money.

Promotional campaigns by major banks were a popular bait in 2022. Visitors to a fraudulent web page were offered to receive a one-time payment or to take a service quality survey for a fee.

In Muslim countries, scammers promised to send charity packages, purportedly under a Ramadan Relief program that aimed at helping low-income families during the Ramadan fast. The fasting period typically sees higher prices for food and household products, whereas observers buy more than they normally do and may be faced with a shortage of money.

Growing utility rates and an increase in the price of natural resources have prompted several governments to start discussing compensations for the population. Payout notices could arrive by mail, email, or as a text message.

Cybercriminals attempted to take advantage of the situation by creating web pages that mimicked government websites, promising cash for covering utility payments or compensation of utility expenses. Visitors were occasionally asked to provide personal details under the pretext of checking that they were eligible, or simply to fill out a questionnaire.

In Singapore, scammers offered a refund of water supply costs, purportedly because of double billing. An energy or resource crisis was not used as a pretext in this particular case, but refunds were still offered in the name of the water supply authority.

Our solutions blocked more than 43 million phishing attacks against our users in Southeast Asia last year. Clearly, phishing is a tool used frequently by cybercriminals. Because its nature requires a users participation  the mere clicking a link or opening of a file  its urgent for everyone to know how phishing really works so we can avoid falling prey against it, adds Hia.

How a phishing campaign unfolds

In 2022, Kaspersky experts saw an increase in spear (or targeted) phishing attacks targeting businesses around the world. In addition to typical campaigns consisting of one stage, there were attacks in several stages. In the first email, scammers in the name of a potential client asked the victim to specify information about its products and services. After the victim responds to this email, the attackers start a phishing attack.

Stage 1: Attackers send an email in the name of a real trade organization requesting more information about the victim companys products. The email text looks plausible and has no suspicious elements, such as phishing links or attachments. A senders email address from a free domain, like gmail.com, may raise doubts. The email on the screenshot below is sent from an address in this domain, and the company name in the From field is different to its name in the signature.

Example of the first email

It is worth noting that the use of free domains is not typical for spear phishing in the name of organizations, because such domains are rarely used in business.

Most often in targeted attacks, attackers either use spoofing of the legitimate domain of the organization they are pretending to be, or register domains similar to the original one. In addition, Google and Microsoft are pretty quick in blocking email addresses spotted sending spam. This is the most likely reason why attackers used different addresses in the From header (where the email came from) and Reply-to header (where the reply will go when clicking Reply in your email client).

This means the victim responds to another address, which may be located in another free domain, such as outlook.com. The address in the Reply-to header is not used for spam, and correspondence with it is initiated by the victim, so it is less likely to be blocked quickly.

Stage 2: After victims respond to a first email, attackers send a new message, asking them to go to a file-sharing site and view a PDF file with a completed order, which can be found via the link.

An email with a link

Stage 3: By clicking the link, the user is taken to a fake site generated by a well-known phishing kit. It is a fairly simple tool that generates phishing pages to steal credentials from specific resources. Our solutions blocked fake WeTransfer and Dropbox pages created with this kit.

A fake WeTransfer page created using the same phish kit as the target campaign sites

In the phishing campaign described above, the phishing site mimics a Dropbox page with static file images and a download button. After clicking any element of the interface, the user is taken to a fake Dropbox login page that requests valid corporate credentials.

A fake Dropbox page

Login page with a phishing form

Stage 4: When victims attempt to log in, their usernames and passwords are sent to https://pbkvklqksxtdrfqkbkhszgkfjntdrf[.]herokuapp[.]com/send-mail.

HTML representation of a phishing form

The campaign began in April 2022, with malicious activity peaking in May, and ended by June.

Kaspersky identified targets for this campaign around the world, including the following countries: Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Singapore, USA, Germany, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, Serbia, Netherlands, Jordan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Portugal, and Malaysia.

Phishing trends in 2023

Times of crisis create the preconditions for crime to flourish, including online. Kaspersky experts predict scams promising compensation and payouts from government agencies, large corporations and banks are likely to remain popular among cybercriminals next year.

The unpredictability of the currency market and departure of individual companies from specific countries markets will likely affect the number of scams associated with online shopping. At the same time, the COVID-19 topic, popular with cybercriminals in 2020 and 2021, but already beginning to wane in 2022, will finally cease to be relevant and will be replaced by more pressing global issues.

In addition, Kaspersky also has seen an increase in targeted phishing attacks where scammers dont immediately move on to the phishing attack itself, but only after several introductory emails where there is active correspondence with the victim. This trend is likely to continue. New tricks are also likely to emerge in the corporate sector in 2023, with attacks generating significant profits for attackers.
PLDT Enterprise, the corporate business arm of PLDT, the leading integrated telecommunications and digital services provider in the Philippines, partners with Infobip, a global cloud communications platform, to provide a robust and secure Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging service, aimed at elevating the customer experience for partners and Smart subscribers.

From left to right: Ruslana Reznikova, VP and General Manager  APAC & Eurasia at Infobip Ltd.; Matija Razem, VP for Business Development at Infobip Ltd.; Roberto Kutic, COO and Co-founder at Infobip Ltd.; Mitch Locsin, First Vice President and Head of Enterprise and International Business Groups at PLDT and Smart; Nico Alcoseba, First Vice President Enterprise Product Management at PLDT Enterprise; Albert Villa-real, President and CEO at PLDT Global and Enterprise Revenue Group Head at PLDT Enterprise

Since 2018, Infobip has been a trusted partner of PLDT Enterprise in the Philippines; delivering domestic and international A2P messaging services through PLDTs wireless unit, Smart.

PLDT and Smart First Vice President and Head of Enterprise and International Business Groups, Mitch Locsin, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration, highlighting the potential to enhance customer experiences across diverse industries.

"We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Infobip, as it enables us to revolutionize the customer experience for businesses across diverse industries. By leveraging their expertise in CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) field, we can empower businesses with reliable and seamless communication solutions, says Locsin. This partnership paves the way for an enhanced secure messaging solution, with improved customer engagement satisfaction, and ultimately, sustainable growth in today's evolving digital landscape.

Infobip's extensive global experience and with their industry leading best practices empower businesses to seamlessly engage customers through a variety of communication channels.

Their solutions span SMS messaging, Rich Communication Services (RCS), integration with over-the-top (OTT) apps, voice, and email services.

Infobip COO and Co-Founder, Roberto Kutic expressed his delight over the partnership saying, This strengthens our commitment to providing secure and reliable A2P messaging services. With our advanced communications platform solutions, businesses can enhance their customer communications and streamline their processes.

Matija Razem, Infobip VP of Business Development, also adds, This partnership with PLDT Enterprise further solidifies our position as a leader in the A2P messaging space. We are excited to work together in enabling businesses to leverage our comprehensive suite of communication channels and build lasting relationships with their customers.

The partnership between PLDT Enterprise and Infobip signifies their shared vision of delivering exceptional and secure customer experiences through cutting-edge technology and reliable communication solutions.

Prioritizing security, scalability, and operational efficiency, this collaboration empowers businesses to stay ahead in today's dynamic digital landscape.

Albert Villa-Real, PLDT Global President and CEO and Enterprise Revenue Group Head at PLDT Enterprise, emphasized the significance of this partnership for businesses operating in the global landscape.

"We recognize the enormous demands faced by businesses in today's global market. With Infobip's international standards, we can ensure world-class quality servicing for our partners and subscribers' customers," Villa-Real closes.
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Sandra Bullocks longterm partner, Bryan Randall, has died aged 57, his family announced in a statement on Monday (7 August).

It is with great sadness that we share that on 5 August, Bryan Randall passed away peacefully after a three-year battle with ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis], his family shared.

Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.

We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours, his family added.

At this time we ask for privacy to grieve and to come to terms with the impossibility of saying goodbye to Bryan, the statement sent to People magazine concluded, signed, His Loving Family.

Bullock has yet to make an individual statement about Randalls death.

The actor, 59, met Randall, a model-turned-photographer, in 2015 when he was photographing her son Louiss birthday. She and Randall made a public appearance together at Jennifer Aniston and Justin Therouxs wedding later that year.

Bullock has two adopted children, Louis Bardo Bullock (13) and Laila Bullock (11).

I found the love of my life. We share two beautiful children  three children, [Randalls] older daughter. Its the best thing ever, Bullock told Red Table Talk in 2021.

I dont wanna say do it like I do it, but I dont need a paper to be a devoted partner and devoted mother, The Lost City star said of marriage, adding: I dont need to be told to be ever present in the hardest of times. I dont need to be told to weather a storm with a good man.

ALS (also commonly known as Lou Gehrigs disease) affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and causes the muscles responsible for controlling voluntary movement to waste away.

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There is currently no cure for ALS, but the US Food and Drug Administration has approved four drugs to treat the condition and ease the discomfort of sufferers.

Randalls family asks for donations to be made to the ALS Association and the Massachusetts General Hospital.
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The organisers behind Malaysias Good Vibes Festival are threatening to pursue legal action against The 1975 after the event was cancelled following frontman Matty Healys onstage rant against the countrys anti-LGBT+ laws.

The British rock band headlined the festivals opening night on 22 July in Kuala Lumpur.

I dont see the f***ing point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with. Unfortunately, you dont get a set of loads of uplifting songs because Im f***ing furious, Healy, 34, told the crowd.

And thats not fair on you, because youre not representative of your government. Because youre young people, and Im sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool.

Their performance was cut short when Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald  an act which is banned in Malaysia.

After disappearing off-stage briefly, Healy returned to tell the audience: We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, goodbye.

The festival was then called off entirely by Malaysias government due to its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule or contravene Malaysian laws.

Matty Healy (Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)

In a statement seen by BBC News, organisers Future Sound Asia (FSA) said it had issued the band with a Letter of Claim demanding they acknowledge liability and compensate them for damages incurred.

FSA said that if The 1975 fail to do so, then they will pursue legal action in UK courts.

According to The Guardian, FSA claim that Healys actions tarnished the festivals reputation and that they intentionally contravened the agreement [the band] had with FSA, causing significant financial losses for the company and local artists and businesses.

Representatives for The 1975 declined to comment on the FSAs statement.

The band is also facing a class action lawsuit from a group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors who lost out on income after the festival was cancelled.

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Mathew Thomas Philip of Malaysian law firm Thomas Philip, which is preparing the class action lawsuit, told The Guardian: My view is that The 1975 must be held responsible and accountable for the losses suffered by the artists and vendors.

Healys actions prompted concern from some members of Malaysias LGBT+ community and allies over fears they would generate a backlash.

Matty Healy (PA)

Thilaga Sulathireh, a founder of the LGBT+ group Justice for Sisters, warned of the timing of Healys actions ahead of the highly contested state elections next month.

They told The Washington Post: One can appreciate the meaning of Healys protest, but I think the timing of it may not necessarily benefit folks.

Political parties are currently campaigning, and we know LGBT issues are often scapegoated.

An expert on Malaysia at the University of Tasmania, James Chin, added: Among the Muslim communities of Southeast Asia, they see LGBT rights as part of this Western agenda to impose cultural values on other countries, especially Muslim countries.

One of the problems with trying to promote these sorts of things around the world is that without the local context, you tend to get it wrong.

LGBT+ people face severe discrimination in Malaysia, where homosexuality is forbidden, and sodomy can be punished with imprisonment and corporal punishment.

Responding to news that the music festival had been cancelled in response to the kiss, Healy poked fun at the controversy on Instagram.

He shared the cancellation statement, accompanied by the words: Ok well why dont you try and not make out with Ross for 20 years. Not as easy as it looks.

On 23 July, The 1975 announced they had now withdrawn from playing scheduled shows in Taiwan and Indonesia, stating that it would be impossible to proceed with the tour dates.
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Australian rapper Iggy Azalea was reportedly one of more than 70 people who wrote Tory Lanez a letter of support ahead of his sentencing in the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.

Lanez (legal name Daystar Peterson), 31, has been in jail since 23 December 2022 after a jury convicted him of first-degree assault, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and having a concealed and unregistered firearm in a vehicle.

Fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion had accused Lanez of shooting her in the foot in a July 2020 incident.

During the court hearing on Monday (7 August), Judge Herriford briefly summarised the numerous letters of support he had received for Lanez, one of which came from Azalea, according to court reporter Meghann Cuniff.

Cuniff  who has earned the affectionate monicker Megan Thee Reporter from Megans fans during the longwinded trial  said Herriford told the court that Azaleas letter asked him to impose a sentence that is transformational, not life-destroying.

The Independent has contacted Azaleas representatives for comment.

Among the letters, Cuniff also reported that a jailer wrote to say that Lanez is remorseful and has talked in detail about the event and what he could have done to prevent it.

Iggy Azalea (left) and Tory Lanez (Getty Images)

Los Angeles prosecutors are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for Lanez, who also faces deportation to his native Canada. An official sentencing is expected later today, which his lawyers plan to appeal.

Megan The Stallion (real name Megan Pete) testified during the trial that Lanez had shot a handgun towards the back of her feet and told her to dance b**** after she got out of his SUV and walked away from it. The pair had left a party at Kylie Jenners Hollywood Hills home.

She required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her feet and alleged Lanez offered her $1m (830,000) to stay quiet about the incident as he was on probation.

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Los Angeles prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that along with the crimes for which he was convicted, Lanez has re-traumatised Megan with social media posts about the case that emboldened many among his more than 2 million followers to attack her.

In April, Megan spoke for the final time about being shot by Lanez and the public reaction to the shooting.

Explaining that she saw herself as a survivor, because I have truly survived the unimaginable rather than a victim, Megan said that shed had to face her trauma being turned into a running joke.

I understand the public intrigue, but for the sake of my mental health, I dont plan to keep reliving the most traumatic experience of my life over and over again. Im choosing to change the narrative because Im more than just my trauma, she said.
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Amid scorching temperatures, a K-pop concert scheduled for Sunday at the South Korean World Scout Jamboree was postponed due to heat safety concerns.

Despite extreme temperatures that prompted three national contingents to withdraw, the organisers of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea decided to proceed with the event.

Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min said the jamboree organisers accepted the concerns over safety-related incidents if the show was held on Sunday night.

The temperatures at the jamboree location have remained consistently above 33 degrees Celsius.

The World Scout Jamboree in South Korea came under pressure after facing calls to be cancelled on Saturday, as groups from the United States and Britain decided to depart a week ahead of schedule due to severe heat and adverse weather conditions.

The mercury has climbed to 34 degrees Celsius in Saemangeum, situated near the city of Buan on South Koreas western coastline. This is where 39,000 participants, primarily scouts aged 14 to 18, have been camping since Friday.

The two-week-long outdoor event began on Tuesday as authorities issued the highest-level warning for extreme temperatures for the first time in four years.

At least 400 people were treated for heat-related illnesses at the gathering. Over 43,000 young scouts from 158 countries are participating in the World Scout Jamboree held on land reclaimed from the sea in the southwestern town of Buan.

During the opening ceremony on Wednesday, at least 108 people suffered from heat-related illnesses and exhaustion and were taken to the hospital, the authorities said. The ceremony was attended by president Yoon Suk Yeol along with chief scout, Bear Grylls.

The temperature there reached 35C on Wednesday.

By Thursday the number of people falling sick due to extreme temperatures had risen to at least 400. Most of them were experiencing mild symptoms, such as headache, dizziness and nausea and all returned to their campsites, a Jeonbuk Fire Service official said.

The British, American, and Singaporean contingents proceeded to depart from the Saemangeum and opted to relocate to alternative sites across the country, including hotels within the capital city of Seoul.

Meanwhile, during a media briefing, Mr Lee announced that two alternative locations are currently under consideration for the K-pop concert, which has been rescheduled to take place on the eve of the scouting meets closing, scheduled for 12 August.

Insufficient shaded areas, along with inadequate provisions for water supply, food services, and sanitation facilities, led civic groups, parents, and the World Organization of the Scout Movement to jointly suggest on Saturday that the event should be concluded ahead of schedule.

However, both the jamboree organisers and the South Korean government stated that after consulting with the participating scouting contingents, they had collectively decided to proceed with the jamboree as planned.

Jacob Murray, director of world events for the World Organization of the Scout Movement said there had been increased improvement in site conditions after additional resources were made available.

Additional reporting by agencies.
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Indias Supreme Court appointed a committee of three retired women judges on Monday to look into relief and rehabilitation work in the northeastern state of Manipur which has been hit by sectarian violence since May.

A three-judge bench headed by chief justice of India DY Chandrachud also appointed a retired senior police official to oversee all complaints of sexual violence to be probed by the federal Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).

The police official will report back to the Supreme Court, Justice Chandrachud said.

Our efforts are to restore a sense of confidence in the rule of law, the bench said of the three-judge committee comprising retired justice Gita Mittal, Shalini Joshi and Asha Menon. We will constitute at one level a committee of three former HC judges. This committee will be looking at things apart from investigation - including relief, remedial measures etc.

Former IPS officer Dattatray Padsalgikar has been trusted with overseeing the CBI probes, said the court.

Last month, a video of two tribal women being paraded naked and subjected to sexual assault by a mob of men had triggered international outrage over the violence in Manipur.

The women had said in their police complaints they were later gang-raped.

The widely shared footage led prime minister Narendra Modi to address the issue for the first time since the conflict broke out in Manipur, saying the incident shamed India and that the guilty wont be spared.

Since then several other cases of women being deliberately targeted in violence that has resulted in more than 180 deaths and rendered tens of thousands homeless.

Tucked in the mountains on the border with Myanmar, Manipur has been on the brink of a civil war. Mobs have rampaged through villages, torching houses and buildings.

The conflict was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand by mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

The conflict has triggered an impasse in Indias parliament, as opposition members demand a statement from prime minister Narendra Modi on the violence roiling the state.

While on Saturday, a delegation of 20 opposition lawmakers from 15 parties visited the remote northeastern state in a bid to pressure the government to take action against the violence.
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Almost three-quarters of south Asias children are exposed to life-threatening heatwaves caused by the climate crisis, the United Nations childrens agency has warned.

Unicef says its analysis of 2020 data showed an estimated 460 million, or 76 per cent of children in south Asia  India, Pakistan and Afghanistan  were exposed to extreme temperatures.

This means three in four children in south Asia are already exposed to extreme high temperatures, compared to the global figure of one in three children or 32 per cent.

The threshold for extreme temperatures means 83 or more days in a year exceeded the 35C (95F) mark  making south Asia the hardest-hit region for those under the age of 18.

The data also showed that 28 per cent of children across south Asia are exposed to 4.5 or more heatwaves per year compared to 24 per cent globally.

Countries in the region are not the hottest in the world right now but the heat here brings life-threatening risks for millions of vulnerable children, said Sanjay Wijesekera, Unicef regional director for south Asia.

We are particularly concerned about babies, toddlers, malnourished children and pregnant women as they are most vulnerable to heatstrokes and other serious effects.

As the world recorded the hottest-ever temperatures in July, mercury in parts of India and Pakistan exceeded 45C several times this year, killing dozens of people. This was after record-shattering heatwaves last year.

Even with the monsoon arriving, the combination of heat and humidity can also be deadly. More than 800,000 children in flood-affected areas were at risk of severe heat stress in June this year, Unicef warned.

The UN body said the situation is exacerbated for children as they are less well-equipped to adapt to such temperature changes. The risks can be life threatening  from fainting and poor mental development to neurological dysfunction, seizures and cardiovascular diseases.

Pregnant women are particularly susceptible to heat and can experience preterm births and stillbirths, it said.

Young children simply cannot handle the heat, said Mr Wijesekera. Unless we act now, these children will continue to bear the brunt of more frequent and more severe heatwaves in the coming years, for no fault of theirs.
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Greg Rutherfords fiancee Susie Verrill has shared that she had to rush the British track and field athlete to the hospital on Saturday (5 August) after an unknown illness left him clawing at his skin and just screaming.

Verrill, a social media influencer and blogger, posted about the incident on her Instagram page on Monday morning (7 August) and described it as the scariest time of her life.

Alongside a photograph of Rutherford, 36, sitting up in a hospital bed and appearing to grimace, she explained that the day began normally and that she went to their friends house for a roast dinner with their three children.

Verrill said she later received a text message from Rutherford informing her that he might be having an allergic reaction to something and felt itchy, but she did not think it was an emergency.

However, he called shortly after screaming on the phone, she wrote, adding: And I mean SCREAMING. He shouted, YOU NEED TO GET HERE NOW and so I drove back to our house while calling an ambulance, terrified I was about to get home and find him not breathing.

The blogger said she was told that an ambulance would take 40 minutes. Once home, she ran into the house and found Rutherford inside, screaming and acting like one of those people you see in videos where theyve taken bath salts.

He was clawing at his skin and just screaming. Repeatedly. He ran to our car and while I rang 999 again to say Id have to take him, we had to run every red light and I had to focus on not crashing while he screamed and tried to grab the wheel, she recalled.

He was delirious and I looked like I was kidnapping him. I was on the phone to the 999 call handler and the poor girl just kept saying, OK yeah he doesnt sound good, please be safe but hurry and I was like OK well this is a nightmare because Ive been driving like three months. It was AWFUL.

Susie Verrills Instagram Story about Greg Rutherford experiencing a mystery allergy (Instagram/Susie Verrill)

She continued her story in another slide, which showed a close-up of Rutherfords skin on his thighs. It appeared red with raised bumps, like hives or a rash, covering the surface.

Verrill said she threw [Rutherford] out of the car in front of the A&E and went to park her car. Once inside the hospital, she was told that staff had sent him to Resus, which is a term used for the resuscitation area of the department.

I think [they sent him there] mainly because he was a six-foot-three bloke acting like a psychopath and they didnt want to scare anyone, she wrote, adding: They also pumped him full of steroids and antihistamines and it seemed to work pretty much immediately. Thankfully by the time I got there hed stopped screaming and raking himself.

(Instagram/Susie Verrill)

In the next slide, she showed Rutherford still sitting up in a hospital bed, but appearing calmer. She said that they were allowed to leave the hospital three hours after they arrived.

Verrill added that she felt close to having a heart attack but reassured followers that she was fine otherwise.

My question is  we did nothing differently yesterday in terms of eating/drinking but the only snack Greg ate was nuts  could he have developed an allergy, do we think? she asked her fans.

Have any of you had this? Hospital recommended we get him tested but said it could have also been viral. I appreciate rashes can appear with a viral illness but his body went MAD. The doctor who suggested the viral thing hadnt seen how Greg had been on arrival; I cant explain how much pain he was in.

Greg Rutherford poses for a photograph with his partner Susie Verrill and son Milo after arriving on a British Airways flight from Rio de Janeiro to London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 on August 17, 2016 (Getty Images)

She recalled a time when Rutherford shrugged off a grumbling appendix in comparison to how he reacted to the recent illness, and asked followers to let her know if they had ever experienced something similar.

In her most recent Instagram Story, Verrill addressed suggestions from fans that Rutherford may have come into contact with a plant on his run that may have caused the reaction.

We dont think it was any sort of plant because the reaction began before he went on his run (although we appreciate this may have exacerbated symptoms with the sweating), she wrote. Gregs having some tests this morning so hopefully it can start the ball rolling and if I dont get back to you just yet, Im so sorry. Ive had about 500 messages already! Really, really appreciate all the advice.

Greg Rutherford shares a close-up of the skin rash he experienced (Instagram/Greg Rutherford)

Rutherford, who participated in Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, also shared Instagram Stories about his experience.

In one slide, showing a close-up of his skin from another angle, he wrote: I suddenly had a massive allergic reaction to something (no idea what) and had to get Susie to rush me to hospital. Thankfully they pumped me with a load of stuff and calmed it down. But it was HORRIBLE. This rash was covering my entire body.

In a second Story, he shared a photograph of himself and added: Im not home. A little [itchy] still, but nothing like earlier. I was trying to get my skin off it was so bad. Im going to get some tests done to figure out what it was, as I NEVER want to experience that again.

The sportsman thanked the hospital staff for helping him, adding: I was screaming at one point So apologies for that too.

Rutherford and Verrill have been together since 2012 and share a daughter named Daphne, two, and sons Milo and Rex, eight and five respectively. The couple were due to be married in May, but postponed their wedding because of the death of a family member.
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Meghan Markle celebrated her 42nd birthday on Friday but there was radio silence from senior members of the royal family.

Last year, the official Twitter accounts for the royal family, including the now Prince and Princess of Wales and King Charles and Queen Camilla, publicly shared birthday wishes for Meghan on social media. But neither of the official Twitter accounts wished the duchess a happy birthday this year.

Wishing a happy birthday to The Duchess of Sussex! wrote the @KensingtonRoyal Twitter account for Prince William 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.

However, in June this year, there was radio silence from senior members of the royal family on social media as Harry and Meghans daughter, Princess Lilibet, 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.

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.

The Sussexes reportedly did not receive an invitation for a royal family gathering to mark the anniversary of 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.

Meghan and Harry were spotted leaving a celebrity hotspot restaurant in Montecito, California on Wednesday night, ahead of Meghans birthday on Friday.
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Pain is a tricky subject - as it is often considered subjective and dependent on individual pain threshold.

However, while the painfulness of getting a tattoo or having a baby may be debatable, there are certain health conditions or illnesses that are undeniably excruciating.

According to the NHS, there are 20 conditions that rank as pain so disabling that they can prevent you from performing daily tasks - and they include well-known pains such as broken bones and kidney stones to the lesser-known but still agony-causing gout or trigeminal neuralgia.

The NHS also names frozen shoulder as one of the worst pains to suffer, a condition where the joint becomes so tight and stiff that its almost impossible to raise your arm. The condition can last for several years if left untreated.

Endometriosis, a debilitating gynaecological condition where tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus is found elsewhere in the body, makes the list as well.

The condition, which is thought to affect one in 10 women worldwide, takes an average of 7.5 years to diagnose - during which women can experience general pain, pelvic pain, period pain, and pain during sex, as well as fertility issues.

Also amongst the NHSs list of conditions that can cause the most notoriously severe pains are arthritis, appendicitis and migraines.The full list, in no particular order, is as follows:

Shingles

Cluster headaches

Frozen shoulder

Broken bones

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)

Heart attack

Slipped disc

Sickle cell disease

Arthritis

Migraine

Sciatica

Kidney stones

Appendicitis

Trigeminal neuralgia

Acute pancreatitis

Gout

Endometriosis

Stomach ulcer

Fibromyalgia

Pain after surgery

Of the conditions, Dr Gary LeRoy, a family medicine doctor in Dayton, Ohio, told The Independent: These are all very valid pain conditions that we commonly see in the healthcare setting.

However, Dr LeRoy would argue that two other conditions make the list as well - back pain, the most common thing that we see in primary care practices and toothaches.

According to Dr LeRoy: Chronic lower back pain affects 80 per cent of the population at some point in their life because as homo sapiens who are bending, stooping, pushing and pulling, we end up with musculoskeletal back pain.

Toothaches, which are often dismissed, can also be extremely painful, according to Dr LeRoy, who told us: We often overlook the things above the neck and again, it is such a common thing."

Dr LeRoy has found himself constantly aware of oral pain syndromes after multiple patients complaining of pain in the mouth, jaw, or ears were actually found to suffer from tooth issues, such as an abscess.

As for what to do in a situation where pain is affecting a persons ability to function in society, or when it stops them from work, sleep, or providing nutrition to themselves, Dr LeRoy recommends seeking medical advice - as there can be health consequences to prolonged pain.

And for pain associated with heart attacks, the worst headache you have ever experienced, kidney stones, acute pancreatitis, or appendicitis, Dr LeRoy advises seeking emergency medical attention - as those types of pain can be potentially life-threatening.

[This article was originally published in 2018]
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Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has won further grounds in his successful Court of Appeal bid to clear his name.

He was found guilty of raping a woman in Greater Manchester in 2003 and the next year was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years.

He served 10 more because he maintained his innocence.

But his conviction was quashed by senior judges at the Court of Appeal in July after DNA evidence linking another man to the crime came to light.

The evidence needed to overturn my conviction has been sitting in police files for the past two decades Andrew Malkinson

Overturning Mr Malkinsons convictions, for two counts of rape and one of choking or strangling with intent to commit rape, Lord Justice Holroyde said he could leave the court free and no longer be subject to the conditions of licence.

At the time of Mr Malkinsons trial, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime and the prosecution case against him was based only on identification evidence.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Sir Robin Spencer, said last month that Mr Malkinsons legal team raised a number of substantial and important points in other parts of his appeal that would be decided in writing.

In a ruling on Monday, the three judges said Mr Malkinsons conviction was also unsafe because of failures to disclose evidence.

Edward Henry KC, for Mr Malkinson, previously described these as deplorable disclosure failures, which mostly lay at the door of the Greater Manchester Police.

They include police photographs of the victims left hand, which supported her evidence that she broke a nail scratching the face of her attacker, and the fact the two eyewitnesses who identified Mr Malkinson had convictions for dishonesty offences.

None of this was available to Mr Malkinsons defence team at his trial and Mr Henry said the failure to disclose the photographs deprived Mr Malkinson of his strongest defence point  his lack of any facial injury.

In Mondays ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde ruled in Mr Malkinsons favour on a further two grounds.

He said: In the very particular circumstances of this case, the non-disclosure of the two relevant photographs prevented the appellant from putting his case forward in its best light, and strengthened the prosecution case against him in a manner which the photographs show to have been mistaken.

The judge added: Cross-examination about the witnesses previous convictions would have been capable of casting doubt on their general honesty and capable of affecting the jurys view as to whether they were civic-minded persons doing their best to assist.

However, the three judges at the Court of Appeal denied Mr Malkinsons bid on two other arguments over one of the witnesses drug use and sentencing for a motoring offence.

Lord Justice Holroyde also said: The stark reality is that the appellant has spent very many years in prison, having been convicted on identification evidence which he always disputed and which cannot now be regarded as providing a safe basis for the jurys verdicts.

We regret that this court cannot alter that fact.

Following Mondays ruling, Mr Malkinson said: I feel vindicated by the courts finding that Greater Manchester Police unlawfully withheld evidence, denying me a fair trial and causing my wrongful conviction nightmare.

The evidence needed to overturn my conviction has been sitting in police files for the past two decades.

Yet the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission) did not bother to look and it fell to the small charity Appeal to bring it to light.

Mr Malkinson asked for the CCRCs chair Helen Pitcher to apologise and take accountability for the CCRCs failures, which cost me extra years behind bars for a crime I did not commit.
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A retired miner who killed his seriously ill wife said he was expecting to spend about five more years in a Cypriot prison before a judge announced his sentence.

British expat David Hunter was released from custody last week after a court sentenced him to two years in jail for the manslaughter of Janice, his spouse of 52 years.

The 76-year-old was allowed to walk free within 15 minutes of being sentenced at Paphos District Court due to time already served and good behaviour.

Mr Hunter spent 19 months in prison before being cleared of premeditated murder by a three-judge panel, but found guilty of manslaughter.

On Monday the pensioner said that as he was about to be sentenced he was expecting about five years.

David Hunter pictured visiting his wifes grave for first time since prison release (PA)

The pensioner told Good Morning Britain: I was prepared for it, I prepared my mind for it, I always prepared for the worst.

Mr Hunter now has a new home in Cyprus, in the same village where he and his wife lived up until their death.

I couldnt be more pleased  Im living where I wanted to be  200 metres from my wifes grave, he said.

David and Janice Hunter (PA Media)

Mr Hunter said he missed seeing his wifes funeral procession by seconds when police officers wouldnt let him stop to look at it while transporting him through the village.

I didnt quite get a glimpse of the coffin, he said.

That was one of the worst days in prison. Another few seconds and I would have seen my wifes coffin.

I could see (the priest) coming up to the church. I said: please lets stop.

David Hunter said his wife begged him to kill her in her final days (Good Morning Britain/ITV)

They wouldnt let me stop. They didnt care, they just took me away.

He said he tried to take his own life after Mrs Hunters death because he didnt want to live without her.

When the police came, my feeling was I dont care what you do.

Mr Hunter said he and Mrs Hunter spent the 16 best years weve ever had after retiring to Cyprus, before his wife became ill with a rare form of blood cancer.

He told presenters Ed Balls and Ranvir Singh that Mrs Hunter asked him to help end her life around six to eight weeks before her death.

I just said: no, keep fighting. I said: I dont want to hurt you. She said you cant hurt me anymore.

She kept asking me and I kept refusing.

The last two weeks she pressured me and pressured me, she was begging me. At one point she got quite hysterical.

She was begging the last few days and crying all the time. She was in really bad pain.

Mr Hunter said he had had quite a few nightmares since killing Mrs Hunter and would like the British and Cypriot governments to work together to discuss a law on assisted dying.

When you take someones life, especially your wife who you love, it hurts.

I dont want anyone to go through what I went through.
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A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain.

Lance OConnor, of Plaistow in east London, was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards organisers and attendees  and making a series of comments that were motivated by hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday of the offence against one of the gallerys operations managers, Matthew Rowan.

But she found OConnor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.

The judge said the defendants comments to Mr Rowan went beyond freedom of expression into hate speech.

OConnor will be sentenced at the same court on September 11.

The Tate, in Millbank, central London, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallerys website as the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

The prosecution told court that the defendant, who identified himself as Lance, was part of a group of five people who went to Tate Britain to protest against the story-telling session.

OConnor was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, who was standing outside the event doors, and of displaying the same behaviour to members of the public trying to attend.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said: At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the Crown say that the defendant said words to the effect of They are indoctrinating children in there. Theres a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles.

The defendant, the Crown say, also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of Do you think its appropriate for a man to wear womens clothing? and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up Matthew Rowan

Pc De Santis arrived at the scene after being notified of a commotion and is said to have heard the defendant make a comment about attendees indoctrinating young children into paedophilia.

OConnor was arrested the same day and denied during police interviews that he said: Gay people dressed as women are paedophiles.

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan, called the defendants demeanour quite aggressive and said he accused him of crossing the line into hate speech.

Asked how he felt after the interaction, the gallery operations manager said: It was quite upsetting.

To be in my place of work, which should be a safe place for everyone, to then have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up.

He added that it hurt to hear those kinds of accusations because those sort of things were said to me in the past in the 80s as I was growing up.

Pc De Santis told the court he was very uncomfortable and alarmed after hearing OConnors comments.

Sundeep Pankhania, defending, said his client does not hold any non-trans ideologies and was protesting that day because of a link he believed existed between Aida H Dee and an alleged convicted paedophile  Darren Moore  whom the court heard is now dead.

Im a truthful man Lance O'Connor

The defendant confirmed he was motivated by the storytellers very close links to Moore.

He done a eulogy for him on the internet and also he done a GoFundMe page (for his funeral), OConnor said when giving evidence.

He added that he wanted to make parents aware of the links and was trying to protect the children.

He denied intending to cause anyone, including Mr Rowan and Pc De Santis, harassment, alarm or distress and denied being aggressive.

OConnor said: My hand has been on my Bible every question I have answered. I dont tell lies.

Im a truthful man, he added. I consider myself an honourable man.
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A popular flower seller was killed by his late girlfriends son who blamed him for her suicide, a court has heard.

Tony Eastlake, 55, was fatally stabbed from behind as he walked along Halliford Street in Islington, north London, on May 29 2021.

His late partners son James Peppiatt, 23, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his murder.

Opening his trial on Monday, prosecutor Julian Evans KC said Mr Eastlake was a well known member of the Islington community.

He had separated from his long-term partner in 2018 and began a relationship with the defendants mother Alisha Callaghan.

Mr Evans told jurors: Tragically, on April 11 2021, Alisha Callaghan took her own life. Her suicide clearly had a great impact upon her son James Peppiatt and upon Tony Eastlake.

According to a friend of Tony Eastlake, Alishas death caused something of a rift in the relationship between him and James Peppiatt and Tony Eastlake told that friend James Peppiatt blamed him for his mothers death.

On May 29 2021, Mr Eastlake had been working on his flower stall on Essex Road in Islington.

He packed up his stall at around 5.15pm, made a two-minute phone call to Peppiatt and set off, meeting the defendant in the street about two minutes later.

When they reached Ecclesbourne Road, a fight broke out after Mr Eastlake allegedly said: Dont piss me off. I took a lot. I kept quiet.

Mr Evans said: The fight went on for perhaps 30-40 seconds and during the course of that fight both men went to the floor and both men suffered injuries.

James Peppiatt had been wearing a black hoodie and that appears to have come off. And after the fight came to an end James Peppiatt had suffered a cut to his face, a gash above his left eye and it began to bleed.

Mr Eastlake, who was unarmed, began to walk away but Peppiatt followed him into Halliford Street, jurors were told.

A resident saw the two men and thought at the time they were messing around, Mr Evans said.

Mr Eastlake turned around and gave Peppiatt a half smile and the defendant allegedly said: Do not f****** talk to me like that.

Peppiatt appeared to approach Mr Eastlake from behind and punch him in the back, the court was told.

But Mr Evans said: It is the prosecution case that when he approached Tony Eastlake from behind, James Peppiatt was holding a knife.

Rather than punching him, James Peppiatt stabbed Tony Eastlake once in the back, from behind, with a knife. The stab wound proved fatal.

Mr Eastlake appeared to grimace and made his way towards Essex Road and into a car park where he collapsed, jurors were told.

Members of the public rushed to Mr Eastlakes aid and emergency services were called but despite their efforts the victim died at the scene at 5.58pm.

An examination of the stab wound found it was 6.5cm deep and had damaged the thoracic aorta, the main blood vessel in the body.

After the stabbing, Peppiatt had retraced his steps and walked back down Halliford Street bleeding from the cut on his eye, the court heard.

On the afternoon of June 1 2021, he went to Islington police station to hand himself in, the jury was told.

Peppiatt, of Elmore Street in Islington, denies murder and the Old Bailey trial continues.
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A protester was allegedly aggressive and intimidating towards organisers and attendees at a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain, a court has heard.

Lance OConnor, of Plaistow, east London, has been accused of making a series of comments that were motivated by hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The 59-year-old denies using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause one of the gallerys operations managers, Matthew Rowan, and police liaison officer Anderson De Santis harassment, alarm or distress.

He further denies an alternative charge of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.

The Tate, in Millbank, central London, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallerys website as the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

The prosecution told Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday that the defendant, who identified himself as Lance, was part of a group of five people who went to Tate Britain to protest against the story-telling session.

The group were refused entry to the event after organisers decided on the day to only admit families with children wanting to attend, the court heard.

OConnor was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, who was standing outside the event doors, and of displaying the same behaviour to members of the public trying to attend.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said: At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the Crown say that the defendant said words to the effect of They are indoctrinating children in there. Theres a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles.

The defendant, the Crown say, also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of Do you think its appropriate for a man to wear womens clothing? and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.

The Crowns case is that the defendants words and behaviour were abusive and insulting Prosecutor Luke Staton

Pc De Santis arrived at the scene after being notified of a commotion and heard the defendant make a comment about attendees indoctrinating young children into paedophilia.

And when the officer confronted OConnor about the comment, the defendant allegedly confirmed that is what he said.

The court heard that OConnor was arrested the same day for his words and behaviour and denied during police interviews that he said: Gay people dressed as women are paedophiles.

Mr Staton said: The Crowns case is that the defendants words and behaviour were abusive and insulting.

They caused both Matthew Rowan and Pc De Santis harassment, alarm or distress.

They were directed to all who were present at the scene, including those entering the event and both complainants in this case.

The defendant had intention to cause harassment, alarm or distress to anyone attempting to participate in or indeed defend the holding of this event.

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan, wearing a light grey suit, said he told the group the event was only for families with children and the man he believed to be OConnor had replied saying one of the party identified as a six-year-old.

He called OConnors demeanour quite aggressive.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up Matthew Rowan

It felt like he was trying to intimidate his way into the event, Mr Rowan said.

After OConnor made the first alleged comment, Mr Rowan told the court: At this point I informed Mr OConnor that he had crossed the line from being rude into hate speech and we werent going to continue the conversation anymore.

Asked how he felt after the interaction, the gallery operations manager said: It was quite upsetting.

To be in my place of work, which should be a safe place for everyone, to then have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up.

He added that it hurt to hear those kinds of accusations because those sort of things were said to me in the past in the 80s as I was growing up.

Pc De Santis told the court he was very uncomfortable and alarmed after hearing OConnors initial comment.

Im a truthful man Lance O'Connor

Sundeep Pankhania, for OConnor, said his client does not hold any non-trans ideologies and was protesting that day because of a link he believed existed between Aida H Dee and an alleged convicted paedophile  Darren Moore  whom the court heard is now dead.

The defendant confirmed he protested against the event because of the storytellers very close links to Moore.

He done a eulogy for him on the internet and also he done a GoFundMe page (for his funeral), OConnor said when giving evidence.

He added that he wanted to make parents aware of the links and was trying to protect the children.

He denied intending to cause anyone, including Mr Rowan and Pc De Santis, harassment, alarm or distress and denied being aggressive.

OConnor said: My hand has been on my Bible every question I have answered. I dont tell lies.

Im a truthful man, he added. I consider myself an honourable man.

The trial continues.
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Rishi Sunak's government is said to be considering flying migrants to a remote volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean as a plan B if the Rwanda scheme fails.

Located about 4,000 miles from the UK, Ascension Island is reportedly among the territories being re-evaluated as a place to process asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via unauthorised means.

Considered one of the remotest inhabited locations on Earth, its closest landfall is Brazil, which is around 1,400 miles away. It is situated 807 miles northwest of St Helena and is just under 34 square miles in size, with only basic amenities available for islanders.

Since being discovered in 1501, it has hosted few inhabitants and is currently home to around 800 people. With no permanent or Indigenous population on the island, its occupants consist of employees and their families, who work at the British and US air bases.

While Ascension Island has its own Constitution and is self-governing, it is a British Overseas Territory with the UK responsible for defence, international relations and security on the island.

The volcanic island is around 4,000 miles away from the UK (PA Wire)

It was first garrisoned by the British in 1815, to ensure Napoleon Bonaparte was not rescued from his island prison in St Helena.

During the Second World War, it was used as a base for the US and became a crucial RAF refuelling point during the Falklands War.

It remains an important military and support base, with the Daily Mail reporting that the runway was extended and improved just last year, at a cost of 250 million.

While Charles Darwin initially described the volcanic island as hideous in 1836, it has since been modernised with artificial planting and the construction of the capital town of Georgetown. Home to 450 people, it comprises a government house, a post office, a handful of shops and even a cinema and a gym.

Ascension Island lies in the South Atlantic (Martin Cleaver/PA) (PA Archive)

A second settlement, Two Boats, is also home to a number of inhabitants. There is however only one dentist and a small medical centre, with serious casualties having to be evacuated to St Helena.

It is also renowned for its string of golden beaches, which play host to one of the worlds largest populations of green turtles. With temperatures ranging from 20C to 38C, an array of native wildlife including seabirds and crustaceans appear along its low coastal areas.

The island was previously considered a location to process asylum seekers, with ministers believing its remote location would create a strong deterrent for migrants hoping to cross the Channel.

They were previously dropped after a feasibility study carried out by the Foreign Office declared Ascension Island unsuitable for various reasons, including inadequate power and water supplies and a lack of a hospital.

Proposals have been resurrected as the Rwanda policy has been mired in legal challenges ever since it was first announced in April 2022.

The first 50 migrants are expected to arrive at the Bibby Stockholm barge today (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

In June, it was ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal due to deficiencies in the Rwandan asylum system, who concluded the African nation was not a safe third country.

Ministers however are confident that the Supreme Court will overrule the decision in hearings this autumn, which would allow deportation flights to begin as early as January.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman told The Mail on Sunday that all options were on the table should the Supreme Court rule against the government.

This comes as the first migrants are due to arrive on the Bibby Stockholm Barge, which has been docked at Portland Port in Dorset. Up to 500 men aged 18-65 will be housed on the vessel despite local opposition and health and safety concerns.
 Close Three hikers found dead in Glencoe

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Three hikers have been found dead in Glencoe, after failing to return from the narrowest mountain ridge on mainland Britain.

The hillwalkers were reported missing shortly after 9pm on Saturday, with a Coastguard helicopter assisting Police Scotland, the RAF and Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team in searching the Aonach Eagach ridge.

Their bodies were discovered shortly after the rescue mission began in the Scottish Highlands, and police said their deaths do not appear to be suspicious.

The ridge is probably the trickiest scrambling on any route listed on WalkHighlands, the website says, describing it as hard, exposed terrain linking the Munros of Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh, which have summits reaching 952m and 967m above sea level respectively.

Police said: We were made aware of concern for a group of three hillwalkers who had not returned from the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe shortly after 9.05pm on Saturday 5 August.

A search was carried out and the bodies of three people were found. HM Coastguard as well as Glencoe and RAF mountain rescue teams assisted with the recovery operation.
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Rishi Sunaks government is thought to have revived proposals to send migrants to a British overseas territority 4,000 miles away if the Rwanda plan fails.

Ascension Island is reportedly among the territories being re-evaluated as a place to process asylum seekers in case the governments Rwanda policy is ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.

The government is also in negotiations with at least five other Africans countries about a similar deportation agreement to the one agreed with Rwanda, according to The Times.

Home Office minister Sarah Dines appeared to confirm the plan B was being resurrected as part of a range of contingency options in case the Supreme Court rules against the policy of deporting migrants to Rwanda.

Asked if the government was considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island, Ms Dines told Times Radio: Were pretty confident Rwanda is a lawful policy  But like any responsible government, were looking at additional measures.

The junior Tory minister added: Were focused on Rwanda, which were confident is going to be the right place [to send people]. But of course were look at every other additional measure, as you would expect.

Asked why the Ascension Island plan is being reconsidered after seemingly being rejected by Boris Johnsons government in 2020, Ms Dines said times change. Speaking to Sky News, the safeguarding minister said: We look at all possibilities.

Rishi Sunaks official spokesman said a responsible government considers all options but refused to get drawn into discussing specific speculation around different countries or proposals that we may or may not be considering.

But both Home Office and No 10 officials steered away from the idea the Ascension Island option is under active discussion. It is understood that Mr Sunaks ministers sought advice on reviving the Johnson-era proposal, but it has not been taken any further.

Paul OConnor of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said even contemplating the prospect of deportations to Ascension Island  which has no hospital  indicates they have completely lost the plot.

He added: The governments ever-increasing attempts to demonise refugees to deflect from their catastrophic failings on living standards in the UK are becoming ever more ridiculous and unhinged. They are spiralling down ever deeper into a racist cesspit.

Home secretary Suella Braverman on visit to Rwanda (PA Wire)

The government is also said to be in talks with five other African countries about a deal to offshore asylum claims  Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Morocco and Niger, which is currently experiencing a coup.

Grilled on discussions with other countries, Ms Dines did not deny talks. She said: I dont think it would be right to go into specific countries. These are delicate arrangements as part of an ongoing process of work the government do, and you would expect it to  Were still in discussions with many people.

Labours shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the latest reported ideas as headline chasing announcements that are never delivered.

Previous plans to send illegal migrants to Ascension Island, revealed in 2020 under Mr Johnson and Priti Patels tenure, were branded a logistical nightmare by a member of the islands council, Alan Nicholls.

A feasibility study carried out by the Foreign Office found the volcanic island, with a population of 900, was unlivable for reasons such as inadequate water supplies, and a lack of medical infrastructure.

The governments Rwanda plan ran into legal roadblocks after the Court of Appeal found it was unlawful, citing deficiencies in the East African countrys asylum system.

A senior government source told The Times that it was pragmatic to consider all options including sending illegal migrants to overseas territories such as Ascension Island.

Campaigners have raised concerns about the safety of people deported to Rwanda (PA) (PA Wire)

The chief executive of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, condemned these proposals as more shameful demonisation of men, women and children escaping countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iran.

Labours Ms Cooper said: They claimed they were going to do this years ago but it never got off the ground. This joins a long list of headline chasing announcements that are never delivered.

It comes as the first asylum seekers could be housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge as soon as Monday, as Mr Sunaks ministers push on with the repeatedly delayed plans despite safety concerns.

Around 50 people are expected to be in the first group of up to 500 migrants to board the vessel docked in Portland Port, Dorset, despite fierce local opposition to the highly-controversial plan.

Bibby Stockholm barge set to house 500 asylum seekers (PA Wire)

You wouldnt expect me to confirm the exact day for security and operational reasons  We are hopeful in the coming days, itll be imminent, said Ms Dines on LBC.

The Home Office minister said that those living on the Bibby Stockholm and are going to have some free movement and they are going to be able to go into Portland  but would not confirm any arrangements.

She said: Theyre going to be able to stretch their legs, get some air, get out and about, but within proper parameters.

Ms Dines indicated that the barge could increase rapidly to its capacity of around 500 males. Pressed on whether all of them could be on board by the end of the week, Ms Dines said: Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping, she told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Recommended Social media firms partner with law enforcement to tackle small boat crossings

The government is also increasing fines for those who allow unauthorised migrants to work for them or live in their properties, under their plans to deter Channel crossings.

Civil penalties for employers will be raised up to a maximum of 45,000 per worker for a first breach and 60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.

These hikes are expected to be enforced from the beginning of next year. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said: There is no excuse for not conducting the appropriate checks and those in breach will now face significantly tougher penalties, he added.
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Jacob Rees-Moggs GB News show is being investigated by Ofcom for a potential breach of the rules.

The UK media watchdog launched four further investigations into the channels compliance with due impartiality rules.

Ofcom said it was looking at three programmes, including Jacob Rees-Moggs show State Of The Nation, in relation to its rule that politicians must not act as news presenters.

Mr Rees-Moggs show is being investigated for a programme that aired on 13 June 2023 and discussed a stabbing incident in Nottingham.

It is also investigating an episode from Laurence Fox, which was guest-presented by Martin Daubney and featured an interview with Richard Tice, the leader of the political party Reform UK.

The programme included a discussion about immigration and asylum policy, particularly in relation to small boats crossing the English Channel.

The fourth investigation concerns an episode of Saturday Morning with Esther and Phil, which aired on 12 May 2023, hosted by serving MPs and husband and wife duo Esther Mcvey and Philip Davies.

During the programme, there was discussion about a range of issues including a matter relating to a teenager who was being sentenced for terrorism offences.

Their show is also being investigated for featuring an interview with Howard Cox  the Reform UK Partys candidate for the London Mayoral Election  speaking live from an anti-Ultra Low Emission Zone demonstration.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has his own show on GB News (PA Wire)

As well as the politicians as presenters rule, Ofcom said it was also assessing the programmes compliance of presenting with impartiality.

Ofcom said: We will work to conclude our investigations as swiftly as possible in accordance with our formal published procedures.

The investigations come months after Adam Baxter, director of broadcasting standards at Ofcom, said that the watchdog will be looking at GB News to see if the broadcaster is behaving itself following the channel breaching its broadcasting code with Covid claims for the second time.
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Three hikers have been found dead on a mountain ridge in Scotland after they failed to return from their walk.

Emergency services were called to the Aonach Eagach Ridge in the Scottish Highlands on Saturday after the group were reported missing shortly after 9pm.

Police Scotland, HM Coastguard, the RAF and Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team took part in the recovery operation.

However, their bodies were tragically discovered shortly after the rescue mission began.

The deaths of the three hillwalkers do not appear to be suspicious, Police Scotland said.

A force spokesperson said: We were made aware of concern for a group of three hillwalkers who had not returned from the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe shortly after 9.05pm on Saturday 5 August.

A search was carried out and the bodies of three people were found. HM Coastguard as well as Glencoe and RAF mountain rescue teams assisted with the recovery operation.

There do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.

Three hikers were found dead after going missing on Aonach Eagach Ridge (Getty/iStockphoto)

HM Coastguard said they were alerted to the incident at 10.50pm and a Coastguard helicopter proceeded to assist the police in searching the Aonach Eagach ridge.

The ridge is known to be the narrowest on the British mainland, according to WalkHighlands.

The hard, exposed terrain links the Munros of Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh and is described as a grade 2/3 scramble by the website.

WalkHighlands says the ridge is probably the trickiest scrambling on any WalkHighlands route.

Ensure you have the necessary skills and experience, choose a dry day (the rocks are slippery when wet) and leave plenty of time to complete the route in daylight. If in any doubt, it is best to hire a guide.
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The Met Office has warned there may only be a couple of days of warm weather following Storm Antoni before conditions become unsettled again heading into the weekend.

Storm Antoni saw 78mph winds hit the UK and trees blown down  blocking 100 miles of railway between Exeter and Penzance.

A danger to life alert had been issued for Saturday during the amber wind warning, which covered south-western areas of both England and Wales.

Met Office meteorologist Ellie Wilson told PA: Weather warnings were enforced for Storm Antoni which came across the UK through Friday evening and into Saturday.

That has all passed through and it has moved across towards the continent now so were not being dominated by Storm Antoni anymore.

We have got this brief ridge of high pressure through Wednesday and Thursday bringing subtle conditions but then another area of low pressure moves in from the west which will be bringing more changeable conditions as we head towards the weekend.

The position of the jet stream is allowing low pressure systems to be pushed towards the UK, which is why weve seen this unsettled theme through much of the summer so far.

The forecaster said the southern half of the UK could see a grey and murky day on Tuesday before brighter conditions on Wednesday and Thursday.

The rest of the UK is forecast to have a drier day on Tuesday with isolated showers mainly confined to the northern parts of Scotland.

The band of cloud and rain across the South is expected to clear its way eastward on Wednesday and temperatures could start to increase to highs of 23 or 24 degrees across the South-East.

Temperatures could then reach 26 or 27 degrees in southern parts of the UK on Thursday and the mercury is expected to stay above 20 degrees across most of the country.

But heavier showers and thunderstorms could appear in the north of the country as soon as Thursday evening and Friday morning.

Ms Wilson added: Through Friday and into the weekend we are generally returning to that more unsettled theme that weve seen over the past couple of days with low pressure out to the north-west bringing outbreaks of rain and showers at times but with some dry interludes in between.
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Transatlantic airline passengers are sick and tired of their treatment, according to the founder of a new UK carrier pledging to make customers feel like a million dollars.

Global Airlines is aiming to begin operating between London Gatwick and New York JFK by the middle of next year, before launching flights between Gatwick and Los Angeles.

Founder and chief executive James Asquith, who created travel company Holiday Swap, said he has received thousands of emails and messages from people keen to fly on his airline.

In an interview with the PA news agency, Mr Asquith said: People are sick and tired of the service they get on current airlines. We will be better.

People have had enough with how they are treated. Consistently there are devaluations in loyalty platforms.

There are people in management and shareholders that will over-reward themselves.

I want to primarily build a legacy. Id rather walk away with zero (money) and have something that people genuinely love.

The 34-year-old said the quality of food and drinks on Global Airlines aircraft will be the best across all transatlantic services.

The airline, which will be based at Gatwick, will serve Laurent-Perrier champagne on its flights, and hopes to even offer passengers in economy cabins a free glass, depending on costs.

First class ticket holders will benefit from being chauffeur driven to airports and having a proper social space onboard planes, Mr Asquith revealed.

Having a strong product in first class should filter down to economy, and make people in economy feel like a million dollars, he claimed.

Mr Asquith said Global Airlines will be able to offer fares which are in line with, if not cheaper than those set by other carriers because of how it is obtaining its aircraft.

Agreeing to acquire four previously used Airbus A380s at reduced prices means the company does not have lease agreements and bonds hanging over our heads, he said.

Mr Asquith, who previously spent more than eight years working in investment banking, said too many new airlines quickly take on large debts which are often their first nail in the coffin.

Carriers which have failed to make a success of transatlantic flights include Norwegian, Wow Air and Primera Air.

Mr Asquith said Global Airlines is being funded by a combination of Holiday Swap Group and external investors, who he did not name.

The airline plans to have 15-20 planes over the next two years and expand pretty aggressively from there, he explained.

There are a lot more destinations and routes that we want to serve.

Mr Asquith insisted he is not concerned by having to compete with a number of other airlines operating flights between London and New York, such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and several US-based carriers.

I dont think more flights and more carriers equals more competition, he said.

I actually just see that as more demand and supply on the route, which makes it easier to stand out if you have a better product.

Mr Asquith is a prominent social media personality and in 2013 became the youngest person to travel to every country in the world, aged 24.

Launching an airline has been his ultimate dream since he was eight years old, he said.

If it takes me until the last day of my life, well get there. I got told by everyone, including my parents, that going to every country in the world was madness, it would never happen. Ive been told that throughout my entire life, for everything Ive done.

There is not a single part of me that thinks Global Airlines wont get off the ground. It would be letting down the tens of thousands of people that have reached out and are desperate to fly with us.

Aviation consultant John Strickland warned that Global Airlines faces significant challenges.

He said: I wish the team luck but Id counsel caution.

In my 40 years in the industry Ive worked on planning North Atlantic routes for a number of airlines, and the reality is that the market has the potential to be a goldmine or a graveyard.

Relying primarily on price sensitive traffic inevitably means high risk.

Not only will people move for a better price but the market is structurally seasonal, making winter months particularly challenging.

He said that the decision to use A380s  which is the worlds largest airliner  raises a number of questions.

The planes have a lot of capacity to fill and high operating costs, and there is uncertainty over the availability of spare parts and maintenance support due to the model being out of production, Mr Strickland added.
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Fines for employers and landlords who allow unauthorised migrants to work for them or live in their properties are to be significantly increased under plans to deter Channel crossings.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick argued that unscrupulous bosses who allow undocumented working assist the people smugglers selling passage in small boats.

Officials expect the hikes in the civil penalties for those who break the rules to be in force from the start of next year after legislation is altered in the autumn.

Unscrupulous landlords and employers who allow illegal working and renting enable the business model of the evil people smugglers to continue Immigration minister Robert Jenrick

The Home Office argued that illegal working and renting are significant pull factors for migrants crossing the Channel and that increasing fines will serve as a deterrent.

Civil penalties for employers will be increased up to a maximum of 45,000 per worker for a first breach and 60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.

Landlords face fines going from 1,000 per occupier to 10,000, with repeat breaches going from 3,000 to 20,000. Penalties relating to lodgers will also be hiked.

Mr Jenrick said: Making it harder for illegal migrants to work and operate in the UK is vital to deterring dangerous, unnecessary small boat crossings.

Unscrupulous landlords and employers who allow illegal working and renting enable the business model of the evil people smugglers to continue.

There is no excuse for not conducting the appropriate checks and those in breach will now face significantly tougher penalties.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said penalties issued to firms employing workers illegally had fallen under the Tories by two-thirds since 2016 while arrests have dropped too.

Strengthening penalties must be combined with stronger enforcement action if the Government is serious about tackling the problems, the Labour MP said.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael added: Every day the country is subjected to another pointless announcement on the asylum system which will make no meaningful difference.

A bolder fix is required by ministers, yet they are too arrogant to admit it.
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Chinese tracking devices were installed in Rishi Sunak official prime ministerial car, Sir Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The former Conservative leader said he was reliably told that cars used by Downing Street had to be stripped and a tracking device was found inside a SIM card.

Accusing Beijing of being behind a plot to monitor Mr Sunaks journeys, he said the Chinese authorities have the capability to be able to throw the switch, as it were ... as and when they wish.

He told LBC: Those devices that theyve been putting into Downing Street cars, although they wont admit it, tracking where the prime minister was going, knowing who he was seeing, this is exactly what they can do with batteries and with their cars.

It was never absolutely confirmed  of course they wouldnt do for security reasons  but Im pretty reliably told that they had to strip out the cars to find the devices based in the little SIMs, and they were capable and were tracking the cars and the car journeys, said Sir Iain.

The i reported in January that a government car had been dismantled surgically and rather disturbing things  a hidden tracking device  was found inside.

An intelligence officer said the device was found inside a part imported from a China-based supplier.

The source said it would allow someone to survey government over a period of months and years, constantly filing movements, constantly building up a rich picture of activity.

Ex-Tory leader and leading China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith (PA Archive)

But Chinese officials dismissed the claims at the time as sheer rumour and criticised political manipulation on normal economic and trade cooperation or any smear on Chinese enterprises.

Asked about Mr Duncan Smiths claim a device had been installed in Mr Sunaks car, the PMs official spokesman said: I cant get into commenting on security issues.

The No 10 official added: We have very comprehensive security protection measures in place, but I cant comment on specifics.

It comes as some Tories warned that electric cars imported from China could help Beijing to spy on British citizens. Members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China  including Sir Iain  fear the British car industry risks being compromised by Beijing.

The group said Britain could become flooded with Chinese cars and batteries along with all the attendant security risks.

It is hard to conceive of a more critical infrastructure to everyday life in the UK, and it is absolutely wrong to allow control of such a key industry to be handed to authoritarian Beijing.
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Immigration minister Robert Jenrick appeared red-faced today after being challenged over his claim that one of Sir Keir Starmers aides was leading efforts to stop migrants being sent to Rwanda.

Mr Jenrick stuttered and stumbled when interrogated about the matter in an LBC radio interview.

It came after The Sun newspaper reported that top lawyer Jacqueline Mackenzie, who works for a firm that advises migrants facing deportation, is an adviser to the Labour leader.

Mr Jenrick wrote in an accompanying article: Today we learn a top lawyer who advised Labour on anti-racism is at the forefront of efforts to people being deported to Rwanda.

But it led to awkward exchanges when he was quizzed by LBC host Andrew Castle, who pointed out that Ms Mackenzie had not been named in his article.

Mr Castle asked: Can you name the person you claim is stopping people being deported to Rwanda who is a mate of Keir Starmer?

Mr Jenrick repeatedly declined to do so and laughed nervously.

Exasperated Mr Castle demanded: Where is it? Why dont you want to name the person?

Andrew Castle questions the immigration minister on LBC ( )

Flustered Mr Jenrick avoided the issue and told Mr Castle he could find it [Ms Mackenzies name] online.

The Sun said Ms Mackenzie was head of immigration at the Leigh Day law firm at the heart of challenges against the governments Rwanda policy.

It added she has served on Labours race equality task force advising Starmer on policies for the next election.

Ms Mackenzie responded, saying it was just untrue to describe her as a Labour adviser in anything resembling the sense in which it is implied.

The row is seen as part of a Conservative drive to expose what it claims is a growing divide between Sir Keirs attempt to show a future Labour government would not introduce radical changes and Tory claims that he would be forced to do so by left-wing supporters.
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Renters are now spending nearly four times as much of their income on housing as homeowners  in the latest sign of Britains worsening housing crisis.

Millions of people are now spending at least half their monthly salary on rent, with the average private renter giving more than a third of their wages to a landlord.

The revelation is the latest to expose the scale of the growing emergency gripping the UK.

Last month, an Independent investigation found that the majority of local councils had failed to build a single home in the past five years despite 1.2 million people on waiting lists.

And this newspaper branded the governments homes plan too little, too late after housing secretary Michael Gove said a target to build 300,000 a year was never mandatory.

Labour said the figures showed renters were being hit by a double whammy of rising rental costs and the ever-increasing cost of buying a house, making home ownership an increasingly distant prospect.

The government says it is bringing forward reforms to renting, and already spends billions on housing support  but charities say a mass housebuilding programme is needed, along with limits on rent rises and more support for those hit hardest.

Renters are bearing the brunt of the cost of living crisis with a lack of affordable homes and out-of-reach mortgage costs pushing up prices, campaigners warn (EPA/PA)

A new expert analysis by the respected Resolution Foundation shows that renters spent 34 per cent of their incomes on housing costs in 2021-22, compared to 9 per cent for mortgage holders.

Cara Pacitti, senior economist at the think tank, said private renting remained the most expensive type of housing despite rises in costs for homeowners.

Private renting remains the most expensive of all tenure types, despite continuing issues of quality and security. Average floor space per renter has fallen by a fifth over the past 20 years, while almost a quarter of private rental homes failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard in 2021-22, posing significant challenges to renters living standards.

Private renters already pay the highest housing costs out of anyone, and they are the last group of people who can afford to absorb financial shocks. The governments focus needs to be on helping tenants to weather this storm. Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter

Worryingly, evidence from charities working on the front line of the crisis shows the situation for renters is worsening faster than official statistics can keep track of.

Call handlers working for the housing charity Shelter told The Independent they were now dealing with people facing crazy rent rises as high as 50 per cent of what they were previously paying  while new tenants are forced by letting agents to take part in a bidding war for a roof over their head.

Citizens Advice, meanwhile, provided shocking figures showing a 200 per cent spike in the number of people seeking assistance to help battle evictions for non-payment of rent, rising from 300 cases in 2019 to 900 cases in 2023.

At the beginning of 2019, private renters who approached the charity were paying an average of 498 in housing costs, but that had risen to 631 by the start of this year.

Shelters most recent quarterly surveys of private renters found that 33 per cent (2.7 million people) are spending at least half their income on rent.

The figures, from the start of the year, also show that 48 per cent of renters have seen their housing costs increase in the past year and 22 per cent now struggle to pay it.

Weve been inundated with distressing calls from families that have been grappling with steep rent rises, said Nadeem Khan, an adviser at Shelters helpline  adding that he was regularly seeing people cutting back on essentials to pay rent.

Some renters are being pushed out of communities they have spent their whole lives in (Getty)

I spoke to someone last week, a single mother with two young kids, who told us that the landlord has raised their rent by about 30 per cent. Shes in tears when shes telling me that her tight budget cant keep up. She told the landlord  and he served her a no-fault eviction notice.

The helpline also regularly hears from people who are being forced to leave their local areas because they can no longer afford the rents there, he said.

Just yesterday I spoke to an elderly gentleman, which was particularly heart-wrenching because hes lived in this neighbourhood for decades.

The landlord has increased the rent: hes told me he has to make a choice between putting a decent meal on the table or paying for the roof over his head  but he can only keep it up so long. So hes now having to face this grim reality of leaving this place hes called home for most of his life.

The government pledged under prime minister Theresa May to improve conditions for renters by banning no-fault evictions  but years later the legislation, the Renters (Reform) Bill, is still making slow progress through parliament.

Ministers have since scaled back their housing targets for local authorities and ditched proposals for planning reform aimed at getting more homes built. They have also ruled out introducing any controls on how fast rents can rise, as are common in other European countries.

In contrast, the government has unveiled a package of measures to help mortgage holders with their costs. Banks have agreed to put a one-year grace period on repossessions and let homeowners reduce payments by either switching to interest-only mortgages for six months, or lengthening the term of their mortgage.

Labours shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy told The Independent: Renters are being hit by a brutal double whammy as the housing crisis goes from bad to worse.

Rents are going up  alongside other costs like energy bills and food  which is reducing the amount that can be saved for a deposit, and at the same time the cost of buying a house keeps rising. All this is making the dream of homeownership ever more distant.

We will build more houses, support first-time buyers with a mortgage insurance scheme, and bring in a powerful new Renters Charter to make renting fairer, more secure and more affordable.

Lisa Nandy, shadow secretary of state for housing, said renters were hit by a double whammy (PA Archive)

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter said the increased demand for private rentals driven by years of government failure to invest in genuinely affordable social homes was driving up rents.

The governments focus needs to be on helping tenants to weather this storm. It must end the four-year freeze on housing benefit, but to escape the storm clouds for good, the government needs to build a lot more social housing with rents tied to local incomes, so we are less reliant on private renting in the future, she said.

Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said many people could not cover their essential bills and risked being sucked into a spiral of debt.

Our latest analysis is a sobering reminder that, despite cutting their spending back to the absolute minimum, too many people are simply living on empty. The government must look at ways of preventing mortgage holders and renters from falling further into the abyss, she said.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, urged the government to block unaffordable rent increases and build large amounts of social housing.

A cost of renting crisis is forcing tenants to bear the worst of the economic turmoil right now. While many mortgage holders have yet to see their monthly payments increase, most private renters have already faced a rent hike this past year, he said.

The governments response to this needs to put tenants first: prevent unaffordable rent increases and protect tenants in their homes if their landlord needs to sell. Tenants relying on benefits need their housing support raised to cover what rents actually cost, and, to meet demand, we need a massive programme of building, particularly of social housing.

A spokesperson for the governments housing and levelling-up department said: We recognise people are facing pressures in the private rented sector, which is why we introduced the Renters (Reform Bill), delivering a fairer deal for renters and empowering them to challenge unjustified rent increases.

Individuals struggling to pay their rent may be eligible for a range of financial support, and the most vulnerable households can apply for help with the cost of essentials, including energy bills. We have provided 2.5bn in funding for this since October 2021 and extended the Household Support Fund in England to 31 March 2024.
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The government is reviewing its sanctions on Russia after a dramatic intervention from Ukraines first lady Olena Zelenska condemning loopholes that allow Moscow to fund its invasion.

The Foreign Office has expressed its fury over sanctions-busting efforts by Russian allies to use a third country to continue trading with Moscow despite the hefty economic measures imposed since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.

The government is weighing how it can act and hopes to move imminently, The Independent can reveal.

Speaking exclusively to Independent TV from the heart of Kyivs presidential compound, Mrs Zelenska has called for an urgent crackdown on such trade to strangle Moscows funds  otherwise, its invasion risks dragging on endlessly.

Watch the full interview here

To combat Putins regime the world must impose hefty sanctions, and terminate the possibility of circumventing these sanctions, Mrs Zelenska said.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, immediately backed the first ladys call. A spokesman for Mr Cleverly said the assessment the government has echoes the frustrations the first lady has expressed about the use of third countries to circumvent sanctions.

He added: Not only is her a view a position we ourselves have already taken, we are right now working quickly but carefully to make the use of a third country as a cut out far more difficult or indeed to try and stop it altogether.

Mrs Zelenska thanked Ukraines partners for supporting the Ukrainian military in its fight against Russia, but said some nations were now undermining that effort. There are countries that simply underestimate the threat from Russia who think that it is far from them. When there is such a powerful terrorist in the world, no one can feel completely safe, she said in the rare interview.

Some countries continue to conduct trade with [Russia] through third countries and think that this is acceptable because it is important for their business... I believe that this is simply and critically wrong.

Resources are being spent on this [war]. But resources will be spent endlessly until Russia's ability to wage war is stopped, she added.

The full interview is now available to watch on independent.tv and your smart TV .

Mrs Zelenska did not specify which countries in particular were behind such deals, but officials in the UK elsewhere have spoken about regions such as central Asia and the Middle East. And there has been outreach towards countries like Turkey, Kazakhstan and Armenia to reduce the scope of third-country trade.

Mrs Zelenska, right, being interviewed by Bel Trew (Anton Kulakowskiy)

During a trip to Kyiv in May, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned that there was a growth of highly unusual trade flows through the EU to third countries and then onto Russia. In late June, the bloc agreed to fresh measures to try and do more to stop such third-country trade. But with agreement needed across the blocs 27 nations  a difficult task given the differing views between countries about what specific action is needed  such agreements can end up quite nebulous or not as comprehensive as Ukraine would like.

Earlier this month, the EU increased the scope of its sanctions on Moscows closest ally Belarus. The new restrictions included a ban on exports of goods and technologies which contribute to Belarus's military and technological enhancement, a ban on firearms, ammunition, and on technology related to aviation and the space industry. This is an example of targeted sanctions, but there is always the question of whether they go far enough.

Since Putin launched his invasion last February, countries around the world have slapped hefty sanctions on Russian officials and the state  including asset freezes, prohibitions on trade and travel restrictions  in a bid to weaken the war machine. But there will always be nations who will not get involved in such action, meaning there are always gaps to try and fill.

A government spokesperson said: Alongside our international partners we have introduced the largest and most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy in response to Putins invasion of Ukraine. Non-compliance with sanctions is a serious offence and can be punished through large financial penalties or criminal prosecution. Weve taken robust action to target those helping oligarchs to avoid sanctions including through an additional 50m to support sanctions enforcement.

In the wide-ranging interview, Mrs Zelenska also pleaded with countries not to let war fatigue get in the way of continuing the vital support to Ukraine, which she said was paying to protect Europe with the lives of our compatriots.

The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, responded by vowing that Britain will back Ukraine every way we can until the war is over.

Zelenska inside the presidential complex in Kyiv (Anton Kulakowskiy)

No one in Britain is showing any signs of fatigue in supporting Ukraine, because it is the right thing to do, he told The Independent.

"We are with them. And we will continue to be [with them], as I have often said publicly, to the end.

Mrs Zelenska also opened up about the heartache Ukraine faced trying to retrieve its children forcibly transferred to Russia.

Ukraine estimates at least 19,500 children have been deported to Russia, but Mrs Zelenska said this was a woeful underestimate.

Russia has refused to cooperate with Ukraine, the United Nations or other international organisations  meaning Ukraine does not know just how many children are missing, the first lady added. So far Ukraine has managed to retrieve just 380 of the missing minors.

During the interview, Mrs Zelenska also announced that there will be new international cooperation between several countries to work on trying to locate and return the children. She closed by again urging the world to impose sanctions.

All people in the democratic world should find opportunities to stop this aggression otherwise it can go on for a long, for an endless time, she said. This is too powerful, a big enemy, to simply deal with by only providing arms to Ukraine.

The full interview is now available to watch on independent.tv and your smart TV .

To find out more about our Independent TV smart TV app click here.
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The father of a British scout who was evacuated from an international jamboree in South Korea has said his daughter complained about disgusting conditions at the World Scout Jamboree campsite.

Temperatures have risen to 35C at the campsite near the south-western town of Buan, where more than 40,000 scouts from around the world have gathered for the 12-day event.

Last week South Korea raised its hot weather warning to the highest serious level for the first time in four years.

The father, who asked to remain anonymous, said his 17-year-old daughter was among 4,500 British scouts aged 14 to 17, some of whom have needed treatment for heat-related illnesses.

The toilets deteriorated over the time she was there to the point they were unusable and pretty disgusting Father of British scout

The scouts were moved to hotels in Seoul to help alleviate the pressure on the campsite.

The 48-year-old father told the PA news agency: The toilets deteriorated over the time she was there to the point they were unusable and pretty disgusting.

There were just not enough people on the ground and by the sounds of it it hasnt been well organised by the Koreans.

I dont think they were being particularly well catered for.

The father, from Lancashire, added that the campsite seemed to have been set up on reclaimed land.

The scout was evacuated from the campsite on August 6 and is now quite happy with her current living arrangements in a hotel, the father added.

He said: Shes had a shower and decent food. She seems fairly happy and in reasonable spirits now.

Young people attending the scout event will travel home as originally planned from August 13, the UK Scout Association said on Saturday.

Scouts from 158 countries are attending the jamboree which is hosted by a different nation every four years.

At least 108 people have been treated for heat-related illnesses, most of whom have recovered, it was reported on Thursday.

Activities requiring hard physical effort have been cancelled and organisers have brought more emergency vehicles, medical staff and air conditioning to the site.
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The Iranian regime poses a significant threat to the UK, Downing Street said, with direct threats to dissidents living here.

The comments from No 10 came after it emerged Home Secretary Suella Braverman believes Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) represents the single biggest threat to national security.

Downing Street said the Government had already taken strong action against Tehran, but refused to be drawn on whether the IRGC should be banned as a terrorist group.

We think that the behaviour of the Iranian regime, including the actions of the IRGC, pose a significant threat to the safety and security of the UK and of our allies Prime Minister's official spokesman

There is a split within the Government over whether to proscribe the organisation, with the Foreign Office reportedly reluctant to back the move over fears it would cause lasting diplomatic damage.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said: I cant get into speculation around who we may or may not be considering proscribing in the future.

But he said the Government had a range of tools at our disposal and would make decisions based on using the most effective measures to curb Irans destabilising activity.

The Sunday Times quoted a source close to Ms Braverman saying the Iranian threat is the one that worries us the most, claiming they are getting much more aggressive and their appetite is increasing.

Asked if that was the Governments view, the Prime Ministers spokesman said: Certainly we think that the behaviour of the Iranian regime, including the actions of the IRGC, pose a significant threat to the safety and security of the UK and of our allies.

The issue of nuclear proliferation and direct threats against dissidents in the UK were particularly concerning, the spokesman said.

Weve identified 15 credible threats by the Iranian regime to kill or kidnap British or UK-based individuals since 2022.

So we have rightly taken strong action, including sanctions, and weve announced new powers to give the UK a greater ability to target Irans key decision makers.

We have sanctions on 350 Iranian individuals and entities.
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Fresh inquests have been ordered into the deaths of five Catholic men killed by Loyalist paramilitary group the UVF in Co Tyrone more than 30 years ago.

Northern Irelands Attorney General Brenda King has directed that inquests be held into the deaths of Phelim McNally, 28, in Coagh in 1988, Thomas Casey, 57, in Cookstown in 1990, Sean Anderson, 32, in Pomeroy in 1991 and teenager Dwayne ODonnell, 17, and Thomas Armstrong, 52, in Cappagh in 1991.

A solicitor for the families of the men said the cases are linked through suspects, geography, and ballistics, and said he believes the cases involve collusion with state forces.

The decision to grant new inquests was taken on the basis of deficiencies in the original investigation and inquest as well as new information coming to light.

Solicitor Gavin Booth of Phoenix Law, who acts for the families of the men welcomed the ordering of fresh inquests.

For too long these families have sought answers as to what happened to their loved ones, he said.

New evidence which has come to light raises serious questions, not only about the involvement of the 8th Battalion of the UDR in all these killings, but also as regards the failure of the RUC to prosecute these individuals.

The move comes as the Governments controversial Legacy Bill is expected to get royal assent later this year.

It is set to give immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences to people who co-operated with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), and will prevent future civil cases and inquests.

All inquests linked to the Troubles must reach a conclusion by May of next year. After May, cases are then passed to the ICRIR.

Mr Booth said his clients are steadfast in their commitment to seeing these inquests completed.

To be clear, this inquest and all those that are before the courts should continue, he said.

These families deserve that right and their inquests should be properly resourced and heard within a timely fashion.

Our next step is to ask for this case to be urgently listed before the Coroners Court and for immediate steps to be taken to make sure this case goes ahead without delay.

Seana Quinn, sister of Mr ODonnell, said her family has been fighting for decades for answers.

Our families are fighting for truth and justice, its not up for debate, she said.

We deserve this inquest.

Davina Bolton, daughter of Phelim McNally, said her father was an innocent man.

He was out doing his daily things and he was robbed of his life, she said.

This is an important day for us because were finally moving forward and getting closer to the truth. Weve been waiting for a long time for this, 35 years, we just need truth and justice.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill described the development as a positive step for truth and justice.

All of these families deserve to know what happened to their loved ones and access justice through the courts, she said.

The Attorney Generals ruling today has again laid bare the need for the British Government to scrap its cruel and heartless legacy bill that is simply about cover-up and closing door on families ever getting truth.
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Labour has accused the Government of disastrous failure over its pledge to stop the boats after official figures confirmed the number of migrants staying in hotels has passed 50,000.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the data showed a shocking 25% increase from 40,000 in December, when Rishi Sunak promised to end the placement of asylum seekers in hotel accommodation.

Some 50,546 migrants were being housed in hotels as of June this year, according to latest Home Office figures released on Monday.

It comes as the Government kicks off a stop the boats week of linked announcements, which Labour said had already descended into chaos.

Earlier on Monday, minister Sarah Dines said the Bibby Stockholm barge could reach its full 500-person capacity by the end of the week.

But No 10 later appeared to suggest she had misspoken and that numbers would instead increase over time as the Government attempts to speed up the delayed arrival of asylum seekers onto the vessel.

The transfer to the barge  billed by ministers as alternative migrant accommodation to end the reliance on hotels  has faced opposition from the firefighters union, which warned it is a potential deathtrap, and local residents.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) expressed concerns about access to fire exits and possible overcrowding on the vessel, initially designed to accommodate about 200 people.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick insisted over the weekend it is a safe facility.

Ms Cooper said: Rishi Sunak is failing to fix the Tories boats chaos and the Conservatives are just flailing around chasing headlines rather than getting a grip.

The Prime Minister admitted last December that hotel use was a serious problem and promised to end it, but instead since then it has gone up by a truly shocking 25% with more asylum hotels still opening, and the taxpayer having to pay billions more pounds as a result.

This is the direct consequence of Tory mismanagement and their disastrous failure to speed up asylum decisions or clear the backlog, which is still at a record high.
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African leaders are to hold a summit to discuss possible military action in Niger after coup leaders defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has sent military forces into troubled member states in the past, had told the junta to stand down by Sunday, but instead the rebels closed Nigers airspace and pledged to defend the country.

Nigers armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory, a junta representative said on national television.

Coup leaders are already braced for a military response to their refusal to restore Mohamed Bazoum to power after deposing and imprisoning him on 26 July.

Their closure of airspace disrupted the skies over landlocked Niger, which is more than twice the size of France and borders Libya, which is considered too unsafe for passing commercial aircraft. Flights between London and Nairobi and London and South Africa were forced to divert.

The closure of Nigers airspace dramatically widens the area over which most commercial flights between Europe and southern Africa cannot fly, tracking service FlightRadar24 said in a blog post.

Ecowas said it would hold an extraordinary summit at its Abuja headquarters in Nigerial on Thursday, but made no direct reference to the missed deadline.

The bloc has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the regions seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The credibility of the 15-nation union is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows.

Last week it agreed a possible military action plan if Mr Bazoum was not released and reinstated, although it said operational decisions would be decided by heads of states.

But the blocs unity has been broken by a promise from the ruling juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso, both member states, to come to Nigers defence if needed.

A fracture within Ecowas and escalation of the stand-off with Niger would further destabilise one of the worlds poorest regions, already facing a hunger crisis and an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Nigers uranium and oil reserves and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants in the Sahel region give it economic and strategic importance for the United States, Europe, China and Russia.

A street vendor outside the headquarters of ousted president on Monday (AFP)

African and Western allies have imposed sanctions and cut aid to Niger in attempts to pressure the junta to step down. Germany said on Monday that sanctions were on the table and described the juntas flight ban as a setback.

Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said Ecowas should extend its deadline for the reinstatement of Mr Bazoum. The only way is the diplomatic one, Mr Tajani told La Stampa. It is right that he [Bazoum] should be freed, but we cannot do it. The United States are very cautious about this, it is unthinkable that they would start a military intervention in Niger.

The junta appears to enjoy support from at least part of the population. At pro-coup rallies in Niamey, some participants have cast the situation as a patriotic battle by the former French colony to retain its independence in the face of imperialist interference. Some have held up Russian flags and expressed anti-French sentiment.

France warned its citizens against all travel to Niger, while the Chinese embassy in Niamey said its nationals in Niger should leave for a third country or return home if they had no reason to stay.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu may have to defend her enemies list in court after a judge agreed to a request to make it part of discovery in a case against a restaurateur who was accused of trying to shoot a business rival.

The mayor made a list  of more than a dozen of her loudest critics  and then sent it to the Boston Police Department, the Boston Herald previously reported. Patrick Mendoza was on the list.

Now, Mr Mendoza, who is the alleged shooter in the case and is the owner of North End restaurant Monicas Trattoria, is demanding an explanation as to why he was named on the list and what police did with the list once they received it.

I want to know who generated the list, what it was intended for and why it was sent to the Boston police department, Mr Mendozas attorney Rosemary Scapicchio told the Boston Herald. Im trying to get the information because it could be exculpatory to my client.

The judge in the case said on Friday that the Wu administration will have to turn over emails, texts or any communication about the list.

The order could also result in the mayor and her top staffers being called for a deposition, according to the outlet.

Mayor Wu previously gave some explanation for the list, saying a number of people were threatening her and her family. Ms Wu, a Democrat, is the first person of colour and first woman to be elected Boston mayor.

The reality is that we have a public safety plan for nearly all of our public events now because it is necessary and we are in close coordination with the Boston Police, the mayor previously said. Im very grateful to BPD for all that they do to keep everyone safe including my family and our city workers.

Who decided it was a threat and what was the threat? Ms Scapicchio remarked to the Herald.

Mayor Wu may be forced to answer some lingering questions about the enemies list in court. Critics have likened her list to President Richard Nixons Opponents List.

I only know the list exists and my clients name is on it, Mr Mendozas attorney added. What was the purpose in generating the list and sending it?

Mr Mendoza has been charged with assault with intent to murder. He allegedly shot at a man who he has been feuding with for years; he fired his gun twice, and while no one was injured, a bullet struck Italian bakery Modern Pastry Shop.

The Independent has reached out to Mayor Wus office for comment.
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The Goldman Sachs banker found dead in a Brooklyn creek after leaving a concert venue drowned, a medical examiner has said.

John Castic, 27, a senior analyst at the financial institution, was found dead on 1 August, just weeks after the body of psychologist Karl Cemente, also 27, was found in Newtown Creek.

The waterway is near the Brooklyn Mirage Club, which they both had visited shortly before disappearing.

Mr Castic, who is from Chicago, visited the club on 29 July and his body was found on 1 August, while Mr Clemente visited the venue on 11 June with his remains being found in the creek on 16 June.

Mr Castics father, Jeffrey Castic, told Fox News Digital that the citys medical examiner told him his son had drowned.

The coroners office has confirmed that he drowned, he said. At the moment were trying to focus on the positive of his life. He was a bright, charismatic, caring and hardworking young man.

While the medical examiner is waiting to receive a toxicology report, police have told the father that they think the younger Mr Castic was impaired by alcohol and possibly drugs at the time of his death.

Mr Castic had left a concert at the club at 2.30am on 29 July.

A passerby saw his shirtless body in the water on 1 August in the creek, which is located in a more remote area of the city which includes warehouses and factories. He still had his phone and wallet on him.

The father of Mr Clemente has said that hes still waiting for the results of an autopsy and a toxicology report.

Jeffrey Castic said questions remain about his sons death  security footage shows the 27-year-old walking with a steady footing after leaving the concert venue.

At 3.51am, his phone showed his location at the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge, close to where his body was later discovered before the phone shut down. Walking from the venue to the bridge takes about eight minutes.

Its unclear where he was between 2.30am when he left the venue and 3.51am when his phones location was recorded, and why he was shirtless when he was found, his father told Fox.

We really dont have answers yet, he said.

When the Castic family visited the bankers East Village apartment that he shared with his roommates, they found nothing out of the ordinary.

Sara Kostecka, a friend of Mr Castic, told Fox that he had been working at the bank for around a year and that he had been very excited about getting the job.

A number of his friends have said that the death is suspicious, noting that Mr Castic isnt someone who would do something reckless.

This was not accidental, Ms Kostecka, 25, told Fox. I think theres foul play.

We are all shocked and saddened to learn of Johns tragic passing, Goldman Sachs CEO and chairman David Solomon said in a Wednesday statement. John was a dedicated, driven member of our Controllers team working closely with our Asset and Wealth Management business.
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An Arizona woman has been arrested for allegedly trying to kill her estranged husband by poisoning his daily coffee for months - while he used hidden cameras to catch her in the act.

Melody Felicano Johnson was indicted by a Tucson grand jury on charges of first-degree attempted murder (domestic violence), attempting to commit aggravated assault (domestic violence) and poisoning food or drink, according to court documents obtained by KVOA . She pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Friday.

Prosecutors say the plot to poison her husband Roby Johnson, a member of the US Air Force, began back in March when he noticed a strange smell in his coffee. The couple, who share a child and were living together while going through a divorce, were stationed in Germany at the time.

A few weeks later, Roby Johnson investigated his suspicions with pool testing strips, which showed high levels of chlorine in the coffee pot, the indictment states. In May, he placed hidden cameras that allegedly captured Melody Johnson pouring something into the coffee maker.

Roby Johnson reportedly told investigators that he pretended to drink the coffee until the couple returned in June to the US, where he was stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.

He then set up multiple hidden cameras again to catch her in the act.

The footage showed Melody Johnson take bleach, pour it into a container and then walk over and pour it into the coffee maker, the indictment states.

An official investigation was launched after Roby Johnson turned the footage over to police as he filed a report.

He told investigators he believed Melody Johnson wanted to kill him to collect his death benefits.

Melody Johnson is currently being held in the Pima County Jail on $250,000 bond after prosecutors convinced a judge she poses a flight risk, having recently purchased a house in the Philippines near her family.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for 6 September.
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Family and friends were gathering on Monday evening for a candle lighting ceremony to honour a slain Georgia mother-of-four after her body was found near her charred car last week.

Imani Roberson, 29, who was last seen on 16 July in Conyers, had been missing for two weeks before her remains were found on Friday.

Robersons husband, Donell Anderson, 22, was arrested and charged with her murder, Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett announced on Saturday. He said during a news conference that more arrests were coming in the case.

Police said Roberson disappeared after she visited her mothers house for a family dinner along with her four children. She left two of the children with her mother and returned home with her three-year-old and one-month-old.

The next day Robersons mother called her repeatedly, but she did not answer. When she travelled to her daughters house to find her, she found it empty. She filed a missing persons report on 17 July. All four children are safe, authorities added.

Imani Roberson was last seen alive in July (Roberson Family provided photo)

When I couldnt reach Imani almost three weeks ago, I knew something was wrong, her mother, Clarine Andujar-White, said during the press conference on Saturday.

Late last night my worst fears were confirmed and our family is devastated.

Investigators were immediately suspicious after finding blood in Robersons home and other places, CNN reported.

It was clear that foul play was evident in the disappearance of Imani, the sheriffs office said.

A week later, Robersons white Mazda SUV was found charred after it had been set on fire in the Atlanta area, about 24 miles away.

Her body was found by cadaver dogs on Friday and her husband Donell Anderson was arrested at an apartment a short time later.

Mr Anderson was charged with felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during commission to attempt a felony.

Donell Anderson was arrested and charged in connection with the disappearance and death of his wife (Rockdale County Sheriff)

When that body was found, it was our mission, especially mine, to make sure that we could convince our judges and/or DAs office that we have enough evidence to secure a warrant and to get him off the street, Sheriff Levett said.

"This investigation is still ongoing and I can assure you that another arrest will be made," the sheriff added.

Mr Anderson appeared in court on Sunday morning. He was represented by a public defender but he will eventually retain his own lawyer, officials said.

Sheriff Levett said the medical examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of Robersons death. Her children will now be in the care of their grandparents.

Robersons father, Ronald Acklin, became emotional during Saturdays news conference and said that it was "not the news" the family was hoping for.

He also said this was not the first time he had lost a child and he was prepared for the news of her death.

Ive made my peace with it, he said.

The ceremony for Roberson was being held in front of Robersons home in Conyers.

The family asked people to bring candles and balloons in Robersons favourite colours, purple and white.
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After the FBI and law enforcement agencies last week searched a Georgia property for the human remains of a teen who vanished in 2016, two individuals have been arrested  with one charged with murder.

Morgan Bauer was 19 when she disappeared, shortly after moving from South Dakota to Georgia. Seven years after she vanished, Porterdale Police officers said on Sunday that they arrested two people.

Johnathan Alexander Warren was arrested in Los Angeles, California, and charged with murder, aggravated assault, concealing death, and tampering with evidence.

Katelyn Goble was arrested in Peoria, Illinois, and charged with concealing death and tampering with evidence, both of which are felonies. Jail records show that she was arrested last week and is 27 years old, making her roughly the same age as Bauer at the time of the teens death.

Its unclear how either of the arrested individuals knew Bauer  if they did at all.

Investigators are still actively investigating the case and it is continuing to develop, the police added.

Bauers mother, Sherri Keenan, posted on Facebook in the wake of the arrests: Please understand, legally and currently Morgan is still considered a Missing Person. While we are so grateful that arrests have been made, this is an ongoing investigation. We must move moment by moment. We do not want to risk harming her case or misinformation being shared here or in the small, but beautiful Porterdale, GA community.

The teens last known sighting was in a video posted on social media on 26 February 2016, showing Bauer walking through a park, and a man can be seen behind her.

Law enforcement agencies investigated 2 South Broad St, after obtaining a search warrant. Police said on Monday that they were conducting a follow-up at the property.
 Close Woman's body found off of popular trail believed to be missing Maryland woman

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More than a week after mother-of-five Rachel Morin was found dead on a popular trail in Maryland, authorities have yet to make any arrests in the investigation into her death.

Morin, 37, was last seen heading to the Ma & Pa Trail at around 6pm on 5 August. Her boyfriend reported her missing that night after she failed to return home and her body was found the following day.

On Thursday, Harford County Sheriffs Office said investigators had been made aware of potential witnesses who may have seen Morin on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air on Saturday. The witnesses  either three men, two women and two dogs or two men, three women and two dogs  were urged to come forward.

Officials said that these individuals had been identified and were contacted by investigators.

A spokesperson for the sheriffs office told The Independent on Tuesday that the department had increased patrol on the Ma & Pa Trail area to reassure the community in the aftermath of Morins tragic death, but noted that there is no perceived threat at this time.
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Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for his role in George Floyds murder.

Thao was found guilty in May of state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in connection to Floyds death in 2020.

The sentence will run concurrently with Thaos three-and-a-half year prison term on a separate federal civil rights conviction.

Thao held back bystanders while fellow former officer Derek Chauvin pinned down and pressed his knee on Floyds neck for more than nine minutes back on 25 May 2020.

Bodycam footage showed Thao preventing witnesses from coming to Floyds aid, as he lay on the ground crying out for help, saying: I cant breathe.

This is why you dont do drugs, kids, Thao was heard telling bystanders.

He was also heard telling another emergency responder to back off when she asked to check Floyds pulse.

On 2 May, Thao was convicted of second-degree aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Tou Thao was found guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter in connection with George Floyds death (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

Thao testified at his trial that he had merely served as a human traffic cone.

However, Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill in Minnesota ruled that Thao made a conscious decision to actively participate in Floyds death and actively encouraged Chauvins restraint despite knowing that it could endanger Floyds life.

The short of it: Tou Thao did not want to follow the proper protocol and the work it would entail, Judge Cahill said. George Floyd died as a result.

Thao is the fourth former Minnesota police officer convicted over Floyds death, which set off a racial reckoning around the United States in the summer of 2020 following a string of high-profile police killings of Black citizens.

A mourner pays their respects at a mural at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, April 23, 2021 (Associated Press)

Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in 2021. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges for violating Floyds civil rights and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Former officers J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were also found guilty of federal civil rights charges and are each serving two to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Lane also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Kueng was sentenced to three and a half years for the same charges.
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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 Nascar driver has been suspended from racing after reportedly liking a meme mocking George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in 2020.

Driver Noah Gragson was suspended indefinitely and will not be allowed to participate in the racing league's Cup Series on Sunday.

His team, Legacy Motor Club, confirmed that the suspension is related to his "actions" on social media, according to CNN.

Problems for Gragson began when a screenshot showing his Instagram account began circulating on social media. The account associated with Gragson reportedly liked a meme mocking Mr Floyd, whose death helped spark a wave of protests across the nation in 2020.

The meme shows a photo of Mr Floyd's face and includes a reference to his death.

Though neither Nascar nor Legacy Motor Club specified exactly why Gragson was being suspended, the driver offered a non-specific apology on Twitter on Sunday.

I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media, Gragson wrote. I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple.

Gragson's club, Legacy Motors, tried to distance itself from the driver on Saturday, issuing a statement that his actions did "not represent the values of our team."

Josh Berry will fill in for Gragson this weekend during the Cup Series race in Michigan.

NASCAR said that it "fully supports" Gragson's suspension.

Chevrolet, the nameplate on the Legacy Motor Club car Gragson drove, issued its own statement distancing itself from the driver.

"Noahs actions do not align with our beliefs and brand values. We will work with Legacy Motor Club on next steps," the company wrote.

This was Gragson's first full season in the Cup Series.
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Several fiery explosions occurred overnight at a Sherwin-Williams paint facility in Garland, Texas overnight.

The facility, located east of Dallas, caught fire not long after 1am on Monday, according to Fox 4.

A number of businesses, as well as Garland police, felt the blast from miles away. Firefighters say its still unclear what caused the explosions.

Dave Casper works at Aston Global, the facility next to Sherwin-Williams. He told the local TV station that he felt ceiling particles falling around him.

All we saw was this big explosion, this big fireball. I mean, the whole plant at Sherwin-Williams was engulfed in flames, he said.

I went right into reactive mode. Whenever you hear a blast or a disaster like that, your adrenaline kicks in and you just take what you believe is the right thing to do every time, he added. Were probably 150 feet away from where the blast took place so were not that far. The building is only about 50 feet on the other side of the fence from our location. So, theres not much room between us.

Firefighters told Fox that one employee at Sherwin-Williams was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

At 6am, the fire was contained but still burning hot. Firefighters are set to remain at the scene for most of the day for monitoring as the blaze subsides.

Officials in the area are asking residents to be aware of road closures and stay inside as much as possible to avoid being affected by the burning chemicals.

Jim Norris, an area resident, told Fox that he and his wife will be wearing masks to stay safe.

Her being on dialysis being diabetic, chemical fumes are definitely not something you want them to smell or anyone to smell, he told the local station. Very lucky. With chemical plants, you never know. They could do massive harm. These explosions were unreal.

The local health department will look into if there are any effects on the air quality in the area.
Chris Christie presented Ukraines president with a uniquely New Jersey-themed gift when he arrived last week on a surprise visit that aimed to draw a line between the candidate and other Republicans in his party who have resisted calls to aid Ukraines military.

Mr Christie presented Volodymyr Zelensky with handwritten lyrics to Its My Life from Jon Bon Jovi, the songs author. The gift was a gesture in recognition and admiration of a now-viral group of videos shot by residents of Odessa, Ukraine depicting civilians assisting with preparation for a Russian attack while a band plays the song for them nearby.

An official with Ukraines foreign ministry first tweeted a video of siege preparation in March, urging supporters of Ukraine to tag Bon Jovi in the hopes that the bandleader would see.

The videos were viewed millions of times and were soon celebrated by the band itself:

[The song] served as an inspiration for a lot of the citizens in Odessa, as they were preparing for the invasion by the Russians, Mr Christie said during a CNN interview.

Jon wrote it out in his own hand, got it framed, and I brought it to President Zelensky, he continued, adding that he told the Ukrainian leader that the song was also representative of many of the American people and what they feel about the cause thats being fought for in Ukraine.

Jon Bon Jovis personal political leanings are thought to be more towards the left  he has campaigned with a handful of Democratic politicians throughout the years, including Joe Biden in 2020. But his band is known to have given Mr Christie, formerly the governor of New Jersey, approval to use the Jerey-borne groups music on the campaign trail.

Mr Christies visit comes as Republican opposition to further military aid to Ukraine continues to bubble, particularly among the far-right. The ex-governor and others who find themselves aligned with the GOP and Washington foreign policy establishments have resisted those inclinations with public shows of support for Ukraine and Mr Zelensky.

One of Mr Christies rivals for the GOP nomination, Mike Pence, visited Ukraine and met with Mr Zelensky in late June as Kyiv has become a sort of de facto campaign stop in the 2024 US presidential race.
E Jean Carroll praised her legal team after a judge dismissed former President Donald Trumps counter-lawsuit against the writer.

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in an order made public on Monday that Mr Trump hadnt proven that Ms Carrolls statements on CNN the day after a civil trial jury found that the ex-president had sexually abused Ms Carroll and subsequently defamed her were false or not at least substantially true.

Mr Trump sued Ms Carroll in June following her CNN appearance the previous month. Ms Carroll was asked about the verdict  the jury found that while Mr Trump sexually abused her, they didnt state that Mr Trump had raped her under New York state law, to which Ms Carroll said, Oh, yes he did.

Judge Kaplan wrote: Indeed, the jurys verdict in Carroll II establishes, as against Mr Trump, the fact that Mr Trump raped her, albeit digitally rather than with his penis. Thus, it establishes against him the substantial truth of Ms Carrolls rape accusations.

In consequence, there is no merit to Mr Trumps argument that the jurys finding on Penal Law rape question established that Ms Carrolls statements were false even if her statements reasonably could be construed as referring to rape in that specialized Penal Law sense, a subject on which this Court now expresses no view, he added.

Ms Carroll praised her attorney, writing on her Substack on Monday that while the world was fixated on a certain blokes latest indictments, Robbie Kaplan was making moves.

We rely upon the law to bring us justice. As I type these words my heart swells with gratitude for my attorneys, she added.

I refer, of course, to that famous fly-fishing maven Robbie Kaplan, Ms Carroll, 79, wrote on Monday.

She went on to share her appreciation for the unreasonably hot Shawn Crowley, the swashbucklingly smart Mike Ferrara, the omnipotently shrewd Joshua Matz, the ingeniously even-tempered Matt Craig as well as the consummately quick Trevor Morrison, the eternally elegant Helen Andrews, the affectionately ferocious Emmy DeCourcy, the deliciously crafty Donya Khadem, and the paralyzingly penetrating Kate Harris.

She concluded with a special salute to Ms. Rachel Tuckman who is enjoying a hellaciously HOT mom summer!

Judge Kaplan had already rejected Mr Trumps request for a new trial, CNN notes.

Mr Trump is set to go on trial against Ms Carroll again in January on a separate defamation lawsuit filed by the writer in 2019 for statements Mr Trump made while occupying the White House.

The case has been delayed by the legal battle that ensued. The lawsuit brought under the New York Adult Survivors Act, known as Carroll II, went to trial in May of this year, leading to the writer being awarded $5m.

Mr Trump had appealed that verdict as well as other adverse rulings.

Ms Carrolls legal team have claimed that the only issue that the jury should settle in January is how much Mr Trump should pay the writer. The ex-presidents lawyers have said that there should be a limit to the amount of damages he can owe to avoid doubling up from the jurys verdict in Carroll II.

Ms Kaplan said in a statement: We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trumps counterclaim. That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldnt take very long to complete.

Mr Trump is set to face his challengers in the Republican primary in the Iowa caucuses on the same day.

Ms Kaplan added: E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba told CNN: We strongly disagree with the flawed decision and will be filing an appeal shortly.
Former vice president Mike Pence has described a moment when he believes Donald Trump legitimately considered  albeit briefly  accepting the lawful and valid results of the 2020 election.

Mr Pence was speaking to CBSs Major Garrett on Sunday about the newly filed indictment against Mr Trump, charging him with several crimes related to the former presidents efforts to overturn the presidential election.

Among the crimes Mr Trump is accused of is depriving Americans of their right to a duly elected president via his efforts to interfere in the legal process of transferring power between administrations.

The former vice president was central to that effort.

As president of the Senate, the vice president presides over the special session of the chamber wherein the results of the election are certified.

Mr Trump attempted to persuade Mr Pence throughout the latter part of 2020 to interfere in that process and demand that the election certification be halted while Republican-led state legislatures in states where Mr Trump lost would supposedly work to throw out the lawful election results and substitute their own.

Mr Pence refused, however, and the transfer of power went ahead following an unsuccessful attempt by a mob of Trump supporters to invade the Capitol and prevent the process from taking place.

During his interview on Sunday, Mr Pence recounted a conversation with Mr Trump that took place in December 2020  just weeks before the attack on Capitol Hill  where he says he thinks his boss may have considered not going ahead with his effort to interfere in the transfer of power should his court challenges fail, which they eventually all did.

I remember one occasion before Christmas, where the president asked me what... he thought we ought to do. We were just the two of us in the Oval Office, Major, Mr Pence told Garrett.

And I remember, I looked at him and I said, look, let all the lawsuits play out, let the Congress do their work to consider objections, but I said at the end of the day, if the election goes the other way, I said we ought to take a bow, we ought to travel around the country.

And I remember, I remember, the president is standing in front of his desk, listening very intently to me, and I'll never forget the way he just kind of pointed at me as if to... say, that's worth thinking about.

Mr Trumps legal team has denied any wrongdoing in the Jan 6 case and has warned that they will call Mr Pence to testify.

The ex-president faces dozens of criminal charges while he campaigns for a second term in office. Despite his professed innocence, his legal team separately said on Sunday that they expect indictments to be handed down in Georgias investigation into the president and his campaigns efforts to overturn the election in that state.
Thailand's populist Pheu Thai party announced Monday that it will form a coalition with a party from the outgoing military-backed administration to try to end nearly three months of political deadlock after the progressive party that won national elections was excluded from the formation of a new government.

Thailand has struggled to break the impasse and select a new leader after the progressive Move Forward Party became the surprise winner of the May elections but was blocked by the conservative elite from taking power.

Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat had assembled an eight-party coalition with 312 seats in the 500-member lower house. But under Thailand's military-enacted constitution, a new prime minister must receive a majority in a vote by both the elected House and 250-member appointed Senate, selected by a previous military government. Pitas initial bid last month fell short by more than 50 votes, largely because only 13 senators backed him. He was barred from a second attempt the following week when Parliament voted that he could not be nominated again.

Members of the Senate said they opposed Pita because of his partys call for the reform of a law that makes it illegal to defame Thailands royal family. Critics say the law, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, has been abused as a political weapon. The Senates members, like the army, see themselves as guardians of traditional royalist values.

Pheu Thai, the second biggest party in the eight-party coalition, took over the lead role in forming a government after Move Forwards two failed attempts. It said last Wednesday that Move Forward had been excluded from the coalition because its platform to reform the royal defamation law made it impossible to rally enough support from other parties and the Senate.

Pheu Thai on Monday said it will try to form a government with the Bhumjaithai Party, which finished third in the election with 71 seats in the lower house. Together with Pheu Thai's 141 seats, the two parties hold 212 seats.

Bhumjaithai, which is known for cutting deals with parties on both sides of the political divide, was part of the outgoing military-backed coalition government of Prayuth Chan-ocha, who as army chief toppled a Pheu Thai government in a coup in 2014 and returned as prime minister after 2019 elections. Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul serves as deputy prime minister and minister of public health in Prayuths administration.

Anutins most prominent legacy as health minister is removing marijuana from the countrys narcotics list, leading to an explosion of shops selling cannabis around the country.

Anutin said at a news conference with Pheu Thai on Monday that Bhumjaithat has agreed to join the coalition under the conditions that the royal defamation law will not be amended, and that Move Forward will not be a part of the government.

Chonlanan Srikaew, Pheu Thais leader, said the two parties will invite other parties this week to join them in forming a government.

We need support from all sides because the problems that the country and the people are facing right now are severe. The longer the delay is, the more damage it will cause, Chonlanan read from a joint statement by the two parties.

Chonlanan said a Pheu Thai-led government will propose a new draft constitution because the current charter enacted after the 2014 military coup is the main factor causing the current political crisis and a reason why the coalition with Move Forward failed.

A plan by Parliament to vote for a new leader last Friday was derailed after the Constitutional Court said a day earlier that it needs more time to deliberate on whether to accept a petition from the state ombudsman on the legality of Parliaments earlier vote to block Pitas renomination, and will meet again Aug. 16 to decide on the matter. The House speaker then postponed the vote pending the courts decision, since the court could order the vote to be suspended until it issues a ruling.

Pheu Thai is the latest in a string of parties affiliated with ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire populist who was ousted in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin has said he plans to return to the country in the coming weeks following years of self-imposed exile to escape a prison term in several criminal cases which he has decried as politically motivated.

Although Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai were on opposite sides of the political divide during the last government, Anutin said he never said that the two parties could not work together and called for a compromise.

Now its the time that the country needs a government. The country needs to move on, so we have to finish all those disputes, he said. You dont want to see the country continuing in factions like this. If theres a chance, we can unite together and move on. We have to do it for the sake of our country and the people.
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis admitted in an interview with NBC News that former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, as he seeks to recalibrate his campaign.

Mr DeSantis initially told NBC Newss Dasha Burns in an interview that will air on NBC Nightly News on Monday evening that whoever is inaugurated on 20 January is considered the winner, in a dodge answer.

Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan 20 every four years is the winner, he said. When pressed, Mr DeSantis said that President Biden defeated Mr Trump.

No, of course he lost, he said of Mr Trump. Joe Bidens the president.

But Mr DeSantis still said that the election did have irregularities, citing the proliferation of mail-in ballots during the Covid-19 pandemic and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerbergs distribution of grants to election administrators.

I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. ... I dont think it was a good-run election, he said. But I also think Republicans didnt fight back. Youve got to fight back when that is happening.

Last week, Mr DeSantis disputed Mr Trumps claims of the 2020 presidential election in an interview with The New York Times, specifically disputing claims that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rigged the election.

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 said. Those theories, you know, proved to be unsubstantiated.

In his interview with NBC, Mr DeSantis also criticised Mr Trump, saying that he made the mistake of listening to Dr Anthony Fauci, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director. He noted how the CARES Act, the Covid-19 relief legislation Mr Trump signed, included $400m for election administration.

But heres the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because of Trump turned the government over to Fauci, he said. They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country.

Mr DeSantis is seeking to reboot his campaign after a disappointing first fundraising quarter wherein he only raised $20m. His campaign has also let go of numerous staffers. He also significantly trails Mr Trump in nearly every poll.

But Mr DeSantis said that the election needed to be a referendum on Mr Biden or Republicans risk losing.

If the election is a referendum on Joe Bidens policies and the failures that weve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around, he said. If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose.
Rudy Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York City and one-time lawyer for former President Donald Trump, has listed his Upper East Side apartment for $6.5m amid legal challenges.

Property records and court documents confirm his address is the same listed by Sothebys Realty. While the listing says the building is distinctive for its magnificent gothic-inspired terra cotta and brick facade the three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment is also distinctive for being raided by the FBI in April 2021 over Mr Giulianis alleged dealings with Ukraine.

This apartment appears to be the same one alluded to in the lawsuit brought by Noelle Dunphy, Mr Giulianis former assistant. Giuliani insisted that Ms. Dunphy stay in a guest suite in his Upper East Side apartment, the complaint states, before describing the alleged assault.

The apartment was put up for sale just days after Mr Giulianis ex-client and ally, Mr Trump, was indicted for the third time.

Mr Giuliani himself is facing a number of legal woes. A lawyer for the 79-year-old last week acknowledged to the New York Times that his client appeared to be the person identified as Co-Conspirator 1 in the federal indictment accusing Mr Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in his favour.

Robert Costello, Mr Giulianis attorney, said the indictment eviscerates the First Amendment, and denounced the filing as election interference.

In his own words, Mr Giuliani said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who handed down the indictment, should be indicted. The people lying are the people bringing this They should be indicted for conspiracy against rights, the former mayor said on Newsmax.

His former assistant, Noelle Dunphy, filed a lawsuit in May against him for sexual assault, harassment, wage theft, and other claims. In the lawsuit, Ms Dunphy claimed that her former boss made clear that satisfying his sexual demands  which came virtually anytime, anywhere  was an absolute requirement of her employment.

Bombshell tapes and transcripts of their conversations have been revealed in recent weeks. In one such tape, the man once called Americas Mayor allegedly said, Come here, big t*ts. Your t*ts belong to me. Give them to me. I want to claim my t*ts.

Mr Giuliani also faces a defamation lawsuit in Georgia, in which he seemed to admit that he made statements that carry meaning that is defamatory per se about two of the states election workers after the 2020 election. A judge has asked him to clarify precisely what he meant, as the former mayor made seemingly incongruous and certainly puzzling caveats.

Additionally, Dominion sued Mr Giuliani for defamation in January 2021, claiming he had made defamatory falsehoods in order to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election. The company is seeking $1.3bn in damages.

The Independent has reached out to a lawyer for Mr Giuliani.
Donald Trumps lawyer on Sunday previewed a legal defence his client may make in court when his upcoming trial for his actions leading up to January 6 begins next year.

Appearing on all the major networks, John Lauro fielded questions from journalists about the idea that Mr Trump was acting illegally when he approached then-Vice President Mike Pence with his plan for Mr Pence to halt or reverse the Senates certification of the 2020 election, allowing slates of false electors to be named to replace those set to vote for Joe Biden.

Mr Lauro told journalists on NBC that Mr Trump had not directed his vice president to use his power as president of the Senate to interfere with the chambers process  instead, he characterised it as an aspirational request by the president.

Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. Its core free speech, argued Mr Lauro on CNN.

He went on to argue that Mr Pences refusal to comply with the request or demand was evidence itself that it had been the former.

Im not saying that [the January 6 riot] was in any way appropriate, but the ultimate power of the presidency was transferred to Mr Biden, he told CNNs Dana Bash.

It was the exact same language he used to describe Mr Trumps overtures to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was revealed to have been pressured by the president to intercede in that state after Joe Biden was declared the lawful victor.

On a now-famous phone call, Mr Trump suggested that Mr Raffensperger would be able to find more than 10,000 votes for him that would push him past Mr Bidens total in the state.

"That wasn't a threat at all, Mr Lauro claimed on NBC. He was asking for [him] to get the truth...That was an aspirational ask."

He would go on to claim that asking Mr Pence to commit an act that violated the US Constitution was not inherently a crime. However, some crimes simultaneously represent violations of ones constitutional rights, and in the case of Mr Trump this argument could falls flat given that the government will argue that an obstruction of the Senates ability to certify the election essentially represented a violation of every Americans right to be represented by the lawfully-elected president.

Mr Lauros whirlwind Sunday media tour comes as he and the Trump legal team are set to respond to a new filing by the Justice Department seeking to limit what Donald Trump can say publicly about his ongoing prosecution.

The federal government has argued that Mr Trumps recent comments on Truth Social vowing vengeance against those involved with the investigation will have a chilling effect on witnesses; the ex-president is already charged with witness tampering among the dozens of counts he faces.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called for cancelling Juneteenth after he had previously posted a video celebrating the holiday, NBC News reported.

Mr Ramaswamy spoke in Vail, Iowa, about how to make elections more secure. In his speech, he called for Election Day to be made a national holiday.

Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up, he said. In addition, he called for paper ballots and voter identification cards despite the fact there is little evidence of widespread voter fraud.

When asked if he considers Juneteenth a useless holiday, he said, I basically do.

Juneteenth commemorates when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas on 19 June 1865 and announced that enslaved people were officially freed. In the ensuing years, it became a day of celebration in Black communities across Texas.

In 2021, Congress voted overwhelmingly and President Joe Biden signed legislation to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

But two months ago, Mr Ramaswamy posted a video celebrating Juneteenth.

We dont just look back and flog ourselves, thats beside the point, Mr Ramaswamy said. What we celebrate is how far weve come, and as a first-generation American myself, you better believe Im proud of it. Happy Juneteenth, everybody.

When asked by NBC News whether he thought Veterans Day or Memorial Day were useless, Mr Ramaswamy deferred.

I stand with the presumption of time-tested traditions, he said, calling Juneteenth redundant of Martin Luther King Jr Day and Presidents Day.

The reason for making it a holiday was under political duress. It was a political hostage situation on the back of the death of George Floyd, he said.
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An Indiana mother of two died in July after drinking too much water too quickly, according to her family.

Ashley Summers was enjoying a visit to Indianas Lake Freeman over the Fourth of July weekend when she told those around her she was feeling dehydrated, light-headed, and felt she couldnt drink enough water. After consuming multiple bottles of water in a short span, she went home, where she passed out in her garage.

Her family rushed her to the IU Health Arnett Hospital, but she never regained consciousness, succumbing to water toxicity.

"It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like this is a thing?" Devon Miller, Ashleys brother, told WRTV.

"Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes. 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," he added.

"Its relatively rare," Dr Alok Harwani, a physician at the hospital, told WLFI. "Now, what we are concerned about is just drinking too much water in a short period of time. Your kidneys can really only clear about a liter of water per hour."

The doctor said its a good idea when spending a lot of time outside in hot weather to continue to eat or drink things with electrolytes, like fruit or Gatorade, in addition to plain water, helping maintain the balance of water and sodium in the blood.

Ashley Summers, an Indiana woman who died of water toxicity in July (WLFI)

"Things to look out for are if you just start feeling really out of it, very tired, very fatigued," he added. "Sometimes patients feel like theyre starting to have a mild headache, or are just feeling overall unwell. Those could be early signs of water intoxication ... So, if youre really concerned that you or a family member is not acting right and youre worried about water toxicity, dont hesitate to call 911, dont hesitate to go to the [emergency room]."

Deaths from water toxicity have happened before in a variety of contexts.

According to Scientific American, people have died from the condition in everything from a radio stations on-air water drinking contest, to a fraternity hazing ritual in which a California university student was forced to drink copious amounts of water in between rounds of push-ups.

Clubbers, particularly those on drugs like MDMA, can be susceptible to the condition as they sweat profusely and rehydrate with water over hours of dancing.
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An Italian man has been crushed to death by thousands of wheels of cheese.

It took Italian firefighters around 12 hours to find 74-year-old Giacomo Chiapparini, who was buried beneath countless wheels of parmesan-style hard cheese.

The incident occurred when a shelf broke in Mr Chiapparinis warehouse as he was checking on the ripening wheels in the northern Lombardy region on Sunday.

Thousands of 40kg cheese wheels barreling on top of him as a result.

Firefighter Antonio Dusi told AFP the rescuers had to move the cheeses and the shelves by hand before finally finding the 74-year-old.

Located in the small town of Romano di Lombardia, the warehouse contained 25,000 wheels of grana padano.

The hard cheese is made from unpasteurised cows milk in copper cauldrons.

It goes through a specific and meticulous process of heating, breaking the curd and resting before it is extracted and molded into the iconic wheel. After more rigorous treatments such as salting, the cheese is left to dry and age for a minimum of nine months.
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Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russias invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale  especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage.

The Kremlin, in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putins spurious war to de-Nazify Russias neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries.

Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers  putting the official number at around 6,000  and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses.

Ukraine, meanwhile, posts a daily report on its Ministry of Defence website listing a cumulative total of the number of enemy personnel liquidated, alongside other combat losses, which stood at the much higher total of 249,110 on 5 August.

Most tolls typically refer to casualties as the preferred military euphemism, under which combatants killed and injured can be grouped together, whereas liquidated seems to imply killed only.

Overseas observers offer a more dispassionate (if still not entirely impartial) assessment of the situation on the ground, which might equally be flawed by their far remove from the realities of life on the frontline.

Local independent media group Mediazone, branded a foreign agent by the Kremlin, nevertheless work hard, operating within a tightly-controlled environment, to offer its own running total of Russian casualties in Ukraine based on what its journalists can corroborate from publicly available information, which currently puts the total at just 28, 652 as of its latest update of 28 July.

It works with the BBC but explains: These numbers do not represent the actual death toll since we can only review publicly available reports including social media posts by relatives, reports in local media, and statements by the local authorities.

The real death toll is much higher. Besides, the number of soldiers missing in action or captured is not known.

Another Mediazone partnership with fellow Russian independent outlet Meduza (now forced to operate from Lativa) and Germanys Tubingen University used Russian government data to cast a different light on the question and put the total number of Russian deaths twice as high, at nearly 50,000.

For this count, they relied on a statistical concept popularised during the Covid-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on 11m inheritance records from the National Probate Registry and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men aged under 50 had died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal.

According to their analysis, 25,000 more inheritance cases were opened in 2022 for males aged 15 to 49 than expected. By 27 May 2023, the number of excess cases had shot up to 47,000.

Discussing the two approaches, Mediazone editor Dmitry Treshchanin told the Associated Press the first represents only soldiers who we know by name, and their deaths in each case are verified by multiple sources.

As for the second: The estimate we did with Meduza allows us to see the hidden deaths, deaths the Russian government is so obsessively and unsuccessfully trying to hide.

Russians who are missing but not officially recognised as dead, as well as citizens of Ukraine fighting in units of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, are not included in these counts.

One of the most significant insights to be volunteered so far from Ukraines allies, watching on, came from John Kirby, the White Houses National Security Council spokesperson, who said on 1 May  citing newly declassified information  that the US believed Russia had suffered 100,000 casualties between December 2022 and April 2023, amounting to 20,000 deaths and 80,000 injuries, after becoming caught up in a grinding war of attrition around Bakhmut during the freezing winter months.

Its really stunning, these numbers, Mr Kirby said. Its three times the number of killed in action that the United States faced on the Guadalcanal campaign in the Second World War.

That followed an estimate given by Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, the previous November, when he told an audience in New York that the number of Russian casualties in the first eight months of the war stood at well over 100,000.

If that figure is accurate and is added to Mr Kirbys update, that would put the total well north of 200,000 by this point, roughly in agreement with Ukrainian accounting, although the Kremlin has inevitably disputed Americas calculations and dismissed them as anti-Russian propaganda.

Russian soldiers march towards Red Square as part of a Victory Day military parade in Moscow on 9 May 2023 (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

The US has declined to estimate the number of Ukrainian casualties publicly, arguing that doing so would betray sensitive military information and risk undermining an ally.

However, the top secret Pentagon documents leaked on social media in April  if accurate  suggested that the US Defence Intelligence Agency believed that Ukraine had suffered between 15,500 and 17,500 fatalities at that stage and seen between 109,000 and 113,500 of its soldiers injured.

Those documents, incidentally, put the agencys assessment of Russian casualties at between 189,500 and 223,000, including between 35,500 and 43,000 soldiers killed in action and between 154,000 and 180,000 wounded. That likewise tallies with the other estimates seen so far.

Elsewhere, Norways defence chief, Eirik Kristoffersen, offered a similar ballpark figure when he told his countrys TV2 on 22 January that he believed Russia had suffered around 180,000 deaths and injuries while Ukraines total casualties was significantly lower, closer to 100,000.

In February, the UKs Ministry of Defense said it believed approximately 40,000 to 60,000 Russians had been killed in the war.

As for civilian casualties, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) publishes regular updates of its tallies based on the latest intelligence from the conflict zone.

The most recent such report from the OHCHR was published on 18 June 2023, recording that 9,803 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began 16 months ago and another 15,779 people have been injured.

Of these numbers, 7,072 deaths and 13,001 injuries occurred in territory controlled by Ukraine. In Russian-occupied territory, 2,011 people have been killed and 2,778 injured since the attempted conquest began last year.

These latest figures, recorded between 1 June and 18 June, added 557 civilian casualties in Ukraine to the running total, of which 112 were killed and 445 injured.

However, even here, the OHCHR notes that the actual figures are likely to be considerably higher than those it can substantiate on account of the inevitable delay in receiving information from the most fiercely contested areas, underlining the complexity of saying anything definite about the state of play in Ukraine.
 Close Ukraine war: Footage appears to show moment drone attack hits building in central Moscow

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President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed revenge for the attack which left seven dead and 144 injured in Chernihiv.

I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack, Zelensky said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. A notable response.

He said that of the 144 people injured, 15 were children, and named the girl killed as Sofia. Fifteen others were police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road, or returning from church.

Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said 41 people were in hospital on Saturday.

Zelensky said the strike on Chernihiv, a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 km (90 miles) north of Kyiv, coincided with the Orthodox holiday of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

It comes as a Ukrainian drone crashed into the rooftop of a railway station in the Russian city of Kursk, injuring five people and setting off a fire, the TASS news agency said on Sunday, citing regional governor Roman Starovoit.
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Ukraines children are losing the will to live  the countrys first lady has warned  in an emotional plea for help over the struggle to retrieve tens of thousands of children disappeared into Russia.

In an exclusive interview for Independent TV from the heavily-guarded presidential office in Kyiv, Olena Zelenska said the Ukrainian authorities will soon be launching a new initiative with international partners to try to find and return at least 19,500 children they believe have been abducted into Russian territory.

This estimate is woefully low, the first lady said, as Kyiv has received reports that Russia had cleared out whole orphanages. So far Ukraine has only managed to bring home 380 of the missing children.

In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his child ombudsman, for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Mrs Zelenska, said the warrant sent out a powerful message to the world  and would hopefully have a practical implementation to help bring Mr Putin to justice. But she added this was just one of the myriad problems children were facing in Ukraine since the Russian president launched his invasion last February.

Children have been robbed of their childhood. There are also huge problems in education. Only a third of Ukrainian schools are open, she said.

Children are losing the will to live. It is the most tragic thing to see when a child refuses, cannot smile, does not speak, or stops eating. These are terrible things we have to live with now, she added.

The full interview is now available to watch on The Independents website and on your smart TV .

Mrs Zelenska said the impact on children was part of a wider mental health crisis plaguing Ukraine in the wake of Russia's invasion. One that is affecting children and adults alike.

The first lady said one of the biggest concerns is for hidden survivors of sexual violence. Ukraines General Prosecutors office is currently investigating just over 100 cases of sexual violence against children, men and women, but the true number of cases was hundreds times this as people are too ashamed to speak out fearing stigma.

Mrs Zelenska in the presidential complex in Kyiv (Anton Kulakowskiy)

This is the most stigmatised and terrible of war crimes as the victims pay with their whole lives Mrs Zelenska said. Some of them say that it would be easier if they killed me because what happened to me kills me every day anyway.

It destroys families, she added.

In the wide-ranging interview ,Mrs Zelenska she warned that Russia winning the war would be a threat to all humanity and urged Western partners to speed up humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine as the country's soldiers were paying with their lives to maintain the whole democratic world.

In response to her heartfelt plea, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told The Independent that Britain will back Ukraine every way we can until the war is over.

No one in Britain is showing any signs of fatigue in supporting Ukraine, because it is the right thing to do, he said. "We are with them. And we will continue to be [with them], as I have often said publicly, to the end.

(Anton Kulakowskiy)

Mrs Zelenska also spoke passionately about her work, including multiple construction projects across the war-ravaged country. They include rebuilding hospitals in the northeast and new cutting-edge prosthetic centres in the west.

Mrs Zelenska wants to redefine what it means to be a first lady, as more than just a decorative role. In September she will host a summit of first ladies and gentlemen aimed at building a global group that can run joint projects. The focus this autumn will be on mental health.

We can no longer perform only a decorative role, Mrs Zelenska said of her desire to set a new trend.

We cannot just stand nicely next to the head of state. We can try harder and we do much more. And I saw the response it has in our community," she added.

The full interview is now available to watch on independent.tv and your smart TV .

To find out more about our Independent TV smart TV app click here.
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Three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre in Ukraine destroyed, as Russia unleashed a missile and drone barrage in retaliation to attacks on its naval vessels in the Black Sea earlier this week.

Kyivs Air Force said on Sunday that Moscow had launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, with 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones.

We managed to shoot down a significant number of these, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, in his nightly address.

Russia Ukraine Fog of War (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The air force confirmed at least 10 cruise missiles appear to have pierced through their defences.

Mr Zelensky said that a Russian guided air bomb had hit the medical facility in the town of Kupiansk near Kharkiv.

He called the attack a war crime by beasts in a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Mr Zelensky wrote. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

The head of the local regional military administration in Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said two people had died and four others had been injured in the attack on Saturday night.

According to a report by the Associated Press, the Moscow-appointed mayor of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemi, said one woman in her eighties had also been killed in Ukrainian shelling of the city on Saturday.

Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraines Khmelnytsky region military administration, said three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv area, damaging several buildings and igniting a fire at a warehouse.

The strike may have been intended for the citys airfield, officials said.

Mr Zelensky said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.

This barrage came after a Ukrainian drone hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday.

Kyiv also struck a major Russian commerical port earlier the same day.

A spokeswoman for Russias foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova condemned what she said was a Ukrainian terrorist attack on the vessel in Kerch Strait, adding that there can be no justification for such barbaric actions.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (EPA)

They will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished, Zakharova posted on the Telegram messaging app.

Amid heavy fighting over the weekend, Ukraine ramped up its attacks on Russian infrastructure.

The Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov said the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike on Sunday.

The attack came less than 24 hours after a Ukrainian sea drone full of explosives damaged a Russian fuel tanker near the Crimean Bridge.

Meanwhile, talks on the Ukraine conflict were concluded in Jeddah on Sunday, with the participants agreeing on the importance of continuing consultations to pave the way for peace, according to a closing statement released by Saudi Arabia.

Over 40 countries, including China, India, and the US, but not Russia, participated in the summit, as a senior Ukrainian official said the talks had been productive while Moscow branded it a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

Additional reporting from agencies.
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Scientists have achieved a net energy gain in nuclear fusion for the second time, marking major progress towards realising the potential of the near-limitless energy source.

A team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, who first achieved the feat last December, claimed to have passed a new milestone with fusion ignition by producing even greater energy output than the original experiment.

The nuclear fusion process has been described as the holy grail of clean energy, as it requires no fossil fuels and leaves behind no hazardous waste. Instead it mimics the natural reactions that occur within the Sun, though harnessing its potential has puzzled scientists since the 1950s.

Achieving nuclear fusion ignition is a crucial step towards building commercial power stations, though the technology needs to be significantly scaled up from the current experiments for it to be a viable energy source.

The first ever successful fusion energy gain experiment on 5 December, 2022, used lasers to fuse two light atoms into a single one, releasing 3.15 megajoules of energy from 2.05 megajoules of input.

Researchers described the milestone as one of the most significant scientific challenges ever undertaken by humanity that would enable the next steps toward clean fusion energy for the future.

Scientists that were not involved in the fusion experiments said the advance had profound implications for the future of the planet.

We are witnessing a moment in history: controlling the power source of the stars is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken, said physicist Arthur Turrell.

This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion  at a time when weve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more.

A spokesperson for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said the final results of the latest experiment are still being analysed. The lab plans to present the results at upcoming scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.

Several companies are already investing heavily in nuclear fusion, with Microsoft making the worlds first purchase agreement earlier this year.

US research firm Helion Energy is aiming to build the worlds first nuclear fusion power plant (Helion)

The US tech giant made the deal with Helion Energy, which aims to set up a nuclear fusion power plant within the next five years despite the challenges remaining to make it commercially viable.

Helion chief executive David Kirtley said at the time: We still have a lot of work to do, but we are confident in our ability to deliver the worlds first fusion power facility.
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Iraqs Prime Minister has ordered an official investigation after a bear escaped its cage in the cargo hold on an Iraqi Airlines flight.

The countrys airline denied any blame for the bear getting loose  though it later apologised for the incident  on the 4 August service from Baghdad to Dubai.

The animal was discovered as ground staff at Dubai International airport prepared to unload the planes cargo. A video circulating on social media showed the confused animal walking around the cargo hold as staff tried to soothe it.

Authorities in Dubai dispatched experts to deal with the situation, and the bear was sedated and removed from the Boeing 737-800. The situation caused chaos for staff and passengers alike, as the return flight, IA124, was delayed by four hours, reports the New Zealand Herald.

The Associated Press reports that Iraqi Airlines said that procedures to transport the bear were carried out in accordance with the law and with procedures and standards approved by the International Air Transport Association.

The airline subsequently issued an apology, with a statement on its website reading: The company apologises to the passengers of the flight from Baghdad International Airport to Dubai Airport for reasons beyond the control of the company.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shayya Sabbar al Sudani has ordered an investigation to ascertain exactly what happened.

Another video on social media shows the planes captain apologising to passengers for Fridays takeoff delay because of the bears escape from its crate in the cargo hold.

It is unclear who the bears owner is or why it was being transported. Keeping bears as pets has become popular among wealthy individuals in Iraq, and the authorities have encountered difficulties in enforcing the legal provisions to protect these animals.

The Independent has contacted Dubai International Airport for comment.
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British Airways passengers on an Airbus A380 from Johannesburg to London Heathrow went on a 10-hour flight to nowhere when Nigers airspace was suddenly closed late on Sunday night.

Other flights between the UK and South Africa have being re-routed or diverted to take on extra fuel or have returned to their starting points as a result of the closure.

After a military coup ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, the Ecowas regional bloc has threatened intervention to restore the leader.

In response, the ruling junta, led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, closed the vast country  which is six times the area of Great Britain  to overflying aircraft.

The closure took effect at 11.22pm British time on Sunday, when several UK-South Africa flights were already airborne.

Airspace over Sudan and Libya is already closed to commercial aviation. The addition of Niger means there is now a block to north-south flights across Africa stretching around 2,600 miles from western Niger to the Red Sea.

British Airways flight BA56 from Johannesburg flew as far as Chad before turning back to its starting point. It was being operated by an Airbus A380 SuperJumbo, with space for nearly 500 passengers.

Flight BA64 from Nairobi to Heathrow took a similar path, turning back after three hours to return to the Kenyan capital.

Virgin Atlantics flight VS450 from Johannesburg to London Heathrow was the first aircraft to be diverted. The plane departed as normal from South Africas largest city and flew over Botswana and Angola en route to Chad  where it turned west to fly to Lagos to take on more fuel.

The Boeing 787 landed almost four hours behind schedule. Passengers are not entitled to compensation as the diversion counts as extraordinary circumstances.

British Airways flight BA58 from Cape Town to London Heathrow was also diverted via Lagos. It took off as normal early on Sunday evening and followed a normal track over Namibia, Angola, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria.

But data on the tracking service Flightradar24 shows the aircraft briefly entering Niger airspace at around the time the Notam instruction to pilots was issued. The Boeing 777 then turns southwest to fly almost the length of Nigeria before landing at Lagos airport at 1.38am on Monday, British time. Like the Virgin Atlantic flight, it arrived four hours late at Heathrow.

Heading south, the early evening British Airways departure from London Heathrow to Johannesburg, BA55, made it as far as southern Algeria before returning to London  where it touched down at 4.40am.

But the later flight, BA57, was able to take off more or less as normal, and took a long westerly course to Johannesburg . It touched down about one hour late.

The British Airways departure from Heathrow to Cape Town took off shortly before 1am and is expected to land around three hours late.

A spokesperson for BA said: Weve apologised to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys. Our teams are working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.

The Independent has asked Virgin Atlantic to comment.
The daughter of a British man who killed his terminally ill wife has revealed her first words to her father upon hearing the devastating news.

David Hunter killed his wife-of-52 years Janice at their home in Cyprus after she begged him to help her suffering after being diagnosed with incurable blood cancer.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Monday, the couples daughter Lesley Cawthorne said she was hysterical upon being told what had happened but FaceTimed her father, who had also tried to take his own life, to tell him she loved him.
A British expat has spoken of his turmoil after his terminally ill wife begged him to help her die at their home in Cyprus.

David Hunter killed his wife-of-52 years Janice at their home in Cyprus to end her suffering after she was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, a tearful Mr Hunter said: She said to me, you cant hurt me any more than I am hurting now.

Mr Hunter also revealed how he had hoped for a miracle that his wife would get better, adding: My mind was going through so much turmoil.
Wildfires have ravaged over 17,000 acres of land in Portugal, with the Spanish Air and Space Force sent to try and douse the flames.

Footage shows properties surrounded by scorched land as firefighters continue to prevent spots from reignating. Authorities have evacuated about 100 villagers as a precaution.

The Portuguese state weather agency forecast temperatures to reach 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Castelo Branco.

The Spanish Air and Space Force tweeted: Yesterday our #corsarios from #43Grupos were work in #IFCasteloBranco (Portugal) 2 aircraft used a total of 17:30 flight hours and 38 discharges We continue!
Italian firefighters are battling raging wildfires tearing through the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Strong winds have been fanning the flames and complicating efforts to keep the blaze under control - mirroring conditions seen across Europe in recent weeks.

In the islands northeast, a major wildfire burned on Sunday 6 August, prompting the evacuation of about 600 people including tourists.

People staying at camping sites, luxury resorts, hotels and nearby restaurants have also been asked to leave.

Meanwhile, in the south, a fire also broke out near the Molentargius pond, a protected wetland close to the Poetto beach.
Housing migrants on the Bibby Stockholm barge sends a forceful message, a Home Office minister has said.

Sarah Dines told Sky News that luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull for criminal gangs.

What it sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation, but not luxurious, Ms Dines said of the accommodation vessel.

There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which are trying to get people into the country unlawfully.

They say you will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of England. That needs to stop.
Nigers mutinous soldiers closed the countrys airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to restore the ousted president.

Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response, the junta asserted.

Footage from Flightradar24 shows the airspace over the country clearing after the decision.

Nigers state television announced the move Sunday night (6 August), hours before West African regional bloc ECOWAS had demanded that the coup leaders reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face military force.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS will do now that the deadline has passed.
Watch the harrowing moment a Russian drone strike nearly hits a Ukrainian car as it evacuates fighters from the frontline.

Footage shows Ukrainian Special Forces conducting a frontline evacuation of wounded personnel as they desperately race away in the Zaporizhia region after the drone attack barely missed Ukrainian soldiers.

It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the state-owned defence conglomerate to produce more attack drones.

Two people have died after Russian missiles hit a residential building in the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, the head of Ukraines presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said on Monday 7 August, 2023.
From inside the heavily-guarded Ukraine presidential compound in Kyiv, First Lady Olena Zelenska has spoken in a rare and wide ranging interview with The Independents Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew. During their discussion Mrs Zelenska blasted countries for circumventing Russian sanctions, saying the conflict in her nation will drag on endlessly until Russias ability to wage war is stopped.

She also warned Ukraines children are losing the will to live in an emotional plea for help, as she spoke of the struggle to retrieve the children disappeared into Russia.

Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV.
A state-of-the-art vaccine research facility, where scientists will work to ensure future pandemics are stopped in their tracks, has been unveiled by the Government.

The Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre (VDEC) is based at the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) science and defence technology campus Porton Down, near Salisbury.

Live viruses will be kept on-site in specialist containment facilities, with researchers looking at pathogens that do not yet have a vaccine.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries said: What were trying to do now is capture that really excellent work from Covid and make sure were using that as we go forward for any new pandemic threats.
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Mexican officials informed the state of Texas that two bodies were found in the Rio Grande: one ensnared in Governor Greg Abbotts controversial floating border wall, and another in a nearby area. Their official cause of death hasnt been determined yet, but sooner or later, the razor-wire-tipped buoys are going to get people killed. And that, all but explicitly, is the point.

The buoys are part of a three-decade push from state and national leaders of both parties to make crossing the border as deadly as possible, under the theory, proven wrong by data, that this will reduce migration overall. Until we change course, the bodies will keep piling up.

Mr Abbott insisted last month in a letter to the White House that no one wants to see another death in the Rio Grande River, and spun his efforts at the border as a way to save lives and drive people towards legal immigration at US ports of entry.

The reality on the ground would suggest otherwise.

In July, a Texas state border medic named Nicholas Wingate went public with allegations that the border barriers were already causing severe injuries, and that he and his fellow troopers were ordered, as part of the governors Operation Lone Star, to push exhausted migrants back into the river and refuse to offer them water. (The state denies this order existed.)

I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane, he told his superiors, in messages shared with media outlets.

Last year, at least 250 people died crossing the Rio Grande, and that was before Texas installed what amounts to a giant, razor-tipped net in the middle of the river. Mr Abbott, a longtime leader in Americas biggest border state, surely knows the stakes of making this crossing even more lethal.

Republican state governors dont have a monopoly over abuse on the border, though.

Under the Biden administration, which made much of how different it was from the naked cruelty of the Trump years, the Border Patrol has been accused of routinely destroying caches of water left for migrants wandering through desert areas between highly militarised ports of entry.

Despite formally jettisoning the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico asylum policy, the Biden White House asks asylum-seekers to use a buggy cellphone app to process their claims, stranding them in Mexico for long periods of time, where they are vulnerable to kidnapping, extortion, and violence, according to Human Rights Watch.

2022, under a Democratic president, was the deadliest year ever for border-crossers, with more than 800 people lost.

While many were shocked by the extremes of the Trump border regime  family separation, border walls, mass refusals of entry under Title 42  the Republican administration was only underlining the kind of approach thats been standard-issue from Washington for decades.

Trump administration officials first proposed separating children from their families at the border, what eventually became the infamous zero tolerance policy, as a means to deter people from trying to immigrate.

And how different is that really than in the 1990s, when President Clinton, another leader who took office amid a season of high immigration, first proposed prevention through deterrence.

In 1994, his Border Patrol unveiled a strategic plan to fortify major border-crossings, leaving unauthorised migrants little choice but to brave the mortal danger of crossing remote rivers, mountains, or deserts to enter the US.

It was our sense that the number of people crossing through Arizona would go down to a trickle once people realized, Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service at the time, has said.

The thinking here, whether by a Republican governor, or presidents of both parties, is that theres some magical amount of violence that can be inflicted on migrants that will put a stop to undocumented immigration.

This is morally wrong, and apart from that, easily disproven.

In December of 2022, officials had 251,487 migrant encounters at the Southwest border, a record in US history. In March of 2000, a previous peak, there were 220,063 encounters. In other words, after decades of policy and billions spent, after all the extra Border Patrol officers added under Clinton, or the expanded border surveillance under Bush and Obama, or the draconian excesses of the Trump years, little has changed overall.

As Jaime Puente of the state advocacy group Every Texan, which monitors the state budget, recently told me of Texass efforts, Weve spent $12bn over the last decade, and we have nothing to show for it. People are not being deterred from coming to the US to seek a better life and opportunitiesno matter how deadly we make that journey.

All of the deaths at the border, and all of the backlog in the legal immigration system that fuels them, could be addressed at the policy level. They are not a fact of life, but a consequence of our actions, and inactions.

Legislation could cut down on the nine million people waiting for green cards, or the often decade-long wait for family reunification visas, or the millions more people who apply each year than are accepted into the US diversity visa lottery. Our leaders simply dont have the vision or the desire to change this status quo.

The next time a body washes up in Greg Abbotts border buoys, or a skeleton is found in the desert of Arizona, there will be little doubt who is to blame. As one border activist recently told me, these tragedies are death by policy.
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The latest indictment against Donald Trump for conduct growing out of the post-election efforts to retain power reveals what a formidable adversary Trump has collided with in Jack Smith.

The supposed watchword of Smiths investigation from the start has been to treat Trump like any other defendant. Indeed, a chief charge in the indictment - obstruction of an official proceeding - already has been brought against some 300 of the marauders; how could a fair justice system give a pass to the man who spearheaded it?

But this conventional storyline overlooks the several ways in which Smith has acted with careful attention to Trumps qualities and weaknesses. Smith is the very antithesis of a generic prosecutor: he has sussed out his quarry as meticulously as Ahab sussed out the white whale.

As of two weeks ago, the prospect of the former president facing a measure of justice before the November 2024 election was uncertain at best. With the lucky draw of Judge Cannon in the Mar-A-Lago case, Trump looked well positioned to run out the clock until after the presidential race. The upshot would be that voters would go to the polls ignorant of whether a candidate had been found, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have perpetrated dangerous crimes against the democracy.

Watch: Donald Trump's third indictment explained

Enter Jack Smith, who had already been working at near warp speed in the eight months since his appointment. He crafted an indictment that discerns Trumps broader political strategy and looks to neutralize it.

First and foremost, Smiths indictment is built for speed. The most important feature of the charging document is the caption: USA versus Donald Trump, and nothing more. The indictment reveals that there were six co-conspirators for Trumps crimes. It might have been expected that they too would be charged; Smith avoided that path, realizing that notwithstanding its upsides, it would multiply the potential for delay.

We will have an initial schedule at the end of the month after the first hearing before Judge Tanya Chutkan, but the broad consensus, and my surmise, is that Chutkan will set a date for next spring, and - even with normal give in the schedule - it has become likely that the country will hear the jurys verdict well before November 2024.

Second, Smith skillfully anticipated Trumps chief defenses and tacked around them in the indictment. He included a paragraph early in the charging document specifically acknowledging Trumps right to political speech. The conduct he chose to charge carves off the notorious speech on the ellipse. That speech plainly incited much of the melee on January 6, but it also raised nettlesome legal issues of political speech that Smith wisely chose to finesse.

Now, notwithstanding Trump supporters launching a media blitz alleging that the indictment attacks political speech, it is easy to make quick work of the argument given the conduct Smith actually charged, and its unlikely to get purchase in pre-trial motion practice in Judge Chutkans court.

Relatedly, Smith chose not to charge a crime that many were anticipating, namely sedition or seditious conspiracy. The department had already made the decision to pursue that most serious of available charges in the case of the most culpable actors on the ground, such as Stewart Rhodes. In a way, it would be the most condign charge for the treacherous conduct that Trump subjected the country to in real time on January 6.

But Smith wisely calibrated that the charge, which has a checkered history, was more trouble than its worth, and that the conspiracy and obstruction charges would be sufficient retribution for Trumps wicked acts.

Even this weekend, after Trump published an outrageous social message proclaiming, in all caps, if you go after me Im coming after you, Smith did not hesitate to bring it to the attention of the court. That gives him a certain kind of upper hand, because the court can and likely will dress Trump down and warn him of severe consequences should he continue to endanger court personnel and pollute the jury pool.

Smith is no doubt a rule-of-law, by-the-book prosecutor; but to Trumps misfortune, he is more than that: he is a skilled fighter who knows how to analyze his adversarys vulnerabilities. As a consequence, the odds that the country will be able to know the verdict on Trumps alleged crimes before the election has increased dramatically. Whether youre pro, con, or undecided on Trump, that is a good thing for the democratic process.
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Many years after leaving the presidency in disgrace, Richard Nixon spoke to CNN about his time as Dwight Eisenhowers vice president and said that a vice president should consider themselves dispensible and should do what the man wants.

Because otherwise, the mans got to get down there in the ring, Mr Nixon said. Those words resonate when it comes to his successor, Vice President Kamala Harris. Like Mr Nixon, Ms Harris spent only a brief time in the United States Senate before a presidential candidate who was considered an elder statesman picked her to be his vice president.

No vice president has probably struggled more with their image than Ms Harris. But recently, shes assumed one of the more traditional roles of a vice president: the attack dog. Essentially, vice presidents engage in the fights that the president dont to keep the bosss hands clean and to make sure the man doesnt have to get down in the ring.

Most recently, shes picked a fight with Florida Gov Ron DeSantis in response to Floridas new curriculum surrounding Black history. Specifically, shes criticised the fact that the middle school curriculum would teach students that enslaved people developed skills that could be applied for personal benefit.

In response, Ms Harris has decided to take on Mr DeSantis. Friends of The Independents Inside Washington Newsletter at Politicos Playbook reported that last month, she pushed for an impromptu event in Florida to criticise the curriculum there. Similarly, when Mr DeSantis invited Ms Harris to debate the curriculum, she outright rejected the overture, saying, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: there were no redeeming qualities of slavery.

On the surface, the focus might seem a little over zealous. Florida is no longer the swing state it was and while Mr DeSantis is certainly a candidate for president, he has seen his campaign lag ever since he jumped into the race. His campaign has bled staff and failed to raise the money necessary to be a competitor.

But on the other, picking a fight with one of the most prominent conservative governors could show how Ms Harris can go on the offensive. Ever since she assumed office, her office has been mostly reactive, largely due to the fact that Mr Biden gave her the portfolio to handle immigration, something that has always been difficult for Democrats to handle, and voting rights, where her ability to effect change is limited since it would require an act of Congress.

She also suffers from the fact her boss is himself a former vice president and she therefore would always be compared to him. Similarly, Mr Bidens 36 years in the Senate compared to her short four means she often doesnt occupy the typical vice president role of being the presidents chief negotiator on the Hill (indeed, Barack Obama spent as much time in the Senate as Ms Harris and did little to forge relationships even with his own party leaders).

Mr Bidens longstanding relationships with foreign heads of state has also meant that the typical vice presidential role as emissary abroad has been rendered moot. The fact that the Senate was evenly split when Democrats had a trifecta for Mr Bidens first two years meant that Ms Harris always had to be nearby on the Hill to break ties, but there was little evidence this translated into her building the type of strong bonds that could assist her in the future.

As the first Black and Indian woman to inhabit that role, she would naturally face more scrutiny than her predecessors. But her approval ratings have left some Democrats to speculate whether Mr Biden should drop her from the ticket (something it appears that he has never seriously entertained and says more about Washington than it does about the duo).

As a result, people have largely forgotten the fact that during her time as a senator and member of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committee, Ms Harris often asked incisive questions of Trump administration officials and nominees and knew how to put her Republican colleagues on their heels.

Similarly, her skills as a campaigner shone through in the first Democratic primary debate in 2019 when she went after none other than Mr Biden for his friendliness with segregationist senators and his opposition to busing.

In addition, Ms Harriss willingness to criticise Mr DeSantis is also about inspiring confidence that the Biden administration is willing to speak out to defend Black history given that Black voters are one of the most reliable Democratic voting blocs.

To be clear, this alone likely will not salvage Ms Harris and she will need to do plenty more to bolster her image, especially if she is to seek the White House herself one day. But her decision clearly shows she sees this as a path to victory.
Zoom employees are being asked to work on a hybrid basis, with two days a week in the office. Photo: Getty

Zoom Video Communications, one of the companies synonymous with remote working during the Covid pandemic, is asking its employees to return to the office.
Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham has shown his support for Iceland Ireland workers who held a protest in Dublin city centre today claiming they are still owed money after their jobs were lost earlier this summer.
Aer Lingus can no longer order its female staff to wear high heels
People are so afraid they dont come out of their apartments: Residents of complex near where US tourist was attacked living in fear

Killarney Court in Dublins inner city had been protected by regular security patrols until September 2022

Joe Dowling with residents of Killarney Court on Buckingham Street, Dublin 1. Photo: Mark Condren

Sarah Slater Mon 7 Aug 2023 at 03:30






Radio Novas Clint Drieberg has spoken of his pride at becoming an Irish citizen  but also told how he is sick of street crime in Dublin, as he was abused by a group of youths earlier this summer.
It may affect 10pc of Irish women but misdiagnosis and ineffective treatment is rife for those with endometriosis. Actor and nutritional therapy student Lucy Parker Byrne describes her battle with the condition

After over a decade of pain, a flight to Romania has changed my life, and is why I will no longer suffer in silence. One in 10 women: that is how many women suffer with endometriosis, a systemic inflammatory disease characterised by the presence of tissue similar to the lining of the uterus growing outside of the uterus and beyond the reproductive system.
Donald Trump points to the crowd after speaking at the 56th annual Silver Elephant Gala in Columbia on Saturday. Photo: AP

Like the children in a gifted family, all of Donald Trumps indictments excel in different ways. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs prosecution of him for alleged hush money payments is the tawdriest of the lot.
Simon Bourke: First the pubs, now the clubs  soon therell be nowhere to go for a drink
Study has found our ability to adapt to global warming will be seriously impaired if the rate of change is too rapid.

A TEAM of boffins at University College Cork (UCC) has warned the rate at which the Earth approaches critical levels of climate change could be as dangerous as actually reaching those levels themselves.
Wexford & District

Flourishing womens shed in south Wexford creates a new space to call its own

Since its inception in 2015 the Tomhaggard Womens Shed (TWS) has seen its membership grow to almost 50 members. This increase in numbers has led to the creation of An Tigin, the groups new creative workspace and a venue which will accommodate 
Celebrity News

Brit school for the North to open in Bradford following Government approval
The first migrants have arrived on board the Bibby Stockholm barge, which the UK government plans to use to accommodate asylum seekers despite criticism from human rights groups.
The last former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd, did not show any repentance or admit any wrongdoing as he was sentenced today to almost five years in prison.
Ukraine is seeing "significant results" from US and German air defence systems, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, despite waves of Russian air strikes that Kyiv says targeted civilians and residential buildings.
Photo courtesy: Facebook/Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi/IBNS: Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi 's Lok Sabha membership has been restored two days after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction of the opposition leader in the Modi surname case.

A notification, which was issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat on Monday, states Rahul's disqualification as the members stands revoked.

Following the restoration of Rahul's membership, various opposition leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha Floor Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay celebrated with sweets.

Kharge tweeted, "The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad.

"Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders."

The decision to reinstate Shri @RahulGandhi as an MP is a welcome step.



It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad.



Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than pic.twitter.com/kikcZqfFvn  Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) August 7, 2023

SC stays Rahul's conviction

The Supreme Court last Friday 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.

Rahul's 'Modi surname' statement

During the 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign, Rahul had said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname."

A complaint, which was lodged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Purnesh Modi, had claimed Rahul had defamed the entire Modi community.
New Delhi/UNI: Amid opposition uproar and chaos, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar adjourned the House on Monday till 2 PM in the afternoon.

While opposition parties pressed for discussion on the Manipur issue, members from the Treasury benches demanded a discussion on the gangrape in the Congress-ruled state of Rajasthan.

With both sides sticking to their demands, the House proceedings got disrupted.

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha adopted a motion to revoke the suspension of Congress MP Rajani Ashokrao Patil and allow her to attend the ongoing session of Parliament.

The Congress MP had been suspended from the Rajya Sabha during the Budget Session for filming the proceedings of the House.

During the post-lunch hours of Rajya Sabha proceedings, Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to move the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, for discussion and passage.

The controversial Bill seeks to replace the ordinance promulgated by the Centre in May after the Supreme Court granted control of Delhi's bureaucracy to the elected government.

The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023, is also listed for discussion and passage in the Upper House.

Both bills have already been passed by the Lok Sabha.
Indian Envoy Adarsh Swaika meets Kuwait's National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Al-Sadoun to discuss prospects of bilateral relations between the two countries. Photo Courtesy: Adarsh Swaika Twitter page

Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Adarsh Swaika on Sunday met Ahmed Al-Sadoun, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the State of Kuwait, and appraised him of the state and prospects of bilateral relations between the two countries.

"An honour to call on the Speaker of the National Assembly of the State of Kuwait H.E Ahmed Al-Sadoun. Apprised him of the state and prospects of bilateral relations between, including parliamentary cooperation. @MajlesAlOmmah," the Indian envoy wrote on X.

An honour to call on the Speaker of the National Assembly of the State of Kuwait H.E Ahmed Al-Sadoun. Apprised him of the state and prospects of bilateral relations between   , including parliamentary cooperation. @MajlesAlOmmah pic.twitter.com/9IHpyV2hXL  Adarsh Swaika (@AdarshSwaika1) August 6, 2023

He also met Jassim Mustafa Boodai, Gulf Banks Chairman, and discussed possibilities of collaboration with Indian companies.

Pleasure to meet Jassim Mustafa Boodai, Chairman of #Gulf Bank and CEO of #IntegratedlogisticsCo. of Kuwait. Discussed possibilities of collaboration with #Indian companies. Happy to learn about the value addition by Indian workers in the integrated logistics Co. pic.twitter.com/kYRUC4Fkha  Adarsh Swaika (@AdarshSwaika1) August 6, 2023

He wrote: "Pleasure to meet Jassim Mustafa Boodai, Chairman of #Gulf Bank and CEO of #Integratedlogistics Co. of Kuwait. Discussed possibilities of collaboration with #Indian companies. Happy to learn about the value addition by Indian workers in the integrated logistics Co."

The year 2020-21 marked 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries.

Both nations have maintained high-level contacts.
Image: Pixabay

The Indo-European Kashmir Forum (IEKF) UK along with the Hindu Council, UK, recently hosted an event to mark the fourth anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in London on Saturday.

Bashad Assad was one of the guests at the event who is on a visit to London from Kashmir. Assad is a journalist, writer and political activist, reported ANI.

Activist Vijay Sazawal attended the event via Zoom call.

The guests spoke about the improved situation in the valley since the revocation of Article 370. They also mentioned the increase in tourism over there, as well as the improvement in trade and jobs in the region, reported ANI.

On Aug 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government in India scrapped Article 370 and 35A that accorded a special status to the state.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir was acceded to India through the instrument of accession in 1947, under which special status was granted by New Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir, under Article 370.

Article 370 had allowed Jammu and Kashmir to have its own constitution, flag and right to handle its own laws except on matters that impact national security, but it also became an obstacle to development in the region wracked by terrorism sponsored by Pakistan and the rule of political oligarchy.

Islamic terrorism also saw the exodus of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit community from the Valley in 1989-90.

The Modi government also bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories- Jammu and Kashmir with an assembly and Ladakh without an assembly.

The Modi government also scrapped Article 35A, which had allowed the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define permanent residents of the state and also provided special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.
Image: UNI

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday constituted a high-powered committee of retired high court judges to monitor the investigations into the ethnic clashes in Manipur.

A bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud passed the order.

The team of retired High Court Judges includes; Geeta Mittal, Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon to oversee measures for relief, rehabilitation, rebuilding homes, the Apex Court said, in its order.

A detailed order is expected to be uploaded in the Supreme Court website in the evening.

The Apex Court said all adequate security should be provided for the committee headed by Justice (retd) Mittal.

On the investigation of the cases of rape and sexual assault, the top court directed that there shall be five officers of at least Deputy SP rank who will be brought into the CBI from various states, the Top Court said, in its order.

These officers will also be functioning within the four corners of the infrastructure and administrative structure of the CBI, it said.

The State government is handling the situation at a very mature level, and we are keeping a close look at the situation. We are very concerned, the Attorney General (AG), R Venkataramani, the country's top law officer, told the CJI led bench.

The state government told the Apex Court that all 12 FIRs involving crimes against women will go to CBI.

8 SITs of local state police, to be headed by a SP-level officer, will be formed to probe other FIRs. DIG & DGP level officers will supervise these investigation, the government told the Top Court.

The CJI made it clear that we are doing so, to ensure faith, confidence, belief and trust.

The Supreme Court said although the detailed order will come in the evening, but it said that it will constitute a panel of three former High Court judges to look into relief, rehabilitation measures.

Ethnic clashes between Kukis and Meiteis broke out in Manipur on May 3, and have been continuing for the last three months, claiming over 160 lives.

(With UNI inputs)
Image: UNI

Srinagar: Potter Mohammad Umar Kumar is working enthusiastically and tirelessly at his Nishat unit to meet the huge order of 5,000 earthen lamps that would be lit under the initiative Mere Mitti Mera Desh in government offices to celebrate the 75th independence day in Kashmir.

A 27-year-old Kashmiri commerce graduate, Umar worked throughout day and night on his wheel along with his few labourers to meet the deadline of 5,000 clay lamps, the order received a few days ago from authorities to be delivered on August 9.

The Union government has launched the Meri Maati Mera Desh campaign, envisaged as a culminating event of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration of 75 years of Indian Independence, in which soil collected from different parts of the country to develop different kinds of things on the occasion.

This is a good initiative and I am extremely happy to prepare earthen lamps which would be lit to celebrate the 75th Independence Day in various offices and panchayats in Kashmir valley under the Mere Mitti Mera Desh Motive, Umar told UNI.

Umar is a well-known Potter of the valley whose hand-made glazed pots made of clay have been added in the new existing crafts of Jammu and Kashmir by the authorities recently.

Umar had claimed that his glazed pots are more hygienic as compared to the machine-made items from China and America.

His glazed clay made Samovar (a traditional Kashmiri Tea pot) was also showcased in the Art and Craft Bazaar during the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting held from 22nd to 24th May 2023 in Srinagar.

Umar said the Mere Mitti Mera Desh initiative will not only encourage the people of the country to express their love and affection towards the nation but will also enable scores of people to earn their livelihood.

Umar has also made some pieces of clay Tiranga or tricolor on tiles which would be put on the entrance gates of government offices in Srinagar and other parts of the valley during the independence celebrations.

(With UNI Inputs)
Image: Facebook/Satyendra Jain

New Delhi/IBNS/UNI: A Delhi Court, after hearing a request on behalf of Delhi's Former Health Minister Satyendar Jain, adjourned the proceedings in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases till August 26.

During the hearing, a special judge said, "Despite the opposition made by the ED, this court is of the view that the matter is required to be adjourned on any date after 19.08.2023.

"In light of the transfer application filed by A-1 and having regard to the fact that in the predicate offence, the Ld. Principal District & Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge(PC Act) (CBI), RADC, New Delhi has stayed the proceedings till 19.08.2023. In the facts, the matter is adjourned for further proceedings to 26.08.2023."

Counsel on behalf of Satyendar Jain submitted that his transfer application has been adjourned to Aug 19.

Satyendar Jain has moved an application before Presiding Officer Vinay Kumar Gupta, Principal District and Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge(CBI), Rouse Avenue District Court, New Delhi seeking transfer of his case to another judge and the same has been adjourned for Aug19.

Jain had moved an application under section 408 of the Criminal Procedure Code(Cr.P.C.) by seeking the transfer of two cases registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to another judge.

ED has earlier moved an application to transfer the case to another judge. Then The Principal District-cum-Sessions Judge transferred the case from Special Judge Geetanjli Goel to Special Judge Vikas Dhull.

The CBI registered an FIR for disproportionate assets against Jain in 2017.

On the base of CBIs FIR, the Enforcement Directorate registered an ECIR against Jain and accused him of having money laundered through four companies allegedly linked to him and where he was holding shares while amassing disproportionate income.

The Supreme Court, on July 24, extended by five weeks the interim bail granted to Jain on medical grounds in the money laundering case registered by the ED
The fire in her eyes, the pride in her gait, the vivaciousness in her demeanor.

Not a difficult image to conjure; Jugni, running through mustard fields, her dupatta trailing behind her like a queens cloak.

Jugni, laughing her bold boisterous laugh as she rides on the swing on the ancient mango tree in her backyard. Jugni, working as hard as her men in the fields, sweat trickling down her forehead. Jugni; an amalgamation of beauty, pride, and honor

March 8, 1947, saw an unbelievable state of these Jugnis. The Rape of Rawalpindi as it is popularly referred to. Let us start from the beginning; Thoha Khalsa is a village in the Kahuta region of district Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan. This village, till March 1947, was inhabited by flourishing and wealthy Sikh families.

Then, Muslim League demanded the creation of Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of India, mutilating Punjab into two halves. To the horror and dismay of Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab region, Indian leaders Gandhi and Nehru caved into the demand of Pakistan. What followed, as we all are aware, was one of the worst atrocities committed by man against man, but who faced the brunt of this mayhem? Jugni. Woman of Punjab.

There she is. Standing at the ledge of the well at Sardaran di Haveli. Her eyes shining with pride but there is a lurking sense of doom and helplessness too. Many women, Sikhnis, about a hundred, jumped into that well at Lajwantis house that fateful day. Some were even pregnant or with infants in their arms. Dont you think it requires more than courage to do what they, and many others like them, did? And the men? Many of the Sikh men killed their women and children by their own kirpans for the sake of honor. One Sikhni, Sardarni Basant Kaur, lived to tell of the spine-chilling tale. She had jumped into the same well, with her children but like when you put rotis into a tandoor, and if it is too full, the ones near the top, they dont cook. They have to be taken out. So as the well was up to its brim, with bodies; of young women and old, children; both girls and boys, Basant Kaur and her children could not drown. They were pulled out along with the corpses, fortunately or unfortunately, its difficult to fathom, for still she is haunted by the sights she saw and challenges she had to face in days to come.

She recounted those horrific stories for her children.

A new brutality each day. Rawalpindi and the bloody massacre scarred her for life as she remembered how her husband forced his own nephew to kill him because he did not want to become Mussalman.

Her brothers-in-law butchered their own families to save them from dishonor and ultimately set themselves on fire.

An eight-day-old child, an eighty-year-old woman, a man whose knees were swollen, and a girl of eighteen who was pregnant with her first child. All of them died. The Muslims were relentless. They burnt buildings, killed men rampantly, and raped women shamelessly.

Basant Kaur tells of a girl, fifteen years old, who ate opium and died. On the streets. The dogs ate her remains.

There was nothing left of her to even perform her last rites. Basants own parents, above sixty years of age, were doused with kerosene and set aflame, in the middle of the street, by Muslim mobs.

Her sisters daughters were abducted, one of them was very beautiful, she remembers. But they were never heard of again. The sister herself pleaded with her father-in-law to behead her, which he did.

Twenty-six girls and women were likewise beheaded that spring, in the village of Thoha Khalsa, all at the hands of their fathers, brothers, and sons or close relatives. Amongst the chanting of ardaas, the men asking for forgiveness for their actions as their women were martyred.

Undoubtedly, both men and women were victimized and both genders were killed. But life Somehow survives. Just like Sardarni Basant Kaur, Prithpal Singh (who was 11 years old at that time) and Raj Bahadur Singh (16 years old then), still vividly recall that bloody spring, 75 years ago.

They retell similar tales of mass suicides and honor killings. Prithpal himself, could not drown in a well and lives to tell stories of at least 200 brave Sikhs who died fighting for valor.

On the 12th and 13th of March, similar, atrocities were witnessed at Choha Khalsa village. Where a Sikh man, Dalip Singh, shot all women in his family and got himself killed, attacking a mob in the local gurudwara. At least 150 Sikhs died in this incident.

The accounts of these genuine tragedies inflicted upon thousands of people who were branded as refugees overnight, cannot be overlooked. The ones who lived had demons of their own to fight. Nevertheless, it was the women who carried the burden of honor of their families.

Their sacrifices are painted in gilded letters of glory, but in retrospect, this mass suicide brings an imperative thought to mind. Was the line between choice and coercion blurred? Was it due to a patriarchal consensus imposed upon them? Did they deem their honor towards their community more valuable than their life?

These questions are certainly difficult to answer because most stories are not even properly documented! All we have are a bunch of memoirs of survivors, mostly men who remember these sacrifices of their women with great pride. To the extent of being unaware of their actual feelings.

We, the women of todays generation, assent to call ourselves feminists. This heart-wrenching gender genocide at Thoha Khalsa manifests gendered violence. It brutally demonstrates how a womans sexuality threatens all norms of patriarchy. However, even as a feminist I would not say that all women were forced to commit suicide. Those women might have wanted to commit Suicide! Because, remember, its Jugni we talk about. Jugni, as fearless in death as she is in life. Jugni is the epitome of courage and pride. Jugni makes her own decisions.

The real fear was one of dishonor. If they had been caught by the Muslims, our honor, their honor, would have been sacrificed, lost. Its a question. of ones honor if you have pride, you do not fear.

(Image and text courtesy: Khalsavox.com)
Image Courtesy: Xinhua/UNI

On July 31, 2023, the Taliban detained three journalists  Najib Faryad from Ariana News, and two local journalists, Hatef Aryan and Sebghatullah Turan  in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of Balkh Province. Till the time of writing, local Taliban officials in the province had not provided any official statement regarding this incident.

On July 12, 2023, Radio Safa reporter Irfanullah Bidar was arrested by the Talibans General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) from Jalalabad, Nangarhar province.

On June 18, 2023, journalist Reza Shahir was arrested by the Taliban as he crossed the border from Iran into Afghanistan in Zabul District. After his arrest, he was taken to an unknown location, where he was interrogated and tortured. It remains unclear whether Shahir was released or if he escaped in the night of June 19. Shahir, a reporter with Rah-e-Farda TV, left Afghanistan at the start of Taliban control in August 2021, taking refuge in Iran.

On May 9, 2023, the Taliban detained four journalists (names not available) in Khost Province. While one was from Gharghesht Television Network, the other three (one each) were from three different private local radio stations, Chinar, Wolus Ghazh (Peoples Voice) and Nan (Today).

On April 6, 2023, the Taliban arrested three journalists  Gholam-Ali Wahdat, from the Tanwir television network; Safiullah Wafa and Noor-Agha from Radio Television Afghanistan  from their respective homes in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital city of Baghlan Province.

On January 7, 2023, Mortaza Behboudi, a French-American journalist was arrested by the Taliban in Kabul.

According to partial data collated by Institute for Conflict Management, since August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, at least 12 journalists have been arrested in seven incidents (data till August 6, 2023).

However, a May 2, 2023, Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC) report claimed that 70 journalists  of which at least two reporters (Murtaza Behbudi and Khairullah Parhar) are still in Taliban custody  had been arrested just since the previous World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2022. The report added that the findings of AFJC indicate that, during this period, at least 213 incidents of violence, threats, and detention of journalists had been recorded in the country.

Apart from frequent arrest and detention of journalists on March 12, 2023, three persons were killed and 30 were injured in an Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP) orchestrated bomb blast carried out during a ceremony to honour journalists at the Tebyan Cultural Center in Police District2 of Mazar-e-Sharif, capital city of Balkh Province.

In the almost two years since the Talibans return to power in August 2021, journalists, reporters, and media personnel have experienced a dramatic increase in arrests, harassment, and coercion, especially stemming directly from Taliban forces or the GDI.

Commenting on the present situation on July 25, 2023, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) observed,

The all too common disappearances, arrests, and attacks suffered by media workers under Taliban rule continue to quash press freedom and create a highly dangerous environment for journalists doing their jobs. The IFJ condemns Irfanullah Bidar's detention and urges the Taliban to release all jailed journalists and cease its intimidation of Afghanistan's media.

Apart from individual journalist, media outlets as a whole have also been targeted. As reported by BBC on March 21, 2023, Afghan media have faced multiple difficulties since the Taliban's return to power. Outlets have endured severe restrictions, an economic crisis and waning Western support. There is growing self-censorship and editorial appeasement of the Taliban. Freedom of expression has largely disappeared. More than 300 media outlets have closed and many journalists and media activists have left the country. The AFJC report of May 2, 2023, also claimed that roughly half of 600 media outlets have ceased operation due to restrictions imposed by the ruling regime as well as economic problems.

The Paris-based, Reporters Without Borders stated on May 3, 2023,

The fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 radically changed the media landscape. In the space of three months, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Of the 10,780 people working in Afghan newsrooms (8,290 men and 2,490 women) at the beginning of August, only 4,360 were still working in December (3,950 men and 410 women), or four out of ten journalists.

It is pertinent to recall here that, on November 21, 2021, just a few months after coming to power, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) Zabihullah Mujahid had declared that all media outlets must observe Islamic values. The media outlets have the status of a tribune and should work to enlighten the public and the new generation, Zabihullah Mujahid asserted, at a joint meeting of the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Ministry of Ethics. Then, in July, 2022, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada went further, warning reporters that they would be punished for defaming government officials.

The insecurity and safety anxieties that have defined the Talibans control over Afghanistan have resulted in a growing Afghan journalist exodus, with hundreds escaping into neighbouring Iran, Pakistan or beyond, undermining the media's capacity to articulate public opinion and important coverage, particularly in newspapers, on various Taliban activities. The Taliban want to suppress the voice of reason and, in doing so, target the media, creating enormous pressure on journalists and media organisations.

The Taliban has issued various directives for journalists at provincial levels as well. For instance, on July 15, 2023, local media officials and journalists revealed that, in the Badghis Province, the Taliban had prohibited them from reporting on suicide attacks and targeted killings in the province, though the number of such incidents continued to rise. Journalists are only allowed to cover events if accompanied by Taliban officials, and reporting on such incidents requires Taliban approval, they added. Earlier, on February 20, 2023, a decree issued by Mufti Muhammad Edris Anwari, the Talibans deputy-governor in Parwan, stated that all media outlets must publish content approved by the Bakhtar News Agency. Also, on December 8, 2022, following a gathering organised between the government and media in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province, the officials imposed further restrictions on media outlets, instead of introducing a comprehensive roadmap.

We have experienced limitations on media after the takeover of the current regime. Unfortunately, these restrictions will further push the media to the margin, said Khawja Abdul Baseer Abid, head of a private media outlet in Balkh Province.

Women have suffered most in the carnage inflicted on Afghan journalism and have disappeared completely from the media landscape in 11 of Afghanistans 34 provinces  Badghis, Daikundi, Ghazni, Nimroz, Zabul, Nuristan, Paktika, Wardak, Paktia, Samangan and Helmand. Allegations of immorality or conduct contrary to societys values are widely used as excuses for harassing women journalists and sending them home. This fundamentalist worldview in the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistans official discourse resulted in women TV presenters being made to cover their faces while on camera. A December 2021 report, In Their Own Words: Afghan Women Journalist Speaks, from the IFJ, found that 95 per cent of Afghan women journalists had become unemployed.

As expected, the overall crackdown on the media means that some of Afghanistans most important stories are going unreported and its citizens are left uninformed. For example, issues like womens rights, brutal use of force against people not obeying strict Sharia rules, food shortages, and school curriculums being overhauled by the Taliban, are either not reported or reported in a muted manner under Taliban dictates.

Social media is also not safe from Taliban control. As the Taliban has grown more tech-savvy, social media accounts are also regularly monitored. The Talibans GDI has monitored influential social media accounts and has detained individuals for posting criticism online. For instance, on February 12, 2023, Taliban arrested social media influencer Imran Ahmadzai from Kabul. Earlier on June 5, 2022, Taliban arrested an Afghan model and social media influencer, Ajmal Haqiqi, for allegedly "insulting Islamic sacred value" as the model, along with three others, had reportedly used the verses of Quran in a "humorous manner" in a video.

The Taliban is not only stifling media houses, but every independent voice coming out of Afghanistan. The voices of resistance, reason, protest and independence are violently crushed and silenced by the regime, especially by GDI. The courage of the common man is being challenged daily in a long drawn battle between the Talibans Islamist repression and the freedom of the Afghan citizen.
Photo courtesy: Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Actor Saswata Chatterjee reprises his role as Inspector Animesh Dutta in Raj Chakraborty's debut web series 'Abar Proloy', a spin-off of the filmmaker's 2013 film 'Proloy'. In an interaction with IBNS correspondent Souvik Ghosh, Saswata Chatterjee speaks on the Zee5 series, his recent success in Mumbai and more...

Q. How much did Animesh Dutta (Saswata Chatterjee's character) grow louder in action in 'Abar Proloy'?

A. The trailer is reflecting just two percent of what Animesh Dutta did in the series. The rest 98 percent of his actions can entirely be felt only when the series starts streaming online.

Q. Did you discuss the need for a sequel to 'Proloy' with Raj Chakraborty over the last 10 years?

A. Yes, we have been discussing it since 'Proloy' was released. We were thinking of the sequel seriously because the audience was craving for it. But somehow, we were not able to make it. Makers were not agreeing to invest on such a huge Bengali project. I would like to thank Zee5 for making the project. Both me and Raj are aware that there were a lot of people who did not want the project to be made. That's all I can say.

(From L to R) Raj Chakraborty, Subhashree Ganguly and Saswata Chatterjee | Photo courtesy: Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Q. Tell us about the risk factors during the shooting.

A. Risk factors are always there in a shooting. But our Fight Master was from the south (South Indian film industry) so we got considerable support from him as he was familiar with such stunts. We all were anxious too. Though we got the support, the risk factor was always there.

Q. Recently in an interview, you stressed on the importance of workshops before shooting.

A. As far as I know, Raj had conducted workshops for the young batch (in 'Abar Proloy'). Even for Ritwick (Ritwick Chakraborty) and Gaurav (Gaurav Chakraborty), who had different kinds of dialogues in the series, workshops or rehearsals for days were conducted. The audience has never seen Ritwick or Koushani (Koushani Mukherjee) or Gaurav in this manner ever.

Q. You have been highly appreciated for your work in two recent web series 'The Night Manager' and 'Toothpari'!

A. I am just trying to utilise the opportunities I am being offered. I thank the makers entirely for believing in me. I can't speak enough for Anil Kapoor (who played one of the leads in 'The Night Manager'). I haven't come across too many people like him. After every scene, he (Anil Kapoor) would say 'You acted better than me, I will get it edited' (laughs). But he used to applaud after my scenes and none was edited. I am fortunate to work with someone like him. My scenes could have been edited if I had worked with someone else, it was very much possible.

Saswata Chatterjee | Photo courtesy: Avishek Mitra/IBNS

Q. You are also gearing up for 'Project K'.

A. 'Project K' is huge. The film is being shot for three years. Its unimaginable! As far as I know, the film is being made with a budget of around Rs. 700-800 crore. Money and time do not matter for them (the makers) until they achieve perfection.

Q. You were offered Tota Roy Choudhurys character initially in 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani' but you turned it down due to a dance scene. Do you regret it now?

A. I haven't watched the film yet. But of course, turning down Karan Johar's film will always remain as the biggest regret of my life. But I feel communicating to the makers about my inabilities is more important than choosing a project and failing.

(Photo courtesy: Avishek Mitra/IBNS)
Photo courtesy: Facebook/Jeet

Bengal's film industry is on the cusp of a cinematic revolution, and the upcoming film of Jeetz Filmworks Private Limited, 'Boomerang' starring superstar Jeet and Rukmini has cemented its place as one of the most significant initiatives in the history of Bengali cinema.

The film is directed by the visionary filmmaker Sauvik Kundu, who has set new industry standards with the groundbreaking use of Cinebot technology and a futuristic bike, making the audience wait for a mesmerizing cinematic experience like never before.

This is for the very first time that Jeet who has been hailing the Industry for the last two decades, incorporated the idea of using the Cinebot technology along with stunning special effects.

With the Cinnebot's fluid movements, the audience is transported into the heart of the action, feeling every pulse-pounding moment as if they were right there alongside the characters. Even while shooting the characters have to be in sync as its a high-powered technology with the elements of speed.

Not only that but also Jeetz Filmworks has added another layer of excitement in the film which is a futuristic bike.

Designed by brilliant minds, this cutting-edge two-wheeler showcases never-before-seen technology and sleek aesthetics that fit perfectly into the film's narrative. With its mind-bending capabilities, not only does the bike become more than just a mode of transport but also it becomes an integral part of the storyline.

Talking about this introduction of these new technologies for the first time in the Bengali Film Industry Jeet says, In the first moving world, it's always a pleasure to bring in something new for the audience and I am glad that we could do this. By showing a unique futuristic superbike that is completely custom made, and entirely designed for this film, and also a Cinebot camera that is used for the first time in the Bengali Film industry for some special cinematic experience that we thoroughly enjoyed while filming. I am sure this different cinematic experience will be a treat to the viewers."

Rukmini said, This is the first time ever the audiences are going to see a superbike on Bengali celluloid. It's the coolest thing I have seen in a long time on a movie set. Also, the fact that it's a lot more than what meets the eye, which the audience will witness once Boomerang releases

Commenting on the use of Cinebot, director Sauvik Kundu stated: "Cinebots are already used in films for a long period of time but it was never used in a Bengali film before. This is the very first time we are using this. Due to some technical upgrades which are increasing gradually, it's difficult to shoot with other film equipment. As the film is a Sci-Fi genre, there were a lot of difficult mise en scenes including a lot of characters, movements, and choreography and thats where Cinebot came in handy.

"We can calculate and programme the direction of the camera by assigning the focal length as well. There were a lot of challenges as we used it for the very first time but till now this modern equipment has made our life easier. And also for the very first time we have designed a futuristic bike that you have never seen before and I believe that it will particularly keep the audiences hooked."

Speaking about the action sequences, fight master Ravi Verma said, I have worked with Jeet before but this time the experience is a bit different as we are using the CineBot here and that too for the very first time in the Bengali film industry. As it's a robotic camera device, everything works on a timeline.

"In this given timeline we have to synchronize every shot which was a challenge. Also in my 27-year career, I did a lot of robot movies but for the very first time in Indian cinema, I am working with a futuristic flying superbike. The shots which we already did on this bike worked really well but to shoot with the bike was equally challenging."

Kharaj Mukherjee says, "In this film, I am playing a unique character which has the element of being a bit funny and notorious but still it will give you a twist. To portray this role I have to go through a lot of look tests and it turned out to be an interesting one. Also, I have added some flavours in the Bengali vocabulary while delivering the dialogues and to witness this you have to wait till the film releases."
Photo Courtesy: UNI

Rome:At least two people died and more than 30 went missing near the Italian island of Lampedusa after two ships carrying asylum seekers capsized in rough seas, a police official said Sunday.

At least 57 people were saved after the ships went down amid high waves around 43 km southwest of Lampedusa between late Saturday and early Sunday local time.

According to local media, the ships departed from Tunisia. The bodies of an 18-month-old child and a woman were recovered.

"These are tragic events that should have never happened," said Emanuele Ricifari, the official in charge of public safety in Agrigento, Sicily. "The death toll will rise ... whoever forced these people to leave shore under these conditions is a lunatic."

Ricifari told Xinhua that the rough seas damaging the two vessels were also challenging the authorities' search efforts. As the difficult weather is expected to continue over the next several days, it was unlikely to find more survivors, he said.

Separate from the two shipwrecks, 34 migrants who had been stranded for 36 hours on a steep cliffside in Lampedusa were rescued on Sunday. A ship carrying those migrants crashed into rocks just off the shore between Friday night and Saturday morning, so the migrants were forced onto the cliffs to avoid drowning.

After Air Force and firefighter brigades airlifted them to safety via helicopter on Sunday, three of them were taken to a hospital for treatment. Local media reported that none of them were seriously injured.

Media reports said that as of Sunday, more than 2,400 people were crammed into a migrant shelter in Lampedusa that is designed to house only 400. Bad weather has made many migrants' transfers to the Italian mainland impossible.

According to Italy's Ministry of Interior, nearly 92,000 refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond had landed on Italian shores so far this year, more than doubling the nearly 43,000 refugees landing in the country during the same period last year and three times the figure of 2021.

Historically, July and August are the most common months for migrant arrivals via the central Mediterranean route.

(With UNI inputs)
Image: Pixabay

Manila: Three policemen were wounded in a shooting incident inside a police station in the Philippine capital shortly before noon on Monday, the local media reported.

The media report said a policeman started shooting after a heated argument with a colleague inside the police station in Taguig City in Metro Manila.

Three were reportedly injured in the incident.

A video on social media showed frantic police officers carrying an unconscious male police officer to a police car.

The Philippine National Police has yet to issue an official statement on the incident.

(With UNI inputs)
Image: Pixabay

Kabul: A number of foreigners, including US citizens, have been detained in Afghanistan for various reasons, including "security issues," Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the country's administration installed by Taliban (under UN sanctions over terrorism) said.

Mujahid did not clarify the exact number of the detained, but said that the decision about the detainees will be made by the country's interim government and that they will be released if proven not guilty.

"The people who are [suspected] of being involved in security issues or issues which are against our law, and law of living in Afghanistan, have been detained. We investigate and see how many of them were criminals. If they were not proven criminals, they will be released but if they are criminals, then we will seek a solution," the spokesman said in an interview with Afghanistan's TOLOnews TV channel on Sunday.

The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, toppling the US-backed government as foreign troops were leaving the country.

In September of that year, the group formed a new government led by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, who served as foreign minister during the previous period of Taliban rule and has been under UN sanctions since 2001.

(With UNI inputs)
Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

At least one policeman died and two others were hurt as suspected terrorists targeted them in Pakistan's Peshawar city on Monday.

Constable Yar Muhammad suffered critical injuries along with two other policemen when unidentified armed men attacked their van, reports Geo News.

Muhammad later succumbed to his injuries.

No group has taken responsibility for the incident.

Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is located close to the Afghanistan border, is witnessing a surge in terror attacks after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with Islamabad.
In the original movie, Sunny Deol pulled a handpump out of the ground in Pakistan to fight the villains. Gadar wasn't a superhero movie. However, this was for sure a superhero movie, don't you all agree?

Sunny Deol agrees too, and that is perhaps why he compared his character Tara Singh with Marvel superheroes Hulk and Superman.

Tara Singh is Hulk

Twitter

"Tara Singh is our Hulk, Superman. Every man wants to watch Hulk and Superman. He believes that (the hero) on screen will set things right. Like there are Marvel Comics, here is Tara Singh. You don't draw these powers from working out. These are emotional powers," Deol was quoted as saying by PTI.

AFP

Citing the example of the famous 'Hindustan Zindabad' sequence from Gadar, the actor said when a character is faced with a difficult choice, "god" comes on screen to show the way. "Then, you move ahead. That is the superpower of honesty, earnestness, and simplicity. That's what superheroes are all about," he added.

Indiatimes

Furthermore, talking about his upcoming film Gadar 2, a sequel of the 2001 movie, Anil Sharma, who also helmed the original, revealed he shot for '500 bomb blast sequences'.

500 bomb blast sequences in Gadar 2

"We have maintained the piousness of Gadar in Gadar 2. We have shot 90 percent of the action in real. It gave us rawness. We shot around 500 bomb blast sequences. We have used minimal visual effects in the film," the director said.



AFP

Deol, who completed 40 years in cinema on Saturday, said he doesn't believe in preparing for a role as acting is an art. "It is in your genes or you have it. You can enhance it through technique but you can't become an actor by doing bodybuilding or dancing. Every person has all kinds of emotions. As actors, we are blessed when a character comes to us, so we are able to present those emotions outside. That's when it feels real," said the 66-year-old, who made his debut with 1983's Betaab.



Also starring Ameesha Patel and Utkarsh Sharma, the sequel is set in 1971 about 17 years after the events of Gadar.



For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.


The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Movement, was a significant civil disobedience movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress in August 1942 with the aim to end British colonial rule in India.

The year 2023 marks the 81st anniversary of the Quit India movement. In this article, we delve into the historical backdrop, and the significance of the Quit India Movement, and delve into lesser-known yet fascinating facts surrounding this momentous chapter.



Quit India Movement Day 2023 Overview

Event Quit India Movement Day, August Movement or August Kranti, or Bharat Chhodo Andolan Quit India Movement start date August 8, 1942 Place August Kranti Maidan in Bombay (now called Mumbai) When Quit India Movement end? in 1944 When observed in 2023? Tuesday, August 8, 2023 Purpose The event is observed annually to pay tribute to the efforts and dedication of freedom fighters of India who participated in the Quit India Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942.

Quit India Movement Day is observed annually on August 8th. In 2023, Quit India Movement Day will observed be on Tuesday, August 8th. Quit India Movement Day is a day to remember the sacrifices made by the Indian people in their fight for independence.

Quit India Movement Day date from 2023 to 2028

Event Date Day Quit India Movement Day 2023

8 August 2023 Quit India Movement Day 2024

8 August 2024 Quit India Movement Day 2025

8 August 2025 Quit India Movement Day 2026

8 August 2026 Quit India Movement Day 2027

8 August 2027

History of the Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement, also known as the Bharat Chodo Andolan, 'August Movement', or 'August Kranti', unfolded during the height of World War II on August 8, 1942. The movement was launched by the Indian National Congress (INC) at Gowalia Tank Maidan also known as August Kranti Maidan in Bombay (now called Mumbai) Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, India embarked on a journey of civil disobedience against the British colonial rule.

The movement called for "an orderly British withdrawal" from India, and its slogan was "Do or Die." Gandhi's call for the British to "Quit India" and leave the governance of the country to Indians gained massive support from across the country. However, the British colonial government responded with a swift crackdown and started 'Operation Zero Hour' to arrest the leaders of the Quit India Movement and arrested many Congress leaders and activists, and also all the Congress's offices across the country were raided. According to serval reports, about 100,000 people were arrested and imprisoned for long periods of time, around 1000 people were killed, and over 2,500 reported injuries during the Quit India Movement.

The outcome of the Quit India Movement was a mix of immediate repression and long-term impact. The British authorities quickly suppressed the movement, imprisoning leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and other prominent Congress members. The movement's violent suppression resulted in numerous deaths and arrests.

After the long struggle, the Quit India Movement played a very crucial role in accelerating the process of India's freedom. It signaled a growing sense of unity and determination among Indians to free themselves from British rule. The movement also contributed to the weakening of the British Empire's hold on India, as well as highlighting the need for a post-war reevaluation of colonial policies.

The end of World War II in 1945 and the subsequent political changes on the global stage further hastened the decolonisation process. The Quit India Movement's resilience and the sacrifices made by freedom fighters added to the momentum of the broader Indian freedom struggle, eventually leading to India's independence on August 15, 1947.

Significance of the Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement also called the 'August Movement' or 'August Kranti' played a crucial role in India's struggle for independence, representing a turning point in the nation's history. This movement was a declaration of India's unwavering determination to an immediate end to British rule in India and for the British to "Quit India." It sparked widespread civil disobedience, non-cooperation, and acts of defiance against British authorities. The movement saw a mass mobilisation of Indians from all walks of life across the country, in the fight for independence, which culminated in the nation's independence on August 15, 1947.

The Quit India Movement did not achieve its immediate goal of forcing the British to leave India. However, it did have a significant impact on the course of India's independence struggle. The movement helped to galvanize Indian public opinion in favor of independence, and it showed the British that the Indian people were determined to achieve their freedom.

The Quit India Movement was a significant and watershed moment in the struggle for freedom from British colonialism and it had a lasting impact on Indian politics and society.

Here are some of the key significances of the Quit India Movement:

- The Movement united the Indian people in their fight against British rule.

- The Movement showed the British that the Indian people were determined to achieve their freedom.

- The Movement led to the emergence of a new generation of leaders who would go on to play a key role in India's independence.

- The Movement helped to galvanize Indian public opinion in favor of independence.

- The Movement showed growing discontent and impatience with British promises of self-rule.

- The movement inspired a sense of national unity and played a crucial role in India's path to independence.

Unveiling Lesser-Known Facts about Quit India Movement

1. Gandhi's Call for Quit India

On August 8, 1942, During the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee (INC), Mahatma Gandhi delivered his famous "Do or Die" speech, setting the stage for the Quit India Movement. His words galvanised the entire nation, encouraging them to rise up against British colonial oppression.

2. Massive Civil Disobedience

The movement saw widespread participation across the country from students, laborers, farmers, and professionals, all of whom protested through peaceful means. The people of India united under a common goal, proving the potency of nonviolent resistance.

3. Repression and Sacrifice

The British colonial authorities responded with brutal force, arresting thousands of protestors, including prominent leaders like Gandhi himself. Many activists were subjected to inhumane treatment and torture. The sacrifices made during this movement serve as a poignant reminder of the lengths people were willing to go for freedom.

4. Role of Women

Women played a vital role in the Quit India Movement, displaying immense courage and leadership. The movement's emphasis on nonviolence and inclusivity allowed women to participate actively, fostering a more equitable society in the process.

5. Global Impact

The Quit India Movement resonated beyond India's borders, garnering international attention and support. It highlighted the moral bankruptcy of colonialism and bolstered the global movement against oppression and imperialism.

6. Educational and Cultural Upliftment

The movement emphasized the importance of education and culture in shaping the nation's identity. Several educational institutions and cultural centers were established during this period to promote Indian heritage and values.

Quit India Movement Day 2023: Mahatma Gandhi's speech that altered Indian history

We at Indiatimes share with you, with the utmost respect, the words of the Mahatma which still inspire us to 'do all that we can for our country'. This is the speech that made it clear to every Indian that it was now or never; it was 'Do or Die'.

"Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.

Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances.

Occasions like the present do not occur in everybodys and but rarely in anybodys life. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. The draft resolution of the Working Committee is based on Ahimsa, the contemplated struggle similarly has its roots in Ahimsa. If, therefore, there is any among you who has lost faith in Ahimsa or is wearied of it, let him not vote for this resolution. Let me explain my position clearly. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance, I failed to make use of the God given talent, God will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift. I must act now. I may not hesitate and merely look on, when Russia and China are threatened.

Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for Indias independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country. The Congress is unconcerned as to who will rule, when freedom is attained. The power, when it comes, will belong to the people of India, and it will be for them to decide to whom it placed in the entrusted. May be that the reins will be placed in the hands of the Parsis, for instance-as I would love to see happen-or they may be handed to some others whose names are not heard in the Congress today. It will not be for you then to object saying, This community is microscopic. That party did not play its due part in the freedoms struggle; why should it have all the power? Ever since its inception the Congress has kept itself meticulously free of the communal taint. It has thought always in terms of the whole nation and has acted accordingly. . . I know how imperfect our Ahimsa is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Ahimsa there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years.

I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyles French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of yourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence.

Then, there is the question of your attitude towards the British. I have noticed that there is hatred towards the British among the people. The people say they are disgusted with their behaviour. The people make no distinction between British imperialism and the British people. To them, the two are one. This hatred would even make them welcome the Japanese. It is most dangerous. It means that they will exchange one slavery for another. We must get rid of this feeling. Our quarrel is not with the British people, we fight their imperialism. The proposal for the withdrawal of British power did not come out of anger. It came to enable India to play its due part at the present critical juncture It is not a happy position for a big country like India to be merely helping with money and material obtained willy-nilly from her while the United Nations are conducting the war. We cannot evoke the true spirit of sacrifice and velour, so long as we are not free. I know the British Government will not be able to withhold freedom from us, when we have made enough self-sacrifice. We must, therefore, purge ourselves of hatred. Speaking for myself, I can say that I have never felt any hatred. As a matter of fact, I feel myself to be a greater friend of the British now than ever before. One reason is that they are today in distress. My very friendship, therefore, demands that I should try to save them from their mistakes. As I view the situation, they are on the brink of an abyss. It, therefore, becomes my duty to warn them of their danger even though it may, for the time being, anger them to the point of cutting off the friendly hand that is stretched out to help them. People may laugh, nevertheless that is my claim. At a time when I may have to launch the biggest struggle of my life, I may not harbor hatred against anybody."

The Quit India Movement of 1942 stands as a beacon of hope, courage, and unity in India's journey toward independence. Its echoes continue to reverberate in modern India, inspiring generations to uphold the principles of freedom, justice, and equality. As we commemorate the 2023 anniversary of this historic event, let us remember the sacrifices of those who fought for our nation's liberation and strive to uphold their legacy.



For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events


In a surprising change of events, the Darien Gap, the inhospitable and impenetrable jungle region separating Panama and Colombia, has seen an increase in human crossings, reaching an all-time high. As officials confirm the astonishing figures, concerns about migration and humanitarian issues grow.



According to Maria Isabel Saravia, deputy head of Panama's migration office, the already-high number of crossings in 2022 was surpassed. According to her, last year was "unprecedented," with 248,284 individuals passing through the Darien National Park.



As the year progresses, 2023 is exceeding that figure. "With today's and yesterday's crossings of 1,869 people, there have been 248,901 crossings," Saravia announced Monday.

Unprecedented Human Migration: Darien Gap Registers Historic Number Of Crossings

Instagram/the_eye_of_spiral_

As per the authorities, over 20% of those attempting the perilous journey are youngsters and teenagers. "At least 51% of those in that age group are children aged five or younger." We exceeded last year's total, as the numbers (...) predicted. "In terms of crossings, the last three years have been significantly higher than the previous 11 years," Saravia remarked.



Instagram/vidademochila

According to her, most of those crossing are Venezuelans and Haitians, followed by Colombians, Ecuadorians, and migrants from outside the continent. The 66-mile (106-kilometre) trek across the Darien Gap and is a critical route for people wanting to reach the United States and Canada.



Many individuals are migrating north due to mass migration across the Western Hemisphere. However, despite officials' warnings that a surge in illegal migration across the US southern border would accompany the May expiration of a Trump-era border restriction. Which had been used to turn back migrants at the US-Mexico border during the pandemic, the number of daily encounters along the US border remained low in June.

Credit: Reuters

"As a result of planning and execution - which combined stiffer consequences for unlawful entry with a historic expansion of lawful pathways and processes - unlawful entries between ports of entry along the South-west Border have decreased by more than 70 percent since May 11," the Department of Homeland Security said in a June news release.



What Is Darien Gap?

The Darien Gap is a dense and remote tropical rainforest region between Panama's east and Colombia's west. It reaches around 100 miles (160 kilometres) and is a natural barrier that cuts through the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Alaska to Argentina.

This region is distinguished by its rugged topography, harsh mountains, bogs, and rivers, making it nearly impassable by road. As a result, it leaves a significant gap in the highway network, giving rise to the term "Darien Gap." Because of a lack of infrastructure and transportation links, this area is one of the few remaining areas in the Americas that has escaped chiefly human development.

The Darien Gap has earned a reputation as a complex and dangerous passage for migrants seeking to cross from South America to North America or vice versa. Many migrants and asylum seekers from South and Central America, Africa, and Asia try to cross this hostile territory on their way to the United States in search of better chances or refuge.

Instagram/vidademochila

The trek is fraught with dangers, such as exposure to extreme environmental conditions, wildlife threats, and criminal networks that exploit and threaten migrants.



Authorities and humanitarian organisations have expressed concern about the risks posed by this migratory route, and attempts are being undertaken to overcome the difficulties encountered by people attempting to traverse the Darien Gap.

What do you think about it? Do let us know in the comments.

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has returned to shareholders over 1 billion dollars, from 2021 to date . The companys CEO Petros Pappas noted that the company announced a net profit of 44.3

Star Bulk Carriers: One billion dollars in dividends from 2021 -  
Some notorious bandit leaders in the northwest region of the country particularly Katsina and Zamfara states have reportedly appealed to the government to give them amnesty.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that this came, following continuous bomb strikes on their locations and hideouts by men of the Nigerian Airforce (NAF) which have continued to kill their men, families, animals and destroy their belongings.

It was gathered that the bandit kingpins who said they regret their criminal actions, sent delegations to a meeting held at Gusami Village in Birnin Magaji Local Government Area in Zamfara where the request was made.

According to intelligence sources quoted by PR Nigeria, some of the kingpins and their representatives including Usman Ruga Kachallah, Alaji Shingi, Lauwali Dumbulu, Shehu Bagiwaye, Sehu Karmuwal, and Jarmi Danda were present at the meeting.

At the meeting, they offered to embrace peace and surrender their weapons to the government.

The source said: They met towards uniting their forces and opt for peace with the government after suffering major casualties from military attacks. They promised to surrender their weapons for a peace deal.

READ MORE: Troops Neutralize Bandits Attack, Destroy Camps In Zamfara, Sokoto,

They also expressed their regret that while they are ready to embrace peace with the new administrations in their respective states, their morale has been dampened by the continuous attacks from the Nigerian Airforce that targeted their homes, families, animals and storages.

Meanwhile, the bandit leaders are pleading not to surrender all their weapons but to keep some for self-defense for fear of being attacked by other bandit leaders in parts of Zamfara, Sokoto and border areas with Niger Republic.

They also requested that officials of recognized and registered Fulani groups, like the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) can be involved in brokering the peace process and the Amnesty Programme.
Popular Biafra agitator and separatist, Simon Ekpa has assured Niger Republic of Biafras support if Nigeria explores military intervention to remove coupists in the country.

He also backed the military juntas in Niger Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso.

He said Biafra would support the juntas if the Nigerian military intervenes, as being considered by West African leaders.

Ekpa, the Finland-based lawyer and leader of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, disclosed this on Monday in a video on his verified Twitter handle.

READ ALSO: Wait For My Announcement, Well Continue Observing Civic Disobedience  Ekpa Dismisses IPOBs Economic Empowerment Day

His reaction is coming on the heels of the current regional tension in the West African regional bloc owing to the military takeover of the Niger Republic last month.

Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last week, sought the approval of the Senate to implement resolutions earlier reached by the Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, in a bid to restore normalcy in Niger.

Part of the resolution was to take military action against the country if the junta failed to back down within seven days. The seven days ultimatum, however, elapsed on Sunday.

Ekpa, in reaction to the ECOWAS threat, said Biafra is solidly behind the Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso juntas.

I want to start by encouraging the presidents of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Niger Republic.

I want them to understand that the wave of freedom in Africa, especially West Africa, must continue. We want to let them know that Biafra is behind them.

We are fighting the economic freedom and the complete freedom of our people. Should Nigeria lead a military invasion of the Niger Republic, Biafra will stand by them.

Over 70 million Biafra is standing behind any nations that want to free themselves from modern-day colonialism, he said.

Watch video below:
Over 12 million girls across the world, have their education truncated annually, due to early marriage, a report by the World Bank has disclosed.

The report, titled Deliver the future: Catalyzing opportunities for women, children and adolescents, was written by Mamta Murthi, the Banks Vice President for Human Development and published on its blog.

The Bank noted that in order to stem the tide, it set up the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, GFF.

Todays intertwined crises have brought new challenges for the health of women, children, and adolescents, particularly those in the hardest to reach communities. The tepid post COVID-19 recovery in developing countries, along with shocks such as climate change, fragility, debt distress, food shortages and energy price increases, are constraining fiscal space and burdening already stretched health systems. This has meant stalled or even the reversal of progress.

READ MORE: Nigeria Ranks 11th Highest In Child Marriage  UN

Right now, 250 million women and girls in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using contraceptives, whether due to lack of access or lack of support. Today, 800 women will die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. And every year, 12 million girls across the world are married before the age of 18reducing their education! opportunities.

This is not only impacting rights and lives today. Lack of access to sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) jeopardizes future growth and efforts to build more resilience and prosperity.

Last month, at the Paris summit, we heard the growing focus from countries and global leaders to find innovative financing models that reflect global solidarity, create sustainable futures, and close remaining gaps in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. Country leadership, prioritization and crowding in more investment will be critical and this is why the model and mandate of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), a partnership housed at the World Bank, is more relevant than ever.

The Bank called for putting women, children, and adolescents at the centre of development

Enumerating some of the gains recorded so far through GFF, it said about $32 billion from domestic, external and private sector resources across 36 countries were committed and aligned in support of womens, childrens and adolescent health plans.

Further, the share of World Bank financing in GFF-supported countries allocated to this agenda has increased by 12 percent compared to pre-GFF engagement.

While change takes time and requires sustainable, long-term financing, the GFFs direct link to World Bank country operations and the successful IDA20 replenishment create a unique opportunity to pair GFF grants with the largest available global source of concessional financing to advance the rights and opportunities of women, children and adolescents.

The governments of Germany and The Netherlands, Cote dIvoire and the World Bank, are calling to invest at least US$800 million in the GFF: with this investment, we have an opportunity to deepen and expand the GFF partnership to unlock better health and opportunities for more than 250 million women, children and adolescents. The time to act in concert and deliver the future is now.

It also stressed the need for sustainable financing and reaching scale for women, children and adolescent health.
Popular human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has disclosed that any intervention in Niger Republic by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) without the approval of United Nations (UN) is illegal.

Recall that in the West Africa country, the democratically elected President, Muhammad Bazoum, was ousted by coupists.

Also the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led ECOWAS last Sunday gave the coupists a week ultimatum to relinquish power and reinstate the deposed Bazoum.

But, the ultimate elapsed yesterday without the putschists relinquishing power.

Speaking on the development, Falana, in a statement on Sunday, warned that ECOWAS is legally obligated to seek the consent of the UN Security Council to undertake any interventions in Niger Republic.

He stated that ECOWAS is required to seek and obtain the authorisation of the UN Security Council to launch an attack on a sovereign nation pursuant to Article 53(1) of the United Nations Charter.

Citing Article 53(1), the Falana said, The Security Council shall, where appropriate, utilize such regional arrangements or agencies for enforcement action under its authority.

READ ALSO: SERAP Sues President Tinubu For Not Disclosing Spending Details Of Fuel Subsidy Savings

But no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies without the authorization of the Security Council.

According to him, this means that the conduct of the ECOWAS, as a regional arrangement, is subject to the provisions of the United Nations Charter, particularly article 53(1) and general international law.

Therefore, the ECOWAS can not justify any intervention in Niger without the authorisation of the Security Council.

It is also clear that any intervention by the ECOWAS, apart from being subject to the authorisation of the Security Council, must be on a collective basis and not a unilateral one, he added.

Falana furthered that in the absence of explicit Security Council authorisation, any intervention by the ECOWAS would be illegal, unless it concerns a situation of self-defence, which is clearly not the case in the situation of the planned intervention in Niger.

See the full statement below:

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST NIGER REPUBLIC

Notwithstanding the resolution of the Economic Community of West African States to resort to the use of force to flush the military junta in Niger in a bid to restore President Mohamed in Bazoum, the Bola Tinubu administration is mandatorily required to seek the approval of both houses of the National Assembly. This is in compliance with section 5(4) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), which stipulates as follows:

(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section:

(a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and

(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.

However, by virtue of section 5(5) thereof, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger:

Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.

In addition to the above constitutional mandate, the ECOWAS is required to seek and obtain the authorisation of the UN Security Council to launch an attack on a sovereign nation pursuant to article 53(1) of the United Nations Charter. Article 53(1) provides in part, The Security Council shall, where appropriate, utilize such regional arrangements or agencies for enforcement action under its authority. But no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies without the authorization of the Security Council.

This means that the conduct of the ECOWAS, as a regional arrangement, is subject to the provisions of the United Nations Charter, particularly article 53(1) and general international law.

Therefore, the ECOWAS can not justify any intervention in Niger without the authorisation of the Security Council.

It is also clear that any intervention by the ECOWAS, apart from being subject to the authorisation of the Security Council, must be on a collective basis and not a unilateral one.

In the absence of explicit Security Council authorisation, any intervention by the ECOWAS would be illegal, unless it concerns a situation of self- defence, which is clearly not the case in the situation of the planned intervention in Niger.

Femi Falana SAN

The Chair,

Alliance on Surviving Covid 19 and Beyond (ASCAB)

6th August, 2023
National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, says hes willing to accept former Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State to the ruling party.

According to Ganduje, Kwankwaso is a politician of enviable character, hence, hed accept him back to APC if he wanted to return

Kwankwaso had dumped the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before moving to the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP), where he contested the 2023 Presidential election.

Speaking with some media organizations in Kano, Ganduje, the immediate past Governor of Kano, said, Nobody will say Kwankwaso is not a good politician, at least, he was a two-term Kano Governor, although in disrupted tenures, he was Minister of Defence, even though he doesnt know what is defense, and was once a Senator, even though he never said anything throughout his stay there.

READ ALSO: Wait For My Announcement, Well Continue Observing Civic Disobedience  Ekpa Dismisses IPOBs Economic Empowerment Day

But, if he is willing to decamp to APC, our door is open, especially now that someone from his state is the party Chairman, it will be easier for him to lobby.

Asked why Kwankwasos name was missing in Tinubus ministerial list, Ganduje said the appointment issue was first heard from Kwankwaso, and not Tinubu himself.

It is true that President Tinubu has promised to run a unity government, and he stood by his words. Nyesom Wike, from PDP is now a Ministerial nominee. But he [Kwankwaso] is the one who said he will be given appointment initially, and not the President himself, Ganduje added.
Festus Keyamo, SAN, has apologised to the Senate on Monday evening over his failure to honour invitations by the relevant legislative committee overseeing the Ministry of Labour and Productivity where he had served as a minister under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He also explained that he had in the ninth Senate apologised to both chairman Senate committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, Senator Godiya Akwashiki and his counterpart in the House of Representatives.

This followed a rowdy session at the Senate during his ministerial screening earlier in the day where Senator Darlington Nwokocha (Abia Central) accused Keyamo of disrespecting the Ninth National Assembly and accusing the last Assembly of being corrupt.

READ ALSO: We Have Full Confidence In Keyamo  Niger Delta Group Wants Him As Petroleum Minister

Tendering an apology without reservation, the former Minister of State for Labour and Productivity provided more insight into the circumstances.

Keyamo said, I apologise to the Senate. I am sorry, I am sorry and I am sorry.

Regarding that programme, the account was handled by the World Bank. So, we, the head of the agencies, never saw one kobo. We only generated the list and the money was paid directly to the peoples account.

Every detail of that account was captured and kept in a file. All the records of the beneficiaries and their data are in the ministry.

Keyamo, who was nominated at the last minute by President Bola Tinubu, on Friday, appeared before the Senate on Monday, for his ministerial nomination.

Earlier, Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia Central), moved the motion requesting the suspension of the nominees screening.

Nwokocha reminded Keyamo of how he insulted the lawmakers from both chambers during his tenure as a minister under the last administration.

He also brought to the fore corruption charges levelled against the nominee and how he ignored the National Assembly summons in 2020 over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.

Senator Nwokocha then said, I move that we suspend forthwith screening of the nominee and wait until when this is cleared.

Keyamos screening marked the final interview of all 48 cabinet members nominated by President Bola Tinubu.
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a fake couple Mr Onyebuchi Ilonzeh and his partner in crime, whoidentified as Mrs Nonyelum Ilonzeh, purportedly going for medical treatment in India, for ingesting 184 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.322 kilograms with 100grams of the drug also concealed in the womans vagina.

The two suspects were intercepted at Screening Point 1, Terminal 1 of the international wing of the Lagos airport on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, while attempting to board an Ethiopian airline flight to India.

Though their travel documents show consistency in their names and depict them as a couple, an NDLEA officer, however, decided to subject them to a body scan. The scan confirmed they both ingested drugs as a result of which they were later placed on excretion observation at the Agencys facility.

While their travel documents identify the man as Onyebuchi Ilonzeh and the lady to be Nonyelum Ilonzeh, preliminary investigation revealed that the intending passengers were not a couple but obtained the travel documents in the same surname to beat security checks at the airport. The lady later gave her real name as Nkechi Ngogbike, the spokesperson for the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi revealed on Sunday.

READ ALSO: NDLEA Intercepts Illicit Drugs Concealed In Body Lotion Tubes (Video)

Babafemi further noted that during her interview, Ngogbike confessed that she was recruited in her church in Aba, Abia state where she lives.

The suspect, Ngogbike Nkechi aka Nonyelum Ilonzeh stated further that she is a divorcee, and that Mr Ilonzeh with whom she was travelling is not her husband but connected only for the purpose of the illicit drug business trip.

She revealed that her arranged husband, Kingsley brought the pellets of cocaine to her in her room to ingest in the hotel where they were both lodged in separate rooms the previous day Monday, July 31.

After their arrest, a thorough search conducted on her led to the discovery of a big size wrap of cocaine that weighed 100 grams she inserted into her private part. She confessed that she was promised $5,000 upon successful delivery of the drug in India.

The spokesperson for the NDLEA further noted that Mr Ilonzeh, who was into the clothing business in Onitsha, Anambra state, in his own statement, claimed that he was promised $2,000 after a successful delivery of the drug in India.

A further search of the agencys crime database revealed that Kingsley also obtained his travel documents with a fake identity for the trip. Indeed, it was established that he was arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja on March 19, 2022, for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.243kgs upon his arrival from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on board an Ethiopian airline flight.

His travel documents then contained his real name Ikenna Uwaezuoke. After his arrest at the Abuja airport on March 19, 2022, along with another suspect, Iro Uche who also ingested 65 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.376kgs, Uwaezuoke was subsequently arraigned before Justice Zainab Abubakar of the Federal High Court Abuja with charge number: FHC/ABJ/CR/438/2022.

He was eventually granted bail by the court pending the conclusion of his trial. He is still on court bail when he was arrested at the Lagos airport for a similar offence on Tuesday, August 1, Babafemi added.

While Ikenna Uwaezuoke aka Onyebuchi Ilonzeh excreted a total of 82 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.822kgs in five excretions, Ngogbike Nkechi aka Nonyelum Ilonzeh egested 101 wraps in four excretions with a big size wrap of the substance recovered from her vagina, all weighing 1.50kgs.

Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, attached to courier companies in Lagos have intercepted various quantities of dextromethorphan mixed with heroin; methamphetamine; dimethyl sulfone and cannabis concealed in different objects going to Europe.

While 272 grams of dextromethorphan mixed with heroin going to Greece were recovered from white neck beads; 665 grams of cannabis being shipped to Hong Kong were hidden in bars of Dudu Osun black bathing soap; with 261 grams of Dimethyl Sulfone going to New Zealand hidden in reels of weaving threads and 1.5kgs of nethamphetamine also going to New Zealand neatly packed in an MP3 player after all the parts were removed and the substance stuffed as a replacement.

In Kano state, a woman and four men  Ladi Peter, 47, Umar Salisu, 38, Ahmed Naheeb, 36, Ibrahim Umar, 42, and Musa Suleman, 43, were arrested in connection with the seizure of 977.7 kilograms of cannabis sativa from them by NDLEA operatives along Zaria-Kano road, Kwanar Dangora on Friday, August 4, and Monday, July 31. In the same vein, 2,445 kilograms of cannabis sativa were recovered from the warehouse of a fleeing suspect, Usman Nar at Madinatu area of Jere LGA, Borno state on Saturday, August 5.

No fewer than 57,450 pills of tramadol, rohypnol and exol-5, as well as 4,082 bottles of codeine-based syrup, were recovered from a suspect, Joseph Usman in a commercial bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra state to Abuja along Abaji-Abuja highway on Friday, August 4.
Big Brother All Stars housemate Princess has been evicted from the show by a jury.

The shows host, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, made this known during the live show on Sunday.

Earlier, Ebuka had announced three former Big Brother Naija housemates, Bisola, Dorathy and Mike, as members of the jury for the All Stars edition.

READ ALSO: BBNaija All Stars: Big Brother Will Disqualify Ilebaye  Frodd

Last week, Biggie announced a new twist during Sundays fake eviction show, announcing that a judge or jury, to be introduced in the All Stars edition, would determine who would be evicted every Sunday.

The judges will be sent an envelope with the names of the bottom two housemates, and they will individually select who they want to leave the show.

The housemate with the highest number of votes will be evicted.

The jury voted out Princess during the live show. She is the first housemate to be evicted from the show.

Here is how Nigerians voted:

Ike  1.59%

Princess -1.54%

Seyi  0.89%
The 10th Senate, witnessed a rowdy session over the screening of a ministerial nominee, Festus Keyamo, on Monday.

Recall that Keyamo, a former Minister of State for Labour and Employment under former President Muhammadu Buharis administration, was scheduled to appear at the National Assembly (NASS) for ministerial screening under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

But during his appearance, events went haywire when Darlington Nwokocha, lawmaker representing Abia Central under the Labour Party, moved the motion requesting the suspension of the nominees screening.

The senator recalled how Keyamo insulted the lawmakers from both chambers during his tenure as a minister.

NWokocha also brought to Keyamos remembrance, corruption charges levelled against him and how he ignored NASS summons in 2020 over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.

I move that we suspend forthwith screening of the nomination and wait until when this is cleared, he said.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, lawmaker representing Abia South under the All Progressives Grand Alliance Party seconded the motion.

The Senate President, GodsWill Akpabio, however put the motion to a voice vote after the first, and this time, the lawmakers responded in a disorderly manner, collectively shouting no and yes.

This argument made some lawmakers call for division, a decision which once taken might water down the power of the Senate President.

READ ALSO: Shetty: We Need Someone With Integrity To Represent Kano, Tinubu Had No Idea How She Was Nominated  Ganduje

Note that the division is a parliamentary term that connotes that lawmakers physically take sides with any of the votes either in favour of Yay or Nay.

The Senate President who was visibly troubled, then stood up and called for order.

According to the Senate Standing Orders, when the Senate President stands, every other lawmaker must sit.

Having restored order in the house, Akpabio called for a closed-door session and the lawmakers adjourned the plenary till 3:30 pm.

In April 2020, the Federal Government approved the recruitment of 774,000 Nigerians on a special public works programme, with the mandate of 1,000 people per Local Government Area.

The programme was implemented by the National Directorate of Employment as part of the fiscal stimulus measures adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project led to a brawl between Keyamo and the National Assembly as he was forced to leave the Senate after he refused to settle the issue behind closed doors when he appeared at the Red Chamber in June 2020

At the time, the lawmakers alleged that their constituents did not benefit from the scheme.

However, Keyamo responded by accusing the lawmakers of trying to blackmail him and hijack the programme, adding that the beneficiaries are not from the moon.

This and other infractions allegedly committed by Keyamo during his time as minister of State for Labour and Employment have been a major cause of friction between the nominee and the lawmakers.
Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says it was a mystery to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu how Shetty Maryam made his ministerial list.

According to the former Kano State Governor, Shetty was dropped because Kano needed to nominate a minister with integrity and experience.

Recall that the Senate was scheduled to screen Shetty on Friday, but prior to the commencement, Tinubu replaced her with Mariya Mahmoud Mairiga Bunkure.

Her removal and replacement with Bunkure was contained in a letter Tinubu sent to the Senate and was read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

However, Ganduje, featuring on a Kano-based radio station, said Shetty was dropped due to criticisms that greeted her nomination as a minister.

Maryam Shettys name emerged from the top, she was not well-known to us. We could not appraise her.

READ ALSO: We Have Paid Salaries, Pensions, Return To Work  Makinde Tells Protesting Workers

But suddenly, Shetty came under attack on social media. People questioned her integrity and experience, with many of them doubting her credentials to represent Kano at the national level.

President Bola Tinubus attention was drawn to the torrent of criticisms greeting Shettys nomination. The president asked whether I had nominated Maryam Shetty. I said no. He asked how then her name appeared on the list. I told him I had no idea whatsoever.

When he asked whether there was a need to replace her, I answered in affirmative, because the ministerial slot requires someone with integrity, knowledge, experience and commitment to the Party, Ganduje said
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), has urged the Federal Government to reconsider using the No Work, No Pay policy against striking members of the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

Chairman of the NMAs Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, Charles Ugwuanyi, made the appeal on Sunday, during a thanksgiving mass at the Holy Trinity Church in Maitama.

Information Nigeria understands that the thanksgiving was part of the NMA-FCTs Annual General Meeting and Week activities.

According to Ugwuanyi, the policy would further affect the countrys healthcare delivery.

Government should look at it critically. It will not do the country any good; it will lead to further complications.

READ ALSO: NMA Declares Indefinite Strike Over Doctors Death In Lagos Island General Hospital

We are really advising that government should take a look at what it is about to do because it will halt the system more, he said.

He however called on governments at all levels to improve working conditions for doctors.

If you look at the medical registry in Nigeria today, we have more than 110, 000 doctors who have been found registrable, who have passed through the registration, but as of April 2022, that is exactly a year plus, we have just less than 36, 000 that renewed their practicing license, and as I speak with you, we have less than 25, 000 doctors that have registered and are practicing in this country today, Ugwuanyi added.
The Peoples Democratic Partys 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has revealed why he withdrew a suit filed against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a United States court.

Information Nigeria had reported on Sunday that the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County struck out Atikus suit seeking disclosure of confidential educational records of Tinubu at Chicago State University without prejudice.

President Tinubu had alleged he holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Chicago State University.

In January, Beverly Poindexter, the staff in charge of transcript requests, enrolment and degree verification, confirmed that Tinubu attended the university between 1977 and 1979.

But former Vice-President Atiku alleged that Tinubus academic records were forged, and as a result filed a suit against him.

Atikus aide, Phrank Shaibu, in a statement on Sunday, said Abubakar decided to withdraw the suit because he did not want to abuse court processes.

He also said the withdrawal was not unconnected to the fact that the matter is already a subject of litigation at a higher court.

According to him, it is worrisome that Tinubu has no known classmates or contemporaries who could vouch for his attendance of the schools he claimed to have attended.

READ ALSO: Tinubu: US Court Declines Atikus Request To Subpoena Chicago State University

Waziri Atiku Abubakar only withdrew the case before a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County, United States of America because he is pursuing the same matter in a higher court and he wanted to avoid an abuse of court processes.

So, this is just the beginning. In the last one week, Nigerians have been watching the ongoing ministerial screening at the senate where nominees have been made to reveal their primary, secondary and university history.

Some of the ministerial nominees were even classmates with the senators screening them.

However, the man who nominated them has no educational history. He has no primary school, secondary school or university classmates. This is because he has no classmates. He actually fell from the sky.

In recent years past presidents have invited their former classmates to Aso Rock Villa. Even President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his classmates from Katsina Middle School.

But who did Bola Tinubu invite to the presidential villa? Governors from 1999 set. This is a man whose entire life, background and credentials remain unknown and Atiku will ensure that the man is exposed.

It is expected that the person to hold the office of the president must be above board, especially on his life history.

Unfortunately, here we have a president whose history is shrouded in secrecy and for whom it is as though life started in 1993, the statement read.
The Niger Delta oil and gas professionals have applauded the nomination of Festus Keyamo, former minister of state for labour and employment, by President Bola Tinubu as a ministerial nominee.

Recall that Tinubu had added Keyamo and Mariya Mahmoud to the list of ministerial nominees sent to the senate for screening and confirmation on Friday after withdrawing the name of Maryam Shetty who was nominated from Kano.

The fresh list of 19 names came six days after the president had forwarded a list of 28 nominees to the parliament.

Soki Etebu, leader of the oil and gas professionals, in a statement on Sunday, said Tinubus actions have proved that he is a man of honour.

According to Etebu, Keyamo represents progressiveness and determination while expressing happiness that the nominee will be part of an administration that is aiming to improve the lives of Nigerians.

READ ALSO: Bawa Didnt Attempt To Overthrow Govt., Release Him  Daniel Bwala Appeals To Tinubu

Etebu said he hoped that Keyamo would be appointed as the minister of petroleum, which he said would be a fulfilment of the Presidents promise to Niger Delta agitators to appoint someone from the region to oversee the crude oil ministry.

Festus Keyamo is best suited for this job; he has a solid background in law, he is from the Niger Delta, he has fought for the people of the region and has the composure to bring about growth and progress in the sector.

He is well informed and deepened enough to carry out reforms and unbundling of the sector and see to the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, amongst others.

We have full confidence in Keyamo; he is industrious, determined, knowledgeable and ready to perform in the ministry. We urge the senate to cooperate with President Tinubu to screen him soonest, the statement read.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has appealed to workers in the state to return to their respective duty posts on Monday.

The governor said the state government has paid and has been paying salaries and pensions before the 25th of every month without failure since 2020.

Declaring this in a state broadcast on Sunday, he maintained that food security, transportation are among the immediate areas being targeted by his government to alleviate the economic difficulties facing residents of the state.

Recall that workers and pensioners in the state have been protesting over issues bothering on their welfare since Monday.

Some of the requests by the workers include payment of salary deductions, palliatives for workers, upward review of pension allowances, payment of leave bonuses, payment of gratuities to retirees who have been stagnated since 2021 and release of promotion letters for the 2021 and 2022.

READ MORE: I Will Visit Tinubu In Aso Rock Again And Again  Makinde Says, Names Road After Wike

He added that his government will pay the two months deductions owed the workers with their August salary while it will also explore further options on dialogue.

Makinde encouraged the union leaders to return to the negotiating table to discuss any increases in salary or possible harmonisation of pension payments.

I am addressing you today to share our short-term plans, which will play a huge role in alleviating the effects of the removal of fuel subsidies and the resultant economic difficulties being faced by our people.

You will recall that on June 9, 2023, following the removal of the fuel subsidy, we announced measures to be taken to cushion the effect of the removal.

We have paid all civil servants salaries and pensions on or before the 25th of every month without fail. And since January 2020, we have paid the minimum wage and consequential adjustments to all cadres of civil servants every month without fail.

Presently, the civil servants wage bill stands at N7.2 billion monthly. We have continued to pay this despite having a state revenue of just below N10 billion monthly. It is, therefore, clear to understand why any increase in salaries or pensions may not be possible at this time, he said.
Former Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, Saturday, accused Daudu Lawal, his successor, of waging a political vendetta against him instead of focusing on the security challenges of the State.

Matawalles spokesperson, Yusuf Idris, said his principal made the submission when he received members of Zamfara chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) at his Abuja residence.

According to him, Lawals actions since he assumed office begs the question of whether he has the interest of the masses at heart.

He asked Lawal to involve major stakeholders in finding lasting solutions to the security issues bedeviling the State.

Since he took over the administration of Zamfara from me, all that Dauda Lawal has been doing is political vendetta directed against me while the blood of citizens is being wasted by bandits on a daily basis.

When I became governor in 2019, I was always in touch with my predecessor, Sen. Abdulaziz Yari and other critical stakeholders to address the insecurity situation in our dear state.

As it stands now, Dauda is still yet to even appoint a security adviser, making one to wonder if as the chief executive of the state he has the people who voted him into office at heart, Matawalle said.

READ ALSO: Stop Twerking For Politicians  Mr Macaroni Tells Nigerians

He said the state government has many ways to confront the security crisis, warning that it may continue to escalate if serious action is not taken.

In reaction, Governor Lawals spokesperson, Mustapha Jafaru, described the ex-govenors concern as a fallacy.

Jafaru said Matawalle has nothing to contribute to Zamfara security challenges because for the four years he spent as governor, he had not been able to stop the killings by bandits in the State.

As long as Governor Dauda is concerned, he will not contact Matawalle on security and as you know, in less than 100 days in office, the Governor has been able to meet and discuss way forward on these challenges with relevant security experts.

So, the issue is not about appointment of an adviser on security or such irrelevant things but about positive actions to be taken which the governor is doing and recording success, Jafaru said.
Courtesy of the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy / Courtesy of the Office of Arts,

For the first time, members of the public are able to see the proposed designs for a new Harriet Tubman statue and take part in a survey to voice an opinion on which design should be chosen.

Officials of the citys Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) revealed the designs at a virtual public design presentation meeting Thursday evening at which the artists were able to discuss their designs and answer questions.

Nearly a dozen people among the 88 members of the public on the Zoom meeting had questions and comments for the five semifinalists  Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit, and Basil Watson.

The Creative Philly office posted a survey asking members of the public to rank the artists designs at 8 p.m., following the meeting, and it will remain open for public comment until Sept. 1 at 11:59 p.m.

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The survey, along with more details about the designs, is available here, and a recording of the meeting can be found on the OACCE website.

The new open-call process was lauded by some who attended the presentation meeting because the city had originally planned to award a $500,000 commission to artist Wesley Wofford to create a Harriet Tubman statue without seeking proposals from other artists.

The controversy led Creative Philly to seek proposals from other artists. Marguerite Anglin, the citys public art director, said 50 artists submitted applications, from which the five semifinalists were chosen.

Here are the artists and their designs.

Vinnie Bagwell: Harriet Tubman, City of Liberty

Bagwell said she designed her prototype portraying Tubman as a young woman of 29, about the age at which she made her first escape to Philadelphia. The pose shows Tubman with arms raised in gratitude to God for her freedom. The skirt of her dress is supposed to convey blowing in the wind as she moves to freedom.

On the skirt are images of some of the Philadelphia-based abolitionists Tubman met with in the city, including William Still and Lucretia Mott. The skirt also includes an image of Frederick Douglass, who came to Philadelphia to speak with other abolitionists.

The statue would be 9 feet tall, atop a 6-inch platform, or a little over 9.5 feet tall.

Richard Blake: currently untitled

Richard Blakes design is a 10-foot bronze statue. It shows Tubman standing beneath the Liberty Bell. She appears to be breaking through two jagged and threatening monoliths, what he said looks like two masses of volcanic lava, to illustrate her hazardous journeys on multiple escapes, when she returned to the South to lead others to freedom.

He said the lantern represents a beacon of hope for future generations of young Black people, illuminating their rightful place in shaping the future of our nation.

Tanda Francis: Together in Freedom

Francis designed a statue featuring multiple silhouettes of Tubman surrounding a large head presented at a monumental scale so the viewer would be face to face with Tubman. When Tubman reached freedom, she said, There was such glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees.   Thus, Francis included oval shapes cast in a golden hue. She also said she created panels that will allow different artists or people to create or add artwork.

The work, made of bronze, would be 12 feet tall.

Alvin Pettit: currently untitled

Pettit proposed an 11-foot bronze statue of Tubman as a Civil War scout and soldier. He said he wanted to portray Tubman as a military commander, known for leading 150 Black Union soldiers on the Combahee Ferry Raid in South Carolina.

He designed a figure who appears to be meditative and in prayer, but with a rifle strapped to her back. Perhaps she is giving thanks for completing a battle, or is praying before going into battle. Often, Tubman is portrayed as someone being pursued.

I chose to highlight a moment in history when tyranny was on the run from her.

Basil Watson: Keep Going

Watsons concept shows Tubman as a warrior and leader, a larger than life Spirit of unwavering determination who chose Freedom as the only way to live, the artists description says.

He wanted to show her leadership in taking others with her to freedom. I wanted to depict the energy, drama, fight, fear, and the horror of the journey, he said.

The monument will include four figures, with Tubman in front. They are on an upward slope, suggesting the struggle to climb high. The statue would be made of bronze on a black granite pedestal that would have a 10-by-10-foot area, and be about 13 feet high.

Moving from controversy to pride

Faye Anderson, a public historian who criticized the city for offering a no-bid commission to Wofford, said she was encouraged after she took part in the meeting Thursday.

It was a needlessly bumpy process to get to this point, but I think Philadelphia can be proud of the proposed designs of the five semifinalists for the permanent Harriet Tubman statue, Anderson said Friday.

The designs reflect the lived experience of being Black in America and the ongoing struggle for racial justice. An in-person presentation of the designs would have given Philadelphians an opportunity to see the details because in public art, details matter. I encourage everyone to complete the public survey.
A protester participates in the protest for the legalization of marijuana outside the Wells Fargo Center on the same day as the final night of the DNC in 2016. Read more

Philadelphia is among the largest cannabis-consuming cities on the planet, according to one new study.

On average, Philadelphians in total consume about 10.6 metric tons  or about 23,369 pounds  of marijuana a year, making Philly the 15th-highest cannabis-using location of 140 surveyed cities worldwide, the 2023 Cannabis Global Price Index found. Compiled by the health information group CFAH, the study used data collected by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to create the rankings.

Still, Philadelphias marijuana consumption pales in comparison to New York City, which topped the list at 62.3 metric tons, or 137,348 pounds, per year. Thats about 7 grams per year for each resident (compared to about 6.73 grams for Philly residents) in a city whose home state voted to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2021. But given that the study ranked cities by total consumption, it makes sense that populous cities would rank highly.

Phillys home state of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has had a medical marijuana program since 2016, with more than 1 million registered patients. The Keystone State, however, has come up short on full legalization.

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That may soon change. Last month, five state senators introduced bipartisan legislation that would legalize the recreational use of cannabis for Pennsylvanians 21 and older. And in March, Gov. Josh Shapiros budget plan proposed a 20% tax on the wholesale price of marijuana products on the legal market, estimating that such a tax would bring in $188 million by the end of the decade if instituted by 2025.

The lack of advancement on marijuana legalization has made Pennsylvania something of a prohibition island on the East Coast. Neighboring states New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and New York have all voted for full legalization, putting them on the list of 23 states nationwide (plus Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories) with recreational marijuana programs.

In addition to Philadelphias high cannabis consumption rate, the city also had some of the most expensive cannabis in the United States, the study found. At $11.30 per gram on average, weed in Philadelphia is reportedly the 10th-most-expensive in the country among cities studied. The most expensive is in Washington. ($19.10 per gram), and the least in Portland, Ore. ($7 per gram).

The cheapest cannabis on the planet, according to the study, can be found in Montreal, where a gram goes for about $5.90 on average, according to the study (Canada legalized marijuana nationwide in 2018). Tokyo, where marijuana is illegal nationwide, had the highest-priced weed of any city studied, at $33.80 per gram on average.

But its unlikely that marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania would immediately bring low prices. New Jersey, for example, is more than a year into its adult-use program and averages about $17 per gram, The Inquirer found in April.

Typically, marijuana prices in new legal markets start out high and drop as the market matures thanks to an increase in cannabis growers, and therefore, larger supply. Sometimes, though, supply can far outweigh demand and lead to a crash in the market, as seen in states such as Colorado, California, and Oregon.

Overall, however, the study found that marijuana prices nationwide are likely to decrease over the years. By 2030, it said, average marijuana prices in the United States could fall to $5.61 per gram.
A new analysis of when Americans eat dinner shows that people in Pennsylvania eat the earliest, with an average dinner time of 5:37 p.m. Read more

Pennsylvania puts the early bird in early-bird dinners, data show.

A new analysis on when Americans eat dinner shows that of all 50 states, people in Pennsylvania eat the earliest. According to Nathan Yau, creator of the popular data visualization site Flowing Data, the average Pennsylvania household starts eating dinner at 5:37 p.m.

Yau analyzed data from 2018 through 2022 American Time Use Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to analyze when households across the country were eating. He did not include 2020 data, which was incomplete because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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He found that Pennsylvania eats earliest, with Maine (5:40 p.m.) coming in second place. Meanwhile, D.C. starts eating dinner the latest at 7:10 p.m. In New Jersey, dinner starts at 6:17 p.m., according to Yau.

 READ MORE: Family claims a top FOP official tried to scam a police officers widow out of $20,000

Its hard to say exactly what drives the time discrepancies by state. Yau suspects it could be an age thing or have something to do with Pennsylvanias later sunset times compared to other states, but he couldnt find anything conclusive when he dug deeper.

According to World Population Review data, Pennsylvania has the eighth-highest age of residents; the average age of Pennsylvanians is 40.9 years old. But states including Maine, Vermont, Florida, and Delaware all have higher median ages and later average dinnertimes.

I was surprised that Pennsylvanias peak dinnertime was the earliest, Yau told The Inquirer. Although the range of dinnertime for Pennsylvania is relatively wide compared to other states. His best guess is that it might have something to do with the states vast range of work and commuting schedules.

Other factors that could play a role in early dining times include family makeup and cultural diversity. For instance, a family with young kids may eat earlier than a childless couple.

There have been some broad guesses about time zones, cities, and north to south, Yau said. But if you look at the times by geography, there isnt a clear pattern. I also compared peak dinnertime for metro vs. nonmetro areas, but there didnt seem to be much difference. So my best guess is still related to what people do before dinnertime, most likely commute-related.

Yau suspects that in D.C.s case, the late dinners are driven by the areas much smaller geography compared to other states and a lack of variation in peoples work and commute schedules, leading to a narrower range than other states surveyed. His analysis also revealed that most households eat dinner between 5:07 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., with peak dinnertime dropping at 6:19 p.m.

Its unclear what portion of diners in Yaus analysis were dining at home vs. going out to eat. But available data from restaurants appear to support his dinnertime analysis, too.

OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, publishes some of its year-over-year data in a report called State of the Restaurants. In its report of dining times by day, Pennsylvania shows an influx of diners between 5 and 6 p.m. on Saturdays. But in D.C.  which ranked the latest for dinnertimes in Yaus analysis  the highest concentration of diners on a Saturday is at 7 p.m.

Marc Vetri of Vetri Cucina and Fiorella said that when his restaurants started dinner services without offering reservations, people would begin lining up as early as 3 p.m. Today, Fiorella takes reservations beginning at 4 p.m.

Its a much easier time to get in, Vetri said. People became used to getting to us early in order to get a seat. ... I guess people will do almost anything for good pasta.

In other areas of Pennsylvania, some chain restaurants offer promotions for early diners, like family or kids night.

And, while happy hour snacks are the predominant special in downtown Philly eateries, those in outlying areas continue to offer early bird specials. Benny the Bums bar and restaurant in Northeast Philly begins its early bird at 4 p.m. while Ritz Diner, also in the Northeast, starts its specials as early as 2 p.m.

According to the Wall Street Journal, more people of all ages are eating earlier dinners  and seeing movies and shows earlier than ever before. In some cases, the Journal says, the shift has prompted restaurants to change hours or close earlier.

Yelp data acquired by the Journal says restaurants currently seat 10% of diners between 2 and 5 p.m.  thats double the rate restaurants seated people in the same time window since 2019. Uber trips to restaurants between 4 and 5 p.m. have also jumped 10% since 2019, the newspaper reported. Rides to restaurants past 8 p.m. are down 9%.

During the pandemic, when labor shortages forced restaurants to truncate hours, the Kelly family of Kellys Seafood, a fixture in the Northeast since 1958, noticed a shift to earlier dinnertimes.

Were busy doing our early birds [from 4-6 p.m.], but when 7 oclock comes, Im like, Whats going on? said Brian Kelly, who runs the restaurant with his twin brother, Brett.

They estimated that the number of dining room patrons after 7 p.m. is perhaps half of what they served before the pandemic. All of a sudden at 8:30, were getting our last diner where we used to be 9:30, Brett Kelly said. The bar often stays open till midnight.

As for why, Brians guess is it has something to do with habit. I think with COVID, when everyone was staying home, people ate earlier and got used to it, he said. Now, 4:30 is dinnertime instead of 5:30. Its weird.

Staff reporter Mike Klein contributed to this article.
Thomas Greene with his wife, Bluizer, at their home in Oxford, Pa. After Thomas had a procedure on his leg, the anesthesia providers billed Medicare late, and he was sent to collections for the debt. Read more

Thomas Greene had been experiencing pain in his right leg, a complication from diabetes, when doctors recommended a procedure to increase blood flow to the limb.

Retired from a career as an electrician and HVAC technician, he had an outpatient procedure in April 2021 to alleviate his pain by dilating the clogged artery using a balloon snaked into his blood vessel.

Greene, who lives in Oxford in Chester County, came through the procedure without any problems, and it reduced his discomfort, said his wife, Bluizer Greene. She spoke with KFF Health News on behalf of Greene, who is recovering from other health problems.

Greene is covered by Medicare and a supplemental policy through Humana and did not expect to pay anything for the care, Bluizer said.

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Then the bills came.

The patient: Thomas Greene, 74, who is covered by original Medicare and a Medicare supplement policy sold by Humana.

Medical service: Peripheral artery bypass surgery on Greenes right leg.

Service provider: The operation was performed at Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, Pa., which closed in December 2021. Anesthesia services were provided by two providers who work for North American Partners in Anesthesia, which is private equity-owned and, with thousands of providers operating in 21 states, identifies itself as among the nations largest anesthesia staffing companies.

Total bill: For the anesthesia care, North American Partners in Anesthesia billed $2,965.58: $1,334.51 for a certified nurse anesthetist and $1,631.07 for an anesthesiologist.

What gives: North American Partners in Anesthesia, or NAPA, pursued Greene to pay for his anesthesia care instead of billing Medicare on time, sending the debt to collections before the couple discovered the problem.

 READ MORE: Want a clue on health care costs in advance? New tools take a crack at it

Medicare eventually received the claims from NAPA, months after the couple started receiving collection letters, Bluizer said. But Medicare denied them because they were filed late  nearly 17 months after the surgery. Humana also denied the claims.

Medicare requires providers to submit claims within a year of providing their services. And Medicare supplemental policies, like Greenes plan from Humana, generally do not pay for services if Medicare doesnt cover them, whether because Medicare has not paid its part yet or because the program denied the claim.

A year after Greenes surgery, in spring 2022, the couple opened a letter from a collection agency working on behalf of the anesthesia group. It demanded Greene pay about $3,000.

Something has to be wrong, because this is the first time my husband has ever been asked to pay out of pocket and weve had the same insurance for years, Bluizer said.

She said for several months she called NAPA and the collection agency, C.tech Collections, of Mount Sinai, N.Y., to determine why it was billing her husband.

Greene was also contacted by the Faloni Law Group, a second organization working on behalf of NAPA to collect the debt, and Bluizer said she followed its instructions to respond by mail, disputing the debt on the grounds that it should be billed to insurance.

But her communication attempts did not resolve the issue, and she said her husband continued to receive collection notices.

Neither debt collector responded to requests for comment.

We were angry, and it was very upsetting because we had never had a bill put into a collection agency for any of his hospitalizations, and it was money we did not feel that we owed, Bluizer said.

 READ MORE: A progress check on hospital price transparency

She said they may have received some letters from the anesthesia group in 2021 and 2022 that they discarded without opening because they believed her husbands medical bills would be covered by insurance, as the rest of his surgery bills were.

Worried about the situation, including its potential impact on their credit, the couple reached out late last year to Harold Ting, a volunteer counselor for Pennsylvanias MEDI program, which provides free assistance to Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare generally covers anesthesia services.

This is totally unfair that a beneficiary ends up having to pay for what should be a totally covered service, when the provider is at fault, Ting said.

Two explanation of benefits statements from Humana show the insurer received claims from NAPA in April 2021, shortly after Greenes surgery. The statements said the claims could not be considered at that time, though, because Humana had not yet received Medicare EOBs for the services.

Kelli LeGaspi, a Humana spokesperson, declined to comment on Greenes case. She said a Medicare EOB  a coverage statement generated when the program processes a claim  is required for the supplement carrier to consider a claim. Without it, a claim for secondary coverage cannot be considered and is denied, she said.

Supplement plans deny claims for benefits that are denied by Medicare, she said.

If Original Medicare declines to pay the claim, then the Medicare supplement plan is required to decline the claim as well, she said in an email.

In December 2022, a NAPA representative told Bluizer in an email that NAPA billed Medicare after the April 2021 surgery and that Medicare denied the claims in August 2021. The representative provided an account statement showing the claims were sent to collections that month.

But Bluizer said a Medicare representative told her in late 2021 that the program had received no claims from NAPA.

Greenes Medicare account shows NAPA filed claims in September 2022, about 17 months after his surgery and about five months after he received his first collection letter. Both claims were denied.

A quarterly summary notice said while the time limit for filing the claims had expired, Greene also could not be billed.

Meena Seshamani, director of the federal Center for Medicare, said in an email to KFF Health News that if a Medicare provider sends a claim a year or more after a service is provided, it is denied except in very rare circumstances.

There is no exception for provider error, she said.

 READ MORE: Patients squeezed in fight over who gets to bill for pricey infusion drugs

A spokesperson for NAPA declined to be interviewed on the record, despite receiving a signed release waiving federal privacy protections.

Martine G. Brousse, a billing expert and founder of the patient advocacy firm AdviMedPRO, said Greenes Medicare notice should have reassured the couple that he did not owe anything, despite the several overdue-bill notices they received.

If the Medicare statement shows a zero balance to the member, then the provider cannot legally go after the patient, said Brousse, who is not involved in Greenes case. The patient has zero liability because it is not their fault the provider billed Medicare a year after the surgery. That is the end of the story.

Another mystery about the claim is why NAPA billed separately for a nurse anesthetist and an anesthesiologist. Bluizer said her husband was not told why NAPA billed individually for the two medical professionals  a practice some insurers believe constitutes double billing.

Brousse said there could be a simple explanation, such as if the nurse anesthetist started the procedure and the anesthesiologist finished it or if the company charged for the anesthesiologist to work in a supervisory role.

But the Medicare claims document shows each provider billed for the same amount of time  a little over an hour.

As far as I can tell, this looks like two providers billed with the same I did the job Medicare procedure code, she said. Medicare cannot accept that without an explanation.

 READ MORE: Philly hospitals must now disclose prices for care, but its still hard to comparison shop: The randomness is stunning.

The resolution: Unable to get answers, Ting connected Greene to the nonprofit, Pennsylvania-based Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of Elders.

In March, Ariel Rabinovic, an advocate with the center, contacted NAPA on Greenes behalf and explained that federal law does not allow the group to bill Medicare patients for services Medicare does not cover. He said he was told the company would stop billing Greene.

Bluizer said the couple has not received any collection notices since then.

Rabinovic said he has seen other situations in which health providers who agree to accept Medicare try to bill patients for services Medicare does not cover, which is not allowed.

Older folks have a lot of things going on, and dealing with this can be very confusing for them, he said. A lot of people end up paying because they dont want to deal with it.

Greene has faced several health issues and spent time in a rehabilitation hospital this winter. His wife said she was happy the billing issue had been resolved without their having to pay anything.

 READ MORE: Surprise-billing law loophole: When out of network doesnt quite mean out of network

The takeaway: When a Medicare statement says the patient may not be billed anything for a health service, thats the bottom line. Dont write a check, but also dont ignore bills and collection notices, because they could ultimately hurt your credit.

Read your mail, the experts said. While Greene was not responsible for paying the anesthesia bill given that Medicare said he did not owe anything, the couple may have prevented the debt from being sent to collections if they had responded to the anesthesia groups communications and confirmed it had Greenes insurance information, Brousse said.

Keep copies of bills and insurance statements, especially Medicare EOB documents, or follow them on an online portal.

The couple was smart to reach out to advocates for help resolving the issue when they could not do so on their own, Rabinovic said.

This is why people need to read their notices from Medicare even when it says This is not a bill, he said.

Also, when an anesthesia bill includes charges for both a nurse anesthetist and an anesthesiologist, question the charges. Many insurers will not pay for both.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recommend beneficiaries call 800-MEDICARE with questions about their care or bills or file a complaint online.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces journalism about health issues.
A Sea Isle City man accused of assaulting Fox 29 traffic anchor Bob Kelly at a Jersey Shore pub is expected in court next month.

Patrick Iannone, 21, was charged with aggravated assault in an attack during an event at Oar House Pub in Sea Isle City on July 30. Police say he knowingly and purposely caused significant bodily injury to Kelly, who was at the bar emceeing an event.

Iannone admitted to officers he filmed himself pouring beer on Kelly during the event, according to a complaint summons obtained by The Inquirer. When Kelly turned around, Iannone  whom police said appeared to be under the influence  punched the Fox 29 personality so hard he lost consciousness.

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Iannone attempted to flee but was held by bouncers until police were able to arrive, the report says. He is expected to appear at the Cape May County Courthouse for a pre-indictment conference on Sept. 18 before New Jersey Superior Court Judge Christine Smith, according to Jill Houck, the deputy clerk of superior court for Atlantic and Cape May Counties.

Kelly suffered lacerations above and beneath his eye socket, injuries that were still visible to viewers last week. Kelly received medical care but didnt require stitches and was back on their air the following Tuesday.

Kelly spoke about the assault last week on Fox 29, calling it a frightening, disturbing event apparently incited by a TikTok challenge. Kelly appeared on Good Day Philadelphia last week, and even joked about his injured eye Wednesday during National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.

Know what I like about this? I can use it to keep the swelling down in my eye, and then have an ice cream treat for breakfast, Kelly said.

According to New Jersey municipal court records, Iannone pleaded guilty to simple assault in an incident at Dead Dog Saloon in Sea Isle City in June. No further details about that incident were immediately available.

Kellys traffic reports have been a staple of TV news in Philadelphia for decades. Hes been the traffic anchor at Fox 29 on Good Day Philadelphia since 2014, and before that spent 13 years on TV at CBS3. The Philly native began his career reporting on the traffic on radio at KYW Newsradio and other outlets.

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.
Zoom can now use your data to train its AI. Here's why it matters. Read more

A terms-of-service update from Zoom  the popular videoconferencing software  allows the company to use customer data to train its artificial intelligence. The update is giving some users pause, prompting the company to say it wont actually use the data without permission.

As reported on by Stack Diary, a Zoom terms update in March said it reserved the right to train its AI on user data. Theres no clear way to opt out.

As the update continued to roll out, more people began speaking out about privacy concerns  especially about the use of the software in settings like therapy and legal matters.

But in a blog post released by Zoom on Monday, the company said it isnt actually training its AI on customers video calls, despite its new service terms saying it can.

Our intention was to make sure that if we provided value-added services (such as a meeting recording), we would have the ability to do so without questions of usage of rights, the company blog said. For AI, we do not use audio, video, or chat content for training our models without customer consent.

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Its worth noting that many video and audio platforms  including Google Meet and Teams Premium  already rely on AI technology to provide live closed captioning services.

If this happened in March why are people talking about it now?

Still, Zooms blog post attempting to clear up concerns instead appears to have sparked new attention to the term updates.

On social media, users speculated that large companies wouldnt want to risk potential leaks of internal content.

TV and film writer John Rogers suggested that it could lead to HIPAA issues in the medical field (while some health-care providers use Zoom, many already use internal platforms or other alternates specifically designed for the setting) as well as TV and movie studios dropping the service.

The Writers Guild of America and the actors guild, SAG-AFTRA, are both on strike, bringing Hollywood essentially to a halt  because of contract negotiation issues, including concerns with the use of AI.

What do the new terms of service say?

The updated terms  presented to Zoom users in fine print  became effective July 27.

They give Zoom the right to use some elements of customer data to train its AI, a fairly common move for tech companies these days, according to CNBC.

The terms say customers consent to Zooms access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of ... machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models).

Still, the company reiterated in its blog Monday, it wont use audio, video, or chat content to train its models without customer consent.

We remain committed to transparency, and our aim is to provide you with the tools you need to make informed decisions about your Zoom account, the blog post said. We value your privacy and are continuously working to enhance our services while respecting your rights and preferences.

Larger conversations about training AI services

As noted by CNBC, the discourse about Zooms update comes amid a growing debate regarding how AI services should be trained and the ethics surrounding it all.

Artists have described concerns with AI graphic generators and how the technology can use existing work to train itself along with its potential to replace human labor.

 READ MORE: Lensa is the app behind your friends new profile pics. Heres what artists have to say about it.

Its a hard battle because it seems fun and harmless, but I think this could be, and in a lot of ways already is, the beginning of some serious problems in all creative fields, said Philly-based graphic designer and illustrator Nicole Saltzer.

And its not just image-generating tools that are raising eyebrows. Chatbots, like ChatGPT and Bard by Google, are trained on internet text, leading to scrutiny of/ whats up for grabs and who is at risk.

In June, Zoom brought on two new and free AI features. One summarizes meetings and the other composes chat messages. A user has to enable the features. If they opt-in, they are prompted to sign a consent form that allows Zoom to train its AI models using their customer content (which can include your video, audio, and chat transcripts).

Your content is used solely to improve the performance and accuracy of these AI services, Zooms blog post said.

A company spokesperson told Gizmodo that the power is in Zoom users hands.

Zoom customers decide whether to enable generative AI features, they said, referring to the two new AI features, and separately whether to share customer content with Zoom for product improvement purposes. The company declined to answer Gizmodos questions about its use of Service Generated Content, which includes analytics data and anything besides the already-outlined customer content.

Gizmodo also noted that Zooms track record on how it honors promises about privacy is shaky.

In 2020, the company said it would only offer end-to-end encryption to paying customers. A lawsuit claimed that Zoom said it offered that type of privacy already to all users. The platform ended up fixing the discrepancy and strengthening its encryption for basic users. A year later, the company agreed to an $85 settlement after sharing data with Google and Facebook without telling customers.
HARRISBURG  The Pennsylvania State Police have started a body-camera pilot program in south-central Pennsylvania, a long-awaited move that came less than two months after a fatal police shooting of a Glen Mills car enthusiast on I-95 in Philadelphia.

Approximately 43 state troopers at Troop H in Carlisle began wearing body cameras late last month, State Police Commissioner Colonel Christopher Paris said Monday outside police headquarters.

We are committed to holding ourselves to a higher standard of accountability, Paris said. This program maintains our commitment to staying at the forefront of both equipment and technology, as well as our primary goal of providing our personnel with the resources necessary for increasing personal safety, job efficiency, effectiveness, and service.

Calls for state police troopers to wear body cameras were renewed in June, after a state trooper shot and killed 18-year-old Anthony Allegrini Jr. His family, which has been pushing for a transparent investigation into his death, has questioned why the states main law enforcement agency does not already have body-worn cameras for its 4,740 troopers, while many local departments do.

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Approximately half of the 5,900 uniformed officers in the Philadelphia Police Department are trained and equipped with a body camera.

A $40 million contract

The state paid $820,000 for 2,500 body cameras, according to its contract with Arizona-based Axon, which also manufactures Tasers. The five-year contract includes approximately $2 million each year for support and maintenance of the cameras.

As part of the $40 million, five-year contract, the state will also purchase 1,700 new dashboard cameras and 100 interview room cameras, as well as required support and maintenance. Nearly all of the cost is support and maintenance for the cameras, as the state police move from a server-based system to a cloud-based one to maintain all of the footage.

The state has been trying to start a body-camera program since 2020 as part of a larger initiative to increase transparency and replace some of its out-of-date dashboard cameras, Paris said.

Paris said the state police have been unable to launch a body-camera program yet, because of the agencys statewide size and scope of operations.

It makes a trooper better, utilizing these tools to document whats going on, Paris said. This is scrutiny that we welcome, and I think that these body cams are going to be a tool, just like the in-car cameras have been for two decades.

The body-camera pilot program will run for 60 to 90 days in Carlisle, before expanding to each of the state polices 88 locations, Paris said.

No updates on shooting of Allegrini

Allegrini, a car enthusiast and weight lifter, was killed after two troopers responded to reports of illegal street racing near Penns Landing on June 4. State police say Allegrini failed to yield to the officers and struck them, leading an officer to fire into Allegrinis Audi S4. He died at the scene, and the troopers suffered minor injuries.

According to a video posted to social media after the incident, Allegrini got out of his car after he was shot, before lying alone on the highway while a trooper seemed to turn his gun toward a driver filming the incident.

Paris said the investigation into Allegrinis death is ongoing, and he had no update.

How the body cams will work

Officers will need to turn on their body camera, and state police aim to have troopers record every interaction with the public, Paris added.

The footage from the body cameras will be subject to a police records request, called an Act 22 request, a spokesperson for the state police said. These requests must be made within 60 days of the recording, and usually require a requester to be a victim or party to the case.

Dave Kennedy, the president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, said the union supports the initiative, contingent upon Pennsylvania putting into place a fully funded program and a long overdue increase to the number of state troopers.

As we continue to face growing crime concerns in communities across Pennsylvania, we cannot afford to lose a single trooper to any new programs, he added.
Five young people, including four teens, were injured in a shooting that happened at an East Oak Lane playground late Sunday night.

The shooting occurred at Sturgis Playground on the intersection 65th Avenue and North 2nd Street at 11:30 p.m., when at least one person came among a group of five young people  three teenage boys, one teenage girl, and an 18-year-old man  and began firing.

The two 17-year-old boys were shot in the right foot and buttocks, respectively. The 16-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to his left ankle, while the 17-year-old girl was shot in the right thigh. All of them are in stable condition at Einstein Medical Center, according to police.

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The 18-year-old, who was identified later was shot in the right thigh. He is in stable condition at Temple University Hospital.

Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace told reporters that officers found 18 shell casings spread across the park and the corner of North 2nd St.

Police are examining footage from surveillance cameras at the nearby Sturgis Recreation Center. No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

According to data kept by the Office of the City Controller, 112 people under the age of 18 have been shot in Philadelphia this year, a 15% decrease from this time last year.

The City of Philadelphia is now offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of anyone who fires a gun within 500 feet of school, library, or recreation center. The decision came after a spate of shootings that happened near schools and rec centers this year. These include the shooting of a 15-year-old boy outside of the Marie Dendy Recreation Center in North Philly in April, as well as the death of Devin Weedon, 15, who was shot and killed while on his walk to Simon Gratz High School in Hunting Park this March.

At least 629 people have been shot within 500 feet of a city rec center since 2015, according to an Inquirer analysis, and 87 of those victims are children.
Santos Lopezs chest is Kandis favorite place to lay. With their hearts beating together, the Marine Vietnam veteran and his service dog find comfort in each other and the incredible bond they share.

But when Lopezs PTSD and depression swelled up again in April  and his chest and heart became too heavy for the two of them to bear alone  he needed to seek in-patient treatment at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.

He couldnt stand the thought of losing Kandi, but, for both of their sakes, he couldnt lose himself either.

Lopez, 69, of West Philly, desperately sought temporary housing for Kandi, before turning to Phillys Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT), where he learned about the Safety Net Foster Program created last year by the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

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Through the program, pets whose owners are going through difficult times, typically due to housing or medical issues, are placed in foster homes until they can be reunited.

As heartbreaking as it was to say goodbye to his good girl in April, Lopez took comfort in knowing she would spend their time apart in a loving home.

That gave me a lot of peace of mind in the hospital, Lopez said. I was just hoping she remembered me while I was away.

As a dog mom, I know theres no way to help our pets understand that when we drop them off somewhere, well come back; that we would never leave them, that theyre a piece of our heart.

But we say to them anyway, Ill be back. I promise. Be a good girl. I love you.

In July, Kandi and Lopez were reunited. Not only did she remember him, she settled right back into sleeping on his chest.

I told the people at PAWS, if I had a million dollars Id donate it to them for all the care they did for Kandi, because thats how much Kandi means to me, Lopez said.

Two-and-half years ago, Lopezs VA psychiatrist recommended he get a service dog to help with his PTSD and depression.

As he was touring Rags2Riches Rescues Delaware County adoption center, a little dog stopped barking, sat down, and looked up at him. Red-hued and brindled, she had big floppy ears that were trying to stand up, but instead, stood out like airplane wings.

Lopez learned she was a red heeler, an Australian cattle dog, and even though she was just 6 months old, he could see the scars on her nose and face, from where shed been used for fighting.

She was a rescue dog, and I was thinking OK, thats like me, a rescue person, Lopez recalled. I said Well get along together.

Lopez named her Kandi because shes so sweet shell make your teeth rot. Kandi took quickly to training and loved running around with Lopezs grandchildren, trying to herd them like sheep.

The two soon became inseparable; wherever Lopez went, Kandi went too  to the park, the store, and his VA appointments.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Within a two-year period, Lopez lost his sister and one of his youngest sons, a twin who was 28. The loss crushed Lopez, and Kandi too.

Kandi was seeing I was in distress and she would try her best to comfort me, he said.

Lopezs doctor urged him to seek in-patient care. He spent a week-and-a-half at the VA hospital, then 60 days at the VAs Snyder House, a transitional home for veterans.

But first, he had to drop off Kandi. He did so at ACCT, before she was placed in foster care by PAWS.

Kandi looked at me and her ears dropped and her tail dropped and I was feeling so bad, I was like Oh my god, what have I done? he said of the drop-off. It was like I was abandoning her, and I was abandoned a lot when I was young. It brought me to tears.

Lopez went into the hospital on April 17, and throughout his stay, he received regular text and photo updates on Kandi, who split her time between two foster homes. She was first placed with Xochitl Mellor, 31, of West Philly, and her husband.

Kandi was Mellors first foster. Shes always wanted a dog of her own, but as a pediatric resident at CHOP, her schedule makes it difficult. PAWS provided Mellor with everything she needed to care for Kandi, from a crate to blankets and toys.

Shes so friendly; shed help me de-stress after work and wed go on runs together, Mellor said. Shes the nicest dog.

Knowing Kandi had a loving owner to go back to also helped ease any concerns of foster failing. As someone whod like to foster but already has two dogs, I worry about foster failing with a third. This program makes that a nonissue.

It was like Oh, we cant foster fail with this dog, shes going home to someone else, Mellor said. I was already in love with Kandi, but he had her for two years, and it felt good to know were helping with their bond.

Mellor said she even received updates on Kandi from her second foster family, who fell in love with her too.

On July 6, Lopez went to PAWS to bring Kandi home. The reunion was emotional for both of them.

I was so excited I couldnt contain myself, and she remembered everything, Lopez said.

Liberty Britton, PAWS spokesperson, said the Safety Net Foster Program is a way to keep that precious pet-person bond intact.

PAWs has always taken the view that we cant adopt our way out of pet homelessness, we not only need to rescue the most vulnerable pets, but also we need to prevent pets being surrendered in the first place, she said.

Since April 2022, the program has cared for 63 cats and nine dogs, but the need for support far exceeds PAWS current capacity.

In order to expand, were really hoping people can step up to be fosters, make donations to support the program, she said.

Those interested in donating or fostering a pet can find information at phillypaws.org/foster. If youre a pet owner facing a crisis and need information about the program, you can email dogintake@phillypaws.org or catintake@phillypaws.org.

I hope the people who read this know the love between a person and their dog and see the importance of this foster program, Lopez said. Kandi really changed my life and Im so happy that I got her, and got to keep her.
Donald Trump (left) and Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate in 2020. A New York Times/Siena poll found that if Trump and Biden are renominated in 2024, 14% of respondents said they would vote for someone else. Read more

When President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, his inauguration saw not just a change in political parties, but a generational shift in the leadership of our nation.

Kennedy told the assembled crowd and those watching at home that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans  born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage. Times were changing, and a new generation of leaders  including Kennedy and his 1960 GOP opponent, Richard Nixon  was stepping forward to take the place of the old.

Remember when that used to happen? In 1992, the last of Kennedy and Nixons generation of World War II veterans yielded to the baby boomers in the person of Bill Clinton. Theyve never left, except to yield to an even older man in Joe Biden (born 1942). And unlike the passing of the old order in 1960 or 1992, the trailing end of the boomer and boomer-adjacent presidencies is increasingly shambolic and corrupt.

We owe it to ourselves to give the country a fresh start.

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 READ MORE: FBI caused lasting harm to our nation with Donald Trump investigation | Kyle Sammin

A New York Times/Siena poll released last week shows the front-runners for the two major parties, Biden and Donald Trump, neck and neck in the race for another term. It seems like a time when a new voice  one that is free of scandal  might be an easy ticket to victory. Instead, the Democrats are determined to renominate the 80-year-old president, even as deepening concern over his sons business dealings drag his reputation and his approval rating lower.

The latest revelations about Bidens role in his sons influence peddling have forced the White House and its allies to change their stories once again. When running for office in 2020  when, we should note, some of this malfeasance was already known  Biden told the press that he had never discussed business with his son Hunter. Earlier this month, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shifted that disclaimer ever so slightly, telling reporters that President Biden was never in business with his son.

After last weeks congressional testimony by Hunters former friend and business associate, Devon Archer, Bidens friends in Congress and the press shifted that yet again. Sure, Hunters dad talked on the phone with his business partners, but they never talked business. Just chatting about the weather! Hunter, in this latest version of the story, was only selling the illusion of access.

If its such a nothing story, its strange that the U.S. Department of Justice offered Hunter a plea deal so sweeping that the prosecutor was forced to admit that it had no precedent in the departments history. After being told by the judge to rethink things, Hunters new plea agreement dropped the offending clause  DOJs promise never to prosecute him on anything he did in the past, even things that were not the subject of the pending gun and tax charges. If this doesnt raise the question of special treatment, Im not sure what would.

Against this tired, corrupt administration, Republicans have a chance for an easy victory. So, of course, they wont do that. Instead, former President Trump sits atop the polls, seemingly rising in popularity with each passing indictment.

Its hard to believe that Americans would look at the 2020 election and say, Yeah, lets run it back. But here we are.

Trumps latest indictment, whether it is successful in proving a crime or not, is just more evidence of his deficient character and lack of presidential temperament. Its not as tawdry or grasping as the Biden familys alleged enrichment through their access to political power (though Trumps relatives stand accused of some of that, too), but it is far more serious.

 READ MORE: Biden couldnt wave away student loan debt. He should do the hard work and fix the system. | Kyle Sammin

Selling access  sorry, the illusion of access  to high office is bad, but subverting the Constitution in an attempt to keep power, as Trump is accused of doing, undermines more than one man or one administration; it erodes the very basis of our republican form of government. Fair and free elections and the peaceful transfer of power are essential to a republic. Weve spent nearly 250 years building up these ideals, but they only need to be violated a few times before people start to see them as mere suggestions.

To say that the current generation of presidents are past their prime is not to attack all people their age. Saying All boomers do this or All Gen Xers do that is lazy thinking. But maybe, after 32 years of increasingly degraded leadership, the American people could be forgiven for looking elsewhere for our next chief executive. Its time to pass that torch again.

If you agree, youre not the only one. Another factoid from that New York Times poll is that if Trump and Biden are both renominated, 14% of respondents said they would vote for some other person  even though this was not one of the answers suggested in the polling question. A small but growing minority is telling anyone who will listen that if this is the best the two parties have to offer, its just not good enough to win their votes.

One or both of those parties ought to listen to them.
A sea drone approaches a Russian warship, the Olenegorsky Gonyak, near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in this screen grab taken from video released Friday. Read more

KYIV, Ukraine  Ukraine wont sit passively by while Russia blockades and destroys its Black Sea ports and grain silos, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told me late last month in an interview in his office.

You threaten our ships or those of our friends and we will mirror what you do, he pledged to the Russians. He wasnt kidding.

On Friday, Kyiv used sophisticated sea drones to damage a Russian warship outside the key Russian Black Sea naval base of Novorossiysk, the first time such a weapon had hit a Russian port. On the same day, Ukraines maritime authority warned that any ships approaching six Russian Black Sea ports would be at war risk  a response to Russias threats against international ships carrying Ukrainian grain.

We had a good experience with the Moskva, Reznikov recalled, referring to the Russian flagship Ukraine sunk in April 2022 with a Ukrainian-designed Neptune missile. We have the capacity to continue this story, he added.

Indeed, Kyivs skilled, crowdfunded tech sector, which has been working side-by-side with the military, has developed a new weapon  sophisticated sea drones  whose long-range capabilities have taken the Russian invaders by surprise.

On Saturday, a drone attack hit a Russian oil tanker off the east coast of occupied Crimea. Reznikov warned that Ukraine will respond to Moscows destruction of Ukrainian exports by imposing economic costs on Russian oil and other exports traversing Black Sea waters. He told me bluntly, The price will rise for insurance for ships going into Russian ports via the Black Sea.

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This is not, as claimed by some shortsighted critics of U.S. aid to Ukraine, a dangerous tit-for-tat battle in a conflict that has deteriorated into an endless war of attrition and has nothing to do with the United States.

This is Ukraine taking upon itself the heavy burden of fighting to preserve the principle of freedom of navigation in international waters that Russian warships are illegally attempting to dominate. Far better if NATO members would patrol these waters, given that three NATO nations border the Black Sea: Bulgaria, Romania, and the militarily powerful, Turkey. But the White House has made clear it has no interest in such patrols taking place.

Yet, if NATO permits Russia to illegally control much of the Black Sea, why should it not attempt to do the same in the Arctic, the Baltic Sea, or off the Aleutian Islands near Alaska?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, jointly with the United Nations, had brokered a deal in July 2022 that enabled Ukraine to export some of its grain, which is critical to global food markets. But Russia thumbed its nose at Erdogan and NATO by quitting the deal last month and threatening international shipping.

Kyiv still hopes Erdogan might persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to renew the deal, because, as Reznikov put it, the Turkish leader considers this a very important mission. The defense minister noted that Turkey has the military capacity to escort Ukrainian grain ships but it is a political question. So far no sign that Erdogan will take up that challenge.

Meantime, Russias response to mediation efforts to restore the grain deal has been to punish Ukraine by raining missiles and Iranian-made drones on its Black Sea port in Odesa and its river ports on the Danube.

Moscow has also continued its criminal attacks on civilian infrastructure in other cities, targeting a Kharkiv blood bank filled with donors on Saturday in apparent reprisal for the drone hits. A blood bank!

So there is much more the United States and NATO allies should be doing to help the Ukrainian Davids daring sea drone attacks by limiting the Russian Goliaths ability to hit back from the air.

 READ MORE: As Russian missiles again rain down on Odesa, Putin sneers at the U.N. and NATO allies | Trudy Rubin

We must continue to strengthen our air defenses, Reznikov told me. Our priority number one is to protect our major cities.

After more than a year of hesitation, the Biden administration finally greenlit the delivery of two U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv in April, which now successfully defend Ukraines capital city.

We need more Patriots and NASAMS (another surface-to-air missile system), said Reznikov, to defend the port hub of Odesa, along with Lviv, Kharkiv, and the industrial region of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. Those air defense systems will also be vital if the fighting continues through winter so that Moscow cannot wholly destroy Ukraines electric power generation systems and freeze the country.

Listening to Reznikov, two things became clear: First, at this critical point in the war it is self-defeating for the West to slow-walk weapons systems that could speed a positive outcome of the counteroffensive. And second, Washington must expand its vision of how this war could end.

The defense minister stressed that the arrival of U.S.-made F-16 warplanes (provided by NATO allies in Europe) will be a game changer. F-16s or other modern fourth-generation-plus planes would strengthen our air defenses.

Moreover, the arrival of modern aircraft would change the whole dynamic of the current ground battle, in which Kyiv has only limited numbers of old Soviet warplanes that are vastly outnumbered by modernized Russian fighter jets. Ukrainian infantry are essentially fighting without air cover, which flies in the face of NATO military doctrine which demands that an advancing army first take control of the skies.

However, Washington delayed approval so long for permitting European allies to even begin training F-16 pilots that the warplanes wont arrive in time for the current counteroffensive. The first of these birds will fly in the spring, Reznikov told me.

Big opportunity missed.

Which brings me to the second takeaway from my interview: If the administration wants this war to end soon and successfully, it must not be timid about aiding Ukraines innovative efforts to halt Russian aggression from the Black Sea.

The White House foot-dragging on F-16s, and on delivering the long-range missiles known as ATACMS, appears to reflect a fear that attacks on major Russian supply depots and bases in Crimea would cross a red line with Putin. However, the Crimean Peninsula has become a heavily armed fortress pushing into the belly of southern Ukraine from the Black Sea. Cutting it off from Russian supply lines is key to Ukraine winning this war.

Kyiv is making clear it cant wait for the White House.

With its sea drone attacks, including a new hit that damaged Putins prized Kerch bridge linking Russia to Crimea, Kyiv is making clear it cant wait for the White House: neutralizing Crimea and the Black Sea fleet is a critical step toward forcing Russian troops to leave Ukraine.

Reznikov believes the administration may be changing its thinking on Crimea. Maybe last year Crimea was a red line, he said. But when we asked for Harpoon anti-ship missiles right after the Russian invasion, he recalled, we were told it was impossible. So we used the Ukrainian-made Neptune to sink the Moskva. After that we got the Harpoons.

Last week it was very noisy in Crimea. That means we will use every moment to destroy their ammunition depots and their headquarters.

In other words, Ukraine will move forward with its own technological innovations but hopes their success will spur Washington to deliver systems it is still delaying. The chances of overall success would be dramatically increased if F-16s could be delivered sooner (why not train the pilots at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where there are more experienced trainers?).

And theres no excuse for the White House to hold back ATACMS long-range missiles, which could amplify the drone attacks on Russian supply depots and Crimean bases.

When I asked Reznikov how Ukraine could win, he quickly replied, As we did it before. A lot of countries thought Kyiv would fall in three nights and we liberated our territory.

Then I asked where he thought Ukraine would be in a year. I hope we will meet next year and I will not be minister of defense, meaning we won and you can fly into Boryspil airport in Kyiv, he retorted. We will discuss internal reforms, and whether or not they are enough, and rebuilding the country. And also our new security architecture with our NATO partners.

If Ukrainian determination and technological skill can be combined with swift delivery of key U.S. systems, Reznikovs hopes may not be a dream.
August 7, 2023: Saying neither one was like Tom Sawyer, who tricked his friend Ben Rogers into finishing painting a fence in the Mark Twain novel, Woodrow Smith and Judith Pardun paint her fence together along busy Nicholson Road in Audubon, N.J. Read more

I recently marked an anniversary at The Inquirer, so Ive been asked a lot lately if i havent gotten tired of being a newspaper photographer.

How can I be?

When I can drive past a scene straight out of Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  but then pull Into an Acme parking lot, walk across four lanes of busy traffic, approach a couple I dont even know and say, Hi. Which one of you is Tom Sawyer, trying to trick the other one into painting the whole fence?

Pardum, the mother of Smiths son, bought the fence two years ago with COVID American Rescue Plan money and Smith put it up for her. She waited a few years before getting around to painting it. Thankfully, Pardum said, she was on vacation the week after last weeks heat wave, so the weather was much more conducive to outdoor work. And, it was Smiths day off.

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Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralishs Scene Through the Lens photo column in The Inquirers local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

 SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column
Jarrett Smith is running in Philadelphia for the post of city commissioner Office on the Working Families Party ticket. Read more

A bipartisan group of voters filed a legal challenge Monday to remove a Working Families Party candidate running for city commissioner in Philadelphia from Novembers general election ballot.

The candidate, Jarrett Smith, is running for the commissioner seat that is reserved for a member of the nonmajority party. The challenge underscores political tensions in the city as the progressive Working Families Party attempts to oust Republicans from city government in commissioner and City Council races this fall.

Democrats are favored to win the other two commissioners seats. But both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns about having no GOP representation among the commissioners, who administer elections  especially as the city prepares for the 2024 presidential election.

Smith is running against Seth Bluestein, a Republican appointed as a city commissioner last year who is now seeking a full four-year term. Bluesteins father, Kerry Bluestein, is one of the voters participating in the challenge.

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The challenge to Smiths candidacy, filed by attorney Kevin Greenberg, said Smith filed a candidates statement of financial interests with the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission but did not file that document with the Philadelphia Department of Records.

Greenberg, who has close ties to the Democratic Party in the city and state, wrote in the challenge that missing that crucial step in filing his candidacy last week requires that Smith be removed from the ballot.

Smith did not respond to a request for comment Monday. He tweeted Tuesday morning that his campaign was reviewing the details of the challenge and will be making a decision as to how to move forward with our campaign.

Bluestein was a top aide in 2020 to then-Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt when both faced death threats and other abuse for rejecting former President Donald Trumps lies about election fraud in Philadelphia.

Bluestein was appointed last year by Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, to replace Schmidt, who resigned and is now Pennsylvanias secretary of state.

Bluestein declined to comment Monday on the legal challenge filed against Smith.

One of the voters bringing the challenge, Gregg Kravitz, questioned whether Smiths background as a labor lobbyist made him qualified to run elections in the city.

Kravitz, a Democrat who served as a deputy city commissioner with Bluestein in Schmidts office, said he was concerned that Trump could again be the Republican nominee for president and make more false claims about election integrity in Philadelphia.

I think its important to not only have a Republican but someone like Seth Bluestein, who is an independent-minded Republican, Kravitz said.

The third voter in the legal challenge, Ross Kessler, is an independent who donated $1,100 to Bluesteins campaign in 2022.

The Working Families Party, along with some allies in elected office, objected last year when it became clear Kenney would appoint Bluestein without considering someone from their party.

Philadelphias Home Rule Charter requires that two of seven City Council at-large seats and one of three city commissioner seats be reserved for members not in the majority political party.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-to-1 in the city.

The Republicans who win the most votes in November elections have taken those seats for seven decades until 2019, when Kendra Brooks won a City Council at-large seat running on the Working Families Party ticket.

Brooks is seeking another term this year, joined on her partys ticket with Nicholas ORourke, who is running for City Council at-large, and Smith.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, then a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping on legal challenges to vote counting in Pennsylvania, Nov. 7, 2020, in Philadelphia. Read more

Six weeks after the 2020 election, senior campaign officials for Donald Trump called a group of loyal Pennsylvania Republicans to walk them through how they would convene two days later to cast the state electoral votes for the sitting president.

There was a problem: Joe Biden had already been declared the certified winner in Pennsylvania. So a number of the Republicans on the Dec. 12 conference call, who had volunteered to serve as Trump electors if he won the state, said they were uncomfortable portraying themselves as legitimate electors, according to a federal indictment filed against Trump last week accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The campaign officials, led by lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told the electors they were meeting on a contingency basis only, the indictment says. After the call, campaign officials circulated language to add to the Pennsylvania elector certificates to be submitted to Washington asserting that the votes were intended to count only if Trump prevailed in litigation in the state.

Campaign officials urged one another to keep this new language under wraps so that other states would not copy it. "If it gets out we changed the language for PA it could snowball," one campaign official wrote, according to the indictment.

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The allegation that campaign officials sought to prevent electors in other states from learning about the language used in Pennsylvania is a key new revelation in the four-count, 45-page federal indictment, which accuses Trump of a sprawling effort to "retain power" illegally with the help of six co-conspirators.

Trump's defenders have long insisted that the elector scheme was legal because the slates met as mere placeholders, to be activated only if the campaign won in court. Prosecutors now charge that Trump, Giuliani and others intended all along to use the electors to falsely claim the outcome of the election was in doubt, facilitating an effort to obstruct the certification of Biden's victory in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Legal experts said proving that Trump and his co-conspirators were lying when they said the electors were meeting just in case will be a central challenge of winning a conviction. Especially important may be the experience in Pennsylvania, where new interviews by The Washington Post reveal the extent of discomfort with the plan by Trump electors.

In five other states, Republicans did not hedge. Instead, they signed paperwork claiming to be electors for the president and casting their votes for Trump, even though he had lost their states. Electors in a seventh state, New Mexico, included contingency language similar to that in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign then moved ahead with plans to use all the certificates to pressure Congress not to certify the electoral college count for Biden.

A spokesman for Trump did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The Trump campaign denounced the indictment as "nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter" in a politically motivated "witch hunt" by the Biden administration.

Included in the evidence special counsel Jack Smith offers is the fact that several of those campaign officials fretted internally about the legitimacy of the scheme. The indictment also cites a memo from Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro outlining a plan to falsely present the Trump elector slates as an alternative to Biden electors on Jan. 6.

The indictment describes how no election challenges remained in New Mexico on Dec. 14, 2020, but the campaign filed a new lawsuit at 11:54 a.m., six minutes before the noon deadline for the electors to vote, presumably to give the Trump electors a rationale for meeting. And it documents how officials wanted to keep the Pennsylvania contingency language under wraps.

What the indictment does not say is whether all the doubts it documented about the legality of the elector plan were conveyed to Trump or if Trump had ever acknowledged that possibility. It alleges that his false claims of election fraud were "integral to his criminal plans" to obstruct certification. And it emphasizes his deep interest in the elector scheme, describing his demands for updates and for a public statement the day before the electors convened.

The Smith investigation into the electors does not appear to be over. In recent days, federal prosecutors have issued a new raft of subpoenas about the elector scheme in multiple states, according to people with knowledge of their activities who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

So far, federal prosecutors have not named any electors as co-conspirators, though local prosecutors are investigating electors in at least four states and have charged all 16 of his electors in Michigan with felonies.

- - -

Doubts about a 'donkey show'

The federal indictment adds to a large body of evidence that the Trump electors scheme had generated ample doubt not only in Pennsylvania but also inside the campaign and in the six other states where electors were being asked to convene.

Inside the campaign, former and current Trump advisers said most of his original 2020 team was in the dark about what Giuliani and other lawyers new to the team were doing, and believed it was a "stupid" if not illegal plan that was simply meant to pacify an angry president, in the words of a former senior campaign official. Those who were involved in the scheme kept the strategy closely held, according to three former campaign officials.

According to the indictment, Trump eagerly followed the progress of the plan. The day before the electors were set to meet, he asked an adviser "what was going on" with the scheme, and he directed the adviser to "put out a statement on the electors." Documents released by the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol identify the aide as Jason Miller.

Internal text exchanges, meanwhile, show that no one wanted to sign such a statement. "How best [to] proceed tomorrow so we don't look like a donkey show, particularly on the comms/media front?" Miller asked several other campaign officials in a group text. Deputy campaign manager Justin Clark wrote back: "Here's the thing the way this has morphed it's a crazy play so I don't know who wants to put their name on it."

Out in the states, similar doubts percolated. New Mexico electors included contingency language similar to the Pennsylvania language. It is not clear why the Trump campaign included New Mexico in the scheme, since Biden won the solidly Democratic state by more than 10 percentage points. The other six states produced Biden's narrowest winning margins.

Laura Cox, the chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party at the time, unsuccessfully sought to ensure the paperwork in that state was purely "ceremonial" because she was uncomfortable having people sign paperwork saying they were the state electors, she told House investigators. Cox described how some Michigan Republicans considered hiding Trump electors overnight in the state capitol to make sure they could gain access to the building when it came time to meet. She testified that she thought the idea was "insane and inappropriate" and helped make sure it did not happen.

In Wisconsin, the executive director of the state Republican Party alerted its chairman, Andrew Hitt, that Giuliani was telling states not to let the media know about plans for the Republican electors to meet. Hitt replied: "These guys are up to no good and it's gonna fail miserably," according to documents gathered by the House select committee.

Hitt later told the committee he felt comfortable about the Republican electors meeting because a challenge was still pending in court. He had been assured repeatedly that the Wisconsin meeting was happening only to ensure the Republican electoral votes for the state would be counted if Trump managed to win the lawsuit. He never thought of making revisions to the Wisconsin paperwork that would have made clear the Republican votes were valid only with the approval of a court.

"I wish we would have put it in there," he told the committee.

The conversations appear to have been particularly fraught in Pennsylvania. According to emails published by the committee, a top attorney for Pennsylvania Republicans expressed deep reservations about the plan a day before the electors met.

Thomas W. King III, the general counsel for the state Republican Party, sent a Trump campaign official an email the day before the electors were set to meet saying he understood the Trump electors in Pennsylvania were told they would receive "indemnification by the campaign if someone gets sued or worse."

They were also to receive "a legal opinion by a national firm and certified to be accurate by a Pa. lawyer," King wrote. Instead, he wrote, they got a memo from Chesebro, one of six unnamed co-conspirators referred to in the indictment, in which even Chesebro describes the plan in Pennsylvania as "dicey" because state law calls for the governor, who at the time was a Democrat, to approve any elector substitutions.

King made changes to the electors paperwork to make clear the Republican electoral votes were valid only with the finding of a court order that could not be appealed. In an interview last week, King said he made those modifications after hearing concerns from electors. "No one ever offered indemnification," he said. "Any document that any lawyer looks at needs to be accurate."

One Pennsylvania Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said a concern of the electors was "presenting yourself as fraudulent." The person said several electors spoke to their personal attorneys about potential legal vulnerabilities. "They were all doing a little research on their own background about what they'd be getting themselves into and what they'd be opening themselves up to," the Republican recalled.

Three days before the electors were to meet, Lawrence Tabas, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, contacted Hitt, his counterpart in Wisconsin, to ask if the Republican electors in his state would be meeting. Hitt confirmed they would be.

Hitt also told House investigators that Tabas said, "Well, I guess this is just all new to me. I'm not sure why we're, what's going on or why we're doing this, and I'm getting all these calls from the Trump campaign." Tabas and six others ultimately chose not to participate in the meeting, more defectors than in any other state.

- - -

When is a scheme a crime?

The indictment alleges that Trump and his co-conspirators "falsely" told Republican electors that they were convening purely to protect the campaign's legal recourse and that their real purpose was to submit "fraudulent" elector slates for Congress to consider in lieu of Biden elector slates. For instance, the indictment notes, an Arizona attorney who consulted with Chesebro a week before the Republican electors met wrote in an email that they planned on "sending in 'fake' electoral votes" that "aren't legal under federal law."

But the details also show the challenge prosecutors face in trying to prove that the elector scheme amounted to a crime and raise the question of who else besides Trump and the unnamed co-conspirators cited in the indictment might be implicated down the road. Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University and the director of its election law program, said the caveat in the Pennsylvania elector slate could make it difficult to criminalize their activity.

"The conditionality, I think, has got to protect you from criminality because you are basically putting everybody on notice that you are not claiming to be an elector unless this condition becomes favorable to you, which it clearly did not," said Foley, who has studied the disputed national elections and the role of electors.

But the calculation is likely different for those who attempted to use those certificates to create uncertainty at the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame whose research includes federal election administration and the electoral college. "Other actors taking that certificate with that contingent language to try to gin up a controversy for the vice president, or for Congress to consider, have even less of a leg to stand on," Muller said.

Giuliani, who is described in the indictment as Co-Conspirator 1, issued a strong rebuke of the indictment in television interviews last week. "This indictment is an outrage," Giuliani said on Newsmax. "Whether you agree or disagree, whether this is true or false, every single thing here he had every right to say as an American citizen. When the hell does the government get to tell you that you can't object to an election?"

John Eastman, a Trump lawyer described as Co-Conspirator 2 in the indictment and accused of devising and attempting to implement the elector strategy, released a similar statement through his lawyer. The indictment "relies on a misleading presentation of the record to contrive criminal charges," the statement said. It also accuses the Biden administration of targeting his "leading political opponent" in the 2024 contest.

John Malcolm, a former federal prosecutor based in Atlanta who is now a constitutional scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the indictment appears to be attempting to criminalize the efforts of the Trump lawyers to advocate on his behalf. Lawyers make arguments all the time that prove to be wrong in court, but that does not make them criminal, he said.

And doing so could have a chilling effect on their jobs. "Putting forward plausible but ultimately unavailing legal arguments, that is what lawyers do and that is what they should do," Malcolm said. "And they should do it on behalf of their clients even if their clients are not very popular."

Election litigation was still pending in all but two of the states, Nevada and Michigan, which is sure to be a core defense not only in the federal case but also in an investigation in Fulton County in Georgia, where some alternate electors have been named as targets by local prosecutor Fani Willis.

Willis appears to be focused on those who planned and led the elector meeting in the state capitol in Atlanta. Defense attorneys for several of the electors indicated in a court filing in May that at least eight of the 16 Trump electors accepted immunity in the case. Among the details Willis appears to be examining are instructions electors received to keep the meeting secret and efforts by elector Shawn Still to initially bar the public.

State charges pending against the Trump electors in Michigan may be easier to prosecute given that there were no more outstanding court cases in the state on Dec. 14, 2020. The electors signed certificates that looked official and attempted to deliver them to the state capitol but were barred from entering.

The certificates were sent on to Washington nonetheless, and last month Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) announced charges of forgery and other felonies against the 16 Trump electors in that state. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) is also examining the elector meeting. In addition, Biden electors have sued Trump electors in Wisconsin and Michigan. The civil actions, if successful, could carry stiff penalties of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per person.

Republicans have bristled at the lawsuits, saying Democrats are trying to punish them for preserving their legal options. But at the time, some Republicans had suggested that the gambit would fail. Clark, the deputy campaign manager, summed up how the plan was likely to unfold in a text message to a colleague: In AZ WI NV GA MI our slates of electors will also vote. PA probably wont happen. They will be called invalid and out of order (and theyre probably right).
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney was once rumored to be eyeing a run for higher office, and in 2020 he created a state-registered political action committee to boost his profile outside the city. Read more

In early 2020, things were looking good for Mayor Jim Kenney, who had just coasted to reelection after a productive first term and was eyeing statewide office.

In June of that year, he launched Kenney PAC, a political action committee that he said would help progressive candidates in the forthcoming legislative races in Pennsylvania defeat extremist pro-Trump Republicans.

Giving money to Democrats across the state would have built goodwill for a mayor little known outside Southeastern Pennsylvania, and news of the PAC helped fuel speculation that Kenney might run for U.S. Senate or governor in 2022.

 READ MORE: Philly Mayor Jim Kenney launched a statewide political group, fueling rumors of a run for governor

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But of the more than $780,000 that Kenney PAC has spent over the last three years, only about $60,000 went to other campaigns, according to an analysis of campaign finance reports. Instead, the PACs money has primarily gone to benefit operatives close to Kenney  who abandoned his hopes of higher office after his popularity tanked starting in 2020  and to pay for miscellaneous expenses, such as events, hotel rooms, and restaurant bills.

Those expenditures included:

About $470,000 in payments to three consultants or firms that had worked on his previous campaigns, even though Kenney wasnt running for office during that period. About $30,000 in event expenses for fundraisers. About $6,000 for hotels, airfare, and train tickets for the mayors travels. $24,000 spent at bars and restaurants.

The bar and restaurant spending included $280 at the Met Opera bar in New York City, $2,700 for 20 trips to Dolce Italian in Center City, and $1,300 for 15 outings to the Race Street Cafe, a bar near Kenneys Old City condo that hes been known to frequent.

Kenney spokesperson Marty ORourke said the PAC was established to help the mayor explore future political options while also maintaining a necessary and separate political operation from his City Hall governmental operation.

As a political public figure, the mayor has ongoing political staffing and advisory demands that cannot be performed by any city employee. Political consultants should not be on the taxpayers dime, ORourke said. The PAC continued to raise and spend money in order to keep the mayors political options open as well as maintain and pay for his separate political operation.

Theres nothing illegal about how Kenney PAC has raised or spent money. But its an example of how moneyed interests such as those who gave to the PAC find ways to influence elected officials, said Patrick Christmas, policy director at the good-government group Committee of Seventy. It also highlights Pennsylvanias weak campaign finance laws, which have few restrictions on how political money can be spent, he said.

One of the reasons that interests and individuals make contributions to public officials is to have some degree of access, Christmas said. Like water moving downhill, the money is going to continue to find its way toward elected officials and those with power.

Where does Kenney PACs money come from?

Kenney PAC is not subject to Philadelphias limits on the size of political donations because it is registered with the state, not the city, and has not been used to influence the outcome of a city election. That has allowed donors to give more than they were allowed to give to Kenneys mayoral campaigns.

The contribution limits in this years mayors race, for instance, are $6,200 a year from individual donors and $25,200 a year from organizations. Kenney PAC has accepted checks as large as $50,000.

About $399,000 of the $850,000 the PAC raised came from building trades unions, which were critical to Kenneys victories in the 2015 and 2019 mayoral elections. The electricians union led the way by giving $240,000. All but $15,000 of that was donated when the union was led by John J. Dougherty, who was Kenneys most important political supporter until he resigned from the union in November 2021 after being convicted on federal corruption charges.

Other donors include builders, lobbyists, the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, and Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, a law firm with a city contract to collect unpaid taxes.

What is the purpose of Kenney PAC?

ORourke said the PAC was formed to help Kenney explore running for higher office. The $60,000 in donations to other candidates was part of that effort, he said.

Kenney PAC gave $1,000 to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), $15,000 to State Sen. Vince Hughes (D., Phila.), and $1,000 to City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr., among others.

But Kenneys political fortunes began to go south  a turning point was the citys widely criticized handling of the 2020 civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd  and he confirmed in August 2021 that he was not going to run for a new office in the 2022 election cycle. At that point, the purpose of the PAC shifted, ORourke said.

The unpredictability of COVID, coupled with the mayors primary focus being the COVID pandemic in the city, complicated any secondary political considerations, decision-making, planning and timing, under ever-changing circumstances, ORourke said in a statement. While the exploratory effort eventually waned, the mayor continues to have political interests within the city and throughout the commonwealth, and much like a federal leadership PAC, Kenney PAC enables him to pursue these interests.

Large sums of money went to political operatives. ORourkes firm has received about $125,000 from the PAC. Political consultant Brandon Evans, who managed Kenneys 2019 reelection, took in $136,000. And Keystone Political Advising, which was founded by Maura Munley, a veteran of both of Kenneys mayoral campaigns, made about $211,000.

As for the tens of thousands spent on dining out, ORourke said that was for meetings relevant to Kenneys political aims.

Consistent with state law, Kenney PAC is authorized to make expenditures when there is a political purpose  when the mayor is meeting with supporters and others to discuss politics, or to help enact policies for which he was overwhelmingly elected for a second term, ORourke said. It is appropriate for PAC money to be used in this vein.

Kenney PAC has also paid for about $42,000 in concessions at the Wells Fargo Center and Citizens Bank Park. That covered guests meals in the mayors boxes at those stadiums, which host a variety of guests ranging from groups of students to administration officials and their families.

Rather than use taxpayer money to pay for food and meals at such events where the mayor builds important relationships to further the citys interests, Kenney PAC is employed, ORourke said.

Kenney, who is term-limited, will leave office in January. He has not yet disclosed what he plans to do after his 32-year City Hall career ends.
A tree down along Kelly Drive on the inbound side in the Strawberry Mansion section on Monday August 7, 2023. Read more

A line of potent thunderstorms that blitzed through the region Monday evening at turnpike speed set off tornado alarms and flood advisories, took down trees and wires, and resulted in more than 135,000 power outages.

Tornado warnings were issued in parts of Philadelphia  where thousands of outages were reported  and for northern Chester County and parts of Montgomery County. A funnel cloud was sighted near Coatesville, the National Weather Service said.

The weather service was flooded with damage reports, said Dean Iovino, a lead meteorologist with the Mount Holly office, however no tornado had yet been confirmed.

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A gust of 55 mph was measured in Glenside, Montgomery County, and multiple trees were reported downed throughout the region. A downed tree blocked an eastbound lane of the Schuylkill Expressway near King of Prussia.

Heavy rains prompted a flood advisory for Chester and Delaware Counties and northern Delaware. However, it was later lifted, likely the result of how swiftly the potent line was moving. Once it got to our area it kind of sped up, Iovino said.

The storm threat resulted in the postponement of the Phillies game against the Washington Nationals, which will be made up as part of doubleheader on Tuesday.

That turned out to be a prudent decision, because the storms were at their peak ferocity around the scheduled start of Mondays game 6:40 p.m.

Forecasters over the weekend were warning of the severe threat, and the governments Storm Prediction Center on Monday had issued a tornado watch for Philadelphia and all of eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware.

Sunshine was abundant in much of the region Monday, but it was not particularly welcome, said Iovino. That additional energy, he said, just helped to further destabilize conditions.

 READ MORE: Jim Kenney raised money to boost progressive candidates but spent it on consultants and restaurant tabs

The Philadelphia region endured one of the stormiest Julys on record, in which the National Weather Service issued 123 severe-thunderstorm warnings throughout its service territory, which includes all of Delaware and most of New Jersey. Its the second-most since they began keeping records in 1986, only behind July 2021, when the service issued 132 warnings. The average number of thunderstorm warnings for July is 47.

Thunderstorms were observed officially at Philadelphia International Airport on 15 different days in July  five more than in 2021, according to weather service data. The long-term average for the month is 5.8.

Mondays thunderstorms were the first in the last eight days. That was the longest streak without a thunderstorm in Philly since May, according to weather service records.

On the brighter side, the weather forecast looks pleasant for Tuesday and Wednesday, with temperatures in the mid-80s and little chance of rain. The next potential storm in the forecast is for Thursday, where scattered thunderstorms could develop later in the day.
Attracting top talent The 2023 IBA Top Insurance Employers are celebrated for their commitment to their employees across a range of factors, including benefits, compensation, culture, employee development and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Ingrid Wilson, founder and principal at GridFern Strategic HR, outlines key metrics of the best insurance companies to work for:

an environment that provides ongoing employee development



providing young or new employees with opportunities to engage in projects that will enhance their skills and build employee value proposition



leveraging enhanced technology and AI to provide flexible workspace arrangements



offering benefit packages that are culturally aware and reflective of the diverse needs of people, groups, and communities



Nancy Mellard, executive vice president and general counsel for the benefits and insurance services division of CBIZ, says, A top employer has to be constantly looking at elevating their associates, not just their top people. We want all of our associates to eventually be top people.

How do the best insurance companies to work for stand out?

Risk Placement Services (RPS) attributes its success to collaboration and creativity.

Emily Hathcoat, vice president of marketing, explains, If there is an ethos to the RPS culture, it is that every role and talent is important in us being successful together. We have a strong growth mindset and are always looking for whats new and whats next. For us to achieve our collective goals and to come through for our clients, every role is important. We put our talent first.

No person is an island at RPS

Emily Hathcoat Risk Placement Services

A key part of RPS internal structure is that no one is left unsupported.

What sets us apart is how our experts collaborate with each other across lines and areas of expertise, which means there is always a peer available to collaborate with to ensure were uncovering every possible option for our clients, as well as giving us a well-rounded view of the risk, not just from one perspective, Hathcoat says.

This is echoed at Nonstop Administration and Insurance Services, which prides itself on creating an environment based on equality.

CFO Scott Perlman says, Employees feel like they are making a difference. We want our employees to feel valued and respected so they can provide the best service possible to our clients.

We want our employees to feel valued and respected so they can provide the best service possible to our clients

Scott Perlman Nonstop Administration and Insurance Services

Nonstop delivers for its workforce by providing high-quality health insurance for less.

We regularly work with nonprofits, trade groups, and small and midsize businesses to provide first-dollar coverage and better health benefits for employees and employers through our innovative core product, Nonstop Health, connecting employees with equitable, ultra-competitive health plans without copays or deductibles, Perlman says.

This is borne out by the statistics of exceptional retention rates, which shows that Nonstop retains its top talent and why it is one of the best insurance companies to work for. The firm runs a 30/60/90 human resources program and receives firsthand accounts from new hires about their onboarding experience and training.

In 2023, the feedback showed that:

71% of new employees expressed that Nonstops culture was better than expected



66% thought that Nonstop offered amazing opportunities for employee growth and development



Perlman says, Our passion for what we do sets us apart. We advocate for employee-led social change and responsibility when it comes to employee health benefits. Above all, we are committed to our mission and to our people.

Top Insurance Employer The Bulow Group is another winner that implements initiatives that will benefit its employees.

Vacation leave has been and always will be a priority with team members. We are open to flexible work options, says CEO and co-founder Mike Bulow. With our software and client support networks, it is easy to offer perks like these and manage them from a productivity standpoint.

The Bulow Group also ensures workers can benefit from medical coverage.

It is an extremely important aspect to an employment offer, as it can really make a difference beyond your salary/PTO, etc. We have a PTO policy that includes sick leave, vacation time and more, so we do not necessarily view it as its own line item. Dental coverage would fall under our medical coverage, says Bulow.

Fellow Top Insurance Employer Brown & Riding highlights how it adopts a holistic approach.

In general, weve always prided ourselves on having rich benefits and competitive benefits at an affordable cost, says chief human resources officer Christopher Welty. Were always trying to look at the overall offering and figure out how we can make this better for employees and make it better for attracting future people.

IBA questioned the winners own employees, with the results displayed below.

How do the best insurance companies to work for compensate?

Nonstop has a golden rule: no employee earns less than $60,000 annually as part of their living wage initiative.

This allows us to recruit and attract diverse and strong talent, says Perlman.

In addition, the firm offers:

100% payment of employees medical, dental and vision insurance premiums, including dependents



group life and short-term disability



401k matching



And Nonstops employee survey in July 2022 provides clear evidence of success:

81% of Nonstops employees would strongly recommend Nonstop to others



75% of employees strongly feel like they are part of the company



93% of employees believe morale is high within the company



This chimes with The Bulow Groups approach, as the company offers bonuses and incentives.

We believe in paying our team members more than the industry average. We want to make sure our team members are able to hit their personal financial goals as they work hard for our company and our clients, says Bulow.

We believe in paying our team members more than the industry average

Mike Bulow The Bulow Group

Whereas RPS keeps pace by studying the industry.

Our HR teams are continually scanning the marketplace to ensure we are aware of competitive offerings, but the needs of our talent drive how we structure our compensation and benefits, says Hathcoat. In addition, we reward based on the success of the company as a whole. That helps ensure we are all focused on a singular goal and support each other to achieve that goal.

Welty is proud of Brown & Ridings efforts, as the firm consciously fine-tunes and makes changes to its packages when necessary.

Weve really worked hard on both our compensation and our benefits in the last couple years to continue to tweak them and make them better, he says.

Below, IBA also asked the winners employees what they were most satisfied with.

How do the best insurance companies to work for promote DE&I?

Nonstop prides itself on instilling a culture of equity, and its team is comprised of:

77% women



49% from minority backgrounds

These progressive efforts are bolstered as the firm celebrates diversity through events and initiatives such as offering education, workshops and fun activities that embrace diversity. Nonstop has also embedded DE&I into its hiring process to ensure it is fair, unbiased and inclusive. It has diverse interview panels and uses several channels to recruit employees using a more skills-based approach than hiring based on educational pedigree.

Perlman says, Our top-down approach encourages all employees to embrace innovation, try new things, make mistakes and continue to grow in their careers at Nonstop and beyond.

Fellow 2023 winner WAFD Insurance Group is part of the WAFD Bank organization that has embraced equity. It has the benefit of a DEI council consisting of five to 10 people in each region, with each regional president as the executive sponsor.

There are employee resource groups to support efforts, with four to begin the project:

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)



emerging leaders



working parents



LGBTQ+

And backing up how this has already driven success, WAFD Insurance Groups employee breakdown is:

31% non-white



8% US veteran



4% differently abled



70% women

And Welty adds, Weve really tried to be committed to being selective in ensuring that were hiring people who are a good, strong cultural match to Brown & Riding and who will fill the position well and align well with who we are and our values.

1,000+ employees

AXIS Capital

PURE Insurance

5011,000 employees

Assurance

DUAL North America

Newfront

101500 employees

Euclid Transactional

HomeServices Insurance

Jimcor Agency

Novatae Risk Group

Reliance Partners

Rich and Cartmill

Savoy Associates

Shepherd Insurance

The Mahoney Group

26100 employees

Allied Trust Insurance

Deland, Gibson Insurance Associates

Great Lakes General Agency

Hertvik Insurance Group

J. Clifton Avery Agency

MountainOne

Ollis/Akers/Arney

Provident

Risman Insurance Agencies

Riverlands Insurance Services

The Bulow Group

1025 employees
When you are forced into a situation where in order to keep the same number of trucks and drivers, you must now have employees instead of owner operators, which means that your cost per truck or cost per person that works in your business is now higher, Nibley said.
benefits;

compensation;

culture;

employee development; and

commitment to diversity and inclusion.

To be considered, each employer had to reach a minimum number of employee responses based on its overall size. Insurance employers that reached an 80% or greater average satisfaction rating from their employees were named IBA Top Insurance Employers for 2023.
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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the states longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

The decision comes about a year and a half after a lower court judge dismissed the lawsuit challenging the contentious law, which drew protests at the state Capitol.

This decision is a full and resounding affirmation of the constitutionality and legality of Connecticuts vaccine requirements. Vaccines save lives  this is a fact beyond dispute, Democratic Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. The legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and stop the spread of preventable disease.

The plaintiffs, We the Patriots USA Inc. and others, had argued that Connecticut violated religious freedom protections by removing the exemption. The 2021 law, they said, demonstrates a hostility to religious believers and jeopardizes their rights to medical freedom and child rearing.

We fully intend to seek review of this decision in the United States Supreme Court, to obtain equal justice for all children  not only in Connecticut, but in every state in the nation, Brian Festa, co-founder and vice president of We the Patriots USA Inc., said in a statement.

He said his group, which focuses on religious and medical freedom, parental rights and other matters, disagrees with the court`s conclusion that removing the exemption does not violate religious freedom under the First Amendment or the 14th Amendments guarantee of equal protection under the law.

In its decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit noted that only one court  state or federal, trial or appellate  has ever found plausible a claim of a constitutional defect in a states school vaccination mandate on account of the absence or repeal of a religious exemption.

We decline to disturb this nearly unanimous consensus, it concluded.

Connecticut law currently requires students to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school, yet allows some medical exemptions. Students could seek religious exemptions as well prior to 2021, but lawmakers decided to end that after being concerned by an uptick in exemption requests coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.

The Connecticut General Assembly ultimately passed legislation that eliminated the exemption but grandfathered students in K-12 that had already received one.

Festa called the court`s decision to return part of the lawsuit to the lower court for further consideration a victory for special needs children in the state. One of the plaintiffs argued that Connecticut`s law denies her son a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act by not allowing him a religious exemption.

While Festa said the plaintiffs, which also include three parents and the CT Freedom Alliance LLC, are hopeful the district court will determine special needs children cannot be excluded by opposing vaccinations based on religious belief.

Tong`s office said it`s confident that claim will be dismissed by the lower court.

Photo: Protestors march in 2021 before the Connecticut Senate voted on the bill to end religious exemptions to the vaccination requirements. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant via AP, File)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Connecticut
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Three New York legislators said they plan on pushing bills next year that would bar property insurers from requesting information about subsidized housing, a practice that discriminates, an NYC news outlet reported.

The Gothamist, a non-profit news organization affiliated with public radio station WNYC, said that its recent investigation had found a pervasive practice by insurers across the New York metropolitan area: Insurers routinely ask landlords and building owners if their tenants rent payments are subsidized by federal Section 8 vouchers or municipal programs  then decline to write coverage for the buildings if the answer is yes.

The news organization said it examined insurance applications and interviewed brokers, landlords and fair housing groups.

Statutes bar properties from rejecting subsidized tenants, but no prohibition applies to insurance companies, the Gothamist reported.

Now, three New York Assembly members have pledged to extend the restrictions to include property insurers. Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, called the practice reprehensible and one that reinforces stereotypes.

Fair housing groups have filed suit against insurers for the practice in other states and have reached settlements after showing it discriminates against people of color and people with disabilities, the news group noted. California is one state that bans insurance carriers from asking about tenants sources of income.

Even with the practice, insurance premiums on subsidized or income-restricted apartments climbed by 43% from 2019 to 2021 in New York, the news outlet noted. Travelers told the organization that it had updated its application process seven years ago and does not include questions about housing subsidies. Two other large insurers did not respond to questions.

The New York state legislative session begins in January.

Photo: The scene of a fatal fire at an apartment building in the Bronx in 2022. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Topics Carriers Legislation New York Property
The Japanese government is preparing to start releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site into the sea as early as late August, local newspapers including the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with cabinet members and decide on a specific timing to discharge the water after returning from a trilateral summit with the US and South Korea on Aug. 18, Yomiuri reported, citing unidentified officials. He will meet with representatives from the nations fisheries association ahead of the release, Asahi Shimbun reported.

No specific timing for the water release has been decided by the government at this time, Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary, said in a press conference Monday. The government will decide after measures to ensure safety and limit reputational damage are put in place, he said.

New Images From Inside Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Spark Safety Concerns

Japan recently cleared major hurdles to release water from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a meltdown in 2011. The International Atomic Energy Agency released a comprehensive review last month, saying the move would have negligible radiological impact on people and the environment. Japans atomic watchdog also gave approval for using the discharge facility operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.

The plan has led to friction with China, which has criticized Japan over safety concerns. The Hong Kong government has said it will ban imports of seafood and other related products from several regions in Japan if the treated water is released.

South Korea, whose relationship with Japan has improved recently under President Yoon Suk Yeols administration, has backed the plan, but has asked to be involved in monitoring the operation.

The Japanese government wants to avoid starting the procedure in September, when bottom trawling fishing begins on the coast of Fukushima prefecture, the Yomiuri reported.

A poll conducted by Japanese broadcaster JNN over the weekend found that 50% of those surveyed were in favor of plans to release the treated water from the disaster site, while 35% were against.

With assistance from Ryotaro Nakamaru.

Photograph: The storage tanks containing the treated radioactive water at Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. Photo credit: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA/Bloomberg

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP)  Slovenia has faced the worst-ever natural disaster in its history, Prime Minister Robert Golob said Saturday, after devastating floods caused damage estimated at half a billion euros ($550 million).

The floods were the biggest natural disaster in Slovenias history, Golob said after a meeting of the country`s National Security Council on Saturday. Luckily, last night was easier than the one before.

After three weather-related deaths were reported on Friday, Slovenian media said on Saturday that one more person was found dead in the capital Ljubljana. Police are yet to confirm the report.

Slovenia Hit by Worst Floods in More Than a Decade, Killing Several People

The floods were caused by torrential rains on Friday which caused rivers to swell swiftly and burst into houses, fields and towns. Slovenias weather service said a month`s worth of rain fell in less than a day.

Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fueled by climate change. Parts of Europe saw record heat and battled wildfires during the summer.

Golob said road and energy infrastructure were hit particularly hard, as well as hundreds of homes and other buildings. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes and many had to be rescued by helicopters or firefighters in boats.

Slovenias army has joined the relief effort, with troops reaching cut off areas in the north to help.

Photos from the scene showed entire villages under water, outdoor camping sites destroyed, cars stuck in mud and children`s toys crammed against fences.

The STA news agency reported that major roads in parts of Slovenia also remained partially closed on Saturday because of the flooding, including the main highway through the country. Dozens of bridges have also collapsed, and the authorities urged people not to go anywhere until damage is fully assessed.

Several severe storms in the Alpine nation earlier in the summer blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region.

Flash floods were reported also in neighboring Austria, where some 80 people were forced temporarily to leave their homes in the southern Carinthia province.

Photograph: A flooded area is seen in Ravne na Koroskem, some 60 km (38 miles) northeast of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. Heavy rains caused flash floods and landslides in parts of Slovenia, blocking roads and bridges, flooding buildings and forcing evacuations. Slovenias environmental agency, ARSO, raised the weather alert to the highest level after a months amount of rain fell within 24 hours in northern, northwestern and central parts of the country. (AP Photo/Gregor Ravnjak)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood
Australia will drastically toughen penalties against promoters of dodgy tax schemes and beef up regulatory powers under reforms announced on Sunday in response to a scandal over the use of leaked fiscal plans by PwC Australia.

The leak of the confidential government documents, by a former partner at the professional services firm, was revealed in January.

It caused a scandal that has forced out 12 PwC Australia partners, including the chief executive, triggered the sale of its lucrative government consulting wing for $A1, and embroiled clients Google, Uber and Facebook.

PwC Australia Asset Sale Unlikely to Repair Firms Tarnished Reputation: Experts

Bills to be introduced this year would raise the maximum penalty for promoting tax exploitation schemes 100-fold to A$780 million ($510 million) and make prosecution easier by expanding how the rules, which have only been used six times, are applied, according to a government statement.

PwC Australia was not fined for the breach under the existing rules, and the changes will not applied retroactively, a Treasury spokesperson told Reuters.

The PwC scandal exposed severe shortcomings in our regulatory frameworks, said the statement from the ministers for treasury and finance and the attorney general.

Were cracking down on misconduct to rebuild peoples faith in the systems and structures that keep our tax system and capital markets strong.

PwC Australia would digest the announcements carefully and work with government and regulators to enhance overall regulation of our industry, a spokesperson said in a statement.

A former PwC partner, Peter Collins, who advised the Australian government on anti-tax avoidance laws between 2013 and 2018, shared confidential drafts with colleagues about the governments plans, which were then used to drum up business with multinational companies.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) foiled several attempts by companies to subvert the 2016 Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law but was frustrated in its subsequent investigation by highly ambitious if not false legal privilege claims from PwC Australia.

Collins and PwC Australia were not penalized until late 2022 by a separate agency that regulates tax agents, the Tax Practitioners Board, after police said there was insufficient information for them to act. The ATO has since told lawmakers tax secrecy laws made it difficult to share the information needed to pursue a case.

The new package of reforms would tweak these secrecy laws, strengthen whistleblower protections and give tax regulators more time to investigate and bring cases to court.

A review that will deliver recommendations over the next two years will look into broader questions raised by the scandal, including how large consulting and accounting firms are regulated, the use of legal professional privilege claims and new threats to the tax system.

($1 = 1.5223 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; editing by William Mallard and John Stonestreet)

Photograph: Signage appears on the Australian head office building of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney, on Monday, June 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Topics Australia
SHAWANO, Wis. (AP) __ A Wisconsin teenager has been charged with triggering a bonfire explosion that injured more than a dozen people.

Prosecutors in northeastern Wisconsin`s Shawano County charged Sam Armstrong, 18, on Thursday with 13 counts of injury by negligent handling of explosives or fire in connection with the Oct. 14 explosion outside the community of Pulaski, WLUK-TV reported.

Armstrong was attending the bonfire with other teenagers when he threw a barrel containing a gasoline-diesel mix into the fire, sparking an explosion that burned at least 17 people, according to the criminal complaint.

Armstrong, who was 17 at the time, later told police he didn`t know his actions would cause an explosion and injure anyone, according to the complaint. He told investigators he had been drinking beer.

Armstrong waived his preliminary hearing Thursday. Judge William Kussel set a $100,000 signature bond, and Armstrong is due back in court Sept. 13 for an arraignment.

Greg Petit, listed in court records as Armstrong`s attorney, didn`t immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

A 16-year-old accused of helping Armstrong with the barrel was ordered in February to perform community service.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Wisconsin
ST. LOUIS (AP)  Some of the people who were arrested during a 2017 protest over the acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith have started receiving their share of a $4.9 million settlement the city agreed to this year.

The first checks were distributed Friday to some of the 84 people covered by the settlement. Their lawsuit had claimed the protesters rights were violated when they were caught in a police kettle as officers surrounded and arrested everyone in the area. Three people who filed individual lawsuits also settled for $85,000 each.

The city denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which promises payouts between $28,000 and more than $150,000.

Dekita Roberts told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she initially thought it might be a scam when she first got the call about the settlement.

It was just a shock and a surprise, said Roberts, adding that she wants to invest some of the money and try to set some aside for her children.

Another man who picked up his check Friday, Ali Bey, 36, said he plans to use the money to start his own construction company.

This takes five steps out of the way for me, Bey said. As far as getting a truck and tools, I can begin doing that by the end of the day. I already got some of the clientele.

They were among the crowd of people protesting after former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted in the Dec. 20, 2011, shooting death of Smith, who was Black.

Protesters said police surrounded more than 120 people who officers said did not follow dispersal orders. Several people claimed police used excessive force and indiscriminate pepper spray, including against bystanders who were not protesting.

St. Louis has paid more than $10 million altogether in connection with police actions on Sept. 17, 2017. That includes a $5 million payment to Luther Hall, a Black undercover officer who said he was assaulted by fellow police officers who thought he was a protester.

In 2021, the city also agreed to pay $115,000 to a Kansas City filmmaker who said he was beaten and pepper-sprayed during the protests.

Javad Khazaeli, one of the plaintiffs lawyers, said this case dragged on for years.

Other cities that have done this have gone through the whole process and trials in a year and a half, Khazaeli said. Weve had people move away from St. Louis because people are still afraid of the police.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law Enforcement
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A U.S. judge hearing the Justice Departments 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 governments claims in the case.

U.S. Judge Amit Mehta, in a decision made public in Washington on Friday, granted Googles 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 courts 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, Googles chief legal officer.

Google has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he was pleased with Mehtas 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 Googles motion to dismiss a separate Justice Department antitrust case focused on advertising technology, saying the governments 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.

Topics Legislation Claims Google
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Investors in cyber risk solution company Resilience have contributed again  $100 million in a series D equity financing round  a testament to the companys business model and results, its leaders said.

With reports of a decline in investment funding for insurtechs, and other news of layoffs or dwindling capacity, Resilience co-founder and CEO Vishaal Hariprasad told Insurance Journal that this level of commitment from the companys investors is a great signal of their confidence.

The Series D round was led by Intact Ventures, an affiliate of Resiliences primary capacity provider, Intact Insurances underwriting companies, with participation by Lightspeed Venture Partners as well as General Catalyst and Founders Fund. All have previously invested in the company, which has now raised over $225 million.

Hariprasad said the doubling down by Intact speaks volumes to their belief in our results at an insurance technical level, and will provide capacity.

I see many times were reading about capacity drying up for [managing general agents] or others, and that is not the case in this scenario, Hariprasad added. At the same time, the investment by Lightspeed  a founding investor in Resilience during its Series A round  is a nod that Resilience can resonate with the mid- and large-enterprise base.

Our technology and our software both with and without insurance, is actually creating resilience, the CEO said. The new investment round is a huge vote of confidence given that theyve been with us every step of the journey. Its a great partnership and a great belief in the results.

Last year, 100% of Resiliences cyber risk management solution clients avoided a ransomware extortion, resulting in the lowest loss ratio in the middle-market space, said Mario Vitale, president of Resilience Cyber Insurance Solutions.

Resiliences integrated approach to understanding cyber risk and how to manage the risk is working for the client; its working for investors; its working for our risk transfer partners like Intact, and its working for us, Vitale told Insurance Journal.

It is a great place to be and the size of this investment gives us plenty of runway to continue investing in our business and expand, he added. Weve had great success in the middle-market space, and were really just scratching the surface.

The funds will also be used on the founding technology side of the business  in the product and teams, said Hariprasad.

A big part of what we do is enterprise SaaS, and the tools that we use to underwrite and derive the great results weve had, he explained. Were looking to further refine our performance on the insurance side but also unlock the power of the models and our approach so that companies can address cyber resilience.

Resilience currently serves primary and excess clients in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the Nordics. Hariprasad said Resilience has plans to grow its geographic reach, introduce solutions for the large account space, and have the protentional to work in other lines if business such as tech E&O.

Were thrilled to lead Resiliences financing round and to work together to build the cyber risk platform of the future, said Justin Smith-Lorenzetti, Intact Ventures, in a statement. Were eager to continue pairing the innovative cybersecurity solutions and expertise of Resilience with the insurance expertise of Intact Insurances underwriting companies as Resiliences primary capacity provider.

Topics Cyber InsurTech Tech Funding
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A U.S. judge has rejected former Allianz fund manager Gregoire Tournants bid to dismiss a criminal fraud case over his role in causing more than $7 billion of investor losses.

In an order made public on Friday, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan federal court denied Tournants motion to dismiss the five-count indictment, which also includes an obstruction charge. Tournant has pleaded not guilty.

Swain plans to file a redacted opinion containing her reasoning as soon as mid-August.

Her decision followed the July 12 approval by another Manhattan federal judge of Allianzs $6 billion settlement with U.S. authorities, in which a unit of the German insurer pleaded guilty to a securities fraud criminal charge.

Tournant had been the creator and chief investment officer of Allianzs now-defunct Structured Alpha Funds.

Once with more than $11 billion of assets under management, the funds lost about $7 billion in February and March 2020 as the start of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted markets.

Prosecutors accused Tournant of covering up the funds risks and trying to mislead Allianzs in-house lawyers and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, while pocketing about $60 million in pay.

Lawyers for Tournant did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Swains order.

In seeking a dismissal, Tournant said the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which had represented him and Allianz, switched sides and made him a scapegoat to save the German insurer after it decided to cooperate with prosecutors.

Tournant said dismissing the indictment was justified because prosecutors intrusion into his attorney-client relationship had been manifestly and avowedly corrupt.

The U.S. Attorneys office in Manhattan countered that Tournants claims were baseless, and that he was seeking to evade responsibility by laying blame at the feet of everyone but himself.

Two other former portfolio managers have pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Tournants trial is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2024.

The case is U.S. v. Tournant, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-cr-00276.

Related:

Topics USA Fraud Profit Loss
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Hospitals and clinics in several states on Friday began the time-consuming process of recovering from a cyberattack that disrupted their computer systems, forcing some emergency rooms to shut down and ambulances to be diverted.

Many primary care services at facilities run by Prospect Medical Holdings remained closed on Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it.

John Riggi, the American Hospital Association`s national advisory for cybersecurity and risk, said the recovery process can often take weeks, with hospitals in the meantime reverting to paper systems and humans to do things such as monitor equipment and run records between departments.

These are threat-to-life crimes, which risk not only the safety of the patients within the hospital, but also risk the safety of the entire community that depends on the availability of that emergency department to be there, Riggi said.

The latest data security incident began Thursday at facilities operated by Prospect, which is based in California and has hospitals and clinics there and in Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania.

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. 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.

The White House has been monitoring the cyberattack, said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.

Watson also said in a statement that the Department of Health and Human Services has been in contact with the company to offer federal assistance, and we are ready to provide support as needed to prevent any disruption to patient care as a result of this incident.

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.

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 with law enforcement partners and the victim entities but could not comment further on an ongoing investigation.

The incident had all the hallmarks of an extortive ransomware but officials would neither confirm nor deny this. In such attacks, criminals steal sensitive data from targeted networks, activate encryption malware that paralyzes them and demand ransoms.

The FBI advises victims not to pay ransoms as there is no guarantee the stolen data wont eventually be sold on dark web criminal forums. Riggi said paying ransoms also encourages the criminals and finances future attacks.

As a result of the attack, 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, which runs many of the Connecticut facilities. Patients were being contacted individually, according to the network`s website.

Similar disruptions also were reported at other facilities system-wide.

Waterbury Hospital is following downtime procedures, including the use of paper records, until the situation is resolved, spokeswoman Lauresha Xhihani, said in a statement. We are working closely with IT security experts to resolve it as quickly as possible.

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 the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In California, the company has seven hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties including two behavioral health facilities and a 130-bed acute care hospital in Los Angeles, according to Prospect`s website. Messages sent to representatives for these hospitals were not immediately returned.

Globally, the healthcare industry was the hardest-hit by cyberattacks in the year ending in March, according to IBMs annual report on data breaches. For the 13th straight year it reported the most expensive breaches, averaging $11 million each. Next was the financial sector at $5.9 million.

Healthcare providers are a common target for criminal extortionists because they have so much sensitive patient data, including health care histories, payment information, and even critical research data, Riggi said.

Riggi, a former cybersecurity specialist with the FBI, said hospitals have been working to put in place better safeguards and more backup systems to prevent such attacks and respond to them when they occur. But he said it is almost impossible to make them completely safe, especially because the systems need to rely on Internet and network-connected technologies to share patient information among clinicians involved in a patient`s care.

Overall, that`s a good thing, he said. But it also expands our digital attack surface.

Photo: Manchester Memorial Hospital 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 were closed on Aug. 4 as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it. (Jim Michaud/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Connecticut
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As Kenneth Polite steps down this month as the head of the U.S. Department of Justices Criminal Division, he will leave behind a flurry of major corporate settlements that he told Reuters in an exit interview will hit federal court dockets soon.

Polite, who will join the law firm Sidley Austin this October as a partner in its white collar defense and investigations practice, spoke with Reuters just days before he officially resigned as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, a position he has held since July 2021.

What youre going to see is a very strong pipeline of investigations that will result in some resolutions in the very-near future, but may have been impacted by the COVID pandemic, he said.

The types of resolutions he is referring to often involve large fines that companies pay to settle criminal charges of foreign bribery or money laundering.

In 2022, there were seven such global resolutions in which the DOJ was involved totaling $2.14 billion in penalties. Among the companies that entered global settlements that year included Glencore and Honeywell International.

Polite said the departments recent corporate investigations involved much larger schemes and activities.

Some of the global resolutions involved countries which partnered with the DOJ for the first time, such as the December 2022 joint resolution with South Africa and Switzerland to resolve foreign bribery charges against Swiss digital technologies company ABB.

You are going to continue to see that type of innovation and groundbreaking over the next couple of resolutions that come out, Polite said.

As the head of the Criminal Division, Polite oversaw investigations on everything from gun-trafficking and human smuggling, to ransomware attacks and financial fraud.

Polite, who once previously served as a corporate chief compliance officer himself, also oversaw policy changes aimed at better policing corporate misconduct and encouraging cooperation with the government.

One such example is a new pilot program in which the DOJ will agree to decrease corporate fines for companies if they agree to claw back compensation from individual wrongdoers.

Kristin Graham Koehler, managing partner at Sidley Austin, said the corporate crime policies Polite oversaw are having an impact on the firms clients, and added he will be instrumental in helping them navigate the departments new policies.

All of our clients are evaluating their existing clawback policies and determining if any changes need to be made, she said.
Despite an extensive history of serious and repeat violations dating back more than a decade, a Houston, Texas steel erection company again failed to correct fall protection systems hazards, a federal workplace safety investigation has found.

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration discovered employees of Sonny Steel Erectors Inc. lacked required fall protection as they worked on erecting a steel building in Cypress in February 2023.

OSHA cited the company for one serious violation for not securing a ladder at its top to a rigid support, one willful violation for allowing workers to erect buildings taller than 15 feet without fall protection, and one repeat violation for failing to ensure employees using an aerial lift stood firmly on the baskets floor and that a body belt or a lanyard was attached to the boom or basket. The agency has proposed $266,416 in penalties.

The agency cited Sonny Steel Erectors in February 2019, July 2019 and October 2022 for not making sure a body belt or a lanyard was attached to the boom or basket when employees worked from an aerial lift. OSHA also cited the company in July 2019 and October 2020 for not making sure employees always stood firmly on the floor of the basket and did not sit or climb on the edge of the basket.

Sonny Steel Erectors seems unwilling to end its long and troubling history of putting its employees at risk of serious injury or worse, said OSHA Area Director Mhekeba Hager in Houston. 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.

Operating in Houston since 1999, Sonny Steel Erectors Inc. has about 50 workers who specialize in commercial structural steel erection.

Source: OSHA

Topics Texas Construction
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Cleanup from a chemical spill and fire near Interstate 24 in Tennessee will take several days, after the interstate was shut down and nearby homes evacuated overnight on Thursday.

Emergency responders were called to the scene just after 9 p.m. when a tractor- trailer carrying peracetic acid and sodium hydroxide caught fire in a shopping center parking lot in Chattanooga, according to the Chattanooga Fire Department.

In addition to burning the semitrailer, flaming liquid chemicals spilled into the parking lot. The vapors from the burning chemicals can cause skin and respiratory problems, so all homes and businesses within a half-mile radius were evacuated, according to the fire department.

A special truck from the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport responded to the scene with a piercing nozzle that punctured the trailer and injected foam into the truck to put out the fire. In addition, The Tennessee Department of Transportation brought 80 tons of dirt to stop the chemical runoff.

Shortly before 5 a.m. on Friday, incident command reopened I-24 and allowed the evacuated residents to return to their homes. The shopping center and nearby road remained closed.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation were providing technical support to local emergency officials, according to TDEC. EPA is also conducting water quality monitoring. Trucking company Averitt Express has hired a remediation company to manage the cleanup.

An preliminary investigation found that a leak from containers inside the truck caused a chemical reaction that resulted in the fire.

Photo: Emergency responders extinguish a fire in a tractor trailer that was carrying organic peroxide and sodium hydroxide chemicals, last week. (Chattanooga Fire Dept. via AP)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution Tennessee Chemicals
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A judge has ordered criminal charges dropped against the final executive accused of lying about problems building two nuclear reactors in South Carolina that were abandoned without generating a watt of power.

The judge tossed the charges Wednesday because ratepayers of the utility that lost billions of dollars on the project were improperly allowed on the grand jury that indicted Westinghouse Electric Co. executive Jeffrey Benjamin.

But federal judge Mary Geiger Lewis also ruled that nothing is stopping prosecutors from properly seeking another indictment.

Were not going away, said assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday, who said prosecutors are still reviewing the ruling to decide their next steps.

Benjamin faced 16 charges including securities fraud, mail fraud and causing the failure to keep accurate corporate records in his role in the failure to build two reactors for SCANA Corp. at the V.C. Summer site in Jenkinsville.

The project fell apart in 2017 after nearly a decade of work, when executives and regulators determined construction of the reactors was so hopelessly behind schedule they could not get nearly $2 billion of tax breaks needed to help pay for the work.

SCANA contracted with Westinghouse to build the reactors. Prosecutors said Benjamin , who was in charge of major projects, knew of delays and cost overruns but lied to regulators, utility executives and others. The lies led to electric rate increases while keeping the price of SCANA`s stock from plummeting.

Benjamin`s lawyers asked for the indictments to be tossed because the grand jury pool was pulled from several counties where utility ratepayers on the hook to pay for the project were at least 60% of the population and prosecutors didn`t exclude them from the grand jury or assure they were not angry and biased against SCANA and the people involved in the project`s failure.

Mr. Benjamins unequivocal Fifth Amendment right to an unbiased grand jury was compromised in this case, defense attorney William Sullivan Jr. said in a statement that also praised the judge`s lucid and articulate ruling.

Lewis called her ruling a drastic remedy, but said it was necessary since prosecutors cited ratepayers as victims of Benjamin`s lies and schemes along with investors and utility executives.

It is common sense that in a robbery case, the person who allegedly had their belongings taken would be barred, as a victim, from participating in indicting the accused, no matter if there was a mountain of evidence against the accused or if the victim insisted they could remain impartial, Lewis said in her ruling.

Benjamin`s trial had already been moved to Greenville after his attorneys said the broad coverage of the nuclear debacle and the majority of ratepayers in a jury pool would make a fair trial in the Columbia area impossible. Only about 10% of potential jurors around Greenville were SCANA customers.

Benjamin is the final executive to face charges.

Two former SCANA executives have been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to their roles in lying to ratepayers, regulators and investors. Former CEO Kevin Marsh received two years while chief operating officer Stephen Byrne was sentenced to 15 months.

Former Westinghouse project director Carl Churchman has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents investigating the project`s failure and is awaiting sentencing.

The fiasco exposed problems in building nuclear reactors in the U.S. from drawing up easy-to-use construction plans to making them an affordable, carbon- free power source.

Earlier this week, Georgia Power Co. announced commercial power was finally being generated from its Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta. The reactor was seven years late and $17 billion over budget __ more than doubling the unit`s original cost. It is the first nuclear reactor built from scratch in the U.S. in more than three decades.

Photo: Construction was proceeding at the site in 2012. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File)

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Fraud South Carolina
Dollar Tree company is facing $132,000 in state fines for reported work safety violations including locked emergency exit routes, improper stacking of boxes, and debris scattered on the

The fine is in connection with violations at the Tacoma Central Plaza store at 3208 South 23rd Street. A Washington Department of Labor & Industries inspection reportedly resulted in three repeat willful violations, which are issued when a business repeatedly puts employees at risk when they knew or should have known relevant safety requirements.

L&I cited Dollar Tree for the same hazards for three months ago.

Inspectors reportedly found boxes in top heavy stacks more than six feet high, creating a danger of collapse, and they found debris on the floor in the storeroom and in the aisles where customers walk.

According to L&I, the agency has inspected Washington Dollar Tree stores more than 30 times in the past four years, resulting in more than $1 million in fines. L&I inspectors found that too much inventory and not enough storage space at the stores often leads to high stacks of boxes and other safety issues.

Inspectors also reported frequently seeing boxes stored in a way that blocks exits.

The company is part of L&Is Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which means its stores are subject to inspections at any time.

Dollar Tree has appealed the citation.

Penalty money paid from a citation is placed in the workers compensation supplemental pension fund, helping injured workers and families of those who have died on the job.

Topics Washington
More victims of a devastating wildfire sparked last year by the U.S. Forest Service in northern New Mexico are getting compensated, with payouts to landowners totaling more than $14 million as of early next week, federal emergency managers said.

Congress set aside nearly $4 billion at the end of last year to pay claims resulting from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. Officials have acknowledged that the recovery process would be long and challenging, but many residents and some lawmakers have been frustrated with the pace.

Angela Gladwell, the director of the claims office, said more than 1,600 notices of loss have been filed so far and that her office has around $50 million worth of claims that are currently being processed. She estimated her office would be operational for the next five to six years to ensure that everyone gets every penny that they are due.

Were excited because this funding will begin to provide some much needed relief to our claimants who have been patiently waiting for an opportunity to start recovering, Gladwell told The Associated Press.

The claims office also recently began working with the National Flood Insurance Program so that eligible claimants can receive five years of flood insurance protection, with premiums paid by the claims office. One of the big concerns for residents has been post-fire flooding, particularly in the spring as snow melts. Now that concern also extends to the summer rainy season.

The claims office has had about 350 requests for flood policies, and many already have been approved.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is among those who have said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to act faster to get payments out to New Mexicans who are still suffering more than a year after the fire.

While were glad to see these funds finally start flowing, the federal government has a long way to go to meet its commitment to make impacted New Mexicans whole, Caroline Sweeney, the governors spokesperson, said Friday.

The fire destroyed homes and livelihoods __ and forced the Forest Service to review its prescribed fire polices before resuming operations last fall. Experts have said the environmental consequences will span generations.

The U.S. Forest Service also recently acknowledged that another 2022 fire in northern New Mexico that burned near Los Alamos was caused by prescribed fire operations.

Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico said Friday that he plans to introduce legislation that would expand the claims process to cover losses from that blaze.

Federal officials said they were aware of those plans and were reviewing what additional resources might be needed if such legislation were to pass. They also acknowledged that it has taken time to build the compensation program to address losses from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.

This was the largest fire in the state of New Mexico. It has types of losses that are extraordinarily complex, Gladwell said, adding that the program needed to be flexible so wildfire victims would have options.

The claims office has a staff of nearly 90 people, but more are needed as more claims are expected to come in, Gladwell said.

Meanwhile, members of Congress have been pressuring the Forest Service to do more to address a wildfire crisis that they say will destroy more landscapes, communities and livelihoods as long-term drought persists around the West. The Biden administration says it has been trying to turn the tide through a multibillion-dollar cleanup of forests choked with dead trees and undergrowth.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Talent Wildfire Mexico New Mexico
Source: Streetwise Reports

August 7, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A national court in Ecuador is suspending the process this company needs to get its bioleaching built because of mining protests. But this company doesn't build mines.

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has suspended a presidential decree unlocking the environmental consultation process for many projects in the country, including green technology company BacTech Environmental Corp.'s (BAC:CSE;BCCEF:OTCQB;OBT1:FRA) bioleaching plant in Tenguel.

The company had received its construction permit and approval from the government for its environmental impact study on the site but has been working through the community consultation phase for the final environmental permit.

The court's decision came after a complaint filed by the indigenous group CONAIE, or the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, which last month participated in protests against a mining project involved in the same process.

But as BacTech Chief Executive Officer Ross Orr has pointed out, the company is not building a mine but cleaning up after them.

"I would like to highlight that BacTech is not a mining company actively engaged in mining," Orr said. "Our business model calls for the purchase of high arsenic/gold concentrates from miners in Ponce Enriquez. Through bioleaching, we will liberate gold and silver for recovery while producing a stable form of arsenic as a by-product. It is our intention to significantly raise the level of compensation to our workers compared to what they earn today. We will also mitigate the amount of arsenic that goes to the tailings."

Decision is Temporary

The decision is temporary. The decree covering the consultation process will be provisionally suspended until there is a final decision by the Constitutional Court. President Guillermo Lasso and other public bodies have 15 days to present their arguments.

"BacTech has recently completed the information stage of the environmental consultation process in Tenguel, where the project received very positive feedback," the company said in a release.

"The project is being well received by the locals, and they look forward to getting to work," Orr wrote recently in his weekly "Sunday Morning Coffee" email to shareholders and supporters. "I estimate that process will be complete by the end of August."

Chris Temple, the editor of The National Investor, has written that "it's hard to conceive of any reason why the community would oppose this."

The Catalyst: A Massive Market Appetite for Anything Green

The company's motto is "Our bugs eat rocks." Its bioleaching process uses naturally occurring bacteria, harmless to humans and the environment, to extract precious and base metals from ores, concentrates, and tailings.

Think of the rocks as bricks in a wall, with sulfur acting as the mortar. BacTech's bacteria eat the sulfur, causing the wall to come crashing down.

"There's been a massive appetite in capital markets for anything that can be legitimately described as green," and BacTech is "like a poster child for what is legitimately a green cause," Temple said.

For the feed going into the plant, there are 90 small mines in the area that produce significant amounts of arsenic with gold in the area. The plant would process about 30,900 ounces gold (Au) per year. There is potential for expansion; the total availability of materials in the area is an estimated 250 tonnes per day.

"It's a green company that's going to clean up toxic material around mines and be able to process troublesome ores," Temple said.

Technical Analyst Clive Maund of CliveMaund.com also rated BacTech an Immediate Buy in March.

Framework for Green Bonds Initiated

The company recently announced it had engaged an Ecuador-based securities firm to help market its proposed offering of US$20 million in Green Bonds to pay for the plant.

Quito-based Analytica Securities will play a crucial role in the offering.

"We estimate that US$16M of the US$20M raised will be allocated to the capital portion of the bioleaching facility construction," Orr said. "The remaining US$4M will be utilized to finance the purchase of concentrates from the local miners, reinforcing our commitment to supporting the local economy."

BacTech also has launched a new sustainable framework for issuing bonds. The framework will help BacTech access a "global pool of sustainable investors interested in financing environmental and social projects," Orr said.

Ownership and Share Structure

Nearly half of the company, 49%, is held by insiders, management, and strategic shareholders, the biggest of which is Option Three Advisory Services Ltd., which owns 8.48%, or 15.57 million shares, according to Reuters. That also includes CEO Orr, who owns 3.57% or 6.54 million shares, and Board Director Timothy Lewin, who owns 0.54% or 0.98 million shares.

The rest is retail.

The company has 185.36 million shares outstanding, including 159.12 million free floating. Its market cap is CA$14.81 million, and it trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.10 and CA$0.055.

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August 7, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A prominent anonymous university is adopting this company's zero-emission hydrogen-fueled boiler for its district heating system.

Jericho Energy Ventures Inc. (JEV:TSX.V; JROOF:OTC; JLM:FSE) announced that a prominent anonymous university is adopting its zero-emission Dynamic Combustion Chamber hydrogen-fueled boiler for its district heating system.

DCC steam boilers are made by Jericho subsidiary Hydrogen Technologies. They burn hydrogen and oxygen in a vacuum chamber to create high-temperature water and steam with no greenhouse gases or other pollutants.

The only by-product is water, which is recycled. It's meant to replace existing boilers that burn coal, natural gas, diesel, or fuel oil.

"This represents JEV's first boiler sale, which we originally anticipated would come later this year and positions JEV as a key industry leader and a first mover in its category," wrote analyst Nicholas Cortellucci in an updated research note on Thursday. Cortellucci has a Buy rating on the stock but increased his target price to CA$0.50 from CA$0.40 per share.

Jericho also noted that more than 1,100 universities and colleges with about 11 million students have signed the "Race to Zero for Universities and Colleges," pledging to reduce emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 at the latest.

The Catalyst: 'A Significant Milestone' for Company

Getting its foot in the door with the sale will provide "ample opportunities for HT to expand into" the university heating segment, Cortellucci wrote.

Jericho Chief Executive Officer Brian Williamson said the sale "marks a significant milestone for the company."

"This partnership demonstrates the growing demand for innovative solutions in decarbonizing the US$198B (billion) global district heat industry," Williamson said. "By leveraging our zero-emission hydrogen boiler technology, we are proud to contribute to the University's commitment to carbon neutrality and set a precedent for other institutions seeking effective and eco-friendly heating solutions."

Another recent Jericho and Hydrogen Technologies announcement also bodes well for the company, Cortellucci wrote. The company is collaborating with a "leading global alcoholic beverage company" to study using the boilers at production facilities in four countries.

"Decarbonization remains a pressing issue in the beverage industry and plays into JEV and HT's value proposition," he wrote. "JEV has 30-plus ongoing studies with potential clients at the moment, many of which are moving towards orders."

There are more than 660 district energy systems operating in the United States, providing heating to an estimated 5.5 billion square feet of floor space for everything from universities to business districts to hospitals and airports, according to a U.S. Energy Information report.

New Plant Scalable, Pre-Assembled

Jericho recently announced it was partnering with two other companies to manufacture, implement, and service a new DCC boiler-based hydrogen steam plant called the HSP3000 that will come pre-assembled in container-sized units and eliminate the CO2 equivalent of about 5,000 cars.

Cortellucci wrote on July 13 that he expected that partnership to accelerate Hydrogen Technologies' sales commitments in the second half of the year.

The HSP3000 hydrogen steam plant will be scalable and modular and will come pre-assembled. It is being produced and assembled using the DCC technology by Sofinter Group and offered as an integrated solution by EXOGEN Hydrogen Solutions, Jericho noted.

"The HSP3000 can also eliminate all NOx, CO2, and other GHG emissions from industrial steam and district heating applications, potentially allowing clients to harvest carbon credits," Cortellucci wrote. "We expect the product launch to expedite sales commitments across various industries including, Pulp & Paper, Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Chemicals, and O&G (oil and gas)."

The unit requires no smokestack or hazardous emission management systems, Jericho pointed out.

"The only exhaust of the plant installation is clean water, which is ready for circular use with electrolyzer systems, further enhancing its positive environmental impact," the company said in a release.

Market Holds Promise for Growth

Jericho, which started as an oil company, is pivoting toward green energy, using profits from its oil and gas assets to fund investments in zero-emission hydrogen technologies.

While the hydrogen market "is in its infancy," it has the "potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions," the U.S. Department of Energy said.

"It holds promise for growth in both the stationary and transportation energy sectors," the agency wrote.

Meeting net-zero emissions scenarios will require more hydrogen technology and projects, the International Energy Agency has written.

"Faster action is required on creating demand for low-emission hydrogen and unlocking investment that can accelerate production scale-up and deployment of infrastructure," the agency wrote.

Almost US$26 billion in United States taxpayer money is being made available for hydrogen projects because of recent acts of Congress, The Guardian said.

Hydrogen is also a "uniquely versatile energy carrier," according to a report by the Hydrogen Council. "It can be produced using different energy inputs and different production technologies. It can also be converted to different forms and distributed through different routes - from compressed gas hydrogen in pipelines through liquid hydrogen on ships, trains or trucks, to synthesized fuel routes."

Ownership and Share Structure

Around 35% of Jericho's shares are held by management, insiders, and insider institutional investors, the company said. They include CEO Brian Williamson, who owns 1.25% or about 3.1 million shares; founder Allen William Wilson, who owns 0.79% or about 1.97 million shares; and board member Nicholas Baxter, who owns 0.46%, or about 1.14 million shares, according to Reuters.

Around 10% of shares are held by non-insider institutions, and 65% are in retail, the company said.

JEV's market cap is CA$75.17 million, and it trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.44 and CA$0.22. It has 248.14 million shares outstanding, 178.38 million of them floating.

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August 7, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Earth's climate is warming a lot faster than many had anticipated.

Climate change, a misnomer, and the correct term, global warming, are cited as explanations for why our planet is in ecological flux. This includes freak winter storms that appear to contradict the "warming" thesis, scorching heat waves, prolonged droughts, water shortages, rising sea levels, retreating glaciers, thinning sea ice, melting permafrost, dying coral reefs and the extinction of species.

While there is disagreement over its causes, the reality of global warming is an incontrovertible fact. The planet is warming, affecting our weather, oceans, growing seasons and food, as crops fail, causing shortages and price hikes. Storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. Droughts are lasting longer. Heat waves and forest fires are now annual summer occurrences.

In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the effects of global warming would be irreversible in 12 years. Seven years before the deadline, climate scientists are already saying, "we told you so."

Several "tipping points" have already been passed or we are on the brink. A tipping point is when we can no longer return to normal climate patterns and conditions will worsen.



Source: McKay et al, 2022

The difference between a tipping point and a gradual change, such as progressive warming, is the irreversibility of it. "[Tipping points] can happen suddenly, like an on-off switch, pushing climate systems into a completely new state. And they're generally irreversible or difficult to reverse," states a recent CBC article on one of the tipping points, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

Here we take a deep dive into global warming tipping points, by identifying and explaining six: record heat; warming oceans; the AMOC collapsing within our lifetime; the polar vortex/ jet stream breaking down; the loss of Arctic/ Antarctic sea ice, and the retreat of polar ice sheets; and thawing permafrost.

Record heat

According to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a new daily global record of 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit, or 17.18 Celsius, was set on July 6.

It was also the hottest week on record. For the seven-day period ending on June 28, the average daily temperature was .08 degrees Fahrenheit (.04 C) warmer than any week in 44 years of record-keeping.

While the records are based on data that only go back to the mid-20th century, a senior climate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center quoted by one media outlet said they are "almost certainly" the warmest the planet has seen over a much longer time period - "probably going back at least 100,000 years."

The same climate scientists are saying the heat is set to continue as the planet keeps warming. "A record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future," Stanford University's Chris Field commented.

Indeed, with the calendar turned to August, July will unofficially be the hottest month ever recorded. A new study quoted by CBC News found the past month had 23 consecutive days of record global temperatures, thus surpassing by a "considerable margin" the previous record set for July four years ago.

A chart in the CBC article has July 2023's 16.95C topping the warmest months on record globally.

Examples of heat records set in North America and Asia:

Death Valley, California saw the hottest night ever recorded globally. Between 12 and 1 am on July 17, the Badwater Basin weather station recorded temperatures of 48.9 degrees Celsius, or 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Phoenix, Arizona saw 28 days in a row of temperatures exceeding 43.3C, while in San Antonio, Texas, it was at least 38C for 15 straight days.

China's Sanbao township hit a high of 52.2, breaking the national record.

Paleoclimate research, using indicators like tree rings and ice cores, shows the last time the Earth was this warm was 120,000 years ago.

In Canada, the extreme heat has led to unusual weather, such as tornadoes in Alberta, flooding in Nova Scotia, and the worst year for forest fires on record. As of July 27, there were 1,072 fires burning across Canada in almost every province and territory with 12.1 million hectares burned so far in 2023  more than double the previous record set in 1994.

As for how soon global warming will reach 1.5 degrees C, the so-called tipping point, the World Meteorological Organization predicts there is a 66% chance of exceeding 1.5 degrees above the 1850-1900 average for at least one of the next five years. So far the Earth has warmed about 1.1 degrees, to 1.3 C.

According to a 2018 study in Lancet Planetary Health, via Bloomberg, as many as 50 million people could regularly see temperatures that the human body isn't equipped to survive. In African cities such as Algiers, up to 52 times more people would face dangerous heat, the study says, while the amount of wildfire area burned globally would double, as planetary warming turns rainforest into grassland.

When temperatures are rising so fast that extreme heat becomes a common occurrence in several parts of the world including our own (Western Canada), plant growth is stunted, leading to lower crop yields and in worst cases, the destruction of the entire crop.

The wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) considers not only the air temp and humidity, but the wind speed, sun angle and solar radiation levels.

Between 80 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit WBGT, working in the sun for more than 45 minutes put the body under serious stress. About 88 WBGT, the window of safety closes to 20 minutes. Above 90, being active in the heat becomes dangerous after 15 minutes and reaches a point in the 90s where you shouldn't be doing anything outside.

The heat is on

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says rising causes of death would include not only the heat, but exposure to ground-level ozone, malaria, dengue and West Nile virus.

Warming oceans

The heating up of the world's oceans is one of the most damaging aspects of climate change. The phenomenon is driving weather disasters around the world, including extreme heat, storms and drought.

A recent media report says Global ocean surface temperatures in June were the highest in 174 years of data, with the emergence of the El Nino weather pattern piling onto the long-term trend. Near Miami, coastal Atlantic waters are pushing 90F (32C).

According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the extreme heat wave that blanketed the southern United States and Mexico in June, combined with ocean temperatures soaring to alarming levels.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reported in June that surface temperatures in the North Atlantic were up to 5 degrees C warmer than usual. The same thing is happening in Antarctica, where scientists have linked warm waters off the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans to plunging sea ice levels.



Map showing the sea surface temperature anomaly on June 18.

Source: Climate Change Institute/ University of Maine

The Globe and Mail said parts of the continent and nearby ocean were 10 to 20 degrees Celsius higher than averages from 1979 to 2000.

Another related climate phenomenon that is behind the record heat, is the switch from "La Nina" to "El Nino".



It's been well-established that warmer, or colder-than-average ocean temperatures have an influence on weather. According to the NOAA, El Nino causes the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east. During winter, this leads to wetter conditions than usual in the southern US and warmer and drier conditions in the north.

El Nino is shorter-lived than La Nina, usually lasting nine months to a year versus a few years for the cooling phenomenon. El Nino is said to be warming up the eastern Pacific Ocean, and is forecast to intensify and linger to at least the end of the year, resulting in higher global temperatures. The World Meteorological Organization officially confirmed the arrival of El Nino on July 5.

Most forecasters believe that, with El Nino kicking in across the Pacific Ocean, Western Canada could be dry for months, possibly even approaching the parched conditions the southwestern United States has been experiencing for the last 20-odd years.



The top map shows ocean temperatures during the El Nino of 1997. Note the large amount of cool water, in blue. The below map shows the current El Nino with the world's oceans already much warmer. Source: NOAA

Warmer temperatures and overfishing are pushing temperate species towards the poles where they face greater competition for food with polar animals. Warmer ocean temperatures also cause acidification, which stunts the growth of corals and shell-based creatures like oysters. The destruction of coral reefs is a major problem resulting from global warming, since they provide critical habitat and food for so many species in the reef ecosystem.

Another result of rising surface ocean temperatures is a reduction in the numbers of phytoplankton, which since 1950, have declined globally by about 40%. The decline in phytoplankton could make the problem of over-fishing even worse, since phytoplankton are eaten by zooplankton, which is consumed by fish further up the food chain.



Half of the world's oxygen comes from phytoplankton. They are vital in maintaining the Earth's atmosphere and the oxygen we need to survive. Phytoplankton also absorb a huge amount of carbon dioxide.

As temperatures in the ocean and atmosphere rise, mass coral bleaching and infection disease outbreaks are becoming more frequent, states the NOAA.



Source: NOAA

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the world's oceans have lost half of their coral reefs since 1950. Scientists in a 2021 study said overfishing and pollution, when added to climate change, are decimating these fragile ecosystems and putting communities and livelihoods in jeopardy.

Examples of extreme weather fueled by warmer oceans are hurricanes and typhoons. Soaring water temperatures supercharge storms by adding moisture to the atmosphere.



The Bloomberg story said global accumulated cyclone energy was almost twice the normal power for June. The North Atlantic hurricane normally starts in September, but two storms happened in June for the first time in five decades. In July, a Colorado State University researcher cited warmer oceans as the reason for boosting this year's Atlantic hurricane season forecast to 18 storms from 14 in June.

The phenomenon also has a major impact on land. As oceans heat up, they cause higher land temperatures, which contribute to hotter seas (an example of a climate "feedback loop").

We have already seen several effects of this feedback loop over the summer. They include heavy rainfall that unleashed flooding across the US northeast in July; blistering heat in the southern United States, Europe and Asia; scary-low river water levels on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, that are affecting shipping on important freight routes; and droughts that threaten global supplies of crops including sugar cane and rice.

In Canada, a shift in the jet stream (see section below) has kept rainfall to an absolute minimum, leading to drought and the worst wildfire season on record. Smoke from Canadian fires has drifted south into major American cities, impacting air quality and visibility. In BC, severe drought conditions across the province are forcing cattle ranchers to consider selling their herds due to skyrocketing hay costs.

Yet if things look bad now, they are only likely to get worse:

As oceans heat up, they are also less able to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, said [marine scientist Deborah] Brosnan. That could create a cycle of warming oceans, more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and, as a result, ever-more extreme weather.

Polar vortex breakdown

The polar vortex is a seasonal atmospheric phenomenon whereby high winds swirl around an extremely cold pocket of Arctic or Antarctic air. The winds are like a barrier that contains the cold air, but when the vortex weakens, the cold air "escapes" from the vortex and travels south, bringing with it a cold blast of Arctic weather. If the polar vortices collapse, it would mean a total disruption of normal atmospheric warming and cooling. Without halos of swirling Arctic and Antarctic winds serving to cool the poles, they would be left to heat up, accelerating global warming.



Source: NOAA

The blast of cold weather that hit North America in January 2019 exemplifies this polar vortex breakdown. The Arctic polar jet stream meandered southward, bringing freezing-cold weather to the US Midwest, which saw windchills of -50F, along with fatalities and problems with the power grid in other parts of the country.

According to IFL Science, while it's uncertain how climate change might meddle with the polar jet stream, Scientists believe the most likely outcome is that warming temperatures will initially cause the jet streams to "wave" more, causing polar air to visit the mid-latitudes more frequently, ultimately bringing more periods of colder weather.

Notably, a wandering polar jet stream can also cause extreme heat, such as the "heat dome" experienced by Western North America in the summer of 2021, that killed 619 people in British Columbia alone.

Heat domes can occur when winds in the upper atmosphere, also known as the jet stream, are influenced by the ocean below. Hot seas cause the winds to shift, resulting in areas of high pressure that trap hot air in place for weeks.



Temperature anomalies on June 27, 2021 compared to 2014-20 average for the same day. Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Slowing currents

Climate scientists have been raising concerns that rising temperatures could throw a wrench into the conveyor-like currents system. The volume of water moving northward has been sluggish. The amount of water surging through the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which exchanges warm water from the equator with cold water from the Arctic, transporting warm and cold water to the North and South Poles, has slowed to a 1,000-year low. The disruption of the North Atlantic Current formed the plot line of the movie The Day After Tomorrow', where the current stopped and resulted in an ice age.

While it's unlikely that a collapse of the AMOC will cause an ice age within a few weeks, like in the film, a terrifying new analysis found that a breakdown could occur as early as 2025, and no later than 2095.

As reported by The Guardian, the AMOC was already known to be the weakest in 1,600 years owing to global warming, and researchers spotted signs of a tipping point in 2021.

The reason it's slowing is due to the melting of Greenland's ice cap. Specifically, dense salt water in the North Atlantic is getting swamped by an influx of lighter fresh water from the melting ice.

The Guardian says a collapse of AMOC would have wide-ranging consequences, including: severely disrupt the rains that billions of people depend on for food in India, South America and West Africa, increase storms and drop temperatures in Europe, raise sea levels on the eastern coast of North America, and further endanger the Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets.



Models predict how heat will be distributed in the oceans if the AMOC stops.

Source: Zhengyu Liu/ CBC News

The last time the AMOC shut down was 12,000 years ago, resulting in a cycle of ice ages.

If it were to happen again, CBC reported that England and France would suddenly get a colder climate similar to southern Canada, damaging those countries ability to grow food; heat up northern Africa; and bring more storms and cause changes to rain and snow in Eastern Canada and the US, including drying of the mid-American plains.

The study says the collapse will happen far sooner than the previous estimate, a tipping point of +4 degrees C.

Loss of ice

The warming of the Earth's surface has caused a widespread retreat of the glaciers at both poles. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice has also thinned out considerably.

The latest IMBIE assessment (IMBIE stands for Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise), published in April, found that between 1992 and 2020, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost 7.5 trillion tonnes of ice - equivalent to an ice cube measuring 20 km each side.

The two ice sheets together are responsible for more than a third of total sea level rise.



Source: NSIDC



Source: NSIDC

Other interesting facts provided by the European Space Agency regarding the polar ice sheets:

Together they have lost ice in every year of the satellite record, and the seven highest melting years have occurred in the last decade.

Melting peaked in 2019, when the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost 612 billion tonnes of ice due to a summer heatwave in the Arctic.

In the early 1990s, ice sheet melting accounted for only a small fraction (5.6%) of sea-level rise. However, there has been a fivefold increase in melting since then, and they are now responsible for more than a quarter (25.6 %) of all sea-level rise.

If the ice sheets continue to lose mass at this pace, the IPCC predicts that they will contribute between 148 and 272 mm (5.8 to 10.7 inches) global mean sea level by the end of the century.

According to the above Bloomberg piece, Antarctic Sea ice reached its lowest June extent on record. In February 2022 it was below 2 million square kilometers for the first time since measurements began in 1979.

Fast-forward a year later, a new record of 1.79 million square kilometers was set, representing the third time this record has been broken in six years.



One major area of concern is a marked loss of ice around the Amundsen and Bellinghausen seas on the continent's west. Even as the average amount of sea ice around the continent grew up to 2014, these two neighboring seas saw losses, satellite data shows.



That's important because the region is home to the vulnerable Thwaites glacier  known as the "doomsday glacier" because it holds enough water to raise sea levels by half a meter.



Thwaites glacier. Source: NASA/ USGS

"We don't want to lose sea ice where there are these vulnerable ice shelves and, behind them, the ice sheets," Matt England, an oceanographer and climate scientist at the University of New South Wales, said.

The UN Environmental Programme says the situation is far more dramatic on the opposite side of the planet. While 40 years ago Arctic Sea ice was three to four meters thick, it is today around 1.5 meters.

In fact the Arctic is heating up four times faster than the rest of the world and much of this has to do with the loss of sea ice.

New research has found that the Arctic could be almost free of sea ice during summer by the 2030s - roughly a decade sooner than previously thought. Scientists say that even if extreme emission-reducing steps were taken, it is now too late to save the region's summer ice.

Prof. Dirk Notz, of the University of Hamburg, Germany, who was part of the research team, told The Guardian: "As scientists, we've been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades. This is now the first major component of the Earth system that we are going to lose because of global warming. People didn't listen to our warnings. This brings another warning bell, that the kind of projections that we've made for other components of the Earth system will start unfolding in the decades to come."

According to UNEP, Thinner ice and more open water led to increased absorption of sunlight and increased melting in summer. Since 1979 around 50 per cent of summer sea ice coverage has been lost.

As for Arctic winter sea ice, UNEP says ice-free conditions before the end of the century will only occur in the Barents Sea, but significant winter loss in many of the Arctic seas is projected.

The greatest amount of Arctic warming seems to be taking place on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Arctic Ocean near the Barents Sea.

According to the National Snow & Ice Data Center, Arctic Sea ice is currently about 1.3 million square kilometers below the 1981 to 2010 reference period, and ice extent in mid-July was 12th lowest in the 45-year satellite record. However, several regions have far below average extent, including the Kara and Beaufort seas, and Hudson Bay, which became ice-free "quite early this year".

All this melting ice, along with the expansion of ocean water as it warms, has caused sea levels to rise. Global mean sea levels have already risen between 8 and 9 inches, or 21-24 cm, since 1880, according to NOAA.



Source: EPA

The 2019 International Panel on Climate Change report predicts sea levels rising between 28 cm (0.95 feet) and 110 centimeters (3.6 feet) by 2100 if temperatures don't stop rising. An increase of 65 centimeters, or roughly two feet, is expected to cause significant flooding in coastal cities.

The sea level along the US coastline, for example, is projected to rise between 10 and 12 inches, on average, from 2020 to 2050.

Government statistics show 40% of the US population lives in coastal areas vulnerable to sea level rise. From a list of 25 US cities likely to be swallowed up by the sea, the most at-risk states are Florida, California, Virginia, South Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Hawaii.

Thawing permafrost

Along with calving glaciers, shrinking ice caps, and disappearing sea ice, evidence of Arctic warming can also be seen in the thawing of permafrost. Permafrost is land that is permanently frozen except for the top layer, which freezes in the winter and thaws in the summer; 70% of Russia sits on permafrost, which in some areas is over a kilometer deep. When it thaws, permafrost exposes carbon dioxide and methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 30 times more powerful than CO2, in terms of its ability to trap heat.

It is estimated that this phenomenon could release between 300 million and 600 million tons of net carbon per year into the atmosphere.

Another negative impact of thawing permafrost is subsidence. This is what happens when the surface layer gets deeper, and structures (like houses and industrial buildings) on or embedded in it start to fail as the ground beneath them expands and contracts.

Climatologists predict that an estimated 2.5 million square miles of permafrost, or 40% of the world's total, could disappear by the end of this century, significantly accelerating global temperature rise.

Thawing permafrost is also dramatically altering the Arctic landscape. A 2022 article by The Conversation describes several massive lakes disappearing in the span of a few days, leaving the once-flat geography wavy and creating vast fields of large, sunken polygons. (see below)



Source: Emma Pike, Wikimedia



Source: The Conversation

Earlier we introduced the concept of a feedback loop. Here another one occurs, when microbes released by the thawing ground begin eating organic matter that has been frozen for millennia. The microbes release carbon dioxide and methane. Warmer temperatures thaw more soil, releasing more organic material to feast on, producing more greenhouse gases.

The trapped organic material is what presents the most danger when it comes to permafrost thawing. Right now, nearly half of global soil organic carbon is stored in these frozen soils (and permafrost is estimated to hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere), but according to The Conversation,

The abrupt transitions we're seeing today - lakes becoming drained basins, shrub tundra turning into ponds, lowland boreal forests becoming wetlands - will not only hasten the decomposition of buried permafrost carbon, but also the decomposition of above-ground vegetation as it collapses into water-saturated environments.

Climate models suggest the impacts of such transitions could be dire. For example, a recent modeling study published in Nature Communications suggested permafrost degradation and associated landscape collapse could result in a 12-fold increase in carbon losses in a scenario of strong warming by the end of the century.

It's not only the loss of carbon that can result from thawing permafrost. The newly exposed organic matter may contain long-dormant viruses that could endanger animal and human health. Chemical and radioactive waste dating back to the Cold War also has the potential to harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems, CNN reported recently.

Conclusion

The effects of global warming are many and obvious.

Forest fires are an annual occurrence in Australia, California and Western Canada. In the United States and the Caribbean, people live in fear of the next hurricane that could literally turn their lives upside down. Most of us have watched videos of huge chunks of ice breaking off millions-year-old ice sheets and tumbling into the sea.

Global warming is not a temporary phenomenon that we can stop through government policies in partnership with industry, like carbon taxes and cap and trade schemes. Unfortunately, it's more like a runaway train that is reaching the crest of a hill, before it begins to accelerate, at break-neck speed. It is unstoppable. The Earth will warm until it starts cooling. The proof is in the geologic record. All we can do is try to manage the effects as best we can.

Richard (Rick) Mills

aheadoftheherd.com

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There are signs that much of the world is getting lonelier.

Last month, the US released an alarming report shedding light on the loneliness crisis and its effects on peoples physical and mental health. Isolation leads to a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of a stroke and increases the chance of developing dementia by about 50% in older people. It also significantly increases the risk of premature death.

Here in Ireland, more than a third of remote workers have said they feel lonely when compared to being in an office environment, research from Microsoft has found.

Loneliness has become a public health emergency. One of the main solutions is to create a culture of connection. However, there is a bigger challenge than ever in nurturing connections and relationships in the workplace.

HR Buddy managing director Damien McCarthy is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. File picture

People who have friends at work perform better, are more engaged and have less burnout  which leads to higher productivity and innovation. But how do we forge these friendships in the new remote/hybrid work environment that many of us are now in?

The pandemic has changed workplace dynamics. The casual, informal gatherings, hallway conversations and water cooler moments, which previously solidified our friendships at work, have either disappeared or happen much less often. Everything is now less spontaneous; people often need to schedule virtual meetings just to talk to someone at work.

Why does loneliness at work matter?

Although loneliness might seem like a personal or trivial issue, to many people it's anything but. A 2020 study reported that three in five adult Americans feel lonely. Some commentators suggest that we are experiencing a loneliness epidemic that could pose serious health risks.

Research undertaken in 2015 shows that, over time, loneliness can be worse for your brain and your body than alcohol and smoking. But when loneliness strikes at work, it becomes as much a business issue as a health issue. It affects not just how you feel, but how you perform.

Loneliness often results in an emotional withdrawal from the organisation. Lonely people tend to be less committed, creative, collaborative and attentive, and both the quality and quantity of their work can deteriorate. It has also been identified as a factor in workplace burnout.

As many have returned to the office, we should all revisit how to make friends at work in the new normal, so that all of us can be more productive and happier, and refill our wellbeing reservoirs.

Befriending colleagues in a hybrid work environment is challenging but incredibly important. Getting to know the people around you can lead to fresh opportunities and make the workplace more enjoyable. So how do you make friends at work? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Ask for (or adopt) a work buddy

A work buddy can show the new person the lay of the land, get lunch with them and field questions that they dont want to ask the boss.

You dont need to wait for your boss to assign you a work buddy; introduce yourself to someone youve been wanting to learn more about and invite them to have coffee. This can go a long way in making a friend. Go out every few months and catch up on whats going on in work and in life. If you dont hit it off right away, dont worry. Not every new person you meet needs to be your friend.

Introduce yourself to new employees

We know how challenging it can be to acclimatise to a new workplace. New hires are typically eager to meet people. It doesnt take much  stop by their desk and say hello or connect with them through e-mail and offer to help with any questions. Be social  invite them to lunch. Small moments that spark conversation can open the door to friendship down the line.

Attend or initiate social events at work

After a long week, sometimes you just need to get away from the office. Getting two or three people together for lunch or Happy Hour is a great way to forge relationships and provides opportunities to connect. Consider starting a group chat on WhatsApp or another messaging app to connect freely and easily with others. Make it fun.

Although these strategies can help you to forge genuine and authentic connections at work, developing relationships can still be challenging. A proactive approach to making friends at work is ideal, but there remains an important consideration: the strongest friendships result from identifying a shared interest with a co-worker that can foster an organic connection. And there is a dark side.

Take an interest in people's lives

Remember, work isn't the only thing in people's lives. Your people will likely have families, hobbies and friends outside of work too. Take an interest in these aspects of your team members' lives by providing opportunities for them to be understood as individuals, with unique personalities and experiences, and listen to them with empathy.

Fostering a culture of trust and empathy in this way will likely make people feel safer and more secure, which can give them the confidence to open up about their vulnerabilities. Be sure to lead the way here by demonstrating that you're not afraid to talk openly and honestly about yourself and your own feelings. This will help to remind people that they're not alone, and will encourage them to build positive identities and meaningful connections with you and other people around them.

Remember the little things

The smallest gestures can make a world of difference. Little things like making someone a coffee, or just remembering to say "hello" in the morning will show them that you care, and that their wellbeing matters to you. Random acts of kindness like these will likely have a positive knock-on effect on the rest of your team, too. If you're a manager, don't forget to prioritise your one-on-ones. These should provide a safe space for team members to share their feelings and thoughts with you, without judgment. Avoid cancelling these meetings even when you're busy, and use them to discuss issues beyond immediate goals and tasks.

Damien McCarthy is the managing director of HR Consultancy firm HR Buddy, and is also an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Only an artist as inventive as Clare Langan would find commonality behind the ancient beehive huts on Skellig Michael and the contemporary Bur Khalifa building in Dubai. Both feature in her 15-minute experimental film, The Floating World.

Langan used infrared film when shooting on Skellig Michael, which gives the impression that snow is falling on the monastic settlement. In Dubai, she filmed the 830-metre-high Bur Khalifa building and other skyscrapers shrouded in mist. Both contribute to the dream-like quality of The Floating World, which, like much of Langans work, is an enchanting synthesis of sound and vision.

Langan, an NCAD graduate who went on to study film on a Fulbright scholarship at New York University, may be best known for her award-winning film and video installations, but she also maintains a practice as a photographer. A selection of her images, including black-and-white stills from The Floating World, is currently being shown under the collective title Elizium at the Sarah Walker Gallery in Castletownbere, in West Cork.

As Langan explains, photography was her first love. I started off taking photographs as a student, and the films came out of that, she says. The Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky was a big influence. For a long time, after studying in New York, I got very caught up in the process of making and exhibiting my films. The idea of showing my photographs again came about through my discussions with Eamon Maxwell, who was curating At the Gates of Silent Memory, an exhibition I did at the Luan Gallery in Athlone in February this year.

Clare Langan's Elizium

To Langans mind, the experience of taking photographs is very different from filmmaking. It comes from a different place in my head, she says. Theres a great stillness involved in taking photographs, just as there is in experiencing them in the gallery.

Langan is known for her fascination with extreme landscapes, an interest she attributes to the contrast between her surroundings in her native Dublin and her experience of the West of Ireland, where her family always took their holidays. I loved the wide open spaces and the big skies in the west. And to this day, I love peripheral places, where the natural world is beyond human control.

Much of her work has been filmed in the Namib Desert and in Iceland, where the late Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson collaborated on a number of her projects. Iceland really drew me in, from the first time I visited, she says. Its an ancient landscape, and yet its always being remade. Volcanoes erupt, and the ice flows create new canyons all the time.

From around 2010, Langan became more interested in placing people within the landscapes in her work. A few years later she began working with the Swedish choreographer, Maria Nilsson Waller, on films such as The Winter of 13 Storms. Id always wanted to work with a choreographer, she says. I did my thesis on choreography while studying fine art, and my interest in that has been in the background all the time. The Winter of 13 Storms was filmed around Dingle, where Ive lived for the past fifteen years or so. Its a three-screen film that chronicles the disconnect between two people. A number of photographs in the exhibition, such as Storm (Gravity) and Leafstorm, come from that project.

Clare Langan's Storm (Gravity)

Langan admits that being based in Dingle - rather than in a big art centre such as London or New York  has been challenging at times. Ive certainly struggled with it, she says. But I had shown around the world before I moved here, and Ive managed to go on working with people internationally and showing internationally all these years.

The Elizium exhibition is just one of her recent accomplishments. The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork bought two of my pieces in June, and one of my films, The Heart of a Tree, has just been bought by an organisation called Fondazione In Between Art Film in Rome."

That work is also showing with two other films  And In the Silence Came, and Flight from the City - in an exhibition called The New Dawn Fades at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast this month.

After Langan completes her new film, she hopes to take a break. It feels like Ive been on a merry-go-round, making work non-stop, for the past fifteen or twenty years. Its such a chaotic time in the world, and Ive become more and more conscious of the planets fragility. Id like to feel that whatever body of work I make next will have relevance, and have something to say about all that.
The Government is to commission new research on the impacts of menstruation and menopause in the workplace.

The research is being undertaken as part of efforts to inform new policies for employers across the country.

The plan, due to be announced by Equality Minister Roderic OGorman later this week, will look at factors regarding working conditions to support employees experiencing menopause and menstrual symptoms in the workplace.

It will also examine what effective support mechanisms employers have put in place that are recognised as good practice, which can be rolled out throughout the country.

It is understood the research is due to begin later this year and it is expected that any draft policies will be developed and made available for employers early next year.

The Forsa trade union previously conducted research which led to suggested polices like free sanitary products to all employees or flexible working arrangements where needed.

The union also suggested improving training for line managers and supervisors to recognise symptoms of menstruation and menopause.

Recent research from The Menopause Hub, a Dublin-based advocacy group seeking to help women through menopause, indicates that over a third of women have considered quitting due to debilitating symptoms of menopause.

The hubs Menopause in the Workplace survey, carried out in October 2022, found 81% do not feel comfortable discussing the issue with their employer, while 36% said symptoms have forced them to call in sick.

The online survey of 1,087 women also found 10% were forced to abandon their careers after being overwhelmed by symptoms.

It comes as former Dragons Den star Norah Casey has encouraged senior women in business and politics to share their own experience with menopause as part of efforts to prevent women leaving the workplace.

Ms Casey said that if more female politicians and executives were to talk openly about menopause, it would inspire future generations of women to stay in their jobs.

She said most successful women usually get offered top jobs when they reach a certain age and are going through menopause, while male colleagues are usually promoted a lot earlier in their careers. She said:

This means that when a woman eventually gets offered the hot seat, she soon discovers mother nature has another hot seat waiting for them.

Studies show that some women are not getting the support they require as their careers progress and their bodies inevitably change.

Not all women suffer debilitating menopausal symptoms, but those that do are often not receiving the support they require to remain in their jobs.
The Manhunter who solved some of the UKs most horrifying murder and rape cases said Cork murderer Noel Longs DNA could be used in international cold cases.

Colin Sutton  the former murder detective with Londons Metropolitan Police who was played by actor Martin Clunes in the TV series, Manhunt  said cold case investigators could search for a match between Longs DNA in UK cold cases in areas where the killer had spent some time.

Long, 74, of Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork, was found guilty on Friday of the murder of mother of three Nora Sheehan in 1981.

He had 31 previous convictions which span 50 years from 1966 to 2016. Of those, 27 are for offences committed in Ireland and four in the UK.

These include six counts for common assault, four counts for burglary, and a large number of road traffic convictions.

Long worked for the British army in the 1960s.

DNA proved critical to his conviction for Mrs Sheehans murder, which is the oldest murder prosecution in the history of the State.

And his DNA could now also be used in cold case investigations in the UK, Mr Sutton said.

If the forces where he was known to have been in the UK have outstanding cases with DNA they might want to look at it, Mr Sutton said.

73-year-old Noel Long, Maulbawn, Passage West, Co Cork, was convicted last week of murdering 54-year-old Nora Sheehan in 1981. File picture: Paddy Cummins

Most English forces have cold case teams and most cold case teams work almost exclusively on DNA.

I think it would need someone bringing it to the attention of the forces in the area where he was known to be.

Although Long lived in the UK in the 1960s, the time gap should not prevent his DNA being potentially linked to other cold cases.

The theory is physical exhibits from murder investigations are kept indefinitely.

Something from the 1960s or '70s, if you have anything with blood or anything with semen, any kind of saliva or anything thats DNA-bearing, that DNA will still be there in most cases.

So its a case of going and physically finding where those exhibits are. And once youve actually found them, its submitting them and seeing if they can find a DNA profile from them. That does happen.

Its loaded onto the UK database where its constantly cross-referenced with profiles of people who have been arrested. So it is possible.

Lets establish where he was and have those forces, if theyre interested, to look at what theyve got and establish if theres any with DNA outstanding and it could be worth looking at.

Colin Sutton's track record

Mr Sutton led 37 murder investigations and solved 35 of them over the course of nine years.

He was responsible for bringing notorious serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice for the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22; Marsha McDonnell, 19; and Milly Dowler, 13.

He also helped convict Delroy Grant who raped and assaulted some 600 elderly people in South London.

DNA crucial to solving Cork murder

DNA evidence which linked Noel Long to Mrs Sheehans murder included a semen sample taken from Mrs Sheehans vagina.

Her body had been found mostly naked in woods outside Innishannon, Co Cork, in June 1981.

A rape allegation made against him in 1982 was investigated by the Garda Serious Crime Review Team when investigating Mrs Sheehans murder but the victim would not give an official statement.
Young people needing to avail of a youth mental health service are having to wait up to 18 weeks for their first appointment, its CEO has warned.

Joseph Duffy says soaring demand for Jigsaw's service, coupled with staff retention challenges, means that waiting times have jumped from just a few weeks to more than three months in Cork City  which has the longest wait time.

Jigsaw, which caters for young people aged 12 to 25, has seen a huge spike in demand since the pandemic, with 68% of their cases linked to anxiety.

Jigsaw operates online and through telephone, but also offer face-to-face appointments at 14 centres around the country.

Up to July the wait time across the Munster centres was 18 weeks in Cork city, 13 weeks in Limerick city, seven weeks in Thurles, Tipperary and five weeks in Tralee, Co Kerry.

Demand at each centre was high last year, with Cork recording 2,746 sessions attended, 2,044 in Tralee, 1,864 in Limerick and 1,617 in Thurles.

Mr Duffy said demand is growing in larger towns and cities in particular.

Young people are not put on a waiting list, they are given a time and that time might in two weeks, three weeks or three months. Thats a forecast, and if we have any cancellations or theres a change, we can usually bring that forward, he said.

But we know that the sooner we see them, the better the outcome is.

Young people are screened to assess who can wait or who needs immediate support, with potential for referral to acute services if necessary.

In addition to a spike in demand, gaps in the staffing roster at some centres is also contributing to the waiting times. Mr Duffy said this is often linked to Jigsaws status as a Section 39 organisation, part-funded by the HSE and public or corporate donations.

This is being looked at and it is a real challenge, he said.

At the moment if a staff member comes to work with us in Jigsaw, we cant pay the same as they would get in the HSE in terms of pension. We can start off on the same salary and base it on the HSE pay scales, but we havent got the money in terms of standard pay increments.

Advertisements for therapists at three centres are on the Jigsaw website this week, seeking people with a background in one of these areas; psychology, mental health nursing, social work, occupational therapy or psychotherapy.

Weve got very good support from the HSE, but we need more support for our existing services, and then we would also need new money for new services, he said.

He called for more focus on integrated services as was highlighted in the Mental Health Commission report on youth mental health services last month.

This could include a referral pathway for young people, that would make a difference, he said, so teens could be more quickly referred to the most appropriate service.

Pay issues affecting all Section 39 agencies are under dispute by SIPTU, Forsa and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation with Government departments, HSE and Tusla at the Workplace Relations Commission.

'It's important to see that Camhs is just one part of youth mental health' Funding for youth mental health services needs to address everyones needs, and not only the children with the most severe needs, the CEO of the youth service Jigsaw has said. Jigsaw CEO Joseph Duffy: The feedback from teachers was they were trained in college to teach a particular subject but now they need to teach the whole person. Picture: Moya Nolan Joseph Duffy is proud of the help Jigsaw offers thousands of young people, and would like to see this need more widely recognised. Whats concerning me now is youth mental health is becoming synonymous with Camhs and Camhs with youth mental health, he said, referring to the HSEs Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services. Its really important to bring back the lens and see that Camhs is just one part of youth mental health. The HSE estimates that the Camhs specialist service is only suitable for 2% of children  those with severe and complex needs. We know that about two thirds of young people are doing well, theyve got a good adult in their lives, and would probably benefit from mental health literacy support, or supports in the community, he said. About 2% need Camhs, so theres about 30% in between that really need a primary care intervention, and that is where Jigsaw comes in. The difficulty is most of our attention focuses on the 2%, and most of our funding focuses on the 2%. Jigsaw has 14 centres as well as national online and phone services, supported by the HSE, but he argues they need to expand. Its a really big issue, he said. When I first started working with the organisation, we would have had to go out to communities and sell Jigsaw, because people didnt really understand this concept of you can walk in off the street and have young peoples mental health supported immediately. But when we opened up in Wicklow and Tipperary during the pandemic, we very quickly got to full capacity in those. Decreasing stigma around asking for help and growing awareness of what Jigsaw can do, especially since the pandemic, are linked to rising demand. Young peoples suggestions have made the service attractive, he said including: the approach, the atmosphere, the welcomingness, even the place we are positioned in in the community, our referrals process. We take direct referrals from young people  theres no barriers to that. Jigsaw works with education sites and sport organisations, with funding of varying amounts including from Lidl and the Late Late Toy Show Appeal. We would run courses or short training sessions for teachers on what is mental health, how to support a young person, Mr Duffy said. The feedback from teachers was they were trained in college to teach a particular subject but now they need to teach the whole person. Weve developed a whole school model called One Good School, that looks at the whole school environment. Future plans including working with apprentices and people who drop out of education.

'Everything came crashing down at once. I knew I needed support'

Sometimes you can live with stress and sometimes just one more thing like the death of a beloved dog can tip you into needing help, and thats what happened to Niamh Fennell as a teenager.

Niamh Fennell who now works with Jigsaw is a former service user: It was mostly stress-management, low mood, not being able to function on a day-to-day basis. Picture: Moya Nolan

She is just one of thousands of young people helped by Jigsaw youth mental health service since its foundation in 2006.

I was probably about 15 or 16 at the time when I realised that I was struggling a little bit with stress management, and my mental health on a day-to-day basis was quite low, she said.

I was finding it quite hard to manage at school, with peers or friends. It was mostly stress-management, low mood, not being able to function on a day-to-day basis.

When she was around 17 her dog Ruby died and she said: I think everything came crashing down at once. I knew I needed a little bit of extra support.

She attended Jigsaw Dublin South West but said that, going by her interactions with other young people, the approach is similar everywhere. Jigsaw has 14 centres and also offer help virtually.

It was hard to make that decision, Ms Fennell said.

Im 23 now but at that time mental health was still a bit stigmatised, there were not so many young people talking about mental health.

She waited just two weeks for an appointment, and found the sessions effective.

It was really really friendly, she said.

The reception area was really colourful, it had mindfulness colouring books and different bits and pieces in. The room was done out like a mini-sitting room, it wasnt like going to see a doctor.

She had seven sessions including one with her parents.

It was a wrap-up session, and they were able to help verbalise what was going on, the steps and tools that I had learned in the sessions, to my parents so my parents had an understanding of where I was, she said.

She found this helpful as, at the time, she did not have the vocabulary to explain all this.

I think maybe parents sometimes go oh my God, this is really serious or think it could be more acute, she said.

Where at the time it wasnt acute mental health  I just needed a little bit of extra support.

Now working in the Jigsaw national office, having started as a youth volunteer, she said teenagers are more self-aware now, often because of social media platforms such as Tiktok.

Jigsaw changed my life, she said. I think people are more aware of Jigsaw, but maybe dont understand exactly what they can do. I think more needs to be done in terms of talking about early intervention.

She urged: When things get a little bit tough or when things arent going as smoothly, its OK to go for help then as well  you dont have to let it go into crisis.

From anxiety to suicidal ideation, 'no issue is too big or too small' for Jigsaw There is no problem too small or too big for a Jigsaw session, clinical manager Jennifer Misener said, having seen a range of issues successfully treated. Jennifer Misener, clinical manager of the Jigsaw service in Galway: The more that were open about [mental health], it reduces stigma so people who do need it can come forward. Picture: Ray Ryan Walking into the Galway centre, young people see yellow armchairs, multi-coloured rugs, bright murals on the walls, and not a white coat in sight. This is completely deliberate, and completely driven by young people, she said. Young people gave us feedback that they felt sometimes going to different services could feel too cold, that it could feel like a clinic so they gave us feedback about wanting the vibrant colours. Like all 14 Jigsaw centres, they help people aged 12 to 25. Over-18s can self-refer, and younger people can self-refer with parental consent, and referrals come through schools, GPs, or other pathways. While staff may appear casual, they are trained and qualified to the same level as their HSE counterparts. We always say for Jigsaw there is no problem too big or too small,  she said. That could be something such as a breakup or all the way up to somebody who might be feeling suicidal. Anxiety is the most common concern nationally she said, with 68% of cases linked to anxiety and low mood the second most common issue. Its [anxiety level] really high, and that is what people are coming through for, especially after the pandemic, Ms Misener said. I know we dont talk about pandemic as much in the media, but we definitely still have the impact coming through the doors. For example, young people say they lost friendship circles or cannot get motivated to return to sport, she said. Among the rising numbers, they are seeing one worrying change. Were finding young men are seeking help less often, she said. It used to be quite an even divide where it was 60% young females and 40% males. Now that is starting to shift a bit where its 70% women and 30% males. We dont know exactly what the story is behind that yet. However, therapists also see a wide range of change for young people attending. We have seen people come in with severe anxiety, and we thought would this need to go Camhs direction, she said, referring to a HSE service. But they are able to have six to eight sessions consecutively, receive some cognitive behavioural therapy, homework, and guidance, and then be able to bring that level of anxiety down to where they are back to functioning. Overall, she is convinced Jigsaw works because it helps with unmet needs. I think its good to put everything in the open, she said. Jigsaw is one of those things that if you dont need it, thats fine. But if you need it, its there. Maybe not everybody will need a mental health service, but the more that were open about it, it

reduces stigma so people who do need it can come

forward.

'I was experiencing panic attacks. I was sick. I was skipping school'

When Sophie Kathryn needed help at 15, she was told she was not severely ill enough for a HSE service but she found answers with youth mental health service Jigsaw.

Sophie Kathryn, who formerly used Jigsaws therapy service, now works on research at the organisations national office. Picture: Moya Nolan

Young people needing help may think Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) is their only option, but as that specialist service is only suitable for 2% of the youth population, Sophie is not alone in going elsewhere.

She credits an incredible therapist at Jigsaw for helping her cope with stress linked to financial pressures for her family and the Junior Certificate.

I was experiencing panic attacks, though I didnt know this at the time, she said. I had ringing in my ears, I was sick. I was a very social person and I loved school but then I was skipping school loads.

When she had a panic attack in front of her mother, she took Sophie to their GP where they heard she was not severely ill enough for Camhs.

On our own, we found Jigsaw and went up there, she said. There wasnt much of a waiting list at the time, I was only about two weeks waiting. They were able to help with my anxiety, my stress and with breathing techniques.

She jokes now that she thought the Junior Certificate was the end of the world until she went to the North Fingal Jigsaw service.

I had a really incredible councillor called Debs, shes moved on now but she was absolutely fantastic, Sophie said.

She had between eight and 10 sessions, and went back for top-up sessions later.

It made the world of a difference, she said. I went back to school again, I was seeing my friends, I had a life again that I didnt have for about a year I was stuck with all of that.

She started volunteering with Jigsaw in 2019 and, as a youth advocate, is involved now with research at Jigsaws national office.

The main thing for young people is anxiety and low mood, thats the same across different service and all age groups, she said, urging teens to get in touch with Jigsaw.

People might put it off and say ah Im not as bad as my friend or someone else down the road and you dont really value your own mental health.

She supports plans to expand saying limited access for LGBTQI+ teens in rural communities came up in recent discussion.

I know there were a lot of people from more rural areas, so Donegal and Cork but the rural areas of those counties, are especially far away. So whether its Jigsaw or other services, they physically cant get the support, she said.

More generally she said: I know its especially hard for young men in rural areas.

They struggle to see themselves in these services asking for help. They think its not for them or they dont know anyone whos been.
The issue of dereliction in a North Cork town took a macabre twist in January when human remains were discovered in a boarded-up house.

Later identified as Tim OSullivan, his skeleton was found under a duvet in a bedroom of the single-story terraced house in Mallow. Two county council staff made the grim discovery after they forced entry into the Beecher Street property to deal with rodent infestation.

The property had been, and remains, boarded up after local youths started smashing the windows with stones. The Kerry native is understood to have died in 2001, which was the year a tub of butter had expired in his fridge.

It was a grim story in its own right, but the efforts by Cork County Council in the case were also an illustration of how hard it can be to find out not only who owns a property but also how to contact them, or their family.

Officials had, in this case, attached a notice to the door of the property asking if anybody knew who owned it. After this failed to work, they initiated a compulsory purchase order (CPO) process and had started taking steps in 2022 to serve statutory notices on the property under the Derelict Sites Act.

And the house on Beecher St is not the only derelict site in the town. A few hundred yards away sits the Central Hotel.

The once grand Central Hotel in Mallow, Co Cork, now has a new owner. Picture: Dan Linehan

It is another example of a familiar sight in Irish towns, a once grand architectural edifice now boarded up and rotting in a central location.

Inside, rooms and corridors are strewn with debris and severely damaged by any one of the many fires that have hit the property over the years.

Staircases have collapsed, wooden floorboards creak sharply around cracks, and there are gaping holes to floors below and almost every internal window or mirror has been smashed.

Around the debris, sections of the building are supported by rusting scaffolding and large metal girders.

Home now to little more than the odd roosting pigeon, its innards do look as if a bomb has gone off.

The wreck featured in our dereliction series on Munster counties back in August 2021, and it is still a feature of the sort of blight stamping an ugly stain on the streetscape of any number of Irish towns or villages.

Things do however seem to be looking up since our focus on dereliction in the town in 2021.

It has a new owner, and they have big plans for the place.

If it happens it will be amazing for Mallow, said local councillor Pat Hayes.

The owners are waiting on a report and when they get the result, that will really guide them on the direction they want to go. But they have plans for a hotel, apartments and a rooftop restaurant.

Part of the former Central Hotel now boarded up and rotting in the centre of Mallow. Picture: Dan Linehan

It has been derelict for more than 15 years but finally, there is something in the pre-planning process.

He added: It has yet to work its way to the planning process and as everybody knows, planning processes are very slow.

It just takes time.

The hotel, where there have been at least three fires, was discussed in the Dail earlier this year, when Mallow-based Labour TD Sean Sherlock raised it with Minister for Rural and Community Development Minister Heather Humphreys.

The new owners of the former Central Hotel in Mallow have plans for a hotel, apartments and a rooftop restaurant there. Picture: Dan Linehan

He wanted to know if councils could be given funding to buy up properties like the Central Hotel and bring them back to use.

Mr Sherlock had previously put forward a private members bill on dereliction. The Derelict Sites (Amendment) Bill 2021 passed the first stage unopposed but has yet to progress beyond the second stage of the process.

The point of the bill is to give local authorities a mechanism to recoup costs they incur while making derelict sites safe. It proposes to do this by ensuring any expenses incurred become a charge on the land and the authority would become a secured creditor in the event of any subsequent insolvency or liquidation.

This would, in turn, help ensure they get back the cost of any work they carried out.

Mr Sherlock said the bill still has some way to go before it reaches the next stage.

But in general terms, on the subject of dereliction, he said: There's still a high degree of very visible buildings that are derelict.

You feel that once they're dealt with, it will generate greater interest in looking at other buildings for renovation and regeneration.

However, we still have too many people holding on to buildings who probably feel that their buildings are worth way above the value that the market would sustain.

In some cases, I would say they are holding the regeneration of towns and villages to ransom by not letting these buildings go.

This is especially the case where there is an active interest by individuals to purchase these buildings and renovate them and make them liveable and workable again.

The carcass of the Central Hotel may well epitomise the issue of main street dereliction for Mallow, but in Mitchelstown, that dubious honour surely falls to 49 Upper Cork St.

The derelict building on Upper Cork St, Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

It literally looks as if the upper part of the building has been hit by a missile and it has looked that way since July 2021.

This was when a large chunk of the upper floor of the building collapsed onto the street. It led to an area in front of the address and properties on either side being blocked off by a wall of concrete blocks as a safety measure, should any more of the property collapse.

Metal hoarding has since been erected as another safety measure.

The collapse also led to the closure of the pedestrian Brothers Path shortcut that links this part of the town with two CBS schools and the towns leisure centre.

The building even had its own aptly-named Crumbled Building Committee, set up by residents to represent concerns about the building.

Read More Owner of derelict building that collapsed in Cork could face prosecution

Statutory notices were served under the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1964 requiring the safe remediation of dangerous structures. But as those notices were not complied with within the time allowed, the county solicitor was instructed to institute legal proceedings for non-compliance with those notices.c

The Brothers Path did not reopen until September 2022 and the building itself is still derelict and the area around still boarded up. There has been little movement on the issue because matters are in the hands of various teams of lawyers representing various players in this long-running dereliction saga.

Councillor Kay Dawson: 'We have this appalling eyesore sitting at the entrance to Mitchelstown.' Picture: Dan Linehan

Mitchelstown-based Cork County Council councillor Kay Dawson said: It is hard to know where things are now because of the legal issues.

The council cant say much because of these legal issues and, meanwhile, we have this appalling eyesore sitting at the entrance to Mitchelstown.

People are very upset about it because it is a shocking sight.

It is as unsightly now as it has been since the day it happened. It still has that gaping hole on the top floor.

Work is progressing at the old 59 Club on Patrick St, Fermoy, Co Cork, which was derelict for about 20 years. Picture: Dan Linehan

Over in Fermoy, they have their own issues with dereliction.

At the time the Irish Examiner ran its piece in 2021, derelict or vacant properties of concern included The Session, or the 59 as it was known, the former Presentation Convent, and the old fire station.

According to local councillor Noel McCarthy work is progressing.

The former Presentation Convent buildings have been refurbished and now house Ukrainian refugees, and the old fire stations sale was approved around six months ago.

Mr McCarthy said: Things are starting to improve and you can see the changes.

Councillor Noel McCarthy: 'It is not easy taking on a derelict property.' Picture: Dan Linehan

I notice the council have become far more active in engaging with owners and thats great to see. But it is not easy taking on a derelict property.

There will need to be a lot of work done at the old fire station before that comes online but Fermoy is getting there and things are moving.

As with everything, things could move faster but moving slowly is better than not moving at all, and we are further down the road than where we were in 20221.

Read More Mapping out the vision for Cork county over the next seven years

According to provisional Central Statistics Office data collated after last years census, there are around 17,280 vacant dwellings around Cork County, down from the 19,937 in the 2016 census.

Meanwhile, the countys population has increased. At the time of last years census, it stood at 581,231 up 38,363 or 7.1% on 2016  when the increase had been 4.6% on the previous census in 2011.

Added to that, there were 7,280 unoccupied holiday homes in 2022, up only very slightly from the 7,272 identified in 2016.

A derelict building on Lower Cork St, Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

With a housing stock in 2022 of 242,199, the county has a provisional vacancy rate of 7.1%  down from the 8.7% rate in 2016.

Of the vacant dwellings, 1,962 were up for sale and a further 3,087 were rentals.

According to the GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report for the second quarter of 2023, there were 2,393 buildings under construction, with commencement notices having been submitted in relation to a further 2,988 buildings.

The same report also noted that an extra 2,959 addresses were added to the GeoDirecory database in the 12 months to June 2023.

According to GeoDirectorys Commercial Buildings Report for the last quarter of 2022, Cork had a commercial vacancy of 12.4%, up marginally from 12.3% the year before. This was lower than the national commercial vacancy rate of 14% which was the highest vacancy rate recorded since the inception of this report series in 2013.

Mallow, however, had an above average commercial vacancy rate of 16.7% in the last quarter of 2022, up from 14.9% the year before.

A vacant building on Convent Rd in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

While the CSO produces revisions of its census numbers, its vacancy figures are being double-checked by local authorities like Cork County Council as part of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritages nationwide vacancies survey.

These surveys involve visiting properties in settlements which have been identified as vacant by the CSO and verifying if they are vacant or not.

The survey also records basic information about the external visual condition of the property and the reason for possible vacancy.

Once the survey is completed properties will be assessed as to how best they can be brought back into use.

The former Central Hotel in Mallow has been derelict for more than 15 years. Picture: Dan Linehan

The survey will have some way to go if last years provisional Central Statistics Office statistics for Co. Cork vacant dwellings are anything to go by.

The council says it has so far surveyed 1,250 vacant private properties as part of the vacancies survey.

On the dereliction front, the council says that  to date in 2023  three Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) of derelict properties are at an advanced stage. They say there are a further four progressing through the initial stage of a CPO process.

They said other approaches to tackling vacancy and dereliction include what they describe as direct, proactive engagement with owners to remedy dereliction through its municipal districts.

A derelict building on Upper Cork St, Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

To this end, the council says 100 dereliction issues have been resolved in this manner to date in 2023. In these cases, officials say each property was made non-derelict following engagement between the council and the property owners.

The council says 256 people have applied for Croi Conaithe Vacant Property Grants. These offer up to 70,000 for the refurbishment of vacant or derelict properties built before 2007.

Grants were initially capped at 30,00 but they went up in May this year to 50,000 with regards to vacant homes and up to 70,000 for derelict properties.
Authorities in California have captured four suspects in multiple break-ins at homes around Lake Tahoe: a mother bear and three of her cubs.

DNA has confirmed the large female black bear and her three little accomplices were responsible for at least 21 instances of property damage since 2022, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
The Philippine government has summoned the Chinese ambassador to convey a diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guards use of a water cannon against a Filipino supply boat in the disputed South China Sea, a Philippine official said.

The Philippine military on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard ships excessive and offensive use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering a new batch of troops, food, water and fuel to the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed waters.

The United States, the European Union and their key allies including Australia and Japan expressed support to the Philippines and concern over the Chinese ships actions.

Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its long-time treaty ally if Filipino public vessels and forces come under an armed attack including in the South China Sea.

The Philippine military on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard ships actions as excessive and offensive (Philippine Coast Guard via AP)

The tense confrontation on Saturday was the latest flare-up in the long-seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

One of several top Philippine officials dealing with the incident told The Associated Press that the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila summoned Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian on Monday morning to convey a strongly worded diplomatic protest.

The protest would underscore how the Chinese coast guard ships action violated international regulations aimed at avoiding collisions at sea and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the governments actions before they are publicly disclosed.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway despite international rulings that invalidated Beijings vast territorial claims, such as that in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague. China rejects that ruling.

Philippine navy personnel on board two chartered supply boats were cruising toward Second Thomas, escorted by Philippine coast guard ships, when a Chinese coast guard ship approached and used a powerful water cannon to block the Filipinos from the shoal that China also claims, the Philippine military and coast guard said on Sunday.

The Chinese ships action was in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board the Philippine navy-chartered boat and violated international law, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Sunday.

The excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels near the shoal prevented one of the two Filipino boats from unloading supplies needed by Filipino troops guarding the shoal onboard a long-marooned Philippine navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine military said.

It called on the Chinese coast guard and Chinas central military commission to act with prudence and be responsible in their actions to prevent miscalculations and accidents that will endanger peoples lives.
Lebanon is sending two helicopters to join Greek and Jordanian aircraft in helping European Union member Cyprus fight a blaze that has scorched miles of mountainous terrain, an official has said.

Cypriot foreign ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis said neighbouring Lebanon is expected to send a pair of choppers as the wildfire continues to reignite on several fronts.

Two Greek Canadair aircraft have been dispatched to help douse the fire in the mountains about 11 miles north of the coastal town of Limassol.

Jordan is sending three aircraft of its own, including two Super Puma helicopters and a Russian-made Mi26 helicopter.

Two helicopters operate over the fire in Apesia (AP)

The multinational effort is battling a blaze that has scorched as much as four square miles of land.

Environment secretary Andreas Gregoriou, who is coordinating firefighting efforts, told the state-run Cyprus News Agency that talks are ongoing with Israel for additional air support if needed.

Greeces civil protection ministry said 20 tonnes of fire retardant is also on its way to Cyprus.

Fire department spokesman Andreas Kettis posted on the platform known as X, formerly Twitter, that although the fire was brought under partial control, it rekindled along several areas, forcing air and ground crews to again mobilize.

The spokesman had earlier posted that ground crews were working to hem in the blaze by building firebreaks.

Officials expressed concerns that the fire could rekindle because of expected strong winds later in the day.

Greece has dispatched two Canadair fire-fighting aircraft (Philippos Christou/AP)

Interior minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted on X that he has given instructions for an initial estimate of the damage to private and state-owned property.

Officials said the residents of three villages have returned to their homes after being instructed to evacuate as a precaution.

Mr Gregoriou, who surveyed the area by helicopter along with the countrys fire chief, told state broadcaster CyBC that hundreds of firefighters, including volunteers, managed to contain the fire overnight because winds had died down considerably.

The fire started on Friday, but authorities said a day later it had been contained.

Mr Gregoriou said the blaze apparently reignited on its own, dispelling suggestions that it could have been the work of arsonists.
Tou Thao, the last former Minneapolis police officer convicted for his role in the killing of George Floyd, was sentenced to four years and nine months.

Thao had testified that he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered around as former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyds neck for nine and a half minutes while the black man pleaded for his life on May 25 2020.

In a video captured by a bystander Floyd can be heard crying I cant breathe.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in May.

A mural at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis (Julio Cortez/AP)

In his 177-page ruling, Judge Cahill said Thaos actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

The judge wrote: There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances.

He concluded: Thaos actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.

Tou Thao had rejected a plea bargain saying that it would be lying to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong (Hennepin County Sheriffs Office/AP)

Thao had rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he did not think he was in the wrong.

The sentence he handed down will run concurrently with Thaos three-and-a-half-year sentence for a separate conviction on a federal civil rights charge.

His state sentence was more than the four years recommended under state guidelines.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole.

There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behaviour.
The bodies of three hillwalkers have been recovered from a mountainside in the Scottish Highlands after they failed to return from a trek.

Police Scotland said concerns were raised shortly after 9pm on Saturday when the trio did not return from the their walk of Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe.
PHNOM PHNHHun Manet was appointed Cambodias new leader by the king on Monday, after having effectively been given the post by his father, who ruled for nearly four decades.

Days after a landslide victory in Julys election, Hun Senone of the worlds longest-serving leadersannounced he was stepping down as prime minister and handing power to his eldest son.

The polls were widely decried as a sham after the main opposition challenger, the Candlelight Party, was barred from running over a technicality, with the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) winning all but five seats in the 125-member lower house.

On Monday, following a request from Hun Sen, King Norodom Sihamoni issued a royal decree stating that he appoints Dr. Hun Manet as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia for the 7th mandate of the parliament.

To officially become the countrys next leader, the 45-year-old and his cabinet must win a confidence vote in parliament set for August 22.

The lower house is overwhelmingly stacked with members loyal to Hun Sen and he has pursued a ruthless campaign against any opposition, banning parties and forcing adversaries to flee abroad.

Longtime rival Sam Rainsyself-exiled in Francesaid any hopes for more freedom under Hun Manet or that he might distance the country from major benefactor China were misguided.

I think this is pure illusion, he told AFP ahead of the appointment. You can change leaders many times but nothing will change because the system remains the same.

The incoming government will usher in a crop of young ministers, with some taking posts vacated by their fathers.

While insisting he would not interfere with his sons rule, Hun Sen has also promised Cambodians that he will continue to play a prominent role in politics.

It is not the end yet, he said Monday following the appointment, adding he would continue serving in other positions until at least 2033.

After stepping down, Hun Sen will become president of the Senate early next year and acting head of state when the king is overseas.

Untried, untested

Despite being groomed for years, the eldest son of Cambodias iron-fisted ruler remains untested in the political arena and relatively unknown beyond it, according to Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sens Cambodia.

It is very hard to determine any distinctive national vision, he told AFP.

Hun Manet has an economics degree from England and graduated from US Military Academy West Point, but there are few signs he would bring his country closer to Western powers.

I have not seen any evidence that Manet has either the ability or the desire to push Cambodia in the direction of significant reform, Strangio said.

He said Hun Manets decisions would be dictated by the countrys rigid political system, requiring him to maintain the loyalty of powerbrokers in the political establishment, business elite, and security forces.

The 45-year-old Hun Manet is a member of the ruling partys powerful permanent committee, and has been the Royal Cambodian Armys commander since 2018.

He has in the past met world leaders, including Chinas President Xi Jinping, Cambodias main ally and a significant benefactor.

Following the announcement, Hun Manet posted a congratulatory song on social media.

Opposition crushed

Hun Sen has rejected international condemnation that last months polls were neither free nor fair, saying the handover was done to avoid bloodshed should he die in office.

A former Khmer Rouge cadre, Hun Sen has run the kingdom since 1985.

He helped modernize a country ravaged by decades of civil war and genocide, although critics say his rule has also been marked by environmental destruction and entrenched graft.

Rights groups accuse Hun Sen of using the legal system to crush any opposition to his rule, jailing scores of activists, union leaders and lawmakers.

In March, opposition leader Kem Sokha was convicted of treason and sentenced to 27 years in prison, currently being served under house arrest.
Ten junta soldiers were killed when resistance groups attacked a convoy of regime vessels, including three reportedly carrying jet fuel, on the Chindwin River in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region, on Sunday, according to Myanmars Royal Dragon Army (MRDA).

The MRDA and two other resistance forces combined to attack the convoy of two warships and three cargo vessels after it left Sin Phyu Shin bridge in Pakokku Township.

A battleship was halted when it came under attack from grenades launched by the resistances force, said Ko Naung Yoe, a spokesperson of the MRDA.

The clash lasted for around 30 minutes as the other vessels sought to protect the warship after it was hit by improvised grenade launchers, he said.

We heard that the convoy docked at Monywa Alone port and sent the injured soldiers to hospital. Ten soldiers were killed by our attack, Ko Naung Yoe told The Irrawaddy.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the casualty report.

We learned that the vessels will continue toward Hkamti Township in upper Sagaing to deliver the jet fuel, Ko Naung Yoe said.

No civilians or resistance members were injured in the clash.

The military convoy was docked at Monywa port till Sunday evening, according to the resistance force.

Myanmars military uses river routes to transport reinforcements to upper Sagaing and Kachin State. Combined resistance forces regularly attack military convoys along the routes.

Last week, a convoy of regime vessels came under attack from resistance groups positioned on both sides of the Ayeyarwady River after it departed Mandalay City for Kachin State on July 26. Two vessels were destroyed in the attack, according to the resistance groups.
A general responsible for the massacre of 29 civilians in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region, last year has been promoted to the chief of Myanmar militarys Southern Command in Bago Region.

Then Brigadier General Kyi Thike was appointed head of the 4th Military Operations Command based in Hpugyi, Yangon Region, in February 2021 following the military coup. His troops killed civilians and torched houses in Sagaing, a hotbed of the resistance movement. He is now a major general.

Amid pressures following the massacre of 29 civilians in Mon Taing Pin village in Ye-U Township by his Light Infantry Battalion 708 in May last year, Kyi Thike was transferred to head the Bayintnaung army combat training school in Thantaunggyi, Taungoo District.

The civilian National Unity Government has accused the LIB commander Lieutenant Colonel Tun Lin Aung and his boss, Kyi Thike, of ordering the massacre.

Some nine months after the massacre in Mon Taing Pin village, the battalion headed by Lt-Col Tun Lin Aung carried out raids from February to early April this year.

Calling themselves the Ogre Colum, junta soldiers raided resistance bases and villages in Ayadaw, Myinmu, Sagaing and Myaung townships in Sagaing Region and Yesagyo Township in Magwe Region.

In a series of raids, junta soldiers slaughtered civilians and resistance fighters. Some were beheaded and women were raped. Nearly 50 people, including resistance fighters, were killed in the raids.

Kyi Thike has succeeded Major General Htein Win as Southern Command chief, said a military source, after Htein Win was promoted to lieutenant general to head of armed forces training.

Military observers suggest that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has transferred his loyalist Kyi Thike to suppress the rising resistance movement in Bago Region.
Junta airstrikes killed at least two resistance fighters in eastern Kayah State as regime troops attempted to seize Mese Town near the border with Thailand, according to local resistance forces.

At least two members of the Karenni Army were killed by aerial bombing of resistance targets on Saturday, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF).

Fierce fighting has continued to rage in Mase and Hpaswang townships since last month when the junta sent heavy reinforcements to Kayah State in an attempt to regain lost territory.

Mese Town was seized by allied resistance forces after the Karenni National Peoples Liberation Front, a local border guard force, joined the resistance in June.

At least 9,000 residents of the state remained displaced in Thailands Mae Hong Son province as of July 17, according to the United Nations.

Since Wednesday, another junta column has clashed with combined resistance forces on Demoso-Hpruso Road in an attempt to safeguard their convoy of reinforcements and food supplies for their bases in Hpruso Township.

At least 84 junta soldiers and two KNDF fighters were killed during the clashes in July, the KNDF said on Saturday.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the numbers.

Junta warplanes conducted at least 42 airstrikes in the state in July, killing at least four civilians, including one child, and wounding eight more people, according to the KNDF.

It also said eight civilians lost their lives and 14 more were injured by indiscriminate shelling and extrajudicial killings by the regime in July.
Heavy clashes between the junta and Shan State Army (SSA), the armed wing of the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), resumed in Laikho Township, Shan State on Sunday, according to SSPP and local media reports.

The SSPP has twice met with coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for peace talks that were boycotted by other major armed ethnic organizations for being fraudulent and not inclusive.

But the rebel group failed to achieve its political aims from the meetings.

An intense clash broke out near Nant Pauk village at 6.15 am on Sunday when a military unit of 70 troops attacked an SSA base, said the SSPP.

Meanwhile, a series of clashes broke out at Mat Lang village when SSA troops attacked the juntas Light Infantry Battalion 573 stationed at the village in the township.

Junta infantry were supported by artillery.

An SSPP official told local media outlet Shan News that their forces had detained two junta soldiers and seized two weapons and a military vehicle.

Around 20 regime troops were killed in the clashes, the resistance official said.

The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm the military casualties independently.

SSPP said they also lost a comrade in the clashes.

Before the clashes, the junta had repeatedly demanded that the SSPP quit its 10 bases in the township, but the Shan rebel group refused. On August 4 and 5, regime forces shelled SSPP bases in the township.

After failing to achieve their aims via the sham peace talks, the SSPP issued a statement in early February following their annual meeting to declare that building a federal union that can guarantee equality and self-autonomy is the main way to build unity and sustainable peace in the country. It said it would thus coordinate with groups that want a federal union and democracy.

Myanmars civilian National Unity Government (NUG) has also approached the SSPP to cooperate in building a federal union.
The US has started enforcing its sanctions against two junta-owned banks in Myanmar by closing a window for businesses to wind down all transactions with them, according to the US Department of State.

The US designated sanctions on military-controlled Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank on June 21 as they have been instrumental in facilitating the regimes use of foreign currency to procure arms and jet fuel abroad, to access international markets using offshore accounts.

But the US Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a license to allow businesses and banks engaging with the banks an orderly wind down.

The license expired on August 5 and the sanctions will be enforced, according to a statement by the Department of State on Friday.

The US said the banks enable the regime to fund violence and it pledged to continue to engage with its partners in the international community to constrain the regimes ability to exploit the international financial system.

Through offshore accounts, the two banks have facilitated the junta regimes profiteering from Myanmars extractive industries, including oil and gas, teak and gemstones.

The banks have monopolized the countrys economy for decades as they have been the key financial institutions controlling the flow of foreign currency in Myanmar.

All the transactions made by Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry members and state-owned enterprises and even the salaries of seafarers are handled by the two banks.

To support its efforts to crush resistance forces, the regime has relied on foreign sources, including sanctioned Russian entities, to purchase and import arms.

Economist U Sein Htay, a former member of the economic committee of the National League for Democracy government, told The Irrawaddy in an interview that these new US sanctions against these banks will disrupt junta funding.

He said the state-owned enterprises will be hit by the sanctions and transactions made by two military-owned conglomerates, Myanma Economic Holdings and Myanmar Economic Corporation.

Their associated business owners and cronies, also have to go through these two banks. So the transactions will impact them, too he said.

After the sanctions were imposed in late June, the regime attempted to open secret bank accounts for Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise and Myanma Timber Enterprise to bypass sanctions on international transactions.

On July 10, Singapores United Overseas Bank (UOB) announced that it will shut all of junta-linked Myanmar Airways International bank accounts by August 15. Despite the airlines appeal to maintain the bank accounts, UOB has remained firm in closing the account.

Matthew Miller, a Department of State spokesman, said the US will monitor compliance and scrutinize the two banks transactions to counter evasion techniques.

We will pursue enforcement actions  the United States will not waver in its support for the people of Burma as they seek peace, justice and an inclusive, democratic future for their country, he said.
Myanmars two major anti-regime umbrella organizations have categorically rejected any compromise in their political goal of eradicating the military dictatorship and establishing a federal democratic union, following the juntas recent attempts to split the countrys anti-regime movement.

In a joint statement laying out the common position of anti-regime organizations on Sunday, the countrys parallel National Unity Government (NUG) and its advisory body, the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), stressed that the ultimate goal of their fight against the junta is not mere regime change but the establishment of a federal union.

To achieve the ultimate goal [building a federal union], we strongly believe that its necessary not only to wipe out the military dictatorship but the militarys involvement in the countrys politics and its tendency to stage coups, it said.

The NUG was formed by elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government and their ethnic allies in the wake of the military takeover in 2021 with a vision of building a federal democratic union in Myanmar after rooting out the military dictatorship. Its armed wing, the network of Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs), has been waging waralongside some ethnic armed organizations (EAOs)against the regime across the country. Many people in Myanmar consider the NUG their legitimate government and the PDF groups as their army.

The NUCC is a coalition council that defines the NUGs overall objectives and strategy. Its members include the NUGs parliamentary wing, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), some of Myanmars established EAOs, ethnic political parties and civil society organizations, among others.

The statement from the NUG and NUCC follows disinformation campaigns launched by the regime last month claiming that the countrys ousted and detained popular leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi doesnt support the NUG and its associates in their fight against the regime. As the leader of the NLD government ousted by the military coup in 2021, she has been detained by the regime since the first day of the takeover.

Rumors have also been circulating that a military-guided transitional government would be formed under the leadership of some former military generals to pave the way for a political dialogue between the regime and opposition forces. Both the disinformation campaigns and the rumors of a transitional government emerged after Daw Aung San Suu Kyis meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai in July. While it is still not known exactly what she said during the meeting, Don told the media that she encouraged dialogue.

Observers see the campaigns and the speculation about a transitional government as the juntas attempt to drive a wedge between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and anti-regime resistance stakeholders, including the NUG and most Myanmar people, who are determined to topple the military dictatorship by any means necessary. Daw Zin Mar Aung, the NUGs foreign minister, told The Irrawaddy that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would always stand with the people as she has promised, and offered a reminder that the popular leader is also the State Counselor of the NUG.

Against this backdrop, the NUG and NUCC said in their statement Sunday: We embrace and agree to these goals [to establish a federal union] and categorically reject any and all political moves that should deviate us from the vision and values we have determined for a new era and a new system.

They added that they will mandate and implement transitional justice mechanisms to address human rights violations and war crimes committed not only by the current regime but also previous regimes, and their atrocities against ethnic nationalities, in order to prevent further such violations.

The statement described the NUG and NUCCs vision of establishing a Federal Union Army comprising various ethnic nationalities to defend against external threats. The army would be unconditionally under the control of a civilian government.

They also pledged to continue their fight without turning back hand-in-hand with the people of all ethnic groups across the country and fully guaranteeing political processes towards building a federal democratic union, and with collective leadership and collective responsibility on the basis of equality, until we have achieved our ultimate goal.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the external affairs chief of the Karen National Union (KNU), one of Myanmars oldest and most powerful ethnic armed groups, said the NUG and NUCCs stand is the same as the KNUs when it comes to toppling the dictatorship, according to Karen National Media. The KNUs armed wings, the Karen National Liberation Army and the Karen National Defense Organization, are fighting alongside the NUGs PDFs.

Our view is clear. Any kind of dictatorship, including military, must be wiped out from our country, he said.
At least 26 Myanmar junta troops as well as a resistance fighter were killed in the last four days as Peoples Defense Force groups (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) continued to attack regime targets across the country.

Incidents were reported in Shan and Kayah states and Sagaing, Mandalay and Bago regions.

The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and EAOs.

Some military casualties could not be independently verified.

Junta renews clashes with another rebel group in Shan

Fierce clashes between regime forces and the Shan State Army (SSA), the armed wing of the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), resumed at two locations in Laikho Township, Shan State on Sunday when the junta conducted offensives against the resistance bases, said the SSPP.

First, a clash broke out near Nant Pauk Village in the township, when 70 junta troops raided an SSPP base.

Later that morning, SSA fighters attacked troops of military Light Infantry Battalion 573 stationed in Matlang Village in the township.

Details of casualties for both sides were unknown. In the days leading up to the clashes, regime forces shelled SSPP areas in the township.

The junta has repeatedly demanded that the SSPP move its 10 bases out of Laikho Township, but the group has refused.

Junta soldiers gunned down by resistance snipers in Sagaing



Resistance snipers ambush a military flotilla on the Chindwin River on Saturday. / Chaung U Revolution Army

Chaung U Revolution Army said at least three regime forces were gunned down in Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region on Saturday when it and other resistance groups used sniper rifles to ambush a military flotilla of five vessels on the Chindwin River.

Ten improvised heavy weapons were also used to attack the vessels. The flotilla responded indiscriminately with 40-mm and 60-mm explosives.

Military flotilla ambushed in Sagaing



Resistance groups engage a military flotilla on the Chindwin River in Salingyi Township on Saturday. / MRDA

Ten more regime soldiers were killed and some injured in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region on Saturday when several resistance groups ambushed a military flotilla of five vessels including two gunboats on the Chindwin River, said Myanmars Royal Dragon Army (MRDA), which coordinated the attack.

The flotilla was reportedly transporting aviation fuel. After being ambushed, the flotilla stopped at the port of Monywa town.

Several resistance groups ambushed the flotilla along the Chindwin River in Sagaing Region on Saturday.

Military unit besieged in Sagaing



Combined resistance forces clash with a military unit of 50 troops in Shwebo Township last week. / MDF (Shwebo)

At least five regime forces were killed and three injured in Shwebo Township, Sagaing Region in the past week when local resistance groups besieged a military detachment for six days, said Myanmar Defense Force (Shwebo), which joined the attack.

On July 29, a military unit of 50 troops from the pro-regime village of Myin Chin arrived at Seik Khun Village, where they had been newly stationed. Starting July 30, more than a dozen resistance groups from various Sagaing townships cut off and launched a sustained attack on the regime forces in the village lasting six days. At the time they came under attack, the junta troops were preparing to go out and raid nearby villages.

Last Thursday, the military unit secretly attempted to return to its base in Myin Chin, but was chased down and attacked by resistance forces. A resistance fighter was killed in the clash.

Junta-run township administration office raided in upper Sagaing

Some regime troops were injured in Kawlin town, upper Sagaing Region on Saturday when Kawlin District PDF Battalion 1 raided regime forces stationed at the junta-controlled township General Administration Department office, said the resistance group.

Junta troops killed in drone strike in Mandalay



Resistance groups conduct drone strikes and ambushes on regime targets in Natogyi Township last Thursday.

Natogyi PDF said it and four other resistance groups used a drone to drop a bomb on regime forces in Phaung Chin Village in Natogyi Township last Thursday.

On the same day, the groups dropped four drone bombs on regime forces from Suu Phyu Kone Village while the troops were going out to scour the forest for resistance camps. Firearms were also used to ambush the junta troops. Five regime forces were killed and four injured, said Natogyi PDF.

Junta forces ambushed in Bago

A junta soldier was killed in Phyu Township, Bago Region on Saturday when snipers from a joint group comprising members of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU)and a PDF group ambushed regime forces guarding a bridge over the Sittaung River near Oak Phyat Village, according to the Defense Ministry of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).

Clash erupts in Bago

Four regime forces were killed and four injured in Kyauktaga Township, Bago Region last Thursday when KNLA and PDF groups attacked a military unit raiding Thamin Kone Village at 4 a.m., said the NUGs Defense Ministry.

On that afternoon, a military unit stationed in nearby Thahtay Kone Village shelled Thamin Kone. A 16-year-old boy was killed when one of the junta explosives hit his house.

Clashes continue in Kayah State

The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) said it and other resistance groups clashed with regime forces on the Mobye-Loikaw highway in Loikaw Township, Kayah State on Saturday after observing military movements in villages on the highway starting Thursday.

People are urged to avoid regime bases due to potential clashes.
Today

Windy with scattered thunderstorms. Potential for flooding rains. High 82F. Winds SE at 25 to 40 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Tonight

Tropical storm conditions likely. Showers, with winds diminishing overnight. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph, becoming NE and decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Tomorrow

Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 91F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Excuse me, what does the name Huangshan mean to you?

The question was extensively discussed by specialists in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Aug 4, who fruitfully elucidated many of its unique magnificence. More than 100 academics, officials, business people, and media representatives explored "Creative Huangshan, Beautiful Huizhou" at the Culture and Tourism Promotion Conference of Huangshan, Anhui province.

As one of the world's most popular mountains, the Mount Huangshan in East China has garnered supreme titles of a world natural site, a world cultural heritage site, a world geopark, and a world biosphere reserve. In 1987, Huizhou prefecture was renamed Huangshan city.

For its Party leader Ling Yun, "Huangshan is a special being in the emotional world of the Chinese people," Ling said.

As a mountain of wonders, Huangshan is endowed with five distinct features forged through billions of years, including wondrous pines, strange rocks, sea of clouds, hot springs, and winter snow and becomes a heartfelt destination of old and young. And as a city, Huangshan carries millennia-old exquisite traditional culture of Huizhou and turns vibrant with youthful creativity in economic and cultural enterprising.

The Chinese character hui itself is composed of strokes meaning mountain in the upper part, water at bottom, humanity on the left, culture on the right, combing nature and man, beauty and auspiciousness, Ling explained. And the traditional culture of Huizhou primed in classics, history, philosophy, medicine, science and arts, and flourished in business, trade and literary circles.

"Huangshan is a spiritual symbol of the Chinese nation," she said.

"Yingkesong, the Guest-Greeting Pine, is an invitation extended to people from all over the whole world." The iconic pine, over 1,000 years old, is inset high among Huangshan peaks and worshipped by travelers as among the China's most famous trees, if not the most.

Numerous academics and poets liken it to upright, resilient, generous, friendly and inclusive human merits, and its peaks, clouds and waters are typified in Chinese literature and aesthetics and established connections with human sublimity, Ling said. Huangshan is taken as an "international meeting hall" by Vice-Mayor Zhang Yaqiang, one of beauty and magnificence, with attractions over the city that make this giant park "picturesque in every corner and enjoyable at every step".

It is also an "International Meeting Hall" for friendship and cooperation, he said in a speech delivered in English, citing 70 plus diplomatic events last year and more than 100 major events in recent years including the World Creative Economy Summit.

The "International Meeting Hall" of Huangshan is of openness for win-win cooperation, he added, as it gathers some Fortune Global 500 enterprises, representatives of foreign farms, trade associations, and managers, and attracts a number of Americans and Europeans who have chosen to live and work here.

Moreover, by blending modernity and tradition, Huangshan as an "International Meeting Hall" is for people from all sides to pursue dreams together, Zhang said. New sports, artistic and cultural events facilitate more investment and exchanges.

"Huangshan is becoming one of the most beautiful windows to showcase the charm of China, the glamour of Anhui, and the attraction of Huizhou," he said. Bernard Chan Pak-li, Hong Kong undersecretary for commerce and economic development, regards Huangshan as an opportunity and business partner, saying Hong Kong is ready to provide entrepreneurial and investment services to firms from Huangshan and the whole of Anhui province, and help them expand foreign markets.

Zhang said both cities can together shape more famous brands, and work further for joint development.

Vice-Mayor Liu Li cited Huangshan as a "grand roofless museum", sincerely inviting people from Hong Kong and across the world to come and "explore nature's wonders one has to tour in a lifetime", "experience local cuisine one has to taste", "enjoy indigenous housing one has to live in", and "seek fine folk customs one has to appreciate".

One can actually experience the life of mountainous folks, Liu said, as apart from the mountain itself, the scenic area offers tortuous Xin'an River, Taoist Qiyun Mountain, Guniujiang waterfalls, Taiping Lake, plus green valleys and treasure-like caves.

The villages scattered among the hills and at foot of the mountain provide ease, leisure and spiritual calmness, he said, and many villagers' dwellings can provide delicious local treats like fish, special toufu, crisp cakes, noodles and of course, with Huangshan Maofeng Tea, Taiping Houkui Green Tea and Qimen Black Tea among others. Moreover, during festivals and special occasions, the villagers will display their folk customs such as dancing with stool-tied dragon in Huizhou or auspicious animal kylin in Yixian county, lanterns in shape of huge swords or variety of fishes, playing with large wooden wheels, performing with drums and opera of local styles.

As birthplace of Huizhou culture, Huangshan brims with cultural prosperity, preserving about 310 traditional villages often hundreds of years old, 8,000 historical and cultural relics, and millions of ancient books and documents, said Party leader Ling.

Thus one can also savor the old and new city of Huangshan, strolling along ancient streets, viewing the story-rich archways, visiting numerous museums and checking with local craftworks, or attending river-side concerts, joining in repairing classic books or modeling after ancient paintings, said Liu.

"Coming to Huangshan will also enable you to have a taste of life for spiritual accomplishments, rural fishing and farming, or secluded land of harmony," Liu said.

Zhang Dehui, chairman of share-listing Huangshan Tourism Group, noted that tourists from Hong Kong rank among top three overseas groups to the scenic park and the number of foreign tourist arrivals this year also picks up strongly.

For him, Huangshan is the start of contemporary tourism industry in the Chinese mainland. He cited the mountaineering trip of late leader Deng Xiaoping to Mount Huangshan in mid-July 1979 in his 70s. Deng's remarkson tourism and easy-going encounter with a drama-shooting troupe from Hong Kong got widely reported, largely giving rise to later flourishing of tourism sector amid the country's burgeoning reform opening-up campaign he initiated a year before. To Yang Yi, a manager of Huangshan Tourism Ltd Co who wears a golden badge of the Guest-Greeting Pine, visiting tourists can also try decorative and practical products that typify traditional designs. Zhu Wei, general manager of a Huizhou carving company who is a craftsman himself and direct descendant of literary giant Zhu Xi about 1,000 years ago, said one of his ideas is to create tasty eatables in shapes of traditional writing tools.

Overall, "while walking into Huangshan and experiencing Huizhou, you are reading and learning of China," Ling Yun said while extending her invitation to travelers, investors and friends across the globe to visit Huangshan.
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Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe


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By Andrew Weaver, University of Victoria | 

Those following the latest developments in climate science would have been stunned by the jaw-dropping headlines last week proclaiming the Gulf Stream could collapse as early as 2025, study suggests  which responded to a recent publication in Nature Communications.

Be very worried: Gulf Stream collapse could spark global chaos by 2025 announced the New York Post. A crucial system of ocean currents is heading for a collapse that would affect every person on the planet noted CNN in the U.S. and repeated CTV News here in Canada.

One can only imagine how those already stricken with climate anxiety internalized this seemingly apocalyptic news as temperature records were being shattered across the globe.

This latest alarmist rhetoric provides a textbook example of how not to communicate climate science. These headlines do nothing to raise public awareness, let alone influence public policy to support climate solutions.

We see the world we describe

It is well known that climate anxiety is fuelled by media messaging about the looming climate crisis. This is causing many to simply shut down and give up  believing we are all doomed and there is nothing anyone can do about it.



Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Alarmist media framing of impending doom has become quintessential fuel for personal climate anxiety, and when amplified by sensational media messaging, it is quickly emerging as a dominant factor in the collective zeitgeist of our age, the Anthropocene.

This is also not the first time such headlines have emerged. Back in 1998, the Atlantic Monthly published an article raising the alarm that global warming could lead, paradoxically, to drastic cooling  a catastrophe that could threaten the survival of civilization.

In 2002, editorials in the New York Times and Discover magazine offered the prediction of a forthcoming collapse of deep water formation in the North Atlantic, which would lead to the next ice age.

Building on the unfounded assertions in these earlier stories, BBC Horizon televised a 2003 documentary entitled The Big Chill, and in 2004 Fortune magazine published The Pentagons Weather Nightmare, piling on where previous articles left off.

Seeing the opportunity for an exciting disaster movie, Hollywood stepped up to created The Day After Tomorrow in which every known law of thermodynamics was ever so creatively violated.

The currents are not collapsing (anytime soon)

While it was relatively easy to show that it is not possible for global warming to cause an ice age, this still hasnt stopped some from promoting this false narrative.

The latest series of alarmist headlines may not have fixated on an impending ice age, but they still suggest the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation could collapse by 2025. This is an outrageous claim at best and a completely irresponsible pronouncement at worst.



R. Curry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Science/USGCRP , CC BY



The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been assessing the likelihood of a cessation of deep-water formation in the North Atlantic for decades. In fact, I was on the writing team of the 2007 4th Assessment Report where we concluded that:

It is very likely that the Atlantic Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) will slow down during the course of the 21st century. It is very unlikely that the MOC will undergo a large abrupt transition during the course of the 21st century.

Almost identical statements were included in the 5th Assessment Report in 2013 and the 6th Assessment Report in 2021. Other assessments, including the National Academy of Sciences Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises, published in 2013, also reached similar conclusions.

The 6th assessment report went further to conclude that:

There is no observational evidence of a trend in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), based on the decade-long record of the complete AMOC and longer records of individual AMOC components.

Understanding climate optimism

Hannah Ritchie, the deputy editor and lead researcher at Our World in Data and a senior researcher at the Oxford Martin School, recently penned an article for Vox where she proposed an elegant framework for how people see the world and their ability to facilitate change.

Ritchies framework lumped people into four general categories based on combinations of those who are optimistic and those who are pessimistic about the future, as well as those who believe and those who dont believe that we have agency to shape the future based on todays decisions and actions.



(Andrew Weaver) , Author provided



Ritchie persuasively argued that more people located in the green optimistic and changeable box are what is needed to advance climate solutions. Those positioned elsewhere are not effective in advancing such solutions.

More importantly, rather than instilling a sense of optimism that global warming is a solvable problem, the extreme behaviour (fear mongering or civil disobedience) of the pessimistic changeable group (such as many within the Extinction Rebellion movement), often does nothing more than drive the public towards the pessimistic not changeable group.

A responsibility to communicate, responsibly

Unfortunately, extremely low probability, and often poorly understood tipping point scenarios, often end up being misinterpreted as likely and imminent climate events.

In many cases, the nuances of scientific uncertainty, particularly around the differences between hypothesis posing and hypothesis testing, are lost on the lay reader when a study goes viral across social media. This is only amplified in situations where scientists make statements where creative licence is taken with speculative possibilities. Possibilities that reader-starved journalists are only too happy to play up in clickbait headlines.

Through independent research and the writing of IPCC reports, the climate science community operates from a position of privilege in the public discourse of climate change science, its impacts and solutions.

Climate scientists have agency in the advancement of climate solutions, and with that agency comes a responsibility to avoid sensationalism. By not tempering their speech, they risk further ratcheting up the rhetoric with nothing to offer in terms of overall solutions or risk reduction.

Andrew Weaver, Professor, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
This interview was published on Loujains birthday, celebrating her achievements

Read this post in 

This post was written by Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), an independent, non-profit organisation that promotes freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in the MENA region.

This article was first published in the Gulf Centre for Human Right. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement.

( Globalvoices.org )  Prominent human rights defender, Loujain Al-Hathlouls tireless work in advocating human rights, has inspired a beautiful childrens story titled Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers.

On February 10, 2021, Loujain announced that the authorities had conditionally released her after having spent more than two and a half years in prison for defending womens rights in Saudi Arabia. Her efforts included demanding an end to the male guardianship system and to the ban on womens driving. Her release was influenced by political pressure from the West.

Despite her release from prison, Loujain suffers from not being allowed to freely express her opinions on social media or speak freely to the media. She is also prevented from finding suitable job opportunities. She is also prevented from traveling abroad to start a new life, one that would enable her to fully enjoy her rights and rebuild her future.

The executive director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Khalid Ibrahim, recently conducted an interview with Lina Al-Hathloul, a human rights defender and Loujains sister. The interview focused on the childrens book she wrote to tell her sisters story, and it also includes updates on Loujains latest news.

Edited excerpts from the interview follow.

Khalid Ibrahim (KI): Can you explain the relationship between Loujains childhood dream of flying, as depicted in the story, and her tireless work for women in Saudi Arabia to attain the right to drive, which was achieved five years ago?

Lina Al-Hathloul (LH): Loujain fought for womens right to drive in Saudi Arabia. It was a dream of hers, and she did everything she could to achieve that goal. She discussed this matter with individuals from different segments of society, pointing out the injustice that this ban represents, until she finally learned to drive herself, to demonstrate that it is possible for women in Saudi Arabia to practice this right as well. In the story, the little girl Loujain wants to fly using her wings, but only boys had the right to fly. After much suffering and determination to succeed, her family understood her desire and agreed to teach her to fly so that her story became one of an inspiring heroine who encouraged young girls to learn to fly as well.

KI: The family supported Loujain until she fulfilled her dream of flying and landing in a field of sunflowers. Could you elaborate on the role of your family in the great achievements that Loujain achieved through her human rights work?

LH: My father filmed Loujain in 2013 when she drove for the first time in Saudi Arabia, at a time when women were still not allowed to drive. The video went viral, and, as her guardian, he took full responsibility. My family has always been supportive of us all, and wanted a better future for us daughters. My fathers support was visible to everyone, of course, but I also wanted to thank my mother in the story, because in real life, she was the one who sacrificed the most and fought for us to become independent women.

KI: I know I will fly, not immediately but definitely. This phrase was repeated several times in the story. Could you clarify if this reflects your belief that peaceful change and building an independent and prosperous future for all citizens in Saudi Arabia may not happen immediately, but it will surely be eventually realized?

LH: This phrase was the main picture of Loujains Facebook profile while she was in prison. We thought it was very expressive and embodies Loujains vision of her human rights work. Things take a long time to change, and we are working to build a mature and healthy country, which will take generations, not just years. I wanted children to know that they must be patient and that injustice may last for a long time, but justice will always prevail.

KI: Could you tell us about how your storys theme came to be?

LH: Uma, who co-authored the story with me, is a human rights activist, and she invited me to speak before the Human Rights Council while Loujain was in prison. When I was in Geneva, I met her 5-year-old daughter, who had been hearing a lot about Loujain. Like any child, she was curious to know why Loujain was in prison. Her numerous questions made us believe that it was important to have a story that tells Loujains struggle in a beautiful and imaginative way, to help children understand that injustice must be confronted, and that we can try to change our societies for the better. On a personal level, I wanted to ensure that Loujains name is remembered by future generations, so that they know that my sister was one of the pioneers who contributed to change and to the attainment of this right. No matter what the authorities do to try and tarnish her name, people will always remember her as a righteous champion as opposed to being a traitor, as the authorities attempted to label and defame her.

KI: Could you update the readers on the latest news of human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul?

LH: After her release, Loujain was transferred from a small prison to a larger prison; she is deprived of her civil and human rights, including her right to freedom of expression and the right to travel abroad.

This link contains a video about the book as well as excerpts from articles published in a number of international newspapers about it.
( Human Rights Watch )  Israels airstrikes in Jenin in the occupied West Bank in early July reminded me of the nights during rounds of hostilities in Gaza when my family and I worried we wouldnt survive to see daylight again. The most recent outbreak of hostilities in Gaza in May might have faded from memory for many, but the wounds are still fresh.

People with disabilities remain among the most affected. On May 13, an Israeli officer ordered the Nabhan family to evacuate their homes in the Jabalya refugee camp within three minutes. They housed at least 40 members of their extended family, including five people with disabilities.

Najah, 50, pleaded for help to evacuate her daughters Haneen, and Areej, who have physical and intellectual disabilities. Neighbors quickly carried the young women to safety. Before they had time to retrieve Haneens wheelchair, an Israel airstrike flattened their four-story building. I need nothing but to have our house back, 19-year-old Haneen later told me.

Haneen said she feels cut off from the world without her wheelchair, calling it the most important thing in her life. Areej has trouble sleeping amid the constant buzzing of Israeli drones above. We are going to die, Mom! she once screamed.

The escalation began on May 9, when the Israeli army targeted the homes of three Islamic Jihad commanders, killing them and 10 members of their families and neighbors, including 4 children.

Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe. Join our movement today. Have it sent to your inbox.



Image by hosny salah from Pixabay



The five days that followed featured Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket attacks. At least 33 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 12 civilians, and 2 civilians in Israel were killed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Nearly 3,000 Palestinian housing units were also damaged, reported authorities in Gaza.

Israels Gaza closure has now entered its seventeenth year. Human Rights Watch has documented that these sweeping restrictions on movement, at times exacerbated by restrictive policies by Palestinian authorities, curb access to assistive devices, health care, and electricity essential to many people with disabilities. Chronic power outages particularly jeopardize the rights of many people with disabilities who need light to communicate using sign language, or equipment powered by electricity to move, including elevators and electric mobility scooters.

The bombing may have subsided again, but for Haneen and Areej, who lost their family home in an instant and the assistive device that helped them to lead a more independent and dignified life, the hostilities havent ended.

Via Human Rights Watch
LITTLETON, CO / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American:URG)(TSX:URE) (the "Company" or "Ur-Energy") has filed the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml and with Canadian securities authorities at www.sedar.com.

Ur-Energy CEO, John Cash said, "This was an exciting quarter with our Lost Creek Project moving back into commercial production. Despite significant challenges in recruitment of personnel and contractors, and the worst Wyoming winter on record, we are proud to say we began producing U 3 O 8 again to build inventory for delivery into our three sales contracts. Congratulations and a genuine thank you to each of our team members whose Wyoming cowboy-up spirit of perseverance has made the ongoing ramp-up possible.

"Demand for nuclear energy continues to expand as nations seek to lower carbon emissions and foster security through energy independence. While the demand for nuclear fuel grows, risk in the supply chain is escalating as evidenced by the war in Ukraine, transportation issues for Kazakh uranium and Russian LEU exports, the recent coup in Niger, and a lack of any significant new mine production in the near-term.

"Our strategy to take advantage of the improving market is simple: continue growing our long-term sales book as the market continues to improve, ramp-up production at Lost Creek and, ultimately, at Shirley Basin. We will also continue to consider acquisition opportunities to increase our production portfolio but will remain disciplined by only seeking to acquire, or organically develop, quality, producible, projects.

Financial Results

As of June 30, 2023, we had cash resources consisting of cash and cash equivalents of $68.0 million, an increase of $35.0 million from the December 31, 2022 balance of $33.0 million. During the six months ended June 30, 2023, we used $5.1 million for operating activities, used $1.2 million for investing activities, and generated $41.3 million from financing activities, which included net proceeds of $44.0 million from share issuances less $2.7 million Wyoming bond loan principal payment.

In the first six months of 2023, we sold 100,000 pounds to the U.S. DOE uranium reserve program at an average price of $64.47. We now have three multi-year sales agreements, having recently added a third agreement to our contract book which calls for deliveries of 100,000 pounds U 3 O 8 annually 2025 - 2027. Collectively, our agreements call for deliveries beginning in 2023 and continuing through 2028, with the possibility of deliveries continuing under one agreement into 2029. Including the already completed 100,000-pound sale, we expect to sell 280,000 pounds U 3 O 8 in 2023 for $17.3 million. With the addition of our third multi-year sales agreement, our current anticipated revenues 2023 - 2028 will be approximately $220 million.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP measures with US GAAP financial statement presentation

The following tables include measures such as U 3 O 8 sales, U 3 O 8 cost of sales, U 3 O 8 gross profit, U 3 O 8 pounds sold, U 3 O 8 price per pound sold, U 3 O 8 cost per pound sold, and U 3 O 8 gross profit per pound sold. These measures do not have standardized meanings within US GAAP or a defined basis of calculation. These measures are used by management to assess business performance and determine production and pricing strategies. They may also be used by certain investors to evaluate performance. These measures exclude disposal fees and lower of cost or NRV adjustments.

U 3 O 8 Sales, Cost of Sales, and Gross Profit

The following table provides information on our U 3 O 8 sales, cost of sales, and gross profit.

Unit 2023 Q1 2023 Q2 YTD 2023 U 3 O 8 Gross Profit Produced $000 1,575 - 1,575 Purchased $000 1,243 - 1,243 $000 2,818 - 2,818 U 3 O 8 Price per Pounds Sold Produced $/lb 64.47 - 64.47 Purchased $/lb 64.47 - 64.47 $/lb 64.47 - 64.47 U 3 O 8 Cost per Pound Sold Ad valorem and severance taxes $/lb 0.60 - 0.60 Cash costs $/lb 18.61 - 18.61 Non-cash costs $/lb 8.85 - 8.85 Produced $/lb 28.06 - 28.06 Purchased $/lb 42.56 - 42.56 $/lb 36.29 - 36.29 U 3 O 8 Gross Profit per Pound Sold Produced $/lb 36.41 - 36.41 Purchased $/lb 21.91 - 21.91 $/lb 28.18 - 28.18 U 3 O 8 Gross Profit Margin Produced % 56.5 % - 56.5 % Purchased % 34.0 % - 34.0 % % 43.7 % - 43.7 %

U 3 O 8 Production and Ending Inventory

The following table provides information on our production and ending inventory of U 3 O 8 pounds.

Unit 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 2023 Q1 2023 Q2 2023 YTD U 3 O 8 Production Pounds captured lb 74 85 156 4,392 4,548 Pounds drummed lb - - - - - Pounds shipped lb - - - - - Pounds purchased lb 40,000 - - - - U 3 O 8 Ending Inventory Pounds In-process inventory lb 1,279 1,357 1,498 5,801 Plant inventory lb - - - - Conversion inventory - produced lb 267,049 267,049 223,790 223,790 Conversion inventory - purchased lb 56,741 56,741 - - lb 325,069 325,147 225,288 229,591 Value In-process inventory $ 000 - - - - Plant inventory $ 000 - - - - Conversion inventory - produced $ 000 7,488 7,488 6,275 6,275 Conversion inventory - purchased $ 000 2,415 2,415 - - $ 000 9,903 9,903 6,275 6,275 Cost per Pound In-process inventory $/lb - - - - Plant inventory $/lb - - - - Conversion inventory - produced $/lb 28.04 28.04 28.04 28.04 Conversion inventory - purchased $/lb 42.56 42.56 - - Conversion inventory average $/lb 30.58 30.58 28.04 28.04 Produced conversion inventory detail Ad valorem and severance tax $/lb 0.59 0.59 0.59 0.59 Cash cost $/lb 18.60 18.60 18.60 18.60 Non-cash cost $/lb 8.85 8.85 8.85 8.85 $/lb 28.04 28.04 28.04 28.04

Continuing Guidance for 2023

Our ramp-up decision in December 2022 laid our foundation for 2023. Notwithstanding the winter endured in Wyoming this year, we were able to advance our wellfield construction and development plans to return to commercial production operations at Lost Creek, with the production flow initiated from HH 2-4 in May. Production rates increased noticeably in June. We continue to diligently work to optimize processes and refine production plans, supported by our experienced Lost Creek operational staff and new hires. We expect HH 2-5 will also be brought online this year. Additional header houses will come online thereafter based upon our production targets for delivery into our sales commitments.

Construction of our centralized services facility is complete at our Company-owned operations headquarters in Casper, Wyoming. The new 6,000 square foot building houses our construction shop and fully licensed chemistry lab. We are now able to consolidate our header house construction and lab analyses in support of Lost Creek and other future operations.

The Casper facility will also support the development and future operation of the Shirley Basin Project. With all major permits and authorizations for our Shirley Basin Project in place, we stand ready to construct the mine when market conditions support the placement of new off-take sales contracts for the project.

Global recognition of nuclear energy's role in achieving net-zero carbon emissions continues to expand. The Biden Administration also continues to voice support for clean energy and the nuclear industry. G7 nations are prioritizing nuclear energy as clean, baseload energy which provides nations with high-quality jobs, economic growth and, importantly, greater energy security.

Uranium spot prices during Q2 remained above $50/lb. U 3 O 8 , with much of the period experiencing prices in the mid-$50s per pound U 3 O 8 . Nuclear utilities and other purchasers are back in the market, resulting in sustained term pricing.

These stronger prices enabled us to secure multi-year sales agreements with leading nuclear companies. We now have three agreements that call for combined annual delivery of a base amount of 600,000 - 700,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 over a five-year period, beginning in 2024. Sales prices are anticipated to be profitable on a Company-wide, all-in cost basis, and are escalated annually from initial pricing. In 2023 H2, we will deliver into the first sales commitments under these agreements.

Bills are pending in both the House and Senate to cut off Russian imports of low-enriched uranium. While the bills appear to have strong bipartisan and Department of Energy support, the outcome remains uncertain. Any cessation of imports of nuclear fuel from Russia will introduce uncertainty into the supply chain since Russia is a major global supplier and the West has limited capacity to backfill any supply disruption. Additionally, Congress is considering steps to further bolster U.S. nuclear fuel production capacity to mitigate the impact from global supply chain disruptions to nuclear utilities which supply nearly 20% of U.S. electricity and 50% of the U.S. carbon free electricity.

Our cash position as of August 3, 2023, was $63.7 million and we have 223,790 pounds U 3 O 8 in our conversion facility inventory. We look forward to delivering existing and future Lost Creek production into our sales contracts. As noted, we have sufficient conversion facility inventory on hand to meet our remaining 2023 deliveries and, with the DOE sale in Q1, anticipate selling a total of 280,000 pounds U 3 O 8 at an average price of $61.89 for proceeds of $17.3 million this year with average gross profit margins expected to be above 40%.

We will continue to closely monitor the uranium markets, and other developments in the nuclear energy market, which may positively affect the uranium production industry and provide the opportunity to put in place additional off-take contracts at pricing sufficient to justify further expansion of production. As always, we will focus on maintaining safe and compliant operations.

Earnings Webcast and Teleconference

We will host a webcast and teleconference on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, at 1:30 PM Mountain Time / 3:30 PM Eastern Time.

Ur-Energy management will provide a review of our 2023 Q2 operations and results. A Q&A session will follow the presentation. Please join us by phone or online as follows:

Toll Free Number: 888-506-0062

International Number: 973-528-0011

Provide event code 517113 or ask to join the Ur-Energy call.

The webcast can be accessed 10 minutes prior to the call.

Pre-registration and participation access is available by clicking here or by copying the following URL into your web browser: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2307/48913. Following the webcast, a replay will be available at the same link.

About Ur-Energy

Ur-Energy is a uranium mining company operating the Lost Creek in-situ recovery uranium facility in south-central Wyoming. We have produced and packaged approximately 2.7 million pounds U 3 O 8 from Lost Creek since the commencement of operations. Ur-Energy now has all major permits and authorizations to begin construction at Shirley Basin, the Company's second in situ recovery uranium facility in Wyoming and is in the process of obtaining remaining amendments to Lost Creek authorizations for expansion of Lost Creek. UrEnergy is engaged in uranium mining, recovery and processing activities, including the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of uranium mineral properties in the United States. The primary trading market for UrEnergy's common shares is on the NYSE American under the symbol "URG." UrEnergy's common shares also trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "URE." Ur-Energy's corporate office is in Littleton, Colorado and its registered office is in Ottawa, Ontario.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

John W. Cash, Chairman, CEO and President

1-720-981-4588, ext. 303

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws regarding events or conditions that may occur in the future (e.g., the ability to maintain safe and compliant operations at Lost Creek as we continue to increase production levels; the timing for completion of ongoing development at Lost Creek including timing for additional header houses to come online; the timing of future development and construction priorities for Shirley Basin; the ability to ramp-up to higher production levels in a timely and cost-effective manner; whether the new centralized services facility will provide the operational, financial and environmental benefits currently foreseen; the ability to complete additional favorable uranium sales agreements; whether we will be successful with acquisition opportunities and/or with organic growth of our projects; resolution of the continuing challenges within the uranium market, including supply and demand projections and whether recent increases in spot and term pricing will continue and be sustained; whether the U.S. and other nations implement significant and continuing sanctions on Russia with respect to imports of nuclear fuel and to what effect; whether proposals in Congress to support the nuclear industries will be made law and what effects they would have; and impacts on the global markets of ongoing climate change initiatives) and are based on current expectations that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, inherently involve a number of significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans," "expects," "does not expect," "is expected," "is likely," "estimates," "intends," "anticipates," "does not anticipate," or "believes," or variations of the foregoing, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "might" or "will be taken," "occur," "be achieved" or "have the potential to." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements express or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates; failure to establish estimated resources and reserves; the grade and recovery of ore which is mined varying from estimates; production rates, methods and amounts varying from estimates; delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals; inflation; changes in exchange rates; fluctuations in commodity prices; delays in development and other factors described in the public filings made by the Company at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date hereof and Ur-Energy disclaims any intent or obligation to update them or revise them to reflect any change in circumstances or in management's beliefs, expectations or opinions that occur in the future.
VANCOUVER, BC and PERTH, Australia, Aug. 6, 2023 /CNW/ - Silvercorp Metals Inc. ("Silvercorp") (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM) and OreCorp Limited (ASX: ORR) ("OreCorp") are pleased to announce the signing of a binding scheme implementation deed (the "Agreement") whereby Silvercorp will acquire all fully-paid ordinary shares of OreCorp not held by Silvercorp or its associates (the "OreCorp Shares"), pursuant to an Australian scheme of arrangement under Part 5.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the "Scheme"), subject to the satisfaction of various conditions.

Transaction Highlights

OreCorp shareholders to receive A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share (valued at A$0.45 ) for each OreCorp Share held, representing total consideration with an implied value of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share. 1

in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share (valued at ) for each OreCorp Share held, representing total consideration with an implied value of per OreCorp Share. OreCorp's Board unanimously recommends OreCorp shareholders vote in favour of the Scheme, subject to no Superior Proposal 2 emerging for OreCorp and an independent expert concluding, and continuing to conclude, that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders.

emerging for OreCorp and an independent expert concluding, and continuing to conclude, that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Silvercorp to provide OreCorp with approximately A$28 million in funding via an equity placement (more fully described below) to immediately advance development of its Nyanzaga Gold Project in Tanzania (" Nyanzaga "), including progressing resettlement activities and early project works.

in funding via an equity placement (more fully described below) to immediately advance development of its Nyanzaga Gold Project in (" "), including progressing resettlement activities and early project works. The Agreement aims to: Create a diversified, highly profitable precious metals company with a pro forma market cap of US$630 million 3 , a robust growth pipeline and exposure to a highly prospective emerging mining jurisdiction; Provide a re-rating opportunity on the successful development of Nyanzaga, which is expected to commence commercial gold production in H2 2025; and Enable OreCorp and Silvercorp shareholders to participate in a larger company with greater access to capital, higher liquidity, increased scale and enhanced capital markets relevance.

Silvercorp has the balance sheet strength to fund construction and aggressive exploration of Nyanzaga, as well as pursue regional M&A opportunities.

Silvercorp's best-in-class technical team has the track record and expertise to build Nyanzaga and pursue opportunities for optimization.

Consideration mix preserves Silvercorp's strong balance sheet, allowing funds to be deployed for development of Nyanzaga, managing risk and optimizing future opportunities.

Existing OreCorp shareholders will own 17.8% of Silvercorp's common shares outstanding on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis following implementation of the Scheme.

The Scheme is subject to various customary closing conditions, including OreCorp shareholder approval and Court approval.

Silvercorp has agreed to use reasonable endeavours to apply for admission of Silvercorp to the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange (the " ASX ").

"). Proposed development of Nyanzaga by Silvercorp supported by Tanzania Government Authorities.

____________________________ 1 Value attributed to Silvercorp share and implied value attributed to OreCorp Share calculated based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 2 As defined in the Agreement. 3 The pro forma financial information is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to represent the future financial position of the combined entity.

Nyanzaga Highlights

OreCorp holds an 84% interest in the Nyanzaga Gold Project located in the Mwanza region, Tanzania, in partnership with the Government of Tanzania. Key permits are in place to develop Nyanzaga for first gold in H2 2025. A definitive feasibility study, announced in August 2022, estimated that Nyanzaga could deliver 2.5 million ounces of gold over a 10.7 year life.4 As reported in OreCorp's June 2023 Quarterly Activities Report released on July 21, 2023, Nyanzaga's post-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate is US$905 million and the internal rate of return is 32%, using a recent spot gold price of US$2,000/oz.5

Nyanzaga is located approximately 40 km north east of the Bulyanhulu mine, one of Barrick Gold Corporation's two gold mines in the Lake Victoria Goldfields, which together with the North Mara mine produced approximately 547,000 ounces of gold in 2022.6 The Geita Gold Mine, one of AngloGold Ashanti Limited's flagship mines, located 80 km west of Nyanzaga, produced 521,000 ounces of gold in 2022.7

Silvercorp Chairman and CEO, Dr. Rui Feng, said:

"This transaction will create a new globally diversified precious metals producer. We believe this is a rare opportunity to leverage our technical expertise and strong balance sheet to unlock value for all shareholders by bringing Nyanzaga into commercial production by H2 2025. Under the leadership of Her Excellency, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania is becoming an attractive place for foreign investment. We look forward to partnering with the Government of Tanzania and leveraging OreCorp's existing team and relationships to ensure a successful development that benefits all stakeholders."

OreCorp Managing Director and CEO, Henk Diederichs, said:

"This transaction provides our shareholders with an immediate and significant upfront premium and exposure to a geographically diverse mid-tier precious metals company. With a strong operating history, solid balance sheet and significant mine building and operational experience, Silvercorp's management team is well-positioned to fund and advance Nyanzaga into commercial production."

Honorable Minister of Minerals, Dr. Doto Mashaka Biteko, said:

"The Tanzanian Government is supportive of the proposed partnership between OreCorp and Silvercorp and looks forward to working together to develop Nyanzaga as a robust project delivering beneficial outcomes to the people of Tanzania and other stakeholders."

____________________________ 4 Cautionary Statement - based on a gold price of US$1,750/oz. Refer OreCorp ASX announcement dated 22 August 2022 ("Nyanzaga DFS Delivers Robust Results"). The production target referred to in the DFS and this announcement comprises 92% Probable Ore Reserves and 8% Inferred Mineral Resources. There is a low level of geological confidence associated with Inferred Mineral Resources, and there is no certainty that further exploration work will result in the determination of Indicated Mineral Resources or that the production target itself will be realised. 5 Refer OreCorp ASX announcement dated 21 July 2023 ("June 2023 Quarterly Activities Report"). 6 Barrick Gold Corporation (2022) Annual Report 2022. 7 AngloGold Ashanti Limited (2022) Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Report as at 31 December 2022.

Benefits for OreCorp Shareholders

Total implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share (being A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share valued at A$0.45 ), 8 representing: a 41.7% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price (" VWAP ") of OreCorp's shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023 ; 9 and a 31.5% premium to OreCorp's closing share price of A$0.435 on the ASX on August 4, 2023 10 .

per OreCorp Share (being in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share valued at ), representing: Share consideration provides enhanced trading liquidity, re-rating potential and opportunity to participate in further upside from Nyanzaga and Silvercorp's existing portfolio;

Significantly reduces development and operational risk at Nyanzaga by leveraging Silvercorp's technical expertise and ESG track record;

Strong pro forma balance sheet removes immediate funding uncertainty and mitigates risk of significant dilution; and

Enhanced capital markets profile with a pro forma market cap of US$630 million 11 and listings on the TSX, NYSE and, subject to successful admission and quotation, the ASX.

Benefits for Silvercorp Shareholders

Accretive transaction on a net asset value basis;

Provides immediate geographic and metal diversification;

Addition of a largely de-risked, low-cost gold project that has key permits in place and is on track for first gold in H2 2025;

Re-rating opportunity due to enhanced scale, asset diversification, production and exploration upside as well as a foothold in an emerging, mining-friendly jurisdiction; and

Meaningfully grows Silvercorp's mineral reserves and resources profile.

____________________________ 8 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 9 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE and OreCorp's ordinary shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023. 10 Based on the closing price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE and OreCorp's ordinary shares on the ASX as of August 4, 2023. 11 The pro forma financial information is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to represent the future financial position of the combined entity.

Transaction Summary

Under the terms of the Agreement, Silvercorp or a wholly owned subsidiary will, subject to the satisfaction of various conditions, acquire the OreCorp Shares by means of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 5.1 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), whereby each holder of OreCorp Shares will receive, for each OreCorp Share held, A$0.15 in cash and 0.0967 of a Silvercorp common share valued at A$0.45 for a total implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp Share.12

The implied consideration of A$0.60 per OreCorp share represents a 41.7% premium to the 20-day VWAP of OreCorp's shares on the ASX for the period ending August 4, 2023 and values OreCorp at approximately A$242 million on a fully-diluted-in-the-money basis. Existing OreCorp shareholders will own 17.8% of Silvercorp's common shares outstanding on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis following implementation of the Scheme.

Concurrent with entering into the Agreement, Silvercorp and OreCorp have also entered into a placement agreement, whereby 70,411,334 new fully-paid ordinary shares of OreCorp will be issued to Silvercorp at a price of A$0.40 per OreCorp Share for aggregate proceeds of approximately A$28 million (the "Placement"). The Placement will occur in two tranches, with the first tranche (for aggregate proceeds of A$18 million) to complete on the third business day after execution of the Agreement and the second tranche (for aggregate proceeds of approximately A$10 million) to complete 10 business days thereafter. Upon completion of the Placement, Silvercorp will hold approximately 15% of the total outstanding ordinary shares of OreCorp. Proceeds from the Placement will be used to immediately commence resettlement activities as contemplated in the Relocation Action Plan, facilitating the prompt development of Nyanzaga.

Boards Approvals and Recommendations

The OreCorp Board has unanimously approved the transaction and recommends that all OreCorp shareholders vote in favour of the Scheme at the meeting of the shareholders of OreCorp (the "Scheme Meeting"), in the absence of a Superior Proposal and subject to the independent expert to be appointed by OreCorp (the "Independent Expert") concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Subject to those same qualifications, each director of OreCorp intends to vote, or cause to be voted, all OreCorp Shares held or controlled by them (representing 4.6% of OreCorp's issued shares as at the date of this announcement) in favour of the Scheme at the Scheme Meeting.13

The Silvercorp Board has also unanimously approved the transaction.

____________________________ 12 Based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of Silvercorp's common shares on the NYSE American for the period ending August 3, 2023, converted to Australian dollars using a U.S. dollar to Australian dollar foreign exchange rate of 1.526. 13 OreCorp Directors hold an aggregate of 18,487,960 OreCorp Shares, representing 4.6% of shares on issue as at the date of this announcement which, together with 1,864,482 Performance Rights held by OreCorp Directors, represent 5.1% on a fully diluted basis as at the date of the announcement (calculations exclude options which will be cancelled if the Scheme proceeds).

Key Shareholder Support

Rollason Pty Ltd (Rollason), which controls 49,136,589 OreCorp Shares (representing approximately 12.3% of the OreCorp Shares as at the date of this announcement), has provided a signed voting intention statement to OreCorp (Voting Intention Statement) indicating that Rollason intends to vote, or cause to be voted, all OreCorp Shares held or controlled by it or its associates at the time of the Scheme meeting in favour of the Scheme, in the absence of a Superior Proposal and subject to the Independent Expert concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders. Rollason has consented to OreCorp publicly announcing its voting intention.

Tanzanian Government Support

OreCorp and Silvercorp met with key Tanzanian Government stakeholders including the Treasury Registrar and the Minister of Minerals. The Government is supportive of the transaction, underpinning Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan's mantra that Tanzania is open for international investment. The companies are looking forward to the continued support from key Government stakeholders.

Honorable Minister of Minerals, Dr. Doto Mashaka Biteko with Chairman of OreCorp, Matthew Yates (left) and Chairman and CEO of Silvercorp, Rui Feng (right)

Transaction Structure and Certain Terms of the Agreement

The Scheme is subject to customary closing conditions for a transaction of this nature, including:

OreCorp shareholders approving the Scheme at the Scheme Meeting;

Approval of the Federal Court of Australia ;

; Completion of the Placement;

The Independent Expert issuing an Independent Expert's Report which concludes (and continues to conclude) that the Scheme is in the best interests of OreCorp shareholders;

Tanzanian Fair Competition Commission and any other applicable approvals;

Foreign Investment Review Board approval in Australia , if required;

, if required; OreCorp performance rights and OreCorp options being dealt with such that none will remain in existence on completion of the Scheme;

No material adverse change and no prescribed occurrence in relation to either Silvercorp or OreCorp;

Approval for quotation on TSX and NYSE of the Silvercorp common shares to be issued to OreCorp shareholders as the scrip component of the consideration; and

Other customary conditions.

Under the Agreement, Silvercorp has agreed to use reasonable endeavours to apply for admission of Silvercorp to the official list of Australian Securities Exchange (the "ASX"). If ASX has provided Silvercorp with conditional approval for admission to the official list of ASX by the business day before the date of the second court hearing, OreCorp shareholders (other than ineligible shareholders) may elect to receive the scrip component of the consideration in the form of CHESS Depositary Interests (which may be traded on ASX) instead of in the form of Silvercorp common shares. If conditional approval is not provided by ASX by the business day before the date of the second court hearing, all OreCorp shareholders (other than ineligible shareholders) would receive the scrip component of the consideration in the form of Silvercorp shares, tradable on the TSX and NYSE.

The Agreement also contains customary deal protection mechanisms, including no talk and no due diligence provisions, (subject to a fiduciary out exception) and no shop, as well as notification and matching rights for Silvercorp in the event of a Competing Proposal14. The transaction may incur a capital gains tax payable under Tanzanian legislation. A break fee of approximately A$2.8 million shall be payable by OreCorp to Silvercorp if the Agreement is terminated as a result of certain specified circumstances.

A copy of the Agreement, which sets out the terms and conditions of the Scheme and associated matters, will be filed on Silvercorp's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

Timetable and Next Steps

OreCorp shareholders do not need to take any action in relation to the Scheme at this stage.

A Scheme booklet setting out the key terms of the transaction, including the Scheme, Independent Expert's Report, Investigating Accountant's Report and the reasons for the recommendation of the OreCorp Board will be sent to all OreCorp shareholders in due course. The Scheme Meeting to consider the Scheme is expected to be held in November 2023 and the Scheme is expected to be implemented before the end of 2023 subject to satisfaction of all conditions and receipt of all necessary approvals. The Scheme is conditional on, among other things, approval by a majority in number of OreCorp shareholders who vote at the Scheme Meeting and at least 75% of all votes cast at the Scheme Meeting. Silvercorp is excluded from voting at the Scheme Meeting.

____________________________ 14 As defined in the Agreement.

An indicative timetable is set out below:

Action Estimated Date First Court Date Early-mid October 2023 Dispatch scheme booklet to OreCorp shareholders Early-mid October 2023 Scheme Meeting Mid November 2023 Second Court Date Mid November 2023 Effective Date End of November/early December 2023 Record Date End of November/early December 2023 Implementation Date End of November/early December 2023

Advisors and Counsel

Canaccord Genuity Corp. is acting as financial advisor to Silvercorp. King & Wood Mallesons, Australia and A&K Tanzania are acting as Silvercorp's Australian and Tanzanian legal advisors, respectively.

CIBC Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to OreCorp. Allen & Overy and REX Attorneys are acting as OreCorp's Australian and Tanzanian legal advisors, respectively.

Conference Call / Webinar Details

Silvercorp and OreCorp will host a joint conference call today at 10.00 am Australian Eastern Standard Time / 8.00 am Australian Western Standard Time / 8.00 pm North American Eastern Standard Time / 5.00 pm North American Pacific Standard Time to discuss the transaction. Participants are advised to dial in five minutes prior to the scheduled start time of the call. A presentation will be made available on both companies' websites prior to the webcast.

Webinar details

Presenters: OreCorp Executive Chairman, Matthew Yates and Managing Director and CEO, Henk Diederichs, with Silvercorp Vice President Lon Shaver

Date/time:

Monday 7 August at 8:00am AWST (10:00am AEST)

Sunday 6 August at 5:00pm PST (8:00pm EST)

Register to join via zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_B8jehfTbT1OSPVfzbrmjQQ

Dial in via telephone:

Please use one of the following numbers and when prompted enter the webinar ID 868 9291 7099.

Australia:

+61 3 7018 2005 or

+61 7 3185 3730 or

+61 8 6119 3900 or

+61 8 7150 1149 or

+61 2 8015 6011

Canada:

+1 780 666 0144

+1 204 272 7920

+1 438 809 7799

+1 587 328 1099

A recording of the conference call will be available on both companies' websites following the call.

About Silvercorp

Silvercorp is a Canadian mining company producing silver, gold, lead, and zinc with a long history of profitability and growth potential. Silvercorp's strategy is to create shareholder value by 1) focusing on generating free cashflow from long life mines; 2) organic growth through extensive drilling for discovery; 3) ongoing merger and acquisition efforts to unlock value; and 4) long term commitment to responsible mining and ESG.

About OreCorp

OreCorp is a Western Australian based mining exploration company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code ORR. OreCorp's key project is the Nyanzaga Gold Project in northwest Tanzania.

This announcement has been approved for distribution by the Board of Directors of each of Silvercorp and OreCorp.

For further information

Silvercorp Metals Inc. OreCorp Limited Media Lon Shaver Henk Diederichs Nathan Ryan Vice President CEO and Managing Director Phone: +61 420 582 887 Phone: (604) 669-9397 Phone: +61 8 9381 9997 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Toll Free 1(888) 224-1881 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: https://orecorp.com.au/ Website: www.silvercorp.ca

COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

The information in this announcement relating to OreCorp's Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga is extracted from the ASX announcement dated 22 August 2022 ("Nyanzaga DFS Delivers Robust Results") which is available to view on OreCorp's website www.orecorp.com.au. OreCorp confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original announcement and, in the case of Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the Exploration Results, estimates of Mineral Resources, Ore Reserves Statements and the production target in relation to Nyanzaga (and any forecast financial information derived from the production target) in the original announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. OreCorp confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Person's (being Mr Allan Earl) findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original announcement.

CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER - FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain of the statements and information in this announcement may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", "forecasts", "objectives", "budgets", "schedules", "potential" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: creating shareholder value; generating free cashflow from long life mines; organic growth; mergers and acquisitions; and estimated production from Silvercorp or OreCorp mines.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks relating to: social and economic impacts of COVID-19; completion and timing of the transactions described above; receiving the necessary approvals to satisfy the conditions to the transactions; the determination of capital gains tax; fluctuating commodity prices; calculation of resources, reserves and mineralization and precious and base metal recovery; interpretations and assumptions of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; exploration and development programs; feasibility and engineering reports; permits and licences; title to properties; property interests; joint venture partners; acquisition of commercially mineable mineral rights; financing; recent market events and conditions; economic factors; timing, estimated amount, capital and operating expenditures and economic returns of future production; integration of future acquisitions into existing operations; competition; operations and political conditions; regulatory environment in China, Canada, Australia and Tanzania; environmental risks; legislative and regulatory initiatives addressing global climate change or other environmental concerns; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; insurance; risks and hazards of mining operations; key personnel; conflicts of interest; dependence on management; internal control over financial reporting; and bringing actions and enforcing judgments under U.S. and/or Australian securities laws.

This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Silvercorp or OreCorp's forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those referred to in Silvercorp's Annual Information Form under the heading "Risk Factors". Although Silvercorp and OreCorp have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by either Silvercorp or OreCorp that any forward-looking statement will be achieved or proved to be correct.

The forward-looking statements are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management as of the date of this announcement, and other than as required by applicable securities laws, neither Silvercorp nor OreCorp assumes any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's assumptions, beliefs, expectations or opinions should change, or changes in any other events affecting such statements. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information related to Silvercorp, including Silvercorp's Annual Information Form, can be obtained under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com, on EDGAR at www.sec.gov, and on the Silvercorp website at www.silvercorpmetals.com.

Additional information related to OreCorp can be obtained under the Company's profile on ASX at www.asx.com.au and on OreCorp's website at www.orecorp.com.au.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

Resource estimates included in this news release have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Australian Institute of Geoscientists and Minerals Council of Australia. Silvercorp's reserve and resource estimates have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for public disclosure by a Canadian company of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects.

Australian standards and Canadian standards each differ significantly from the disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission under subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K, and mineral reserve and resource information included in this news release may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by U.S. companies.
Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga should be urgently considered for release after he was declared unfit to stand trial in The Hague, UN appeals judges ruled on Monday.

Former tycoon Kabuga, who is 88 according to officials but claims to be 90, is accused of setting up a hate broadcaster that fuelled the 1994 slaughter of around 800,000 people.

A war crimes tribunal said in June that Kabuga was no longer healthy enough to go on trial, but that he should still undergo a stripped down legal process without a verdict.

However appeals judges said on Monday that the lower court made an "error of law" and that there was no legal basis for an "alternative finding procedure" instead of a trial for Kabuga.

They had "decided to remand the matter to the trial chamber with an instruction to impose an indefinite stay of proceedings in view of Mr Kabuga's lack of fitness to stand trial."

"The appeals chamber further instructed the trial chamber to expeditiously consider the issue of Mr Kabuga's detention on remand," the judges said in a ruling.

The decision "must be disappointing" to victims and survivors of the 1994 slaughter who have "waited long to see justice delivered," the appeals judges acknowledged.

But they said that "justice can be delivered only by holding trials that are fair and conducted with full respect for the rights of the accused".

Captured in Paris 2020 after two decades on the run, wheelchair-bound Kabuga went on trial last September and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors accuse Kabuga, once one of Rwanda's richest men, of being the driving force behind Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which urged ethnic Hutus to kill Tutsis with machetes.

But judges said in June that medical experts had now found that he has "severe dementia".

The court first put the trial on hold in March over health concerns, having earlier dismissed bids by Kabuga's defence lawyers to have him declared unfit to stand trial.
A Senegalese judge on Monday placed French-Spanish lawyer Juan Branco, who was indicted a day earlier, under judicial supervision ahead of his expulsion to France, his lawyer and a senior justice ministry official told AFP.

Branco, who is one of the lawyers defending the Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, was arrested Friday in Mauritania and handed over to Senegalese authorities.

"He is in a police station and will be taken to the airport," Robin Binsard, one of Branco's Paris-based lawyers, told AFP.

"He is exhausted but relieved to be released".

Binsard said Branco was taken out of prison on Monday morning and presented to a judge, who placed him under judicial supervision.

A senior official from the justice ministry confirmed the information.

Branco had refused to drink and eat after his arrest.

He was indicted on Sunday with charges including conspiracy, spreading false news, acts likely to compromise public security or cause serious political unrest, and contempt of court, according to his lawyers.

Branco gained notoriety in Senegal after joining the legal team of Sonko, a firebrand politician and President Macky Sall's fiercest critic, who has faced a series of legal troubles since 2021.

On June 22, Branco said he had filed a criminal complaint against Sall in France for "crimes against humanity", and had requested a probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

His initiatives also named Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome and gendarmerie chief General Moussa Fall among more than 100 others accused.

The move sparked Senegal's ire, with Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall lashing it as "childish and puerile".

Senegalese prosecutors on July 14 filed an international arrest warrant against him.

He made a surprise appearance at a press conference with Sonko's other lawyers in the capital Dakar on July 30.

The conference followed Sonko's arrest two days earlier on fresh charges.

The Senegalese government on Thursday described Branco as a publicity-hungry lawyer shirking his responsibilities.

"Senegal should not be the sounding board for a lawyer seeking recognition in his own country" and who "dreams of Victor Hugo", said government spokesman Abdou Karim Fofana.

One of Branco's Dakar-based lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said he was "kidnapped" about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, by hooded men who injured his wrists.

According to Branco's Parisian lawyers, he was arrested on board a boat in Mauritanian waters.

He intended to contact the Mauritanian authorities in the hopes they would arrange his repatriation to France or Spain, they said.
Ju Ji Hoon talks about the challenges and the changes he had to make as he headlines the movie "Unofficial Operation."

The top star teams up with Ha Jung Woo as they play the main characters in the newly released political drama film.

Taking on the role of Pan Su, Ju Ji Hoon transforms as Pan Su, a local taxi driver based in Beirut. He was caught up in the mission of diplomat Min Jun, portrayed by Ha Jung Woo, who is in Lebanon to rescue a missing colleague.

Ju Ji Hoon on Negative Effects of Drastic Transformation for 'Unofficial Operation'

During his interview with KBS Cool FM's "Park Myung Soo's Radio Show" to promote the movie, Ju Ji Hoon revealed the lengths he had to go through to portray the character.





According to the actor, he experienced health issues due to a sudden physical change.

READ MORE: Ju Ji Hoon Reveals One Disadvantage of Being Handsome

Because of his character, he had to be perceived as someone who was distinctly strong. To achieve this, the actor worked out rigorously and intentionally gained 12 kg for the role.

"My character is a taxi driver who solicits customers in a region where there are no other Asians," he said, as reported by the media outlet, explaining the reason behind his body transformation. "So I thought my character needed to stand out and should be big so no one would view him as an easy target."

Ju Ji Hoon admitted that bulking up and gaining weight for a short period of time "wasn't easy." However, he did manage to lose weight, around 6 to 7 kg, but it took a toll on his health.

Due to the rapid changes in gaining and losing weight, the actor said that he developed an immune disorder. Unfortunately, Ju Ji Hoon suffered from health issues such as gout, or inflammatory arthritis, and tinnitus, or the ringing sound that a person affected by it hears, similar to a roaring or buzzing sound.

Although Ju Ji Hoon experienced health issues, it only shows how dedicated he is as an actor.

Interestingly, he managed to deliver an outstanding performance, playing Pan Su along with the equally talented Ha Jung Woo in "Unofficial Operation."

Is 'Unofficial Operation' Worth Watching?

Officially released in theaters on August 2, Ju Ji Hoon and Ha Jung Woo's movie is based on the true story of a diplomat who was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon.

Set in 1986, Min Jun's (Ha Jung Woo) mission is to save a missing colleague in Lebanon amid the country's crisis. He then encounters Pan Su (Ju Ji Hoon), a Korean taxi driver who gets involved in a dangerous mission.

"Unofficial Operation" is helmed by Kim Sung Hoon of "Kingdom" seasons 1 and 2 and the prequel, "Kingdom: Ashin of the North."

IN CASE YOU MISSED: Ha Jung Woo Says Filming 'Unofficial Operation' in Morocco Affected His Eating Habits

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Cheon Sa Rang (YoonA) decided to restart her career. Gu Won (Lee Junho), on the other hand, wanted to begin a new chapter in their relationship in "King the Land" episode 16.

'King the Land' Episode 16: Cheon Sa Rang Quits King Hotel, Launches Own Business

Cha Sun Hee (Kim Young Ok) was worried about the sudden return of Cheon Sa Rang. The young lady told her that she no longer finds purpose in her job and wishes to try something else.

This made her grandmother happy and supportive.

The scene shifted to the couple having dinner. Gu Won was about to propose to Sa Rang when she told him she wanted to quit. He was taken aback for a moment, until she clarified that she wanted to quit work at King Hotel to open her own.

He easily understood what she wanted and postponed the proposal to support Sa Rang in her new life chapter.

Cheon Sa Rang then made her final goodbye to her colleagues at the King Hotel.

While on her way home, Gu Won surprised her with flowers and shoes to begin her new story.

Since then, the couple became busy with their individual goals.

Gu Won & Cheon Sa Rang Excel in Their Careers

Gu Won gave Sang Sik (Ahn Se Ha) the promotion he had been waiting for, while Sa Rang finally found the perfect place for her hotel, which screamed a celebration with her friends.

Meanwhile, Gu Won talked to Gu Hwa Ran (Kim Sun Young) and hoped she wouldn't make herself lonely, which hit her hard. She decided to no longer bear the pain and took her son back home, who was about to fly to the U.S.

Elsewhere, Sa Rang opened Hotel Amor, while Gu Won participated in a media conference where he shared his plans for King Hotel. Later that night, Sa Rang, who had fallen asleep while working, was surprised by the noises.

She then discovered that Gu Won prepared a romantic set-up and reminisced about their memories of when they still hated each other.

The couple spent the night at Hotel Amor and shared a lovely breakfast the next morning.

As she got busy, Sa Rang was also concerned about Gu Won's health, who kept visiting her despite his busy schedule.

She decided to hire part-timers only to find out that Gu Won also applied for the position.

Gu Won Decides to Spend Forever With Cheon Sa Rang

The mood changed as Gu Won wished to stay Sa Rang with him forever, and this time, he finally proposed, which she happily accepted. He then celebrated their engagement and Gu Won finally asked permission from Cha Sun Hee to marry her granddaughter.

After getting the elder's approval, the couple's happiness couldn't be contained.

Soon, King the Land was filled with decorations for their big day. Han Mi So arrived for her son's wedding and came across Gu Hwa Ran and her child, which resulted in a peaceful conversation.

With the presence of all the special people in their lives, Cheon Sa Rang and Gu Won finally exchanged their vows, and the room was filled with cheers from their friends and families.

What can you say about "King the Land" episode 16? Share your thoughts/replies in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
Lee Min Ho's new visuals gained attention after the actor graced an event in Thailand.

On social media, fancams and paparazzi shots circulated showing the South Korean star's new look. However, fans recognized Lee Min Ho's change of appearance and seemed like he had gained a bit of weight.

Is Lee Min Ho's Weight Gain Preparation for His New Role? Here's What Fans Think

Lee Min Ho served looks during the Merz Aesthetics Expo event in Thailand. Fans also praised the actor for being so down to earth and giving unforgettable fan service.

Interestingly, what other fans noticed was Lee Min Ho's weight gain.

During his recent public appearances, the top star's facial features have become rounder.

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It seems that the actor has gained a bit of weight as he takes a short break from the small screen.

Netizens in online communities said that the actor's "swollen" face is notable and speculated that it might be because of his hiatus.

Nonetheless, fans pointed out how Lee Min Ho looked "fine" and has the visuals of a "prince charming" despite his weight gain.

I think we're dead and in heaven

He looks so fine in white omg!! #LeeMinHo pic.twitter.com/qvoVfzbaMB         (@gamzeliminom) August 5, 2023

I just want to love him! Nothing morecertainly nothing less. I just want to love him. Thats why Im here! Minho come here lemme love you amore! Anything less than complete love for him is just ugly noise around me#LeeMinHo pic.twitter.com/IdYNzUDLem  M (@AmNohbdy) August 6, 2023

this leeminho being down to earth is everything to me  pic.twitter.com/7m0ysZ4Szb     (@jaddiemino) August 6, 2023

On the other hand, other fans speculate that he might be preparing for a new project, hence his new look.

Lee Min Ho's Upcoming Projects

After his most talked-about return to the small screen through Disney+'s "Pachinko," Lee Min Ho is set to make a comeback. The South Korean star will work with the equally-talented and award-winning actress Gong Hyo Jin for the rom-com K-drama "When the Stars Gossip," also known as "Ask the Stars."

Taking on the role of an OB-GYN named Gong Ryong, he joins the space expedition as one of the tourists, where he meets a Korean-American astronaut named Eve Kim, played by Gong Hyo Jin.

The upcoming K-drama revolves around the budding romance between two people who meet at an unexpected place and time.

Joining the two top stars are Oh Jung Se, Lee El, Han Ji Eun, and Kim Joo Heon.

Interestingly, Lee Min Ho and Gong Hyo Jin's new drama is directed by Park Shin Woo, who is the genius behind "Lovestruck in the City," "It's Okay to Not Be Okay," and "Jealousy Incarnate," which was also headlined by Gong Hyo Jin.

On the other hand, Lee Min Ho will reprise his role in "Pachinko" season 2 as Ko Han Su, a Korean who now resides in Osaka, Japan.

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
The Yukon territorial flag flies in Ottawa on Monday July 6, 2020.Yukon fire officials say they're hoping for a shift in the weather to work in their favour as a wildfire inches closer to the Village of Mayo, which was evacuated Sunday afternoon. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
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Locum tenens agreements can be useful to physicians in many circumstances. In addition to serving as a way to supplement your income during vacations, physicians often enter locum tenens agreements between jobs, to provide income while waiting for interviews or for credentialing to be completed at a new position.

In many ways, reviewing a locum tenens agreement is similar to reviewing a physician employment agreement, but there are unique aspects to locum tenens agreements that physicians should be cognizant of. As the most obvious example, a physician employment agreement clearly creates an employer-employee relationship. However, the physicians status can be either an employee or an independent contractor in locum tenens agreements.

The implications of being taxed as an independent contractor rather than being taxed as an employee can be material to the bottom-line impact of the relationship to the physician. Employment taxes are significantly different for employees and independent contractors. As an employee, the physician will have 50 percent of his or her Social Security taxes paid by the employer, while an independent contractor will be responsible for 100 percent of these taxes (6.2 percent of income up to $160,000 in 2023 for an employed physician, as opposed to 12.4 percent of that amount for an independent contractor physician  a difference of up to $9,920). Additionally, independent contractors can deduct expenses related to the engagement (such as transportation to the location and housing away from home). Independent contractors may also be able to deduct expenses related to licensure, CME, DEA registration, board certification and recertification, and other expenses required of physicians. None of these deductions are available for employed physicians.

Unfortunately, very few locum tenens agreements, even those which create an employer-employee relationship, have significant physician benefits. One critical exception to this rule is the provision of malpractice insurance. Every locum tenens agreement should provide malpractice insurance. Although generally tail coverage is provided, this obviously should be specifically addressed in the agreement.

As is the case with a physician employment agreement, the locum tenens agreement should have clear provisions concerning the patient contact hour requirements. There should be specific limitations on the number of consecutive days or nights the physician is required to work, for example. Also, as should be provided in physician employment agreements, the locum tenens agreement should provide that the locum tenens company will bear the cost of medical staff credentialing.

One common issue in locum tenens agreement seems to be overreaching indemnification provisions. I have seen locum tenens agreements requiring unlimited indemnification from the physician against any malpractice claims. Any indemnification should be strictly limited to the amount of insurance coverage.

Beware of covenants not to compete in locum tenens agreements. If the locum tenens company is supplying physicians to a hospital, it is reasonable to require that the physician not apply for privileges at that hospital for some period of time (e.g., one year), but the agreement should not prohibit working for other locum tenens companies, hospitals, or private practices.

Its helpful to know what other locum tenens agreements provide. It is usually possible to get reimbursement or direct payment for travel expenses to and from the assignment, lodging expenses if the assignment is more than a reasonable distance (e.g., 50 miles) away from home, reimbursement for a rental car, and a meal allowance. Sometimes it is possible to be reimbursed for the expenses for traveling home during the assignment. Reimbursement for lodging and the rental car should cover the day before and the day after the assignment.

Valuing your services as a locum tenens physician can be challenging, and most benchmarks only provide information for employed physicians. Nevertheless, benchmarks can be useful in establishing a floor for reasonable compensation. Determining what employed physicians (with health insurance, retirement plans, disability insurance, etc., provided as part of their employment) are being paid can be used as a compelling argument for increasing compensation for a physician who is not getting any of these benefits.

Dennis Hursh is a veteran attorney with over 40 years of experience in health law. He is founder, Physician Agreements Health Law, which offers a fixed fee review of physician employment agreements to protect physicians in one of the biggest transactions of their careers. He can also be reached on Facebook and LinkedIn.
By Emmanuel Eumu

The government has gazetted Raphael Otaya as the first Kumam cultural institution leader after about one year of his election in July 2022.

In an August 1st letter, Aggrey Kibenge, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender Labour, and Social Development, directed the executive director of Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation to have Otayas status as Kumam cultural head gazetted.

The directive is in accordance with section 6 of the cultural leaders Act 2011, This comes after the installation of Otaya as cultural head for the Kumam speakers.

Frank Mugabi, the ministry spokesperson, says that after thorough scrutiny of the processes leading to the election of the Kumam cultural leader, the ministry had no objection to having the leader gazetted.

Raphael Otaya who will now superintend as the cultural head for the Kumam speakers is a retired teacher and holder of a diploma in education.
By AFP

West African leaders will hold a summit on the crisis in Niger this week after the countrys military rulers defied an ultimatum to restore the elected government or face possible military intervention.

In its first official reaction since Niger ignored the deadline of midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the ECOWAS regional bloc said it would meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday.

The ECOWAS leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger during the summit, the 15-nation bloc said on Monday.

ECOWAS had issued its ultimatum at a previous summit in Abuja on July 30, warning it did not rule out the use of force in Niger.

No foreign troops were visible on the streets of Nigers capital, Niamey, after the deadline came and went on Sunday.

A source close to ECOWAS said an immediate military intervention to restore Bazoum was not being envisaged at this stage.

Neighbouring Mali nevertheless said it and Burkina Faso  which have both been suspended from ECOWAS over their own military coups  were sending a joint official delegation to Niamey to show solidarity (with) the people of Niger.

They have said military intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Nigers military leaders have closed the nations airspace and on Monday its skies were clear of traffic, according to the flight tracking website Flightradar24.

Italy urged ECOWAS to extend the deadline and seek a diplomatic solution, with a similar call from Germany.

A solution must be found. Its not set that there is no way other than war, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa newspaper.

 Constitutional order 

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military solution, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be a direct threat to his North African country.

Senators in regional heavyweight Nigeria urged everyone to focus on the political and diplomatic option.

Just before the ultimatum expired on Sunday, Nigers military rulers closed the Sahel countrys airspace and warned any attempt to enter it would meet with an energetic and immediate response.

They said there had been a pre-deployment in preparation for intervention made by two Central African countries, without naming them, and warned: Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent.

Former colonial power France, with which Nigers new rulers have broken military ties, said it would firmly back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the deadline expired.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called on Sunday on the coup leaders to stand down.

We condemn the attempted coup in Niger, which poses a serious threat to peace and security in the sub-region, Ouattara said, adding it was essential to constitutional order that Bazoum be allowed to govern.

The Niger coup was the latest of several to plague Africas Sahel belt since 2020.

Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have 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 already evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Niger since the coup, and on Sunday, Italys defence ministry said it had flown 65 military personnel from Niger, along with 10 US military personnel.
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khaskhabar.com : , 07  2023 8:07 PM
The Village Inn in Clogh hosted a unique celebration on Friday night.

In terms of employment not too many can boast a service spanning 50 years in the same job. Donal Brennan, Chatsworth is a man for all seasons and the one word that springs to mind is loyalty be that to his parish, community, hurling club, or his place of work. Donal started work in the Railway Garage 50 years ago initially with the late Seamus Farrell and then James Farrell.

Little did he know what was in store for him on Friday as well wishers came from far and near in a surprise party/celebration. He entered the pub to a roar akin to winning an All-Ireland. James Farrell was full of praise for his right-hand man.

Donal, 50 years is a long time in any job. You started work with my late father in the garage. My earliest memory is of yourself and Pat Buggy arriving for work on bicycles. Both of us have come a long way since," he said.

"As I recall you borrowed my mothers car on occasions for socialising and nearly always dropped it back in time so my mother could drop me to school. What many people might not know is that our business began not with cars but with tractors. We became agents for Zetor tractors from 1971 right up to the early 1980s.

"Donal started working in our garage in 1973. We became Suzuki dealers in 1986. Naturally this involved a completely new challenge but for you Donal the change posed no problem at all. As already stated Donal has worked here for 50 years and over that period, he has been the public face of our business. He is the person all our customers meet when they arrive with a problem, a service or a general enquiry.

"So, what kind of person did they meet? Well, they met an excellent mechanic, a person who was always courteous to everyone, a person who was very honest, loyal, punctual and so helpful to all our customers but also to Stephen who has been working by your side for the last 17 years.

"For my part Donal I want to thank you for all the support you have given me over all this time. You have been like the brother I never had. You have helped to build up the business during the past 50 years and have played your part in ensuring our customer ratings on the Suzuki website have been very very high.

"You have given me great advice and at times helped me keep my feet on the ground. Above all you are so dependable. I knew any time I left the premises that I could trust you to deal with any issue that could arise and that gave me so much peace of mind. You have also been a great colleague as well to Breda and Yvonne in the office who along with Stephen are delighted to be here to celebrate your great achievement tonight."

As a token of gratitude, the Railway Garage organised a trip to Italy for Donal and Catherine to meet up with Andrew, Nadine, Eva, Ollie, Izzy and Darcy. Making the presentation to a gracious Donal were the Farrell sisters Brona and Bernadette.
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Holger Puchta was the first scientist to use molecular scissors for genome modification in plants. (Photo: Sandra Gottisheim, KIT)

Molecular biologist Professor Holger Puchta from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is granted funding within a Reinhart Koselleck Project by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for work on specific restructuring of plant genomes. Puchta, a pioneer of green genetic engineering, has used molecular scissors in plants for 30 years now. His new project is aimed at using the CRISPR/Cas method to freely combine genes in crops, thus making Gregor Mendels dream come true. This will also be important to better adapt agricultural crops to global warming in future.

The founder of genetics, Gregor Mendel (1822  1884), believed that all traits of plants can be combined freely with each other. Now, it is known that certain traits are inherited jointly, because the genes encoding them are located on the same chromosome. With the modern CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors, however, genetic information in plants can be modified specifically. The group of Holger Puchta, Professor for Molecular Biology at KITs Joseph Gottlieb Kolreuter Institut of Plant Sciences (JKIP), was the first to recently demonstrate that not only single genes, but entire chromosomes can be modified this way. To establish technologies for the specific restructuring of plant genomes, Puchta is now granted funding within a Reinhart Koselleck Project by DFG. The project aims to freely combine genes in crops and to make Gregor Mendels dream come true.

Holger Puchtas work is path-breaking and contributes to sustainable agriculture, says KITs Vice President Research, Professor Oliver Kraft. We are very proud of Puchta being one of the first plant scientists, who are granted the rare Reinhart Koselleck Project after he has received two Advanced Grants of the European Research Council ERC already.

Video interview with Holger Puchta (in German)

Reinhard Koselleck Project Aims to Specifically Optimize Crops

Under the present conditions of global warming, existing crops need more land, more water, and more fertilization. The molecular scissors can modify plants such that they can better cope with the heat. Moreover, the CRISPR/Cas method can make plants more resistant to diseases and pests. This will reduce the need for pesticides, Puchta explains. CRISPR/Cas stands for a certain segment on the DNA (CRISPR - Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and an enzyme (Cas) that recognizes this segment and cuts the DNA precisely. With this method, certain single traits of crops have already been improved. The Reinhart Koselleck Project of Holger Puchta will further exhaust the potentials of the method and aims to specifically restructure plant genomes on various levels. By modifying the arrangement of genes on chromosomes, the molecular scissors can freely combine plant traits. In this way, crops can inherit several desired properties in combination, such as heat and salt resistance, Puchta explains. In the long term, it will become easier for plant growers to use the entire gene pool of a species and to specifically optimize crops.

The project is scheduled for a duration of five years and is funded with a total of EUR 1.22 million. Reinhart Koselleck Projects are DFGs highest excellence funds granted to persons. Funding enables outstanding researchers with a proven scientific track record to pursue exceptionally innovative or high-risk projects

Holger Puchta on Koselleck funding (in German)

Gene Scissors Can Accelerate the Process of Natural Modifications in the Genome

Puchta welcomes that the EU Commission intends to establish new rules to govern the use of genome editing methods, such as CRISPR/Cas, in plant cultivation. According to a recently presented legislative proposal, it is planned to treat new plant species produced with the help of genome editing equal with conventionally grown plants under certain conditions. From the scientific perspective, this is sensible, as no foreign genetic material is introduced by genome editing, the molecular biologist says. Instead, specific and limited modifications are made. Gene scissors, such as CRISPR/Cas, can accelerate the slow process of natural modifications in the genome, which opens up great opportunities especially under the current conditions of climate change.

Further Informationen:

Topical highlight: Securing harvests with gene scissors?

Making plants more resistant to diseases and the effects of climate change: Holger Puchta in the Experts of KIT portal (in German)

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
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(Kitco News) - Keith Barron, president & CEO, Aurania Resources, believes there was a source of gold in Roman-era France  then known as Gaul  that Julius Caesar used to finance his armies and eventual attack on Rome that led to him becoming Emperor.

Barron, a history buff, spoke to Kitco at the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 show held in Boca Raton, Florida.

Aurania recently applied for an exploration license in the Brittany peninsula of northwestern France. The concession area has historically been the site of significant high-grade gold finds. A large gold sample from the same vicinity was displayed in the Natural History Museum in Paris. At one kilogram gold, it is considered the highest-grade gold sample in France.

Across the ocean at Aurania's Lost Cities project in Ecuador, Barron said after six years and $80 million spent on exploration, the company is ready to work with a partner.

"You're going to have to bring in a partner who has obviously the wherewithal financially, but also the expertise to find the things and then bring them into production, that's where we are, not just on the shale and the sandstone-hosted stuff but also porphyry copper.

Kitco Mining's coverage of the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 was sponsored by G Mining Ventures.
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(Kitco News) - "Living legend" mine developer Robert Quartermain, co-chairman of Dakota Gold, said he is mainly interested in the company due to its proximity to the historical Homestake mine in South Dakota.

Quartermain spoke to Kitco at the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 show held in Boca Raton, Florida.

"It mined about 40 million ounces over a 125-year period at high grade, a little over 8 grams or about a quarter of an ounce. We have the strike extent on our Maitland project and we've been drilling it since January of 2022," he said, noting this year's discovery of the JB zone.

"We're about three miles north of the old mine so we've shown proof of concept and that's key, it now means finding more of that material, that occurred in the gold ledges which made up the mineralization in the Homestake mine."

Quartermain, who made his mark in the industry as CEO of Silver Standard Resources, and executive chairman of Pretium Resources, said one of the challenges currently is access to good talent.

"It's getting people into Earth Sciences. Where are we bringing up the students in schools who are going to go to universities and are going to come up with the skill sets and the competencies that we need for the industry?"

Kitco Mining's coverage of the Rule Symposium Natural Resource Investing 2023 was sponsored by G Mining Ventures.
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(Kitco News) - Outflows from digital asset investment products accelerated last week as the latest data provided by CoinShares shows that a total of $107 million was pulled from various institutional products, with Bitcoin (BTC) accounting for the majority of outflows.

According to James Butterfill, Head of Research at CoinShares, the increase in outflows comes as profit taking [has gathered] pace in recent weeks, with Bitcoin experiencing the largest weekly outflow since March for the week ending August 4.

The summer doldrums are in full force with weekly trading volumes in investment products 36% below the year-to-date average, but the broader on-exchange market volumes have suffered more, down 62% relative to the YTD average, Butterfill said.

Weekly crypto asset flows. Source: CoinShares

Canadian exchange-traded product (ETP) providers accounted for the largest outflows, with $71 million exiting these products, while German ETPs experienced $29 million in outflows.

Flows by country. Source: CoinShares

Bitcoin bore the brunt of outflows, with $111 million worth of funds exiting these products in the largest drawdown since U.S. regulators began ramping up their scrutiny and enforcement actions against the industry. For the first time in 14 weeks, the outflows into short bitcoin have stopped, Butterfill said.

Flows by asset. Source: CoinShares

Ethereum products saw $6 million worth of outflows, bringing the total amount pulled from BTC and ETH to $117 million.

While ETPs for the top two cryptos saw a decrease in AUM, sentiment in the altcoin market improved as evidenced by inflows into multiple projects.

Solana (SOL) had the biggest increase with $9.5 million of inflows, its largest single week of inflows since March 2022. XRP and Litecoin (LTC) saw inflows of $0.5 million and $0.46 million, respectively. Uniswap (UNI) and Cardano (ADA) saw outflows of $0.8 million and $0.3 million, respectively.

While digital asset products are seeing outflows, on-chain data shows that long-term Bitcoin hodlers continue to accumulate BTC in preparation for the next major bull market cycle.

According to the latest analysis from Bloomberg Intelligences Jamie Coutts, the data shows that Bitcoin tourists are inactive while residents are accumulating swiftly, owning 74.8% of all [BTC] supply.

That's consistent with an early-stage bull market, he said. Thirty percent of BTC has left for cold storage since 2020, leaving exchanges with 2.26 million.

Coutts added that Bitcoin seems fairly valued relative to the number of active entities on the network [as seen in the z- score on the chart below], and said, Our simplified price/cycle model sees BTC near $39,000 by 4Q23 and $92,000 (our base scenario) by 4Q25 with entities above 600,000.

Bitcoin entities and halving. Source: Glassnode

We can see the impact of activity in ordinal inscriptions and BRC-20 (a standard for tokens) on the chain, Coutts said. Transactions are averaging 4x the 2021/22 average of 100,000 per day, despite a fading since the initial craze in 1Q.

Bitcoin transactions vs. median transactions (dollars). Source: Glassnode

As for the sentiment of the broader cryptocurrency community, data provided by Alternative shows that the Crypto Fear & Greed gauge remains in neutral territory.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative
Aug 7 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. lawyers whose securities fraud lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) led to a $1 billion class-action settlement in May said they are seeking $180 million in fees.

Attorneys from the firms Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann spearheaded claims that Wells Fargo misled shareholders about its progress in recovering from a series of scandals over its treatment of customers.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan federal court granted preliminary approval to the all-cash settlement in May, with a Sept. 8 hearing scheduled.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs were able to seek up to 19% of the settlement for legal fees under the terms of the agreement. On Friday, the lawyers asked the judge to approve 18%, as well as another $1.2 million for costs and expenses, arguing the award is "fair and reasonable."

Plaintiffs' co-lead counsel Laura Posner of Cohen Milstein and John Browne of Bernstein Litowitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Wells Fargo spokesman declined to comment.

Since 2018, Wells Fargo has operated under consent orders from the Federal Reserve and two other financial regulators requiring it to improve governance and oversight.

It is also under an asset cap by the Fed, limiting its growth and its ability to compete with larger rivals JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N).

Shareholders accused Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, of overstating how well it was complying with those orders, and said the bank's market value fell by more than $54 billion over two years ending in March 2020 as the shortcomings became known.

The San Francisco-based bank denied wrongdoing and said in court papers that it settled to eliminate the burden and cost of litigation. In their fee request, the plaintiffs' lawyers cited Wells Fargo's "experienced and able counsel" from a swath of firms, including Sullivan & Cromwell; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; and Shearman & Sterling.

"In the face of this skillful opposition, lead counsel, nonetheless, successfully litigated the claims and negotiated with defendants to settle the case on terms that are extremely favorable to the settlement class," Posner and Browne wrote in a Friday filing.

The case is In re Wells Fargo & Co Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 20-04494.
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(Kitco News) - Digital payments provider PayPal has announced the launch of a U.S.-dollar-denominated stablecoin as the firm looks to deepen its involvement with blockchain technology and upgrade its payments infrastructure.

Fully-backed, regulated stablecoins have the potential to transform payments in web3 and digitally native environments, PayPal said in a press release. To address that emerging potential, PayPal announced the launch of a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD).

The new stablecoin, which is issued by stablecoin provider Paxos Trust Company, is fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S Treasuries and similar cash equivalents, PayPal said. The firm was issued a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in June, which enabled them to issue the stablecoin in partnership with Paxos.

Access to PYUSD began rolling out to U.S. customers on Monday, and the stablecoin can be used to send person-to-person payments, fund purchases, convert any of PayPals supported cryptocurrencies to and from PYUSD, and users can transfer the stablecoin between PayPal and compatible external wallets.

The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.

PYUSD is an ERC20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain and will allow PayPal customers, merchants and developers to seamlessly connect fiat and digital currencies, the company said.

As the only stablecoin supported within the PayPal network, PayPal USD leverages PayPal's decades-long experience in payments at scale, combined with the speed, cost and programmability of blockchain protocols, they said. PayPal USD will be available to an already large and growing community of external developers, wallets and web3 applications, can be easily adopted by exchanges, and will be deployed to power experiences within the PayPal ecosystem.

The stablecoin, which will also be added to Venmo, is designed to reduce friction for in-experience payments in virtual environments, facilitate fast transfers of value to support friends and family, send remittances or conduct international payments, enable direct flows to developers and creators, and foster the continued expansion into digital assets by the largest brands in the world, PayPal said.

PayPal and Venmo users will be able to buy or sell PYUSD through the platforms at a rate of $1.00 per token. Starting in September, a monthly Reserve Report will be published that outlines the instruments composing the reserves.

Paxos will also publish a public third-party attestation of the value of PayPal USD reserve assets, the release said. The attestation will be issued by an independent third-party accounting firm and conducted in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

The release of its own stablecoin is part of PayPals goal of introducing more users to blockchain technology and helping them gain more familiarity with transacting in digital assets.

PayPal is focused on increasing consumer and merchant comprehension of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), while working closely with regulators as the industry evolves, the company said. In addition to offering PayPal USD for U.S. accountholders, PayPal currently offers customers the ability to buy, hold, sell and transfer select cryptocurrencies, and provides educational content to help accountholders understand the risks and possibilities surrounding the technology.

PayPal first began offering access to cryptocurrencies on Oct. 21, 2020, allowing users to buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). In March 2021, the company expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include Checkout with Crypto, which allows users to pay for goods and services with their cryptocurrency holdings at select merchants.

In June 2022, PayPal further expanded its cryptocurrency offerings by allowing users to transfer, send, and receive cryptocurrency between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges. As of August, PayPal users in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Singapore can buy, sell, hold, transfer, send, and receive the four supported tokens, and the company plans to expand its cryptocurrency offerings to other countries in the future.
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - UBS (UBSG.S) announced an overhaul of its investment banking division on Monday, including naming the unit's M&A chiefs, marking a key step in integrating Credit Suisse.

Sergio Ermotti is seizing on the opportunity presented by the rescue takeover of Credit Suisse in March to reorganize UBS' investment bank to better compete against Wall Street firms.

UBS is hiring top bankers from competitors as well as promoting staff from within its ranks and Credit Suisse as part of the shake-up, which will also lead to hundreds leaving.

As a result of the investment bank overhaul, Credit Suisse's David Kostel will become Global Co-Head of Coverage while Tom Churton, also from Credit Suisse, was named Global Chief of Staff, a memo to staff seen by Reuters showed.

Christian Lesueur, who was Global Head of TMT Investment Banking at UBS, has been promoted to Global Co-Head of Coverage and will continue to oversee technology, media and telecoms, which will now be split into two groups.

Nestor Paz-Galindo and Marc-Anthony Hourihan will be Global-Co-Heads of M&A in the merged organization.

UBS said Michael Santini, former Executive Chair of Global Banking, is among executives who will leave as a result of the changes, some of which were reported on by Reuters on Friday.

UBS could axe around 30% of its combined workforce, which has expanded to 120,000 after the state-brokered rescue, Reuters reported in June, with Credit Suisse's investment bank, back office, and its Swiss retail bank likely taking the biggest hit.

Hundreds of Credit Suisse bankers have already left to other institutions and UBS has been laying off employees from Credit Suisse's investment bank around the globe.

Around 80% of Hong Kong-based investment banking staff at Credit Suisse will be laid off and the cuts will start from this week, Reuters also reported on Monday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

Hong Kong makes up Credit Suisse's biggest share of investment bankers in Asia.

Other UBS changes announced on Monday include Marc Warm, who will join David Slade as Global Co-Head of Leveraged and Debt Capital Markets, while Scott Lindsay and Robin Rankin will both be Global M&A Chairman.


LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Vale on Monday lost a bid to block fellow mining giant BHP Group's bid to have it share potential liability in a 36 billion-pound ($46 billion) London lawsuit over Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

More than 720,000 Brazilians are suing BHP, the world's biggest miner by market value, over the 2015 collapse of the Fundao Dam, which was owned and operated by the Samarco joint venture between BHP and Brazilian iron ore producer Vale.

The disaster killed 19 people as more than 40 million cubic metres of mud and toxic mining waste swept into the Doce river, obliterating villages and reaching the Atlantic Ocean more than 650 km (400 miles) away.

BHP, which denies liability, applied in December to have Vale join the case and contribute to damages if they are found liable to the claimants.

The company argued that Vale should share in any potential liability because BHP Brasil and Vale both owned 50% of Samarco.

Vale challenged the jurisdiction of London's High Court to hear BHP's claim, arguing that any dispute between it and BHP should be heard in Brazil.

However, Judge Finola O'Farrell rejected Vale's challenge in a written ruling on Monday. She said BHP's claim against Vale essentially mirrored the claimants' case against BHP, meaning it should be decided as part of the existing lawsuit.

A BHP spokesperson said Monday's ruling would have no impact on the underlying case.

They also pointed to reparation and compensation programmes implemented by the Renova Foundation, a redress scheme established in 2016 by Samarco and its shareholders, which has funded more than $6 billion of rehousing, rehabilitation and indemnification for those affected by the disaster.

A Vale spokesperson said the company will "carefully consider" the court's ruling. They also said Vale "reaffirms its commitment to repairing the damage caused by the Fundao dam collapse", under agreements with the Brazilian authorities.

Tom Goodhead of law firm Pogust Goodhead, which represents the claimants, welcomed the decision.

"It's time for BHP and Vale to both do the right thing and to engage with the claimants in this case in order to affect an effective resolution," he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; additional reporting by Clara Denina; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
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(Kitco News) - Worldcoin, a project that issues a unique digital ID to individuals based on a scan of their iris, continues to see a tumultuous roll-out as Kenyan police raided a warehouse belonging to the project in Nairobi on Saturday.

According to a local media report, police officers raided the warehouse, confiscated machines that are believed to contain data gathered by the firm, and transported them to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for analysis.

Last week, Kenyas interior ministry suspended Worldcoin activities in the country, saying, relevant security, financial services and data protection agencies have commenced inquiries and investigations to establish the authenticity and legality of Worldcoin activities. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said the company is not registered as a legal entity in Kenya.

Immaculate Kassait, the commissioner of Kenya's Office of Data Protection, said Tools for Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, failed to disclose the true intentions of the project when it registered, and the widespread attention the project received with its token launch prompted the government to take a closer look at the data being collected.

Around 350,000 Kenyans have already completed the signup process in return for $50 worth of the projects WLD token. Worldcoin said it selected Kenya as the first African country to launch its platform because of their booming tech space and active cryptocurrency community, with more than four million Kenyans already trading crypto.

The Kenyan government is now looking to ensure that its citizens data is being protected and used in appropriate ways. We must protect Kenyans from unregulated mining of their data while their use remains mysterious or unknown, Kenyan Senator Kiprotich Arap Cherargei said last week.

Worldcoin sought to reassure individuals and governments that all user data is secure. By default, iris images are promptly deleted by the Orb after the creation of the iris code  all without ever leaving the device, they said.

Despite the companys reassurance, many governments remain hesitant about the project and have raised concerns related to privacy and security as there is no way to establish the unique ID is actually held by a unique person.

The Kenyan Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said it was concerned about the ongoing registration and notified Kenyans that Worldcoin was not regulated in Kenya. Under Kenyan law, individuals have a right to not have any personal information unnecessarily required or revealed.

In response to the concerns voiced by the Kenyan government, Worldcoin insisted that all Kenyan regulations have been followed, and the project is now planning to implement crowd-control measures and collaborate with the government before resuming work.

Despite regulatory headwinds, Tiago Sada, head of product at Tools for Humanity, said the company expects to integrate its World ID system with various platforms, projects, and government systems in the month ahead.

Over the coming weeks and months  during the second half of the year  we expect to spend a lot more time helping companies set up these integrations, he said.

Sada noted that governments, which are increasingly running into issues with ID verifications due to the availability of duplications and fakes on the black market, can also benefit from the service offered by World ID. Were not trying to replace a passport or drivers license, he said. This is something that you can use in addition to that.

He also touched on the rise of artificial intelligence, which he said would make building applications that are bot-resistant an even more challenging problem to solve.

It is clear that the world needs and will need something like Worldcoin in the coming years, he said. We just hope that happens in a privacy-preserving decentralized, open-source, permissionless way.

He added that while Worldcoin has been approached by governments over the past few months inquiring about how the protocol works, there is no specific integration to announce right now.

There are currently more than 1,500 orb stations collecting iris scans and issuing World IDs in various countries, including Indonesia, France, Japan, Germany, Spain and the UK.

Along with Kenyan authorities, the governments of Germany, France and the U.K. have also announced investigations into the platform, citing data privacy and security concerns.

While some reports suggested that signups have decreased following the launch of the WLD token on July 24, Worldcoin said that there has actually been an increase in both new user signups and engagement with the World App as news of the project spread.

Weekly global World ID verifications more than doubled in the seven days following launch as additional Orbs were rolled out around the world, they said in a statement released on Sunday. There was a 3X increase in weekly active World App users and a more than 10X increase in weekly account creations in the seven days following launch.

In the days following the Worldcoin launch, World App downloads hit record highs around the world, Tools for Humanity said. Between January and July, World ID sign-ups went from one million to two million in less than half the time it took to reach the first million. Last week's 2X growth in weekly World ID sign-ups demonstrates a sustained increase in global demand for World ID as a standalone product.

Claims made about the project's level of adoption remain difficult to verify in the absence of detailed information from Worldcoin showing the number of registered users and the amount of WLD distributed. Data provided by Etherscan shows that there are currently 5,483 WLD token holders on Ethereum and 452,450 WLD holders on Optimism, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum.

Despite the claims of success on the user front, the price of WLD has seen little movement outside of the volatility the token experienced on the day of its launch and currently trades at $2.03, 22% off its high of $2.63.

WLD/USD Chart by TradingView
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...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 10 PM CDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 114 expected. * WHERE...Portions of south central, southwest, and west central Illinois. Portions of central, east central, northeast, and southeast Missouri. * WHEN...From Noon today to 10 PM CDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
South Korean actor Jung Hae In from "Snowdrop" will be heading his way to Singapore for his first ever fan meeting on October 29.

The highly-awaited fan meeting tour has kicked off in South Korea on 22 July, with the Viu Scream Dates stops taking place in Singapore, Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok, from August to October.

Held in celebration of his 10th debut anniversary, this is Jung Hae In's largest fan meeting tour to date.

"THE 10TH SEASON" fan meeting tour serves as a heartfelt gesture of appreciation for the unwavering support that Jung Hae In has received from his fans, as well as a commemoration of the significant milestone in his career.

Don't miss the chance to get up close and personal with the acclaimed actor at his exclusive fan meet, where he'll be creating unforgettable memories with fans through various interactive segments and performances during the event.

Fan benefits include a good-bye session, group photos, signed polaroids, and signed posters.

Concert tickets are priced at $228, $208, $188 (excluding booking fee). Ticket presale for Viu Premium subscribers will commence 7 August, 10am, and general sales will commence 8 August, 10am, on www.sistic.com.sg.

Viu Premium subscribers will receive a promo code via email to enjoy 10% off all tickets to the fan meet. This promotion is valid from 7 August, 10am, to 11 August, 11.59pm.

Follow and subscribe to KpopStarz for more K-pop news and events.
More gay men can give blood as one of the most significant changes in blood banking history gets underway
ZHENGZHOU, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Locals visiting a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province often find themselves pleasantly surprised when they receive treatment from a skilled German practitioner specializing in acupuncture. Joel Mikael Walker, 28, hails from Dresden in eastern Germany. He came to China in 2015 and began his journey into the TCM world. Following a year of intensive Chinese language study, he enrolled in the Henan University of Chinese Medicine. Currently, a graduate student specializing in acupuncture and massage therapy, Walker has provided acupuncture treatment to over a thousand patients, demonstrating a high level of expertise. "Walker has become highly skilled in acupuncture, having assisted me in treating numerous patients. He has been studying Chinese medicine for seven years and excels in techniques such as pulse diagnosis, acupuncture and cupping therapy. He is fully capable of practicing independently," said Yu Dongdong, Walker's mentor and professor at the university. However, on the video-sharing and streaming platform Douyin, his Chinese name "Wuming" has gained broader recognition. Walker adeptly balances his roles as a doctor and internet celebrity, amassing a remarkable following of over 900,000 fans. His remarkable online popularity stems from his impressive linguistic skills, particularly in the Henan dialect. On his Douyin account, "Wuming in Henan," he showcases local culture, dialects and cuisine, and even parodies classic movie scenes in the Henan dialect with his local girlfriend. Having fully embraced life in Henan, he has forged friendships, fallen in love with local cuisine, and partaken in gatherings with friends, enjoying local favorites like Henan-style noodles and soups. "I am a native of Henan, but your command of the Henan dialect is even more authentic than mine. It's truly remarkable," read a comment on his video. His venture into Chinese medicine was sparked by his interest in martial arts. While learning Shaolin kung fu from a master in Henan's Shaolin Temple, he developed a curiosity for traditional Chinese culture and medicine. His move to Henan at the age of 20 was driven by a desire to delve deeper into the origins of Chinese heritage. "Henan is a crucial cradle of Chinese culture, boasting an array of historical sites and renowned practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. I believed that by studying here, I could gain invaluable insights," Walker told Xinhua. Behind the wisdom of TCM, lies its holistic approach to healing and focus on balance and harmony, Walker explained. "Traditional Chinese medicine views the human body as an integrated whole, emphasizing the balance of Yin and Yang. It intervenes before physical disorders manifest, preventing illnesses to a certain extent." He likened the role of Chinese medicine to a mediator in resolving imbalances in the body. "When equilibrium is disrupted, much like a couple having disagreements, but not yet resorting to a fight, Chinese medicine acts as an intermediary, stepping in to reconcile the dispute and prevent a full-blown conflict," Walker said. In 2019, Walker's grandmother suffered from gastrointestinal issues, leaving her unable to eat and drink. While on vacation in Germany, he provided a single acupuncture treatment that resulted in her swift recovery. He also remotely guided family members in utilizing traditional Chinese methods for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, sharing his expertise to combat the virus. With a growing fan base on social media, Walker feels a sense of responsibility. "Initially, posting videos on Douyin was just a pastime, but now I want to engage in more meaningful endeavors." He aspires to create a series of bilingual videos that promote TCM and narrate stories of ancient Chinese medical luminaries. By capturing his visits to the ancestral homes of famous doctors and the herb-growing regions, he wants to spread awareness of TCM and its profound cultural heritage. When contemplating the future, Walker remains steadfast in his resolve. Be it in China or his homeland, Germany, he plans to dedicate his efforts to the field of TCM.
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Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of "Funding Evil" (Bonus Books, 2003). Shawn Macomber is a staff writer at the American Spectator.

Frankly, I dont think Ill need to do a lot more, Democratic philanthropist George Soros bragged to USA Today just a few months ago. I now take the defeat of Bush more or less for granted.

Unfortunately for him, that defeat no longer seems so certain, so the billionaire, who had spent more than $15 million in an attempt to get John F. Kerry elected, is now trying to protect his earlier investments by throwing in an additional $3 million.

America, under Bush, is a danger to the world, says Soros. To save the world and prevent the reelection of George W. Bush, Soros has dedicated extraordinary amounts of time and money because defeating Bush, he says, is his central focus. His motto, If I spend enough, I will make it right, is the essence of his articulated ideas about changing society.

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It seems that Soros believes he was anointed by God. I fancied myself as some kind of god ... he once wrote. If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise they might get me in trouble.

When asked by Britains Independent newspaper to elaborate on that passage, Soros said, It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.

Since I began to live it out. Those unfamiliar with Soros would probably dismiss the statement out of hand. But for those who have followed his career and sociopolitical endeavors, it cannot be taken quite so lightly.

Soros has proved that with the vast resources of money at his command he has the ability to make the once unthinkable acceptable. His work as a self-professed amoral financial speculator has left millions in poverty when their national currencies were devaluated, and he pumped so much cash into shaping former Soviet republics to his liking that he has bragged that the former Soviet empire is now the Soros Empire.

Now hes turned his eye on the internal affairs of the United States. Todays U.S., he writes in his latest book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, is a threat to the world, run by a Republican Party that is the devil child of an unholy alliance between market fundamentalists and religious fundamentalists. We have become a supremacist nation.

During a speech at Columbia Universitys commencement ceremonies, Soros said, If President Bush is reelected, we must ask the question, What is wrong with us?  He has written that he always felt that modern society in general and America in particular suffer from a deficiency of values.

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Bushs aggressive waging of the war on terrorism has only increased these feelings. When President Bush says, as he does frequently, that freedom will prevail, in fact he means that America will prevail, Soros writes. Who would Soros prefer to see prevail? Saddam Hussein? Osama bin Laden?

Despite his reputation as an international philanthropist, Soros remains candid about his true charitable tendencies. I am sort of a deus ex machina, Soros told the New York Times in 1994. I am something unnatural. Im very comfortable with my public persona because it is one I have created for myself. It represents what I like to be as distinct from what I really am. You know, in my personal capacity Im not actually a selfless philanthropic person. Ive very much self-centered.

Soros was more succinct when he explained his life philosophy to biographer Michael Kaufman. I am kind of a nut who wants to have an impact, he said.

But the speculators visions dont end there.

Next to my fantasies about being God, I also have very strong fantasies of being mad, Soros once confided on British television. In fact, my grandfather was actually paranoid. I have a lot of madness in my family. So far I have escaped it.

In his book, Soros on Soros, he says: I do not accept the rules imposed by others.... And in periods of regime change, the normal rules dont apply. Clearly, Soros considers himself to be someone who is able to determine when the normal rules should and shouldnt apply.
On 6 August, the cousin of the governor of Mexicos Guerrero state,, was the victim of an armed attack in Iguala city, in which her husband was killed.

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On 4 August the Caribbean Community (Caricom) expressed its full support for the proposed establishment of a multinational force in Haiti to assist that nation to counter its security challenges.

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In the enchanting paradise of Grenada, the lingering scent of nutmeg infuses the air, accompanying you as you venture through picturesque white sand beaches, lush plantations, and captivating colonial history.

Renowned as the "Spice Isle," this popular cruise destination tantalizes the taste buds of food enthusiasts from all corners of the globe with its array of unique and delectable dishes.

Across the island, many spices thrive, including nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, bay leaf, clove, turmeric, thyme, and lemongrass.

The fertile land also yields fresh fruits and vegetables, with young coconuts, sweet potatoes, mangoes, and breadfruit enriching local dishes with their flavors and nutritional goodness.

Whether you visit the island regularly, visit for the first time, or become a temporary resident while attending school, you will want to dig into these Grenadian foods.

READ NEXT: 5 Must-Try Cuisine in Honduras

Bakes

Start your day in Grenada with a hearty breakfast the Grenadian way. One of the traditional morning treats is "bakes," a delightful bread that can be prepared in various ways - either baked in the oven or fried in hot oil.

Typically made from simple ingredients like flour, water, baking soda, and salt, some variations include a touch of sugar or coconut milk to enhance the flavor.

To complete this satisfying morning meal, locals often pair the bakes with souse-made salt fish, a classic combination that adds a burst of savory goodness to the breakfast table.

Callaloo Soup

Indulge in the unique flavors of Grenada with the exotic ingredient callaloo, also referred to as dasheen leaf, St. George's University noted.

Rarely found outside the Caribbean, this culinary gem is to be noticed during your visit to the island. With a taste akin to spinach, callaloo becomes a delightful addition to soups.

A particular favorite is the creamy callaloo soup, often enriched with the luscious goodness of coconut milk. It has become a beloved restaurant staple that captures the essence of Grenadian cuisine.

Consider the callaloo soup a must-have starter when dining at a local restaurant.

Crab Back

Grenada's bountiful land crabs present a delectable treat for seafood enthusiasts, according to Carnival.

One popular dish showcasing these land crabs' delightful flavors is "crab back." In this culinary masterpiece, the crabs are expertly prepared with a tantalizing blend of local spices and zesty lime juice, infusing them with a burst of Caribbean flavors.

The dish is then served inside the crab's shell, topped with crispy and baked breadcrumbs, adding a delightful texture to this savory Grenada traditional food.

Pelau

After a day of exploring the sights and indulging in retail therapy in Grenada, there's no better way to satiate your hunger than with a hearty serving of Pelau.

This delectable chicken and rice dish is the epitome of Grenada traditional food. A savory one-pot meal, Pelau features a delightful medley of flavors that will leave your taste buds yearning for more.

The dish combines tender chicken with perfectly cooked rice and a delightful array of ingredients, including cooked beans, carrots, celery, red-sweet peppers, and a touch of brown sugar for sweetness.

Creamy coconut milk is added to elevate the taste, infusing the dish with a rich and satisfying essence.

Oil Down

No trip to Grenada is complete without savoring this iconic one-pot dish that embodies the essence of the island's culture, said Inspiring Travel.

An integral part of local gatherings, celebrations, and festivals, this culinary masterpiece holds a special place in Grenadian hearts.

A harmonious blend of flavors awaits in this treasured dish. Turmeric adds a vibrant hue and earthy taste, while the addition of salted meats infuses a satisfying savory note.

Dumplings, breadfruit, and various vegetables complete the medley, creating a delightful combination of textures and tastes.

All these delectable ingredients come together in a creamy base of coconut milk, imparting a luscious and indulgent element to this delicious Grenada traditional food.

READ MORE: Cayman Islands: Top 5 Foods to Try

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Making OIL DOWN The NATIONAL DISH of Grenada - From Davidsbeenhere
Mike Pence might be the star witness against Donald Trump and in a recent interview with CNN, he gets honest on whether he will testify or not regarding the former president's 2020 election interferance case that also ties in with January 6..

He recently spoke with CNN's Dana Bash last Sunday on "State of the Union." The former vice president stated that he does not plan to testify but he will comply with the law should he be called to testify against the former president.

"The president's entitled to a presumption of innocence. He's entitled to make his defense in court," Trump's former VP stated in the interview. "But actually there are profound issues around this, pertaining to the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and the rest. I'm confident he and his lawyer will litigate all those things."

Pence was previously compelled to comply with a subpoena by Special Counsel Jack Smith, testifying before a grand jury last April. He is often characterized as the man who helped thwart Donald Trump's plans by going with the constitution and not helping the then-president overturn the results in several key battleground states such as Georgia and Arizona, which were won by Joe Biden.

As for the man he served alongside for four years before, that man set an angry mob chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" against him on January 6, Donald Trump pleaded "not guilty" to four criminal charges which includes conspiracy to defraud the United States.

In addition, the former VP blasted his former running mate, telling CNN that Trump "was wrong then, and he's wrong now" regarding the idea that the vice president has the power to reject the election result while presiding over the Congress vote counting.

READ NEXT: Donald Trump Classified Documents Scandal: Mar-a-Lago Property Manager Makes First Court Appearance

Mike Pence Disputes Donald Trump's Claims

Mike Pence also appeared in another interview on Sunday in CBS's "Face the Nation," where he disputed the claims made by members of Trump's legal team who said that the former president only asked him to delay the counting of electoral votes on January 6, 2021. However, Pence told the program, "That's not what happened."

"From sometime in the middle of December, the president began to be told that I had some authority to reject or return votes back to the states," he admitted on air before saying, "I had no such authority."

"From very early on, the very first time the president raised the issue with me, that he was being told that I had the right to overturn the election to reject or return votes, I told him, I knew I had no such authority," said Pence. "I truly do believe that, you know, no one who ever puts himself over the Constitution should ever be President of the United States."

Donald Trump Slams Mike Pence on Truth Social

It did not take long for Donald Trump to publicly attack Mike Pence after those TV appearances as he immediately took to Truth Social to slam the man who served as his vice president.

The former president also denied telling his vice president "to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was 'too honest.'" According to Politico, Trump also called Pence "delusional."

READ MORE: Court Finds Donald Trump Liable For Sexual Abuse

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH : Mike Pence says Trump and 'gaggle of crackpot lawyers' asked him to overturn election - CNN
The Ron DeSantis vs. Disney feud and the Florida governor's "War on Woke" is actually costing Florida's economy, admits several Florida officials, including a few former governors.

Disney is currently one of Florida's biggest employers and has since voiced criticism against Ron DeSantis and his "Anti-Woke" agenda. This led to DeSantis feuding with Disney, and it led to some of his fellow Republicans also turning on him.

The feud is also not sitting well with a group of mostly Republican former high-level government officials who likened the Florida governor's takeover of Disney World's governing district, Reedy Creek, as following the examples set by autocratic governments like China and Russia.

According to the Associated Press, the group included former governors, members of the US House of Representatives, and former presidential administration officials, all of whom are Republicans. They filed a "friend of the court" brief on Wednesday in favor of Disney filing its lawsuit against DeSantis and his board.

In the filing, the group stated that what DeSantis has chosen to do is "corrosive to the form of democracy envisioned by the Constitution, and to re-emphasize this Court's critical constitutional role in curbing the excesses of governance by retaliation."

The group added that the Florida governor's actions are harming Florida economically as "firms are being dissuaded from doing business in Florida since they could be subject to the governor's retaliatory whims if they ever voice disapproval over his policies."

They then pointed out that Disney canceled its $1 billion campus in Orlando and instead used that money to fund more projects in California. This happened right after the feud with DeSantis escalated.

READ MORE: Florida: Ron DeSantis, Admin Sued Over Shocking Immigration Laws

Why Disney Canceling Its $1 Billion Campus in Orlando Is a Big Deal

Disney continues to be one of Florida's biggest employers and taxpayers, even with the feud going on. However, the feud also means that Disney is taking its money elsewhere, and that does not look good for Florida, especially with the media giant recently pulling out a billion dollars in investment.

Around 2,000 Cast Member jobs and Walt Disney Imagineering jobs were expected to be moved from California to Florida and boosting the state's economy, according to Yahoo! News. However, those jobs are now staying in California, and Disney is now funneling the money that was supposed to go to Florida back to the Golden State.

It is still unclear what Disney will do with the land it purchased to make that Florida campus, though, but right now, it plans to do "absolutely nothing" with it. This could mean some bad news for the Lake Nona area, which was expecting an economic boom before Disney pulled out.

Civil Rights Group Slam Ron DeSantis-Backed Reedy Creek District

It is not just Ron DeSantis who is under fire these days, but also the board of directors he appointed to Reedy Creek, which used to be controlled by Disney but was taken over by the state of Florida after the House of Mouse voiced its opposition to the governor's policies.

District Administrator Glen Gilzean Jr., who was part of the Central Florida Urban League, name-dropped the civil rights nonprofit group during his speech that blasted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs being implemented at Reedy Creek.

However, the group itself is part of the National Urban League, which released a statement to USA Today and blasted Glizean.

"The National Urban League and our nationwide movement of more than 90 local affiliates are shocked and dismayed by Glen Gilzean's betrayal of the values at the very core of our mission," the statement said. The group is one of the largest civil rights groups n the US and is vocal in its opposition to DeSantis's "Anti-Woke" policies.

READ MORE: Florida: Protesters Wave Nazi Flag, Ron DeSantis Signs at Disney World

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WATCH: Journalist advocacy group wants to join Disney lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis - CBS Miami
Former President Donald Trump is set to request the recusal of US District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan from his criminal case involving his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, per USA Today.

Trump, who plans to make the request, has also demanded a change of venue outside of the District of Columbia, citing concerns about the judge's alleged partiality against him.

Taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump expressed his belief that he cannot receive a fair trial with Judge Chutkan presiding over the "ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case."

He asserted that this sentiment is widely shared, including by the judge herself.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has earned a reputation for being a formidable presence in cases involving individuals charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol breach. She has been known to deliver stricter sentences than those requested by prosecutors for some defendants.

In a notable sentencing, she described the attack on the Capitol as a "very real danger" to American democracy, reflecting the gravity she attributes to the case.

Meanwhile, federal judges in the District of Columbia, who have presided over other politically sensitive cases related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, have consistently rejected similar arguments presented by former president Donald Trump in the past.

READ NEXT: Donald Trump Indictment

Many January 6 Defendants Want to Transfer Their Case Outside Washington, DC

Dozens of defendants facing charges related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol have attempted to transfer their cases outside of Washington, DC, arguing that the city's liberal lean would prevent them from obtaining a fair trial, particularly as most of them are Trump supporters.

However, judges overseeing these cases have refuted the notion that it would be impossible to find impartial jurors in the city, according to POLITICO. They assert that Washington, DC is a large and diverse jurisdiction, providing a sufficient pool to select 12 impartial jurors.

The selection process involves a rigorous "voir dire," during which lawyers and the judge thoroughly question potential jurors to identify any biases that may interfere with their ability to impartially assess the evidence and facts presented in the case.

Judges have emphasized that the voir dire process is designed to identify and exclude individuals with impermissible biases, ensuring that only impartial jurors are ultimately seated.

Only after this exhaustive process, if it remains challenging to assemble a fair jury, would a motion to transfer the case to a different venue be considered.

Donal Trump Case

Former President Donald Trump is facing a four-count indictment filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith, which pertains to his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, the NY Post noted.

The charges against him include obstruction of an official proceeding, attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, to which Trump pleaded not guilty.

In addition to the 2020 election case, Trump is also confronting a 34-count indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office concerning alleged hush money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Moreover, he faces a second federal indictment involving 40 counts related to classified documents in a case originating from Florida.

The former president has consistently denied any wrongdoing concerning the charges he is facing.

As the legal proceedings continue, the next significant hearing in the Donald Trump 2020 election case is scheduled for August 28. A trial date is expected to be set during this hearing, just five days after the first GOP debate in the 2024 presidential race.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022

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WATCH: Judge in Trump case has been tough on Jan. 6 rioters - From CNN
It is looking like the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg cage fight is pushing through, according to Musk himself. The Tesla CEO says that his fight with the Meta boss will be streamed live on X.

The man who turned Twitter into "X" tweeted that he was "lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight" and added that "all proceeds will go to charity for veterans." However, he did not give any further details, according to CNN.

The fight was proposed in June, with both tech billionaires seemingly agreeing, though their respective companies have since continued feuding, with the company previously known as Twitter suing Meta over its Twitter-like social media platform, Threads.

Musk also challenged Zuckerberg to a "D*ck measuring contest" in response to Threads going live as direct competition to X. He accused Meta of taking former Twitter staff to make its new competitor.

Elon Musk made a very bold prediction about their showdown, stating, "If the fight is short, I probably win. If long, he may win on endurance."

He added, "I am much bigger and there is a reason MMA has weight divisions."

Mark Zuckerberg Suggests Fight Vs. Elon Musk To Happen on August 26

Mark Zuckerberg seems excited to throw down with Elon Musk, even saying he is ready to fight the "X" CEO today if he can. He also suggested that the fight should happen on August 26 but admitted that he is not holding his breath on that happening.

The Facebook founder also shot back at Musk's announcement that the fight would be live-streamed on X, saying they should "use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity." This is an apparent shot at Musk's blunder-filled presidential run announcement for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which was filled with glitches.

READ MORE: X: Hateful Tweets Are on the Rise, but Elon Musk Wants To Sue the Researchers Who Found Out

He also stated that they did not mutually agree that the fight would be streamed on X, though he admitted that the funding for the fight between the two billionaires has been secured.

Zuckerberg then professed his love for MMA, saying that he will continue competing with people who train no matter what happens here."

Mark Zuckerberg's Wife Not Happy With Him After He Builds an MMA Cage To Fight Elon Musk

"Zucc" seems serious about the fight, so much so that he had an MMA cage built in his home to prepare for the billionaire cage match. However, his wife does not seem to be pleased.

According to Fortune Magazine, Zuckerberg's wife, Priscilla Chan, texted him and said that she saw the fight cage and seemed upset, telling the Meta CEO that she has been working on their backyard's grass for two years and the cage has ruined it.

The MetaCEO has been taking up various martial arts over the last few months, including Brazilian Jiujitsu. He is also following a strict fitness regiment and has already shown a physical transformation.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Imposes Reading Limits on Twitter

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WATCH: Cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to be streamed on X - Sky News Australia
A Michigan woman, Porcha Woodruff, has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was falsely arrested for carjacking while eight months pregnant due to erroneous facial recognition technology, per the NY Post.

In February, Woodruff said she initially thought the police were joking when they arrived to arrest her on robbery and carjacking charges.

Despite her pleas that she was eight months pregnant, the officers informed her about an arrest warrant against her, according to the lawsuit filed in the US District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Feeling scared and confused, Woodruff realized the gravity of the situation when it became evident that the officers were not joking.

She expressed concerns about the lack of empathy or understanding during the arrest.

Woodruff later discovered that she was implicated as a suspect based on a photo lineup shown to the victim, which allegedly resulted from an unreliable facial recognition match.

As a result of the distressing incident, Woodruff has taken legal action against the city and Detective LaShauntia Oliver, who led the investigation.

READ NEXT: Michigan: Missing Girl Found Dead

Blundered Facial Recognition

The situation surrounding the Michigan woman's false arrest becomes more complex as additional details emerge from the lawsuit.

The victim had identified Woodruff from a photo lineup as the female accomplice involved in a previous robbery and carjacking incident that took place a month earlier, according to the Daily News.

However, crucial information that could have helped differentiate Woodruff from the suspect was reportedly overlooked during the investigation.

The police did not ask the victim whether the woman involved was pregnant, even though he had sexual contact with her before the incident.

Moreover, the photo used in the lineup was a 10-year-old picture of Woodruff from a prior arrest rather than her current driver's license photo, which was available to them.

Despite efforts by Woodruff's fiance, the police refused to check the arrest warrant for any mention of the suspect being pregnant.

Additionally, they neglected to show Woodruff's photo to the male accomplice, who was apprehended shortly after the robbery, which could have provided corroboration.

As a result of her false arrest, Woodruff endured 11 hours in police detention, during which she received inadequate sustenance, suffering from cramps and contractions.

After her release on a $100,000 bond, she had to seek medical attention immediately, and two bags of IV fluids were administered to her due to the contractions she experienced.

Michigan Woman's False Arrest Due to Faulty Facial Recognition Was Not the First

Porcha Woodruff's case sheds light on a concerning pattern of false accusations resulting from the use of facial recognition technology by the police.

She is the sixth person to come forward with claims of being falsely accused of a crime due to the flawed use of facial recognition technology, and notably, all six individuals have been Black, the NY Times noted.

The Michigan woman's case marks the first instance of a woman experiencing such a false accusation.

The Detroit Police Department has been involved in three of these cases, with the technology reportedly being used predominantly on Black men, averaging about 125 facial recognition searches per year.

The weekly reports about the technology's usage provided to Detroit's Board of Police Commissioners, a civilian oversight group, have raised concerns among critics.

They argue that these cases expose the weaknesses of facial recognition technology and the potential dangers it poses to innocent individuals.

Experts in the field, like Clare Garvie from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, have pointed out that the Detroit Police Department should be aware of the risks associated with facial recognition technology.

Despite this knowledge, the department continues to utilize the technology, leading to these troubling incidents of false accusations against innocent individuals.

READ MORE: Food and Drug Administration Approves Postpartum Depression Pill Zurzuvae

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Innocent Metro Detroit man arrested after facial recognition software identified wrong man - From Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV
As more migrants from Central and South America head to the US-Mexico border, Mexico's immigration agency stated that authorities rescued 491 migrants who were being held at a compound near Mexico City. The majority of them were Guatemalan migrants.

The compound was on an empty lot by the side of a highway east of the Mexican capital. Of those rescued, almost all were Guatemalan migrants. Only six of them came from Honduras.

According to the Associated Press, among those migrants being held were 277 children and adolescents. While most of these minors were traveling with adult relatives, the Mexican immigration agency stated that 52 of them were unaccompanied minors.

The migrants were found being held in a walled compound near the city of Puebla. It was a route that is often used by migrant smugglers to take people across the US-Mexico border.

It is a common practice among human smugglers to hold migrants in compounds like these before taking them across the border. They are often stuffed inside buses, trains, and trucks, often being subjected to extreme heat as they try to make it to the United States.

Honduran and Guatemalan Migrants Transferred to the National Immigration Institute of Mexico

After they were found, the Honduran and Guatemalan migrants were then taken to the offices of the National Immigration Institute. The immigration agency released a statement to CBS News, admitting that they now have the mostly-Guatemalan migrants, including the hundreds of minors who were found with them, in their custody.

"They were transferred to headquarters of the National Institute of Migration to provide them with water, food, and medical attention," said Mexico's National Institute of Migration.

READ NEXT: San Antonio Truck Migrant Tragedy: Guatemalan Survivor Says They Can't Breathe Inside Trailer

The immigrants likely paid thousands of dollars to human smugglers just to take them across the border to the US. Many cross over in the hope of a better life or are just trying to escape the ongoing violence in their homes.

Migrants Face Danger as They Travel From Mexico to the US

Migrants travel thousands of miles from their home countries to reach the US-Mexico border. Many of these migrants brave river crossings, rebel or gang-controlled areas, and the treacherous Darrien Gap to even make it to Mexico.

However, they often face dangers once they arrive, from being kidnapped by drug cartels to dying in deadly bus crashes. The migrants being found at the empty lot happened just a few days after several other migrants died in a fatal bus crash while traveling to the border city of Tijuana.

According to ABC News, 18 people were killed in that crash, with nearly two dozen injured, It happened in Nayarit state, and the bus was heading to Tijuana. Among the dead were 10 men, five women, and three minors.

The Mexican government did not release their identities, but the National Immigration Institute stated that one of those who died was from Mauritius.

Among the injured are two Indian citizens, another one from Mauritius, and a man from the Dominican Republic.

READ MORE: San Antonio Semi-Truck Tragedy: Migrant Death Toll Reaches 53, Identifying Victims Difficult

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WATCH: The migrants waiting for a new life feet from the US border - Channel 4 News
A Colombia judge issued an order for the release of President Gustavo Petro's son, Nicolas Petro, from detention Friday night, AP reports.

Nicolas Petro had been arrested earlier on Saturday and was subsequently charged with illicit enrichment and money laundering.

He decided to cooperate with the investigation and acknowledged that his father's 2022 election campaign received money of dubious origin.

Prosecutor Mario Andres Burgos, overseeing the case, revealed that Nicolas Petro committed to providing audio recordings and documents to corroborate that some of the money he received was used to finance his father's candidacy.

While the Attorney General's Office presented evidence indicating that Nicolas Petro received money illicitly, the judge deemed that prosecutors had insufficient justification for keeping the president's son in detention or under house arrest.

As a result, the judge ordered his release, with the condition that he remains in Colombia and refrains from engaging in political activities.

Nicolas Petro, a legislator representing the northern coastal region of Atlantico, has expressed his intention to resign from his seat amid the ongoing investigation.

READ NEXT: Colombia President Gustavo Petro's Son Arrested

Nicolas Petro's Charges

The charges against Nicolas Petro allege that he received money from accused drug traffickers in exchange for including them in his father, President Gustavo Petro's, peace plans.

Nicolas Petro pleaded not guilty but expressed his willingness to cooperate with prosecutors. The allegations suggest that he used funds, not from his salary, to purchase properties valued at $394,000, according to Reuters.

By collaborating with prosecutors, Nicolas Petro may have the opportunity to reduce his potential sentence, which could range from 12 to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty.

Amid the scandal, his ex-wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, who is also facing charges of money laundering and violation of personal data, has been allowed to remain free.

Testimonies during the proceedings have revealed a complex web of passion, betrayal, and corruption, including infidelity within Nicolas Petro's marriage.

Meanwhile, President Gustavo Petro has distanced himself from any knowledge of illegal activities and expressed personal distress over allegations of campaign irregularities.

However, the scandal may have repercussions for his administration's policy plans, particularly regarding peace negotiations with armed groups and an ambitious reform agenda.

These policy initiatives are already facing challenges amid the government's prior congressional coalition breakdown.

Accusations Against Colombia President Son, Nicolas Petro

The accusations against Nicolas Petro first came to light in an interview conducted by his ex-wife, Daysuris "Day" Vasquez, with the news magazine Semana in March, per Al Jazeera.

In the interview, Vasquez accused the Colombian president's son of accepting donations for his father's presidential campaign from individuals with a questionable past, including Samuel Santander Lopesierra, a former senator and convicted drug trafficker who was extradited to the United States in 2003 but later returned to Colombia to resume his political career.

Vasquez claimed that the donations were made in cash, with Santander Lopesierra allegedly providing 600 million pesos ($144,810).

However, she asserted that the money did not go toward the presidential campaign but was kept by Nicolas Petro for his personal use, without his father's knowledge.

Following the interview's publication, Colombia's attorney general investigated the matter.

Subsequently, Vasquez was arrested and charged with the alleged money laundering scheme.

READ MORE: Colombia Wins Territorial Dispute Vs. Nicaragua

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WATCH: Colombia President Gustavo son arrested on money laundering charges - From WION
UPDATE: N.J. man drowned at Beltzville Lake, authorities say

The search for a missing swimmer near Beltzville State Park ended Monday when the 19-year-old man was found deceased, the Carbon County coroner said.

The man was reported missing Sunday and crews spent Sunday and Monday morning searching the water and the park.

Carbon County Coroner Robert Miller confirmed a 19-year-old man was found dead Monday morning, and his office was working to notify next of kin.

The identity would not be released until that was complete, he said, and an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

WFMZ Channel 69, citing a state game commission warden. reported the mans body was found about 40 feet from shore, in a cove on state game lands near Pohopoco Drive.

Pennsylvania State Police, dive teams and wardens with the Pennsylvania Game Commission were at the scene.

The land is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but leased out to and managed by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The Pennsylvania Game Commission has a cooperative agreement to allow hunting the area, but could not comment on the incident.

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Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com.
Three Laois teenagers joined hundreds of teens from around the world for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference in Co Kildare.

The conference, which happened last week on the grounds of NUI Maynooth, brought together young people from the USA, Ukraine, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa and Ireland to learn how to become leaders in their own lives.

During the week-long conference the teens learned crucial life skills such as empathy, decision making, problem solving, communication skills, critical thinking and team work.

Laois teens Cormac Dunne, Jake Guidera and Jack Donoghue were among the 350 attendees at the Life Youth Conference.

The conference gives young people the chance to not just learn from the speakers and facilitators, but to learn from each other in a fun and safe environment. This week is not only about creating new relationships and learning new skills; its about transforming as an individual. Im continually in awe of what young people can achieve when given the opportunity and its weeks like these that give them that opportunity, said CEO of Foroige Sean Campbell.

As part of the week-long conference, the delegates will meet inspirational guest speakers including: Indian author, illustrator and motivational speaker based in Dublin, Ashwin Chacko. His mission is to champion creativity and empower people to find their inner spark through his art, books, talks and workshops.

Curiosity and Creativity go hand in hand. Curiosity pushes us to observe the world around us and ask questions. Creativity allows us to form answers for those questions and bring a novel perspective to the circumstance. These are essential skills for Individuals and teams to succeed, Ashwin said.

Irish aeronautical engineer and an award winning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) advocate from Ballina, Co Mayo, Norah Patten also spoke at the event.

One of Ireland's leading speakers focusing on Mental and Emotional Wellbeing and Diverse Abilities, Jack Kavanagh also gave a talk.

"I'm really excited to join so many aspiring young leaders for the Foroige Leadership For Life conference. With young people coming from all corners of the country and abroad the atmosphere is bound to be charged with energy and having seen the agenda I would love to be partaking in the whole program myself," he said.
Artisan food producers in Laois are being urged to apply for funding under the LEADER Food Initiative.

Minister Pippa Hackett, Minister Heather Humphreys and Charlie McConalogue announced an additional 883,000 in funding for the LEADER Food Initiative (LFI) Scheme.

This scheme supports artisan, micro, small food producers or on-farm diversification enterprises in rural Ireland.

This funding call will support farmers and other artisan, micro and small food businesses in the Midlands and right across rural Ireland to establish sustainable routes to market and to showcase their locally grown and produced, high quality, sustainable Irish food, said Minister Hackett.

The call is targeted at eligible small food businesses in line with a commitment in the Programme for Government to support the small food producer, providing support for on-farm diversification enterprises and investment in local processing facilities, allowing farmers to sell their products into the local and wider domestic markets.

Each enterprising step taken towards sustainable employment for themselves and others, no matter how small, is another thread woven into the fabric of a local community. I am delighted to be part of a Government supporting this and particularly in an area of personal interest to me; local and sustainable food. I know from my own area of the Midlands that there is a wealth of food expertise and ideas for development and I encourage all eligible producers to avail of this opportunity of support, she said.

The maximum amount of funding per project permitted under this call is 200,000 and funding proposals must not be for less than 5,000 per project. Potential applicants are encouraged to engage with their Local Action ( Leader ) Groups with regard to the deadline for applications of August 31, 2023.
Politicians have welcomed the granting of planning permission for a 92-bed community nursing unit in Athy.

The 20m project will involve the demolition of five prefab single storey wings attached to the original St Vincent's Hospital on Woodstock Street which is a protected structure.

The former workhouse section of the complex was built in 1843.

The total demolition area is approximately 4,150 square metres.

The phased construction of a new two storey 92 bed community nursing unit will include two single-storey dementia wards with a total area of approximately 7,056 square metres.

Phase One will comprise the two-storey 48-bed unit to the rear of the site of 3,010m2.

Phase Two of the development consists of 1 and 2 storey building elements linked to Phase One containing 44 bedroom units and associated courtyards.

Sinn Fein TD Patricia Ryan, the party's spokesperson for Older People, said she is delighted to see the development receiving planning permission.

Ms Ryan said: Having visited this facility in Athy recently, it will be fantastic for the people of Athy and surrounding areas.

"The staff in St Vincent's hospital do incredible work in looking after our older people."

Kildare South based Senator Fiona OLoughlin has welcomed the granting of planning permission for the new 92 bed hospital at St Vincents in Athy.

Senator OLoughlin said: "St Vincents Athy is a key service to our community and one that I passionately advocate for within the Oireachtas.

I helped ensure that an allocation of 900,000 was made available to St Vincents in Athy under the Health 2022 Capital Plan. This is an allocation I had worked closely with Minister Stephen Donnelly to secure.

This is a huge step forward and I will be continuing to advocate on behalf of our community to ensure that we see adequate and top class healthcare provision in Athy.

Senator O'Loughlin concluded by saying: St Vincent[s provide great care and give great service to our community and our loved ones. This planning approval will help them continue to do so into the future.
ESB has today launched its new High Power (200kW) EV charging hub at the Barack Obama Plaza motorway service in County Tipperary.

The hub will enable eight EVs to charge simultaneously using 100 per cent renewable energy, and is capable of providing 100km of charge in as little as six minutes.

The charging bay, which is located at a critical juncture in Irelands road network on Junction 23, just off the M7 Motorway at Barack Obama Plaza, will be a game-changer for EV drivers, particularly those travelling long distances in the midlands and Munster region.

The announcement marks a significant milestone in ESBs 20m investment in all-island EV infrastructure, which is a key part of ESBs sustainability strategy and commitment to reaching net-zero by 2040.

With this 20m investment programme, which is partially funded by the Governments Climate Action Fund, ESB aims to deliver 50 High-Power hubs across the country as part of its national EV network strategy.

Since the Climate Action Fund was allocated, the funding has allowed ESB to install 28 high power sites nationwide, replace almost all of the standard 22kW chargers with newer technology, and upgrade 42 chargers to faster speeds.

Among these projects was the launch of a similar High Power Hub in Junction 14 in 2021.

Since its launch, the chargers have enabled more than 60,000 charges monthly  a number that is expected to increase considerably in the coming years as the number of EVs on our roads increase.

This innovative charging hub will also play a key role in helping to meet Irelands ambitious transport targets as laid out in the Climate Action Plan.

Speaking at the launch, John Byrne, Head of ESB e-cars, said: "We are so pleased to be launching our new high power charging infrastructure today at Barack Obama Plaza.

"With several thousand visitors daily, this location will be of critical importance to ensuring that drivers in the region feel empowered to make the electric transition."

He added: "EVs are the fasting growing segment in the Irish car market, and at ESB, we are committed to ensuring that the public charging network is there for drivers when they need it... todays launch is just the next step of our plan which will see the remaining 28 high power sites at various stages of planning or build over the coming months."

Welcoming the new chargers, Supermacs founder and owner Pat McDonagh also said: "At Supermacs, we have identified and prioritised opportunities to promote environmentally friendly activity as part of our ongoing Glan & Glas initiative.

"Electric vehicles are becoming an increasing presence on our forecourts at The Plaza Group and The Barack Obama Plaza is now one of the countrys largest e-charging sites.

"This is certainly way of the future, and we are delighted to be a part of it."

Matthew Sealy, Chairperson of the Irish EV Association also welcomed the new hubs: "Its great to see the increasing number of EVs on Irish roads in recent times, and fantastic to see the rapidly expanding network of charging hubs across the country, which will encourage even more people to make the switch.

"This new charging hub will be of huge importance to local EV drivers, commuters, and tourists, giving them even more flexibility on their journeys."
Eight students and apprentices from County Kildare will put their talents and knowledge to the test this September, when they compete at Worldskills Ireland 2023.

Over 160 National Finalists will go head-to-head at the event in a range of skills-based trades including automation, constructions skills and culinary arts, for a chance to win the prestigious Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) Silver Medal and to represent Ireland at Worldskills Lyon next year.

Joining the other National Finalists from across the country are County Kildare natives:

Thomas Beatty, Enfield and Cathal Gorey, West Rathangan are competing in the Construction Plant Fitting competition;

Bodhan Tkach, Newbridge, is competing in the Industrial Insulation competition;

Jack Murphy, Eustace, is competing in the Joinery competition;

Sean McLoughlin, competing in Electrical Installations competition;

Jamie Donovan, Celbridge, and Niamh Salmon, Newbridge are competing in the Logistics Freight Forwarding competition, and;

Connor McDonnell, Athy, is competing in the Metal Fabrication competition.

Commenting on the announcement of 2023s National Finalists, Ray English, Worldskills Ireland Chair, said: "Congratulations to all the young people from across the country that are set to compete at the National Finals during Worldskills Ireland in September.

"Worldskills Ireland is the gateway to Worldskills Lyon in 2024, the 47th international competition which is taking place in France next year and we know that we have some incredibly talented young people in Ireland who will make us proud during the national and international competitions.

He continued: "We believe that promoting apprenticeships and skills-based careers, we can create a brighter future for our young people whilst simultaneously progressing and evolving Irelands wider business economy.

"This year it has been announced that Higher Options, the annual education expo for second level students run by The Irish Times in partnership with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, is joining forces with Worldskills Ireland 2023 to create a mega careers event for young people.

"We are dedicated to empowering and inspiring the next generation of skills professionals in Ireland and were excited to work alongside our partners to continue to elevate the perception of skills and apprenticeships throughout various sectors and industries."

The Finals Day is set to take place at the RDS, Dublin on Friday, September 22.

The event is free to attend and registration for the event is now open at www.worldskillsireland.ie.

BACKGROUND

Worldskills Ireland is the countrys largest experiential skills, apprenticeships, and careers event.

The event is expected to welcome over 22,000 people including students, parents and teachers, and will be a live celebration of apprenticeships, skills and careers with interactive demonstrations, career zones and employers who are ready to recruit.

Supported by industry partners SISK, Construction Industry Federation (CIF), ESB Networks, Autodesk, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus and education partners including the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), the Higher Education Authority (HEA), SOLAS and NAO, Worldskills Ireland 2023 is designed to give students a chance to discover the key skills and sectors that drive the Irish economy.

Designed to promote skills, apprenticeship careers and opportunities for young people, the event allows students, parents, teachers, and guidance counsellors to navigate the options available following secondary education.

Alongside the competitions, there will be demonstrations, try out areas, real-live talks from industry experts, an opportunity to meet employers who are ready to recruit, and the chance to view innovative digital tech skills..
350 teenagers from around the world gather in Maynooth for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference.

The conference, which happened last week on the grounds of NUI Maynooth, brings together young people from the USA, Ukraine, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa and Ireland to learn how to become leaders in their own lives.

During the week-long conference the teens learn crucial life skills such as empathy, decision making, problem solving, communication skills, critical thinking and team work.

Commenting on the event, Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, said: "The conference gives young people the chance to not just learn from the speakers and facilitators, but to learn from each other in a fun and safe environment.

"This week is not only about creating new relationships and learning new skills; its about transforming as an individual."

He added: "Im continually in awe of what young people can achieve when given the opportunity and its weeks like these that give them that opportunity."

When opening the event Ben Dempsey, 16, from Narraghmore Foroige Club, said: "Im so excited for the week ahead, it's my second year here and I learnt so much from taking part in the Foroige Leadership for Life programme last year.

"I'm really excited to meet all of the international delegates and learn about their experiences and lives."

As part of the week-long conference, the delegates will meet inspirational guest speakers including:

Ashwin Chacko, an Indian author, illustrator and motivational speaker based in Dublin  his mission is to champion creativity and empower people to find their inner spark through his art, books, talks & workshops.

Norah Patten, an Irish aeronautical engineer and an award winning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) advocate from Ballina, County Mayo.

Jack Kavanagh, one of Ireland's leading speakers focusing on Mental & Emotional Wellbeing and DiverseAbilities.

When asked about speaking at this years event, Ashwin Chacko commented: "curiosity and Creativity go hand in hand.

"Curiosity pushes us to observe the world around us and ask questions. Creativity allows us to form answers for those questions and bring a novel perspective to the circumstance. These are essential skills for Individuals and teams to succeed."

Jack Kavanagh also said: "I'm really excited to join so many aspiring young leaders for the Foroige Leadership For Life conference.

"With young people coming from all corners of the country and abroad, the atmosphere is bound to be charged with energy and having seen the agenda I would love to be partaking in the whole program myself!"

Foroige is a leading youth organisation in Ireland.

The charity works with over 50,000 young people and 5,500 adult volunteers annually, through a network of more than 500 youth clubs and cafes, 180 targeted projects and national programmes such as Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Health and Wellbeing, Citizenship and Entrepreneurship.
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.

Actor and writer Georgie Grier posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, Sunsets at #edfringe. Its fine, isnt it? Its fine?

There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, Sunsets at #edfringe. Its fine, isnt it? Its fine? pic.twitter.com/D0lfAsMMz0  Georgie Grier (@georgie_grier) August 3, 2023

The post, which included a photo of the actor crying, caught the attention of Irish comedian Dara O Briain and Jason Manford.

O Briain replied: Weve ALL done it. Soon, youll 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, its all stage time, and the show will get better every single time, ready for the big crowds later!.

Manford replied with a video message, in which he said: Its absolutely normalfor 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.

Thats 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 werent 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 thatnobodys turned up but, you know what, youre on the path and its just the start, thats all.

He told Ms Grier that tomorrow will be better and next week will be betterso just enjoy yourself, if you can.

Among the other public figures to reply to Ms Grier was Member of the House of Lords Daniel Finkelstein and astronomer and television presenter Mark Thompson.

Mr Thompson said: Ive seen amazing shows with really poor audience numbers.

Just because there was just one audience member doesnt mean your show isnt awesome. believe in yourself but maybe its the poster/marketing?

Lord Finkelstein said: I went to Norwich to give a speech and it took me 4hrs of travel.There were only 2 people there.

One of them was the person who invited me. I asked the other person to join the cause I was there to support. He said he would, but it might interfere with the terms of his parole.

Ms Grier later thanked those offering their support and shared the details of her Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Sunsets, which she described as about rom coms but also family.
Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko looks on during an opposition meeting two days before his trial, in Dakar on March 14, 2023. JOHN WESSELS / AFP

Senegal's jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been on a hunger strike in prison to protest criminal charges against him, was hospitalized on Sunday, August 6, his party said.

Sonko was imprisoned last week in advance of criminal proceedings against him on charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other charges. The reason for his hospitalization at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear. "Prior to his imprisonment, he was in good health and had no known illnesses," said the statement from Sonko's now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party.

Sonko announced on July 30 on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would start his hunger strike. The announcement came a day before a judge in the capital of Dakar ordered his imprisonment. The latest charges against Sonko came weeks after a judge convicted him in a separate case of corrupting youth and sentenced him to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation. Last week, at least four people died and several were injured in fresh protests after Sonko was detained in a prison just outside Dakar.

Sonko placed third in Senegals 2019 presidential election and is popular with the countrys youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

Read more Senegalese government dissolves opposition party, two dead in demonstrations

Sonkos health emergency comes the day after his lawyer, Juan Branco, was arrested in Mauritania and extradited to Senegal, where he is in a Dakar prison, according to Brancos lawyer, Robin Bindard. Bindard said Sunday that Branco is being held for alleged dissemination of false information, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

"The mission of a lawyer (...) is sacred, and you cant reproach a lawyer for defending his client," said Bindard.

Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome announced Brancos arrest to applause in a National Assembly meeting Saturday.
Emmanuel Macron and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape at Varirata National Park, near Port Moresby, on July 28, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

Donations for donations

The pleasure of giving, the joy of receiving? That's exactly what it was all about. On July 28, while continuing his official trip to the Pacific, Emmanuel Macron stopped off in Papua New Guinea. He announced a 60 million partnership to help the country's efforts to preserve its primeval forest. Papua New Guineans know how to be grateful, so the French president was showered with gifts in return.

Gift or curse?

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape first presented him with a wooden totemic figure illustrating the famous Papuan statuary art and reflecting his people's attachment to their endangered forest. Then, he gave Macron a particularly flashy nickname, "Champion of the Forest Nations," thereby handing him the symbolic mission of defending the environmental cause around the world. Who was it who said that gifts were poisonous?

Steel-toecap boots at the ready

Macron obviously adapted his outfit for the forest walk in Varirata National Park, near the capital, Port Moresby. On the steep paths, he untied his tie and dropped his jacket, ending up in his shirt sleeves. To walk with ease, he had dispensed with his customary strict black formal shoes, donning instead a pair of imposing black boots with steel toe-caps to ensure that he could take any knocks without pain... A totem can fall so quickly.

Legendary pair of shoes

Pay attention to the presence of a pair of iconic shoes in the audience. These yellow sneakers are the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66. Created in 1968 in Japan, they became a household name in 1973, when Bruce Lee wore them in the film Enter the Dragon, and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity 30 years later, in 2003, when Uma Thurman wore them in Kill Bill. Now 20 years on, has the trend reached its ultimate destination, or is it time for a comeback? You be the judge.

Sacred raffia

Lastly, let's note the several children and teenagers in traditional dress in the audience. In particular, they are wearing a raffia loincloth, which has a special meaning in Papua societies. When a child reaches the age of 4, she inherits her first loincloth. Woven by the men of the village, it symbolizes the end of the first age and even indicates, in practical terms, that the young girl can now make herself useful to the tribe. From a loincloth to hard labor? Let's not get carried away.
YOUNG people availing of mental health services in Limerick wait on average two months from referral to assessment.

In the report into the national Child and Mental Health Services (CAMHS) released last week, data shows those seeking Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Limerick and Clare face an average wait time of 72 days, from the moment they are referred to a service to when they get assessed. Nationwide, the average waiting time is of three months.

The report published by The Mental Health Commission contains a total of 49 recommendations, including for the Limerick area.

The Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Susan Finnerty, said that she cannot provide an assurance to all parents in Ireland that their children have access to a safe, effective and evidence-based mental health service.

The inspector found that the issue of access to CAMHS, or any mental health service for a child, was causing profound distress and frustration to parents who expressed concern at how their child deteriorated while waiting for an assessment.

Dr Finnerty said: Parents did not know where they can get help and information about services for their child and felt that a crisis needed to be reached before appropriate services are offered to them, or that they have to battle with services before help is provided.

Even though the HSE targeted improvements to solve some of the issues, the inspector states in the report that it is a major concern that there are ongoing and serious deficits in CAMHS which is increasing the risk to children and young people.

In a statement, the HSE said: This report comes after a long process which HSE Mid West Community Healthcare was happy to engage in and it will support the ongoing service improvement within CAMHS which aims to enhance the experience of children, young people and families who need our support.

The delivery of a high-quality CAMHS service to the people of Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary is a priority for HSE Mid West Community Healthcare. We have made and are making significant investments in the service.

They commented: We welcome that the MHC has acknowledged that many young people and their families have received excellent care and treatment within CAMHS.

We are also pleased to see that the report acknowledges the hard work and dedication of staff who work in this complex area while dealing with increasing demand for services. HSE Mid West Community Healthcare actively engages with staff to support them in their work, and to develop and deliver a high-quality CAMHS service for children and young people across the Mid West.

The HSE acknowledges deficits in the provision of the current CAMHS service. We are genuinely sorry for anyone who has had a bad experience of our services. We continue to make further service improvements in the mental health services provided in the Mid West to children and adolescents.

The CAMHS report provides results from an independent audit of all 75 CAMHS teams across the country, from July to December 2021.
A YOUNG Limerick woman who is running a road race in every county in Ireland for charity has crossed Donegal off her list.

Theresa Hughes, from Abbeyfeale, runs for West Limerick AC and took part in the Ballyshannon 5k on Friday night, completing the course in 23:24 in the rain. She has now competed in 18 of the 32 counties.

As someone who only started running properly in October '22 and then was out for a month and a half due to a broken ankle, this year I'm setting myself a challenge, Theresa said.

I'm running a race - between 5 and 10k in distance as I'm fairly new to running - in each of the 32 counties to raise money for Diabetes Ireland, Alzheimer's Society of Ireland, and Rape Crisis Midwest, and I have to complete them all by the end of December.

I am doing all of this to raise some money for three charities that are very close to my heart - Diabetes Ireland, Alzheimer's Society of Ireland and Rape Crisis Midwest

I lost my dad in 2007 at the age of 48 to diabetic hypoglycemia (extreme low blood sugars) as he was Type 1 diabetic. I too am a Type1 so this charity is extra special! My grandmother, who passed away in 2014, suffered from dementia/Alzheimer's in her final years, and thirdly, several people I know have benefited from the support provided by Rape Crisis Midwest.

All funds raised will be split equally between the three charities and allow them to continue to provide their support services as well as funding research into hopefully finding a cure or prevention for Diabetes and Alzheimer's

Every bit of support is much appreciated! It may not seem like much but considering only a few months ago I struggled to run 5k even once a month, doing a race almost every week will be tough going for me!

In Ballyshannon, it was a pity the weather was so bad on the day but everyone was really friendly anyways, I definitely felt welcome despite being a blow-in!

You can support Theresas GoFundMe on 32 in '23 Challenge and follow her progress on Instagram 32in23
LIMERICK students will put their talents and knowledge to the test when they compete at Worldskills Ireland 2023 this September.

Worldskills Ireland is the countrys largest experiential skills, apprenticeships, and careers event.

Joining the other National Finalists from across the country are County Limerick natives:

Bhavya Gaur, Limerick, and Michael Svirydav are competing in the Cyber Security competition; Michael Ryan, Drumcollogher, is competing in the Industrial Control competition, and; Dean Cooke, Shanagolden, Shaun Maloney, Glenrue, and Dylan ODonoghue, Kilfinnane, are competing in the Metal Fabrication competition.

Taking place at the RDS, Dublin from September 20 to 22, Worldskills Ireland is expected to welcome over 22,000 people including students, parents and teachers, and will be a live celebration of apprenticeships, skills and careers with interactive demonstrations, career zones and employers who are ready to recruit.

Commenting on the announcement of 2023s National Finalists, Ray English, Worldskills Ireland Chair added: Congratulations to all the young people from across the country that are set to compete at the National Finals during Worldskills Ireland in September.

Worldskills Ireland is the gateway to Worldskills Lyon in 2024, the 47th international competition which is taking place in France next year and we know that we have some incredibly talented young people in Ireland who will make us proud during the national and international competitions.

We believe that by promoting apprenticeships and skills-based careers, we can create a brighter future for our young people whilst simultaneously progressing and evolving Irelands wider business economy.

This year it has been announced that Higher Options, the annual education expo for second-level students run by The Irish Times in partnership with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, is joining forces with Worldskills Ireland 2023 to create a mega careers event for young people.

We are dedicated to empowering and inspiring the next generation of skills professionals in Ireland and were excited to work alongside our partners to continue to elevate the perception of skills and apprenticeships throughout various sectors and industries, he added.

Needed now more than ever, Worldskills Ireland 2023 will be a three-day celebration preparing the talent of today for the careers of the future, the event will showcase the multiplicity of skills training and apprenticeships on offer nationwide. Alongside the competitions, there will be demonstrations, try-out areas, inspiring real-live talks from industry experts, an opportunity to meet employers who are ready to recruit and the chance to view innovative digital tech skills that are the backbone of jobs of the future.

Supported by industry partners SISK, Construction Industry Federation (CIF), ESB Networks, Autodesk, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus and education partners including the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), the Higher Education Authority (HEA), SOLAS and NAO, Worldskills Ireland 2023 is designed to give students a chance to discover the key skills and sectors that drive the Irish economy.
MUMBAII , NEW DELHI : Ant Group transferred about 44% of its stake in One 97 Communications Ltd, which runs Paytm, to founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a move seen as an effort to reduce the Chinese companys ownership in the Indian fintech giant.

Paytm said Resilient Asset Management BV, an overseas entity owned by Sharma, will acquire the ownership and voting rights of 10.3% of the stake in the company held by Antfin (Netherlands), a unit of Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial. Upon successfully completing this transaction, Sharmas Paytm holding will increase to 19.42%, making him the companys largest shareholder. Alongside, Antfins stake will reduce to 13.5%, according to an exchange filing.

View Full Image Graphic: Mint

Resilient Asset structured this transaction by offering optionally convertible debentures (OCDs) to Antfin, which allows the Chinese giant to retain economic ownership of the shares. Put simply, Sharma and his Chinese backer have agreed to split the ownership rights and the economic rights of shares in the firm.

Ant Group first invested in One 97 in February 2015. The company raised 18,300 crore in its IPO in November 2021.

After Mondays transaction, which was valued at $628 million, Sharmas ownership increased from 9.12% to 19.42%, making him the single-largest shareholder, while Ant Groups ownership came down from 23.8% to 13.5%, making it the third-largest shareholder. Elevation Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund and one of Paytms earliest backers, still holds around a 15% stake in the company.

No cash payment will be made for this acquisition, and neither will any pledge, guarantee, or other value assurance be provided by Mr Sharma, directly or otherwise," the press release said.

As we announce this transfer of ownership, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ant for their unwavering support and partnership over the past several years," Sharma said.

Paytms application for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence was rejected earlier over concerns about Chinese ownership. The latest move could help it apply again, but a Paytm official said on condition of anonymity that it has no such plan.

The move is not because of the regulator. And, if it was the case, then we could have asked to buy more stake and took Antfins shareholding below 10%, which would have taken Antfins ultimate beneficiary ownership status away," the Paytm official said.

Paytm is not looking to apply for an NBFC licence again. With the kind of loans we are doing, we would have become a systematically-important bank since we also have a payments bank licence. Systematically, it becomes more viable for Paytm to operate as a multi-book ownership model instead of building its own book."

A former Paytm executive said, Paytm is lending insane amounts of money on behalf of other major NBFCs. It is collecting and disbursing money, but RBI (Reserve Bank of India) cant audit One97. Maybe RBI is looking to change this and may want to audit Paytm since the amount involved is too high, and it might end up giving an NBFC licence."

Paytm operates as a loan service provider (LSP), where it helps NBFC partners in underwriting as well as collections. Its revenue model is fixed plus carrywhich is earning a fixed percentage on disbursement and a bonus on collections.

With Mondays transaction, Antfins equity in Paytm becomes debt in Resilient, and Sharma will pay interest to Antfin on this till maturity. Vijay has got enough timeline where he can arrange for the money and pay," a top Paytm official said on condition of anonymity.

Antfin is doing a favour on us, and the timeline is in the number of tens of years," the official cited above added. Based on their good relationship and respect for each other, they have agreed to such a timeline."

The transaction is seen as a move to allay fears of the banking regulator of Chinese control in the financial services business. The apparent purpose of this is to reduce the Chinese shareholding," said Nitin Aggarwal, the head of banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) research at Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities. Ant Group has been unwinding its position in various Indian portfolio firms to comply with local laws.

The agreement between Vijay and Ant is not known since its a private transaction," said another analyst with a leading domestic brokerage firm.

Following the announcement, shares of Paytm shot up 11.44% to touch an intraday high of 887.7 before shedding some gains to close at 850.70. Paytm has a market capitalization of 53,957 crore. Over the past year, the companys stock has gained 8.46% while the broader market index Nifty 50 gained at least 12.64%.

Paytms board, as well as its management and control, will remain unchanged after the transaction. Sharma will continue as managing director and CEO. Paytm remains a professionally managed company with no identifiable promoter. Further, there is no nominee of Antfin on the board of Paytm," the company said.

In a separate statement, Paytm said Price Waterhouse, the statutory auditor of Paytm Payments Services Ltd, has resigned with effect from 7 August. The auditor did not raise any concern or issue, and S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP has been appointed in its place.

On 3 August, the fintech company said its average monthly users rose by 19% to 93 million in July from a year earlier. The number of merchants paying subscriptions for payment devices reached 8.2 million as of July 2023, an increase of 380,000 devices in the month, according to its BSE filing. Merchant payment volumes stood at $17.9 billion, up 39% from a year earlier.

The street is taking notice of the turnaround at Paytm.

Analysts at JP Morgan, in a note dated 26 July with an overweight" rating, said: Paytm is the leading fintech horizontal" in India, having built more sources of monetization across payments, commerce and financial services than all of its competitors. This gives it the unique ability to drive monetization and profits across several segments at lower CAC (customer acquisition cost) than peers.

We expect Paytm to see strong revenue growth across all its business segments thanks to device monetization in payments, financial services cross-selling, ticketing recovery and rising ad monetization. We see revenues growing at 31% CAGR over FY23-26 to ~$2.2 billion and CMs rising to 57% by FY26. We see Paytm retaining the highest revenue and profit levels among the local vertical and global horizontal peers," the analysts wrote in their note to its investors.
New Delhi: Coal India Ltd. (CIL) NLC India Ltd (NLCIL) plan to set up multiple thermal power plants across the country to meet growing demand.

According to a coal ministry statement, NLCIL, in partnership with the Uttar Pradesh government, will construct a 3 x 660 MW thermal power plant in Ghatampur near Kanpur. The project, estimated to cost of 19,406 crore, will supply 1478.28 MW of power to Uttar Pradesh and 492.72 MW to Assam.

The project is in the implementation phase, with the first phase of this plant is expected to start power generation by the end of this year, it added.

NLCIL is also working on a 3 x 800 MW pithead thermal power plant at Talabira in Odisha, projected to cost 19,422 crore. The plant will supply 1450 MW power to Tamil Nadu, 100 MW to Puducherry, and 400 MW to Kerala. The project is expected to commence by year-end and aims for completion by 2028-29.

Coal India is planning two thermal power plants, with one located near Amarkantak in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh government. The plant, with a capacity of 1x660 MW and an estimated cost of 5,600 crore, is set to begin construction by the end of this financial year and targeted for completion by 2028.

In addition, MCL, a subsidiary of CIL, is establishing Mahanadi Basin Power Ltd., a fully-owned subsidiary, to build a 2x800 MW thermal power plant near Basundhara Mines. The project, costing 15,947 crore, has garnered interest from several states for 4000 MW worth of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).

Work on this project is expected to begin around the middle of next year and targeted completion date is set for 2028, it added.

The ministry of coal has advised all subsidiaries of CIL to find suitable de-coaled land for establishing new pithead thermal power plants. Setting up power plants at pithead is more cost-effective, with a tentatively fixed cost of approximately 2.5 and a variable cost of about 1.25 per unit, making it possible to generate power at less than 4 per unit.

This decision comes as coal is projected to be in surplus in the future, and to ensure sustainability in operations for CIL and NLCIL with setting up of new thermal power plants.

As per the policies of the ministry of power, required renewable energy potential is also been created along with the thermal power plant so that the power generation can be augmented with the combination of thermal as well as solar. This will help to supply power in cost effective manner to the end users.
In a bid to tap the fastest growing aviation market in the world, Egypt Air has launched a direct flight between Delhi and Cairo, with an eye on the transit air traffic from national capital to Europe, North America, and Africa.

India is a promising market. This will result in good connectivity to other destinations such as mid-Africa and West Africa," chairman and chief executive officer Capt. Mohamed Moussa told Mint.

Next step will be codeshare with Indian companies," Moussa said, adding that the airline is getting ready to initiate discussions for a codeshare as part of the strategy going forward.

The airline will operate the direct flight between New Delhi and Cairo four times a week in an Airbus A320neo with a two-cabin service. With the new route, the airline is the sole carrier that provides direct connectivity to Cairo from Mumbai and New Delhi.

Notably, various smaller airlines in the region are eyeing the Indian market after the Indian government restricted any more new foreign flights by large carriers like Emirates, Qatar and even Singapore Airlines. These carriers carry a lot of traffic from India to lucrative markets like the US, Europe through their home country.

As per data for the March quarter from the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the airline carried 21,809 passengers between Mumbai and Cairo. Under the current bilateral agreement, the country has the scope to operate 14 weekly flights. The airline has now achieved 11 weekly flights with seven flights a week from Mumbai and four flights a week from New Delhi.

The airline said it is looking at destinations in the south of India to enhance connectivity and may also increase frequency from New Delhi around the summer season next year.

After recovery from covid, many people are now keen and have huge need to travel. As Egypt Air has a very good connectivity network with hub in Cairo, we see here in India a very big potential to catch traffic from India to Cairo and beyond Cairo to our network destinations in Africa, North America and Europe," country manager Amr Ali told Mint.

The airline analysed traffic departing from India ahead of launching the new route and discovered that a lot of traffic is flying to Cairo as a transit hub. Traditionally, transit traffic from India has also been main source of demand for airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar, among others. In fact, the Indian civil aviation ministry has also formulated a plan with the stakeholders to build international hubs in India.

For me, Air India is my brother. I cannot say we are competitors but we should co-operate, we should co-ordinate together but of course any airline that operates for the same destination, it will be competitive," Ali said, when asked about the competition with fellow Star Alliance member Air India.

While the 6.5-hour route is also doable for an airline like IndiGo in India, Egypt Air said its hospitality and food service will make it a preferred service.

IndiGo has different routes. Also, in-flight services is one other factor, we have very good catering, hospitality and we have very well-trained cabin crew. We are keen about Indian food, we have special meals catered to Indians. We are a full-service carrier, not low-cost," Ali said.

The airline executive further stated that while air fares had soared due to the resurgence in demand after relaxations of covid-related restrictions, they will stabilise but will remain flexible as the industry is very sensitive to external factors.
New Delhi: Country-wide hotel occupancy rates were fell marginally month-on-month in June even as they rose from a year ago period. In June, most major markets saw average rates drop 1-3% when compared to May, in spite of remaining above the pre-pandemic levels.

The June ended quarter witnessed strong increase in rates compared to the same period in 2022, which boosted revenue per available room, despite a minor decline in occupancy rate. According to a report by hospitality consultancy HVS, about 5,900 new hotel rooms across 84 properties opened up this calendar year, and another 12,500 rooms were signed for about 142 hotels, the company said.

In a positive, average daily rate of hotel rooms across India rose a healthy 16-18% on a year-on-year basis in three months to June.

When comparing month-on-month figures for June 2023 to 2022 figures, the number is 13-15% higher, said the report by the Anarock-owned hospitality consultancy. Average daily rate figures are between 23% and 25% higher than June 2019, and settled at 6,600-6,800 over the corresponding 2019 figures.

For the month, the most growth in room occupancy was seen in metro cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi, of up to 5%. Surprisingly, there was a major dip in cities like Pune, Bengaluru and Chandigarh at 5-10%, and a smaller decline of up to 5% in the Goa and Hyderabad markets.

Indias domestic air traffic rose 19% year-on-year in June, but fell marginally from May.
MUMBAI : India is in a bright spot and seeing steady, long-term foreign investment inflows, according to P.D. Singh, chief executive and managing director of corporate banking , India, at JPMorgan Chase Bank. In India, regulators have driven change by disruption and innovation, Singh said in an interview. While companies are diversifying and raising capital, there are fewer concerns about returning to the over-levered scenario of the past, he added. Edited excerpts:

Do you agree with a recent survey conducted by a foreign fund house of sovereign funds and hedge funds which showed that Indian debt is more attractive than that of China and other emerging economies?

It is not surprising considering Indias multi-decade growth potential. Certainly, we are not isolated from global developments because of our dependence on energy, etc., but India is in a bright spot and a long-term investment story. We are probably not going to see flashes in the pan. While other countries in Asean are seeing significant initial investments, there is a constant flow of long-term capital that is coming into India. We are also seeing a similar trend in the equities market. Importantly, our regulators have driven the change through disruption and innovation, and that, to me, is one of our key differentiators.

Do you see Indian corporates deleveraging?

Absolutely. Value creation is a result of the long period of investment in the last cycle. Indian corporates have generated a good quantum of cash and also raised equity judiciously. These pools of money have been used to deleverage. The deleveraging has improved credit profiles and brought in further efficiency in interest cost savings, even as benchmark rates have increased. The financial flexibility enables corporates to capture the next phase of opportunities, which may be organic or inorganic. The impact this can have on jumpstarting activity levels cannot be underestimated.

But if you look at the conglomerates, during the pandemic, they managed to repay debt. But they are now again raising more loans. Is this as an early sign that we are going back to high leverage?

I would say it is an indicator of opportunity, and the opportunity is sector-specific. In the telecom sector, for instance, with the advent of the latest technology and the ability to scale up, one wants to be the first to implement. This then drives efficiency, which benefits the country at large. But I do not see corporates going back very quickly to a highly leveraged scenario as huge capacities are not being added given the capacity utilization which exists currently. But while we are not seeing massive capex, there are new entrants and diversification is happening.

Do you see Indian companies shying away from offshore foreign loans?

Indian corporates are savvy in the manner they manage their borrowings. They have displayed agility in using the available market dynamics to their advantage. In the current situation, the underlying benchmark rates in foreign currency have moved up faster than Indian rupee.

Also, forward covers are such that, in some cases, it may be cheaper to look at rupee financing if the objective is to remain fully hedgedespecially in the absence of underlying exposures such as export flows.

Corporates with good quality credit have the ability to raise foreign currency financing at competitive levels, and selective transactions have been executed.

How do you look at startup financing and the debt that theyre raising?

We have a new economy cell with a specialized focus on the sub-segments in this sector. Given that the sector requires a bespoke approach for each situation, we bring in our best practices and offer a specialized line of products. Financing decisions are predicated on the specific situation.

What about debt refinancing? Do you see a lot of corporates now coming for refinancing?

A few years ago, quite a few corporates raised dollar bonds and ECBs (external commercial borrowings). As they complete minimum average maturities, corporates are exploring various options onshore and offshore. As credit profile improves, borrowers are in a position to negotiate better terms and pricing. The increased flexibility is beneficial for the borrowers supporting their growth plans.

Can you enumerate some of the broad themes you are seeing?

We continue to work with clients on their outbound agenda. Many have scaled up their overseas investments to be closer to their client base and supply chains. These corporates have centralized processes and services in India, and their international growth is leading to incremental opportunities for India to act as a global hub in manufacturing and services.

The inbound story is also strong, with MNCs establishing permanent manufacturing facilities, bases and offices in multiple cities in the country and looking to tap Indias vast potential. Given that JP Morgan is a globally connected firm, we benefit from that network as well.

The third part is the local infrastructure by the private sector and government, where again, we are connected with both sides. A lot of these have support from multilateral agencies, and we are directly or indirectly involved, wherever possible, to add value.

Do you see Japanese financiers active in India? They are as it is funding some major infrastructure projects.

They are indeed playing an important role. The Dedicated Freight Corridor is probably one of the largest infrastructure investments in the country, and one of the corridors is entirely supported by them. Having said that, given the scale of investments required, there is enough for everyone.
The funding round was also joined by companies like Echjay Family office, Amar Ujala, and existing investors like Ivycap Ventures, Iceland Venture Studio, Venture Catalysts, Ah Ventures, and others.

The recent funding will be used for product development, SEO initiatives, and overall growth, enabling Expertrons to reach more professionals globally.

"Our journey began with the realization that numerous talented individuals lacked access to crucial career secrets, which were often exclusive to a privileged few," said Jatin Solanki, Co-founder of Expertrons.

Expertrons uses AI-powered recommendations to provide relevant videobots for career guidance

With the help of AI-powered recommendations, the skill tech startup provide users with relevant videobots based on their backgrounds, college, domain of interest, and company preferences. Aspiring professionals can freely access these videobots and even schedule one-on-one calls with experts for personalized guidance tailored to their career aspirations.

Co-founder of Expertrons, Vivek Gupta, expressed their goal to catalyze the growth of over a billion professionals worldwide, supporting them through multiple career transitions throughout their lives.

Expertrons' alliance with Shine.com

The strategic alliance with Shine.com through Hindustan Media Ventures Limited presents an exciting opportunity for Expertrons. Jatin Solanki mentioned, "The content strategy will enable career experiences of experts on Expertrons to reach a wider audience. Shine's vast user base is ideal for Expertrons, making career success a reality for countless professionals."

"Their dedication to democratizing career insights and mentorship aligns perfectly with our vision. We're excited to be part of their journey towards empowering professionals worldwide," said Sanjeev Bahl, AVP - Strategic Investment at Hindustan Times expressing his confidence on Expertrons

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, MD and Founder of Venture Catalysts said that India's job market is rapidly evolving and paving way for professionals to climb the ladder of their career faster. She points out that Expertrons addresses a critical gap by leveraging insights from industry experts to advance careers and strengthen the countrys human capital.

Expertrons acqui-hires Foxmula

In addition to receiving funding from HTMVL, Expertrons announced the acqui-hiring of Foxmula, a well-established upskilling company founded by Ayush Bansal. Foxmula has a remarkable track record of catering to over 10,000 aspirants through its live and self-paced programs, which are certified by renowned industry leaders such as Microsoft, Intuit, Pearson, and others.

"With Foxmula's large target audience and expertise in Tech-based Certification, Expertrons is well-positioned to tap into the massive Tech Upskilling market, penetrating through online as well as offline channels by expanding the current network of channel partners pan India. and provide even more comprehensive support to aspiring professionals," commented Vivek Gupta.

Ayush Bansal admitted that the synergy between Expertrons and Foxmula is undeniable. He called the tie-up as a milestone to mark an exciting chapter in our journey.

About Expertrons

The company was founded in 2019 by IIT Bombay alumni Jatin Solanki and Vivek Gupta. The start up firm's revolutionary patent-pending videobot technology platform connects users with over 7500 Experts from renowned companies like Amazon, Accenture, TCS, Kotak Mahindra, and more. Through videobot, these Experts share real-life career experiences, offering invaluable knowledge and strategies for cracking top jobs, internships, and business schools.

The startup also offers upskilling programs (like Pro MBA - AICTE Approved PGDM in BFSI, Advanced Certification, etc.) in collaboration with prestigious institutes like E&ICT Academy IIT Guwahati, All India Management Association, the State University of New York and E&ICT NIT Patna, along with job-oriented programs in association with top companies like Kotak Mahindra in BFSI and Delhivery ,in Supply Chain Management.

Disclaimer: HT Media is the publisher of Mint
It is the worlds most tired interview question: what is your greatest weakness? And Rishi Sunak, one of the two remaining candidates in the race to become Britains prime minister, gave the worlds most tired answerperfectionismwhen he was asked it at an online hustings earlier this month.

No interviewee would answer this question with an unambiguous negative (stupidity", say, or body odour"). Like all those who have reached for it before, Mr Sunak will have intended his reply to signal that his flaws are virtues, especially compared with the shambolic style of Boris Johnsons outgoing government.

But this classic response is riskier than it once was. In Mr Sunaks case that is because the job of prime minister is largely to triage problems and make decisions at a relentless pace; even his supporters worry that his deliberative style would be a problem. More generally, perfectionism is increasingly out of step with the ways that products are developed, employees are treated and workforces are organised.

Start with product development. Lots of digital types embrace the concept of the minimum viable product (MVP), in which companies ship prototypes that can be refined, or indeed scrapped, on the basis of feedback from early adopters. The essence of the MVP approach is anti-perfectionism: dont procrastinate, dont spend time sweating the tiniest details, get your product into users hands and see how it does. Fussing about font sizes and nice-to-have features is a waste of time; the market will hone things for you, dispensing its judgments cumulatively and dispassionately.

A growing emphasis on employees well-being is another reason why perfectionism is out of favour. The trait is on the rise: a study published in 2017 found that it had been steadily increasing among American, British and Canadian college students between 1989 and 2016 (before you blame Instagram, one big reason is rising parental expectations). The tyranny of excessively high expectations is not good for you: a big literature review in 2016 concluded that perfectionism is associated with a string of mental-health disorders, from depression and burnout to stress and self-harm.

It matters what kind of perfectionist someone is. Psychologists distinguish between a self-oriented" version, in which people put pressure on themselves to perform flawlessly; an other-oriented" type, in which people hold their colleagues to the highest of standards; and a socially prescribed" version, in which employees think that they will only get on if they meet the impossible expectations of those around them. People in the last camp seem to be especially prone to stress. A recent Italian study found that, whereas having extremely high standards for your own performance was not a predictor of burnout, being afraid of making mistakes was.

Perfectionists may also hurt team cohesiveness. In a study conducted in 2020, Emily Kleszewski and Kathleen Otto of Philipps-University of Marburg asked people to rate potential co-workers based on descriptions of their levels and categories of perfectionism. Perfectionists were regarded as being less socially skilled and less likeable than non-perfectionists. You dont have to like your colleagues for them to be effective: in that same study, perfectionists were rated as more competent than non-perfectionists. But when more and more work is organised around small groups working together, it can help not to loathe each other.

By now your inner curmudgeon may well be frothing at the mouth. Nit-picking micro-managers are deeply annoying but they are nowhere near as bad as people who dont have any standards. Demanding bosses can be the difference between good products and superb ones: thatll do" was not the mantra that made Steve Jobs successful. Some jobs actively require perfectionismcopy editors, say, or medicines regulators. And since when did being exacting become a health risk?

Fortunately, discouraging perfectionism does not mean sacrificing high standards. In a paper published last year, three academics at the University of Ottawa found that people who strove for excellence did better on tests of creative thinking than people who sought perfection. Managers can explicitly define what counts as high-quality work. Deadlines can prevent endless procrastination. Mr Sunaks call not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good came as he sat in front of a poster that misspelled the word campaign". That took things too far.

For more analysis of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to The Bottom Line, our weekly newsletter.

Read more from Bartleby, our columnist on management and work:

Will work from hotel" catch on? (Jul 21st) How to navigate workplace awkwardness (Jul 14th) Reading corporate culture from the outside (Jul 9th)

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
A stroll down Quantum Boulevard" reveals one of the worlds tightest concentrations of bleeding-edge technology firms. Dozens of companies feed a quantum-computing supply chain that did not exist a few years ago. Their wares include some of the most advanced commercialised technology on the planet. The district is hardly a decade old; not long ago the most modern tech in the area was farming equipment. And it is in an unlikely spot: Hefei, the capital of Anhui, one of Chinas less fancied provinces.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

Chinas growth is flagging, but its economic miracle appears alive and well in Hefei. Home to about 9.6m people, the inland city saw its GDP grow by more than 8% a year on average from 2012 to 2022. Once considered backward and poor, Hefeis residents now enjoy a disposable income that comfortably exceeds Chinas urban average (see chart).

The citys success owes much to what some call the Hefei model". A unique combination of local-government investment and private enterprise, the model has been described as state capitalism at its best. It has fostered industries like high-end manufacturing, electric vehicles (EVs), biotech and semiconductors. These so-called strategic, emerging industries now account for over 56% of Hefeis industrial output, compared with less than 27% in 2013. Whatever local officials have been doing, it appears to be the right mix of industrial policy and private-sector mojo," says Robin Xing, an economist at Morgan Stanley and a Hefei local.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

This style of growth is precisely how Xi Jinping, Chinas leader, envisions the countrys future. Hefeis technological progress chimes with Mr Xis call for an Industrial Revolution 4.0", in which China shakes off low-quality" growthcheap manufacturing and debt-financed homebuildingby capturing entirely new industries and their supply chains. This vision reserves special attention for the inland backwaters that have missed out on much of the internet boom in coastal provinces. If Mr Xi has his way, the next decade of development will look more like Hefei than todays tech hubs of Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

BOE Technology, the world leader in LCD displays, has some of its main factories in Hefei. So does NIO, one of the worlds fastest-growing ev companies. Chinas leader in voice-recognition artificial intelligence, iFlyTek, was founded by the local university. Its most advanced DRAM chipmaker, CXTM, was co-founded by the local government.

Foreign companies have also endorsed Hefeis efficiency. Volkswagen, a German carmaker, has operated manufacturing plants in the city for years. Earlier this year it announced plans for a 1bn ($1.1bn) innovation centre in Hefei that will help design EVs. Such hubs are rare outside Chinas largest coastal cities, especially for multinationals. Few inland areas can muster the talent, logistics and supply chains to foster them. But Hefei has the right conditions to set up such a facility, says Ralf Brandstatter, Volkswagens China chief.

Boulevard of unbroken dreams

Hefeis success has stirred plenty of curiosity. Delegation after delegation of officials from less prosperous regions have visited the city in the hopes of taking some economic magic back home. A staff member at a state investment group in Hefei says his firm is booked to capacity over the next month hosting visitors from other city governments.

They will quickly learn the models essential ingredients. The first is a large pool of highly educated, motivated people. Hefei is far enough inlandabout 470km from Shanghaito have missed out on the 1990s boom in the Yangzi river delta. But it is close enough to absorb the influence of its better-off neighbours, giving it what Anhui locals say is a scrappy, underdog attitude.

During the Cultural Revolution, a politically tumultuous period between 1966 and 1976, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) was forced to leave Beijing. The nations top tech college tried several cities before settling in Hefei in 1970. In the flight from political violence, often directed at academics, it lost more than half its scholars and equipment.

But UTSC has now re-emerged as a global centre for science. The surrounding education system has also flourished, giving the city a high density of good schools, notes Christopher Marquis, the co-author of Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise".

That has made it a hub for advanced technology. USTC has designed Chinas most advanced quantum computer. Not far away at the Institute of Physics, scientists are testing one of the worlds most advanced fusion-energy reactors, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. The earliest human trials with CRISPR, a genetic-engineering tool, were conducted at a Hefei hospital in 2015. Since then a thriving biosciences industry has sprung up.

A second ingredient of the Hefei model is the flow of talent. The city government frequently recruits from the engineering and science departments of local universities. It also encourages exchanges between government offices, university departments and companies, building trust and networks. One local cadre spent years at USTC helping researchers identify marketable patents, while holding a government position. Businesspeople in Hefei say officials throughout the local administration can discuss industry topics in depth.

A third factor is the chain boss" system. The government has created groups of firms in 12 industries, including semiconductors, EVs, quantum sciences and biotechnology. Each group has a chain boss": a government official who oversees big-picture planning for the industry. In 2020, for example, Hefeis Communist Party chief was the chain boss of the citys integrated-circuits industry. The mayor oversaw the display-screen industry.

These bosses work with a state-appointed chain leader", typically the dominant company within an industry. The government passes policy directions to this leader, which shares them with other companies in the supply chain. Companies and officials use this communication channel to discuss the allocation of state capital, the sourcing of materials and potential bottlenecks in supplies, noted Ni Hua, an analyst at East Asia Qianhai Securities, in a report last year.

Before the state invests in a new company, officials consult with all members of a chain to understand how the newcomer will fit in, says an executive at a local quantum-computing firm. One young entrepreneur who recently started a business in Hefei says that breaking into these industry groups is incredibly difficult. There is little scope for ruthless competition within supply chains. Instead the focus is on beating companies in other regions or countries.

The fourth ingredient in the model is state capital. While cities elsewhere in the world fund schools, build sewers or house the poor, Hefeis administration ploughs money into the most promising companies it can identify. It has been described as a government of investment bankers". Its outlays flow mainly through three vehicles. Each has sprawling portfolios spanning hundreds of investments.

Chained melody

These investments give the city government broad reach. Companies such as BOE, the display-maker, and NIO, the ev firm, stand at the centre of vast supply chains. Smaller companies move to Hefei to be closer to them. Most remain privately owned. But if they suit the governments plan for the supply chain, they will probably attract some state investment. In this way entire supply chains are linked up by just a few state investors that answer to the city government.

For nearly a decade cities and provinces across China have been experimenting with state-backed venture capital, raising as much as $1trn. But many of their investments have yielded mediocre returns at best. Chinas venture-capital state has been written off as a cash sink and a prime opportunity for corruption. Last year, for example, anti-corruption authorities rounded up executives at Chinas premier state fund, the National Integrated Circuit Fund, in an attempt to weed out graft.

What sets Hefei apart? The citys state capitalists have clearly benefited from the citys history and location. Not every inland metropolis can learn from Shanghai without being swamped by it, or provide refuge to a great university. The tight links of the chain boss" system also ensure that Hefeis state capitalists do not invest without guidance from industry.

Hefeis state investors have also been unusually adventurous. Most cities lack the expertise to run private-equity funds. And they do not have incentives to make bets with distant, uncertain pay-offs. Cadres often spend just five years in one location. Even if a long-term investment were to succeed, they would not be around to enjoy their triumph. These short horizons inhibit officials investment choices. Many government funds, for example, have put money into chip designers not chipmakers, notes Tilly Zhang, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, a research house. Chip design is less capital-intensive and quicker to show returns.

Hefeis state capitalists have no such inhibition. The local governments first big punt was a $5.2bn investment in BOE in 2008. (Officials delayed the construction of a subway system in order to scrape the funds together.) The LCD screen industry was then dominated by South Korea and Japan. Critics noted that it would take years to for Chinese firms to be able to compete. But BOE eventually built several plants in Hefei and has since come to dominate the global industry.

NIO, the electric-car maker, was even riskier. In 2020 the group was on the verge of collapse when Hefei invested 5bn yuan ($700m). nio then moved its China headquarters and some production facilities to the city. In less than two years NIO had recovered and its share price soared. The city made a return of up to 5.5 times its initial investment, according to Bloomberg. Hefei Jiantou, a government fund that invested in both BOE and NIO, has taken in investment income of at least 5bn yuan each year between 2019 and 2021.

For Mr Xis economic vision to succeed, the Hefei model will have to spread far beyond its place of origin. Smaller cities will have to sprout big firms in leading industries, such as EVs, solar energy and chips. One quantum boulevard will not be enough.

But experimentation in one city has often provided a template for the rest of the country. The Shenzhen model" in the 1980s, for example, pioneered the combination of Chinese labour and foreign capital that turned southern China into the workshop of the world. Around the same time the Wenzhou model", named after the south-eastern port city, showed that household factories, often financed by family savings, could succeed, with the help of peripatetic sales agents travelling up and down the country.

Can the Hefei model also be exported? Several inland cities have similar starting conditions, such as good schools and strong industrial bases. Such places might be able to replicate some of Hefeis investment strategies, says Mr Xing.

But Hefeis success suggests that education, industry and geography are not enough. Political incentives must also align. Mr Xi frequently demands loyalty and austerity from his cadres. The Hefei model, on the other hand, requires gumption and daring. State capitalists must be prepared to take the kind of risky bets that do not always pay off. The model cannot succeed in other cities unless their local cadres are free to fail.

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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
NEW DELHI : With India set to experience one of the fastest growth rates in luxury goods consumption, several global luxury companies are introducing their latest and best collections in the country.

Richemont-owned watchmaker Panerai, for instance, has initiated an exclusive preview of its latest luxury watches in India this month to gauge buyer interest in the newest additions to its Radiomir and Luminor Due collections, some of which are priced as high as 50 lakh per piece. These watches were launched at the Watches and Wonders show in Geneva. The watches will now be showcased in major cities, including Delhi, ahead of the festive season in October. The company also plans to open two stores within this fiscal year, adding to its existing three.

Indias luxury consumption, currently estimated at 12,000 crore, surged during 2020 and 2021 due to the closure of international travel, forcing wealthy Indian to buy locally. The sector experienced a slowdown after travel curbs were lifted. However, with many wealthy consumers continuing to purchase luxury goods locally, the market is now showing signs of sustained demand.

While the initial demand spurt from the pandemic has cooled off somewhat, companies remain confident of the strong future of the business here, fuelled by demand from millennials.

Many companies are preparing for the upcoming festive shopping and wedding season by expanding their stores or bringing in new and exclusive collections. Indian companies are also reporting strong growth. Some categories like watches, branded jewellery, and ready-to-wear are continuing to grow at over 100%. Interestingly, we are noticing that men and women are now spending equally at our luxury malls," said Pushpa Bector, the head of luxury and shopping malls business and senior executive director at DLF Retail.

Emerging countries are poised to add as many as 70 million mid- and high-income consumers, driving demand for luxury goods. Within this, India is likely to gain 20%, adding about 35-40 million consumers by 2030 from its present about 15-20 million.

Bector said todays companies have understood the formula of tapping into the Indian buyers psyche by providing end-to-end personalized customer service. In the luxury malls of DLF, several high-ticket luxury brands are also expanding their store space and moving into larger format stores, denoting confidence, she said.

Among the businesses that have grown significantly is the one catering to the lucrative wedding market. Abhishek Agarwal, the founder of luxury fashion house Purple Style Labs, which operates Pernias Pop-Up Shop and Wendell Rodricks, estimates the countrys entire luxury industry at 10,000-12,000 crore. Of this, the wedding attire sector represents 7,000-8,000 crore, across approximately 1,000 designers.

Agarwals company has posted a revenue of about 375 crore in FY23 and expects revenue to grow 50% annually for the next 3-4 years on the back of store expansions in cities like New York, Dubai, Chennai, and Surat and a growing online presence.

Although there will never be another China" in terms of growth contribution to the luxury industry, new markets such as India and emerging Southeast Asian and African countries have significant potential, assuming their luxury shopping infrastructure can evolve quickly enough. Among the rising stars, India stands out as the luxury market could expand to 3.5 times todays size by 2030, Bain & Co. said in a 2022 report.

For many luxury brands, India remains a 2-3 store market with a concentration of stores in the major cities. Albeit small, many international businesses are still vying for customer attention in India rather than waiting for Indians to travel abroad and make purchases.

Several firms, like Panerai or LVMH, for instance, have brought both special India-only edition products and the latest collections from around the world, unlike, say, about a decade ago when that would not be the case. Aditya Birla-owned multi-brand outlet, The Collective, is also still seeing strong numbers.

Growth in the luxury vehicle segment has also been strong. For brands such as Lexus, India is one of the hottest marketplaces because of the rising number of wealthy people. Naveen Soni, the president of Lexus India, predicts that the Indian luxury car market is expected to reach a value of over $1.54 billion by 2027. The industry grew at a staggering 52% last year, and the company said it grew 76% in the same period.
Mountains of coal are piled beneath azure skies at the port of Newcastle, Australia. Giant shovels chip away at them, scooping the fuel onto conveyor belts, which whizz it to cargo ships that can be as long as three football pitches. The harbours terminals handle 200m tonnes of the stuff a year, making Newcastle the worlds biggest coal port. Throughput is roaring back after floods hurt supply last year. Aaron Johansen, who oversees ncig, the newest, uber-automated terminal, expects it to stay near all-time highs for at least seven years. Rich Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, are hungry for the premium coal that passes through the terminal. So, increasingly, are developing ones like Malaysia and Vietnam.

Halfway across the world the mood music is rather different. In recent weeks activists have made use of quotes from great writers, including Shakespeare (Dont shuffle off this mortal coil") and the Spice Girls (Stop right now"), to disrupt annual general meetings of European banks and energy firms, as part of a call for an end to coal extraction. A broader chorus worries that the fuel is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, making up more than 40% of energy-related carbon emissions in 2022. The un says output must fall by 11% a year to keep warming less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The International Energy Agency (iea), an official forecaster, argues against opening new mines and expanding existing ones. Climate wonks think that 80% of reserves must remain unburnt.

This is mainly meant to happen by starving the supply chain of funding. More than 200 of the worlds largest financiers, including 87 banks, have announced policies restricting investments in coal-mining or coal-fired power plants. Lenders representing 41% of global banking assets have signed up to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, pledging to align portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050. At the cop26 summit in 2021, the un predicted that this campaign would consign coal to history". As recently as 2020 the iea believed consumption had peaked a decade ago.

Yet King Coal looks brawnier than ever. In 2022 demand for it surpassed 8bn tonnes for the first time. This article will look at who is greasing the wheels of the once doomed trade. We find that the market is lively, well-funded and profitable. More striking still, the motley crew bankrolling it will probably allow trade to endure well into the 2030s, lining survivors pockets to the detriment of the planet.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

It is tempting to see 2022 as exceptional. Russia cut piped gas to Europe, and Europe banned coal imports from Russia. The bloc turned to liquefied natural gas (lng) destined for Asia and thermal coal from Colombia, South Africa and distant Australia. Meanwhile, Asian countries reliant on Russias premium coal also diversified. Prices for top grades jumped. Europes poorer neighbours, priced out of the gas market, gorged on lower-grade stuff.

Now the storm has abated. After a mild winter European utility firms retain good stocks of gas and coal. But as the need to power cooling units rises in the summer, coal imports will accelerate. Chinas economy has emerged from zero-covid; Indias is going gangbusters. Traders expect global use to grow by another 3-4% this year.

Coal is likely to remain sought-after beyond 2023. True, demand in Europe will fall as renewables ramp up. It is already low in America, where fracked gas is cheaper. Yet last years crunch has reminded Asias import-dependent countries that, when energy is scarce, coal can be a lifeline. It is cheaper and more abundant than other fuels, and once loaded on rudimentary ships can be sent anywhereunlike lng, which requires vessels and regasification terminals that take years to build. China is planning 270 gigawatts of new coal-fired plants by 2025, more than any country has installed today. India and much of South-East Asia are following a similar path.

Even with a speedy Western exit from coal, Boston Consulting Group thinks thermal coal demand will fall by just 10-18% between now and 2030. Much of the demand will be met by domestic production in China and India, the worlds biggest consumers. But imports will still be crucial. Investment banks do not expect traded volumes to drop below 900m tonnes, from 1bn last year, for much of the decade. One, Liberum Capital, thinks imports will rise over the next five years.

Back in black

Will the global coal market continue to meet stubborn demand? Our research suggests it will. That is because there will remain cash for three vital links in the supply chain: trading and shipping; more digging at existing mines; and new projects.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

Financing trade is the easy part. Modelling for The Economist by Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, suggests high prices, together with the longer journeys made by rerouted exports, buoyed the working-capital needs of coal traders in 2022 to $20bn, four times the historical average. Assuming average coal prices remain above $100 a tonne, as many analysts do, those needs will sit above $7bn until at least 2030.

Commodity merchants retain access to generous sources of liquidity to finance coal purchases. One is corporate borrowing, via multi-year bank loans or bonds, which gives firms a lump sum they can use however they want. Traders can also draw on short-term, revolving credit facilities, provided by clubs of banks. Many such lines have been expanded since the start of 2022their limits often reach several billion dollarsto help traders cope with volatile prices. Banks that impose restrictions, specifying the money should not be used to buy coal, face a high risk that traders decamp to lenient rivals. So few do.

Finance chiefs at trading firms say banks in countries where trading is bread-and-butter, including Singapores dbs and Switzerlands ubs, still finance coal purchases. Swiss cantonal lenders are happy to help. Banks in consuming countries, like China or Japan, also oblige, as does Britains Standard Chartered, which focuses on Asian business. (dbs and Standard Chartered both point out they are reducing their exposure to thermal coal.) Only European lendersparticularly French oneshave exited. They are being replaced by banks from producing countries, such as Australia, Indonesia and South Africa.

Smaller, pure-play" coal traders have faced a bigger squeeze. Banks, which never made much money from them anyway, can hardly claim to be unaware of how lent funds are put to use. Last year some traders were forced to borrow from private vehicles, often backed by wealthy individuals, at annual rates nearing 25%about five times standard costs. Yet after months of booming business many no longer need external financing. A banker says some of his coal-trading clients have seen profits grow ten-fold in 2022. One in London witnessed his total equity leap from 50m ($62m) in 2021 to 700m in 2023.

To then ship the stuff to buyers, traders often need a guarantee, provided by a reputable bank, that they will be paid on time. Ever fewer lenders are keen to provide such letters of credit", but there are ways around this, too. Some traders charge their clients more to cover counterparty risk. It helps that exposure is limited. At todays prices, a cargo of coal may be worth just $4m-5m. By contrast, an oil tanker may carry $200m-worth of crude. Others insert trusted intermediaries in the trade, or ask for bigger guarantees on other wares being bought by the client. Some governments in recipient countries provide the guarantee themselves, or even pay upfront.

Outside South Africa, where rail strikes have paralysed transport, there is plenty of infrastructure on land to move coal about. Soon there will be even more. Global Energy Monitor, a charity, reckons that India plans to more than double its coal terminals to 1,400 (today the planet counts 6,300). Seaborne logistics are more restricted: pressured by green shareholders, some shippers have started to shun coal. But smaller ones, often Chinese or Greek, have stepped in. Traders report no difficulties in insuring the cargo. Even sanctions-hit Russia is exporting most of its coal, using the same mix of obscure traders and seafarers, based in Hong Kong or the Gulf, that it employs to ship its oil to Asia.

Financing more digging at existing minesthe second link in the supply chainis no problem either. Last year coal production hit a record 8bn tonnes. It is not quite business as usual. Since 2018 many mining majors" (large, diversified groups listed on public markets) have sold some or all of their coal assets. Yet rather than being decommissioned, disposed assets have been picked up by private miners, emerging-market rivals and private-equity firms. New owners have no qualms about making full use of mines. In 2021 Anglo American, a London-based major, spun off its South African mines into a new firm that instantly pledged to crank up output.

Like traders, the miners have been printing money. Australias three biggest pure-play coal producers went from posting net debt of $1bn in 2021 to $6bn in net cash last year. They have repaid most of their long-term borrowing, so have no big deadlines to meet soon. The conversation has gone from How do I refinance my debt? to What do I do with my extra cash?," says a finance chief at one of them.

Coal miners can still borrow money when needed. Data compiled by Urgewald, a charity, shows they secured an aggregate $62bn in bank loans between 2019 and 2021. According to the outfits research, Japanese firms (smbc, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi) were the biggest lenders, followed by Bank of China and Americas jpMorgan Chase and Citigroup. European banks also featured in the top 15. During this period coal miners, mainly Chinese, also managed to sell $150bn worth of bonds and shares, often underwritten by Chinese banks. The liquidity is not drying out. Urgewald calculates that in 2022 60 large banks helped channel $13bn towards the worlds 30 largest coal producers.

This is possible because the coal-exclusion policies of financial firms are wildly inconsistent. Many do not kick in until 2025. Some cover only new clients. Others prohibit financing for projects, but not general corporate loans that miners may use to dig for coal. Policies that do restrict such lending often do so only for miners that derive lots of their revenue from coal, typically 25% or 50%. Many big firms, including Glencore, a Swiss commodities giant which produces 110m tonnes a year, fall below such thresholds.

Some policies are vaguely worded to allow for exemptions. Although Goldman Sachs, a bank, promises to stop financing thermal-coal mining companies that do not have a diversification strategy within a reasonable timeframe", it has reportedly continued to lend to Peabody, a huge Australian miner that derived 78% of its revenue from coal sales in 2022 (it may have helped that the firm recently launched a modest solar subsidiary). Out of 426 large banks, investors and insurers assessed by Reclaim Finance, another charity, only 26 were deemed to have a coal-exit policy consistent with a 2050 net-zero scenario. Even fewer have said they will exit completely. Most of Chinas and Indias state-owned banks have said nothing at all.

In short, few banks are ready to hurt their top line or their countrys supply. Analysts reckon that will help existing mines meet demand until the early 2030s. At this point, there may finally be a crunch. Western banks, many of which periodically revise their policies, will gradually tighten the screws. The paucity of new projects todaythe third link in the chainmeans there may not be enough fresh supply when old mines stop producing.

View Full Image (Graphic: The Economist)

Although finance for new projects is getting harder to attain, it is still available. As Western banks retreat, other players are coming to the fore. Capital expenditure by Western miners has been feeble for years. Having spent big in the 2000s, many suffered when prices crashed in the mid-2010s. Even though they are making hefty profits again, the majors prefer to buy rivals, reopen old mines or return capital to shareholders rather than launch new ventures. The investment drought is most severe in coal. Building a pit from scratch can take more than a decade. Years are spent obtaining permits, which in the West are increasingly refused.

Financing new projects in rich countries is a big hurdle. Last year Adani Group, an Indian firm that runs Carmichael, a vast coal mine being built in Queensland, had to refinance out of its own pocket $500m in bonds it had issued for the project. Some opportunistic pots of money will continue to target juicy profits, especially if prices rise. The first deep coal pit to be dug in Britain in decades is ultimately owned by EMR Capital, a private-equity firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Peter Ryan of Goba Capital, an investment firm in Miami, expects his companys coal assets to grow eight-fold by 2030.

Asian century

The picture in Asia is different. Banks remain on the scene. Investors are starting to back new mines at home. Family offices, set up to invest the fortunes of the rich, are interested. Any business dynasty in Indonesia, where mining is the backbone of the economy, has to have some coal in its holdings, says a trader who sources his wares there. In India obscure property firms are bidding for land that may be mined for coal. Eventually companies from the same countries may come to dig mines overseas, with banks following them. Chinese forays in the West will remain rare; Indian and Indonesian firms, which already own an archipelago of coal assets in Australia, are bound to increase their footprint.

The coal market of the 2030s will thus look very different. From ownership and operation to funding and consumption, coal will be a developing-market commodity," says a mining-major boss. Supply constraints will keep prices high, but the cast of exporters cashing in will shrink. Colombia and South Africa, which serve Europe, will no longer have a market. Russia will find it harder to flog cargoes to China. All three will export less coal for less money. Australia will appease critics by focusing on the most efficient coal; it may export less, but charge more. Indonesia could become the swing exporter, like Saudi Arabia is for oil today. It will sell more of its basic coaloften for more money.

Although coal is on a downward slope, its goodbye will be uncomfortably long. By the 2040s demand may crater for good as renewables ramp up. Yet even then some countries may keep their options open. More energy shocks will come. And when there is one, the commodity no one wants is the one we need to use again," says a big trader who serves Asia. That feature of coal could stay for ever."

For more coverage of climate change, sign up for The Climate Issue, our fortnightly subscriber-only newsletter, or visit our climate-change hub.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
The Indian stock markets have been on a tear in recent months, rewarding investors with outsized returns after a tumultuous 2022.

Most stocks have soared, with some even nearing their 52-week highs. But this rising stock market tide did not take lift all its boats. A handful of stocks are still trading at their 52-week lows.

Investing in a falling stock is akin to catching a falling knife that has burned many, with investment values plummeting further. Therefore, buying the dip demands careful consideration.

However, if executed wisely, it presents a wonderful opportunity to obtain quality stocks at discounted prices, especially in the small-cap space.

Investing in small-cap stocks can be a lot like searching for hidden gems in the market. These companies, often overlooked by mainstream investors, can hold significant growth potential.

Here are 5 smallcap stocks trading close to their 52-week lows. Are they worth your attention?

Let's find out

#1 Polyplex

At the top of our list, we have Polyplex.

Polyplex manufactures polyester films for packaging, electrical and other industrial applications. The company is an industry leader with a market share of about 25% in Thailand and Turkey, and around 10% in India, the US, and Indonesia.

The stock is trading at 1,225, close to its 52-week low of 1,110. It has been volatile throughout the year, swinging like a pendulum.

The first reason is the challenges the company has been facing despite a positive trend over the past few years. The combination of higher input costs, which are closely linked to crude oil prices, and a noticeable slowdown in demand due to weak market sentiment has significantly impacted profitability.

In its latest quarterly results, march ending 2023, Polyplex reported a 76% decline in net profit.

Despite these trying times, the management remains optimistic about achieving higher profitability in the future. They anticipate softening of raw material prices throughout the year.

While investors didnt mind the cyclical dip in profits, the news of the promoter stake sale didnt go down well with them. In May 2023, the promoters, who held a 50% stake in the business, decided to sell a 24% stake to AGP Holdco. AGP Holdco is a part of the Al Ghurairgroup, a diverse conglomerate.

The deal values Polyplex at 56 bn, a 40% premium to its current marketcap of 40 bn.

View Full Image EM

For the last five years, the companys sales and net profits have grown at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 16.2% and 16.7%, respectively. The Return on Equity (RoE) and Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) are at a respectable 5-year average of 22.1% and 21.6%, respectively.

It has a healthy track record of being generous to its investors with a 5-year average dividend payout of 36% and a dividend yield of 8.7%. The company has been investing in itself, expanding continuously and generating excess free cash flow for many years in a row and aims to continue at this rate.

While the company has debt on its books, the debt to equity is still reasonably low at 0.1x. The interest coverage ratio stands at 70x in the financial year 2023.

Next on our list is IG Petrochemicals.

IG Petrochemicals is Indias largest phthalic anhydride (PAN) manufacturer that enjoys a domestic market share of over 50%.

PAN is used as an intermediate to produce plasticisers, unsaturated polyester resins, and alkyd resins & polyols. The product finds application in consumer as well as non-consumer durable segments and is widely used for manufacturing paints, inks, coatings, boxes, containers, and packaging films.

At present, IG Petrochemicals stock is trading at 463, close to its 52-week low of 393.

The stock has been on a downward spiral for a year now, falling from 633 in September 2022 to 463 now. This poor performance is attributable to the weakness in the business, as reported by the company in the quarter ended September 2023 and the subsequent quarters.

The business has been suffering on the back of higher and volatile input costs (feedstock).

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Despite the marginally compressed profitability, the company continues to lead the market. Its leading position and growing demand for chemicals have expanded its business in the past five years.

Sales and profits have nearly doubled. The 5-year CAGR is 15.4% and 6.4%, respectively. The 5-year average RoCE and RoE stand tall at 23.5% and 18.9%, respectively.

The company is confident of sustaining the business momentum in fiscal 2024 and plans to enhance 20% of its total capacity via a brownfield expansion. The companys fundamentals are intact, with a well-capitalised balance sheet in tow, to support future growth opportunities.

#3 PDS

Third on our list is PDS.

PDS is a textile player. It specialises in the design, development, sourcing and supplying of apparel and accessories for various global fashion brands.

The stock is trading at 324, close to its 52-week low of 282. The stock has been very volatile in the past year, led by a patchy operating performance.

The Indian cotton textile industry has been plagued with price volatility and high absolute raw materials prices. These issues have dented the margins of textile companies. International price differences put Indian players at a competitive disadvantage, slowing down the demand offtake.

Geopolitical tensions, currency fluctuations, and delays in trade agreements added to the industry's woes. However, the new crop season brings hope as prices stabilise, potentially boosting margins.

However, the new crop season brings hope as prices stabilise, potentially boosting margins. While demand may remain buoyant in the near term, the industrys long-term prospects remain strong.

A growing disposable income, ever-changing fashion trends and China plus one strategy serve as major tailwinds for the industry. And PDS is well-poised to benefit from this.

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The company enjoys a strong and loyal customer base across the world. It supplies companies across the apparel value chain, from Primark and TESCO to Zara and Ralph Lauren.

One of the company's strengths is its low concentration risk, as its not heavily reliant on a few major players. The top 10 customers together contribute to less than 6% of the total revenues, ensuring a more stable and balanced revenue stream.

The business has reported an impressive growth trajectory. While sales have grown at a CAGR of 16.5% in the past five years, the net profit is up 15 times during the same period.

PDS's remarkable growth is attributable to expanding margins, which, in turn, have driven significant improvements in return ratios. The 5-year average RoCE and RoE are 19.6% and 26.2%.

#4 GMM Pfaudler

Fourth on our list is GMM Pfaudler.

GMM Pfaudler is a global leader in corrosion-resistant technologies, systems, and services. The company caters primarily to the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and energy industries.

The stock is trading at 1451, close to its 52-week low of 1,415. The stock has been moving within a narrow range, following the release of the quarter ending December 2023 results.

The results revealed that the business has been suffering, reporting a modest 1.5% quarter-on-quarter growth in revenues and a whopping 80% dip in net profit.

The fall in net profit was led by a one-time loss on restatement of foreign borrowings ( 180m) and by higher commodity and energy costs. Moreover, the company reported a higher interest cost and a slowdown in investments in both chemical and pharmaceutical, dampening profitability further.

Subsequent quarters also showed elevated operating and interest costs, contributing to the stock's rangebound performance.

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The business hasn't performed well in the near term but its past performance has been outstanding. While the revenue is up 7 times, the net profits are up 5 times over the last 5 years.

The 5-year average RoCE and RoE are also at a commendable level of 23% and 20.9%, respectively.

GMM Pfaudler is committed to expanding its business organically and inorganically, aiming for a 15% annual growth in revenue. The company boasts a healthy order book and expects a bump in revenue and net profit over the new few quarters.

#5 VIP Industries

Last on our list is VIP Industries.

VIP Industries is a leading manufacturer and supplier of luggage, backpacks and handbags in the world. The company operates through 10 wholly owned manufacturing facilities in India & Bangladesh, contributing around 70% of the total revenue.

The stock is trading at 599, close to its 52-week low of 549. It has been on a downward trend since February 2023, falling 17% from 723.

The stock's underperformance is due to several factors, with one notable incident being a fire that occurred at one of the company's factories in Bangladesh.

Although the company had full insurance coverage, it still had to account for an exceptional loss of 472 m due to the fire incident.

Additionally, the company had to make provisions for doubtful debtors amounting to 120 m during the quarter ending March 2023. These one-time events impacted the company's performance. It reported a loss of 43 m, compared to a profit of 441 m in the December quarter.

While these are a one-time occurrence, investors are still not convinced. This explains the stocks underperformance.

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A cursory glance over the financials of the past 5 years tells us the company has a good track record of growth. Sales have grown at a CAGR of 8.1% and the net profit 3.7%. The RoCE and RoE have averaged 19.4% and 13.4%, respectively.

The management is confident of growing its business at more than 15% annually, over the next few years and aims to invest 2 bn to expand its own manufacturing capacities.

Conclusion

A stock trading at its 52-week high or low alone does not guarantee strong returns or vice versa.

Considering stocks just because they are rising or falling in value without a solid rationale can be dangerous.

There are several instances where stocks trading at their all-time highs have performed exceedingly well, multiplying in value and vice versa.

So, if you want to invest, a better approach is to dig deeper. Do your research.

Check to see if there are any long-term triggers to growth. Study and analyse the company's fundamentals and always look for a margin of safety before investing.

Happy investing!

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
A nominee of a bank accountsavings or fixed deposit is liable to receive proceeds from the said account on the demise of the account holder. This is as per the regulations of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Yet, not all banks implement this rule in true spirit and so nominees or legal heirs of account holders face numerous challenges during death claim processing. This is true of some large banks, where each of the branches are dependent on the rules followed by the zonal and regional offices in blatant violation of RBI guidelines.

At such branches, the officials concerned demand irrelevant documents, claiming that it is in accordance with instructions sent by the lenders legal department. Branch officials choose not to respond to emails or letters which quote RBI guidelines or even their own policies (as hosted on their website). With internal grievance cells lacking independence and effectiveness; a lukewarm support under Integrated Ombudsman Scheme 2021 seems to be more of a compliance requirement resulting in unnecessary harassment of account holders and their nominees.

Such was the case with Pawar, who did not want to disclose her first namewas the nominee of her sons savings bank account with a private sector bank (at Sri Ganganagar). After her sons death, the bank refused to accept her claim application, citing that the nominee should obtain no objection certificates from two companies her son was an authorized signatory at one the companies and a partner at the other. Both these entities also had current accounts with the same branch of the bank and were debt free. When her claim was rejected, Pawar, a retired banker, threw the rule book at them on the relevance of nomination and immunity from the two accounts owned by independent entities. The branch manager, however, refused to get into a dialogue, while the zonal and regional heads refused to meet the nominee or accept representation letters. Her claim is pending for more than six months now.

In another case, Limawho too did not want to disclose her full namewas the nominee of her mothers savings bank account and some fixed deposits with a leading public sector bank. Her mother suffered a cardiac arrest and died when she came to visit her in the US in 2021. Her certificate of death was issued by the department of health and mental hygiene city of New York. Lima visited India in February this year and submitted a death claim. The savings account had periodic ECS transactions and was operative. The bank refused to accept the claim and demanded that the death certificate be adjudicated in the US and then notarized. This stipulation, as per the banks own website, is applicable only to non-residential external (NRE) or non- resident ordinary (NRO) account holders who die overseas.

Accordingly, Lima then submitted the death certificate, which, too, was refused by the bank in violation of the model operational procedure (MOP) adopted by its board of directors, and against the model customer rights policy formulated by Indian Banking Association (IBA). The banks customer service remained a mute spectator and its legal department opted not to reply to any letters or submissions. A plea to the chairman and independent board members stating that a resident account owned by a resident Indian cannot be subject to rules applicable to non-resident accounts did not heed any response. The bank also did not acknowledge a copy of return of income filed by Limas legal representative on the earnings and a copy of income tax returns of the deceased in India. Sadly, the bank followed its own interpretation of deciding the residential status of a deceased account holder and not as per Fema or income tax Act.

Lima also faced a similar problem with another public sector bank. Here though, her mother had two separate accounts in two different branches of this bank. While one branch accepted the death certificate (duly notarized in India) and processed the claim, another branch (located barely 2km away) initially refused to accept the certificate. When questioned about the differential treatment at two different branches of the same bank, the lender quietly settled the claim.

Many banks, in utter disregard of RBI notifications, continue to harass nominees and legal heirs and try to deprive them of what is rightfully theirs. The regulatory regime lacks adequate mechanism to prevent such occurrences, perhaps due to lack of accountability and levy of penalties.

Rajat Dutta is founder & initiator, Inheritance Needs Services Pvt. Ltd
Singapore, known for its towering architectural marvels and delectable gastronomy, is also celebrated for the heart-warming tale of the Bishan Otter Family. On Monday, a hand-crafted Google Doodle commemorates this extraordinary otter clan. On this day in 2016, Singaporeans cast their votes in a poll conducted by The Straits Times, selecting the otters to represent the nation on its 51st birthday.

This story began in 2014 when a rare sighting of five otters occurred at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, situated within the bustling urban environment of Singapore. Classified as critically endangered in the country, the otters faced challenges, including a confrontation with another otter group. However, they eventually found their way to Marina Bay, where they established their new home.

Since then, locals and tourists alike have flocked to witness the captivating daily routines of the ten-member Bishan Otter Family. Their typical day includes catching fish and basking on the shores. Following dinner, the otters indulge in playful water activities before rolling around in the sand. These endearing creatures have transformed into a symbol of the country's dedication to environmental conservation and a symbol of Singapore.

Also read: Google Doodle honours Altina Tina Schinasi; American artist, designer known for cat-eye frames

In 2016, the Bishan Otter Family gained international fame when English broadcaster Sir David Attenborough based a documentary on their lives. Their presence also paved the way for other otter families to emerge across Singapore, further igniting fascination among global researchers.

Also read: Google Doodle celebrates 109th birth anniversary of trangender cyclist Willy De Bruyn

Many credit Singapore's commendable efforts in reforestation and anti-pollution measures for the remarkable resurgence of these creatures within the country. The ability of the Bishan Otter Family to thrive amidst urban development has become a subject of immense interest for wildlife conservationists worldwide.
Keeping in view the introduction of important bills this week, including no-confidence motion, the Bhartiya Janata Party issued a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the House from August 7 to August 11.

The debate on the no-confidence motion against the BJP-led government is likely to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, ie August 8 and 9 in the Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to give a reply on August 10.

The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition parties belonging to I.N.D.I.A was accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last week.

No-confidence motion

The weeks of protest by the opposition for a detailed discussion on violence in Manipur yielded no results on ground. That's why the opposition had given notice for the no-confidence motion. The opposition is demanding detailed discussion on Manipur issue, and a statement from the Prime Minister.

On July 26, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi gave the notice for no-confidence motion on behalf of the 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.

On the no-confidence motion, the government has said that it is ready for debate on the no-confidence motion. It is worth noting that the monsoon session will conclude on August 11.
Indian army gunned down a terrorist along the line of Line of Control (LoC) as it foiled an infiltration attempt made across the border in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district. The Indian Army say that while the terrorist was killed during a gunfight his body is yet to be retrieved from the scene.

Two individuals were observed moving across LoC in the general area Degwar Terva. In the ensuing firefight, one terrorist was seen dropping while the second moved towards Pintu Nala," Jammu-based Public Relations Officer (Defence) Lt Col Suneel Bartwal told PTI.

Officials said that the alert Indian troops in Degwar sector noticed some terrorists trying to sneak in from the other side under the cover of darkness and subsequently engaged them in an encounter. An army ambush party established contact with the terrorists in the Garhi battalion area at around 2 am, said Lt Col Suneel Bartwal.

Meanwhile, officials added that the whole area has been cordoned off and a search operation is underway.

In a similar incident on Sunday, Indian Army and Kupwara police foiled an infiltration attempt Tangdhar Sector on Sunday. A terrorist was also killed while trying to infiltrate across LoC in Amrohi area of Tanghdhar sector.

Indian Army and Kupwara Police had launched a joint cordon and search operation in the Dakhen-Amrohi area based on information about possible infiltration attempts. A Kupwara Police spokesperson while speaking to PTI said, "During the search operation, movement of terrorists, trying to infiltrate to our side, was observed. They were challenged by the joint party in which one terrorist was neutralized,"

Kashmir Zone Police also informed about the incident via a tweet on Sunday, saying, "Army and Kupwara police in a joint operation foiled an infilitration bid by neutralising a terrorist on LoC in Amrohi area of Tangdhar Sector. Incriminating materials, arms and ammunition recovered,"

(With inputs from PTI)
Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife, Spandana, died of heart attack on Monday. The 45-year-old suffered a heart attack at a hospital in Bangkok, according to media reports.

As per the reports, Spandana was on a vacation with her cousins in Thailand. The main reason behind the heart attack was mentioned to be low blood pressure. The body of the actor's wife will reportedly arrive in Bangalore tomorrow. After the arrival of the body, other formalities and rituals will be conducted.

Spandana is the daughter of retired police officer B K Shivaram and niece of Congress MLC B K Hariprasad. She had acted in a movie Apoorva, making a guest appearance.

Spandana married Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra in the year 2007.

The death of the the actor's wife was confirmed by Raghavendra's brother Sri Murali on Monday. He said that she was on a vacation with family and slept as usual. But she did not wake up. He said that Raghavendra is in Bangkok and the family in India is waiting for further updates.

"Last night she went to sleep and did not get up in the morning. We believe it (death) is due to (complications arising from) low blood pressure," Sri Murali told reporters here, quoting his brother Raghavendra who called him up from Bangkok.

According to people familiar with the development in the industry, Spandana was about to return to India on Monday and was scheduled to participate in a movie promotion, reported IE.

Soon after the news of tragic demise of the Spandana, Congress MLC B K Hariprasad visited the family in Bengaluru on Monday. The post-mortem report of the body is awaited.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and several others expressed shock over her death and offered condolences.

Notably, Vijay Raghavendra is a cousin of late Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar, who also died of a heart attack, age 46.
Days after the Delhi Services Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minster Amit Shah on 7 August is set to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha.

Amid this, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has issued a three-line whip for all its Rajya Sabha MPs to be present in the House on 7 and 8 August. "All members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the house from 11 am onwards until adjournment of the House from 7th August to 8th August, 2023, without fail and support the party stand. This may be treated as MOST IMPORTANT," it read.

In Rajya Sabha, there are a total of 245 seats out of which 8 seats are currently vacant. With this, the total number of the seats now stand at 237 and the majority mark to pass the Bill in Rajya Sabha will be 119. On the other hand, the combined strength of all the parties who have extended support to AAP, including the Congress, is 105.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks to replace the ordinance brought by the Centre in May which excluded services from the legislative competence of the Delhi legislative assembly. The Delhi ordinance was promulgated by the central government a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government, headed by CM Arvind Kejriwal.

The Bill empowers the Central Government to make rules in connection with the affairs of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi including the functions, terms and other conditions of service of officers and employees.

YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has extended their support. "I.N.D.I.A has a clear stand on this bill, we are against it," said Congress leader Pramod Tiwari.

Earlier on 3 August, The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the Lok Sabha after a walkout by members of the I.N.D.IA Alliance. However, the Opposition bloc- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has cleared it stand to oppose the Bill in the Upper House.

Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking the support of opposition parties against the Bill, especially in the Rajya Sabha.

On Monday, Floor leaders of the newly formed Opposition alliance the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) will meet at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament on Monday to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House. The meeting of the floor leaders will be held at 10 am on Monday.

(With inputs from ANI)
New Delhi: The winding course of the new expressway between Bengaluru and Mysuru, 119km long, has 11 overpasses, 64 underpasses, five bypasses and 42 small bridges. It took five years to build and cost 8,480 crore.

When it was inaugurated on 12 March, a lot of the social media chatter was about its scale and impactit cut down travel time between the two cities to just 75 minutes, from over three hours earlier.

A couple of months later, the buzz on social media changed coursethose using the highway grew increasingly critical.

From 1 June, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the central authority that develops, maintains and manages the national highways, quietly revised the toll rates. A one-way journey by car on the expressway was revised to 165 from 135 earlier; the return journey to 250 from 205 earlier. Thats a hike of 22%, much higher than the annual 7% toll fee hike that NHAI had implemented in expressways across the country in 2023.

View Full Image Graphic: Mint

Two months later, on 1 August, the toll rates went up again as a second toll plaza was made operational at Maddur, a town 60km from Mysuru. For a one-way journey, commuters now pay 320; the return journey costs 485. At 2.69 per km, the expressway is now one of the most expensive stretches in the country.

We pay road cess, besides all the other taxes that the government collects. Then they build a highway and charge high toll rates which keeps going up every year," said Anand Iyer who uses the expressway daily. He works in the industrial belt of Bidadi, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Behind the need for NHAI to raise toll for the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway or any other road in the country, is a simple factits burgeoning debt. In the last eight years, the organization has built more roads than ever and single-handedly shouldered the burden of meeting the governments gigantic targets of constructing highways. But in doing so, it has borrowed money from the market and ran up a substantial debt profile. Between 2014 and 2023, its debt has rocketed from just 23,797 crore to 3.43 trillion.

Concerned with its debt overhang, the government has now forbidden NHAI from borrowing from the market. Instead, it is being encouraged to monetize its assets and become self-sufficient. But in a market where response from investors to long gestation projects like highways is often lukewarm, will NHAI find a way to be successful?

The debt pile-up

NHAIs debt is so long term in nature that it would only be cleared by 2049-50. But beyond 2029, the pressure would start to ease offprovided it does not borrow more in the interim. The next few years will be critical.

Based on what the agency has borrowed so far, NHAIs payment obligations will balloon over the course of this decade. By 2050, with the interest accounted for, NHAI needs to pay over 6 trillion to clear its dues. From 33,342 crore in 2023-24, its repayment liability will peak at 62,000 crore in 2028-29.

The debt overhang is a result of the increased pace of highway construction that NHAI has undertaken in the last decade. After the lull between 2012 and 2015 when NHAIs highway construction declined to 1,500km a year, it has gradually picked up pace both in awarding new projects and in execution. In 2022-23, a record 4,882km of highways were built.

Nobody should grudge the debt that NHAI is carrying because it is a result of the highways that have been built over the last few years and the debt is backed by solid assets," said Vinayak Chatterjee, founder and managing trustee of the Infravision Foundation, an independent think tank with expertise in infrastructure-related sectors. Chatterjee was earlier the chairman of Feedback Infra, an infrastructure services company.

Is the large debt a worry? I would say no. The assets are all revenue yielding but the time has come to squeeze the lemon and monetize them to restrict and reduce the debt," he added.

NHAI relies on government funding for large projects but a gap has opened up between the budgetary support and NHAIs expenses since 2018-19. This suggests that costs have gone up higher than expected. This isnt surprising as both the cost of land acquisition and that of constructing projects have increased on account of higher prices of raw materials like steel, cement and fuel. The gap is, however, an indication that while it can count on the government to fund ongoing and future projects, it will need to find ways to repay the debt through asset monetization.

The government has restricted NHAI to raise funds through market borrowings since 2022-23 and has provided additional budgetary outlay to bridge the funding gap. Thus, reduction in debt servicing has already started and there shall be no further increase in the debt at least till 31 March 2024," said Vinay Kumar G, vice president and sector head corporate ratings, ICRA Ltd. Nevertheless, NHAI will remain dependent on budgetary allocations and fuel cess for keeping its financial profile intact," he added.

Monetization plan

So how does NHAI intend to raise the amount needed to pay its debt? Its big bang monetization plan rests on three pillarsthe toll-operate-transfer (TOT) model; the infrastructure investment trusts (Invit) bonds; and toll securitization.

Under the TOT model, stretches of operational highways are auctioned in bundles to private players for a specified time and NHAI gets a lump sum for it. So far, it has managed to raise over 26,000 crore through 11 bundlesover 10,000 crore have been generated in the last fiscal alone. But the success of this model is patchy and auctions have had to be cancelled in some cases due to NHAIs aggressive traffic projections.

The agency has also raised over 10,000 crore through Invit in the last two fiscals. Invit are instruments on the pattern of mutual funds, designed to pool money from investors and invest in assets that will provide cash flows over a period of time. Investors, in turn, earn a small portion of income in return.

Launched in November 2021, NHAI Invit had raised 7,350 crore in its maiden round, with an initial portfolio of five operating toll roads aggregating 390km. In 2022-23, three additional road stretches were transferred and the portfolio grew to eight operating toll roads aggregating 636km.

This model has been reasonably successful and has attracted investors as diverse as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board, State Bank of India, SBI Pension Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, IOCL Employee Provident Fund, L&T Staff Provident Fund, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Karamchari Pension Fund, TATA AIG and Star Union Daiichi Life Insurance.

NHAI also uses toll securitization where it gets an upfront payment for highways that are under construction while the investor/lender gets the money back through toll revenue generated in future.

This has garnered the maximum capital in the last three years at nearly 34,000 crore. For the current fiscal, NHAI is targeting to raise 45,000 crore split equally between the three monetization models.

The road sector offers the best investment opportunity in India because unlike other sectors, the overheads are less and the only big hindrance is land acquisition. Once that is done and the road is constructed, toll revenue is generated automatically," said B M Rao, chief general manager (finance), NHAI. Also, unlike other industries where raising the price of a product is dependent on market forces, here, toll rates are raised every year as per a prescribed formula. Many investors are interested because they see high potential in this sector," he added.

NHAIs revenues from toll have indeed gone up in the last five years (see chart) with the addition of new expressways like the Bengaluru-Mysuru and the Delhi-Meerut expressways. In the next few years, it will also get a shot in the arm as a number of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects, dating back to 2000-2010, will return to NHAIs fold. In these projects, private contractors build, operate and collect toll from the highways for a specified period, typically 15-20 years. There are around 150 such projects in the country.

These are all high traffic and toll bearing roadslike some sections of the Golden Quadrilateral (which connects the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai). So, the revenue from them is high," Rao said. Every year, two-three such projects would come back to our fold."

The success of the monetization plan, however, rests on a number of factors. In the past, quite a few TOT bundles found no takers as the traffic projection by NHAI was seen to be too optimistic. Any delay in project completion or cost over-runnot uncommon in large infrastructure projectsalso upsets the math.

Although the private sector participation in the TOT bids is satisfactory, there are recurring instances of disconnect in valuation between NHAI and private sector bids. Five TOT bundles were cancelled by NHAI as the bid value was lower than its estimates," said Vinay Kumar of ICRA.

The toll on building

The impact of NHAIs shift in focusfrom awarding new projects to executing the ones already underway and monetizing themcould be on the pace of highway construction.

The rate of projects awarded in a year has already begun to flag (see chart). Analysts believe that this is likely to exacerbate this year due to the impending elections when new projects generally cool off. If a smaller number of projects are awarded today, there will be fewer projects to execute, going ahead. The pace of construction will begin to taper.

As per Icra Research, the award of road and highway sector projects is expected to decline by a sharp 25% in 2023-24. It estimates that only around 9,000km of highways may be awarded during the year, as against over 12,000km awarded in 2022-23.

The pace of highway development in the country depends on the government. They decide how many kilometres of highway need to be constructed in a year and make budgetary provisions accordingly," said Rao of NHAI.

Private matters

The private sector can help NHAI reduce the risk but many private companies have lost interest in building highways. Between 2000 and 2013, the BOT model was the preferred mode. But soon, disputes cropped up due to land acquisition hassles, delays and cost overruns.

Ever since, NHAI has taken all the risk associated with building highways, either through the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode, where it pays full amount to private developers, or the hybrid annuity model (HAM), which is a mix of EPC and BOT.

Under HAM, NHAI releases 40% of the project cost and the developer brings in the rest. In both EPC and HAM models, the financial risk and the responsibility of toll collection is with NHAI.

The government is now making efforts to revive BOT projects by offering more flexibility and relaxed terms to the private sector but it is still not certain if they will bite the bullet. Estimating future revenue from a new patch of highway remains a lottery.

In the medium to long term, there are two trends one should be wary of. The governments focus on sustainability means that some of the freight will move to railways in the future. So, that is loss of potential business," said P Pranavant, partner, Deloitte India. Second, state governments are also making good roads that compete with national highways and can snatch away traffic. It could potentially stunt growth in toll revenue," he warned.
Parliament session: After the Supreme Court has stayed Rahul Gandhi 's conviction, it is expected that the Congress leader will return to the Parliament today. On Friday, the top court, in an interim order stayed Gandhi's conviction in the criminal defamation case of the use of the 'Modi' surname. The Congress leader made the alleged remark at a campaign event in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections .

The ruling came after petition was filed by Rahul challenging his conviction and sentencing by a trial court in Surat in the criminal defamation case.

Officials from the Lok Sabha has told Hindustan Times that the authenticated copy of the Supreme Court ruling will be reviewed after which an appropriate action will be taken on this. After the order is studied, the process usually takes less than 30 minutes. The proforma for such notifications are readily available with the secretariat," the official said as quoted by HT.

The spotlight also remains on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla whose signature will confirm Rahul Gandhis reinstatement. Earlier, Sources told NDTV that they will go to court if theres a delay in the reinstatement of Rahul Gandhi to the Lok Sabha. If Rahul Gandhi's membership is not restored by today evening, Congress Party is likely to move to the Supreme Court on 8 August, Sources said as reported by ANI.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also spoke on restoration of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership. He said, "We've given all the documents including order copy. We will meet Lok Sabha Speaker today and if needed we will protest as well. It is our right..."

The stay order qualifies to reinstate Rahul Gandhi's status as the Member of the Parliament as an MP of Wayanad. The procedure for the same has not yet taken place. 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.

Moreover, the Congress is also set to held a meeting of its Lok Sabha MPs at 10:30 am today wherein the party is likely to bring up its demand for Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Parliamentary representative following SC's order.

Jairam Ramesh also took to his social media handhle and compared that in how much time it took the authorities to disqualify Rahul Gandhi as an MP and yet in the same amount of time, the Congress leader has not been reinstated yet. "26 hours after @RahulGandhi was "convicted" by the Sessions Court in Surat, the notification of his disqualification as MP was issued. 26 hours have passed since the Supreme Court stayed his wholly unjustified conviction. Why hasnt his position as MP been restored yet?" Ramesh wrote.

Earlier on 7 August, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin spoke up for the return of Gandhi in the Parliament and also questioned as to why his membership of the Lok Sabha hasn't been restored as yet. In a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Stalin wrote, "Why hasn't Thiru @RahulGandhi been restored as an MP despite the Supreme Court staying his conviction? Why the urgency shown to disqualify him is missing now? Is the BJP afraid of brother #RahulGandhi's presence in Parliament?
Canada Student visa fraud: The Canadian Border Service Agency have currently narrowed down their suspect list of fraud cases where students entered the country taking unfair advantage of the system to 300, sharply bringing it down from 2,000 cases as were reported earlier.

On 23 June, Reuters had reported that Canadian authorities had taken into custody, one Brijesg Mishra, an immigration agent from Jalandhar. On 24 July, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has laid charges against Brijesh Mishra for his involvement in defrauding 700 Indian students.

Indian students in Canada were facing mass deportation after the frauds came to limelight. Several students along with India's foreign ministry had requested Canadian authorities to reconsider deporting the students and re-evaluate their credibility and eligibility for studying in Canada.

The Canadian authorities agreed to not deport the Indian students who were defrauded by several immigration agencies.

A Times of India report cited a letter from Canadian public safety minister Marco E L Mendicino, for the latest update on number of students who might still face the axe of Canadian authorities. The report said that some students had written to the minister on 8 June concerned about their visa status in Canada, following which the minister updated on the numbers.

"In 2018, CBSA was investigating organised crime groups and became aware of issues with students not attending school and becoming involved in criminality and gangs. This led to new lines of enquiry which ultimately, based on tips received from the public in 2020, led us to identify over 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents may have been used to obtain a student visa. In collaboration with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), we reviewed those cases and we narrowed them down to approximately 300 cases of concern," the ToI report quoted the letter.

As per official data, there were more than 800,000 foreign students with active visas in Canada in 2022, including some 320,000 from India.

Earlier in 2023, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that several students from India had been served deportation papers for using forged documents to enter Canada in an alleged immigration scheme.

As per the report, the acceptance letters appeared to have been written by universities but the Canada Border Services Agency informed the students the documents were fake and warned them that they could face deportation.

"Our government is taking action against those who are responsible for fraud, while protecting those who've come here to pursue their studies," Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said in a statement.

In June, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced a freeze on the planned deportation of dozens of students who entered the country using fraudulent university letters.
A protest that spread like a wildfire after the death of Mhasa Amini under the custody of Iran's moral police, has now forced the Iranian government to resort to psychological treatment implement its Hijab rule.

The government is sending those women who refuse to cover their head for counselling in an effort to enforce mandatory hijab regulations. The misuse of psychological therapy drew flak from healthcare organisations. Many organisations have cited the action as evidence that the government is unable to uphold hijab rules, reported ANI quoting France 24.

Recent cases of punishment of women for defying Hijab

In a symbolic act of defiance, Iranian actress Afsaneh Bayegan repeatedly posted photos of her unveiled hair on instagram and recently attended a public ceremony without hijab.

The action irked the Iranian government, which has been searching for fresh means to impose the rule on women. According to the country's Fars News Agency, Bayegan, 61, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and told to go to a "psychological centre" once a week to "treat her anti-family personality disorder."

The sentence that [Bayegan] was given sets an example," explains Azadeh Kian, an Iran specialist and professor of political science at Universite Paris Cite. Bayegan was one of Irans first cinema stars after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and is a respected figure on Iranian television," France 24 reported.

Bayegans case is not an isolated one. Iranian judges recently diagnosed" Iranian actress Azadeh Samadi with an antisocial personality disorder" after she wore a hat instead of a hijab at a funeral. Samadi will also have to seek therapy weekly in a psychological centre".

Woman faces punishment of cleaning corpses in a morge for driving without hijab

In another case of extreme punishment, Tehran court sentenced a woman to spend a month cleaning corpses in morgue after she was caught driving without a hijab. The death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, resulted in several woman coming in public without their headscarf as a mark of protest against Iran's stringent laws.

From celebrities to athletes, several ladies have followed suit in solidarity. In another case of punishment by Tehran court a woman was sentenced to two months in prison and six months of psychological treatment for a contagious psychological disorder that leads to sexual promiscuity" because she didnt wear a hijab.

Drawing attention towards government's exploitation of psychological treatment for punishing woman, the presidents of four mental health organisations accused Iranian authorities of exploiting psychiatry" for other purposes.

Diagnosing mental health disorders is the responsibility of psychiatrists, not judges," they decried, according to France 24.

Iran government to impose harsher penalties on women protesting against hijab

What's more concerning is that the Iranian authorities are not even sparing children and young girls. Education Minister Youssef Nouri admitted that during the Mahsa Amini protest, school children were being detained in the streets or at school and held in medical psychological centres" where they were re-educated" to prevent anti-social" behaviour.

The government is trying all sorts of ways to stop women from moving out without hijabs. Women are being charged with hefty fined, sent text messages if spotted driving without a hijab. Authorities are also confiscating vehicles and even pressuring employers  including those in the private sector  to get women fired. Unveiled women have even been refused hospital treatment while shops catering to them have been forced to shut down, France 24 reported.

A bill presented to the Iranian parlaiment at the end of July hints that things are going to get worse for women in the coming days. The bill proposes even harsher penalties for women who refuse to wear a headscarf, reported ANI citing France 24. Experts cited the risk of loss of civil rights in such case. After the adoption of the bill, women can even be sentenced to death for their repeated act of protest against Hijab.
Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church is open to everyone, including the gay community, stating that it has a responsibility to accompany them on their spiritual journey while adhering to the framework of Church rules on August 6th.

Speaking to reporters on his return flight to Rome from Portugal, the Pope also reassured them of his good health after undergoing surgery for an abdominal hernia in June. He mentioned that his stitches had been removed but he would have to wear an abdominal band for a few more months until his muscles strengthened, Reuters reported.

During the press conference, a reporter questioned the apparent incoherence of the Church being open to "everyone, everyone, everyone" while not granting the same rights to certain groups, such as women and gay people, regarding sacraments. Pope Francis responded that the Church welcomes all but operates according to established laws. "The Church is open to everyone but there are laws that regulate life inside the church," Pope Francis said, as reported by Reuters. As per these laws, certain sacraments are not accessible to certain individuals. However, he emphasised that this doesn't imply exclusion, as each person can experience their connection with God within the Church in their own way.

Regarding the issue of women not being allowed to become priests through the sacrament of Holy Orders and the Church's stance on same-sex marriage, the Pope reiterated that while these are not permitted by Church law, the ministers must accompany all individuals, even those who do not conform to the rules, with the love and patience of a mother.

Also read: The Surprising Surge of Faith Among Young People

The Pope has been working towards making the Church more inclusive and accepting since the beginning of his papacy. He has supported civil legislation that grants rights to same-sex couples in areas like pensions, health insurance, and inheritance. While the Church teaches that same-sex attraction is not sinful, it considers same-sex acts as against its teachings.

During his visit to Portugal for the World Youth Day Catholic festival, Pope Francis emphasised that the Church is welcoming to everyone, "including those who make mistakes, who fall or struggle", leading the crowd in a chant of "Todos, todos, todos!" (Everyone, everyone, everyone!).

Also read: Pope Francis to spend 'few days' in hospital due to respiratory infection

While the Pope has initiated several reforms during his tenure, including providing more roles for women in high-ranking Vatican positions, he continues to balance appealing to liberal believers while respecting conservative beliefs within the Church. The World Youth Day Catholic festival in Portugal left him rejuvenated, with around 1.5 million attendees at his closing Mass on Sunday, despite the sweltering heat, and he praised the orderly nature and size of the crowds.

(With inputs from Reuters)
NEW DELHI : The number of countries where the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is live" is set to double in the next 12 to 18 months, said Ritesh Shukla, the chief executive officer of NPCI International, the firm running Indias flagship retail payment and settlement system.

European countries will be a key focus for greater collaboration and commercial partnerships, including Lyra, a French firm that will be an interoperability partner for UPI in France. In addition, India and the UAE, home to a large number of Indians, are working to operationalize cross-border remittances and personal payments. Shukla also confirmed a conversation with Saudi Arabia on a possible UPI collaboration, reported by Mint in June. Edited excerpts:

How do you think UPI has progressed in international markets?

There are two things we are doing overseas. There are many countries in the world which have similar problems we had before the advent of UPI. These are financial inclusion, supporting rural economies, fintech incubation, transparency and other things. We are looking at partnering with those countries to help them create their own versions of UPI in a very sovereign manner. And this outreach includes not only technology sharing but also sharing business know-how, which the way we operate this platform. So thats the first part which we also call infrastructure build. The second pillar of our strategy is connecting UPI in India with other such ecosystems to serve two use-cases. One is merchant paymentswhen your visitors, including tourists, businessmen or even students are going overseas, they should be able to have the option of using UPI-powered apps in different markets by scanning the QR codes. The second is remittances. We have about 30 million Indians who live outside India. They send about $100 billion every year. Today, this experiences is very, very fragmented, depending on which part of the world you live in. We are trying to see how we can standardize this whole user-experience.

Can we expect to see the linking between India and the UAEs cross-border payments system soon?

The cross-border remittances between UPI and the UAEs platform will be worked out because it has not even been two weeks since the MoU was announced. So well work on that. But having said that, you can use your RuPay card for making payments in the UAE and you can use your UPI powered app at over 26,000 merchants in the UAE and we are increasing this number. We are working on personal payments and cross border remittances.

What is the global ambition for UPI that NPCI has in mind?

The vision or the objectives that we are pursuing is to develop collaboration or help other countries create their own version of UPI. When something like the UPI comes in a developing country, the value that it creates is immense. And if we are able to achieve this in any country, its the digital public good of the world. So we are saying that why should you reinvent the wheel? We have something that we have developed in-house using open-source technologies, which means that your cost of operations would be very, very affordable. This creates a lot of value in the sense that it helps in better citizen welfare delivery, it helps in promoting micro economic trends in financial inclusion. It has displaced cash. Managing cash costs about 1.5-2% of the GDP. So, there is a lot of savings one can derive and if India can help any country be sold in that space, create and theres a lot of positive positioning that you can derive from it. We are pursuing that, but thats more of a slightly longish play. We are in discussions with a lot of countries in the developing world and in the years to come things will materialize.

We have identified countries where there is a lot of outbound flow and these are countries like UAE, where we have already created acceptance there. We have a lot of visitors going to Nepal, Bhutan and Singapore. There are countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka, where a lot of Indians go to these places.

By creating acceptance of UPI-powered apps in those markets, not only do the Indians who are travelling there get benefitted but also the businesses which are serving tourists get benefitted because UPI acceptance creates a new set of segments for them to attract. These are the things that were pursuing and of course, we are looking at creating real-time remittance corridors, but here again, we are very selective. There are reporting countries in terms of their hierarchy like UAE, Saudi and the US, and we are exploring partnerships with partners in these countries to be able to create ways that enable people living on the other side of the border to send money on a real-time basis.

How did our tie-up with France come about and are other EU countries looking at the model in any way?

In France, a company called Lyra is part of our interoperability strategy. What does that mean? That means that tomorrow, when technical integration happens, a tourist from India would be able to buy a ticket to the Eiffel Tower or to the Louvre Museum using their UPI- powered app.

So its part of our interoperability strategy to enable Indians with UPI powered apps to make merchant payments when they visit the city of Paris and other tourist destinations in France. Europe is a very, very important corridor for travellers from India. We are also in discussion with other companies in Europe and in times to come those partnerships will also materialize.UPI is currently live in countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore and UAE. We will be doubling in the next 12 to 18 months and we will have more countries that are relevant to Indian travellers in this area. Theres a lot of technical work thats going on

What do we expect to see going forward?

NPCI International is just a three year old organization and the other players took 60-70 years to be where they are. I think in the last three years we have created a decent footprint. We have a huge pipeline that we are working on and in next 12 months, we will add, we will double this number and you know, we are going to, you know, create for Indians a pathway for Indians when they go out outside India, and at the same time for Indians who reside outside India, and have a need to send money back home. Right now, UPI is live with Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore and UAE.
Have you ever waited patiently in a two-lane traffic jam and seen another vehicle overtake you to clog up the oncoming side as well? Or observed neighbours in colonies encroach on the space in front of their houses, well into the road? Or felt that although a WhatsApp group was started for a specific purpose (lets say, a school alumni group), a few have hijacked the agenda and monopolized narratives, ruining the groups cohesion, often driving some members away or causing the forum to splinter into sub-groups? If so, you have experienced a tragedy of commons, a phenomenon named and studied by biologist Garret Hardin.

This phenomenon is best understood with Hardins example of a village that has a common grazing ground where villagers let their cattle graze and agree to tend to the fields. If all the villagers keep their promise, the system is stable. Even if a few act truant and allow their cattle to over-graze or shirk their share of tending work, the system functions. But once a tipping point of sneaky behaviour is reached, the selfishness of a few results in environmental destruction that leaves everyone deprived.

Deforestation, pollution, water scarcity, overfishing, radioactive dumping, corporate politics and even parochial politics of tribalism over nationhood are all manifestations of this phenomenon, where a few break the rules and soon everyone else follows. Another aspect of human behaviour exacerbates such deterioration. We tend to stay in our comfort zones even while it becomes exceedingly uncomfortable. Those who alert others to the looming danger could find themselves persecuted for it, while the community ignores the red flags only because their comfort zones arent altered drasticallythe key word being drastically. But the tipping point changes everything.

In 1994, Surat, Gujarat was struck by the bubonic plague. Notwithstanding the deaths of about 60, it was the sheer disgust factor of a medieval epidemic amid a rising India that galvanized the relevant administrative departments into action and cleaned up the city. It became a case study. But the Surat plague was not a tsunami or an earthquake. The plague didnt strike overnight. It was the very same departments that allowed the situation to fester, with millions of rodents swarming putrid mounds of garbage dumps for years. It is not that civic groups had not complained about the health hazard and the menace of rodents before the plague. But it took that tipping point of national disgust to break the spiral of that tragedy of commons. However, it doesnt always take a major scare like a plague to clean up a city or a nuclear holocaust to sign an arms proliferation treaty. Increased awareness of an accepted malaise can alter mindsets over time.

Take, for example, the iconic role model Ian Fleming createdJames Bond. From the chain smoking, heavy drinking, womanizing cavalier bachelor of the 60s, Bond evolved into a non-smoking, sensitive and committed father. The current generation may find it hard to believe that there was a female character in a Bond film Goldfinger named Pussy Galore. The franchise of James Bond reflects what society accepts and what it is disgusted by. Angst can also accumulate over time and erupt like the #MeToo movement or the Arab Spring. At some point, enough people come to see the status quo as unacceptable and take on powerful multi-billion dollar corporate-political nexuses, compelling them to change course. The anti-tobacco movement is an example. From being a cool lifestyle statement till the early 2000s, tobacco consumption now faces censure and curbs, ranging from bans on smoking in public places and heavy taxation to graphic images on packets and the removal of deceptive terms like mild or light from cigarette branding to go with public awareness campaigns on the consequences of smoking. So much so that there are now investment portfolios that brand themselves as tobacco free, assuring investors that their wealth will never be invested in tobacco firms. All this shows that change is possible when a critical mass is achieved.

As a nation, we face many common tragedies. Climate change is literally lapping at our doorsteps, with unprecedented weather conditions causing floods and other forms of havoc, driving up prices of essential commodities. Economic indexes are alarming in terms of an uneven distribution of wealth and a chasm between youth aspirations and ground reality. The internal security situation is disturbing in multiple states. The next few months will be gripped by the cacophony of poll hustings, with tactical issues instead of strategically important ones likelier to be in focus. It all seems so overwhelming.

The irony of the tragedy of commons is that most people dont view their personal engagement or involvement as impactful to the whole. The general thinking is: What difference does one individuals contribution or dissent make? But, as seen in the overgrazing of grounds, pollution of the environment, deterioration of public discourse, debilitation of law-and-order and hijacking of WhatsApp groups, it all begins with a few individuals who break the rules and the many who choose to look away and condone it because it doesnt affect them drasticallyyet!

Raghu Raman is former CEO of the National Intelligence Grid, distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation and author of Everymans War.
On Monday, the Lok Sabha voted to pass the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had promised, when he withdrew the previous draft of the data protection law, that we would have a new law in force before the conclusion of Indias Monsoon Session of Parliament. Mondays vote was the first step in that direction.

While commentators have been falling over themselves to dissect various provisions of the draft lawand, in particular, the new changes it has introducedI dont think anyone has appreciated fully the extent to which businesses across the length and breadth of this country need to re-orient themselves to the new and fairly rigorous compliance regime that is about to come into force. This is a law that will apply to all businesses that process digital personal data in the country. Given how deeply data technologies have ingrained themselves in all facets of modern life, virtually every organization in India will be affected. All of them will have to revisit their data practices, study their workflows and review their standard operating procedures to make sure they align with the requirements of the new law.

Take the marketing function, for example. Most sales teams today acquire new customers by making cold calls to potential leads in an attempt to convert them into clients. They source these leads from data brokers who aggregate these databases through dubious meansoften without valid consent. Once the new law comes into force, nobody will be able to process personal information without the consent of those to whom it pertains. This means that, going forward, sales agents will be in violation of the law if they cannot demonstrate that the people they are calling have consented to being contacted. Even if they have such consent, they will need to make sure that their use of the personal data is in line with the express purposes for which it was permitted, and not, for instance, to upsell other unrelated services.

The new law makes it clear that wherever a question arises as to whether or not personal data was validly processed, it will be the responsibility of the Data Fiduciary (to whom data was entrusted) to demonstrate that it has the consent of the Data Principal (whose data it is) for processing it towards the purpose specified. This means that firms must adopt appropriate organizational and technological mechanisms to effectively respond to such questions if and when they are posed by an individual whose data they are processing. Few companies in India have such mechanisms in place.

For businesses that have international operations, many of these requirements will not be new. Data protection laws around the world have similar stipulations and chances are that they would have already put systems in place to ensure that their operations are legally compliant. But even these businesses will need to do additional work in order to bring their operations in line with the requirements of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill.

Take, for instance, its language requirement. Once the new law comes into force, Data Fiduciaries will need to ensure that every notice for data collection and every request for consent is made available not only in English but also in each of the languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. Even if a company already has in place a privacy policy that meets the laws requirements, it will have to create versions of this policy in all these different languages by the time the new provisions come to bear on its operations.

Another provision of the law is a stipulation that any agreement between a Data Fiduciary and a Data Principal that runs contrary to provisions of the law will be invalid to that extent. This means that if a company has specifically introduced language into its terms of service and privacy policies in order to (with the consent of the Data Principal) carry out a business process that is not strictly in line with the provisions of the new law, it will no longer be able to rely on those contractual terms. My advice to all business entities operating in India would be to review their terms of service from this perspective, and, since they can no longer make contracts that violate the law, make appropriate changes in the way their business functions in order to ensure compliance.

Perhaps the biggest change that companies will have to make is in relation to data retention. The new law requires Data Fiduciaries to erase personal data as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the specified purpose for which it was collected is no longer being served. It goes on to specify that this will be assumed to have taken place if the Data Principal has not approached the Data Fiduciary for the specified performance or has not exercised his or her rights for a specific period of time (which will be separately notified). In order to comply with this part, Data Fiduciaries will need to put in place a process by which they can record the last time each item of data under their control was used for a specified process, so that they can count down from then to determine when they must delete it. To the best of my knowledge, no company has such measures in place today, and I am struggling to understand how, given the vast amounts of data that they have under their control, they will engineer such a system in good time.

I have been eagerly awaiting the enactment of this law for over a decade. Now that it is upon us, I am beginning to realize how much work is left for everyone to adapt.

Rahul Matthan is a partner at Trilegal and also has a podcast by the name Ex Machina. His Twitter handle is @matthan
Computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP and Apple were taken by surprise last week when the government announced that importing electronic products such as small tablets, laptops, and all-in-one PCs into India will soon require a licence. A day later, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade gave importers until November 1 to obtain licences.

Suppliers expect shortages resulting from the inevitable demand-supply mismatches in the interim. The decision to give the companies time for adjustments suggests that the government announced the new import policy in a rush, without taking on board all considerations and the potential ramifications of its decision. This forced the government to reconsider its stance, as has now become routine for big policy pronouncements.

Predictably, the new policy has drawn sharp reactions on social media, with people likening it to the licence raj of the pre-liberalisation era. There have been scores of posts recalling the shortages, low quality, high costs and near absence of product variety during those days, and expressing the fear that they may return.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, sought to allay these concerns. He claimed in his tweets that the new import regime was not a return to licence raj, saying, The governments objective is to ensure trusted hardware and systems, reduce import dependence, and increase domestic manufacturing of this category of products." But this official stance hides the real intent of the new policy regime  to discourage disputes in multilateral forums such as the World Trade Organisation.

Without going into the merits and demerits of the new policy regime in delivering on its stated objectives, lets try to understand what the government could be thinking.

Indias dependence on imports, especially from China, is an undeniable fact. Around 90% of PCs sold in India are not made in the country. Market leaders such as HP, Dell, and Lenovo do manufacture in India, but their production relies heavily on components shipped in from other countries. The dependence on China in particular can be seen in the import data. In FY23, of the just under $9 billion in imports of the seven items that will now require licences, $5.1 billion, or a whopping 58%, came from China.

Naturally, New Delhi is worried about this dependence. The Chinese have turned increasingly aggressive  their transgressions since 2020 and the unresolved situation in eastern Ladakh have worsened bilateral relations.

The broader geopolitical game is messy, too. The US is bent on stalling Chinas technological rise and blocking the challenge to its status as the global superpower. China has also displayed increasing military aggression in its neighbourhood, including at the Line of Actual Control with India and in the South China Sea. One of the ways the US is tackling an assertive China is by erecting trade barriers and encouraging American companies to shift their global supply chains from China and to friendly countries  what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calls friendshoring.

The Biden administration's tech curbs on China encompass a ban on the export of high-end microprocessors and chips-making equipment, and even the hiring of employees there. In retaliation, China announced plans to curb exports of gallium and germanium, which are used in semiconductors, from this month.

Trade tensions between China and the US dont look like easing any time soon despite the Biden administrations overtures to Beijing, including visits to China by top US officials such as Yellen.

This has inescapable consequences for global trade. The world depends on China for many supplies, including strategic ones, but is desperate to reduce this dependence. This has thrown the global economic order into flux, and its not yet clear what the new equilibrium will look like.

Seen against this backdrop, Indias new licence requirements for laptop imports are in sync with the emerging global economic order  one in which large economies use trade restrictions in what has been dubbed the Tech Cold War. This marked a hiatus  if not a reversal  of the free-trade approach that accelerated globalisation and boosted global GDP growth by giving consumers access to cheaper and better-quality products.

Its not clear yet if that world will return any time soon. Most countries are now driven by the need to build strategic advantages to minimise their vulnerabilities, thanks to the chip shortages that followed the pandemic, and the disrupted food, fertiliser and fuel supplies that followed Russias invasion of Ukraine.

No economy wants to be heavily dependent on China, Russia or any other country. Most rich countries are spending considerable sums to build this self-reliance, especially in crucial technologies such as semiconductor manufacturing, which suggests there could be long-lasting changes in the way global trade is conducted.

Laptops are hardly a strategic industry, and the troubles with licensing are well-known. Corruption will run amok, prices and availability will become unpredictable, domestic industry will be under no pressure to serve consumer interests or become globally competitive and will continue to remain mediocre.

But still, India's proposition to large technology companies clearly seems to be this: You will be shifting supply chains away from China. Why go to Vietnam and Indonesia, where consumption markets are small? Make in India if you want to sell to Indians." Will global manufacturing giants bite? Well know in the next few months.
New Delhi: Indias youngest airline Akasa Air completes one year of operations today and is now getting ready to launch international flights as it now has 20 aircraft in its fleet.

According to the current regulatory framework, an airline needs to complete five years of operations or must have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly overseas. Mint takes a look at where is Akasa headed:

The journey so far

The idea of Akasa Air took birth during the year 2020 when industry veteran Vinay Dube approached stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Dube, who comes with experience across American Airlines, Sabre Inc., Delta Air Lines, Jet Airways and Go First, wanted to start a dependable and affordable airline in India. Simultaneously, Aditya Ghosh, former president of Indias largest airline IndiGo, also got on board and the airline received a no-objection certificate from the Indian civil aviation regulator in October 2021 to launch flights.

The airlines core team includes sector experts with aviation experience. The current team comprises executives from erstwhile Jet Airways such as co-founder and chief marketing and experience officer Belson Coutinho and co-founder, senior vice-president aircraft acquisition, financing and insurance Bhavin Joshi. In fact, co-founder and chief commercial officer Praveen Iyer has had stints at Jet Airways as well as Go First.

The team also includes ex-IndiGo executives such as Priya Mehra as chief legal, regulatory and strategic relations officer and Ankur Goel as chief financial officer. The core team also has Ritu Sinha as head of human resources whose last stint was at Vistara airline.

The team also has ex-Go First executives such as Anand Srinivasan as co-founder and chief information officer. Akasas team also includes Neelu Khatri, an ex-Indian Air Force Wing Commander as co-founder and senior vice president-head of operations with stints at KPMG and Honeywell, among others.

Akasa operations

Currently, the airlines fleet includes 20 aircraft with another 56 in the pipeline. The airline is the first in Asia to have added a 737-8-200 variant of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which can seat 200 passengers. The total orderbook includes 23 B737-8s and 53 B737-8-200 airplanes and the airline has chosen CFM-LEAP engines for the 76 Boeing aircraft.

Akasa has said that it plans to place a three-digit aircraft order by the end of 2023.

As of now, Akasa Air connects 16 destinations including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Goa, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Bagdogra, Kochi and Guwahati, Pune, Agartala, and Bhubaneswar.

Future flights

As per industry experts, Akasa Air is among the few airlines in India which has been able to maintain a consistent increase in its capacity since it commenced flights despite global supply chain issues impacting the aviation industry. In fact, it has surpassed SpiceJet to become the fifth largest airline in India after IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and AirAsia India with a 4.9% market share as per domestic air traffic data for June.

The airline is soon expected to tap the high-yield international segment and has eyes on Singapore, the Middle East and the Gulf region, including Dammam, Qatar and Oman, as possible destinations for the launch.

While Akasa suffered a setback within a week of its launch with the passing away of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Dube has maintained that the airline is a long-term investment for Rare Enterprises and the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala family.

"The Indian aviation market is seeing a steady growth with record number of flyers. The exit of Go First gives a wider platform to any airline which has capacity to put in. In the international segment, the government wants more Indian airlines to put in flights. Overall, Akasa seems to have the ingredients in place to create a space for itself and if it can maintain a strong funding pipeline, it can prove to be a strong competitor in the budget carriers segment," an industry expert said.
The Delhi ordinance bill is expected to comfortably pass the half-way mark in Rajya Sabha after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal assured the Centre that they will support the bill.

While the BJP-led NDA lacks a full majority in the Rajya Sabha, the backing of BJD, which has nine MPs in Rajya Sabha, and YSR Congress Party of Jagan Reddy, which has nine members in Rajya Sabha and 22 in Lok Sabha, ensure the bill can now easily attain the required support.

On Thursday, the Bill sailed through the Lower House of Parliament easily as the BJP-led NDA has the majority. The Bill was passed by voice vote.

Delhi services bill: Where does the numbers stand for NDA?

Rajya Sabha has a total of 245 members, and currently, 7 seats are vacant. So if all 238 existing members vote, the halfway mark would be 120.

The BJP-led government claims to have a solid backing of 127 members out of the existing 238, inching comfortably above the halfway mark of 120. This includes - 103 members of BJP and allies in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Sources close to the development also cited, the ruling party is also confident of the support of five nominated and one independent MPs.

Furthermore, the government has secured the support of regional parties like BJD and YSRCP.

Apart from this, a NDTV report said N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party and Mayawati's BSP, which have one MP each in the upper house, are also likely to support the bill.

Delhi ordinance bill: Who are likely to vote against the bill in the Parliament?

Around 109 MPs, including members from the 26-member opposition alliance INDIA and Independents are set to vote against the bill replacing the contentious Delhi services ordinance.

Of the 26 parties from the opposition grouping, at least 18 have a presence in Rajya Sabha and have 101 MPs collectively. Apart from that, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which has seven Rajya Sabha MPs, assured that they will vote against the bill.

(With inputs from agencies and NDTV)

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Congress party on Monday was in a mood of celebration after the Lok Sabha secretariat restored the membership of party leader Rahul Gandhi . Gandhi's membership as MP from Kerala's Wayanad constituency got restored during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament on Monday.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked.

Gandhi was disqualified from the lower house in March 2023 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

On Friday, the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the criminal defamation case of the use of the 'Modi' surname.

The Congress leader had challenged the trial court order at the Gujarat High Court, which upheld the ruling of the lower court.

However, the SC observed that 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.

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, Karnataka, on April 13, 2019.

Hailing the decision by the Lok Sabha secretariat, following the apex court's order, senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of Rahul Gandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!".
Rahul Gandhi is set to deliver a crucial speech during a Lok Sabha no-confidence motion debate on Tuesday, Congress MP Manickam said after senior party leader's Lok Sabha membership was restored.

"Rahul Gandhi went to Manipur on June 29, met the Governor, and conveyed the grievances of the people," Mr Tagore told NDTV. Meanwhile, the Congress said it would like him to be a key speaker in the debate on no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Adding to it, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel says, as quoted by ANI, "This is the victory of truth. People want to hear Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha..." Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi updates his Twitter bio, adds 'Member of Parliament' after reinstation of his Lok Sabha membership.

Rahul Gandhi is set to deliver a crucial speech during a Lok Sabha no-confidence motion debate on Tuesday, Congress MP Manickam said after senior party leader's Lok Sabha membership was restored.

"Rahul Gandhi went to Manipur on June 29, met the Governor, and conveyed the grievances of the people," Mr Tagore told NDTV.

Meanwhile, the Congress said it would like him to be a key speaker in the debate on no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Adding to it, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel says, as quoted by ANI, "This is the victory of truth. People want to hear Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha..."

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi updates his Twitter bio, adds 'Member of Parliament' after reinstation of his Lok Sabha membership.

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Rahul Gandhi returns to Parliament

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership was reinstated after the Supreme Court suspended his conviction in a defamation case. His disqualification, following a Gujarat court's conviction and a two-year jail term, was overturned four months after its enforcement.

Gandhi marked his return to Parliament by honoring Mahatma Gandhi's statue and briefly attending Lok Sabha proceedings that were soon adjourned. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification, citing the Supreme Court order for the restoration of his membership.

Gandhi's reappearance in Parliament was met with a warm welcome from Congress and opposition MPs, who celebrated the event as a triumph for truth and justice. Party workers danced and cheered at the AICC headquarters, signifying their enthusiasm. The significant turn of events followed the Supreme Court's intervention, placing a hold on his conviction.

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 24, with effect from March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.
Congress leader and MP from Wayanad, Kerala, Rahul Gandhi returned to the parliament on Monday 7 August after his disqualification was revoked following a Supreme Court order on 3 August staying the conviction in the Modi surname remark case.

Rahul Gandhi returned to the parliament four months after he had been disqualified within twenty six hours of a trial court in Surat, Gujarat, found him guilty.

Rahul Gandhi's return to the Lok Sabha seems opportune in boosting the profile of the Opposition INDIA bloc and the Congress party when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government has been slapped with a no-confidence motion regarding the Manipur violence.

As Rahul Gandhi resumes his stint as the political leader in the parliament, here's taking a look at the timeline that kept the Congress out of the Parliament for four months.

13 April 2019: At a rally in Karnataka's Kolar in April 2019, Rahul Gandhi, in an alleged dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?". The alleged comment had been made in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. (No brownie points in guessing the development in the case came just ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha Elections)

Following this Purnesh Modi, a former Minister in the Gujarat government, and a Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had filed a criminal defamation case in 2019 against Gandhi

23 March 2023: A trial court in Surat convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for the remark and gave him maximum punishment that included two years in prison and a disqualification as the Wayanad MP. He was also disqualified from contesting elections.

Later the Court approved Gandhis bail on a surety of 15,000 and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal.

24 March 2023: The day after Rahul Gandhi was convicted by the trial court in Surat, the Congress leader was disqualified from the Lok Sabha. A notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said he stood disqualified from the House from 23 March, the day of his conviction.

3 April 2023: Rahul Gandhi approached the Surat Sessions Court challenging his conviction and further seeking a stay on the Surat courts ruling.

20 April 2023: A local court in Surat dismissed the Congress leaders application to stay the conviction, and upheld the magistrates order in his conviction.

7 July 2023: Rahul Gandhi moved the Gujarat High Court against the Surat Court order, which in turn also declined to stay the conviction in the criminal defamation case in which he was sentenced to two years in jail by the Surat court.

21 July 2023: The Supreme Court issued notices to to the Gujarat government on a plea by the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order that refused to stay his conviction in a criminal defamation case

3 August 2023: 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.

7 August 2023: Rahul Gandhi returns to the parliament on Monday after a Supreme Court ruling makes him eligible to return to parliament, boosting the profile of his Congress party and its opposition allies ahead of a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

In the first working hours of Monday, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored following a Supreme Court order staying his conviction.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday returned to Lok Sabha after a period of over four months after he was disqualified with his membership of the Lower House restored in the wake of the Supreme Court staying his conviction in a defamation case.

Announcing the reinstatement of Gandhi as an MP, a Lok Sabha notification said in the wake of the SC order Friday, the disqualification has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements.

After Rahul Gandhi, was disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case, was asked to vacate the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow earlier in April this year.

The senior Congress leader said while talking to mediapersons then said, I have no problem even if it has been snatched away from me. This house was given to me by the people of India. I will stay with the former Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) at 10, Janpath for some time and then find some other way." Asked that he could have requested for more time to vacate the bungalow, Gandhi said, I do not want to stay in this house." The Congress said the government may evict" Gandhi from a house but he occupies a place in the hearts and homes of crores of Indians.

Now many leaders of the Congress party are demanding that Rahul Gandhi should be given back his bungalow which he vacated in April. The senior Congress leader is now residing with his mother Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath Road residence.

What Rules Say: Accommodation of Members of Parliament

According to the rules, a Member of Parliament is entitled to avail a bungalow without payment of charges to the supply of water upto 400kl per annum and electricity upto 50,000 units. The allotment of residence is made by the Accommodation Sub-Commitee of the House of Lok Sabha and Rahul Gandhi needs to apply to get a residence of his own after his Lok Sabha membership was reinstated earlier today.

His return as an MP comes as a boost to the opposition ranks ahead of the no-trust motion against the Modi government which is likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Gandhi is set to be one of the key speakers of the opposition bloc INDIA that would look to send a message to the people through the motion even as its outcome is a foregone conclusion with the numbers heavily stacked in favour of the ruling NDA.
A fiery exchange of words erupted in the political arena as Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent 'Quit India' remark aimed at the Opposition.

"Unfortunately, in our country, there is a section of the opposition who even today won't do anything themselves and won't allow others to do anything either. They are stuck with this attitude," PTI quoted PM Modi as saying earlier.

"Inspired by the Quit India Movement, the entire country is now roaring Quit India for every evil, saying 'corruption, quit India', 'dynasty, quit India', 'appeasement, quit India'," Modi added.

In response to the PM's accusation of "negative politics" by the opposition, Kharge declared it a "victory" that those who had seemingly forgotten the significance of the 'Quit India Movement' for 75 years are now invoking it. The Quit India Movement anniversary on August 9 served as the backdrop for the political squabble.

"Prime Minister Modi, For the last 10 years, you have only done negative politics of divisiveness. You are now uttering bitter words for INDIA as well."

"You have not been able to control Manipur violence in the last three months. Your divisive politics has pitted communities against each other, leading to a civil war-like situation. More than 150 people have been killed so far," Kharge said in a tweet in Hindi.

Kharge lashed out, accusing the prime minister of divisive politics and failing to address critical issues plaguing the country. He pointed to incidents of violence in Manipur over the past three months, calling out the government's inability to control the situation. The Congress leader further raised concerns over communal tensions in Haryana, blaming the ruling party for fomenting discord among communities.

Kharge didn't hold back, criticising the PM for allegedly overseeing a period of economic inequality, unemployment, and insecurity for women. He called for an end to these issues, expressing disappointment with the government's handling of problems and accusing PM Modi of focusing on self-aggrandizing inauguration events.

He also took a swipe at the prime minister's political predecessors, drawing attention to their historical opposition to the Quit India Movement and the tricolour. Nevertheless, Kharge's confident assertion that the opposition's actions have now brought the historic movement back into public consciousness was a statement of victory.

(With PTI inputs)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sounak Mukhopadhyay Sounak Mukhopadhyay, who also goes by the name Sounak Mukherjee, has been producing digital news since 2012. He's worked for the International Business Times, The Inquisitr, and Moneycontrol in the past. He's also contributed to Free Press Journal and TheRichest with feature articles. He covers news for a wide range of subjects including business, finance, economy, politics and social media. Before working with digital news publications, he worked as a freelance content writer. Read more from this author
LONDONLast summer, flying in Europe was a nightmare. This year, at least in terms of delays, its even worse.

Passengers traveling across the region have so far experienced more delayed flights this summer than a year ago, when the flying season was marred by long lines, lost baggage and regular cancellations as a rebound in demand overwhelmed airports.

This summer airlines and airports are wrestling with an array of challenges. A shortage of air-traffic controllers has impacted the number of flights that can be handled during the day. Wildfires in some of Europes top tourist destinations have prompted airlines to divert planes to repatriate vacationers. The war in Ukraine has closed off airspace previously used regularly, and workers, including cabin crew and pilots, are striking across the region.

More than a third of flights were delayed by 15 minutes or more between May 1 and Aug. 1 at Europes 50 biggest airports, according to data compiled by FlightAware, a flight-tracking service. That compares with a delay rate of about 29% in the same period last year and almost 24% in 2019.

This summer will be difficult," said Michael OLeary, chief executive of Ryanair, Europes biggest airline by passenger numbers, on a call with investors last month. Air-traffic control shortages and strikes have been particularly frustrating, he said.

The air-travel challenges in Europe come as more American tourists opt to visit the region this summer.

Among European airports, Lisbon topped the list with close to half of all flights recorded as delayed. Rounding out the top five most affected airports were London Gatwick, Athens, Nice in southern France and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Delays have worsened at several of the regions biggest hubs, including London Heathrow and Frankfurt Airport, which were among the worst hit by disruption last year. Punctuality has improved, though, at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

One silver lining in Europe this summer is fewer cancellations. In the May-to-August period, 0.9% of all flights were scrapped, compared with 1.4% in the same months last year, FlightAware data shows.

Flight delays at the 50 biggest U.S. airports also rose during the May-to-August period, though the increaseup to about 26% of all flights from around 24% last year, according to FlightAware dataisnt as steep as in Europe.

The causes of delays this summer are issues that are outside the remits of airport operators," said Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International Europe, a trade body. He added that airports had broadly succeeded in staffing up in areas they control, like security, in an effort to avoid a repeat of last years disruption.

Staffing was a major issue last summer, particularly in positions like baggage handling. After shedding workers during the pandemic, airlines and airports couldnt get them all back.

This year, the aviation industry has had more time to prepare but is much busier. The average number of daily flights across Europe has reached more than 27,000 this year, up 12% versus 2022, according to Eurocontrol, the continents air-traffic agency.

We have the resources that are necessary to fly, but the problem is that we are in a very tough environment," Luis Gallego, chief executive officer of British Airways parent IAG, said on a call with reporters in late June. Air-traffic control issues, strikes and war-related airspace disruption were among the challenges he cited.

The disruption has led to an increase in costs of about 140 million euros, or about $154 million, compared with last year, mostly to cover rebooking and compensation expenses, Gallego said.

Audrey Eager was flying with Aer LingusIAGs Irish carrierfrom Dublin Airport this month when her flight was delayed for two hours. Over the cabin intercom, her pilot attributed the holdup to weather and to air-traffic control delays, which went on long enough to require a change in crew. Her flight back from London Gatwick was also delayed two hours.

There were no announcements, no update on the screens, not even to say it was delayed," Eager said. Their app wasnt much better."

Some of the disruption has been out of the industrys hands. In Greece, operations have been disrupted by wildfires that have raged across two of the countrys most popular tourist destinationsRhodes and Corfu.

Airlines and tour operators have canceled flights to the country. They have also added repatriation flights to help evacuate thousands of stranded vacationers.

Elsewhere in recent weeks, firefighters battled a wildfire close to Nice International Airport, while Sicily temporarily shut down Palermos Falcone Borsellino Airport as flames reached its perimeter.

A shortage of air-traffic controllers, tasked with monitoring flights and processing landings and takeoffs, has reduced the number of flights that can be managed at certain times. Aircraft ready to depart have been left waiting on runways, while flights ready to land have been kept in holding patterns while they wait for a controller to come back from mandatory breaks.

Many of these workers left the industry during the pandemic, and authorities have struggled to recruit and train enough staff to properly manage airspace in places such as Germany, Greece and the U.K.

In France, air-traffic controllers have also repeatedly gone on strike, joining a wider wave of worker unrest over pay that has seen luggage handlers, security staff and cabin crew either stage walkouts or set dates for industrial action.

Discount carrier EasyJet earlier this month scrapped 1,700 flights, most scheduled to depart from Gatwick Airport, citing unprecedented air-traffic control delays." Gatwick itself has limited the number of flights operating at peak times to offset disruption, the airport said.

Exacerbating the situation is Russias war in Ukraine, which has led to congestion in the skies above Germany and the Balkans. Military flyovers close to the border of Ukraine have also periodically blocked out sections of the airspace.

Weve seen reduced airspace being available for commercial aviation, particularly in Eastern Europe," EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said on a recent call with reporters. A lot of the flights that previously were operating over Russian airspace, Ukraine airspace have moved."

Write to Nuha Dolby at nuha.dolby@wsj.com and Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com
The workplace features floor-to-ceiling windows and a cafe serving matcha tea, as well as free yoga and dance classes. Every month, workers gather at team-building sessions to drink beer, drive go-karts and go bowling.

This isnt Google. Its a garment factory in Vietnam.

Asia, the worlds factory floor and the source of much of the stuff Americans buy, is running into a big problem: Its young people, by and large, dont want to work in factories.

Thats why the garment factory is trying to make its manufacturing floor more enticing, and why alarm bells are ringing at Western companies that rely on the regions inexpensive labor to churn out affordable consumer goods.

The twilight of ultracheap Asian factory labor is emerging as the latest test of the globalized manufacturing model, which over the past three decades has delivered a vast array of inexpensively produced goods to consumers around the world. Americans accustomed to bargain-rate fashion and flat-screen TVs might soon be reckoning with higher prices.

Theres nowhere left on the planet thats going to be able to give you what you want," said Paul Norriss, the British co-founder of the Vietnam garment factory, UnAvailable, based in Ho Chi Minh City. People are going to have to change their consumer habits, and so are brands."

Workers in their 20sthe garment industrys traditional labor forceroutinely drop out of his companys training program, Norriss said. Those who stay often work for just a couple of years. Norriss hopes that dialing up the workplace cool quotient might make a difference.

Everybody wants to be an Instagrammer or a photographer or a stylist or work at a coffee shop," he said.

In response to the crisis, Asian factories have had to increase wages and adopt sometimes costly strategies to retain workers, from improving cafeteria fare to building kindergartens for workers children.

Toy and game maker Hasbro said this year that labor shortages in Vietnam and China had pushed up costs. Barbie-maker Mattel, which has a large production base in Asia, also is grappling with higher labor costs. Both companies have raised prices for their products. Nike, which makes most of its shoes in Asia, flagged in June that its product costs had gone up because of higher labor expenses.

For U.S. consumers that have been used to having goods at a certain and relatively stable part of their disposable income, I think that foundation is going to have to be rejiggered," said Manoj Pradhan, a London-based economist and co-author of The Great Demographic Reversal."

Starting in the 1990s, China and then other Asian manufacturing hubs integrated into the global economy, turning nations of poor farmers into manufacturing powerhouses. Durable goods such as refrigerators and sofas became less expensive.

Now those manufacturing nations are running up against a generational problem. Younger workers, better-educated than their parents and veterans of Instagram, TikTok and other social media, are deciding their work lives shouldnt unfold inside factory walls.

Demographic shifts are playing a role. Young people in Asia are having fewer children than their parents did, and at later ages, which means they are under less pressure to earn a steady income in their 20s. A booming services sector offers the option of less-grueling work as store clerks in malls and receptionists at hotels.

The problem is acute in China, where urban youth unemployment hit 21% in June even though factories had labor shortages. Multinational companies have been moving production from China to nations including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and India. Factory owners there said they, too, are struggling to get young people to sign up.

Factory wages in Vietnam have more than doubled since 2011, to $320 a monththree times the rate of increase in the U.S., according to data from the United Nations International Labor Organization. In China, factory wages rose 122% from 2012 to 2021, the latest period for which the U.N. data is available.

Earlier this year, Nguyen Anh Tuan, a 25-year-old Vietnamese high-school graduate, quit his job as a mechanic at a suburban Hanoi car-parts factory to work as a motorbike driver for Grab, the local Uber equivalent. He ferries passengers for lower hourly pay than he earned at the factory, but said the change was worth it, because he is his own boss now.

My supervisors often made very unpleasant remarks, which stressed me out," Tuan said of his three years at the factory. Factory work would tempt him again only if his old monthly salary of $400 doubled, he said.

In the past, manufacturers might simply have moved to less expensive destinations. Thats not so easy these days. There are nations in Africa and South Asia with large labor pools, but many are politically unstable, or lack good infrastructure and trained workforces.

Clothing brands were stung when they expanded into Myanmar and Ethiopia, only to find operations disrupted by unrest and civil war. Bangladesh has been a reliable base for producing clothes, but restrictive trade policies and clogged ports have kept it from making much beyond that.

India has a huge population, and firms seeking alternatives to China are expanding there. But even in India, factory managers are beginning to complain about the difficulties of retaining young workers. Many young people prefer farm life supported by state welfare programs or choose gig work in cities over living in factory dormitories in industrial hubs. Trained engineers leave factories for IT jobs.

Asian factory owners are trying to make the jobs more appealing, including subsidizing kindergartens and funding technical-training programs. Some are moving factories to rural areas where people are more willing to do manual labor, but that puts them farther away from ports and suppliers and forces them to accommodate rural life, including worker absences during harvest.

Christina Chen, the Taiwanese owner of a furniture maker that sells to American retailers such as Lowes, decided to move her factory out of southern China four years ago, hoping it would be easier to recruit. She first considered industrial zones near Ho Chi Minh City, but she heard nightmarish stories about high worker turnover and soaring wages.

She set up instead in rural northern Vietnam. Her floor workers are typically in their 40s and 50s, and some cant read well, she said, which requires explaining tasks verbally and using visual demonstrations. But her workforce is more stable, she said.

She treasures her younger employees who can read. She involves them in decision-making, invites them to meet her American buyers when they visit, and shares pictures with them of the companys tables and chairs in U.S. stores.

Her company, Acacia Woodcraft Vietnam, is partially automated, she said, but human craftsmanship is still necessary for many tasks.

The labor landscape was much different two decades ago, when finding workers was as simple as opening factory gates and watching bicycles stream in.

In 2001, Nike reported that more than 80% of its factory workers were in Asia, and that the typical one was 22, single and raised on a farm. Today, Nikes average worker in China is 40, and in Vietnam, 31, in part because Asian countries are aging rapidly.

Maxport Limited Vietnam, a Nike supplier founded in 1995, has seen competition for workers intensify. Sunlight now beams through windows at its factories, and it has planted thousands of plants and trees. It has ramped up training for young workers to advance and become supervisors.

Still, it is struggling to attract young people. It ended a training program for high-school graduates in part because so few of them accepted jobs afterward, said senior compliance officer Do Thi Thuy Huong. Around 90% of Maxports workers are 30 or older.

Lovesac, a furniture maker based in Stamford, Conn., says its workforce in China is aging, and it has become harder to find younger workers to fill openings.

Its chief executive, Shawn Nelson, said young people in places like China and Vietnam who have smartphones and are plugged into global culture are less interested in factory work. Once they can see the Kardashians, they dont want to do that work anymore," he said. Theyd rather work in a shop."

The company is planning to move some operations to the U.S. Later this year, it intends to start making seats at an automated factory in North Carolina.

When Asian factories automate, many have trouble finding workers capable of operating advanced machinery. Managers said not enough young people are interested in learning mechanical engineering, and that the ones that do jump to other professions.

Abhyuday Jindal, managing director of Indian stainless-steel manufacturer Jindal Stainless, said Gen Z workers are drawn to the IT sector, and that most of them look for office jobs, even when recruited for technical functions."

Factories either have to pay a bit more money for the skills they want, or compromise on the capabilities that they need," said Richard Jackson, managing director of JacksonGrant, a Thailand-based recruitment firm.

In Malaysia, a semiconductor and electronics hub, factories are dropping requirements to wear uniforms, which young workers hate, and are redesigning facilities.

We are trying to make our factories a little bit more sexy, open up the partitions, give it more glass structure, give it more light, give it some nice music, create a kind of Apple environment," said Syed Hussain Syed Husman, president of the Malaysian Employers Federation, which represents producers.

Young people from developing countries who otherwise might take factory jobs are finding work caring for the growing numbers of the elderly people in developed nations, as well as plugging gaps in those countries aging workforces.

Susi Susanti, a 29-year-old from Indonesia, said she tried factory jobs after graduating from high school. She hated being pressured to work faster by her managers at an electronics factory, and in a second job making shoes. She told her mother she had to do something else.

A six-month training course taught her rudimentary Mandarin, and she set off to work caring for an elderly couple in Taiwan. Her pay is three times as high as she earned in factories back home, she said, and its less exhausting. When the person Im looking after is doing well," she said, I can relax."

Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com
TAIYUAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- With temperatures soaring to 37 degrees Celsius in Pinglu County in north China's Shanxi Province, a group of elementary school students from the country's east coast happily enjoyed an excursion to an "underground courtyard" here while reveling in its refreshingly cool ambiance. Located near the banks of the Yellow River, this peculiar dwelling, known as a silo-cave, was built by local villagers over a century ago and represents a unique kind of human habitation on the Loess Plateau. When viewed from ground level, a silo-cave reveals a sunken rectangular courtyard encompassed by rooms embedded in its four walls, reminiscent of the layout seen in traditional Chinese quadrangle courtyards. Jing Kang, deputy director of the cultural center of Pinglu, told the young visitors that such a traditional residence has a history of more than 4,000 years. The compact soil structure here offers durability and earthquake resistance, while the region's relatively low rainfall and significant seasonal temperature differences create a dry and pleasant living environment in the caves, according to Jing. Historically, the scarcity of timber resources along the Yellow River also prompted the locals to save on construction costs by excavating cave dwellings, he added. The construction process of a silo-cave includes site selection, digging pits and caves and decoration. In 2008, the Pinglu silo-cave construction technique was listed as a national-level intangible cultural heritage. Zhang Hecheng, an inheritor of the craft, told the students that the entire process can span several years given the need to ensure that the soil is thoroughly dry while digging. "Why do people living inside the silo-cave feel warm in winter and cool in summer?" asked Guo Yichen, a fifth-grader from Shanghai. Zhang explained that this is due to the cave dwelling's location at about 10 meters underground and the structure of a cave. Back in the 1950s, there were about 17,000 silo-caves in Pinglu County, forming the so-called "subterranean villages." However, with rapid economic and social development and an increase in villagers' income, more and more people have moved into houses above the ground. Today, Pinglu boasts over 500 such underground courtyards. The county government has designated a folk culture protection zone for these dwellings and placed several of them under key protection. Fixed funds are allocated annually for their preservation, according to Jing. The authorities are actively harnessing the cultural and touristic value of this traditional architecture. In Dongpingtou Village of Duma Township, every year during the Chinese New Year, villagers engage in traditional celebrations by making paper-cuts for window decorations, steaming flower-shaped buns, and making fried dough twists inside the silo-caves. Seeing this tradition, a local tourism company has renovated abandoned silo-caves and built a folk customs street and other tourism facilities, giving the village a brand new look and turning it into a national-level rural tourism demonstration village, said Lu Junling, Party chief of Duma. In the first half of this year, the number of tourists visiting the silo-caves in Dongpingtou Village has exceeded 30,000, including a visit by a group of more than 1,000 students, Lu said. In a village in Zhangdian Township, there lies a beautifully decorated silo-cave built over 300 years ago. A local company has restored its traditional charm while incorporating modern living facilities such as a shower and laundry room, making it an ideal vacation spot. "This underground courtyard offers accommodations, dining, and tea drinking, attracting many young people to have a taste of the unique experience," said Zhang Lingjuan, head of the township. Zhang observed that local investment in the development of such traditional dwellings is not showing any signs of slowing down. "I believe that more and more silo-caves by the Yellow River will be renovated and developed into cultural and tourist sites," he added.
Larry Fink and BlackRock are coming for the Bitcoin market, the impact has not been priced in!

Larry Fink is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the worlds largest asset manager. He has been credited with transforming BlackRock into a global powerhouse and with helping to shape the future of the investment industry.

Fink was born in 1952 and grew up in New York City. He studied economics at Harvard University and then worked as an investment banker at First Boston Corporation. In 1988, he co-founded BlackRock, which was originally a fixed-income investment firm.

Fink quickly rose through the ranks at BlackRock and became CEO in 1999. Under his leadership, BlackRock has grown exponentially, from managing $100 billion in assets to over $10 trillion today. The firm has also expanded into new areas, such as equities, alternatives, and real estate.

Fink is known for his focus on risk management and his commitment to long-term investing. He has also been a vocal advocate for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. In his annual letter to CEOs, Fink has urged companies to focus on ESG factors, arguing that they are essential for long-term success.

Finks success has made him one of the most powerful people in the financial world. He is a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Business Roundtable. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and has written several books on investing.

Finks success is due to a number of factors, including his business acumen, his vision for the future of the investment industry, and his commitment to ESG investing. He is a role model for other investors and a force for good in the financial world.

Here are some of the key factors that have contributed to Larry Finks success:

Business acumen. Fink is a shrewd businessman with a keen eye for market trends. He has been able to grow BlackRock into a global powerhouse by making smart investment decisions and by expanding into new areas.

Fink is a shrewd businessman with a keen eye for market trends. He has been able to grow BlackRock into a global powerhouse by making smart investment decisions and by expanding into new areas. Vision for the future. Fink has a clear vision for the future of the investment industry. He believes that ESG investing is essential for long-term success, and he has been a vocal advocate for this approach.

Fink has a clear vision for the future of the investment industry. He believes that ESG investing is essential for long-term success, and he has been a vocal advocate for this approach. Commitment to ESG investing. Fink is a strong believer in the power of ESG investing. He believes that companies that focus on ESG factors are more likely to be successful in the long run.

Fink is a strong believer in the power of ESG investing. He believes that companies that focus on ESG factors are more likely to be successful in the long run. Leadership skills. Fink is a strong leader who is able to motivate and inspire his team. He is also a good communicator who is able to articulate his vision to others.

Larry Fink is a successful businessman and a force for good in the financial world. He has made a significant impact on the investment industry, and his work has helped to shape the future of ESG investing.

Shayne Heffernan
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The child was taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition.
The 1851 Bledsoe County Jail on Frazier Street in Pikeville, Tennessee, is up for sale. The jail, the oldest operating jail in the state when it was closed in 2007, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cost of federal census recounts push growing towns to do it themselves

Only a single municipality, the Village of Pingree Grove in Illinois, has signed a contract so far with the U.S. Census Bureau to have the agency conduct a repeat head count following the 2020 census
IFA President Tim Cullinan (pictured) said the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue should focus on supporting beef farmers instead of constantly talking about a suckler exit scheme which he himself ruled out six months ago in Thomond Park.



IFA did reject the Ministers half-baked Food Vision Report in its entirety as there was no funding plan to develop the sector or properly support suckler and beef farmers who are delivering significant public goods and contributing hugely to the rural economy to implement the proposals.

It's not correct for the Minister to claim IFAs objections were to individual proposals in the report, Mr Cullinan said, IFA have consistently set out our willingness to engage in meaningful discussions on all proposals when the order of priority is addressed and funding levels are provided.



The IFA head continued, Teagasc recently published their updated MACC curve for the sector, which sets out pathways towards reducing emissions from agriculture. Much of the focus has been on projections showing a potential significant reduction in suckler cow numbers.

The reality is the MACC curve is projecting forward the expected trends in suckler cow numbers under current Government policies. The fault here lies with our Government who need to put confidence into the sector with a properly funded plan.



IFA Livestock Chairman Brendan Golden said the reality is that with the UK market now open to Australian imports on foot of Brexit the Irish beef sector is facing even more challenges.



The Irish Government must make a significant allocation from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve funding to the sector instead of allowing the money return to Brussels unused.
Pets & Animal, Crime

By Long Island Published: August 07 2023

Suffolk County Police Department charged a North Amityville man who left his dog in a vehicle on a hot day, and the dog was discovered deceased several hours later.

Detectives from the Suffolk County SPCA, assisted by officers from the Suffolk County Police Department, charged a North Amityville man who left his dog in a vehicle on a hot day, and the dog was discovered deceased several hours later.

Roy Gross, Chief of the Suffolk SPCA, said that its detectives charged Raymond Gonzalez, 60, of North Amityville, New York, with multiple animal cruelty charges for leaving his 1 1/2 year old male german shepherd husky mix dog named "Koko" in a car for several hours unattended, after which it was discovered to be deceased. Gonzalez was also charged with making a false statement to the investigating detectives.

Gonzalez was arrested on August 6, 2023, processed by SPCA detectives at the Suffolk County Police Department, First Precinct, and released. He is scheduled to appear at First District Court in Central Islip, on August 25, 2023.

Chief Gross said that animal cruelty will not be tolerated in Suffolk County. If you witness any incident of animal cruelty or neglect in Suffolk County please contact the Suffolk County SPCA at (631) 382-7722.
Business & Finance

By Chris Boyle Published: August 07 2023

Staff will assist residents with filing for veteran, senior citizen, Cold War veteran, volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker, limited-income disability and/or home improvement exemptions.

Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages (D  Lawrence) is partnering with the Nassau County Department of Assessment to host a series of property tax exemption workshops for residents in the Third Legislative District.

During the workshops, Department of Assessment staff will assist residents with filing for veteran, senior citizen, Cold War veteran, volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker, limited-income disability and/or home improvement exemptions. Enhanced STAR applications will also be processed for homeowners already enrolled in the STAR program prior to Jan. 2, 2015.

All workshops are from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. during the months of August, September and October. Homeowners can visit www.nassaucountyny.gov/assessment for additional dates, locations and other information. To receive a list of necessary documentation needed for the tax exemption workshop, you may also call the Nassau County Department of Assessment at 516-571-1500.

UPCOMING LOCAL WORKSHOPS OF NOTE FOR LD 3 RESIDENTS:

Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023

Valley Stream VFW Post

65 E Merrick Road

Valley Stream, N.Y. 11580

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023

Five Towns Community Center

270 Lawrence Ave.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: August 07 2023

Michael Owen used rope-like object to strangle Kelly Owen.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a St. James man was convicted Friday after a jury trial for the strangling murder of his estranged wife in Farmingdale in January 2020.

Michael Owen, 30, was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) at the trial before Judge Robert McDonald. The defendant is due back for sentencing on September 19 and faces a potential maximum of 25 years to life in prison.

The trial started on July 17 and summations were Thursday. The jury deliberated for approximately two hours.

Kelly Owen was a bright young mother who had aspirations to be a nurse, DA Donnelly said. She was in the early stages of pregnancy with her estranged husbands child and wanted to reconcile the marriage. Michael Owen, however, ended those dreams when he strangled his wife with a rope-like object in January 2020.Our condolences are with Kellys family as they mourn her senseless loss.

DA Donnelly said that on January 15, 2020, Kelly Owen was at her apartment on First Avenue in Farmingdale. The 27-year-old nursing student lived on the same property as her parents and shared custody of her then-six-year-old child with her husband, Michael, from whom she was separated. Kellys father walked the child to school that morning.

At the time, Kelly Owen worked as an aide at an aftercare program at a local elementary school between the hours of 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. When she did not show up for work, a co-worker called her parents, and Kellys parents discovered the womans lifeless body.

The woman was strangled with a rope-like object, and it was determined that she was in the early stages of pregnancy with Michael Owens child.

Video surveillance revealed that the defendants vehicle was in the victims neighborhood at approximately 9:30 that morning. Michael Owen  who was employed as a cell site technician  parked two blocks away from Kellys home and turned his phone off before arriving in Farmingdale so that his cellphone location could not be tracked. After the murder, the defendant deleted text messages from both his phone and Kellys phone.

DNA evidence from the defendant was discovered around the victims neck.

Michael Owen was arrested by members of the Nassau County Police Departments Homicide Squad on January 28, 2020.
Massachusetts Man Turns Himself In to Nassau County Police in Connection with 95K Law Firm Scam

Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: August 07 2023

Dana Sarantakis, 41, is charged with Grand larceny 2nd Degree.

The Major Case Bureau reports the details of a Grand Larceny that occurred on Tuesday, August 23, 2022 at 11:30 a.m. in Carle Place.

According to Detectives, a 72-year-old male, while working as an employee of a Carle Place law firm, received an email from who he believed to be his employer and owner of the law firm. The email directed the employee to wire $95,000 from the law firms HSBC bank account. After the transaction the employee spoke to his employer who informed him that he did not make this request. This fraud is commonly known as a business email compromise scam or (BEC).

After a thorough investigation an arrest warrant was issued for Defendant Dana Sarantakis, 41, of 642 Market Street, Lowell, Massachusetts. On August 2, 2023 the defendant turned himself into police at the Nassau County Police Departments Eighth Precinct in Bethpage.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: August 07 2023

Charlies name holds great significance as he represented a true Nassau County hero as he was named after Police Officer Charles D. Cole Jr. who passed from a 9/11 related illness.

It is with deep sorrow that Nassau County Executive Bruce A. Blakeman and Commissioner of Police Patrick J. Ryder announce that Mounted Unit Horse Charlie passed away on Saturday, August 5, 2023. Charlie suddenly fell ill and was immediately brought to the veterinarian for evaluation. Charlie was diagnosed with a tumor in his intestines and was euthanized to limit his suffering.

Charlie, a quarter horse of 19 years,joined the Nassau County Police Department in 2016, after completing his training to become a Police Horse. Charlies great temperament and demeanor helped train the last 10 Nassau County Police Officers who transferred into the unit. Charlie exhibited great bravery over his years of service during presidential visits, hundreds of other large details and served his community proudly. Charlie was also known as the gentle soul of the barn.When the Mounted Unit was called upon to visit the thousands of school children over the years, it was Charlie who answered the call because of his gentle disposition and versatility.

Charlies name holds great significance as he represented a true Nassau County hero as he was named after Police Officer Charles D. Cole Jr. who passed from a 9/11 related illness, making the ultimate sacrifice on August 14, 2011.
(Alliance News) - Marula Mining PLC on Monday reported a widened loss in 2022 as its expenses increased, but also celebrated "exciting" initial assay results at the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine in South Africa.

Marula Mining is an Africa-focused mining and development company. Shares in the firm were flat at 11.75 pence on Monday morning in London.

The company reported a pretax loss of GBP597,222 in 2022, widened from GBP287,782 in 2021.

This came as Marula's administrative expenses more than doubled to GBP595,858 from GBP287,792 the year prior. The firm also booked depreciation costs of GBP1,364 compared to none in 2021.

Chief Executive Jason Brewer said: "Marula has experienced significant development during 2022. In particular, Blesberg continued to prove its worth with initial exciting assay results indicating high-grade lithium spodumene, which is why during the period the Board approved the acceleration of the program to fast-track the treatment and production of high-grade lithium product from the existing historic stockpiles."

Marula reported on Monday that independent sampling and assaying of processed spodumene material at the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine in South Africa had been completed. The results confirmed a high-grade spodumene product with a grade of 6.50% lithium oxide.

As a result, Marula is now able to proceed with its planned sales of product, and is currently negotiating new and longer-term contacts given the higher grade and higher value spodumene product.

An update on these new sales arrangements is expected in the coming weeks, it added.

The company did not recommend a dividend.

By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Norway encouraged the Philippines to maximize its potential as a premier importer and reexporter of quality salmon.

Norway Ambassador to the Philippines Christian Halaas Lyster said the Philippines lags in trade for seafood compared to its peers in Southeast Asia.

There is so much potential for growth for exports in the Philippines, Lyster said, adding that Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan had overtaken the Philippines despite the latters promising potential for growth.

We see further increase of demands for salmon exports in the Philippines market and we want to take the opportunity of the growing consumer demand for fresh market ingredients here, Lyster said.

Norway is the second largest seafood exporter in the world and is known for prime quality seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. Norway implements strict rules and regulations in handling seafood, making sure that the produce is from a clean and healthy environment and in compliance with the sustainable standards of fish farming.

Norway is also looking at further utilizing the Philippines-European Free Trade Association agreement which entered into force in 2018 and covers tariff-free entry of goods from Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

Our seafood industry has one of the most advanced technologies, and we make sure that most of our seafood is based on sustainable practices. This is why Norwegian seafood is the best in the world, Lester said.

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Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez has secured the commitment of Vietnam to provide the Philippines with a stable supply of rice at affordable prices in an affirmation of the strong friendly relations between the two countries.

This developed during Romualdezs side meeting with Vuong Dinh Hue, president of the National Assembly of Vietnam on the eve of the formal opening of the 44th AIPA (ASEAN Parliamentary Assembly) general assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. earlier expressed concern over the countrys rice supply amid the widespread damage to farmlands caused recently by Typhoon Egay and the threat posed by El Nino phenomenon on rice production.

Similarly, the export ban imposed last July 20 by Indiathe worlds largest rice exporteris expected to cause ripples in global rice prices that would affect millions of consumers, particularly in Africa and Asia.

ROMUALDEZ ADDRESSES AIPA. Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez delivers his message during the plenary session of the 44th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) general assembly at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta Indonesia Monday. Romualdez stresses that regional solidarity and cooperation are vital in building a more resilient and sustainable ASEAN community. Below photo shows the Speaker in discussions with his counterpart, the President of the National Assembly of Vietnam Vuong Dinh Hue, during their bilateral meeting, with Pangasinan Rep. Rachel Arenas and Zamboanga Del Norte Rep. Glona Labadlabad. Ver Noveno

Vietnam is traditionally the main source of Philippine rice imports but as other buyers crowd in, President Marcos said supply might become limited and the country may have to find an alternative supply source.

The Vietnamese assurance could help boost the countrys rice supply and dampen possible price spikes fueled by speculation over possible shortages.

Romualdez said the Philippines is willing to provide Vietnam with specific products and materials it may need to meet the demand of its industries or consumers.

He also told Hue that he is looking forward to broadening the areas of cooperation between the two countries, particularly between the respective parliaments and in the areas of energy transition and digital transformation.

The two leaders of parliament discussed opportunities for partnership and cooperation to improve the supply chain between the Philippines and Vietnam involving other agricultural products and construction materials, such as cement.

Hue invited Romualdez to visit Vietnam to reciprocate the warm reception he received from members of Congress during his visit to the Philippines in November last year.

In Thailand, the worlds second-largest rice exporter, the national water administration urged its farmers to reduce rice cultivation as part of efforts to conserve water

Rice prices have begun to surge as major producers such as India and Vietnam cut their exports. This could affect millions of consumers around the world with Asian and African countries expected to bear the brunt.

Also on Monday, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano urged government agencies, particularly the Department of Justice, to act decisively against rice smugglers following the Presidents strong warning in his State of the Nation Address last month.

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Jerusalem, Undefined  Israeli forces on Sunday killed three Palestinian militants in the West Bank, the army said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence rocking the occupied territory.

An army statement said its forces operated to prevent an immediate threat and described one of the dead as a leading military operative from the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold in the northern West Bank.

Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities and repeated Israeli army raids.

The army on Sunday said that a vehicle carrying a squad of terrorists from the Jenin refugee camp was identified while on its way to carry out an attack.

Soldiers opened fire and killed three passengers, the statement said, including the suspected squad leader, 26-year-old Nayef Abu Swiess.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the deaths of three young men by occupation (Israeli) bullets in the incident near the town of Arraba in the Jenin area.

Deputy governor of Jenin Kamal Abu Al-Roub told AFP the Israeli army had taken the car and the bodies.

The car had an Israeli licence plate, he said.

Abu Swiess, according to the army statement, was involved in military action against Israeli security forces and advancing military activity directed by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave controlled by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

 Rising violence-

Mourners later lay flowers at the site where the Palestinians were killed on Sunday, an AFP correspondent reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the troops for killing the militants who he said were on their way to attack Israeli citizens.

We will continue to take action  everywhere and at any moment  against those who seek to attack us, he said in a statement.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad meanwhile vowed to respond to the latest deaths.

The enemy will soon see that its foolish actions and terror will be met with a strong response by the resistance, it said in a statement.

Our Palestinian people and their courageous resistance will not let the occupations aggression pass without a price, said Hamas in a separate statement.

Jenin refugee camp, one of the most crowded and impoverished in the West Bank, has become synonymous with Palestinian militancy and resistance against Israel, which views it as a terrorist hub.

In recent years it has been the site of fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.

Over the past 18 months, the security situation in the camp has deteriorated with repeated Israeli raids which security forces say are to pursue militants.

In July, the Israeli army carried out its biggest operation there in years which killed 12 Palestinians, including children and militants.

One Israeli soldier was also killed in the two-day operation.

The camp was established in 1953 to house some of those among the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during what Palestinian call the Nakba, or catastrophe, the 1948 war that coincided with Israels creation.

Today some 18,000 people live in the camp.

Sundays deaths are the latest in a surge of bloodshed to hit the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

On Friday, 19-year-old Qusai Jamal Maatan was shot dead in Burqah, east of Ramallah, as armed settlers clashed with Palestinian villagers.

A day later, a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli municipal officer in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, before being fatally shot by another officer.

Violence this year linked to the conflict has killed at least 211 Palestinians, 28 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.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

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Fans of the late social media star Noodle the pug will have a chance to meet his owner Jonathan Graziano in Boston on Wednesday, Aug. 9.

City Winery Boston will be holding Live Noodz: A Life of Noodle to celebrate Noodles life and Grazianos ownership of the 14-year-old pug, who died on Dec. 2, 2022.

Live Noodz is a celebration of Noodle, his life and times, his story with me, and the joys of caring for a geriatric king, according to the event description. The show will combine stand-up comedy, storytelling, and more. Expect never-before-told stories, exclusive photos and videos, audience participation, and a lot of laughs (... and maybe a few tears)!

Noodles fame began in 2021 when Graziano posted morning videos on TikTok that showed the pug deciding it he was going to stand up or flop down on his dog bed, according to the APs obituary. This started the trend of no bones day if Noodle decided he was going to sleep in.

He lived 14 and a half years, which is about as long as you can hope a dog can. And he made millions of people happy. What a run, Graziano said in the emotional video.

Graziano wrote a childrens book featuring Noodle, called Noodle and the No Bones Day, in June 2022, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. On any given day when Jonathan lifts Noodle up, Noodle just flops over. Its almost like Noodle woke up without any bones, the book description reads.

A second book is due to be published in November, called Noodle Conquers Comfy Mountain, also with Simon & Schuster.

General admission for City Winerys upcoming event is $30, while stage premier VIP tickets cost $100. The VIP tickets include a post-show meet-and-greet and photo opp with Graziano, as well as a laminate signed by Graziano. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., where guests can dine before the show starts at 7:30 p.m.

To buy tickets, visit City Winery Bostons website at the link here.
Seven Massachusetts state troopers who were suspended as a result of Massachusetts state vaccine mandate can return to work with back pay, following the ruling of an arbitrator.

The ruling, by arbitrator Bonnie J. McSpiritt, also covers an eighth trooper who had returned to duty after seeking a religious exemption to the mandate, according to a release from the State Police Association of Massachusetts, the state polices union.

The ruling represents the completion of about two years of legal fighting over the suspensions, according to Association President Patrick McNamara.
A New Hampshire father charged in the killing of his missing 5-year-old daughter was sentenced on unrelated gun charges Monday, Aug. 7.

Adam Montgomery, 33, was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison on two counts of armed career criminal charges. Montgomery also received an additional sentence of 7.5-15 years for two theft charges.

Montgomery was found guilty on six charges in June: two counts each of being an armed career criminal, receiving stolen property and theft.

The 33-year-old was accused of having a shotgun and rifle despite having multiple felony convictions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The career criminal charge carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Montgomery was also ordered to have no contact with the victims and to abide by good behavior while serving his sentences, which will run concurrently.

During his sentencing, Montgomery publicly denied that he killed his daughter and asked the judge to only consider the facts in this case when determining his sentence.

I loved my daughter unconditionally and I did not kill her, he said. I understand that I was found guilty by a jury and Im not here to dispute that at all. The only consideration that I ask of you this morning is for you not to consider anything as it relates to the case regarding my daughter, Harmony.

The judge assured Montgomery that the Harmony case had no influence on his sentences.

Read More: Man found shot on Hancock Street in Springfield dies at hospital

In that other case, Montgomery pleaded not guilty in October to charges of second-degree murder, falsifying physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Authorities allege he killed Harmony by repeatedly striking her in the head with his fist. Hes scheduled for trial in that case in November.

Harmony hasnt been seen since 2019, but authorities didnt know she was missing until November 2021. Last year, police announced they believed she was killed in Manchester in early December 2019. Her remains have not been found.
A Marlborough woman was arrested in Worcester and charged in connection with a 45-year-old mans death on Wednesday, Aug. 2.

Darlene Carreras, 37, of Marlborough was charged with homicide in connection with the stabbing death of Eric Murray, 45, in her Saint Ives Way apartment, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryans office announced on Monday in a statement.

Carreras was arrested on Saturday, arraigned Monday in Marlborough District Court and ordered to be held pending a dangerousness hearing, Ryans office said.

Marlborough police responded to a 911 call at around 10:32 p.m. from a Saint Ives Way resident, who reported an altercation inside a neighboring residence where a woman was heard calling for help. When officers arrived, police found a man with stab wounds, Ryans office said. The victim, Murray, was taken to UMass Memorial Hospital, where he died.

Carreras, who was inside the home with cuts on her hands, was also taken to a hospital and shortly released, Ryans office said. Murrays son was also in the home and was not harmed.

Early findings in the investigation suggest that Carreras and Murray were in a romantic relationship and had been seeing each other regularly. Murray went to her home and an altercation ensued, during which time Ms. Carreras allegedly stabbed the victim in the chest killing him, Ryans office continued.

After Murray was stabbed, Carreras applied pressure to the wound but did not call 911 and called a friend to come over to help.

The Chief Medical Examiners office determined Murrays death was a homicide caused by stab wounds, Ryans office said.

The investigation around Murrays death remain under investigation. Carreras dangerousness hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23.
A 33-year-old man is facing charges in connection with a stabbing that happened at an apartment building in Waltham this weekend, Waltham police reported.

Police responded to a stabbing reported at 94 Adams St., which is the address for the Adams Street Apartments, around 11:15 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6, Waltham police said in a release posted to Facebook.

Upon arrival, officers found the victim and started providing first aid. He was then taken to a nearby hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The suspect, identified as Thiago Oliveira, was arrested nearby shortly after the incident.

He was charged with armed assault with intent to murder, assault & battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon and threats, police said.

Oliveria is expected to be arraigned in Waltham District Court on Monday. Police said there is no ongoing threat to the public and the stabbing remains under investigation.
A 28-year-old man was killed when his UTV rolled on top of him after it crashed off the side of a New Hampshire hiking trail, New Hampshire Fish and Game reported.

NH Fish and Game Conservation Officers, along with Greenfield firefighters, Newington Police and the Newington Fire Department, responded to the crash on Fox Point Road in Newington shortly after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5.

Read More: Hiker on Peaked Mountain in Monson rescued after injury

The victim, identified as Joshua Wyman, of Newington, N.H., was operating a UTV with one passenger when it went off the left side of the trail they were on and rolled over, NH Fish and Game said.

The UTV rolled onto Wyman before stopping. Despite life-saving efforts, Wyman died from his injuries, officials said. The passenger was taken to Portsmouth Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Wyman was not wearing a helmet or a seatbelt at the time of the crash, officials said. Authorities believe speed was a factor in the crash, but the investigation remains ongoing.
Authorities are investigating after a man who was shot in Springfield died at a nearby hospital, Ryan Walsh, spokesperson for Springfield police, said on Twitter.

Police responded for a report of a gunshot victim at the intersection of Hancock and Union Streets around 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6, Walsh said.

Upon arrival, officers found a man with gunshot wounds on Hancock Street. He was taken to Baystate Medical Center where he later died, Walsh said. The shooting is under investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the departments Detective Bureau at 413-787-6355. Anonymous tips can be made by texting SOLVE to CRIMES (2-7-4-6-3-7), followed by a tip.
Boston area residents have access to some of the best hospitals in Massachusetts, but people in Worcester and Springfield also have top-tier options for healthcare, according to U.S. World News & Reports.

Of the 104 hospitals in Massachusetts, 11 meet the highest U.S. News standards and are ranked at the top of the list for the best hospitals in the state. The top spot is actually shared by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Womens Hospital, according to the list.

Read More: Hospital receivership pitched as way to stop closures of vital community health centers

U.S. World News  which is also known for its rankings of colleges and other institutions  recently placed both Boston hospitals on their annual honor roll, as previously reported by MassLive.

The third place spot went to Beth Israel, another Boston contender, while the fourth and fifth best hospitals were UMass Memorial in Worcester and Tufts Medical Center, also in Boston.

You can see the full list and read more about each hospitals ranking below:

1. Massachusetts General Hospital (tie)

1. Brigham and Womens Hospital (tie)

3. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

4. UMass Memorial Medical Center

5. Tufts Medical Center

6. Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

7. Baystate Medical Center

8. Brigham & Womens Faulkner Hospital (tie)

8. Newton-Wellesley Hospital (tie)

10. Salem Hospital (tie)

10 Winchester Hospital (tie)
A hiker on Peaked Mountain in Monson was rescued Saturday after they were injured.

Monson Fire Department said the hiker was injured and unable to get off the hill. Fire personnel and police officers hiked a mile on Peaked Mountain to reach the hiker and start medical treatment.

Officials then sent UTV and personnel to help bring the injured hiker down Peaked Mountain. The Western Massachusetts Technical Rescue team was also activated but ultimately canceled.

Officials did not release further information on the condition of the hiker.

The Trustees of Reservations website described the climb from the entrance to the summit as a working and said the trail can be strenuous in places.

But once you reach the top, the 1,227-foot summit provides spectacular views of undisturbed rural and forested landscapes in every direction: a sweep of rolling New England countryside with valley farms and small villages, mountains, hills, and even the distant city of Springfield, the website states.
Red Sox first-round pick Kyle Teel has already earned himself a promotion.

After just three games for the Sox Florida Complex League affiliate in Fort Myers, Teel has been promoted to High-A Greenville, a source confirmed Monday. Teel was 3-for-7 with a homer and three RBIs in his two FCL games. Hell see his first real taste of affiliated ball at Greenville, which is the third-highest level in the system.

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Teel, the University of Virginia catcher who was selected with the No. 14 overall pick last month, is expected to move through the system quickly. The 21-year-old (22 in February) already played a full season in the ACC this year, catching 65 games for the Cavaliers while hitting .407 with 13 homers, 69 RBIs and a 1.130 OPS. He signed for an under-slot bonus of $4 million.

Teel took batting practice with the Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 21 ahead of heading to Fort Myers.

Its been a fun ride and Im just trying to enjoy every minute of it and take in every moment and have fun while doing it, Teel said after signing his deal. Its definitely all coming to reality now, just being able to hit at the park finally and even do all this media stuff. Its been planned weeks ahead and its finally coming true. Being able to sign that contract and become a Boston Red Sox is really awesome.

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According to SoxProspects.com, Teel is the No. 5 prospect in Bostons system already. In Greenville, hell join a list of other prospects that includes outfielder Roman Anthony (No. 2), pitcher Luis Perales (No. 7), infielder Brainer Bonaci (No. 12) and outfielder Allan Castro (No. 20).
Only three years ago, Worcester Regional Airports runways and terminals were empty amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, the airport located in the heart of Central Massachusetts, has welcomed more than 193,000 passengers during fiscal 2023, numbers which they havent seen since pre-COVID, according to officials.

In a recent Facebook post, Worcester Regional Airport made the announcement that air travel has fully returned to Worcester with over 193K passengers flying in fiscal year 2023!

We thank YOU, says the post. From the frequent flyers to the first-time customers  for choosing to #FlyWorcester!

Read more: Worcester Regional Airport celebrates one millionth passenger

In 2020, Worcester Regional Airport, Massachusetts second-largest airport, was closed for more than 10 months during the pandemic, according to a press release from the Transportation Security Administration.

That summer, TSA officers in Worcester screened about 14 passengers a day, the release said, which was down quite a bit from the 307 per day average in 2019.

20 1 / 20 Worcester Regional Airport during COVID

But the airport has bounced back, airport officials say.

In 2022, Worcester Regional Airports busiest screening day was 426 passengers per day in February, according to TSA New England spokesperson Daniel Velez.

So far this year, March has been the airports busiest month with the TSA screening 493 passengers per day. However, the year isnt over, Velez said in an email, and the airport might see heavy volume in Oct. and Dec. this year.

The airports three major airlines  JetBlue, American Airlines and Delta Airlines  have all returned after suspending their flights in 2020.

MassPort Assistant Director of Media Relations Samantha Decker said the three airlines offer travelers direct access to New York and Florida [and] provide opportunities to connect to numerous additional destinations throughout the U.S. and across the globe.

Additionally, numbers have come back stronger because the airlines are operating larger aircraft which, Decker said, has paid off, particularly in the Florida markets.

For example, Decker said JetBlue often filled its 100-seat planes to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando International Airport. Now the airline is filling its 162-seat airplanes.

The airport has also been making an effort to work alongside airlines, specifically JetBlue, to work on the leisure air travel market business which Decker said is rebounding faster than business travel.

Currently, Worcester Regional Airport operates four daily flights. JetBlue offers service to both Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, which are considered extremely popular with flights being over 90% full. Delta offers service to LaGuardia Airport in New York and American Airlines offers service to JFK in New York.

Whats next for Worcester Regional Airport?

While reaching milestones like celebrating their 1 millionth passenger in 2022, plans for the future have also been in the works.

For instance, in January 2024, JetBlue will add Fort Myers to its list of destinations out of Worcesters airport, according to Decker.

According to State House News Service, the airport is also working on an $18 million project to rehabilitate Runway 29, as part of a three-year $1.3 billion Massport capital plan.

Decker said the airport is in phase two of the rehab project, which costs $12 million and will allow the airport to relocate and expand the security checkpoint to accommodate more activity and provide redundancies to keep our lines short and convenient.
A candidate for next year's local elections has called an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to to tackle crime in rural Ireland ahead of his visit to Mayo and Galway on Thursday (August 10).

Paul Lawless, Peace Commissioner for the Claremorris area and Aontu representative for Mayo, said the Claremorris garda district is 'massively overstretched', covering a region from Cong to Claremorris.

Last week, it was revealed that none of 87 newly-graduated gardai were to be stationed in Mayo.

An analysis from the Irish Independent last year revealed that 16 Mayo garda stations recorded slight increases in reported incidents between 2017 and 2021. Six stations recorded decreases in the same period.

Theft, shoplifting, burglaries and assaults all rose in the county last year while sexual assaults and robberies decreased.

"Minister for Justice Helen McEntee recently announced more resources and gardai for Dublin in response to the recent attacks on the streets of the capital and the US Embassy warnings to its citizens visiting Dublin. However, this is not just a Dublin problem, it is also a problem here in Mayo," said Mr Lawless.

"Assaults, burglaries, thefts, public order offences, sexual assaults and drug crime have grown to worrying levels in Mayo in recent times. It is good to see an increase in gardai in Dublin, but what does it take to increase the numbers in Mayo?"

Mr Lawless added that it was 'shameful' that more resources were not being given to tackling drug crime in Mayo.

In 2021, 275 were drug-related offences were reported to Mayo garda stations, amounting to 9.6 percent of all reported crimes.

"We need a radical rethink in how we approach crime in the county and this country and we must start by giving the gardai the numbers and resources they need to do their job they are skilled at doing to the best of their ability," said Mr Lawless, who has previously stood for the Dail, Seanad and county council.

"Successive governments are happy to overwhelm gardai, just as they do with medical staff in the health sector, and the time to shout stop has long passed.

"I spoke with a garda in south Mayo recently who told me that they don't have the resources to deal with the lesser problems in the area. They don't have time to go after lower level drug activity in the area due to resourcing."
SIX young people from Mayo were among the 350 teenagers from around the world who gathered in Maynooth, Co Kildare, for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference.

Mia Gallagher, Ella Cosgrove, Clodagh O'Boyle, Tianha Johnson, Caoimhe Flynn and Michael O'Sullivan Irwin were among those who attended the week-long conference, where teens learn crucial life skills such as empathy, decision making, problem solving, communication skills, critical thinking and team work.

The conference, which happened last week on the grounds of Maynooth University, brings together young people from the USA, Ukraine, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa and Ireland to learn how to become leaders in their own lives.

As part of the week-long conference, the delegates will meet inspirational guest speakers including Norah Patten, an Irish aeronautical engineer and an award winning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) advocate from Ballina.

Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, said: "The conference gives young people the chance to not just learn from the speakers and facilitators, but to learn from each other in a fun and safe environment. This week is not only about creating new relationships and learning new skills; its about transforming as an individual. Im continually in awe of what young people can achieve when given the opportunity and its weeks like these that give them that opportunity."
EIGHT students and apprentices from Mayo will put their talents and knowledge to the test this September, when they compete the countrys largest experiential skills, apprenticeships, and careers event.

Taking place at the RDS, Dublin from September 20-22, Worldskills Ireland is expected to welcome over 22,000 people including students, parents and teachers, and will be a live celebration of apprenticeships, skills and careers with interactive demonstrations, career zones and employers who are ready to recruit.

Over 160 National Finalists will go head-to-head in a range of skills-based trades including automation, constructions skills and culinary arts.

Successful finalist will be in the with chance of winning the prestigious Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) Silver Medal and to represent Ireland at Worldskills Lyon next year.

Joining the other National Finalists from across the country are Mayo natives: Kieran Finnerty (Ballinrobe) who is competing in the Architectural Stonemasonry competition; James Igoe (Swinford), who is competing in the Automobile Technology competition; Cian McCluskey (Louisburgh), who is competing in the Carpentry competition; Kevin McHugh (Ballyhaunis), who is competing in the Construction Plant Fitting competition; Dawid Swierkowski and Aaron Tansey (Castlebar), are both competing in the Digital Infrastructure competition; Gary Golden (Swinford) is competing in the Industrial Mechanic competition and Patrick Kerrigan (Westport) is competing in the Joinery competition.

Supported by industry partners SISK, Construction Industry Federation (CIF), ESB Networks, Autodesk, Bus Eireann and Dublin Bus and education partners including the DFHERIS, the Higher Education Authority (HEA), SOLAS and NAO, Worldskills Ireland 2023 is designed to give students a chance to discover the key skills and sectors that drive the Irish economy.

Commenting on the announcement of 2023s National Finalists, Ray English, Worldskills Ireland Chair congratulated all the young people set to compete at the National Finals during Worldskills Ireland.

Mr English said that were were 'some incredibly talented young people in Ireland' who will go on to represent the country in Worldskills Lyon in France 2024.

"We believe that promoting apprenticeships and skills-based careers, we can create a brighter future for our young people whilst simultaneously progressing and evolving Irelands wider business economy," he said.

"This year it has been announced that Higher Options, the annual education expo for second level students run by The Irish Times in partnership with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, is joining forces with Worldskills Ireland 2023 to create a mega careers event for young people.

"We are dedicated to empowering and inspiring the next generation of skills professionals in Ireland and were excited to work alongside our partners to continue to elevate the perception of skills and apprenticeships throughout various sectors and industries."
HALF of Mayos 12 fire stations will remain closed over the coming days as part of ongoing strike action by the countrys retained firefighters.

Today (Tuesday, August 7), Claremorris, Kiltimagh, Ballina, Belmullet, Charlestown and Westport fire stations will be closed from 8am to 8pm, with the remainder scheduled to close on various days this week.

Fire services from the nearest station will continue to respond to all life-threatening situations.

Over the weekend, fire fighters in Westport had to attend a call in Ballyconneely in Galway while Clifden fire station was on strike.

Similarly, Westport firefighters responded to a call in Mulranny, which would normally be dealt with by crew from Achill, while yesterday evening (Monday) crew from Kiltimagh attended a car fire in Castlebar.

Las Friday, retained firefighters protested outside Mayo County Councils Castlebar offices to highlight their concerns.

This follows the rejection of a government offer that would see retained firefighters retainer payment rise by between 24 and 32 percent.

The deal came on foot of a Labour Court recommendation, which also recommended adding 400 more personnel to the retained service, changes to premium payments and the introduction of community-based fire prevention programmes.

Currently, retained firefighters earn 8,500 plus additional income per call. They must be within 2.5 kilometres of their station at all times except when taking annual leave.

Tom Ketterick, chairman of the National Association of Retained Firefighters (NRFA) national negotiating team, told The Mayo News yesterday evening (Monday) that there would be no de-escalation of industrial action in the coming days.

A meeting is to be held at SIPTU headquarters in Dublin tomorrow (Wednesday), where the possibility of an all-out strike will be considered.

Were not sure at the moment what the escalation will be because that has to be discussed, said Mr Ketterick.

Meanwhile, general election candidate Harry Barrett has called on Fianna Fail members of Mayo County Council to demand that Minister for Housing and Local Government, Darragh OBrien, swiftly reach a just and conclusive resolution with the Retained Firefighters regarding their ongoing pay dispute.

The former Labour Castlebar town councillor has called for the council to pass a motion advocating a fair and final settlement that reflects their hazardous responsibilities.

The ongoing dispute between retained firefighters and the Department of Housing and Local Government has been raised in the European Parliament by MEP Maria Walsh, who has called for minimum pay and conditions for firefighters across the EU.

Aontus Mayo representative and local election candidate Paul Lawless has also called for a resolution to the dispute, stating that Mayos fire service is on its knees.
by Ray Schultz , August 6, 2023

Sell-side ad firm Magnite has formed an integration with FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV advertising industry.

The goal is to enable media owners to manage their revenue streams holistically across programmatic and traditional direct sales, says Sean Buckley, chief revenue officer at Magnite.

FreeWheel will integrate programmatic requests from Magnite into its TV platform to provide its publisher clients with unified decisioning capabilities.

In addition, mutual publisher clients will have better insight into ad creative, frequency capping and holistic management across systems and sales execution types, the firm says.

By better integrating Magnites programmatic technology, we continue to execute on our goal of maximizing competition and demand for our clients inventory via unified ad decisioning within FreeWheels TV Platform, says Soo Jin Oh, chief strategy officer at FreeWheel.

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Warner Bros. Discovery is one client.

Efforts to drive interoperability and unify decisioning across demand sources are key to helping media companies manage inventory and optimize advertising solutions in an increasingly complex TV ecosystem, says Jill Steinhauser, senior vice president, advertising sales planning and operations at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Steinhauser adds: FreeWheel and Magnite are paving the way for greater interoperability and helping to solve for one of the industrys most pressing challenges.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, August 7, 2023

Multicultural advertising and agency pioneer Norma Orci, died on August 3.

Norma and her husband Hector Orci co-founded La Agencia de Orci in 1986, one of the first Hispanic-owned and operated agencies in the U.S.

advertisement advertisement One of the startup agencys first efforts was a government campaign to promote citizenship applications among undocumented immigrants. It later led first-of-its-kind multicultural initiatives for top global brands like Disney, Dole and Honda.

Historically, American brands and businesses lacked awareness of the Latino communitys presence in the U.S. and the Orcis fought tirelessly to change that.

When we founded the agency in 1986, one of our primary goals was to authentically engage with consumers. In order to do that, we designed a strategic approach called Share of Heart, which emphasizes showing appreciation and respect for them, Norma Orci once remarked about the firms principles.

Agency chairman Andrew Orci stated: My mother, Norma, built a legacy which we strive to stand up to every day, helping our industry grasp just how integral the Hispanic community is to our broader world, and helping them find authentic ways to communicate and engage. She ensured a focus on marketing that matters, considering not only our clients but also our consumers, communities, industry, and staff. Her legacy will undoubtedly live on in the hearts of all who had the privilege of working alongside her, and for that I will forever be grateful.

Orci started her career as a junior copywriter in 1976 at Noble & Asociados, Mexicos then-largest ad agency. From 1982-86 she was founding creative director of McCann's Hispanic Division, La Agencia de McCann-Erickson.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, August 7, 2023

California's privacy agency is appealing a trial judge's decision to delay enforcement of new data regulations until next March.

The delay is not supported by the laws text, and frustrates its purpose, the California Privacy Protection Agency wrote in a petition filed late Friday with the state Court of Appeal.

The agency added that the California Chamber of Commerce -- which sought the delay -- didn't show that its members were unable to comply with the new regulations.

The petition came one month after Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles granted the business group's request to delay enforcement on the grounds that companies are entitled to a 12-month period between the rules' finalization and enforcement. He ordered the agency to hold off on enforcement until March 29, 2024 -- 12 months after the rules were promulgated.

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The rules implement the Consumer Privacy Rights Act (also known as Proposition 24), which was passed as a ballot initiative in 2020.

That measure expanded on the 2018 California Privacy Protection Act.

Taken together, the two measures give consumers the right to tell companies not to share or sell their information for a host of purposes, including online behavioral advertising. Other sections of the Privacy Rights Act deal with topics including cybersecurity and risk assessments.

Earlier this year, the California business association sued to postpone the regulations' enforcement, arguing that Proposition 24 explicitly required the California Privacy Protection Agency to issue regulations by July 1, 2022, and provided that enforcement couldn't begin until July 1, 2023.

The business group argued that those dates effectively give companies a 12-month period to comply with new regulations.

The state Chamber argued that the agency's failure to issue rules until March 29 deprived businesses of the "one-year compliance grace period.

The organization added that the new rules can reasonably be expected to require significant operational work ... which Proposition 24 accounted for by giving businesses a year to prepare.

The California Privacy Protection Agency countered that delaying enforcement would thwart voter intent, and that the California Chamber had not shown how businesses would be prejudiced by allowing enforcement to begin in July.

The agency also argued that the rules finalized in March largely mirror regulations that were already in effect under the older California Privacy Protection Act.

The agency is now asking a state appeals court to vacate Arguelles' order.

Among other arguments, the agency says that while Proposition 24 sets out deadlines for regulations and compliance, it doesn't explicitly require a one-year grace period.

The measure does not contain any express language -- much less a clear, unequivocal mandate -- linking enforcement with the promulgation of regulations; it merely provides that enforcement shall not begin until July 1, 2023, and only for violations occurring on or after that date, the agency argues.

The agency also argued that the Chamber failed to present competent evidence that companies would be harmed by allowing enforcement to begin in July, and that businesses have been aware of the law's provisions since 2020.

In reality, businesses dealing heavily in consumers personal data ... have known of the laws new requirements since 2020, and had over three months to digest the regulations before enforcement was set to begin on July 1, 2023, the agency wrote.
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Brain's Social Reward Evaluation Circuit

Chemogenetic dissection of a prefrontal-hypothalamic circuit for socially subjective reward valuation in macaques - (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40143-x)

The research team from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS) decided to create awhich is involved in social reward valuation."We used a relatively new technique that is commonly known as DREADD, or 'designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug', in macaque monkeys," says senior author of the study Masaki Isoda."This method allowed us to temporarily block most of the connections from the brain's medial prefrontal cortex to the lateral hypothalamus."To test the effects of functionally disconnecting two regions of the monkeys' brains responsible for socially subjective reward valuation, the researchers used an existing experimental setup.Two monkeys were sat together and shown pictures on a screen. After seeing each picture, only one of the monkeys (or sometimes neither of the monkeys) received water as a reward.By varying the probability of reward for each monkey over a series of tests, the researchers were able to seeversus a reward for the other monkey (they made fewer licking motions)."Using this test, we were able to see the effects of disconnecting the medial prefrontal cortex from the lateral hypothalamus on the monkeys' expectations of rewards," says Isoda."We were excited to see that, with this disconnect, the monkeys were much less susceptible to the prospect of others receiving rewards, but that their expectations of a reward did not change, suggesting that this pathway is a key circuit in socially subjective reward valuation only."Together with recent research suggesting that the medial prefrontal cortex/lateral hypothalamus circuit is crucial for social rank information in mice, these results indicate that this circuit underlies many important social behaviors.A better understanding of this pathway will aid in theSource: Eurekalert
Airmen and Space Force Guardians can now request a mental health referral from their superiors and will be connected with a medical professional within one day under the Brandon Act.

The act was signed into law in December 2021 after a 21-year-old sailor died from suicide. The Department of the Air Force has now implemented the law -- the latest military branch to do so -- and troops in the two services can voluntarily request an immediate mental health referral from a commander or supervisor with a rank of E-6 or above.

"Service members may request a referral for any reason, including, but not limited to, personal distress, personal concerns or trouble performing their duties," the Air Force said in a Monday press release. "They are not required to provide a reason or basis for the referral."

Read Next: The Military Is Missing Recruitment Goals. Are Thousands Being Unnecessarily Disqualified?

Once notified, superiors will "contact the mental health clinic and request an appointment for the member the same or next day," the release said. That follow-up will be a face-to-face, telephone or telehealth appointment.

Unlike other mental health referrals, the new policy under the Brandon Act is initiated by the service member versus having a mandatory referral initiated by superiors, giving the rank and file some control over their situation.

The Department of the Air Force program is called "the Brandon Act -- The Commander/ Supervisor Facilitated Referral Program."

Active-duty airmen and Guardians can submit the mental health referral at any time and in any environment, including deployed areas, according to the press release. It also applies to service members in active-duty status as a member of the select Reserve, those assigned to a temporary duty station, or those on leave.

"It is mandatory for commanders and supervisors to honor a Brandon Act request," the Department of the Air Force said in the release.

The legislation is named for Brandon Caserta, a naval aircrew aviation electrician's mate assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 in Norfolk, Virginia. He died by suicide on June 25, 2018. According to his parents and a subsequent command investigation into his death, Caserta had been bullied by a supervisor and little was done to stop the abuse.

"The path for the Brandon Act has been long," Teri Caserta, mother of Petty Officer Caserta, said in the Air Force press release. "But as each military service implements the act, it has renewed our hope -- hope that these new rules will save the lives of those who are serving on our behalf."

Under a Defense Department directive issued in May, the services were to implement the policy within 45 days for active-duty members and then work to implement the policy for National Guard and reserve members.

The Department of the Air Force's public announcement is nearly two months past that May deadline.

Military.com reported last month that the Defense Department did not craft the policy in response to the law until this May. In that interim, 440 active-duty service members across the six armed forces died by suicide, according to records kept by the Pentagon and the Coast Guard.

The Navy and Marine Corps unveiled their new mental health measures under the Brandon Act last month.

In addition to the new mental health referral policy, the Air Force and Space Force are also developing training on recognizing when a service member might need mental health resources and how a member may obtain a Brandon Act referral that protects their privacy.

"Few things are more important than improving access to mental health," Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger Towberman said in the press release. "Every improvement matters.

Veterans and service members experiencing a mental health emergency can call the Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255, and via chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

Related: Navy, Marine Corps Roll Out 'Brandon Act' Policy to Improve Members' Access to Mental Health Treatment
The family of Pvt. Travis King is walking back claims that they have not been contacted by the Army since King went over to North Korea.

Jonathan Franks, a spokesman recently hired by the family, took responsibility for the shift in message, telling Military.com in a phone call Monday that "in the hectic end to the week, I got my wires crossed."

An Army spokesman told Military.com that the service was "confirming details with Travis' unit" but asserted it was "in regular contact with the family and endeavored to provide all possible information."

Read Next: Air Force, Space Force Offer New Mental Health Referrals Under Brandon Act

On Monday, Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, told Military.com that, since King crossed into North Korea, "an Army commander continues to communicate with [King's mother] via telephone several times a week."

Smith did not immediately provide additional details when asked by Military.com about the frequency of the phone calls, duration of each conversation, and the name of the Army commander.

"The questions that she has, like any mother would have, are probably pretty difficult for the military to answer at the moment," Franks said.

Although Franks readily took responsibility for the mismatch in statements, he also noted that the family has struggled with the amount of attention they've received from national media since the story of King's departure broke on July 18, 2023.

Four days ago, King's mother, Claudine Gates, and his uncle appeared on "Good Morning America," where she said she couldn't "function" or "think straight."

"I was sure that at the end of the week, the issue was the Army was calling and not getting an answer, and it turned out they've been calling," Franks said.

Meanwhile, questions swirl about whether the military will consider King a prisoner of war -- a designation that carries certain protections and entitlements under the Geneva Conventions.

Franks says that former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has negotiated with North Korea on numerous occasions and helped arrange prisoner releases from other countries, has agreed to help in their case.

It was only on Aug. 1 -- two weeks after King disappeared into the reclusive dictatorship -- that the Pentagon announced North Korea had acknowledged the United Nations Command's inquiries. But the Pentagon's top spokesman, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, told reporters at the time that he didn't have "any substantial progress to read out."

Last week, Reuters reported that U.S. officials have yet to confer the status on King, citing his decision to cross into North Korea of his own free will and in civilian attire.

Speaking with reporters Monday, Ryder said that granting King that status is just one possibility -- there are others.

"That's all still under discussion right now," Ryder said, before noting that "the primary goal right now is just ensuring that Pvt. King is OK, that he's being taken care of."

A defense official told Military.com that they expect King to be treated humanely, in accordance with international law.

-- 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.

Related: Frustration and Questions Swirl for Family of Soldier Who Ran into North Korea
A Florida man was rescued 12 miles offshore in a partially submerged 12-foot-long boat after he'd been missing for nearly two days, the U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday.

Charles Gregory, 25, was spotted Saturday by an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew in the sea off St. Augustine. They'd been looking since his family reported him missing on Friday.

Gregory had last been seen the night before when he left the boat ramp.

He was pulled from a half-sunken jon boat, a flat-bottomed skiff usually made of aluminum with a few bench seats and no shade. Gregory apparently was not carrying any kind of gear. Rescue crews told WJXT-TV that Gregoy had a buoyant cushion with him but no life jacket. Though he had a cell phone, it did not pick up his location, authorities said. They surmised that he had drifted north after being swept out to sea from the inlet.

He was taken to a nearby pier for a medical evaluation, and "no medical concerns were reported," the coast guard said.

Numerous agencies and even private citizens stepped up to help search, with everything from drones to boats to paddleboards. That included an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew, two response boats and an 87-foot coast guard patrol boat. The St. Johns County Sheriff's Office and Fire Rescue, the St. Augustine fire and police departments and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission aided in the search, the coast guard said.

Cmdr. Nick Barrow, the Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville search and rescue mission coordinator, expressed gratitude that the story flagged the ordeal as a cautionary tale.

"We are pleased about the outcome in this case and I would like to thank all of our local and state partners who were heavily involved in searching for Charles and bringing him home to his family," Barrow said.

"While this case resulted in rescuing Charles from a life-threatening situation, it highlights the importance of having safety gear onboard and being prepared for the worst. If you plan to head out on the water, remember to have a life jacket, VHF marine grade radio, signaling devices and an emergency personal locator beacon to contact first responders in case you are in need of assistance."

 2023 New York Daily News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A soldier with extensive family in the region went missing in action after becoming a prisoner of war during the Korean War 73 years ago.

But a relative from Lynwood donated her DNA in the hope of identifying his remains and it paid off.

Army Sgt. Cresenciano "Chano" Garcia Jr. was at last identified, bringing closure to his family who were long left to wonder about his fate.

The soldier from Laredo, Texas, died during a death march during the Korean War. He's being returned to his family, who will have a celebration of life in Gary in September before a burial next to his parents in Texas in October.

"He was the youngest of five kids. There's some discrepancy when he joined the army but it's believed he was 17 years old because his dad had to sign for him," said relative Sandy Strong from Lynwood. "About 90% of his family is here in the Region."

Three of his sisters moved from the border town in Texas to East Chicago and his family has since fanned out across the Region. He now has family in East Chicago, Hammond, Highland, Griffith, Portage, Cedar Lake, Lake of the Four Seasons and Lynwood just across the state line in Illinois.

"That's partly what led him to join the Army," said Strong, who was Garcia's niece. "It was out of spite. My mom moved to East Chicago and he wanted to move up here with her but his parents wouldn't allow him to move away so he joined the Army."

He enlisted while the Korean War was raging and went to basic training at Fort Lewis in Washington. Garcia was deployed to Korea with Headquarters Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in 1950. He was reported missing in action during a battle by Kunu-ri in South Korea in December of that year.

He wrote regular letters to his grandmother, which the family still has and kept in sequential order. She feared something was amiss when the letters stopped coming and then grim-faced soldiers in uniform showed up on their doorstep one day with grave news.

His remains were not recovered. He was officially declared dead in February of 1951 in POW Camp 5 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"He was in North Korea in a river by China on a death walk. One witness saw him drop on the side of the road and another saw he was too weak to carry on. They had visual confirmation when he fell dead on the side of the road."

He died a corporal and was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

Strong was in Washington D.C. on union business for the United Steelworkers union back in 2006 with Garcia's sister and mother. They decided to donate their DNA for a potential match even though they thought there was a slim to none chance he would ever be identified.

"Flash forward to this year and we were told it was a 99.9% DNA match and they had found his remains," she said. "They had a whole slideshow. It looked like an NCIS-type thing. It was an amazing miracle. They found 90% of his body, including his skull, femur and jawbone. We broke down crying at the Army riding to see the skeletal remains laid out in the photos. It brings it full circle. I've heard his name over the years and never had the chance to meet him but this brought him to life. I'm glad my blood gave closure to the family. When he was buried DNA wasn't available."

He died young. He never got the chance to marry or have children.

But his memory lives on in the family.

Strong still has three Mexican coins Garcia obtained as a souvenir on a trip across the border and gave to a friend before he deployed to war. The friend held onto them after learning of Garcia's death and eventually gave them to the family.

Garcia was presumed missing but turned out to have actually been buried anonymously on U.S. soil for well over a half-century.

North Korea and the United States reached an agreement to exchange war dead in 1954. Garcia's remains were sent to the United States but were never identified.

He was buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, colloquially known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii in 1956.

"Since the 1980s the Army has been working to identify all the remains they found in the Punchbowl," she said "They've got boxes of bones with numbers."

His remains were exhumed in 2019 for more testing. A historian and forensic anthropologist determined the remains might be Garcia so they were sent to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory for dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

A rosette will be placed by his name at the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Honolulu. A celebration of life will take place from noon until 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the United Steelworkers Union's McBridge Hall at 1301 Texas St. in Gary. At least 500 people are expected to turn out.

"It's a ceremony for family members who can't get down to Laredo. The military will be putting on services when he gets to his final resting place," said relative Joe Perez, a union leader for the International Longshoremen Association at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. "I've heard a lot of stories about him, that he was a very handsome, very honorable and very prideful man. It's a great feeling to have some closure. My aunt donated her DNA to the military database and gave us an opportunity to get some closure."

The public is welcome to attend the ceremony, which will include taps and a 21-gun salute from a local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter.

He will be buried in Laredo, Texas, on Oct. 14.

His nephew Rolando Vera said the family was given the choice of leaving him in the Punchbowl, having him buried at Arlington National Cemetery or having him buried at any military post in the country. They opted to bury him with his parents in his hometown.

Vera, who lives in Laredo, remembers going with his mother frequently to a monument downtown for the Korean MIA/POW. He was so young he didn't initially grasp the concept.

"Everybody was holding out hope at some point he would be located," he said. "My mother, his sister, read a newspaper article in the local paper in the 1970s about POW/MIAs who survived by somehow blending in with the natives. It's been a long road for the last 73 years. But he's finally getting a military funeral."

After a suburban Houston newspaper article suggested it, Vera is looking into getting a local school in Texas named after Garcia. Laredo is in the process of building four elementary schools to try to keep up with population growth there.

"The article said he would be somebody deserving of having a school named after him and he was a true hero," he said. "It's been an amazing journey and there's been quite a bit of interest. I'm just blown away by all the interest being shown by people who didn't know him but admired him for being patriotic."

Strong hopes that by sharing her story more people related to POW/MIAs will consider donating their DNA in the hope of finding a match.

"I've been asked to consider going to conventions to share my story," she said. "It's been so moving, the miracle of it. We thought there was no chance of identifying him but you never know. There are thousands who still need to be identified. More people giving their blood would probably help."

(c) 2023 The Times (Munster, Ind.)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Some military recruiters are skipping a screening process meant to flag whether applicants looking to enlist have affiliations with gangs or extremist groups, the Pentagon's internal watchdog has found.

In a sample of 224 recruits from 2021 to 2022, 41% of applicants were not properly interviewed about affiliation with radical groups or gangs, while 12% did not have their tattoos properly examined, according to a Defense Department inspector general report released to the public Monday.

The news comes as the services confront an unprecedented recruiting crisis and recruiters face immense pressure to meet quotas and get a shrinking pool of eligible applicants to sign up. At the same time, the Pentagon has grappled with how to root out extremists from the military ranks as the threat of violence from extremist groups -- and members with military backgrounds -- has ballooned in the U.S.

Read Next: Army's New Enlisted Leader: The Bet a Green Beret Can Lead the Rank and File

"As a result of not completing required applicant screening steps, military service recruiters may not have identified all applicants with extremist or criminal gang associations during the screening process, increasing the potential for future security risks and disruptions to good order, morale and discipline," the IG said in a statement.

Recruiters are expected to do a broad interview with applicants, mostly to determine whether anything in their background could compromise their ability to serve. But when it comes to extremist or gang affiliation, most of that is self-reported.

The military's vetting process generally does not go deeper than an applicant's criminal background and an unobtrusive questionnaire.

However, as part of the process, recruiters are supposed to identify whether applicants' tattoos comply with policy. Each service has generally relaxed rules for tattoos, but they draw the line at anything obscene, discriminatory, or referencing radical ideologies or gangs.

Tattoos can be an indication of membership in extremist groups, such as the National Socialist Movement or the Atomwaffen Division, two neo-Nazi white supremacist groups that are active in the U.S.

However, there is a wide and ever-changing range of extremist groups, meaning numerous logos and potential tattoos referencing them. Obscure references could skate by any examinations. If a tattoo is in question, the applicant self-reports what its meaning is.

Social media activity -- where members of extremist groups may often expose their beliefs -- is also a weak point of military enlistment vetting.

There is no broad Pentagon policy to vet an applicant's social media, which could provide the military with important indicators. But such an effort could also be a minefield by attempting to train midlevel noncommissioned officers on complex indicators of radicalism.

Experts have increasingly warned that those with a military background can serve as force multipliers for radical groups as extremist threats of violence and attack plots have proliferated in recent years. Also, even the most basic military training -- including mission planning, weapons maintenance and simple combat maneuvers -- can be useful to those extremist groups.

Spc. Killian Ryan, an 82nd Airborne Division soldier, was arrested in August last year and later kicked out of the Army.

Ryan claimed to have joined the military to become proficient at killing Black people, according to one social media post he wrote in May 2021, two weeks after he enlisted in the service. His personal email address was "NaziAce1488," a reference to Adolf Hitler and white supremacy.

In the past 30 years, Americans with a military background have killed 314 people in extremist activity and injured another 1,978, according to a congressional report.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: An Accused White Nationalist Is Serving in the Montana Guard Despite Efforts Against Extremism
NIAMEY, Niger -- Leaders of West Africa's regional bloc said Monday that they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after Niger's military junta defied a deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.

State television reported the junta's latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted "the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country," and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with "an energetic and immediate response."

The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger's population to defend the nation.

The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendancy was Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa's Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbors of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

The Associated Press saw several security officers from Burkina Faso at a hotel in Niger's capital.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state.

Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigeria's Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

Guinea and neighboring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal's government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc's efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

The junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

U.S. officials say they are still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was Monday.

Two officials said the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden intends to maintain both a diplomatic and military presence in Niger for the foreseeable future.

The administration is still weighing whether the developments amount to a coup, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic discussions. They said there was still time for Niger's military leaders to reverse course.

If the U.S. determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid.

Since the coup, extremists have been ecstatic because they are able to move around more freely without fear of attack, Boubacar Moussa, a former jihadi fighter, told the AP. He had joined a nationwide program that encourages fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The program's fate is unclear.

Moussa said he's received at least 10 phone calls from active jihadis in the Tillaberi region near the Mali border who said there's been no concern about airstrikes. If there's a military intervention by ECOWAS, they likely will attack the capital, Niamey, he said.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

"We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed," Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, rallygoers beheaded a chicken decorated in the colors of former colonizer France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended almost $500 euros ($550 million) in aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 U.S. military personnel also in Niger.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

"While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn't intervene. Is it now that they will intervene?" said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. "Shame on ECOWAS."

Associated Press writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
MANILA, Philippines  The Philippine government summoned China's ambassador on Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guards use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.

The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan expressed support to the Philippines and concern over the Chinese actions. Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if Philippine public vessels and forces come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference on Monday at which they showed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal. One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons. Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

This was like a David and Goliath situation, Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

Malaya emphasized that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said China's ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas, Daza said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorization into the shoal, which Beijing calls Ren'ai Jiao. It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

In order to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective, water cannons were used as a warning. The on-site operation was professional and restrained, which is beyond reproach, the Chinese coast guard said. China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty."

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still-commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that invalidated its claims in 2016 by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejects that ruling and continues to defy it.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Sunday that by firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, (Chinese) ships interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It added that such actions are a direct threat to regional peace and stability."

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often criticized Chinas aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says are in Americas national interest.

China has told the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.
Homeless and at-risk veterans in central Florida will soon have easier access to medical care through a new program that brings a clinic to them.

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week that it will deploy mobile medical units to 25 cities across the country in the next six months to provide services to unhoused veterans and others who face difficulties getting to a VA medical center or clinic.

The first, a Ford F-550 unit, arrived in Orlando, Florida, last week, while the second, a Sprinter unit, will go to Oklahoma City on Sept. 1. Los Angeles, the city with the largest population of unhoused veterans in the U.S. -- an estimated 1,500 -- is expected to get the third unit.

Read Next: Air Force, Space Force Offer New Mental Health Referrals Under Brandon Act

The remaining mobile units will roll to their destinations through February 2024, according to the VA.

The clinics are designed to move to different locations to provide medical care and services to unhoused and at-risk veterans, including primary care, women's health, mental health, laboratory tests and audiology.

More than 33,000 veterans are homeless in the U.S., and thousands more are at risk for losing their homes or being on the streets as the result of financial difficulties or unstable living conditions, such as residing temporarily with friends or family.

The mobile medical units, provided as part of the department's Homeless Patient Aligned Care Teams program, help ease the challenges these veterans face when needing health care.

"Veterans experiencing homelessness face a variety of barriers to accessing health care, including a lack of transportation," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement released Thursday. "With these new mobile medical units, homeless and at-risk veterans don't have to visit VA hospitals -- we come right to them."

According to results of the 2022 "Point-In-Time," or PIT, count, roughly 33,136 of the nation's estimated 582,000 homeless persons are veterans. The estimate is based on a count conducted by volunteers on a single day in January and is not considered a full accounting of the nation's homeless, given that it does not include those living in hotels or temporarily staying in someone else's house. However, the count is considered the primary source of nationwide data on homelessness.

The VA has made abolishing homelessness among veterans a priority. In 2022, it housed 40,401 veterans, exceeding a goal it set for the year by more than 2,000 veterans.

The department also helped keep 17,700 veterans in their homes last year and prevented 191,700 veteran families from losing their homes as the result of financial difficulties.

According to the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, homelessness among veterans in the counties surrounding Orlando increased by 27% during the 2023 PIT count to 189 individuals.

The new mobile medical van will help these former service members and soon others in 18 states.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com.

Related: Homelessness Among Veterans Down 11% Since Start of Pandemic
The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.

The renaming of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, mandated by Congress and formalized in a ceremony in June, was an opportunity to remind not only the installation's current and future troops and families, but also the country, of the social value of our Army. In selecting the name "Liberty," the Pentagon wasted an opportunity.

The shedding of the base's Confederate namesake was appropriate and overdue and the Department of Defense should be lauded for its aggressive movement. The installation's leadership had an opportunity to name the post after a legendary figure from its grand heritage. The editorial board of the Fayetteville Observer, the daily local paper that has been covering Fort Bragg since its inception, advocated for "Fort Ridgway."

Gen. Matthew Ridgway's role in the desegregation of United Nations forces fighting in Korea, a move that was remarkably unpopular with soldiers and generals across the Army, remains an underexamined moment in American history. It was a bold move that had momentous ramifications for society at large for decades to come. The process shamed the Army into belatedly and begrudgingly acting on President Harry Truman's military desegregation order of 1948. The ceremonial process of renaming one of the nation's most celebrated bases could have brought Ridgway's courageous decision into current discussion, even if just for a brief moment.

Or choosing to go with "Fort Porter," in honor of Capt. James Porter, the original commander of the all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, could have brought national attention to the inspiring story of "the Triple Nickles." The paratroopers of the Triple Nickles performed so admirably in their wartime mission during World War II that they were integrated into all-white units on Fort Bragg one year prior to Truman's desegregation order.

By contrast, "Liberty" offers no such reflection. It is a banal bromide that can mean virtually anything to anyone. It's lazy. It's safe. It treats our most fabled institution as a mere commodity. It's the equivalent of naming the installation Fort Blue or Fort 1234567. The new name was immediately and intensely unpopular with veterans and currently serving soldiers. To avoid offending anyone, the leadership disappointed everyone.

Naming streets, schools and military bases after historic figures is an endeavor soaked in risk: No figure in American history can be classified as purely "good." Not MLK, JFK, Lincoln, Washington. Not Eisenhower, Grant, Pershing.

No, we are inward-seeking, complicated creatures; legacies are messy, particularly when past actions are weighed against present social mores. With enough publicly available information, all heroic figures come under criticism. This is true of Ridgway. It's also the reason we should honor the humanity, the moments of golden triumph and examples of compassion that men and women like him gave us.

"Liberty" is a lifeless, bloodless platitude -- any installation in America could fit the sobriquet. The Home of the Airborne and Special Operations, the installation established to form an American artillery force for our first global war and then restructured in the Cold War by Lt. Gen. Ridgely Gaither as an experimentation center for a rapid-deployment force, deserves better. It deserves a name commensurate with its history, lineage and legacy, a name befitting the soldiers who've served there for decades and will serve there for decades to come.

-- Joe Buccino is a retired U.S. Army colonel, writer and the director of Grave of Bulkington Media. He resides in Washington, D.C.
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Twenty years before the Navy would make use of her extraordinary knowledge of the sea, Mary Sears was an undergraduate at Radcliffe College. There, she spent most days at Harvards Museum of Comparative Zoology, studying marine invertebrates. Sears, then a short, bespectacled, and unassuming young woman of twenty-two, was enamored with the work she was doing. She was a born scientist, fascinated by amphibiansfrogs and salamanders in particularfrom a young age. In her youth, she frequently waded into Heard Pond of Wayland, Massachusetts, where she grew up, looking for critters.

By 1933, her childhood love of amphibians had blossomed into a career, culminating in a doctorate from Radcliffe, her third degree from the institution, with a dissertation titled Migration of Pigment in Frogs Eyes. While completing her doctoral work, she had studied under the most celebrated oceanographic scholars, including her advisor, Henry Bryant Bigelow, and other men who were building the oceanographic field from the ground up. The fields growth was also being spurred by the Navys interest in it, since the sea-based services realized they would be major beneficiaries of a deeper and more scientific understanding of the ocean, especially as the crisis in Europe and the Pacific unfolded.

By the time the Navy was deep into its planning for amphibious assaults in the Pacific, Sears had moved to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she was working with a small but growing number of oceanographers. The Harvard Yacht Club, as the WHOI team was known, was being propelled by a gifted, creative, and motivated band of scientists, of which Sears was a central figure. While there, she had made a name for herself, and the Navy took notice.

By the end of 1942, the Navys Hydrographic Office (Hydro) had gutted WHOI of its most talented scientists to assist them in coordinating the expanding oceanographic research and in creating the maritime charts for the Pacific campaigns. Sears had been recruited from WHOI in December 1942 by the head of the Hydro, and by February she had been appointed as an officer in the WAVES and posted there.

The office was responsible for creating and distributing up-to-date navigational charts to afford the maximum possible navigational safety and facilities to ships on the sea and to aircraft operating over sea routes. This special mission, which the office had been doing since 1866, had suddenly become much more urgent and demanding with the onset of hostilities. The uptick in Navy activity in the Pacific threatened to overwhelm Hydro as it struggled to keep up with the demand for new, detailed, and accurate navigational charts and memoranda to guide the transport and invasion forces scattered across the sea and sky.

By the time Sears arrived on the scene, Hydro had been moved under the Chief of Naval Operations, a reflection of its growing importance in the unfolding war in the Pacific. Personnel had grown somewhere between two hundred to five hundred percent for months, and 13 million charts and publications had been printed in 1942 alone. Most Hydro sections were working in two shifts to provide near-constant coverage, and where possible they had three. But the demands never ceased, and Hydro had trouble retaining personnel as their civil service staff was lured away by job opportunities in the military and industrial sectors. They began requesting the Navys personnel and resources to fill the gap.

Midway through the war, however, nearly every Navy office was competing to fill personnel gaps. Hydro stood little chance of securing the complement of trained, low-ranking, enlisted men they had requested to help meet their requirements. Instead, the Navy offered them seven officers and ten enlisted women from the WAVES.

The WAVES quickly proved their worth. Within a month, Hydros air navigation branch requested ten more WAVES; a year later, Hydro estimated it needed three hundred. The women worked as stenographers, draftsmen, IBM operators, lithographers, and multilith operators, and often trained on the job for more advanced tasks. Karen Berkey, for instance, was among the WAVES assigned to Hydro. She had been selected for her artistic skills, which were critical for creating the highly classified naval and aviation maps used by sailors and airmen in the Pacific. In a letter home, she noted that she could not share much about her work given its highly classified nature: Im not allowed to say much about what Im doing because its too vital and important and secretive, but she did confide that she had been assigned one of the most difficult art jobs in the unit, adding, I confess I was terrified at all of the complications. Every member of the Hydro team, from Sears to Berkey, knew the work they were doing, no matter how technical or tedious, was essential to Allied progress in the Pacific.

Within six months of her arrival, Sears was promoted to director of the Oceanographic Unit, having been handpicked to oversee the ceaseless requests for oceanographic intelligence that swamped the office. Working with a combined section of Army and Navy personnel, she and her staff were charged with helping the Navy figure out where to land their ships. In view of the probability of amphibious operations in many theaters, read a joint Army and Navy intelligence study, it is of importance to compile and disseminate, as soon as possible, information on average sea and swell conditions, surf characteristics, tides, tidal and other currents, bottom material, probable underwater sound conditions and similar data. They secured that information from Sears.

On paper, their task seemed straightforward: translate academic oceanographic studies into useful insights for military commanders planning their operations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Sears and her team were asked for, and expected to provide, information on ocean currents, wave and tide predictions, amphibious landing sites, and presence of propeller-fouling kelp or bioluminescent marine life. But the group lacked up-to-date information for many of the requests they received, forcing them to rely on whatever material they could obtain, pulled from all kinds of sources. Whether it be a fifty-year-old Dutch publication, a prewar Japanese survey published in an academic journal, information collected by a Navy survey vessel, or, in some cases, pure guesswork, Sears and her team were expected to use the limited information they had to provide accurate predictions.

Even in the face of these constraints, however, Sears and her team found ways to provide surprisingly precise assessments for naval commanders. Having spent her entire career developing the field of oceanography from scratch, Sears was accustomed to challenges like the one facing the Navy, and she thrived in the environment. Searss first project, a study of the drift of debris and small rafts in the Atlantic and Pacific undertaken at the behest of Congress and completed entirely on her own, became the authoritative guide for rescuing pilots, crews, and ships that crashed or were sunk in naval combat and oversea flying. The intelligence provided by Sears and her team was not perfect, but it was far better than the paltry information that the Navy had relied on in the early days of the war, and the demand for her teams reports only grew.

As Searss team and know-how expanded, her work became increasingly consequential. By 1944, Hydro was working on joint intelligence reports that broke down the key characteristics of military targets across the Pacificincluding Sakhalin, the Kurils, Hokkaido, Palau, the Marianas, Java, Makassar Strait, Cam Ranh Bay, and the Singapore Straitall areas the US Navy planned to land or transit in during the next two years. These comprehensive reports took up most of her teams time and focus, but Sears also recalled having to divert attention to urgent matters on the fly, often after a meeting of the combined British and American leadership. These quick-turn taskings were sometimes so secretive that only Sears was cleared to work on them, but she never failed to complete the expert analysis, even if it meant she worked overnight, alone, and exhausted.

The WAVES assigned to Searss unit were inspired by her expertise and dedication, and eagerly followed her example. Searss late nights and relentless pursuit of the answers to seemingly impossible requests told the WAVES at Hydro everything they needed to know about what would be expected of them. It does feel good, wrote Berkey in a letter home, to know my work is essential, that an error on my part would be drastic, and that my good work means victory is that much closer.

That is absolutely all I can say about Hydro, she warned.

Excerpted from the book Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II by Lena Andrews. Copyright  2023 by Lena Andrews. From Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.

Lena Andrews is a military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. A Boston native, she received her Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in international relations and security studies. She has spent more than a decade in foreign policy, having previously worked at the RAND Corporation and United States Institute of Peace. Lena lives in Washington, DC with her husband and son, and is always looking for fresh takes on old stories. Valiant Women is her first book
ALLEN PARK -- Bruce Hector, a former Detroit Lions defensive lineman who appeared in three games across two seasons, will sign with the New York Jets.

NFL Network reports Hector will sign with the Jets after visiting the New York Giants late last week.

The 27-year-old appeared in those three games during the 2021 campaign, notching five tackles across 52 snaps. Before landing in Detroit, he appeared in 11 games including one start across two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Related: Jameson Williams among 5 things to watch in Lions-Giants practices this week

Related: Ex-Detroit Lions fourth-round DL pick signs with Miami Dolphins

Hector has also spent time with the Arizona Cardinals, Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers. He was last spotted with the Arlington Renegades of the XFL. He started all 10 games while with the Renegades, notching 16 tackles.

The interior defender played his college ball at the University of South Florida before going undrafted in 2018. Hector had 28 tackles for loss and 18 sacks in three seasons for the Bulls. Now, hell compete for a roster spot in New York.
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.

2023 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, MI  A man and his dog were shot Sunday afternoon in a Michigan mobile home community, WDIV Local 4 reports.

After the shooting, the suspect barricaded himself in his mothers mobile home at Van Buren Estates in Van Buren Township, police said. It happened around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday. Police were on the scene within seconds as they had been patrolling the area due to a fatal shooting that occurred Friday.

The mobile home park was ordered to shelter-in-place until about 1:30 p.m. while police negotiated with the barricaded gunman, police said. He eventually came out and was arrested. Police believe he is also responsible for the fatal shooting on Friday. His identity has not been released.

The man who was shot Sunday was hospitalized, police said. His dog was taken to a local animal hospital for treatment of a graze wound.

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HOUGHTON, MICH. -- The National Park Service is seeking public comment on some proposed changes to the wilderness experience at Isle Royale National Park.

The park service recently released a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed new wilderness stewardship plan at the park, which would include a range of potential changes to managing the parks wilderness and cultural resources. A public comment period is currently open through September 26 to gauge interest in the proposals.

The remote national park  an island archipelago in Lake Superior  is one of the least-visited national park properties in the entire U.S. Most of its roughly 133,000 acres is currently managed as wilderness under a general management plan drafted in 1998.

RELATED: How to plan a day trip to Michigans remote Isle Royale National Park

The new draft plan includes three alternatives that would focus on different visitor experiences in the wilderness:

Alternative A, a no-action alternative, would involve no changes to the parks current management. According to park officials, this plan does not include an overarching wilderness stewardship component nor formal priority for the parks historic structures.

Alternative B focuses on enhancing wilderness character largely by improving visitor access. Some of the proposed changes under this alternative include increasing group camping size limit from 10 to 12 people, allowing advance reservations for 85% of campsites and for backcountry permits, and creating two new wilderness campgrounds, on Wright Island and Johns Island, to provide more opportunities for boaters, kayakers and canoers. The parks current annual winter closure from October 31 through April 15 would remain, but would be reevaluated if open water existed during 100% of the winter season for at least five consecutive years.

Alternative C also seeks to enhance wilderness character, but by improving solitude for visitors. Some of the proposed changes under this option include reducing the number of campsites, eliminating some trails, implementing a camping reservation system, creating a more primitive feel by removing shelters, picnic tables and other structures from wilderness areas, and reducing visitor encounters with large groups by decreasing day use group size and eliminating commercial use within the wilderness. This alternative would also open up winter access to the park.

Liz Valencia, Isle Royales manager of interpretation and cultural resources, said the details within these proposed alternatives were drafted after a public comment period last year, during which more than 1,000 comments and suggestions were submitted.

After this current public comment period, a new management plan will be finalized early in 2024, after which any changes would be implemented in steps, she said.

The draft Wilderness Stewardship Plan outlining the three alternatives can be downloaded here.

Comments may be submitted online here or by mailing or hand delivering comments to Superintendent, Isle Royale National Park, Wilderness Stewardship Plan, 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton, MI, 49931. The comment period ends September 26.

More information at nps.gov/isro/index.htm.

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ANN ARBOR, MI -- Ann Arbor police will become the first department in Michigan to use artificial intelligence to analyze body camera footage.

The Ann Arbor Police Department has signed on with Truleo, which uses AI to analyze body camera footage taken by law enforcement, according to a release from the company.

This technology is tremendously exciting, and were looking forward to seeing the positive effects Truleo has on our department and the public, said Ann Arbor Interim Chief Aimee Metzer in a statement. We hope more departments in Michigan see the positive change this technology will bring to us.

Truleo uses AI to automatically detect uses of force, pursuits, frisks and other incidents caught by body camera footage, as well as listens to officers language. It then converts the footage into searchable insights.

The AI filters out data that could identify a resident, as well any civilian speech, according to Truleo.

We are proud to be working with the Ann Arbor Police Department, and are looking forward to seeing the improvements that the command staff and officers will be able to make with this new technology, said Anthony Tassone, CEO and co-founder of Truleo, in a statement announcing the partnership.

Ann Arbor is the first Michigan police department to use the technology, Tassone said in the release.

The Ann Arbor Police Department first decided to use body cameras in 2014 after the fatal shooting of 40-year-old Aura Rosser by an Ann Arbor police officer. The city approved replacing the cameras in 2019.

It is unclear exactly when the department will roll out the use of Truleo. The Ann Arbor Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

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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HOUSTON, Tex. - Former tenured University of Michigan opera professor David Daniels and his husband pleaded guilty in Texas court to sexually assaulting another man.

Daniels, 57, and Scott Walters, 40, were initially charged with first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault, Texas court records show.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Some Ann Arbor parents are asking for Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice Swift to resign in connection with a lawsuit alleging a special education student was abused on a school bus and the district did not review footage of the incident for five weeks.

The online letter dated Aug. 5 and signed by nearly 100 Ann Arbor parents stated that many of our special education families have not felt safe in our district for some time while asking for a change in leadership to move the district forward.

We are aghast to learn that, for a five week period, AAPS failed to notify the parent of a special education student that their child was abused while in school care, the letter states. This is unacceptable and we demand change. Safety of the children is the fundamental responsibility of a district, which is foundationally shaped by its leadership. This child was in peril, and the district chose to protect itself instead of him. We expect better.

Former Ann Arbor School Board members believe the current board is moving to oust Swift because of the lawsuit after the board scheduled a special meeting for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7.

The meeting was added to the boards schedule on Sunday, Aug. 6, though it is unclear what will be discussed. An agenda shows only a closed session for the purpose of attorney-client privilege and does not list any personnel actions.

Ahead of the meeting, 11 former Ann Arbor school board members submitted an open letter to MLive/The Ann Arbor News expressing support for Swift, who has been with the district since 2013.

In the letter, former board members lauded Swifts performance as superintendent from their time on the board, while also criticizing the current school board for not understanding how to achieve legislative transparency, effective meeting management, or due process.

Discussion by a quorum toward a decision outside of an official meeting is a clear violation of the Open Meetings Act, and to which this Boards behavior seems to point, the letter signed by former board members Bryan Johnson, Jessica Kelly, Donna Lasinski, Rebecca Lazarus, Simone Lightfoot, Patricia Manley, Harmony Mitchell, Deb Mexicotte, Glenn Nelson, Christine Stead and Andy Thomas alleges.

Executive sessions are the proper venue for personnel matters, followed by a well-publicized board meeting with public comment and well-managed discussion. All employees, even those who are at-will, need and deserve full due process and professional courtesy.

Johnson, a former president of the board, said he plans to support Swift during the meeting, noting that he believes there are potential legal implications to the board making or discussing decisions like the removal of a superintendent outside of an open meeting.

At the very least she deserves a dignified process and not kind of a backdoor decision thats made that could hurt her career, Johnson said.

RELATED: Autistic boys assault on Ann Arbor school bus wasnt reported to parent for 5 weeks, lawsuit alleges

AAPS Board President Rima Mohammad said she could not address the allegations of the former AAPS board members letter, but noted the board follows the Open Meetings Act and the advice of legal counsel when it comes to all issues.

Unfortunately, theres a lot of inaccuracies when it came to that letter, Mohammad said Monday.

Mohammad declined to confirm whether she anticipates any action being taken regarding Swifts employment status during Mondays meeting.

Swift declined to comment Monday.

The meeting comes less than two weeks after a parent alleged that her autistic son was physically and verbally abused by an Ann Arbor Public Schools bus aide in 2021, and the district did not review footage of the incident for five weeks, forcing the child to face his abuser, according to a federal lawsuit filed on July 26.

The lawsuit was filed July 26 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by Jamie Nelson-Molnar. She alleges the school district, Carpenter Elementary School Principal Michael Johnson and Durham Transportation sent her child onto the bus where he was assaulted by bus aide Rochanda Jefferson. The lawsuit does not name Swift or list her as a defendant.

The lawsuit alleges that surveillance footage of the abuse was immediately available to AAPS and Durham, but for reasons unknown, the footage was not reviewed for five weeks. Nelson-Molnar only learned of the physical abuse through a teacher who broke ranks to tell the truth, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that Pittsfield Township Police Detective Kyle Erskine called Nelson-Molnar on March 15, 2022, to inform her that an incident regarding her son was reported to CPS and that assault charges would be referred to the prosecutors office, which criminally charged Jefferson with child abuse. On June 28, 2023, Jefferson was found guilty of child abuse in a bench trial, the lawsuit states.

Video shows Jefferson repeatedly hit the boy while he he was restrained in the harness as he continued to scream, the lawsuit alleges.

The next day, on Dec. 15, 2021, multiple Carpenter students told AAPS staff they saw Jefferson hit the boy on the bus, the lawsuit alleges, reporting the incident to at least one teacher and one social worker.

On Dec. 16, the boys teacher contacted Johnson about the assault reported by the students, expressing her sincere concerns that the bus aide was allowed to continue on the bus with Nelson-Molnars son and other children with disabilities, the lawsuit states.

On Jan. 19, 2022, five weeks after the alleged first assault, Johnson admitted to Nelson-Molnar that there had been two incidents on the bus, according to the lawsuit. AAPS, Johnson and Durham still resisted disclosing details and simply transferred Jefferson to another bus, attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.

Ann Arbor Public Schools hired Swift in 2013. She previously served as assistant superintendent of instruction, curriculum and student services for Colorado Springs School District 11.

During her time as superintendent, Swift led the school district through successfully passing a $33 million bond in 2015, an increase and extension of the districts sinking fund millage in May 2017 and a $1 billion capital bond in 2019.

Swift was named Michigans 2018 Superintendent of the Year by the Michigan Association of School Administrators.

Swift has been a finalist for superintendent positions in recent years, including this past spring, when she was one of three finalists for the superintendent job with Northshore Public Schools in Bothell, Washington. In 2018, Swift was a finalist for the Seattle Public Schools position. A year later, Swift was named as one of three finalists for Michigans superintendent of education position.

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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SALINE, MI -- A man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in Saline last week has been charged with murder.

Barry Garza, 58, was arraigned before Magistrate Tamara Garwood in the 14A District Court on Saturday, Aug. 5, on charges of open murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm. Garza is accused of fatally shooting Amber Jo Thomas, 40, and injuring an unnamed 67-year-old male acquaintance.

Thomas, 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.

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.

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 last reported to be in stable condition.

Her death is the 15th homicide in Washtenaw County this year and the first in Saline.

Read more: Woman shot by ex-boyfriend in Saline has died, police say

Garza 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.

The crash was allegedly purposeful, said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Blanch, during the arraignment.

He showed up to her work, shot her in the neck and then shot a male victim who was near her, Blanch said during the arraignment hearing. He made terrible statements on the scene which showed his intent, like Im not sorry I killed that f******* b****.

Police confirmed the woman had a PPO against Garza. The order had not yet been served, according to Blanch.

Read more: 11 people have been killed in Washtenaw County since June 1. Whats behind the rise in homicides?

Our condolences go out to the family and friends of all victims involved in this unnecessary tragedy, Saline police wrote on social media. Amber Jo Thomas, you will be remembered and we will do everything in our power to get justice for you and your family.

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 and the Washtenaw County Sheriffs Office.

Garza is currently being held in the Washtenaw County Jail without bond. He is next set to appear in court on Thursday, August 17.

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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FLINT, MI  Madison Ann-Marie Merrill served more than 700 days in the Genesee County Jail for her role in the death of an Insane Spanish Cobras gang member whose body was found off Clio Road in Flint a year after hed been reported missing.

But Merrill, 22, learned last week she wont be required to serve any more time behind bars in connection to the May 2020 death of Craig CJ Myott. Instead, she would be released from her jail cell and placed on a term of probation with the obligation of paying nearly $500 in court fines and costs.
BIG RAPIDS, MI  A Big Rapids-based company that specializes in stainless steel manufacturing for the automotive industry and other sectors is making a 70,000-square-foot expansion at its factory at 525 Dekraft Ave. in Big Rapids.

Big Rapids Products says the expansion is expected to cost $3 million, and is expected to create up to 60 new jobs. The company was awarded a $480,00 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) as part of its expansion.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A judge reversed his decision to release a man whose brother is a suspect in a Portage womans disappearance.

Jordan Watts, 31, is named in a criminal complaint alleging that he produced child pornography by videoing sexual relations with a 16-year-old girl. His brother, Carlos Watts Jr., 38, is a suspect  but not charged  in the Dec. 10 disappearance of Heather Kelley, 35, a mother of eight.
CASS COUNTY, MI -- A motorcyclist struck a tree blocking a road in Southwest Michigan, the Cass County Sheriffs Office said.

Deputies responded to a crash at 4:52 a.m. Monday, Aug. 7, on Kessington Road near Guyer Street in Cass Countys Mason Township.
SOUTH HAVEN, MI  Calling all blueberry lovers: The 60th installment of the National Blueberry Festival is headed to the Lake Michigan town of South Haven next weekend.

One of the oldest continuously-running fruit festivals in the country, the four-day celebration will take over the town of South Haven from Thursday, Aug. 10, through Sunday, Aug. 13.

The free festival, which attracts visitors from across the country, will be filled with family-friendly activities from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon.

Jane Weiler, 9, looks to the spectators as she devours a pie in the blueberry pie eating contest at the National Blueberry Festival in South Haven, Michigan on Saturday, August 14, 2021. (Photo by Carlin Stiehl | MLive.com)Carlin Stiehl | MLive.com

The festival features everything from live music from Shred is Dead, to a parade, a pie-eating contest, a kids tent, craft fair, fish boil, a Saturday morning 5K along South Haven Harbor and tours of blueberry farms where attendees can pick their own berries.

Related: This Michigan blueberry farm has berries that dont exist anywhere else in the world

The ever-popular blueberry pie eating contest begins at noon Saturday with kids ages 6 to 12 competing for free. An adult competition, at $25 per contestant will take place immediately following the kids version.

A complete schedule of events is available here.

Held the second weekend of August every year, the festival strives to recognize, appreciate and celebrate the cultural and economic significance of blueberries, blueberry production and agritourism in the region, according to the festival website.

Van Buren County, home to South Haven, lays claim to being the nations most prolific producer of highbush blueberries. Michigan as a whole produces upward of 100 million pounds each year.

The festival will take over the Huron Street Pavilion, Riverfront Marina and River Street in downtown South Haven. Following a blueberry pancake breakfast, the weekend will close out with a Sunday sand sculpture contest on North Beach.

For more information, visit blueberryfestival.com or download the festival app.

Looking for more to do along Michigans Great Lakes? Check out MLives Lakeshore Travel series.

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SAGINAW, MI  A Chesaning woman is accused of recording herself sexually assaulting a child and sending images of the act to her boyfriend.

Arrested by the Michigan State Police the afternoon of July 27, 33-year-old Arielle C. Truckner is charged in Saginaw County District Court with 11 crimes: three counts of first-degree criminal-sexual conduct with a victim 13 or younger, two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim 13 or younger, three counts of using a computer to commit a crime, two counts of aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material, and one count of aggravated distribution of child sexually abusive material.
If youve traveled to or from the Upper Peninsula this summer, you likely had to pull out your wallet and fork over a small toll.

But one Michigan lawmaker wants any future trips across the Mackinac Bridge to be free.

I think we should just count the bridge as a highway, Rep. James DeSana, R-Carleton, told MLive in an interview.

The conservative from downriver Detroit, who said he doesnt favor any toll roads aside from Michigans international crossings, is sponsoring House Bill 4869. It would nix the $4-per-car toll to cross the Mackinac Bridge, linking the Upper and Lower peninsulas.

For larger vehicles, the toll is currently $5 per axle. On-duty bridge personnel are exempt, as are authorized emergency vehicles when theyre responding to an urgent situation.

More than 4.2 million vehicles crossed the bridge last year, bringing in $23.3 million in toll revenue, according to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, a bipartisan commission within the Michigan Department of Transportation that oversees bridge operations.

That yearly revenue would disappear if DeSanas bill becomes law, but he argues those millions are a drop in the bucket that could be made up by the billions of dollars of surplus that Michigan is sitting on even after next years record-breaking budget dips into it.

Read more: Whitmer signs $57.4 billion state budget, enacting a Democratic trifecta agenda

Right now, the Mackinac Bridge doesnt get a penny of state funding because its financially self-sufficient through toll revenue, bridge authority chair Patrick Shorty Gleason told MLive. Making the bridge reliant on the state budget process, he said, would badly complicate matters.

Ill guarantee you that bridge wouldnt be maintained the way it has been for the last 66 years, Gleason said, because there would be times where the appropriate amount of money wouldnt be allocated to provide maintenance for that bridge from year to year.

DeSanas cosponsors are eight Republicans, some of whom are considered hardline conservatives, like Reps. Steve Carra of Three Rivers and Matt Maddock of Milford.

In a Democrat-controlled legislature, however, GOP bills are rarely a priority. With that roadblock, along with DeSanas feeling that there are fellow Republicans who dont support his bill, he predicts the legislation wont even get a committee hearing.

Im realistic about it, but I do believe it should be a free crossing, he said, as charging a toll is just another road tax. Were already taxing people for gas, were taxing sales, its just another tax.

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Early August can be very hot. This week will have great comfortable summer heat, but it wont be a roaster. We have a few periods of rain in the forecast, but it wont be a washout week either.

Its going to be at least five days with the weather not being a huge topic, other than it being very nice.

To start we better get a grip on what is normal for early August. The average high temperature is starting to slowly slip lower. Below is the average high temperature for August 9.

Long-term average high temperature for August 9.

For the southern half of Lower Michigan we normally expect gorgeous summer warmth between 80 degrees and 83 degrees. Northern Lower Michigan is just a touch cooler with typical high temperatures between 77 degrees and 80 degrees. The Upper Peninsula starts to get a hint of early fall at this time of year with afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s.

Heres the high temperature forecast this week.

High temperature forecast from today, August 7 to Friday, August 11

Today will be the coolest day with most afternoon temperatures topping out in the 70s. Tuesday is a couple of degrees warmer and around 81 degrees for most of Lower Michigan. Wednesday will be the warmest day with high temperatures around 83 degrees. Thursday is a touch cooler in the north and still in the low-80s in the south. Friday should be warm and turning humid ahead of a weather system.

So we cant complain at all about this weeks temperatures- unless you want it hot, hot, hot.

Rainfall will be something youll want to pay attention to if you have an outdoor project going or want to have some more summer fun. The only high chance of rain comes late in the week for late Friday or early Saturday. The exact timing wont be pinned down until late Wednesday. But there will be a few other patches of showers this week. Below is the rain forecast for every six hours through Friday night.

Rain areas forecast in six-hour increments from this afternoon through 2 a.m. Saturday.

Today will now have only a few light showers. Tuesday should be dry for most with just a quick, stray shower across southern Lower Michigan. Wednesday is probably the best day if you are looking for sun and warmth. A double storm system will be rolling through the Great Lakes Wednesday night into Thursday, but Michigan may miss the rain. Right now the two pieces of the storm system look to stay separated with one moving north of Michigan and one south of Michigan. Id watch for detail updates on late Wednesday weather over the next few days. Sometime late Friday, Friday night or early Saturday is our only valid chance of rain and storms this week.

With Michigan being under the fast moving jetstream and storm track right now, stay updated with each days weather here. Ive given you the big picture of the weather this week, but youll want each days forecast the night before or early each morning.
05.08.2023 LISTEN

President Nana Akufo-Addo has voiced concern over the persistent colonial structures in Ghana's economy, stating that they continue to have adverse effects on the country. He assured the nation that decisive measures would be taken to shift away from the current raw-material-producing and exporting economy towards a modern, value-adding, and industrialised one.

"As President of the Republic, I have been preoccupied with making my leadership of Ghana a period above all that our nation lays the foundation from exporting raw materials and retailing of imported goods to a modern, value-adding industrialised one".

Despite the challenges faced by the economy, President Akufo-Addo highlighted significant progress in various areas.

He made these remarks during a banquet held at the Jubilee House's Banquet Hall to mark this year's Founders' Day.

The event, attended by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, commemorates the contributions of successive generations in liberating the nation from colonial rule and establishing the nation-state.

Before the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, all economic indicators were pointing towards the realisation of the transition to a modern industrialised economy, according to the President.

He emphasised his focus on leading the nation towards a more advanced economic structure.

-Classfmonline.com
In recent years, the Anhui Provincial Department of Finance has increased its financial investment and provided full support for the construction of talent centers and innovation hubs. The investment in talent has shown a continuous growth trend. In 2022, the financial investment in talent funds in the whole province increased by 38.7% compared to the previous year, with a 76.4% increase at the provincial level. As of the present time in 2023, the financial investment in talent funds in the province has increased by 25% compared to the previous year. The Anhui Provincial Department of Finance has focused on "highly skilled and scarce" talents and try to attract and make good use of them. They have conducted in-depth research on employment units such as Chery Automobile, NIO, and the Advanced Technology Research Institute of USTC. This has resulted in a series of achievements, including the research on "Optimizing the Mechanism for Talent Investment Guarantee" and the topic report on "Precisely Applying Policy Tools to Incentivize Talent in Serving the Real Economy." These efforts have contributed to the optimization and improvement of talent policies. Relevant policies have been continuously improved. Benchmarking against Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, as well as the Greater Bay Area, the province has developed the Talent Policy 4.0 (The Project of Revitalizing Anhui through Talents), which comprehensively upgrades the existing talent policies, including many breakthrough and pioneering measures. For example, the comprehensive upgrade of the existing post-doctoral policy standards, and the provision of one-time settlement subsidies to highly skilled and scarce talents who meet the criteria. These measures have promoted the high-quality development of talent work in the province. Furthermore, the Anhui Provincial Department of Finance has refined and implemented responsibilities. Based on the content of the Talent Policy 4.0 related to financial matters, they have studied and formulated the division of responsibilities, clarifying the main responsibilities and implementing key talent work. They have improved the tracking, evaluation, and accountability mechanisms for the use of talent funds. They have also organized timely evaluations of the performance of talent development funds and strengthened the application of evaluation results.

Reported by Zhu Zhuo Translated by Zheng Chen
Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia will from today Sunday, 6th August, 2023 begin a long week campaign tour in the Eastern Region, the home Region of President Akufo-Addo to sell his message to the delegates in order to give him the nod to become the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Presidential candidate for the 2024 elections.

Dr Bawumia will begin the campaign from the Akuapem Bloc, where he will be meeting the delegates from the Akuapem North, South, Okere and Yilo Krobo constituencies respectively and interact with them.

On Monday, he will engage the delegates on the Krobo Bloc starting from Asuogyaman, then move to the other blocs such as; Kwahu, Akyem, and Koforidua to engage with the delegates, as well as also commission some government projects and attend public gatherings.

Ahead of the upcoming Presidential primary, a lot of women groups rooting for Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to be elected flag bearer of the party have been launched in the region.

The groups have pledged to massively vote for Dr Bawumia to lead the party in the 2024 general election as they have targeted 80 per cent votes for him.

Majority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam/ Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, who is leading the Agenda to elect Bawumia as a flagbearer of the party has urged all women in the NPP to act as campaign ambassadors in their various constituencies in the region to mobilise the needed votes for Dr Bawumia to win the upcoming presidential primary to lead the party to victory at next years general election.

So far, the Vice President has toured Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central and Western Regions respectively, where he met with delegates to communicate his vision for the country and gain more support from party delegates ahead of the Presidential Primary in August and November this year.

Dr Bawumia's announcement of his political ambitions has set the stage for an exciting contest against other potential candidates within the NPP.

As the campaign heats up, delegates of the NPP will be looking very closely at the potential candidates' visions and track records, considering who is best suited to lead the party and secure victory in the 2024 general elections.

Dr. Bawumia's political acumen has earned him significant contributions to the NPP's victories in the 2016 and 2020 elections, making him a strong contender for the NPP Presidency.

His campaign tour aims to further his political ambitions and communicate his vision for the country to party delegates.

With Dr Bawumia's move to the Eastern Region, it is expected that his campaign team will be working hard to ensure that he gains the required support from party delegates in the Region.

The battle for the NPP's Presidential candidacy promises to be intense, as the party seeks to present a candidate with the best chance of winning the 2024 election.

-DGN online
07.08.2023 LISTEN

A group of 13 individuals from Ghana have caught the attention of the world as they embark on a journey from Ghana to London by road.

The group initially started with eight vehicles but three broke down remaining five. They are two Toyota Land Cruisers, Mercedes G Wagon, Ford F-150 and Lexus RX 350.

On July 23, 2023, the group set out for London, traveling 10,000 km.

One of the travelers, Kwabena Peprah, said in a Facebook post that they had been planning this since last year.

Since this travel bug had bitten us so badly, we had no choice but to begin a series of domesticated road trips to while away the time and acquire enough experience. To date, we have circled Ghana so many times that I have lost count. I know its somewhere in a high double-digit figure, Kwabena Peprah stated.

The group he said also did some trial runs across the West African sub-region. Kwabena Peprah narrated their encounter with security officers at numerous African border crossings, the cars they travelled in and Ghanaian ambassadors in some of the nations they crossed.

The group is yet to arrive in London, but they have crossed Spain and are still on their journey.
The Paramount Chief of Klefe Traditional Area, Togbe Koku Dzaga XI, has called on Ghanaians to value and protect our cultural heritage, norms and history for future generations and not social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Speaking at the launch of the 2023 Klefe Yam Festival/Zendo Glimetsoza at Klefe on Sunday, July 30, 2023, on the theme: "Accelerating Development in our Communities: Leveraging Cultural Heritage for Tourism, Education and Development," Togbe urged residents to familiarize themselves with the cultural heritage.

He said "today many of you don't know about some of our local drums and dance. Our culture is dying slowly due to social media. Today many of our children don't know their grandparents' names let alone their great-grandfathers. We must go back to our good olden days to pick what belongs to us, who we are, and our good cultural heritage norms. Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter can not tell us our identities."

Togbe emphasized that there is a need for all parents to always endeavor to train their children with an element deeply rooted in culture.

He bemoaned situations where some children cannot easily speak their home languages but pride themselves for speaking other tribes languages.

On his part, the Volta Regional Minister, Hon. Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, called for unity, peace and love ahead of the celebrations.

He said a lot can be achieved when there is unity, peace and love among residents. "There is strength in unity and once we are united we will stand firm and build our community," he stressed.

As a native of Klefe, he urged residents not to relent in their efforts to support self-help initiatives, making reference to the Klefe Technical Institute which he said has now been absorbed by the government and needs more infrastructure development.

The Chairman of the 2023 Festival Planning Committee, Mr Evans Kwame Buami, said the festival is in aid of the Klefe Technical Institute.

He said that government has absorbed the school and begun posting students however, there is a need for more infrastructure development.

He said hostel, classroom blocks among other infrastructure developments are needed to accommodate more students in the coming academic years.

He revealed the committee has targeted not less than GHS1million to be raised from the festival towards the school infrastructure projects before any other stakeholder support comes.

The festival which is slated for October 28 2023, is expected to be graced by the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The Silver Youth Club has called for the formation of several reading and learning clubs in the Kpetoe township to inspire reading and learning among pupils in the town.

This, according to the group, will bring competition among students to inspire them to do more.

At a handing over ceremony of a library with a 26-seater computer laboratory to the Ghana Library Authority at Kpetoe, on Friday, 28th July, 2023, the President of the association, Mr. William Sokpoli, advocated the formation of such groups onto the management of the Ghana Library Authority (GLA), the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders in education to form reading and learning clubs in the Kpetoe town to improve on education.

According to him, it has become so necessary to get every child educated for societal development.

"We did not have this opportunity where you can go to a library to read books, so, we don't want our children to go through what we went through when were schooling. We believe that everyone can make in life if given the necessary platform, so we want the best for our children especially climbing high the educational ladder. When we educate our kids, they will have the knowledge to initiate developmental projects for the growth of the community," he said.

He added further that though there are other pressing needs of the town, they have realized there are many important opportunities in reading.

Emphasising the importance of libraries in every town, the Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Mr. Bright Ofori, urged communities to ensure the construction of such facilities in their localities to encourage pupils to do more in schools and also complement government efforts in the education sector.

He said the library will serve schools in the entire Kpetoe town.

He added that payment of utility bills i.e. water and electricity among others are challenges confronting the GLA.

Some students who spoke to the media about the commissioning and handing over, shared joy and expressed hope that the facility will impact positively their education

The library was built by the Silver Youth Club for the community as part of its 25th anniversary celebration.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

The Ghana Police Service have refuted media reports trending that Akua Serwaa, the daughter Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, Kwaku Kyei Baffour was shot dead by unknown assailants.

According to the Police, their investigation has established the circumstances surrounding the death of a female adult, Akua Serwaa Kyei on 3rd August 2023, at Atwima Bebu have no connection with any marks of violence or gunshot wound found.

Initial reports suggested that the unfortunate incident took place Thursday, August 3, when Akua Serwaa was allegedly attacked by unknown assailants in the town of Atwima Bebu, as the circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear, leaving the community in a state of shock and mourning.

Upon discovering his wife in critical condition, Akua Serwaas husband promptly rushed her to the nearest hospital.

However, despite the best efforts of medical professionals, she could not be revived, and her tragic passing was confirmed upon arrival.

In reaction to the media reports, the Police in their statement said upon their investigation, it was established that the husband of the deceased, said he returned home at about 5:30pm on 3rd August 2023 and found the victim lying unconscious at the back of their house and rushed her to the hospital but she was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

''He further alleged that their living room and bedroom were ransacked and a television set stolen. An initial assessment of the incident scene by the Police Crime Scene team revealed that no doors or windows in the house had been broken into''.

''Also, upon an inspection of the deceased body at the hospital, no marks of violence or gunshot wound were found. The body has since been deposited at the morgue for preservation and autopsy as the investigation continues''.

The Police added that they have since visited the family of the deceased and ''we are working with them to get to the bottom of the matter and bring the perpetrators to face justice''.

Also, the Inspector-General of Police has spoken to the family via a telephone call and assured them of a thorough investigation into the case.

Meanwhile, a Police clinical psychologist has also been assigned to the family to assist them in these trying times.

-DGN online
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Bagbin has expressed worry about the current state of the media in Ghana, citing intimidation and violence against media practitioners.

Bagbin has also called for a nationally agreed condition of service scheme for media practitioners.

Bagbin said this when speaking at a press soiree in Takoradi as part of activities marking 30 years of Uninterrupted Democracy under the Fourth Republic.

He noted that the poor welfare and violence against media practitioners are responsible for Ghana's downgrading Human Rights record which threatens Ghana's democracy.

He, however, wondered why the country has not taken clear steps in not only protecting journalists but their welfare to enable journalists properly work as true gatekeepers of Ghana's democracy.

We are really worried about the state of the media. It's not only the fear and the intimidation, or the attacks and violence against media personnel but the working environment of the Media personnelif the media is that important, how come the country has not come out to clearly spell out some conditions of service, even if it's the minimal for the media personnel?

How come people don't appreciate the product of the media? Whether private or private, what the media does is for the public good. So you can see that because of what is happening to the media, our Human Rights record is gradually on the decline and there is the need for us to relook at the welfare and conditions of service of the media practitioner, he noted.

He urged the leadership of Ghana not to take Ghana's peaceful democracy for granted, in which the media has played a key role.

While establishing the importance of the media in democratic governance, Bagbin urged the media to recognise its role as the fourth realm of government and play it well.

Yes! we have the executive and it means they are to execute whatever we decide to do or must lead us to implementing whatever we have decided. You have the legislature which traditionally is to legislate or stamp the decisions taken by all into law. And then we have the judiciary to mediate and intervene where what has not been legitimised is being used to govern.

However, in these three institutions, if we allow them just to be operating, nobody will know what they are doing. And so, as media, what can you improve, what they are doing or how can you hold them to do what they must do? So that important arm that links all these important institutions with the people is the media. So the media is so important in a democracy., he said.

Speaker Bagbin emphasising the important role of the media said he wouldn't have become a speaker if it wasn't for the media.

I have been a true friend of the media and I have always appreciated and commended the media highly. If it wasn't for the media, I'm not sure I will a Speaker of Parliament. If not for the media, I wouldn't have succeeded in winning seven successive elections and staying in Parliament up till this time. I recognised it very early and since 1995, I have worked with the media throughout. I sponsored and continue to sponsor media practitioners at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, but I don't personally take ownership of any of them.

-citinewsroom
Minister of State, at the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development who is the Member of Parliament for Akuapem South, Osei Bonsu Amoah says the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who is vying to become the flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is highly competent compare to other aspirants.

According to OB Amoah, the Vice President has sacrificed a lot for the party, and passed through the system of governance, hence is the best person to lead the party to retain power come 2024 general elections.

The MP for Akuapem South, said this during a visit of the Vice President to the constituency to meet delegates at the Aburi Presbyterian Women's Training College as part of his campaign tour of the Eastern region.

Speaking at the event, OB Amoah stated that Dr Bawumia has a good track record, his intellectual prowess, exceptional leadership skills, and a deep commitment to progress making him an ideal candidate to lead the NPP into Election 2024.

He noted that the Vice President's background in economics significantly positions him as an excellent choice to lead the NPP, hence appealing to the delegates to endorse him.

The Vice President on Sunday began an 8-day tour of the Eastern Region to sell his campaign message to the party delegates.

Dr Bawumia's announcement of his political ambitions has set the stage for an exciting contest against other potential candidates within the NPP.

As the campaign heats up, delegates of the NPP will be looking very closely at the potential candidates' visions and track records, considering who is best suited to lead the party and secure victory in the 2024 general elections.

Dr. Bawumias political acumen has earned him significant contributions to the NPP's victories in the 2016 and 2020 elections, making him a strong contender for the NPP Presidency.

His campaign tour aims to further his political ambitions and communicate his vision for the country to party delegates.

With Dr Bawumia's move to the Eastern Region, it is expected that his campaign team will be working hard to ensure that he gains the required support from party delegates in the Region.

-DGN online
07.08.2023 LISTEN

Ranking Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Isaac Adongo has accused Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance of poor handling of the economy.

According to Mr. Adongo, the 2023 mid-year budget read by the Finance Minister is a funeral dirge.

He said in an interview with Joy FM that The Finance Minister had a very bitter pill to push down the throat of this country and he needed to find a sweetner to make it easier for us to swallow. So the language and everything is quite clear that we were being told that this was an economy that he was paying tribute to that was dead. At the end of the day, it is not easy to pay tribute to somebody who dies but didnt live a good life. So at the end of the day, it was quite obvious that this was a difficult funeral dirge that the Minister was saying. Isaac Adongo 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, he indicated that 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.
This years Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for schools and Private candidates will start tomorrow Monday, August 7 and end on Friday August 11, across the country.

A total of 600,714 candidates, comprising 300,323 males and 300,391 females from 18,993 participating schools registered for the school examination.

Mr. John K. Kapi, Head of Public Affairs, West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said the number of candidates that registered for this year's examination was 8.8 per cent higher than the year 2022 entry figure of 552,276.

He said for private candidates, a total entry figure of 1,743 Candidates was recorded for 2023.

This is made up of 889 males and 854 females. This year's figure is 5.4 per cent higher than the entry figure of 1,132 for 2022.

He attributed the increase of candidates to increase in enrollment in various schools across the country.

Mr Kapi said the BECE for school candidates would be held at 2,137 examination centres across the country, while 15 centres mainly in regional capitals would be used for the BECE for private candidates.

GNA
Samuel Koku Sitsofe Anyidoho, Founder of the Atta Mills Institute has called on Ghanaians to honour leaders who have contributed to the achievements of the country.

It's important to honour our leaders for their contribution and the values they stood for, fostering a sense of unity and pride among citizens, he said.

He said as the public commemorated the contributions of the forbearers, notably the Big Six who led the struggle for Ghanas independence, it was important to also think of ways of driving the nation towards its development.

Recognising the achievements of our forbearers can inspire current and future generations to uphold those principles and work towards the developments of the country, he added.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Anyidoho said the role of others too cannot be ignored because all over the world, and in our daily lives, lead actors play critical roles in creating movements.

He urged Ghanaians to recognize the collective efforts in gaining freedom and independence from colonial rule and embrace the principles that the forbearers fought for.

He said on this auspicious Founders Day celebration, let us remember the vision, sacrifice, and dedication of our leaders, their unwavering commitment that laid the foundation for our great nation, Ghana.

Mr Anyidoho reiterated the need to renew our resolve to uphold the ideals of unity, democracy, and progress, adding that together, Ghanaians could continue their journey towards a brighter future for all Ghanaians.

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.

GNA
06.08.2023 LISTEN

Ghana is currently grappling with a disturbing rise in animosity towards its LGBTQ community, a trend that risks cultivating a society marked by prejudice and discrimination. While the LGBTQ community is the current target, this pattern of intolerance could easily extend to other minority groups, based not only on sexual orientation but also on religious beliefs or other deviations from societal norms. This situation arises when powerful political and religious figures perceive the choices or preferences of minorities as threats, leading to the propagation of discriminatory laws or the incitement of hatred.

Members of the LGBTQ community, irrespective of their sexual orientation, are integral parts of families, possess unique skills, and make valuable contributions to society. Despite this, the swift move by parliament to criminalize LGBTQ activities indicates that religious prejudices, political propaganda, and misinformation about LGBTQ individuals and their rights are igniting a wave of hostility rooted in baseless anger. The narrative of religious conflict is inflaming sentiments among many Ghanaians, prompting them to reject anything they perceive as unnatural or inconsistent with Ghanaian culture and family values. This campaign has regrettably succeeded in creating a divide between the LGBTQ community and the broader society.

Advocates for the human rights of the LGBTQ community often face stigmatization, disparagement, and in extreme cases, threats. The degree of hatred brewing in Ghana is such that the human rights situation for those identifying as LGBTQ is unstable, and their social existence is increasingly marginalized. Merely associating with the LGBTQ community can result in a person being stripped of his or her rights, with scant regard for compassion, empathy, or basic human dignity.

Many LGBTQ individuals are already confronting substantial risks, even before the enactment of any discriminatory laws. There is a pervasive lack of understanding and acceptance as if members of the LGBTQ community are outsiders or extraterrestrial beings. The fear of societal retaliation makes it exceedingly difficult for any LGBTQ individual to openly express their identity, even to their closest family members. This fear is amplified by the widespread anger and hostility directed towards them. The situation is leading to psychological trauma and constant fear for their lives, making them feel devalued and marginalized. This not only harms the individuals involved but also tarnishes Ghana's international reputation.

It is imperative for Ghana to leverage its famed hospitality and cultivate empathy and understanding towards the LGBTQ community. This is a crucial step towards ensuring a society that is more inclusive and tolerant.

Isaac Ofori

BA, MA, MPhil
As BECE kicks start, Monday, 7th August, 2023, i have taken notice of the growing Sense of examination malpractices at both our basic and second cycle institutions in the past and I think urgent steps must be taken to address these menace.

BACKGROUND

Examination malpractice is an illegal or improper conduct by a candidate of an examination with the aim to pass an exam. The ugly practice is not new but the recent syndicated malpractice among students, teachers, and workers of exam bodies future exacerbated our plight and makes no sense of our education system and its future. These widespread anomalies are putting a lot of credibility issues on the certificates of graduates.

THE BLAME ON STAKEHOLDERS

I would blame the activities of four key stakeholders that are making malpractices at our examinations centres very conducive to thrive. These stakeholders include: the Candidates themselves, the Teachers, the Exam Bodies (Insiders) and the Government.

The Candidates: A student, who is sitting for BECE or WASSCE, of course would want to pass. Some students may implore fair and foul means to get a better grade if given the chance. They have tried, all the times, to send in foreign materials (Ap, missile or nkitinkitin) and succeeded many times. Some even pay huge sum of monies to have their way in the examination hall.

The Teachers: Some teachers in most of these schools are the masterminds of the unending exam malpractices in our schools. They form a syndicated groups, forced the vulnerable students to pay huge sum of monies in order to acquire these exam papers before time. They equally assist the candidates to copy from each other or from foreign materials with ease. Remember that 90% of the invigilators are teachers.

The Insiders: Of course the syndicate must have to include the insiders (exam bodies) and their temporary staff (invigilators). These insiders manipulate the system because of the gains they may get and the fact that they can get away easily with it. They sell the papers before the due date/time.

The last stakeholder is Government. Government poor policies are mulching malpractices at examination centres. Inadequate learning materials, lacking of motivation for teachers and unclear policy direction for education (No repeating of non performing students, no corporal punishment, government buying past questions etc ) are making malpractices at exam centres to thrive. Of course, the only easy way to save the teachers and government from the embarrassment of poor results of poorly prepared students is to cheat the system deliberately. In preparing a learner for Examinations, it starts the day he/she enters the school and not when the learner is about to take the exam. Government deliberate policies that unmotivated teachers, embolden indiscipline among students, etc would definitely affect learning outcomes.

THE DEPTH

The depth of the malpractice now is that in most of the schools, teachers and invigilators read out loud the answers to the candidates to copy. Some teachers and collaborators will get the questions a day or hours to the paper from the insiders. They will write the answers in small sheets and photocopy them to be distributed to almost all candidates. Greater percentage of BECE or WASSCE results churned out is not genuine. The Heads, Directors, Monitors, if not collaborators, are aware of almost everything at the centres yet they cant do anything because of it syndicated nature.

THE WAY

INCLUSIVENESS

Tackling this menace in a more inclusive manner will drastically reduce it. All stakeholders must work together to nib this cancer in the bud. The mode of admission, assessment, repetition or promotion should be seriously looked at. Schools should be free to make recommendations in consultation with the parents/guardians about the progress of learners. Government should resource schools and empower teachers to work effectively and efficiently.

IMPROVING SBA, NST WHILE INTRODUCING JOINT UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAMINATION

Teachers should be resourced to adequately assess their learners using the School Based Assessment (SBA) approach. This sort of assessment gives the teacher and the school fair information about the strength and weakness of the each student. From this assessment, the school can, with consultation from the parent, choose the best option for the student.

External Exams such as BECE and WASSCE should be retooled or scraped. Instead, National Standardised Test (NST) should be intensified at the Basic 2, Basic 4, Basic 6, Basic 9, basic 10 and basic 12. The NST would be strictly monitored by the heads of the various schools, Directors, and National Assessment Board. This assessment in addition to the SBA would give a fair academic status (curricular and co-curricular) of the student for placement purpose. At basic 9 (JHS3), both NST (external) and SBA (internal) would be used for the purposes of placing the child into B10 (SHS1). After the general course (core subjects) at the SHS 1, another NST and SBA result would be needed to place them into their respective area of specialisation for two-year training. This placement would be done internally by the individual schools with special referrals, if any. Another NST would be conducted at the end of B12. A standardised university entrance exams body should be established to admit qualified applicants. WAEC could be tasked to conduct the NST or a new management set while the universities also looked at how to set Joint Entrance Examinations for Undergraduates and post graduates applicants.

MONITORING, SUPERVISION AND MOTIVATION OF TEACHERS

The successes of the any program depend on the Monitoring, supervision as well as the support system given to the Schools/Teachers. The SBA, which will form a 50% component of the overall student assessment, shall be done by the class teacher with supervision from the head, SISO, District/municipal Exams officer and the Director of education. Invigilators should be carefully selected, trained and motivated to carry on their tasks effectively and efficiently. Adequate teaching and learning materials should be provided to the schools for enhanced teaching, learning and assessment.

The classroom teacher is key in this regard, they should be motivated. Allowances and other incentives due teachers should be paid in time. Other packages in line with global practices should be fashioned out for teachers

SANCTIONS:

Over the period, laws governing examination in this country has not been implemented strictly thereby making malpractices at our centres lucrative for it indulgers. I wont propose any new sanctions because the current sanctions against exams malpractice are enough. We only need leadership who are willing to change the narrative.

Revoking the license of any defiant Examination Body (such as WAEC or Joint University Exam Body) who flout the law should be enforced. Also, punishing stakeholders culpable would serve as a deterrent to the rest.

TOPPIE SAATORPIE

HSE NO: BO-BO-107, BOLI

0549633819
Jailed Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, on hunger strike since shortly after his arrest last month, was admitted to hospital in Dakar Sunday, his lawyer and supporters said.

His party, PASTEF, said in a statement that he had been admitted for emergency care, which was confirmed by two spokesmen and Cire Cledor Ly, one of his lawyers, although they did not discuss his condition.

In its statement PASTEF said the authorities were "responsible" for Sonko's condition. There has been no statement from the authorities on the matter.

Sonko, 49, started his hunger strike on July 30, two days after he was arrested.

A declared candidate for the February 2024 presidential election, he has been engaged in a bitter power struggle with the authorities since 2021 when he was placed under investigation in a moral corruption case.

On June 1, Sonko was sentenced in absentia to two months in prison. He and his supporters denounced the conviction as politically motivated.

That conviction sparked clashes that left 16 dead according to the government, 24 according to Amnesty International, and 30 according to Sonko's PASTEF party.

Late in July he was arrested and on Monday, he was charged with fomenting insurrection and his party dissolved, setting off more protests in which two people were killed.

Eligibility for office

His convictions and the charges now laid against him raise a question mark over his eligibility to run for the presidency next year, although his lawyers insist that he can still run.

In the moral corruption case, they insist that as Sonko refused to attend his trial and as he was convicted in his absence, the law requires that he has to be retried now that he has been arrested.

His lawyer Ly said Sonko had written to the courts the previous week making it clear that he did not accept his conviction, which he said was enough to require that his conviction be quashed and he be retried.

Prosecutor Abdou Karim Diop has rejected that interpretation of the law.

On Saturday, Senegal's parliament passed a law that effectively restored the right of two key opposition deputies to run in the country's presidential election next year.

The vote cleared any person convicted but then either pardoned or amnestied to run for office, paving the way for Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, who would otherwise have been ineligible.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

As the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) commences this week, the Peoples National Convention (PNC) has extended its heartfelt well-wishes to all students sitting the "crucial" examination.

This milestone, the PNC said in a statement signed by General Secretary Janet Nabla, "represents a significant step in their educational journey and marks the culmination of their hard work and dedication throughout their years in basic school."

"We encourage students to approach the examination with honesty, fairness, and a commitment to demonstrate their genuine abilities," the statement urged.

The party advised the candidates to "strongly resist any temptation to engage in examination malpractices, as it undermines the true value of education and tarnishes the credibility of the examination system."

Also, the party urged parents to "equally desist from engaging in acts that compromise the integrity of the examination, such as procuring examination questions for students and compromising invigilation through foul means". "This act would lead to sowing seeds of corruption in the children, which will ultimately work against our collective good by producing corrupt future politicians and citizens", the party cautioned.

On a separate issue related to education, the PNC said it supports abolishing corporal punishment in schools, noting that while this decision aligns with modern educational practices, "it is regrettable to report that this abominable act is still ongoing in our schools."

"We, therefore, call upon the Ghana Education Service to expedite the development and implementation of comprehensive guidelines for a punishment regime that promotes students' and educators' welfare and wellbeing.

"These guidelines should prioritise constructive measures that encourage behavioural correction, restorative justice, and counseling, creating a nurturing atmosphere for students to grow academically, socially, and emotionally," the party proposed.

Source: classfmonline.com
I would like to submit that based on the simplest definition of a failed state, Ghana found itself at the doldrums of a failed state between 2012 and 2016 largely due to the inexpressible dumsor which threatened the security of the country and the livelihood of most Ghanaians.

The simplest definition of a failed state is one that cannot provide its basic responsibility such as electricity which is a security threat to a nation.

In the 2013 World Banks Enterprise Survey on African economy, with special emphasis on Nigeria and Ghana, the report concluded that dumsor (erratic electricity supply) is the biggest obstacle to the economic growth in Africa and hindrance to multi-national investors (World Bank 2013).

In fact, it would only take a doubting Thomas or an argumentative to broach somewhat bizarrely that discerning Ghanaians have soon forgotten and forgiven Mahama and NDC administration for wilfully keeping Ghanaians in darkness and collapsing businesses for well over five years.

Interestingly, some concerned Ghanaians believe that it would be devilishly suicidal if Mahama was to reclaim the presidency, given the calamitous errors in judgement which led to the business crippling dumsor amid massive economic collapse.

While some of us really appreciate discerning Ghanaians genuine anguish over Mahamas puzzling and desperate attempt to reclaim the presidency, the NDC loyalists, unfortunately, seem oblivious to the dire consequences of Mahama returning to the Jubilee House.

I was in Ghana in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 and dumsor was a thorn in the flesh of the good people of Ghana.

Back then, the then running mate of NPP, Dr Mahmoud Bawumia, made it clear to the good people of Ghana that the dumsor was as a result of financial constraints and nothing else.

As it was expected, the NDC loyalists vehemently repudiated Dr Mahmoud Bawumias exposition. It would thus appear that the Mahamas government did not take the dumsor as a priority.

Dearest reader, tell me, if the dumsor was a priority for the Mahama administration, how come the outgone NDC government rather paid dubious judgement debts to a tune of GH800 million instead of purchasing fuel to generate power?

In the sad days of dumsor under the Mahama administration, we witnessed plangent buzzing of generators all over the country. Most businesses folded up amid massive unemployment.

In those days, self-employers like Hairdressers, Ice Kenkey Sellers, Butchers, among others, were the worst affected.

The revoltingly annoying and costly buzzing of generators across the length and breadth of the country, unfortunately, went on for well over five years to the utter dismay of the good people of Ghana.

Given the circumstances, we can understand how and why some concerned Ghanaians, including some supporters within the NDC have been expressing their arousing disgust over former President Mahamas desperation to return to the presidency after being voted against massively in 2016 and 2020 due to his abysmal performance.

Disappointingly, however, in his desperation to solve the serious problem such as dumsor, the Mahama administration ridiculously sign a superfluous Take or Pay Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) in which Ghana is needlessly paying over $600 million per year for extra power we do not need.

By irrationally signing the excessive Power Purchasing Agreements and entering into a calamitous Take or Pay deal, Ghanaian consumers are unfairly being forced to pay exorbitant electricity tariffs as a result of the Mahama administrations negligence.

The dumsor was so annoying to the extent that my uneducated, albeit reflective thinking mum, who had a soft spot for NDC, underwent a carefully considered reflection and graciously detached herself from the Umbrella fraternity.

I recall prior to the 2016 general elections, I had an interesting telephone conversation with my mother about politics and socio-economic standards of living in Ghana.

In fact, at no point in time during our interesting conversation that my mother indicated her intention to detach herself from her unbridled loyalty to the NDC.

It therefore came as a surprise to me when my mother confided in me that she has ceased being a die-hard supporter of the NDC.

Wonders shall never end, they say. In fact, I never envisaged in a million years that my mother could one day cease being a brassbound supporter of the NDC.

So, what was her excuse for detaching herself from the Umbrella fraternity?

According to my mother, the straw that broke the camels back was the catalogue of sleazes and corruption amid the business crippling dumsor under the erstwhile NDC administration.

It is therefore quite disheartening to see the NDC loyalists whose businesses were wilfully crippled by Mahamas appalling dumsor squeamishly clamouring for the return of Ex-President Mahama.

Whatever the case, the loyal supporters of Mahama should accept the painful fact that discerning Ghanaians have overcome their supposedly memory loss and cannot so soon forget the terrible errors in judgement which culminated in economic hardships amid the business crippling dumsor.

As asserted by the then running mate, Dr Bawumiah, the dumsor was financial more than anything else and has since been brought under control by the NPP administration to the delight of discerning Ghanaians.

While it is true that the Mahama loyalists are moving heaven and earth to help him reclaim the presidency in 2024, the sceptics, both outside and inside the NDC, are insisting that Mahama was not up to the task during his tenure in office and must thus be ditched and replaced with a competent flagbearer.

With all due respect, it would appear that Mahama loyalists are living in a denial. They have indeed lost touch with the reality.

In fact, we do not have to look any further than the 2016 and 2020 general elections results to acknowledge how Ghanaians were disgusted over Mahamas dreadful errors in decision-making which culminated in the unspeakable dumsor.

That being said, in as much as the sceptics hold the preponderance of the argument about former President Mahamas unpopularity, the diehard supporters will keep cheering him on.

Indeed, the vast majority of the NDC loyalists are living in a denial about former President Mahamas perceived capability and popularity and will thus push him to another embarrassment in 2024.

The all-important question every discerning Ghanaian should be asking the Mahama loyalist is: where is the justification about former President Mahamas popularity and competence when his terrible errors in judgement sent Ghanaians into darkness for well over five years?

How can the diehard supporters convince some of us about former President Mahamas ability to lead Ghana again when he woefully wasted Ghanas scarce resources instead of purchasing fuel to generate power.

Mahama allegedly doled out huge sums of money to all sorts of people who contributed nothing to the nation building. Madam Akua Donkor of Ghana Freedom Party comes to mind.

The Mahama loyalists must accept the painful fact that discerning Ghanaians cannot so soon forget the dreadful errors in judgement which culminated in economic hardships amid the unbridled business crippling dumsor.

In ending, some of us, as a matter of principle, are not oblivious to the inexpressible anguish and the negative effects of dumsor and therefore we are well-aware of the apocalypse of Mahama reclaiming the presidency in 2024.

K. Badu, UK.

[email protected]
Niger closed its airspace due to the "threat of intervention" as the junta defied a deadline from the West African bloc ECOWAS to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible military action.

ECOWAS issued its ultimatum a week ago, demanding the generals relinquish power by midnight Sunday (2300 GMT).

Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency.

"Faced with the threat of intervention, which is becoming clearer through the preparation of neighbouring countries, Niger's airspace is closed from this day on Sunday... for all aircraft until further notice," the junta said in a statement released shortly before the deadline passed.

Any attempt to violate the country's airspace would meet with an "energetic and immediate response", the statement added.

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. By - (AFP)

In a separate statement, the now-ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), the generals who have taken power, said there had been a "pre-deployment in preparation for intervention" made by two Central African countries, without naming them.

"Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent," it warned.

Thousands of coup supporters gathered earlier on Sunday at a stadium in the capital Niamey to cheer on the CNSP.

At the 30,000-seat Seyni Kountche stadium, named after Niger's first coup d'etat leader in 1974, CNSP leaders including General Mohamed Toumba greeted a jubilant crowd.

The venue was draped in Russian flags and supporters carried portraits of CNSP leaders.

Military plan

ECOWAS military chiefs of staff agreed Friday on a plan for a possible intervention to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africa's Sahel region since 2020.

Map showing the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including those suspended or sanctioned following a coup. By Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA (AFP)

"We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the military) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done," ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said.

But he warned that "all the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out", including how and when force would be deployed.

Former colonial power France, with which Niger's new rulers broke military ties after taking power, said it would "firmly" back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the deadline expired.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called on the coup leaders to stand down late Sunday on the eve of his own country's Independence Day.

"We condemn the attempted coup in Niger, which poses a serious threat to peace and security in the sub-region," Ouattara said, adding it was "essential" to "constitutional order" that Bazoum be allowed to govern.

'We're determined'

In the dusty alleyways of Niamey's Boukoki neighbourhood, residents were defiant at the prospect of an armed intervention by ECOWAS.

Bazoum, 63, has been held by the coup plotters with his family in his official Niamey residence since July 26. By STEFANO RELLANDINI (AFP)

"We're going to fight for this revolution. We're not going to retreat faced with the enemy, we're determined," said Boukoki resident Adama Oumarou, adding that "we were waiting for this coup for a long time".

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has warned against a military solution.

"We categorically refuse any military intervention," Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in a television interview Saturday, saying it would be "a direct threat to Algeria" as it shares an almost 1,000-km-long border with Niger.

On Sunday, France said it was cutting off development aid and budgetary assistance to Burkina Faso, which alongside Mali has said it would consider any attack on Niger as a "declaration of war".

Both countries are now ruled by military regimes that overthrew democratically elected rulers.

Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have 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 already evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Niger since the coup, and on Sunday, Italy's defence ministry said it had flown 65 military personnel from Niger, along with 10 US military personnel.

Anti-French sentiment

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. Moscow has warned against armed intervention from outside Niger.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies heavily on foreign aid that could be pulled if Bazoum is not reinstated as head of state, Paris has warned.

Bazoum, 63, has been held by the coup leaders with his family in his official Niamey residence since July 26.

He won an election in 2021 that ushered in Niger's first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another.

Nigeria has already cut electricity supplies to its neighbour Niger, raising fears for the humanitarian situation, while Niamey has closed the vast Sahel country's borders, complicating food deliveries.

Senior Nigerian politicians have urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the threatened military intervention.
Coups in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel, are so common that a specific name has emerged to represent the region's instability. Niger's leader, Mohamed Bazoum, was apprehended by his presidential security on July 26, and the country's borders were blocked. According to a presidential office statement, the guards did not receive help from other military personnel, but the next day, the leadership of the Armed Forces of Niger took control of the insurgents.

On July 28, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the commander of the Presidential Guard, issued the first video message in which he identified himself as the head of the National Council for the Defense of the Motherland, an association of the military that carried out the coup and urged Niger's partners to refrain from interfering in the country's affairs. He further described the rebels' acts as a war against public-fund misappropriation, impunity, corruption in all its manifestations, and nepotism.

Kwasi Pratt, a prominent Ghanaian journalist discusses political issues impacting the country.

The challenges that poor people face in democratic West African countries are never addressed. Democracy is looting Africa. Even though this prevalent sort of corruption affects the public, politicians just do not care. Niger is the world's seventh largest importer of uranium and the primary source of this raw material for the needs of the energy sector not only in France, but also throughout the European Union, but the situation is complicated by the EU countries' attempts to refuse uranium from Russia.

Following the coup, Niger's neighbors, members of the sub-regional organization Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), imposed sanctions against the junta, suspending all transactions with the country and freezing its assets in the central and commercial banks of the association's member countries, as well as issuing an ultimatum to the Niger junta: if they do not restore the ousted president to power within the next week, they will face full force of the law.

In an unexpected change of events, additional military countries have threatened to join forces to combat the prospect of ECOWAS action. Since the 1990s, ECOWAS forces have been employed to end civil conflicts and coups in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau, as well as to assist Malian authorities in their struggle against Islamists in 2013 and to facilitate the transfer of power in the Gambia in 2017. However, coups continue to occur throughout Africa, indicating that the military is dissatisfied with bad foreign policies and corruption within a democracy.

In reality, the majority of Africans hate the military, yet if one delves deeper into democracy; it is easy to see how this style of government has been the most corrupt while causing poverty in Africa. Consider Ghana's huge debt since Akufo Addo's government took over nearly seven years ago, yet no one can account for how the funds were spent. Embezzlement of public finances, government loans, and COVID funds, has afflicted Ghana, however, this government claims that they will break the 8th cycle.

Mali and Burkina Faso, both nations that had experienced military coups in the past, have chosen to support the coup plotters. They have warned that foreign action against the new Niger government will be deemed military aggression. Like many African leaders, Akufo Addo continues to enjoy corruption in his government and has therefore; opposed the recent coup in Niger, resentment has turned against him, and some troops are advocating for his removal in Ghana.
Popular Ghanaian broadcaster Kwasi Kyei-Darkwah (KKD) has been slammed by Ernest Owusu Bempah, the Deputy Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over his constant criticism of the Akufo-Addos government.

According to Mr. Owusu Bempah, the constant criticisms against the NPP by the Ghanaian broadcaster is personal vendetta.

He said the reason for KKD's outburst is triggered by his pain for not being appointed into government.

Or perhaps, the turning down of your outrageous chop-chop National Lottery Authority(NLA) deal has embittered your soul so much that you have now chosen the path of antagonism, mercenary aggression and open hostility towards the ruling regime, Mr Owusu Bempah stated.

He indicated that while he formerly appreciated KKD's charisma and glitz as a fashionable broadcaster, his present effort to catch the attention of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is pitiful.

You actually wanted to eat your cake and still keep it. Yes, you went to the corridors of power begging for favors, favors that had corruption written all over it. The government officials whom you were in contact with, fearing the consequences of your actions turned you down on principle and now, you have resorted to be a mercenary on the loose?

I know youre doing this to get noticed by the NDC, but please KKD, stop the political character assassination and the politics of attrition.

Below is the letter by Ernest Owusu Bempah

Open Letter To Kwasi Kyei Darkwa(KKD): Please stop dancing naked in front of the discerning public



Dear Kwasi Kyei Darkwa (KKD),

I hope you are bearing up despite all the brickbats. You are experiencing something every gluttonous character has had to contend with.

It must be galling to have all the criticisms thrown back at you. It must be especially galling when the qualities that led you into a successful radio and TV personality, and then into social media commentator, are so at odds with the prevailing political culture.

Growing up, I used to admire your antics on TV. I mean the good old days of the Embassy Pleasure and your witty hosting shenanigans.

Since before most people had ever even heard of a name like KKD, some of us supported you. I just knew you were going to be a huge star and had talent beyond measure.

Those were the days KKD was KKD.

Despite some bumps along the road, I never once doubted that you were an interesting character.

When others accused you of arrogance, and even called you rapist, I was assured that you were simply not what they say you are.

So, when you began to act out of character, quite unlike the KKD Id known and loved, I excused it. I hoped and wished youd get better in time.

But you didnt.

And it seems you never will  You are solidly the new KKD. The new KKD that is all about deals, image, clothes, and women. The new KKD who thinks its perfectly okay to trash government officials who refuses to dance to his tunes and bring them to opprobrium.

Then came your downward spiral into moral turpitude and decadence with its attendant collateral damages regarding dozen rape accusation cases and whatnot.

That aside, your quest to meddle in partisan politics and reap the windfall has really conspire to swallow you up.

Many are posing relevant questions; why are you able to make all manner of accusations against the very government that you sought to ride on to restore your tattered credibility? Is it the case that the refusal of the state to accede to your request for the Director General position of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation(GBC) has turned you into a pointless bitter soul?

Or perhaps, the turning down of your outrageous chop-chop National Lottery Authority(NLA) deal has embittered your soul so much that you have now chosen the path of antagonism, mercenary aggression and open hostility towards the ruling regime?

I can say with all the emphasis under my control that your criticism of the ruling regime is clothed in bitterness and driven by anger over your own gluttonous self indulgence.

You actually wanted to eat your cake and still keep it. Yes, you went to the corridors of power begging for favours, favours that had corruption written all over it. The government officials whom you you were in contact with, fearing the consequences of your actions turned you down on principle and now, you have resorted to be a mercenary on the loose?

How shameful and pathetic can it get for you?

Look, there comes a time in every mans life when he must admit that his dreams will never be realized. That time has come for you.

I know youre doing this to get noticed by the NDC, but please KKD, stop the political character assassination and the politics of attrition.

You are talented in many areas, but political communication is simply not for you. Dont be offended by this letter: Im only trying to help.

Truly yours

Ernest Owusu-Bempah Bonsu

(Deputy Director of Communications, NPP)
07.08.2023 LISTEN

A ride-hailing driver working with Bolt has reportedly been assaulted by a man in military attire following a traffic dispute.

The driver, who had to be revived by medical personnel due to significant blood loss at the Deseret Hospital at Santa Maria in Accra reportedly expressed caution to the military personnel for alleged reckless driving.

In response, the alleged soldier reportedly stabbed the drivers head before physically assaulting him.

The victim who was rushed to the hospital for treatment is currently on admission.

Michelle Frimpong, a passenger in the victims car recounted to Citi News that There was this 44 that was behind us, and he did a wrongful overtaking and got in the middle of the road. So then it was too obvious, either we skid off the road or we allow him to use his car to scratch our car. Then the bolt driver stretched out his hand and touched the back of his car. And we said that if you wanted a way, show a trafficator and dont do a wrongful overtaking.

So just a few minutes, we saw that they had come to park in front of our car. Then this man came down, opened the door of our car and pulled the bolt driver out of the car. Then the soldier guy came out of the car pulled him back and closed the car. So it was the people around who said that he was stabbed so when I got out of the passengers side I realised blood oozing out of his head. So we had to rush him to the hospital.

Citi Newsroom
Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has warned the public against paying bribes to court officials who claim to collect money on behalf of judges in exchange for favorable decisions.

She revealed that such requests for money are often initiated by unscrupulous court staff with the intention of enriching themselves and not on behalf of the judges.

Justice Torkornoo urged citizens to report any court staff engaging in such practices to the Judicial Service for investigation.

The Chief Justice made this appeal during separate Chief Justice Community Sensitization programs held in Akwatia and Kraboa Coaltar in the Eastern Region. The program, which is part of her initiative, aims to interact with the public in communities and explain the work of the Judiciary and the basic principles of the law.

The objective is to demystify the workings of the judiciary and foster a better understanding and appreciation of the third arm of government.

Justice Torkornoo stressed the importance of cooperation from the public in reporting cases of bribery involving court staff.

She asserted that this assistance would help the Judicial Service to curb the unscrupulous activities of those creating a market of extorting money from court users under the guise of bribing judges.

She emphasised that any court staff soliciting money on behalf of judges is engaging in theft and criminal behavior.

The Chief Justice further assured the public that the Judicial Service is committed to addressing complaints and has a revamped Public Complaints Directorate with units at all courts to receive and act on petitions.

She encouraged anyone aggrieved by the conduct of court officials, whether judges, registrars, clerks, or any other staff, to report their concerns for prompt action to be taken.

Justice Torkornoo also outlined additional measures the Judicial Service is implementing to enhance transparency and access to justice. They are preparing court user guides to explain the jurisdictions of different courts, posting fees for services provided to prevent overcharging, and encouraging the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to promote peaceful resolution of conflicts and litigation.

The sensitization program allows participants to ask questions related to the Judiciary's work, and the Chief Justice provides explanations and updates on initiatives aimed at improving justice delivery and ensuring openness and fairness in the system.

Overall, the aim of the program is to educate the public, build trust, and instill confidence in the Judiciary.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is urging the nation to establish a nationally accepted Condition of Service Scheme for Ghanaian journalists.

During a press soiree in Takoradi commemorating 30 years of Uninterrupted Democracy under the Fourth Republic, Mr. Bagbin expressed concern about the state of the media and emphasised the importance of recognising and improving the working environment for media personnel.

Mr. Bagbin questioned the absence of a well-defined scheme for journalists, given their crucial role in society. He stressed that the media's work not only involves reporting, but also serves the public good, making it imperative to appreciate their contributions.

He pointed out that the current challenges faced by the media, including fear, intimidation, attacks, and violence against media personnel, are negatively affecting the country's Human Rights record.

He stressed the need to reevaluate the welfare and conditions of service of media practitioners.

The Speaker highlighted the roles of the three branches of government: the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. He acknowledged that the media plays a crucial role in connecting these institutions with the people. Therefore, he called on journalists to enhance their professionalism and take on the responsibility of holding the government accountable for their actions.

Mr. Bagbin also praised the media for their unwavering support throughout his political career, starting from his days as a Member of Parliament to being elected as the Speaker of Ghana's Parliament.

He expressed his deep appreciation for the media's contribution to his success and revealed that he has been a dedicated friend of the media since 1995. He disclosed that he has sponsored and continues to sponsor media practitioners at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, emphasising his commitment to their professional development.

The Speaker of Parliament reiterated the importance of the media in a democracy and urged the nation to recognise their essential role by providing better working conditions and support for journalists.

 Classfmonline
Ghana is making significant strides towards the liberalization of hemp, signaling its intentions to explore both medical and industrial applications. In a move that places the nation at the forefront of a global trend, Ghana is poised to take a leadership role alongside South Africa within the African continent.

The growing recognition of hemp's vast potential is prompting countries worldwide to reconsider their stance on the plant. Beyond its medical and industrial benefits, the financial aspect, including investment opportunities, and its impact on tourism, are driving nations to fully embrace cannabis legalization. Notable examples include the USA, Canada, Uruguay, and most recently, Thailand.

Closer to home, developments in the European Union (EU) are also gaining momentum. Germany, known for its restrictive approach, is currently in the process of legalizing private cannabis use. Experts, such as Michel von Tell, a prominent political advisor to a ruling party, anticipate a domino effect within the EU. In fact, von Tell stated in a recent interview that he foresees the entire EU embracing cannabis legalization in the foreseeable future.

With Germany potentially joining the ranks of progressive cannabis policies, a significant portion of the EU's population could soon be living in countries with a more modern approach to cannabis. Notably, Spain, Portugal, Malaga, Czech Republic, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have already taken significant steps towards widespread legalization, collectively representing over 300 million citizens.

Michel v. Tell regards this development as a pivotal turning point that will rapidly propagate globally. Embracing this trend early on becomes crucial for maximizing potential profits and securing market shares in the emerging cannabis industry.

As Ghana ventures further into the liberalization of hemp, the nation stands at the precipice of a transformative era in medical, industrial, and economic terms. Embracing this opportunity will not only catapult Ghana's progress but also serve as a beacon for other African nations seeking to capitalize on the far-reaching benefits of cannabis. The journey towards a more inclusive and modern approach to cannabis has begun, and Ghana's leadership in this endeavor is sure to have a lasting impact on the continent and beyond.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team has bemoaned the economy's deteriorating situation.

According to Mr. Tamakloe, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is to blame for the free fall of the Ghana cedi.

In an interview with TV3, he said the exchange rate had increased from GHC3.8 left by the previous administration to GHC12 under the NPP government.

Akufo-Addo whilst campaigning didnt promise that he was coming to impose additional tax burdens on Ghanaians, that was never the campaign promise. I recall Bawumias popular phrase teachers are suffering, today's importers are suffering and they are suffering more. If you look at the tax components two things are happening the quantum and the forex exchange depreciation. The depreciation of the Ghana cedis is the direct work of this incompetent administration. Today the NPP administration has moved the exchange rate from GHC 3.8 to GHC 11.8 to GHC 11.9 almost close to GHC 12, Edudzi Tamakloe stated.

He continued by asserting that Ghanaians were deceived into falling for Akufo-Addo's deceit.

This government has failed even the people who risked like our friends in Abossey Okai who got deceived by how people packaged Akufo-Addo for what he is not and bought into that package, today Akufo-Addo has become a lesson, a lesson that Ghanaians today wish it never happened, he stated.
A former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Secretary General of the Africa Research Universities Alliance, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey has disagreed with suggestions for the boarding school system in Senior High Schools to be scrapped.

The calls for abolishing boarding schools resurfaced after a viral video showed a final-year student physically assaulting a fellow student at Adisadel College.

Following the incident, the Office of the Attorney General has taken the matter to court, but some analysts in the education sector have labelled it as evidence of the breakdown of law and order.

They argue that eliminating boarding schools might help curb indiscipline among students.

However, Prof. Aryeetey holds a different view on the matter. In an interview with Citi News, Prof. Aryeetey expressed that the way to address the current problem should not involve scrapping the boarding school system.

He acknowledged that managing boarding schools could be challenging and expensive, but he believes that abolishing them is not the solution to the issue at hand

The way to deal with the problem of today, will not be to scrap the boarding school system. I understand the boarding school system has become extremely expensive to manage.

It is so because the state has decided that it wants to carry the burden. Boarding schools should be available to those who want and are willing to invest in them so scrapping boarding schools because the state cannot afford them cannot be the answer. Boarding school should be there for those who can afford it and those who be assisted can take advantage of it. Those who cannot afford it can use day schools.

To restore discipline in Senior High Schools, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey wants to the Ghana Education Service to give school boards the power to take disciplinary action.

Today as a result of social media, students have access to phones, and so we are able to see it, but it doesnt mean that bullying is new, it has always been there, let us not pretend. My worry is that those who are better positioned to deal with it at our schools have been restrained by the rules and practices of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey bemoaned.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

The Paramount Chief of Fodome Traditional Area, Togbega Gbedegbleme Akpatsa II, believes that the combined effect of expanding and modernizing the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS)s Hohoe campus in Fodome holds numerous socio-economic benefits for the area.

It is expected to stimulate the growth of tertiary education and tourism in the country.

Togbega of Fodome made these remarks on Saturday, August 5, 2023, during the Tffl, which is a traditional "river-crossing rite, to transit their three late chiefs, three linguistics, and one hundred and fifteen sons and daughters who had departed at Helu in Fodome to their final place of rest.

According to Togbega, the Hohoe UHAS infrastructure work has been progressing at a snail's pace since 2014, mainly due to poor funding.

He urged the government to support the Vice-Chancellor of UHAS in transforming the school to better serve the youth in and around the Hohoe municipality.

On September 10, 2021, President Akufo-Addo revealed that about 160 million dollars were sought for the expansion of the universitys campus in Fodome, which he inspected during his working tour of the Hohoe Municipality.

The President also mentioned that once the construction is completed, the facility would no longer serve as a campus but as a basis for a separate, independent University for Ghana, catering to the Northern part of the Volta Region and the Oti Region.

Due to Fodome's proximity to the Wili Waterfall and Mountain Afadza, the completion of the Hohoe campus promises significant socio-economic benefits to the region, boosting tourism in Ghana," Togbega emphasized to the gathering.

Togbega highlighted that vast acres of land are available for agricultural, industrial, and real estate purposes. He warmly invited potential investors to take keen interest in the existing opportunities to contribute to the area's growth.
Tano North Branch of National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has sensitized the staffs of Ghana National Fire Service on district level election at Duayaw Nkwanta in the Ahafo Region.

The purpose of the sensitization was to ensure the staffs participate in the upcoming district level election to enable the municipality record high voter turnout.

Addressing the staff, Mr. Joseph Oduro- Buabeng the Tano North Director of NCCE indicated that, the district level election is organized every four years by the electoral commission. He reiterated that the election offers citizens opportunity to elect political leaders to become ambassadors of development in their electoral areas.

Mr. Joseph Oduro - Buabrng the Municipal Director of NCCE educating the officers

Mr. Oduro said the 1992 Constitution of Ghana mandates citizens to contest for political positions such as Assembly members, Member of Parliament among others and urged those who wish to contest Assembly member positions to pick forms when nominations are opened by the Electoral Commission.

According to him, the data available indicates that the Tano North Municipality records low voter turnout during the district level elections. He further explained that the low voter turnout which is always recorded by the Municipality affects the Municipalitys decision making processes and called on all legible voters to come out in their numbers to participate in the voting processes when the time is due.

Mr. Francis Mensah, the Programme Officer at the NCCE also took personnel of Ghana Nation Fire Service through processes that would enable them link their Ghana Cards with NHIS Cards among others.

One of the beneficiaries of the programme thanked the commission for organizing such an important programme for them. He assured the commission that, the staff would extend the message to other people to make the municipality record high voter turnout in the upcoming 2023 district level election.
The Economic Community of West Africa States (Ecowas) leaders should learn. They must stop living with the colonial mentality. Sanctions have never worked but dialogue does. All the threats against Niger must stop for common sense to hold ground that diplomatic consultations can dialogue for the betterment of the people of the African nation.

No amount of armory can defeat the will of the people. Ecowas must learn from past history especially that of Ghana. In June 1979 when the other ranks rose up to topple a corrupt military regime and then the Military class ruling Nigeria in solidarity with their fellow corrupt regime in Ghana cut off oil supplies to Ghana thinking it would cripple and force the Revolutionary cadets to wave in. Rather it hardened the spirits of the citizens to stand firm and call out loud for more of the house cleaning exercises. We walked hundreds of miles in defiance as show of self-respect to denounce the interference of Nigeria in our domestic affairs for sanctioning our Revolution of no oil supply to power the engines of the nation. Cars and lorries were parked because there was no fuel to make them run. We survived and the Revolution achieved its objectives.

To me so far as the majority of Nigeriens accepted and wants the status-co to be changed and are willing to bear the burden of pain and willing to stand firm behind the Military Junta, nothing and I mean nothing, and no amount of threats will and never can reverse the route the Military stood out to achieve.

For this my humble advice to the West African Block is to reason and not to make matters worse. The West African Francophone zone is on the path of liberating themselves from the yolks of neo-colonialism.

Keep off and let them fight their battle.

Forward Ever

The Africa Unity Match.

Habel Awuku Dadoto.
The Chief of Ayeduase in the Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti Region, Nana Opoku Agyeman Baawua Bonsafo III has called on Ghanaians to rejuvenate their communal spirit, which had been a motivating factor for self-help projects in their localities.

The chief who is known for leading major developmental projects in his community has observed that, the insurgent of "I know my rights" in Ghanas development has killed the communal spirit of many youths in the country.

This according to him has affected the development of communities, especially in the area of sanitation.

He has therefore appealed to the youth in Ghana to rekindle their communal spirit to address the poor sanitation challenges confronting communities.

Nana Opoku Agyeman Baawua Bonsafo III was speaking to this reporter on Friday August 4, 2023, after he organized a clean-up exercise at Ayeduase.

"We should all resolve to do something to help our communities. We should cultivate a spirit of selflessness and dedication to our communities," he said.

He noted that the responsibility of cleaning gutters and other areas in communities should not be shifted to the Central government when the citizens through communal labour can help the state.

He however thanked his subjects for showing up in their numbers to participate in the exercise.

He disclosed that the traditional council together with the Assembly members in the area will hold more clean-up exercise to rid the community of filth.

The Assembly Member for the area, Hon Atobrah Justice underscored the need for the public to embark on such activities to help their communities.

He noted that poor sanitation and environmental conditions have led to the outbreak of some diseases such as malaria which has resulted in the death of many Ghanaians.

He noted that all such deaths could be prevented if residents in various communities were to come together and clean their surroundings.
NPP Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah

07.08.2023 LISTEN

The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah has urged Ghanaians to turn deaf ears to the claim by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the economy is not recovering.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta was in Parliament last Monday to present the Mid-Year Budget Review.

In his presentation, he announced that the Ghanaian economy has turned a corner.

"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, Ken Ofori-Atta said.

This was strongly opposed by the Minority who continues to argue that the economy has not turned any corner and is in fact doing worse.

In a post to counter the Minority, Richard Ahiagbah has accused the NDC of lacking ideas.

He urges Ghanaians to stand with government in its efforts to stablise the economy.

The NDC is talking down the economy because they don't have alternative ideas to counter the policy offerings of this government to regenerate the economy. The economy has turned the corner, Ghanaians must stand with the government to stabilize the economy, the NPP Director of Communications said.
The West African sub-region last week woke up to the news of the arrest of the constitutionally elected President of the Republic of Niger and usurpation of power in that country.

It was a development which added to the list of Francophone countries under juntas and instructively all the countries thereof have links of sorts to Wagner, the notorious Russian mercenary group.

Nationals of Niger like their Malian counterparts did wave Russian flags when news about the putsch was made public.

The bottom-line is that Russian mercenary influence is becoming entrenched around us and we must fret about the negative development.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), it would appear, has never been so stressed in recent times. It has issued an ultimatum to the coup makers to reverse the status quo of face possible military action.

Given the fact that such an action might not be feasible, the economic community might lose face as it is unable to make good its threat.

Even more intriguing is the subtle support the Russian mercenaries have promised the coup makers.

With the mercenaries now emboldened, nothing stops them from establishing a foothold in the sub-region, the security implications of which are not far-fetched.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Today is Monday and there is no sign that ECOWAS has moved troops to Niamey or even close to that country's borders even as the deadline of its ultimatum ended yesterday.

Local national security strategy should be redrawn. With the recently publicised one still in place, given the reality of Russian mercenaries digging in across our borders, some amendments must be considered.

The countries harbouring the mercenaries being members of ECOWAS and with no intention of rescinding their decision, the need to rethink our relationship with such neighbouring countries cannot be overlooked.

The troubles are piling up. Militants of ISIS and others have not let go their military objectives thereby overstretching the defence projects of the countries in which they are active; Burkina Faso neighbour being an exception.

Intelligence gathering by our foremost frontier security agencies, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Armed Forces should be shored up.

Training manuals of officers, men and women of these agencies should be overhauled against the backdrop of the dawning realities.

Russia is eagerly looking for new friends in Africa in the face of global sanctions and dwindling number of associates. The recent number of 17 heads of state in Moscow, a far cry of previous high numbers, said it all about why Putin is eagerly looking for new friends in Africa. A coup in Niger and destabilisation of neighbouring countries would certain fit the bill of desperate Putin as he slugs it out with Ukraine.

Whether we like it or not, we are gradually being drawn into a new security architecture of complex dimension.

For now all we can do is tighten our borders, educate residents of our frontiers and others about the changing world politics and national security.

Source: Daily Guide
President Akufo-Addo receiving the award

07.08.2023 LISTEN

His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic, will be conferred with the prestigious 'Medal of Merit in Leadership' award by the African Bar Association (AfBA).

The ceremony will be taken place at the AfBA's Annual Conference held at the University of South Africa in Pretoria today, August 7.

President Akufo-Addo, a renowned human rights lawyer and activist, is receiving the honor for his exemplary leadership, pan-Africanism, anti-corruption efforts, and advancement of democracy in Ghana and across the continent.

According to AfBA President Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, Esq., "It is a great privilege to honor President Akufo-Addo, a Pan Africanist, Anti Corruption Crusader, a rare Democratic Leader in the field of Good Governance, a true African Statesman whose legacies present African leaders must emulate and we are minded to say will stand the test of time."

He further highlighted President Akufo-Addo's "past services rendered to the African Bar Association as an Executive Council Member during his active years in Legal Practice."

The 'Medal of Merit in Leadership' award recognizes President Akufo-Addo's lifelong commitment to protecting human rights, promoting justice, and modeling principled leadership across Africa and globally.

As both a lawyer and president, the award affirms his efforts in cementing his legacy as a pillar of democratic values and Pan-African unity.

The Presidents legal counsel, Kow Essuman, shared the news in a tweet on Monday, August 7.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

Some 15 persons from Awoshie Mangoase in Accra have been arrested by the police for blocking some sections of the Awoshie to Pokuase Highway.

The residents blocked the road after a man was knocked down by a car Monday morning.

The residents were protesting the frequent incidents of vehicles hitting residents on the stretch.

They expressed concern that about 45 individuals have been struck by vehicles this year.

Speaking to Citi News, the residents urged authorities to install speed ramps and repair the malfunctioning traffic lights along the stretch.

Since January 2024, about 45 people have been knocked down in this area, they have just killed someone this morning, and they have refused to give us a permit after a series of calls.

The police officers dont have our issues at heart, they only come here when we agitate, the residents complained.

citinewsroom
A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Felix Kwakye Ofosu has leveled some allegations against President Akufo-Addo and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

He said the two have committed some economic atrocities, alleging that government has been illegally forcing the Bank of Ghana to lend it millions of cedis.

In a tweet on Monday, August 7, the NDC parliamentary candidate for Abura Asebu Kwamankese constituency in the Central region described the current government as the worst in history.

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia have committed economic atrocities, the latest being forcing the Bank of Ghana to lend tens of billions of Ghana cedis to government against the law and leading to the former's insolvency. The worst government ever! he wrote.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has 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.
Felix Kwame Quainoo

07.08.2023 LISTEN

The rains are here with us again and has quite characteristically exposed the stark reality of serious underlying community challenges and deep prevalent gaps in the developmental trajectory of most cities, towns and communities across the country.

From Bawku to Axim, most communities in the country come to a standstill when the rains come. Almost, every settlement feels the pangs of the devastating effects of the rains with its associated lightning and thunderstorms depending on the magnitude and volume of rainfall.

In recent times, the combined effect of climate change, environmental degradation and lack of proper planning of settlements, the rains which are supposed to be a blessing by nature becomes more of a nuisance and almost a curse to human settlement and survival.

Additionally, the huge developmental deficit of a lot of our local communities and the resultant challenges in the wake of natural disasters especially the ones occasioned by rainstorms lays ample testimony to our non-responsiveness, non-readiness and unpreparedness to deal decisively with the negative effects of these natural phenomena.

Speaking of rainstorms which rip off the roofing of some buildings and destroy electric poles and masts, to flooding which leads to the collapse of some buildings, it is clear that when the rains come especially in full force we literally "hold our hearts in our hands" until the rains subside.

Many communities are cut off for days as most rivers and streams overflow their banks, roads become muddy, inaccessible and impassable as some bridges connecting communities collapse or are washed away at the start of heavy rains. Inadvertently, movement to and fro some communities becomes almost impossible thereby cutting off supplies of food, water, medicine and other emergency relief items to displaced people and communities.

Our communities are never the same when the rains cease, we are left in its trail heaps of debris, rubbish, choked gutters, huge potholes etc. as a result of human activities. Subsequently, we encounter unpleasant situations like dust engulfing our communities, outbreak of epidemics such as cholera and the breeding of mosquitoes. As a matter of fact, this is an annual cycle or 'ritual' which can be forecasted or predicted with absolute certainty.

Gone are the days when communal labour was used to fix basic problems in our various communities. In times past, some schools, health centres and feeder roads were constructed through communal labour. In anticipation of the rains and its consequences gutters and drains were thoroughly desilted, blockades of waterways were removed, trees were planted by river sides to protect water bodies, weedy areas were cleared during communal labour, and when these were done the rains did not engulf our communities and our communities were not submerged by flood waters in the manner we have been experiencing in recent times.

Lately, due to urbanization and globalization, people build in water ways with impunity! Wetlands are being filled everywhere to put up buildings, the practice of communal labour to prop up our own communities is identified in recent times as a taboo in some communities as we sadly look on for our beloved communities to sink down the doldrums.

It is very sad to note that, as citizens, we have adopted the attitude of waiting on government to do the basic things that we could do for our communities such as desilting of gutters. But we need to realize that when the unpleasant situation comes staring at us in our communities, government' does not reside in the communities with us and so will not suffer the consequences of these challenges. As residents of these communities, we bear the brunt of the mess.

Quite interesting and intriguing at the same time is the fact that, most of the beautiful and bigger structures in our communities are churches, mosques and other religious buildings which were built through the benevolence and the regular contributions from residents of our various communities. However, it is not uncommon to find the roads leading to these edifices in a deplorable state, something which could easily be fixed through the same means by which these mighty religious structures were built. Residents fail some-way somehow to recognize the fact that if they have been able to build a church or mosque through their modest contributions then they can equally fix the roads leading to these important places of religious significance.

In truth, if the building of the church or mosque was to be a responsibility of government, residents would never construct it but would wait upon government to do so. However, once construction of roads is a responsibility of the government, it would continue to remain deplorable until such a time that government would finally be ready to fix it. How can we develop as a nation with such negative attitudes and mentality?

Similarly, in some communities the combined value of individual assets and properties in terms of buildings, vehicles, shops, factories etc. juxtaposed with the bad roads on which residents ply with these expensive vehicles into the properties makes a complete nonsense of the valuable assets and properties. If individuals within a vicinity or community can own such valuable assets and properties, why cant they equally pool resources to fix the basic challenges confronting them such as bad roads?

Just because we are wired to think that it is the responsibility of government to fix roads most people especially the affluent in society who could easily come together to fix the problem would rather whine and complain each time, they ply the deplorable roads.

The legitimate question is if we can individually build huge mansions, buy expensive cars and pool resources to build big churches and mosques why can't we in a similar fashion, solve some of our fundamental community challenges as enumerated above?

Due to the underdevelopment of our communities there is the natural propensity to lampoon government, government agencies and public officials whose mandate and responsibility it is to put proper structures in place to ensure the accelerated development of our local communities. Rightly so because, as citizens we pay our taxes to government and we expect our taxes to work for us. If our taxes are not working for us as expected, we have every right to call out the government to do the needful.

Government over the years is doing a great job through the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). NADMO has been rebranded and retooled in recent times to be more proactive rather than reactive in managing disasters. They are definitely doing their best, unfortunately their best is not enough. There still remains more room for improvement. The story is the same with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and also the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) who are the vanguards of national and community development. In fact, their value remains the same.

The focus of this write up is therefore not on what is expected of government and its agencies but, on what we can do as residents of our various communities to remedy the sad situation of our communities in line with the popular mantra of 'being citizens and not spectators'. John F. Kennedy, Ex-President of the United States of America in his 1961 inaugural address remarked quite unequivocally' ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country'. I believe this should be the guiding principle of all whose passion it is to see the total development of our communities and massive improvement in the lives of our compatriots.

One thing that we need to understand as a people is that government alone cannot do it as the piece meal approach to development by government would never deliver for our communities the much-needed results that are needed in the short to medium term to make our lives better. Possibly, if we want to wait on government and its agencies to solve the basic problems confronting our communities then we may have to wait forever.

From the foregoing it is evidently clear that it is high time we came together as a people to begin to have a deeper conversation on how to manage our local communities without necessarily resorting to government or calling on government to intervene. We have all it takes to make our communities work again, let us take action now and show the way. Let us learn from the good examples that are being set by others and do the needful.

I therefore call on all community leaders at all levels, our chiefs and elders, Assembly and Unit Committee Members, Priests and Priestesses, Reverend Ministers and Pastors, Imams and Mallams as well all community stakeholders to come together and rally the support of community members to spearhead local community development. It is possible, we can achieve a lot with ease when we come together. Indeed, in unity lies strength.

I believe in the natural abilities of the good people of this country to resolve our own community challenges with tenacity of purpose. Let us rise above partisan politics and pettiness and prove to the world once again that indeed "The Blackman is capable of managing his/her own affairs" as expounded by His Excellency the first President of the Republic Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

May the Almighty God continue to bless our homeland Ghana and make us great and strong.

*Felix Kwame Quainoo*

0244998919/0207744933

[email protected]

The writer is a freelancer residing at Aboso in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality of the Western Region
07.08.2023 LISTEN

Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Wulensi Constituency in Northern Region, Thomas Donkor Ogajah has been arrested by police for defrauding a scrap dealer.

The former lawmaker has been charged with defrauding by false pretence in accordance with section 131 of the criminal offence Act of 1960, (Act 29) involving an amount of GHS38,600 belonging to the scrap dealer

He has also been charged with fraudulent breach of trust based on section 128 of the criminal offenses Act of 1960, (Act 29) also involving an amount of GHS57,000 belonging to the scrap dealer Yussif Osman.

Facts obtained reveals that on 17th of September 2021, the suspect, former MP for Wulensi, Thomas Donkor Ogaja, met complainant Yussif Osman at the Ministry of Interior in Accra.

The complainant was introduced to the suspect by one Mr. Kareem, an errand boy of the aforementioned suspect, that the complainant Yussif Osman was dealing in scrap business and needed assistance to buy scraps from the Ministry of Railways.

The suspect immediately promised to assist the complainant and asked him to make a commitment of some money to enable him buy the scraps.

Even though they did not agree on a specific amount, on their second meeting, on another day, the complainant allegedly gave GHS5000 as an advanced payment to the former MP to start with the acquisition of the scraps.

The suspect, after allegedly collecting the money, promised the complainant that, he knew former Minister of Railways Development Joe Ghartey, and also current Minister for Railways Development John Peter Amewu.

The suspect claimed he had contacted them to assist in buying the scraps in large quantities.

Thereafter, he asked the complainant to make another payment of unspecified amounts to enable him influence the aforementioned Ministers for him to easily acquire the scraps.

The complainant made payment in installment totalling GHS38,600.

The second issue being handled by the police had to do with fraudulent breach of trust preferred against the former lawmaker.

Inspite of all that had happened to the complainant, he did not give up, and decided to continue with his scrap business.

Out of complainant's own efforts, he was able to get a scrap deal (business) from a Chinese company called Geo-engineering Corporation located at Aveyima, in the Volta Region.

He was asked to pay GHS330,000 for the scraps  7 big tipper trucks and two concrete mixer machines for outright buying.

Since he wasn't having money, the complainant once again called the former MP for him to assist him raise money to enable him buy the scraps.

The suspect could not raise the money himself but contacted a family friend at Agbogbloshie, who was able to finance the deal.

They sold the scraps they bought at GHS500,000 making a profit of GHS170,000. Before the transaction, the three parties, thus, complainant, suspect, and financier had agreed that the profit would be equally shared.

The suspect allegedly deposited the profit into his personal account refusing to give the complainant (Yussif Osman) his share of the money as earlier agreed by the parties.

The complainant subsequently went through serious financial crisis and difficulties and pleaded with the suspect to at least release some of the money for him to start something with his scrap business, but all fell on deaf ears.

Until 21st July 2023 the complainant gathered courage and lodged a complaint at the Legon Police Station.

Police then acted swiftly and on Saturday 5th August 2023 at about 11:10am, the suspect was arrested to face the full rigors of the law.

Checks at the police station revealed that the suspect did not deny the allegations made against him and had therefore been charged.

He was granted bail while the police continued with their investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Brako at the Legon Police Station has been assigned by the police to investigate the case.

In his statement to the police, the suspect, Thomas Donkor Ogajah, confirmed the claims made by the complainant.

He indicated that indeed, they (suspect and complainant) had a scrap business together, and out of the business, profit was realized to the tune of GHS170,000.

He also admitted receiving various sums of money from the complainant but claim they were fuel allowances to go and lobby the two Railways Development Ministers, and the Chief of staff office for the scrap deal.

In his statement again, the suspect admitted meeting the sector Ministers involved and one Deputy Minister to discuss the scrap deals with them.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu

07.08.2023 LISTEN

Former Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has described the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the worst government ever in the history of the country.

He argues that under the President and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, so many atrocities have been committed by government with disregard for the law.

In a post on social media on Monday, August 7, Felix Kwakye Ofosu accused President Akufo-Addo and his Vice President of forcing the Bank of Ghana to lend billion to government.

Akufo-Addo and Bawumia have committed economic atrocities, the latest being forcing the Bank of Ghana to lend tens of billions of Ghana cedis to government against the law and leading to the former's insolvency. The worst government ever, the former Deputy Minister of Communications said.

This follows the release of the Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Bank of Ghana which showed that the Central Bank recorded a loss of GHS60.8 billion in 2022.

The Annual Report and Financial Statements noted the impact of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and impairment of some assets contributed largely to the huge losses.
Former President John Mahama has said the Akufo-Addo-led government is refusing to complete the Saglemi housing project because they did not start it.

In Mr Mahama's estimation, it is "unacceptable" and "humiliating" that the president would start a new housing project to the detriment of the Saglemi project, yet commit hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis to a failed national cathedral project which has been fraught with corruption.

At the recent sod-cutting ceremony for the new affordable housing project at Pokuase in Accra, President Akufo-Addo justified the government's decision to initiate the new project instead of completing the Saglemi project, which was started in 2016.

The president explained that completing the Saglemi Housing Project would have incurred additional debt for the government.

He acknowledged the delays and setbacks encountered during the execution of the Saglemi project and mentioned that issues concerning its scope of work and expenses have been referred to the Criminal Investigations Division of the Ghana Police Service for investigation, leading to criminal judicial proceedings.

President Akufo-Addo revealed that in addition to the $198 million already spent on the Saglemi project, the government would need an extra $46 million to complete infrastructural works such as water, electricity, and drainage to mitigate flooding.

Additionally, $68 million would be required to finish the buildings and essential onsite infrastructure, including waste holding bays, sewage treatment plants, and the development of socioeconomic and civic facilities like schools, clinics, and shops.

Considering the project's assessment, location, and viability, the cabinet instructed the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, to explore the possibility of involving the private sector to complete the Saglemi housing project at its current value without any further cost to the government.

Mr Mahama, however, believes the government is neglecting the Saglemi project because he started it.

"It is unacceptable for Akufo-Addo to spend over half a billion cedis on a national cathedral project that has ultimately failed due to corruption and is now abandoned, yet refuses to commit funds to complete a housing project that will benefit thousands of Ghanaian families", the 2024 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress complained on Facebook.

He said: "Knowing the NPP government, they did not want to complete the Saglemi housing project simply because it was initiated by John Mahama and an NDC administration".

Leaders, Mr Mahama, noted, "must always prioritise the well-being of their citizens and ensure that they benefit from government resources and projects, regardless of who initiated them".

"The misplaced priorities of a government that claim it is unable to raise money to complete the Saglemi housing project and yet is willing to spend half a billion cedis on the largest civil excavation in Africa is a humiliating slap in the face of Ghanaians who entrusted Akufo Addo with their mandate", he added.

"Just think about the countless number of Ghanaian families who could have had decent living conditions over the past 7 years and the individuals who could have had a place to truly call home in Saglemi".

-Classfmonline.com
The Ghana Armwrestling Federation (GAF) has sent a goodwill message to the final year students of Junior and Senior High Schools students writing their final year examination this month.

An advocate for EduSports, Sportsprenuer and President of the Federation, Mr. Charles Osei Asibey, in a statement commended the candidates and urged them to keep fighting till their last paper.

He explained that his federation was in partnership with the Ghana Education Service to develop and nurture young talents in armwrestling hence the need to extend best wishes to the BECE and WASSCE candidates.

Through our partnership with the GES, we have had JHS and SHS students represent Ghana at national and international levels through our Kids Armwrestling project being funded by SES HD Plus Ghana Limited.

We as a federation are excited about the achievements of the students and we can only wish them well and urge them not to end their academic profile here but push to the next level while combining their sporting talents, the statement said.

Junior High School final year students are sitting for their BECE which started on Monday, August 7 and will end on Friday, August 11 while final year students from Senior High Schools begun theirs on July 31 and will end on September 26.
Dear priests, religious and faithful, we, the true Catholic bishops, are obliged before God and before you, the people of God, to express ourselves clearly and truthfully about the current situation in the Church. As successors of the apostles, we carry full responsibility together with the true Pope for the Church of Christ. Unfortunately, the current Pope Francis Bergoglio does not adhere to the true faith but is a heretic, and therefore he is no rightful Pope. This being the case, the responsibility for the Church falls on the orthodox college of bishops. The bishops of Germany and Belgium as well as every bishop who maintains unity in heresy with the invalid Pope Bergoglio and his synodal LGBTQ journey are excluded from this college of apostles.

We, the true Catholic bishops, confess our great sin before you, dear priests and believers, and we now do public penance. Our sin is that we were not guided by Gods word but we felt panic at the thought that the heretics might label us as schismatics if we separated ourselves from subordination to a heretic and traitor of Christ. We opened up to this intimidation and this colossal lie, and we were scared. We were scared because we did not take God seriously, whose word places heretics under anathema, i.e. under a curse, for a false gospel (cf. Gal 1:8-9). We mostly cared about our outward image of Excellencies and Eminences in the eyes of the world or many false Catholics. We did not care about how God is looking at us or how we shall stand before Him in the Day of Judgment. We liked to be in self-deception. We deluded ourselves that we can disagree with the invalid Popes heretical agenda of the LGBTQ synodal journey and at the same time we can obey him and submit to him. We did not mind that it was nonsense. Our self-deception did not require any sacrifices for faithfulness to the truth. We did not care about our betraying Christ or causing offence.

We acknowledge in repentance that it was our unbelief and fear that pressured us into this schizophrenia. We were afraid that if we acted depending on the reality that a heretic is a heretic, we would be seen as causing dissension, or an alleged schism. We fooled ourselves into believing that by doing so we would be disqualified in the eyes of the so-called Catholic public. For the sake of our so-called good image, so as not to be viewed as schismatics by the heretics and the world, we were able to deny Christ seven times a day. Then we even falsely sanctified it by saying that, as faithful sons of the Catholic Church, we had to act that way. That was the next stage of spiritual schizophrenia. Because of our unity with the Bergoglian Vatican, which gradually brought down a curse, we became numb and blind without noticing it. We refused to admit that Bergoglio, contrary to Gods law, approves homosexualism, transsexualism, abolishes Gods commandments and universally valid moral principles in Amoris Laetitia, approves sexual education for children, recommends so-called sex without rigidity for them and ultimately leaves them scarred. Step by step, we tolerated this destructive process, so we were complicit in it and brought down a curse upon ourselves. We were dumb dogs because we did not draw any adequate consequences from this trampling on Gods law. And even when the prophetic voice of the former US nuncio C. M. Vigano clearly called on the heretic and the entire homo-network to resign, we still remained treacherously silent. With our silent consent, we supported the heretic and did not join Gods voice that demanded Bergoglios resignation. When Cardinal Muller clearly described the synodal journey as doctrinally incompetent and canonically illegitimate, we not only remained silent but we supported this synodal path of apostasy at the synodal meetings.

In this grave situation, when the existence of the Catholic Church is at stake, we sincerely ask God for the light of genuine repentance that we may become aware of our sins, namely our betrayal of Christ, closing our eyes and ears to the truth, our pharisaism, liberalism, clericalism, reprehensible neglect of the duty to fight against heresies, our cowardice, love of the world, and vain glory. We liked to be deceived by the so-called new dynamic approach to the deposit of faith, the so-called new demands of the time, the condoning of sin by false mercy, and the so-called need for a subjective approach. We were not willing to hear the prophetic word, either through people, or through warning signs, or through the voice of conscience. We stifled and suppressed our conscience, thereby plunging ourselves into darkness and ceasing to distinguish between truth and heresy, morality and immorality. Moreover, we silenced the prophets as well as the prophetic voice in our hearts so as to be guided by false prophets, heretical theologians, instead of protecting the flock against them like against ravenous wolves. It was completely true of us that we loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.

We confess it as our sin before You, O Lord, and before the Church. We find with horror that we have reached the stage of total spiritual blindness, deafness and hardness of heart. We did not want to see, hear or realise that we were walking the path to destruction. We kept telling ourselves that we could not be wrong when we obeyed the Holy Father, although we knew we thus obeyed a Judas and betrayed Christ together with him. We now publicly acknowledge it in repentance.

We also confess our sin of forcing people into vaccination. We contributed to it, either actively or passively. We allowed this spirit of lies and death to work in our diocese. We are therefore responsible for many tragic consequences not only for human health and human life, but for human souls as well. If we continued to walk this path of unity with the Bergoglian Vatican, we would lead these souls under the rule of antichrist to be chipped, and eventually to end up in the lake of fire.

We lied to ourselves and to people that the synodal LGBTQ journey is something completely different than what it really is.

In addition, the very fact that Germany and Belgium continue their official apostasy and we, the apostolic college, have been silent about it to this day, is a sign of our inner betrayal. We know that Bergoglios Vatican approves of these outrageous sins, and yet we were not able to speak out in defence of Gods truth and convict Bergoglio and his homo-network of crime.

We lived in our own virtual reality, and we automatically conformed the voice of truth to those dimensions, where God and His Word are no longer taken seriously. The most important thing for us was to maintain an image of a Catholic bishop who is in unity with the so-called Holy Father. We refused to admit the fact about him being anathematized from the Church. Through our unity with him, we brought down this anathema  curse  on ourselves and our dioceses.

If any priest faithful to Christ had stopped saying the name of the heretic in the Mass, we would have excommunicated him in cold blood. Now we realise the monstrosity of our thinking  we were capable of anything, even killing Christ in the souls of His faithful priests. This is a sign of our betrayal of Christ and our spiritual blindness. On the contrary, we were obliged by the authority of Christ to forbid priests from saying the name of the invalid Pope in the Mass. Instead, we were play-acting and watching closely lest any of the priests dare stop saying the name of this heretic in the Mass. Such a priest would thus break out from the curse under which we held the whole diocese through our pseudo obedience to the so-called Holy Father. Yes, we bear most of the blame for perpetuating the curse that is upon our diocese to this day. We are to blame for a change in thinking of Catholics who are no longer able to call a sin a sin or a perversion a perversion, let alone truly repent. This is the corpus delicti that convicts us of abuse of authority and of terrible crimes against God. We now acknowledge it in penitence and we publicly repent, because repentance is the only way to salvation. If we became hardened in lies, we would be co-responsible for the mass betrayal and drastic suicide of Christs Mystical Body.

We cry out with the prophet Daniel: O Lord, great and awesome God,  we have sinned and done wrong, we have been wicked and have rebelled (by being involved in LGBTQ synodal rebellion). We have turned away from Your commands and laws (by respecting Bergoglio, the false Pope, who not only breaks but even abolishes the laws of God). We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name. (They were many times courageous priests or nameless believers, who were a prophetic voice and a living reproach to us.)  This day we are covered with shame  every man (every Catholic bishop).  The curse and the oath have been poured out on us (because of a false LGBTQ gospel promoted by the pseudo Pope through the synodal journey).  Now, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant (me, a penitent bishop) and his pleas for mercy O Lord, forgive! O Lord, act and do not delay! (cf. Dan 9:4f)

We now publicly separate ourselves from the Bergoglian sect. By this separation, we remove from ourselves the curse that was upon us and our dioceses.

We call on priests to stop saying in the Mass the name of the public heretic and rebel against God  the Judas and apostate Francis  so as not to bring down the curse on themselves and the faithful again.

We ask you, dear faithful, pray the full fifteen-decade Rosary, if possible, daily until the end of October. These historic days determine the existence of the Catholic Church. It is the most dramatic period in its entire history.

We pray to the Blessed Virgin: O dear Mother, crush the head of the hellish serpent with your foot!

We, the orthodox college of penitent bishops of the Catholic Church, ask for your prayers and offer you our blessing

Video: vkpatriarhat.org/en/?p=23366

Bishops of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has called on the public to desist from giving bribes to court officials who claim they collect the money on behalf of judges for favourable judgments.

Justice Torkornoo revealed that many bribery incidents reported were actually orchestrated by dishonest court staff seeking personal gain.

She said the bribes collected never reaches the judges.

These corrupt practices, she said, tarnish the reputation of the Judiciary and undermine the public's trust in the legal system.

During separate Chief Justice Community Sensitization programs held in Akwatia and Kraboa Coaltar in the Eastern Region, Justice Torkornoo urged citizens to report any court staff requesting money under the guise of forwarding it to a judge.

She stated, Any court registrar, interpreter, clerk, recorder or any staff who asks for money to be given to a judge is a thief.

The truth is that in the majority of these instances, the judges have not requested any money; the money does not go to them, and they are not even aware.

Report such staff to the police and the Judicial Service."

We will investigate, and I will sack them if they are culpable and also ensure that they are decisively dealt with.

This is a bad culture destroying the image of the Judiciary, and we are determined to stamp it out, she added.

These interactive community programs are part of Justice Torkornoo's initiative to bridge the gap between the judiciary and the public, enabling them to better understand the role of the Judiciary and the fundamental principles of the law.
The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Richard Ahiagbah has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) members lacked alternative ideas to revive the deteriorating economy.

According to Mr. Ahiagbah, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in his opinion is engaging in deceit.

On July 7, he said in a tweet that members of the NDC have been talking down the economy.

The NDC is talking down the economy because they don't have alternative ideas to counter the policy offerings of this government to regenerate the economy. The economy has turned the corner, Ghanaians must stand with the government to stabilize the economy, Richard Ahiagbah stated.

In an interview on TV3, member of the National Democratic (NDC) legal team Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe said the government's claim that it had turned the corner is false.

They cannot assume that they are turning the corner, they are two and distinct, the Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said he has that is why I am saying that this NPP government are living in their own reality. Akufo-Addo whilst in opposition told the people of this country together with Bawumia that they are going to move this economy from taxation to production, the record shows that this government has moved from taxation to more taxes, to more taxes and there is no end in sight, he stated.
West African leaders will hold a summit on the crisis in Niger this week after the country's military rulers defied an ultimatum to restore the elected government or face possible military intervention.

In its first official reaction since Niger ignored the deadline of midnight (2300 GMT) on Sunday to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, the ECOWAS regional bloc said it would meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday.

"The ECOWAS leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger during the summit," the 15-nation bloc said on Monday.

ECOWAS had issued its ultimatum at a previous summit in Abuja on July 30, warning it did not rule out the "use of force" in Niger.

No foreign troops were visible on the streets of Niger's capital, Niamey, after the deadline came and went on Sunday.

A source close to ECOWAS said an immediate military intervention to restore Bazoum was not being envisaged at this stage.

Neighbouring Mali nevertheless said it and Burkina Faso -- which have both been suspended from ECOWAS over their own military coups -- were sending a joint official delegation to Niamey to show "solidarity (with) the people of Niger".

They have said military intervention would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Niger ignored a deadline to reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. By - (AFP)

Niger's military leaders have closed the nation's airspace and on Monday its skies were clear of traffic, according to the flight tracking website Flightradar24.

Italy urged ECOWAS to extend the deadline and seek a diplomatic solution, with a similar call from Germany.

"A solution must be found. It's not set that there is no way other than war," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa newspaper.

Constitutional order

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also cautioned against a military solution, which President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said would be "a direct threat" to his North African country.

Senators in regional heavyweight Nigeria urged everyone to focus on the "political and diplomatic option".

Just before the ultimatum expired on Sunday, Niger's military rulers closed the Sahel country's airspace and warned any attempt to enter it would meet with an "energetic and immediate response".

They said there had been a "pre-deployment in preparation for intervention" made by two Central African countries, without naming them, and warned: "Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent."

Map showing the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including those suspended or sanctioned following a coup. By Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA (AFP)

Former colonial power France, with which Niger's new rulers have broken military ties, said it would "firmly" back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the deadline expired.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara called on Sunday on the coup leaders to stand down.

"We condemn the attempted coup in Niger, which poses a serious threat to peace and security in the sub-region," Ouattara said, adding it was "essential" to "constitutional order" that Bazoum be allowed to govern.

The Niger coup was the latest of several to plague Africa's Sahel belt since 2020.

Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have 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 already evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Niger since the coup, and on Sunday, Italy's defence ministry said it had flown 65 military personnel from Niger, along with 10 US military personnel.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

The latest military coup in Niger in West Africa has put the spotlight on the state of democratic governance in the region once again with the West leading the charge, while the African Union has been in tow condemning the coup and urging the soldiers to return to their barracks within 15 days!

There is no doubt that the increasing popularity of military coups in the continent has become a source of worry for the West and their enablers on the continent. Nigers coup is the latest of a scourge in West Africa as Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso have had elected presidents overthrown in separate incidents over the past two years.

While these three West African countries remain suspended by the African Union, Sudan has collapsed into a near civil war, after an overthrow of a transitional civilian government in October 2021, followed by a split in the security forces this year on the future of the transition.

It is significant to note that military personnel are embedded in the societies of which they are members and the decisions and actions they take to intervene in politics are not bereft of the opinions of the public they serve to protect. To all intents and purposes, the African publics are gradually warming to the idea of military intervention because of their deteriorating socioeconomic circumstances.

Africans are slowly but steadily beginning to see military interventions as a silver lining or panacea to their poor socioeconomic problem because of the rapacious, mainly gerontocratic political leadership that is forced down their throat under the guise of democracy.

In fact, according to data from the Afrobarometer survey, the proportion of eligible voters who approve of military rule increased from less than one-quarter (23%) in 2015 to nearly one-third (29%) in 2023.

This is the fear that has gripped both the West and their African allies. This is the reason why President Akufo Addo of Ghana panicked and ran to the US State Department in 2022 when the Wagner mercenary forces that apparently helped engender the coup in Burkina Faso came close to Ghanas northern border.

From the point of view of the West, as represented by France and the United States, their quick condemnation of the coup is ostensibly to defend democracy, a time-honoured mantra that motivated the Western powers to gang up against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during the World War II.

The concern about democratic governance that has led to the condemnation of this particular coup detat in Niger and of course all the others before it are manifest in the words and phrases Western leaders and their African allies have employed in their characterizations of the situation in Niger so far.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has urged the restoration of democratic order, as a condition for the continuation of economic and military assistance to that country, while France has cut financial and security assistance to the military junta.

Meanwhile, in Africa. Kenyas President, William Ruto, has joined the rest of the world to condemn in the strongest terms this unconstitutional act that subverts democracy through a Coup d'etat (Italics mine) and calls for the immediate release of President Mohammed Bazoum.

From these characterizations of the coup detat, the impression that is created is that there is a rolling recession of democracy on the African continent and therefore there is a need for urgent solution to this problem by all stakeholders, especially, our Western benefactors.

But democratic governance is not alien to traditional African cultures and therefore the resurgence of military coups on the continent cannot be a function of Africans antipathy to democratic governance; pre-colonial African governance systems were invariably democratic in nature.

Africans aptitude for democratic practice coupled with their primordial embrace of the free market system explains why most of the socialist central planning principles introduced by their post-independence leaders failed woefully, while in contrast the liberal democratic culture has been enjoying such an unrivalled popularity since the late 1980s on the continent.

In fact, the alacrity with which several African countries adopted and implemented the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) prescribed by the Bretton Woods institutions of the IMF and the World Bank in the early 1990s is a testament to Africans belief in and practice of the free market system represented by the West.

So, how does one make sense of what appears to be a disturbing return to the atavistic past of military takeovers and their concomitant political and economic instabilities on the African continent as opposed to what many expected to be Africas inexorable march to a future of a democratic bliss?

In my opinion, there are two overlapping explanations for this seeming recession of democracy on the African continent. Firstly, this unexpected return to the past is due to the same neo-colonial policy violence our previous colonizers and their allies perpetrated on Africans that compelled Africas post-independence leaders to adopt the socialist central planning as a development paradigm.

Take Niger for example. The country is one of the poorest in the world but has the largest deposit of uranium, a strategic mineral that is high in demand for the production of nuclear energy. In fact, as I write this piece, between France and the United States they have over 2,000 troops permanently based in this poor country.

Why would two great Western powers seek to base over 2,000 troops permanently in a country the majority of whose citizens lack the basic means of survival? To the majority of these people, and to others elsewhere on the continent in similar circumstances, the democracy that the West and their African allies preach to them about has become nothing but a facade for the exploitation of the resources they own.

The rule of law and human rights culture the West seeks to entrench in Africa only serve as the means through which their multinational corporations exploit Africas mineral resources and repatriate their profits home safely, while the indigenous owners of these resources are left destitute with the acquiescence of their African leaders.

Because the West is only concerned about the profitability of their multinational corporations, they often overlook the abuses their African allies subject their own citizens to without holding them to the same standard of democracy in the West, as long as the security forces that are the instrument of abuse, are employed to safeguard these Western investments.

Thus to many Africans, Western liberal democracy has become a zero-sum game whereby the huge Western-originated multinational corporations and local political and economic elites win at the expense of the majority of Africans who live in abject poverty.

The second reason for the resurgence of military coups on the African continent is the quality of leadership Africans have experienced in recent decades. Invariably, African publics everywhere feel disappointed in the leaders they elect through the democratic process.

To most African voters therefore, the democratization they struggled for in the 1980s and 1990s after the one-party systems in the 1960s and 1970s have not been worthwhile because the hallmarks of these so-called democratic governments have been corruption, nepotism, mediocrity, tribalism, and economic and political meltdown.

Ghana provides a good case study. Ghana became the poster boy of the new wave of democratization on the continent when, after the excesses of the military regime under J.J. Rawlings, the country transitioned to a multi-party rule under the 1992 Constitution; six successive multi-party elections have been conducted in the country since 1992.

Even though it was not flawless, the 1992 Constitution became a model for many a country in the region that had gone through similar circumstances of undemocratic governance. The country enjoyed relative political and economic stability until the present administration took over in 2016 when things started going south.

The countrys economy is now in shambles following reckless borrowing by the finance minister who happens to be the presidents nephew. In a clear case of conflict of interest, the finance ministers bank benefits from this borrowing spree because his bank is the transaction advisor to the government. The incompetent management of the economy has resulted in the country returning to the IMF for a bailout for the 17th time.

Corruption and nepotism have become the defining characteristics of the current administration as the entire government is packed with family members, friends, and people from the same ethnic group as the President much to the chagrin of the majority of the populace.

Corruption has become so prevalent under the current administration that just last week a government Minister was found with over $17 million in cash hidden in her house. You have an untenable situation in the country whereby an unelected cousin of the President is virtually the de facto Prime Minister of the country cutting deals in the millions on the blind side of government Ministers.

To reiterate, Ghana is an exemplar of the conditions that are making it attractive for military coups and indeed for groups such as the Wagner mercenaries to thrive on the African Continent. The perception that is fuelling these coups is that liberal democracy has meant the rule by a select elite and their families and friends live in opulence while the mass of the people live in abject poverty.

Truth be told, the early period of the democratization was encouraging when leaders such as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana and a few others were in the saddle.

However, the situation is changing now because the current crop of African leaders tend to be selfish, criminals, and crooks who lie to African electorates to win elections through the democratic process only to come and rape the public purse they promise to protect to enrich their families and friends.

In conclusion, there is a need for a paradigm shift by the West with regards to how they engage Africa by holding the continents leaders to the same standard of liberal democracy as pertains in Western societies if they really want to avoid these military coups and maintain their historical ties to the continent.

Acheampong Yaw Amoateng, PhD, is a Ghanaian Emeritus Professor of Sociology based in the US.
Group CEO for Kantanka Automobiles, Nana Kwadwo Safo Akofena has expressed disappointment in his workers.

Ghanaians were disappointed in the automobile company for refusing to allow its vehicles to be part of the epic Accra-London road expedition when approached.

Many believe the Ghanaian automobile manufacturer, missed out on a major marketing opportunity for not having its brand join the trip.

The publicity generated by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and social media coverage of 'Made in Ghana' Kantanka vehicles would have greatly boosted the brand's image.

However, the CEO noted in a tweet on Monday, August 7, that he was never told about the Wanderlust Ghana teams alleged visit.

The CEO who says he would have loved to join, reveal his plan to investigate the matter and sack everyone involved.

Was never contacted ooo. Hmm. A few heads will roll since its a Monday. This is something I would have loved to be part of, he wrote.

The said epic trip, a 10,000km journey from Accra to London by road, was undertaken by a group of 13 Ghanaians led by tourism enthusiast Kwabena Peprah of Wanderlust Ghana.

The participants drove through several African countries before entering Europe and finally reaching London, in reverse of the common Europe-to-Africa road trips.

The epic journey ended successfully on Sunday, August 6, when the team arrived in London, earning accolades for completing a cross-continental road trip.
07.08.2023 LISTEN

Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin says the state must institute measures to prioritize the welfare of media practitioners to empower them optimally perform their watchdog roles.

He said the media played critical roles in the consolidation of the country's democratic principles; hence, the state must ensure they carried out their mandates in favourable working conditions.

If the media is that important, how come the country has not come out clearly to spell out some conditions of service for them? We must think through and take this up and make the welfare and conditions of service of media practitioners better, he said.

Speaker Bagbin said this when he interacted with members of the Western Region Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) at a press soiree, in Takoradi.

It formed part of series of activities to commemorate 30 years of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy under the fourth republic.

The commemoration is on the theme: 30 Years of Parliamentary Democracy Under the Fourth Republic: The Journey Thus Far.

A few activities would be held as part of the celebration, including a public forum, a mock parliament and peace walk among others, which are all geared towards fostering civic engagement and enhancing public awareness of parliamentary democracy.

The Speaker of Parliament said the desired progress and development of the country could not be achieved without the media's participation and that, authorities must work together to improve on their welfare, conditions of service and security.

He said the media's role in a multi-party democracy in the country could not be overemphasised saying, We acknowledge and appreciate the media as true partners of Parliament over the last three decades of our democracy.

Mr Desmond Cudjoe, Western Region GJA Chairman, expressed gratitude to the Speaker of Parliament for organising the event, and said the media would continue to contribute to the sustenance of the country's democracy.

He, however, appealed to the Speaker of Parliament to join forces with other state authorities to expedite actions to develop strategies geared towards enhancing the welfare of media practitoners.

GNA
Voters in the perennially restive Central African Republic overwhelmingly approved a draft constitution that paves the way for Faustin Archange Touadera to seek a third term as president, the national poll body said Monday.

One of the poorest and most troubled countries in the world, the landlocked nation has been gripped by conflict and political turmoil for most of its history after independence from France in 1960.

Touadera's rivals say he wants to remain "president for life" -- under the increasingly visible protection of private Russian mercenary group Wagner, which first deployed to the CAR in 2018.

Voters cast 95.27 percent of their ballots in favour and 4.73 percent against, with a turnout of 61.10 percent in the July 30 referendum, National Election Authority president Mathias Morouba said.

These "provisional" results must be ratified by the constitutional court, which is scheduled to publish the definitive outcome on August 27.

The new constitution would extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years and abolish the two-term limit.

There are no longer obstacles to prevent the 66-year-old head of state from seeking the presidency a third time in 2025. If elected, he could spend 16 years at the helm.

The vote was boycotted by the main opposition parties and civil society organisations, as well as by armed rebel groups.

The opposition complained about the lack of an up-to-date electoral register and said institutions tasked with guaranteeing a free and fair vote were not independent.

Government officials have cajoled and threatened referendum opponents, Human Rights Watch says, and authorities also banned an opposition rally in the capital in a bid to keep a lid on hostility to the poll.

"It's a comedy... we've all seen that people didn't go out to vote and it doesn't reflect the will of the Central African people", said Crepin Mboli-Goumba, coordinator of the BRDC opposition coalition.

Touadera was first elected in 2016 as the country, with French and UN help, emerged from a civil war that spiralled along sectarian lines following a coup.

The opposition complained about the lack of an up-to-date electoral register. By Barbara DEBOUT (AFP)

In 2020 Touadera won a second five-year term, after a vote interrupted by several incursions by armed rebel groups. He also had to overcome allegations of fraud.

The Constitutional Court in September 2022 dealt a humiliating blow to Touadera, scrapping the establishment of a committee tasked with drafting the new constitution.

The court's president, Daniele Darlan, was then targeted in violent verbal attacks by Touadera supporters and in January this year was forcibly retired.

Since December 2020, hundreds of Wagner fighters and Rwandan troops have been deployed to face an offensive led by an alliance of the country's most powerful rebel groups, which have found themselves pushed into rural areas.
Faustin-Archange Touadera, who looks set to seek a third term as Central African Republic president after voters approved a new constitution, casts himself as a unifier in one of the world's most turbulent countries.

Each time he travels, Touadera receives a stark reminder of the scale of this challenge in a poverty-stricken nation torn apart by civil war for more than a decade.

A hefty guard of United Nations peacekeepers and private Russian security agents escort Touadera, who has beaten back rebel forces with decisive help from Russia's Wagner mercenaries.

Touadera, 66, a former prime minister with an academic background, won a first term in 2016 elections, the first after a coup and civil war that erupted three years earlier.

The early optimism surrounding his presidency soured when he struck a controversial deal with warlords in a bid to bring peace. Little fanfare greeted his 2021 re-election on a low turnout.

Critics now dub him "President Wagner", referring to his dependence on Moscow and the Russian mercenaries, and say he wants to cling on to power for life.

With voters overwhelmingly backing a new constitution that abolishes the two-term limit for presidents and extends their mandate from five to seven years, Touadera's rule could now stretch to 2033.

Contested peace deal

Criticism over the credibility of Touadera's 2016 victory was muted at the time. Many saw the ballot, however flawed, as the price to pay for stability.

During his post-electoral honeymoon period, Touadera gained an image as hard-working, competent and self-effacing.

His supporters even found him too modest.

Critics now dub him 'President Wagner', referring to his dependence on Moscow and Russian paramilitaries. By Artem Geodakyan (TASS Host Photo Agency/AFP)

His detractors saw him as the head of a "predator government", rife with corruption, prolonging a scourge that has beset the Central African Republic (CAR) for decades.

Others say he was conned by the militias that once held sway over two-thirds of the country, sporadically attack civilians and the army, and fight over mineral riches.

Touadera struck a peace accord with 14 armed groups in February 2019, essentially bringing warlords into the government in return for the disarming of their militias.

The agreement alienated many in the population who had suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of militias.

Western powers, the United Nations and international NGOs said he was bartering his political survival and a relative peace against the country's mineral wealth.

Russian companies linked to Wagner have cashed in on mineral concessions, even as the CAR remains heavily dependent on international aid.

The intervention of Russian mercenaries in 2020 to shore up the CAR's beleaguered armed forces thwarted rebels who had surrounded the capital Bangui and threatened Touadera's government.

Each time he travels, Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera is escorted by a hefty guard of UN peacekeepers and private Russian security agents. By ALEXIS HUGUET (AFP/File)

Touadera has also ruffled feathers in former colonial power France, whose military intervention in 2013 helped stem the civil bloodbath.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Touadera had become a "hostage" of what he called "predatory" Russian mercenaries.

Touadera won re-election in 2021 with 53.16 percent of the vote on a paltry turnout of 35.25 percent. Many voters were unable to cast their ballots in areas outside government control.

Herculean task

To his supporters, Touadera has had to take on one of the world's most thankless jobs.

He took the helm of a country that ranks consistently near the bottom in the UN's Human Development Index, a benchmark of prosperity.

Thousands of people have died since 2013 and more than one million have fled their homes.

Touadera's backers say he has never deviated from his policy of an outstretched hand, a policy they say encouraged a relative lull in the violence that began in 2018.

Security has been restored in the capital and the rebels pushed out of much of the territory they once controlled, but some say at too high a cost.

Thousands of people have died since 2013 and more than one million have fled their homes. By Barbara DEBOUT (AFP)

The United Nations and NGOs say rebels, government soldiers and Russian mercenaries have committed crimes against civilians, while a UN peacekeeping force has not prevented abuses.

Touadera's claimed achievements -- largely funded by the international community -- range from the rebuilding of the army to free health care for women and children under five.

Education spending has risen and the government has made pay for civil servants more regular after many years of arrears and discontent.

With a maths degree from the University of Lille in France and a PhD from the University of Yaounde in Cameroon, Touadera's background had given him little personal resonance among many CAR voters.

He had no electoral base before 2016 and later gained the backing of a party set up from scratch in 2018, the United Hearts Movement (MCU), which brought together some 40 groups.

Analysts say Touadera's political strengths lie in his ambiguous tactics.

"His governing style is to say 'yes' to everyone without deciding publicly," said Charles Bouessel, a consultant at the International Crisis Group.
Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT decreased its position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM  Free Report) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,893 shares of the CRM providers stock after selling 219 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CTs holdings in Salesforce were worth $8,170,000 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. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,599 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $519,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,715 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $1,941,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Argent Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Argent Advisors Inc. now owns 4,952 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $989,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Prudent Man Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Prudent Man Advisors LLC now owns 5,355 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $1,070,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WP Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. WP Advisors LLC now owns 7,421 shares of the CRM providers stock valued at $1,483,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.13% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $190.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $240.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Roth Capital reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $240.00 to $250.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong 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 $224.56.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $214.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $209.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 564.73, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $196.00. Salesforce, Inc. has a one year low of $126.34 and a one year high of $238.22.

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, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.41 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.74, for a total transaction of $259,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 100,309 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $20,838,191.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 1,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.74, for a total value of $259,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 100,309 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $20,838,191.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.73, for a total value of $3,310,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 16,251,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,587,119,871.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,079,743 shares of company stock valued at $230,372,097 over the last ninety days. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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Parker-Hannifin (NYSE:PH  Get Free Report) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $21.90-22.90 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $22.21. The company issued revenue guidance of +3-6% yr/yr to ~$19.64-20.21 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $19.91 billion. Parker-Hannifin also updated its FY 2024 guidance to $21.90-$22.90 EPS.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $390.00 to $460.00 in a report on Friday. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $370.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $322.00 to $344.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Parker-Hannifin from $383.00 to $446.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Parker-Hannifin from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $429.29.

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Parker-Hannifin Stock Performance

Shares of PH traded down $4.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $414.15. The company had a trading volume of 963,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 771,744. The firm has a market cap of $53.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.88, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.52. The business has a fifty day moving average of $379.78 and a 200-day moving average of $348.13. Parker-Hannifin has a 12 month low of $235.69 and a 12 month high of $421.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

Parker-Hannifin ( NYSE:PH Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The industrial products company reported $6.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.48 by $0.60. Parker-Hannifin had a net margin of 10.93% and a return on equity of 29.26%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.16 earnings per share. Parker-Hannifins revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Parker-Hannifin will post 22.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

In other Parker-Hannifin news, VP Mark T. Czaja sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.00, for a total transaction of $202,200.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 2,241 shares in the company, valued at $755,217. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, VP William R. Bowman sold 2,403 shares of the firms 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,152 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,988,512.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Mark T. Czaja sold 600 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.00, for a total transaction of $202,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 2,241 shares in the company, valued at $755,217. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,762 shares of company stock worth $1,682,454 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.37% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Parker-Hannifin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. One Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Parker-Hannifin in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Financial Advocates Investment Management bought a new position in Parker-Hannifin in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $202,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC bought a new position in Parker-Hannifin in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Penserra Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Parker-Hannifin by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 667 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $193,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in Parker-Hannifin by 162.4% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 446 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $127,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. 81.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Parker-Hannifin

(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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Shares of Antero Midstream Co. (NYSE:AM  Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of Reduce from the five analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $12.25.

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Antero Midstream from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Antero Midstream from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. UBS Group began coverage on Antero Midstream in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. They set a buy rating and a $14.00 price target on the stock. Capital One Financial reaffirmed an equal weight rating on shares of Antero Midstream in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Antero Midstream from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 4th.

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Antero Midstream Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE AM opened at $11.73 on Monday. The firms fifty day moving average is $11.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.80. Antero Midstream has a one year low of $8.80 and a one year high of $12.13. The firm has a market cap of $5.63 billion, a PE ratio of 16.76 and a beta of 2.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Antero Midstream Announces Dividend

Antero Midstream ( NYSE:AM Get Free Report ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The pipeline company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. Antero Midstream had a return on equity of 18.13% and a net margin of 34.36%. The company had revenue of $258.29 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $267.03 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.20 EPS. The companys revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Antero Midstream will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 26th will be paid a $0.225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 25th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.67%. Antero Midstreams payout ratio is currently 128.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Sheri Pearce sold 19,600 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.25, for a total transaction of $200,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 155,267 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,591,486.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Antero Midstream

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Antero Midstream in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,729,000. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 32,917,158 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $357,809,000 after purchasing an additional 2,743,230 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 844.0% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,102,070 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $22,681,000 after purchasing an additional 1,879,400 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 51.3% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,221,579 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $56,759,000 after purchasing an additional 1,769,545 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RR Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. RR Advisors LLC now owns 6,333,000 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $66,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.00% of the companys stock.

Antero Midstream Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Antero Midstream Corporation owns, operates, and develops midstream energy infrastructure in the Appalachian Basin. It operates through Gathering and Processing, and Water Handling segments. The Gathering and Processing segment includes a network of gathering pipelines and compressor stations that collects and processes production from Antero Resources' wells in West Virginia and Ohio.

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Franchise Brands plc (LON:FRAN  Get Free Report) insider Mark Fryer acquired 34,057 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 133 ($1.71) per share, for a total transaction of 45,295.81 ($58,153.56).

Franchise Brands Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of LON FRAN opened at GBX 148.50 ($1.91) on Monday. The stocks 50 day moving average price is GBX 164.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is GBX 187.36. Franchise Brands plc has a 52-week low of GBX 130 ($1.67) and a 52-week high of GBX 250 ($3.21). The stock has a market capitalization of 287.76 million, a P/E ratio of 2,121.43 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38.

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Franchise Brands Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 14th will be paid a dividend of GBX 1 ($0.01) per share. This represents a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Franchise Brandss payout ratio is currently 2,857.14%.

Franchise Brands Company Profile

Franchise Brands plc, through its subsidiaries, engages in franchising and related activities in the United Kingdom and internationally. The company operates through B2B, Filta International, B2C, and Azura segments. It offers drain clearance solutions to commercial customers, including facilities management, construction, manufacturing, education, retail, insurance, water utilities, and public sectors under the Metro Rod name; emergency plumbing services under the Metro Plumb name; fryer management and grease, drain management, and cooking oil filtration services to restaurants, supermarkets, stadiums, healthcare, education, hotels, and amusement parks under the Filta name; and designs, installs, and services adoptable and non-adoptable pump stations under the Willow Pumps name.

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Tritax Big Box REIT (OTCMKTS:TTBXF  Get Free Report) and Highlands REIT (OTCMKTS:HHDS  Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Tritax Big Box REIT and Highlands REITs net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

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Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Tritax Big Box REIT N/A N/A N/A Highlands REIT -27.55% -3.51% -2.66%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Tritax Big Box REIT and Highlands REITs top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Tritax Big Box REIT N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Highlands REIT $31.36 million 3.12 -$7.66 million N/A N/A

Analyst Recommendations

Tritax Big Box REIT has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Highlands REIT.

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Tritax Big Box REIT and Highlands REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Tritax Big Box REIT 1 0 3 0 2.50 Highlands REIT 0 0 0 0 N/A

Tritax Big Box REIT presently has a consensus price target of $166.67, indicating a potential upside of 12,622.65%. Given Tritax Big Box REITs higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Tritax Big Box REIT is more favorable than Highlands REIT.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Highlands REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Highlands REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Tritax Big Box REIT beats Highlands REIT on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Tritax Big Box REIT

(Get Free Report)

Tritax Big Box REIT plc (ticker: BBOX) is the largest listed investor in high-quality logistics warehouse assets and controls the largest logistics-focused land platform in the UK. Tritax Big Box is committed to delivering attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders by investing in and actively managing existing built investments and land suitable for logistics development. The Company focuses on well-located, modern logistics assets, typically let to institutional-grade tenants on long-term leases with upward-only rent reviews and geographic and tenant diversification throughout the UK. The Company seeks to exploit the significant opportunity provided by the imbalance between strong occupational demand and constrained supply of modern logistics real estate in the UK.

About Highlands REIT

(Get Free Report)

Our portfolio consists of office, industrial, retail and apartment assets, an unoccupied correctional facility and unimproved land. This portfolio largely represented the non-core assets of InvenTrust Properties Corp., our former parent, which spun off Highlands REIT in 2016. The spin-off allowed InvenTrust's management to focus on its core portfolio while providing Highlands with a dedicated management team to focus on maximizing the value of our portfolio.

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Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.67.

A number of research firms have weighed in on MWA. StockNews.com began coverage on Mueller Water Products in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. DA Davidson reissued a neutral rating on shares of Mueller Water Products in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. TD Cowen raised Mueller Water Products from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their target price for the company from $11.00 to $19.00 in a report on Friday, May 5th. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a buy rating on shares of Mueller Water Products in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Finally, Northcoast Research downgraded Mueller Water Products from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Friday.

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Mueller Water Products Trading Down 10.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MWA opened at $14.19 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 3.50 and a quick ratio of 1.82. Mueller Water Products has a 1 year low of $9.90 and a 1 year high of $16.62. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $15.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.22.

Mueller Water Products Dividend Announcement

Mueller Water Products ( NYSE:MWA Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The industrial products company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $326.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $351.74 million. Mueller Water Products had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 12.35%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Mueller Water Products will post 0.68 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 10th will be given a dividend of $0.061 per share. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. Mueller Water Productss dividend payout ratio is currently 48.98%.

Institutional Trading of Mueller Water Products

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MWA. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Mueller Water Products by 580.8% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 14,909 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $192,000 after buying an additional 12,719 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 65.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 28,439 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 11,270 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 38.6% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 75,681 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 21,068 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. purchased a new position in shares of Mueller Water Products in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,116,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Mueller Water Products by 56.8% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 76,178 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $984,000 after purchasing an additional 27,589 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.98% of the companys stock.

Mueller Water Products Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Mueller Water Products, Inc manufactures and markets products and services for the transmission, distribution, and measurement of water used by municipalities, and the residential and non-residential construction industries in the United States, Israel, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions.

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Gjensidige Forsikring ASA (OTCMKTS:GJNSY  Get Free Report) and Hiscox (OTCMKTS:HCXLF  Get Free Report) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Gjensidige Forsikring ASA and Hiscox, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Gjensidige Forsikring ASA 0 1 1 0 2.50 Hiscox 0 3 0 0 2.00

Gjensidige Forsikring ASA presently has a consensus target price of $226.67, indicating a potential upside of 1,331.88%. Hiscox has a consensus target price of $1,200.57, indicating a potential upside of 8,644.15%. Given Hiscoxs higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Hiscox is more favorable than Gjensidige Forsikring ASA.

Earnings and Valuation

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Gjensidige Forsikring ASA N/A N/A N/A $8.72 1.82 Hiscox N/A N/A N/A $0.64 21.39

This table compares Gjensidige Forsikring ASA and Hiscoxs revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gjensidige Forsikring ASA is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hiscox, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Gjensidige Forsikring ASA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.1% of Hiscox shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Gjensidige Forsikring ASA pays an annual dividend of $10.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 67.6%. Hiscox pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Gjensidige Forsikring ASA pays out 122.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Hiscox pays out 12.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Gjensidige Forsikring ASA and Hiscoxs net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Gjensidige Forsikring ASA N/A N/A N/A Hiscox N/A N/A N/A

About Gjensidige Forsikring ASA

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Gjensidige Forsikring ASA provides general insurance and pension products in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The company operates through six segments: General Insurance Private, General Insurance Commercial, General Insurance Denmark, General Insurance Sweden, General Insurance Baltics, and Pension. It offers motor, accident and health, travel, leisure craft, valuables, liability, commercial, marine/transport, agriculture, natural perils, life, and pet insurance products. The company also provides defined contribution occupational pension schemes for businesses, which include disability pension, spouse/cohabitant pension, and child's pension products. It distributes its products through various distribution channels comprising office channel, call center, Internet, partners, and brokers to private and commercial customers. The company was founded in 1816 and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

About Hiscox

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Hiscox Ltd, through its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance services in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Hiscox Retail, Hiscox London Market, Hiscox Re & ILS, and Corporate Centre. It offers commercial insurance for small-and medium-sized businesses; and personal lines cover, including high-value household, fine art, luxury motor, classic car, and partners and direct-to-consumer using both traditional and digital trading models. The company also provides property insurance; marine and energy insurance; aviation insurance; casualty insurance; specialty insurance; kidnap and ransom insurance; and other specialty insurance, such as contingency, terrorism, personal accident, and product recall. In addition, it offers healthcare and casualty reinsurance services, as well as investment services. Hiscox Ltd was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

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Steel Peak Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in CVS Health Co. (NYSE:CVS  Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,079 shares of the pharmacy operators stock, valued at approximately $1,046,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Gibraltar Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of CVS Health by 8.2% in the first quarter. Gibraltar Capital Management Inc. now owns 105,432 shares of the pharmacy operators stock valued at $7,835,000 after acquiring an additional 8,017 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 14.6% during the first quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 37,316 shares of the pharmacy operators stock valued at $2,773,000 after buying an additional 4,747 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 6.6% during the first quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 4,985 shares of the pharmacy operators stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp grew its stake in shares of CVS Health by 8.6% during the first quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 63,380 shares of the pharmacy operators stock valued at $4,710,000 after buying an additional 5,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CVS Health by 16.4% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 33,766 shares of the pharmacy operators stock valued at $2,366,000 after purchasing an additional 4,747 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.96% of the companys stock.

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CVS Health Stock Down 1.9 %

CVS stock opened at $72.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $93.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.97, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.86. CVS Health Co. has a one year low of $66.34 and a one year high of $107.26. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $71.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $75.69.

CVS Health Dividend Announcement

CVS Health ( NYSE:CVS Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pharmacy operator reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $88.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $86.41 billion. CVS Health had a net margin of 0.86% and a return on equity of 15.43%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 10.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CVS Health Co. will post 8.61 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 21st were issued a $0.605 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 20th. This represents a $2.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. CVS Healths dividend payout ratio is currently 106.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP James David Clark sold 25,759 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.92, for a total value of $1,929,864.28. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $351,974.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on CVS Health from $95.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, May 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of CVS Health from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 16th. Credit Suisse Group decreased their price target on shares of CVS Health from $125.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on shares of CVS Health in a research note on Thursday, April 20th. They issued an overweight rating and a $87.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of CVS Health from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CVS Health has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $100.56.

CVS Health Company Profile

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CVS Health Corporation provides health services in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Pharmacy Services, and Retail/LTC segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. It serves employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates.

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Suncoast Equity Management trimmed its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA  Free Report) by 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,800 shares of the credit services providers stock after selling 712 shares during the period. Mastercard comprises 3.9% of Suncoast Equity Managements investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Suncoast Equity Managements holdings in Mastercard were worth $23,186,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MA. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,148 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $747,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 5,220 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $1,897,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Mastercard by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,678 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $583,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. MGO Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. MGO Private Wealth LLC now owns 867 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $315,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 831 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 81.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MA shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $425.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $440.00 to $443.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $450.00 to $453.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $440.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $436.00.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA traded down $1.66 on Friday, reaching $391.35. The company had a trading volume of 2,215,814 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,573,334. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $276.87 and a fifty-two week high of $405.19. The stock has a market cap of $370.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.11. The companys fifty day moving average is $386.14 and its 200 day moving average is $374.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.13.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The credit services provider reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.05. Mastercard had a net margin of 43.37% and a return on equity of 178.10%. The business had revenue of $6.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. Mastercards quarterly revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, 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. Shareholders 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 currently 21.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other Mastercard news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 125,816 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.19, for a total value of $47,959,801.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 100,185,645 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $38,189,766,017.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 125,816 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $381.19, for a total transaction of $47,959,801.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 100,185,645 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $38,189,766,017.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 10,838 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.38, for a total transaction of $4,274,290.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,707 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $8,166,426.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 525,599 shares of company stock valued at $201,292,515 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the companys stock.

Mastercard Profile

(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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Tranquility Partners LLC lessened its position in The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TJX  Free Report) by 5.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,660 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock after selling 1,054 shares during the quarter. Tranquility Partners LLCs holdings in TJX Companies were worth $1,384,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 8,077 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $643,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 10,438 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,652 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 2,193 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the period. Finally, Seaport Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of TJX Companies by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Seaport Global Advisors LLC now owns 2,329 shares of the apparel and home fashions retailers stock valued at $185,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.26% of the companys stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling at TJX Companies

In other news, EVP Scott Goldenberg sold 26,271 shares of TJX Companies stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.91, for a total transaction of $2,073,044.61. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,580 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,727,287.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

TJX Companies Stock Performance

NYSE:TJX traded down $0.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $85.45. The companys stock had a trading volume of 2,470,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,871,672. The TJX Companies, Inc. has a 1 year low of $59.78 and a 1 year high of $87.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The businesss fifty day moving average is $82.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.76. The stock has a market cap of $98.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.92.

TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 17th. The apparel and home fashions retailer reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $11.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.82 billion. TJX Companies had a net margin of 7.56% and a return on equity of 62.78%. TJX Companiess quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.68 EPS. Analysts anticipate that The TJX Companies, Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TJX Companies Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th will be given a $0.3325 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. This represents a $1.33 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. TJX Companiess dividend payout ratio is presently 40.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TJX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on TJX Companies from $85.00 to $86.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. Loop Capital upgraded TJX Companies from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Barclays lifted their price objective on TJX Companies from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on TJX Companies in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler started coverage on TJX Companies in a research note on Thursday, June 29th. They issued an overweight rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $89.75.

TJX Companies Profile

(Free Report)

The TJX Companies, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an off-price apparel and home fashions retailer in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It operates through four segments: Marmaxx, HomeGoods, TJX Canada, and TJX International. The company sells family apparel, including footwear and accessories; home fashions, such as home basics, furniture, rugs, lighting products, giftware, soft home products, decorative accessories, tabletop, and cookware, as well as expanded pet, kids, and gourmet food departments; jewelry and accessories; and other merchandise.

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Akasa Air, the fastest growing airline in the Indian skies, celebrates its first birthday today. Exactly a year back, on Aug 07, 2022, its first commercial flight took off for Ahmedabad from Mumbai. Akasa had secured funding from the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, a man who is believed to have had the midas touch.



Lets take a look at the year gone by.



Birth pangs



The first flight was graced by the presence of Jhunjhunwala, a maverick investor. But exactly a week later, he died in Mumbai. While Jhunjhunwala was not going to be actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the airline, having his name  and reach  meant a lot. An early investor in the airline, Jhunjhunwala, for instance, couldve helped the company raise funds.



Bengaluru-based



With some of its co-founders being based in the countrys financial capital, the airline chose Mumbai as its HQ. But thanks to the congestion and lack of slots and night parking at Mumbai, the airline chose Bengaluru as its hub.



This was a strategic decision, for it gave it access to a market that was well-off, had a migrant population, with an airport could support growth. Having started in August, by end-December Akasa had become the third-largest domestic player out of Bengaluru, a feat that would not have been possible either at Mumbai or Delhi.



Just do it



The first set of aircraft to start operations had USB charging ports, a good differentiator. But the next lot came without these and had seats that were different. Further, the airline took delivery of aircraft which were destined for Jet Airways, which means they came in a two-class configuration (business and regular) and not in the single-class set-up thats standard for LCCs (low cost carriers). The result? The airline has myriad aircraft subtypes, which can increase inventory and maintenance costs.



Given a choice between waiting for the right set of seats amid a supply chain shortage and deploying whatever was available, the airline opted for the latter. While that may not be ideal, it may have made sound business sense at the time.



Wriggle room



The fall of Go FIRST has given the airline wriggle room at Mumbai and Delhi. With slots suddenly opening up, the airline reduced its flights from Bengaluru  just months after it talked about becoming number two there  and added capacity in Mumbai and Delhi, the two busiest airports in the country.



However, that meant that its southern network was compromised, having pulled out of multiple sectors or reduced frequency drastically, something which the market typically does not like. However, Indians are loyal to low fares above all, and the airline can win passengers back so long as it bears that in mind when scaling up down south.



Weakened competition



Akasa has been blest with three things  the fall of Go FIRST, the problems at SpiceJet, and AirAsia India not expanding even after the merger with Air India Express. As the airline readies itself for an international foray by the end of this year, will lady luck continue to smile on it?



What to look forward to



Vinay Dube, the airlines CEO, has repeatedly talked about a triple-digit order by the end of the year. The airline has taken delivery of 20 B737 Max 8 aircraft, including its first B737 MAX8-200, which seats 197. Barring four more B737 Max 8s, the rest of the planes the airline has ordered are the MAX 8-200. We need to see how passengers find it given its tighter seat pitch.



The airlines focus between this and the next birthday is likely to be consolidation and selective expansion. Its network is vast for a 20-aircraft airline, and unless it consolidates its unit economics wont improve.
The turnover of the automotive components industry witnessed a 32.8-percent growth at Rs 5.60 lakh crore ($69.7 billion) for the period April 2022 to March 2023 as against Rs 4.20 lakh crore ($56.9 billion) earned in the corresponding period of FY22. The auto parts industry also surpassed its highest-ever turnover of $57.1 billion (as per prevalent exchange rates) in FY19. This was revealed by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) in its Industry Performance Review report for fiscal year 2022-23.



During FY2023, auto component sales to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the domestic market stood at Rs 4.76 lakh crore ($59.3 billion), growing by 39.5 percent compared to the previous year. Consumption of increased value-added components and a shift in market preference towards larger and more powerful vehicles contributed to the increased turnover of the auto-component sector.



As per Sunjay Kapur, President, ACMA, & Chairman, Sona Comstar, the growth in vehicle sales and significantly higher value addition led to the noteworthy performance of the component sector in FY23. He also revealed that there has been steady growth in exports despite recessionary trends in Europe and the US, which are key export destinations for the auto components industry. He also revealed that a strong rebound in vehicle sales in the domestic market also led to a sharper rise in imports that has translated into a lower trade deficit this year.



Robust exports



Furthermore, automotive parts exports grew by 5.2 per cent to Rs 1.61 lakh crore ($20.1 billion) in 2022-23 as against Rs 1.41 lakh crore ($19.0 billion) in 2021-22. North America accounted for 32 percent of exports, which is a growth of 8 percent. Meanwhile, Europe and Asia accounted for 31 per cent and 26 percent, which is a growth of 3 and 4 percent, respectively. The key export items included drive transmission and steering, engine components, body/chassis, suspension, braking, etc, as per ACMAs findings.



I feel what is playing out very well in our favour is the China+1 strategy. You can see that with increased exports (in 2022-23). Secondly, as we invest more in technology and continue to export, our endeavour is to create India as the manufacturing hub for the world. We are going in that direction, added Kapur. He also stated that many established component manufacturers can leverage their skillsets to integrate software and hardware.



ACMA represents over 850 manufacturers, which constitute more than 90 percent of the auto component industry's turnover in the organised sector.



EVs share gaining traction



Furthermore, EVs (excluding battery parts) accounted for 2.7 percent of the turnover, up from 1 percent in FY22. The auto component industry foresees the contribution to go up further in the coming fiscal.



The demand for EVs is going to increase and therefore, when you look at subsidies in FAME2, etc, the two-wheeler space is going to continue to electrify with or without subsidies. We have the PLI scheme as well, which has been introduced by the government and is very encouraging in terms of investment in future technologies," Kapur said.



"It's a good roadmap laid out for the industry, for component makers as well as OEMs. And I feel that electrification will continue. And like we said, going from one percent to 3 percent, is growing at a good rate, he added.



Surging imports



ACMA said that traction in the domestic market also reflected in imports of components, which grew by 10.9 percent to Rs 1.63 lakh crore ($20.3 billion) from Rs. 1.36 lakh crore ($18.3 billion) in 2021-22, leading to a trade deficit of $200 million. The aftermarket, estimated at Rs 85,333 crore, also witnessed a steady growth of 15 per cent.



Asia accounted for 66 percent of imports followed by Europe and North America at 26 and 6 percent, respectively, it said. While imports from Asia grew 12 percent, those from Europe were up by 6 percent and from North America by 23 percent.



Increased movement of vehicles post-pandemic and a surge in demand for used vehicles led to buoyancy in the aftermarket across all segments.



Vinnie Mehta, Director General, ACMA, said the industry is looking to enhance exports while reducing imports, especially from China, which accounts for around 30 per cent of the total imports.



He noted that from a peak trade deficit of $2.5 billion a couple of years back, the industry has moved to a better position with a trade deficit of $200 million. "We are continuously working along with other industry bodies like SIAM to enhance exports and reduce imports," Mehta said.



The outlook



Sharing the outlook for the coming years, he said, The good thing is that all PV OEMs such as Maruti, Tata Motors and Hyundai are talking about increasing their capacities very significantly. Additionally, two-wheeler OEMs like Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp have announced tie-ups. All this augurs well for the auto component industry because once the OEMs start investing, there is a trickle-down effect. And then, therefore, the component industry has to invest in more capacities to cater to that demand.



Meanwhile, the domestic auto component industry expects to log in double-digit sales growth in the current fiscal.



Elaborating on the mood of the industry and outlook for the near future, Kapur said even though the automotive value chain faced significant disruptions in the wake of the pandemic, vehicle sales, especially in the PV, CV, and tractor segments, have now reached pre-pandemic levels. Even the two-wheeler industry has recovered well, he said.



With significant mitigation in the supply-side issues of availability of semiconductors, raw-material costs, and logistics, the vehicle industry is expected to continue to perform well in FY24, which augurs well for the auto components sector. That apart, exports and growth in the domestic aftermarket continue to be robust, noted Kapur.
Amid protests, the Lok Sabha on August 7 passed the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill with a voice vote, bringing India a step closer to its first law that establishes how private or government entities can use or process citizens' data.



Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw moved the bill in the Lok Sabha. The bill will now head to the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling coalition is short of the majority mark.



The opposition, which has expressed concerns over the legislation, has been demanding that the bill be sent to a parliamentary panel for further deliberations.



On August 3, Vaishnaw tabled the bill in the lower house of Parliament amid protests from the Opposition, which alleged that the bill violated citizens' Right to Privacy.



Also read: DPDP Bill 2023: Data protection board may block content, govt gives itself wide exemptions from provisions and more



As reported by Moneycontrol, some opposition MPs also proposed amendments to the Bill, which includes lowering the definition of children to mean those below 15 from the age limit of 18.



The Centre has introduced certain "legitimate causes" where the government and private entities can process citizens' data without explicit consent. It will also impose restrictions on platforms on processing children's data.



The bill also mandates that India have its data protection regulator in the form of a Data Protection Board. The bill says the chairperson and members of the board will be appointed by the Union government.



Apart from that, the bill also has provisions that give wide exemptions to the government. The proposed law says its provisions will not apply in respect to the processing of personal data when notified by instrumentality of the state as the central government may notify".



These could be in cases related to the sovereignty and integrity of the country, security, friendly relations with foreign states, maintenance of public order or preventing incitement to any cognisable offence relating to any of these.
The Editors Guild of India has requested Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to send the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, which is to be taken up by the lower house on August 7, to a parliamentary committee, saying it "carries provisions that can adversely impact press freedom".



The media industry body on August 6, three days after the bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha, also urged the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to reconsider provisions such as exemptions for the government and amendment to the Right to Information (RTI) Act and "work to offer a data protection legislation to Indian citizens that does not compromise their right to free expression, right to information and right to a free press".



The criticism by the Editors Guild marks the latest opposing voice against the legislation, which is set to be taken up for passing in the Lok Sabha on August 7.



The government on August 3 introduced the bill amid protests from the Opposition, which alleged the bill violated the Right to Privacy. It, too, has demanded that the bill be sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communications for further deliberation.



Also read: Lower age of children to 15: Opposition MPs propose amendments to data protection bill



"We are deeply concerned about the lack of exemptions for journalists from certain obligations of the law, where the reporting on certain entities in public interest may conflict with their right to personal data protection," the Editors Guild said in a statement.



The Justice Srikrishna Committee, the panel which had drafted the country's first data protection bill in 2018, had noted that if "journalists were made to adhere to grounds of processing personal data, it would be extremely onerous for them to access information", it said.



The guild also highlighted its concerns over the proposed exemptions to state agencies. "We note, with dismay, that while the Bill, ostensibly to promote data protection, has failed to make any provisions that bring about the surveillance reform that is urgently needed, and in fact creates an enabling framework for surveillance of citizens, including journalists and their sources," the body said.



The Editors Guild also brought attention to the amendments to the RTI Act (required under the DPDP Bill), saying it would weaken the legislation.



It urged the government to ensure the independence of the Data Protection Board, the country's data protection regulator under the bill.



" While exemptions provided to the government and its instrumentalities are near-absolute, the Data Protection Board to be constituted thereunder has not been provided sufficient independence and rulemaking powers," the body said.




Domestic automobile retail sales rose 10 percent in July from a year earlier, driven by purchases across segments including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, dealers said.



Total vehicle retail sales rose to 1.77 million last month from 1.6 million in the year-ago period, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said on August 7.



Passenger vehicle sales increased 4 percent to 284,064 units as against 273,055 units in July 2022 but fell 3.8 percent from the previous month. Despite the consistent YoY growth, there was a 5 percent month-on-month decline in overall vehicle retail sales. The three-wheeler segment was an exception, with an 8.8 percent MoM growth.



Auto retail grew 10 percent YoY in July, mirroring last month's trend. However, the MoM decline continued, highlighting short-term slowdowns, FADA president Manish Raj Singhania said in a statement. PV sales in July '23 were a mix of challenges and triumphs. The month saw a surge in orders and timely OEM supplies, especially with the introduction of new products. However, severe monsoons and flood-like situations, especially in North India, impacted sales. SUVs continued to remain a popular choice."



Two-wheeler sales climbed 8.15 percent to 1.22 million last month from 1.13 million units a year earlier. Three-wheeler sales surged 74 percent to 94,148 units from 54,000 units.



Cautious, hopeful



Tractor sales jumped 21 percent year-on-year to 90,765 units while commercial vehicle sales rose 2 percent to 73,065 units.



"Despite challenges like heavy monsoons and a tilt towards EVs due to high fuel prices, 2W showed resilience in July '23, with increased demand and trust in reputable brands. The 3W segment's record numbers indicate industry potential and a growing EV interest. Yet, addressing issues like OEM support and dealer engagement remains crucial," added Singhania.



Commercial vehicle sales rose 2 percent to 73,065 units from a year earlier. Singhania said the CV segment showed mixed dynamics.



"Despite robust stock availability and growth in areas like school buses, challenges from erratic weather and high vehicle costs affected demand. However, infrastructure project boosts remain a silver lining," noted Singhania.



FADA, which represents over 15,000 automobile dealers, maintained that it remains cautious in terms of business outlook.



"While caution remains the operative word in the short term, FADA is hopeful about retail growth prospects, especially with the festive season on the horizon," the association said. The entry-level category in the two-wheeler segment continues to be a cause for concern. In the CV space, there are apprehensions regarding streamlined loan disbursements for buyers.



The inventory level in passenger vehicles breached the 50-day mark, possibly in anticipation of the upcoming festival season, FADA said. The slowdown in entry-level car vertical remains, it said.



The association said the larger concern is the projection of below-average rainfall in August, potentially leading to lower crop yields, which could impact purchasing power, especially in rural regions, FADA added
Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra surged over 4 percent as of afternoon trade on August 7 after several brokerages rolled out upbeat growth outlook for the automobile major following its robust set of numbers for the April-June quarter.



All six brokerages analysed by Moneycontrol gave a 'buy' call on the automobile major with an average target price of Rs 1,777.5 apiece, reflecting an upside of 21.5 percent from the close price of the last trading session.



At 1:32 pm, M&M was quoting at Rs 1,516.70, trading 3.55 percent higher from previous trading session the NSE. The stock was also the top gainer on the Nifty50.



Follow our market blog for all the live action



What analysts are saying



Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited (MOFSL) has said that while the outlook for tractors remains stable, it is expected that the auto business to be the key growth driver for the next couple of years.



The company's profit before interest and tax (PBIT) rose 40 basis points year-on-year. Analysts at the firm predict that M&M will outperform both, the auto and farmer equipment segments, as it has a major share of high-end SUVs wherein demand is relatively better and tractors launches in the lightweight category through OJA and Swaraj are on the cards.



Also read: Mahindra garners 2.81 lakh open SUV orders, to ramp up production to meet demand



Nuvama Institutional Equities expect healthy growth momentum with a 14 percent revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over FY2325, supported by robust growth in the auto segment and moderate growth in the farm segment. Besides, better net pricing in the auto segment shall boost profitability, driving core earnings CAGR of 20 percent over FY2325.



Goldman Sachs analysts suggest that the farm segment operating profit topped its estimate. Furthermore, easing commodity prices will also prove to be crucial in the coming quarters.



JP Morgan has said that the management indicated that they are not considering further capital infusion in the next 2-3 years. The company executives reiterated that free cash flow from the auto and farm segment won't be invested elsewhere. "This should alleviate investor concerns on the capital allocation for now", an analyst at JP Morgan added.



LKP Securities is of the view that the company's SUVs will continue to shine, maintaining their impressive performance. The company has received a positive reception for the new Scorpio N, notching up 117,000 bookings since its launch. The Thar and XUV 700 launches continue to generate demand as well. The Neo Bolero, introduced in July 2021, has already garnered significant order bookings (9,000 monthly bookings for the entire Bolero family) and has made notable inroads into Southern markets where the previous Bolero model had limited presence.



As far as its stake in RBL is concerned, the management said that the financial services business is a core area for M&M. This investment is based on a long-term view (7-10 years), with an objective to understand banking, which will enable it to enhance the value of its financial services business.



Mahindra & Mahindras net profit surged 98 percent year-on-year (YOY) to Rs 2,774 crore in the first quarter. Its revenue from operations increased 23 percent to Rs 24,368 crore.



Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment 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.




Hospital major Max Healthcare Institute on August 7 reported a net profit of Rs 291 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, up 27 percent from Rs 229 crore in the year-ago period.



The New Delhi-headquartered companys revenue rose 17 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,719 crore. The company attributed the rise in topline to improved Average Revenue Per Occupied Bed and better payor mix due to a higher contribution from international patients. Overseas patients constituted 8.9 percent of the total payor mix in the quarter gone by, up from 7.8 percent in the same period last fiscal.



Bed occupancy was at 74 percent, unchanged as compared the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Average Revenue Per Occupied Bed (ARPOB), a key performance indicator, rose 13 percent on year to Rs 74,800 from Rs 66,000 in the year-ago period, the company said in an after-market-hour statement.



"Increase in ARPOB over the quarter was driven by disparate growth in revenue from Oncology, Orthopaedics and Cardiac. Further, the price revisions including that in CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) tariff, has contributed to growth in ARPOB," the company stated in an exchange filing.



CGHS price hikes for room rent and consultations in April, followed by an increase in tariffs for 36 radiological imaging investigations from June, which also lifted the hospital's topline.



The hospital chains EBITDA margin was at 26.8 percent against 28.2 percent in the base quarter of the preceding fiscal.



Brokerages remain bullish on Max Healthcare's growth prospects on expectations of improvement in case mix and higher contribution from oncology and international patients.



The company's operating margins are also expected to improve in the quarters to come, thanks to new bed additions and higher ARPOB from annual price hikes and government rate revisions.



Going forward, the company also aims at adding additional 2,300 beds addition through brownfield expansion which will also be ROCE (Return On Capital Employed) accretive.



On August 7, Max Healthcare Institute closed at Rs 585.75 on the National Stock Exchange, up 8.81 percent from the previous close on expectations of a strong earnings show.
Wheat extended gains after Ukraine used sea drones to cripple a Russian oil tanker and a naval vessel, threatening a key export route for Russian commodities through the Black Sea. Top wheat shipper Russia moves most of its grain through the waterway and is in the midst of a second bumper harvest, making this a crucial time for getting crops to world markets. The risk in the Black Sea is increasing by the day and any threat to Russian exports is much more potent than a threat to the Ukrainian export corridor, said Ole Houe, chief executive officer of broker and adviser IKON Commodities. Futures in Chicago climbed as much as 3.4% to $6.545 a bushel on Monday before trading at $6.455 by 11:04 a.m. in Sydney. Prices closed 1% higher on Friday, paring most of an intraday 4.3% gain after the Ukraine attack on the Russian naval vessel. Traffic at Novorossiysk port was halted for several hours. Kyivs decision to take the war to Russia in the Black Sea follows Vladimir Putins July 17 withdrawal from a United Nations-brokered grain deal and a concerted missile campaign against Ukrainian ports. Ukraines crop exports have been severely reduced as a result, while Russias have been unaffected. The Black Sea route also accounts for 15% to 20% of the oil that Russia sells daily on global markets and is also a major transit corridor for Kazakh crude. Wheat futures are still down almost 20% this year on prospects for bumper harvests from key exporters and a still-large buffer of global stockpiles.

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Meesho, the low price e-commerce platform, managed to turn profitable on a profit after tax (PAT) basis in July 2023, helped by lower customer acquisition costs (CACs), better monetisation efforts, among others, the companys CFO Dhiresh Bansal told Moneycontrol in an interview.



Since the beginning of this year, Meesho has undertaken several measures to cut costs and better its financial health. In its second round of layoffs, it let go of 251 employees from the companys core unit. Meesho had even brought down its cloud expenses by around 50 percent, Moneycontrol had reported earlier, which may have propelled the Bengaluru-based startup further in the direction of profitability.



Bumpy road ahead



While Bansal did not comment on specific numbers, Meeshos PAT was a low single digit (Rs crore) in July, Moneycontrol has learnt. That was on the back of revenues worth around $400 million (around Rs 3,280 crore) that Meesho generated between January and June, indicating that the path to profitability is still likely to be a bumpy one.



The largest efficiency has come from reducing our CACs by almost 70 percent. Two years ago, our CAC was roughly Rs 250, it has now come down to around Rs 50-60. Even as we reduce our market expenses, we have been getting a similar level of throughput, Bansal said in the interview.



The reduction in CAC is especially important because Meeshos average order value (AOV) is much lower at around Rs 400-450, when compared to about Rs 1,100-1,400 for larger players like Flipkart, as per analysts.



Along with a reduction in CACs, the company's revenue grew 54 percent, while its order volumes registered a 43 percent increase, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, as per Bansal. He agreed that the growth rate was not massive like in the past but attributed the moderation to Meeshos maturity as a business and a difficult macroeconomic climate.



While Bansal said the performance is likely to hold steady for the remaining months this year, there are still chances Meesho does not end FY24 in the black, largely because the monthly PAT numbers may not total to a large amount given Meesho's scale.



Last week, Moneycontrol shed light on how Zomato, which delivered a surprise profit of Rs 2 crore in the June quarter, used a critical tax provision to PAT its own back.



FY24 might be marginally positive or negative. I don't know, I can't forecast with full accuracy. July is a 'business as usual' month because there's no festive season. We wanted to make sure we are profitable before entering the festive season around August when demand is higherwe expect to continue this sort of profitability, Bansal said.



In FY22, Meesho recorded losses of around Rs 3,251 crore on a revenue of nearly Rs 3,232 crore. Its financial health had improved in FY23, Bansal claimed. Meeshos revenues grew by around 60 percent on a YoY basis while its losses narrowed by 50 percent in FY23, when compared with FY22, Bansal said. To be sure, the companys accounting books are still being audited.



Even if it does turn profitable in FY24, Meesho is not ruling out fundraising plans.



Scouting for players



Bansal said Meesho  which now has about $400 million in the bank  is also looking to acquire companies that complement its business. If the move requires Meesho to raise money, it will be open to negotiations.



We keep scouting for opportunities where we can enhance either our category play or add some capabilities to our business, Bansal said without revealing more. That could mean Meesho could look for players in categories such as electronic appliances, smartphones and/or others, where it is largely absent, and will also bring in customers at different price points for the company.



Founded by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, Meesho has so far raised over $1 billion and is valued at $4.9 billion, according to data from Tracxn, a private market data provider.



IPO hopes



Meesho had earlier said that if the company turns profitable in FY24, it would consider an Initial Public Offering (IPO) but Bansal said that goal was still at least 12 months away.



"While we are slightly earlier than our expectation in terms of reaching consolidated profit, we still want to have a long enough track record of profitability and growth before we go to the public markets," Bansal said.



In the past, investors have punished loss-making tech stocks which sent their share prices to record lows but then rewarded startups like Paytm and Zomato when they showed an improvement in financial health.



"From a scale, growth and profitability perspective, we could decide to do hit the public markets, but we want to be profitable for a reasonable period of time and grow simultaneously. For us that period could be 12-18 months or so. Then obviously, it's also a question of what the market conditions are," CFO Bansal concluded.
Qatar Investment Authority bought a 2.7% stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd. for about 39.2 billion rupees ($474 million) through a block deal on Monday, according to stock exchange data. INQ Holding, a unit of Qatars sovereign fund, bought more than 42.6 million shares of Adanis green energy arm at 920 rupees each as the embattled power-to-port conglomerate seeks international backing in a bid to recover from a scathing short-selling attack earlier this year. Infinite Trade and Investment Ltd., a founder group company of Adani Green, sold 44.9 million shares Monday, BSE data showed. The latest QIA investment would serve as a vote of confidence for billionaire Gautam Adani, who has been attempting a comeback from the crisis triggered by Hindenburg Research. The US-based short seller in January levelled fraud allegations against Adani Group, which has denied any wrongdoing. It would also mark another major investment into the Indian tycoons conglomerate after GQG Partners. Separately, Adani Green last month rolled up plans to raise 123 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) to fund expansion. By selling shares through qualified institutional placement, or QIP, the renewable energy unit is looking to bring on board more institutional investors and attract more research analysts to cover the firm, a person familiar with the matter had said. Only two analysts currently track the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. For QIA, buying a stake in Adani Green is in line with its plans to increase its exposure in India. The QIA ranks as the worlds 10th-largest sovereign wealth fund, according to SWF Institute data.

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Tony Pali Hill, a micro-market in Mumbais Bandra area, is known as the abode of the stars, among the biggest of whom was Dilip Kumar.



His bungalow, a local landmark, stood on a sprawling 2,000 square metre (sq m) land parcel.



Dilip Kumar owned this bungalow for decades, and it is from here that he delivered superhits like Devdas, Naya Daur, and many more.



Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu have been trying to redevelop the property since 2006. Recently, the Thane-based Ashar Group launched the redevelopment of the bungalow, which will include a 10-11 storey luxury building, and a museum dedicated to Dilip Kumar, who died in July 2021.



Below are five key things related to this landmark bungalow.



When was it purchased?



Per development agreement available on the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) website, Yusuf Khan, aka Dilip Kumar purchased the property from one Abdul Latif in September 1953.



Dilip Kumar moved out of his bungalow soon after marrying Saira Banu in 1966 reportedly, and moved into her house down the road. His two brothers continued living in the house.



Star neighbours



Besides Dilip Kumar, Pali Hill has been home to several Bollywood stars, such as the late Sunil and Nargis Dutt, the late Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Gulzar, Imran Khan, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt, and more. It was famous for being crowded as many people used to visit to catch a glimpse of their favourite actor back in the day.



When did he plan to redevelop the house?



Per documents on the MahaRERA website, in 2006, Dilip Kumar entered into an agreement with two developers and granted them development rights. However, he terminated the contract in October 2015 owing to disputes.



In March 2016, Dilip Kumar entered into another development agreement with Black Rock, a subsidiary of the Ashar Group, which has now undertaken the construction of a luxury building in place of the bungalow.



Also read: Luxury homes: Ashar Group to redevelop bungalow of Bollywood superstar Dilip Kumar in Mumbais Bandra, eyes Rs 850 crore revenue



Whats the deal?



According to the development agreement signed between Dilip Kumar and Black Rock, the developer decided payment to the owners is in two parts. The first part is a payment of Rs 11 lakh.



The second is a payment of Rs 350 crore as refundable deposit to meet the personal needs and liabilities of Saira Banu towards taxation etc. This amount is to be refunded from the first receipts against the sale of flats she gets in the redeveloped property.



Also read: Will luxury homes post-COVID bring back South Mumbais charm?



The developer has announced plans to construct around 15 luxury apartments ranging between 3,200 to 7,000 sq ft in size, priced between Rs 1.3 to 1.5 lakh per sq ft, which is the rate currently prevalent in such buildings in the Pali Hill market.



Bungalow becomes a tower



The redevelopment project, named 'The Legend,' will have a total area of 1.75 lakh sq ft and will comprise 4 and 5-BHK luxury homes, including duplex units. The project is likely to house a 2,000 sq ft museum dedicated to Dilip Kumar, Ajay Ashar Managing Director and Chairman of the Ashar Group, told Moneycontrol on August 1.



He added that the project is aimed at industrialists, CEOs, CXOs, and high net-worth individuals (HNIs).



Also read: Luxury home sales: Mumbai reports Rs 11,400 crore of luxury home sales in first half of 2023, says report



"The demand for luxury housing in Pali Hill is good and I feel that sales for these homes may be completed in a year or less owing to the demand. The area is home to several noted public figures, including Bollywood stars and HNIs," said Sanjay Sippy, a real estate consultant from Bandra.
Real estate developer Gaurs Group plans to construct over 1,200 mid-luxury apartments near the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (National Highway 24) in Ghaziabad, investing as much as Rs 1,000 crore, said CMD Manoj Gaur.



The residential project is likely to be launched by the end of the year.



It will be a mid-luxury or affordable luxury residential project, Gaur told Moneycontrol in an interview. We are planning Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore investment for this mid-luxury housing project.



The project will come up in Wave City located along NH-24, also known as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. However, Gaur did not divulge the size of the land to be used for the project.



Gaur, who is also chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India-National, said the plan is to develop the project over the next five years.



The price of the apartments will depend on market conditions, but it will be kept under the affordable luxury range, he said.



Gaur said that after Covid-19, demand has grown for bigger flats and large common areas.



Keeping these things in mind, we are making changes in designing, including common areas and flat layouts, among others. We are planning to provide bigger flat sizes, large spacious balconies, and large common areas with big clubhouses. Special focus is being given on facilities like open areas, walking areas and green areas, Gaur said.



Also Read: Gaurs Group to develop 450 luxury apartments with an investment of over Rs 500 crore in Jaypee Greens



The group, based in Ghaziabad, is open to expanding to tier 2 and 3 cities but is proceeding cautiously on this front. He said there is demand in the smaller cities and while the group is willing to consider expanding to these areas in the residential and commercial segments, there are no immediate plans or proposals to do so.
In a major development, the Karnataka High Court bench led by Justice Krishna Dixit has accepted a writ petition (WP) challenging the constitutional validity of Section 22 of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Act. The bench also sent notices to the state government and Karnataka RERA on July 31, 2023.



Section 22 of the RERA Act describes the qualifications of the chairperson and the members of the Authority.



According to advocate Sameer Sharma who filed WP No. 15645 of 2023, the members of Karnataka RERA do not represent officials with a judicial background.



Section 22 of the RERA Act



According to the clause, the chairperson and other members of RERA shall be appointed by the appropriate government on the recommendations of a selection committee.



The committee consists of the Chief Justice of the High Court or his nominee, the Secretary of the department dealing with housing and the Law Secretary.



Although the section does not specify the qualifications for members, it stipulates that the officials must have sufficient knowledge of and professional experience in a variety of departments, including infrastructure, housing, real estate development, and urban development, including at least 15 years for members and at least 20 years for the chairperson.



The petition



Section 22 deserves scrutiny by the High Court as it does not prescribe the presence of even one legal/judicial member manning the RERA, the petition added.



It has been held by the Supreme Court and the High Courts that when it comes to discharging adjudicatory functions, the presence and participation of a judicial member is mandatory. Under Section 22 of the RERA Act, there is no such requirement, it added.



The petition asks that Section 22 be struck down as the manner of appointing members to RERA via a selection committee dilutes judicial independence, a basic tenet of the Constitution.



The advocate for the Union of India, M .N. Kumar, submitted before the High Court that the petition has already been considered by the Bombay High Court in the Neelkamal Realtors Suburban Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India and others in 2017, and therefore, does not require to be heard before the Karnataka High Court.



Sharma argued, however, that the ruling of the Bombay High Court fails to consider several Supreme Court views precedent on this particular topic.



Taking note of the submissions, Justice Krishna Dixit said that the matter requires detailed and serious consideration. The bench directed the Additional Government Advocate (AGA) to accept the notice on behalf of the state of Karnataka and an emergent notice was issued to the Karnataka RERA.
The Film City project, which is to come up along the Yamuna Expressway, is likely to gain momentum as the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has given in-principle approval to certain changes in the terms of the project with a view to attracting investors and production houses.



The key changes include an increment of the moratorium period from four to seven years, providing a direct lease of 90 years instead of 60 years, and a relaxation in the revenue-sharing model under which the concessionaire will have to share 5 percent of the revenue instead of a fixed annual premium of Rs 116 crore, officials privy to the development said.







They added that the project will be developed in three phases, and the third global tender to invite investors and production houses is likely to be floated by the end of this month.



These key modifications were given in-principle approval at a high-level meeting in Lucknow by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, where he also set a deadline of six months to implement the project on the ground.



The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is helming the project and it had held numerous meetings with industry players. These suggestions were given by national and international production houses, filmmakers, and music companies, among others, during these meetings last month.



Also Read: Noida Film City: YEIDA holds talks with production houses, filmmakers to relax bidding conditions







A senior YEIDA official said that the first major change in the terms of the project is that the government has decided to increase the time limit of the moratorium period to seven years from four years now.



"This will allow the company that will build the Film City not to share its revenue generated from the project with the government for a period of seven years. After the end of the moratorium period, the project will operate on a revenue-sharing model. The government has also extended the direct lease period from the initial 60 years to 90 years," the official said.



The government also decided to relax revenue sharing, allowing the concessionaire to opt for a revenue share of 5 percent instead of a fixed annual premium of Rs 116 crore.



These major changes come after the project failed to attract any bidders in the previous two global tenders. The first global tender for the film city was floated on November 22, 2021. The second was issued on October 17, 2022. The deadline was extended to February 14, 2023, and then February 28, 2023, and then again to March 31, 2023, but no bids were received.







The Film City is to be developed over 1,000 acres of land in YEIDA Sector 21, along the Yamuna Expressway. Earlier, it was envisaged to be built in one go. But as suggested by the investors, it will now be developed in three phases, with the first phase spread over 230 acres.



Officials said that these amendments will now be placed before a committee of secretaries (CoS), which will be headed by the chief secretary, for final approval, and then a request for proposal (RFP) will be made and sent to the state Cabinet for approval.
Last month, PhonePe co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) Rahul Chari penned a blog saying that adoption of a new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) innovation could be a challenge.



The product, called UPI Plugin or merchant SDK (software development kit), enables online merchants to add a virtual payment address to collect money without a payments app. This helps them enable faster, seamless payments without customers needing to go to a third party app.



For instance, if a customer is using the Swiggy app and opts for UPI payment, it takes the customer to a UPI app such as Google Pay or PhonePe, through a notification prompt. Once the payment is done, it takes the customer back to Swiggy, where the order is completed. However, this additional step results in payment failures due to multiple reasons.



The UPI Plugin means that the payment happens within the Swiggy app itself without going to a specific UPI app. Payment gateway and processing firms Paytm, Razorpay and Juspay have enabled their merchants with the option of enabling the SDK with the hope of improving success rates by up to 15 percent.



However, PhonePes Chari had a different perspective. The UPI Plugin model does not offer any significant technical benefit to improve success rates. It instead shifts the onus that exists on payment apps today to the sponsor bank and the merchant application. This model introduces more complexity and puts more burden on the merchants rather than helping them focus on their core business, he says in the blog, implying that the product has some challenges.



The importance of UPI Plugin



The blog from Chari comes at a time when a few apps and merchants are expected to go live in the next couple of quarters.



This could probably hurt UPI leader PhonePe and No. 2 Google Pay, which enable most of such merchant UPI payments today. The probability of a lot of customers not going to these UPI apps to complete UPI payments could take away their dominant market share. PhonePe and Google Pay command 47% and 33% market share, respectively, in UPI.



"If large merchants like Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, Myntra and Dream 11 moves to in-line or in-app payments it will be a huge setback to Google Pay and PhonePe. This could help bring their market share substantially. They have every reason to be scared," says a senior executive who works closely with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs UPI.



In fact, this product has been the longstanding demand of most ecosystem players, such as merchants, payment processors and banks. Today, around 57 percent of all UPI payments are merchant transactions. Half of those merchant transactions are online, indicating that PhonePe and Google Pay could lose substantial portion of their transactions if a large number of merchants adopt this product.



In fact, almost 60 percent of all online transactions are made using UPI and that is expected to go up to 75 percent in the next couple of years. Hence, the success of UPI Plugin is important to ensure that three-quarters of all online payments have a higher chance of success.







Third party application providers (TPAP) make money mostly by enabling merchant transactions and hence locking merchants into their ecosystem is important for PhonePe and Google Pay. The innovation could hurt them even as these apps are looking to monetise their user base.



PhonePe, Google Pay and NPCI did not offer any comments when Moneycontrol reached out.



High entry barriers



Before UPI Plugin, one of the ways in which merchants could integrate UPI payments within their platform (website or app) was to become a TPAP like Google Pay or PhonePe. Even large merchants such as Tata Neu and Amazon have done the same.



Technically any startup or merchant can become a TPAP app like a PhonePe or Google Pay. However, it requires multiple approvals from NPCI, involving paperwork, compliance and certifications, all of which could take more than a year. The certifications are usually for multiple issues such as maintenance, risk management, customer support and dispute management.



A large merchant with a sizable funding like a Flipkart or a payment app like Cred can wait for more than a year. Smaller startups cannot wait for a year if their business models depend on UPI, and that stifles any quick experiments or pivots in their early stages. They also dont have the engineering bandwidth, says a founder with a payments company.



The founder adds that TPAP apps have become a private club of elites. To make matters worse, UPIs person-to-person money transfer or (peer to peer/p2p in technical terms) based on network effect and this has also closed doors on newer players from emerging of late.



The merchant SDK is an evolution from the erstwhile TPAP SDK, which did not find acceptance among merchants, who were its intended users. The product was supposed to almost do what UPI Plugin proposes to do now, but was more complicated and needed multiple approvals from NPCI and banks, and hence failed to take off.



What PhonePes Chari is suggesting now is that UPI Plugin will meet the same fate, more so owing to operational issues.



NPCIs dichotomy and UPI duopoly



While NPCI wants more UPI players to emerge, succeed and take market share from the two large existing players  PhonePe and Google Pay control over 80% of the UPI payments  it does not seem to be working.



Before the launch of WhatsApp Pay UPI, NPCI came up with a rule that said that no single TPAP player should have more than 30% market share on the UPI platform by January 2023. The players with more than 30 percent would have to reduce this below the threshold. The fear was that WhatsApp, with over 500 million users, would dominate UPI.



This would also have impacted PhonePe badly and Google Pay to some extent.



However, the measures to bring down market share would have meant a serious disruption in the speed and ease of UPI transactions, so last year, NPCI extended the deadline by another two years to December 31, 2024.



Over the last couple of years, the market share of the top three players in the ecosystem has barely changed  even Paytms share is stable at around 13 percent of UPI transactions. It has not changed even with the entry of WhatsApp and Cred. Amazon has seen its market share decline by over 60% in the last year or so to around 0.6 percent.



Hence to save itself from the embarrassment of extending the market share capping deadline by another year or so again, NPCI badly wanted TPAP SDK to take off. That did not happen, and it has come up with a stripped down version of the merchant SDK now.



TPAP SDK did not reduce the compliance risks on merchants and it was almost similar to what a TPAP app needed to do, says a fintech founder. The lack of interest or initiative to go through such stringent compliance issues is one of the reasons why we dont see as many merchants despite UPI as a platform being so powerful and successful, the founder added.



Hence NPCI and banks came up with UPI Plugin, which could achieve multiple objectives at one go.



Adoption challenges



One of the reasons why some large merchants hesitate is because they will be forced to tie up with a single bank to create a merchant UPI account. This could result in the platform being too dependent on one bank. Sometimes, the support from banks could also be challenging and having the option of multiple banks through multiple payment apps hedges the risk.



In his post, Chari mentioned some challenges, such as merchants not being able to keep up with the speed of adding products such as UPI Lite, Rupay Credit Cards and EMIs on UPI. He added that stabilisation, compliance, maintenance, risk management, customer support, dispute management and data localisation are challenges for merchants.



Some of the larger merchants are waiting for legal clarity and the clauses to be put in for agreements with banks and PGs. For the first time, the integration is still cumbersome and NPCI has to certify every integration.



Legal contracts take time and the larger players need to factor in the indemnity clause. The product is still fairly new and a lot of large merchants tend to wait for clarity to emerge. Sometimes their partner banks or PG firms cannot move as fast as the merchants wish them to, says the fintech startup founder quoted above.



According to a couple of sources, since this is for online merchants, NPCI is having second thoughts about allowing the scan-and-pay method. It is not clear who advocated against it. This is frustrating and a step in the wrong direction, says one of the payments firm sources.



The blog (by Chari) clearly came out of fear. If this adjusts their market share in a natural way, it is good for NPCI as well as PhonePe, says the founder of a payment processing firm. In fact, recently, PhonePe launched its own payment gateway with zero commission, and it may very well integrate the UPI Plugin on its platform.



However, for this to work, NPCI need players like PG firms and merchants to promote this. "There is no reason why they would not. But there is an effort, time and monetary investment from their side," says the executive close to NPCI.
In May this year, Z (name changed), a provider of co-living spaces for professionals, approached one of Indias biggest late-stage startup investors for a new funding round. The company was eyeing a $150 million fundraise at a substantial upside to its soonicorn valuation.



Backed by marquee investors including Sequoia (now Peak XV Partners), Z had raised more than $100 million in equity in the two pandemic years, projecting robust growth to investors.



Flush with funds, Z had hired aggressively to expand and match the expectations it had projected. The companys revenue growth did not match expectations in FY21-22 and FY22-23. But Z was unable to bring down its burn, prompting it to raise funds.



However, with investors looking at investment metrics differently, Zs offer was passed on by the global investor mentioned above. The company, since then, has been struggling to find takers for the valuation it is demanding.



Its one of those pandemic companies. Is it really a tech company? I dont think so, its more of a real estate company, and so the multiples need to be different, said the investor mentioned above (added).



The kind of multiple it commanded in 2021, it wont be able to get that in 2023. They were commanding a tech multiple then, but not anymore. No one will pay 25-30 X multiple for a real estate company with a bit of tech, the person added.



Fund-raising challenges



Another person whos aware of Zs affairs said the company will have to reprice itself and settle for a down round. A down round is when a company raises funds at a valuation lower than its previous round.



Z needs funds for growth. So they will have to settle for a down round, especially in this environment. If not, the existing investors may pool in more capital, which will provide the company with a 12-18 month runway. But that will be survival, not growth, the person added.



Its not just Z. In a meeting on July 19, Google and Reliance-backed quick commerce and hyper-local delivery startup Dunzos co-founder and CTO Mukund Jha admitted to employees that the company had kept fundraising talks going for a while, as it wanted a healthier valuation even as it needed capital to continue operations.



One of the reasons to delay an equity raise has been to ensure were valued correctly, he said.



Z and Dunzo are among several growth and late-stage startups facing challenges in raising new funds. Founders are unwilling to lower their company's valuations, and investors are hesitant to invest at 2021 levels.



Over the past 18 months, numerous instances similar to the two cases mentioned have come to light, highlighting how late-stage investors have been altering their investment criteria. As a result, late-stage deals have experienced a significant decline this year.



According to data compiled by Venture Intelligence, during the first six months of 2023, there were only 23 late-stage deals amounting to a total capital of $1.2 billion. This is in stark contrast to the year-ago period, which saw 47 deals worth $5.5 billion. Industry insiders have observed differences in how investors are looking differently at valuations.



For instance, 4-5 years back, GMV (gross merchandise value) was the north star of e-commerce metrics and an important determinant for valuation. Today, investors focus less on GMV and more on profits, said Neeraj Shrimali, Managing Director and Co-head, Digital and Technology Investment Banking, Avendus Capital.



Now investors want certainty around profitability. PE investors or late-stage VCs want to see profitability in 6-18 months. This is real profitability that is not adjusted against any costs. Investors are still keen on companies that arent profitable, as long as they have the right unit economics in place. Otherwise, it will be difficult to raise funds, Shrimali added.







Hangover of party 2021



Late-stage investors in India have avoided most deals this year as they are still grappling with the aftermath of the bubbly and exuberant Indian startup party, which resulted in inflated valuations.



SoftBank, Alpha Wave Global, Insight Partners, DST Global, and Sofina among other late-stage venture capital investors, who were very actively investing in the pandemic years between March 2020 and March 2022, have cut very few cheques since then, data compiled by Moneycontrol showed.



In fact, these investors have not participated in a single deal in 2023 yet. These investors were behind a majority of growth and late-stage deals between 2020 and 2022.







The entry points (price) of most of these startups are not attractive currently. This is not just the soonicorns (a startup thats expected to soon hit a billion Dollar valuation), but even the unicorns (firms valued above a billion Dollars). Companies havent grown into their valuations and thats a big problem some of the late-stage guys are witnessing, said a veteran late-stage investor, whose investment firm has backed more than 60 startups in India, including 12 unicorns.



The Covid period was the era of cheap capital, there was excitement all over. Indias internet market was booming and so on and so forth. All these things led to inflated valuations. For me, and for a few peers, (late-stage) opportunities in India are a problem, more than funds or any macro headwinds, the investor added.



Even SoftBanks Rajeev Misra, in an interview with Moneycontrol earlier this month, said that capital isnt a constraint for the Japanese investor when it comes to investing in India, but opportunities are. SoftBank, through its Vision Funds, typically makes investments in hundreds of million Dollars.



In India, only the top players have sizeable revenues. Not beyond that. Unlike the US, where even the third-largest player would have a very large revenue pool, Shrimali said.



Investors are becoming more particular about these things before investing. When it comes to valuations, there is a correction for most players from multiple perspectives. Even market leaders have taken a hit in their valuation multiples, he added.



With late-stage investors refraining from taking part in investments, India has not witnessed a new unicorn in the last 10 months, in what is the largest unicorn drought for the worlds third-largest unicorn ecosystem in five years. Moneycontrol has previously reported how there seems to be no unicorns in the pipeline as well.



Shrimali, however, said that the pace of deal-making in the late stages has picked up. But as deal closures are taking longer compared to 2021, we might see late-stage deals getting announced only over the next two quarters.



I think you will see several unicorns and late-stage deals later this year. Four-five years back, there were 15 companies which were of interest to late-stage investors, now there are almost 50. The market is getting deeper and so you will see more unicorns and more $5-7 billion companies, Shrimali explained.
Prabhudas Lilladher's research report on AAVAS Financiers AAVAS saw a weak quarter as PAT missed PLe by 14% due to (1) softer AuM growth at 23.2% YoY (PLe 25.6%) resulting in lower NII and (2) higher staff cost. AuM growth was affected as disbursals declined by 32.5% QoQ (usually Q1 fall is 15-20%) since a tech platform Salesforce was implemented pan India in Apr23. However, operations stabilized in May and June witnessed 17% MoM growth. AuM growth guidance of 20-25% has been maintained. Spike in employee cost was driven by retirement benefit expenses and normalization of ESOP cost. On employee stability, management suggested that there is no attrition at senior/mid-level while junior level attrition is in-line with industry. While we are watchful of senior level stability, better RoE profile (now 14-15%) could be the next trigger for re-rating which would hinge on stronger AuM growth or operating leverage. Outlook We maintain multiple at 3.0x on FY25E ABV and keep TP unchanged at Rs 1,560. For all recommendations report, click here Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. AAVAS Financiers - 05 -08 - 2023 - prabhu

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India Cements shares slumped 4 percent on August 7 after it reported a loss of Rs 87.40 crore as compared to a profit of Rs 79.98 crore reported in Q1FY23 in its quarterly results for Q1FY24. At 2.00 pm, shares of India Cements was trading at Rs 217.10, down 3.40 percent or Rs 7.65. At both exchanges, nearly 59 lakh shares changed hands against the monthly average of 33 lakh shares. In its results for the June quarter filed on August 7, the company reported a 5.12 percent YoY (year-on-year) decline in its revenue from operations at Rs 1,436.74 crore. EBITDA (earnings-before-interest-taxes-depreciation and ammortisation) for Q1FY24 stood at Rs 202.72 crore, up 20 percent YoY from Rs 168.36 crore reported in Q1FY23. The margins were up by 299 basis points at 14.10 percent in the quarter under review. The company is engaged in the production and distribution of cement and cement-related products. Its business operations involve manufacturing of cement, ready-mix concrete, and clinker. The company operates out of its 8 manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan with an installed production capacity of 15.55 million tonnes 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.

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The Paytm share price surged over 10 percent in early trade on August 7 as its founder and chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced a 10.3 percent stake purchase in the company.



According to the exchange filing, an overseas entity owned by Sharma will pick up 10.3 percent in Paytm from Antfin through an off-market transfer. On closing of this transaction, Sharmas shareholding in the company will increase to 19.42 percent, whereas Antfins stake will reduce to 13.5 percent.



At 9:45am, the Paytm stock was quoting at Rs 850.75 on the NSE, higher by 6.8 percent from its previous close. Trading volumes at 6 million shares were significantly higher than the 20-day average volume of 3.4 million shares.



As per Bloomberg, the 12-month consensus target price on the stock is Rs 1,018, indicating 19.7 percent upside from current levels.



Follow our live blog for all the market action



In November 2022, Antfin Holdings, Alibaba.com, Berkshire Hathaway, Elevation Capital and SAIF Funds became eligible to sell their holdings as the lock-in period mandated for pre-IPO investors ended.



Antfin Netherlands Holding had acquired over 25 percent stake in the company between 2015 and 2019 at an average cost of Rs 300 a share. It sold ~2 percent stake in January, bringing its stake down to 23.8 percent.



After the transaction with Sharma, Antfin will no longer remain the largest shareholder in the fintech major. There is also no nominee of Antfin on the Paytm Board.



However, Sharma is making no cash payment for this acquisition which means Antfin is not booking any profits from this partial exit as of now. As per the agreement executed between the parties, Antfin will be issued Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCDs), which in turn will allow Antfin to retain economic value of the 10.30 percent stake.



Optionally Convertible Debentures provide companies with the flexibility to convert them into equity shares at a later stage.



"This demonstrates Antfins continued confidence in the business potential. No cash payment will be made for this acquisition, and neither will any pledge, guarantee, or other value assurance be provided by Sharma," as per the exchange filing.



Q1 results



The sentiment around Paytm has remained upbeat in this year so far, buoyed by consistent improvement in financial performance. Its consolidated net loss narrowed to Rs 357 crore for the quarter ended June. It was Rs 644 crore in the year-ago period.



Revenue from operations during the June quarter rose 39 percent to Rs 2,342 crore as against Rs 1,680 crore clocked in the previous year quarter.



Also Read: Paytm's merchant payment volumes up 39% to Rs 1.47 lakh crore in July, disbursements jump 148%



Furthermore, Paytm recorded merchant payment volumes at Rs 1.47 lakh crore for the month of July, growing 39 percent on a year on year basis. Loan distribution business (in partnership with lender partners) continued to gain scale with disbursements of Rs 5,194 crore, growing 148 percent YoY, with 43 lakh loans disbursed in July 2023 through the Paytm platform, rising 46 percent YoY.



Brokerage views



Foreign brokerages are firmly bullish on the stock, with target prices pegged upwards of Rs 1,000. With Antfin transferring part of its stake to Sharma, a key overhang of selling pressure by one of the biggest pre-IPO investors is now also behind.



Brokerage firm Goldman Sachs said Paytm is firmly on track to be the most profitable India internet company starting FY25 and suggested a target of Rs 1,200 on the stock.



JPMorgan has suggested a target of Rs 950 on the stock. Key stock drivers from here are likely to be the clearance of regulatory overhangs and free cash flows (FCF) and profit after tax (PAT) breakeven, the firm said. "We think Paytm can be the first Indian B2C internet stock to trade on profit rather than revenue multiples," it said.



Meanwhile, BofA Securities suggested a target of Rs 1,020 on the stock.



Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment 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.
Large Indian IT and software services exporters are not betting on fresh recruitments as it is likely to fall by approximately 40 percent on-year in the current financial year, highlighting the subdued demand and slump in technology services that is making tough for the $245-billion industry, a report has said.



IT services majors are likely to roll out offers between 50,000 and 100,000 employees during fiscal 2024, the Economic Times reported, citing data from Bengaluru-based staffing firm Xpheno. This will mark a steep drop from the net hiring of over 250,000 by these companies in the previous year.



Also Read: Amid a sea of pink slips across the industry, these edtechs are hiring



Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.



Top IT exporters  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra  seem to be facing hiring challenges as they reported a cumulative decline of 21,838 in net headcount in the first quarter of FY24, the report said.



India's No.1 software services exporter TCS just added around 500 employees, and the remaining four reported a sharp fall.\



Also Read: Ex-Google HR official reveals first thing to do after applying for job: 'Itll make you stand out'



Further, global tech giants such as Accenture, Capgemini and Cognizant, which have a huge base of staff in India, reported a decline in headcount of more than 5,000 each during the most recent quarter.



It looks like a washout year for IT services hiring. The dismal sentiment is expected to continue, with little or no indication of green shoots in the sector. This, coupled with a lack of visibility on rollout of new projects, is leading to companies withholding fresh mandates for hiring, Sunil C, chief executive at TeamLease Digital, told the financial daily.



Also Read: Ghost jobs haunt candidates amid a spooky job market



He went on to add that there will be a further 40 percent decline in net recruitment by the sector in the current fiscal because entities are concentrating on increasing employee utilisation metrics.



At present, the requirement for fresh hires is down by nearly 50 percent, as of August, compared to the previous year.



Meanwhile, this website, citing data from Xpheno, reported that there were just 1,400 open roles in India across the Big Tech companies  Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Google (Alphabet)  as of July 2023.
The Union governments recent decision to restrict import of tech goods can potentially benefit the domestic electronic manufacturing services (EMS) or the contract manufacturing companies, Goldman Sachs Equity Research said in a recent research note.

Apart from the import curbs (now deferred until October 31, 2023), the foreign equity research firm also expects some level of import substitution in domestic markets in the longer run owing to the ongoing government initiatives to incentivise local electronic manufacturing.



The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, in a notification issued last week had imposed restrictions on the bulk import of laptops, palmtops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers and servers. The government agency had made an exception for the imports intended for the purpose of research, repair or re-export and to those permissible under the baggage rules.



As India moves away from import of electronics to domestic manufacturing, we anticipate a paradigm shift in the growth of its home-grown EMS companies, the research firm said.



Current balance of trade



According to the recent estimates disclosed by the Ministry of Commerce, Indias electronic goods imports stood at $19,756.10 million in Q1FY24, a 6.25 percent increase from imports worth $18,593.86 million reported in Q1FY23.



Meanwhile, electronic goods exported from India rose to $6960.48 million in Q1FY24 from $4,733.57 million in Q1FY23.



The balance of trade, in the context of electronic goods in specific, stood at $12,795.62 million in Q1FY24 as compared to that of $13,860.29 million observed in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.



Although the balance of trade as a whole and in terms of electronic goods appears to have come down in the June quarter, it still continues to be high considering the untapped domestic manufacturing potential. In simpler terms, the value of electronic goods imported by India is almost three times the value of the same it exports to other countries.



Potential beneficiaries



In the first quarter results of electronic goods makers announced so far, while the B2C segment underperformed, management commentaries from Havells and Blue Star noted that strong demand from the B2B segment had kept their order books strong.



Analysts expect companies like Dixon Technologies and Amber, which manufacture contract goods for prominent brands solely on a B2B model, to benefit from the government policies in the long run.



Goldman Sachs particularly expects the recent curbs on tech goods imports and PLI (performance-linked incentive) scheme to play in favour of companies like Dixon. Brands (especially those which dont have a manufacturing presence in India) may import semi-knocked down (SKD) units/components and outsource the assembly of these devices to EMS companies as has been happening for other electronics like mobiles and other small electronics, the research firm said.



Dixon, currently the largest electronic contract goods manufacturer in India, already produces a small amount of tech goods. In its recent quarterly results, the company reported a 38 percent revenue growth in its mobile and EMS segment. The company has shown interest in the Union governments PLI 2.0 scheme chalked out to encourage IT hardware manufacturing in India, the note added.



According to a recent Business Standard report based on a source, which Moneycontrol couldnt independently verify, nearly 44 tech goods manufacturers have already applied for the scheme worth Rs 17,000 crore.



The equities research firm is also positive on Amber, the largest domestic contract manufacturer of RACs (room air-conditioners), given the lower penetration of ACs in Indian households. We see Amber as a primary beneficiary of the RAC story in India. The intrinsic valuation based on DCF (discounted cash flow) is attractive, the research note said.



Ratings



Goldman Sachs expects Dixons FY25E EBITDA to be Rs 1,030 crore. Considering that the companys stock is trading 3X higher than global peers, the research firm has rated it neutral.



At this stage, we do not bake in any impact from the reported restriction and opportunity for Dixon in our estimates pending further details, the note said. The research firm has set a target price of Rs 3,550 per share.



Goldman Sachs has rated Ambers stock as buy expecting the working capital to improve, supported by strong cash flows and increasing scope of penetration in the sector. The target price set by the research firm factoring in an upside potential is Rs 2,600 per share.



Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment 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.
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) shares have underperformed its peers in the apparel industry over the last year. Trent, Raymond, and Shoppers Stop have given investors returns of 30-96 percent in the last 12 months. ABFRL, however, continues to disappoint investors, having lost 25 percent since August 2022.



Why are investors unhappy with ABFRL?

ABFRLs recent plans to acquire a controlling stake in ethnic wear brand TCNS clothing has left investors displeased. The company is planning an open offer to acquire a 29 percent stake from public shareholders and purchase around 30 percent from the promoters. The price offered per TCNS share is Rs 503, almost twice the previous days closing price i.e May 4 when the acquisition was announced. ABFRL announced the acquisition of TCNS Clothing in a two-step deal worth Rs 2,900 crore, which is 10 percent below TCNSs current market cap of Rs 3,220 crore, as per Motilal Oswal's report dated May 7.



Investors were not happy with the acquisition as ABFRL is acquiring TCNS for an expensive valuation, said an analyst, on condition of anonymity. He added that TCNS has a weak business that has disappointed investors. TCNSs net loss widened three times to Rs 18 crore in FY23. We believe that TCNSs earnings revival would be challenging and that building scale internally could have been a good alternative for ABFRL, said Motilal Oswal.



Also read Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Q1 results: Net loss of Rs 161.62 crore from year-ago profit



Core brands not strong yet

ABFRLs underlying performance has been weak. Revenue growth in the companys core brands  Lifestyle and Pantaloons  has been weak over the last year. Lifestyle has brands such as Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, and Peter England. In the April-to-June quarter, Lifestyles revenue increased 5 percent and Pantaloons' revenue grew 1 percent to year-on-year.



ABFRL attributed the poor revenue growth to subdued demand because of fewer wedding dates in the quarter. However, the growth rate of its two core brands has been declining over the quarters.







According to analysts, there is rising demand for apparel in the Rs 450-600 price range, which is catered to by Trent. However, ABFRL, except for Pantaloons, is positioned on the higher side of this range, leading to disappointing sales. The company may be hoping to address this gap through the acquisition of TCNS Clothing. However, analysts are unconvinced.



The company is focusing on expensive acquisitions to bolster sales instead of focusing on developing its core brands, which could be a more rewarding strategy, said another analyst, who did to want to be named.



How much debt is too much?

What is also making analysts sceptical is that the fashion company has the highest debt compared to its industry peers. ABFRLs total liabilities are equivalent to the combined liabilities of Trent and Raymond. ABFRL has a lot of debt on its books and a low cash flow, which is why investors are not positive about the stock, said Ankit Kedia, Vice-President, Equity Research, at Phillip Capital.





So, what next?

Motilal Oswal has a neutral rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 190 and sees a 10 percent downside. The brokerage firm has cut its FY24-25 EBITDA estimates for the company by 10 percent. In the last few years ABFRL has invested in multiple new businesses, majority of which are presently loss-making or yet to stabilise and scaling up the ethnic wear and Reebok businesses and turning around the newly set-up D2C segment could be a bumpy ride, it said in a report dated August 6. The report added that inclusion of TCNS to this portfolio may deepen ABFRLs near-term profitability risks.
For a few weeks every year, Bengaluru and Japan wear pink canopies of flowers. If it's cherry blossoms in Japan, Bengaluru has the Tabebuia Rosea trees in bloom during spring. Now, both places will have one more thing in common.



In a first in India, Japans MODERATO (Management of Origin-Destination-Related Adaptation for Traffic Optimization) technology is being implemented in the country's tech capital. This will help reduce traffic congestion at signals on three major roads and factors in a pedestrian crossing.



If you are commuting on Bengalurus MG Road, Hosur Road, and Old Madras Road, you might have seen new traffic signals and new pole installations at traffic intersections. Japan's MODERATO is likely to be implemented at major junctions in core city areas by the end of September.



However, this adaptive traffic signal control system will not cover the city's 10 major congested junctions  Silk Board, Ibballur, Kadubeesanahalli, Dairy Circle, Tin Factory, Hebbal, Goraguntepalya, Sarakki, Banashankari, and Kumaraswamy Layout.











"This project is a pilot demonstration of the Area Traffic Control System (ATCS) using the MODERATO application with grant-in-aid from the Government of Japan. As per the grant agreement, the scope of signal implementation was limited to 29 junctions. The list of junctions was finalised in consultation with the Bengaluru traffic police," V Manjula, Commissioner, Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) told Moneycontrol.



Sources said the project was first announced in 2014, but gained momentum only in July 2021. While it was supposed to be completed by October 2022, it has already missed multiple deadlines.



"These junctions were identified before 2014, but now the major congestion is not in the Central Business District but on Outer Ring Road and in the outskirts. However, it was difficult to change the plans since it was JICA funded," said a source.



A traffic expert said, "This technology has a proven track record in Japan, which improves the efficiency of traffic signals. Unlike ad-hoc random signal systems, this project is corridor-based, which holds the potential for better results".



"But this is a pilot project, and Indian conditions are different. For example, Bengaluru has a higher proportion of two-wheelers compared to Japan. Also, traffic police manually operate signals to allow emergency vehicles or during VIP movements. Unlike in Japan, there is no RFID and GPS-based automatic lane clearance system for emergency vehicles like ambulances in Bengaluru. In foreign cities, when RFID-tagged emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire engines, and police vehicles approach a traffic signal, it turns to green light and allows their smooth passage. In Indian cities, signals are manually operated during such instances" he said.



"The adaptive signal control technology will be able to reduce congestion and optimise waiting times at signals. But traffic police should also be involved in the planning and testing to yield better results. Handing over the project only after the completion without proper testing will affect the success and there should be proper coordination between the DULT and traffic police. This could be expanded to other arterial roads, based on the outcome of this pilot project" he said.



Reduction in traffic jams



DULT officials said that once implemented, there will be a reduction in traffic jams in these junctions. "This project was supposed to cover 29 junctions. As per the revised plan, 28 junctions are being taken up. One junction has been dropped due to ongoing Metro work. The installation work of ATCS at all 28 junctions like laying the foundation, cabling, pole erection, is under progress," said Manjula.











"Under ideal conditions (without any road construction or obstructions on road arms leading to the junction), it is envisaged that the delays at junctions in the project area would be reduced by 13 percent, and queuing reduced by 30 percent. The main components of ATCS include signal arms and aspects for motorists and pedestrians, an Automatic traffic counter and classifier for measuring vehicular movement, and a queue-length measurement System at critical junctions for monitoring queue build-up. A central control software (MODERATO) will be used for real-time optimisation of signal phasing and timings for all junctions as part of this project," said Manjula.



The project is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2023. Once the implementation is completed, the ATCS will be handed over to the Bengaluru traffic police for operations and maintenance, said Manjula. She further pointed out that though signals will work in automated mode, provision has been made in the system to switch to manual operation to facilitate the movement of emergency vehicles. The Rs 70-crore project is funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Japanese firm Nagoya Electric Works Co. Ltd is implementing it.



Traffic police plan adaptive traffic signal control in 482 junctions



Bengaluru has nearly 40,000 traffic intersections, out of which 388 are controlled by signals, and 500 are manually regulated. Joint commissioner of police (Bengaluru traffic) MN Anucheth told Moneycontrol: "We are in the process of implementing an adaptive traffic signal control system in 482 junctions. This project excludes the 28 junctions where Japanese traffic signal technology is currently being piloted by the DULT."



Anucheth said the adaptive traffic signal control system will be implemented in three phases. "We are awaiting approval from the state government to float the tender for Phase 1 of the project, which will cover 165 junctions. Phase 2 will include 221 junctions, while the remaining junctions will be covered in Phase 3" he added.
As many as 14,227 appeals against disputed tax demands raised by Central GST authorities are pending as of June 2023, Parliament was informed on August 7. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the 49th meeting of the GST Council had approved the setting up of GST Appellate Tribunals across the country. "It has been planned to establish the State benches in a phased manner based on the request of states," the Minister said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. He also gave details of the number of GST appeals against demands by Central GST authorities pending at various levels. During 2023-24 (up to June 2023), 14,227 appeals were pending. The number was gone up from 11,899 pending appeals as of March 2023. Setting up GST Appellate Tribunal benches in states would help in faster dispute resolution. Currently, taxpayers aggrieved with the ruling of tax authorities are required to move the respective High Courts. The resolution process takes longer time as High Courts are already burdened with a backlog of cases and do not have a specialised bench to deal with GST cases.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on August 07, that India and Bhutan are considering building a rail-link between Bhutan and Assam. The minister also cited the rail-link's potential to increase the tourism potential of both places.



"We are in talks on the Rail link between Bhutan and Assam, Bhutan is very keen to open more points for tourists and it is very good for Assam," Jaishankar said.



Earlier this year in April, the survey for the railway line was completed according to a report by The Bhutan Live. The railway line is likely to operate to and fro between Bhutan's Gelephu to Kokrajar in Assam.



It will be the first-ever railway connection between India and Bhutan and is expected to be completed by 2026. The Indian government will fund the 57-kilometre railway.



Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra met visiting Bhutanese Foreign Secretary Pema Choden on July 30 and conveyed Indias commitment to partner with Bhutan based on the priorities of the neighbouring Himalayan nation.



Pleased to receive Foreign Secretary Aum Pema Choden of Bhutan after the India-Bhutan Development Cooperation talks this evening. Discussed our support for Bhutans development aspirations, Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting.



Jaishankar also commented on the border situation between India-Myanmar and said that the situation is 'challenging'. The Minister added that the Sittwe Port is operational, he also said that India is engaging with Myanmar authorities to meet the challenges.



The Union Minister also said that the India-China border talks have not been halted and said that a meeting will be held soon. The minister also claimed that progress has been made on 'key tension points' in the last three years.
The Modi government has significantly enhanced border infrastructure in the last nine years, including along the frontier with China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday. In an interaction with a group of journalists, he said infrastructure push along the Northern border is going to determine India's response to national security challenges. Jaishankar said India is boosting connectivity with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The external affairs minister said India is in talks with Bhutan for a rail link between that country and Assam.

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The West Bengal cabinet on August 7 approved a proposal to make Bengali mandatory as a second language in private English medium schools, a senior official said.



The cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, also gave its nod to set up an Education Commission to look into complaints against private schools, he said.







"Though there are options to study Bengali as a second language, most students prefer Hindi or other languages. As a result, students are not learning Bengali properly. Today, the state cabinet decided to change it, and make Bengali compulsory second language in all private English medium schools in the state," the official told PTI.







The Education Commission will be set up on the lines of the Health Commission with a retired judge as its head, he said "During the pandemic, we received several complaints about private schools increasing tuition fees excessively. Also, there were complaints regarding syllabus, and the way that exams were conducted. This commission will look into all these issues," the official said.







Welcoming the decision to make Bengali mandatory as second language, Bangla Pokkho congratulated the chief minister and Education Minister Bratya Basu.







"People of Bengal have been waiting for this decision for a long time," said Kausik Maiti, the organising secretary of the outfit that works for promoting the Bengali language.







The state cabinet also gave its for the formation of a committee that will submit a report to the government in the next three months on the creation of seven new districts in the state.







Nadia, Birbhum, Malda, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts will be divided to create these seven new districts, the official said.







Senior ministers Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas and Moloy Ghatak, and Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi will be the members of this committee, besides secretaries of other departments, he said.







At the meeting, Banerjee also fixed a 15-day deadline for the implementation of all the decisions of the state government, including those taken by the cabinet.







She asked officers to submit report on the implementation to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), the officer said. PTI SCH SOM SOM




The appeal of a good old-fashioned culture war fight is so much greater than thinking about the hard problems of energy planning and security.



So its hardly surprising that the decision of Australias Victoria state to ban natural gas connections to new properties has turned into a replay of a cooked-up US debate about a supposed federal ban on gas stoves. (No such ban was ever proposed by the Biden administration, though the House of Representatives passed a bill in June to head off the imagined threat, just in case.) Were likely to see similar clashes play out in historically gas-rich regions from the Netherlands to Pakistan and Mexico in the years ahead.



The ban in Victoria, home to the countrys largest city Melbourne, has everything that such a hype cycle needs. Its been proposed by left-wing state Premier Daniel Andrews who has  horrors  been photographed

using a gas stove himself and has presented the move as a principled step towards net-zero targets. Its being opposed by an industry lobby that accuses the government of ignoring the needs of average households. And it comes on the heels of 2022s global gas crisis, which pushed onshore prices up as much as five times above normal levels.



In truth, though, its a much more banal decision. Offshore petroleum was discovered in the Bass Strait separating mainland Australia from Tasmania in the 1960s, making Victoria the countrys biggest producer of oil and gas in the 1980s and 1990s. After more than 50 years in production, the natural decline that sets in at all oilfields means the Bass Strait is more or less tapped out.



The joint venture of Exxon Mobil Corp and Woodside Energy Group Ltd that has dominated production for decades is in the process of decommissioning its platforms toward a target date in 2027. A region that still supplies about 40 percent of the countrys east-coast gas market is running dry, and reforms to encourage more production (introduced in 2021 by the same premier now presenting himself as a climate campaigner) have failed to inspire viable projects.



Victorias gas ban is best understood as an incremental way to start addressing that looming shortage. Electric and induction cooktops and reverse-cycle air conditioners arent just less carbon-intensive ways for locals to heat their food and homes  theyre also cheaper, an advantage that will only grow as the decline of the Bass Strait leaves the country dependent on costlier imported gas. Rule climate issues out of the equation altogether, and a government seeking to fix that imminent crisis should still be doing everything it can to reduce demand as well as increase supply.



The same pattern is playing out around the world, as historic gas producers facing the terminal decline of their petroleum fields find themselves running short of what was once a cheap energy source. (The US, for all its kerfuffle around cooktops, is one country whose booming gas industry leaves it amply supplied).



The Netherlands, whose vast Groningen field was once so productive that it twisted the entire economy out of shape, is going through the same wrenching process. A cut-flower and high-value fruit and vegetable

industry that grew up to take advantage of the low cost of heating greenhouses struggled last year as Groningen ran dry and the invasion of Ukraine choked off alternative sources of supply. The government will ban the installation of new gas boilers in homes from 2026.



Pakistan, historically self-sufficient in gas, is suffering from the same issue. Two-thirds of its geological reserves have already been consumed, and the remainder will be used up in about 15 years at current production rates. Thats exacerbating chronic energy problems. LNG has been imported since 2015 to make up the deficit. But that product is in so much demand since the Ukraine war that Pakistan, a cash-strapped country whose debt and currency issues put its long-term ability to pay in doubt, is unable to secure cargoes. Thats leaving the country facing a looming power crunch.



Even Mexico is in similar waters. Thanks to the abundance of methane just over the border in the US, the country has seen no Pakistan-style issues in getting hold of supplies. But its increasingly gas-dependent economy made it the biggest importer of piped gas after Germany last year. Outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, only Egypt and Thailand among large economies are more dependent on gas to power their grids. Mexicos over-exposure to a single imported energy source, as with Europes dependence on Russian methane, could become a risk as the US seeks to get higher prices for its gigajoules in the global LNG market.



The challenges faced by all these regions as they try to wean themselves from gas highlight that an energy source touted as a transition fuel between denser hydrocarbons and renewable technologies can be a habit as hard to kick as coal and oil. Economies have a choice of whether to build their energy infrastructure around a fickle, finite geological resource or the limitless bounty provided by renewable technologies. The short-term hit from gas wont provide a long-term solution.



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
The joint stock company has been at the heart of modern capital-driven enterprise for over 400 years, ever since the Dutch established the first one in 1602. It has powered explorations and conquests, propelled small trading nations to colonial empires, raised large-scale risk capital, created markets for mass manufactured goods, and transformed rural agrarian economies into powerhouses of industry and services. It has spawned an entire banking, capital markets and financial services industry in the process, which has facilitated the explosion of global trade and the interconnected dependency of goods and services across nations that we see today. In many ways, companies have written the history and economics of the modern world.

It is therefore unsurprising that the field of management theory arose from the musings of early economic writers. The writings of Adam Smith and David Ricardo on the division of labour, factors of production, wages, rent, profits, trade and its most visible manifestation, the "invisible hand" of markets, were best expressed by the ubiquitous joint stock company. With the explosion of manufacturing, commerce and trade following the Industrial Revolution, companies grew, often becoming large, unwieldy conglomerates with multiple locations of factories and offices, employing staff to conduct business on a scale never seen before in commercial history.

Organising operations

As these companies grew, theories were proposed to organise their operations according to certain principles to maximise efficiency and profit. Fredrick Taylor argued that simplifying jobs through scientific study and identifying the most efficient way to complete a task would increase productivity. Others contributed to the corpus of management knowledge as well. Henri Fayol sought to create an efficient company structure. Max Weber expanded on Taylor's theories, incorporating the concepts of chain of command and standardisation. Over time, the expanding theory of management spawned subdisciplines. Elton Mayo's and Douglas McGregors work resulted in the establishment of a branch of human relations management. Philip Kotler's work on advertising, sales, and marketing brought attention to what is now routine but was trailblazing in an era when pricing and production dominated management thought.

Financial management also developed in three independent but interrelated ways. The first was the double-entry bookkeeping system, as a theory of accounting and reporting of profit and loss and asset and liability statements. The second was the financial management of the company itself  revenues, wages, production costs, capital budgeting and marketing expenses  and the cash flows of its operations. The third was periodic access to capital  bank debt or market equity  which in turn led to significant work on theories of assessment of cash flows, present value, internal rate of return, cost of capital, et al. This was further extended to financial markets in capital asset pricing, portfolio theory, and option pricing in the works of Merton H Miller, Franco Modigliani, Harry M Markowitz, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton.

What all management thought had in common was that it addressed corporate concerns of that era: a landscape of industrial invention and manufacturing companies as market-dominant, multinational, listed and traded conglomerates that raised funds as debt or equity from banks or public markets and then applied them to turning the wheels of business. However, a transformational shift in the company's business model occurred during the first decade of the third millennium. Of technology and financial disruption destroying and creating corporate value in tidal waves of churn as product, company, and management lifespans became shorter; as industries were phased out and new ones were created; as manufacturing-based models of measurable immediate profit and net cash flow were overshadowed by brand success and capital allocation by markets on the future value of entrepreneurial ventures of yet unproven provenance, even as companies and finance tried to peer into an unclear future by reading technology and market trend tea leaves. This has only accelerated since, and the structure of the economy is shifting into uncharted territory. The future of that structure is uncertain, given the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics, large pools of aggregated private capital, increasing disparities in wealth and income across geographies, and a "hollowing out" of the middle class in many countries.

Emergence of communication

The areas of emphasis have also shifted. Manufacturing and traditional corporate processes are now merely routinely important hygiene concerns. These have been replaced by market-facing communication such as brand, design, and market dominance; financial communication such as earnings and forecasts, as well as fund-raising; and corporate communication such as public perception shaped by media and events. With the pervasive presence of information shaped as stories in 24x7 media, their impact is instant and disproportionate as compared to previous times. Accusations of pollution, harassment, fraud  the list of things that can instantly and severely damage companies is long. Boards and management are endlessly peering into a fog with limited visibility as they try to navigate these difficult waters of unknown risks.

Yet, for the longest time, management theory, companies, and markets have ignored the elephant in the room. Investors have focused almost exclusively on the financial performance and ability of leadership to achieve these  as reflected in a market price  but have paid little attention to improving governance as a means to higher returns and reducing risk, despite many spectacular failures over the years. It is a failure with rising costs as economies enter a disruptive phase fuelled by the fastest rate of technological change and the simplest fundraising in human history. There has been widespread entrepreneurship, with numerous success stories of businesses advancing from concept to market dominance and valuation in less than a decade. However, due to a lack of culture and values, many have imploded at various stages of their young, promising trajectories. Many were avoidable failures. Transparency and governance are more important than ever before.

Risk and governance

Two aspects of management must be addressed in this context. Risk and governance are two sides of the same coin. Yet both have remained confined to boardrooms and regulations rather than being absorbed as a part of corporate culture. There are reasons for this. Both have traditionally been regarded as strategic or oversight functions of the board for managerial accountability. As a result, discussions have focused on management agency or stewardship. They have rarely been seen as a critical component of organisational identity, in theory or practice. Similar to epiphanies, executives are expected to discover governance values only upon promotion to senior positions. Instead of a framework of values within which the everyday processes of companies are meant to be undertaken.

This is becoming increasingly important as a funding crisis spreads throughout the startup world. As liquidity recedes, valuations are slashed, and companies struggle, which of them has a better chance of survival? This is an increasingly important question for investors. In a valuation, how (and how well) do you value a company's value system as defined by its key principal actors? Which do you keep, which do you double down on, and which do you sell (if possible)?

As another once-promising startup story unravels in the headlines of financial publications, perhaps it is time for markets to start answering this question. For every Byju's, there is also a Zerodha. For every BharatPe, there is a Zoho too. It will require going beyond articulated plans, markets, strategy, and disruption to identify and parse the values that will, in the end, also be key drivers of value. And valuation.

Sandeep Hasurkar is an ex-investment banker and author of `Never Too Big To Fail: The Collapse of IL&FS. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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The claim of equidistance now lies in tatters. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) support to the Delhi Services Bill in Parliament has put to rest any residual doubt about Odishas ruling party being the most trusted ally of the Modi government outside the NDA fold.

As if the unabashed backing of the BJD to the Bill  and opposition to the no-confidence motion moved by the combined Opposition  in Parliament wasnt enough, Union Home minister Amit Shah came calling on a hurriedly arranged thanksgiving visit to the state four days after the BJD announced support to press the point home further.

Amit Shahs Thanksgiving Visit

At a meeting in Lok Seva Bhavan, the state secretariat, on Saturday morning to lay the foundation stone of a series of National Highway expansion projects, Shah was generous in his praise of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for what he described as his governments exemplary achievements in containing left wing extremism (LWE) and disaster management.

The BJD supremo, in turn, thanked the Centre for its generous support to his governments development agenda while reiterating his commitment to cooperative federalism. In the backdrop of the bonhomie seen between the two leaders in the morning, Shahs exhortation to party workers later in the day asking them to strengthen the organisation from the booth level and campaign against the corruption of the state government sounded utterly hollow.

There is little doubt that Amit Shahs visit could weaken the BJP considerably in the state. In holding talks with VK Pandian, the Chief Ministers all-powerful private secretary, in a closed-door meeting, Shah has officially acknowledged his political role and embarrassed the partys state leaders, who have been railing against the officer for playing an overtly political role and have even written to the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) calling for action against him as per All India Services rules. At least one senior BJP leader, Bijoy Mohapatra, has aired such feelings to this author.

Poor Optics, But To Odishas Benefit

More than its opposition to the no trust motion against the NDA government, it was the BJD support to the Delhi Services Bill that has raised many eyebrows. Here is a Bill that should have raised the hackles of any regional party ruling a state that is not part of the NDA. Opposing the Bill even while opposing the no trust motion against the Modi government would have enhanced the BJDs claim of remaining equidistant from the BJP and Congress.

But in backing the Bill, Naveen Patnaik has continued with his policy of supporting the NDA on every major Bill in the Parliament, including highly controversial ones like the abrogation of Article 370, CAA and triple talaq. The support of the BJDs nine MPs becomes particularly crucial for the NDA in Rajya Sabha where it doesnt have a majority.

So, why did Naveen do what he did, knowing very well that it would be bad optics, coming as it does barely months ahead of the simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections in the state? One obvious reason is the generous assistance the Centre has given Odisha over the years.

As Shah pointed out at the joint meeting with Naveen, the state has received over Rs 18 lakh crore by way of grants in the nine years of NDA rule, as against just under Rs 3 lakh crore during the 10-year reign of UPA. And the Chief Minister acknowledged as much at the meeting when he thanked the Centre for its support to the states development agenda.

BJDs Gain, BJPs Loss

Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Sarat Patnaik, however, is emphatic that the BJD supports the BJP on all issues because it is scared of the CBI, ED and other central agencies. The PCC chiefs claim does have a basis since the Modi government has been sitting over the report of the Justice MB Shah Commission of Inquiry, which had strongly recommended a CBI inquiry into the mega mining scam in the state, one of the biggest corruption cases anywhere in India, for over nine years now.

And when the Supreme Court did order a CBI inquiry into the multi-thousand crore chit fund scam in the state, in which several leaders of the BJD were implicated, the Modi government ensured that the probe continued to meander for nine years.

If Naveen has backed the Modi government on all issues, it is because the wily politician knows he would not have to pay a political cost for proximity to the BJP; that the cost, if any, would be paid by the BJP, the principal opposition party in the state, that is suffering from a serious crisis of credibility due to the honeymoon between its top leadership and Naveen Patnaik.

So, what next for the two estranged partners who are cozying up to each other? Veteran journalist and political analyst Rabi Das is of the view that a formal alliance looks unlikely because the BJD would not like to concede ground to the BJP and that the informal alliance that has been put in place by the two parties since 2019 will continue.

And that is the view shared by most observers of the political scene in Odisha.

Sandeep Sahu is a senior Bhubaneswar-based journalist and columnist, who has authored a biography of President Droupadi Murmu published by Penguin India. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Indias justice delivery system has continued to make big strides in pronouncing progressive judgments which have revolutionised our body polity. However, the justice system is afflicted with the most glaring malaise  judicial pendency  whose elimination is imperative for economic and social progress.



The justice system rests on many essential attributes, amongst which the most seminal pillar is speedy justice. Litigation in India is an expensive affair and is excessively protracted which renders the judicial system inaccessible to the disadvantaged and poorer sections of the society.



The Pendency Problem



Whether it is a contractual dispute, a suit for partition or a criminal case, the delay in the justice delivery virtually leads to denial of justice. In many cases which are being fought for decades together, the original litigants expire much before the judgment sees the light of the day.



As per the latest figures provided by the Union law ministry to Parliament, more than 4 crore cases are pending in the trial courts. As for the High Courts, there are more than 60 lakh cases pending and the Supreme Court has 69,000 cases pending before it.



The astronomical number of cases might appear proportionate with regards to the population growth of our country. However, the ever increasing number of cases leads to docket explosion and further slows down the disposal rate. This is because the infrastructure and ancillary services are not expanding at the same pace.



Too Few Judges



The rising pendency is symptomatic of the lacunas at the institutional level. Absence of proportional increase in the number of judges, no significant increase in the number of Courts, lack of proper infrastructure, absence of adequate court staff and non deployment of technologies like artificial intelligence in a widespread manner are essentially responsible for the judicial pendency.



To eliminate judicial pendency, a two-fold approach needs to be employed at the institutional level. Firstly, the number of judges needs to be increased manifold. Most Indian judges, right from the district level up till the Supreme Court are heavily overburdened and have to deal with more than 50 cases per day.



This is excruciatingly difficult for the judges, who require a certain level of calm, composure and equanimity to take just decisions based on sound legal principles. The Law Commission in 1987 and Supreme Court in 2002 envisaged that there should be 50 judges per million population. That would require roughly 70,000 judges but the sanctioned strength presently is only around 25,000 judicial officers, of which nearly a quarter could by lying vacant presently. NCRB data indicates that pendency is as high as 90 percent in several categories of serious offences across most states.



Further, no Court can function in absence of its limbs  stenographer, readers, bailiffs, clerks and other administrative officers  without whom no effective order can be passed and no court proceeding can be undertaken. The Government must give impetus to increase the overall strength of the court staff.



Judicial Infrastructure Matters



Secondly, the infrastructure at the level of district judiciary, and downwards to the villages, needs an overhaul. Without a decent level of infrastructure, courts are incapacitated as most of the court procedures cannot take place without prerequisites like computers, high speed internet and printing facilities.



This causes the witnesses in many cases, who on most occasions travel from far flung areas, to return without any substantial and effective appearance. This results in avoidable delays which can be stemmed by adequate deployment of basic facilities. Even primary amenities like toilets and waiting rooms which are non negotiable to provide justice to the litigants in a dignified manner are absent in many courts.



As per a report by Vidhi, a Delhi-based think tank, there were no toilets for women in 15 percent of the 665 District Court complexes in India. Although the Government of India has announced an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore in 2023 for the e-Court project which aims to bring down judicial pendency, this cannot be achieved without sufficient number of court staff, infrastructure and increased number of judges.



Look Beyond Cities Too



While justice delivery in cities might appear subdued, the state of affairs in the villages and interior parts of the country is abysmal. The Gram Nyayalaya scheme to establish courts at the local village level is in total disarray as only 15 states have notified courts under the system out of which only half have been operationalised.



We need a bottom-up approach. The big city approach of digitisation and deployment of artificial intelligence is necessary to match the contemporary jurisdictions but the dichotomous gap between cities and villages needs to be bridged by way of larger budgetary outlays for Courts in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities and rural areas.



The Government should derive inspiration from Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Indian Constitution and ensure that our justice system develops proportionately.



Kaustubh Mehta is an advocate who practises in Delhi. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
The AAP has issued a whip to all its MPs, asking them to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday as the Delhi services bill is expected to be tabled in the Upper House of Parliament. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday amid a walkout by the opposition parties. The Aam Aadmi Party has issued a whip asking all Rajya Sabha MPs to be present in the House from 11 am onwards on Monday. The Delhi services bill was passed after a nearly four-hour 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. The AAP-led Delhi government has been at loggerheads with the Centre over the control of Group-A officers in the National Capital Territory administration. In May, the Centre promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, that overturned the Supreme Court judgment handing over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government.

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TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on August 7 slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for allegedly spreading "concocted stories" against him to the media regularly "to serve their political masters".



It is disheartening to see that ED officials have an "unparalleled talent" for disseminating "fake stories" so as to malign him, Banerjee said.







It is truly disheartening to behold the presence of inept and incompetent individuals within the ranks of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who possess an unparalleled talent for disseminating concocted tales to the media on a bi-weekly basis  all in the service of their political benefactors, Banerjee, who is presently abroad for treatment, tweeted.







He mocked the probe agency for spending taxpayers' money and consistently failing to present "substantive evidence" before the court, "thereby clearly neglecting their responsibility to serve the nation.







One cannot help but feel empathetic towards these unfortunate and frustrated souls. This leaves us no room for surprise as to why ED's conviction rate is a mere 0.5 per cent, he tweeted.







Banerjee, who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had on several previous occasions accused the central agencies of harassing him and his family.







The TMC MP was grilled by CBI officers at its Kolkata office for over nine hours on May 20 in connection with the agency's investigation into the primary school jobs scam in the state.







In June the ED had served a notice to Banerjee summoning him to appear before it in regard to the investigation into the irregularity in the appointment in primary schools. He had declined to comply with the summons citing his busy engagement with a mass outreach campaign of the TMC. PTI PNT KK KK




With the Delhi services bill set to be taken up in Rajya Sabha on Monday, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have issued whips to their MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment.



The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, has already been passed by Lok Sabha.



Jairam Ramesh, the Congress' chief whip in the Upper House, issued a three-line whip on August 4, saying that "very important issues will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday i.e. August 7, 2023".



"All members of Congress Party in Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023, without fail and support the party stand," the chief whip said.



This may be treated as most important, Ramesh added.



On Sunday, a reminder was also sent to the party's MPs in Rajya Sabha.



"Be present positively in Rajya Sabha from 10:45 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday i.e. August 7, 2023, and support the party stand, as important items of Legislative Business will be taken up for voting. Three-line whip in this regard has already been issued," the reminder said.



The AAP also issued a whip to all its MPs, asking them to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday.



In May, the Centre had promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, that effectively nullified a Supreme Court judgment that handed over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government.



The bill seeks to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government.



Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to move corresponding bill for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha on Monday.



Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties will make all-out efforts to thwart the government's move to pass the bill even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA with BJD and YSRCP pledging their support to the government on the bill.



The ruling NDA has over 100 MPs in the Upper House, and the BJD and the YSRCP have also announced their support to the Bill. It is also likely to be backed by nominated members and some Independents in the 238-member strong House.



The 26-bloc INDIA alliance of opposition parties is hoping to thwart the bill in the House.



(With PTI inputs)
Chief Minister M K Stalin on August 7 requested External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene to secure the immediate release and repatriation of 19 Tamil Nadu fishermen who are in the custody of Sri Lankan authorities. Writing to the Union Minister, Stalin said that in a separate incident, 10 Tamil Nadu fishermen and their boat was taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Navy (on the night of August 6), which has so far this year apprehended 93 fishermen and 14 boats. "In fact, in the last 30 days alone, in three separate incidents, 34 fishermen have been apprehended." On July 27, as many as 15 Tamil Nadu fishermen released by Sri Lanka arrived here from Colombo. Stalin requested Jaishankar's intervention to secure the immediate release and repatriation of the 19 fishermen who are still in custody in Sri Lanka. The Chief Minister underlined the need to find a lasting solution to the serious issue that touches the lives of thousands of families. The traditional waters have provided sustenance and livelihood opportunities to generations of fishermen and their families. The seizure of boats and frequent arrests of fishermen have resulted in immense hardship and distress to the coastal communities. "I am confident that your intervention and support will resolve this matter swiftly, providing the much-needed relief to the affected fishermen and their families," he said.

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The Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was restored on Monday. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored. Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker. The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. He represents Wayanad in the upper house. (With PTI inputs)

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Appearing on five television networks Sunday morning, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump argued that his actions in the effort to overturn the 2020 election fell short of crimes and were merely aspirational.



The remarks from his lawyer, John Lauro, came as Trump was blanketing his social media platform, Truth Social, with posts suggesting that his legal team was going to seek the recusal of Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing the case, and try to move his trial out of Washington.



With his client facing charges carrying decades in prison after a federal grand jury indicted Trump for his role in trying to overturn the election, his third criminal case this year, Lauro appeared in interviews on CNN, ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS. He endeavored to defend Trump, including against evidence that, as president, he pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to reject legitimate votes for Joe Biden in favor of false electors pledged to Trump.



What President Trump didnt do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything, Lauro said on CNNs State of the Union. He asked him in an aspirational way.



Lauro used the same defense on NBCs Meet the Press, when asked about Trumps now-infamous call to Georgias secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. During that call, Trump pressured Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, to win the state and suggested that Raffensperger could face criminal repercussions if he did not.



That was an aspirational ask, Lauro said.



His portrayal of Trumps approach is at odds with two key moments in the indictment.



In one, prosecutors say that on Jan. 5, 2021, Trump met alone with Pence, who refused to do what Trump wanted. When that happened, the indictment says, the defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the defendant would have to publicly criticize him.



Pences chief of staff, Marc Short, then alerted the head of Pences Secret Service detail, prosecutors said.



That same day, after The New York Times reported that Pence had indeed told Trump that he lacked the authority to do what Trump wanted, the president issued a public statement calling the report fake news. According to the indictment, Trump also falsely asserted: The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.



As Lauro made the rounds on all five Sunday news shows  what is known as the full Ginsburg, from when Monica Lewinskys lawyer, William Ginsburg, did the same amid allegations about her affair with then-President Bill Clinton  Trump waged his own campaign on Truth Social.



WOW, its finally happened! Liddle Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side, Trump wrote Saturday. A few days earlier, he mocked Pence, now a 2024 rival, for attracting no crowds, enthusiasm or loyalty from people who, as a member of the Trump Administration, should be loving him.



Trump went on: I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was too honest.



His attack came after a judge warned Trump against intimidating witnesses and after prosecutors flagged another Truth Social post by Trump as potentially threatening.



On Sunday, Trump also attacked Jack Smith, the special counsel in the Jan. 6 case, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calling Smith deranged and Pelosi sick and demented.



In one all-caps message, Trump accused Smith of waiting to bring the case until right in the middle of his election campaign.



In the other posts, Trump attacked Pelosi, the former House speaker, who recently said that the former president had seemed like a scared puppy before his arraignment. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL! Trump wrote.



And he channeled his grievances with the court process toward Chutkan and toward the population of Washington, D.C., writing that he would never get a fair trial.



For his part, Pence has been criticizing Trumps actions in carefully calibrated terms. He has repeatedly used the same phrases, arguing that anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. He repeated similar lines Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, following Lauros appearance, and on CBS Face the Nation.



What I want the American people to know is that President Trump was wrong then and hes wrong now: that I had no right to overturn the election, Pence told CNN anchor Dana Bash. I had no right to reject or return votes, and that, by Gods grace, I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States, and I always will.



This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Ukrainian forces struck two bridges connecting Russian-occupied Crimea to the rest of Ukraine on Sunday, part of a broader pattern of attacks on and around the peninsula that has sought to scramble crucial supply routes for the Kremlin and push the scope of the war into fresh territory.



One of the strikes tore three holes in the roadway of the Chonhar Bridge, which links Crimea to the Russian-occupied Kherson region, forcing it to close to traffic, according to the Russian-backed governor of the region, Vladimir Saldo. The same bridge was struck by Ukrainian forces in June, Russian-backed officials said.



Sundays attacks also injured a driver and closed traffic on a second bridge to the east of Chonhar, near the small town of Henichesk, Saldo said. A gas pipeline near the bridge was damaged, cutting off supplies to more than 20,000 people, he added.



The load-bearing structure of the Chonhar bridge was not damaged, and traffic on the Henichesk bridge was to be restored by the end of the day, Saldo said. His claims about the extent of the damage could not be independently verified.



Ukraines armed forces took credit for both strikes Sunday, in another departure from their typically coy approach as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials emphasize that their new aim is to force ordinary Russians to face up to the Kremlins war.



The bridge attacks came the same day that Russian air defenses shot down a hostile drone that had been approaching Moscow, according to a brief statement on the Telegram messaging app posted by the citys mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. The claim has not been independently verified, and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment. At the same time, the Vnukovo airport, which serves Moscow, temporarily suspended flights for security reasons, according to a Telegram post from the Russian state news agency Tass.



Also Sunday, Ukraines air force said on Telegram that the countrys air defenses shot down 30 cruise missiles and 27 drones overnight.



In his nightly address Sunday, which was Ukrainian Air Force Day, Zelenskyy praised the work of soldiers fighting aerial battles against Russian missiles and drones with advanced air defense systems from international allies.



In our skies, we can prove that terror is losing, Zelenskyy said, adding, Ukraine can win this battle, and our sky shield will eventually guarantee security for the whole of Europe.



This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
An eight-year-old Spider-Man enthusiast deliberately provoked a highly-venomous black widow spider into biting his hand in an attempt to get superpowers. The incident happened last month in the village of Vichuloma in Bolivia raising concerns about the impact of movies and pop culture on young children.



The boys daring stunt was inspired by the iconic Marvel character Peter Parker, whose origin story involves being bitten by a radioactive spider, that gave him extraordinary abilities of Spider-Man.



The young boy, whose identity remains undisclosed, stumbled upon the arachnid while playing near a river and reportedly instigated it till it finally bit him, in a quest to get powers of his own.



The boy then placed the spider in a container and returned home. Soon, he began to experience excruciating body aches and severe muscle contractions. Despite his discomfort, he kept the incident hidden from his parents, only revealing the truth when his condition took a dire turn.



Upon unveiling the alarming truth, the boy was rushed to the nearest hospital. Doctors administered an antidote serum that counteracted the venom's effects.



The health department told Mirror, "The serum is a specific antidote against the venom, which neutralizes the toxicity of the poison in the persons body so it does not have any effect."



In a confession after his recovery, the boy revealed his motivations: "I wanted to become Spider-Man."



Ernesto Vasquez, the head of the Zoonotic Diseases Programme for the Departmental Health Service of Oruro, expressed his astonishment at the child's recklessness, told Mirror, "The child, without calculating the risks, picked it up and, according to him, put it on the back of his hand where the arachnid made the respective bite."



A similar incident took place in the town of Chayanta in 2020, where three children, aged 12, 10, and 8, also intentionally subjected themselves to black widow spider bites in an attempt to emulate Spider-Man. Doctors were successful in treating these cases as well.
Six passengers missed a Mangaluru-bound Indigo flight from the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after the aircraft left 12 minutes ahead of schedule, a Times of India report said.



According to one of the passengers, who was a government official, who missed the Indigo flight 6E 6162 the aircraft was scheduled to leave the Bengaluru airport at 2:55 pm, but departed at 2:43 pm on Friday.



The official was critical of the airline to have not informed the passengers about the early departure of the flight.



"It is customary and the flight operator's responsibility to notify passengers in case of schedule being advanced or delayed. But in our case, we were not informed. We had reached the airport on time. We had to wait for six hours at the airport to take the next flight to Mangaluru," the official said.



He further added that the failure to catch the afternoon flight led to them missing meetings, which were scheduled for later in the day.



"We missed many of our meetings scheduled for the day and reached home after 10pm," he added.



An Indigo employee later said that "off-the ground" was considered as departure time by the airline.



"The flight was out of the gate at 2.43pm and departed the airport at 2.57pm. We consider off-the ground as departure time," the employee said.



Eventually, after protesting, the passengers were accommodated in the next Indigo flight at 8:20 pm, which was delayed by 30 minutes.



Also read: No AC on IndiGo flight, passengers handed tissues to wipe sweat: Congress leader on 'horrifying experience'
A new Covid variant, named Eris or EG.5.1, has been causing alarm as it spreads rapidly across the UK. Initially identified as a variant on July 31, Eris is a variant of the Omicron strain and has now become the second most prevalent one, accounting for a troubling one in ten Covid cases.



The surge in infections comes at a time when the country is grappling with a spike in hospital admissions, further compounded by inclement weather and waning immunity.



The situation has prompted experts to sound the alarm bells, warning of the potential for another wave fuelled by subvariants of Omicron, Arcturus, and Eris.



The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has been closely monitoring the emergence of Eris since July 3, 2023, following a significant increase in international reports, particularly in Asian regions.



In the week beginning July 10, approximately 11.8% of UK sequences were identified as Eris, and the latest data indicates that this figure has climbed to a worrisome 14.6% of all cases.



This progression has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to add EG.5.1 to its list of variants under monitoring.



Symptoms of Eris



Eris has inherited some of its symptoms from the parent Omicron strain.



The top five symptoms associated with the variant, as reported by the ZOE Health Study, are:



Runny nose.

Headache.

Fatigue (mild or severe).

Sneezing.

Sore throat.



Professor Christina Pagel, a member of Independent Sage, expressed her concern about the UK possibly entering another wave driven by these variants, waning immunity, and unfavourable weather. She pointed out that the recent persistent wet weather might be contributing to the surge as people spend more time indoors.



She warned that this could be just the beginning, and as the summer holidays end, and schools and workplaces reopen, the wave could grow exponentially in September.



Read: New Covid variant Arcturus behind surge in cases in India



However, Professor Azeem Majeed, head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, attempted to calm some fears by downplaying the concerns surrounding Eris.



He emphasized that fluctuations in case numbers are natural, and while Eris is designated as a variant under monitoring by WHO, it is not currently classified as a variant of concern.
There is perhaps only one scientist in history who has his name associated with both the tiniest pieces of our existence and the largest events in the universe. It is the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974).



All sub-atomic particles can be divided into two fundamental classesboson and fermion. Fermions are the particles that make up ordinary matter. Bosons are force carriers which give rise to forces between particles.



To put it very simplistically, the laptop you may be reading this article on is made of fermions and the fact that the device has a weight or you hear a thud if you accidentally drop it on the floor is due to bosons. Bosons and fermions are the basic building blocks of the universe.



At the other end of the cosmic scale is the supernovathe gigantic explosion when a massive star dies. The light that a single supernova emits can be equivalent to that of an entire galaxy. A certain type of supernovas is called bosenova.



Both the boson and the bosenova are named after Satyendra Nath Bose.



Albert Einstein was impressed enough with Boses work to collaborate with him to develop an entire new field of quantum physics, which he called Bose-Einstein statisticsnot Einstein-Bose, acknowledging that Bose contributed more than he did. The sub-atomic particle was named boson by legendary physicist and Nobel laureate Paul Dirac. The fermionthe other fundamental particleis named after the Italian-American physicist and Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi.



Of course, Bose never got the Nobel Prize.



To get a sense of how important his work was, lets look at sizes.



The radius of a Higgs boson is 1^-18 (1 raised to the power of minus 18), a hundred-billion-billionth of a centimetre.



The radius of a supernova can extend to several light yearsa light year being the distance covered by a ray of light in a year, about 1000^15 metres, thats a kilometre followed by 15 zeros. The sun is a mere 8.3 light minutes away from the earth, and that too is a humungous 152 million kilomeres.



Boses name appears at both extreme ends. His work clarified a lot about how the universe works.



Bosenovas were in the news in the global physics community recently when, in late June, a team of American astrophysicists published a pre-peer-reviewed paper on the net. It claimed that massive invisible bosenovas may be occurring all around us all the time.



One of the biggest puzzles in astrophysics is dark matter. We have no clue about what constitutes 85 percent of the mass of almost every galaxy in our universe. None of our instruments can detect these things, bodies, entities or clouds, whatever you may like to call them. We only know that its out there. Dark matter.



A bosenova is a mysterious type of supernova where, after a star explodes, half the atoms that it emits simply vanish. We have no idea where they go. The only explanation that we have till now is that the explosion is accompanied by an implosion where a part of the star shrinks into a Bose-Einstein condensate that is too tiny for our instruments to detect.



If we can see some supernovas where matter just vanishes, it stands to reason that there could be stars or even galaxies that are dark matter or become dark matter when they explode. As far as our current knowledge goes, these celestial bodies have to be entirely composed of bosons. They are boson stars. That is, they are laptops that weigh nearly nothing and are only the thud they make when dropped on the floor. Its the Cheshire Cats smile.



All stars age and die. They die in different ways, depending on their size. It is entirely possible that there are stars made of dark matter that meet their end in spectacular explosions. But instead of light, they would emit incredibly powerful dark waves which we cannot see, feel, sense or measure. These bosenova explosions could be taking place right inside our solar systems and we would not be aware. We dont yet have the technology that can get us a glimpse of the last cries of these stars. Yes, this is crazy stuff that challenges everything that we think we know.



Of course, its all hypothetical. But as of now, the only credible explanation of what dark matter stars are and how they behave comes from Boses work.



In 1924he was only 30 then, and an assistant professor in the University of Dhakahe sent a paper he had written, which had been rejected by British journals, to Einstein in Germany. He wrote: Though a complete stranger to you, I do not feel any hesitation in making such a request. Because we are all your pupils though profiting only by your teachings through your writings. I do not know whether you still remember that somebody from Calcutta asked your permission to translate your papers on Relativity in English. You acceded to the request. The book has since been published. I was the one who translated your paper on Generalised Relativity.



Einstein personally translated the paper in German and got it published in the journal Zeitshrift fur Physik. But it still took him a few months to realize how revolutionary Boses thesis was. He then started working on what Bose had revealed and took it forward. A whole new field of quantum mechanics was born.



A few years later, when Bose met Einstein, Einstein asked him if he had been aware that he had added a whole new dimension to quantum physics. Bose said no, he just studied the science, had a couple of doubts and did his own thing.



I have had the extraordinary privilege of meeting Bose. I was a child and he must have been close to 80 then, but he had this mischievous smile that I can never forget. He walked with the help of a stick, but was the coolest guy you can dream of. He gave a damn about the Nobel Prize and other honours. I was an extremely naughty boy and my parents had given up on me, he told my parents after having patted me on the head. Now Im old and people keep asking me to give advice to children. What can I tell them? I was the naughtiest child. I am sure my parents were a bit dismayed.



This cool guys name spans the cosmos, even though very few of us have ever heard of him.
In an attempt to entice its workforce back to the office, tech giant Google has unveiled a unique offering  a $99-a-night on-campus hotel stay at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. However, this "Summer Special" has raised eyebrows among employees, with some questioning its cost-effectiveness and impact on work-life balance.



The company's promotional materials, seen by CNBC, outline the temporary deal, available for full-time employees until September 30. Google hopes this initiative will facilitate the transition to its new hybrid work model. The catch? Employees are required to use their personal credit cards for payment, as the offer is categorized as unapproved business travel.



"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, underlining the convenience factor.



The hotel, located on Google's sprawling 42-acre campus adjacent to NASA's Ames Research Centre, boasts a rooftop deck and access to local activities to unwind after the workday ends. The hotel can house up to 4,000 people.



Yet, not all employees are sold on the idea. A series of memes posted in internal discussion forums reflected a mix of reactions. Some quipped that the deal felt like returning part of their paychecks to Google, while others humorously referenced concerns about potential disruptions to work-life balance. "Now I can give some of my pay back to Google," one meme quipped.



Critics questioned the financial feasibility of the offer. At $99 per night, the cost of staying in the Google-owned hotel could total around $3,000 per month. In an internal discussion, an employee compared this expense to their own apartment, remarking, "I pay more and get a lot less in total for my apartment."



Others believed the price was still too steep. "If it was around $60 a night, that could be a fine-ish alternative to apartments, but $99? No thanks," voiced an employee.



While some acknowledged the allure of hotel amenities, including housekeeping and fully furnished rooms, they proposed a more comprehensive package for it to be truly compelling.



"I would've totally done it, had it fit a certain profile: $3k rent all-in, fully-furnished, unlimited meals, paid utilities, plus housekeeping/cleaning every day," one employee outlined.



Read: Ex-Google HR official reveals first thing to do after applying for job



This latest move by Google comes as the company grapples with its employees' varying preferences regarding remote work and in-office presence. Despite record profits, the firm has faced resistance to mandatory office attendance due to high housing costs and increased productivity while working remotely.
The Supreme Court on August 7 refused to entertain Go First's appeal against a Delhi High Court that allowed lessors to inspect the cash-strapped airline's aircraft, a setback to the grounded carriers efforts to restart operations.



Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said the court would not interfere with the proceedings at the Delhi High Court where a single judge was hearing the case daily. The court asked the Resolution Professional (RP) of the airline to raise the issue before the high court.



Appearing for the RP, senior advocate Shyam Divan argued that the Delhi High Court and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) were passing contradictory orders and hence, the Supreme Court must intervene.



The high court has said the airline cannot operate the leased aircraft, while NCLT has held that the Go First, formerly GoAir, can operate the planes.



The high court didnt have the jurisdiction to hear the case as it involved Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Divan argued.



The airline has been saying that aircraft are essential for its operations or would have grave consequences for the company.



The Supreme Court refused to entertain the plea, saying the hearing before the bench of Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju was at an advanced stage.



The airline has a fleet of 56 aircraft, all of them leased. Thirty of these are owned by Pembroke Aviation, Accipiter Investments Aircraft 2 Ltd, EOS Aviation, and SMBC Aviation, who moved the high court demanding their aircraft be released.



On July 12, a division bench of the high court refused to hear Go First's plea against the order that allowed lessors to inspect 30 aircraft at regular intervals.



It also upheld the single's judge's order restraining the Resolution Professional of Go First from removing, replacing, or taking out any part of the leased aircraft without the lessors permission. The division bench, however, permitted Go First to continue maintaining the aircraft.



It also directed the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to consider Go Firsts plan to resume operations, taking into account the rights of the lessors.



On July 5, a single-judge bench of the high court allowed the lessors to inspect and carry out maintenance work on their 30 leased aircraft twice a month.



GoAir stopped flying on May 3, blaming its woes on Pratt and Whitney, saying engine failures led to increase in costs. The American engine manufacturer has denied the charge.



A week later, it filed a plea in NCLT for voluntary insolvency resolution process, granting it bankruptcy protection, barring lessors from repossessing their aircraft.



The tribunal appointed an Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP), suspended the board and imposed a moratorium on the airline's financial obligations.



On May 22, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) upheld the NCLT order to admit Go First's plea for insolvency.
A male passenger was caught smoking inside a Mumbai-bound Indigo flight that was flying from Dubai. The incident took place on August 3, a News18 report said. The passenger- a Rajasthan resident named Kawraj Tagat Singh- was on the flight and was caught smoking inside the toilet after the aircraft crew got cigarette smell coming from the lavatory. After investigation, a burnt cigarette piece was found inside the toilet and the passenger was asked by the crew as to why he had smoked after he gave them a lighter and a cigarette pack. Upon arrival in Mumbai, a case was filed against the passenger. This is not the first instance in which a passenger has been caught smoking cigarettes inside a flight. In March, a passenger was arrested at the Bengaluru airport after she was caught smoking inside a Indigo flight that was flying from Kolkata. The cabin crew inside the flight found a cigarette in the dustbin and put it out with water. A case was registered against her after she was handed over to the police for endangering human life or the personal safety of other passengers. Smoking on flights is strictly prohibited since it can prove to be a cause for fires and lead to inconvenience for other passengers. While flyers can carry cigarettes on board, matchsticks and lighters are disallowed on flights. Vaping devices and electronic cigarettes are also banned across flights and airports in India. Also read: After smoking in plane, influencer Bobby Kataria booked for drinking on road

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Tesla on Monday announced that its CFO Zachary Kirkhorn has been replaced by Indian-origin accounting head Vaibhav Taneja who is known for his acumen with numbers. The 45-year-old takes on the role, or the so-called "Master of Coin" position, in addition to his job as chief accounting officer, the automaker said.



Here are 7 things to know about the new Tesla CFO:



1.) Vaibhav Taneja joined Tesla in 2017, after a year at subsidiary SolarCity, a solar energy company that Tesla acquired in 2016, where he originally served as vice president and later corporate controller.



2.) He also led the successful integration of both the companies accounting teams.



3.) Taneja was also appointed as a director for Tesla's Indian arm, Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited, in January 2021.



4.) He has more than two decades of accounting experience, having worked with multinational companies in technology, finance, retail, and telecommunications.



5.) Taneja has closely collaborated with previous CFOs Deepak Ahuja and Zachary Kirkhorn on Teslas quarterly earnings, and US and international controllership.



6.) A commerce graduate from Delhi University, Vaibhav Taneja initially made an impression at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he joined in 1996.



7.) From the India office, he relocated to the US, eventually spending nearly 17 years at the firm.



Read more: Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn steps down, replaced by Vaibhav Taneja



In related news, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met senior US-based Tesla executives recently 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 news agency 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 Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York, with the billionaire later saying he was keen to make significant investments in the country.




Video conferencing platform Zoom announced the end of work-from-home recently and asked all of its employees to report back to office.



A report in New York Post said that the company has urged employees who live within 50 miles of any Zoom office to report to work atleast on two days, based on a hybrid model.



''We believe that the best way to build Zoom is to have our people together. We need to be able to collaborate and innovate face-to-face,'' Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in a memo to employees.



"As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers.



"We believe that a structured hybrid approach  meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams  is most effective for Zoom," a company spokesperson told Business Insider.



The news of Zoom calling employees back to work triggered several responses on Twitter, with some asking if the video conferencing platform even had an office building while others wondered if this was the end of work from home.



Wait Zoom has offices? pic.twitter.com/fMVUg5xxGC

 DFreshmaker (@TheDFreshmaker) August 6, 2023

"#RIP the remote work revolution!," one Twitter user wrote.



"kinda interesting zoom is forcing all their employees back into the office where theyll probably use zoom less just as they change their terms to allow AI training," another user wrote.



Zoom employees having to go into their office to work on a software that allows people to work from home https://t.co/90wG0CT5VRpic.twitter.com/7KPkIqmbBI

 Speef (@speefspeef) July 31, 2023

"zoom demanding everyone return to the office is like microsoft demanding employees start using overhead projectors for their powerpoint decks," another user wrote.



As per the company website, Zoom has two offices in the United States in Denver and California. At the peak of the pandemic, Zoom emerged as one of the widely used services for employees to communicate and share their ideas.
Elon Musk will receive an MRI of his neck and upper back on Monday and may require surgery, the 52-year-old said in a post on his X platform, formerly known as Twitter. The worlds richest person said he will know this week whether surgery will be required, ahead of his proposed cage fight with Meta Platforms Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. He didnt disclose any other details. As the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as well as the owner of a closely watched social-media platform, Musks health is of intense interest to people around the world. Musk, a notorious workaholic, has said that he has suffered from mega back pain after a bout with a sumo wrestler. Exact date is still in flux. Im getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow. May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2023 The post about the sumo match was accompanied by another with a photo of what appears to be a makeshift ring for the Japanese sport. Musk mentioned the injury last year after challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin to single combat over Ukraine. Musk, who delights in stirring up online spectacles, has been talking up the yet-to-happen fight with Zuckerberg for weeks. Competition between the two CEOs has intensified after Facebook-parent Meta released a rival social network, Threads, that directly competes with Musks X. Zuckerberg posted Sunday on Threads that he suggested Aug. 26 for the match and hes still awaiting confirmation. Im ready today, he said. Not holding my breath.

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After five months of pursuit, the board of Estia Health have agreed to the revised offer of $838 million from US private equity firm Bain Capital. The deal, subject to shareholder approval, will see the firm buy Estia for $3.20 per share, a 50% premium from the initial time of the offer.

Aged care home operator Estia Health [ASX:EHE] has finally agreed to the takeover bid from private equity firm Bain Capital for $838 million. The deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, would see Bain take control of one of Australias largest aged care providers.

Estia Health operates more than 6500 places in 70 sites across the country. The company has been under pressure in recent years due to rising costs and declining occupancy rates.

However, Bain Capital believes that Estia has a solid underlying business and is well-positioned for growth. Estia Healths shares were up by 8.98% today as investors and shareholders celebrated the takeover, which began in March when Bain first approached Estia.

Shares of Estia are up by 51.72% in the past 12 months. Most of that growth has been seen after the initial offer was made public.

Source: TradingView

Estia Health agrees to the revised bid by Bain Capital

Estia Health announced today that its board have unanimously endorsed the $838 million offer by Bain Capital to acquire Estia for $3.20 per share.

The acceptance of the deal comes after five months of back and forth between the groups in which Estia rejected previous bids of $3 per share.

The current offer of $3.20 represents a 50% premium from the closing price of $2,14 prior to the private-equity firms first proposal.

Under the deal, Estia is also allowed to pay fully franked dividends of up to 12 cents per share, giving shareholders an additional 5 cents per share in benefit from franking credits.

With the boards endorsement of the deal, a vote by shareholders has been earmarked for November.

Bain Capital has approximately $175 billion in assets under management and is known most recently in Australia for buying bankrupt Virgin Australia for $3.5 billion back in 2020.

Estia Health Chairman Dr Gary Weisse remarked today that he had confidence in the companys outlook, saying:

Bain Capitals interest in Estia Health is a strong endorsement of our strategy to build a market-leading aged care provider focussed on creating high-quality outcomes for our residents and families and an attractive and supportive environment for our employees.

We are pleased that Bain Capital has recognised Estia Healths value as a leading Australian aged care operator with a strong reputation for person-centred care.

The Estia Health board is confident as to the outlook for the business, however, recognises that the scheme allows shareholders to realise certain cash value now at an attractive premium.

The Estia board said an independent report on the companys value will be sent to shareholders in the lead-up to the scheme meeting in November. Estia has been listed on the ASX since late 2014.

Outlook for Estia Health

The acquisition of Estia Health is a sign that private equity firms continue to see value in the Australian aged-care sector.

The sector faces several significant challenges after the pandemic  principally a major workforce shortage  but its also expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

The Government projects that a 40% increase in aged care homes will be required over the next 10 years at a cost of around $25 billion as the population ages.

Source: AFR

While the deal is still contingent on agreement by shareholders, they are likely to welcome the deal.

The $3.20 per share offer represents a significant premium to Estias share price before Bain Capitals initial offer.

However, some shareholders may be concerned about the impact of the deal on Estia Healths long-term future or its impact on aged residents.

Typically, private equity organisations invest where they identify quick wins  either in improved asset values or margins.

In aged care, this can be seen through rapid expansion via acquisition, producing scale benefits and resulting margin improvements.

The aged care sector is also seeing substantial interest from other non-traditional players, such as superannuation funds and property Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

This could lead to further consolidation in the sector as smaller cottage operators are acquired by larger firms. Something that recent studies have shown provides mixed results for patients.

The acquisition of Estia Health is a positive development for the companys medium-term prospects.

It shows that there is interest in the sector despite headwinds that could lead to improvements in the quality of care that is provided to older Australians. This is if appropriate investment follows rather than simply improving margins for Bain.

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For Money Morning
"People who, I think, have a fairly neutral opinion have said that the foreign policy conducted in a very personal manner by the Head of State, currently by President (Dina) Boluarte, is irreplaceable," Demartini said in an interview with TVPeru.





The government official indicated that, from his own experience, he can affirm that great progress has been made in reaching agreements with other ministers and representatives of international organizations at face-to-face bilateral meetings.





"Imagine the magnitude when (the president) meets with other heads of state and (of) multilateral international organizations. There is a very important personal commitment," he expressed.





The high-ranking official stressed that, within the framework of these international meetings, strategic alliances start to be built.





The Cabinet member pointed out that the Peruvian president's trip to Brazil to attend a summit of Amazonian countries will contribute to addressing important problems facing the Amazon, such as illegal logging, illegal mining, and others related to the impact on the environment.





"The Amazonia is a source of natural wealth that must be preserved, but it must also be able to serve the development of the country in a sustainable manner (...) and of course the development of native communities that are the most disconnected," he indicated.









It will take place in the city of Belem do Para, Brazil, on August 7-9.
August 07, 2023 Quod Licet Iovi ... The BBC reported on August 22, 2022: Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.

...

Washington says its two guided-missile cruisers - the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville - are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters.

...

Beijing views such actions as provocative and maintains that the island of Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory. On Sunday, its military said it was monitoring the two vessels' progress, maintaining a high alert, and was ready to defeat any provocation, Reuters news agency reports. The US Navy said in a statement that the transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the "United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific". The WSJ on August 6, 2023: Russia and China Sent Large Naval Patrol Near Alaska A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores. Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft. It is a historical first, said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain. Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.

...

Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the patrol was a reminder that the U.S. has entered a new era of authoritarian aggression and applauded the robust U.S. response. Posted by b on August 7, 2023 at 13:29 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
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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.
Former US VP Mike Pence does not rule out being witness for Trump prosecution
YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, ARMENPRESS. The President of Nagorno-Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan has warned that Azerbaijan wants to abandon the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan.

President Harutyunyan noted that Azerbaijan, taking advantage of Russias situation at war with Ukraine, tried to force Nagorno-Karabakh to give up the rights given to it by the November 9 statement and enter into dialogue with its proposed agenda.

"Azerbaijan wants to abandon the trilateral statement and continue the war. This is already war, this is the continuation of the war, the aim of which is to turn Nagorno-Karabakh into a concentration camp through the siege, and then carry out genocide," Harutyunyan said in an interview with the local public television.

According to the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, one of the goals of Azerbaijan's genocidal policy in Nagorno-Karabakh is to put pressure on Armenia to have more favorable conditions for a road through Syunik.

Harutyunyan warned of Azerbaijans aspirations by quoting Azeri President Ilham Aliyevs December 2021 remarks made before a meeting with Armenian PM Pashinyan and the European Council President Michel, when he claimed that the "Zangezur Corridor should work within the logic of Lachin Corridor.

Of course, in the beginning, we did not pay attention to it, we thought that it was a statement to put pressure on Armenian authorities, but later on, Azerbaijan emphasized it in its policy. I can also announce today that Azerbaijan continues its pressure to coerce the maximum. We must record that Azerbaijan wants to keep the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh hostage in some sense and to commit genocide in parallel, putting pressure on Armenia in terms of having a more privileged version of the Zangezur road, Harutyunyan stated.
A ship uses a water cannon against Philippine Coast Guard vessels in the South China Sea in this handout photo released on August 6, 2023 [Handout: Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters]
Any proposal addressed to us must first of all be within the framework of our dignity, be in accordance with international humanitarian norms, rules.

August 7, 2023, 15:26 The humanitarian disaster is the result of Azerbaijan's policy. President Harutyunyan referred to the proposal to send aid via Aghdam

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 7, ARTSAKHPRESS: The President of the Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, said in an interview with Artsakh Public Television, commenting on Baku's proposal to provide humanitarian aid to Artsakh via Akna (Aghdam).

Arayik Harutyunyan noted that the humanitarian disaster is the result of the policy implemented by Azerbaijan, which has turned Artsakh into a concentration camp.

According to him, it is necessary to take into account the importance of the Lachin Corridor by the international community.

Accordingly, many decisions have been adopted e.g. in the Hague International Court, etc.

It is the testimony that the humanitarian disaster is a consequence of Azerbaijan not respecting international norms and requirements, not fulfilling one of the main points of the Tripartite Agreement."

In case of any proposal or decision of vital importance, we must have a consensus which should express the sentiments of our people," said President Harutyunyan.
Rebel attacks in restive northeastern Congo kill at least 21 people over the weekend, officials say

Rebel attacks in restive northeastern Congo kill at least 21 people over the weekend, officials say View Photo

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  Rebel groups, including one with ties to the Islamic State group, killed at least 21 people in restive northeastern Congo over the weekend, local officials said Monday.

Isaac Kibira, deputy delegate of the governor in the Central African nations northeastern Bwito township, said the victims in one attack were shot and killed early Sunday by members of M23, a rebel group the United Nations says has links to neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda denies the accusation.

In a second attack on Saturday, armed rebels with ties to the Islamic State group killed 10 civilians in a northeastern province, a local human rights activist said.

Conflict has simmered in eastern Congo for decades as more than 120 armed groups fight for control of valuable mineral resources and some to protect their communities. Mass killings by rebel groups are frequent, and the violence has triggered an exodus of refugees.

M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congos largest city, located on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that the group accuses Congos government of failing to implement.

The attack took place at 3 a.m. Sunday morning following armed confrontations between M23 and local self-defense groups near the village of Bwito, where the bodies of the 11 civilians were found, Kibira said. The rebel group reportedly retreated into the area, killed residents, burned homes, and stole valuables.

According to local civil society leader Jonas Pandanzi, troops from a regional intergovernmental organization who were deployed in the area did not intervene. The death toll is provisional, he said, as some local residents were missing in the wake of the attack.

We call on our government to assume its responsibilities and not continue to rely on agreements and declarations (with armed rebels). We need to find other mechanisms to protect the population, Kibira said.

Christophe Munyanderu, a human rights activist and coordinator in Ituri province, said on local radio that 10 civilians were killed Saturday by members of the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, which has established ties with the Islamic State group. The group rarely claims responsibility for attacks.

The victims, along with five others killed in a July 29 attack in the same chiefdom of Walese-Vilonkutu, have yet to be properly buried, Munyanderu said. Their bodies are scattered in the forest, and some of them have begun decomposing, he said.

We ask the (Congolese) military to accompany young volunteers to bury the bodies of our compatriots, said Munyanderu.

The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years targeting civilians in remote parts of eastern Congo and across the border in Uganda, including one in June in which 42 people, mostly students, were killed.

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE

Associated Press
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has instructed factories making missile engines, artillery and other weapons to boost capacity as he moves to bolster the country's defence capabilities, state media said on Sunday.

Kim's military inspections from Thursday to Saturday included the production of engines for strategic cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as shells for super large-calibre multiple-rocket launchers and transporter-erector-launchers, said state news agency KCNA.

His unusual visits to multiple arms production facilities over several days come as Pyongyang pushes to develop various strategic and conventional weapons and holds prominent displays of a range of arms.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives field guidance at a major weapon factory in this image released by the country's Central News Agency. Source: Reuters

The launchers Kim inspected are normally used to fire ballistic missiles.

North Korea has tested rocket launchers for larger calibre shells, advanced cruise missiles and last month its newest ballistic missiles, including a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has instructed factories making missile engines, artillery and other weapons to boost capacity. Source: Reuters

Kim flags weapons upgrade

Kim cited improved precision processing and modernised automation in the production of large-calibre multiple-rocket launcher shells, KCNA said.

He called for the mass production of "various kinds of cutting-edge strategic weapon engines... and thus make a great contribution to bringing about a revolution in developing new strategic weapons of our style," the agency said.

Photos showed Kim firing different types of assault rifles, with fiery blasts coming off the muzzle as he took aim at a target that was out of frame.

Kim's inspections from Thursday to Saturday included the production of engines for strategic cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

Cheong Seong-chang, an expert on North Korea's political strategy at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, said Kim is likely focussed on modernisation and technical innovation of weapons that will help with the export of arms to Russia.

Story continues

Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War on July 27, Pyongyang held a major military parade displaying its newest nuclear-capable missiles and attack and spy drones, with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and a senior Chinese official joining Kim in the reviewing stand.

At a large defence exhibition, Kim gave Shoigu a tour of the display of ballistic missiles and what appeared to be a new drone. The United States has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, including a "significant" number of artillery shells, as well as a shipment of infantry rockets and missiles to Russia's mercenary Wagner Group.

Russia and North Korea have denied those claims.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
Glacial dam outburst in Alaskas capital erodes riverbanks, destroys at least 2 buildings View Photo

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Raging waters that ate away at riverbanks, destroyed at least two buildings and damaged others had receded Monday in Alaskas capital city after an outburst of weekend flooding from a glacial lake, authorities said.

Levels along the Mendenhall River had begun falling by Sunday and returned to normal levels Monday but the city said river banks remained unstable.

On Sunday, onlookers gathered on a bridge over the river and along the banks of swollen Mendenhall Lake to take photos and videos though their ranks had thinned by Monday. A home was propped precariously along the eroded river bank as milky-colored water whisked past.

Two homes were complete losses, and a third was partially destroyed, Robert Barr, Juneaus deputy city manager, said. There have been no reports of injuries or fatalities.

Additionally, two condo buildings with six units each and three homes were labeled as condemned though its possible some of those could be salvaged, he said.

Were hopeful that one or more of them may be able to undergo some substantial repairs, including bank stabilization, Barr said. Its not a foregone conclusion that those would be able to come back, but its not impossible.

Other structures also sustained various levels of damage, he said. The city does not yet have either a monetary estimate of the damage or the total volume of water that was released into the river.

Such floods occur when glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes. A study released earlier this year found such floods pose a risk to about 15 million people worldwide, more than half of them in India, Pakistan, Peru and China.

Suicide Basin  a side basin of the Mendenhall Glacier  has released water that has caused sporadic flooding along the Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River since 2011, according to the National Weather Service. However, the maximum water level in the lake on Saturday night exceeded the previous record flood stage set in 2016, the weather service reported.

Water in the basin comes from sources such as rain and snowmelt and melt from the nearby Suicide Glacier, said Eran Hood, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of environmental science.

Nicole Ferrin, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that while its not uncommon for these types of outburst floods to happen, this one was extreme.

The amount of erosion that happened from the fast moving water was unprecedented, she said.

Water levels crested late Saturday night. Video posted on social media showed a home teetering at the edge of the riverbank collapsing into the river.

The Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year but the awe-inspiring glacier continues to recede amid global warming.

___

This story corrects the number of condemned properties.

By BECKY BOHRER

Associated Press
Calaveras, CA The Calaveras County Sheriffs Office Marijuana Enforcement Unit has carried out a series of operations targeting illegal marijuana cultivation sites, resulting in discoveries across multiple locations. The crackdown, spanning two days, led to the confiscation of plants and the initiation of ongoing investigations.

On July 26th, the Calaveras County Sheriffs Office Marijuana Enforcement Unit executed a search warrant at a site situated in the 16000 block of Joy Road in Mountain Ranch. The operation unveiled five hoop house structures, each concealing a thriving marijuana cultivation operation. In a seizure, law enforcement confiscated a total of 1,718 actively growing marijuana plants. The estimated street value exceeded $1.2 million. With evidence collected at the scene, authorities are actively pursuing leads in the ongoing investigation.

The Calaveras County Sheriffs Office Marijuana Enforcement Unit executed two separate search warrants on July 27th. The first location, situated in the 5100 block of Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas, yielded 105 marijuana plants. These plants, valued at over $73,500, were seized by law enforcement. Concurrently, a second operation unfolded in the 13000 block of Whiskey Slide Road in Mokelumne Hill. Deputies discovered and confiscated 110 active marijuana plants housed within a single hoop house structure. The total estimated value of this marijuana seizure exceeded $77,000. Investigators gathered evidence at both sites.

A California Department of Fish and Wildlife Biologist assisted with all three sites and was able to assist law enforcement by identifying potential environmental hazards. The Calaveras Sheriffs Office encourages community engagement in the fight against illegal marijuana operations. To facilitate this, an anonymous marijuana tip Line has been established and can be reached at (209) 754-6870.
Saudi oil giant Aramco reports $30B in profits, down nearly 40% from last year due to lower prices

Saudi oil giant Aramco reports $30B in profits, down nearly 40% from last year due to lower prices View Photo

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco on Monday reported $30 billion in second quarter profit, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year that it attributed to lower oil prices.

Total sales stood at just over $106 billion, down from $150 billion in the second quarter of 2022. In an earnings report filed with the Saudi stock exchange, Aramco said the decrease mainly reflected the impact of lower crude oil prices and weakening refining and chemicals margins.

The company reported net income of $30 billion, compared to $48 billion in the second quarter of 2022, a decline of 37.8%.

Aramco nevertheless raised its dividend paid out to investors to $29.38 billion, compared to $18.8 billion in the second quarter of 2022. The performance-based dividend is partly based on the companys record earnings last year, it said.

Our strong results reflect our resilience and ability to adapt through market cycles, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement accompanying the report. The companys shares rose 1.08% on Monday.

Last week, Fortune magazine ranked Aramco, officially known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the second biggest company in the world by revenue, behind only Walmart and ahead of Amazon and Apple. The ranking came after the oil company reported a profit of over $160 billion in 2022, the largest ever recorded by a publicly traded firm.

Those kinds of earnings will come under heightened scrutiny later this year when the United Arab Emirates, another major oil producer, hosts annual U.N. climate talks aimed at getting the world to slash emissions and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Aramco benefited from a spike in oil prices last year caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine. Internationally traded oil peaked at over $120 a barrel in June 2022 before settling in a range of $75 to $85 for much of the past year.

Robin Mills, CEO of Qamar Energy, an energy consultancy based in the UAE, said it was not surprising that Aramcos earnings slid, adding that it has fared better than some other oil majors in the recent downturn.

A relatively good result for Aramco, given the situation, he said.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly cut its oil production in recent months and pressed fellow OPEC members to do the same in an attempt to push up prices in the face of weaker demand from China and rising interest rates aimed at combatting inflation.

The kingdom needs high oil prices to fund Vision 2030, a costly and wide-ranging plan to overhaul its economy and transform itself into a regional hub for business and tourism. The plan includes several so-called gigaprojects, including the construction of a futuristic $500 billion city on the Red Sea coast.

Saudi Arabia is also investing billions of dollars in tourism, entertainment and sports, including on a controversial merger with the PGA Tour and the recruitment of some of soccers biggest stars to play for local clubs.

Activists accuse the country of trying to sportswash a human rights record marred by its involvement in the war in neighboring Yemen, a heavy crackdown on dissent and the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and government critic.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that Saudi Arabia needs an oil price of around $80 a barrel to avoid running a deficit. Benchmark U.S. crude oil for September delivery rose $1.27 to $82.82 a barrel Friday. Brent crude for October delivery rose $1.10 to $86.24 a barrel.

Aramco raised a record $29.4 billion through an initial 2019 public offering in which it sold a tiny sliver of less than 2% of the company to investors.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabias day-to-day ruler and the architect of Vision 2030, has transferred 8% of Aramco to the kingdoms $700 billion sovereign wealth fund over the past two years to help shore it up as it funds the massive infrastructure projects.

By BARAA ANWER

Associated Press
Of course Trump lost the 2020 election, DeSantis says after years of hedging View Photo

NEW YORK (AP)  Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said definitively that rival Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, an acknowledgment the Florida governor made after years of equivocating answers.

Of course he lost, DeSantis said in an interview with NBC News posted Monday. Joe Bidens the president.

DeSantis has often sidestepped questions about whether he believes the 2020 election results were legitimate. But in recent days he has started publicly questioning the lies that Trump and his allies have made about the elections legitimacy.

Federal and state election officials and Trumps own attorney general said there was no credible evidence the elections outcome was affected by fraud. The former presidents allegations were also roundly rejected by courts at the time, including judges he appointed.

Last week, Trump was charged by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith with four felonies related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

DeSantis shift in rhetoric has come as he seeks to reset his stagnant 2024 White House campaign. Trump, who remains widely popular with the Republican Party base, is the early and commanding front-runner in next years GOP presidential primary.

DeSantis in his interview at first didnt offer a clear answer when asked if Trump lost, saying, Whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner. But he gave a more direct answer when pressed again.

The governor repeated his concerns about voting methods from the 2020 election, criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting, but like other Republicans he said he would embrace the methods he had criticized.

We are going to do it, too. Were not going to fight with one hand tied behind our backs, DeSantis said.

Academic research has shown that mail voting increases turnout but doesnt benefit either party. Campaigns have normally pushed for it, allowing them to lock in votes early and focus their efforts on Election Day to encourage straggling supporters to get to the polls.

The issue is, I think, what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. I dont think it was a good-run election, but I also think Republicans didnt fight back. Youve got to fight back when that is happening, he said.

DeSantis has cast himself on the campaign trail as someone who could more successfully implement Trumps politics and has walked a wobbly line criticizing his actions.

Last month, he said Trump should have offered a stronger condemnation of the Jan. 6 attack. But he also said it was not an insurrection but a protest that ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate.

DeSantis has argued Republicans will lose in 2024 if theyre focusing on the past election and the former presidents legal problems, which also includes federal charges of mishandling classified documents, including those stored at Mar-a-Lago in a ballroom and bathroom, among other spaces.

If the election is a referendum on Joe Bidens policies and the failures that weve seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency, DeSantis told NBC. If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if its a referendum on that, we are going to lose.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

Associated Press
Ex-student accused in California stabbing deaths is mentally unfit for trial View Photo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  The criminal case against a former Northern California university student accused of several stabbings is on hold after prosecutors agreed that he is incompetent to stand trial for charges related to the attacks, which killed two people, wounded a third and terrorized a peaceful college town.

The judge dismissed jurors in Carlos Dominguezs competency trial Monday, which would have been the fifth day of testimony, after county prosecutors informed the court last week they no longer planned to fight the defense by Dominguezs attorney that he was not mentally fit for trial.

A determination of incompetency means Dominguez cannot currently understand court proceedings, assist his attorney in his defense and understand his own status in the criminal proceeding.

Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam last week ordered the defendant to receive medication over Dominguezs objections, ruling he was a danger to himself and others without it. Three medical experts testified that Dominguez is schizophrenic.

Dominguez will go to a state hospital when a bed becomes available and once his competency is restored, the criminal trial will resume, said Jonathan Raven, the countys chief deputy district attorney.

Raven said in an email Monday that prosecutors disagreed with the initial doctors report and how she reached her conclusions regarding Dominguezs competency. Prosecutors previously said Dominguez was toying with the system and should face a criminal trial.

They dropped their challenge after hearing new information at trial and the courts order to initiate involuntary medication proceedings, Raven said.

Dominguez had been a third-year student at the University of California, Davis majoring in biological sciences until April 25, when he was expelled. Stabbings near campus began shortly after. He is charged in the deaths of a 50-year-old homeless man and a 20-year-old UC Davis student. A homeless woman who was attacked in her tent survived.

The attacks terrified the community. Businesses closed early and some students were too scared to attend even daytime classes as their parents pleaded with them to return home.

Dominguez was arrested May 4, a week after the first body was found, near the location of the second attack.

Dominguez was in court Monday wearing a green safety vest. Previously he has spoken out loud to say he was guilty and wanted to apologize and that he did not want an attorney.

His appointed attorney Dan Hutchinson, a Yolo County deputy public defender, said in court that Dominguez would not eat, shower or speak much while in jail. He still believed he was a student at UC Davis and insisted he was not ill, his lawyer said.

It is unclear if Dominguez is 20 or 21 years old. The prosecutors office says official records list different dates of birth.

By JANIE HAR

Associated Press
Youth hunters and their adult mentors are invited to attend the 16th Annual Robert F. DeRoo Memorial Youth Waterfowl and Pheasant Hunts at the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah.

The waterfowl hunt will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30, and the pheasant hunt will be held on Saturday, Oct. 14. Hunting guides will accompany the youth hunters and mentors during the waterfowl and pheasant hunts.

Montezuma Audubon Center will also offer a Waterfowl Hunter Education Course for youth from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, and this course is required to hunt waterfowl at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Following the course, all youth waterfowl and pheasant hunters and their mentor are required to attend a safety meeting and dinner at Montezuma Audubon Center at 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23. This event is free but space is limited and registration is required. Visit http://montezuma.audubon.org to download the registration forms. Call 315-365-3580 or email montezuma@audubon.org with questions.

The Robert F. DeRoo Memorial Youth Hunts are being coordinated by Montezuma Audubon Center, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Wayne County Federation of Sportsmens Clubs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In order to participate in the hunts, the youth hunter must bring the following documents:

 A New York State issued Hunter Safety Certificate

 A current 2023-2024 Junior Hunting License

 A HIP number (for the waterfowl hunt only) which can be obtained at https://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/6405.html.

The mentor must bring the following to the hunts:

 A 2023-2024 New York State Hunting License

 A 2023-2024 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (for waterfowl hunt only)

 A HIP number (for the waterfowl hunt only) which can be obtained at https://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/6405.html.
Zimbabwes Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Johannes Tomana, died yesterday morning after a short illness.

Ambassador Tomana died after visiting his rural home in Honde Valley, Manicaland Province. He was 56.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade spokesperson, Mr Livit Mugejo, confirmed the death.

We have just received sad news about the death of Ambassador Tomana in Honde Valley. We are still gathering more details, said Mr Mugejo. While the cause of death could not be immediately established, a close relative who declined to be named said it could have been a result of food poisoning.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi could also not be drawn to comment on the cause of death, but said a statement would be issued soon.

Amb Tomanas daughter, Mutsa, said the remains of her father were set to be brought to Harare late yesterday.

She described her father as loving.

My father was very generous and prayerful. He loved his family, she said.

She said her father had gone to their rural home last week and died after a short illness early yesterday.

Former Prosecutor-General Mr Kumbirai Hodzi yesterday said he learnt of Ambassador Tomanas death with shock.

It is with utter shock that I received the news of the death of my beloved comrade, brother and my former boss, the former Prosecutor-General, and the ambassador to the DRC, the Honourable Johannes Tomana, said Mr Hodzi.

I have known and worked very closely with Hon Tomana from the time he was a young university student, lawyer in private practice and a top most lawyer advisor in Government as Attorney-General and then as the top most Chief Prosecutor as PG, and of course, in his last position as an Ambassador.

You will all recall that Amb Tomana held the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic of Zimbabwe and from there he became the first ever Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Zimbabwe. We, who closely worked with him, will remember Amb Tomana as an inspirational and visionary leader.

Mr Hodzi said Amb Tomana was a legal strategist par excellence, with a strong commitment to justice and fairness.

Amb Tomana was a first class highly qualified legal mind. He held an Upper Second LLB degree and a First Class degree in International Law. He was a highly patriotic Zimbabwean and a strong Pan-African. Amb Tomana taught all of us to always put our country and continent Africa first.

We all remember his heroic and patriotic legal fight when he led Zimbabwes legal fight against the imposition of the illegal sanctions regime imposed by the so-called Western powers  the US, the UK, the EU and their allies Australia, Japan and Canada, he said.

Mr Hodzi said everyone remembers the legal and strategic victory scored by Amb Tomana for Zimbabwe in the Kimberley Process.

When the same forces sought to undermine and destroy the countrys economy through an attempt to stop Zimbabwe from marketing its diamonds.

Amb Tomana, he added, was a strong advocate for the beneficiation of African minerals and other valuable resources.

As AG, he was instrumental in helping the Government come up with the strongest possible legislation in this regard. We are proud that so many of the present African governments are now copying this beneficiation model, which was in essence created and advocated by Amb Tomana.

We who followed in his footsteps in the PGs Office found that he had developed a far-reaching vision to make the office the one of foremost effective and efficient prosecutorial authorities in the world. This in itself was a heroic effort, a testimony to his commitment to the rule of law and his progressive vision for the country, said Mr Hodzi.

As a diplomat, Amb Tomana was impressive. We remained in touch and we are again impressed by his Herculean and heroic efforts to improve the volume of trade between the DRC and Zimbabwe to unprecedented levels.

We say that Amb Tomana was a true leader, an authentic hero and a great Zimbabwean. We say to our brother, our comrade and hero, go well. You have run your race, said Mr Hodzi.

Born on September 9, 1967, Amb Tomana was a lawyer by training and distinguished himself in private practice.

In 2005, he was appointed to be one of the commissioners of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, one of the independent constitutional bodies established to fight graft.

He was later appointed Attorney General in 2008, where he performed the dual role of leading the prosecution department and Government advisory role.

The two were later split under the new Constitution that came into effect in 2013, where Amb Tomana became the countrys first Prosecutor General.

In 2010, Amb Tomanas role in Government saw him included on the United States illegal sanctions list, which targeted senior Government and Zanu PF officials.

In 2011, as the Attorney-General he launched a court challenge with the European Union Court of Justice against sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

Amb Tomana was appointed into diplomatic service in September 2020, when he assumed the post of Zimbabwes Ambassador to the DRC, a position he held until his untimely death.

 Herald

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The ruling Zanu PF party has sparked widespread condemnation after rewarding convicted rpist Bobby Makaza with a house and a substantial amount of cash during a presidential rally held in Mutawatawa. Makaza, who had been sentenced to 16 years in prison for the rpe of a 10-year-old girl, served less than five years following a clemency order signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa earlier this year.

The amnesty, aimed at reducing prison congestion and offering a second chance to offenders, released over 4,200 prisoners, including individuals convicted of rpe and murder who were aged 60 or older.

After his release, Makaza gained notoriety within the ruling party for creating Zanu PFs 2023 election campaign slogan: ED Huchi, which has been extensively used at party rallies.

During the recent rally, Zanu PF political commissar Mike Bimha announced that Tinoda Machakaire, the partys youth secretary, was building a house for Makaza. In addition, Machakaire provided Makaza with US$500, while other party members contributed US$200 in cash.

Cde Machakaire is building him a house and has also given him cash. Other party members have also chipped in with some cash incentives, Bimha announced.

Although Makaza was invited to meet President Mnangagwa at the high table, he was unable to reach the podium in time due to his distance from the stage. Dressed in Zanu PF regalia, Makaza enjoyed a celebrity-like status as party supporters clamored to take pictures with him.

Civil society organizations, womens rights activists, and opposition political parties have strongly criticized Makazas release, viewing it as a disregard for survivors of xul assault and a violation of principles of justice and accountability.

Romeo Chasara, a political analyst from Witwatersrand University, remarked that Zanu PFs actions set a dangerous precedent. By rewarding a convicted rpist with a house and cash, the ruling party sends a dangerous message that crimes of this nature can be overlooked and perpetrators can be celebrated, he said. Chasara emphasized that such actions undermined the tireless efforts of survivors and activists advocating for justice and accountability.

Former Cabinet minister Walter Mzembi also expressed his dismay, considering the move a new low. Rebranding a paroled rpist convict of minor children as a celebrity for coining a campaign slogan ED Huchi is a low for many, he stated.

Critics argue that Zanu PFs actions not only trivialize the gravity of the crime committed but also perpetuate a culture of impunity. In response to the controversy, Tinashe Chinopfukutwa and Paidamoyo Saurombe from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have written to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) Commissioner-General, demanding clarification on the basis for Makazas amnesty qualification. The victims family had instructed the lawyers to pursue the matter.

If it is determined that Makazas release was unlawful, the ZPCS may be compelled to re-incarcerate him and others who were freed. Victims of violent crimes have expressed their discontent, stating that they were not consulted before the perpetrators were granted amnesty.

The controversy surrounding Makazas reward highlights deep concerns about the prioritization of justice and the message being sent by the ruling party. The outcry from various quarters is a reminder of the urgent need for a comprehensive review of policies related to crime and punishment in Zimbabwe.

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A former teacher at Girls High School in Harare has claimed that the wooden coffin found in a locked storeroom last week was donated by a funeral parlour for use in the schools drama activities during the 1990s.

The ex-staff member claimed that the coffin was never used to contain a body.

Responding to the H-Metro story about the mystery surrounding the Girls High coffin, she said she was at the school when the coffin was donated when the late Thandiwe Dumbutshena was headmistress in the 1990s.

I was a staff member at the time the coffin was donated by a local funeral parlour for the school drama activities.

The drama dubbed Secrets was popular at the time and the coffin was dumped in one of the storerooms.

I want to believe that the headmistress who replaced the late Dumbutshena never came across the coffin and it never contained a body at any time, she said.

She urged students not to be scared by the wooden coffin story.

The coffin, which has left some students shaken, was found after education officials broke down the door to access the storeroom after school officials had reportedly said they had no keys to it.

Some parents suspected that there were some ritual activities going on at the school and called for an emergency meeting and demanded a thorough investigation.

A meeting was held on Saturday and the School Development Committee (SDC) resolved to go on local radio to explain the mystery surrounding the wooden coffin.

However, one SDC member, Charles Munhenga, expressed ignorance about the coffin, saying his team was yet to locate the storeroom where the coffin was placed.

I am yet to engage the caretaker, but we checked as a team, both at the school and boarding area, and never saw the coffin, said Munhenga.

We met as the SDC and agreed to go on radio to clear the air about the matter to bring peace and confidence to both students and parents concerning the facts we have gathered.

Parents and students want to see the coffin being disposed of despite the latest revelation about it, as it has left them traumatised.

 HMetro

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A fire that broke out at Harare Central Police Station is being investigated, with no clear cause identified yet.

The blaze is thought to have begun in the Criminal Investigations Department and it damaged some exhibits and documents.

Among the affected offices included that of the officer commanding Harare province, Commissioner Wonder Tembo.

The fire started in the early hours of yesterday and continued for several hours.

Harare Central Police Station had been without power for four days prior to the fire, leading to suggestions that it may have been caused by an electrical fault.

National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said they are assessing the damage caused by the fire and further information will be released in due course.

The fire was reported to have started around midnight and it affected some CID offices and that of the officer commanding Harare province.

We are still assessing the amount of damage caused by the fire and investigations with a view to finding out what exactly happened have started, said Ass-Comm Nyathi.

ZESA workers were seen attending the reported fault.

Reports say that the fault was detected yesterday at the Charge Office bus terminus.

It is suspected that the electrical cables were damaged by people burning waste at the terminus.

Breaking News via Email
A horrifying incident has unfolded in Gokwe, Zimbabwe, as an artisanal miner, Thomas Muzenda (38), has been apprehended by the police for the brutal murder of his one-year-old daughter, Nenyasha Muzenda.

Startling details emerged when Muzenda confessed to the heinous act, revealing that he took the innocent life in a ritualistic act aimed at bolstering his mining endeavours. The sh0cking incident has sent sh0ckwaves through the community, highlighting the desperate lengths some individuals may go to in the pursuit of wealth and success.

The tragic events unfolded when Nenyasha Muzenda was reported missing, prompting a police investigation in Gokwe, a region known for its artisanal mining activities. During questioning, Thomas Muzenda sh0ckingly admitted to authorities that he had murdered his own daughter as part of a ritual intended to enhance his mining business. Allegedly, Muzenda had sought the assistance of a traditional healer named Dhumba, who advised him that such a gruesome act would bring prosperity and success to his mining activities.

Following Muzendas confession, the police conducted a search and ultimately discovered the remains of the young victim in a disused well located at the Zenda mining area in Gokwe North. The gruesome find further confirmed the harrowing nature of the crime and left the community in a state of sh0ck and disbelief.

Meanwhile, the police are urging anyone with information regarding the murder of Clemence Mwale (30) to come forward and assist with the investigation. Mwale was fatally attacked by unknown assailants on August 3 in Dzivaresekwa, and the authorities are seeking any leads that could shed light on the circumstances surrounding this tragic event.

The arrest of Thomas Muzenda has sent sh0ckwaves throughout Zimbabwe, prompting a broader conversation about the lengths some individuals may go to in their pursuit of success. The incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of ethical practices and the need to safeguard vulnerable members of society.

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The Zvimba couple which was wanted by police in connection with the killing of their four-year-old niece has been apprehended by members of the public in South Africa where they had gone into hiding.

John Zvivi and Lister Sibanda of Vantage area in Zvimba where wanted for fatally assaulting the victim and also injuring her six-year-old sister sometime this month.

They stashed the body in a 25kg sack before dumping the body in a stream along Harare-Bulawayo Road, between Kuwadzana Extension and Glaudina in Harare.

After committing the crimes, the couple fled to the neighbouring country where they have since been apprehended and surrendered to the police.

Over the weekend national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi had been appealing for information leading to the arrest of the couple.

The ZRP is appealing for information which may lead to the arrest of a couple, John Zvivi and Lister Sibanda of Vantage area, Zvimba who are being sought in connection with a case of murder in which their niece, Princess Shoko aged four was found dead in a stream along Harare-Bulawayo Road, between Kuwadzana Extension and Glaudina, Harare on August 2, 2023.

The victim was found stashed in a 25 kilogrammes mealie-meal sack and had a deformed face. The suspects were allegedly seen by neighbours assaulting the victim and her sister aged six on several occasions using electric cables and switches, he said.

The other victim is currently admitted at a local hospital where she is receiving treatment on injuries she sustained during the assault by the suspects.

create attention grabbing headlines

Breaking News via Email
Birds of Paradise BELT Magazine

Massive solar explosion was felt on Earth, the moon and Mars simultaneously for the 1st time ever Physics-astronomy.com

The moon is open for business, and entrepreneurs are racing to make billions Insider

We Need to Rewrite Our Scripts for an Alien Visit to Earth World Politics Review

Meet the new Dune monster, an ancient bladed sea worm Interesting Engineering

US scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in nuclear fusion reaction The Guardian

Climate/Environment

Toxic Train Bombs

6 MONTHS SINCE THE EAST PALESTINE TRAIN DERAILMENT, CONCERNS REMAIN FOR HEALTH AND RAILWAY SAFETY The Allegheny Front

#COVID-19

7 days ago UK health officials spotted a new variant  EG.5, dubbed Eris. And its already soaring as #COVID19 case rates rise. Eris is also sweeping across East Asia and has turned up in the USA. #SARSCoV2 is still evolving: its not gone.https://t.co/LNcl7FpU7B  Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) August 6, 2023

A fungal disease is rapidly spreading across the U.S. Scientists are alarmed Fast Company. Lambert: No mention of immune dysregulation from SARS-CoV-2. Naturally.

Los Angeles Has a Growing Typhus Problem, Thanks to the Fleas Gizmodo

2) Rendini et al. demonstrated that many cases reported in eastern United States, including Georgia and central Florida, lacked zoonotic exposure or recent residence outside of the US. https://t.co/bRcB4aJ91L  Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) August 6, 2023

Old Blighty

La belle France

The Sahel

The Senate of Nigeria joins the nations of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Algeria in opposing a western-backed ECOWAS intervention in Niger. https://t.co/tQOFN2FkbE  Eugene Puryear (@EugenePuryear) August 5, 2023

China?

Wow, exceptionally strong words from a key South Korean lawmaker, who chaired a ruling party committee on South Koreas semiconductor competitiveness until early this year: If [Washington] continues to try to punish other nations and to pass bills and implement America First pic.twitter.com/1IVAdVArtY  Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) August 6, 2023

New Not-So-Cold War

NEWSFLASH: Reports from Russian sources state Poland may now be allowing its military airfields to be used by Ukrainian attack aircraft to bomb bridges in Crimea. If these reports are correct, then NATO itself has allowed this explosive escalation.  John Moran (@RueDaungier) August 6, 2023

Sometimes the west is honest by accident and they reveal the truth that I have been saying for nearly two years now. I have widely said that Russia has been fighting Ukraine with a handicap on. Many uninformed people or liars in the west claim Ukraine can beat Russia, that Russia pic.twitter.com/ydbZXIn9wr  Noctis Draven (@DravenNoctis) August 6, 2023

South of the Border

Global Race for Lithium Lands in Rural Brazil nacla

O Canada

Why Canada Is Criminalizing Dissent Compact Mag

B-a-a-a-a-d Banks

Wells Fargo customers scramble after deposits disappear from their accounts NBC News

Biden Administration

2024

Vivek Ramaswamy suggests U.S. may be aiding Ukraine because of Hunter Biden NBC News

Trump

GOP Clown Car

The truth about Iowas book ban Along the Mississippi

Our Famously Free Press

McConnell is warmly embraced by Kentucky Republicans amid questions about his health Associated Press

Mitch McConnell gets drowned out by chants of RETIRE from his own constituents during a speech in Kentucky. Its over for him. Step down. pic.twitter.com/0h5gMMDaPU  Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 7, 2023

Healthcare?

Big Tech CEOs Meet with Psychiatrys Leaders to Decide the Future of Mental Health Mad In America

Gunz

AI

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Zoom terms of service now require you to allow AI to train on ALL your dataaudio, facial recognition, private conversationsunconditionally and irrevocably, with no opt out. Dont try to negotiate with our new overlords. pic.twitter.com/Ri2VE59RYr  Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) August 6, 2023

How to Quickly Get to the Important Truth Inside Any Privacy Policy The Markup

Groves of Academe

Imperial Collapse Watch

Class Warfare

Sports Desk

UNSPEAKABLE WONDER The Lamp. Shohei Ohtani.

Havent stopped thinking about this since @jordan_castro2 posted it earlier this week. Im fascinated by the idea that you could somehow WALK your way out of consciousness and into enlightenment. pic.twitter.com/dc6X39hJXq  Aaron Gwyn (@AmericanGwyn) August 4, 2023

Why All Great Thoughts Are Conceived by Walking Atmos

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Yves here. I suspect readers will react as badly to the framing this article and the underlying NIH initiative as I did. The NIH scuttled a project to study health communications on a broad basis. But the article strongly suggests that the reason for this initiative was to combat misinformation and conspiracy theories, as in get better at propaganda and narrative control.

The very top of the article takes the bogus position that communicating what scientists know has been a long-standing challenge and pretends that medicine is a science. For the most part, it remains a medieval art. And the Covid pandemic showed that public health has become hopelessly politicized, and business interests are more important than health outcomes. Let us start with a vax-only approach once vaccines were available, and falsehoods that if you got a vaccine, you would not get Covid, which was the basis for the next lie, that if you were vaccinated, you would not spread Covid. But that false notion was the justification for coercive vaccination mandates.

And we can go on long-form about the officialdom being a source of Covid misinformation, such as former CDC chief Rochelle Walensky demonizing masking by depicting users as wearing a scarlet letter, or as Lambert keeps having to document, the public health orthodoxy lying by omission by ignoring that Covid is transmitted by aerosols and therefore destructively failing to recommend better ventilation and masking as top-level defenses.

But these examples are only vivid examples of pious orthodoxies in medicine not being questioned. Doctors keep prescribing statins on a widespread basis when they are beneficial only to those with heart disease. My experience is physicians are also willing, even eager, to prescribe psychoactive medications for sub-clinical conditions like fatigue in an otherwise healthy-looking person. They seem unable to tell the patient that unless the problem comes from a short list of conditions like low thyroid or low testosterone, theres not much they can do about it.

And dont get me started on drug companies finding a way to misrepresent clinical trial data, resulting in the case of Vioxx alone nearly 40,000 deaths, or the opioid crisis, significantly brought to America by the Sacklers, or questionable orthopedic procedures? Or how about upcoding?

And as for the whiging-in-passing about stem cell therapies, the US is behind much of the rest of the world and highly restrictive too boot. That may be because even though these treatments are typically costly, they can displace some big ticket drugs and surgeries.

The big problem is that the US has a for-profit medicine system with all sort of built in bad incentives like paying doctors for procedures. The public is correct to question what they are told by medical professionals given that. But instead of recognizing that the problem is the fundamental deterioration of the practice of medicine, which has accelerated due to the corporatization of medicine, the NIH really appears to believe the problem is that patients wont submit to the authority of an often-corrupt medical establishment.

By Darius Tahir, KFF Health News Correspondent, who previous worked for Politico, Modern Healthcare, and The Gray Sheet. Originally published at KFF Health News

Many Americans dont understand a lot about their health. Whether due to people believing conspiracy theories or simply walking out of their doctors offices without a good idea of what was said, communicating what scientists know has been a long-standing challenge.

The problem has gotten particularly acute with a recent wave of misinformation. And when Francis Collins led the National Institutes of Health, the worlds premier medical research agency, he thought he had a solution: to study health communications broadly. We basically have seen the accurate medical information overtaken, all too often, by the inaccurate conspiracies and false information on social media. Its a whole other world out there, he said in 2021 as part of a farewell media tour.

I do think we need to understand better how  in the current climate  people make decisions, he concluded.

But Collins hopes appear dashed. In a sudden reversal, the NIHs acting director, Larry Tabak, has paused  some say killed  the planned initiative, Advancing Health Communication Science and Practice. Its advocates fear the agency has, for political reasons, censored itself  and the science that wouldve sprung out of this funding stream.

The agency has offered shifting and inconsistent explanations, sometimes outright contradicting itself in the space of days. Sources familiar with the project insist that whatever the agencys official story, it has acted unusually, contrary to its normal procedures in deciding what science to fund.

The officials, both in and outside of NIH, believe the agency is acting in response to political pressures over misinformation and is effectively censoring itself. Efforts to study or push back on inaccurate information have become contentious. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives repeatedly has plunged into the issue by investigating social media firms and government agencies for their efforts to regulate online speech. Theyve even targeted academics who merely study information flows online. Meanwhile, in July, a federal court in Louisiana issued a decision on a long-simmering lawsuit brought by a group of Republican attorneys general and anti-vaccine groups to block government officials from communicating with social media companies, with certain exceptions for national security and criminal matters. That ruling has since been stayed.

Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days, said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.

For researchers interested in the topic, however, its a major loss. The program was deemed potentially so important that it would be supported through the agencys Common Fund: a designation for high-priority programs that cut across normal institutional boundaries. In theory, it would study how health communication works, not merely at an individual doctor-to-patient level, but also how mass communication affects Americans health. Researchers could examine how, for example, testimonials affect patients use of vaccines or other therapies.

Serious money was on the table. The agency was prepared to spend more than $150 million over five years on the endeavor.

For researchers, its a necessary complement to the agencys pioneering work in basic research. The NIH has done a remarkable job discovering the way cells communicate with each other, said Dean Schillinger, a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco. When it comes to how people communicate to each other  doctors to patients, or doctors with each other  the NIH has been missing in action. Now, he said, the tentative efforts to reverse that are met with a chilling effect. (Schillinger co-authored an opinion piece in JAMA on these developments.)

After favorable reports from an agencys advisory body last fall, advocates were anticipating more encouraging developments. Indeed, the NIHs budget had touted the concept as recently as March. And participants expected the grant application process would begin toward the end of the year.

Instead, researchers have heard nothing through official channels. Investigators have been asking, Whats the plan? said Schillinger. Officially, its been the sound of silence, really.

That has been a puzzling anticlimax for a program that seemed to have all the momentum. Given the urgency of misinformation, you would expect  within a year  a formal announcement, said Bruce Y. Lee, the executive director of the City University of New Yorks Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health.

Advocates and sources involved with the process had been pleased with its progress leading up to Tabaks sudden reversal. After Collins publicly floated the concept in late 2021, the agency took some public steps while defining the project, including holding a workshop in May 2022, keynoted by Collins.

Later that year, the projects leaders presented the concept to the agencys Council of Councils, a group of outside researchers who provide feedback on policy initiatives and projects. It got a warm reception.

Edith Mitchell, an oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said the agency had a major task, but one that is much needed, one that is innovative. The council gave the proposal a 19-1 seal of approval.

Researchers were happy. As far as I was concerned, this program had been funded, accepted, and approved, Schillinger said. (The agency says that it is not unusual for programs not to move forward but that it does not track how frequently programs get affirmative votes from the council and later dont move forward.)

That smooth sailing continued into the new year. In March, the program was mentioned in the NIH budget as one of the agencys potential projects for the coming years. Then, say sources in NIH and elsewhere in government, came Tabaks sudden decision in April, which was not communicated to some researchers until June.

Early that month, Schillinger said, he received a call from an NIH official saying, The program has been killed. Program officers were reaching out to academics who had made prior inquiries about the initiative and potential research efforts that could garner grants. Schillinger said researchers were told, Youre not getting an email from the agency.

A former White House staffer and two current NIH officials  who were granted anonymity because they didnt have permission to speak on sensitive matters  said the decision, which came as researchers and agency officials were preparing to open grant applications in the last quarter of the year, was made by Tabak. KFF Health News asked Tabak for an interview but instead got an answer from agency spokespeople.

The agency disputes any final decision about this research funding that has been made. Spokesperson Amanda Fine told KFF Health News the project was still in concept phase and is being paused to consider its scope and aims.

But the agency lists the health communications proposal on the former programs part of its website, and sources inside and outside of government disagree with this company line. They point to political fears on NIHs part as driving the change, which reflects the growing political controversy over studying anything related to misinformation, even though the proposal was set up to examine health communications broadly, not solely misinformation.

A hint of this reasoning is contained in the rest of Fines statement, which notes the regulatory and legal landscape around communication platforms. When pressed, the agency later cited unnamed lawsuits.

Thats likely a reference to the Louisiana case, which was decided weeks after the agency decided to pause or kill the Common Fund initiative.

Fine later offered a new explanation: budgetary concerns. We must also balance priorities in view of the current budgetary projections for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, she wrote.

That explanation wasnt part of a June 6 note on the program page, and one NIH official confirmed it wasnt part of previous discussions. When pressed further about the agencys budgetary position  which analysts with TD Cowens Washington Research Group think will be flat  spokesperson Emily Ritter said, The NIH does not have a budget projection.
New York wants to introduce car-loving America's first congestion charge, but the move faces fierce opposition -- including from the city's famous yellow taxis. The plan, similar to pricing long in place in London and Singapore, aims to improve air quality in the Big Apple by easing Manhattan's traffic-choked streets. It also seeks to raise much-needed revenue to upgrade a creaking subway system that is used by around four million New Yorkers every day.

The scheme, slated to start next year, is being challenged in court, highlighting the difficulty of levying drivers in a country where car is king.

Officials insist the toll will help the environment by reducing pollution, and make the city that never sleeps more efficient by speeding up travel times. "Congestion pricing is a generational opportunity," said John McCarthy, a spokesman for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The plan would charge drivers for venturing below 60th Street in Manhattan, an area that encompasses the business districts of Midtown and Wall Street. The MTA has not yet set rates, but is considering charging $23 during rush hour and $17 for off-peak times.

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Taxi driver Wein Chin worries that the charge, which cabbies would pass on to customers, will mean fewer fares. He earns around $300 to $400 a week and is already struggling to pay off a $170,000 loan he owes for his taxi permit. "I don't know that I could survive, paying the mortgage, supporting a family," the 55-year-old, who moved to the United States from Myanmar in 1987, told AFP.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union representing 21,000 cabbies, estimates the levy could see drivers lose $8,000 a year in income. Members have taken to the streets in recent weeks to demand they be exempted from the toll.

The union's president, Bhairavi Desai, said the charge could sound the death knell for some drivers already hammered in recent years by a surge of Uber drivers and the pandemic. "There are only so many ashes that the phoenix can rise out of," she told AFP.

Here is a quick explanation of congestion charge fees charged by many global cities across the world.

Carbon Emissions

Officials have proposed discounts to appease low-income New Yorkers. Some 700,000 vehicles enter the proposed pricing area every day, with cars traveling just seven miles per hour on average due to gridlock, officials say.

The scheme aims to lessen traffic by ten percent daily, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Officials cite studies showing that central London saw a 20 percent fall in CO2 emissions after it introduced its charge in 2003. "We know vehicle pollution is a major contributor to the climate crisis that harms both our planet and our health," said Tim Donaghy of Greenpeace. "Shifting away from cars and towards more public transit is a step in the right direction, and can create healthier more people-centric cities."

New York's plan has been years in the making. Michael Bloomberg proposed a toll in 2007 when he was mayor, but it wasn't until 2019 that lawmakers finally reached agreement. The federal government then greenlit the proposal in June this year, with local officials pledging to introduce the charge in spring 2024.

Neighboring New Jersey responded by suing the government, claiming the scheme would place an unfair financial burden on those who have to drive to Manhattan for work. The state also objects to its residents having to pay for the upgrade of New York's underground train network.

The MTA estimates that the pricing will generate $1 billion annually for subway improvements.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has vowed that New Jersey's suit will not stop congestion pricing from going ahead. "It's a win, win, win for transit, traffic and the environment," Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for public transit advocacy group the Riders Alliance told AFP.

First Published Date:
Azerbaijan has been blockading the lone road that leads to the region of Nagorno-Karabakh for more than seven months. Residents are reportedly running out of fuel and food. Ever since the breakup of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave recognized as Azerbaijani territory by the international community but mostly populated by ethnic Armenians.

They fought a war there three years ago when Azerbaijan grabbed land in a six-week conflict that led to roughly 7,000 deaths. There have been periodic skirmishes ever since. While Nagorno-Karabakh is important to both sides, I dont believe it is the primary reason Azerbaijan continues the blockade. The real reason is that Baku wants a peace deal that includes the opening of the Zangezur corridor  which would connect Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan exclave wedged between Armenia, Turkiye, and Iran. The problem for Azerbaijan and Turkiye, which also wants the corridor, is that it risks a wider war. Iran has said such a corridor is a red line. Such a corridor would mean goods and energy could flow freely between Azerbaijan and Turkiye without having to be rerouted through Iran, thereby eliminating the lucrative fees Tehran charges for such transfers. This is part of the reason Iran is so opposed to such a plan and has beefed up its presence along its border with Armenia.

The nine-point ceasefire agreement signed under Russian mediation that ended the 2020 war included a stipulation that Armenia is responsible for ensuring the security of transport links between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, facilitating the unhindered movement of citizens, vehicles and cargo in both directions. Azerbaijan and Turkiye have latched onto that point, insisting they have the right to set up transportation links through southern Armenia.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is demanding that the corridor be opened as part of any lasting peace. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that point on July 31, according to Hurriyet. Turkiyes Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the same. According to Asbarez:

The road to regional stability is through a comprehensive peace agreement. For this, the opening of the Zangezur corridor is of great importance, Fidan said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has conceded on the issue of Nagorno, accepting that it is part of Azerbaijan. That was more than two months ago, and yet the blockade continues because what Baku really wants is the corridor, and it is willing to starve the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and risk war to get it.

Both Azerbaijan and Turkiye have proceeded since the 2020 war as if the corridor is on the verge of becoming a reality. Both have been working on highways and rail lines where the only missing link is the roughly 10-mile stretch through Armenia. Back in January Aliyev declared that the project will happen whether Armenia wants it to or not.

It remains to be seen if he will be so confident going against Irans wishes. Tensions have been steadily rising between Tehran and Baku in recent months. Azerbaijan and Israel are now alleging that Armenia is using Iranian Shaheed drones, which would mark a major increase in Tehrans support for Yerevan and the latest escalation over the Zangezur issue. Armenia has denied using Iranian drones.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced the creation of a united front against Iran during a press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Jerusalem for the opening of Azerbaijans embassy in Tel Aviv at the end of March. The close ties between the two are nothing new (Azerbaijan is Israels largest energy provider and the latter supplies the large majority of weapons to the former), but have ratcheted up in recent months.

In addition to escalating military exercises on their common border, Baku and Tehran are increasingly at odds over a range of other incidents. On Jan. 27, an attack by a gunman carried out at Bakus embassy in the Iranian capital left the head of the embassys security services dead and two security guards injured. Azerbaijan quickly evacuated the diplomatic post.

Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry in late March accused Iran of being behind the shooting attack near Baku that left a member of parliament wounded. Azerbaijani media have speculated that some of the six individuals detained in the shooting lived or traveled to Iran at various times and that the primary attacker received training from Iranian special forces. Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry on April 6 also expelled four Iranian Embassy employees after declaring them persona non grata. Shortly after reports emerged about Azerbaijan arresting hundreds more while the media labeled them Iranian spies. Cohen was recently in Azerbaijan to open Israels first embassy in the country, which is located just 12 miles from the Iranian border.

The Zangezur issue is also causing friction between Ankara and Tehran, with Erdogan recently criticizing Iran for its opposition. India, too, is being drawn into the fray. Worried that a Turkiye-Azerbaijan-Pakistan alliance would upset the regional power dynamics and have repercussions for Kashmir, New Delhi is also sending arms to Yerevan.

If all of that doesnt create enough of a powder keg, theres also Washington neocons sticking their noses in.

Russia has long been the dominant player in the South Caucasus. Moscow put an end to the 2020 conflict by essentially telling Azerbaijan, which enjoyed an overwhelming advantage thanks to military support from Turkiye and Israel, to knock it off. Moscow mediated a peace and has had peacekeepers in the region, but Russias preoccupation with Ukraine and fending off efforts from the West at regime change has created a bit of a power vacuum. The US is now trying to play a central role in finding a solution to the Armenia-Azerbaijan disagreements in an effort to diminish Russian influence in the region (or stir up trouble).

Neocons in Washington have long dreamed of using Azeris to destabilize Iran. There is no indication this would work, nor are the wider repercussions of such an effort clear, but that will not stop the neocons running the US State Department from trying. The Middle East Media Research Institute, which is run by Israeli and American spooks, wrote as recently as November about using Azerbaijanis in Iran to further their goal of regime change:

In order to bring about regime change at home and contain Iranian expansionism abroad, Iran needs to be weakened from within. The international community therefore must engage Iran more effectively inside its borders through pursuing a periphery strategy, i.e., supporting the ethnic minorities found in its border regions. This will achieve two goals. First, ethnic minorities would finally enjoy the freedom and human rights they have been deprived of since the early 20th century. Second, this would deprive Iran of human and natural resources it needs to perpetrate its malign expansionism in the Middle East. An array of democratic ethno-nations in the periphery of Iran would create a great wall around the country. This wall would stretch from the Kurdish areas of Northern Khurasan to the Persian gulf in the west including Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Khuzistan as well as Balochistan in the southeast and would limit Irans access to the outside world and consequently end its geostrategic importance regionally and internationally.

Eldar Mamedov has written at Responsible Statecraft about what a stupid and reckless idea this is, but again, has that ever stopped the neocons before? For Washington, the Armenia-Azerbaijan tensions are an opportunity to get more of a foothold in the region dominated by Russia. Any conflict would create quite the headache for Moscow as it would be forced to try to balance the interests of not only Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Iran, Turkiye, Israel and India.

For an inside look at the line of thinking from The Blob we can turn to Michael Doran, director of the Hudson Institutes Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. In a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal, he weeps for the suffering of the Azeris, and despite Russia previously providing more of a stabilizing force in the region, Doran blames all the South Caucasus problems on Putin. Heres Doran writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Putin also has been hosting talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia, apparently playing at peacemaking while keeping the dispute on a low burn. A true resolution of the conflict would obviate the need for Russian forces in Karabakh, one of his two major tools for forcing Baku to respect his will. Meanwhile, Russia has an unassailable military position in Armenia, home to at least three Russian bases. Russian soldiers patrol key segments of Armenias borders, and Russian military officers entirely control Armenian air space. By contrast, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been remarkably successful at wiggling free of Moscows controlmore successful than almost all other leaders of former Soviet republics. While fostering strong economic ties with Europe, to which Azerbaijan supplies oil and gas, Mr. Aliyev has simultaneously developed deep and enduring defense ties with Turkiye and Israel.

The ironic aspect of this argument that Russia is fully behind Armenia and bullying around Azerbaijan is twofold:

1. Azerbaijan has enjoyed the overwhelming military advantage in recent years due to support it receives from Turkiye and Israel. Armenia has not enjoyed similar support from Moscow.

2. Armenians have been furious with Russia for its lack of support and for being too accommodating of Azerbaijan. Essentially, Russia has tried to mediate the conflict as even handedly as possible and is now getting criticized from both sides for it.

Not to worry, though; Doran eventually gets around to the whole point of US involvement in the affair:

Mr. Blinken now recognizes that the American track offers the only viable path to coaxing Armenia to make peace and, thereby, limit the forms of cooperation with the Russian-Iranian alliance that threaten U.S. interests.

Washington is freaking out over the burgeoning sanction-busting Russia-Iran relationship and is struggling to find a way to counter. The neocons at the Heritage Foundation sum it up this way:

Considering their regional and global geopolitical ambitions, the deepening strategic partnership between Iran and Russia poses a rising threat to the U.S., its allies, and partners in Europe, Eurasia, and the Middle East. Failing to quickly address these troubling tiesand the multiple threats that arise from themwill only lead to more international instability, including in the war in Ukraine. Washington and like-minded countries urgently need to take steps now to undermine and counter the anti-American RussoIranian axis before additional damage is done.

The Zangezur corridor is indeed one area where Moscow and Iran diverge. While Iran views such an initiative as a major threat, Russia is more concerned with maintaining economic ties and transit options with Azerbaijan and Turkiye. Therefore any conflict in the South Caucasus is a win-win for Washington as it could allow the neocons to try out their theory that such a conflagration would destabilize Iran while also potentially creating a rift between Moscow and Iran if they dont see eye to eye on the solution.

The RAND Corporation, too, has written about how the Caucasus is but one area on Russias periphery where conflict would weaken Moscow. With that in mind, officials in Azerbaijan and Armenia should be very cautious accepting help at finding a peace solution from Blinken and company, as peace is the last thing theyre worried about.
By Mark Engler and Paul Engler. Research assistance provided by Sean Welch. Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent. He is the co-author, along with Paul Engler, of the book on the craft of mass mobilization, This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century. Paul Engler is a co-founder of the Momentum Training, which instructs hundreds of activists each year in the principles of effective protest. Cross-posted from Common Dreams.

He has been called one of the most original political thinkers of the 20th century. Historians point out that If academic citations and internet references are any guide, he is more influential than Machiavelli. And his impact on the way we think about the processes of social change has been described as little short of electrifying.

The accomplishments of Antonio Gramsci, born in Italy in 1891, are all the more remarkable considering that his life was both short and notably difficult: His family was destitute in his childhood; he was sick for much of his life; he spent the prime of his adulthood confined to prison by Benito Mussolinis fascists after his own partys attempts to foment revolution had failed; he was often denied access to books during his incarceration; and he died at the age of just 46. Yet, in spite of this, he produced a body of theory that has been widely admired and cited as an inspiration by organizers across several generations and multiple continents.

Amid all this acclaim, it is still fair to ask whether engaging with the Italians thinking remains worthwhile for activists more than eight decades after his death. Has interest in Gramsci become merely academic, or are there practical lessons that social movements can fruitfully draw today?

Theres a good argument that the latter is the case. For organizers working in the socialist lineage, Gramsci is important because he offers a version of Marxist analysis that sheds much of the dogmatism and backward-looking orthodoxy that has unfortunately clung to the tradition. At the same time, he retains core insights into why capitalism is inherently exploitative and why changing it will require movements from below to engage in a contest of power, rather than buying into the idea that the system can be successfully tinkered with by technocratic reformers with clever policy ideas.

But even for those who do not personally identify with the socialist tradition, understanding the thinking of Gramsci and his intellectual heirs allows for an appreciation of how movements internationally have developed their strategies: from landless workers in Brazil who have combined land occupations with the creation of a vibrant network of rural schools to left populists in Spain pursuing electoral strategies aimed at creating a new common sense in favor of redistribution and social solidarity. In the United States, awareness of Gramsci would be necessary to understand why left educators in New York might run a workshop on conjunctural analysis, or why a book like Jonathan Matthew Smuckers organizing guide takes the title Hegemony How-To.

So what concepts, then, have movements taken from Gramscis body of theory? And how has it affected their approaches to organizing?

History Wont Do Our Work for Us

From Gramscis political thinking and practical strategizing come a set of ideas that arguably have only grown more salient with time. Among them: That revolutionary change will not inevitably come thanks to the preordained laws of history. That if progressive movements are to create change, they must win over large swaths of the public to their way of thinking about the world. And that organizing must take place on multiple frontscultural, political, economicrequiring engagement with many different institutions of society.

Although he died in 1937, Gramsci did not become well known outside of Italy, particularly in the English-speaking world, until the 1970s. That was when edited translations of his famous Prison Notebooks, written during his incarceration and surreptitiously smuggled beyond fascist reach, finally became widely available. At his trial in 1928, Gramscis prosecutor had famously declared, We must stop this brain working for 20 years! The expansive Prison Notebooks show why the Mussolini regime saw the theorist as such a threat.

Although writing in fragmentary snippets, Gramsci dives deep into a vast array of topicsspanning religion, economics, history, geography, culture, and education. This range, the historian Perry Anderson has argued, had, and has, no equal in the theoretical literature of the left. Beyond questions of political strategy, Gramscis work has a major impact on the academic fields of cultural studies, subaltern history, and the study of world systems under capitalism.

Owing to Gramscis wide range of interests, there are many different lessons that can be drawn from his work. But a first important lesson for organizers is one that emerged from the theorists rejection of elements of his own intellectual tradition.

A leader in the Communist Party of Italy, Gramsci witnessed a bold series of factory occupations in the Fiat auto plants in Turin in 1919 and 1920. These actions seemed like they might be a sign of a workers revolution that could follow on the heels of the historic Bolshevik victory in Russia. But then, after witnessing the rise of fascism and being jailed in 1926, he was forced to revise his vision of how a more just world might take shape. As the Jamaican-born British scholar Stuart Hall would later explain, Gramsci worked, broadly, within the Marxist paradigm. However, he extensively revised, renovated, and sophisticated many aspects of that theoretical framework to make it more relevant to contemporary social relations. One of the key aspects he jettisoned was the traditions sense of historical inevitability.

In Gramscis time, it was common for scientific socialists to expound a highly deterministic vision of history. According to this view, Karl Marx had uncovered trends in economic development that were akin to natural laws: Capitalism was condemned by its own internal contradictions to produce crises, and these crises would inevitably lead to the victorious rise of the proletariat over its bourgeois exploiters.

Gramsci saw how these beliefs, propagated by elders and contemporaries alike, could lead to fatalism, passivity, and extremist posturing. Those who thought that political problems would be solved by the inexorable march of history did not need to take responsibility for coming up with thoughtful plans that balanced visionary goals with pragmatic action. Instead they could, in Gramscis words, hold an aversion on principle to compromise and spread the belief that the worse it gets, the better it will be. As he put it, Since favorable conditions are inevitably going to appear, and since these, in a rather mysterious way, would propel forward revolution, these socialists saw initiatives aimed at proactively ushering in such change as not only useless but even harmful.

One can argue that such historical determinism came from a flawed and reductionistic reading of Marx. Yet there is no doubt that it became widespread among many radicals in different periods, and it was particularly dominant in the time of the Second International, the cross-border federation of labor and socialist parties that met periodically between 1889 and 1916, a period that coincided with Gramscis youth.

Gramsci was loyal to the idea that economic forces and class relations were critical in shaping the flow of history. Yet he believed that only through determined organizing and the strategic application of human will would the fundamental structures of society change for the better. Gramsci opposed the idea that immediate economic crises of themselves produce fundamental historical events. Rather, he argued, they can simply create a terrain more favorable to the dissemination of certain modes of thought and certain types of organizing. The recurrent crises of capitalism do create opportunities, but people must come together to exercise their will and capability in order to take advantage of auspicious situations.

The key for Gramsci was to avoid falling victim to either economismor an over-emphasis on the material causes behind historical developmentsor ideologism, which involves an exaggerated view of what can be accomplished merely through good intentions and expressions of voluntary resolve. To strike the right balance between them requires careful observation and historical analysis.

Movements must study the current relation of forces, or the social, political, and military balance of power between different groups. They must look at the changes taking place in society and determine which are organic, reflecting deep shifts in the economic structure, and which are merely conjuncturalshort-term occurrences that may be almost accidental and lack far-reaching historical significance. Only through such careful preparation can they determine if there exist the necessary and sufficient conditions for transformation in a given society, and whether a given plan of action is workable.

Such ideas would resonate with the thinking of other radicals, such as Detroit-based writer, organizer, and activist mentor Grace Lee Boggs, who counseled social movement strategists to ask What time is it on the clock of the world? when considering their plans for action. And the ideas parallel concepts from other organizing traditions, such as the field of civil resistance, which emphasizes the role of both skills and conditionsthat is, how historical circumstances and human agency each play a part in determining a movements success or failure.

An important implication of Gramscis argument is that there would be no single path to socialism that every country would follow. Instead, he argued that because the political landscape varies, it is necessary to look carefully at the terrainwhat Gramsci describes as taking accurate reconnaissance of each individual country.

This idea has proven particularly inspirational to activists in the Global South who have been moved to create versions of radical theory that engage with the unique histories of their regions. Scholars Nicolas Allen and Hernan Ouvina write that Latin American socialists since Gramscis time have enlisted his work into a larger intellectual project that has sought to adapt Marxist theory to the social reality of a region largely ignored by orthodox Marxism. The Prison Notebooks encouraged them to engage directly with a set of regional realities that local communist parties had previously disregarded in deference to the Communist Internationals (Comintern) interpretation of history, which deemphasized the particularities of individual nation-states.

Of course, for Gramsci, it was crucial that study of conditions in any given country go hand in hand with practical action. Unless someone is aiming merely to write a chapter of past history, they should recognize that all political analyses cannot and must not be ends in themselves. Instead, Gramsci wrote, these analyses acquire significance only if they serve to justify a particular practical activity, or initiative of will. They reveal the points of least resistance, at which the force of will can be most fruitfully applied; they suggest immediate tactical operations and they indicate how a campaign of political agitation may best be launched.

If Gramscis perspective was only valuable in rebutting orthodox Marxists, it would not have much lasting value today. But its significance is much greater. Although the exact type of belief in the historical destiny of the working class that was prevalent in Gramscis time may not commonly exist now, there are still many peoplewhether they are mainstream academics, political commentators, liberals, or ultra-radicalswho harbor deterministic beliefs of their own. These people hold that social movements have little ability to influence history, that major uprisings emerge solely due to historical circumstances beyond our control, or that technological innovation is the only significant driver of progress and change.

Gramscian analysis provides helpful tools for rejecting such apathy, whether it arises from despair, cynicism, a focus on techno-fixes, or the fear of genuinely aspiring to power. It encourages movements instead to accept responsibility for organizing, educating, and preparing a base of people that can be ready to act when opportune moments arise. After all, Gramsci argues, historical conditions can only truly be judged as favorable by those who have a concrete possibility of effectively intervening in them. In other words, fortune favors the organized.

Winning the Battle of Ideas

Gramsci created a further breakthrough by elaborating on the importance of the cultural, political, and ideological elements that, in the Marxist tradition, make up the superstructure of society. In the process, he helped develop a new theory of how movements could successfully instill their vision of a just society in a lasting way.

When analyzing why revolution had succeeded in Russia but failed in other countries, including his own, Gramsci drew on an expanded vision of how dominant groups stayed in control. The capitalist state, he argued, could not merely be seen as a set of government institutions that maintained power through coercionadministered through its courts, police, and military forces. Instead, the power of the state extended much further, seeping through the institutions of civil society, including schools, the media, the churches, and other institutions.

A ruling order could only remain intact through the maintenance of hegemony. The concept most commonly associated with Gramsci, hegemony entails not only the use of force and legal discipline, but includes the ways in which ruling ideas are disseminated through society, creating legitimacy and consent for the rule of the dominant group.

With these concepts in mind, Gramsci made a distinction between conditions in Russia and the countries of the West. In Russia, he explained, the formal institutions of state were predominant, while civil society was primordial and gelatinous. However, in the West, there was a proper relation between State and civil society. In the latter case, civil society protected ruling groups from being easily overthrown: When the state trembled, Gramsci explained, a sturdy structure of civil society was at once revealed. The state was only an outer ditch; behind which there stood a powerful system of fortresses and earthworks: more or less numerous from one state to the next.

Recognizing these conditions, Gramsci argued that the war of maneuver, the kind of seizure of power through direct assault modeled by the Russian Revolution, would be supplanted in advanced capitalist countries by a different type of struggle. In the West, organizing would have to focus on the war of positionthat is, entering into a long-term battle for hegemony, waged through many spheres of social life.

Crucially, this would mean winning the battle of ideas. The critic Raymond Williams wrote that hegemony is made up of a central system of practices, meanings, and values saturating the consciousness of a society at a much deeper level than ordinary notions of ideology, and it is something that needs to be continually renewed, recreated, and defended. Those working in the Gramscian lineage contend that activists who aspire to transform the existing order must aim at nothing short of creating a new common sense through which people would understand their place in the world.

As Harmony Goldberg, an activist and educator at the Grassroot Policy Project, explains, Gramsci argued that socialism can neither be won or maintained if it only has a narrow working-class base. Instead, the working class should see itself as the leading force in a broader multi-class alliance (termed a historic bloc by Gramsci) which has a united vision for change and which fights in the interests of all its members. Creating a unified alignment means recognizing that people do not form their beliefs in a mechanistic way based on their economic position in society.

Instead, ideological formation is also affected, as Stuart Hall wrote, by social divisions and contradictions arising around race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender. The interests of a social group, Hall noted elsewhere, are not given but have to be politically and ideologically constructed.

These ideas have important implications: The political arts of popular messaging and coalition-building should not be left to mainstream liberals, but need also to be the domain of those seeking more transformative change. Movements that want to win cannot be content to circulate slogans that appeal only to self-isolated groups of like-minded activists; they must care about reaching out beyond their existing base and crafting messages that can appeal to a broader set of potential allies.

Building a new common sense requires combating the ideas that keep people complacent. Goldberg notes that the individualistic and divisive ideology of currently dominant groups can be profoundly demobilizing. She writes: We can come to believe that our interests are aligned with the success of capitalism rather than its destructions (e.g. A rising tide lifts all boats.); we can believe that there are no alternatives to the system as it is; we can internalize false senses of superiority or inferiority (e.g. white supremacy which encourages poor white people to comfort themselves with their social privileges); and more.

If movements are to replace such beliefs with a hegemony of their own, they must convincingly articulate an alternative. But this is only a first step. They must also determine which social groups can be united in support of this alternative and then carefully build the political power of that alignment. The goal, as contemporary Gramscians might say, is to create a big enough we not only to win occasional elections, but to change the very way in which people think about themselves and their connections to others. It is to build the collective will for action.

Engaging the Institutions

Gramscian thought encourages strategic diversity. Since approaches will be developed based on analysis of a given countrys unique circumstances, movement strategies vary across different geographies. And since the war of position is a long-term effort, fought on many different fronts, a wide range of contributions can assist in the struggle for social and economic justice.

In a recent interview with Gramscian scholar Michael Denning on The Dig, podcast host Daniel Denvir suggested that Gramscis thinking was a way for the left to break out of stale debates that see electoralism, mutual aid, and workplace organizing as mutually exclusive, rather than as approaches that can complement one another. Denning noted in reply, On the left, we could all have more compassion for each other following ones own gifts and abilities, rather than guilting people into doing things that they dont necessarily have gifts for. He continued, I think that Gramsci does lead one to not think that one position is guaranteed to be the central position. People should fight in struggles where they feel they can be most effective and most powerful and where their own talents are.

How to best wage a war of position is up for debate. In the late 1960s, German student activist Rudi Dutschke argued that the left needed to undertake a long march through the institutions. This meant entering into the established social bodiesincluding schools and universities, political parties, media outlets, healthcare providers, community organizations, unions, and the professionswith the intent to radicalize and transform them. Many have seen such a march as an extension of the Gramscian lineage.

The Brazilian landless workers movement (known in Portuguese as the Movement dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST) is one group that has embraced this approach. Among the largest social movements in Latin America, the MST has maintained rural occupations that have claimed land for upwards of 350,000 families, while also interacting critically with the government to build an extensive network of schools, community health clinics, and food processing centers.

Scholar Rebecca Tarlau describes these efforts as contentious co-governance. Here, activist farmers not only alter the nature of the mainstream institutions they enter; they also use these bodies to expand the legitimacy and organizing capabilities of their movement. Importantly, Tarlau contends, the MST not only embodies this Gramscian strategy, but activists also explicitly draw on Gramscian theory to justify their continual engagement with the Brazilian state.

Critical to this approach is the idea that movement participants enter institutions not as reformersa position that may leave them vulnerable to cooptationbut as part of an effort to build the intellectual and moral leadership required for a progressive project to gain hegemony. Organic intellectuals, comparable to the village teachers or parish priests in the Italy of Gramscis time, play a vital role in translating alternative ideas about creating a better society into real-world practice.

Distinct from traditional scholars, these local movement participants spread ideology not through the academic development of theory, but through actually exercising leadership in community affairs and institutions. Tarlau explains that, through their actions, these people in effect are constantly attempting to garner the consent of civil society to support their political and economic goals and create a justification for new forms of social relations.

Too often, mainstream approaches to politics see all power as residing in the government, especially at the federal level, and they see electing winnable centrists to office as the key to promoting progress. Gramsci tells us that power is everywhere, and that holding office is only valuable as part of a larger movement strategy to rally hearts and minds around a genuinely progressive vision. At the other end of the spectrum, many people working outside of government pursue change in only one areaat the level of a single workplace, school, church, food cooperative, or neighborhood initiativewithout connecting their efforts to a more comprehensive project of change. Gramsci encourages movements to pursue wide-ranging interventions, but always to unite them as part of a common program to transform society.

Especially today, Stuart Hall wrote in the 1980s, we live in an era when the old political identities are collapsing. The same might be said of our present times. If movements for justice are to win, they must work to construct new identities and alliances, built through engagement with the diverse institutions and sites of political conflict that make up peoples lives.

Gramsci provides no easy answers for the current challenges that we face. Yet with concepts such as hegemony and organic intellectuals, the war of position and the historic bloc, conjunctural analysis and the battle for common sense, he provides social movements with an enriched strategic vocabulary. And with his insistence on rejecting determinism and engaging with societys most deeply held beliefs, he offers an approach to radical politics that is dynamic enough to stay relevant through the crisesand transformationsyet to come.
NATO Allies are providing support to Slovenia after record rainfall starting last Friday triggered severe flooding affecting two-thirds of the country. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday (7 August 2023), expressing his condolences and NATOs strong solidarity with Slovenia.

Mr Stoltenberg said: I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekends floods. Upon Slovenias request for assistance, NATOs disaster response coordination centre immediately notified all 31 Allies and 35 partners of your needs. I welcome that NATO Allies stepped up with immediate offers of support including helicopters, modular bridges, excavators, and engineering expertise. This is NATO solidarity in action. We will continue to work closely with you in the days and weeks ahead. The increasing frequency of extreme weather highlights the profound impact of climate change. NATO is committed to addressing climate change and its impact on our security.



Following Slovenias request for assistance via NATOs Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC), Spain offered one heavy CH-47 helicopter with up to 25 personnel, including crew and supporting staff. Allies are also providing support through the EU and bilaterally. Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany and France have offered support including helicopters, excavators, prefabricated bridges and engineering teams. The United States has also deployed staff to Ljubljana to assess the situation and determine urgent humanitarian needs.



The EADRCC is the Alliances principal civil emergency response mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic area. The Centre functions as a clearing-house system for coordinating both requests for and offers of assistance mainly in case of natural and man-made disasters.
Former ABC reporter James Gordon Meek, who debunked Pizzagate scandal, pleads guilty to child pornography charges

He infamously declared, proudly, that he had "debunked" that Pizzagate scandal that the media ultimately dubbed a "conspiracy theory." Now, formerreporter James Gordon Meek has pleaded guilty to possessing and transporting child pornography, for which he is now serving at least five years  and up to 40 years  in prison.

(Related: After Gordon's home was raided by the FBI last year, left-wing news outlet Rolling Stone ran cover for him by trying to claim the raid was an abuse of power.)

Meek, 53, admitted to the court in Virginia that he had and shared child pornography and abuse material. The mandatory minimum sentence for his crimes is five years, with up to 40 years being on the table.

At the time of the FBI raid, Meek went missing. He was in the process of writing a book about the Biden regime's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

James Gordon Meek allegedly expressed strong desire to sexually abuse children

Because of the nature of his plea deal, it is unlikely that Meek will have to spend that much time in jail, though. Because of his prominent position and status, he could end up serving very little prison time, perhaps just the five years established as a mandatory minimum sentence for child pornography crimes.

Meek used to be a respected national security journalist whom corporate media consumers trusted as a valid and trustworthy source for news. In the FBI raid on April 27, 2022, his electronic devices were seized and he immediately went off the grid.

On Meek's phone, authorities found three conversations in which Meek is said to have expressed a strong desire to sexually abuse children. Meek had also received and sent both photos and videos of child pornography.

In one particularly troubling message, Meek asked someone else on the chat app the following question, followed by a disgusting follow-up statement:

"Have you ever raped a toddler girl? It's amazing," Meek allegedly wrote.

In another message, Meek allegedly shared a perverted fantasy he has of "abducting, drugging, and raping" a 12-year-old girl.

Keep in mind that the same media sources Meek was affiliated with and worked for are now freaking out about the popularity of the "Sound of Freedom" film about child trafficking. Are they all upset about this because they, too, are guilty of engaging in sex crimes against children?

It is also important to note that there is no evidence whatsoever that Meek in any way "debunked" the Pizzagate scandal. He claimed to debunk it, but all he did was malign the idea of it publicly, for which the public was expected to just trust and believe his claims.

In many ways, Meek made a career out of claiming that accusations of pedophilia in higher offices of America's institutions is completely unfounded. It turns out that pedophilia runs rampant at the highest levels of virtually every American institution  including those that claim to "protect" children or lead them to "God."

"Like Jesus says: it would be better for them if a millstone be placed around their necks and be throw into the sea than to hurt one little one who believes in him!" one commenter wrote about Meek and his kind. "When this scum is outed publicly, we are going to see suicides jump dramatically!"

"If he actually goes to prison, he will have quite the welcoming party," expressed another. "If he isn't killed while there, he will wish he was dead every day. Prisoners don't take kindly to those who abuse children."

Pedophilia is a very serious problem in America, especially at the upper echelons of media, religion, and government. Learn more at Evil.news.

Sources for this article include:

WLTReport.com

Newstarget.com
Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira arrested a SECOND time in Ukraine after trying to enter Hungary for asylum

For the second time since the war broke out there, Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira was arrested by Ukrainian authorities while trying to flee and enter Hungary for asylum.

As you may recall, Lira was detained by Ukrainian intelligence back in May for allegedly harboring "pro-Russian sympathies." Now, he has been arrested by the same Ukrainian police state for attempting to make his way out of the war-torn country and into someplace safer.

Lira has been making waves by publishing videos to YouTube that are critical of the war  and more importantly, that are critical of the United States-Kiev-NATO stance that Russia is an aggressor rather than a liberator.

It remains to be seen, but Lira now faces a potentially very lengthy prison term that could include torture. We know this based on what surfaced following Lira's previous detention about how the Ukrainian government treats political detractors who do not support its side in the war.

As usual, the Biden regime is ignoring this blatant persecution of an American citizen, who under the U.S. Constitution is to be afforded full free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Sure, Lira is in Ukraine, not the U.S. But if the U.S. is going to send gobs of American taxpayer cash to Volodymr Zelensky while calling Ukraine a "democracy" that is aligned with U.S. interests, then it would only be right for Ukraine to respect Lira and other Americans' free speech rights.

(Related: Check out this powerful interview in which Lira tells Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, all about the economic annihilation of Europe, among other important topics.)

Ukraine is run by a rogue dictator, Zelensky, who doesn't tolerate free speech

Because Lira holds an "incorrect" view of the war in the eyes of fake president Joe Biden and his cronies, Lira's fate is being ignored as if his life no longer matters. A brave reporter recently questioned the State Department about this, in fact, only to be ignored  watch below:

The Grayzones @cosgrove_iv asked @StateDeptSpox today about the status of Gonzalo Lira, the US citizen who was jailed by the Ukrainian govt for challenging its official narrative of the war and whose Twitter account now claims hes making a break for the Hungarian border pic.twitter.com/kc7NY6hkdt  The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) August 1, 2023

Prior to his arrest, Lira had been posting videos explaining that he was attempting to flee Ukraine. He was due in a Ukrainian court this week, but basically skipped bail and attempted to escape in order to be granted asylum  you know, the same type of asylum that Hispanics from south of the border are trying to do as they enter the U.S. and receive free everything from the very same Biden regime that is doing nothing to help Lira.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Lira is guilty of "producing and disseminating materials that justified the armed aggression" of Russia. Because of this, he is not to be allowed to be a free man, in the eyes of the rogue and authoritarian Ukrainian government, which apparently does not tolerate any kind of free speech that goes against its dictates.

Lira claims that the last time he was held by Ukrainian authorities, he was beaten and tortured. He was also extorted for his entire life savings, which amounts to around $100,000 when including the value of his confiscated computers and phones.

Lira's family members and supporters described the scenes from his first arrest and court hearing as a "kangaroo court." Remind us again why U.S. taxpayers are being extorted and forced to send their hard-earned tax dollars to welfare queen Zelensky?

The latest news about the situation in Ukraine can be found at Chaos.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com
North Korean leaders promise to annihilate the US by end of century

Communist North Korea's Foreign Ministry vowed that his nation will "annihilate" the United States through military power by the end of the 21st century.

"Should the U.S. choose to offend our Republic, we will annihilate them by using all our military power that we have gathered so far," said the North Korean Foreign Ministry diplomats in a statement released celebrating the armistice, signed on July 27, 1953.

"The Korean War in the last century marked the beginning of the downfall of the U.S.," the Foreign Ministry added. "Now, the 21st century would see the irrevocable termination of the U.S. The rulers of the U.S. are well advised to forget, on no account, the lessons of history."

The statement was made during a meeting celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, signed between the North, the United Nations and communist China. South Korea to this day has not acknowledged the armistice. This armistice permitted the creation of the UN-arranged demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and the exchange of prisoners of war.

Since the signing of this armistice, U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea to help prevent another war and to help Seoul defend itself in case of another North-led invasion.

During the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the armistice, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un met with senior Chinese officials to reaffirm their close military ties. (Related: Kim Jong-Un shows off new ATTACK DRONES and BALLISTIC MISSILES in military parade.)

North Korea holds rallies against "US imperialism" and vow to "annihilate the enemy"

Around a month before this recent threat from North Korea, the totalitarian communist nation held a rally marking the "day of struggle against U.S. imperialism," during which government leaders also promised to "annihilate the enemy."

The "day of struggle against U.S. imperialism" marks the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, when North Korean communist forces began their invasion of the democratic South.

Rallies were held in each province of the small nation while an extensive list of government leaders spoke about denouncing the U.S. and its allies as "imperialist beasts." In one gathering at the May Day Stadium in the capital of Pyongyang, between 100,000 to 120,000 people attended, although their attendance was more than likely to be mandatory.

"The entire continental U.S. is within our range," said one sign showed by the KCNA during its broadcast of the rally.

"The imperialist U.S. is the destroyer of peace," read another sign.

Other banners showed North Korean people pledging to "pulverize the American empire" and denouncing Washington, D.C. and President Joe Biden.

This rally has increased the pressure campaign against the Biden administration, which is seeking to conduct a new round of peace talks with Pyongyang. Recent North Korean acts of escalation include tests of new missiles that the regime claims can deliver nuclear weapons to the U.S. mainland, as well as threats to build more nuclear warheads.

Follow WWIII.news for more news about North Korea's threats against America.

Watch the video below about North Korea launching the "Hwasong-15" intercontinental ballistic missile which is capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

This video is from Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related articles:

Japan extends order to track and destroy North Korean missiles as Pyongyang announces another attempt to launch a military satellite.

Things go south fast: North Korea's first-ever spy satellite crashes into sea shortly after launch.

North Korea just tested their version of the Poseidon doomsday weapon that can create a radioactive tsunami that could kill millions.

South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons if tension with North Korea escalates.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

UPI.com

FoxNews.com

Bloomberg.com

Brighteon.com
Pfizer sued by GSK over claims that the US drug giant stole key elements of the UK firms RSV injection

British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has accused its American rival Pfizer of stealing "key elements" of its vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

GSK sued the New York-based Pfizer last Aug. 2 by means of a complaint filed in a federal court in Delaware. It alleged that Pfizer infringes its patent by making, using, selling and importing its Abrysvo shot for RSV in the United States. Arexvy, GSK's version of the RSV shot, was allegedly copied by the American drug firm.

According to the London-based GSK, Pfizer began working on its RSV vaccine in 2013  seven years after it commenced research that led to Arexvy in 2013. Abrysvo infringes four of its patents related to the antigen  a weakened version of the RSV  used in its vaccine, GSK added.

"GSK patents describe and claim inventions relating to compositions used in RSV vaccines, and methods for preparing those compositions," the Aug. 2 lawsuit noted. "Upon information and belief, Pfizer knowingly used GSK's claimed inventions in Abrysvo without permission."

GSK moreover claims Pfizer knew about its patents since at least October 2019, when the U.S. drug firm challenged the validity of the patent in the European Union. Pfizer subsequently filed an action against GSK in the Royal Courts of Justice at the British capital in June 2022.

A GSK spokesperson confirmed the lawsuit filed in federal court, adding that "intellectual property protections are the foundation of research-based companies' ability to drive innovation."

They added: "This action does not impact GSK's ability to launch its RSV vaccine, Arexvy, and we remain fully focused on making our RSV vaccine for older adults available in the U.S. following its recent approval by the [country's] Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As proceedings are ongoing, we can't comment further at this time."

A Pfizer spokesperson also confirmed the legal action by GSK. "Pfizer is confident in its intellectual property position and will strongly defend its right to bring its RSV vaccine to patients," the spokesperson said.

Pfizer, GSK racing for dominance in RSV vaccine market

The FDA has approved both Arexvy from GSK and Abrysvo from Pfizer for use in the United States. It green-lit Arexvy for use in those above 60 years of age on May 3, and approved Abrysvo for the same cohort on May 31. However, regulators in the United Kingdom have only approved the GSK shot  doing so in June.

Both GSK and Pfizer are in a race for their vaccines to be rolled out worldwide, with a view to making billions of annual revenue as countries work to slash RSV-related hospitalizations and deaths. According to experts, the RSV vaccine market could hit $10 billion by 2030. (Related: First RSV emergency declared as Pfizer and GSK race to get vaccines approved.)

RSV is a very common pathogen that can cause a runny nose, cough, sneezing, fever and wheezing. While it usually goes away within two weeks, it can lead to lung infections that can hospitalize patients.

According to studies, RSV may hospitalize more elderly people with flu. Those suffering from pre-existing diabetes, heart disease and lung disease comprise most RSV-related admissions.

RSV is responsible for hospitalizing up to 160,000 and kills up to 10,000 older adults in the United States, say official sources. Across the pond, the pathogen causes 14,000 hospitalizations and 8,000 deaths among older British adults every year.

There is currently no treatment for RSV, so physicians only aim to ease patients' symptoms. Enter the vaccines, which work by exposing the immune system to proteins from the surface of the virus. This prompts the body's immune system to make antibodies to fight off the pathogen, according to the Daily Mail.

In April, GSK said it expects sales of Arexvy to hit $3.8 billion per year. But it appears that Pfizer is now leading the race, saying it would have supplies of its Abrysvo vaccine by fall after the FDA authorized the shot.

Visit BigPharmaNews.com for more stories about Pfizer and GSK.

Watch Dr. Sam Bailey talking about the RSV vaccine up-sell in the video below.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

FDA panel unanimously supports new RSV antibody drug for infants.

Experts tell RFK, Jr. concerning RSV vaccines: "We have to stop these shots!"

Big Pharma companies racing to be the first to launch an approved RSV vaccine.

THE NEXT VAX: Big Pharma pushing to release ANOTHER mRNA "vaccine," this one for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus.)

VACCINE FEARMONGERING: NBC pushing RSV propaganda to drive division between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Brighteon.com
The Indian automotive market is buzzing and both demand and sales have touched new highs since Covid-19-related restrictions began to be eased. The positive momentum is being witnessed across vehicle categories and the boom time is expected to remain. But across the length and breadth of the country, some states and union territories are witnessing higher sales volumes than others. Topping the lists are Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

As per data revealed by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states with the highest number of vehicles sold across categories between April and June of this year. Maharashtra was placed second while Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat complete the top-five. Interestingly, Bihar is placed sixth, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Telangana.

Also Read : Boom time continues in Indian automotive market

When it comes to sales of passenger vehicles (cars), Maharashtra (12 per cent) manages to snatch the crown from Uttar Pradesh (10 per cent). Both states exchange positions, followed by Karnataka (8 per cent) and Gujarat (eight per cent. Next on the list are Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan Kerala and Telangana, each with eight per cent of overall sales in the country. Delhi's presence is particularly interesting because it is essentially the only city in the list.

Uttar Pradesh once again has a sizeable lead when it comes to sales of two-wheelers, accounting for 17 per cent of overall volumes in the country, followed by 9 per cent for Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu (eight per cent) is next, followed by Karnataka and Bihar with seven per cent share each.

The see-saw battle continues as Maharashtra tops the list of states where most commercial vehicles are sold while Uttar Pradesh comes second. The north-Indian state once again tops the list of states where three-wheelers are most sold, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra as joint second.

First Published Date:
COINCIDENCE? Newly acquired Planned Parenthood building looks like Aztec child sacrifice pyramid for the blood-thirsty Satanic deity Tlaloque

Planned Parenthood's main function is to prevent families from ever forming, as they perform more and more abortions every year, totaling close to 400,000 in 2020, about 30,000 more than the year before. In fact, that same year, abortions made up more than 96 percent of PP's " pregnancy resolution services ," meaning their "counseling" and helping women "plan" for parenthood coerces 96 out of every hundred pregnant women to abort their baby. How is that "planning for parenthood?"

Meanwhile, prenatal services, miscarriage care, and adoption referrals make up the rest of their services. PP reports over $2.1 billion in assets and $1.7 billion in income. Is PP really just a cult that brainwashes women into aborting their babies as part of a population reduction agenda?

Is PP a racist organization, since their centers are highly concentrated in metropolitan cities, where black folks make up more of the populace? Also, if PP is a cult organization that hates new life, are they also an atheist-based cult that sacrifices the fetuses they abort to Satan? Their latest building they've acquired seems to support this theory, as it closely resembles an Aztec pyramid where children WERE sacrificed to the 'gods.' It's time to take a closer look.

Like several other indigenous peoples, the Aztecs made human sacrifices to the bloodthirsty 'gods.' In America, we have white supremacists who also make child sacrifices, but they call it "healthcare" (abortions) and "vaccines." Oftentimes, after killing a fetus or newborn child, the organs are sold on the black market to biotechnology companies for lab testing new GMO products and vaccines.

In America, some of the sacrificial 'temples' and 'pyramids' are disguised as healthcare facilities or "Planned Parenthood" clinics, where pregnant women can plan NOT to have a family by killing their pregnancy and helping with fake climate change by reducing or limiting the human population of earth. Kanye West calls PP a "Holocaust museum for Black babies."

Savage nations, including America, continue to build "shrines" for sacrificing children to Lucifer and Biotech

Though the United States is obviously a developed nation, with laws and police, there are still many ways for corporations to skirt those laws and execute humans, especially under the guise of medicine, healthcare, and vaccines. Newborn children and babies still living in their mother's body are very susceptible to overdoses from known neurotoxins. Also, many mothers, especially new ones, can be coerced by the evil pharma shills at PP to abort the baby, which is in the best interest of biotech and the climate change cult.

Maybe that's why the new PP building looks like an Aztec child-sacrifice pyramid. You be the judge. Did they buy this on purpose for their ongoing rituals? Is it some kind of sick joke? The new Planned Parenthood mega-abortion center in Houston, Texas is nearly a perfect match for the child-sacrifice temple of the Aztecs.

Don't forget, Planned Parenthood was FOUNDED by a white supremacist racist named Margaret Sanger, who said that black people are like "weeds" that infest the population. You see, PP has always been about keeping black people from having many babies, and that's most likely still their mission today. Why would they change, especially with Bill Gates pushing his toxic population-reduction vaccines (that contain sterility chemicals) so hard in Africa?

Keep your truth news in check by adding Preparedness.news to your favorites list and tuning in daily for updates on real news about surviving and thriving the Democrat plan to reduce the population through climate change scams, deadly vaccines, and child sacrifice centers called Planned Parenthood.

Sources for this article include:

Censored.news

NaturalNews.com

WLTreport.com

LozierInstitute.org
Poland alerts NATO, sends more troops to border after accusing Belarus of violating its airspace

Poland's Ministry of Defense is claiming that at least two Belarusian military helicopters violated Polish airspace during a training exercise.

The Belarusian government had earlier informed the Polish Defense Ministry that it was conducting military training exercises. But this did not stop Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak from reacting to the alleged violation of Polish sovereignty by deploying even more troops to the border with Belarus. (Related: Powder keg Europe: Poland moves troops to Belarus border  Russias Putin vows to protect Belarusian allies, says Polish want to annex Ukrainian territory.)

Poland had initially denied the incursion before finally admitting that the alleged crossing of two helicopters happened near the border village of Bialowieza. The flight reportedly occurred at a very low altitude, hampering detection by Polish radar systems.

Polish residents reported the alleged crossing and posted photos and videos of it on social media. The Polish government claims to have already informed its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of the border crossing.

Blaszczak noted that Belarus' charge d'affaires in Poland was "immediately summoned" to explain the situation, and that Warsaw had "issued a firm protest" against the incursion.

"The Polish side emphasized that the incident is perceived as another element of the escalation of tension on the Polish-Belarusian border," said the Foreign Ministry in a statement. "Poland expects Belarus to refrain from such activities."

Poland's Defense Ministry later warned that it was sending "additional forces and resources, including combat helicopters" to the border.

Belarus denies violating Polish territory

The Armed Forces of Belarus denied any such violation of Polish territory, and accused Poland of inventing the accusation to justify a buildup of its troops on the border.

"This statement was not backed up by data from Poland," said the Belarusian Ministry of Defense in a statement disseminated through official Telegram channels. "The Belarusian Defense Ministry views it in the manner of an 'old wives' tale' and notes there were no border violations by Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters."

"Accusations of a violation of the Polish border by Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense Forces are far-fetched and made by the Polish military and political leadership to justify the build-up of forces and means at the Belarusian border," the Defense Ministry added.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry also accused Warsaw of changing its mind about whether or not the incursion actually happened "apparently after consulting its overseas masters," referring to NATO and the United States.

Tensions between Belarus and Poland have been escalating in recent weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin even claimed that Poland may be harboring territorial ambitions on Belarus, warning that any attack on its neighbor would be considered an attack on Moscow itself.

More recently, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sounded the alarm after he claimed that a group of at least 100 Russian Wagner Group mercenaries had been stationed close to the Belarusian side of the border. In response, Poland began moving at least 1,000 of its own troops closer to its side of the border.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has admitted to the presence of Wagner mercenaries, mockingly informing Poland that it should thank him for keeping them in check since many of the fighters were keen to press into Poland and "go on a trip to Warsaw."

Follow WWIII.news for more news about the ongoing tension between Belarus and Poland.

Watch the video below to know why Poland moved thousands of its troops near its border with Belarus.

This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.

More related articles:

Putin: Russia will deploy tactical NUCLEAR WEAPONS in Belarus by early July.

Putin to deploy tactical nuclear missiles in neighboring Belarus following increased Western provocations.

Next phase of Russias war against Ukraine begins as trainloads of troops pour into Moscow ally Belarus.

Sources include:

Express.co.uk

DW.com

TheGuardian.com

Brighteon.com
Alberta court rules that covid actions pushed by minister of health were INVALID and illegal

Canadian Judge B.E. Romaine has ruled that the cabinet and government committees of Alberta broke the law when they made final decisions about orders during the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) "pandemic."

The cabinet and committees were supposed to relent to whatever decisions would be made by Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) Dr. Deena Hinshaw in accordance with the Public Health Act, but instead acted of their own accord.

"The Public Health Act requires that decisions with respect to public health orders must be made by the CMOH, or her statutorily authorized delegate," the decision reads.

"The final decisions implemented by the impugned orders in this case were made by the cabinet of the government of Alberta or by committees of cabinet. While the CMOH made recommendations and implemented the decisions of the cabinet and committees through the impugned orders, she deferred the final decision making to cabinet."

The decision goes on to clarify that while Hinshaw herself was personally maligned during the scamdemic and long afterwards for being "the symbol of the restrictions," it was not, in fact, she who was "the final decision-maker," Romaine wrote.

Delegating Hinshaw's ultimate decision-making authority to the cabinet stands in direct violation of Section 29 of the Public Health Act. Had the plandemic-related orders been "validly enacted by the CMOH," then it would have been a different story and the rulings would have been constitutional.

(Related: The number-one killer in Alberta right now is death from "ill-defined and unknown causes," meaning covid "vaccines.")

Canadian politicians broke the law with covid mandates

According to plaintiffs in the case, their Charter rights were infringed upon by the public health orders during the pandemic. These rights include the right to freely gather, which was overridden by the Alberta government's restrictions on indoor gatherings, quarantine requirements, business closures, and mask mandates.

All of this was filed as part of a suit in 2020, and is just now being ruled upon by the Canadian court system.

"While they may have infringed certain of the applicants' rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11 and the Alberta Bill of Rights, RSA 2000, c A-14, these limitations were amply and demonstrably justified as reasonable limits in a free and democratic society pursuant to Section 1 of the Charter and that they were enacted pursuant to a valid legislative purpose," the judge found.

Romaine concluded that at all moments when the impugned orders were in force, there was "a pressing and substantial legislative objective." She further highlighted that the Public Health Act's definition of a public health emergency does include "an epidemic or pandemic disease ... that poses a significant risk to the public health."

In one section of the judge's 90-page decision, she stated that removing the mask mandate in Alberta schools was a decision made by politicians rather than the CMOH, which is a violation of the law.

"In conclusion, I declare that the impugned orders were ultra vires of the Public Health Act because they were based on an interpretation of the Public Health Act that gave final decision-making authority over public health orders to elected officials," the judge wrote, "ultra vires" being a Latin term for "beyond the powers" or "exceed the scope."

Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor on the faculty at Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, commented that she would not be at all surprised if the current Alberta government revisited the Public Health Act to shift some powers away from the CMOH to the cabinet.

The latest news about the fight to hold the covid criminals responsible for their crimes against humanity can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

GlobalNews.ca

Newstarget.com
COLLUSION: Biden regime ordered Facebook to tweak algorithms to suppress Republicans

As part of the ongoing proceedings of the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into Biden regime corruption, it was revealed this week that the cabinet of fake president Joe Biden pressured social media giant Facebook into altering its algorithms to punish conservative sites from having their content visible on the platform.

Numerous meetings between Facebook executives and White House Digital Director Rob Flaherty in the spring of 2021 involved Biden's folks demanding that Mark Zuckerberg and his employees crack down on all Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) posts and information that the regime deemed as "misinformation."

In one particular meeting that took place on April 14, 2021, Flaherty asked Facebook if it was possible to artificially promote "news" stories from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other left-leaning media outlets in order to overtake more popular stories from Fox News and the Daily Wire.

For whatever reason, the Biden regime really wanted to stop the work of conservative commentator Tomi Lahren from spreading and going viral on Facebook. It petitioned Facebook to basically block Lahren's posts and content from being shared.

"If you were to change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see NYT, WSJ, any authoritative news source over Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people," Flaherty asked Facebook executives, according to typed notes. "You wouldn't have a mechanism to check the material impact?"

"We have to explain to President, Ron [Klain], people, why there is misinfo on the internet, bigger problem than FB. Where issues are, what interventions are, how well they are working, for products, want to engage in things that you know to be effective. I don't even care about specific methodology, you have better, richer data than well ever have."

(Related: Learn more about what Biden and his cronies have been up to in the Facebook Files.)

Biden's people bullied Facebook employees into censoring user content

At the time, Lahren, who had a very large following on Facebook, had announced that she would not be getting "vaccinated" with the gene therapy offerings of Operation Warp Speed, the fast-tracked jab program unveiled and pushed by former President Donald Trump.

The Daily Wire at the time had also filed a lawsuit against the Biden regime over its covid jab mandates for private workplaces, which were forcing their employees to take the shots because of Biden's demands.

As we know, the Supreme Court eventually struck down Biden's workplace mandate while still upholding the mandate for all facilities that are funded by either Medicare or Medicaid.

"What are the things driving hesitancy on your platform? What is it? How big is the problem? When you are intervening, how are you measuring success?" Flaherty said, continuing to grill Facebook's employees about the matter.

Commenting on the situation, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said that Facebook, now owned by Meta, did comply with the Biden regime's demands, at least to some degree.

"Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House," Jordan tweeted.

Constitutional scholar and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has since petitioned Congress to pass a law barring federal employees from engaging in censorship and the targeting of citizens.

"Agencies have a right to speak in their own voices," Turley said. Instead, the Biden Administration sought to engage in what I have called 'censorship through surrogate.' This is part of that pattern."

The latest news about the Biden regime's collusion with Big Tech to censor Americans and deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights can be found at Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

AMGreatness.com

Newstarget.com
Biden setting stage for SECOND round of medical martial law

The regime of fake president Joe Biden is setting in stone a new "permanent" federal agency to handle future "pandemics"  because the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) was only just the beginning.

Called the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), the agency was hastily and quietly established on July 21 to handle whatever the globalists have in store for the world as the next Covid 2.0 event.

It would seem as though the three-year covid psy-op was merely a test run to iron out the kinks for the next much bigger psy-op even. Covid was the catalyst for implementing the OPPR, much like how the 9/11 terrorist attacks were the catalyst for the Bush regime to establish the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The way it works is the government stages an "emergency" or "disaster" that is then uses as an excuse to expand the government's power. 9/11 brought about airport tyranny (i.e., naked body scanners, pat downs) while covid is bringing about the OPPR, which will oversee enforcement of the next round of masking, lockdowns, and forced injections.

(Related: People injured by covid "vaccines" are suing the Biden regime for forcing them to get it.)

All this is a product of Donald Trump and his Operation Warp Speed scheme

Just like Operation Warp Speed under Donald "father of the vaccine" Trump was headed up by the U.S. military, the OPPR will be overseen by a retired Air Force Maj. General by the name of Paul Friedrichs.

Even though Biden promised months ago that covid was done and over, his regime felt the need to establish the OPPR and put a military general in charge of it. What do they know is coming that the rest of the world is unaware of?

"By creating this new office and emphasizing that it will be 'permanent,' this is a red flag that should have our keen attention," warns Leo Hohmann. "Is the government, still drunk with new powers gained from the last pandemic, telegraphing to us plebeians that another pandemic is right around the corner?"

Recall that in a May 15, 2020, news release from then-President Trump's Department of Defense (DoD), it was announced that Gen. Gustave F. Perna, another military general, had been appointed as CEO of Operation Warp Speed, which was Trump's fast-tracked unleashing of covid "vaccines."

When Trump announced the launch of Operation Warp Speed, he specified that it was about getting covid jabs out to the masses quickly. What many people missed, however, is that Operation Warp Speed also deals with future "pandemics," going hand in hand with the new OPPR.

"You know it's a massive job to give this vaccine," Trump stated at the time in an interview with Fox Business Network.

"Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year, we're going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly."

Trump created the "vaccine" and fast-tracked its release before handing off the baton to Biden to mandate the shots. Now, we are seeing how Operation Warp Speed was the predecessor to the OPPR, going hand in hand with the agenda to subdue the masses under medical fascism once the next "emergency" arrives.

"After initially criticizing what Trump had done in terms of 'operation warp speed,' Joe Biden, once he took office, continued the Trump policy of militarizing and pressurizing the vaccine rollout," Hohmann explains.

"The aforementioned military operation was so successful that the Biden administration is now making it permanent and taking it to the next level."

What will the next Covid 2.0 "pandemic" event entail? Learn more at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

LeoHohmann.com

Newstarget.com
Chinese ambassador to Russia claims peace with Ukraine is impossible if NATO continues expansion plans

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) expansion into Europe is the key reason for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine

In an interview with Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Zhang claimed that the military bloc led by the United States has been "fanning the flames [of conflict] everywhere, destroying stability and engaging in separatism." He then blamed the U.S. and NATO for past and present conflicts in Kosovo, Libya and Afghanistan.

Zhang further claimed that the five recent NATO expansions into Eastern Europe has "seriously affected the post-Cold War order and security [situation] in Europe and became the main reason for the escalation in the Ukraine crisis." (Related: Zelensky warns war is coming to Russia as Moscow downs three more Ukrainian drones.)

"Being a Cold War relic, NATO should have ceased to exist when the Cold War ended," he added. Zhang then lamented how NATO was allowed to keep prospering by instigating conflicts all over the world.

"Facts show that wherever NATO extends its diabolical hands, there will be no peace and people will be dying," he said.

Russia has for years called on the U.S. to halt NATO's expansion, calling it a threat to Russian national security. President Vladimir Putin himself noted that the possibility of Ukraine eventually joining the military bloc was one of the key reasons for the special military operation in the country.

Kyiv itself has for years been speaking publicly about its ambition to join NATO and it even formally applied to join the bloc last fall. However, NATO itself seems reluctant to approve Ukraine's application, citing the ongoing hostilities. U.S. President Joe Biden himself said he does not think Ukraine "is ready for membership in NATO," claiming that it takes a long time for applicants to meet all of the bloc's qualifications.

NATO also planning to expand to Asia Pacific

In his interview with TASS, Zhang noted that in recent years NATO has also begun setting its sights on expanding into the Asia Pacific region under the guise of helping countries exercise their right to collective defense, a strategy that he said "causes great concern and strong objections from the regional countries."

Speaking for the Chinese communist government in Beijing, Zhang called on NATO to not stay rooted in its Cold War mentality and drop its plans to expand into the Asia Pacific region.

"The Cold War mentality and confrontation between the camps have long run counter to the demands of modern times," said Zhang, adding that NATO's regional expansion "will only increase regional tensions, widen the trust gap  provoke a stand-off between different camps and even a new Cold War."

"We insist that NATO meet the calls of the times, heed the calls of Asia Pacific countries for peace and development, adjust its erroneous attitude, drop the Cold War mentality and refrain from moving to the Asia Pacific Region," Zhang warned.

Zhang's warnings come as China raises more and more concerns about the possibility that U.S.-aligned nations in the Asia Pacific region  especially Japan  entertain the notion that they may one day become NATO members.

Without naming the other countries involved, Zhang warned Japan "and other courtiers" to "learn the lessons of history in full" by not even entertaining the possibility of participating in NATO's expansion into the Asia Pacific. This, he claimed, will only "undermine peace and stability in the region."

"Like they say: Let the wolf into the sheepfold, it will take a bite on every sheep," said Zhang.

This warning came after, earlier this year, NATO considered opening a liaison office in Japan. Tokyo reportedly considered the idea before it was shot down by French President Emmanuel Macron, who wanted to soothe France's relations with China right before his trip there.

If NATO had proceeded with this plan, it would have become the bloc's first such facility in the Asia Pacific.

Beijing itself has warned that, if NATO proceeds with any other potential expansion plans into Asia, it would show a "resolute response" to "safeguard its sovereignty." Beijing added that "any actions that damage China's legitimate rights and interests" will be met with "a resolute response" to "safeguard its sovereignty."

Learn more about conflicts around the world at WWIII.news.

Watch this clip from Red Voice Media discussing how U.S. foreign policy and NATO expansion are pushing China and Russia into becoming closer allies.

This video is from the Red Voice Media channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Ukraine received $1.25 billion grant from US taxpayers to pay the wages of government employees.

Nearly half of "foreign policy experts" who signed letter seeking more weapons for Ukraine are tied to lucrative defense industry.

The outcome of Ukraine's war with Russia will determine whether it achieves NATO membership.

Ukraine's Zelensky loses it after being told NATO will not admit his country and immediately start WWIII.

DOUBLE AGENT? China supplies drones to both Ukraine and Russia.

Sources include:

RT.com

BigNewsNetwork.com

TASS.com

RT.com 2

Brighteon.com
Hunter Biden implicated in a laundry list of corrupt overseas business practices as father Joe Biden intimately involved

The current occupants of the White House have lorded over the most corrupt and criminal family enterprise since the days the Mafia was running entire cities.

According to a series of reports this week -- based on hard data gleaned from Hunter Biden's infamous laptop; from sources with knowledge of the Biden family's inner workings; from whistleblowers who have provided congressional testimony under oath; and from previous revelations -- it is patently clear that President Joe Biden, his son, his brother, and perhaps even other members of his family are likely guilty of a range of crimes including taking bribes and illegally acting as a representative of a foreign government.

"The information lays out a laundry list of potential foreign influence violations that span China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Kazakhstan, Mexico and other Latin American countries," DailyMail.com reported earlier this week.

The report on Monday added:

The new legal peril for Hunter, 53, comes on the day his former partner Devon Archer is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee where he is expected to tell of alleged links between then Vice President Joe Biden and Hunters murky web of international business contacts.

Hunters lawyers thought he would be let off the hook when he appeared in court in Delaware last week but Trump-appointed federal Judge Maryellen Noreika threw out a plea deal that had been slammed as a slap on the wrist.'

That meant a separate diversion deal that would have ensured no further prosecutions on issues probed by Delaware prosecutor David Weiss also fell by the wayside.

DailyMail.com has unearthed evidence of Hunter's international business engagements that appear to tread dangerously close to violating the anti-foreign lobbying act. Some of these dealings even involve his father, Joe Biden.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com in November last year, a whistleblower asserted that he was on a 2012 phone call with the then-vice president and Hunter Biden, discussing an online gambling business in Latin America.

"With the direct observations I had, it's obvious Joe was participating in the business," the source told the outlet. "He wasn't passive, he was talking about it. If I had to describe him, he was like a member of the Board of Directors."

Attorney Jeff Cooper, who was involved in the gambling venture alongside Hunter Biden, is said to have been present on the call. He is not only a Biden family friend but also a long-time significant donor to the president. He called the source's claims a "complete fabrication."

But according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Archer's closed-door testimony on Monday essentially supported the DailyMail.com's source.

In fact, Archers statements established a real quid pro quo," Comer claimed -- not like the supposed quid pro quo with Ukraine that led to then-President Donald Trump's impeachment by the Democrat-controlled House.

Archer allegedly informed the Oversight Committee that in December 2015, Hunter Biden faced pressure to leverage his connections in order to address Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma Holdings, the firm that employed Joe Biden's son at the time.

Archer contended that the company's survival hinged on the intervention of the Biden family; at the time, then-President Barack Obama had put then-Vice President Joe Biden in charge of handling U.S. affairs with Ukraine.

The GOP chairman recalled that [i]ts just unbelievableWeve brought forward, a few weeks ago, an FBI document that alleges that Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme for this very scenarioNow we know, despite Joe Biden saying he never had any knowledge of any of this, that he regularly spoke on the phone with the owners of these companies.

When in American history has a vice president ever taken an active role and demanded that a prosecutor be fired in a foreign country for simply investigating a business that was domiciled in that foreign country? Never. The evidence continues to mount that the real quid pro quo pertaining to Ukraine in Burisma was Joe Biden," Comer added in an interview with Just The News.

Comer went on to say that Joe Biden got Shokin fired because he was closing in on his son through the Burisma corruption investigations.

I think that was basically what we learned today, and, you know, more and more people are going to come forward now, Comer noted, referencing Archer's supposed testimony.

The evidence of potential wrongdoing by the Biden family in Ukraine raises significant questions about the foundation of Trump's first impeachment; Trump was accused of misconduct in a phone call with President Zelensky, where he inquired about Biden's alleged actions in connection to Burisma.

The Kentucky Republican argued that phone conversations between Hunter and Joe Biden were evidence of influence peddling and that [t]hey were selling access to Joe, and I think most people in America would have a problem with that.

It was also mentioned that Joe Biden met with that Russian oligarchI dont know that we knew that. And yet, that Russian oligarch was one of the few oligarchs, the only oligarch that didnt get sanctioned by Joe Biden," Comer continued.

And then you look at the decision as vice president where he went on TV and admitted and bragged about firing the prosecutor. Those are two decisions Joe Biden made as president and vice president that was counter to the best interests of the American people, but where he put the Biden family first and America last," said Comer.

Sources include:

JustTheNews.com

DailyMail.co.uk
Top 5 most LIKELY EVENTS the Democrats will stage or invoke to cheat for another 4 years while running the show from Washington D.C.

As Resident Biden's mental and physical health declines rapidly, the Democrats are using the mass media complex to hide it the best they can, but their time is running out quickly. In fact, Resident Biden may not even be a viable candidate for POTUS in the next few months, as he so often forgets where he is, who he is, how to walk, how to keep his hands and nose off other people's children, and how to avoid saying the "quiet part" out loud. This means Biden must be replaced, and soon, before he gets impeached, dies, or screws up on camera to the extent that it cannot be covered up by fake news.

Replacing C3PO-Biden will not be a difficult task

Replacing C3PO-Biden will not be a difficult task, since he only serves as a puppet front-man for Obama, Soros, and the Chinese Communist Party. Any yes-man or yes-woman, or even yes-tranny will suffice as the new Puppet-in-Chief of the USA, but other key factors must be put into place, because the POTUS election, and many swing state elections for congressional seats will also be key for the CCP-Democrats to keep their stolen seats.

If World War III kicks into high gear, the Democrats will be able to postpone the elections indefinitely, claiming it's not safe to go to the polling places (like they did with the Fauci Flu Plandemic).

If the electricity and internet are completely wiped out of service due to some electro-magnetic explosion in space, that wipes out the satellites or blocks their service for months or years on end, that would also keep the Democrats in control, during the complete mayhem, mass rioting, mass looting, and mass crime in all major cities (just the way they like it).

If the number one contender, Donald J. Trump, is sent to prison before the election, that may be enough to secure a new Puppet-in-Chief of the Democrat's choosing. After all, the Democrats do NOT want the January 6'ers to be released from prison, as this is their main scare tactic to keep all conservative Americans from rebelling during future Democrat-controlled election fraud.

Currently, Fraudulent Fauci and Genocide Bill (Gates) are working very hard to fund a new pandemic, spread by lab leaks, chemtrails, mosquitoes, vaccines, or vax-patches (or all of the above). This will enable everyone who is on mandatory lockdown to vote from home and mail in their ballots, which will be mixed into boxes of falsified ballots from Communist China by the tens of millions, just like in 2020. Combine this with more flipping of thousands of votes in swing states by the Pelosi-funded Dominion voting machines, and you've got another stolen election brought to you by the insidious globalists, big pharma, and the military industrial complex.

Top 5 most likely events the Democrats must stage or invoke to continue the communist overthrow of the U.S. government for another 4 years

#1. Biden will have a health catastrophe so they can run somebody else, like Gavin Newsom.

#2. Some massive "attack" will be staged or happen that resembles WWIII so the POTUS election can be indefinitely delayed.

#3. An EMP explosion or similar event will take down the internet and banking system before the election.

#4. Trump will be (unjustifiably) jailed and unable to run for President.

#5. There will be a NEW VIRUS or disease unleashed that's even worse than Covid-19, so the Democrats can use tens of millions of fake mail-in ballots again (combined with the cheating machines).

Bookmark Censored.news to your favorite websites for truth news that's being censored from the rest of media as you read this.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

Censored.news
The severe weather risk is not yet over in the Midwest, as rounds of flooding, rainfall and thunderstorms could hit this week. There is a possibility of isolated tornadoes.

People with travel plans should observe the weather outlook before leaving their homes, as a severe outlook could lead to slower commutes and dangerous travel.

Recently, Nature World News (NWN) reported that over 60 million Americans in the Midwest were at risk of rounds of severe thunderstorms.

The early start of August erupted oppressive heat conditions in parts of the country, causing dangerous heat and health concerns. July noted as the hottest month on record due to soaring temperatures, according to the United Nations News.

Severe weather outlook in the Midwest

In the recent AccuWeather forecast, rainy conditions were expected in Midwest on Sunday, especially in Minneapolis, Detroit, Sioux Falls, and Omaha.

On the same day, AccuWeather warned of possible isolated tornadoes and flooding downpours in Des Moines, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Birmingham.

The forecast said the rain could lead to slower commutes and travel disruptions in the early week.

In addition, the forecast noted the potential risk of multiple tornadoes.

Meanwhile, the NWS Eastern Region reported that thunderstorms and damaging winds could unload in Eastern US, Southern and Central Appalachians and Mid-Atlanic.

Furthermore, the NWS Raleigh showed that severe thunderstorms could reach portions near I-95.

Moreover, the advisory added that large hail and local flash flooding could be likely.

Meanwhile, the NWS Tornado showed that tornado watch was present in portions of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa.

The NWS Weather Prediction Center said Central US could likely experience heavy rainfall. Dry conditions are expected in portions of the Southwest.

Preparing for the severe weather risk

Heavy rainfall and flash floods could result in dangerous situations. Americans should keep updated with the weather outlook this week.

Here are essential reminders to keep safe from the weather.

Watch out for flooding watch and concerns

Homeowners near flood-prone areas should stay alert for the rapid rise of sea or river water. Homeowners should immediately evacuate when officials announce.

Secure your outdoor equipment

The latest weather showed that strong or damaging could be likely this week. Homeowners should secure all their outdoor equipment to avoid being blown away.

Furthermore, regular roof checking is recommended, as the hurricane season has already started.

Limit outdoor activities

Homeowners should limit any outdoor activities. Motorists could expect slower commutes and travel disruptions. Driving slowly under rainy conditions is essential to prevent road accidents.

Prepare emergency kits

A car and home emergency kits are essential during severe weather conditions or powerful hurricanes.

Roads can become inaccessible and widespread power outages are also possible. Emergency kits are helpful or a life-saver.

Also Read: Alarming Honeybees Deaths Linked to Extreme Heat in Arizona

Did you know?

According to NOAA, Hurricanes can form in tropical waters, which can develop in warm oceans. When hurricanes strengthen, they are seen moving in a circular motion called closed circulation.

Related Article: US Weather Forecast: 60 Million People Under Severe Weather Risk in Midwest; Isolated Tornadoes Possible This Weekend

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature World News.
Scotland is home to rich and diverse wildlife, including the majestic sea eagles, also known as white-tailed eagles.

These large birds of prey were once extinct in the British Isles, but have been successfully reintroduced since the 1970s.

However, their comeback has also brought conflicts with some farmers, who accuse them of killing their lambs and other livestock.

To address this issue, a couple of falconers have come up with an innovative solution: training an ancient dog breed to deter eagle attacks.

The Maremma sheepdogs

The dog breed in question is the Maremma, a type of livestock guardian dog that originated in Italy.

These dogs have thick white coats that blend in with the sheep they protect, and they are loyal, brave, and intelligent. They have been used for centuries by shepherds to fend off wolves and other predators.

Jonny and Daisy Ames, who run a falconry near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, decided to use Maremmas to guard their own sheep from the sea eagles.

They also started a training program to teach other farmers how to use these dogs to protect their livestock, as per Phys.org.

The training involves exposing the young dogs to various stimuli that simulate the presence and behavior of the eagles.

For example, they use a drone with an eagle lure attached to it to fly over the dogs and make them alert and defensive. They also let a captive sea eagle feed from a carcass in front of the dogs, so that they can learn to associate the bird with a threat.

The aim is not to make the dogs aggressive or violent towards the eagles, but rather to make them bark and chase them away. The dogs are also taught to be gentle and friendly with humans and other animals.

Also Read: Dogs are More Than Just Pets - Here's the Proof

The benefits and challenges of using Maremmas

The Ames claims that using Maremmas has several benefits for both farmers and eagles, as per Digital Journal.

For farmers, it can reduce the loss of livestock and income, as well as the stress and frustration caused by the eagle attacks.

It can also save them time and money that would otherwise be spent on fencing, electric collars, or other deterrents.

For eagles, it can prevent them from being shot or poisoned by angry farmers, which is illegal but still happens occasionally. It can also help them coexist with humans and other wildlife in a more harmonious way.

However, using Maremmas also has some challenges and limitations. For one thing, not all farmers are willing or able to adopt these dogs, as they require a lot of space, care, and training.

Furthermore, not all eagles are deterred by these dogs, as some may be more bold or hungry than others.

Moreover, using Maremmas does not address the root causes of the conflict, such as the loss of natural prey for the eagles due to habitat degradation or overfishing.

Therefore, Ames acknowledges that using Maremmas is not a perfect or permanent solution, but rather a complementary and experimental one.

They hope that their initiative will raise awareness and stimulate dialogue among different stakeholders, such as conservationists, farmers, government agencies, and the public.

They also hope that their initiative will inspire more research and innovation in finding more effective and sustainable ways of managing human-wildlife conflicts.

Related article: How to Choose a Comfortable and Colored Bed for Your Dog
Beijing (Gasgoo)- MoldTecs Automotive Systems (Taicang) Co., Ltd. held its opening ceremony in Chengxiang Town, Taicang, a county-level city in southeast Jiangsu Province on August 2nd.

Photo credit: MoldTecs

MoldTecs is the first Chinese factory invested by Mutares Fund to produce high-performance plastic components for the automotive industry. The project is expected to achieve an annual output value of over 500 million yuan and contribute more than 20 million yuan in taxes after reaching full production capacity.

The factory is located in the Sino-Europe Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Park in Taicang. It occupies a leased area of 10,000 square meters and has a total investment of 25 million euros with a registered capital of 10 million euros. It mainly produces automotive plastic intake manifolds, charge air duct, cylinder head cover, coolant tank, cooling module and wash tank, and will gradually expanding into the field of pure electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel vehicles. Renowned brands such as BMW, General Motors, Volkswagen, and Nissan are among their customers.

Heiko Baufeld, MoldTecs's Co-CEO, revealed that the decision to establish a factory in Taicang was based on the favorable regional location and the availability of comprehensive suppliers and customers. Moreover, there provides access to a skilled workforce capable of meeting the production and engineering requirements of the company.

We are also grateful for the support and assistance from the local government in establishing our facility here. In the future, we will continue to acquire new businesses, develop new products and technologies, and further expand the factory's production capacity, said Heiko Baufeld.

MoldTecs was established and renamed after the Mutares Fund acquired the global high-performance plastic components business of Mann-Hummel in October 2022. In addition to the new Chinese factory in Taicang, it also operates two factories in Germany, one in France and one under planning in United States. Additionally, it also has sales offices in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, India, and China. As a primary supplier of high-performance plastic components in the automotive industry, its operations and production span across the globe, with global revenue exceeding 500 million euros.
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck China leaving at least 24 individuals injured and damaging more than 100 residences.

A South China Morning Post report said the earthquake had jolted Pingyuan county that is located in eastern China's Shandong province early Sunday morning.

Citing the China Earthquake Networks Center, a CNN report said the quake struct with a ten kilometers depth at the epicenter.

Read Also: At Least 65 People Dead as 6.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Southwestern China

Fatalities, damages

Authorities said the wounded individuals were from the cities of Dezhou and Liaocheng.

According to the state broadcaster China Central Television, there were 126 residences that collapsed because of the powerful earthquake.

Fortunately, no fatalities have been reported.

The earthquake prompted emergency response and rescue teams to be dispatched in affected areas.

Meanwhile, residents of Beijing also felt and encountered tremors over the 300 kilometers from the epicenter. Luckily, no damage was reported in the China capital.

A report on Associated Press narrated how Dezhou residents ran outdoors from their homes to save themselves from the strong earthquake. Some videos posted on social media had shown how bricks fell from the cracked walls of homes and buildings.

Geologist Fan Xiao had explained that the collapse and destruction of more than 100 houses has shown problems when it comes to the way or manner of how they were constructed.

"If they collapsed in a magnitude 5.5 quake, it means the seismic design of the buildings is not up to standard," Fan said in the SCMP report.

Fan said that Pingyuan county was geologically part of the North China Plain, noting that the area, when traced, is not the most seismically active or destructive place in Shandong's history.

After the tremors, individuals were seen sitting along the sidewalks.

Officials said a total of 74 buildings had collapsed in the epicenter.

To ensure safety of commuters, authorities also inspected train lines for possible damage due to the earthquake.

Furthermore, the China Railway Beijing Group said a number of operations on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line have been delayed or suspended as this passes along the earthquake zone.

The CCTV had also reported that the gas service was shutdown in some areas because of the damage in their pipelines.

Strongest to hit

The Ministry of Emergency Management has already activated a Level IV emergency response status following the strong earthquake.

The recent earthquake was considered to be the strongest that hit the province in more than a decade.

So far, authorities had recorded a total of 59 aftershocks.

The SCMP report cited Liu Xiqiang, who is the deputy director of the Shandong Earthquake Agency, saying that it was the first time that an earthquake of magnitude 5 or higher had jolted within 50 kilometers of the county.

Liu, however, noted that the possibility of experiencing a bigger aftershock was low.

On the other hand, Fan noted that Shandong's biggest danger is the Tan-Lu fault across the eastern part of the province, adding that this area should be monitored constantly by authorities.

Meanwhile, officials in Shandong province already launched a joint command with the local government to begin relief operations to assist the affected residents of the earthquake.

Related Article: Large Earthquakes Show Fault Movement on GPS Data 2 Hours Prior Seismic Rupture

Related Video:


Bible teacher Phil Moore to speak in Kings Lynn Bible teacher Phil Moore to speak in Kings Lynn

Phil Moore will be the main speaker at this years Word on the Wash convention to be held at the Kings Centre, Kings Lynn on Saturday, September 30.

is a free Christian event open to all. This year's event will be held from 10:30am to 3:45pm on Saturday September 30 at King's Centre Church, King's Lynn.Headliningthe day will be, a writer, speaker and teacher based in London. Phil is the author of "The Bible in 100 Pages" and the "Straight to the Heart" series of devotional commentaries.
An interesting alliance has been struck, with Nvidia partnering with IT consultancy Accenture and helpdesk vendor ServiceNow to offer what the vendors are calling the AI Lighthouse, a program designed to help ServiceNow customers quickly adopt generative AI tools.

The IT service management and customer service markets seem a natural fit for generative AI. When customers or employees need help with something, thats where generative AI can shine.

AI Lighthouse is designed to allow ServiceNow customers to build and deploy custom generative AI large language models (LLM) and applications to advance their business goals.

Nvidia brings the AI hardware and software resources, and Accenture brings the IT talent and consulting experience to deploy the technology on ServiceNow's enterprise automation platform and engine.

ServiceNow already offers various AI tools to its customers, such as software that uses natural language processing (NLP) to answer user questions 24/7 through chat bots, as well as a no-code method for creating and deploying new language models.

Nvidia brings its DGX AI supercomputers and DGX Cloud platforms to the table, along with its NeMo software, which it says will provide AI Lighthouse users with fullstack computing for model training and tuning, while Accenture will leverage its deep functional and industry knowledge and generative AI strategy. The company recently committed $3 billion in investment money to AI.

The goal of the AI Lighthouse program is to:

Reduce tedious manual work for customer service professionals by helping them solve problems faster.

Deflect cases by promoting self-service options by using natural human language to solve the problems.

Generate content automatically, such as search results, work notes, and knowledge base articles.

Boost developer productivity with intelligent recommendations for code.

This is a transformational moment for business to revolutionize how work gets done, said ServiceNow chairman and CEO Bill McDermott in a statement. "We expect the AI Lighthouse customer program to inspire breakthrough ideas with massive ROI: return on intelligence.

The services are available now.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Monday termed the Delhi services bill "unconstitutional" and "anti-democratic" and appealed to all opposition parties in Rajya Sabha to oppose it with the warning that "someday this anti-federal knock will come" at their door too.

He accused the government of bringing the bill out of "vendetta" and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, will replace an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

Initiating a discussion on the bill, which was moved by Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said no government in the past had ever tried to overrule the status of the Delhi government and accused the current dispensation of being a "control freak".

"This bill is completely unconstitutional. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is a frontal assault on the regional voice and the regional aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability, all models of assembly-based democracy. It violates the basic structure," he asserted.

ALSO READ | Not a single valid argument made by Shah in favour of Bill, says Kejriwal

He said that no government since 1992, when Delhi's special constitutional status was created, tried to overrule two judgments of the Supreme Court constitution bench on the status of National Capital Territory.

"This government and this bill have done it all, something not done earlier," he said, adding such a step has now been taken because of the "control freak" nature of the government whose "visiting card appears to be vendetta, whose identity badge is of a graceless and fuming electoral loser."

He said the approach of the government is "to control by hook or crook, usually more by crook and less by hook".

Singhvi criticised the provisions of the bill which he said seeks the "creation of an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a 'Super CM' and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies".

Stating that this is not about any particular government in the NCT, he said, "It is the deliberate regression from a people's government guaranteed to the people of Delhi 30 years ago. And hence it is a decimation of the most fundamental constitutional values."

Asking all parties to collectively rise to oppose the bill, he said, "Someday this anti-federal knock will come at your door."

This is a matter to ponder for those who are supporting this bill, he said, adding "what is happening with the Delhi government today could happen to you soon".

"        ,                      :



     -- ,

    ,     "



- Dr Singhvi on #DelhiOrdinanceBill  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) August 7, 2023

Singhvi made an apparent reference to the Nazi rule and warned those who are supporting or have announced support to the bill by quoting Martin Niemoller, "First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me and for you, and there was not one left to speak for us (sic)."

Martin Niemoller was a prominent German theologian and Lutheran pastor, who initially was a Nazi supporter but later turned an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler.

He is remembered for his postwar statement: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out."

Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP rebutted the claims of the opposition and defended the bill. He said the ordinance and subsequently the bill were required considering how the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi behaved after the Supreme Court judgement, including large-scale bureaucratic transfers and calling for various files, including confidential vigilance files.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the TMC opposed the bill and said the legislation is aimed at making the Delhi government toothless and without any real authority.

"The heavens would not have fallen if the government had waited for the constitution bench (of the Supreme Court) to deliver (its verdict). What was the urgency of bringing this ordinance?" he asked.

Roy said the bill needs to be opposed not only in Parliament but by people all across the country. "With this bill, the Delhi chief minister will be left without any real authority. In a democracy the will of the people is supreme. A duly elected CM has no power. It is a draconian bill. It is against the spirit of the Constitution and every person in the country should oppose this bill," he stated in the Upper House of Parliament.

Tiruchi Siva of the DMK said the bill infringes upon the spirit of democracy and the Constitution.

Stating that the bill is against constitutional morality, he said a state government that is elected by the people is answerable to the people.

He noted that democracy is in peril and the central government does not allow any state government to function on its own.

"If something is passed by the government, the governor does not endorse, either the central government encroaches or the governor does on its behalf," Siva said.

Sasmit Patra of the BJD, while supporting the bill, said the legislation is not against the Constitution.

V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSRCP also supported the bill.

Launching an all-out attack on the AAP, he said the party needed the power to support anti-nationals and separatists.

He said the party is unfit to govern Delhi.

Reddy termed the bill constitutionally valid.

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Monday termed the Delhi services bill "unconstitutional" and "anti-democratic" and appealed to all opposition parties in Rajya Sabha to oppose it with the warning that "someday this anti-federal knock will come" at their door too. He accused the government of bringing the bill out of "vendetta" and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, will replace an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Initiating a discussion on the bill, which was moved by Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said no government in the past had ever tried to overrule the status of the Delhi government and accused the current dispensation of being a "control freak". "This bill is completely unconstitutional. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is a frontal assault on the regional voice and the regional aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability, all models of assembly-based democracy. It violates the basic structure," he asserted. ALSO READ | Not a single valid argument made by Shah in favour of Bill, says Kejriwal He said that no government since 1992, when Delhi's special constitutional status was created, tried to overrule two judgments of the Supreme Court constitution bench on the status of National Capital Territory. "This government and this bill have done it all, something not done earlier," he said, adding such a step has now been taken because of the "control freak" nature of the government whose "visiting card appears to be vendetta, whose identity badge is of a graceless and fuming electoral loser." He said the approach of the government is "to control by hook or crook, usually more by crook and less by hook". Singhvi criticised the provisions of the bill which he said seeks the "creation of an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a 'Super CM' and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies". Stating that this is not about any particular government in the NCT, he said, "It is the deliberate regression from a people's government guaranteed to the people of Delhi 30 years ago. And hence it is a decimation of the most fundamental constitutional values." Asking all parties to collectively rise to oppose the bill, he said, "Someday this anti-federal knock will come at your door." This is a matter to ponder for those who are supporting this bill, he said, adding "what is happening with the Delhi government today could happen to you soon". "        ,                      :      -- ,     ,     " - Dr Singhvi on #DelhiOrdinanceBill  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) August 7, 2023 Singhvi made an apparent reference to the Nazi rule and warned those who are supporting or have announced support to the bill by quoting Martin Niemoller, "First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me and for you, and there was not one left to speak for us (sic)." Martin Niemoller was a prominent German theologian and Lutheran pastor, who initially was a Nazi supporter but later turned an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler. He is remembered for his postwar statement: "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out." Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP rebutted the claims of the opposition and defended the bill. He said the ordinance and subsequently the bill were required considering how the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi behaved after the Supreme Court judgement, including large-scale bureaucratic transfers and calling for various files, including confidential vigilance files. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the TMC opposed the bill and said the legislation is aimed at making the Delhi government toothless and without any real authority. "The heavens would not have fallen if the government had waited for the constitution bench (of the Supreme Court) to deliver (its verdict). What was the urgency of bringing this ordinance?" he asked. Roy said the bill needs to be opposed not only in Parliament but by people all across the country. "With this bill, the Delhi chief minister will be left without any real authority. In a democracy the will of the people is supreme. A duly elected CM has no power. It is a draconian bill. It is against the spirit of the Constitution and every person in the country should oppose this bill," he stated in the Upper House of Parliament. Tiruchi Siva of the DMK said the bill infringes upon the spirit of democracy and the Constitution. Stating that the bill is against constitutional morality, he said a state government that is elected by the people is answerable to the people. He noted that democracy is in peril and the central government does not allow any state government to function on its own. "If something is passed by the government, the governor does not endorse, either the central government encroaches or the governor does on its behalf," Siva said. Sasmit Patra of the BJD, while supporting the bill, said the legislation is not against the Constitution. V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSRCP also supported the bill. Launching an all-out attack on the AAP, he said the party needed the power to support anti-nationals and separatists. He said the party is unfit to govern Delhi. Reddy termed the bill constitutionally valid.
Ujwal Jalali By

Express News Service

A meo poet has rightly described the area of Mewat as, Et Dilli Ut Agro, Et Alwar Bairath, Kala Pahar Suhanwo, Jake Beech Baso Mewat, meaning lying between Delhi and Agra on one side, Alwar and Bairath (Virat Nagar) on the other, and in the midst of present Kala Pathar (Aravalli range), lies Mewat.

Mewat district was constituted in 2005 from parts of Gurgaon and Faridabad districts of Haryana and was renamed as Nuh in 2016. Nuh is famous for its picturesque beauty due to the ravines of the Aravalli hills and the lakes.

According to the Haryana government, Nuh has a population of nearly 11 lakh and around 79 per cent, or 8.5 lakh are Muslims, of which most of them are agriculturists. Animal husbandry, particularly dairy is the secondary source of income for the people of Nuh.

Despite such a serene environment and profession that does not attract any disturbance, the region was hit by severe communal clashes on July 31, the ripples of which travelled to other districts of the state. At least six people have been killed so far in the clashes and the situation still remains tense.

But what triggered the communal tension which ultimately led to the clashes between two communities?

Riots, retaliation & demolition

It all began after Monu Manesar, an alleged cow vigilante and an accused in the Nasir-Junaid murder case in Haryanas Bhiwani, released a video claiming that he will join a religious procession called Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra on July 31.

In a bid to revive sacred Hindu sites in the district, a Brajmandal Yatra was initiated by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) three years ago. Nuh is believed to be home to three ancient Shiva lingas from the time of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata and Lord Krishna used to graze his cows here.

VHP leaders claim that these sites are under threat of encroachment by influential people in the region.

The Mewat Darshan Yatra, which is a part of the Brajmandal Yatra, aims to restore the significance of these religious sites.

A vehicle was set on fire by miscreants after clashes broke out during a religious procession, in Nuh. (Photo | PTI)

But as Monu uploaded the video on social media, he got a strong retaliation from local Muslim groups who challenged him to enter the district. The war of words on social media continued for a few days and ultimately culminated in violent clashes on July 31. Monu, however, didnt turn up.

But a video posted by a Bajrang Dal member in Ballabhgarh aggravated the situation. As the religious procession, which was flagged off from Gurugram, reached Nuh, it was stopped by the members of a minority community. Stones were pelted at the procession, leading to communal clashes. Caught in the crosshairs, thousands of people took shelter at the Nalhar Mahadev Temple and were stranded for hours before they were rescued. There were also reports of firing at the temple.

The flames of communal violence, within a few hours, knocked on the doors of Haryanas satellite city - Gurugram. A mosque was set on fire and its cleric was brutally killed by an unruly mob in the intervening night of July 31 and August 1. The sporadic incidents of violence kept emerging every day and now after a week of the riots, the state government has begun its stern action vis-a-vis starting a demolition drive of illegal structures that probably belong to the people involved in the violence.

So far, the authorities have razed down more than 100 permanent structures, including a hotel in Nuh from where the stones were pelted on the Brajmandal Yatra. Around 150 migrant families were rendered homeless as their shanties at a slum cluster in Tauru were also demolished.

Damaged vehicles lie on the road in the aftermath of a clash, in Haryana's Nuh. (Photo | ANI)

The situation still remains tense on the ground as the locals, mostly members of the minority community, are unhappy with the way the government is taking action, which they allege is biased. Zamil Khan, a resident of Nuh, while speaking to this newspaper, alleged that the police seemed to be selectively targeting Muslim properties during the demolition drive and turning a blind eye when it comes to VHP, who, he believes, were equally responsible for the clashes.

The authorities have chosen to demolish homes and shops belonging to Muslims only. Why havent they taken any action against those responsible for the violence and who openly brandished weapons during the rally, Khan questioned.

Haroon Khan, whose shanty and juice booth near Nalhar Medical College was demolished, expressed his innocence, stating that he had no involvement in the riots or any association with such individuals. His juice booth was his means of supporting his family and he is now worried about providing for his

family of three. It is not the first time that the region has seen such violence. History has been less kinder to the people of Nuh.

Damaged police vehicles, allegedly vandalized by miscreants after clashes broke out during a 'Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra', in Nuh. (Photo | PTI)

Natives shunned Pakistan

Being in close proximity to Delhi, this region has suffered atrocities and plunder of invaders in the past. It is, however noteworthy that the area of Mewat had a glorious past and resisted almost all invaders and maintained cordial relations with the native rulers. Perhaps Meos, an ancient tribe that later converted to Islam during the Muslim rule in India, has no parallel in Indian history of their fight for independence.

The partition of India in 1947 was the biggest setback to the Meos in Mewat. Being in the suburb of the national capital, they were the most fearful of the outcome of partition and it happened exactly how they had anticipated. There were hundreds of incidents reported every day about bloody confrontations between two communities in the aftermath of the partition.

According to historians, the situation was further aggravated by the indulgence of Maharaja of Bharatpur, who termed the Meos as rivals instead of subjects. Towards the end of July 1947, there was a large-scale migration of Mewatis from Bharatpur state into the then Alwar state and Gurgaon district. According to an estimate, the casualties in the riots were in lakh.

In September 1947, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was visiting the riot-affected places across the country to stop the communal riots with his non-violence methods, was told that hundreds of Muslims from the Mewat region were planning to leave for Pakistan due to the atrocities they faced.

Three months later, on December 19, Gandhi reached Mewats strife-torn villages and held a Panchayat where he convinced the Meo community to stay back. The Meo Muslims changed their mind on Gandhis assurance and did not leave the country to join Jinnahs Pakistan. But it is not a hidden fact that the Nuh district, which was once famous for its scenic beauty, has gained notoriety in recent years as a hotspot of several types of crimes which have an impact all over the country.

Last year in Nuh, a DSP rank police officer was allegedly killed while

investigating illegal stone mining. (Photo | Express)

Cases of cow vigilantism

Monu Manesar, who has been at the centre of controversy for allegedly sparking the fire of communal clashes in Nuh, is also an accused in the brutal murder of two Muslim men who were abducted from Rajasthans Bharatpur and later their charred bodies were found in Haryanas Bhiwani.

The impact of cow vigilantism is being felt across Mewat, home to one million people of which 80 per cent are Muslims. Many villages here depend solely on cattle trading as they are landless and the farms are not as productive. These traders often trace their roots in this trade to 150 years back or longer. Hundreds of cattle traders of Rojka Meo, a village in Mewat are on the verge of giving up their traditional livelihood of trading buffaloes which they claim may become way more dangerous following the severe communal clashes that rocked Nuh just a few days ago.

Speaking to this newspaper, a local cattle trader, on the condition of anonymity, said that it has become too dangerous due to beatings, extortion bids and cattle rescue staged by the Gau Raksha Dals against them. Illegal penalties, manhandling and harassment by vigilante groups have created an atmosphere of fear in the entire Mewat region, which extends from Haryana to Rajasthan. The cow vigilantes say they wish to save cows from slaughter, as Hindus revere them. Ironically, in Rojka Meo, most cattle trade is in buffaloes.

A local leader Ramzan Choudhary said that Monu Manesar is himself the biggest smuggler of cows. They are not Gau Rakshak but Gau Bhakshak (eater). They extort to earn illegal money through cattle trade. There have been a number of FIRs against them but nothing has been done so far, Chaudhary told this newspaper.

But Nuh is not only facing the problem of cow vigilantism but there are other crimes that have gripped the region. In 2018, the Indian governments premier policy think tank Niti Aayog named the erstwhile Mewat district as the most underdeveloped of Indias 739 districts.

Hotbed of cyber-crime

Anyone who is a close follower of cybercrime flicks may have encountered the term Jamtara. Notably  Jamtara, a city in Jharkhand  has earned the nickname of the phishing capital of India after umpteen incidents of cyber fraud across India were reported from this town.

Even as the authorities in Jamtara are striving hard to shed the infamous image, a new triangle of cities has emerged that seems to have specialised in blackmail based on deep fakes. The maximum cyber crime cases are now being reported from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatpur in Rajasthan and Mewat region which is spread in three states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Delving further into such crimes, a recently-released scammer at Jurehra village located at a distance of two kilometres from the Haryana-Rajasthan border in Rajasthan spoke to this newspaper and informed that he duped people through the Olx mobile application. The 34-year-old, who wished not to be named, said they used to post an advertisement posing as defence personnel and share their location which would be at least 300-400 km away so that there is no face-to-face interaction. We used to gain our victims trust and convince them the device would be sent through courier. So we used to cheat them for some advance amount and courier charges, he said.

Illegal mining thrives

Last year in Mewat, a Haryana police officer of DSP rank was allegedly killed while investigating illegal stone mining. His killing has focused attention on the lack of enforcement of the law, and illegal mining continues to thrive in Nuh.

Recently, the police have taken action by putting 29 notorious villages in Nuh under constant drone surveillance to curb illegal mining. Most of these villages are situated at the foothills of the Aravallis bordering Rajasthan.

As reported by the mining department, penalties amounting to Rs 1.39 crore have been imposed for illegal mining, and 71 vehicles seized in the district until July 14 this year. While mining is banned in south Haryana, the rule doesnt extend to Rajasthan, creating a jurisdictional ambiguity that the mining mafia often takes advantage of. By installing pillars, the mining department intends to stop people from trespassing into Aravalli forest areas from Rajasthan.

Nuh is surrounded by Gurugram to the north, Palwal to the east, and Rajasthans Alwar to the south

and west. The regions terrain comprises undulating rocky hills with minimal vegetation.

Dismay and Discontent

Normalcy yet to return to area; locals say state govt biased

The situation still remains tense on the ground as the locals, mostly members of the minority community, are unhappy with the way the government is taking action, which they allege is biased

Locals have traded in cattle for over 150 years, but now face trouble

The impact of cow vigilantism is being felt across Mewat, home to one million people of which 80 per cent are Muslims. Many villages here depend solely on cattle trading as they are landless and the farms are not as productive

Illegal mining thrives in the area despite the killing of a police official

Last year, a Haryana police officer of DSP rank was allegedly killed while investigating illegal stone mining. This put the spotlight on the lack of enforcement of the law, and even now, illegal mining continues to thrive

A meo poet has rightly described the area of Mewat as, Et Dilli Ut Agro, Et Alwar Bairath, Kala Pahar Suhanwo, Jake Beech Baso Mewat, meaning lying between Delhi and Agra on one side, Alwar and Bairath (Virat Nagar) on the other, and in the midst of present Kala Pathar (Aravalli range), lies Mewat. Mewat district was constituted in 2005 from parts of Gurgaon and Faridabad districts of Haryana and was renamed as Nuh in 2016. Nuh is famous for its picturesque beauty due to the ravines of the Aravalli hills and the lakes. According to the Haryana government, Nuh has a population of nearly 11 lakh and around 79 per cent, or 8.5 lakh are Muslims, of which most of them are agriculturists. Animal husbandry, particularly dairy is the secondary source of income for the people of Nuh.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Despite such a serene environment and profession that does not attract any disturbance, the region was hit by severe communal clashes on July 31, the ripples of which travelled to other districts of the state. At least six people have been killed so far in the clashes and the situation still remains tense. But what triggered the communal tension which ultimately led to the clashes between two communities? Riots, retaliation & demolition It all began after Monu Manesar, an alleged cow vigilante and an accused in the Nasir-Junaid murder case in Haryanas Bhiwani, released a video claiming that he will join a religious procession called Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra on July 31. In a bid to revive sacred Hindu sites in the district, a Brajmandal Yatra was initiated by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) three years ago. Nuh is believed to be home to three ancient Shiva lingas from the time of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata and Lord Krishna used to graze his cows here. VHP leaders claim that these sites are under threat of encroachment by influential people in the region. The Mewat Darshan Yatra, which is a part of the Brajmandal Yatra, aims to restore the significance of these religious sites. A vehicle was set on fire by miscreants after clashes broke out during a religious procession, in Nuh. (Photo | PTI) But as Monu uploaded the video on social media, he got a strong retaliation from local Muslim groups who challenged him to enter the district. The war of words on social media continued for a few days and ultimately culminated in violent clashes on July 31. Monu, however, didnt turn up. But a video posted by a Bajrang Dal member in Ballabhgarh aggravated the situation. As the religious procession, which was flagged off from Gurugram, reached Nuh, it was stopped by the members of a minority community. Stones were pelted at the procession, leading to communal clashes. Caught in the crosshairs, thousands of people took shelter at the Nalhar Mahadev Temple and were stranded for hours before they were rescued. There were also reports of firing at the temple. The flames of communal violence, within a few hours, knocked on the doors of Haryanas satellite city - Gurugram. A mosque was set on fire and its cleric was brutally killed by an unruly mob in the intervening night of July 31 and August 1. The sporadic incidents of violence kept emerging every day and now after a week of the riots, the state government has begun its stern action vis-a-vis starting a demolition drive of illegal structures that probably belong to the people involved in the violence. So far, the authorities have razed down more than 100 permanent structures, including a hotel in Nuh from where the stones were pelted on the Brajmandal Yatra. Around 150 migrant families were rendered homeless as their shanties at a slum cluster in Tauru were also demolished. Damaged vehicles lie on the road in the aftermath of a clash, in Haryana's Nuh. (Photo | ANI) The situation still remains tense on the ground as the locals, mostly members of the minority community, are unhappy with the way the government is taking action, which they allege is biased. Zamil Khan, a resident of Nuh, while speaking to this newspaper, alleged that the police seemed to be selectively targeting Muslim properties during the demolition drive and turning a blind eye when it comes to VHP, who, he believes, were equally responsible for the clashes. The authorities have chosen to demolish homes and shops belonging to Muslims only. Why havent they taken any action against those responsible for the violence and who openly brandished weapons during the rally, Khan questioned. Haroon Khan, whose shanty and juice booth near Nalhar Medical College was demolished, expressed his innocence, stating that he had no involvement in the riots or any association with such individuals. His juice booth was his means of supporting his family and he is now worried about providing for his family of three. It is not the first time that the region has seen such violence. History has been less kinder to the people of Nuh. Damaged police vehicles, allegedly vandalized by miscreants after clashes broke out during a 'Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra', in Nuh. (Photo | PTI) Natives shunned Pakistan Being in close proximity to Delhi, this region has suffered atrocities and plunder of invaders in the past. It is, however noteworthy that the area of Mewat had a glorious past and resisted almost all invaders and maintained cordial relations with the native rulers. Perhaps Meos, an ancient tribe that later converted to Islam during the Muslim rule in India, has no parallel in Indian history of their fight for independence. The partition of India in 1947 was the biggest setback to the Meos in Mewat. Being in the suburb of the national capital, they were the most fearful of the outcome of partition and it happened exactly how they had anticipated. There were hundreds of incidents reported every day about bloody confrontations between two communities in the aftermath of the partition. According to historians, the situation was further aggravated by the indulgence of Maharaja of Bharatpur, who termed the Meos as rivals instead of subjects. Towards the end of July 1947, there was a large-scale migration of Mewatis from Bharatpur state into the then Alwar state and Gurgaon district. According to an estimate, the casualties in the riots were in lakh. In September 1947, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was visiting the riot-affected places across the country to stop the communal riots with his non-violence methods, was told that hundreds of Muslims from the Mewat region were planning to leave for Pakistan due to the atrocities they faced. Three months later, on December 19, Gandhi reached Mewats strife-torn villages and held a Panchayat where he convinced the Meo community to stay back. The Meo Muslims changed their mind on Gandhis assurance and did not leave the country to join Jinnahs Pakistan. But it is not a hidden fact that the Nuh district, which was once famous for its scenic beauty, has gained notoriety in recent years as a hotspot of several types of crimes which have an impact all over the country. Last year in Nuh, a DSP rank police officer was allegedly killed while investigating illegal stone mining. (Photo | Express) Cases of cow vigilantism Monu Manesar, who has been at the centre of controversy for allegedly sparking the fire of communal clashes in Nuh, is also an accused in the brutal murder of two Muslim men who were abducted from Rajasthans Bharatpur and later their charred bodies were found in Haryanas Bhiwani. The impact of cow vigilantism is being felt across Mewat, home to one million people of which 80 per cent are Muslims. Many villages here depend solely on cattle trading as they are landless and the farms are not as productive. These traders often trace their roots in this trade to 150 years back or longer. Hundreds of cattle traders of Rojka Meo, a village in Mewat are on the verge of giving up their traditional livelihood of trading buffaloes which they claim may become way more dangerous following the severe communal clashes that rocked Nuh just a few days ago. Speaking to this newspaper, a local cattle trader, on the condition of anonymity, said that it has become too dangerous due to beatings, extortion bids and cattle rescue staged by the Gau Raksha Dals against them. Illegal penalties, manhandling and harassment by vigilante groups have created an atmosphere of fear in the entire Mewat region, which extends from Haryana to Rajasthan. The cow vigilantes say they wish to save cows from slaughter, as Hindus revere them. Ironically, in Rojka Meo, most cattle trade is in buffaloes. A local leader Ramzan Choudhary said that Monu Manesar is himself the biggest smuggler of cows. They are not Gau Rakshak but Gau Bhakshak (eater). They extort to earn illegal money through cattle trade. There have been a number of FIRs against them but nothing has been done so far, Chaudhary told this newspaper. But Nuh is not only facing the problem of cow vigilantism but there are other crimes that have gripped the region. In 2018, the Indian governments premier policy think tank Niti Aayog named the erstwhile Mewat district as the most underdeveloped of Indias 739 districts. Hotbed of cyber-crime Anyone who is a close follower of cybercrime flicks may have encountered the term Jamtara. Notably  Jamtara, a city in Jharkhand  has earned the nickname of the phishing capital of India after umpteen incidents of cyber fraud across India were reported from this town. Even as the authorities in Jamtara are striving hard to shed the infamous image, a new triangle of cities has emerged that seems to have specialised in blackmail based on deep fakes. The maximum cyber crime cases are now being reported from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatpur in Rajasthan and Mewat region which is spread in three states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Delving further into such crimes, a recently-released scammer at Jurehra village located at a distance of two kilometres from the Haryana-Rajasthan border in Rajasthan spoke to this newspaper and informed that he duped people through the Olx mobile application. The 34-year-old, who wished not to be named, said they used to post an advertisement posing as defence personnel and share their location which would be at least 300-400 km away so that there is no face-to-face interaction. We used to gain our victims trust and convince them the device would be sent through courier. So we used to cheat them for some advance amount and courier charges, he said. Illegal mining thrives Last year in Mewat, a Haryana police officer of DSP rank was allegedly killed while investigating illegal stone mining. His killing has focused attention on the lack of enforcement of the law, and illegal mining continues to thrive in Nuh. Recently, the police have taken action by putting 29 notorious villages in Nuh under constant drone surveillance to curb illegal mining. Most of these villages are situated at the foothills of the Aravallis bordering Rajasthan. As reported by the mining department, penalties amounting to Rs 1.39 crore have been imposed for illegal mining, and 71 vehicles seized in the district until July 14 this year. While mining is banned in south Haryana, the rule doesnt extend to Rajasthan, creating a jurisdictional ambiguity that the mining mafia often takes advantage of. By installing pillars, the mining department intends to stop people from trespassing into Aravalli forest areas from Rajasthan. Nuh is surrounded by Gurugram to the north, Palwal to the east, and Rajasthans Alwar to the south and west. The regions terrain comprises undulating rocky hills with minimal vegetation. Dismay and Discontent Normalcy yet to return to area; locals say state govt biased The situation still remains tense on the ground as the locals, mostly members of the minority community, are unhappy with the way the government is taking action, which they allege is biased Locals have traded in cattle for over 150 years, but now face trouble The impact of cow vigilantism is being felt across Mewat, home to one million people of which 80 per cent are Muslims. Many villages here depend solely on cattle trading as they are landless and the farms are not as productive Illegal mining thrives in the area despite the killing of a police official Last year, a Haryana police officer of DSP rank was allegedly killed while investigating illegal stone mining. This put the spotlight on the lack of enforcement of the law, and even now, illegal mining continues to thrive
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Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The budget for infrastructure development in India's border areas has increased by 400 per cent from Rs 3200 crore in 2014 to Rs 14300 crore at present, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday.

"Before 2014, the border infrastructure was not developed, but post that period there has been a steady improvement which has enhanced our ability to counter and contest conflict in the border areas," said Jaishankar, speaking on border infrastructure and connectivity.

Nearly 80 per cent of the budgetary allocation for infrastructure development is utilised on the Indo-China border, the EAM told The New Indian Express. A major part of border connectivity is related to national security so it is pertinent to spruce it up, besides a major part is also to improve people to people connectivity like in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

"The government has laid emphasis on how to make life easier for those living in the border areas  which was neglected in the past. Infrastructure with regard to China is of fundamental importance. We have our view of the LAC, they have their view of it. We dont have an agreed view of where we differ," said Jaishankar, adding that between 2008 and 2014, 3600 km of border roads were built and between 2014-22, this reached 6800 km.

ALSO READ | Progress made at 'friction points' in eastern Ladakh: EAM Jaishankar on Sino-India border

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is constructing 70 new roads and is involved in a major project in Arunachal Pradesh where 1800 km of roads for inter valley connectivity will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 3000 crore.

"Our current challenge with China has been road building and tunnel building. BRO has made 4445 km roads from Kashmir and Ladakh to Tripura at a cost of Rs 9000 crore," he said, adding that there was no break in border talks with China.

Meanwhile, regarding India's other neighbours which include Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, the EAM highlighted many development projects. The only neighbour he didnt speak about was Pakistan.

"The situation in Pakistan is different so we are not going to speak about them," he said.

Regarding Nepal, Jaishankar spoke about enhanced cross border power trade and Indias effort in making oil supply to them seamless by working on an oil pipeline project.

"With Bhutan too, we would like a seamless land movement. We are also working on a rail network connecting Eastern Bhutan to Assam and also opening up the Bhutan border from Assam," he added.

With Bangladesh, India already has established water (two waterway routes), road (five bus services) and rail links (three train services).

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, Sitwe port has begun operations and a coastal shipping agreement is under discussion. There is a proposal to build 69 bridges there too.

"We have to engage with the authorities in Myanmar and part of our policies is also developing infrastructure," Dr Jaishankar said.

NEW DELHI: The budget for infrastructure development in India's border areas has increased by 400 per cent from Rs 3200 crore in 2014 to Rs 14300 crore at present, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday. "Before 2014, the border infrastructure was not developed, but post that period there has been a steady improvement which has enhanced our ability to counter and contest conflict in the border areas," said Jaishankar, speaking on border infrastructure and connectivity. Nearly 80 per cent of the budgetary allocation for infrastructure development is utilised on the Indo-China border, the EAM told The New Indian Express. A major part of border connectivity is related to national security so it is pertinent to spruce it up, besides a major part is also to improve people to people connectivity like in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "The government has laid emphasis on how to make life easier for those living in the border areas  which was neglected in the past. Infrastructure with regard to China is of fundamental importance. We have our view of the LAC, they have their view of it. We dont have an agreed view of where we differ," said Jaishankar, adding that between 2008 and 2014, 3600 km of border roads were built and between 2014-22, this reached 6800 km. ALSO READ | Progress made at 'friction points' in eastern Ladakh: EAM Jaishankar on Sino-India border The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is constructing 70 new roads and is involved in a major project in Arunachal Pradesh where 1800 km of roads for inter valley connectivity will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 3000 crore. "Our current challenge with China has been road building and tunnel building. BRO has made 4445 km roads from Kashmir and Ladakh to Tripura at a cost of Rs 9000 crore," he said, adding that there was no break in border talks with China. Meanwhile, regarding India's other neighbours which include Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, the EAM highlighted many development projects. The only neighbour he didnt speak about was Pakistan. "The situation in Pakistan is different so we are not going to speak about them," he said. Regarding Nepal, Jaishankar spoke about enhanced cross border power trade and Indias effort in making oil supply to them seamless by working on an oil pipeline project. "With Bhutan too, we would like a seamless land movement. We are also working on a rail network connecting Eastern Bhutan to Assam and also opening up the Bhutan border from Assam," he added. With Bangladesh, India already has established water (two waterway routes), road (five bus services) and rail links (three train services). Meanwhile, in Myanmar, Sitwe port has begun operations and a coastal shipping agreement is under discussion. There is a proposal to build 69 bridges there too. "We have to engage with the authorities in Myanmar and part of our policies is also developing infrastructure," Dr Jaishankar said.
Parvez Sultan By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: About 700 pieces belonging to the Aural Stein Collection of Central Asian antiquities owned by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) were lent to Victoria and Albert Museum in London about 100 years ago.

The artefacts are still lying with the borrower in the United Kingdom and the ASI has not made single effort to get hold of the noted assortment dating between 200 BC and 1200 AD despite the issue being flagged by the CAG in its two previous audit reports in 2013 and 2022.

Non-action of the ASI has apparently upset the Committee of Parliamentarians.

Taking note of the position of the national watchdog of national monuments, the 31-member parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture has recently asked the ASI to establish contact with the London Museum and set off the process of repatriating the collection.

Stein, a British-Hungarian archaeologist, collected a large number of artefacts -- Chinese, Tibetan and Tangut manuscripts, paintings, Buddhist sculptures, textile fragments, and ceramic objects during his archaeological expeditions to Central Asia at the beginning of the 20th century.

A part of Stein's collection consisting of nearly 600 textile fragments and over 70 ceramic and Buddhist objects was loaned to the museum by the Indian Government through ASI between 1923 and 1933.

The Committee in its recent report titled Heritage Theft  the illegal trade in Indian antiquities and the challenges of retrieving and safeguarding our tangible cultural heritagehas also expressed dissatisfaction over the response of the Culture ministry.

The ministry stated that there was no record or document in the National Museum regarding the loan of the 700 objects of the Aural Stein collection to the museum since it was taken away before Independence. The ministry additionally submitted the Temporary Export Permit (TEP) rule didnt for the same reason.

The Committee is well aware that since the objects of the collection were taken out of the country prior to independence, the TEP did not apply to themas per records these antiquities were still owned by the ASI and were on loan but there was no evidence of any efforts of ASI to retrieve themIt is noted that the ASI has not even taken the basic steps to try and ascertain the background in which these objects were loaned to the museum and make efforts for their retrieval, read the report.

TEP authorises the Central Government of any authority or agency authorised by the Government to temporarily export any antiquity or art treasure for a certain period.

The Committee highlighted in its report that the website of the Museum in London acknowledges that the antiquities are on loan from the Government of India.

The Panel has further recommended that the ministry and ASI make efforts to find out other cultural objects loaned to foreign museums or collections before the independence or 1972 and initiate action for their retrieval.

NEW DELHI: About 700 pieces belonging to the Aural Stein Collection of Central Asian antiquities owned by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) were lent to Victoria and Albert Museum in London about 100 years ago. The artefacts are still lying with the borrower in the United Kingdom and the ASI has not made single effort to get hold of the noted assortment dating between 200 BC and 1200 AD despite the issue being flagged by the CAG in its two previous audit reports in 2013 and 2022. Non-action of the ASI has apparently upset the Committee of Parliamentarians.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Taking note of the position of the national watchdog of national monuments, the 31-member parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture has recently asked the ASI to establish contact with the London Museum and set off the process of repatriating the collection. Stein, a British-Hungarian archaeologist, collected a large number of artefacts -- Chinese, Tibetan and Tangut manuscripts, paintings, Buddhist sculptures, textile fragments, and ceramic objects during his archaeological expeditions to Central Asia at the beginning of the 20th century. A part of Stein's collection consisting of nearly 600 textile fragments and over 70 ceramic and Buddhist objects was loaned to the museum by the Indian Government through ASI between 1923 and 1933. The Committee in its recent report titled Heritage Theft  the illegal trade in Indian antiquities and the challenges of retrieving and safeguarding our tangible cultural heritagehas also expressed dissatisfaction over the response of the Culture ministry. The ministry stated that there was no record or document in the National Museum regarding the loan of the 700 objects of the Aural Stein collection to the museum since it was taken away before Independence. The ministry additionally submitted the Temporary Export Permit (TEP) rule didnt for the same reason. The Committee is well aware that since the objects of the collection were taken out of the country prior to independence, the TEP did not apply to themas per records these antiquities were still owned by the ASI and were on loan but there was no evidence of any efforts of ASI to retrieve themIt is noted that the ASI has not even taken the basic steps to try and ascertain the background in which these objects were loaned to the museum and make efforts for their retrieval, read the report. TEP authorises the Central Government of any authority or agency authorised by the Government to temporarily export any antiquity or art treasure for a certain period. The Committee highlighted in its report that the website of the Museum in London acknowledges that the antiquities are on loan from the Government of India. The Panel has further recommended that the ministry and ASI make efforts to find out other cultural objects loaned to foreign museums or collections before the independence or 1972 and initiate action for their retrieval.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Monday thwarted an infiltration attempt and neutralised a hardcore terrorist along the Line of Control in Poonch.

Officials said a group of two infiltrators made an attempt to cross into the Pir Panjal valley in the Degwar Tarwan area of Poonch district.

"A contact was established by an ambush party in Poonch around 2 a.m. In the firefight, one militant was seen dropping and the second was seen moving towards Pintu Nala," the Army said.

The killed terrorist was identified as Muneer Hussain, a resident of Bagyladra in Poonch, who was a self-styled division commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen.

ALSO READ | 4 foreign terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch; Army says major attack thwarted

Hussain was sent with the agenda of reviving the Hizbul Mujahideen in Rajouri and Poonch, sources said, adding that Pakistan is trying to send old terror veterans to J&K to motivate and recruit youth in a desperate attempt to revive terrorism.

Muneer is said to have visited Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for the first time in 1993. He came back in 1996 and again returned to PoK in 1998.

Sources said he was the mastermind behind a number of attacks on security forces and was a close associate of Maulana Dawood Kashmir (TuJ) who in turn is a close associate of HM head Syed Salauddin.

He had attended a high-level meeting of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Islamabad where the agenda was the revival of terrorism in Rajouri and Poonch, they added.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army on Monday thwarted an infiltration attempt and neutralised a hardcore terrorist along the Line of Control in Poonch. Officials said a group of two infiltrators made an attempt to cross into the Pir Panjal valley in the Degwar Tarwan area of Poonch district. "A contact was established by an ambush party in Poonch around 2 a.m. In the firefight, one militant was seen dropping and the second was seen moving towards Pintu Nala," the Army said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The killed terrorist was identified as Muneer Hussain, a resident of Bagyladra in Poonch, who was a self-styled division commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen. ALSO READ | 4 foreign terrorists killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch; Army says major attack thwarted Hussain was sent with the agenda of reviving the Hizbul Mujahideen in Rajouri and Poonch, sources said, adding that Pakistan is trying to send old terror veterans to J&K to motivate and recruit youth in a desperate attempt to revive terrorism. Muneer is said to have visited Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) for the first time in 1993. He came back in 1996 and again returned to PoK in 1998. Sources said he was the mastermind behind a number of attacks on security forces and was a close associate of Maulana Dawood Kashmir (TuJ) who in turn is a close associate of HM head Syed Salauddin. He had attended a high-level meeting of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Islamabad where the agenda was the revival of terrorism in Rajouri and Poonch, they added.
By Online Desk

With the Rajya Sabha passing the Delhi Services Bill, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stealing Delhi's freedom.

He added that there is 'no value' left for the vote of the people of Delhi and PM Modi and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena 'will run the government of Delhi'.

Kejriwal said the PM did not obey the mandate of the Delhi people. He accused BJP of trying to usurp power in Delhi through the backdoor as BJP lost four polls against AAP.

Arvind Kejriwal said, "The country elected you as the prime minister so that you would do the transfer posting of peons." He also called PM Modi 'arrogant' and said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so much arrogance that he neither listens to the public nor listens to the Supreme Court."

"The prime minister had promised to make Delhi a full state. Today, he stabbed the people of Delhi in the back," Kejriwal added.

He said that BJP's arrogance will cost them soon.

"People of Delhi will not give a single seat to BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal said adding, that the people of Delhi love the AAP government".

Arvind Kejriwal also expressed his gratitude to all political parties which supported AAP against the Delhi Services bill.

With the Rajya Sabha passing the Delhi Services Bill, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of stealing Delhi's freedom. He added that there is 'no value' left for the vote of the people of Delhi and PM Modi and Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena 'will run the government of Delhi'. Kejriwal said the PM did not obey the mandate of the Delhi people. He accused BJP of trying to usurp power in Delhi through the backdoor as BJP lost four polls against AAP. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Arvind Kejriwal said, "The country elected you as the prime minister so that you would do the transfer posting of peons." He also called PM Modi 'arrogant' and said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so much arrogance that he neither listens to the public nor listens to the Supreme Court." "The prime minister had promised to make Delhi a full state. Today, he stabbed the people of Delhi in the back," Kejriwal added. He said that BJP's arrogance will cost them soon. "People of Delhi will not give a single seat to BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal said adding, that the people of Delhi love the AAP government". Arvind Kejriwal also expressed his gratitude to all political parties which supported AAP against the Delhi Services bill.
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a strategic move, the border guarding forces are set to play a pivotal role in fortifying the security of the critically important Siliguri Corridor, known as the Chickens Neck, during peacetime. The initiative is part of a comprehensive strategy to bolster defence and safeguard the Siliguri Corridor, which has been divided into Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Points.

During peacetime, personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) will be deployed across designated areas. The Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which fall under the administrative and operational jurisdiction of the MHA, will assume responsibility at these specified VAVPs, sources said. These forces have historically managed borders with neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and China.

While some actions have already been taken, additional measures are anticipated for the future, sources indicated. The Siliguri Corridor, a narrow stretch adjoining Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, measuring about 170x60km, and at its narrowest, around 20-22km, holds tremendous geopolitical importance. Functioning as a crucial link connecting the northeast of India with the rest of the country, it accommodates major national highways, railway lines, pipelines, optical fibre connectivity, and more.

Its significance is amplified due to its proximity to Chinas Chumbi Valley in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The urgency to bolster defences in this region was catalyzed by the 2017 Doklam standoff, during which the Chinese PLA attempted to construct a road closer to the sensitive Siliguri Corridor. The impetus for reinforcing security has also been spurred by heightened deployments along the LAC since May 2022.

NEW DELHI: In a strategic move, the border guarding forces are set to play a pivotal role in fortifying the security of the critically important Siliguri Corridor, known as the Chickens Neck, during peacetime. The initiative is part of a comprehensive strategy to bolster defence and safeguard the Siliguri Corridor, which has been divided into Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Points. During peacetime, personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) will be deployed across designated areas. The Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which fall under the administrative and operational jurisdiction of the MHA, will assume responsibility at these specified VAVPs, sources said. These forces have historically managed borders with neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); While some actions have already been taken, additional measures are anticipated for the future, sources indicated. The Siliguri Corridor, a narrow stretch adjoining Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, measuring about 170x60km, and at its narrowest, around 20-22km, holds tremendous geopolitical importance. Functioning as a crucial link connecting the northeast of India with the rest of the country, it accommodates major national highways, railway lines, pipelines, optical fibre connectivity, and more. Its significance is amplified due to its proximity to Chinas Chumbi Valley in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The urgency to bolster defences in this region was catalyzed by the 2017 Doklam standoff, during which the Chinese PLA attempted to construct a road closer to the sensitive Siliguri Corridor. The impetus for reinforcing security has also been spurred by heightened deployments along the LAC since May 2022.
Dilip Singh Kshatriya By

Express News Service

AHMEDABAD: The resignation of Gujarat BJP general secretary Pradeep Sinh Vaghela on Saturday sheds light on long-running battles within the party across the state. Sources said Vaghelas resignation is only the beginning; several more prominent Gujarat BJP politicians may resign in the coming days.

There are at least five events in the previous month that show how Gujarat BJP leaders appear to be at each others throat, damaging the image of the party that won 156 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly:

The Vaghela episode

Hours after his resignation, Pradip Sinh Vaghela told the media. I have resigned since the party requested it. I am unsure of the cause of it. Whatever I am today is because of the party. I have done nothing wrong to be embarrassed, he said. BJP general secretary Rajni Patel said, Vaghela has voluntarily r signed due to personal reasons.

Sources, however, said the development came after party leaders in Delhi asked state leaders to get Vaghelas resignation after his role in an alleged scam appeared in pamphlets that were distributed among senior party leaders.

In the last four months, out of four general secretaries, Pradip Sinh is the second BJP general secretary who has exited. In April, state unit president CR Patil relieved Bhargav Bhatt of his duties as general secretary for the Central Zone.

Pamphlet display

Pamphlets accusing BJP state chief CR Paatil of corruption and irregularities in the management of party funds were circulated a few days ago. Surat Choryasi, BJP MLA, filed a police complaint. On August 2, Surat Crime Branch arrested three city district BJP party workers, Rakeshsinh Sokanki, Devendrasinh Chauhan, and Hardeepsinh Atodaria. One more person was also arrested. The Surat district BJP later suspended them. These workers are said to have worked with a former minister who was a member of former chief minister Vijay Rupanis cabinet.

Baroda conspiracy

On July 24, BJP corporator Alpesh Limbachiya of the civic council in Vadodara city was arrested for reportedly mailing an anonymous letter, accusing the city mayor of corruption to local party leaders. The police arrested the corporators brother-in-law and another individual a few days ago. Following the arrest of his brother-in-law, Limbachiya, who was the ruling BJPs leader in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), quit his post.

Saurashtra simmers

The feuding between two Saurashtra BJP leaders has famed more factionalism. The frosty relationship between MP Mohan Kundaria and MLA Jitu Somani was exposed in July when the two publicly mocked each other. Somani is the current MLA from Wankaner. Last month, Somani told the regional media that MPs had worked against him. I filed a complaint against the party MP, he said.

Caste slur and more

Another case of BJP infighting surfaced from Chotila town in Surendranagar district. During an election in 2018, a local BJP leader, Jivanbhai Makwana, went to the Gujarat High Court demanding quashing of an FIR filed by a party leader against him in a case involving the SC/ST Act.

On July 20, the court quashed the FIR against Makwana, saying that because Makwana was chosen by the party to contest the election, the complainant harboured a grudge and submitted the complaint two days after the alleged incident.

AHMEDABAD: The resignation of Gujarat BJP general secretary Pradeep Sinh Vaghela on Saturday sheds light on long-running battles within the party across the state. Sources said Vaghelas resignation is only the beginning; several more prominent Gujarat BJP politicians may resign in the coming days. There are at least five events in the previous month that show how Gujarat BJP leaders appear to be at each others throat, damaging the image of the party that won 156 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly: The Vaghela episodegoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Hours after his resignation, Pradip Sinh Vaghela told the media. I have resigned since the party requested it. I am unsure of the cause of it. Whatever I am today is because of the party. I have done nothing wrong to be embarrassed, he said. BJP general secretary Rajni Patel said, Vaghela has voluntarily r signed due to personal reasons. Sources, however, said the development came after party leaders in Delhi asked state leaders to get Vaghelas resignation after his role in an alleged scam appeared in pamphlets that were distributed among senior party leaders. In the last four months, out of four general secretaries, Pradip Sinh is the second BJP general secretary who has exited. In April, state unit president CR Patil relieved Bhargav Bhatt of his duties as general secretary for the Central Zone. Pamphlet display Pamphlets accusing BJP state chief CR Paatil of corruption and irregularities in the management of party funds were circulated a few days ago. Surat Choryasi, BJP MLA, filed a police complaint. On August 2, Surat Crime Branch arrested three city district BJP party workers, Rakeshsinh Sokanki, Devendrasinh Chauhan, and Hardeepsinh Atodaria. One more person was also arrested. The Surat district BJP later suspended them. These workers are said to have worked with a former minister who was a member of former chief minister Vijay Rupanis cabinet. Baroda conspiracy On July 24, BJP corporator Alpesh Limbachiya of the civic council in Vadodara city was arrested for reportedly mailing an anonymous letter, accusing the city mayor of corruption to local party leaders. The police arrested the corporators brother-in-law and another individual a few days ago. Following the arrest of his brother-in-law, Limbachiya, who was the ruling BJPs leader in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), quit his post. Saurashtra simmers The feuding between two Saurashtra BJP leaders has famed more factionalism. The frosty relationship between MP Mohan Kundaria and MLA Jitu Somani was exposed in July when the two publicly mocked each other. Somani is the current MLA from Wankaner. Last month, Somani told the regional media that MPs had worked against him. I filed a complaint against the party MP, he said. Caste slur and more Another case of BJP infighting surfaced from Chotila town in Surendranagar district. During an election in 2018, a local BJP leader, Jivanbhai Makwana, went to the Gujarat High Court demanding quashing of an FIR filed by a party leader against him in a case involving the SC/ST Act. On July 20, the court quashed the FIR against Makwana, saying that because Makwana was chosen by the party to contest the election, the complainant harboured a grudge and submitted the complaint two days after the alleged incident.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India has expressed concerns over certain provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, saying they can have an adverse impact on press freedom.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Guild said the DPDP Bill creates an enabling framework for the surveillance of citizens, including journalists and their sources.

The Guild has asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to refer the Bill to a parliamentary standing committee.

It has also written about its concerns on the Bill to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and leaders of political parties in Parliament.

The government tabled the DPDP Bill in Lok Sabha on August 3.

The proposed legislation aims to protect the privacy of Indian citizens by suggesting a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect the digital data of individuals.

The Bill comes six years after the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

Under Section 36 of the DPDP Bill, the Guild said, the government can ask any public or private entity (data fiduciary) to furnish personal information of citizens, including journalists and their sources.

It also voiced concerns over clause 17(2)(a) that allows the Union government to issue a notification exempting any "instrumentality of the State" from the provisions of this Bill, thereby keeping them out of the ambit of data protection restrictions, including internal sharing and processing of data.

Section 17(4) allows the government and its instrumentalities to retain personal data for an unlimited period of time, it added.

"We note, with dismay, that while the Bill, ostensibly to promote data protection, has failed to make any provisions that bring about the surveillance reform that is urgently needed, and in fact creates an enabling framework for surveillance of citizens, including journalists and their sources," the Guild said.

It said it is deeply concerned about the lack of exemptions for journalists from certain obligations of the law where the reporting on certain entities in the public interest may conflict with their right to personal data protection.

The Justice Srikrishna Committee had provided a framework for balance between personal data protection and public interest which is missing from the current bill, it said.

"This will lead to a chilling effect on journalistic activity in the country," the Guild said.

It said certain provisions of the Bill also shift the balance in favour of non-disclosure of information, including information sought by journalists in public interest, thereby reducing accountability.

The Guild has also flagged concerns over the composition of the Data Protection Board and stressed the need for it to be independent of the government.

The government has listed the DPDP Bill for consideration and passage in Lok Sabha on today.

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India has expressed concerns over certain provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, saying they can have an adverse impact on press freedom. In a statement issued on Sunday, the Guild said the DPDP Bill creates an enabling framework for the surveillance of citizens, including journalists and their sources. The Guild has asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to refer the Bill to a parliamentary standing committee.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); It has also written about its concerns on the Bill to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and leaders of political parties in Parliament. The government tabled the DPDP Bill in Lok Sabha on August 3. The proposed legislation aims to protect the privacy of Indian citizens by suggesting a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect the digital data of individuals. The Bill comes six years after the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right. Under Section 36 of the DPDP Bill, the Guild said, the government can ask any public or private entity (data fiduciary) to furnish personal information of citizens, including journalists and their sources. It also voiced concerns over clause 17(2)(a) that allows the Union government to issue a notification exempting any "instrumentality of the State" from the provisions of this Bill, thereby keeping them out of the ambit of data protection restrictions, including internal sharing and processing of data. Section 17(4) allows the government and its instrumentalities to retain personal data for an unlimited period of time, it added. "We note, with dismay, that while the Bill, ostensibly to promote data protection, has failed to make any provisions that bring about the surveillance reform that is urgently needed, and in fact creates an enabling framework for surveillance of citizens, including journalists and their sources," the Guild said. It said it is deeply concerned about the lack of exemptions for journalists from certain obligations of the law where the reporting on certain entities in the public interest may conflict with their right to personal data protection. The Justice Srikrishna Committee had provided a framework for balance between personal data protection and public interest which is missing from the current bill, it said. "This will lead to a chilling effect on journalistic activity in the country," the Guild said. It said certain provisions of the Bill also shift the balance in favour of non-disclosure of information, including information sought by journalists in public interest, thereby reducing accountability. The Guild has also flagged concerns over the composition of the Data Protection Board and stressed the need for it to be independent of the government. The government has listed the DPDP Bill for consideration and passage in Lok Sabha on today.
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha is expected to see a stormy session on Monday with Union home minister Amit Shah set to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday after nearly four hours of debate amid an Opposition walkout. It is expected that the Treasury bench in the upper house will leave no stone unturned to have the bill passed, even by a voice vote.

The ruling NDA has over 100 MPs in the Upper House, and the BJD and the YSRCP have also announced their support for the Bill. It is also likely to be backed by nominated members and some Independents in the 238-member strong House.

The walkout by the 'INDIA' bloc cannot be ruled out but we will get the bill passed even by a voice vote. The bill is in the larger framework of the Constitution, remarked a senior BJP Rajya Sabha MP, adding that the Opposition has reduced themselves only to opposing the bill by creating pandemonium.

ALSO READ | Not a single valid argument made by Shah in favour of Bill, says Kejriwal

Meanwhile, the Congress and AAP have issued whips to its Rajya Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment on Monday.

Though the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties have vowed to make all possible efforts to thwart the governments move to pass the bill, which gives the Centre control over the transfer and posting of bureaucrats in Delhi.

The AAP, which is in power in Delhi, has been at odds with the Centre over the bill. Twelve bills have been passed by Rajya Sabha in the current session so far, while nine bills have cleared both houses of Parliament.

In May, the Centre had promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, which effectively nullified a Supreme Court judgment that handed over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government. The bill seeks to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha is expected to see a stormy session on Monday with Union home minister Amit Shah set to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday after nearly four hours of debate amid an Opposition walkout. It is expected that the Treasury bench in the upper house will leave no stone unturned to have the bill passed, even by a voice vote. The ruling NDA has over 100 MPs in the Upper House, and the BJD and the YSRCP have also announced their support for the Bill. It is also likely to be backed by nominated members and some Independents in the 238-member strong House.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The walkout by the 'INDIA' bloc cannot be ruled out but we will get the bill passed even by a voice vote. The bill is in the larger framework of the Constitution, remarked a senior BJP Rajya Sabha MP, adding that the Opposition has reduced themselves only to opposing the bill by creating pandemonium. ALSO READ | Not a single valid argument made by Shah in favour of Bill, says Kejriwal Meanwhile, the Congress and AAP have issued whips to its Rajya Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment on Monday. Though the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties have vowed to make all possible efforts to thwart the governments move to pass the bill, which gives the Centre control over the transfer and posting of bureaucrats in Delhi. The AAP, which is in power in Delhi, has been at odds with the Centre over the bill. Twelve bills have been passed by Rajya Sabha in the current session so far, while nine bills have cleared both houses of Parliament. In May, the Centre had promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, which effectively nullified a Supreme Court judgment that handed over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government. The bill seeks to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government. (With additional inputs from PTI)
Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: Off to London and other Europan countries -- thats the trip due for the elected representatives in the Maharashtra Assembly. They are said to be flaked out by the rising political temperature within the Mantralaya compound.

The 10-day tour by a group of 25 MLAs and MLCs drawn from all parties is meant as a study tour beginning August 19 and ending August 31.

The number of MLAs/MLCs to be in the select group is as per the strength of a party in the Assembly. The BJP, therefore, will be able to send the highest eight MLA/MLCs while Shiv Sena and NCP, four each from both factions, while Congress has got a quota of six members. The rest are from smaller parties, said officers working out the tour schedule.

We have started the visa process, said an officer. He said that some members requested to allow their spouses and children to accompany them.

The permission has been granted, but the expenses of family members will be borne by representatives. We will do the facilitation work, said the officer.

Deputy chairperson of the Maharashtra legislative council and Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said the tour is important in many aspects.

We will able to study their laws and rules, particularly on gender equality. Violence against women is also a major issue. Developed countries are also facing the problem in a big way. We also want to check how they solve hurdles that come in the way of womens safety. It will help us to make our laws more inclusive and effective, said Gorhe.

Wed also study the sustainable development model. Well see if the technology can be brought in Maharashtra, Gorhe said.

An MLA said he is going abroad for the first time. For me, its a major break from chaotic political situations. I am very excited to go with my family, he said. Given a semblance of political stability in the state after Ajit Pawars entry into the BJP-led coalition, it appears this is the right time for the junket.

MUMBAI: Off to London and other Europan countries -- thats the trip due for the elected representatives in the Maharashtra Assembly. They are said to be flaked out by the rising political temperature within the Mantralaya compound. The 10-day tour by a group of 25 MLAs and MLCs drawn from all parties is meant as a study tour beginning August 19 and ending August 31. The number of MLAs/MLCs to be in the select group is as per the strength of a party in the Assembly. The BJP, therefore, will be able to send the highest eight MLA/MLCs while Shiv Sena and NCP, four each from both factions, while Congress has got a quota of six members. The rest are from smaller parties, said officers working out the tour schedule.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); We have started the visa process, said an officer. He said that some members requested to allow their spouses and children to accompany them. The permission has been granted, but the expenses of family members will be borne by representatives. We will do the facilitation work, said the officer. Deputy chairperson of the Maharashtra legislative council and Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said the tour is important in many aspects. We will able to study their laws and rules, particularly on gender equality. Violence against women is also a major issue. Developed countries are also facing the problem in a big way. We also want to check how they solve hurdles that come in the way of womens safety. It will help us to make our laws more inclusive and effective, said Gorhe. Wed also study the sustainable development model. Well see if the technology can be brought in Maharashtra, Gorhe said. An MLA said he is going abroad for the first time. For me, its a major break from chaotic political situations. I am very excited to go with my family, he said. Given a semblance of political stability in the state after Ajit Pawars entry into the BJP-led coalition, it appears this is the right time for the junket.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The suspension of the Mayor of Jaipur Municipal Corporation (Heritage) by the Gehlot government has sparked an uproar in the ruling Congress just four months before the Rajasthan elections.

Munesh Gurjar was suspended late on Saturday night after her husband was arrested by ACB while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 2 lakhs from some touts.

A number of government files were also recovered from the house of the Mayor and there are chances that she too could soon be arrested. The Mayors husband, however, claims that they have been trapped in a conspiracy hatched by a minister in the Gehlot government and the issue has triggered a major controversy for the Congress.

The Rajasthan governments decision to suspend Gurjar has shocked many as she belongs to the ruling Congress party. It is notable that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Mayors husband Sushil Gurjar and his two touts red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh for issuing a lease.

During this, more than 41 lakh cash has also been recovered from Gurjars house which led to strict action being taken against Munesh. It is now believed that the ACB team may soon interrogate the Mayor as well.

In response to the action against Gurjar and her husband, big questions are now being raised on the role of Cabinet Minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas. Sushil Gurjar issued a statement after ACBs action, All this is happening at the behest of a big Congress leader.

We have been framed. However, no leader has been named by Sushil. He says that everyone knows the big Congress leader who trapped him and hell reveal his name when the time comes. On the other hand, after the suspension, Munesh Gurjar also attacked Khachariawas. We did all the work that the minister asked us of. If he is genuine, then get him and my call details checked.

Was trapped

The Mayors husband claims that they have been trapped in a conspiracy hatched by a minister in the Gehlot government and the issue has triggered a major controversy for the Congress after files were recovered from the house of the Mayor. Chances are she could be arrested too.

JAIPUR: The suspension of the Mayor of Jaipur Municipal Corporation (Heritage) by the Gehlot government has sparked an uproar in the ruling Congress just four months before the Rajasthan elections. Munesh Gurjar was suspended late on Saturday night after her husband was arrested by ACB while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 2 lakhs from some touts. A number of government files were also recovered from the house of the Mayor and there are chances that she too could soon be arrested. The Mayors husband, however, claims that they have been trapped in a conspiracy hatched by a minister in the Gehlot government and the issue has triggered a major controversy for the Congress.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The Rajasthan governments decision to suspend Gurjar has shocked many as she belongs to the ruling Congress party. It is notable that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Mayors husband Sushil Gurjar and his two touts red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh for issuing a lease. During this, more than 41 lakh cash has also been recovered from Gurjars house which led to strict action being taken against Munesh. It is now believed that the ACB team may soon interrogate the Mayor as well. In response to the action against Gurjar and her husband, big questions are now being raised on the role of Cabinet Minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas. Sushil Gurjar issued a statement after ACBs action, All this is happening at the behest of a big Congress leader. We have been framed. However, no leader has been named by Sushil. He says that everyone knows the big Congress leader who trapped him and hell reveal his name when the time comes. On the other hand, after the suspension, Munesh Gurjar also attacked Khachariawas. We did all the work that the minister asked us of. If he is genuine, then get him and my call details checked. Was trapped The Mayors husband claims that they have been trapped in a conspiracy hatched by a minister in the Gehlot government and the issue has triggered a major controversy for the Congress after files were recovered from the house of the Mayor. Chances are she could be arrested too.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- On August 4, ORA, the new energy vehicle brand under Great Wall Motor, unveiled its brand-wide monthly car purchasing policy, effective from August 1 to August 31.

Lightning Cat; photo credit: ORA

As part of this month's promotion, customers who place orders and receive vehicle invoices for specific models will enjoy a complimentary one-year compulsory insurance coverage. In addition, ORA is introducing substantial cash incentives for three of its vehicle offerings, effectively reducing their prices.

The 2023 ORA Good Cat and the Good Cat GT Mulan Edition is now available with a generous cash discount of 22,000 yuan, resulting in a revised starting price of 107,800 yuan. The ORA Lightning Cat benefits from a substantial 30,000-yuan cash incentive, bringing its starting price down to 159,800 yuan. The Ballet Cat retains its original price of 149,800 yuan. This unaltered pricing is attributed to the fact that the 2023 Ballet Cat already received a price reduction of over 40,000 yuan upon its initial launch in April earlier this year.

Great Wall Motor reported impressive sales figures for July, which came in at 109,091 vehicles, marking a year-on-year growth of 7.03%. Among which, sales of new energy vehicle models reached 28,920 units, with the ORA brand contributing 10,116 units to this total, representing a 14.58% jump from a year ago.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Meitei group Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) on Monday urged PM Narendra Modi to ensure the territorial integrity of the state is not disturbed.

Further, it demanded the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar.

The territorial integrity and the system of administration in Manipur should not be altered as the state has a glorious history. The Meiteis have been known for their sense of equity, the COCOMI said in a representation submitted to the Prime Ministers Office.

Any change in the territorial integrity and administration may bring a death knell to many small tribal communities, the organisation warned, in the wake of the separate administration demand raised by the states all 10 Kuki legislators and various Kuki organisations.

The COCOMI demanded that the illegal immigrants, including some leaders of Kuki-Zomi insurgent groups which signed the suspension of operation agreement and are directly involved in the conflict, be either eliminated or deported.

ALSO READ | 'We've the numbers': Manipur BJP after Kuki People's Alliance withdraws support

It said the illegal immigrants could be identified through the implementation of NRC with 1951 as the base year.

This is to deprive illegal immigrants of being citizens though they may continue to stay as guests, if necessary, without indulging in destructive politics by creating concocted history, bombarding the media and seeking support from the left liberals to achieve what is known as a Kuki-Zomi nation (Zalengam) comprising areas from three countries, the COCOMI wrote in the representation.

It said the conflict is neither religious nor a tribal versus non-tribal issue.

It is a manifestation of the simmering tension over deforestation, poppy cultivation and largescale change in the demography in specific areas of the state, mainly caused by illegal immigrants from Myanmar, the organisation said.

Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of the Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) will meet Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday to press for various demands, including separate administration for Kukis. Shah invited the ITLF leaders for a discussion.

Another issue they will discuss is the burial of 35 bodies of tribals killed in the violence earlier. The ITLF deferred the burial following the Centres request. Various Meitei groups opposed the mass burial after claiming that the site of it is government land close to a village inhabited by Meiteis who have been displaced by the violence.



GUWAHATI: Meitei group Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) on Monday urged PM Narendra Modi to ensure the territorial integrity of the state is not disturbed. Further, it demanded the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar. The territorial integrity and the system of administration in Manipur should not be altered as the state has a glorious history. The Meiteis have been known for their sense of equity, the COCOMI said in a representation submitted to the Prime Ministers Office.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Any change in the territorial integrity and administration may bring a death knell to many small tribal communities, the organisation warned, in the wake of the separate administration demand raised by the states all 10 Kuki legislators and various Kuki organisations. The COCOMI demanded that the illegal immigrants, including some leaders of Kuki-Zomi insurgent groups which signed the suspension of operation agreement and are directly involved in the conflict, be either eliminated or deported. ALSO READ | 'We've the numbers': Manipur BJP after Kuki People's Alliance withdraws support It said the illegal immigrants could be identified through the implementation of NRC with 1951 as the base year. This is to deprive illegal immigrants of being citizens though they may continue to stay as guests, if necessary, without indulging in destructive politics by creating concocted history, bombarding the media and seeking support from the left liberals to achieve what is known as a Kuki-Zomi nation (Zalengam) comprising areas from three countries, the COCOMI wrote in the representation. It said the conflict is neither religious nor a tribal versus non-tribal issue. It is a manifestation of the simmering tension over deforestation, poppy cultivation and largescale change in the demography in specific areas of the state, mainly caused by illegal immigrants from Myanmar, the organisation said. Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of the Kuki group Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) will meet Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday to press for various demands, including separate administration for Kukis. Shah invited the ITLF leaders for a discussion. Another issue they will discuss is the burial of 35 bodies of tribals killed in the violence earlier. The ITLF deferred the burial following the Centres request. Various Meitei groups opposed the mass burial after claiming that the site of it is government land close to a village inhabited by Meiteis who have been displaced by the violence.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Monday cleared the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill by a voice vote amid slogan shouting by opposition members over the Manipur issue.

Some amendments moved by opposition members seeking changes in the bill were defeated by a voice vote.

The bill seeks 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 the digital data of individuals.

The bill which comes after six years of the Supreme Court declaring "Right to Privacy" as a fundamental right has provisions to curb the misuse of individuals' data by online platforms.

Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "It would have been good had the opposition discussed the bill today (in the House). But no opposition leader or member is concerned over the right of the citizens."

He said the bill has been brought after extensive public consultation.

ALSO READ | Data Protection Bill 2023: Everything we need to know

Referring to the salient features of the bill, the minister said its language is very simple so that even a common person can understand it.

Referring to certain principles on which the bill is based, Vaishnaw said that according to the principle of legality, data of a person has to be taken based on prevailing laws.

He also said as per the principle of purpose limitation, data should be used for the purpose it was taken for.

Why should more data be taken than required, the minister told members referring to the principle of data minimisation.

He also noted that there has to be a storage limitation as far as the data of individuals is concerned.

"Data should not be kept beyond it needs to be stored," the Union minister said.

ALSO READ | Data Protection Bill can have adverse impact on press freedom: Editors Guild

Notice and consent will be provided in all the 22 languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule so that it becomes easier for the people to comprehend.

Referring to the alternative dispute resolution mechanism put in place, he explained that if an organisation commits a mistake, it will go to the data protection board, rectifies mistake and pays penalty "and move ahead".

Responding to suggestions by members that the Right to Information (RTI) provisions have been diluted in the bill, he said RTI and personal data protection have been harmonised.

The bill was later passed after a brief debate.

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Monday cleared the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill by a voice vote amid slogan shouting by opposition members over the Manipur issue. Some amendments moved by opposition members seeking changes in the bill were defeated by a voice vote. The bill seeks 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 the digital data of individuals.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The bill which comes after six years of the Supreme Court declaring "Right to Privacy" as a fundamental right has provisions to curb the misuse of individuals' data by online platforms. Moving the bill for consideration and passage, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "It would have been good had the opposition discussed the bill today (in the House). But no opposition leader or member is concerned over the right of the citizens." He said the bill has been brought after extensive public consultation. ALSO READ | Data Protection Bill 2023: Everything we need to know Referring to the salient features of the bill, the minister said its language is very simple so that even a common person can understand it. Referring to certain principles on which the bill is based, Vaishnaw said that according to the principle of legality, data of a person has to be taken based on prevailing laws. He also said as per the principle of purpose limitation, data should be used for the purpose it was taken for. Why should more data be taken than required, the minister told members referring to the principle of data minimisation. He also noted that there has to be a storage limitation as far as the data of individuals is concerned. "Data should not be kept beyond it needs to be stored," the Union minister said. ALSO READ | Data Protection Bill can have adverse impact on press freedom: Editors Guild Notice and consent will be provided in all the 22 languages mentioned in the 8th Schedule so that it becomes easier for the people to comprehend. Referring to the alternative dispute resolution mechanism put in place, he explained that if an organisation commits a mistake, it will go to the data protection board, rectifies mistake and pays penalty "and move ahead". Responding to suggestions by members that the Right to Information (RTI) provisions have been diluted in the bill, he said RTI and personal data protection have been harmonised. The bill was later passed after a brief debate.
Narendra Modi By

When we lost Madan Das Devi ji a few days ago, lakhs of karyakartas, including myself, were saddened beyond words. Its a challenging reality to grapple with the idea that a personality as impactful as him is no longer among us. Yet, the knowledge that his influence will live on consoles us. His teachings and principles will be a beacon of inspiration and guidance in the journey ahead.

I had the privilege of working closely with Madan Das Ji over the years. I saw his simplicity and soft-spoken nature from close quarters. He was the quintessential organisational man, and I, too, spent a substantial time working in the organisation. So, it is natural that aspects relating to organisational development and growth of karyakartas are featured regularly in our conversations.

During one such conversation, I asked him where he hailed from. He told me he is from a village near Solapur, Maharashtra, though his ancestors were from Gujarat. But he was not aware of the exact place they were from. I told him I had a teacher with the surname Devi who belonged to Visnagar. Later on, he even visited Visnagar and Vadnagar. Our conversations also took place in Gujarati.

Among the many specialities of Madan Das Ji was his ability to go beyond words and understand the emotions behind those words. He could summarise hours-long discussions in just a few sentences.

His life journey illustrates the wonders one can achieve when the self is on the back burner and the collective gets prominence. A Chartered Accountant by training, he could have led a comfortable life, but his calling lay elsewhere, in shaping minds and working towards Indias development.

Madan Das Ji had unwavering faith in the youth of India. He could connect with youngsters across the length and breadth of the country. No wonder he immersed himself in strengthening the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. One of his key influences in this journey was Yashwantrao Kelkar Ji. He deeply inspired him and would often talk about him. Madan Das Ji always emphasised involving more girl students in the working of the ABVP and empowering them with a platform to contribute to social welfare. He often said that when girl students are involved in any collective effort, that effort will always be more sensitive. For Madan Das Ji, affection for students was above everything else. He would always be among students, but, like a lotus in the water he would never involve himself in university politics.

I can think of several leaders who owe their rise in public life to the mentoring from Madan Das Ji during their younger days. But it was never in his nature to make tall claims about it.

Nowadays, the concepts of people management, talent management, and skill management are extremely popular. Madan Das Ji was an expert at understanding people and mapping their talents onto organisational goals. He was special because he understood peoples capabilities and assigned work based on that. He never sought to mould people as per his requirements. That is why Madan Das Ji was the obvious sounding board if any young karyakarta had a new idea. That is also why many people who worked with him were self-motivated to leave a mark based on their own strengths. Therefore, organisations grew massively under his leadership and remained cohesive and effective even as they became bigger in scale and scope.

Madan Das Ji had a packed travel schedule. Beyond his duties, he was selective when meeting people and was always well-prepared. But his programmes were always simple, never a burden on any karyakarta. This trait remained integral to him until the very end. He braved long illnesses, but when I would ask him about it, he would talk about it only after multiple enquiries. He would remain happy despite the physical pain. Even in illness, he continuously thought about what he could do for the country and society.

Madan Das Ji had a brilliant academic record, and this also shaped his meticulous way of working. A voracious reader, whenever he read something good, he would send it to the concerned person working in that domain. I have been fortunate to often receive such things. He had a sound understanding of economics and policy matters. He envisioned an India where no person depended on others, and each could stand on their own feet, empowered by opportunities for self-improvement and growth. Madan Das Ji envisioned an India where self-reliance was not just a goal but a lived reality for every citizen, with a society rooted in mutual respect, empowerment, and shared prosperity.

As India becomes increasingly self-reliant in various domains, nobody would be happier than him.

Today, when our democracy is vibrant, youth is confident, society is forward-looking, and the nation is brimming with hope and optimism, it is important to remember people like Madan Das Devi Ji, who dedicated their entire lives to service and putting the nation on such an upward trajectory.

Narendra Modi

Prime Minister of India

When we lost Madan Das Devi ji a few days ago, lakhs of karyakartas, including myself, were saddened beyond words. Its a challenging reality to grapple with the idea that a personality as impactful as him is no longer among us. Yet, the knowledge that his influence will live on consoles us. His teachings and principles will be a beacon of inspiration and guidance in the journey ahead. I had the privilege of working closely with Madan Das Ji over the years. I saw his simplicity and soft-spoken nature from close quarters. He was the quintessential organisational man, and I, too, spent a substantial time working in the organisation. So, it is natural that aspects relating to organisational development and growth of karyakartas are featured regularly in our conversations. During one such conversation, I asked him where he hailed from. He told me he is from a village near Solapur, Maharashtra, though his ancestors were from Gujarat. But he was not aware of the exact place they were from. I told him I had a teacher with the surname Devi who belonged to Visnagar. Later on, he even visited Visnagar and Vadnagar. Our conversations also took place in Gujarati.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Among the many specialities of Madan Das Ji was his ability to go beyond words and understand the emotions behind those words. He could summarise hours-long discussions in just a few sentences. His life journey illustrates the wonders one can achieve when the self is on the back burner and the collective gets prominence. A Chartered Accountant by training, he could have led a comfortable life, but his calling lay elsewhere, in shaping minds and working towards Indias development. Madan Das Ji had unwavering faith in the youth of India. He could connect with youngsters across the length and breadth of the country. No wonder he immersed himself in strengthening the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. One of his key influences in this journey was Yashwantrao Kelkar Ji. He deeply inspired him and would often talk about him. Madan Das Ji always emphasised involving more girl students in the working of the ABVP and empowering them with a platform to contribute to social welfare. He often said that when girl students are involved in any collective effort, that effort will always be more sensitive. For Madan Das Ji, affection for students was above everything else. He would always be among students, but, like a lotus in the water he would never involve himself in university politics. I can think of several leaders who owe their rise in public life to the mentoring from Madan Das Ji during their younger days. But it was never in his nature to make tall claims about it. Nowadays, the concepts of people management, talent management, and skill management are extremely popular. Madan Das Ji was an expert at understanding people and mapping their talents onto organisational goals. He was special because he understood peoples capabilities and assigned work based on that. He never sought to mould people as per his requirements. That is why Madan Das Ji was the obvious sounding board if any young karyakarta had a new idea. That is also why many people who worked with him were self-motivated to leave a mark based on their own strengths. Therefore, organisations grew massively under his leadership and remained cohesive and effective even as they became bigger in scale and scope. Madan Das Ji had a packed travel schedule. Beyond his duties, he was selective when meeting people and was always well-prepared. But his programmes were always simple, never a burden on any karyakarta. This trait remained integral to him until the very end. He braved long illnesses, but when I would ask him about it, he would talk about it only after multiple enquiries. He would remain happy despite the physical pain. Even in illness, he continuously thought about what he could do for the country and society. Madan Das Ji had a brilliant academic record, and this also shaped his meticulous way of working. A voracious reader, whenever he read something good, he would send it to the concerned person working in that domain. I have been fortunate to often receive such things. He had a sound understanding of economics and policy matters. He envisioned an India where no person depended on others, and each could stand on their own feet, empowered by opportunities for self-improvement and growth. Madan Das Ji envisioned an India where self-reliance was not just a goal but a lived reality for every citizen, with a society rooted in mutual respect, empowerment, and shared prosperity. As India becomes increasingly self-reliant in various domains, nobody would be happier than him. Today, when our democracy is vibrant, youth is confident, society is forward-looking, and the nation is brimming with hope and optimism, it is important to remember people like Madan Das Devi Ji, who dedicated their entire lives to service and putting the nation on such an upward trajectory. Narendra ModiPrime Minister of India
By PTI

DEHRADUN: A 20-year-old medical student died after falling into the Sahastradhara in Uttarakhand while taking a selfie, police said on Monday.

Sahastradhara, a natural spring on the outskirts of Dehradun, is a popular tourist spot.

Swati Jain, a first-year MBBS student at a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, went to Sahastradhara with a friend on Sunday.

After bathing in the water, Jain climbed a rock and started taking selfies when she slipped and fell into the spring, Rajpur SHO Jitendra Chauhan said.

ALSO READ | Tourist trying to take selfie suspected to have drowned after falling from bridge in Kodagu

She was swept away by the strong currents of the spring, which was in spate following heavy rain, the officer said.

Police and State Disaster Response Force personnel rushed to the spot and pulled Jain out around two kilometres from where she had slipped, he added.

Jain, who was unconscious, was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her dead. Her body was handed over to her parents after a post-mortem on Monday, Chauhan said. Her parents live in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district.

DEHRADUN: A 20-year-old medical student died after falling into the Sahastradhara in Uttarakhand while taking a selfie, police said on Monday. Sahastradhara, a natural spring on the outskirts of Dehradun, is a popular tourist spot. Swati Jain, a first-year MBBS student at a medical college in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, went to Sahastradhara with a friend on Sunday.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); After bathing in the water, Jain climbed a rock and started taking selfies when she slipped and fell into the spring, Rajpur SHO Jitendra Chauhan said. ALSO READ | Tourist trying to take selfie suspected to have drowned after falling from bridge in Kodagu She was swept away by the strong currents of the spring, which was in spate following heavy rain, the officer said. Police and State Disaster Response Force personnel rushed to the spot and pulled Jain out around two kilometres from where she had slipped, he added. Jain, who was unconscious, was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her dead. Her body was handed over to her parents after a post-mortem on Monday, Chauhan said. Her parents live in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district.
By Online Desk

In response to the allegations made against NewsClick, the news organisation late on Monday said that the claims are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

In a statement by NewsClick regarding the allegations, its Editor-in-Chief, Prabir Purkaystha said that Newsclick is an independent news organisation and 'any insinuation that we function as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China or other interests is false'.

"Over the past 12 hours, various false and misleading allegations have been levelled against Newsclick which pertain to matters that are currently sub judice before courts in India. We respect the sanctity of the legal process and do not intend to indulge in a media trial. The allegations being made against us by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law", the statement read.

Meanwhile, the High Court of Delhi has, having found a prima facie case in favour of Newsclick, granted interim protection from arrest to various officials of the company. Further, the Hon'ble Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Special Acts), Delhi, has dismissed a complaint filed by the income tax authorities against Newsclick, finding the same to be without merit, the statement added.

In response to the allegations made against NewsClick, the news organisation late on Monday said that the claims are unfounded and without basis in fact or law. In a statement by NewsClick regarding the allegations, its Editor-in-Chief, Prabir Purkaystha said that Newsclick is an independent news organisation and 'any insinuation that we function as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China or other interests is false'. "Over the past 12 hours, various false and misleading allegations have been levelled against Newsclick which pertain to matters that are currently sub judice before courts in India. We respect the sanctity of the legal process and do not intend to indulge in a media trial. The allegations being made against us by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law", the statement read. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Meanwhile, the High Court of Delhi has, having found a prima facie case in favour of Newsclick, granted interim protection from arrest to various officials of the company. Further, the Hon'ble Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Special Acts), Delhi, has dismissed a complaint filed by the income tax authorities against Newsclick, finding the same to be without merit, the statement added.
Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Only nine per cent population in rural India has availed the Centres flagship eSanjeevani telemedicine programme that provides patient-to-doctor consultations, a nationwide survey by an independent think tank has revealed.

The Centre launched the programme in November 2019 with the aim to deliver healthcare services in rural areas and remote communities by leveraging the power of technology.

The survey, which covered 6,478 people in 20 states, found that the reach and availability of telemedicine services are more in the South than in other parts of the country. The survey findings showed that the digital health divide continues to be a major area of concern.

Ninety-one per cent of respondents expressed that they have never availed of telemedicine services for their household members, said the survey conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), a collaborative venture between Transform Rural India (TRI) and Sambodhi Research and Communications.

Despite great efforts by the government for promoting teleconsultation services through eSanjeevani, only 9 per cent of the respondents have utilised telemedicine services. Also, usage of telemedicine services is higher in the southern part, said the survey, which sheds light on critical and contemporary aspects of the nations rural health system.

During COVID, e-Sanjeevani has shown up as a blessing and since then its acceptance and reach has increased. Instead of its huge success and potential, a large number of people are not using e-Sanjeevani, said Shyamal Santra, Associate Director and National Lead-Health and Nutrition, TRI.

Till July, the official data of e-sanjeevani dashboard is 139 million consultations.

It found that the North region has the highest percentage of facilities without telemedicine services at 83 per cent, followed by the Eastern region at 81 per cent, central India at 75 per cent, the Northeast at 71 per cent, the Western at 70 per cent, and the South at 46 per cent.

In the southern region, 25 per cent of the nearby facilities offer telemedicine services, while 29 per cent of the population is unaware of any telemedicine facility available, the survey found.

However, it found that most people who have used telemedicine services are mainly from healthcare facilities in the North East region, accounting for 70 per cent. The South follows this with 65 per cent, the North with 60 per cent, and the West with 58 per cent.

The survey also looked into how rural people assess teleconsultation services. It found that around 50 per cent of the participants from the Eastern region utilised telemedicine services from their residences.

In contrast, in the Central region, 48 per cent of the respondents accessed these services from health facilities and their homes.

Santra said the main reason behind the service's less acceptability in rural areas is access to the internet and the presence of trained health workers. The availability of smartphones and knowledge to access e-Sanjeevani are the other reasons, especially in areas with low digital literacy.

For conducting teleconsultation at the backend availability of doctors is essential, which is a challenge for rural India, particularly in central and north-eastern regions, Santra said.

In accessing healthcare, trust plays a critical role; a large segment of the population looks for physical consultation as the only way, he added.

He said the service was able to bring medical consultation to the areas where there is no doctor. But to make it more popular and win peoples trust, it should be supported by drugs, diagnostics, and referral services.

NEW DELHI: Only nine per cent population in rural India has availed the Centres flagship eSanjeevani telemedicine programme that provides patient-to-doctor consultations, a nationwide survey by an independent think tank has revealed. The Centre launched the programme in November 2019 with the aim to deliver healthcare services in rural areas and remote communities by leveraging the power of technology. The survey, which covered 6,478 people in 20 states, found that the reach and availability of telemedicine services are more in the South than in other parts of the country. The survey findings showed that the digital health divide continues to be a major area of concern.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Ninety-one per cent of respondents expressed that they have never availed of telemedicine services for their household members, said the survey conducted by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), a collaborative venture between Transform Rural India (TRI) and Sambodhi Research and Communications. Despite great efforts by the government for promoting teleconsultation services through eSanjeevani, only 9 per cent of the respondents have utilised telemedicine services. Also, usage of telemedicine services is higher in the southern part, said the survey, which sheds light on critical and contemporary aspects of the nations rural health system. During COVID, e-Sanjeevani has shown up as a blessing and since then its acceptance and reach has increased. Instead of its huge success and potential, a large number of people are not using e-Sanjeevani, said Shyamal Santra, Associate Director and National Lead-Health and Nutrition, TRI. Till July, the official data of e-sanjeevani dashboard is 139 million consultations. It found that the North region has the highest percentage of facilities without telemedicine services at 83 per cent, followed by the Eastern region at 81 per cent, central India at 75 per cent, the Northeast at 71 per cent, the Western at 70 per cent, and the South at 46 per cent. In the southern region, 25 per cent of the nearby facilities offer telemedicine services, while 29 per cent of the population is unaware of any telemedicine facility available, the survey found. However, it found that most people who have used telemedicine services are mainly from healthcare facilities in the North East region, accounting for 70 per cent. The South follows this with 65 per cent, the North with 60 per cent, and the West with 58 per cent. The survey also looked into how rural people assess teleconsultation services. It found that around 50 per cent of the participants from the Eastern region utilised telemedicine services from their residences. In contrast, in the Central region, 48 per cent of the respondents accessed these services from health facilities and their homes. Santra said the main reason behind the service's less acceptability in rural areas is access to the internet and the presence of trained health workers. The availability of smartphones and knowledge to access e-Sanjeevani are the other reasons, especially in areas with low digital literacy. For conducting teleconsultation at the backend availability of doctors is essential, which is a challenge for rural India, particularly in central and north-eastern regions, Santra said. In accessing healthcare, trust plays a critical role; a large segment of the population looks for physical consultation as the only way, he added. He said the service was able to bring medical consultation to the areas where there is no doctor. But to make it more popular and win peoples trust, it should be supported by drugs, diagnostics, and referral services.
Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The peace talks on Ukraine, which was attended by National Security Advisor (NSA)-level officials from over 40 countries in Jeddah, is possibly going to continue in a third-level of talks.

Russia was excluded from the discussion, which was attended by Indias NSA Ajit Doval who batted for dialogue and diplomacy. Dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict. There is a need to uphold territorial integrity and sovereignty without exception by all states, Doval is reported to have stated in his speech.

The two-day meeting, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, was attended by US NSA Jake Sullivan and Chinas Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui.

Doval while referring to the impact of the conflict said, the whole world, especially the Global South is bearing the brunt of the situation. India has regularly engaged both Russia and Ukraine at the highest levels since the beginning of the conflict and New Delhi supports a global order based on principles enshrined in UN Charter and international law, he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put forward the 10-point peace plan for ending the conflict that included punishing those responsible for war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from Ukraine, and restoring his countrys territorial integrity. Under the plan, he called for ensuring energy security, food security and nuclear safety.

Meanwhile, China is reported to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine. The two-day meeting in Jeddah was the second of its kind, as a similar forum was held in Copenhagen in June.

China didnt attend the talks in Copenhagen  even though it was invited. Saudi Arabia has touted its ties to both sides in the war and positioned itself as a possible mediator.

While Saudi Arabia maintains good relations with China and Moscow on oil policy, there has been tension recently after Russia did not adhere to the agreed reduction in production.

In May, Saudi Arabia hosted Zelenskiy at an Arab summit, also in Jeddah, where he accused some leaders of turning a blind eye to the horrors of Russias invasion.

NEW DELHI: The peace talks on Ukraine, which was attended by National Security Advisor (NSA)-level officials from over 40 countries in Jeddah, is possibly going to continue in a third-level of talks. Russia was excluded from the discussion, which was attended by Indias NSA Ajit Doval who batted for dialogue and diplomacy. Dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict. There is a need to uphold territorial integrity and sovereignty without exception by all states, Doval is reported to have stated in his speech. The two-day meeting, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, was attended by US NSA Jake Sullivan and Chinas Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Doval while referring to the impact of the conflict said, the whole world, especially the Global South is bearing the brunt of the situation. India has regularly engaged both Russia and Ukraine at the highest levels since the beginning of the conflict and New Delhi supports a global order based on principles enshrined in UN Charter and international law, he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put forward the 10-point peace plan for ending the conflict that included punishing those responsible for war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from Ukraine, and restoring his countrys territorial integrity. Under the plan, he called for ensuring energy security, food security and nuclear safety. Meanwhile, China is reported to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine. The two-day meeting in Jeddah was the second of its kind, as a similar forum was held in Copenhagen in June. China didnt attend the talks in Copenhagen  even though it was invited. Saudi Arabia has touted its ties to both sides in the war and positioned itself as a possible mediator. While Saudi Arabia maintains good relations with China and Moscow on oil policy, there has been tension recently after Russia did not adhere to the agreed reduction in production. In May, Saudi Arabia hosted Zelenskiy at an Arab summit, also in Jeddah, where he accused some leaders of turning a blind eye to the horrors of Russias invasion.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Sunday demolished a three-storey hotel from where stones were allegedly pelted on the procession organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal last week. Continuing with its demolition drive in the violence-hit Nuh district, the administration on Sunday bulldozed 94 permanent and 212 temporary structures at 16 different places in the district.

The demolition drive, however, found stiff resistance as some villagers blocked the roads.

Stones were reportedly pelted from all these structures and the local administration identified these from CCTV footage and videos shared on social media.

Police carried out special combing operations in Aravalli hills and recovered bullet shells, illegal weapons, and used petrol bombs. Even as the drive continued on Sunday, police issued an ultimatum to all absconding accused to surrender.

ALSO READ | While bulldozers raze shanties in Muslim-dominated Nuh, no action against Bajrang Dal men

Meanwhile, violating Section 144 of CrPC, a Mahapanchayat was held at Tighar village in Gurugram in which hundreds of people participated. It called for an economic boycott of Muslims, asking people not to buy from shops owned by Muslims and denying them houses and shops on rent.

It also demanded the dissolution of Nuh as a district saying that its villages merged with the districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal and Rewari.

The Mahapanchayat was called to oppose the crackdown of police on village youth for communal violence in Gurugram including torching of mosques and murder of Imams.

The Mahapanchayat also issued a one-week ultimatum to the police to release all those arrested, failing which the body threatened to bring Gurugram to a standstill.

Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of the Communist Party of India was prevented from entering Nuh. CPI leader Binoy Viswam alleged that hooligans and goons are allowed to move freely but the CPI leaders were stopped.

We have decided to go back because we dont want any confrontation. Hooligans, goons and miscreants can go freely, but democratic people who have come here for peacemaking are stopped, he said, adding: We do not want to create a tussle here.

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Sunday demolished a three-storey hotel from where stones were allegedly pelted on the procession organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal last week. Continuing with its demolition drive in the violence-hit Nuh district, the administration on Sunday bulldozed 94 permanent and 212 temporary structures at 16 different places in the district. The demolition drive, however, found stiff resistance as some villagers blocked the roads. Stones were reportedly pelted from all these structures and the local administration identified these from CCTV footage and videos shared on social media. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Police carried out special combing operations in Aravalli hills and recovered bullet shells, illegal weapons, and used petrol bombs. Even as the drive continued on Sunday, police issued an ultimatum to all absconding accused to surrender. ALSO READ | While bulldozers raze shanties in Muslim-dominated Nuh, no action against Bajrang Dal men Meanwhile, violating Section 144 of CrPC, a Mahapanchayat was held at Tighar village in Gurugram in which hundreds of people participated. It called for an economic boycott of Muslims, asking people not to buy from shops owned by Muslims and denying them houses and shops on rent. It also demanded the dissolution of Nuh as a district saying that its villages merged with the districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal and Rewari. The Mahapanchayat was called to oppose the crackdown of police on village youth for communal violence in Gurugram including torching of mosques and murder of Imams. The Mahapanchayat also issued a one-week ultimatum to the police to release all those arrested, failing which the body threatened to bring Gurugram to a standstill. Meanwhile, a four-member delegation of the Communist Party of India was prevented from entering Nuh. CPI leader Binoy Viswam alleged that hooligans and goons are allowed to move freely but the CPI leaders were stopped. We have decided to go back because we dont want any confrontation. Hooligans, goons and miscreants can go freely, but democratic people who have come here for peacemaking are stopped, he said, adding: We do not want to create a tussle here.
Ramashankar By

Express News Service

Congress leaders push Rahul as Oppositions PM pick

The speculation over Rahul Gandhi being chosen as the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate has risen ever since RJD chief Lalu Prasad advised Congress scion to get married. On Sunday, Bihar Congress headquarters Sadaqat Ashram saw a large number of women party leaders demanding Rahul to be declared the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. They contended Rahul has all qualities to become a PM. At the first Opposition meeting held in Patna on June 23, Lalu had suggested Rahul to get married and that he would be happy to be a barati.

Rhino Task Force at VTR, West Champaran soon

Bihar is set to constitute a Rhino Task Force for suggesting measures to reintroduce terrestrial mammals in Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the West Champaran district. At present there is only one Rhino in VTR and 14 Rhinos in Patna zoo. Additional principal chief conservator of forest and chief wildlife warden P K Gupta said that number of Rhinos will substantially increase in VTR in the days to come. VTR has selected one of the potential sites under the National Rhino Conservation strategy where Rhinos may be brought from other reserves in the country.

Celebration time for 3.5L contractual teachers

Government school teachers appointed on contract are overjoyed after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars assured them of a government employees status. A decision to concede long pending demand of over 3.5 lakh teachers working in primary, middle and higher secondary schools was taken at a meeting with leaders of grand alliance partners and teachers bodies chaired by Nitish. Leaders of the grand alliance said that Nitish listened to the demands of teachers patiently and asked officials to bring about certain changes in the rules to concede to the demands of teachers appointed since 2006 through Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Ramashankar

Our correspondent in Bihar

ramashankar@newindianexpress.com

Congress leaders push Rahul as Oppositions PM pick The speculation over Rahul Gandhi being chosen as the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate has risen ever since RJD chief Lalu Prasad advised Congress scion to get married. On Sunday, Bihar Congress headquarters Sadaqat Ashram saw a large number of women party leaders demanding Rahul to be declared the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. They contended Rahul has all qualities to become a PM. At the first Opposition meeting held in Patna on June 23, Lalu had suggested Rahul to get married and that he would be happy to be a barati. Rhino Task Force at VTR, West Champaran soongoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Bihar is set to constitute a Rhino Task Force for suggesting measures to reintroduce terrestrial mammals in Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve (VTR) in the West Champaran district. At present there is only one Rhino in VTR and 14 Rhinos in Patna zoo. Additional principal chief conservator of forest and chief wildlife warden P K Gupta said that number of Rhinos will substantially increase in VTR in the days to come. VTR has selected one of the potential sites under the National Rhino Conservation strategy where Rhinos may be brought from other reserves in the country. Celebration time for 3.5L contractual teachers Government school teachers appointed on contract are overjoyed after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars assured them of a government employees status. A decision to concede long pending demand of over 3.5 lakh teachers working in primary, middle and higher secondary schools was taken at a meeting with leaders of grand alliance partners and teachers bodies chaired by Nitish. Leaders of the grand alliance said that Nitish listened to the demands of teachers patiently and asked officials to bring about certain changes in the rules to concede to the demands of teachers appointed since 2006 through Panchayati Raj Institutions. RamashankarOur correspondent in Bihar ramashankar@newindianexpress.com
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: It was a historic day for Rajasthan as seventeen new districts became functional on Monday. With a significant increase from 33 to 50 districts, the map of the state has undergone a major transformation in this election year. The move is set to impact over two crore people in the state, as their addresses have now been changed. To commemorate this milestone, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his ministers participated in a series of poojas and havan ceremonies. However, the opposition BJP claims that this is a gimmick aimed at improving the chances of Congress candidates in the upcoming elections.

The Gehlot government recently issued a notification for the formation of 19 new districts and three new divisions. Consequently, the state now comprises 50 districts and 10 divisions, compared to the earlier 33 districts and seven divisions. Since Jaipur and Jodhpur districts already existed, only 17 new districts have been created. The newly formed districts are Anupgarh, Balotra, Beawar, Kekri, Jaipur Rural, Dudu, Kotputli-Behror, Neem Ka Thana, Khairthal-Tijara, Sanchore, Didwana-Kuchaman, Shahpura, Jodhpur Rural, Phalodi, Salumber, Gangapur City and Digg.

Political experts view this move as an attempt by the Gehlot government to shift the political narrative in its favour during the election year. Several districts, such as Beawar, Kotputli-Behror, Neem Ka Thana, Balotra, Didwana-Kuchaman and Phalodi, had long-standing demands for separate districts. By fulfilling these popular demands, the Gehlot government aims to create a favourable political atmosphere ahead of the elections. The newly created districts have also been assigned their headquarters. Both Jaipur Rural and Jaipur districts will have their headquarters in Jaipur, while Jodhpur and Jodhpur Rural will maintain their headquarters in Jodhpur.

ALSO READ | Gehlot govt's suspension of Jaipur mayor on graft charges sparks uproar in poll-bound Rajasthan

However, the inauguration of the new districts has intensified the political rivalry between the Congress and the BJP. CM Gehlot, during a digital unveiling of the inauguration plaques at Jaipur's Birla Auditorium, criticised Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. He expressed concern over the PM's remarks associating Rajasthan with violent incidents in Manipur and emphasised that the Prime Minister represents the entire country, not just a particular party or community. Gehlot said, By the speeches and 'body language' of the PM, it seems as if he is the Prime Minister of a party and only Hindus, this is a very dangerous thing. Gehlot said that Modi has been elected Prime Minister in a democracy and Congress has established democracy in the country and kept it alive.

On the other hand, the BJP has dismissed the move to create new districts as a futile exercise aimed at bolstering the chances of Congress candidates in the upcoming elections. They consider the poojas and havan ceremonies as mere political gimmicks to deceive the public. Attacking the Gehlot government, Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore said, "The Congress government of Rajasthan has made districts without any preparation and budget. The state government has formed districts to please the MLAs, bypassing the public." Questioning the Rajasthan government, Rathore said, "How will the 4.25 lakh revenue cases currently going on in 33 districts be heard in 50 districts? The officers will get away with it. How will the 29 departments with maximum work for the general public handle the work in the new districts? The government has not given any outline for this."

Rathore also asked, "When Collectors and SPs for new districts have not been appointed, when basic administrative structure has not been set up in the new districts, who will get the elections done and how? How will the election process which has to be held in 3-4 months be completed?"

In addition, in the wake of the inauguration on Monday, protests have erupted in various areas, particularly during the inauguration of Shahpura district, carved out of Bhilwara. The police resorted to a lathi charge as the situation grew tense, resulting in injuries to 12 people. Many people are aggrieved over the removal of mines from the district.

Amidst the controversies, Ram Lubhaya, the Chairman of the New Districts Committee, has offered hope for resolution. He assured that the committee would listen to the pending demands from various districts and consider reasonable requests for the creation of new districts, which will be reported to the government.

JAIPUR: It was a historic day for Rajasthan as seventeen new districts became functional on Monday. With a significant increase from 33 to 50 districts, the map of the state has undergone a major transformation in this election year. The move is set to impact over two crore people in the state, as their addresses have now been changed. To commemorate this milestone, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his ministers participated in a series of poojas and havan ceremonies. However, the opposition BJP claims that this is a gimmick aimed at improving the chances of Congress candidates in the upcoming elections. The Gehlot government recently issued a notification for the formation of 19 new districts and three new divisions. Consequently, the state now comprises 50 districts and 10 divisions, compared to the earlier 33 districts and seven divisions. Since Jaipur and Jodhpur districts already existed, only 17 new districts have been created. The newly formed districts are Anupgarh, Balotra, Beawar, Kekri, Jaipur Rural, Dudu, Kotputli-Behror, Neem Ka Thana, Khairthal-Tijara, Sanchore, Didwana-Kuchaman, Shahpura, Jodhpur Rural, Phalodi, Salumber, Gangapur City and Digg. Political experts view this move as an attempt by the Gehlot government to shift the political narrative in its favour during the election year. Several districts, such as Beawar, Kotputli-Behror, Neem Ka Thana, Balotra, Didwana-Kuchaman and Phalodi, had long-standing demands for separate districts. By fulfilling these popular demands, the Gehlot government aims to create a favourable political atmosphere ahead of the elections. The newly created districts have also been assigned their headquarters. Both Jaipur Rural and Jaipur districts will have their headquarters in Jaipur, while Jodhpur and Jodhpur Rural will maintain their headquarters in Jodhpur.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); ALSO READ | Gehlot govt's suspension of Jaipur mayor on graft charges sparks uproar in poll-bound Rajasthan However, the inauguration of the new districts has intensified the political rivalry between the Congress and the BJP. CM Gehlot, during a digital unveiling of the inauguration plaques at Jaipur's Birla Auditorium, criticised Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. He expressed concern over the PM's remarks associating Rajasthan with violent incidents in Manipur and emphasised that the Prime Minister represents the entire country, not just a particular party or community. Gehlot said, By the speeches and 'body language' of the PM, it seems as if he is the Prime Minister of a party and only Hindus, this is a very dangerous thing. Gehlot said that Modi has been elected Prime Minister in a democracy and Congress has established democracy in the country and kept it alive. On the other hand, the BJP has dismissed the move to create new districts as a futile exercise aimed at bolstering the chances of Congress candidates in the upcoming elections. They consider the poojas and havan ceremonies as mere political gimmicks to deceive the public. Attacking the Gehlot government, Leader of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore said, "The Congress government of Rajasthan has made districts without any preparation and budget. The state government has formed districts to please the MLAs, bypassing the public." Questioning the Rajasthan government, Rathore said, "How will the 4.25 lakh revenue cases currently going on in 33 districts be heard in 50 districts? The officers will get away with it. How will the 29 departments with maximum work for the general public handle the work in the new districts? The government has not given any outline for this." Rathore also asked, "When Collectors and SPs for new districts have not been appointed, when basic administrative structure has not been set up in the new districts, who will get the elections done and how? How will the election process which has to be held in 3-4 months be completed?" In addition, in the wake of the inauguration on Monday, protests have erupted in various areas, particularly during the inauguration of Shahpura district, carved out of Bhilwara. The police resorted to a lathi charge as the situation grew tense, resulting in injuries to 12 people. Many people are aggrieved over the removal of mines from the district. Amidst the controversies, Ram Lubhaya, the Chairman of the New Districts Committee, has offered hope for resolution. He assured that the committee would listen to the pending demands from various districts and consider reasonable requests for the creation of new districts, which will be reported to the government.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In July of this year, Great Wall Motor ("GWM") sold 109,091 new vehicles, representing a 7.03% year-on-year growth, according to the company's latest monthly sales results.

Of the vehicles sold last month, 28,920 units were new energy vehicles ("NEVs"), which accounted for 26.51% of the companys total auto sales.

Additionally, GWM saw its sales for overseas markets soar to 27,007 units in July, marking an outstanding 83.60% surge compared to the same period last year. This is the fifth consecutive month that GWM surpassed the 20,000-unit mark in overseas sales.

Haval Xiaolong PHEV; photo credit: Haval

The iconic Haval brand scored a 2.75% year-on-year rise in its July sales, which stood at 62,967 units. Its NEV sales amounted to 10,105 units in the month, for the second month in straight to surpass 10,000 units.

As for new product updates, the Haval NEVs Dragon Series welcomed a new member officially named "Haval Menglong," (translated to Fierce Dragon), which is set to hit the market in September. The new Haval H5s first mass-produced vehicles have already rolled off the production line. Besides, the 2024 Haval Big Dog went on sale on July 25.

The WEY recorded a monthly sales volume of 6,652 vehicles in July. The WEY VV7 Blue Mountain model recorded a sales volume of 5,566 units last month, which resulted in a cumulative volume of 17,258 since its market launch.

Meanwhile, the NEV-dedicated ORA brand sold 10,116 vehicles in July, a notable 14.58% year-on-year growth.

The TANK brand saw its July sales climb 8.15% from the previous year to 13,490 units. Of those, the TANK 500 Hi4-T contributed 2,023 units to the brands total sales.

Great Wall Pick-up sold 15,841 units last month, a 2.85% decrease compared to the previous year. However, its year-to-date sales still grew 6.97% over a year ago to 118,437 units.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: India and China made progress in five-six friction points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh through talks in the last three years and efforts are underway to resolve the remaining issues, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.

Rejecting the opposition's criticism of the government on the lingering border row, he told a group of reporters that complexities are involved and both sides are engaged to find solutions.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.

"It was said that we will not be able to do anything, talks will not be successful, there will be no progress, disengagement cannot take place, but solutions were found in some of the focal points in the last three years," he said.

"There were five-six areas that were very tense. There has been progress (there)," he said.

Highlighting the government's priority to develop border infrastructure, Jaishankar said the armed forces are now better placed to quickly deploy troops and counter-movement of the Chinese military effectively.

If you ask whether, after 2014, the Indian military and the Indian Air Force are able to deploy and counter any Chinese movement better, the answer is "yes, absolutely," he said.

Jaishankar said the overall mobility of both the armed forces and the civilian population in the border areas has increased tremendously in the last few years because of the government's focus on rapid enhancement of infrastructure in the frontier areas.

"The capability is growing year after year," he said.

The minister said the infrastructure push along the Northern border is going to determine India's response to national security challenges.

The ties between India and China nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.

India has made it clear to China that until there is peace and tranquillity in border areas, the relationship between the two countries cannot progress.

Jaishankar said India is also boosting connectivity with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

India is in talks with Bhutan for a rail link between that country and Assam, he said.

NEW DELHI: India and China made progress in five-six friction points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh through talks in the last three years and efforts are underway to resolve the remaining issues, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday. Rejecting the opposition's criticism of the government on the lingering border row, he told a group of reporters that complexities are involved and both sides are engaged to find solutions. The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "It was said that we will not be able to do anything, talks will not be successful, there will be no progress, disengagement cannot take place, but solutions were found in some of the focal points in the last three years," he said. "There were five-six areas that were very tense. There has been progress (there)," he said. Highlighting the government's priority to develop border infrastructure, Jaishankar said the armed forces are now better placed to quickly deploy troops and counter-movement of the Chinese military effectively. If you ask whether, after 2014, the Indian military and the Indian Air Force are able to deploy and counter any Chinese movement better, the answer is "yes, absolutely," he said. Jaishankar said the overall mobility of both the armed forces and the civilian population in the border areas has increased tremendously in the last few years because of the government's focus on rapid enhancement of infrastructure in the frontier areas. "The capability is growing year after year," he said. The minister said the infrastructure push along the Northern border is going to determine India's response to national security challenges. The ties between India and China nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades. India has made it clear to China that until there is peace and tranquillity in border areas, the relationship between the two countries cannot progress. Jaishankar said India is also boosting connectivity with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. India is in talks with Bhutan for a rail link between that country and Assam, he said.
Preetha Nair By

ENS & Agencies

NEW DELHI: Days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname defamation case, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was reinstated as a Member of Parliament on Monday.

This will pave the way for Rahul Gandhi to take part in the no-confidence motion which will be taken up by Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The Congress is keen for Rahul to participate in the no-confidence motion on a discussion over the unrest in Manipur and other issues.

"The Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 staying the conviction of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala. In view of the order, the disqualification of Shri Rahul Gandhi ...in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," the notification read.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP on March 23, after a Gujarat trial court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail over his remarks involving the 'Modi' surname during an election campaign in Karnataka. A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. He represents Wayanad in the lower house.

Congress leaders hail Rahul's reinstatement

Celebration erupted at AICC headquarters as soon as the news of the restoration of Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP status broke out.

Several leaders of the Opposition alliance 'INDIA' also joined the celebration by distributing sweets. The leaders were huddled in a routine meeting held prior to the morning session of Parliament.

Terming it as a welcome step, Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that the decision to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad.

"Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders," he said.

Congress party's whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore tweeted, "RG returns, welcome decision, Conspiracy defeated," while AICC general secretary, Organisation, KC Venugopal said, "Democracy has won! India wins."

"Rahul Gandhi will continue his parliamentary journey by speaking the truth without any hesitation. He is the voice of India, he can never be silenced," Venugopal said.

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

Reacting to the development, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies have been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun."

(With additional inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: Days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname defamation case, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was reinstated as a Member of Parliament on Monday. This will pave the way for Rahul Gandhi to take part in the no-confidence motion which will be taken up by Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The Congress is keen for Rahul to participate in the no-confidence motion on a discussion over the unrest in Manipur and other issues. "The Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 staying the conviction of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala. In view of the order, the disqualification of Shri Rahul Gandhi ...in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," the notification read.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP on March 23, after a Gujarat trial court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail over his remarks involving the 'Modi' surname during an election campaign in Karnataka. A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker. The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. He represents Wayanad in the lower house. Congress leaders hail Rahul's reinstatement Celebration erupted at AICC headquarters as soon as the news of the restoration of Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP status broke out. Several leaders of the Opposition alliance 'INDIA' also joined the celebration by distributing sweets. The leaders were huddled in a routine meeting held prior to the morning session of Parliament. Terming it as a welcome step, Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that the decision to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. "Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders," he said. Congress party's whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore tweeted, "RG returns, welcome decision, Conspiracy defeated," while AICC general secretary, Organisation, KC Venugopal said, "Democracy has won! India wins." "Rahul Gandhi will continue his parliamentary journey by speaking the truth without any hesitation. He is the voice of India, he can never be silenced," Venugopal said. In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!" Reacting to the development, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies have been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun." (With additional inputs from PTI)
Shruti Kakkar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas filed by TN Minister Thiru Senthil Balaji and his wife against the Madras High Courts order regarding legality of his arrest and custodial interrogation by granting ED custody till August 12, 2023.

A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh ruled that the word custody under section 167 CrPC would also include such other custody and also held that the writ of habeas corpus was not maintainable against the order of remand.

While reserving the verdict last Wednesday, the bench termed ED's proposition regarding non-applicability of section 167 CrPC to PMLA officers which deals with producing an arrested person before the Magistrate.

It is a very dangerous proposition that section 167 CrPC does not apply & you (ED) can take your own sweet time, Justice MM Sundresh said.

ALSO READ: ED seized Rs 22 lakh cash, property documents from Senthil Balaji's close aide

Balaji and his wife had approached SC on July 4 and July 14 which were delivered by a bench of two judges and a single judge respectively.

Challenging his Enforcement Directorate custody, Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji had told SC that ED had no vested right to interrogate an accused in custody after the lapse of 15 days from the date of arrest.

On the face of it...There is no vested right, even in the first 15 days. It's at the discretion of the Magistrate. Any one exclusion...will affect the entire scheme. Beyond 15, you automatically shift to judicial custody. There is no exclusion of time in the first 15 days. Once the clock starts ticking, it cannot be stopped. There is no vested right after 15 days, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi had submitted.

Also for the minister, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had submitted that ED cannot seek custody as they are not police officers. Referring to section 167 CrPC which deals with the power of police regarding custody and top courts ruling in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary of holding that ED officials under PMLA are not Police officers, he also said that the period of custody of such arrested person with the ED officials cannot be beyond the first 24 hours of arrest.

Vehemently opposing the submissions made by Balaji, SG Tushar Mehta for ED said that the probe agencys efforts to get exclusive custody were stalled as the minister abused the law by approaching multiple courts.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas filed by TN Minister Thiru Senthil Balaji and his wife against the Madras High Courts order regarding legality of his arrest and custodial interrogation by granting ED custody till August 12, 2023. A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh ruled that the word custody under section 167 CrPC would also include such other custody and also held that the writ of habeas corpus was not maintainable against the order of remand. While reserving the verdict last Wednesday, the bench termed ED's proposition regarding non-applicability of section 167 CrPC to PMLA officers which deals with producing an arrested person before the Magistrate.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); It is a very dangerous proposition that section 167 CrPC does not apply & you (ED) can take your own sweet time, Justice MM Sundresh said. ALSO READ: ED seized Rs 22 lakh cash, property documents from Senthil Balaji's close aide Balaji and his wife had approached SC on July 4 and July 14 which were delivered by a bench of two judges and a single judge respectively. Challenging his Enforcement Directorate custody, Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji had told SC that ED had no vested right to interrogate an accused in custody after the lapse of 15 days from the date of arrest. On the face of it...There is no vested right, even in the first 15 days. It's at the discretion of the Magistrate. Any one exclusion...will affect the entire scheme. Beyond 15, you automatically shift to judicial custody. There is no exclusion of time in the first 15 days. Once the clock starts ticking, it cannot be stopped. There is no vested right after 15 days, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi had submitted. Also for the minister, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had submitted that ED cannot seek custody as they are not police officers. Referring to section 167 CrPC which deals with the power of police regarding custody and top courts ruling in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary of holding that ED officials under PMLA are not Police officers, he also said that the period of custody of such arrested person with the ED officials cannot be beyond the first 24 hours of arrest. Vehemently opposing the submissions made by Balaji, SG Tushar Mehta for ED said that the probe agencys efforts to get exclusive custody were stalled as the minister abused the law by approaching multiple courts.
By PTI

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday claimed the Supreme Court order staying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation has exposed the Union government's "vindictive politics."

An editorial in the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Gandhi is expected to give a tough fight to political opponents during the Lok Sabha polls due next year.

Gandhi was convicted by a court at Surat in Gujarat in the 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark and sentenced to two-year imprisonment to stop him from contesting the Lok Sabha polls, the Marathi daily claimed. A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Gandhi's conviction, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership was restored on Monday. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored. Gandhi represents Wayanad in the Lok Sabha.

"The Supreme Court studied properly the decisions of lower courts over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha member and then gave its decision...the court's decision has exposed the vindictive politics of the Union government," the editorial in 'Saamana' claimed.

It is clear that Rahul Gandhi would give a tough fight (to political opponents) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and topple the "tyrant" government in the national capital Delhi, it said.

Gandhi was convicted and sentenced to two-year imprisonment to restrict him from contesting the next Lok Sabha election, it claimed.

"Purnesh Modi was used as a frontman to file the defamation case (against Gandhi). The SC exposed the lie of the applicant," the editorial said.

The only objective of the (Surat) court was to disqualify Rahul Gandhi, it claimed. Neither the Surat court nor the Gujarat High Court gave any reason behind the sentence of two-year imprisonment for Gandhi. The Supreme Court pointed out this fact and gave its decision, the Marathi Daily said.

The editorial also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a "gimmick" by bowing before the Lok Sabha steps (nine years ago), but since then justice, truth, logic and Constitution are defeated on a daily basis. "There is suppression of truth, justice and morality from the land of Gujarat, but the Supreme Court has not remained a mere spectator," it added.

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday claimed the Supreme Court order staying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation has exposed the Union government's "vindictive politics." An editorial in the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' said Gandhi is expected to give a tough fight to political opponents during the Lok Sabha polls due next year. Gandhi was convicted by a court at Surat in Gujarat in the 2019 criminal defamation case over his Modi surname remark and sentenced to two-year imprisonment to stop him from contesting the Lok Sabha polls, the Marathi daily claimed. A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Gandhi's conviction, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership. Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership was restored on Monday. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored. Gandhi represents Wayanad in the Lok Sabha. "The Supreme Court studied properly the decisions of lower courts over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha member and then gave its decision...the court's decision has exposed the vindictive politics of the Union government," the editorial in 'Saamana' claimed. It is clear that Rahul Gandhi would give a tough fight (to political opponents) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and topple the "tyrant" government in the national capital Delhi, it said. Gandhi was convicted and sentenced to two-year imprisonment to restrict him from contesting the next Lok Sabha election, it claimed. "Purnesh Modi was used as a frontman to file the defamation case (against Gandhi). The SC exposed the lie of the applicant," the editorial said. The only objective of the (Surat) court was to disqualify Rahul Gandhi, it claimed. Neither the Surat court nor the Gujarat High Court gave any reason behind the sentence of two-year imprisonment for Gandhi. The Supreme Court pointed out this fact and gave its decision, the Marathi Daily said. The editorial also claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a "gimmick" by bowing before the Lok Sabha steps (nine years ago), but since then justice, truth, logic and Constitution are defeated on a daily basis. "There is suppression of truth, justice and morality from the land of Gujarat, but the Supreme Court has not remained a mere spectator," it added.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government is ready for a discussion on the Manipur issue on August 11 and claimed that it was the opposition that was running away from it.

The discussion on the no-confidence motion will be taken up in the Lok Sabha from August 8 to 10.

The motion was moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the contentious Manipur issue.

During a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Delhi services bill, Shah said that he has written to the House chairman that he is ready to debate on the Manipur issue.

"I am ready to discuss Manipur on August 11 and we have nothing to hide. You have many things to hide so you all do not want to talk," he said.

The home minister said that he is ready to answer all queries of the members as it is his constitutional obligation.

Shah said the opposition is seeking discussions under Rule 267, which has a voting provision and is for different purposes.

When a member from the opposition asked him to hold a discussion on Manipur right away, the home minister said it is not possible now and neither from August 8 to 10 as the Congress has brought a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha which will be discussed on those three days.

"I have already written to you before the start of the Monsoon session for holding a debate on the Manipur situation, but you have not agreed. They do not want a discussion on Manipur and are running away," he charged.

"The question is Manipur situation and what steps the government is taking there, not a show of strength by voting. If you want to vote, I dare you to make this bill fall through voting," Shah said during the debate on the Delhi services bill.

The opposition has been demanding a debate on Manipur in both houses of Parliament and a statement from the prime minister.

"If Kharge Sahab (leader of the opposition) agrees to a discussion, I am ready for that," Shah added.

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the government is ready for a discussion on the Manipur issue on August 11 and claimed that it was the opposition that was running away from it. The discussion on the no-confidence motion will be taken up in the Lok Sabha from August 8 to 10. The motion was moved by Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the contentious Manipur issue.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); During a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Delhi services bill, Shah said that he has written to the House chairman that he is ready to debate on the Manipur issue. "I am ready to discuss Manipur on August 11 and we have nothing to hide. You have many things to hide so you all do not want to talk," he said. The home minister said that he is ready to answer all queries of the members as it is his constitutional obligation. Shah said the opposition is seeking discussions under Rule 267, which has a voting provision and is for different purposes. When a member from the opposition asked him to hold a discussion on Manipur right away, the home minister said it is not possible now and neither from August 8 to 10 as the Congress has brought a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha which will be discussed on those three days. "I have already written to you before the start of the Monsoon session for holding a debate on the Manipur situation, but you have not agreed. They do not want a discussion on Manipur and are running away," he charged. "The question is Manipur situation and what steps the government is taking there, not a show of strength by voting. If you want to vote, I dare you to make this bill fall through voting," Shah said during the debate on the Delhi services bill. The opposition has been demanding a debate on Manipur in both houses of Parliament and a statement from the prime minister. "If Kharge Sahab (leader of the opposition) agrees to a discussion, I am ready for that," Shah added.
R Sivakumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A city court on Monday permitted the Enforcement Directorate to take custody of DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested on June 14 in connection with a money laundering case, for five days.

Following the Supreme Courts verdict favouring the Central agencys right to claim custody of an accused person for interrogations, the agency moved a petition before the principal sessions court which is the special court for ED cases.

Principal sessions judge S Alli heard the counsels for both sides before granting custody till August 12 for interrogations.

She declined to allow private doctors, as sought by the counsel for the minister, to have access to him twice a day to check up on his health conditions.

Senthil Balaji being taken to Shastri Bhavan on Monday | P Jawahar

Senthil Balaji is currently imprisoned at the Central Prison, Puzhal, near Chennai after he was discharged from a private hospital where he underwent a bypass surgery.

Dramatic scenes unfolded soon after his arrest on June 14 as he had developed chest pain and was admitted to the Govt Muti-Specialty Hospital at Omandurar Estate where the doctors diagnosed him as having blocks in the heart and recommended immediate surgery.

Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife Megala, the Madras High Court ordered him to be shifted to Kauvery Hospital for surgery, though ED had vociferously objected to it.

ALSO READ | SC allows ED custody of TN minister Senthil Balaji till August 12 in money laundering case

A division bench of the court delivered a split verdict on the contentious issue of the right of ED to take an accused person into its custody for interrogation. A third judge, for whom the matter was referred, concurred with one of the judges of the division bench ruling in favour of ED and rejecting the contentions of illegality in the arrest.

This ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court as well.

Senthil Balaji landed on EDs net following a case registered by the agency on the trails of the cash-for-jobs scam, through which, he was alleged to have received proceeds of crime (tainted money).

CHENNAI: A city court on Monday permitted the Enforcement Directorate to take custody of DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested on June 14 in connection with a money laundering case, for five days. Following the Supreme Courts verdict favouring the Central agencys right to claim custody of an accused person for interrogations, the agency moved a petition before the principal sessions court which is the special court for ED cases. Principal sessions judge S Alli heard the counsels for both sides before granting custody till August 12 for interrogations.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); She declined to allow private doctors, as sought by the counsel for the minister, to have access to him twice a day to check up on his health conditions. Senthil Balaji being taken to Shastri Bhavan on Monday | P Jawahar Senthil Balaji is currently imprisoned at the Central Prison, Puzhal, near Chennai after he was discharged from a private hospital where he underwent a bypass surgery. Dramatic scenes unfolded soon after his arrest on June 14 as he had developed chest pain and was admitted to the Govt Muti-Specialty Hospital at Omandurar Estate where the doctors diagnosed him as having blocks in the heart and recommended immediate surgery. Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife Megala, the Madras High Court ordered him to be shifted to Kauvery Hospital for surgery, though ED had vociferously objected to it. ALSO READ | SC allows ED custody of TN minister Senthil Balaji till August 12 in money laundering case A division bench of the court delivered a split verdict on the contentious issue of the right of ED to take an accused person into its custody for interrogation. A third judge, for whom the matter was referred, concurred with one of the judges of the division bench ruling in favour of ED and rejecting the contentions of illegality in the arrest. This ruling is upheld by the Supreme Court as well. Senthil Balaji landed on EDs net following a case registered by the agency on the trails of the cash-for-jobs scam, through which, he was alleged to have received proceeds of crime (tainted money).
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: An independent committee of inquiry was set up by the Kalakshetra Foundation to look into the allegations of sexual harassment against its faculty member said it submitted its report on Monday.

The committee's report indicated Hari Padman, a senior dance teacher at Kalakshetra Foundation's Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (RDFCA), against who the allegations were made, was guilty and 'major punishment' has been recommended against him.

The three-member panel comprising retired judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, K Kannan, former DGP of Tamil Nadu, Letika Saran, and Dr Shobha Varthaman said it has recommended 'major punishment' and 'considerable recommendations' for reforms in the administrative apparatus of the foundation.

It said that they have recommended the foundation Chairman S Ramadorai to keep the report confidential, except the concluding part of it and the disclosure that will become necessary to the delinquent employee Hari Padman to show cause against the findings of the report and the major punishment recommended by us. The report contains extremely sensitive information, which if revealed, would invade the privacy of individuals, it had stated.

"The concluding part of the report also contains considerable recommendations for reforms in the administrative setup and tuning the activities of the institution that will assure safety to students, by focusing on promoting Kalakshetra Foundation primarily as an institution of higher learning and not showcase it as an institution of public performers," the press release added.

As per the powers and responsibilities of the committee, it can also monitor the implementation of any disciplinary action taken and ensure that the complainant and other individuals are protected from retaliation. The details of the inquiry process will also be available for review by the institution's governance members, and state and central government statutory authorities if required. The committee also set up a website to receive complaints and suggestions from students, former students and staff of the institution.

Levelling allegations of sexual harassment on the campus, a section of students staged a protest in March this year seeking justice. The committee was constituted following the uproar from the students and various women's rights organisations.

Police arrested on April 3 Assistant Professor (Dance) Hari Padman following a complaint against him from a former student and he was granted bail on June 3 by a court here.

ALSO READ: Kalakshetra case: Guru-sishya parampara silenced them for long

CHENNAI: An independent committee of inquiry was set up by the Kalakshetra Foundation to look into the allegations of sexual harassment against its faculty member said it submitted its report on Monday. The committee's report indicated Hari Padman, a senior dance teacher at Kalakshetra Foundation's Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts (RDFCA), against who the allegations were made, was guilty and 'major punishment' has been recommended against him. The three-member panel comprising retired judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, K Kannan, former DGP of Tamil Nadu, Letika Saran, and Dr Shobha Varthaman said it has recommended 'major punishment' and 'considerable recommendations' for reforms in the administrative apparatus of the foundation.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); It said that they have recommended the foundation Chairman S Ramadorai to keep the report confidential, except the concluding part of it and the disclosure that will become necessary to the delinquent employee Hari Padman to show cause against the findings of the report and the major punishment recommended by us. The report contains extremely sensitive information, which if revealed, would invade the privacy of individuals, it had stated. "The concluding part of the report also contains considerable recommendations for reforms in the administrative setup and tuning the activities of the institution that will assure safety to students, by focusing on promoting Kalakshetra Foundation primarily as an institution of higher learning and not showcase it as an institution of public performers," the press release added. As per the powers and responsibilities of the committee, it can also monitor the implementation of any disciplinary action taken and ensure that the complainant and other individuals are protected from retaliation. The details of the inquiry process will also be available for review by the institution's governance members, and state and central government statutory authorities if required. The committee also set up a website to receive complaints and suggestions from students, former students and staff of the institution. Levelling allegations of sexual harassment on the campus, a section of students staged a protest in March this year seeking justice. The committee was constituted following the uproar from the students and various women's rights organisations. Police arrested on April 3 Assistant Professor (Dance) Hari Padman following a complaint against him from a former student and he was granted bail on June 3 by a court here. ALSO READ: Kalakshetra case: Guru-sishya parampara silenced them for long
By AFP

TUNIS: At least 11 migrants have died in a shipwreck off Tunisia's coast and 44 others are missing, judicial sources said Monday, revising an earlier toll of four fatalities.

"Seven new bodies have been recovered on Sunday evening," said Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the court in Sfax, Tunisia's second city near the site of the sinking that took place over the weekend in the Mediterranean Sea.

Two have been rescued out of the 57 people aboard the boat, all from sub-Saharan African countries, Masmoudi said, adding that the authorities were searching for the missing migrants.

The North African country has become a major gateway for irregular migrants and asylum seekers primarily from other parts of the continent, attempting perilous voyages in often rickety boats in the hopes of a better life.

Survivors of the latest reported sinking, near Tunisia's Kerkennah Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, said the makeshift boat had departed over the weekend from a beach north of the coastal city of Sfax with 57 migrants on board.

According to Tunisia's interior ministry, 901 bodies had been recovered this year by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean, while 34,290 migrants had been rescued or intercepted.

Most of them came from sub-Saharan African countries, it said.

Nearly 90,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, with most of them having embarked from Tunisia or neighbouring Libya.

The central Mediterranean migrant crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world's deadliest with more than 20,000 fatalities since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Crossing attempts have multiplied in March and April following a incendiary speech by President Kais Saied who had alleged that "hordes" of sub-Saharan migrants were causing crime and posing a demographic threat to the mainly Arab country.

Xenophobic attacks targeting black African migrants and students have increased across the country since Saied's February remarks, and many migrants have lost jobs and housing.

Since early July, hundreds of migrants have been driven out of Sfax after a Tunisian man's death in an altercation with migrants.

During the following days, Tunisian police have taken migrants to the desert or perilous areas near the Libyan and Algerian borders, rights groups and international organisations said.

Humanitarian sources have put their number at over 2,000, with at least 25 reported deaths of migrants abandoned in the Tunisian-Libyan border area since last month.

The distance between Sfax and Italy's Lampedusa island is only about 130 kilometres (80 miles).

At least 30 migrants are missing after two unrelated sinkings near the Italian island of boats that departed last week from Sfax, according to survivor testimony.

ALSO READ | Two dead, 30 migrants missing after two shipwrecks off Lampedusa, Italy: Report

TUNIS: At least 11 migrants have died in a shipwreck off Tunisia's coast and 44 others are missing, judicial sources said Monday, revising an earlier toll of four fatalities. "Seven new bodies have been recovered on Sunday evening," said Faouzi Masmoudi, spokesman for the court in Sfax, Tunisia's second city near the site of the sinking that took place over the weekend in the Mediterranean Sea. Two have been rescued out of the 57 people aboard the boat, all from sub-Saharan African countries, Masmoudi said, adding that the authorities were searching for the missing migrants.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The North African country has become a major gateway for irregular migrants and asylum seekers primarily from other parts of the continent, attempting perilous voyages in often rickety boats in the hopes of a better life. Survivors of the latest reported sinking, near Tunisia's Kerkennah Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, said the makeshift boat had departed over the weekend from a beach north of the coastal city of Sfax with 57 migrants on board. According to Tunisia's interior ministry, 901 bodies had been recovered this year by July 20 following maritime accidents in the Mediterranean, while 34,290 migrants had been rescued or intercepted. Most of them came from sub-Saharan African countries, it said. Nearly 90,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, with most of them having embarked from Tunisia or neighbouring Libya. The central Mediterranean migrant crossing from North Africa to Europe is the world's deadliest with more than 20,000 fatalities since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration. Crossing attempts have multiplied in March and April following a incendiary speech by President Kais Saied who had alleged that "hordes" of sub-Saharan migrants were causing crime and posing a demographic threat to the mainly Arab country. Xenophobic attacks targeting black African migrants and students have increased across the country since Saied's February remarks, and many migrants have lost jobs and housing. Since early July, hundreds of migrants have been driven out of Sfax after a Tunisian man's death in an altercation with migrants. During the following days, Tunisian police have taken migrants to the desert or perilous areas near the Libyan and Algerian borders, rights groups and international organisations said. Humanitarian sources have put their number at over 2,000, with at least 25 reported deaths of migrants abandoned in the Tunisian-Libyan border area since last month. The distance between Sfax and Italy's Lampedusa island is only about 130 kilometres (80 miles). At least 30 migrants are missing after two unrelated sinkings near the Italian island of boats that departed last week from Sfax, according to survivor testimony. ALSO READ | Two dead, 30 migrants missing after two shipwrecks off Lampedusa, Italy: Report
By Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS: The last former Minneapolis police officer to face sentencing in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd will learn Monday whether he will spend additional time in prison.

Tou Thao has testified he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020.

A bystander video captured Floyds fading cries of I cant breathe.

Floyds killing touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning of police brutality and racism.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In his 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thao's actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances, Cahill wrote.

He concluded: Thao's actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers' excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.

Thao rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he didn't think he was in the wrong. He instead agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvin's 2021 murder trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Thao and former Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander.

That trial in federal court ended in convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges instead of going to trial a second time, while Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Minnesota guidelines recommend a four-year sentence on the manslaughter count, which Thao would serve at the same time as his 3 1/2-year sentence for his federal civil rights conviction, which an appeals court upheld on Friday. But Cahill has some latitude and could hand down a sentence from 41 to 57 months.

Lane and Kueng received 3 and 3 1/2-year state sentences respectively, which they are serving concurrently with their federal sentences of 2 1/2 years and 3 years. Thao is Hmong American, while Kueng is Black and Lane is white.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.

MINNEAPOLIS: The last former Minneapolis police officer to face sentencing in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd will learn Monday whether he will spend additional time in prison. Tou Thao has testified he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020. A bystander video captured Floyds fading cries of I cant breathe.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Floyds killing touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning of police brutality and racism. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In his 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thao's actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid. There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances, Cahill wrote. He concluded: Thao's actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers' excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid. Thao rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he didn't think he was in the wrong. He instead agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvin's 2021 murder trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Thao and former Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander. That trial in federal court ended in convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges instead of going to trial a second time, while Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter. Minnesota guidelines recommend a four-year sentence on the manslaughter count, which Thao would serve at the same time as his 3 1/2-year sentence for his federal civil rights conviction, which an appeals court upheld on Friday. But Cahill has some latitude and could hand down a sentence from 41 to 57 months. Lane and Kueng received 3 and 3 1/2-year state sentences respectively, which they are serving concurrently with their federal sentences of 2 1/2 years and 3 years. Thao is Hmong American, while Kueng is Black and Lane is white. Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.
By Associated Press

NIGER: Nigers mutinous soldiers have closed the countrys airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president and said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

State television announced the move Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn't returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. The junta also asserted that two central African countries are preparing for an invasion, but did not say which ones, and called on the country's population to defend it.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around the airspace of Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence. The future of 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Niger is not immediately known.

In Mali, the armed forces said today that it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending a delegation of officials to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, with the mutinous soldiers detaining Bazoum and installing Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS will do now that Sunday's deadline has passed. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

On Saturday, Nigerias Senate pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigerias president, the blocs current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

A former British army officer who worked in Nigeria said military officials there told him Monday that President Bolu Tinubu had not given orders to use military force. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegals government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for ECOWAS efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty will not be betrayed.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, The Associated Press saw rallygoers behead a chicken decorated in the colours of former colonizer France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments among the population to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts. On Monday, Frances ministry of foreign affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant.

Niger's junta also has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries including Mali.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

"While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didnt intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS."

But others have expressed concerns about the junta's tightening grip.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the junta is scaring people into joining it.

NIGER: Nigers mutinous soldiers have closed the countrys airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president and said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response. State television announced the move Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn't returned to power. A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. The junta also asserted that two central African countries are preparing for an invasion, but did not say which ones, and called on the country's population to defend it.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); International airlines have begun to divert flights around the airspace of Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence. The future of 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Niger is not immediately known. In Mali, the armed forces said today that it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending a delegation of officials to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them. Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, with the mutinous soldiers detaining Bazoum and installing Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him. It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS will do now that Sunday's deadline has passed. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land. On Saturday, Nigerias Senate pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigerias president, the blocs current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states. A former British army officer who worked in Nigeria said military officials there told him Monday that President Bolu Tinubu had not given orders to use military force. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegals government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for ECOWAS efforts to restore constitutional order. The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives. At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty will not be betrayed. We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, The Associated Press saw rallygoers behead a chicken decorated in the colours of former colonizer France. The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments among the population to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts. On Monday, Frances ministry of foreign affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. Niger's junta also has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries including Mali. Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention. "While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didnt intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS." But others have expressed concerns about the junta's tightening grip. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the junta is scaring people into joining it.
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.

CATL, Ordos Municipality join forces for green technology transformation



On August 5, Chinese battery giant CATL and the Ordos municipal government inked a strategic cooperation framework agreement, under which both parties will leverage their respective strengths and focus on new-type power system construction, industrial layout, financial services, talent pool development, and more, aiming to establish a multi-layered, all-encompassing strategic cooperative relationship.

SERES establishes AITO Business Group

Recent organizational restructuring by SERES has led to the formation of the AITO Business Group, dedicated for the AITO vehicle brand, according to a local media outlet. The move signals the company's commitment to bolstering management efficiency, swift decision-making, and innovative development for the brand.

Lynk & Co 08 to kick off presale on Aug. 8

Lynk & Co is gearing up to kick off presale of its new midsize SUV, the Lynk & Co 08, on August 8. Additionally, the brand is set to introduce a special limited edition of the Lynk & Co 08, limited to 1,008 units, featuring a unique twilight purple and dawn gold color scheme.

Photo credit: Lynk & Co

Shanghai-based auto MCU maker Thinktech completes new funding round

Shanghai-based fabless design firm Thinktech recently announced the successful completion of a new funding round following its strategic investment phase.

Great Wall Motor scores 7.03% YoY growth in July 2023 auto sales

In July of this year, Great Wall Motor ("GWM") sold 109,091 new vehicles, representing a 7.03% year-on-year growth, according to the company's latest monthly sales results.

Dongfeng Motor starts to recruit distribution partners for 'e' electric vehicle brand

Dongfeng Motor recently issued an announcement to invite distribution channel partners across China to collaborate with its new electric vehicle brand, e.

BYD-backed DENZA puts DENZA N8 onto market

On August 5, DENZA, the premium auto brand majority-owned by BYD, officially launched its second model in the N series, the DENZA N8. The new model comes with two trim levels: the 4WD Super Hybrid Flagship with six seats priced at 326,800 yuan and the seven-seater variant priced at 319,800 yuan.

Deliveries of DEEPAL S7 surpass 10,000 units in 40 days upon market launch

DEEPAL, Changan Automobile's emerging new energy vehicle (NEV) brand, proudly announced a remarkable achievement as its second model, the DEEPAL S7, crossed the significant threshold of 10,000-unit deliveries.

Yu Chengdong unveils first Huawei Smart Selection electric coupe model Luxeed

On August 7, the CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit, Yu Chengdong, took to social media to share a significant announcement. During the recently concluded HDC2023 (Huawei Developer Conference 2023), HarmonyOS 4 was officially unveiled.

Great Wall Motors ORA brand issues cash incentives for some models

On August 4, ORA, the new energy vehicle brand under Great Wall Motor, unveiled its brand-wide monthly car purchasing policy, effective from August 1 to August 31.

BYDs 5 millionth new energy vehicle to roll off line on Aug. 9

BYD announced via its WeChat account that its 5 millionth new energy vehicle (NEV) is set to roll off the production line on August 9. The remarkable achievement comes less than 9 months after the company reached the 3 millionth mark, demonstrating its accelerating growth trajectory.
By Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal: Senegals jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been on a hunger strike in prison to protest criminal charges against him, was hospitalized Sunday, his party said.

Sonko was imprisoned last week in advance of criminal proceedings against him on charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The reason for his hospitalization at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear. Prior to his imprisonment, he was in good health and had no known illnesses, said the statement from Sonkos now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party.

Sonko announced on July 30 on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would start his hunger strike. The announcement came a day before a judge in the capital of Dakar ordered his imprisonment.

The latest charges against Sonko came weeks after a judge convicted him in a separate case of corrupting youth and sentenced him to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation. Last week, at least four people died and several were injured in fresh protests after Sonko was detained in a prison just outside Dakar.

Sonko placed third in Senegals 2019 presidential election and is popular with the countrys youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

Sonkos health emergency comes the day after his lawyer, Juan Branco, was arrested in Mauritania and extradited to Senegal, where he is in a Dakar prison, according to Brancos lawyer, Robin Bindard.

Bindard said Sunday that Branco is being held for alleged dissemination of false information, conspiracy against the state and other charges.

The mission of a lawyer is sacred, and you cant reproach a lawyer for defending his client, said Bindard.

Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome announced Brancos arrest to applause in a National Assembly meeting Saturday.

DAKAR, Senegal: Senegals jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been on a hunger strike in prison to protest criminal charges against him, was hospitalized Sunday, his party said. Sonko was imprisoned last week in advance of criminal proceedings against him on charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other charges. The reason for his hospitalization at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar was not immediately clear. Prior to his imprisonment, he was in good health and had no known illnesses, said the statement from Sonkos now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Sonko announced on July 30 on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would start his hunger strike. The announcement came a day before a judge in the capital of Dakar ordered his imprisonment. The latest charges against Sonko came weeks after a judge convicted him in a separate case of corrupting youth and sentenced him to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation. Last week, at least four people died and several were injured in fresh protests after Sonko was detained in a prison just outside Dakar. Sonko placed third in Senegals 2019 presidential election and is popular with the countrys youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Sonkos health emergency comes the day after his lawyer, Juan Branco, was arrested in Mauritania and extradited to Senegal, where he is in a Dakar prison, according to Brancos lawyer, Robin Bindard. Bindard said Sunday that Branco is being held for alleged dissemination of false information, conspiracy against the state and other charges. The mission of a lawyer is sacred, and you cant reproach a lawyer for defending his client, said Bindard. Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome announced Brancos arrest to applause in a National Assembly meeting Saturday.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In July 2023, Honda Motor recorded a retail sales volume of 89,691 units in China, representing a 32.8% decline compared to the year-ago period, according to the company's official sales data.

For the first seven months of 2023, Honda Motor's cumulative retail sales in the world's largest auto market amounted to 619,382 units, shrinking 23.8% from the previous year.

Of the vehicles sold through the Jan.-Jul. period, 132,896 units were electrified products, which were composed of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

Looking back to the past seven months of this year, the automaker only scored a year-on-year growth in its China monthly sales in May, but posted a downward movement in the other six months.

All-new INSPIRE e:PHEV; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

On July 3, Dongfeng Honda officially put the all-new INSPIRE onto the market. Coming with six trim levels, the model features a price range of 182,800 yuan to 258,800 yuan. As the sister model of the all-new ACCORD, the all-new INSPIRE will also provide a 1.5T gasoline version and an e:PHEV version, featuring upgrades such as Honda CONNECT 4.0 intelligent system, as well as Honda SENSING 360 safety sensing system.

In addition, on July 16, when Dongfeng Honda celebrated its 20th anniversary, the Sino-Japanese joint venture unveiled its new strategy codenamed "Creating the Future 2030." It is projected that by 2027, Dongfeng Honda will cease the production of fuel-powered vehicles and introduce over 10 BEV models by 2030.
Will PPP model for manufacture and use of satellites be successful? Doubts persist

They also wondered whether the PPP model would work as the government itself is advocating market-driven development which is sustainable in the long run.In a consultation paper on making India a geospatial hub, IN-SPACe  the regulator for private space sector players- said the PPP model could be followed whereby the private sector can build, launch and maintain earth observation satellites constellation with the Indian government being an assured customer and a funder.Earth observation satellites are the ones that take pictures of a specified portion of the earth and send it back for infrastructure planning, achieving sustainable goals, e-governance, weather prediction, climate monitoring, disaster preparedness & mitigation and others.The consultation paper is, however, silent on the current revenue generated from the satellite images or the number of Indian government departments willing to invest in satellites.One of the views on the consultation paper was without knowing the government plans how can the industry give its views on the PPP model."The consultation paper is seeking industry's views. It is too early to talk about revenue from the government or its satellite procurement plans," IN-SPACe Chairman Dr. Pawan Goenka told IANS.According to him, inputs like the government plans will be taken into consideration as the process progresses.India's geospatial economy is expected to cross Rs 63,000 crore by 2025, growing at a rate of 12.8 per cent, and to provide employment to more than 10 lakh people, mainly through geospatial startups, IN-SPACe said.To meet the additional requirements of the data, it is proposed to build, launch and maintain the satellite constellation, through private sector participation."As Indian space industry is at its early stages, Government of India may become an assured customer for the data, acquired through these new constellations. Public Private Partnership (PPP) model may be followed, for funding, where the NGE (non-government enterprise) participating in building EO (earth observation) Constellation & the user Government departments may jointly fund the activity. The participating industry shall clearly mention their revenue generation model," IN-SPACe said in the consultation paper.According to it, the overall requirements are prioritised and split into three major categories (a) Very high-resolution 30cm or better data (b) High resolution 1 metre data and (c) stereo data of 1 metre resolution.Reacting to the PPP model, Department of Space's commercial arm Antrix Corporation's former Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Sashibhushan told IANS "Not sure whether this will work when the government itself is advocating market-driven development which is sustainable in the long run. PPP models are for areas where the private sector can get returns by investing in a government run system."Queried about the revenue from Indian government departments that use the satellite data, he said "Right question which no one will be able to answer. Though India fares among world space powers, the ground reality is very different. India has not integrated satellite services into the mainstream governance or revenue activities in spite of ISRO's capabilities and performance. This is not to criticise anyone, but it is the outcome of the system we were practicing."A couple of years back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had wanted all the Central government departments to use the satellite data wherever possible. After that, nothing much was heard. He had said India could have solved the telecom connectivity issues to islands like the Andamans, Lakshadweep, North East sector and also in Jammu and Kashmir with satellite communications.Instead, BSNL laid undersea cable at a huge cost to Andamans and another undersea cable is planned for Lakshadweep."Satcom could have solved the issue easily, cost effectively and with better coverage. I remember having put up a proposal to connect Andamans through a procured MEO Satcom service which was promptly refused! These sorts of narrow- mindedness at the highest level resulted in the current plight," Sashibhushan remarked.The other issue is the future of satellite manufacturing facilities created by the ISRO if government departments go for PPP model and invest in building satellites?So why not transfer all the manufacturing assets to NewSpace India Ltd  the commercial arm of the Department of Space - and ISRO focus only on space research and development (R&D).In the atomic power field, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) does the research and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) builds atomic power stations and sells power.A senior ISRO official preferring anonymity told IANS "There are no satellite manufacturing assets created in ISRO. The component manufacturing takes place in the industry. Only the final assembly and testing takes place in ISRO. This expertise is still not there in industry. The model of BARC is not applicable here."The facilities in ISRO are created for research, development and testing. Manufacturing happens only in critical areas where no one is ready to invest."The official added that ISRO has clean rooms and testing facilities as part of the infrastructure, but clean rooms are available in private and most of the testing too."There are high value testing facilities in ISRO which can be duplicated. Those will be made available to private companies. ISRO satellite team still has good research and development work in satellites, as all the private satellite builders are going to concentrate on revenue generating models in the commercial sector. ISRO will focus on scientific missions, strategic needs and national missions such as climate, weather, disaster, and new developments," the official said.Sashibhushan said "Neither ISRO or the Indian private sector has the technology for commercial (production oriented & cost-effective) manufacture of satellites. ISRO's facilities are set-up in an R&D manner and are not streamlined for commercial production. ISRO's processes are also very much in R&D mode and no attempt has been made for cost optimisation. So, if the private sector manufactures using ISRO facilities, they have to follow a similar system since they also don't have the complete know-how.""Owing to this conflict of interests, the production may not be as one would expect and the real costs may be very high. Please note that ISRO makes around 4-5 satellites per year. SpaceX makes 1-2 Starlink satellites per shift," Sashibhushan said.According to him, ISRO satellite manufacturing facilities will continue in R&D mode since the government has made it clear that they won't fund commercial satellites. In the nuclear energy sector, what is handed over to NPCIL is the generation of energy.(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)(IANS | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553551 172O70O242O41)
Himanta props up Ahom hero to counter anti-NRC/CAA narrative

It subsided until a few years ago, the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) began and when the contentious Citizenship Amendment (CAA) bill was passed in the parliament, Assam was filled with high-voltage protests reminding the people of the days of Assam agitation.The state of Assam has always been multilingual and multiethnic. It is not a recent phenomenon for outsiders to immigrate and migrate to Assam. It is exceedingly difficult to determine who the true indigenous population is. Nearly every tribe that calls this place home appears to have arrived here through time and from various locations.From a historical perspective, Assam's incorporation into British India changed the course of migration. A distinction between "indigenous" and "outsiders" was made, and a cry for the preservation of "Assamese identity" sprouted.The Assamese community's identity was driven by a fear of being overtaken by demographic change rather than by simple self-discovery. The Assamese community invoked their identity of language and culture to feel separate when they were threatened on economic and cultural fronts. This sense of uniqueness gave origin to 'Jatiyotabadi', or sub-nationalism, as a political stance.A nation within a nation, or sub-nationalism, was created as a result of the politics of recognition and representation, which supported the expansion of ethnic groups' demands for their own administrative structure. It is critical to acknowledge the distinctiveness of these groups at this time.The state policy of recognising traditional institutions and representing ethnic groups in the decision-making bodies, however, may feed stronger sentiments of ethnicity among other groups if it is perceived as a favour granted or a right acquired through a political struggle. In varying degrees, its effects are discernible.The development of sub-nationalism in Assam over time makes it possible to define the term and its meanings. Although there has always been migration from Bangladesh to Assam, several lakhs of Hindu and Muslim refugees first arrived in Assam in 1971 during Bangladesh's war of liberation.The government of India pledged "all possible assistance to the government of Bangladesh in the unprecedented task of resettling the refugees and displaced persons in Bangladesh" in a joint statement that the Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh released on February 8, 1972.Not all refugees went home; in pursuit of work, Bangladeshi migrants kept crossing the border into Assam and other regions of India.The significant number of "outsiders" in Assam contributed to a sense of discomfort due to the state's changing population, language, and culture, as well as the competition for resources. In the 1980s, a potent populist movement that demanded the removal of outsiders arose under the direction and leadership of the All Assam Students Union (AASU). The movement asserted a unique Assamese identity and, thus, a distinct citizenship. Based on the concept of "different yet equal," difference was first defined in terms of the Assamese people's linguistic and cultural identity, and later, after the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) took over the fight, it was defined in terms of unequal development and discrimination.But, in 2023, whether it is ULFA-I, Assam movement or CAA protest, these factors have lost resemblance in Assam's political dynamics. However, the sense of sub-nationalism is always welcomed by a good number of politicians who have been at the centre of power in the state.Himanta Biswa Sarma is no different. Moreover, to counter the AASU's sub-nationalism concept of anti-CAA stand, the Assam Chief Minister was in search of a different narrative and he got Lachit Barphukan, the 17th-century Ahom general who fought hard with the Mughals to stop them from invading Assam.In the Battle of Saraighat (1671), Borphukan had commanded the Ahom Army and beat the Mughals led by the Kachwaha Raja Ram Singh I. Prior to the British assuming control of Assam by the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826, the Ahoms governed the region for 600 years (1228 to 1826). While the Lachit Borphukan tale is well-known in Assam, the state's BJP-led administration has launched a number of measures to spread it across the nation.The year 2022 was the 400th birth anniversary of Barphukan and Himnta Biswa Sarma left no stone unturned to use the opportunity to create an atmosphere of sub-nationalism which of course may help the BJP to gain electorally.The state government celebrated the quatercentenary birth anniversary of Lachit Barphukan on a large-scale. Four-day long function was held in the national capital to showcase the valour of 16th century Ahom General.The Chief Minister asked for essay competitions on Lachit Barphukan and nearly 4.3 million handwritten essays were produced by students, government employees and others which created the Guinness World Records for the largest online photo album of hand written articles.The state government has even planned to install two giant statues of Lachit Barphukan -- the 125 feet long statue is coming up in Jorhat in Assam and another 84-metre statue in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad is in the making. Also, to spread the valour of the Ahom general across the country, the state government has inked an agreement with a major OTT platform to showcase a short documentary produced on Barphukan's life.All these initiatives of the state government led by Himanta Biswa Sarma actually culminated into generating an umbrella of sub-nationalism revolving around the great Ahom warrior -- Lachit Barphukan.tdr/kvd(IANS | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553552 172O70O242O129)
Amid humanitarian crisis, UN to cut aid to 21 million in Afghanistan

The 3.2 billion US dollar plea to aid almost half of the Afghan population has received less than 25 per cent of its funding more than halfway through the year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ."We face critical funding gaps amounting to 1.3 billion US dollars, with many programs already ended or considerably scaled back due to insufficient resources and aid pipelines at risk of imminent rupture, including for food assistance," Khaama Press quoted the OCHA as stating.On July 31, the organisation said in a statement that more than halfway through the year, the 2023 Afghanistan Humanitarian response plan remains severely underfunded, with only 744 million USD received as of July 31, which is less than half the amount at the same time in 2022."With humanitarian needs at an all-time high due to the third consecutive year of drought-like conditions, worsening poverty and heightened vulnerabilities following forty years of conflict, only a short window of opportunity exists to bring in vital assistance and supplies before the lean season and winter starts, and lives are potentially lost," the statement added.Earlier, the UK Parliament had informed that the humanitarian aid given to Afghanistan by the Official Development Assistance has been reduced by 59 per cent, as per Tolo News.The issue of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan was also raised in the United Nations Security Council High-level open debate where representatives from various countries urged for the providing aid in Afghanistan, reported Khaama Press.Notably, Afghanistan, under the Taliban, is facing its worst humanitarian crisis and the women of the country are denied fundamental rights. According to a World Food Programme assessment, Afghanistan is one of the nations with extreme food insecurity, with nine million people affected by severe economic difficulties and hunger.Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the law and order situation in the country has only deteriorated, with the rise in cases of terrorism and blasts.The group banned women from going to schools. Later in December last year, they banned women from going to universities and working with aid agencies. Earlier this year, the Taliban also imposed a ban on salons, which were a major employment source for women.(ANI | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553552 172O69O150O43)
After 'Peace Room' in Raj Bhavan premises, Bengal Guv seeks 'Peace Train'

Raj Bhavan sources said that the Governor has even dropped a request to the Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnawon this count. Sources said that the Governor's proposal is the said Peace Train will run between Sealdah station in Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri in Darjeeling district covering both South Bengal and North Bengal sending a message of peace.Recently, the Governor told the media persons that "corruption" and "violence" are two greatest enemies for the people of West Bengal now. The Governor also recently initiated opening an 'Anti- Corruption Room' in the Raj Bhavan premises to address public grievances on corruption at the university- level education system in the state.The Governor has already attracted scathing criticism from the ruling Trinamool Congress for his decisions to open both the Peace Room and the Anti-Corruption Room, with the ruling party leadership claiming these are attempts by the governor to run parallel administrations in the state.Political observers feel that the fresh initiative of the Peace Train will surely open another round of tussle between the Governor's House and the state secretariat.Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Dr Santanu Sen said that the Governor is now trying to use the platform of railways to malign the image of the state. "He should know that the situation in West Bengal is much better than the BJP- ruled states," Sen said.Recently, the Governor had alsosent back a list of prisoners who were supposed to be released on the occasion of Independence Day this year, which was forwarded by the state secretariat to the Governor's House.(IANS | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553552 162O158O95O214)
Nepal: Construction of India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage begins with Bhoomi Pooja

Attended by monks from different Buddhist nations, the 'Bhoomi Pooja' was performed at the Lumbini Monastic Zone, the birthplace of Gautam Budhha, the Light of Asia.Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 2022 visit to Lumbini alongside then Nepali counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Buddhist Centre. A year later the formal process to start the construction of the state-of-art building with zero carbon emission kick-started on Sunday.Venerable Dhammapiya, Secretary General of the International Buddhist Confederation along with fellow monks took part in the 'Bhoomi Pooja'."We are very happy today that construction of the International Centre of Buddhist Culture and Heritage at Lumbini, Nepal is finally going to start. As we all know, the spiritual and cultural bond between India and Nepal goes back to 2,600 years," Dhammapiya told ANI.He added, "The main focus is friendship, harmony, and co-existence between the people of Nepal and India. We are grateful to the Government of Nepal and the people of Nepal and Buddhists of Nepal for giving us the opportunity to set up India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage".The International Buddhist Confederation, New Delhi is overseeing the construction being done over the plot allocated by the Lumbini Development Trust under an agreement between IBC and LDT which was signed in March 2022."The India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage which is being built here in Lumbini. The birthplace of Lord Buddha is soon going to get a centre where all information relating to him will be available. This would further strengthen and deepen relation between nations. Also, it would play an active role in the promotion and preservation of the Buddhist Culture and tradition and I expect it to be the milestone," Dupten Jigdol, a member of the working committee of IBC told ANI.Once completed, the centre will be a world-class facility welcoming pilgrims and tourists from all over the world to enjoy the essence of the spiritual aspects of Buddhism. The state-of-art building in the shape of a bloomed lotus will be a modern building, NetZero compliant in terms of energy, water and waste handling, and will house prayer halls, meditation centres, a library, an exhibition hall, a cafeteria, offices and other amenities.Addressing the event, Venerable Metteyya Sakyaputta, the immediate Past-Vice President of the Lumbini Development Trust said, "Today the actual start of construction of India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage here in the sacred birthplace of Gutam Buddha within the Lumbini Masterplan zone takes us back to those eras"."I strongly remember my service as the vice-chairman, when I tried to look back into the documents about the countries that have voted and supported that Lumbini should be developed as an international centre and as a global Buddhist village. Among the pile of documents, I found the early letter written by an Indian envoy strongly commending Uthan for proposing Lumbini as International Peace Centre. Almost seven decades later here we are, in this very land a beautiful site-symbolic lotus of the Buddha's teaching is going to be born here," he further said.The "award of contract" for the project has been given to ACC-Gorakha, an Indo-Nepal Joint Venture company by International Buddhist Confederation. An estimated one billion Indian Rupees is expected to be incurred at the time of construction of the centre.(ANI | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553553 162O158O87O39)
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinese computing tech firm Willingcore announced on August 4 it has successfully closed a substantial angel funding round with nearly a hundred million yuan raised. The funding was jointly invested by Hui Capital and Qunxin Capital.



Established in 2023, Willingcore focuses on developing core technologies for high-performance computing. The company boasts expertise across critical domains including Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) design, high-performance CPUs, GPGPUs, Coherence Fabric, HSIO, and Chiplet integration.

Willingcore's prowess stems from its accomplished team of core architects and seasoned engineering experts, each with a proven track record in project development. The company's diverse portfolio includes offerings such as general-purpose high-performance computing chips, versatile high-performance IPs, custom-designed computing chips tailored to specific scenarios, dedicated compute core IPs, BMC customization services, and automated testing solutions.

With its headquarters located in Shanghai, Willingcore has established additional R&D branches in Xi'an, Beijing, and Guangzhou. The company's expanding research team is emblematic of its steadfast commitment to innovation.

Photo credit: Willingcore

Notably, Willingcore has recently joined forces with BYD Electronics to co-develop high-performance server systems. As the partnership specifies, the two entities are poised to strengthen their collaboration in the realm of high computing power. Their shared vision involves exploring collaborative opportunities across diverse domains, encompassing cloud computing, edge computing, automotive applications, and end-user scenarios. These strategic endeavors are geared toward assisting enterprises in optimizing costs, enhancing efficiency, and achieving greater autonomy.
MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar addresses Digital India RISC-V symposium organised by IIT Madras

In his virtual address, he emphasized the government's vision for DIR-V which currently aims to build a robust ecosystem for RISC-V with effective public-private partnerships and collaborations with premiere academic institutions like IIT Madras.'RISC' stands for 'Reduced Instruction Set Computer' and 'V' stands for the fifth generation.The DIR-V program, launched last year, aims to boost India's semiconductor ecosystem by creating advanced microprocessors. The Minister spoke about how DIR-V will create tech opportunities for every player in the industry and that it will play a vital role in achieving India's techade goals."Today, for India, the Future is Bright, the Future is DIR-V. Our Prime Minister has already declared that this initiative will define India's techade and present numerous tech opportunities. This will be driven by the creativity and innovation of our engineers and startups in India. Innovation, functionality and performance -- these are the mantras for the coming years for the DIR-V program. The Government of India is fully committed to making DIR-V the Indian ISA," he said.The Minister emphasized the importance of such indigenous programs and mentioned that there is a growing demand for silicon chips in the ever-increasing digitalization and for new applications that are yet to be discovered."As the internet becomes more complex with the emergence of 5G and 6G, new applications will be discovered. There will be more opportunities for silicon chips, semiconductors, and other systems to find a place. When we talk about performance and applications, I see a future where many digital products that we consume today, whether it's the cloud, data centers, mobile devices, tablets, servers for cloud services, automotive technologies, sensors, IoT, 5G, or 6G networks, we will see DIR V-based chips, devices, and systems in all of these," he further added.The minister explained how it is essential to keep DIR-V at the heart of all India's goals of high-performance computing."While we may continue activities and programs in the x-86 and ARM space, our main focus is on the DIR-V program. I am willing to commit that our High-performance computing goals led by C-DAC and supported by various public-private partnerships, will have DIR-V at the heart of it," he added.The Minister also highlighted the importance of going beyond basic functionality and putting more effort into developing cutting-edge systems that set new global standards."Our ambition in the India techade spans these three areas the automotive industrial space with IoT, mobility, and computing, including high-performance computing. Our goal is to make sure that DIR-V has a serious presence in all of these three segments. The real message in addition to saying that we will back this program is that the expectation from the DIR-V community and the ecosystem is not just anymore about functionality. Today, we don't just want functional systems, we want functional systems that are also cutting edge in terms of setting new benchmarks against other comparative systems and ISAs." the minister said.MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar lauded the partnership between IIT Chennai and C-DAC, specifically in context of the DIR-V program, highlighting how such collaborations create a hub for creativity and innovation."The collaboration between IIT Chennai and C-DAC has shown how IIT-Chennai has become a beacon for all other academic institutions around the world, as well as for those interested in being part of this rapidly galloping ecosystem of semiconductors and electronics innovation. IIT Chennai is fast becoming a hub for innovation and creativity, and a hub for future systems centered around DIR-V," he said.The one-day symposium showcased various tech innovations and saw participation from startups, students, and academicians from the industry.(ANI | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553553 172O70O242O207)
Telugu action-spy-thriller 'Devil- The British Secret Agent' to release on Nov 24

Directed by Naveen Medaram, the movie is set during pre-Independence India, just nearing the end of the British Raj during the era of World War 2 in 1945. The movie is set in the area of what was then known as the Madras Presidency and features Nandamuri Kalyan Ram as a British spy solving some mystery.While most of the details for the film have been kept completely under wraps, some details did come out from the makers which state that the film will connect threads of the past with the present, with a mystery that presents itself in a completely unforeseen manner, and it will take all of Nandamuri's skills to solve it, all the while maintaining his secrecy.The film had earlier revealed its teaser back in July which gave a very interesting glimpse into the film, but offered absolutely nothing regarding the storyline. Only thing to be gathered from that, was the 'Devil' is the codename for Kalyan Ram's character and he is essentially a super spy which the British Raj government uses only for the biggest cases. As such he is their ace in the hole.The movie will feature grand production, action, a bizarre but interesting storyline with actress Samyukhta Menon set to play the female lead. The teaser gave the aura of some kind of a dark and brooding film, but nothing much is known so far.'Devil The British Secret Agent' will also be released in other languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam with grand cinematography and visuals. The movie is yet another addition to the spree of big budget Telugu action features coming up, with another addition being Prabhas' 'Salaar Part 1'.(IANS | Posted on 06 August 2023, 1692553554 162O158O86O156)
UAE: Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment, TRENDS Research Centre sign MoU

The agreement aims to enhance cooperation between the two entities in various sectors related to the environment, sustainability, and other shared interests. The goal is to strengthen the research competencies of the two organisations and establish clear fundamentals for a knowledge-based society capable of finding and deriving results, observing, and analysing the external environment, and identifying opportunities to outline a cleaner future through research and development.Mohammed Al Nuaimi, Acting Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and Dr Mohammed Abdullah Al Ali, CEO of TRENDS Research and Advisory, signed the agreement at the Ministry's headquarters in Dubai.Mohammed Al Nuaimi said the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment is committed to enhancing cooperation with various entities and partners in the UAE and globally to drive its strategy of developing climate and environmental work. This is to contribute to the UAE's climate action and environmental commitments to significantly reducing carbon emissions and achieving climate neutrality goals by 2050, in addition to enhancing biological diversity and national food security.He said, "Research is critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities and identifying climate and environmental policies to achieve our strategic goals. During the Year of Sustainability and in the run-up to hosting COP28, it is important to highlight the UAE's climate action model. Our cooperation with TRENDS is an important step in enhancing environmental and climate research."He praised the efforts of the TRENDS Research and Advisory, the quality of its publications, and its effectiveness in strengthening scientific research, in addition to its specialisation in several fields.Dr Mohammed Al Ali said TRENDS seeks to enhance its partnerships to build comprehensive knowledge and contribute to addressing future needs. He said the field of climate and environment is an important part of the interests of TRENDS. The centre works within a vision to keep supporting COP28, through its activities and scientific conferences, in addition to follow-ups and activities through its daily work.He said the synergies between the Ministry and TRENDS in scientific and practical research could result in realistic and scientific results that enhance the capabilities of both entities to serve the nation and the community.The cooperation between the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and TRENDS focuses on areas of research and studies, in addition to forecasts, opinion polls, the exchange of scientific publications and experts, and participating in scientific and research events organised by both organisations.The MoU also aims to promote cooperation in several areas that benefit the community, including joint research on climate and environment, and contributing to research reports.(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553554 172O70O247O119)
Amid disagreements over Ukraine, China bats for more institutional dialogues with European Union

This comes a month after China cancelled High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell's visit over disagreements on the Ukraine conflict.On Sunday, Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during a phone conversation with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.Earlier in July this year, China cancelled European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Josep Borrell's visit to Beijing, The Diplomat reported citing the EU.The development came amid the ongoing disagreements between China and the EU over trade, human rights and the Ukraine conflict.Josep Borrell was due to land in China on July 10 for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and other officials.The European Union said that China cancelled Borrell's visit. However, they have had not revealed the reason behind the cancellation of the trip.Borrell stressed that he looks forward to visiting China as soon as possible and launching a strategic dialogue with the Chinese side to jointly prepare for this year's EU-China leaders' meeting and to promote the further development of EU-China relations, Xinhua reported.Wang said at present, high-level exchanges between China and the EU have maintained a good momentum, and both sides believe that partnership is the most important feature of China-EU relations.China has always taken a positive attitude in promoting China-EU relations, he noted, adding China attaches great importance to the China-EU leaders' meeting scheduled for this year and expects it to play a strategic leading role in China-EU relations and bilateral cooperation.China and the EU should conduct more institutional dialogues, so as to make up for the missing exchanges between China and the EU in the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and inject new and strong impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, Wang said.He also noted that China welcomes Borrell to lead a delegation to visit China this fall and hold a strategic dialogue to make political preparations for the China-EU leaders' meeting through extensive and in-depth exchanges, Xinhua reported.The two sides also exchanged views on Ukraine, Niger and other international and regional issues of common concern.(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553554 172O69O150O95)
UK supports UAE, looks forward for strong participation and engagement at COP28: Envoy

"In COP28, we think that the UAE is a great country to be hosting it, understands energy, has a long history in energy, and has a long history in renewable and clean energy including nuclear. So, it has an example it has set and we need to bring more countries with us. But it's a huge challenge," said Edward Hobart in an interview with Emirates News Agency .He spoke about the UK's vision of the importance of COP28 and its role in bringing about a quantum leap in global climate action as one of the main areas of joint cooperation between the two countries.On UK's participation at COP28, Edward Hobart said, "There will be very strong British participation at COP28. We've been strong contributors at all COPs up to the one that we chaired two years ago in Glasgow. So we'll have many of our leaders as well as British companies, British investors, British scientists and experts contributing to COP28."He indicated, "The UK chaired COP two years ago in COP26 and I think every year this becomes more important. The climate emergency has to be addressed. So, we really have to focus on reducing emissions, increasing mitigations, helping countries adapt, and providing the financing to do all that, and this is a key part of COP28.""It is a huge challenge for the world, for the UAE to lead that process and we want to do whatever we can to support it. To support it we need to increase renewable and clean energy, and as a target, we'd like a bold target to maybe triple renewables by 2030. We have to reduce emissions, and just like the UAE has just published its own commitment to net zero, its refined commitment, we need countries around the world, the big emitters to put out what are called 'NDCs', to reduce those emissions.""We have to phase out unabated fossil fuels, while at the same time providing alternative energy sources. And we also need to address the countries which had been affected right now by climate change through development assistance. All of this requires a huge amount of finance. There's no reason why businesses can't get involved in investing private money in order to make money and be commercially driven by it, but we need to provide the right incentives," he added.On UAE-UK energy cooperation, the UK Ambassador said, "The UAE has been investing for over a decade in the UK in renewable energy and they are investors in major wind farms, offshore wind farms, the London Array, wind farms in Scotland, and floating high wind farms off the coast of Scotland. The UAE has also invested in battery storage in the UK, and the UK and the UAE have both invested in each other's countries in hydrogen projects. So there's a lot of cooperation that we have together as well as in third countries where our businesses and governments work together to help other countries through their own energy transitions.""The UAE has been a major player in renewable energy for a long time. Their offshore wind and battery head offices are actually in London. So they run their global operations on wind and batteries out of London because we have technology and investments that we share between the UK and the UAE. They have some really interesting investments, I mentioned hydrogen, BP and ADNOC invested in Teesside in the northeast of England and here in Abu Dhabi, but also some really interesting innovations. So, Octopus Energy from the UK and Taqa from the UAE invested in Morocco in a British company called Xlinks with the ambition to bring solar and wind energy from Morocco to the UK - three and a half thousand kilometres of cable to do that. So some really important innovations. We intend to do the same hopefully in other parts of the world but we can help them through their energy transition."Regarding UAE-UK's initiatives at COP28, the UK diplomat explained, "Certainly, there will be bilateral initiatives I'm sure with the UAE, as well as UK initiatives on things like nature. We want to make sure that we bring huge funding to nature-based solutions because this is a flipside, which is that part of the mitigation to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is ensuring that we have the right vegetation on the ground. So mangroves is a very important project that we work jointly on with Emirati organisations, developing and sustaining forests around the world and supporting indigenous groups of people that understand how to do that.""As well as looking after small and developing states, whose very existence is threatened or who find themselves affected by severe climate change in terms of climate events like hurricanes in the Caribbean. So, nature-based solutions, how we protect those communities and those areas which had been most immediately affected by climate change are really important additional areas for the UK to work on with the UAE. I think we'll also work with the UAE on food security. We're hosting a conference in London on the 20th of November to help lead up to COP28 where there'll be a food security element there as well," he concluded.(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553555 172O70O250O87)
A global celebration of creativity marking 100 years of Disney

To begin, Disney is commemorating the launch with a $1 million donation to Make-A-Wish to support the granting of life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses."Disney's timeless stories and characters have made an indelible mark on pop culture around the globe, transcending borders, industries and generations," said Consumer Products, Games and Publishing President Tasia Filippatos. "We couldn't think of a better way to honor 100 years of Disney storytelling than by collaborating with this outstanding collective of visionaries in support of Make-A-Wish."India's ace fashion designer and creative powerhouse, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, will represent the local creative community as part of Create 100 and will produce a special item in honour of Disney's 100th anniversary."I was born in 1974. I grew up with the beloved character Mickey Mouse. There weren't endless streams of entertainment back then, but Disney was always around. I think the fantastical worlds created by Disney shaped my imagination and made me the designer I am today. It's my absolute honour and privilege to represent India and be a part of Create 100. It feels like a perfect homecoming," said Sabyasachi Mukherjee.To kick off the campaign, Disney worked with Virgil Abloh Securities to reveal a 6-foot structural sculpture of Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey from Disney's Fantasia at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. The life-size piecetitled'Structural Sorcerer - a Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey Sculpture'was commissioned by Disney and designed by ALASKA ALASKA. "Paying homage to the everlasting legacy of Virgil Abloh, the Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey sculpture takes inspiration from his work on the grid furniture series and the Mickey Mouse illustration he created in 2018 in celebration of Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday," said the late artist's wife, Shannon Abloh.In line with Create 100's goal to inspire and champion next generation talent, the'Structural Sorcerer - Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey Sculpture' will be on display at the RCA over the summer. Virgil Abloh had a close relationship with the RCA, which recently announced a scholarship in his name to support talented but financially restricted Black British students. In a continued effort to amplify the next generation of creators, Virgil Abloh Securities also enlisted multidisciplinary artist Favour Jonathan, who created a sculpture of Dr. Facilier from Disney's The Princess and the Frog, to be part of Create 100.Additional incredible artworks, items and experiences, together with the stories behind them, will be revealed over the summer. The Create 100 contributions feature everything from musical elements to comic books to recreations of iconic movie props and more from renowned talent such as global icon Beyonce, famed French fashion designer Christian Louboutin, Italian Global Creative Director for Swarovski Giovanna Engelbert, Chinese virtuoso pianist Lang Lang, American fashion pioneer Tommy Hilfiger and celebrated Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. Global partners such as adidas, Pandora and Coach will also be contributing one-of-a-kind pieces to the celebration."Wishes are generated by the imagination of our wish children and that creative spark inspires their journey with us," said Luciano Manzo, President and CEO, Make-A-Wish International. "Create 100 showcases the power of creativity to bring hope. This inspirational initiative will help grant life-changing wishes for children around the world who are living with critical illnesses. We are so grateful to Disney and all the artists involved for their support."For more than 40 years, Disney and Make-A-Wish have granted wishes together for more than 150,000 children with critical illnesses worldwide. The life-changing wishes include shopping sprees, studio visits, theme park and resort vacations, cruises, talent meet-and-greets, sports-themed experiences and more. Many Disney cast members are also wish-granting volunteers, parents of wish children or wish alumni themselves.(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)ianslife/tb(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553555 162O158O94O23)
'Bigg Boss OTT 2': Abhishek says Elvish did negative PR against him upon entering show

It happened when Bollywood superstar and show's host Salman Khan had schooled Abhishek for his behaviour and over confident attitude.The star also mentioned Abhishek's comments on 'wildcard contestant' in front of his mother Dimple Malhan during the family week.Abhishek was seen having a conversation with his mother where he said that he does not think a wild card contestant deserves to win. Following this, Elvish wanted to clear the negative air around his friendship with Abhishek.After Jad Hadid and Avinash Sachdeva were evicted from the show on Sunday, Elvish and Abhishek were seen talking about the issue.Speaking to Elvish, Abhishek said that his mother informed him of the negative PR on social media that started after Yadav entered the Bigg Boss OTT 2 house.Elvish, however, did not accept it and both decided to sort this out after they exit the show.The finale is all set to take place on August 13.The housemates who are now contending for the winner's trophy include Pooja Bhatt, Jiya Shankar, Abhishek, Elvish, Bebika Dhurve and Manisha Rani.(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553555 172O70O250O254)
When Mugabe's pants didn't fit him and other incidents in a hotelier's life

Being the youngest general manager of what was at that time the country's most prestigious five-star hotel, The Ashok in New Delhi, which the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, would inspect at regular intervals, Kachru was in the thick of the action when India hosted, back to back, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and the 1982 Asiad.He had, naturally, a lot of stories to recount from those heady days.Kachru's first brush with history, though, happened accidentally when he was posted at the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) hotel in Jammu and was preparing to go to Delhi to get married to his Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Pusa, sweetheart.He asked his boss to spare him a couple of days before the wedding so that he could get an achkan made for himself. His boss said it was an impossible task. He asked Kachru, much to his consternation, to stay back for another day.The next day, his boss arrived with an achkan and said he could wear it at his wedding. Kachru was taken aback, but when he tried it out, the achkan fitted him perfectly.It was then that his boss revealed the truth about the achkan. It was worn by Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, at his wedding. Kachru's boss, using his clout as general manager of Jammu's only ITDC hotel, had borrowed it from the state museum. After the marriage, the achkan went back to the museum and it continues to be there.As Kachru put it in his inimitable way, "a hotelier works for his perks and not for his salary".The high points of Kachru's life, of course, were the NAM Summit and CHOGM. He recalled a hilarious incident about the late Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, whose bearhug with Mrs Gandhi was the NAM Summit's most-photographed moment.Kachru received a call from the Chief of Protocol of the Ministry of External Affairs, Hamid Ansari (who later became the Vice-President of India), asking him to rush to the lobby to receive Castro. He did as he was told to do, took Castro to his suite and had tea with him.Moments later, he got a call from a minister asking to be at the lobby ASAP to receive Castro. Kachru tried explaining to the minister that he had just accompanied Castro to his suite, but his protestations fell on deaf ears.So, he went to the lobby to receive the Cuban leader and lo and behold, Castro appeared and a flummoxed Kachru followed the same ritual as he did with the man he thought was Castro, but was actually his body double, who had come to vet the suite and clear it for security.The other memorable incident was when he received summons from the suite of Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, another good friend of Mrs Gandhi, and had been forewarned that the African leader was mighty upset. Kachru went up prepared to do what hoteliers do almost instinctively, that is, say "sorry sir".A livid Mugabe appeared in front of Kachru in his boxers, struggling with a pair of trousers that were a couple of sizes smaller than him. "Look at what your laundry has done to my trousers," the angry president shouted, and threatened to complain to Mrs Gandhi.Kachru was convinced that his days were numbered, so he asked his staff at Hyderabad House (The Ashok's general manager also oversaw this historical venue for state banquets), where Mugabe was headed, to make sure that whenever Zimbabwe's strongman and Mrs Gandhi were together, they would appear with canapes and distract the two leaders.The ploy worked and Mugabe never got to complain to Mrs Gandhi. But the next day, Kachru received yet another call from his suite. He dutifully presented himself for what he was sure was going to be another dressing down.But this time, a contrite Mugabe revealed the truth of the pants that seemed to have shrunk. He explained he had asked Zimbabwe's High Commissioner in London to get a dinner suit made for him exclusively for the NAM Summit at a Bond Street establishment, but the diplomat had got his president's measurements wrong, hence the trousers could not accommodate him!Kachru's book is laden with such titbits that make it a reader's delight. Some of the delicious incidents include Mrs Gandhi's experiment with fusion menu-making when she served -- yes, she used to personally clear all menus of state banquets -- (much to Kachru's horror) biryani with turkey roast and cranberry sauce.Kachru was convinced it was going to be a turkey of a dinner, but the guests couldn't stop complimenting the biryani course, much to the prime minister's delight.Kachru was also at the helm of affairs at The Ashok when Devi Lal (whom he does not name, referring to him as 'a minister'), who was the Deputy Prime Minister under first V.P. Singh and then Chandra Shekhar (1989-91), had declared that anyone who wore a dhoti (thereby meaning a farmer) and went to the hotel would be entitled to a 50 per cent discount.Shaken by the diktat, Kachru turned to the civil servant S.K. Mishra, the man he considers to be his mentor, who was then the principal secretary to Chandra Shekhar. Mishra cancelled an important meeting, asked Kachru to meet him at Devi Lal's official residence, and over lassi and paranthas, politely requested the mass leader from Haryana to lay off The Ashok. As a result, no one ever got the 50 per cent discount that was so magnanimously promised by Devi Lal.Kachru eventually left the ITDC and brought the Radisson Hotels, which he had opened in a number of South-East Asian countries, to India. The first Radisson opened in New Delhi 25 years ago -- and that was where Kachru, who's the global hotel chain's Chairman Emeritus (South Asia) launched his book in a gathering studded with the top hoteliers of the country.srb/(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553556 172O70O242O41)
Kerala Assembly pays rich tributes to Oommen Chandy

Chandy passed away in Bengaluru on July 18 after succumbing to throat cancer. And on Monday, unlike the 'normal' Assembly sessions that open with cat calls and protests, the House witnessed an emotionally charged session with speaker after speaker stating that they just cannot imagine that Chandy is no more.The entire family of Chandy watched the proceedings from the visitors' box, with tears rolling down the cheeks of many legislators.Chandy happens to be the only legislator in Kerala who never lost an election since making his electoral debut in 1970, a record which is unlikely to be broken as none at the moment is anywhere close to him.Assembly Speaker A.N. Shamseer opened the proceedings of the day by paying rich tributes to Chandy, saying that though the late Congress leader was not a big orator, his polite demeanor made him the most effective legislator even at the most trying times."He was guided by his conscience and that's what helped him a lot. Chandy will be remembered by all," said Shamseer.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Chandy and he began their Assembly innings together in 1970, but while Chandy was always a legislator, he spent more time in politics, but outside the Assembly."Chandy's void will never be filled as such was the way he worked as a legislator and also as an administrator. He was a person who can be emulated by the new generation entering politics," said Vijayan.Stating that Chandy always worked for the people, opposition leader V.D. Satheesan said while making a Biblical reference, "Chandy was one who was hunted and haunted the most and the very same people who did that have now said that he was a righteous person."Along with the obituary references to Chandy, the demise of two-time Speaker and veteran Congress politician Vakkom Purushothman, who passed away last week, was also condoled following which the House was adjourned for the day.(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553556 172O70O242O129)
FunnelGod founder unveils Revolutionary 'GodMode' Funnel Marketing System, transforming the marketing landscape

There are many reasons to become a Funnel God. Those who have completed the God-Mode Marketing System Training program, become extraordinary marketers, far beyond the level of general or digital marketers.Funnel gods are "Multi-Skilled Marketing Nerds," who are experts in specific niches & industries with a proven track record. And different "funnel gods" are expertise in different niches & industries. . Individual Funnel gods are extremely trained and capable of building world-class funnels, writing killer sales copy, running crazy ads, automating everything, and managing all marketing assets without depending on any funnel experts or agencies. .Funnel gods around the world believe that working with a larger number of clients with minimal results and losing them is always better than working with a limited number of clients with massive results. . "GOD-MODE" Funnel Marketing System developed from the top 1% of industry experts like funnel strategists, funnel experts, funnel designers, funnel builders, copywriters, advertisers, & marketers.Most Funnel Gods master this above skill for a specific niche and industry, and as Funnel Gods, we collaborate with other funnel gods in similar niches to accelerate our growth. . Funnel Gods are dedicated to providing 100% Done-With-You services, seeking long-term marketing partnerships with clients. They excel in mastering the "GodMode" system tailored to various niches and industries.The founder of Funnel Marketing, Jame Preneur started his digital marketing journey in 2017 with a 5k and a used computer system. Today, he is one of the fastest-growing Funnel marketers in the industry, and he plans to take on the world's biggest Funnel Marketer. He is the founder of FunnelGod and the inventor of 'God Mode' funnel marketing system.Jame Preneur is a name synonymous with perseverance and entrepreneurial success. In a mere four years, Jame went from being completely broke to revolutionizing the world of marketing. Starting his business from the confines of his bedroom with just INR 5K and a second-hand computer, he offered a wide range of services, including SEO, SMO, SMM, PPC, design, brand design, website development, video production, and software development across various industries.Juggling a multitude of services for over 20 different industries, Jame often found himself charging low prices without delivering impactful results. However, an innovative and audacious idea changed the trajectory of his career. Rather than offering a plethora of marketing services without significant impact, Jame focused on a specific niche, providing limited yet highly effective marketing services that generated maximum results.After countless late nights, early mornings, and relentless trial and error, Jame unlocked the 'GodMode - Funnel Marketing System'--a game-changer that transformed his professional life. No longer burdened with numerous clients and a large team, Jame shifted his focus to working with 2-3 high-paying clients, achieving remarkable six-figure success from the comfort of his home.Jame's expertise extends beyond his chosen niche, as he now collaborates with top influencers in India and Australia. Join us as we delve deeper into Jame Preneur's the undeniable proof of his groundbreaking achievements.What are the 9- Step Godmode - Funnel Marketing SystemThis 9- step is to kick start your funnel marketing agency,1. Focus Discover your true passion and purpose, aligning them with your entrepreneurial marketing career. This laser focus will keep you on track, preventing distractions and saving you years of precious time.2. Audience Find your dream audience and niche, where you can provide solutions to their biggest problems. Say goodbye to wasted efforts on the wrong clients and communities.3. Offer Craft irresistible offers based on your unique skills, capabilities, and strengths. Stand out from the crowd and watch as your niche industry falls in love with your services and solutions.4. Branding Learn the importance of branding and how to position your message effectively to your target audience, niche, and industry. Rise to the top as a high-demand expert, commanding both persuasion and value.5. Funnel Dive into the world of funnels and discover the right type, design, and automation strategies for long-term success. Save time, effort, and energy as your funnels work seamlessly in the background.6. Traffic Unlock the secrets to driving targeted and cost-effective traffic to your funnels. Gain a deep understanding of the traffic sources needed for your specific niche and industry, ensuring you don't waste precious advertising dollars.7. Sales Master the art of closing prospects on calls with proven frameworks and sales scripts. Say goodbye to fear and pressure as you confidently convert anyone you meet into a valuable client.8. Scaling Learn how to scale your business and take it to new heights. Make more money, build wealth, and enjoy the benefits of increased freedom as your agency flourishes.9. Value Build a strong community, network, and fan base. Be loved, popular, and recognized as a leader in your industry.By following these 9 core steps in the GOD-MODE Funnel Marketing System, you will have a clear and actionable roadmap for building a successful funnel marketing agency from scratch.These are the proven steps I extracted from my funnel journey that helped me achieve a 6-figure business from my home office without the need for a team, huge investments, or taking huge risks.This was all made possible because I invested in learning a lot of marketing skills and was part of some of the top marketing gurus around the world, such as Aaron Fletcher, Justin Woll, Gustin Sun, Russell Brunson, Sabri Subi, and Deepsh Mandla.Jame Preneur, the founder of FunnelGod, Author of "BecomeFunnelGod" Book and the creator of the 'GodMode' Funnel Marketing System, has revolutionized the marketing industry. Starting from humble beginnings, he transformed his business by focusing on a specific niche and delivering maximum results. His system, backed by years of experience and generating over $3M in sales, offers a 9-step blueprint for building a successful funnel marketing agency. The GodMode Funnel Marketing System empowers marketers to find their true passion, target the right audience, create irresistible offers, establish a strong brand, optimize funnels, drive targeted traffic, close sales confidently, scale their business, and build a strong community. Jame Preneur's expertise and innovative system differentiate him from traditional marketers, making him a funnel marketing pioneer.(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553556 172O71O250O43)
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Motor recently issued an announcement to invite distribution channel partners across China to collaborate with its new electric vehicle brand, e.

Photo credit: Dongfeng Motor

The e brand is aimed at the new energy vehicle track and showcasing the latest achievements of Dongfeng Motor in electrification technologies.

The e brand logo, resembling "double T," stands for "Transformation," representing Dongfeng's spirit of technological exploration, innovation, and progress. It also signifies "Technology," emphasizing the brand's customer-centric approach and determination to innovate and develop new energy vehicles.

The name e combines "electric, energy, and explore" and "," representing the infinite possibilities of exploration as the most concise summary of the most complex irrational number.

Dongfeng's e brand is a mainstream electric brand meticulously crafted with advanced technological reserves in areas such as power electronics, architecture, and intelligence, putting it at the forefront of the industry. The brand features the all-new Dongfeng Quantum Architecture, a full-stack in-house developed intelligent electric platform, integrating cutting-edge technologies to deliver exceptional space, energy efficiency, safety, and driving experience.

The e brand's Mach E powertrain incorporates an ultra-efficient electric drive system and highly intelligent battery technology.

e aims to establish a channel model that aligns better with the customer experience in the new energy vehicle market. It will focus on a three-phase customer service approach, namely the "1+X" network model, with the 1 represents the order center and the X represents a combination of order, delivery, or service. Investors can select combinations that suit their individual circumstances.

e01 prototype; photo credit: Dongfeng Motor

At the Auto Shanghai 2023 in April, Dongfeng Motor officially launched the e brand with its first concept car, the e2023. On June 30, the e brand saw two prototypes on tool trials, codenamed S73 and S59, roll off the production line. These models are set to enter mass production stages in late 2023 and the second quarter of 2024, respectively.
Snake in the tiger's shadow: Deadly cobra rescued from Thackeray home

On Sunday afternoon, there was a frantic call to the Wild Life Animal Protection & Rescue Association (WLAPRA) activist and snake-friend Atul Kamble, who lives nearby, that a snake was slithering around in the compound."I immediately rushed there with my gear and checked the entire premises. Finally I located it hiding, very scared and trembling behind a water tank in the bungalow compound," Kamble, 34, told IANS of his rescue mission.Aided by his 15-year experience and rescuing over 9,000 snakes and other reptiles in the city, Kamble caught the 4-feet-long cobra and placed it in an open space."It was surrounded by a large and excited crowd, it seemed to be in an aggressive mood, so I had to calm it down After the people retreated some distance away, it relaxed and then opened its hood in a 'striking' position to convey that he is the 'Boss' there," smiled Kamble.The entire operation lasted a nail-biting 15-20 minutes with the Thackeray household and others gawking as Kamble tricked the cobra into his bag.Then he informed the Thane Forest Division's Round Officer (Borivali-Bandra) Roshan Shinde and as per the rules, the cobra was released back into its natural habitat.A relieved and grinning 'Tiger' Thackeray personally came out to thank and appreciate Kamble for his efforts.Kamble said that many snakes have been displaced by the ongoing Mumbai Metro lines works, and there are many complaints  almost 3-4 dozen daily  of snakes sneaking into residential complexes, homes or offices.He cautioned that after the Mumbai Metro works are over, there may be complaints of not only snakes, but even leopards entering the underground metro stations.qn/shb(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553557 162O158O94O112)
Members' exports value exceeded AED 139 billion during H1'23: Dubai Chamber of Commerce

Dubai Chamber of Commerce's data indicates that the number of new member companies increased by 43 per cent between January and June this year to reach a total of 30,146, up from 21,098 companies in the first half of 2022.This significant growth underlines Dubai's attractiveness among both companies and investors, as well as the emirate's growing reputation as a leading global business destination.The total value of exports and re-exports of member companies also increased by 7 per cent during the first half of 2023 to reach AED 137.6 billion, up from AED 129.4 billion in the same period last year. In addition, the chamber issued 357,000 certificates of origin during H1 2023.A total of 2,402 ATA Carnets were issued and received for goods and commodities with a value of AED 2.5 billion during the six-month period, compared to 2,326 ATA Carnets with a value of AED 1.2 billion during H1 2023.This represents a growth in the value of goods and commodities of more than 108 per cent, while the number of ATA Carnets issued and received increased by 3.3 per cent.Abdul Aziz Abdulla Al Ghurair, Chairman of Dubai Chambers, said, "Our impressive results from the first half of this year confirm the success of our unique business model, which is based on three specialised chambers operating under the umbrella of Dubai Chambers. As Dubai's engine of economic growth, our strategic priorities are aligned with the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda, which seeks to further enhance the emirate's position as a leading global centre for business, trade, and investment."Al Ghurair added, "The significant increase in our new members reflects the chamber's commitment to attracting investments, while the growth in the value of our members' exports and re-exports underlines the impact of our support for Dubai-based companies seeking to expand into international markets in line with Dubai's drive to boost the value of non-oil foreign trade to AED 2 trillion by 2026. We will continue to focus on building an agile and resilient economy based on diversification and innovation that fulfils the vision of Dubai's wise leadership."(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553557 172O70O242O207)
Vijay Deverkonda, Samantha Ruth Prabhu's romantic drama 'Kushi' trailer to be out on this date

Taking to Instagram, actor Vijay Deverkonda shared a new poster of the film which he captioned, "It's here. This Aug 9th. 2 mins 41 secs of #KushiTrailer. #Kushi Releasing worldwide Sept 1!"https//www.instagram.com/p/CvomAEcRgNw/In the new poster, Vijay and actor Samantha could be seen sitting together on the floor shedding out major couple goals.The official trailer of 'Kushi' will be out on August 9.Soon after the star cast shared the new poster, fans flooded the comment section with red hearts and fire emoticons."We are eagerly waiting," a fan commented.Another fan wrote, "Can't waittt !!!!""So freaking hot," a fan wrote.After 'Mahanati', this will be Samantha and Vijay's second project together and also it is Samantha's second collaboration with filmmaker Shiva Nirvana, who previously collaborated with her on 'Majili'.Jayaram, Sachin Khedakar, Murali Sharma, Lakshmi, Ali, Rohini, Vennela Kishore, Rahul Ramakrishna, Srikanth Iyengar, and Saranya are among the cast members of the film.The film is anticipated to be an inter-faith love story. For Samantha, 'Kushi' is important as her last release 'Shaakuntalam' did not work at the box office. Vijay's Hindi debut 'Liger' was promoted on a large scale but tanked at the box office. However, the fans of these two superstars are excited to see them together on the screen.Meanwhile, Vijay will also be seen sharing screen space with Sreeleela in Gowtam Tinnanuri's new film, which is tentatively titled 'VD 12'.Samantha, on the other hand, will also be seen in the Indian adaptation of the action series 'Citadel' opposite Varun Dhawan. Created by Raj and DK, the series will stream on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video.(ANI | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553558 172O70O243O67)
Doctors call for creating breastfeeding infrastructure at work places

The first week of August is celebrated as national breastfeeding week during which campaigns are conducted with an aim to educate the public about the importance of breastfeeding, breastfeeding at work places and maternal rights.This year's theme for Breastfeeding Week is "Making breastfeeding and work, work!". Research by the WHO shows that fewer than half of the infants under six months are breastfed and less than 20 per cent of countries have employers who provide employees with paid leave and maternity care. Women need to ideally have 18 weeks of paid time off, support for dedicated time and space tobreastfeed the baby.According to Dr Aparna C, Clinical Director Neonatology & Senior Consultant Neonatology and Pediatrics, KIMS Cuddles, Kondapur, Secunderabad, "With the support of WHO and UNICEF and, many partners are coming together to speak and spread awareness about breastfeeding, supportin the communities, human rights and ecology. They aim to increase the health and welfare of the baby, as well push the maternal rights and health."Mothers who may have always wanted to breastfeed their babies can receive resources. In the current lifestyle patterns, women may not be able to breastfeed because of work schedules and other challenges, does not mean breastfeeding is not an accessible option. Also, research shows that women who breastfeed their children are less likely to develop postnatal depression."Dr Geetha Suryadevara- Consultant Gynaecology and Obstetrics, SLG Hospitals observed that there are different ways to observe breastfeeding. "This week is perfect to promote the benefits of breastfeeding on social media. There are many support groups where new mothers can discuss their experience and concerns regarding breastfeeding. This helps aspiring mothers overcometheir fears. Though 96 per cent of mothers are breastfeeding from the first hour of birth, only 15 per cent of mothers are feeding exclusively later."A lot of modern women are faced with societal pressures that can interfere with breastfeeding, but there is a 35 per cent significant increase in women who are breastfeeding their child and it steadily needs to meet the global goal of 50 per cent by 2025. This year's theme relates closely to modern women trying to find their ground in their new motherhood. Government has passed very supportive laws for women to utilize their maternity leave."According to Dr Sridevi Kodiganti, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Amor Hospitals, in India maternity benefit care act requires employers to give paid time off until the child reaches the age of 15 months. Though breastfeeding is a cultural norm in India, most of the working mothers in India still find it to be a challenge."The lack of breastfeeding facilities is what makes mothers switch to formula milk. Thirty-four per cent of working women find the lactation facilities to be the biggest challenge, while 17 per cent have expressed unsupportiveness from their bosses. This shows that the culture of breastfeeding might still be a new challenge that needs to be addressed by all organisations. By turning an empty room/cabin in the office into a nursing room can prove extremely beneficial to many workingwomen. Providing pumping centres, maternal kits and practicing sensitivity in the team can help moms work productively. There can also be few psychological challenges, pressure to relieve the body from milk leaks, security concerns etc can decrease productivity," she said.Talking about the benefits of breast milk, Dr Kada Rama Devi, Director-Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Century Hospital said, "There are numerous benefits and nutrients to breast milk over packaged milk. Breast milk is rich in protein, and is best for baby's brain growth and nervous system development. It also helps the baby's eyes work better."It has several disease fighting factors and antibodies that help fight infections and diseases like leukemia. Breastfeeding also helps moms reduce risk of breast or ovarian cancer and helps lose pregnancy weight faster. Most of the working moms refrigerate their milk, to help feed the baby during or after working hours. This helps its calories and protein stay intact," she added.ms/shb(IANS | Posted on 07 August 2023, 1692553558 172O70O243O44)
LOS ANGELES  News that the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was inducting Keith Urban in its class of 2023 honorees arrived last week 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 said.

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 chatted 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.

QUESTION: 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.

Q: 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.

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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Q: 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.

Top country song from the year you graduated high school Top country song from the year you graduated high school 1948 (tie): 'I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)' by Eddy Arnold and His Tennessee Plowboys, "Bouquet of Roses" by Eddy Arnold and his Tennessee Plowboys 1949: 'Lovesick Blues' by Hank Williams with His Drifting Cowboys 1950: 'I'm Movin' On' by Hank Snow 1951: 'Shotgun Boogie' by Tennessee Ernie Ford 1952: 'The Wild Side of Life' by Hank Thompson 1953: 'Kaw-Liga' by Hank Williams 1954: 'I Don't Hurt Anymore' by Hank Snow 1955: 'In The Jailhouse Now' by Webb Pierce 1956: 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Elvis Presley 1957: 'Gone' by Ferlin Husky 1958 (tie): 'Ballad Of A Teenage Queen' by Johnny Cash, 'Guess Things Happen That Way' by Johnny Cash 1959 (tie): 'The Battle of New Orleans' by Johnny Horton, 'The Three Bells' by The Browns 1960 (tie): 'He'll Have to Go' by Jim Reeves, 'Please Help Me, I'm Falling' by Hank Locklin 1961: 'Don't Worry' by Marty Robbins 1962 (tie): 'Walk On By' by Leroy Van Dyke, 'Wolverton Mountain' by Claude King 1963: 'Love's Gonna Live Here' by Buck Owens 1964: 'I Guess I'm Crazy' by Jim Reeves 1965: 'Before You Go' by Buck Owens 1966: 'Almost Persuaded' by David Houston 1967 (tie): 'There Goes My Everything' by Jack Greene, 'All The Time' by Jack Greene, 'It's The Little Things' by Sonny James 1968: 'Skip A Rope' by Henson Cargill 1969: 'Daddy Sang Bass' by Johnny Cash 1970 (tie): 'Baby Baby (I Know You're a Lady)' by David Houston, 'It's Just a Matter of Time' by Sonny James, 'Hello Darlin'' by Conway Twitty, 'Don't Keep Me Hangin' On' by Sonny James 1971: 'When You're Hot, You're Hot' by Jerry Reed 1972: 'My Hang-Up Is You' by Freddie Hart 1973 (tie): 'You've Never Been This Far Before' by Conway Twitty, 'The Most Beautiful Girl' by Charlie Rich 1974: 'A Very Special Love Song' by Charlie Rich 1975 (tie): 'Before the Next Teardrop Falls' by Freddy Fender, 'Rhinestone Cowboy' by Glen Campbell, 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain' by Willie Nelson, 'Always Wanting You' by Merle Haggard, 'Touch the Hand' by Conway Twitty, and three more 1976: 'Convoy' by C. W. McCall 1977: 'Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)' by Waylon Jennings 1978: 'Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys' by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson 1979 (tie): 'Every Which Way but Loose' by Eddie Rabbitt, 'I Just Fall in Love Again" by Anne Murray, 'If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me' by The Bellamy Brothers, 'Amanda' by Waylon Jennings, and two more 1980 (tie): 'Coward of the County' by Kenny Rogers, 'My Heart / Silent Night (After the Fight)' by Ronnie Milsap, 'Lookin' for Love' by Johnny Lee 1981 (tie): 'I Don't Need You' by Kenny Rogers, '(There's) No Gettin' Over Me' by Ronnie Milsap, 'Never Been So Loved (In All My Life)' by Charley Pride 1982 (tie): 'Always on My Mind' by Willie Nelson, 'Just to Satisfy You' by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, 'Slow Hand' by Conway Twitty, 'She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)' by Jerry Reed 1983 (tie): 'Islands in the Stream' by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, 'Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You)' by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers 1984 (tie): 'To All the Girls I've Loved Before' by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson, 'Why Not Me' by The Judds 1985: 'Lost in the Fifties Tonight (In the Still of the Night)' by Ronnie Milsap 1986 (tie): 'Whoever's in New England' by Reba McEntire, 'Have Mercy' by The Judds, 'Desperado Love' by Conway Twitty, and two more 1987: 'Forever and Ever, Amen' by Randy Travis 1988 (tie): 'Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses' by Kathy Mattea, 'I Told You So' by Randy Travis, 'I'll Leave This World Loving You' by Ricky Van Shelton, 'When You Say Nothing at All' by Keith Whitley 1989 (tie): 'I'm No Stranger to the Rain' by Keith Whitley, 'The Church on Cumberland Road' by Shenandoah 1990: 'Love Without End, Amen' by George Strait 1991 (tie): 'Down Home' by Alabama, 'Don't Rock the Jukebox' by Alan Jackson, 'You Know Me Better Than That' by George Strait 1992: 'Achy Breaky Heart' by Billy Ray Cyrus 1993: 'Chattahoochee' by Alan Jackson 1994 (tie): 'Wild One' by Faith Hill, 'I Swear' by John Michael Montgomery, 'Wink' by Neal McCoy 1995: 'I Like It, I Love It' by Tim McGraw 1996 (tie): 'It Matters to Me' by Faith Hill, 'No News' by Lonestar, 'Time Marches On' by Tracy Lawrence, 'My Maria' by Brooks and Dunn, 'Carried Away' by George Strait, and two more 1997: 'It's Your Love' by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill 1998: 'Just to See You Smile' by Tim McGraw 1999: 'Amazed' by Lonestar 2000 (tie): 'Breathe' by Faith Hill, 'How Do You Like Me Now?!' by Toby Keith, 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack and Sons of the Desert 2001 (tie): 'Ain't Nothing 'bout You' by Brooks and Dunn, 'I'm Already There' by Lonestar 2002: 'The Good Stuff' by Kenny Chesney 2003 (tie): 'Have You Forgotten?' by Darryl Worley, 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett 2004 (tie): 'There Goes My Life' by Kenny Chesney, 'When the Sun Goes Down' by Kenny Chesney and Uncle Kracker, 'Redneck Woman' by Gretchen Wilson 2005 (tie): 'As Good as I Once Was' by Toby Keith, 'Better Life' by Keith Urban 2006: 'Jesus, Take the Wheel' by Carrie Underwood 2007: 'Never Wanted Nothing More' by Kenny Chesney 2008 (tie): 'Our Song' by Taylor Swift, 'Letter to Me' by Brad Paisley 2009: 'Need You Now' by Lady A 2010 (tie): 'Consider Me Gone' by Reba McEntire, 'Why Don't We Just Dance' by Josh Turner, 'The House That Built Me' by Miranda Lambert 2011: 'Honey Bee' by Blake Shelton 2012: 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' by Taylor Swift 2013: 'Cruise' by Florida Georgia Line 2014: 'Burnin' It Down' by Jason Aldean 2015: 'Girl Crush' by Little Big Town 2016: 'H.O.L.Y.' by Florida Georgia Line 2017: 'Body Like a Back Road' by Sam Hunt 2018: 'Meant to Be' by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line 2019: 'Whiskey Glasses' by Morgan Wallen 2020: 'The Bones' by Maren Morris 2021: 'Fancy Like' by Walker Hayes
A senior U_S_ diplomat says coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet with the countrys democratically elected president, whom she described as under virtual house arrest.
In C-U  where Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump by a more than 3-to-1 margin in 2020  presidential campaign fundraising this year is unusually bleak. The Biden campaign has raised just $1,835. Trumps campaign has brought in $2,138.42.
How does POCD manifest?

What causes POCD?

References

Further reading

Post-operative cognitive decline, or dysfunction (POCD), is a recognized clinical phenomenon in which patients experience lasting cognitive impairment for some time following anesthesia.

Cognitive decline. Image Credit: pathdoc/Shutterstock.com

Typically, older patients are more likely to experience POCD, with around 40% over the age of 60 who are hospitalized for surgery experiencing POCD on discharge, and 10% three months later, though patients of any age can experience POCD.

Considering the aging population and the increasing number of surgeries the average person receives as they age, POCD is becoming an increasingly encountered problem, particularly with regards to patients reliably giving informed consent to further medical procedures while in a delirious state. This article will discuss the incidence and potential causes of POCD.

How does POCD manifest?

POCD has been recognized in patients following anesthetized surgery since the mid-19th century. The British Medical Journal published a paper titled Insanity Following the Use of Anaesthetics in Operations in 1887.

Memory and performance of intellectual tasks are most usually affected by POCD, in particular, the ability to learn and recall new information, comprehend and express language, and recognize emotions in others is degraded.

Visual perception and coordination, the ability to plan and make decisions, and the ability to maintain focus and attention are also influenced by POCD. Recognizing changes in these functions from pre- to post-surgery forms the basis of POCD diagnosis. Therefore, accurate diagnoses of POCD require both pre- and post-operative psychometric testing, which may express in a subtle and dynamic manner.

Typically, tests involving connecting a series of numbered or alphabetized shapes in ascending order, memorizing and recalling a number series, or tests of manual dexterity such as the grooved pegboard test, are employed during clinical neuropsychological examination.

Delirium following anesthetized surgery is relatively common and occurs in around 80% of patients in critical care. Hyperactive delirium is generally easily identified as the patient may be an active risk to themselves or others, though hypoactive delirium is likely significantly under-diagnosed as patients appear calm but upon examination display inattentiveness and disorientation.

POCD may manifest in specific manners that include but are not exclusive to delirium, and as discussed can last for significant periods of time following surgery. Monk et al. (2008) documented POCD in 36.6% of patients aged 18-39, 30.4% aged 40-59, and 41.4% of patients aged over 60 at discharge, though as discussed older patients tend to experience more intense and long-lasting effects.

The same study found that patients that had experienced POCD had a higher risk of death within one year than those that had not, normalized by condition, and an 8.5-year follow-up study by Steinmetx et al. (2009) found higher average mortality under the same conditions of 1.63.

Whether the higher mortality rate observed amongst those with POCD is related to the condition directly or a result of common underlying causes is as yet unclear, compounded by difficulties in separating the effect of one of numerous anesthetics, the type of surgery performed, and various comorbidities that may be present.

What causes POCD?

POCD occurs more frequently following extensive or repeated rounds of surgery, though the precise mechanism causing the dysfunction is yet to be made clear.

A history of alcohol abuse, even with recent abstinence, a clinical history of depression, and a low educational level are each additional risk factors in the development of POCD, and cardiac surgery in particular is known to lead to a higher incidence of POCD amongst elderly patients.

Indeed, those having undergone cardiac bypass procedures are known to encounter cognitive decline independent of the occurrence of POCD, according to some studies at the same ultimate rate whether surgery was performed or not.

Peripheral surgery activates inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-alpha signaling cascades that in turn cause the release of various inflammatory cytokines that may be involved in weakening the integrity of the blood-brain barrier towards macrophages, potentially allowing them to migrate into the hippocampus and cause memory impairment.

Interestingly, local anesthetic may cause POCD at almost or equal incidence rate as general anesthesia, and no evidence of long-term anesthetic neurotoxicity has emerged from twin studies, thus it is not necessarily thought that anesthesia itself is the cause of POCD.

Changes in brain structure have been observed in those with POCD indicating reduced thalamic and hippocampal volume and reduced cerebral blood flow, suggesting that neuronal death may be involved.

Pre-existing mental health or brain disorders also contribute heavily to the development of POCD, and where patients are found to have a silent brain ischemia during heart surgery they are around three times as likely to then develop POCD upon completion of the surgery, perhaps lending credence to the idea of inflammatory changes in the brain being the root cause.

However, the choice and intensity of anesthetic, as well as the occurrence of any hypoxia and organ ischemia during surgery, have also been found to play a role in the incidence of POCD developing.

It may be that POCD is the result of a number of confounding factors, and all that can be done is to best reduce risk where possible and weigh the benefits of surgery with the potential downsides of POCD developing, thus continued investigation of risk factors is underway.

References

Rundshagen I (2014). Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction. Deutsches Arzteblatt International. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2014.0119

Brodier EA & Cibelli M (2021). Postoperative cognitive dysfunction in clinical practice. BJA Education, 21(2), 7582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjae.2020.10.004

Needham MJ, Webb CE & Bryden DC (2017). Postoperative cognitive dysfunction and dementia: what we need to know and do. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 119, i115i125. https://doi.org/10.1093/bja/aex354

Further Reading
While much of the global concern has subsided, COVID-19 is still a very real threat, especially to people with compromised immune systems or who are over 65.

Vaccination offers excellent protection against serious illness and death, but the current vaccines have room for improvement in their ability to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 at the point of entry in the upper respiratory tract.

A collaborative research effort led by the University of Michigan and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has resulted in a nasal vaccine adjuvant that stops infection in both young and old mice.

An adjuvant is a substance added to some vaccines to trigger a stronger immune response, boosting their effectiveness. Several current vaccines contain adjuvants and they are often recommended for people over 65.

The new vaccine protocol, developed by Pamela Wong, Ph.D., and Michael Schotsaert, Ph.D., and their teams, combines a nanoemulsion-;think of a tiny droplet of oil and water and an RNA-based molecule that is recognized by the immune system similar to how viral infection is sensed as an intranasal adjuvant to help trigger immune responses in the upper respiratory system.

There is considerable interest in intranasal vaccines for respiratory viruses because inducing mucosal immunity can help prevent viral transmission, whereas injectable vaccines don't effectively elicit mucosal immune responses." Pamela Wong, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the U-M Medical School Department of Internal Medicine

Wong and Schotsaert, an assistant professor of microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai, both recognized the value of-;and challenges posed by-;an adjuvanted intranasal vaccine delivery system and their teams have been working together for almost a decade to create one that results in a good immune response.

Their protocol combines the best of both components: the RNA adjuvant triggers antiviral pathways inside the cell while the nanoemulsion carries it into the cell and helps prevent it from being cleared too quickly from inside the nasal passages, while also activating immune pathways complementary to the one triggered by the RNA adjuvant.

Testing their adjuvant with the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain protein-;which the virus uses to enter a host's cells-;the combined vaccine led to the enhancement of antibody and memory T cell responses in both young and old mice, including in the mucosa of the upper airway where the virus starts to proliferate.

"It's very hard to induce a strong immune response with intranasal vaccines containing just the protein or inactivated virus alone because your mucosal sites will see many things during the day or over a lifetime and are to some extent 'trained' not to overreact. So, you want to overcome that barrier through the use of adjuvants while balancing safety," said Schotsaert.

Furthermore, the intranasal vaccine outperformed the intramuscular adjuvant Addavax in old mice, which is similar to the adjuvant currently used in the flu vaccine for the elderly, in its ability to generate viral neutralizing antibodies and T cell responses.

Despite its promise, the road to an adjuvant for nasal delivery has been a rocky one. There is only one commonly used, FDA- approved nasal vaccine in the United States, FluMist, and it does not contain an adjuvant nor is it recommended for people over 49.

An adjuvanted nasal flu vaccine was licensed in Switzerland, only to be pulled from the market in 2000 after reports of Bell's palsy, a form of facial paralysis, in some people who received the vaccine.

Spurred by the COVID pandemic, several other intranasal vaccines have been explored but have either resulted in short-lived protection or a poor immune response.

On the contrary, the team's combined adjuvanted intranasal vaccine appears to result in highly effective and long-lasting immunity against SARS-CoV2 in a preclinical model. What's more, the nanoemulsion has an additional feature: it can inactivate viruses on its own.

"This means you could mix live virus with the nanoemulsion and it would inactivate it without having to use harsher chemical methods, better preserving the conformation of the viral proteins that the immune system sees, potentially leading to better quality immune responses," said Wong.

Next, the team plans to pursue additional studies necessary for bringing the adjuvant to Phase 1 safety trials as well as exploring its applications for a universal flu vaccine.
A recent study posted to the medRxiv preprint server investigates the association between the circulating proteome and brain health.

Study: The circulating proteome and brain health: Mendelian randomisation and cross-sectional analyses. Image Credit: Abduramanova Elena / Shutterstock.com

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

What causes cognitive decline?

Aging is associated with cognitive decline and dementia, with poor cognitive function increasing the risk of stroke and Alzheimers disease. A reduced cognitive reserve is associated with decreased premorbid cognitive function that exacerbates cognitive impairment.

To date, the exact mechanism that links cognitive decline to dementia is not fully understood. Thus, elucidating the pathogenesis of cognitive decline could support the development of effective strategies to prevent and treat dementia and stroke.

Many studies have recently described the importance of investigating how cognition and structural brain phenotypes are influenced by plasma proteins. However, most of these studies have only assessed a small set of proteins.

About the study

The current study evaluates the association between plasma proteins and cognitive function using data from the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) biomarker sub-study. The study cohort included participants with Latin, European, or Persian ancestry. All non-European participants were excluded from the cohort to align the PURE genetic data with external genetic datasets.

Participants who developed stroke, heart failure, type II diabetes, myocardial infarction, or death from any cause were selected for the current study based on random sampling. The PURE biomarker study also invited European participants 39 years and older to enroll in the PURE-MIND study, the latter of which consisted of participants who do not have a history of dementia, stroke, or other neurological disease.

Samples obtained from PURE study participants were used to detect protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) for Mendelian randomization analyses, whereas PURE-MIND data were used for observational association analyses. The replication of the observational findings was sought in the Generation Scotland (GS) cohort.

Overview of the study design. This study involved European (N = 3514), Latin (N = 4309), and Persian (N = 1332) PURE participants for whom genetic and plasma proteomic data were available. Observational analyses to detect plasma biomarkers of cognitive function were performed in the subset of these participants who were enrolled in the PURE-MIND sub-study (N = 1198), for whom plasma protein (N = 1060 proteins) and MRI measurements were available. Mediation analyses were performed to assess whether any observed associations between protein levels and cognitive function were mediated by structural brain phenotypes ascertained by MRI. Finally, two-sample Mendelian randomisation analyses were performed to assess potentially causal effects of genetically-predicted cognition-associated protein levels on genetically-predicted neurological outcomes. For these analyses, genetic instrumental variables for protein levels were identified in the European, Latin, and Persian PURE participants, and associations with neurological outcomes were assessed using external (non-PURE) datasets. Created with BioRender.com.

Study findings

The PURE MIND and GS cohorts were similar in age, clinical characteristics, and sex distribution. A total of five proteins were associated with the digit symbol substitution task (DSST) performance in the PURE-MIND cohort.

The current study analyzed the association between the plasma levels of 1,160 proteins and cognitive function. Based on DSST measurements, carbonic anhydrase (CA14) and CUB domain-containing protein 1 (CDCP1) were associated with processing speed. More specifically, CA14 correlated with causal effects on hippocampal volume and increased risk of stroke, whereas CDCP1 was associated with intracranial aneurysms.

Proteins such as brevican (BCAN), neurocan (NCAN), and myelin-oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) were associated with DSST performance. These proteins have also been linked with structural brain phenotypes.

In this context, the cerebral white matter volume (WMV) plays a crucial role in mediating this effect. Previous studies have shown that WMH volume influences about 8% of the relationship between BCAN levels and DSST performance. Consistent with previous studies, the plasma levels of NCAN and BCAN were positively correlated with brain volume.

Manhattan plot indicating associations between the levels of plasma proteins and performance on the DSST in participants from the PURE-MIND cohort (N = 1198). Each protein is represented by a triangle with upwards-facing triangles indicating a positive association with DSST performance and downwards-facing triangles indicating a negative association with DSST performance. The position of each protein on the x-axis is determined by the genomic location of its corresponding gene and the position on the y-axis is determined by the log 10 p-value. The dashed horizontal line indicates the Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold (p = 4.31 x 10-5) required to maintain a 5% type I error rate.

Based on the Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses, neuroprotective effects of carbonic anhydrase inhibition were observed in models of Huntingtons disease and amyloidosis, as well as ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.

Enrichment analyses identified a notable association with DSST performance, which indicated higher levels of brain-expressed proteins. However, there was not a significant association between protein levels and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) performance. This finding implies the application of MoCA as a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment only.

CA14 is an isoform of the carbonic anhydrase family of zinc metalloprotease enzymes that catalyze the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide. This protein is expressed by neurons and is involved with the management of extracellular pH following synaptic transmission.

Of all carbonic anhydrase family members measured in this study, CA14 levels correlated with DSST performance. Nevertheless, more research is needed to determine the therapeutic potential of carbonic anhydrase for cognitive impairment, stroke, and Alzheimers disease.

Conclusions

The current study has some limitations including the consideration of proteins that represent a small subset of the circulating proteome. Replication analyses could not be performed for the entire cohort; therefore, the replication of CA14 and MOG were not assessed. Furthermore, protein levels were measured in the plasma, rather than the brain or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Despite these limitations, the study findings highlight the importance of plasma for determining brain-related phenotypes. NCAN, BCAN, and their regulators were identified as molecules of interest in Alzheimers disease.

Future studies are needed to determine the underlying mechanisms that regulate the efflux of brain-expressed proteins into the bloodstream in non-clinical populations.

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Thousands of people attended the 62nd Annual Wilber Czech Festival this past weekend.

In 1963 Wilber was proclaimed to be the Czech Capital of Nebraska. In 1987 the Saline County town was proclaimed to be the Czech Capital of the United States.

Those in attendance celebrated 150 year of Czech Heritage with food including kolaches, pork, sauerkraut, duck and dumplings. Polka music and other traditional sounds streamed from the bandstand. Many wore traditional clothing and costumes.

Vendors had set up on the sides of Main Street for guests to peruse. The Cultural Center and the Wilber Czech Museum were open for demonstrations, displays and an art show throughout the weekend. A carnival was available for children throughout the weekend.

Parades were held Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Czech royalty from throughout the United States attended the festival. The Miss Czech-Slovak US Pageant has been held at the Wilber Czech Festival since 1987. It was held on Sunday evening at the conclusion of the weekend activities.
University of Queensland researchers have received a $3.1 million grant for a trial which could revolutionize endometrial cancer treatment.

Research Director Professor Andreas Obermair at UQ's Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer Research said the trial will assess sentinel lymph node removal during surgery for early-stage endometrial cancer.

"The standard treatment is a hysterectomy and lymph node dissection, despite the effectiveness of this second part of the surgery not being proven," Professor Obermair said.

"Doctors use lymph node dissection to determine the extent of the disease, but there is no evidence of patient benefit.

"In fact, it may put the patient at risk by prolonging the operation and anesthetic time and delay their recovery.

"Patients have also expressed concern that the current surgical approach may cause more harm than good."

Called ENDO3, the trial will address patient and clinician concerns and fill a 30-year knowledge gap by evaluating the effectiveness, benefit and risks of sentinel lymph node removal.

Ultimately, we aim to reduce the potential for unnecessary overtreatment of women with endometrial cancer." Professor Andreas Obermair at UQ's Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer Research

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological cancer in Australia, with more than 3,000 patients treated annually.

Professor Obermair said the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant will progress the trial and expand it to international collaboration.

"For 20 years, we have been advocating for greater research funding because we know the treatment options we currently have for women with gynecological cancer are outdated and patients deserve better," he said.

"ENDO3 already has support from the international gynecological oncology community because it's recognised the trial results will support better treatment decisions."

Over 5 years, the ENDO3 team will randomize 760 patients with stage one endometrial cancer to surgery with or without sentinel lymph node dissection.

The trial will determine the probability of disease-free survival at four years.

So far, 158 patients are enrolled with 16 accredited surgeons.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers create a composite indicator for digital exclusion and a related toolbox.

Study: Digital Exclusion as a barrier to accessing healthcare: A summary composite indicator and online tool to explore and quantify local differences in levels of exclusion. Image Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock.com

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

Background

Digital exclusion in the United Kingdom is a growing issue, as it leads to marginalization and inequality. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown measures exacerbated inequalities in access to and use of digital tools.

Despite the increased incorporation of online services during the pandemic, such as medical appointments and social support services, there remains a lack of tools to measure local exclusion, thus making targeted interventions difficult.

Access, affordability, and ability are key factors in digital exclusion. Composite indicators such as poverty, national financial performance, human growth, and healthcare delivery can aid in analyzing the effects of policy change; however, they can also contribute to misinformation and poor policy planning and execution.

About the study

In the present study, researchers present the creation of a composite indicator and related online tool to assess the relative digital exclusion of each lower-layer super output area (LSOA) in the U.K. county of Lincolnshire.

The team provided measures regarding the time it takes to visit healthcare facilities using several modes of transportation. The composite measure includes Experian Mosaic indicators that account for relative disparities in degrees of digital competence, including the confidence and abilities individuals have in using online services.

The indicators reflecting different degrees of digital exclusivity were compiled for each LSOA in Lincolnshire. The variables were selected after a review of the literature and a series of interactions with stakeholders who were aware of socio-demographic and other issues that impede access to services in the local community.

Normalized and aggregated indicator variables were used. The D and E socioeconomic statuses (DER), guaranteed pension credit claims (GPC), internet (INT), low levels of activity (LAC), lack of qualifications (NQR), unemployment (UNP), transport (TRP), and Experian (EXP) are among the indicators utilized in the development of the digital exclusion indicator.

Small-area analysis was enabled by aggregating indicator variables at the different LSOA levels. A mean of the various component variables was employed for variables composing the INT, TRP, and EXP indicators.

Correlation plots and network diagrams were created to depict pairwise associations between the indicator variables integrated to build the composite indicator. This allowed the researchers to evaluate the extent of co-linearity among variables.

Factor analysis was used to establish weightings for the normalized indicators in the composite index. Loadings were calculated for all unobserved components or variables for all original indicators.

Study findings

The composite indicator and its development process have demonstrated potential relevance both in the U.K. and globally. The toolkit offers a web-based user interface for investigating regional differences in digital exclusion.

GPC, UNP, and DER were associated with a significant reciprocal association. LAC was associated with NQR, and the two only marginally correlated with DER.

A weak association between INT and TRP was also observed. EXP did not correlate with any indicator factors.

Correlation network diagram for the normalized indicator variables the thickness of the lines linking pairs of nodes indicates the strength of the correlations pair of variables.

Socioeconomic disadvantage, inadequate academic credentials, a lack of exercise, and impediments to internet access were identified as underlying components. Lincolnshire's easternmost coastline districts had the greatest levels of digital isolation, with large local variations within metropolitan areas including within Lincoln City or Grantham town.

The extraction of three factors that explained about 67% of the variation in the indicating variables was optimal.

The first component, which was primarily composed of four mutually associated variables of LAC, DER, GPC, and UNP, accounted for 31% of data variations. The second component, which was based on the NQR, LAC, DER, and EXP variables, explained 17% of the variation. The third component, which was based on TRP and INT, explained 16% of the variations.

Conclusions

Digital exclusion has serious consequences, including marginalization and inequity, especially for people who reside in geographically remote areas and have health-associated limits or impairments. The Digital Health Toolkit offers a new composite statistic adapted to the conditions of Lincolnshire, as well as an interactive dashboard that resources allocation choices and aims to combat digital exclusion.

Lincolnshire County Council has utilized the toolkit to sponsor a local charity's service delivery focused on assisting individuals at an increased risk of being digitally excluded. Over 100 individuals in this community received gadgets, data SIM cards, and assistance in connecting to the internet. Using the toolkit, digital kiosks were installed at National Health Service (NHS) buildings in or near the county's most digitally poor LSOAs.

*Important notice: medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Many Americans don't understand a lot about their health. Whether due to people believing conspiracy theories or simply walking out of their doctor's offices without a good idea of what was said, communicating what scientists know has been a long-standing challenge.

The problem has gotten particularly acute with a recent wave of misinformation. And when Francis Collins led the National Institutes of Health, the world's premier medical research agency, he thought he had a solution: to study health communications broadly. "We basically have seen the accurate medical information overtaken, all too often, by the inaccurate conspiracies and false information on social media. Its a whole other world out there," he said in 2021 as part of a farewell media tour.

"I do think we need to understand better how  in the current climate  people make decisions," he concluded.

But Collins' hopes appear dashed. In a sudden reversal, the NIH's acting director, Larry Tabak, has paused  some say killed  the planned initiative, Advancing Health Communication Science and Practice. Its advocates fear the agency has, for political reasons, censored itself  and the science that would've sprung out of this funding stream.

The agency has offered shifting and inconsistent explanations, sometimes outright contradicting itself in the space of days. Sources familiar with the project insist that whatever the agency's official story, it has acted unusually, contrary to its normal procedures in deciding what science to fund.

The officials, both in and outside of NIH, believe the agency is acting in response to political pressures over misinformation and is effectively censoring itself. Efforts to study or push back on inaccurate information have become contentious. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives repeatedly has plunged into the issue by investigating social media firms and government agencies for their efforts to regulate online speech. They've even targeted academics who merely study information flows online. Meanwhile, in July, a federal court in Louisiana issued a decision on a long-simmering lawsuit brought by a group of Republican attorneys general and anti-vaccine groups to block government officials from communicating with social media companies, with certain exceptions for national security and criminal matters. That ruling has since been stayed.

Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. "It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days," said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.

For researchers interested in the topic, however, it's a major loss. The program was deemed potentially so important that it would be supported through the agency's Common Fund: a designation for high-priority programs that cut across normal institutional boundaries. In theory, it would study how health communication works, not merely at an individual doctor-to-patient level, but also how mass communication affects Americans' health. Researchers could examine how, for example, testimonials affect patients' use of vaccines or other therapies.

Serious money was on the table. The agency was prepared to spend more than $150 million over five years on the endeavor.

For researchers, it's a necessary complement to the agency's pioneering work in basic research. The NIH has "done a remarkable job discovering the way cells communicate with each other," said Dean Schillinger, a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco. "When it comes to how people communicate to each other  doctors to patients, or doctors with each other  the NIH has been missing in action." Now, he said, the tentative efforts to reverse that are met with a "chilling effect." (Schillinger co-authored an opinion piece in JAMA on these developments.)

After favorable reports from an agency's advisory body last fall, advocates were anticipating more encouraging developments. Indeed, the NIH's budget had touted the concept as recently as March. And participants expected the grant application process would begin toward the end of the year.

Instead, researchers have heard nothing through official channels. "Investigators have been asking, 'What's the plan?'" said Schillinger. Officially, "it's been the sound of silence, really."

That has been a puzzling anticlimax for a program that seemed to have all the momentum. "Given the urgency of misinformation, you would expect  within a year  a formal announcement," said Bruce Y. Lee, the executive director of the City University of New York's Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health.

Advocates and sources involved with the process had been pleased with its progress leading up to Tabak's sudden reversal. After Collins publicly floated the concept in late 2021, the agency took some public steps while defining the project, including holding a workshop in May 2022, keynoted by Collins.

Later that year, the project's leaders presented the concept to the agency's Council of Councils, a group of outside researchers who provide feedback on policy initiatives and projects. It got a warm reception.

Edith Mitchell, an oncologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said the agency had a "major task, but one that is much needed, one that is innovative." The council gave the proposal a 19-1 seal of approval.

Researchers were happy. "As far as I was concerned, this program had been funded, accepted, and approved," Schillinger said. (The agency says that it is "not unusual" for programs not to move forward but that it does not track how frequently programs get affirmative votes from the council and later don't move forward.)

That smooth sailing continued into the new year. In March, the program was mentioned in the NIH budget as one of the agency's potential projects for the coming years. Then, say sources in NIH and elsewhere in government, came Tabak's sudden decision in April, which was not communicated to some researchers until June.

Early that month, Schillinger said, he received a call from an NIH official saying, "The program has been killed." Program officers were reaching out to academics who had made prior inquiries about the initiative and potential research efforts that could garner grants. Schillinger said researchers were told, "You're not getting an email" from the agency.

A former White House staffer and two current NIH officials  who were granted anonymity because they didn't have permission to speak on sensitive matters  said the decision, which came as researchers and agency officials were preparing to open grant applications in the last quarter of the year, was made by Tabak. KFF Health News asked Tabak for an interview but instead got an answer from agency spokespeople.

The agency disputes any final decision about this research funding that has been made. Spokesperson Amanda Fine told KFF Health News the project was "still in concept phase" and is "being paused to consider its scope and aims."

But the agency lists the health communications proposal on the "former programs" part of its website, and sources inside and outside of government disagree with this company line. They point to political fears on NIH's part as driving the change, which reflects the growing political controversy over studying anything related to misinformation, even though the proposal was set up to examine health communications broadly, not solely misinformation.

A hint of this reasoning is contained in the rest of Fine's statement, which notes the "regulatory and legal landscape around communication platforms." When pressed, the agency later cited unnamed "lawsuits."

That's likely a reference to the Louisiana case, which was decided weeks after the agency decided to pause or kill the Common Fund initiative.

Fine later offered a new explanation: budgetary concerns. "We must also balance priorities in view of the current budgetary projections for fiscal years 2024 and 2025," she wrote.

That explanation wasn't part of a June 6 note on the program page, and one NIH official confirmed it wasn't part of previous discussions. When pressed further about the agency's budgetary position  which analysts with TD Cowen's Washington Research Group think will be flat  spokesperson Emily Ritter said, "The NIH does not have a budget projection."
Stocks to Watch on August 7: Nifty futures traded 8.5 points, or 0.04 per cent, higher at 19,597, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Monday. Heres a slew of stocks that will be in focus today for various reasons.

Yatharth Hospital & Trauma Care: The companys Rs 687 crore IPO was subscribed 36.2 times, with strong demand from all segments, led by Qualified Institutional Investors. The Grey Market Premium (GMP) indicates a likely 20 per cent listing gain for the stock.

Earnings Watch: Balmer Lawrie, Barbeque Nation, Bayer Cropscience, Emami, GHCL, GIC Housing, Gland Pharma, GNFC, Godrej Consumer Products, HLE Glascoat, India Cements, Jubilant Industries, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Lloyds Steel, Max Healthcare, PolicyBazaar, Ramco Cements, RateGain Travel, Keystone Realtors, Sobha, SPARC, Tata Chemicals, Torrent Pharma and Whirlpool are some of the prominent companies scheduled to announce June quarter earnings on Monday.

Reliance Industries (RIL): The company to seek shareholders approval to give Mukesh Ambani another 5-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. Meanwhile, the recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses, was expected to be listed soon, the annual report stated.

TD Power Systems: InGovern Research, a voting advisory firm, has red-flagged governance concerns at the company, ahead of its annual general meeting (AGM) to be held on Wednesday.

Tata Motors: The auto major is looking to expand sales outlets in Tier II and Tier III cities in order to cater to the increased demand for its electric model range. The company had sold around 19,000 electric vehicle units in Q1, is also looking to have a separate sales infrastructure for its electric vehicle portfolio going ahead.

Metropolis Healthcare: The firm is eyeing 60 per cent of its revenues from the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment in the next two-three years. The companys current share in the segment is 52 per cent. In FY24, the company also plans to add 30 labs across India.

Bank of Baroda (BoB): The state-run banks net profit zoomed 87.7 per cent to Rs 4,070 crore for the quarter ended June 2023 as against Rs 2,168 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income rose by 48.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 29,878 crore.

Britannia Industries: The companys net profit surged 35.6 per cent in Q1FY24 to Rs 457.6 crore from a year ago period. Net sales rose 8.6 per cent YoY to Rs 3,969.8 crore.
Vivanta Industries Limited is a major player in the consultancy, technology supply and providing turn-key projects for the pharmaceuticals sector in India. The company specialises in project conceptualisation, project design and engineering, and project funding and development services. Established in 2013, Vivanta Industries is headquartered in Ahmedabad and has garnered commendable returns for its investors in recent years.

Presently, Vivanta Industries Limited holds a market capitalisation of around Rs 51.2 crore, and on August 4, its trading began at Rs 4.87. Notably, Vivanta Industries board of directors has approved a bonus share issuance in the ratio of 1:4, meaning one new share will be allocated for every four existing shares held by shareholders on record.

Furthermore, the company has declared a dividend of 3 per cent. for the financial year ending March 31, 2023. The distribution of bonus shares and the payment of the final dividend are scheduled for September 5, 2023.

Over the course of a year, the companys stock has remarkably surged by 215.8 per cent. After enduring 13 consecutive days of hitting the lower circuit, the shares of Vivanta Industries are now in a correction phase, with an encouraging rise of 5.37 per cent. observed on Friday. The stocks 52-week range indicates a low of Rs 1.52 and a high of Rs 8.66.

During the last financial year, the companys total income experienced significant growth, escalating from approximately Rs 0.12 crore to around Rs 14.08 crore. Similarly, the expenditure surged from Rs 0.08 crore to Rs 13.7 crore this year. Comparatively, Vivanta Industries net profit exhibited impressive growth, reaching Rs 33 lakhs this year. Consequently, the companys shares have also witnessed a notable increase of around 150.9 per cent.

Notably, Vivanta Industries Limited secured an order worth Rs 35 crore for the manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in purification and sterilisation plants. The company is set to establish a high-quality control system and Research and Development (R&D) facility for this new venture.

The companys ascent in BSE Sensex can be attributed to several factors. It is on a growth trajectory with steady increases in earnings and revenues. The construction sector in India is experiencing a boom, further improving Vivanta Industries prospects. Additionally, Vivanta Industries Limited has established itself as a leading supplier of goods and services, contributing to its rise in the market.
The Delhi High Court has barred the Institute of Cost Accountants of India from using the ICAI abbreviation for the institution or its services. The HC ruling came following the conclusion of the last hearing in a civil lawsuit filed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which claimed that usage of the ICAI abbreviation violated its trademark. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India testified during the hearing that the trademark ICAI has been registered by the Institute since March 25, 2011, under class 41, which refers to Education and Trainingread more
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is expected to publish the results of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) Foundation June test today, August 7. The institute had previously announced that the results for the CA Foundation exam will be released either on Monday, August 7 at 9 p.m. or on Tuesday, August 8, in the early hours. Candidates may access the ICAI CA Foundation Result 2023 after it has been released via the official websites icai.org and icai.nic.in.

ICAI CA Foundation Result June 2023 LIVE

According to the announcement made by the ICAI, The results of the Chartered Accountants Foundation Examination held in June 2023 are likely to be declared on late evening (9.00 p.m.) of Monday, the 7th August, 2023/early morning on Tuesday, the 8th August, 2023, and the same can be accessed by candidates on the website icai.nic.in."

Candidates must log in using their ICAI registration number and roll number to view their CA Foundation results. The ICAI held the CA foundation exam in offline format from June 24 to 30 at 290 testing centres across the country.

ICAI CA Foundation June 2023 Result: How to check

Step 1: Go to the ICAIs official website at icaiexam.icai.org, caresults.icai.org, or icai.nic.in.

Step 2: Look for the link to the CA foundation June 2023 results.

Step 3: Enter the login information, such as the registration number and roll number.

Step 4: On the screen, you will see the ICAI Chartered Accountants (CA) Foundation Result.

Step 5: Download the ICAI CA foundation June 2023 scorecard and print it for future reference.

Candidates name, roll number, registration number, exam session, subject-by-subject marks, overall marks, grade points, result status, rank (if applicable), and remarks are just a few of the details that can be found on the ICAI CA Foundation 2023 result scorecard. In addition to the CA Foundation results, the ICAI will also release the merit list for the June 2023 session.

Candidates must score a minimum of 40 per cent in every topic and a total aggregate of 50 per cent in all four subjects in a single attempt to be considered for the ICAI CA Foundation June 2023 results.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) and the Ministry of Education in India. The partnership aims to establish an international campus of IIT Delhi in Abu Dhabi. This comes after IIT Madras recently launched its first-ever global campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania, East Africa.

This strategic collaboration marks a significant milestone for both India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), bringing together two leading educational entities to foster academic excellence and promote cultural exchange. By extending IIT Delhis renowned educational expertise to Abu Dhabi, the new campus will provide an unparalleled opportunity for students in the region to access world-class education and cutting-edge research facilities," reads the official press release.

We are looking to explore an interview opportunity with HE Sara Musallam - Chairman of Abu Dhabi Education and Knowledge (ADEK). She can further delve into the significance of this collaboration and what it means for Indian students in Abu Dhabi," it added.

Meanwhile, the new international campus will be headed by a woman director for the first time. Prof Preeti Aghalayam, dean of the School of Science and Engineering at IIT Madras will take charge of the Zanzibar campus as its director. The institute will initially be offering 50 seats for the BS course and 20 seats for the M Tech course.

The selection process for admission to IIT Madras Zanzibar will include a screening test  which is an aptitude test, covering mathematics, science, English, and analytical ability. Those who clear the exam will be called for interviews with faculty. Students who have cleared class 12, or equivalent in the past three years are eligible to apply to the BS programme while those with a four-year UG degree in any engineering or science discipline may apply to the MTech programme.
The Union Ministry of Education on Monday ruled out any proposal to revive the quota for Members of Parliament for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) across the country. Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said this in response to a written question in the Rajya Sabha.

There is no such proposal, at present, to revive the quota for Members of Parliament for admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas. KVs are opened primarily to cater to the educational needs of the wards of transferable central government employees including defence and para-military personnel, Central Autonomous Bodies, Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and Central Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) by providing a common programme of education throughout the country.

There is no such proposal under consideration since the admission under some special provisions including Members of Parliaments quota were granted over and above sanctioned strength of the student strength of 40 per section which was adversely affecting learning due to high pupil-teacher ratio in classes, she added.

The centre government had last year scrapped several discretionary quotas, including that of MPs, for admissions in the Kendriya Vidyalayas, a decision which was aimed at freeing over 40,000 seats in the centrally funded schools.

There are over 1,200 KVs in the country with over 14.35 lakh students. The MPs  543 in Lok Sabha and 245 in Rajya Sabha  could collectively recommend up to 7,880 admissions a year under the quota.

Under special provisions, MPs had discretionary powers to recommend the admission of 10 children to a Kendriya Vidyalaya. Even a district magistrate had the power to recommend 17 students under the sponsoring authority quota in KVs.
Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra on Sunday issued orders for the appointment to the post of vice-chancellor in three universities of the state.

Mishra made the appointments in consultation with the state government on the recommendation of the universities Vice-Chancellor Search Committee.

Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (Lucknow) Home Sciences Department Dean Dr Sunita Mishra has been appointed as vice-chancellor of Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur.

Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Commerce and Business Studies Head Professor Keshav Singh Thakur will take charge as vice-chancellor of Govind Guru Tribal University, Banswara.

Lucknow Universitys Public Administration Department Head Professor Manoj Dixit has been appointed as vice-chancellor of Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner.

The vice-chancellors have been appointed for three years from the date of taking charge or till they attain the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
Jessica Zemsky just turned 100, but she still remembers when she decided to become an artist.

Born on July 26, 1923, Zemsky grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At about 7 or 8, she was introduced to fine art at a friends house.

I met a little girl whose father was doing the musical background for Carnegie Hall, she recalled. I liked where she lived. I liked what she wore to sleep in. I liked everything about it. So when I went home in the morning, I told my mother that when I grew up, I wanted to be a artist.

She laughs a little looking back on that memory now. Shes been in this game since before she knew proper grammar.

I didnt know that it was better to say an artist, she explained, her voice full of levity. But it sounded good to me.

It still does sound good.

I was true to my word, Zemsky beamed. I am now 100, and I have been a artist since I told Mommy about it.

She attended the Elliot OHara Watercolor School in Maine, and graduated from Brooklyns Pratt Institute. After that, Zemsky stayed on the east coast, working as a commercial artist, where she designed and painted book illustrations, greeting cards and other advertising material.

Suddenly I began to get money for my paintings, she recalled. I didnt have to give them away.

Zemsky moved out west in 1975 to join artist Jack Hines, who she had known since the late 1940s. They married in 1976, and lived in Big Timber in a house with dual studios out back, so they could both work.

Those are all memories now. Hines died in 2015, at age 91. But Zemsky is still going. She now lives at the Pioneer Medical Center assisted living facility in Big Timber.

Its pretty nice, she said of the retirement home. The weathers been delicious. And everybody has been very friendly. They all speak English, so were okay.

Just a few blocks from her home sits the Two Rivers Gallery, an art gallery on McLeod Street in downtown Big Timber. For her 100th birthday, they had a big party, drawing well over 100 people, complete with a neatly decorated cake and a rousing singalong of Happy Birthday.

The fete, Zemsky reported, was scrumptious. It was so much fun.

But the real draw at Two Rivers was the paintings. They had dozens of Zemskys works on display. She works mostly in oil paint, watercolors and gouache, a sort of cross between the two. Her pieces are lived in, a bit stylized, immediately catching. She paints everything like its golden hour, as if she took the techniques used by the Hudson River School of environmental painting that was popular in the mid-19th century, and used it to portray people.

People are all over Zemskys work. It Was Really This Big is a cheekily clever painting that captures a beaming child, nose bespotted with freckles, with a pair of chubby hands wrapped around an enormous trout. Montana Picnic portrays a girl and a boy eating lunch out in the countryside, her in a long dress and bonnet, him in riding boots and knee-high breeches. Theyve got different plates, but they share the same tin cup.

She estimates that shes done well over 1,000 paintings in her life, but as she points out, shes had a lot of time.

More than anything, shes loved painting children, finding them inspiring, if not always cooperative, models. About a decade ago, she donated 30 paintings to St. Vincent Healthcare, to be displayed in the pediatric unit.

Parents talk about their children and how darling they are, and I find I agree with them, she said. Im now 100, and Ive never had an awful experience painting a child.

Sometimes shed paint a child in a day or two. Other times it might have taken a week or more.

Im given some instructions from the child, which I immediately ignore, she explained.

And of course theres her two kids, Peter and Jamie. Theyre her big thrill, she said. Well, them and ice cream. She really loves ice cream.

Zemsky doesnt paint anymore, but her life is still full of color. She had a lobster dinner to celebrate turning 100, and shes still raving about it.

Im too busy eating to do any painting, she laughed.

I feel fine. I dont know when Im going to start feeling like 100. Either Ill start feeling it soon or Ill have to forget about it. I have no idea. Nobody gave out any brochure to tell me how to be 100.

Shes in uncharted territory here. But shes undaunted.

Life is just marvelous, Zemsky said. I dont know if I have some kind of connection with the Gentleman Upstairs. I seem to think I do. But I have had the most pleasant life. Everything goes smoothly. I dont know who this great personage is, but someone keeps me safe. Someone tells me jokes to tell other people.

That other people thing is key, because Zemsky is so overflowing with joy shes intoxicating. And shes always sharing it.

I have the most good stories about other peoples lives, she noted. Shes been picking them up for 100 years now.

I dont know how it happens, but everybody who sees me work loves what I come up with, she said.

Still, even she was surprised at how many folks came to the gallery for her birthday party. But the thing that really got her was how many of the attendees shed taught over the years. Art, as usual, just creates more art. Zemskys impact has rippled out from her own life. Shes everywhere now.

Life is very good, she reflected. Being 100 is no problem at all. I dont know what comes next, whether you got to be 200, or 100 and 2/3s, or what.

To tell you the truth, she continued, I dont know how, but its getting bigger and better and more marvelous.
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 abroad, with most of them covering flight tickets, accommodation and course fee; and some also providing stipend.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to balancing finances and applying for the right educational loan says 25-year-old Varun Kumar, who works at prestigious United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Kumar, who completed his engineering in instrumentation and control from St Josephs College of Engineering, Chennai, says he applied to several universities in the UK and US, and pursued MSc in Robotics and Autonomous System at University of Bath, UK, based on GREAT scholarship which funded his tuition fee, resulting in a loan-free education.

The final decision was a balancing act between finances and quality education That is when I applied for the GREAT Scholarship and noticed the University of Bath  one of the top-ranking universities in the UK for engineering  was also willing to nominate me for the scholarship. This meant that once I secured the scholarship, my entire educational expenses were covered, and I came into the UK loan-free and with less burden which meant I can focus more on my education and looking for jobs. GREAT Scholarship laid the platform for me to enter into the UK in supporting me financially, Kumar explained.

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Top 8 Govt & University Grants That Will Help Fulfil Your Dream to Study in US

Scholarship Journey

Kumar came to know about the scholarship through an Open Day talk held at local British Council library in Chennai in 2019 and decided to apply for it immediately. The road between deciding to apply for a grant and getting it was long.

The first step was an online application process through the scholarship portal. The application portal required a personal statement to detail on my aspiration to study in the UK and uploading various educational, extra-curricular certificates, awards to further strengthen my application, two strong recommendation letters from undergraduate university professors. I also had to contact the participating UK universities to nominate me for the scholarship to further strengthen my chances on winning, explained Kumar.

His application was shortlisted and he was called for a telephonic interview. I still remember that I was both confident and nervous at the same time. The conference call lasted around an hour and the interviewers were delegates from the British Council, DRDO and other top organisations in India. They made me feel comfortable and it was more of a conversation than an interview to better understand my motive and aspirations to study in the UK and whether I would fit their requirements to win the scholarship. After a week or so, I received the confirmation via email, and I was over joyous and excited about travelling to the UK.

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Studying in UK Can Be Affordable, Less Daunting; News18 Brings You Top 10 Grants

The easiest part of the scholarship was definitely hitting the submit button and replying to the emails. The remainder of the whole process was meticulous as I had to ensure I made myself stand out from all the other applicants. Collating all my academic certificates, achievements, awards, recommendation letters and writing up my personal statement was time consuming but definitely supported greatly to my application, he said.

Studying During Covid

Soon after joining the university, Kumar and his peers were met with uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. One of his reasons behind choosing to study abroad was the emphasis on practical aspect of the education and the pandemic made it shift to online mode.

It was already quite challenging shifting from a classroom-based teaching to a remote online teaching. Moreover, the way we interacted and learnt changed drastically where all our in-person lab sessions became simulation studies and face-to-face interactions with fellow peers and professors reduced to adhere to the Covid restrictions, he said.

Despite being under the lockdown themselves, Kumars parents became a pillar of strength amid the uncertain times.

I was constantly in contact with my parents in Chennai who motivated me and gave me confidence whenever I felt down. Learning to cook was one of the many ways I adopted to keep my mind active and alert. As I lived in a university dormitory, which had a shared kitchen with five other students, we were in our own bubble and kept ourselves motivated in stressful times. The university also greatly helped in opening up hotlines to talk to mental first aiders if we ever felt any distress or discomfort during that time.

Despite having graduated in a Covid-hit economy, Varun managed to land a job at UKAEA.

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Based on Your Needs & Merit, Top 10 Grants in Canada with Lowest Spending

Working at UKAEA

I applied for the UKAEA graduate scheme in November 2019. This was the time when Covid was slowly creeping up in the UK and discussions of enforcing a lockdown was in motion, recalled Kumar.

The first step for the job too was an online application submission through the company portal followed by a self- recorded video interview where a series of questions would flash on the screen and your responses along with video will be recorded for a minute or two.

He received a confirmation email from UKAEA in 2020 after which he had to appear for an in-person interview at their office in Culham, Oxfordshire, UK.

The interview consisted of a series of personal questions, followed by technical questions testing his engineering skills, problem solving, and situational awareness. Later, he was asked to participate in a group activity with other candidates where they were given a particular task to complete as a team.

ALSO READ: Scholarship Guide | Shah Rukh Khan, JN Tatas Among Top 8 Grants to Study in Australia

I received confirmation that I was selected and offered a job at the UKAEA RACE facility as a graduate engineer in robotics. The best part was they were willing to sponsor my right to work TIER 2 visa which was so difficult to secure during Covid as companies were constantly laying off employees. I was meant to start my job in September 2020 and was constantly ensured by UKAEA that my job was secure, and they wouldnt let Covid affect my start date. This gave made me worry less about my job situation and focus on my studies more.

Studying Beyond Academics

Looking back at his time at the university, Kumar said, Apart from academics, I got to learn a lot while doing part-time jobs to help manage my daily expenses and also to understand more about the British work culture. It also helped me to manage my time better and make new connections.

Suggesting his peers, who aim to apply for education abroad, Kumar said, Dont be dejected by failures. The first time you enter a foreign country can be daunting and overwhelming but ensure you give enough time to settle down and get a foothold. I would recommend start applying for jobs as soon as you enter the country as the application process usually takes a long time and they open a year before the actual start date.

I applied to nearly 100+ companies and I received many rejections, but I would suggest taking those rejections as a way to improve and correct your mistakes and make your application much suited for the job role.

Ensure you are active on LinkedIn as I found it was one of the best ways to reach out to employees and recruiters directly to get valuable insights about the company, you are interested in. I would also strongly encourage taking up a part-time job to manage your daily expenses and understanding more about the work culture of the country, he added.
Ever since the introduction of the Civil Services Aptitude Test (C-SAT) in 2011, it is mired in controversies. Several UPSC aspirants demand the removal of CSAT from the UPSC CSE exam pattern. The concerns of the students which they call Charter Of Demands By UPSC Aspirants include reducing the qualifying criteria of UPSC CSE CSAT 2023 from 33 to 23 per cent or dropping 25 plus questions that were not from the syllabus or re-conduct the UPSC prelims exam 2023.

The demand to lower the qualifying criteria of UPSC CSE CSAT 2023 from 33 per cent to 23 per cent is a significant one. However, its important to note that the 33 per cent mark is a standard passing criterion followed throughout the Indian education system," said Sumit Rewari, the CEO of Physics Wallah, Only IAS.

Also read| UPSC vs Civil Service Aspirants: From Fresh Attempts to Removal of CSAT, List of Demands by Candidates

Sheetal Bajwa, an aspirant living in Delhi also said 33 per cent is a standard passing mark that is implemented across the board in India. Students usually dont give importance to UPSC CSAT. They take the paper for granted and come into panic mode as February arrive. They focus on just clearing 27 questions which ideally should not be the case," she said.

The number of overall vacancies remains constant. Hence, it is hard to imagine how the benefits of a lowered cut-off will be distributed vis-a-vis those who have cleared the cut-off despite this years difficult paper. The same issue would arise if the exam is reconducted  it would seem fair to those who could not clear the cut-off but unfair to those who cleared it," explains former IRS Officer Ravi Kapoor.

Compensatory attempts

The aggrieved body of students has also asked for compensatory attempts for the Covid batches. Several demanded compensatory attempts for eligible UPSC candidates in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. I was not able to appear for the exam due to Covid. In fact for that years exam, I was prepared best and was positive that the mains would have been cracked," Hemant Kumar, a UPSC aspirant said.

Sharing her opinion, lead petitioner Ayushi said, Due to the pandemic many students were not able to appear for the exam and many attempts of the students have been wasted. That is why we demand one compensatory attempt for all. There are a few universities where age relaxation with extra attempts are given due to Covid. Why not UPSC?"

Many students who cleared the exam also faced similar challenges during the pandemic. Therefore, while the demand is empathetic, it may not be practically feasible to provide extra attempts," Rewari said.

Hindi UPSC aspirants Say Paper favourable for English Candidates

A UPSC aspirant, from Nangloi, Delhi, who opted for Hindi in the paper in UPSC that year, said, There is an issue with prelims paper where the question is made in English and just translated to Hindi using apps. Proper and separate questions should be prepared for Hindi medium students as well."

Ayushi said, CSAT has become a weapon for UPSC to remove students with Humanities stream, Hindi and regional language background. Thus candidates who appear in the examination from this background are put to an uncalled disadvantage." She also questioned the commission as to what prompted this drastic reduction of Hindi medium students.

Meanwhile, Srirangam Sriram, founder of SRIRAMs IAS says a lot of people know the subjects and may be brilliant but they may not be advanced in the language. Thus, this is a wrong way to select and thats why there is so much discontent among the students. Its best that it gets eliminated because it adds nothing in terms of personality development. The idea is to develop empathy, compassion, and soft skills are developed. The days of English are gone and it has to be shown in the UPSC CSE selection process," he added.

Students have also raised concerns about UPSC age calculation. Aggrieved aspirants demand to opt for the 1st of January of the year candidate rather than the 1st of August. They also demanded the abolition of the lateral entry scheme that UPSC aspirants claim to promote privatisation and contractualisation of civil services."

Aspirants work hard and despite the odds, struggle to compete in this daunting exam hoping to succeed. However, when they are faced with a difficulty level akin to this years prelims, they felt like their hard work was wasted because the exam is arbitrarily tough. The unfortunate thing about this years prelims paper was that reinforced a feeling of helplessness and the aspirants felt betrayed," said Kapoor.
Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakash have been captivating their fans ever since their love story blossomed in the Bigg Boss house. Their bond has grown even stronger, and they frequently share delightful moments from their romantic getaways on social media. Recently, the couple jetted off to Dubai to spend quality time together. They shared some delightful pictures and videos on social media. In a heartwarming display of affection, Karan planted a kiss on Tejasswis forehead. The actress even treated their fans to a glimpse of their sumptuous and lavish food spread.

In the clip, Karan Kundrra was seen dressed in an all-white ensemble, while Tejasswi followed the Barbie theme and wore a stunning pink outfit. The duos chemistry and style were perfect.

Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakash during their Dubai trip attended the press conference for Filmfare Middle East Achievers Night. The couple looked stylish during the event, with Karan donning an all-cream outfit along with stylish shoes, while Tejasswi rocked in a vibrant neon ensemble paired with silver boots. Their fans were thrilled to see them together on a magazine cover.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dr Sana Sajan (@sanaasajan)

In December, Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakash shared a special surprise, as they purchased a home together in Dubai. The couple took to social media to share the news. Giving a tour of their dreamy home, the couple wrote, Welcome to our new home in Dubai! We are so happy to announce that Karan and I have invested in our dream home with Danube Properties. Its a luxurious apartment in the heart of Dubai and the best part is that its fully furnished so all we have to do is - pack our luggage and move in every time we come to Dubai.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tejasswi Prakash (@tejasswiprakash)

Karan Kundrra and Tejasswi Prakashs love story blossomed inside the Bigg Boss house, and ever since, they have been unapologetically open about their affection for each other. Despite their hectic schedules, the couple prioritises their relationship and consistently makes time for each other.

Karan was last seen in Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal, while Tejasswi impressed everyone with her acting skills in Ekta Kapoors Naagin 6. Both of their shows came to an end in recent months and they have been enjoying more time together.
One of the most talked about episode Bigg Boss OTT 2 was Jad Hadids liplock with actor Akansha Puri. After the incident, the Lebanese model called Puri a bad kisser. Akansha, who was eliminated from the show earlier this season, had opened up about the half-a-minute long kiss and called Hadid stupid and fake. Now, in an exclusive chat with News18, Jad reacted to her statement and called the incident a mistake.

I am okay with whatever she said. I understand where she is coming from as I made a mistake and I said that she is a bad kisser. Actually, she is a great kisser! Personally, I was giving it all during that moment especially in the last 10 seconds when I completely surrendered myself to the moment. I didnt realise what she is doing as my eyes were closed. I felt that she was just standing there for the sake of it. But I owe an apology to her," he told us.

She is a great person and she made this journey inside the house pretty easy for me as we shared many moments and deep conversations together. I would like to meet her and discuss a lot of things. She is a kind person and I am sure didnt mean what she said about me," he added.

The Lebanese model has often been accused by fans of being inappropriate with the women housemates including. But Hadid says that he didnt have any wrong intentions with anyone. I am an impulsive person. I remember flashing my butt (to Bebika Dhruve) and I apologised for it for a week on the show. Bebika and I are closer than we were earlier. I believe that making a mistake is fine only if you realise it and fix it. Correcting a situation is an achievement and I believe I did that with everyone, Jad said.

He added, I come from a different culture and I express my emotions in a certain way which I was I feel I have been misunderstood. The way I hug or touch people is the way I am and there arent any bad intentions. Besides, what intentions will I have when I have hundreds of cameras watching me 24/7. People are talking about my hug with the ladies but I was sharing the same emotion with the guys in the Bigg Boss house.

Hadid was also happy that he has been able to reconnect with his daughter after almost two months. We did a video call as soon as I was out of the show and she was jumping with joy. She is really excited and wants me to meet her soon in Lebanon. She was happy to see me on the show and I cant wait to see her. We share a special bond and we meet at least four to five times everyday so it felt weird both of us, he concluded.
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.

The government tabled The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in Lok Sabha last week to replace the ordinance related to the control of services in the national capital.

Though the bill has all the major provisions of the ordinance, but it has undergone significant changes and three provisions that were part of the ordinance have been dropped from the bill.

While the controversial Delhi Services Bill is in Rajya Sabha for discussion and voting on today (Monday), here is all you need to know about an ordinance and a bill and how it becomes law.

What is an ordinance?

The legislature has the power to make laws and the Members of Parliament (MPs) or a minister can introduce bills to make laws when the parliament is in session. There are three sessions of parliament- the Budget session, the monsoon session and the winter session. There cannot be a gap of more than six months between two sessions of the parliament.

However, in cases when Parliament is not in session and immediate action is required, the President can issue an ordinance. An ordinance is a law and could introduce legislative changes.

Under Article 123 of the Indian Constitution, the President has the power to issue Ordinance. The Supreme Court has said that the legislative power to issue ordinances is in the nature of an emergency power given to the executive only to meet an emergent situation.

The President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers, therefore it is the government that takes the decision on issuing ordinance.

After the ordinance is issued, it is to be laid before Parliament within six weeks of its first sitting. An ordinance is valid for six months and six weeks. An ordinance can also lapse earlier if the President withdraws it or if the Houses pass resolutions disapproving it.

How is Ordinance Different from Bill?

Once the ordinance is laid in the parliament, the government introduces a Bill addressing the same issue and replacing the ordinance. This Bill highlights the reasons that necessitated the issue of the Ordinance. Thereafter, the Bill follows the regular law-making process.

After the bill is introduced, it is sent to both the houses of the parliament for discussion and voting. When it passes both the houses, it is sent to the President for his assent. After the bill passes Parliament and the President, it becomes an act.

Therefore, while an ordinance is a temporary law that is only valid for six months, a bill is a proposed legislation that becomes a law after the passage in both houses or Parliament and after the Presidents assent.
An investigation by New York Times have revealed how a group of influence campaigns, media organisations and shell companies were funded by China to propagate Chinese propaganda. The investigation has claimed that American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, closely linked to a news website NewsClick, worked closely with the Chinese government media machine and was part of its worldwide propaganda.

The investigation showed how Singham financed a news site, NewsClick, which was also part of the Chinese propaganda. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had conducted raid on NewsClick office in New Delhi in 2021 and began an enquiry against the website based on strong evidence of money laundering.

The BJP reacted to the report and hit out at the opposition and said the Congress, China and NewsClick are part of the same conspiracy. Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that the government had being saying that the NewsClick was a propaganda to break India and defended the ED raid that was done against the website in 2021.

Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world. Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that pic.twitter.com/3MtA4UTWkn  Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 6, 2023

In a tweet, he said that India had warned the world about NewsClick much before the NYT report. Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world," Thakur said.

What Did NYT Investigation Reveal?

The New York Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Neville Roy Singham- which included a think tank and an event space in the US, a political party in South Africa and news organisations in India and Brazil.

Singham was allegedly on the front lines of Chinas Communist Partys smokeless war. Under the mission, China expanded its media operations, teamed with outlets and cultivated influencers to disguise propaganda as independent content. The investigation was the first to unravel the funding and document Singhams ties to Chinese propaganda interests, the report claimed.

In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Mr. Singhams network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points, the NYT report said.

It further added that the news platforms have cross-posted articles and share one anothers content on social media.

Who is Neville Roy Singham?

Neville Roy Singham is an American tech millionaire who has been identified as a significant supporter of left-wing causes in the US and the UK.

Founder of ThoughtWorks, an IT consulting company, Singham has been a major backer of left-wing groups such as Code Pink and No Cold War.

His wife, Jodie Evans, runs Code Pink which advocates American pacifism and left-wing causes, while his son works for a left-wing think tank- Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

It has been alleged that outfits linked to Singham uploaded content on social media to amplify Chinese propaganda.

In November 2022, Intelligence Online revealed Singham funnelled money to groups lobbying against Western support for Ukraine.

Singham reportedly has an office in Shanghai, which he shares with Chinese media company called Maku Group, a Chinese propaganda firm. The two firms apparently share employees.

News18 has reached out to Neville Roy Singham for his comments. This copy will be updated after we get the response.

All About NewsClick and 2021 Raid

NewsClick is a media platform that was founded in 2009 by Prabir Purkayastha, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the organisation. The online news portal covers both Indian and International news and is owned by PPK NEWSCLICK Studio Private Limited.

The news website claims that it reports diverse peoples movements and struggles and focuses on progressive movements.

PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited was searched by the officials of the ED on February 9 2021 to collect additional information to help probe money laundering charges against the company.

During the ED investigation, the search on PPK premises lasted 5 days and a total of 10 premises were covered, including the residence of Prabir Purkayastha, the promoter of the company.

The probe agency said PPK had received questionable foreign remittances amounting to Rs 38 crores. These remittances were classified as FDI of Rs 9.59 crore from April 2018, and remaining Rs 28.29 crore, was claimed to have been received for receipts for export of services.

The funds were also distributed to several controversial journalists including Gautam Navlakha and associates of Teestha Setalvad.

During the investigation it was revealed that Prabir Purkayastha along with his close associates Jason Pfetcher and Neville Roy Singham had infuse opaque foreign fund in PPK Newsclick Studio Pvt Ltd. It was also revealed that Purkayastha was in touch with Pfetcher and Singham since 2017.
The Parliament is meeting for the fourth week and the logjam is likely to continue on Monday over several issues including the Delhi Ordinance Bill. However, all eyes will be on the Lok Sabha secretariat as it will begin the process to reinstate Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case.

The papers for reinstating Rahul Gandhi to parliament are ready and all that remains is a sign-off from the Lok Sabha Speaker. The opposition parties have questioned the delay and the Congress is ready to go to court in case of a delay.

Why Was Rahul Gandhi Disqualified?

Earlier this year, Rahul 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.

However, the Supreme Court, in a big relief to the Congress leader, stayed his conviction in the defamation case on Friday. 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, with a warning to be more careful in future after the senior Congress leader tendered an unconditional apology.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday said he sent all documents pertaining to revocation of Rahul Gandhis disqualification from Lok Sabha to the Speaker. The party demanded that Speaker Om Birla should restore his membership with the same pace as he was disqualified.

When Will Rahul Gandhi Return to Parliament?

According to reports, the papers for reinstating Rahul Gandhi to parliament are ready and the sign-off from the Lok Sabha Speaker will be done today. Lok Sabha officials have said they will review the authenticated copy of the SC order and take necessary action.

After the order is studied, the process usually takes less than 30 minutes. The proforma for such notifications are readily available with the secretariat, an official told Hindustan Times.

However, the Congress have planned to go to court if there in any delay, sources have said, according to NDTV. The united opposition will also bring up the issue in the parliament on Monday in case the Speaker doesnt act with the speed.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday said that the party leaders will meet Lok Sabha Speaker if required. Weve given all the documents including order copy. We will meet Lok Sabha Speaker today and if needed we will protest as well. It is our right," Chowdhury said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said 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 Supreme Court relief.

The Congress is wary because in case of partys Lakshadweep MP PP Mohammed Faizal, the restoration took over a month. Faizal, who was disqualified after receiving a 10-year jail term, had to approach Supreme Court when his membership was not restored to parliament despite a Kerala High order freezing the sentence.

The reinstatement process of the Lakshadweep MP took time because the Lok Sabha secretariat had sought the law ministrys opinion, according to reports.

The Congress, meanwhile, has called a meeting of party MPs in the parliamentary office at 10:30 am where it is likely to raise the demand of reinstating Gandhi as an MP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is still emerging two months after a failed rebellion by mercenary Wagner Forces, has undergone a noticeable change in his behaviour.

The Russian leader, who is known for his seclusion, secretive visits, and forcing visiting leaders to sit at the opposite end of giant tables, is seen meeting Russians, interacting with children, and making unexpected visits.

He recently hoisted a young girl onto his hip in Kronstadt, posed shoulder-to-shoulder with young children, and shook their fathers hand at a naval parade.

Change of Behaviour

While rival Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is making made regular visits to frontline and crowded ceremonies, Putin is making appearance among crowds in orchestrated appearances.

According to a report in The New York Times, Putin is portraying himself as in touch and in charge after the Wagner rebellion.

In Kronstadt, the Russian leader met a crowd of people on the streets and posed for photographs with people, with bodyguards standing nearby. He also greeted children and hugged many people in the crowd.

What about the quarantine? a journalist asked Putin, to which the latter replied, The people are more important than quarantine.

In a rare move, Putin along with his guest from Belarus Alexander Lukashenko posed for a picture with a newly wed couple after the bride requested to click a photograph together.

During a visit to Kronstadt, Putin had a peculiar encounter. Among the people who wanted to take a picture with the president was a bride pic.twitter.com/KrOL2Y4roE RT (@RT_com) July 23, 2023

Putin has for long loathed populist retail politics, common among American politicians, as frivolous and vulgar.

He has preferred more controlled events like inspecting production facilities, meeting workers bodies and presiding military events.

Withdrawn Autocrat

Following Covid-19 pandemic, Putin was known for his seclusion and maintaining isolation from public events.

In a viral photo of French President Emanuel Macrons visit to Moscow, the French leader was made to sit at the opposite end of a long table for his talks after he refused to take a Kremlin-administered Covid-19 test.

During one of the meetings, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also seen sitting at the opposite end of a different, extremely long table during a one-on-one meeting with the President. Putin was also seen sitting on such long tables while meeting other heads of states including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

At the Russia Day awards ceremony in the Kremlin, Putin was captured maintaining a distance from the audience, drawing comments on social media.

What Changed After Rebellion

After the failed June 24 rebellion by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin seems to have changed the calculation.

Days after Prigozhins mutiny, Putin travelled to Russian city of Derbent and appeared before a crowd screaming with delight, which was unique for the leader in many years.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Putin went against the strong recommendations from experts and made a decision to interact with the crowd because he couldnt refuse these people and not greet them.

However, after the strongest blow to Putins legitimacy post-Prigozhins rebellion, the Russian leader wants to send a message to Russias elite that he maintains the adoration of the Russian citizens.

He also recently hosted as many as seventeen African leaders in his native Saint Petersburg to show West that he has the legitimacy of the international bloc.

Putin may also be preparing for presidential election next March which will his fifth elections. According to Sam Greene, director for democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis, Putin might be ramping up his public activity before the election though he has not made his candidacy official yet.
A young girl, in an inebriated state, was seen hurling abuses at police officers in Bengalurus Church Street, late on Sunday. The officers were attempting to escort her home when the incident took place.

In a video, the drunk girl was purportedly seen directly her verbal rants towards the policemen as well as local residents present at the spot. Consequently, the police had to seek another womans help to accompany the girl home.

Meanwhile, the girl was also seen pushing the woman  attempting to help her get sorted with the police and get into an autorickshaw  with both her hands.

The Church Street area is home to a lot of pubs, bars and restaurants, and the girl had parked her car in a no-parking zone in that area.

A scuffle between the girl and traffic police broke out when the latter quibbled at the girls car being parked in a no-parking area. Following this, an argument between the two broke out, the girl began hurling abuses at the police personnel.

As the matter escalated  in the absence of a woman police officer  the police sought help from a woman present at the scene to try and help the girl get home safely.

The police, at last, helped her get into an auto rickshaw and reach home.

Although it is unclear as to whether a case was registered against the girl, there is a possibility of actions being taken against her for hurling abuses at policemen in an inebriated state or for parking in a no-parking zone.
A four-member team of BJP women MPs met the family members of the 14-year-old victim in the Bhilwara rape-murder case on Sunday and questioned why Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have not visited them.

The BJP MPs also met the Bhilwara district collector and superintendent of police and inquired about the progress of the investigation.

Countering the BJP, AICC national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said political parties should desist from doing politics on this issue. Superintendent of Police Adarsh Sidhu said seven people, including a woman, have been arrested in this case. Two minors have also been apprehended.

Amid allegations of police apathy, a station house officer and the duty officer in the matter have been suspended and two constables taken off active duty. The 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped, killed and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthans Bhilwara district on Wednesday.

BJP national president J P Nadda had deputed the team of MPs led by Saroj Pandey and comprising Rekha Sharma, Kanta Kardam and Locket Chatterjee. The team reached Kotri town on Sunday afternoon. Speaking to reporters, Pandey targeted Vadra, saying that she gave the slogan Ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon but is silent over the incident in Rajasthan.

When there is any incident in Uttar Pradesh, both brother and sister reach there. But today on this incident, I would like to ask Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and their leaders that why did they not come here, the BJP MP said. She also hit out at the Gehlot government over the rising crimes against women in Rajasthan.

This government has no sensitivity left. At least they should meet the aggrieved family, she said. Crime is at its peak in Rajasthan and the chief minister is also the home minister there are no words to condemn this incident. The chief minister should not do politics on women. He should answer why Rajasthan is on top in crime, Pandey said.

Facing flak over the Bhilwara case, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had on Saturday said his government takes such incidents very seriously and has directed the police to deal strictly with people involved in crimes against women. Pandey said that no compensation has been paid to the victim till now.

BJP MP Kanta Kardam said the villagers and the girls family told them that she could have been saved but the police did not pay attention to their complaint. She said that people will give an apt reply to the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections. AICC national secretary Dheeraj Gurjar said no party should do politics in the name of getting the victim justice as she was the daughter of India and not any party or organisation.

He said a compensation of Rs 53.50 lakh will be given to the victims family by the government, political parties and social organisations. One member of the family would also be given a job on contract basis. In order to bring the accused to book, police will file the charge sheet in the case within 15 days.

Police have arrested Kalu (25), his brother Kanha Kalbeliya (21), Kalus wife Lad alias Jiji (25), Pappu (35), Sanjay (20), Kamlesh (30) and Prabhu (40) in connection with the case. A married minor and a teenager have also been held, SP Sidhu said. The BJP team also visited the site of the incident. It will prepare a report and submit it to Nadda. BJP national secretary Alka Gurjar and Mahila Morcha state president Raksha Bhandari accompanied the team.

We will present the immediate report to BJP national president J P Nadda within 24 hours, Pandey said.
St. Vincent Hospital is marking the 125th Anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone for the hospital on August 7, 1898. The event was marked with a luncheon at Grandview Park with live music by Soul Collective.
The father of the 12-year old gang-rape victim from Rajasthans Bhilwara attempted to jump onto the burning pyre of his daughter. As per a PTI report, the father of the minor victim was inconsolable and struggled to find the strength to stand. He was held by family members and others at the cremation ground.

The father of the girl injured himself while trying to jump onto the burning pyre. He was later taken to a district hospital for treatment, India Today reported.

The director of the Government Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Dr. Arun Gaur said that his condition was now out of danger. His parameters were reported to be normal.

The minor girl who went missing on August 2 was allegedly raped and murdered, following which her charred remains were found in a coal furnace.

As of now, five people have been arrested in connection to the case.

BHILWARA GANG-RAPE CASE: BACKGROUND

The minor who went missing had gone to a field in the village to graze goats. The family members and villagers started searching for the girl and gradually found a bangle near a coal furnace. Following this, the villagers informed the police. They further alleged that the girl was gang-raped, thrown into the coal furnace and was burnt alive.

Enraged over the incident, the villagers sat for a protest and demanded that justice should be served for the 12-year old.

Some of the body parts of the minor were allegedly burnt in the furnace while other parts were disposed of in a nearby pond in a bid to tamper all evidence, the police said.

Just few days before this incident, two teenage sisters were allegedly raped at a brick kiln by two co-workers of their father in Rajasthans Alwar district. Police have reported that both the girls are pregnant.
Since the worrying alerts were issued by global regulators signalling the problems with Made in India medicines, the countrys health ministry swiftly sprung into comprehensive action.

It initiated an extensive campaign to rectify the chaos and weed out the culprits. Objectives of the drive were too many  from protecting the image of India as a pharmacy to the world to earning back the trust of global regulators and continuing healthy exports.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shortlisted 209 risky manufacturing sites to conduct inspections in three phases, starting in December.

The objective of Indias massive drive was to unearth the problems in drug making. So far, around 162 firms have been inspected. The investigation reports disclose several serious lapses including selling drugs without bills, buying raw materials without invoices, quality compliance issues and manufacturing fake medicines.

A few investigation reports by CNN News18 here and here and here.

How India conducted the massive drive?

Six teams were initially formed to conduct the audits and raids at identified drug manufacturing units along with the state drugs control administration.

A committee of two joint drug controllers was constituted at the apex drug regulation body, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), to monitor the process of inspection, reporting, and subsequent action.

The entire move was driven and monitored by Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Results of the drive

Data till August 2 shows that the ministry has inspected 162 firms out of which 143 have faced actions.

The government data shows 40 stop production, 66 cancellation or suspension of product or category licenses have been issued. Around 21 warning letters have been handed over whereas 143 firms have been given show-cause notices.

In Himachal Pradesh, 51 firms have been inspected followed by Uttarakhand (27), Madhya Pradesh (18), Gujarat (14), Delhi (5), Punjab (7), Haryana (5) and more.

After conducting the massive drive, which is still ongoing, the government announced its decision to implement Schedule M.

Schedule M is the local version of WHO-GMP  the basic minimum requirement for drugmakers  which will now be implemented on around 8,500 pharma units.

According to government data, there are around 10,500 manufacturing units in the country, of which at least 8,500 are in the category of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Of these, 2,000 are approved by the World Health Organization and certified as WHO-GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices).

Are we done?

While the latest bold moves by the government are welcoming, India is just getting started.

Experts told me that checking the compliance of Schedule M will remain the most difficult task in the coming months.

Three experts, who requested to remain anonymous and work in regulatory compliance, consultancy and is an industry veteran, feel that its almost impossible for the government to check the compliance of Schedule M.

In fact, India, at present, does not have enough resources in terms of the number of inspectors and then trained inspectors to audit the facilities claiming to be Schedule M or WHO-GMP compliant.

Sample this: Till June, Maharashtra FDA was suffering from a massive shortage of inspectors as 59% of the 200 sanctioned posts were lying vacant.

They recently made an amendment for hiring drug inspectors by removing the eligibility criteria of three years of experience. Now, they only need a pharmacy degree.

Kerala also reported a severe shortage where more than 30,000 medical stores were inspected by just 47 drug officers. Similarly, several other states have reported shortages in the last two years.

Right now, its difficult to inspect 2,000 manufacturing units and we are talking about checking 10,500 units  this sounds more hype than reality, an officer who works with a consultancy associated with the central government for giving advice on health matters told me.

It took several months to conduct risk-based inspections at just 160 odd firms and we are aiming to check the compliance at 10,000 firms in the next six months to one year, the officer further said.

In addition to addressing the scarcity and skills gap, the health ministry must also provide clear guidance on implementation, especially given the complex nature of health issues, which also fall under the jurisdiction of the states. Hence, Who will be the enforcement body? needs to be answered clearly.

Also, the move must not become a harassing mechanism for those who are willing to change.

China case study

China had massively upgraded its pharma manufacturing practices which involved the display of solid political willpower as well as the commitment of the health regulators.

In 2017, Chinas drug regulatory authority joined the ICH (International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use). Since then, Chinas drug registration administration system had accelerated its integration with international practices.

By joining ICH, the country needs to adopt global standards for drug manufacturing and upgrade its entire industry. To achieve that, China went on to shut down several pharma firms that failed to comply with the given rules and regulations within the stipulated deadline.

Back in February 2020, VG Somani, the former Drug Controller General of India, announced the intention to soon become a part of ICH. However, this aspiration has remained a remote goal, growing even more distant over the past year. (Starting October 2022, India faced increasing drug alerts and complaints from global regulators including Gambia, Uzbekistan, US FDA, WHO and others.)

Since 2018, India has also been planning to join Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) which aims to provide good quality medicines to the public by harmonising Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) among countries.

It is joined by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and several other drug regulatory bodies across the globe. However, this also remains pending.

Joining these conventions or schemes allows access to Indian medical products in many more countries apart from enhancing the trust factor and reputation in the global arena.

The ministry, in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology, has sought expert guidance from multiple consulting firms on joining these groups. Nonetheless, they have yet to take action, likely attributed to the factors that began emerging a few months ago, shedding light on the quality crisis.

In short, the willingness to acknowledge the disorder in the industry and the commitment to eradicate chaos, along with the firm statements made by Mandaviya to the industry, should not be in vain.

Its essential to understand that the adoption of Schedule M is merely the initial phase, a fundamental one at that. India must ensure strict adherence throughout its manufacturing units, and this enforcement must be conducted with utmost thoroughness.

The rules are simple: enhance capabilities, enforce regulations, close down those unwilling to adapt, but spare companies from unnecessary badgering.
After The New York Times latest investigative report on how China has lavishly funded influence campaign to push its propaganda, intelligence agencies in India have found how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been using media, e-commerce businesses or start-ups aggressively to carry out anti-India operations and create public opinions.

This one confirmation came with the arrest of freelance journalist Rajeev Sharma by the Delhi Police in September 2019 for alleged espionage at the behest of China. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in 2021 for alleged money laundering. During investigation, it was revealed that Rajeev Sharma had supplied confidential and sensitive information to Chinese Intelligence officers in exchange for remuneration thereby compromising the security and national interests of India, ED had said in a statement.

The intelligence agencies found that the articles authored by Sharma was a plan of CCP against the Dalai Lama and India and linked the Masood Azhar issue with the Dalai Lama.

Police said Sharma was in touch with a Chinese intelligence official since 2016 and had allegedly sent him classified information related to the Indian Army deployment on the China-Bhutan-India tri-junction, including Doklam.

One Indian media outlet also did a favourably scripted interview of a Chinese Ambassador on Galwan clashes of May 2020, and after the backlash, Prasar Bharti reviewed its relationship with the wire agency.

The Indian government in June 2020 banned nearly 59 Chinese apps on the grounds of threat to sovereignty and security of the country. Apps such as TikTok, UC Browser, ShareIT and Helo, with more than 500 million users worldwide, were banned in India over suspicion of espionage and data leak.

It has come to the notice of Indian intelligence agencies that mostly regional channels, which are continuously doing shows on the India-China relations, have received education degree and training from Chinese universities.

Sources told News18 that China had sent an Indian journalist to different fellowship programmes.

It is learnt that Chinese universities are funding many fellowship programmes, which are directly connected to Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and, in turn, the Chinese side receives information regarding Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC).

CCP has been targeting Indian media, especially serving content in Malayalam, Telugu, Odia and Urdu, by providing app-based funding, and then creating disturbances. Tamil broadcast of China Radio International is one such example of propagating Chinese agenda in India.

Even e-commerce giant like Alibaba wants to create an opinion and a favourable environment to carry out operations, which will benefit China. It exited India by selling its 3.4% equity in PayTm in a block deal on February 10, 2023, after selling its stake in Zomato and BigBasket.
A New York Times probe has blown the lid off a wide web of Chinese propaganda at the behest of tech mogul Neville Roy Singham  who financed news website NewsClick  confirming Indias fears of anti-national elements colluding with foreign powers.

In 2021, an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate had revealed that media portal NewsClick had received funds worth Rs 38 crore from abroad, with authorities tracing the money trail to American millionaire Singham. The BJP had then alleged that anti-India" elements, in league with foreign forces, were part of a conspiracy to demean the country and target the ruling Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

Now, the new probe has confirmed concerns, with NYT saying corporate filings revealed that NewsClick sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.

As per NYT, the investigation has revealed how China, via its propaganda network, has been able to shelter itself from international criticism of its human rights abuses.

Who is Neville Roy Singham, Tech Millionaire Who Spun Complex Web of Chinese Propaganda in India

It is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, the New York Times said.

The New York Times probe of Singhams network showed the process of how disinformation influenced mainstream discourses as his groups produced YouTube videos to promote pro-Chinese messages.

American non-profit groups form the core strength of the network, weaving in a web of charities and shell companies. Some groups, like No Cold War, do not exist as legal entities but are instead tied to Singhams network through domain registration records and shared organisers, NYT said.

Apart from this, none of Singhams nonprofits have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as is required of groups (in the US) that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers. That usually applies to groups taking money or orders from foreign governments, the probe found.

India Today, quoting the probe, said four non-profit organisations, with names like United Community Fund and Justice and Education Fund, were found to have almost no real-world footprints. Their addresses were listed as UPS store mailboxes in Illinois, Wisconsin and New York. The largest of the four nonprofits is run by Singhams wife, Jodie Evans.

Allegations Unfounded, Without Basis in Fact or Law: NewsClick

In a statement to News18, NewsClick said the allegations being made against them by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

Over the past 12 hours, various false and misleading allegations have been levelled against Newsclick which pertain to matters that are currently sub judice before courts in India. We respect the sanctity of the legal process and do not intend to indulge in a media trial. The allegations being made against us by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law," read the statement.

Newsclick said it is an independent news organisation, and any insinuation that they function as a mouth-piece of the Communist Party of China or other interests" is false.

We reiterate our faith in the Indian Courts and are confident that Newsclick has, and continues to function in accordance with Indian law. Notably, the Honble High Court of Delhi has, having found a prima facie case in favour of Newsclick, granted interim protection from arrest to various officials of the company. Further, the Honble Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Special Acts), Delhi, has dismissed a complaint filed by the income tax authorities against Newsclick, finding the same to be without merit," the statement said.

THE ED PROBE

NewsClick  run by PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited  was searched by officials of the Enforcement Directorate on February 9, 2021, to collect additional information to help probe money laundering charges against the company.

Even newspapers like The New York Times are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting Chinas political agenda across the world.Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that pic.twitter.com/3MtA4UTWkn  Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 6, 2023

The search lasted five days and a total of 10 premises were covered, including the residence of Prabir Purkayastha, the promoter of the company.

The ED claimed that PPK had received questionable foreign remittances amounting to Rs 38 crore. These remittances were classified as FDI of Rs 9.59 crore from April 2018, and remaining Rs 28.29 crore, was claimed to have been received for receipts for export of services.

THE MONEY TRAIL

PPL Newsclick Studio Private Limited was incorporated on January 11, 2018, by Prabir Purkayastha. In April 2018, Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, Delaware  now a defunct company and part of Singham network  invested Rs 9.59 crore into the newly incorporated PPK Newsclick against shares of face value Rs 10/share at an artificially jacked up premium of Rs 11,510/share.

Subsequently, NewsClick received Rs 28.29 crore more between 2018 and 2021 for the export of services from four different entities linked to Singham network:

 Rs 27.51 crore from Justice and Education Fund, USA

 Rs 26.98 lakhs from GSPAN LLC, USA

 Rs 49.31 lakhs from The Tricontinental Ltd Inc, USA

 Rs 2.03 lakhs Centro Popular Demidas, Brazil

Of the funds thus received by PPK, transfers were made as follows: Rs 20.53 lakh was transferred to Gautam Navlakha, the accused in Elgar-Parishad Moist link in Bhima Koregaon case. Navlakha, besides being an old associate of Purkayastha in Startacus Software Private Limited or SSPL, was appointed as an Independent Partner of PP NEWSCLICK STUDIO LLP where he was appointed to the position on April 17, 2017  approximately nine months before PPKs corporatisation on January 11, 2018  10 days after Bhima Koregaon violence.

Turns out that those accusing Indian media of being Godi media were themselves sitting in the Godi of the Chinese (and God knows who else). sushant sareen (@sushantsareen) August 7, 2023

Further, Rs 52.09 lakh were paid to Bappaditya Sinha, CPM IT cell member and large sums of money were also paid to several journalists on the rolls of the company.

ED raids also helped unearth regular email exchanges between Singham and Purkayastha, revealing that money was paid to NewsClick to spruce up Chinese propaganda, especially its role in Africa, defending Chinas crackdown on Jack Ma etc.

As per the New York Times probe, the Chinese state media accounts have retweeted people and organisations in Singhams network at least 122 times since February 2020.

GOVT REACTS

In a press conference on Monday, Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur hit out at the Congress for supporting anti-India elements.

We have been saying this about NewsClick. Congress, China and NewsClick are part of the same conspiracy. This is propaganda to break India. This Mohabbat ki Dukan has China ka Samaan. Roy Singham funded NewsClick. He is being funded by China and now this has been revealed by a newspaper which was praised by Congress in the past. The funding is coming from China, but their salesman are Indian. In the name of free news, it is fake news, Thakur said.

He added: Foreign media has exposed the reality of Congress, China and NewsClick today. If ED conducts investigations, these foreign newspapers raise questions. Rahul Gandhi was with Chinese diplomats when Doklam happened. The Rajiv Gandhi foundation got funding from China. We saw in Cambridge how Rahul Gandhi praised China. The Indian American Muslim Council, who hosted Rahul Gandhi, was also in support of NewsClick. Many senior journalist have also got money to propagate Chinas agenda.

The issue also resonated in Parliament, with BJP MP Nishikant Dubey saying, Money from China came into NewsClick. An environment was created against the government using Chinese funds."

Posting a clip of his speech in Lok Sabha on social media, Dubey said, The Congress partys policy is to break India the Election Commission should investigate the Chinese funding of the Congress party and close the Congresss shop."

The shop of Rahuls hatred is filled with Chinese goods. The policy of the Congress party aims to collaborate with China to break India. The investigation of the Congress partys funding from China should be conducted by the Election Commission of the Indian government, said Dubey in Lok Sabha.

Shortly after Dubeys comments in Lok Sabha, Congress leader and MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary wrote to Speaker Om Birla, demanding that the BJP MPs comments be removed from the Lok Sabhas records. We demand under Rule 380 that his remarks be expunged in full and that an inquiry be conducted into how such an allegation was permitted to be raised on the record," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote in his letter.

SINGHAMS PERSONAL VIEWS

Asked by NYT about his ties to Chinese propaganda, Singham did not offer substantive answers. I categorically deny and repudiate any suggestion that I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives, he wrote in an email. I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, introduced by Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on August 3, is set to be discussed in the Lok Sabha on Monday, even as the Opposition  highlighting the Puttaswamy judgment  argues that it violates the fundamental right to privacy.

To understand the issue, News18 spoke to Kritika Seth, Founding Partner, Victoriam Legalis, Advocates & Solicitors, who said the Oppositions concerns are likely related to how the Bill regulates the processing of digital personal data and its potential impact on individuals right to privacy.

It is pertinent to note that any data protection legislation strikes a balance between protecting individuals privacy rights and enabling lawful processing of data for legitimate purposes. If the Bill aims to regulate the processing of digital personal data, it must take into account the principles of proportionality and ensure that any restrictions on privacy are necessary and reasonable. The Bill should also establish robust safeguards to protect data from unauthorised access and misuse, she added.

Further, the legal expert stated that during the debate on the Bill, it would be crucial to thoroughly scrutinise its provisions and assess their compatibility with the principles laid down in the Puttaswamy judgment. If there are any concerns about potential violations of the right to privacy, those issues should be addressed and rectified through amendments to the Bill.

Legal expert Suvigya Awasthy, Partner, PSL Advocates & Solicitors, said according to the opposition MPs, the current Bill does not do enough to protect peoples privacy and runs fowl to the Puttaswamy judgment.

As per Awasthy, some of the key concerns pertain to excessive legislative delegation for future and wide amplitude of executive power, apprehension of increased State surveillance due to exemptions granted to the executive, power to impose harsh penalties on Data Principals, and proposed amendments to the Right to Information Act which may dilute its effectiveness.

Another interesting aspect pertains to easier data localisation and cross-border exchange of information between two or more territories. This may lead to increased data collection and sharing between organisations that could be violative of the principles laid by the judgment in Puttaswamy. Whilst informational privacy was recognised as an indispensable facet of privacy, its violation on certain occasions may dilute the spirit of the judgment in Puttaswamy, he added.

Awasthy said the Bill has also sought to lay down the foundational stone for the establishment of the Data Protection Board. According to him, this may seem like a positive move on the part of the government. However, the excessive control of the executive over the board may turn out to be another instance that demonstrates the interference of the government in such instances.

In November 2022, a draft was made available for public comment and the government received 21,666 suggestions. Comments were made by more than 30 ministries and government departments and a series of discussions was conducted with the industry before the Bill was introduced in Parliament.
Ethnic violence 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. More than 160 people died while several hundred were injured so far in the violence.

The violent clashes in the state  which borders the conflict-struck Myanmar  began when the minority Kuki tribal group clashed with a non-tribal group of Meiti, the ethnic majority in the state over sharing of economic benefits and quotas given to the tribes.

In recent times, NDA ally Kukis People Alliance (KPA) withdrew its support from the N Biren Singh-led government in Manipur.

TRACK LATEST UPDATES

- Manipur DGP Arrives at SC After Being Summoned in Connection to the Violence

Manipur DGP, Rajiv Singh, arrived at the Supreme Court after being summoned by the court in connection with the violence in the state.

This is context to last weeks hearing where the top court wanted to know whether any policeman had been arrested in relation to the Manipur violence and how it seems that the investigation has been tardy with the clear lapse between the occurrence of an incident and registering of an FIR for the same.

- NDA Ally KPA Withdraws Support From Biren Singh Govt in Manipur

The NDA ally, Kukis People Alliance withdrew its support from the N Biren Singh-led government in Manipur. However, the withdrawal of support from KPA and NDA does not bother the government as it enjoys a majority in the 60-member state assembly.

According to a KPA press release, Kimneo Hangshing (Saikul) and Chinlunthang (Singat), withdrew their support to Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

- COCOMI to Boycott Govt for Failing to Call Emergency Assembly Session

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity, an umbrella body of multiple Imphal-based civil organisations has decided to boycott the state government over its failure to convene an emergency Assembly session and crude handling of the ongoing chaos in the state.

- More Security Forces Sent to Manipur Amid COCOMIs Appeal to Boycott Biren Singh Govt

The Centre has deployed over 800 additional central security force personnel to Manipur amid the fresh cases of violence and the Meitei outfit, COCOMIs appeal to boycott the Biren Singh-led state government.

- Kuki MLAs Likely to Skip Assembly Amid the Continuing Violence in State

Majority of the Kuki MLAs, irrespective of their party affiliations, are likely to skip the Manipur assembly session called on August 21 in view of the continued violence in the state.

An apex Meitei organisation COCOMI, which has been spearheading demands for an early session of the assembly to unanimously" reject demands for separate administrative units for Kukis, however, claimed that it would ensure safety of tribal MLAs if they really want to come."

- 6 Dead in Last 24 Hours in Fresh Manipur Violence

Six people have been killed in the violence-hit Manipur in the last 24 hours. According to a NDTV report, 16 people were injured in the day-long attack in Bishnupur-Churachandpur border area since early Saturday.

The Army launched a massive combing operation in the area and arrested at least one of the insurgents, after sustaining bullet injuries.

- 5 Policemen Suspended Over May 4 Incident

Manipur Police, on Sunday, suspended five policemen including the station incharge of the area where the May 4 incident of women being paraded naked by a mob took place.

The state police has also ordered a time-bound inquiry under an Inspector General of Police to probe events leading to the looting of an armoury on August 3 in Bishnupur.

They said that the police had been working relentlessly to ensure that the breakdown in law and order was addressed on an urgent basis.

Officials said an officer of the rank of Inspector General is heading the inquiry into the armoury loot which will be completed within six weeks.

- Manipur Police Recovers 1,195 Looted Arms

The Manipur Police has recovered 1,195 looted arms from across the state. The officials said that 1,057 arms were recovered from the valley districts and 138 arms from the hill districts.

Other than the this, thousands of ammunition were also recovered, mostly from the valley districts.

Strict action will be taken against those who are indulging in looting of arms from security forces, said Director-General of Police Rajiv Singh.

ALSO READ | Manipur Violence: 3 Killed, 3 Injured in Fresh Clashes in Bishnupur; Curfew Relaxation Hours Slashed

- In Fresh Violence Reports, 15 Houses Torched, 1 Shot

Fifteen houses were set ablaze in Manipurs Imphal West, after fresh violence erupted in the area.

Security personnel fired several rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control, they added. A 45-year-old man was shot during the violence. He was admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) with bullet wounds on his left thigh, and is stated to be out of danger at present, officials said

The incident happened on Saturday evening at Langol Games village as a mob went on a rampage, they said.

Fresh violence was also reported from Imphal East districts Checkon area where a large commercial establishment was torched on Saturday, officials said.

(With inputs from PTI)
The Supreme Court on Monday said a three member committee comprising of former High Court judges will be established in the matter involving ethnic violence in Manipur. This committee will extend its purview beyond the confines of the ongoing investigation, focusing on aspects of humanitarian implications, Chief justice D Y Chandrachud announced.

We will constitute a committee of three High Court judges to address matters beyond the investigation scope. They will specifically focus on humanitarian issues," the CJI said.

The committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and comprise of former Bombay High Court Judge Shalini Joshi and Justice Asha Menon.

42 SITs to Probe Cases

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud noted, In line with our commitment to maintaining public trust, we propose to direct the secondment of five officials, each holding a rank not below Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), from diverse states to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)."

These 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) will be led by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank officers from various states, with each overseeing six SITs, the SC bench which also comprised justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.

Additionally, the CJI further said, Former police officer Dattatray Datta Padsalgikar will assume the role of monitoring the investigation."

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Centre and the Manipur government. The government is handling the situation at a very mature level," the attorney general told the Supreme Court.

The Solicitor General guided the top court through the formation of SITs for probing cases, indicating that the teams would be headed by SPs and DySPs. There will be 6 SITs for each district, with the SIT investigating cases of crimes against women to include and be led by women officers," informed Solicitor General.

During the proceedings, Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh appeared before the bench to address inquiries concerning the ethnic violence, the measures implemented by the administration thus far to curb it and the categorisation of cases for the purpose of enhancing investigative efficacy.

What Are The Concerns?

The bench examined approximately 10 petitions concerning the violence. These petitions seek various remedies, including a court-monitored investigation into the cases, as well as measures for rehabilitation and other forms of relief.

On suggestions regarding the situation in the violence-hit northeastern state, Attorney General responded, Peace must be unconditional any process to weaken it must be avoided"

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising said: Without giving it a label, we all know the conflict is still ongoing"

Supreme Court lawyer and rights activist Vrinda Grover noted that all FIRs are falling within Imphal jurisdiction. The police station and district are both Imphal. Where would the investigation be? Usually, if it is Imphal, the SP would have to be from that area. Theyre no longer in Imphal. Who will be the jurisdictional magistrate? These are issues to be decided There are two women who were beaten and were believed to be dead, but then they were rushed to the ICU the reported injuries are simple injuries," added Grover.

Jaising expressed, All we are asking is that police officers who are neglecting their duties shall be prosecuted under the Indian Penal Code."

Very Complicated Situation: Attorney General

Responding to the concerns, Attorney General said that while its easy to say things here, its much tougher to handle things there."

The Attorney General further stated, We would like to retrieve the deceased bodies, but there are numerous interventions. Its a very complicated situation."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta further said, A day before the matter is to be heard, something significant occurs. The Director General of Police (DGP) is present. The DG informs me that we have nodal officers for the collection of dead bodies. If there is any difficulty, we are there to help."

In a first reaction following the Supreme Courts directive, Attorney General K Raghavacharyulu, who represented the Manipur government, told CNN-News18, The Supreme Court has issued a sensible order. Normalcy will be restored soon."

On the cross-border security issues, he added, Its a matter of investigation."

Complete Breakdown in Law and Order: SC

On August 1, the Supreme Court said there was a complete breakdown in law and order as well as the constitutional framework in Manipur. It criticised the state police for their sluggish and lackadaisical investigation into incidents of ethnic violence, particularly those targeting women. As a result, it summoned the Director General of Police (DGP) to address its inquiries on August 7.

The government appealed to the bench to consider transferring 11 out of the 6,523 FIRs associated with violence against women and children to the CBI for investigation and trial outside of Manipur, rather than limiting the transfer to the two FIRs connected to a video depicting women being paraded naked by a mob.
Hello, readers! In todays evening digest, News18 brings to you the latest updates on How Tech Mogul Neville Roy Singham Pushed Chinese Propaganda in India, Nuh Violence and other stories.

How Tech Mogul Neville Roy Singham Pushed Chinese Propaganda in India Via NewsClick

A New York Times probe has blown the lid off a wide web of Chinese propaganda at the behest of tech mogul Neville Roy Singham  who financed news website NewsClick  confirming Indias fears of anti-national elements colluding with foreign powers. READ MORE

Nuh Violence: Demolition Drive Stopped on HC Order, Internet Services Restored in Gurugram, Section 144 Removed

The demolition drive in Haryanas Nuh was halted on Monday following an order issued by the High Court. Following the communal clashes in Nuh, authorities initiated a demolition drive on the fourth day of which, Deputy Commissioner Dhirender Khadgata on Sunday said a total of 162 illegally built permanent and 591 makeshift structures were razed and 57.5 acres of land across 37 sites made encroachment-free. READ MORE

2024 Kawasaki Ninja 650 Launched in India, Price Starts at Rs 7.16 Lakh

Kawasaki, the iconic two-wheeler marvel, has launched the eagerly awaited 2024 Ninja 650 at a staggering price of Rs 7.16 lakh (ex-showroom). READ MORE

Metas Threads App Rolling Out Your likes Feature: All Details

Meta-owned micro-blogging platform Threads is rolling out the ability to see your liked posts through an app update. Last week, the social media application began testing the new feature on Android beta. However, over the weekend, Meta made it available to all users. READ MORE

Tota Roy Reveals Giving Alia Bhatt Bangla Classes During Rocky Aur Rani: She Was | Exclusive

Tota Roy Choudhury has been garnering praise for his performance in Karan Johars Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. The Bengali star played the role of Chandon Chatterjee, Ranis (Alia Bhatt) father, in the hit film. While much has been spoken about his now-viral Kathak performance on Dola Re Dola with Ranveer Singh in the movie, the actor sat down for an exclusive chat with News18 to talk about working with Alia Bhatt. The actor revealed that Alia often asked him for help to get the Bengali diction right during the making of the film. He also shared that Alias stardom doesnt affect her in the slightest and she is an eager learner. READ MORE

IND vs WI: Shubman Gill And Ishan Kishan Not Exhibiting That Much Confidence - Former India Pacer

Former pacer Rudra Pratap Singh feels that Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have to analyse their game while batting at the top in the shortest format. India have lost the first two T20Is against West Indies as their batting came under the scanner after an underwhelming show in back-to-back matches. The opening pair of Shubman and Ishan failed to set up the platform for the visitors as things didnt work out well for them. READ MORE
The demolition drive in Haryanas Nuh was halted on Monday following an order issued by the High Court. Following the communal clashes in Nuh, authorities initiated a demolition drive on the fourth day of which, Deputy Commissioner Dhirender Khadgata on Sunday said a total of 162 illegally built permanent and 591 makeshift structures were razed and 57.5 acres of land across 37 sites made encroachment-free.

Meanwhile, banks and ATMs will be opened on Monday for a trial period in Haryanas Nuh district in the aftermath of the communal clashes that left six people dead. However, a ban on the internet in Nuh will continue until normalcy prevails in the region, authorities said on Sunday.

A group of motorcycle-borne unidentified masked men on Sunday allegedly vandalised several shops and injured a few people at two places in Panipat. The incident surfaced hours after authorities in the Nuh district razed some illegal structures from where stones were allegedly pelted on a religious procession last week.

On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Javed Ahmed on Sunday denied his alleged involvement in the murder of Bajrang Dal activist Pradeep Sharma during the violence in Nuh.

Latest Updates on Nuh Violence
Read more

conviction in the Modi surname case last week. Logjam in Parliament continued due to opposition protests demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement on the Manipur issue. Union Minister Amit Shah presented the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, before Rajya Sabha today after it was cleared in the Lower House following a walkout by the Opposition.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat today issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored.

In continuation of notification  dated 24th March, 2023, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8644/2023, staying the conviction of Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala, which was ordered by the judgment dated 23.03.2023 of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat

In view of order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Shri Rahul Gandhi  in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements, the notification read.

Following restoration of his membership, the Congress said it would like him to be a key speaker in the debate on no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 24, with effect from March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game wardens euthanized a mountain lion in Lockwood on Saturday, Aug. 5.

Over the past week, residents had reported sightings of a mountain lion wandering a neighborhood in the middle of the day. On Saturday, a homeowner reported to FWP their dogs had treed a mountain lion, likely while the lion was attempting to kill the homeowners chickens.

The adult male mountain lion was in poor physical condition and expressing abnormal and potentially dangerous behaviors, the agency said in a press release.

Mountain lions are solitary, elusive animals that are typically most active at dawn and dusk. The bold behavior displayed by this mountain lion was considered abnormal.

There are mountain lions near Billings and surrounding communities, but they typically avoid heavily populated areas.

State policy prohibits the relocation and/or rehabilitation of mountain lions due to their territorial behavior. Historically, relocation efforts for mountain lions have failed.

If you encounter a mountain lion, do not approach it, and do not run away, which could trigger a predatory response. Instead, make noise and try to appear larger with your arms or clothing. If you encounter a lion within city limits or near a residence, contact FWP or local law enforcement.

For more information on mountain lion management, visit: fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/mountain-lion.
The G20 summit should be effectively utilized for image building" of Indian Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed all the state police chiefs. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has also been intimated about the task and a report has been sought as to what efforts have been taken so far in this regard, CNN-News18 has learnt.

The 18th Group of 20 (G20) summit will take place in September 2023 in New Delhi. Since December 2022, when Indias G20 presidency began, multiple events have already been held in several states including Kerala, Karnataka and Jammu & Kashmir.

The main event, to be held in New Delhi in September, will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India is expected to host thousands of delegates during the main event who are likely to visit tourist spots across the country.

As preparations for the G20 summit in New Delhi and other states are in full swing including the beautification of areas surrounding summit venues, police departments from different states have been tasked with rebranding their force for an image makeover.

In order to understand the changes that are being incorporated for image building", CNN News18 spoke to senior police officers involved in the rebranding of the police in the national capital where the main G20 event will be held.

Officers, who wished not to be named, told CNN News18 that from training the tourist police staff in English to introducing brand new Emergency Response Vehicles and from renovating police stations in the vicinity of G20 summit venues to increasing the frequency of patrol vehicles, Delhi Police has introduced a series of new changes.

352 new vehicles have been inducted for deployment in the New Delhi district where a majority of G20 events will be held. The number of tourist police vans has been increased and its staff has been trained to speak and understand fluent English. Some of the police stations in the vicinity of the G20 event venues will also undergo a face-lift. The police control room vans of the emergency response vehicles are being rebranded with a new look. These vans will initially be deployed only in six zones but will eventually be introduced to the remaining ones," said a senior police officer, aware of the developments.

On the security front, another officer said the number of anti-terror Parakram vans is also being increased and the security commandos will don a new uniform.

Our Scorpio SUVs will do more intensified patrolling to keep an eye on street crime. Two new helplines, one for the tourists (8750871111 ) and the other one, eyes and years (14547), have also been set up to report any crime in anonymity," the officer added.

CNN News18 also reached out to the Uttar Pradesh police department, which claims to have the largest police force in the country, in order to find out if similar changes are being introduced, but no response was received.
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2023 IN INDIA: Independence Day is celebrated on August 15th annually in India to commemorate the countrys independence from British colonial rule. The significance of this day lies in its historical importance as it marks the end of over 200 years of British dominion in India. The Indian National Congress, the leading political party in the independence struggle, had initially demanded complete independence on January 26, 1930. This date later became Republic Day, while August 15th remained the day of independence, chosen to signify Indias triumph over colonial rule. Independence Day is a national holiday in India. Check out history, significance and how it is celebrated across the country.

ALSO READ: Happy Independence Day 2023 Wishes: Spread the Spirit of Patriotism with 77 Quotes, Images, Messages, Slogans, and Greetings

Independence Day In India: History

On August 15, 1947, Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, raised the national flag above the Red Fort in Delhi, officially declaring India an independent nation. This momentous occasion came after years of relentless struggle, non-violent resistance, and sacrifices made by numerous freedom fighters and leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, and many others.

Independence Day In India: Significance

Independence Day is of immense significance to every Indian as it symbolizes the dawn of a new era of self-governance, sovereignty, and democracy. It represents the freedom of the Indian people to determine their own destiny and shape the nations future.

Why is it celebrated on August 15?

August 15, 1947 is the date that the Indian Independence Act came into effect. This act transferred legislative sovereignty to the Indian Constituent Assembly, which had been elected by the people of India.

The Indian Independence Act was passed by the British Parliament on July 18, 1947. The act was a result of the Indian independence movement, which had been going on for many years.

The Indian Independence Act was a historic document. It marked the end of British rule in India and the beginning of a new era for the country.

Independence Day In India: Celebrations

On this day, celebrations are held across the country. The national flag is hoisted in schools, government offices, and public places, and people participate in cultural events, parades, and flag-hoisting ceremonies. The Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort, reflecting on the nations progress and goals.

Some of the most common ways to celebrate Independence Day include:

Flag hoisting ceremonies

Parades

Cultural programs

Speeches

Distribution of sweets and fruits

Lighting of diyas (lamps)

Singing patriotic songs

Watching patriotic movies

Spending time with family and friends

Independence Day is a special day for all Indians, and it is a day to be proud of our countrys achievements. Let us all celebrate this day with joy and hope, and let us work together to build a better future for India.

Independence Day 2023: A Must-Watch

10 Independence Day Wishes Messages Quotes

Is It 76th Or 77th Independence Day 2023 In India?

Evolution Of The Indian National Flag

5 Fashion Tips For Independence Day

Happy Independence Day 2023!
INDEPENDENCE DAY 2023 IN INDIA: Indian Independence Day is celebrated on August 15 every year to commemorate the historic event when India gained its freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. This momentous occasion marks the end of centuries of struggle, sacrifice, and unwavering determination by Indian freedom fighters who fought tirelessly for the countrys independence.

ALSO READ: Happy Independence Day 2023 Wishes: Spread the Spirit of Patriotism with 77 Quotes, Images, Messages, Slogans, and Greetings

Is it 76th or 77th Independence Day?

However, there is a debate about whether it is the 76th or 77th Independence Day.

76TH INDEPENDENCE DAY: This is the more common way of counting, and it is based on the fact that Indias first Independence Day was celebrated on 15 August 1948, one year after the country gained independence from British rule.

77TH INDEPENDENCE DAY: This way of counting is based on the fact that India gained independence on 15 August 1947, so 2023 is the 77th year since then.

However, the 77th Independence Day is the more widely accepted way of counting.

Independence Day 2023 Theme

The theme of the Independence Day is Nation First, always first." The government has said that the theme is a reminder of the importance of putting the nations interests first, even in times of difficulty.

Independence Day 2023: How It Is Celebrated

The day begins with the hoisting of the tricolor in schools, government offices, and public spaces, followed by patriotic songs and cultural performances that fill the air with a sense of national pride. Prime Minister addresses the nation from the historic Red Fort in Delhi, reflecting on the countrys achievements and emphasizing the need for continued progress.

Independence Day is not only a celebration of the past but also an opportunity for the nation to look forward to a brighter future. It serves as a reminder of the values of unity, diversity, and democracy that underpin the Indian nation.

Throughout the day, various events and parades take place across the country, showcasing Indias rich cultural heritage and diversity. People come together to participate in flag-hoisting ceremonies, pay tribute to the freedom fighters, and express their love for the country.

Independence Day also serves as a time for introspection, as citizens assess the progress made and the challenges that lie ahead. It is a day to renew the commitment to build a stronger, more inclusive, and prosperous India for generations to come.

Independence Day 2023: A Must-Watch

Is It 76th Or 77th Independence Day 2023 In India?

Evolution Of The Indian National Flag

5 Fashion Tips For Independence Day

10 Independence Day Wishes Messages Quotes

Happy Independence Day 2023!
Amidst the ever-changing landscape of the fashion industry, handloom has emerged as an enduring symbol of sustainability and cultural heritage. On August 7th, the nation commemorates National Handloom Day, a celebration of Indias rich handloom legacy and a poignant reminder of the historic call to promote indigenous products during the Swadeshi movement that began on this very date in 1905. Handlooms resilience has withstood major revolutions, including the fast-fashion era, making it an epitome of mindful consumption and timeless craftsmanship.

Indias handloom heritage holds a treasured history of craftsmanship and cultural significance. For generations, skilled artisans have woven their hearts and souls into every thread, creating textiles that reflect the essence of our diverse culture and artistic expression. In the current era, conscious and slow fashion has emerged as the need of the hour. As ethical consumers increasingly recognise the impact of their choices on the environment and society, handloom products are experiencing a surge in popularity and recognition. Slow fashion, characterised by sustainability, craftsmanship, and mindful consumption, aligns perfectly with the principles of handloom products.

As sustainability and conscious consumerism gain momentum, the handloom industry has emerged as the preferred choice of conscious individuals seeking ethically-produced, eco-friendly, and culturally-rich textiles. Handloom products inherently embody sustainability and eco-friendliness, being crafted from natural fibres with lower environmental impact and utilising a low-energy, low-water consumption process, making it a greener alternative to industrialised textile production. The appreciation for the uniqueness and craftsmanship of handloom textiles further drives the appeal of conscious consumers towards this timeless tradition, says Sreya Samanta, Textile Designer and Founder & Creative Head, Label Sreya Samanta.

As we celebrate National Handloom Day, its a timely reminder to shift our focus towards conscious choices in the face of the prevailing fast fashion culture. Handlooms stand as a symbol of heritage, artistry, and sustainable fashion practices.

On the subject of embracing conscious choices, Debaroopa Bhattacharya, founder, Ummaira, a sustainable brand emphasises, The handloom industry has witnessed a transformative shift towards becoming the preferred choice of conscious individuals seeking ethically-produced textiles. Despite facing financial challenges and low awareness of government initiatives, recent efforts have shown promising results. With approximately 67% of weavers earning less than 5,000 a month, the government has implemented schemes and facilities to support them, but awareness remains at a meagre 17%.

To address this, a network of handloom institutes has been proposed, providing individual identity to weavers and acting as a point of contact for government e-commerce platforms, enabling access to a wider market. These institutes also offer design and training support, fostering entrepreneurial spirit and creativity among weavers. By bridging the information gap, offering credit facilities, and strengthening the supply chain, the handloom industry is paving the way for sustainable and culturally significant textiles, resonating with conscious consumers values, adds Bhattacharya.

Choosing handloom garments represents a deliberate step towards ethical fashion. Each handwoven creation tells a story, carrying with it the dedication of artisans and generations of skill refinement. With key features like longevity, a unique hand-feel, and the use of natural fibres like cotton, wool, and silk, handloom products are not only beneficial for the skin but also have a sustainable impact on the environment and economy. Take, for instance, the handwoven Kala Cotton fabric, which gets softer and whiter with every wash, providing comfort and relief in varying weather conditions. The handloom industrys commitment to sustainability not only contributes to a healthier environment but also plays a significant role in generating employment for rural India, making it a conscious choice for conscious consumers, states Matrika Bhandari, co-founder, Inkriti.

Handlooms stand as a symbol of heritage, artistry, and sustainable fashion practices. In a world driven by quick turnovers and mass production, embracing handloom products signifies a commitment to preserving traditional craftsmanship, supporting local communities, and treading lightly on the environment.

Brands are redefining patrons relationship with clothing and making a positive impact on the world of fashion

Fabindia, a noted sustainable brand is honoured to be part of a legacy that dates back centuries. National Handloom Day holds immense significance for Fabindia as it aligns with our core values of promoting sustainable livelihoods and preserving Indias cultural heritage. Handed down from one generation to another, the indigenous weaves, designs, and colours, encapsulate the essence of true India, which is diverse and colourful," says Fabindia.

Fabindia has always been committed towards the upliftment of countless artisan communities across India by collaborating with skilled weavers and craftsmen. Today, the brand has successfully connected over 55,000 rural craft-based producers to modern urban markets, establishing a foundation for skilled and sustainable rural employment while preserving Indias traditional handicrafts. From intricately woven sarees to stylish contemporary apparel, their handloom offerings cater to the modern tastes while remaining rooted in tradition. One such classic comes from our cluster in Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, the artisans there weave traditional floral and peacock motifs and modern geometric designs on pure silk, Chanderi cotton and silk cotton to create beautiful saris for our customers.

Homegrown brands like Vilasa, feel through renewed demand for slow, genuine handcrafted products and the rise of small, homegrown labels promoting sustainability, handloom is experiencing a resurgence. Vilasa, a sustainable handloom brand, stands at the forefront of this movement, bridging the gap between remote weavers and middle-class buyers, offering affordable yet exquisite hand woven wonders like Jamdanis, Murshidabadi silks, and Chanderis. Breaking the notion of high prices for handmade goods, this industry is proving that slow fashion can be accessible without compromising its essence, paving the way for a brighter and more sustainable future for handloom.

In the realm of the handloom sector, a noticeable dearth of weavers currently practising their craft poses a significant challenge. Despite the efforts by the Department of Handlooms and Textiles to provide provisions and schemes to revive the sector, awareness about these opportunities remains limited among certain weavers. It is crucial for aspiring weavers to be well-informed about the available support and funding options to ensure the sustained growth of the handloom community. As we navigate the path towards revitalising the handloom sector, embracing conscious fashion becomes ever more essential. By actively supporting and promoting handloom products, consumers can contribute to the preservation of traditional craftsmanship, empower skilled artisans, and foster a sustainable future for the industry.
NATIONAL HANDLOOM DAY: Situated in a quaint town of Arni in Tamil Nadu, Drapery Silks weaves a story of age-old crafts blended perfectly with a contemporary design language.

Saree is a piece of an open canvas, expresses Karthik Monju Selvan, co-founder and creative director, Drapery Silks, who along with brother Sunil Prasanth Selvan, director of operations, have been celebrating the six-yards of sheer elegance since 1992, under the able guidance of his father E Selvan, director.

Handloom has played an integral role in the Selvan family. When asked what the craft means to him and his family, Karthik says, I grew up to the beats of Arni - the sound of Handlooms beating in-sync to rhythmical foot work of the weaver that controls 5000 harnesses in a loom.

He further adds, The allure of handloom was so strong that it pulled me and my brother [Sunil] from a well established professional employment, just like it did to my father 40 years ago. My father had to forgo his college education because his parents requested him to take up the handloom craft. It has made us into who we are today.

The journey of a Drapery Silks Handloom Saree

Every handloom saree has a story waiting to be unravelled. At Drapery Silks, every saree is handcrafted with love. Drapery imports its raw silk yarns from Bangalore. Once the yarns are brought to Arni, the yarns are degummed, dyed in colours prepared at their lab, followed by washing of the dyed yarns, gumming, drying and are then colourful yarns are wound and sent to the weavers. At the weavers, the yarn is opened up and stretched on a wooden frame to check for any discrepancies and is later loaded on the loom.

According to Sunil Prasanth Selvan, Drapery has a sustainable approach to the process. Right now, the dyeing station uses Solar power and has reduced the use of diesel by 50 per cent. He is also looking forward to the dyeing factory the Tamil Nadu government will be building to ensure Arni textile companies have one common entity for dyeing yarns. Where right now Drapery dyes 180 kilos per day, the factory will give them an opportunity to dye 200 kilos per day.

The backbone of handloom

Equipped with State-of-the-art looms that place emphasis on weaving efficiency. Having employed 700 personnel involved in handloom weaving, the Drapery family has pledged to protect and promote the handloom ecosystem which includes weavers, the dyers, graphs-man, loom harnessers, jacquard makers, warpers, reed makers and many more of such skilled artisans.

On National Handloom Day, so what about a Drapery handloom saree would you like the world to know? Our approach towards crafting a handloom saree can be best defined by one word eclectic. A collection that best defines this would be our silver lining collection whilst fabric is made on an erstwhile Zari by Zari base weave supplemented with silk yarns. The patterns themselves defy normality associated with a silk saree

Every Drapery Silks saree embraces tradition with modern design sensibilities. From the iconic Last Supper limited edition saree to the larger than life Vrindavan saree, every piece tells a tale of a beautiful past draped in a contemporary style.
While Alia Bhatt basks in the success of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, the actresss upcoming film Heart Of Stone is all set to release this month. The movie will also mark Alia Bhatts big Hollywood debut where she shared the screen space with Gal Gadot. The actress recently got candid about playing a character that otherwise will be dubbed as a villain.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Alia Bhatt explained why she feels her character Keya Dhawan is the right guy and not someone bad. She told the portal, A lot of that (how to play the villain) comes with the writing ya. You just have to commit to the direction, whatever the direction is. But I think theres a lot of purpose and dedication in being the bad guy because to me, Im not the bad guy. To me, Im the right guy. Keyas passion, her requirement, need or want for the Heart has reason, it has purpose. And she believes in that. For her, shes not the bad guy. So you need to fully commit to that moment as an actor. I think its about displaying both her sides with clarity and focus."

The Rocky Aur Rani actress however emphasized that her character has been written in a way that one will get to see different shades of her,"Of course, there are those in-between moments where shes being sassy and a bit heavy-handed with the sarcasm, which is great. Its built into the writing. And its a first for me. So I had a lot of fun really juicing those moments."

In the two minutes and 43 seconds long Heart Of Stone trailer that was released in June, as part of the Tudum event at Sao Paulo in Brazil, we see Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone and her fervent allegiance towards a furtive peacekeeping force called the Charter. The trailer deftly captures some high-octane action sequences involving flying jets and glider suits. One of the major highlights of the clip is Alia Bhatt essaying a tech-savvy hacker Keya Dhawan responsible for stealing Charters most potent weapon. An exchange between Gal Gadot and Alia Bhatt is bound to charge you up when Rachel yells over phone,"Heart or no heart, I am coming for you".

Alia Bhatt began filming Heart Of Stone in May last year, after her wedding to actor Ranbir Kapoor. A few pictures of her when she was pregnant with Raha while shooting for the film were also shared by fans in July.

Earlier, according to a report in India Today, Alia opened up about bagging Heart Of Stone in an interview. She shared, My team sent me the script and they said, You know they would like for you to read the script and if you are interested, we can get you to Zoom meet with the director. Thanks to Zoom, a lot of this has become possible.

She added, You dont have to fly to a meeting. You can do a virtual meeting. I read the script and, of course, I heard that Gal Gadot was going to be starring in it and was also producing it, which I was extremely excited about because I am such a huge admirer of her work and just the person, the force that she is.

Bhatt shot the film during her pregnancy. In an interview with Variety she revealed, It was my first Hollywood big English picture experience and I had quite a task at hand because I was shooting for the first time for an action movie. But Im also pregnant so there were so many layers for me to deal with. But they made it so seamless and so easy and so comfortable for me. Its something that I will never forget because of how beautifully and how well I was treated.
BTS label BigHit Music has announced that Suga has initiated the enlistment process for the military and will be enlisting soon. Reportedly, the rapper of BTS will be serving in public during his enlistment period. To note, he concluded his solo tour in Seoul on August 6.

The official announcement reads, Hello. This is BIGHIT MUSIC. We would like to inform our fans that SUGA has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement. We will inform you of further updates in due course. We ask you for your continued love and support for SUGA until he completes his military service and safely returns. Our company will spare no effort in providing support for our artist. Thank you. It is worth mentioning here that Suga has a shoulder injury, for which he even underwent a surgery.

India Today reported, Suga will be the third BTS member to enlist. Earlier, Jin enlisted in December 2022, followed by J-hope in April. The next member to enlist after Suga is expected to be the leader of the group, Kim Namjoon aka RM. However, RM has assured fans that he wont be enlisting anytime soon.Suga, on the last day of the tour, got emotional and was even seen crying while singing on stage.

In the videos surfacing on Twitter, Suga couldnt help but cry while singing the lines of the song. Fans joined him to sing the song and even sang the chorus line, Everything will be okay." The videos of the performance are now going viral.

Many BTS fans took extended their support to Yoongi, showering him with love. While fans were still recovering from the emotional performance, Min Yoongi followed the concert with a Weverse Live and opened up about the performance.

Apart from reflecting upon the past few months of his tour, Yoongi also hinted that this was his last night on stage and will probably reunite with BTS in 2025 for his comeback concert. If I say soon", that feels like a lie. So lets see each other again in 2025. All right? Please wait a bit. 2025, lets see each other then. You did great. Bye!" he said while concluding his concert.
Pakistani citizen Seema Haider grabbed national attention for her controversial love story as she crossed the border to enter India after falling in love with her Indian boyfriend, who she met on an online game. Haider, however, has remained in headlines as she faces investigation by security agencies over spy allegations and her renewed efforts to stay in India. She is currently out of detention after the ATS investigation and maintains that she is not a spy and wants to remain in India. As the case takes several twists and turns, Gadar 2 director Anil Sharma has reacted to their love story especially since the story of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha also involved two lovers and a volatile border.

Speaking to ANI at the music launch of his coming film, Anil Sharma reacted to the Seema Haider case and stated that love has no boundaries,"Its a good thing. the journey must go on. Either one goes from here or comes here from there. I think the border should be finished. Everything should become India, become one country so that the problem will end. Crores of rupees are getting wasted. Thats why there is also dialogue in my film also. But, the pictures only give an impression but they are getting inspired by their love, love knows no boundaries," the director told the news agency.

He added, Love does not accept any border, love is beyond any border. But, every man, every country has its own things, I will not be able to tell too much at this time."

Meanwhile, actor Manish Wadhwa also shared his views on the case. He explained, It should not be a thought, it should be that it is now an art for the entire world, I believe. Art is not dependent on any country, nor is it bound by any boundary. Birds and people do not need visas or passports to come and go, so that is art, and I believe this is my idea of art. Everyone else has their own things, their own principles, and such things do happen from time to time. Seema has crossed the line, and its a very different experience."

Meanwhile, in Gadar 2, Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel will reprise their roles from the first part, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. That film had fundamentally altered the Hindi film industrys paradigm and emerged as a genuine blockbuster.

Speaking about the plot of the film, Gadar 2 will majorly focus on the unbreakable father-son relationship between Tara Singh and his son Charanjeet, lovingly called Jeete by his parents. The role will once again be reprised by actor Utkarsh Sharma, who will portray an Indian soldier. If reports are to be believed, the story will take a 20-year leap, revolving around the India-Pakistan war in 1970. This time, Tara Singh will not cross the border for his beloved wife Sakeena but to save his sons life.

The role of Amrish Puri, who passed away in 2005 after suffering from a brain haemorrhage, will be given to Manish Wadhwa. The 50-year-old proved his mettle in a negative character in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan. Actor Rohit Choudhary, known for films and television serials like Bareilly Ki Barfi, Naagin, and Kumkum Bhagya has been roped in as the second villain in Gadar 2. Sunny Deol aka Tara Singh will be seen fighting these two enemies in the movie.

While Gadar was made on a budget of just Rs 19 crores, Gadar 2 is reportedly made on a budget of Rs 100 crores. Besides Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, Utkarsh Sharma, Manish Wadhwa, and Rohit Choudhary, Gadar 2 will also star Simrat Kaur, Gaurav Chopra, Mir Sarwar, Anil George, and Luv Sinha in key roles.
Approximately 7,700 tickets for Akshay Kumars OMG 2 have been sold so far reportedly. On the other hand, Sunny Deols Gadar 2 has sold over 45,000 tickets for its opening day across the three national chains. Positive word-of-mouth is crucial for its success, especially with competition from Gadar 2 and the adult certification limiting its reach. Gadar 2 is confirmed to have the second biggest opening of the year after Pathaan, and considering its limited budget, it can be a hit.

For More: Gadar 2 Vs OMG 2 : Sunny Deol-Starrer To Open With 25 Cr, While Akshay Kumars Film Sells 7,700 Tickets

Karan Johar expressed his gratitude to every member of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani as the film surpassed the Rs 200 crore-mark globally. Starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, the film has been doing great business in India and internationally. Taking to Instagram, Karan shared the news that Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani has collected Rs 210 crores and shared a moving note to thank everyone involved.

For More: Karan Johar Note Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani Rs 200 Cr Club Alia Bhatt Ranveer Singh

If a new report is to be believed, Farhan Akhtar will be introducing Ranveer Singh as the new Don in Bollywood. News18 had previously revealed that Ranveer Singh has been roped in to the film. Soon after, it was reported that Ranveer is replacing Shah Rukh Khan as Don in Don 2 and Farhan had already begun work on the new franchise. It is now reported that the filmmaker is set to make the official announcement this week with a teaser.

For More: Don 3: Farhan Akhtar To Introducer Ranveer Singh as New Don in a Teaser This Week?

Popular Sandalwood actor and one of the judges of Dance Karnataka Dance Vijay Raghavendras wife Spandana passed away in Bangkok after suffering from a sudden cardiac arrest on Monday. Going by the reports that are coming out, Spandana was in Bangkok for a vacation. And she had only left for Thailands capital three days ago.

For More: Kannada Actor Vijay Raghavendras Wife Spandana Passes Away Due To Cardiac Arrest

Sushmita Sen starrer Taalis trailer has finally released on Monday. The trailer for the upcoming web series was shared by the actress herself on her social handle. This series is about transgender activist Shreegauri Sawant and her battle for third-gender equality. The series will start streaming on August 15.

For More: Taali Trailer: Sushmita Sen Is All Set To Tell The Moving Story of Transgender Activist Shreegauri Sawant
Popular Sandalwood actor and one of the judges of Dance Karnataka Dance Vijay Raghavendras wife Spandana passed away in Bangkok after suffering from a sudden cardiac arrest on Monday. Going by the reports that are coming out, Spandana was in Bangkok for a vacation. And she had only left for Thailands capital.tgree days ago.

Hailing from Bangalore, Spandana was the daughter of the decorated police officer BK Shivaram. She went on to marry the actor Vijay Raghavendra in 2007. The couple then became parents to a son named Shaurya. The unfortunate struck just 19 days before their 16th wedding anniversary. The reports also state that Spandana was complaining about the chest pain after which she was rushed to the hospital. Unfortunately, she couldnt make it and passed away on Monday, right before her return trip to India. Reportedly, Spandana suffered from low blood pressure, which might have been a contributing factor leading to the cardiac arrest. At the moment, Vijay Raghavendras family are making all the necessary arrangements to fly the body of the deceased back to Bangalore, after which her last rites will take place tomorrow.

Spandana was also known for a brief stint in the film industry owing to her performance in the 2016 movie Apoorva starring Ravichandran. As soon as the news of her untimely demise reached Vijay Raghavendras family, they immediately left for Bangkok. The actor was on the cusp of commencing the promotional activity for his upcoming film Kadda that is slated to release on August 25. Only a couple of years ago, Vijay Raghavendras cousin and actor Puneeth Puneeth Rajkumar had also succumbed to a heart attack. In the meantime, condolences have been pouring in for the departed soul across social media.

Vijay Raghavendra is known for his films like Seetharam Benoy Case No. 18, Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya, Nanna Ninna Prema Kathe, Shivayogi Sri Puttayyajja and Fair & Lovely to name a few.
The North Dakota Supreme Court has adopted an open meetings rule as a progression from a 2020 rule updating public access to state court records, but remote access of those records remains unavailable.

The new rule that took effect Aug. 1 implements the open meetings provision of the North Dakota Constitution for the judicial branch. Court meetings have always been accessible, but this rule removes any doubt, according to North Dakota Newspaper Association attorney Jack McDonald.

He said that its a natural follow to the state Supreme Court's 2020 rewrite of the public access rule, but its not nearly as controversial. The public access rule that included remote access to court documents with the click of a mouse caused many concerns regarding privacy violations when it was adopted.

Examples included people upset about a birth date being easily available, or the name of an adopted child, according to McDonald.

I would view the opposition as not opposition to the availability of (court documents) so much as it was to how they were available through the internet," McDonald said. "Nobody was really wanting to make more closed records. They were just against the idea that there was just carte blanche access to every single record there was through the internet.

Before 2020, people who wanted court documents had to go to a courthouse, or request a clerk of court email the information. Most clerks did, but they were not required to do so.

The 2020 rule granted remote public access to more than 10 years' worth of court documents. But the state Supreme Court suspended remote access after a week due to violations of a 2009 privacy rule that prohibits information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, minors names and financial account numbers from appearing on documents.

It is the responsibility of the filer to redact the information, according to State Court Administrator Sally Holewa. She said the court did not anticipate such a widespread disregard for the rule by filers. There also was confusion among the pubic.

Holewa recalled the office received at least 10 complaints a day when the records first went up online. Some were of legitimate violations of the privacy rule, but she said many were not.

People dont always realize court documents are public documents. And so the calls are Well, whose business is it that I have this collection judgment? or Whose business is it that I file for divorce? she said.

The court is not actively working on reinstating remote access, as officials are unsure of how to get filers such as attorneys and judges to comply with the privacy rule and ensure the necessary information is properly redacted.

So right now, it was whoever files is responsible for making sure it complies. If we were to take that on with the clerks office, we would be shifting any liability for a missed redaction from the individual filing, to the state," Holewa said. "And we dont want to make that transition, at least not unless we had the staff and the confidence that we could get clean documents.

Holewa said lawmakers during the 2023 Legislature denied the state Supreme Courts request to transfer some of the county clerks to state employment. The transfer would have possibly enabled them to adopt a filing system similar to Minnesotas, which Holewa points to as a potential solution. Minnesota has specially trained staff, including lawyers, who look at every document and ensure that privacy protections are in place and the proper information is redacted.

But this shifts the liability of upholding privacy rules onto the state court office, and Holewa said the office does not have the resources to meet those standards. Liability issues also prevent clerks from rejecting a document for not meeting the requirements.

Both McDonald and Holewa mentioned software that could possibly be used to properly file documents, but that could cost up to $200,000 a year. The software also would have to be maintained and taught in order to find more complicated data such as minors names.

Our North Dakota system, its traditionally underfunded and understaffed, and so you dont want to do anything that would further make filing things and the life of the clerk more complicated or harder, McDonald said.

Licensed attorneys are still able to remotely access court records, but citizens must either go through a terminal at a courthouse or request documents via email.

The state Supreme Court last fall began requiring clerks and court officials to provide copies of records to requesters. The modification to the public access rule also included a provision that should remote access be restored, only records from Jan 1. 2020, onward would be remotely available. Holewa said this date was chosen as a reminder to filers to comply with the privacy rule.

She said many people who seek remote access are involved with cases, and either have to pay their lawyer to receive their files, or drive to the courthouse to retrieve them. She said the court's goal with remote access is to remove barriers and make the system more fair, especially for those who represent themselves.

If you have a court case and you represent yourself, the lawyer on the other side can get all the documents sitting at his or her desk. You have to drive to the courthouse  it would level the playing field for everyone, and I think thats a good goal to go toward, she said.

Holewa said its still a goal for the court system to provide remote access as officials strive for greater transparency. She and McDonald both believe that openness enables people to better understand government.

Im a great believer that public records are important for the public to learn whats going on, both in government and in their own court system. And the way they can find that out is through access to the records and the meetings," McDonald said. "The more that the public can understand how the court system works, the more theyll agree with the court system."
Tamannaah Bhatia has been trending after her song Kaavaalaa from Jailer has released. The song has grabbed everyones attention. Recently the actress has sent her fans into a frenzy as her dance video surfaced on her social media handles. The video features Tamannaah grooving to the peppy song alongside her stylist. The sizzling performance has garnered immense appreciation from her fans.

In the video, shared by Viral Bhayani, we can Tamannaah, wearing a black ensemble, dancing with her stylist. Both are doing the signature steps of the song. She is looking very pretty as the actress opted for a clean bun with shimmer makeup. As soon as the video went viral, fans were seen complimenting her. One of the fans wrote, Such a cool song, one of Tamannahs best performances. Another wrote, Such a mind blast song.

Watch the video here:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Viral Bhayani (@viralbhayani)

The song is part of the movie Jailer, where Rajinikanth portrays the role of Jailer Muthuvel Pandian. The film promises to be an action-packed entertainer and boasts a fantastic lineup of stars, including Priyanka Mohan, Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie Shroff, Ramya Krishnan, Yogi Babu, Vasanth Ravi, and Vinayakan in important roles. The film is set to release on 10th August, and fans are eagerly waiting to witness the megastars charisma on the big screen once again.

Jailer, directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, promises to be an action-packed treat for Rajinikanth fans. The movie is all set to hit the theatres on August 10.

The actor will be featured in two back-to-back releases this August. Her film, Bhola Shankar, opposite megastar Chiranjeevi, is scheduled to release on August 11. Directed by Meher Ramesh, the film is the Telugu remake of the 2015 Tamil hit Vedalam. The official remake will also feature Keerthy Suresh, Rashmi Gautam, Vennela Kishore and Murali Sharma in key roles.
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Kiara Advani celebrated her 31st birthday with her husband Sidharth Malhotra in Italy. The couple, who tied the knot earlier this year, returned to Mumbai after their romantic getaway, but a new unseen picture from their much-talked-about vacation has surfaced on the internet, sending fans into a frenzy. The picture captured by an eager fan, reveals a glimpse of the couples idyllic getaway. In the candid shot, Sidharth Malhotra looked dashing in a printed beach shirt and stylish dark sunglasses. Kiara Advani, on the other hand, exuded elegance in a stunning blue dress with a plunging neckline, complemented by intricate golden earrings. The duo appeared to be basking in their marital bliss, radiating sheer happiness while striking a pose amidst a bustling market street.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by sidharths holics (@sidhearts_holics07)

The comments section quickly became a hub of affection as fans rushed to express their adoration for the couple. One enthusiastic user gushed, They look absolutely stunning! ," while some called them beautiful and cuties.

Earlier, a video capturing the couples engaging interaction with fans during the vacation had garnered viral attention on social media. The couple was seen dragging their large luggage bags and boarding a vehicle.

On her birthday, Kiara Advani treated her followers to a thrilling surprise. She shared a video of the couple leaping fearlessly off a luxurious yacht into the ocean waters, set against a backdrop of breathtaking natural beauty. Kiara stunned in a monochrome monokini, while her husband and actor, Sidharth, sported vibrant red swimming shorts.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by KIARA (@kiaraaliaadvani)

Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra tied the knot on February 7 this year in Rajasthan. The wedding was attended by an intimate circle of friends and family members. Their love story blossomed during the filming of their hit movie Shershaah.

Workwise, Sidharth Malhotra is gearing up for the highly anticipated release of his action-packed film Yodha, scheduled to hit theatres in December. Additionally, Sidharth is all set to make his digital debut in Rohit Shettys cop drama series, Indian Police Force, a move that has left his fans eagerly awaiting his performance on the OTT screen.

Meanwhile, Kiara Advani is set to grace the screen in Game Changer alongside Ram Charan, and there are strong reports of her joining Aditya Chopras espionage realm with War 2, featuring stars like Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR in pivotal roles.
There can never be a doubt that the decision to amend Article 370 of the Indian Constitution through an Act of Parliament on August 5, 2023, was bold, appropriate and rightly timed. However, four years after the decision, everyone seems in a hurry to declare that the proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir is over and only the celebration is left. Lt Governor Manoj Sinha needs a round of applause for having handled the challenging post-abrogation situation most sensitively; the right gestures and the right words have invariably accompanied his many decisions.

However, a 76-year-old problem and a 34-year-old proxy war will not just go away. The encounters in the Rajouri-Poonch sector in April-May this year and the ongoing encounters at Hallan forest near Kulgam and at the LoC in Rajouri, which have resulted in abnormally high loss of lives of soldiers, give evidence of efforts to ratchet up a confrontation with the security forces and seek new areas for that. Dying embers of proxy internal conflict often give out-of-proportion results to terror groups. Many times, this emboldens them to rekindle and give a surge to violence.

I write this sitting in Srinagar so my observations are based on the opinion I seek from the ground. Among the achievements everyone listed is the return of freedom of movement. The airport has flights coming in even at night and security checkpoints have reduced to a great extent. What normal society anywhere in the world enjoys most is family outings for movies, dining out or simply a late-night cup of coffee, plus picnics on holidays. The latter was always a favourite with the people of Kashmir with outsized picnic baskets but now there are more smiles around to accompany those. People are socialising and enjoying the benefits of near normalcy, something which the rest of India was doing to a much greater extent after 1991, when economic liberalisation began and the shackles of socialism diluted. That is when in Kashmir, conflict initiation towards a full-blown proxy war was underway. In essence, what the citizens of J&K are savouring today is something that they missed for 32 years. INOX theatres, multi-cuisine restaurants and coffee shops, and the excellent tourist season which is ensuring more money in pockets, are all contributing towards emerging normalcy.

The term emerging normalcy may seem cynical since I am praising the governments achievements in development parameters and yet not giving it a clean chit of normalcy. There is a reason for that. Conflicts do not end in such rosy ways especially if they are sponsored proxy ones. This was never a clean soldier-against-soldier affair, it was a dirty hybrid war perpetrated for 30 years with a purpose. The purpose was to infuse the idea of Azaadi and the feasibility of achieving it by the devious use of terror and all its accompanying practices and activities. Separatists, sponsored and financed by Pakistan, used religious ideology to infuse a sense of separate identity among Kashmiris and their willingness to condone the use of violence to achieve that end. We used hard power and subsequently a lot of soft power to cajole the more balanced and pragmatic citizens but it was never enough. Violence was controlled by the effectiveness of our security forces but everything else, which enabled it, remained almost intact.

Overground workers continued with soft separatism, many times running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Financial conduits, safe houses, narcotics and arms networks functioned at will. Stone throwers received monthly allowances since the practice became a virtual profession. The media was always free and too often pandered to separatist sentiments. From 2017, when the government decided to commence targeting these networks, many of them got dented but were too deep-rooted to be completely eradicated. When the final decision was taken on August 5, 2019, the task began of dismantling these enablers of terrorism with real earnestness. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic placed blocks in the way of both, the process of dismantling networks and the development of better administration. Effectively, the UT government had just two years to perform. Its done so admirably, but the task of dismantlement is obviously not over.

Too many people with a low orientation towards security parameters involved in proxy conflicts imagine that this is a switch-on, switch-off situation. Even if the best administration is provided and the most optimum development parameters are achieved, it is no guarantee of permanent change. A grey zone continues to exist. Efforts to have better integration among the people of the Jammu and Kashmir region are yet insufficient. The purpose of keeping the two regions together as a UT was to ensure that Jammus pull towards India is replicated in Kashmir. It is an area which needs much more focus and the people of Jammu have to assume their responsibility with great seriousness.

The Lt Governor and his administration will achieve much more in economic and even political domains in the near future, but a bounce back of separatism and terrorism is related more to the social, ideological and psychological domains. The decision to allow the 8th Muharram processions in Srinagar has been an absolute clincher. It was laden with risk but some smart intelligence work by police and intelligence agencies contributed to the success. Progressive risks such as this will need to be borne to keep dynamism alive. Youth in Kashmir is happy with the freedom of movement, women are satisfied with the openness provided. The majority of them come for national day events, sing the national anthem and swear their loyalty to the nation.

Yet, anyone who senses Kashmiri sentiments will tell you that here too, a grey zone exists. The leadership will need to engage with the youth far more and convey the right narratives for this to substantially change. There arent enough people of substance doing this. Kashmir needs several more Manoj Sinhas who feel and convey the right sentiment. Its not just in Srinagar but in those hotspots of Tral, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam where this engagement must take place. The Armys assistance in conducting this engagement is almost mandatory. The engagement must also happen at Aligarh, Jamia Milia and JNU in Delhi, in Bengaluru, Indore and several of those newly sprouted private universities where Kashmirs youth flocks. These are young people fairly confused by the clash of national narratives with those they hear many times back home. Constant messages of positivity drawn up in consultation with sociologists and psychologists will ensure even better acceptance.

I do feel that the Centre should not hurry on the conduct of elections, although there will be a lot of pressure, local and international. Currently, after long, there is convergence of thinking at Delhi and Srinagar. Elections cannot guarantee its continuity. We are currently at too delicate a juncture. Local body elections, to give a sense of involvement with the development efforts, have taken place. These must continue at the appropriate intervals.

We may be sensing reduced Pakistani involvement at the moment. This could surge any time after elections are held there. Much of it will involve religious indoctrination against which we need to be better prepared, it being our vulnerability. Taking nationalist clergy on board may not be a bad idea.

The writer is a former GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps and Chancellor, Central University of Kashmir. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah strongly defended the Delhi Services Bill that was passed amidst vigorous parliamentary discourse on Monday. He stated that the legislation aims to make the country corruption-free and it adheres to the directives of the Supreme Court.

The BJP leader was also seen tearing into Congress as he was interrupted by party President Mallikarjun Kharge while an Emergency reference was used in support of the Bill.

The home minister also addressed the Manipir violence issue and said the Centre is ready to hold a discussion on the ethnic violence and steps being taken to curb that.

Here are some highlights from Amit Shahs speech in Rajya Sabha today.

We have brought the Services Bill to safeguard the rights of the people of Delhi. This bill aims to make India corruption-free," said Shah.

Shabdon ke shringar se asatya ko satya nahi banaya ja saktaOxford ki dictionary ke sundar, lambe shabdon ko bolne se asatya satya nahi ho jata hai," Amit Shah while speaking on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

The bill doesnt violate the boundaries set by the Supreme Court and its core intention remains steadfast: fostering efficient, corruption-free governance in the heart of the nation," said Shah while defending the Delhi Services Bill.

Highlighting the provisions of the bill, Shah said, I wish to reassure you that no provisions have been altered from its original draft during the Congress tenure. Delhi services bill brought not to usurp powers of Delhi govt, but to stop encroachment on Centres right by it."

Such a bill can only be introduced for a Union Territory. This is the problem of mentality that one is fighting elections of a UT but seeking powers of a state," says the Union Home Minister in Rajya Sabha speaking during the debate on Delhi Services Bill.

Delhi services bill has not been brought to impose emergency or take away rights of people. Congress has no right to speak on democracy" said Amit Shah in response to Mallikarjun Kharge.

Earlier, there were no fights over transfer postings in Delhi, no CMs had any problems. In 2015, a government came up after an Andolan. Some people said that the Centre wants to take power into its hands. The Centre doesnt need to do so as the people of India have given us the power and the right," said Shah on AAPs objection to the bill.

AAP govt in Delhi transferred officers in vigilance dept as liquor scam files were with it," Amit Shah during services bill debate in Rajya Sabha.

Congress is opposing the bill to appease AAP, which was born after opposing Congress. They (AAP) used almost three tons of offensive words against Congress and came into existence. And today they are seeking support from Congress to oppose this bill. The moment this bill will be passed, Arvind Kejriwal ji palat jayenge, thenga dikhayenge aur kuch nahi hone wala," said Shah

I am ready for discussion on Manipur. We have nothing to hide. You (The opposition) are the ones who have something to hide that you are not letting discussion happen. If Kharge Ji says yes to a discussion on August 11, then I am also ready for it," Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a reply to the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha.

Delhi Services Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a five-hour debate amid a walkout by the opposition parties including Congress and AAP.

Last week, the opposition temporarily suspended their protests in the Lok Sabha to facilitate a debate on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill.

The bill aims to replace the ordinance issued in May, granting control of the bureaucracy in the city administration to the elected government after the Supreme Courts ruling.
The Karnataka government has handed over the case of the three girls allegedly filming a fellow girl student inside a college washroom to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday.

There is an allegation that a video was filmed in the toilet of a private college in Udupi, and as this is a sensitive case, it has been handed over to the CID for further investigation, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The incident, which took place on July 19, took a political turn with a series of protests in the town demanding action against the three students who allegedly filmed another girl inside the washroom of a college here.

The incident was portrayed in certain circles in a communal manner because the victim and the accused belong to different religious communities.

National Womens Commission member and Khushbu Sundar, who is also a member of the BJP, visited Udupi on July 26 to ascertain the truth behind the incident.

As the victim had not filed a formal complaint, police registered a suo motu case in this connection on July 26 at Malpe police station in Udupi and a DySP-level investigation was going on.

The BJP held state-wide protests on the issue demanding the arrest of the three girls and an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) into the incident.

Udupi Superintendent of Police Hakay Akshay Machhindra too confirmed that the case has been handed over to the CID. He declined to elaborate on the reason behind handing over the case to the CID.

According to the Netra Jyothi College director Rashmi Krishna Prasad, the incident took place on July 19 and after learning about it, the three girls were suspended from the college the next day.

The three girls brought a phone in the college, which is not permitted as per rules, and then they allegedly filmed a girl in the toilet, she said.

The girls later told the victim that they filmed her by mistake whereas their target was someone else and then deleted the video, Prasad told PTI.

The other college girls got alarmed and reported the matter to the college management when the victim told them about the conduct of the three girls.

However, some girls later alleged that the filming in washroom had been going on for the past six months and that the accused had allegedly shared these videos with some boys to blackmail them. However, police said they had found no such videos.

On July 27, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had called it a small incident blown out of proportion".

That is a small incident. Reports say it happened amongst friends. Should it be blown out of proportion and given a political colour? Parameshwara had asked.

If a criminal activity has taken place beyond it and if a complaint has been given, then it will come under the jurisdiction of the police department. However, there is neither complaint nor anything else, he added.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students wing of the RSS, staged massive protests in the town for several days seeking action against the accused.
Rahul Gandhi is back in Parliament as a Member of Parliament (MP) from Wayanad and the Congress has a spring back in its step with celebrations and ladoos ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha Elections next year.

Ironically, BJP may not be so unhappy with this development as it could re-employ its tried and tested formula from the 2014 and 2019 elections to attack Rahul Gandhi and cash in on his utterances. In fact, the challenges for opposition unity could escalate over the Prime Ministerial contender with the Congress seeing Rahul Gandhis reinstatement as a shot in the arm for the party to take the lead.

While most opposition leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar have so far said the question of who will be the PM candidate will be addressed after the elections, Congress leaders do see Rahul firmly in that role.

The Congress has accused the BJP of orchestrating the two-year sentence given to Rahul in a defamation case filed by a BJP leader, that led to his disqualification from Parliament and raising the threat that he may not be able to contest the Lok Sabha elections next year. However, senior BJP leaders privately admit that having Rahul as the lead player in the opposition camp suits the ruling party as he remains their big asset if the fight is pitched between him and Narendra Modi. The 2014 elections saw the Modi wave sweeping the nation with Rahuls challenge being blown away due to a series of corruption scams and the countrys growing disenchantment with dynasty politics led by the Gandhi family.

The 2019 elections saw Modi demolishing Rahuls campaign of corruption against him, specifically the Rafale scam, and turning around chowkidaar chor hai slogan of Rahul to main bhi chowkidaar slogan by the BJP.

The year was an even bigger victory for Modi with more Lok Sabha seats, showing that in a direct Rahul versus Modi fight, the former had to eat humble pie.

Come 2024, Modi is again pitching the election on his strong image and development plank, and warning voters of the instability that coalition governments can bring like the one being promised by the INDIA alliance. He is also reminding voters of the corruption and dynastic politics history of the opposition which the voters have earlier rejected in 2014 and 2019.

In short, the BJP wont mind a Rahul versus Modi fight again in 2024. In fact, it sees the same as a sure-shot recipe for Modis third win. The challenge in the INDIA camp is to keep its focus on sorting the complex seat-sharing formula that it is attempting across states, rather than the Congress wishing to play big brother now and project Rahul as the default PM candidate choice.

With parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) having already said their chiefs, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, are also contenders, the fight over the issue could escalate in the coming months. Congress would do best to what Rahul had said in the UK this March on the PM question  Thats not even up for discussion, thats a distraction and I dont want to get into it.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha on Monday tore into the BJP-led Centre for introducing the Delhi Services Bill, and said that it has not only insulted" the Supreme Court, but has gone against its own leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani who wanted a full fledged statehood for the national capital.

Speaking in the Parliament, Chadha also claimed that the saffron party only introduced the ordinance because it was unable to secure victory in Delhi assembly elections in front of AAP.

In 25 years, BJP lost six state elections, even in 2015 and 2020. They know they cant any win elections in 25 next years," Chadha said, adding that this was being done because AAP secured heavy mandate in assembly elections.

The bill, has been a contention point between the Delhi state government and the centre, will set a legacy in which it could take away powers from those states ruled by Opposition parties, and give it to the Centre, the AAP leader said.

He claimed that the saffron party has been promising the people that they would give full-fledged statehood to Delhi.

Vajpayee and deputy PM Advani brought a bill to give Delhi the status of state. The BJP National Executive decided to give statehood to Delhi," he said.

He then directed his comments to Home Minister Amit Shah, saying dont be Nehruvadi, be Advaniwadi."

Chadha accused the BJP of violating federalism" and changing the constitution, without even passing a Constitution Amendment Bill.

He also said that demolishes the triple chain of accountability, in a way that the bureaucracy will not listen to the chief minister or the deputy chief minister, but they will obey the lieutenant governor.

Chadha further accused that the saffron party doesnt care what the Supreme Court says."

What crisis came that you had to go against a Supreme Court order. This is an insult of the countrys top court," he said.

What is the Delhi Amendment Bill?

National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2023 aims to replace the existing ordinance regarding control of services in Delhi.

The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after a five-hour debate amid a walkout by the opposition parties.

The bill aims to replace the ordinance issued in May, granting control of the bureaucracy in the city administration to the elected government after the Supreme Courts ruling.

The Aam Aadmi Party has taken up the contentious bill as a rallying point, uniting opposition parties in their opposition to it in the Rajya Sabha.

What was the Delhi Ordinance?

The Centre had promulgated an ordinance to create a National Capital Civil Service Authority for the transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the DANICS cadre.

The ordinance came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi to the elected government, excluding those related to police, public order and land.

As per the ordinance, all matters required to be decided by the Authority shall be decided by the majority of votes of the members present and voting. However, in case of difference of opinion, the decision of the Lieutenant Governor shall be final.
In a big blow to the Arvind Kejriwal government and the opposition unity, Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the bill concerning Delhi government officers including appointments and transfers, giving more power to the Centre over the affairs in the national capital.

The Upper House of Parliament witnessed a division of votes in which the ruling coalition got the support of 131 members while 102 MPs voted against the bill, which seeks to create an authority for transfer and disciplinary proceedings against bureaucrats from the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Civil) Services (DANICS) cadre.

The bill was already passed, on August 3, by Lok Sabha where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the majority.

The passage of the bill in Parliament can be seen as the first defeat of the newly stitched coalition of 26 opposition parties including Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress, DMK, and Sharad Pawars NCP. The opposition was hoping to beat the bill in Rajya Sabha where the BJP-led NDA does not have the majority but parties like YSCRP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) came to the rescue of the ruling coalition.

Not Adhering to Rules, Irregular Cabinet Proceedings: Shah Lambasts AAP Govt

In his reply to the debate on the bill, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there were no fights earlier over transfer postings in Delhi and no CMs had any problems and the issue started only when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in 2015.

In 2015, a government came up after an Andolan. Some people said that the Centre wants to take power into its hands. The Centre doesnt need to do so as the people of India have given us the power and the right. AAP government in Delhi transferred officers in vigilance department as liquor scam files were with it," he said.

Shah also hit out at Congress for supporting the bill and said Arvind Kejriwal will ditch I.N.D.I.A. alliance after the bill is cleared by the Parliament.

Congress is opposing the bill to appease AAP, which was born after opposing Congress. They (AAP) used almost three tons of offensive words against Congress and came into existence. And today they are seeking support from Congress to oppose this bill. The moment this bill will be passed, Arvind Kejriwal ji palat jayenge, thenga dikhayenge aur kuch nahi hone wala," he said.

BJP Usurping Power in Delhi Through Backdoor: Kejriwal

After the passage of the bill in Rajya Sabha, Kejriwal said the BJP lost four polls against the AAP so they have tried to usurp power in Delhi through backdoor. He said the people of Delhi will not give a single seat to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

They realised that it was difficult to defeat AAP in Delhi, thus tried to grab power through the back door. They (BJP) cannot compete with Kejriwal, AAP with their work; their only motive is to stop me, he said.

Why is the prime minister interfering in Delhi? This law will not let the elected government of Delhi work The law passed today states that each and every policy for Delhi government officials shall be decided by the central government. Now PM will decide the transfer policy of peons in Delhi," he added.

The AAP supremo expressed gratitude to all the political parties who raised their voice against the bill.

Kejriwal met many opposition leaders to get their support in Parliament. Ahead of the second meeting of the opposition in Bengaluru, Congress announced to fight the bill in Parliament with the AAP ignoring inputs by its state units in Punjab and Delhi, where Kejriwals party is in power.

AAP to Fight Centres Move in Court

AAP MP Raghav Chadha said that his party will fight the Centre over its unconstitutional" move in court.

More than a hundred votes from I.N.D.I.A. alliance were against this bill. Though we could not stop this bill legislatively, we will fight against it in the judiciary," he said.

WHAT DOES DELHI SERVICES BILL SAY?

The bill seeks to create an authority for transfer and disciplinary proceedings against bureaucrats from the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Civil) Services (DANICS) cadre.

The National Capital Civil Services Authority will consist of the Delhi Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary of Delhi and the Principal Home Secretary of Delhi.

The bill empowers the Authority to make recommendations to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) regarding transfers and postings of officials and disciplinary matters.

It also empowers the LG to exercise his sole discretion on several matters including those recommended by the National Capital Civil Services Authority, and the summoning, prorogation and dissolution of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

The Delhi government had approached the Supreme Court for staying the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, promulgated on May 19.

However, the Supreme Court last month refused to grant an interim stay on the Centres ordinance on control over services in Delhi. It referred Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, to a Constitution Bench.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday invited his successor Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to join the Congress party after three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders switched their loyalties to the grand old party.

In a sarcastic remark during a meeting at the party headquarters in Bhopal, Kamal Nath said, even Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants to join the Congress and he is welcome to do so with permission from the partys local unit.

BJP leaders Awadhesh Nayak from Datia, Rajkumar Dhanora from Surkhi, and Shubhangana Raje from Dhar joined Congress on Sunday in the presence of senior party leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.

On the occasion, Nath said that there are many BJP leaders who are willing to join the Congress.

But as I have said several times that my principles are very clear. Only Congress leaders will decide whether the BJP leader should be included in the party or not, Kamal Nath said.

Kamal Naths sarcastic remarks about the Chief Minister came after Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is leading BJPs election committee in Madhya Pradesh, asked the party workers to make repeated calls to the Congress workers and convince them to support BJP in upcoming elections.

Speaking about dissidents in the BJP, Tomar said, We are human and prone to make errors. But in a war-like situation, all soldiers of BJP should fight together to defeat the opponent.

(With IANS Inputs)
A conglomerate of tribals in Manipur will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Tuesday and raise their five key demands, including a separate political administration and a mass burial in the Churachandpur district of the Kuki-Zo community members killed in the ethnic violence since May 3.

A five-member delegation of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) will hold talks with the home minister and place the demands, ITLF secretary Muan Tombing told PTI over the phone from Aizawl.

The team is expected to arrive in the national capital Monday evening.

We have five main demands. Our political demand for total separation from Manipur should be sped up. As the burial of the bodies of the Kuki-Zo community members was delayed, the bodies are now lying in Imphal and all the bodies should be brought to Churachandpur," he said.

About the other demands, Tombing said that the burial site at S. Boljang in Churachandpur should be legalised, all Meitei state forces" should not be deployed in hill districts for the safety of the Kuki-Zo community members and tribal jail inmates in Imphal should be transferred to other states for their protection.

According to an ITLF memorandum, addressed to the union home minister and submitted through the headquarters of the 27 Sector, Assam Rifles, the tribal body said it had a long deliberation on the request of Shah to delay the burial for another five days with various stakeholders.

We have agreed to consider the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for waiting another five days for the burial, provided the demands are met," the memorandum said.

The tribal group was planning to bury the bodies of the Kuki-Zo community victims of the violence at a place in Churachandpur. Still, it was opposed by the Meitei community following which the MHA requested it to postpone the burial.

The ITLF leaders reached Aizawl, the capital of neighbouring Mizoram, from Churachandpur in Manipur and from there they were on their way to New Delhi.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, on his Instagram account, has expressed hope that the talks will yield results.

He said the ITLF leaders held a day-long discussion on Saturday and consulted him on whether to respond to the invitation or not.

I suggested they accept the invitation. I told them that it is a good opportunity to have a face-to-face discussion with the Home Minister," Zoramthanga said on his Instagram handle.

Shah had earlier invited the group to meet with him in the national capital to discuss the situation in Manipur.

Ethnic clashes first broke out between Kukis and Meiteis in Manipur on May 3 and since then more than 160 people have lost their lives.
A Solen man with a history of drug and alcohol convictions and driving offenses dating to 2000 is facing charges after allegedly driving under the influence and causing a Morton County crash that injured two children in his vehicle.

Jamie Gohl, 43, of Solen, is charged with felony DUI -- a potential fourth offense -- with minors in the vehicle and misdemeanor driving without a license, also a potential fourth offense. He could face up to six years in prison if convicted of both charges.

Gohl was driving a Suburban that collided with a semitrailer on state Highway 6 on June 6 about 10 miles south of Mandan, according to a North Dakota Highway Patrol report. Gohl was driving drunk and following too close, and was unable to avoid hitting the semi when it slowed to turn onto a county road, the report alleges.

A 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy who were passengers in Gohl's vehicle were taken to a Bismarck hospital for treatment of minor injuries, according to the Patrol. Gohl was arrested. The Patrol did not identify the children.

Gohl was formally charged in late July. An affidavit filed in court by Highway Patrol Trooper Tarek Chase said Gohl on June 6 had failed field sobriety tests and had a blood alcohol content of 0.11% when tested two hours after the crash. The legal limit for driving in North Dakota is 0.08%.

Defense attorney Steven Balaban did not respond to a Tribune request for comment.

Gohl is scheduled to make his initial appearance on the charges Aug. 29.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a scathing attack on Congress calling the grand old party a synonym of corruption". PM Modi, while addressing BJP workers at the two-day Regional Panchayati Raj Council organized in Haryana, said nothing concrete was done to strengthen the Panchayati Raj System in rural areas of the country during the reign of Congress.

PM Modi attended the event in Haryana via video conferencing.

For 4 decades after independence, the Congress did not understand how necessary it is to implement the Panchayati Raj system in the villages. The District Panchayat system that was formed after this, it was left to its own fate during the Congress rule," PM Modi said.

The Prime Minister further mentioned the Gram Panchayat elections held in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and said democracy was established at the ground level for the first time in the Valley".

After the removal of Article 370, for the first time elections from Gram Panchayat to District level were held there. In these, more than 33 thousand local peoples representatives were elected. For the first time, democracy was established at the grassroots level in the Valley," he said.

PM Modi further urged BJP workers to familiarize themselves with smaller regions by spending some time there. As a representative of the BJP, you have to take the benefits of the Panchayati Raj system to the last person standing in the last line of society. I would request all of you that you should go and stay at some small place in your area for 2 nights a week and sit with the people there," he said.
In a big victory for the Opposition, the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was restored on Monday. Three days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a defamation case, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that Gandhis disqualification, which was ordered on March 23 this year, stands withdrawn.

In view of order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Shri Rahul Gandhi  in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," the notification read.

Gandhi will now again represent Wayanad in the Lower House.

Rahul Gandhis Disqualification As MP

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member after a Gujarat court convicted him in Modi surname defamation case and handed him the maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.

A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Gujarat High Court had refused to stay the conviction, after which Gandhi had appealed in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for the restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

Congress Reaction

Following the restoration of his membership, the Congress said it would like him to be a key speaker in the debate on no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the decision to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP is a welcome step and asked the BJP-led government to utilise its remaining tenure in concentrating on actual governance".

The decision to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP is a welcome step. It brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad. Whatever time is left of their tenure, BJP and Modi Govt should utilise that by concentrating on actual governance rather than denigrating Democracy by targeting opposition leaders," Kharge tweeted.

BJPs Reaction

Meanwhile, the central government sought to play down the restoration of Rahul Gandhis Lok Sabha membership, with Parliamentary affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi saying that the decision was taken as per due legal procedure.

Speaker made the decision today. We followed the legal process and immediately after receiving the Supreme Courts order, we restored it," Joshi told mediapersons outside the Parliament.

Responding to questions on Gandhis Lok Sabha membership being restored, the minister denied any delay.

Joshi said that the Supreme Court order staying the Congress leaders conviction in a defamation case had come on August 4, which was a Friday, a weekend. However, Monday being a working day, the decision was immediately taken by the Speakers office.

Reaction of Other Opposition Parties

The move was also welcomed by other Opposition parties. Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said the restoration of Gandhis Lok Sabha membership increased his faith in the countrys democracy and justice system.

As far as the Congress leaders and Rahul Gandhi are concerned, I would like to congratulate them on the restoration of the membership. I also congratulate the Supreme Court. After this decision, the faith in democracy and the courts has increased," Yadav said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT), on the other hand, claimed the Supreme Court order staying Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation has exposed the Union governments vindictive politics".

An editorial in the Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana said Gandhi is expected to give a tough fight to political opponents during the Lok Sabha polls due next year.
Google is bringing more AI-centric features to Search for users and the latest is the ability to check grammar in a sentence before you send a mail or even a message. The feature is supporting English for now, but you can try it out on desktop and mobile. Google explains that the grammar check feature will see if a phrase or sentence is written in a grammatically correct way, and if not, help you fix the sentence.

Google already gives you this tool on Docs and Gmail but having the choice to use Search for grammar check means it wants to give users multiple choices, where would like to check for these changes. The system for the grammar check is also quite simple, and you just have to feed the phrase or sentence in the search bar and then type grammar check.

Google Search Grammar Check Feature - How It Works

- Head over to Search using the Google Search URL on the desktop or mobile

- Type the sentence you to check for grammar and then write Grammar check

- Hit the enter button to get the result

- If the grammar in the sentence is right, you will see a green tick next to it

- If the grammar is wrong, Google will make the changes and mark it in bold to let you know

- You can also copy the correct sentence and use it on a Doc or send the message

Google informs users that the grammar checks might not be 100 percent accurate, and the company says you would be better off avoiding phrases to prevent such issues. Earlier this year at the I/O 2023, we saw Google flexing its muscle and showing everyone that it is very much focused on AI and all of its features and products will have a serious dose of AI that can be used by all people.
Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singhs romantic entertainer Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani is entertaining people all across the globe. Helmed by Karan Johar, the film hit the big screens on July 28. Ever since its release, the family drama has been garnering lots of love from audiences all around the world. Now, a Twitter post which has gone viral talks about the stereotypical depiction of Bengalis in the movie. The tweet is in reference to the character of Alias Bengali mother. The role has been played by Churni Ganguly.

Twitter user Gabbar elaborates on how she has been depicted as an English speaking Bong intellectual. So she says Global Positioning System in place of GPS. Thats how we know she is an intellectual She doesnt go to the kitchen, but embarks on a trip to it, read the tweet. It further states, These caricatures arent intentional, coz later the film admonishes the viewer for the same, for laughing at a Male performing Kathak. I was wondering how come Bongs arent outraged at such lazy stereotyping.

The tweet has now sparked a discussion on the social media platform. Here is the viral tweet:

The lady who plays Alias Bengali mother in Rocky & Rani is shown to be a English speaking Bong intellectual, so she says Global Positioning System in place of GPS. Thats how we know she is an intellectual She doesnt go to the kitchen, but embarks on a trip to itThese  Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) August 5, 2023

Since being uploaded, the tweet has gone viral with multiple responses. Absolutely. I observed the same. The Tharoorism at Alias house was forced too. It feels like the dialogue writer had to hook himself to Merriam-Webster to mask his vocab deficit. Also the Bengali house was stereotyped similar to how they do with Tamil houses in Bollywood. Paint used for Punjabi and Bengali houses clubbed with the interiors show a clear lack of basic General Knowledge of the makers, stated a Twitter user. Another person wrote, Lazy writing for sure. The first half was at best a saregama ad with old songs instead of dialogues. Also the way Ranveer dresses in general vs when Alia is imagining him.

We have brains, that's why we don't outrage over stupid things. As a student of English Lit, I can say that Churni G's character was a spoof of English intellectuals who practice a certain brand of classism. This is common among Upper Middle Class Bengali households. https://t.co/hOkdZlZfh8 brish (@DeadOverHeels_) August 5, 2023

We have gone through Devdas without getting enraged by the stereotypes.Also, maybe our egos are not fragile and we don't suffer from "The Syndrome". https://t.co/0CvfepB527  Rajat Dutta (@RajatDutta13) August 5, 2023

Lazy writing for sure. The first half was at best a saregama ad with old songs instead of dialogues. Also the way ranveer dresses in general vs when alia is imagining him   Keshav Rai (@keshavrai) August 5, 2023

Bongs don't go to watch Rocky Rani kind of movies so they don't care. They prefer to watch some substantial stories. Jayita (@deepseeu) August 5, 2023

What do you think?
Romayne Wheeler sits at his grand piano overlooking Mexicos 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 canyons 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.

Wheelers 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.

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.

Also read: Music Is A Universal Language: Video Of Dog Calmly Listening To Piano Goes Viral

One young child, a neighbors 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.

Hes 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 Wheelers 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 Wheelers 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 Eagles 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.

Theyre 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.
Afghanistans supreme leader has warned Taliban members against carrying out attacks abroad, the defence minister said, days after Pakistan said Afghans were involved in a spate of suicide attacks there.

Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said in a speech to members of Afghanistans security forces, broadcast by state television on Saturday, that fighting outside Afghanistan is not religiously sanctioned jihad" but rather war, which had been barred by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

If anyone goes outside of Afghanistan for the goal of jihad, it wont be called jihad," Akhundzada said, according to Mujahid. If the emir prevents the mujahideen (fighters) from going to battle and they still do it, this is war, not jihad."

The remarks come after Islamabad said militants behind a spate of suicide attacks in Pakistan were being helped by Afghan citizens" across the border, days after a deadly bombing claimed by the Islamic State group near the countries shared frontier.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stopped short of accusing Afghanistans Taliban government of knowingly allowing attacks from its soil, but he did say Pakistan militants were operating from sanctuaries" in the neighbouring country.

Since the Taliban surged back to power in Afghanistan two years ago, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in militant attacks focused on its western border regions, claimed by both Afghan Taliban ally Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and rival IS.

Formed in 2007 by Pakistani militants who splintered off from the Afghan Taliban to focus their fight on Islamabad for supporting Americas invasion of Afghanistan, the TTP has since waged a bloody campaign of bombings and other attacks across Pakistan.

Afghanistans Taliban authorities insist they do not allow the countrys soil to be used by armed groups plotting against other nations.

In Islam, the Arabic term jihad" is used to describe a wide range of religious struggles, from the private spiritual realm to taking part in combat.
The foreign ministers of China and Russia hailed the practical cooperation" between the two global powers in a phone call on Monday, Beijing said.

Chinas top diplomat Wang Yi told his counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Beijing and Moscow should continue to maintain close strategic coordination, promote world multipolarisation and the democratisation of international relations", according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

The newly reappointed foreign minister praised recent progress in practical cooperation" between the two countries during a discussion that also touched on the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, Beijing said.

Speaking on the crisis in Ukraine following Moscows invasion last year, Wang said that China would continue to uphold an independent and fair stance", encouraging involved parties to commence peace talks.

As for Beijing and Moscow, he added: The most important present task for both sides is to continue to implement the important consensus reached by their two heads of state and push forward continued high-level development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era."

Wang, a seasoned diplomat and senior politician in Chinas ruling Communist Party, was reappointed as foreign minister in late July following the prolonged and unexplained disappearance of his predecessor Qin Gang.

Beijing and Moscow have maintained an increasingly close bilateral relationship in recent years as both countries ties with the West have plummeted.

Russias foreign ministry said in its own statement on Monday that the ministers rejected the confrontational policy of the Western bloc towards Russia and China".

The contact once again confirmed the unity or broad harmony of Moscow and Beijings approaches to world affairs," said the statement.

China has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.

Since Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine, Beijing has offered Putin diplomatic and financial support, but has refrained from overt military involvement or sending lethal arms.
China said on Monday that a maritime clash in which it fired water cannon at Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea was professional and restrained".

A foreign ministry spokesperson said a Chinese coast guard ship lawfully stopped" two Philippine vessels, adding: This professional and restrained on-site operation is beyond reproach."

The incident happened on Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies to Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

The intervention by China  which claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own sovereign territory  was criticised by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who said on Monday that Manila had summoned Beijings ambassador.

The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese vessels conduct, saying it directly threatened regional peace and stability.

Chinas foreign ministry statement on Monday pushed back against Washingtons criticism, accusing the State Department of disregarding the facts".

What the United States is doing is to blatantly support the Philippines violation of Chinas sovereignty, and this plot is doomed to fail," the statement said.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law by blocking and firing water cannon at the resupply mission, preventing one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal.
French police on Monday said they had arrested a 55-year old German national after his wife was discovered naked in a pitiful state following what she said was 12 years in captivity at the couples home.

A police source said initially the woman, also German, was found with her head shaved in a bedroom of the apartment, had multiple injuries and was undernourished. She had probably been tortured, the source said.

The state of her health was not good", local prosecutor Olivier Glady told AFP after her examination by the local forensic medicine service.

But he later told a news conference that initial examinations had not found fractures or bruises, contrary to media reports.

Blood tests showed that she was not signficantly dehydrated, he said.

The cursor is probably moving away from a scenario of horror, towards unsatisfactory conditions of the care of a sick person," Glady said.

- No Bluebeard -

The current state of investigation appears us to move away from the spectre of a Bluebeard of the Moselle region," the prosecutor added, a reference to Bluebeard", a French folk tale about a wealthy man who murders his wives.

Police said the bedroom and other rooms in the apartment were closed off with metal wire at the flat in Forbach in eastern France, near the German border.

That setup may have been meant to keep the households 10 cats in, Glady said.

A police source said the woman, who is 53, got access to a phone and called police in Wiesbaden, western Germany, who in turn alerted their French colleagues.

- Maybe 10 years ago -

Over the years, the man had told everyone in the building that his wife had cancer, said Alicia, a neighbour.

I never saw the lady, I dont think she ever left the house," she said.

Sometimes I heard screams," Alicia said, but added that she thought they were caused by the illness.

About the man, she said: Very polite, nice".

Erika, another witness who lives in an adjacent street, said she last saw the woman maybe 10 years ago", and thought that maybe she had died, or moved out".

Police are investigating the man for kidnapping, aggravated rape, and acts of torture and barbarism, French broadcaster BFMTV said.

Broadcaster RMC said police found a diary-type notebook in which it was believed the man kept a record of his actions and of the times he gave his wife food but the prosecutor did not confirm this.

Police had already been called to the couples home in 2019, but said they did not detect any signs of trouble.

The man is jobless and believed to have worked in German industry previously, Glady said.

Police have extended his custody by 24 hours, the prosecutor said.
Pakistans former Prime Minister Imran Khan, serving a three-year sentence in Punjab provinces Attock Jail on graft charges, was granted B-class facilities by the prisons department, according to local media reports. After his arrest from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore on Saturday, the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief awoke Sunday as an inmate in a high-security prison after a court sentence in the Toshakhana case.

Critics argue that his arrest is politically motivated and also questioned the severity of the sentence, which followed his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April last year. Despite protests in the past, his supporters have remained subdued. In an editorial published on Monday, a prominent Pakistani newspaper described former PM Imrans situation as a tired and predictable script" that has continued throughout the history of Pakistan without the slightest deviation."

From B-Class to A-Class

Imran Khans lawyer Naeem Haider Panjotha, filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday, requesting A-Class jail accommodations for the former PM, Dawn newspaper reported.

A day earlier, his legal team aimed to establish contact with him for clothing, food, essentials, and to obtain his signatures. However, authorities denied access to the PTI chairman and instructed the lawyers to return on Monday to secure power of attorney.

Meeting Denied

PTI claimed they were denied access to meet Imran. The Punjab prison authorities were reportedly kept unaware of the plan to shift Khan to Attock Jail, leaving them surprised when he arrived there.

PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan stated that the legal team was refused a meeting with Khan. Meanwhile, PTIs core committee, chaired by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, demanded his immediate release, citing threats to his life.

Attock, not Adiala Jail

The PTI committee also questioned the decision to detain Khan in Attock instead of Adiala Jail and expressed concern over the denial of access to his legal team. Qureshi alleged that Khan was being kept in a 911 feet cell, a claim denied by the prison department.

              @SMQureshiPTI           #______ pic.twitter.com/aLfuL5TYWB PTI (@PTIofficial) August 6, 2023

Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazir Tarar emphasized that Khan still has the right to appeal the verdict and defended the punishment, stating it was in accordance with the law. He pointed out that Khan had the opportunity to prove his innocence but only attended three out of 40 court hearings.

Life in Prison

The prison official clarified that Khans B-class privileges entitle him to various facilities, including books, newspapers, a table, a chair, a television, a mattress, clothing, and jail food. He is allowed to meet family and lawyers once a week and can request additional limited facilities with permission from the jail superintendent.

The latest ruling poses a threat to his political future, as a criminal conviction can bar him from holding public office and may result in losing his party chairmanship. The situation remains a matter of concern for PTI and for his supporters.
North Dakota is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that a local election official and conservative legal organization filed seeking to restrict mail-in voting across the state.

A motion filed Monday by North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigleys office argues there is no conflict between state and federal election laws, which is a central claim in the federal lawsuit brought by Burleigh County Auditor Mark Splonskowski.

The state argues in part that Splonskowski's "true aim in this lawsuit is not adjudication of a true conflict, but the improper overthrow of North Dakota law."

Splonskowski, who was elected last fall, argues in the lawsuit filed July 5 that he faces an impossibility in enforcing election law. The lawsuit filed in collaboration with the Public Interest Legal Foundation argues that federal law assigns one day as Election Day, while the state allows for ballots to be counted up to 13 days after Election Day, creating a scenario in which Splonskowski has to decide which law to follow.

The foundation also filed voting-related suits in the wake of the 2020 election, including in Pennsylvania and Arizona, amid former President Donald Trumps claims of election fraud.

Though North Dakota requires all mail-in votes to be postmarked by the day before Election Day, the suit claims Splonskowski is harmed by instructions to accept and cast ballots received after Election Day and could face consequences for not following federal law if he counts these mail-in ballots.

The state argues that Splonskowski is wrong, citing a federal opinion in which a judge wrote that voting should not be confused with counting votes.

The state also disputes Splonskowski's claim that he could potentially face criminal penalties for enforcing the state's election law. For example, the state argues that a Burleigh County prosecutor would not attempt to prosecute someone for complying with state Century Code.

The lawsuit is directed at the states election director, Erika White. The state argues the inclusion of White appears to be an "afterthought" and that the lawsuit fails to address a connection between White and Splonskowski's fear of prosecution. White is an appointed official and is neither responsible for overall election administration in the state nor Splonskowskis hypothetical decision to violate state or federal law. Additionally, the state points out that the law at the center of the suit took effect in 1981  far before Whites time in her position.

The state also alleges that White is protected by the 11th Amendment, which states that federal courts are prohibited from hearing lawsuits filed against a state by citizens, another state or a foreign entity.

In July, when the suit was filed, The Associated Press reported that the Public Interest Legal Foundation met with multiple other election officials throughout the state before moving forward with Splonskowski, appearing to shop around for a plaintiff. The organization said the suit is focused on North Dakota when the AP asked about interest in a national injunction.

Prolonged elections with uncertain results are undermining confidence in the electoral system with significant segments of the country, foundation spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement to the Tribune. We have to restore the day in Election Day before 2024.
While a number of institutions have been raising the issue that we are currently in a period of global democratic decline, a new paper says otherwise. According to Subjective and Objective Measures of Democratic Backsliding, democracy is an inherently multidimensional concept and there are many ways to slice the data. The paper by associate professors Andrew Little from the University of California at Berkeley, and Anne Meng of the University of Virginia, says that despite the general narrative that we are in a period of global democratic decline, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies to assess whether this is systematically true.

Most existing studies of backsliding rely heavily, if not entirely, on subjective indicators which rely on expert coder judgement. We survey other more objective indicators of democracy (such as incumbent performance in elections), and find little evidence of global democratic decline over the last decade, they said in the paper published in January.

To explain the discrepancy between trends in subjective and objective indicators, they develop formal models that consider the role of coder bias and leaders strategically using more subtle undemocratic action.

They said that the simplest explanation is that recent declines in average democracy scores are driven by changes in coder bias.

They also said that while they cannot rule out the possibility that the world is experiencing major democratic backsliding almost exclusively in ways which require subjective judgement to detect, this claim is not justified by existing evidence.

In a report published in 2022, authors Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz said that global freedom faces a dire threat and around the world, the enemies of liberal democracya form of self-governmentare accelerating their attacks.

The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule also added that the authoritarian regimes have become more effective at co-opting or circumventing the norms and institutions meant to support basic liberties.

Those countries that have struggled in the space between democracy and authoritarianism, meanwhile, are increasingly tilting toward the latter. The global order is nearing a tipping point, and if democracys defenders do not work together to help guarantee freedom for all people, the authoritarian model will prevail, the report said.

Another report, also published last year by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) , said that there has been a decline of democracy over the past decade.

This intensifying wave of autocratisation around the world highlights the need for new initiatives to defend democracy, it added.

Mentioning India, the authors of the latest paper said several of the countries that are experiencing backsliding according to V-Dem and Freedom House data have huge populations, including India, and so the trends look worse when these countries are weighted more heavily.

Countering these narratives, the new paper looked across different indicators and says that the authors have found a much more mixed and inconsistent picture than the work that raised warnings about global democratic backsliding.

The bulk of the indicators which exhibit more backsliding are on relatively subjective measures with substantial disagreement among expert coders. On relatively objective measures, we see little of any clear trends of backsliding," the researchers said.

However, they also said that these things do not imply that concerns about democratic backsliding are misplaced.

For example, suffrage and incumbents regularly losing elections are key to democracy and relatively easy to measure, but are not necessarily more important than factors like government censorship and the independence of electoral management bodies, which are harder to measure. And in principle it may be the case that there is really systematic backsliding on these more subjective measures even while the more objective measures havent dramatically changed, they added.

The paper suggested that we should be cautious about making strong and broad claims about global backsliding based primarily on subjective measures which in turn could be influenced by a narrative that backsliding is occurring.

While we have no strong evidence that such a feedback loop is the primary driving force (or even a driving force) behind the decline in subjective democracy scores, this is a hypothesis worth exploring Subjective indicators can capture many facets of democracy which are hard to capture with objective measures, and may be more precise on an individual observation level, they said.

While concluding the paper, the authors also said that media coverage may create the kinds of bias they highlight in the coder model. They also added that there is evidence of increased media and scholarly attention to democratic erosion and this increase is much more dramatic than even subjective measures of democratic backsliding.
Nigers coup leaders said they closed the countrys airspace shortly before the expiration of a deadline from the West African bloc ECOWAS for them to hand back power or face possible military intervention. ECOWAS issued its ultimatum a week ago, demanding the junta reinstate democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum by midnight Sunday (2300 GMT).

Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency. Faced with the threat of intervention, which is becoming clearer through the preparation of neighbouring countries, Nigers airspace is closed from this day on Sunday for all aircraft until further notice," the generals said in a statement released shortly before the deadline passed.

Any attempt to violate the countrys airspace would meet with an energetic and immediate response", the statement added.

In a separate statement, the now-ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), the generals who have taken power, said a pre-deployment in preparation for the intervention has been made in two countries of Central Africa," without naming them. Any state involved will be considered co-belligerent," it warned.

Thousands of coup supporters gathered earlier on Sunday at a stadium in the capital Niamey to cheer on the CNSP. At the 30,000-seat Seyni Kountche stadium, named after Nigers first coup detat leader in 1974, CNSP leaders including General Mohamed Toumba greeted a jubilant crowd, while showing no sign of willingness to cede power.

The venue was draped in Russian flags and carrying portraits of CNSP leaders. ECOWAS military chiefs of staff agreed Friday on a plan for a possible intervention to respond to the crisis, the latest of several coups to hit Africas Sahel region since 2020.

We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the military) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done," ECOWAS commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah said. But he warned that all the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out", including how and when force would be deployed.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara also called on the coup leaders to stand down late Sunday on the eve of his own countrys Independence Day. We condemn the attempted coup in Niger, which poses a serious threat to peace and security in the sub-region," Ouattara said, adding it was essential" to constitutional order" that democratically elected Bazoum be allowed to govern.

- Were determined -

In the dusty alleyways of Niameys Boukoki neighbourhood, residents were defiant at the prospect of an armed intervention by ECOWAS. Were going to fight for this revolution. Were not going to retreat faced with the enemy, were determined," said Boukoki resident Adama Oumarou, adding that we were waiting for this coup for a long time".

Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has warned against a military solution. We categorically refuse any military intervention," Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said in a television interview Saturday, saying it would be a direct threat to Algeria" as it shares nearly a thousand kilometres" of border with Niger.

Former colonial power France, with which Nigers new rulers broke military ties after taking power, said it would firmly" back whatever course of action ECOWAS took after the deadline expired.

On Sunday, it said it was cutting off development aid and budgetary assistance to Burkina Faso, which alongside Mali has said it would consider any attack on Niger as a declaration of war".

Both countries are now ruled by military regimes that overthrew democratically elected rulers. Niger has played a key part in Western strategies to combat jihadist insurgencies that have 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 already evacuated hundreds of its citizens from Niger since the coup, and on Sunday, Italys defence ministry said it had flown 65 military personnel from Niger, along with 10 US military personnel.

- Anti-French sentiment -

Anti-French sentiment in the region is on the rise, while Russian activity, often through the Wagner mercenary group, has grown. Moscow has warned against armed intervention from outside Niger.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, relies heavily on foreign aid that could be pulled if Bazoum is not reinstated as head of state, Paris has warned. Bazoum, 63, has been held by the coup leaders with his family in his official Niamey residence since July 26.

He won an election in 2021 that ushered in Nigers first-ever transfer of power from one civilian government to another. Nigeria has already cut electricity supplies to its neighbour Niger, raising fears for the humanitarian situation, while Niamey has closed the vast Sahel countrys borders, complicating food deliveries.

Senior Nigerian politicians have urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the threatened military intervention.
Under the weight of US sanctions against Iran, Pakistan has reportedly abandoned a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project intended to import inexpensive energy from neighboring Tehran, according to local media reports on Monday.

The gas pipeline project was originally conceived as a trilateral venture that also included India. However, India later withdrew, leaving Pakistan and Iran as the remaining participants. The US-imposed sanctions on Iran due to its nuclear program have dissuaded Pakistan from pursuing the construction of the pipeline, as reported by the Dawn newspaper.

According to the report, Pakistan had issued a notice of Force Majeure and Excusing Event to Iran to suspend its contractual obligation on completion of the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project because of external factors outside Islamabads control.

The report indicated that Pakistan will not proceed with the project as long as US sanctions on Iran persist, unless Washington provides approval to proceed. The project has remained stalled for nearly a decade, despite the country grappling with severe energy shortages.

Pakistan has issued a Force Majeure and Excusing Event notice to Iran under the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA), which resultantly suspends Pakistans obligations under the GSPA, according to a written testimony Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik has given to the National Assembly.

In a policy statement, the Pak minister also put on record that Iran disputed the notice of force majeure and excusing event. This came in response to questions from lawmakers, who wanted to know if the government of Pakistan had a target completion date for the cross-border energy project and whether fines were due in case of delays and if other regional nations were enhancing trade ties despite UN sanctions.

The Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project is stalled due to international sanctions on Iran, said Malik clarifying the project activities will begin once sanctions on Iran are removed and there is no threat that State Owned Entities (SOEs) would be hit by sanctions. Given that, no date and deadline can be given for the completion of the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project, he added.

The minister also conceded that Pakistans notice of force majeure and excusing event and Iran disputing its validity could only be finally settled through international arbitration, should Iran take this matter to arbitration. As a consequence, the exact amount of penalty, if any, is subject to the outcome of the arbitration to be determined by the arbitrators, he said.

Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian underscored the projects importance during his visit to Pakistan. Tehran claims to have finished its 1,150-kilometer pipeline segment, marked by a 2013 groundbreaking ceremony attended by former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Pakistan, pledged to complete its portion by January 2015, later halted progress in February 2014 due to international sanctions. Musadik Malik, the current petroleum minister, noted Pakistans commitment to its obligations under the GSPA but cited US sanctions on Iran as the obstacle to pipeline construction.

(With agency inputs)
Terrorism has no place in Pakistan and the involvement of Afghan nationals in terrorist incidents in the country is detrimental to regional peace, stability and deviation from the Doha Peace Agreement by the interim Afghan Government, said Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir on Monday, according to local sources.

Pakistan has concerns over sanctuaries available to banned outfits and liberty of action they enjoy on Afghan soil. Pakistan will spare no effort to dismantle terrorist networks and protect its citizens at all costs, the Chief of Army Services (COAS) said, adding, With the unflinching resolve of the nation, Pakistan is successfully countering terrorism to enable a stable and peaceful environment for socioeconomic development in the area.

THE EVENT

Munir was at an event to pay tribute to the sacrifices of brave and resilient tribals of Pakistan. He appreciated their indomitable resolve of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Security Forces in defeating the menace of terrorism. Munir paid his respects at Yaadgar-e-Shuhada at Fort Bala Hisar (Headquarters Frontier Corps Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  North) and offered Fatiha. He met tribal elders from the Newly Merged Districts (NMD) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as notables from all walks of life.

Tribal elders assured that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its ideology will never be acceptable to any tribe and they will continue to stand with the state.

The COAS emphasised the potential of NMDs and ongoing efforts in the socio-economic growth under the umbrella of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

He said: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province is blessed with huge reserves of mines and minerals, also beautiful areas for tourism which will certainly change the destiny of the area for the good of the people. Pak Army stands with our tribal brothers and will never leave them alone, as, over the years, they have made innumerable sacrifices for the peace and prosperity of the motherland. Its time to develop all tribal areas and concentrate on the youth.

Paying tribute to the brave tribesmen, officers and soldiers of the Pak Army, Frontier Corps, Levies, Khasadars and Police, the COAS vowed that sacrifices of martyrs will not go in vain and complete peace will return to Pakistan.

FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

The COAS reiterated the resolve to fight terrorism, till the elimination of this menace from the country". He showed resolve to finish the peril of narcotics which is becoming the lifeline for the TTP Khawarij".

The surge in terrorism in the recent past is a futile effort on the part of terrorists to get the talks re-initiated. However, there is no option for these terrorists, except to submit to the writ of the state of Pakistan, before they are decimated, if they persist on their wrong path, he said.

The COAS reiterated that the propaganda by inimical forces against the Armed Forces of Pakistan will be dealt as per the Law.
The United Nations has warned that about 460 million children in South Asia, which includes countries like India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, are already facing dangerously high temperatures as the impact of climate change grows.

This means that 3 in 4 children (76 percent) in South Asia are already exposed to extremely high temperatures compared to only 1 in 3 children (32 percent) globally, the UN childrens agency said in a release on Monday.

With the world at global boiling, the data clearly show that the lives and well-being of millions of children across South Asia are increasingly threatened by heat waves and high temperatures. Countries in the region are not the hottest in the world right now but the heat here brings life-threatening risks for millions of vulnerable children," said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.

We are particularly concerned about babies, toddlers, malnourished children and pregnant women as they are most vulnerable to heat strokes and other serious effects, he added.

July was the hottest month ever recorded globally, raising further concerns about a future where children, including those living in South Asia, are expected to face more frequent and severe heatwaves, largely due to climate change.

Children in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Pakistan are at extremely high risk" of the impacts of climate change, defining extreme high temperatures as 83 or more days in a year over 35 degree Celsius, according to the UN.

Children cannot adapt as quickly to temperature changes and are not able to remove excess heat from their bodies. Young children simply cannot handle the heat," added Wijesekera. Unless we act now, these children will continue to bear the brunt of more frequent and more severe heatwaves in the coming years."

Even during the rainy season, excessive heat poses serious risks for children in South Asia. Their inability to quickly adapt to temperature changes can lead to symptoms like higher body temperature, rapid heartbeat, severe headaches, and confusion.

According to the UN, young children may suffer from cramps, organ failure, dehydration, fainting, and coma, while infants may experience poor mental development.
Three people were killed in California when their helicopter crashed into a hillside after colliding with another chopper as the team battled a wildfire, emergency officials said early Monday.

The helicopters were dispatched to fight a fire that had erupted in brush in Cabazon, a town some 85 miles (137 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, on Sunday evening when they collided in mid-air, Cal Fire Southern Region chief David Fulcher told reporters.

One helicopter was able to land safely nearby.

Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed, and tragically all three members perished, which included one Cal Fire Division chief, one Cal Fire fire captain and one contract client pilot," Fulcher said.

He expressed condolences to the families of those who died, adding: We have lost three great individuals."

Authorities said on social media that the fire had grown to about three acres (1.2 hectares) in Cabazon as firefighters responded.

A local ABC radio station affiliate described the helicopter that landed safely as a Sikorsky Skycrane, which can carry retardant that is dropped on flames, while the chopper that crashed was a Bell helicopter used for observation while battling blazes.

The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the Cabazon accident, according to media reports.

The fatal incident comes 11 months after a Cal Fire helicopter crash-landed near Banning, just a few miles away, injuring three people.

California firefighters battle thousands of wildfires each year, with summer months particularly susceptible to blazes. An ongoing fire south of the city of Fresno has consumed 5,100 acres and is zero percent contained, Cal Fire reports.
A crumbling World War II-era Philippine navy vessel stranded on a submerged reef in the South China Sea has long been a flashpoint between Manila and Beijing in their territorial dispute over the waters.

Tensions flared again on Saturday when the China Coast Guard allegedly blocked and fired water cannon at Philippine vessels seeking to deliver food, fuel and water to Filipino troops stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal.

AFP looks at how a rusting hulk named after a Philippine mountain range ended up at the centre of the latest diplomatic spat over the South China Sea.

- What is the Sierra Madre? -

The 100-metre (328-foot) BRP Sierra Madre vessel began its life as the US tank-landing ship USS LST-821, which served in World War II.

It was later renamed the USS Harnett County and deployed during the Vietnam War, where it was used as a helicopter gunship base, according to the United States Naval Institute.

After the war, it was acquired by the Philippine Navy and later renamed the BRP Sierra Madre.

- Why is it stuck on a reef? -

The Philippine military deliberately grounded the BRP Sierra Madre on Second Thomas Shoal in the late 1990s in an effort to check the advance of China in the hotly contested waters.

The unorthodox tactic to establish Philippine presence on the shoal was in response to Chinas occupation of the nearby and then-uninhabited Mischief Reef, also claimed by Manila, a few years earlier.

Beijing has turned Mischief Reef and other reefs and outcrops into artificial, militarised islands to assert its claims in the waters.

Second Thomas Shoal, located in the Spratly Islands, is about 200 kilometres west of the western Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometres from Chinas nearest major landmass of Hainan island.

- Whats happening there? -

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, which includes Second Thomas Shoal, and deploys hundreds of vessels there to patrol the waters and swarm reefs.

Beijing has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

Manila says Chinas coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the waters.

They also regularly attempt to disrupt re-supply operations to the tiny Philippine garrison on Second Thomas Shoal, according to Manila.

The handful of Philippine marines deployed on the BRP Sierra Madre depend upon those resupply missions to survive their remote assignment.

The Philippine Coast Guard fears China will seek to occupy Second Thomas Shoal if the military detachment leaves.

- Why does all this matter? -

The South China Sea is seen as a powder keg and many fear a miscalculation or accident could ignite a military conflict.

The Philippines is poorly armed, but the United States has said it would defend its longtime ally in the South China Sea under a decades-old mutual defence pact.

The US has no territorial claim over the waters, but has persisted in conducting its own patrols there, angering Beijing.

Washington says this is to ensure what it terms freedom of navigation" in the sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually.
The North Dakota Department of Transportation is distributing up to $10 million in state funds to townships.

DOT in partnership with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University is seeking applications for the Township Assistance Program. The funds are primarily for projects that improve or repair corridors that move freight and other commodities to market, and for matching federal aid.

Investing in townships is an integral part of keeping North Dakota moving, DOT Director Ron Henke said.

Townships must apply through their respective county. Applications are due by Sept. 8. For more information go to www.dot.nd.gov/townshipprogram.
To equal Torbjorn Pedersen's feat of traveling, you could start today and expect to wrap up sometime around 2033. The 44-year-old from Copenhagen managed to travel to all of the world's countries without once using an airplane, reports Euronews. Pedersen is now in the midst of a grueling coda: talking to countless media outlets around the world about his remarkable feat. Some samples:

First to last: Pederson set out in October 2013, traveling first from Denmark to Germany by train, per the Washington Post. He figured his journey would take four years. Instead, he didn't reach his final country, the Maldives (via container ship), until earlier this year. ABC of Australia notes that the UN recognizes 195 nations, but Pedersen added unrecognized places and puts his total at 203. He says he spent a minimum of 24 hours in each nation.
Ten cars of a passenger train derailed in southern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90 others, officials said. Some of the derailed cars on the Hazara Express train overturned in the crash near the town of Nawabshah, senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho said. The train was going from Karachi to Rawalpindi when the 10 cars went off the tracks near the Sarhari railway station, the AP reports. The derailed cars sprawled across or near the tracks in the flat, rural landscape. Local television showed rescue teams extracting women, children and elderly passengers from damaged and overturned cars. Some of the injured lay on the ground crying for help while locals gave out water and food.

Senior police officer Abid Baloch said from the scene that the rescue operation was complete by early evening: Dozens of the injured were brought to safety and the last flipped car cleared. Expressing grief over the loss of life, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif prayed during a political gathering in Punjab for the souls of the departed and for the quick recovery of those injured. "We all pray, may Allah grant a place in heaven to those who passed away and I wish quick recovery for the injured," he said.

Ihtesham Ali lost his family members and was looking for them in the chaotic situation. "Seven members of my family and 22 from my neighborhood were missing and so far we found only four of them, rest are still missing." Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq said an investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. Train crashes often happen on poorly maintained railways tracks in Pakistan, where colonial-era communications and signal systems haven't been modernized and safety standards are poor.

(Read more Pakistan stories.)
Ukraine peace talks took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this weekend, and while Ukraine says the discussions were productive, Russiawhich was not invitedhas a different opinion. Senior officials from 42 countries, including Ukraine, the US, China, India, and European countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace settlement; as the Wall Street Journal puts it, the talks were "an effort to rally global support behind conditions for ending the [Russian] war [on Ukraine] that would favor Ukraine." Ukraine wants Russia to withdraw all its troops, and for all of Ukraine's territory to be returned to its control, and it described the talks as an effort to garner broad support for those conditions internationally, Reuters reports.

Ukraine and Russia had competing comments on the talks after they ended Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's head of staff released a statement saying, "We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built." Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, however, was quoted in state media as saying the talks were "a reflection of the West's attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts" to mobilize the Global South behind Ukraine. Analysts said China's willingness to participateit has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and did not participate in previous talkscould signal a shift, though not a major one, in its attitude on the matter. Sources say most countries seemed willing to meet again in the coming weeks. (Read more Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
Police in Florida have charged one senior citizen in the fatal beating of another, and a celebratory photo of a hole-in-one helped in the case. As Fox 35 reports, all of this began on June 28, when 87-year-old Dean Zook hit a car while trying to park at the Glenview Country Club in The Villages. Robert Moore Jr., 76, thought Zook hit his car, and punched the older man in the jaw when Zook asked to ask exchange insurance information, say police, per WESH.com . Moore continued punching Zookuntil he realized that it wasn't his car after all that had been struck, according to an arrest affidavit.

When Sumter County deputies arrived and spoke with Zook, he began slurring his words and struggling to stand. He would be diagnosed with bleeding of the brain and eventually die from his injuries, say authorities. Moore had left the country club by the time deputies arrived, but they were able to identify him as a suspect thanks to a receipt for a to-go food order from the country club. A detective searching his name online then found a photo in the Villages-News of Moore from earlier this year posing after he hit a hole-in-one at a local course, per the Washington Post. He was wearing the same, or similar clothes, as the person seen on surveillance video punching Zook.

Moore, who has been charged with aggressive manslaughter, has since admitted that he punched Zook, according to court documents. He told a detective that he did so only after Zook put his hands on Moore's shirt and arm, per the arrest affidavit. Moore drives the same make and model car as the one struck by Zook, leading to the initial confusion. He also told the detective he feared Zook would try to leave the scene. Moore is scheduled to be arraigned in September. (Read more manslaughter stories.)
A North Carolina home-repair business fired two employees after they refused to continue participating in the company's mandatory prayer sessionsand now, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the firm will pay out $50,000 over the incident. Per a Wednesday EEOC release , the settlement with Aurora Pro Services is in response to a religious harassment, discrimination, and retaliation lawsuit brought in June 2022 by the agency, a complaint spurred by the mandated daily Christian prayer get-togethers that were allegedly led by the company's owner since at least June 2020.

The meetings were said to have included readings from the Bible, as well as recitations of the Lord's Prayer and extra prayers for Aurora workers who weren't performing up to speed, per the Washington Post. The paper identifies one of the two terminated employees as Mackenzie Saunders, an agnostic customer service rep who called the meetings "cultlike" and stopped going in January 2021, just two months after being hired; Saunders was fired that same month. The second employee, atheist construction manager John McGaha, says when he joined the Aurora team in the summer of 2020, he initially took part in the prayer meetings, which at that time were only about 10 minutes long.

In just a few months' time, McGaha says that 10 minutes stretched to 45 minutes, and he finally requested that he be able to opt out of the gatherings. The owner is said to have told McGaha at one point that "he did not have to believe in God, and he did not have to like the prayer meetings, but he had to participate," per McClatchy News. McGaha's pay was allegedly halved, and he was fired in September 2020. The EEOC release notes that the required prayer sessions violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, though in an October court filing, Aurora denied they were mandatory. Now, per the agency, Saunders will receive $12,500 as part of the settlement, while McGaha will get $37,000.

"Federal law protects employees from having to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and their jobs," says Melinda C. Dugas, an EEOC regional attorney. "Employers who sponsor prayer meetings in the workplace have a legal obligation to accommodate employees whose personal religious beliefs conflict with the company's practice." In addition to damages awarded to the complainants, the settlement bars Aurora from discriminating and retaliating against workers in the future for similar reasons, and also mandates training on this topic for all workers and managers, including the owner who reportedly led the prayer sessions. (Read more settlement stories.)
One of former President Trump's attorneys made the "full Ginsburg" on Sundaythe shorthand for appearing on all the major political showsand emphasized a new word in his client's defense: "aspirational." As in, Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were not criminal but "aspirational," says John Lauro, reports the Washington Post. For example:

On Pence: "What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything," Lauro said on CNN's State of the Union, per the New York Times. "He asked him in an aspirational way." The reference is to the allegation that Trump pressured Pence to toss Electoral College votes from some states in his capacity as vice president.

"What President Trump didn't do is direct Vice President Pence to do anything," Lauro said on CNN's State of the Union, per the New York Times. "He asked him in an aspirational way." The reference is to the allegation that Trump pressured Pence to toss Electoral College votes from some states in his capacity as vice president. On Georgia: Similarly, when Trump asked Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,870 votes" so he could win the state, "that was an aspirational ask," said Lauro, per USA Today. "He is entitled to petition even state government."

Similarly, when Trump asked Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,870 votes" so he could win the state, "that was an aspirational ask," said Lauro, per USA Today. "He is entitled to petition even state government." Elaborating: "When it comes to political speech, you can not only advocate for a position, but you can take action, you can petition, you can ask even your vice president to pause the vote," said Lauro. "Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. It's core free speech." He added that what Trump "was doing is within the reality and the realm of free speech. He's asking his vice president, 'What about taking this course of action?'"

(Lauro says any Pence testimony would actually help Trump , though the former vice president says he has "no plans" to testify .)
Three words no Alaskan wants to hear strung together: "record glacier flooding." But that's the current reality for residents of the capital city of Juneau, thanks to a famous glacier that sits above the city, reports Axios. The Washington Post frames the big picture after the weekend flooding: "The water surrounding the 3,000-year-old Mendenhall Glacier, which draws tourists from around the world, is now threatening the city." Coverage:



The culprit: The deluge sprang from an overflowing basin (named Suicide Basin) near the glacier, explains the National Weather Service. It sent water gushing into Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River, a phenomenon that has been happening since 2011. This year's flood level, however, has smashed the previous record by nearly 3 feet.

The deluge sprang from an overflowing basin (named Suicide Basin) near the glacier, explains the National Weather Service. It sent water gushing into Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River, a phenomenon that has been happening since 2011. This year's flood level, however, has smashed the previous record by nearly 3 feet. Damage: At least two structures were swept into the roaring river, per the AP. Others have been severely damaged and condemned, and Juneau officials have declared a local emergency because the riverbanks are unstable, per CNN. It's "pretty devastating for the community," NWS meteorologist Andrew Park tells the Post. "It really exceeded our expectations."

At least two structures were swept into the roaring river, per the AP. Others have been severely damaged and condemned, and Juneau officials have declared a local emergency because the riverbanks are unstable, per CNN. It's "pretty devastating for the community," NWS meteorologist Andrew Park tells the Post. "It really exceeded our expectations." Video: See video via Weather.com. KTOO also has a two-minute video shot by drone.
A man accused of impersonating a law enforcement officer was wearing a hat that said "Police US Marshal," police in Florida say, but it didn't take a real Marshal more than a few seconds to determine he wasn't the real deal. The Marion County Sheriff's Office says an officer who had stopped for gas heard an "unfamiliar emergency siren" when there was no emergency in the area. He pursued and pulled over a black pickup truck that had red and blue emergency lights, the Miami Herald reports. The driver, who had gone through a red light, displayed a badge and claimed that he was a US Marshal investigating a shooting, "but there were no reported shootings in the area," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post .

The driver, 52-year-old Derry Lambert, claimed he worked in Texas "but they got me down at Florida right now." The officer called the sheriff's office US Marshals Liaison. Lambert told the liaison over the phone that he was investigating "two gang members, two gangs out there that are riding on a four-wheeler with a pole on it, busting into people's houses," Fox 35 reports. When the liaison asked Lambert what district he was a US Marshal in, he said "Dallas." When the liaison showed up at the scene in person and asked the same question, Lambert responded, "District? What do you mean," per the Herald.

"If you're a US Marshal, you would know your district," the liaison told him. The US Marshals Service has 94 federal districts, with Texas split into eastern, western, northern, and southern districts. Police searched Lambert's pickup and found a firearm, along with Diazepam he didn't have a prescription for. He was arrested and and faces charges including impersonating an officer, obstructing police, drug possession, and use of a firearm during a felony, WCJB reports. Police say anybody who encountered Lambert posing as a Marshal should contact authorities. (Read more Florida stories.)
The bodies of three missing hikers were recovered from a mountain in the Scottish Highlands after they didn't return from a notoriously difficult scramble on one of the narrowest ridge crests in Britain, police said Monday. The trio set out Saturday in Glen Coe to hike the Aonach Eagach, a 6-mile knife-edge ridge that tops out at 3,600 feet and has precipitous drops. A search began after sunset when they didn't return, police said. A Coastguard helicopter flying in fog and mist located the bodies and a search and rescue crew returned Sunday morning to recover them, the AP reports. The deaths did not appear to be suspicious but a report will be given to the office that investigates deaths and prosecutes crimes, police said.

Police did not provide names of the dead. While storm Antoni lashed parts of the UK on Saturday with strong winds and heavy rain, the forecast in the Highlands was for light rain in the afternoon and temperatures as low as 41 degrees at 6pm. The British Mountaineering Council lists the trek as the "most legendary Grade 2 scramble in Scotland," meaning it doesn't require using a rope for safety but some people would be more comfortable having one. Kate Forbes, the Scottish Parliament member for the area, described the deaths as "horrendous news," the BBC reports. "My thoughts are with the families," she said. "My sincere appreciation to mountain rescue, as always, and the emergency services."

(Read more Scotland stories.)
Fairbanks, AK (99701)

Today

Periods of rain. High 54F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 49F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.
Note: Many programs have come and gone, but the junk is still here, and many folks feel it is part of being an Alaskan. For several years in the 1980s, the Borough offered a junk car removal program that was funded by federal grants, however those are long gone.

This collectable History Nugget has been brought to you by the Fairbanks Igloos of the Pioneers of Alaska.
Mr Speaker, Sir

Recently, we witnessed a series of high-profile public cases involving Political Office Holders.

Members have asked several questions regarding these cases. Let me give the House an account of how these issues have been dealt with, and why. After that, Minister Chan Chun Sing will address the more detailed questions in his statement.

CPIB investigation

On the CPIB investigation involving Minister Iswaran.

Briefly, the facts of the case are these: While investigating a separate matter, CPIB came across some information concerning Minister Iswaran that merited investigation. CPIB alerted me on 29 May, and pursued this lead further on their own volition. On 5 July, Director CPIB briefed me on the findings he had at that point. He told me that CPIB would need to interview Minister Iswaran to take the investigation further, and he sought my concurrence to open a formal investigation. I gave my concurrence the next day, 6 July. On 11 July, Minister Iswaran was brought in by CPIB and subsequently released on bail. I instructed him to take leave of absence until the investigations were completed.

Subsequently, I interdicted Minister Iswaran from duty with a reduced pay of $8,500 per month, until further notice. Such incidents involving ministers are rare, and there is no rule or precedent on how to effect an interdiction on a Political Office Holder. Hence, I used the current civil service practice as a reference point. The specific details in Minister Iswarans case follow generally how the civil service would deal with a senior officer in a similar situation. But this was my decision as Prime Minister, because the political contexts for a minister and a civil servant being investigated and interdicted are different.

I should point out that CPIB investigations are still ongoing. I am unable to provide more details on the case, so as not to prejudice the investigations in any way. I ask Members of this House and the public to refrain from speculation and conjecture. We must allow CPIB to do its work, to investigate the matter fully, thoroughly and independently. When the investigation is completed, CPIB will submit its findings to the Attorney Generals Chambers, which will decide what to do with them. Whichever way the facts come out, the case will be taken to its logical conclusion. That has always been our way.

Resignations of Former Speaker and Former MP

Next, on the resignations of former Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and former MP Cheng Li Hui.

Let me recap some basic facts, that are mostly already public: I first learnt of their relationship sometime after the 2020 General Election  in fact, in November 2020. They were both spoken to, and counselled, separately. They both said they would stop the affair. But as it turned out, they did not. Most recently in February 2023, I spoke to them again, separately. Mr Tan admitted that what he did was wrong. He offered to resign, I accepted. But I told him that before he actually resigned, I had first to make sure residents in Kembangan-Chai Chee (his ward) and Marine Parade (his GRC) were taken care of. Meanwhile, his relationship with Ms Cheng had to stop. A few weeks ago, I came across information that strongly suggested that the affair had continued. I decided that Mr Tan had to go forthwith. Ms Cheng had to resign too, because she had not broken off the affair even after being told to stop.

I have been asked: Why did I take so long, more than 2 years, to act? It is a fair question. In retrospect and certainly now knowing how things eventually turned out, I agree. I should have forced the issue sooner. But let me explain my general approach, as well as my thinking at that point in time.

These sorts of relationships happen from time to time. They have happened in the past, and no doubt will happen again in the future. In such cases, what we do depends on many factors: the circumstances, how inappropriate or scandalous the behaviour was, the family situations. We also have to be conscious of the impact on innocent parties  particularly the spouses and children. I had explained this at my press conference on 20 July. So did DPM Lawrence Wong last week in a BBC interview. This is not a new position  it reflects the PAPs long-standing practice, since the days of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

There is no single template that applies to all extra-marital affairs. But there can be at least three situations: The first situation  where the individuals involved will be talked to, and if they stop, the matter ends there. No further action need be taken. Second situation  where immediate action has to be taken. For example, when one party has supervisory power over the other party. And we have in the past taken immediate action, in a few cases. Third situation  where the relationship raises some questions of propriety, beyond it being an extra marital affair per se. The parties will be talked to, but the matter cannot end there. Even if the affair stops, some action has to follow. But what that action is and when it is taken, depends on the nature of the facts and the boundaries that have been transgressed.

The present situation falls into this third category. It is wrong. Mr Tan and Ms Cheng had to stop their affair. I told them to stop.

In deciding what more should be done, consider this: Would we object to having a Speaker being married to an MP? I think the answer is no  that would be perfectly alright. There is no direct reporting line between the Speaker and an MP. Thus, an open, legitimate relationship between the Speaker and an MP is not in itself objectionable. Hence, this situation of the Speaker having an affair with an MP does not fall into the category where immediate action has to be taken. However, the Speaker has some official capacity vis-a-vis MPs. An extra-marital affair between him and an MP is therefore problematic. It puts other MPs and staff in an awkward position, and it is just not proper. After I spoke to Mr Tan in November 2020, he told me that the relationship would end. I took it to be so. I therefore felt there was some leeway to take some time, to decide what further steps to take.

In this context, the possible actions that could have followed were: On the basis that the extra-marital affair had stopped, I would have asked Mr Tan to step down as Speaker some time before the end of the term, but in a way which would reduce the public embarrassment to him and his family. As to whether one or both should also resign as MPs  I had not decided at that time, but quite likely both would have had to leave at some point. By giving the matter some time, I had hoped to give them a softer exit, and save them and their families the pain and embarrassment that they are suffering now. I placed much weight on protecting their families  perhaps too much.

Regrettably, in the end Mr Tan and Ms Cheng did not stop the affair, and both had to go. On reflection, as I said, I should have forced the issue earlier, certainly before mid-term.

Let me add a personal plea at this point: while there is no doubt the two persons behaved improperly, there are also innocent family members involved. Likewise for the case involving a former member across the aisle, in the Workers Party. All their families are suffering. I hope that MPs and the public can empathise and have compassion for the families, and give them the privacy and space they need to heal.

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, Sir  there has been a great deal of public interest over the recent series of incidents  CPIB arresting and investigating a Minister, MPs resigning, and before that the allegations about the Ridout rentals.

The way we have handled these incidents shows how seriously the PAP takes our responsibility of governing Singapore, and being accountable to Parliament and to Singaporeans.

Let me assure Members: When such issues come up, we will deal with them properly and transparently  as we have done. With the Ridout rentals, when allegations of preferential treatment surfaced, the two Ministers involved were thoroughly investigated, including by CPIB, and eventually fully exonerated. The investigation reports were tabled in Parliament, and we had a long session answering MPs questions in this House. When CPIB discovered, on its own, that it had reason to arrest and interview a Minister, it opened a formal investigation. Nobody tipped them off. There had been no public scandal. CPIB came across something that needed investigating, and proceeded to do their job. When the Speaker of Parliament and a government MP fell short of the standards of propriety and personal conduct expected of them, they were asked to resign. We took some time to sort it out, probably longer than we should have. But we did what we needed to do, and put the situation right.

The two CPIB investigations, and the response to the personal misconduct case, show two aspects of how this PAP Government works. One, when there is suspicion or allegation of wrongdoing in the discharge of official duties, especially possible corruption, there is zero tolerance. Two, when people slip in their personal lives, the PAP will look at the facts of each case carefully, and deal with the matter as humanely and sensitively as possible, according to the principles that the Party has established.

Systems are composed of human beings. In any system, however comprehensive the safeguards, sometimes something will still go wrong. The PAP Government does our utmost to minimise that possibility. We work hard to identify the right people to bring into politics, and appoint into responsible positions. We vet them carefully, test and stretch them, before entrusting them with heavier responsibilities. Often they measure up, but sometimes they fall short. Occasionally they transgress norms of conduct, or commit wrongdoing.

Singapore has seen corruption cases involving political office holders in the past: Mr Tan Kia Gan in 1966, he was then former Minister of National Development, Mr Wee Toon Boon in 1975, he was then a Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Mr Teh Cheang Wan in 1986, he was Minister for National Development and earlier in 1979, Mr Phey Yew Kok, then President of NTUC and also an MP. All these cases were handled by Mr Lee Kuan Yew who was then Prime Minister  thoroughly, transparently, and applying the full force of the law. That is still how the PAP Government deals with such cases. It has not changed under my charge; and it wont change under my successor either.1

Now Mr Speaker, Sir, with your permission may I say a few words in Mandarin.





,









Mr Speaker, Sir

Let me assure Singaporeans that we will protect the integrity of our system of government. For the good of our country, we will carry through what needs to be done in accordance with the law, even if it may be politically embarrassing and painful to the party. I will not flinch or hesitate to do my duty, to keep our system robust and clean. This is how the PAP Government can continue to deserve the trust that Singaporeans have placed upon us.

I have spoken often about how precious trust is and how crucial it is for our democracy to work well. The founding generation built up Singapore and entrusted it to our generation in good shape. It is incumbent on us to protect and uphold this system, to keep it incorruptible and clean, and maintain high standards of propriety. With the investigation into Minister Iswaran, and the resignations of the Speaker and an MP, the PAP has taken a hit, but we will show Singaporeans that we will uphold standards and do the right thing, so that trust is maintained, and the Singapore system continues to work well.

This is my approach, and I am confident it will be my successors approach too. This is how we will keep Singapore safe, strong and prosperous for many years to come.

[1] PM made two clarifications in the afternote below.

(Afternote)

Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to make two quick factual corrections to what I said just now?

First, Mr Tan Kia Gan by 1966 was a former minister, no longer Minister because he had lost in the previous 1963 general elections.

Secondly, Mr Wee Toon Boon was Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and not in MINDEF.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain has stressed the importance of cooperation and exchange of expertise to improve labour markets regulations and unify labour and development policies in GCC states.

This comes as Labour Minister Jameel bin Muhammad Ali Humaidan inaugurated the new headquarters of the Executive Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Labour and Ministers of Social Affairs in GCC States, in the presence of Jassim Mohammed Al Budaiwi, Secretary General of the GCC Council.

The ministers, GCC Secretary General and guests were briefed at the event on the achievements and projects of the executive office in the labour and social sectors, and were taken on a tour of the new headquarters.

Humaidan affirmed Bahrains keenness to accomodate the Executive Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Labour and Ministers of Social Affairs in the GCC States since its establishment, and to provide all forms of support to enhance joint GCC work.

The Executive Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Labour and Ministers of Social Affairs in GCC States is one of the institutions that resulted from joint GCC cooperation as an embodiment of the unity of history, future, values, national belonging, common interests, similarity of systems, and social, economic and cultural life.

The Executive Bureau was established by a decision issued by the Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs in the GCC states at the meeting held in Manama in 1978. Humaidan praised the General Secretariat of the GCC Council and its Secretary-General for their continuous efforts to further enhance joint GCC work and support for labour ministers in the GCC states.

Al Budaiwi stressed the bureaus role in achieving joint GCC cooperation in labour and social affairs sectors. The executive bureaus role, as a technical arm of the General Secretariat of the GCC, is to provide studies and research that serve Gulf citizens in the field of labour, manpower and social affairs.

Dr. Amer bin Mohammad Al Hajri, Director General of the Executive Bureau, affirmed the keenness to promote joint GCC work, noting Bahrains advanced support for joint GCC action.

He expressed his sincere appreciation to the Kingdom, represented by the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development, for their efforts that led to the transfer of the executive bureau to the new headquarters in the Seef District.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain and Mexico celebrate the 48th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Mexican Ambassador to Bahrain (non-resident) Anbal Gomez Toledo wrote an article expressing the shared commitment to enhancing bilateral ties and enhancing cooperation.

The ambassador emphasised the constructive and respectful dialogue that has led to Bahrain and Mexico building a strong and enduring relationship. He noted the importance of the cultural and economic aspects of their bilateral engagement and the potential for further growth in these domains.

Stating that over the years, both nations have solidified their cooperation through agreements on investment, taxation, and ongoing negotiations on political consultations, reaffirming their mutual interest in strengthening ties across various sectors.

Toledo added that, despite the modest number of Mexicans residing in Bahrain  approximately 70 individuals  the Mexican community in Bahrain has been able to make significant contributions in diverse sectors, notably in gastronomy and culture.

Ambassador Toledo concluded his article by emphasising that this significant anniversary serves as a testament to the enduring bonds of friendship and the commitment to fostering peace and cooperation on the global stage.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Batelco, part of the Beyon Group, has announced that Meta has now joined Manama-IX, the Bahrain-based Internet peering service provider.

Meta, the social metaverse company and one of the worlds leading content providers, owns and operates a number of social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

One way to improve internet efficiency is to establish direct connections with big content providers, and by having Meta on Manama-IX, members will have access to an immense data pool, which will help reduce latency and improve connectivity quality, thus delivering a better customer experience when accessing Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Hani Askar, Chief Global Business Officer at Batelco, said, "We are delighted that Meta joined Manama-IX and that now we are able to provide our customers with direct peering access to major Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) such as Meta, as well as AWS, Google, and Microsoft, who are already on Manama-IX."

"Having Meta on Manama-IX is a very exciting milestone, as we always aim to enhance the customer experience and add value to our peers by attracting more content players to the region and supporting the connectivity community," he added.

"Batelcos vision behind Manama-IX is to be the leading IX in the MENA region and to contribute towards the development of Internet services across the region, in line with Bahrains vision of becoming a leading digital economy in the region," Askar concluded. Manama-IX interconnects global carriers, local and international operators, and both content and cloud providers.
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, Aug 07 ( Japan by Food ) - Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a Japanese sushi chef looks like? Shizuka ventures to Tokyos historic Tsukiji Fish Market to find out just that.

Saisho Nobuhiko is a sushi master with over 20 years of experience and the proud owner of Ginza Saishoa renowned sushi restaurant serving high-quality sushi masterpieces. Shizuka meets Saisho Nobuhiko at Tsukiji Fish Market, where their seafood adventure begins! Saisho-san schools Shizuka on all things seafood before they visit a special uni (sea urchin) vendor that happens to be a friend of his.

Next stop is a kitchenware shop! Our cheerful host, Shizuka, joins Saisho-san who is in need of a new kitchen tool. After they successfully complete their shopping mission, its time to head over to Ginza Saisho for a sushi-making lesson. From shaping the rice to placing the fish, Saisho-san teaches Shizuka the delicate art of making sushi before she enjoys her handmade lunch.
, Aug 07 ( Al Jazeera ) - Irans foreign minister has met with top officials in Japan in the first such high-level visit in more than three years.

Hossein Amirabdollahian sat down with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Monday after holding meetings with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato.

The last time a top Iranian diplomat visited Japan was in December 2019, one year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal and reinstated wide-ranging sanctions on Iran.

Japan raised the issue of Irans alleged provision of armed drones to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, but Amirabdollahian reiterated Iranian denials that it was supplying Russia.

Japan, which holds this years presidency of the Group of Seven nations, has been maintaining economic sanctions on Russia over the war as part of the G7.

Iran has been heavily criticised and targeted by sanctions by the US, European Union and United Kingdom for providing drones to Russia. ...continue reading
WION - Aug 19

US, South Korea, and Japan on Friday agreed to deepen military and economic ties. In a landmark summit held at Camp David, leaders of the three nations also made their strongest collective condemnation yet of China's "dangerous and aggressive behaviour" in the South China Sea.
Mary MacCarthy, a white woman, was accused by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant of trafficking her own biracial daughter and they were confronted by police officers after disembarking the plane, and subsequently contacted by a human trafficking unit investigator. MacCarthy is now suing the airline over the incident, claiming that the airline flagged her as suspicious "based on a racist assumption about a mixedrace family."

"The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthy's daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is White and her daughter is Black," the lawsuit said.

David Lane, the attorney representing MacCarthy, said that the suit is designed to bring accountability and to have the airline re-examine its own training. He said that the use of racial profiling in this case has attempted to address a serious crime with a "stereotypical, easy formula."

"Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling in using law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did," Lane said in a statement.
HANGZHOU, China, Aug. 7, 2023 /CNW/ -- Hikvision has introduced its AIoT-powered manufacturing solutions to help manufacturers maximize productivity and operating efficiency.

When it comes to industrial Internet-of-Things and Industry 4.0 issues, we usually think about the investment in automated equipment as well as the application of software systems such as MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). But enterprise leaders do well to note that smart manufacturing is more than that.

Hikvision manufacturing solution

We see today's manufacturers facing three major challenges:

1.) Personnel Management  While people, or labor, remains the essential element of the production process, their output relies on finer management;

2.) Visibility across the process  Automation equipment and software systems need more timely alerts and improved incident handling protocols, as well as forward-looking insights, to guarantee operational stability; and

3.) Lean Management for Boosted Productivity  In environments as complex as manufacturing plants, lean management regarding factors of production such as office park vehicle traffic, dock management, and information sharing, are also important in boosting productivity.

The Hikvision manufacturing solution leverages AIoT technology to shift offline data online where it can be monitored and utilized. AI and intuitive visualization technology also allows managers to monitor the site, production, and operational processes, and to respond in real time in the event of an issue  helping to drive efficiency and productivity.

Managing personnel more efficiently

Manufacturing parks have significant personnel management requirements, with large teams arriving on site and accessing specific areas for their work all day long  creating complex logistics, access management, security, and health and safety requirements.

Hikvision's Quick Access Solution, enabled by Hikvision MinMoe face-recognition terminals, gives employees touch-free access to manufacturing sites, covering the main entrance, the floor, offices, exits, production areas, EPA areas (ESDPA  Electrostatic Discharge Protected Area), and more. The technology provides "non-stop" access to ensure that employees can enter the site quickly, even during peak times  such as morning and evening rush hours or in bad weather.

The solution safeguards plant safety with precise access management. For example, only authorized staff can access specific areas of the site. For visitors, the solution provides full-journey online management to enhance convenience and ensure no blind spots for security.

Another benefit of the Quick Access Solution is that it turns physical footprints into digital records for accurate time & attendance management. Based on a manufacturer's choice of verification and identification methods  from face recognition to fingerprint readers, cards or PIN codes  employees can be identified and attendance reports and work records can be generated automatically. This ensures that the HR department can support employees effectively, optimize time & attendance management, and maximize accuracy for payroll, overtime, and compensation in general.

The Quick Access Solution can also be used to manage in-park facilities  such as facilitating zero-contact payment in cafeteria.

Maximizing visibility for production and operations

Organizations with large-scale production environments often experience information silos, making it difficult to detect and respond to incidents in real time or to make changes that actually increase efficiency. Hikvision's AR Live Interaction Solution offers a solution to these challenges by providing full visibility of large-scale production processes.

The solution uses Augmented-Reality (AR) cameras and easy-to-use location capabilities to create a live map of a site, giving managers a bird's-eye view. The system, which integrates seamlessly with other industry control systems, presents production information and site images on a four-screen display.

Some of the key features of the AR Live Interaction Solution include remote inspections, alarm handling, automated information collection and analyses, predictive maintenance for equipment, and performance evaluations. The system also detects defects in equipment and human errors to minimize downtime, mitigate safety risks, and provide insights for better decision making.

With the AR Live Solution, manufacturers can also place visualized displays in the workshop, adding an extra layer of visibility for assets and production processes. Visual images can be used to send safety reminders to employees, to facilitate communications between teams, and to improve work supervision and collaboration for improved efficiency.

Optimizing facilities and traffic management

For all manufacturing parks, the ability to manage the flow of vehicles efficiently and safely is of paramount importance. This requires real-time visibility of driving and parking on site, as well as monitoring of loading and unloading, scheduling and dispatching, and security across all areas of the site.

Hikvision's Park Traffic Management Solution standardizes on-site vehicle flow to help park managers embrace innovation and increase productivity. The solution is powered by AIoT technologies, including cameras with tailored algorithms, auto-triggered radar, management software, LED displays, and more. These technologies all come together to help operators create more manageable park environments, and to improve vehicle and resource allocations for optimal efficiency.

Speed measurement cameras and LED Screen with real-time speed and ANPR displays help to regulate driving practices at a worksite. This helps to reduce accidents caused by speeding, reverse driving, driving out of lane boundaries, illegal lane changing, and more. Meanwhile, illegal parking cameras detect vehicles that have stopped in prohibited areas that could cause accidents or injuries.

All video images and alarms are received and displayed at a command center managed via HikCentral Professional software. Here, displays show real-time information such as vehicle license plate numbers and speed, enabling operators take prompt action in case of an emergency.

By creating a safer, more orderly park environment, site operators can help incoming drivers locate the right loading docks and warehouses more quickly and easily. Managers also find it easier to stay up-to-date with vehicle statuses, to control traffic, allocate resources, and respond to emergencies. In the end, this all leads up to racially improved productivity and more efficient operations.

Find out how, with Hikvision

Hikvision's cutting-edge technologies are helping manufacturers to boost their management capabilities around the world, every day, leading to greater efficiency, improved productivity, and site security and safety. To discover more about Hikvision's intelligent manufacturing solutions, and how they help to provide assistance for work and well-being, please visit the solution page.

SOURCE Hikvision Digital Technology

For further information: Shine Hu, [email protected]
Peter Zeihan lists problems around the world. I disagree with his conclusions and his claims of inevitability.

The demographic problems identified in the age pyramids in different countries range from challenging to severe.

The non-performing loans in Italy and Italys extremely poor demographics make for very bad scenarios for Italys financial crisis.

Zeihan predicts three wars and massive oil and gas disruptions.

Zeihan is smoking something weird as he thinks just because the US becomes a net exporter of oil that the US would allow Europe and Asia and oil to go to hell while doing almost nothing.

Russia vs. Europe

I agree that Russia has major weaknesses. Russia is an aging petrostate. Zeihan thinks that Russia can roll over the rest of the Ukraine and Poland and Baltic countries. He thinks that it will take pushback from Germany, UK, Sweden etc to stop it.

He thinks the US will provide only minor support.

He also thinks that Russia will lose its oil and gas exports to Europe and then Russia would have to shut-in its oil.

I think Russia is and will ramp up oil and gas sales to China and India.

Russia will not be allowed to push further into Ukraine or the Baltic States. The US and Trump will meet NATO obligations. It would be politically impossible for Trump and Republicans to allow Russia to take Ukraine, Poland and Baltic states.

Iran vs. Saudi Arabia

He predicts a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and 11 million barrels of oil goes offline for many years.

Iran is getting squeezed by the US sanctions. The sanctions are having a strong effect. Iran is far weaker economically, militarily and politically. Israel will assist Saudi Arabia. The US will do more to quickly collapse Iran than Zeihan thinks. Russia has been assisting Iran but Russia is weaker than Zeihan thinks.

Asian Tanker War

Zeihans third war is dependent on one of the first two. Zeihan thinks China would lose out on not getting oil in a severe oil shortage. He thinks Japans Navy could beat Chinas.

A Russia to China gas pipeline is about completed.

Gazproms Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline from Russia to China is 93 percent complete, the Russian gas giant said in an update on its major projects.

A total of 2,010 kilometers (1,249 miles) of pipes are laid for the Power of Siberia gas pipeline between Yakutia and the Russian-Chinese border, or on 93 percent of the routes length, Gazprom said in a statement.

The natural gas pipeline is expected to start sending gas to China at the end of 2019 and its completion is among Gazproms top priorities.

China will become the worlds largest natural gas importer by 2019. The share of imports in Chinas natural gas supply is seen rising from 39 percent to 45 percent by 2023.

A second Sino-Russian oil pipeline began operations on Jan 1, 2018. It doubled Chinas capacity to import crude from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean system. China can now import 30 million tons annually (about 600,000 barrels a day) of Russian ESPO crude via pipeline, up from 15 million tons before the second branch opened. The two lines run parallel to each other between Mohe at the border and Daqing in northeast Heilongjiang Province.
I noticed a couple of days ago a video by Peter Zeihan that made predictions about the US withdrawing as the global cop which would trigger World disorder, wars of the frequency seen between 1800-1945 and collapse in global trade. It also predicted that from this disorder than Japan would emerge as the dominant power in Asia and that China would either break apart or remain unified but poor.

I will review older Zeihan predictions. I will review what is happening with Japan and China.

Zeihan has been predicting Chinas meltdown since 2005. He repeats the call for China meltdown and possible breakup or breakdown multiple times. In 2010, he said it would happen within 3-5 years.

In a recent video he says again that China will have major problems soon and that Japan emerges as a dominant power. He does not talk about India in that recent video. He is also positive about the ASEAN. Nextbigfuture is also positive about the ASEAN having 5-8% GDP growth on a fairly consistent level.

Nextbigfuture predicts that China will be dominant economically and militarily over Japan. India will pass Japan in nominal GDP in the 2024-2033 timeframe. The most likely passing time for India over Japan is 2026-2028.

Nextbigfuture predicts that China and USA will work out some trade deal in the 2019-2020 timeframe. China will likely cheat on whatever intellectual property arrangement is worked out. Nextbigfuture predicts the World trade system will not collapse. Nextbigfuture predicts that there will be a mostly maintained world order. Nextbigfuture predicts no major wars between China, USA, Japan, India, UK, France, Germany or Russia from now to 2040. The nuclear powers will not fight directly from now to 2040. There could be moderate skirmishes say NATO v Russia over Ukraine or something less than full Divisions engaging between China and India on borders.

Other than a possible even larger trade war, where the USA tariffs all Chinas goods and China retaliates and Trump picks trade fights with some other nations, there will not be the disorder or trade collapse that Zeihan described from now to 2040.

Nextbigfuture predicts that China could have recessions but China will not have negative GDP growth for more than three years in a row from now to 2030. Nextbigfuture predicts that China will have cumulative nominal GDP growth of at least 40% from 2019 to 2030. Nextbigfuture predicts that Japan will not get within ten percent of Chinas cumulative nominal GDP growth over the Jan 2019 to Dec 2030 period. If China gets to 40% then Japan does not get over 30%. If China gets to 50% then Japan does not get over 40%.

Reviewing Zeihan and STRATFOR

In 2010, Peter Zeihan was Vice President of Strategic Intelligence for STRATFOR.

STRATFOR is a geopolitical consultancy which was founded in 1996 by George Friedman. Friedman wrote the book The Coming War with Japan in 1991. For prediction accuracy, you may recall the terrible second war of the Pacific between the USA and JapanOh thats right it never happened in our reality.

The book claimed a military confrontation between the United States and Japan is likely within the next 20 years. According to the authors, the issues are the same as they were in 1941: Japan needs to control access to its mineral supplies in Southeast Asia and to have an export market it can dominate. In order to do this, Japan must force the United States out of the western Pacific. There is little effort to explore the substantial differences between the 1940s and the 1990s.

Those were Friedmans mistakes. Let us look at Zeihan.

Zeihan led the 2010 STRATFOR forecast for the decade. Zeihan was at STRATFOR from 2000 to 2012. He made their predictive models.

The 2005 prediction of Zeihan and STRATFOR:

In 2005, STRATFOR forecasted  China will suffer a meltdown like Japan and East and Southeast Asia before it. The staggering proportion of bad debt, enormous even in relation to official dollar reserves, represents a defining crisis for China. China will not disappear by any means, any more than Japan or South Korea has. However, extrapolating from the last 30 years is unreasonable.  At the same time that we see China shifting into a dramatically different mode.

In their 2010 Review of 2005, they claim that Chinas slowdown from 2005-2010 meant that they were somewhat right about China. Nothing remotely similar to a Japan-style crisis happened and the slowdown was similar to Chinas growth changes from 1993-2000.

Southeast Asia had the big recession in 1997. Malaysia and Thailand had a few more stumbles afterward. They are back to growth in the 4-8% per year range. So even if China has a full-blown recession, it does not follow that it would not return to 4-6% GDP growth. The US has recessions and then returns to 1 to 4% GDP growth. The US had -3 to2.5% GDP growth during the 2008-2016 Obama Presidency.

Japans growth has been -2% to 2% from 1989 onwards. With a -5% in 2009.



source:

China has not yet faced its Japan-style crisis but we continue to forecast that it will  and before 2015. [per Zeihan]

The ability of China to continue to supply cheap exports to the United States might come into danger. Not on the whole, because all of the Chinese regional cities will still have an interest in doing that, even once the Chinese system cracks. But youre going to have to pay very close attention to your supply chain there as the politics of China become unglued.

In 2010, Zeihan said we expect the economic collapse of China in this coming decade. Weve been talking for awhile about how the economic system there is remarkably unstable and we think that theyre going to reach a break point as all of the internal inconsistencies come to light and shatter. By the end of the decade, itll be pretty obvious to everybody that the China miracle is over.

Here is a Video of Zeihan Talking in 2011 in Calgary About China

The Whole talk is about why Chinas system will break. The predition at 10:10 is Chinas system  economic and unity will break in 3-5 years from 2011. So 2014-2016 was the prediction.

Around 7 minutes of the video, he talks about how the chinese provinces get messed up in the breakup.

Zeihan Hates Chinas Geography  China Used Three Gorges Dam to Increase River Cargo Capacity

China megaprojects allow it alter its geography significantly. Three Gorges and other dams deepen Chinas river networks. China ships down massive grand canal.

In 2014, the throughput of the five-tier ship lock of the Three Gorges Dam will hit 110 million tonnes.

One of the key benefits of the vast infrastructure project was an increase in shipping capacity, but now engineers are struggling with the challenge of how to provide more room for cargo on the Yangtze River.

The dam has made the river deeper and slower, allowing for easier navigation  especially upstream  for cargo and passenger vessels. The limiting factor for cargo, however, is the capacity of a five-step lock and a soon-to-be-completed ship lift to transport vessels across the 181-metre high dam.

The throughput at the ship locks of the Three Gorges hydropower project reached a record high of 138 million tonnes in 2017.

China has put a new container ship with a capacity of 1,140 standard containers into service on the countrys longest river, the Yangtze, as part of an upgrade of vessels on the waterway.

The ship was commissioned to go on route between the port of Wuhan, capital of central Chinas Hubei Province, to the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai on the rivers estuary, on Friday. The route is about 1,000 km long.

The Yangtze is the worlds busiest waterway. More than 2.3 billion tonnes of cargo are transported through ports on the main stream of the river every year, both imports and exports.

The new ship is 130 meters long, nearly 24 meters wide and has a maximum load of 13,600 tonnes.

China has megaprojects and ships in the 100 million ton range down the Grand Canal.

China ships about 6.5 billion tons by water, 34 billion tons by truck, 3 billions tons by rail, 750 million tons by pipeline and 7 million tons by air.

US Army Engineers Will Deepen the Mississippi to 50 Feet

The US is also doing some river enhancement.

The 230 miles of the meandering Mississippi River on either side of New Orleans are home to the worlds largest port system. Collectively, the five deep-water ports on the lower Mississippi River  New Orleans, South Louisiana, Baton Rouge, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines  handle more tonnage than any other port in the world, providing billions of dollars in annual economic impact and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Nearly 12,000 ships  including 6,000 oceangoing vessels  travel the lower river corridor annually, carrying 500 million tons of cargo and 700,000 cruise passengers. Those numbers may soon increase, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a plan to increase the depth of the Mississippi River to accommodate larger cargo ships built in the wake of the Panama Canal expansion.

More 2010 Predictions from Zeihan

China faces a quadruple bind. [2010]

First, Chinas current economic model is not sustainable. That model favors employment over all other concerns, and can only be maintained by running on thin margins. Eventually, manufacturing margins turn negative as they did in Japan in 1991 and Indonesia in 1998. Second, the Chinese model is only possible so long as Western populations continue to consume Chinese goods in increasing volumes. European demographics alone will make that impossible in the next decade. Third, the Chinese model requires cheap labor as well as cheap capital to produce cheap goods. The bottom has fallen out of the Chinese birthrate; by 2020 the average Chinese will be nearly as old as the average American, but will have achieved nowhere near the level of education to add as much value. The result will be a labor shortage in both qualitative and quantitative terms.

Finally, internal tensions will break the current system. More than 1 billion Chinese live in households whose income is below $2,000 a year (with 600 million below $1,000 a year). The government knows this and is trying to shift resources to the vast interior comprising the bulk of China. But this region is so populous and so poor  and so vulnerable to minor shifts in Chinas economic fortunes  that China simply lacks the resources to cope.

Japan is the worlds second-largest economy. It has spent the time since 1990 in a holding pattern, focusing on full employment and social stability instead of growth. That process is drawing to an end and  in a manner that both reflects Chinas present situation and heralds Chinas future  will have to be dealt with in the 2010s. Japan will face an existential crisis in the next decade, deciding who it is and what kind of nation it is going to be. The culture of avoiding risk  foreign and domestic  can only be sustained when there are no threats. The threat to domestic well-being has grown. Its economic heft gives it options, of course, but not within the paradigm in which it operated in the past. Its demographic problem is particularly painful, and Japan has no tradition of allowing massive immigration. When it has needed labor it has established colonies in Korea and China. As China shifts its economic pattern, it will need outside investment badly. Japan will still have it to give, and will need labor badly. How this relationship evolves will define Asia in the 2010s.

In 2015, STRATFOR was saying  China has completed its cycle as a high-growth, low-wage country and has entered a new phase that is the new normal. This phase includes much slower growth and an increasingly powerful dictatorship to contain the divergent forces created by slow growth. China will continue to be a major economic force but will not be the dynamic engine of global growth it once was. That role will be taken by a new group of highly dispersed countries we call the Post-China 16, which includes much of Southeast Asia, East Africa and parts of Latin America. China will not be an aggressive military force either. Japan remains the most likely contender for the dominant position in East Asia, both because of its geography and because of its needs as a massive importer.

In 2015, STRATFOR reviewed 2010. STRATFOR said We predicted Chinas weakness too early, but we saw that weakness when others were seeing the emergence of an economy larger than that of the United States.

Nextbigfuture believes that is an overly generous review of their 2010 prediction.







China Nominal GDP Grew From $2 Trillion in 2005 to Over $12 trillion in 2017



source: tradingeconomics.com

Chinas Nominal GDP per Capita Went up Five Times from 2005 to 2017

Some Other Statistics

In 2017, FDI (foreign Direct Investment) into China rose 7.9 percent to reach 878 billion yuan (135 billion U.S. dollars), an all-time high. There was strong investment into high-tech services, which rose 93.2 percent year-on-year to reach 185 billion yuan (over $20 billion).

In 2017, there were 35,652 foreign-funded companies were set up in China, up 27.8 percent from a year before.

FDI into central China registered rapid growth in 2017, with total volume up 22.5 percent year on year to 56.1 billion yuan, faster than the other regions.

2017 Zeihan Talks About Japan Over China

Chinas geography is atrocious. Less than one-fifth of its land is habitable. Its flood- and drought-prone north is a flat security free-for-all that has suffered nearly three millennia of incessant internal warfare. Its south is a tropical disease belt. All but one of its rivers are too moody to help with commerce. Its interior is alternatively desert, mountain, tundra, jungle  or some brutal combination thereof. A line of archipelagos parallel its coast, all but preventing military or economic interaction with the wider world.

China as it exists today is only possible because of the global Bretton Woods economic order Washington has upheld since the end of World War II. Simply put, a land-based power with some of the longest supply chains in the world cannot exist as a manufacturing and export powerhouse unless someone with a global navy enables it. That someone has been the United States, who has guaranteed the safety and security of the goods flowing to, from, in and out of Chinese ports, and who has offered largely unfettered market access for decades.

Sure, Xi Jinping is disrupting and reshaping Chinese political corruption to better suit him, but why dont we talk about how Shinzo Abe was able to get his anti-war, Buddhist coalition partners to support his efforts to expand the role of Japans military forces? It is Japan, not China, that boasts the worlds second most capable navy. It is that navy that is second only to the United States in the number of aircraft carriers floated (Japan claims those carriers are only for helicopters but that is, if youll forgive the repeat, just some more PR bullshit).

China is still the worlds second largest economy, the biggest by population and its domestic (d)evolutions will certainly cause international ripples. But Beijing will remain constrained by its domestic concerns as its economy remains tied to a disappearing global order it cannot hope to replicate, not even  especially not even  in its own neighborhood. But while the world has eyes on China, mine (and I imagine many of those who attended the Chinese Communist Partys Congress) will be fixed squarely on Japan.

The Japanese Aircraft carriers that Zeihan refers to are the Izumo and the Hyuga.

In May 2018, Tokyo released portions of a study concluding the Izumo and Kaga could be used to carry U.S. Marine jets assisting in the defense of Japanese soil. Japan is looking to buy F-35Bs. They are appealing because their lift fans would allow them to operate from the shorter civilian airfields of remote Japanese islands, the Tokyo has also studied the cost of modifying the Izumo-class carriers to accommodate up to ten of them at a time. Such modifications would entail heat-resistant paint to the decks, as an F-35Bs vertical lift fans generate such intense heat they could threaten to damage the deck.

So twenty F-35Bs from two tiny carriers. Japan is talking about increasing its 42 F-35A to 142 F-35s with a mix of F-35A and F-35B. F-35B for its jump jet vertical takeoff.

China has two mid-sized carriers and plans to phase in four more by the mid-2020s.

Plus China has fortified islands with 2000 foot runways.

China is starting to mass produce the J-20 stealth fighter and should have at least 200 by 2025.

China has hundreds of dredging ships and can convert many more islands into stationary aircraft and missile staging areas. Two hundred converted islands with airstrips and planes and missiles is not impossible.

There are islands and reefs in the East China Sea off of China and near Okinawa. China could convert those islands easily.
At the end of a long talk, Peter Zeihan predicts the World Population will never hit ten billion. The UN and others are projecting that world population will hit 10 billion in 2050.

World population is currently 7.7 to 7.8 billion. In 2017, the UN projected world population will hit 8.6 billion by 2030.

Zeihan predicts that world population will hit 8.5 billion at most. He thinks population growth stalls out with massive famines. There is also an implication of massive wars.

Zeihan is predicting the starvation or foregone population growth of over 1 billion people from 2030-2050. He is predicting unsuccessful biotech modifications to boost crops, no meaningful greenhouse construction and insufficient importing of food to Africa and Asia.

He is casually predicting famines and wars that are 5 times worse than the combined famines and wars of the 20th century. 123 million died in 20th-century wars and 70 million from 20th-century famines.

He is predicting this to happen in the 20-25 year period starting around 2030. There is also apparently no recovery after 2050. If there were no large scale famine and war then there should be about 1.5 to 2 billion more people from 2050 to 2100.

Nextbigfuture predicts the famines and wars at those scales do not materialize. Nextbigfuture predicts the worlds population will be slightly higher than the UN 2017 forecast. Nextbigfuture predicts the toll from famine and war in the 21st century will be at most half the absolute level of the 20th century. This will be in spite of the population increase. World population is already three times the WW2 world population level. World population in the 21st century will average about two to four times the population in the corresponding year in the 20th century.

On a percentage basis, Nextbigfuture is predicting famines and war take a toll eight times less than the 20th century.

There are really two parts to the Zeihan prediction. There is a prediction of massive famine and wars and a prediction that the increased death rate will offset birthrates to stop any population growth.

In the four years of Chinas great famine from 1958 to 1961, there was only a population growth of 2 million per year in 1960 and 1961. There was a population boom from 1963 to 1971. Chinas population grew by 20 million per year.

Birthrates bounce back after hard times. People have more babies to make up for losses of family members to wars and famine.

Zeihan went full doomer in his prediction. Never go full doomer. Doomers are always wrong.

The World Can Feed Several Times the Current Population

Nextbigfuture has covered how there is a lot of slack in the world and national capacity to feed people.

Average global farm productivity is about 6 tons per hectare. There are large research farms growing 17 tons per hectare.

Chinas Yuan Longping has set a goal of reaching a rice yield of 18 tons per hectare by 2020 and is in a race with other researchers.

Deployment of the newer generation of seeds and we can double food production. Seeds that are at a reasonable scale.

In less than 15 years, we can globally deploy new rice and other crops to triple agricultural production. This alone deals with feed any population we could have by 2100.

More people can also be fed by reducing food wastage and eating more plant protein instead of meat.

SOURCES- Peter Zeihan, UN

Written By Brian Wang. Nextbigfuture.com
The world we know today has largely been shaped by geography, populations and agriculture. Peter Zeihan has some useful analysis of how geography has shaped geopolitics.

He correctly notes the large advantages the US has had with the best farmland and the best connected river system. Rivers can transport goods at 15 times greater energy efficiency than trucks and two to three times better than trains. Pipelines can be as energy efficient as rivers but have a far higher capital cost.

However, Zeihan does not update to see how megaprojects and technology are overcoming the power of geography to dictate world power.

The US has had the advantage of geography that is resistant to invasion and wars. This is less relevant because nuclear weapons and modern militaries have eliminated most of the perceived gains countries could get from conquering other countries. Wars between developed countries with modern militaries have been very rare since WW2 and especially since the end of the cold war.

The main war that has been deterred by the US has been Chinas desire to regain Taiwan. Many geopolitical analysts like to talk about what if the US abandons its role as global peacekeeper. The US did not stop the war between Iran and Iraq. There have been border wars between China and India and India and Pakistan. The US chosen to be not involved or minimally involved in certain situations for decades. The situation then is shaped by the dominant regional players.

* Megaconstruction has reshaped river systems and China has reshaped its inland waterways. * China has upgraded its agricultural land and is fixing pollution.

* Self-driving trucks will revolutionize logistics. It can bring down the cost by about 4 times and can increase the distance driven in a day by 2.5 times. This will give every highway the speed and capacity of a highspeed rail line. Rail will be crushed for cargo and this will further reduce the importance of river shipping.

Geography is already being overcome as countries that make investments eliminate the advantages of other countries or remove their own disadvantages.

Overcoming Dependence on US Consumers

Zeihan also talks about global dependence on the USA for security and markets.

Now the total world consumer spending is over $40 trillion. The US has $13.6 trillion and China is number two with $6 trillion. The European Union collectively has $9.7 trillion and Japan is next with $2.8 trillion. Germany has $2 trillion.

The World and US consumer spending is growing at about 3% per year. China is growing at 9% per year. Chinas consumer spending growth is faster than its GDP growth. Chinas share of GDP for consumer spending is about 44% when many countries have 54% to 68%. South Korea is the developed country with the next lowest share of consumer spending at 48%. China could grow consumer spending at a 9% pace for several years until it gets into the 55-65% range of share of GDP for spending. This is even if the GDP growth rate drops to 4-5% per year.

China is on track to get to about $8 trillion in consumer spending in 2021. In 2025, China should be at $11.2 trillion. They should reach $16 trillion in 2029. The US market should have still grown to around $17-18 trillion in 2029. The passing of the US consumer market should happen around 2030-2035. This should happen even if China drops from 6-7% down to 4-5% in the early 2020s. The US and China will be within 15% of each other from 2029-2037 in terms of overall consumer spending.

China Reshaped Its Rivers With Dams, Dredging and Megascale Construction

China is widening and deepening all of its major rivers. China has more than 75,000 miles (some 125,000 km) of navigable inland waterways, the most extensive system of any country in the world.

When the Yangtze is high in summer, it is navigable from its mouth to as far as Chongqing for ships of up to 5,000 tons.

Guoyuan, a 16-berth port connected to the railway in Chongqing, shipped 12 million tonnes of freight last year, but can handle up to 30 million tonnes. Every day, cargo shipped from Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan arrives for transfer to railroad cars, often bound for northern Europe, 16 days away.

By 2020, four new rail-water-road ports and nine specialized ports will have been built in Chongqing, and the aggregate cargo handling capacity of the municipality is expected to hit 220 million tons. The Mississippi waterway handles about 560 million tons each year.

The Yangtze is the worlds busiest river. More than 2.3 billion tons of cargo went through ports in 2016 and is growing at about 6 percent. This includes 330 million tonnes of exports and around 15 million containers.

The 40-year-old Nanjing Port had its channel deepened to 12.5 meters. The ports capacity has exceeded 100 million tons. Nanjing can now handle ships of up to 80,000 tons.

The waterway from the estuary of the Yangtze to Nanjing was only 7 meters deep in 1998. The channel depth in Jiangsu has been gradually increased, first to 8.5 meters and then 10.5 meters, making it navigable by bulk carriers and oil tankers.

The Xi River is second in importance only to the Yangtze, being the major water transport artery of South China. Ships of 1,000 tons can sail up the Xi to Wuzhou, while smaller craft can sail up its middle and upper courses as well as up the Bei and Dong rivers and the tributaries of all these streams.

In 2008, heavy investments began in the Wu navigation channel. 430 km of the waterway were dredged and there was construction of berths, navigation facilities and huge ship elevators to raise boats up to 200 meters. Navigation was suspended in 2003 when Goupitan hydropower station opened and the water level differential arose. Now water transit has resumed, annual freight volume is expected to hit 15 million tonnes in three years and 100 million tonnes by 2030.

Agriculture Despite Inferior Land

China has agriculture production that has five times the value of US production. China has seven times less land per person and over 4 times the population of the USA.

Chinas land now averages production that is only 20% less than the US per hectare.

China is spending hundreds of billions each year to fix polluted farmland and to upgrade irrigation and other aspects of farmland.

Self-driving Trucks

Self-driving trucks will revolutionize logistics. It can bring down the cost by about 4 times and can increase the distance driven in a day by 2.5 times.

A self-driving truck would be able to deliver across the USA in about 1 day instead of 5 days.
Peter Zeihan was interviewed by Joe Rogan where Zeihan again predicted the collapse of China. This time Zeihan says it will happen within ten years. Zeihan has been predicting Chinas meltdown since 2005. He repeats the call for China meltdown and possible breakup or breakdown multiple times. In 2010, he said it would happen within 3-5 years.

Nextbigfuture agrees that China under President Xi is screwing up. I also agree that China screwed itself royally with the one-child policy. The demographic decline will be a 1-2% per year economic headwind from now to 2050 because of a declining working-age population.

Zeihan ignores that China can still increase rural efficiency and continue to train people from the countryside and bring them into the urban areas. Zeihan does not try to consider any counterarguments once he has brief problem he can describe in four sentences and a conclusion he can pitch out in one sentence with three sentences of detail.

Zeihan covers a lot of ground. He makes broad and incorrect statements and has a bad analysis of history. He works off of incorrect and over-stated premises around population pyramids. He ignores critical factors and vital specifics.

My Public Track Record of Being Right 90% of the Time  Skip if You Do Not Need to Know

Why am I one of right people to call Peter Zeihan on his BS? I have a public record of predictions. I am ranked 49th on the public prediction site Metaculus and this is out of over 3000 predictors on the site. I have been top 39-40th in the 3 month, 6-month and 12-month time frames. Some of the people ranked ahead of me have been predicting many years before I started in November, 2019. I am probably in the top 1% of predictors.

A brier score of 0.25 is associated with expectations for many random guesses with 50% confidence getting about 50% correct. My brier score of 0.089 on over 400 resolved predictions means about 90% right on 90% confidence. I have about 40 that were wrong out of 400 with scores worse than 0.25 brier score.

Zeihan Bias

Zeihan wants to conclude that China will collapse. There is an audience that wants to hear this conclusion. Anti-China speakers get paid to speak all the time.

Zeihan loves to use population pyramid analysis and some geography to come to absolute conclusions. It is easy to show this data and to make crazy conclusions that seem plausible at first.

There are times Zeihan and I can agree on a conclusion but often it is for different reasons. Here is a video where I explain why China loses badly attacking Taiwan and the US is guaranteed to defend. This is a case of a broken clock being right twice a day.

Zeihan Decades of Being Wrong

Zeihan has been repeating for a decade or two that the US will withdraw from being the global cop and will not protect the sealanes on the worlds oceans.

I have reviewed Zeihan and his mentor Freidman many times.

I summarized the bulk of what they have been getting wrong in this article. However, they are constantly making mistaken claims and conclusions.

He makes too much of the Bretton Woods agreement.

He believes that when the US stops importing oil then they will stop protecting the seas and the US will lose interest in being the global cop.

He is overstating the US role policing order as opposed to the US and the US military industrial complex wanting to control things globally for different reasons.

For the last two years of the Trump administration there was a balance between oil supply and demand for total US oil usage. However, the US was still importing and exporting oil. They were taking in raw crude from others and refining it.

Here is a summary of what has been happening with US fossil fuel imports and exports.

Crude oil accounts for the largest share of U.S. total energy imports on an energy content basis. Even though the United States remained a net importer of crude oil in 2021, crude oil net imports were at the second lowest annual level since 1985. Some of imported crude oil is refined into petroleum products that are exported.

After declining nearly every year since 2005, U.S. total petroleum net imports increased in 2021, mostly because of an increase in U.S. crude oil net imports. U.S. crude oil imports increased in 2021 and crude oil exports decreased in part because of reductions in U.S. crude oil production in 2021 resulting from lingering effects of the economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. crude oil exports dropped in 2021 after having increased every year since 2010 and reaching a record high in 2020. U.S. crude oil imports increased by about 235,000 b/d in 2021 to about 6.1 million b/d. Crude oil net imports were about 3.1 million b/d in 2021.

U.S. petroleum products (excluding crude oil) imports and exports both increased in 2021; imports by 19% and exports by 7%. Even though total annual petroleum products exports in 2021 were the highest on record, they were not enough to offset imports, and petroleum product net imports increased in 2021.

Total natural gas exports increased every year since 2014, and in 2017, the United States became a net exporter of natural gas for the first time since the late 1950s. In 2021, total natural gas exports reached a record high of 6.65 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), or about 18.23 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Increases in domestic natural gas production and increases in liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity have contributed to growth in U.S. natural gas exports. Even though U.S total imports of natural gas increased by 10% to about 7.69 Bc/d in 2021, natural gas exports contributed to record low natural gas net imports.

The US is now sending more oil to Europe and liquified natural gas because of the Ukraine War and forcing Europe to stop importing Russian oil.

The fracking revolution has been substantially reduced. There are anti-US domestic oil production policies.

Even if the US increases oil supply or drastically reduces demand.

1. Net Zero would not mean millions of barrels of different oil products are not moving in and out.

2. The US would not stop at net zero. They might end up being a net exporter which means sending oil and LNG out.

They still need to defend the in and out movement and trade.

The US is still making other stuff. Huge amounts of money need to be defended to move things in and out.

If the economy evolved where production and demand were more localized. The US military industrial complex would make up reasons to intervene and protect things or defend things.

Zeihan is predicting that the US military industrial complex will choose to go into permanent retirement. Does he even try to listen to his bizarro bottom lines?

Zeihan makes a big deal of the Pax Americana period. Pax Americana (Latin for American Peace) is a term applied to the concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the world beginning around the middle of the 20th century. It was caused by the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States. Although some would also credit several powers having nuclear weapons.

Zeihan ignores the Pax Britannica. Pax Britannica (Latin for British Peace) was the period of relative peace between the Great Powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a global police force. Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britains imperial century, around 10,000,000 square miles (26,000,000 km2) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Britains Royal Navy controlled most of the key maritime trade routes and enjoyed unchallenged sea power.

Zeihan predicts that without America as cop that world will go into fighting and chaos and world trade will collapse. This will be followed by the collapse of countries.

Zeihan has decent population pyramid analysis and some of his other analysis and problem identification is useful.

However, I do not agree with the end predictions and conclusions that emerge after the analysis.

I have listed what are some Zeihan predictions and I have put up counter predictions. So we will see who is right.

There does need to some time ranges on the predictions.

Reviewing Zeihan and STRATFOR

In 2010, Peter Zeihan was Vice President of Strategic Intelligence for STRATFOR.

STRATFOR is a geopolitical consultancy which was founded in 1996 by George Friedman. Friedman wrote the book The Coming War with Japan in 1991. For prediction accuracy, you may recall the terrible second war of the Pacific between the USA and JapanOh thats right it never happened in our reality.

The book claimed a military confrontation between the United States and Japan is likely within the next 20 years. According to the authors, the issues are the same as they were in 1941: Japan needs to control access to its mineral supplies in Southeast Asia and to have an export market it can dominate. In order to do this, Japan must force the United States out of the western Pacific. There is little effort to explore the substantial differences between the 1940s and the 1990s.

Those were Friedmans mistakes. Let us look at Zeihan.

Zeihan led the 2010 STRATFOR forecast for the decade. Zeihan was at STRATFOR from 2000 to 2012. He made their predictive models.

The 2005 prediction of Zeihan and STRATFOR:

In 2005, STRATFOR forecasted  China will suffer a meltdown like Japan and East and Southeast Asia before it. The staggering proportion of bad debt, enormous even in relation to official dollar reserves, represents a defining crisis for China. China will not disappear by any means, any more than Japan or South Korea has. However, extrapolating from the last 30 years is unreasonable.  At the same time that we see China shifting into a dramatically different mode.

In their 2010 Review of 2005, they claim that Chinas slowdown from 2005-2010 meant that they were somewhat right about China. Nothing remotely similar to a Japan-style crisis happened and the slowdown was similar to Chinas growth changes from 1993-2000.

Southeast Asia had the big recession in 1997. Malaysia and Thailand had a few more stumbles afterward. They are back to growth in the 4-8% per year range. So even if China has a full-blown recession, it does not follow that it would not return to 4-6% GDP growth. The US has recessions and then returns to 1 to 4% GDP growth. The US had -3 to 2.5% GDP growth during the 2008-2016 Obama Presidency.

Japans growth has been -2% to 2% from 1989 onwards. With a -5% in 2009.



source:

China has not yet faced its Japan-style crisis but we continue to forecast that it will  and before 2015. [per Zeihan]

The ability of China to continue to supply cheap exports to the United States might come into danger. Not on the whole, because all of the Chinese regional cities will still have an interest in doing that, even once the Chinese system cracks. But youre going to have to pay very close attention to your supply chain there as the politics of China become unglued.

In 2010, Zeihan said we expect the economic collapse of China in this coming decade. Weve been talking for awhile about how the economic system there is remarkably unstable and we think that theyre going to reach a break point as all of the internal inconsistencies come to light and shatter. By the end of the decade, itll be pretty obvious to everybody that the China miracle is over.

China is now having slower growth. This has been made worse by the COVID pandemic for the past two to three years and because President Xi has been prioritizing his own power over allowing Chinas technology companies to grow. China also had a property bubble and debt bubble.

There are debt bubbles and recessions but has not headed into a Japan-style lost decade.

Zeihan also says that China has not had innovation and Chinas workers are less productive than Mexican workers. Yes, China has stolen or copied technology but China has companies and people that are innovation in science and technology.

Zeihan covers a lot of ground. He makes broad and incorrect statements and analysis of history. He works off of incorrect and over-stated premises around population pyramids. He ignores critical factors and vital specifics. His methodology is flawed, broken and his track record is terrible.
Air France, the French national carrier, has suspended flights to and from Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

The suspension is to last till August 11.

According to Reuters , the company announced the development on Monday.

This comes a day after Nigers military rulers announced the closure of the countrys airspace due to the threat of intervention.

The closure of Nigers airspace dramatically widens the area over which most commercial flights between Europe and southern Africa cannot fly, FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service, said in a blog post.

Flights must already take a detour of sorts around Libya and Sudan.

With Nigers airspace now off limits as well, airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa will need to reroute and add 1000 or more extra kilometers to their flights, increasing the amount of fuel each flight will need and the flight time.

The news agency quoted an Air France spokesperson as saying that the airline expected longer flight times from sub-Saharan hub airports and that flights between Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Accra in Ghana were set to operate non-stop.

A spokesperson for Brussels Airlines added that flight times could be between an hour and a half to three and a half hours longer for rerouted flights and could include a fuel stop, Reuters said.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio rushed to the presidential villa on Monday afternoon after a commotion at the red chamber.

Akpabio visited the state house shortly after a rowdy session over a motion seeking to suspend the screening of Festus Keyamo as a ministerial nominee.

NigerianEye reported how Darlington Nwokocha, senator representing Abia central, moved the motion when Keyamo appeared before the senates committee of the whole for screening.

Nwokocha said Keyamo ignored the summon of the national assembly over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.

I move that we suspend forthwith screening of the nomination and wait until when this is cleared, he said.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia south, supported Nwokochas motion to step down Keyamos screening.

When the senate president put the motion to a voice vote, the nays were as loud as the ayes after which a rancorous session ensued.

Akpabio called for another voice vote after the first, and this time, the lawmakers responded in a disorderly manner, collectively shouting no and yes.

The rowdiness continued for about five minutes before calm was restored. Thereafter, the senate president called for an executive session.
Here at Boing Boing, back in 2018, Rusty Blazenhoff shared news about "The Empire Strips Back"no, that's not a typoa Star Wars-themed burlesque show that was touring California at the time. Well, I'm back to let you know that if you missed it then, you can still catch the show in one of the last few cities of its current tour. It's currently playing in Seattle through August 27, then heads to Phoenix (starting September 6), Vancouver (starting September 20), Paris (starting October 6), and Portland (starting November 1).

The Phoenix New Times describes the show and its history:

Launched in 2011 by veteran Australian burlesque promoter Russall S. Beattie, "The Empire Strips Back" has sold out venues around the world during multiple tours.



While geek-themed burlesque shows featuring "Star Wars" characters have been a thing for more than a decade, Beattie aimed to do something different with this production.



"What most people know as burlesque is a very classic style  fans, feathers, big-band music, you know, vintage aesthetics," Beattie told the Arizona Republic in 2019. "I wanted to evolve the way the audience perceives burlesque and do something a bit different, and just as a joke we did a 'Star Wars' burlesque show as a one-off, just as a joke between our more serious shows. Little did I know that would be the most popular show I've ever created."



"The Empire Strips Back" also features some big-time production values and elaborate elements. "The Empire Strips Back" features a total of seven dancers who portray dozens of "Star Wars" characters during the two-hour-long show. It's full-sized Jabba the Hutt puppet also cost more than $50,000 to build and requires four people to operate.

To learn more, see tour dates, and buy tickets, head to The Empire Strips Back website.
The Special Assistant on Public Communications to Atiku Abubakar, Mr Phrank Shaibu, said his principal has dragged President Bola Tinubu before the United States of America District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

According to Shaibu, Atikus suit against Tinubu is marked No. 23-5099 (N. D. III.).

He said the filing of the fresh suit was why Atiku withdrew an existing case before a Circuit Court in Illinois.

Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 presidential election, is challenging the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission that Tinubu won the poll.

In a statement on Sunday night, Shaibu said, Atiku Abubakar only withdrew the case before a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County, United States of America because he is pursuing the same matter in a higher court and he wanted to avoid abuse of court processes. So, this is just the beginning.

He argued that Tinubus academic records from primary school till university remained questionable, hence the Presidents failure to identify a single former classmate of his.

In the past weeks, Nigerians have been watching the ongoing ministerial screening at the Senate where nominees have been made to reveal their primary, secondary and university history. Some of the ministerial nominees were even classmates with the senators screening them.

However, the man who nominated them has no educational history. He has no primary school, secondary school or university classmates. This is because he has no classmates. He actually fell from the sky.

In recent years, past Presidents have invited their former classmates to Aso Rock Villa. Even President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his classmates from Katsina Middle School. But who did Bola Tinubu invite to the Presidential Villa? Governors from 1999 set.




Gunmen suspected to be terrorists attacked Kwatar community, close to Gidan Zala, Kotorkoshi district of Bungudu Local Government Area in Zamfara State, killing scores and kidnapping many villagers.





It was reliably gathered that the bandits invaded the community in the wee hours of Friday without security operatives intervention.





According to a police officer from the village, Ismaila, many villagers were killed while some were kidnapped, with many escaping with various degrees of injuries in the deadly operation by the terrorists.





My father, elder brother and his wife were also killed along with many villagers in the attack, he added.





Speaking further, he said almost all the villagers who survived the attack have deserted the community for the fear of the bandits return.





Another villager, Yau Ibrahim, told newsmen that the attack was terrible, stressing that many community members sustained serious injuries as they were trying to escape from the deadly attack.





He appealed to the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency in the State for the residents to have a breath of freedom.





It was also gathered that on the same day, armed bandits unleashed terror attack at a village near Dangibga village in Tsafe Local Government Area of the State but the number of casualties has not been revealed at at the time of compiling this report.





This medium can authoritatively report that that axis to Tsafe Local Government Area of the State has become a bandit area.





All efforts to get the reactions of the police proved unsuccessful as the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Yazeed Abdulahi, refused to pick his calls.




The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will reconvene on Thursday to discuss the crisis in Niger Republic.

ECOWAS made the announcement on Monday  a day after its deadline to the military junta in Niger to reinstate the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and chairman of the authority of Heads of state and Government of the Economic Community of the ECOWAS leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger during the summit, the organisation said in a statement on Monday.

The summit will hold in Abuja, the ECOWAS headquarters.

The meeting comes amid uncertainty about the blocs possible military military intervention to restore democracy in Niger.

Tinubu, the ECOWAS chairperson, had vowed to do everything possible to reinstate the ousted Bazoum.

However, the regional bodys resolve to use force, even as a last option, has been met with heavy backlash from other foreign countries, global organisations, and concerned individuals.

Analysts say any military invasion by ECOWAS into Niger would snowball into a full-scale war especially as Burkina Faso and Mali had backed the coup.

Burkina Faso and Mali have warned that they would take up arms in self-defence if there are any foreign interventions in the landlocked West African country.

As the deadline approached on Sunday, thousands of supporters of the military junta in Niger gathered at a stadium to show support for the regime.

The Northern Senators Forum (NSF) had asked Tinubu to exhaust all diplomatic means in resolving the crisis in Niger.

The forum warned that deploying Nigerian troops to the Niger Republic will hurt seven northern states Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno  sharing borders with the country.

Recall that the president met with governors of five of the states that share boundaries with Niger as part of wider consultations on the political instability in Niger.
A former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has said the new administration of President Bola Tinubu has dashed the hope of Nigerian youths while setting up his cabinet.

Sani stated this in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Saturday.

According to him, many Nigerian youths had expected that they would dominate the cabinet of the new president.

This hope, Sani explained, had been dashed by the president due to his decision to appease the older ones.

Sani is reacting to the ministerial lists sent to the senate by Tinubu, which comprised names of many known old politicians.

A lot of Nigerians have criticised the list for containing names of former political office holders, instead of fresh young heads.

Reacting, Sani maintained that the hope of the youths was dashed because Tinubu wanted to satisfied those he tagged entitled old brigades.

The hope of the youths to dominate the cabinet has been dashed by the exigences of appeasing the entitled old brigades, Shehu Sani tweeted.
Simon Ekpa, a popular Biafra agitator and separatist, has backed the military juntas in Niger Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso.

He said Biafra would support the juntas if the Nigerian military intervenes, as being considered by West African leaders.

Ekpa, the Finland-based lawyer and leader of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, disclosed this on Monday in a video on his verified Twitter handle.

His reaction is coming on the heels of the current regional tension in the West African regional bloc owing to the military takeover of the Niger Republic last month.

Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last week, sought the approval of the Senate to implement resolutions earlier reached by the Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, in a bid to restore normalcy in Niger.

Part of the resolution was to take military action against the country if the junta failed to back down within seven days. The seven days ultimatum, however, elapsed on Sunday.

Ekpa, in reaction to the ECOWAS threat, said Biafra is solidly behind the Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso juntas.

I want to start by encouraging the presidents of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Niger Republic.

I want them to understand that the wave of freedom in Africa, especially West Africa, must continue. We want to let them know that Biafra is behind them.

We are fighting the economic freedom and the complete freedom of our people. Should Nigeria lead a military invasion of the Niger Republic, Biafra will stand by them.

Over 70 million Biafra is standing behind any nations that want to free themselves from modern-day colonialism, he said.
















Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has appealed to workers in the state not to allow some people he described as enemies of the state to cause a rift between them and the state government.





Makinde made this declaration while addressing the workers on Monday in Ibadan.





Recall that workers in the state staged protests last week, demanding a number of things.





The workers insisted that they would continue the protest unless the governor addressed them.





Makinde, while addressing the workers on Monday, assured them that his administration would sustain its cordial relationship with labour unions.





He said: Five years ago, I was not here; in three years and some months to come, I will not be here as the governor, but our state will remain. In everything that we do, let us remember that it is our state; we dont have anywhere else that we can call home, and anyone who wants to draw water from the well should not pollute that well.





The governor further said: There are people who dont want progress for our state; they will try to come in between you and I. But I have promised that every quarter we will be having a parley with the leadership of the labour unions. We will ensure we close the gap between the government and labour.
The Lagos government has sacked and blacklisted the facility managers in charge of the Lagos Island General Hospital, Odan following the death of Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor, in an elevator accident.

The decision was part of the resolutions of the panel set up to look into the likely causes of the accident, identify persons who might be culpable, and suggest ways of preventing any future occurrence.

The government also said the general manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure and Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA) has been asked to immediately proceed on suspension.

BACKGROUND

Last Tuesday, the elevator of the hospital fell from the 10th floor of the building and caused the death of Diaso, who was undertaking horsemanship at the healthcare facility.

The deceased was said to be inside the elevator on her way to the ground floor to pick up a delivery from a dispatch rider when the accident occurred.

The elevator was said to have been previously faulty, and staff had complained about it.

The incident sparked outrage after which the Lagos government instituted a panel to investigate the elevator accident.

HOSPITAL HAD BLOOD SAMPLES

In a statement on Sunday, the Lagos government said the panel constituted to investigate the incident has submitted its report.

The panel denied the claim that the hospital had no blood samples to administer to Diaso before her death.

It is important to state that blood samples for cross-matching had not been taken and there had not been a request for blood at the time CPR commenced; it is not true that blood was not available, the statement reads.

The state has a strong network of screening centres where blood is available. Besides, there is a register of voluntary donors who can be mobilised at very short notice.

DECISIONS TAKEN

The Lagos government said the installation and maintenance contractors have been handed over to the police for further investigation and likely prosecution.

Also, the Lagos State Safety Commission is mandated to carry out an audit of all elevators in public offices.

It is also important to state that the elevator that crashed was installed brand new in 2021, the statement reads.

Elevator experts working with the Lagos Safety Commission have carried out an initial inspection and will be removing the elevator for further mechanical examination to determine why the safety features that should prevent this kind of accident did not work.

Their findings will determine if we have a case with the elevator installer.

We have handed the installation and maintenance contractors to the police for further investigation and likely prosecution if they are found culpable.

The police will also investigate anyone else that might have been found to be negligent. Engineers are working to unravel why all the safety devices of the elevator failed at the same time.

All our staff are fully insured. We have informed our life insurance providers about this incident.








Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has lauded forward, Kai Havertzs superb performance in his sides FA Community Shield win over Manchester City on Sunday.





Arteta watched as Arsenal defeated Man City in the Community Shield via penalty shootout after the match ended in a 1-1 draw.





Cole Palmer and Leandro Trossard both scored for their respective clubs during normal time.





He was superb, Arteta said at his post-match interview when asked about Havertzs performance against Pep Guardiolas side.





The way he pressed and how intelligent he is to try and understand certain spaces and the timing of it, he was great and got in great positions to score.





He was unlucky not to score but he was very physical when he needed to be, so I was very pleased with him..
Simon Ekpa, a popular Biafra agitator and separatist, has described as fake and untrue claims making the rounds of a purported Economic Empowerment Day.

Ekpa, the Finland-based lawyer and Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government, disclosed this on Saturday through his verified Twitter handle.

He was reacting to a statement by the spokesman of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Emma Powerful declaring Monday as Economic Empowerment Day.

But Ekpa stressed that Igbos should disregard the claim.

He reiterated his resolve to achieve Biafra liberation and referendum.

He said: There is nothing like economic empowerment in Biafra within Nigeria. After the two weeks sit-at-home. Since these criminals and corrupt politicians are taking us for granted, we will continue to observe civic disobedience in the Eastern region. Biafrans should wait for the announcement, he wrote.
The senate has resumed the screening of Festus Keyamo after the former minister tendered an apology to the lawmakers.

Recall that the upper legislative chamber was thrown into chaos following a motion demanding that the screening of Keyamo be suspended.

Darlington Nwokocha, senator representing Abia central, had moved the motion on Monday when Keyamo appeared before the lawmakers for screening as a ministerial nominee.

The lawmaker said Keyamo ignored the summon of the parliament in 2020 over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.

Keyamo was minister of state for labour and employment in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He had accused the lawmakers of attempts to blackmail him.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia south, seconded Nwokochas motion to step down Keyamos screening.

Following the uproar that the motion generated, the senate dissolved into a closed session to resolve the issue.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio subsequently visited Aso Rock villa to meet with President Bola Tinubu.

At the resumption of the screening, Keyamo apologised to the senators.

He said the issue was resolved because he subsequently appeared before the senate committees after the incident.

Ali Ndume, chief chip of the senate, moved a motion that Keyamos apology be accepted.

The motion was unanimously adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Akpabio.

There were no questions posed to Keyamo by the senators after he apologised and was then asked to take a leave.

The apology is without reservation. I apologise, he said.

With the screening of Keyamo, the senate has concluded the screening of the 48 ministerial nominees.

Senate president is expected to announce the next course of action to be taken by the upper legislative chamber on the nominees.
Edward Mullins, former president of the nation's fifth largest police "union," was sentenced to two years in jail for stealing more than $600,000 with fake expense reports and pleading guilty to wire fraud earlier this year. He stole from his own organization, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which he presided over for nearly 20 years.

Mullins expensed personal purchases such as high-end meals, clothing, and luxury personal items, claiming they were SBA-related expenses, the press release says. He also routinely inflated the cost of the fraudulent expenses, "treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank," prosecutors said.

In addition to prison, Mullins was sentenced to three years of supervised release and he must pay back $600,000 to the SBA in addition to forfeiting $600,000, says the press release.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Thomas A. Kenniff, Mullins' attorney, told CNN. "Any time you have a client that is sent to prison, it's obviously disappointing, but we were pleased that the judge was willing to see all the many good acts that Mr. Mullins has done in his life that far outweigh anything associated with this one incident."
The senate is currently in a rowdy session over a motion seeking to step down the screening of Festus Keyamo as ministerial nominee.

Darlington Nwokocha, representing Abia central, moved the motion on Monday when Keyamo appeared before the lawmakers.

The lawmaker said Keyamo ignored the summon of parliament in 2022 over the employment scheme of 774,000 Nigerians recruited for the special public works programme.

Keyamo was minister of labour and employment in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He had accused the lawmakers of attempts to blackmail him.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia south, supported Nwokochas motion to step down Keyamos screening.

When Godswill Akpabio, senate president, put the issue to a voice vote, the nays were just as loud as the ayes as a rancorous session ensued.

The senate has dissolved into a closed session to resolve the issue, with the media asked to leave the gallery.
David Umahi, the senate deputy majority leader, says he lost his father due to negligence at a private hospital.

Umahi spoke on Monday on the floor of the upper legislative chamber while posing a question to Mairiga Mahmud, a ministerial nominee from Kano, who was being screened for confirmation.

Umahi, who did not disclose the name of the hospital, said his father died at the medical facility because he was left unattended to.

Im very concerned about a particular programme in the health sector. This programme is a situation that the medical association has allowed, he said.

Its a situation where you will be a medical doctor in a public institution and you also have your private clinic. There will be a competing interest.

I have a very bad experience of this. My father had surgery in Enugu and he was seen by a very good surgeon who did a wonderful work and was made alive.

When the same problem came out again, he went back to the same hospital. The consultant told him to rather come to his clinic.

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Being satisfied with the work of that consultant, he went to his clinic and the consultant did a beautiful work and then put an infusion and went home.

In the night, there was a reverse  blood was coming into the infusion rather than the water going into the body.

Umahi said there was nobody to attend to his father, adding that both the doctor and nurses were unavailable.

These clinics, most of the time, they have a very slim number of workers and so you find out that there is very competing interests, he said.

My father died because of the negligence of that private hospital.

Umahi said when he was governor of Ebonyi, he implemented a policy barring doctors working in government hospitals from operating private medical facilities to avoid a conflict of interest.

He said urgent measures must be put in place to tackle medical negligence in hospitals.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio recounted a similar experience last Friday.

Akpabio said his grandchild died of medical neglect in a government hospital because he was left unattended to by medical personnel on duty.
Niger Republic is waiting for a response from the West African regional bloc, Economic Community Of West African States, ECOWAS, after coup leaders in Niamey ignored a deadline to reinstate the ousted president  a move the bloc has warned could lead it to authorise military intervention.

ECOWAS has said it would issue a statement on its next steps in response to the juntas refusal to cave in to external pressure to stand down by Sunday following the July 26 power grab.

The bloc has taken a hard stance on the regions seventh coup in three years. Given its uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants, Niger also holds importance for the United States, Europe, China, and Russia.

On Sunday, as the deadline expired, the junta closed its airspace until further notice, citing the increased threat of military intervention.

An escalation in the standoff with ECOWAS could further destabilise one of the worlds poorest regions, which is in the grip of a hunger crisis and battling an insurgency that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee.

ECOWAS defence chiefs have agreed on a possible military action plan, including when and where to strike, if the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, is not released and reinstated.

Any military intervention could be complicated by a promise from juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso to come to Nigers defence if needed.

On Sunday, Italy said it had reduced its troop numbers in Niger to make room in its military base for Italian civilians who may need protection if security deteriorates.
Daniel Bwala, a media aide to the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has highlighted 10 reasons Nigeria must not be involved in the impending war with with Niger Republic.

Bwala warned that the impending war with Niger Republic is a fight between Russia and NATO.

He warned that Russia might become interested in Nigeria and infiltrate the countrys military.

Bwala warned that terrorists troubling Nigeria might be empowered with weapons from Kremlin.

He disclosed this in a series of tweets, titled: Why we must avoid war with Niger.

The tweets read: That fight is not Nigers fight, it is a champions league finals between Russia and NATO. Lets not put our dog in the fight

If we strike, all West African and non-West African states sympathetic to Kremlin would sabotage the fight.

Our own Northern states bordering Niger might be angered by the move and who knows what that would mean?

The Terrorists and militants troubling us might find support and supplies by renegade countries to buffet us within our territory.

Our ALREADY exhausted security forces might be de-moralized amidst this extreme hunger and poor economic standards in Nigeria, impacting their families behind

Russia might decide to pay attention to crisis in Nigeria and instigate the ranks of our own military.

Our west African neighbours would be enraged and you dont want to upset your neighbours; it has consequences.

More hardship, poverty and instability would be experienced in Nigeria because the Chair of ECOWAS might be compelled to use our resources to fund the war and the community; possibly using our fuel subsidy savings.

Our western Allies might not give us the support we are imagining and would rather that the crisis linger.

This war might be a crisis for the economy in favour of both Russia and NATO, while Africa suffers. A stitch in time saves nine.
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu has said the Monday sit-at-home is dead and buried.





Kanu made the remark while urging people of the Southeast to welcome the canceling of the sit-at-home order.





Speaking through his lead Counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Kanu charged residents of the Southeast to reject those using his name to dupe people.

IPOB had initiated the sit-at-home order to push for Kanus release.





But the initiative was hijacked by criminal elements using the measure to cause havoc.





In a bid to find a lasting solution to the sit-at-home havoc, Kanu had cancelled the initiative and replaced it with Economic Empowerment Day, EED.





A statement by Ejiofor reads: The Oracle #MNK himself has spoken. Even if its hitherto voluntarily observed, our people are advised to critically assess the unquantifiable damages arising therefrom, and wisely welcome this unequivocal pronouncement by #MNK totally canceling any form of sit-at-home, and reject the dangerous tendencies of criminal elements using the revered name of #MNK to dupe the gullible and vulnerable.





Before it was warships parked at the banks of river Benue and river Niger; then, it was Biafra coming in 150 days; now it is donors for a phantom two weeks sit-at-home palliative.





Before you donate, ask yourself, where and places any imaginary sit-at-home was observed.





Let our people put on their thinking caps, and resist these serial fraudsters whose sole aim is to exploit their undying love for Biafra and #MNK.





Biafrans are gifted with wisdom and can no longer be subjects of violent manipulation.
Thousands of supporters of the military junta in the Niger Republic on Sunday gathered at a stadium to show support for the regime.

The show of solidarity happened as the deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reinstate ousted President Mohamed Bazoum draws closer.

In a video shared by LSI Africa, a huge crowd is seen cheering a delegation of members of the now-ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), a newly formed military council, at the 30,000-capacity stadium.

Many of the supporters waved Nigerien flags while some held Russian flags at the stadium named after Seyni Kountche, who led Nigers first coup detat in 1974.





Abdourahamane Tiani, leader of the presidential guard that overthrew Bazoum, had said the coup was necessary to rid the country of bad governance and worsening security.

General Mohamed Toumba, one of the CNSP leaders, spoke against those lurking in the shadows who were plotting subversion against the forward march of Niger.

We are aware of their Machiavellian plan, Toumba said.

ECOWAS had given the Nigerien coup leaders a week from last Sunday to meet its demands of restoring order or face harder sanctions, including the use of force.

Mali and Burkina Faso had also warned ECOWAS against any further interventions, adding that they would be forced to also adopt self-defence measures in support of the brotherly armed forces and the people of Niger.

Many stakeholders and countries have urged the West African bloc to explore other forms of mediation instead of force.
President Bola Tinubu on Sunday played host to governors of States that share boundaries with Niger Republic.





It was gathered the meeting held at the State House, Abuja, was part of consultations by the President on the situation in Niger.





The governors in attendance were Ahmed Aliyu (Sokoto), Umar Namadi (Jigawa), Mai Malam Buni (Yobe), Idris Nasir (Kebbi) and Dr Dikko Radda (Katsina).





The Northern Elites have kicked against the planned onslaught against the military junta in Niger, while citing the likely consequence of such action on Nigeria.





Tinubu who doubles as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States had issued a seven-day ultimatum to the military junta in Niger Republic to restore democracy by returning power to Mohammed Bazoum.





This led to quite a number of sanctions part of which resulted in the closure of borders with Niger, including an indefinite suspension of flight activities.





The president had written the leadership of the National Assembly to approve the deployment of military personnel to the troubled Niger.





The Senate however turned down the request while it asked Tinubu and other leaders of the region to tread with caution in addressing the political situation.
Disturbed by the continued mention of Fulani herders in killings across the country, a socio-cultural organisation, the Fulbe United for Peace (FUP), has vowed to deploy traditional means to fight criminals masquerading as Fulani.

In a communique issued after a national leadership consultative meeting convened by FUP with the support of Arewa New Agenda (ANA) held on Sunday in Abuja, leaders of the group from across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) said this was part of their determination to make a significant contribution to national development.

The group, according to the communique signed by its national president, Ardo Aliyu Liman Bobboi, agreed to develop strategies to bring all Fulbe together by using a traditional approach that is deeply rooted in the Fulbe tradition and cultureHombuduto bring an end to any form of criminality in the name of Fulbe.

Other agreements contained in the communique are: Developing a strategic network with relevant authorities for Fulbe youth nationwide; seeking a local workable solution from within; and reaching out to other interest groups to promote national forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing of the wounds that have been inflicted on our great country, Nigeria.

While pointing out that Fulbe is in a position as an ethnic and socio-cultural association to make the most effective contribution to national development, the communique asked the government to consult with Ardos leadership on issues of policy that concern the group.

It further pointed out that the Fulbe consciously and strategically mobilised nationwide and supported President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.

To this end, it declared its support for all the concerted efforts to bring peace and security to the country by the incumbent government led by President Tnubu and other stakeholders across the country.
The National Chairman, All Progressive Congress, APC and former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has opened up on why Kano ministerial nominee, Maryam Shetty was replaced.

Ganduje while featuring on a Hausa program on a Kano based radio, monitored by Vanguard said she was replaced due to reactions that trailed her nomination as people took to the social media to make jest of her and questioning her competency for the job.

According to him, In the process of appointing ministers, the president has people who will advise him from different states and the nation at large. Also, the President has the prerogative right to appoint whoever he deems fit as minister. He is also free to consult people from the state, because they are the ones who know the people who are fit to occupy such office. You know in the Villa, you have people do I know it all.

So all of a sudden, we just heard the name. Since we know the President has the prerogative right to do so and as loyalists of the president who understand democracy, and knows you have to exercise patience we didnt challenge the decision.

But again, we dont know her, and since we dont know her, we cant vouch for her competency for the job.

But where the issue came to limelight is on social media. Sometimes people take actions, thinking they wont be caught. But you will be surprised that all your actions are in the public domain. Thats what happened in this case. Reactions trailed her nomination on social media as people were making jest of her.

The reactions became so intense, and people were questioning her competency, and worthiness to represent Kano State.

These concerns were not raised by Ganduje, but the masses. The president was also shown the social media reactions, and he sought my opinion.

Clearly, I told him, I dont know who she is. He asked if there was a need to replace her, and I answered in the affirmative.

Because these kinds of positions need someone with integrity, the person must also understand the job, and thirdly, what role did the person play in the formation of the government.

So if you look at these qualities, we were the ones that needed to be consulted for any appointments coming from Kano State.

Even though I dont know all the competent people from Kano, at least our advice needs to be sought when people make recommendations, but that didnt happen in this case.

So the president gave us the opportunity to make a replacement with the emphasis that it must be a woman. After consultation with critical stakeholders and as it is that people Kano South complained of marginalization, we settled for the new nominee, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud Bunkure. From hearing the name, Bunkure, You know where she hailed from, he said.

Ganduje however assured that the former nominee, Shetty would be considered for another appointment.

Recall that President Tinubu had nominated Shetty from Kano State for ministerial appointment but few hours to her screening was drawn and replaced with another female nominee, Mariya Mahmoud Bunkure, former Commissioner of Higher Education under the immediate past governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje administration.
The National Guard Airman thought to have sustained fatal injuries while at American Dream malls Big Snow indoor ski slope last year died from natural causes, a medical examiner in Bergen County has determined.

Airman First Class Peter R. Mathews, of the Maryland Air National Guard, was at the indoor ski slope in East Rutherford on Dec. 8, 2022, when he fell backward while snowboarding, his sister told Newsday at the time.

While Mathews had small, superficial injuries to the back of his right shoulder, there were no internal injuries or fractures to the skull or skeleton, according to the autopsy report, which was obtained by NJ Advance Media on Monday.

The 24-year-olds cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia due to short QT syndrome, an inherited heart abnormality, according to the report, which says toxicology results were negative for alcohol or illicit drugs.

The New Jersey State Police said they were called to the slope at 9:14 p.m. that day on a report of an unresponsive person on the slope. Emergency medical workers performed CPR before taking Matthews to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Matthews, who served with the Air National Guard since 2020, was from Bay Shore, New York. He was a crew chief assigned to the 175th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Waymo recently announced that it will be adding its commercial self-driving taxi services to a fourth cityAustin, Texas. Austin joins three other Waymo markets: Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. However, the company currently only operates without restrictions in Phoenix. Ars Technica explains:

Assuming this goes like previous Waymo announcements, the statement "first rides with the public" means Waymo will be carrying NDA-bound "trusted testers" chosen from a waitlist. As for when normal Austinites can actually hail a Waymo, it's tricky. So far, of Waymo's four announced cities, only one, Phoenix, is actually offering commercial rides to the public with no restrictions. San Francisco was announced as a Waymo One market two years ago and is still only doing commercial "testing." (Waymo's website description of "we'll reach out when it's your time to ride" stands in contrast to the "anyone can ride" description for Phoenix.) Los Angeles was announced one year ago and still isn't taking rides yet.

While Waymo begins its expansion to Austin, the company is currently waiting on a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CAPUC) to actually start service in Los Angeles, and its plans to expand operation in San Francisco are facing opposition. On Monday, August 7, 2023, the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance will be protesting at the headquarters of CAPUC, in hopes of stopping the commission from lifting restrictions on Waymo (and competitor Cruise), a move that would allow the companies to operate 24/7 anywhere across the city. KRON provides more details, highlighting concerns about job loss, autonomous vehicle safety, and interference with first responders:

The commission, which is responsible for regulations of autonomous vehicles or AVs, has called a meeting Monday to discuss AV interference with first responders, and is set to vote on granting expanded operations Thursday. "Taxi drivers are the canaries in the coal mine in the coming AI onslaught," Mark Gruberg, a member of the Executive Board of the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a statement Saturday. "Our jobs may go first, but yours could be next." The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which has urged the state to collect more data before making a decision, estimated last month that more than 90 complaints about driverless cars were reported in both March and April. As of July 25, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has received 627 Autonomous Vehicle Collision Reports, according to its website. The transportation agency said the AVs stop in place when confused instead of pulling over; pick up and drop off passengers in traffic lanes and have difficulty understanding things like traffic control officers or construction sites. The taxi drivers contend that the Cruise and Waymo cars suffer mass breakdowns, create lengthy street blockages, obstruct public transportation and interfere with police and firefighters. "AV operations are a massive experiment, with the public as guinea pigs," Gruberg said. "The CPUC is about to bestow a premature approval on an immature technology."

The San Francisco Standard reports that incidents involving Waymo driverless cars have increased six-fold in 2023. And some of the collisions across the United States since autonomous vehicles first started operating have resulted in death. In May 2023, a small dog died after being run over by a Waymo car in San Francisco. And I'll never forget a tragic incident that happened about a half mile from where I liveTempe, Arizona resident Elaine Herzberg was walking her bicycle across a street when she was hit and killed in March, 2018 by a self-driving Uber, an incident that Wikipedia describes as the "first recorded case of a pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car."
A motorcycle driver is facing charges in an alleged drunken crash in which his passenger was seriously injured, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.

Alex Cruz, 33, of Suffern, New York, was charged with third-degree assault by auto and multiple motor vehicle summonses including driving while intoxicated, officials said.

Officers from the county Sheriffs Office responded to a 911 call on Sunday at 7:52 p.m., reporting a crash involving a motorcycle on Forest Avenue near the Van Saun Park entrance in Paramus, authorities said.

Investigators on the scene determined that Cruz lost control of the bike, causing himself and the female passenger to be ejected, prosecutors said.

The woman is being treated at Hackensack University Medical Center for serious bodily injuries.

Cruz was arrested on the scene and is being held in Bergen County Jail pending his first court appearance. His attorney information was not immediately available.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
A Bergen County man was charged Friday with sexually assaulting a child in three towns for more than a decade, authorities said.

Jonan Pascasio-Erazo, 46, of Waldwick, was arrested after the Bergen County Prosecutors Office received information from police that the victim had been sexually assaulted multiple times in Bergen and Monmouth counties.

The alleged abuse occurred from 2012 to 2023 in Waldwick, Mahwah and Belmar, according to investigators.

Pascasio-Erazo was charged with four counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, four counts of second-degree sexual assault, four counts of second-degree sexual assault by contact, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and third-degree obscenity involving a person under 18.

Pascasio-Erazo was held in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in court, according to the prosecutors office.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A publishing executive from Bergen County, who worked for the company that published the Harry Potter series, was killed last week in a boating accident off the coast of Italys Amalfi Coast.

Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was president of Bloomsbury Publishings U.S. branch. She owned a home in Glen Rock since 2013, according to public records.

Vaughan was the married mother of two children. Her children and husband, Michael White, were with her at the time of the crash, according to published reports.

The motorboat Vaughan and her family were on was rented through a skipper and had been headed to Positano when it crashed into a sailboat Thursday. The sailboat was carrying more than 80 U.S. and German tourists, including some celebrating a wedding, according to The Telegraph.

Vaughan was pulled from the water and brought to a dock but died by the time a helicopter ambulance arrived. Vaughans husband was hospitalized with a shoulder injury while the children, ages 11 and 14, were unhurt but treated for shock, according to the Associated Press.

No one aboard the sailboat was injured. Italian authorities are investigating the crash and reports said the skipper of the motorboat tested positive for substance abuse, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The skipper, an Italian about 30 years old, suffered a broken pelvis and ribs, ANSA said.

Bloomsbury, which published the Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, counts writers ranging from bestselling novelists Sarah J. Maas and Susanna Clarke to historian Mark Kurlansky among its roster of authors.

A Bloomsbury book, Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artists Memoir of the Jim Crow South, by the late Winfred Rembert (as told to Erin I. Kelly), won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2022.

The loss of Adrienne is a terrible blow. Since she was appointed President of Bloomsbury USA three years ago, America has grown to become our biggest market, Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury, said in a statement. Adrienne was a natural business leader with a great future ahead of her. She was deeply loved by colleagues due to her combination of great personal warmth with a fierce determination to make the business succeed and grow. Her business instincts were outstanding and she loved authors, readers and her colleagues equally.

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 in 2020 as executive editor and COO. 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, the Association of American Publishers board chair, Julia Reidhead, and its president and CEO, Maria A. Pallante, said 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, the statement said.

The Associated Press contributed this report.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
The new president of Pillar College is a very familiar face at the private, evangelical Christian college in North Jersey.

David E. Schroeder returned July 1 to the role he held from 2007 to 2021, the college announced Aug. 1.

He succeeded his successor, Rupert Hayles, who resigned June 30 upon being named the president of Roberts Wesleyan University, also a private Christian school, in Rochester, New York.

Pillar College has campuses in Newark and Paterson and currently enrolls approximately 550 students, according to the college.

Schroeder had been serving as chancellor, a largely honorary role, since stepping aside as president two years ago, said Wayne Dyer, the colleges vice president of strategic alliances and special assistant to the president.

The college is not planning to name a new chancellor, Dyer said.

Schroeder remains president of MasterWorks, a nonprofit organization that he developed in the 1970s to assist Christian pastors and others active in churches, according to a description on its website.

The leadership change comes as Pillar College, established in 2001 as Somerset Christian College, is adjusting to an evolving regional landscape in higher education. It is the only fully accredited, evangelical Christian college in the New York City metro market, consisting of the citys five boroughs and North Jersey, Dyer said.

Alliance University, a private Christian university based in New York, said in June that it would permanently close by the end of August, in response to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education announcing that the schools accreditation was being withdrawn.

The commission announced July 27 that it had rejected an appeal from The Kings College, a Christian liberal arts college also based in New York, over the loss of its accreditation, and directed the college to submit a substantive change for institutional closure by Aug. 11. Prior to the decision, the college had said classes would not be held in the fall, but had not given up on resuming operations.

Schroeder, 77, grew up in Minnesota and has been a Christian minister since 1969, according to Pillar College.

His roles at churches in New Jersey included serving as a youth pastor at Long Hill Chapel in Chatham and Grace Chapel in Bridgewater, Dyer said. As a missionary, he has preached in Asia and Africa, and is the author of 10 books.

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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
One man died and two others were taken to a hospital Sunday morning after all three apparently overdosed in Newark, authorities said.

City police were called about 11:20 a.m. to Stone Street near Victoria Avenue on a call of an unresponsive man and two others suffering from an apparent drug overdose, according to police.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene and two others were taken to University Hospital for treatment, according to police.

Police did not release the names or ages of the victims or say what drug they were using.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A New York City man has been arrested on charges he arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex at a New Jersey park, the Essex County Prosecutors Office said.

Nazarjon Abdukahorov, 27, of Brooklyn, is charged with luring and endangering the welfare of a child, authorities said.

Investigators learned through a tip that Abdukahorov was exchanging messages with the girl through a dating app and had arranged to meet her at a park in Maplewood, authorities said. Investigators were waiting at the park and arrested Abdukahorov when he arrived, authorities said.

The prosecutors office did not say when the alleged meetup and arrest occurred.

Abdukahorov is being held at Essex County Correctional Facility pending his first court appearance.

The Essex County Prosecutors Office is asking anyone with information about abuse to call its tip line at 1-877-847-7432.

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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Gloucester County homeowners association and nearby daycare facility fighting a redevelopment plan they say could lead to the construction of massive warehouses in their neighborhood.

Casella Farms Homeowners Association, a residential development in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township, and Holding Hands Daycare argued Harrison Township officials violated the townships master plan when they approved the Kings Landing Redevelopment Plan in April 2022.

The redevelopment plan would allow warehouses to be built in the area near the Casella Farms neighborhood and the daycare center.

The lawsuit claimed residents were not provided with enough information on the Kings Landing Redevelopment Plan and its potential impacts on the community before it was adopted. The complaint also argued residents only became fully aware of the plans implications when the Joint Land Use Board held a public hearing in November 2022 for a 2.1 million-square-foot warehouse project.

The massive warehouse was proposed by WH Development Urban Renewal, a subsidiary of North-Jersey developer Russo Development, which was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The warehouse complex proposed by Russo would have been equivalent in size to about 2/3 of the sprawling American Dream mall in East Rutherford  or about the size of 38 White Houses. It was going to be located across the road from the Casella Farms neighborhood and would have been adjacent to Holding Hands daycare facility.

However, following a wave of opposition, the Harrison Township Joint Land Use Board unanimously rejected the controversial proposal. Though the Russo project was rejected, critics wanted the township to invalidate its Kings Landing Redevelopment Plan to prevent other mega-warehouse proposals from being proposed in the future.

The homeowners association and daycare center point to the large turnout of residents at the hearing where the land use application was considered as evidence that there exists an important public interest, according to their lawsuit.

But, in an 11-page decision filed on July 14, Superior Court Judge Benjamin C. Telsey said, the court is not convinced by plaintiffs argument.

Jeffrey Brennan, an attorney for Casella Farms Homeowners Association and Holding Hands Daycare, said he respectfully disagreed with the trial courts ruling and was looking forward to appeal.

We believe that our pleadings establish both the significant impact this project would have on the entire community and that the township failed to give legally adequate notice of the redevelopment plans adoption. We are very optimistic that the Appellate Division will agree with our positions and will allow our case to be considered on its merits, said Brennan.

READ MORE: Trucks, noise, odors: Heres what its really like to live next to N.J. warehouses, residents say

James Maley, an attorney representing Harrison Township Mayor Lou Manzo and the township committee, said the township had no comment.

We are very pleased with the result, and believe the courts opinion to be well reasoned and consistent with applicable case law and statutory authority, said Russo Development in a statement regarding the dismissal.

A spokesman for Russo Development did not respond when asked if the developer plans to submit a revised proposal for a warehouse in the township.

In his ruling, the judge said Casella Farms Homeowners Association and Holding Hands Daycare failed to establish whether the public who appeared at the public hearing in November 2022 were actually township residents, how many appeared, and whether they represented a fair cross section of the township as opposed to just homeowners who live close to the project.

The lawsuit was also filed well beyond the 45-day deadline for complaints about a redevelopment hearing from early 2022, the judge said. He declined to grant an exception to the filing deadline.

While the residents whose homes are close to the redevelopment area might be opposed to the ordinance or any applications that might be considered, that is not enough for this court to find that a significant public interest is present that would warrant an exception to the filing of a complaint so far out of time, Telsey wrote.

The judge ruled the townships publication of the ordinance adopting the Kings Landing Redevelopment Plan complied with the necessary minimum requirements of state law.

Telsey ruled the township provided sufficient information about the ordinance and was under no obligation to mention the possible construction of warehouses.

If a resident is interested in the redevelopment plan being adopted, it is their responsibility to conduct the necessary research into the substance of the plan and the publication informs them of how to obtain a copy of the plan, Telsey continued. To require governing bodies to include specific phrasing that goes to the substance of a plan being adopted would be a slippery slope.

Casella Farms Homeowners Association said it was disappointed by the ruling but looking forward to appealing the decision.

We are not deterred and are pleased that the appellate court will review our case with fresh eyes, said Casella Farms Homeowners Association President Adam Pennypacker. The future of our community and township are in serious jeopardy due to the failures of local administration. Thanks to the support of our neighbors, were just getting started in our fight against this warehouse project and we will see this through to the end.

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Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.
Authorities have charged a South Jersey woman in a June armed carjacking in Gloucester County.

Two people held the victim at gunpoint and took his vehicle on June 9 at the Wawa on Route 45 in Mantua, according to township police. No injuries were reported.

After a lengthy investigation that included collaboration with other law enforcement agencies in the county, Tatiana Timmons, 28, of Camden, was arrested, police said.

Timmons was charged with first-degree armed robbery and second-degree conspiracy, and placed in Salem County Correctional Facility pending court hearings.

The investigation and search for the second person is ongoing.

Township police ask anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Robert Layton via email at Rhlayton@mantuatownship.com.

Layton expressed the hope that this arrest reassures Mantua residents.

The successful apprehension of this case underscores the unwavering commitment of our law enforcement agencies to safeguard the lives and property of our community members, he said in a statement. We want our community to know that their safety remains our top priority, and we will continue to work tirelessly to bring those who commit crimes in our community to justice.

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
Newly formed K-pop group Loossemble will head out on tour this fall.

The South Korean girl group made up of Loona members will begin their tour on Sept. 15 in New York City and wrap up on Oct. 7 in Inglewood, Calif.

The new band is comprised of HyunJin, YeoJin, ViVi, Go Won and HyeJu.

Tickets for the LOONA Assemble: the US Debut Ceremony are available on Ticketmaster.

Fans of the girl group can find tickets on secondary market websites, such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketCity, MegaSeats and TicketNetwork.

First-time Vivid Seats users can save $20 on ticket orders over $200 by entering promo code NJ20 at checkout.

A complete list of Loossembles tour dates is available here.

More K-Pop groups heading out on tour

Loossemble is not the only K-pop group heading out on tour this year.

Here are a few more tours you do not want to miss.

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Nicole Iuzzolino can be reached at niuzzolino@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, will deliver the main eulogy at New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Olivers funeral Saturday morning in Newark.

Meanwhile, the state will commission portrait paintings of both Oliver and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the first and only other lieutenant governor in New Jersey history, to be displayed at the Statehouse in Trenton, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday.
Artist Drew Friedman wrote a tribute to the cartooning legend, Robert Crumb, as he approaches his 80th birthday on August 29.

To celebrate this occasion, Drew is releasing a limited edition print of his illustration, "R. Crumb at Work." Only thirty-five prints were produced, each signed by Friedman, hand-titled, and numbered. The first ten prints are being offered unframed for $200 each, plus shipping, with prices increasing as the edition depletes. The piece of art, featured in Friedman's book Maverix and Lunatix: Icons of Underground Comix (Fantagraphics), captures the essence of the influential artist who has shaped the landscape of underground comics for decades.

[Crumb] was born in Philadelphia and inspired by "funny animal comics" of the 1940s & '50s, such as Pogo, Super Duck, and Coo Coo Comics. When his older brother Charles encouraged Robert to collaborate with him on creating their own comics, Crumb quickly developed into a gifted cartoonist. Discovering the work of Harvey Kurtzman,

first in the early Mad comics and then in Trump and Humbug, the Crumb brothers created their own Kurtzman-inspired satire magazine, Foo. In 1962, Robert went to work at the American Greetings Corporation in Cleveland, first as a color separator, then as a greeting cards illustrator. While with the company he contributed Fritz the Cat adventures and sketchbook travelogues to Kurtzman's magazine Help!, with a bit of sideline cartoon work for Topps Bubblegum cards.

In 1965 he moved to New York for a gig as Kurtzman's assistant, but Help! soon went under. Encouraged by Kurtzman to "do your own stuff," Crumb set out to join the late '60s "psychedelic revolution" in San Francisco. LSD-inspired, he exploded with creativity, introducing his iconic characters Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont, Eggs Ackley, and Angelfood McSpade while repurposing the old blues slogan "Keep On Truckin'," all within the pages of Zap #1, spearheading the underground comix movement. Crumb created a monumental amount of work during that era, including the cover art for the Janis Joplin-fronted Big Brother & the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills album. In 1981 he debuted his "low brow" humor magazine Weirdo.

Ten years later, Crumb moved to France with his wife, cartoonist Aline Kominsky and their daughter, Sophie. Terry Zwigoff's acclaimed documentary, Crumb, chronicling Robert's oddball family tree, was released in 1994.

After the recent death of Aline, Crumb revisited America in early 2023, criss-crossing the country by car (with his nephew at the wheel) to see family and old friends. One of his stops along the way was to visit me at my studio and "Jewseum" (my large collection of Jewish comedy ephemera).

Crumb is both the most celebrated and controversial artist of his time. His life continues to be an open book to his fans, warts and all.
Acting Gov. Nick Scutari on Monday signed a law that increases the penalties in New Jersey for operators of so-called boom cars, nuisance vehicles that blast music from stacks of speakers and can be heard for miles around.

The law sets a uniform standard for noise violations in the state. Any car that pumps up the volume so that it is plainly audible from 50 feet away is guilty of a violation and subject to a fine, although the legislation does not give police the power to confiscate the vehicle, as was originally proposed.

The noise from these boom parties can be an assault on the quality of life in residential communities at all hours of the day and night, said Scutari, the state Senate president, D-Union, who is serving as acting governor as Gov. Phil Murphy is on vacation in Italy. This law sets reasonable standards that allow local enforcement officials to limit the volume of music emanating from motor vehicles.

For years, New Jersey residents have been complaining about the late-night noise from boom parties keeping them awake at night. Along the Delaware River, residents of Gloucester, Camden, Burlington and Salem counties have long complained of the steady thump-thump-thump traveling across the water from Philadelphia.

Last year, Staten Island officials complained to the City of Elizabeth that boom parties along the waterfront were keeping them awake at night. The bill signed into law on Monday establishes a fine of $250 to $500 for a first offense, $500 to $750 for a second, and $750 to $1,000 plus up to two Motor Vehicle points for a third.

The legislation (A4686) was sponsored by state Sens. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, D-Camden; James Beach, D-Camden; Troy Singleton, D-Burlington; and state Assemblymen William Spearman, D-Camden; and William Moen, D-Camden. The state Legislature approved the bill without a single no vote.

Its no secret that boom car parties have negatively affected the quality of life in towns up and down the Delaware River for years. Residents, even those miles away from the Delaware River, can feel the bass vibrating their homes, which torturously keeps them awake all night long, Singleton said. This law sends a clear message that this will not be tolerated in our state, and there will be real consequences for their actions.

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Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.
Like the foundational building blocks of the American economy, Gov. Ron DeSantis is amplifying his name recognition on the backs of Black people and causing them harm in the process.

In his continuing racist assault on Black history, DeSantis signed into law The Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act(Stop Woke Act) in 2022. As a result, the Florida State Board of Education recently revised its middle school Black history curriculum to say that slavery was beneficial to enslaved Black people because it gave them skills.

The benefits comment, naming legislation with the word woke and his eagerness to publicly mock, devalue and exclude Blacks from their true experiences and their contributions to American history is a clarion call for attention. And lets be clear, his remarks and legislative initiatives translate into coveted national media coverage.

I call upon President Biden and the Justice Department to act now to stop this violation of Black students human and civil rights, said Peoples Organization for Progress Founding Chairman Lawrence Hamm at a press conference on Monday, July 31, where he refuted the assertion about the benefits of slavery and called for federal intervention.

We want an investigation into the Florida Department Board of Education to determine if students civil rights are being violated, Hamm said. These students are descended from people who were enslaved in this country, and they are being taught a narrative that diminishes the negative impact that slavery had on their ancestors.

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DeSantis said he wasnt involved in writing the standards but defended them, including the middle school standard on slavery. In comments to the media, DeSantis is quoted as saying, Theyre probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. These were scholars who put that together, it was not anything that was done politically.

African people had educational systems including the renowned University of Sankore, and rich cultures that engaged in commerce long before Europeans decided to use their bodies for labor and their knowledge to benefit their exploits.

A deeper exploration of how Africans contributed to America reveals that slave hunters went to areas of Africa known for having specific skill sets.

Remember those ads for Carolina Rice? That rice is a benefit received directly from Africans brought here to the U.S.; not the other way around. American colonists had no experience with the cultivation of rice. Plantation owners purchased slaves from the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa, stretching from Senegal to Sierra Leone and Liberia to help them cultivate crops and create their wealth.

The history of Africans forging tools used in farming and creating art dates back centuries before blacksmithing in the Americas. Examples of African art made from iron among other materials are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Unfortunately, with no in-depth knowledge of African history and its relational effect on African American history, how could anyone correlate what Africans knew and how that transferred to life in the Americas as enslaved people?

Thats DeSantis game. Dont teach Black history so there will be no pushback when history is bent to suit a political agenda that includes the subjugation of segments of society. DeSantis likely never studied Black history. There is no requirement for students to take courses in African American studies at his alma mater, Yale University.

Several U.S. presidents count Yale as their alma mater including Taft (1848), Ford (1941), Bush Sr. (1948), three-strikes Clinton (1973), and George Walker Bush, who graduated with a history degree in 1968, and who famously asked Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso if Brazil has Blacks, too?

Fortunately for New Jersey, educators are resisting the persistent battery of attacks on Black history education by right-wing legislators, parent groups and educational policy incubators.

New Jersey had a promising start 21 years ago with a commitment to mandate Black history be taught in schools. The same year the Holocaust Education legislation was signed into law, Assemblymembers William Payne and Craig Stanley strategically pushed Amistad legislation  which suggests that New Jersey schools include Black history in their social studies lessons  through the NJ legislature.

Dr. Akil Khalfani teaches sociology at Essex Community College and heads up their Africana Institute. He is pushing an initiative to convene all Africana Studies Directors across the country so that they can strategize on how best to preserve their programs and instruct students.

As a byproduct, we have the Amistad Commission. A group comprised of educators, legislators and community members who create and coordinate workshops, seminars, institutes, memorials and events that raise public awareness about the importance of African Americans to the growth and development of American society. They also create curricula that educators can use in their classrooms.

And, we have the education mavericks in the classroom.

T.J. Whitaker is a teacher at Columbia High School in South Orange Maplewood. He also teaches part-time at Rutgers Newark in the Urban Education Department at the MAPSO Freedom School and is a Zinn Education Project Fellow. He is passionate about his work as an educator.

There are a lot more teachers of Black children than there are Black teachers, Whitaker said. So it is upon us to make sure that everybody is trained to teach our young folks, so when we have the opportunity to write curriculum, we can officially and formally correct the wrongs and provide the real lessons of learning in our units and lessons.

Sundjata Sekou teaches third graders about Black history at Mount Vernon Avenue Elementary School in Irvington.

Im not waiting for those superintendents to tell me to teach Black history, Sekou said. And Im definitely not waiting till February to teach Black history. Im teaching it 180 days out of the school year. That is every day, twice a day.

And if they give me Saturday, Ill teach it then, if they give me Sunday, Ill teach it then, and if they create an eighth day to teach, then Im going to teach our history.

Ande Richards wants to hear from New Jerseys communities of color, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ communities, and those who feel underserved by traditional media. She may be reached at arichards@njadvancemedia.com.

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Can a candidate for mayor be charged with bribery if he or she doesnt have the power to grant favors?

That is the legal argument at the heart of a fight by Jason ODonnell, a former Democratic legislator and mayoral candidate in Bayonne, whose attorneys are seeking dismissal of bribery charges against him in connection with a high-profile pay-to-play undercover sting involving allegations of illegal campaign donations and cash payoffs.

They claim the states bribery statute only applies to public officials and that ODonnell, who lost his bid for election, was not in any position of authority when he was ensnared in the investigation.

But in a new court filing, the New Jersey Attorney Generals office responded that it was clear the conduct of ODonnell had been unlawful.

There is no grey area here, they insisted.

The brief, filed in Superior Court in Hudson County, also declared that a federal judges ruling in an unrelated case more than a decade ago that led to the dismissal of similar charges against a Jersey City mayoral candidate  after concluding that candidates for public office could not be prosecuted for official corruption  was illogical and misinterpreted the law.

ODonnell was charged in December 2019 with four other political candidates and officials accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions and cash payoffs from a Morristown attorney seeking promises of lucrative tax and real estate work.

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The attorney, Matthew ODonnell  who is unrelated to Jason ODonnell  was actually secretly cooperating with prosecutors after he was caught in a separate bribery investigation involving years of payoffs and donations.

Also charged in the case were Sudhan Thomas, then the Jersey City school board president; John Cesaro, a former Morris County freeholder; John Windish, a former Mount Arlington council member; and Mary Dougherty, the wife of the current mayor of Morristown and a former Morris County freeholder candidate.

Jason ODonnell was charged with accepting $10,000 in street money for his 2018 mayoral campaign. He allegedly promised Matt ODonnell that if elected, the job of Bayonnes tax attorney would be his, according to complaints filed in the case.

The candidates lawyer, Leo Hurley Jr. of Jersey City, wrote in his own court brief that New Jerseys bribery statute applied only to public or party officials and not to candidates. Since ODonnell was not a public official when the state investigation played out, he could not be charged with taking a bribe in exchange for violating or performing an official duty.

The Legislature chose to restrict the bribery statute to public servants or party officials and to exclude from its reach those who were merely candidates for office, Hurley wrote. He added that the Legislature has repeatedly proposed bills to change the statute, and has not done so.

His argument cited the infamous Bid Rig case of more than a decade ago, which saw charges thrown out against Lou Manzo  a former assemblyman then running for mayor of Jersey City. In that case, Manzo was accused of accepting cash in exchange for promising expedited approvals for real estate projects.

U.S. District Judge Jose Linares dismissed the charges, ruling that Manzo wasnt a public official and did not hold a public position.

Hurley said the situation now was no different. At no time was the defendant a public official, he wrote of ODonnell. He was merely a candidate running for mayor of the city of Bayonne.

However, the Attorney Generals office in its brief said that Linares got the law wrong, and appeared to question the motivations of that decision as well.

The courts interpretations appear to be strained and construed to achieve its ends, they wrote.

In fact, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit later upheld Linares.

The state argued that if candidates were free to peddle influence with relative impunity, a candidacy could become no more than a money-making scheme. Candidates with unlawful intentions could establish campaign treasuries to enrich themselves and nefarious players would be able to solicit and accept cash and other things of value in exchange for future favors with little repercussion.

In their brief, prosecutors said the bribery statute extends to individuals who are not  and would never be considered  political candidates for a particular position, including employees, voters, jurors, advisors, or consultants.

Stated simply, the defendant accepted a bribe as consideration to appoint the states cooperating witness as tax attorney. That the statute omits explicit discussion of candidates is a red herring. Someone who is not a candidate for any office can be paid and can accept a bribe. Any legislative inclusion of candidates would have otherwise narrowed the statute in an illogical way.

According to prosecutors, no New Jersey court has ever held that the bribery statute does not apply to candidates for office, pointing to an appellate division opinion that stated the law was designed to include the peddling of influence by a person in an apparent position of access to a public official.

But in a curious argument, they also wrote that the person in an apparent position of access to a public official in this case was Jason ODonnell, should he have won the election. In other words, ODonnell, the candidate, had a position of access to himself, had he been elected.

Prosecutors said it was clear what was happening, and that ODonnell knew why money was being offered.

It was a conditional promise, they said. Cash was being exchanged for future official action.

A hearing on the issue is expected to be held next month before Superior Court Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez in Hudson County.

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Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.
The first meeting was on an unseasonably warm February evening in 2018 at Scarpetta, a pricey Italian restaurant on Madison Avenue in New Yorks trendy NoMad neighborhood, where the signature dish is a simple $33 entree of house-made spaghetti with tomato and basil.

Jason ODonnell, a former Democratic New Jersey Assemblyman vying to become the next mayor of Bayonne, was there to talk politics over dinner with Matthew ODonnell, an attorney who specialized in the mundane but lucrative work of municipal tax appeals. The two are not related.
A bribe is still a bribe.

Nearly four years after Jason ODonnell was targeted in a wide-ranging state undercover sting, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday upheld bribery charges against the former state Assemblyman who was running for mayor in Bayonne when he allegedly accepted $10,000 in cash from a crooked Morristown tax attorney.
Theres an oceanfront lot for sale in Stone Harbor that could set a record for the highest amount ever if it gets the $14 million asking price.

And listing agent Steve Frame says it will. It already has three offers after less than a week on the market.

Were working through some diligence. Well see what happens. Its getting a lot of activity, he said.

The property could be broken into two lots and one home could be built on each lot. Or the buyer could build one large house. In Stone Harbor, lots require 60 feet of frontage. This lot has 124 feet. The minimum square footage is 6,600 and this lot is 13,200 square feet.

Its part of 13 lots that are owned by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Pennsylvania religious congregation had a retreat, Vila Maria by the Sea, in Stone Harbor since 1937. It was torn down two years ago because it was outdated and to fund a new retreat, they sold off half of their lots. The first sold for $3.6 million and the prices increased the closer they got to the ocean. This parcel will fetch the highest price, Frame said.

The new Villa Maria by the Sea opened in June between 111th and 112th streets, Frame said.

The oceanfront lot will set a record because theyre rare.

We might have an oceanfront lot come up for sale every five to 10 years, he said.

Oceanfront land in Stone Harbor has doubled in value every 10 years since 1960, Frame said. Theyre so limited. Its supply and demand.

The last oceanfront lot to sell in Stone Harbor was on 90th Street and sold for $13.1 million in 2021.

The most expensive home to sell in Stone Harbor closed in May for $12 million.

Are you an agent, buyer or seller who is active in this changing market? Do you have tips about New Jerseys real estate market? Unusual listings? Let us know.

More real estate coverage:

Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com.
A tornado watch has been issued by the National Weather Service for 16 New Jersey counties in New Jersey ahead of strong thunderstorms that are expected to hit the state Monday afternoon and evening.

The initial tornado watch took effect at 3:15 p.m. and runs through 11 p.m. in the following counties - Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Salem and Warren.

UPDATE: The tornado watch was expanded Monday evening to to Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset and Sussex counties. The rest of the state is under a severe thunderstorm watch.

Forecasters predict strong storms could sweep across New Jersey anytime between 4 and 10 p.m. The western half of the state was under an enhanced risk - level 3 on the 5-tier scale - for severe thunderstorms, with the rest of the state under a slight risk. The weather service said isolated tornadoes were a possibility with the storms.

The National Weather Service issued an update around 11 a.m. Monday showing an expanded area in New Jersey with an "enhanced" threat of severe thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. The enhanced threat is the third level on the five-tier scale.

Much of New Jersey could see 2 inches of rain from the storms. Winds could gust up to 60 to 70 mph.

Earlier Monday afternoon, the national Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for parts of the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia until 9 p.m.

A tornado watch is not as urgent as a tornado warning, but residents should remain alert as stormy weather arrives.National Weather Service

New Jersey normally gets an average of two tornadoes each year, but last year the state was rocked by an unusually high number  with 13 confirmed twisters touching down.

So far this year, New Jersey has had 10 confirmed tornadoes.

Note: For the most current weather advisories, watches and warnings that are active in New Jersey, check this National Weather Service alert page.

Current weather radar

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
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Porcha Woodruff, a 32-year-old Black woman, was eight months pregnant when she was falsely arrested in February by Detroit police for robbery and carjacking, reports The New York Times.

Police claimed a facial recognition search matched Woodruff's photo to surveillance footage from the crime scene.

From the Times:

Handcuffed in front of her home on a Thursday morning last February, leaving her crying children with her fiance, Ms. Woodruff was taken to the Detroit Detention Center. She said she was held for 11 hours, questioned about a crime she said she had no knowledge of, and had her iPhone seized to be searched for evidence. "I was having contractions in the holding cell. My back was sending me sharp pains. I was having spasms. I think I was probably having a panic attack," said Ms. Woodruff, a licensed aesthetician and nursing school student. "I was hurting, sitting on those concrete benches." After being charged in court with robbery and carjacking, Ms. Woodruff was released that evening on a $100,000 personal bond. In an interview, she said she went straight to the hospital where she was diagnosed with dehydration and given two bags of intravenous fluids. A month later, the Wayne County prosecutor dismissed the case against her.

Woodruff has filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful arrest due to the faulty facial recognition match. She claims the experience was traumatic while she was so close to giving birth. The lawsuit seeks to prevent Detroit police from using facial recognition matches as the sole basis for arrest and charges. It aims to require more corroborating evidence before taking such action.

The city is being sued for three other cases of wrongful arrest as a result of faulty facial recognition. All three plaintiffs are black.

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy thinks the city's facial recognition system is swell. She released a statement saying Woodruff's arrest was "appropriate based upon the facts." Apparently, her version of an appropriate fact is that Woodruff was very pregnant at the time of the alleged carjacking, while the recorded suspect showed no indication of being pregnant.

Detroit's police chief, James E. White, said the allegations in Woodruff's lawsuit against the city "are very concerning." In other words, this is the first time the head of the police department was aware that the department was using dangerously shoddy technology that is ruining the lives of innocent people.
Venue for the next Shrek rave

Home to the virtual Jackson Square experience for when it's too hot to be in the real Jackson Square

Make it a break room for Jackson Square artists and tarot readers

Just sell it already. I'm tired of hearing about it

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WASHINGTON  Though described as dysfunctional, the 118th Congress had considerable wins in the first half of its first year, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said.

It took 16 ballots to elect a speaker in January, a deal in May between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden to avoid a historic default is still giving some House conservatives heartburn, and a cadre of super-conservative representatives were able to stall votes in June on bills that other conservatives wanted.

But Scalise points out that the Republican-led 118th Congress has sent a dozen bills thus far to President Joe Biden, more than the seven bills the Democrat-led 117th Congress had sent at this point to the president.

Seven months into the 118th Congress, the Republican House majority has passed more rule bills and sent more rule bills to the desk of the president than the Democrat majority in the 117th Congress did in seven months with one-party control of the House, Senate, and White House, said Scalise, R-Jefferson.
A foliage-draped cross and flowers, and signs with the writing washed away by rain mark a spot on Burbank Drive near where Madison Brooks was fatally struck by a car around 2:50 a.m. Jan. 15, according to authorities. The 19-year-old LSU sophomore was raped in the back of a car before being dropped off in a nearby neighborhood, authorities said. She had been drinking at Reggie's bar before the incident, and deputies said Brooks had a blood-alcohol level of .319, nearly four times the legal limit to drive and enough to give someone alcohol poisoning and render them unconscious.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands upon his arrival at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
US Senator and a large part of the reason things are so bad in the US, Mitch McConnell was booed and jeered in his home state, last Saturday. After having stolen the Supreme Court for Republicans, McConnell has gone on to modestly disagree with his Republican kingpin Donald Trump over staging an insurrection and lost the support of much of the MAGA right.

NBC News:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was met with jeers from the crowd while delivering remarks in his home state at the annual "Fancy Farm Picnic" on Saturday.

In widely circulated video clips on social media, the crowd is heard booing and chanting "retire" and "lost the Senate" as McConnell, who has long been a target of criticism from his party's right wing, especially after he turned on former President Donald Trump, said that he and his wife, Elaine, are "excited to be back" at the event featuring Democratic and Republican speakers.

"My friends, I'll be honest, it's not hard for Republicans to look good these days," McConnell said amid boos.

McConnell did not acknowledge the jeers from the crowd throughout his speech. He criticized Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who sat behind him during his remarks and is up for re-election this year, for Covid-19 restrictions.
Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a woman was left with serious injuries in a car crash near Ilfracombe.

Officers were called at around 10.35am to the B3230 at Iron Letters Cross near Ilfracombe on Saturday, August 5, 2023.

It was reported that the collision involved a White BMW Estate and a Blue Dacia.

The passenger of the Dacia, a woman in her 60s from the Ilfracombe area, suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to hospital.

The drivers of both vehicles and the female passenger of the BMW suffered minor injuries and were treated at North Devon District Hospital.

The driver of the BMW, a 25-year-old man from London was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by careless driving.

He has since been released on police bail until October 20.

The road was closed while an investigation was carried out at the scene.

Officers from the Roads Policing Team would like to thank the public for their patience while the road was closed.

Anyone with any relevant information and dash-cam footage which may assist the investigation is asked to contact police via the website or by calling 101 quoting log 320 05/08/2023.
If you were skeptical of Judge Cannon before

Judge Aileen Cannon has forgotten that the Defendant who appointed her, Donald J. Trump, faces charges for criming in many places. The disturbing ruling that would expose secret grand jury testimony, is pretty sus. Legal experts speculate this will be what pushes the DOJ to request Cannon be recused.

It looks to me like Cannon is doing Trump's witness and jury intimidation for him.

Raw Story:

A stunning new ruling on Monday by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon that would expose secret grand jury testimony is grounds for the Department of Justice to call for her removal from overseeing the 40-count indictment filed against Donald Trump.

That is the opinion of former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance after Cannon questioned "the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding" and struck two sealed motions filed by prosecutors pursuing the former president over the stolen government documents he was hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago resort



Former senior DOJ official Harry Litman also questioned what Cannon is doing by writing, "I'm betting that Judge Cannon's account of the out-of-district investigation is not the full story. But hard to see how she can justify not sealing her order referring to another Grand Jury. Could this be a possible vehicle for taking her up and seeking her recusal? Not clear yet."

And Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor who worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, argued that Cannon was either showing bias or ignorance with her latest ruling.

"The obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in FLA or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district," he wrote. "And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside FLA."
Warships from a joint ChinaRussia naval operation buzzed the coast of Alaska earlier last week in what has been described as the biggest ever combined RussianChinese battle group to ever approach American shores.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Ala.) said in an Aug. 5 statement that 11 Russian and Chinese warships operating together got close to the coast of Alaska earlier last week in what the lawmaker called yet another reminder that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators of Beijing and Moscow.

Mr. Sullivan, whos a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News late on Aug. 5 that the U.S. Navy mobilized four destroyers to escort the Chinese and Russian warships away from U.S. coastal waters.

The Alaska lawmaker noted that last summer saw a similar, although smaller scale operation off the coast of Alaska.

Given that our response was tepid, I strongly encouraged senior military leaders to be ready with a much more robust response in the event of another similar drill, Mr. Sullivan said in a follow-up statement.

He also said he was heartened to note that this latest incursion was met with a forceful response that sent a strong message to China and Russia that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska.

Details remain scant on the joint operation, however. The U.S. Northern Command didnt immediately respond to a request for confirmation and more details from The Epoch Times, but a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that, in addition to naval ships, U.S. air assets were also scrambled in response to the joint ChinaRussia operation.

Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat, the command said in a statement, per the outlet.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Experts said the ChinaRussia operation was the largest ever to approach the U.S. coast.

This is the largest combined RussianChinese battle group to approach American shores ever, Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain, said in a post on Twitter, which has been officially rebranded to X.

Something wicked this way comes

He echoed the view of the immense scale of the joint operation in his interview on Fox News.

This is unprecedented in terms of the size and scope of this joint naval task force between Russia and China, working very closely together, Mr. Sullivan told the outlet.

Whether you live in Alaska like I do, or on the East Coast of the United States, a very large surface action task force between our two main adversaries, probing very closely to United States shores is concerning.

He noted that he believes that the operation shows that leaders in China and Russia are becoming increasingly aggressive in their posture toward the United States.

Prior Incidents

The similar, although smaller, incident that Mr. Sullivan referred to in his statement took place in September 2022. That operation involved a Chinese missile cruiser, two other Chinese navy ships, and four Russian naval vessels.

The U.S. response to that incursion was met with the presence of a single Coast Guard cutter, which he said was a weak response.

At the time, Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, the 17th Coast Guard District commander, said in a statement that the joint ChineseRussian formation operated in accordance with international rules and norms while noting that U.S. naval forces would meet presence-with-presence to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.

The Coast Guard release states that the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crew was on a routine patrol in the Bering Sea and spotted a Chinese Renhai CG 101 missile cruiser near Kiska Island.

Later, the crew saw two other Chinese vessels, a Russian navy destroyer, and three other Russian vessels all in a single formation with the Renhai and were operating in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, according to the statement.

After the Russian and Chinese ships were detected, the Coast Guard stated that the Kimball crew is operating under a new directiveOperation Frontier Sentinelwhich it says is designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters.

The Chinese and Russian formation came a month after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned about Chinas interest in the Arctic and Russias military buildup there.

Elsewhere, China and the United Arab Emirates plan to hold their first joint air force drill to bolster military cooperation.

The Falcon Shield-2023 joint exercise will take place in Chinas Xinjiang province, the Chinese Defense Ministry stated on July 31, without specifying the dates and scope of the training.

This is the first joint training between both air forces, aiming to deepen pragmatic exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries and enhance mutual understanding and trust, it said in a statement.

Jack Phillips and Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times
In this undated photo provided by the North Korean regime, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) holds a weapon during his three-day inspection from Aug. 3 until Aug. 5, 2023 at major munitions factories in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, South KoreaNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the countrys key weapons factories, including those producing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and pledged to speed up efforts to advance his militarys arms and war readiness, state media said Sunday.

Mr. Kims three-day inspections through Saturday came as the United States and South Korea prepared for their next round of combined military exercises planned for later this month to counter the growing North Korean threat.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as the pace of North Koreas missile tests and the joint U.S.South Korea military drills, which Mr. Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, have both intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

Some experts say Kims tour of the weapons factories could also be related to possible military cooperation with Moscow that may involve North Korean supplies of artillery and other ammunition as Russian President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support in the war in Ukraine. Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Koreas Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Friday that Mr. Kims staged visits to the arms factories are possibly aimed at both demonstrating North Koreas military might in the face of U.S.South Korean drills and also communicating an intent to export weapons.

We express deep regret that North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] as well as conventional weapons at the expense of the wellbeing of its citizens, Mr. Koo said during a briefing.

During a visit to an unspecified factory producing large-caliber artillery systems, Mr. Kim stressed the facilitys important responsibility and duty in further boosting his militarys war preparations, North Koreas state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

Mr. Kim praised the factorys efforts to employ scientific and technological measures to improve the quality of shells, reduce processing times for propellent tubes, and increase manufacturing speed. He also urged the factory to move ahead with development and large-scale production of new kinds of ammunition, the KCNA said.

Mr. Kim echoed the message in visits to two other factories, calling the delivery of launcher trucks designed to transport and fire ballistic missiles a top priority for the military and urging for the rapid expansion of production of more reliable engines for cruise missiles and drones.

North Korean photos showed Mr. Kim walking past huge launcher trucks designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles which recent tests indicated they could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. Other photos showed Mr. Kim firing scoped rifles during a visit to a small arms factory where he said soldiers firearms need to be modernized, according to KCNA.

In the face of deepening confrontations with Washington and Seoul, Mr. Kim has been trying boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the United States.

His tour of the weapons factories comes after a giant military parade last month in North Koreas capital, Pyongyang, where Mr. Kim was joined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official while rolling out his most powerful missiles designed to target South Korea and the United States.

Mr. Shoigus presence at the July 27 parade, which came after Mr. Kim took him on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, demonstrated North Koreas support for Russias invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia to support its war efforts.

Cheong Seong Chang, an analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Mr. Kims visits to the factories likely had a dual goal of encouraging the modernization of domestically produced weapons and examining artillery and other supplies that can possibly be exported to Russia.

Mr. Kims comments at the artillery factory about improving the quality of shells and the need to develop new types of ammunition, which he described as key to the countrys national defense economic work, clearly communicate an intent for exports to Russia, Mr. Cheong said.

When asked whether North Korea has ever used the term national defense economic work in government comments before, Mr. Koo didnt answer directly but described it as very rare.

If they meant arms exports with this, then they are openly pledging to violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, and I think that would be deplorable, Mr. Koo said.

North Korea has been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the hegemonic policy of the U.S.-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. But Pyongyang has denied U.S. accusations that it has been providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine.

Mr. Cheong said Mr. Kims comments at the factory about making missile-launch trucks could indicate that the North is seeing some progress in increasing the production of those vehicles, which would possibly improve the operational range of its ballistic weapons designed to target neighboring rivals and the U.S. mainland.

By Kim Tong-hyung
The actors and writers strikes have resulted in most Hollywood film and television productions being shut down, from the Gladiator sequel to the live action Lilo & Stitch. But some independent films and television productions are being granted waivers by the union that will allow them to continue, with Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists actors, amid the strike.

It's a move that the union leadership says is an essential negotiating tactic, but thats also proved divisive and confusing to many sweating it out on the picket lines while movie stars like Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey continue to work.

Heres what to know about the interim agreements that are keeping some Hollywood productions filming.

WHAT FALLS UNDER THE INTERIM AGREEMENTS?

Actors are striking against studios and streaming services that bargain as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The group's ranks include the major film studios (Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.), television networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) and streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon.

There are numerous independent production companies that aren't affiliated with the AMPTP, and they are allowed to film with SAG-AFTRA actors during the strike. They must agree to terms that the union proposed during negotiations on July 12, which includes a new minimum wage rate that's 11% higher than before, guarantees about revenue sharing and AI protections.

Those terms were rejected by the studios and streaming services, but SAG-AFTRA realized that some independent producers and smaller film studios (like Neon and A24) were willing to agree to the terms if it meant they could keep filming.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PRODUCTIONS ALLOWED TO CONTINUE?

As of Tuesday, over 120 productions have been approved including a Rebel Wilson comedy Bride Hard, an untitled Guy Ritchie project, a film with Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd called Death of a Unicorn, the Matthew McConaughey thriller The Rivals of the Amziah King and David Lowerys pop star movie Mother Mary, starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.

The list is being constantly updated on SAG-AFTRAs website, but even some productions that have been granted waivers are still pausing for optics and solidarity. Viola Davis decided to step away from her film G20, in which she plays the U.S. president at a G20 Summit overtaken by terrorists, despite it being granted a waiver.

I love this movie but I do not feel that it would be appropriate for this production to move forward during the strike, Davis said in a statement. G20 though independently financed, was set to be distributed by Amazon Studios, which is an AMPTP member.

WHAT IS SAG-AFTRAS STRATEGY?

According to the unions chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, there are several benefits of the interim agreement to SAG-AFTRA members.

It provides absolute empirical proof that the terms that we are seeking in the negotiation are reasonable, he told The Associated Press this week. There was a CEO of one of the companies who said that what we were asking for was unrealistic. And yet we have hundreds of independent producers who say well be happy to produce under those terms.

It also provides opportunities for crews and actors to work, relieving some of the financial pressures of the strike. And, he added, it might be getting the attention of studios.

Ive heard from studio sources that they are unhappy with us doing this, he said. That sort of confirms to me that the strategy is in the right place, because when the people youre on strike against arent happy that youre doing something, that probably means that its a tactic thats having an impact.

Emmy-winning Abbott Elementary actor Sheryl Lee Ralph agrees with the strategy.

As the first vice president of the L.A. Local, I have to honestly say interim agreements are smart agreements. What that does is keep little conversations going with producers who are not the big major producers, she told the AP Thursday. So now the big folks can look and say, Well, wait a minute, if they can do it, why arent we doing it.

WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?

To some members sweating it out on the picket lines and pinching pennies, it doesnt feel like a united work stoppage when major celebrities like Hathaway and McConaughey get to still make movies.

Comedian Sarah Silverman was one who was especially irked about the loophole and posted her thoughts in an Instagram video. After meeting with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland, she walked back her outrage and said both sides better understood the waivers could be a positive and a negative.

I do understand that some members feel like it creates a confusing message or that it makes it not as clear of a line, Crabtree-Ireland conceded. (But) were all very clear on the fact that AMPTP companies are the companies were on strike against, and were not going to be engaging in production with them until they accept these very same terms or come to the table and make a fair deal with us.

WHAT HAPPENS IF AN AMPTP COMPANY BUYS THE FILM FOR DISTRIBUTION?

Some of the productions from smaller studios, like A24 and Neon, have their own distribution arms that can get films out into the world. But others dont. They often sell to AMPTP companies who ultimately put them into theaters or on their streaming services. G20 is a prime example of this, having already had a deal in place with Amazon to distribute.

Crabtree-Ireland said its a concern but also a reality we accept as a possibility that one of these independent films will sell to, say, Netflix. He sees a possible upside if this happens though, as the interim agreement includes a streaming revenue share proposal.

If an AMPTP-owned streaming company decides to acquire one of these projects that are created under the interim agreement, then theyll be acquiring a project that has a revenue share attached to it," he said. "Well be very pleased for them to start cooperating with that proposal.

WHAT ABOUT ACTORS PROMOTING COMPLETED PROJECTS?

SAG-AFTRA is reviewing applications that would allow talent to promote independent films at upcoming fall festivals like Venice, Telluride and Toronto, which are going forward with many high-profile world premieres regardless of actor availability.

Luc Bessons DogMan, debuting at Venice, was recently granted an interim agreement allowing its stars, like Caleb Landry Jones, to help promote the film through red carpet appearances and interviews. Other independent films headed to Venice include Sofia Coppolas Priscilla, with Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, Michael Manns Ferrari, with Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, Ava DuVernays Origin, Michel Francos Memory, with Jessica Chastain and Richard Linklaters Hit Man, with Glen Powell, all of which could, theoretically be granted waivers too.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles.
A Starke County ambulance driver died over the weekend when his vehicle was struck while responding to an emergency call, the county sheriff's department said.

UPDATE: Munster man nabbed with more child porn than cops could count, charges say Following months of investigation, search warrants were served at a home in Munster and a business in Hammond, police said.

Emergency medical technician Michael Wilcox Jr. was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.

Starke County police said they responded shortly before 3:30 p.m. Saturday and learned the ambulance had been travelling eastbound on County Road 800 South with its emergency lights and siren on when a northbound vehicle on County Road 700 East entered the intersection and collided with the side of the ambulance.

"As a result of the collision, the ambulance rolled over," according to police.

Portage man accused of beating puppy, threatening neighbors remains behind bars, despite bond, records show "(A neighbor) stated he observed the dog trying to get away from Kevin, but he would not let the dog get away," Portage police said.

A paramedic riding as a passenger in the ambulance was reportedly taken to the hospital in serious condition and the other driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

"First responders risk everything to keep us safe, and we owe them a tremendous debt," Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Granger, said. "Thinking and praying for the loved ones affected by this terrible tragedy in Starke County."

An investigation is underway by Starke County police assisted by the Indiana State Police crash reconstruction team.
A soldier with extensive family in the Region went missing in action after becoming a prisoner of war during the Korean War 73 years ago.

But a relative from Lynwood donated her DNA in the hope of identifying his remains and it paid off.

Army Sgt. Cresenciano Chano Garcia, Jr. was at last identified, bringing closure to his family who were long left to wonder about his fate.

The soldier from Laredo, Texas died during a death march during the Korean War. He's being returned to his family, who will have a celebration of life in Gary in September before a burial next to his parents in Texas in October.

"He was the youngest of five kids. There's some discrepancy when he joined the army but it's believed he was 17 years old because his dad had to sign for him," said relative Sandy Strong from Lynwood. "About 90% of his family is here in the Region."

Three of his sisters moved from the border town in Texas to East Chicago and his family has since fanned out across the Region. He now has family in East Chicago, Hammond, Highland, Griffith, Portage, Cedar Lake, Lake of the Four Seasons and Lynwood just across the state line in Illinois.

"That's partly what led him to join the Army," said Strong, who was Garcia's niece. "It was out of spite. My mom moved to East Chicago and he wanted to move up here with her but his parents wouldn't allow him to move away so he joined the Army."

He enlisted while the Korean War was raging and went to basic training at Fort Lewis in Washington. Garcia was deployed to Korea with Headquarters Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in 1950. He was reported missing in action during a battle by Kunu-ri in South Korea in December of that year.

He wrote regular letters to his grandmother, which the family still has and kept in sequential order. She feared something was amiss when the letters stopped coming and then grim-faced soldiers in uniform showed up on their doorstep one day with grave news.

His remains were not recovered. He was officially declared dead in February of 1951 in POW Camp 5 in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

"He was in North Korea in a river by China on a death walk. One witness saw him drop on the side of the road and another saw he was too weak to carry on. They had visual confirmation when he fell dead on the side of the road."

He died a corporal and was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

Strong was in Washington D.C. on union business for the United Steelworkers union back in 2006 with Garcia's sister and mother. They decided to donate their DNA for a potential match even though they thought there was a slim to none chance he would ever be identified.

"Flash forward to this year and we were told it was a 99.9% DNA match and they had found his remains," she said. "They had a whole slideshow. It looked like an NCIS-type thing. It was an amazing miracle. They found 90% of his body, including his skull, femur and jawbone. We broke down crying at the Army riding to see the skeletal remains laid out in the photos. It brings it full circle. I've heard his name over the years and never had the chance to meet him but this brought him to life. I'm glad my blood gave closure to the family. When he was buried DNA wasn't available."

He died young. He never got the chance to marry or have children.

But his memory lives on in the family.

Strong still has three Mexican coins Garcia obtained as a souvenir on a trip across the border and gave to a friend before he deployed to war. The friend held onto them after learning of Garcia's death and eventually gave them to the family.

Garcia was presumed missing but turned out to have actually been buried anonymously on U.S. soil for well over a half-century.

North Korea and the United States reached an agreement to exchange war dead in 1954. Garcia's remains were sent to the United States but were never identified.

He was buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, colloquially known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii in 1956.

"Since the 1980s the Army has been working to identify all the remains they found in the Punchbowl," she said "They've got boxes of bones with numbers."

His remains were exhumed in 2019 for more testing. A historian and forensic anthropologist determined the remains might be Garcia so they were sent to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory for dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

A rosette will be placed by his name at the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Honolulu. A celebration of life will take place from noon until 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the United Steelworkers Union's McBridge Hall at 1301 Texas St. in Gary. At least 500 people are expected to turn out.

"It's a ceremony for family members who can't get down to Laredo. The military will be putting on services when he gets to his final resting place," said relative Joe Perez, a union leader for the International Longshoremen Association at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. "I've heard a lot of stories about him, that he was a very handsome, very honorable and very prideful man. It's a great feeling to have some closure. My aunt donated her DNA to the military database and gave us an opportunity to get some closure."

The public is welcome to attend the ceremony, which will include taps and a 21-gun salute from a local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter.

He will be buried in Laredo, Texas on Oct. 14.

His nephew Rolando Vera said the family was given the choice of leaving him in the Punchbowl, having him buried at Arlington National Cemetery or having him buried at any military post in the country. They opted to bury him with his parents in his hometown.

Vera, who lives in Laredo, remembers going with his mother frequently to a monument downtown for the Korean MIA/POW. He was so young he didn't initially grasp the concept.

"Everybody was holding out hope at some point he would be located," he said. "My mother, his sister, read a newspaper article in the local paper in the 1970s about POW/MIAs who survived by somehow blending in with the natives. It's been a long road for the last 73 years. But he's finally getting a military funeral."

After a suburban Houston newspaper article suggested it, Vera is looking into getting a local school in Texas named after Garcia. Laredo is in the process of building four elementary schools to try to keep up with population growth there.

"The article said he would be somebody deserving of having a school named after him and he was a true hero," he said. "It's been an amazing journey and there's been quite a bit of interest. I'm just blown away by all the interest being shown by people who didn't know him but admired him for being patriotic."

Strong hopes that by sharing her story more people related to POW/MIAs will consider donating their DNA in the hope of finding a match.

"I've been asked to consider going to conventions to share my story," she said. "It's been so moving, the miracle of it. We thought there was no chance of identifying him but you never know. There are thousands who still need to be identified. More people giving their blood would probably help."
Record flooding over the weekend destroyed at least two homes and severely damaged dozens of others in Juneau, Alaska's capital city, reports The Washington Post.

The flooding came from a nearby glacier, the 3,000-year-old Mendenhall Glacier. Glacial flooding has occurred annually since 2011, but this year's flood broke previous records. "It really exceeded our expectations," National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Park told the Post. He said the flood is "pretty devastating for the community."

Scientists said it is unclear if climate change contributed to this event but noted that the frequency of extreme weather is increasing. Juneau officials said there is little they can do to prevent future glacial flooding.
CROWN POINT  Lake County 4-H is partnering with Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural 1st to participate in Fight Hunger, Stock the Trailer at the Lake County Fair.

Last year, 16 counties across Indiana collected more than 37,000 pounds of food that went on to benefit 22 local food banks in its first year, said Jason Wilson, regional vice president of agricultural lending for Farm Credit Mid-America.

Fight Hunger, Stock the Trailer encourages community members who attend the Lake County Fair to drop off non-perishable food items at a white trailer located near the Livestock Show Pavilion until August 13. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three county fairs and 4-H programs that have raised the most food at the end of summer.

Helping other people counts as citizenship, 4-H State Ambassador Colleen Donaldson said. Raising food to give to a local food pantry that helps others is rewarding as well.

4-H is the largest youth development program in the U.S., and teaches children in kindergarten through 12th grade leadership skills. Lake County 4-H has nearly 25 clubs and 600 members helping to serve our community by participating in different projects including visiting nursing homes and animal shelters, and volunteering at the Lake County Fair.

For more information about Lake County 4-H, contact Purdue Extension Lake County at 219-775-3240, or visit the Lake County 4-H Programs website.

Hunger is a need that hits all of our communities, 4-H Youth Development Educator Julie Jones said. We are one of the largest fairs in the state and I think we're going to see a lot of donations coming in.

Visitors are also encouraged to stop by the 4-H building at the fairgrounds located between Gate 2 and Gate 3. People can take a look at 4-H members' hard work on different craft projects, Jones said.

In addition to volunteering at the fairgrounds, 4-H members in 3rd through 12th grade can enter their own animals into livestock shows held daily throughout the duration of the fair. 4-H will sponsor the livestock auction in the afternoon on Saturday, Aug. 13.

The 4-H Poultry Show kicked off on Friday morning at the poultry and rabbit barn. 4-H Poultry Program Superintendent Connie Brittingham said the livestock shows teach members responsibility, and help them gain confidence. Brittingham is celebrating 42 years of being the superintendent for the program, but plans to retire after this year.

Its the love of my life, she said emotionally. 4-H is a family program and we build relationships with the whole family, not just the kids. Its something you keep forever.

Incoming state ambassador Noah Miller said 4-H has allowed him to find his spark, and passion for photography since joining the organization 7 years ago. Miller, 16, is grateful for the new friendships hes created with other 4-H members across the state.

4-H State Ambassador Caroline Donaldson cherishes her time with the organization because its provided her with networking opportunities, and allowed her to visit Indianas statehouse, and stand on the senate floor.

Through 4-H I have discovered my passion for animals and public speaking, said Donaldson, 17. I also have a passion for science and 4-H has allowed me to pursue that and meet people who can help me in my future with that passion.

Families who can't attend the fair but are interested in learning more about 4-H can attend the "Come One Come All, Join 4-H This Fall" open house that will be held at the Purdue Extension Office in Crown Point this upcoming October.

"4-H is about leadership and citizenship," 4-H Youth Development Educator Jennifer Haynes said. "We take pride in the work our youth are doing. They're great leaders, and the future of the world."
The National Association of Realtors says a new survey puts clear data behind the trend toward walkable communities seen in cities and suburbs across the country, including in Northwest Indiana.

The 2023 Community & Transportation Survey reveals that Americans living in walkable communities report a higher quality of life, according to the NAR.

"With COVID in our rearview mirror, this study shows that a substantial demand for walkability persists for Americans of all ages," said NAR President Kenny Parcell.

According to the survey, if deciding today where to live:

 79% said being within an easy walk of other places and things, such as shops and parks, is very/somewhat important. 78% of those indicated that they would be willing to pay more for a dwelling in a walkable community.

 85% said sidewalks and places to walk are very/somewhat important.

 65% said having public transport nearby is very/somewhat important.

 56% said they would prefer a house with a small yard and be able to walk to places versus 44% who would prefer a large yard and would need to drive to most places.

 53% would prefer an attached dwelling (own or rent a townhouse/condo/apartment) and be able to walk to shops, restaurants, and a short commute to work vs. 47% who would prefer a single-family home (own or rent) and have to drive to shops, restaurants and a longer commute.

Regionally, Hammond and Michigan City in particular have plans for multi-use developments that are a hallmark of walkable communities. Those developments are closely linked to Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District railroad stations which offer opportunities for transit-oriented development in municipalities across western Lake County and the northern tier of the Region.

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commissions new 2050+ metropolitan transportation plan discusses the importance of walkable transportation corridors and city and town centers in its discussion of the impact of evolving trends in the economy.

In addition to Hammond and Michigan City, the NIRPC plan notes older downtowns like Whitings 119th Street corridor and newer developments like Founders Square in Portage and the Centennial Park district in Munster as examples of the trend.

In Northwest Indiana, like across the country, weve seen continued interest for housing located in walkable communities, said Judy Rooney-Davis, President of Northwest Indiana Realtors Association in a news release from the local association. The availability of data like this will give valuable insight to real estate professionals, and it will help local lawmakers make decisions about land use and transportation policies that can help our region meet this demand.

The biannual NAR Community & Transportation Preferences Survey polls residents in the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the United States. The complete results can be found at www.nar.realtor/reports/nar-community-and-transportation-preference-surveys.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed the voluntary manslaughter conviction of a 76-year-old Northwest Indiana woman last year found guilty of the 2015 beating death of Trula Alliss, her 77-year-old stepmother.

Judy Moore, of Rensselaer, was convicted of the level 2 felony by a Jasper County jury, along with obstruction of justice, and sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison. She was acquitted on a separate murder charge, according to court records.

Records show Moore and Alliss had an emotional conversation in Alliss' apartment on Feb. 3, 2015, about Moore's decision to move away from her residence in the same apartment complex and relocate to Georgia.

During the conversation, Moore became angry with Alliss, grabbed a nearby hard object and used it to repeatedly hit Alliss in the head  splattering blood on the walls and ceiling, and causing Alliss' death, according to court records.

In her appeal, Moore argued the trial court erred by excluding testimony about another potential suspect. She also claimed prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to sustain her voluntary manslaughter conviction.

The appeals court was unpersuaded and ruled against Moore in a 3-0 decision.

Judge Cale Bradford, writing for the appellate panel, said testimony about another suspect was properly excluded because Moore failed to show a connection between the crime and the individual she said perpetrated it, who police determined was out-of-town on the date of the killing.

As to sufficiency, Bradford said the evidence showed Moore acted with "sudden heat" by using a nearby object to kill her stepmother, rather than planning it in advance and bringing a knife or gun with her to Alliss' apartment.

"The jury was presented with both murder and voluntary manslaughter charges to consider. After considering the evidence, the jury determined that Moore had acted with sudden heat. The jury's determination that Moore had acted with sudden heat is sufficiently supported by the evidence. Moore's claim to the contrary effectively amounts to an invitation to reweigh the evidence, which we will not do," Bradford said.

Moore still can ask the Indiana Supreme Court to consider reviewing her case. Otherwise, her earliest possible release date from prison  assuming good behavior  is Feb. 10, 2032, when Moore will be 85, according to the Department of Correction.

Gallery: Get to know these new Indiana laws that took effect July 1 AirTags Alcohol permits Animal facilities Annexation Book bans Bullying Charter schools Child molesting Childrens hospitals Domestic violence Drinking water Electric/hybrid vehicles Encroachment FAFSA Financial literacy Firefighting equipment Food and beverage tax Gender-affirming care Gary schools Gasoline tax Human trafficking Illiana Expressway Inmate gender Insurance fund Juror pay Juveniles Lake County convention center Lake County recorder Landlords Little Calumet River Lost farmland Machine guns Mail-in ballots Mental health Military bases Military pay Pension investments Public health School board elections Service animals Sex education SNAP assistance Speed cameras State comptroller Storage units Tax sales Taxpayer receipt Teachers unions Throwing stars Transit Development District 21st Century Scholars Valparaiso lawsuit Xylazine
My brother and his fiancee have asked me to be their wedding officiant. It will be a nonreligious ceremony near the beach in August. I want something that conveys strength and calm, but I will likely end up being in all of their photos, so I dont want to detract from the bride and groom. Please advise!  Kathleen, Columbia, S.C.

First, congratulations. Being asked to officiate for a friends or relatives wedding is an honor. In turn, you want to honor the couple and their desires, no matter how weird they may be. Sean Parker, of Napster and Facebook fame, reportedly asked Sir Ian McKellen to officiate at his 2013 Lord of the Rings-themed wedding dressed as Gandalf.

Since they were not friends, Sir Ian was able to turn him down. You, on the other hand, would not have that liberty. When it comes to officiating, the wedding couples wishes come first.

That means that when it comes to deciding what to wear, the first thing to do is understand the wishes of the couple. That involves location, of course, as well as the time of the ceremony, the dress code for guests, any relevant color or theme and the wedding party attire. All of it matters. You would not wear the same thing to officiate at a beach wedding as you would a country club wedding as you would a backyard wedding; evening weddings demand different clothes than lunchtime weddings, and so on.

Ideally, you want to harmonize with the bridesmaids and groomsmen (or bridal people), not take away any attention from the couple and look appropriately official. Its a big responsibility, guiding the ceremony of two people committing to each other for the rest of their lives. Theoretically, anyway.
Samantha Josephs childhood was scattered with golden trips to California to visit her Aunt Gail. Aunt Gail was the cool aunt. She worked in Hollywood and befriended actors like Robin Williams, Mayim Bialik and the cast of Friends. And yet she was still relatable (shed get on the floor and play like a kid).

One day, those trips to California stopped: Aunt Gail no longer wanted to see Samanthas family. Samantha was devastated, and several years later, she was devastated again by the news that Aunt Gail had died by suicide.

Today, Samantha shares her search for answers following her aunts death and how a conversation with David Schwimmer helped her to heal.

Todays Story:
Jove Meyer didnt think he would become an activist when he started his career as a wedding planner 15 years ago. But in 2012, while he was at a church in New York for a wedding he had planned, the pastor approached him a few minutes before the ceremony and told him, Youre not welcome here.

So he left and cried on the stoop outside the church.

I was like, What is going on? said Mr. Meyer, who is based in Brooklyn. It hit me like a rock. I was planning weddings  something that I myself couldnt participate in. Mr. Meyer, who is gay, was unable to marry at the time because same-sex unions were not yet legal nationwide.

Since then, he has been advocating inclusivity in the wedding industry at events and on broadcast shows, pushing for wedding vendors to be more welcoming to all couples. He also created an ally pledge that he asks every vendor to sign before they start working together.

In light of recent incidents involving L.G.B.T.Q. rights and discrimination, Mr. Meyer said, many queer couples are conducting research in order to find inclusive vendors.
Paramount is preparing to announce an agreement to sell Simon & Schuster, one of the countrys top publishers, to KKR, a private-equity firm, marking the end of a yearslong attempt to sell the publishing house.

The deal, which values Simon & Schuster at roughly $1.62 billion, could be announced as soon as Monday, according to three people familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday to discuss a confidential process. The deal is not yet final and could still fall apart, cautioned one of the people. Paramount reports earnings on Monday, and investors will be expecting an update on the companys efforts to offload the publisher.

The deal has the potential to reshape book publishing, an industry in which Simon & Schuster is one of the most significant players in the country. It also may offer closure to employees and industry observers, who have watched anxiously for years as the publisher has looked for a new owner.

Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS) put Simon & Schuster up for sale in 2020. About nine months later, it announced a deal to sell the company to Penguin Random House for $2.18 billion. The news of the planned sale came after years of significant mergers in publishing, with large houses joining together or gobbling up small and medium-size competitors, and the deal was widely expected to be approved by regulators.
After being charged in court with robbery and carjacking, Ms. Woodruff was released that evening on a $100,000 personal bond. In an interview, she said she went straight to the hospital where she was diagnosed with dehydration and given two bags of intravenous fluids. A month later, the Wayne County prosecutor dismissed the case against her.

The ordeal started with an automated facial recognition search, according to an investigators report from the Detroit Police Department. Ms. Woodruff is the sixth person to report being falsely accused of a crime as a result of facial recognition technology used by police to match an unknown offenders face to a photo in a database. All six people have been Black; Ms. Woodruff is the first woman to report it happening to her.

It is the third case involving the Detroit Police Department, which runs, on average, 125 facial recognition searches a year, almost entirely on Black men, according to weekly reports about the technologys use provided by the police to Detroits Board of Police Commissioners, a civilian oversight group. Critics of the technology say the cases expose its weaknesses and the dangers posed to innocent people.

The Detroit Police Department is an agency that has every reason to know of the risks that using face recognition carries, said Clare Garvie, an expert on the technology at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. And its happening anyway.

On Thursday, Ms. Woodruff filed a lawsuit for wrongful arrest against the city of Detroit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Free-floating planets  dark, isolated orbs roaming the universe unfettered by any host star  dont just pop into existence in the middle of cosmic nowhere. They probably form the same way other planets do: within the swirling disk of gas and dust surrounding an infant star.

But unlike their planetary siblings, these worlds get violently chucked out of their celestial neighborhoods.

Astronomers had once calculated that billions of planets had gone rogue in the Milky Way. Now, scientists at NASA and Osaka University in Japan are upping the estimate to trillions. Detailed in two papers accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, the researchers have deduced that these planets are six times more abundant than worlds orbiting their own suns, and they identified the second Earth-size free floater ever detected.

The existence of wandering worlds orphaned from their star systems has long been known, but poorly understood. Previous findings suggested that most of these planets were about the size of Jupiter, our solar systems most massive planet. But that conclusion garnered a lot of pushback; even scientists who announced it found it surprising.
One of the most prolific thieves in the South Lake Tahoe, Calif., area was safely immobilized by tranquilizer dart and apprehended Friday morning, according to state officials: a 400-pound black bear that the public had come to know as Hank the Tank.

The captured bear was responsible for at least 21 DNA-confirmed home break-ins and extensive property damage in Tahoe Keys dating back to early 2022, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release. The bear will be transported to an animal sanctuary in Colorado this week.

Based on visual observations made by residents during a string of rummaging and ransacking incidents dating back to 2021, the public initially thought Hank the Tank was one male bear. But the bear that was captured on Friday, a female known to the state as 64F, is one of three bears responsible for some of the area break-ins that had been attributed to Hank.

I guess they all technically are Hank the Tank, Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman for the department, said. She said the other Hanks have not presented themselves as problems this year in Tahoe Keys, a gated community about 190 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Now that the post-Covid work-at-home trend is in full force, Zoom is having second thoughts when it comes to office policies of its own company  it is now telling most of its 7,400 employees to return to the office, at least part time.

"We believe that a structured hybrid approach  meaning employees that live near an office, need to be on site two days a week to interact with their teams  is most effective for Zoom," a company spokesperson said, via The New York Times. In other words, if an employee lives within 50 miles of a Zoom office, they need to show up in person at least twice a week  which is part of the company's new return-to-office policy they are about to implement.

Ironically, discussing the new plan with employees last week took place over Zoom.

From NYT:
Syrian state media reported on Monday that an Israeli missile attack targeting the vicinity of Syrias capital, Damascus, had killed four soldiers and wounded four others.

The report, which cited an unidentified military source, said the strike had occurred at about 2:20 a.m. and had come from the direction of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.

Syrian air defenses shot some of the missiles down, according to the report, which said there had been some material damage.

Last month, Israeli forces attacked seven targets in Damascus, according to Israeli reports. They were said to include warehouses used by Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, which, along with Iran, has supported the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
For the past 10 months, the back side of David Geffen Hall has greeted passers-by with Nina Chanel Abneys installation San Juan Heal. Its bold, color-blocked illustrations pay tribute to the largely Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood that was torn down to make way for Lincoln Center in the mid-20th century.

San Juan Heal was a way of acknowledging this performing-arts campuss original sin. When it was announced, Henry Timms, the centers president and chief executive, said, Weve been very intentional about thinking about different voices, different audiences, more people seeing themselves at Lincoln Center.

But as the months passed, I began to wonder: Are there more people of color on the building than inside it? If the installation is both a nod to the past and a hope for the future, then what is Lincoln Center doing to get there?

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which has taken up residence at Geffen Hall for two and a half weeks as part of Lincoln Centers Summer for the City programming, has a lot of ideas on that front. With so few concerts, it has little time to capture audience interest, but it also has more room to be conceptually agile.
Rhoda Karpatkin, who pressed for painstaking product testing for safety and quality while promoting comparison shopping for value during more than four decades at Consumers Union as counsel, executive director and president, died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 93.

The cause was brain cancer, her daughter, Deborah Karpatkin, said.

Ms. Karpatkin, a New York lawyer and civil rights advocate, had served for 16 years as the nonprofit organizations counsel when she was selected in 1974 as executive director, the first woman to hold that position. Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, later changed its name to Consumer Reports.

Rhoda led CR to become the trusted name and consumer champion we are today, Marta L. Tellado, the president and chief executive of Consumer Reports, said in a statement.

In 1993, Lears magazine called Ms. Karpatkin the nations smartest shopper.

Under her leadership, subscriptions to the magazine, which accepts no paid advertising, more than doubled, to 4.3 million, and in 2000, the organization created what was then the largest pay website, with 350,000 subscribers. Ms. Karpatkin also raised $40 million to build a new headquarters in Yonkers, N.Y., and an automobile testing track.
We believe that a structured hybrid approach  meaning employees that live near an office need to be on site two days a week to interact with their teams  is most effective for Zoom, a company spokesperson said. Well continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently.

During a tense meeting last week about the return to office policy, held on Zoom, Eric Yuan, the chief executive, faced a series of questions from employees who expressed frustration about the time and money theyd waste while commuting, according to an employee who was at the meeting but was not authorized to speak publicly about internal company matters.

In 2020, participants in daily Zoom meetings leaped to over 300 million, from 10 million the year before, as it became the most downloaded free iPhone app of the year. But the company has struggled to maintain its pandemic growth. In February, amid a wave of layoffs across the tech industry, Zoom cut 15 percent of its staff, or about 1,300 people. The companys work force had grown more than 275 percent between July 2019 and October 2022.

On an earnings call in May, Mr. Yuan said he was confident in the future of workplace flexibility and the benefits it had brought for his company. I think hybrid work is going to stay, he said.

Zoom, like many other tech companies, is still holding on to some flexibility, requiring its employees to come in only on a part-time basis.
All of Breens films seem clearly to mean something, and watching them, ones suspension of disbelief is constantly threatened by strange directorial choices. Even when theyre 90 minutes, some feel interminable. In a simple scene of dialogue hell freely break the 180-degree rule, a basic staging technique meant to keep the viewer oriented. His later films make generous use of composite photography, and characters will be both uncannily too large and too small in the same ethereal vista. My favorite among his many idiosyncrasies is the thunderously expository dialogue. This is from the 2016 Pass-Thru:

Media President: I know senior national elected government officials who I can force my political bias and influence on fellow politicians, to vote my way. For a payoff, of course.



Thgil (Breen): Isnt that corrupt?

None of this logically anticipates Breens dire, cartoonishly violent narratives. Pass-Thru culminates in his darkest sequence, with Thgil  another of the messianic aliens in which Breen specializes  walking toward the horizons vanishing point. The landscape is strewn with hundreds of thousands of bodies, a genocide hes issued as punishment for those whove abused Earths precious resources.

Fateful Findings, which I and many others consider Breens most deranged film, exemplifies the tonal stiltedness and libertarian rage that pervades his work. The first two-thirds qualify as a drama, marked by alcoholism, painkiller addiction and unrequited love. By the time it ends there has been an abduction, murders, teleportation and a revelatory news conference that culminates in six consecutive suicides.

With each production, Breens audience, drawn from word of mouth and social media, has grown. He began to raise interest when I Am Here . Now played at West Coast theaters like the now defunct Cinefamily in West Hollywood, Calif., where it was marketed as a hilarious oddity.

For many audiences the natural response to Breens films is laughter. Hes often likened to Tommy Wiseau, whose The Room (2003) is considered one of the worst movies ever made, or Ed Wood, whose charmingly ramshackle genre exercises from the 1950s might be considered forerunners of Breens work. But these comparisons are shallow. By the end of his career Wood had fallen into obscurity, directing pornography under a pseudonym. And Wiseau seems to have succumbed by self-parody. His six-episode sitcom, The Neighbors, and his appearances in other films (like Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance) demonstrate none of The Rooms manic power.

Breen is still making films under the same unpretentious conditions, which is to say theyre just as incoherent as ever, even if theyve evolved in technical ambition. Whereas his early films favored suburban Las Vegas and the nearby desert, his 2018 cyberthriller Twisted Pair is replete with green-screen photography and stock footage. Breen plays a double role, twins Cale and Cade, bestowed at birth with superhuman powers and pitted against each other with potentially world-changing consequences. The action scenes  when Cade freezes time, for instance, or leaps grasshopper-like to the upper floor of a building  contain flashes of The Matrix. During these sequences at a 2018 screening at the Music Box in Chicago, the crowd went berserk.
The accusations also raised questions about what agency secrets Mr. McGonigal might have compromised. But a more than three-year F.B.I. investigation produced no evidence that he had done so, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. That a plea agreement may be reached relatively quickly also suggests that Mr. McGonigals former colleagues at the F.B.I., and Justice Department prosecutors, have concluded his behavior stopped at corruption and did not extend to espionage.

The New York indictment accused Mr. McGonigal and Mr. Shestakov of working for Mr. Deripaska, a wealthy Russian metals magnate. Mr. Shestakov, 69, is a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who lived in the U.S. and worked after his retirement as an interpreter in U.S. courts in New York.

Federal prosecutors suggested that while still at the F.B.I., Mr. McGonigal attempted to build a relationship with an aide to Mr. Deripaska by arranging for the aides daughter to do an internship with the New York City Police Department. (A senior police official told The New York Times that the woman was given a V.I.P.-type tour over several days that included spending time with specialized Police Department units, including the harbor patrol and mounted units, but it was not an internship.)

In April 2018, Mr. Deripaska was placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. State Department, which cited his connections to the Kremlin and Russias interference in the presidential election of 2016. Mr. McGonigal reviewed the proposed list of people to be sanctioned, including Mr. Deripaska, before it was finalized, prosecutors said.

In 2019, after Mr. McGonigals retirement, he and Mr. Shestakov connected Mr. Deripaska to a law firm for aid in getting the sanctions lifted, federal prosecutors in New York said. Mr. McGonigal met with Mr. Deripaska and others in London and Vienna and was paid $25,000 a month through the law firm as a consultant and an investigator until about March 2020, the indictment says.

Then, in the spring of 2021, Mr. McGonigal and Mr. Shestakov negotiated an agreement with Mr. Deripaskas aide to investigate a rival oligarch, for which they were paid more than $200,000, according to the indictment. The criminal charges in the indictment appear to relate primarily to this arrangement, which ended, prosecutors said, when the mens devices were seized by the F.B.I. in November 2021.

Adam Goldman and William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Even by New Jersey standards, a news conference Gov. Philip D. Murphy held to announce that he was suing the Biden administration over New Yorks plan to charge drivers to enter Midtown Manhattan was heavy on hyperbole.

A U.S. senator accused New York of orchestrating a shakedown of New Jersey commuters. A Democratic congressman implied that the fall from grace of New Yorks former governor Andrew Cuomo was karmic payback for his support for the new tolls, known as congestion pricing. Another accused the head of North Americas largest mass transit system of giving children cancer.

I feel like the Ginsu knife commercial, Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, quipped  referring to a 1980s wait, theres more! ad for a kitchen tool with many uses  as he added that New Jersey would pay a bonus to any state resident who worked remotely for a New York company and successfully sued to recoup out-of-state income taxes.

The gloves are off in a long-simmering border war between New York and New Jersey. And this latest battle has given rise to a curious new set of allies and enemies, allegations of hypocrisy and vivid trash talk  a situation that may grow only more intense as the start of congestion pricing nears, possibly in May next year.
The new charges are based on the former physicians encounters with six women, including patients and dating partners.

Prosecutors said the assaults were part of a brutal, methodical pattern in which Mr. Cheng drugged women with liquid anesthesia before attacking them. Many later woke with no memory of what had happened.

Investigators said there were additional victims whom they had yet to identify, including one woman whose sexual assault Mr. Cheng recorded at the hospital.

At least five other unidentified women were assaulted at hotel rooms or at homes in New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Thailand over the past several years, according to the videos data, the prosecutors said.

In a statement, Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, urged anyone with potential leads about other victims to come forward. Ms. Katz said the evidence revealed a sexual predator of the absolute worst kind, a serial rapist who was willing to violate every standard of human decency.
If New York City officials feel any urgency about fixing the persistent problems at the Rikers Island jail complex, they are not showing it, according to a report filed on Monday by the federal official appointed to monitor the lockup.

The monitor, Steve J. Martin, writes in the report that the city Correction Departments most recent efforts toward improving conditions at the Rikers complex have been haphazard, tepid and insubstantial.

In describing the dysfunction that has come to define the jails, Mr. Martin detailed two episodes that occurred at Rikers in the past several months. One involved a correction officer who stood by as a group of detainees assaulted a man in their unit. The other involved detainees who were pepper sprayed for no reason during an unofficial hostage drill.

The reports findings are striking given the increasing possibility that the city could be forced to relinquish at least some control over its jails, which have been troubled for decades and plunged into their latest crisis in March 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic. A hearing on the future stewardship of the jails is scheduled for Thursday.
You focused on nearly 600 privately owned public spaces  smallish parks or plazas  that are adjacent to about 400 buildings. The thing is, theyre right there in plain sight, but most of us never pay attention to them.

Exactly. You walk by them every day. Thats how I found this story. I saw a plaza in my neighborhood and I looked it up and found out about this web of spaces. Everyone interacts with them.

Or doesnt. You looked at one building where the plaza has been closed for a long time, and the landscape architect who designed it said it breaks his heart to see it going unused, but its not the only one. Why do so many seem to be violating the terms of their agreements?

Building owners could potentially save on operating and maintenance costs.

Another reason is preventing homeless people from using the spaces. A lot of them are adjacent to luxury buildings. Sometimes, building owners introduce hostile architecture like spikes on ledges, which critics say discourages use and disproportionately targets people who are homeless.

Why did the city create the program for public spaces in the first place?

This was set up as a zoning incentive to bring light and air to a city that was rapidly becoming more dense. In 1961, the city thought a way of creating more open space was by encouraging developers to build these public spaces.
Two free rabies vaccination clinics for dogs, cats and ferrets have been scheduled next month by the Erie County Department of Health.

They will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Erie County Training and Operations Center, 3359 Broadway, Cheektowaga, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 16 at School 84, 462 Grider St., off Kensington Avenue, behind Erie County Medical Center.

Appointments are required. Visit tinyurl.com/ECSept23 or call 716-961-6800 during business hours. Up to three pets can be vaccinated.

Dogs must be secured on a collar and leash or brought in a carrier. Cats and ferrets must be restrained in a secure carrier.

We have had a significant number of dogs and cats come in contact with wildlife like bats, raccoons, skunks, woodchucks and foxes this summer, said the countys Environmental Health Deputy Director Peter Tripi. Many pets, seemingly more than normal, are ending up in quarantine because their owners have failed to keep up on rabies vaccination boosters.
Ms. Carroll brought her lawsuit in 2022 over conduct that predated his term, using a New York law that allowed adults a one-year window in which to sue over past sexual abuse. The jury awarded her $2 million for his misconduct as well as nearly $3 million for defamation.

Mr. Trump, who is seeking to regain the presidency, had countersued in June, arguing that Ms. Carroll should not have continued to say that he raped her after the jurys decision, and that her comments to CNN after the verdict sullied his reputation.

In the ruling on Monday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that the jurys finding implicitly determined that Mr. Trump had forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll with his fingers, which he said amounts to rape as the term is commonly used, outside of the narrower legal definition that the jury was required to consider.

The truthfulness of an assertion is a key component in a defamation case against a public figure. Mr. Kaplan wrote that such a figure must show that the statements in question were false and published with actual malice.

Ms. Carroll is seeking millions more in a parallel defamation case that has been stalled by appeals, arguing that Mr. Trump inflicted grave wounds on her reputation and her career by calling her a liar when he was president. That trial, delayed by Mr. Trumps arguments that he was protected by his position, is scheduled to begin in January.
The bloom is truly off the Scottish National Party, which has continued to dominate political life here in the almost decade since it lost an independence referendum. The party has held majorities in the devolved Parliament and in the Scottish seats at Westminster, and a volley of opinion polls, routinely reporting that Scots under the age of 49 favor independence, bolstered the sense that Scottish independence was a historical inevitability. Time, the nationalists argued, was on their side.

The last year has been a chastening experience.

In February, Nicola Sturgeon, first minister since 2014, unexpectedly announced her resignation and was almost immediately embroiled in a scandal over the partys financial affairs. In June, she was arrested and released without charge pending further investigation. But news reports continue to suggest that she and her husband, the partys former chief executive, might be charged. Ms. Sturgeon insists that she is innocent of any wrongdoing.

But even before the allegations, Ms. Sturgeons plans for independence had run out of steam. The first minister had wanted to hold a second referendum but did not have the British governments approval, and Britains Supreme Court ruled in November that the Scottish Parliament could not hold a referendum unilaterally. At first, Ms. Sturgeon argued that the next general election, expected next year, would instead serve as a de facto referendum  if her party won a majority of votes cast in Scotland, it would start negotiating Scotlands way out of the United Kingdom.

The plan was unworkable. Even if the Scottish National Party won more than 50 percent of the vote it still had no legal mechanism to require the British government to accept its interpretation of the result. And if it failed, it would have had its second referendum, and lost.

The energy and momentum that had sustained the partys remarkable decade started to drain away. Support for the nationalists has dropped by around 10 points since December, and recent polls suggest that the party, which won 48 of Scotlands 59 constituencies at the last general election, could lose as many as 20 to a resurgent Labour Party at the next one. (Ms. Sturgeons lackluster successor, Humza Yousaf, has not revitalized the movement.)
When you dont know whats coming, the whole glorious spectacle of it can catch you off guard. There you are on a downtown Nashville sidewalk, gawking at the tourists on the transportainment vehicles or just listening to the music pouring from the open-doored bars, when it begins to dawn on you that the sky is full of birds.

You havent come to Nashville to see birds. Its never crossed your mind to go looking for birds. But this is more birds than you have ever seen in one place before, and what they are doing is remarkable.

As evening comes on, they are wheeling high above the skyscrapers like stars in reverse, moving like a school of fish, flowing like a river made not of water but of animated silhouettes. And all that motion is set against a summer sunset of deep oranges and pinks and golds.

It can be a confounding sight. They arent bats, someone says. Bats fly like theyre drunk.

Exemplars of drunkenness being everywhere around, it becomes clear soon enough to anyone within hearing range that these are birds, not bats.
Im a Republican, but its getting harder and harder each year. What Im hoping is more of the people who have been quiet will be a lot louder. If they want to save the Republican Party and have it be like the party of the past, the party of Eisenhower, the party of Reagan, the non-social-issue side, the party of Teddy Roosevelt  these are names that still do mean something. Yes, theyre in the past, theyre in black-and-white photos, but the past is what gives us a guide as principle for the future. Just because people were turning over the tables and throwing dishes and screaming that the election was stolen doesnt mean that we have to agree with them.

I dont have a choice. Im an L.G.B.T.Q. American. Im a transgender American. I believe that the government should not have a right to tell you who you should marry, who you should love, who you can be or what kind of future life that you can have. I actually believe, if youre transgender, one of the most conservative things you can actually do is live your authentic self. But to do that, the government should not be in your business. They shouldnt be in our bedrooms. They shouldnt be trying to tell us who we can be, who we can live as, who we can go to school as. Thats not Republicanism.

Coaston: You were one of the first out trans people to attend a Republican National Convention, back in 2016. What was that experience like, and would you go back in 2024?

Williams: Well, it depends on how much my life insurance policy is at that point. That was a special time. What I learned from that experience was that the country was different. Transgender people were new; we were different. Most people, they knew of Caitlyn Jenner. They had never met a transgender person.

The reason for me to go there is because we knew there would not be a transgender person at that convention. There would be no voice to say: No, this is not how you think we are. This is how we actually are. We actually are regular American citizens. Were your neighbors. Were the people you sit next to on a train or a plane. We have a lot of the same shared beliefs, and you should respect us. You should not be trying to legislate against us.
Donald Trump is the most-indicted front-running presidential candidate ever.

There is, of course, no competition for this distinction. The myriad charges, with perhaps another set on the way, have shown no sign of denting Mr. Trumps appeal among Republicans. Indeed, its not that hes winning despite the indictments; its almost as though hes winning because of the indictments.

The indictment by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, over the Stormy Daniels hush money changed the trajectory of the Republican race. Mr. Trump had already stabilized from the hit he took after the disappointing midterms for Republicans, but the indictment helped boost him nearly 10 points in the national polls, and hes stayed on that elevated plane ever since.

Before this, the presumption in contemporary politics has been that a serious presidential candidate would have to withdraw if indicted. If the time and resources necessary to fight criminal charges didnt dissuade him or her, the voters would leave the candidate no other choice.

Why hasnt this happened to Mr. Trump? His ability to weather, and benefit from, his legal straits is a testament not just to his hold on the party but also to a deep distrust of the criminal justice system among Republicans.
Trumpetfish like to snack on damselfish and shrimp in coral reefs and sea grass beds around the world. But with 20-inch long bodies and conspicuously large snouts, they need tricks to sneak up on their prey.

In a study, published on Monday in the journal Current Biology, scientists demonstrated the effectiveness of one trumpetfish strategy  hiding behind a larger, friendlier fish. The subterfuge of such a fakeout seems almost human in its cleverness, leading scientists to wonder whether other species are also making use of similar hunting strategies.

While many coral reef residents, such as groupers and moray eels, work together when hunting for their mutual benefit, the trumpetfishs sneaky shadowing of larger fish seems to be solely for its own benefit.

Its also not the trumpetfishs only means of catching prey off guard. It can change color to blend into its surroundings or disguise itself as inanimate objects like a stick or seaweed. It can also attack from above, hanging vertically in the water column and darting down to suck prey into its gaping mouth.
In 2020, during the pandemic, they both were back in Iowa to be with their families. He was doing a daily walk with his mother for charity, and one of the paths they were taking was directly through the city she lived in. They were soon back together, and are now married and expecting their first child.

I definitely had my come-to-Jesus moment of like, this is who I am, Ms. Connealy said. And I have to stop running from the fact that this is the only person I will ever love.

Despite the many reasons getting back with an ex is not recommended, it can be hard to resist. The appeal of returning to a past partner is agonizingly familiar to many, and the reasons vary: Sometimes you try again because youve both matured and changed for the better. Sometimes its better to stick with the devil you know than risk dating someone new who may be worse. Sometimes the investment in a long relationship makes it hard to consider starting from scratch. Sometimes its their delicious cooking. Sometimes the sex is just too good.

In the second season of the Max series And Just Like That , Carrie reunites with her ex-fiance Aidan, waking up in his hotel after spending a week together in bed. While it is still unclear where the two are headed in the coming episodes, they have become very reacquainted and are moving fast.

Twenty minutes into the eighth episode, the pair are already shacking up in Ches expensive Hudson Yards apartment and are shopping together for pepper mills at a high-end home goods store. They are planning for her to visit his farmhouse in Norfolk, Va., and meet his three sons. Carrie even tells Miranda that shes been having orgasms she has never had in her entire life and she wonders whether her marriage to Big was a mistake.
Amazon is scheduled to meet with members of the Federal Trade Commission next week to discuss an antitrust lawsuit that the agency may be preparing to file to challenge the power of the retailers sprawling business, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.

The meetings are set to be held with Lina Khan, the F.T.C. chair, and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, who are F.T.C. commissioners, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential.

The meetings signal that the F.T.C. is nearing a decision on whether to move forward with a lawsuit alleging that Amazon has violated antimonopoly laws. Such discussions are sometimes known as last rites meetings, named after the prayers some Christians receive on their deathbed. The conversations, which are usually one of the final steps before the agencys commissioners vote on a lawsuit, give the company a chance to make its case.

If the F.T.C. files suit, it would be one of the most significant challenges to Amazons business in the companys nearly 30-year history. Amazon, a $1.4 trillion behemoth, has become a major force in the economy. It now owns not just its trademark online store, but the movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the primary care practice One Medical and the high-end grocery chain Whole Foods. It is also one of the worlds largest provider of cloud computing services.
Every Worldcoin orb contains a camera designed to record images of a persons irises. The orbs convert those scans into bits of numerical code, which are supposed to serve as a new type of digital ID. In the short term, Tools for Humanity plans to generate revenue by offering its iris-based system as an alternative to security technologies like CAPTCHA, the photographic test that is used to sort humans from spam accounts.

Ultimately, Worldcoins backers envision a grander plan to protect people from A.I. advances that they claim will eliminate millions of jobs. They are promoting the orbs as a possible foundation for universal basic income, a welfare system in which everyone receives guaranteed payments, and argue that iris IDs will help distinguish real people from robots.

To skeptics, the prospect of a privately owned crypto companys handling the biometric data from billions of people sounds like a recipe for dystopia, with echoes of the 2002 Tom Cruise film Minority Report. But Tools for Humanity has raised $115 million this year from venture capital investors, even as funding for crypto has dried up during a downturn in the industry.

Tools for Humanity is part of a growing array of crypto firms trying to latch on to the hype around A.I. to propel digital currencies back to relevance after a miserable 18 months of market crashes and bankruptcies. Its project also shows how powerful figures like Mr. Altman are seeking to profit in a tumultuous period, creating moneymaking ventures to mitigate the negative effects of A.I., even as they aggressively develop the technology.
On the same day George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on a Minneapolis street  Memorial Day, 2020  Christian Cooper was searching for songbirds in Central Park. Mr. Cooper, who is Black, would be vaulted to fame after a run-in with a white woman who called the police and falsely claimed he was threatening her when he asked her to leash her dog.

To David Yarnold, the chief executive of the National Audubon Society at the time, both events demanded a response. The powerful conservation group and pre-eminent bird enthusiasts organization needed to weigh in, and even examine itself.

Black lives matter, Mr. Yarnold, who is white, wrote in a letter to the societys staff after the first weekend of the George Floyd protests. Our nation is in turmoil because our governments, our institutions (including Audubon), and private individuals havent done nearly enough to act on that fundamental truth.

Mr. Yarnold promised to start a long conversation about how the Audubon Society could become antiracist in everything we do.
Two years ago, I wrote an article summarizing some of the research being done on a potential weakening of a great ocean conveyor current, part of which is the Gulf Stream.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, is key to climate tendencies in much of western and northern Europe, as well as the eastern coastal regions of North America. AMOC is part of the great thermohaline circulation around the globe, diagrammed by NASA Earth Observatory.

Ask Don Paul: Are the oceans the warmest on record? "The onset of a strengthening El Nino is going to add natural fuel to the heating that has been underway for decades from human activity," writes Don Paul.

There is a crucial relationship between north Atlantic Ocean salinity and the strength of AMOC. Saltier water has greater density. Higher salinity in the northern latitudes allows the cold waters to sink quickly to the seabed and flow equatorward. These waters eventually warm in the tropics, rise and recirculate northward, releasing much of their warmth along the way to the American East Coast and all the way to Europe and its northern latitudes. The Gulf Stream portion of the circulation modifies the climate of even northern latitudes, and lessens the harshness of the winter months, making places such as the Canadian Maritimes, Great Britain and northwest Europe far more livable than they would otherwise be at those latitudes.

A new study released in the journal of Nature Communications at the end of July brings strengthening evidence that the dilution of north Atlantic salinity is accelerating. The dilution is directly linked to global warming and, in particular, the well-predicted more rapid warming at high latitudes. Both glaciers and the massive Greenland ice cap are melting faster and dumping massive amounts of freshwater into the north Atlantic, lessening salinity concentrations. This lessening of salinity is already slowing velocities in AMOC, since the more rapid sinking of high salinity water in the far north to drive AMOC is diminishing.

In general, AMOC has existed through time in two modes. The first is the fast and stable mode, upon which we rely for more climatic stability. The second is a much slower and weaker mode, which would allow the climate-modifying Gulf Stream to slow down, or even stop. There is paleoclimatological evidence supplied by ice cores and sediment samples that such slowdowns have occurred several times in the earths past, and that in one or more slowdowns, the entire process, once underway, proceeded with startling speed.

Ask Don Paul: Could the extreme heat stories be overdone? At this time in our climate history and current state of the planet, the evidence is overwhelming that global warming is accelerating, writes Don Paul.

Salinity is regularly measured in the north Atlantic, and we know it has been in a fairly steady decline due to human-caused warming, shrinking glacial and Greenland ice cover. Previous estimates of the loss of salinity and the impact on AMOC had suggested its weaker mode could appear in the next century. But the new study presents rather strong evidence that the entire process is moving along much faster than earlier estimates. The study authors conclude a north Atlantic tipping point in the mode change is approaching with alarming rapidity. "The expected tipping point  given that we continue business as usual with greenhouse gas emissions  is much earlier than we expected," co-author Susanne Ditlevsen, a professor of statistics and stochastic models in biology at the University of Copenhagen, told Live Science.

Estimates in the study for such a tipping point could occur in a range from a probably less likely 2 years (2025), out to about 2090.

Ask Don Paul: Is there runaway warming in the Northern Hemisphere? What has been occurring in many other parts of the hemisphere qualifies as extreme heat at its worst, at least substantially driven by global warming, Paul writes.

Whatever skepticism might be aroused in readers minds, we do know salinity is decreasing, and has been for quite some time as warming increases. And, we do know, at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, this ongoing process will continue for some time, unless and until humanity undertakes drastic measures to achieve massive reductions in these emissions. Basically, this no longer appears to be a far, far in the future phenomenon.

The fact that AMOC is now at its weakest stage in more than a thousand years is, obviously, not good news, but the potential trend toward a complete AMOC breakdown would be much worse.

Such a collapse would have a disastrous impact on global weather systems, leading to sea-level rises in the Atlantic; greater cooling and more powerful storms across the Northern Hemisphere; and severe disruption to the rain that billions of people rely upon to grow crops in Africa, South America and India," according to the U.K.'s meteorological office.

Ask Don Paul: How do we know global temperatures are the hottest in recorded history? The eight hottest years on global record have occurred since 2016, the hottest year of all so far, when a strong El Nino added natural heat to the human activity-caused global warming, writes Don Paul.

AMOC, as vast as it is, is only a part of a global ocean conveyor current system seen in this NASA animation.

The most recent recorded breakdown during the last ice age took only about a decade to occur. A breakdown in the near future might cause a temperature dropoff of about 9 degrees Fahrenheit in eastern North America and Europe. The study authors have checked and rechecked their work, and are alarmed at the consistency of results.

"I don't consider myself very alarmist. In some sense it's not fruitful," study co-author Peter Ditlevsen, a professor of physics and climate science at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, told Live Science. "So my result annoys me, in some sense. Because it (the window for possible collapse) is so close and so significant that we have to take immediate action now."
John R. Modlin, the Border Patrols Tucson sector chief patrol agent who oversees the area, has described tribal partnerships as essential to our national security mission. The Border Patrols social-media feed is filled with posts showing agents helping the tribe fight wildfires, planting saguaro cactuses and stopping traffickers who cross the reservation with migrants packed into car trunks.

The Border Patrol released a lengthy account of Mr. Mattias killing as well as body-camera footage. An investigation is being conducted by the F.B.I. and the Tohono Oodham Police Department. The agencies declined to discuss the shooting, citing the investigation.

Ned Norris Jr., the Tohono Oodham chairman, said in a statement that he had serious concerns about Mr. Mattias killing but was reserving judgment. He did not respond to a request for comment.

News of the shooting has rippled through other tribes near the border, forcing some leaders to grapple with their own mixed feelings about the federal presence around their lands.

We always worry about both sides, whether its the cartels or some of the agents who man these border patrols who have guns, said Peter Yucupicio, chairman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, whose headquarters are in Tucson. You start wondering as a tribal member: If I do something wrong, am I going to get all shot up.
Three people were killed when a helicopter that was deployed to fight a wildfire in Southern California collided with another and crashed on Sunday evening, officials said.

The three men who were killed were aboard one of the helicopters, David Fulcher, the southern region chief of Cal Fire, the states firefighting agency, said in a news conference early Monday. He said the other helicopter landed safely.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said in a statement on Monday that three men who were killed were Josh Bischof, an assistant chief at Cal Fire; Tim Rodriguez, a fire captain at Cal Fire; and Tony Sousa, a contract pilot.

No other injuries were reported.

Mr. Newsom said that flags at the State Capitol and Capitol Annex Swing Space would be flown at half-staff in honor of the three men.
First came the rain, unforgiving in its force. Then the mud, slippery and smothering before it began to bake under the heat. The humidity only made the task of saving one of the biggest repositories of Appalachian history that much more challenging.

Appalshop, a culture and arts center and a cornerstone of Whitesburg, Ky., was underwater.

It was all consuming, Caroline Rubens, Appalshops archive director, said in a recent interview.

Now, a year after record floods tore through southeastern Kentucky, killing more than three dozen people and displacing hundreds more whose homes were washed away, Appalshop and its community are still writing the next chapter of its 54-year history.
Los Angeles is a place defined by reinvention, where history is regularly erased and replaced with something newer and shinier.

So its notable when an institution in L.A. turns 100. And it is especially notable when many of them do.

Several of the citys most iconic landmarks are celebrating their centennials this year, including the Hollywood sign, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Biltmore Hotel downtown, and the stately headquarters of AAA. And as weve previously mentioned in this newsletter, Walt Disneys first offices, in Los Feliz, and the famed Mexican restaurant El Cholo are also turning 100.

Its no coincidence. Patt Morrison, a columnist for The Los Angeles Times, said 1923 was the citys civic Big Bang year. Crews broke ground on the Mulholland Highway that year, too, and the immense Angelus Temple opened in Echo Park. Los Angeles  youre gonna need a bigger cake, she wrote.
Background

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officers arrested Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, after a store employee told the police that he had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Mr. Floyd was handcuffed and pinned to the ground under the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin for more than nine minutes. While two other officers held Mr. Floyd down, Mr. Thao held back bystanders who were anxious about Mr. Floyds condition.

The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, saying in his testimony that the compression of Mr. Floyds neck and the restraint of his body by officers were the main cause of his death.

The killing of Mr. Floyd was captured on video by bystanders and quickly went viral. The video incited protests across the United States against policy brutality and systemic racism that evolved into a global movement for racial justice.

The day after Mr. Floyds death, the Minneapolis Police Department fired all four of the officers involved. They were all later charged and convicted of a variety of crimes. Each was sentenced to several years in prison, with Mr. Chauvin carrying the heaviest sentence  more than 20 years in both federal and state prison.

The City of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to Mr. Floyds family, after the family sued the city, saying that the police had violated his rights.

Where the Officers Are Now

In 2021 a state jury found Mr. Chauvin, who is white, guilty of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Mr. Floyd. He was sentenced to 22 and a half years in state prison. A year later, Mr. Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to violating the constitutional rights of Mr. Floyd and a 14-year-old boy, who is also Black and was injured in an similar but unrelated encounter.

Mr. Chauvins federal and state sentences are being served concurrently, and he is incarcerated at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Ariz.

Mr. Chauvin appealed the murder conviction, arguing that he had been deprived of a fair trial for several reasons, including the district judges decision not to move the trial out of Minneapolis. Several months ago, a Minnesota appeals court upheld Mr. Chauvins conviction.

In May, he asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to review his murder conviction, but the court declined to hear the case. Now, according to The Associated Press, Mr. Chauvin is planning on asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction.

Thomas Lane, the officer who held down Mr. Floyds legs, pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in May 2022. Mr. Lane, who is white, was also convicted in federal court of violating Mr. Floyds rights. He is concurrently serving two sentences, for two and a half years and three years, at a federal prison in Colorado.

J. Alexander Kueng, the officer who helped to pin down Mr. Floyd including by kneeling on Mr. Floyds torso, was convicted in federal court in February 2022 of violating Mr. Floyds constitutional rights. Mr. Kueng, who is Black, pleaded guilty to state charges of manslaughter in October. He is concurrently serving a three-year sentence and a three-and-a-half-year sentence.

The fourth officer, Mr. Thao, who is Asian American, is serving a three-and-a-half-year federal sentence after being convicted of depriving Mr. Floyd of his right to medical care and for failing to intervene.

In May, after Mr. Thao waived his right to a jury trial, a judge in Minneapolis ruled that he was guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Mr. Thao was sentenced to a four years and nine months in state prison on Monday. He will serve the state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence.

Mr. Thao appealed his federal convictions, but last week an appellate court denied his appeal and upheld the conviction.

Whats Next

After Mr. Floyds death, Minnesotas Department of Human Rights conducted an investigation and found that the Minneapolis Police Department had routinely engaged in racially discriminatory policing and had failed to punish officers for misconduct. City officials agreed to make sweeping changes in policing.

This year, the Justice Department released a scathing report from a multiyear investigation into the department, finding that it frequently discriminated against Black and Native American people and that it used deadly force without justification, among other things.

In response, Minneapolis officials said they would work with the federal government to negotiate a consent decree that would overhaul the police force.
Former Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a Republican, wrote on Twitter in April that he had watched voters reject policies that he and his legislative majority had backed. It never occurred to me to try to limit Ohioans right to do that, he wrote. It wouldnt have been right then, and it isnt right now.

Once, Ohio was the quintessential swing state. Now, on issues such as education, voting and abortion, it is an exemplar of a nationwide phenomenon: one-party-controlled legislatures, almost invariably Republican ones, changing the rules of the democratic process to extend their control even further.

The 2022 election brought single-party control of the governors office and legislature to 39 states, the most in at least three decades. And 29 states, 20 of them Republican, have veto-proof supermajorities that control both houses of the state legislatures. That has given legislatures, many of them heavily gerrymandered, extraordinary power to exert influence and to stay in power.

We can kind of do what we want, Matt Huffman, the powerful Ohio State Senate president, told the Columbus Dispatch in a 2022 profile. Few disagree, and Ohio has company. Last month, the Alabama Legislature shrugged off a federal court order  upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court  and drew a political map that gave the state one majority-Black congressional district instead of the two that court rulings mandated.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida clearly stated in a new interview that Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, diverging from the orthodoxy of most Republican voters, as the former presidents struggling G.O.P. rivals test out new lines of attack against him.

Of course he lost, Mr. DeSantis said in an interview with NBC News published on Monday. Joe Bidens the president.

Mr. DeSantiss remarks  his first blunt acknowledgment of the 2020 outcome after three years of hedging  were the latest sign that Mr. Trumps rivals are seeking to use his growing legal troubles against him. In the days since Mr. Trump was indicted on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, both Mr. DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence have more sharply broken from the former president over his actions leading up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

The criticism has been subtle. Neither candidate has openly attacked Mr. Trump or suggested that the charges are warranted. In his latest comments, Mr. DeSantis continued to suggest that the election had problems, calling it not perfect. But both appear to be seeking ways to use the indictment to press on the former presidents weaknesses and to build a case for themselves that even Trump supporters will hear.
Nikki Haley is campaigning at a grueling pace as she fights to stay competitive in the Republican presidential contest, crisscrossing Iowa and New Hampshire to find a clear lane forward in a race dominated by Donald J. Trump and his mountain of legal problems.

So far, that path is elusive.

By many measures, Ms. Haley is running a healthy campaign poised to capitalize on rivals mistakes. She has built a robust fund-raising operation and her team has cash to spare: A super PAC backing her this week announced a $13 million advertising effort in Iowa and New Hampshire. And at events, voters often like what she has to say.

She is not pounding the pulpit, Eric Ray, 42, a Republican legal defense consultant in Iowa, said after watching her speak at a barbecue restaurant last weekend in Iowa City, adding that she had his vote. She is not jumping up and down. She is not screaming the word woke. She is making reasonable arguments for reasonable people.

Yet as Ms. Haley tries to occupy a lonely realm between the moderate and far-right wings of her party, her attempts to gain national traction  talking openly about her positions on abortion, taking a hard stance against transgender girls playing in girls sports, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris  appear to be falling flat with the Republican base at large.
Did you hear? There was a mass gathering of Republican 2024 hopefuls in Iowa on Sunday  near Cedar Rapids, amid the midsummer seas of ripening cornstalks and the darker hues of rows of soybeans.

This was after a Republican Party fund-raising dinner in Des Moines nine days earlier, and just before the Iowa State Fair begins Thursday, where the states Republican governor plans one-on-one public chats with 12 presidential hopefuls.

Political types call such gatherings, somewhat unkindly, cattle calls, as if voters were assessing candidates like so much meat on the hoof.

But the fact is that even as Iowa voters and power brokers  along with the national Republican Party  go through the motions of sizing up a fulsome presidential field, the prize has never looked so far beyond the grasp of all but one person, Donald J. Trump, who dominates as if he were a White House incumbent.
One of the first steps in a prosecution involves the government turning over all of that information to defense lawyers so they can understand the scope of the case against their client. Discovery evidence provides lawyers with a wide view of the legal landscape, allowing them to start planning pretrial motions to attack the charges or even trial defenses. If the discovery evidence is particularly damning, it can also cause lawyers to advise their clients to plead guilty.

Protective orders are typically put in place over discovery material to ensure that the case moves forward in an orderly fashion and with a measure of decorum. The orders, which can vary greatly in severity, generally demand that the defense employ discovery evidence only to pursue actions related to the case itself and not to release it widely and seek to try the case in the court of public opinion before it reaches a courtroom.

What kind of protective order did the government request in this case?

The governments proposed protective order in the election interference case is fairly standard.

Its central provision is to restrict disclosure of discovery evidence only to parties with a direct interest in the case: Mr. Trump, his lawyers, any potential witnesses and their lawyers, and a catchall category of other people to whom the court may authorize disclosure.

The proposal also creates a special category of sensitive materials that must be maintained in the custody and control of defense counsel. These materials would include things like personally identifying information concerning witnesses in the case and any information that emerged from the grand jury that investigated the former president. (Grand juries work under strict secrecy rules.)

Mr. Trumps legal team could show him the sensitive materials, but under the proposed order they would not be allowed to give him copies. He would also not be permitted to write down any personal information about people mentioned in the materials.
Noah Giusiana and his younger brother were horsing around, wrestling outside a Buffalo movie theater after they watched a late-night film.

Hours later, after Buffalo police arrested him on two minor charges, Giusiana nearly died in a jail cell due to a brain injury.

But six years later, Giusiana received $2.9 million from the City of Buffalo, Regal Cinemas and ambulance company American Medical Response and other defendants to settle his lawsuits over the 2017 incident, according to his attorney, Richard Weisbeck.

The city agreed this year to pay him just over $1 million.

Giusiana, 28, has paid a high price, too.

He says he is nearly 50% blind, has trouble with his memory and suffers from other cognitive impairments. His dream of becoming a custom furniture maker has been derailed.

Giusianas State Supreme Court lawsuits accused off-duty Buffalo Police Officer Mark Andrzejak, while working as a security officer for Regals Elmwood Avenue theater on June 7, 2017, of slamming Giusiana so hard onto the sidewalk in front of the cinema that the then-22-year-olds head cracked and caused a brain bleed.

A Regal security camera captured video of the violent confrontation, which lasted seconds.

An AMR ambulance crew examined Giusiana at the scene, but concluded he did not need to be taken to a hospital for treatment, the lawsuits claimed.

Instead, Buffalo police booked Giusiana in jail on two violations, disorderly conduct and harassment. Hours later, Giusiana went into seizures in his jail cell and was rushed to a hospital.

His brother, Jonah Giusiana, 19 at the time, was also booked on a disorderly conduct violation.

I dont know much about the law, but I think it is all about personal responsibility. My brother and I should not have been wrestling in public. Im responsible for that. But Im not responsible for getting my head smashed into the pavement or spending the night in jail while my brain was bleeding, Noah Giusiana said in an interview with The Buffalo News. I dont think the punishment fits the crime.

The Buffalo News reviewed more than 1,500 pages of legal documents and reviewed video to prepare this report.

The arrest

The Giusiana brothers had been drinking at Noah Giusianas apartment, near Buffalo State University, where Noah was a student, before they went to see Baywatch with two friends.

It was right after the movie was over, and then, you know, on our way out, we were wrestling, Noah Giusiana testified at a deposition. We were just messing around. We always wrestle with each other.

But to several theatergoers that night, the horseplay was upsetting, according to a Buffalo police arrest report. One movie patron told Andrzejak that she had observed Jonah Giusiana punching and choking his brother.

Rikki Vinovrski, the assistant theater manager on duty, testified at a deposition that he overheard the brothers talking as they were leaving, with one saying, My teeth are bleeding, and the other responding, Thats because I punched you in the mouth.

When the fighting continued outside the theater, Vinovrski said he went and separated the pair. Noah Giusiana admitted at a deposition that he shoved the assistant manager because he was standing over his brother, who was on the ground.

Noah Giusiana testified that was his last memory from that night.

A Regal security camera video shows that a second or two after Noah Giusiana shoved Vinovrski, Andrzejak grabbed Noah Giusiana. They struggled momentarily before Andrzejak threw him hard to the sidewalk, the video shows.

According to Andrzejaks testimony at a deposition, he went outside, identified himself as a police officer and informed Noah Giusiana that he was under arrest.

Noah did not comply, and pulled away from me. I physically engaged Noah, pulled him to the ground and handcuffed him, Andrzejak said.

Weisbeck said Andrzejak used unnecessary and excessive force to the point that an eyewitness heard Noah Giusianas head crack when it struck the sidewalk.

The witness, Mark Rossman, a friend of the Giusianas, had agreed to pick them up after the movie.

Rossman testified he pulled his car to the curb in front of the theater and heard Andrzejak tell Noah Giusiana he was under arrest. Giusiana got Andrzejak into a headlock for a few seconds, Rossman said. Then Andrzejak slammed Giusiana headfirst onto the sidewalk, Rossman testified.

A real hard smack, Rossman said, describing the sound of Giusianas head hitting the sidewalk.

Rossman testified that it appeared Giusiana was unconscious because he lay still, facedown on the ground.

More cops arrive

Officer Ronald J. Ammerman is listed on police reports as the officer who arrested both brothers.

Under questioning at a deposition, Ammerman confirmed that Andrzejak told him when he arrived at the scene that Noah Giusiana had jumped on the assistant managers back.

The lawyer asked the officer, Do you know that thats a false statement?

Ammerman answered, No.

Weisbeck said, So youve never seen the video of the encounter outside the theater that demonstrates that Noah never jumped on the back of the manager, correct?

Ammerman indicated he had not viewed the video.

Ammerman testified that he charged Noah Giusiana with harassment based, in part, on Andrzejaks statements.

Ammerman was asked at the deposition if Andrzejak told him that Noah Giusianas head had struck the sidewalk when he arrested him.

No, he never said anything like that to me, Ammerman said. If his head did strike the ground, that would have been helpful for the investigation, yes.

He said that other than a cut on Noah Giusianas nose, the young man did not appear to be in distress, though he exhibited signs of intoxication.

Ambulance at the scene

Andrzejak, in his deposition, said he suggested an ambulance be called so that medical personnel could exam Noah Giusiana because he had been smacked in the puss or punched in the face.

Ammerman said that he told the AMR ambulance attendants that Noah Giusiana had been in a fight with his brother, that he appeared dazed and intoxicated and should be checked for a possible concussion.

Ammerman said the attendants asked Giusiana,  Did you black out?  Are you feeling dizzy or nauseous?  he just responded like No, I think, a couple times.

Ammerman also said he heard ambulance personnel ask Giusiana if he wanted to go to the hospital, and Giusiana said no.

The AMR crew cleared police to drive Noah Giusiana to Central Booking downtown, he testified.

Weisbeck said AMR was sued because his client should have been transported to the hospital instead.

Seizures in the cell

Buffalo Police Central Booking cellblock video shows that Noah Giusiana threw up in a sink and slowly slumped to the floor shortly after 6:44 a.m. On the video, he lay there for more than two hours, just across a hallway from where a group of police cellblock attendants were working.

A Buffalo Police internal affairs investigation document stated shortly after 9 a.m. on June 7, 2017  about nine hours after the arrest  Noah Giusiana was found lying on the floor of a Central Booking holding cell unresponsive.

An ambulance was called and Giusiana was rushed to Erie County Medical Center, where he underwent emergency brain surgery.

If Noah had been taken to the hospital and treated in a timely manner, the neurosurgeon said he would not have suffered permanent brain injuries, Weisbeck said.

Weisbeck said a cellblock attendant had failed to conduct an in-person check on Noah Giusiana and falsified log records.

There were many symptoms of the brain injury displayed at that time that should have been noticed by the cellblock attendant. Noah had vomited blood, Weisbeck said.

The Buffalo Police Internal Affairs unit began an investigation into whether Andrzejak had used unnecessary force and caused Giusianas brain injury.

Andrzejak was exonerated by the police department, according to Weisbeck.

Michael DeGeorge, a spokesman for the city, confirmed that Andrzejak remains a police officer.

Police blame his brother

Noah Giusiana said he remained in a coma for about two weeks and when he awoke he was not the same person.

My eyes are healthy. Its the connection in my brain. My brain chooses to ignore pretty much everything left of center. Im pretty close to 50% blind, he said, holding a hand vertically to the ridge of his nose to illustrate how much he cannot see.

Noah Giusiana said he also remains deeply troubled by how his brother was treated by Buffalo police.

After doctors said Noah Giusiana might not live, police charged Jonah Giusiana on June 8, 2017, with felony assault, for recklessly causing injury to his brother.

I was in a coma when police came to the hospital while he was visiting me and arrested him, Giusiana said. When I learned my brother had been charged, it seemed like they were trying to pass the blame and make my brother the scapegoat.

An Erie County grand jury reviewed the case, but did not indict Jonah Giusiana. The violations against both brothers were also dropped.

The settlements

Noah Giusiana sued the city, Buffalo Police, seven police officers, Regal Cinemas and off-duty officer Andrzejak, AMR and two ambulance attendants, claiming that they had falsely arrested him, negligently caused his injuries, denied him medical care in a timely manner, committed medical malpractice and failed to train their employees properly.

The Buffalo Common Council in March approved paying Giusiana $1,050,000, the largest settlement it approved since $2.3 million was awarded in March 2022 to city firefighter Eric Whitehead, who suffered severe burns at a fire.

DeGeorge, the citys spokesman, did not answer written questions from The Buffalo News about the lawsuit and internal affairs investigation. He forwarded a statement from the citys law department: All parties involved in the litigation arrived at what they believe to be a fair resolution of the matter.

Several attempts by The News to reach Andrzejak went unanswered. His attorney, Todd Bushway, declined to comment.

A spokesman for attorneys at Liberty Mutual, who represented Regal, declined to comment. AMR officials did not respond to several phone calls from The News seeking comment.

Regaining consciousness

Noah Giusiana, who is 6 feet tall, trim and crowned with a head of curly black hair, said that he remembers doctors telling him he almost died.

They all said that if Id been brought in a moment later, I probably would not have made it, he said.

He says that he had been pursuing a double major at Buffalo State University in fine arts wood furniture design and industrial technology when he was arrested, but he dropped the latter because it was too much for him following the brain injury.

Before I could work in the wood shop at school on a piece for days, but that ended after the injury. I still like to make small wooden objects, bowls, cutting boards, trays, said Noah Giusiana, who graduated from Buffalo State in 2018.

He is now employed part time as a junior sales associate at a store that sells woodworking equipment.

As for Andrzejak, Noah Giusiana said he feels animosity towards him and does not believe he should be a police officer.

He was acting as security that night, but he was acting as a mercenary, he said.
Mr. Trump is still the loudest voice. As he blames others for his defeat in 2020 and, now, after being charged in three separate criminal cases, he has characterized federal prosecutors as henchmen orchestrating a cover-up. After he was indicted last week on charges related to his attempts to overturn the election, his campaign cited abuse, incompetence and corruption that is running through the veins of our country at levels never seen before.

Mr. DeSantis, however, has echoed that view, making criticisms of educators, health officials, the mainstream news media, elites and government employees central to his campaign, and even, at times, invoking violent imagery.

All of these deep-state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on Day 1, Mr. DeSantis said during a New Hampshire campaign stop late last week. The governor, a Navy veteran, used similar language about the Department of Defense late last month, saying that if elected he would need a defense secretary who may have to slit some throats.

Other candidates, too, have keyed into voters trust deficit. Mr. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, wants to shut down the F.B.I. and the I.R.S. as part of his fight against the so-called deep state. Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations, has said she opposes red-flag gun laws because I dont trust that they wont take them away from people who rightfully deserve to have them.

Even Mike Pence, who has criticized Mr. Trumps plot to overturn the 2020 election at the heart of the charges filed late week, has suggested the Justice Department is politically motivated in its prosecution, warning of a two-tiered system of justice, with one set of rules for Republicans, and one set of rules for Democrats.
The internet metabolizes wellness trends the way it churns through celebrity divorce announcements and song snippets on TikTok. Health hacks like drinking olive oil and bone broth crop up, then fall into obscurity. All these fads make the concept of wellness squishy  wait, were drinking lettuce water? When did everyone get so concerned about their cortisol?

Its easy to get overwhelmed. Anyone who has learned anything from a conversation with their own nutritionist or maybe with their mother or just their personal life journey can share their findings and suddenly go viral, said Emily Moquin, a food and beverage analyst at the research firm Morning Consult.

But a few clear themes have emerged over the first half of the year. Heres a roundup of the health and wellness trends that keep popping up in 2023.

Its the era of Ozempic.

Ozempic has become an umbrella term for a new class of medications that can induce weight loss, in part by quashing ones appetite and slowing the emptying of the stomach. Theres Ozempic itself, an injectable diabetes medication that has become increasingly popular as people use it as an off-label tool to lose weight. Theres also Wegovy, a different dose of the same substance in Ozempic and that is approved to treat obesity; Mounjaro, a similar diabetes drug; and others. Some consumers have tried to find unauthorized options, like drugs from compounding pharmacies or supplements like berberine.
As Xi Jinping has entrenched his hold on power in China, he has likened himself to a physician, eradicating the toxins of corruption and disloyalty that threaten the rule of the Communist Party. And his signature project for over a decade has been bringing to heel the once extravagantly corrupt military leadership.

But recent upheavals at high levels of the Peoples Liberation Army forces suggest that Mr. Xis cure has not endured. Last week, he abruptly replaced two top generals in the Rocket Force, an unexplained shake-up that suggests suspicions of graft or other misconduct in the sensitive arm of the military that manages conventional and nuclear missiles.

Obviously, something has gone wrong in the system, which is probably related to discipline and corruption, said Andrew N.D. Yang, an expert on the Chinese military who was formerly a senior Taiwanese defense official. Its like a virus in the system that has come back. Its a deep-rooted problem, and it has survived in the system.
After several setbacks at the World Scout Jamboree, the South Korea-hosted event faces yet another hurdle: As Typhoon Khanun makes its way to the nations coast this week, the participants will be leaving the campsite early.

On Monday, the South Korean government informed the world Scout body that an early departure will be planned for all participants at the 25th World Scout Jamboree from the campsite in Samangeum. The scouts plan to move out of the site, which lies on a reclaimed wetland on the southwest coast of the peninsula, on Tuesday.

The Scout authority cited an incoming typhoon as the primary reason for the premature departure. The host of the event, the Korea Scout Association, also listed ongoing weather conditions in a statement as the reason behind the early departure from the events main campsite.

Typhoon Khanun is expected to make landfall on the nations southeastern coast on Thursday morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.
The foreign ministers of China and Russia conferred by phone on Monday, after Beijing participated in weekend talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine that did not include Moscow.

The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, discussed the Ukrainian crisis and other international and regional issues of common concern, according to a statement from Chinas foreign ministry.

During the call, Mr. Wang told Mr. Lavrov that China would uphold an independent and impartial stance on Ukraine, actively promote peace talks and seek a political solution to the conflict on any multilateral occasion, the Chinese statement said.

The Russian foreign ministry, in its own statement, said the discussion between Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Wang touched upon a number of hot regional topics, including the Ukrainian crisis, noting that the conversation once again confirmed the unity of the two nations approaches to world affairs.
Thousands of migrants travel to Britain every year on small boats, risking their lives to cross the English Channel and hoping to claim asylum when they reach dry land.

On Monday, the British government moved a group of them onto a barge docked at the coast, a controversial step it argues will save money but that critics say is the latest example of a steady hardening of migration policy under the governing Conservative Party.

Fifteen asylum seekers between the ages of 18 and 65 were transferred onto the 222-room Bibby Stockholm on Monday, with more set to arrive in the coming days. The government hopes that up to 500 people will eventually stay there.

Plans to make the barge operational were delayed several weeks by fire safety concerns. On Monday Downing Street said that checks were complete and the 47-year-old vessel was safe, though campaigners and some other groups disagreed. The Fire Brigades Union, which represents rank and file firefighters, said that barges housing asylum seekers were a potential deathtrap, describing the policy as cruel and reckless.
Ukraine has replaced the Soviet emblem on one of Kyivs most prominent monuments with its own coat of arms, part of a broader push since the full-scale invasion to stamp out tributes to Russian power.

The Motherland Monument  a 335-foot-tall stainless steel behemoth towering over Kyiv, Ukraines capital  was designed to assert Soviet invincibility. Unveiled in 1981, the monument is a figure of a woman raising a sword in her right hand and a shield in her left. The shield was emblazoned with the Soviet hammer and sickle.
Security forces in the Gaza Strip prevented protesters from holding rallies across the territory on Monday, quelling a rare expression of dissent against Hamas, the authoritarian Islamist group that controls the territory.

For the third time in recent days, protest leaders had called for demonstrations  but a heavy police presence throughout the territory deterred efforts to gather in large numbers.

The failed effort followed more successful rallies last week, when several hundred Gazans  an unusually high number given the limits on free expression  evaded police interventions to march through several neighborhoods. But, a second attempt to hold demonstrations on Friday was also prevented by large numbers of police, who detained several journalists attempting to cover the protests.

The protest organizers  some of them Palestinians based abroad  said the attempted demonstrations were mainly a reaction against Hamass authoritarian rule, as well as its failure to improve dire living conditions.
Witnesses at Sayed Nasirs trial testified he had been stalking his wife.

In the month leading up to Nazeefa D. Tahirs killing, Nasir had called her more than 300 times.

As she prepared to host their sons birthday party on Nov. 20, 2021, Tahir, 33, was stabbed 15 times.

In June, the jury convicted Nasir of murder and aggravated criminal contempt after 33 minutes of deliberations.

Ive seen some really bad things in 18 years sitting in this courtroom between people that have children together. I think this is the worst thing that Ive seen, State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges said. This woman, the mother of your child, was slaughtered by you. She was stalked, harassed, followed and then brutally stabbed.

The judge on Monday sentenced Nasir, 40, of Depew, to the maximum  25 years to life in prison.

Haendiges also issued an order of protection that bars Nasir from having contact with his son and four other people for 100 years.

Tahir was separated from her husband, and she and her son had been living in the home of her sister and brother-in-law on North Creek Drive in Depew. A court order prohibited Nasir from getting near her.

And, unfortunately, law enforcement didnt have an opportunity to get involved, because she didnt call the police, Haendiges said.

Nasir never expressed remorse to police throughout the investigation, and did not acknowledge his guilt during an interview by Erie County Probation Department officials after his trial, Assistant Erie County District Attorney Gary Hackbush said.

Hackbush asked the judge to show Nasir no mercy, since this defendant has never shown mercy to Ms. Tahir, he said.

In the years leading up to this murder, this defendant tormented Ms. Tahir in physical and mental ways, Hackbush said. And Ms. Tahir had sought justice from the courts and, ultimately, the courts could not protect Ms. Tahir from this defendant.

Sean Kelly, one of Nasirs defense attorneys, told the judge his client plans to file an appeal. If appeals are unsuccessful, as a permanent resident of the United States, Nasir would be subject to deportation, Kelly said.

Nasir, who communicated through a Dari interpreter, declined to comment before the judge sentenced him.

Haendiges said the best thing she could do for Tahirs family was to bar Nasir from having any future contact with them.

This the most brutal attack that Ive seen in 18 years, and I dont know how this family will move on, the judge said. I hope they can.
Fire Breaks Out In Two Coaches Of Udyan Express At Bengaluru Railway Station

Kannada Actor Vijay Raghavendra's Wife Spandana Dies Of Heart Attack

Bengaluru

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Spandana Ragavendra, the wife of Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra, tragically passed away due to a heart attack at a hospital in Bangkok. According to reports, the incident took place while she was with her family in Thailand. Reports suggest that Vijay Raghavendra's wife had low blood pressure, which led to the heart attack. Her body is expected to arrive in Bangalore tomorrow, where all the necessary formalities will be conducted.

Vijay Raghavendra and Spandana got married on 26th August 2007. Spandana, the daughter of retired Assistant Commissioner of Police B. K. Shivaram, was of Tulu descent. Together, they had a son named Shourya and a daughter.

Spandana made a guest appearance in the movie "Apoorva," which was released in 2016.

The recent increase in heart attack cases has been a cause of concern, with several celebrities, including Puneeth Rajkumar, also succumbing to heart attacks. Spandana's sudden demise has sent shockwaves through the industry and among her loved ones. This unfortunate incident occurred merely 19 days before they could celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary.

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Who Is Spandana Vijay Raghavendra?

Vijay Raghavendra is currently in Bengaluru, where he was supposed to participate in the promotion of his upcoming film, Kadda, which is set to release on August 25. However, his plans have been put on hold as wife, Spandana, passed away suddenly in Bangkok on Sunday.

Spandana's father, BK Shivaram, has already departed for Bangkok to bring her body back to India. Her mortal remains are expected to be repatriated on Tuesday.

Vijay's cousin, Puneeth Rajkumar, was a celebrated Kannada actor who passed away in October 2021 due to a heart attack. The family is going through another painful loss, and their friends and well-wishers are extending their heartfelt condolences.
What Congress Leader B K Hariprasad Said On Spandana Vijay Raghavendra

Bengaluru

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Karnataka Congress MLC BK Hariprasad, the brother of BK Shivaram and father of Spandana Vijay Raghavendra, who tragically passed away due to a heart attack, has issued a plea to the media.

Speaking to media regarding the untimely demise of Spandana, the wife of actor Vijay Raghavendra, BK Hariprasad urged, "Spandana had gone on a trip with her cousins, and Vijay Raghavendra was engaged in a shoot. After wrapping up his commitments, he joined her."

He appealed to refrain from spreading baseless rumors. He affirmed that her cousins were present during the trip, and Vijay Raghavendra joined them after completing his shoot. He stressed the importance of respecting their personal lives and urged not to indulge in creating unfounded speculations.

Emphasizing that Spandana's health might have been a bit fragile, he requested the media not to generate speculative stories. He highlighted the sensitivity of the situation, acknowledging that their son is still here and mentioned that decisions about the funeral arrangements would be made upon receiving her body. It is expected that her body will arrive on Tuesday.

In a heart-wrenching incident, Spandana, the 41-year-old wife of Kannada film actor Vijay Raghavendra, passed away late Sunday night after suffering a heart attack. The unfortunate event occurred while Spandana was in Bangkok, while Vijay Raghavendra was in Bengaluru.

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Spandana had embarked on a trip to Thailand with her college friends just a few days ago. On Sunday evening, after concluding their shopping and returning to the hotel, Spandana suddenly collapsed. Her friends promptly rushed her to the nearest hospital, but unfortunately, the medical professionals confirmed her passing. In the midst of this tragedy, Vijay Raghavendra promptly traveled to Bangkok upon learning of the situation.

Spandana was scheduled to return to India on Monday and was looking forward to participating in a movie promotion. However, fate had other plans, and she suffered from low blood pressure, leading to a fatal heart attack.

What Led To Spandana Vijay Raghavendra's Tragic Death?

Spandana's love story with Vijay Raghavendra is one for the ages. The daughter of retired police officer BK Shivaram, Spandana and Vijay Raghavendra fell in love and tied the knot in 2007. The couple shares a beautiful family with a son and a daughter.

The sudden and tragic loss of Spandana has left her family, friends, and fans in deep grief. Her untimely departure is a reminder of life's uncertainties and the importance of cherishing every moment with our loved ones.
Chennai Cop Claims Hindus Will Rule India, Muslims, Christians Can Go To Pakistan; Gets Suspended

Chennai

oi-Prakash KL

A traffic inspector, who reportedly said that India will be ruled by Hindus and Muslims and Christians can go to Pakistan if they have any issues with it, has been suspended for hurting religious sentiment.

According to a report in The New Indian Express, P Rajendran, a 1999 batch Sub-Inspector was attached to the Pulianthope TIW (Traffic Investigation Wing), sent an audio message in a WhatsApp group which had his friends from the police department. A retired SSI named Christopher, who is now a priest, had shared a song about Christianity in the group.

This did not go well with Rajendran and sent a voice message in which he made a controversial statement asserting that India is primarily a land of Hindus, and Christians and Muslims are considered minorities in the country.

He allegedly claimed that the majority population should govern the nation. He suggested that those who disagree with this notion are free to move to Pakistan or other Muslim-majority countries. The note concluded with a warning, stating that sending such songs in the future would result in retaliatory songs about Hinduism from him, the daily reported.

New Vande Bharat Express to Connect Chennai and Tirunelveli

As the clip went viral, N M Mylvahanan, Joint Commissioner, Traffic on the orders of Sandeep Rai Rathore, Chennai City Police Commissioner, placed him under suspension.

A police officer told the daily?: "When the voice note went viral on social media, the senior police officers took notice of the issue. Based on the orders of the Commissioner, the Joint Commissioner of Traffic Mylvahanan placed Rajendran under suspension. A departmental inquiry is underway."

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 17:24 [IST]
The egg analogy for life by Karunanidhi: a story from the past

Chennai

oi-Oneindia English Desk

Former CM Karunanidhi died 5 years ago and the Tamil Nadu government under CM Stalin is grandly celebrating his centenary birthday anniversary. As a part of centenary birthday celebrations, CM Stalin has inaugurated Kalaignar Multispecialty hospital worth of 3.76 crores in Guindy, Chennai and a 7000 square feet Kalaignar Kottam worth of 12 crores in Thiruvarur, the native place of Kalaignar. Apart from this, CM Stalin also inaugurated Kalaignar centenary library worth 215 crores in Madurai. Now CM has unveiled a monthly cash dole scheme for Tamil Nadu women guaranteeing Rs.1000 every month.

Ponnambala Adigalar said, "I met Kalaignar for the first time in Sivaganga during the period of caste riots in southern districts. We visited the conflict-ridden areas for peacekeeping works on the request of Karunanidhi and submitted a report to him regarding the conditions of the conflict-ridden areas."

"One of the recommendations of the report is to provide fireproof roofs to the houses. Karunanidhi implemented the recommendation immediately by allotting crores of money for building houses with concrete roofs. During this discussion only the concept of Samathuvapuram (Equality village) came into being. In villages, streets were categorised based on castes. Realising this, Karunanidhi introduced the Samathuvapuram scheme whose objective is to make sure that the people from different castes and religions live together", said Ponnambala Adigalar.

He continued, "....we went to Coimbatore for peacekeeping work after the bomb blast. Reading the report of Coimbatore, Karunanidhi took immediate measures for giving out compensation for the victims. He is the sole reason for Tamil language becoming a classical language. When Tamil language attained classical status, a conference was held in Madurai to celebrate the accomplishment. In that conference, we presented him with a golden amla (resembling the Athiyaman king and Avvaiyar story). Apart from this, Karunanidhi built Valluvar Kottam in Chennai and built a large statue of Thiruvalluvar in Kanyakumari. Adding to this, he wrote a detailed explanation for Thirukkural. Karunanidhi contributed a lot for the growth of Tamil language."

Professor Abdul Kader said, "...the year is 1965 or 1966, the time when the language war was led by the students. We conducted around 60 meetings to further our cause. Karunanidhi participated in the first meeting and gave a life lesson with the example of an egg. He said that, there are 2 births for Brahmins, one is when they come to the world and the other is when they start studying. The same is the case for eggs also, where the first birth is when the egg comes out of the hen and the second is when the chick hatches out of the shell."

He continued, "...Karunanidhi said that the egg may contain either hen or rooster. The rooster crows at the time of sunrise and the hen which is edible lays eggs also. They are rich in protein even though they consume insects and other things from garbage. Karunanidhi said that no one should underestimate the power of others. This message is still fresh in my memory", said Prof. Abdul Kader.

Maybe that's why he started the practice of giving eggs to children in school as a part of the Mid-day meal scheme after he came to power!!!!

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 13:54 [IST]
Andhra Girl Holds On To Pipe After Being Pushed Off Bridge By Mom's Partner, Dials Cops To Save Life

Hyderabad

oi-Prakash KL

A girl was pushed off a bridge by her mother's live-in partner, but she saved herself as she clung onto a plastic pipe before dialling 100 for help from cops.

The 13-year-old is identified as Lakshmi Sai Keerthana and the accused is Ulava Suresh. The incident occurred in Konaseema district in Andhra.

Andhra Police has shared the news on its Twitter account. "#Dial 100-#APPolice saves a girl hanging from the flyover at midnight: Today at 3:50 AM, a man resident of Tadepalli pushed a girl, her mother&sister from Ravulapalem Gautami Bridge. The girl dialled 100 to save her by holding onto the plastic pipe of the bridge," he said.

The cops reached the spot within 10 minutes after the girl called the police for help.

#Dial 100-#APPolice saves a girl hanging from flyover at midnight: Today at 3:50 AM, a man resident of Tadepalli pushed a girl, her mother&sister from Ravulapalem Gautami Bridge. The girl dialed 100 to save her by holding onto the plastic pipe of the bridge(1/3) pic.twitter.com/Zlni29pqis  Andhra Pradesh Police (@APPOLICE100) August 6, 2023

"While she was falling into the water. With the information received, Ravulapalem PS cops reached the location within 10 min. By that time the girl was found hanging from the pipeline of the #bridge in a very dangerous situation. The cops immediately rescued her," it said.

The statement added, "Cops formed 2 teams,one to search the girl's mother&sister who fell in Godavari with the boats, the other to search for the accused & the operations are underway. #DGP Shri K.V Rajendranath Reddy IPS, appreciates @KonaseemaPolice for timely response&saving a girl's life."

As per the reports, her mother's partner pushed her mother off the bridge into the Godavari river and her one-year-old sister Jersey. However, she managed to save herself. However, both mother and sister are missing.

Suresh met the girl's mother Prakasam district, three years ago. According to cops, he has fathered one of her three children.

"Suresh, who is living with my mother, took us to Rajamahendravaram. He stopped the car on Ravulapalem Bridge, on the pretext of taking a selfie, and pushed the three of us into the Godavari river," India Today quoted Keerthana as telling the police.
25 Rohingyas Arrested In Haryana As Violence In Nuh Continues

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Haryana Police has apprehended multiple Rohingya refugees in connection with the recent communal unrest in Nuh district. According to Narender Bijarniya, the Superintendent of Police in Nuh, some Rohingya refugees had unlawfully occupied land belonging to Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran in Tauru, leading to a demolition drive. However, some of them have also been identified as being involved in pelting stones and participating in the mob violence that occurred on July 31.

Officials are currently scrutinizing their documents, and initial investigations have revealed that all of them possess refugee identity cards issued by the United Nations. Most of the Rohingyas living in Nuh arrived from Myanmar's Rakhine state following the 2017 violence and entered India through various routes.

Reports indicate that there are approximately two thousand Rohingyas currently residing in Nuh, with a considerable number holding UN-issued refugee cards. Their recent involvement in the violence on July 31 has brought them under scrutiny by the police, who suspect some may be actively instigating violence in the area based on received information and inputs.

Were Women Sexually Harassed After Stranded In Nalhar Temple In Nuh During Violence? Haryana Police Reacts

In response to their involvement in the recent violence, authorities have demolished 250 slums inhabited by Rohingya refugees in Tavadu. These slums were situated on forest department land, and the refugees were suspected of being engaged in criminal activities. The police are actively searching for other individuals believed to be involved in the violent incident.

A significant number of Rohingya refugees have been living in a slum area near the mini-secretariat, with over 200 slums reported in the location. Some of these refugees have been implicated in the recent violent incidents, and there are emerging revelations about their involvement in various criminal activities. Authorities are contemplating appropriate actions to address the situation, and the refugees' documents are being examined to verify their identities and legal status.

The new SP of Nuh, Narendra Bijrania, confirmed that they have received information about the Rohingyas' involvement in the violence and are examining their refugee documents to identify those with UN cards.

Haryana: Nuh Hotel From Where Rioters Threw Stones Razed

The escalation of violence in Nuh has been partially attributed to videos circulated on social media. As a result, approximately 60 suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident, and ten cases related to social media activities have been registered. The number of injured individuals in the Nuh violence has reached 88, with 70 of them being identified by Friday.

The violent clash occurred during the 'Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra' organized by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Haryana's Nuh district. The event resulted in vehicle burnings and stone pelting between two communities in the Muslim-majority region of Mewat.
Go to HC says Supreme Court as it refuses to entertain plea against 'The Kerala Story'

Alleging Nepotism, Plea In HC Seeks To Set Aside Kerala State Awards

India

oi-PTI

A Malayalam movie director on Monday moved the Kerala High Court seeking to set aside the recently declared annual state film awards for the year 2022 and raised bias and nepotism charges against State Chalachitra Academy Chairman and filmmaker Ranjith.

Lijeesh Mullezhath, director of the movie 'Aakaashathinu Thaazhe', in a petition filed before the High Court, sought an enquiry and action against Ranjith. Mullezhath claimed that he was a victim of bias and nepotism by "the acts of Ranjith" and was entitled to be considered for the best positions of excellence in the Kerala State Awards For Malayalam Films and Writings On Cinema, 2022.

His plea is seeking an order to "set aside declaration of Kerala State Awards For Malayalam Films & Writings On Cinema 2022 dated 21-07-2023...(and) a direction or order directing the respondents 1&5 (Directorate of culture and Kerala police) to conduct an enquiry and take appropriate action against the 3rd respondent (Ranjith)."

In the petition, Mullezhath cited the recent allegations of popular filmmaker Vinayan against Ranjith, which accused him of influencing the award committee.

Vinayan had alleged that Ranjith misused his power as Academy Chairman and tried to prevent his latest movie 'Pathonpatham Noottandu' from receiving major awards.

By releasing a purported voice clip of Nemom Pushparaj, one of the jury members who allegedly confirmed the interference of Ranjith in the award selection process, Vinayan had also challenged the chairman to refute the charges.

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As the controversy erupted over the issue, Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cheriyan had later rejected the allegation against the Academy Chairman and described Ranjith as a legend and gentleman. When reporters asked him about the controversy, Cheriyan had said that Ranjith has no role in the award selection process, and the entire responsibility was entrusted to the award jury headed by Bengali filmmaker Gautam Ghosh.

The minister had also defended the award winners and asked whether anyone could object to the best actor award given to superstar Mammootty. "Others who performed equally well were given other awards, and it was all decided after carefully evaluating their performances and talent," he had said.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 18:06 [IST]
Back In Action: Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha Membership Restored, Notice Issued

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary membership is set to be reinstated, following the recent Supreme Court decision to stay his conviction in a 2019 defamation case related to his 'Modi surname' remarks.

A notification confirming Rahul Gandhi's restoration as a Member of Parliament (MP) was released.

The paperwork for Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement was prepared, and the only thing left was approval from Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

However, if the Speaker fails to sign the approval today, Congress leaders have been vocal about their dissatisfaction over the delay and may consider moving to the Supreme Court against the Speaker's decision.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi received significant relief from the Supreme Court as it stayed his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark. This paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP and also allows him to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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The Supreme Court found fault with the trial court in Surat for not adequately justifying the maximum two-year punishment imposed on Gandhi, leading to his disqualification from Parliament. The court also acknowledged that the utterances were not in good taste and that a public figure should exercise caution while making public speeches. However, it stated that the conviction and disqualification affected not only Gandhi's right to public life but also that of the electorate who elected him.

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Congress leaders have been urging for swift action to reinstate Rahul Gandhi as an MP, emphasizing the essence of parliamentary democracy. They want him to participate in the upcoming 'no-confidence motion' against the government in the Lok Sabha, which is scheduled from August 8 to 10.

While celebrations erupted at the Congress party offices after the court verdict, the BJP IT department head, Amit Malviya, pointed out that other criminal defamation cases are still pending against Rahul Gandhi, leaving his political standing on uncertain ground.

Gandhi's counsel Abhishek Singhvi assured that Gandhi's voice for the people's cause would soon be heard in Parliament, while Priyanka Gandhi Vadra thanked the Supreme Court on Twitter and cited Gautam Buddha's quote - "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
A student from China at the University at Buffalo has been arrested and charged with visa fraud for not providing complete details about his background, U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced.

Prosecutors said that when Jiaxuemo Zhang, 28, who currently lives in Amherst, applied for a visa in June 2021, the application did not include full information about his education and research activity.

According to prosecutors, Zhang did not mention that he had studied and done research at Beihang University, formerly the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which is home to nine major Chinese defense labs.

Prosecutors added that Zhang, who said on his application that he would be majoring in aerospace engineering at UB, was mentored at Beihang University by Chongwen Jiang, the deputy director of the Military Research Office.

Zhang was released on conditions after an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer. His arrest followed an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of States Diplomatic Security Service.
Big Alarm Bell For Country's Federal Structure: Punjab CM Mann On Delhi services bill

India

pti-PTI

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said the bill to replace the ordinance for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government is an "alarm bell" for the country's federal structure.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. It was passed by the Lok Sabha last week. "This ordinance (bill) which came in Rajya Sabha today is not only for Delhi, but it is a big alarm bell for our federal structure," Mann said while addressing an Aam Aadmi Party event here.

If any other party wins except the party ruling the Centre, its power will be snatched and will not be allowed to work, he claimed and said that it was now a question of saving democracy. Mann said the Aam Aadmi Party, which was born out of the anti-corruption movement, is a secular party.

"We will do whatever is needed to save democracy," he said. "This is not a fight of Delhi or Arvind Kejriwal alone. It is a fight of 140 crore people. Whatever interest of the country is compromised, we will oppose.

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Be it Manipur or Haryana wherever there is politics of hatred, we will oppose," the Punjab chief minister said. To a question on the Chandigarh administration recently turning down his party's request for a piece of land for setting up its office, Mann said the AAP has a right to have an office here as he said his party is now a national party. He criticised the Chandigarh administration for imposing a condition of having an elected MP from union territory in the last 20 years for land allotment. "Did the Akali Dal have an MP (from Chandigarh)? They had been given (land for office).

As per the Constitution, it is our right (to have office in Chandigarh)," Mann said. The Punjab chief minister accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of stopping the rural development fund and the state's share of goods and services tax. Mann said that he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to relax the norms of the state disaster relief fund and asserted that his government was committed to giving compensation for the loss of every penny.
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BJP Targets Congress Over Report Alleging China Links To NewsClick

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

In a fiery exchange within Parliament today, the BJP launched a scathing attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, alleging the party's ties to Chinese funding. This came in response to a recent explosive report by The New York Times, which claimed that media portal Newsclick, backed by tech magnate Neville Roy Singham, was advancing China's agenda. The BJP further accused the Congress of shielding Newsclick during a 2021 Enforcement Directorate investigation into its financial sources.

The New York Times' investigative report revealed, "In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham's network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points." The report delved into Singham's central role in a tightly-knit web of activist groups, non-profit organizations, shell companies, all interconnected with Beijing and Chinese propaganda.

In Parliament, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey asserted, "Money from China came into NewsClick. An environment was created against the government using Chinese funds." He alleged that China had supported Congress multiple times between 2005 and 2015. Dubey also targeted Rahul Gandhi, asserting that during the Doklam border standoff, the Congress leader met the Chinese ambassador in Delhi.

Who Is Neville Roy Singham? The Man Behind China's Global Propaganda Network

Taking to Twitter, Dubey shared a video of his parliamentary speech, stating, "The Congress party's policy is to break India... the Election Commission should investigate the Chinese funding of the Congress party and close the Congress's shop."

Promptly responding to Dubey's remarks, Congress leader and MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary wrote a letter to Speaker Om Birla, urging the removal of Dubey's comments from the parliamentary records. Choudhary demanded an inquiry into how such allegations were allowed on record.

Earlier, Minister for Information and Technology Anurag Thakur remarked, "Even newspapers like 'The New York Times' are now admitting that Neville Roy Singham and his NewsClick are dangerous tools of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and promoting China's political agenda across the world."

Thakur added, "Much before NYT, India has long been telling the world that NewsClick is a dangerous global web of Chinese propaganda." He accused NewsClick's founder, Neville, of pursuing an anti-India agenda, backed by like-minded forces.

Alleging that Congress defended NewsClick in 2021 amid money laundering allegations, Thakur noted, "National interest never matters to its leadership." He reminded that the Congress had previously signed an MoU with the CPC in 2008 and allegedly accepted donations from the Chinese embassy for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF).

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also condemned the Congress, highlighting that NYT's report confirmed the dangerous role of NewsClick and its alignment with the Communist Party of China. He dubbed Congress as "wolves in sheep's clothing."

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised Rahul Gandhi's rhetoric, stating that his narrative echoed platforms like NewsClick, which he claimed spread disinformation about India's democracy.
Caught On Cam: Car Plunges Into Waterfall In MP, Family Saved

India

oi-Prakash KL

A video of a car plunging into a waterfall in Indore has gone viral. Luckily, the people inside the four-wheeler have been saved.

The incident took place in Simrol, some 60 kilometres from Indore city, on Sunday. In the viral clip, the red car can be seen coming towards the edge of a rock surface and falling into the plunge pool after flipping over once, during which its front door opened and then shut again, according to a PTI report.

However, a man jumped into the plunge pool and managed to save one of the occupants, while the other was saved by those in the vicinity who followed suit.

A man standing near the pool is observed leaping into the water and swiftly swimming towards a car, from which the distressed cries of a young girl are audible. The video captures other individuals descending from the rock surface and approaching the vehicle as well.

"I saw a car falling into the waterfall. A man and his 13-year-old daughter, who were the two occupants of the car, were trying hard to get off even as the vehicle was sliding. However, the car fell while the duo was inside," the news agency quotes Sunil Mathew (26), who works in a private firm, as saying.

"They were drowning. I jumped in and saved the man inside the car. His daughter was saved by those around. I was in shock for sometime looking at the incident but then gathered courage to jump in," he added.

Mathew expressed happiness over saving father and daughter.

What Cops Say>?

Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sunil Mehta said the incident took place due to the negligence of the driver. "The car was negligently parked very close to the pool of the waterfall. We have learnt that the car started rolling after its trunk was closed forcefully and then fell into the pool of the waterfall," the SP said.

The area had a sizable number of picnickers due to the monsoon as well as it being a Sunday, eyewitnesses said.
Caught On Camera: Boyfriend Follows Girl Up 80-Foot Tower In Desperate Attempt to Talk to Her

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

In a fit of rage against her boyfriend, a girl in the Gaurela Pendra Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh climbed an 80-feet-high tower of a high-tension power line. To everyone's surprise, her boyfriend decided to follow her to the top of the tower, further complicating the situation. The incident was captured on video and quickly spread on social media.

Alerted by local villagers who noticed the duo atop the tower, the Pendra police station was immediately informed, and the families of the couple were also notified about the dangerous situation. A large crowd of curious onlookers gathered around the tower while the police tried to handle the challenging scenario.

For an extended period, the police engaged in negotiations with the couple, making persistent efforts to convince them to climb down safely. After hours of struggle and tense moments, the police finally succeeded in persuading them to descend from the tower. A bystander in the crowd recorded the entire incident and shared it on social media.

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According to sources, the minor girl and her boyfriend had a heated argument over a phone call, which led to her climbing the tower in a state of distress. In an attempt to coax her to come down, her boyfriend decided to accompany her. Fortunately, both the girl and her partner were unharmed and brought down safely.

We have been building transmission towers from ages. This is the first time I have seen someone climb them to commit suicide upset with her lover. Good news, the boyfriend followed her up and convinced her to climb down. All iz well #Chhattisgarh #today pic.twitter.com/3MRpbZ8RJI  Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) August 6, 2023

Although no formal case was registered in the incident, the officials sternly advised the young couple against engaging in such risky behavior in the future. The incident serves as a cautionary reminder of the potential dangers of impulsive actions driven by anger and frustration.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 11:45 [IST]
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Don't Intend To Indulge In Media Trial: NewsClick On Alleged China Links

India

oi-Prakash KL

NewsClick has responded to the report which claimed that the news portal was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media machine.

"The issues are subjudice before the courts of India... We reiterate our faith in Indian courts and don't intend to indulge in a media trial," Times Now quoted NewsClick as saying in a statement.

In a report titled 'A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul, The New York Times said, "In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham's network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.

"China's history continues to inspire the working classes," one video said," The New York Times report noted.

The investigative report by NYT highlights Singham's associations with various charities and American non-profit organizations, all working in alignment with his objectives. These entities, identified as propaganda groups, are financially sustained by American nonprofits that have amassed a substantial sum of at least USD 275 million in donations.

It shows how "from a thinktank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organisations in India and Brazil" Singham is working closely with the Chinese government and "financing its propaganda worldwide".

BJP Slams Congress

BJP leader and Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur alleged that China, NewsClick website and the Congress are linked to an "anti-India umbilical cord".

Thakur said India was telling the world that NewsClick was a dangerous global network of propaganda. When Enforcement Directorate raids were conducted against NewsClick two years ago, he said, the Congress and other opposition parties stood by the news portal and questioned the government's action, raising the issue of press freedom.

"The newspaper (NYT), about which Congress and opposition parties talk big, has confirmed what India had said two years ago. In 2021, we exposed NewsClick and how foreign hand was working against India," Thakur said. The Congress and opposition parties had then come in support of the "anti-India, break India campaign," he charged.

"Congress, China and NewsClick are part of one anti-India umbilical cord," Thakur alleged, adding "Chinese goods are being sold in Rahul Gandhi ji's fake 'Mohabbat ki Dukan' (shop of love)." The minister said, "If you see the funding network of NewsClick, it was funded by a foreigner, Neville Roy Singham, and he gets funds from China. Neville Roy Singham has direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese media company Maku Group," he said.

"They present fake news in the name of free news. Congress and other parties are supporting them," he claimed.
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Haryana Violence: Gurgaon DM Orders Removal of Section 144

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

The Gurgaon District Magistrate on Monday informed that Section 144 has been removed. The District collector stated that the situation has returned to normalcy in the Gurugram district after section 144 has been removed.

Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court restrained the Haryana government from carrying out the demolition drive in Nuh where district authorities were bulldozing "illegal" constructed buildings.

Section 144 had been imposed in Gurugram due to the communal clashes that began in the neighbouring Nuh district and spread to parts of the millennium city and its neighbouring areas last week.

On Monday, Haryana Police arrested various Rohingya refugees in connection with the recent clashes in the Nuh district. Officials say that some of these refugees have been identified for pelting stones and being part of the violence on July 31.

25 Rohingyas Arrested In Haryana As Violence In Nuh Continues

The Gurugram Police also said it arrested on Sunday night 15 people accused of violence in Sohna and they were sent to judicial custody by a court in the city.

Authorities in Nuh district Sunday razed some illegal structures including a hotel from where stones were allegedly pelted on a religious procession last week, even as a maha panchayat was held in support of four men arrested over arson at a mosque and the death of its junior imam.

Sunday was the fourth day of the demolition drive after the communal flare-up in the district, with Deputy Commissioner Dhirender Khadgata saying a total of 162 illegally built permanent and 591 makeshift structures were razed and 57.5 acres of land across 37 sites made encroachment-free.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 17:05 [IST]
Kerala Minister Slammed For Remarks On Muslim Call To Prayer

India

pti-PTI

Kerala Culture Minister Saji Cheriyan, who has come under criticism on social media for his recent remarks about the Muslim call to prayer, on Monday appealed to the people to "clear the misunderstanding" about it.

Addressing a programme here on Sunday, the minister had said that he had not heard prayer calls being made in mosques in Saudi Arabia, where he had visited recently, as they were restricted to the premises of the places of worship themselves.

As he faced severe criticism on social media from various quarters for his comments, Cheriyan backtracked and said his statement was based on wrong information he had received during his recent tour to the Gulf nation, and appealed to the people to "clear the misunderstanding" caused by it.

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In a Facebook post, the minister also alleged that some people were spreading parts of his speech without understanding his intention.
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Major Fire Breaks Out At AIIMS, Delhi

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

A major fire broke out at Delhi AIIMS hospital on Monday.

According to the sources, the fire broke out in the endoscopy room of the AIIMS hospital. Massive smoke coming out of the building was witnessed on Monday.

The fire was at the endoscopy room located above the emergency ward on the second floor of old OPD.

According to an official, the information related to the incident was received nearly at 11:54 am. Eight fire tenders have been rushed to the hospital.

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All people have been evacuated, No casualties have been reported so far.

Further reports are awaited.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 12:48 [IST]
No Hike In Rail Fares In Name Of Station Revamp: Railway Minister

India

oi-PTI

There has been no hike in fares in the name of station redevelopment project, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the revamp of 508 stations across the country.

Vaishnaw said about Rs 25,000 crore needed for the redevelopment project will be allocated through the current Budget and asserted that the project is aimed at facilitating seamless travel for passengers across all strata of society.

''PM Modi is working to elevate the lives of the common people. The aim of station redevelopment is the same. We want them to have world-class stations without any burden. We have not increased fare or fixed a fee in the name of station redevelopment,'' said Vaishnaw at a press conference here.

The Railways has envisaged a plan to redevelop almost 1,300 prime stations in the country as 'Amrit Bharat Stations'. On Sunday, Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for 508 Amrit Bharat Stations.

Enhancing Passenger Experience: 508 Railway Stations To Be Redeveloped At Cost Of Rs 24,470 Crore

In Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, 55 each such stations will be developed at the cost of about Rs 4,000 crore, 34 stations in Madhya Pradesh at approx Rs 1,000 crore, and 44 in Maharashtra at 1,500 crore. Besides, several railway stations in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, among others, will be redeveloped.

Vaishnaw said the Railways is training around 9,000 engineers to be part of the station redevelopment project to abreast them of the nitty-gritty of the project which includes analysis of contract documents, architecture, design, and safety.

''There has been no discrimination against any state for this project. Over the next two years, we will be able to see substantial progress in the work. We believe in equitable development. Modiji has always said that we will lay the foundation stone of the project and we will inaugurate it too, explaining the speed at which we need to complete the project,'' he said. Answering a question on long-pending projects like the Sabarimala Rail in Kerala, the railways minister said it was a special case as the state government has very little interest in development.

''The Kerala government does not have that much interest in the development of the state. That is why even for small things like surveys or preparing detailed project reports we find so much resistance that it's really difficult to do any work. Even then the Centre is committed to the development of the rail network in Kerala.

''I will give you one example... the political class of Kerala created a totally imaginary narrative that the Vande Bharat train will not be given to the state. But you see Vande Bharat has been given to every state which has an electrified broad gauge network. We believe that the entire country should grow simultaneously but we need the support of state governments,'' he said.

Earlier, while speaking after the foundation laying ceremony, Prime Minister Modi said that in the last nine years, the length of rail tracks laid in the country is more than the combined railway network in South Africa, Ukraine, Poland, the UK and Sweden. Modi further said that in the last year alone, India laid more railway tracks than the combined railway network of South Korea, New Zealand and Australia.

''Our government has also given priority to the expansion of railways in the northeast. Doubling of railway lines, gauge conversion, electrification, and construction of new routes are being done at a fast pace. Soon, all state capitals of the northeast will be connected by rail network.

''The second railway station has been built in Nagaland after 100 years. The commissioning of new rail lines in the northeast is also happening three times more than before,'' he said.

Today, Modi said, the government is working to make the rail journey accessible as well as pleasant. ''The effort is to provide the best possible experience while on a train or at a station,'' he added.

IRCTC Login Error! Railway Ticket Booking Service Unavailable on Website, App

He also mentioned better seating arrangements at platforms, upgraded waiting rooms and free Wi-Fi at thousands of stations. The prime minister said that modernisation of so many stations will create a new atmosphere for development in the country as they will create a good first impression among the visitors. ''Upgraded stations will not only increase tourism but will also give a push to economic activities in the nearby areas,'' the PM said, adding that the number of unmanned level crossings on large lines is now down to zero.

Pointing out the difficulties faced due to the lack of railway bridges, the prime minister said that there were ''less than 6,000 rail overbridges and underbridges before 2014, but today, that number has gone beyond 10,000''. Speaking about the convenience for passengers, the prime minister underlined that special emphasis is being laid on the needs of the elderly and persons with disabilities.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 10:29 [IST]
Noida Money Heist: Cyber Thugs Detained For Conning Businessman

India

pti-PTI

The Uttar Pradesh Cyber Crime police have arrested two men, who were inspired by the popular web-series 'Money Heist' and contacted people over WhatsApp and Telegram, for allegedly duping a Noida-based businessman of Rs one crore, officials said.

Their arrest has come in the wake of an FIR lodged at the Cyber Crime police station in Noida by a businessman who claimed fraud of Rs one crore with him by unidentified person(s) who made fund transfers from his bank account without his knowledge, the officials said.

Inspector Reeta Yadav, the in-charge of the police station, said two men -- Ritesh Chaturvedi alias Amit Singh and Rishabh Jain alias Prince Thakur -- were arrested on Sunday in connection with the case. The duo hacked the email id of the complainant's company which was linked with its bank account, used a virtual private network, dark web, SIM cards bought on forged IDs, and used a technique to bypass the OTP sent on a registered mobile number for the fraud, Yadav said.

Once the accused took over control of the bank account, they transferred Rs one crore into four different bank accounts, which were also made on forged identities. The funds were then converted into cryptocurrencies using an e-wallet on USDT, the police officer said. She said Chaturvedi and Jain were taken into custody, they confessed to committing the crime and revealed that they were inspired by a Money Heist, a popular crime drama web series.

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"The criminals joined more than 15 groups on WhatsApp and Telegram by naming themselves after the characters of the web series. Fake sim cards, and international mobile numbers were used with names from the show. Chaturvedi went by the name 'Professor' while Jain was named 'Rio' on the virtual platforms, Yadav added. She said the technical resources used in the May incident have been seized and the FIR was lodged under the Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating), and under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

A car, a laptop, 11 mobile phones, 25 sim cards, 23 debit cards, among other items have been seized from the duo's possession. Superintendent of Police, UP Cyber Crime, Triveni Singh announced a reward of Rs 25,000 to the police team which has cracked the case, officials said.
Its called A Wish on the Wind, and its a sleeping giant.

The latest mural in Springville is one of the largest in the village, at 77 feet long, visible from Pearl Street on the side of the former Witter-Davis Furniture Co. building.

When completed later this week, it will depict the rolling hills and countryside around the village, alongside the silhouette of a slumbering giantess.

Discussion in the community in recent months has shown a divide between people who love the murals and those who think that there are too many of them, and that they dont belong in a historic district.

The village Historic Preservation Commission is still reviewing proposed regulations to govern the murals. The Springville Center for the Arts fostered the public art program, forming the Public Art Corps with Springville Regional Service Coalition in 2021.

Mural supporters hope that when A Wish on the Wind mural is finished, it will persuade those who are skeptical of public art.

Ashley Rae Lowry, who with her husband owns the building at 69 E. Main St. where the latest mural is being painted, said it would not be allowed under the regulations as first proposed.

Springville grapples with freedom of expression and community character over public art A disagreement over one piece of art became a more wide-ranging debate common when the issue is public art: freedom of expression versus the character of the community.

It almost didnt happen, she said.

The Historic Preservation Commission gave its final approval June 12.

Lowry said the artist, Mandi Caskey, took time to research the history of the area.

She really took what some of the naysayers were saying and took it to heart, Lowry said.

Some of Springvilles historic, but demolished, buildings are depicted. The 127-year-old Leland House, an old tavern on Main Street that was destroyed by fire in 2006, reappears around the corner on the mural. Caskey also added the original, but long gone, Griffith Institute Academy on Academy Street, which was the first high school in Erie County.

Caskey saw an Iroquois map on the wall at the Concord Historical Society several months ago. She was in town researching southern Erie County as part of planning for the mural, which is part of the Buffalo AKG Art Museums public art initiative.

The map features a depiction of the Stone Man, a mythological Iroquois figure, Village Historian Jolene Hawkins said. She said one of the cartographers was Ely Parker, a Tonawanda Seneca from Pembroke who was a lawyer, engineer, diplomat and one of Ulysses S. Grants top aides.

The map describes stone giants as wholly evil, [who] lived in stony places, came out and devoured people.

She really wanted to know the information, Hawkins said of Caskey. I knew she was going to do a good job, because she was going to hear the history and then draw the picture. That kind of got me thinking about how I can relate the city to the land and how we can connect that back to that original fantasy and mythological roots.

Caskey created a story about a woman giantess who roamed the land and fell in love with the land and wanted to become part of it forever, so she could give back to the creatures who live here. She is sleeping, with lights glowing in the buildings on her shoulder. As her hair falls along her back, night moves toward dawn.

When the painting of a giant was first discussed, some were dubious.

We were stumped. Is she talking about Paul Bunyan? said David Ploetz, a member of the Concord Historical Society. What giant?

But when he saw a sketch of her proposal, he said it made sense to him.

Caskey, who also goes by Miss Birdy, is from Columbus, Ohio. She has painted murals for 10 years.

I find it fascinating to work in the public realm, she said. Its way more rewarding, because you get to commune with people, engage with the environment, and also create something that is essentially free for everyone.

The mural will be unveiled in a Party on Pearl, an end-of-summer street party, from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday. The party will feature live music and performances, a kids art reception and food truck.
Parliament Monsoon Session: Govt To Table Delhi Services Bill In RS Today; Rahul Gandhi's Likely Comeback

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Parliament is set to witness high-octane drama on Monday as Union Home Minister Amit Shah is slated to present the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, for consideration and passage in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition is expected to address the matter of reinstating Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary membership. The Congress leaders have been questioning Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla's decision not to reinstate Rahul Gandhi's status as a parliamentarian after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname case last week.

All attention will be on the Lok Sabha secretariat as it initiates the process to reinstate Rahul Gandhi, following the Supreme Court's order on Friday, which stayed his conviction in a criminal defamation case. Lok Sabha officials stated that they will review the authenticated copy of the Supreme Court order and take necessary action promptly. Usually, the process takes less than 30 minutes as the secretariat has the proforma for such notifications readily available.

However, the reinstatement process may become prolonged if the secretariat decides to seek the law ministry's opinion, as it occurred in the case of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Md Faizal earlier in the year. He had to wait for nearly two months before returning to the Lok Sabha despite getting a stay in his conviction from the Kerala High Court in January. Nevertheless, the chances of seeking the law ministry's opinion in Rahul Gandhi's case are remote, given that it is an order from the Supreme Court, according to a senior Lok Sabha official.

The INDIA alliance parties are scheduled to convene a meeting on Monday at 10 am, followed by a meeting of Congress MPs at 10.30 am. In these meetings, the Opposition leaders will discuss their future plans if Rahul Gandhi's disqualification is not revoked promptly. Congress' Lok Sabha lawmaker Manickam Tagore expressed hope that the Lok Sabha Speaker would make the right decision without delay.

Delhi Services Bill: Rajya Sabha To Take It Up On Monday

Trinamool's Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra raised her voice on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, urging the Lok Sabha secretariat to comply immediately with the Supreme Court's order to reinstate Rahul Gandhi, stating that any delay would be unjust and in defiance of India's highest court.

During the meetings, the Opposition will also fine-tune their strategy regarding the Delhi services bill in the Rajya Sabha. They have decided to have Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi as their first speaker in the Delhi debate. Singhvi's expertise in representing the Delhi government in the Supreme Court for the Delhi government vs. LG case, which was later overturned through the Delhi ordinance, makes him well-suited to present the legal and political arguments, as per a Congress leader.

Moreover, the Opposition's strategy is to use the debate on the Delhi bill, already passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, to bring attention to issues in Manipur. Trinamool Congress floor leader Derek O'Brien stated that the INDIA alliance will use parliamentary rules to expose the Narendra Modi government on matters related to Manipur during the debate.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 8:26 [IST]
'Bharat Mata' Is Voice Of Every Indian: Rahul Gandhi On Independence Day

Rahul Gandhi Having Lunch With This Vegetable Vendor Goes Viral, Details Inside

Rahul Gandhi To Contest 2024 Lok Sabha Polls From Amethi, Says Newly Elected UP Congress President

People Tells Me China Took Away Their Grazing Land: Rahul Gandhi In Ladakh

Rahul Gandhi Attends Lok Sabha, Accorded Warm Welcome By Congress, Oppn MPs On Arrival

India

oi-PTI

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Monday accorded a warm welcome by Congress and other opposition MPs on his arrival in Parliament after his Lok Sabha membership was restored.

Rahul reached the Parliament House complex around 12 noon and headed straight to the Mahatma Gandhi statue and paid floral tributes. Congress MPs and those of the opposition INDIA bloc welcomed him at the gate number one of Parliament raised slogans.

He also attended Lok Sabha proceedings after it resumed at 12 noon but it got adjourned within minutes.

Rahul Gandhi's status as the MP from Kerala's Wayanad was restored on Monday after the Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notification in the wake of the Supreme Court staying his conviction in a defamation case on August 4.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored following a Supreme Court order staying his conviction.

Rahul Gandhi Updates Twitter Bio After Restoration Of Lok Sabha Membership

Senior Congress leaders and party workers hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, saying it is a victory for truth and justice.

The Congress scion also made waves on Social media by changing his Twitter bio to 'Member of Parliament' from the earlier "Dis'Qualified MP" description.

Following his disqualification from the Lok Sabha in March, Gandhi had edited his bio on Twitter to "Dis'Qualified MP." His Twitter bio now describes him as a member of the Indian National Congress and a Member of Parliament.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 14:18 [IST]
Rajasthan's Districts Reach 50: An Overview Of The Recent Expansion

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Rajasthan government announced that it would be creating 19 new districts in the state. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly. The new districts would be carved out of existing districts, and the process of creating them would be completed by August 2023.

The creation of the new districts was motivated by a number of factors. First, the state's population has been growing rapidly in recent years, and the existing districts were becoming too large to be effectively administered. Second, the government wanted to improve access to government services for people living in remote areas of the state. Third, the government wanted to create new opportunities for economic development in the state.

The 19 new districts were created in the following areas:

Ajmer division: Anupgarh, Balotra, Beawar

Bharatpur division: Deeg, Didwana-Kuchaman

Jaipur division: Gangapur City, Jaipur Rural, Kekri, Kotputli-Behror, Khairthal, Neem Ka Thana

Jodhpur division: Jodhpur Rural, Phalodi, Salumbar, Sanchore, Shahpura

Pali division: Dudu

Sikar division: Jhunjhunu

The creation of the new districts was welcomed by many people in Rajasthan. However, there were also some concerns that the new districts would not be adequately funded by the government. The government has pledged to provide adequate funding for the new districts, but it remains to be seen whether this will be the case.

Rajasthan: Drunk Man Claims To Be Lord Shiva's Incarnation, Thrashes Woman To Death

The creation of the new districts is a significant development for Rajasthan. It will have a major impact on the lives of people living in the state, and it will also have a significant impact on the state's economy. It is too early to say what the long-term implications of the creation of the new districts will be, but it is clear that this is a major event in Rajasthan's history.

In addition to the 19 new districts, the Rajasthan government also announced that it would be creating three new divisions in the state. The new divisions would be Pali, Sikar, and Banswara. The creation of the new divisions is intended to improve the efficiency of the state government's administration.

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 9:33 [IST]
Siddaramaiah Govt's Decision To Transfer Udupi Restroom Case To CID Creating Suspicious: BJP MLA

India

pti-PTI

Raising doubts about the state governments decision to hand over the Udupi coellege washroom video case to the CID, BJP leader and Udupi MLA Yashpal Suvarna on Monday said the move has created confusion as an active investigation is already being conducted by the district police.

Addressing reporters in Udupi, he said the government had recently changed the investigating officer and intensified the probe after widespread public outcry against the initial probe.

Statements from the victim and the accused have already been obtained and various pieces of evidence collected. During the course of the probe, it has been revealed that the father of one of the accused belonged to the now-banned PFI, he claimed.

However, the decision to transfer the case to the CID before the completion of the investigation by the district police has now caused confusion, Suvarna said.

NCW Not Visited Manipur, Is Udupi Case Of That Magnitude? Karnataka Home Minister

He also raised suspicion that by transferring the case to CID, the government is trying to protect the accused and hush up the case. The transfer of the case from the district police to the CID has raised questions and uncertainty about the course of the probe among the public, the MLA said.
Train Firing: RPF Cop Charged For Promoting Enmity; Custody Extended

India

pti-PTI

Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh, arrested on charges of gunning down his senior officer and three passengers on a moving train last week, has also been booked for promoting enmity between groups and kidnapping, while a court in Mumbai on Monday extended his police custody till August 11.

The Government Railway Police (GRP), probing the July 31 shooting on board the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express, have added a few more sections of the Indian Penal, including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 363 (kidnapping), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement), in the FIR (first information report) filed against Singh, defence lawyers said.

Earlier, the 34-year-old cop had been booked for offences under IPC section 302 (murder) and relevant provisions of the Arms Act and the Railways Act. Amid tight security, Singh was produced before a magistrate's court in suburban Borivali at the end of this previous remand.

The GRP sought his custody for another seven days, saying the incident took place on a running train that started from Jaipur and they need to collect CCTV footage of various spots as part of their investigation. Also, statements of witnesses who were inside the train at the time of the gruesome killings were yet to be recorded, they said. Advocates Surendra Landage, Amit Mishra and Azad Gupta -- appearing for Singh -- opposed the remand extension plea, saying sufficient time has been granted to the probe agency for interrogation of the accused.

Stones Pelted At Vande Bharat Train In UP's Barabanki

The defence also pointed out that the police were yet to submit a report on the medical health condition of the accused. The magistrate, after hearing both sides, extended Singh's police custody for four more days - till August 11. The magistrate, like last week, again did not allow media persons and lawyers not connected with the case to enter the courtroom citing security reasons.

The shooting took place in the wee hours of Monday last (July 31) when the Mumbai-bound train was near Palghar station on the outskirts of the financial capital. Singh allegedly gunned down his senior -- RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Tikaram Meena - and three passengers travelling in different bogies with his automatic weapon, GRP officials have said. The motive behind the killings was not yet known.

The RPF cop was nabbed with his weapon later while trying to flee after passengers pulled the chain of the train which stopped near Mira Road station (on the Mumbai suburban network). The deceased passengers were identified as Abdul Kadarbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (48), a resident of Nalasopara in Palghar district, Asgar Abbas Sheikh (48), a native of Madhubani in Bihar and Sayyad Saifuddin, originally from Bidar in Karnataka who had settled in Hyderabad. The Railway Board has set up a five-member committee to separately probe the incident.
How To Buy The National Flag Via Offline And Online Mode This Independence Day?

I Waved Tiranga From My Heart: Brother Of Hizbul Terrorist After Hoisting Tricolour In Kashmir

Who Designed The First Indian National Flag?

India

oi-Prakash KL

Lakhs of people gave their lives to make India free from British rule and people are familiar with freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Subash Chandra Bose.

However, not many are aware of the individual responsible for designing our cherished National Flag that makes our hearts swell with pride when we witness the raising of our beloved Tricolour. Unfortunately, his life and contribution to the freedom struggle have barely been documented.

Who Was Pingali Venkayya?

Born on August 2, 1876, in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Venkayya had a remarkable journey. He served as a soldier in the British Army during the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa, where his strong belief in Gandhian principles and unwavering nationalism brought him face-to-face with the great Mahatma Gandhi. This fateful encounter, when Venkayya was just 19 years old, marked the beginning of a profound association that would span over five decades.

Later, in Vijayawada, Venkayya presented Gandhi with his publication containing various flag designs, highlighting the necessity of a national flag for India. Recognizing the significance of this symbol, Gandhi entrusted Venkayya with the task of designing a fresh flag during the national congress meeting in 1921.

Initially, Venkayya proposed a flag with saffron and green colours, but it underwent further development, incorporating a spinning wheel at the center and introducing a third colour, white. This design was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931, becoming the revered National Flag of India.

Facts About Pingali Venkayya Venkayya

He was popularly known by two names-- Diamond Venkayya (for his expertise in diamond mining) and Cotton Venkayya (for his keen interest in various varieties of cotton research).

He was a multi-lingual, with a doctorate in Geology. He had also established an institute in Machilipatnam.

Despite being the designer of the National Flag and actively participating in the freedom movement, Venkayya passed away in acute poverty inside a hut in Vijayawada on July 4, 1963. It is accused that society and the grand old party did not give his due respect to him.

In 2009, a stamp was also issued to commemorate him, and the Andhra Pradesh government recommended his name for the Bharat Ratna in 2014.

In 2015, the then Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu renamed the AIR Vijayawada after Venkayya and unveiled his statue on its premises.
Will Rahul Gandhi Get His Delhi Bungalow Back?

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Rahul Gandhi, after being reinstated as a Member of Parliament on Monday, will also regain his official residence in Delhi. The Lok Sabha secretariat issued a new order that effectively withdraws the previous one which led to Gandhi's disqualification from his parliamentary position due to his conviction in the 'Modi surname' case.

The earlier notification was issued on March 24, following Gandhi's conviction in a criminal defamation case from 2019 by a Surat court in Gujarat.

With his return to Parliament just before the no-confidence motion debate against the Narendra Modi government, Rahul Gandhi will reclaim his official residence in Delhi, which was allotted to him as an MP. His previous official residence was the bungalow at 12, Tughlaq Lane in the national capital, which he vacated on April 22, one month after his conviction. As per the rules, a lawmaker disqualified due to a two-year or above sentence is allowed to retain their official residence for a maximum of one month.

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When Rahul Gandhi moved out of the residence, the Congress party expressed their support on Twitter, emphasizing that he belongs to the people and their hearts. They stated, "Rahul ji, my house-your house. #MeraGharAapkaGhar."

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Story first published: Monday, August 7, 2023, 12:01 [IST]
Iran Forces Women Who Defy Hijab Laws To Clean Morgues Or Get Psychiatric Treatment

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Iran's government has adopted extreme measures to suppress women who defy the strict hijab laws. In response to the increasing number of women flouting the stringent restrictions, including public figures like actress Afsaneh Bayegan, who boldly posted photos of her unveiled hair on social media and attended events without a hijab, the authorities have escalated their crackdown on dissent.

Afsaneh Bayegan, aged 61, received a two-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to undergo counseling at a "psychological center" once a week to address her alleged "anti-family personality disorder." Similarly, another woman was sentenced to a month of cleaning corpses in a morgue when caught driving without a hijab.

This wave of repression has intensified since the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, after she was detained by Iran's morality police for not properly wearing her headscarf. Many women in the country have since chosen to abandon wearing the hijab, and numerous Iranian celebrities, athletes, and actresses have shown solidarity by doing the same.

Actress Azadeh Samadi faced a similar fate when she was "diagnosed" with an "antisocial personality disorder" for wearing a hat instead of a hijab at a funeral. She, too, was ordered to attend therapy sessions weekly at a "psychological center."

Hijab Row In Tripura: Girls Stopped From Entering School, Boy Thrashed For Protesting

The abuse of psychiatry by the Iranian judiciary has raised concerns among mental health organizations in the country. In an open letter to the head of the judiciary, four mental health organizations accused the authorities of "exploiting psychiatry" for non-medical purposes and emphasized that the responsibility of diagnosing mental health disorders lies with psychiatrists, not judges.

Aside from psychological coercion, authorities have implemented other measures to enforce the hijab laws. These include issuing hefty fines, sending text messages to identify women driving without a hijab, confiscating vehicles, pressuring employers to terminate the employment of non-compliant women, refusing hospital treatment to those not wearing a hijab, and even forcing shops catering to them to shut down. The situation reflects the government's determination to enforce the strict dress code and suppress any form of dissent among women.
Who Is GOP Presidential Hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy? 10 Things To Know About Him

Who Is Neville Roy Singham? The Man Behind China's Global Propaganda Network

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Neville Roy Singham, a wealthy American businessman and social activist, has been accused of orchestrating a financial network that disseminates Chinese talking points around the world, as revealed in a comprehensive investigation by The New York Times.

Born on May 13, 1954, Singham holds roles as both a businessman and a social activist. He is the founder of ThoughtWorks, an IT consulting enterprise that specialises in crafting tailored software solutions, software tools, and consulting services.

Neville Roy Singham was born in the United States in 1954. He studied economics at Howard University, where he graduated with honors. After graduating, he worked as a software engineer for several years before founding ThoughtWorks in 1993.

The investigative report by NYT sheds light on Singham's lineage, tracing him back to his father, Archibald Wickeramaraja Singham, a notable Sri Lankan political scientist and historian. Wickeramaraja Singham held the esteemed position of a political science professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

In 2017, Singham embarked on a new chapter of his life by tying the knot with Jodie Evans, a former Democratic political advisor. Their wedding ceremony took place in the serene backdrop of Jamaica, according to the report.

Operating within a financial network that spans from Chicago to Shanghai, where he is presently located, Singham has been alleged to channel support toward advancing Chinese propaganda. Furthermore, he reportedly funded a news website NewsClick in India that subtly infused its coverage with viewpoints aligned with the Chinese government's agenda. However, this website encountered legal trouble and was raided by Indian authorities.

The extensive NYT expose highlights Singham's associations with various charities and American non-profit organizations, all working in alignment with his objectives. These entities, identified as propaganda groups, are financially sustained by American nonprofits that have amassed a substantial sum of at least USD 275 million in donations.

As the intricate web of Singham's financial dealings and affiliations is unraveled, questions arise about the intricate interplay between his businesses, social activism, and alleged involvement in pushing certain narratives on behalf of the Chinese government. The investigative report offers a glimpse into the complexities of contemporary global information networks and their potential ramifications.
Sixteen people have now been detained by Warsaw who were allegedly spying for the Kremlin. Poland is also alarmed by the movement of thousands of Russia's Wagner mercenary fighters close to its joint border with Belarus.
After paddling all the way from Albany to Oneida Lake, Dan Rubinstein wasnt going to turn down a ride.

Hed planned to paddle west along the lakes southern shore and spend the night at a Cornell University research station before continuing to the western edge of the lake. But a crazy strong west wind wasnt going to make it easy.

(It) would have been right in my face, Rubinstein said. And I dont mind waves, but when the wind is that strong, you cant make any progress.

So Rubinstein did what he always does in a new place  talk to the locals. Eventually, an ex-Navy guy with a big boat offered to give him a ride most of the way there.

The first half of the ride made for smooth sailing.

Then, halfway to Rubinsteins destination, the boats motor died.

He wasnt the least bit concerned even though it was really rocking in the wind and the waves, Rubinstein said of his new friend. He just dropped the anchor and called his son to come with the other boat to give him a tow.

Rubinstein didnt stick around to see what happened next. He got on his paddleboard, fought against the wind to reach the shoreline, and followed it to his destination.

And then the next day, the stars aligned, Rubinstein said. It was a calm day. There was a bit of an east wind, so it was pretty easy to get off the lake.

Rubinstein, an Ottawan and writer for Carleton Universitys communications department, has spent the last seven weeks travelling across New York and Ontario  on an inflatable paddleboard. His route has taken down the Ottawa, St. Lawrence and Hudson Rivers with stops in Montreal, New York City and Albany.

And after two weeks on the Erie Canal, Rubinstein arrived in Buffalo on Thursday. He spent his time in the City of Good Neighbors exploring the waterfront and meeting the staff of the Buffalo Maritime Center as they build a full-sized replica of the boat that opened the Erie Canal in 1825.

Good night Buffalo River. Holy cow: youve got a lot of nooks and crannies! Hope to paddle you next time. pic.twitter.com/TQA6UA7BJx  Dan Rubinstein (@dan_rube) August 5, 2023

Buffalo has a pretty cool waterfront  and some fascinating projects on to go. @BuffaloNiagara @QCBikeFerry @LibertyHoundBuf pic.twitter.com/Dvb9mukMkO  Dan Rubinstein (@dan_rube) August 4, 2023

Its meetings like that that have been Rubinsteins favorite part of the trip. Theyre the reason he decided to undertake this journey in the first place.

Through a combination of pre-arranged meetings and serendipitous encounters, hes spoken with dozens of people who live near or spend time on the water. He plans on using those conversations to write a book (working title: Water Borne) about our connections to the water and each other  with self-deprecating humor about the many mistakes hes made along the way thrown in for good measure.

Water is a really powerful kind of conduit for connecting people, Rubinstein said. Ive talked to and spent time with everybody from wealthy boat owners and landowners to the person fishing for food for the night... People whose paths might not cross on dry land, they do cross on the water.

On an average day, Rubinstein can travel about 20 or 25 miles on his paddleboard at a speed of about three or four miles per hour. One day, he managed to travel 41 miles on the Hudson River after 14 hours of paddling.

Its a little bit faster than walking, he said. And if you walk all day, you can get pretty far.

Hes stayed with friends along the way, but he spends most nights camping wherever he can find a place to sleep. Hes packed everything he needs  about 50-60 pounds of food, water, camping gear, reporting equipment and paddling supplies  onto his 14-foot paddleboard.

With no reliable land transportation other than his own two feet, Rubinstein has to restock on food when he can get it.

And hell work up quite an appetite on the water. In one small town, Rubinstein went to a Mexican restaurant, wolfed down a bowl of chips and salsa intended for a family of four, ate a giant meal of tacos  and then bought dessert at the gas station next door.

Its been fun figuring out how to get food and shelter in places where the main way of going anywhere is on roads and highways, and not the water anymore, he said. When theres somewhere by the water I just basically go and eat as much as possible  and thats been fine because I could eat anything.

Finding food isnt his only challenge. He didnt know it at the time, but Rubinstein set off on his journey at the start of a historically hot summer.

The heat waves and lack of showers havent mixed well for Rubinstein. Hes taken to calling himself Swamp Thing because, in his words, he smelled really bad and looked really bad.

Thankfully, he can jump in the water to cool off  on most days.

One day, under a blazing sun and with a high well into the 90s, Rubinstein paddled through a section of the Lower Hudson that had been contaminated by a burst sewer pipe. No one was allowed to swim in the water. He only made it through the day thanks to breaks in the shade and several bottles of Gatorade.

When its hot, I swim. I need to cool off, even when the water isnt probably clean enough, Im going in, Rubinstein said. But on that day, I wasnt. And it was tough.

Rubinstein left Buffalo on Saturday. He took the Niagara River north to meet some friends who agreed to drive him safely around Niagara Falls to St. Catharines. From there, hell spend the next few weeks paddling along the shore of Lake Ontario to Toronto and Kingston before heading home to Ottawa, where hell reunite with his wife and twin daughters, aged 18.

Its his family, after all, thats been so supportive of his trip. He especially credits his wife, Lisa Gregoire, for being instantly and wholly supportive of this.

Despite the fact that its been way more work for her at home and (that) Id be quitting my job for a year  so no income from me  she said, Go for it.
The 55-year-old man is suspected of torturing his wife at their home in the French town of Forbach, near Germany. The woman alerted authorities, saying she had been trapped by her husband since 2011.
Six months on from the deadly earthquakes, thousands are still living in tents and makeshift camps.
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Japan grants 8,360 Metric Tonnes of fertiliser to support paddy farmers in Sri Lanka

Posted by Editor on August 7, 2023 - 7:05 pm

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has delivered 8,360 metric tonnes of urea fertiliser to the Ministry of Agriculture for distribution during the forthcoming Maha cropping season.

The stock of fertiliser has been donated by the government of Japan.

The Japanese Embassy in Colombo said essential fertiliser will be distributed to over 228,000 smallholder paddy farmers across several districts in dry and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka, bolstering production and increasing the resilience of smallholder paddy farmers in the country.

The assistance targets smallholder paddy farmers cultivating lands up to one hectare in Kurunegala, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa, districts.

Under this emergency assistance programme, farmers cultivating up to 0.5 hectares of land will receive 25 kg of urea fertiliser free of charge, while those cultivating up to 1 hectare of land will receive 50 kg of urea, also provided at no cost to the farmers.

After receiving the consignment, Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera emphasized the significance of this support in advancing the countrys agricultural goals, saying, The arrival of this urea fertilizer will support Sri Lankas steady recovery.

By addressing the needs of our farmers, we are fostering the growth of a more resilient and prosperous agricultural sector. I thank the government of Japan and the Japanese people for this valuable aid to the smallholder paddy farmers of Sri Lanka

Japanese Ambassador Mizukoshi Hideaki expressed Japans commitment to supporting Sri Lankas agricultural sector and stated, We are delighted to be a part of this collaborative effort with FAO and the government of Sri Lanka.

Our shared vision of empowering smallholder farmers through sustainable practices aligns well with this initiative. We believe this assistance will significantly contribute to the betterment of Sri Lankas farming communities.

FAO Representative to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Vimlendra Sharan highlighted the organizations commitment to sustainable agriculture and its dedication to assisting Sri Lankas farming communities, stating, FAO remains steadfast in its mission to promote sustainable practices and improve the livelihoods of farmers.

This collaboration with the government of Japan and the Ministry of Agriculture exemplifies the positive outcomes that can be achieved when nations come together to address the challenges faced by smallholder farmers.

FAO, along with its esteemed partners, reiterates its commitment to supporting the agriculture sector in Sri Lanka and stands united in advancing food security and building a resilient agrifood system in the country.
After I published "Who's in charge of EV chargers", which explains why e-vehicles and rooftop solar systems increase the power grid's hazards and complexity, and why we can't rightly call them green, clean or sustainable, readers sent me yet more reports about problems with e-vehicles and "renewable" energy. I learned:

the European country with the most mineral deposits (good for electric vehicles and renewables) is Ukraine. that California's push for EVs has worsened inequities between rich and poor and increased pollution in poor communities. the Canadian Trudeau government's plan to end fossil fuel subsidies actually does not end a single one. while investor demand for increases in dividends and share buybacks over capital spending has reduced U.S. oil production gains, analysts expect that in 2023 and 2024, the country's oil output production will set records.

The Wall Street Journal reports that as demands for AI increase, so do energy-and-water-intensive data centers. (GPS, "smart" utility meters, bank records, videos, video games, social media and this very substack... all depend on data centers.)

To prevent ecocide

Let's admit it: we need new ways of thinking about energy, transportation and the Earth.

Faith Voices for Ecocide Law, compiled by End Ecocide Sweden, asserts that to prevent ecocide (killing the Earth), live in peace with each other and the Earth, we need new rules.

I've challenged myself to draft some. To begin, we should aim to meet the needs of the poor and the middle class. (How does our society support someone struggling to scrape together enough money for new tires on a 20-year-old vehicle?)

Then, for every suggestion I make for other people, government agencies and/or corporations, I figure I should name what I can do to prevent ecocide. Or, as Boston University professor emeritus Bill Torbert said it, "Unless I'm aware that I'm part of the problem, I can't be part of the solution."

Remembering Hunter Beaumont

Theologian and psychologist Hunter Beaumont died in June. Best known for his work with Family Constellations, a healing system developed by Bert Hellinger, Hunter's recent interview with Tanja Mayburgh wove human destruction of the Earth with guilt and "taking very good care of our mistakes" in order to learn from them and move toward making peace with who we are becoming.
Oregon City police on Monday arrested a 47-year-old man on allegations that he killed his roommate and then reported her missing.

Jamon P. Fritsch faces allegations of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the killing of Kara Rayleen Sanders Taylor, 49. His bail is set at $1 million.

Police said they continue to look for Taylors remains.

She was last seen late July 25 at the home she had been sharing with Fritsch at 221 Jefferson St. in Oregon City, according to police. Two days later, Fritsch reported Taylor missing.

The circumstances of her disappearance were suspicious and Oregon City Police detectives immediately initiated an investigation, police said in a statement.

Authorities executed a search warrant Saturday at the house and other locations and found evidence that indicated Taylor had died by homicidal violence, they said. They released no other details.

Over the weekend, the FBI joined local police in investigating Taylors disappearance.

Police said Taylor had previously lived in Pasco and Bellingham in Washington, as well as Salem.

Taylors family thanked investigators and described her as a loving and trusting person who had faith in others and believed there was good in everyone. Survivors include a 22-year-old daughter, they said in a prepared statement.

Taylor would do anything for anyone if she knew it would make a day in their life better, the family statement said.

Investigators asked anyone with information about Taylors disappearance to contact the Oregon City police tip line at 503-905-3505.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

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.
Oceans around the world are hotter than ever before in the record-keeping era  and those high temps have now reached the Pacific Northwest.

Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric scientist and extreme weather influencer tweeted that [o]ne of the most intense marine heatwaves on Earth has developed off the West Coast of the US, with water temperatures peaking nearly 5C (9F) above normal.

One of the most intense marine heatwaves on Earth has developed off the West Coast of the US, with water temperatures peaking nearly 5C (9F) above normal.



NOAA has categorized this event as a Category 4 (extreme) marine heatwave. pic.twitter.com/LSGcFf6lzI  Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) August 6, 2023

The marine heatwave off the coasts of Oregon and Washington has reached extreme levels, an event that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ranks a Category 4 on a scale of 5.

Average ocean temperatures around the world reached 70 degrees in spring of 2023, the highest ever recorded.

In July, the Associated Press reported that sea surface temperatures rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at a spot off Floridas southern tip.

Warming oceans cause stronger storms, rising sea levels and the loss of coral reefs and other marine life, according to according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information as reported by the AP.

In the Pacific Northwest, those immediate impacts include higher temperatures on land, algal blooms off the coast, and warmer rivers. The water temperature in Astoria where the Columbia River meets the Pacific was 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday -- nearly 2.5 degrees higher than average, according to NOAA.

Algal blooms are a particular problem for marine environments and can impact fishing and food sources in the Northwest.

Razor clam harvests are closed throughout most of the north and central Oregon coast due to high levels of domoic acid toxins -- a common result of algae blooms in warming waters. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife provides information online on clam, crab, and mussel biotoxin closures in the state.

Jerry Borchert, who oversees marine biotoxin monitoring for Washington state told the Seattle Times that domoic acid toxins are already nearing unsafe levels in razor clam populations in that state.

When razor clams become toxic with domoic acid, they hold onto it for a very long time, Borchert told the paper.

And then we potentially have a problem with Dungeness crab, Borchert said. Razor clams are one of Dungeness crabs favorite meals.

Oregons commercial crabbing industry has suffered delays due to domoic acid toxins from algal blooms more frequently in recent years. At the moment, crabbing appears to be open on the Oregon coast for commercial fishing and sport fishing, though the impact of the current marine heatwave remains unknown.

READ MORE:
Michael Shepard calls them the frequent floaters  the people who daily use the Wheatland Ferry to cross the Willamette River between rural Yamhill and Marion counties.

Shepard manages the ferry as well as its cousin, the Buena Vista Ferry, 30 miles to the south in Polk County. Buena Vista attracts somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 riders per year.

Wheatland is different, said Shepard, who is employed by Marion County Public Works. Oregons oldest ferry, it attracts 250,000 to 300,000 riders a year, many of them those frequent floaters.

Its definitely a different ridership, with a lot of people commuting back and forth to work, he said. A lot of farmers and a lot of people in the agricultural industry in general use the ferry, especially with the cannery over in Brooks.

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An early version of the Wheatland Ferry in 1914.

A new plaque, funded by the Oregon State Society Daughters of the American Colonists, marks the Wheatland Ferry as the oldest continuously operating ferry in the state.Elaine Wagner

Other people just stumble across the ferry. They are just following their GPS and had no idea there was anything like this here, Shepard said.

Elaine Wagner, the state regent of the Oregon State Society of Daughters of American Colonists, wants everyone to know exactly what is just off Wallace Road Northwest in Yamhill County, across the highway from the Maud Williamson State Recreation Site.

Created in 1844, the Wheatland Ferry was the first ferry in Oregon to cross the Willamette River with the capability of carrying an ox and wagon. Considering that the first wagon train was in 1843, I think this deserves to be remembered, Wagner said.

She is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Daniel Matheny, who built the first ferry. The current ferry, known as the Daniel Matheny V, is the latest link in an unbroken chain of ferry service going back almost 180 years.

As a leader of Daughters of American Colonists, she decided a historic marker for the ferry was in order. The marker was dedicated Sunday as other Matheny family members and area residents cheered.

Nothing is ended unless it is forgotten, Wagner said during the dedication. Whatever is kept in memory endures. Therefore we, the Oregon State Society of the National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists, dedicate this marker in gratitude and recognition of the significance of this site. May it keep alive an appreciation of our heritage as a nation of a good and beautiful land.

Matheny was around 50 years old when he established the ferry service. The community was called Atchison at the time. It became Wheatland when a post office opened in 1867  taking its name from the wheat that was loaded onto boats from nearby farms.

Wheatland boasted two hotels, a blacksmith shop, saddle shop, shingle factory and school. By 1881, the population swelled to 319.

When the railroad bypassed the town, the town shrank. Farmers were no longer dependent on the river to move their goods. By 1915, the population dipped to 85.

The hotels closed. The post office moved to Hopewell, then Amity. A flood in 1890 took out the flour mill and warehouse.

Yet the ferry remains.

Wagner said a bridge was never built because the water levels fluctuate too much. The bridge would have to be very high, and so would its price tag.

Matheny died in 1872, and the ferry fell into the hands of several private operators until Marion and Yamhill counties began joint supervision in 1935.

Before becoming the ferry system supervisor, Shepard operated the Wheatland Ferry.

You get to know a lot of people who cross here on a daily basis  just a lot of different people from around the community, he said. Its definitely a unique position, one I never dreamed I would have any part of. Theres a lot of history thats involved with it.

History is obviously the focal point for Daughters of American Colonists. As with Daughters of the American Revolution, members must be able to trace their lineal ancestry back to the founding of the United States.

For DAR members, that means at least as far back as the American Revolution. Wagners organization requires members to have ancestors that date back at least a previous generation in colonial history.

We precede the DAR, said Jacke Barnes, who served as the national president of Daughters of the American Colonists from 2003 to 2006.

For Wagner, Wheatland history is intensely personal. Although she grew up in central Oregon, she remembers visiting the ferry with her young children. My dad took them specifically over across the ferry and back across the ferry to remind them of their family history, she said.

It still gives me goosebumps to ride the Wheatland Ferry.

IF YOU GO

The Wheatland Ferry operates from 5:30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. daily throughout the year, but it is subject to closures due to weather and river conditions as well as maintenance requirements.

Rides are free for pedestrians, $1 for bicyclists, $2 for motorcyclists, $3 for vehicles less than 22 feet long, $6 for vehicles between 23 and 42 feet long, $9 for vehicles more than 43 feet long, and $18 for a vehicle carrying more than 65,000 pounds.

On the Yamhill County side, the ferry is a mile east of Wallace Road Northwest along Wheatland Road Northwest in rural Yamhill County. On the Marion County side, it is seven miles west of River Road Northeast in Keizer.

More information is available by calling 503-588-7979 or online at www.co.marion.or.us/PW/ferries
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A bus carrying up to 50 people traveling from New York to Ohio crashed and hit another vehicle on a Pennsylvania interstate, killing three passengers, state police said.

The wreck happened during heavy rain around 11:50 p.m. Sunday on Interstate 81 just north of Harrisburg, state police said.

The bus drove off the road, struck an embankment, rolled onto its right side and hit the back of a car that was stopped in the right lane, according to a crash report.

Three passengers were declared dead at the scene, the police report said, and others suffered injuries that ranged from minor to severe.

Matthew Oshiafi, a passenger on the bus operated by the Super Lucky Tour Company of Boston, told Pennlive.com that he remembered a terrible screeching and shuddering before the bus crashed and flipped. He said he was sitting in the last row.

Oshiafi, 39, a New York City resident who was headed to Cincinnati to visit family, said the crash threw people from their seats and left some piled on top of others. He heard people screaming and saw people around him severely injured or unconscious.

Oshiafi said he saw a couple in a nearby seat with a baby and noticed the woman appeared to be unconscious and the man was trying to help her. The man handed the baby to Oshiafi, who said he passed the baby through the broken bus windshield to emergency responders.

Im shaking, he told the newspaper on Monday, about 10 hours after the crash. I know people have died."

A Milton S. Hershey Medical Center spokesperson said it helped 28 patients from the crash, ages 1 to 69. Three were admitted, one in critical condition. Three others were being evaluated and 22 were discharged. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Community Osteopathic treated 21 patients, treating and releasing 20 of them; one adult remained hospitalized, the medical center said.

A Red Cross-run reception center at a nearby fire company closed late Monday after helping 23 adults and two children, feeding them and offering emotional support.

A Dauphin County spokesperson said information about the people who died was not immediately available through the coroner's office.

The name of the bus driver has not been released. Trooper Megan Frazer said Monday morning that more details about the wreck might not be released by police until Tuesday.

Peter Chan, the bus company manager, said in a brief phone interview Monday that he was very sorry to hear about the accident but had no further information because he hadnt been able to talk to the driver, who was injured in the crash and remains hospitalized.
Anticipation builds each August in India as the country prepares to commemorate its Aug. 15, 1947 independence from Great Britain.

For Sahitya Poonacha, who recently moved to Oregon, those celebrations found her in Portland on Sunday.

Its great to be participating with the community, she said. I feel almost back at home.

Poonacha joined thousands of others at the Celebration of India Festival hosted in Portlands Pioneer Courthouse Square. The spirited gathering features food, dancing and performances.

While the festival offers a good opportunity for the regions Indian community to connect with arts and cuisine, it also represents an important holiday in India.

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At home, theres usually a flag hoisting, performances  very similar to this, Poonacha said. Its very important for all the Indians in Portland who can find similar, like-minded people to celebrate all our culture means.

The India Cultural Association has hosted the event for 29 years, and it encapsulates cultural elements from the countrys 28 states. Jaisen Mody, the associations president, emphasized the importance of celebrating the holidays history, especially for younger generations.

We want to offer Oregonians a glimpse of India, he said. Theres a lot of demand from our youngsters to learn the culture and perform.

Mody said that young performers sometimes practice year-round to prepare for the festival. The event included around 540 performers. It has grown steadily over the years as interest in Indias culture has increased in Portland, Mody said.

Partly cloudy skies graced festival-goers, attracting a large crowd. Many wore colorful traditional clothing, and paper lanterns lined the sky above the booths and restaurants. Vendors selling clothing and jewelry joined community organizations at booths.

Long lines formed outside of stalls selling curry, pakora, and homemade snacks like puffed rice and chivda  a fried snack made with flattened rice and spices.

Around 3:30 p.m., Prashant Kakad, better known as DJ Prashant, electrified the crowd and had people out of their seats dancing in the square. Bollywood and Indian music filled the area throughout the day.

The festival started at 11 a.m. and ended at 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

Chhavi Agarwal has been attending and volunteering at the festival since 2008, and says its a crucial time of the year for the community. She said independence day in India is a massive celebration featuring parades, flag ceremonies and festivals like the one downtown.

It feels so nice; you feel so proud to be free, Agarwal said. Its so nice to connect with the culture and people, and to be proud that we have so much to celebrate.

Agarwal is also a Henna artist, and appreciates getting to share that artform with others, she said. Henna is a paste said to have positive medicinal qualities, and Agarwal said that it has strong religious connections in Indian culture. Its one of the many art forms celebrated at the festival.

Indian cultural celebrations at this scale are rare in Oregon, Agarwal said. She said the community often opts for smaller gatherings.

I think its a very great thing that the whole community can come together, she said.

Sandeep Chahal came to the festival with his friend Amit Daliwal. Both men moved from India about a decade ago, and they said it was refreshing to see their countrys diverse groups coming together.

For Chahal, Indias independence day represents the countrys return to its roots, he said.

We are valuing our customs, our heritage and our culture, Chahal said. Our civilization is thousands of years old, and its important to cherish and nurture it.

Daliwal echoed those sentiments, and said that the festival is a good time to show younger generations how the holiday is celebrated and why.

Its a very special day for us, he said. Its good for our kids to know what our culture is and why we celebrate. We are so diverse, and we welcome everyone with open arms.

 Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744

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Police have identified the Portland officers who fatally fired on the 33-year-old man suspected of shooting and killing a Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center security guard last month.

The officers are Justin Thurman, Timothy Hoerauf and Seth Wingfield, the Portland Police Bureau announced Sunday.

Just before 11 a.m. on July 22, officers responded to reports of a man threatening Good Samaritan staff. The suspect fired a gun in the hospital shortly after, killing Legacy security officer Bobby Smallwood, 44, and injuring one other employee.

The suspect left the scene as swarms of police descended on the Northwest Portland facility.

Shortly after 1 p.m., police vehicles converged in the middle of Northeast 181st Avenue near Glisan Street in Gresham. There police stopped a white and maroon van outside of a U.S. Bank branch on 181st.

Shoppers in the area said they saw a standoff between police and a person in the van later identified as the suspect, PoniaX Kane Calles. Witnesses reported hearing three gunshots.

Its unclear if Calles reached for a weapon. He died at the scene.

Earlier in the day, Calles had been visiting a partner who was giving birth to their child at Good Samaritan. He had menaced hospital staff for at least three days, spurring requests from employees to have him removed, sources close to the investigation told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Calles had a criminal history and struggled with mental illness, court records show.

In April, Ashely Heil, then six months pregnant, obtained a restraining order against Calles. Heil cited Calles anti-government and anger issues, and expressed concern about the safety of her 8-year-old daughter, a 1-year-old and an unborn child.

The Portland Police Bureau is investigating the shooting in Gresham. Thurman and Hoerauf, members of the bureau for 16 and 12 years respectively, remain on administrative leave along with Wingfield, who has been with the bureau for seven years, police said.

Calles death is the second fatal police shooting in Portland in 2023. Last year, Portland saw four.

 Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744

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Price transparency is supposed to provide insight into how hospitals operate and allow patients to know where they can get the care they need at a price they can pay. However, compliance with federal rules around posted prices is iffy at best.

I visited the websites of Oregon medical facilities to look for pricing information. I found that several hospitals had blatantly incomplete files, missing more than half of the required information. Others had files that were unorganized and hard to interpret, almost as if they didnt think anyone would actually look. The webpages containing the hospitals price transparency information were often poorly designed, used misleading labels or contained links I had to dig for.

I believe that these hospital managers simply dont care enough. Although the majority of Oregon hospitals are mission-driven nonprofits, the reality is that they can operate like profit-driven businesses. Weve seen this in the past when Oregon hospitals cut what they spent to forgive debts owed by poor patients and to address community health needs. They are supposed to do these things as nonprofit hospitals. Most nonprofit hospitals have not been proactive in their mission, despite benefitting from their tax-exempt status. Oregons Legislature had to intervene in 2019 with stricter guidelines for financial assistance policies and how much each hospital should spend for their community.

If hospitals cannot be responsible on their own, we need stronger enforcement and accountability surrounding their regulations, starting with proper price transparency.

June Jung, Portland

To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.
A key finding of a state-paid investigation that appeared to vindicate the Oregon Labor Bureau and its then-commissioner Val Hoyle amid charges of race discrimination is directly undermined by a police report, The Oregonian/OregonLive has determined.

In 2020, Carol Johnson, a Black woman who served as the bureaus top civil rights official, reported that someone  she suspected a colleague  mailed a package of animal feces to her home. That, along with other workplace conduct, caused her to feel threatened and a victim of workplace hostility, she reported at the time.

An outside investigator hired by the state, however, concluded the package of poop was likely mailed many weeks after Johnson claimed she received it and after she submitted her resignation. But a contemporaneous police report uncovered by The Oregonian/OregonLive in fact documents she reported to police that the package sent by vendor Poop Senders arrived at her home on June 25, 2020, just as she said.

That explosive finding, contained in court filings, calls into question the fairness and accuracy of the $158,000 state-funded investigation that appeared to exonerate Hoyle and the Labor Bureau and discredit Johnson.

Hoyle, a Democrat elected statewide to the labor post, is now a member of Congress. Her alleged conduct as labor commissioner is a primary focus of the civil rights lawsuit Johnson filed after she resigned from her post after a year on the job, citing race discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.

Lawyers for the labor bureau and Hoyle herself declined to comment to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Johnsons lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

The Oregonian/OregonLive discovered the police report last week in a 479-page court filing. The newsrooms review was prompted when a trial in the case began in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Hoyle testified at length on Wednesday, and Johnson began her testimony Friday and continued it all day Monday. The trial is expected to stretch until at least late next week and a verdict could come as soon as Aug. 11, the judge and lawyers said.

The timing of a packages arrival could sound trivial. But that particular finding by outside attorney Brenda Baumgart - that based on a photograph Johnson provided, it would appear the package was  postmarked on  August 15, 2020 not by June 25, 2020, when Johnson claimed it reached her mailbox - seriously undermined Johnsons credibility.

Hoyle and the labor bureau played up that discrepancy in a press release they distributed to publicize Baumgarts findings in August 2021. The Oregonian/OregonLive and Willamette Week prominently reported Baumgarts conclusion that the offensive package was likely sent in August.

Baumgart did not respond to The Oregonian/OregonLives detailed requests for comment Friday and Monday.

A June 25, 2020, Portland Police report, however, shows that Johnson reported receipt of the package to police that day and provided the investigating officer with details about the mailer. The 22-digit tracking number she cited matches the photo that Baumgart used to conclude the package was sent in August.

Baumgart apparently relied on one of numerous markings on the package, one related to mailing label software company Endicia, that says Endicia 8/15/2020. But its not clear what that date indicates, whereas the tracking number in the same photo exactly matches the one in the June 25 police report.

A spokesperson for the United State Postal Service said the Aug. 15 date likely indicated when Poop Senders permit to use Endicias services was to expire.

Baumgart, with the firm Stoel Rives, is a prominent lawyer whom the state has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years to conduct multiple personnel investigations.

Johnson sued the Labor Bureau in 2021, alleging racial discrimination and whistleblower mistreatment. A key element of her suit: Someone sent the offensive package to her home. Johnson received the package about a month after she contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file a workplace discrimination charge.

According to court records, Johnson, Hoyle and Hoyles deputy all suspected the same disgruntled Labor Bureau employee was likely the sender.

In many ways, Johnsons receipt of the package was not ultimately key to her case. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Beth Allen ruled in late June there was no evidence to support Johnsons assertion the package came from a colleague, nor evidence Hoyle or the labor agency played any role in or condoned the offensive mailing. Johnsons case alleges many other instances of workplace hostility and discrimination and Hoyles failure to ameliorate them.

But Baumgarts suggestion that Johnson lied about the timing of the package was a blow to her reputation. If the package was not mailed until August 15, 2020, then Ms. Johnsons reports to the contrary would call into question her credibility, Baumgart wrote.

Johnson and her legal team strongly contest Baumgarts report, alleging she colluded with the labor bureau or was manipulated by it to make Johnson look bad and undermine her civil rights claim.

According to her report, Baumgart never interviewed the labor bureau employee who both Johnson and Hoyle suspected sent the package and who lived in the same apartment complex as Johnson.

Baumgart wrote in her report that she tried to find any police reports related to Johnsons receipt of the package but came up short. Johnsons attorney, Diane Sykes, summarized what she said the investigator did in her unsuccessful effort to locate the report: Ms. Baumgart left one voicemail with one law enforcement agency.

Baumgart also wrote in her report that she asked to interview Johnson for the investigation but Johnson did not agree to be interviewed.

Baumgarts report did not indicate that Sykes offered that Johnson, her client, would answer any questions in writing, as evidence in the case shows. Baumgart did not pose written questions to Johnson.

Nor did Baumgart obtain the eight pages of Portland Police Bureau public records that document her June 2020 interactions with officers, including the tracking number of the package.

Deputy politics editor Jamie Goldberg contributed reporting.

-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @ORPolEds
We warmly invite you to join us at Special Collections for a public reading of T.S. Eliots 'The Waste Land' given by Paul Tankard, Associate Professor in English and Linguistics.

Paul is reading The Waste Land from beginning to end as part of a series of readings across Otepoti to celebrate the poems centenary.

The event will run for about an hour.

A century ago, The Waste Land divided the literary establishment on both sides of the Atlantic, following its publication in 1922 and 1923. Is the poem an agonized cry as one contemporary critic put it, or perhaps a powerful, melancholy tone poem as another suggested?

Come along and decide for yourself. You can also catch a glimpse of the first British edition, published by Leonard and Virginia Woolfs Hogarth Press in September 1923  on display in Special Collections during August.

Date Tuesday, 8 August 2023 Time 5:00pm - 6:00pm Audience Public,Alumni,All University Event Category Humanities Event Type Performance

Campus Dunedin Department English and Linguistics Location University Library Special Collections, First Floor, Central LIbrary, Otepoti : Dunedin Cost Free Contact Name Alexander Ritchie Contact Phone +64 3 479 8330 Contact Email special.collections@otago.ac.nz

Save this event
Monday 7 August 2023 2:36pm

After a global search, Professor Jemma Geoghegan has been appointed the Webster Family Chair in Viral Pathogenesis at the University of Otago.



Professor Jemma Geoghegan.

A Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Geoghegan is the third holder of the position, following Professor Miguel Quinones-Mateu who was appointed in 2019, and the inaugural recipient Professor Andrew Mercer, who held the position from 2005 until his retirement.

Her research focuses on how and why viruses jump hosts and emerge in new populations, and how they evolve while they spread. She has helped pioneer bioinformatic methods for the discovery of novel viruses which are beginning to revolutionise the study of virology.

As part of the Leading Thinkers Initiative, this Chair is a huge privilege and I am incredibly grateful to Professor Webster and his family for making this possible, Professor Geoghegan says.

This position and the associated funding will mean that my current research will be expanded beyond what I thought would be possible. My hope is that by collaborating broadly and building up a network of people working in this area, we can really expand our understanding of this field of virology.

Originally from Scotland, Professor Geoghegan completed her PhD with Professor Hamish Spencer in the Department of Zoology in 2012, before moving to the United States to undertake postdoctoral research on HIV at New York University. Her career then took her to University of Sydney and Macquarie University, before she returned to Otago with her family in early 2020.

COVID-19 hit the headlines about the same time as Professor Geoghegan arrived at Otago and she immediately found herself not just at the forefront of research into the virus, but often in front of media cameras and microphones, both nationally and internationally.

Being on the front-line of the countrys response to a viral pandemic was definitely something I didnt think Id ever experience, she says.

During this time, she co-led with her colleagues at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research the establishment of genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2.

The resulting genomic approach was described as world leading in a report commissioned by the Office of the Prime Ministers Chief Science Advisor and as a result viral genomics became critical to New Zealands successful public health response.

She continues to build on this work and was recently awarded a Health Research Council Project grant to lead genomic sequencing of other viral infections that have been, and will be re-introduced into the community following the return of international travel.

Through this initiative, I intend to build Aotearoas inaugural framework for genomic pathogen surveillance, Professor Geoghegan says.

A focus for Professor Geoghegan has always been to inspire and be a role model for women in science.

An important priority for me is to train the next generation of scientists in this field, to build capability and ensure we are much better prepared to tackle the challenges that infectious diseases will bring, she says.

This role demonstrates leadership in research and I hope it will encourage a change in culture where women are seen to be leaders in this space too.

Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson says Professor Geoghegan has an exceptional track record as an internationally recognised, respected and high impact scientist.

As a globally respected scientist, Jemma has made significant contributions in her field which have not only garnered acclaim from peers but has also led to groundbreaking advancements.

Jemmas expertise and accomplishments makes her the ideal person for this prestigious position, and I have no doubt she will seize every opportunity to make even greater strides in her research and inspire others to do the same.

The Webster Chair in Viral Pathogenesis

The University of Otago established the 'Leading Thinkers Initiative' in 2004 as part of the government's Partnerships for Excellence Framework. The Initiative invested in people who were knowledge leaders working in areas considered vital to New Zealand's well-being. Academics have been recruited from New Zealand and around the world to fill these prestigious and important positions. The projects cover the breadth of academic disciplines at Otago and all meet the objectives of the Universitys Strategic Direction.

The Webster Family Chair in Viral Pathogenesis was endowed by Robert and Marjorie Webster in 2005 in conjunction with the Leading Thinkers campaign.

Professor Webster is a noted virologist and international expert in influenza. He was the first to acknowledge a link between human and avian flu. His team isolated and identified the avian-adapted strain of H5N1, the causative agent of H5N1 flu commonly known as avian influenza or bird flu. He is an expert in the structure and function of influenza proteins and in the development of new vaccines and anti-virals. The reservoir of influenza viruses in wild birds, and their role in the evolution of new pandemic strains for humans and lower animals, continue to be a focus of his work.

Robert Webster studied at the University of Otago in Microbiology where he completed a BSc and MSc. During his distinguished career, he has held many research posts, starting out as a virologist with the New Zealand Department of Agriculture.

He continues his work in infectious diseases at St Jude Childrens Research Hospital in the USA . He has published more than 600 original articles and reviews on influenza viruses.

For more information please contact:

Professor Jemma Geoghegan

Department of Microbiology and Immunology

University of Otago

Email jemma.geoghegan@otago.ac.nz

Lea Jones

Communications Adviser, Media Engagement

University of Otago

Mob +64 21 279 4969

Email lea.jones@otago.ac.nz
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA) - Vancouver-based B2Gold remains actively committed to exploring expansion opportunities in Mali, despite the governments proposal to introduce a new mining code
Notably, Gary Abraham does not appear to understand the urgent need to transition to renewable energy in his opinion piece, Wind and solar are not the solutions to climate change, July 26. Instead, Mr. Abraham works with opponents of renewable energy across the state to distract and delay the renewable energy projects that are crucial to address this climate crisis. We need to move quickly to prevent the continuing spiral toward an uninhabitable world.

The Alle-Catt wind farm has been stalled primarily through his efforts. Alle-Catt was approved by the state in June 2020. Even so, Mr. Abraham continues to deluge the siting board with countless letters and petitions to prevent its construction. Without his intervention, this wind farm would be in service today, powering 134,000 homes annually and having a direct impact on climate change.

His concern about the 1,500 acres of mature forest this project will replace does not consider the big picture. There are 16 million acres of forest in the state, so we are talking about just 0.01% of all the forested acres in N.Y. Supplying all the energy needs in the state with solar PV and wind would require about 1%.

Multiple scientific, peer-reviewed studies conclude that sound complaints about turbines are primarily associated with a range of contextual and personal factors, rather than actual sound exposure levels. Wind turbine flicker, which is 1Hz or less, is far below the 10Mh+ the Epilepsy Foundation cites as likely to cause seizures.

Mr. Abraham has chosen to use information from 2016 when addressing transmission issues. The reality is, New York has seen the most significant investment in new transmission in decades through the NYISOs Public Policy Transmission Planning Process. This process includes reliability needs assessments, long and short term, to meet the 2030 and 2040 CLCPA goals.

Please join the USES at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 27 for our webinar Keeping the Lights On  Grid Reliability in a Fossil-Free World with guest Kevin Lanahan, vice president, External Affairs & Corporate Communications, NYISO. Register here or at usesusa.org.

Wind and solar are viable solutions to the climate crisis. PV and wind can deliver 100% of the time even though they are at the mercy of the weather. It just takes ingenious technology: storage, real and implicit, for both.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA)  Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that Tanzanian authorities have detained or threatened at least 22 people since 10 June, 2023, including protesters, after they criticised the Tanzania National Assemblys ratification of an agreement for management of Tanzanias ports
Johannesburg, South Africa (PANA)  Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday asked the government of Angola to ensure urgent, impartial, and transparent investigations into alleged rights violations and appropriately sanction or prosecute security force members In a report, the human rights watchdog said Angolan security forces have carried out more than a dozen unlawful killings and numerous other serious abuses against political activists and peaceful protesters since January 2023
Photo: (Photo : Michael Mims on Unsplash)

Edith Heyck, an artist and part-time park manager from Newburyport, Massachusetts, at the age of 72, is one of the estimated 38 million Americans who live alone. Analysts predict that the societal shift shown in Heyck's story will further accelerate over the next few decades.

In 2022, there will be almost 16 million Americans aged 65 and up, about three times as many as in the 1960s. This number is likely to increase considerably as the Baby Boomer generation matures, causing significant national security concerns.

Reasons Behind the Trend: Why More Baby Boomers Are Living Alone

According to CNN, this trend is being fueled in part by the unexpected increase in "gray divorce," or the divorce rate among those 50 and older.

Bowling Green State University's Susan L. Brown and I-Fen Lin, co-directors of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research, first noticed the pattern of an increasing divorce rate among Americans aged 50 and up between 1990 and 2010. This trend prompted us to rethink our assumptions about the rarity of divorce among the elderly and highlighted the significance of tailoring our policies to their needs.

Susan Myres, a divorce attorney in Houston with decades of experience, has heard a range of reasons from older clients seeking divorce, including differing perspectives on vaccines, masks, and politics during the pandemic. Some older individuals initiating divorces feel they have drifted apart from their spouses, while others have experienced abuse or discovered shocking transgressions. Regardless of the reasons, the idea of spending their remaining years with the wrong person propels many to seek a fresh start.

Financial difficulties after "gray divorce" are a major concern for researchers. Divorce often leads to a significant drop in the standard of living, especially for those who are not remarried. This, combined with higher poverty rates among older adults, paints a concerning picture for their financial well-being in the future.

It's important to note that "gray divorce" is not the sole reason for older Americans living alone. Some are widowed, and a growing share have never been married at all. Affordability is a crucial factor in determining whether older individuals can live alone, with the advent of Social Security and Medicare providing financial stability and enabling more older people to choose independent living.

Read Also: Gen Z Voices Frustration Over Baby Boomers' Workplace Habits, Survey Finds

Future of Aging: Challenges and Housing Options for Solo Living

As the number of older people living alone is expected to grow, communities face significant consequences if social services aren't improved. Loneliness and social isolation can have severe health consequences, making it crucial to find solutions to support aging Americans who live alone. In countries like Japan, where inventions like robotic dogs and artificial intelligence are gaining popularity, ideas for the future of aging in the United States may be discovered.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University's Housing and Aging Society program director, Jennifer Molinsky, emphasizes the significance of a greater range of housing styles that are supportive of safe aging. By ensuring they have access to reliable transportation, medical care, and support services, the goal is to enhance the quality of life for older individuals who live alone.

For Edith Heyck, who experienced financial instability after her divorce, finding affordable housing was a challenge. However, after securing a spot in senior housing with rent adjusted to her income, she found the stability and joy she had been seeking. Her sense of security came from her faith and her participation in the local community; she has since discovered stand-up comedy as a means of connecting with her neighbors.

In conclusion, there is a complex interplay between factors that contribute to the growing number of lone Baby Boomers, such as the rising rate of "gray divorce" among the elderly. Our aging population is becoming increasingly isolated, and as this trend continues, we must consider how we may best ensure the pleasure and well-being of these people.

Related Article: Raising Millennials: Is The Parenting Style Of Baby Boomers To Blame For The Anxious Generation?
To my mind, the improvised panel discussion this past Friday, which was the last day of the 2023 FAIR conference, was truly remarkable. Im almost tempted to label it historic, as it included three of the most prominent current experts on Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon all together on the stage. I repeat here what I posted about it on that day:

Jenny Reeder was supposed to speak this morning about The Eliza R. Snow Project, but circumstances prevented her from coming. However, FAIR landed very much on its feet. A special panel  a remarkably good one  was put together for a live Q&A on the Book of Mormon, moderated by Scott Gordon, the president of FAIR. The panel members were Kerry Hull, Brant Gardner, and, to the great delight of many of us (since hes been struggling with serious health issues), Mark Wright. We are in the best position that weve ever been in, Kerry Hull said with regard to the evidentiary status of the Book of Mormon and reflecting the consensus of the panel. And I guarantee that well be in an even better position in the next twenty years. This was a really good conversation. Watch it when you can.

At the end of the conference, a group of us (including Mark Wright and his wife, which pleased me very much) went out to dinner at Los Hermanos in Orem. The food was good, of course, but I really enjoyed my table conversation with Mark Ashurst McGee and Don Bradley, who were seated closest to me.

Saturday began with a session at the Provo Utah Temple. (There wont be too many more opportunities before its closed for, umm, renovation.) Members of the board of Interpreter, along with (unbeknownst to me) contributors to the new volume Steadfast in Defense of Faith and a few friends, had been invited to the 10:00 AM session, in connection with our eleventh Interpreter Foundation birthday party later in the day. I was pleased to officiate in the temple on behalf of an Indian man who had been born in the Punjab in or near 1824. As I proceeded through the various stages of the endowment, I reflected once or twice on the remarkable fact that the name of a presumably fairly ordinary man from the Indian subcontinent was being remembered and spoken aloud in the western United States almost exactly two centuries after his birth.

Ive long been impressed that the temple and the concentration camp (or labor camp or re-education camp) are two of the great symbolic and real opposites in our world. The purpose of the camp is to reduce individual persons to numbers, to members of groups, or even to erase them altogether. In the temple, people arent mere numbers or fungible items in a batch. The goal in the temple  the contrast could scarcely be more stark  is to remember, individually and lovingly, every person who has ever lived, no matter how foreign in time or place.

Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; for, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth! (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-13)

Thereafter, some of those who had been in the temple gathered at the Brick Oven for lunch. One of them was a young boy when we lived in Cairo and his father was both the president of the Latter-day Saint branch there and a professor of history at the American University in Cairo. That boy is now a brigadier general. (Man, am I old!)

After lunch, a few of us began to set things up for the birthday party in our local ward building.

It began at 5:30, and we had, by our count, roughly 104 people there with us. Volunteers, donors, friends. Once again, Bruce Webster  one of our regular Interpreter Radio hosts  generously provided the delicious meats. (Some folks had been wondering and asking whether he would be doing so this year  yes, his cooking is that good  and Im almost as happy to say that he did as the guests on Saturday were happy to eat his smoked brisket and pork.)

While dinner was underway, some interesting announcements were made and Newell Wright presented an overview of some of his recent research on the reach of the Interpreter Foundation.

Then we retired to the chapel, where, among other things, we showed them the new preview video about the Interpreter Foundations Not by Bread Alone project  shorn of the appeal for donations at the end. (We were complying with the Churchs rules against fundraising on Church property and, anyway, we have never solicited donations at our annual birthday parties.)

The main event for the evening was a presentation by Professor Gerrit Dirkmaat of Brigham Young University. Entitled Sweeter than Honey: Brigham Youngs Devotion to Joseph Smiths Teachings, it was perfectly aligned with what were trying to do with our Six Days in August project. I didnt script it, but I couldnt have scripted it any better. Happily, too, thanks to the efforts of my friend Tom Pittman, a video recording of Dr. Dirkmaats remarks is already available (at no charge) on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaOnFXVn54A

Afterwards, my wife and I met for a short time with Mark Goodman (and his wife) and Russ Richins, two of the three core members of our group of filmmakers, and looked at some casting options for Six Days in August. Im very pleased to say that were settling on several of the leading actors for the film. The processes beginning to be both very real and quite exciting.
Whether youre thrilled to bits about it or completely lack enthusiasm, back-to-school season is here and ready to roll. Fortunately, back-to-school season means theres a ton of awesome laptop deals out there. Whether youre a high school student or a college freshman, if youre in the market for a laptop, theres no better time than now to take the plunge.

Dell is currently holding its annual back-to-school sale. And, if you happen to buy an eligible laptop, the manufacturer will donate to UNICEF, which helps schools get onto the world wide web. Dell laptops are also known for being well-priced, durable, and luxurious (especially the XPS line). If youre feeling totally lost, dont worry, from lightweight 2-in-1s to powerful gaming machines, Ive assembled a diverse list for you.

If youre on the hunt for the best-rated laptops, be sure to check out PCWorlds carefully curated roundup of laptops spanning all purposes and prices points.

Best back-to-school deals on everyday laptops

Sometimes all you need is a basic machine for writing papers and doing research on. If thats what youre looking for, you should check out the bulleted list below.

Inspiron 15 Laptop, Intel Core i7-1255U CPU/Intel Iris Xe graphics/16GB RAM/1TB PCIe NVMe SSD/15.6-inch 1080p display, $579.99 ($170 off at Dell)

XPS 13 Plus Laptop, Intel Core i7-1360P CPU/Intel Iris Xe graphics/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/13.4-inch 1200p touch display, $1,249 ($250 off at Dell)

My top pick: The XPS 13 Plus Laptop offers a good amount of processing power for the price as well as a nice display. The 13.4-inch, 1200p touch display has a maximum brightness level of 500 nits, which mean the picture should be nice and luminous.

Best back-to-school deals on gaming laptops

If you need a little extra firepower in the graphics department, you should consider picking up a gaming laptop. The options below are souped-up with powerful hardware as well as spacious high refresh-rate screens. This is important, especially when youre in the middle of an intensive match in which every second matters.

G15 Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i5-13450HX CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU/8GB RAM/256GB PCIe NVMe SSD/15.6-inch 1080p display, $729.99 ($170 off at Dell)

Alienware m16 Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i9-13900HX CPU/Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 GPU/32GB RAM/2TB PCIe NVMe SSD/16-inch 1600p display, $2,999.99 ($500 off at Dell)

Alienware m16 Gaming Laptop, Intel Core 17-13700HX CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/16-inch 1600p display, $1,499.99 ($250 off at Dell)

My top pick: If youre after the ultimate gaming experience, then you should definitely check out the Alienware x16 Gaming Laptop (the RTX 4090 version). The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU is powerful enough to run most modern games on the High or Ultra graphics preset and the displays crazy high 240Hz refresh rate means you can expect buttery smooth visuals.

Best back-to-school deals on 2-in-1 laptops

If portability is at the top of your priority list, 2-in-1 laptops are the way to go. Theyre generally more lightweight than traditional clamshell laptops and you can swing the screen around 360 degrees. That means you can use it like a tablet or prop it up like a tent for sharing information.

XPS 13 2-in-1 Laptop, Intel Core i7-1250U CPU/Intel Iris Xe graphics/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/13-inch 1920p touch display, $1,249 ($200 off at Dell)

Inspiron 16 2-in-1 Laptop, Intel Core i7-1360P CPU/Nvidia GeForce MX550 GPU/16B RAM/1TB PCIe NVMe SSD/16-inch 2400p OLED touch display, $1,299.99 ($300 off at Dell)

My top pick: The Inspiron 16 2-in-1 Laptop offers a good amount of power for the price. For just $1,299.99, youre getting 1TB of SSD storage and a stunning 2400p OLED touch display. That means you can offload a bunch of files as well as watch your favorite Netflix on a vibrant screen.

Best back-to-school deals on content creation laptops

Calling all graphics design students! If youve been shopping around for an ultra-powerful machine, you best stick around. The picks below are absolute beasts in the power department. Theyve also got gorgeous 4K displays, which is perfect for getting those tiny details just right.

XPS 17 Laptop, Intel Core i7-13700H CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/17-inch 1200p display, $2,299.99 ($410 off at Dell)

XPS 15 Laptop, Intel Core i7-13700H CPU/Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU/16GB RAM/512GB PCIe NVMe SSD/15.6-inch 2160p OLED touch display, $2,099.99 ($300 off at Dell)

My top pick: If youre a graphics design student, you should spring for the XPS 15 Laptop because of its stunning 2160p OLED touch display. It even has a maximum brightness of 500 nits, which means youre in for a lusciously bright picture.
In a world where cultural diversity is celebrated more than ever before, Twellium Industries, an innovative beverage company, is stepping up to the plate to honor the vibrant and unique culture of Rastafarianism.



Introducing the Rasta Choco Malt, a delicious chocolate malt beverage that not only aims to tantalize taste buds but also promotes the rich heritage and cool authenticity of African culture.



What sets this beverage apart is not just its mouth-watering flavor but also the groundbreaking advertising campaign that accompanies it. To capture the true essence of Rastafarianism and pay homage to Africa, the company has brought together the legend Ghanaian celebrities Reggie Rockstone and his wife, Blakk Rasta, as well as the renowned Bombo Marley, to star in an advert that encapsulates the spirit of Rasta people.



The advertisement serves as a rallying cry for individuals to embrace their roots and appreciate the African heritage. Through lively music, vibrant visuals, and a captivating storyline, viewers are transported to the heart of Rasta culture. The advert effectively showcases the confident, laid-back lifestyle for which Rasta people are known, all while evoking a sense of pride and admiration for African traditions.









Not only does the Rasta Choco Malt pay homage to Rasta culture, but it also embodies the charm of African design. The beverage stands out on the shelf with its eye-catching African-inspired packaging, featuring bold colors and intricate patterns that tell a story of African history and artistry. This unique design not only serves as an aesthetic delight to the eyes but also acts as a reminder of the rich tapestry of African culture.



But let's not forget the real star of the show - the Rasta Choco Malt itself. With its exquisite blend of chocolate and malt flavors, this beverage offers a refreshing and indulgent experience that is sure to satisfy even the most discerning taste buds. The smooth, creamy texture combined with the rich chocolatey taste creates a truly delightful beverage that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.



And the best part? The Rasta Choco Malt is available at a very affordable price, making it accessible to everyone. This commitment to affordability reflects the company's desire to share the beauty and joy of Rasta culture with as many people as possible and dispel any misconceptions about its accessibility.



In a world where cultural appreciation and representation are of utmost importance, the introduction of Rasta Choco Malt fills a void in the market. By celebrating Rasta culture and African heritage, this beverage aims to bridge the gap between cultures and bring people closer together. So, whether you're sitting at home, out with friends, or simply looking for a refreshing treat, reach for a can of Rasta Choco Malt and immerse yourself in the cool authenticity of African culture.





https://youtu.be/_FfecSs2zJw

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A total of 602,457 final-year junior high school (JHS) students across Ghana are writing this years Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) which starts today.



The total candidature of 602,457 represents an increase of 49,049 over last year's figure of 553,408.



The examination would be held simultaneously for both school and private candidates.



Both examinations are taking place from today, Monday, August 7 to Friday, August 11, 2023.



Candidates will write Religious and Moral Education and English Language today.



On Tuesday, they would write Integrated Science and Ghanaian Language and then on Wednesday, Social Studies and Basic Design and Technology.



Thursday would be Mathematics and Information and Communication Technology and Friday, French.



Out of the 602,457, a total of 600,714 will sit the BECE for School Candidates (BECE-SC) while 1,743 will sit the BECE for Private Candidates (BECE-PC).



The BECE-SC is made up of 300,323 males and 300,391 females while the BECE-PC will involve 889 males and 854 females, statistics from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) have indicated.



Eighteen thousand, nine hundred and eighty-three public and private JHSs will participate in the BECE-SC, which is mainly for students who have undergone nine years of basic education.



They will write the BECE at 2,137 centres with one supervisor each.



There will be 2,000 assistant supervisors and 21,025 invigilators.



In the case of the BECE-PC, it will be written at 15 examination centres with a supervisor.



The examination will have 60 invigilators and one assistant supervisor.



Regional breakdown



In the breakdown for the BECE-SC, the Ashanti Region will, as usual, present the highest number of candidates, which is 117,084, made up of 57 973 males and 59,111 females.



It is followed by the Greater Accra Region with 112,894 candidates: 54,624 males and 58,270 females.



Next is the Central Region with 68,035 candidates  34,166 males and 33,869 females.



The Western and Western North regions will present 60,528 candidates (30,825 males and 29,703 females).



Fifty-eight thousand, three hundred and eleven candidates, made up of 29,703 males and 28,608 females, will sit the exam in the Eastern Region while 55,617 others (27,882 males and 27,735 females) will take part in the examination in the Ahafo, Bono and Bono East regions.



The Northern, North East and Savannah regions will present a total of 46,783 candidates: 24,706 males and 22,077 females.



The Volta and Oti regions will also have 44,221 candidates (22,723 males and 21,498 females) while Upper East Region would have 22,437 candidates (10,558 males and 11,879 females) with the Upper West Region, 14,804 candidates (7,163 males and 7,641 females).



BECE-PC



For that of the BECE-PC, which is for re-sitters and first-timers, the Greater Accra Region has the highest number of candidates of 565  303 males and 262 females.



Two hundred and thirteen candidates: 101 males and 112 females, will write in the Central Region with 175 candidates in the Upper West Region, 90 males and 85 females.



The Ashanti Region will have 157 candidates: 75 males and 82 females.



A total of 124 candidates  76 males and 48 females are taking part in the BECE-PC in the Ahafo, Bono and Bono East regions while 119 (51 males and 68 females) are expected to write in the Western and Western North regions.



The rest are Eastern Region, 109 candidates (64 males and 45 females); Volta and Oti, 96 candidates (43 males and 53 females); Northern, North East and Savannah regions, 96 candidates (36 males and 60 females), as well as Upper East Region, 89 candidates (50 males and 39 females).



Meanwhile, the WAEC has indicated its readiness to conduct a smooth and incident-free BECE this year.



It has charged candidates and school authorities to comport themselves during the examination period.



Among other things, the council said at a press conference last Wednesday that it would name and shame schools that were caught engaging in examination malpractice.



It also said it was investigating nine cases of unqualified candidates registered at the Ayi Mensah Basic School.

Source: Graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Progress at the Outer Harbor has been gratifyingly swift on certain fronts. And it validates the lighter, quicker, cheaper approach that has been successful at Canalside, including the reality that environmental restoration is equally as urgent as recreational amenities.

In one of the speediest enhancements weve yet seen on the waterfront, construction by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of a stone breakwater in the abandoned shipping slip adjacent to Wilkeson Pointe is scheduled to begin in the fall and should be completed by November. This breakwater will help create a wetland ecosystem that could go a long way toward reversing nearly a century of environmental degradation on the Outer Harbor.

When the slip is filled with sediment dredged from the Buffalo River, ecologists and contractors will add gravel beds, rock piles, logs and plants that will naturally attract migratory birds and aquatic species.

Thus, we are one step further toward remediating more than a century of treating Western New York waterways as places to dump refuse, toxic chemicals and sewage.

On the Outer Harbor, despite the inevitable setbacks caused by winter storms, the transformation from industrial wasteland to recreational parkland has been steadily proceeding. The Tifft Street Pier, after being closed for almost a decade, has been reopened after extensive structural work and new enhancements. This was a 2014 federal project that suffered storm damage soon after completion. Now it is ready once again for fishing and strolling, with a new shelter and benches.

When the pier was reopened last week, South Council Member Christopher Scanlon said, I think, historically, as Buffalonians, we take for granted this incredible asset we have here in Lake Erie 

Take for granted? If only it was just that.

At the Outer Harbor, all work must be done with nature in mind, whether it is protecting against the fury of seasonal storms or the struggle to reverse decades of environmental damage. No recreational use is possible without attention to both of those imperatives.

This is why big picture development plans, especially those that envelop large swaths of waterfront, are not as appropriate as efforts that look at very specific areas with very specific needs and possible uses. Under this scenario, piecemeal projects work just fine  as long as they are preceded by remediation, which is needed on the lakefront, even more than the cleanup of the Buffalo River was needed at Canalside.

When the slip at Wilkeson Pointe is filled in  which is not possible without this breakwater  it will settle into a solid mass, and the additions already noted will change a former industrial dead zone into a living, breathing healthy habitat. Healthy for humans, as well as for birds, plants and aquatic species. Plans so far call for a bridge to Wilkeson Pointe and walking trails at the waters edge.

Some critics of plans for the Outer Harbor dont want too much green space. Critics on the other side dont think that residential complexes or other urban-style amenities have any place here.

Both sides go too far. But environmentalists are correct about at least one thing: The creation and maintenance of healthy habitat is not just for the birds. The Outer Harbors legacy of industrial pollution must be fully addressed as an ongoing component of any development here.

Thats why this breakwater is such good news.

s 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.
Popularly referred to as the unseen hands behind brands, Mr Samuel Awuni is the Lead Manager for BrandNet Communications, a digital and social media Strategic Agency. He is the brand manager behind several significant brands and products on social media, including public figures, popular brands, state institutions and private companies. He has over the years proven himself beyond doubt and has been highly recommended in his line of duty.



Mr. Awuni has been nominated for the Best Social Entrepreneur at this years Humanitarian Awards Global for his contribution to creativity, mentorship and employment opportunities afforded young people.



Samuel Awuni began his career as a reporter and later became the lead producer for GN Morning U.K. Before this, Samuel Awuni was the assistant producer for the Sunrise Morning show on 3fm.



Samuel is also the Executive Director of Youth Eye Innovations Foundation, an advocacy and research-based organization which has worked with institutions including; Ghana Education Service, the Head of States Awards Scheme and the National Youth Authority of Ghana on various youth-related projects and was instrumental in the launch of the National Youth Policy Implementation Plan of Ghana.



His long-standing affair with journalism saw him establish the BrandNet Communications in 2012 which works with notable brands and personalities in various aspects of communications including; brand management & advisory, content, social media management, publicity and PR services. He headed the digital media unit of Lucky Television as editor and also lectured at the Synergies Institute, a media-oriented institution.



His team has successfully trained several companies on strategic social media management skills and superintended the establishment of social media units for these respective companies. BrandNet Communications also provides free consultancy services for young startups to fully maximize the benefits of social media.



Samuel Awuni is also a freelance writer, a social commentator and a youth activist with most of his works being published on Peacefmonline, Rainbow Radio, GhanaWeb, Daily Graphic, Daily Guide, Yen News and several blogs and social media platforms.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
In a shocking turn of events, a distressing piece of news has emerged from Bekwai, revealing the untimely demise of Akua Serwaa, believed to be the daughter of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, Kwaku Kyei Baffour.



Akua Serwaa was found unconscious by her husband and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.



According to sources, the unfortunate incident took place Thursday, August 3, when Akua Serwaa was allegedly attacked by unknown assailants in the town of Atwima Bebu. The circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear, leaving the community in a state of shock and mourning.



Upon discovering his wife in a critical condition, Akua Serwaas husband promptly rushed her to the nearest hospital. However, despite the best efforts of medical professionals, she could not be revived, and her tragic passing was confirmed upon arrival.



Speaking on the matter, the Assembly Member for the Bebu electoral area, Boakye Ansah, said the husband of the deceased discovered her lifeless body upon returning from work, with her neck turned unnaturally.



This happened yesterday evening and from my committee members account, a lady has been murdered, the husband said he told his wife to come home early and prepare dinner and when he returned around 7pm, he realised that the handle of the main door to their house has been broken and that was strange because they always lock the door even when they are home.



The husband began calling out his wifes name but there wasnt any response; he searched for the wife and saw that she had been murdered at one of the exits of the house but per the account of eyewitnesses, there was no weapon wound or sharp cut but this is a laymans view but an autopsy report should be able to determine what killed her.



The police were immediately notified and have begun their investigations into the circumstances surrounding the young womans death.



The news of Akua Serwaas death has sent shockwaves through the region, as the daughter of a prominent public figure has fallen victim to a heinous crime.



The community of Bekwai, known for its close-knit nature, is now grieving the loss of a young life and demanding swift justice for the culprits responsible for this senseless act.



Local law enforcement agencies have launched a thorough investigation into the incident, aiming to swiftly apprehend those responsible for this heinous crime.



The police are urging anyone with information related to the incident to come forward and assist in the investigation, as any small detail could prove crucial in bringing the perpetrators to justice.



Meanwhile, the MCE of Bekwai is said to be devastated by the tragic loss of his daughter.



The local community has rallied around the grieving family, offering their condolences and support during this difficult time.



The loss of Akua Serwaa has once again brought attention to the urgent need for enhanced security measures and efforts to combat crime in the region.



Community leaders and residents are calling for increased police presence and improved safety measures to prevent such incidents in the future and ensure the safety of all citizens.



As the investigation unfolds, the people of Bekwai remain united in their grief for Akua Serwaa and are hopeful that justice will be served.



The authorities have assured the public that no stone will be left unturned in their pursuit of the truth and the apprehension of those responsible for this tragic crime.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
As part of plans to engage stakeholders to network and support the objectives of the University of Ghana (UG), the Alumni Association has organised a walk in Accra.



The 2023 edition of "A Walk with UG Alumni & Friends" was supported by Makers and Partners, a chartered accountancy firm.



The 10-Kilometer walk led by Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice Chancellor of UG, saw participants converge at the premises of the UG Alumnis Office and walked through some principal streets of the University.



In an interview after the walk, Professor Gordon Awandare, Pro-Vice Chancellor in charge-of Academic and Student Affairs (ASA) at UG, underscored the need to keep fit and also highlighted the need to strengthen the relationship between the University and its affiliates, particularly the alumni.



He said, for the past 75 years, the University has produced some of the best brains who are making impact globally, as such, an event to mobilize old students to help the University achieve its greater heights was a worthy course.



Professor Awandare, who was hopeful that the alumni engagement would help bring others on board, also reiterated the Universitys commitment to making education more accessible to Ghanas teeming high school graduates.



Madam Doris Ansah, Chairperson of UG Alumni, said the essence of the event was to mobilize old students to be fit to help the University.



She stated that the alumni have embarked on numerous projects, however, the University needs more projects and it is important for all stakeholders to come together to help the University build infrastructure to provide comfort for the students.



She said the alumni had refurbished 5 Reading Rooms for different halls and we building the hotspot comfort zones; Wi-Fi-enabled places where students can relax between their lectures, finish assignments and discussions.



Madam Ansah mentioned, in the area of health, the Association has built a mothers wing (hostel) for the Legon Hospital to provide shelter for mothers whose children had been hospitalized.



She said the Association had also provided a modern incinerator to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.



The Chairperson also called on all old students who were yet to be part of the Association to visit the UG Alumni Centre and register, adding that we need more people to come on board and help with their widows might.



Mr Alfred Aryee, partner at Makers and Partners also adviced Ghanaian workers to be health conscious and embrace lifestyles that will improve their fitness levels.



He stated that the event highlighted the need for professional networking, as it created a platform to build relationships with other professionals.



Mr Aryee said the frontliners of Makers and Partners were part of the UG Alumni and it was feasible to build partners and promote their services, which include, Forensic Audits, Statutory Audit, Tax Advisory Services, Corporate Advisory Services, SME Business Solution, and Forensic Investigation Training".

Source: Pious Baidoo Banson/Peace News









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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Supporters of His Excellency Dr Bawumia Presidential bid based in the UK (UK for Bawumia) have intervened to provide a suitable water facility (borehole) for Banso D/A basic school in the Ahanta West District of Western Region.



This timely intervention came about as a result of a publication by Joy news presenter (Kojo Brace) on his Facebook wall then sighted by the UK FOR DMB group.



Under the leadership of Mr Okyere Darko, the group immediately made a commitment to ensure the program begins and assured the committee set by the Joy reporter(Kojo Brace) involving the Chief, Head Teacher, a teacher and other members that the remaining amount payment shall be made to ensure completion of the project.



The group according to the spokesman Mr. Bismark Asante was thankful to the Bawumia supporters in UK who made financial donations towards the project in the name of His Excellency the Vice President Dr Bawumia.



Mr Asante emphasised the need for all especially those in the diaspora to support however little they can as we all have stakes in making our country better. He stressed that governance is a collective responsibility of all and sundry and that, there is no point folding our arms and expect government to solve all our problems. Mr Asante admonishes others with the means to help government solve generational problems in our communities.

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 Ajumako Enyan Essiam branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Central Region has denied a fabricated story that the delegates of the area booed the Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia during his recent visit.



The said story has been circulating on social media with a video attached.



According to the partys constituency secretary, John Yanney, the story is a total lie. The Vice President received a very rapturous welcome in Ajumako Enyan Essiam on his recent visit.

His message of hope was well received by the delegates.



Yanney clarified that the incident in the video took place when the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ajumako Enyan Essiam was introduced by the MC for the programme.



He stated that it was the DCE who was booed at by some few party people who had come to observe the programme.



The party has since condemned such behaviour and apologised to the DCE.



The Vice President delivered a touching and inspiring message to the delegates of Ajumako Enyan Essiam during his speech which resulted in the delegates giving him a standing ovation and pledging their unflinching support and votes to him.



The constituency secretary praised the Vice President for exhibiting sterling leadership qualities throughout his speech and conducting his campaign in a decent and reconciliatory manner.



Yanney, therefore, urged the Vice President to continue with his decent and reconciliatory manner in conducting his campaign. The party also attached the original videos of the introduction of the Vice President and the DCE.



Read the full statement below



03/08/2023



*RE: AJUMAKO ENYAN ESSIAM DELEGATES SACK VICE PRESIDENTS TEAM FOR ATTEMPTING TO DISCREDIT ALANS PROMISE OF PAYING POLLING STATION EXECUTIVES*



The attention of the Ajumako Enyan Essiam branch of the New Patriotic Party has been drawn to a video circulating on social media with a fabricated story attached.



It is a total lie that the decent and well-behaved delegates of Ajuamko Enyan Essiam did such a thing to the well-respected Vice President of our country.



Rather ,His Exceency the Vice President ,Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia ,.received a very rapturous welcome in Ajumako Enyan Essiam yesterday. His message of hope was well received by the delegates.



The incident in the said video, though unfortunate, took place when the DCE for Ajumako Enyan Essiam was introduced by the MC for the programme. So, it was the DCE who was booed at by some few party people who had come to observe the programme.



We condemn such behaviour and apologise to the DCE for Ajumako Enyan. Essiam, Hon Ransford Kwesi Nyarko.



The Vice President delivered a very touching and inspiring message to the good delegates of Ajumako Enyan Essiam which resulted in the delagates giving him a standing ovation and pledging our unflinching support and votes for the Vice President.



The Vice President spoke decently, never attacked any aspirant or his policy. Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia exhibited very sterling leadership qualities through out his speech in Ajuamko Enyan Essiam .



He sounded very measured and reconciliatory and therefore the delegates of Ajuamko Enyan Essiam had no cause to do anything bad to him.



We take this opportunity to thank the Vice President for his visit yesterday and urge him to continue with the decent and reconciliatory manner he has been conducting his campaign.



Please, find attached the original videos of the introduction of the Vice President and the DCE.



Thank you very much.



signed

John Yanney

(Constituency Secretary)

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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Some supporters of the New Patriotic Party have expressed concerns over alleged attempts by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Kasena-Nankana, Joseph Adongo, to misappropriate essential farm inputs meant for local farmers.



The NPP supporters claim that Mr. Adongo is diverting the inputs, allegedly provided by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, for his personal campaign in the upcoming NPP parliamentary primaries.



The situation has sparked criticism from party supporters, with some demanding the resignation of the MCE over the issue. The supporters assert that the MCE is distributing only weedicides to farmers while hoarding other farm inputs for his political campaign.



They are also concerned about the MCE's failure to acknowledge the Vice-President as the source of the support initiative, raising suspicions about his motives and intentions. Some NPP members worry that the MCE's actions may adversely affect the Vice-President's campaign.



Denial



However, speaking to the media, the MCE denied the claims, stating that he only received weedicides from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) and did not receive any other inputs. He also denied having any knowledge that the inputs came from the Vice-President, as the RCC did not communicate such information to him.



He challenged those making the allegations to disclose where he is supposedly hoarding the other inputs. Furthermore, Mr. Adongo denied that the inputs were intended solely for NPP members, claiming that the weedicides were distributed to Assembly Members in the area. He questioned why inputs meant for NPP members would be given to Assembly Members, some of whom belong to the opposition National Democratic Congress.



Meanwhile, the NPP supporters are questioning the MCE's responses. They claim to have knowledge of supporters in adjoining districts who received other farm inputs, such as fertilisers and wellington boots. They question how their counterparts in the region received different inputs if the MCE's claim of only receiving weedicides is true.



The aggrieved supporters have threatened to demonstrate against the MCE if their concerns are not addressed, causing internal strife within the NPP in the area.

Source: Peacefmonline









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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Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, has reiterated the commitment of parliament as an institution to the cause of disability and inclusion in Ghana.



We need to have a number of physically challenged persons as Members of Parliament, it is one of the benchmarks for assessing parliaments in the world, he said.



Mr Bagbin made the remark when selected members of the disability movement and the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD) paid a courtesy call on him.



The Speaker of Parliament said: We are working on all these things to make our parliament inclusive; we will do our best to inaugurate the disability caucus by the end of the year.



The GFD is pushing for Parliament to have a formalized disability caucus that will support the disability movement in its advocacy and help effectively monitor and contribute to the disability discussions on the floor of Parliament.



Ms. Rita Kyeremaa Kusi, Executive Director of the GFD, who led the delegation, said there was a need for an enriched and enhanced conversation on disability issues at the parliamentary level.



She called on the Speaker of Parliament to help facilitate the re-enactment of the disability law to enable persons with disabilities to enjoy their rights in Ghana.



Ms. Kusi also mentioned that Ghana is yet to ratify the African Disability Protocol (ADP), a protocol that considers African practices and concerns in dealing with disability issues.



She said the process to sign and ratify the ADP started many years ago but there had been challenges and called on the speaker for support in the process.



Interim leaders of the disability caucus of parliament were at the meeting to lend their support.



Dr. Emmanuel Marfo, Member of Parliament for Oforikrom Constituency, Mr. Clement Apaak, Member of Parliament for Builsa South, and Ms. Darkoa Newman, Member of Parliament for Okaikwei South, all pledged their unflinching support to the disability movement in Ghana.



They also added their voice to the call for the formalization and inauguration of the disability caucus in parliament to enable them to do more.





Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Senior Psychologist, Professor Joseph Osafo has cautioned the presidential aspirants of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) to engage in politics of ideas, not insults.



According to him, insulting one another will not help the party as it gears up for the general elections in 2024.



Contributing to "Kokrokoo" panel discussion programme on Peace FM, Prof. Joseph Osafo advised the aspirants not to treat their competitors as enemies but "value creators" explaining their competitors add value to them in their quest to emerge victor in the NPP elections.



"You cannot destroy your competitors because whether you like it or not, when you win, you will need them," he urged them.



The Head of Psychology at the University of Ghana called on the aspirants to engage in peaceful competitive campaigns emphasizing the NPP will not win the 2024 elections "by being brutally competitive but rather being compassionately competitive".



The NPP will on Saturday, August 26 hold a Special Delegates Congress aimed at reducing the number of their presidential candidates from ten to five with the elected five competing in their main election to elect a flagbearer.



The candidates, who include the Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia; former Minister of Trade, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen; Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin Central; former Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko; former Attorney General and Railways Minister, Joe Ghartey; Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto who resigned as Agriculture Minister to participate in the presidential election among others, have begun their rigorous campaigns to solicit votes from the party's delegates.



Over 900 delegates will partake in the elections to be held across all constituencies in the country.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A western Pennsylvania woman was killed last week while visiting Harrisburg and staying at the citys Hilton hotel, police said.

Ashley Sarazen, 38, a Pittsburgh-area resident, met Travis Collins at a downtown Harrisburg bar before going back to the Hilton with him early Friday, according to the Dauphin County Coroners Office and Harrisburg police.

Collins, 32, is from Kempton, more than an hour away from Harrisburg in Berks County. Its unclear why he was in Harrisburg that night.

When the pair got back to the womans hotel room, Collins told police they engaged in sexual activities and then he went to the bathroom. He claimed the woman hit him before he punched her, knocking her onto the bed. He then hit her in the head and face several more times, before pinning her to the floor and strangling her until she died, according to court documents.

Collins called a friend on the phone and said he had (expletive) up, the friend told police, according to court records. The friend went to the hotel, got security officers and went to the specific hotel room provided by Collins on the 5th floor, but Collins would not open the door. Police arrived around that time.

Police were called to the hotel shortly at 3:10 a.m. by Collins, who said there was a dead woman in a room there, according to investigators. Collins told police he had an altercation with the woman, police said.

Collins had blood on his hands when he opened the door for officers, according to court records. There was also a large amount of blood on the bed and throughout the room. The victim was on the floor, still warm to the touch, without a pulse, according to court records.

Collins was charged with one count of murder and is being held at Dauphin County Prison without bail, because of the severity of the charges.

His criminal record includes two misdemeanor convictions in February related to different incidents in Carbon County in September 2022 and January of this year. Collins also was convicted of DUI and disorderly conduct for two different incidents in Lehigh County in 2021.

Collins Facebook page said he worked as a truck driver.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21 in front of Magisterial District Judge James A. Lenker.

Staff writer Charlie Thompson contributed to this report.

READ MORE: Survivor escaped through broken windshield after fatal central Pa. bus crash

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Sometimes, that perfect fit for the job is the person filling in.

The Buffalo Zoo board found out as much when searching for the ideal candidate to lead the beloved institution.

Lisa Smith, interim since last September, beat out an extensive field of candidates from across the nation. She was the right fit for the job, not just because shed held it (temporarily, at least) following the resignation of Norah Fletchall, who had served five years. Donna Fernandes previously served from 2000 to 2017.

Smith is the zoos third leader in the last 23 years. Her background and credentials, as a 27-year professional who came to the Buffalo Zoo in May 2018, made her an obvious choice.

She was named chief zoological officer in 2021 and placed in charge of several initiatives. Significant among them was implementing the zoos strategic and master plans.

In addition, she oversaw animal care and raised money for future projects, which include a new outdoor gorilla exhibit.

Her resume is impressive: She started in 1995 in Crescent City, Calif., at what is now Ocean World, then moved to the Santa Barbara Zoo, also in California, and then to Cleveland, Atlanta, Sioux Falls, S.D., and then onto Buffalo.

Along the way, Smith compiled an impressive record, sparked by an interest while working on a college project at the Cleveland zoo in 1992 when she experienced a close-up, behind-the-scenes look at a white rhinoceros. She is an expert on eastern black rhinoceros.

Buffalo has had the benefit of Fernandes long (only slightly interrupted) tenure, in which the zoo built or updated 12 enclosures at a cost of $56 million, ranging from Rainforest Falls to Arctic Edge and Sea Otter Cove.

Fletchall tackled deferred infrastructure needs. That included a building assessment on the 23.5-acre grounds commissioned in 2020. The assessment found significant problems, including decades-old roofs, heating and air-circulation systems in poor condition and plumbing problems gone untended.

Having been interim president for nearly a year, Smith has been able to hatch her own plans. They include structural improvements using government funds for some of the city-owned zoos historic buildings. She intends to address life support structures for sea lions, polar bears and other animals. A pervious, brick-like pavement will soon be added to the zoo entrance.

And the next big project, will be an improved gorilla habitat, built in a different location.

The Buffalo Zoo demands expert, forward-thinking leadership.

Smith proved to be the perfect fit.

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.
Five young people, including four teenagers and a young man, were shot, and wounded on a Philadelphia Parks and Rec playground late Sunday night, according to reports.

The incident took place at Sturgis Playground near North 2nd Street and West 65th Avenue in East Oak Lane at 11:30 p.m. where at least one person approached the group of five  three teenage boys, one teenage girl, and an 18-year-old man  and fired shots, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bullets struck two 17-year-old boys, the 16-year-old boy suffered a wound to his left ankle and the 17-year-old girl was shot in the right thigh. The 18-year-old also suffered a gunshot wound to the right thigh, according to reports.

Those 18 spent shell casings are spread out over a pretty considerable area. About half of them are in the park itself, about half are outside on 2nd Street, indicating that the shooter or shooters were moving around quite a bit, and there was a lot of running around as this shooting took place, Philadelphia Inspector D.F. Pace said to 6ABC.

Four of the victims were transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center, while the fifth victim was transported to Temple University Hospital by a private vehicle. All victims are stable.

Authorities are currently examining footage from surveillance cameras at the nearby Sturgis Recreation Center.

A motive to the shooting is currently unknown and no arrests have been made.

Its unclear at this time whether or not any of the gunshot victims were also shooters or whether or not the shooters came upon this group of four juveniles and shot at them and then took off. We just dont know that yet, Pace said.

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Im starting to feel like a bit of a jinx. First a thunderstorm threatens the Outlaw Music Festival at Hersheypark Stadium, and now a downpour at the Volbeat and Halestorm concert at Hollywood Casino.

Of course, summer storms are always a possibility with outdoor concerts. And is there anything more metal than head-banging in the rain?
Sonic Drive-In said it will donate $1 million to help schools as the new academic year arrives.

And, teachers can get a freebie.

From Aug. 4 through Aug. 21 teachers can get a free, three-piece Buffalo Chicken Dip Bites. Teachers must enroll in the Sonic Teachers Circle, a free rewards program available in the Sonic app.

The chicken dip bites are available to teachers, faculty or staff at a K-12 or degree-granting university in America.

Starting Aug. 9, the Sonic Foundation is partnering with Reeses Book Club by providing up to $100,000 to match donations to classroom projects requesting books at Equity Focus Schools in celebration of Book Lovers Day. Every public donation made on that day to reading-related projects on the DonorsChoose platform will receive a dollar-for-dollar match from Reeses Book Club and the SONIC Foundation, while funding lasts.

Starting on Aug. 15, the Sonic Foundation will provide up to $900,000 in matching donations to classroom projects on the DonorsChoose platform in Sonic markets. Every public donation made starting that day to projects submitted by teachers in Sonic markets will receive a 50% boost from the foundation, while funding lasts.

Throughout the year, through Sonic Limeades for Learning, the company donates a portion of the proceeds from all drinks, Slushes and shakes to the foundation to support public education.

The Buffalo Chicken Dip Bites landed at Sonic on Aug. 1 - you get three for $2.99 - along with small classic shakes for $1.99 in August.

READ MORE: When is the first day of school 2023? Here is the schedule for central Pa.
The staff at Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium is mourning the loss of a second animal in less than a week.

Kit, an African male lion, died on Friday, Aug. 4, just days after Kovu, a red panda, died on July 30, 2023.

Their deaths, while tragic in their near timing, are not related, the zoo said.

Kit was 6 years old. On its social media, the zoo said he had shown visible signs of illness and was taken to the Zoos veterinary hospital Friday morning, where an X-ray revealed material blocking his digestive system.

The animal care team performed an emergency procedure to remove the blockage, but despite the best medical care, Kit did not survive the surgery.

Kovu was 9 and in the days before his death had exhibited unusual behavior and had trouble walking.

The loss of an animal is always heartbreaking, and the loss of two beloved animals so quickly has been hard on everyone. We truly appreciate the outpouring of community support, said Dr. Jeremy Goodman, president & CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo.

The zoo said Kit arrived there in 2019 with two female lions, Abana and Scarlett.

The magnificent maned male of the pride became an instant favorite with Zoo guests. In July 2020, Kit and Abana welcomed a litter of three cubs, who have since healthily grown and were relocated to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in the summer of 2022.

With fewer than 25,000 African lions remaining in the wild, Kits legacy will help sustain the future of this vulnerable species.

The zoo said Abana and Scarlett are receiving wellness checks from the animal care team.

The zoo is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year and has also had new life with multiple births including the latest, a male California sea lion pup on Friday, June 16.

Other births at the zoo this year include two Western lowland gorillas, twin Amur leopard cubs, three nyala calves and some pot-bellied seahorses.

Although not born at the zoo, Hadari, a pygmy hippopotamus, arrived on May 23, 2023, from Montgomery Zoo in Alabama.
CABAZON, Calif.  Two firefighting helicopters collided while responding to a blaze in Southern California, sending one to the ground in a crash that killed all three people on board.

The accident late Sunday afternoon in the desert about 85 miles east of Los Angeles involved a huge Sikorsky S-64E and a smaller Bell 407. The larger Sikorsky landed safely.

Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed and tragically all three members perished, Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said at a news conference early Monday.

The Bell helicopter was being used for observation and coordination, Fulcher said. The Sikorsky can drop water or retardant on fires. Fulcher said he did not know whether it was loaded at the time of the crash.

The victims were Cal Fire Assistant Chief Josh Bischof, Cal Fire Capt. Tim Rodriguez, and contract pilot Tony Sousa, the firefighting agency said.

Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department resources had been dispatched to a structure fire near the intersection of Broadway Street and South Ronda Avenue in the community of Cabazon shortly after 6 p.m. That blaze spread into surrounding vegetation and a full wildland fire dispatch was initiated, which included six airplanes and helicopters.

Thats not an uncommon dispatch for a wildland fire, to send those resources, Fulcher said.

Cal Fire said in a social media post at the time that the fire was burning in light flashy fuels with a moderate rate of spread and had spread over approximately 3 acres (1.2 hectares).

While battling the blaze, the two helicopters collided just before 7 p.m. The crash caused an additional 4-acre (1.6-hectare) fire, which was extinguished.

Although this was a tragic event, we are also thankful today that it wasnt worse, Fulcher said.

The sky was clear and there were breezy winds typical of the Cabazon area, said Capt. Richard Cordova, a Cal Fire public information officer for the region.

They were good conditions to fly in, he said.

The Bell crews mission was to tell helicopters where to make drops, working in conjunction with the crew of an airplane flying above all others, Cordova said. That aircrews role is called air attack.

They kind of work together, Cordova said. The air attack is the main boss up in the sky and the helicopter coordinator assists with the air attack and helps out with the helicopters.

The pilot of the crashed helicopter was flying under contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Sikorsky and its two-person crew were also under contract.

An investigation continues where two helicopters collided in Cabazon, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. (Taya Gray/The Desert Sun via AP )AP

Cal Fire operates its own fleet of about 60 aircraft but also contracts with commercial companies for additional helicopters and airplanes that are on standby at bases statewide.

Cordova said in-flight collisions are rare but have occurred during previous California wildfires. He recalled two instances over several decades but did not immediately have details.

The crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

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By Patrick Varine, Tribune-Review, Greensburg

The alligator in the Kiski River thats been the target of a manic reptile-hunt over the past week has been caught.

Kiski Township Police Chief Lee Bartolicius confirmed Sunday evening that two kayakers spotted and caught the gator. Two Kiski Area police officers assisted them.

The alligator, Chomper as we have named him, is in custody! Bartolicius said in a text late Sunday night. He is now in the hands of the (humane) officers where they will re-home him.

The alligator, around 4 feet long and believed to have been dumped in the river by someone, was initially reported to the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission by a group of kayakers on July 30.

It was initially spotted near the Salina Bridge, with a second sighting in the proximity of the Roaring Run Trail near Apollo on July 31.

Over the weekend, there had been several new sightings.
UPDATE: Three survivors of Sundays fatal bus crash have been admitted to the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center: one adult in critical condition, another adult in serious condition and a child who is in serious condition, according to the hospital.

Several dozen survivors from Sunday nights fatal bus crash on I-81 in Harrisburg were transported to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and UPMC Community Osteopathic Hospital for treatment, the hospitals said.

In all, Penn State Hershey took in 28 patients, two of whom were admitted following the crash between a tour bus and a passenger vehicle that killed three people in Lower Paxton Township. Another 21 passengers were taken to UPMC Community Osteopathic, including two who remained hospitalized, and 19 who were treated and released as of early Monday afternoon.

The collision occurred shortly before midnight Sunday at mile marker 74.

Sixteen patients were being treated in the emergency room at Penn State Hershey and 10 patients have been discharged, hospital spokeswoman Barbara Schindo told PennLive.

State Police said passengers sustained varying degrees of injuries from minor to critical.

No one involved in the crash has been identified. The coroner was on the scene overnight along with police and fire departments.

In addition to those at the hospital, there are 24 victims being cared for at the Red Cross center.

State police said the bus was carrying between 45 and 50 passengers when the rollover crash occurred.

The Red Cross Disaster Action Team is providing assistance at a reception center at Chambers Hill Fire Department where victims are being provided cots, blankets and refreshments and where they can be reunited with family members and friends. Red Cross officials said counselors are on the scene to help those dealing with emotional distress and trauma.

Red Cross officials said victims are of various ages. They could not provide information on the origin of the bus or its destination.

The crash closed the highway for several hours, but the wreckage has been cleared and the highway reopened.

NOTE: This article was updated with information about injured passengers taken to UPMC Community General Hospital.

Staff writer David Wenner contributed to this report.
A group of sport fishermen turned into good Samaritans at sea Sunday morning by rescuing four people whose boat sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the Manasquan Inlet.

The Gemini, a 56-foot Viking sport fishing vessel, was about 3 1/2 miles off the inlet, which divides Monmouth and Ocean counties, when they spotted another craft going under at about 11 a.m., said the captain, Chris Davidson.

Davidson had just turned off their engine when he said one of the boats co-owners spotted the other vessel about 600 feet away with its stern about to slip below the surface.

We literally just set up on a drift to go fluke fishing, and Joe turned around to me and said, Chris, I think that boats sinking, said Davidson, referring to Joe Cabasso, who owns the Gemini with his brother, Jack. And I turned around and I go, Yea. The back end of the boat, you could see, was already starting to go in the water.

Davidson, 49, who captains the boat for the Cabassos personal fishing trips, backed the Gemini toward the foundering vessel. He reached the four occupants as they were treading water after having jumped ship without time to put on life preservers.

When that boat started sinking it happened so fast that the one gentleman was inside still trying to get the life jackets but another person grabbed him, Davidson said, relating what one of the survivors had told him.

A video of the rescue shot by someone on board the Gemini and posted on Instagram showed the rescuers pulling the survivors aboard, as the bow of their boat was still visible, pointing straight up a few feet above the surface.

They were like, Thank you so much for being there, we really do appreciate it, Davidson said.

Ensign Josh Ledoux, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, said the vessel eventually disappeared without a trace, according to an assessor who went out to the area. Ledoux and Davidson said a New Jersey State Police vessel responded to the offshore scene, took the survivors off the Gemini.

Ledoux and Davidson said they did not know why the boat sank. The weather was clear on Sunday, and Davidson said the water was not particularly choppy.

The State Police boat took the survivors ashore at Shark River Inlet. No one was reported injured, said Ledoux, who had no information on the sunken boat, its owner or the occupants.

A State Police spokesman said he could not immediately comment on the incident.

Ledoux characterized the Geminis crew as good Samaritan boaters and praised the close-knit community of boaters on the Jersey Shore for members readiness to aid vessels in distress.

Theyre very tight in terms of helping out other boaters in the area, which is very helpful to us, Ledoux said.

He also urged boaters to wear personal flotation devices, or PFDs, while out on the water, particularly in the event there is not a good Samaritan is not close by.

Please, bring life jackets. Wear youre life jackets, Ledoux emphasized. This is not the first case of a boat sinking this season and people not having PFDs on.

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com

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The Red Cross is providing comfort and care to the people who survived an overnight Interstate 81 crash involving a car and a charter bus that killed three people.

As survivors are released from the hospital, they can go to the temporary shelter that was set up overnight Monday at the Chambers Hill Fire Co.s reception center in Swatara Township, according to a Red Cross news release.

Red Cross volunteers are providing comfort and care to passengers as they are released from the hospital by serving refreshments and providing cots for them to rest, the organization said in a Monday morning news release. The reception center also serves as a place for passengers to reunite with family or friends and determine their next steps.

The Red Cross said it is working closely with police and will continue to provide resources for those affected by the crash.

A passenger vehicle and charter bus carrying 45 to 50 people crashed just before midnight Monday on Interstate 81 southbound at mile marker 74 in Lower Paxton Township, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

The bus flipped on its side and came to rest on the right berm, killing multiple passengers, state police said. Three people were later confirmed to have died.

Others were transported to Penn State Hershey Medical Center for varying injuries, police said. Injuries vary from minor to critical, state police said.

I-81 south was shut down for hours but reopened just before 6 a.m. Monday.

No one involved in the crash has been identified. The coroner was on the scene along with police and fire departments.

READ MORE: Amish couple killed when truck hits their horse-drawn buggy: police

One dead in Cumberland County motorcycle crash: police
Opinion / Columnist

Nothing pains us more than seeing fellow Matabeles being humiliated, dehumanised, abused and used as voting cattle in the Zimbabwe election booths by opportunistic Zimbabwe opposition parties that do not have the interests of Matabeles at heart. In the forefront is the Chamisa Chete Chete- CCC one man party that has sold almost half of Bulawayo parliamentary seats to ZANUpf in order to spite Matabeles who refuse imposition of Shona candidates in Bulawayo.The fact that Chamisa's favourite candidates from Mashonaland have won the case and allowed to contest that is still more bad news for Matabeleland which should not be celebrated. It means Matabeles would be represented by foreigners in the Zimbabwe parliament.We are following this case with great interest and applaud Matabeles who stood their ground and are still fighting. CCC is a mere opposition party that holds no political power. Its leader, Nelson Chamisa, is a dangerous tribalist with an unquenchable thirst for absolute political power and dictatorship. Chamisa's one man party, CCC or it is 666 in disguise, which has no constitution and structure, needs Matabeles more than they need it to win the votes in Zimbabwe.That is why umtaka Chamisa Welshman Ncube has quickly opologised on behalf of his father. It is not a genuine apology, they want to sway Matabeles to vote for foreigners."There is no need to worry over who you sent to represent us. Even though this year you wanted to send Dube, but he did not become a candidate, in the future you will send him as well", said Welshman Ncube.There is a lot to worry about when Matabeles will be represented by foreigners for 5 years. The foreigner will earn a salary that was supposed to be paid to Matabele. The foreigner has does not understand the culture and the languages of Matabeles. Foreigners especially Shonas do not understand our grievances, they say our grievances are tribally motivated which is not true. Foreigners are deployed in Matabeleland for evil reasons of furthering the Grand Plan and Shona supremacy. We find Welshman Ncube statement deliberately misleading and destructive to Matabeles and Matabeleland.Matabeles should not allow themselves to be abused and tribally oppressed by this non- entity that seeks to use them as voting cattle in the Zimbabwe elections. No to imposition of Shona candidates in Matabeleland! No to Shonaism and Shona supremacy in Matabeleland.The solution of Matabeleland political problems does not lie in the Zimbabwe ballot. We need to come together as Matabeles, kick out CCC and ZANU pf, shun Zimbabwe elections and declare Matabeleleland independent. Any foreigner, Zimbabweans included, who would visit The Republic of Matabeleland through the right channels after the declaration would be received with warm hands and offered world class hospitality. But any government or individuals from Zimbabwe that will encroach or stray into the Republic of Matabeleland territory with the purpose of meddling into our political affairs will have the AK 47 and necklace unleashed on them.We do not owe Shonas anything. They owe us Matabele genocide blood and our independence. Matabeles must not apologise for being born Matabeles. Matabeleland is our motherland therefore we will not apologise for demanding our God given right to self determination. We shall not be shy to defend what rightfully belongs to us from Shona supremacist political projects that have evil intentions of oppressing and murdering us.Matabeles should ask themselves why tribalism which caused the MDC split in 2005 still remains to date? It was only carried down to MDC T, MDC Alliance and now CCC. They should ask themselves as to why tribalism that caused the tribal split of ZAPU in 1963 to produce a splinter group ZANUpf, tribalism that caused the genocide in which over 40 000 Matabeles were murdered by the Shona supremacist government of Zimbabwe through Zimbabwe National Army 5th Brigade, why tribalism continues to date as Matabeles are tribally segregated educationally, politically, economically, employment wise and socially? Why did the Unity governments between ZAPU and ZANU and the one between ZANU pf and the MDCs failed to resolve the problem of tribalism and oppression of Matabeles? We should ask ourselves why many Zimbabwe elections that held since 1980 have failed to resolve the problem of tribalism and murder against Matabeles?The answer is simple. There is a great conflict of political interests in the Zimbabwe elections.On one hand, Shona supremacist political projects like ZANU-PF and CCC seek to legitimise the continuation of Matabele tribal oppression, Shona hegemony, capture of Matabeleland cities and rural areas, theft and plunder of Matabeleland resources which they have achieved, unfortunately through our participation in the Zimbabwe. In other words, we are being used to legitimise our own tribal oppression through the ballot. Do not be deceived, a party which fails to gain a single council or parliamentary seat through lack of popularity of rigging remains a non-entity whose purpose, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is to legitimise the Shona supremacist tribal political system.On the other hand, Matabeles through the Zimbabwe vote, seek to achieve self determination, to have a share in the resources of Matabeleland, to be treated with dignity like human beings with equal rights, to participate in politics and economics of the country. That remains an unachievable illusion since the creation of Zimbabwe. The more Matabeles vote in Zimbabwe, the more Shona supremacy spreads and grows in Matabeleland. The more Matabeles groan in agony under Shona oppression the more the Shona supremacist tighten the grip.To leaders like Welshman Ncube and Thokozani Khupe who have the tendency of misleading Matabeles to the tribal political traps in Harare, Zimbabwe, we say stop it now. It is an unforgivable sin to take political advantage of the desperate and oppressed Matabeles to bargain for bread crumbs that fall from the tables of your masters in Harare.You have been stoned like snakes and chased out of Harare. There have been attempts to burn you inside thatched huts, you have been given hot claps and told to go back to Matabeleland because no Matabele is allowed to lead Shonas. But to everyone's surprise you go back there soon after on your knees. Embarrassingly, Welshman was heard on several occasions addressing Chamisa who is young enough to be his son as ubaba wami (my father). What kind nonsense is this? Is it the love of your masters and their bad smell or it is the love of money?If it is for the love of money, take a friendly advice from us. The money taps are running dry at CCC. The generous donors have since discovered the trick through Maduku and Tsvangirai strategy. Maduku would make easy cash through going to the corners of the streets and get himself arrested. The donors will shower him with cash.Morgan Tsvangirai used to get millions of US dollars after promising to deliver regime change. But he would blow the cash on women. Remember Lorcadia Karimatsenga who was divorced through media after 12 days of marriage, Nosipho Shilubane of South Africa who was dumped via text, two Bulawayo girls Loreta Nyathi and Nobuhle Ndiweni that he impregnated and Elizabeth Macheka who got married to Tsvangirai a few weeks after Lorcadia was divorced? Donor cash was not a problem for Tsvangirai but the problem was how to use it. They have since turned off the cash taps.Our non - negotiable demands to the Shona supremacist government of Zimbabwe regardless of the outcome of the August 2023 elections remain binding to all successive Zimbabwe governments until all our demands are fully met as follows:1.0 Unconditionally withdraw trumped up treason charges and cancel warrant of arrest against MLO President, Cde Paul Siwela with immediate effect1.1 Restoration of Kingdom of Matebeleland that would join the family of nations as The Republic of Matebeleland1.2 Payment of one hundred billion United States Dollars ie US$100 billion Reparations for Matebeleland Genocide, gross abuse of human rights and looting of Matebeleland resourcesIzenzo kungemazwi!Israel DubeMLO Secretary for Information and Public Affairs
A $5,000 reward is being offered for information about the shooting death of a man during a home invasion robbery 35 years ago.

Jeffrey Horwith, according to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers, was shot to death outside of his home on July 29, 1988, in North Whitehall Twp., Lehigh County.

The case is being investigated by Pennsylvania State Police, Troop M, Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Crime Stoppers said Horwith was killed during a home invasion robbery when the victim and his wife were returning home from dinner at a local restaurant.

Police said Horwith was the heir apparent of his fathers business, Horwith Trucking on Northampton.

Information can be submitted anonymously to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 800-472-8477 or online.

READ MORE: Reward of $5,000 offered for information about death of 10 year-old Pa. girl
July 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the national launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Currently, more than 200 call centers throughout the U.S. are responding to 988 calls. But few people know it exists. SciLine interviewed Dr. Emmy Betz, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado, who discussed the critical need to raise awareness about 988, the increasing numbers of suicide deaths in the U.S. and the signs that someone is thinking about suicide.

Below are some highlights from the discussion. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Can you share some statistics about suicide in the U.S.?

Emmy Betz: Suicide continues to be a leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, its the 12th-leading cause of death among all ages. We had been seeing suicide rates rise from about 2000, up until around the COVID era. There was a small dip in rates during those COVID years, which was great, but unfortunately weve now seen rates increase again. In 2021, there were 48,000 suicide deaths in the U.S., which is about one every 11 minutes.

What about youth suicide?

Emmy Betz: Suicide rates among youth in particular have increased. Between 2011 and 2021, suicide rates for youth rose 60%. Particularly concerning are increases in suicide rates among young individuals of color, where there have traditionally been lower suicide rates.

Who should call 988, and when?

Emmy Betz: 988 is the suicide and crisis lifeline. I want to really emphasize, its not just for suicide. Its for anyone whos experiencing substance abuse, mental health crisis, emotional distress or suicidal thoughts. You can call for yourself. You can call for someone in your family or a friend. Its available 24/7, and its free and confidential.

How has the first year of the 988 hotline gone?

Emmy Betz: In the first year, 988 answered nearly 5 million calls, chats or texts. Thats great news. But one thing that I think is concerning: There was a Pew Charitable Trusts survey published in April 2023. Only 13% of respondents said they knew both about 988 and what it was for. So I think we still have a ways to go in terms of raising awareness among people about what the hotline is, when you should call and then what happens when you do call.

What are warning signs that a person is thinking about suicide?

Emmy Betz: It can vary. Sometimes, it can look like what we think of classically as depression  somebody who might seem sad, seems withdrawn and not doing the things that they previously have been wanting to do.

Certainly anything like talking a lot about death, mentioning suicide, mentioning not wanting to be around anymore  those are all very concerning. Some people, though, can seem angry or sort of ramped up or different.

The main thing to look out for is if someone says that theyve lost hope or that they arent looking towards the future anymore.

And perhaps the most important thing to know  its OK to ask. If youre ever worried that someone might be having thoughts of suicide, its fine to ask them directly. Youre not going to prompt suicidal thoughts by asking that question.

What are some prevention strategies for firearm suicides?

Emmy Betz: Here at the University of Colorado, I lead the firearm injury prevention initiative, which is a new program funded through the medical school that hopes to reduce all sorts of firearm injuries and deaths, including suicide.

Where I live in Colorado, 73% of our gun deaths are by suicide. Its a critical problem in our state. And these deaths are preventable.

Suicide typically occurs in the context of some kind of crisis, whether its related to a job, or a recent breakup with a romantic partner, or something else. Prevention is all about getting people through that high-risk period, to get the treatment or resources they need.

We know that if a person uses a firearm in a suicide attempt, about 90% of the time they die. So my work and the work of our initiative really focuses on how can we reduce firearm access when someone is in that high-risk period.

And importantly, its not about confiscation. Its not about legislation. Its about engaging with communities, educating communities and educating health care providers about what we can do to reduce firearm access  specifically, encouraging people to take steps to lock up guns differently, such as changing the locks or changing the password so the at-risk person cant access the gun.

When someone has suicide risk, it can be a good idea to move firearms out of the home temporarily. Weve been working with gun ranges, retailers and other locations that offer voluntary and temporary firearm storage as a solution for people  to make the home safer while someones getting better.

There are things we can do that dont conflict with views on Second Amendment rights. Im thrilled to see firearm rights organizations working with large organizations like the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense and medical organizations.

What is suicide contagion, and what should journalists know about covering suicide without contributing to it?

Emmy Betz: Suicide contagion is the phenomenon whereby hearing about one suicide  in particular, the methods  leads to additional individuals attempting or dying by suicide using the same methods.

Its really important that journalists talk about suicide, and that we raise awareness, and we get these messages out. But there are guidelines about how to reduce contagion. There are guidelines from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and other large organizations that really spell out best practices for journalists.

Watch the full interview to hear more about the 988 hotline and suicide prevention.

SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.

This article was corrected to fix the attribution for the April 2023 survey.

Emmy Betz, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was booed and met with overwhelming chants of retire at the Fancy Farm Picnic over the weekend.

Video:

Mitch McConnell is booed, and drowned out by chants of retire, retire, retire, for five minutes straight as he tries to talk to his own constituents in Kentucky. pic.twitter.com/zyZIHLJaoy  Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 7, 2023

Some things that you need to know for the sake of context. Fancy Farm is a 143-year-old bipartisan church picnic where elected leaders, and candidates give speeches to a crowd of both Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats at the event were making their displeasure with McConnell known, so this wasnt McConnell being rejected by his own Republicans in Kentucky coal country. These were Democrats who were letting McConnell know it is time to go.

That said, I have written about and covered Fancy Farm for over a decade, and the clip above illustrates one of the loudest expressions of displeasure toward him that I can remember.

Here is McConnells full speech. The boos and chants of retire from Democrats were very loud, but McConnell could still be heard:

There is a closely contested gubernatorial election in the state between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Daniel Cameron in November. It would appear that Gov Beshears supporters were very well represented.

Mitch McConnell continues to rule Republican politics in Kentucky with an iron fist. McConnell had the state legislature change the law so that if he left office, the governor couldnt pick a Democrat to replace him.

After McConnells latest troubling health episode in public, it appears his Senate career is getting close to the end.
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Former president Trump is falsely accusing Special Counsel Jack Smith and the judge in the DC case of conspiring against him.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

Deranged Jack Smith is going before his number one draft pick, the Judge of his dreams (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!), in an attempt to take away my FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS  This, despite the fact that he, the DOJ, and his many Thug prosecutors, are illegally leaking, everything and anything, to the Fake News Media!!!

There is no evidence, as in zero evidence, that there is a conspiracy by anyone against Trump. It is the former president who is charged with engaging in multiple conspiracies to overturn the 2020 election.

There are no charges related to Trumps First Amendment rights in the indictment. Trump is charged with using lies about the election being stolen to defraud the United States.

Donald Trump is throwing everything against the wall to see if anything sticks. For Trump, being held accountable is a conspiracy against him. The judge in the case is putting guardrails on Trump as she would do with any other defendant. Jack Smith is doing his job as a prosecutor.

No one is taking away Trumps rights. The former president has no right to allegedly break laws and commit crimes.
Niger suddenly closed its airspace on Sunday and now European airlines are have to spend hours flying around the country on routes between Europe and souther Africa. Courtesy of FlightRadar24

Niger's ruling military group suddenly closed its airspace on Sunday.

This means airlines flying between Europe and southern Africa have to detour around the volatile nation.

Carriers like British Airways and Air France are impacted, the latter adding up to two hours of flight time.

Flights between Europe and several nations in Africa just got longer.

On Sunday, Niger's ruling military group  or junta  suddenly closed the country's airspace until further notice, citing threats from neighboring nations who have called for a reverse of the junta's July 26 coup.

According to FlightRadar24, this restriction means airlines that used to fly to countries like South Africa and Ghana via Niger skies now have to go around adding hours of flight time and up to 600 or more miles to the already long journeys.

A British Airways flight from Johannesburg to London was en route when the closure went into effect, and the plane opted to turn back rather than divert.

The carrier told Insider on Monday that the situation is out of British Airways' control and it has apologized to its customers for the disruption.

It's not the only European carrier feeling the impact.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Air France said service to Niger has been suspended until further notice, and routes to and from African nations are expected to take between 15 minutes and two hours longer.

Air France flights to Mali and Burkina Faso have also been halted until August 11.

Like Niger, the nations are ruled by juntas and have already sent officials to Niger in support  with a transport plane from Burkina Faso's capital of Ouagadougou to Niger landing after the ban went into effect, according to the BCC.

Meanwhile, Dutch flag carrier KLM is told Insider it expects detours of 15-20 minutes thanks to a security system it uses to "analyze risks to determine safe flight routes, including the closure of Nigerien airspace."

Story continues

The most affected KLM routes are to Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa and to Entebbe, Uganda. Moreover, the spokesperson said flights to Accra, Ghana, and Lagos, Nigeria, will also be impacted, but "to a lesser extent."

Airlines like Virgin Atlantic Airways, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Airlines are also avoiding Niger.

While detours are forcing passengers to spend extra time in the air, they're also incurring added fuel and labor costs  the two most expensive elements of an airline's operation.

The situation is similar to what's happening in Russia due to its wartime airspace closure, with Japan Airlines and Finnair currently spending thousands to fly an extra four hours between Helsinki and Tokyo.

With the closure of Niger's airspace, airlines are now grappling with an even wider section of no-fly territory in north-central Africa.

This map shows the African territories that European airlines cannot fly over. Courtesy of FlightRadar24

European nations including Germany, France, and the UK do not currently allow civil aircraft to fly over neighboring Libya due to the country's volatile political situation and anti-aircraft weaponry.

Meanwhile, Sudan officially closed its airspace in July, but planes have been detouring around the nation since April after groups of its government fell into armed conflict.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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The office of Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who just appeared in court on securities fraud charges, immediately put a stop to a judges injunction against Texas inhumane abortion law, making it very clear that the goal of the abortion ban is to punish and intimidate, rather than to save lives.

On Friday, Judge Jessica Mangrum issued a temporary injunction against the abortion ban ruling it unconstitutional and too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications after hearing from women who suffered heart-breaking loss, medical torture and cruelty as a result of the law.

One woman could barely get words out through her tears. Another ran to the restroom as soon as she was done, wordless, wretched sobs wracking her tiny body. A third threw up on the witness stand, the Texas Tribune reported on the lawsuit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights in July.

One witness was Amanda Zurawski, who wanted her pregnancy and would like to have children but now cannot due to the damage inflicted upon her body by a septic infection caused by the delay in care deemed necessary to abide by the law.

The rather petulant and gaslighting defense put forth by the state was to blame the doctors and ask the distraught witnesses, At the end of each tearful testimony, lawyers for the state asked the women the same questions: Did Attorney General Ken Paxton tell you you couldnt get an abortion? Did anyone, working in any capacity for the state, tell you you couldnt get an abortion?

And yet, instead of doing what one would do if the goal is actually to protect the life of women and girls, Paxtons office immediately filed an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, which served to block the injunction.

Naturally, Paxtons office referred to the judge as an activist  as in, someone who values womens and girls lives.

The states immediate appeal stays an activist Austin judges attempt to override Texas abortion laws pending a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court, said a statement from First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster.

What makes this stand out is that the point of the original lawsuit was not to overturn Texas abortion law, but rather to force clarification that life- and health-saving measures could be taken by doctors without fear if, for example, they determined that the fetus would not survive after birth.

State District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum of Austin wrote that the attorney general cannot prosecute doctors who, in their good faith judgment, terminate a complicated pregnancy. Mangrum outlined those conditions as a pregnancy that presents a risk of infection; a fetal condition in which the fetus will not survive after birth; or when the pregnant person has a condition that requires regular, invasive treatment, the Texas Tribune reported on Friday.

So wait, doesnt that sound like exactly what Republicans are arguing in public is happening? After all, technically their law allows for termination if the mothers life is in danger.

Yet, that is exactly why the original lawsuit was brought, because doctors do not find it legal to take medical action in a timely manner. In Texas, doctors are not providing necessary pregnancy care out of fear. They face prohibitive fines, the loss of their license, and 99 years in prison should they be found guilty of violating the vague Republican-pushed state abortion ban.

A trial to determine when doctors can take action to save a mothers health and life has been set for March, inflicting another 8-ish months of damage on the health and lives of women and girls.

Abortion is health- and life-saving medical care.

Who would argue against saving womens lives and health?

Texas Republicans. They do so by knowing the impact of their law and blocking a judges attempt to protect the health of women and girls until the issue can be clarified in March.

In public attempts to justify torture-inducing abortion ban laws, the people behind them often claim that of course, their law protects the life of the mother. But in effect, that is not what happens and they know this. At times, like in this Texas example, they even push to maintain what they know are threatening conditions for mothers.

Now, the public should know it, too, just in case it wasnt clear already.
Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the Aiken Republican mayoral primary.

Who's running?

There are three candidates running for the Republican nomination: incumbent Rick Osbon, restaurateur Teddy Milner and Housing Authority board member Kathryn Wade.

Osbon, the owner of Osbon's Laundry and Cleaners, has been Aiken's mayor since 2015. He did not face opposition in 2019.

Milner is the owner and operator of It's All Good, a restaurant and catering business on Hayne Avenue. She also previously owned and operated the Stoplight Deli.

Wade is the executive director of the Life Choices Pregnancy Care Center and a member of the Aiken Housing Authority board. She previously served as a field representative for former Congressman Gresham Barrett and as chair of the Housing Authority board.

Who can vote?

All registered voters who reside in the city of Aiken can vote regardless of political party.

Where to vote?

There are 25 precincts involved in the election.

The precincts included in the election are Aiken 1, Aiken 2, Aiken 3, Aiken 4, Aiken 5, Aiken 6, Aiken 47, Anderson Pond 69, China Springs 11, College Acres 13, Gem Lakes 60, Gem Lakes 77, Hitchcock 68, Hollow Creek 53, Levels 52, Levels 72, Levels 83, Millbrook 20, Montmorenci 22, Redds Branch 57, Sandstone 70, Sandstone 79, Six Points 36, Six Points 46 and South Aiken 76.

It is possible some precincts listed include voters inside and outside the city. The voter registration information page provides a municipality listing and if that's blank, a voter is not in the city and, therefore, cannot vote in the primary.

A person wishing to vote can find their precinct on their voter registration card or on the South Carolina Election Commission's website, scvotes.gov.

To find a precinct on the website, click "Check My Registration" under the "Voter" tab at the top of the page. A link is also available further down the page under "mySCvotes" written in gold.

A person wishing to vote will need to provide their county of residence, their first and last name, their date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number on the next screen. There also may be a need to take a robot test.

The next screen provides the person wishing to vote's registration information including their precinct and polling location. Directions to the polling location are available by clicking the address.

Wait. I heard there are precincts voting in new places for the primary.

Seventeen of the 25 precincts will vote in different places for the mayoral primary.

For the mayoral primary, Aiken 1, Aiken 4, Six Points 36 and Six Points 46 will join Aiken 2 to vote at the Lessie B. Price Aiken Senior and Youth Center located at 841 Edgefield Ave. N.W.

Aiken 3, China Springs 11 and Redds Branch 57 will join Aiken 5 to vote at St. Mary's Smith Hall located at 125 Park Ave. S.E.

Montmorenci 22, Levels 52, Hitchcock 66 and Levels 72 will join Aiken 6 and Aiken 47 to vote at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center located at 1700 Whiskey Road.

Sandstone 70 will join College Acres 13 and Hollow Creek 53 to vote at Mercy Church located at 2700 Whiskey Road.

Millbrook 20 and Levels 83 will vote at St. Paul's Lutheran Church located at 961 Trail Ridge Road.

Gem Lakes 60, Gem Lakes 77 and Sandstone 79 will join Anderson Pond 69 in voting at Millbrook Baptist Church located at 223 Whiskey Road.

South Aiken 76 will continue to vote at Living Hope located at 2550 Old Dominion Road.

When to vote?

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Why should I vote?

For Aiken residents, the election could be the only time they get a choice. There are no Democrats running. If a candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote Tuesday, the Republican nominee would be unopposed in the Nov. 7 general election.

How do I vote?

People wishing to vote will need to bring one of four forms of identification to their polling place. Accepted IDs are South Carolina driver's license, South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles identify card, U.S. Passport or federal military identification.

Once a person arrives, that person will need to sign in to vote and be escorted to a voting machine.

From there, it's as simple as pressing a couple of buttons on a touchscreen.

Voters will also be asked to insert their physical ballot into a counting machine after voting.
Imagine this. It is one of those epic spring evenings along Charleston Harbor. The sun has to slip under the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, mellowing into burnished rosy tones over the glassy river and gently swaying marsh.

As it lowers on the horizon, George Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue sounds its seductive first trill of a clarinet that emanates from a gleaming bandshell. It instantly enthralls the crowd that has gathered where land meets sea, carrying across the water like the wind itself, a rousing synthesis of the natural and the urbane.

That same program then fills Charlestons sultry air with Charlestonia, the composition by Edmund Thornton Jenkins, the son of Rev. Daniel Jenkins of the Jenkins Orphanage, who left the country to enjoy an acclaimed career in a Europe more hospitable to African American artists. Think of the city awash in a work inspired by its very sounds and rhythms.

Envision that sleek amphitheater sparkling like a jewel along a glistening bend of the Cooper River, an architectural and artistic achievement in a city forever proud to have a port.

A Charleston arts enthusiast can dream, right?

Given the column inches recently devoted to such possibilities in this very papers letters to the editor, Im not the only one who has harbor-adjacent visions of alfresco grandeur. The exchange regarding the development of Union Pier prompted others to write-in suggesting the arts gain a prominent foothold there.

If that were a magnificent outdoor concert hall the notion would quite literally be music to my ears.

A look at Levitt

Lest you think this bandshell boosting is the rambling of a coddled arts writer wailing that she wants a state-of-the art multi-million-dollar performance-hall pony, I first ask that you consider that its about far more than the music.

Prominent public places where residents come together to share cultural experiences make for a healthier, happier hometown.

City planner and urban activist nonpareil Jane Jacobs once said, Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.

In the most commonly used term its called creative placemaking. And its the mix that matters  the merry metropolitan jumble of homes and shops, parks and parking garages, boites and, well, yes, bandshells.

Consider the success of the venues powered by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation. Conceived as long-term creative placemaking interventions via outdoor permanent music venues, each is managed by a nonprofit organization taking the form of either a Levitt Pavilion or Levitt Shell.

The goal in creating them, as identified in a 2016 study, was to add vitality to once-neglected public spaces; to bring people together of diverse ages, ethnicities and social backgrounds; to ensure access to high-caliber concerts through consistent free programming; and ultimately to strengthen the social fabric of communities.

Starting in Westport, Conn., there are now permanent Levitt venues across the country in places including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Bethlehem, Pa., Memphis, Tn., Arlington, Tx., Denver, Co., Dayton, Ohio, Houston, Tx. and Sioux Falls, In.

A 2021 study of Levitt Pavilion Denver focused on the citys Ruby Hill neighborhood, finding that it has helped create a stronger, more equitable community of music lovers in Denver and that it supports a sense of belonging. It has also been a boon for the citys musicians, something that would no doubt resonate with those in Charleston.

Another recent effort popped up as a pier in the Hudson River off the west side of Manhattan. Opening in 2021 with the support of $260 million from media titan Barry Diller, the wildly popular, critically acclaimed 2.4-acre Little Island is a grouping of 132 concrete tulips that include an amphitheater, The Amph, and The Glade, a more intimate space, which this summer hosts scores of performances ranging from a classical violin concert to a Sufi music ensemble.

An appetite for the arts

With the right effort and investment, we can next-level our increasingly urban setting in ways that are good for the whole  and thus good for the soul.

And the arts can be the special sauce.

Robert Summerfield, director of planning, preservation and sustainability for the city of Charleston, points out that the previous proposal for Union Pier did include an amphitheater clamshell to be part of the park right on the water.

While there is nothing at the city specifically in the works at the moment for any of its other spaces, he said the cultural arts are a big part of its planning. To the degree that we can help facilitate that, we're all about that part of it, he said, adding that they are looking at ways to enhance existing spaces for performance.

The city presents a number of cultural programs throughout the year, both in defined spaces and in public places, including parks as well as arenas like Credit One Stadium.

A longstanding popular annual concert launches Piccolo Spoleto each year with Charleston Symphony performing on the steps of the U.S. Custom House, music lovers toting chairs and settling in to launch Charleston arts-abundant season. A recent addition launched during the pandemic is the July concert at the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park, a.k.a. The Joe, with Charleston Symphony wowing crowds and fireworks topping it all off.

Summerfield said that placemaking will be part of the peninsula plan and where there are opportunities to create spaces for enhanced recreation, including performance spaces.

One of the big conversations from the staff perspective was creating a really vibrant place that included an opportunity for a performance space, he said, adding it could feature a summer concert series and draw families in the neighborhood to come out for music and other events.

Such a venue could also connect with other planned projects like the Lowline, which intends to fund a first-phase Lowline park site with a public gathering place, as well as existing cultural organizations. In short order, Charleston could truly be alive with the sound of music.

From his own podium, Yuriy Bekker has often witnessed the special effect of open-air concerts in Charleston. The Charleston Symphony artistic director and principal pops conductor believes a permanent venue would be transformative for the town.

Our city does not have an outdoor space for musical performances, and I know firsthand how much our community loves outdoor concerts," he said.

Bekker has performed regularly in amphitheaters, with one of his favorites being Art Park in Sapporo, Japan. He also underscores how many cities have outdoor stages, citing Miami, Raleigh, Charlotte, Chicago, among others.

A bandshell awaits

I already have my eye on one bandshell ready for a home.

It was conceived by the celebrated artist Frank Stella. The Broken Jug was originally commissioned for the entrance of a Miami stadium. The 36-by-48-foot, 45-ton spherical aluminum swirl is formed from vast intertwining ribbons.

Stella has said that it plays off its relation to the two horizons, that of the city and of the sea, noting that the piece invites inspection and functions as a platform to look out over both.

If it werent already built, I would have thought it was dreamed up with our own port city in mind, with the artist visualizing ebb and flow on the sculpture, with the hue of its illumination varying with the rhythm of the tides.

As such, it may well be the perfect perch along Charleston Harbor, conjuring its passion and vitally. It was conceived for such a setting, in fact, constructed in collaboration with naval engineering expert Martin Francis to withstand a humid marine environment and built in a French shipyard.

In Miami, sponsors ultimately balked at the added costs of the engineering standards and Stella abandoned the commission. Today, The Broken Jug is on loan in Harlingen, The Netherlands, where it can be viewed as a sculpture.

But for every Stella, you need a Diller.

Surely with the growing number of billionaires taking up residence in this city, one could pony up for my pony  that is the double-digit millions attached to such a grand, contemporary and lasting gesture.

It would represent the sort of public-private partnership necessary for the city to green-light such a structure. Summerfield points to Credit One Stadium as an example of such collaborations in which the city has been a component.

The city has a rich history of partnering with private groups, whether they be nonprofits or others to try to bring additional, particularly cultural, programming and trying to create those physical places, he said.

If it had the right partner and could find the right place, he said he thinks that would be something the city would embrace.

Sounds to me like its time to bring on the bandshell.
AWENDAW  Federal wildlife officials have determined horseshoe crab harvesting is not compatible with Cape Romain's mission of protecting nature and should be halted during the spawning season.

The evaluation issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Aug. 7 is yet another blow to the lucrative crab blood-drawing industry and follows a 2020 lawsuit that alleges collecting the animals threatens endangered species, like the red knot bird.

"After decades of overharvesting of horseshoe crabs, wildlife can now find true sanctuary in Cape Romain," Ben Prater, Southeast program director with Defenders of Wildlife, said in hailing the government's final decision on the harvest.

The nonprofit organization  dedicated to safeguarding wildlife  is one of several environmental groups that have long expressed concern and even filed lawsuits about the process of harvesting horseshoe crabs, bleeding them for biomedical reasons and returning them to the ocean.

Groups like Charles River Labs have previously hired contractors to collect an undisclosed number of the crabs in late spring so their bluish blood can be extracted at a lab in Charleston. The sea creatures would then be returned to the ocean.

The blood is used to make an extract that can detect deadly toxins. A gallon could run about $60,000.

In the 47-page determination, the service noted that removing the crabs from the ecosystem can negatively impact species the refuge was established to protect. Shorebirds depend on the crabs eggs for food stores for their migrations. High protein contents in the adult crabs provide a food resource for scavenging birds and sea turtles, the service said.

The service listed a number of other reasons why harvesting the crabs within the refuge, located some 20 miles north of Charleston, is not feasible, including that the federal agency would have to divert funding and personnel time to oversee the activity. Such a move would include hiring more biologists, increasing law enforcement patrols during the day and adding the patrols at night to ensure harvesters comply with rules and permit conditions.

Because of these factors, the agency determined that horseshoe crab harvesting cannot be authorized during the spawning season, March 15 through July 15.

While environmentalists applauded the wildlife agency's decision, a lawsuit filed July 28 by S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson and the S.C. Department of Administration said the service does not have the authority to control or limit taking or harvesting of saltwater species in the national wildlife refuge.

Instead, the lawsuit said the state has that authority, per a 1991 lease between South Carolina and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

In the suit, the state and Department of Administration is asking the court to issue a ruling that the service lacks authority to limit harvesting of saltwater species in the refuge and issue an injunction that bars the agency from any action that restricts the state's authority in controlling the harvest of such species.

Robert Kittle, communications director for Wilson's office, said in an Aug. 7 email the office cannot comment on the lawsuit since it is pending.

Critics said South Carolina is more interested in protecting matters of state's rights than the species in the refuge.

"I think it's a huge waste of South Carolina taxpayer resources for Alan Wilson and the Attorney General's Office to be spending their time on a national wildlife refuge that the Fish and Wildlife Service has already made a determination about," said Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Wannamaker said she believes the Fish and Wildlife Service reached the right conclusion to stop the harvest in the refuge that was established for protecting birds that need horseshoe crab eggs to feed.

Cape Romain is home to more than 20 shorebird species, plus seabirds and sea turtles.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's latest determination is just one of several blows to horseshoe crab harvesting in the last couple of years. Federal wildlife officials blocked an attempt by a contractor for Charles River Labs last year to collect horseshoe crabs in Cape Romain.

The state has denied requests for harvesting in some areas, too.

In April, a federal court ruling prohibited horseshoe crab harvesting on nearly 30 beaches in South Carolina this past spawning season until further order from a district court in a resolution agreed to by opposing groups with interests in their future.

Some areas, like marshes, could remain open to takings.
GREENVILLE  To better help students prepare to work in the technologically advanced and high-skilled jobs in the Upstate, Greenville County Schools is opening a career and technical education center at the Roper Mountain Science Center campus.

The CTE Innovation Center is designed to help students and teachers partner with industry leaders like Lockheed Martin, Stevens Aerospace, CU-ICAR research facility and BMW, among others.

The concept of this center started years ago," center Director Katie Porter said. "There was not a direct response to the need for carving and shifting needs in the workforce."

Eric Williams, the school district's executive director for college and career readiness, said that after consulting with industry partners they decided they would have about five programs that are the most pertinent to Greenville County: automotive research, aerospace technology, robotics and automation, clean energy and networking and cybersecurity.

The center is focused around the principle of work-based learning, where hands-on experience is king. It is another piece in Greenville County schools' Graduation Plus plan, an initiative to ensure that students are prepared for the job market by providing more than a high school diploma.

Jeremy Dodd, the aerospace technology instructor, said that the programs will shift over time.

Ideally, you're not going to see the same programs offered out at this facility five years from now they're gonna stay current with whatever the demand is in the market," Dodd said. "So this aerospace program takes off and students love it. The industry loves it, and we're going to take that model and push it out to one another innovation centers or potentially high schools and bring in the next program."

In Dodds classroom, there are 3D Printers and other gadgets for students to learn on. One is a full-size airplane cockpit of a King Air 200 that has been converted into a simulator controller. Stevens Aerospace donated it to the center.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable.
Insects seem to be the main pest at the Possums counter this week. Armyworms, chinch bugs, fleas, roaches (hey, it is Charleston, they like the worlds best city also) and mosquitoes have been attacking our Lowcountry homes and yards. Read moreSummer pests at the gate
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Generally clear. Low 76F. Winds light and variable.
As hot as its been the past few weeks, theres probably no better place to be than on a boat exploring the Lowcountrys waterways, many of which are full of stories.

One of the sites people ask me about most frequently is the little spit of land in Charleston Harbor right off Waterfront Park. Thats Shutes Folly ("folly" being an 18th-century term for a small island or thicket of trees; it's also where Folly Beach gets its name), upon which sit the ruins of Castle Pinckney.

As President George Washington crossed the harbor in 1791 from Haddrells Point to a wharf where Waterfront Parks splash fountain is today at the end of Vendue Range, he recognized the strategic value of the little island where the Cooper River transitions into Charleston Harbor and ordered a fort be built there.

He may have been right about the locations strategic value, but its a risky place to build anything, given Charlestons predilections for hurricanes.

Sure enough, just months after completion of the first log fort there in 1804 it was wiped out by one of Charlestons largest historic storms. It had been named Fort Pinckney, in honor of Washingtons friend and Revolutionary War hero Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, one of Charlestons signers of the U.S. Constitution.

A second fort, this time made of bricks, was completed in 1810 featuring two elliptical fortresses with eight casements for cannons and the resources to house 200 soldiers.

Its innovative design is most often attributed to Jonathan Williams, who studied military architecture while serving as Benjamin Franklins secretary in France. Because it looked a bit like a medieval fortress, its nickname became Castle Pinckney.

Within a decade, more-advanced cannons with longer firing ranges made the fort obsolete, given how close it was to the cannons on the High Battery. As plans to build Fort Sumter got underway in 1826, Castle Pinckney was abandoned. It was briefly garrisoned when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union during the Nullification Crisis of 1832, but the crisis was averted and it was used merely for storage doomed to become little more than a footnote in the grander stories of Forts Moultrie and Sumter.

Though the history books will tell you the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, with the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, some postulate that the first overt act of war occurred on Dec. 27, 1860, when Charlestons militia ousted a couple of U.S. Army officers and a small group of civilian laborers who were garrisoned at Castle Pinckney. This makes it the first federal military installation seized by Confederate troops, earning it an important place in history, if not in the popular retelling of it.

In the late summer of 1861, Castle Pinckney served briefly as a prisoner of war camp for Union soldiers captured at the First Battle of Bull Run.

According to a contemporary account in the Charleston Mercury, these were prisoners who had evinced the most insolent and insubordinate disposition.

Nevertheless, while the prisoners were housed there, life at Castle Pinckney never yielded the horror stories of other camps such as the Washington Race Course (today Hampton Park). Perhaps because it was an island, prisoners were generally allowed to wander its beach freely during the day, returning to their cells at night. Photographs suggest that inmates and their captors shared a sense of civility, posing for photographs and posting humorous names such as Broadways Musical Hall and the Hotel Zouave on their cell blocks.

In September 1861, the prisoners were moved to the Charleston District Jail on Magazine Street, which was damaged on Dec. 11 of that year in the largest fire in Charlestons history. As a result, 300 prisoners were crowded back into Castle Pinckney before being dispersed among other prisons. Federal troops reclaimed the fort when the citys defenses fell on Feb. 18, 1865.

In 1897, there was a move to transform the castle into a veterans retirement home, though nothing ever became of it. The site served as a lighthouse until 1917, when even that was abandoned. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge designated Castle Pinckney a National Monument, an act repealed by Congress in 1956 due to lack of interest and funding. It changed hands several times over the next five decades and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

All the while, Charlestons climate, vandals and hurricanes continued to batter the fort to pieces. The Sons of Confederate Veterans Fort Sumter Camp No. 1269 bought it in 2011 for $10 in Confederate money. Only the lowest portion of its semicircular brick foundation and a busted cannon remain.
BBC Arabic went undercover to find out just how prevalent such abuse is

A hidden world of sex abuse and exploitation by men working as "spiritual healers" has been uncovered by BBC Arabic.

Spiritual healing, also known as "Quranic healing", is a popular practice in the Arab and Muslim world. It is mostly women who visit healers - believing that they can solve problems and cure illness by expelling evil spirits known as "jinn".

Testimonies gathered by the BBC from 85 women, over a period of more than a year, named 65 so-called healers in Morocco and Sudan - two countries where such practices are particularly popular - with accusations ranging from harassment to rape.

We spent months speaking to NGOs, courts, lawyers and women, gathering and verifying stories of abuse. An undercover reporter who underwent treatment with one such healer for our investigation, was herself inappropriately touched before fleeing the scene.

Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.

Short presentational grey line

Dalal (not her real name) sought treatment for depression from a spiritual healer in a town near Casablanca a few years ago, when she was in her mid-20s. She says the healer told her the depression was caused by a "jinn lover" who had possessed her.

At a one-to-one session he asked her to smell a scent he said was musk - but which she now believes to have been some kind of drug, because she lost consciousness.

Dalal, who had never had any sexual experience before, says she woke to find her underwear had been removed, and realised she had been raped. She says she began screaming at the raqi (Quranic healer), asking him what he had done to her.

"I said: 'Shame on you! Why did you do this to me?' He said: 'To make the jinn leave your body.'"

She says she didn't tell anyone what happened, as she was so ashamed and was sure she would be blamed. When she discovered a few weeks later that she was pregnant, she was terrified.

She even thought about taking her own life.

Story continues

When she told the healer about the pregnancy, he replied that the jinn must have impregnated her. Dalal says she was so traumatised by her experience that when her baby was born, she refused to look at her, hold her, or even give her a name, and gave her up for adoption.

She told us that if her family found out what had happened to her, they would kill her.

Many of the women we spoke to said they feared they themselves would be blamed if they reported their abuse, and therefore very few had told their families, let alone the police. Some said they also worried that reporting what had happened might provoke the jinn to take revenge on them.

In Sudan, a woman named Sawsan told us that when her husband left the family home to live with a second wife - as is his right under Sharia (Islamic law) - she found herself destitute, and approached a healer for help. She said she hoped he could give her some kind of medicine for her husband which would make him treat her better.

But she was not expecting his suggested treatment.

"He said he would have sex with me and use the resulting body fluids to concoct a potion I should feed to my husband."

His recommendation suggested he was "fearless", she said.

"He was confident I would not report him to the police or the courts or even my husband."

Sawsan, a woman in Sudan, said the healer suggested sex with him would help her reconcile with her husband

Sawsan says she left the session immediately and never returned. She did not report his behaviour.

Three of the 50 women we spoke to in Sudan about exploitation or abuse named the same religious leader - Sheikh Ibrahim. One of the women, who we are not naming, said he manipulated her into having sex with him. Another, Afaf, told us she had to push him off her when he asked to have sex with her. She said she felt powerless.

"People don't accept that sheikhs say and do these things. They don't believe it. How can I find witnesses? No-one saw me in the room with him."

So, an undercover journalist working with our team agreed to visit Sheikh Ibrahim in a bid to collect more evidence.

The reporter, who we are calling Reem, posed as a client suffering from infertility.

Sheikh Ibrahim said he would say a prayer for her, and prepared a bottle of "healing water" - known as "mahayya" - for her to take home and drink.

Reem says he then moved to sit extremely close to her, and put his hand on her stomach. When she asked him to take his hand away, she says, he simply moved it down her body, over her clothes, to her genitals. She ran from the room.

"I was really shaken by him," she told us afterwards. "He had a worrying look about him."

She says she felt that his manner suggested this was not the first time he had behaved in this way.

The BBC questioned Sheikh Ibrahim about what had happened to Reem. He denied that he sexually harassed or assaulted women seeking his help, and abruptly ended our interview.

Sheikh Ibrahim groped the BBC's undercover reporter

One woman who is offering an alternative to those who would like spiritual healing, without the risk of exploitation, is Sheikha Fatima.

Based near Khartoum, she has opened a female-only healing centre. For 30 years, this has been one of the few places where women can experience ruqyah or healing from other women.

We were given unique access to this private space. During our visit, it was intense watching women around me losing all awareness of their surroundings. Sheikha Fatima tells me how women can be vulnerable in this state, which allows other healers to take advantage of them.

"Many women told us that they believed the sheikh is extracting the devil by touching them. They thought it was part of the treatment," she says. "It's shocking what you hear from these women."

We approached political authorities in both Morocco and Sudan with our evidence.

In Sudan, Dr Alaa Abu Zeid, head of the family and society department at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, was initially reluctant to believe that so many women had reported experiences of abuse to us. But he did admit that the lack of regulation in spiritual healing meant that it was "causing chaos", and that the role was being used as "a profession for those who have no job".

He told the BBC that he had explored its regulation in the past, but that the country's political instability meant it was not currently a priority.

In Morocco, Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq said he did not believe there was a need for any separate legislation regarding spiritual healers.

"It is hard to intervene legally in these matters. The solution lies in religious education and preaching," he told us.

Despite all the evidence we have gathered, Moroccan and Sudanese authorities are reluctant to take action. So the burden remains on women to speak up against those hiding behind a healing profession.
"I think there's a temptation if you're a professional politician to use attacks on other candidates as a substitute for your own message. And to tell you the truth, I don't even hold it against Ron," Ramaswamy said. "I'm going to need him right where he is  in the state of Florida, and as the governor of the state of Florida." Read moreVivek Ramaswamy 'unsurprised' he could be debate target for Ron DeSantis
News that Summerville police arrested a mother whose 3-year-old son shot himself to death and a grandmother whose 2-year-old grandson wandered off and drowned in a retention pond just a few days later served as a sobering reminder of how vital precautions and strict attention are when we care for small children.

The Post and Couriers Ali Rockett reports that Sierra Morrison was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child after police found a 9 mm handgun next to the boys body and gun accessories strewn across the floor away from a nightstand's opened drawer.

The boys mother told police she had left the child unattended playing with a tablet computer for up to an hour while she watched a video downstairs with her other son; she said she heard a loud bang and discovered her child in a pool of blood upstairs. Police reported that although the family had a locked gun safe nearby, an unsecured loaded firearm  was left in the top drawer of the nightstand.

Faith Robinson also was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child after an investigation found that her grandson wandered out an unlocked screen door after she went to her car to pack up, then left the house without checking to make sure he was OK.

Unlawful conduct toward a child  defined in these cases as unlawfully placing a child at risk of harm  is a felony that carries a prison term of up to 10 years.

Although the adults in both instances no doubt will be tormented by their awful decisions for the rest of their lives, we welcome the department's willingness to charge parents and other caregivers when they dont do enough to protect children, rather than confining their arrests to people who actively seek to harm children. Something similar, although far less serious, happened last month when Mount Pleasant police charged a man with child endangerment after he led them on a high-speed chase  apparently in hopes of avoiding a speeding ticket  with a child in the truck.

Prosecuting such cases elevates the profile of these tragedies and sends an important message to caregivers about their awesome responsibility  and about how quickly things can go wrong.

But the awful reality is that while necessary, all the criminal charges and convictions in the world wont bring back those children. Our greater goal must be to prevent such tragedies.

We usually think about criminal laws in terms of punishing bad behavior, and thats important. But when written well, laws can play an even more important role: They can communicate to people what society expects of them, and considers acceptable behavior. And by setting expectations, such laws can change behavior. The best criminal laws, in fact, are those we rarely have to charge anyone with violating, because their presence has deterred the bad action.

We cant prevent all tragedies by outlawing the underlying behavior, of course: We cant imagine all the actions that can lead to tragedy, and even if we could, it would be inappropriate to outlaw all potential dangers. Children wouldnt die in car crashes, for instance, if we didnt allow children in cars. Toddlers wouldnt drown if we made it illegal to let them get within a mile of a body of water  and if we outlawed bathtubs. But those are all ridiculous ideas.

There is, however, a straightforward law we could pass to raise awareness and protect children from unintentional gunshot wounds  which are now the leading cause of child deaths in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle crashes, drowning, poisoning and all diseases: Require people who live with children to keep their guns unloaded and locked, either in a safe or with a gun lock. Bring felony charges whenever a child injures or kills himself or someone else with a gun that wasnt stored in accordance with the law.

It would be easy to write such a law in a way that excessively restricts adults right to own guns  by applying it to everybody, for instance, or allowing criminal charges when no one is harmed.

But it also would be easy to write it in a way that doesnt restrict gun owners rights. Dont require people to keep their guns locked unless children have regular access to their homes, for instance. Dont allow them to be charged if a child somehow manages to get her hands on a properly secured gun and then shoots someone.

If anything, those exceptions could strengthen the underlying point of the law: to send a clear message that those of us who care for children have a special moral and legal obligation to keep them safe from implements that kill  and in so doing to reduce the number of tragedies that occur because curious children manage to get their hands on guns and shoot themselves or others.

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COLUMBIA  Standing at the podium in front of more than 1,300 Republican activists and officials, Gov. Henry McMaster was beginning his windup toward introducing former President Donald Trump.

People cannot believe what theyre seeing happening in our wonderful, dear country. People cannot believe it, McMaster told attendees at the Aug. 5 Silver Elephant Dinner. Well, theres a new day coming.

In the dark, cavernous state fairground hall, Mark Sanford knew what was coming, too. So the former Republican S.C. governor and Lowcountry congressman, pushed his white plastic folding chair back and looked toward the exit.

I got up and walked out, he told The Post and Courier.

Moments later, Lee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A. blared over the sound system and Trump walked on stage mouthing Thank you and flashing a thumbs-up.

Sanford was long gone.

Why?

Im not a Trump fan. I think hes destructive for the conservative movement, the Republican Party, Sanford said of his quick exit.

As South Carolinas political establishment seems to be coalescing around a third Trump nomination  McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, half the states congressional Republicans and most recently House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter  the states lonely posse of anti-Trump Republicans is back.

Like Cassandra of Greek myth, Sanford and others, such as former U.S. Rep. Tom Rice of Myrtle Beach, are prophesizing defeat and indignity if Trump is again the GOP standard bearer. But few of their former colleagues and supporters are heeding the call.

There are, of course, two South Carolinians  U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former Gov. Nikki Haley  running against Trump for the nomination, and plenty of South Carolina Republicans are supporting them or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Yet neither Palmetto State candidate has launched a serious attack on Trump.

Thats something Sanford and Rice arent afraid to do.

Weve got a conman and a sexual abuser and a traitor as the banner headline for the South Carolina GOP. I think that is just so sad, Rice, who did not attend the weekend GOP dinner, told The Post and Courier, referring to a New York City civil jurys May finding that Trump committed sexual battery against writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Trump is appealing that case.

Trumps many South Carolina supporters dismiss Sanford and Rice as the usual naysayers, carping about being left behind by a party thats chosen a new direction.

For those that dont come along, theyve been left behind kicking and screaming, and so be it, Ed McMullen, a longtime South Carolina politico and Trump supporter, said in a phone interview.

McMullen, who served as the former presidents ambassador to Switzerland, attended the dinner and said he had a good chat with Sanford, whom he considers a friend. Though he respects the opinions of Sanford and others like him within the party, the polls and Trumps bevy of endorsements show theyre wrong, McMullen said.

This is the political leadership of our state realizing that we have a crisis nationally that needs to be fixed, and President Trumps the right person to fix it, he said.

Sanford, a Mount Pleasant resident who served as governor from 2003 to 2011 and as the Lowcountrys representative in Congress in two stints before and after his stay in the governors mansion, has long been a vocal and active Trump critic.

Trump backed then-state Rep. Katie Arrington in a successful primary challenge against Sanford in 2018, and Sanford mounted a quixotic 65-day presidential primary challenge to Trump in 2020.

Their differences became heated after Sanford spoke out against Trump's brash, uncivil tone. Trump over time took multiple shots at Sanford as the presidential challenge emerged, calling him Mr. Appalachian Trail in a dig at Sanfords 2009 extramarital affair with an Argentine journalist when he was governor.

Rice, who represented much of the Grand Strand and Pee Dee in Congress, was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump after he falsely claimed the election was stolen from him and for his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. With Trumps endorsement and vocal support, then-state Rep. Russel Fry handily beat Rice in the 2022 primary.

On Aug. 1, special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In June, Smith indicted Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and attempting to cover it up. Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Sanford said he has been going to the Silver Elephant Dinner for about 30 years and wasnt going to let Trump stop him from catching up with friends, even if many of them dont support his position on Trump. Rice has been trying to avoid politics.

Both know theyre once again the odd men out among their former colleagues.

Too many of our elected official are too busy worrying about what they need to do to keep their jobs and their little bit of authority than doing whats right, Rice said.

Theyre also not very optimistic about their odds of convincing anyone to not back Trump.

Rice said Trumps a shoo-in, at least in the South Carolina primary. Sanford, who attended Scotts presidential campaign launch in North Charleston, but hasnt issued an official endorsement, says he hopes someone will beat Trump.

As the hundreds of attendees at the Silver Elephant dug into their spiced chicken and yellow rice, Cindy Costa, South Carolinas GOP national committeewoman, led the hall in the recitation of the Republican creed.

At his table, Sanford recited the creed as he has dozens of times at the annual dinner.

In it, everybody exclaims I am a free American; cower before no man,  Sanford said. And youre sitting there thinking, Give me a break. 
A properly Biden-hating but Trump-critical friend remarked to me lately that I just dont know any intelligent, educated people who want to vote for Trump next year. Well maybe so, but I am reminded of the revealing line from Adlai Stevenson in the 1956 presidential campaign, when an enthusiastic supporter ran up to him and breathlessly exclaimed, Oh, Governor Stevenson! All educated people are for you! To which Stevenson responded, Yes, maam, but I need a majority.

Thats a perfect expression of liberal elitism and disdain toward the broad spectrum of Americans who dont attend elite universities or live in the trendiest neighborhoods or hold the correct views.

Which brings me to David Brookss mid-week column in the New York Times that people are still talking about days later, which is a much longer half-life for a column than is typical these days. His column is What If Were the Bad Guys Here?, and the bad guys here are not the Deplorables that Times readers and other enlightened people blame for blocking all desirable progress, but the Times readership itself. Brooks doesnt put it that directly, but thats the clear subtext.

This article is Brooks at his best, though Ill get to its residual defects in due course:

Let me try another story on you. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, were the bad guys. . . When I began my journalism career in Chicago in the 1980s, there were still some old crusty working-class guys around the newsroom. Now were not only a college-dominated profession; were an elite-college-dominated profession. Only 0.8 percent of college students graduate from the super-elite 12 schools (the Ivy League colleges, plus Stanford, M.I.T., Duke and the University of Chicago). A 2018 study found that more than 50 percent of the staff writers at the beloved New York Times and The Wall Street Journal attended one of the 29 most elite universities in the nation. Writing in Compact magazine, Michael Lind observes that the upper-middle-class job market looks like a candelabrum: Those who manage to squeeze through the stem of a few prestigious colleges and universities in their youth can then branch out to fill leadership positions in almost every vocation. Or, as Markovits puts it, elite graduates monopolize the best jobs and at the same time invent new technologies that privilege superskilled workers, making the best jobs better and all other jobs worse. . . . Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants arent likely to put downward pressure on our wages. Like all elites, we use language and mores as tools to recognize one another and exclude others. Using words like problematic, cisgender, Latinx and intersectional is a sure sign that youve got cultural capital coming out of your ears. Meanwhile, members of the less-educated classes have to walk on eggshells because they never know when weve changed the usage rules so that something that was sayable five years ago now gets you fired. We also change the moral norms in ways that suit ourselves, never mind the cost to others. For example, there used to be a norm that discouraged people from having children outside marriage, but that got washed away during our period of cultural dominance, as we eroded norms that seemed judgmental or that might inhibit individual freedom.

Theres a lot more worth taking in from this article, all of it sound observation. Heres the key paragraph though:

Does this mean that I think the people in my class are vicious and evil? No. Most of us are earnest, kind and public-spirited. But we take for granted and benefit from systems that have become oppressive. Elite institutions have become so politically progressive in part because the people in them want to feel good about themselves as they take part in systems that exclude and reject.

Here David proves unable to break from his class. The people in his class are vicious and evil. Full stop. We can see already a critical mass of elitists who will censor and even enforce lockdowns by force if the law didnt stand in their way even a little bit. Elite institutions are a large part of the cause of this; they deserve to be destroyed right down to their foundations. The inherent presumption of progressivism is that their expertise, based on infallible science, can guide us to a better future. As Oakeshott warned, the conjunction of dreaming and ruling generates tyranny. Good luck getting the Harvard facultyor the New York Times editorial pageto ponder this problem for a nanosecond. This is why the baddies are so bad (hat tip to Mitchell & Webb below). Until that presumption is overturned, nothing will meaningfully change. Does Harvard realize that a majority of the nation would celebrate if the entire campus burned to the ground?

Brooks asks as the end of his column:

We can condemn the Trumpian populists until the cows come home, but the real question is: When will we stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable?

Short and obvious answer: Never. Heres a serious suggestion for Brooks (whom I know and like personally): Quit your job at the Times editorial page, move back to Chicago, and report on the day-to-day crime beat for a Chicago newspaper.

ChaserOther have pointed to the Mitchell and Webb sketch, and we might as well too, because it fits the smug New York Times set so well:
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Hagens Berman urges AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.Class Period: Mar. 1, 2020 - July 26, 2023Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Sept. 26, 2023Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/t Contact An Attorney Now: T@ hbsslaw.com 844-916-0895AT&T Inc. (T) Securities Fraud Class Action:The complaint alleges AT&T made false or misleading statements and failed to disclose that AT&T: (1) owns cables around the U.S. that are highly toxic due to their being wrapped in lead, and which harm company employees and non-employees alike; (2) faces potentially significant litigation risk, regulatory risk, and reputational harm as a result of its ownership of these lead-covered cables and the health risks stemming from their presence around the U.S; and (3) was warned about the damage and risks presented by these cables but did not disclose them as a potential threat to employee safety or to everyday people and communities.Investors began to learn the truth after the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles spanning July 9 - July 26, 2023.These articles revealed that AT&T and others left behind toxic lead cables that they laid years ago. The WSJ also reported that independently tested samples from underwater cable sites revealed lead on the banks of the Mississippi, Willamette, and Passaic Rivers as well as in parts of Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere.The WSJ further reported that AT&T officials have known for decades that lead in its networks was a possible health risk to its workers, some workers have illnesses that can be linked to lead, and lead could leach into the environment.Finally, on July 26, 2023, the WSJ reported that the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency are investigating whether telecom companies knew of the potential risks posed by the abandoned lead cables.As a result, AT&T's stock has been downgraded by analysts and its price was inflated over the past five years."We're focused on investors' losses and AT&T's knowledge of potential liability stemming from its sprawling network of toxic lead-sheathed cables across the U.S.," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in AT&T 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 AT&T 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 T@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens BermanHagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Contact:Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
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LEEDS, UK / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / BlackDice Holdings Corp. ("BlackDice" or the "Company"), an emerging leader in cybersecurity, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to combat evolving cyber threats. The firm, headquartered in the United Kingdom, has recently expanded to Spain, and is poised to reshape the cybersecurity scene with its innovative solutions. As cyber threats advance, BlackDice is emerging as an industry leader with its AI-powered solutions, offering unrivaled protection to telecoms businesses and their subscribers globally.According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) currently face a 1 in 2 chance of experiencing a security breach. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts cybercrime could cost businesses a staggering $10.5 trillion globally by 2025. In line with forecasts from Statista - an online portal providing data on the global digital economy - the demand for cybersecurity could drive the sector to a substantial $266.2 billion by 2027, a robust 8.9% CAGR."We're introducing and scaling our technology globally in response to growing cyber threats and increased customer awareness," says Paul Hague, CEO, of BlackDice. The need for advanced, automated, and AI-enabled cybersecurity solutions is increasing as the number of online routers reaches 2.5 billion, with mobile devices expected to hit 18.22 billion by 2025. BlackDice's solutions protect residential and SMB subscribers, from both external and internal threats, enhancing threat detection and reducing response times through AI.Retina, BlackDice's operator insight technology, deploys Unsupervised Learning Models deriving data directly from the network, discovering hidden patterns of behavior and uncovering anomalies that the human eye could never see. Capable of managing billions of devices, BlackDice's technology enables real-time threat prediction and immediate neutralization. "Retina's technology captures and correlates data simultaneously across devices and networks, evolving alongside the threats, so BlackDice's customers can be confident the detection is keeping up with the problem," explains Hague. "By integrating with any home or office router, telecoms operators are armed with unparalleled actionable insights into the behavior of devices on the network, boosting Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and subscriber retention - all while providing the end user with 24/7 proactive protection from security vulnerabilities on any device connected to any network and tools for keeping their families and employees safe - across any network, any device, anywhere".BlackDice's solution is being deployed globally via integration partners, embedded directly into their routers and optical network termination ("ONT"). "Our solutions cater to SMBs and personal users, often overlooked by traditional network providers," says Hague.According to research from Norton Antivirus in 2022, 3.8 million records are stolen [globally] from cybersecurity attacks every day, meaning that traditional antivirus software and DNS are "reactive and inadequate" according to Hague. BlackDice's platform, however, offers a proactive approach using advanced threat intelligence, machine learning, and cloud computing.Hague emphasizes the Company's mission: "We aim to ensure proactive, safe, secure, and privacy-preserving digital interactions for individuals, families, and businesses. This commitment positions BlackDice for continued growth, in sync with the rising demand for Artificial Intelligence and cyber defense services." CEO Hague further explains that the telecoms operator market is "just the beginning" for BlackDice, with demand coming from other significant markets including military and defense - demonstrating the scope and scalability for future growth.ENDSFor media inquiries, please contact:Rachael Simpson / rachael@ chapterandfable.com Company overview:BlackDice is pioneering the future of AI-powered cybersecurity solutions. Its commitment to transforming cybersecurity infrastructures through advanced technology empowers people and organizations to safeguard their digital assets and information against evolving threats through comprehensive protection and enhanced security. BlackDice works with Tier 1 and Tier 2 telecom providers to deliver proactive and adaptive solutions to their customers - who range from residential subscribers to small and medium-sized businesses. Capable of monitoring billions of devices at one time, BlackDice's unique platform can detect unusual patterns that signal a threat or attack is starting to build - and prevent it before it occurs. Headquartered in the United Kingdom and Spain, BlackDice serves customers and partners across the globe, providing expert guidance and support to prevent cybersecurity risks.More information at: blackdice.io Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsSome of the statements in this press release may be forward-looking statements or statements of future expectations based on currently available information. Such statements are naturally subject to risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Factors such as the development of general economic conditions, future market conditions, unusual catastrophic loss events, changes in the capital markets and other circumstances may cause the actual events or results to be materially different from those anticipated by such statements. The Company does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or updated status of such statements. Therefore, in no case whatsoever will the Company and its affiliates be liable to anyone for any decision made or action taken in conjunction with the information and/or statements in this press release or for any related damages.This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@ lseg.com or visit www.rns.com SOURCE: BlackDice Cyber Ltd
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RESTON, VA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / CACIBryanna is an 18-year-old cancer warrior, and she loves monkeys more than anything. When Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic's Operation Dream Maker asked Bryanna what she wanted most, she wished for a behind-the-scenes zoo experience to meet her favorite animal. Thanks to the support of donors, like CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI), Bryanna was flown to Georgia with her family on an exclusive trip. She was able to meet a menagerie of animals and even got to hold her favorite animal - a monkey.Operation Dream Maker is a special fund that focuses on granting wishes to children with critical illnesses whose parents and guardians currently serve, or have served, in the military. This program grants wishes to 20 children each year and provides support for military-related wishes of all children.CACI has a long history of supporting military members, veterans, and their families through its philanthropic arm, CACI Cares. With roughly 40% of CACI's workforce being made up of veterans, military spouses, or current members of the National Guard and Reserves, CACI Cares strives to honor these communities. As part of these ongoing efforts, CACI has made a donation to the Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic's Operation Dream Maker to give fighters like Bryanna a chance to experience their wishes."CACI is proud to support Operation Dream Maker because we recognize how integral military and veteran families are to our community. We also recognize how impactful and uplifting programs like Operation Dream Maker can be in providing bright spots for children of military families who are battling critical illnesses," said Gary Patton, CACI Vice President of Veteran and Military Affairs.To learn more about CACI Cares, visit https://www.caci.com/caci-cares ABOUT CACICACI's approximately 23,000 talented employees are ever vigilant in providing the unique expertise and distinctive technology that address our customers' greatest enterprise and mission challenges. Our culture of good character, innovation, and excellence drives our success and earns us recognition as a Fortune World's Most Admired Company. As a member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, the Russell 1000 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index, we consistently deliver strong shareholder value. Visit us at www.caci.com Corporate Communications and Media:Lorraine CorcoranExecutive Vice President, Corporate Communications(703) 434-4165, lorraine.corcoran@caci.com View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from CACI on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: CACIWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/caci Email: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: CACI
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / China Yibai United Guarantee International Holding Inc. (OTC Pink:CBGH) ("CBGH" or the "Company"), in conjunction with its wholly owned subsidiary - TidyCall Inc., is excited to announce the appointment of two vital executives to lead its expansion and technological innovation.Joining the TidyCall team as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is Mr. Andy Kuo, an accomplished professional with extensive experience in network engineering and app architecture and management. Before his entrepreneurial pursuits, Andy led teams in designing and building networks for esteemed telecommunication companies such as Geneva System Canada and TransGlobe Communications. With over 20 years of expertise in designing and managing voice and data networks, Andy Kuo's exceptional leadership and expertise in IT and app architecture will be instrumental in propelling TidyCall forward in the rapidly evolving communication technology sector. His vision aligns seamlessly with TidyCall's mission to create user-centric, innovative communication solutions that enhance connectivity and productivity for businesses and individuals alike.Mr. Jeffrey Pai assumes the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), bringing a wealth of knowledge in economics, commerce, and marketing to the table. Leveraging his expertise in statistical and data analysis, market research, and his experience as an e-commerce entrepreneur, Mr. Pai will spearhead TidyCall's marketing efforts. Additionally, his proficiency as a professional actor, live-streamer, and content creator, combined with strong social skills, will empower him to serve as a Community Manager, fostering engagement and enhancing the TidyCall community."We warmly welcome Andy Kuo and Jeffrey Pai to the TidyCall family and are thrilled to appoint candidates of their caliber to our executive team," said Willie Hsu, CEO of CBGH/TidyCall. "As TidyCall continues its growth, we eagerly anticipate harnessing Andy Kuo and Jeffrey Pai's vast experience and network to capture demand and expand our market presence." With the addition of these seasoned executives, TidyCall is poised to strengthen its position in the home maintenance industry and deliver enhanced services to its valued customers.About TidyCall Inc.:TidyCall Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CBGH, is a prominent Canadian company headquartered in Markham, situated in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Specializing in offering on-demand home maintenance services to mobile-device users through our innovative TidyCall App, we are dedicated to revolutionizing the way homeowners address their household needs. With the availability of two distinct versions, TidyCall User and TidyCall Provider, we aim to provide a comprehensive and user-friendly platform for both homeowners and service providers.At TidyCall, we understand the importance of having a reliable handyman to care for your home. Our company was founded on a mission to deliver affordable and top-notch services that homeowners can confidently rely on. We take great pride in our team of experienced professionals who are dedicated to assisting homeowners in maintaining and enhancing their living spaces.Forward-Looking Information:This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, which include any statements made in this release that are not historical facts, such as statements concerning potential future developments affecting the business, prospects, financial condition, and other aspects of the companies to which this release pertains. The actual results of the specific items described in this release, and the company's operations generally, may differ materially from what is projected in such forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based upon the best judgments of management of each company as of the date of this release, significant deviations in magnitude, timing, and other factors may result from business risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the company's dependence on third parties, general market and economic conditions, technical factors, the availability of outside capital, receipt of revenues, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the company. The company disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.Investor RelationsWillie Hsu CEO & PresidentEmail: willie@ tidycall.com Phone#: +1 416-838-8010Investor Relations RepresentativeEmail: ir@ tidycall.com SOURCE: China Yibai United Guarantee International
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CCIntegration Once Again Recognized as a Top IT Channel Provider for Outstanding Performance & GrowthPLANO, TX / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / CCIntegration Inc., Thinking Outside the Box, announced today that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has once again named CCIntegration Inc. to its 2023 Fast Growth 150 list. With this list, CRN recognizes the fastest-growing North American technology integrators, solution providers, and IT consultants for their substantial growth and meaningful performance over the previous two years. To maintain consistent growth within the highly competitive and rapidly advancing IT industry, solution providers must constantly evolve to keep ahead of consistent changes within the market. CRN's Fast Growth 150 list acknowledges companies that have crossed this threshold and demonstrated an ongoing dedication toward success and innovation.CRN Fast Growth 150 "We are excited to be recognized once again by CRN as one of the fastest-evolving solution providers in North America," said Ron Pugh, President at CCIntegration. "Our entire team is carefully attuned to industry trends to develop exceptional strategies for providing the best experience and results for our customers. We are committed to ongoing evolution that allows us to deliver future-facing consultative services and products to help you scale your business today and tomorrow." CEO of The Channel Company, Blaine Raddon, had more to say about the organizations recognized this year. "With the highly competitive and rapidly growing IT industry, CRN's 2023 Fast Growth 150 list highlights industry-leading companies and their ability to outpace an ever-evolving landscape," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "All of the companies on this year's list represent the very best in business intelligence and strategy, inspiring fellow industry members and proving that with perseverance, sustained growth is an attainable achievement in even the most chaotic business climates." CRN's complete 2023 Fast Growth 150 list is available online at www.crn.com/fastgrowth150 , and a sample from the list will be featured in the August issue of CRN Magazine.About CCIntegration Inc.Established in 1985, CCIntegration (CCI) is the fastest-growing OEM integration company in the U.S. The woman-owned business produces and ships advanced, integrated, turnkey custom-logo branded server appliances for a wide range of vertical markets around the world, delivering award-winning service in both manufacturing and logistics. CCI is headquartered in Plano, TX, and maintains operations in San Jose, CA, and Nijmegen, The Netherlands, conducting business on a global scale.About The Channel CompanyThe Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end-users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. 2023 The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.Contact Information:Keith WoodVP, Sales and Marketingkwood@ ccintegration.com 410-336-0441Natalie Lewisnlewis@ thechannelcompany.com SOURCE: CCIntegration
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Award Honors Exceptional Thought Leadership on Solver SolutionsLOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Solver, an award-winning global leader in cloud-based Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software including Budgeting, Forecasting, Reporting, Consolidations, and Dashboard solutions for mid-market ERPs, today announced that Derek Krebs of MSX Group has been named the Solver 2022 Evangelist of the Year.Solver Evangelist of the Year Award 2022This badge shows that Derek Krebs has been named the Solver Evangelist of the Year 2022, and recognizes his exceptional thought leadership on Solver solutions and in the Solver Community. This award recognizes a Solver partner for their remarkable commitment to the Solver Community in helping other partners implement Solver successfully. Derek has continually been an outspoken voice for Solver across the Community."I am honored, thank you," said Derek Krebs, Principal Consultant, MSX Group. "I enjoy working with the Solver Suite and the Solver team, as well as with the entirety of the Solver Community. I look forward to continuing our work together for many years. It is easy to be a big promoter of the Solver Suite; its quality speaks for itself." The 2022 Evangelist of the Year Award is one of six partner awards that will be presented at this year's Solver Ascend conference, happening Aug. 14-17 in San Diego."Derek Krebs, MSX Group, is one of the top promoters for the Solver brand," said Terry Ginley, Vice President of Partnership Development, Solver. "He has done an exceptional job sharing his ideas and thought leadership with clients while consistently providing feedback to our Solver Sales & Delivery teams. Derek is always available to help prospects and clients across the Solver Community." Solver is always looking to add more dedicated teams to join our global partner ecosystem. If you would like to learn more about Solver and the Solver Suite, explore the links below or contact us.Learn how QuickStart differentiates the Solver SuiteBrowse the Solver Marketplace for on-demand, ready-to-use templatesWatch a demo of the Solver SuiteAbout SolverFounded in 1996, Solver has won countless awards for its Corporate Performance Management solution that delivers FP&A solutions to meet midsize business needs. The CPM solution provider has been repeatedly named a CPM Leader by G2. Solver integrates with leading ERPs and is sold through our global offices and worldwide network of partners. Please visit www.solverglobal.com or contact info@ solverglobal.com to learn more.Contact InformationTad RemingtonChief Commercial Officermarketing@ solverglobal.com (310) 691-5300SOURCE: Solver Inc.
Members of a military council that staged a coup in Niger (REUTERS)

The leaders of Nigers coup have closed the countrys airspace until further notice amid fears of a military intervention from neighbouring countries.

The West African group of countries, Ecowas, had earlier warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated by 11pm last night, a deadline that has been ignored.

A junta spokesman says Nigers armed forces are ready to defend the country.

Mr Bazoum was detained on July 26, and Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, proclaimed himself the new leader.

After a crisis meeting in Nigeria on Friday, Ecowas military chiefs said they had drawn up a plan for the possible use of force.

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, said Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.

And he added: We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them [Nigers junta] that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done.

They issued their ultimatum a week ago but the deadline has now passed.
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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / HFR, Inc. (KOSDAQ 230240), the leading ICT solutions provider in Korea, today announced that it will collaborate with KT Corporation (KRX:030200; NYSE:KT), Korea's largest telecommunications service provider, to advance technology development, expand private 5G (P5G) use cases, and support digital transformation (DX) for small to medium-sized enterprises, local governments and public enterprises. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at KT's Songpa building in Seoul, Korea.HFR and KT Sign MOU Min Hye-byung, SVP of KT Enterprise Service DX Business Unit (left), and Cheong Jong-min, HFR CEO (right) after signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU). This agreement combines the strength of these two companies: HFR, a leading private 5G innovator which offers my5G, an end-to-end solution for deploying private 5G networks (components include a Service Management Platform, Unified Network Management System, vCore, vCU/DU, Fronthaul Mux, RUs and CPEs), and KT, Korea's largest mobile operator in both public and enterprise markets, with extensive experience building and operating private 5G networks.Through this collaboration, the two companies plan to introduce P5G with high reliability and increased competitiveness to greatly enhance the P5G ecosystem. In addition, enterprises that have introduced P5G, or are considering the deployment of P5G will benefit from enabling an accelerated path to digital transformation."HFR will contribute to the development of P5G and society by providing economical solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises while delivering tailored solutions that ensure security and smart society applications to public enterprises, including local governments," stated Jung Hae-kwan, Head of HFR's Private Mobility Group."In the private 5G area where the initial market is being formed, the expansion and activation of the ecosystem are directly related to the interests of customers," said Min Hye-byung, SVP of KT Enterprise Service DX Business Unit. "KT will continue to develop competitive private 5G services through this cooperation between our two companies." About my5G:HFR's my5G solution is a pre-integrated private 5G system. The 3GPP-compliant packaged solution includes key components such as vCore, vCU/DU, indoor and outdoor radio units, plus integrated CPE devices with a complete service & network management platform. HFR is deploying my5G in critical applications such as IIOT in a nuclear power generation site in Korea, railway solutions in Japan, as well as across several factory and industrial complexes.About HFR, Inc.:HFR, Inc. (KOSDAQ 230240) is the leading ICT equipment vendor in Korea, offering a full range of optical transport, broadband access with WiFi products, and Private 5G. For the last 23 years, HFR has provided innovative products to the world's largest mobile operators. HFR has established strong partnerships with Korean mobile operators resulting in leading-edge technology, field-proven deployments, and expansion into the global market. For more information, visit www.hfrnet.com About KT Corporation (KRX: 030200; NYSE: KT):KT Corporation is the largest integrated telecom and digital platform service provider based in South Korea. Principal services include mobile, Broadband, IPTV, B2B communications, fixed-line telephony. The company has industry-leading market presence in Broadband, media services, and fixed-line telephony by maintaining the No.1 market share position. Also, the company is the No.1 player in B2B communications and offers a wide range of digital transformation services (IDC, Cloud, AI, etc.).###Contact InformationPeter K. Cho Global CTO, HFR peter.cho@hfrnetworks.com +1 469-703-0861SOURCE: HFR, Inc.
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WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Since Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, tore and burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm's central mosque on June 28, 2023, MEMRI has been monitoring reactions to the Quran burning from jihadi groups, Muslim clerics, Arab commentators, and others in Sweden, the Middle East, and beyond. MEMRI's comprehensive coverage of these reactions include both reporting and translations. The reactions are by regimes, political organizations, and private individuals, from news outlets and social media.MEMRI Reports And Clips On Reactions To Quran BurningBelow is a list of MEMRI research on reactions to the Quran burning in Sweden, organized by country or jihadi group.Many of these reports can found on the continuously updated MEMRI Trending page under the section on "Reactions To Quran Burning In Sweden." Assorted Reactions*Anti-Islamic State (ISIS) Channel: ISIS Desecrates Quran More Than Proponents Of Free Speech In West, With Its "Ugly And Terrible" Actions Against MuslimsArab, Muslim Governments, Islamic Institutions, Clerics, And Intellectuals Strongly Condemn Sweden For Authorizing Quran-Burning Event, Propose Responses Including Mass Protests, Ending Diplomatic Relations, Boycott, And 'Vengeance'Canada*Canada-Based Pro-Al-Qaeda Cleric Condemns Egyptian Man For Stomping On Quran, Urges Muslims In Egypt To Punish HimEgyptEgyptian-American Political Analyst Magdi Khalil: Recent Quran-Burning Incidents In Sweden Orchestrated By Iran As Attempt To Force Release Of Former Iranian Official Hamid Nouri, Serving Life Sentence In Sweden For 1988 Tehran Prison MassacresFollowing Quran-Burning Incident In Stockholm, Egyptian Journalist Calls On Arabs In Sweden To Test This Country's Tolerance By Holding Protest Against 'Zionist Lies About Crematoria'Indian Subcontinent*Reacting To Quran Burning In Stockholm, Al-Qaeda In The Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) Calls For Beheadings, Al-Qaeda Supporter Asserts Killing Insulters Of Islam Would End The PhenomenonIraq*Iraqi Shi'ite Cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr: Shi'ite Messianic Figure Has Not Appeared Because Muslim Reactions To Quran Burnings In Sweden, Denmark Are Not Severe Enough; Shi'ites Should Respond To Quran Burners Like Imam Khomeini Responded To Salman Rushdie*Following Continuing Desecrations Of Quran In Sweden And Denmark, Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq Assert: Islamic Resistance Must Confront West With Equation - Every Desecration Of A Quran On Your Territory Will Be Met With The Burning Of Your Embassies And Attacks On Your Interests In Muslim Countries*Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades: The Peoples Of Islam Must Take A "Firm Stance" Against Countries That Permit Desecration Of The Quran; "Continued Hostility From These Countries Toward Islam Will Necessitate Relating To Them As One Relates To An Enemy"*Telegram Channel Affiliated With Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq: U.S. Orchestrated Quran Burnings In Sweden, Denmark To Distract From Anti-U.S. Protests In Iraq*Following Desecrations Of Quran In Sweden And Denmark, Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq: Quran Abusers Are Legitimate Target; No Difference Between Sweden And U.S. - "One Enemy, One Target;" Muslims Should Prepare For Long War Against The West Until Victory Of Quran And Its Supporters*Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq Incite Against Sweden, U.S. Over Quran Burning In Stockholm, Call On Iranian Leader To Issue Death Fatwa Against DemonstratorIranAt Protest In Front Of Swedish Embassy In Tehran Against Quran-Burning Incidents, Demonstrators Demand Deportation Of Swedish Ambassador: Deport This Bastard! If Rushdie Had Been Killed, No One Would Have Dared To Do ThisLebanon*Following Burning Of Quran In Sweden: Demonstrations, Calls In Lebanon To Cut Ties With Sweden; Sweden Has Gone Into 'Battle-Array For War' With The Islamic NationHizbullah Secretary-General Nasrallah On Quran-Burning Incident: Like Imam Khamenei Said, Sweden Has Gone Into 'Battle-Array For War' With The Islamic Nation; Swedish Government Should Consult With Shari'a Expert On What That EntailsPakistanIslamic Clerics In Pakistan Demand Expulsion Of Swedish Ambassador Over Desecration Of Quran, Urdu Daily Writes: 'Hatred Toward Islam In The West Was Once A Disease, But Now The West Has Turned It Into A Spectacle'Pakistani Clerics Call For Jihad Against Sweden Quran Burnings, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Orders Nationwide Anti-Sweden Protests; Editorials In Pakistani Dailies: 'Disrespecting The Holy Quran Is A Specific Weapon Of Extremists In The West'; It Is Possible 'To Distinguish Between Freedom Of Speech And Malicious Actions Calculated To Insult And Offend'Somalia*Al-Qaeda Affiliate Al-Shabab Calls On Muslims In Europe And Sweden To Defend Quran, Wage Jihad Against Unbelievers, Kill Their LeadersSwedenSwedish Muslim Writer Dr. Othman Othman: Muslims In Sweden Should Become Involved In Politics And Change The Fundamental Law On Freedom Of Expression, Which Mostly Targets MuslimsSweden-Based Muslim Preacher In Response To Quran-Burning Incident In Stockholm: Swedish Society Is Tolerant, Muslims Should Avoid Rupturing Their Relations With ItUnited Kingdom*British Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Cleric Condemns Latest Quran Burning Protest In Stockholm, Calls For Implementing Sharia Around The World, Especially SwedenYemenHouthi Ansar Allah Leader: 'Jewish Lobby' Orchestrates Quran Burnings In West As Part Of Its War On Islam; Western Societies Should 'Liberate Themselves From The Slavery Of The Jews' Before Being 'Pushed To The Abyss, Where They Will Reap Allah's Wrath And Torment'Assorted Jihadi Reactions*In Poster, Pro-Al-Qaeda Media Group Calls For Killing Iraqi Man Who Burned Quran In Sweden, Publishes His Personal Info Including Current Home Address And Phone Number*Jihadi Reactions To Quran Burning In Stockholm: Condemnation, Calls To Execute Perpetrator, Expel Swedish Ambassadors, Carry Out Attacks Inspired By 2015 'Charlie Hebdo' ShootingISIS*Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Media Outlets Publish Posters Emphasizing That Man Who Burned Quran Was In PMU; Issue Calls To Kill Shi'ites*Reacting To Quran Burning In Stockholm, Islamic State (ISIS) Supporters Call For Killing Perpetrator*ISIS Weekly Calls For Jihad, Boycott Of Democracy After Quran Burning In Sweden*Pro-Islamic State (ISIS) Media Outlet Incites Attacks To Avenge Quran Burning In Sweden: 'The Gates To Paradise Are Open'ISIS-K*ISIS-K Linked Media Outlet Rele
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CANTON, OH / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / The accounting software and payroll services provider, Patriot Software, has processed over $13 billion in payroll and payroll tax dollars since 2018, a milestone for the SaaS developer.Patriot's payroll has the largest adoption rate among its software products, serving businesses with one to 500 employees in most industries. The company offers free direct deposit for its Basic Payroll and Full Service Payroll, with a 2-day lead time for qualifying customers. Patriot's Full Service Payroll handles federal, state, and local payroll tax deposits and filings.The $13 billion milestone includes money that Patriot collected for employee direct deposit and employer and employee payroll taxes in the past five years. In the month of June 2023, Patriot Software collected over $315 million for direct deposit. In June 2023, Patriot's tax aggregate was over $149 million."The demand for online payroll services is certainly strong--and getting stronger," says Jackie White, Head of Risk and Treasury. "Business owners have enough to deal with, and knowing that they have a reliable and secure payroll provider to pay their employees and handle payroll taxes is of the utmost importance. We're proud to be that payroll provider for tens of thousands of businesses across the USA." Patriot's combined collections for direct deposit and payroll taxes surpassed $4.8 billion in 2022. The company's 2023 collections, which totaled over $2.9 billion through July 26, 2023, are expected to exceed 2022's threshold.###About Patriot Software:Patriot Software offers cloud-based accounting, payroll, HR, and time and attendance solutions designed to help American businesses with up to 500 employees simplify their administrative tasks. Patriot Software is disrupting the accounting and payroll industry by eliminating complex processes and steep learning curves with its intuitive software. Patriot Software is dedicated to providing USA-based customer service and development, serving tens of thousands of businesses nationwide since 2002.For more information, please contact:Patriot Software, LLCRachel Blakely-Graymarketing@ patriotsoftware.com SOURCE: Patriot Software, LLC
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CINCINNATI, OH / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / In a significant move towards fostering diversity and inclusion in the tech industry, RoadPitch and the Blacks In Technology (BIT) Foundation have formed a strategic partnership to empower Black tech founders. RoadPitch, known as the largest multi-city pitch tour for Black tech founders, and BIT Foundation, a pioneering nonprofit organization committed to increasing representation in the technology sector, are excited to announce their collaboration to advance opportunities and support for Black entrepreneurs in the tech space.RoadPitch and Blacks in Technology Foundation This partnership arrives at a crucial time when the need for inclusivity and support for underrepresented groups in technology is more evident than ever. The Blacks In Technology Foundation has been leading initiatives to elevate Black professionals in the tech industry, providing them with support, networking opportunities, and resources to excel in their careers. Simultaneously, RoadPitch has played a vital role in connecting talented Black tech entrepreneurs with active investors, offering a platform to showcase their innovations and gain regional exposure for their startups."Supporting early-stage Black startup founders is core to our mission to increase the representation of people of African descent in tech," says Dennis Schultz, Executive Director for the Blacks In Technology Foundation. "Partners like RoadPitch provide visibility and access to startup founders that would otherwise be overlooked." This partnership establishes RoadPitch as the official international pitch competition organizer for the Blacks In Technology Foundation. By providing access to a network of investors, founders, and resources, RoadPitch has fueled the growth of numerous tech ventures and facilitated the flow of capital to promising Black entrepreneurs."We are delighted to welcome Blacks In Technology Foundation as our strategic partner," said Meagan Turner, Co-Founder of RoadPitch. Meagan Turner and BIT Foundation founder, Greg Greenlee, are both Cincinnati natives."This partnership will enable us to amplify our tours in a more impactful way," said Rohan Brown, Co-founder of RoadPitch. "We want to highlight and work with emerging Black tech ecosystems across the globe." Upcoming Events:As part of their collaboration, the Blacks In Technology Foundation and RoadPitch are thrilled to announce two exciting events that will further empower and showcase Black tech founders:BITCON Conference (Sept. 5-7, Nashville): The BITCON Conference is a premier event for Black tech professionals and enthusiasts, featuring inspiring keynote speakers, interactive workshops, career development sessions, and a pitch competition hosted by RoadPitch.RoadPitch Midwest Pitch Tour (Oct. 9-14, Midwest): RoadPitch's highly anticipated third-pitch tour will be taking place across multiple cities in the Midwest. This exciting event will provide Black tech entrepreneurs with an opportunity to present their innovative ideas to a panel of investors and mentors.The partnership between RoadPitch and the Blacks In Technology Foundation underscores their shared vision of driving positive change in the tech industry. By pooling their resources, both organizations are committed to fostering an inclusive tech community that values innovation.Contact Information:Meagan TurnerCo-Foundermeagan@ roadpitch.co Rohan BrownCo-Founderrohan@ roadpitch.co Related VideoSOURCE: RoadPitch
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Achieves 20% Revenue Surge in Key Markets, Demonstrating Success of Strategic Initiatives and Growing Market DemandMIRAMAR, FL / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Stemtech Corporation (OTCQB:STEK)John W. Meyer, President and COO of Stemtech Corporation, says "Stemtech, the pioneer of stem cell nutrition, is thrilled to provide an enthusiastic update to its esteemed shareholders, highlighting the remarkable business advancements achieved through its Business Academies and the dynamic efforts of its newly appointed Director of New Business Development, Jeff Weisberg. Together with our existing Field Leaders like Network Marketing Hall of Fame Member, Izzy Matos, we see enthusiastic growth with motivated existing Independent Business Partners (IBPs) as well as new direct selling professionals joining us".Throughout the month of July, Stemtech has experienced an exceptional surge in growth in its strategic target markets - Mexico and the United States. The company proudly reports an impressive 20% increase in revenue within these key regions, underscoring the efficacy of its strategic initiatives and the ever-expanding market demand for its stem cell nutrition or stemceutical' products. One of the driving forces behind this accelerated growth are Stemtech's innovative Business Academies, which serve as a cornerstone of the company's commitment to nurturing and empowering driven individuals looking to establish their own successful enterprises. Through the academies, aspiring entrepreneurs gain access to cutting-edge resources, mentorship, and industry insights, enabling them to improve their entrepreneurial journey with confidence and competence. Jeff Weisberg has played a pivotal role in propelling the company's outreach efforts to new heights. With an unwavering dedication to fostering strategic partnerships and seizing growth opportunities, Weisberg's leadership combined with our Field Leadership has led to a substantial increase in the number of new IBPs who have joined Stemtech's thriving network during the month of July.The Stemtech commitment to excellence and innovation is evident in its consistent efforts to not only meet but surpass challenges. The impressive revenue growth and influx of new partners in key markets are a testament to Stemtech's unwavering focus on delivering unparalleled value and support to its partners and customers alike. This powerful combination of efficacious products for eighteen years and income-earning opportunity will continue to propel Stemtech to greater heights.As Stemtech continues to forge ahead with its mission to empower individuals, elevate businesses, and contribute to improved quality of life through better health and financial wellness, the company remains steadfast in its pursuit of excellence and anticipates further achievements in the months to come.ABOUT STEMTECHStemtech Corporation, a leading stemceutical company with a direct sales distribution model, was founded on April 18, 2018, after acquiring the operations from its predecessor Stemtech International, Inc., which was established in 2005. From 2010 through 2015, Stemtech International, Inc., was recognized four separate times on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list. In 2018, Stemtech underwent an extensive executive reorganization, and continued operations under new leadership as Stemtech Corporation. In August 2021, Stemtech became a publicly traded company (OTCQB: STEK) and has expanded business opportunities for its Independent Business Partners, who may earn incomes by sharing Stemtech products. January 2022 saw the introduction of new marketing efforts. In September 2022, the new Stemtech AdvanceOffice mobile app based on the VERB Technology platform was successfully launched as a powerful communication - recruiting tool for our Field On November 1, 2022, Stemtech introduced the new travel/sample size OraStem Toothpaste. On December 6, Stemtech announced the promotion of Alejandro Carrillo to the role of Vice President Global Sales from his current role as Managing Director Latin Markets. Stemtech introduced the new CellectOne Rapid Renew Stem Cell Peptide Night Cream at their December 2022 International Leadership Event in Cancun, Mexico. January 10, 2023 Stemtech appoints Margie and Mike Mares to Field Advisory Board. Stemtech has Ranked Number 11 in Momentum out of 700+ top Global MLM companies by Business For Home independent MLM publication, January 23, 2023. In March 2023, Life Factor Research became the Research and Development, product formulation - science division of Stemtech to create cutting-edge stemceuticals and other products. Stemtech conducted Field Leadership Business Academies in Aguas Calientes, Mexico May 25 - 27, and in Las Vegas, NV on June 1 - 3.Forward-Looking StatementsThis announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest 10-Q Report filed on May 15, 2023. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement, or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about Stemtech Corporation which are condoned by the Company must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its Source.Investor Relations:Gabriel RodriguezEmail: erelationsgroup@ gmail.com Ph: 623-261-9046StemtechPhone%
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LITTLETON, CO / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American:URG)(TSX:URE) (the "Company" or "Ur-Energy") has filed the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml and with Canadian securities authorities at www.sedar.com Ur-Energy CEO, John Cash said, "This was an exciting quarter with our Lost Creek Project moving back into commercial production. Despite significant challenges in recruitment of personnel and contractors, and the worst Wyoming winter on record, we are proud to say we began producing U3O8 again to build inventory for delivery into our three sales contracts. Congratulations and a genuine thank you to each of our team members whose Wyoming cowboy-up spirit of perseverance has made the ongoing ramp-up possible."Demand for nuclear energy continues to expand as nations seek to lower carbon emissions and foster security through energy independence. While the demand for nuclear fuel grows, risk in the supply chain is escalating as evidenced by the war in Ukraine, transportation issues for Kazakh uranium and Russian LEU exports, the recent coup in Niger, and a lack of any significant new mine production in the near-term."Our strategy to take advantage of the improving market is simple: continue growing our long-term sales book as the market continues to improve, ramp-up production at Lost Creek and, ultimately, at Shirley Basin. We will also continue to consider acquisition opportunities to increase our production portfolio but will remain disciplined by only seeking to acquire, or organically develop, quality, producible, projects.Financial ResultsAs of June 30, 2023, we had cash resources consisting of cash and cash equivalents of $68.0 million, an increase of $35.0 million from the December 31, 2022 balance of $33.0 million. During the six months ended June 30, 2023, we used $5.1 million for operating activities, used $1.2 million for investing activities, and generated $41.3 million from financing activities, which included net proceeds of $44.0 million from share issuances less $2.7 million Wyoming bond loan principal payment.In the first six months of 2023, we sold 100,000 pounds to the U.S. DOE uranium reserve program at an average price of $64.47. We now have three multi-year sales agreements, having recently added a third agreement to our contract book which calls for deliveries of 100,000 pounds U3O8 annually 2025 - 2027. Collectively, our agreements call for deliveries beginning in 2023 and continuing through 2028, with the possibility of deliveries continuing under one agreement into 2029. Including the already completed 100,000-pound sale, we expect to sell 280,000 pounds U3O8 in 2023 for $17.3 million. With the addition of our third multi-year sales agreement, our current anticipated revenues 2023 - 2028 will be approximately $220 million.Reconciliation of Non-GAAP measures with US GAAP financial statement presentationThe following tables include measures such as U3O8 sales, U3O8 cost of sales, U3O8 gross profit, U3O8 pounds sold, U3O8 price per pound sold, U3O8 cost per pound sold, and U3O8 gross profit per pound sold. These measures do not have standardized meanings within US GAAP or a defined basis of calculation. These measures are used by management to assess business performance and determine production and pricing strategies. They may also be used by certain investors to evaluate performance. These measures exclude disposal fees and lower of cost or NRV adjustments.U3O8 Sales, Cost of Sales, and Gross ProfitThe following table provides information on our U3O8 sales, cost of sales, and gross profit.Unit 2023 Q1 2023 Q2 YTD 2023 U3O8 Pounds Sold Producedlb 43,259 - 43,259 Purchasedlb 56,741 - 56,741 lb 100,000 - 100,000 U3O8 Sales Produced$000 2,789 - 2,789 Purchased$000 3,658 - 3,658 $000 6,447 - 6,447 U3O8 Cost of Sales Ad valorem and severance taxes$000 26 - 26 Cash costs$000 805 - 805 Non-cash costs$000 383 - 383 Produced$000 1,214 - 1,214 Purchased$000 2,415 - 2,415 $000 3,629 - 3,629U3O8 Gross Profit Produced$000 1,575 - 1,575 Purchased$000 1,243 - 1,243 $000 2,818 - 2,818 U3O8 Price per Pounds Sold Produced$/lb 64.47 - 64.47 Purchased$/lb 64.47 - 64.47 $/lb 64.47 - 64.47 U3O8 Cost per Pound Sold Ad valorem and severance taxes$/lb 0.60 - 0.60 Cash costs$/lb 18.61 - 18.61 Non-cash costs$/lb 8.85 - 8.85 Produced$/lb 28.06 - 28.06 Purchased$/lb 42.56 - 42.56 $/lb 36.29 - 36.29 U3O8 Gross Profit per Pound Sold Produced$/lb 36.41 - 36.41 Purchased$/lb 21.91 - 21.91 $/lb 28.18 - 28.18 U3O8 Gross Profit Margin Produced% 56.5% - 56.5%Purchased% 34.0% - 34.0% % 43.7% - 43.7%U3O8 Production and Ending InventoryThe following table provides information on our production and ending inventory of U3O8 pounds.Unit 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 2023 Q1 2023 Q2 2023 YTD U3O8 Production Pounds captured lb 74 85 156 4,392 4,548 Pounds drummed lb - - - Pounds shipped lb - - - Pounds purchased lb 40,000 - - - - U3O8 Ending Inventory Pounds In-process inventory lb 1,279 1,357 1,498 5,801 Plant inventory lb - - - - Conversion inventory - produced lb 267,049 267,049 223,790 223,790 Conversion inventory - purchased lb 56,741 56,741 - - lb 325,069 325,147 225,288 229,591 Value In-process inventory $000 - - - - Plant inventory $000 - - - - Conversion inventory - produced $000 7,488 7,488 6,275 6,275 Conversion inventory - purchased $000 2,415 2,415 - - $000 9,903 9,903 6,275 6,275 Cost per Pound In-process inventory $/lb - - - - Plant inventory $/lb - - - - Conversion inventory - produced $/lb 28.04 28.04 28.04 28.04 Conversion inventory - purchased $/lb 42.56 42.56 - - Conversion inventory average $/lb 30.58 30.58 28.04 28.04 Produced conversion inventory detail Ad valorem and severance tax $/lb 0.59 0.59 0.59 0.59 Cash cost $/lb 18.60 18.60 18.60 18.60 Non-cash cost $/lb 8.85 8.85 8.85 8.85 $/lb 28.04 28.04 28.04 28.04 Continuing Guidance for 2023Our ramp-up decision in December 2022 laid our foundation for 2023. Notwithstanding the winter endured in Wyoming this year, we were able to advance our wellfield construction and development plans to return to commercial production operations at Lost Creek, with the production flow initiated from HH 2-4 in May. Production rates increased noticeably in June. We continue to diligently work to optimize processes and refine production plans, supported by our experienced Lost Creek operational staff and new hires. We expect HH 2
The total registration and National Identity Numbers (NIN) issued stood at 22,492,748 in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

The bureau said this in its National Identity Registration Statistics for July 2023, released on Monday.

Total registration and NIN issued stood at 22,492,748 in 2022, with 12,643,563 males and 9,849,185 females, the NBS said.

According to the bureau, the figures reported cover the 36 states of the Federation, FCT and the Diaspora.

It said the 36 States and FCT recorded 22,237,022, while registrations in the diaspora were 255,726.

It said the top three states were Kano, Lagos and Kaduna, with 2,444,224, 2,097,912 and 1,256,479, respectively, while Bayelsa, Ekiti and Ebonyi recorded the lowest with 100,525, 141,534 and 165,375, respectively.

The NBS said the diaspora registrations cover Nigerian nationals residing in other countries.

The registrations and NIN issued to diaspora stood at 255,726 in 2022, with 140,496 males and 115,230 females, it said.

Zonal distribution

On zonal distribution, the bureau said the North-West had the highest registrations, and NIN issued with 7,207,695, followed by the South-West with 4,825,143.

However, it said the South-East had the least registrations, and NIN issued with 1,793,373.

The report said Niger State recorded the highest registrations and NIN issued in the North-central, with 368,131 males and 229,047 females.

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In contrast, Kogi State had the least registration and NIN issued, with 163,721 males and 144,960 females.

The report added that Bauchi State recorded the highest registrations and NIN issued in the North-East with 476,042 males and 288,184 females, while Taraba State had the least registrations and NIN issued with 202,471 males and 132,470 females.

Kano State recorded the highest registrations, and NIN issued in the North-West with 1,322,194 males and 1,122,030 females, while Zamfara State had the least registrations and NIN issued with 358,029 males and 125,228 females.

In the South-east zone, the bureau said Abia State recorded the highest registrations, and NIN issued with 359,119 males and 154,375 females, while Ebonyi State had the least registrations and NIN issued with 90,346 males and 75,029 females.

According to the report, Rivers State recorded the highest registrations, and NIN issued in the South-South with 338,291 males and 310,198 females, while Bayelsa State had the least registrations and NIN issued with 58,063 males and 42,462 females.

The report noted that Lagos State recorded the highest registrations and NIN issued in the South-West with 1,104,042 males and 993,870 females, while Ekiti State had the least registrations and NIN issued with 76,199 males and 65,335 females.

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Nigerian businessman Tunde Ayeni, who has been entangled in a messy paternity tussle with an Abuja-based lawyer, Adaobi Alagwu, has issued a statement denying the paternity of Ms Alagwus daughter.

It is the second time the businessman would publicly deny having a love child with Ms Alagwu, popularly known as an ex-contestant in The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant in 2014.

Mr Ayeni denied the claims in a press statement released in March 2023 but, however, confirmed that he was in a relationship with Ms Alagwu that ended in 2019.

This latest rebuttal comes on the heels of his wife, Abiola Ayenis recent viral interview wherein she said God gave her a revelation about the infidelity scandal that almost wrecked her marriage of 31 years.

To set the records straight, Mr Ayeni, a former chairperson of the defunct Skye Bank, released a strongly worded disclaimer published in major Nigerian dailies, including The Punch, on Monday.

Mr Ayeni, 56, in his statement, said, I, Dr Tunde Ayeni CON, hereby refute the noxious rumour concerning me and one Miss Adaobi Alagwu. Consequently, I find it pertinent to set the records straight permanently and for the last time.

I am not involved with Miss Alagwu, and I will never be again. I wish to affirm that I am a father to three wonderful children with my delectable wife, Abiola. These are the legitimate scions of the Ayeni dynasty. I do not have any child elsewhere.

DNA Test

The father-of-three also said a DNA test was conducted to ascertain the childs paternity.

He said, I hereby state that a DNA test was conducted to ascertain the childs paternity. However, for the sake of the child involved, even though we are NOT related to her, my wife and I have chosen not to speak of the content of the DNA.

The Kogi State-born businessman also debunked rumours about an affair with Ms Alagwu.

 The rumours alleging that I gave her certain material possessions, including a house, an office, and cars, are all lies. They are figments of the imagination of mischief makers, he said.

He also stated that the happiness and stability of his immediate family are of utmost importance to him.

Mr Ayeni is a Nigerian lawyer, investor, and business magnate. He holds board positions in companies throughout Nigeria.

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Celebrated Nigerian entertainer and comedian BasketMouth has been named the host of Netflixs upcoming Lights, CameraNaija Gala Event.

This Sunday, all roads will lead to the exclusive event in Lagos, Nigeria, hosted by BasketMouth, as Netflix will celebrate Nollywoods teeming pool of talented creatives whilst spotlighting the exciting state and potential of the industry.

The event is a celebration of the Nollywood industry, the stakeholders, producers, actors, veterans, Kannywood, the Yoruba movie industry, and everything about Nollywood.

Netflix described the event as an opportunity to celebrate Nigerian talents contributing to the industrys growth.

READ ALSO: Ministerial Nominees: Senate screens Keyamo, Mahmoud (LIVE UPDATES)

Arguably one of Nigerias foremost comedians, BasketMouths professional career has spanned 25 years, and his flagship stand-up comedy special  BasketMouth Uncensored, has toured the biggest stages locally and globally.

Justifying the choice of BasketMouth as the event host, Netflix, in a statement on Monday, described him as a multi-talented entertainer whose sterling career includes several producing and acting credits, as well as an active music career.

BasketMouth is most known for his wit and spontaneity, and with him at the helm of affairs, Lights, CameraNaija is set to be a night to remember, the statement read.

Watch the Announcement video here.

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The ECOWAS delegation to Niger led by former Nigerian military leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was humiliated Thursday by the Nigerien junta as the members were prevented from leaving the airport, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

A Nigerian government source briefed about the visit told this newspaper that the three-man team sent to negotiate with the junta leaders was not allowed into the country.

Before departing Abuja, the delegation had informed Niamey of its mission and the latter showed readiness to receive them, the source said. However, this turned out to be a plot to humiliate the sub-regional bloc.

ECOWAS on Wednesday named Mr Abubakar, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray and the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar III, as envoys to Niger. They were expected to engage all stakeholders robustly with a view to doing whatever it takes to ensure a conclusive and amicable resolution of the situation in Niger for the purposes of African peace and development.

According to the source, the delegation was received from the aircraft at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, when they arrived at the Niamey airport, by a five-man team led by General Moussa Barmou (Head of General Staff). The general, however, told them that they could not be allowed into the city, citing security reasons.

The delegation was taken to a room in the airport, the source told PREMIUM TIMES.

Pictures of the delegation and Niger soldiers sitting at a table emerged online last Thursday with many thinking that was part of the official meetings the ECOWAS delegation was sent to hold.

However, contrary to public perception, the picture was that of the ECOWAS leaders being kept in a room at the airport by the soldiers who came to receive them.

After about five hours of pleading to be allowed into the city to see the leader of the junta General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the team left Niger making no headway.

The ECOWAS delegation was told to return to Nigeria while the junta reviews their request and revert. They arrived in Nigeria at about 1:00 a.m. on Friday.

Third Delegation

The Abdulsalami-led delegation is however not the first delegation to be sent to Niger by ECOWAS. It is in fact the third.

In the early hours of Wednesday, 26 July, when President Mohamed Bazoum was still detained and the coup had not been officially announced, a three-member team led by the Director General of Nigerias National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, was also sent to negotiate with the coup leaders.

Former Governor of Katsina Aminu Masari and Chief of Air Staff Hassan Abubakar were part of the team, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

They were quickly dispatched to Niger when the news of President Bazoums detention came in.

However, as soon as the delegation left Niamey, the coup was declared; a clear indication that the mission failed.

Another delegation was sent after the coup was officially announced. The delegation was sent on the day the ECOWAS Heads of State met in Abuja in an emergency meeting convened by the chair, President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria.

The President of Chad, Mahamat Derby, was sent to Niger where he met with the junta leader, Mr Bazoum and former President Mahamadou Issoufou.

He offered the junta a soft landing which was also rejected.

The Chad leader shared pictures he took with Mr Bazoum and the coup leaders on the social networking platform, X (formerly called Twitter).

Apres avoir effectue ce matin un sejour eclair de consultation a Abuja au Nigeria sur linvitation du president Nigerian, President en exercice de la CEDEAO, jai boucle mon deplacement par une visite au #Niger qui traverse une crise politique majeure. A Niamey, jai eu des pic.twitter.com/jxiM0TCiXS  Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno (@GmahamatIdi) July 30, 2023

Benins President Patrice Talon was also sent to Niger. However, it remains unclear if he made the trip.

When asked about the outcome of the visit of the Abdulsalami-led delegation, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa, last Friday said Negotiations are ongoing, it is too early to preempt the outcome of the discussion.

PREMIUM TIMES also reached Mr Tinubus spokesperson Ajuri Ngalele for comments. In response, he shared a post he made on X which read, H.E. President @officialABAT on Sunday evening met with Governors of States that share boundaries with Niger Republic at the State House in Abuja. The meeting was part of wider consultations by the President on the situation in Niger.

The governors of Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe, Katsina, and Jigawa were in attendance at the meeting.

ECOWAS last Sunday issued a seven days ultimatum to the Niger putschists to ensure a return to democracy. However, the deadline lapsed Sunday night and there has been no formal announcement of the next line of action by the regional bloc.

ECOWAS defence chiefs met in Nigeria between Wednesday and Friday last week agreeing on a plan of action.

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 at the meeting of defence chiefs.

President Tinubu last week notified the National Assembly of the ECOWAS resolutions including the possibility of troops deployment. Parliamentary approval would be needed to deploy Nigerias troops.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Senate opposed troop deployment and advised Mr Tinubu and ECOWAS to explore a political solution to the crisis.

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LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's government vowed on Friday to use only appropriate force in protests planned for next week and guarantee demonstrators' safety, following alleged abuses during the previous series of clashes.

President Dina Boluarte met with top officials on Friday to discuss the need to guarantee protesters' human rights.

"We call upon the authorities to apply the legitimate use of force in accordance with the law and to guarantee the safety and integrity of those who will participate," Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said in a statement.

The government's pledge follows months of violent protests between December and March, during which human rights groups documented abuses and multiple "extrajudicial killings" committed by security forces against protesters.

The country has been gripped by unrest since former President Pedro Castillo was ousted and arrested in December after he illegally tried to dissolve Congress.

Various left-wing groups and unions in Peru have announced new protests starting on July 19 to demand Boluarte's resignation, the closure of Congress, early elections and a new constitution.

The organizers of the new protests say they expect thousands of people will be mobilized in the capital and around the southern area, where the country's largest mines are located.

The police have said they will deploy 8,000 officers to prevent possible disturbances and that they are already controlling the entry into capital Lima from outside.

The government also this week extended the state of emergency in key regions for 30 days.

"We call on citizens who want to exercise the right of assembly, the right to demonstrate and protest, to do so peacefully," Otarola added.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing by Isabel Woodford, Editing by Sandra Maler)
The Senate is currently in a closed-door session to deliberate on the fate of Festus Keyamo, a ministerial nominee from Delta State.

Mr Keyamos nomination has divided the Red Chamber over his past comments and actions while serving as a minister of state for labour and employment under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

His screening got off to a rocky start when Darlington Nwokocha, a Labour Party lawmaker from Abia State, raised a point of order shortly after Mr Keyamo finished his introduction.

Citing Section 88 of the Constitution, the senator said Mr Keyamo violated the Constitution in the past by ignoring summons from the two chambers of the National Assembly during the implementation of the Special Public Works Programme of the federal government.

Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation to direct or cause to be directed investigation into  any matter or thing with respect to which it has the power to make laws, and the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for, the Section reads in part.

Mr Nwokocha moved a motion that Mr Keyamos nomination be suspended pending investigation into his conduct.

The motion was seconded by Eyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia).

When the motion was put to vote by the presiding officer, Godswill Akpabio, there was no clear division between those against the motion and those in support.

While Mr Akpabio was hesitating to call the votes, a rowdy session ensued on the floor of the Senate as different camps were shouting ayes and nays.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, stood up from seat and cited Order 62 of the Senate and asked all the senators to calm down . When the senators were calm, the senate president said a lot of things were considered before nomination of Mr Keyamo.

Consequently, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion that the Senate moved into a closed session. The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom.

At exactly 2:00 p.m, the senate president directed that the Senate dissolved into closed-door session and ordered Mr Keyamo to step out of the chamber.

Background

PREMIUM TIMES reported the clash between Mr Keyamo and the lawmakers at a meeting with the joint committee of the National Assembly on employment and labour. The meeting was aimed at discussing the progress of the planned employment of 774,000 Nigerians by the federal government.

The National Assembly had in the 2020 budget appropriated N52 billion for the special public works programme aimed at employing 774,000 citizens, a thousand from each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

Mr Keyamo told journalists the inter-ministerial committee recommended a 20-member committee approved by the ministry.

He also said the lawmakers pressured him to submit the names of those involved in the recruitment process.

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Senate President Godswill Akpabio is currently at the Presidential Villa following a rowdy Senate session during the screening of Festus Keyamo, a nominee from Delta State, Channels Television is reporting.

Mr Akpabio reportedly arrived at the Villa at about 2.55 p.m., nearly one hour after the Senate went into a closed-door session to discuss Mr Keyamos fate.

A presidency source confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Akpabio is currently at the presidential villa but that his mission is unknown.

Yes, he is here, but we dont know why he is here, the source said.

Mr Akpabios visit is believed to tbe connected to the fate of Mr Keyamo, who was minister of state for labour and employment in the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Keyamo was Friday nominated to serve as minister by President Bola Tinubu.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that a rowdy session erupted in the Senate chamber following a point of order raised by Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), complaining that the nominee had in 2020 ignored the summons of the National Assembly over the implementation of the Special Public Works Programme of the federal government.

The motion was seconded by Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia Central).

This newspaper reported, in 2020, the clash between Mr Keyamo and the lawmakers at a meeting he had with the joint committee of the National Assembly on employment and labour. The meeting was aimed at discussing the progress of the planned employment of 774,000 Nigerians by the federal government.

The National Assembly had in the 2020 budget appropriated N52 billion for the special public works programme aimed at employing 774,000 citizens, a thousand from each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

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Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has arrived at the National Assembly from the Presidential Villa where he had gone on consultations over the screening of Festus Keyamo, a ministerial nominee from Delta State.

Mr Akpabio arrived at exactly 4.40 p.m. accompanied by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele.

The senate president was presiding over a closed-door session of the Senate when he left for the villa midway into the meeting.

It is not clear whether he was summoned by President Bola Tinubu or he was mandated by the senators to go to the villa.

Soon after they arrived, Messrs Akpabio and Bamidele went into the chamber where the senators are still holding a closed-door session

Meanwhile, Mr Keyamo was spotted around the entrance of the chamber with the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Abdullahi Gumel.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that a rowdy session erupted in the Senate chamber following a point of order raised by Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), complaining that the nominee had in 2020 ignored the summons of the National Assembly over the implementation of the Special Public Works Programme of the federal government.

The motion was seconded by Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia Central).

This newspaper reported the clash between Mr Keyamo and the lawmakers at a meeting he had with the joint committee of the National Assembly on employment and labour. The meeting was aimed at discussing the progress of the planned employment of 774,000 Nigerians by the federal government.

The National Assembly had in the 2020 budget appropriated N52 billion for the special public works programme aimed at employing 774,000 citizens, a thousand from each of the 774 local government areas in the country.

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The deputy governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has said that public commentators are giving wrong information regarding the function of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the 2023 elections.

The deputy governor represented his principal, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the maiden edition of the Lateef Jakande Annual Memorial Lecture at Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Ikeja, Lagos organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) on Monday.

Born in 1929, Lateef Jakande served as first civilian governor of Lagos from 1979 to 1983, and later as federal minister of works and housing under the Sani Abacha military regime.

He died on 11 February 2021 at 91.

The programme was themed Lateef Jakande: The Man, His Journalism, His Politics.

The lecture series was established to honour the memory of the founding president of the NGE, who played a crucial role in the formation and development of the professional body for editors.

Mr Hamzat, who attested to the exemplary life of the deceased, said that his father was the commissioner for transport during Mr Jakandes tenure as governor.

BVAS controversy

He said the biggest threats to Nigeria  overpopulation  is not being prioritised by public commentators.

The deputy governor who spoke extempore said he is an IT professional and has worked in the best companies in the world.

Public commentators are still talking about the election that has been won. And let me say this, I am an IT person, I am very proud to say it, I have worked with the best companies in the world, he said.

.we had an election, the ballot paper in Lagos is the same with the one in Abeokuta, it is the same in Awka. We voted.

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The BVAS was an equipment that authenticated people. It authenticates against a static database meaning that database is closed. So INEC said you must register and by this day you cant register again, so they closed their database.

What BVAS does is to say Femi Hamzat, you are in this polling unit, you can vote, thats all it does. It will check my credentials, thats all.

We did not vote in the BVAS, we voted manually in the paper, we took the paper manually to the box , it was taken out manually and counted manually.

Now what is BVAS actually transmitting? BVAS can take the picture of the paper EC89 (result sheet), that is signed. How do you transmit the catalogue of pictures?

Mr Hamzat noted that voting was not done on the BVAS machine but on ballot papers, adding that the controversy around the use of BVAS to transmit election results was needless.

We are a nation of intelligent people. Why are our public commentators not telling the truth? What is the problem? The EC89 is not automated, he said.

He further said that you cannot automate galleries of pictures, you cant query it. You can query data.

What INEC said about BVAS

Before the presidential election, INEC chairperson, Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke at the Chatham House said that the BVAS is for both voter accreditation and e-transmission of results for collation, adding that the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal offered the public access to view polling unit results.

Presidential tribunal

The election that saw the emergence of President Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the APC, is being challenged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi.

They are urging the court to nullify Mr Tinubus victory on account of alleged electoral fraud perpetrated by INEC, amongst other issues.

The election tribunal is still ongoing. Mr Tinubu and Hamzat are both members of the APC.

Jakandes private life

Meanwhile, Seyi, one of the children of the late Mr Jakande, delved into the private life of his father and how he hesitated before taking the role of a federal minister during the military regime of Mr Abacha.

The younger Jakande said that in 1993, after the presidential election was annulled, his father was approached by the late Moshood Abiola, the winner of the poll.

The late chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory appealed to Alhaji Jakande to come and serve under the late head of state Sani Abacha, he said.

Alhaji Jakande was reluctant at first because this was against his policies, against his principles but Chief MKO Abiola was adamant and insistedyou must accept.

He took it to his committee of friends. As always he always put things through democratic process and they put a vote to it.

I think about 99.9% said he must join the cabinet.

Speaking about his fathers achievement during his time as a federal minister, Mr Jakande said that although he built about 120,000 housing units as governor, he met a challenge  limited funds.

He went back to his thinking box. He said, What can we do? And they came up with the idea of Banana Island.

He said his father sandfilled it and sold it to the rich, generated money from there and subsidised the housing scheme.

Speaking further he said the late Mr Jakande never allocated any portion of the land to himself or his family members.

He said his mother deserved to be celebrated for allowing the deceased to be selfless.

She has allowed the Alhaji story to be what we have heard today. I want to thank her because she deserves a whole

He further said that during the deceaseds administration as a governor, he never allocated or gave anything to any member of his family. She (Mrs Jakande) stayed and lived with him at his Ilupeju residence.

He said that when the former governor built public schools, he moved us away from the air conditioned private school.

He believed that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The younger Mr Jakande appealed to the state government to rename the Lagos State University (LASU) as Lateef Jakande University in his memory.

Key comments

Segun Osoba, a former governor of Ogun State, described Mr Jakande as a father of journalism whose influence cuts across the country.

He said as a public officer, Mr Jakande created a political clinic, a consulting room where he met with ordinary citizens.

He lived in his own house, drove his own car, a whole governor, he said. He will sit down in his conference room (at his residence) and listen to everybody before he goes to bed.

I dont think I have seen any governor that is as grassrooted as Alhaji Jakande.

In his welcome speech, the NGE president, Eze Anaba, characterised the former governor as an incredible talent who lived an impactful life with a footprint everywhere.

His life amplified the values of honesty, integrity, equality and fairness, he said.

He told the stories of the powerless and held the powerful to account. He demonstrated commitment to journalistic freedom.

Also speaking the president of Nigeria Press Institute (IPI) and the Editor-in-chief of the PREMIUM TIMES newspaper, Musikilu Mojeed, said Mr Jakande brought IPI to Nigeria.

Musikilu Mojeed, the president of the Imternational Press Institute (IPI) and Editor-in-chief of PREMUIM TIMES newspaper speaking at the event

One important lesson is that there is need to document the history of IPI in Nigeria.

Describing the deceased as a contented man, he said he never worked with him but even after he left office as a federal minister he continued to offer service to humanity.

Sometimes in the late 90s, I was told that Alhaji was recommending people for employment.

One day, I went to his Illupeju home to witness the procedure, I met a large number of people sitting under a canopy that morning.

Mr Mojeed said the late politician interviewed all the job seekers one after the other and gave them recommendation letters to various employers, not that he had companies where he wanted to employ people but he will listen to you.

He will understand your capacity, your qualification and then he will ask the secretary to do letter for you. He did that as a job day after day. He will not leave until he attended to the last person.

Im told a number of young people got jobs that way. I can confirm that he gave me one of such letters at the time.

At the event, Sikirat Jakande, the widow of the former governor, was presented an award.

For Tola Adeniyi, a former editor of Daily Times and author, the deceased during his lifetime stood out as an enigma.

He was strict, loving and kind. He created his own path and followed it meticulously and thats why he was able to make the giant stride he made in Lagos, he said.

Present at the event was former presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu; Vanguard newspaper publisher, Sam Amuka; former commissioner of tourism in Lagos, Steve Ayorinde; former commissioner for information and commissioner nominee, Gbenga Omotoso, and Gboyega Akosile, Mr Sanwo-Olus chief press secretary, among others.

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Haruna Kolo, an ex-aide to the Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission, Muheeba Dankaka, has confessed to selling federal employment slots to job seekers at the directives of his former boss.

Mr Kolo made the confession on Monday while testifying before a House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating job racketeering at ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

In his testimony, Mr Kolo alleged that Ms Dankaka set up a job racketeering ring, collecting money from job seekers.

He stated that to avoid digital trails, Mrs Dankaka insists on cash only.

On the allegations of job racketeering, the FCC Chairman instructed me to liaise with one Mr Shehu who is a personal driver and PA to the Taraba State commissioner. As a desk officer, I am responsible to take whoever is employed to IPPIS for capturing. No one can go there without a letter from the chairman or Human Resource officer of FCC.

When she came, she wrote a letter to the Accountant General instructing that no letter from FCC should be honoured except she signs the letter. So whenever there was new employment, she signs, gives to me and I take to the Accountant Generals office for capturing.

Shehu is the one that brought those who paid monies to my account for the job, some paid N1 million others N1.5 million all to my personal account, my Eco bank account. She asked me to give cash to her which I did through POS so there is no evidence of transfer or anything, he said.

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Mr Kolo said the chairperson compensated him, alongside three others, with a job at the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) for the assignments he carried out. He said one of the beneficiaries is a sibling of Mrs Dankaka.

The second allegation on my subsequent employment at AMCON. The job was a result of her personal favour to me. We were four in number, and she gave the appointment letters to Khadijah, Olushola and I.

We all proceeded for an interview at AMCON headquarters in Abuja after which we were called upon for training on the 16th January 2023. After the training, Olushola and I were called to Lagos. Unfortunately, Khadijah, who is the chairmans biological sister was rejected. The chairman accused me of being responsible for her rejection, he narrated to the committee.

Mr Kolo also claimed that his life is under threat, and urged the committee to hold Ms Dankaka responsible if anything happened to him.

Sir, I want this committee to know that after this sitting if anything happens to me, the FCC chairperson should be held responsible,  Mr Kolo added.

Mrs Dankaka is facing allegations of corruption, nepotism and highheadedness in the handling of the commission. Most of the allegations are coming from commissioners in the commission.

Some commissioners had alleged that Mrs Dankaka has been demanding a percentage of employment slots from MDAs though she denied the claim, stating that it was a case of corruption fighting back.

Last week, she claimed that Mr Kolo and others forged her signature to give employment to people without her approval.

You ought to be arrestedPanel Chairman tells Kolo

Following the presentations, the Chairman of the Committee, Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau), said the witness ought to have been arrested for aiding and facilitating corruption.

He ruled that Mr Kolo will appear before the Committee on Tuesday and assured him that nothing will happen to him.

Federal Character, thank you for coming. Kolo appears here tomorrow. We are calling the other witnesses. We will allow you to do your work. Whosever that is found wanting will answer his fathers name, including Kolo Haruna.

See Haruna Kolo, I am not saying anything will happen to you but by law, you are not supposed to leave here without being arrested. For a civil servant that has thirty-something million in his account that admitted publicly that you are serving as a front to aid corruption.

So I am quiet, I think and I dont want to take you up on that because we dont want to be seen to be sentimental. We want to as much possible protect you to get evidence against you and against others, Mr Gagdi said.

Federal Character Commission

The Commission is a creation of the Constitution with the power to ensure that the composition of the government reflects the federal character of the country.

The commission serves as a clearing house for employment by all government agencies.

Section 14(3) provides that The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.

Section 4 of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) Act gives the commission the power to work out an equitable formula, subject to the approval of the President, for the distribution of all cadres of posts in the civil and the public services of the Federation and of the States, the armed forces, the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies, bodies corporate owned by the Federal or a State Government and Extra-Ministerial Departments and parastatals of the Federation and States.

Furthermore, section 5 of the Act provides that the FCC has the power to demand the details of all appointments.

The Commission shall have the power to demand and receive returns on employment and socio-economic indices from any enterprise or body corporate and penalise any enterprise which does not comply with a request from the Commission, section 5 (1e) of the Act reads.

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The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) Osita Okechukwu, has absolved President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of any blame in the nomination of only five people from the South-east as members of his cabinet.

Criticism had trailed Mr Tinubus ministerial list, with some South-east leaders accusing him of marginalising the zone.

While the zone was given its statutory five slots out of the 48 nominees, other zones got extra slots.

But answering questions from journalists in Enugu on Sunday on the perceived shabby treatment meted out to the South east, Mr Okechukwu, a foundation member of APC, quipped that without holding brief or defending the president: Instead of blaming him, we should rather blame our so-called South-east APC leaders.

As you are aware, I am not a President Tinubus apologist; however we must be diligent in our analysis by adopting pragmatic analysis.

My take is that we should more pungently blame our APCs leaders, who instead of genuine advancement of South-east interest were more or less petty in their lobby strategy. After all one chairs the APC Governors Forum, the foremost Power Bloc and the other was already in the Senate.

To be honest, I was worried when I noticed them blocking our first 11, and one ridiculously was busy rooting for himself as if he is the only qualified person from his state. Their strategy was akin to chasing rats, whilst others were bidding for elephants, he said.

Accused of playing blame games to gain favour, as Mr Tinubu a veteran politician does not need any lobby strategy to give the South-east their due shares, Mr Okechukwu reminded journalists that it was on record that he was the only one who in December 2021, publicly appealed to Mr Tinubu to support any Igbo in the race, and his men replied instantly that the kingmaker wants to be King.

Mr Okechukwu asked: Is it not because from day one these so-called leaders mangled and dislocated South-east APCs structures from ward level to state level that we scored the poorest regional presidential election score?

Secondly, is it not because they bidded petty, and blocked our first 11, that we lost the moral high ground for bigger cakes?

If there are blame games, they should be laid squarely where they belong most.

(NAN)

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SustyVibes, an environmental sustainability platform, in partnership with the German Embassy in Nigeria has said about 200 Nigerians would be empowered in its inaugural Bioverse NG Project.

According to a statement issued by the organisation and shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Monday by SustyVibes Head of Projects and Advisory Board Member, Sonia Ugwunna, Bioverse NG Project aims to educate participants about biodiversity and its vital role in maintaining a healthy and thriving planet.

This collaboration aims to empower 200 young Nigerians with a profound understanding of biodiversity and its crucial role in fostering a sustainable planet, the statement said, adding that interested young Nigerians should submit their applications on this link.

Significance

According to the organisers, the project represents a resolute commitment to understanding and appreciating Nigerias rich biodiversity for its role in sustaining a thriving environment.

Nigeria is one of the top biodiversity hotspots in the world. However, over the past few decades, the countrys plethora of biodiversity has come under significant threat amid a rapidly growing population.

Recently, Nigeria emerged as a major international illegal wildlife trade source, destination and transit country for illegal wildlife trade globally after it was established that the countrys population of more than 200 million is a major player in the value chains of rosewood, elephant ivory and pangolin scales, among other illegal wildlife commodities being trafficked globally.

Our project would bring together stakeholders involved in the project, along with government representatives, for a comprehensive dialogue on climate change and biodiversity in Nigeria, the statement said.

In her remarks, SustyVibes founder, Jennifer Uchendu, said: The Bioverse NG project affords us a platform to rejuvenate youth participation and leadership on biodiversity and climate change dialogues in Nigeria.

She described the initiative as a project for young people by young people, and that it has been designed to help build and maintain the agency, optimism, and resilience needed in these times of polycrisis.

Concerns

According to the statement, the planet is facing the largest loss of biodiversity since the industrial age, with approximately one million plant and animal species at risk of extinction.

It said the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), had issued alarming reports on the dire consequences of this crisis, which affect millions of lives, particularly in vulnerable regions like Nigeria.

Now more than ever, the issue of biodiversity needs to be brought to the forefront and tackled holistically, the statement noted.

By emphasising the importance of knowledge dissemination as a crucial player in climate action, SustyVibes said with the help from the German Embassy, they are committed to realigning the discussion and actions around the environment to environmental conservation and empowering Nigerian youths through Climate and Biodiversity Education.

On her part, Annett Gunther, German Ambassador to Nigeria, said: The biodiversity crisis affects the climate crisis: changes in biodiversity, i.e. through changes in land use, deforestation, overexploitation of natural resources, and pollution, have a negative impact on the climate system.

She hinted that the BIOVERSE NG project will allow them to establish cross-connections and synergies between climate and environmental protection, as well as nature conservation.

Through the Project, young people can learn and become multipliers in their communities. Germany is committed to working towards a sustainable and green future  this is a priority of our foreign policy, she said.

Project details

The organisers said the project will include a six-week virtual learning workshop that will provide young Nigerians with vast knowledge of the links between climate change and biodiversity while also representing input from persons living with disabilities, women, indigenous people, and local community members who are at the frontline of climate action and biodiversity protection.

They said the project will also bring onboard climate and biodiversity experts from reputable institutions to ensure participants receive practicable insights and learnings.

The project will also host regional dialogues that enable participants to engage with key stakeholders in Nigerias climate and biodiversity sector. To participate, apply here:, the statement said.

In addition, SutyVibes said the project will offer internship placements to the top three participants in the workshop, providing them with practical experience in climate action and biodiversity projects, and allowing them to contribute and learn from professionals in the field.

The project, they said, will culminate in a national conference that would bring together stakeholders involved in the project, along with government representatives, for a comprehensive dialogue on climate change and biodiversity in Nigeria.

The conference will also centre on the voices of young workshop participants, who will share their insights and perspectives, driving the narrative and shaping the future of environmental conservation in Nigeria, the statement added.

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The police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have assured residents and tourists attending the grand finale of the annual Osun Osogbo Festival of adequate security.

The security agencies, in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Osogbo, said arrangements were in place for adequate security for the event.

Yemisi Opalola, the spokesperson for the police in Osun, told NAN that adequate personnel would be deployed during the festivals grand finale holding on Friday in Osogbo.

Mrs Opalola said the police and other security agencies would provide water-tight security before and during the festival.

She called on parents and guardians to caution their children to be law-abiding at the event.

Kehinde Adeleke, the NSCDC spokesperson in Osun, spoke in the same vein.

Mrs Adeleke said the state commandant of the corps, Agboola Sunday, had made arrangements for security for the festival.

She said the command would deploy personnel to strategic locations in the state, adding that the command is also in synergy with other sister agencies to protect lives and property during the event

The commandant, therefore, call on unscrupulous elements, who are planning to cause a breach of peace during this festival, to desist or be ready to face the full wrath of the law, she said.

The Osun Osogbo festival, which dates back many centuries, is usually celebrated in an ancient grove believed to be among the last of the sacred forests among Yoruba cities.

Recognising its global significance and cultural value, the Sacred Grove was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

For the people of Osogbo, the festival symbolises the traditional cleansing of the town and the cultural reunion of the people with their ancestors and founders of the Osogbo kingdom. (NAN)

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Civil servants in Oyo State returned to their desks on Monday, calling off a week-long strike.

The strike was called by the states chapters of organised labour.

The civil servants began the strike on July 31 to protest the non-payment of salary deductions, leave bonuses and also to demand a review of pension allowances.

The strike, called by the NLC, the Trade Union Congress, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, paralysed government activities during the period.

The workers demanded that Governor Seyi Makinde must address them personally and not through proxies on all contentious issues before they would call off the strike.

Consequently, the governor addressed the aggrieved workers at the entrance of the civil service secretariat on Monday.

He appealed to the workers to return to work and assured them that their demands would be looked into in due course.

Mr Makinde noted that the one-week protest had impacted the states internally generated revenue negatively and pledged that quarterly meetings would be held with union leaders to address workers demands.

In his remarks, the NLC chairperson in Oyo State, Kayode Martins, said the unions decided to end the protest because the governor had yielded to some of their demands.

Also, the governor just promised to give speedy attention to other demands, he noted. (NAN)

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The Lagos State Government on Sunday announced the suspension of the General Manager of the Lagos State Infrastructure and Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA), Adenike Adekanbi.

The decision followed the recommendation by the panel earlier set up to investigate the circumstances that surrounded the death of Vwaere Diaso, a medical doctor.

Ms Diaso was trapped in a faulty elevator that crashed at the doctors staff quarters on 1 August at the Lagos General Hospital, Odan.

LASIAMA is the agency that oversees the activities of the facility management company in charge of the staff quarters where Ms Diaso died.

The new development is in a statement shared on the official X (formerly Twitter) page of the Lagos State Government on Sunday.

According to the statement, an unnamed facility management company in charge of the staff quarters has also been sacked and blacklisted by the government.

The statement reads in part, The operations and line of reporting of the facility managers have been restructured to involve the hospital management directly.

We have handed the installation and maintenance contractors to the police for further investigation and likely prosecution if they are found culpable. The police will also investigate anyone else that might have been found to be negligent.

Probe panels narrative

According to the panels findings, the government noted that the incident happened around 6.50 p.m. and that due to the impact, the elevator doors were damaged and needed to be forced open to rescue the trapped house officer.

She was extracted at about 7.50 p.m., and resuscitation commenced immediately. She was wheeled to the emergency room and was immediately attended to by a medical team led by a highly experienced consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon.

The team was assisted by all house officers who were present at the time. The initial objectives were to ensure a clear airway, maintain breathing, and establish circulation. The team was also joined by two consultant anaesthetists, including the Medical Director, who intubated the patient.

Despite all the efforts, she stopped breathing around 8.13 p.m., and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) commenced. This went on until 8.59 p.m. when she was pronounced dead.

Govt debunks alleged blood scarcity

Meanwhile, the government has also denied the allegation that the deceased died due to the unavailability of blood for transfusion at the hospitals blood bank.

The statement noted that: It is important to state that blood samples for cross-matching had not been taken and there had not been a request for blood at the time CPR commenced; it is not true that blood was not available.

The state has a strong network of screening centres where blood is available. Besides, there is a register of voluntary donors who can be mobilised at very short notice.

New elevator installed

The government added that the crashed elevator was new when it was installed in 2021, noting that experts working with the Lagos Safety Commission have carried out an initial inspection.

It noted that the elevator would be removed for further mechanical examination to determine why the safety features preventing such an accident did not work.

All our staff are fully insured. We have informed our life insurance providers about this incident, it added.

The states safety commission has been directed to immediately carry out an audit of all elevators in public offices.

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Reverend Bertrand Olivier, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, says the annual event is an opportunity for people to gather, sing and understand that they belong. (Henia Ould-Hammou/CBC - image credit)

Tatenda Mandenga stood before a congregation in a downtown Montreal cathedral on Sunday and spoke the words he was long forced to swallow in his home country.

"I'm gay and I own it. This is who I am," he said.

The 30-year-old refugee from Zimbabwe, who arrived in Canada last November via Roxham Road, fled his country due to his sexuality, saying he was not free to be himself.

"There's freedom for me here," he said of Montreal. "I'm so excited to meet other people like me, so this is home for me."

Tatenda Mandenga, a gay refugee from Zimbabwe, says he can finally embrace his sexuality in Montreal. (Francois Sauve/Radio-Canada)

Mandenga was one of several people who spoke before an altar adorned with rainbow-coloured flags and streamers in Christ Church Cathedral on Ste-Catherine Street, part of the church's celebrations for Montreal Pride.

The annual service included readings, prayers, and music by several groups, including the church's own choir, the Ensemble Vocal Ganymede and the Chur Gai de Montreal.

Rev. Bertrand Olivier, dean of the cathedral, said the event is an opportunity for people to gather, sing and understand that they belong.

"We're all God's children, we're all welcome, we're all loved  despite the world being not an easy place this year, in particular for LGBTQ2S+ people," he said, pointing to a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate in Canada.

The Chur Gai de Montreal, a choir of men predominantly from Montreal's LGBTQ+ community, took part in the festivities by performing a compilation of songs by Elton John outside the cathedral. (Henia Ould-Hammou/CBC)

'Included, wanted, loved'

Olivier, who is also gay, said it was important for his church community to be inclusive of all, no matter how uncomfortable the journey to acceptance was.

"At the heart of Montreal, in a place that is multicultural and also very open and welcoming, we also believe that God asked us to be welcoming to people of all backgrounds, genders and sexualities," he said.

Story continues

Following the service, Jean-Paul Bernier walked out of the church's doors and embraced Olivier.

Bernier said being part of the event was a beautiful experience.

"I grew up Catholic, so it's nice to feel included, wanted, loved," he said.

Several attendees said the service was beautiful and sent a message of acceptance. (Henia Ould-Hammou/CBC)

Vera Burt, a regular member of the congregation, said she came out to show her support for what the event represents.

"It means that we're encompassing everybody in our community," she said.

For Sarah Wickz-Potter, having a Pride celebration inside a church means honouring what God wants.

"I think God wants us to love each other and to be happy with the full spectrum of humanity," she said. "I'm really, really grateful that the community here does this."

Amid the revelry, Olivier said people must not neglect the prevalence of anti-LGBTQ+ hate, irrespective of their religion.

"It's easy to feel that we've achieved a kind of equality and people are secure, but around the world, and even in Canada and Quebec, it's not all won," he said.

"We need to remember that, as we receive that security, that love, we need to keep fighting for others."
The Senate will today screen the two fresh ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu.

Those that will face Senate scrutiny are Festus Keyamo (Delta) and Mariya Mahmoud (Kano).

Mr Tinubu forwarded their names to the upper house for confirmation as ministers on Wednesday.

While Mrs Mahmoud, a former commissioner in Kano State, replaced Maryam Shetty, initially a nominee from the state, Mr Keyamo, the minister of state for labour and employment in the immediate past Buhari administration, is a fresh nominee.

Last Friday, Mr Tinubu had written to the Senate, withdrawing the nomination of Ms Shetty though he did not give any reason for the action.

The National Chairman of the APC and former Kano governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, however, said in a media interview, on Saturday that he was not consulted before Ms Shetty was nominated and had no hand in her withdrawal. He revealed that Mr Tinubu subsequently asked him to nominate a woman from the state to replace Ms Shetty, hence the choice of Mrs Mahmoud.

The new nominee served as commissioner for higher education under Mr Ganduje, who was governor of Kano State from 2015 to 2023.

So far, 46 out of the 48 ministers-designate have been screened.

The senators shelved the commencement of their annual recess last week to screen the ministerial nominees submitted to it in two separate correspondences to the lawmakers.

Mr Tinubu had through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, on 27 July sent the first list of 28 nominees to the Senate for confirmation. He sent the second list of 19 nominees on 3 August.

The Senate, as usual, will conduct todays screening, which is expected to begin at 11 a.m. at the Committee of the Whole statutorily presided over by the senate president as chairman. It is also expected that it will take a decision on the confirmation or rejection of any of the nominees.

After the exercise, the upper chamber will revert to plenary during which the senate president will announce the outcome.

PREMIUM TIMES will bring you live updates of the screening from the Senate chamber. Also, follow us on our Facebook, YouTube and Twitter channels.

12:17 a.m: The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, arrives at the Senate chamber for the commencement of todays proceedings.

Mr Akpabio arrives in company of his deputy, Barau Jibrin, and other principal officers of the Senate.

The senate president is leading the prayer session.

12:20: The prayer session ended and the senate president takes his seat.

12:22:The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moves a motion for presentation of a bill titled Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill, 20223.

The senate leader has raised a point of order to continue with the request of President Bola Tinubu for screening and confirmation of the remaining nominees.

Mr Opeyemi raised also raised a motion to suspend its rules and allow the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on legislative matters and other visitors to enter the Senate chamber.

The motion was seconded by the Senate Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, and the senate president subsequently approved suspension of the Senate rules and visitor are allowed to enter the Senate chamber.

The senate leader has raised a point of order to allow the Senate dissolved into the Committee of Whole to continue the screening of the nominees.

The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, and the senate president subsequently disslved tnto the Senate into the Committee of the Whole.

12:32 p.m.: The nominee from Kano State, Dr Mariya Mahmoud Bunkuture, is addressing the Senate.

The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, is whispering in the ear of the senate president.

The Kano nominee said she graduated from Bayero University, Kano in 2005 and was deployed to Plateau State for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Barau Jibrin, the deputy senate president (APC, Kano North), commended President Bola Tinubu for nominating the nominee. Mr Jibrin said she is one of Kanos best..He said the nominee came from a poor family yet she was able to become a doctor from the so-called conservative north.

Mr Jibrin said she is an epitome of her culture and tradition. He said he wants his children to emulate the characters of Dr Bunkuture.

The deputy senate president appealed to the Senate to allow the nominee to respond to few questions and take a bow.

Suleiman Kawu , the senator representing Kano South where the nominee hails from, said the people of Kano State was excited when they heard the news of her nomination.

Senator Kawu appreciated President Tinubu for nominating Dr Mahmoud Bunkuture.

Mr Kawu said the nominee is a grassroot person and had played important roles in the grassroot politics.

The senator appealed to the Senate to allow Dr Mariya Mahmoud Bunkuture take a bow and leave.

Senator Osita Izunaso (APC, Imo West) commend President Bola Tinubu for appointing the nominees. He asked the nominee what advice she would give the federal government in preparation to fight pandemic in future.

Tony Nwoye, the Senator representing Anambra North, appreciated President Bola Tinubu for appointing the nominee. Mr Nwoye said the appointment of the nominee showed that labour pays.

Senator Nwoye asked how the nominee planned to help immunization in the northern part of the country.

Senator Dave Umahi (Ebonyi South) also commended the nominee for her achievements. Mr Umahi appreciated President Bola Tinubu for appointing Dr Mariya Mahmoud.

Senator Rufai Hanga (NNPP, Kano Central) said he supports the nominee.

Mr Umahi asked the nominee about medical personnel that work in public and private hospitals, noting that his father died as a result of the practice. He asked what the nominee would do to address the problem.

Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno) asked a question on the qualifications of foreign-trained medical doctors. He asked the nominee why there is a high rate of failure when taking the MDCN examination.

Darlington Nwokocha, the senator representing Abia Central, asked the Kano nominee whether the nominee will advocate for history as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools.

The senate president asked the nominee of her opinion on training and retraining of doctors and teachers.

Responding to the questions, the nominee said Nigeria tried with managing the COVID-19, adding that Nigeria must learn from experience and set aside money for outbreaks and pandemics.

On foreign trained MBBS students. She said diseases differ across different countries, and students that are trained overseas may not get cases of diseases that are prevalent in Nigeria. She said students should take advantage of internships.

Responding to question, Dr Mahmoud said the decision to make history a compulsory subject in schools depend on the collective decision of Nigerians. She urged the Senate to constitute a committee to make the decision.

She said there is a need to ensure a proper cost-benefit analysis.

The Kano nominee, Dr Mahmoud was subsequently asked by the senate president to take a bow and go.

1:24p.m: Festus Kenyamo, the nominee from Delta State, has come into the Senate chamber.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio asked Mr Kenyam introduce to the Senate and asked the nominee to tell the senators about himself.

Mr Keyamo is currently addressing the Senate.

Mr Keyamo said he was packing his luggage to go on a vacation with his family when he received the news that President Bola Tinubu had nominated him for the ministerial appointment.

Mr Keyamo, whose father is from Delta State, informed the senators that his mother his from Ilaro, a community in Ogun State.

Mr Keyamo said he fought on behalf ot the Nigerian Senate when he won a case at the Federal High Court to allow all service chiefs be screened and confirmed by the Senate after appointment from the president.

Darlington Nwokocha (Abia Central) raised a point of order relying on Section 88 of the Constitution and moved a motion asking the Senate to step down the screening of Mr Keyamo on the ground that he ignored the invitation of the National Assembly in 2020 when he was minister to explain the issue of the Special Public Works Programme of the federal government

Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia South) seconded the motion. This nominee rejected the summons of both the House of Representatives and the Senate pending when this National Assembly has that right to summon a minister and further enquiries made.

Senate is in rowdy session over the motion on the suspension of the nomination of Mr Keyamos screening. Some are shouting yes while others are shooting no after Mr Akpabio put the motion to vote.

Some of the senators are whispering in the ear of the senate president while others are standing up protesting that the nomination of Mr Keyamo be suspended.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio stood up from seat and cited Order 62 of the Senate allowing all the senators to calm down. When the senators were calm, the Senate President said a lot of things were considered before nomination of Mr Keyamo.

The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion that the Senate moved into a closed session and seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom.

At 2:00 p.m, the Senate President directed that the Senate should go into closed-door session and ordered Mr Keyamo to step out of the chamber.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, stood up from seat and cited Order 62 of the Senate and asked all the senators to calm down . When the senators were calm, the senate president said a lot of things were considered before nomination of Mr Keyamo.

Consequently, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion that the Senate moved into a closed session. The motion was seconded by the Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwom.

At exactly 2:00 p.m, the senate president directed that the Senate dissolved into closed-door session and ordered Mr Keyamo to step out of the chamber.

4.40 p.m: Akpabio returns from the Presidential Villa where he had consultations over Festus Keyams screening.

After the Senate President returned from the villa, he entered into a closed-door session with other senators inside the senate chamber.

At 4:56pm, Festus Keyamo was seen going into the Senate chamber where the closed-door meeting was taking place in company with the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Abdullahi Gumel.

5.20 p.m: Senate resumes sitting at Committee of the Whole after closed-door session after about 3 hours.

The Senate President Godswill Akpabio granted Festus Keyamo the permission to address the Senate.

Mr Keyamo is addressing the Senate.

Mr Keyamo apologised to the Senate for his conduct. He said the apology is without reservation.

Mr Keyamo explained that the disbursement of the N52 billion was supervised by Central Bank of Nigeria and the payment was made to all intended beneficiaries and that he didnt get a dime from the money.

Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, said the senate president should put a question forward to the senators whether the Senate has accepted the apology or not.

Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, said the senate president should put a question forward to the senators whether the Senate has accepted the apology or not.

Mr Ndume therefore moved a motion that the Senate accept apology of the senate and conducted himself properly in the future.

The Senate President Godswill Akpabio ruled that the Senate accepts Mr Keyamos apology after all the senators voted in support of Mr Ndumes motion..

At 5:38 pm, the Senate granted Mr Keyamo permission to take a bow and go . Mr Keyamo has stepped out of the Senate.

The screening of the 48 nominees comes to an end.

Ministers-designate screened since Monday last are:

South-South Zone  8 nominees

1. Ekperikpe Ekpo (Akwa Ibom)

2. Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa)

3. Betta Edu (Cross River)

4. John Enoh (Cross River)

5. Stella Okotete (Delta)

6. Festus Keyamo (Delta)

7. Abubakar Momoh (Edo)

8. Nyesom Wike (Rivers)

South East Zone  5

9. Nkiru Onyejiocha (Abia)

10. Uju Ohaneye (Anambra)

11. David Umahi (Ebonyi)

12. Uche Nnaji (Enugu)

13. Doris Uzoka (Imo)

South West Zone  9

14. Dele Alake (Ekiti)

15. Tunji Alausa (Lagos)

16. Lola Ade John (Lagos)

17. Ishak Salako (Ogun)

18. Bosun Tijjani (Ogun)

19. Olawale Edun (Ogun)

20. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (Ondo)

21. Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun)

22. Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo)

North East Zone  8

23. Tahir Mamman (Adamawa)

24. Yusuf M Tuggar (Bauchi)

25. Ali Pate (Bauchi)

26. Abubakar Kyari (Borno)

27. Alkali Ahmed Saidu (Gombe)

28. Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba)

29. Sani Danladi (Taraba)

30. Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe)

North West Zone  10

31. Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa)

32. Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna)

33. Maryam Mairiga Mahmoud (Kano)

34. Abdullahi T Gwarzo (Kano)

35. Ahmad Dangiwa (Katsina)

36. Hanatu Musawa (Katsina)

37. Yusuf Tanko Sununu (Kebbi)

38. Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi)

39. Bello M Goronyo (Sokoto)

40 Bello Matawalle (Zamfara)

North Central Zone  8

41. Joseph Utsev (Benue)

42. Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo (FCT)

43. Shuaibu A Audu (Kogi)

44. Lateef Fagbemi (Kwara)

45. Imaan S-Ibrahim (Nasarawa)

46. Mohammed Idris (Niger)

47. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger)

48. Simon Lalong (Plateau)

SS-8, SE-5, SW-9, NE-8, NW-10, NC-8

The Senate is still in the Committee of the Whole reviewing the process that has just ended. The upper house may announce the confirmation of the ministerial nominees or reject any of them as the case may be.

6:04 pm: Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved a motion for the Senate to disslolve into a closed-door session to discuss important issue. The Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, seconded the motion.

Senate begins confirmation of nominees for the ministerial appointments one after the other at plenary.

Senate confirms 45 out of the 48 nominees. It defers the confirmation of three others namely Nasir El-Rufai ( Kaduna) Sani Danladi (Taraba) and Stella Okotete (Delta) for security reasons.

Those confirmed are:

South-South Zone  7 nominees

1. Ekperikpe Ekpo (Akwa Ibom)

2. Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa)

3. Betta Edu (Cross River)

4. John Enoh (Cross River)

5. Festus Keyamo (Delta)

6. Abubakar Momoh (Edo)

7. Nyesom Wike (Rivers)

South East Zone  5

8. Nkiru Onyejiocha (Abia)

9. Uju Ohaneye (Anambra)

10. David Umahi (Ebonyi)

11. Uche Nnaji (Enugu)

12. Doris Uzoka (Imo)

South West Zone  9

13. Dele Alake (Ekiti)

14. Tunji Alausa (Lagos)

15. Lola Ade John (Lagos)

16. Ishak Salako (Ogun)

17. Bosun Tijjani (Ogun)

18. Olawale Edun (Ogun)

19. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (Ondo)

20. Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun)

21. Adebayo Adelabu (Oyo)

North East Zone  7

22. Tahir Mamman (Adamawa)

23. Yusuf M Tuggar (Bauchi)

24. Ali Pate (Bauchi)

25. Abubakar Kyari (Borno)

26. Alkali Ahmed Saidu (Gombe)

27. Uba Maigari Ahmadu (Taraba)

28. Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe)

North West Zone  9

29. Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa)

30. Maryam Mairiga Mahmoud (Kano)

31. Abdullahi T Gwarzo (Kano)

32. Ahmad Dangiwa (Katsina)

33. Hanatu Musawa (Katsina)

34. Yusuf Tanko Sununu (Kebbi)

35. Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi)

36. Bello M Goronyo (Sokoto)

37. Bello Matawalle (Zamfara)

North Central Zone  8

38. Joseph Utsev (Benue)

39. Zephaniah Bitrus Jisalo (FCT)

40. Shuaibu A Audu (Kogi)

41. Lateef Fagbemi (Kwara)

42. Imaan S-Ibrahim (Nasarawa)

43. Mohammed Idris (Niger)

44. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger)

45. Simon Lalong (Plateau)

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ECOWAS Chair and Nigerias President, Bola Tinubu, has convened another Extraordinary Summit of the Authority to discuss the political situation in Niger.

The Summit will be held in Abuja, on Thursday, and is expected to decide whether or not it is willing and ready to use force to return Niger to constitutional democracy.

According to an ECOWAS memo, the leaders will be considering and discussing the political situation and recent developments in Niger.

This will be the second ECOWAS meeting to discuss the Niger coup.

At the end of its first meeting, over a week ago, ECOWAS condemned the coup in Niger and imposed sanctions on the land-locked country.

The sanctions include the closure of land and air borders and the freezing of accounts. Also, ECOWAS issued a seven days ultimatum for the reinstatement of President Mohamed Bazoum by the putschists.

The ultimatum ended yesterday (Sunday) and there has since been uncertainty about what the next line of action will be for the regional bloc.

ECOWAS had threatened to use force if its demand is not met by the Niger junta but many in Nigeria, including the countrys parliament, are opposed to the deployment of troops. Nigeria is expected to provide a large chunk of the troops that will be sent to Niger if ECOWAS decides to use force.

The threat by ECOWAS, however, appears not to have moved the putschists in Niger.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Niger junta have remained defiant and refused to meet with the last ECOWAS delegation to the country.

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The first elected governor of Lagos State, Lateef Jakande, joined the government of the late military dictator, Sani Abacha, against his principles, his son told journalists on Monday.

Seyi Jakande delved into his fathers private life during the maiden edition of the Lateef Jakande Annual Memorial Lecture at Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Ikeja, Lagos, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE).

Born in 1929, the late Mr Jakande served as civilian governor of Lagos from 1979 to 1983 and later as a federal minister of works and housing under the Sani Abacha military regime.

He died on 11 February 2021 at 91.

The programme was themed Lateef Jakande: The Man, His Journalism, His Politics.

The lecture series was established to honour the memory of the founding president of the guild, who played a crucial role in the formation and development of the professional body for editors.

Abachas cabinet

Speaking more on his fathers private life, the younger Jakande said that in 1993, after the presidential election was annulled, the deceased was approached by the late Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the poll.

The late Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory appealed to Alhaji Jakande to come and serve under the late head of state Sani Abacha, he said.

READ ALSO:

Alhaji Jakande was reluctant at first because this was against his policies, against his principles, but Chief MKO Abiola was adamant and insistedyou must accept.

He took it to his committee of friends. As always he always put things through the democratic process, and they put a vote to it.

I think about 99.9% said he must join the cabinet.

Speaking about his fathers achievement during his time as a federal minister, Mr Jakande said that although he constructed about 120,000 housing units while governor in Lagos, he met a challenge  limited funds.

He went back to his thinking box. He said, What can we do? And they came up with the idea of Banana Island.

He said his father sand-filled it and sold it to the rich, generated money from there and subsidised the housing scheme.

Speaking further, he said the late Jakande never allocated any portion of the land to himself or a family member.

He said his mother deserved to be celebrated for allowing the deceased to be selfless.

She has allowed the Alhaji story to be what we have heard today. I want to thank her because she deserves a whole

He further said that during the deceaseds administration as a governor, he never allocated or gave anything to any member of his family. She (Mrs Jakande) stayed and lived with him at his Ilupeju residence, even as the first lady.

He said that when the former governor built public schools, he moved us away from the air-conditioned private school.

He believed that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The young Jakande appealed to the state government to rename the Lagos State University (LASU) as Lateef Jakande University in his memory.

Keynote comments

Segun Osoba, a former governor of Ogun State, described the late Mr Jakande as a father of journalism whose influence cut across the country.

He said as a public officer, Mr Jakande created a political clinic, a consulting room where he met with ordinary citizens.

He lived in his own house, drove his own car, a whole governor, he said. He will sit down in his conference room (at his residence) and listen to everybody before he goes to bed.

I dont think I have seen any governor that is as grass rooted as Alhaji Jakande.

In his welcome speech, the NGE president, Eze Anaba, characterised the former governor as an incredible talent who lived an impactful life with a footprint everywhere.

His life amplified the values of honesty, integrity, equality and fairness, he said.

He told the stories of the powerless and held the powerful to account. He demonstrated commitment to journalistic freedom.

The Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was represented at the event by his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, who attested to the exemplary life the deceased lived.

He said that his father was the commissioner for transport during the deceaseds tenure as the governor of Lagos.

Mr Hamzat also spoke concerning the aftermath of the 2023 elections and the use of BVAS by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He said that public commentators are not prioritising issues that ought to be prioritised. He added that they were discussing an election that had been won already.

He said they were not telling the truth about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Mr Hamzat noted that voting was not done on the BVAS machine but on ballot papers, adding that the controversy around the use of BVAS to transmit election results was not needed.

Present at the event were the younger Mr Jakandes wife, Sikirat, and former presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu, among others.

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Festus Keyamo, a ministerial nominee from Delta State, has apologised to the National Assembly for ignoring the summons of its committees while serving as minister of state for labour and employment in the last administration.

He tendered the apology at the resumption of screening on Monday after the Senate had moved to suspend his screening and confirmation.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Senate paused his screening following a motion moved by Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia), who had raised a point of order that Mr Keyamos screening he stepped down to allow investigation into his conduct during the investigation into the N52 billion Special Public Works Programme of the federal government in 2020.

I want to bring to the notice of this chamber that sometime in 2020, an issue came up, and that issue was the public work programme. We all welcomed it with open armsthen it is N20,000 to 1,000 persons in every local government.

At a point, we wanted to carry out our responsibility. At that point, we invited the nominee (Keyamo) to tell us his side, what happened? What are the indices used to determine the selection? He told us in public that we wanted to hijack the process. That we are corrupt. When we asked him, he said, The people are not from the moon, which is very arrogant. What happened to the N52 billion? He has to tell us, but not here. We should step down his nomination, he said.

The motion, seconded by Eyinnanya Abaribe, later caused a rowdy session on the floor of the Senate.

Subsequently, the Senate moved into a closed-door session following the impasse on the floor.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, reportedly dashed to the Villa while the closed-door session was in progress. He arrived at the Villa at about 2.55 p.m., nearly one hour after the Senate went into a closed-door session to discuss Mr Keyamos fate.

Upon the resumption of screening after about three hours pause, Mr Keyamo apologised to the lawmakers in his speech. He said the dispute with the committee had already been resolved, noting that it was just a misunderstanding.

The matter had long been resolved between us and the members of that committee. Subsequently, there were so many other hearings, budget defence, and we attended them under a very convivial atmosphere. The apology is without reservation, Mr Keyamo said.

Apology

Speaking further on the SWP project, he explained that the money was paid to the selected people. He noted that the money was paid directly to them.

The only thing I need to sayone, when Nigerians hear a figure, their ears go up. Regarding that programme, every single payment, and I insisted to the former president, that it must come directly from the CBN to the account of the people nominated to receive the money.

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So, we as ministers  both ministers and the agency that we supervised, never saw one kobo. What we needed to do was to generate the list and pass it to the CBN. The details are at the NDE. I am sorry, I am sorry for that misunderstanding, he said.

Speaking in support of the nominee, Godiya Akwashiki (SDP, Nasarawa), who chaired the Senate Committee on Labour in the 9th Assembly, said the matter was resolved then, saying Mr Keyamo attended several other committee invitations afterwards.

He later came to me and asked the Senate to submit their list, but by then, the thing had scattered. He appeared before the committee for budget defence sessions, he said.

Consequently, the senate president directed the Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, to move a motion for the Senate to accept the apology. He added that the Senate reserves the power to investigate the implementation of the project.

The motion was adopted, and consequently, Mr Keyamo was granted a permit to exit the chamber.

Mr Keyamo is the second nominee to apologise to the Senate over past comments and actions.

On Saturday, a nominee from Ogun State, Bosun Tijani, apologised to the Senate after several old tweets were dug up during his screening.

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Two ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu whose National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates are still subjects of controversies have been approved for appointment by the Nigerian Senate.

The President had forwarded the names of Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, a second-term member of the House of Representatives from Ondo State, and Hannatu Musawa from Katsina State for confirmation as members of his cabinet.

But the two nominees are enmeshed in controversies regarding their NYSC certificate and status.

The Senate also did not explain whether the questions raised on the duos NYSC statuses have been satisfactorily clarified or not.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation picked holes in the NYSC certificate presented by Mr Tunji-Ojo.

Mr Tunji-Ojo claimed to have participated in the scheme between November 2019 and November 2020 but NYSC officials who didnt want to be named for having no authority to speak on the matter, said the lawmakers claim is strange given that he was a sitting member of the House of Representatives during the same period.

Mr Tunji-Ojos NYSC certificate also contained discrepancies that raised strong questions as to its legitimacy.

His NYSC certificate, for instance, was issued in February and carries the signature of the incumbent NYSC Director General, Yushau Ahmed, a Brigadier General, who assumed office in January 2023 even though he claimed to have concluded the scheme in November 2020. Meanwhile, the NYSC said it doesnt replace its certificate.

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Mr Tunji-Ojos state code 9466 was also conspicuously missing in the FCT KOPA 2019 Batch C, Stream II Magazine. The magazine contains the details of corps members who served in the same period as his certificate claimed.

PREMIUM TIMES has also written to the management of NYSC requesting the verification of the NYSC certificate tendered by the lawmaker.

On Ms Musawa

This newspaper had also reported how the Senate failed to question Ms Musawas NYSC status.

About three years ago, the 9th Nigerian Senate under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, rejected Ms Musawa when nominated for an appointment for what the lawmakers described as the nominees inability to present the certificate.

The Senate had demanded Ms Musawas NYSC discharge certificate or an exemption certificate but she could not provide any.

What NYSC law says

It is legally mandatory for all Nigerians who finished university in or outside Nigeria before the age of 30 to undergo the 12-month-long National Youth Service Scheme. Those who finished after the age of 30 are presented with an exemption certificate.

The NYSC was established by Decree Number 24 of 2 May 1973, and the latest amendment to the decree was in 2004.

According to Section 2(2) of the NYSC Act (2004), the only excluded Nigerians from the mandatory participation in the scheme are those who attained the age of 30 before their date of graduation; those who served in the Nigerian armed forces or the Police for more than nine months; staff of Nigerian security organisations, and those conferred with national honours.

Both Mr Tunji-Ojo and Ms Musawa do not fall into any of these exempted categories.

However, on Monday evening, the Senate unanimously confirmed both nominees as fit to be appointed as ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria despite the lapses identified in their NYSC statuses.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe

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A major revamp of Nigerias power infrastructure by Siemens Energy AG will be slowed by five years after COVID-19 disrupted the process.

Siemens, headquartered in Munich, agreed in 2019 to help raise Nigerias electricity output to 7,000 megawatts in the first phase targeting a total generation and output capacity of 25,000 mw come 2025.

When we conceptualized this project in 2018, our plan was within two years we should be done with phase one, but then Covid happened, Bloomberg quoted Oladayo Orolu, head of business development and government relations at the firm, as saying in an interview.

The original understanding was that Siemens Energy would scale the countrys grid operational capacity from below 5,000 mw to 7,000 mw by 2021, expand it to 11,000 mw by 2023 and deliver 25,000 mw by 2025.

The project will now be due by 2025, with Siemens Energy citing logistics setbacks in the form of delayed receipt of raw materials as the ground for delivering the project late.

Some raw material components costs have been doubled, some are still close to where they used to be, some are just marginally higher, the official said.

Dysfunctional at its best, the power infrastructure of Africas most populous country could generate only 4,000 mw daily even though the installed capacity is in excess of 12,500 mw because most generation and distribution equipment are living on borrowed time.

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Cable theft and a problematic transition of the defunct state-power asset National Electric Power Authority into private ownership are other key issues.

The countrys 4,000 mw daily generation is barely adequate to serve Lagos, its commercial capital of over 20 million people, according to the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics.

It means nearly 193.4 million (90.6 per cent) Nigerians would lack access to electricity were Nigerias daily output to be allocated to Lagos alone.

Delays

Shifting forward the deadline for delivering the Siemens project dampens the hope of businesses in the Nigerian informal sector looking to the project for stable power to expand productivity.

The sector accounts for 80.4 per cent of jobs in Africas largest economy, but has had much of its potential stifled by access to regular electricity, forcing businesses to run on petrol generators.

President Bola Tinubus decision to draw the blinds on popular but costly petrol subsidies has seen the pump price of fuel balloon more than threefold within six weeks of taking office, tightening the noose on many businesses.

Talks around conversion of vehicles and petrol generators to compressed natural gas to ease the pangs of cost spikes on businesses and households are gaining momentum more than ever.

The government is holding talks with labour groups to work out a pay rise for workers but a meaningful relief package for the sector that provides more than four of every five jobs in the country has not been part of austerity measures.

Measures like subsidising the costs of converting petrol-powered generators and vehicles to CNG for businesses for the next four years could provide substantial succour for businesses, many of which are already teetering on the brinks.

At N110 per kilogram, CNG is seen by many as a cheaper alternative to petrol and safer on account of higher ignition temperature.

Africa, which accounts for roughly eight of every ten persons in the world without electricity, is seeing a difficult time in terms of access to power in two of its top economies.

In the throes of its most turbulent power crisis ever, South Africa, the continents most industrialised nation, is adopting loadshedding in many cities and areas that have not known power cut for years as Eskom, the states electricity company grapples with pressure on its aging grid.

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The Nigerian government says it has terminated a contempt suit it filed against the leaders of the organised labour over their 2 August protest against removal of fuel subsidy.

The contempt suit, which was launched at the National Industrial Court in Abuja on the same day of the protest, had sought to have the labour leaders jailed for their alleged act of disobedience to the courts order.

The Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, had said the action violated the 5 June order of the National Industrial Court in Abuja, which, according to her, barred the organised labour from embarking on any form of industrial action.

But the labour had gone ahead with their protest, insisting that the court only stopped them from embarking on strike and not protest. The protest triggered the contempt suit the federal government initiated through the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Announcing the termination of the contempt suit on Monday, Mrs Jedy-Agba cited the intervention of President Bola Tinubu in a letter addressed to the lawyer to Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Femi Falana.

Upon the intervention of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the decision of the labour unions to call-off their industrial action after meetings with the President and leadership of the National Assembly, this Ministry did not proceed further with the contempt proceedings, which would have required the issuance of Form 49 within two days of the issuance of Form 48.

It is self-evident that the none-issuance of Form 49 as at 4th August 2023, renders the contempt proceedings inchoate. You may therefore wish to advise or guide the labour unions on the practice and procedure of contempt proceedings, particularly to the effect that the issues or concerns raised by NLC in its communique on the proceedings, have been overtaken by events, Mrs Jedy-Agbas letter to Mr Falana read in part.

Background

The letter is the latest in the series of correspondences both sides have exchanged since the NLC threatened to embark on strike late July.

The federal government and the labour union are locked in a dispute over fuel subsidy removal, which President Tinubu announced at his inauguration on 29 May.

The organised labour, since the declaration, had urged the government to rescind its decision, citing the economic hardship it would plunge workers into.

They subsequently threatened to begin a nationwide strike to pressure the governent to backtrack on the policy shift.

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To stop the strike, the government rushed to court, praying for an order halting the planned strike, citing the socio-economic impact it would have.

The judge, Olufunke Anuwe, on 5 June, restrained the NLC and the TUC from embarking on the planned strike action, which they had planned to begin on 7 June.

The unions later shelved the planned strike to continue negotiations with the government.

But the talks have not yielded any positive results as union leaders continue to push for a reversal of the decision.

The NLC recently renewed its threat to embark on strike, after a second hike in petrol pump price in the aftermath of the subsidy removal.

In reaction, the justice ministry, on 26 July, warned the labour unions to desist from going ahead with the planned strike as it would amount to contempt of court.

Mrs Jedy-Agba re-echoed the warning in a letter to NLCs lawyer last Tuesday.

She had said in her letter that the planned action of the union, whether in form of a strike or protests, would be in be in violation of a court order in as much as it was about fuel subsidy removal.

The unions  NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC)  went on to stage the nationwide protest, calling on the government to restore fuel subsidy or end the hardship occasioned by the policy shift, angering the government which had in June obtained a court order to thwart the labour unions plan for a nationwide strike.

The protest, most remarkable in Lagos and Abuja, was in defiance to an earlier warning against it by the Federal Ministry of Justice, which had said the demonstration would amount to a disobedience to a 5 June court order barring the labour unions from embarking on strike.

Following the protest by the labour unions, the justice ministry approached the industrial court to commence a contempt suit against the labour leaders that same day.

On 3 August, the NLC issued a communique, suspending protests, and condemning the contempt suit initiated against its leaders.

Why we resorted to contempt suit

But in her latest letter terminating the contempt suit, Mrs Jedy-Agba said her ministry took the action based on the need to safeguard the integrity of the court and prevent avoidable service disruption or damages to public facilities.

She remarked that the organised labour, despite the correspondences she had exchanged with their lawyer, had gone ahead with the protest, causing distruption of work and destroying the gate of the National Assembly in Abuja

The foregoing prompted the Ministry to initiate contempt proceedings by filing Form 48 on the same 2nd August 2023 in accordance with Section 72 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act and Order 9 Rule 13 of the Judgment (Enforcement) Rules. It is trite that issuance of Form 48 is just the starting point in contempt proceedings which will only crystalise upon the issuance of Form 49 and the consequential committal order, she wrote.

Read the letter of Ministry of Justice in full:

Messrs. Falana & Falanas Chambers

22 Mediterranean Street

Imani Estate

Off Shehu Shagari Way

Maitama, Abuja.

RE: COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS

The attention of the Federal Ministry of Justice has been drawn to the Communique issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on 3rd August 2023 wherein NLC announced the suspension of its nationwide protests and criticized the contempt summons issued by the National Industrial Court (Court), amongst other issues.

2. Kindly recall the exchange of correspondence between the Ministry and your Office on the need for compliance with the extant court orders, restraining industrial action of any kind on the part of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress. The position of the Ministry was informed by the need to safeguard the integrity of the court and prevent avoidable service disruption or damages to public facilities.

3. However, despite these exchanges/interventions, the labour unions on 2nd August 2023 proceeded with the industrial action through public protests which led to disruption of work and the eventual pulling down of the gate of the National Assembly. The foregoing prompted the Ministry to initiate contempt proceedings by filing Form 48 on the same 2nd August 2023 in accordance with Section 72 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act and Order 9 Rule 13 of the Judgment (Enforcement) Rules. It is trite that issuance of Form 48 is just the starting point in contempt proceedings which will only crystalize upon the issuance of Form 49 and the consequential committal order.

4. Upon the intervention of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the decision of the labour unions to call-off their industrial action after meetings with the President and leadership of the National Assembly, this Ministry did not proceed further with the contempt proceedings, which would have required the issuance of Form 49 within two days of the issuance of Form 48. It is self-evident that the none-issuance of Form 49 as at 4th August 2023, renders the contempt proceedings inchoate. You may therefore wish to advise or guide the labour unions on the practice and procedure of contempt proceedings, particularly to the effect that the issues or concerns raised by NLC in its communique on the proceedings, have been overtaken by events.

5. Please accept the assurance of my warm regards

Mrs. B.E. Jedy-Agba, OON, mni

Solicitor-General of the Federation

& Permanent Secretary

Copy to:

1. Chief of Staff to the President

2. Head of the Civil Service of the Federation

3. National Security Adviser

4. Inspector-General of Police

5. Director-General, State Security Services

6. Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment

7. National President, Trade Union Congress

8. National President, Nigeria Labour Congress

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But for a child of God, success begins by first being in a relationship with God. Second, the purpose of God for your life must be identified. Third, you must run that purpose with utmost commitment to Gods standards  faithfulness, purity, integrity, love, discipline, humility, among others. Take, for example, that I am called as a leader to function in the politics of my nation, I cannot promote or endorse the rigging of elections, even when it is to my favour.

A few years ago, someone approached me with a business opportunity that would instantly turn me into a multimillionaire in dollars. I looked at the proposal, and chuckled, how can I be involved in this? This is fraud. What would happen to my relationship with God, with the church of God, with my family, and with all the people in my life? It was at a moment of desperate need for money to buy a property for our church, but I turned it down. This was one of many such opportunities that I have had to become instantly wealthy. If I were not in Christ, I would have taken it and no one would have known, except God and the people involved.

Arent those who dont know Christ not successful on earth? Of course, many of them are incredibly more successful than many Christians are. But, I have put their success in quotes. Why? What many of them do to attain their successes and to measure their successes are at complete variance with Gods ways, which then makes what most of then call successes on earth to be failures before God. Success isnt just about packing your garage with cars, filling your bank accounts with dollars, travelling the world over, and building gigantic corporations.

The model for achieving and measuring success in the kingdom of God is deeply rooted on two legs  identifying Gods purpose for your life and pursuing that purpose through biblical values. In other words, if you are called and equipped to function in the media industry, and you abandon that to pursue Medicine, youve failed as far as Biblical principles are concerned. Purpose is sacrosanct for success. The world knows nothing about the divine purpose. In fact, the world is the number one enemy of Gods purposes. Satan hates divine purposes with a passion. However, some of these successful people may truly stumble on divine purpose by virtue of Gods sovereignty, but majority of those who celebrate successes in the world are selfish, greedy, and self-centered business men and women who exploit vulnerable nations and systems to enrich themselves. They are called capitalists. They are all over the world, milking the poor to sustain their multi-billion dollar empires.

In fact, many of these stupendously wealthy billionaires are in various dark societies that are beyond the scope of this write-up. Dont let anyone fool you that I dont need God to succeed because Warren Buffet doesnt know God. Nothing can be more silly a statement.

This is what the Bible calls, the prosperity of fools which will eventually destroy them (Proverbs 1:32).

In fact, many of these stupendously wealthy billionaires are in various dark societies that are beyond the scope of this write-up. Dont let anyone fool you that I dont need God to succeed because Warren Buffet doesnt know God. Nothing can be more silly a statement. You dont really know what these people do in the privacy of their lives.

But for a child of God, success begins by first being in a relationship with God. Second, the purpose of God for your life must be identified. Third, you must run that purpose with utmost commitment to Gods standards  faithfulness, purity, integrity, love, discipline, humility, among others. Take, for example, that I am called as a leader to function in the politics of my nation, I cannot promote or endorse the rigging of elections, even when it is to my favour. I cannot promote or endorse smear campaigns against my opponents. I cannot engage in lies and propaganda in my campaigns. I cannot give bribes to any political godfather. I cant swear an oath to any altar just to win a political position. And the list goes on.

the next time someone tells you that you dont need God to succeed because Bill Gates and Elon Musk are the richest in the world, without God, tell that person that he doesnt know what hes talking about. True kingdom success is not measured by how much money you have or by fame or by influence.

That is what makes my own success as a believer in politics totally different from the so called success of an unbeliever, who achieves political success on the platform of compromises and corruption. This is what makes us shine as true lights for God in a dark world. We dont achieve and measure success on the worlds parameters. Our success is deeply rooted in aligning with Gods purpose and promoting His values. So, the next time someone tells you that you dont need God to succeed because Bill Gates and Elon Musk are the richest in the world, without God, tell that person that he doesnt know what hes talking about. True kingdom success is not measured by how much money you have or by fame or by influence. It is solely measured by finding and diving into Gods purposes in a manner that promotes His agenda and uphold His values on earth.

For without me, you can do nothing (John 15:5).

That is what makes the church, I mean the true church, different from the world. The world may not need God to succeed, because they can do anything with anything and at any time to attain their success. We need God to succeed because we cant do anything with anything at any time.

Ayo Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist, and minister of the word, writes from Canada and can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.

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Underwhelmed by the transition committee members insistence that the forthcoming federal cabinet comprise experts in the respective fields that government is composed of, one of the politicos in the sessionasked where these experts were when they spending oodles of nairacriss-crossed the country canvassing for votes. Appointments into public office, he said, was the consequence of both loyalty to the party and its candidates, and recompense

If the all-in salary of a minister of (or is it for?) the Federal Republic of Nigeria is about N900,000 per month, then the debate around the Tinubu governments possible cabinet goes beyond how long it took the administration to compile the list. And the respective competences of the persons on the list  the much bruited about case amongst our chattering classes for appointing technocrats to these functions. The all-in part of the salary conversation matters a great deal to clear the discourse around this issue. For many of us will remember that the Obasanjo administration monetised the in-kind benefits of most public officeholders.

Okay, so, N900,000 monthly is not enough to keep a minister in fine fettle today, and this was long before the price reforms embarked upon by the new administration temporarily upset things. Relentlessly rising domestic prices  the result of poor ministerial lists making lousy decisions on the economys outlook, and an inefficient process for ensuring that ministers are paid a living wage  through regular reviews of their emoluments  (again the result of indecent governance) are to blame for this sorry situation.

All of which raise one question: Why would a Nigerian of means (and former governors in these parts, are nothing, if not men and women of means) accept (even actively lobby for) a job at compensation levels guaranteed to leave them poorer after office than before they came in? Patriotism is one possible answer. As an absolute proposition, the state of the Nigerian economy calls from those who run it for the levels of sacrifice, ideation, and courage last seen when Heracles diverted the flow of the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to clean King Augeas stables. In relative terms, stronger economic response functions, and hence, outcomes in South-East Asia, South America and the Middle East threaten to confine most countries on the African continent to the fringes of human progress, where we may then reinforce the most vicious racist tropes. All of which call for a new kind of leadership in the country, if not on the continent.

Hence, our governments legitimacy is not a function of how well they better the lives of their electors. Rather it is in the degree to which successive policies rob the people of the capacity to act in their own interests  and against bad governance.

As is the case, when folks in the private sector describe taking a pay cut to join another company, nearly always, talk around the notion of patriotism is of the opportunity to do things differently, to create long-term value that eventually compensates for todays temporary losses. In this sense, it matters that would-be members of the federal cabinet are persons of means. Or else, retired folk with children and wards out of school and profitably employed. Otherwise, confronted by the risk of gradual impoverishment that is a fact of life for most Nigerians, they would be tempted to find less-than-licit ways of augmenting their income.

Still, two facts make nonsense of this case for patriotism as the underlying argument for our would-be ministers choice of impoverishment, though. First, is that, as with most of their colleagues in the private sector, our ministers rarely ever create long-term value for the state. On the other hand, which is the second argument, there is ample anecdotal evidence that they nearly always leave office richer than they went in. Hence, our governments legitimacy is not a function of how well they better the lives of their electors. Rather it is in the degree to which successive policies rob the people of the capacity to act in their own interests  and against bad governance.

There is a very strong case for appointing as ministers to the health, education and finance ministries, and central bank, persons familiar with developments in these spheres worldwide, and who have given more than passing thought to how to productively translate those examples into the local experience.

How does this strengthen the justification for more technocrats in government? There is a very strong case for appointing as ministers to the health, education and finance ministries, and central bank, persons familiar with developments in these spheres worldwide, and who have given more than passing thought to how to productively translate those examples into the local experience. If nothing else, improved domestic outcomes (social and economic) depend so much on this genre of choice. Set against this need, however, is a story told to me by a fly-on-the-wall of one of the many transition committees that we have had since 1999.

Underwhelmed by the transition committee members insistence that the forthcoming federal cabinet comprise experts in the respective fields that government is composed of, one of the politicos in the session (who went on to become a minister) asked where these experts were when they spending oodles of naira (and the occasional dollar) criss-crossed the country canvassing for votes. Appointments into public office, he said, was the consequence of both loyalty to the party and its candidates, and recompense for their expenditure of money and time.

As the possible appointments to the Tinubu cabinet indicate, this remains and irresistible argument.

Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manque and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.

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Kevin Holland doesnt think Sean Strickland poses too big of a threat for Israel Adesanya.

With Dricus Du Plessis seemingly unfit for a quick turnaround, Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) could be next in line to face middleweight champion Adesanya at UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney.

Whether Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) ends up facing Strickland or Du Plessis next, Holland doesnt rate either fighters chances too highly.

Either way, I think both of those fights are good fights for Izzy. I dont see either one of those guys giving Izzy a problem, Holland told Helen Yee. Du Plessis has been known to prove us wrong, and hes fixed his nose, so maybe hes a better fighter. Sometimes, sh*tty fighters find a way to win and good fighters find a way to lose. But I doubt when Du Plessis goes to fight Izzy that that sh*tty fighter will find a way to win.

Strickland is coming off back-to-back wins over Nassourdine Imavov and Abus Magomedov. He was able to weather Magomedovs early storm and stop him by TKO in Round 2, but Holland says Adesanya wont get tired.

Styles make fights, and Strickland doesnt really like to get hit with big kicks and Izzy has cardio, Holland said. (Magomedov) didnt have any, obviously. With Strickland vs. Izzy, Strickland likes to do the man dance  but I dont think he has enough dance moves to dance with Israel Adesanya.

I think Izzy picks him apart, Izzy picks Du Plessis apart. Itll probably be sh*t, little leg kicks, a few push kicks, every once in a while hell throw something big and spinning. Izzy has more chances of knocking out Strickland because Strickland will take more chances than Du Plessis does.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkies event hub for UFC 293.

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie
At the moment, our country is at the epoch where the citizens must exercise some patience and cooperate with the President and his team to turn around the fortunes of the country. We are all bearing the consequences of decades of distortions and mismanagement of the country and it certainly wont be easy to turn the tides within a few days or months for any government.

The removal of fuel subsidy and the convergence of the foreign exchange markets, the two major policy objectives President Bola Tinubu has committed himself to since assuming office, inevitably came with economic cost to the people who have had to bear the pains of higher costs of living.

The jump in the pump price of fuel and devaluation of naira, in a bid to close the gap between the bank and parallel market rates, has meant higher transportation costs, soaring food prices and higher costs for small business owners.

There is no doubt that the people, most especially the poor, are hard pressed and seeking succour from a President who promised them a better life during his electoral campaign.

However, for long, our nation has been inured to various theories on how to combat the gaps in our exchange rates, as well as how to battle the sleaze and hazy optics of the subsidy regime. Talk has been plenty but action lacking. This brings to the fore the compelling words of Peter Druker that Strategy is a commodity; execution is an art. One of the most crucial elements of leadership is the capacity for decision making. According to Aristotle, good deliberation is one of the fundamental characteristics of a prudent man. The President made a conscious effort at good deliberation, which has led to this painful but purposeful rational action.

The pain, albeit uncomfortable, is only temporary but necessary. From the Presidents most recent national broadcast, one thing stands out, our beloved country, Nigeria, is simply in a catch-22 situation. The President must find the most pragmatic way to deal with the two ugly elephants in the room that have distorted our economy for decades, promoted humongous corruption via rent seeking and kept the poor, even poorer.

For over seven years, Nigeria has consistently held the appalling title of the poverty capital of the world, according to the World Bank, overtaking India with a population of about 1.5 billion people. Nigerias population is only a little over 200 million.

Nigeria has, in the past 40 years, progressively wasted trillions of naira that would have been better spent on social services, human capital development and critical economic infrastructure that should support productivity and growth to give citizens cheap fuel. The culmination of these has, no doubt, stunted the growth of the nation and its people.

We must deal with the albatross of continuously funding fuel subsidy, which only a small group of people benefit from, at the expense of the larger populace, even when our country is teetering towards fiscal collapse. Rational and economic logic and equity dictate that those trillions of naira should be put to better use in the service of the people. It is highly imperative to re-channel the funds into higher quality investments in public infrastructure, education, health care and other productive ventures that will materially improve the lives of millions, as the President said in his inaugural speech.

Having seen the distortions that fuel subsidy and the preferential foreign exchange policy have caused for the country, I am persuaded that we must get out of this decades-long conundrum. From a fiscal standpoint, the consequences of retaining those policies longer than when it was finally removed by President would not have been pretty. The dire social and material condition of the poor masses that some ideologues pretend to be fighting against will get worse than it currently is if Nigeria sinks into a bottomless pit.

In pandering to popular sentiments, two major national newspapers in their recent editorial positions severely criticised President Tinubu for taking this less travelled road. Leaders before him only kicked the can around, in matters of fuel subsidy removal, without having the boldness and the courage to bite the bullet.

In a front page commentary on Monday, 24 July, Daily Trust newspaper called for the reversal of the subsidy removal because it is strangulating the poor masses.

The newspaper also accused the government of a chaotic handling of the policy because all the issues around palliatives should have first been resolved before the removal of fuel subsidy. Daily Trust wants the Federal Government to keep the ruinous subsidy regime because of momentary inconvenience, without regards to the fact that within two months of this removal, the country saved over 1 trillion, which would now be better utilised to benefit the masses directly.

Toeing the same path with Daily Trust on same day, The PUNCH newspaper charged President Tinubu to change course before he loses the plot of his new administration. The PUNCH newspaper went further to berate him for executing the two policies on whims without undertaking a critical assessment of the economy nor the implications of his hasty subsidy removal, and the unification of the naira exchange rates.

What I found rather bizarre in The PUNCH editorial was a quote credited to Mr Francis Meshioye, the President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, who reportedly said his members thought subsidy removal would only lead to a one-off price increase and not a skyrocketing one.

I am at a loss why a MAN President, who was one of the strident advocates of a free market economy and a major proponent of fuel subsidy removal and unification of multiple exchange rates, thinks his prescriptions would only lead to a one-off price increase. I am still struggling with that level of contradiction. It also didnt matter to Daily Trust and The PUNCH newspapers, with their editorial stance, that in the past they used their influential platforms to call for the removal of the subsidy, citing abuse and corruption.

The points of the current pains on the people, as canvassed by the two newspapers as a necessary fallout of the policy decisions of the President, are factual and cant be argued against. However, the point must also be made that the benefits of these two decisions far outweigh the costs.

Fuel subsidy removal means that Nigeria will no longer lose over 4 billion daily on subsidised fuel, a good portion of which is smuggled into neigbouring countries. It does not make sense that a country that is struggling to provide universal basic education and suffering from high maternal mortality rate spent 21 trillion subsidising fuel that added marginal value to the lives of millions of its poor inhabitants between 2005 and 2023.

A recent report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) shows that whereas 13.7 trillion was spent on subsidy between 2005 and 2021, 8 trillion was spent between 2022 and the first half of 2023 alone.

Nothing captures our sorry state of affairs more than that NEITI report, which indicates the colossal sum that private individuals have taken away from our commonwealth on the back of payment for subsidy. The report shows that in 2005, the starting year of the survey, 351 billion was spent on fuel subsidy payments, while the figures for 2006 to 2010 were 257 billion, 272 billion, 631 billion, 469 billion and 667 billion. In 2011, which was an election year, the spending spiked to a whopping 2.3 trillion.

For the years 2012 to 2017, spending on subsidy was 1.36 trillion, 1.32 trillion, 1.2 trillion, 654 billion, 240 billion and 154 billion. From 2018 to the first half of 2023, government spent 1.1 trillion, 508 billion, 864 billion, 1.43 trillion, 4.4 trillion and 3.6 trillion. The NEITI report further reveals that spending on petroleum products by the five income groups in Nigeria, the richest 20% consumes 75% of petrol in the country, while the poorest 20% consumes just 1% of the product. From the figures, it was obvious that our poorest people were not getting any real benefit from petrol subsidy.

Removing the drain pipe is the best way to stop the bleeding. Individuals should not become so filthily wealthy at the expense of a nation to the point of being in a position to compromise all the institutions of state, while the majority wallow in extreme poverty. President Tinubu was right in his Monday evening broadcast when he pointed out the danger of having a few people who have amassed so much money to the extent of becoming a serious threat to the fairness of (the) national economy and the integrity of our democratic governance.

With his boldness and decisiveness, President Tinubu has ushered in a regime of deregulation. This will foster competition and transparency in the downstream sector, eliminate NNPCLs monopoly on importation, encourage investments in local refining capacity and expansion of the downstream infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs. From Central Bank records, 30% of the foreign exchange demand in the past decades was for fuel importation. The removal of fuel subsidy is a good silver lining that will catalyse more investments in local refining. Already Dangote Refinery will soon come on stream and the BUA Group is making a bet of over $8 billion on a 200,000 barrel per day refinery in Akwa Ibom State that will be commissioned in the next four years. This is apart from existing modular refineries already in operation.

At the moment, our country is at the epoch where the citizens must exercise some patience and cooperate with the President and his team to turn around the fortunes of the country. We are all bearing the consequences of decades of distortions and mismanagement of the country and it certainly wont be easy to turn the tides within a few days or months for any government. The demand of this period is not needless posturing but that of concerted efforts and determination to revamp an economy that is tailspinning towards disaster.

As President Tinubu concluded in his speech, he is back at work to ensure that not only that a looming disaster will be averted but Nigerians will have cause to be happy with the new, inclusive economy based on prosperity for all that is his campaign promise.

Temitope Ajayi, is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

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Those who understand Ultimata and Coercive Diplomacy would appreciate the parlance used in ECOWAS response, not as a reckless mulling of military invasion as is being speculated, but as a tactful tool that subtly sends a message to strengthen the blocs position on the negotiation table.

Following the coup plot which ousted the democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held an emergency meeting whose outcome condemned the situation and announced measures to be taken by the regional bloc to restore democracy in the country.

At the summit, chaired by Nigerias President Bola Tinubu, immediate sanctions were announced on Niger. These include the closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Niger; the establishment of a no-fly zone on all commercial flights to and from Niger; the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS member states and the military government of Niger; the freezing of assets of the Republic of Niger in ECOWAS Central Bank, as well as Niger state enterprises, and parastatals in commercial banks.

The summit also announced that Niger would be suspended from all financial assistance and transactions with financial institutions within ECOWAS.

In addition, as a direct consequence of their action, travel bans and asset freezes were imposed on military officials involved in the coup, as well as their family members and civilians who accept to participate in any institution or government established by these military officials.

Regardless of these immediate measures, ECOWAS has also constantly expressed its desire to ensure that the situation in Niger is resolved through diplomatic means and true to that commitment, diplomatic channels have been opened between the commission and the putschists. For instance, a 15-member delegation was sent to Niger within days of the coup in search of an amicable resolution.

With all these measures in place, it is unfortunate that the angle to which ECOWAS response is being reported, given media coverage and public scrutiny, is that part where the coup plotters were given a one-week ultimatum to restore Bazoum to power or risk possible military intervention.

Nigeria, as the regions powerhouse, understands the complexity and consequences of military deployment, especially to such a country as Niger, which has borders with seven African countries, including itself, Libya, Chad, Algeria and Mali  all with very massive territories.

Those who understand Ultimata and Coercive Diplomacy would appreciate the parlance used in ECOWAS response, not as a reckless mulling of military invasion as is being speculated, but as a tactful tool that subtly sends a message to strengthen the blocs position on the negotiation table.

Nigeria, as the regions powerhouse, understands the complexity and consequences of military deployment, especially to such a country as Niger, which has borders with seven African countries, including itself, Libya, Chad, Algeria and Mali  all with very massive territories.

The importance of the country in the fight against insurgency and violent extremism is also not lost on Nigeria and ECOWAS, as well as the international community.

This is why the international community, including the USA and France, has been unanimous in support of ECOWAS and its response to the coup so far. Note that Niger is not only the largest recipient of USA military assistance in West Africa, but it is also host to over 2,000 Western troops. And in solidarity with ECOWAS, many Western countries have announced the cancellation of aid and cooperation agreements with the military administration.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy to the UN, told Al Jazeera that the United States recognises Bazoum as the legitimate leader of Niger, and that the Biden administration supports ECOWAS in finding a path forward towards resolving the situation. We are engaging diplomatically with countries in the region and at the United Nations to condemn what this military has done, and we will continue to keep pressure on them until they make the decision to allow this democratically elected government to resume its place, Al Jazeera reported.

ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, was also clear about the path the bloc was towing when he said, 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.

It is also worthy of note that in the previous three situations when ECOWAS has had to successfully reverse a military takeover over the last decades in Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, it had done so solely through the use of diplomacy.

Briefing members of the diplomatic corps in Abuja on 4 August, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Adamu Lamuwa, further clarified Nigerias stance to exhaust all diplomatic avenues in finding a lasting solution to the crisis.

Most significantly, at the end of their three-day meeting in Abuja over the matter, ECOWAS Chiefs of Defence Staff resolved to place dialogue at the forefront of the regional bodys approach to resolving the crisis in Niger Republic. The meeting drew Defence Chiefs from Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Cote DIvoire, Cape Verde, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.

The chairman of the regions Defence Chiefs, General Musa Christopher, noted that although the committee recognised the gravity of the situation and the urgent need for a well-coordinated response, all diplomatic measures should be explored.

We must intensify our diplomatic efforts to engage with all relevant stakeholders. Dialogue and negotiation should be at the forefront of our approach to resolving the crisis in the Republic of Niger. We must engage with the transitional authorities, civil society organisations, and other key actors to foster an inclusive and peaceful transition process, he said.

It is also worthy of note that in the previous three situations when ECOWAS has had to successfully reverse a military takeover over the last decades in Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, it had done so solely through the use of diplomacy.

Thus, nothing suggests that Nigeria and ECOWAS are beating the drums of war on the situation in Niger and fifth columnists should desist from making it look so.

Zakari Mijinyawa writes from Abuja.

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DELAND, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- African Mission Healthcare (AMH) is excited to announce the 2022 Gerson L'Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service will be awarded to Dr. Timothy Nunn. Dr. Nunn serves as medical director and orthopedic surgeon at CURE Ethiopia , a charitable pediatric hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Nunn has served at CURE Ethiopia since 2014.

Dr. Tim Nunn (left, CURE Hospital) & Partners 2022 Gerson LChaim Prize Brings Hope, Healing to Children with Spinal Deformities in Ethiopia

The L'Chaim ('To Life' in Hebrew) Prize was launched in 2016 through the generosity of AMH Co-Founders Rabbi Erica and Mark Gerson. The annual award of $500,000 is the world's largest annual award dedicated to direct patient care.

An estimated 50,000 children in Ethiopia urgently need interventions for spinal deformities. The award will help launch CURE Ethiopia's pediatric spinal surgery program  the first and only in the country of 118 million people. This initiative is also supported by the Tim Tebow Foundation, a global nonprofit that serves vulnerable children, especially those with disabilities.

CURE Ethiopia is working with American specialist Dr. Rick Hodes, of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, who has moved his long-standing pediatric spine clinic to the CURE hospital. AMH Co-Founder and Prize sponsor Mark Gerson observed, "Dr. Nunn is an excellent choice for this year's L'Chaim Prize Laureate. For nearly a decade he has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of thousands of children. I love that the planned spinal surgery program will combine the efforts of individuals and organizations from multiple faith traditions including Dr. Nunn, devout Jew and AMH partner, Dr. Rick Hodes, CURE Ethiopia, and AMH. Together we will provide hope and healing for thousands of children and their families."

The L'Chaim prize will be a catalyst and help CURE Ethiopia build upon these partnerships and expand its pediatric spinal surgery program, the first and only in a country with less than two orthopedic surgeons for every million people. The prize funds will be used to:

Hire an additional orthopedic surgeon with a focus on spine care,

Support outpatient clinics, screening programs, and surgical and non-invasive spinal therapies, and

Bring hope to thousands of Ethiopian children suffering from spinal deformities.

"I am passionate about healing pediatric patients because their treatable disability robs them of an opportunity for a full and productive life," said Dr. Nunn, L'Chaim Prize Laureate. "Thank you to AMH for helping to fill this immense need and to the supporters of CURE International for providing these life-changing medical services."

Children with spinal conditions and their families often face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, stigmatization, social exclusion, harassment, and abuse. Studies have also found that children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries are nearly four times more likely to experience abuse.

The Spine Program was unanimously selected for this award by AMH's L'Chaim Prize committee based on 1) the tremendous need, 2) the strong and successful record of CURE Ethiopia, and 3) the potential for catalyzing a "movement" that is much greater than the initial investment.

CURE Ethiopia is a 70-bed pediatric teaching hospital in the capital city of Addis Ababa. The hospital has treated over 98,000 patients and performed nearly 28,000 surgeries and procedures since opening in 2008.

African Mission Healthcare (AMH) partners with Christian mission hospitals to serve people in greatest need and enhance each hospital's capacity to deliver quality medical care and training. The aspiration is an African continent filled with enduring and improving health systems where everyone has access to quality, compassionate health care.

Founded in 2010, AMH has invested $37.5 million in 48 partners in 18 countries, enabling 800,000 direct patient visits, sponsoring 24,700 surgeries and corrective procedures, and training 5,700 health workers. AMH supports training programs and direct clinical care, assists with procuring supplies and medical equipment, and is involved in a wide range of construction and renovation projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Examples include operating the largest HIV clinical training program in Kenya; sponsoring the education of nurse anesthetists, surgeons, and nurses; constructing and renovating operating theaters, patient wards, medical education buildings, and oxygen plants in places like Burundi, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

Mark Gerson, a devoted Jew, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who (along with his wife, Rabbi Erica Gerson) is perhaps the world's largest individual supporter of Christian medical missions. He is the co-founder of African Mission Healthcare and co-founder and Chair of United Hatzalah of Israel, the crowd-sourced volunteer system of rapid first responders. He is the author of a book on the Haggadah entitled "The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life."

CURE International is a Christian nonprofit organization operating a global network of eight children's hospitals that offer free surgical interventions for children living with treatable disabilities. CURE hospitals provide life-changing care for children suffering from conditions such as cleft lip/palate, neglected clubfoot, bowed legs, burn contractures, spina bifida, brain tumors, and hydrocephalus. In addition to world-class clinical service, CURE ministers to the emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their communities. Since its first hospital opened in 1998, CURE has completed more than 5 million patient visits and 300,000 life-changing surgeries. For more information, visit https://cure.org .

Contact:

Perry Jansen

2083536238

362891@email4pr.com

SOURCE African Mission Healthcare
LONDON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 1500 people gathered virtually on 13 June 2023 for the ninth RELX SDG Inspiration Day: 'Not Too Late for Nature: Biodiversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals'. Eminent conservationist, Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE and former United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, were keynote speakers. The annual online event brings together thought leaders, corporate representatives, students, investors, governments, and NGOs to explore pressing issues, gain practical insight, and inspire action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The ninth edition of this annual event invited various stakeholders to come together and discuss challenges and solutions to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; this years theme was centered on biodiversity

This year's event examined our progress as a global community in achieving the SDGs closely linked to biodiversity, namely SDGs 14, 15, 2, 3, 11, and 13. It was moderated by lawyer and activist Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and hosted in partnership with the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, UN Global Compact Network UK, Responsible Media Forum, Global Citizen, Pineapple Sustainable Partnerships, World Humanitarian Forum, Elsevier Foundation, Business or Social Responsibility (BSR), Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, Oxford SDG Impact Lab, and Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

In his keynote speech, which was one of the first events of the day, Ban Ki-moon said, "I believe it is vital that businesses firstly identify their full environmental impact, starting with a clear understanding of the organization's impact on the whole of the environment, not exclusively their carbon emissions and pollution."

Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Goodall highlighted the need for people and businesses worldwide to become more sustainable and the importance of community-led conservation. "How do I have hope for the future?" she asked. "Well, for one thing, there is a growing awareness about this (the need for biodiversity conservation). And then there are four main reasons  the human intellect, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and the energy, and passion, and action of young people."

Later, Juliette Pugliesi, Nature Manager at Business for Social Responsibility and Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature discussed the link between biodiversity and economic stability. Their illuminating speeches also touched upon why businesses need to rethink their commitment to biodiversity conservation.

Through spirited panel discussions, the event next shed light on pressing issues in biodiversity conservation and gave attendees a platform to examine potential solutions. The panel discussion on Right to Nature, moderated by Justin Webb, a former foreign correspondent for the BBC, explored how law can protect biodiversity through legal rights accorded to natural habitats. Hosted by Josefine Gibson, Deputy Editor of The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, another insightful panel discussion examined the connection between biodiversity and human health. The ensuing panel discussion, hosted by the founder and CEO of Pineapple Sustainable Partnerships, Andy Dewis, discussed the wisdom of indigenous people. Attendees could then join discussions in six virtual biodiversity problem-solving spaces, the topics of which ranged from technology to business. Later, RELX awarded four customers that share their commitment to actioning the SDGs with an SDG Customer Award. The final panel discussion, hosted by Senior VP of Elsevier, Michiel Kolman, addressed barriers for policymakers in meeting biodiversity commitments. With closing comments, the event concluded on a fulfilling note.

Read all about the event, and watch highlights from the RELX SDG Inspiration Day here.

Media contact:

Mirieme Hill

RELX

London, UK

[email protected]

+44 20 7166 5500

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2170455/2023_RELX_SDG_Biodiversity.jpg

SOURCE RELX Group
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DeMark Thompson, known for his roles in "CSI: Vegas" (2021), "NCIS: LA" (2018), and "Jean Claude Van Johnson" (2017), announced he had broken new ground in a unique Subaru commercial: "A Beautiful Silence." The spot features DeMark alongside the 10-year-old Emmy-nominated actor Keivonn Woodard who is deaf. Showcasing a heartwarming father-and-son trip to Yosemite National Park, the commercial highlights a journey with a sincere objective.

A Beautiful Silence  Actor DeMark Thompson and Emmy-Nominated Keivonn Woodard Join Forces in Touching New Subaru Ad A Beautiful Silence  Actor DeMark Thompson and Emmy-Nominated Keivonn Woodard Join Forces in Touching New Subaru Ad

"The outdoors are for everyone, and whether it's a trip to a national park or a walk in the woods, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to experience its beauty," said Alan Bethke, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Subaru of America, Inc. "Through our partnership with the National Park Foundation and our commitment to making safe and capable vehicles like the Forester Wilderness, we're hoping that even more people will be inspired to explore the wonders of nature, just like the father and son in our new creative."

The Inspiration  A Personal Connection:

"I'm so happy to be a part of this project," said DeMark Thompson. "Keivonn Woodard is a gifted actor and is the youngest ever to be nominated for an Emmy in his category. This creative is centered on a father/son journey to Yosemite National Park which displays both the natural wonders of the park and the connection we have to the environment around us."

"I learned sign language when I was nine years old, taking a class at church with my mother and sister, who both became expert interpreters. My mother went on to interpret for U.S. Presidents, major concerts that were held at the Kennedy Center in DC, the Apollo theater in New York, and many other places local to the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. My mother passed in May 2013. A few weeks before she passed, she made me promise to pursue my passion of acting. Recalling the last talk we had, coupled with the promise I made to her ultimately jump-started my acting career. I had no clue that sign language would be useful one day for an acting role  so yes, I'm extremely grateful I was blessed with the opportunity to learn it at such an early age. I don't really believe in coincidences."

Gratitude and Looking Ahead  The Vision Behind the Subaru Commercial:

"When I booked the commercial with Subaru, the producers said they wanted to make this one very special," Thompson explained. "One that's completely different from any that they've ever done. In that same moment, Keivonn and his mother walked into the building, and I recognized him immediately. The executives at Subaru had a vision with him as a son, experiencing the vastness of nature for the very first time. I knew our relationship on camera had to be authentic, so I made sure I chatted and connected with him as much as I could each day we filmed."

"It was an honor and a pleasure to work with Keivonn. His work to date in his young career is brilliant and unforgettable. I'm also extremely grateful to Subaru for trusting me to bring this vision to life; along with Sovereign Talent for submitting me for the role, and Dan Bell casting for booking me."

The new Subaru ad, featuring the all-new 2023 Subaru Forester Wilderness, celebrates the automaker's devotion to adventure and environmental stewardship. The spot will run on national television, on various digital and social media platforms, as well as YouTube.

About DeMark Thompson:

Media Contact:

Tracey Michaels, Talent Agent

310-474-4000 x25

[email protected]

SOURCE DeMark Thompson
ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aaron's Company, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions, today announced the opening of its newest company-operated Aaron's GenNext store in Grandview, Missouri.

The new Aaron's store in Grandview  a southern suburb of Kansas City  reflects an expansion by Aaron's into the greater Kansas City market. The new store is conveniently located at 12340 15th Street in the Truman Shopping Center just off of I-49. The store will be open Monday  Saturday from 10:00 a.m.  8:00 p.m.

"GenNext stores are an integral part of the Company's strategy to transform Aaron's. As we bring our GenNext stores to communities all across the country, we continue to receive positive feedback from our customers," said Douglas Lindsay, CEO of The Aaron's Company. "We're excited to open this new store and serve Grandview and the greater Kansas City area."

The Company's GenNext initiative is transforming the in-store customer experience. GenNext stores include larger showrooms and/or re-engineered store layouts, updated signage, expanded product assortment, enhanced technology-enabled shopping and checkout, and an innovative operating model, providing a best-in-class experience for shoppers. The GenNext program includes remodeling existing stores into the updated format as well as opening stores in new locations. So far this year, Aaron's has converted or opened 23 GenNext stores, bringing the total to 234 company-operated GenNext stores since launching the initiative in 2018.

About The Aaron's Company, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Aaron's Company, Inc. (NYSE: AAN) is a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions of appliances, electronics, furniture, and other home goods across its brands: Aaron's, BrandsMart U.S.A., BrandsMart Leasing, and Woodhaven. Aaron's offers a direct-to-consumer lease-to-own solution through its approximately 1,260 Company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform. BrandsMart U.S.A. is one of the leading appliance retailers in the country with ten retail stores in Florida and Georgia, as well as its e-commerce platform. BrandsMart Leasing offers lease-to-own solutions to customers of BrandsMart U.S.A. Woodhaven is the Company's furniture manufacturing division. For more information, visit investor.aarons.com, aarons.com, and brandsmartusa.com.

SOURCE The Aaron's Company, Inc.
Mammoth session: 2,100 guests are expected each week at the new Electric Brixton Oktoberfest (Josh Counsell )

Electric Brixton, one of South Londons most eclectic live music venues, is set to host its first-ever series of Oktoberfest parties, in celebration of the beloved Bavarian end-of-harvest festival, traditionally marked by merriment, lederhosen and plentiful pints (well, steins).

The Brixton Hill venue will be transformed with traditional long wooden tables, bunting, live music from an oompah band and more.

Across the month, running each Saturday from October 7 to 28, as many as 2,100 attendees are expected to line Brixton Hill weekly, with the day-party lasting from 1pm  8pm.

Each element of the events, set up by Oktoberfest UK, will have an authentically Bavarian feel, with staff dressed in traditional dirndls and lederhosen and steins-a-plenty (Spaten and Lowenbrau being the preferred choice). The expected food offering will continue the theme with German pretzels and bratwursts flown in from Germanys Black Forest.

(Josh Counsell)

Adding to the German festivities, the band German Jukebox will provide the live music, with a modern, playful approach to classic oompah music, and whilst comedy and Germans might not traditionally be thought of as bedfellows, live comics are promised to entertain party-goers too.

Charlie Holden, co-founder of Oktoberfest UK told the Standard: Fasten your lederhosen, Brixton! Were about to transform our corner of London into the ultimate Bavarian bash, brimming with non-stop music, a smorgasbord of German delicacies, and rivers of world-class German beer.

This isnt just an Oktoberfest, its a full-blown party! Lets fill Brixton to the brim with laughter, cheers, and a party spirit thatll shake Oktoberfest to its core. Get ready to eat, drink, dance, and revel like never before.

October 7, 14, 21 and 28, Electric Brixton, Brixton Hill, SW2 1RJ, electricbrixton.uk.com
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Poker players who want to rev their engine won't be heading to Daytona this year for spring break or the big NASCAR event. Instead, they'll be going for the next stop on ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker's land-based tour.

The tour is coming to the Daytona Beach Racing and Card Club in Florida from August 17th to 28th. ACR Poker is sending at least 25 players to the $300,000 GTD Main Event which starts on Thursday, August 24th.

Win Your Main Event seat with our Mega Satellite

"The first stop of my tour in Palm Beach was a big success and I'm thrilled that ACR Poker is running a second promo to award more packages to Daytona Beach," stated ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker. "I encourage anyone looking for more information on the tour to head to the website at www.moneymakerpt.com."

Players can win their Moneymaker Tour package in the Beast Tournament Mega Satellite on Sunday, August 13th at 6:05pm ET. The direct buy-in is $95 but players can qualify for free by ranking on ACR Poker's Beast weekly leaderboard.

The Mega Satellite guarantees 25 packages worth $2,500 each, for $62,500 total. Each package includes a $1,500 entry to the Main Event, plus $1,000 towards travel expenses that goes directly into the player account.

Moneymaker added that the Main Event will have a live-streamed featured table, which is a great way for players to gain worldwide exposure while battling for that huge prize money.

For more information on the Moneymaker Tour Satellites, visit ACRPoker.eu.

For further information, please contact: [email protected]

About ACR Poker

Formerly known as Americas Cardroom, ACR Poker joined the Winning Poker Network in 2011. The Winning Poker Network has been dealing cards since 2001 and continues to be one of the most trusted names in the industry. Rated first place for payment processing and cashout reliability repeatedly over the last few years, ACR Poker offers outstanding customer service and a friendly environment for all poker players around the world.

Media contact:

Melanie Mosier

[email protected]

1-877-314-4195

SOURCE ACR Poker
BANGALORE, India, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Autonomous Mobile Robots Market is Segmented by Type (LiDAR Based, LiDAR+Vision Based), by Application (Hospitals and Healthcare, Manufacturing, Logistics and Warehouse): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 2023 - 2029. It is published in Valuates Reports under the Robotics Category.

The global Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) market was valued at US$ 1494.5 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 7938.4 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 25.9% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

Major Factors Driving the Growth of Autonomous Mobile Robots Market

The demand for autonomous mobile robots market is fueled by the expansion of the use of autonomous robots in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and warehousing, as well as growing public awareness of their advantages.

Increased industrial productivity brought on by the rise of e-commerce and the highly effective autonomous mobile robots also contributes to the Autonomous Mobile Robots market's expansion. It is anticipated that the rise of Industry 4.0 in logistics and warehousing as well as the rising demand from developing nations for warehouse automation would open up new growth prospects for major firms.

Download Free Sample: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-8O9915/Global_Autonomous_Mobile_Robots

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTS MARKET

A major factor in the development of AMRs is the growing demand for automation in industries to increase productivity, efficiency, and safety. In manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing facilities, these robots can carry out repetitive operations, handle materials, and move goods, minimizing the need for physical labor and increasing operational effectiveness. AMRs can now observe and comprehend their environment, make decisions, and travel independently thanks to advances in AI and ML technology. These technical developments have greatly increased the capabilities of AMRs and broadened the sectors in which they are used. This factor is expected to drive the growth of the Autonomous Mobile Robots Market.

Sensors and software for control and perception are being increasingly used by mobile robots, enabling the latter to comprehend and respond to their environment. In order to make effective navigational judgments, the robots analyze the data from 3D cameras, integrated laser scanners, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and wheel encoders. Machine learning and vision systems are the main areas of AI integration in AMR, which helps to further enhance sensor-based capabilities. As a result, manufacturing enterprises, hospitals, and airports among others will implement AMRs more quickly. This factor is expected to drive the growth of the Autonomous Mobile Robots Market.

Labor shortages and growing labor prices are posing problems for many businesses. AMRs offer a solution by automating processes that ordinarily call for human involvement. Automation encourages the use of AMRs by addressing labor shortages and lowering operating expenses. The requirement for effective logistics and fulfillment operations has increased as e-commerce has grown. Order picking, sorting, and inventory management are duties that AMRs excel at warehouses and distribution centers. AMR's adoption is mostly fueled by its capacity to optimize order fulfillment procedures and expedite logistical operations. This factor is expected to drive the growth of the Autonomous Mobile Robots Market.

They are adaptable for many applications and sectors because they are simple to code and reprogramme to accommodate changing tasks or workflows. One of the primary factors influencing their development is the capacity to expand and deploy several robots in order to satisfy changing business demands. AMRs are now more competent, dependable, and economical thanks to advancements in sensor, processor, and battery technology. AMRs are being adopted more quickly because a larger range of sectors can now afford to use these technologies. This factor is expected to drive the growth of the Autonomous Mobile Robots Market.

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AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

With a market share of roughly 40%, North America leads all other regions for autonomous mobile robots, followed by China and Europe.

The top four producers in the sector are Swisslog (KUKA), Omron Adept, Geekplus Technology, and Mobile Industrial Robots, with a combined market share of over 50%.

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Key Players:

Swisslog (KUKA), Omron Adept, Clearpath Robotics, Vecna, Mobile Industrial Robots, SMP Robotics, Cimcorp Automation, Aethon, Locus Robotics, Fetch Robotics, Geekplus Technology, 6 River Systems, ForwardX Robotics, Iplusmobot Technology, DF Automation & Robotics, YUJIN ROBOT, Syrius Robotics, Django Robotics.

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SIMILAR REPORTS

- Medical Robots market was valued at US$ 2939.3 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 3574.4 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 2.8% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Surgical Robotics Market

- Industrial Robotics market size is estimated to be worth US$ 41270 million in 2022 and is forecast to be a readjusted size of US$ 63340 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 7.4% during the review period.

- Agricultural Robots market size is estimated to be worth USD 5820.3 million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 16120 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 18.5% during the review period.

- Medical Service Robot Market

- Flexible Endoscopic Surgical Robot Market

- Intelligent Rehabilitation Robot Market

- Wheel Drive Humanoid Robot Industry

- Social Robots Market

- Exoskeleton Robots market was valued at US$ 309 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 2487.8 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 34.3% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Cleanroom Robots In Healthcare Market

- Agricultural Milking Robots Market

- Material Handling Robots market was valued at US$ 7613 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 20980 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 15.4% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Programmable Robots market is projected to grow from US$ 1957.7 million in 2023 to US$ 3193.9 million by 2029, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.5% during the forecast period.

- Indoor Farming Robots Market

- UV Disinfection Robots market was valued at US$ 602 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 876.6 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 5.4% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Soft Exoskeleton (Exosuits) and Wearable Robots market was valued at US$ 265.9 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 1400 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 31.9% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Humanoid Robot for Hardware Market

- Foundry and Forging Robots Market

- Shelf-mounted Robots Market

- Industrial Grinding and Polishing Robots Market

- Educational Robot Market

- Dual-Arm Robot for Wafer Handling Market

- Milking Robotic Machine Market

- Programmable Robots for Education Market

- Hospital and Pharmacy Robotics Market

- Automation Cloud Robots Market

- Medical Service Robot Market

- Nanorobots market was valued at US$ 7163.4 million in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$ 11680 million by 2029, witnessing a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period 2023-2029.

- Semiconductor Wafer Transfer Robot Market

- Mobile Delivery Robots Market

- Industrial Logistics Robots Market

- Fully Autonomous Robots Market

- Waterproof Robot Market

Click here to see related reports on Autonomous Mobile Robots Market

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Avance Clinical is an Australian and North American market-leading Contract Research Organization (CRO) that provides international biotechs with customized solutions. For the fourth consecutive year, Avance Clinical has been awarded Best Practices Customer Value Leadership awarded, by Frost & Sullivan, for its exceptional performance

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan recently researched the Asia-Pacific biotechnology contract research organization industry and, based on its findings, recognizes Avance Clinical with the 2023 Customer Value Leadership Award. The company is a leading CRO with over 20 years of experience and provides comprehensive clinical research services to drug sponsors worldwide.

2023 Asia-Pacific Biotech Contract Research Organization Customer Value Leadership Award

Avance Clinical's services span the entire clinical trial process, from early-stage development to late-stage studies, supporting the ever-evolving demands of biotechnology research and development. It offers up-to-date strategic guidance on study design, regulatory compliance, and protocol development, ensuring trials comply with the rigorous requirements of regulatory authorities globally.

With its commitment to delivering first-class services, Avance Clinical has a strong track record of achievement in biotechnology research, and its unwavering devotion to quality has earned it a reputation as a trustworthy partner in pioneering biotech innovations. The company consistently forms strategic partnerships with leading academic institutions, research organizations, and clinical trial sites to gain access to innovative technologies and a network of experienced professionals. Through these partnerships, Avance Clinical incorporates the latest developments into its offerings and stays abreast of emerging biotechnology and clinical research trends.

"The company understands the intricacies of conducting clinical trials for innovative biopharmaceutical products, gene and cell therapies, and other advanced therapies. Its experts possess deep scientific knowledge and expertise in handling biotech's clinical trial complexities, including specialized protocols, biomarker analysis, and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics assessments," said Azza Fazar, Best Practices Research Associate at Frost & Sullivan.

As a reflection of the tremendous value the company delivers to its customers, Avance Clinical's flagship program, GlobalReady, has gained traction among biotech stakeholders. GlobalReady provides customers with substantial benefits, including time reduction, cost savings, and high-quality data generation, approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Association (FDA).

Furthermore, with the newly opened North American headquarters in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Avance Clinical offers enhanced services in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The GlobalReady program streamlines the process and minimizes disruptions, cutting clinical trials' time and cost by seamlessly facilitating the transition of early-to-late phase studies from customers in Australia and the US.

"The GlobalReady program has gained significant traction, embraced by over 50 biotech clients. In addition, the attractive 43.5% rebate on clinical spending in Australia allows the company's clients to utilize its expertise and team in North America while maintaining services in Australia. This strategic approach enables clients to maximize rebate potential while leveraging Avance Clinical's North American operations knowledge and capabilities," noted Umesh Lal, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. With its strong overall performance, Avance Clinical earns Frost & Sullivan's 2023 Customer Value Leadership Award in the Asia-Pacific biotechnology contract research organization industry.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that demonstrates excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers, focusing on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The award recognizes Avance Clinical for its unique focus on augmenting its customers' value, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and customer base expansion.

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 .

Contact:

Tarini Singh

P: +91- 9953764546

E: [email protected]

About Avance Clinical

Avance Clinical is the largest premium full-service Australian and North American CRO delivering quality clinical trials, with globally accepted data, in Australia, New Zealand and the US for international biotechs. The company's clients are biotechs in their drug development phases that need fast, agile, and adaptive solution-oriented clinical research services.

Pre-clinical through to Phase I and Beyond

Avance Clinical offers pre-clinical consultancy services with their experienced ClinicReady team right through to Phase I and beyond clinical services leveraging significant Government incentive rebates of up to 43.5% and rapid start-up regulatory processes that are available in Australia.

With experience across more than 110 therapeutic indications, Avance Clinical can deliver world-class, high-quality, internationally accepted data suitable for FDA and EMA review.

Technology

Avance Clinical uses state-of-the-art technology and gold-standard systems across all functional areas to provide clients with the most effective processes. Medidata, Oracle, Zelta, Veeva and Medrio are just some of Avance's technology partners.

www.avancecro.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
LONDON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Avon Products, Inc. ("Avon," the "Company" or "we") announced today the final results in connection with its previously announced offer to purchase for cash (the "Tender Offer") any and all of its outstanding 6.950% Notes due 2043 (the "Notes") and related consent solicitation (the "Consent Solicitation").

The expiration date for the Tender Offer (as amended on July 24, 2023) was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, August 7, 2023 (the "Expiration Date"). According to information received from D.F. King & Co., Inc., the tender and information agent for the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation (the "Tender and Information Agent"), after 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 2, 2023 (the "Early Tender Date"), but at or prior to the Expiration Date, the Company had received Notes validly tendered representing an aggregate principal amount equal to U.S.$235,000. Together with the Notes validly tendered and not withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Date, a total of U.S.$194,197,000 in aggregate principal amount of the Notes (or 89.87% of the aggregate principal amount outstanding of Notes as of the date of this press release) were validly tendered pursuant to the Tender Offer. As announced on July 24, 2023, the Company has obtained the Requisite Consents necessary to give effect to the Proposed Amendments. Consequently, as previously announced, the Company expects to execute the Twelfth Supplemental Indenture effecting the Proposed Amendments on or prior to the Early Settlement Date, which is expected to be on August 8, 2023, or as promptly as practicable thereafter. The Twelfth Supplemental Indenture will become effective upon its execution and delivery by the Company and the Trustee but will not become operative until the Company has paid the consent payment in full.

The Notes that have been validly tendered cannot be withdrawn, except as may be required by applicable law. Holders who validly tendered their Notes after the Early Tender Date but at or prior to the Expiration Date, in the manner described in the Offer to Purchase (as defined below), will be entitled to receive the Tender Offer Consideration, but not the Early Tender Payment, plus any accrued interest from the last interest payment to, but not including, the Final Settlement Date, which is expected to be on August 8, 2023, or as promptly as practicable thereafter.

The following table sets forth certain information relating to the Tender Offer:

Title of Security ISIN/CUSIP Principal Outstanding

Amount Tender Offer

Consideration(1) Early Tender

Payment(1)(2) Total

Consideration(1) 6.950% Notes

due 2043 US054303AZ59/054303

AZ5 U.S.$216,085,000 U.S.$1,187.50 U.S.$50.0 U.S.$1,237.50















(1) The amount to be paid for each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for purchase, excluding Accrued Interest (as defined in the Offer to Purchase), which will be paid in addition to the Tender Offer Consideration and, if applicable, the Early Tender Payment. (2) Included in the Total Consideration.

Our obligation to purchase the Notes in the Tender Offer is conditioned on the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, including the Financing Condition, as described in the Offer to Purchase. The Financing Condition relates to intercompany financing received from one of our affiliates. Subject to the applicable law, we have the right, in our sole discretion, to amend or terminate the Tender Offer or the Consent Solicitation at any time, and we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, not to accept any tenders of Notes for any reason.

The terms and conditions of the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation, as well as the Proposed Amendments, are described in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated July 11, 2023 (as it may be amended or supplemented, the "Offer to Purchase"). Copies of the Offer to Purchase are available to Holders from the Tender and Information Agent. Requests for copies of the Offer to Purchase should be directed to the Tender and Information Agent in New York at +1 (800) 992-3086 (toll free) or +1 (212) 269-5550 (collect), or at [email protected]. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this press release have the meaning given to them in the Offer to Purchase.

HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and Mizuho Securities USA LLC were the Dealer Managers and Solicitation Agents in connection with the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation. Questions regarding the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation may be directed to HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. at +1 (888) HSBC-4LM (toll-free) or +1 (212) 525-5552 (collect), or to Mizuho Securities USA LLC at +1 (866) 271-7403 (toll-free) or +1 (212) 205-7736 (collect).

Neither the Offer to Purchase nor any related documents have been filed with or reviewed by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority of any country. No authority has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the Offer to Purchase or any related documents, and it is unlawful and may be a criminal offense to make any representation to the contrary.

The Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation were made solely on the terms and conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase. Under no circumstance shall this press release constitute an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities or a solicitation of consents. The Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation were not being made to, nor have we accepted tenders of Notes or delivery of consents from, Holders in any jurisdiction in which the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation was not in compliance with the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdiction. No recommendation was made by us, the Dealer Managers or the Solicitation Agents as to whether Holders should have tendered their Notes or deliver consents. Holders should carefully read the Offer to Purchase and the related materials, because they contain important information, including the various terms and conditions of the Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation.

About Avon

For 130 years Avon has stood for women: providing innovative, quality beauty products which are primarily sold to women, through women. Millions of independent Representatives across the world sell iconic Avon brands such as Avon Color and ANEW through their social networks, building their own beauty businesses on a full- or part-time basis. Avon supports women's empowerment, entrepreneurship and well-being and has donated over U.S.$1 billion to women's causes through Avon and the Avon Foundation. Avon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Natura &Co Holding. To learn more, please visit Natura &Co Holding's website at https://www.naturaeco.com/brands/avon-2/.

Forward-Looking Statements

Disclosures in this press release contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that management expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, forward-looking statements contained in this press release specifically include statements regarding the making and consummation of the Tender Offer, the Consent Solicitation and the Financing Transaction (as defined in the Offer to Purchase), including the timing thereof, the Proposed Amendments and the execution of the Supplemental Indenture (as defined in the Offer to Purchase). These statements are based on certain assumptions made by Avon based on its management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, anticipated future developments and other factors believed to be appropriate. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Avon, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements. These include risks set forth in reports filed by Natura &Co Holding with the Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and by Avon with the SEC. Any forward-looking statement applies only as of the date on which such statement is made and Avon does not intend to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Avon Products, Inc.

c/o Natura &Co Holding S.A.

Investor Relations Team

[email protected]

SOURCE Avon Products, Inc.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation today announced a corrected dividend amount on the Fixed-to-Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series U, originally announced on July 14, 2023. The regular quarterly cash dividend is $22.05700 per depositary share and is payable on September 1, 2023 to shareholders of record as of August 15, 2023.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 68 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 3,900 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs and award-winning digital banking with approximately 57 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for news email alerts.

www.bankofamerica.com

Investors May Contact:

Lee McEntire, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.388.6780

[email protected]

Jonathan G. Blum, Bank of America (Fixed Income)

Phone: 1.212.449.3112

[email protected]

Reporters May Contact:

Bill Halldin, Bank of America

Phone: 1.916.724.0093

[email protected]

Christopher P. Feeney, Bank of America

Phone: 1.980.386.6794

[email protected]

SOURCE Bank of America Corporation
WUXI, China, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BioCity Biopharma today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a Phase 1 study of BC3448 (CD3/EGFR Bispecific antibody, BsAb). As a result, BioCity Biopharma will initiate a dose escalation/expansion study with BC3448, enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors in the United States.

BC3448 is a CD3-based BsAb that recruits T cells to tumors cells with high EGFR expression resulting in T cell-driven tumor cell killing. To reduce the possibility of cytokine release syndrome (CRS), a known safety issue associated with CD3-based BsAbs, BC3448 is designed to have differential binding affinities for EGFR and CD3, with a stronger binding affinity for EGFR than that for CD3.

BC3448 is being developed in solid tumors with high EGFR expression, including NSCLC, HNSCC, mCRC, and ESC. In preclinical studies, BC3448 demonstrated antitumor activity in multiple tumor types with high EGFR expression, regardless of mutational status of EGFR, KRAS or BRAF, indicating the potential for BC3448 to be an effective therapy for EGFR-expressing tumors, including those resistant to EGFR-TKI and EGFR mAbs.

Currently, there are few CD3/EGFR BsAb in clinical development globally, making BC3448 one of the leading programs. The Phase I trial of BC3448 conducted in China has completed several dose-escalation cohorts and shown a favorable safety profile. Opening of the US IND by BioCity will accelerate the clinical development of this innovative cancer therapy globally.

About BioCity

Founded in December 2017, BioCity is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel and highly differentiated, modality-independent therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune disorders including chronic kidney diseases (CKD). The company has established a pipeline of more than 10 innovative drug candidates including small molecules, monoclonal and bispecific antibodies as well as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Currently, BioCity Biopharma has 6 oncology projects in Phase 1 development, including the first-in-Class CDH3-targeting ADC, and agents targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway via a WEE1 and an ATR inhibitor, and agents targeting the immune system with a T cell engager (CD3/EGFR BsAb), an immune checkpoint inhibitor (TIM-3 mAb), and a T cell activator (4-1BB mAb). In addition, an endothelin A(ETA)-receptor selective antagonist designed for CKD has entered phase 2 development.

For more information, please visit www.biocitypharma.com

Contact:

[email protected]

IR@biocitypharma.com

SOURCE BioCity Biopharma
** Credit Union Now Offers 85,000+ Surcharge-Free ATMs Worldwide for Members **

GLENDALE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- California Credit Union today announced that it has joined the Allpoint Network, providing an additional 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs for its 170,000 members. Including its existing CO-OP ATM Network, California Credit Union members now have access to more than 85,000 surcharge-free ATMs worldwide.

Conveniently located at major retail locations coast-to-coast, including leading pharmacy, grocery, convenience, and big-box retailers, Allpoint Network ATMs will save California Credit Union members time as well as ATM fees. Through the partnership, California Credit Union-branded ATMs will be located in major retail locations in San Diego and the greater Los Angeles area.

"We are continually working to bring our members more value, convenience and cost savings. Partnering with Allpoint allows us to eliminate ATM fees and offer an enhanced member experience by providing surcharge-free access to cash at convenient retail locations where members already shop, including major brand pharmacy, grocery, convenience and big box retailers," said California Credit Union President & CEO Steve O'Connell. "By adding access to the Allpoint ATM Network, we are almost tripling the number of ATMs available to members so they will never be far from a surcharge-free ATM, wherever they are traveling or doing their day-to-day shopping. Our expanded ATM network, along with our Virtual Branch, online and mobile banking, will also benefit our newest members in San Bernardino and Ventura Counties as we continue to expand into new service areas."

Members can find a convenient surcharge-free ATM here or search on California Credit Union's 5-Star Rated Mobile App.

About California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 with assets over $4.5 billion, more than 170,000 members, and 24 retail branches. The credit union serves community members and businesses in the California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura as well as school employees throughout the state. The credit union operates in San Diego and Riverside Counties as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. The credit union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Visit ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @CaliforniaCreditUnion.

SOURCE California Credit Union
OPPO's latest Reno10 series boasts cutting-edge technology and fast-charging capabilities

The Reno 10 Pro+ 5G offers groundbreaking 100W SUPERVOOC charging, reaching a full charge in just 27 minutes

The series also provides users with durable batteries, lasting up to 1.6 days of standby time, and features the SUPERVOOC S power management chip for efficient battery usage

DUBAI, UAE, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In the ever-evolving landscape of smartphone technology, users now demand cutting-edge technology that offers unparalleled power and efficiency. OPPO recently launched its all-new Reno10 series, a remarkable lineup of smartphones that redefines the charging experience, setting new standards for speed and durability. At the forefront of this groundbreaking series stands the Reno10 Pro+ 5G, designed to empower users with lightning-fast charging and long-lasting battery life. With an unwavering commitment to user satisfaction, the Reno10 series stands as a testament to OPPO's pursuit of innovation.

OPPO Reno10 series (PRNewsfoto/OPPO)

100/80/67W SUPERVOOC: Lightning-Fast Charging

The Reno10 Pro+ 5G leads the pack with its groundbreaking 100W SUPERVOOC and,700mAh big battery, delivering an impressive 50% charge in just 9.5 minutes and a full charge in only 27 minutes. Undoubtedly, the Reno10 Pro+ 5G ranks among the fastest charging smartphones on the market.

The Reno10 Pro 5G follows closely with an incredible 80W SUPERVOOC, achieving a 48% charge in just 10 minutes and a full charge in 28 minutes through its 4,600mAh dual-cell battery. Lastly, the Reno10 5G offers a super-charged 67W SUPERVOOC, fully charging the phone's 5,000mAh big battery in just 47 minutes, making it one of the fastest charging smartphones in the economic price range.

Lasting Power for Uninterrupted Use

Beyond its unrivaled charging speed, the Reno10 Pro+ 5G's 4,700mAh large battery supports up to 1.6 days of standby time on a full charge, with only 5% battery consumption during a 9-hour standby at night. In tests conducted at the OPPO Lab, just 5 minutes of charging can support an impressive 3.3 hours of YouTube playback, 3 hours of Instagram browsing, or 3.2 hours of continuous WhatsApp use.

Similarly, the Reno10 Pro 5G's 4,600mAh battery supports up to 1.5 days of standby time and offers 3.2 hours of YouTube playback, 2.8 hours of Instagram browsing, or 3 hours of continuous WhatsApp use with a 5-minute charge. The Reno10 5G delivers 2 hours of YouTube playback or 2.2 hours of Facebook browsing with the same charge.

The Most Durable Battery in the Industry

OPPO's exclusive Battery Health Engine is the driving force behind the Reno10 series' exceptional battery lifespan. It ensures the battery remains in good condition for up to 1,600 charge and discharge cycles, surpassing industry standards. Since its debut last year, the Battery Health Engine has been integrated into over ten OPPO smartphone products, providing improved user experiences and contributing to sustainability efforts. As a testament to its green innovations, the Battery Health Engine has been awarded the 2023 SEAL Sustainable Product Award.

SUPERVOOCTM S Power Management Chip: Efficiency Redefined

Powering the Reno10 Pro+ 5G is OPPO's self-developed SUPERVOOC S power management chipset. This innovative chip consolidates various functions in one chip, including charging, discharging, decoding, reset, battery protection, and power outage functions, resulting in a 45% reduction in motherboard space needed for charging and discharging components. With an industry-leading 99.5% discharge efficiency, this chip optimizes battery usage, extending the phone's usage time.

Reliable Charging with TUV Rheinland Certification

Safety and reliability are paramount in OPPO's charging solutions. The Reno10 Pro+ 5G has earned the prestigious TUV Rheinland Safe Fast-Charge System Certification, undergoing a series of 40 tests to assess the reliability of the charger, cable, mobile phone, and charging system under extreme conditions. This certification guarantees a dependable OPPO flash charging experience, providing users with peace of mind.

Ultra-low Temperature Charging Mode: Charging in Extreme Conditions

The Reno10 series goes beyond conventional charging capabilities with its Ultra-low Temperature Charging Mode that operates efficiently even in extremely cold environments ranging from 0C to -25C. The Freeze Protection Algorithm measures the battery temperature, enabling the system to intelligently activate Ultra-low Temperature Charging Mode when needed. During low-temperature charging, high-load processes generate heat through the middle frame and graphite, safely bringing the battery to normal operating temperature for seamless charging even in subzero environments.

The OPPO Reno10 series raises the bar with its fast-charging capabilities and long-lasting battery performance, presenting users with a seamless and reliable charging experience. Say goodbye to charging anxiety and embrace uninterrupted usage with the Reno10 series, setting new benchmarks for smartphone charging in today's fast-paced world.

About OPPO

OPPO is a leading global smart device brand. Since the launch of its first mobile phone - "Smiley Face" - in 2008, OPPO has been in relentless pursuit of the perfect synergy of aesthetic satisfaction and innovative technology. Today, OPPO provides a wide range of smart devices spearheaded by the Find and Reno series. Beyond devices, OPPO also provides its users with ColorOS operating system and internet services such as OPPO Cloud and OPPO+. OPPO has footprints in more than 60 countries and regions, with more than 40,000 employees dedicated to creating a better life for customers around the world.

About OPPO MEA

OPPO started its journey in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in 2015. Now OPPO is physically present in more than 13 markets across the region, including Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Based on insights of local consumers in each country, OPPO has evolved the progress of product localisation, taking into consideration several perspectives towards each market, including product localisation, to further meet the core needs of users; marketing localisation, to better communicate with local young customers; and talent localisation, to understand local consumers further and provide an optimum customer service.

Within the last year, OPPO has started to adjust its product line in the Middle East region specifically. This has included the launch of its flagship OPPO Find X Series and the introduction of the OPPO Reno Series. OPPO will continue to evolve its local product line to offer more premium series to consumers in the region.

A forward-thinking international technology company, OPPO strives to be a sustainable company that contributes to a better world and have enacted positive change in every way possible through activating local community initiatives and humanitarian, charity campaigns.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2170503/OPPO.jpg

SOURCE OPPO
ST. JOSEPH. Mich., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago-based Sculptor Richard Hunt has generously gifted his satellite studio at 258 Territorial Road in Benton Harbor, Mich., to Krasl Art Center, a contemporary art museum, regional art center, and public arts advocate located in St. Joseph, Mich.

Krasl Art Center and its staff began their relationship with Hunt upon his arrival in the community in 1995 when he opened a satellite studio in Benton Harbor, 100 miles from his primary workspace in Chicago. The opening of his Studio Center was a critical seed to launching the Benton Harbor Arts District, a vibrant active area of the City of Benton Harbor downtown.

In the ensuing 24 years, proximity to this world-renowned sculptor has become a rich/unique part of the community fabric.

Krasl Art Center cordially invites you to a special media event discussing the generous donation of the Richard Hunt Studio in Benton Harbor to the organization. At the event, Krasl will discuss Richard Hunt's legacy, share the history of his satellite studio, and the intersections of both to the arts in Southwest Michigan.

When: Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Time: 1:00 pm

Where: Krasl Art Center, 707 Lake Blvd., St. Joseph, MI 49085

What: Announcing next steps regarding the gift of the Richard Hunt Studio

Please note: A Krasl Art Center representative will be at the Richard Hunt Studio Center at 258 Territorial Road, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. following the media event at Krasl Art Center.

Please RSVP your attendance to Jamie Balkin at [email protected] or via phone at 269-757-1586. A detailed media kit is being produced. It will be released at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. If you are interested in receiving the link, please contact Jamie Balkin at [email protected] or by phone at 269-757-1586.

Krasl Art Center is a nonprofit art museum and learning center that enriches the lives of people living in or visiting southwest Michigan by delivering enlightening art experiences through diverse education opportunities, meaningful events, and high-quality exhibits and collections. Krasl's mission is to Inspire Meaningful Change and Strengthen Community through the Visual Arts. To learn more, visit krasl.org.

Contact: Jamie Balkin

Office: 269-983-0271 ext. 121

Cell: 269-757-1586

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Krasl Art Center
LIAO CHENG, China, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a report from the Shandong office of Hong Kong Business Daily. In recent years, Gaotang County in Shandong Province has attached great importance to the high-quality development of the koi industry and cultural inheritance, and has formulated a plan for the integrated development of the koi industry. In April 2023, the China Fisheries Association and Gaotang County launched a co creation and cooperation of the "Golden Carp Hometown" brand, cultivating characteristic brand culture, exploring the historical origins of local characteristics, telling local characteristic brand stories well, and assisting in the revitalization of rural industries.

Gaotang County has invested 240 million yuan to fully build the "Lidu Impression Park" for the integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism in a new business format. The project covers a total area of 150 acres, with a planned investment of 240 million yuan, and will be constructed in three phases. Gaotang koi farming was first established in 2003. After more than 20 years of efforts, there are currently over 390 households engaged in koi farming in the county, with 47 aquaculture enterprises, 160 koi marketing brokers, nearly 30 e-commerce sales platforms, and over 100 sales personnel. We have 3 national level demonstration farms for healthy aquaculture, 26 koi cultural sightseeing and leisure bases, and nearly 30 koi breeding varieties in the county, with a breeding area of over 8000 acres. We have over 10 million high-quality koi, with a total output value of 900 million yuan. The koi industry is at the highest level in the country.

Since 2014, Gaotang County has held four consecutive koi competitions and developed the Gaotang koi brand. With the popularization and rapid development of network technology, Gaotang koi has taken the high-speed train of the Internet. The "Guangshun koi" breeding cooperative takes the lead in demonstrating e-commerce marketing. With the support of governments at all levels, 40 new e-commerce live streaming rooms have been built, with an annual revenue of over 200 million yuan from e-commerce marketing.

In recent years, Gaotang County has established more than 30 Koi live streaming platforms, The fast and direct logistics have also allowed Gaotang Koi to enter more households. In 2022, the number of Koi express deliveries delivered by mail alone reached 100000, with a sales value of over 100 million yuan.

SOURCE Shandong Office of Hong Kong Business Daily
Twitter X icon displayed on a phone screen is seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 6, 2023. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

An X user has gone viral after tweeting about their partner questioning an $8 "X Premium" credit card charge.

Partners aren't the only ones confused, Indonesia briefly banned X under its anti-porn laws.

Try explaining paying for "X Premium" to someone who hasn't been keeping up with the X/Twitter drama.

Twitter's rebrand to X has landed at least one user in hot water.

X user @anothercohen found himself on shaky ground when his partner questioned an $8 monthly charge for "X Premium."

On Sunday, Alex Cohen posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a screenshot of the exchange, writing: "My wife just texted me this, I'm sleeping on the couch tonight."

The post has over 57,000 likes and has been viewed over 7 million times.

He's not alone in facing this awkward predicament.

Another user, @60404, posted a screenshot on Sunday that "X Premium'' had been flagged by his bank as a suspicious transaction.

This screenshot appears to show a message from his mother writing: "This is not what we gave you the credit card for. This is extremely inappropriate."

X Premium  previously known as Twitter Blue  is an $8/month subscription that allows you to edit tweets, craft longer posts, and be prioritized by other users' feeds. This subscription model replaced Twitter's old verification system and has drawn backlash from users who ridiculed and campaigned to block those who paid for Twitter Blue.

Though these X-related mixups have provoked online amusement, they've also created real-world consequences for X. The company's X.com domain was briefly blocked by Indonesia under its laws against porn and gambling, Insider previously reported.

Story continues

Notably, even giants in the porn industry  like Pornhub  go to great pains to avoid appearing under their name on customers' bills, making the "X Premium" charge all the more awkward.

Today, user @McJesse's tweet from July 25  viewed over 7 million times since posting  seems prophetic. Her tweet compared X's new logo to that of a slew of other porn sites, "These are all porn except one. That one's Twitter."

Now try explaining all of that to someone who hasn't been keeping up with all the X/Twitter drama.

Read the original article on Business Insider
New customer will receive CodeMettle software, configured to simplify management of all node components in a single interface.

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CodeMettle, an innovative developer of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) NetOps software, has been awarded a contract to provide the software management and configuration component for all-domain agile command and control (C2) systems for National Guard Air Force Special Warfare (AFSPECWAR). CodeMettle NetOps software is a platform-agnostic solution that provides users with a single management interface for the best-of-breed hardware system delivered by Weapons & Tactical Alliance Group (WepTac AG). These C2 systems will be bundled with CodeMettle's platform-agnostic and intuitive software that easily integrates with disparate node components to bolster Airmen's success. The CodeMettle solution includes a lightweight and simplified node management software that was built from the ground up to manage tactical through enterprise solutions and their subsystems (e.g., Backhaul, Electronic Warfare (EW), dis/mount Radio Frequency (RF), Tactical Data Link (TDL), network, services/applications).

"This new software solution will simplify the ANGB's increasingly complex hardware and networking requirements at the edge, giving them peace of mind when deploying communications units at the frontline," said Mike Mostow, COO of CodeMettle. "As a company, we are very excited to welcome yet another customer within a new branch of the U.S. Military to CodeMettle."

CodeMettle provides the only user-friendly all-domain software on the market today that efficiently integrates and orchestrates data and processes from transmission, network, and applications and services into a single pane of glass that requires very little training to use. CodeMettle will be demonstrating a similar solution at the upcoming Army experiment, NetModX, which takes place August 9-10, 2023 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

For more information about this capability or our participation in NetModX, see us at TechNet Augusta, the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, or email us at [email protected].

SOURCE CodeMettle
BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Colorado Governor Jared Polis is kicking off the highly anticipated American Solar Energy Society's (ASES) 52nd National Solar Conference SOLAR 2023 in Boulder, Colorado, with an address at the ASES Chapter Forum. On Tuesday, August 8, at 10 am, Governor Polis will address an audience of leaders and members of ASES Chapters from across the country, including industry experts, policymakers, and renewable energy enthusiasts. SOLAR 2023 is a four-day event, taking place at 1669 Euclid Avenue, Boulder, CO 80309, and virtually online from August 8-11.

Join us online or in person; no registration is required. Please go to ases.org/solar2023-chapter-forum for more information!

Governor Polis, a long-time advocate of renewable energy, will deliver remarks highlighting his administration's visionary clean energy initiatives that have positioned Colorado as a national leader in renewable energy adoption and have centered solar energy as a key component of the state's green transformation.

The ASES Chapter Forum is a free, public event; no registration required! Members of the media, industry professionals, and renewable energy enthusiasts are invited on Tuesday, August 8, at 10 am MT to witness Governor Polis's inspiring address on Colorado's renewable energy trajectory and its greener, more prosperous tomorrow..

For In-Person Attendees:

Join us at the University of Colorado's University Memorial Center (1669 Euclid Avenue, Boulder, CO 80309). The Chapter Forum is from 9-12pm MT.

For Virtual Attendees:

Join Zoom Meeting at 9am MT

Meeting ID: 990 1527 9356

Passcode: 1954

For additional details on in-person and virtual attendee options, please visit ases.org/solar2023-chapter-forum

About Jared Polis:

Governor Jared Polis is a passionate advocate for clean energy, climate action, and sustainable development. Since taking office, he has made significant progress toward the goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040. His dedication to building a greener future has earned him recognition and respect both nationally and internationally.

About the American Solar Energy Society:

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the use of solar energy and other sustainable practices. For over six decades, ASES has been a driving force behind renewable energy advocacy, education, and research, gathering leading experts and enthusiasts at its annual National Solar Conference to accelerate the clean energy revolution.

SOURCE American Solar Energy Society
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce, is among the organizations participating in a White House meeting today on strengthening cybersecurity in America's public schools.

First Lady Jill Biden, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will meet with school administrators, educators, private sector companies and nonprofit organizations such as CompTIA on actions to counter the increase in cyberattacks that have targeted schools in recent years.

"Equally important, we can educate students on best practices in good cyber hygiene." Tweet this

Amy Kardel, senior vice president, strategic workforce relationships, and Angel L. Pineiro, Jr., vice president, strategic academic relationships, will represent CompTIA at the White House meeting.

"Ransomware attacks on our schools have a devastating impact, from lost learning time in the classroom to the monetary impacts on school districts," Kardel said.

CompTIA's upcoming "State of Cybersecurity" research study finds that ransomware is the second-most common threat behind malware, with 34% of all organizations aware of a ransomware attack in the past 12 months.

"Putting schools in the best position to avoid ransomware attacks requires a combination of robust technologies and the skilling and reskilling of staff," said Kardel. "Equally important, we can educate students on best practices in good cyber hygiene."

"Focusing on cybersecurity in schools has the added benefit of piquing students' interest in the many career opportunities in technology generally, and cybersecurity specifically," Pineiro noted.

A shortfall of cybersecurity workers continues to plague the U.S., according to the latest data from CyberSeek, the leading source for detailed, actionable information about supply and demand in the cybersecurity job market. There were an estimated 1.1 million cybersecurity professionals working across the country between May 2022 and April 2023. In the same timeframe, online job listings for cybersecurity-related positions totaled more than 663,000.

CompTIA previously participated in the July 2022 National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit. CompTIA works with federal, state and local government agencies and departments, including the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, and other industry, workforce and education organizations to expand and diversify cyber workforce training and education.

About CompTIA

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the estimated 75 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world's economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for unlocking the potential of the tech industry and its workforce. https://www.comptia.org/

Media Contact

Steven Ostrowski

CompTIA

[email protected]

630.678.8468

SOURCE CompTIA
NORTHVILLE, Mich., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cooper Standard (NYSE: CPS) today announced the appointment of MaryAnn Peterson Kanary to senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary effective August 7, 2023. Based at Cooper Standard's headquarters in Northville, Mich., Kanary will lead the legal and compliance functions for the Company and report directly to Jeffrey Edwards, chairman and CEO, Cooper Standard. She replaces Joanna Totsky who recently left the Company.

Cooper Standard appoints Kanary to senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary

"MaryAnn is an engaging chief legal officer with a demonstrated history of working in publicly traded, international and privately held manufacturing, automotive and construction organizations," said Edwards. "We welcome MaryAnn back to the Cooper Standard team in her new, expanded position."

Most recently, Kanary served as executive vice president and chief legal officer at Barton Malow Holdings LLC, corporate secretary for Barton Malow Enterprises, Inc. and trustee for The Barton Malow Foundation. She also served as managing director of Barton Malow's LIFTbuild, LLC through the development and construction of its first proof of concept in North America.

From 2016 to 2017, she served as associate general counsel and director of global legal compliance at Cooper Standard, where she oversaw all legal compliance matters. Previously, she held positions of increasing responsibility in-house at Toyoda Gosei North America Corp. (now Toyoda Gosei Americas) and Masco Corp. Prior to moving in-house, Kanary was an associate at the law firms of Butzel Long, P.C. and Goodwin Procter LLP.

Kanary earned a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., where she was submission editor for the Harvard Environmental Law Review, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with highest distinction from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

She is a recognized industry leader, most recently being honored by Crain's Detroit Business as a Notable in Corporate Counsel (2022) and by Dbusiness in its Top Corporate Counsel recognition (2021). Active in her local community, Kanary currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Judson Center and as co-vice chair of the Board of Directors for the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit.

About Cooper Standard

Cooper Standard, headquartered in Northville, Mich., with locations in 21 countries, is a leading global supplier of sealing and fluid handling systems and components. Utilizing our materials science and manufacturing expertise, we create innovative and sustainable engineered solutions for diverse transportation and industrial markets. Cooper Standard's approximately 23,000 employees are at the heart of our success, continuously improving our business and surrounding communities. Learn more at www.cooperstandard.com or follow us on Twitter @CooperStandard.

Contact for Media:

Chris Andrews

Cooper Standard

(248) 596-6217

[email protected]

SOURCE Cooper Standard
Aldous\Walker founder recognized for career success, courtroom strategy

DALLAS, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dallas Bar Association has named acclaimed trial lawyer Charla Aldous among its Living Legends, with a recent interview highlighting her major courtroom wins, career successes and legal strategy.

Throughout the discussion, the Aldous\Walker LLP founder reviews some of her major cases, including a $37.6 million verdict on behalf of a young woman who was paralyzed while riding in a Honda Odyssey minivan with a dangerous seat belt system. That verdict was one of four totaling $20 million or more that Ms. Aldous and the firm secured within a 90-day period. The interview also includes mention of a $21 million verdict in a botched anesthesia case, the largest medical malpractice verdict in Texas for the year 2022.

A regular mentor to young female trial lawyers, Ms. Aldous also discusses storytelling and trial strategies, tips for women in a male-dominated profession and how legal work has shaped who she is today.

"I don't consider what I do as a profession, I really consider it to be a calling," said Ms. Aldous. "It's a calling to help those that need me. I would like to be remembered as a lawyer that made a difference in people's lives."

The Dallas Bar Association's Living Legends series honors Dallas lawyers who have vaulted to the forefront of the profession through dedication and courtroom successes. Prior Living Legends include former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn and renowned appellate lawyer Nina Cortell.

"While Charla undeniably is a skilled lawyer in the courtroom, what truly sets her apart is the care and attention that she gives each one of her clients," said DBA member Meghann Reeves. "They are an extension to her family."

Click here to watch the full interview.

This is just the latest in a long list of accolades for the firm founder. Recently, American Lawyer Media named Ms. Aldous to its list of Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar. She has also earned repeat "Lawyer of the Year" honors from Best Lawyers in America for excellence in personal injury litigation and medical malpractice cases. She has earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and is a repeat honoree by Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers and The National Trial Lawyers.

About Aldous\Walker LLP

The Aldous\Walker LLP law firm represents clients in civil litigation and specializes in high-profile, high-stakes cases. Learn more about the firm at http://www.aldouslaw.com.

Media Contact:

Mark Annick

800.559.4534

[email protected]

SOURCE Aldous\Walker LLP
BOSTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE: HAE), a global medical technology company focused on delivering innovative medical solutions to drive better patient outcomes, has announced the election of Diane M. Bryant to its Board of Directors.

Bryant recently served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NovaSignal Corp., a medical technology and data company specializing in the assessment and management of brain health. She is the former Chief Operating Officer of Google Cloud and spent 32 years at Intel Corporation, where she held numerous leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including serving as Group President of the Data Center Group. Bryant was named one of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2015 and 2016. She also serves on the board of directors of Broadcom Inc. and the Chancellor's Board of Advisors at the University of California, Davis.

Bryant received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of California, Davis, and she attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, completing the Executive Program.

"Diane brings to Haemonetics' Board more than three decades of executive leadership, directing the growth of prominent global technology organizations," said Ellen Zane, Chair of Haemonetics' Board of Directors. "As Haemonetics continues to extend its industry leadership, we look forward to leveraging Diane's extensive technology and healthcare experience and strategic counsel towards achieving the company's goals for long-term, transformational growth."

About Haemonetics



Haemonetics (NYSE: HAE) is a global healthcare company dedicated to providing a suite of innovative medical products and solutions for customers, to help them improve patient care and reduce the cost of healthcare. Our technology addresses important medical markets: blood and plasma component collection, the surgical suite and hospital transfusion services. To learn more about Haemonetics, visit www.haemonetics.com.

Media Contact:

Josh Gitelson, Director-Global Communications

(781) 356-9776

[email protected]



SOURCE Haemonetics Corporation
New offering bolsters the existing product set, providing customers access to an innovative solution that supercharges AI capabilities and unlocks value from data

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, today announced the availability of high-density colocation services across PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform. With high-performance computing (HPC) ready infrastructure configurations, Digital Realty's high-density colocation services enable businesses to overcome the processing and proximity challenges associated with the unstructured and exponential growth of data, as well as the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

In today's digital landscape, businesses face the ever-increasing challenge of managing and harnessing the power of vast amounts of data. This rapid data expansion presents numerous challenges including performance bottlenecks, compliance complexities, and scalability limitations. Businesses are increasingly turning to emerging technologies like AI to analyze and process this data more effectively. These new technologies consume large amounts of power, which require specialized infrastructure to support them, providing high-power densities while safely and efficiently regulating the temperature to ensure performance is not impaired.

Key Features:

High-density support : supports workloads of up to 70 kilowatts per rack.

: supports workloads of up to 70 kilowatts per rack. Cooling : utilizes innovative Air-Assisted Liquid Cooling (AALC) technologies.

: utilizes innovative Air-Assisted Liquid Cooling (AALC) technologies. Global availability : solution supported in 28 markets across three regions, including North America , EMEA and Asia-Pacific .

: solution supported in 28 markets across three regions, including , EMEA and . Extensible and sustainable: scale up and out with flexible and sustainable consumption models.

"We recognize the data management challenges that companies are facing, where the exponential growth in data can hinder performance and innovation. As a trusted infrastructure partner, Digital Realty is committed to addressing these challenges by leveraging our longstanding experience in delivering high density infrastructure solutions. While we already support hundreds of high-performance computing deployments across our portfolio, we've listened to our customers and taken it a step further, providing standardized configurations and ultra-high-power densities. This offering will enable businesses to unlock new possibilities, quickly deploy high performance infrastructure on a global platform, and achieve optimal performance in the age of AI," said Scott Mills, Senior Vice President Engineering and Customer Solutions at Digital Realty.

Industry perspective

"As Cirrascale continues to deploy the latest AI accelerators for its AI Innovation Cloud, we're relying on global data center providers like Digital Realty to supply high-density colocation services that can support the massive per rack kilowatt demands that the next generation of accelerators require. By supporting up to 70 kilowatts per rack, Digital Realty is enabling us to be able to quickly deploy our infrastructure in a dense environment without fear of overheating, throttling, or damage to our high-density servers," said Dave Driggers , Chief Technology Officer, Cirrascale Cloud Services.





, Chief Technology Officer, Cirrascale Cloud Services. "IDC is forecasting data consumption will grow at a strong rate of over 20% annually in the coming years. Enterprise applications stimulated by the increasing adoption of AI capabilities will drive a significant portion of data consumption. Colocation providers such as Digital Realty are central to the digital ecosystem for managing data workflows. As a global leader in the colocation segment, Digital Realty is ideally positioned to cater to these burgeoning high-density colocation requirements of enterprises as they implement and leverage AI capabilities," said Courtney Munroe , Research Vice President, IDC.





, Research Vice President, IDC. "Undoubtedly AI, HPC and video streaming workloads are driving increased demand for capital-intensive, dense computing solutions. To effectively implement these solutions at scale, customers require facilities and services that not only support seamless deployment but also maximize capital utilization. In partnership with Digital Realty, Avnet Integrated acts as a point of engagement, offering end-to-end services for the evaluation  including Avnet Virtual Platforms  design, deployment, and maintenance of cutting-edge, liquid-cooled solutions across Digital Realty's PlatformDIGITAL," said Nicole Enright , President, Avnet Integrated Solutions.

By leveraging PlatformDIGITAL, Digital Realty's global data center platform where companies, technologies and data come together to innovate and grow, customers can capitalize on a comprehensive ecosystem of connected data communities that facilitate secure, low-latency connections and high-speed data transfer to the businesses that matter most, enabling them to get the most out of their high-density colocation deployments.

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data "meeting place" and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 27 countries on six continents. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

For Additional Information

William Reynolds

Digital Realty

+44 7469 695775

[email protected]

Investor Relations

Jordan Sadler / Jim Huseby

Digital Realty

+1 737 281 0101

[email protected]

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the company's growth prospects, expected growth in digital transformation, company strategy, customer demand for the company's products and services, ServiceFabricTM and PlatformDIGITAL. For a list and description of risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Digital Realty
Long-standing birthday traditionslike gifting and sending cardsare here to stay; Most Americans report an overall dislike for one tradition, having others sing "Happy Birthday" to them

Nine in 10 Americans report they enjoy celebrating their birthday, but when celebrating at work, the majority of Americans (67.1%) report they prefer to receive private acknowledgment

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Snappy , the award-winning gifting company for both business gifting and personal gifting , releases findings from Unwrapped: Snappy's 2023 Birthday Study , an in-depth report examining how Americans want to celebrate and be celebrated each year.

The study, released in celebration of the most popular birth months in the United States  August, and September , according to data sourced from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Social Security Administration  surveyed more than 1,500 Americans to understand current trends and preferences in birthday celebrations, including traditions like cake, cards, and gifting, expectations around average gift spends, and more.

The majority of Americans (64%) report receiving a gift is an important tradition in their birthday celebrations Tweet this

The majority of Americans surveyed report they enjoy celebrating their birthday each year (89.4%), with nearly 1 in 10 Americans sharing that they celebrate their birthday for a full week or more (8.2%). While most Americans enjoy celebrating their birthdays in general, when it comes to celebrating at work they say they prefer recognizing coworkers' birthdays more than their own (91.8%). Two out of 3 American workers (67.1%) report they would prefer their birthday moments at work be done through private acknowledgment such as sharing a personal message, card, or gift, versus a company-wide announcement or celebration. The desire for private acknowledgment is in line with the study finding that the majority (58.4%) of Americans do not enjoy when others  friends, family, coworkers, or anyone in between  sing the "Happy Birthday" song to them.

Celebrating birthdays has a big impact on both personal and professional relationships: more than half of Americans (55.5%) agree that when people forget about or do not acknowledge their birthdays it makes them sad. The majority of working Americans agree that "if employers celebrated personal milestones such as birthdays, employee morale would be higher in the workplace" (80.8%), as would employee retention (74.6%).

Unwrapped: Snappy's 2023 Birthday Gifting and Celebrations Study explores how Americans are thinking about, anticipating, and actually prefer celebrating their annual day of birth, both among personal friends and family, as well as professional colleagues.

KEY STATISTICS:

89.4% of Americans report they enjoy celebrating their birthday

90.1% of Americans report that "receiving birthday gifts makes me feel valued and loved"

The most impactful and meaningful actions friends, family, and loved ones can take to celebrate a birthday include:

Calling on the phone (68.7%)



Sending a text message (63.2%)



Mailing a birthday card (56.6%)



Buying a gift (46.9%)

The majority of working Americans (91.8%) report enjoying celebrating coworker's birthdays at the office

The top 3 reasons employees feel are the most important times to receive gifts from an employer, in order of importance are:

It's their birthday They just got married (wedding) They recently welcomed home a newborn child (pregnancy/adoption)

The majority of Americans agree, "if employers celebrated personal milestones such as birthdays, employee morale would be higher in the workplace" (80.8%), as would employee retention (74.6%).

When it comes to receiving birthday gifts, the average amount of money Americans report they believe is appropriate for others to spend on them based on their relationship is:

$64.09 - From their company

- From their company

$58.90 - From their boss

- From their boss

$57.85 - From their significant other

- From their significant other

$50.87 - From their parent(s )/guardians/people who raised them

- From their parent(s

$45.57 - From their sibling(s )

- From their sibling(s

$43.27 - From a close friend

- From a close friend When it comes to sending birthday gifts to others, the average amount of money Americans report they believe is appropriate to spend on gifts based on their relationship is:

$76.93 - For my significant other

- For my significant other

$72.39 - For my child

- For my child

$64.42 - For my parents/guardians/people who raised me

- For my parents/guardians/people who raised me

$54.04 - For a close friend

- For a close friend

$51.09 - For my sibling(s )

- For my sibling(s

$47.01 - For my boss

TOP 2023 TRENDS IN BIRTHDAY GIFTING AND CELEBRATIONS

LONG-STANDING BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS ARE HERE TO STAY, LEAVING A LASTING IMPRESSION AND BIG IMPACT: GIFTING, CAKE, CARDS, AND COMMUNICATION. Receiving birthday cards and gifts, and eating sweet treats in celebration of a birthday are traditions that Americans continue to rank among the top ways they most enjoy celebrating their birthdays. The top way to celebrate a birthday, according to the study, is by eating cake or another sweet treat (67.2%). And while Americans love their birthday cakes, birthday messages and communication will never go out of style, with phone calls (67.1%), text messages (66.8%), and birthday cards in the mail (58.6%) still remaining highly sought after and impactful.

Receiving gifts is among the most important ways to celebrate birthdays in America, with 64% of Americans reporting receiving a gift is an important tradition in their birthday celebrations. When it comes down to who is actually sending birthday gifts , women are the most likely to send birthday gifts (62.7%), as are your friends who are part of the Millennial and Gen Z generations, with 80.7% of 25-34-year-olds, 78.7% of 35-44-year-olds, and 78% of 18-24-year-olds self-reporting they prioritize sending gifts to friends, family, and coworkers on their birthdays.

THE BIRTHDAY SONG IS ONE TRADITION THAT CAN GO Among all the ways Americans typically celebrate birthdays, only 4 in 10 Americans (41.6%) report actually enjoying when people sing "Happy Birthday" to them. The remaining 58.4% of Americans report they believe the "Happy Birthday" song can be retired as a birthday tradition.

CALENDARS ARE ESSENTIAL IN REMEMBERING AND ACKNOWLEDGING BIRTHDAYS. The first step to celebrating a birthday is by remembering it. The top three ways Americans report remembering birthdays is through their natural memory (48.5%), Facebook (47.8%), and digital calendars, such as Google Calendar or the Apple calendar app (34.7%). Nearly 1 in 5 Americans (16.8%) admit "I usually forget people's birthdays" and more than half of all Americans (55.5%) agree, when people forget about or do not acknowledge their birthdays it makes them sad.

FEELING CELEBRATED ON YOUR BIRTHDAY MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN WORKPLACE MORALE AND JOB SATISFACTION. Americans place great value on celebrating birthdays, with working Americans ranking receiving birthday gifts as having greater importance than receiving gifts for other life milestones including weddings and welcoming home a newborn child (pregnancy, adoption, etc).

The majority of Americans agree, "if employers celebrated personal milestones such as birthdays, employee morale would be higher in the workplace" (80.8%), as would employee retention (74.6%). And 2 out of 3 working Americans (67.5%) also agree that "if I received a birthday gift from my employer, I would be more likely to have improved job satisfaction."

COWORKERS AND EMPLOYERS WANT TO CELEBRATE BIRTHDAYS Overwhelmingly (91.8%), Americans report enjoying celebrating their coworker's birthdays at the office. Interestingly, when it comes to celebrating their own birthday at work, 2 out of 3 Americans (67.1%) are shy, preferring to receive private acknowledgment of their birthday, versus any pubic shoutouts or celebrations.

Companies are generous when it comes to celebrating employee birthdays, with 3 in 4 working Americans (76.8%) reporting they receive a gift from an employer on their birthday each year. Snappy makes setting up birthday gifting automations easy through the Snappy client dashboard or simple tech integrations with leading HRIS and CRM systems, where users can seamlessly use their data to upload employee or client names for gifting, birth dates, set their gifting budgets, and select from any of Snappy's award-winning gift collections, including a proprietary "Birthday" gift collection, to send to their employees. Each gift send is always accompanied by a personalized greeting, letting the gift recipient know just how much you care.

AMERICAN WORKERS EXPECT MORE FROM EMPLOYERS THAN FRIENDS OR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS ON THEIR BIRTHDAYS. Snappy asked Americans to determine a price point they felt was appropriate for others to spend on them for birthday gifts, and the results might surprise you: Americans believe, of all their personal and professional relationships, the company they work for and their direct boss should be the highest spenders on birthday gifts, giving gifts that cost an average of $64.09 and $58.90, respectively. Men report an average price point for gifts ($81.82) twice as high as women ($39.48) for gift bought for them by their boss, and from their company (men: $88.23, women: $43.17).

For personal gifting , Americans believe, on average, their significant others should spend $57.85 on a birthday gift for them, while they simultaneously report they believe an appropriate amont to spend on their significant others birthday gift when they are the gift sender is $76.93, on average.

When buying gifts for their own child, Americans report spending an average of $72.39 on birthday gifts. As for close friends, siblings, and parents/guardians, Americans are opting to spend an average of $54.04, $51.09 and $64.42, respectively, on the birthday gifts they send. When asked what they believe their close friends, siblings, and parents/guardians should spend on birthday gifts for them, Americans reported $43.27, $45.57, and $50.87, respectively. These average price points showcase that when it comes to birthday gifting, Americans tend to want to give more than they care about receiving.

For more information, and to start sharing delightful gifting experiences that deliver gratitude and joy, visit Snappy.com now for your business gifting solutions and SnappyGifts.com for all your personal gifting needs.

Survey Methodology

Unwrapped: Snappy's 2023 Birthday Gifting and Celebrations Study captured responses from 1,526 Americans between June 8, 2023, and June 22, 2023; respondents were recruited via an online sample by Propeller Insights, a third-party market research company. Respondents represent a diverse variety of ethnic, education, and income levels, and are geographically dispersed across the United States.

About Snappy

Snappy is the award-winning, all-in-one gifting company that spreads joy, shares gratitude, and takes the guesswork out of gifting.

Founded in 2015, Snappy was named one of Inc.'s fastest-growing companies in the Northeast in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Snappy is the trusted gifting partner to over 43% of Fortune 100 companies as well as thousands of individuals who use Snappy for personal gifting . Snappy has sent more than three million gifts worldwide.

Snappy thrives on connecting people and cultivating meaningful relationships through the power of gratitude and gifting. Our recipient-picks experience ensures gift-givers send the perfect gift every time, for everyone, on every occasion.

Snappy has been featured on Fortune's "Best Small & Medium Workplaces," "Best Workplace for Millennials," and "Best Workplace in Tech" lists.

SOURCE Snappy
EQT Private Equity to sell Schulke to the ATHOS Consortium, having acquired the Company in a carve-out from Air Liquide in July 2020 . The Company has delivered double digit annual revenue growth and almost doubled EBITDA in its core healthcare business over this time

. The Company has delivered double digit annual revenue growth and almost doubled EBITDA in its core healthcare business over this time Under EQT Private Equity's ownership, Schulke has been repositioned to focus entirely on the healthcare and life science market, while expanding into new geographies and sales channels through five add-on acquisitions

The Company has also established itself as a sustainability leader, for example by launching a pioneering green hospital-grade product line, transitioning to almost 100% green electricity, and signing up to the Science Based Targets initiative

STOCKHOLM, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT is pleased to announce that the EQT VIII fund ("EQT Private Equity") has agreed to sell Schulke (the "Company"), a leading provider of infection prevention and treatment solutions for the healthcare industry, to a consortium led by ATHOS, a Munich-based single family office, along with other co-investors such as Bitburger Holding (the "ATHOS Consortium").

Schulke is a key partner to the healthcare industry with an almost 135-year heritage of developing holistic and mission-critical infection prevention and treatment solutions. It supplies hospitals and other healthcare institutions with high quality disinfectants and antisepsis products. It also sells to the pharmacy and direct patient care channels, as well as the global life science industry. Schulke is headquartered in Norderstedt, Germany, employs approximately 1,200 people, and generates sales in more than 80 countries with market leading positions in Central and Eastern Europe, Australia and Brazil.

EQT Private Equity acquired Schulke in July 2020 with a vision to focus the business portfolio, accelerate growth in core markets, invest in sustainability and innovation, and expand its geographical footprint. Together with the Schulke management team, EQT Private Equity has delivered on this vision. Schulke repositioned to focus entirely on the healthcare and life science market, which included the sale of the Personal Care business and the discontinuation of other non-healthcare related operations. It also expanded its geographical footprint to Northern and Southern Europe and established a direct patient care channel through acquisitions, while investing in innovation including next generation products. As a result, during EQT Private Equity's ownership Schulke has delivered double digit annual revenue growth and almost doubled EBITDA in its core healthcare business.

Central to EQT Private Equity and Schulke's partnership has been the delivery of a customer centric sustainability strategy. Through a strategic approach to sustainability, the Company established a pioneering green hospital-grade product line, transitioned to almost 100% green electricity, and signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative, with the target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40% by 2030. Through this transformation, Schulke has positioned itself as a key partner to its healthcare and life sciences clients in their efforts to make the industry more sustainable.

Matthias Wittkowski, Partner within EQT Private Equity's Advisory Team, said: "We were excited about Schulke's purpose and mission critical role in the healthcare industry when we acquired the business, and are even more so today. In close partnership with the management team, we have transformed Schulke from a corporate subsidiary to a high-performing, stand-alone healthcare company. We are proud to have supported the Company in becoming a sustainability leader that today fully lives up to its mission of "protecting lives worldwide". This again showcases EQT Private Equity's ability to carve out high-potential companies, drive transformation and position them for long-term success. We believe that the ATHOS Consortium is a fantastic partner for Schulke as it takes the next step on its journey."

Stefan Kukacka, CEO of Schulke, said: "It has been a pleasure working with EQT Private Equity over the past years. Together we have strategically re-positioned the business, driven organic growth, and pursued an active M&A agenda with five add-on acquisitions. Perhaps most importantly, we delivered on a sustainability transformation strategy to ensure that we live up to our mission and are set up for sustainable growth. We are grateful for the partnership and are now looking forward to building on this momentum under the ownership of the ATHOS Consortium."

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. It is expected to close in Q4 2023.

EQT Private Equity was advised by Bank of America, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Deloitte and Bain & Company.

Contact

EQT Press Office,

[email protected],

+46 8 506 55 334

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/87/3814127/2216710.pdf PR_EQT Private Equity to sell Schuelke_230807 https://news.cision.com/eqt/i/schuelke,c3203683 Schuelke

SOURCE EQT
Merger Expands Equifax Presence in Brazil; Offers Boa Vista Servicos Customers Access to Expansive Equifax Global Capabilities and Cloud-Native Solutions

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax  (NYSE: EFX) has completed the acquisition of Boa Vista Servicos , the second largest credit bureau in Brazil. This strategic and financially attractive acquisition grows Equifax's presence in Brazil and offers Boa Vista Servicos customers access to expansive Equifax international capabilities and cloud-native solutions.

Equifax acquired Boa Vista Servicos for R$8.00 per share, implying an estimated total enterprise value of R$3.1 billion, or USD$640 million based on a USD/BRL exchange rate of 4.8080 (PTAX as of August 2, 2023). Boa Vista Servicos, an Equifax company, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Equifax do Brasil ("Equifax Brasil"). Equifax owns 80 percent of Equifax Brasil, with Associacao Comercial de Sao Paulo ("ACSP") and certain other former Boa Vista Servicos shareholders holding the other 20 percent.

"Boa Vista Servicos is the 14th acquisition that Equifax has completed since 2021," said Mark W. Begor, CEO of Equifax. "The combination of our companies marks an exciting new global chapter for both Equifax and Boa Vista Servicos customers and employees, expanding the Equifax International footprint in the large and fast-growing $2 billion Brazilian total addressable market. We believe that more data drives better decisions, and this merger offers Boa Vista Servicos access to our global capabilities and cloud-native data, products, decisioning and analytical technology for the rapid development of new products and services and expansion into new vertical industries. I am energized to welcome Marcio Fabbris and Boa Vista Servicos to the Equifax team!"

Marcio Fabbris will continue in his leadership position as CEO of Boa Vista Servicos, an Equifax company. Former Equifax CEO Paulino Barros will join the Equifax Brasil board of directors, helping drive integration into the Equifax Cloud and champion the development of new cloud-based solutions.

"This merger will enable us to drive new, innovative solutions to address the challenges and needs of the Brazilian market  the seventh most populated country in the world," said Marcio Fabbris, CEO of Boa Vista Servicos, an Equifax company. "We look forward to working with Equifax to bring new products and capabilities leveraging the global Equifax Cloud platform to Brazilian lenders and service providers to help them better understand their customers and promote greater financial inclusion to meet the needs of the approximately 34 million unbanked or underbanked consumers in Brazil."

With an in-depth understanding of global credit needs, Equifax is driving cloud-based innovation in consumer credit, commercial credit, and digital enablement that spans geographies. The company's Equifax Cloud transformation enables Equifax to scale and adapt for the specific needs of the countries in which it operates. It further enables the sharing of learnings and strengths from each region to help other regions identify and execute effectively on new growth opportunities. The Equifax Cloud, combined with Equifax's unique data assets, leading decisioning and analytical solutions, and Identity and Fraud solutions will help accelerate Boa Vista Servicos's digital transformation and increase the scale of the Boa Vista Servicos business for continued success - meeting the evolving needs of both consumers and lenders in Brazil.

"By optimizing our cloud-based global technology and product capabilities, we're able to drive relevant, market-focused innovation. We're also able to scale and adapt for the specific needs of the countries in which we operate," said Lisa Nelson, President of International at Equifax. "At the same time, we're focused on bringing more of our existing Equifax enterprise strengths into our international regions. Boa Vista Servicos has more than a decade of history in the Brazilian market and we look forward to collaborating on their continued expansion."

BofA Securities served as financial advisors to Equifax, and Hogan Lovells US LLP and Machado Meyer Advogados acted as legal counsel to Equifax.

This acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on 2023 Equifax financial results. For more information about Equifax and the global markets it serves, please visit Equifax.com .

ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.

At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by 14,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. All statements that address operating performance and events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, including statements relating to the expected financial and operational benefits, synergies and growth from the transaction and our ability to integrate Boa Vista Servicos and its products, services, technologies, IT systems and personnel into our operations, and similar statements about our outlook and our business plans are forward-looking statements. We believe these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in our 2022 Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). As a result of such risks and uncertainties, we urge you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

NO OFFER OR SOLICITATION

This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

This press release is for informational purposes only and should not, under any circumstances, constitute, or be interpreted or understood as an investment recommendation, nor as an offer to acquire any of the securities of Equifax or Equifax Brasil.

FILINGS WITH THE SEC

Equifax and Equifax Brasil filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4/F-4 with the SEC on March 6, 2023 in connection with the transaction (and filed amendments to the Registration Statement on April 13, 2023 and May 9, 2023). The Registration Statement was declared effective on May 25, 2023. The Form S-4/F-4 and prospectus contain important information about Equifax, Equifax Brasil, Boa Vista Servicos, the acquisition and related matters. Investors and shareholders of Boa Vista Servicos should read the prospectus and the other documents filed with the SEC in connection with the transaction carefully before they make any decision with respect to the transaction. The Form S-4/F-4 and the prospectus, and all other documents filed with the SEC in connection with the acquisition will be available when filed free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, the prospectus and all other documents filed with the SEC in connection with the acquisition will be made available to investors free of charge by calling or writing to Equifax Inc., Attn: Office of Corporate Secretary, P.O. Box 4081, Atlanta, Georgia 30302, telephone (404) 885-8000.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Kate Walker for Equifax

[email protected]

SOURCE Equifax Inc.
Generative AI

Atlantic International U Integrates Dall-E into Virtual Campus and Curriculum Builder

Continuing its commitment to offer artificial intelligence technology to help students create or modify their chosen academic programs, Atlantic International University (AIU) in Honolulu has incorporated image generator Dall-E into its Virtual Campus and Curriculum Builder tool. This addition builds upon the already successful integration of its ChatGPT platform, the university said.

Developed by OpenAI, neural network Dall-E is "a 12-billion parameter version of GPT-3 trained to generate images from text descriptions, using a dataset of text-image pairs," the company said.

After AIU students complete Phase I of their program, they are given several options for choosing courses. They can browse from 100,000 academic resources from the Merlin Media Center repository that fit their program, they can choose the "andragogic program" to create their own courses based on their interests, or they can do both and create a hybrid program. Having Dall-E as part of the Curriculum Builder tool gives students more flexibility to create and use images in their course curriculum, the university said.

"By leveraging Dall-E's image generation capabilities, students can explore and incorporate the latest innovations and trends into their curriculum design, ensuring their programs remain relevant and cutting-edge," the university added.

"At AIU we firmly believe that the integration of AI technologies like ChatGPT and Dall-E within our virtual campus and curriculum design is a pivotal step in shaping the future of education," said Jose Mercado Atri, AIU board chairman. "We're dedicated to providing our students with the tools and resources they need to thrive in an ever-changing world."

Atlantic International University describes itself as "an institution of experiential learning and non-traditional education at a distance. There are no classrooms and attendance is not required. What makes us unique is the combination of a student 'self-instruction' approach (with guidance), the collaborative development of a curriculum that is unique to each student, and the flexibility of time and place of study."
NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- 61 percent of US companies surveyed expect ESG backlash to continue or increase over the next two years, according to a report issued by The Conference Board. The report recommends that corporate boards and management view backlash as an opportunity to clarify their ESG strategy and communications.

The Conference Board also found that most companies are staying the course when it comes to their ESG commitments. Of the firms affected by backlash, just 11% are changing the substance of their ESG programs, while a majority are focusing more on the link between ESG and core business strategy. And nearly half are changing terminology to use terms such as "sustainability."

"ESG backlash is an umbrella term that encompasses a range of positions from healthy skepticism to philosophical opposition to various forms of opportunism," said Paul Washington, Executive Director of The Conference Board ESG Center. "While backlash is often fueled by people's emotions, companies should respond objectively. The most effective response is to ensure the company's ESG positions align with company's core business strategy, are supported by empirical data, and serve the long-term welfare of the company, its stakeholders, and society."

These insights and others are featured in a new report, How Companies Can Address ESG Backlash, developed by The Conference Board in collaboration with the global CEO advisory firm Teneo. The findings come from 1) a roundtable by The Conference Board that brought together more than 200 corporate leaders, and 2) a survey of 125 corporations, about half of which have annual revenue of over $10 billion.

Additional insights from the report include:

The Current State and Sources of ESG Backlash, and What the Future May Hold

Most companies expect a sustained or rising level of ESG backlash over the next two years:

43% expect the level of ESG backlash two years from now to be greater or much greater than today, while 18% expect it to remain about the same.

The increase in backlash will likely be driven by emotionally charged topics, such as hot-button social issues and the transition to more sustainable forms of energy that raises fear of job losses.

ESG backlash currently emanates from multiple sources:

Companies cite state officials/candidates as the leading source of backlash today (31% of respondents), followed by federal officials/candidates (21%), employees (20%), and the media (17%).

Companies are concerned about backlash spreading among employees, investors, business partners, consumers, and the media over the next two years:

55% of companies are concerned about ESG backlash from federal and state officials and candidates over the next two years.

34% of companies are concerned about backlash from media, 27% from employees, 21% from institutional investors, 21% from business partners, and 17% from consumers over the next two years.

Strategies Used to Address ESG Backlash, and Reduce the Risk of It in the Future

Turning adversity into an advantage:

ESG backlash can be a clarifying moment for corporations and prompt reevaluation of their ESG strategies, priorities, and commitments.

To do so requires candid discussion between the board and senior management to discuss how ESG and multistakeholder capitalism fit into the company's strategy.

Communications and terminology:

Backlash can prompt companies to sharpen how they make the business case for ESG. 63% of companies that reported experiencing backlash in our survey are increasing focus on how ESG connects with shareholder value.

48% of companies that have experienced backlash are proactively adjusting their terminology when discussing ESG-related matters. While "ESG" resonates well with investors, "sustainability" tends to be more readily understood by employees, customers, and policymakers.

"While it may be sensible to adjust terminology, it is important for companies to avoid dramatic or unexplained shifts in how they talk about ESG issues," said Andrew Jones, author of the report and Senior Researcher at The Conference Board ESG Center. "Otherwise, key stakeholders such as investors, employees, and customers may view the company's original commitments and revised statements with skepticism."

Rather than retreating from the conversation, companies should consider ways in which they can still effectively share their ESG story:

27% of companies have responded to backlash by reducing their level of external communication.

Only a minority of companies have directly engaged with policymakers, media, employees, or others who oppose their ESG positions.

It may be particularly helpful to put the company's commitment to ESG in the context of the company's longstanding commitment to delivering profitable performance in a responsible manner.

Companies can constructively engage with policymakers in private conversations, through trade associations, and in concert with small businesses.

"While the political ESG backlash will likely continue throughout the 2024 US Presidential election cycle, many other stakeholders such as institutional investors will continue to press companies on managing material ESG risks," said Matt Filosa, Senior Managing Director at Teneo. "So, it will be imperative for companies to be strategic about how they communicate their ESG strategy."

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. ConferenceBoard.org

About Teneo

Teneo is a global CEO advisory firm that draws upon its global team and expansive network of senior advisors to help clients solve complex business challenges. Teneo's clients include a significant number of the Fortune 100 and FTSE 100, as well as other corporations, financial institutions, and organizations.

SOURCE The Conference Board
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ESChat, a leading provider of broadband push-to-talk (PTT) solutions, today announced the launch of a new service: ESChat Mission Critical Recording, Powered by Exacom. The new service leverages Exacom's advanced cloud-based logging recorder capabilities to provide ESChat customers with a secure, reliable, and scalable recording solution for cloud-hosted ESChat networks.

"We are excited to launch ESChat Mission Critical Recording in partnership with Exacom," said Josh Lober, President of ESChat. "Our new mission critical service provides ESChat customers with subscription-based logging and recording that requires no capital expenditures. The new service is secure, reliable, and scalable, and meets the needs of our broadband Push-to-Talk customers."

"Exacom is honored to be chosen by ESChat to deliver this solution to their customers", said Exacom President & CEO Al Brisard. "ESChat has long pushed the envelope in delivering advanced cloud-based communications services to their customers. We are excited that they recognized our cloud expertise and have partnered with us to fulfill this critical need."

Using the new recording service option, ESChat customers can securely store their PTT voice and associated metadata in a cloud-native recorder environment that is powered by Exacom. Once recorded, ESChat customers can easily find archived recordings within the Exacom logging recorder software interface. The software is browser-based and the data is hosted in a secure cloud environment, so customers can access their recordings from anywhere. In addition to using secure and scalable cloud-based technology, ESChat transmits audio and metadata to the Exacom recorder via a standards-based protocol.

ESChat chose to partner with Exacom because of their unique ability to support 100% cloud-native recording technology. "The Exacom product stands out against other solutions due to their cloud expertise that enables us to deliver the kind of solution our customers have come to expect from ESChat," said Lober. Because it is a cloud-based solution, customers don't need to purchase on-premise hardware or supply virtual machine componentstypically a significant up-front investmentto record ESChat audio and metadata.

ESChat Mission Critical Recording, Powered by Exacom, is available now. For more information, please visit www.eschat.com .

About ESChat:

ESChat (eschat.com) is the leading solution for broadband Push-to-Talk (PTT) services. ESChat is a FirstNet Certified solution and is also approved by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for U.S. military operational use. ESChat operates on and across all wireless carriers, providing intercarrier interoperability. ESChat supports Quality of Service (QoS), Radio Access Network (RAN) Priority, and Preemption enhancements available to FirstNet subscribers, as well as QoS and RAN priority enhancements on the Verizon Wireless and AT&T commercial networks. In North America, ESChat is the primary PTT offering by T-Mobile and TELUS.

ESChat includes AES-256 encrypted PTT voice and multimedia messaging. ESChat also provides live and historical (bread crumb) tracking and mapping. Used by all branches of the U.S. Military, as well as federal, state and local public safety agencies, ESChat is able to operate over and across any wireless network, including all commercial carriers, private 3G/4G/5G networks and WiFi. ESChat supports standards-based interoperability with LMR radio networks, including P25 via the native Inter RF Subsystem Interface ("ISSI") protocol and DMR via the native Inter Application Interface Specification ("AIS") protocol. ESChat also supports interoperability via RoIP to all LMR radio networks, regardless of radio technology or operating frequency band.

SOURCE ESChat
CHICAGO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- While the pace of change escalates inside organizations today, one fact hasn't changed: in most cases, employees reject a new strategic direction, dooming the new plans from the start.

Cover of the new guide, Maximizing Strategy Development & Rollout with Top Leaders, published by The Grossman Group.

A big reason for the failure of new strategy rollouts isn't that people resist change, despite what's often said. Rather, people resist change they're not a part of. To help counter this common problem, The Grossman Group has released a new leader guide for navigating company transformations, using best practices the Chicago-based leadership consultancy has seen to be highly effective with top organizations.

"When people aren't part of the change journey, the result is predictable  confusion, apathy and disengagement that leads to the strategy's failure," said the guide's author, Jason Greenspan, Senior Vice President and Head of Client Service for The Grossman Group. "We've seen companies reverse this trend by involving leaders in a smart and efficient process to solicit input and engage team members in crafting the new strategy from the ground up."

The guide, Maximizing Strategy Development & Rollout with Top Leaders, provides executives with an overview and context on why so many company change efforts fail. It then shares an alternative process The Grossman Group has found to be highly successful, involving strategy "sprints" to help bring leaders  and ultimately their teams  along on a pivotal change journey.

Specifically, the guide shares three key actions that help drive effective strategy change:

Informing leaders and employees so they have shared context on the business challenges and case for change

leaders and employees so they have shared context on the business challenges and case for change Involving leaders and employees in co-creating the strategic plans so they feel a greater connection and a sense of purpose

leaders and employees in co-creating the strategic plans so they feel a greater connection and a sense of purpose Inspiring leaders and employees through a compelling strategy story that enables better employee engagement and leads to stronger business outcomes

At The Grossman Group, clients have seen impressive results from better engaging leaders with strategy development, including:

More than 90% reporting a greater understanding of the strategy and path forward

a greater understanding of the strategy and path forward 90% reporting confidence in the future of the company

in the future of the company Over 20% improvement from franchisees and employees in understanding of the strategy, confidence in the business direction, and trust in leadership

"Unfortunately, too many executives spend too much time 'telling and selling' their new strategy instead of creating an experience that brings leaders and their teams along the change process," Greenspan said. "We know there's a better way that brings leaders from skeptical bystanders to inspired catalysts of the vision and path forward."

To download a free copy of the Guide, go here.

About The Grossman Group

The Grossman Group is an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development, and internal communication. A certified diverse supplier through the NGLCC, The Grossman Group works closely with Fortune 500 companies and other organizations including Abbott, Blue Cross Blue Shield, General Mills, Kaiser Permanente, SC Johnson, and Lockheed Martin, among others.

About Jason Greenspan

Jason Greenspan is Senior Vice President & Head of Client Service at The Grossman Group and combines an extensive communication background with strategy expertise to drive large-scale transformation in big organizations. His current and past clients include General Mills, Grubhub, Molson Coors, Navistar, Stanley Black & Decker, Tyson Foods, and United Airlines, among others. Prior to joining The Grossman Group, Jason spent 20+ years at the McDonald's Corporation working with top leaders on business and cultural transformations, implementation of new growth strategies, and the articulation of those strategies in relatable and applicable ways.

Press Contact:

The Grossman Group

Kayla Ellsworth

312.927.4588

363419@email4pr.com

SOURCE The Grossman Group
Capacity deal to accelerate US growth ambitions

LONDON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FloodFlash, the first insurance technology company to offer sensor-enabled parametric flood insurance, has today announced a new partnership with Hiscox.

Hiscox is already an active participant in the US flood insurance market, and as a capacity provider for FloodFlash will support the market appetite for parametric as an efficient option for catastrophe covers. They join Munich Re, whose parametric expertise Hiscox will complement with market-leading knowledge of launching successful flood products in the US.

Despite the prevalence of flood risk in America, it plays host to the largest flood protection gap in the world. FloodFlash is now available across every state.

In the UK where the business initially launched, FloodFlash has set new records for the fastest property flood claim payout, thanks to the proprietary IoT sensor technology. In November 2022 they paid one client in full less than four hours after they flooded. These rapid claims provide a lifeline to businesses that often have no other options for affordable and comprehensive coverage.

FloodFlash Head of Major Accounts and Capacity Management Richard Coyle comments: "We're delighted to bolster our US capacity with a carrier that has such expertise in the US flood market. This new partnership with Hiscox represents another key endorsement of the FloodFlash approach and, in addition to Munich Re, we have the ideal carrier team supporting us as a parametric flood insurance provider. In response to extraordinary demand since our launch in January, this additional fresh capacity will enable us to continue providing compelling coverage options for distressed businesses that may otherwise be faced with retaining uncomfortable levels of flood risk."

Hiscox London Market's Alternative Risk Underwriter, Tom King, comments: "FloodFlash has taken an innovative approach to the challenge of flood underinsurance in the US, and we are excited to expand our significant existing US flood footprint through their unique parametric product. The combination of innovation and expertise that this partnership represents is one that we believe can go some way to addressing the flood coverage gap that currently exists in the US."

About FloodFlash

FloodFlash is a multi-award-winning insurance technology company at the forefront of the parametric insurance movement. Launched in the UK 2019 and in the US in 2022, their rapid-payout flood product provides coverage to businesses that struggle to secure flood terms anywhere else. They use the latest in data modelling and IoT technology to provide fast and flexible cover that pays claims in record times. FloodFlash is a registered coverholder at Lloyd's of London and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About The Hiscox Group



Hiscox is a global specialist insurer, headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:HSX). Our ambition is to be a respected specialist insurer with a diverse portfolio by product and geography. We believe that building balance between catastrophe-exposed business and less volatile local specialty business gives us opportunities for profitable growth throughout the insurance cycle.

The Hiscox Group employs over 3,000 people in 14 countries, and has customers worldwide. Through the retail businesses in the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA, we offer a range of specialist insurance products in commercial and personal lines. Internationally traded, bigger ticket business and reinsurance is underwritten through Hiscox London Market and Hiscox Re & ILS.

Our values define our business, with a focus on people, courage, ownership and integrity. We pride ourselves on being true to our word and our award-winning claims service is testament to that. For more information, visit www.hiscoxgroup.com.

For more information, visit www.hiscoxgroup.com.

SOURCE FloodFlash
Acquisition brings premium audio integration across a broad range of Garmin markets and products

OLATHE, Kan., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN), today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JL Audio, a privately-held U.S. company that designs and manufactures audio solutions for marine, aftermarket automotive, powersports, home and RV customers.

"JL Audio's extensive audio experience will create new opportunities to provide premium audio features across a broad range of our markets and products. The JL Audio brand is known around the world for offering a premium audio experience which is made possible by their talented and dedicated associates. We look forward to welcoming the JL Audio team into the Garmin family." Cliff Pemble, Garmin President and CEO

With over four decades of experience, JL Audio offers premium audio products and accessories, including speakers, amplifiers, subwoofers and other audio components.

"JL Audio shares Garmin's vision to deliver unique technology solutions, supported by meaningful R&D and engineering. We are thrilled at the opportunity to integrate into Garmin's product ecosystem. JL Audio will contribute audio knowledge and engineering expertise to create great audio products for many years to come." Lucio Proni, JL Audio Founder and CEO

JL Audio is headquartered in Miramar, Fla., and employs more than 600 associates. The completion of this acquisition is expected to occur by the end of 2023 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. All existing JL Audio products will continue to be supported post-closing, and customers can expect to continue receiving the same great customer service. Financial terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.

Engineered on the inside for life on the outside, Garmin products have revolutionized the aviation, automotive, fitness, marine and outdoor markets. Dedicated to helping people make the most of the time they spend pursuing their passions, Garmin believes every day is an opportunity to innovate and a chance to beat yesterday. Visit the Garmin Newsroom, email our media team, connect with @garmin on social, or follow our blog.

About Garmin Ltd. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Garmin is a registered trademark of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Notice on Forward-Looking Statements:

This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. Such statements are based on management's current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at www.garmin.com/en-US/company/investors/earnings/. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Carly Hysell and Krista Klaus

913-397-8200

[email protected]

SOURCE Garmin Ltd.
Global Airlines, the worlds newest airline, and Laurent Perrier, one of the worlds most prestigious champagne brands, announce a new partnership.

The champagne, known for its quality and craftsmanship since 1812, is set to be the premier brand on the airline.

Laurent Perrier was the official champagne of the airlines Welcome Onboard event, held at Kettners, Soho House, in London on July 27th.

Global is set to launch its first transatlantic services from London Gatwick in 2024

London, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- From 2024, Laurent Perrier Champagne will be the premier champagne on all Global Airlines Transatlantic flights.

The over 200-year old, historic champagne house, world reknowned for its fresh and elegant taste, is now working with the team at the airline to provide a wide selection of their products on the A380.

Global Airlines and Laurent Perrier Announce MOU (PRNewsfoto/Global Airlines)

Additionally, as Global starts to recruit and train cabin crew, the two organisations will collaborate to ensure that each glass is poured to perfection and accompanied by complimentary canapes with an ambition to provide the best champagne service in the sky.

Commenting on the partnership, James Asquith, CEO and Founder of Global Airlines said: A great champagne is a huge part of an amazing onboard experience and I am delighted that Laurent Perrier has agreed to be our partner.

It is a brand that is known the world over, and our intention is to offer LP brands to passengers across our 3 cabins, and, if we can make it work, that absolutely includes in economy.

We are committed to providing the best food and beverage offer on Transatlantic services and more exciting announcements on this are in the pipeline.

"We are committed to providing the best food and beverage offer on Transatlantic services and more exciting announcements on this are in the pipeline."

Speaking on behalf of Laurent Perrier, their Travel Retail Director Jean-Christian de la Chevalerie said: Globals vision for air travel is compelling, and one that perfectly aligns with Laurent Perriers.

In the months ahead, we look forward to working with James and his team on selecting a range of our award-winning champagnes, but not only that, exploring how we can make this a really unique, meaningful, partnership that excites our customers.

Laurent Perrier La Cuvee was the exclusive champagne of the airlines Welcome Onboard event on July 27th at Kettners, Soho House.

Over 200 guests attended including industry partners, investors, media, and Members of Parliament. At the event, Global announced its partnership with American Express on payments processing and on curating exclusive benefits for cardholders.

About Global Airlines

Global Airlines was launched in 2023 with an aspiration to offer passengers the best way to fly. The airline is a wholly owned subsidiary of Holiday Swap Group and headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The airline is led by CEO James Asquith and backed by aviation experts and investors around the world. The airline has commenced an aircraft acquisition programme with four A380 secured and more to follow in the summer of 2023. The inaugural Transatlantic flights are expected in 2024.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2170546/Global_Airlines.jpg



SOURCE Global Airlines
Award provides public agencies with turnkey fleet electrification services

BEVERLY, Mass., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Electric Fleets , the leading provider of fleet electrification-as-a-service, announced today it has been awarded a cooperative contract for turnkey fleet electrification services from Sourcewell , a trusted purchasing cooperative covering 50k+ public entities in North America. With this award contract, Sourcewell members now have direct access to Highland's full suite of electrification products and services, enabling faster deployment of electric vehicles.

For more than 40 years, Sourcewell has been the leading voice and trusted purchasing advisor for public entities like governments, education institutions, and nonprofit organizations. Known for its competitive RFP process, Sourcewell issued a solicitation for Fleet Electrification Transition Planning, Management, and Related Services. There were 48 respondents, and Sourcewell ultimately selected nine awardees of which Highland is included.

The Fleet Electrification Transition Planning, Management, and Related Services is a new category for Sourcewell. Mike Domin, Supplier Development Administrator, said "I am excited for this new category. It will bring additional solutions to Sourcewell clients, when it comes to electrification-as-a service."

"Securing this award from Sourcewell is an amazing accomplishment for the electrification sector, and a huge win for municipal fleet operators," said Richard DiMatteo, EVP and Chief Growth Officer at Highland. "Public agencies have relied on Sourcewell's vetting process for many years and they now have validated options for fleet electrification services across multiple vehicle categories including school bus, light duty, and garbage trucks."

In collaboration with Sourcewell, Highland will provide a variety of electrification planning and implementation services  including its Fleet and Depot offerings  across the school bus, waste, and light-duty segments.

About Highland Electric Fleets

Highland Electric Fleets is the leading provider of electrification-as-a-service for school districts, governments, and fleet operators in North America. Founded in 2019, Highland offers a unique suite of products that make it simple and affordable to upgrade to electric fleets today. Active in 30 states and Canada, Highland is responsible for the first use of electric school buses in a commercial vehicle-to-grid (V2G) program and the largest electric school bus project in the United States to date. To learn more, visit www.highlandfleets.com .

About Sourcewell

Sourcewell is a self-sustaining government organization offering a cooperative purchasing program with more than 400 competitively solicited contracts to government, education, and nonprofit entities throughout North America. By utilizing Sourcewell contracts, participating agencies save time and money by capturing the buying power of more than 50,000 organizations.

Media Contacts

Mission Control Communications | Highland

[email protected]

SOURCE Highland Electric Fleets
DETROIT, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Honigman LLP announced today that Abby Stover has returned to its Detroit office as the firm's Chief Talent Officer. In this role, Abby will lead the firm's attorney talent management, learning and development and legal recruiting functions. Abby rejoins Honigman after serving as a partner in the commercial real estate practice at Cousino Law PLLC for five years.

Abby Stover, Chief Talent Officer, Honigman LLP

"Abby has always been a vital member of the Honigman family, and we couldn't be more thrilled to have her return to the firm," said Honigman CEO and Chair David Foltyn. "From attorney development and recruiting to serving as a legal practitioner, Abby's broad robust expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we continue to grow and expand our bench of high-caliber talent."

Abby earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Wayne State University Law School and her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Michigan State University. She joined Honigman upon graduating from law school, where she served as an associate in the firm's real estate department until 2011. Abby then assumed the role of Director of Attorney Development and Recruitment, a position she held until 2018.

Representing clients across the United States, Abby has over a decade of experience in all aspects of commercial real estate law, including acquisitions and sales, commercial leasing, loan transactions and tax-credit financing. In her role as Honigman's Director of Attorney Development and Recruitment, she oversaw all aspects of attorney hiring and worked closely with firm leadership on developing and implementing the firm's strategic hiring initiatives.

About Honigman

Honigman LLP is an Am Law 200 full-service, general business law firm with more than 350 attorneys counseling clients on complex issues across the country in Chicago, Michigan (Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing), Washington, D.C. and in our newest wholly owned subsidiary office in Israel. Our lawyers counsel clients on complex issues in more than 60 areas of law. For more information visit www.honigman.com.

Contacts:

Maggie Nonnenkamp, Honigman LLP

[email protected]

630-715-0350

Carolyn Artman, CRIMSON, for Honigman LLP

[email protected]

313-269-4729

SOURCE Honigman LLP
HG004 is a one-time, direct-to-RPE treatment of inherited retinal disease caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene

gene ~ 10-fold lower vector doses in multiregion, multicenter HG00402 trial than other AAV2 gene therapy clinical trials

10-fold lower vector doses in multiregion, multicenter HG00402 trial than other AAV2 gene therapy clinical trials HG004 was previously granted orphan drug designation (ODD) for RPE65-IRD on 31 March 2023

SHANGHAI and CLINTON N.J., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HuidaGene Therapeutics ("HuidaGene"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing CRISPR-based programmable genomic medicines, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPDD) to HG004 for the treatment of inherited retinal disease caused by RPE65 mutations (RPE65-IRDs). The FDA grants RPDD to incentive development of new treatments for serious or life-threatening diseases that primarily affect children ages 18 years or younger with fewer than 200,000 people affected in the U.S. The RPDD program allows for a sponsor who receives an approval to qualify for a priority review voucher (PRV) that can be deemed to receive an expedited six-month priority review for any subsequent marketing application or may be sold or transferred. PRVs have historically commanded prices in excess of $100 million USD with the highest price paid for a PRV was $350 million USD. For a large company launching a billion-dollar drug, the six-month acceleration in regulatory review can be of substantial economic value. Most recently, Sarepta Therapeutics sold a PRV for $102 million USD.

"This Rare Pediatric Disease designation from the US FDA highlights the significant unmet medical need that HuidaGene is seeking to address with HG004 for RPE65-IRDs," said Alvin Luk, Ph.D., M.B.A., C.C.R.A., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of HuidaGene. "HG004 was granted both RPDD and orphan drug designation (ODD) by the US FDA in March, allowing tax credits for clinical development, exemptions for certain FDA application fees, 7-year of market exclusivity, and assistance in the drug development process. We look forward to advancing HG004 in the clinic and remain steadfast in our commitment to answering patients worldwide."

"We are pleased to have received another significant regulatory feedback from the US FDA underscoring the dire need for a treatment option of this devastating inherited blindness," said Linyu Shi, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HuidaGene. "Data from our preclinical studies have shown that HG004 demonstrates significant superiority than AAV2-hRPE65 (LUXTURNA like) in the recovery of retinal function of the Rpe65-/- mice. We are committed to delivering transformative genetic medicines for rare genetic diseases globally."

About Inherited Retinal Disease Caused by RPE65 Mutations

Inherited retinal disease (IRD) is a group of rare blinding conditions caused by mutations in any 1 of more than 250 genes. Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), severe early childhood-onset retinal dystrophy (SECORD), early-onset severe retinal dystrophy (EOSRD), and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which may all be grouped under the heading of inherited retinal disease caused by RPE65 mutations (RPE65-IRD), are considered to represent a phenotypic continuum of the same disease. The RPE65-IRD with a typical onset between birth and five years of age exhibits several common clinical findings, chiefly night blindness, progressive loss of visual fields, and loss of central vision. Given the often severe and early visual loss associated with RPE65-IRD, other areas of development, including speech, social skills, and behavior, may also be delayed.

About HuidaGene -

HuidaGene Therapeutics () is a global clinical-stage biotechnology company focusing on discovering, engineering, and developing CRISPR-based genetic medicine to rewrite the future of genomic medicine. Based in Shanghai and New Jersey, HuidaGene is committed to addressing patients' needs globally with various preclinical therapeutic programs covering ophthalmology, otology, myology, and neurology. We are currently advancing clinical programs in inherited retinal disease caused by RPE65 mutations and our preclinical pipeline, including programs in neovascular age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, hereditary hearing loss, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and MECP2 duplication syndrome. Company's CRISPR-based therapeutics offer the potential to cure patients with life-threatening conditions by repairing the cause of their disease. HuidaGene is committed to transforming the future of genome-editing medicine.

For more information, please visit http://www.huidagene.com

or follow us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/huidagene

SOURCE HuidaGene Therapeutics
As part of the partnership, Kudelski Security will integrate the Hunters SOC Platform into their Cyber Fusion Center value chain to supercharge its MDR Services and deliver greater security outcomes to clients.

NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- To help companies strengthen their cyber resilience and revolutionize their security operations, Hunters and Kudelski Security have entered a strategic partnership, cybersecurity company Hunters announced today. As part of the partnership, Kudelski Security will integrate the Hunters SOC Platform into their Cyber Fusion Center (CFC) value chain to supercharge its MDR Services and deliver greater security outcomes.

The Hunters SOC Platform ingests, normalizes and analyzes data from all security and IT/OT sources. Leveraging the Snowflake data lake platform for scale and performance, Hunters makes it easy for security teams to store, connect and process huge amounts of data to deliver sharp analytics. The platform delivers built-in, transparent, and regularly updated detection and investigation capabilities, leveraging sophisticated cross-data source correlation, AI/ML detection models, GPT-assisted investigations, and smart clustering of alerts based on their unique threat context. The platform reduces the cost and complexity of running security operations and minimizes the time to understand, respond (MTTR) and contain real threats.

The partnership comes as more companies have grown frustrated with the unworkable cost models, lengthy data onboarding processes, and limited detection capabilities of legacy SIEM. Meanwhile cyber risks continue impacting businesses of all sizes and industries, necessitating continuous monitoring and comprehensive defense measures beyond simple prevention tools. Recognizing this critical industry trend, Kudelski has taken the lead by joining forces with Hunters to develop a unique solution that stands at the forefront of SOC technology innovation.

Organizations without a fully-fledged SOC generate substantial telemetry, requiring expert review, monitoring, and prompt action in case of a security breach. This demand for deep operational knowledge and unique technology is at the core of the joint solution's mission. Customers will be able to capitalize on the unique synergy between Kudelski Security's distinguished decade-long experience, a world-class team of experts, and global reach, combined with Hunters' state-of-the-art technology.

"Hunters and Kudelski Security are reimagining how technology can empower MDR services to tackle head-first issues like scale, alert fatigue, automation, and transparency. We're thrilled that Kudelski Security sees the Hunters SOC Platform as a key piece in their ground-breaking services to their customers and allows them to handle the ever-growing risk of cyber-attacks. Personally, I'd like to thank Kudelski's leadership for putting their trust in our platform and embracing Hunters' novel approach to modernizing the SOC workflow," said Uri May, CEO and Co-founder of Hunters.

"With this combination of the disruptive Hunters SOC Platform and our 24/7 award-winning MDR services, our customers will be able to retain as much data as they need, maximize their existing security investments, and gain greater insights across the entire attack surface for faster remediation," said Jacques Boschung, SVP & Head of Kudelski Security. "This partnership is key to delivering against our commitment to superior total customer experience and to helping our clients reduce risk and strengthen their cyber resilience."

To learn more about the Hunters SOC Platform, visit www.hunters.security or, if you're attending Black Hat, stop by booth #1387.

About Hunters

Hunters delivers a Security Operations Center (SOC) Platform that reduces risk, complexity, and cost for security teams. A SIEM alternative, Hunters SOC Platform provides data ingestion, built-in and always up-to-date threat detection, and automated correlation and investigation capabilities, minimizing the time to understand and respond to real threats.

Organizations like Booking.com, ChargePoint, Yext, Upwork and Cimpress leverage Hunters SOC Platform to empower their security teams.

Hunters is backed by leading VCs and strategic investors including Stripes, YL Ventures, DTCP, Cisco Investments, Bessemer Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), Microsoft's venture fund M12, Blumberg Capital, Snowflake, Databricks, and Okta.

Learn more about Hunters at www.hunters.security .

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2040532/Hunters_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Hunters
Crypto Exchange OPNX Bids to Take Over Hodlnaut in Singapore: Capital Injection of $30 Million Expected

Source: Hodlnaut

OPNX, a digital asset exchange created by the founders of failed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, has proposed a takeover of the struggling crypto lender Hodlnaut.

OPNX has offered to inject $30 million worth of FLEX digital tokens into Hodlnaut to fund a partial creditor payout, Bloomberg reported, citing a source familiar with the matter and a term sheet.

The offer was submitted to the court after interim judicial managers overseeing Hodlnaut's restructuring objected to the distressed firm's directors emailing the bid directly to its users.

OPNX expects to own 75% of Hodlnaut after the injection of capital.

If creditors approve the plan, they will receive 30% of their claims in FLEX and other tokens or a pro-rata payment of up to 95% of the total corporate asset pool.

We see a lot of potential in the Hodlnaut platform and look forward to working closer with them, Mark Lamb, one of the founders of OPNX reportedly said in a comment.

Su Zhu and Kyle Davies created OPNX, dubbed Open Exchange, in partnership with Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam for trading crypto-related bankruptcy claims.

However, the platform has faced regulatory scrutiny in Dubai, where regulators have sent a written reprimand to Davies and Zhu for promoting OPNX without the necessary local license.

It is worth noting that while Zhu and Davies contributed initial ideas to OPNX, they have since tried to distance themselves from the platform.

OPNX Aims to Revive Hodlnaut

Hodlnaut, headquartered in Singapore with operations in Hong Kong, faced financial difficulties and suspended withdrawals last year. It then entered into a court-based restructuring process.

The founders of Hodlnaut, Simon Lee and Zhu Juntao, had previously proposed selling the business as a better alternative to liquidation for the benefit of creditors.

However, key creditors rejected the proposed restructuring plan earlier this year, favoring liquidation instead.

OPNX, exploiting the opportunity presented by the collapses in the digital-asset market, aims to revive Hodlnaut as a profitable venture.

Meanwhile, the founders of Three Arrows have faced accusations from the liquidators that they have not cooperated fully with their investigation into the collapse.

The liquidators are seeking to recover $1.3 billion from Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.

In response, Zhu has claimed that their efforts to cooperate were met with hostility and that the court orders obtained by the liquidators are baseless.

More recently, Davies has claimed that US courts don't have jurisdiction over him as he has renounced his American citizenship.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am not subjecting myself to, or accepting the jurisdiction of, the Courts in the United States, he said in a court filing last week.
VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. (the "Company") - (TSX: ITH) (NYSE American: THM) today announced that it has filed its unaudited second quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three- and six-month period ended June 30, 2023.

As of June 30, 2023, the Company had working capital of US$3.1 million.

Shareholders can obtain copies of the Company's unaudited second quarter Financial Statements and associated Management Discussion and Analysis and Form 10-Q on SEDAR at: www.sedar.com, EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at: www.ithmines.com. The Company will also provide hard copies of these documents, free of charge, to shareholders who request a copy directly from the Company.

About International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has a 100% interest in its Livengood Gold Project located along the paved Elliott Highway, 70 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

On behalf of

International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.

(signed) Karl L. Hanneman

Chief Executive Officer

This news release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

SOURCE International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.
MATERIAL FACT

SAO PAULO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. ("Company" or "Itau Unibanco"), in compliance with Article 157, Paragraph 4 of Law 6,404/76 and Resolution no. 44/21 of the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission, informs its stockholders and the market in general that as of this date it has released its revised projections for the year 2023 in accordance with the provision in item 03 ("Projections") of the Reference Form.



Consolidated



previous reviewed

total credit portfolio growth between

6.0% and 9.0% maintained

financial margin with clients growth between

13.5% and 16.5% maintained

financial margin with the market between

R$2.0 bn and R$4.0 bn maintained

cost of credit between

R$36.5 bn and R$40.5 bn maintained

commissions and fees and results

from insurance operations growth between

7.5% and 10.5% growth between

5.0% and 7.0%

non interest expenses growth between

5.0% and 9.0% maintained consolidated efficiency ratio below

40% and below 38% in Brazil effective tax rate between

28.5% and 31.5% between

27.0% and 29.0%

(1) Includes financial guarantees provided and corporate securities; (2) Composed of results from loan losses, impairment and discounts granted; (3) Commissions and fees (+) income from insurance, pension plan and premium bonds operations (-) expenses for claims (-) insurance, pension plan and premium bonds selling expenses.

It's important to mention that, as of the third quarter of 2023, the Company considers in the management purposes a cost of capital of around 14.25% p.y.

Information on outlooks for the business, projections and operational and financial goals are solely forecasts, based on management's current outlook in relation to the future of Itau Unibanco. These expectations are highly dependent on market conditions, general economic performance of the country, of the sector and the international markets. Therefore, our effective results and performance may differ from those forecasted in this prospective information.

Sao Paulo, August 07th, 2023

Renato Lulia Jacob

Group Head of Investor Relations and Market Intelligence

Contact:

Itau Unibanco  Comunicacao Corporativa

Telefone: (11) 5019-8880 / 8881

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.
IVIX raised a $12.5M Series A round led by Insight Partners with participation from Team8, Citi Ventures, and Cardumen Capital.

Series A round led by Insight Partners with participation from Team8, Citi Ventures, and Cardumen Capital. IVIX's innovative AI-powered technology helps tax authorities in the U.S., Europe and Asia identify large-scale tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes.

and identify large-scale tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes. This investment will support IVIX in increasing its R&D team and global expansion plans.

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, IVIX, the first AI-powered platform designed to help governments address pervasive financial crimes and tax evasion at scale, announced the successful closing of a $12.5M Series A funding round led by Insight Partners with participation from Team8, Citi Ventures and Cardumen Capital. This investment comes after significant growth and customer acquisition and will position IVIX to accelerate its research and development capabilities -- expanding its capacity to help more governments identify financial crimes and close the tax gap.

Meet the IVIX team (Credit: IVIX)

Every year, at least $20 trillion in global business activity goes unreported to tax authorities. In the United States, the toll of that underreporting is estimated to total $1 trillion in annual tax loss. And the gap is growing  in both traditional cash-based industries such as construction and new ways such as crypto and e-commerce. The cost of the shadow economy is real: it limits the ability of governments to provide public services such as healthcare, education and infrastructure.

IVIX offers a solution to this multi-trillion-dollar problem. The company's innovative technology leverages publicly available data to equip tax authorities with the information they need to do their job more accurately and efficiently in today's environment. With adoption by multiple tax authorities, IVIX's AI-powered solution provides its government customers insight into the shadow economy so they can address tax evasion at scale.

IVIX is currently used by major government agencies around the world, including the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division and multiple states' tax authorities in the US. The company has attracted top talent and expertise, including former IRS Chief of Criminal Investigation John D. (Don) Fort as Chief Business Officer and former IRS commissioner Fred Goldberg as a member of IVIX's advisory board. The company was founded in 2020 by CEO Matan Fattal and CPO Doron Passov, both with experience in elite intelligence units.

Matan Fattal, CEO and co-founder of IVIX, said: "IVIX has already helped cities, states and countries around the world recover billions in lost revenue and we're excited about continuing our expansion with this new investment. We're proud to give governments the tools they need to gain visibility into the shadow economy and our Series A success is a testament to both our history of success and potential for growth. We're excited for this next phase of our business and look forward to helping more customers level the playing field."

Hagi Schwartz, Managing Director at Insight Partners, said: "IVIX's AI-powered platform is a game changer for government agencies combatting financial crimes. The platform's level of sophistication and adoption by tax authorities globally is impressive, and has the potential to enable governments to provide better services to its citizens. We at Insight are thrilled to support IVIX as they continue to scale their important work."

Sarit Firon, Managing Partner at Team8, said: "As the lead investor in previous funding rounds, Team8 was an early believer in IVIX's mission to illuminate the shadow economy. The IVIX platform, powered by AI and other data-driven tech, has significantly reduced tax evasion and fraud in multiple tax jurisdictions worldwide. We warmly welcome new investor Insight Partners into the fold, and look forward to helping IVIX roll out their solution to a rapidly growing base of global tax authorities."

Cardumen Capital Co-Founder and General Partner Gonzalo Martinez De Azagra said: "As IVIX's first institutional investor, we are excited to continue supporting the company. Their vision of employing leading-edge AI to detect fraud in an increasingly digitized economy convinced us then and convinces us even more now."

About IVIX

IVIX's innovative platform helps tax authorities in the U.S., Europe and Asia identify large-scale tax evasion, money laundering and other financial crimes. Powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, IVIX gathers and enriches publicly available business activity data to accurately identify businesses, their revenue, and taxpayer entities. For more information visit: https://www.ivix.ai/ .

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with right-sized, right-time practical, hands-on software expertise along their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

SOURCE IVIX
MORRISTOWN, N.J., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), has completed helicopter patrols to inspect vegetation along more than 400 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in its New Jersey service area.

JCP&L conducts the patrols annually to identify overgrown trees and other issues that need to be addressed to help prevent service interruptions and ensure the reliability of the transmission system, particularly during summer and winter storm seasons.

The transmission lines inspected are located in Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

The inspections help locate dead or dying trees and any vegetation that may need to be addressed, and they can also help to identify broken poles or birds nesting on electrical equipment. Findings are logged and issues will be prioritized and addressed to help ensure the continued, reliable operation of the regional transmission system. The patrols started in late July and were completed in early August.

Maintaining proper clearances around transmission lines and electrical equipment can help prevent or minimize the impact of tree-related power outages, especially those associated with severe weather.

"Taking this proactive step to inspect our high-voltage lines for potential hazards is an important part of our vegetation management program and an effective way to reduce service interruptions for our customers," said Jim Fakult, president of FirstEnergy's New Jersey operations.

On the ground, tree contractors continue to trim trees along more than 3,400 miles of power lines across JCP&L's 13-county central and northern New Jersey service area as part of the company's $34 million vegetation management program this year. Vegetation near power lines is inspected to ensure trees are pruned in a manner that helps preserve the health of trees while maintaining proper clearances around electrical equipment. All trimming work is conducted by certified forestry contractors under the company's direction and done in compliance with regulatory requirements.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE: JELD) ("JELD-WEN" or the "Company") today announced results for the three and six months ended July 1, 2023. Comparability is to the same period in the prior year and all periods presented reflect the Company's Australasia segment as a discontinued operation, unless otherwise noted. The Company is raising its full-year guidance for continuing operations to reflect its solid second quarter results.

Second Quarter Highlights

Net revenues from continuing operations of $1,125.8 million decreased 4.5% in the second quarter driven by a (4%) decline in Core Revenue. The Core Revenue decline was driven by (11%) lower volume/mix partially offset by +7% price realization.

decreased 4.5% in the second quarter driven by a (4%) decline in Core Revenue. The Core Revenue decline was driven by (11%) lower volume/mix partially offset by +7% price realization. Net income from continuing operations was $22.5 million or $0.26 per share, compared to net income from continuing operations of $35.0 million or $0.40 per share during the same quarter a year ago. Operating income margin was 5.0% and 4.1% for the quarters ended July 1, 2023 and June 25, 2022 , respectively.

or per share, compared to net income from continuing operations of or per share during the same quarter a year ago. Operating income margin was 5.0% and 4.1% for the quarters ended and , respectively. Adjusted EPS from continuing operations was $0.44 , compared to Adjusted EPS of $0.45 in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted EPS includes net after-tax charges of $15.3 million or $0.18 per share, compared to net after-tax charges of $4.6 million or $0.05 per share during the same quarter a year ago.

, compared to Adjusted EPS of in the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted EPS includes net after-tax charges of or per share, compared to net after-tax charges of or per share during the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $108.9 million , compared to $108.3 million during the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased by 50 basis points year-over-year to 9.7%.

, compared to during the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased by 50 basis points year-over-year to 9.7%. On July 2, 2023 , the Company completed the sale of its Australasia segment (previously announced on April 17, 2023 ) for approximately $446 million in net proceeds. On August 3, 2023 , the Company repaid $450 million of senior notes funded by the divestiture proceeds.

"In the second quarter, our global associates continued to execute against our near-term goals of simplifying and strengthening JELD-WEN while improving profitability and generating strong cash flow," said Chief Executive Officer William J. Christensen. "While our end markets remained dynamic with volume declining in line with our expectations, we achieved year-over-year improvements in both margin and cash flow. In addition, we remained focused on delivering on our commitments including closing the sale of our Australasia business in early July. This important milestone allows us to focus on our core businesses and strengthen our balance sheet."

Christensen continued, "For the remainder of 2023, we expect continued macroeconomic uncertainty and weak demand across our markets that we are mitigating with ongoing cost reductions. As our second quarter results were above our expectations, we are narrowing the ranges and raising the midpoints of our 2023 Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance."

Second Quarter 2023 Results (Continuing Operations)

Net revenue for the three months ended July 1, 2023 decreased $53.4 million, or 4.5%, to $1,125.8 million, compared to $1,179.2 million for the same period last year. The decrease in net revenue was driven by a (4%) Core Revenue decline composed of lower volume/mix (11%) partially offset by price realization of +7%.

Net income was $22.5 million in the second quarter, compared to net income of $35.0 million in the same period last year, a decrease of $12.5 million. Despite an improvement in operating income, net income was lower due to negative impacts from accelerated depreciation, higher selling, general and administrative expense and lower other income. Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations for the second quarter decreased $1.8 million, to $37.8 million, compared to $39.6 million in the same period last year.

Earnings per share ("EPS") for the second quarter was $0.26, compared to $0.40 for the same quarter last year. Adjusted EPS from continuing operations for the second quarter was $0.44 compared to Adjusted EPS of $0.45 in the same quarter last year.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased $0.6 million, to $108.9 million, compared to the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased 50 basis points to 9.7%, as positive price/cost was partially offset by lower volume/mix, higher selling, general and administrative expenses and a reduction in other income.

On a segment basis for the second quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year:

North America - Net revenue decreased $22.0 million , or (2.6%), to $817.1 million , driven by a (2%) decline in Core Revenue which was due to lower volume/mix (8%) partially offset by increased price realization +6%. Net income decreased $18.6 million to $51.3 million . Operating income margin was 9.1% for the quarter ended July 1, 2023 and 8.4% for the quarter ended June 25, 2022 . Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased $15.3 million to $108.8 million , while Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased 220 basis points to 13.3%.

- Net revenue decreased , or (2.6%), to , driven by a (2%) decline in Core Revenue which was due to lower volume/mix (8%) partially offset by increased price realization +6%. Net income decreased to . Operating income margin was 9.1% for the quarter ended and 8.4% for the quarter ended . Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased to , while Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased 220 basis points to 13.3%. Europe - Net revenue decreased $31.3 million , or (9.2%), to $308.7 million , due to a (9%) decline in Core Revenue. Core Revenue declined due to lower volume/mix (17%) partially offset by price realization of +8%. Net income increased $7.6 million to $10.7 million . Operating income margin was 4.9% for the quarter ended July 1, 2023 and 1.7% for the quarter ended June 25, 2022 . Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased $3.9 million to $23.9 million , while Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations increased by 180 basis points to 7.7%.

Cash Flow(1)

Net cash flow provided by operations was $153.4 million during the first half of 2023, a $319.1 million improvement compared to net cash flow used in operations of ($165.7) million during the same period a year ago. The primary driver to the increased operating cash flow was a $284.3 million improvement in cash flow from working capital. Net working capital generated $2.8 million of cash flow in the first half of 2023 compared to a use of cash of $281.5 million in the prior year period.

Capital expenditures in the first half of 2023 increased by $12.1 million to $46.9 million, up from $34.8 million in the first half of 2022.

Free Cash Flow provided in the first half of 2023 was $106.4 million, compared to Free Cash Flow used in the first half of 2022 of ($200.5) million. This $306.9 million improvement is primarily due to higher net cash flow from operations.

(1) Cash flow includes the Australasia segment.

Updated Full Year 2023 Guidance (Continuing Operations)

JELD-WEN is raising its guidance to reflect the solid second quarter performance.

The Company now expects 2023 net revenue of $4.2 to $4.4 billion which reflects a low double digit decline in volume/mix across its portfolio of products and geographies in North America and Europe. Core Revenues are forecasted to be down 4% to 8% as price realization partially offsets lower market demand.

Further, the Company now expects 2023 Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations to be within the range of $350 to $370 million driven by lower year-over-year volumes and a reduction in other income partially offset by solid price/cost results and ongoing cost reductions.



Revenue Adjusted EBITDA from

continuing operations May 2023 Guidance $4.0B to $4.4B $330M to $370M Updated Guidance $4.2B to $4.4B $350M to $370M

Although the Company believes the assumptions reflected in the range of guidance are reasonable, actual results could vary substantially given the uncertainty regarding the future performance of the global economy, the continuing conflict in Ukraine, potential new COVID-19 lockdowns or restrictions, ongoing disruptions in global supply chains, and potential changes in raw material prices and other costs as well as other risks and uncertainties, including those described below. In addition, the guidance ranges provided for 2023 do not include the impact of potential acquisitions or divestitures, except the divestiture of the Australasia business.

Conference Call Information

JELD-WEN management will host a conference call on August 8, 2023, at 8 a.m. ET, to discuss the Company's financial results. Interested investors and other parties can access the call either via webcast by visiting the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at https://investors.jeld-wen.com , or by dialing 888-330-2446 from the United States or +1-240-789-2732 internationally and using ID 1285715. A slide presentation highlighting the Company's results is available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website.

For those unable to listen to the live event, a webcast replay will be available approximately two hours following completion of the call. To learn more about JELD-WEN, please visit the Company's website at https://investors.jeld-wen.com .

Note: See "Non-GAAP Financial Information" section for definitions and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures.

About JELD-WEN Holding, Inc.

JELD-WEN is a leading global designer, manufacturer and distributor of high-performance interior and exterior doors, windows, and related building products serving the new construction and repair and remodeling sectors. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., the company operates facilities in 16 countries in North America and Europe and employs approximately 18,000 people. Since 1960, the JELD-WEN team has been committed to making quality products that create safe and sustainable environments for customers, associates and local communities. The JELD-WEN family of brands includes JELD-WEN worldwide; LaCantina and VPI in North America; and Swedoor and DANA in Europe. For more information, visit www.jeld-wen.com.

Investor Relations Contact:

James Armstrong

Vice President, Investor Relations

704-378-5731

[email protected]

Media Contact:

Colleen Penhall

Vice President, Corporate Communications

980-322-2681

[email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "likely," "may," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," "would" and, in each case, their negative or other various or comparable terminology. All statements other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our business strategies and ability to execute on our plans, market potential, future financial performance, customer demand, the potential of our categories, brands and innovations, the impact of our footprint rationalization and modernization program, the impact of acquisitions and divestitures on our business and our ability to maximize value and integrate operations, our pipeline of productivity projects, the estimated impact of tax reform on our results, litigation outcomes, and our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, prospects, assumptions, or other future events, all of which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed in 2023 and our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The forward-looking statements included in this release are made as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

This press release presents certain "non-GAAP" financial measures, including Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations, Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations, Adjusted EPS from continuing operations, Free Cash Flow, and Net Debt Leverage. The components of these non-GAAP measures are computed by using amounts that are determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release to their nearest comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the tables at the end of this press release. The Company provides certain guidance solely on a non-GAAP basis because the Company cannot predict certain elements that are included in certain reported GAAP results. While management is not able to provide a reconciliation of items for forward-looking non-GAAP measures without unreasonable effort, management bases the estimated ranges of non-GAAP measures for future periods on its reasonable estimates of certain items such as assumed effective tax rate, assumed interest expense, and other assumptions about capital requirements for future periods. The variability of these items may have a significant impact on our future GAAP results.

Other companies may compute these measures differently. The non-U.S. GAAP information has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for U.S. GAAP information. It does not purport to represent any similarly titled U.S. GAAP information and is not an indicator of our performance under U.S. GAAP.

We use Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations, Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations, and Adjusted EPS because we believe they assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations are helpful in highlighting trends because they exclude certain items outside the control of management, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate, and capital investments. We use Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations to measure our financial performance in reporting our results to our Board of Directors. Further, our executive incentive compensation is based in part on Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations should not be considered as an alternative to net income as a measure of financial performance or to cash flows from operations as a liquidity measure.

We define Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax, adjusted for the following items: income tax expense (benefit); depreciation and amortization; interest expense, net; and certain special items consisting of non-recurring legal and professional expenses and settlements; restructuring and asset related charges; facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments; M&A related costs; share-based compensation expense; non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation (income) loss; and other special items.

Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations represents net income from continuing operations adjusted for the after-tax impact of certain special items used to calculate Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as described above. Where applicable, the specifically identified items are tax effected at the applicable jurisdictional tax rate and tax expense is adjusted to remove the effect of discrete tax items.

Adjusted EPS from continuing operations represents net income from continuing operations per diluted share adjusted to exclude the estimated per share impact of the same specifically identified items used to calculate Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations as described above.

Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations represents Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations as a percentage of net revenues.

We present several financial metrics in "Core" terms, which exclude the impact of foreign exchange, acquisitions and divestitures completed in the last twelve months. We define Core Revenue as net revenue excluding the impact of foreign exchange, and acquisitions and divestitures completed in the last twelve months. The use of "Core" metrics assists management, investors, and analysts in understanding the organic performance of the operations.

We present Free Cash Flow because we believe this metric assists investors and analysts in determining the quality of our earnings. Free Cash Flow is defined as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities less capital expenditures (including purchases of intangible assets). Free Cash Flow should not be considered alternatives to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities as a liquidity measure. We also present Net Debt Leverage because it is a key financial metric that is used by management to assess the balance sheet risk of the Company. We define Net Debt Leverage as Net Debt (total principal debt outstanding less unrestricted cash) divided by Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the last twelve month period.

Due to rounding, numbers presented throughout this release may not sum precisely to the totals provided and percentages may not precisely reflect the absolute figures.

JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (In millions, except share and per share data)





Three Months Ended







July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022

% Variance Net revenues

$ 1,125.8

$ 1,179.2

(4.5) % Cost of sales

900.2

972.5

(7.4) % Gross margin

225.6

206.6

9.2 % Selling, general and administrative

162.5

152.4

6.6 % Restructuring and asset related charges

6.8

5.3

29.4 % Operating income

56.3

48.9

15.0 % Interest expense, net

20.9

20.2

3.3 % Other expense (income), net

2.2

(17.1)

(112.6) % Income from continuing operations before taxes

33.3

45.8

(27.4) % Income tax expense

10.8

10.9

(0.9) % Income from continuing operations, net of tax

22.5

35.0

(35.6) % Income from discontinued operations, net of tax

15.8

10.9

45.2 % Net income

$ 38.3

$ 45.8

(16.5) % Diluted Net income per share from continuing operations

$ 0.26

$ 0.40



Diluted Net income per share from discontinued operations

0.18

0.12



Diluted Net income per share

$ 0.45

$ 0.52



Diluted Shares

85,764,785

87,967,049



Other financial data:











Operating income margin

5.0 %

4.1 %



Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (1)

$ 108.9

$ 108.3

0.5 % Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations (1)

9.7 %

9.2 %









(1) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations are financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information."

JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (In millions, except share and per share data)





Six Months Ended







July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022

% Variance Net revenues

$ 2,206.3

$ 2,224.8

(0.8) % Cost of sales

1,788.9

1,846.5

(3.1) % Gross margin

417.3

378.3

10.3 % Selling, general and administrative

315.2

320.0

(1.5) % Restructuring and asset related charges, net

16.1

5.2

206.6 % Operating income

86.0

53.0

62.3 % Interest expense, net

42.3

38.5

9.9 % Other income, net

(1.5)

(26.2)

(94.2) % Income from continuing operations before taxes

45.2

40.6

11.3 % Income tax expense

14.2

9.2

54.0 % Income from continuing operations, net of tax

31.0

31.4

(1.3) % Income from discontinued operations, net of tax

22.4

13.9

61.3 % Net income

$ 53.4

$ 45.3

17.9 % Diluted Net income per share from continuing operations

$ 0.36

$ 0.35



Diluted Net income per share from discontinued operations

0.26

0.16



Diluted Net income per share

$ 0.63

$ 0.51



Diluted Shares

85,417,344

89,557,956



Other financial data:











Operating income margin

3.9 %

2.4 %



Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations(1)

$ 188.2

$ 176.3

6.7 % Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations (1)

8.5 %

7.9 %









(1) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations are financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations and Adjusted EBITDA Margin from continuing operations, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information."

JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (In millions, except share and per share data)



July 1, 2023

December 31, 2022 ASSETS





Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents $ 188.9

$ 164.5 Restricted cash 0.6

1.5 Accounts receivable, net 596.3

531.2 Inventories 547.8

594.5 Other current assets 65.0

73.5 Assets held for sale 132.9

125.7 Current assets of discontinued operations 230.7

204.7 Total current assets 1,762.2

1,695.6 Property and equipment, net 628.9

642.0 Deferred tax assets 182.7

182.2 Goodwill 383.7

382.0 Intangible assets, net 140.2

148.1 Operating lease assets, net 126.5

129.0 Other assets 29.0

25.8 Non-current assets of discontinued operations 292.7

296.8 Total assets $ 3,545.8

$ 3,501.4 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY





Current liabilities





Accounts payable $ 313.5

$ 287.0 Accrued payroll and benefits 136.3

107.0 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 242.6

247.9 Current maturities of long-term debt 47.3

34.1 Liabilities held for sale 7.6

6.0 Current liabilities of discontinued operations 109.9

104.6 Total current liabilities 857.2

786.6 Long-term debt 1,638.7

1,712.8 Unfunded pension liability 34.3

31.1 Operating lease liability 101.3

105.1 Deferred credits and other liabilities 89.5

95.9 Deferred tax liabilities 7.8

7.9 Non-current liabilities of discontinued operations 34.7

38.4 Total liabilities 2,763.5

2,777.8 Shareholders' equity





Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share, 90,000,000 shares authorized; no

shares issued and outstanding 

 Common Stock: 900,000,000 shares authorized, par value $0.01 per share,

85,048,937 and 84,347,712 shares issued and outstanding as of July 1, 2023 and

December 31, 2022, respectively. 0.9

0.8 Additional paid-in capital 743.3

734.9 Retained earnings 183.9

130.5 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (145.7)

(142.6) Total shareholders' equity 782.4

723.5 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 3,545.8

$ 3,501.4

JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (In millions)





Six Months Ended



July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022 OPERATING ACTIVITIES







Net income

$ 53.4

$ 45.3 Adjustments to reconcile net income to cash provided by (used in) operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

71.8

65.1 Deferred income taxes

(0.9)

(2.2) Net loss on disposition of assets

0.1

0.2 Adjustment to carrying value of assets

3.2

0.5 Amortization of deferred financing costs

1.6

1.5 Stock-based compensation

9.7

11.3 Amortization of U.S. pension expense

0.3

0.7 Recovery of cost from interest received on impaired notes

(1.7)

(13.4) Other items, net

(8.0)

27.2 Net change in operating assets and liabilities:







Accounts receivable

(75.9)

(170.1) Inventories

50.1

(126.9) Other assets

6.7

(32.2) Accounts payable and accrued expenses

44.5

37.6 Change in short term and long-term tax liabilities

(1.4)

(10.3) Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities

153.4

(165.7) INVESTING ACTIVITIES







Purchases of property and equipment

(42.0)

(31.5) Proceeds from sale of property and equipment

0.4

0.2 Purchase of intangible assets

(5.0)

(3.3) Recovery of cost from interest received on impaired notes

1.7

13.4 Cash received for notes receivable

0.1

0.1 Cash received from insurance proceeds

3.2

 Change in securities for deferred compensation plan

(0.7)

(0.2) Net cash used in investing activities

(42.2)

(21.4) FINANCING ACTIVITIES







Change in long-term debt

(70.3)

186.6 Common stock issued for exercise of options

0.1

2.0 Common stock repurchased



(105.2) Payments to tax authorities for employee share-based compensation

(0.6)

(2.4) Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

(70.8)

81.1 Effect of foreign currency exchange rates on cash

2.2

(17.0) Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents

42.6

(123.0) Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning

220.9

396.9 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, ending

$ 263.4

$ 273.9 Balances included in the Consolidated Balance Sheets:







Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash

$ 189.6

$ 243.2 Cash and cash equivalents included in current assets of discontinued operations

73.9

30.7 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$ 263.4

$ 273.9

JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited) (In millions)



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022

July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022 Income from continuing operations, net of tax $ 22.5

$ 35.0

$ 31.0

$ 31.4 Income tax expense 10.8

10.9

14.2

9.2 Depreciation and amortization(1) 38.2

27.6

66.6

55.3 Interest expense, net 20.9

20.2

42.3

38.5 Special items:













Legal and professional expenses and settlements(2) 4.4

0.7

6.2

2.5 Restructuring and asset related charges(3) 6.8

5.3

16.1

5.2 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments(4) 1.3

5.1

2.6

5.2 M&A related costs(5) 1.3

2.5

4.0

5.8 Share-based compensation expense(6) 4.7

1.3

8.9

10.5 Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation loss (income)(7) 0.4

3.1

(1.2)

7.0 Other special items (8) (2.4)

(3.3)

(2.5)

5.6 Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations $ 108.9

$ 108.3

$ 188.2

$ 176.3





(1) Depreciation and amortization expense in the three and six months ended July 1, 2023 includes accelerated depreciation of $9.1 million in North America from reviews of equipment capacity optimization. (2) Legal and professional expenses and settlements primarily related to litigation and transformation initiatives. (3) Represents severance, accelerated depreciation charges, and other expenses directly incurred as a result of restructuring events, including equipment relocation expenses. Restructuring charges related to closure of Atlanta facility in the three and six months ended July 31, 2023 were $5.2 million and $13.3 million, respectively. (4) Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments primarily related to winding down certain facilities scheduled to close in 2023 as well as certain facilities closed in 2022. (5) M&A related costs consists primarily of legal and professional expenses related to the potential disposition of Towanda. (6) Represents non-cash equity-based compensation expense related to the issuance of share-based awards. (7) Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation loss (income) primarily consists of losses (gains) associated with fair value adjustments of foreign currency derivatives and revaluation of intercompany balances. (8) Other special items not core to ongoing business activity include: (i) in the three months ended July 1, 2023 ($2.8) million in compensation and non-income taxes associated with exercises of legacy equity awards; (ii) in the three months ended June 25, 2022 (1) ($4.4) million in adjustments related to fire damage and downtime at one of our facilities in North America, and (2) $1.0 million unrealized mark-to-market losses from commodity derivatives; (iii) in the six months ended July 1, 2023 ($2.8) million in compensation and non-income taxes associated with exercises of legacy equity awards; and (iv) in the six months ended June 25, 2022 (1) $2.4 million in expenses related to fire damage and downtime at one of our facilities in North America, (2) $1.9 million compensation and non-income taxes associated with exercises of legacy equity awards, and (3) $1.0 million unrealized mark-to-market losses from commodity derivatives.

To conform with current period presentation, certain amounts in prior period information have been reclassified.





Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (amounts in millions, except share and per share data)

July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022

July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022 Income from continuing operations, net of tax

$ 22.5

$ 35.0

$ 31.0

$ 31.4 Special items:(1)















Legal and professional expenses and settlements

4.4

0.7

6.2

2.5 Restructuring and asset related charges

6.8

5.3

16.1

5.2 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs

and adjustments

1.3

5.1

2.6

5.2 M&A related costs

1.3

2.5

4.0

5.8 Share-based compensation expense

4.7

1.3

8.9

10.5 Non-cash foreign exchange transactions/translation loss

(income)

0.4

3.1

(1.2)

7.0 Other special items

(2.4)

(3.3)

(2.5)

5.6 Tax impact of special items(2)

(3.4)

(3.7)

(8.8)

(11.6) Tax special items

2.1

(6.4)

3.2

(6.4) Adjusted Net Income from continuing operations

$ 37.8

$ 39.6

$ 59.4

$ 55.2

















Diluted income per share from continuing operations

$ 0.26

$ 0.40

$ 0.36

$ 0.35 Special items:(1)















Legal and professional expenses and settlements

0.05

0.01

0.07

0.03 Restructuring and asset related charges

0.08

0.06

0.19

0.06 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs

and adjustments

0.01

0.06

0.03

0.06 M&A related costs

0.01

0.03

0.05

0.06 Share-based compensation expense

0.06

0.02

0.10

0.12 Non-cash foreign exchange transactions/translation loss

(income)

0.01

0.03

(0.01)

0.08 Other special items

(0.03)

(0.04)

(0.03)

0.06 Tax impact of special items (2)

(0.04)

(0.04)

(0.10)

(0.13) Tax special items

0.02

(0.07)

0.04

(0.07) Adjusted Net Income per share from continuing operations

$ 0.44

$ 0.45

$ 0.70

$ 0.62

















Weighted average diluted shares used in adjusted EPS

calculation represent the fully dilutive shares for the three

and six months ended July 1, 2023 and June 25, 2022,

respectively.

85,764,785

87,967,049

85,417,344

89,557,956



Adjusted net income from continuing operations per share may not sum due to rounding.



(1) Refer to the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the definitions of the Special items listed above. (2) Except as otherwise noted, adjustments to net income and net income per share are tax-effected at the jurisdictional statutory tax rate.

To conform with current period presentation, certain amounts in prior period information have been reclassified.





Three Months Ended July 1, 2023 (amounts in millions)

North

America

Europe

Total

Operating

Segments

Corporate

and

Unallocated

Costs

Total

Consolidated Income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax

$ 51.3

$ 10.7

$ 61.9

$ (39.4)

$ 22.5 Income tax expense (benefit)

21.1

3.1

24.2

(13.5)

10.8 Depreciation and amortization(1)

27.7

7.5

35.2

3.0

38.2 Interest expense, net

0.8

0.4

1.2

19.7

20.9 Special items:(1)



















Legal and professional expenses and settlements



2.4

2.4

2.0

4.4 Restructuring charges and asset related charges

5.7

0.5

6.2

0.6

6.8 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments



1.3

1.3



1.3 M&A related costs

0.3



0.3

0.9

1.3 Share-based compensation expense

1.5

0.5

2.0

2.8

4.7 Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation (income) loss

(0.1)

0.6

0.4



0.4 Other special items

0.6

(3.0)

(2.4)



(2.4) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations

$ 108.8

$ 23.9

$ 132.7

$ (23.8)

$ 108.9



(1) Refer to the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the definitions of the Special items listed above.





Three Months Ended June 25, 2022 (amounts in millions)

North

America

Europe

Total

Operating

Segments

Corporate

and

Unallocated

Costs

Total

Consolidated Income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax

$ 69.8

$ 3.1

$ 73.0

$ (38.0)

$ 35.0 Income tax expense(1)

2.0

3.1

5.1

5.7

10.9 Depreciation and amortization

16.9

7.6

24.5

3.2

27.6 Interest expense, net

0.8

2.1

2.8

17.4

20.2 Special items:(2)



















Legal and professional expenses and settlements







0.7

0.7 Restructuring charges and asset-related charges

4.8

0.5

5.3



5.3 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments



5.1

5.1



5.1 M&A related costs

0.1



0.1

2.4

2.5 Share-based compensation expense



0.4

0.5

0.9

1.3 Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation loss (income)

0.1

(0.6)

(0.5)

3.5

3.1 Other special items

(1.0)

(1.4)

(2.4)

(0.9)

(3.3) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations

$ 93.5

$ 20.0

$ 113.5

$ (5.2)

$ 108.3





(1) Income tax expense in Corporate and unallocated costs includes the tax impact of US Operations. (2) Refer to the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the definitions of the Special items listed above.

To conform with current period presentation, certain amounts in prior period information have been reclassified.





Six Months Ended July 1, 2023 (amounts in millions)

North

America

Europe

Total

Operating

Segments

Corporate

and

Unallocated

Costs

Total

Consolidated Income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax

$ 86.5

$ 18.0

$ 104.5

$ (73.5)

$ 31.0 Income tax expense (benefit)

35.7

4.5

40.2

(25.9)

14.2 Depreciation and amortization

45.5

14.9

60.4

6.1

66.6 Interest expense, net

3.6

0.5

4.1

38.2

42.3 Special items:(1)



















Legal and professional expenses and settlements



2.5

2.5

3.8

6.2 Restructuring charges and asset-related charges

13.5

1.8

15.3

0.8

16.1 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments



2.6

2.6



2.6 M&A related costs

0.6



0.6

3.4

4.0 Share-based compensation expense

2.5

1.0

3.4

5.4

8.9 Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation (income) loss

(0.3)

(1.2)

(1.5)

0.3

(1.2) Other special items

0.6

(3.1)

(2.6)

0.1

(2.5) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations

$ 188.0

$ 41.5

$ 229.5

$ (41.3)

$ 188.2



(1) Refer to the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the definitions of the Special items listed above.





Six Months Ended June 25, 2022 (amounts in millions)

North

America

Europe

Total

Operating

Segments

Corporate

and

Unallocated

Costs

Total

Consolidated Income (loss) from continuing operations, net of tax

$ 107.9

$ 2.5

$ 110.4

$ (79.0)

$ 31.4 Income tax expense(1)

3.0

4.5

7.5

1.7

9.2 Depreciation and amortization

33.5

15.5

49.0

6.3

55.3 Interest expense, net

1.9

3.9

5.8

32.7

38.5 Special items:(2)



















Legal and professional expenses and settlements







2.5

2.5 Restructuring charges and asset-related charges

4.8

0.5

5.3



5.2 Facility closure, consolidation, and other related costs and adjustments



5.2

5.2



5.2 M&A related costs

0.3



0.3

5.5

5.8 Share-based compensation expense

2.1

1.3

3.4

7.2

10.5 Non-cash foreign exchange transaction/translation loss (income)

0.4

(4.2)

(3.8)

10.8

7.0 Other special items

6.7

5.5

12.2

(6.6)

5.6 Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations

$ 160.6

$ 34.7

$ 195.3

$ (19.0)

$ 176.3





(1) Income tax expense in Corporate and unallocated costs includes the tax impact of US Operations. (2) Refer to the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the definitions of the Special items listed above.





Six Months Ended



July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022 Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (1)

$ 153.4

$ (165.7) Less capital expenditures (1)

46.9

34.8 Free Cash Flow (1)(2)

$ 106.4

$ (200.5)





(1) Cash flow information is inclusive of cash flows from the Australasia segment as discontinued operations. (2) Free Cash Flow is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Free Cash Flow, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information".











July 1, 2023

December 31, 2022 Total debt

$ 1,686.0

$ 1,746.9 Less cash and cash equivalents

188.9

164.5 Net Debt (1)

$ 1,497.1

$ 1,582.4 Divided by trailing twelve months Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (2)

360.7

348.8 Net Debt Leverage (1)

4.1x

4.5x





(1) Net Debt and Net Debt Leverage are financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Net Debt Leverage, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information". (2) Trailing twelve months Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for both periods. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information".

Segment Results (Unaudited) (In millions)





Three Months Ended







July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022



Net revenues from external customers









% Variance North America

$ 817.1

$ 839.1

(2.6) % Europe

308.7

340.0

(9.2) % Total Consolidated

$ 1,125.8

$ 1,179.2

(4.5) % Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (1)











North America

$ 108.8

$ 93.5

16.4 % Europe

23.9

20.0

19.1 % Corporate and unallocated costs

(23.8)

(5.2)

356.4 % Total Consolidated

$ 108.9

$ 108.3

0.5 %





(1) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information".





Six Months Ended







July 1, 2023

June 25, 2022



Net revenues from external customers









% Variance North America

$ 1,585.1

$ 1,561.5

1.5 % Europe

621.1

663.3

(6.4) % Total Consolidated

$ 2,206.3

$ 2,224.8

(0.8) % Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (1)











North America

$ 188.0

$ 160.6

17.1 % Europe

41.5

34.7

19.5 % Corporate and unallocated costs

(41.3)

(19.0)

117.5 % Total Consolidated

$ 188.2

$ 176.3

6.7 %





(1) Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations is a financial measure that is not calculated in accordance with GAAP. For a discussion of our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations, see above under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Information".

SOURCE JELD-WEN Holding, Inc.
RESTON, Va., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, has entered a strategic collaboration with Permion, an artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) platform company, to accelerate the use of AI in critical national security mission sets.

"Our collaboration with Permion will help advance data-driven decision making and operational support for government agencies and organizations," said Leidos Intelligence Group chief technology officer Robert Franceschini. "Game-changing technologies like AI are evolving at a rapid pace, as we've witnessed over the last year alone. By joining forces with Permion we can leverage their impressive neurosymbolic and generative AI technology. Using Permion's advanced platform with our trusted AI/ML will enable both companies to deliver AI-enhanced capabilities to our customers  when and where it's needed most."

"As a major systems integrator with industry-leading systems engineering expertise, Leidos is the perfect collaborator for Permion's new data-oriented computing AI platform," said Permion CEO Arun Majumdar. "Together, we expect to have an ability to deliver the leap-ahead results critical for the advancement of national security, competitive advantage and overmatch."

Through this collaboration, Leidos and Permion will use Permion's advanced AI platform with Leidos' existing and future technology capabilities. In particular, Leidos expects to leverage Permion's X-Machines Instruction Set Architecture (XVM-ISA), a data-oriented computing platform for AI. This would enhance applications and capabilities that can be deployed on the tactical edge, on-premises or in the cloud.

Leidos and Permion are also in the process of developing and testing an additional explainable knowledge-graph generative AI/LLM cognitive solution. This offering was drawn from Permion's current Open-Source Intelligence and Relationship Inference System (OSIRIS) and built on XVM-ISA. The solution is expected to feature decision support, data analytics and high-value prediction capabilities, enabling both companies to support the AI needs of government customers.

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets. The company's 46,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $14.4 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the "Risk Factors" set forth in Leidos' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2022, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Leidos does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made.

About Permion

Permion emerged in January of 2023 after five years (350,000 developer hours) in building a first-principles artificial intelligence virtual machine (VM) with GPT and LLM technologies integrated with blockchain and logic for trustworthy Knowledge Graph processing. The platform, designed to deliver results at the speed of relevance, based on X-Machines VM instruction set architecture (XVM-ISA), will revolutionize secure, trustworthy data-oriented computing (DOC) for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning scaling from the tactical edge to the Cloud. Permion: www.permion.ai

SOURCE Leidos
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it has received a 'Bosch Global Supplier Award.' The company receives this prestigious award in the category "raw materials and components", demonstrating its unmatched leadership in the automotive display market.

LG Display Wins 2023 Bosch Global Supplier Award

The Bosch Group, a global leading supplier of technology and services, reserves its "Bosch Global Supplier Award" for only 46 suppliers from 11 countries of roughly 35,000 suppliers worldwide in this year, recognizing the most outstanding performers in the manufacturing and supply of raw materials, products, and services on a biennial basis since 1987.

LG Display and Bosch have engaged in a decade of strategic collaborations since 2012, during which LG Display has demonstrated distinctive technical capabilities, stringent quality management, and reliable supply capabilities. The company is well known for successful incorporating automotive OLED displays into premium automotive brands' next generation of projects.

As a leading global supplier of digital clusters (instrument clusters) and center fascias (central control units) to top-tier automotive component makers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), LG Display continues to lead the market having achieved the highest global market share for the 5th consecutive year from 2018 to 2022  based on revenue generated by premium automotive displays measuring 10 inches or larger.

LG Display leverages its technological prowess in automotive OLEDs and high-end LCD displays to expand sales and orders while enhancing its position as the industry's global leader.

LG Display set a new standard for mobility when it introduced the world's first Tandem OLED for automotives back in 2019. Tandem OLED embodies its groundbreaking two-stack OLED technology, where an extra organic emitting layer is added to the existing layer to deliver brighter screens while effectively dispersing energy across OLED components for optimal stability and a longer lifespan. LG Display will start mass-producing its second-generation Tandem OLED, which heightens the efficiency of organic light-emitting components, this year to further widen the technological gap between itself and competitors.

P-OLED is LG Display's unique technology that incorporates innovative Tandem OLED into a flexible plastic substrate to make the design slim and light while maintaining unrivaled picture quality unique to OLEDs. P-OLED uses 60% less power and weighs 80% lighter than LCD displays, making it the ultimate solution for electric vehicles in particular. Moreover, the company's automotive P-OLED has received the Eco-Product Certification Mark from SGS, a global leader in inspection, verification, testing, and certification, recognizing their excellence in minimizing the use of hazardous substances.

Moreover, LG Display has been strengthening its competitive edge in the market with its various products and technologies, including ATO (Advanced Thin OLED), which delivers the core strength of OLED for automotive displays at a more competitive price point, LTPS LCD, which excel in large-scale implementation and high-resolution rendering, IPS (In-Plane Switching), which significantly enhanced the viewing angles, SPM (Switchable Privacy Mode), which controls a viewing angle for safe driving. What's more, it has become the first in the industry to introduce a flame-resistant certification program to every automotive panel in order to boost safety and stability.

"We are extremely proud to have been recognized as automotive display maker by Bosch. This award acknowledges our endless pursuit of the perfect customer experience, a journey that promotes innovation at every step of the way which enables us to deliver unparalleled technologies, quality, and support to our customers," said Byeong-koo Kim, Senior Vice President and Head of Auto Business Group at LG Display. "We will continue to strengthen our order-based business's competitiveness based on our revolutionary technologies, especially P-OLED and LTPS LCD."

About LG Display

LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal and OLED displays. The company manufactures display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, automobiles, and various other applications, including tablets and mobile devices. LG Display currently operates manufacturing facilities in Korea and China, and back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China, and Vietnam. The company has approximately 70,707 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visit www.lgdisplay.com .

Media Contact:

TaeHyun Tommy Jang, Assistant Manager, Global PR Team

Email: [email protected]

Joo Yeon Jennifer Ha, Manager, Global PR Team

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE LG Display
Lincoln Content Bank empowers teachers to personalize learning

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Learning Solutions today announced the launch of its Lincoln Content Bank, a multi-modal, educational content library designed with Amazon Web Services to equip teachers with nearly 110,000 rigorous learning assets that they can configure and assemble to meet the needs of their students.

"Pre-K through 12th-grade teachers need an easy-to-use tool that allows them to personalize learning," CEO Bob Clements, said. "Our Lincoln Content Bank gives them the ability to quickly and simply search a huge variety of content to determine the best fit for individual students, small groups of students, or entire classrooms."

The Lincoln Content Bank features a robust search tool that allows teachers to harvest information based on searches by keyword, standard, subject, grade level, modality, and more. Nearly 110,000 learning assets are at their fingertips ready to be incorporated into their courses in Buzz.

Designed by teachers for teachers it allows them to populate and preview on the same screen, and intuitively makes recommendations based on previous searches. It gives teachers the luxury of saving the searched-for material in collections for easy retrieval later.

"You have this magical search engine," said Don Lamison, founder, CEO, and director of operations and development for Indonesia-based nonprofit Urban Green Education.

"Say you teach physics," he said. "You can type in 'three types of friction' and 'I want to see video' and 'I want high school level' and  boom  it's right there. It's like shopping. You just pick it and pull it right down into your classes."

The Lincoln Content Bank will also help teachers close learning gaps, challenge students, ensure alignment with IEPs and 504 plans, and obtain standard mastery, all issues they face regardless of their learning environment.

"It's magical," Lamison said. "You can look by standards, or you can look by grade, or by subject, or any combination."

Lamison said one of his schools near Jakarta uses the Lincoln Content Bank.

"So, these kids don't just have, for example, one chemistry textbook," he said. "Their teacher has the ability to use any of the features, which naturally blends into strategies like flipping," an educational approach that aims to increase student engagement with more classroom problem-solving.

"A lot went into this release, Clements said. "The payoff for working with AWS to create this leading-edge teaching tool is coming in efforts like the one Don described.

LLS and AWS designed the tool to seamlessly integrate into the Buzz learning management suite and equip teachers with seemingly limitless access to an immense repository of educational content. Among other things, it will provide teachers with:

Perceptive and rapid searching and browsing features

Customizable material for full classes or individual students

Myriad options for supplemental learning

Streamlined access to and application of learning objects targeting different learning modalities

Cross-curricular learning opportunities

"That's a teachers dream  not just the core resources, but the supplemental videos and illustrations and examples and paired text for whatever they're doing. To be able to do a search for that and have it at your fingertips is amazing," said Kristi Hemingway former elementary and secondary teacher who now works with teachers to improve literacy practices and helps districts across the country implement new curriculum and instructional strategies.

School administrators will appreciate the content bank for its ability to streamline and standardize course creation across subjects while allowing individual departments to retain a level of ownership in the scope and sequence of their courses.

More information about the Lincoln Content Bank is available at Lincoln Learning Solutions.

contact:

Christina Zarek

[email protected]

717-805-2337

Lincoln Learning Solutions is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to collaborating with educators and maximizing their talents to facilitate student success. Based in western Pennsylvania, it is the developer of Lincoln Empowered, a digitally based curriculum that delivers engaging, standards-based, instruction in online and blended learning environments. Lincoln Empowered offers a dynamic array of courses in language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, physical education, and the creative and performing arts. Lincoln Learning Solutions currently serves nearly 100 schools in 14 states, and upward of 20,000 students.

SOURCE Lincoln Learning Solutions
NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

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=17730 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On 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 $0.10, or 5.52%, to close at $1.71 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 firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

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

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
CHICAGO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- High-End furniture brand Marge Carson is thriving under the new ownership and leadership of CEO Janet Linly as it continues to deliver and enhance the company's 75-year-old legacy of timeless luxury home furnishings with masterful craftsmanship. To better serve interior designers, retailers, design showrooms and customers, the company announces the following:

A symphony of style featuring Marge Carson's Nico sofa & Solstice chest creates a timeless and elegant setting.

Shortened Lead Times of 8-12 weeks for the entire online catalog including custom couture, custom upholstery, upholstered beds, occasional furniture, living room, among other options. The company's commitment to shorter lead times defies the industry trend of up to 24-48 weeks for customer delivery.

of 8-12 weeks for the entire online catalog including custom couture, custom upholstery, upholstered beds, occasional furniture, living room, among other options. The company's commitment to shorter lead times defies the industry trend of up to 24-48 weeks for customer delivery. Exclusive Distribution and Retail Model focused on delivering industry-leading interior designers and retailers with more exclusivity to present their discerning clientele with the company's iconic designs and fully custom furnishings.

focused on delivering industry-leading interior designers and retailers with more exclusivity to present their discerning clientele with the company's iconic designs and fully custom furnishings. White-Glove Receiving & Distribution Center features high-quality control procedures and enhanced packaging protocols in the manufacturing plant to ensure the end product exceeds industry standards when received.

features high-quality control procedures and enhanced packaging protocols in the manufacturing plant to ensure the end product exceeds industry standards when received. Consistent Superior Craftsmanship that is hand-tailored and bench made by skilled artisans with relentless attention to detail.

that is hand-tailored and bench made by skilled artisans with relentless attention to detail. Unwavering Commitment To Manufacturing at the same facility the company has owned for 25+ years employing some of the industry's best including multi-generational skilled artisans.

at the same facility the company has owned for 25+ years employing some of the industry's best including multi-generational skilled artisans. Distinguished Custom-Designs of Luxury Furniture, Textiles, Finishes and Details that the Marge Carson brand has been recognized for 75 years.

"Our team is dedicated to continuing the legacy of the Marge Carson brand for generations to come. From original designs to artistry in manufacturing, we focus and thrive on every detail of each piece we create and the level of service we provide," says Janet Linly, CEO of Marge Carson.

ABOUT MARGE CARSON

For 75 years, Marge Carson has been renowned for its timeless luxury home furnishings with masterful craftsmanship. The company's distinguished custom designs of high-end furniture, textiles, finishes, and details are available globally through exclusive interior designers, retailers and design showrooms. The iconic collection includes custom couture, custom upholstery, upholstered beds, occasional furniture, living room, among other options. For more information, please visit www.margecarson.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jessica Prah

Paramount Public Relations

[email protected]

312-953-3257

SOURCE Marge Carson
Virginia State Police are investigating two unrelated fatal car crashes that occurred in Louisa County over the weekend that left two men  neither of whom was wearing a seatbelt  dead.

In the first, police said they responded to a two-vehicle crash on Shannon Hill Road in the area of Mount Airy Road at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

After arriving at the scene, police said they were able to ascertain that a 2004 Mazda 6 operated by 43-year-old Jermaine Thomas Scott of Louisa was traveling northbound on Shannon Hill Road when it ran off the road and overcorrected. The Mazda crossed over the double-solid line and struck a 2012 Nissan Altima being driven by 49-year-old Pamela Lee Thompson of Kents Store, authorities said.

"Scott succumbed to injuries on the scene. He was not wearing a seatbelt," Virginia State Police said in a statement released Monday.

Thompson, who was wearing a seatbelt, was transported to University of Virginia Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

State police said they responded to another reported collision, this one on Jefferson Highway, at 1:11 p.m. Sunday.

According to police, 33-year-old David E. Lively Jr. of Bumpass was operating a 2008 Dodge Ram traveling east in the area of 16738 Jefferson Highway between the communities of Montpelier and Jackson.

Lively reportedly crossed the double-solid line and struck a 2014 Dodge Ram that was being operated by 58-year-old Bobbie Jo Sprouse of Bumpass.

"Lively succumbed to injuries on the scene. He was not wearing his seatbelt," police said. "Sprouse was transported to VCU Medical Center for treatment of serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. She was wearing a seatbelt."

Both weekend crashes remain under investigation.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MCRA, LLC, a leading medical device focused regulatory advisory firm and clinical research organization (CRO) integrating U.S. and International Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Trial Operations, Reimbursement and Market Access, Healthcare Compliance, Cybersecurity, Quality Assurance, and Japan Distribution Logistics (DMAH) is pleased to announce its role in the successful Premarket Approval (PMA) application decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve the SurVeil drug-coated balloon (DCB) to treat peripheral artery disease (PAD).

The SurVeil drug-coated balloon is a next-generation device that utilizes best-in-class technology in the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD), includes a proprietary drug-excipient formulation for a durable balloon coating and is manufactured using an innovative process to improve coating uniformity.

Michael John, MCRA's Vice President and Head of Cardiovascular Regulatory Affairs, stated, "Working with Surmodics on the SurVeil drug-coated balloon was a great example of expert collaboration between our Regulatory and Biocompatibility teams, which enabled MCRA to both develop the robust technical discussions and then articulate them to FDA in terms of safety, effectiveness and favorable benefit-risk profile. As FDA expectations continue to evolve with advances in scientific understanding, it is imperative that organizations utilize a range of top technical and regulatory experts to keep pace. The Surmodics team understood the importance of this collaboration, and we are honored to have played a part in this important PMA approval."

Glenn Stiegman, Senior Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs said, "MCRA's mission is to provide the full range of services needed for the medical device industry to achieve their goals and improve patient care. We are seeing the marrying of both clinical and preclinical expertise as critical to getting these products across the goal line. Today's Biocompatibility expectations are extensive, thereby presenting a significant hurdle for many companies and their devices. For Surmodics, we were able to integrate our biocompatibility expertise with our cardiovascular regulatory experience to create a successful outcome. We thank Surmodics for trusting us to help them achieve their goals for the SurVeil drug-coated balloon."

Gary Maharaj, President and CEO of Surmodics and a member of the SurVeil DCB development team said, "We would like to thank Michael John and MCRA's team of cardiovascular Regulatory and Biocompatibility experts for their critical contributions along the entire gamut from detailed technical feedback up to and including the strategic guidance on key decisions along the way. This is a rare combination in our experience. Finally, our team enjoyed the spirit of camaraderie and candor in our working relationship with MCRA."

About MCRA, LLC: MCRA is the leading privately held independent medical device, diagnostics, and biologics Clinical Research Organization (CRO) and advisory firm. MCRA delivers to its client's industry experience, integrating its six business value creators: regulatory, clinical research, reimbursement, healthcare compliance, quality assurance, and distribution logistics to provide a dynamic, market-leading effort from innovation conception to commercialization. MCRA's integrated application of these key value-creating initiatives provides unparalleled value for its clients. MCRA has offices in Washington, DC, Hartford, CT, New York, NY, and Tokyo, Japan and serves nearly 1,000 clients globally. Its core focus areas of therapeutic experience include orthopedics, spine, biologics, cardiovascular, diagnostic imaging, wound care, artificial intelligence, dental, anesthesia, general surgery, digital health, neurology, robotics, oncology, general and plastic surgery, urology, and in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices and medical device cybersecurity.

About Viscogliosi Brothers, LLC: Viscogliosi Brothers, LLC (VB), founded MCRA in 2004. VB is headquartered in New York City and specialized in funding venture capital, private equity, and merchant banking activities for the neuromusculoskeletal industry. VB is dedicated to financing healthcare innovation. www.vbllc.com

About Surmodics, Inc.: Surmodics, Inc is a leading provider of performance coating technologies for intravascular medical devices and chemical and biological components for in vitro diagnostic immunoassay tests and microarrays. Surmodics also develops and commercializes highly differentiated vascular intervention medical devices that are designed to address unmet clinical needs and engineered to the most demanding requirements. This key growth strategy leverages the combination of the company's expertise in proprietary surface modification and drug-delivery coating technologies, along with its device design, development and manufacturing capabilities. The company's mission is to improve the detection and treatment of disease. Surmodics is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.surmodics.com.

For more information, please contact:

Sydney Roland, Manager, Cardiovascular Business Development

Phone: 202-552-5800 ext. 3842 | Email: [email protected] mailto:[email protected]

SOURCE MCRA, LLC
Travelers can easily add rest and relaxation to upcoming summer vacation plans thanks to special offers available through August 31

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Summer is the best time on Miami Beach to relax and indulge and the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority invites visitors to experience mindful spa treatments during Miami Spa Months. Through August 31, 2023, travelers can add a variety of treatments, rituals and experiences to their itinerary available at destination spas that bring global practices and products together to help relieve stress, conquer jet lag and rejuvenate the mind, body and soul. From international spa brands to globally-inspired services, Miami Beach is home to a collection of top luxury spas, adding to the destination's ever-expanding wellness offerings.

Through August 31, 2023, travelers can add a variety of treatments, rituals and experiences to their itinerary available at destination spas that bring global practices and products together to help relieve stress, conquer jet lag and rejuvenate the mind, body and soul.

"We know our visitors come from around the world to experience top beaches, hotels, restaurants and spas. During Miami Spa Months, travelers have the opportunity to indulge in unique and relaxing treatments at celebrated resorts at an approachable price," says Christopher Rollins, Chair of the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA). "Our destination continues to refine and deliver wellness-centric offerings, giving visitors the chance to enhance their stay with activities developed to help find balance, rejuvenation and personal inspiration."

Those looking for stellar spa days on Miami Beach can start their search at the epitome of luxury at The Ritz-Carlton Spa, South Beach. Summer spa-goers can enjoy 20% off a nightly rate and add on a wide range of treatments including a 50-minute Swedish or aromatherapy massage utilizing hot stones. The experience also includes pool access and a complimentary glass of champagne for non-guests. Travelers can also go over the pond without the flight at 1 Hotel South Beach's Bamford Wellness spa. A 50-to-80-minute custom facial uses rose quartz collagen to refresh skin after a day poolside or exploring Miami Beach. Ideal for the summer months, the Spa at Baia Beach Club at Mondrian South Beach is offering a signature 60-minute-deep relaxing massage to ease and restore muscles and the mind. For the ultimate in relaxation and to decompress, visitors can head to The Spa at The Miami Beach EDITION for the house massage which uses CBD-infused ointment to relieve anxiety on a cellular level or a microbiome facial using cutting-edge technology from South Korea.

"Wellness and travel come together seamlessly on Miami Beach. Our city's luxury hotels offer visitors the perfect balance at their destination spas during Miami Spa Months. We invite travelers to prioritize wellness during their next visit to Miami Beach with treatments that will leave them feeling balanced and refreshed," adds Grisette Marcos, Executive Director of the MBVCA. "Those looking for spa recommendations and treatment details can find recommendations @experiencemiamibeach on Instagram to help plan their next indulgent spa day."

For more information on Miami Beach's destination and travel-worthy spas, download the free, award-winning Experience Miami Beach App. Follow @experiencemiamibeach on Instagram and Facebook for the most up-to-date details and insider recommendations.

Press contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority
ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Navy Mutual Aid Association ("Navy Mutual") is proud to announce their seventh year of partnership with Military Makeover with Montel. This season follows the renovations of the Carmody family home.

Jason Kevin Carmody joined the Massachusetts National Guard out of a sense of duty after the attacks on 9/11. He initially trained as an MP, then served in the National Guard Unit 972nd MP Company, was activated during Hurricane Katrina, and deployed to Iraq in 2007. Now, Carmody serves as a Captain with the Department of Veterans Affairs Police. He lives with his wife of nearly two decades, Alyssa, and their four children, aged six to 20 years old.

Navy Mutual's CFO, Adam Mullins, traveled to Lynn, Massachusetts, where the Carmody family home is located, to offer his support and gratitude for each family member's service.

"Navy Mutual was created to provide comfort to military families. We promise to be there no matter the circumstances, and to treat everyone as if they were part of our own inner circle," said Mullins. "We are honored to provide the cabinetry for the Carmody family's kitchen. The kitchen is the heart of a home, a place where people feel safe and happy, and can spend time with their loved ones. There's nothing more comforting than that."

Season 35 of Military Makeover with Montel airing on Lifetime TV premieres on August 11 at 7:30 a.m. ET/PT. Navy Mutual features in episode 4, which airs on September 1 and September 7. All episodes can be watched on YouTube after airing on Lifetime TV.

Navy Mutual is a nonprofit, member-owned mutual association established in 1879 to provide affordable life insurance and peace of mind to members of the military and their families. As the nation's oldest federally recognized Veterans Service Organization, its mission and commitment to protect those who defend us remains unwavering. Financially strong, Navy Mutual is proud to be a first-choice provider of life insurance to servicemembers and their loved ones. Through quality life insurance products, no-cost educational and veterans services programs, and unparalleled service, Navy Mutual has earned the loyalty and support of its membership. For more information, visit navymutual.org.

SOURCE Navy Mutual
Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy partner to address the housing needs of Black teachers

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy are proud to announce a partnership to provide beautiful new-construction apartments to Black teachers in the Bay Area. The partnership will initially house 10 teachers in Oakland, with additional housing placements to come.

Riaz Capital is a pioneer in providing affordable high-quality middle-income housing in the Bay Area. Urban Ed Academy is a leading non-profit organization that supports Black men pursuing careers in Education. The initial 10 teachers will be housed at Artthaus Six, Riaz Capital's latest new-construction development in Oakland.

Urban Ed Academy is a trailblazing educational organization that champions educational equity and works tirelessly to empower students and educators alike. The partnership with Riaz Capital aligns perfectly with their mission, as it addresses the unique housing challenges faced by Black teachers in the Bay Area and promotes Black representation within the teaching workforce.

According to the National Education Association, only 2% of teachers in America are Black men. A recent John Hopkins University study found that if Black students even have one Black teacher by third grade, they are 13% more likely to attend college. By offering housing solutions specifically tailored to Black male teachers, Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy are taking proactive steps to address this issue and promote greater diversity in the education system.

The partnership between Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy represents their joint commitment to community empowerment, educational excellence, and equitable opportunities. By removing the housing burden, Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy aim to retain Black male educators and support their professional growth and overall well-being.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Urban Ed Academy on this transformative initiative," said Riaz Taplin, CEO of Riaz Capital. "Our goal is to empower Black teachers by providing exceptional housing opportunities. By supporting their well-being, we contribute to their ability to positively impact the lives of students." By addressing the housing needs of Black teachers, this collaboration creates a positive ripple effect that extends beyond the educators themselves, benefitting the students they teach and the broader community.

"Our teachers deserve the opportunity to live near the schools they serve and this partnership helps us make that happen. Riaz Capital has been an amazing partner throughout this process and their commitment to innovative racial equity strategies was clear to us from the start. Black teachers have a real champion in Riaz Capital." said Randal Seriguchi Jr., Executive Director of Urban Ed Academy.

Through its support of Black male teachers, the Riaz Capital and Urban Ed Academy partnership has set a powerful precedent for the advancement of educational equity. By offering dedicated housing, this initiative seeks to attract, retain, and uplift Black male educators, positively impacting educational experiences and outcomes for students in the Bay Area.

Media contact:

Mathew Salter

+1 (415) 828-5800

[email protected]

SOURCE Riaz Capital
Iconic coffee shop now offering smooth and delicious cold brew concentrate on grocery shelves

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- There is a new, refreshingly smooth and flavorful cold brew option in the U.S. The coffee experts at Tim Hortons have brewed up a concentrated cold brew bursting with flavor that coffee drinkers are sure to love.

Introducing Tim Hortons Cold Brew Concentrate, available in four delicious flavors: Medium Blend Black, Birthday Cake, Cinnamon Swirl and Mocha Cereal for guests to enjoy at home across all 50 states!

Iconic coffee shop now offering smooth and delicious cold brew concentrate on grocery shelves. Tweet this Tim Hortons Cold Brew Concentrate, available in four delicious flavors: Medium Blend Black, Birthday Cake, Cinnamon Swirl and Mocha Cereal.

"Consumers will love every delicious sip of our Tim Hortons Cold Brew Concentrate," said Markus Sturm, Head of Consumer Packaged Goods at Tim Hortons. "The smooth taste is crafted with 100% Arabica Beans for a flavor experience inspired by the Cold Brew we have in Tim Hortons restaurants."

Conveniently packaged in 32-ounce multi-serve bottles, each concentrate will offer eight individual servings when prepared as directed. Just mix with water and ice  enjoy it black or top with milk or cream as desired for a refreshing taste that is all your own!

Tim Hortons Cold Brew Concentrate is rolling out to grocery stores now at participating Walmart and regional grocery locations across the U.S. This will be the first time that a Tim Hortons product has been made available nationally in the U.S., satisfying a strong demand from consumers and retailers across the country for the beloved brand and its products.

To find one of 600+ Tim Hortons restaurants in the U.S., check here. To inquire about franchise opportunities as we grow, please submit an inquiry here.

About Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons is one of North America's largest restaurant chains operating in the quick service segment. Founded as a single location in Canada in 1964, Tim Hortons appeals to a broad range of guest tastes, with a menu that includes premium coffee, hot and cold specialty drinks (including lattes, cappuccinos, espresso, teas and our famous Iced Capp Beverages), baked goods, hot breakfast sandwiches, breakfast snacking items and other food products. Tim Hortons has more than 5,400 systemwide restaurants located in Canada, the United States and around the world. More information about the company is available at timhortons.com.

SOURCE Tim Hortons
VSEDC and EWDD Collaborate to Empower Entrepreneurs

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

When  Wednesday, August 10th, 2023, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm

Where  Inside the Children's Institute at 10200 Success Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90002

What  Official unveiling of the Watts BusinessSource Center (Watts BSC), a collaboration between Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation (VSEDC) and the City of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWDD). The new center aims to support local entrepreneurs and businesses through comprehensive business consulting services.

Who  In attendance will be:

City of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

Mayor Los Angeles Council District 15 Councilmember Tim McOsker

LA City EWDD General Manager Carolyn Hull

HACLA Assistant Director Jennifer Arthurs

VSEDC President & CEO Quentin Strode

This launch symbolizes the shared vision of VSEDC and EWDD to cultivate a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides a foundation for business growth and job creation in Watts and the surrounding neighborhoods. The Watts BSC aims to break down systemic barriers and help small businesses thrive through valuable support services.

Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation (VSEDC) is a community-based nonprofit and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) recognized for decades of technical and entrepreneurial assistance to South LA small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. The service VSEDC provides serves to drive community self-sufficiency, facilitate business growth, access to affordable housing, goods and services, and job creation. VSEDC achieves this through youth education and entrepreneurial projects, CDFI programs, and fundraising efforts. Learn more about VSEDC at www.vsedc.org, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.

SOURCE Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation
** Credit Union Now Offers 85,000+ Surcharge-Free ATMs Worldwide for Members **

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- North Island Credit Union today announced that it has joined the Allpoint Network, providing an additional 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs for its 170,000 members. Including its existing CO-OP ATM Network, North Island Credit Union members now have access to more than 85,000 surcharge-free ATMs worldwide.

Conveniently located at major retail locations coast-to-coast, including leading pharmacy, grocery, convenience, and big-box retailers, Allpoint Network ATMs will save North Island Credit Union members time as well as ATM fees. Through the partnership, credit union branded ATMs will be located in major retail locations in San Diego and the greater Los Angeles area.

"We are continually working to bring our members more value, convenience and cost savings. Partnering with Allpoint allows us to eliminate ATM fees and offer an enhanced member experience by providing surcharge-free access to cash at convenient retail locations where members already shop, including major brand pharmacy, grocery, convenience and big box retailers," said North Island Credit Union President & CEO Steve O'Connell. "By adding access to the Allpoint ATM Network, we are almost tripling the number of ATMs available to members so they will never be far from a surcharge-free ATM, wherever they are traveling or doing their day-to-day shopping."

Members can find a convenient surcharge-free ATM here or search on the credit union's 5-Star Rated Mobile App.

About North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 with assets over $4.5 billion, more than 170,000 members, and 24 retail branches. The credit union serves community members and businesses in the California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura as well as school employees throughout the state. The credit union operates in San Diego and Riverside Counties as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. The credit union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Visit northisland.ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @northislandcu.

SOURCE North Island Credit Union
The networking & edge industry gathers to plan the next decade of disruption fueled by practical use cases in AI across Networking, Edge Compute / IOT, Open RAN plus open disruptive technology like Quantum Computing, WASM, 6G and more

Celebrating over a decade of thought leadership in open networking, the Open Networking and Edge Summit (ONE Summit) has served tens of thousands of attendees from across 5 continents and 200+ countries, from Enterprise, Cloud and Telecom Ecosystems

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LF Networking , the facilitator of collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, announced the next ONE Summit event will take place April 29 - May 1, 2024 in San Jose, Calif. The move represents a return to the event's origin, over a decade ago in Silicon Valley, as the "Open Networking Summit."

Over the past ten plus years, the event has evolved from a focused conference on SDN and NFV to what we have today: a robust, cross-industry ecosystem gathering of the most innovative discussion topics within the broader networking and edge space, which now encompasses the next phase of innovation: AI+Networking, IoT/Edge and AI, Open RAN and Enhanced Connectivity/Access, Enterprise & Multi-Cloud Networking, Security, and more.

"We are eager to return to our roots in 2024 with a robust face-to-face event in Silicon Valley," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, IoT, the Linux Foundation. "ONE Summit 2024 will usher in the next ten years of open source innovation across what was once 'networking' to 'open networking' - a massive cross-vertical ecosystem advancing as the world becomes more connected and immersive."

ONE Summit is the one industry event that brings together decision-makers and implementers for a week of activities that encompass co-located mini-summits from affiliated projects, industry-leading keynotes and robust breakout sessions as well as a two-day Developer and Testing Forum. These in-depth and interactive conversations focus on the technologies that connect people and data  including 5G/NextG, AI, Access, Edge, Telco, Cloud, Industry 4.0, Enterprise, Government Infrastructure, and more. ONE Summit provides a platform for direct engagement among global thought leaders, developers, and decision makers from across a growing ecosystem. As in the past, the conference will feature an extensive program of 80+ talks and sessions covering the most important and timely topics with diverse options for both business and technical sessions.

Registration & CFPs

Watch the ONE Summit 2024 website for the latest information and updates in real time and get access to early bird promotions. Registration and call for papers will open later in 2023.

Sponsorship

ONE Summit is made possible thanks to our generous sponsors. For information on becoming an event sponsor, view the sponsorship prospectus or email the team for more information.

Co-located Events & Mini Summits

LF Networking is always proud to collaborate with other leading orgs in the ecosystem through co-located events hosted by sister communities within the ecosystem. If your project or community is interested in hosting a co-located event at ONE Summit, email the team for more information.

ONE Summit Regional Days

ONE Summit Regional Days , new in 2023, are a series of smaller, localized ONE Summit events across the globe. These events feature the same great content from a traditional ONE Summit format  in-depth presentations and interactive conversations around Access, Edge, 5G and Cloud open-source technology developments  but in a smaller, more localized format.

Upcoming ONE Summit Regional Days include:

LFN Developer & Testing Forum

The LFN Developer & Testing Forum, community-generated technical sessions to address the challenges and celebrate successes, will take place in-person November 13-16, 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. Stay tuned for more information; sessions from the recent June D&TF event are now available .

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, PyTorch, and more. Learn more at linuxfoundation.org .

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage . Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact

Jill Lovato

The Linux Foundation

[email protected]

SOURCE LF Networking
Global expansion, product innovations, and strategic partnerships set the stage for critical infrastructure protection leader to meet increasing demand ahead of H2

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OPSWAT, a leading provider of critical infrastructure protection (CIP) cybersecurity solutions, today announced significant international growth and corporate milestones for the first half of 2023, laying the groundwork for an exceptional year. Notable achievements are marked by strategic partnerships, new offices opening, successful industry events, and outstanding revenue growth. With the company's global expansion efforts and continuous dedication to cutting-edge CIP solutions, OPSWAT is well-positioned to enhance the enterprise information technology (IT) and industrial operational technology (OT) cybersecurity landscape globally.

OPSWAT Accelerates International Expansion in First Half 2023

"We are excited to report such exceptional growth and achievements in the first half of 2023," said Benny Czarny, Founder and CEO of OPSWAT. "These milestones are a testament to our unwavering commitment to delivering best-in-class cybersecurity solutions to our valued customers worldwide. As we move into the second half of the year, we are excited to build on this momentum by continuing to grow our global presence and participate in leading industry events."

Highlights of OPSWAT's first half of 2023 success include:

Product Innovations: OPSWAT launched its Mobile Kiosk at the 2023 Annual ARC Industry Leadership Forum, showcasing the company's commitment to delivering innovative solutions to its customers. The company also announced new product releases, including machine learning powered threat intelligence search and Filescan Sandbox integration with its MetaDefender Email Gateway Security.

OPSWAT launched its Mobile Kiosk at the 2023 Annual ARC Industry Leadership Forum, showcasing the company's commitment to delivering innovative solutions to its customers. The company also announced new product releases, including machine learning powered threat intelligence search and Filescan Sandbox integration with its MetaDefender Email Gateway Security. Founding Sponsor of CIP Cyber: OPSWAT proudly became a Founding Sponsor of CIP Cyber, reinforcing its commitment to cybersecurity education and critical infrastructure protection.

OPSWAT proudly became a Founding Sponsor of CIP Cyber, reinforcing its commitment to cybersecurity education and critical infrastructure protection. Emerson DeltaV Alliance Program : Both OPSWAT Netwall and MetaDefender Kiosk were accepted into the esteemed Emerson DeltaV Alliance Program, reflecting the industry's recognition of OPSWAT's products.

: Both OPSWAT Netwall and MetaDefender Kiosk were accepted into the esteemed Emerson DeltaV Alliance Program, reflecting the industry's recognition of OPSWAT's products. OPSWAT Academy Growth: OPSWAT Academy has reached a remarkable milestone with 50,000 certified professionals in CIP, thereby underlining its pivotal role in equipping a skilled workforce to tackle increasing cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

OPSWAT Academy has reached a remarkable milestone with 50,000 certified professionals in CIP, thereby underlining its pivotal role in equipping a skilled workforce to tackle increasing cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Revenue Growth: OPSWAT experienced a remarkable double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in the first half of 2023, demonstrating the company's continued success and robust market position.

Operational Expansion

Global Headquarters Expansion: Construction on the new SkyCenter|ONE building at Tampa International Airport was completed, significantly growing OPSWAT's global headquarters. Employees successfully moved into the state-of-the-art facility, setting the stage for a grand opening in Q4 2023.

Construction on the new SkyCenter|ONE building at International Airport was completed, significantly growing OPSWAT's global headquarters. Employees successfully moved into the state-of-the-art facility, setting the stage for a grand opening in Q4 2023. European Expansion: OPSWAT expanded its presence in Europe with a brand-new 2,000 square meter office in Romania at the United Business Center. Moreover, the Romania and Hungary offices now house cutting-edge CIP labs, providing partners, customers, and employees with hands-on experiences of OPSWAT's zero-trust solutions' capabilities in detecting, analyzing, and mitigating malware and zero-day attacks.

Strategic Partnerships and Events:

Israel : OPSWAT participated in the international Cyber Week event in Tel Aviv where it shared security insights and discussed some of the biggest challenges facing leaders today.

OPSWAT participated in the international Cyber Week event in where it shared security insights and discussed some of the biggest challenges facing leaders today. India: OPSWAT expanded into India with the opening of a new office in May, securing a key partnership with Softcell. The company also received recognition as the 'Email Security Vendor of the Year' at the prestigious CISO Conclave event organized by UBS Forum.

OPSWAT expanded into with the opening of a new office in May, securing a key partnership with Softcell. The company also received recognition as the 'Email Security Vendor of the Year' at the prestigious CISO Conclave event organized by UBS Forum. Japan : OPSWAT announced rapid business growth and operational expansion in Japan , appointing Atsushi Takamatsu as the new Country General Manager.

OPSWAT announced rapid business growth and operational expansion in , appointing as the new Country General Manager. Vietnam : OPSWAT made a significant impact by participating in the Vietnam Security Summit 2023, attended by over 1,500 cybersecurity professionals. Additionally, OPSWAT Vietnam collaborated with HISSC (Ho Chi Minh City Information Security Services) to establish a specialized training facility named 'Cyber Range' for critical OT infrastructure.

About OPSWAT



For the last 20 years OPSWAT, a global leader in IT, OT, and ICS critical infrastructure cybersecurity, has continuously evolved an end-to-end solutions platform that gives public and private sector organizations and enterprises the critical advantage needed to protect their complex networks and ensure compliance. Empowered by a "Trust no file. Trust no device." philosophy, OPSWAT solves customers' challenges around the world with zero-trust solutions and patented technologies across every level of their infrastructure, securing their networks, data, and devices, and preventing known and unknown threats, zero-day attacks, and malware. Discover how OPSWAT protects the world's critical infrastructure and helps secure our way of life; visit www.opswat.com.



Media Contact

Kat Lewis

[email protected]

SOURCE OPSWAT
NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE: OUT) announced today that Matthew Siegel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, is scheduled to present at the Oppenheimer 26th Annual Technology, Internet & Communications Conference on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 at 2:05 p.m. Eastern Time. A live and replay audio webcast will be available on the investor relations section of the Company's website at www.outfront.com.

About OUTFRONT Media Inc.

OUTFRONT leverages the power of technology, location, and creativity to connect brands with consumers outside of their homes through one of the largest and most diverse sets of billboard, transit, and mobile assets in North America. Through its technology platform, OUTFRONT will fundamentally change the ways advertisers engage audiences on-the-go.

Contacts:









Investors

Media Stephan Bisson

Courtney Richards Investor Relations

Communications & Event Manager (212) 297-6573

(646) 876-9404 [email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE OUTFRONT Media Inc.
The former spy looked out upon a vast green sea of soy.

After spending Wednesday traveling across the countryside of Virginias 7th District, Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger stood by the long driveway of Charity Hill Farms in Caroline County with seventh-generation farmer Chris Smith to her right and his mother Cindy to her left.

It was the last stop of her daylong farm tour, and as the afternoon drew to a close, the ex-CIA officer, amid corn, soy and cattle, took and asked questions about how Congress can better serve farmers.

In many ways, this journey through the bucolic counties of her district was unremarkable: Since assuming office four years ago and joining the House Committee on Agriculture, Spanberger has toured many a farm.

But with murmurs in Washington about her political ambitions, the tour may have served an additional purpose: a test run for a gubernatorial campaign.

Im really focused on November, Spanberger told The Daily Progress when asked if there is truth to reports that she plans to run for governor in 2025. Weve got 140 seats up as well as board of supervisors and school board races, and those are incredibly important. I dont want to distract from that.

It was not a denial.

As the only Virginian on the Agriculture Committee and with a $1.5 trillion farm bill expected in 2024, meeting with farming families such as the Smiths can be valuable for a congresswoman.

After all, Spanberger conceded she knew literally nothing about farming before joining the committee. Much of what shes learned since  about crop insurance, rotational grazing, cover crops and more  she said shes learned by talking to farmers.

I have loved the committee, she said, standing in her baby-blue blazer under the shade of a tree. What happens on the Agriculture Committee really matters to every single community, from the most urban of the urban to the most rural of the rural.

If Spanberger does make an announcement to run for governor, the centrist Democrat may need to pick off votes in more Republican parts of the commonwealth like Caroline County, which former President Donald Trump won in 2020 with 51.2% of the vote.

But when will that announcement come?

Not before the elections this fall, predicted outgoing Democratic Del. Sally Hudson.

Everyone in Virginia politics is laser focused on November. Theres no reason to start a governors race in a major public way right now, Hudson told The Daily Progress. Its August two years out. Most people are winding down summer days and getting ready for back-to-school season.

With big races in Virginia and elsewhere this fall, announcing now might indeed distract from that, as Spanberger said.

Right now, the calculation is, whether youre a Democrat or Republican looking to run, Do I get perceived as getting in the way of competitive elections that are happening first? said Tom Kramer of Christopher Newport Universitys Wason Center for Public Policy.

They dont want to be perceived as doing that, he told The Daily Progress.

Hudson said she thinks that for a well-known candidate such as Spanberger, theres no hurry to announce. She already has earned a national profile, and announcements matter more for outsider candidates, Hudson said.

Theres no swing voter at the ballot box who remembers what campaign launch timing looked like, she said.

Of course, theres no guarantee that Spanberger will run.

Sometimes candidates simply mention theyre thinking about running because they want to test the waters, Kramer said. Its simply them gauging how much support theyd get and where might it come from.

What is clear is shes interested in running, he added, referring to media reports.

Its certainly possible the congresswoman has already decided shell make a bid for the Executive Mansion in 2025. But her camp may still be determining whether she should also try to retain her House seat in 2024.

Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginias Center for Politics called this running from safety, meaning to run for office while still holding office.

If the governorship doesnt work out, she could still stay in the House. If she gives up her House seat, someone else will hold it and she might find herself completely out in 2025, Kondik told The Daily Progress.

On the other hand, staying in the House would require her to run two campaigns back to back.

If she knows shes going to run for governor, it makes sense for her politically to just focus on that over the next two years, instead of a closely contested and expensive campaign in 2024 and then run again in 2025, Kondik said.

If it were up to House Democrats, the House member would likely stay in the lower chamber in D.C. In addition to being a prolific fundraiser, Kramer said Spanberger has shown she can win in a competitive district.

Her seat is one they wont look forward to having to compete for, Kramer said. If she left Congress, her seat adds to the number of competitive seats in what is already a narrowly divided Congress.

Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, told The Daily Progress that the trial balloon Spanberger has released could signal an opening for his party in 2024.

This would be a win-win for Virginia Republicans, because we have a stable of quality candidates who will likely seek the governorship in 2025, preceded in 2024 by an equally attractive slate of Republican candidates, he wrote in an email.

While Republicans may welcome her House exit, some of Spanbergers own constituents would be less happy to see her go.

It would certainly pain us to lose Abigail as our Congresswoman, Sandra Smith, co-chair of the Orange County Democratic Committee, told The Daily Progress in an email. We understand that she is making no definitive plan until late fall after the House of Delegates and State Senate elections are over. Were confident shell base her decision on where she can do the most good.

Before Spanbergers arrival on Wednesday, Chris Smith stood on the farm that his family has owned since 1856. While 150 beef cattle grazed the land, corn and soybean are the moneymakers for the Smiths these days, and Chris Smith crossed his fingers that the fields would get rain over the weekend.

Why was the congresswoman coming to visit this old farm?

I have no idea, Chris and his father Steve Smith both said when asked 10 minutes apart.

For Spanberger, the trip was at least in part to learn more about Virginias farming community.

It was also an opportunity to meet with people who may not share her party affiliation.

Driving through the winding roads en route to Charity Hill, one large, handmade sign read in bold letters: When will Democrats blame Democrats for what Democrats have done?

Spanberger thinks visits to red parts of her district might help explain why shes been able to win three races in a competitive seat. For some people, she said, being a Democrat is a bridge too far. But demonstrating respect may help win a couple votes.

Ive had the occasion to show up in spaces where I say, Listen, I know yall dont vote for me, but I still work for you, she said. If somebody might say, Well, shes a Democrats but, and that but is she hears about my issues or she shows up or she respects me or she tries to understand what my day-to-day is like, then thats my goal.

On Wednesday at least, she appeared to achieve that. Spending time with the Smiths, she asked about their lives and listened to their concerns, occasionally jotting down notes with a stylus on her tablet.

Chris Smith said he thinks she still has some learning to do. Theres more to agriculture than just farming and subsidies, he said. Hed like to see the Spanberger do more for vocational schools and find other ways to get the younger generation more interested in where their food comes from.

But it definitely meant something that she took the time to come out, he said on the phone after picking up his beef from a nearby processor, which hell later sell to neighbors and local restaurants. Our views might not line up completely on all platforms, but she was a nice person and I enjoyed talking to her.

Might that visit have earned Spanberger a vote in her expected gubernatorial race?

Smith wont commit to that. He likes to stay out of politics, but mentioned hes been happy with what Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has done for the farming community.

Youngkin, of course, cannot run again. And its unclear which Republican might replace him on the ballot.

Its also unclear if and when Spanberger will make her candidacy official, and if shed be able to win a primary.

Already, another powerful Virginia Democrat, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, has been hinting at his own gubernatorial ambitions. And former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Eileen Filler-Corn, has publicly acknowledged her interest in exploring a run. The trio could make for a competitive race.

Kramer, Hudson and Kondik said they think Spanberger would be a compelling candidate.

If she were to advance to the general election, the Smiths and other farming families will have a choice to make.

Well see when the time gets closer, Chris Smith said.

So too will Spanberger. And so too will the rest of Virginia as it waits for her decision.
Scholars will practice in underserved or rural communities statewide, helping to close gaps in access to quality care

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, leaders from Peach State Health Plan, a care management organization that serves the needs of Georgians through a range of health insurance solutions and wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, and the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, announced the 2023 "Peach State Scholars." The nine medical students were announced during an official pinning ceremony held at Augusta University. The students are the third class of Peach State Scholars participating in the Medical College of Georgia's 3+ Primary Care Pathway Program, a program established in 2021 that focuses on alleviating Georgia's physician shortage.

The nine medical students in the third class of Peach State Scholars were announced during an official pinning ceremony held at Augusta University.

According to the 2022 Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce Report, nine counties in Georgia have no physicians, 18 counties have no family medicine physicians, 40 counties have no internists, 65 counties have no pediatricians, 82 counties have no OB/GYNs, 80 counties have no general surgeons, 90 counties have no psychiatrists, and 73 counties have no emergency medicine physicians. These ongoing shortages have resulted in serious gaps in access to quality health care in many areas of rural and underserved Georgia.

The MCG3+ Primary Care Pathway Program allows students to finish their medical school training in three, rather than four years, before directly entering a primary care residency in Georgia. In exchange for their commitment to serve in a rural or underserved area of the state, these students will receive a scholarship for tuition.

"Our partnership with Peach State Health Plan has been critical to getting the MCG3+ Primary Care Pathway Program off the ground to address Georgia's doctor shortages," said Augusta University President Brooks A. Keel, PhD. "Georgia is losing doctors in many of its underserved areas for a variety of reasons, including retirement of aging doctors and the desire of young doctors to open practices in more populated areas. These Peach State Scholars will help address these shortages for years to come."

"We have been proud to support the MCG3+ Primary Care Pathway program since its inception and are excited to see it expand into its third year with the 2023 Peach State Scholars," said Peach State Health Plan CEO, Wade Rakes. "These medical students will soon be on the front line of medical care in Georgia's underserved communities. As this innovative program continues, together, we'll help develop more doctors and create more sustainable access to quality medical care in rural communities across Georgia."

The scholarship fund and ongoing support for the MCG3+ Primary Care Pathway Program were made possible by a $5.2 million donation from Peach State Health Plan in 2021. In 2021, Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly matched Peach State Health Plan's initial $5.2 million in funding help to kickstart the program. In 2022, Governor Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly added an additional $8.7 million to the program, which was matched by the Medical College of Georgia Foundation.

The 2023 Peach State Scholars, their hometowns and intended specialty are as follows:

Jordan Bothwell of Roswell, GA , Emergency Medicine

of , Emergency Medicine Madison Chimenti of Canton, GA , Emergency Medicine

of , Emergency Medicine Christopher "Chris" Dick of Dunwoody, GA , Internal Medicine

, Internal Medicine Samantha Feinstein of Hartsfield, GA , Pediatrics

of , Pediatrics Jessica McElrath of Woodstock, GA , Pediatrics

of , Pediatrics Brianna "Taylor" Nicholson of Suwanee, GA , Psychiatry

of , Psychiatry Caleb Padgett of Langley, SC , Internal Medicine

of , Internal Medicine Blayne Thomason of Dalton, GA , OB/GYN

of , OB/GYN Peter-Jon Williams of Douglasville, GA , Internal Medicine

About Medical College of Georgia

The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University is one of the nation's largest medical schools by class size, with 264 students per class. The educational experience is anchored by the main campus in Augusta, regional clinical campuses for third- and fourth-year students across the state and a second four-year campus in Athens in partnership with the University of Georgia. MCG's expanding partnerships with physicians and hospitals across Georgia currently provides about 350 sites where students can experience the full spectrum of medicine, from complex care hospitals to small-town solo practices. MCG and its teaching hospitals also provide postgraduate education to more than 500 residents and fellows in more than 50 different Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-approved programs.

About Peach State Health Plan

Peach State Health Plan is a Care Management Organization that serves the needs of Georgians through a range of health insurance solutions. Peach State Health Plan serves the Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids population in partnership with Georgia Families. The organization also focuses on under-insured and uninsured individuals through its federal insurance marketplace plan, Ambetter, and its Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plan. Peach State Health Plan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation. For more information visit www.pshp.com.

SOURCE Peach State Health Plan
The two-time CEO of leading hotel chains will accelerate RateGain's efforts to drive deeper into the enterprise market of the Americas

DALLAS, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RateGain Travel Technologies Limited, a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality, today announced the appointment of Peter Strebel as its new President to lead the Americas region. Peter, a two-time CEO, in his last role, was the Chairman of Omni Hotels & Resorts, providing strategic counsel to the company before serving as the company's former President, Chief Marketing Officer, and Senior Vice President of Sales.

Named as a Top CEO on Glassdoor, Strebel was responsible for guiding the company through the pandemic crisis, leaving the brand in a prime position to capitalize on the rebounding trends and changes in the industry. He also played an instrumental role in creating and driving innovative branding, communications, marketing, and business development strategies to increase awareness, capture market share, and build revenue for the luxury hotel brand.

In between his time with Omni, Strebel served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Wyndham Hotel Group and was promoted to President of the company before returning to Omni. Strebel sits on the board of directors for the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), as well as the board of trustees for the Incarnation House in Dallas, Texas.

Peter will be replacing the outgoing President, Chinmai Sharma, who spent half a decade with RateGain, playing a key role in scaling its Americas business and providing overall strategic guidance for RateGain's growth in the region.

Over the last few years, through strategic acquisitions, RateGain has consolidated its position in the enterprise segment in the Americas region, with the region contributing significantly to the company's top line. A lifetime hotelier and an advocate of new technology, combined with Peter's deep understanding of the industry and extensive experience in the region will help RateGain accelerate growth as it looks to double its revenue in the next three years.

Welcoming Peter to RateGain's leadership team, Bhanu Chopra, Founder, and Managing Director of RateGain, said, "The next phase of RateGain's growth requires a leadership team that can help us outsize the impact we are making on our industry, and I am quite certain that Peter will help in bringing that to RateGain. His experience in leading operations, sales, and marketing will be critical for us to drive more well-rounded growth as we aim for our next big goal."

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Chinmai for his leadership and belief in RateGain. The work he has done in scaling the business and identifying new business opportunities leaves the Americas team far better positioned for success," added Bhanu.

Commenting on RateGain, Peter Strebel said, "I have built a career by continuously identifying new areas of investment and innovation to change the status quo, and I believe that RateGain is also trying to do the same for the hospitality industry. The opportunity to do that for over 100,000 hotels excites me about this opportunity."

Peter is based out of Dallas where he lives with his wife and enjoys spending time with his family.

About RateGain

RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality that works with 2800+ customers and 700+ partners in 100+ countries, helping them accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion.

RateGain today is one of the world's largest processors of electronic transactions, price points, and travel intent data, helping revenue management, distribution, and marketing teams across hotels, airlines, meta-search companies, package providers, car rentals, travel management companies, cruises, and ferries drive better outcomes for their businesses. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in India, today RateGain works with the Top 23 of 30 Hotel Chains, the Top 25 of 30 Online Travel Agents, and all the top car rentals, including 8 Global Fortune 500 companies, in unlocking new revenue every day. For more information, please visit www.rategain.com.

SOURCE RateGain
HOUSTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), TSA agents seized 6,542 guns at the nation's airports in 2022. That's an average of 18 a day, the highest ever recorded. U.S. LawShield, America's premier Legal Defense for Self Defense organization, recommends the following tips to travel safely with firearms and ammunition:

U.S. LawShield Offers Tips on How to Travel Safely with Firearms and Ammunition

Comply with the laws concerning possession of firearms as they vary by local, state and international jurisdictions. Always check before traveling.

Declare each firearm each time you present it for transport in checked baggage.

Firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported in checked baggage only. Only the passenger should retain the key or combination to the lock unless TSA personnel request the key to open the firearm container to ensure compliance with TSA regulations. You may use any brand or type of lock to secure your firearm case, including TSA-recognized locks.

As defined by the Code of Federal Regulations ( 49 CFR  1540.5 (2022) , a firearm is considered loaded if it has a live round of ammunition, or any component thereof, in the chamber or cylinder or in a magazine inserted in the firearm. For civil enforcement purposes, the TSA also considers a firearm to be loaded when both the firearm and ammunition are accessible to the passenger. For example, if an individual has a firearm in accessible baggage and ammunition in his/her pocket, or any combination where the individual has access to both, the firearm is considered "loaded" for purposes of assessing a civil penalty.

As defined by the Code of Federal Regulations ( , a firearm is considered loaded if it has a live round of ammunition, or any component thereof, in the chamber or cylinder or in a magazine inserted in the firearm. For civil enforcement purposes, the TSA also considers a firearm to be loaded when both the firearm and ammunition are accessible to the passenger. For example, if an individual has a firearm in accessible baggage and ammunition in his/her pocket, or any combination where the individual has access to both, the firearm is considered "loaded" for purposes of assessing a civil penalty. Bringing an unloaded firearm with accessible ammunition to the security checkpoint carries the same civil penalty/fine as bringing a loaded firearm to the checkpoint. You may find information on civil penalties on TSA's civil enforcement page.

page. Firearm parts, including magazines, clips, bolts, and firing pins, are prohibited in carry-on baggage, but may be transported in checked baggage.

Replica firearms, including firearm replicas that are toys, may be transported in checked baggage only.

Rifle scopes are permitted in carry-on and checked baggage.

Ammunition is prohibited in carry-on baggage but may be transported in checked baggage.

Firearm magazines and ammunition clips, whether loaded or empty, must be securely boxed or included within a hard-sided case containing an unloaded firearm.

Small arms ammunition (up to .75 caliber and shotgun shells of any gauge) must be packaged in a fiber (such as cardboard), wood, plastic, or metal box specifically designed to carry ammunition and declared to your airline.

Ammunition may be transported in the same hard-sided, locked case as a firearm if it has been packed as described above. You cannot use firearm magazines or clips for packing ammunition unless they completely enclose the ammunition. Firearm magazines and ammunition clips, whether loaded or empty, must be boxed or included within a hard-sided, locked case.

Please check with your airline for quantity limits for ammunition prior to traveling.

"Most confiscations and actions by law enforcement are due to people forgetting to remove a firearm from a carry-on bag or for not following the specific requirements of the law," said Kirk Evans, president of U.S. LawShield. "Our mission is to educate the growing number of people who carry firearms on how to travel legally and safely with firearms and ammunition, and thus also prevent the repercussions, including expensive court costs and fines, confiscations of firearms, and other issues. With a few tips, preparation, and awareness, these airport incidents can be reduced."

For more information about U.S. LawShield, or to become a member, visit uslawshield.com.

About U.S. LawShield

Founded in 2009, U.S. LawShield, America's premier Legal Defense for Self Defense organization, offers coverage in 46 states and has served more than 2 million members. A network of 300+ Independent Program Attorneys is readily available, plus access to a 24/7/365 hotline and protection for members throughout the legal process after acts of self-defense.

Educate. Prepare. Protect. U.S. LawShield is committed to informing and updating you on self-defense laws, providing comprehensive instruction and training, and defending you in your greatest time of need. For more information on U.S. LawShield and its Legal Defense for Self Defense program, visit uslawshield.com.

SOURCE U.S. LawShield, LLC
FRANKFURT, Germany, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- At LIT Trading, founder Reim FX and co-founders Saqbar and Stockcy have revolutionised the trading game with their unique intraday trading method. With decades of combined experience and a deep understanding of the market, they have developed a system that allows traders to achieve unparalleled success in the forex market. Through their proprietary Liquidity Inducement concepts, they have helped thousands of traders achieve their trading goals and make life-changing withdrawals.

LIT Trading

Often people are struggling to make sense of the charts and feeling like they're missing a key piece of the puzzle. LIT Trading has exactly what theyre looking for. Their system is rooted in the belief that nothing in the market is ever random, and every push has a reason and effect. By analysing what the majority of traders are doing wrong, they have uncovered the true nature of the market and developed a method for entering and exiting the market with precise timing, multiple times a day. This approach, which they call "intraday mastery," can help achieve a deeper understanding of the market and unlock new levels of trading success.

The shortcomings of traditional trading strategies

Reim FX aims to revolutionise the trading industry with the unique intraday trading style Liquidity Inducement Theorem, that he and his inner trading team created. "The recent influx of bad actors in the market has led to negative associations with trading," he says. "Countless providers make empty promises to aspiring traders because they lack clear insight. Instead of achieving tangible results, they distract with superficial advertising campaigns and cliched phrases, which is detrimental to actual trading skills." LIT Trading directly addresses this issue by providing expert guidance and an innovative approach which is proven by hundreds of successful traders within the LIT community.

Chances are, if they're a trader, they're relying on the same tactics as everyone else. These may include market structure, support and resistance, trendlines, supply and demand, Fibonacci, volume trading, or smart money concepts. However, despite their widespread use, these strategies fail to provide a deep understanding of how the market truly functions. As a result, they may be experiencing losses that are unexplainable to them. This is why LIT Trading created a system that will transform the way their clients approach the markets.

The unique features of LIT Trading

The LIT Awakening Masterguide and the LIT 8 Chapter Adventure are two innovative programs that offer the most effective ways to break free from retail strategies and smart money concepts. With step-by-step guidelines and proven processes, these programs are designed to help them achieve intraday mastery. The Masterguide is the first step in mastering intraday trading. It shows why previous trading efforts may not have been a success and provide all the essential tools to overcome any limitations or barriers that are hindering the progress. Additionally, the Masterguide introduces to the beauty of intraday trading, featuring recurring trading setups.

The 8 Chapter LIT Adventure is the flagship program of LIT as it opens the grand master trading levels to a few chosen traders on an invite only basis. This program is designed to unlock the highest trading levels and provide traders with the necessary tools and guidelines to achieve intraday trading mastery. The Adventure includes the Simplicity Approach, Enigma Principles, Trading Mindset and Psychology Masterguides, as well as multiple entry and target approaches. With these resources, the elite traders who participate in the Adventure will have everything they need to reach the pinnacle of intraday trading success.

What can be expected from LIT Trading?

The LIT Trading team is led by a trio of trading experts, Reim, Saqbar, and Stockcy, who have a combined experience of more than a decade in the field. With their guidance, traders will navigate the volatile market and learn to develop a trading style that they never thought was possible. By following their lead, traders can elevate themselves to the top tier of successful traders and attain the coveted grandmaster style of trading.

The most important part is, that the focus is on a rewarding but also a fun experience. "Learning can also be exciting," Reim FX says. That is why LIT trading brings trading education to a different Level with their teaching approaches. The learning materials are hosted in a self-created Vault and the entire curriculum is structured chronologically, ensuring that the traders know where to begin and end. Throughout the process, theyll be guided with quizzes, tasks, riddles, memes, funny GIFs, insider jokes, and other entertaining features. All of these are designed to keep them engaged and entertained while they make their way to the top 1% of traders worldwide.

The story behind the founding of LIT Trading

Reim FX had been trading forex for almost a decade before he began sharing his trading successes and strategies with his network purely out of goodwill. Instead of "selling anything," he insisted on showcasing his skills and helped other traders for free over several months. As a result, he gained a growing fascination and support from the trading community for his shared insights, eventually accumulating thousands of followers over time.

"As the demand for my free calls and tips grew, I couldn't give out free calls and tips anymore because the demand was too high," explains the trader. This realisation led to the creation of Liquidity Inducement Theorem (LIT Trading), where members now have exclusive access to groundbreaking trading knowledge within a custom-built video hosting platform called the LIT Vault.

LIT Trading has a diverse student base that includes hedge fund managers, 7-figure private traders, and regular traders from all walks of life who are on their journey to success. Taking the first step towards intraday mastery is easy - by joining the LIT Trading community today. Members can get ready to experience a mind-blowing transformation as they see the market through a whole new lens and revolutionise the way they trade forever.

People wanting to take their skills in intraday trading to the next level can sign up now with LIT Trading to start their "LIT Trading Adventure"!

Pressekontakt:

Ruben Schafer

@: [email protected]

Tel.: +49 1525 7045918

LIT Trading

Reim

@: [email protected]

www.lit-trading.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169055/LIT_Trading.jpg

SOURCE LIT Trading
DENVER, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Revelstoke Capital Partners ("Revelstoke"), a Denver-based private equity firm with $5.8 billion of assets under management, announced today that it has completed the successful fundraising for Revelstoke Capital Partners Fund III, L.P. ("RCP Fund III") and various affiliated investment vehicles totaling $1.7 billion. RCP Fund III substantially surpassed its target of $1 billion.

"We are exceptionally proud of the firm we've built over the last decade with the dedication and perseverance from our highly skilled team of investment professionals, in-house value creation specialists, and internal operations executives," commented Simon Bachleda, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Revelstoke. "We have never been more excited about the current market opportunity in the healthcare services sector, and we look forward to investing our new capital into compelling risk-reward investments while supporting our portfolio companies in their next stages of growth."

"We believe that the healthcare services industry will prove to be highly resilient through market dislocations. Even as the global economy navigates a challenging environment, there remains significant demand for high-quality healthcare procedures, products, and services," added Mr. Bachleda. "We will continue to be disciplined in our efforts to identify attractive investment opportunities in one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy."

Revelstoke has raised three flagship private equity funds, three single-asset continuation vehicles under the EPIC series, and numerous co-investment vehicles since its inception in 2013. Since 2018, the firm has raised $3.7 billion of equity commitments to execute on its strategy of working with entrepreneurs and management teams to build market-leading healthcare services companies.

"We are deeply grateful for the continued support from our existing investors and are delighted to welcome many new limited partners to Revelstoke. We are pleased with the continued expansion of our diverse investor base which includes a broad group of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, endowments, and family offices from across the globe," said Russell Cassella, Managing Partner.

Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. served as placement agent, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP provided legal advice to RCP Fund III.

About Revelstoke Capital Partners

Revelstoke is a private equity firm formed by experienced investors who focus on building industry-leading companies in the healthcare and related health and wellness sectors. Revelstoke partners with entrepreneurs and management teams to execute a disciplined organic and acquisition growth strategy as it strives to build exceptional companies. Revelstoke is based in Denver, Colorado and has approximately $5.8 billion of assets under management. Since the Firm's inception in 2013, Revelstoke has completed 184 acquisitions, which include 26 platform companies and 158 add-on acquisitions.

Contact:

Caroline Luz

Lambert

203-570-6462

cluz@lambert.com

SOURCE Revelstoke Capital Partners
Frozen treat brand will raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation by donating $1 for every Frozen Lemonade sold and selling paper lemons for $1/piece in each shop

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard, the beloved brand known for its delicious Italian Ice and Frozen Custard treats, introduces a line of new Frozen Lemonades.

Available at all Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard locations for a limited time only starting August 7, new Frozen Lemonades come in four refreshing flavors  Classic Lemon, Strawberry, Peach and Iced Tea. These Frozen Lemonades are full of tart, sweet flavor, and deliver the perfect summertime refreshment Rita's is known for.

Available at all Ritas Italian Ice & Frozen Custard locations for a limited time only starting August 7, new Frozen Lemonades come in four refreshing flavors  Classic Lemon, Strawberry, Peach and Iced Tea. Ritas loyalty app members get an exclusive free taste by receiving a FREE small Frozen Lemonade with any purchase in their app starting August 7, and new users through September 3. The reward may be redeemed once per account through September 10.

Rita's is offering an exclusive free taste of Frozen Lemonades to their app users. Loyalty members will receive a FREE small Frozen Lemonade with any purchase in their app starting August 7, and new users through September 3. The reward may be redeemed once per account through September 10.

"Frozen Lemonades are the perfect summer treat, and we're excited to offer our guests these refreshing options. Creating new and captivating products for our guests is our passion, and this line of lemonades is one more way we can add to the Rita's experience," said Mark Jenkins, Vice President of Marketing at Rita's Italian Ice. "We've made the promotion even sweeter by providing trial incentives to Rita's app users. Now is a great time to sign up and take advantage of everything our loyalty plan offers."

With the launch of New Frozen Lemonades, Rita's will be supporting its long-time charity partner, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), an organization with a mission to change the lives of children with cancer through funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer.

$1 from every Frozen Lemonade sold will be donated to ALSF, up to $10,000. In addition, guests are encouraged to donate $1 at their local Rita's and add their name to Rita's Wall of Hope. For a limited time at participating locations, guests who give $1 will receive a $1 off coupon to use for their next visit. Rita's is also capturing donations online at https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3268029.

"Rita's is proud to support Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation with $1 from every Frozen Lemonade sold, up to $10,0000, plus additional donations from our guests, franchisees, and Treat Team members in communities across the country," said Madalyn Weintraub, Sr. Director of Marketing at Rita's Italian Ice. "As a proud corporate partner since 2006, it's important for us to leverage new ways to give back, and Frozen Lemonades are a perfect fit!"

Rita's signature Italian Ice is made fresh daily on-site and available in a rotating daily selection from over 75 flavors. Other menu items at Rita's include creamy Frozen Custard, signature Gelati, Concretes, Milkshakes and more.

Originally founded in May 1984, Philadelphia firefighter Bob Tumolo created his prized family recipe to include real fruit, named the product after his wife Rita, and Rita's Italian Ice was born. Since then, Rita's has staked its claim in the frozen treats industry by planting franchises across the country that offer a happy atmosphere, as well as set the standard for fresh and quality-driven Italian Ice.

To find your closest Rita's location, please visit www.ritasice.com.

About Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard:

Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard opened its doors in Bensalem, Pa. in 1984, and has been dedicated to spreading "Ice, Custard, Happiness!" ever since. Now, Rita's is the largest Italian Ice concept in the world with over 550 shops. Guests around the world visit Rita's to celebrate their everyday moments with freshly made cool treats in a fun-filled atmosphere. Known for its famous Italian Ice, made daily featuring real fruit, and award-winning Frozen Custard, Rita's serves a taste of happiness with each delicious treat. For more information about Rita's Italian Ice, please call 1-800-677-7482 or visit www.ritasice.com.

SOURCE Rita's Franchise Company
Emerging companies that manufacture steam washing machines and cleaning products considering the environment

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven Car Wash Korea Co., was selected from the 30 small and medium-sized Korean companies of the year selected by the Korea Small and Medium Business Agency in 2023. Seven Car Wash Korea Co., located in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, has established itself as a leader in steam cleaner companies based on its continuous development, efforts, and investment in products since its establishment in 1996. In addition, with the export growth history of the CEO, who has an export mindset, the <steam washing machine> was first exported to the eastern part of the United States, and is currently exported to more than 50 countries around the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Italy.

Seven Car Wash Korea Co., a company that manufactures environmentally conscious steam washing machines and cleaning supplies, has launched an electric steam cleaner SP-1000 this time. Although it is small in size and weighs only 25 kg, it can perform very satisfactorily cleaning tasks such as floors and tiles in residential and commercial spaces as well as cars, the company said. In addition, since this product generates a high temperature level of 180 within 10 minutes to handle various steam cleaning tasks, it is proud to be able to perform satisfactory work with fast and hot steam pressure heat.

All products of Seven Car Wash Korea Co., passed strict inspection by SGS according to ASME standards and obtained CE marks. On the other hand, it has been reborn as a steam car exporter every year thanks to increased exports since its foundation, and has been steadily receiving attention from consumers for its durability, efficiency, reliability, and low maintenance costs as eco-friendly products.

This item can be purchased here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115468898506

SOURCE Seven Car Wash Korea Co.
NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The silicon carbide market for the semiconductor application is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 22.1% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 3,336.31 million, according to Technavio. APAC is estimated to contribute 40% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. The rapid growth of the electronics sector in developing countries such as India and China, along with the increasing adoption of electric vehicles in these regions is increasing the demand for silicon carbide (SiC) devices. Japan`s goal of achieving 20% to 30% electric vehicle ownership by 2030 has also contributed to this demand. Therefore, the regional market is expected to experience significant growth during the forecast period. For Comprehensive details on the market size of the historical period(2017 to 2021) and forecast period (2023-2027) - View the Sample report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Silicon Carbide Market for Semiconductor Application

Company Landscape

The silicon carbide market for the semiconductor application 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 Driver

The increase in demand for SiC fibers in the aerospace sector is a key factor driving market growth. SiC fibers offer valuable properties such as high heat resistance, chemical stability, lightweight, and durability, making them suitable for a variety of applications in the aerospace industry. In addition, they are used for insulation in heat engines, turbine nanotubes, thermal insulation in ceramic matrix composites (CMC), and as a replacement for metal alloys. Moreover, the use of SiC fibers in aircraft engines contributes to weight reduction, fuel efficiency, and environmental and economic benefits for aircraft manufacturers. The increasing demand for aircraft materials containing SiC fibers is driven by countries upgrading their defense fleets. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Major Trends

Power inverters for electric vehicles are a major trend in the market. SiC-based automotive inverters are essential for efficient energy management in electric vehicles, leading to reduced energy losses and improved vehicle performance. Growing environmental concerns over petroleum-based air pollution and the advancement of alternative energy sources are expected to increase the demand for SiC-based inverters in the automotive industry, supporting the development of electric and hybrid vehicles. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Significant Challenges

The high manufacturing and processing cost of SiC semiconductors is a significant challenge restricting market growth. SiC semiconductors are more expensive to manufacture than traditional silicon-based semiconductors, mainly due to the high cost of SiC materials, processing technology, and limited economies of scale. However, its unique properties make it a good choice for electric vehicles (EVs), where the benefits outweigh the high price. Thus, high manufacturing and processing costs are expected to restrict 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 silicon carbide market for semiconductor application market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading companies including ABB Ltd., Allegro MicroSystems Inc., Asahi Kasei Corp., BAE Systems Plc, Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., II VI Inc., Infineon Technologies AG, Littelfuse Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Navitas Semiconductor Inc., NXP Semiconductors NV, ON Semiconductor Corp., Qorvo Inc., Renesas Electronics Corp., ROHM Co. Ltd., STMicroelectronics NV, Toshiba Corp., TT Electronics Plc, and Wolfspeed 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 product (power electronics, optoelectronic devices, and frequency devices), application (automotive, energy and power, aerospace and defense, data and communication devices, and others), and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa).

The market share growth in the power electronics segment will be significant during the forecast period. The growing popularity of silicon carbide (SiC) in power electronic devices is attributed to its superior performance compared to silicon-based devices. Additionally, SiC's high efficiency, power density, and temperature tolerance make it suitable for use in electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and high-performance industrial equipment. Thus, such factors are expected to drive segment growth during the forecast period.

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Related Reports

The semiconductor market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.09% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 168.3 billion. Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by application (networking and communication, data processing, industrial, consumer electronics, and others), product (ICs, optoelectronics, discrete semiconductors, and sensors), and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). The increasing number of data centers is a key factor driving market growth during the forecast period.

The automotive semiconductor market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.8% between 2022 and 2027. The automotive semiconductor market size is forecast to increase by USD 26,676.35 million. Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by application (telematics and infotainment, powertrain, safety, body electronics, and chassis), vehicle type (passenger vehicle, light commercial vehicle, and heavy commercial vehicle), and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). The rising adoption of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features in vehicles is a key factor driving market growth during the forecast period.

Silicon Carbide Market for Semiconductor Application Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 22.1% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 3,336.31 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 21.56 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 40% Key countries US, China, Japan, Taiwan, and UK Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled ABB Ltd., Allegro MicroSystems Inc., Asahi Kasei Corp., BAE Systems Plc, Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., II VI Inc., Infineon Technologies AG, Littelfuse Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Navitas Semiconductor Inc., NXP Semiconductors NV, ON Semiconductor Corp., Qorvo Inc., Renesas Electronics Corp., ROHM Co. Ltd., STMicroelectronics NV, Toshiba Corp., TT Electronics Plc, and Wolfspeed 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 Product



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Application



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 silicon carbide market for semiconductor application 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on global silicon carbide market for semiconductor application 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.2 Product Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  Product Segment 2017 - 2021 ($ million)

4.3 Application Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 20: Historic Market Size  Application 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 Product

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Product - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Product

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by Product



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by Product

6.3 Power electronics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Power electronics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Power electronics - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Power electronics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Power electronics - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.4 Optoelectronic devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on Optoelectronic devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Optoelectronic devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on Optoelectronic devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Optoelectronic devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.5 Frequency devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 42: Chart on Frequency devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Frequency devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Frequency devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Frequency devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

6.6 Market opportunity by Product

Exhibit 46: Market opportunity by Product ($ million)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Market opportunity by Product ($ million)

7 Market Segmentation by Application

7.1 Market segments

Exhibit 48: Chart on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Application - Market share 2022-2027 (%)

7.2 Comparison by Application

Exhibit 50: Chart on Comparison by Application



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Comparison by Application

7.3 Automotive - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 52: Chart on Automotive - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Automotive - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 54: Chart on Automotive - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Automotive - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.4 Energy and power - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 56: Chart on Energy and power - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Energy and power - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 58: Chart on Energy and power - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Energy and power - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.5 Aerospace and defense - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 60: Chart on Aerospace and defense - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on Aerospace and defense - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 62: Chart on Aerospace and defense - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 63: Data Table on Aerospace and defense - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.6 Data and communication devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 64: Chart on Data and communication devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on Data and communication devices - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 66: Chart on Data and communication devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on Data and communication devices - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 68: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 69: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 70: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

7.8 Market opportunity by Application

Exhibit 72: Market opportunity by Application ($ million)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on Market opportunity by Application ($ million)

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)



Exhibit 80: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



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 North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 83: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 84: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 85: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 86: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.5 Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 87: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 89: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 91: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 92: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 93: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 94: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 95: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 96: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 97: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 98: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.8 US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 99: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 100: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 101: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 102: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.9 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 103: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 104: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 105: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 106: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.10 Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 107: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 108: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 109: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 110: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

9.11 Taiwan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 111: Chart on Taiwan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 112: Data Table on Taiwan - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 113: Chart on Taiwan - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 114: Data Table on Taiwan - 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)



Exhibit 116: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



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)



Exhibit 120: 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 121: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2022 and 2027

10.4 Market trends

11 Company Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Company 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 Company Analysis

12.1 Companies covered

Exhibit 125: Companies covered

12.2 Market positioning of companies

Exhibit 126: Matrix on company position and classification

12.3 Fuji Electric Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 127: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 128: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 129: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 130: Fuji Electric Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

12.4 II VI Inc.

Exhibit 131: II VI Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 132: II VI Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 133: II VI Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 134: II VI Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 135: II VI Inc. - Segment focus

12.5 Infineon Technologies AG

Exhibit 136: Infineon Technologies AG - Overview



Exhibit 137: Infineon Technologies AG - Business segments



Exhibit 138: Infineon Technologies AG - Key news



Exhibit 139: Infineon Technologies AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 140: Infineon Technologies AG - Segment focus

12.6 Littelfuse Inc.

Exhibit 141: Littelfuse Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 142: Littelfuse Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 143: Littelfuse Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 144: Littelfuse Inc. - Segment focus

12.7 Microchip Technology Inc.

Exhibit 145: Microchip Technology Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 146: Microchip Technology Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 147: Microchip Technology Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 148: Microchip Technology Inc. - Segment focus

12.8 Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

Exhibit 149: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 150: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 151: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 152: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 153: Mitsubishi Electric Corp. - Segment focus

12.9 Navitas Semiconductor Inc.

Exhibit 154: Navitas Semiconductor Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 155: Navitas Semiconductor Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 156: Navitas Semiconductor Inc. - Key offerings

12.10 NXP Semiconductors NV

Exhibit 157: NXP Semiconductors NV - Overview



Exhibit 158: NXP Semiconductors NV - Product / Service



Exhibit 159: NXP Semiconductors NV - Key news



Exhibit 160: NXP Semiconductors NV - Key offerings

12.11 ON Semiconductor Corp.

Exhibit 161: ON Semiconductor Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 162: ON Semiconductor Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 163: ON Semiconductor Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 164: ON Semiconductor Corp. - Segment focus

12.12 Qorvo Inc.

Exhibit 165: Qorvo Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 166: Qorvo Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 167: Qorvo Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 168: Qorvo Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 169: Qorvo Inc. - Segment focus

12.13 Renesas Electronics Corp.

Exhibit 170: Renesas Electronics Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 171: Renesas Electronics Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 172: Renesas Electronics Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 173: Renesas Electronics Corp. - Segment focus

12.14 ROHM Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 174: ROHM Co. Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 175: ROHM Co. Ltd. - Business segments



Exhibit 176: ROHM Co. Ltd. - Key news



Exhibit 177: ROHM Co. Ltd. - Key offerings



Exhibit 178: ROHM Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

12.15 STMicroelectronics NV

Exhibit 179: STMicroelectronics NV - Overview



Exhibit 180: STMicroelectronics NV - Business segments



Exhibit 181: STMicroelectronics NV - Key news



Exhibit 182: STMicroelectronics NV - Key offerings



Exhibit 183: STMicroelectronics NV - Segment focus

12.16 Toshiba Corp.

Exhibit 184: Toshiba Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 185: Toshiba Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 186: Toshiba Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 187: Toshiba Corp. - Segment focus

12.17 Wolfspeed Inc.

Exhibit 188: Wolfspeed Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 189: Wolfspeed Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 190: Wolfspeed Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 191: Wolfspeed Inc. - Segment focus

13 Appendix

13.1 Scope of the report

13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 192: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 193: Exclusions checklist

13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 194: Currency conversion rates for US$

13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 195: Research methodology



Exhibit 196: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 197: Information sources

13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 198: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
MADISON, Wis., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Terso Solutions has announced its partnership with PAR Excellence Systems, Inc. (PAR). This partnership demonstrates both companies' commitment to the continued delivery of innovative inventory management solutions within healthcare.

"PAR & Terso are both market leaders in tech-enabled services," said Thad MacKrell, CEO of PAR. "By combining expertise and technical know-how, PAR & Terso bring the highest level of automation to inventory management while enabling clients to meet their inventory system consolidation goals."

PAR Excellence Systems and Terso Solutions have partnered to provide RFID inventory management solutions to the healthcare supply chain.

As labor shortages and regulatory requirements for inventory persist, the need for automated solutions that augment visibility is felt across the healthcare supply chain.

"What we've seen is that hospitals are looking to leverage a common enterprise system across all of their facilities," said Joe Pleshek, President & CEO of Terso Solutions. "A partnership with PAR, who brings innovative software and inventory management sensors  now including Terso's RFID technology  will provide that end-to-end enterprise level solution hospitals have been looking for."

For more information about the partnership and solution offering, visit PAR Excellence at AHRMM Conference & Exhibition, August 6-9 in Orlando, Florida.

About PAR Excellence Systems, Inc.

PAR Excellence provides the healthcare industry with a suite of inventory management technologies and workforce optimization tools. Founded in 1993 and serving more than 350 academic medical centers and leading healthcare networks across the United States, PAR Excellence is committed to providing healthcare organizations with market-leading supply chain solutions that eliminate manual steps, allow full visibility of inventory, improve patient safety, and reduce the cost of operations.

About Terso Solutions

Terso Solutions, Inc. is backed by over 18 years of RFID product development and implementation experience. Our product line includes RAIN RFID enabled cabinets, refrigerators, freezers (-86C to -5C), read points, mobile solutions, and rooms. Terso has deployed over 3,500 RAIN RFID-enabled devices worldwide. Headquartered in Madison, WI, Terso Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Promega Corporation.

Contact: Katherine Blonde

Partner & Provider Marketing Specialist

[email protected]

SOURCE Terso Solutions, Inc.
MIAMI, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Taptok, a Miami-based technology startup and innovator in Enterprise and Business software, unveils the latest addition to their platform: the groundbreaking "Environmental Impact" dashboard. This innovative tool empowers businesses and professionals to quantify their contribution towards a more sustainable planet through the adoption of Taptok's revolutionary digital solutions, including the electronic business cards.

Taptok Solutions Environmental Dashboard

The Environmental Impact dashboard provides quantifiable metrics on Total Paper Saved and CO2 Saved, illuminating the environmental benefits of transitioning away from traditional business practices. Taptok's scientifically backed calculations put the power in users' hands to track their progress towards creating a more sustainable future.

"By replacing traditional paper business cards with Taptok's electronic counterparts, businesses not only modernize their operations but also reduce their environmental footprint. Our new dashboard brings this often-overlooked impact to the forefront, providing transparent, evidence-based metrics for our users," said Taptok CEO, Jaime Manteiga.

With this launch, Taptok reaffirms its commitment to maintaining a 100% carbon-neutral platform, in partnership with tech giant Microsoft. The Miami-based startup is not only transforming the way businesses connect and engage with their audiences but also reshaping the role of technology in quantifying positive environmental impact.

With this launch, Taptok reaffirms its commitment to not only transforming the way businesses connect and engage with their audiences but also pioneering the role of technology in binding innovation and sustainability, an integral part of Taptok's mission. "We believe that innovation and sustainability must go hand in hand," added Jaime Manteiga.

The Environmental Impact dashboard is a unique value proposition for businesses and professionals seeking to demonstrate their environmental responsibility, offering a tangible and quantifiable means of measuring their positive impact. This tool also offers the transparency and trust required by forward-thinking investors committed to supporting sustainable businesses.

The launch of the Environmental Impact dashboard solidifies Taptok as a pioneering technology startup, providing solutions that drive both business performance and environmental sustainability. This exciting development positions the company as an attractive opportunity for investors looking to support innovative solutions that align with their sustainability commitments.

Taptok invites environmental enthusiasts, reporters, investors and the press to explore the new Environmental Impact dashboard, signaling a new era in how technology and businesses can collaboratively tackle environmental challenges.

About Taptok:

Taptok is a Miami-based technology startup focused on Enterprise and Business software. The company is revolutionizing how businesses connect and engage with their audiences by offering a set of physical and digital solutions in a 100% carbon-neutral environment.

Press Contact:

Rocco Aruzzi

Miami, FL

[email protected]

https://tt.social

+1 (888) 337-0949

SOURCE TAPTOK
Even Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, is not sure exactly how many Republicans are running to challenge Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine who is seeking a third term next year.

By some counts, as many as 11 have jumped into the race, but one appears to have dropped out to run for Congress in the 7th Congressional District instead, and two others have little to show beyond a statement of candidacy at the Federal Election Commission.

That leaves at least eight candidates who have organized campaigns and begun to raise money to take on a candidate they acknowledge will not be easy to defeat.

I think hes beatable, but with a superhuman effort, Anderson said of Kaine, who served as mayor of Richmond, lieutenant governor and governor before his first election to the Senate in 2012. It will take a concerted and focused campaign by our side.

Anderson, a former state delegate, remembers when Republican challenger Ed Gillespie came within a cats whisker of toppling Sen. Mark Warner, another Democratic former governor, in 2014. He was also at the partys helm two years ago, when Glenn Youngkin defeated former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the governors race and ended a 12-year GOP drought in elections for statewide office.

But the candidates who are lining up for the Republican primary on June 18, 2024, say they can do it by challenging him on policy  not personality  in an election year that is likely to be strongly shaped by the race at the top of the ticket for the presidency.

I think Sen. Kaine is vulnerable on the issues, said Chuck Smith, a former Virginia Beach GOP party chairman who finished second behind Jason Miyares for the party nomination to run for attorney general two years ago, a race that Miyares won in a statewide sweep led by Youngkin. None of (us) is going to beat him on popularity.

A race where we talk a lot about policy

Scott Parkinson, an executive at Club for Growth who served as chief of staff for then-Rep. Ron DeSantis in Congress and helped him become Florida governor, is also counting on an issues-oriented campaign that he thinks will play to his advantage because of his long experience as a Capitol Hill staffer to three former U.S. senators.

Its going to be a race where we talk a lot about policy, said Parkinson, who runs the Washington organizations advocacy on economic issues. I have the most policy experience of anyone running, except Tim Kaine, right?

Others in the field would disagree, with widely varying backgrounds that they hope will help them connect with Republican voters who are looking for a different kind of political candidate to represent them in the Senate.

Hung Cao, a Vietnamese immigrant and retired U.S. Navy captain, hopes to build on his performance in an unsuccessful challenge of Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, in a Democratic-leaning congressional district in Northern Virginia two years ago. He lost by about 6.5 percentage points, but ran a vigorous race that gained him a base in the heavily populated region.

I dont know a lot about the other candidates, but what I can tell you is that our country has real problems and we need real fighters in Washington, D.C., Cao said in a statement. I fought for our country in the U.S. Navy for 25 years, and Im not done.

The taxpayers have been signing a paycheck for Tim Kaine for 30 years, he said. The Senate seat belongs to the people of Virginia, not career politicians or bureaucrats, and I am the one who can take it back for us.

Eddie Garcia, a U.S. Army veteran of 22 years and the son of a Mexican American ranch hand in South Texas, promised to bring a lot of nontraditional voters to the polls  including military veterans and working-class Hispanic residents whom he said have been left behind by government policies at every level.

I believe we need a government that works for all people, Garcia said. To me, it always goes back to working-class people.

Jonathan Emord, a Fairfax County lawyer, is putting his own money behind a campaign that he promised will focus on protecting individual liberties and a free-market economy from overreach by federal agencies he has fought in a career that began almost 40 years ago in one of those agencies, the Federal Communications Commission, under then-President Ronald Reagan.

I have been suing the government ever since, said Emord, citing successful challenges of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I have a very intimate understanding of the deep state, and I think I know how to defeat it, he said in an interview.

Ron Vitiello has had a direct view of U.S. immigration from the front lines, from working as a border patrol agent in South Texas to serving as chief of border patrol under then-President Donald Trump and as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

When we did border enforcement operations over the long term, we called them campaigns, he said. I think its a matter of experience and the skill sets I have, which is a bit different from other folks in the field.

Vitiello, now a resident of Alexandria, also has the personal perspective of being the grandson of Lithuanian immigrants who fled Eastern Europe after World War II under the sponsorship of a family farmer in the Richmond area and then later moved to factory work in Chicago.

He thinks Kaine is vulnerable on U.S. border policy, the increase in national debt and law enforcement. I do think on the policy side he has not lived up to the promises he made in the campaigns, Vitiello said.

Alexandria lawyer Gwen Hickman says she can bring her legal experience of more than 30 years to solve problems in the polarized political environment that prompted her to run in the first place.

We are better than this, said Hickman, citing strong American values and a political resurgence by Republicans with the election of Youngkin.

She promised a grassroots campaign to connect directly with voters. It is really a face-to-face conversation with people, she said.

Kimberly Lowe, a farmer and policy analyst from the Roanoke area, says she can better connect with Virginia voters because she is a true native.

I just think Virginia deserves to be represented by someone who was born and raised in Virginia, she said. Its just a lot of no-names running.

A single mother of three, Lowe has worked at the grassroots level on a wide range of issues, including child welfare, opioid addiction and treatment, family policy and rural broadband.

I think a lot of my issues are just nonpartisan, she said.

Gauging the fundraising race

Three others filed for the party primary, but Spotsylvania County resident Craig Ennis subsequently declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination in the 7th Congressional District. Gary Barve, of Fredericksburg, and TJ Wallace, of Petersburg, are listed as candidates by the Federal Election Commission, but show no fundraising to support their campaigns.

None of the Republican candidates can match the money behind Kaines reelection campaign, which reported $6.3 million on hand at the end of June. He ended a suspenseful wait by declaring his candidacy in January, expressing pride in his work in the Senate for two terms while looking forward to unfinished business.

My staff told me last week that I have the distinction of already having more opponents than anyone else running for the Senate in 2024, Kaine said Thursday during an interview with journalists at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Im just glad all of my opponents are on the Republican side and Im not yet facing skirmishing on my side.

Kaine said he expects the GOP field to grow even more with the filing deadline months away.

I feel good about where I am, Kaine said. I know Virginia pretty well; I think Virginians know me. They may like me; they may not, but they kinda know me.

He said he feels good about what he sees as Democratic accomplishments in the past couple of years, citing measures on infrastructure, manufacturing and marriage equality, among others.

Chris Saxman, a former Republican delegate who now serves as executive director of Virginia FREE, thinks Smith has the edge in the Republican field because of name recognition from his close race against Miyares, who won the nomination for attorney general by 4 percentage points.

Hes run several times, and people know him, Saxman said. (Smith lost a 2010 campaign for Congress to Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd.)

Smith thinks he has a winning personal story, rising from poverty to the U.S. Marine Corps and then to Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Navy before going into private legal law practice.

Were going to need the law and people who understand the law to hold people accountable, he said.

Smith is lagging some rivals in fundraising. He raised more than $138,000 through June 30, ending the period with about $55,000 in cash on hand.

In contrast, Emord, an attorney in constitutional and administrative law for a national firm, reported about $580,000 in contributions, but that includes almost $232,000 that he gave to his campaign and an additional $250,000 he provided in loans.

We believe were the front-runner in the race, he said.

Parkinson, who is focusing on the economy, parental rights and public safety, has raised more than $362,000 and has spent just $27,000.

Garcia has raised almost $128,000, including $60,000 in loans from himself, and ended June with $32,500 in the bank.

Cao, who recently got into the race, began the year with about $92,500 in the bank and ended June with $57,350.

Vitiello has raised more than $20,000, including a $10,000 loan to himself, and ended June with almost $17,000 in the bank.

Hickman has raised almost $24,000, including $7,300 she lent her campaign, and ended the month with about $10,000 on hand.

Lowe has raised almost $22,000, including $12,000 she lent her campaign, and ended the month with about $2,200.

None of it makes much of an impression on Larry Sabato, president of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Weve barely been keeping up with it because we regard it as barely competitive, Sabato said. Who in this group could credibly challenge Tim Kaine?

The answer may depend on who is at the top of the ticket for the presidency in November 2024, said Saxman, who thinks Kaine could be vulnerable if Youngkin runs for president and wins the nomination.

But, he said, Tim Kaine is not vulnerable if Donald Trump is the nominee.
IRVING, Texas, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Team One Adjusting Services ("Team One"), a provider of claims adjusting and claims management services, and Southwest Adjusters ("SWA"), a multi-line independent insurance adjustment agency, announced their merger to form the joint venture, Team One Insurance Services. With the financial and strategic backing of Longshore Capital Partners, a private equity firm out of Chicago, this new partnership broadens Team One's range of services and depth of geographical coverage across the independent claims adjusting landscape. The combination of these organizations brings complementary expertise and the highest dedication to service quality for insurance carriers.

The partnership of Team One and SWA creates a broader platform that will increase its ability to serve insurance carriers throughout the United States, with increased scale, additional corporate resources and an expanded suite of services that includes daily property, catastrophe, desk adjusting, agricultural, specialty losses, appraisal and TPA services. Powered by Touchpoint Claims Management System, Team One is an industry leader in claims technology. This proprietary platform enables faster response and cycle times for insurance carriers, which leads to improved outcomes for policyholders and a more efficient claims management experience. The Company will be headquartered out of Irving, TX, while maintaining office presences in Dickinson, TX and Hot Springs, AR. The combined company will be led by a group of seasoned industry executives including Jeff Keahey and Paul Poncio from SWA, along with Eric Shaw, Jeff Martin and Katrina Flower-Quirk from Team One. As part of the transaction, Jeff Martin and Eric Shaw will remain as part of the ownership group of the combined organization.

"The combination of these businesses gives us a meaningful platform for growth, both for our carrier clients and the employees at Team One and SWA," said Jeff Martin, Executive Vice President. "Longshore's backing enables us to scale more quickly and efficiently than before and provides us with ample resources to continue to build our team. We are eagerly adding additional highly accomplished professionals as we further our pursuit of building the industry's premier claims management organization."

Eric Shaw, President, added, "Team One has spent years developing the Touchpoint suite of software products. This technology has been developed by claims professionals, for claims professionals and allows us to serve insurance carriers better than the competitors in our peer group. With Touchpoint, SWA's existing clients will benefit from the increased transparency, reduced cycle times and enhanced reporting capabilities that Team One's clients have come to expect. Going forward, the current and future customers of the combined organization will continue to benefit from the technological excellence that Team One offers."

"Our mission has always centered around providing a leading level of service to our insurance carrier partners. By combining with Team One, we are now able to offer enhanced geographical depth and a more holistic suite of claims services under one brand," says former SWA CEO now Team One CEO, Jeff Keahey. "We believe our combined offerings will allow us to serve our current and future clients in a greater capacity, offering them additional services, resources and a better technology platform to more quickly and efficiently close claims for their policyholders."

Katrina Flower-Quirk, Sr. Vice President, added, "As we move forward in this strategic partnership, Team One will be providing additional opportunities to our field adjusters as well as adding a host of talented insurance professionals to our Quality Assurance and Management team. We are all very excited about the opportunities that greater infrastructure, scalability, and growth will offer our organization. Additionally, this strategic move greatly expands the range of enhancements that our client base will experience both in quality of service and overall logistics."

"Team One is truly a unique asset in the independent insurance claims adjusters and claims management space," says Longshore partner Ryan Anthony. "It boasts a compelling competitive advantage through its robust and proprietary technology platform, aligning seamlessly with our vision of helping innovative companies grow and fragmented industries achieve scale. "

Media Contact:

Jeff Martin

[email protected]

214.327.1404

SOURCE Team One Insurance Services
Teamsters, Workers' Families Should Take Priority as Bankruptcy Begins

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite extracting billions of dollars from workers and the government, Yellow Corp. abandoned its entire workforce one more time late Sunday as they embarrassingly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Teamsters denounce any attempt by the company to evade its financial obligations through legal maneuvers.

"Yellow may try to use the courts to eradicate its financial responsibilities, but they can't escape the truth. Teamster families sacrificed billions of dollars in wages, benefits, and retirement security to rescue Yellow. The company blew through a $700 million government bailout. But Yellow's dysfunctional, greedy C-suite failed to take responsibility for squandering all that cash. They still don't," said Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien. "They shamelessly pin their corporate incompetence on working people. This is what's wrong with Big Business. This is a reminder of why workers' ability to organize and collectively bargain is so crucial to protecting and creating good jobs in America."

Yellow has been plagued with financial trouble for nearly two decades as dedicated working families have given up substantial earnings and pension securities to salvage Yellow from its corporate struggles. In 2011, Teamsters agreed to a massive pay cut to keep YRC Freight in business. The concessions from workers continued in the years that followed. In 2020, the government gave the company a $700 million pandemic relief loan in exchange for a 30 percent stake.

"Yellow management and the financiers who pull the strings continue to blame union contracts for their demise. The fact is, Teamster-represented companies like ABF and TForce Freight are not only able to fairly compensate workers, they are also wildly profitable," O'Brien said. "The Teamsters successfully and continuously negotiates strong contracts to preserve the integrity of our members' work and ensure they are justly compensated. More than 15,000 members overwhelmingly ratified powerful new national agreements at both ABF and TForce in just the past two months."

"When mismanaged companies like Yellow cry about needing more flexibility to modernize, they're telling you they want to take advantage of workers. They want to pay workers less, kill their pensions, and stop paying their benefits. They want to force workers to perform labor they weren't hired to do. All things Yellow is outright guilty of," said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. "Yellow benefitted from historically low labor costs compared to other freight leaders, yet they still managed to drive the company into the ground. Workers do not own that death. Yellow management must."

The Teamsters' legal and economic teams are closely following Yellow's moves throughout bankruptcy proceedings.

"Our members' loss of work at Yellow was no fault of their own. They should be the first in line for real relief as bankruptcy moves forward," said John A. Murphy, Teamsters National Freight Director. "While Yellow's closure represents one last shameful act by a greedy employer, the Teamsters will never desert our brothers and sisters. We will do everything we can to prioritize our members at Yellow and their families during this bankruptcy."

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org to learn more and follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Daniel Moskowitz, (770) 262-4971

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Complete the interior with emotional kitchenware.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of SMEs and Startups selected 30 companies to participate in this year's Social Economy Enterprise Growth Support Project on the 18th, and GP Global, a trade company, recently began active marketing activities for the emotional kitchenware brand "Koralia."

GP Global is a brand launched in 2020 and has a solid lineup of cutting boards, cutlery sets, bowls, and pots, starting with the Koralia wooden spoon box, and is currently expanding around e-commerce platforms in more than a dozen countries, including Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and North America.

The newly released "Colalia Cutlery Set" is a bestseller in the brand, and it is the main product that has both durability and design using stainless 430 used in tableware or dental tools due to its sensuous glossy titanium coating and corrosion resistance and glossy properties. This product is designed to be used in a dishwasher to increase the scalability of the product, and it shows an attractive design with ergonomic design and modern and soft curves. In particular, it was highly praised by companies such as restaurants and cafes. With various colors such as black, gold, and silver and low prices, you can choose products that fit the interior of the store without any burden.

Meanwhile, the company said it plans to jointly present the Koralia brand in cooperation with the Korea International Trade Association at the New York Home Living Exhibition (NY NOW) in August 2023.

This item can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8TF6K59

SOURCE GP Global
NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Scene is a pocket concierge service that matches you with restaurants, bars, clubs and cafes per your exact vibes and preferences and has guaranteed reservations available as well. The company's tagline says it all - it is the life hack for your social life.

Founder & CEO - Ridhima Kalani The Scene App

The founder, Ridhima Kalani , grew up across India, Singapore, London, and Dubai, with a passion for lifestyle curation came to NYU for college when she was 17 - that is when her side hustle as a personal concierge started. The number one question she would always get asked as a personal concierge was "What is the vibe going to be like" and she always found herself curating per vibes and rarely ever for cuisine area or time. She noticed that none of the existing products in the market - be it Resy or Opentable, were really solving for this problem - so it would take her minutes to hours to curate these experiences for her personal concierge members.

Kalani's journey with The Scene officially began in January 2020 where she started to build the Instagram and do technical research however in March 2020, her grit, her vision, and her hustle were tested when the pandemic hit the world - she wasn't sure how to make The Scene happen in a world that was shut down. An experience that could've been a major blow turned into a time when she successfully crowdfunded the software development cost for The Scene and launched a $100/month VIP concierge service that supplied all the real-life data points for The Scene's software. Essentially in the crux of a pandemic, she proved that there was demand for a product like The Scene - when there was quite literally a health risk involved with using it.

Fast forward to present day and The Scene is your personal pocket concierge that matches you with recommendations and reservations within 30 seconds, has over 6000 monthly active users and raving reviews. These reviews are along the lines of the app being "super user friendly", "useful", " a total game changer", " a life saver" and most notably " a relief" - these users feel that The Scene takes out all the anxiety of not knowing what a place is going to be like before you get there by taking all your preferences into account and you cannot put a price on that relief - yet The Scene is primarily free to use.

Their mobile app is launching end of August, and with a new and improved recommendations algorithm supported by artificial intelligence and machine learning, we're looking at The Scene 2.0 to bring you lifestyle 2.0.

CONTACT:

[email protected]

SOURCE The Scene
Mobile Fleet Expansion Broadens Services to People Experiencing Homelessness

SAN MARCOS, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCare has rolled out its newest mobile wellness unit. The addition of this 26-foot mobile clinic brings high-quality health care closer to those most in need throughout North San Diego and South Riverside counties.

With their newly expanded fleet, TrueCare can extend its mobile medical and dental services to an additional 3,500 individuals each year. TrueCare's mobile fleet specifically caters to diverse groups, including underserved communities and those who are experiencing homelessness.

TrueCare provides medical and dental services to guests of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church every Saturday. (L-R) Medial Assistant Annie Ortiz, Dr. Jorge Otanez, Medical Assistant Erika Perez, Receptionist Reyna Espanol. TrueCare has added a 26-foot mobile wellness unit to its fleet. TrueCare mobile clinics bring high-quality health care closer to those most in need throughout North San Diego and South Riverside counties. The mobile fleet specifically caters to diverse groups, including underserved communities and those who are experiencing homelessness due to financial constraints or medical expenses.

"Ensuring equitable access to quality health care has been a persistent challenge for families and individuals facing financial hardships, especially those affected by homelessness due to the housing crisis  a crisis that we're all trying to combat," states Michelle D. Gonzalez, President and CEO of TrueCare. "This new mobile unit helps us to address the critical needs of our communities, ensuring everyone can access health care."

TrueCare's new mobile unit will begin immediately filling a long-desired service at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Encinitas, forming a new partnership between the two organizations. The church has been striving to bring medical attention onsite to address the health care needs of its guests, who include working poor and those experiencing homelessness. TrueCare visits the church parking lot every Saturday, alternating medical and dental care.

"As a parish, we are committed to helping our neighbors and we want to do our part to reach people in need," says Reverend Brenda Sol of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. "We have been searching for a way to fill the medical services gap our guests are experiencing, and we are grateful for this opportunity to partner with TrueCare to address their needs."

In addition to a Food Pantry on Thursdays, St. Andrew's offers numerous services to its guests on Saturdays, including breakfast, showers, haircuts, and clean clothing. Reverend Sol adds, "Many of our guests are living out of their cars because of excessive medical expenses! It's a true blessing to be able to address this unmet need for care."

The organization also partners with Brother Benno's, San Diego Rescue Mission, and Jewish Family Services, bringing their fleet of mobile units to serve the needs of each community.

TrueCare's new mobile unit consists of one exam room, featuring a multifunctional chair that serves both medical and dental purposes. Additionally, the unit is equipped to offer an array of health screenings and tests.

TrueCare's Dr. Jorge Otanez, Associate Chief Medical Officer, notes, "As a physician serving patients on our mobile units, I am constantly reminded of the impact we can make in the lives of those challenged by tough times. Our providers can ignite hope by restoring their well-being and mend their dignity. We value the opportunity to serve this population with quality, compassionate care outside of our clinic walls."

TrueCare partners with a wide range of organizations throughout North County and South Riverside to bring their mobile fleet into the community, including nonprofit groups, school districts, agricultural nurseries, childcare centers, after-school programs, universities/ community colleges, and more throughout the region.

For more information call (760) 566-1603 or visit https://truecare.org/wellness-services/mobile-wellness/ .

About TrueCare

As a nonprofit community health center serving North San Diego and South Riverside Counties for over 50 years, TrueCare is dedicated to delivering a superior and compassionate health care experience to nearly 60,000 patients every year, reducing barriers and increasing accessibility to quality care. https://truecare.org/

Contact:

Michele Baker

8584509872

363360@email4pr.com

SOURCE TrueCare
OKLAHOMA CITY, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lessie Benningfield Randle, Viola Fletcher, and Hughes Van Ellis, Sr. ("Survivors"), the last three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court requesting that the Court quickly reverse Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall's unlawful dismissal of their lawsuit.

At a press conference at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, 2100 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, at 12 pm CST today, Survivors' legal team will discuss why they are confident that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will swiftly reverse Judge Wall's decision.

"The facts of this case fit squarely within the common law property-based limitations that have shaped Oklahoma's public nuisance statute for more than a century," explains Damario Solomon-Simmons, lead attorney for Survivors and founder of Justice for Greenwood. "The District Court unlawfully imposed on Survivors a heightened pleading standard that has never been adopted by a court in Oklahoma. Survivors adequately plead a public nuisance claim pursuant to the definition provided by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in their recent decision in Johnson & Johnson on November 11, 2021."

The District Court's ruling in this case unlawfully requires a party alleging a public nuisance claim to plead the exact abatement remedy that the party thinks could cure the problem -- before discovery, before trial, and before any determination of liability. "It's an impossible pleading standard and it has no basis in Oklahoma's notice pleading code or decisional law," said Randall Adams, co-counsel for Survivors and litigation partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

Further, the District Court allowed the defendants to breach an agreement that they made in open court that they would not file new motions to dismiss the Survivors' unjust enrichment claims. Not only did defendants move for a second time to dismiss the Survivors' unjust enrichment claims, but also the District Court erroneously granted the meritless motions.

"It is important to recognize that if the Oklahoma Supreme Court allows Judge Wall's decision to stand, it will become far more difficult for individuals and businesses across the state to vindicate their legal rights," Mr. Solomon-Simmons said. "While this case carries historic significance for the Greenwood community that has been damaged and exploited for more than 102 years, the significance that the District Court's holding would have on all Oklahomans seeking justice through the legal system cannot be overstated."

ABOUT THE TULSA RACE MASSACRE

The Tulsa Race Massacre took place in 1921 when a mob of white individuals, deputized and armed by municipal and county officials, killed, looted, and burned down the Greenwood area. The Massacre resulted in the murder of more than 300 Tulsans and the destruction of the prosperous Greenwood neighborhood, often referred to as "Black Wall Street."

ABOUT GREENWOOD

Greenwood, most revered for "Black Wall Street" was co-founded by Black Creeksit became one of the most prosperous, organized, and successful Black communities in United States history, and a place for Black people to escape the political, economic, and social oppression of southern lawmakers post-civil war.

ABOUT JUSTICE FOR GREENWOOD FOUNDATION

Justice for Greenwood is a grassroots, 501(c)(3) organization with a big vision: to get Respect, Reparations, and Repair for the Greenwood community for the near century of historical omissions and continued harm caused by the 1921 Massacre, through survivor and descendant support, public education, and advocacy.

ABOUT SCHULTE ROTH & ZABEL

With a firm focus on private capital, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP ("Schulte") comprises legal advisers and commercial problem-solvers who combine exceptional experience, industry insight, integrated intelligence and commercial creativity to help clients raise and invest assets and protect and expand their businesses. The firm has a long history as a leader in pro bono legal work and a legacy of contributing to the greater good. Schulte embraces its professional and moral obligations to seek justice through the legal system. The firm directly represents and empowers the most vulnerable and marginalized; brings impact litigation to fuel social change; and supports social entrepreneurs to form the next generation of mission-driven organizations that will advocate for the underserved.

RECOGNIZING OUR ACCOMPLISHED LEGAL TEAM

Damario Solomon-Simmons, Kym Heckenkemper, and Beatriz Mate-Kodjo of Solomon Simmons Law; J. Spencer Bryan and Steven Terrill of BryanTerrill, P.C.; Professor Eric Miller of Loyola Marymount College of Law; Maynard M. Henry, Sr.; Lashandra Peoples-Johnson and Cordal Cephas of Johnson Cephas Law PLLC; and Michael Swartz, Randall Adams, Sara Solfanelli, McKenzie Haynes, Erika Simonson, Ekenedilichukwu (Keni) Ukabiala, Theodore Keyes, Jill Guzzetti, Victoria Harris, and Melanie Collins of Schulte.

Media interested in interviews should contact:

Syreta Oglesby

[email protected]

201-658-3711

Stanton

Mike Goodwin

[email protected]

646-502-3595

Sneha Satish

[email protected]

646-502-3556

SOURCE Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest survey from Upgraded Points reveals American awareness of and preparedness for the REAL ID Act. Passed by Congress in 2005, the Act is set to take effect on May 7, 2025, after multiple delays.

A survey of over 2,000 participants shows that Americans share a widespread misunderstanding of the Act's requirements and timeline. The study also uncovers significant gaps in both knowledge and readiness, indicating a pressing need for heightened nationwide education and action.

Surveying Americans on Their Preparedness for the REAL ID Act

"We're trying to get the word out with this one because there are some looming problems on the horizon, especially if states don't act fast," said Alex Miller, Founder of Upgraded Points. "We found that most Americans have a major misunderstanding of the Act, and most importantly, when exactly they need to have their IDs secured. And that's a potentially big problem."

Study Methodology

The study analyzed responses from 2,150 participants across a variety of questions regarding the participants' knowledge and preparedness for the REAL ID Act  including whether they know exactly what the ID is, whether they have it already, and whether they plan to get it.

Due to multiple extensions causing confusion around the REAL ID start date, the survey questioned participants about their awareness of the true implementation date. And to assess the overall level of readiness across different states, each question was assigned a ranking score ranging from 0 to 5, with 5 indicating the most prepared. The sum of these scores then gave each state a total score out of 100, with a higher score indicating a higher level of preparedness.

Due to insufficient sample sizes, the study omitted Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.

REAL ID 2025  Key Findings

California , Indiana , and Nevada lead in readiness, scoring 69.89, 68.08, and 66.82 out of 100, respectively.

, , and lead in readiness, scoring 69.89, 68.08, and 66.82 out of 100, respectively. The states least prepared for the Act include Alabama , Nebraska , and Georgia , with scores of 27.15, 29.54, and 34.76.

, , and , with scores of 27.15, 29.54, and 34.76. Nationwide, 78% of Americans are aware of the Act, but Baby Boomers and Gen Z are the least likely to have heard about it, with 69.6% and 72% lacking awareness.

Self-proclaimed frequent travelers are 19% more likely to know about the issue.

The average American believes the deadline falls on January 22, 2024  470 days prior to the actual start date.

 470 days prior to the actual start date. Over 25% of respondents incorrectly believe the enforcement date has already passed.

One-third of Americans admit they don't know how to obtain an ID, with 30.6% indicating they have no plans to obtain one at all.

"It's clear there's a significant difference in awareness, especially across different states and demographic groups," said Miller. "Far too many are still in the dark about the impending requirements and timeline. As we move towards the enforcement date, our aim is to shine a light on these gaps and to empower all travelers with the information they need to navigate this transition smoothly and successfully."

For complete findings, including detailed state score breakdowns and helpful graphics, visit the study online .

About Upgraded Points LLC

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Upgraded Points is a travel company that helps to demystify the complex world of travel and credit cards. Launched in 2016 by Alex Miller, Upgraded Points uses targeted research efforts and in-depth studies to help travelers maximize their travel, points, and experiences. Learn more at: www.UpgradedPoints.com .

Media Contact:

Alex Miller, Founder

1-214-646-8866

[email protected]

SOURCE Upgraded Points
"REAL TALK DRIVES REAL CHANGE"

The Four-City Tour Hosted by Pop Culture Expert, Political Expert, and Change Agent Mike Muse Has Partnered with Prominent HBCUs and Kicks Off August 29th at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland

Real Talk Drives Real Change amplifies cultural icons who use their resources, voices, and platforms to combat BIPOC social injustice and empower audiences to make a positive community impact.

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban One and Chevrolet return for a second year with the continuation of their compelling community collaboration rightfully dubbed "Real Talk Drives Real Change", Fully Charged by Chevrolet and presented by NewsOne (an Urban One/iONE Digital owned digital property.) This year, the exuberant four-city tour has collaborated with some of the most prominent Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and kicks off August 29th in Baltimore, Maryland at Morgan State University. Real Talk Drives Real Change brings Urban One and Chevrolet together combining resources and platforms to create positive social and economic impact within Black communities across America. The continued collaboration creates space for conversations to be both held and heard -enabling actionable change resulting in true progress within typically marginalized BIPOC groups.

Pop culture and political commentator Mike Muse will host the multi-market tour which brings conversations on racial disparities to the forefront. Muse will address issues that disproportionately impact people of color and provide listeners with real-life tools to inspire positive change in their world. The tour will rotate high-profile guests, thought leaders, and cultural icons discussing zeitgeist-shaping moments within Black culture, from historical and modern racial tensions to academic and corporate achievements in the business sector. This year, the tour has honed in on the following themes, all of which have grave and complex impact on communities of color: Black Futures, Safe Spaces for Black Men, Black Woman Entrepreneurship and Black Health.

Real Talk Drives Real Change will be free ticketed to the public and will also be streamed on Change.NewsOne.com . Guests will experience educational and vendor booths, via the Community Love row, an exciting musical performance, and the stimulating thematic panel discussions. Real Talk Drives Real Change is programmed by One Solution, Urban One's award-winning branded solution division, and produced by One X Studios, Urban One's internal branded content studio.

**Participating panel talent and performances will be announced closer to tour dates**

Real Talk Drives Real Change Official Tour Dates

Black Futures - Baltimore, MD | Morgan State University - August 29

| - Safe Spaces for Black Men - Petersburg, VA | Virginia State University - September 22

| - Black Woman Entrepreneurship - Dallas, TX | Paul Quinn College - October 25

| - Black Health - Durham, NC | North Carolina Central - November 14

SOURCE Urban One, Inc.
Vault Music, the digital music format for limited-edition music drops, also announces plans to expand its Cassette Culture 3.0 initiative beyond New York City to Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin, Amsterdam, and London by the end of 2023.

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Vault Music , the digital music format for limited-edition music, is proud to announce Cassette Culture 3.0 , a web3 revival of the tradition of "cassette culture" on the company's blockchain-based music format.

Music fans can collect on-chain archives of New York Citys music scene as exclusive, limited-edition live albums. The Cassette Culture 3.0 collection includes performances from the most iconic venues in New York, including Bowery Electric, The Bitter End, Baby's All Right, Mercury Lounge, and many more.

Traditionally, "cassette culture" refers to an international music scene that emerged in the postpunk period of the late 1970s through the 1990s. It involved amateur musicians, often recording at home on cassette tapes, creating non-mainstream or alternative music. These recordings were then duplicated on cassette in limited quantities and distributed freely or sold at low cost within the scene, differentiating this concept from the use of cassettes for illegal copies, mix tapes, bootlegs, or other common uses.

While cassette culture was culturally significant among musicians and music fans alike, most notably via the taping sections at Grateful Dead shows, it lacked the ability to create meaningful income for artistsuntil now.

By bringing cassette on-chain via the company's blockchain-based music format, Vault Music is proud to launch Cassette Culture 3.0 , a hybrid of cassette culture and web3 music.

With its unalterable and fully tradable digital format, Vault Music is the first company to create on-chain archives of live performances that reflect the current music culture in New York City. This fusion of old and new reinvents the way music enthusiasts consume and share music, providing a new way for the underground music scene to thrive.

"What we've built at Vault Music takes the taping movement and makes it above board and on chain," said Nigel Eccles, CEO and co-founder of Vault Music. "I've always loved collecting music and the tradition of taping culture, but we wanted to bring it back to life with modern technology. By doing so, we're not only preserving these performances in a non-degrading format, but we're also giving independent musicians a new way to earn a viable living from their music."

To date, Vault Music has captured 50 live concert performances from New York City's iconic and underground venues, including Bowery Electric, The Bitter End, Baby's All Right, Mercury Lounge, and many more. Each will be released as limited-edition live albums on the company's blockchain-based music platform and mobile app, which is available on iOS and Android .

Vault Music's platform and digital format empower artists to control the price and scarcity of their music. Unreleased music and live performances can be released as digital albums that can be bought and resold by fans.

More importantly, by preserving these performances as live albums on chain, artists can quickly and easily share live performance experiences with a larger fanbase, a major advantage for independent artists who are unable to tour extensively. And unlike vinyl and other physical formats, artists earn royalties every time an album is sold or resold on Vault Music, creating long-tail earning potential.

Built on the Solana blockchain, Vault Music uses its proprietary Vault Protocol , an open and fully decentralized standard for purchasing, playing, and sharing limited-edition music releases, to store and encrypt audio and visual media for each drop.

Each live performance can be purchased and played in high-quality audio along with rich-media extras such as concert videos, voice memos, backstage photos, and more. Each live album drop can be purchased via credit card, PayPal, Phantom wallet, or in-app purchase via Vault Music's mobile app.

To date, Vault Music has recorded live performances from AKTHESAVIOR , Juniper , Middle Part , Anna Shoemaker and more, including live drops from artists such as Kids That Fly , Telescreens , SUM SUN , Charlotte Rose Benjamin , and D'Lourdes . In total, Vault Music has recorded over 50 live concerts in New York City, which will drop weekly.

Vault Music is not stopping with New York City, however. In the months ahead, the company will expand its Cassette Culture 3.0 initiative to Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin, Amsterdam, and London by the end of 2023, with a focus on spotlighting the top independent and underground musicians in each scene.

"Our objective is to create the definitive archive of the best live music experiences around the world," says Eccles. "By making each album strictly limited edition, our inventory will truly serve as the ultimate inventory of collectible time capsules from the most vibrant underground music scenes."

To learn more about Cassette Culture 3.0 and to collect the latest drops, visit drop.vault.fan/nyc

About Vault Music:

Vault Music is a new digital music format which allows artists to create exclusive limited edition music releases. We're co-founded by the creators of FanDuel, and our digital format is designed to create fan excitement and an additional revenue stream for artists. Fans buy a key to unlock a vault of music and media. Vaults are limited  the artist decides the price and scarcity. And unlike vinyl, artists receive a royalty every time a vault is re-sold, creating a perpetual revenue stream. We're working with artists like BLU EYES, Jordan Hart, Naika, Telescreens, FLETCHER, and many more. Visit vault.fan to explore our latest releases.

Press Contact:

Kara Burney

Chief Marketing Officer

[email protected]

SOURCE Vault Music
XNK Therapeutics AB today announced that the abstracts Harnessing the potential of autologous NK cells for immunotherapy of patients with advanced bladder cancer and Feeder-Free Expansion of Autologous Cytotoxic NK Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment will be presented at the 38th Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in San Diego in November.

HUDDINGE, Sweden, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- XNK Therapeutics will participate at the SITC meeting in San Diego in November and present the latest research from the company's leading preclinical projects in bladder cancer and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Two abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the meeting:

Harnessing the potential of autologous NK cells for immunotherapy of patients with advanced bladder cancer

Feeder-Free Expansion of Autologous Cytotoxic NK Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment

The data have been generated in collaboration with XNK's external partners, Anders Ullen and Fernanda Costa Svedman at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, for the bladder cancer abstract, and Abhishek Maiti and Naval Daver at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, USA, for the AML abstract.

The yearly SITC meeting is a multidisciplinary educational and interactive environment focused on improving outcomes for cancer patients by incorporating strategies based on basic and applied cancer immunotherapy. It consists of cutting-edge research presentations by experts in the field.

"We look forward to presenting at this prestigious conference, which both sheds more light on our exciting pipeline and gives us the opportunity to discuss our data with other experts in the field," said Anna-Karin Maltais, CSO of XNK Therapeutics.

For more information, please contact:

Johan Liwing, CEO, XNK Therapeutics

Tel: +46 706 70 36 75

E-mail: [email protected]

About XNK Therapeutics AB

XNK Therapeutics is a clinical stage immunotherapy company focused on bringing new and more effective treatments to cancer patients. The company is at the forefront of autologous NK cell-based cell therapy development with a proprietary technology platform and a pipeline spanning both hematological malignancies and solid tumor indications. The most advanced product, evencaleucel, is in phase II studies in combination with the CD38 antibody isatuximab targeting multiple myeloma. Other programs include XNK02 in AML, currently in advanced preclinical studies in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center and XNK03 in bladder cancer, currently in preclinical studies in collaboration with the Karolinska University Hospital. XNK's efforts are supported by a dedicated team that include world-renowned NK cell experts and by an approved in-house GMP facility. XNK Therapeutics is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. For more info, please visit www.xnktherapeutics.com

About Bladder Cancer

According to the World Health Organization over 570,000 new cases of bladder cancer was diagnosed in 2020 globally. It is the 4th most common form of cancer in men and the American Cancer Society estimates that bladder cancer will cause over 17,000 deaths in 2022 in US alone. It affects mainly older people with 90% of patients being diagnosed at an age above 55 years. In locally advanced urothelial cancer, which constitutes about 30% of bladder cancers, the 5-year survival rate is below 40% and current treatments may include removal of the entire bladder, radiation, chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors. For metastatic disease the 5-year survival rate is limited to approximately 6% and current standard systemic treatments include chemotherapy, immunotherapy and antibody-drug conjugates.

About Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

AML is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults. Globally, close to 200,000 new patients are diagnosed and about 150,000 will die from AML each year. In AML, the bone marrow produces a large number of abnormal immature blood cells, so called blasts, that can overcrowd the bone marrow and interfere with the production of healthy mature blood cells. This results in for example infections and anemia. The blasts can also spread to other parts of the body, including the central nervous system.

Current treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell transplantation and targeted therapy such as kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies. The overall outcome for patients remains poor, relapse is common and 5-year survival rates are around 30%.

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/16693/3814167/2216803.pdf XNK Therapeutics to present two abstracts at the Society for Immunotherapy of Canceras meeting in San Diego in November https://news.cision.com/xnk-therapeutics-ab/i/anna-karin-maltais,c3203694 Anna-Karin Maltais

SOURCE XNK Therapeutics AB
After a nearly yearlong investigation into Albany Helping Hands, results are in, with state officials concluding the homeless shelter's board of directors' "governance and accounting practices have fallen below legal standards."

Now, the department's Civil Enforcement Division has shared its findings with the nonprofit. Mid-Valley Media obtained the letter, dated July 20.

Members of Albany Helping Hands say they will follow through with the guidance the department outlined.

Last year, an exodus saw key staff members  including Executive Director Emma Deane, Program Manager Allison Bumgarner and Leigh Matthews Bock, who handled marketing, human resources support and served as the grant manager  left the organization.

About the same time, complaints filed to the state Department of Justice detailed concerns over mishandling donations and allegations that money was being funneled to an unregistered nonprofit, Hands of Mercy.

The complaints also alleged unfair hiring practices, violating equal opportunity laws and breaching bylaws, including not holding elections and proper documentation of meeting minutes.

The nearly yearlong investigation involved reviewing bylaw, IRS forms, reviewing meeting minutes, financial materials and interviewing complainants.

What investigators found was potential noncompliance with tax laws, insufficient record-keeping and breached bylaws, among other concerns. Some allegations were not reviewed, because the DOJ said it was not the authority on those matters.

Money handling

The DOJ investigation uncovered areas of concern with respect to financial responsibilities, alleging problems in bookkeeping, potentially running afoul of tax laws and engaging in transactions with possible conflicts of interest.

For example, Albany Helping Hands receives grants and donations for expressed purposes. However, for the most part, the shelter pooled grants and donations together despite those restrictions.

Not accounting for restricted funds interferes with directors ability to fulfill their fiduciary duties and can potentially result in legal actions by the department, donors or grantors, or the IRS, the letter says.

The report also details concern over taxes that were not withheld or reported to the IRS.

Around $342,000 was paid out in the form of stipends, allowances or bonuses that were neither taxed nor reported to the IRS, according to the DOJ. Most of those receiving the stipends between 2015 and 2022 were residents or clients, unhoused individuals who had titles such as "thrift store manager" or "kitchen manager."

But such payments should be considered compensation and taxed appropriately if a stipend exceeds $500 a year or more than 20% of what an employee would be paid, the letter says.

Helping Hands made approximately $229,000 in payments to volunteers without withholding taxes and without reporting the payments via 1099 forms, according to the document.

The report details another $95,000 paid to staffers for monthly allowances for gas, phones and other expenses in which taxes were not withheld. Another $18,000 in bonuses were also not properly taxed or reported, according to the document.

The DOJ strongly encouraged consulting a tax accountant: Board members may be held personally liable for unpaid payroll taxes.

The report also detailed concerns over payments made to the former director of Sweet Homes H.O.P.E. Several Albany Helping Hands directors also serve in leadership positions in that organization.

The report details monthly payments, compensation and a loan which was later forgiven without explanation. The loan was contingent upon the election of five Helping Hands board members to the Sweet Home organization.

The DOJ found this problematic because H.O.P.E. bylaws state board members shall serve without pay and shall not receive direct or indirect benefit.

While serving on multiple boards is not uncommon, it can give rise to conflict-of-interests that may make it difficult for board members to fulfill their fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of the organization, the report reads.

Breaching bylaws

The letter also details an alleged breach in bylaws. The organization requires periodic elections of both directors and officers. The Department of Justice found that there were no records of the organization having elections before 2022.

When the DOJ asked why no elections had taken place, board members responded that they had not felt there was any reason to change the current officers, according to the report.

They (bylaws) are statutorily required and failing to follow the bylaws may put the board members, and the organization, at legal risk, the document, dated July 20, reads.

Lack of recordkeeping

The organization also failed to maintain meeting minutes for approximately 23 board meetings between 2015 and 2022.

When asked about the missing minutes, board members stated two computers had crashed, and the information could not be received, according to the document.

The meeting minutes were also insufficient and lacked important information, the DOJ said. For example, some meeting minutes did not record attendance, and often omitted the names of absent board members. This makes it difficult to judge if a quorum was present, the DOJ noted.

And any transactions that occur in the absence of a quorum are null and void, the report read.

Other information regarding voting was also lacking. Abstentions were not recorded, which are pertinent for votes involving conflict-of-interest transactions.

The minutes also detailed that one board member had been absent at least 85 times.

What now?

In its report the Department of Justice did not list any fees or penalties. The report did, however, outline some suggestions to the board to ensure compliance with the Oregon Nonprofit Corporation Act and the organizations bylaws.

They include:

Conducting elections.

Adequate maintaining meeting minutes.

Attend board meetings.

Implement appropriate accounting and recordkeeping systems for restricted grants and donations.

Abide by IRS regulations regarding compensations and withholdings.

Awareness of the effect of paying volunteers under labor and tax laws.

The DOJ received complaints over unfair hiring practices. However, the issue was not addressed in the review because the agency does not oversee adherence to equal opportunity employment laws. Other agencies such as the IRS were also listed as being authorities on matters regarding taxes and other areas of law.

Now that the investigation has concluded, Executive Director Don Sparks said he feels a sense of relief, as if the worst is behind them.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help (copy) Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald.

Sparks believes that no criminal acts were found in the report. Since the onslaught of complaints, it has been a challenging time for the organization, Sparks said.

People stepped back from us, he said.

The organization even lost out on grant funding from the city, he added.

Since the beginning of investigation, there has been a general distrust for the organization, including among those who would have donated to the cause as well as city leaders. Because of a rash of 911 calls, in January Albany police identified the area as endangering safety, citing difficulties in getting the organization to partner with the Police Department.

Going forward, the organization plans to follow the recommendations outlined by the DOJ, Sparks said. The board has already started to improve their meeting minute-taking, he added.

As for the other concerns, including those with tax implications, that is still being discussed, he said.

We are doing our best to try to meet a need that is greater than ever, he said.

Related stories:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Zipper Magazine, the premier outlet for kink and fetish journalism, will host the first-ever Zipper Film Festival at Fetish Con. The film festival, presented by Clips4Sale, will showcase some of the best cinematic work from the kink and fetish communities, including Todd Max Carey's new documentary film, "tOuch Kink."

"We have a rich and diverse community, but we're often left out of mainstream movies and other media." Tweet this The Zipper Film Festival, presented by C4S, takes place August 11, 2023 at Fetish Con

"We have a rich and diverse community, but we're often left out of mainstream movies and other media," says Sunny Megatron, Editor-in-Chief of Zipper Magazine and Clinical Sexologist. "The Zipper Film Festival is a chance for us to share our work and our lives in an authentic, supportive space, with an audience of our peers. We're so excited to be able to show some of this incredible work on the big screen."

Submissions for this year's festival include a wide representation of the kink and fetish communities, exploring themes of domination, submission and restraint through documentary, science fiction and fantasy. Submissions were judged by a panel of creators and lifestylers, including Zipper Editor-in-Chief Sunny Megatron, documentarian Todd "Max" Carey, and creator Ludella Hahn, Gary Giantess Zone and Jason Ninja.

The inaugural Zipper Film Festival will take place on August 11, 2023 at Fetish Con in St. Petersburg, Florida. Subsequent screenings are planned for the New York area and other cities later in the year.

ABOUT ZIPPER MAGAZINE

Zipper Magazine is the premier destination for news, resources and education about kink and fetish community and sexuality. Created by sex educator Sunny Megatron & C4S, Zipper features insights from top BDSM educators, D/s relationship tips, creative play inspiration, fetish and community trends for everyone from the bashfully curious to seasoned lifestyler.

ABOUT tOuch Kink

Todd Max Carey's new documentary film, "tOuch Kink." is a groundbreaking new film about the reality of Kink, exploring this subject from a Fetish Creator's perspective.

SOURCE Clips4Sale
Greater Albany Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Lisa Harlan has notified the district of her intent to sue GAPS.

Harlan's attorney, Lake Oswego-based Judy Snyder, alleges the district retaliated against the administrator for claims she made about gender discrimination and a hostile work environment at GAPS, as well as an ethics complaint she filed against school board member Pete Morse.

The tort notice alleges Harlan's contract was breached when Superintendent Andy Gardner decided against renewing her contract without voicing concerns about her performance beforehand.

Gardner said he could not comment on an ongoing personnel issue in response to an interview request from Mid-Valley Media.

Harlan also alleges she's been denied due process after requesting a public hearing to appeal the March decision  a hearing that's yet to be scheduled.

Additionally, Harlan, who was placed on administrative leave in April over a workplace complaint, alleges the issues raised in the complaint were "fabricated and without merit."

Harlan declined to comment on the tort notice.

Hostile environment

According to the tort notice, sent to the district on July 6, Harlan reported a hostile work environment and gender bias at GAPS in December 2022.

That complaint alleged she was being talked over and interrupted and that her ideas and recommendations were being dismissed by Gardner, while similar advice offered by male coworkers were "accepted and praised," according to the tort notice.

Harlan also alleged female workers and administrators didn't feel safe at GAPS because of gender bias in the workplace, and, according to the notice, the misconduct continued throughout her active employment at the district.

Harlan alleges she was also denied a copy of a report on an outside investigation of her complaint, which was submitted to GAPS leadership on March 7.

The tort notice alleges that after the investigation, "Gardner stated that he could now nonrenew Ms. Harlan's contract with the district."

Contract nonrenewal

The school board approved the superintendent's recommendation not to renew Harlan's contract on March 13, along with that of Javier Cervantes  the district's then equity director. Their contracts were set to expire at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

Both Harlan and Cervantes were known for their commitment to educational equity, and the board's decision to sever ties with the two administrators drew public ire.

Cervantes resigned, but Harlan did not.

Less than a month later, the district put Harlan on administrative leave, pending a workplace investigation, just after she returned from spring break on April 3.

This was in response to a written complaint against her  sent on or after March 24, according to the tort notice  saying she created a hostile work environment.

Harlan claims she didn't receive a copy of the complaint but alleges in the tort notice that issues raised in the letter were "fabricated and without merit," and don't support the district's move to place her on administrative leave.

Harlan told Mid-Valley Media at the time she didn't know the specific reason for the complaint or who made it.

But she said the timing was noteworthy, considering the board's decision not to renew her contract and the workplace investigation followed complaints she lodged against board member Morse to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission in February.

Morse did not respond to Mid-Valley Media's email requests for an interview.

According to the commission, Harlan has two complaints pending against Morse: one for Morse voting to approve his wife's contract and one for an alleged improper use of a Feb. 27 school board closed-door session.

Harlan filed a separate complaint against school board member Roger Nyquist related to that executive session, but the commission dismissed it after finding Nyquist wasn't at the meeting, according to OGEC documents.

Public hearing?

Before being placed on leave, Harlan requested a public hearing to appeal the school board's decision not to renew her contract.

Harlan's attorney alleges the district breached the administrator's contract when they recommended her nonrenewal without giving her written notice about concerns over her performance or putting her on an "improvement plan."

Additionally, district policy allows Harlan to appeal the board's decision and gives her the opportunity for a public hearing, according to the notice.

It's been over four months since Harlan requested to make her appeal.

At the most recent GAPS school board meeting on July 24, the board voted to appoint a hearing officer, to be selected by board Chair Brad Wilson, for Harlan's hearing. The board did not schedule a hearing date.

Harassment complaints

The tort notice also claims that during March and April, Morse  then chair of the school board  sent Harlan's husband Michael Harlan, harassing emails and made a phone call to his supervisor at the Salem Fire Department.

An investigator tasked by the board with investigating that phone call, after Michael Harlan filed a formal complaint, found a call was made but no evidence Morse was the caller.

However, the investigator did find that former GAPS school board member Eric Aguinaga knew the person who had  though Aguinaga refused to disclose the caller's identity, only saying it was an acquaintance of his who works at the fire department, not Morse.

Upon the recommendation of the investigator, the board voted to dismiss the complaint.

The board had also dismissed an earlier complaint related to an email Morse sent to Michael Harlan on May 16, the night of the district's school board elections.

"Sometimes events of the day just make you smile. I am having one of those days. Have a goodnight." Morse wrote to Michael Harlan at 9:56 pm. That night, the last remaining Democrat who was the only one to vote against not renewing Harlan's contract  had lost his seat in the nonpartisan board that now leans heavily conservative.

Five years at GAPS

Harlan, who's held various teaching and administrative positions at the Corvallis School District, has worked as an assistant superintendent at GAPS since 2018. Before that, she was director of elementary education at Salem-Keizer Public Schools for three years.

She was awarded an Achievement of Excellence award by the Coalition of Oregon Administrators in 2022.

According to the tort notice, Harlan is seeking economic damages for lost wages and benefits and noneconomic damages for emotional distress and embarrassment.

Related stories:
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Calling him Mr. Trump rather than President Trump  thereby emphasizing that he was being treated as any criminal defendant would be treated  she said:I want to remind you that 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.The judge then warned Trump, You have heard your conditions of release. It is important you comply. You may be held pending trial in this case if you violate the conditions of release.She asked Trump, Do you understand these warnings and consequences, sir? Are you prepared to comply?Trump responded, Yes.But not 24 hours later, Trump posted on social media a message that could be understood as an attempt to influence potential jurors or retaliate against any witness prepared to testify against him: IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU!On Friday evening, prosecutors from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the court for a protective order to stop Trump from making public any of the information they were about to deliver to his lawyers under the discovery phase of the upcoming criminal trial, such as the names of witnesses who will testify against him.They noted that such protection was particularly important because Trump has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and others associated with legal matters pending against him.Citing his social media message from earlier in the day, they argued that publishing such information could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses. The prosecutors included a screenshot of Trumps threatening post from that same evening.On Saturday, the presiding judge in the case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, ordered that Trumps lawyers respond to the prosecutors request for a protective order by 5 pm today.All through the weekend, Trump continued to threaten potential witnesses. WOW, its finally happened! Liddle Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side, he posted Saturday.And Trump hasnt stopped attempting to obstruct justice. On Sunday he called Special Counsel Jack Smith deranged, and in another all-caps message he accused Smith of waiting to bring the case until right in the middle of his election campaign. In another post he asserted that he would never get a fair trial with Judge Chutkan and jurors from Washington, D.C.Folks, these statements directly violate the conditions of Trumps release pending trial. They also could inflame Trump supporters  thereby endangering those who are trying to administer justice, such as Jack Smith and Judge Chutkan, as well as potential witnesses like Mike Pence.***Its going to get worse unless Judge Chutkan (on her own initiative or at the urging of prosecutors) orders Trumps lawyers to show cause why his release pending trial should not be revoked in light of his violation of the conditions of his release.This would at least put Trump on notice that he will be treated like any other criminal defendant who violates conditions of release pending trial.Thats what the rule of law is all about. At this moment, 400,000 criminal defendants in the United States are awaiting trial in jail because they didnt meet a condition of their release.Trump is now under the supervision of the court, as would be any criminal defendant after an arraignment. But he will continue to test the willingness and ability of the court to treat him like any other criminal defendant unless hes firmly reined in.The court must fully assert the rule of law during these proceedings, even if that requires threatening Trump with jail pending his trial.Or actually putting him in jail.What do you think?
Tehran, Aug 7 : At least three people were killed and 11 others injured as a number of semi-finished buildings collapsed in Iran's capital Tehran, local media reported.

The incident occurred on Sunday morning when the Tehran Municipality staff, backed by the provincial police forces, were supervising the demolishing of an "unsafe" building in District 19, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

The knocking down of the building caused the collapses of adjacent five buildings, which also have not met safety requirements, leaving four police officers and two municipality staffers buried under the debris, the ISNA said, citing a statement by the Tehran Police Information Center.

The rescue teams are working to pull people from the rubble, the statement said, adding four have so far been rescued.

In separate remarks, Jalal Maleki, the spokesman of the Tehran Fire Department, said the incident was reported at 12:24 p.m. local time, and rescue teams, backed by cranes and debris removal equipment, were immediately sent to the scene.

He noted that one of the buildings collapsed completely and the others partially collapsed, adding the buildings were under construction with nobody living inside.

Maleki said three people died after being pulled out of the rubble, adding it remains unclear how many people were buried beneath the debris.

In remarks to ISNA, Babak Namakshenas, head of the Tehran Police Information Center, confirmed two of the victims as police officers.

Mohammad Esmaeil Tavakoli, head of Tehran's medical emergency organization, said 11 others were injured in the incident, of which eight were transferred to the hospital, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.
Jeddah, Aug 7 : The talks on the Ukraine crisis have concluded in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, where participants have called for continuing international efforts to build a common ground for peace.

The meeting, which excluded Russia, was chaired by Saudi Minister of State and National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban. It was attended by representatives from more than 40 countries and international organisations, including the US, India, the EU, China and the United Nations.

The participants emphasised the importance of benefiting from views and positive suggestions presented during the two-day (August 5-6) meeting, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Saudi Press Agency.

Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that he hoped the initiative would lead to a "peace summit" of world leaders this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a settlement, The Guardian reported.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Jammu, Aug 7 : An infiltration bid has been foiled by the Army at the LoC in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Monday.

The Army said that contact with infiltrating terrorists was established by an ambush in Poonch early Monday morning.

"Two individuals were observed moving across LoC in the general area of Degwar Terva, Poonch. In the firefight, one terrorist was seen dropping, while the second was seen moving towards Pintu Nala," the Army said.

The search operation is in progress in the area.
Jammu, Aug 7 : Two terrorists were killed as the army foiled an infiltration bid on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, a defence official said on Monday.

In a statement, Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Colonel Suneel Bartwal said: "Infiltration bid was foiled in Poonch district. In a joint operation by Indian Army and the local police in the early hours of August 6-7 two infiltrating terrorists were engaged by the joint teams of army and police.

"One terrorist fell down immediately, second terrorist tried to run back to the LoC. He was engaged and hit and was seen falling down near the LoC. Operation is still in progress".
San Francisco, Aug 7 : When Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said that he was "ready today" to fight Elon Musk and was waiting for the confirmation of the cage match date, X-owner reacted and said "exact date is still in flux." On Threads, Zuckerberg posted a screenshot of Musk's post about lifting weights to prepare for the fight, and said, "I'm ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn't confirmed. Not holding my breath."

"I love this sport and will continue competing with people who train no matter what happens here."

Posting another Musk's statement that the fight will be live-streamed on X with all proceeds going to charity for veterans, Zuckerberg asked, "Shouldn't we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?"

When a Threads user asked if the fight being streamed on X had been mutually agreed upon, Zuckerberberg replied, "More like 'funding secured'."

Commenting on Zuckerberg's statements, Musk said that the exact date of the cage fight "is still in flux".

When an X user posted, "NEWS: Zuck states he is ready to fight this month but has not heard back from @elonmusk."

Musk replied: "Exact date is still in flux. I'm getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow." "May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week."

Responding to another post, he said, "If the fight is short, I probably win. If long, he may win on endurance." "I am much bigger and there is a reason MMA has weight divisions."

Musk also said, "I weigh at least 300 lbs."

"Aiming to get to 50 pound free weights this week. I build muscle fast. Physical endurance is my weak spot, so I'm aiming to make this quick," he wrote on Monday.

The talk of the cage fight initially started when Musk in June replied to a post about the news that Meta was releasing a Twitter competitor.

"I'm sure Earth can't wait to be exclusively under Zuck's thumb with no other options. At least it will be 'sane'. Was worried there for a moment."

To this, a user replied, "Better be careful @elonmusk I heard he does the jiu-jitsu now".

"I'm up for a cage match if he is lol," Musk replied.

Then, Zuckerberg posted a screenshot of the Tesla CEO's statement with the caption, "send me location".

Later, both were seen training Jiu-Jitsu.
Niamey, Aug 7 : Niger's military junta has indefinitely shut the country's airspace until further notice after a regional bloc warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated, the media reported on Monday.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, there were currently no aircraft in Niger's skies, the BBC reported.

Following a crisis meeting on August 4, military chiefs of the Ecowas regional trading bloc which comprises 15 West African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Ghana, announced that they had drawn up a detailed plan for the possible use of force if Bazoum was not reinstated by 11 p.m. on August 6.

"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," the BBC quoted Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, as saying in a statement.

"We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (Niger's junta) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done".

But as of early Monday morning, Niger's coup leaders have showed no no sign of willingness to cede power.

On Sunday thousands of their supporters rallied defiantly at a stadium in the country's capital Niamey.

Bazoum was detained on July 26, and Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, later proclaimed himself the new leader.

In response to the bloc's warning, a junta spokesman said that Niger's armed forces were ready to defend the country.

The military takeover has been internationally condemned, including by former colonial power France, as well as the European Union, UN and the US.

Meanwhile, two of Niger's neighbours -- Burkina Faso and Mali -- had earlier warned they would treat any outside military intervention in Niger as "a declaration of war" against them, reports the BBC.

Burkina Faso and Mali are both Ecowas members but have been suspended from the bloc since being ruled by military juntas.
Seoul, Aug 7 : An online post threatening to bomb the airport in South Korea's resort island of Jeju has triggered police searches at the premises and a hunt to track down the suspect, officials said Monday.

The post was uploaded on an internet community at 9.07 p.m. Sunday, threatening to "launch a terrorist bombing attack on Jeju International Airport at 2 p.m. on Monday", Yonhap News Agency quoted police officials as saying.

The writer said a bomb had already been planted at the airport and threatened to stab people coming out of the building.

After spotting the post, the police conducted a search of Jeju International Airport for two hours, but no explosives were found.

The officials said the police plan to deploy police personnel and step up access controls at the airport on Monday to prepare for any emergency situation.

The police on Monday also searched Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern port city of Busan and Daegu International Airport in the southeastern city of Daegu after online bomb threats were made for both airports.

An online post, uploaded at 12.18 a.m. on Monday, threatened to detonate a bomb and kill everyone with a jackknife at Gimhae International Airport.

Another post on an internet community, uploaded at 11.16 p.m. on Sunday, warned of "a terrorist bombing attack at Daegu International Airport on August 9," threatening to "stab everyone to death".

Shortly thereafter, the police searched the two airports but found no signs of terrorism, the officials said, adding they will step up security at the airports.

The incidents mark the latest in a series of copycat crime threats that followed two fatal stabbing rampages in and around Seoul.

On August 3, a 22-year-old suspect, surnamed Choi, rammed a vehicle into pedestrians outside of a department store in Bundang, south of Seoul, and then attacked shoppers with a knife inside the store, leaving 14 people wounded, 12 of them seriously.

One of the victims, a woman in her 60s, was pronounced dead after three days of treatment.

On July 21, a 33-year-old man named Cho Seon fatally stabbed a stranger in his 20s near Sillim Station in Seoul and then attacked three other men in a nearby alleyway.

Police said on Sunday they have tracked down 54 people in connection with online murder threats across the country amid concerns of copycat crimes.
Phnom Penh, Aug 7 : Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday appointed Hun Manet as the new Prime Minister after the latter's father and incumbent premier Hun Sen announced to step down after serving in the post for more than 38 years.

The monarch signed a royal decree to designate Hun Manet, 45, as the new premier for a five-year-term government following a request from Hun Sen, the longest serving Prime Minister in the world, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The designated prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia has duties to prepare the members of the government in order to ask for the adoption of confidence from the National Assembly," Sihamoni said in the royal decree.

"This royal decree takes effect from the day of signature," he added.

Hun Manet, along with his new cabinet members, will need to win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly slated for August 22 in order to officially become the new prime minister, and he is expected to be sworn in on the same day.

The appointment came after the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the July 23 general election, gaining 120 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

Hun Manet is currently a member of the CPP's Standing Committee and a deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Hun Sen announced on July 26 that he would step down as the Prime Minister for the first time since assuming the post in 1985, handing the reins of power to his eldest son Hun Manet.

However, the 71-year-old leader said he will remain the CPP's president and will take the position of President of the Senate in a Senate Election on February 25, 2024.
Los Angeles, Aug 7 : A firefighting helicopter crashed in California's Riverside County while battling a brush fire in the region, the media reported on Monday.

According to the Los Angeles-based KABC-TV station, the accident occurred late Sunday night while crews were battling the Broadway Fire near Cabazon.

Authorities warned that there could be multiple fatalities as there was no immediate information as to how many people were onboard the ill-fated helicopter.

The crash was reported in the area of Pipeline Road and Apache Trail, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office.

The Broadway Fire was reported in the area of Broadway and Esperanza avenues. It has spread to at least three acres so far, reports KABC-TV.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.
RIYADH, Sept. 5, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Saudi army officers are seen at a military facility in Al Kharj, south of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sept. 5, 2019. Saudi-led coalition involved in a war in Yemen on Thursday intercepted a drone launched by Houthis tow. Image Source: IANS News

Sanaa, Aug 7 : Yemen's government army said that it has launched a major military operation targeting hideouts ofAl Qaeda terrorists in the country's southern province of Abyan.

The operation's primary focus is on the province's Mudiyah district, where numerous Al Qaeda terrorists have sought refuge in distant valleys and mountainous terrain, Xinhua news agency quoted the government army as saying in an official statement.

The large-scale anti-terror operation has already led to the capture of a mid-level Al Qaeda commander named Abu al-Qaqa, it added.

"The government troops have successfully taken up positions at the entrance to the Wadi Omran area and in villages that have seen terrorist attacks on security forces blamed on the Al Qaeda," a military official told Xinhuaty.

The military campaign comes as Yemen continues to grapple with violence and instability stemming from a years-long civil war between Houthi rebels and the internationally recognised government.

On August 5, two soldiers of Yemen's government forces were killed and six others injured when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle near the entrance of the Mudiyah district.

Abyan and other neighboring southern provinces have seen an increase in violence between Yemeni government forces and Al Qaeda militants in recent months.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the pleas filed by arrested Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthil Balaji and his wife against the Madras High Court's decision upholding the ED's right to take the DMK leader into custody in connection with an alleged cash for jobs scandal.

A bench comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and M.M. Sundresh allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take Balaji into custody till August 12.

The bench held that writ of habeas corpus filed by S. Megala, the wife of the arrested minister was not maintainable challenging the remand order.

The Supreme Court on August 02 reserved its verdict in the clutch of pleas after hearing the both sides and had refused to pass any interim direction relating to police remand sought by the ED.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, representing Balaji, had argued that after expiry of 15 days from arrest, an accused cannot be detained in police custody.

Earlier on July 21, the Supreme Court had issued notice on the petitions filed and sought response of the Enforcement Directorate on the pleas.

The top court had agreed to urgently list the pleas after it was apprehended that Balaji may be taken into police custody anytime and if the matter is not heard immediately, the petitions will become infructuous.

The minister and his wife have approached the top court of the country after a bench of Justice C.V. Karthikeyan of the high court, the third judge to whom the matter was referred, gave its ruling that the central agency has the right to arrest the legislator. It had said that if the agency can arrest, they can also seek custody as well.

Notably, the ED has also filed another petition before the top court challenging some observations made by the high court in its order.

The habeas corpus petition challenging arrest of Balaji by the Enforcement Directorate was heard by a three-judge bench on directions of the Supreme Court after a split verdict was pronounced by a division bench on the plea moved by the legislator's wife.

In a split verdict delivered on July 4, Justice J. Nisha Banu termed the arrest of the minister illegal and ordered him to be set free with immediate effect, while Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy differed on the question of his "illegal" detention.

S. Megala, the wife of the arrested minister had moved a petition before the high court assailing her husband's arrest by the ED in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam that allegedly occurred during his tenure as the Transport Minister from 2011 to 2016 in the then AIADMK government.

In an interim direction passed on June 15, the High Court had ordered to transfer the minister from a government hospital where he was under the custody of ED officials to a private hospital. The ED had filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging this.
Singapore, Aug 7 : A 32-year-old man in Singapore has been sentenced to three months' prison and ordered to pay S$13.20 as compensation for racially insulting and kicking an Indian-origin woman in 2021.

While handing down the sentence on Monday, District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan stressed that racial and religious hostility can have dire consequences in Singaporeas society, The Straits Times reported.

Wong Xing Fong was convicted in June for racially targeting private tutor Hindocha Nita Vishnubhai, 57, while she was walking to work near the Northvale condominium in Choa Chu Kang in May 2021.

Judge Saruwan said that Wong committed the offences in a brazen manner and had displayed a lack of remorse, adding that a deterrent sentence is paramount in this case.

The prosecution had sought a six and nine monthsa jail, arguing that the incident should not be viewed as a simple assault case.

Nita had told the court in June this year that she was walking with her mask down when she heard Wong and his fiancee shouting at her to "mask up".

A mother of two adult children, she told the couple that she had lowered her mask below her nose to prevent breathlessness as she was brisk-walking, and gestured to show she was exercising and sweating.

At the time, people were allowed to remove their masks when engaging in strenuous exercise, but had to put them back on after exercise, the prosecution told the court.

Wong instead scolded Nita and verbally insulted her.

To de-escalate the matter, the victim responded,"God bless you" but Wong kicked her in the chest.

Nita also testified in January that she would cry if she returned to the site of the attack.

a(The incident) affects me emotionally... I feel sad and scared. Is it wrong to be Indian? I didnat choose to be Indian... I wish this didnat happen... Till today, you (take) me to that road, I will cry. I was very scared," she told the judge.

Wong in his defence claimed that Nita was sarcastic and aggressive, and had hurled vulgarities at him, The Straits Times reported.

He said he had pushed Nita because she spat at him and his fiancee.

While he accepted that he had used vulgarities, he denied they were racial insults.

For assaulting another person in a racially aggravated attack, an offender can be jailed for up to four years and six months, and fined up to S$7,500.

--IANS

mi/ksk
Shimla, Aug 7 : Tourists going to Shimla, the erstwhile summer capital of the British Raj, for savouring history will find the Raj-style structure laced with repugnant modernity with local authorities adding the ingredient of eateries to the newly restored Town Hall building on the most famous promenade Mall Road, a hub of commercial activity.

The Town Hall was refurbished to its past glory with the Asian Development Bank funding of Rs 8 crore.

The Municipal Corporation Shimla, one of the oldest civic bodies in the country, has virtually relegated the piece of history into a food court and this decision has angered old-timers.

The majestic Town Hall was built in 1908 in typical hill architecture style with smoke-emitting chimneys.

It was initially designed as a library by British India. After India's partition, some of the offices of the municipal corporation were housed in it till its handing over to the government for restoration in September 2014.

Civic body authorities say the permission to allow fast-food chain outlets to operate is necessitated by economic reasons. But those who have patronised it for decades say it will soon lose its character.

"When there is already so much commercial activity on the Mall Road, what is the need for such activity in the Town Hall, a storehouse of the grand British legacy," octogenarian Durga Ram Sud, who is born and brought up in Shimla, told IANS, while pointing towards a hoarding up by the food outlets outside the building announcing their opening soon.

Another old-timer Naresh Gupta remarked: "This marvellous building represents the graceful style of colonial architecture and attracts the tourists here, especially the Britons who visit to trace their roots."

He said the government should open a library and a museum to showcase artifacts of British India, besides the state's rich cultural, artistic and archaeological heritage.

Aghast over the insensitivity towards the British heritage, B.D. Sharma, a former Press Secretary to the Chief Minister, told IANS that the late Virbhadra Singh was the only Chief Minister who took interest in restoring and preserving Shimla's glory.

"Virbhadra Singh took special interest in restoring the Town Hall's legacy. He even arranged funds from the Union government for its restoration. His predecessors took no interest in the town's grand heritage. And that is the only reason that the Town Hall is now going into the private hands for petty commercial gains," added an upset Sharma, a vocal voice against rampant construction and amendments to byelaws from time to time to create concrete jungle in once scenic Shimla.

Protesting the decision to open a restaurant in a portion of the Town Hall towards the Ridge, former Shimla mayor and CPI(M) leader Sanjay Chauhan wrote an open letter to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu to cancel its lease, which was granted by the previous BJP government in violation of norms.

He said the previous government exerted pressure on the civic body after which a resolution was passed in it to lease out the property in private hands for commercial activities.

Going back into the past, in August 2018 a majority of locals in a public hearing, organised at the behest of the Himachal Pradesh High Court to get views on putting Town Hall to judicious use, demanded setting up of a public place so that the tourists could get a glimpse of state's rich cultural heritage.

The Tourism Department, that executed the restoration work under the Shimla beautification plan, had refused to hand over the building back to the Shimla Municipal Corporation.

Then Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur dedicated the restored building to the public on November 29, 2018. In one of its hearings on the proper utilisation of the building, the high court was categorically clear in saying Town Hall was not meant for the Municipal Corporation.

For utilising the building as a public convenience, the court asked the government to prepare a comprehensive conceptual plan regarding its utilisation.

In December 2017, the high court had observed that the iconic structure could be used either as a museum or a library rather than leaving it at the mercy of the "babus" by allowing a public office to run from there.

"Undoubtedly, it is an important and significant landmark of the town. Intrinsically, it is part of its heritage. It's in this backdrop, we are of the considered view that a decision must be taken with regard to proper use of the building after its restoration," the high court had remarked.

The Town Hall building is in the half-timbered Tudor style -- all-wooden frames and shingled eaves. Its exteriors and interiors were refurbished by polishing and repairing the stone work.

The windows and rooftops were totally replaced and the Gothic facade was improved, say officials involved in its restoration. Himachal Pradesh's economy is highly dependent on tourism, besides hydropower generation and horticulture.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at gulatiians@gmail.com)
San Francisco, Aug 7 : Thieves have stolen up to $300,000 worth of gaming cards at Gen Con 2023 -- the largest gaming convention in North America.

Just before the start of the 2023 Gen Con gaming conference at the Indiana Convention Centre and Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis, thieves fled with a pallet of gaming cards on August 2, reports IndyStar.

According to Indianapolis Metro Police, the thieves used a pallet jack to remove the cards.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) on X shared pictures asking for help from the public to identify two people caught on surveillance video taking the pallet, and wrote: "IMPD detectives are seeking the public's help in identifying two people of interest possibly involved in a theft of upwards to $300,000 worth of gaming cards."

According to Craig Casares, assistant manager at Good Games, a board game store at 111 S. Meridian St. in Indianapolis, taking an entire pallet from a Gen Con setup area is pretty brazen.

"It's more common to have theft of decks or collections and attempting to sell those than it would be to steal a pallet," Casares said.

"The amount of either courage or bluffing skills that someone would have to have to just walk into Gen Con and take a pallet and no one stops them... I don't think anybody I know would have the nerve to go in and do that," he added.

Gen Con 2023 convention took place from Aug 3 to 6.

This is not the only card game theft in the Indianapolis area.

In May, local media reported that a thief broke into a gaming store in Brownsburg and stole about $15,000 worth of Magic: the Gathering cards.

--IANS

aj/ksk
Away from the battlefield in Ukraine, cyber warfare heats up between Russia and US(IN). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 7 : A hacktivist group known as Mysterious Team Bangladesh has been linked to more than 750 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and 78 website defacements since June 2022, primarily targeting government, financial, and transportation sector organisations with strong focus on India, a new report has shown.

According to the cybersecurity firm Group-IB, the group emerged in 2020 but only began to garner global attention in 2022 after a series of cyber raids against high-level targets in India, Israel, and other countries.

"The threat of hacktivism is often underestimated. Hacktivists frequently target critical infrastructure facilities, telecom companies, financial institutions, and governmental organisations. Unlike ransomware threat actors, hacktivists do not engage in negotiations. Their actions are intended to disrupt critical systems, leading to potentially massive monetary and reputational losses for affected organizations," said Group-IB's researchers.

The group is primarily driven by religious and political motives, said the report.

Some of the other targeted countries included Australia, Senegal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Ethiopia.

Moreover, the threat actor is said to have gained access to web servers and administrative panels, most likely through the use of known security flaws or weak passwords.

The report further mentioned that the hacktivist group most often exploits vulnerable versions of PHPMyAdmin and WordPress and relies on open-source utilities for conducting DDoS and defacement attacks.

According to the report, a Telegram user under the nickname D4RK_TSN is believed to be the founder of Mysterious Team Bangladesh.

Global geopolitical conflicts frequently serve as catalysts for #hacktivist activities. In a comprehensive overview, @GroupIB specialists have traced Mysterious Team Bangladeshs attacks, uncovering their timeline and distribution. Check out or new blog: https://t.co/DYaotuO1nE pic.twitter.com/Y7mfdTTw1Z  Group-IB Threat Intelligence (@GroupIB_TI) August 3, 2023

The researchers assume that the group will expand its operations further this year and will likely intensify its attacks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

In addition, the researchers believe that the hacktivist group will continue to have a particular focus on financial companies and government entities.

--IANS

-- Syndicated from IANS
Los Angeles, Aug 7 : Hollywood star Emily Blunt could've joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, in Iron Man 2.

The actress is now opening up about what she thinks of Scarlett Johansson who ended up playing the role across multiple films.

"Come on, the best girl got it," Blunt said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about Johansson adding that she was "amazing", reports Deadline.

Johansson would go on and reprise the superhero role in films like 'The Avengers' (2012), 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014), 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015), 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016), 'Avengers: Infinity War' (2018), 'Captain Marvel' (2019), 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019) and the standalone 'Black Widow' movie in 2021.

Furthermore, Blunt has been rumored to have been offered other roles in the MCU.

Roles that Blunt was reportedly up for included 'Captain Marvel' which ultimately went to Brie Larson, Peggy Carter who Hayley Atwell ended up playing and Sue Storm from 'Fantastic Four' which went to Jessica Alba and Kate Mara in different adaptations of the franchise.

"Rumors. Talk. Queries. That kind of thing," Blunt said of the rumours noting that she never met with producers or directors of the films.

Since 'Black Widow' first made an appearance in the MCU in 2012, Blunt has starred in films like 'The Five-Year Engagement' (2012), 'Looper' (2012), 'Edge of Tomorrow' (2014), 'Into the Woods' (2014), 'Sicario' (2015), 'The Huntsman: Winteras War' (2016), 'The Girl on the Train' (2016), 'A Quiet Place' (2018), 'Mary Poppins Returns' (2018), 'A Quiet Place Part II' (2020), 'Jungle Cruise' (2021) and most recently 'Oppenheimer'.

In an interview from 2019, Blunt said on the Howard Stern show on SiriusXM that she was "contracted to do Gullever's Travels" in 2010 despite not wanting to do it.

"It was a bit of a heartbreaker for me because I take such pride in the decisions that I make, and they mean so much to me, the films that I do, so that was tough," she said of turning down the Marvel role. "They (Fox) kind of have a bit of a hold over you. There were other movies that I would want to do."
Rome, Aug 7 : At least two people died and more than 30 went missing near the Italian island of Lampedusa after two boats carrying asylum seekers capsized in the rough seas, a police official said.

At least 57 people were rescued after the vessels that went down amid high waves around 43 km southwest of Lampedusa between late Saturday and early Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to local media, the boats had departed from Tunisia.

The bodies of an 18-month-old child and a woman were recovered.

"These are tragic events that should have never happened," said Emanuele Ricifari, the official in charge of public safety in Agrigento, Sicily, told Xinhua news agency.

"The death toll will rise ... whoever forced these people to leave shore under these conditions is a lunatic."

Ricifari said that the rough seas damaging the two vessels were also challenging the authorities' search efforts.

As the difficult weather is expected to continue over the next several days, it was unlikely to find more survivors, he said.

Separate from the two shipwrecks, 34 migrants who had been stranded for 36 hours on a steep cliffside in Lampedusa were rescued on Sunday.

A ship carrying those migrants crashed into rocks just off the shore between Aug 4 and 5, so the migrants were forced onto the cliffs to avoid drowning.

After Air Force and firefighter brigades airlifted them to safety via helicopter on Sunday, three of them were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Local media reported that none of them were seriously injured.

Media reports said that as of Sunday, more than 2,400 people were crammed into a migrant shelter in Lampedusa that is designed to house only 400.

Bad weather has made many migrants' transfers to the Italian mainland impossible.

According to Italy's Ministry of Interior, nearly 92,000 refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond had landed on the country's shores so far this year, more than doubling the nearly 43,000 refugees landing in the country during the same period last year and three times the figure of 2021.

Historically, July and August are the most common months for migrant arrivals via the central Mediterranean route.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : In a fiercely-competitive smartphone market, where industry giants dominated, realme emerged as a daring underdog five years ago. Its progression from obscurity to setting new standards for the sector is nothing short of amazing. realme's success has been a result of its persistent dedication to its "Dare to Leap" guiding philosophy, which has been fueled by creative product lines and clever marketing.

From the moment of its launch in 2018, realme surpassed expectations and quickly cemented its position in the mainstream of the world. The brand made daring moves, surpassing one milestone after another, with a young energetic leadership team. With a bold business strategy and a special understanding of the tastes of its young consumer base, the smartphone brand aced it all.

In just five years, realme's innovative products became a symbol of excellence, consistently delivering leap-forward performance and design. The brand strategically navigated the challenging market landscape, adapting quickly to market changes and establishing its presence in multiple markets globally. With each new product launch, realme's popularity surged, and it has now secured a spot among the top three smartphone brands in India.

realme's "light assets, short channel modes, and e-commerce prioritisation" strategy is responsible for its success. By utilising these ideas, the brand was able to break into the top six global brands for the first time and become the smartphone brand with the fastest growth rate for four straight quarters. With the help of this strategy, realme was also able to establish itself as a top proponent of 5G and hit significant sales milestones quickly.

While realme's journey has been exceptional, the smartphone market is becoming increasingly challenging. However, the brand is undeterred and remains committed to its long-term growth approach, "Simply Better" Strategy, and "Market Cultivation" Strategy. To navigate the upcoming challenges, realme will unify its global product line and focus on research and development across crucial domains like Display, Imaging, Gaming, Charging, Chipset, and Craftsmanship.

In pursuit of continuous elevation and unprecedented growth, realme is launching the "Leap-forward Climbing Plan." This ambitious plan sets a clear vision for the next five years, aiming to secure a spot among the top five smartphone brands globally. The plan centers around three key principles:

Under the "Leap-forward Climbing Plan," realme is determined to exceed competitors and achieve unrivalled technological efficiency. By pushing the boundaries of innovation, the brand aims to deliver cutting-edge products that revolutionise the smartphone industry. The plan entails investing heavily in research and development to pioneer groundbreaking technologies and redefine user experiences.

realme understands the significance of connecting with young consumers and intends to become the ultimate mobile phone brand by offering products and experiences that resonate with their preferences and lifestyles. By tapping into the pulse of the youth, realme aims to create a strong emotional bond with its customers, leading to long-term loyalty.

To achieve its ambitious goals, realme recognises the importance of continuous innovation. The "Leap-forward Climbing Plan" places a strong emphasis on pioneering new technologies and solutions not just for realme but for the entire industry. By setting new benchmarks and pushing the limits, realme aims to inspire other brands and elevate the entire smartphone ecosystem.

The bold plan known as the "Leap-forward Climbing Plan" embodies realme's unflinching dedication to scaling new heights. With a successful track record and a determined attitude, the brand is well-positioned to have a bigger effect on the smartphone market in the coming five years.

realme is poised to maintain its place among the top five smartphone brands worldwide by embracing innovation, serving its core market, and setting the standard for R&D. The frontiers of what is feasible in the smartphone industry will certainly be redefined as realme continues to take risks and face problems head-on.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 7 : Emotions ran high on Monday when the Kerala Assembly in a fresh session paid glowing tributes to two-time former Chief Minister late Oommen Chandy, as it was the first time in the past 53 years that the Congress stalwart was absent from the floor of the House.

Chandy passed away in Bengaluru on July 18 after succumbing to throat cancer. And on Monday, unlike the 'normal' Assembly sessions that open with cat calls and protests, the House witnessed an emotionally charged session with speaker after speaker stating that they just cannot imagine that Chandy is no more.

The entire family of Chandy watched the proceedings from the visitors' box, with tears rolling down the cheeks of many legislators.

Chandy happens to be the only legislator in Kerala who never lost an election since making his electoral debut in 1970, a record which is unlikely to be broken as none at the moment is anywhere close to him.

Assembly Speaker A.N. Shamseer opened the proceedings of the day by paying rich tributes to Chandy, saying that though the late Congress leader was not a big orator, his polite demeanor made him the most effective legislator even at the most trying times.

"He was guided by his conscience and that's what helped him a lot. Chandy will be remembered by all," said Shamseer.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Chandy and he began their Assembly innings together in 1970, but while Chandy was always a legislator, he spent more time in politics, but outside the Assembly.

"Chandy's void will never be filled as such was the way he worked as a legislator and also as an administrator. He was a person who can be emulated by the new generation entering politics," said Vijayan.

Stating that Chandy always worked for the people, opposition leader V.D. Satheesan said while making a Biblical reference, "Chandy was one who was hunted and haunted the most and the very same people who did that have now said that he was a righteous person."

Along with the obituary references to Chandy, the demise of two-time Speaker and veteran Congress politician Vakkom Purushothman, who passed away last week, was also condoled following which the House was adjourned for the day.
Kochi, Aug 7 : With complaints before Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the manner in which Ranjith, chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy that runs the state film awards selection, is interfering in the decision of the jury when the awards was decided, director M. Lijeesh approached Kerala High Court on Monday, making the controversy murkier.

Lijeesh, in his petition pointed out that since a few people have openly said about the way Ranjith interfered in the selection of awards, the Court should see that the awards that have been declared be cancelled.

Incidentally, soon after the awards were announced last month, popular director Vinayan slammed Ranjith, for interfering in the decision of the jury when the awards was decided.

And to emphasis it, voice clips of members of the jury was also put out and then he approached Vijayan, who ordered a probe into the allegations.

Soon came the All India Youth Front ( AIYF), the youth wing of the second biggest ally of the ruling Left Front government CPI who also urged Vijayan to order a probe by an external agency into the ongoing controversy over the Kerala State Film Awards.

What raised eyebrows was Saji Cherian, Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs, strongly supporting Ranjith.

Now all eyes are on the High Court, when it is likely to look into the petition in the coming days.

The saving grace for Ranjith has been when the chairman of the jury, Goutam Ghose denied any external influences, claiming that the selection was free and fair.
Washington, Aug 7 : The family of a 12-year-old boy who was killed during an accidental shooting in the US state of Minnesota, has demanded accountability for the crime, the media reported.

On Sunday night, family and friends gathered at Saint Paul city for a candlelight vigil in honor of Markee Jones, CBS News reported.

According to the city police, the incident took place on the morning of August 5.

The 14-year-old accused who has been identified as the victim's brother, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Markee's family said someone had left a loaded firearm in his grandmother's home, where he and his brother were staying.

During the vigil, family members demanded the person who left the gun to come forward and be held accountable.
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : Popular Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife Spandana succumbed to heart attack at a hospital in Bangkok on Monday. Spandana was on tour with her husband Vijay. Though she was immediately shifted to the hospital, Spandana died.

Family sources explained that the body of Spandana will reach Bengaluru on Tuesday. The postmortem of her body will be conducted in Bangkok today. The death of Spandana, who is in her late 30's has shocked the film industry. She had also acted in films and she is the daughter of decorated senior police officer B.K. Shivaram.

The doctors said that Spandana had suffered massive cardiac arrest resulting in her death.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has stated: "The demise of Spandana, the wife of popular Kannada actor Vijaya Raghavendra has shocked me. I pray for her soul. I condole with the bereaved families of Vijaya Raghavendra and B.K. Shivaram."

Former CM Basavaraj Bommai stated that he is shocked after hearing about the demise of Spandana. "I pray to God that her soul rests in peace. I pray to God to give strength to the families of Vijaya Raghavendra and B.K. Shivaram in this moment of grief."
Toronto, Aug 7 : Following the recent appearances of pro-Khalistani posters threatening Indian diplomats in Canada, authorities said law enforcement has been "engaged" to ensure their safety and security.

Despite New Delhi registering strong protests, an anti-India campaign continues in Canada with the latest poster, saying "wanted" and "kill India", being put up near the entrance to the building housing the consulate in Vancouver.

As the poster, referring to Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was removed the same day on August 1, Canada's internal security department, Public Safety Canada, said in a recent tweet that Ottawa will ensure the safety of all diplomats in the country. "There is no place in Canada for the incitement of violence.

Law enforcement has been engaged following the circulation of an online video in relation to threats against Indian diplomatic officials," the tweet said.

"Canadian law enforcement and the Government continue to work to ensure the safety and security of all diplomatic representatives in Canada."

The tweet didn't specify much about the video threatening Indian diplomats.

But according to Global News, a July 21 clip posted on social media by pro-Khalistani Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) calls for people to "besiege" India's diplomatic missions in Canada.

The video has been removed from YouTube for violating that platform's terms of service, according to the news report.

Prior to this, similar posters were put up across the province of British Columbia threatening and holding High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and consul generals in Vancouver and Toronto responsible for Nijjar's death.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankarhad raised the issue of security of Indian diplomats with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly on the sidelines of ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Jakarta last month.

Jaishankar had earlier said that Canada giving space to separatist elements was probably driven by "votebank politics".

"Actions of a few do not speak for an entire community or Canada," Joly had said last month, adding that the country takes its obligations under the Vienna Conventions regarding the safety of diplomats very seriously.

--IANS

mi/ksk
New Delhi, Aug 7 : A photographer was stabbed by a minor after a quarrel over a petty issue in north Delhi, a Delhi Police official said on Monday.

The injured identified as Narendra, who was stabbed with a knife in abdomen and below left shoulder, is undergoing treatment at a hospital, where his condition is said to be critical, said the official.

According to police, the incident occurred on Sunday night and a PCR call regarding stabbing in Bhim Wali Gali, Malkaganj Road was received at Subzi Mandi police station.

"A police team rushed to the spot and it was revealed that Narender was stabbed by one juvenile. The quarrel had taken place as the minor's father Amit started talking in an abusive language with Narender," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi.

"Amit and his son threatened Narendra of dire consequences and left the place after the intervention of local persons. After some time, Amit and his son returned and suddenly started beating Narender. The minor took out a knife and stabbed Narender," said Kalsi.

"Amit has been arrested and his son was apprehended. The weapon of offence has been seized. An attempt to murder case with other relevant sections of the IPC has been registered," the DCP added.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh arrived at the Supreme Court on Monday as a bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud is slated to hear at 2 p.m. a clutch of pleas related to inter-ethnic clashes in the northeastern state.

Last week, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Manipur Police and summoned its Director General (DGP) for August 7 appearance.

The top court had said that the state police were "incapable of investigation" and "there is no law and order left" in the northeastern state.

It had directed the state police to identify the FIRs involving serious offences like murder, rape, arson, looting, outraging modesty of women, destruction of places of religious worship and grievous hurt.

Also, it had called for case-wise details of the date of occurrence of incident, date of registration of Zero FIR, date of registration of regular FIR, date on which witness statements were recorded, date on which statements under section 164 CrPC were recorded and date on which arrests were made.

The two tribal women, who were paraded naked and sexually assaulted in Manipur, have approached the top court. It has been claimed that the Manipur Police collaborated with the mob to allow perpetration of sexual violence on them.
Bhubaneswar, Aug 7 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has sanctioned Madhu Babu pension for additional 4.13 applicants at one go.

Considering the grievances received during the visit of officials of Chief Ministeras Office (CMO) to districts across the state, and the feedback received from 'Mo Sarkar', the Chief Minister has included more people under the social security schemea"Madhu Babu Pension Yojana (MBPY).

With this, the target of Madhu Babu Pension Yojana has been enhanced to 32.75 lakh. Earlier 28.61 lakh beneficiaries were getting benefits under the scheme.

All the newly sanctioned beneficiaries will get their first pension amount on August 15, 2023 i.e. Janaseva Diwas at the gram panchayat headquarters or ward offices in presence of elected representatives, official sources said.

All collectors have been advised to ensure smooth disbursement of pension to the beneficiaries in camp mode, the source said.

The state government provides social security pensions of Rs 500, Rs 700 and Rs 900 per month to 28.61 lakh beneficiaries under MBPY.

Beneficiaries such as older persons, widows, persons with disabilities, unmarried women, cured leprosy patients, AIDS patients, divorcee/destitute, transgender persons, widows, orphan children of Covid affected families and other vulnerable people are covered under this scheme.

Under MBPY, between the age group 0-79 years, beneficiaries of different categories get pension Rs 500 per month whereas beneficiaries of the age 80 years and above receive Rs 700 per month.

Likewise, beneficiaries with 40-59 percent disability receive Rs 500 pension per month and beneficiaries with 60 percent and above disability receive Rs 700 per month.

Moreover, beneficiaries with 60 percent and above disability and aged 80 years and above receive Rs 900 per month under this scheme.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Talent acquisition and management startup HireMee on Monday said it has partnered several state boards of technical education, universities and colleges in the country to provide AI-proctored assessments, thus helping them bridge the skill gap.

HireMee has now partneredMadhya Pradesh government's skilling agency to help identify hidden talent in the state and assist them in employability.

The AI-based platform and its skill building expertise is set to help young students and faculty understand gaps in their skills so as to enhance their existing skills, as also to learn new skills demanded by the industry under the 'Sankalp' (skill acquisition and knowledge awareness for livelihood promotion) scheme of the Central government.

Madhya Pradesh State Skill Development & Employment Generation Board (MPSSDEGB) and the Directorate of Employment, Madhya Pradesh have signed an MoU with Bengaluru-based HireMee.

HireMee platform's AI-driven skill assessment and short-term awareness programmes will be available to the youth in the state registered on the MPSSDEGB website.

"The HireMee team is proud to deploy its capability to offer assessments and insights, thereby enhancing the employability of the youth in the state," said Venkatraman Umakanth, business head and senior vice president, HireMee.

The assessments include cognitive, behavioural and chosen domain areas in the traditional as well as emerging areas. The students will be able to build digital fluency using HireMee's micro-learning modules.

"We continue to partner forward-looking states to enhance the skill base using HireMee's platform and AI-based insights," said Chocko Valliappa, Founder of HireMee.

Over 6 lakh students have taken this assessment and the HireMee platform has opened up corporate opportunities for about 2 lakh students.
Phnom Penh, Aug 7 : Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni appointed Hun Manet as the new Prime Minister on Monday after the latter's father and outgoing premier Hun Sen announced to step down after serving in the post for more than 38 years.

The monarch signed a royal decree to designate Hun Manet, 45, as the new prime minister for a five-year term following a request from Hun Sen, the longest serving Prime Minister in the world, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The designated prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia has duties to prepare the members of the government in order to ask for the adoption of confidence from the National Assembly," Sihamoni said in the royal decree.

"This royal decree takes effect from the day of signature," he added.

Hun Manet, the eldest son of Hun Sen, thanked the king for appointing him as the new prime minister.

"This is the greatest honor in my life, receiving a great opportunity to serve my most-loved motherland and people in this noble position," he said in a thank-you letter to the king.

"I, along with all dignitaries in the royal government of the seventh legislature of the National Assembly, are committed to fulfilling this noble national mission with heroism, honesty and high responsibility to serve the motherland and the people of Cambodia," he added.

Hun Manet vowed to continue ensuring the protection of national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the throne and the constitutional monarchy.

He also pledged to continue ensuring national peace and stability, promoting further development, improving the living standards of the Cambodian people, and enhancing the national prestige on the international arena.

Hun Manet, along with his new cabinet members, will need to win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly slated for August 22 in order to officially become the new prime minister, and he is expected to be sworn in on the same day.

The appointment came after the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the July 23 general election, gaining 120 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

Hun Manet is currently a member of the CPP's Standing Committee and a deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Hun Sen announced on July 26 that he would step down as the Prime Minister after having held the position for more than 38 years, handing the reins of power to Hun Manet.

However, the 71-year-old leader said he will remain the CPP's president and will take the position of President of the Senate after a Senate Election on February 25 next year.
Amaravati, Aug 7 : Displaying exemplary courage, a 13-year-old girl came out of the jaws of death after being pushed into the Godavari river by her mother's live-in partner in Andhra Pradesh's Ambedkar Konaseema district.

The girl clung to a plastic pipe after she was pushed off by Ravulapalem Gowthami Bridge and called up the police for help.

Amid pitched darkness and the scary sounds of the flowing river below, the girl held her nerves despite her mother and step-sister getting washed away.

According to police, the girl managed to cling to the pipe, fetched the cell phone from her pocket and dialed 100. Police rushed to the spot and found the girl dangerously holding on to the pipe. The police personnel rescued her.

Police officials were surprised how the girl acted with such bravery to survive a certain death.

Keertana told police that her mother's partner U. Suresh pushed her along with her mother Suhasini (36) and one-year-old step-sister Jersey off the bridge around 4 a.m. on Sunday.

He had taken them to Rajamahendravaram on Saturday evening in a car for shopping. After shopping, he took them to different places throughout the night. When they reached Ravulapalem Gowthami Bridge, he asked them to get down for taking a selfie. He sat along with them on

the edge of the bridge and suddenly pushed them into the river.

While Suhasini and Jersey were washed away, Keertana was lucky to hold on to a pipe under the bridge. Thinking that all the three were washed away, Suresh left the spot.

Though frightened, Keertana did not give up. She tightly held on to the pipe and managed to make a call from a mobile phone in her pocket.

Ravulapalem Sub-Inspector Venkatramna with his staff rushed to the spot and safely pulled her up.

Police formed a team to trace Suhasini and Jersey while another team was on the lookout for the accused.

Hailing from Tadepalli in Guntur district, Suhasini had separated from her husband due to some differences.

The woman, who had one daughter (Keertana) from her first marriage, came in contact with Suresh of Darsi in Prakasam district. They were living together for a couple of years.

Last year, she gave birth to another daughter.

Suresh and Suhasini had recently developed differences and he hatched a plan to eliminate her and both the girls.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : A fire broke out in the endoscopy room on the second floor of a building at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here on Monday said a fire department official, adding that the flames had been doused and all are safe.

The official said that all patients in the room were evacuated safely..

"A fire call was received from the emergency ward of AIIMS at 11.54 hours. Total 8 fire tenders rushed to the site," Delhi Fire Services Director Atul Garg said earlier.

Garg said that the fire was on the second floor of the main building (Old RajKumari OPD building) and the fire is under control now. "Search operation continues," he said.

The fire reportedly broke out in the endoscopy room of the building and all the patients were evacuated safely, adding no injury was reported.

Images showing the endoscopy room, which was severely damaged by a fire, were circulating widely on social media.

These pictures clearly revealed the extent of the destruction, as all the equipment, files, tables, and other materials were visibly charred.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

--IANS

ssh/dpb
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday held separated meetings with MLAs at the Vidhana Soudha here on Monday after disgruntled legislators wrote to him alleging negligence and no response from cabinet ministers.

Between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Siddaramaiah held meetings with MLAs, ministers and in-charges from the districts of Tumakuru, Yadgir and Chitradurga.

Meanwhile, the evening meetings from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. will be hld with with MLAs, representatives and concerned ministers from Bagalkot, Ballary and Dharwad districts.

Sources explained that the Congress party has decided to quell the discontent at the starting stages by holding the meetings.

The MLAs from the respective districts would be given a fair chance to give their opinion on the ministers, their issues and problems.

After getting feedbacks from the MLAas, he will give necessary directions to the ministers for maximum cooperation.

Sources have said that the Congress high command has given a clear instruction in this regard as the party wants to give a message to the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Siddaramaiah is also likely to request the MLAs not to insist on releasing of funds to developmental activities as the partyas first priority is to deliver all the five guarantee schemes and also to ensure the implementation of major projects in the state.

The letter allegedly written by Congress MLA B.R. Patil and 11 other party legislators exposing corruption by the cabinet ministers in the state proved to be a major embarrassment.

But Patil has claimed that the letter is fake and photoshopped and has also lodged a police complaint.

The sources explained that the MLAs are unhappy about the functioning of cabinet ministers.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Kylian Mbappe will not train with the Paris Saint-Germain first-team squad when they step up preparations on Monday for the start of the Ligue 1 season as his contract dispute with the club continues.

PSG begin their French title defence at home to Lorient on Saturday and it is understood Mbappe will train with the 'loft' group rather than the 'A' training group, which is players who could feature for the first team, BBC reported.

The 24-year-old French captain, who still has one year remaining on his contract, is unwilling to renew his contract with the club. Therefore, PSG is eager to prevent losing Mbappe on a free transfer and, as a result, they have put him up for sale to secure a transfer fee.

As a result, the French star was also left out of the PSG squad for the pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea.

He subsequently refused any discussion with the representatives of the Saudi Arabiaas most successful club Al Hilal, made a world record offer of 259 million pounds (300 million euro) for French striker.
Kiev, Aug 7 : The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) on Monday announced that it has detained a female information for Russia "who was preparing an airstrike in the Mykolaiv region during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky".

In the statement, the SBU said the alleged informant "on the eve of the recent trip of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv region, was gathering intelligence about the planned visit" late last month, reports CNN.

The Security Service further said that the alleged conspirator "tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region".

However, SBU agents had obtained information about the "subversive activities of the suspect" and adopted additional security measures.

In monitoring the communications of the woman, the SBU had established that she also had the task ofidentifying the location of electronic warfare systems and warehouses with ammunition of the armed forces.

According to the investigation, the perpetrator was a resident of Ochakov, southern Ukraine, and a former saleswoman in a military store on the territory of one of the military units of the region.

She allegedly traveled around the territory of the district and filmed the locations of Ukrainian objects.

The woman has not been identified.
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : Executive Vice President of Infosys, Richard Lobo has resigned from the company, marking the second high-profle departure in a week.

Lobo previously headed the Human Resources wing at the company and later he was moved to the Special Projects team headed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salil Parekh.

Last week, the Global Head of Account Expansion, Charles Salameh had resigned.

Infosys announced the news of Lobo's resignation on a regulatory filing.

"This is to inform you that Richard Lobo, Executive Vice President and Senior Management Personnel, has resigned from the services of the company. His last date with the company would be August 31, 2023. The company places on record its deep sense of appreciation for the services rendered by him and for his contributions to the company," Infosys stated in its filing to exchanges.

In his resignation, Lobo stated: "I'm writing to inform you of my decision to resign from my position at Infosys. I'm grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have had during my time here."

Global Head of Account Expansion Charles Salameh and Global Chief Information Security Officer and Business Head at Infosys, Vishal Salvi and EVP Narsimha Rao Mannepali, who was associated for 22 years, also left Infosys recently.

Mohit Joshi had quit as the President and COO in Infosys in October 2022.
Sonu Sood turns 'babysitter' as he gives piggyback ride to baby in Kaza. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Aug 7 : Bollywood actor and humanitarian Sonu Sood shared a video of himself giving a baby in Himachal Pradesh a piggyback ride.

Sonu took to Instagram, where he shared the video. In the clip he is seen asking the name of the baby to the mother. He then puts the baby on his back with the help of a cloth he ties him around.

Sonu then walks around, and is seen telling the baby that he is taking him to Bombay. He tells the baby "Bombay actor banne jaa rahe hai." He is then heard telling others: "Naya Roadie aa gaya hai."

For the caption, Sonu wrote: "Any job of a babysitter. I am the best attractive packages available."

Sonu shared the video from Kaza in Himachal Pradesh, where he is currently shooting for the youth-based reality show 'MTV Roadies - Karm Ya Kaand'.

On the Bollywood front, Sonu will next be seen in 'Fateh', which is inspired by real-life incidents and will feature high-octane action sequences. The action-thriller is helmed by Abhinandan Gupta, who earlier worked as an assistant director in films such as 'Bajirao Mastani' and 'Shamshera'.

In 1999, Sood was introduced to Tamil language films with Kallazhagar and Nenjinile. He then appeared as an antagonist in the Telugu film Hands Up! in 2000. In 2001, he appeared in Majunu. He then began starring in Hindi films, with Shaheed-E-Azam, as Bhagat Singh in 2002.

Sonu has worked in Yuva (2004), Athadu (2005), Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005), Ashok (2006), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), Kandireega (2011), Dookudu (2011), Shootout at Wadala (2013), R... Rajkumar (2013), Happy New Year (2014), Devi (2016), Kung Fu Yoga (2017), Simmba (2018), and Kurukshetra (2019).

In July 2016, he established the production house Shakti Sagar Productions, which is named after his father, Shakti Sagar Sood. In September 2020, Sood was chosen for the 'SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award' by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for his humanitarian works during the COVID-19 pandemic.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Manipur tribal leaders to meet Shah on Tuesday, to press for separate state demand. Image Source: IANS News

Imphal, Aug 7 : Leaders of Manipur's Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday to press for its demands, which include a separate state for the trinals.

Senior ITLF leader and spokesman Ginza Vualzong said that a four-member delegation will meet the Union Minister.

"We will press for early solutions to our demands as the Manipur situation due to the misgovernance of the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh-led government has been deteriorating fast. Tribals are victims due to the state government's anti-tribal governance," Vualzong, who is also a member of the ITLF delegation, told IANS over phone.

The ITLF leaders claimed that since they could not travel to Imphal from Churachandpur due to the Meiteis threat, they had to go to Aizawl to board the New Delhi-bound flight.

The other demands of the ITLF include state police and commando forces should not be deployed in the hill areas of Manipur, inmates lodged in the jails in Imphal should be shifted to others states of the country and legalisation of a site for mass burial of tribals killed during the ethnic violence.

The volatile Manipur situation further escalated after the tribal organisation announced to conduct the mass burial in Churachandpur on August 3.

The move was strongly opposed by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of the Meitei community.

However, the mass burial was postponed after the Manipur High Court ordered to maintain a status-quo of the proposed burial site in Churachandpur.

In a letter to the ITLF and the COCOMI, Union Minister Nityanand Rai on August 3 appealed to maintain peace and communal harmony.

"The government of India is seized of the issue of last rites of mortal remains of those killed in ethnic violence in Manipur. The government of India appeals to all concerned to maintain peace and communal harmony and assures that it will spare no efforts to resolve the issues amicably to the utmost satisfaction of all parties within a period of seven days," Rai said in the latter.

Since May 12, 10 tribal MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, ITLF and the influential KukiInpi Manipur (KIM) since May 12 have been demanding separate administration (equivalent to separate state) for the tribals.

Shah, Biren Singh, the ruling BJP and various other organisations, including the COCOMI, have been strongly opposing the separate administration demand.

Amidst the prevailing situation, the Kuki People's Alliance (KPA) with two MLAs in the Manipur Assembly on Sunday withdrew its support from the BJP-led state government.

Addressing a letter to Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey, KPA President Tongmang Haokip said: "After careful consideration of the current conflagration, the continued support for the incumbent government of Manipur led by Chief Minister N. Biren Singh is no longer fructuous.

"Accordingly, the support of the KPA to the government of Manipur is hereby withdrawn and can be considered null and void."

The leaders of the KPA as partners of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had attended the NDA meeting held in Delhi on July 18.

However, the withdrawal of support by the two KPA MLAs will not affect the BJP-led government in Manipur.

In the 60-member Assembly, the BJP on its own has 32 MLAs while the National People's Party (7 members), Janata Dal-United (6), Naga People's Front (5) and two Independents are supporting the saffron party-led government.

--IANS

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Kerala NCP MLA files police complaint against party leaders following infighting in the party. Image Source: IANS News

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 7 : Kerala NCP MLA Thomas K.Thomas has filed a police complaint after infighting erupted in Kerala unit of NCP on Monday.

The NCP MLA met Kerala Police Chief and filed a complaint against his party leaders alleging that he fears for his following difference within the party.

Pertinently, the NCP Kerala unit has two legislators and is an ally of the ruling CPI-M led Left Democratic Front. The two legislators are State Forest Minister A.K.Saseendran and K.Thomas.

Thomas told media persons that he has also briefed the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about the threats he has received from his party members.

"The CM asked me to file a complaint. There have been issues in the party," Thomas said.

There have been differences between Thomas and NCP State President P.C.Chacko, who has also been a former Congressman.

Meanwhile, Saseendran reacting to the NCP's internal infighting said NCP is not a party with 'cruel' outlook.

"He is having issues with NCP president Chacko and has been upset with the party," said Saseendran.

However, Saseendran has pledged his full support to Chacko camp.

Thomas in the past has also requested NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar not to say things publicly but to discuss them within the party meetings.

Thomas also expressed displeasure after Chacko decided to intervene in local party affairs at the home district of Thomas in Alappuzha.

During the 2021 state assembly elections, the NCP had decided to give Chandy seat to Thomas, which he won comfortably.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, amid noisy protests by the Opposition, which later staged a walk-out after their request for raising a point of order was disallowed.

The point of order was on the allegations levelled by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Congress party and Rahul Gandhi.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tried raising the point of order along with other party members, but Kirit Solanki, who was adjudicating the proceedings, did not allow it.

Even Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab could be seen expressing his displeasure over the lack of order in the House when the bill got passed.

He was heard saying that bills cannot be passed when there is no order in the House, and if this is the manner in which bills are to be passed, then the House should pass all the bills.

Once the Digital Personal Data Protection bill was passed after an hour-long discussion in the House, the Congress-led Opposition staged a walk out.

Minister for IT and electronics Ashwini Vaishnaw while piloting the bill, said that it has all the provisions to ensure protection of public's data.

He said that it is framed in a simple language, is gender sensitive, and based on the principles of legality.

Vaishnaw further said that the bill also ensures data minimisation, accuracy of data and time limit on data storage.

During an almost hour-long discussion on the bill, in which eight MPs across parties participated, concerns were raised on lack of independent regulator, with Mahtab even saying that the bill was more about data processing rather than data protection.

Vaishnaw allayed the fears of the members, saying that the government has introduced certain "legitimate causes" where the government and private entities can process citizens' data without explicit consent.

It will also impose restrictions on platforms on processing children's data, he said.

The bill also mandates that India have its data protection regulator in the form of a Data Protection Board. The bill says the chairperson and members of the board will be appointed by the Union government.

Apart from that, the bill also has provisions that give wide exemptions to the government. The proposed law says its provisions will not apply in respect to the processing of personal data when notified by ainstrumentality of the state as the central government may notify".
Hyderabad, Aug 7 : Breastfeeding plays a crucial role in ensuring the development and proper growth of a child. Though everyone has a right to make decisions about breastfeeding, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has recommended breastfeeding until a child turns two years old.

The first week of August is celebrated as national breastfeeding week during which campaigns are conducted with an aim to educate the public about the importance of breastfeeding, breastfeeding at work places and maternal rights.

This year's theme for Breastfeeding Week is "Making breastfeeding and work, work!". Research by the WHO shows that fewer than half of the infants under six months are breastfed and less than 20 per cent of countries have employers who provide employees with paid leave and maternity care. Women need to ideally have 18 weeks of paid time off, support for dedicated time and space to

breastfeed the baby.

According to Dr Aparna C, Clinical Director Neonatology & Senior Consultant Neonatology and Pediatrics, KIMS Cuddles, Kondapur, Secunderabad, "With the support of WHO and UNICEF and, many partners are coming together to speak and spread awareness about breastfeeding, support

in the communities, human rights and ecology. They aim to increase the health and welfare of the baby, as well push the maternal rights and health.

"Mothers who may have always wanted to breastfeed their babies can receive resources. In the current lifestyle patterns, women may not be able to breastfeed because of work schedules and other challenges, does not mean breastfeeding is not an accessible option. Also, research shows that women who breastfeed their children are less likely to develop postnatal depression."

Dr Geetha Suryadevara- Consultant Gynaecology and Obstetrics, SLG Hospitals observed that there are different ways to observe breastfeeding. "This week is perfect to promote the benefits of breastfeeding on social media. There are many support groups where new mothers can discuss their experience and concerns regarding breastfeeding. This helps aspiring mothers overcome

their fears. Though 96 per cent of mothers are breastfeeding from the first hour of birth, only 15 per cent of mothers are feeding exclusively later.

"A lot of modern women are faced with societal pressures that can interfere with breastfeeding, but there is a 35 per cent significant increase in women who are breastfeeding their child and it steadily needs to meet the global goal of 50 per cent by 2025. This year's theme relates closely to modern women trying to find their ground in their new motherhood. Government has passed very supportive laws for women to utilize their maternity leave."

According to Dr Sridevi Kodiganti, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Amor Hospitals, in India maternity benefit care act requires employers to give paid time off until the child reaches the age of 15 months. Though breastfeeding is a cultural norm in India, most of the working mothers in India still find it to be a challenge.

"The lack of breastfeeding facilities is what makes mothers switch to formula milk. Thirty-four per cent of working women find the lactation facilities to be the biggest challenge, while 17 per cent have expressed unsupportiveness from their bosses. This shows that the culture of breastfeeding might still be a new challenge that needs to be addressed by all organisations. By turning an empty room/cabin in the office into a nursing room can prove extremely beneficial to many working

women. Providing pumping centres, maternal kits and practicing sensitivity in the team can help moms work productively. There can also be few psychological challenges, pressure to relieve the body from milk leaks, security concerns etc can decrease productivity," she said.

Talking about the benefits of breast milk, Dr Kada Rama Devi, Director-Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Century Hospital said, "There are numerous benefits and nutrients to breast milk over packaged milk. Breast milk is rich in protein, and is best for baby's brain growth and nervous system development. It also helps the baby's eyes work better.

"It has several disease fighting factors and antibodies that help fight infections and diseases like leukemia. Breastfeeding also helps moms reduce risk of breast or ovarian cancer and helps lose pregnancy weight faster. Most of the working moms refrigerate their milk, to help feed the baby during or after working hours. This helps its calories and protein stay intact," she added.
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : While hearing a divorce case, the Karnataka High Court in a recent judgment has said that the racial remarks over black skin complexion amounts to 'cruelty'.

The husband had filed an appeal petition in the court questioning the verdict of not granting him divorce by the family court. The sub-division bench said that the wife has constantly humiliated husband for his black complexion and harassed him as a person with black skin.

The bench said that to hide this fact, the wife had alleged an illegal affair charge against him. It also underlined that this is undoubtedly considered as a cruelty and quashed the order of the lower court. The court also annulled the marriage and granted divorce for the husband.

The couple had married in 2007 but the husband had approached the family court seeking divorce in 2012. The court had quashed the petition by the husband on January 13, 2017.

The petitioner claimed that after marriage his wife always taunted him as a black man and humiliated him. He somehow tolerated the slurs for the sake of his daughter. He had also claimed that his wife had lodged a complaint against his aged mother and family members in 2011.

He was also subjected to torture in connection with the case and he had spent 10 days in police station and the court.

"The wife had moved to her parent's home and never returned. She had even complained to my employer. I suffered a lot and also was in depression," the husband had claimed and pleaded that the court should grant divorce to him.

The wife pleaded for quashing the petition and claimed that her husband had an affair and had a child out of the affair.

She also alleged that her husband used harsh words and did not allow her to go out and come home late.

The wife had also lodged criminal complaints against her husband and his family members.

However, the court said that the wife had made baseless allegations against the petitioner.

The bench also stated that the wife's claim that she is ready to live cordially with her husband while living without him for years and not taking the complaint back shows she has no interest to live with her husband.

The court then granted the husband the divorce on the basis of cruelty.
Mumbai, Aug 7 : The shooting for the Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas and Deepika Padukone-starrer 'Kalki 2898 AD' has resumed in Hyderabad.

A picture from the shoot was uploaded on the official Instagram page for the film. It had a sticker that says "shooting time" pasted on the image.

According to reports the shoot schedule began in Hyderabad. The cast and crew will be filming important scenes with the main actors until August 28. Along with Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, the film features Disha Patani in important roles. The futuristic sci-fi movie directed by Nag Ashwin.

The film was announced under the working title 'Project K' in February 2020 coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Vyjayanthi Movies. However, the production was delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Filming began in July 2021 in a futuristic set at Ramoji Film City, in Hyderabad.

The film is reportedly made on a budget of Rs 600 crore.

In June, Amitabh revealed why he skipped the 'Kalki 2898 AD' panel at San Diego's Comic-Con. He shared that filmmaker Nag Ashwin wanted him to come along but "work and medical restrictions have kept me away."

Amitabh took to his blog and wrote: "Alright .. so .. San Diego and K , the project .. a great moment for the film and the makers and all those that went there for the release of the first look for it .. I was pushed hard by Nagi Sir to come along, but work and medical restrictions have kept me away from many such occasions."

The cine icon shared that the first look "was pretty darn good."

"So .. but I must admit that the first look was pretty darn good .. wasn't it .. style, music, frames .. everything .... and finally the reveal of K .. KALKI .. mythologically so important .. 2898 AD !!'AD' has been changed has it not," he wrote.

The San Diego's Comic-Con was attended physically by Kamal Haasan, Prabhas and Rana Daggubati. Big B joined the panel via a zoom video call. In the event it was announced that the film, which was earlier titled 'Project K', has been titled 'Kalki 2898 AD'.

'Kalki 2898 AD' also feature in the sci-fi film. Produced by Vyjayanthi Movies, the film is scheduled to release on January 12, 2024.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Kolkata, Aug 7 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recommended Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Hospital in Joka here as venue for bypass operation for Sujay Krishna Bhadra, a prime accused in the multi-crore school job case in West Bengal.

According to sources, the probe officials have already forwarded the medical report of Bhadra from state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital to the ESI Hospital authorities for the purpose of examination by the latter.

Bhadra is currently admitted at SSKM. Insisting that his bypass surgery be conducted at a private hospital in Kolkata, the accused has even approached the Calcutta High Court for bail on this count.

Already, Calcutta High Courtas single- judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh has directed the ED to form an independent medical board to ascertain whether Bhadra at all requires a bypass surgery or not.

ED has already expressed doubts in the Calcutta High Court on the essentiality of the bypass surgery for Bhadra.

In the meantime, it has already started the process of forming a medical board for the purpose. ED officials personally went to SSKM to collect the medical reports of Bhadra before sending them to the ESI Hospital authorities.

On August 3, during the course of hearing, Justice Ghosh observed that even without being released on bail Bhadraas treatment can continue.

As per him, if he is released on bail for treatment purposes only, it would send a wrong signal to the remaining inmates.

The next hearing in the matter will be on August 9.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The trailer of upcoming series 'Taali' starring Sushmita Sen in the lead, showcases the revolutionary story of transgender activist Shreegauri Sawant, and her iconic fight for the recognition of the third gender in India.

The two minute 11 seconds trailer, which was unveiled on Monday starts with Sushmita's voice, saying "Namaste Mai Gauri. Ye Kahani mere jaise kayi logo ki hain, kyuki ye Gauri bhi kabhi Ganesh tha."

The video shows a glimpse of a school child, and his teacher asks him what will you become when you grow up, to which he replies, amujhe maa banna haia. The teacher says amard kabhi maa nahi ban sakta'.

The little boy can be then seen wearing a saree and a red bindi on his forehead, and he performs some rituals with transgenders.

The transition happens, and Sushmita is seen in the place of that boy. She is filling an application form, where she is left confused whether to tick on the section of male or female. She is standing in between two lines - one for women, another for men. The scene gives a sense of confusion that transgenders go through when choosing (officially) what sex they belong to. There is also a glimpse of a surgery that Gauri undergoes.

Later, we see Gauri fighting for the rights of transgenders. She is heard saying "Jis desh me kutton (dogs) ka bhi census hota hai, par transgenders ka nahi, ese desh me ap logo ke beech me jeena, that is scary". Gauri is sitting with a panel on stage, and the crowd is clapping for her.

We then see some transgenders performing some rituals on her. Gauri, in a deep thought is sitting with her bare upper half, and these transgenders are happily pouring water on her. She also has turmeric on her cheeks and hands.

The trailer shows Gauri talking to an advocate, and saying, "if you are not a male or female then you are not alive", to which he replies "this is the rule". She asks "what does it take to change the rule", he says 'petition'.

Gauri is then seen saying "we have put a petition in the Supreme Court for the transgender equality. Gali ki ladaai aakhir Dilli tak pahuch hi gayi".

A news reporter asks Gauri, "transgender ko legal right milna kitna jaroori hai?", to which she replies "Jitna ek bachche ko uski maa milna". She is wearing a red saree with a yellow blouse, a red bindi with a gajra.

The trailer ends with Gauri hugging little kids, and saying, "maa hona koi gender nahi, feeling hai".

Sushmita's impressive transformation as the transgender activist, in her role of a lifetime, has heightened the anticipation for its release of the show.

'Taali' throws light on the trials and tribulations of Shreegauri Sawantas life - her daring transformation from Ganesh to Gauri, and the discrimination she was subjected to because of that, her fearless journey towards motherhood, and the audacious battle that led to the inclusion and identification of the third gender on every official document in India.

Talking about her powerful portrayal of Shreegauri Sawant, Sushmita said: "When I was first approached for 'Taali', in my mind it was an instant yes, however, I took six and a half months to come on-board officially. I knew I wanted to be absolutely prepared, well-read and researched to take up a critical and significant responsibility like this one."

"Shreegauri Sawant is an admirable human being, I connect with her on so many aspects, and Iam fortunate to have got the opportunity to live through her incredible life, through this series. The road ahead to inclusivity is a long one, and Iam certain Taali is a force that will help spearhead this shift in consciousness," she added.

Shreegauri Sawant shared: "I am overwhelmed and grateful to the entire team of Taali for treating my story with sensitivity. After interacting and looking at the effort Sushmita put to get my nuances right, I cannot think of anyone else doing justice to my character. She has portrayed my journey with so much authenticity."

"This is not just my journey, this is the journey and the ordeal of my people, and many people around me, who are fighting for basic rights in society. The show raises some hard-hitting questions which hopefully can change the attitude of the society towards transgenders. 'Gaali Se Taali' tak ka safar mere liye bohot hi emotional journey raha. I will feel fulfilled if my story becomes a trigger for positive change in peopleas outlook towards my community," added Shreegauri.

Created by Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar, directed by National award-winning director Ravi Jadhav, it is written by Kshitij Patwardhan, and produced by Arjun Singgh Baran, Kartk D Nishandar (GSEAMS Production) and Afeefa Nadiadwala.

It will premiere on August 15 on JioCinema.
Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis has appointed Nicole Goodman to serve as the departments new District II Manager, supervising veterans service offices in the states center-most 25 counties.

Goodman will be responsible for ensuring each county office in District II has the needed personnel coverage in place and will enforce general rules, work habits, and standards. In coordination with the Director of Quality Assurance and Training, she will also train and retrain employees on policies, operating procedures, rules, and quality control of claims processing.

Nicole has excelled in the community with assisting and supporting the veterans of Tallapoosa County, said Commissioner Kent Davis. She has been an asset to the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs as a Veterans Service Officer, and we look forward to her excellent work continuing in the District II Manager role.

Goodman served in the U.S. Air Force as a Persian Farsi cryptologic linguist. She joined the ADVA as a Veterans Service Officer in Tallapoosa County in 2017. In that role, she provided counsel and assistance for veterans and their families with state and veteran benefits. Goodman also built and maintained a positive, successful relationship with local and county officials, participated in community and public outreach events, and displayed effective and compassionate interpersonal skills with clear written and oral communication.

Goodman assumed her new role as District II Manager Aug. 1.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Several journalists in India allegedly received funds from China, Enforcement Directorate (ED) sources said on Monday.

This revelation came to light during an investigation into a PMLA case related to Newsclick studio.

However, as of now, the ED has not made any official statement regarding the matter.

As per the sources, an investigation was conducted under the PMLA into PPK Newsclick Studio for an alleged fraudulent infusion of foreign funds amounting to Rs 38.05 crore over a span of three years.

The funds received were allegedly distributed to several journalists.

During the probe, ED sources said that the agency uncovered that Neville Roy Singham provided around Rs 38 crore to News Click between 2018 and 2021.

Singham, an American citizen originally from Sri Lanka, is claimed by the ED to be associated with the Communist Party of China.

In February of this year, the ED conducted raids at the Gurugram office of News Click and seized several documents.

The ED's case is based on an FIR lodged by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police in August 2020.

The name of activist Gautam Navlakha emerged during the course of the investigation, leading the agency to question him as well. ED's investigation revealed that Prabir Purkayastha allegedly paid Rs 20 lakh to Navlakha. It was also discovered that Navlakha and Purkayastha established a firm in association with an American arms supplier.

The ED found that a few American-based firms -- Justice and Education Fund Inc, GSPAN LLC, and Tricontinental Ltd Inc -- provided funds to News Click. All three firms are registered at the same address in the US.

Additionally, a Brazil-based firm, Centro Popular Demidas, also sent money to Newsclick.

Newsclick has called the ED probe a "fictitious account".
Chandigarh, Aug 7 : A delegation of senior party leaders led by Haryana Congress President Chaudhary Udaybhan will visit Nuh on Tuesday where they will meet violence-affected victims and local people.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda will also be part of the delegation.

The purpose of the visit is to "re-establish" peace and brotherhood in the area and find out the truth, a statement by the party said.

Congress has sought a judicial inquiry into the violence under the supervision of a high court judge.

Hooda said that if the BJP-JJP government had taken proper steps in time and taken the sensitivity of the situation seriously, this violence would be prevented.

He said that the government has proved to be a complete failure in fulfilling its responsibility.

"BJP leader and local MP Rao Inderjit himself has blamed the government and administration for its failure in the whole incident. In such a situation, the judicial inquiry is necessary to ensure that the guilty should not be spared and no innocent person should face harassment."

Chaudhary Udaibhan said there is a lack of coordination between the Chief Minister and the Home Minister regarding the case.

"The Chief Minister says the police cannot provide security to all and the Home Minister says he cannot respond to the violence, while sometimes they say that they came to know after three hours of the incident."

"In such a situation, the question before the people of the state is, who is responsible for the law and order. The Congress will not allow the BJP-JJP government to play with the lives and property of the people," he said.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Delhi PWD Minister Atishi on Monday inspected the under-construction flyover at the Sarai Kale Khan T-junction and expressed dissatisfaction.

She reprimanded the officials over the one-month delay in the construction work.

Atishi said that the remaining work must be completed within one month, or else the officials will have to face action.

She emphasised that this flyover is a crucial project aimed at decongesting the Sarai Kale Khan T-junction and Ring Road; therefore, any further delay in its construction will not be tolerated.

She also directed the officials to expedite the pending work and provide regular progress reports.

"The Kejriwal government will not tolerate delays in such important projects. Therefore, every necessary step should be taken to complete the work within the newly set timeline, ensuring that the work is completed on time and opened for the public soon," she said.

Briefing the Minister, the officials said that more than 90 per cent of work has been completed and the pending work will be finished soon.

They told the minister that the flyover will be opened for public in September.

Atishi said that Sarai Kale Khan is one of the busiest areas in terms of traffic. Soon this traffic load will increase due to the construction of the Rapid Rail Transit System. The area already has a railway station, metro station, and ISBT. Sarai Kale Khan will soon develop as a critical Transport hub, thus officials must ensure that flyover construction is completed soon.

She said that the Kejriwal government is constructing a flyover at the Sarai Kale Khan T-Junction to make it congestion-free. This 643-meter-long, 3-lane flyover being built from ITO to Ashram will create a signal-free corridor on Ring Road, resulting in saving time and reduced fuel consumption for commuters.

She said that the construction of this flyover will provide smooth traffic flow on Ring Road, benefiting the hundreds of thousands of vehicles that travel from ITO to Ashram daily.

She said that there is an existing flyover for traffic travelling from Ashram to ITO, but the opposite direction, from ITO to Ashram, has to stop at the traffic signal at this T-Junction, causing congestion issues. After the completion of this 643-meter-long, 3-lane flyover, commuters will be relieved from this traffic jam.
Guwahati, Aug 7 : A man posing as an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer and extorting money from individuals was arrested by the Assam police in Cachar district on Monday.

The accused has been identified as Abhishek Deb. He was arrested from Hailakandi, which is an adjacent district to Cachar in the southern Assam area.

Superintendent of Police in Cachar, Numal Mahatta told INAS that, "Deb was posing as a top IB officer in Assam. He lured people to accomplish their work by mentioning his fake position in the IB and took a lot of money from many individuals."

The accused is a resident of Hailakandi district. Police detained him on Sunday night and brought him to the Cachar district for interrogation.

"Today we have arrested him. The man was active in the region for many months. He has duped many people. He has been interrogated by the police team to unearth further details," Mahatta said.

Police said that Abhishek Deb recently has also tried to dupe an individual in the Cachar district and took away some money from him. Later, the man lodged a police complaint against Deb.

The Cachar police launched an investigation and they found that the man had robbed many people. He was taken into custody by the police.

--IANS

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New Delhi/Imphal, Aug 6 : A day before the tribal leaders' meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to press for their demand for creation of a separate state for tribals, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), apex body of the Meitei community, on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to divide Manipur and to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The COCOMI submitted its memorandum to the Prime Ministeras Office highlighting the resolutions adopted in the mass rally held on July 29 in Imphal.

The other demands of the COCOMI include an end to the present ethnic conflict, and eliminating foreign (illegal immigrants) and Chin-Kuki "narco-terrorism".

After submitting the memorandum in the PMO, COCOMI coordinator Jeetendra Ningomba, in a video message, claimed that the foreign elements, including some of the leaders of the Kuki-Zomi outfits with which Suspension of Operation pacts were signed, are directly involved in the Manipur conflict and they should either be eliminated or pushed out of the territory of India.

"To identify illegal immigrants, the NRC must be implemented in the state with 1951 as the base year. This is to deprive illegal immigrants from being citizens though they may continue to stay as guests, if necessary, without indulging in destructive politics by creating concocted history and bombarding the media and seeking support from the left liberals to achieve what is known as a Kuki-Zomi nation (Zalengam) comprising areas from three countries," the memorandum said.

The COCOMI said that the conflict can only be inferred to be pre-planned as tension started building up from April 27 after an open gym to be inaugurated by the Manipur Chief Minister was vandalised.

The involvement of those in Mizoram can be seen by the press handouts of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl, Aizawl of April 30, regarding the eviction of unauthorised encroachers from reserved and protected forest.

Further the involvement of cadres of the Chin Defence Force (CDF) in the present conflict canat be denied and even the National Unity Government of Myanmar had appealed to all its units not to be involved in affairs of neighbouring countries, the COCOMI memorandum claimed.

It said that though cadres of CDF, who are drawn from among the Chins settled in Shan State and Sagaing Division of Myanmar have reportedly been trained by Kuki National Army in Manipur territory, "it seems that there are likely to be other powers' influence to create turmoil in the border state of Manipur. As the present conflict involves national security, it is of utmost importance that this aspect is thoroughly probed and curtailed".

In fact, the root cause of the Naga-Kuki conflict of the 1990s was due to the claim of Kuki ancestral land by the immigrant Kuki after settling in Naga areas after seeking permission from the Naga village chiefs, the memorandum stated.

Meanwhile, a four member delegation of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) would meet Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday to press for its demands.

The ITLFas demands include a separate state for the tribals, Manipur Police and commandos should not be deployed in the hill areas of Manipur, inmates lodged in the jails in Imphal should be shifted to others states of the country, and legalisation of a site for mass burial of tribals killed during the ethnic violence.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 7 : EG.5.1, the new subvariant of Omicron, has been detected in 45 countries and is currently spreading fast, but there is no need for concern, said health experts on Monday.

Nicknamed Eris, EG.5.1 is a sub-strain of Omicron XBB and has additional mutants on the spike protein S:F456L and S:Q52H. Its speed of transmission is 45 per cent more than XBB.1.16.

According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest weekly epidemiological report, EG.5.1 is showing an increasing trend. The WHO added EG.5.1 to the list of variants under monitoring in July.

"EG.5.1 has shown an increasing trend in prevalence from 6.2 per cent in week 24 (June 13-19) to 11.6 per cent by week 28 (July 11-17)," the report said.

However, "we need not panic or worry," Dr Ishwar Gilada, an infectious disease expert, told IANS.

He explained that we need to look at the trajectory of infections caused by the sub-variant, which is defined as "how many people end up with oxygen demand, hospitalisation, ICU or deaths. If all these are low, then EG.5.1 is not going to create any problem," added Dr Gilada.

As with Omicron, the most common symptoms of EG.5.1 include runny nose, headache, fatigue (mild or severe), sneezing and sore throat, as per the Zoe Study app.

"Eris is a newer variant of omicron which is causing a slight resurgence in Covid cases in the UK. The good news is that the symptoms are mild flu-like symptoms and there is not much increase in hospitalisations secondary to the new variant," Dr. Tushar Tayal, Lead Consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, told IANS.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the EG.5 is responsible for an estimated 17.3 per cent of all Covid-19 cases in the last week, up from 11.9 per cent in July end. EG.5 is now the most prevalent variant in the US, having surpassed the XBB.1.16, the agency said.

In the UK, as of July 20, the EG.5.1 comprised 14.55 per cent of all Covid-19 cases and has been growing at a 20.51 per cent rate per week, the UK Health Security Agency said. There has also been a small rise in hospital admission rates in most age groups, particularly among the elderly.

According to T. Ryan Gregory, Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario in Canada, EG.5.1 "is increasing quickly in frequency and is one to watch". It also "has an advantage over most other current XBBs", he wrote on Twitter.

But, Dr Gilada explained that Indians are already armed with a very good natural immunity.

"Most of us have been infected at least once or twice, and most of us are vaccinated -- almost 75 per cent with two doses, and another 32 per cent with the third dose. So our natural immunity as well as the vaccine immunity, which is combined qualify very, very good," he said.

"What we need to remember is to continue following Covid safe protocol in the form of usage of triple masks in public spaces and frequent hand sanitisation. Also consult your healthcare provider in case you are suffering from flu-like symptoms," Dr. Tayal said.

However, Dr Gilada said: "what is required is only scientific surveillance".
Chandigarh, Aug 7 : Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal on Monday came down heavily against the appointment of a non-Sikh as administrator of the sacred Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib in Maharashtra, calling it "a part of a dangerous ideological assault on the separate Sikh identity".

"This is a continuation of the persistent attacks on and interference in the internal religious affairs of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC)," he said.

In separate letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Badal called for immediate reversal of the decision and for appointment of "a Pooran Gur Sikh" (a fully practicing Sikh) from among the bureaucrats as administrator of the Takht associated with the founder of the Khalsa Panth, Guru Gobind Singh.

He also urged the Centre and the Maharashtra government to show greater sensitivity to Sikh sentiments, and asserted that the Sikh sangat "spearheaded by the SGPC and SAD won't allow these conspiracies to succeed".

Badal said the decision "rubs salt into the already deep and festering wounds of the Khalsa Panth. Could they not find a single Sikh in the country to replace Parvinder Singh Pasricha even if at all he had to be replaced? Does the government want to show that the Sikhs themselves cannot manage their own religious affairs and that the governments will always interfere in our sacred religious matters with sheer arrogance and insensitivity?"

The Akali chief also said with this step, the dangerous intent behind the attack on SGPC image and autonomy is finally out.

"A full-scale assault on Sikh philosophy and practices is visible in the attack on Sikh institutions, especially against the SGPC."

The SAD chief said already there was "a growing resentment in the Sikh masses against what is seen as the on-going conspiracy to snatch and destroy the unique and separate religious ideology and identity of the Sikh quom (community) by forcibly usurping control of Sikh religious institutions. This decision as well as attacks on SGPC was parts of that conspiracy."

--IANS

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Mumbai, Aug 7 : Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap, whose films like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Ugly', 'Dev.D', 'Black Friday' and others have strengthened the parallel cinema in India and have cultivated an enormous fan base, is set to visit the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) as his upcoming film 'Kennedy' has been selected as the closing film at the festival.

Kashyap, who is often credited as the poster boy of the present day indie cinema in India, shared that he had the idea of 'Kennedy' brewing inside him for 20 years but it only got materialised when the pandemic hit the world. In a way, the pandemic became the perfect physical setting for Kashyap's story as he wanted to give it a very "comic book" kind of a spin to the story.

Talking about how the came together, the director told IANS: "I have had the idea for 'Kennedy' for close to 20 years, the titular character existed in my head for 20 years. It was based on a character that was narrated to me by Sudhir Mishra in 2003. But, back then I didn't want to make another encounter-cop film because during those days this subject was a hot topic."

The director shared that he wanted to render a "Giallo" kind of a treatment to the story. Giallo is a genre of Italian cinema of murder mystery fiction that often contains a broad range of themes like slasher, thriller, psychological horror and supernatural horror elements.

Anurag further mentioned: "I decided to give my own spin to it more like a comic book take. I wanted to render a Giallo kind of treatment to it. But, somehow it wasn't materialising and then the lockdown happened and it gave me a great opportunity to set this film in the context of a lockdown because people were anyway wearing a mask during the lockdown so it presented an opportunity for the masked character to become one with the crowd."

The director told IANS that the film is also based on a true story that happened in the late 1980s. Kashyap's tryst with realistic crime films isn't new. His debut film 'Paanch' which never saw the light of day due to its violent content, was based on the Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders, a series of ten murders committed by Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and Munawar Harun Shah of Pune, India between January 1976 and March 1977.

"I took the character and the story from the 1980s and put them in the context of lockdown and that's how the film came into existence," Kashyap said.

Anurag, who is known for his knack for fully improvising the scenes on sets, made a rare exception for 'Kennedy' as he said that the film was completely designed before the team ended up on set, leaving little to no room for improvisation.

"This film follows a pre-designed model and there were no improvisations in the scenes. Dialogues? Yes, but not too much. I even restricted myself to delve too much into improvisation," he added.

'Kennedy' stars Sunny Leone, and Rahul Bhat in lead roles, and tells the story of an insomniac ex-police officer who operates secretly for the corrupt system, lives in different conditions and goes on a lookout for salvation.

'Kennedy' is the closing film for the 13th edition of the IFFM which is set to be held from August 11 to August 20 in Melbourne.
New York, Aug 7 : Two US convenience store employees, including a Sikh, are now facing an investigation for thrashing a shoplifter with a stick in a 5-minute video clip, which went viral late last month.

"It has been brought to our attention that a video of two 7-Eleven employees assaulting a robbery suspect has been circulating. We are aware of the incident and the investigation is ongoing," the Stockton Police said.

The video shows a man, his face covered with a blue t-shirt, throwing boxes of cigarettes and other products into a trash can at a 7-Eleven location in California on July 28.

Despite warnings and pleas from the store keepers, the shoplifter continues to empty the shelves, and at one point, also pulls out a knife and threatens them.

As he prepares to flee with the stolen items, a store employee tries to stop him, which leads to a scuffle. The Sikh then enters with a wooden stick and starts beating the robber until he pleads for mercy.

"The case has been assigned to our Investigations Bureau for follow up interviews and evidence review. Once the investigations are complete the findings will be forwarded to the San Joaquin County District Attorney for review," the police said.

No other information was released by the Stockton Police Department. After being struck several times with a stick, the shoplifter is escorted out of the store by the man who filmed the incident, who had stopped at the store for gas and a Red Bull.

According to CBS news, the store employees told the man filming the video that the robber had tried to do the same thing on three separate occasions.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Congress on Monday hit back at the government over the Delhi Services Bill in Rajya Sabha dubbing it as completely unconstitutional.

Congress said that BJP approach is to control everything, by hook or crook and usually more by crook than by hook.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha opposing the Bill, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "When Delhi's special constitutional status was created, be it BJP or Congress or any other color of the political spectrum, has tried to overrule two Constitution Bench judgments qua the status of NCT?"

He asked why did no government create an authority, where the Chief Minister of Delhi is in a minority?

"Why did no government empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected Chief Minister? Why did no government make the Lt Governor, who is a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a Super Chief Minister?" Singhvi asked.

He asked why has no government made all regulatory agencies of Delhi by Delhi for Delhi, funded and operated by NCT budgets, subject to the Home Ministry for appointment of its heads? This government, and this bill does it all! Something not done earlier, Singhvi said.

Singhvi, who is also a noted lawyer said: "Why has nobody done it earlier? Because it is the habit of this 'control freak sarkar' (government) whose visiting card is vendetta identity badge is of a graceless and fuming loser, whose approach is to control,control n control everything, by hook or crook and usually more by crook than by hook."

"This bill is completely unconstitutional, it is fundamentally anti-democratic, and it is a front-term assault on the regional voice and aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability and all models of assembly-based democracy," the Congress leader said.

He said that firstly, the Delhi Ordinance Bill creates a Civil Services Authority of NCT with complete powers of recommendations of postings and transfers of all Group A officers and other DANICS officers.

Singhvi said that which officer will become Secretary of Finance, and who will be Secretary of PWD, and when they will be interchanged, all these decisions would be suggested by the Authority and executed by the Lt Governor and not the elected executive.

"Secondly, it covers all vigilance & non-vigilance cases for initiation of disciplinary actions for these officers. The objective is clear: to create an environment of fear and hysteria, to intimidate civil servants to exercise control over them," he said, adding that third, the Authority shall have three persons -- the Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretary, and the Chief Minister, with the Chief Minister being the Chair of the Committee (45E+45F).

"However, the decision would be taken by two people. The Quorum would be of two people. Globally and geographically, as far as I can remember, nowhere have I heard that an elected chief executive - the Chief Minister, can be overruled by two administrative bureaucrats. He will indeed be a very special Chairman without a chair," he said.

He said that the bill simply eliminates the second and third - civil service and regulatory agencies. The object is not to make Hamlet the Prince of Denmark, not even the Slave of Denmark, but to take over Denmark itself. It is to make Denmark a hollow shell.

The Delhi Services Bill or the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill was moved in the Rajya Sabha on Monday afternoon by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday amid strong opposition by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) party leaders. The Bill was passed through voice vote in the Lower House amid walkout by the opposition MPs.
MONTGOMERY  Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded $1.2 million to provide charging stations for electric vehicles at five locations in Alabama, to include Dothan.

The grants are awarded to help Alabama be ready as more electric vehicles are purchased and travel the state highways. Awarded to Dothan is $118,974 to install two charging station at James Oates Park, located at 798 Campbellton Highway.

As more electric cars and trucks, including many models produced by Alabama car manufacturers, make their way onto Alabama roadways, they will need access to adequate charging facilities, Gov. Ivey said. Our goal is to ensure that electric vehicle charging stations are located not only along the interstate system, but on other major highway arteries throughout the state.

Funds for all the projects came from appropriations by the Alabama Legislature under the state Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Program. The grants target well-traveled highway systems away from the interstates or busy locations. Most of the latest awards are in locations along Alabamas highway system on the states eastern corridor.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grants.

These grants are part of a plan to ensure that electric vehicle charging stations are located along heavily traveled roads to give motorists alternative routes to the interstate system if they wish, ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said. ADECA is pleased to join with Gov. Ivey and the many partners in this program.

Other cities awarded grants are:

Gadsden-$180,965 to Ira Phillips Inc. to install two charging stations at the city of Gadsden parking lot next to the Museum of Art/Center for Cultural Arts), located at 515 Broad Street.

Wedowee-$180,424 awarded to Allen Oil Company of Sylacauga to install a two-bay charging station at Allens Food Mart, 1308 Main Street, located on U.S. Highway 431.

Phenix City-$263,511 awarded to Catcard LLC to install a two-bay charging area at Burger King, located at 1135 E. U.S. 280 Bypass.

Montgomery County-$461,700 to the Montgomery County Commission to install eight charging stations at Montgomery Whitewater, located at 1100 Maxwell Boulevard in the city of Montgomery.

ADECA administers a wide range of programs that support law enforcement, victim programs, economic development, water resource management, energy conservation and recreation.
Go First operates first night flight from Jammu to Delhi.. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 07 : The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the order of the Delhi High Court allowing aircraft lessors of cash-strapped Go First airline to inspect their aircraft at least twice a month to carry out maintenance work.

A bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, dismissed the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the resolution professional  appointed under the insolvency law to manage the airline  challenging the order passed by the high court in favour of the lessors.

"Since proceedings are pending before Delhi High Court where petitions are being argued on day to day basis, we are not entertaining this (SLP) at the present stage," the bench said.

The top court said that the question of jurisdiction will also be decided by the single bench of the High Court.

On July 5, a bench of Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju had allowed lessors to inspect their aircraft after they filed a bunch of applications in the main petitions seeking to de-register their aircraft currently on lease with Go First, to avoid any further losses.

Justice Ganju had also asked the aviation regulator DGCA to allow the lessors, and their employees and agents to access the airport, where their aircraft are currently parked, and to inspect them within three days.

The interim order passed by the single judge was upheld by a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula on July 12.

Aircraft lessors had moved the High Court seeking deregistration of their planes by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take them back from the airline. The lessors had said it is "illegitimate" of the DGCA to deny deregistration.

The lessors' contention is that Go First has no right to use their aircraft as the leases concerning them have been terminated.

On the other hand, Go Air had said that the relief of deregistration of the aircrafts would effectively allow lessors to re-possess the aircrafts, which is expressly prohibited during the moratorium.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal on May 22 upheld the insolvency proceedings against Go First in a setback to efforts of its lessors to repossess their aircraft.

Upholding the NCLT's May 10 order, the appellate tribunal disposed of the lessors' petition and asked them to file an appeal before the NCLT.

The airline had approached the NCLT "due to the ever-increasing number of failing engines supplied by Pratt & Whitney's International Aero Engines, which has resulted in Go First (airline brand) having to ground 25 aircraft (equivalent to approximately 50 per cent of its Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet) as of May 1, 2023".

The low-cost airline stopped flying on May 3 and is undergoing voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the NCLT. Pertinently, on July 21, the DGCA granted approval to airline Go First's plan to resume operations, subject to specific conditions. A special safety audit was also conducted by the DGCA from 4 to 6 July.
A good nights sleep is extremely significant to our health. If you do not get enough sleep, or sleep at an incorrect time, or sleep in breaks or have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, this may cause sleep deficiency.. Image Source: IANS News

London, Aug 7 : People's perception of their sleep quality is linked to their well-being, especially their mood the next day, finds a study.

Researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK conducted a study across a two-week period. More than 100 participants aged 18-22 years were asked to keep a daily sleep diary about the previous night's sleep, including what time they went to bed, time they got ready to fall asleep, the amount of time it took them to fall asleep, what time they woke up, what time they got out of bed, and how satisfied they were with their sleep in general.

Five times throughout the following day, participants were asked to rate their positive and negative emotions and how satisfied they were with their life. Participants also wore an actigraph on their wrist which measures a person's movement, for the duration of the study, to estimate their sleep patterns and rest cycles.

Researchers compared the actigraphy data with the participants' perceptions of their sleep and how they felt throughout the following day. They wanted to find out how fluctuations from people's usual sleep patterns and quality are related to their mood and life satisfaction the next day.

"Our results found that how young people evaluated their own sleep was consistently linked with how they felt about their well-being and life satisfaction," said lead author Anita Lenneis from Warwick's Department of Psychology.

"For example, when participants reported that they slept better than they normally did, they experienced more positive emotions and had a higher sense of life satisfaction the following day. However, the actigraphy-derived measure of sleep quality which is called sleep efficiency was not associated with the next day's well-being at all.

"This suggests there is a difference between actigraphy-measured sleep efficiency and people's own perception of their sleep quality in how they link to people's evaluations of their well-being."

Overall, the study, published in Emotion, suggests that evaluating your sleep positively may contribute to a better mood on the next day.

"The findings are consistent with our previous research that identified people's self-reported health, and not their actual health conditions, as the main factor associated with their subjective well-being and especially with life satisfaction," said Professor Anu Realo from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick.

"It's people's perception of their sleep quality and not the actigraphy-based sleep efficiency which matters to their well-being," she added.
Sydney, Aug 7 : Antibody-based therapies may be effective in combating influenza B, according to a study.

Dr Hillary Vanderven from James Cook University said antibody-based therapies for respiratory viruses are of increasing importance as they can be a safe and effective tool to treat severe respiratory infections, especially in high-risk groups.

"Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that can target specific molecules on pathogens," said Dr. Vanderven, a lecturer in immunology and infectious diseases.

She said antibody-based therapeutics are safe, but clinical trials have generally shown minimal or no impact on influenza A, and there are currently no approved antibody-based therapies to treat human influenza.

"A recent clinical trial used hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin (Flu-IVIG) -- purified from donors who were vaccinated against or had recovered from flu -- which contained antibodies to fight flu infections. This new therapy was tested on 308 patients hospitalised with severe influenza A or B," said Dr. Vanderven, the lead author of the study published in JCI Insight.

Flu-IVIG treatment improved outcomes in patients with influenza B but showed no benefit for influenza A.

In this new study, researchers wanted to understand why Flu-IVIG therapy was only effective for influenza B by measuring different types of antibodies. Dr Vanderven said their findings suggest that certain types of influenza antibodies, that are capable of killing infected cells, may assist in recovery from severe influenza B but not influenza A.

She said the need for antibody-based treatments targeting respiratory viruses has become increasingly urgent. The demand for an expanded arsenal of antiviral therapies to combat severe respiratory infections is high, with influenza, Covid-19 and RSV all co-circulating in the community.

"Our comprehensive examination of serum antibodies has provided invaluable insight into the mechanisms and antibody characteristics that underpin effective humoral immunity against influenza virus. This knowledge will help to inform the development of new and improved antibody-based therapies."

--IANS

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Chennai, Aug 7 : The cost of preparing a vegetarian thali at home has gone up by 34 per cent while that of a non-vegetarian thali went up by 13 per cent in July as compared to the input prices that prevailed in June 2023, CRISIL said in a report.

According to the report, in July, the cost of cooking a vegetarian thali at home stood at Rs 33.7 (June rate Rs 26.3) whereas the cost of non-vegetarian home meal was at Rs 66.8 (June rate Rs 60).

According to CRISIL, a vegetarian thali comprises roti, vegetables (onion, tomato, and potato), rice, dal, curd, and salad. For a non-vegetarian thali, chicken has been considered instead of dal.

Broiler prices for July 2023 are estimated.

CRISIL said out of the 34 per cent rise in the cost of vegetarian meals, 25 per cent can be attributed to the 233 per cent hike in tomato price last month.

In June, the tomato price was Rs 33/kg and shot up to Rs 110/kg in July.

Tomatoes aside, the other ingredients that heated up the cost side last month as compared to June were the prices of onion that went up by 16 per cent, potato by 9 per cent, chilli 69 per cent, and cumin by 16 per cent.

However, given the lower quantities of these ingredients used in a thali, their cost contribution remains lower than some of the vegetable crops, CRISIL said.

On the other hand, the cost of a non-vegetarian thali rose at a slower pace as the price of broilers, comprising more than 50 per cent of the cost, likely declined 3-5 per cent on-month in July, the report notes. a

"A 2 per cent on-month decline in the price of vegetable oil provided some respite from the increase in cost of both thalis," the report said.

--IANS

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Imphal, Aug 7 : The Meira Paibi, an organisation of Meitei women, on Monday staged protests against Assam Rifles in five districts of the Manipur Valley, alleging that the para-military force had "unleashed atrocities" on the Meitei people.

Hundreds of women carrying placards and banners held demonstrations throughout the day, demanding withdrawal of the Assam Rifles from the five valley districts -- Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal, Bishnupur, and Kakching.

Meira Paibi, which literally means 'women torch bearers', earlier also organised agitations against the Assam Rifles.

The protectors blockaded various important highways and junctions.

A Meira Paibi leader said that they organised these protest demonstrations as the Assam Rifles is "continuously brutally torturing and harassing the innocent people, including elderly men and women".

"We have many instances that the Assam Rifles is biased and is targeting the Meiteis instead of taking actions against the militants and attackers," the leader told the media in Imphal.

--IANS

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New Delhi, 7 Aug : Senior Congress MP P Chidambaram on Monday said that the BJP has won the last election in Delhi 25 years ago and has no constitutional authority or moral right to speak for the people of Delhi.

He asked the treasury benches when was the last time that the BJP had won an election in Delhi. "Please remember you have no constitutional authority or moral right to pass this will," Chidambaram said while addressing the Rajya Sabha.

"Sheila Dikshit was Delhi's chief minister for 15 years and she worked with two to three Lieutenant Governors. Not even once did the present arrangement came in the way of Sheila Dikshit's functioning. Perhaps she was one of the best chief ministers the country has ever witnessed," he said.

Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah had moved the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 or Delhi Services Bill in Rajya Sabha.

Chidambaram said that the bill has no merit. "Aid and advice means the real power is with the council of ministers while the L-G has to exercise formal powers. Just like the real power is with ministers of the government and the formal power is with the President of India."

On May 19, the Central government brought an ordinance related to the transfer-posting of officers posted in the Delhi government. In the ordinance, the decision of the Supreme Court was overturned, in which the right of transfer-posting of officers was given to the Delhi government. The same bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill has already been passed in the Lok Sabha.

Chidambaram said that the people of Delhi are watching and they know that this government is attempting to take away the real power of the elected representatives and put it in the hands of bureaucrats.

"What merit do you find in passing this bill? It is a three member panel where two officers will constitute majority and overrule the chief minister. Is it a merit when two members constitute a quorum and can call a meeting without the chief minister?" the senior Congress asked.

He said that even if a decision is taken unanimously in the meeting, L-G can still over rule it. He asked the government is itmerit when the member secretary, who is the principal secretary of the home department, will convene a meeting with or without the Chief Minister.

"Today, we are breaking the constitutional mission by passing this bill. On August 5, 2009 the government divided the State of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. It has sent shivers down every state. They can also be downgraded any time and broken into union territory."
Mumbai, Aug 7 : Shiv Sena-UBT MLA Aditya Thackeray on Monday shot off a strong letter to the BMC seeking an end to the illegal "double tax" being levied on all motorists at the 5 toll booths, looting the people of Mumbai.

In his communication to BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner I.S. Chahal, Thackeray Jr. has said that the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has recently handed over the maintenance of the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) and Western Express Highway (WEH) to the BMC.

"However, the toll tax collected from motorists at the five entry points continues to go to the MSRDC, and the Mumbaikars are also paying the one-time Road Tax. Also, the revenues generated by the hoardings on the EEH-WEH are also going to the MSRDC though it has nothing to do with these two roads now," he said.

Thackeray questioned that Mumbaikars are already contributing the highest to the Central and State government revenues, then why should the toll-tax and hoarding revenues go to the MSRDCas coffers though the BMC is spending on its maintenance.

"What business does the MSRDC have to collect toll taxes and revenues from hoardings that should belong to the BMC or Mumbai directly," he asked.

He called upon the BMC to ask the state government to discontinue the toll collection booths at the five entry points "as it will ensure justice to the people of Mumbai" and prevent them from the burden of "double-taxation".

Taking a swipe at the government, he said that the MSRDC and its favourite, near and dear toll-collectors who keep collecting the toll for more than 20 years, should sit and arrive at a permanent solution for such toll plazas.

Thackeray also assured that when his party will come to power, it will abolish all the toll-posts for Mumbaikars which add to traffic congestion, pollution, huge delays and other problems.

There are five entry points to Mumbai a" Dahisar (WEH), Mulund, Mulund (EEH), Vashi and Airoli a" where motorists have to pay toll tax while leaving or entering the city.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Aviation watchdog, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has, since 2021, instituted a 'No Fly List', resulting in the prohibition of 166 passengers from boarding flights to/from India for a designated duration, the Parliament was told on Monday.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh (retd) also told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the total number of complaints lodged by passengers were 4,786 in 2020, 5,321 in 2021, 5,525 in 2022, and 2,384 since January this year to date.

He also said the the fleet size of aircraft endorsed on the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of the scheduled operators in the country in 2014 was 395 whereas in 2023 it is 729.

As per the information received by the DGCA, the total fleet size of the major domestic airlines in the country is expected to be approximately 1,600 in the next seven years, the minister stated.

Singh said that as a part of monthly submission of traffic data by Scheduled Domestic Airlines, the percentage of flights cancelled in the year 2023 (till June) is 0.58 per cent.

The minister was responding to questions by BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi, who had asked about the number of passengers travelling by airlines in last 3 years till June 2023, the percentage of domestic flights that were cancelled this year and the number of complaints lodged against unruly behaviour of passengers, the action taken against such unruly passengers.

He had also asked about the total complaints lodged by passengers in the last three years, year- wise and the number of aircrafts with Indian Carriers in 2013-14 and 2022-23.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Aug 7 : Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill 2023, which allows persons qualified or registered under the Jammu and Kashmir Pharmacy Act to be registered as pharmacists under the Pharmacy Act.

The Lower House also passed the Mediation Bill 2023, which requires individuals to try to settle civil or commercial disputes through mediation before approaching any court or tribunal.

It was earlier passed by Rajya Sabha on August 1.

Both the bills were passed after short discussions within a space of 90 minutes in the Lower House. The Congress-led opposition remained absent from Lok Sabha, as it had staged a walk out soon after the passage of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill.

The Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill 2023 seeks to amend the Pharmacy Act 1948.

It allows persons qualified or registered under the Jammu and Kashmir Pharmacy Act to be registered as pharmacists under the Pharmacy Act, thus doing away with the ambiguity with regard to the two legislations.

The Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 3, 2023. It amends the Pharmacy Act, 1948. The original Act regulates the practice and profession of pharmacy.

Some key features of the new bill include provisions on registration. Under the Pharmacy Act 1948, registration is mandatory to practice pharmacy in India. The new bill specifies that anyone who is registered as a pharmacist under the Jammu and Kashmir Pharmacy Act, 2011 or possesses qualifications prescribed under the 2011 Act will be deemed to be registered as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act, 1948.

This will be contingent upon the person submitting an application for registration within a year of the amendment coming into force, and paying a prescribed fee.

Piloting the Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that it will increase job opportunities for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir.

The bill also seeks to do away with issues concerning the status of persons registered or qualified under the Jammu and Kashmir Pharmacy Act.

Replying to the short discussion on the proposed legislation, Mandaviya said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has changed significantly after the abrogation of Article 370 and the amendments to the Pharmacy Act will enable the youth to take up even government jobs.

He further said the facility of tele-consultation is now available in Jammu and Kashmir and people are taking advantage of it to get the best possible medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha also passed the Mediation Bill, 2023, which requires individuals to try to settle civil or commercial disputes through mediation before approaching any court or tribunal.

The Mediation Bill, 2023 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on August 1, 2023.

The bill requires individuals to try to settle civil or commercial disputes through mediation before approaching any court or tribunal.

Within the provisions of the Bill, a party may withdraw from mediation after two mediation sessions. The entire process must be completed within 180 days, which may be extended by another 180 days by involved parties.

As per the billas provisions, there are plans to set up the Mediation Council of India, whose functions include registering mediators, and recognising mediation service providers and mediation institutes (which train and certify mediators).

Agreements as a result of mediation would be binding and enforceable in the same manner as other court judgements.

Piloting the bill, law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the proposed legislation will reduce the pendency of cases in courts.

The bill has been brought, he said, to provide legal framework for mediation.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Pakistan-based crime syndicates are using Nepal as a conduit for smuggling weapons into India.

Criminals operating from Pakistan, reportedly supported by the ISI, purportedly employ air cargo to transport weapons, including Zigana pistols and Chinese-made AK-47 rifles, concealed within specially designed iron boxes, said a source in Delhi Police.

A senior officer in the Special Cell of Delhi Police told IANS that once these shipments reach in Nepal, criminals are able to retrieve the weapons with ease, reportedly by bribing Nepalese officials.

"There are also claims that members of this alleged network bribe the officials at the Nepal border to facilitate smuggling of weapons, which are said to be imported from Pakistan, to different regions within India," he said.

This was revealed after the sleuths of the Special Cell arrested three men in the national Capital and recovered 12 semi-automatic pistols, including Zigana, Beretta, and Slovakian pistols, from their possession.

The accused were identified as Md Ovais alias Shamshad (27), Mohammad Afroz (25) and Mohammad Adnan Hussain Ansari.

"Ovais was handling the trafficking of weapons across the border. Adnan used to contact their counterparts in Dubai and place the order for weapons, who in turn would convey the demand to other members of the module based in Pakistan," said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), HGS Dhaliwal.

"The Pakistan-based members of this module, after taking the order, would supply weapons by air cargo to Nepal in a concealed iron box specially designed for the purpose. Once the consignment reached Nepal, the same would be taken out easily by the members of this module, as the Customs officials in Nepal were compromised by this module," said Dhaliwal.

"Thereafter, Ovais and Afroz would travel by road, taking advantage of the porous Indo-Nepal border to transport the arms to India. As per their interrogation, they had brought in four consignments, including one dry run. One foreign pistol costs around Rs 2-3 lakh, and they used to sell the same to criminals and gangsters in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for about Rs 7-8 lakh," Dhaliwal added.
Luisa Amorim - Interview, Part 1

In June, Lucy Britner travelled to Alentejo and Dao in Portugal to talk to Luisa Amorim about her wineries, brand Portugal and the next generation of drinkers

Amorim may be famous for cork, but the company also makes the stuff inside the bottles. Fourth generation family member Luisa Amorim manages the wine business, which includes Douro winery Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo. In 2018, the group invested in the Dao region with Quinta da Taboadella, which produces around 250,000 bottles of wine a year.

Luisa also has her own estate in Alentejo  Herdade Aldeia de Cima, which is a biodiverse haven for bees, donkeys, sheep, cork trees and, of course, vines. The 3,000ha farm has just 22ha of vineyard, and the idea is to establish an ecosystem that requires minimum human intervention.

Shes passionate not only about the sustainability of the estate, but also the sustainability of the wine industry, and of brand Portugal.

My father was an important businessman, says Luisa. Maybe I get that experience from him. You have to pay the accounts, you have to balance the books.

But its impossible, I think, to be in the wine industry, especially the high-end, without emotion and passion. You have to think that what you do will reflect in 10- or 20-years time. Its more than just short-term management.

Luisa is very proudly Portuguese and as she turns 50, she says she wants to raise the profile of the country and its wine for the next generation.

At the same time, I think there is a line of tradition and heritage we should maintain, she adds, especially with the branding, the region, the philosophy.

Shes also pragmatic. She says keeping an open mind is important in this business because the climate changes, the people change, the market changes.

And how does she keep an open mind? Well, she accepts that she can always learn more. She encourages visiting other wineries and tasting other wines, as well as lots of travel.

One of the things I inherited from my father is a love of travel. When I travel, to a winery, to a city, wherever, I try to pay attention to what people are doing, the next generation.

You cannot just make wines for yourself. Its not enough for me to enjoy my wines  theres no reason for the wine industry if you cannot share those wines.

Cork harvest at Herdade Aldeia de Cima

She says it makes her happy when people recognise the value and quality of a wine.

I always think its a privilege to have our wine in a restaurant or a wine shop, because its difficult, she adds.

Luisas travels have made her an astute observer of consumer trends. She tells me that gastronomy has had a big impact on the wine industry, as people travel to different places and experience different food.

People want new experiences in gastronomy, and they tend to adapt the wine to the gastronomy, not the other way around.

She says she is seeing a trend towards more whites and roses as well as wines with less alcohol, while consumers want to grow their knowledge and then the quality of the wine they drink.

She has observed that people are not so attached to one brand for long periods of time, rather they favour new discoveries. So, even if you produce good wine, you cant take consumer interest in it for granted.

In 20 years, the next generation will probably eat, drink and live differently from you. Im not saying you have to change every day, but you have to listen, listen, listen.

I dont believe in marketing studies, they will always tell you what you already know. As a niche market player, you dont have to be everywhere, you have to fit into the segment that you believe in, but you still have to be open to what people feel, what they want and how they spend their free moments  because at the end of the day, drinking wine is part of a consumers free moments.

In part two, we talk about grape varieties and the future of Portuguese wine.

One of the Herdade Aldeia de Cima donkeys

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New Delhi, Aug 7 : Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Bill 2023, which aims to set up a national agency to fund research across universities in the country.

The bill was passed within an hour after a short discussion without the presence of the Congress-led opposition, as it had staged a walk out.

The bill 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 and foster a culture of research and innovation throughout India's universities, colleges, research institutions, and R&D laboratories.

Piloting the bill, science and technology minister Jitendra Singh said that several initiatives have been taken in the space sector in the past nine years, with the most significant being opening it up for the private sector. This, he said, has led to several startups working with ISRO.

As per the provisions of the bill, the National Research Foundation (NRF) will be set up with a budget of about 50,000 crore for a period of five years.

Singh said 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.

It 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. There will also be a provision to nominate members to bring in the private sector.

On the need for the bill, the minister said that it would address the issue of funding.

Singh said that funds are granted on the basis of competition and often IITs take away majority of funds, while only a miniscule amount of it remains with state universities.

This bill, he said, would empower states. He further informed the Lower House that the bill seeks to set right the R&D funding which, presently is "skewed in favour of IITs and other elite institutes".

The bill seeks to set up different funds, namely 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 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.
New Delhi, August 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to hold a meeting with NDA MPs from northeast on Monday evening. The meeting will be attended by BJP Members of Parliament and those from its allies.

Assam BJP MP Pradhan Barua told IANS that the Prime Minister will address all NDA MPs. However, the topic of discussions are not yet known.National BJP president J. P. Nadda, Union Ministers Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju and Nitin Gadkari will also attend the meeting.

PM Modi has already had six cluster talks with NDA lawmakers from various states.

Notably, the Central government has given particular attention to the Northeast since BJP came to power.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday chaired a meeting with the leaders of Haryana to discuss the 2024 Lok Sabha poll preparedness.

The meeting at the Congress headquarters was also attended by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state incharge Deepak Babaria, state unit chief Udai Bhan, party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, Deepender Hooda and several others.

Rahul Gandhi, while arriving for the meeting at the party headquarters after his membership as a member of parliament was restored on Monday he told media that 'everyone of you look happy today'.

Meanwhile, Kharge wrote on X, "A meeting was held today with senior leaders of Haryana for the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections."

"The double engine governments of BJP have given nothing but betrayal to the 2.5 crore people of Haryana. The Congress party is constantly raising issues related to the public in Haryana. We are alert for the welfare of every section of Haryana - farmers, soldiers, youth, farm-labourers, women, Dalits and backward classes, and small businessmen.

"May harmony and peace prevail in Haryana. All communities should live together. This state should again move towards progress, every Congress leader and common worker is fighting for this," Kharge said.

The Congress had earlier held several such meetings with the leadership of other states including Karnataka to discuss 2024 Lok Sabha poll preparedness.
Chennai, Aug 7 : A combination of good domestic, exports, and after market sales of automotive components last fiscal resulted in the industry logging a 32.8 per cent growth to Rs.5.60 lakh crore or $ 69.7 billion, said top officials of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).

Sharing his insights on the performance of the industry, ACMA President and Chairman, Sona Comstar, Sunjay Kapur said: "On the front of trade, it is appreciable that there has been steady growth in exports despite recessionary trends in Europe and the US which are key export destinations for the auto components industry. Strong rebound in vehicle sales in the domestic market also led to a sharper rise in imports that has translated into a trade deficit this year."

He said sales of cars, commercial vehicles and tractors have now reached the pre-pandemic levels and even the two wheeler industry has recovered well.

"With significant mitigation in the supply-side issues of availability of semiconductors, input raw-material costs and logistics, the vehicle industry is expected to continue to perform well in FY24, which augurs well for the auto components sector. That apart, exports and growth in the domestic aftermarket continue to be robust," Kapur said.

Looking back at the fiscal that went by, ACMA Director General Vinnie Mehta said: "The component industry sized-up to Rs 5.60 lakh crore ($69.7 billion) registering 32.8 per cent growth, thus outpacing its highest ever turnover of Rs. 4.20 lakh crore in FY 21-22. Exports grew by 5.2 per cent to Rs 1.61 lakh crore ($20.1 billion) while imports grew by 10.9 per cent to Rs 1.63 lakh crore ($20.3 billion). The Aftermarket, estimated at Rs. 85,333 crores also witnessed a steady growth of 15 per cent. Component sales to OEMs in the domestic market grew by 39.5 per cen t to Rs. 4.76 lakh crore."

Key findings of the ACMA Annual Industry Performance Review for 2022-23: Auto Component sales to OEMs, in the domestic market, at Rs 4.76 lakh crore ($59.3 billion) grew 39.5 per cent compared to the previous year.

Consumption of increased value-added components and shift in market preference towards larger and more powerful vehicles contributed to the increased turnover of the auto-components sector. Exports of auto components witnessed growth of 5.2 per cent to Rs 1.61 lakh crore ($20.1 billion) in 2022-23 in contrast to Rs 1.41 lakh crore ($19 billion) in 2021-22.

North America, accounting for 32 per cent of exports, saw a growth of 8 per cent. Europe accounting for 31 per cent and Asia for 26 per cent, grew 3 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively. The key export items included drive transmission and steering, engine components, body/chassis, suspension, braking and others.

Traction in the domestic market also reflected on imports of components into India. Component imports grew by 10.9 per cent in 2022-23 to Rs 1.63 lakh crore ($20.3 billion) from Rs 1.36 lakh crore ($18.3 billion) in 2021-22. Asia accounted for 66 per cent of imports followed by Europe and North America at 26 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

Imports from Asia grew 12 per cent, while those from Europe by 6 per cent and from North America by 23 per cent. Increased movement of vehicles post-pandemic and surge in demand for used vehicles led to buoyancy in the aftermarket across all segments. The turnover of the aftermarket in FY 2022-23 stood at Rs 85,333 crore ($10.6 billion) compared to Rs 74,203 crore ($10 billion) in the previous year.

--IANS

vj/vd
New Delhi, Aug 7 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the Delhi Services Bill in no way violates the Supreme Court judgement and it is aimed to corruption-free administration in Delhi.

He also said that the Centre doesn't need to snatch power, 130 crore people have given us the power.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the Delhi Services Bill, Shah said, "Delhi services bill in no way violates Supreme Court judgement."

Replying on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha, Shah said that the aim is to make sure corruption-free administration in Delhi.

The Home Minister further said that post-independence, Delhi was given an Assembly.

"One must read 239AA carefully. The problem is that you have fought the elections of a UT, but want to enjoy the powers of the state," Shah said.

Targeting the AAP, the Minister said, "Delhi was governed by BJP, Congress before 2015, but there was never confrontation with Centre."

He said that such a bill can only be introduced for a Union Territory.

"This is the problem of mentality that one is fighting elections of a UT but seeking powers of a state," Shah added.

Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the Rajya Sabha proceedings on Monday as the voting for the Bill is supposed to take place.

The Bill in Rajya Sabha was moved by Shah earlier in the day and several Indian National Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have opposed the Bill.

The Delhi Services Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday amid walkout by the opposition parties.
San Francisco, Aug 7 : Elon Musk-run Tesla has appointed Indian-origin Vaibhav Taneja as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as the company targets India as it next major supply ecosystem creator.

Taneja is currently serving as the Chief Accounting Officer, and will take the CFO post as an additional responsibility. He will replace Zachary Kirkhorn who completes his 13-year stint with Tesla, according to repeats.

"Being a part of this company is a special experience and I'm extremely proud of the work we've done together since I joined over 13 years ago," Kirkhorn said in a post on the professional networking platform LinkedIn.

The development comes at a time when Tesla has reportedly held discussions with the Indian government officials to bring its auto parts and electronics chain to the country in the near future.

Musk, during his June meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US, has said he will visit India next year.

Musk told reporters in conversations following his meeting with Modi: "He really cares about India because heas pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something that we intend to do and weare just trying to figure out the right timing."

It was a change of plans for the mercurial Musk who had earlier refused to consider manufacturing in India unless India lowered tariffs for imported Teslas to be sold in India.
Mumbai, Aug 7 : Maharashtra's opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi on Monday rejoiced and celebrated the reinstatement of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as Member of Parliament after 137 days.

State Congress President Nana Patole said that the decision has not only enthused party workers all over India, but has also raised the hopes of the masses in the country that he is the leader "who fearlessly fights against dictatorship".

"The BJP had conspired with a local Surat party leader to lodge this bogus case against Rahul Gandhi based on a statement made in Karnataka during an election speech. The court sentenced him to two years jail and within 24 hours, his MP status was revoked and he was forced to vacate his government residence in New Delhi," he said.

Nationalist Congress Party General Secretary Dr. Jitendra Awhad welcomed the developments, terming them as "a big victory for democracy and the people of the country".

"The late PM Indira Gandhi was defeated, other veteran leaders had lost, they were tortured politically, but then continued to fight and eventually emerged victorious, just like Rahul Gandhi. Despite continuous targeting by the BJP, he continued his struggle and has finally won," said Dr. Awhad of the Sharad Pawar-led party.

Shiv Sena-UBT MP Sanjay Raut said that this was a resounding victory for democracy and now Rahul Gandhi will again raise public issues in the parliament.

Other leaders of various MVA constituents like Balasaheb Thorat, M. Arif Naseem Khan, Sandhya Savvalakhe, Prof. Varsha Gaikwad (Congress), Jayant Patil, Supriya Sule, Clyde Crasto (NCP-SP), Arvind Sawant, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Kishore Tiwari (Shiv Sena-UBT) and many more from different parties also expressed their happiness at Rahul Gandhi returning to the Lok Sabha.

Massive celebrations also erupted at the Congress headquarters here with beating of drums, dancing, singing, distributing sweets with top state and city leaders joining in.
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : Karnataka government has handed over the investigation of the Udupi rest room case to the special wing the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the CID probe has been ordered into the case as there is an allegation that video is shot in the private college restroom.

"This is a sensitive matter and for additional investigation the case is handed over to the CID," the Chief Minister said.

The BJP delegation had met the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum demanding a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ordered a probe by a DySP rank police officer however the BJP maintained that the DySP rank officer can't probe the matter without interference and the government will hush-up the case as part of its "appeasement" politics.

BJP is demanding legal action against three Muslim girls for filming the Hindu girls in the washroom and has claimed that it is an organised crime against Hindu girls.

Karnataka Police is also alleged of harassing the woman activist Rashmi Samanth for raising her voice regarding the issue. The college had maintained that the victim is not willing to lodge the complaint against the Muslim girls while the police maintained that they could not take up the case due to lack of evidence.

Khushbu Sundar, famous actress and politician had arrived in Udupi as a Member of National Commission for Women to look into the case which has taken a communal and political turn.

BJP has also staged a state-wide protest.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : A septuagenarian man was killed, and two others were injured in a series of three separate robberies and snatchings by three men in south Delhi early on Monday, a police official said.

Police have apprehended all three suspects involved in the crimes, identified as Akshay Kumar, 34, Sonu alias Fussi, 26, and Vaibhav Srivastav, 32, within hours of the incidents.

According to police, the initial call about the first incident came in at 5.17 a.m., prompting a rapid response from a police team.

Ashok, 54, a resident of Jagdamba Vihar, West Sagarpur, who was injured, was swiftly transported to DDU Hospital, Hari Nagar, by a PCR van.

"The injured victim's condition is stable, and he has been discharged from the hospital," Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southwest, Manoj C said.

In a span of 5-10 minutes, the suspects committed two more robberies. One occurred near Mohan block, resulting in the death of Mohan Lal Chhabra, 74, a resident of Durga Park, Sagarpur. Another robbery took place near Durgapark, where Om Dutt Singh, also a resident of the same locality, was stabbed and robbed.

"Akshay, one of the accused, was traced and apprehended during the investigation," said the DCP. Upon interrogation, he admitted to his involvement in the crimes and provided information about the co-accused. "Subsequently, Sonu and Vaibhav were apprehended from Manglapuri Jhuggi and Dabri, respectively," said the DCP.

"The knife used in the offenses was recovered. Furthermore, the stolen items, including a watch, cash, and other belongings, have also been retrieved," he added.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 7 : Kerala Minister for Fisheries, Culture and Youth Affairs, Saji Cherian, had to quit last year over a tongue-in-cheek remark on the Constitution. While Cherian was lucky to return to his post after the court cleared him, he appears to have triggered a fresh row now.

The CPI-M MLA from Chengannur is known for his plain speaking, which has often landed him in trouble.

The latest controversy was triggered at a function in Kochi on Sunday, where Cherian said he was surprised to learn that there is no call for prayer from mosques in Saudi Arabia, a country he visited recently.

The minister was sharing the experience of his visit to Saudi Arabia, saying that the person who took him around there said that the popular Islamic tradition in Kerala -- where Muslims are called for scheduled daily prayers ('Salat') by a formal announcement called 'Adhan' -- doesn't exist in Saudi Arabia.

He said there (in Saudi Arabia) everything is heard only indoors, and not outdoors like in Kerala.

After his remarks went viral on social media, Cherian on Monday took to his Facebook and said that certain statements he made during his speech are being taken up by people without knowing what he really meant.

"I expressed what I was told by the person who took me around in Saudi Arabia. I was able to see real secular principles being followed there and they were model ones too," wrote Cherian.

The Arabic word Adhan (which means 'to listen') is used to call believers to worship at mosques. It is given by the Muezzin, who stands either on the mosque's minaret or in a side door.

In modern times, the Muezzin's voice is usually amplified by a loudspeaker mounted on the minaret. Some mosques play a recording of the Adhan instead.
Its not unusual for me to receive dozens of emails and DMs a day from business founders and aspiring entrepreneurs seeking advice or mentoring, or pitching for investment.

Ive been investing in and have scaled-up successful businesses for over a decade and because of this Im often asked what gets my attention. What does it actually take to secure a high-profile connection with someone whose investment youre wanting to attract? What are investors like me really looking for in a founder? What makes a founder stand out from the crowd?

Only one in every 20 to 30 pitches is going to really pique my interest, and I dont always get it right. Overall I tend to be attracted to founders who are hungry to learn and work hard to build their business, but also to those whose lifestyles and attitudes are healthy, which I see as a positive reflection on their professional dedication and discipline.

If youre a founder, here are my top 5 dos and donts for approaching potential investors for funding.

1. Make sure what youre doing is unique, or at least a fresh take

Revenue-wise, while I am personally looking for businesses already turning over $1-5 million with an opportunity to scale, what I am also really focused on is businesses that can add value to the overall Superist group, and by that I mean, offer something unique that we dont already have in our portfolio, here and overseas. So do your research and target those who are likely to be actively seeking your product or service to add to their network or have an obvious alignment to your industry or expertise.

We acquired a user generated content (UGC) agency called Your Social two months ago, for example, a type of business we did not already have in the Superist stable. Now thanks to them we do. Once weve completed a successful investment in or purchase of x or y type of business or agency in Australia, we will look at similar investments overseas.

2. Who are you and what do you personally have to offer?

In addition to a great product or service, or profitable business, investors will be looking for a quality founder with a hunger for hard work and success.

What do you personally have to offer an investor? How passionate or knowledgeable are you about your business and industry? How committed are you to the broader business, and are you intending to stay on once you secure investment? Investors can be turned off by founders who just want the cash and to exit as quickly as possible. As a Founder if youre serious about attracting the right type of investment and growing your business, then you have to allow for time to stick around and support the opportunity.

3. Be willing to take advice and ready to learn

I seek out founders that are looking to scale, who want to learn, and who are willing to take our strategic advice and act on it with conviction.

Im not looking for 9 to 5 founders. That doesnt mean I expect founders to work around the clock; its more about having an edge. Do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Are you willing and ready to learn, take on feedback (and sometimes criticism), and are you ready and able to embrace challenges? Will you stay on track in the face of the inevitable setbacks that will arise?

When we bring a new acquisition into the Superist fold, we send in a team of experts who do a complete review of the business operations, management, and strategy. Personally, I also get involved and take my role as a mentor to these founders very seriously. So make sure youre aligning with an investor/s that are a good fit culturally for your business and who will invest more than just cash to help your business soar.

4. If you dont ask, you dont get

Be willing to put yourself out there and just ask! Dont wait for it to come to you. Some of those founders who I have ended up investing in have hit me up on LinkedIn and because I do tend to get inundated with requests, I may miss you the first time, so those that are persistent and who arent afraid to follow up are the ones that stand out.

Former AFL player turned Your Social founder and Managing Director Sam Murray is a great example. Sam originally reached out to me cold on LinkedIn pitching for investment. When I didnt reply, he contacted me again. Sam says my time as an elite athlete taught me that you cant wait for opportunities to land at your feet, you have to go after them, adding that Nick liked what we do as a business but was also pretty direct about what we were missing in order to scale, and made me an offer.

Sam fit my criteria for investment perfectly; he is hungry! Weve transformed the business, helped Sam grow it into a market disruptor in a matter of months because he is aggressive with growth and, more importantly, he is out-working his competitors.

5. Be crystal clear on why you want investment



While it is great to go about seeking investment, make sure youre crystal clear about your objectives  the why  dont just go chasing money for the sake of it, or because it seems like the easy way out or youre running out of runway.



Remember, once you take someone elses money you immediately dilute your shares and/or equity in your business, which means relinquishing control. This doesnt work for everyone. On the upside, any business brought into the Superist fold is afforded more access to more specialist people, more resources, and new potential clients.



Take your time, do your research, and trust your instincts. Then hit Send on that email or DM. What have you got to lose?!

Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Lucknow, Aug 7 : The Unaided Private Schools Association has announced closure of all private schools in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday in wake of the incident at the Children Girls School in Azamgarh, in which a girl student died after falling from the third floor of the school in suspicious circumstances.

The association has taken this decision after the bail of the principal and teacher of the private school, arrested in connection with the girlas death, was cancelled.

Earlier, the Private School Association had met Principal Secretary Home, Sanjay Prasad in the afternoon. After his assurance, the decision to close the school was withdrawn but again in the evening, in a dramatic development, the decision was cancelled.

Association's President Anil Agarwal said: "The bail of the principal and teacher of Azamgarh Children Girls School was rejected by the court. Due to the sections imposed by the police, the bail was cancelled by the lower court. In any school in Uttar Pradesh, whether it be the teacher working in it or the principal of the school, would not want that any student studying in their school fall prey to any accident."

"As much as the family members of that child are disturbed by this incident, so are the people of the schools, but the reason was a mobile phone and that too was given by the parents. After all, what was the fault of the principal and the teacher in this, for what they are being punished. Due to this, the employees, teachers and principals working in the private schools are angry. In such a situation, it has been decided by the association that all the private schools of Uttar Pradesh will remain closed on August 8," Agarwal added.

On July 31, a class 11 student from Kolghat city of Azamgarh, jumped from the third floor of Children Girls School, and died. The incident was captured in the CCTV camera. The relatives had accused the school principal and the class teacher of mentally harassing the girl.

After the incident, the relatives created a ruckus. The police arrested a teacher and the principal of the college.
Ahmedabad, August 7 : Months after the discovery of marijuana plantation at Marwadi University in Rajkot, another cannabis plantation has been discovered, this time on the hostel campus of Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, adding to the growing concerns about drug usage among students.

Members of the National Studentsa Union of India (NSUI) were the ones who stumbled upon the marijuana plants during a routine inspection. However, the official confirmation regarding the nature of the plants will come only after conducting the necessary tests.

The marijuana plants were found near D Block within the Gujarat University hostel campus. Two distinct plants were found, one measuring 6.5 feet and the other 5.5 feet in height. Authorities are suspecting the presence of several other plants in the vicinity.

NSUI President Narendra Solanki expressed grave concerns about the increasing trend of drug consumption among students.

He pointed out that a similar incident had been previously reported at Marwad University in Rajkot, but no concrete actions were taken to address the problem. Solanki emphasised that it's not just marijuana, but other intoxicating substances are also putting the student community at risk.

Demanding swift action, Solanki called upon the government to take immediate notice of the matter and hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

As per sources, a team from Gujarat University police station is probing the matter.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Supreme Court on Monday said that it has no reasons to disbelieve that the Union government is taking all steps in accordance with the scientific Action Plan for introduction of cheetahs in India.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai, P.S. Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra said the inclusion of an expert on Steering Committee of Project Cheetah is the exclusive domain of the Central government and the court cannot thrust any expert in the panel as the court itself is not an expert in the matter.

"The number of deaths is not low given the fact that 20 cheetahs were translocated. But the general public is concerned about what is being done about the deaths," remarked the bench as nine cheetahs have died so far at Kuno National Park.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) said that the cheetahs are showing signs of adapting well in Indian conditions and a dedicated team of forest officials, experts, and veterinarians are undertaking 24x7 monitoring of cheetahs. It further added that in terms of the Action Plan, 12-14 cheetahs per year will be introduced from African countries over the next 5 years, subject to their availability.

The Union government informed the Supreme Court that the Steering Committee will decide feasibility and implementation of the suggestions received from the experts in the best interests of augmenting the objectives of Project Cheetah. It has maintained before the Supreme Court that none of the cheetahs in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park had died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution, etc.

The affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change said that "cheetahs in general have very low survival rates, i.e., less than 50 per cent in adults in non-introduced populations".

The reply said in the case of introduced population, the survival rates may lead to about 10 per cent survival in cubs. The Union government submitted that the veterinary care, day to day management and monitoring and other aspects relating to ecology and behaviour of cheetahs is being done by the NTCA in consultation with international experienced experts.

In view of the above submissions, the top court decided to close the proceedings initiated before it over the death of cheetahs. Earlier on July 20, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to take some positive steps over the death of eight (now nine) cheetahs at Kuno in a span of four months and called for an updated status report in the matter.

The bench had suggested the government to consider if cheetahs could be relocated to other locations, like in Jawai National Park in Rajasthan.

The NTCA told the Supreme Court, after consulting experts, that the Mukundra Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan is not suited to accommodate cheetahs as there were five tiger deaths/disappearances in 2020 within a very short span of time. The tiger reserve has a large number of feral cattle carrying a significant amount of parasitic load which can be detrimental to the survival chances to the cheetahs, it added.

Six adult cheetahs among the 20 brought into Kuno from Africa and three of the four cubs born in Kuno have died since March. A total of 20 cheetahs were introduced at Kuno National Park in two phases. In the first phase, eight cheetahs were translocated from Namibia and they were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17 last year. In the second phase, 12 cheetahs were brought from South Africa on February 18.

--IANS

puneet/vd
Bengaluru, Aug 7 : Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar stirred a controversy on Monday by stating that it is now claimed that the Upper Bhadra irrigation project is not a national project.

The state unit of the BJP, however, maintains that the Centre had declared the Upper Bhadra project as a national project in the 2023-24 Union Budget.

Upper Bhadra is one of the major irrigation projects of the state which intends to irrigate lakhs of acres of land in central Karnataka.

The declarations were made ahead of the Assembly elections in Karnataka after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the Budget announced the allocation of Rs 5,300 crore funds for the project.

The previous BJP government had claimed it as a major contribution to the state with then CM Basavaraj Bommai claiming that no national project has got such large amount of funds, thanking the BJP-led Central government for it.

However, speaking to reporters here, Shivakumar claimed that the Upper Bhadra project was earlier publicised as a national project but now it is said that it is not a national project.

"The Union government had assured to give Rs 5,000 crore-plus by declaring the Upper Bhadra project as a national project. Now, it is claiming that it is not a national project. What should I do now," he asked.

Commenting on pending bills to contractors, Shivakumar said, "In Bengaluru, we do not know when the works were tendered and sanctions were given.We have seen bills not being paid for two to three years. The contractors had come to meet.

"If the work is done genuinely, we don't have a problem in releasing money. The contractors have suffered and we have some responsibility. In our department, I have Rs 600 crore funds, but the bills have come to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore. Whom should I sanction?"

Meanwhile, A. Narayanaswamy, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, maintained that efforts are being made to make the Upper Bhadra project a national project.
New Delhi, Aug 7 : The Supreme Court on Monday commenced the final hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the remission granted to 11 convicts in the case of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

A bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan was told by advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for Bano, that the victim was brutally gang-raped when she was pregnant and her three-and-a-half-year old daughter was smashed on a rock to death.

Her mother was gang-raped and murdered, four minor siblings were murdered, apprised Banoas counsel to the court.

She argued that the convicts in the case are not entitled for remission in view of the adverse opinion given by the trial judge who had convicted and sentenced them.

Gupta submitted that the survivor came to know about the release of the convicts through news channels when there were celebrations and garlanding outside the jail.

Earlier on May 9, the Supreme Court had directed issuance of notice to the convicts, in relation with the convicts who could not be served notices. It had also directed publication of notices in local newspapers, including in Gujarati and English.

On May 2, the Centre and the Gujarat government had told the Supreme Court that they would not claim privilege over the documents in connection with the remission of sentence of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, and agreed to share the documents with the apex court for its perusal.

The 11 men convicted in the case were released on August 15 last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The convicts had completed 15 years in jail.

A batch of the petitions have been filed against the release of the 11 convicts, including the one filed by Bilkis Bano.

The other petitions have been filed by CPI-M leader Subhashini Ali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, National Federation of Indian Women, Meeran Chadha Borwankar and others, Asma Shafique Shaikh and others.
Imphal, Aug 7 : The United Naga Council (UNC), the apex body of the Nagas in Manipur, would hold a mass rally on August 9 in the Naga areas of the state for resolving the decades-old Naga political issue based on the Framework Agreement, signed in August 3, 2015.

The apex Kuki tribal body Kuki organisation Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has announced to support the UNCas mass rally in four Naga-dominated districts -- Tamenglong, Chandel, Ukhrul, and Senapati.

The Kuki tribals are engaged in ethnic strife with the majority Meitei in Manipur since May 3, that has left over 160 people dead and over 700 injured of both communities.

The UNC, in a statement, said that Naga peace talks with the government have made significant progress with the signing of the historic Framework Agreement between the Centre and the NSCN-IM eight years ago.

However, the inordinate delay in signing the aFinal Agreementa is a cause for concern and has the potential to derail the peace negotiation, it said.

aGreater Nagalima along with the separate flags and constitution are the NSCN-IMas core demands causing the delay in the final resolution in the much expected Nga issue. Greater Nagalim stipulates the integration of Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, as well as Myanmar.

There is stiff opposition to the NSCN-IM's demand in the neighbouring states.

In 2001, Manipur witnessed violent agitation against the NSCN-IM demand and even the state assembly was partially burnt. Many people lost their lives when the ceasefire between the Centre and NSCN-IM was extended without territorial limits.

The KIM in a statement said that at a critical time wherein the tribal Kukis of Manipur are being subjected to bear the brunt of "ethnic cleansing" being unleashed by the majority Meiteis, aided and abetted covertly by the state machineries, the KIM fully endorsed the proposed mass rally of UNC.

"Enduring the apathetic attitude of the successive Manipur governments for over 50 yearsa vis-a-vis denial of tribalsa constitutional rights and institutional injustices meted out by the majoritarian hegemony in socio-politico and economic spheres upon the suppressed tribal communities, it is prudent on the part of the Central leadership to act conscientiously thereby expedite the processes of resolving the legitimate demands of both the tribal communities in the form of separate administration for the Kukis and in conformity with the Framework Agreement for the Nagas so as to ensure lasting peace in the beleaguered, torn-apart state of Manipur," the KIM statement said.

The non-tribal Meiteis account for around 53 per cent of Manipuras around 3.2 million populations and live mostly in the valley regions while the tribal Nagas and Kukis constitute another 40 per cent of the population and reside in the hill districts, which covers around 90 per cent of the geographical areas of Manipur.

--IANS

sc/vd
New Delhi, Aug 8 : The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 was passed by the Parliament on Monday, despite strong fight by the opposition parties in the upper house.

The Bill on control of transfers, postings of senior officers in Delhi government was passed by Rajya Sabha with 131 votes in favour and 102 against despite a strong fight by the Opposition during the long discussion in the upper house.

The Bill was passed after voting was done through slips after a technical glitch in automated voting machine.

The bill, which has been a point of contention between the Aam Aadmi Party, which governs the national capital, and the central government, was already passed by the Lok Sabha on August 3. It will replace the existing Central government's ordinance on the transfer and posting of officers, brought in just days after the Supreme Court gave executive powers to the Delhi government in service matters in May this year.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, replying to the discussion in the Rajya Sabha, said that the Delhi Services Bill in no way violates the Supreme Court judgement and it is aimed at corruption-free administration in Delhi. He also said that the Centre doesn't need to snatch power, as 130 crore people have given them the power and also added that the Congress is supporting the AAP only to appease them.

The Home Minister further said that post-independence, Delhi was given an Assembly. "One must read 239AA carefully. The problem is that you have fought the elections of a UT, but want to enjoy the powers of the state," Shah said. Targeting the AAP, he said: "Delhi was governed by BJP, Congress before 2015, but there was never confrontation with the Centre."

He also said that such a bill can only be introduced for a Union Territory. "This is the problem of mentality that one is fighting elections of a UT but seeking powers of a state," Shah added. He also pointed out that the bill was first brought by the Congress when it was in power.

"I want to assure that none of the provisions of the bill are changed from what it was in the Congress regime," the Minister said.

Shah also said that two members (BJD's Sasmit Patra and BJP's Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi) are saying that they have not signed the motion (to be part of select committee) moved by AAP's Raghav Chadha. "Now it is a matter of investigation how the motion was signed," Shah said.

Following the remarks by Shah, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said that four MPs have written to him that no consent has been given by them and it will be enquired into.

AIADMK member Dr. M. Thambidurai also claimed that he has not signed on the paper and this is a matter of privilege.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties strongly opposed the Bill in Rajya Sabha dubbing it as unconstituonal.
New Delhi, Aug 8 : The Centre for Historical Studies' (CHS') library at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is not being closed, it is being relocated to an adjacent building, an official familiar with the matter said.

He told IANS that the JNU administration had already issued a circular regarding this change.

The university administration has said that they are establishing a Special Centre for Tamil Studies in the same building.

A few students were running a social media campaign claiming that the CHS library was being closed by the administration.

"Some of you may have already heard about the closure of the Centre for Historical Studies library in JNU. This is an unfortunate development that we must oppose. If any of you would like to join the appeal against this decision, please sign this," wrote a student in a post, sharing a petition.

The JNU administration has refuted the claim as a "rumor".

"False information is being circulated within the University that the CHS Library is being closed to make room for the newly established Special Centre for Tamil Studies. We hereby inform all concerned members/students of the university that, as part of an internal arrangement, the university intends to relocate the existing CHS Library to an adjoining building. Relocations have always occurred at JNU," the university administration said in the circular.

"Furthermore, this decision was unanimously approved by the EC. The proposed arrangement will not only support the activities of an important Indian language but will also ensure efficient use of campus space without disrupting the academic activities of CHS or any other center. We kindly request the concerned faculty and students to cooperate in this matter," it added.
Patna, Aug 7 : After the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday reinstated the membership of Rahul Gandhi, Bihar BJP President Samrat Chaudhary claimed that the Congress leader's innocence in the criminal defamation case is yet to be proven in the court.

"Rahul Gandhi's innocence is not proven in the Modi surname case. His membership has been reinstated, but what will he do? The entire country knows his character. He can do nothing," Chaudhary said.

Reacting to Congress leaders celebrating the reinstatement of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership, Chaudhary said that there is no need for such celebrations as court decisions may change at a latter stage.
Patna, Aug 8 : A mob in Bihar's Gaya district brutally thrashed a man accused of mobile theft, an official said on Monday.

The incident appeared in Murarpur Kali Asthan under Kotwali police station in Gaya city on Saturday.

The accused entered the house to steal a mobile and the house owner nabbed him red handed. The accused was then tied with a hand pump, his hair, mustache, eyebrows, and beard partially shaved before he was brutally assaulted.

The onlookers also made a video of the incident which went viral on social media.

Following the incident, district SSP Aashish Bharti took cognizance of the matter and ordered an inquiry on Monday. An FIR was also registered against unknown persons in Kotwali police station and cops are making efforts to identify the accused who were visible in the viral video.

"We have received a viral video where a thief was brutally assaulted in the Murarpur area. An FIR has been registered against the unknown persons and we are making efforts to identify the accused," the SSP said.
The University of Wollongongs start-up support program, called iAccelerate, is doing something cool.

Theyre creating a special program to help people who want to start businesses that make a positive difference in society. This program is all about including different types of people, like women and those from different backgrounds, who might not always get a chance in the business world.

A person named Kylie Flament, who knows a lot about social businesses, is helping out with this program. The government of New South Wales is also giving money to support this program.

The program will teach these special entrepreneurs important skills. Theyll visit successful businesses that focus on helping society. Theyll also get advice from experienced people who have done similar things. Plus, theyll make friends and connections with other business-minded folks.

This program isnt just for a short time. Its like a runway that helps these businesses take off. Theyll learn how to get money from investors, use research to improve their ideas, and even get help from university students.

After they finish this program, the best businesses might get even more help. They could get a place to work and grow for nine more months at iAccelerate.

Kylie Flament, who is helping with this program, says that businesses in this program need to make money but also do good things for people and the planet. Shes excited to see the great ideas that will come from this program and how they can help the community.

Theres more to this program than just business stuff. It also teaches entrepreneurs about how their business can help the world, like being eco-friendly and working together with others.

The boss of iAccelerate, Dr. Tamantha Stutchbury, wants all kinds of businesses to join in, including social ones. She believes that having different kinds of businesses working together makes a big impact.

One person who did a similar program at iAccelerate is Jessica Clark. She started a business that sells blankets and bags that are good for the Earth. Jessica says that this program helped her learn and meet people who supported her. Now her business is doing really well.

As iAccelerate keeps growing and helping new businesses, its making the world a better place by bringing together smart ideas, different people, and positive changes.

To register your interest and find out more please email iaccelerate@uow.edu.au



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New Delhi, Aug 8 : The BJP high command has decided to take out five 'Jan Ashirwad Yatras' in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, during which five prominent leaders of the party will lead the campaign to seek support from people across all 230 assembly constituencies in the state.

The party's decision to deploy five leaders to lead the campaign is seen as a major blow to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who solely led the Yatra in 2018.

According to sources, the BJP has decided to take out five yatras from different parts of the state. These yatras will be started in September.

Apart from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister and Convenor of Madhya Pradesh Election Management Committee Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and state BJP President V.D. Sharma will be the faces of the yatras.

Besides these five leaders, the party will also deploy several Union Ministers and veteran state leaders during the campaign.

According to sources, each 'yatra' will cover around 46 assembly seats in the state. Thus, these 'yatras' together will cover all the 230 assembly constituencies of the state. The campaign will conclude in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state capital Bhopal.

Sources said that Prime Minister Modi will also address a "Karyakartas Mahakumbh" in Bhopal on September 25.

The decision regarding the Jan Ashirwad Yatra, according to sources, was taken in the meeting held at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Sunday late night.

Chouhan had also raised the issue of the programme and leadership of this yatra during the meeting, but the party high command, in a way, rejecting his suggestion, decided that it would not make any leader of the state its face this time, sources added.

With this decision, the BJP high command has given a clear indication it will contest Madhya Pradesh elections under collective leadership.
"Homes England could enable the much-needed spatial planning that has been absent in England for many decades and put the UK on course to compete with European nations such as Germany"

Housing and levelling up secretary Michael Gove's speech last week focused on elevating the government agency's role to one similar to the development corporations of the 80s.

He was critical of London's mayor Sadiq Khan's failure to build the 52,000 new homes a year that the capital needs.

He said: "We're planning to intervene using all the arms of government to assemble land, provide infrastructure, set design principles, masterplan over many square miles and bring in the most ambitious players in the private sector to transform landscapes which are right for renewal."

He added that his ambition was for an eastward extension along the Thames in line with Michael Heseltine's original vision for the area. Docklands 2.0 would regenerate Charlton Riverside and Thamesmead in the south and the area around Beckton and Silvertown to the north.

"Tens of thousands of new homes can be created. Beautiful, well-connected homes and new landscaped parkland are integral to our vision and all sympathetic to London's best traditions."

Mr Gove said he would reserve the right to step in and reshape the London plan if necessary and consider every tool in his armoury including development corporations.

He has asked Homes England chairman Peter Freeman about how to develop the agency so it can deliver regeneration on par with Stratford's Olympic village in east London.

"One that can develop the masterplan, enforce high-quality design standards, acquire land, approve planning and work with developers," said Mr Gove.

He went on to discuss regeneration in 20 cities across England including Barrow, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Wolverhampton.

"We'll be working with other great cities to ensure that we have the development vehicles and the ambition necessary for further regeneration. And in each case, we want to use the planning and tax levers provided by our new investment zones to help drive activity."

Cambridge was singled out for a seven-year expansion plan to create new lab space, green spaces, cultural centres and beautiful neighbourhoods. Mr Freeman has been appointed to head up the 5m Cambridge Delivery Group.

Rural areas need housing development too

The National Federation of Builders, NFB, housing and policy head Rico Wojtulewicz said: "Homes England could enable the much-needed spatial planning that has been absent in England for many decades and put the UK on course to compete with European nations such as Germany."

Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said commercial finance lenders would welcome a more strategic approach for key sites.

But the Federation of Master Builders, FMB, was critical about Mr Gove's policy to concentrate on building new homes in cities.

FMB chief executive Brian Berry said: "The Government's focus on urban areas needs to be balanced with the need to address housing shortages in our rural communities."

Homebuilders Federation chief executive Kate Henderson on BBC Radio 4 described the government's approach as piecemeal.

"We need to have a much more ambitious plan. We cannot meet our housing need just by building in towns and cities.

"We need to think about building in rural areas too and it's about the most sustainable places for growth."
CenterGate Capital, the Austin-based private equity investment firm, is excited to announce that its affiliate has made an investment in Poseidon Barge, a leading sectional barge manufacturer and rental provider supporting critical marine infrastructure.

BERNE, Ind., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- CenterGate Capital ("CenterGate"), the Austin-based private equity investment firm, is excited to announce that its affiliate has made an investment in Poseidon Barge ("Poseidon," or the "Company"), a leading sectional barge manufacturer and rental provider supporting critical marine infrastructure throughout North America.

Established in 1986 and headquartered in Berne, Indiana with eight additional satellite distribution yards throughout the United States, Poseidon specializes in the sale and rental of equipment for the marine infrastructure market. Poseidon manufactures, sells, and rents Poseidon-branded sectional barges and accessories to support essential marine infrastructure including bridge rehabilitation, dam maintenance, waterway dredging, and various other critical applications. Poseidon offers a broad assortment of sizes and configurations of sectional barges to serve its customers' needs. In addition, the Company offers a wide range of customization capabilities and one of the largest sectional barge rental fleets in the country.

The Company's President, Mary Habegger-Fox, will continue to lead Poseidon. Ms. Fox commented, "We are excited about our partnership with CenterGate and the continuity and security it provides for our employees, customers, and vendors. The partnership with CenterGate provides us with the capital and strategic resources to continue to grow our company and capabilities while maintaining our focus on best-in-class customer service and market-leading innovation."

Founder Donnie Fain noted, "since our inception, we have been focused on delivering a superior product through innovation and customer service. We have chosen a partner that understands these keys to our success and is committed to helping us maintain and continue to grow our strong customer experience." As a part of this transaction, Donnie Fain and Mary Habegger-Fox will both have a continued ownership position in the Company.

Michael Smith, Managing Director at CenterGate Capital, added, "Donnie, Mary, and the entire Poseidon team have built an impressive organization. We are excited to partner with Poseidon to help them continue their growth and execute on our shared vision for the future."

CenterGate Capital was represented by McGuireWoods LLP in the transaction.

True North Strategic Advisors, LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Poseidon.

About Poseidon

Poseidon is a leading provider of sectional barges and related equipment for marine infrastructure construction. The company designs, manufactures, sells, and rents a wide range of Poseidon-branded sectional barges and accessories. Headquartered in Berne, Indiana, the Company operates throughout North America with additional satellite distribution yards in California, Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, and Florida.

About CenterGate Capital

CenterGate Capital is an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm focused on partnering with lower middle market companies with the potential to achieve transformational growth through operational and strategic development. CenterGate brings a balance of financial and operational experience and strategic insight to assist management in driving long-term sustainable growth.

For more information, please visit http://www.centergatecapital.com.

Media Contact

MEDIA CONTACT, CenterGate Capital, (512) 717-7100, media@centergatecapital.com

SOURCE CenterGate Capital
Aquitas Solutions to launch new client accelerating solution at popular EAM conference

ROSWELL, Ga., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Aquitas Solutions, a leading provider of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and IoT solutions for asset-intensive industries, is excited to unveil MaximoNOW, their latest client solution, at the highly anticipated MaximoWorld conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

MaximoNOW is a cost-effective accelerator designed to streamline the implementation of Maximo helping organizations reduce time and costs. By providing out-of-the-box features, including pre-configured dashboards, role-based content packages, and standard metrics, MaximoNOW offers a solid foundation for implementation, enabling businesses to achieve faster returns on investment. The solution is particularly beneficial for organizations undergoing business process changes or maturation as it retains Maximo's flexibility to adapt to evolving needs. This ensures a quicker time to value and less impact on employees. Aquitas Solutions eagerly looks forward to sharing its expertise and learning from industry leaders at MaximoWorld hosted by ReliabilityWeb.

Jeff Brown, CEO at Aquitas Solutions, expressed his enthusiasm about MaximoNOW's release at MaximoWorld emphasizing Aquitas' dedication to listening to its clients' needs. He stated, "MaximoNOW represents Aquitas' proactive response to the growing demand for a simple, cost-effective Maximo implementation. We value our client's feedback, and this solution directly results from their most common and influential comments."

Aquitas Solutions will have a dedicated team of asset management and IoT experts available at MaximoWorld to meet with attendees. We encourage you to visit booth #308 to learn more about MaximoNOW and explore its potential as a transformative solution for your organization. The company's exhibitor space will also showcase other cutting-edge offerings such as augmented reality, Maximo Application Suite, and Connected Maintenance, all designed to provide a hands-on approach to enhancing the value of your maintenance operations. Aquitas is committed to engaging with the Maximo community and welcomes any inquiries at MaximoWorld or after the conference.

To learn more about MaximoNOW, please visit this webpage.

About Aquitas Solutions

Aquitas brings 20+ years of EAM experience and a proven record of success across many industries. As an expert in implementing and supporting Maximo, Aquitas is uniquely positioned as a strong resource for clients ready to rethink their operations and facility maintenance strategy. The company's Connected Maintenance portfolio is comprised of Maximo, IoT, and Augmented Reality technologies that advance current maintenance practices while leveraging existing systems.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Aquitas' leadership team and management consultants have industry-leading enterprise asset management experience helping clients leverage their EAM system to optimize performance and improve productivity and service levels across the entire spectrum of their organization.

Media Contact

Lexie Nadler, Aquitas Solutions, 5152906778, info@aquitas-solutions.com

SOURCE Aquitas Solutions
Multi-use trail will expand mainline loop through Piedmont Park

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, City Commissioners, elected officials, Atlanta BeltLine leaders, and community members broke ground on Northeast Trail  Segment 1 on Friday, August 4. The 0.9-mile segment will connect from the existing Eastside Trail and through Piedmont Park. When complete, this segment will provide an alternative to traveling along Monroe Drive, allowing safe access for pedestrians and cyclists between the busy 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue commercial areas.

"This is a big day for Atlanta and Atlantans. We're moving closer to making the complete BeltLine a reality," said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. "Being able to go from Washington Park and ride a bicycle or jog from the Westside all the way to Piedmont Park, people are going to see that soon. Think about the dream of the BeltLine a decade ago and it is coming to fruition. This is the people's project. It offers us a chance to bring equitable development and mobility and opportunities across the entire city."

With Northeast Trail  Segment 1, 4.6 miles are now under construction on the Atlanta BeltLine mainline loop.

"The Northeast Trail will truly embody the dream of the emerald necklace connecting people directly into Atlanta's premiere greenspace, Piedmont Park," said Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. "Creating this avenue to safely navigate between key destinations is another way the BeltLine is rebuilding infrastructure in a way that unites our City."

The BeltLine is working jointly with ATLDOT to complete additional pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of 10th and Monroe Drive in conjunction with the trail construction project as it crosses Monroe Drive. The Northeast Trail  Segment 1 project will take 14 months for construction, followed by landscaping.

Trail design and engineering was led by Heath and Lineback. The construction contractor is Reeves Young, who will begin work this month.

To date, 9.3 miles of the 22-mile BeltLine mainline trail loop are complete. In addition, 10.3 miles of connector trails have been completed that tie directly into current and future segments of the BeltLine mainline trail.

"The BeltLine has become an Atlanta destination. It allows visitors staying in other areas to get to Virginia-Highland for all it has to offer. The BeltLine has connected our city in a way that seemed impossible when I first moved here in 2006. It encourages walking and biking, which is what you would expect in a major city. I look forward to this next chapter of the Beltline, and I am excited to see how this next segment will connect Virginia-Highland to other communities and neighborhoods," said Leah Matthews, President of Virginia-Highland Civic Association.

Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. and the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership are collaborating with multiple partners to start construction on this section of trail. Partners include Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta Regional Commissioner, City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, City of Atlanta Department of Transportation, City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, Fulton County, Georgia Department of Transportation, Georgia Power, MARTA, Invest Atlanta, Piedmont Park Conservancy, Special Service District investors, Trees Atlanta. U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Lead philanthropic support to complete the full BeltLine corridor comes from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Inc. and The James M. Cox Foundation.

Regular updates can be found here for construction progress on Northeast Trail  Segment 1. Design and construction updates on all BeltLine's active projects can be found here.

Media Contact

Jenny Odom, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., 4044773659, [email protected]

SOURCE Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
New research shows that a law in Queensland is treating people under 18 unfairly by not letting them add money to their retirement savings.

This could mean they lose more than $10,000 when they retire. About 87,000 young workers in Queensland are left out of the good retirement system unless they work over 30 hours a week for the same boss.

A recent study by Industry Super Australia (ISA) suggests that this law might lead to a yearly loss of around $90 million in retirement savings for young workers in the state. If these workers could join the retirement savings plan, they might get about $1,035 extra each year. If this money goes into a special savings account, it could become $10,200 by the time they retire.

ISAs Super Start to Work Report says that 375,000 Australian teen workers are not getting retirement savings because of the 30-hour a week rule. This means theyre missing out on a total of $330 million every year. Besides affecting young workers money, this rule also makes it harder for employers to keep track of the hours that workers under 18 are doing. This is tricky because these young workers often work irregular hours and dont get paid into their retirement savings regularly.

Most workers under 18 dont get retirement savings most weeks because they work less than 30 hours. Thats more than 90% of teenagers. But many of them have jobs all year round, with 75% of them working for 6-12 months each year.

The rule that excludes under-18s from the retirement savings system started in 1992. It was made to stop small amounts of money from getting eaten up by fees and insurance costs. But nowadays, fees are controlled for small amounts of money, and insurance is not automatically given to people under 25 with less than $6,000.

Getting rid of the 30-hour rule wouldnt just be fair for young workers; it would also help them start saving for their future earlier. A survey by UMR found that most people (85%) agree that everyone should get retirement savings, no matter how old they are.

Bernie Dean, who runs Industry Super Australia, said, This old law is not fair to young workers in Queensland when theyre just starting out. Keeping them out of our good retirement savings system is not right. We need to update the law and make sure young workers get the benefits they should. Its also hard for employers who have to figure out when young workers are working, which can be really complicated when the hours change a lot.

Costly super law for young workers

A recent report from Industry Super Australia (ISA) has shown a rule that stops workers under 18 from getting extra money for retirement. This rule says young workers have to work at least 30 hours a week for one employer. People dont like this rule because its not fair, and it could mean young workers lose out on money. According to ISA, about 375,000 of Australias youngest workers cant get extra retirement money because of this rule. Thats about $330 million lost each year. If the rule didnt exist, these young workers could get an extra $885 each year for their retirement savings. Over time, this could add up to $10,200 by the time they retire.

ISAs Super Start to Work Report says the 30-hour rule is not good for young workers or their bosses. Its hard for bosses to keep track of the hours young workers do, especially because they often work different hours and dont get their retirement money regularly.

Most workers under 18 cant add to their retirement savings because they work less than 30 hours most weeks. More than 90% of teenagers are in this situation. But many of them work for part of the year, with 75% of them having a job for 6-12 months each year.

This rule started in 1992 to help stop small retirement savings from getting used up by fees and insurance. But now, fees are controlled for small amounts of money, and insurance isnt given automatically to people under 25 with less than $6,000.

Taking away the 30-hour rule wouldnt just make things fair for young workers; it would also help them start saving for their retirement earlier. A survey by UMR found that most people (85%) agree that everyone should get retirement savings, no matter how old they are.

Bernie Dean, the head of Industry Super Australia, said, This old law is not fair for young workers in Queensland when theyre just starting their careers. Not letting them join our good retirement savings system is unfair. We need to change the law and make sure young workers get the benefits they should. Its also hard for bosses who have to figure out when young workers are working, especially when the hours change a lot.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  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 Thursday (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 agricultural 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 2020-21.

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. Hall has extensively shaped Indiana agricultural policy, including by being a driving force behind large and small tax changes that 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 Commissioners as the director of the budget division.

Bethany Gremel, Becks Hybrids director of culture and brand experience and a member of the 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 the human resources and education departments as well as the commitment rewards department, safety department, agronomy/research/practical farm research department, and the travel and events department. Gremel is a graduate of the 2012-14 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 Women in Agriculture Team provides educational opportunities and resources for women in the agriculture industry and coordinates the Ag Women Engage Conference.

Writer: Abby Leeds, mayer36@purdue.edu

Source: Beth Vansickle, bleonhar@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
According to business leaders, establishing a gender-balanced working environment, offering training for women, and supporting their loved ones will foster long-term commitment among female employees in a company.

These points were discussed at the Leader Talks "Women in Tech: Break Through The Barriers" on Thursday, which featured four female speakers: Chu Thi Thanh Ha, Chairwoman of FPT Software; Victoria Ossadnik, COO and a member of Board E.ON; Pham Thi Thu Diep, Country General Manager and Technology Leader of IBM Vietnam; and Lenka Prevuznakova, Unit and SDM Manager at FPT Slovakia.

The leaders discussed their passion for the technology industry, efforts to overcome social and family barriers, and long-term experience running IT businesses.

Ha, who has been familiar with technology since her student years and has been associated with FPT Group for 30 years, understands the difficulties for women pursuing this field and the advantages they bring to the business.

According to Ha, there are numerous projects at FPT Software that require a certain percentage of women to participate, so they frequently have programs that encourage female participation.

Chu Thi Thanh Ha, Chairwoman of FPT Software. Photo by Tung Dinh

FPT Software currently has 31% female staff. The company has many solutions to encourage women to engage in a variety of fields and enhance their abilities.

In 2022, the company launched a project to increase employee learning and set the objective of having all staff possess foreign qualifications. As a result, the company acquired 26,000 new foreign credentials.

This year, on the 35th anniversary of FPT Corporation, the company set the goal of creating a happy workplace in which employees can do what they want while also maximizing their abilities and strengths.

"These fundamental values will have a long-term impact. The strength of women is required in this foundation because women are tenacious, diligent, and never give up. That is also the value of women at FPT Software" the female leader stated.

The other speakers agreed with Ha's viewpoint. According to Victoria Ossadnik, COO and a member of Board E.ON, the technology industry requires women since they are sophisticated and understanding.

"A business without women may lose customers."

Victoria Ossadnik, COO and member of Board E.ON. Photo by Tung Dinh

Pham Thi Thu Diep, Country General Manager and Technology Leader of IBM Vietnam, stated that the company shares several activities with FPT Software.

IBM currently has 45% female employees. As a result, it has created a number of programs to help women advance in their careers.

There are people who have worked for 2530 years in 10 different roles and are always willing to change to develop their new skills.

"Sometimes someone who has been in the industry for a long time may find the job boring" she stated.

Lenka Prevuznakova, Unit and SDM Manager of FPT Slovakia, said that women are very brilliant and can do a lot if they have confidence.

Pham Thi Thu Diep, Country General Manager and Technology Leader of IBM Vietnam. Photo by Tung Dinh

Aside from policies that encourage women to get more involved in the technology business, the speakers also discussed the challenges of managing a male-dominated industry.

She claimed pressure is unavoidable as IBM's first female leader in 25 years of operations in the Vietnamese market. However, she tells herself frequently, "I'm not the best, but I'm optimistic and accept everyone's help."

"There is a concerted effort to ease the pressure. "Whether it's women or men, when you are confident, you can do it," IBM Technology Group CEO Viet Nam said.

Lenka Prevuznakova, Unit and SDM Manager at FPT Slovakia. Photo by Tung Dinh

Victoria acknowledged the existence of gender discrimination in the workplace, but she emphasized that the crucial factor is whether it is constructive or destructive. Taking a positive approach reveals its potential benefits for women as well as the drawbacks it may impose on them.

In all roles, women need to feel confident. "It is a natural tendency for people who lack self-confidence to withdraw," she explained. However, women in leadership should focus on understanding what needs to be done instead of exerting all their efforts blindly.

"I have encountered a number of people who are excellent but insecure. They have accomplished outstanding achievements thus far. Ladies, conquer all obstacles and believe in yourselves," Victoria urged.
Set to kick off during the back-to-school season, the collaboration is designed to offer the Canela Kids' audience a series of calming and educational vignettes, enhancing the child-parent bond, improving sleep quality, and promoting a sense of togetherness during family bedtime routines.Canela Kids will offer a selection of these vignettes for free in Spanish for families to enjoy together and learn. Canela Kids commissioned the development of 10 original stories exclusively tailored for its platform. These stories centre around topics such as kindness, bravery, the first day of school, and overcoming challenges. The Storybook app, backed by Google and selected for the Apple Entrepreneur Program, is claimed to have revolutionised bedtime routines for families worldwide. With a collection of over 100 stories authored by Daniela Vega, in collaboration with paediatric psychologists and sleep experts, Storybook's blend of storytelling, massage, and reflexology is intended to cater to children's emotional and physical well-being."We are excited to partner with Storybook to bring these unique and calming bedtime vignettes to our Latino community for free through our Canela Kids section on Canela.TV," said Canela Kids director Maggie Salas-Amaro. "This partnership with Storybook aligns perfectly with Canela Kids' vision to encourage meaningful family learning time and foster strong family bonds through enjoyable experiences. By offering these Spanish-language stories that promote relaxation, empathy, and emotional learning, we aim to create an even more enriching experience for our audience and create treasured moments that families can cherish while engaging in educational activities reinforcing the bonds between parents and their children.Storybook co-founder Francisco Cornejo added: Our collaboration with Canela Kids marks a ground-breaking moment in children's content creation. For the first time, we're fusing scientific insights from sleep and behavioural experts with enchanting storytelling to produce content that doesn't merely entertain but actively fosters relaxation and emotional well-being. Parents can now truly trust that their children are receiving content designed to soothe, engage, and enrich in a way that's never been done before. It's an extraordinary leap towards a happier, healthier bedtime, and we're thrilled to be at the forefront of this remarkable journey.
Media Prima owns and operates a range of media outlets including: four national broadcasted TV stations, including the nations number one free to air channel: TV3. Complimented by five national radio stations, three national newspapers, an out of home network and Malaysias widest reaching digital content platforms.Tonton, which is very well known across the country, originally launched back in 2010 and has been through several iterations since as the service it provides, and market it serves, has evolved. International OTT services have since entered the market but local content still remains the nations most popular source.MediaHQ now has an enhanced workflow engine and houses an advanced suite of modular capabilities that are flexible and easy to integrate. Customers have access to tools ranging from ingest, media management and preparation to distribution and analytics.The AVOD service, which launched in November 2022, was initially available on the Web, as well as on mobile apps for Android and iOS for smartphones and tablets with display and in-stream ads. This service carries a collection of Media Primas free-to-air channels. March 2023 saw the launch of its SVOD service, home to a range of premium international content, as well as local content, providing a broad selection of content for viewers. Switch Media has also now rolled out these services to Android TV and Smart TVs.In order to improve our online video services, it was essential that we went back to the drawing board to see how we can rebuild the platform to fit todays OTT landscape. Nowadays, with the widespread use of digital platforms, many people prefer to consume content online, and therefore, we required significant upgrades in our capabilities said Gregory Eu, Tontons head of product.Switch Media and its committed team promptly grasped the necessary steps we had to take and provided us with a technically sophisticated solution - Media HQ. Additionally, Switch Media have proved to be extremely adaptable in terms of structuring our partnership. It has been an invigorating experience working with them.
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Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE INVESTMENT PROPERTYIRON COUNTY, UTAHI have a nice 1.09 acre property west of Cedar City, (Iron County), Utah with a beautiful background view of the Mountains. This acreage is located about 30 minutes west of town an easy drive down Highway 56. It is a frequent visiting location for bald eagles which sometimes nest at a 20 feet pole erected at the SW corner of 36 in an area near the lot.Cedar City sits directly on Interstate 15, between Las Vegas, Nevad...

Price: $ 5 Seller State of Residence: Illinois Property Address: 13th Street near Fawn Type: Homesite, Lot Zip/Postal Code: 84753 Zoning: Residential City: Modena State/Province: Utah Location: 847**, Modena, Utah

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Wind Power HOMESITE 2.3 Acres Mojave, CA KERN COUNTY NO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE --- HIGH BID OWNS THE LOT This property is located North-East of Mojave this land lies along 58 Hwy near North Edwards, south of Aerial Acres in Kern County. A really growing community. Enjoy the Wonderful 4 Seasons Weather, all in the growth in The Heart of This City! Just across State Route 14, north of State Hwy 58 Barstow-Bakersfield and 395 Fwy. Aerial Acres is a fly-in unincorporated community in Kern County, Cali...

Price: $ 2,500 Seller State of Residence: California Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential State/Province: California Location: 928**, Anaheim, California

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Gabby Windey / Instagram

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/06/2023



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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 Gabby Windey has revealed how her "conservative" family handled the news that she's sexually attracted to women and is in a serious relationship with one.Gabby just came out as gay and revealed that she's been dating comedian and writer Robby Hoffman -- who makes the former star feel "so safe" and "so loved" -- for the past three months.Gabby shared on Wednesday's episode of The View how her attraction to women started out as a "whisper" inside of her that grew "louder" in the past couple of years.And The Bachelor alum and Dancing with the Stars Season 31 winner acknowledged that nobody probably saw this coming."Not even me, but here we are," Gabby confessed with a laugh.Gabby went on to recall how her romance with Robby began and when she felt the need to tell her family about her sexuality."When my girlfriend and I... started dating, I was like, 'We'll see where it goes.' And then it was going very well. So I was like, 'I can see the future,' for once. And it just felt so right," Gabby shared on The View."And so I was like, 'Okay, I've got to tell [my family]. I can't wait for the perfect time. There's never a good time.'"Gabby said since she and her family currently live in different states, she decided to FaceTime them with the news."Both of [my parents]' jaws dropped to the floor," Gabby revealed. "But they were like, 'We just want you to be happy.' And it means a lot. They've really been supportive."Gabby said of her loved ones, "I do kind of come from a conservative family in a very heteronormative world. Obviously I was on dating shows dating men, I was a Broncos cheerleader for five years, and my whole world was kind of male gaze.""So I feel it's not something my parents ever imagined for me," she added.Gabby therefore suggested her relatives may need a little more time to fully understand and embrace her new relationship with a woman, given it's such a major -- and seemingly sudden -- life change."I think it's going to take time, just like [for] the rest of the world and just like for me. You know, it took me a while to stop questioning and start trusting. Now I'm fully trusting and I'm here!" Gabby noted.The brunette beauty concluded, "I always just want to do me, do what I want, and figure it out later."Gabby and her The Bachelor pal Rachel Recchia both got dumped simultaneously by Clayton Echard on the show's 26th season after they both slept with him in the Fantasy Suites and met his family.Clayton ultimately chose Susie Evans -- a "once-in-a-lifetime woman," as he called her -- as his winner, but Susie was hurt by his actions on the show and didn't begin dating him until after the show taped in the real world.After Susie and Clayton announced they were dating on The Bachelor: After the Final Rose in March 2022, Gabby and Rachel both went on to star on 's nineteenth season, hoping to find true love.Gabby got engaged to her winner, Erich Schwer , on 's Season 19 finale in September 2022, but they called off their engagement , in an alleged amicable manner , less than two months later.News of Gabby and Erich's split surfaced on November 4, and then Gabby confirmed she and Erich were over days later during an episode of Dancing with the Stars' 31st season. Gabby said she and her former fiance weren't "in sync" or "the best match" for each other.When asked if she'd be star again, Gabby revealed on the April 25 episode of the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe " podcast, "I would honestly be the Bachelorette again -- for the right price ."After Gabby and Erich broke up, Gabby set her sights on her Dancing with the Stars Season 31 competitor, Vinny Guadagnino Gabby admitted she had a "crush" on Vinny and would "of course" go on a date with him if he asked.The pair flirted on social media for months beginning in November 2022 and spent a lot of time together on the Dancing with the Stars tour earlier this year, but Vinny confirmed in January that he and Gabby weren't dating."It takes a lot more for me than just, like, a couple Instagram comments to be dating someone," Vinny explained to Us Weekly, adding, "I would actually go to dinner with Gabby. It's just that we just met, you know what I mean? It's not like anything serious."Vinny, however, gushed about how he has "great chemistry" with the brunette beauty."We're both, like, comedians. So, that's why we get along and that's also why we flirt so much on Instagram because we have that same banter with each other," Vinny shared at the time.Gabby told Kaitlyn on "Off the Vine" that she and Vinny still talked all the time and he liked her, however, she said dating would be difficult since she lives in Los Angeles and he lives in New York.Erich, meanwhile, recently shared how his mental health struggled during and after .Erich announced in mid-February he was in a new relationship with model and social media influencer Elizabeth Turner.Elizabeth's Instagram account showed they were hanging out all the time and had a strong relationship, but she has since deleted their photos, resulting in speculation they've split.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Whisky is simply distilled beer. Malted grain, water, and yeast combine to work fermentations magic. Once fermentation is complete, distillation proceeds, and the alcohol vapor is captured, condensed, and stored in oak barrels. After three years, the spirit can officially be referred to as whisky.

While there are many delightful whiskies distilled around the globe, the only whisky that can legally be called scotch is whisky distilled in Scotland, where malted barley is the grain of choice. And while the word scotch covers all the whisky originating from Scotland, theres a mind-boggling variety of spirits with dizzying variations in flavor. Scotch may be easy to make, but its tough to master.

Scotlands whisky originates from one of five geographic areas, and these whiskies are either single malts or blended whiskies. This article focuses on two whiskies: my favorite single malt heavily peated whisky from Ardbeg, one of the distillers in the south of Islay well known for big smoky powerhouse spirits; and The Famous Grouse, the second best-selling blended scotch in the world.

Scotch distillers use thousands of barrels to store freshly distilled spirit for years and often several decades. Much Scotch whisky ages in casks that have been used previously to age American bourbon, port, or even red wine, heavily influencing the taste of the final product.

My grandfathers preferred drink was The Famous Grouse, taken at the end of the day on the porch with a bit of water and his pipe. The Famous Grouse is a common whisky thats an uncommonly delightful drink.

ISLAY WHISKY

The initial research for this article was completed a few years ago when my friend David from Edinburgh, Scotland, and I headed to Islay, intending to explore five distilleries well known for heavily peated whisky and our top choices for sipping. Its fair to say that we already knew we enjoyed scotch whisky but wanted a deeper dive into the Islay bottlings, with the added experience of onsite distillery visits, the opportunity to experience Islay air and landscape, and its people and their hospitality while tasting our way across the island.

TRAVEL TO GOOD WHISKY

Notes from my travel diary show that we journeyed the 165 miles from Edinburgh to the ferry at Kennacraig in Davids BMW at 70 mph with the top down. It was 32 degrees F. Within minutes of disembarking at Port Ellen on Islay, we were in the Ardbeg tasting room. While too early to purchase bottles of whisky, the attendant offered samples of three fine Ardbeg whiskies. She packaged samples for David (who was driving) in diminutive vials to be enjoyed once the car was parked that day for good.

The experience of tasting three powerhouse expressions of Ardbeg is a flavor freight train that remains unforgettable. Its a three-dimensional, completely enveloping experience  my cheeks still rosy from the bracing convertible breeze, the smell of simmering spirits, wafting peat smoke, salt air, the creak of the ancient wood floor under my feet, the firm seat at the tasting bar, the lilt of the attendants Scottish accent, the rows of deep green bottles in soft light, the thunk of a pulled cork, and a glug of golden liquor swirling in an Ardbeg-labelled glass.

All of this, before lunch. The experience is certainly worth the trouble to travel halfway around the world and the extra effort to travel to Islay. Every time I taste Ardbeg, these memories flood back to the surface.

That morning, we tasted incredible peated whiskies from the three distilleries in the south of Islay: Laphroaig, Ardbeg, and Lagavulin. It seems these three houses produce the most deeply peated whiskies on the island of Islay.

Later that first afternoon, we spent several hours at Bruichladdich for the full distillery tour in addition to the warehouse tasting. The next day, we hit another couple of distilleries, stopping at Coal Ila before boarding the ferry back to Edinburgh.

The malted barley on Islay is dried in kilns heated by burning dried peat. The smoke circulating on the drying floor is absorbed by the barley, and some degree of peat smokiness ends up in the final whisky.

That smoky flavor is what drew me to Islay. There are thousands of descriptive words that professional whisky tasters use to describe spirits, but the Ardbeg 10-year-old we tasted that day was a combination of sticky toffee pudding and campfire. A bottle of Ardbeg Corryvreckan was purchased as research for this article, and that sip immediately transported me back to the Ardbeg tasting room.

Read the tasting notes from various professional scotch tasters with much more developed palettes, and youll find their assessment notes using words like hints of smoke, tar, and freshly dug soil to caramel, ripe or dried tree fruits and dark chocolate, vanilla, or lemon notes.

WHATS THE BIG DEAL WITH SCOTCH? A BIT OF HISTORY

According to Charles MacLean, in Malt Whisky: The Complete Guide, theres a record of King James IV in 1494 requesting what would today equal 1,250 bottles of aqua vitae be produced by Friar Cor of the Benedictine Order for his royal pantry. Distilling spirits from fermented barley and other grains had been going on for some time before this. Crofters, the people who worked the land and harvested grain back then, have been enjoying the water-of-life produced from surplus grain.

Whisky has been the drink of the common man for centuries and may well have been used as a form of payment to supplement land rent. The original whisky was rough; theres a good reason it was called firewater. The Scotch whisky we enjoy today is very refined and can be a tremendously complex and enjoyable drink.

HOW TO TASTE A WHISKY

Whisky is big business and reported to be growing as new distillers set up shop and pour freshly distilled spirits into oak for aging. Most of the whisky consumed is likely poured into tumblers with water or ice and simply sipped or drunk  enjoyed without much fuss about fancy glasses or tasting protocol. But if you drop half a days wages or more on a coveted bottle of some magical dram, you may well want to extend the pleasure. The right glass and a few simple steps will help maximize your whisky experience. The lessons learned at Islay distillery tastings go like this:

Pour and view. Have a good look at the whisky in the glass. Those rivulets of liquid that adhere to the sides of the glass are referred to as legs and indicate viscosity.

Approach. Be careful, there might be a beast in there. Approach the poured dram with caution. Whisky, especially cask-strength spirits, is strong enough to overpower your nose. Proceed gently.

Nose. Enjoy the process. Gently inhale the scent through both nostrils. Let your mind wander around those smells.

Sip and savor. There are layers of tasting: the initial taste, the swirl, the swallow, and the aftertaste. Note each segment and how the taste of the spirit changes through the process. The first taste should be neat. Then, decide if youd like to add water. Whisky tasters claim water helps open the whisky to make the aromas more accessible to your nose. Enjoy each step of the process.

WHERE TO START

Opinions are strong about scotch. Scotch lovers love it dearly, while others are hesitant to give it a taste. Theres nothing wrong with starting your scotch exploration with the big smoky whiskies of Islay  just save these peated whiskies for last if you plan on setting up a tasting flight combined with other non-peated scotch. While my strong preference is to have whisky neat or sometimes with a drop of water, there are times when a cocktail makes sense. There are plenty of options to explore in the world of whisky, and scotch is an interesting collection of stories and places to explore. Slow down, enjoy the process, and enjoy each leg of the journey.

A NOTE ABOUT GLASSWARE

While whisky drinkers like to think of themselves as less snooty than wine enthusiasts, there are a few glasses that are particularly well suited to tasting (or rather smelling) whisky. These four glasses tend to concentrate the aroma of whisky and put it right up front where your nose gets easy access to the delicious scent of that golden glory.

All scotch-tasting glasses are designed to put the concentrated aroma right at your nose. From left to right: stemless tulip with lid, Norlan glass, Ardbeg stemmed tulip, and Glencairn glass.

Left to right: the stemless wineglass, the Norlan tumbler, the stemmed custom Ardbeg tulip, and the classic Glencairn glass.

COCKTAILS

Here are two time-honored cocktails that highlight the flavor of scotch while making it more approachable. Directions to make a Rob Roy and the classic Rusty Nail follow. History claims the Rob Roy cocktail was developed by the barman at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York in the late 1800s to celebrate the debut of an operetta of the same name.

Its a scotch pivot on the rye and bourbon-based Manhattan, with main ingredients of blended scotch and sweet vermouth. Add a splash of Angostura orange bitters and three Luxardo maraschino cherries as a garnish. (These cherries prepared by the Italian Luxardo brand are like none youve ever tasted and well worth the trouble to search them out for your cocktail party.)

The classic Rob Roy is a scotch-forward cocktail enhanced with Luxardo maraschino cherries. Luxardo maraschino cherries are ridiculously rich and flavorful  definitely worth seeking out for this cocktail.

The Rusty Nail is a simple three-to-one blend of ice-chilled scotch and the scotch-based liqueur Drambuie.

Rob Roy

2 parts blended scotch (The Famous Grouse blended scotch whisky)

1 part sweet vermouth (Red Noilly Prat)

2 dashes of Angostura orange bitters

3 Luxardo cherries

Orange twist (optional)

Mix the liquid ingredients with  cup of ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with Luxardo cherries.

Rusty Nail

3 parts blended scotch

1 part Drambuie

The Rusty Nail is a simple combination of scotch-based Drambuie liqueur and blended scotch.

Mix over crushed ice, shake, strain, and pour over a large ice cube in a cocktail glass.
iPhone 14 series were officially launched in the Vietnamese market on Oct. 14, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Khuong Nha

After 10 months of being sold in Vietnam, iPhone 14 Pro Max has seen its selling price fall by 24% to VND25.7 million (US$1,089).

In early August, some Apple authorized resellers (AARs) in Vietnam lowered the price of iPhone 14 Pro Max to less than VND26 million, the lowest since its launch in October 2022.

Di Dong Viet is selling iPhone 14 Pro Max for VND25.7 million, Hoang Ha Mobile for VND25.9 million, CellphoneS and FPT Shop for VND26.4 million, and The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) for VND26.7 million.

The current price of iPhone 14 Pro Max at AARs is some VND5 million lower than the smartphone sold at Apple Store Online Vietnam.

Phung Phuong, a manager of Di Dong Viet, said the price decline stemmed from both Apples assistance given to AARs and their own efforts.

Besides iPhone 14 Pro Max, other models of Apple have seen selling prices drop by VND300,000-500,000 per unit. The prices of iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 14 Pro currently are at least VND18.5 million, VND21 million and VND23.6 million, respectively.

The manager of a big AAR said the prices of iPhone 14 models have decreased the most drastically.

After 10 months of being sold in Vietnam, the price of iPhone 13 Pro Max declined by 15.7% to VND26.9 million from VND31.9 million.

The third quarter is always a quiet period for the market as users wait for a new model of iPhone, usually launched in September and sold in October in Vietnam.

However, this year the price competition has become more intense, forcing AARs to offer big discounts to attract users.

"This may be the bottom price of iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the price race is showing signs of ending," a manager of Hoang Ha Mobile said.

In addition to smartphones, AARs have lowered selling prices of other Apple products by VND0.5-1 million per unit to lure customers before the new school year starts in September.

This year, AARs in Vietnam not only compete with each other but also with Apple when its online store is offering students many incentives and promotions.
After two years of construction, Athena Studios, the first sound-stage development in Athens, is now open for business, ready to accommodate p
Unlike any other business, banking is a turf where the captain's role is the most critical.

Often a bank is defined by the personality of the CEO who runs it.Both HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are the creation of their CEOs, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

IMAGE: Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak addresses a press conference in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

Uday Kotak, MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, will step down on December 31, ending his close to 21-year tenure since February 2003.

The only banker who has had a longer stint as CEO in India is HDFC Bank Ltd's former boss Aditya Puri -- 26 years.

Like Kotak, he had been with the bank since its inception (in 1994) and retired in October 2020.

Of course, there is a difference between the two: Kotak is the promoter of the bank, while Puri is a professional.

Among the current CEOs of private banks who have long stints are Murali M Natrajan of DCB Bank Ltd (14 years, since April 2009); Shyam Srinivasan of The Federal Bank Ltd (over 12-and-a-half years, since September 2010) and N Kamakodi of City Union Bank Ltd (over 12 years since May 2011).

In April, Kamakodi got the Reserve Bank of India's nod for his re-appointment for another three years.

His tenure will end by April 2026 as the RBI has capped the stint of non-promoter CEOs at 15 years even though the retirement age for a private bank's CEO is 70.

Kamakodi will be 52 in 2026. One can be re-appointed after a gap of three years, provided there's no association with the bank in any way during that period.

Have these gentlemen been occupying the corner office far too long? Let's take a look at the US banking system.

James Dimon, 67, has been the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase since 2005.

A February 2022 article on the tenure of bank CEOs in American Banker talks about many who have been at the helm for decades.

The longest-serving CEO among the top 100 US banks is Richard Adams -- 48 years. He has led United Bankshares and its predecessor, the Parkersburg National Bank in West Virginia, since 1975.

George Gleason of Bank OZK has been there for 43 years, followed by James Herbert of First Republic Bank in San Francisco (37 years) and Dominic Ng who has led East West Bancorp for more than three decades, since 1991.

First Republic Bank was shut down on May 1 and its assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The list includes Harris Simmons (CEO of Zions Bancorporation for 32 years) and Richard Fairbank, CEO of Capital One Financial (28 years) -- one of the 10 largest commercial banks in the US -- which he co-founded in 1994.

Among other long-serving bank CEOs, Edward Wehmer has been running Wintrust Financial for 24 years and Terry Turner has spent 22 years at Pinnacle Financial Partners, the second largest bank in Tennessee.

Matt Wagner, too, has been there for 22 years as the CEO of PacWest Bancorp.

Finally, Joseph DePaolo had been the CEO of crypto-friendly Signature Bank for 21 years till it collapsed in March 2023, the second biggest bank failure in the US since Washington Mutual closed in 2008.

Like India, at least three other countries -- Nigeria, Ghana and Myanmar -- limit the tenure of a bank CEO.

Unlike any other business, banking is a turf where the captain's role is the most critical.

Often a bank is defined by the personality of the CEO who runs it.

Both HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are the creation of their CEOs.

Of course, there are bankers who in their obsession to become larger than the institution have invited trouble for themselves as well as their banks.

A May report of Yes Securities (India) Ltd talks about the tenure of some of the current bank CEOs and how long they can remain at the helm.

IMAGE: Aditya Puri, HDFC Bank's CEO for 26 years till he stepped down in October 2020.

Amitabh Chaudhry's current term at Axis Bank Ltd ends in December 2024. Going by the RBI norm, he can continue till December 2033.

Both Sandeep Bakhshi of ICICI Bank Ltd and Sashidhar Jagdishan of HDFC Bank Ltd will see their current term ending in October this year.

Bakhshi can continue till May 2030 and Jagdishan till March 2035, provided the RBI gives its nod to the renewal of their tenures.

The RBI's approval for IndusInd Bank Ltd CEO Sumant Kathpalia is in place till March 2025. At the helm since March 2020, he will turn 70 in December 2031.

IDFC Capital First Bank Ltd's CEO V Vaidyanathan's current term ends in December 2024. He turns 70 in January 2038, but will complete his 15 years (provided the banking regulator gives its nod) by December 2033.

The RBI's approval for Bandhan Bank Ltd's Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's existing term ends in July 2024. Theoretically, he can continue till August 2030.

These are private sector bankers. Now, take a look at the top brass of some public sector banks.

IMAGE: Murali M Natrajan of DCB Bank Ltd. Photograph: ANI Photo

The current term of Bank of Baroda MD Debadatta Chand will end in June 2026.

But he can remain at the helm till January 2031 when he turns 60.

Similarly, Bank of India boss Rajneesh Karnatak's term ends in April 2026, but he can continue till July 2030.

Karnatak and Chand are the two youngest leaders among the current crop of public sector bank CEOs.

Atul Kumar Goel of Punjab National Bank, who had headed UCO Bank before the current assignment, will see his tenure ending in December 2024 when he turns 60.

The current term of A Manimekhalai, CEO of Union Bank of India, will end in June 2025. She will turn 60 nine months later in March 2026.

Will she get another term? If yes, for how long?

Similarly, Shanti Lal Jain of Indian Bank will turn 60 in December 2024.

His current term is ending in August 2024. Will he have to demit office before turning 60?

In the past, there have been instances of nationalised bank chiefs retiring after completing their term, but before touching 60: K R Kamath (he first headed the Allahabad Bank, merged into Indian Bank in 2021, and then Punjab National Bank) and Rajeev Rishi (Central Bank of India) are two such examples.

Recently, Bank of India chief Atanu Kumar Das, too, retired a few months before completing 60.

A finance ministry notification in November 2022 stated that the top-level appointment at nationalised banks could initially be for up to five years and extended by another five years.

However, it is silent on the age of retirement. The past norm was three years or till the age of 60, whichever was earlier.

IMAGE: Axis Bank Chief CEO Amitabh Chaudhry. Photograph: ANI Photo

The crowd of relatively young bankers at the senior level is probably the reason behind extending the tenure of MDs and executive directors.

A few of the EDs are in their early 50s and at least one is in his late 40s.

Since the number of such banks has shrunk to 11 after the government's consolidation drive, there aren't too many positions at the top.

But, even after the change, some of the EDs -- who are not promoted to be MD -- may have to retire before they turn 60.

Unlike the bosses of nationalised banks, the State Bank of India's chairman can remain at the helm even after hitting 60.

Typically, the tenure is for three years.

There are exceptions, though. For instance, Arundhati Bhattacharya got a one-year extension beyond her three-year term and O P Bhatt got close to a five-year term, one shot.

The extension of the tenure of whole-time directors of nationalised banks to 10 years is fine, but why can't the retirement age be extended to 70 a la private banks? Why should we have two sets of rules?

The RBI has started showing the door to those who compromise on governance, but its patience for non-performance is still pretty high.

The regulator also needs to be consistent in its approach to approving a new term of the CEO.

In the recent past, there has been at least one instance where a private bank's boss got a fresh term of one year despite its board recommending three years.

The RBI followed it up with a three-year term! Doesn't it create confusion?

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, author of Roller Coaster: An Affair with Banking, is a senior advisor to the Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Quick commerce is proving to be a solid business proposition, with companies like Zomatos Blinkit and Y Combinator-backed Zepto recently registering growth, charting paths to profitability.

Blinkit logged its highest gross order value (GOV) and customer transactions in June and July, showing a positive contribution for the first time in the quarter ended June 2023.

Deepinder Goyal, Zomatos co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), predicted that Blinkit would deliver more value to shareholders than the core food delivery business in the next decade.

Blinkits GOV is very close to Zomatos GOV in some of the large cities where we have an overlapping presence.

"This is just the start, and I believe that 10 years from now, Blinkit will drive more value for our shareholders than Zomato, he wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Blinkits revenue rose to Rs 384 crore in Q1FY24, from Rs 363 crore in the previous quarter.

Its average order value (AOV) was Rs 582 in Q1, up 11 per cent from Rs 522 in the last quarter.

The firm improved performance despite operational disruptions from heavy rain and a heat wave, and a strike by its delivery workers in April  which caused a temporary closure of some of its dark stores in Delhi-NCR.

However, these disruptions did impact the business.

Blinkit reported slower sequential GOV growth for the quarter at Rs 2,140 crore, compared to Rs 2,046 crore in Q4FY23.

Regardless, the firm's top brass expects over 60 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in GOV, while continuing to improve economics.

We think the business is still in its infancy, with only around 4 million monthly transacting customers and a limited geographical footprint, especially given the size of the opportunity, said Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit.

Based on its current volume, the company predicts 20 per cent growth in GOV next quarter.

It also expects the business to become earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) positive in the next four quarters.

We are squarely focused on growing our business in terms of customer numbers and their monthly wallet share.

"If we do this successfully, profitability will be the result, Dhindsa added.

The Blinkit story echoes that of its competitor Zepto. Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO, Zepto, recently told Business Standard that he expected the company to become cashflow positive in the coming year.

The Mumbai-based startup aims to increase scale alongside profitability.

It's not enough to simply maintain growth and then break even.

"Our focus has always been on achieving profitability while increasing scale, he said.

Palicha's firm is also on a similar growth path.

Dark stores, contributing to over half of Zepto's business, are profitable.

The company has seen 300 per cent Y-o-Y growth in sales this year.

Additionally, he predicts the business will become cashflow positive in the next 12-15 months.

At present, we operate over 200 dark stores in seven cities.

"Most of our growth is from deepening operations in existing locations.

"Even without geographical expansion, we're seeing huge growth due to the size of the market opportunity, Palicha said.

Similarly, Blinkit management predicts the company will become adjusted Ebitda positive over the next four quarters.

The company, which currently runs 383 dark stores, plans to open nearly 100 new stores in FY24.

Getting to sustainable positive contribution at a business level was the first step, but theres a lot that needs to come together in order to get to Adjusted EBITDA break-even.

"Doing that in conjunction with the store expansion plan is going to be challenging, but the team is very determined to deliver on growth and profitability over the next few months, Dhindsa added.

The management team is also confident about achieving adjusted Ebitda break-even at a cumulative investment, which is much lower than the $320 million --- the target set in August 2022 --- when Blinkit was acquired.
Reliance Industries (RILs) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the companys focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer.

Photograph: Niharika Kulkarni/Reuters

RIL has sought shareholders approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary.

The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses, was expected to be listed soon.

Reliance Jio has received a $2.2 billion fund support from Swedish Export Credit Agency (EKN) to finance equipment for the 5G rollout, according to the report.

The company has largely procured telecom gears from Swedish firm Ericsson and Finnish company Nokia to deploy its 5G network.

In the report, Ambani said the companys initiatives in the solar value chain and green hydrogen were progressing well.

The world is entering a new energy era, which is going to be highly disruptive.

"The age of fossil fuels, which powered economic growth globally for nearly three centuries, cannot continue much longer, Ambani was quoted in the firms latest annual report for FY23.

The oil to chemicals (O2C) and oil and gas segments together contributed more than half of the company's total Ebitda in FY23.

Ebitda refers to earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization.

Addressing this business segment, Ambani said: Our O2C business is transforming.

"We are switching to renewable sources of energy and newer energy technologies, while promoting the concept of a circular economy, especially for our petrochemical products.

"Sustainable business techniques are rapidly gaining momentum.

Ambani said the company was making significant strides in establishing a world-class solar energy value chain and progressing on building a green hydrogen ecosystem.

Our goal is to provide affordable green hydrogen as a viable alternative to traditional fuels," he said, noting that the first-ever green hydrogen production was achieved with the firing of torrefied biomass in gasifiers in FY23.

The report outlined that RIL is in the advanced stages of designing 50 TPD B2H demo plants to produce green hydrogen based on patented technology, offering the lowest operating costs for green hydrogen production.

RIL, in its annual report note, noted that after proving cost and performance targets, the company aims to progressively commence the transition from Grey to Green Hydrogen by 2025.

Ambani will address shareholders at the companys 46th annual general meeting (AGM) on August 28.

During the AGM, the company will also seek a re-appointment for Ambani as MD for another term of five years (starting from April 2024), as the billionaire will turn 70 in April 2027.

RILs AGM serves as a key event for the street, which looks out for management guidance on financial metrics, such as debt and business strategies. Analysts have noted that developments in the new energy business will be a key focus at the upcoming AGM.

One of the key priorities for the O2C business, according to the report, is to transition from being a commodity product supplier to customer ownership through solutions and services.

Regarding its oil and gas business, the annual report noted that domestic production was at a 10-year high.

The company expects oil demand to remain healthy due to steady economic growth.

New supply from upcoming refining capacities in the Middle East, China, and Africa will likely keep the market balanced, the report said.

On the recently demerged financial services businesses, Ambani said: As various financial services are governed by different regulatory frameworks, we believe an independent financial services entity will allow us to access the opportunities available in the Indian market.

He said the business aims to provide simple, affordable, and innovative digital-first solutions.

The report said the new entity was expected to unlock value for shareholders and give them an opportunity to be a part of a new growth platform.
French carmaker Citroen will launch its C3 Aircross Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) in India by October, and is betting big on exports from India to markets like South Africa, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Nepal, a top company executive told Business Standard.

Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Citroen, which sold 6,000 units through Citroen C3 and C5 Aircross SUV, is likely to double its sales during the current year, as it has already sold 6,000 units of Citroen C3 and eC3 electric vehicles during the first six months.

We are going to start bookings for the C3 Aircross SUV in September and launch it in October. Price will be at the heart of the midsize SUV market, said Saurabh Vatsa, Citroen India branch head.

The company is also poised to launch a new vehicle on the C-cubed platform by early next year.

Earlier, we said we will be launching three vehicles on a C-cubed platform. Now, we are going to launch the fourth one by early next year, he explained.

Stellantis, which came into existence after the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group in 2021, currently sells its Jeep and Citroen brands in the country.

At present, Citroen sells three vehicles in India based on the C-cubed platform.

These include Citroen C3, C5 Aircross SUV and eC3.

The group has invested over Rs 600 crore in the Indian market with two factories in Tamil Nadu  a vehicle assembly plant in Tiruvallur and an engine and transmission plant at Hosur along with a research and development (R&D) centre in Chennai.

Stellantis is going to invest Euro 30 billion globally by 2025. India is going to be our key market.

"We are looking at launching Citroen in Indonesia too, said Billy Hayes, head of sales, marketing and regional operations (India and Asia Pacific Region), Stellantis.

The company recently began exports to South Africa, ASEAN and Nepal from the Kamrajar Port in Chennai and are expecting export growth in future.

We have sent the first couple of batches to these countries, Vatsa added.

Citroen, which is at present having 45 dealers, is planning to increase it to 60 by the launch of C3 Aircross SUV in October and ramp it up to 75 by the end of this year.

This will be doubled to 150 outlets by next year, making network expansion one of the key aspects of its growth strategy, Vatsa said.

Volume growth is going to be driven by network expansion, new model introduction and awareness, Vatsa added.

The company claims that it is at present having a capacity of 100,000 units at Tiruvallur, which can be extended to 300,000 units, if required.

Over 60 per cent of suppliers are within 50 km from Tiruvallur. More importantly, around 66 per cent of our C3 customers are first-time buyers, which shows that new customers are showing confidence in us, he added.
'...and then get scaled down somewhat.'

'It will be difficult for any side to occupy meaningful territories, maybe just a bit here and there, and the destruction may vary on either side.'

IMAGE: A Rafale flies over Leh. Photograph: ANI Photo

Air Marshal Gurcharan Singh Bedi (retd) was commissioned as a fighter pilot in June 1984 and has over 3,700 hours of accident free flying on MiG-21 and Mirage 2000 aircraft.

The air marshal is the recipient of the Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry) for his role in the Kargil War.

A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and an alumnus of the National Defence College, New Delhi, Air Marshal Bedi has commanded a fighter squadron and a frontline fighter base. He also served as Air Officer Commanding Jammu and Kashmir, Assistant Chief of Air Staff Operations (Offensive) and Senior Air Staff Officer of two operational commands apart from other tenures in his long and illustrious career in the Indian Air Force.

Air Marshal Bedi has had the experience of looking at Chinese fighting capability during his tenures in the north east and Jammu and Kashmir.

With the recent news of the upgradation of Chinese airfields facing India's border, Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd) spoke to Air Marshal Bedi for his understanding of this security challenge.

"If a long war is thrust upon us, we should be able to hold on and won't have to seek a ceasefire on unfavourable terms," says the air veteran.

With the current Russia-Ukraine war as a backdrop, what do you have to say of future India-China wars?

Would we be in a position to fight long drawn out conflicts like the war in Ukraine, which is into its 530th day?

We will not have control over the war or when to finish it. If it prolongs like the Russia-Ukraine one, the positive part is that, today, we have the capacity to hold on for this long on our own.

Ukraine has been able to continue like this because of overwhelming outside support which we may not really get.

The future war with China may start at a higher tempo and then get scaled down somewhat.

In my opinion, it will be difficult for any side to occupy meaningful territories, maybe just a bit here and there, and the destruction may vary on either side.

If a long war is thrust upon us, we should be able to hold on and won't have to seek a ceasefire on unfavourable terms.

IMAGE: A SU-30 flying in Ladakh. Photograph: ANI Photo

The PLAAF (People's Liberation Army [Air Force] is modernising/upgrading its forward bases in Tibet.

What do you have to say of the PLAAF capability against the IAF in future conflicts?

Sortie on sortie wouldn't really matter here. The IAF has sufficient sortie generation rate in this sector.

we can launch enough sorties in a day as required for sustaining operations.

Improvement in infrastructure will certainly have a favourable effect for the PLAAF.

We are extremely short on air to air refuellers, and certainly need to increase their strength.

At the same time, this shortfall may not have a large effect on the kind of operations that may unfold in this sector.

The IAF will need to launch greater number of missions, not necessarily for targets in depth.

The refuellers become necessary when you have to travel long distances and are able to refuel when flying over own or friendly territory.

Air to Air refuelling aircraft will be relevant for sustained Air Defence cover.

Air Defence aircraft will need to be on station for long periods to guard our skies and vital areas, but they will necessarily need to remain beyond the Chinese HQ-9 weapon platform ranges.

Also, one may not have PLAAF aircraft intruding deep into our territory since they have adequate stand-off weapons with long ranges on their inventory.

They could, therefore, shoot from long distances and scoot away to their bases.

IMAGE: The Indian Air Force has built one of the world's highest mobile air traffic control towers at the Advanced Landing Ground in Nyoma, Ladakh. Photograph: ANI Photo

Can you give us an insight into the battlefield transparency and the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) capabilities on both sides as on date and in the future too?

How will this govern an India-China war of tomorrow?

They have much greater and better satellite coverage than we have.

This is where we could use our diplomacy to get help from our friends (in getting satellite imagery and analysis).

We are now building up peace time assets through UAVs (Unarmed Aerial Vehicles), which should help.

As of today we lack in this area and this needs serious attention.

What about rocket artillery? It is said that Chinese rockets can reach almost every corner of our country and beyond to take down strategic targets with pin-point accuracy.

What is the number that can be used against us in your opinion and do you think that this remotely carried out battle would be better for the Chinese?

Rocket force needs to be worried about, but I differ on the question of pin-point accuracy of that weapon.

The terminal guidance systems available today are not capable of pin-point delivery of the weapon.

Yes, the new RLGs (Ring Laser Gyros) that the Chinese have are better than the conventional gyros, but still cannot provide pin-point accuracy.

The cruise missiles pose a greater danger. As for the numbers, if they have to continue to cater for the Taiwan contingency, then the number against India, in terms of DF-15 and DF-21 missiles, may be much reduced.

Their total inventory of the same is about 2,000 or so, and they will be at liberty to allocate the resource as they want, depending on their aim. This is only a fair guess.

Unconventional domains like cyber need to be worried about too. I fear we may not be paying much attention towards that.

With the proliferation of Chinese equipment and technology present in just about everything, it poses an imminent danger to us.

They could interfere and degrade performance of their equipment remotely and create hindrances at many levels.

I am of the opinion that, even if they manage to short circuit our equipment or systems to cause us harm, it surely won't provide the notion of victory to them.

IMAGE: An IAF C17 aircraft in Ladakh. Photograph: ANI Photo

How will a future battlefield along the Line of Actual Control be different from what was envisaged over the past few years?

What do you think of the IAF capability to take on the Chinese armies before we get into close contact battle?

What are the vulnerabilities that we are looking at on both sides?

The Chinese army would be largely vulnerable in the area of the Tibetan plateau.

High altitude, cold weather, open grounds without any cover and concealment, and the critical choke points in the valleys of the sector would make them vulnerable to air attacks and the IAF would leverage this aspect.

We are suitably equipped for that, in terms of aircraft, both numbers and technology, weapons and training.

IMAGE: An IAF helicopter flying in Ladakh. Photograph: ANI Photo

Do you envisage the AH 64 and Chinook amongst helicopters as well as the new strategic lift transport aircraft could be game changers in future conflicts?

They will certainly help, but may not really be game changers. IVTT (Inter Valley Troop Transfer) will be helpful and helicopter firepower in certain situations will certainly be valuable.

One always like to talk about the efficacy and success of using slow moving platforms like the helicopters and UAVs, but please understand that these successes have been in uncontested air space.

Their survivability in an intense battlefield like the one we are talking about is a question mark.

IMAGE: Then President Ram Nath Kovind presents the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal to then Air Vice Marshal Gurcharan Singh Bedi at Rashtrapati Bhavan, November 22, 2021. Photograph: Kind courtesy Rashtrapati Bhavan/Twitter

How have both the air forces been training for future wars? Is there a need for some change of tactics/training or equipment for the future?

Have the tactical inputs of the lessons of the Kargil War been implemented?

Are we more capable to fight a war in high altitude mountainous terrain now?

Yes, for most of the questions that you have posed above.

We also have the advantage of training with almost all the advanced air forces of the world.

Our strengths and shortcomings get well documented in these exercises, which can be worked on.

The training status and real capability of both men and machines is generally shrouded in mystery on the other side.

We have formulated tactics based on our experience in Kargil and have practiced the same in all the exercises that we undertake from time to time.

I still feel we should be able to do better here.

Please know that these are purely my thoughts as an informed soldier, and may not be the views of the establishment.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
'If the business before the House is suspended under Rule 267 it will mean the government has recognised that there is great urgency (to discuss the Manipur violence).'

'Government doesn't want to recognise that at all.'

IMAGE: Opposition MPs protest over the Manipur issue in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament. Photograph: Sansad TV/ANI Photo

Constitutional expert and former secretary general of the Lok Sabha P D T Achary explains the main difference between Rule 176, under which the Narendra D Modi government wants to discuss the ethnic violence in Manipur, and Rule 267, under which the Opposition wants to do it.

"Rule 267 by itself is not going to help them (the Opposition) because you can't raise a discussion under that," Achary tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.

What is the main difference between Rule 176 and Rule 267? Why is the Opposition pressing for a discussion on Manipur under Rule 267 and the Treasury benches pressing for a discussion under Rule 176?

Rule 176 is for a short duration discussion which should not last for more than two-and-a-half hours. Such short duration discussions are on very ordinary matters.

Then there is no voting allowed when a matter is discussed under Rule 176 and there can be no motion on the issue. So it's just a discussion (under Rule 176).

Under Rule 176, somebody (some Opposition MP) will initiate the discussion, the minister, whoever minister is in charge of it, will reply and the matter will be over.

Rule 267 is a motion called for suspension of the business of the day. That is the purpose of that (267) Rule. But Rajya Sabha (from the Opposition) members should also move a motion along with that; only then it makes sense.

Otherwise, Rule 267 by itself is not going to help them (the Opposition) because you can't raise a discussion under that.

That Rule (267) is only meant for suspending the business before the House. That is it. Now, after suspension what? Suspension is not enough.

Once the business before the House is suspended you have to move a motion to raise a discussion and that motion can be initiated under Rule 167.

Under this Rule (167) the mover of the motion, after calling for it, speaks on that motion. Then the others will speak and there will be a debate. At the end of the debate, the minister will reply. After the minister's reply, the mover will again reply to the motion.

Under Rule 167, the last say belongs to the mover of the motion.

Let it be reiterated that Rule 267 just calls for the suspension of the business before the House to discuss an urgent matter. After that the Opposition must move a motion to raise a discussion (under Rule 167).

Without that, what is the point of suspending the business before the House?

What disadvantage would the government have if Rule 267 is called in first and then a debate follows under Rule 167?

If the business before the House is suspended under Rule 267, it will mean the government has recognised that there is great urgency (to discuss the Manipur violence). Government doesn't want to recognise that at all.

Secondly, if there is a motion, there is voting and although the government is comfortably placed as far as the numbers are concerned. But government doesn't want a vote on this issue; putting the violence in Manipur to vote would be very uncomfortable for the government.

People (the MPs belonging to the ruling party) might vote differently on that (on the vote on Manipur violence).

Would you think the government would fear that somebody from their ranks would also vote against the government?

Such a fear may be there. That is why generally they (the Modi government) are against any kind of voting. They want to make it as innocuous as possible, as bland as possible.

Just a discussion and the matter is over.
'The entire electorate of Wayanad is joyful. Rahulji is with us and we are with him wherever he is.'

IMAGE: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi arrives at Parliament after the Lok Sabha secretariat restored his Lok Sabha membership after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the 'Modi' surname remark defamation case, August 7, 2023. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

"We will be giving him a mammoth welcome and huge gathering. The MLAs from Trivandrum and state leaders are also planning to come," says V A Majeed, member, Wayanad district Congress committee and additional election agent to Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

"He will win with an even bigger margin in 2024. No doubt about it," Majeed tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih in a phone interview from Wayanad.

What is the reaction now that Rahul Gandhi is back as your MP?

The Supreme Court in its judgment mentioned the electorate of Wayanad and said that during the period of his disqualification the electorate was neglected.

Therefore, the entire electorate of Wayanad is joyful. People from all walks of life are coming together, conducting meetings and holding processions.

We are eagerly awaiting his arrival in Wayanad by the end of this week.

We will be giving him a mammoth and huge gathering. The MLAs from Trivandrum and state leaders are also planning to come. We are sitting together with the state convenor of the United Democratic Front M M Hassan who is here to chalk out the entire programme.

What change do you think this disqualification and suspension from the Lok Sabha has brought about in Rahul Gandhi? Will this be like a second innings in Parliament for him?

We, the people of Wayanad, are very affectionate towards Rahulji. We are with him wherever he is. We were with him through the period of his disqualification and the verdict. It makes no difference to us if he is an MP or not. He is with us and we are with him.

11 lakh votes were polled in the last election. Rahulji got more than 7 lakh votes. Over two-and-a-half lakhs were polled for the LDF (Left Democratic Front) candidate and now that the latter (the Communist Party of India-Marxist) is part of INDIA, 99% of voters of Wayanad are happy that he is MP again.

IMAGE: Congress MP K C Venugopal and other MPs (P Chidambaram, son Karti Chidambaram and Sanjay Raut can be spotted) gather to welcome Rahul Gandhi to Parliament, August 7, 2023. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

And you think in 2024 he will contest from Wayanad again?

He will definitely contest from here and win with an even bigger margin. No doubt about it.

What changes has he brought to Wayanad as MP?

Wayanad is an agricultural area with tourist potential. Many domestic and international tourists have come after Rahul Gandhi's arrival here. It has given a big boost to the tourism in Wayanad.

He has come here monthly or twice in a month. He goes to meet the Adivasis, labourers and people from all walks of life and that is why people are very fond of him.

Have you personally met him? What kind of a person is he?

I have met and spoken to him many times. He is a generous person. He has an unwavering duty towards the sufferings of people and towards mankind.

IMAGE: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (in check jacket) and other flash victory signs outside Parliament after the Supreme Court verdict, August 4, 2023. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo

Some Opposition leaders allege he is arrogant.

Nobody in Wayanad will say that [laughs]. He visits the huts of Adivasis. He mingles with every section of Wayanad society.

Will the CPI-M oppose him like it did in 2019?

That depends on the political situation at that moment. They are part of the INDIA movement and it is up to them to decide. Nothing really matters -- Rahulji will come out with flying colours and with a thumping majority.

Photograph: PTI Photo/ Rediff.com Archives IMAGE: Then disqualified Congress MP Rahul Gandhi with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visit Wayanad from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2019.

What about the BJP's growth in Kerala. BJP leader Prakash Javdekar told Rediff that his party will win 5 seats in the Lok Sabha election.

They BJP is going to gain nothing here. I don't agree with that figure at all! [laughs]

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
The convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots chased her with a "blood thirsty approach" to hunt Muslims and kill them, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.

IMAGE: Members of Rihai Manch stage a demonstration against the remission of sentence granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case by Gurajat government, in Lucknow, September 2, 2022. Photograph: ANI Photo

Commencing arguments on the plea challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts, advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for Bilkis Bano, submitted she was brutally gang-raped while she was pregnant and her first child was smashed with a rock to death.

"She kept pleading that she is like a sister to them as she knew all of them. They were from around the area...It was not a spur of the moment incident. The convicts were chasing Bilkis with a blood thirsty approach to hunt Muslims and kill them. They raised slogans -- these are Muslims, kill them. The high court has taken note that the crime committed by them was rare, uncommon and driven by communal hatred," Gupta told a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan.

The lawyer told the court the convicts were released on August 15, 2022 following remission of sentence and Bilkis came to know about it when she saw the celebrations outside the jail as they came out.

Opposing the remission granted to the convicts, Gupta said the Central Bureau of Investigation had opposed the premature release of the convicts saying a wrong message will go out to the society at large as the crime is of such a nature that it cannot be pardoned.

The hearing will resume on Tuesday.

The top court had fixed August 7 for the start of the final hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the case.

On May 9, the top court had directed the publication of notices in local newspapers, including in Gujarati and English, against the convicts who could not be served notices.

The top court had on May 2 deferred the hearing after some of the counsel for the convicts raised objections about not being served notices on the pleas challenging the remission granted to them.

The Centre and the Gujarat government had told the court they were not filing any plea for a review of the court's March 27 order asking for production of the original records with regard to the remission granted to the convicts.

The Gujarat government had raised preliminary objections with regard to the petitions filed in the matter other than the one by Bilkis Bano, saying it will have wide ramifications as every now and then third parties will approach courts in criminal cases.

The top court had on April 18 questioned the Gujarat government over the remission granted to the 11 convicts, saying the gravity of the offence should have been considered before showing leniency, and wondered if there was any application of mind.

Asking for reasons for the premature release of the convicts, the top court had also questioned frequent parole granted to them during their incarceration.

"It (remission) is a kind of grace, which should be proportional to the crime," it had said.

Terming Bilkis Bano's gang-rape and the murder of her family members a "horrendous" act, the apex court had on March 27 asked the Gujarat government whether uniform standards, as followed in other murder cases, were applied while granting remission to the convicts.

Besides Bilkis Bano's petition, several other PILs including one by Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul, former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University Roop Rekha Verma have challenged the remission.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a PIL against the remission.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident.

Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.
Colombia is an historic ally in the region and one of the oldest democracies and market driven economies in Latin America, declared Deputy Assistant Secretary for Latin America Mark Wells in recent Congressional testimony:

Colombia works closely with us to advance shared priorities in trade, security, migration, democracy and climate, as well as the full implementation of Colombia's 2016 peace accord ... The United States has proudly supported security, good governance and rule of law for many years. Which has contributed to Colombia's long standing commitment to democracy.

The U.S. and Colombian people enjoy the benefits of a successful economic relationship built on the U.S. Colombia trade promotion agreement, which has driven U.S. trade with Colombia to near an all-time high.

The United States has been the strongest and most consistent contributor to the implementation of the 2016 peace accord, providing more than $1.5 billion in assistance since 2017, noted Deputy Assistant Secretary Wells.

The United States and Colombia coordinate closely to address irregular migration. In April, both nations underscored their joint commitment to counter human smuggling in the Darien region. On Colombia's border with Panama, Colombia hosts some 2.5 million Venezuelans, the largest number of displaced Venezuelans in the region. In 2022, the United States provided $104 million to Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.

President (Joe) Biden and President (Gustavo) Petro committed to a comprehensive counternarcotics approach that includes interdiction, anti-money laundering, and rural economic development, explained Deputy Assistant Secretary Wells:

We commend Colombia's efforts to expand land titling, which allows individuals in rural communities to own their own land and pursue economic alternatives to illegal drug cultivation. At the same time, we remain concerned about record levels of coca and cocaine production, as well as alarming trends in homicide and violence that serve to undermine democracy. We are expanding and intensifying bilateral cooperation in intelligence and interdiction to dismantle transnational criminal networks and to counter illicit activities that displace rural communities.

Investing in Colombian institutions that fight corruption and improve security and justice remains a priority that will protect people's health, safety, the environment, the economy and rule of law, said Deputy Assistant Secretary Wells.

The United States is committed to ensuring that the U.S.-Colombia relationship remains strong and productive for the benefit of Americans, the Colombian people, hemispheric stability, and the wider world.
BJP leader and Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday charged that China, NewsClick website and the Congress are linked to an "anti-India umbilical cord" as he cited a news report which alleged that companies linked to China were funding the portal.

In a report titled A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul, The New York Times has claimed that the news portal was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media machine.

"In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham's network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points. 'China's history continues to inspire the working classes,' one video said," The New York Times report noted.

Addressing a press conference along with Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, Thakur said India was telling the world that NewsClick was a dangerous global network of propaganda.

When Enforcement Directorate raids were conducted against NewsClick two years ago, he said, the Congress and other opposition parties stood by the news portal and questioned the government's action, raising the issue of press freedom.

"The newspaper (NYT), about which Congress and opposition parties talk big, has confirmed what India had said two years ago. In 2021, we exposed NewsClick and how the foreign hand was working against India," Thakur said.

The Congress and opposition parties had then come in support of the anti-India, break India campaign, he charged. Congress, China and NewsClick are part of one anti-India umbilical cord, Thakur alleged, adding, Chinese goods are being sold in Rahul Gandhiji's fake 'Mohabbat ki Dukan' (shop of love).

The minister said, "If you see the funding network of NewsClick, it was funded by a foreigner, Neville Roy Singham, and he gets funds from China. Neville Roy Singham has direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese media company Maku Group," he said.

"They present fake news in the name of free news. Congress and other parties are supporting them," he alleged.

Earlier in the day, BJP member Nishikant Dubey mentioned in Lok Sabha the New York Times report.

There was no immediate reaction available from the news portal or Congress.
The central government's ambitious Project Cheetah is facing a major problem, with the animals translocated from South Africa developing a "winter cover", a thick coat of fur, in anticipation of African winter, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.

IMAGE: The entrance to the Kuno National Park. Photograph: PTI Photo

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati told the court that this phenomenon was happening when the temperature at the Kuno National Park (KNP), where these cheetahs have been translocated, was around 45-46 degrees.

Nine cheetahs, including three India-born cubs, have died in Madhya Pradesh's KNP since March this year, raising questions about the management of the project.

At the outset, Bhati told a bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra that cheetah deaths at Kuno were troubling but not alarming.

"The number of deaths is not low given the fact that 20 cheetahs were translocated. Sum and substance of your argument is that everything is going well and there is nothing wrong. But the general public is concerned about what is being done about the deaths," Justice Narasimhha told Bhati, who appeared for the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The top court took note of a letter written to it by four South African wildlife experts who said some cheetah deaths could have been prevented with better monitoring and veterinary care. They had reportedly said their opinion was being ignored by the Project Steering Committee and also suggested some remedial measures.

The bench noted Bhati's submission that experts are being consulted to check cheetah deaths at KNP and that though the letter in question was said to have been written by four experts, it was signed by only one.

"We see no reason to disbelieve counsel for the Union of India. It is an issue which is best left to the experts as the court is not an expert in the subject matter. Whether any experts need to be in the panel, it is up to the Union of India to consider. This court cannot thrust any expert in the panel," the bench said.

Senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen, appearing for some experts, said it was an emergency situation and experts like MK Ranjitsinh and YB Jhala may be included in the panel of cheetah experts for the project.

The bench asked how can it direct that a particular person be included in the list of experts when already there are experts from South Africa and Namibia.

"Just because you are an expert, you need to be there in the panel? Sorry, that cannot be done. There are already enough experts in the panel, it said.

Bhati submitted intercontinental translocation of the big cats under Project Cheetah was the first of its kind in the world, and every year around 12-14 cheetahs will be translocated for the next five years subject to their availability.

The government's law officer said several media reports about cheetahs were factually wrong and creating a lot of confusion. She said a mechanism is being considered for disseminating regular updates about Project Cheetah.

"None of the cheetahs have died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution etc. Cheetah is a very vulnerable and fragile species, even where translocation is not done. The Cheetah Project is on the path of positive progression," she said.

Under Project Cheetah, a total of 20 animals were imported from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP in two batches in September 2022 and February this year.

The Supreme Court had in January 2020 lifted the ban it had imposed on the project in 2013 following a petition filed by the NTCA. The court continues to monitor the project.
A bill to replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 for consideration after the Upper House, which was adjourned earlier in the pre-lunch session, reassembled at 2 pm.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

The ordinance was promulgated by the central government on May 19, a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government, headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Delhi government had approached the Supreme Court for staying the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, promulgated on May 19.

However, the Supreme Court last month refused to grant an interim stay on the Centre's ordinance on control over services in Delhi. It referred the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, to a Constitution bench.

In the discussion, Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi opposed the legislation saying it is a "retrogressive bill" that is "completely unconstitutional".

He also said it is a "frontal assault on the people of Delhi and violates federalism".

On the other hand, Sudhanshu Trivedi of the BJP rebutted the claims of the Opposition and defended the bill.

He said the ordinance and subsequently the bill required considering how the AAP government in Delhi undertook "rampant large-scale bureaucratic transfers" after the Supreme Court judgement.

The National Capital Civil Services Authority will consists of the chief minister, chief secretary and the principal home secretary of Delhi.

The bill empowers the Authority to make recommendations to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) regarding transfers and postings of officials and disciplinary matters.

The bill also empowers the LG to exercise his sole discretion on several matters including those recommended by the National Capital Civil Services Authority, and the summoning, prorogation and dissolution of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
Members of the opposition alliance INDIA on Monday slammed the Centre in the Rajya Sabha over the bill to control the bureaucracy in Delhi, saying the proposed legislation was "unconstitutional" and against the spirit of federalism.

IMAGE: Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge speaking on Delhi Services Bill, 2023, during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI Photo/Sansad TV

The opposition bloc also got support from Telanagana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which saw the bill as a move to usurp powers of an elected government in Delhi, and asked the House to vote against it.

Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, for consideration in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

Initiating the debate, Congress leader and noted lawyer Abhishek Singhvi termed the Delhi services bill "unconstitutional" and "anti-democratic" and appealed to all opposition parties to oppose it with the warning that "someday this anti-federal knock will come" at their door too.

He accused the government of bringing the bill out of "vendetta" and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench.

Singhvi also made an apparent reference to the Nazi rule and warned those who are supporting or have announced support to the bill by quoting Martin Niemoller, "First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I am not a Jew. Then they came for me and for you, and there was not one left to speak for us (sic)."

His party colleague P Chidambaram lashed out at the Centre terming the bill "unconstitutional".

The Congress leader further said he can understand the full support given by the BJP to the bill but "what I cannot understand is the half-hearted supported given by two of my learned friends representing the BJD and the YSRCP".

They too know that the bill is unconstitutional, Chidambaram said, adding, "I think the Law Ministry knows that this is unconstitutional."

He likened the bill to a moth which burns when it approaches fire yet it approaches the same fire again and again.

"This government tried it once. It failed. They tried it a second time, they failed and you are trying it a third time. I wish you what you will get is a spectacular failure when this bill is taken up," he said.

Leader of the AAP, which has a government in Delhi, Raghav Chadha said the Delhi services bill is a "political fraud" and "constitutional sin" aimed at taking away the powers of an elected government in the national capital.

Chadha termed the bill as "the most anti-constitutional, illegal, undemocratic legislation ever presented" in the House. "I am stating today not representing two crore people of Delhi but 135 crore people of this country," he said.

Invoking the Mahabharata, he said his party seeks justice in the House.

Participating in the debate, Vaiko of MDMK opposed the bill terming it as undemocratic and said it strikes at the root of democracy, federal spirit, secularism and social justice.

"The bill which has been brought in the garb of administrative efficacy is many ways appears to erode democratic fabric, which is interesting to the Indian polity," he said adding it will render the chief minister's authority and is a deviation from the state list.

Javed Ali khan of the Samajwadi Party said if the bill is passed then the status of the chief minister would be even lower than that the chairman of a municipal corporation and town area.

However, Ghanshayam Tiwari of BJP said this bill is not contrary to the Constitution, democracy and against the people of Delhi as claimed by the opposition parties.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi member K Keshava Rao said the ordinance has come with malafide intention. He said if someone is corrupt then the home minister has the right to act against the person.

"Without constitutional morality, 'dharma' can never be established," Rao said.

RJD member Manoj Jha said that it's a regressive bill and that a quorum will be made under the chairmanship of the chief minister which is "an instrument to decimate idea of an elected government".

He said people have been citing former PM Jawaharlal Nehru that he did not want Delhi to be given full statehood but 67 years have passed.

"At the time of Nehru how much focus was on public areas, now we are focussing on selling it. This change has come," Jha said. He said that if bureaucrats are not answerable to the Minister, "will it not lead to lawlessness".

Communist Party of India-Marxist member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said that the government or the bureaucrats are bound by constitutional principles and morality to be answerable to the elected representative.

"That is a democratic republic. No question of this party or that party. That was the outcome of the independence struggle. I know some people do not have the legacy of the independence struggle, they might have different outlook but this representative government is the outcome of the independence struggle which people fought by sacrificing life, not surrendering their own right at the behest of British mercy," Bhattacharyya said.

He said nobody questions the power of Parliament but exercise of power is wisdom.

"Will the Parliament invite autocracy? This bill invites autocracy. This bill would take us to the complete stage of animality," Bhattacharyya said.

Janata Dal-United member Aneel Prasad Hegde said that with the bill the government is bartering the sovereignty of the Delhi government.

He said that it is ironic to get a constitutional amendment bill for Delhi where everything is functioning well instead of changing the chief minister in Manipur where there has been ethnic violence going on for the last three months.

Kerala Congress-Mani member Jose K Mani said that the bill is an attempt to snatch power from the hands of people. "The bill undermines the very essence of Parliamentary democracy. It is a systematic death for democracy," he said.

"The bill also undermines the federal structure of the country. The ordinance is an insult to the spirit of the nation," Mani said.

Sandosh Kumar P of Communist Party of India said the home minister is insulting the people of Delhi through this bill.



"This bill makes the chief minister's position the fourth after lieutenant governor, secretary, and another officer," he said.
The administrative apparatus of the Delhi government is likely to get streamlined once the GNCTD (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed by parliament, is implemented as it will bring clarity on the issue of control of services in the national capital.

IMAGE: Voting underway for Delhi Services Bill, 2023 in Rajya Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi, August 7, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Parliament on Monday passed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, that gives the central government control over bureaucrats in the Delhi government with the Rajya Sabha approving it with 131 votes in favour and 102 against.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the bill in the Upper House of Parliament. He said the proposed legislation is aimed at providing effective and corruption-free governance in the national capital.

The bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha last week, replaces an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

The Aam Aadmi Party termed the bill "unconstitutional" with the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal calling it a "black day for Indian democracy"

"This law is similar to the Government of India Act brought by the British in 1935. The people of Delhi will elect their government, but government will have no powers to function," he said.

"The bill passed by Rajya Sabha enslaves the people of Delhi, it is a "black day for Indian democracy", he said.

The bill does away with the contentious Section 3A of the ordinance that held that the Delhi legislative assembly will not have control over services under Entry 41 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

Entry 41 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution pertains to the State public services and State Public Service Commission.

The bill, like the ordinance, provides for the establishment of the National Capital Civil Services Authority (NCCSA), which will comprise the chief minister who will serve as the chairperson, the principal home secretary of Delhi as the member secretary and the chief secretary of Delhi, who will serve as a member.

"The Authority shall have the responsibility to recommend the transfers and postings of all Group 'A' officers and officers of DANICS serving in the affairs of the government of National Capital Territory of Delhi but not officers serving in connection with any subject matter, either fully or in part, connected with Entries 1, 2 and 18 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution; and Entries 64, 65 and 66 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution... which is connected therewith or incidental thereto, to the Lieutenant Governor...," it said.

"Entries 1, 2 and 18 of List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution relate to Public order, Police and Land. Entries 64, 65 and 66 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution relating to offences against laws with respect to any of the matters in the list, jurisdiction and powers of all courts, except the Supreme Court and fees in respect of any of the matters in this list."

The bill states that the "quorum for the meeting of NCCSA shall be of two members".

This indicates that despite the absence of the chief minister, the other two members can hold the meeting.

It empowers the Lt Governor to approve the recommendations of the NCCSA or ask for a reconsideration. It also that in case of a difference of opinion, the decision of the Lt Governor shall be final.

The bill states that in case the secretary to the Council of Ministers is of the opinion that the proposal considered and decided by the council is not in accordance with the provisions of any law, "it shall be the duty of the Secretary to the Council of Ministers to bring it to the notice of the Lieutenant Governor for taking a decision thereon".

"Any matter which is likely to bring the government of National Capital Territory of Delhi into controversy with the central government or with any state government, the Supreme Court of India or the High Court of Delhi and such other authorities as may be determined, the Secretary to the Department concerned shall, as soon as possible, bring it to the notice of the Lieutenant Governor, the chief minister and the chief secretary in writing," it says.

The chief secretary and the secretary to the department concerned shall be responsible for compliance with the provisions of the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, and "when either of them considers that there has been any material departure from the same, instead of giving effect to such departure, he shall personally bring it to the notice of the minister in-charge, the chief minister and the Lieutenant Governor immediately in writing".

The Bill also states that the power to appoint authorities, board, and commissions will be with the President for any law of Parliament while for laws made by the Delhi legislative assembly for the time being in force, the NCCSA shall recommend a panel of suitable persons for constitution or appointment or nomination by the Lt Governor.

The bill also does away with the provision that mandated the NCCSA to submit an annual report to the Centre and Delhi government, which will be tabled in Parliament and the Delhi legislative assembly, a move labelled as "removing accountability" by AAP leaders.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing alleged fraudulent foreign funds infusion of more than Rs 86 crore into a company that runs the NewsClick portal even as it is expected to soon file a charge sheet in the case being probed under the anti-money laundering law, official sources said on Monday.

Photograph: ANI Photo

NewsClick is again in the spotlight after a New York Times report claimed that the news portal was part of a global network that received funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media machine.

Citing the report, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday said India had been telling the world since 2021 that NewsClick was a dangerous global network of "Chinese propaganda" that was spreading fake news.

The news portal and its promoters, including its founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, were raided by the ED in September 2021.

NewsClick issued a statement on Monday evening, claiming the allegations being made against it "by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law".

"Over the past 12 hours, various false and misleading allegations have been levelled against Newsclick which pertain to matters that are currently sub judice before courts in India. We respect the sanctity of the legal process and do not intend to indulge in a media trial," the statement said.

According to the ED investigation, the company has claimed "receiving export remittance" of Rs 76.84 crore, Rs 1.61 crore, Rs 26.98 lakh and Rs 2.03 lakh from Justice and Education Fund Inc. USA, The Tricontinental Ltd. Inc. USA, GSPAN LLC USA and Centro Popular De Midas, Brazil respectively from March 2018 till it was searched by the agency in 2021.

The agency, according to sources, found "no evidence" of exporting services to these entities during the raids.

The sources said the federal agency will soon file a charge sheet.

It is also investigating a foreign direct investment (FDI) transfer of Rs 9.59 crore that was received in April 2018 "by way of subscription of shares" of PPK NEWSCLICK Studio Pvt Ltd from a company named Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, USA (a Delaware Limited Liability company) and, as per ED sources, it shut shop soon after this transfer of funds.

The ED suspects that the funds that were routed through Justice and Education Fund Inc USA "belonged" to Neville Roy Singham, who the ED alleges is a "close confidant" of Purkayastha and a "Chinese emphasiser".

The ED has recorded the statement of a shareholder of NewsClick's owner company who said Singham was the "ultimate owner" of funds received from the Justice and Education Fund, USA and GSPAN LLC, USA.

The agency claimed that a scrutiny of the "funding pattern" of PPK NEWSCLICK Studio Pvt Ltd shows it was created to "upload anti-national news at the instance of Singham as he made all the investment by way of FDI and transferring of export proceeds."

It also alleged that the investor (Singham) was influencing the content of news on the portal, and hence this was a case of "paid news."

The agency also found that these funds received in the company were siphoned off for maintenance and renovation works of a flat in Saket locality of south Delhi allegedly linked to Purkayastha.

The ED has attached this flat worth Rs 4.52 crore and Purkayastha's fixed deposits worth Rs 41 lakh earlier. It said the company paid Rs 17.08 lakh as salary to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha apart from other remittances made to some journalists.

As per NewsClick's website, it is an independent media organisation dedicated to covering news from India and elsewhere with a focus on progressive movements. It was founded in 2009 and is owned by PPK NEWSCLICK Studio Private Limited and is located in south Delhi.
Justice Gita Mittal, who will head the three-member committee of former women judges of high courts appointed by the Supreme Court on Monday to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the Manipur ethnic violence, was the first woman chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court.

IMAGE: Chief Justice of J&K high court Gita Mittal (right) with Girish Chandra Murmu who took oath as the first Lt. Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in Srinagar, October 31, 2019. Photograph: ANI Photo

Appointed as the first female head of the state judiciary on August 3, 2018, she retired on December 8, 2020.

She is an alumna of Delhi's prestigious Lady Shri Ram College.

Besides Mittal, the committee that will oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims and compensation to them, includes Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi high court.

Former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar will monitor the probe into criminal cases in the state riven by ethnic strife.

They will be submitting their reports to the apex court which will monitor all aspects of the violence, from prosecution to rehabilitation.

Justice Mittal, born on December 9, 1958, went to Lady Irwin Higher Secondary School and then to Lady Shri Ram College and graduated in Economics Honours in 1978.

A Campus Law Centre graduate in law, she was appointed as an Additional Judge of Delhi High Court in 2004.

Justice Mittal also served as the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. She earlier practised law in Delhi from 1981 to 2004.

Justice Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, joined the judicial services in 1988 and worked as a judge in district courts before assuming the office of the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court in April, 2014.

She was later elevated as an Additional Judge of the Bombay high court on January 1, 2015.

The third member of the panel is Justice (retired) Asha Menon.

Menon was elevated to the post of permanent judge of the Delhi high court on May 27, 2019. She retired on September 16, 2022.

In 1985, she appeared for the Delhi Judicial Services examination and became a lower court judge in 1986. She was also the Member Secretary of Delhi State Legal Services Authority from 2008 to 2012.

Former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar will monitor the probe into the criminal cases in Manipur.

Padsalgikar, a 1982 batch IPS officer, was on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau for a few years until he was named as the Mumbai police commissioner on January 30, 2016.

He served as the head of Mumbai police till June 29, 2018 before being elevated as the Maharashtra DGP.

On October 29, 2019, he was appointed as the Deputy National Security Advisor.
A mazar at a village in Gurugram was set on fire by some unidentified people in the early hours of Monday, police said.

IMAGE: Rapid Action Force personnel deployed after the violent clash between two groups in Nuh District, Haryana. Photograph: Ishant/ANI Photo

According to a complaint filed by caretaker Ghasite Ram, a native of the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, it was all normal at the mazar in the Khandsa village when he left for home in the Feroz Gandhi Colony from the mazar at 8:30 pm Sunday.

"Around 01.30 am, I received a phone call from somebody living near the mazar that it has been set afire by some unknown people," he said in a complaint filed at the Sector 37 police station.

He said the fire was brought under control with the help of people. "But when I went there and saw, offerings kept inside the door of the mazar were burnt down. What I have come to know is that a group of 5-6 young boys gathered there and set the mazar on fire," he said in the FIR.

He said this has hurt the faith of the people and "can cause riots in society".

"Action should be taken against the accused," he demanded.

Ram said he has been working at the mazar for about seven years and has seen "people of all religions offering their respect there."

"This is a decades-old Mazar of peer baba and all villagers worship here. It might be some outsiders who set the mazar on fire," he told PTI on Monday morning.

This comes even as section 144 is imposed in Gurugram after communal clashes that began in the neighbouring Nuh district spread to parts of Gurugram last week.

The FIR has been registered against unknown persons under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 188 (disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) of the IPC, police said.

A senior police officer said they are trying to identify the accused and arrest them.

Police also said am eatery (dhaba) near Rathiwas village was set on fire on Saturday night, and an FIR was registered at the Bilaspur police station the same day.

Meanwhile, the Gurugram Police also said it arrested on Sunday night 15 people accused of violence in Sohna and they were sent to judicial custody by a court in the city.
Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh, arrested on charges of gunning down his senior officer and three passengers on a moving train last week, has now been booked for promoting enmity between groups, while a court in Mumbai on Monday extended his police custody till August 11.

IMAGE: RPF constable Chetan Singh accused of killing four people including his superior onboard the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express, being taken to the magistrates court at Borivali in Mumbai. Photograph: ANI Photo

The Government Railway Police (GRP), probing the July 31 shooting on board the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express, has added the Indian Penal section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) to the FIR (first information report) filed against him.

Earlier, the 34-year-old cop had been booked for offences under IPC section 302 (murder) and relevant provisions of the Arms Act and the Railways Act.

Amid tight security, Singh was produced before a magistrate's court in suburban Borivali at the end of this previous remand.

The GRP sought his custody for another seven days, saying the incident took place on a running train that started from Jaipur and they need to collect CCTV footage of various spots as part of their investigation.

Also, statements of witnesses who were inside the train at the time of the gruesome killings were yet to be recorded, they said.

Advocates Surendra Landage, Amit Mishra and Azad Gupta -- appearing for Singh -- opposed the remand extension plea, saying sufficient time has been granted to the probe agency for interrogation of the accused.

The defence also pointed out that the police were yet to submit a report on the medical health condition of the accused.

The magistrate, after hearing both sides, extended Singh's police custody for four more days -- till August 11.

The magistrate, like last week, again did not allow media persons and lawyers not connected with the case to enter the courtroom citing security reasons.

The shooting took place in the wee hours of Monday last (July 31) when the Mumbai-bound train was near Palghar station on the outskirts of the financial capital.

Singh allegedly gunned down his senior -- RPF Assistant Sub-Inspector Tikaram Meena -- and three passengers travelling in different bogies with his automatic weapon, GRP officials have said.

The motive behind the killings was not yet known.

The RPF cop was nabbed with his weapon later while trying to flee after passengers pulled the chain of the train which stopped near Mira Road station (on the Mumbai suburban network).

The deceased passengers were identified as Abdul Kadarbhai Mohammed Hussain Bhanpurwala (48), a resident of Nalasopara in Palghar district, Asgar Abbas Sheikh (48), a native of Madhubani in Bihar and Sayyad Saifuddin, originally from Bidar in Karnataka who had settled in Hyderabad.

The Railway Board has set up a five-member committee to separately probe the incident.
'We wanted the PM to speak, and he just refused to -- now we have the opportunity, not just in the Lok Sabha, but also in the Rajya Sabha, to lay the government on the mat.'

IMAGE: MPs in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament, August 4, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo/Sansad TV

Many believe that the no-trust vote the Narendra Modi-led government will have to face from August 8 to 10 is a self-goal.

"We had considered a no-confidence motion as one of the weapons in our arsenal. But it was not on the front burner because we were conscious that the numbers are against us," explains an Opposition MP from the Lok Sabha.

"If the prime minister had even uttered the 'Manipur' word in the Lok Sabha -- he said something outside Parliament House about that disgusting video, and we thought he would follow it up with reassurance in the House -- we would have pressed for a discussion, and that would have been that," says the MP.

"We wanted the PM to speak, and he just refused to -- now we have the opportunity, not just in the Lok Sabha, but also in the Rajya Sabha, to lay the government on the mat, not just on its abysmal failure in Manipur but also on a host of other things. And the government has only itself to blame for this," he adds.

"It is not a matter of numbers, but of morality," says Congress MP Manish Tewari.

"And who knows, maybe the happenings in Manipur will jolt even some ruling party MPs into voting with us!"

As the Opposition gets ready to train its guns on the government, the ruling alliance pushed through as many Bills as it can in the monsoon session of Parliament, an action Congress MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi deems 'illegal'.

"When notice has been given of no-confidence motion and the Speaker (Om Birla) has accepted it, the rule is that the government must give precedence to the no-confidence motion and halt all other business. The thinking is that if the no-confidence motion passes, the government has to resign, and in that grey zone, its legitimacy is in question. This government is passing Bills as if it is business as usual," says Gogoi.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023; the National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill, 2023; and the National Dental Commission Bill, 2023, have already been passed in the Lok Sabha.

The Lower House passed the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, in 30 minutes!

In the Rajya Sabha, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribe) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022, was passed through a voice vote after the Opposition staged a walkout. The Rajya Sabha has also cleared the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

An indignant Pralhad Joshi, Union parliamentary affairs minister, said outside Parliament House: 'We offered the Opposition a debate (on Manipur). It only wants a no-confidence. Of course, we will defeat the bloc. But does it think the government will stop working in the meantime?'

Not just numbers but also speeches

Experts say no-confidence motions are not just about the government having the numbers and winning the motion arithmetically.

They are also about politics.

They point out that the current stand-off came about because the PM ignored the Opposition's demand for a statement in Parliament on Manipur.

The no-confidence motion will force the PM to speak; he may choose to speak on Manipur -- or not.

"But no-confidence motions are about rhetoric. They are about the quality of speeches. Some of the best parliamentary speeches delivered in India's history have been during no-confidence motions. While the PM is brilliant when it comes to speaking, in the Opposition, there is really no one who can rank with him," says a parliamentary historian.

"The Opposition has good speakers in the Rajya Sabha. But there, the matter will be discussed under Rule 267. It's not quite the same thing," he adds.

There is no rule about who in the government should respond to a motion of no-confidence. In theory, it has to be the PM.

But in 1981, when the Opposition moved a no-confidence motion, Indira Gandhi, who was the PM, was abroad, so it was her number 2, R Venkatraman, who was finance minister, who replied.

"If the government so wants, the animal husbandry minister can reply to a no-confidence motion instead of the PM. We have to see what happens."

Experts say it is complicated.

"Manipur is more than just a law-and-order issue. Several foreign parliaments and foreign governments have questioned the government's handling of the Manipur crisis. Only the PM can decisively and authoritatively rebut all that. That is what the Opposition has been asking for," is the widely held expert opinion.

Says P D T Achary, former secretary-general of the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha: "A no-confidence motion is not merely a parliamentary device to unseat a government. It is also a way to register disappointment or outrage against a government."

Mahesh Jethmalani has his view.

'As often happens with bad losers, the more you shrink, the lower you sink,' the BJP MP tweeted on the no-confidence motion.

'Since 2014, there has been no Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha as no Opposition party since 2014 has secured the required 10 per cent of seats in that House. In spite of having abjectly lost the confidence of the electorate in the polls twice, far from being humble, they resort to ridiculous stratagems only to appear relevant,' Jethmalani adds.

The stage is set. All that is left are lights -- and camera!

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Press Release

August 7, 2023 Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation joint with the Committees on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, Ways and Means and Finance

07 August 2023; 10am; Tolentino Room

OPENING STATEMENT

Agenda: S. Nos. 980, 1390, 1747 and 1946 - National Defense Act (By: Sens. Dela Rosa, Revilla, Zubiri and Villanueva)

S. Nos. 315, 505, 682 and 2046 - Self-Reliance Defense Posture Revitalization (By: Sens. Zubiri, Villanueva, Legarda, Revilla, Estrada and Marcos) Good morning Mr. Chair, honorable members of this Committee and to our resource persons. First, let me manifest my appreciation to our hardworking Chairman, Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, for conducting this hearing to discuss proposed measures on the amendment of the National Defense Act, as well as the measures on Self-Reliance Defense Posture Revitalization. Mr. Chair, as a former soldier, I have advocated and continue to push for legislative measures that will protect our country's sovereignty against both internal and external security threats. Most recently, our foreign policies and defense capabilities are constantly being challenged by the Chinese, particularly [in] the West Philippine Sea. While we aim to modernize and strengthen our Armed Forces through procurement of defense equipment and material, improvements should not only be limited to the development of defense capabilities. Modernization should likewise include ensuring that the military structure is adaptable to the changing times. This was likewise the call of President Bongbong Marcos during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) when he recognized the need to amend the decades-old National Defense Act of 1935. We acknowledge and welcome the call of the President to prioritize this legislative measure. Indeed, we must not surrender even a single inch of our territory. While we rally behind him and his wisdom in peacefully resolving our territorial dispute, we also recognize and support his moves to accelerate the modernization of our troops. Hindi lamang ang mga kagamitan ang dapat bigyang pansin sa usapin ng modernization. Dapat din nating paglaanan ng panahon ang pagpapahusay at pagsasanay ng organisasyon na kinabibilangan ng ating kasundaluhan. As we move [towards] modernizing our Armed Forces, we must likewise prepare for the sustainability of these procured assets. During the budget hearing last year, one of the issues raised was the lack of spare parts and insufficient budget to sustain and procure, which, among others, result in the non-operability of air assets. Ngayon, higit kailanman, Mr. Chair, ang panahon para palakasin ang kakayahan ng ating bansa upang ipagtanggol ang ating soberanya. Our soldiers are already working very hard on the ground but the protection of our sovereignty is not only their responsibility, it is the responsibility of all of us. Through legislation, let us provide our troops with all the necessary tools they need to equip them in battle. Higit sa lahat, iparamdam natin sa kanila na hindi sila nag-iisa. I am looking forward to a productive and fruitful discussion with all the resource persons today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It has been nine years since ISIS conducted a genocidal campaign against the Yezidi community in northern Iraq. On August 3, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in written statement, Today we remember the victims and stand in solidarity with survivors of the Yezidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS terrorists.

By 2014, ISIS had seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. In August of that year, as its fighters conquered the town of Sinjar and the surrounding countryside, ISIS began to systematically kill, enslave, and kidnap Yezidis to destroy the people and their culture. Thousands were murdered or abducted - boys forced to become child soldiers; women and girls sold into sexual slavery. As State Department Spokesperson Miller noted, The number of people killed remains unknown, and discoveries of mass graves continue.

The Sinjar district was devastated by ISIS and by the successful efforts to drive it out. Tens of thousands of Yezidis fled to displaced persons camps in the Kurdistan region and some into exile abroad. Infrastructure was decimated and the security situation has remained unstable with the presence of various militias supporting different factions.

A political logjam also developed between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government. In 2020, to break the impasse and create conditions for Yezidis to return home, the parties signed the Sinjar Agreement, aimed at setting up a new administration and security structure. The accord has not yet been implemented. Spokesperson Miller called for its full implementation, along with the Yezidi Survivors Law, in consultation with the communities that call Sinjar home.

U.S. support for the Yezidi community is unwavering, said Spokesperson Miller. We continue to press for justice and accountability for victims and survivors and respect for the human rights of all Yezidis, including the freedom of religion or belief ... By pursuing justice and accountability, addressing the drivers of violence, and preventing genocide and other atrocities in the future, Iraq has the opportunity to embark on a new path that leads to greater peace, stability and prosperity for all of its communities.

With this approach, Spokesperson Miller declared, Iraq can serve as an example of mutual respect and coexistence for the region and the world. Yezidis are crucial in this effort. So while we keep alive the memory of the victims and recognize the survivors and their suffering, we also honor the strength, resilience, and determination of Yezidis.
As he walked to light the pyre of his 14-year-old daughter on Monday, an inconsolable father of the Bhilwara rape-murder case struggled to find the strength to stand and was held by family members and others at the cremation ground.

IMAGE: The furnace where the burnt remains of the minor girl who had gone missing in Narshinghpura village, Shahpura panchayat area, Rajasthan, was found, August 3, 2023. Photograph: ANI on Twitter

Seeing the fire engulf the mortal remains of his daughter, who was with him till last week, he fell to the ground and was rushed to a hospital.

The girl was allegedly gang-raped, killed and later burned in a coal furnace in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district on August 2 when she had gone to graze cattle.

Her bangle and bones were recovered from the furnace.

The mortal remains of the girl, a resident of the Kotri police station area, were cremated in the presence of her family members, villagers, police and administrative officials, Bhilwara district collector Ashish Modi said.

During the cremation, the blood pressure of the victim's father dropped and he fainted.

He was immediately taken to the community health centre and referred to the district hospital from there, the DM said.

He was discharged after being kept under observation for a few hours, the officer added.

Modi said the situation in the village is peaceful.

The family members of the victim and villagers had called off their protest on Sunday after the administration assured them that their demands, including compensation, will be fulfilled.

Seven people, including a woman, have been arrested in the case so far. A married minor and a teenager have also been apprehended, according to police.

The station officer and the duty officer have been suspended and two constables sent to the police lines in the matter.
The Delhi services bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with 131 MPs voting in its favour and helping the government complete the parliamentary procedure for the proposed legislation that saw the opposition parties join ranks.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies got a boost as the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party, with nine MPs each, supported the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

On the other hand, the opposition, which brought a wheelchair-bound former prime minister Manmohan Singh and an ailing Sibhu Soren to the House to shore up its numbers, could manage only 102 votes against the bill.

During the division of votes on the passage of the bill, the opposition got less votes than the anticipated 108 votes and the ruling alliance got the support of more than the expected 128-129 MPs.

The Rajya Sabha has a current strength of 238 and there are seven vacancies.

Replying to a six-hour emotionally charged debate in the House, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the urgency of first bringing an ordinance and now the bill was to stop Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party from transferring officials connected to the probe into the Rs 2,000-crore liquor "scam".

The BJP is in power in several states and does not need to usurp power in Delhi, he said responding to a charge that has been repeatedly levelled by the opposition.

The minister claimed the bill does not violate the Supreme Court judgment in any manner and it seeks to provide efficient and corruption-free governance and protect rights of citizens of the national capital.

The Supreme Court had on May 11 ruled that the elected government of Delhi has control over services in the national capital, excluding the matters relating to public order, police and land.

On May 19, the Centre promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi.

The bill, which will replace the ordinance, will now go to the President for her assent before it becomes law.

"We have not brought this bill to grab power for the Centre. The Delhi government is trying to encroach on the Centre's powers and the bill has been brought to legally stop them from doing so," Shah said.

"We had to bring this bill as lawlessness had crept into Delhi's governance," he said.

Shah also attacked the Congress saying it was opposing a constitutional amendment it had brought earlier only to appease its alliance partners for political reasons.

On the charge of the bill being undemocratic, the home minister hit out at the Congress saying it has no right to lecture on democracy as it had taken away the rights of the common people by imposing the Emergency during which over 3 lakh opposition leaders were jailed.

The bill was passed after motions to send the proposed legislation to a select committee of the house, as well as amendments proposed by opposition members, were rejected by voice vote.

"The motion is adopted and the bill is passed," announced deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh after announcing the result of the division of votes sought by opposition members.

Soon after, BJP MPs chanted "Modi, Modi" and thumped desks.

Shah earlier said Delhi did not have full powers of a state and anyone seeking to govern it should consider that.

"If you contest the election in Delhi, just keep in mind that it is not a state but a Union territory. If you dream to become the prime minister, then you will have to contest the MP (parliamentary) elections and cannot fulfil your dream by contesting the MLA (assembly) elections in a Union territory," he said.

"They have to change their mindset," he said, adding that those contesting Delhi polls should realise that they have limited powers.

"The AAP wants to enjoy the powers of a complete state and this is why they are opposing the bill. But no one can solve this problem of theirs.

"We don't need power because the people of India have already blessed us with that. We have brought this amendment to prevent encroachment of power," Shah said, adding that "using good words does not change the reality that anarchy is being spread."
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 83F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
Students file off of the school bus and into the Bellows Falls High School. School is slated to start in just over two weeks despite the news of the PCBs.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 83F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
ELKO  Is there time for drama this summer? If you ask the Elko High School Drama Club, they are staying busy with a dessert theater rehearsal and running a kids camp for younger grades.

Incoming freshmen through seniors participated in a two-week summer camp that involved a week of training and a week of teaching drama to second- through eighth-graders at the Performing Arts Building.

To prepare the EHS students, amazing members of the theater community have come in and helped us. Weve had so many people in here doing workshops, said drama teacher Jeanine Hoskins.

This week, our kids turn around and teach that to the younger kids, Hoskins said.

This summer 46 children signed up for the camp.

The camp ends with a small production that combines the morning group of second- through fifth-grade students with the afternoon group of sixth- through eighth-graders.

Introducing theater to children is the main goal of the EHS Drama Department, explained Hoskins.

The reason we do it is because theater advocacy is huge for us as our troupe has grown to about 80 students. Its important to us to show our love of theater to the younger kids coming up.

Its the second year for the camp that also prepares fifth- and sixth-grade students for Adobe Middle Schools drama program.

Hoskins said the younger children hang on to every word from the big kids. They come a long ways.

For the drama camp counselors, it was inspiring to see children unlock a new interest and that the camp is something they wished was available when they were younger.

Estevan Zuniga, a sophomore, plays the knight in Alice in Wonderland and said his group of students are great, they are super excited with their play. They seem really happy to be with each other and that puts a smile on my face that they are excited to entertain people just how we are.

Senior Kassie Allen, who is playing Alice, agreed. I think its exciting to see the passion in these kids eyes for drama. A lot of the kids we have this year are second-timers who came last year and its amazing to see the progress and how they have grown since last year. I know it will be the same for all the other kids.

I saw lots of kids that came last year are now counselors this year, said senior Cliodhna Adams. Its really cool to see that we have some sort of impact on them to keep coming back and doing our drama club this year.

Weve only been doing camp for one day, so we havent had that long to work on it, but my group of kids are just amazing, said sophomore Rachel Wilkins. All of them are so talented, and a couple of them are a little bit shy but I think by the end of camp theyre going to come out of their shells and were going to put on a great show.

Some students said they wished there had been a kids theater camp when they were younger to give them a taste of the stage and acting.

I feel like if there was a kids camp when I was little I would have come out of my shell a lot sooner than what I did. I didnt become a loud and good actor until I joined drama, Allen said. Before, I didnt have a lot of friends and I was very quiet.

I dont know if I would have been into this when I was younger because this is something that has been a more recent passion of mine, but I think if I had gone to something like kids camp when I was younger that I would have really liked it and discovered my love of drama a lot sooner, Wilkins added.

Dessert Theater fundraiser

Fans of dessert and Lewis Carroll can enjoy both with the debut of Alices Adventures in Wonderland, a play presented by the EHS Theater Department with three shows at Living Stones Church. A performance at 7 p.m. on Aug. 11 will be followed by two shows at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Aug. 12.

Tickets are $40 per person and can be purchased by contacting Hoskins at jhoskins@ecsdnv.net, or at the Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum.

Hoskins said Arts and Gear Museum director Jan Petersen offered to sell tickets for people who prefer a place to purchase them, especially with school not being in session, its hard to get them out to the community.

The evening will include Alice-themed decorations, desserts and mock-tail beverages.

The adaptation of Alice is closer to Carrolls original story with most of the characters, including the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, in a family-friendly story. Hoskins added it is chaos, but a lot of fun.

Its an opportunity for club members to stretch their acting skills.

The kids are having fun with it. Its a pretty crazy show, she said. Theyre having a blast with it. Being able to take those characters and go crazy with them has been fun.

Cast members agreed.

Every day Im impressed by the actors and the actresses we have here, said sophomore Lydia Slade, who is playing a Card Soldier. Weve been working hard and its going to be an amazing performance that you wont want to miss.

Its not the basic Alice in Wonderland show, said junior Travis Layfield, who is playing the White Rabbit. Theres a lot more twists to it and weve all worked really hard to put on an amazing show, so I think you guys will love it.

Another theater community member to come on board is EHS English teacher Isaac Plunkett, who has appeared in local productions, most recently the musical Anything Goes.

Plunkett and Hoskins were applauded by the students who credited them for their efforts in directing last years and this summers productions.

Id like to shout out our amazing directors Mrs. Hoskins and Mr. Plunkett, Allen said. They worked very hard to be able to help us put on shows and we would not be able to do this without them.

New school year, new plans

The Dessert Theater kicks off another busy year for the EHS Drama Department as they are planning pieces to compete in the International Thespian Society and take a trip to New York City.

Were going to see three Broadway shows  & Juliet, Wicked, and Six  and do a bunch of workshops for both drama and tech, Hoskins said.

The students will also get the opportunity to meet with the cast of one of the shows after the performance and take a tour of Radio City Music Hall, plus sightseeing. It will be five days of run, run, run.

It will also be the first year EHS will compete in the Thespys that includes a regional competition. Winners from that advance to state finals in Las Vegas and could be selected to participate in the international conference in Indiana.

Closer to home, the Drama Department plans to perform a student showcase, along with Poe: Dreams of Madness based on several of Edgar Allen Poes short stories, and the musical Shrek.

Hoskins credited the students energy about them that keeps me going. Its them, theyre so motivated.

Since the program was revitalized three years ago, the Drama Club has grown to include more members and the department is adding three theater tech classes, covering set design, costumes, hair and makeup, and lights and sound. Theres something for everybody.

For Hoskins, seeing the seniors graduate at the end of the year will be emotional as they were the OGs who started this program as sophomores.

But the enthusiasm is continuing with incoming freshmen who are ready and willing to jump into all aspects of the Drama Department, she said. It extends to rehearsals for Alice that started July 6 plus training, building sets and helping the Overland Stage Theater Companys summer production of Matilda the Musical Jr.

Not one kid has been like, I cant come, she said. These guys have the dedication and hard work. They show me how dedicated they are.

Its also pulled the group together as a small family. These kids are tight. It doesnt matter what kind of theater you do, youre together and spend so much time together you become a family.

Her students hold the same opinion of their schools theater troupe.

I come back to drama club every single year because I love everybody in here, I love how everyone is a family and I love acting, Allen said.

I keep coming back to drama because its my dream to become an actor, said. Everybody is so nice to each other. We get along really well, and we work together really well to put on shows together.

Its senior Ashlee s third year in drama. I love this place so much. I love the people, I love acting, tech, everything that has to do with drama.

Its my second year in drama, added. I love this class so much. I came back because of the people and I love to do anything with the arts.

Senior Rhiannon Worline, who will be playing the Cook and the Rose, said it was her second year back thanks to an amazing first year.

The first year was so amazing everybody was so nice and putting on shows was so much fun that I just wanted to do it again, she said.
ELKO  Join the Elko Area Chamber for Business Before Hours on Thursday, August 10, with the Star Hotel at 246 Silver St. starting at 8 a.m.

Attendees can expect to enjoy an assortment of delicious food items including their house-made breakfast burritos (now being served at Mudd Hutt), get their morning coffee fix, and enjoy a free entry for a chance to win some incredible raffle prizes; meet the hard-working staff and learn all the exciting plans and services offered by this longtime, local business.

Business Before Hours is a free, open to the public event that provides the opportunity to network in order to create/maintain business and community relationships, generate referrals and learn about upcoming events in our community.

The Star Hotel opened in December of 1910, and the longtime dream of Pete Jauregui to make a home away from home for Basques, had come true. Eleven rooms, one bath and heat from wood stoves provided a cozy home for herders needing a place to stay until spring. The Star Hotel offered a friendly place with familiar language and customs.

Fast forward to present day and youll find that while the owners have changed, the rich history, unique recipes and European atmosphere has lived on. A favorite among locals and travelers alike, you will always find good eats, classic drinks, and a few Basque locals when you visit The Star.

Now owner Scott Ygoa has worked hard to ensure that this significant piece of Elko history is around for another 100 plus years and has expanded services to include catering and events.

By joining us for Business Before Hours, you will have a firsthand opportunity to learn what is next for this Elko staple.

For more information or to place an order, call 775-738-9925 or visit their website at elkostarhotel.com.

We hope to see you there, and for any questions, please contact the Chamber at 775-738-7135.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has recently made a significant investment in Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), acquiring over 2.5 per cent stake in the company for approximately $500 million, news agency Press Trust of India reported citing reliable industry sources. This marks QIA's second investment in an Adani Group company, following its purchase of a 25.1 per cent stake in Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML) back in 2020.

Exchange data reveals that Infinite Trade and Investment, a promoter group entity of Adani Green Energy, divested a 2.8 per cent stake in the company for Rs 4,131 crore through an open market transaction. In the same deal, INQ Holding LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of QIA, purchased 2.68 per cent stake in Adani Green Energy, acquiring 4.26 crore shares at an average price of Rs 920 per share, amounting to a transaction value of Rs 3,920 crore.

Following the transaction, Infinite Trade and Investment's shareholding in Adani Green Energy was reduced to 0.57 per cent from the previous 3.37 per cent stake. The promoters and promoter group's combined shareholding stood at 56.27 per cent at the end of the June quarter.

Adani Green Energy share slump

The news of QIA's investment initially impacted Adani Green Energy's share price, which experienced a decline of up to 13 per cent during intra-day trading, ultimately closing at Rs 965.05 on the BSE with a 4.69 per cent drop.

AGEL, with an operational portfolio of 8.3 GW renewable energy capacity and a locked-in portfolio of 20.4 GW, has ambitious plans to expand further. The company aims to reach a capacity of 45 GW by FY30. Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani recently reaffirmed the company's commitment to producing cost-effective energy and achieving its 45 GW renewable energy capacity target, which would represent over 10 per cent of India's total renewable energy market share.

Qatar Investment Authority is recognised as one of the world's largest sovereign funds, and its investment in AGEL solidifies its interest in environmentally sustainable projects. The move aligns with the fund's ESG-focused approach, which emphasises investments in companies with strong environmental, social, and governance practices.

The investment from QIA is expected to boost AGEL's expansion plans and contribute to the growth of India's renewable energy sector.

(With PTI inputs)
The Freelancer is an upcoming thriller series based on the book titled A Ticket to Syria: A Story About the ISIS in Maldives. The book has been authored by Shirish Thorat and the series stars Mohit Raina and Anupam Kher in prominent roles. Recently, the makers of the web show released its teaser.

3 things you need to know

The Freelancer is directed by Bhav Dhulia.

The web series will stream on Disney+ Hotstar from September 1.

Neeraj Pandey is the creator of the series.

The Freelancer teaser: A story of a woman's rescue

The makers of The Freelancer web series released the teaser on August 7. The clip featured Mohit Raina and others embarking on a thrilling journey to rescue a Maldivian woman trapped in Syria. Boasting several high-octane action sequences with men gunning down each other in broad daylight, the teaser lasts for 51 seconds.

The makers also shared some behind-the-scenes clips with the teaser to pique the interest of viewers. The Freelancer will revolve around the extraordinary rescue operation of a woman who gets stuck in war-torn Syria after ISIS occupies the region. Apart from Anupam Kher and Mohit Raina, the star cast of the series includes Sushant Singh, Gauri Balaji, John Kokken, and Navneet Malik.

Neeraj Pandey on The Freelancer

Neeraj Pandey, creator of the web series, revealed some exciting details about The Freelancer in a conversation with Variety. He mentioned that Mohit Raina will be playing the role of a freelancer, Anupam Kher will essay the character of Dr. Khan, while Kashmira Padeshi will portray the role of Aliya.

Neeraj further said, "The series has been shot across multiple locations internationally and recreates a world thats largely unexplored and unseen. Bhav Dhulia and the entire Friday Storytellers team has worked immensely hard putting this together, and I hope the audiences love it."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar provided insights into the status of the India-China relationship, asserting that the crucial "border talks" between the two neighbouring nations have not been halted. Speaking at an event, Jaishankar emphasised that discussions between India and China on border-related matters are set to resume soon. He also highlighted the significant progress made by the two countries on key tension points over the past three years.

"India-China border talks have not been halted; a meeting will be held soon. We have made progress on key tension points in the last three years," Jaishankar stated, shedding light on the ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving border disputes that began in 2020.

The External Affairs Minister also delved into the subject of border infrastructure, particularly along the Northern frontier. He underscored the Modi government's commitment to enhancing border infrastructure, a strategic move aimed at bolstering India's security preparedness. "The Modi government is significantly enhancing border infrastructure, including along the Northern frontier," Jaishankar said, emphasising the importance of maintaining robust infrastructure along sensitive borders.

"Post-2014, when there is a big push on border infrastructure, contestation and patrolling increased from the Chinese side... As far as the Bhutan-China talks are concerned, they are having negotiations, and 24 rounds have been completed. They will be holding more rounds. We track carefully what affects us. It is for them to determine the pace," he said.

S Jaishankar on connectivity with neighbouring countries

Furthermore, Jaishankar addressed India's efforts to strengthen connectivity with its neighbouring countries. He revealed that India is actively engaged in discussions with Bhutan for the establishment of a rail link between Bhutan and the Indian state of Assam. This move, Jaishankar stated, not only aligns with Bhutan's aspirations for improved tourism but also holds promising potential for Assam's economic and social growth.

Touching upon India's relations with Myanmar, the External Affairs Minister acknowledged the challenges posed by the border situation with Myanmar. He disclosed that Sittwe Port is operational and expressed optimism about concluding a coastal shipping agreement with Myanmar this year.

"The border situation with Myanmar is challenging. Sittwe Port is operational, and we are hopeful to conclude the coastal shipping agreement this year. Myanmar Trilateral highway is a big challenge due to the law and order situation, we are engaging with Myanmar authorities to meet challenges," he said.

PM Modi and Xi spoke on the need to stabilise bilateral relations: MEA

It is pertinent to mention that recently in July, the Ministry of External Affairs said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had exchanged courtesies and spoke on the need to stabilise the bilateral relations at a dinner during the G20 summit in Bali last year.

"During the Bali G20 summit last year, the prime minister and President Xi Jinping at the conclusion of that dinner hosted by the Indonesian President exchanged courtesies and spoke of the need to stabilise our bilateral relations, MEA spokesperson Bagchi said in July.

As you are aware, we have steadfastly maintained the key to the resolution of the whole issue is to resolve the situation along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) on the Western sector of the India-China boundary and to restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas, he added, answering a question about Chinas claim of the consensus reached at the interaction between the two top leaders in Bali.

Ajit Doval's message to China

During the 13th BRICS National Security Advisor's (NSA) meeting in Johannesburg, NSA Ajit Doval delivered a strong message to China, indicating that the condition along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has diminished the strategic confidence shared between the two countries.

During the meeting, NSA conveyed that the situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China boundary since 2020 had eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in an official release.

NSA emphasised the importance of continuing efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas, so as to remove impediments to normalcy in bilateral relations. The two sides agreed that the India-China bilateral relationship is significant not only for the two countries but also for the region and world, the release added.

It is pertinent to mention that over the years, India and China have encountered territorial conflicts that trace their origins back to 1962. The latest altercation occurred in June 2020, when soldiers from both nations were involved in a confrontation in the Galwan Valley.

(With inputs from agencies)
West Africa's regional bloc says heads of state will meet Thursday to discuss their next steps after Niger's military junta defied the bloc's deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

State television reported the junta's latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn't returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response. The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them, and called on Niger's population to defend the nation.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around Niger's airspace, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending a delegation of officials to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them. The Associated Press saw several security officers from Burkina Faso at a hotel in Niger's capital.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, with the mutinous soldiers detaining Bazoum and installing Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state.

Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigeria's Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal's government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc's efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

The junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries including Mali, according to according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Centre.

Since the coup, extremists have been ecstatic as they're able to move around more freely without fear of attack, Boubacar Moussa, a former jihadi fighter, told the AP. He had joined a nationwide programme that encourages fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The programme's fate is unclear.

Moussa said he's received at least 10 phone calls from active jihadis in the Tillaberi region near the Mali border who said there's been no concern about airstrikes. If there's a military intervention by ECOWAS, they likely will attack Niamey, he said.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, rallygoers beheaded a chicken decorated in the colours of former coloniser France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended development aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 US military personnel also in Niger.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn't intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS. But others have expressed concerns about the junta's tightening grip.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment, said the junta is scaring people into joining it.
The Philippine military on Sunday condemned a Chinese coast guard ship's excessive and offensive use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering new troops, food, water and fuel to a Philippine-occupied shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

The tense confrontation on Saturday at the Second Thomas Shoal was the latest flare-up in the long-seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region. China claims ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway despite international rulings that invalidated Beijings vast territorial claims, such as that of 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague; China rejects that ruling.

Philippine navy personnel on board two chartered supply boats were cruising toward Second Thomas, escorted by Philippine coast guard ships, when a Chinese coast guard ship approached and used a powerful water cannon to block the Filipinos from the shoal that China also claims, according to Philippine military and coast guard officials.

The Chinese ships action was in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board" the Philippine navy-chartered boat and violated international law, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which did not say if any of its sailors were injured.

The excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels near the shoal prevented one of the two Filipino boats from unloading supplies needed by Filipino troops guarding the shoal onboard a long-marooned Philippine navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine military said in a statement.

It called on the Chinese coast guard and Chinas central military commission to act with prudence and be responsible in their actions to prevent miscalculations and accidents that will endanger peoples lives."

Several countries expressed concern over the actions of the Chinese ship.

The United States immediately expressed support to the Philippines and renewed a warning that its obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally when Filipino public vessels and forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, PRC ships interfered with the Philippines' lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It used the acronym for the People's Republic of China.

It added that such actions are the latest by the PRC in the South China Sea and are a direct threat to regional peace and stability.

Australia expressed its concern, describing the actions of the Chinese coast guard ship as dangerous and destabilizing.

Japan said it supported the Philippines, adding that the harassment and action, which infringe on lawful activities of the sea and endanger navigational safety, were totally unacceptable.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not immediately issue any reaction but has filed a large number of diplomatic protests over increasingly hostile actions by China in recent years. Chinese government officials did not immediately comment on the incident.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its small contingent of naval forces and tow away the actively commissioned but crumbling BRP Sierra Madre. The navy ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

Chinese ships had blocked and shadowed navy vessels delivering food and other supplies to the Filipino sailors on the ship in the shoal, which Chinese coast guard ships and a swarm of Chinese fishing boats  suspected to be manned by militias  have surrounded for years.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often lashed out at Chinas aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says is in Americas national interest.

China has warned the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

Additionally, Beijing has criticized a recent agreement by the Philippines and the U.S., which are longtime treaty allies, allowing American forces access to additional Filipino military camps under a 2014 defense agreement.

China fears the access will provide Washington with military staging grounds and surveillance outposts in the northern Philippines across the sea from Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, and in Philippine provinces facing the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.
Panamas top immigration official lashed out at Colombia on Sunday, saying it is not helping to slow the record flow of migrants through the dangerous jungle of the Darien Gap.

Immigration Service Director Samira Gozaine said that in recent days, between 2,600 and 2,800 migrants per day have been moving through the gap, which connects North and South America. In 2022, an average of about 700 migrants per day trekked through the roadless region.

In April, the United States, Panama and Colombia agreed to try to crack down on the smuggling rings that bring migrants through the gap.

But Gozaine said there has been a lack of information sharing and joint action on the part of Colombia.

Instead of getting better, it has gotten worse, in spite of the negotiations with Colombia, Gozaine said. There has been no agreement, no information sharing, nor any effort that might help Panama manage the unregulated flow, which has grown considerably in recent days."

Unfortunately, we have not been able to reach any agreement with Colombia, which continues to indiscriminately send us not only people from other countries, but Colombians as well, she added.

There was no immediate reaction from the Colombian government.

A joint statement issued after the April agreement said the U.S., Panama and Colombia would offer new lawful and flexible pathways for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees as an alternative to irregular migration.

They also promised investment to reduce poverty and create jobs in Colombian and Panamanian border communities, presumably so fewer people work at smuggling migrants.

The number of migrants crossing the Darien Gap swelled to almost 250,000 in the first seven months of 2023, surpassing the number that crossed in all of 2022. The United Nations projected that if the pace keeps up, as many as 400,000 may cross the gap by the years end.

Migrants from South America  mainly Venezuelans  use the Darien Gap to travel by land through Central America and head on to the U.S. southwestern border. But a host of people from other places, including Africa and Asia, travel to South America to use the gap as well.
Is the son with a Ph.D. in economics ready to take over for his strongman father?

Cambodias prime minister, Hun Sen, who is stepping down later this month after four decades in power, has often suggested he is the reincarnation of a 16th century king.

And he occasionally imbues his successor, Hun Manet, with similarly mythical powers. In public speeches and to his biographers, Hun Sen has insisted that blinding light shot out from a centuries-old Banyan tree upon his eldest sons birth.

Five hundred people saw the light. That was when Manet was born, he told the authors of Strongman: The Extraordinary Life of Hun Sen in December 1997.

The anecdote, with its mythic overtones, seems calculated to portray Hun Manet as destined for the same kingly greatness as his father. But, speaking just four months after he ousted his coalition partners in a bloody coup, Hun Sen went on to tell the biographers that not only did he not want his son to walk the same political tightrope as he had, he did not think then-20-year-old Hun Manet would be well suited to it.

I would like to be the last member of my family who was involved in politics, Hun Sen is quoted as saying in Strongman. I would rather see [Manet] working as an assistant to a politician, helping in national reconstruction, and not become a politician himself.  It seems he is interested in study, in research, in making recommendations rather than doing things himself.

Hun Manet was appointed prime minister by royal decree on Monday and is poised to be sworn in on Aug. 22, following last months one-sided election. With the 45-year-old now taking the helm, many Cambodians are wondering what the rare moment of change will mean for the country. He is a trained economist and an experienced general. But as a politician he remains a cipher; and only time will tell whether he has his fathers autocratic tendencies.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen [left] stands with his son, Hun Manet, after graduation ceremonies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in 1999. Credit: Reuters

An innocent guy

Those who knew Hun Manet as a young man offer accounts not dissimilar to Hun Sen's. They recall a humble and conscientious youth, mild-mannered almost to the point of timidity and determined to carve out a career for himself in development economics.

Hun Manet enrolled at West Point military academy in 1995, the first Cambodian ever to have done so, and one of fewer than 10 non-U.S. students in a class of more than 900. He struggled initially with communicating in English and was bewildered by cultural phenomena such as hazing, he told his fathers biographers in 2003.

Kevin James, who roomed with Hun Manet for two years, described him as a tolerant individual who, at the time anyway, didnt have any presumptions about any one person being different from any other.

They got on so well their first year that they elected to bunk together again in their second, James told RFA.

I had zero complaints about living with Manet. He was friendly, and a kind and considerate roommate. He didnt cause any issues, and he tolerated my smoking in the room, recalled James, who is now a lieutenant colonel in the 101st Airborne Division. He was an innocent guy with no airs, and this is coming from a guy from rural Pennsylvania  I was occasionally shocked at how innocent he was.

Having gained a bachelors degree in economics, Hun Manet continued his studies at New York University. There, he researched whether Cambodia would benefit from land reform for his 2001 masters thesis. Back home, meanwhile, his father was beginning to parcel out the country to cronies and foreign investors in the form of economic land concessions. By 2014, according to a lawsuit, such ELCs had displaced 6% of the Cambodian population.

As his fathers government continued to enrich its powerful tycoon class at the expense of the poorest, Hun Manet appeared increasingly interested in learning how the worlds worst off can be lifted out of poverty. He took an internship with the World Bank, during which time he was posted to the Congo, according to a Facebook post by Hun Sen. Afterwards, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he undertook a doctorate at Bristol University.

He was an able student, always polite and respectful, and hard-working, his Ph.D. supervisor, Jonathan Temple, told RFA last year, adding that he expressed a desire to work in development economics. I did not learn about his family background until his studies were well advanced.

Hun Sens family, including Hun Manet [back, fourth from right] and his wife, Pich Chanmony [back, fifth from right], pose during a visit by the ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat in Nov. 2009. Credit: Reuters

Family values

If his studies brought Hun Manet geographically and perhaps intellectually far from his family, there was little sign that he left their orbit.

In his second year at N.Y.U., Hun Manet and his then-teenage siblings spent $550,000 on a four-bedroom house in New Yorks Long Island suburb, despite the fact that all were unemployed and their fathers official salary was just $12,000 a year. (In the year 2000 when the purchase took place, the house equaled 1,600 times the average annual Cambodian salary.)

In 2006 Hun Manet married Pich Chanmony, the well-connected daughter of a Labor Ministry secretary of state and minister attached to the prime minister. They would go on to have three children. As with his four siblings, whose spouses are the scions of powerful families, Hun Manets marriage reflected a growing dynasty intertwining business, politics and personal life.

In November 2011, Pich Chanmony and the son of tycoon Choeung Sopheap (whose husband is ruling-party senator Lau Ming Kan) incorporated Phnom Penh Toll Way Co. Ltd. Soon after, the company won the $10.5 million contract to renovate and then collect tolls on Veng Sreng Boulevard.

A month after toll collection started in November 2015, Hun Sen had announced that the government would buy the company out. Today, Pich Chanmony chairs four companies and is on the board of another six, according to the Commerce Ministry registry.

Cambodian soldiers stand guard at Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, in 2008. Credit: Chor Sokunthea/Reuters

The battle for Preah Vihear

Any ivory tower dreams Hun Manet might have harbored dissipated shortly after he left Bristol in February 2008. A long-running border dispute with Thailand over the Preah Vihear temple complex boiled over into live fighting in June of the same year.

The clashes were well timed for Hun Sen, who used them to drum up nationalistic support ahead of the July elections. He also took the opportunity to put his sons West Point education to the test, placing him in charge of Cambodian forces around the temples, and sending him back when tensions flared again in 2011.

The world took notice. Robert Willard, the U.S. Navy admiral in charge of American forces in the Pacific at the time, told a U.S. congressional committee that by sending Hun Manet to Preah Vihear, Hun Sen appeared to be grooming him as his heir apparent.

This conflict builds Hun Manets credentials as a military leader and hero who defended national sovereignty against an external threat, Willard told the committee.

The boy who would be king

In the following years, Hun Sens sons and sons-in-law took on greater roles in the government and military while his daughters became business magnates, but it was increasingly clear that Hun Manet was indeed being positioned for the top job.

By 2015, the topic was the focus of a rare interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with signs that the young then-lieutenant general was growing more excited by the prospect.

After spending most of the conversation quietly trotting out the Cambodian Peoples Party line about the dangers of upending the status quo, Hun Manet's mask slipped toward the end. The interviewer first asked him how long his father planned to stick around. A smile broke across his face, and laughing, he chided the interviewer: Cambodia is a democracy; as long as the people want him to.

His smile grew larger when she asked, If the people want you to, you would be prime minister?

Not no, not yes, he said.

Tea Banh [left], minister of National Defence, places the insignia of a four-star general on the shoulder of Hun Manet, commander of the Royal Cambodian Army, during a promotion ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Phnom Penh on April 20, 2023. Credit: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP

As speculation around Hun Manets future role mounted, he received promotion after promotion, moving rapidly up the military ranks. He spoke rarely with reporters and closely guarded his public image. While other members of his family today have a robust social media presence, showing off expensive watches and private jets, Hun Manet maintains only professional accounts and keeps his children mostly hidden from view. (Requests to Hun Manet for an interview went unanswered.)

At times, he has shown little tolerance of criticism. In 2016, he complained to the press that he had been met with protests by the Cambodian diaspora wherever he went in Australia.

Why are they looking down on me, causing divisions and conflicts? he asked reporters.

Ou Virak, president of the Phnom Penh think tank Future Forum, said past conversations with Hun Manet left him with the impression that the future premier was sincerely interested in tackling corruption and encouraging development. But along with the premiership, Hun Sen has also bequeathed his son a country whose power structures were forged in violent struggle and are precariously interlocked. Given such an entrenched political system, anything that upsets them could be disastrous for Hun Manet personally.

At his stage, politics is still a zero-sum game to him, it could be dangerous for his family [to accept change], he noted.

Additional reporting by RFA Khmer's Keo Sovannarith. Edited by Abby Seiff
Hun Sens son will take over for his father on Aug. 22.

Cambodias King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday issued a royal decree to appoint Hun Sens eldest son Hun Manet as the countrys prime minister, ensuring that the transfer of power from father to son will occur later this month.

According to the decree, Hun Manet will assume the office on Aug. 22, when the newly elected National Assembly adopts the new cabinet. It will be the completion of years of preparation for a transfer of power from father to son, as the 71-year-old Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, prepares to step aside.

Hun Sen did however say that he would continue to have a role in government for the next 10 years.

Hun Manets royal appointment comes after the countrys electoral body on Saturday announced last months election results, which gave Hun Sens Cambodian Peoples Party, or CPP, 120 of the assemblys 125 seats.

The election has been criticized by the international community for being neither free nor fair, as the main opposition party was disqualified from participating.

Analysts and opposition party officials have criticized Hun Manets appointment as prime minister, saying that dynastic rule has no place in a democracy.

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told RFAs Khmer Service that Hun Manet lacks the acumen to solve Cambodia's national problems.

Hun Manet has only one policy: to follow his father. And his father, although the CPP has written hundreds of good policies, has implemented only one point: to persecute the people, said Kim Sok.

[Hun Sen] has destroyed the nation, selling the nation to maintain power. Therefore the chaos that is the burden of the social crisis left by Hun Sen as a father will continue under Hun Manet and will be even more serious.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet attend election campaign rallies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 1, 2023 and July 21, 2023 respectively. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters

Cambodian legal scholar Vorn Chanlouth told RFA that under the current legal process, there are no obstacles standing in Hun Manets way because the CPP has effectively prepared for the transfer of power. But there is still reason to doubt the legitimacy of it.

The problem we have here is the transparency of PM candidate, he said. In this 7th legislative mandate election process, many political parties lack transparency, as they did not present their prime ministerial candidates to the public. For example, in the CPP, Hun Sen said he was the candidate, but when his party won, he passed the post to his son. This is not transparent.

Chanlouth said that prime ministerial candidate should have come forward to explain to the public his partys policies, but Hun Manet said nothing other than that he would follow in his fathers footsteps.

We dont know specifically or exactly what they are going to do to solve the national problems we face today, he said.

Not over yet

Hun Sen, meanwhile, has assured the public that It is not over yet in an announcement on his Telegram social media channel.

He said that in addition to being the father of the prime minister, he will continue in other positions until 2033.

Hun Sen is currently the president of the CPP, and he repeated his intention to become the president of the senate, a position currently held by CPP vice president Say Chhum.

Oum Sam An, a former lawmaker for the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said that Hun Sens intention to assume future positions in government shows that he is afraid of his own shadow, meaning that he is afraid to face the law after he resigns as the leader of the country.

The leadership has not changed, he said. Most of them are the children of members of the senior government, so the new bloods are the old blood taking on the jobs [of their parents].

Kim Sok said that Hun Sens rule would be remembered for its destruction of natural resources, arrest of dissenting citizens, and other rights violations.

"Because the Cambodian people, the international community, and the International Court of Justice, cannot forget the story that the general public cannot forget about Mr. Hun Sen as the leader of a coup that robbed power and led a society through state terrorism, said Kim Sok. He used the name of the state to abuse the people and destroy them."

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San, however, denied that Hun Sen was responsible for killings or injustices on the Cambodian people in the past. He said those who dare to criticize without evidence will be held accountable before the law.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong.
The poster for the "Sheep Village Day Camp" childrens event, which was held this past weekend, in the London borough of Sutton.

A British lawmaker has called on the country's intelligence and security services to investigate after a senior Chinese government adviser and former leader of Hong Kong criticized a pro-democracy children's event held in the United Kingdom, Radio Free Asia has learned.

Paul Scully, MP for the south London borough of Sutton, said he had informed security minister Tom Tugendhat, foreign affairs minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Foreign Security James Cleverly after former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying posted about a pro-democracy children's day-camp that took place in his constituency at the weekend.

The move comes after a church in the southern British town of Guildford canceled the same event -- which uses stories about a village of sheep to teach children about justice, civil liberties and human rights -- in May, following public criticism from Leung.

In a July 28 post to his Facebook page, Leung  who is vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a parliamentary advisory body  posted a copy of the poster for the Aug. 5 "Sheep Village Day Camp" event with the comment: "Sheep Village is not giving up. Parents should pay attention."

Leung's public criticism comes amid growing concerns over Chinese Communist Party infiltration of all aspects of British life, and warnings from Hong Kongers in exile over growing acts of violence by Beijing supporters and officials alike.

British MP Paul Scully attended Saturday's event along with the leader of Sutton Council and a police representative. Credit: AFP file photo

Scully attended Saturday's event along with the leader of Sutton Council, Ruth Dombey, and a police representative.

"Lovely event at #Sutton #Library celebrating with our #HongKong friends and their children," Dombey tweeted, while the Sutton Hong Kong Culture & Arts Society confirmed that Scully and "Kimberley" from the local police had also attended.

"They assured the people of Hong Kong that they would ensure that Hong Kong people's rights to freedom of expression and democracy will not be affected," the group said via its Facebook page.

The British government said in February that 144,500 people emigrated to the United Kingdom on its BNO visa scheme, which includes a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship, which has prompted retaliation from Beijing.

Targeted by state agents

Yet overseas activists still report being targeted by agents and supporters of the Chinese state, including secret Chinese police stations in a number of countries.

Sutton-based Hong Konger Richard Choi said Leung's post had sparked further concerns among Hong Kongers living in the area that their freedom of speech may not be protected  even now that they have settled in the United Kingdom.

"These comments by the former chief executive look like a threat," Choi said. "The participants were concerned that there could be some risk, that something could happen, and that they will become a focus."

"They were even afraid of a threat to their safety  perhaps someone might use their phone to record or take photos and post it to social media platforms, causing them unnecessary trouble," he said.

Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying [center], who is vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, posted on Facebook, "Sheep Village is not giving up. Parents should pay attention." He is pictured at a plenary session of the conference in Beijing in 2019. Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Last month, Hampshire police charged Zheng Gong, 23, with "racially aggravated assault" in connection with a vial video clip of an attack on Hong Kongers in the southern port city of Southampton on June 11, after they had attended a rally marking the anniversary of the 2019 protest movement.

According to an email reply from Scully posted by Choi to a local Hong Kong community group chat, Scully informed Tugendhat, Trevelyan and Cleverly of Leung's ongoing criticism, calling on security services to take the matter up.

Dombey replied by email saying that she was "very worried" by Leung's comments, and had made local officials aware of the incident.

Trevelyan's secretary also responded, confirming that the incident would be reported to senior Foreign Office officials.

The Sheep Village Day Camp takes its inspiration from a banned series of children's books by the same name, whose five authors were jailed in 2022 for 19 months each under British colonial-era sedition laws.

Rapid response

Choi said he had contacted the district council and the local police.

"Everyone was very aware of the issue, from the leader of council to the MP and the police," he said.

"They all responded very quickly, expressing their concern and support, and saying again that they want to make sure Hong Kongers living here are safe."

Isaac Cheng, founder and director of Kongtinue, said he had planned to use the Sheep Village books to illustrate the impact of an unjust society on a person's life through game-playing.

He said the cancellation of the Guildford event was likely directly linked to Leung's Facebook post, and that several other exile groups had been unwilling to hold the event when he tried to set up a new event.

Members of the media take photos of evidence on display, including children's books trying to explain the city's democracy movement, at a police press conference in Hong Kong, after five members of a pro-democracy Hong Kong union were arrested for sedition for publishing the titles, July 22, 2021. Credit: AFP

Cheng welcomed the rapid response from local representatives and officials.

"The support was very strong," he said. "I didn't expect a day workshop event to attract the attention of the MP or the leader of the council."

"This sent out a positive message to Hong Kongers that everyone will work together to ensure that Hong Kongers have freedom of expression in the United Kingdom," Cheng said.

Choi had said in an interview on Friday that Saturday's event would go ahead as scheduled, with the organizers making sure that only bona fide attendees were allowed in.

The taking of photos and shooting of video would be banned at the venue, he said.



Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
Two of the three hopefuls for the top office in ASEAN's biggest country are pro-Beijing.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center left) and his wife Iriana disembark from their plane upon arrival at Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in Chengdu, China, July 27, 2023.

Indonesias relationship with China will be a key issue in the 2024 presidential election, with two of the three candidates appearing to have a pro-Beijing tilt, a new policy brief says.

The future leader will have to navigate tricky terrain because China is Indonesias top foreign source of investment while also viewed as a threat to the territorial sovereignty of Southeast Asias largest country.

The three Indonesian presidential hopefuls are vying to succeed Joko Jokowi Widodo, who has forged a close relationship with Beijing, Jakarta think-tank CELIOS said in its brief released on Friday.

Among the contenders, former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan seems to be the only one skeptical of China, which is vying with its number one rival, United States, for influence in Southeast Asia.

Candidate Ganjar Pranowo, who is from Jokowis party and is governor of Central Java province, is expected to continue his predecessors policy, according to CELIOS.

And on the face of it, it appears that the third contender, Prabowo Subianto, the defense minister who is a former army general, may also continue Jokowis policy, CELIOS said. For instance, Prabowo, as defense chief, sought to boost military cooperation with Beijing.

But the think-tank added a caveat: All of Prabowos actions were really those of the Jokowi administration, so they ought to be viewed in that light, and if elected president, it is possible Prabowo may change direction.

Then-Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan poses with residents along a street in Jakarta, Nov. 1, 2020. Credit: Goh Chai Hin/AFP file photo

CELIOS said the candidate who would most likely transform the current governments foreign policy if he wins is Anies.

Anies appears more interested in building relations with the United States and Western countries, said he think-tanks researcher, Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat.

During his tenure as a Governor of Jakarta, Anies has visited several European countries to solicit cooperation, starting from the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to collaborative smart city, Zulfikar said during a webinar hosted by CELIOS in Jakarta last week.

He noted that despite the Jokowi government leaning towards China, Anies has regularly been engaging with the West  he visited Britain, Germany, France, and Luxembourg in 2022.

According to CELIOS, Anies may feel closer to the West because he lived and studied in the U.S. for many years.

Anies ostensibly understands that with the steady anti-China sentiment in society, Indonesian politicians who have close ties with the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) generally experience defeat at the polls, the policy brief said.

It could be that not being labelled as a Chinese lackey can be a surefire way to gain public sympathy.

CELIO was referring to Chinas massive infrastructure projects in Indonesia, which are often dogged by controversies to do with labor conditions, environmental impact and the possibility of drawing Indonesia into a debt-trap.

Anies wants to change the way Indonesian people view the government, which has been criticized by the public for being overly pro-China, Zulfiqar said.

Ganjar Pranowo, the Central Java governor who is the candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) in the 2024 presidential election, delivers a speech during the PDIP meeting at Batu Tulis palace in Bogor, Indonesia, April 21, 2023. Credit: Jafar Umar Zaman/Handout via Reuters

By contrast, Ganjar has publicly proclaimed he would carry on with Jokowis policies if elected, CELIOS researcher Zulfikar said.

Jokowi and Ganjars party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have a history of warm ties.

Jokowi himself has a close relationship with China, as witnessed by the focus of Indonesias foreign policy during his leadership which was more inclined towards China, especially in development and infrastructure sectors, Zulfikar said during a webinar hosted by CELIOS in Jakarta on Friday.

Jokowis infrastructure focus was in line with Chinas worldwide infrastructure-building program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the think-tank said.

Geopolitically, Indonesia has a strategic geographical advantage and a large market share to absorb and realize China's interests in implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.  The growing ties between the two countries have continued to develop throughout Jokowi's second term, the policy brief said.

Besides, Ganjar, as Central Java governor, has had frequent contact with China and frequently praises China, Zulfikar said.

Central Java Province has signed various cooperative programs with China in the scope of regional partnerships.

For instance, dozens of Chinese investors in the wood and furniture sectors invested nearly U.S. $2 billion in the Central Java economy in 2019.

In May 2023, Ganjar also signed an investment deal with the Chinese for the construction of an energy factory at Batang Industrial Estate, which is expected to create jobs for at least 10,000 local workers, CELIOS said.

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto speaks during a news conference in Jakarta, Nov. 21, 2022. Credit: Willy Kurniawan/Pool/Reuters file photo

As for incumbent Defense Minister Prabowo, CELIOS said he is part of a system in which the current government's foreign policy is closely aligned with China's interests.

While Prabowo stressed to his Chinese counterpart in September 2022  during a time of escalation of tensions in the disputed South China Sea  that Jakarta would continue to uphold its free and active foreign policy, most of his other meetings with Chinese officials have been about defense cooperation, the think tank said.

The frequency of Prabowo's interactions with China so far is noteworthy as an indicator of the potential direction of Indonesia's foreign policy in the future, if he is elected president, the policy brief said.

However, it should be stressed that the relationship that exists is inseparable from the fact that many of these engagements were carried out as part of his official position as minister in Jokowi's cabinet.

President-elect must be firm on South China Sea

The think-tank noted that in recent years, the China Coast Guard and Chinese ships have been very active in illegally patrolling around Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ)  to the point of entering the North Natuna waters.

Nevertheless, the Indonesian navy did not prevent these vessels from entering and only monitored from a distance of less than a mile, the policy brief said.

The president-elect must be firm and consistent in dealing with China's aggressiveness in the South China Sea.

Indonesia does not have any territorial disputes with China, but it has repeatedly lodged protests against Chinese fishing boats and coast guard vessels entering its EEZ near the Natuna Islands.

Yeta Purnama, another analyst at CELIOS, said the next president also needed to renegotiate projects that could potentially lead Indonesia into a debt trap, including the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project.

The most concerning issue is the miscalculation that leads to increases in construction costs which could potentially become a debt trap, Yeta said during the webinar.

The next Indonesian president needed to uphold Jakartas free and active foreign policy and maintain a certain distance from China, said Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar, a political scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia.

If Indonesia gets too close to China, we will fail to maintain our position in the battle of superpower countries, he said at the webinar.

It will not have a good impact in the long term.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
Orla Mining Ltd., which is developing the South Railroad Project in Nevada, reported adjusted net earnings for the second quarter of $14 million, or 5 cents per share, and gold production of 29,058 ounces.

Net income without adjustments was $12.8 million in the quarter, and revenue totaled $59.3 million, compared with a loss of $597,000 in the second quarter of last year. Adjusted net income in the 2022 quarter was $10.99 million, or cents per share.

The average realized gold price was $1,975 per ounce in the second quarter of this year.

All the gold production came from Camino Rojo in Mexico at an all-in sustaining cost of $698 per ounce. The mines production for the first six months of the year totaled 54,968 ounces, according to the earnings report.

The company stated it is on track to meet its 2023 guidance of 100,000 to 110,000 ounces of gold production for the year. All-in sustaining costs for the year have been reduced, however, to $700 to $800 per ounce from $750 to $850 per ounce.

Jason Simpson, Vancouver-based Orlas president and chief executive officer, said in the earnings call that resequencing the mine plan at Camino Rojo will reduce the strip ratio of the open pit until the end of the year, and that will lead to the lower costs.

The mine went into commercial production in April 2022.

Orla endeavors to be a predictable and consistent gold producer and cash generator. Camino Rojos operational performance supports these objectives, and we are on target to deliver on our 2023 plan, Simpson said in the earnings report.

Our exploration efforts also continue to generate positive returns, and we remain committed to a systematic approach to unlocking value, he said.

Simpson said in the earnings call that drilling is ramping up at South Railroad in Elko County south of Carlin, and first drilling will be at the North Bullion and Dark Star targets before extending to multiple targets across our large land position.

That land package on the Carlin Trend is 51,892 acres.

Drilling began late in the second quarter, and Orla stated that exploration objectives are to upgrade and increase resources at satellite deposits and look for new mineralization.

Orla is in the process of preparing for the environmental impact statement process with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for South Railroad for the proposed heap-leach mine. Simpson said the company expects the BLM to issue a notice of intent to start the draft EIS later this year or early next year.

Once the notice of intent is published, the BLM can begin scoping meetings as part of the EIS development. Orla said in the earnings report it has hired SWCA Environmental Consultants to manage the EIS process.

Even before the BLM issues the record of decision for the project, Orla reported it plans to award an engineering, procurement and construction management contract so detailed engineering can begin for the planned construction of the mine.

Orla is planning an open pit operation at South Railroad that would produce 152,000 ounces of gold per year, with a mine life of eight plus years and continued exploration potential. South Railroad has 1.6 million ounces of proven and probable reserves and 1.8 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources.

Orla Mining acquired the South Railroad Project when it acquired Gold Standard Ventures a year go in a court-approved plan of arrangement. The deal also gave Orla the Lewis Project, a prospective land package on the Battle Mountain Trend.

The company reported spending $10.5 million on exploration during the second quarter at Camino Rojo and at regional targets in Panama.

At Camino Rojo, the company reported significant results from infill drilling of the sulfides mineral resource, on the extension of the sulfide mineralization and in the regional exploration program. Orla said exploration encountered the first visible gold outside of the Camino Rojo deposit.

Additional drilling in the Camino Rojo sulfide extension target area will continue throughout this year, according to Orla.

At Cerro Quema in Panama, exploration drilling was completed in the first half of this year, focused at the La Pelona target where low-grade, near-surface oxide mineralization was intersected. Cerro Quema is a copper and gold project.

Orla said the mine environmental permitting process for Cerro Quema is ongoing, and the company is awaiting final approval of a 10-year extension for the mining concessions. Once concessions are renewed, Orla said it can consider a construction decision.
Beijing, meanwhile, calls on Manila to stop using a rusted out WWII era ship as a military outpost.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela (left), joined by National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya, and Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar, speaks to reporters about the nations response to the China Coast Guards actions in the South China Sea on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2023.

A war of words heated up Monday as Manila summoned Beijings ambassador to complain about the China Coast Guard firing water cannon at a Philippine Coast Guard ship while it escorted a civilian convoy in the South China Sea.

In response, the Chinese government reiterated its demand that the Philippines remove the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusty World War II-era naval ship that Manila deliberately ran aground in the Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) in 1999 to serve as a military outpost in those contested waters.

A convoy of Philippine ships was on a mission Saturday to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to troops stationed aboard the BRP Sierra Madre when the incident occurred near the shoal.

While meeting with the Chinese envoy on Monday morning, Manila conveyed the strong protest of the Philippine government to the blocking and water cannon operation by the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese maritime militia vessels against Philippine indigenous boats, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Ma. Teresa Daza told reporters.

The Philippine convoy was conducting [a] regular rotation and resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal, she said.

The Philippine government also expressed disappointment that it was not able to reach Chinas foreign ministry through a hotline established between the countries earlier this year to improve communication during incidents related to the South China Sea, she said.

The incident, which lasted more than an hour, was the latest in a growing number of perceived aggressive actions by China in the South China Sea, an important maritime trade route subject to overlapping territorial claims from China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China asserts sovereignty over most of the sea and has for years militarized artificial islands while deploying coast guard boats, navy ships and a state-backed maritime militia around disputed areas.

Daza said Ayungin Shoal was well within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, as recognized in a 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court.

Chinas dangerous maneuvers breached international maritime law by restricting the Philippine ships navigational path, thereby increasing the risk of collision, she said.

The foreign ministry firmly asked China to direct its vessels to stop their illegal actions against Philippine vessels, and to stop interfering in legitimate Philippine government activities while complying with relevant international laws, according to Daza.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry claimed the shoal, which it calls Renai Jiao, had always belonged to China.

In 1999, the Philippines sent a military vessel and deliberately ran it aground at Renai Jiao, attempting to change the status quo of Renai Jiao illegally. China immediately made serious demarches to the Philippines, demanding the removal of the vessel, a ministry spokesman said Monday.

The Philippines promised several times to tow it away, but has yet to act. Not only that, the Philippines sought to overhaul and reinforce the military vessel in order to permanently occupy Renai Jiao.

As for Saturdays confrontation at sea, such actions violated Chinas sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, the spokesman said. The China Coast Guard vessels stopped them in accordance with law and warned them off through appropriate law enforcement measures. Their maneuvers were professional, restrained and beyond reproach.

Dangerous and unlawful

Meanwhile, the Philippines ambassador to China delivered a diplomatic protest in Beijing on Monday morning.

The Philippines since 2020 has sent 445 diplomatic protests to China relating to occupation or harassment in the South China Sea, Daza said. A total of 35 have been sent since Jan. 1.

On Monday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called a command meeting with the coast guard and military to discuss the fresh incident.

We continue to assert our sovereignty, we continue to assert our territorial rights in the face of all these challenges, Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of a Philippine Army event.

Jonathan Malaya, spokesman for a Philippine task force on the South China Sea, characterized the Chinese action on Saturday near Ayungin Shoal as aggressive, dangerous and unlawful.

At one point, he said, one of the six China Coast Guard ships came within 20 yards (18.3 meters) as it blocked the path of a Philippine boat, officials said.

The Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese militia vessels have no right whatsoever to place a blockade or impede, or otherwise control, the movement of the Philippine Coast Guard in Ayungin Shoal or anywhere else in the West Philippine Sea, especially when they are undertaking a mission to resupply our troops stationed there, Malaya told a press briefing.

While one Philippine supply boat was blocked, another was able to break through and successfully delivered some of the supplies, Malaya said.

Only weeks earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard had accused its Chinese counterpart of dangerous maneuvers that, the Filipino side alleged, could have caused a collision during a similar resupply mission.

Two China Coast Guard ships intercepted Philippine patrol boats and exhibited aggressive tactics and at one point, the Chinese ship came to just 50 yards of a Philippine ship.

Camille Elemia in Manila contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service.
The US$6 billion railway has been criticized for displacing several thousand farmers.

A train runs on the China-Laos Railway in the suburbs of Vientiane, Laos, Nov. 28, 2022.

Most villagers affected by construction of the Vientiane section of the Laos-China high speed railway project have accepted compensation for their land but about a fifth are holding out for more money, a government official told Radio Free Asia.

A remaining 18 percent of villagers near the capital have said that the amount of offered compensation is too low compared to market value, according to Bouavone Souklaseng, head of the Vientiane Capital Planning and Investment Department, who spoke to a peoples council meeting on Wednesday.

One villager told Radio Free Asia that the people in her village are still negotiating the price with related officials. Theyve been offered 80,000 kip (about USD$4.12) per meter, but theyre asking for 150,000 kip (about USD$7.70) per meter, she said.

Some of them have waited for five years already, she said.

Another affected villager who is still awaiting compensation said authorities have told her not to criticize the government on social media about the late payments.

The US$6 billion railway connecting the two Communist neighbors opened in December 2021. The World Bank estimated that it would boost tourism, freight transport and trade in agriculture.

The line runs from Vientiane into northern Laos, passing through 10 stations in the country, including the major tourist draw of Luang Prabang and the Chinese border town of Boten. It ends in Kunming in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.

Its the first railroad to penetrate any distance into Laos, a country whose transport infrastructure has long been constrained by poverty, mountainous terrain and sparse population.

But the project has been criticized for displacing several thousand farmers from their land. Many have faced long delays in getting reimbursement for their lost property, as others have been shortchanged in the payments they did receive.

In Vientiane, there are 1,738 pieces of land affected by the rail line construction. Out of these, 1,430 landowners have received compensation and 308 landowners are still in negotiation, the chairman of the Laos state inspection authority said at a recent National Assembly meeting.

There were about 6,855 families nationwide affected by the Lao-China rail line construction in four provinces, with 5,837 families already receiving compensation, according to the chairman, Khamphanh Phommathat.

Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Edited by Matt Reed.
One analyst warns that pro-democracy forces will hit back and civilians will suffer.

Fighting has intensified in eight of Myanmars states and regions as the military renews attempts to seize control of territory from ethnic armies and Peoples Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries, anti-junta groups told RFA.

They reported an upswing in fighting in Shan, Kachin, Kayin and Mon states, and Sagaing, Bago, Magway and Tanintharyi regions.

One political analyst told RFA the military is trying to assert itself after extending a state of emergency for a fourth time, citing ongoing unrest.

But Than Soe Naing said the move will encourage pro-democracy groups to step up efforts to overthrow the junta and civilians will be caught in the crossfire.

The movement of establishing a federal democratic state and abolishing the military dictatorship has reached its final stage, he said.

The final stage means fighting decisive battles to overthrow the [junta] forces. Now that we are in this situation, it can be said that the fire of war in the country is burning and the entire population will have to go through a period of many troubles.

In Shan state, around 70 junta troops bombarded a Shan State Progressive Party camp in Laihka township on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday, the two sides clashed in the township.

Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) spokesperson Maj. Sai Phone Han told RFA that the fighting lasted until noon on Monday and the situation remained very tense as the junta had ordered ethnic Shan forces to withdraw from 10 camps but the SSPP/SSA refused.

We have thousands of troops. There are also [many] junta troops, he said. The situation will get worse the longer the battle rages.

In Sagaing region, a PDF information officer who declined to be named for security reasons told RFA that fighting between junta troops and the armed resistance in Kalewala township had intensified on Saturday.

We are still in a tense battle right now, he said, adding that both sides had suffered casualties but the exact figures arent yet known.

The information officer said more than 300 residents of villages in Kalewa had fled the fighting.

Karen National Union (KNU) officials say there is currently fierce fighting between its troops and junta forces in Kayin and Mon states and Bago and Tanintharyi regions.

Group spokesperson Padoh Saw Kler Say said thousands of junta troops are attacking seven KNU-controlled areas.

There are about 109 battalions. We estimate the manpower to be 10,000  maybe more, he said.

Fighting intensifies in Kachins jade mining region

In Kachin state, fighting between the junta and the Kachin Independence Army saw an uptick in June.

Locals told RFA fighting was particularly fierce in the jade mining region around Hpakant township, with the junta carrying out airstrikes.

Kachin Independence Army spokesperson Col. Naw Bu, said troops have sent in around 1,000 soldiers in two columns in an attempt to seize control of the area around the KIA headquarters in Lai Zar.

In northern Shan state, there has been fighting in the past few days between junta troops and the Taang National Liberation Army.

Clashes between the junta army and Karenni Army joint forces with Karenni National Defense Force has intensified in Loikaw and Mese in Kayah state and Bawlakhe, Pinlaung and Pekon townships in southern Shan state.

RFA called the juntas deputy information officer Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun to ask about the increase in fighting but nobody answered.

At a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council on July 31 junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Tanintharyi regions and Kayin, Kayah, Chin and Mon states have been particularly hard hit by fighting, mine attacks and arson.

The junta extended emergency rule for another six months for security measures to address the widespread conflict.

More than 1.6 million civilians have fled their homes due to fighting since the February 2021 coup, according to figures released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) at the end of last month.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Palaus Angaur state, home to about 140 people, is suing the United States and Palau governments and American military contractors for allegedly damaging the environment when clearing land for a U.S. over-the-horizon radar facility in the Pacific island country.

The lawsuit from Angaur, one of 16 states in Palau, also alleges that the compact of free association that governs the close relations between Palau and the United States was violated by work on the radar.

Its unclear whether the suit will delay the defense project, which the U.S. aims to complete by 2026, adding to its early-warning capabilities for the western Pacific as Chinas military strength increases. Some Angaur people oppose the lawsuit and want economic benefits from the U.S. military project to continue.

This was not an easy decision to make, said Angaur Gov. Steven Salii of the decision to file the lawsuit. He said he tried unsuccessfully for six months to find out information about the project and how it would affect the people of Angaur and Palau.

A Palau court on Aug. 2 denied Angaur state a temporary restraining order that would have halted work on the site until an environmental impact statement was prepared.

The decision was on procedural grounds because Angaur state didnt provide evidence of attempts to notify other parties in the case, the court said. Angaur state is seeking a reconsideration of that decision.

The Department of Defense awarded a U.S.$120 million contract in late 2022 for construction of reinforced foundations and pads in Palau for Tactical Mobile Over-the-Horizon Radar, or TACMOR equipment, which provides greater range than line-of-sight radar.

The radar project has two sites  for a transmitter and receiver  one in Angaur island in the south of Palau and the other in Ngaraard in the north of the archipelago.

This aerial photo taken on July 21, 2023, shows land clearance works on Angaur island in Palau for a U.S. military over-the-horizon radar facility that is being challenged by a lawsuit from the Angaur state government. [Leilani Reklai/BenarNews]

The lawsuit claims that the Palau government, the U.S. government, the companies hired to clear the site  Cape Environmental and Pacific Unlimited  along with Palau Environmental Quality Protection Board, allowed for the clearance of some 271,807 square meters (2.9 million square feet) of land in Angaur without an environmental impact assessment and required permits.

It says conditions on U.S. activities in its defense sites in Palau, under the compact of free association, were violated by the land clearance. Military activities, for example, are required to avoid interference with commercial activities, fishermens access to shoreline areas and adverse effects on the well being of Palaus people.

Land clearance is interfering with the access and travels of the residents of Angaur, the suit said, while associated erosion is damaging their reef areas and waters because of inadequate mitigation measures in places.

The suit also claims that 1,869 tons of lead-contaminated soil and 125 drums containing 92 tons of bitumen at the site are exposing Angaur residents and the environment to harmful poisons.

The people usually come here to collect land crabs or fish around the reefs here, but now they cant, said former Angaur governor, Marvin Ngirutang, during a visit to the site late last month.

Aside from halting work, Angaur state is seeking fines of $10,000 for every day land clearance that was carried out without a permit and damages from military contractors.

This undated photo shows trees uprooted during land clearance works on Angaur island in Palau for a U.S. military over-the-horizon radar facility that is being challenged by a lawsuit from the Angaur state government. Credit: Leilani Reklai/BenarNews





The land for the radar in Angaur is privately owned by the Ochedaruchei clan.

Clan representatives have previously said a leading figure in the clan only signed a lease agreement with Palaus government because she needed money for medical treatment in the U.S. and didnt know until the last moment how much land was needed.

Not everyone in Angaur agrees with the lawsuit.

The traditional chiefs of Ngermasech hamlet next to the land clearance works, the Ngaraeriud, signed a resolution opposing the case. They said it was organized without the knowledge of the people of Angaur.

Their resolution points to many economic benefits from the project such as jobs that paid higher than Palaus minimum wage and a $1 million fee for Angaur state.

All available houses in Angaur are rented out, so homeowners enjoy a steady income, it said. Foreign workers are patronizing the two retail stores on the island, so storekeepers are seeing a boost in their revenues.

Adelbai Jackson Henry, former Speaker of the Angaur state legislature, said there is absolutely zero damage from the radar project.

If the lawsuit results in freezing the project, unemployment will result, and a negative impact on the state economy will be realized, he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.
At least seven people, including a child, were killed and 129 were wounded in a Russian missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on August 19, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a "terrorist state" had carried out the attack and caused "a day of pain and loss."

Oleksandr Lomako, acting mayor of Chernihiv, said the attack was another blow to the city.

"This is another war crime by Russia against Ukraine. The blood of all innocent children and people is on the hands of Russia. We will not forgive this. Never," Lomako said on Telegram, adding that three days of mourning would be observed on August 19-21 under a decree he signed.

Zelenskiy, who is on a visit to Sweden, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, "Russian missile hit the heart of Chernihiv. A square, a university, and a theater." Zelenskiy also posted a video of the purported place of the attack.

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.

"Russia turned an ordinary Saturday into a day of pain and loss," said Zelenskiy.

"This is what it means to live next to a terrorist state," he said, adding, "I urge the world to stand up to Russian terror."

Regional Governor Vyacheslav Chaus said on Telegram that the attack was "probably a ballistic missile."

Separately, the Interior Ministry said a 6-year-old boy was killed and 15 other children were among the wounded by the missile, which struck Chernihiv's Drama Theater. The mother of the boy killed in the attack was in serious condition, authorities said.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles or were crossing the street on foot. The people inside the theater reached a shelter in time after the air-raid alert was announced, he said.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine condemned the missile attack as "heinous" and called on Moscow to end strikes on populated areas.

"It is heinous to attack the main square of a large city, in the morning, while people are out walking, some going to church to celebrate a religious day for many Ukrainians," said Denise Brown in a statement.

"I condemn this repeated pattern of Russian strikes on populated areas of Ukraine, causing deaths, massive destruction, and soaring humanitarian needs."

Earlier on August 19, the Ukrainian military said that the air defense shot down 15 out of 17 Iranian Shahed drones that Russia used in its latest overnight attack on Ukraine.

"The air force in cooperation with the air defense and other components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine destroyed 15 enemy drones," the military said in its daily report, adding that the attacks targeted the eastern, northern, and western parts of Ukraine.

Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said on August 19 that its air-defense systems repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on a military airfield in Novgorod region located northwest of Moscow, but the attack resulted in a damaged Russian warplane.

There were no casualties in what the ministry's statement called "a terrorist attack," but a fire that broke out on the airfield causing damage to one of the warplanes parked there.

The information could not be independently verified.

WATCH: Residents of Kupyansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region are being transported to safety amid signs of a buildup of Russian forces nearby.

The ministry earlier claimed that it had downed a Ukrainian missile over Moscow-occupied Crimea overnight.

On the diplomatic field, Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, traveled to Sweden for talks on defense cooperation.

Zelenskiy visited Sweden with his wife, Olena, for talks on defense cooperation.

He announced that he and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had agreed on 10 points, including cooperation on the production of powerful CV-90 combat armored vehicles in Ukraine, joint training on equipment provided by Sweden, and further steps to transfer Gripen fighter aircraft to Ukraine.

"I am grateful to Sweden for its firm and consistent support. Together, we protect life, freedom, and our common values." Zelenskiy said at the conclusion of his visit to Sweden, which has applied for NATO membership.

Kristersson said he was proud to have had the honor to welcome Zelenskiy.



"I highly appreciate our close contacts and cooperation. Swedens support for Ukraines freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity will continue for as long as it takes," Kristersson said on X.

Sweden, which abandoned its longstanding policy of military nonalignment to support Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, is part of a coalition of 11 Western countries together with Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and the United Kingdom that pledged last month to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces continue to advance in the areas near the southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk, the military said on August 19, adding that during the day Ukrainian forces fought a total of 26 clashes along the front line.

The General Staff's evening summary said Russian forces carried out five missile and 44 air strikes and 17 attacks from rocket salvo systems on troop positions and populated areas.



The push toward the Russian-occupied strategic city of Melitopol is part of Ukrainian forces' attempt to cut off Russia's land bridge to Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

It comes as a U.S. intelligence report quoted by The Washington Post assessed that Ukrainian forces do not appear likely to reach and retake Melitopol during the ongoing counteroffensive.



Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, most of the Luhansk region, and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.

The Russia-installed head of the military in Kharkiv, Vitaly Ganchev, said on Russian television on August 19 that the number of communities Russia controls in the Kharkiv region had grown by five and now totals 33.



"The front line is slowly moving toward Kharkiv. Our troops are approaching the suburbs of Kupyansk," he said.



It is not possible for RFE/RL to verify either side's claims of battlefield success.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
RFE/RL's Georgian Service spoke to Daniel Fried, a former U.S. diplomat with over 40 years of experience serving in senior posts under several U.S. presidents. Colleagues describe him as a pragmatist who led efforts to work with Russia as a White House aide under Bill Clinton after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later when serving under George W. Bush.

Fried was serving as the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasia affairs in August 2008 when Russia launched its invasion of Georgia. In candid remarks, Fried says what he thinks the Obama administration got wrong -- namely its attempt in 2009 and 2010 to "reset" relations with Russia -- and what it got right -- providing diplomatic and other support to Georgia that was crucial for the survival of its statehood.

RFE/RL: What is the latest impact of the 2008 war, both for Georgia and the larger world?

Daniel Fried: Russia attempted to intimidate Georgia through a war and give itself the ability to continue to intimidate Georgia by manipulating the situation at the borders. But Georgia, because it fought so well during those five days, maintained its independence. [Former Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili didn't fall, he lost an election later and left power peacefully. With U.S. help, Georgia maintained its independence. Right after the war we helped organize an international donors conference which gave over $4 billion to the Georgian economy, which was enough to keep them afloat. So, Georgia maintained its independence, but it lost territory.

But Georgia's geography is not great, and Russia has the ability to continue to intimidate Georgia. But the problem, of course, is that the current Georgian government does seem frightened or pretends to be frightened of what the Russians can do. But I don't want to be harsh, because Russia is an aggressive power and Georgia is in a vulnerable position.

But internationally, [then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin got away with it. And I say that without pride or pleasure. The Bush administration after the war understood that its policy of reaching out to Putin had failed.... But it meant that Putin got away with it. And then six years later, in 2014, he attacks Ukraine, thinking he can get away with it.

RFE/RL: What did the 2008 war mean for you? How did it impact you both professionally and personally?

Fried: All of us who were involved in U.S. policy toward Georgia and Russia remember every hour of every day of that war. I remember speaking on the phone to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister [Grigory] Karasin. I remember speaking to [former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice. I remember the trip she took in July 2008 to Tbilisi and what she said to Saakashvili. I remember the discussions I had with Eka Tkeshelashvili, Georgian foreign minister, on Thursday afternoon (August 7, the day the war started).

I remember, you know, the images of the Russian tanks rolling through. I remember the trip to Tbilisi, but first [I went] to southern France, to work with the French on improving their not terribly good six-point peace plan. I remember being on the phone with the French national-security adviser while I was in the room with Rice and Saakashvili talking about the same thing.

So, I remember it very well. It meant in a larger sense that Putin was willing to go to war to defend his version of the Russian Empire. It's a lesson we have all learned with respect to Ukraine, but we learned it first with Georgia.

RFE/RL: When you look back now, do you have any regrets? What, if anything, could have been handled differently?

Fried: Sure. I think we were right in the run-up to the war to be worried, but we weren't worried enough. I'll give you a specific example of exactly what I mean.

So, I was the assistant secretary for Europe. The next person up the chain was Undersecretary [of State for Political Affairs] Bill Burns. He's now head of the CIA. Condi Rice told me that she wanted Bill Burns to go to Berlin and confer with the Germans and talk to the Russians to head off the war.

In retrospect, she was late. We should have escalated sooner than we did. We knew what was coming. But we were a little bit slow to quite believe it. I'll give you another example. We didn't think the war would actually happen. People were going on summer vacations.

RFE/RL: Would it be harsh to say that Washington didn't take the threat of a Russian invasion seriously enough?

Fried: Georgia has suffered. I'm not going to criticize the way [Georgians] criticize us. You have every right to be critical. And the United States was right, but we were too slow. We were at a five or a six; we should have been at a nine, you know, on an urgency scale. Part of the problem was that the U.S. analytic community didn't think Russia would attack; they kept saying they would not attack.

RFE/RL: Why was that?

Fried: Because they just lacked imagination. They couldn't quite understand that Putin really was an aggressor. So basically, I remember on Monday (August 4), at the senior staff meeting, I say to Condi Rice: "I have a very bad feeling about this week, things are not going well. Putin could attack." She didn't disbelieve me.... So, if you're Condi Rice, you've got Dan Fried, who says it, but you know, do you believe that?

RFE/RL: It was your gut feeling, so to speak?

Fried: It was my gut feeling. But even I didn't take it seriously enough to stay home. Because we thought there'd been crises before, there had been a lot of them. And we thought this was another crisis, where the Russians were trying to intimidate Georgia, but they wouldn't attack.

Now, I don't want to be too hard on us. After all, President Bush, in the end, probably convinced Putin to pull back. You remember, we sent planes to fly the Georgian 1st Brigade back from Iraq, and ships. I remember we informed the Russians that we were flying them because we didn't want them surprised. We wanted them to know what we were doing. And they said they couldn't guarantee the safety of our aircraft, which was a veiled threat. And we basically said to them, "We're going in anyway." And they backed off.

You remember, the war starts Thursday night (August 7), and on Monday (August 11), the Russian tanks are rolling. And the Georgian lines had broken and the Georgian Army is in retreat, and it looked like they (the Russians) would move on to Tbilisi.

In fact, [U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John] Tefft, we were having multiple calls a day, and Tefft said, "Dan, you realize, don't you, where the embassy is?" Of course, they're on the main road north of Tbilisi. And he said, "The Russian Army could be here tonight." And he was absolutely calm. He was absolutely focused and understood what was happening.

Matthew Bryza, my deputy who had flown out to Tbilisi, he was in the presidential palace with [then-Swedish Foreign Minister] Carl Bildt. They thought it could be attacked, but they weren't going to leave, they were just going to stay there. They had to show personal solidarity, which actually took some courage because that would have been an early target and they didn't care.

RFE/RL: Some analysts have claimed that President Saakashvili was "provoked" by Russia in 2008. Do you think that's a fair assessment, especially given Russia's full invasion now of Ukraine?

Fried: Putin wanted his war against Ukraine. And even though the U.S. successfully exposed all of Putin's provocations, he went in anyway. And you're probably thinking, well, the same is true in Georgia, Putin would have gone in anyway and you're right. So, to blame Saakashvili and say, well, he fell for the provocations, therefore the war is his fault is nonsense. Putin would have gone in anyway.

The Russian proxy forces were shelling Georgian villages. But we did warn Saakashvili in advance not to move. Condi Rice did it when we were in Tbilisi in July [2008]. I did it that very day. But I understand that they were sort of provoked, and let's just stipulate that Putin would have attacked anyway.

But the problem is that you had the Germans and the French able to blame Saakashvili and half-excuse Putin. And their reaction to the Russo-Georgian war was much weaker than to the Russo-Ukrainian war.... But let's be clear where responsibility lies for this war -- it is Vladimir Putin. Let's be clear about that.

RFE/RL: In an interview exactly one year ago, you said that the West was not united enough back then, so it opted for economic assistance, as opposed to imposing sanctions on Russia. In hindsight, was that the right decision, or the only realistic one?

Fried: It would have been better to impose sanctions. But two problems: one, we weren't as smart about sanctions, not yet. We learned how to do sanctions against Iran, after 2008. We got a lot smarter. And then we applied them against Russia.

So, one, we weren't as smart. And two, we would never have had consensus. The Germans and French would not have supported [it] and had we tried, we would have lost. It would have been like the [2008] Bucharest [NATO] summit (where the military alliance did not invite Ukraine and Georgia to progress to Membership Action Plans (MAPs.)) Losing the fight on a MAP -- and we would have lost again twice in one year. That would have been bad.

So, do I regret we didn't do sanctions? Sure. In retrospect, should we have done them? Sure. But there were hurdles that we couldn't get over.

RFE/RL: Speaking of the French, how wise was it for Paris to be in a leading negotiating role in 2008, especially in light of recent efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron to engage Putin over Ukraine?

Fried: Well, look, I remember when we were in the south of France and taking a look at the six-point cease-fire that Sarkozy had negotiated in the presidency of the EU. You probably know the details of the problem with the map and that the line of Russian control bisected Georgia. It was a mess. So, Condi [Rice] turns to me and says: "The French invented cartography. Didn't anybody read a map?" Which is her version of being really angry.

Sarkozy's six-point plan needed to be fixed. But we can't blame him or the French, because had the plan been better, it might not have made a difference. The Minsk accords (the international agreements that attempted to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine) had their faults, but they were much better actually than the six- point plan. But you'll notice that Putin did not respect the Minsk accords. He twisted them, he projected onto them the meaning that they didn't have and waited for people to accept his nonsense interpretation.... The flaws were not critical because Putin would have ignored a better document anyway. The document stopped the fighting, which is what Putin wanted to do.

RFE/RL: The U.S. "reset" policy with Russia was initiated in 2009, months after the conflict between Russia and Georgia. Was that a naive decision or wishful thinking on the part of the Obama administration?

Fried: Look, Mike McFaul (at the time a senior White House adviser) was the architect of the reset. And we had a conversation. I know him and I respect him. And by the way, just in case, to understand where Mike's coming from, take a look at his testimony from the fall of 2008 that we both gave. He was working for Obama; the election hadn't happened. And a lot of the Obama people were very critical of Bush's handling of Georgia, and half of them sort of believed the war was [Vice President] Dick Cheney's fault and he had egged on Saakashvili and some nonsense. Mike McFaul was the foreign policy person. And his testimony to the Senate, about the Georgian war, was identical to mine. He blamed Putin, he didn't hold back.

So, he tried, he comes up with the reset. And we had a conversation about this when I was still in my old job. And I said, "Look, Mike, I know why you're trying to do it." And politically, the Obama people are going to say, they think that Bush was clumsy and aggressive, and so we can do it better. We can do it better.

And I said to him: "I know why you're doing it. And I'm not going to trash you for it. I'm not going to attack you because you're doing it for the same reasons we did it. But let me tell you something, you'll fail for the same reasons we fail. Because Putin's terms for a better relationship you won't be able to accept any more than for a week."

And he didn't argue with me. He understood my point and later, he admitted that I had been right. So, he tries for the reset. And [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton was willing to give it a try. It was sort of a prophetic moment when the word for "reset" was misspelled.

This is an abridged version of the interview and has been edited for length and clarity.
TBILISI -- Davit Ratiani glanced up as the Russian military aircraft buzzed across the skies of Georgia, clenching his fist in such anger that his nails tore into his skin.

'"I will never forget the feeling of powerless that came over me at that moment,'" Ya Shashviashvili remembers her husband later telling her in one of the few moments he divulged any details of his experience during Georgia's short, devastating war with Russia in 2008.

The war, ignited in the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, killed more than 200 soldiers, 300 civilians, and displaced thousands, and left both territories in a state of frozen conflict. Fifteen years after the war, on an anniversary that is marked on both August 7 and August 8 in Georgia, Russia still has troops based in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

For many in Georgia, Russia's invasion of Ukraine evokes memories of their country's own conflict with their powerful neighbor and former overlord. Many Georgians who fought in 2008 have traveled to Ukraine to take up arms on the side of Kyiv's forces. Dozens have paid the ultimate price.

Hundreds of ethnic Georgians are believed to be fighting in Ukraine, most notably with the Georgian Legion, a unit of fighters that was formed in 2014 after Russia began fomenting unrest in Ukraine's eastern industrial Donbas region, shortly after the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea. The legion, which is said to number from 800 to1,000 personnel and is roughly an even split between ethnic Georgians and a mixture of other nationalities, has been integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.

'There Was An Unfinished Battle And He Wanted To Finish It'

For, Ratiani, or Dato, the nickname he went by, there was no question whether to fight for Ukraine against the same foe.

"That's why he left for Ukraine," his wife, Shashviashvili, recounted to RFE/RL's Georgian Service. "There was an unfinished battle and he wanted to finish it. This feeling, this pain of defeat, was buried deep in his mind. He hoped that the time had come for victory and revenge and left at the first opportunity."

Back in 2008, Ratiani, who was in the Georgian military, was quickly deployed after hostilities with the Russians erupted, Shashviashvili says.

"As soon as the news was broadcast on television that military operations had started, he was packing his bags right away. Even now, I can still see him before my eyes going from room to room, running into the bathroom, throwing things into a bag and then leaving the house," she recalled.

At that time, Ratiani was leaving behind not only a wife, but a 1-year-old son, as well as his mother, who lived with them.

"We were standing outside the house, in the yard, my mother-in-law and I, holding the baby, with saddened faces, and we're watching these guys heading out and we're thinking what to do," Shashviashvili remembered, adding that at the time she had just found out she was pregnant with another child.

When he returned from the battlefield, her husband rarely talked about the conflict.

"He said almost nothing. In general, he didn't like to talk about his life in the military. It was like a taboo topic. But in those days, he was silent even more so," she said.

One of the few memories he did share was the time the Russian military aircraft flew over his head at the Senaki military base, when he shook his fist and yelled "like a small child."

After the 2008 war, Ratiani continued to serve in the Georgian military and, in 2014, was deployed to Afghanistan to take part in NATO's Resolute Support mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan security forces to fight terrorism. During that time, Shashviashvili says, he saved someone's life during a terrorist attack.

In 2019, Ratiani, then 50 years old, retired from active service and began civilian life, working as a driver for various private companies. He was also interested in politics, becoming a member of Strength is in Unity, an opposition faction in Georgia's parliament.

But when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ratiani quickly set off to fight with the Ukrainians. It was his last battle. On March 18, 2022, the 53-year-old Ratiani was killed, reportedly by Russian mortar fire on the front lines of Irpin and supposedly the first fatality of a Georgian fighter in Ukraine.

Outside the capital of Kyiv, Irpin was devastated by Russia's military, with most of its buildings turned to rubble and many of its civilians enduring incredible hardships at the hands of invading Russian forces.

Formerly home to an estimated 65,000 people, Ukraine designated Irpin a "hero city," an acknowledgement of the resolve its people had shown in the face of such adversity.

'As Long As I'm Alive, I Won't Turn Off My Phone'

On August 7, 2008, at 4 a.m., when Avto Rurua was called and ordered to report to the base, he told his 20-year-old wife, Elmira Inalishvili, "Don't worry, no matter what happens, as long as I'm alive, I won't turn off my phone."

Rurua was serving in the Georgian armed forces along with his brother and cousin.

When war with Russia broke out, Rurua, a refugee from Abkhazia, and his wife were living in Abastumani, a town of less than 1,400 people. They were also new parents, with a baby just 3 weeks old.

When Rurua left to fight, a neighbor took Inalishvili and their baby to the village of Lesichina, believing it would be safer there.

"Up until August 8, I was in contact with Avto by phone," Inalishvili told RFE/RL. "He told me that everything was OK, but on August 8, I lost contact with him. Since he told me he would never turn off his phone as long as he was alive, I thought Avto had died."

For the five days of fighting, Inalishvili had no word about the fate or whereabouts of her husband. "I even stopped lactating because I was so nervous. There was no food for the baby and no news about Avto," she explained.

Just before dawn on the sixth day of the war, with hostilities on the wane, Inalishvili's phone rang.

"I remember holding the baby in one hand and the phone in the other. That's how I was sleeping. I will never forget his voice when he said, 'I'm alive.' Suddenly all the fears vanished. The main thing was that he was alive," she said.

Rurua returned home to his family exhausted. "His feet were so swollen from all the walking in the forest and the mountains that he couldn't take off his military boots," Inalishvili said.

While Rurua's brother also survived the August war, his cousin, Badri Beradze, was killed.

"Avto couldn't forgive Russia for the August war. He lost a cousin and friends. That's why he went to Ukraine. When he was going to the war, his eldest son, Aleksandr, asked him, 'Why are you going, you are Georgian, the war is in Ukraine?' Avto answered, 'Russia took our brother away, took away Georgian territories,'" Inalishvili remembered about the day her husband left for Ukraine in 2022.

"He gave the older boy an icon to wear around his neck and asked him not to take it off until he came back. I just couldn't believe that he was going to war, that he was signing up for near certain death.... I get mad when I hear people say that these fighters go to Ukraine for money and die for money. These people had a fight to finish and that's why they went to war," Inalishvili said.

Before heading off to Ukraine, Rurua had a job as a security guard at a hotel in the Black Sea resort of Batumi before working construction in the capital, Tbilisi.

On December 2, 2022, Rurua died at the age of 41 along with four other Georgian fighters near the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in what was reported to be an assault by Chechen fighters.

His brother, now also fighting in Ukraine, has vowed that he won't return home without Rurua's body, which was never recovered.

'He Was Unhappy, But He Didn't Let Any Of Us Know It'

Edisher Kvaratskhelia was a member of the Georgian military during the August 2008 war, serving in the 4th Mechanized Brigade, which was reported to have suffered the highest casualty rates during the conflict.

When Kvaratskhelia was drafted into the August war, his younger brother, Bakur, was eager to join him but was rejected due to his lack of experience.

"He fought with the 4th Brigade. When the army retreated, he came out with them. If I remember correctly, on August 14, I met the guys when they pulled back with all their equipment and tanks," Bakur told RFE/RL's Georgian Service. "That's when I saw for the first time how a person can lie down on a tank and sleep from exhaustion. He was unhappy, but he didn't let any of us know it."

After the war, Kvaratskhelia remained in the military even after his obligatory service ended. He studied military engineering and mining, becoming a specialist.

His brother, Bakur says, believed the blood spilled by Georgian soldiers in 2008 was not in vain. And perhaps for that reason, Kvaratskhelia left to fight in Ukraine already in 2014, when Russia illegally seized control of the Crimean Peninsula and began backing separatist fighters in the Donbas.

Seeing Kvaratskhelia off at the airport in 2014 was the last time he would ever see his brother.

"Edisher was seven years older than me. He was always my idol and role model. When he went to war in 2008, he entrusted me with the difficult task of keeping the family calm," Bakur said. "That mission fell to me again when he went to fight in Ukraine. When someone goes to war, family members may even subconsciously adjust to the fact that they may never see them alive again. I know it's the way of the warrior, but it's agony to lose your flesh and blood."

Kvaratskhelia died, aged 44, on October 10, 2022, during fighting near Bakhmut. He was awarded several medals for heroism in Ukraine.
TBILISI -- Fifteen years after Georgia's 2008 war with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, there is little Georgians can agree on about how to remember it -- including on which day it started.

Many, including the Georgian government, will commemorate the anniversary of the outbreak of war on August 8. Opposition figures and much of the international community, meanwhile, are marking it a day earlier, on August 7.

The increasingly rigid schism about the anniversary is a corollary of the single question that has come to dominate Georgia's discourse about the 2008 war: Who started it?

The question does not lend itself to a short answer. The full-scale war erupted after days of escalating skirmishes in the region and months of heightened tensions over the Russian-backed breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It emerged from years of political estrangement between the Georgians and Ossetians and historical grievances that date back centuries.

The short war, which lasted for around five days, killed more than 200 soldiers and more than 300 civilians and displaced thousands. Following the war, Russia formally recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and substantially expanded its military footprint in both territories.

Who you believe "started" the war depends to a large degree on how far back in history you choose to go.

It was in the early hours of August 8, 2008, when Georgian forces heavily shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Russia, which was the security guarantor for the separatist South Ossetian state -- which had broken away from Georgia in another war in the early 1990s -- responded with overwhelming force, and in the next few days not only pushed Georgian forces out of South Ossetia but struck and invaded Georgia proper.

This, according to many accounts, is how the war started. A European Union report produced a year later declared that the shelling of Tskhinvali "marked the beginning of the large-scale armed conflict in Georgia," though it blamed Russia as well for its provocative actions in the run-up to the war.

Some Georgians, however, point to what they say was the real start of the conflict: an alleged large-scale movement of Russian forces into South Ossetia via the Roki Tunnel, which they argue was the precursor to a long-planned invasion of Georgia.

The supposed Russian troop movement has never been proved, and the writers of the EU report cautiously said that they were "not in a position to consider as sufficiently substantiated" the reports of a significant August 7 Russian advance.

Despite that assessment, the August 7 narrative was an ex post facto justification by then-President Mikheil Saakashvili, argues Paata Zakareishvili, a longtime peace activist and a former state minister for reconciliation and civic equality.

"For a year [after the war], absolutely no one was talking about August 7," Zakareishvili told RFE/RL. But in anticipation of the EU report's release in 2009, Zakareishvili said that Saakashvili developed the "myth, this legend" of a large-scale Russian invasion before Georgia's attack. "The idea that the war started on the 7th is absurd. It was invented by Saakashvili for his political agenda," he said.

When the Georgian Dream party, led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, began its quest in 2011 to topple Saakashvili and his United National Movement (ENM) party, part of its campaign narrative was that Saakashvili had recklessly started the war and brought on the devastating Russian invasion.

In a 2011 press conference ahead of parliamentary elections, Ivanishvili said that "Georgia started" the war, citing the EU report as evidence.

The dueling anniversaries began soon after. When Georgian Dream won the elections in 2012, ending the rule of Saakashvili's ENM, and Ivanishvili became prime minister, he marked the 2012 anniversary of the war on August 8. Saakashvili, who was then still president, commemorated it a day earlier.

By November 2013, Saakashvili had also lost the presidency, and the dominance of Georgian Dream -- and August 8 -- began. A pillar of Georgian Dream's political narrative is that the previous leadership had brought war to the country, and they would not.

But among anti-Georgian Dream circles, who tend to be political allies of Saakashvili, resistance to the later date began to mount.

"There is some confusion about the date of the start of the August war of 2008," wrote David Batashvili, an analyst at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, in a 2018 article. "People tend to name August 7 and August 8 interchangeably, as if there were no difference between the two dates." In fact, Batashvili wrote, the August 8 date was based on a "Russian lie" that Moscow only attacked in response to Georgia's shelling of Tskhinvali. "For some Georgians to follow Moscow in mentioning August 8 as the day the war started is an unbelievably foolish carelessness."

The August 7 narrative blaming Russia for the start of the war began to take root. In 2020, then-Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia broke with Georgian Dream's tradition and marked the anniversary on August 7. In President Salome Zurabishvili's first year in office, in 2019, she marked the anniversary on August 8. But the next year she switched after drawing controversy during her 2018 election campaign for supporting the idea that Georgia had started the fighting.

The United States switched, as well. While earlier commemoration statements had been issued on August 8, since 2020, Washington has marked the anniversary on August 7. Asked to explain the shift, a spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi offered a statement: "The embassy, the people of Georgia, and the international community recognize August 7 as the beginning of Russia's full-scale military aggression against Georgia." (The European Union, for its part, has for years marked the August 7 date.)

Controversy over the dates has only continued to grow, as Georgia's political divisions have intensified. During last year's commemoration, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili was asked why he marked the anniversary on the 8th rather than the 7th. "The date August 8 has never been a subject for discussion," he responded. "In general, it's embarrassing that the family members of our hero soldiers are standing here and we're talking about dates." He added that Saakashvili's "foolish policy, his uncalculated, provocatory steps" resulted in the former leadership "not being able to avert this tragic war."

The spats over who started it mean there is less room for real discussions about what happened in the war and how to think about the breakaway territories now, says Anna Dziapshipa, a Tbilisi-based filmmaker and peace activist. "This shallow topic of the dates really changes how we talk about the problem and what we talk about in the 2008 war," she told RFE/RL. "It doesn't allow any space to reflect and understand the framework and reasons" for Georgia's conflicts. As a result, the memory of the war "has become very flat," she said.

Politics in Georgia is incredibly polarized, so much so that the European Union has said the country's leaders must address the issue with more cross-party cooperation for Georgia to become a candidate for EU membership. "The [2008] war has become one of the main pillars of this polarization blame game," said Vano Abramashvili, an analyst and head of the Peace Program at the Tbilisi-based NGO Caucasian House.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has further polarized the legacy of 2008. The opposition and other anti-Georgian Dream organizations have sought to portray Georgia's conflict as a part of a larger phenomenon of Russian aggression that includes its war against Ukraine.

The Shame Movement, a pro-Western youth-oriented activist group, has been buying ads on Instagram promoting August 7 as the real war anniversary. "Even after 15 years since the August war, Russian propaganda continues to push the narrative that the war began on August 8, intending to shift blame onto Georgia," the group wrote in one such post. "However, the reality is that Russia had been preparing for this war for years.... The official start of the war occurred on August 7, when the Russian Army invaded the territory controlled by the central government of Georgia. It is essential not to spread Russian propaganda and instead seek accurate information on the events."

"The Russia-Ukraine war is so black and white, and people have this urge to transfer this black and whiteness to our conflict here," Dziapshipa said. That means that, increasingly, Georgia's conflicts are seen solely in Georgian-Russian terms with the voices and agency of Abkhazians and Ossetians rarely heard or considered, activists like Dziapshipa and Zakareishvili say.

Rhetoric from ruling Georgian Dream leaders, too, has sharpened. They have recently begun to give voice to complaints -- once taboo among mainstream Georgians -- that the West did not sufficiently support Georgia in 2008.

"We had a war in 2008, you remember that well, but do you remember anyone who imposed sanctions against Russia? No one in the world had a correct, adequate reaction. So, my question is: Where is the logic? Our war was not a war, but the war in Ukraine is a war?" Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said during a May appearance in Qatar.

"Western countries imposed a de facto arms embargo on Georgia immediately after the 2008 war and soon declared the ill-fated 'reset' [in relations] with Russia," wrote parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili in a recent opinion piece for the Civil.ge website. "In subsequent years, many of these countries increased foreign trade with Moscow to unprecedented levels and wrapped some major economies into a Russian energy straitjacket."

The Ukraine war has also given Georgian Dream leaders new ammunition for their argument that they are better than the ENM -- which remains Georgia's largest opposition party -- at keeping Georgia out of a war. "If Saakashvili were in power today, they would make a second Mariupol happen here, that was the intention," Gharibashvili said in April 2022, referring to the Ukrainian city that has been devastated by Russia's invasion.

To many Georgians, government rhetoric has occasionally veered into victim-blaming when it contrasts its success in not getting invaded by Russia to Kyiv's failure to prevent an attack.

"The Georgian Dream government is missing the opportunity to take advantage of the war in Ukraine, while the whole world sees that Russia is the aggressor," Zakareishvili said. "Instead, they are constantly blaming the ENM for being the cause of the start of the war."

The discussion of dates and blame means that more important questions are not being asked, Zakareishvili says. "It's not important who started the war," he said. "It's important that the war happened and how was it possible to avoid it. And this is what we need to talk about with the Abkhazians and the Ossetians, as soon as the war in Ukraine is over."

Abramishvili, the analyst, agrees. "To me, who shot first is not the important question," he said. "My question is: 'What did my government do?'"
RENO  As wildfires will continue to challenge Nevada and the West for decades to come, educators and firefighting agencies are teaming up to make sure teens gain an understanding of the complex issues surrounding wildfire and natural resource management, and that we develop a workforce ready to tackle these issues. Along the way, students gain an increased appreciation for classroom science concepts they are required to learn.

University of Nevada, Reno Extension has developed a Living With Fire Wildfire Science Curriculum for high school science classes, with biology and earth science units already available online and more units in the works. In fact, 35 teachers have been trained to teach the material and have taught lessons to more than 1,200 students.

But, Extension faculty say this is just the tip of the iceberg. Theyre ready to help more teachers incorporate the curriculum into their science courses this fall. And, theyve embarked on an innovative, collaborative Fire Science Academy program that will allow sophomores at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology (AACT) in Reno to enroll in a three-year course of study this fall that will prepare them to be firefighters upon graduation, as well as allow them to earn college credits.

Were really excited to be working with our firefighting agency partners and local school districts to provide education on these important issues, and to help develop the workforce we need to address them, said Christina Restaino, assistant professor and natural resources specialist at Extension. The curriculum has been really well received by both teachers and students. And, the new Fire Science Academy at AACT has taken a lot of work and collaboration, but its going to be worth it. We cant wait to get it off the ground when school starts.

Showing students science matters

The Living With Fire curriculum covers important science concepts in biology, earth science, environmental science and agricultural science. According to Spencer Eusden, Living With Fire curriculum developer, the main goals of the curriculum are to increase students understanding of how wildfire works, empower them to increase their households wildfire preparedness, and increase their awareness and interest in careers related to wildfire.

Additionally, the lessons aim to help students cope with trauma from experiencing wildfire.

The lessons also include trauma-informed activities to help support students who have experienced past wildfire-related trauma and to increase youth resilience before they might encounter a wildfire, he said.

The curriculum was developed to fit into existing high school science classes and to follow Next Generation Science Standards, K12 science content standards that set the expectations for what students should know. All lessons include career spotlights highlighting potential careers in fire or natural resource management and contain a careers in wildfire activity, where students use an interactive diagram to explore available career paths. Lessons also include hands-on activities for inside and outside the classroom.

To determine what type of content was most appropriate to include, Restaino and Eusden interviewed 125 people, including fire professionals, scientists, high school science teachers, members of tribal organizations and other educators. The resulting curriculum units include:

Biology  In this six-lesson un

it, students learn about the role of invasive annual grasses on wildfire frequency and their impact on Great Basin ecology. Students end the unit by designing a fuels-management project that incorporates budget considerations and different land management strategies.

Earth science  This five-lesson package is broken down into two units, where students investigate factors that impact wildfire severity and post-fire erosion. Students investigate climate projections for the state of Nevada to make their own prediction of future wildfire severity, and analyze wildfire severity maps to identify priority areas for post-burn restoration to reduce erosion.

Environmental science  In this six-lesson unit, students explore data on the causes of variation in wildfire occurrence in different years and conduct a climate change modeling activity. They also design an independent investigation about how scientists balance creating fuel breaks with protecting sage grouse habitat.

Agricultural science  This eight-lesson unit covers similar topics to the biology unit, covering invasive grasses, wildfire frequency and land management, but focuses on how these concepts are applied to rangeland management.

The biology unit and one of the earth science units are complete, and more than 1,200 students have engaged in some of the lessons in schools in Washoe, Storey and Elko counties, and in Carson City; and at Extensions 4-H youth camps and the Universitys Nevada Tribal College Prep Camp. The other earth science unit and the environmental science unit will be available later this year, and the agricultural science unit will be available next year.

Living With Fire staff has led 23 curriculum training sessions for teachers so far, where they also got valuable feedback. Based on teacher input, some activities were adjusted to work better for larger class sizes and to pace lessons to more appropriately challenge students, for example.

Julie Koop, a science teacher at Carson City High School, said the biology unit was taught to over 655 freshmen at their school last year, and that it was very well received by the students.

A lot of times, students want to know why they need to learn about things like biology and earth sciences, for example, she said. It was really cool because the kids were able to learn about these things by studying an area in their own back yard. And, theyve lived through smoke and wildfire in their area, so they could relate to the curriculum and why its important to learn about these things. It was rigorous, but thats what learning needs to be. Having the firefighters there and people from Extension, and the career readiness component, that was also really beneficial for the students.

To support the development and implementation of the curriculum, FEMA contributed $223,598 and the Bureau of Land Management contributed $685,539. The Nevada Office of Science and Technology provided $8,000 to fund teacher co-production sessions and curriculum trainings.

Nevada teachers looking for more information on the curriculum or in-class support using it can contact Restaino at restainoc@unr.edu or 775-784-4848.

Proactive approach to workforce

The Fire Science Academy program will be the newest offering this year, among a variety of career and technical education programs at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology, which is part of the Washoe County School District in Reno. Sophomores this fall will be able to enroll in the five-semester program, and upon graduation in spring 2026, they will be eligible to be hired onto wildland fire crews. They will also have earned some college credits through a partnership with Truckee Meadows Community College and be ready to take a one-semester fire academy program offered by the college that will qualify them for municipal firefighting jobs.

According to Restaino, the new offering is the result of a lot of collaboration fueled by a desire to benefit students, address challenges posed by wildfire, and help fill our states need for firefighters and first responders.

Extension is just one player in this program, she said. Our firefighting partners at the BLM and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, the Washoe County School District and the Academy, and Truckee Meadows Community College have been all in to make this happen. Its really exciting.

According to Fire Captain Cameron Peek, who does training for the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, in recent years, the need for trained firefighters has become critical, and firefighting agencies are being proactive to help fill that need.

There is an increased demand for trained personnel in the public safety profession, he said. This program allows young adults to experience the fire and EMS field and the role that public service plays in our community. The program will give them a jump start in this dynamic career and will provide a pathway for students who are seeking to serve our region as a first responder.

Restaino said students will be enrolled in a variety of fire science courses taught by Bureau of Land Management and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District instructors using state and national curricula adapted for high school classrooms by Extensions Living With Fire Program.

Were working to match existing entry-level firefighter training courses with the required Nevada Department of Education Career and Technical Education Quality Program Standards, she said. Were revising these courses to match the needs of high school students and providing training to BLM and Truckee Meadows Fire professionals on how to instruct high school students. As part of this program, well also work with the firefighting agencies to place interested students in age-appropriate wildfire summer jobs.

The program will be much more than classroom lessons, with a lot of hands-on learning.

The hands-on learning experiences, simulations and practical exercises will promote active learning and appeal to students who may not thrive in traditional classroom environments, said Matt MacKay, career and technical education coordinator with the Washoe County School District, who worked with AACT Principal Mike Gifford to get the program off the ground. In addition, it supports the districts goal of providing diverse learning opportunities to cater to different learning styles.
A polytechnic school in Russias Tatarstan, a region some 900 kilometers east of Moscow, is using manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and are increasingly turning to underage students as laborers, many of whom often work in exploitative conditions.

The revelations at Alabuga Polytechnic University raise troubling implications about the lengths that Russian authorities are going to in order to boost the war effort and how the advanced Iranian weaponry -- which is increasingly used to bombard Ukrainian cities and has only recently begun to be manufactured inside Russia -- could contribute to escalating tensions and rising civilian casualties.

The use of underage students as drone factory workers and the details of the manufacturing facilities were first reported by Russian independent media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July.

Since then, RFE/RLs Idel.Realities has spoken with students who describe grueling working conditions and interviewed dozens of parents whose children have been enrolled at Alabuga Polytechnic University -- some as young at 15 -- who say that their children were forced to work exceedingly long hours, often without proper breaks or meals, and under hostile conditions that have deeply affected their mental health.

My son enrolled and 2 1/2 months later he called for me to take him away, Zhanna, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect against reprisals for speaking about the operation, told RFE/RL. He said to me on the phone, Come and get me or Ill die, so I picked him up immediately.

Zhanna, who asked that her underage sons name also not be used, says that she sent him from Nizhny Novgorod to study at Alabuga Polytechnic University in 2022 because of its reputation as a leading technical institution inside Russia.

The school offered students -- often between the ages of 15-18 -- an opportunity to get vocational training as part of a dual program that combines a classroom education with practical work experience. Students were also promised an opportunity to work and earn a locally competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles ($700) a month as part of the work experience program that could further their career growth.

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.

But, instead, those enrolled were encouraged and in some cases pressured into working at the drone facility, where the salaries of the mostly underage laborers are contingent on meeting tough production quotas.

This is a textbook definition of what constitutes exploitation, Sergei Podsytnik, an investigative journalist at Protokol who worked on the series of reports, told RFE/RL. [Students] assemble drones, with the work taking priority over their studies.

The pressure to fulfill these quotas has allegedly led to strenuous back-to-back days -- with some shifts lasting up to 15 hours -- with little time for sleep or adequate sustenance. Overtime work is often unpaid, further highlighting potential labor violations. Exhausted students also reported not always meeting their quotas, which led to them not earning the salary initially promised by the school. Many students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and relied on their earnings to cover costs for tuition, room, and board and would send the remainder home.

Other parents, such as Marina, said she decided to take her daughter out of the program when she discovered that she was working in apparent unsafe conditions and that staff from the school had instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work.

This was the last straw for me, Marina, who also asked for her identity to be concealed, told RFE/RL. This is a dangerous production process that involves dangerous chemicals. They also forbid the kids from telling everything to their parents.

RFE/RL sent multiple requests for comment to various staff and administrators at Alabuga Polytechnic University but received no replies.

Making Iranian Drones In Russia

The complicated and concerning dynamic at Alabuga Polytechnic University stems from growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia that has accelerated since Moscows full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war, but not since. However, U.S. intelligence officials have warned for months of continued deliveries and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying the two sides were exploring how to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian drones inside Russia.

According to The Wall Street Journal, an Iranian delegation visited Yelabuga in Tatarstan on January 5, touring a potential site for such a factory at the Alabuga special economic zone close to Alabuga Polytechnic University. U.S. officials released satellite images in April of the plant being built.

Russia already possesses an array of unarmed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, which are used mainly for surveillance and artillery spotting, but has turned increasingly to Tehran for attack drones.

After being forced to abandon Ukrainian territory that its troops captured in the early stretches of the war, Moscow shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities. These attacks often rely on a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to knock out electricity and running water for the civilian population in Ukraine.

So far, Iran has provided Russia mostly with so-called "suicide" drones, known as the Shahed-136, that contain a modest amount of explosives that can detonate when the drones crash into targets, military experts say.

In acquiring its own domestic assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of the relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems.

WATCH: Russia has resorted to using Shahed-136 drones from Iran in its war on Ukraine. Ukraine says it's already downed many of the drones, which work by slamming into their intended target, laden with explosives. Ordinary Ukrainians say they can already recognize the sound of the drones, which use two-stroke engines like lawnmowers or motorbikes. Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia.

The arrangement also offers substantial economic and political benefits for Iran, which has sought to portray itself as neutral in the Ukraine war. The appearance of Iranian-made drones over Ukrainian cities, however, has triggered threats of new economic sanctions from the West. The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have also all issued rules in recent months designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.

The Washington Post reported in November 2022, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, that the agreement to deliver Iranian drone schematics and materials for manufacture in Russia resulted from Iranian leaders believing that the arrangement would allow Tehran to avert new sanctions.

Foreign Recruitment And Patriotic Education

Alabuga Polytechnic University is formally not a college. All of its students are officially enrolled at nearby Yelabuga Polytechnic College, with the Alabuga institution existing on paper as a specialized program for students looking to break into high-tech industries.

Currently, about 1,000 students are studying at Alabuga Polytechnic University, with several hundred of them -- most of whom are between the ages of 15 and 17 -- involved in assembling the Iranian drones.

In addition to the work on the drones, there are other signs that point to blurred lines in Russia between the education system and the countrys military amid the war in Ukraine.

According to current and former Alabuga Polytechnic University students, team-building and organized extracurricular activities through the school often take on a patriotic character that may be designed to expose students to official government narratives of international events or echo talking points from state television.

Organized paintball games have become a mainstay for students, especially first-year arrivals, in which they are encouraged to compete against one another and then play together against more experienced outside players. Teachers and administration officials regularly refer to paintball as being part of a patriotic education needed to complement the technical aspect of their studies.

In one instance, a group of new students competed in paintball as Soviet soldiers against outside players who were dressed as troops from Nazi Germany in a capture-the-flag competition meant to simulate the World War II battle of Stalingrad. According to one student, the Nazi flag contained the compass symbol used by the NATO military alliance instead of the swastika used by Nazi Germany.

Other instances of political teachings from staff are more direct. In a recording obtained by RFE/RL from June 16, a senior administrator can be heard telling the teenagers that NATO launched a hybrid war against Russia back in 2011 and that it has slowly become more overt. The man then goes on to tell students that their hard work and exceeding long days at the drone factory are part of a nationwide struggle against the West and that their patriotism will be rewarded.

Several students and parents identified the man in the recording as Timur Shagivaleev, the director-general of the special economic zone where Alabuga Polytechnic University and the drone factory operate.

Shagivaleev did not respond to RFE/RLs request for comment.

The man in the recording then goes on to tell students not to take holidays and to continue working even if it's mom's birthday, before ending his speech with, Long live our great country.

WATCH: Amid a new wave of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, analysts in Kyiv are gaining useful intelligence from a collection of downed Russian aerial weapons. They have been studying the remains of Iranian Shahed drones and Russian Kinzhal missiles, among others.

Multiple current and former students told RFE/RL that students who work in the drone factory are often praised by staff, while those who have refused or asked to be reassigned due to the high workload are often publicly shamed. In some instances -- according to recordings heard by RFE/RL -- staff even encourage students to bully others who are not deemed patriotic enough.

According to Protokol and Razvorots investigations, Alabuga Polytechnic University has also turned toward recruiting foreign students to enroll. The majority of them come from African countries, but also from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where they are promised world class salaries as part of the dual-track world experience program.

However, these foreign students are then given low-skill and menial tasks around the campus and the special economic zone, such as janitorial work, and are also paid lower salaries than initially promised.

Written by Reid Standish based on reporting by RFE/RLs Idel.Realities
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he requested long-range missiles from the United States during a phone call on August 7 with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The request came as five people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region and after Ukrainian officials said that at least three people had been killed in the latest Russian assaults that targeted the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions.

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.

Ukraine has previously requested Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) from the United States and other Western partners. Washington thus far has refrained from providing the weapons for fear Kyiv may use them to target military objects inside Russia.

The ATACMs could strike Russian arms depots and other equipment up to 300 kilometers away, weakening Moscow's ability to supply its troops at the front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the missiles would be used to reduce Russia's ability to target cities.

"I thanked the U.S. for all the assistance provided and stressed the need to enhance Ukraine's long-range capabilities by providing ATACMS," Kuleba said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A State Department spokesman issued a statement after the call that made no mention of Ukraine's request for ATACMS. The statement from spokesman Matthew Miller's office said Blinken "reiterated the United States' staunch and ongoing support of Ukraine's defense against Russia's aggression and reaffirmed continued support of a strong Ukrainian military and accountable defense institutions."

It also said Blinken and Kuleba discussed developments in Ukraine's counteroffensive and the talks held over the weekend in Saudi Arabia about reaching a "durable peace in Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attack on Pokrovsk involved two missiles that hit a residential building.

"Five dead and 18 wounded as a result of two strikes on a residential building in Pokrovsk," Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.

A second attack killed a high-ranking emergency official of the Donetsk region, he added.

Another four rescuers, eight police officers, and three civilians were injured, he said.

Kyiv earlier described the situation over the past week as extremely difficult and tense both in the east and south of the country.

WATCH: Volodymyr Labuzov was captured in May 2022 when the Ukrainian port of Mariupol fell to Russian forces after weeks of fighting. Labuzov, a military doctor who had been working in a makeshift hospital inside the Azovstal steel plant, was one of 2,500 prisoners taken by the Russians.

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that a woman was killed and a man sustained head injuries when Russian shelling hit a residential area in the central part of the city. The shelling began around the midnight, officials said.

At least two rescue workers suffered heatstroke as they tried to evacuate residents and put out a fire at a nine-story building that was hit by the latest Russian strikes. (See video below.)

Ukrainian forces recaptured Kherson and parts of Kherson Province in the countrys south in November, several months after they were occupied by Russia.

But Russian troops continue to shell the city and surrounding areas from across the Dnieper River. A doctor was killed and a nurse was wounded in Russian shelling of a Kherson hospital earlier this month.

Two people were reported killed when Russian troops hit the border areas of the northeastern Kharkiv region on August 7, officials said. No further details were immediately available.

Russian forces targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, using rockets and heavy artillery, regional officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Emergency workers put out a fire that broke out in the aftermath of a missile strike in the Synelnyk district, said Serhiy Lysak, the head of the regional military administration.

Russian assaults continued in the morning, with the Myryvsk area coming under heavy artillery shelling, Lysak added.

New air-raid alerts went off around noon on August 7 in at least nine provinces, including Sumy, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhya, alerting residents to the danger of new Russian strikes.

According to Ukraines General Staff, about 50 combat clashes took place across the country over the past day. Kyiv described the situation over the past week as extremely difficult and tense both in the east and the south of the country.

"The enemy has chosen the east as its main direction. The offensive there has been going on since January in several directions," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on August 7. She said that "the east was the epicenter of hostilities all last week."

Malyar also said that Russian forces "want to regain the territories they lost in the Kharkiv region.

In Russia, officials claimed that a Ukrainian drone was shot down southwest of Moscow overnight, amid a surge in drone attacks targeting the capital.

The drone was shot down by the anti-defense system in the Ferzikovsky district of the Kaluga region, less than 200 kilometers southwest of Moscow, regional Governor Vladislav Shapsha said.

The incident "affected neither people nor infrastructure," he wrote on Telegram on August 7.

Ukrainian drone attacks have increased in recent weeks, mostly targeting Moscow as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram that 22 prisoners of war were returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity on August 7.

Some 2,600 Ukrainian solders have been released from captivity in prisoner exchanges that have taken place periodically between Russia and Ukraine since the conflict began in February 2022.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the latest prisoner exchange. In most cases, the warring parties hand over about the same number of prisoners as the other side.

In other developments, a conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine was successful because it showed the willingness of the international community to work toward ending the war, a German government spokesperson said on August 7.

"Germany will also continue to engage actively including in this process," the spokesperson said in Berlin.

With reporting by Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiys chief of staff said on August 7 that talks over the weekend in Saudi Arabia discussed no other peace initiative than the one put forth by Ukraine and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting within about six weeks.

"We will hold another meeting within a month, month-and-a-half and we will move toward [holding] a summit," Andriy Yermak told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.

Officials from around 40 countries, including China, the United States, and European countries, took part in the talks.

Yermak, who headed the Ukrainian delegation, said all delegates at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

Yermak promoted the Ukrainian peace formula at the talks. Zelenskiy himself has touted the set of 10 principles that Kyiv wants to serve as the basis for peace during recent visits to European and NATO-member countries.

Observers have said the most important points of the peace plan are those that demand respect for the UN Charter and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the talks in Saudi Arabia didn't have "the slightest added value," because Moscow wasnt invited. Without Russia's participation and without taking into account Moscow's interests, the meeting was pointless, a ministry statement said.

It repeated previous assurances that Russia was open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and is ready to respond to serious proposals.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, once again ruled out Moscow's previous demands, saying they would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

"Any scenario of a cease-fire and freezing of the war in Ukraine in the current disposition will mean only one thing -- Russia's actual victory and Putin's personal triumph," Podolyak said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He said earlier in an interview with RFE/RL that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise on that.

"The most difficult thing is always the discussion of the issue that Russia should leave the territory of Ukraine," he said.

Hanna Hopko, who previously headed the committee on foreign policy in the Ukrainian parliament, said the talks in Saudi Arabia pointed to the "deepening of the isolation" of Russia. She said Ukraine needed this along with "tougher measures to counter Russian aggression," including more weapons, financial aid, and more pressure on Russia.

"Ukraine wants more support, and not only transatlantic support or in the Ramstein format, but at the level of the whole world," she said, referring to the contact group formed to coordinate Western military support for Ukraine.

Hopko told RFE/RL in an interview that China's participation at the talks was important.

"The longer the war lasts, the more China sees that Russia has no chance of winning," she said, adding that Russia was getting more and more isolated, and "China understands that Russia is losing."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on August 7 issued a statement saying China would be an "objective and rational voice" at any international multilateral forums and "actively promote peace talks."

The statement came after the ministry said earlier that the international talks in Saudi Arabia had helped "to consolidate international consensus."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, telling him that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Beijing and Moscow have maintained a close bilateral relationship in recent years as both countries' relations with the West have worsened.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
FERNLEY  The haunting tones of twin bugles pierced the stillness of an August morning at Fernleys Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

Buglers Mary Sedgwick and Rick Rose, both members of the Nevada Veterans Coalition, played Taps on Friday morning to honor 19 veterans who were given a military funeral.

The Missing in Nevada mission honors forgotten veterans whose remains may have been left on a mortuary shelf or in a dark, damp place. NVC Chaplain Sharon Serenko said their only family may have been the people who attended the one-hour ceremony to pay their final respects.

Serenko said Missing in Nevada has identified more than 350 forgotten veterans whose remains were interred either in Fernley or at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

Our mission was and still is to find every lost and forgotten veteran abandoned on mortuary shelves here in Nevada, Serenko said.

The first mission occurred in 2016, and the last one was conducted in 2019 before COVID closed the cemetery to large ceremonies. Serenko said no one claimed the remains, and she wondered how this may have affected the veterans if they were able to look down.

We have brought them to be with their brothers and sisters veterans, Serenko said of their final resting place in a beautiful cemetery at the edge of the Nevada desert. We will remember and honored them as our brothers and sisters.

Serenko recognized Linda Freeman, who has worked with local mortuaries to research the veterans identities, and Sedgwick, who handmade 19 urns for Fridays service. Soldiers from the Nevada Army National Guard and fire fighters from the North Lyon Fire Department assisted with the carrying of urns to the columbarium wall.

The NVC invited Fernley Mayor Neal E. McIntyre to offer remarks. He expressed his gratitude to the men and women who wear the uniform and for their everyday sacrifices in the U.S. Armed Forces.

This hallowed ground we stand on is representative of that, McIntyre said. Unfortunately, not every veteran who has served their country honorably will receive a full military honor they fully deserve.

McIntyre said he respects the NVCs mission. During the ceremony, the names of the 19 veterans were read, and the ceremony guard fired a volley of three. After a flag-folding ceremony, the NVC presented the flag to McIntyre.

The recognized veterans included Donald Deramus, Terrance Kaiser, Joseph Malumphy, Wesley Rubarth, Duyet Tran and Frank Weirauch, U.S. Air Force; John Awe, James Coggins, David McMurray, George Pope, Martin Salzer, Michael Sandmann, Jack Slate and William Wisckol, Army; Jack Martinez, Marine Corps; and George Abernathy, Walter Bindi, Robert Brewer and Joseph Letko, Navy.

Darin Farr, a spokesman with the NVC, said the service is a heartfelt sendoff conducted with dignity for the fallen veterans.

We took it upon ourselves to tell veterans that they are our family, he pointed out.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Susan Malone, who was sworn in as Nevadas Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army on July 13, said shes appreciative of the NVC for conducting this service.

God bless the veterans, National Guard and people who came today to make sure the 19 veterans are remembered, she said.

Malone added the interred veterans will have a special place in everyones hearts.

It is a humbling moment for me, she said.
The Supreme Court of India

Apex Court's Three-Member Committee Aims to Restore Rule of Law and Ensure Justice for Manipur Violence Victims

NEW-DELHI: In response to the recent violence in Manipur, the Supreme Court of India has taken a significant step towards ensuring justice and support for the affected people. On Monday, the apex court announced the formation of a three-member committee consisting of former women judges from different High Courts to monitor the relief and rehabilitation efforts in the state.

Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud's bench revealed that the esteemed committee will be chaired by the former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Geeta Mittal. Joining her are two other esteemed members, Justice (Retired) Shalini P. Joshi and Justice (Retired) Asha Menon. Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra are also involved in the bench's efforts.

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The primary objective of the committee is not just limited to overseeing relief and rehabilitation work but also to restore faith in the rule of law within the state. It aims to ensure that justice is served to the victims and that the perpetrators of the violence are brought to justice.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has instructed senior police officers to supervise the criminal cases under investigation by the state's Special Investigation Team (SIT). Manipur's Director General of Police, Rajiv Singh, appeared before the bench to provide insights into the measures taken by the administration to address caste-based violence and its segregation of cases for more effective investigation.

Representing the central and state governments, Attorney General R. Venkatramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted a report as requested by the Supreme Court on various issues, including the segregation of cases. "The government is dealing with the situation very judiciously," said the Attorney General, highlighting the state government's formation of an SIT at the district level to investigate sensitive cases.

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In addition to the state SIT's efforts, the government has also offered to involve the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 11 cases related to violence against women and children. This move comes after the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the slow and lax investigations into incidents of caste-based violence, especially those targeting women.

Previously, the apex court had summoned the DGP of Manipur to address the concerning law and order situation, emphasizing the breakdown of the constitutional machinery.

Notably, The court is currently addressing about ten petitions related to the violence in Manipur, and with the formation of the three-member committee, hopes are high for a fair and just resolution for the affected individuals.

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PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi Calls for a 'Quit India' Movement to Eradicate Corruption & Dynastic Politics from the Nation

NEW-DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the opposition alliance on Monday, accusing them of hindering India's progress towards becoming a developed nation. Speaking at the India Pavilion during the National Handloom Day ceremony, the Prime Minister rallied the public to join the fight against corruption and dynastic politics plaguing the country.

Addressing the gathering, PM Modi highlighted the surge in demand for indigenous products and emphasized the need to promote locally made goods during upcoming festivals. He pointed out that a "neo-middle class" is emerging in the nation, presenting vast opportunities for the textile sector to flourish.

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Without naming any specific political party or leader, the Prime Minister made it clear that he was taking aim at the opposition alliance. He stated, "The country is now saying 'Quit India' to evils like corruption, dynastic politics, and the pitfalls of appeasement."

Drawing attention to the increasing popularity of khadi, Modi proudly noted its remarkable growth, with sales skyrocketing from Rs 25,000-30,000 crore before 2014 to a staggering Rs 1.30 lakh crore at present. The Prime Minister expressed his vision to elevate India's handloom, khadi, and textile industry to international prominence, aspiring to make it a global leader, akin to the renowned 'Statue of Unity' in Gujarat.

In his address, PM Modi extended an invitation to the textile and fashion industry to play an active role in propelling India into the top three economies worldwide. Encouraging expansion and innovation, he urged companies to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the burgeoning 'neo-middle class' and contribute significantly to India's economic rise.

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The Prime Minister's call for a 'Quit India' movement against corruption and dynastic politics resonated strongly with the audience, with many lauding his efforts to promote indigenous products and uplift the textile sector.

The event marked National Handloom Day, commemorating the Swadeshi Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1905. The occasion showcased India's rich heritage of handloom and artisanal craftsmanship and celebrated the contributions of weavers and artisans across the country.




Drones

Security Alert: Two Drones Seized at Amritsar & Tarn Taran Border Amidst Concerns of Smuggling Operations

AMRITSAR: In a significant development, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police successfully conducted a joint operation, resulting in the recovery of two drones originating from Pakistan near the Amritsar and Tarn Taran border areas. The recovery of these drones has raised concerns as they are believed to be utilized by Pakistani smugglers for illegal activities.

Late at night, a peculiar sound near the border caught the attention of the joint team comprising BSF jawans and Punjab Police officials. In response to the unusual noise, the team promptly initiated a search operation in the vicinity. The search led to the discovery of a hexacopter drone in Ratan Khurd, a village situated along the Amritsar border.

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The BSF jawans, who were on patrol duty, reported hearing the drone's sound originating from the Pakistan side in Ratan Khurd around 10 o'clock at night. In response, they took immediate action and began firing to deter any potential illegal activities. Subsequently, the drone's sound ceased, prompting the authorities to further investigate the matter.

The Punjab Police was informed about the incident the following morning, and a joint search operation was launched in the village of Ratan Khurd. The diligent efforts of the security forces led to the successful recovery of the drone from the fields near the village. The recovered drone has been sent to a forensic laboratory for detailed examination, with the aim of extracting information about its flights and operations.

Simultaneously, another drone was found in the Rajoke area of Tarn Taran, adding to the gravity of the situation. Promptly acting on information about the drone's movement, Punjab Police and BSF launched a coordinated search operation in Rajoke. Remarkably, this marks the first instance in August where two drones have been seized on the same day.

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The recovery of these drones highlights the persistent threat of cross-border smuggling and illegal activities, necessitating increased vigilance along the border regions. The authorities remain committed to thwarting any attempts at undermining national security and safety. Further investigations are underway to ascertain the exact purpose and involvement of these drones in unauthorized activities.
Ukraine security service has claimed that it has thwarted an attempt by Russia to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky late last month.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement that a Russian informant was gathering intelligence about the planned visit of Zelensky in Mykolaiv at the end of July.

The alleged informant was a woman, who was living in the southern Ukrainian region of Ochakov, it added.

She "tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region," the statement says.

The alleged informant also tried to identify the location of ammunition warehouses and electronic warfare systems of the armed forces.

However, SBU says it arrested her before she could hand over the information to Russia, which was preparing an airstrike in Mykolaiv during Zelensky's visit to the region.

The unnamed woman could face up to 12 years' imprisonment, according to the Ukrainian security agency.

This is not the first time that the Ukrainian President is targeted.

In March, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksiy Danilov revealed that Chechen Special Forces had planned an assassination plot against Zelensky, and it was foiled because members of Russia's Federal Security Service, who do not support the war, leaked the information to Ukrainian authorities.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are continuing counter attacks on Russian targets, reports say.

Two key bridges connecting Russian-occupied parts of Kherson to Crimea were attacked on Sunday.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
This photo taken on Aug. 2, 2023 shows a view of the Huaxin 1907 Cultural Park in Huangshi, central China's Hubei Province. (Huaxin 1907 Cultural Park/Handout via Xinhua)

WUHAN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- An old factory in central China's Hubei Province has earned a well-deserved spot among the must-visit tourist destinations, as recommended by local travel guides, after undergoing a remarkable transformation.

Huaxin 1907, a cement factory-turned-cultural park located in the city of Huangshi, just an hour and a half drive from the provincial capital Wuhan, today hosts an array of attractions such as museums, cafes, bookstores, and hotels, all set within the warehouses and blast furnaces of this old factory.

As evening sets in, the massive compound transforms into a teeming night market, bustling with locals purchasing various goods, savoring delectable snacks, and leisurely strolling about.

Liu Min is excited to visit the former industrial site with his parents and children this summer. Liu, who grew up in the city but now works in Wuhan, fondly recalls his childhood memories of this place brimming with roaring machines and chimneys billowing smoke.

Huaxin, founded in 1907, was one of the earliest cement factories in modern China. Visitors today can still see two production lines imported from the United States in 1946, and one assembly equipment independently designed and developed in 1977. These remarkable installations earned it the title of the "cradle of China's cement industry."

During its heyday, the factory served as a vast production and living compound that extended across entire neighborhoods. Within its premises, there were essential amenities such as a hospital, a primary school, and apartment complexes.

The mill was shut down by the city government in 2007 due to air pollution concerns and the closure had triggered desolation of the nearby neighborhood. But instead of being demolished, the factory was listed as a national industrial heritage in 2019.

Recognizing the potential of its expansive space and affordable rental costs, investors in 2021 began transforming it into a vibrant district featuring parks, museums, art galleries and startup incubators, with an aim to create new value and enrich the surrounding community.

Since then, the place has seen an influx of people flocking to start businesses. Companies also come to hold gatherings and activities. The younger generation has taken notice of the place, infusing the industrial relics with a vibrant and lively atmosphere.

It attracted wide media coverage for drawing 50,000 visitors during the five-day May Day holiday last year.

"The combination of the industrial culture and the interests of the younger generation made the mill's low-carbon transition successful," said Sun Jialin, a local social media influencer.

Huaxin 1907 has set a compelling example as a popular option for urban developers seeking innovative ways to revitalize their industrial bases. An increasing number of factories across the province are transforming their industrial sites to capitalize on new opportunities and generate profits.

To gain a competitive edge, investors have to dig out the unique stories behind the place to distinguish it from others.

The old cement factory holds a special place in the hearts of Huangshi residents, said Huang Jing, the operation manager of the Huaxin 1907 park.

Her company is planning to launch some immersive items, allowing visitors to wear blue-collar workwear, watch movies and even take baths in the factory dormitory, recreating the bustling scenes of 50 years ago when hundreds of workers thronged the assembly lines.

Editor: GSY
The Biden Administration has announced a number of actions and committed resources to strengthen the cybersecurity of the United States's K-12 school systems.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed establishing a pilot program under the Universal Service Fund to provide up to $200 million over three years to strengthen cyber defenses in K-12 schools and libraries in tandem with other federal agencies that have deep expertise in cybersecurity.

The U.S. Department of Education will establish a Government Coordinating Council (GCC) that will coordinate activities, policy, and communications between federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial education leaders to strengthen the cyber defenses and resilience of K-12 schools.

The U.S. Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has committed to providing tailored assessments, facilitating exercises, and delivering cybersecurity training for 300 new K-12 entities over the coming school year.

Additionally, several education providers, including Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, PowerSchool, Google and D2L have committed to provide free and low-cost resources to school districts.

Monday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas joined First Lady Jill Biden, to convene school administrators, educators and private sector companies to discuss best practices and new resources available to strengthen the U.S. schools' cybersecurity.

The United States has experienced an increase in cyberattacks that have targeted the nation's schools in recent years. In the 2022-23 academic year alone, at least eight K-12 school districts throughout the country were impacted by significant cyberattacks - four of which left schools having to cancel classes or close completely.

According to a 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the loss of learning following a cyberattack ranged from three days to three weeks, and recovery time can take anywhere from two to nine months. Further, the monetary losses to school districts following a cyber incident is sestimated to cost up to $1 million.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sizwe Mabizela, speaking to the SABC TV news crew last week.

By Bukamuso Sebata

Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sizwe Mabizela has pleaded with the National Parliament to keep the Seat of the High Court in Makhanda. He highlighted the potential loss of jobs and destruction of livelihoods that could result from such a move.

This is after the Committee charged with rationalisation of the countrys courts recommended in its final report that the seat should move to Bhisho, the capital of the Eastern Cape. The Committee, chaired by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, proposed in its interim report that the provincial court seat be moved to Bhisho and that the Makhanda High Courts territorial jurisdiction be reduced by about two-thirds.

This decision has received a lot of resistance from the community of Makhanda, including the business sector, education institutions and other stakeholders arguing that it would have a devastating effect on the city and reduce the workload of the Makhanda High Court from 100% to 8%.

Professor Mabizela drew attention to the deeply concerning ramifications of the proposed relocation of the seat of the Eastern Cape High Court. He said this move will cause job losses estimated between 5000 to 8000, which will add to the already existing high unemployment rate in Makhanda.

We are deeply saddened and feel that we have not been heard regarding the final recommendations, which effectively suggest that the Seat of the High Court should be relocated from Makanda to Bhisho. Not only that but the area of the jurisdiction of the Makhanda High Court will be significantly reduced, said Professor Mabizela.

Prof Mabizela has been at the forefront of advocating for the seat to remain in Makhanda. Two weeks ago, the Makhanda High Court Action Committee met with the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola. Prof Mabizela said the Action Committee was pleased and optimistic after their meeting with the Minister, who encouraged them to send in more submissions to make their case. The Vice-Chancellor had emphasised the tremendous adverse effects this move would have on the town economically, socially, and intellectually.

This is not just about the relocation of the Seat; its also about the reduction of the jurisdiction of the Citys High Court. It will be a matter of time before that court shuts down, which is very problematic for us. We are undeterred as the Makanda High Court Action Committee in our commitment in helping our government understand the plight of the poor and vulnerable people of Makhanda. We believe that keeping jobs and protecting livelihoods is the centre of advancing social justice. Our constitution demands us to do that, added Prof Mabizela.

Vice-Chancellor Mabizela vowed that the Action Committee would work tirelessly to persuade Minister Lamola and the government to retain the seat of the High Court in Makhanda and to also work with them in the reconfiguration of the areas of jurisdiction so that the court remains viable. He continued to say that the poor and marginalised Makhanda citizens are not children of a lesser God. They deserve to have their plight heard, they deserve an opportunity of employment, and they deserve an opportunity to provide for their families.

He said this move would place thousands of livelihoods at significant risk. A loving and caring government of the people elected by the people will do the right thing and keep the Seat of the High Court in Makhanda, said Prof Mabizela. He added that the Action Committee is ready to engage with the Minister and any person who cares about the lives and the livelihoods of the people of Makhanda and the advancement of social justice.

The Eastern Cape has four High Courts in Gqeberha, Makhanda, Mthatha, and Bhisho. The seat of the High Court situated within the Makhanda High Court serves as a central hub for the Judge Presidents administration. This location holds considerable influence over substantial cases across the Eastern Cape. Makhanda is a city already grappling with a 40% unemployment rate, and this will add to those woes, concluded Mabizela.
Having ceased ops here, Fiat India could be crafting a comeback as Stellantis might consider re-introducing it

Indian automotive market has thrived in the recent past. Collectively, India has surpassed Japan in sales at times to grace the position of worlds third-largest automotive market. With potential in sales, India races on with manufacturers carving out a piece of this sizeable market. That said, invitation seems to be open for old darlings too.

Fiat India had its glory days. And then not much. Lack of newness could have resulted in a less profitable situation. Now, Stellantis is reportedly considering a comeback for Fiat India.

Fiat Electric  Charged Prospects into Indias EV segment?

Needless to say, Stellantis is keen on firmly establishing Citroen and Jeep brands in India. Citroen C3 Aircross and its electric version eC3 Aircross are in the pipeline. These will lay a foundation for the French brand in compact SUV space with the uniqueness of a 3rd-row seating option.

Jeep Compass and Meridian need a nudge to push sales to offer highest level of competitiveness. Right now, SUV offerings from rival brands attract way more volumes.

Amidst all these, there could be wiggle room for re-introduction of Fiat brand. Just last month, compact SUV segment sold over 41K vehicles with 60% YoY growth and 16% MoM growth. These are promising figures for automakers to bet on. Of course, a lot depends on whether Fiat India if reintroduced goes to electric car way, or the compact UV way.

Globally, Fiat has outsold rest of Stellantis brands in the 1st half of 2023 and shows great potential. electric Fiat 500 became one of top-selling A-segment hatchbacks and is being considered for an Australian launch. Fiat India struggled before. Despite that, the brand enjoys great recall among Indian enthusiasts.

Stellantis Dual Play: Fiats Rebirth; Alfa Romeos Potential Debut?

Compact SUV space is currently the most popular in India and strikes a good balance between cost and profitability. This is a lucrative opportunity for carmakers to carve out a piece of this pie. And Jeep and Citroen are both placed strategically in this growth market. So, where would Fiat India fit in?

Along with Fiat, Alfa Romeo is under consideration too. These could very well be CBU vehicles that cater to a much more premium end of the price spectrum. We could probably only get Quadrifoglio performance versions of both Giulia sedan and Stelvio SUV.

Source
A Long March 4C rocket carrying the Fengyun 3F satellite blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, Aug 3, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

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 pieces of advanced equipment including a hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounder, a microwave temperature sounder and a device to measure Earth radiation. The satellite will replace the Fengyun 3C, which has been operating for nearly 10 years and should have retired years ago, it said.

Fengyun 3F is mainly tasked with obtaining three-dimensional, multispectral data of atmosphere and land and ocean surfaces around the world. It will be specifically used to monitor global ozone distribution, ice and snow coverage, sea temperatures, natural disasters and ecosystems, the administration said.

Its work will help improve short-term climate predictions, climate change forecasts, climate emergency responses as well as disaster prevention and relief, it added.

Wang Jinhua, chief designer of the Fengyun 3F, said on Thursday that the mission payloads on the satellite represent the country's latest meteorological detection technology.

"What is notable is that the satellite is capable of collecting atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles in a frequent, accurate manner. Such data is not only meaningful in improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and climate change predictions, but also very helpful in strengthening the timeliness of forecasting disastrous weather," he said.

China launched its first weather satellite, Fengyun 1A, in 1988. Since then, it has lifted 21 Fengyun meteorological satellites into space. Currently, the nation operates 10 weather satellites  two Fengyun 4 series, three Fengyun 2 series and five 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 rocket series.

The rocket and satellite launched on Thursday were both 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.

Li Hongyangcontributed to this story.

Editor: JYZ
Tourists flock to Xijiang Qianhu Miao village during the summer. [Photo by Wu Xianyan/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

To avoid the summer heat, tourists have flocked to Xijiang Qianhu Miao village in Leishan county, Guizhou province.

To improve visitors' experience, the local government has enhanced the service level of staff and practitioners, and improved sanitation in the scenic area.

By the end of June, the village had welcomed 1.866 million visitors.

Wang Jin contributed to this story.

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Editor: JYZ
Where to Shop for Secondhand Furniture & Vintage Decor in San Diego

Buying pre-loved home essentials is one of the best ways to practice sustainable living and support a circular and local economy
The role of state-owned companies (SOE) during the war increased substantially, and it will remain key in the post-war reconstruction, Deputy Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev said at a roundtable entitled "The Role of State-Owned Enterprises in Post-War Reconstruction," which was held recently with the support of the USAID State-Owned Enterprises Reform Activity in Ukraine (SOERA).

"During the discussion, the participants repeatedly noted that the role of Ukrainian state-owned enterprises increased significantly during the period of full-scale Russian invasion, as well as their substantial contribution to the post-war reconstruction process. At the same time, the need to create conditions for involving the private sector in the recovery was also emphasized," the press release following the discussion says.

USAID Ukraine Senior Project Management Specialist Andriy Nesterenko said that Ukraine has more than 3,200 state-owned and more than 14,000 municipal enterprises. In his opinion, after the end of the war and the beginning of the economic recovery, state-owned companies will be the first to make their contribution to the recovery, and they will definitely be followed by private businesses.

Sobolev said that the Ministry of Economy has developed a list of enterprises that should remain in state ownership, but some of them may be partially privatized.

"Some enterprises played an important role during the war and will play a key role in the recovery of the Ukrainian economy after it ends, so the government is considering only partial privatization of them, in particular through IPOs, to attract investment," the deputy minister was quoted as saying in the press release.

He also announced the preparation of a four-year plan for 2024-2027 by the government, which will be submitted to the European Commission for the development of a program of large-scale assistance to Ukraine. The plan contains a section on state-owned assets and issues of corporate governance and privatization, the deputy minister said.

Project Manager of the OECD Global Relations Secretariat Gabriela Miranda announced the OECD's support for Ukraine in its efforts to rebuild after the war, formalized in a four-year Country Programme that will support Ukraine's agenda for reform, recovery and reconstruction under the partnership agreement that Ukraine entered into with the OECD on June 7, 2023. According to Miranda, within its framework, the OECD will work with the government to continue the SOE reform, privatization, the development of financial markets and the fight against corruption.

Head of the State Agency for Rehabilitation and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine Mustafa Nayyem predicted that during the recovery period, the volume of public procurement will increase significantly, but the perception of the state as a risky customer should be changed so that private companies are not afraid to participate in tenders.

CEO of the state-owned Ukrposhta Igor Smelyansky, who also took part in the roundtable, spoke about how the company is actively working on digitalization and the development of logistics to make its services accessible and efficient for all settlements, in particular those affected by Russian aggression. He reiterated the importance of Ukrposhta obtaining the right to provide banking services, since they are currently unavailable for almost one third of Ukrainians.

Smelyansky also pointed out the need to adapt procedures by international partners to speed up the provision of urgently needed assistance to Ukraine.

At the end of the roundtable, Deputy Chief of Party of SOERA John Tokolish offered the program assistance in various areas of state-owned and municipal enterprises, and also promised continued support of reforms by the SOERA project.

About 100 experts and specialists from various fields of activity, mainly C-level managers (general directors, owners, heads of staff), representatives of international organizations (OECD, EBRD, IFC, IMF), international partners (EU Delegation and European Commission), members of the supervisory boards of state-owned enterprises, and partners from private companies attended the event.
Saudi Arabia has introduced visit visas for visitors from eight new countries including Azerbaijan, Albania, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Georgia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Maldives, according to the country's tourism ministry.

Nationals of these countries can apply for a tourist visa to the Kingdom either electronically or at KSA international ports of entry.

This step is in line with the Kingdom's tourism sector strategy to boost the sector's contribution to GDP from 3% to more than 10%, creating one million new job opportunities with a preference for Saudi citizens, and attracting 100 million tourists by 2030.

Individuals with a tourist visa can visit different parts of the Kingdom and perform Umrah.

The Ministry noted that the tourist visa does not allow the performance of Hajj or Umrah during the Hajj season.
Press Release

August 7, 2023 SEN. JINGGOY EJERCITO ESTRADA

Manifestation on SP Zubiri's Privilege Speech on the latest incident in the WPS

7 August 2023 Mr. President, this representation as your Chairperson of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation, conducted a hearing this morning, on the proposed National Defense Act and the revitalization of the Self-Reliant Defense Posture (SRDP) Program - both of which are priority measures of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and part of the legislative agenda of our latest Philippine Development Plan (PDP). We have the representatives from the DND, AFP, DFA, among others. And this issue - the recent aggression by the Chinese Coast Guard against our Philippine Coast Guard - was taken up. The DND and the AFP said that they already issued a strong statement of condemnation. Upon the questioning of one of our colleagues, Sen. Tulfo, DND shared that the civilian vessel used in the resupply mission to our troops in Ayungin was escorted by the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy. And this was the case every time there were resupply missions. We were told that our Defense Attache in Beijing is also sending a strong statement to his counterparts in China. On the part of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), together with the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), the agency assured us they are fully aware of the circumstances and that they share the concern of the AFP and the PCG who were directly affected by the incident. The representative of the DFA said that they are currently undertaking all diplomatic measures and coordinating with their counterparts, here and in Beijing. Finally, they assured us that they assert and re-emphasize in every opportunity our sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the concerned areas. Sabi ko nga po sa aming naging pagdinig kanina, pinapaalis po tayo ng ating kapitbahay sa sarili nating bakuran! Hindi pa po sila na-kontento doon, binugahan pa po tayo ng tubig. The Philippines has a continuing foreign policy of being a "friend to all and enemy to none". I am wondering how far can we maintain this policy of friendship and amity, when we are constantly harassed, bullied and disrespected as a nation, and our people, our uniformed officers are being put on a very dangerous situation. Ano po kaya ang pwede pa nating gawin bilang isang bansa upang tumigil po ang ginagawang ito ng ating kapitbahay at matagal nating kaibigan? Ang Pilipinas at Tsina ay matagal na nagkaroon at napanatili ang maayos na ugnayan. Our trade relations date back to precolonial times. Ngunit bakit po ganito ang pag-trato nila sa ating ngayon? Our historic legal victory in The Hague invalidated the expansive claims of the nine-dash line. The decision is now part of the international law. Ngunit binabalewala lang po ito ng China. Ano po ang magandang kahihinatnan ng pagfa-file natin ng diplomatic protests, kung ang mismong arbitral ruling ay kanila lamang isinasantabi? Mr. President, I join the frustration of the Filipino people in the relentless belligerence of the Chinese government, when international law already gives us all the legal rights to the contested areas. I join in the frustration of the whole country that all of our diplomatic attempts seem to bear no fruit. I join the frustration of our people that we seem to be powerless, despite our exhaustive efforts, in defending what is rightfully ours. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
Yermak hopes Ukraine's neighbors to refuse blocking export of Ukrainian agricultural products after Sept 15  meeting with Secretary of State of Duda's Office

Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, in a conversation with the Secretary of State of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland, expressed hope that Ukraine's neighbors would refuse to block the export of Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15.

"The interlocutors discussed in detail the issue of ensuring the export of Ukrainian grain by land to the EU countries in the context of the continued blockade of Ukrainian ports. The Head of the President's Office expressed hope that Ukraine's neighboring countries would refrain from imposing unilateral restrictive measures on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products after September 15," the press service of the President's Office said on Sunday following the meeting held in Jeddah.

"During a meeting with Secretary of State - Head of the International Policy Bureau at the Presidential Chancellery of the Republic of Poland Marcin Przydacz, the Head of the President's Office expressed gratitude to Polish partners for their comprehensive assistance and solidarity with Ukraine in countering Russian armed aggression," the report notes.

"Andriy Yermak praised Poland's readiness to join the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula," the press service said.
(Photo : Unsplash / Bryan Goff)

As a participating body in space, asteroids often float past the planet. As such, it's interesting to learn how many of these asteroids could've been potential "city killers" and which ones weren't harmless at all.

What Is an Asteroid?

According to Phys, an asteroid is a chunk of rock that originated from the solar system's formation. There are approximately half a billion asteroids in space varying in terms of size and speeds.

Some asteroids are greater than four meters; and like planets and stars, they orbit the sun and travel space at the same speed as the Earth, which is approximately 30 kilometers a second. According to Britannica, asteroids can also be referred to as minor planets or planetoids.

Most of these asteroids orbit the Sun around the asteroid belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter's orbit. As such, these asteroids have often been used in media, including many Hollywood movies, as a symbol of destruction, with titles like Armageddon, as noted by IMBD, describing giant asteroids and their impact on Earth.

Even the media frequently comes up with stories about asteroids the size of a bus, truck, or even half a giraffe, according to ABC News. There have also been headlines regarding "city killer" asteroids, or generally asteroids capable of wiping out a whole city or cities.

ALSO READ: James Webb Space Telescope Discovers a Spooky Question Mark in Deep Space; Could It Be a Message From Extraterrestrials?

Asteroid Risks

Phys reports that the risk of asteroids is very real; and about 65 million years ago, Earth was hit by a massive asteroid which resulted in the death of dinosaurs. According to PBS, the asteroid was agreed to be about 10 kilometers across and hit close to the Yucatan peninsula, resulting in the extinction of dinosaurs.

Even an asteroid that was just as tall as a giraffe, or around four meters, could still pack a punch when traveling at speeds of 60 kilometers per second. Phys also showed NASA's estimates on asteroid size and frequency.

The report notes that asteroids 4 meters in size have a frequency of once yearly, but a larger asteroid like a 140-meter asteroid, which could be deadly to metro areas or states and result in mass casualties, happen just once in 20,000 years.

The largest asteroid on their list was a 10,000-meter asteroid, which had a frequency of just once per 100 to 200 million years. This could cause a mass extinction of terrestrial life and global devastation.

Discovered Asteroids

The report also highlighted how many of these asteroids have been discovered. For the smallest asteroids of just 4 meters, the report highlighted how less than 0.1% have been discovered.

However, for the riskiest asteroids that were 10,000 meters in size, the report highlights that 100% of them have been located. As such, 95% of the 1,000 meter asteroids have also been located and they have a frequency of just once in 500,000 years.

RELATED ARTICLE: Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Blimps in and Out of Sight in a Single Orbit; Bizarre Atmosphere Leakage Found in Front and Not Behind

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.
Over last day, Kharkiv, as well as the settlements of Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Izium and Kupiansk districts, were shelled by the Russian occupation forces: as a result, one dead and four injured, Head of the regional military administration Oleh Synehubov said.

"A 57-year-old woman was killed as a result of a guided air bomb strike on the village of Podoly, Kupiansk district. A 66-year-old man was seriously injured and was hospitalized... As a result of the shelling of Kupiansk, a 31-year-old civilian was injured. In the village of Putnykove, Kupiansk district, a woman was injured 61 years old and her 65-year-old man," Synehubov said on his Telegram channel.

He also said on Saturday, at about 09:15, the occupiers attacked Kharkiv with a S-300 missile. The building of a civil enterprise in Kholodnohirskyi district of the city was damaged. No casualties. As a result of a guided air bomb strike on the village. Petropavlivka, Kupiansky district, farm buildings were damaged, a fire broke out. In with. Kucherivka, Kupiansky district, private households were damaged, a fire broke out. As a result of the shelling Cherneschyna, Iziumsky district, the building of a farm was damaged.
Burkina Faso: la France suspend son aide au developpement et son appui budgetaire

La France a decide de suspendre "jusqu'a nouvel ordre toutes ses actions d'aide au developpement et d'appui budgetaire" au Burkina Faso, a annonce dimanche soir le ministere francais des Affaires etrangeres.







Cette annonce est prise alors que le Burkina Faso et le Mali sont solidaires des militaires ayant pris le pouvoir au Niger. La France soutient, elle, les pays de la Cedeao, la Communaute economique des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest, dans leurs efforts pour retablir le president Mohamed Bazoum. Ce dernier est retenu prisonnier depuis la tentative de putsch le 26 juillet.





Les Etats de la Cedeao ont menace d'intervenir militairement et ont donne jusqu'a dimanche soir aux militaires ayant pris le pouvoir pour retablir l'ordre constitutionnel.





Les projets en cours de l'Aide francaise au developpement en faveur du Burkina Faso representent 482 millions d'euros tandis que l'aide budgetaire programmee en 2022 s'eleve a 13 millions, a indique le Quai d'Orsay.





Les relations entre la France et le Burkina se sont degradees depuis l'arrivee au pouvoir par un coup d'Etat en septembre 2022 du capitaine Ibrahim Traore.





Le 18 janvier, les autorites de Ouagadougou avaient demande le depart, dans un delai d'un mois, de la force francaise Sabre au Burkina Faso.





La France avait acte ce depart mais n'avait pas suspendu ni son aide au developpement, ni son aide budgetaire comme elle l'avait fait pour le Mali.




The summit in Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) shows that Russian aggression against Ukraine has consequences far beyond Europe, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in an interview with Bild.

"The message from Jeddah is this: this brutal war of aggression by Russia is also affecting people in Africa, Asia and South America. Since it has implications far beyond Europe: from the future of the international order to issues of energy security, rising grain prices and the global food supply that Russia has so ruthlessly worsened," the German Foreign Minister said on Sunday, August 6.

Baerbock expressed support for the Peace Formula of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said "in essence, Zelenskyy's formula provides for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine as a basic condition."

"Every millimeter of progress towards a just and fair world brings a piece of hope for the people of Ukraine," she said.

According to the minister, some participants in the summit, in particular those in Pretoria or Beijing, have a different view of the war in Ukraine than the European one. But everywhere, "our common understanding should be the Charter of the United Nations," Baerbock said.

As reported, on August 5 and 6, representatives of about 40 countries met in Jeddah, who sought to develop key principles for how to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Recruitment specialist PageGroup reported a 5.8% rise in revenue in its first half on Monday, reaching 1.03bn, although it saw a dip in several profitability metrics.

The FTSE 250 company said its gross profit decreased 2.2% year-on-year to 526.8m for the six months ended 30 June, while operating profit plummeted 44.6% to 63.9m.

Furthermore, profit before tax followed suit with a decline of 44.7%, standing at 63.3m.

Notably, both basic and diluted earnings per share were reported at 13.6p, marking a decrease of 46.9% and 46.7% respectively compared to the prior period.

The board still hiked the interim dividend per share, by 4.5% to 5.13p, although its special dividend saw a decline, to 15.87p per share from 26.71p in 2022.

Delving deeper into the companys performance, PageGroup said its conversion rate saw a decrease to 12.1%, a notable dip from 21.4% in the first six months of last year.

The gross profit per fee earner declined 5.8%, to 79.7k, compared to 82.8k in the prior year.

In terms of workforce numbers, the companys total headcount was trimmed by 448, marking a 5.0% reduction, bringing the employee tally to 8,572 by the end of June.

PageGroup said it remained in a robust financial position, albeit with a decline in net cash, reported at 97.9m, compared to 136.2m at the same point last year.

In terms of future prospects, PageGroup remained optimistic, confirming that its full-year operating profit outlook remained unchanged, aligning with prior forecasts.

The group delivered a robust first-half performance against a record first half in 2022, said chief executive officer Nicholas Kirk.

EMEA delivered the standout result, delivering record first-half gross profit against a particularly strong comparator across the region.

However, tough market conditions continued in Asia, the UK and the US.

Kirk said the challenging conditions the company saw towards the end of 2022 continued into the first six months of 2023, with lower levels of both candidate and client confidence resulting in delays in decision making and candidates being more reluctant to accept offers.

Reflecting the uncertain macroeconomic conditions, temporary recruitment outperformed permanent, as clients sought more flexible options.

In line with these conditions, we reduced our fee earner headcount by 558 in the first half, with reductions in all regions.

Our total headcount of 8,572 is 448 lower than at the end of 2022.

Productivity, measured as gross profit per fee earner, declined 5.8%, which Nicholas Kirk said reflected the reduction in gross profit, although that was partially offset by the decrease in headcount.

Looking forward, there remains a high level of global macroeconomic and political uncertainty in the majority of our markets.

However, against this backdrop, we continue to see candidate shortages and good levels of vacancies, as well as continued high fee rates.

We are also seeing the benefits from our investments in innovation and technology, where Customer Connect is supporting productivity and enhancing customer experience and Page Insights is providing real time data to inform business decisions.

Kirk said PageGroup had a highly diversified and adaptable business model and a strong balance sheet, adding that its cost base was under constant review and could be adjusted rapidly to match market conditions.

Given these fundamental strengths, we believe we will continue to perform well despite the uncertainty.

At this stage of the year, the board expects 2023 operating profit to be in line with our previous guidance.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited, widely recognized as Piramal Finance and a wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited (PEL), today announced the launch of its first all-women branch in Delhi at Chattarpur. Appropriately named 'Maitreyi,' this branch exemplifies the Company's unwavering commitment to fostering diversity and providing women with equal opportunities in the workforce. With the addition of new branches, Piramal Finance now has 10 full-service branches in the state, covering markets like Pitampura, Narela, Dwarka, and Kalkaji among others. With this, the Company is looking at a 500-600 strong branch network across 1,000 locations as it expands to small towns in India. Maitreyi holds great significance as it represents a wise, intelligent and knowledgeable lady, embodying the Company's belief in the remarkable talent and potential of women professionals who will shape their own destinies while serving customers' financial needs.

With the inauguration of the 'Maitreyi' branch in Delhi, Piramal Finance aims to inspire women nationwide and promote diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities. By establishing a branch entirely managed by women employees, the Company showcases its belief in the talent and capabilities of women professionals and their contribution to the growth of the organization. The 'Maitreyi' branch in Chattarpur, Delhi, offers a range of services, including home loans and MSME loans, with the potential for additional features based on customer demand and preferences. This branch is part of Piramal Finance's strategic expansion plan, which includes opening branches in key cities like Ajmer Road in Rajasthan, Tripunithur in Kerala, Mumbai in Maharashtra, and Mohali in Punjab. These locations have been thoughtfully selected to ensure they align with the needs and preferences of our valued customers, as well as to support Piramal Finance's overarching business strategy and cater to our target markets.

Each 'Maitreyi' branch will have a dedicated team of 7 - 15 women employees, consisting of both internal transfers and new hires. This approach ensures a diverse and talented workforce that can effectively cater to the needs of customers. On the inauguration of Maitreyi branch, Jairam Sridharan, Managing Director of Piramal Finance, said, "We are delighted to inaugurate 'Maitreyi' branch in Delhi, a significant step towards fostering gender equality and empowering women in the financial services sector. This women-only branch not only demonstrates our commitment to diversity and inclusion but also serves as a testament to the talent and capabilities of women professionals. Delhi holds immense importance for us as a market, and our growing branch network will strengthen our presence in the state. Through our branches, we aim to provide simplified, efficient, and impactful lending solutions that cater to consumer financing needs."

Piramal Finance is among the largest Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) in the country and offers a variety of loan products, including housing and MSME loans, to cater to the customers of Bharat in medium and small towns in India. It is rapidly expanding its footprint in Tier II and III cities of Bharat. The Companys Innovation coupled with the phygital strategy, has helped develop a multi-product retail-lending platform to enhance its ability to serve the people of Bharat. As on 30th June 2023, the Company has a network of 423 branches across 25 states of India and over 3.3 million customers. It further aims to be present in 1,000 locations through 500 to 600 branches over the next five years.
Russian occupation forces shelled the village of Kucherivka, Kupiansk district, Kharkiv region, there are victims and injured among the civilian population, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak has said.

"They hit the house. It is known about two dead and three wounded people," Yermak said on the Telegram channel on Monday.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Staten Islanders enjoyed good advice in the month of July, shared by well-known, experienced advice columnists Annie Lane and Abigail Van Buren.

Four of the top five most popular advice columns on SILive.com last month were written by Abigail Van Buren, while Annie Lane snuck into the top five once. They covered issues from bereavement to a teen feeling sheltered by her parents. One writer complained of her husbands partying in front of her children while she was working. Another complained about the stress of traveling with family, while another was upset by being pushed out of her social circle.

In all, more than 141,000 readers checked in for sage advice from Abigail Van Buren on SILive.com in July, while another 62,000 looked to Annie Lane for life guidance.

Heres a look at the five most popular advice columns on SIlive.com in the month of June 2023:

1. DEAR ABBY: IM 22 AND MOM HAS CLIPPED MY WINGS

DEAR ABBY:

Im 22, and when I was in my teens, I was sheltered. I was often in trouble for something little. My phone was taken away from me for months, and I wasnt allowed to do anything besides go to school. It caused me to develop social anxiety.

I still live with my controlling mother and go only to work. I have no social life. I want to leave her, get a social life and experience new things, but every time I bring it up to her, she plays the victim and insists she needs me or belittles me and says I need her.

She does things for me as an act of kindness, but it feels like she does it so Ill need her or it will never get done without her. I dont know how to get out of this situation. What is the best way to handle it? -- SHELTERED IN TEXAS

DEAR SHELTERED:

The longer your mother can prevent you from making friends and living a normal life for a person your age, the deeper her emotional dependence on you will become.

Start saving your money until you have enough that you can find a place (with a roommate, if necessary), and then move. Do not ask for permission because your mother will give you a dozen reasons why you should postpone it. If you have other relatives who will guide you through this growth experience, reach out to them.

You werent being sheltered in your teens; your wings were being systematically clipped to prevent you from becoming independent. Taking this step may feel daunting, but for your personal growth, you must find the courage to give it a try.

2. DEAR ANNIE: SICK LEAVE FOR BEREAVEMENT SHOULD BE BETTER IN THE U.S.

I love reading your column. I was saddened by the letter from Surprised and Saddened Grandmother, whose daughter had a miscarriage after 14 weeks -- and both mother and grandmother had to fight with their employer for bereavement time. I live in Ireland, and Im constantly shocked by the lack of compassion, sick leave and annual leave workers receive in the United States. Its hard for me to get my head around.

My father passed away after a long illness. I had already had periods of absence from work due to stress because he was in and out of hospice. He refused to die, and they called him the comeback kid. We can laugh about it now.

My parents were separated, with my mother being in ill health also. My employer, the National Health Service, couldnt be more understanding. My sick leave was six months of full pay and six months of half-pay per annum. When my father eventually passed away, I received 10 days of bereavement leave; then I had another two weeks of sick leave with my doctors sick line stating bereavement as the ailment.

During the period when my general physician prescribed off work, my employer was not allowed to ask when I would return to work or talk about work-related activity but could make contact for a welfare check. Sadly, my mother passed away the following year, and I took six weeks of sick leave, as I was struggling with low mood and lack of sleep and generally couldnt function well. On both occasions, all my colleagues were kindly given leave to attend the funeral.

I guess I just wish workers in the U.S. were shown more compassion. -- Thoughts from Ireland

Dear Ireland:

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with the laws in your country as they affect bereavement and sick leave.

3. DEAR ABBY: DRUGS, GIRLS WHILE IM AT WORK? HES PUTTING OUR CHILDREN AT RISK

DEAR ABBY:

While I work 12-hour night shifts at a hospital, my husband sometimes invites his co-workers and friends over. He likes to hang out with a crowd. (I prefer to keep my circle of friends tight.) I dont usually mind. Its a weekday, and my husband has to work the next day (six days a week usually), and he gets our three kids to bed on time.

Recently, my 10-year-old daughter told me that while I was working, she saw them with a tube on the counter and they were sniffing things. She also said the wife of one of my husbands friends came over and that they were making out on the couch and then moved to her bedroom, where they made out. She said she was afraid to tell me sooner because she didnt want her dad to yell at her.

I am livid. Words cannot express how furious this makes me. I dont understand how he could put our kids in this situation. I cant help but wonder what else has transpired while Im at work. How do I discuss this with him without losing it completely and throwing him out? -- LIVID IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR LIVID:

Your husband appears to have some growing up to do. His judgment was awful. You have every right to read him the riot act, but a speech like that is more effective served ice cold. Because you cant be sure if this was a one-time thing, consider installing security cameras in your home so you can check on your childrens safety while youre working. Depending on what the images reveal, it may be better for him to live elsewhere.

4. DEAR ABBY: JUST SPELL IT OUT FOR FINICKY SISTER

DEAR ABBY:

I have an ongoing dilemma with my sister. She often plans vacations for us to take together and springs them on me out of the blue. She then pressures me to say yes and becomes impatient when I tell her I need time to think about it.

The thing is, she isnt a great travel companion, and I dont enjoy going on vacation with her. I have taken trips with her before. She is finicky and picky, and she often expects me to front the money for expenses. I have limited vacation time, and Id rather spend it with my significant other and friends who are better travel buddies.

I cant be honest about this with her because she is extremely sensitive and would take it poorly. On the other hand, I feel guilty dodging all her requests for vacations. She doesnt have close friends because her attitude tends to repel others. I want to do the right thing, but I dont want to feel used or guilted. How would you handle this? -- PUT UPON IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR PUT UPON:

I would handle this by telling her no and following it up with why -- that although you love her as a sister, you do not enjoy having plans sprung on you and demanding an instant answer, fronting the money for expenses and spending time with someone who is finicky and picky. Its the truth, and it may be the wake-up call she needs. Above all, remember that the truth will set you free.

5. DEAR ABBY: HERES WHY YOU DONT MIX BUSINESS WITH PLEASURE

DEAR ABBY:

Im a professional travel adviser who works on commission. Many of my clients are friends or relatives, and I sincerely appreciate their patronage. Many years ago, my husband and I became friends with a delightful couple. We patronized the husbands business, and they introduced us to many of their friends. We sponsored them into a social club, and they made many new friends because of it. We have entertained them in our home numerous times for private dinners and summer pool parties.

They booked an inexpensive cruise through me once. Unfortunately, a few years ago there was a disagreement, and we prevailed. In retribution, they distanced themselves from us. They travel with many of the friends they introduced us to, and since then, the entire group arranges their travel through someone else, although they still accept our dinner and party invitations.

Its distressing that the spite of one couple has soured our relationships with two other couples who apparently feel closer to them. I consider the others to be collateral damage, and we have distanced ourselves from them, too. Am I too sensitive? -- TRAVELING AWAY IN TEXAS

DEAR TRAVELING:

I dont think so. As you stated, these people were always closer to the couple who distanced themselves from you after the disagreement than they were with you. It may be disappointing, but it isnt a big personal loss. A loss of income, yes, but thats business, and business is replaceable. Its time to start cultivating some new friends, and this time, dont mix business with pleasure, which, as you have learned the hard way, can be risky.

The best of Junes Dear Abby and Dear Annie advice columns

The best of Mays Dear Abby and Dear Annie advice columns

Aprils best advice from Dear Abby Dear Annie columns

Marchs best Dear Abby and Ask Annie advice columns
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Owners of Flour & Oak put pizza and hand-crafted pastas on pause in the Tompkinsville operation.

The two-year old, sleek eatery can be found at 12 Minthorne St. (Flourandoak.com) next to the Flagship Brewing Co. It will reopen in the fall.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that the state is accepting applications for the 2023 Carey Gabay Memorial Scholarship, which offers a full ride to a State University of New York (SUNY).

Gabay, an attorney and public servant who formerly worked in the governors counsels office, was an innocent victim of gun violence who was killed tragically in 2015. This scholarship honors his legacy.

The Carey Gabay Scholarship celebrates students who are leaders in their community and are working to make New York a better place to live, work and play, said Hochul. Carey Gabay, a product of the Bronx public schools and a dedicated public servant, represented the New York dream in action, and Im proud that this continued scholarship honors his memory.

The program provides the full cost of attendance scholarships to five incoming SUNY students who exemplify Gabays commitment to social justice, leadership and mentoring, as well as his personal story of academic success and overcoming the challenges of an economically disadvantaged background.

If Carey was still with us, I know how much he would appreciate this program and its work to break down barriers for disadvantaged youth, said Trenella Gabay, founder of the Carey Gabay Foundation. While Careys life was taken to a senseless act of gun violence, his legacy and commitment to public service lives on through this scholarship. Thank you to Governor Hochul for continuing to honor Careys life and work.

The Carey Gabay Memorial Scholarship will award a full scholarship to five students to attend four-year SUNY colleges beginning in the 2023-24 school year. These scholarships will cover all costs of attendance, including tuition, room and board, college fees, books and supplies, and transportation and personal expenses. Scholarship recipients will also participate in a mentoring program.

Applications are available at https://www.suny.edu/smarttrack/types-of-financial-aid/scholarships/gabay/. They are due by Sept. 22.

The deadline to apply for the Excelsior Scholarship, which offers the potential for a tuition-free college experience for eligible state residents at City University of New York and SUNY colleges, is Aug. 31.

In order to be eligible to apply for the Carey Gabay Memorial Scholarship, a student must meet the following conditions:

A current New York State resident;

An incoming freshman at a State University of New York State-operated campus who will be matriculated and enrolled full-time;

Demonstrate significant financial need as determined by the completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA);

Apply for FAFSA by submitting a copy of a valid Student Aid Report (SAR) showing the Expected Family Contribution (EFC);

Have a high school record that demonstrates high academic achievement, including a minimum cumulative grade point average of 90;

Submit an essay regarding challenges overcome during the course of the academic career, as well as his or her personal commitment to mentoring, leadership and social justice;

Submit two letters of recommendation from teachers or community members.

In order to continue receiving the complete four-year award, a student must: maintain full-time enrollment for any semester in which they receive an award; be in good academic standing with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 at the end of their freshman year and thereafter; adhere to the Student Code of Conduct; demonstrate commitment to social justice and giving back to the community by volunteering a minimum of 15 hours per semester; continue to demonstrate financial need as determined by the completion of a FAFSA.

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Sydneys new international airport will disrupt operations for other airports across the city and bring changes to the noise patterns residents experience below, despite previous pledges operations at Kingsford-Smith would not be affected.

The office of Transport Minister Catherine King confirmed Western Sydney International Airport will require alterations to the airspace of the citys existing airports, including Sydney (Kingsford-Smith), Camden and Bankstown airports, when operations begin in 2026.

The airspace adjustments allowing Western Sydney Airport to operate will alter flight paths and could affect noise patterns, but it will not be clear how extensive the changes will be until the new airports long-awaited environmental impact statement is released next month.

The shifting airspace boundaries in the Sydney Basin will hit pilot training and emergency service operations in Camden and Bankstown, and will also be felt at Sydney Airport.
The remarkable stories of these women entwined in former fashion publicist Lindy Woodheads gossipy War Paint (2003). That book inspired a Broadway musical of the same name, starring Patti LuPone as Rubinstein and Christine Ebersole as her rival Arden, which ran for 269 performances and featured the songs Inside of the Jar and Best Face Forward.

Beauty expert Helena Rubinstein in 1935, after conquering Australia, London and New York, illustrating the shape of the basic lines on the face so that make-up can be applied to flatter individual contours. Credit: Orlando

These formidable entrepreneurs built empires on the tinted fluid foundation of skincare, without the aid of hit singles, gimmicky scented candles or bikini photographs. The closest Arden and Rubinstein came to selfies were portraits by Cecil Beaton.

Today the beauty industry is flooded with bankable names, such as pop star Rihannas Fenty Beauty, reality star Kylie Jenners Kylie Cosmetics and actor Gwyneth Paltrows goop Beauty. For the first half of the 20th century there were only two names worthy of bold ink in the beauty pages  Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein.

Former National Gallery of Australia director Angus Trumble, who died in October, only has eyes for Rubinstein in Helena Rubinstein: The Australian Years. It appears to have been love at first sight from the moment he secured Graham Sutherlands portrait of Rubinstein for the gallerys collection in 2016.

In the professional life of every art museum director or curator there are acquisitions that one recalls with pride, but only a handful that one suspects may eventually be career-defining or, failing that, those for which one would like to be remembered, Trumble writes. Foremost among the latter for me so far is Helena Rubinstein in a Red Brocade Balenciaga Gown by Graham Sutherland.

Helena Rubinstein: The Australian Years by Angus Trumble

Its that glamorous image of an imperious and upholstered Rubinstein that adorns the cover and sets Trumble scrambling through conflicting accounts of her past to present the facts of her Polish upbringing and her time in Melbourne, where the powerhouse business began.

There must be something in the murky water of the Yarra River: Melbourne the birthplace of Aesop, of which former hairdresser Dennis Paphitis sold 65 per cent to Brazilian beauty giant Natura for $US68 million ($103 million) in 2012, selling the rest for an undisclosed figure in 2016. It was also the home of lipstick entrepreneur Poppy King, who has launched two make-up brands.
Another 22 Ukrainian soldiers returned from captivity to their homeland, Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak has said.

"Today, 22 more Ukrainian soldiers were returned home from captivity. These are fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, two of them are officers, privates and sergeants. They participated in battles in different directions, among the released there are wounded," Yermak said on the Telegram channel on Monday.

"The oldest of our soldiers is 54 years old, the youngest is 23 years old," Yermak specified.

According to the head of the OP, all those released will undergo a course of physical and psychological rehabilitation, reintegration and will receive the necessary treatment with the support of medical specialists.

"Thanks to the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, to our entire team for this work. We must fulfill the task of the president and return all our people," Yermak summed up.
Its been over a year since Netflix released Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, the three-part documentary series about Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. Rather than being a holistic portrait of Yes life and times (and controversies), Jeen-Yuhs was focused on the come-up. It told the story of a freakishly talented Chicago kid who would forever leave his imprint on music, art, fashion and culture.

Where Jeen-Yuhs didnt go is precisely where a new documentary, The Trouble With KanYe begins, picking up the story in 2016 following the cancellation of Yes Saint Pablo Tour after a series of onstage breakdowns. In the aftermath of the abandoned tour, Ye was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, coinciding with a religious awakening.

Rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, is the subject of a new documentary, The Trouble With KanYe West. Credit: Washington Post photo by Calla Kessler

Written and presented by award-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar, The Trouble With KanYe examines the period between 2016 and the present day, where Ye has become associated with the far-right.

From dining at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, to praising Hitler on Alex Joness Infowars, the documentary explores how Ye ended up in this position and what might happen next.
Aerial shooting of feral horses will be reconsidered by the NSW government as their numbers continue to swell in the Kosciuszko National Park.

Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said the government was seeking feedback on the proposal that would help reduce the feral horse population and protect more than 30 native threatened species.

The NSW government will consider aerial shooting of feral horses as part of its new management plan. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Recent reports show that, without action, wild horses could tip threatened species to extinction. There are simply too many wild horses for the park to cope, Sharpe said on Monday.

NSW is not on track to meet the wild horse population targets under the legislated Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Management Plan, which is why we must consider the introduction of aerial shooting.
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Eating outBrisbane Where to find Brisbanes best ramen Fragrant broths, house-made noodles, gooey eggs and luscious cuts of pork chashu  very few things are as comforting as a bowl of Japanese noodle soup. Matt Shea August 7, 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

When exactly did ramen get so popular? Japanese noodle soup is by now such an established part of Brisbanes food scene, its hard to remember a time when it wasnt a go-to for a quick winter lunch, or cheap(ish) Friday or Saturday meal with mates. But Mitch Inoue remembers. Inoue owns Hakataya Ramen, which has outlets in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. Taros Ramens red tonkotsu ramen. Morgan Roberts It was around 2010 and 2011, he says. Many Australians were travelling to Japan, and Jetstar had launched new [Cairns-Osaka] flights.

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Thats when ramen became popular. Before then, so quiet. Until 2010, we called our shop Hakataya Noodle because people didnt know about ramen. But in 2010, we changed the name to Hakataya Ramen because customers were asking all the time, Ramen-ramen-ramen. These days, ramen shops are scattered all across town. So much so, it can be hard to know what to check out. Heres a guide to Brisbanes best ramen. Ramen Danbo

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Ramen Danbo originated in Japan on the southern island of Kyushu in 2000. In 2017, the chain arrived in Australia on the Gold Coast, and opened its first Brisbane store in South Brisbane in 2019; its now been joined by outlets in the CBD and Sunnybank Hills. Key to Danbos ramen is a tonkotsu (pork-bone) broth seasoned with a house-made special sauce and then run through a specially imported Japanese filter, which keeps the soup consistent across the different outlets. Ramen Danbos classic tonkotsu ramen with nitamago (soft boiled egg). Morgan Roberts The ramen is then finished with braised chashu (braised pork belly), house-made noodles, a scattering of spring onion and dollop of spicy tare sauce  and thats about it, unless you want to spruce it up with some egg and seaweed. The result is something akin to the ultimate salaryman ramen  consistently smashable, and with a spiciness and noodle firmness you can fine-tune to your liking. Otherwise, theres a short menu of sides, and a range of Japanese beers by tap and the bottle at the licensed South Brisbane and Sunnybank Hills shops.

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3/38 Wharf Street, Brisbane; 52 Merivale Street, South Brisbane; 4/22 Gowan Road, Sunnybank Hills; ramendanbo.com.au Beppin Ramen & Cake Hidden behind a pair of traditional noren Japanese curtains on Charlotte Street is this cosy ramen spot, which peddles gussied-up bowls of noodle soup and a front cabinet stocked full of exquisite desserts. Opened by pastry chef Rikiya Yogo and his family in 2019, Beppin works a number of variations on a few core bowls. There are standard, black garlic and hot chilli takes on a thin-noodled tonkotsu ramen, made using a pork bone marrow-based tonkotsu broth pressure-cooked for seven hours; a chicken-broth ramen cooked with thick whole-grain noodles; a mapo tofu ramen thats also served with wholegrain noodles; a Wagyu ramen served with a beef broth; and a selection of salad ramens (think pork belly, chicken and karaage salads).

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Kingsfood, an iconic Chinese restaurant in Brisbanes south Beppins Instagrammable star, though, is a white tori paitan ramen, which adds chicken fat to a clear chicken broth to produce a distinctively creamy, white soup. Its not on the main menu  look for the sign on the right-hand side of the counter. For sides, theres karaage, house-made pork gyoza and tofu salads, but save space for one of those desserts, which range from cream puffs and Basque cheesecake to a velvety matcha opera cake. The Beppin crew also own Ikkairo, a popular ramen shop in Underwood known for fancy bowls of prawn and lobster ramen. 62 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, beppinramen.com.au

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Taros Ramen Still the yardstick by which all other Brisbane ramen is measured, it was 2010 when Taro Akimoto first turned his back on a job in international trading to create Taros Ramen. Thirteen years later, he has shops in the CBD, South Brisbane, Ascot and Stones Corner. Taros Ramens red tonkotsu ramen. Morgan Roberts This is one of the fancier bowls around town, Akimotos fragrant pressure-cooked tonkotsu broth by now the stuff of foodie legend. The soup is topped with house-made noodles, organic eggs and Bangalow pork thats been koji-marinated, sous vide and then charred. Perhaps what gets Akimoto over the line, though, is his killer selection of sides  in particular the curried karaage, and house-made pan-fried gyoza that come replete with crispy, golden wings. The Suntory Premium Malts and Orion on tap go OK, too.

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480 Queen Street, Brisbane; 1/145 Racecourse Road, Ascot; 16 Old Cleveland Road, Stones Corner; 154 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane; taros-ramen.myshopify.com Men Ya Go Ikuyo Muratas Men Ya Go flies under the radar slightly in the CBD when compared with Taros, Ramen Danbo and Beppin Ramen & Cake. First opening on Albert Street in Brisbane in 2015, there are now two more shops  one in the Queen Street financial district and another in Fortitude Valley. The menu revolves around 12 different bowls, which range from a straight-up tonkotsu ramen, to spicy miso, vegetarian miso, and chicken shio variations. Other than egg and nori, the bowls are finished with a pinch of spring onion, some bamboo shoots and toasted sesame seeds. Beyond ramen, theres a donburi menu and sides that include karaage, renkon chips and spring rolls. Theres also a short selection of beer, wine and sake.

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4/123 Albert Street, Brisbane; 2/345 Queen Street, Brisbane; Shop 17 Valley Metro 230 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley; menyago.com.au Hakataya Ramen Hakataya Ramen opened on the Gold Coast in 2002 before expanding to Brisbane in 2009. Ramen snobs will sometimes talk down Hakataya for lacking the big flavour and toppings of some other bowls around town, but owner Mitch Inoue says this is intentional. He wants his ramen to be something that can be eaten every day like a sandwich. No Blue Ducks as The Lex brings a little NY to the W

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True to his word, Hakatayas signature nagahama ramen is a touch easier on the tummy than other tonkotsu bowls around town, the result of a broth made using locally sourced pork bones that have been cooked for 72 hours, giving it a milder flavour. The soup is seasoned with soy sauce and comes with chashu, noodles by The Noodle Farmer and pinch of spring onion. Pork gyoza is the only real side dish, but rice, musubi and extra noodles are available, and takana (pickled mustard leaf) is free. Shop 27B Sunnybank Plaza, 358 Mains Road, Sunnybank; Shop 13 Market Square, 341 Mains Road, Sunnybank; Shop 2072 Westfield Mt Gravatt, 2049 Logan Road, Upper Mount Gravatt; FC11 Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, 322 Moggill Road, Indooroopilly; LG-13 Queens Plaza, 226 Queen Street, Brisbane; B1 Lower Ground Floor, 117 Queen Street Mall, Brisbane; Shop 19 Warrigal Square Shopping Centre, 261 Warrigal Road, Eight Mile Plains; Shop 249B Chermside Westfield, 395 Hamilton Road, Chermside; hakatayaramen.net Ramen Works The newest shop on this list, Masayuki Sakamoto (formerly a chef at Wagaya in Fortitude Valley) opened Ramen Works in May in an unfussy space on Montague Road.

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Sakamoto uses the same tonkotsu broth in just about all his ramen. Its cooked for five hours using locally sourced pork marrow bones, and has a particularly homely and rustic feel when compared with other bowls around town. Otherwise, theres a vegetarian ramen, and a gyokai ramen based on a seafood stock. Ramen Works most popular order is an ajitama bowl topped with whole marinated egg, chashu, bean sprouts, wood-ear mushroom, spring onion, and custom-made Noodle Farmer noodles. But theres a stack of other options, including a tonkotsu ramen that skips the egg, a spicy miso leek ramen, and a works bowl that adds seaweed, chicken karaage and extra chashu. Ramen Works works ramen. Morgan Roberts Elsewhere on the menu, theres a chicken katsu curry, a chicken karaage curry, and sides such as takoyaki, curry flavoured lotus root chips, chicken karaage and chicken katsu. For drinks, theres sake, plum wine, shochu, a shochu-based cocktail list, and a clutch of Japanese beers. 3/391 Montague Road, West End; 0466 161 391

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Genkotsu A favourite among Brisbane ramen nerds, Genkotsu opened its first store in Runcorn in early 2015, and followed with a Toowong outlet in early 2016. The Toowong store is arguably better known by now and fits the ramen-shop brief with its obscure arcade location and ordering machine out front, which reads like an update on the bulky ticket machines you often find outside noodle joints in Japan. Genkotsus black garlic shio ramen. Morgan Roberts Genkotsus focus is a tonkotsu broth cooked for up to 24 hours using pork neck and pork marrow bones, but theres a stack of options to tailor it to your tastes, revolving around shoyu, shio, miso and gyokai variations. Theres also tsukemen, the dipping noodle ramen thats surged in popularity in recent years, and a sesame ramen for vegetarians. For sides, theres karaage, pork gyoza, edamame, fries and curry fries. Genkotsu is also keenly priced, with a bowl here coming in a few bucks cheaper than a similar number from Taros or Danbo, for example. Extra noodles are free.

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51 Sherwood Road, Toowong; 25/258 Warrigal Road, Runcorn; team-nonbei.com.au/genkotsu Ramen Champion Mick Kim had been working as a ramen chef for 10 years when he approached SeungHoon Jun to go into partnership on their own shop. The result was Ramen Champion, which opened in Sunnybank in 2014, with a second store opening in Sunnybank Hills in 2018. Ramen Champion deals in a traditional tonkotsu broth prepared over 20 hours (early on, Kim added a puree to the broth to give it a French-inspired point of difference, but not anymore, Jun says). The most popular order is a black garlic ramen, but there are also spicy, smoky, vegetarian and miso options. The soup is then topped with egg, chashu sourced from Eagle Farm-based Sunpork, and  depending on what you order  sprouts, spring onions, corn and mushrooms. Everything else is made in-house, from the noodles to the aioli served with the chicken karaage. Ramen Champion also has a giant ramen challenge, where diners are challenged to eat a bowl five times the size of a standard serve (if youre into that sort of thing). If you win, you get a refund and a $50 voucher (and have your mug snapped for the Ramen Champion Facebook page, of course).

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Shop 50 Sunnypark Shopping Centre, Sunnybank; Shop 15d/661 Compton Road, Sunnybank Hills; ramenchampion.com.au Honourable Mentions Motto Motto  William Lius fast-paced Japanese chain has refined its ramen over the years and now produces one of the better bowls in town. Ikkairo Ramen  The Beppin crews Underwood shop is best known for its fancy lobster ramen. Kengu Ramen  A tiny spot in Robertson that boasts a signature bonito tonkotsu ramen.

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Hai Hai  This Paddington bolthole is known for its gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan ramen. Ramen Ye A great little Mt Ommaney ramen spot that also deals in donburi bowls, bento boxes, sushi and Japanese curry. Okuman  This West End restaurant has a short ramen menu that includes seafood and vegan bowls.

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Review Eating outCollingwood Collingwoods new walk-in wine bar Commis is like a warm hug Dani Valent August 7, 2023 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

1 / 5 Commis is Collingwoods new walk-in wine bar. Simon Schluter 2 / 5 Gnudi soup. Simon Schluter 3 / 5 Butter beer cocktail. Simon Schluter 4 / 5 Chicken soup croquettes. Simon Schluter 5 / 5 Quince cake. Simon Schluter Previous Slide Next Slide European$$$ Im not a terrible eavesdropper, but I am keen to know what those two men are talking about. They are so avid and engaged, sitting at Commis, a new bar that feels like its been crafted for repartee. If only conversation could be shaken out like a tablecloth and the words shared with those around. The men leave, silver foxes scattering confidential chickens into the chill night. Commis is a new project by a trio of alumni from Geralds Bar, the Carlton North institution that anoints the act of gathering, making every night feel like a fresh coronation for humanity. This new walk-in bar is a similar and different third space, warm and flexible, a paean to the best in us.

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An Expressionist wine list is categorised by mood, maybe Drinking With The Inlaws or Cork Dorks. Co-owner Daniel Docherty took his first bar job at 16, and worked at Geralds for 11 years. For him, Commis is an inevitability, a place to express hospitality and finally unbox his collection of cocktail paraphernalia. The site  the old Son-In-Law space  had good bones. The new team warmed up the skeleton, softened it with timber, leather, art and music, and gave it the ability to hug anyone who walks in. The drinks list is a wry shortcut to stripping away wine wankery. There is a Traditional version arranged by variety, and an Expressionist list categorised by mood, maybe Drinking With The Inlaws, Cork Dorks and I Like A Firm Embrace. Australian wine regions are given their Indigenous names. Its joyous, pointed and real. Gabriel de Melo Freire, also an owner, trained as a chef but was distracted by coffee, drinks and service before being lured back to the kitchen. Working alongside chef Evan Clark, his food is homely and thoughtful.

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Chicken soup croquettes. Simon Schluter Corn is popped in a cute machine, charred leek is daubed with miso. Theres honour for the environment in a leaning to wild meats such as venison, and canny deployment of scraps. Vegetables used in chicken stock are repurposed for chicken soup croquettes. Excess milk is turned into ricotta gnudi. Staff meals are shared with diners  maybe mussels in broth or spelt risotto  in a peek behind the scenes that is also a signal of respect to the team. Co-owner Adina Weinstein Melder comes from a family of art dealers and shes working on an art list to keep the wine list company. There are lithographs by Miro, Picasso and Dali on the walls, and originals from local artist-chef Philippa Sibley. Everything is for sale. Bartender Tom Hope is also an artist. Between making spicy, frothy butter beers and Thinks (the gin cocktail you have while youre thinking about what to drink) he will slowly draw a picture of the bar on wood panelling in the rear courtyard. Commis is generous and suddenly crucial, a warm and wonderful salon for conversation and commingling. What a place.

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The Brittany Higgins-Bruce Lehrmann legal fiasco has assumed a life of its own, spreading like a conflagration and either destroying or tainting nearly everyone it touches.

Bruce Lehrmann, Shane Drumgold and Brittany Higgins Credit: Stephen Kiprillis

Lehrmann was tried in the ACT Supreme Court in October after pleading not guilty to sexually assaulting his former colleague in the Parliament House office of their then-boss, former Coalition minister Linda Reynolds, following a night of drinking with friends in March 2019. But a mistrial was declared due to juror misconduct and prosecutors later dropped the charges against him.

Almost from the moment the allegations became public many hoped they would be the impetus to force the federal parliament to reform its toxic workplace culture. Instead, they turned into a surreal blend of courtroom drama, social crusade and celebrity hype, replete with compensation demands and defamation threats or writs involving the main two players, and others including Reynolds.

Now the ACT governments attempt to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding Lehrmanns aborted prosecution appears to have blown up in its face, exposing a failure of governance, a lack of due process as well as unexpectedly collaterally damaging both the man who initiated the court case and the man appointed to investigate why the trial failed.
A fatal shootout with an American paedophile that claimed the lives of two FBI agents unearthed the Australian arm of an alleged child abuse network, leading police to 19 paedophiles and sparking the rescue of 13 children across the country, investigators say.

FBI special agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were killed by automatic gunfire while standing on the doorstep of a Florida apartment in February 2021, preparing to execute a search warrant for child abuse material.

A screen shot from local news after two FBI agents were killed while trying to serve a warrant in a case involving child porn and violent crimes against children. Credit: Channel 10 News

The reclusive IT worker behind the trigger, 55-year-old David Lee Huber, is likely to have seen the FBI through his doorbell camera and fired his assault rifle through the door.

Three more agents were wounded and Huber killed himself.
Western Australias environmental watchdog has invited public comment on whether it should undertake a detailed independent review of Alcoas mining in WAs jarrah forests which the US firm has worked for 60 years.

In February, environmental group WA Forest Alliance referred two Alcoa mining plans, normally considered behind closed doors by bureaucrats, to the WA Environment Protection Authority.

Alcoa has cleared 28,000 hectares of the northern jarrah forest, which is under pressure in a drier, warmer climate and experiencing more bushfires. Credit: Anonymous

Alcoa has been in the public eye this year due to the risk its mining poses to the dams that supply water to Perth, its failure to complete any rehabilitation of the 280 square kilometres of jarrah forest it has cleared, and building a pipeline, without permission from regulators, to transport water contaminated with the toxic chemicals known as PFAS over a drinking water dam.

The EPA, which can by law only consider a referral once, has determined after more than five months of deliberation that it has not previously dealt with some of the issues in this referral.
A Perth man who raped a drunk and unconscious woman at a BHP mine site in Western Australias Pilbara was sentenced to five years and two months in prison on Monday.

Ryan Zabaznow, 38, wept as District Court Judge Linda Petrusa told him he had shown no remorse for the 2020 offence which left his victim feeling like a piece of meat and sparked a parliamentary inquiry into mine site sexual assaults.

Zabaznow was found guilty of sexual penetration without consent by a jury in May this year after the court heard how his victim had been put to bed by friends following a lengthy drinking session before the assault took place.

The incident took place on a shift changeover day around midnight when the victim, having drunk about a dozen beers, began to feel unwell and threw up before being helped into her bed by a friend and passing out.
Its the case that wrecks the lives of everyone it touches and spawns a seemingly never-ending cascade of legal action; a mushroom cloud of litigation that blooms ever outward.

The saga of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins by her former Liberal staffer colleague Bruce Lehrmann, which he has always denied, claimed another victim last week when Shane Drumgold, SC, resigned as ACT director of public prosecutions.

Bruce Lehrmann, Shane Drumgold and Brittany Higgins Credit: Stephen Kiprillis

Now the head of the inquiry into authorities handling of the case  former Queensland Supreme Court judge Walter Sofronoff, KC  faces a possible integrity probe or even legal action following the early leak of his findings to favoured media.

The report, which was released publicly on Monday  well after its contents had been reported by the journalists Sofronoff selected  excoriated Drumgold.
Exiled MP Will Fowles is under pressure to stand down from his lucrative committee post before the panel grills Labor Party bosses about possible electoral reforms in hearings scheduled for Thursday.

The Ringwood MP resigned from the parliamentary Labor Party on Saturday at the request of Daniel Andrews after the premiers office referred Fowles to the police over an alleged assault.

Will Fowles, pictured after a Canberra hotel incident in 2019. Credit: Joe Armao

Without a formal complaint from the accuser, police have not launched an investigation.

Fowles has strenuously denied he assaulted a government employee last Wednesday night after parliament wrapped up for the day, and said he was shocked and distressed to learn a claim had been made against him.
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) and the Danish Red Cross are implementing a new project to support the mental health of those affected by the war unleashed by Russia.

"The team of the URCS Department of Rehabilitation and Support, along with the Danish Red Cross, has started implementing a new project  providing group and individual counseling, as well as conducting psycho-educational sessions for the population affected by the war in Ukraine," the society said on Facebook on Monday.

According to URCS, psychoeducational sessions or psychoeducation are providing people with complete reliable information on how to overcome stress on their own in conditions of uncertainty, and in which cases it is necessary to seek help from a specialist.

The project's goal is to help people overcome stress, survive the consequences of crisis events, prevent the development of mental disorders, and gain access to quality support.

The program started in Dnipro with a five-day training session on counseling future Ukrainian Red Cross consultants and psychologists from Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia and Dnipro. The training participants updated their knowledge and gained new skills in conducting mental health counseling sessions. Particular attention was paid to cases involving sexual and gender-based violence or risk to human life.

Experienced trainers Bethan McEvoy and Olha Mokhno from the Danish Red Cross, as well as their colleagues from URCS Dan Humenny and Natalia Yarotska, have trained the first team of consultants, which has already started its activity. The first session for the elderly was held in Dnipro.

The society said the Red Cross consultants will only provide basic support, that is, in cases where the person is able to cope with stress on their own.

The project is being implemented as part of the National Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program, initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.
An elegant six-bedroom Victorian home built in 1880 at 24 Ethel Street in Burwood passed in at auction on Saturday afternoon on a vendor bid of $8.5 million.

The Mona has been immaculately renovated with floor to ceiling Italian luxury. A crowd of about 300 watched on as bidding opened at $7.5 million among six registered bidders with three actively bidding all the way to $8.35 million.

The vendor had approval to subdivide the land a decade ago and built a freestanding, bright and modern four-bedroom home next door at 24C Ethel Street.

The adjacent property went to auction immediately after its grand neighbour passed in on a vendor bid of $8.5 million. Most of the crowd shuffled across and saw five people enthusiastically bid out of the seven registered.
Loading But Beijing simply ignored the ruling and, in the years since, has kept applying physical pressure to the territories also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in the South China Sea, one of the worlds greatest commercial arteries. But the pressure is always beneath the threshold of traditional, kinetic war. The result? Over time, says the Lowy Institutes China expert, Richard McGregor, China is winning. In Saturdays example, the Philippines, a US ally, set out to resupply a territorial marker post, an old Philippines Navy vessel that was deliberately run aground on a coral reef, Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands group. To reinforce the countrys claim to ownership, the Philippines makes sure to keep the old hulk occupied continuously. In recent times its kept a small crew, around a dozen navy personnel, on the ship.

Every month or so, the Philippines Navy brings them fresh supplies of food, water, fuel, and it sometimes rotates its personnel. Except when China decides to interfere. On Saturday, a pair of the Philippines coast guard vessels escorted a pair of chartered supply boats towards the reef. A pair of much larger Chinese coast guard ships manoeuvred to block one of the supply boats. One turned its water cannon on the Filipinos. A chorus of complaints and condemnations went up. It was dangerous and illegal, according to Manila. Washington said Beijings forces had interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardised the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. Canberra said it was dangerous and destabilising. And so on. But who won? One of the two supply boats was unable to unload the fresh crew and other supplies it had intended to deliver, and Beijing suffered nothing but noise from Manila and its indignant allies. Thats a clear win for China. In the Philippines own waters.

Loading Sure, the US reminded Beijing that it reaffirms an armed attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces  including those of its Coast Guard in the South China Sea  would invoke US mutual defence commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US [and] Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty. But thats the brilliance of Xis way of war. It was not an armed attack. Last month Beijings ships successfully ran interference on another Philippines effort to resupply another occupied reef, and earlier this year China used military-grade lasers against Philippines ships crews. Such harassment is so frequent that Manila says it has lodged around 90 formal complaints against China. And thats just the Philippines. China wages a similar non-stop, low-level, grey zone campaign against Vietnam and Malaysia and other South-East Asian states as well, conducted mostly out of public view and unnoticed by the wider world. So far, McGregor notes, nothing any South-East Asian nation does, nothing the US does, is an effective deterrent.

Xi called Americas bluff years ago when Barack Obama demanded that China stop using sharp elbows to wrest maritime territories from its neighbours. Chinas forces simply pushed past everyone to occupy reefs and rocks and built them up into substantial new islands. Obamas former Asia policy director, Danny Russel, told me that the administration had concluded that the only way the US could have prevented Chinas takeover would have been through the use of force. War, in other words. It was too high a price, Obama decided. Xi Jinping has been smart where Putin has been stupid. Credit: Getty Images. Artwork Stephen Kiprillis Over time, China has been changing the status quo, McGregor says. They have military bases in the South China Sea they didnt have before, which are not small  theyre very large. They built up islands, they built up by far the biggest naval fleet by number of ships, bigger than the US. A former Philippines foreign secretary, Teodoro Locsin, said Chinas behaviour in the region was like a dragon in your living room. That was years ago, and still no one has worked out how to manage, let alone tame, the dragon.
A Venice womans effort to literally call out pickpockets who prey on the citys tourists that has gone viral on TikTok and gained her international attention has now created online controversy.

Monica Poli, whose chant of attenzione pickpocket has made her a sensation on TikTok and Instagram, has drawn fresh scrutiny over whether her politics are also a motivation for her campaign.

Polis anti-pickpocket group called Cittadini Non Distratti, the undistracted citizens, wander the city shouting at people whom they believe to be thieves plucking wallets, passports and other items, The New York Times reported on July 25.

Poli, 57, a Venice city councillor from the League party, formerly Lega Nord, or the Northern League, a far-right party that is known for xenophobic views.
I just dont want all that to get lost in the maelstrom around his more controversial statements and views. Never before has the family faced a conundrum quite like this. Through all the tragedies and scandals and campaigns over the years, the traditional Kennedy rule has always been to pull together, to stand by one another no matter what. Joseph Biden, Jr. and Edward Kennedy (right) during a Senate hearing with Attorney General Edwin Meese, in Washington on February 4, 1987. Credit: Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times Family was the rock. Solidarity was the code. But as he polls at around 15 per cent against Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has roiled a family that wants nothing to do with his campaign and telephone lines between Kennedy homes burn with what-to-do agonising. It must be painful for them, said Bob Shrum, who for years was one of the leading advisers to Edward M. Kennedy, the senator and patriarch known as Ted. Hes been through some struggles himself, Shrum added of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and I think they want to love him. But at the same time, they cant abide this. Its very sad at every level.

Kennedy opted against discussing his relations with his family. Its pretty clear that the Times is not going to treat me fairly honestly, so Im going to decline, he said in a text message. In a statement to CNN in April shortly before kicking off his campaign, he acknowledged that some relatives do not support him. I bear them no ill will, he said. Families can disagree and still love each other. Still, privately he has reached out to some of his relatives to complain about their public comments and engaged in tense discussions about his campaign and platform. Some family members recall pressing him on why he was running and warning him that he was putting his life up for scrutiny in a way that might be personally devastating. Robert F. Kennedy Jr has become a source of deep anguish among what was once known as the royal family of American politics. Credit: Bloomberg Kennedy, who was nine when his uncle was assassinated and 14 when his father was killed, struggled with addiction as a young man and was kicked out of private schools and arrested on marijuana and heroin charges more than once. After checking into a treatment facility in 1983, he says he has been clean ever since and has been an anti-drug crusader.

Amid reports of infidelity, he separated from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who also battled addiction and died by suicide in 2012. He is now married to his third wife, actress Cheryl Hines. In interviews in recent days, several members of the Kennedy family, some of whom did not want to be named, sounded tortured about the situation. They talked of a brother, cousin and uncle who flashed some of the raw political talent of his famed father, but who has undergone trauma and is headed down a path they do not fully understand. Last month, he declared that the coronavirus was targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people and that the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. He later said he was misinterpreted, writing on Twitter that the disparate effect of the virus serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons but I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered.

Loading That proved too much for several family members. Kerry Kennedy, his sister and president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, issued a statement calling his remarks deplorable and untruthful. Joseph P. Kennedy II, his brother and a former congressman, called them morally and factually wrong. Joseph P. Kennedy III, his nephew and another former congressman now serving as Bidens special envoy to Northern Ireland, posted his own response on Twitter: I unequivocally condemn what he said. Schlossberg filmed his video four days later. I didnt have a plan, he said in an interview from Australia, where he travelled after passing the bar exam to visit his mother, Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador, and to tour the country before returning home to begin a legal career. I just wanted to speak out and felt it was the right time. While the statements were not coordinated, according to family members, the display of disagreement struck close observers of the Kennedys as a pivotal moment.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The installation of a birding platform on Great Salt Pond is scheduled for late August, part of the Nature Foundations new Birding and Ecotourism project. A small section of white mangroves was trimmed and removed on August 7 to make room for the public access viewing platform, which will provide a better bird-watching experience for enthusiasts and help foster environmental appreciation among both residents and visitors.

On Monday, local construction company Windward Roads removed a section of mangroves approximately two meters wide to install the floating platform, guided by proper procedures to minimize the impact on the surrounding mangroves. White mangroves are less sensitive to trimming damage and have the highest recovery potential of the other species found on St. Maarten. The removal was supervised by Nature Foundation staff members.

The floating platform will comfortably accommodate up to fifteen people and will stretch twelve meters into Great Salt Pond. It was designed with high wooden slats and gaps through which people can see, in order to minimize disturbing the birds. The location was selected after extensive research determined that Great Salt Pond has a sufficiently high population of birds to warrant a formal viewing platform.

The St. Maarten Birding and Ecotourism project aims to preserve and further protect our remaining natural resources while providing opportunities for engagement and education through bird-focused infrastructure, tours, and presentations. The development of the birding platform aligns with the Nature Foundations commitment to providing high-quality environmental education, encouraging sustainable tourism, and increasing the conservation value of our ecosystems.

We want to create a space where nature enthusiasts, birdwatchers, and researchers can gather to enjoy the beauty and biodiversity of the Great Salt Pond, said the Birding and Ecotourism project coordinator, Kevin Sammy. From the platform, visitors can view our islands pelicans, egrets, frigatebirds, herons, and more, hopefully fostering a deeper understanding of the importance of wetland habitats to these birds as well as ourselves and our society.

The Great Salt Pond birding platform will join the Little Bay viewing house as St. Maartens existing infrastructure for birding, along with a few dedicated observatories in Saint-Martin. It will be maintained and up kept by the Nature Foundation.

The R4CR (Resources for Community Resilience) program is financed by the Government of the Netherlands via the Sint Maarten Trust Fund. The latter is administered by the World Bank and implemented by the NRPB (National Recovery Program Bureau). The R4CR program is locally managed by the VNGI (International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities) in close cooperation with 4C Foundation and other local partners. BirdsCaribbean provided additional support via the Betty Peterson grant for the equipment used in the Bird Guide Training, whereby 12 St. Maarteners received training to host their own tours.

The Nature Foundation Sint Maarten is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 1997, dedicated to conserving the natural ecosystems and resources of St. Maarten through research efforts, educational initiatives, and policy assessment. You can contact the Nature Foundation by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling (+1) 721-544-4267.
Nuclear power plants and uranium against energy shortage

Recently, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, pointed to a looming energy deficit.

Musk is in favor of a rapid expansion of nuclear energy, because otherwise there is a threat of an energy crisis as early as two years from now. The energy demand caused by the increasing applications in the field of artificial intelligence is a decisive factor here, he says. Because AI needs a lot of electricity. In the U.S., for example, electricity consumption is expected to triple by 2045, according to Musk\-s calculations. U.S. utilities predict a 70 percent increase over the next 20 years, which is no small feat either. The expansion of renewable energies does not seem to be progressing fast enough. The German Federal Network Agency, for example, expects electricity demand in this country to double by 2050.

Whether an energy passport is imminent in Germany remains to be seen. In any case, there is the threat of a permanent gas cut-off from Russia and this could have consequences. Although thousands of wind and solar plants are running in this country, it is questionable whether this will be enough. Supply security and independence with renewable energies alone will not work. The extent to which other countries rely on nuclear power can be seen in the figures. Nuclear power plants are being built and planned around the world. There are currently more than 400 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide. China plans to start 45 new nuclear reactors in the next 15 years. The country is thus planning the most new nuclear power plants. It is followed by Russia and India. Uranium demand is therefore increasing worldwide, even if Germany is taking a different path. Companies with uranium in the ground will therefore not have to look far for customers for their uranium.

There is IsoEnergy  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/isoenergy-ltd/ -, for example, with its promising uranium projects in Saskatchewan, in the eastern Athabasca Basin.

In Canada and the USA, Uranium Energy  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/uranium-energy-corp/  owns uranium projects, some of which are ready for operation. The company also owns a stake in the only royalty company in the uranium sector.

Current company information and press releases from Uranium Energy (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/uranium-energy-corp/ -) and IsoEnergy (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/iso-energy-ltd/ -).

In accordance with A34 WpHG I would like to point out that partners, authors and employees may hold shares in the respective companies addressed and thus a possible conflict of interest exists. No guarantee for the translation into English. Only the German version of this news is valid.

Disclaimer: The information provided does not represent any form of recommendation or advice. Express reference is made to the risks in securities trading. No liability can be accepted for any damage arising from the use of this blog. I would like to point out that shares and especially warrant investments are always associated with risk. The total loss of the invested capital cannot be excluded. All information and sources are carefully researched. However, no guarantee is given for the correctness of all contents. Despite the greatest care, I expressly reserve the right to make errors, especially with regard to figures and prices. The information contained herein is taken from sources believed to be reliable, but in no way claims to be accurate or complete. Due to court decisions, the contents of linked external sites are also co-responsible (e.g. Landgericht Hamburg, in the decision of 12.05.1998  312 O 85/98), as long as there is no explicit dissociation from them. Despite careful control of the content, I do not assume liability for the content of linked external pages. The respective operators are exclusively responsible for their content. The disclaimer of Swiss Resource Capital AG also applies: https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/disclaimer/
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the results of a conference call on Monday on key security issues: the situation at the front, the supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the production of weapons, internal security issues and the grain corridor.

"The daily conference call. We heard a report from Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny on the situation at the front. Intense defensive and offensive operations are underway. The Ministry of Defense reported on the supply of equipment and ammunition, as well as the supply calendar for the short and medium term. The Ministry of Strategic Industries reported on our own production. We are eliminating bureaucratic barriers," Zelenskyy said in the Telegram channel on Monday.

As the president said, "the Main Intelligence Agency and the Foreign Intelligence Service provided the data received from Russia. We understand the enemy's immediate plans. Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Maliuk reported on the struggle against traitors in Ukraine."

"Minister of the Interior Klymenko and our office, Oleksiy Kuleba, spoke about the Russian shelling of civilian targets and our actions to eliminate the consequences and help people. We are also preparing to implement some decisions of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the prolongation of the Grain Corridor," Zelenskyy said.
On the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the armed aggression of Russia against Georgia and the occupation of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, South Ossetia, Ukraine calls on Russia to de-occupy the Georgian and Ukrainian territories.

"Ukraine supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the Kremlin's illegal attempt to forcefully change the borders of a sovereign state did not receive a proper response from the world community.

"After the occupation of part of the territory of Georgia, Russia continued its aggressive policy and, having occupied the Crimea peninsula and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014, on February 24, 2022, launched a full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine. We are sure that it is possible to stop the aggressive policy of Russia thanks to the joint efforts of the international community, strict observance of the sanctions regimes against Russia and the full support of the countries against which the Kremlin commits aggression," the MFA said in the statement.

The Foreign Ministry said Russia must de-occupy parts of the territories of Georgia and Ukraine, and Russian war criminals must bear the strictest responsibility.
P remium fashion brand AllSaints has reported a record financial performance for the latest year after seeing sales jump by a quarter.

The retailer, which is known for its leather jackets and biker boots, said its total revenue for the year to the end of January hit 390.9 million, up 25% from 312.9 million the previous year.

The jump in sales came as the group steamed ahead with international expansion with its first store opening in mainland China, in Shanghai, and others in Taiwan and South Korea.

AllSaints, which is headquartered in Shoreditch in London, has about 240 shops, concessions and outlets in countries around the world and hires more than 2,000 staff.

Its improved 2022 sales were helped by investment in a new digital platform, the firm said.

Chief executive Peter Wood also said it was focused on product development and rigorous inventory management, which paid off for its financial performance.

Across the wider group, which includes New York-based luxury menswear brand John Varvatos acquired in 2021, sales surged by 36% to 457 million.

The company also revealed its operating profit nearly tripled over the period, to 28.5 million from 10.1 million the prior year.

Mr Wood said: This has been a record year for AllSaints, and these results are a huge credit to the passion, creativity and hard work of our fantastic team around the world.

The performance has been driven by our intense focus on product development, e-commerce excellence, growing our global store network, and rigorous inventory management.

Given the strong momentum across both brands, and our proven resilience in even the most challenging consumer environments, we remain hugely confident in the groups future prospects.

The company has not yet shared its full accounts for the year on Companies House.
A host of London retailers, from fashion brands to Savile Row suit makers and jewellery firms, have sounded the alarm over concerns the tourist tax could hurt their all-important Christmas trading.

They warn that the crucial festive season could be negatively impacted due to the loss of VAT-free shopping for foreign visitors.

It comes a week after an analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research concluded the tourist tax is costing the UK 10.7 billion in lost GDP and two million extra foreign visitors a year spending across the economy.

The perk that allowed foreign visitors to claim a 20% refund on much of their shopping in the UK came to an end in 2021 after Rishi Sunak said it could no longer be justified.

Retailers and tourism bosses say the impact has been huge and have pleaded with the Government to reinstate it.

On the potential damage in the run up to Christmas, Helen Brocklebank, CEO of luxury goods association Walpole said: This period is a significant and highly important one on most retail calendars. With so much pressure on the economy, why are we waiting for the impact of the tourist tax on our great British retailers to be irrevocable?

Asked whether his stores Christmas trading season in the UK could be hurt due to the loss of VAT-free shopping, luxury goods firm Picketts founder Trevor Pickett said: Definitely. The soft start of the holiday season, with visitors coming for Thanksgiving, was always an important week for us when we would see international sales ramping up. That did not happen last year.

Sean Dixon, co-founder of Savile Row tailor Richard James, said: London is in direct competition with other major European cities, Paris, Rome, Milan. It makes more sense for luxury shoppers to spend their euros abroad.

Suit maker Richard James is among brands exposed to the impact of VAT-free shopping being axed / Richard James

Eyewear designer Tom Davies said international footfall has declined at his stores and will remain suppressed until the policy changes.

Other responses to questions from the Evening Standard included worries international footfall could fall at London stores over the next 12 months.

Other respondents included bag company Aspinal of London, maternity brand Seraphine, tailor Dege & Skinner, footwear firm Tracey Neuls, and jewellery retailers Austen & Blake and Elizabeth Gage among others.

Leaders in the cultural sector are also alarmed about the impact.

The Times reported that Neil Constable, chief executive of Shakespeares Globe, said: We have seen a direct impact on our income stream.

He said the pandemic had created a tough environment for cultural venues and the Government should aim to make the UK the natural choice for those wishing to spend cash at our incredible cultural offerings not just in London but UK-wide.

An HM Treasury spokesman said: VAT-free shopping does not directly benefit Brits.

He added the scheme could cost British taxpayers around 2 billion a year at a time when weve already had to take difficult decisions to get debt falling and fewer than one in ten non-EU visitors used the previous scheme, showing its not a significant attraction for tourists.
U p to 50 people could be moved to the Bibby Stockholm barge, docked in Portland Port, Dorset, as early as today. Ministers say this is a more cost-effective way of housing migrants, while refugee campaigners have condemned the policy as cruel and inhumane.

What is clear is that this will do little to clear the asylum backlog, which currently sits at roughly 170,000 people, nearly 130,000 of whom have been waiting longer than six months. Nor is it likely to act as a deterrent for the desperate people risking their lives in small boats.

It is undoubtedly true that the issue of immigration, in particular of the illegal type, is of great concern to a certain section of the electorate. The Government, particularly one that has placed great importance on the concept of taking back control, is understandably keen to take action.

But instead of gimmicks, such as processing migrants on Ascension Island, a policy disregarded as impractical by a previous home secretary, the Government should focus on what works and what our economy actually needs. That means clearing the backlog and ensuring key roles are filled in sectors where there are still severe shortages.

Vital vaccine research

Covid-19 was the first global pandemic of the 21st century, but it is unlikely to be the last. Climate change and people living closer to animals have increased the risk  and speed  of new viruses spreading across the world.

That is why the vaccine research at Porton Down, near Salisbury, is so vital. The aim is to enhance our preparedness against yet-to-be-identified pathogens with the potential to drive a pandemic and evaluate the effectiveness of existing vaccines.

Britains preparedness for a pandemic has come under a harsh spotlight during the Covid-19 Inquiry. We must be ready for the next one, and that means building up our defences now, to stop a virus before it can spread around the world.

Tech bros trade blows

To Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua and Mike Tyson v George Foreman, we can add another to the list of the biggest fights never to take place: Mark Zuckerberg v Elon Musk.

The Meta boss has said he was not holding my breath over the proposed fight with his tech billionaire rival, who revealed he may require back surgery. But Zuckerberg managed to get one joust in, suggesting any fight was unlikely to be live-streamed on Twitter, citing the need for a more reliable platform.
I m going to preface this with an admission that Ive never actually lived in Clapham. By the time Id migrated to London from the north, it was already considered a cultural wasteland. I vividly remember a friend telling me that only very beige people (accountants, management consultants, University of Exeter alumni) lived there and that everyone in Clapham sings the national anthem when the rugby comes on in the pub. That was 2009  and it hasnt got any better.

As the area has entered the later stages of gentrification, what little vibe it once had has been wholly sanitised. It now exists in a land beyond parody  where the inhabitants tacitly accept that Clapham is absurd, lean into in fact. Bills is a bona fide weekend hotspot and the gilet-clad individuals who go to Infernos no longer do so ironically (as they might have done when I was a twentysomething). Am I being a snob? Yes. Am I wrong? No.

The Regents Canal in Hackney / Daniel Lynch

And so to Hackney  my home borough on and off for the past 15 years. On the surface a very different proposition. Hackney is artsy and trendy  many of Hackneys businesses count authenticity as a core value. Everything is knobbly and artisanal. Many of these differences really are, of course, completely surface. Hackney signifiers  Arket coat, Ganni boots, a piece of teak furniture tucked under one arm  are as rife for parody as any youll find in Clapham. Just look at the rise of social media accounts like real_housewives_of_clapton  we really do enjoy Lime biking home after two bottles of Chin Chin, we really are that easy to satirise.

And while for now Hackney remains one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse boroughs in London  and while there are still some pockets of genuine creative verve  the vibe shift is definitely coming.

Firstly, all those trendy artist-makers and creatives who settled here in the late Nineties have aged out (as one colleague puts it, Hackney is now a retirement village for hipsters). They all moved east, drawn by the relative affordability of studio space, partied for 10 years, bought houses near Millfields Park then had kids and became much better acquainted with the councils late-night noise complaints hotline. And so, while once upon a time if youd taken a 6am stroll around Hackney Marshes, the ravers would have outnumbered the joggers four to one, now it is the other way around. Now, youre way more likely to get a mown down by a Bugaboo on Chatsworth Road than you are to happen upon an artists studio squat party.

Pricey: housing in Hackney / Daniel Lynch

Secondly, there is the sheer astronomical cost of living here. In Hackney, the average property price has increased by more than 85 per cent in the past decade (now hovering around 720,000, according to Rightmove). And while property markets in almost every other London borough have slowed, Hackneys has remained buoyant. According to figures released last week by Savills, sales of properties in the borough are up, even compared to pre-pandemic levels. The only other London boroughs that have seen that kind of resilience are Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster and Islington.

Where once it might have welcomed a huge cross section of people, from artists and musicians to nurses and teachers, now only those whove had astronomical success, or whove come from astronomical generational wealth can afford to buy here. At the same time, rents have rocketed  meaning that those without the necessary capital have been squeezed out.

In this respect, Hackney is a victim of the success of Hackney   that reputation it developed over the past generation as artsy, trendy and authentic has made it a magnet for those who want to buy into Brand Hackney. As Philip Harvey, a senior partner at buying adviser Property Vision, explains, young City and tech workers, and those whose parents are stumping up the deposit, are attracted to places like Dalston because it has a great vibe and holds real appeal for the young, perhaps not unlike Portobello Road in the Sixties. It is seen as cool, edgy, fun and challenging to parents.

Im not against gentrification, per se. The migration of people from one area to another is part and parcel of any city (I grew up on an estate, next door-but-one to a heroin dealer  it is infinitely nicer to live in an area that feels safe at night and that is well looked-after), but in Hackney it seems so especially pronounced.

And what happens to an area when only the very wealthy can afford to live there  and they only buy because of the investment potential, anyway? Well, it becomes Clapham.
The next meeting of the advisers to heads of states and governments on the Peace Formula proposed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be held within a month or a little later, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has said at a press briefing on Kyiv on Monday.

"We have agreed to hold the next meeting and this week we will hold a meeting of ambassadors which, I think, will exceed the number of 60," he said.

According to Yermak, another meeting of the advisers to heads of states and governments will be held within a month or a little more and then "we will move towards a summit."

He described the past meeting as "a rehearsal of the world where there is no place for cave aggression."

As reported, the second meeting of diplomatic advisers on national security and political leaders of the Foreign Ministries of the leading countries of the world took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was the second meeting after the same one in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the beginning on June. The participants of the meetings discussed the key principles of restoring long-lasting and just peace for Ukraine.

The second meeting brought together more than 40 countries.
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Theres just weeks to go until Londons expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone is brought into force.

So, just how ready is the capital for the toughest - and most expensive - set of rules impacting motorists since the Congestion Charge?

It comes after hundreds of doctors urged politicians to toughen their stance on plans to tackle toxic air, saying they witness the devastating health consequences of pollution every day in the consulting room.

Pollution represents Britains biggest risk to public health from environmental factors, which is linked to up to 36,000 national deaths annually.

Now, Londons getting ready for the city-wide, 12,50 daily charge for owners whose vehicles do not meet exhaust emissions requirements from 29 August.

Meanwhile, drivers on Saturday held placards and chanted outside Downing Street and in Trafalgar Square over the weekend in protest against the Mayor Sadiq Khans flagship policy.

Critics also say it will unfairly penalise poorer motorists living in outer London, who cannot rely on suburban public transport.

His Conservative opponent in next years mayoral race, Susan Hall, says shell stop the Ulez expansion on day one if elected.

So, what further measures do cities like London need to take for to cut toxic air - and reduce deaths and illness linked to pollution?

To discover more, The Leader podcast is joined by Oliver Lord, head of UK for the Clean Cities Campaign.

Listen above, and find us on your Spotify Daily Drive or wherever you stream your podcasts.
Review at a glance









T he new BBC series Dreaming Whilst Black starts with the protagonist walking through a film set. He sits on the directors chair, a coffee in hand, a sly smirk on his face and shouts Action. He is the big dog, the man in charge. Until he wakes up, that is.

In the shows reality, Kwabena is an inspiring filmmaker working in recruitment to make ends meet while he desperately scrambles to get his big break in the film industry. But with every step forward, an unfortunate event finds him taking a significant leap back, and its not long until he is unemployed (or freelance as he prefers to call it) and taking any opportunity he can get.

Dreaming Whilst Black is a six-part comedy based on a web series created by writer-cum-director Adjani Salmon in 2018. Its pilot won a BAFTA for Emerging Talent last year, and the full series is produced by A24 and the London-based Bafta-winning production company Big Deal Films. The show follows Kwabena (portrayed by Salmon) as he leaves his corporate career to pursue his passions. The main obstacle is that he is a working-class Black man with few connections in the industry and less-than-ideal confidence in himself.

Dani Moseley as Amy and Adjani Salmon as Kwabena / BBC/Big Deal Films/Anup Bhatt

While the show has been marketed as a satire, many of the jokes and anecdotes, which Salmon has said are based on the real-life experiences of Black people, ring undeniably true. Kwabenas friend Amy (Dani Moseley) is asked by her boss to take the fall for a tone-deaf blunder at work, on a campaign for which she previously expressed her dislike. The series is peppered with well-meaning white people making unsolicited remarks with racial undertones: backhanded compliments about hair, food, film choices, eloquence and professionalism.

That said, some gags do verge on the outlandish. In one scene, Kwabena attends a karaoke event with colleagues and, when forced to sing, realises that his white friend chose their song option with the intention of Kwabena repeatedly rapping the N-word, which he, of course, declines to do. While something like this probably has happened, the idea that in a room in a bar in London today, the entire audience would cordially (and very enthusiastically) bounce along as some of the white customers scream that word at the top of their lungs just doesnt quite feel realistic to me  but some people I have spoken to about this seem to disagree.

We also see a side to the film industry that many Black creatives grapple with at some point in their careers. Kwabena has an idea for a film that puts him in the running to receive the support he needs from a diversity scheme, but he is advised to come up with something that panders to more generic and stereotypical Black themes, such as drugs and prison. This sounds familiar. A senior white colleague once instructed me at a place I once worked to write more Black stuff, which I politely refused (and would seemingly suffer for later).

Many Black people have also mentioned only being asked to work on something when the project directly relates to Black people or topics. But Kwabena  who is about ten years older than I was when I was advised in this way  thinks about his options slightly more strategically, which works for him, though only partially.

Adjani Salmon as Kwabena / BBC/Big Deal Films

Its good to see that Black women take central roles in the show, and their experiences are afforded considerable time and space. Amy is a producer who is repeatedly overlooked professionally, despite apparently being the hardest working and most in the know in her office; Vanessa, (babirye bukilwa) is Kwabenas elegant love interest; and Kwabenas cousins partner Funmi (Rachel Adedeji) is heavily pregnant.

Not only do the women explore their own lives, the series deals with how the men in the show relate to them. Kwabenas cousin Maurice (Demmy Ladipo) is anxious about becoming a dad, smothering his wife with his concerns  neatly breaking away from stereotypes about Black people having absent fathers. Kwabena also struggles to keep up with his girlfriend financially, but finds himself still conforming to gender stereotypes in terms of who should pay on dates.

At times, approaching the Black experience in this way, packing so many different experiences and familiar microaggressions into one piece of work can feel forced, especially as for many Black British people, the ideas the show tussles with wont be shocking to see. Certain scenes seem thrown in with the intention only of ticking off a particular topic, which raises the question of who the intended audience is for this show  oddly, since the overriding references and languages used will resonate most strongly with a Black audience. The issues addressed seem likely to engage more with white individuals who are open to learning about the subtleties in the treatment of Black people in the UK.

Ultimately though, this comedy does what it set out to do: its funny, engaging and informative, it handles serious topics with care  and it is incredibly Black.

Dreaming Whilst Black is on BBC iPlayer; episodes 5 and 6 will air tonight at 10pm and 10.30pm on BBC Three
H igh mortgage rates are pushing Londoners particularly first-time buyers out of the capital, as buyers look to reduce their borrowing costs by choosing more affordable properties.

New data from Hamptons shows that Londoners bought 32,600 homes outside the M25 so far this year, which represents 7.7 per cent of all property sales outside the capital.

First-time buyers make up a record 30 per cent of those leaving London this year, spending an average of 429,800 on their properties. This is 96,590 less than they would have spent on a home in London, on average.

The main reason for this exodus of first-time buyers is soaring mortgage rates. Last month, two-year mortgage rates rose to their highest point since 2008, to 6.7 per cent. The average five-year rate also increased to 6.17 per cent.

For tens of thousands of Londoners, these hikes mean that they are facing an extra 12,000 per year in outgoings, with the typical mortgage holders payments expected to rise by 220 per month.

Compounded by the rising cost of living, this has proven to be too much for many Londoners, meaning 85 per cent of those who have left the capital to opt for an area where house prices are lower.

This means their monthly mortgage repayments will also be lower  by moving outside the capital, a typical first-time buyer with a 15 per cent deposit is set to save 8,656 in mortgage repayments each year.

Meanwhile home movers are opting to reduce their borrowing or even pay their mortgage off thanks to a move to a cheaper area.

Hamptons data shows that London leavers are also purchasing smaller one or two-bedroom homes, spending an average of 60,000 less than last year on their properties.

Likewise, transactions are down on previous years, with the second-lowest number of sales across the country since 2015 (excluding during the early weeks of the pandemic in 2020).

If the trend continues, Hamptons estimate that 53,780 Londoners will permanently leave the capital to buy a home this year. To put this figure into perspective, this is almost as many homes sold in Wales in 2022 (56,000).

In this scenario, mortgaged buyers would save a total of 357 million each year on annual repayments, compared to 157 million in 2019 when mortgage rates were lower.

Higher mortgage rates have paused the unwinding of arguably the biggest Covid-induced trend in the housing market: London outmigration, says Aneisha Beveridge, Hamptons head of research.

Rather, this year London outmigration has increasingly been driven by need over want as higher mortgage rates reduce buyers budgets, pushing them in search of smaller homes in more affordable areas.

Looking ahead, the likelihood that mortgage rates will stay higher for longer may keep the pace of London outmigration up.

Were also reaching the point where a large number of households who bought a home at the peak of the London market between 2014-2016 might be looking to move over the next few years.

And with property prices in parts of the capital lower today than when they bought, trading the city for a cheaper area outside the M25 might be the only option for those needing to upsize.

Where are Londoners moving?

Most Londoners are not moving too far away. The average first-time buyer leaving London relocated 25 miles away from where they had been living, while in general London leavers are staying closer to the city than they did last year.

Most of these movers still look to retain strong links with the capital, explains Beveridge. This has supported values of smaller homes in some of the more affordable towns within an hours commute of London.

As in previous years, most Londoners (39 per cent) leaving the capital head to the South East of England, with areas like Havant, Winchester, Medway and Horsham seeing the greatest rise in London buyers.

Homes in these areas are significantly cheaper than London: at 331,410, the average property in Havant costs almost 200,000 less than a home in London, at an average cost of 526,390.

While the South East is still the most popular destination for Londoners, the percentage of leavers moving there is at its lowest since 2009, with people increasingly looking elsewhere.

This year, one in three London leavers moved east, particularly to areas like Epping Forest, Chelmsford and Stevenage. Homes in these areas cost an average of 529,390, 377,590 and 337,230 respectively.

A smaller number of London leavers look further afield. Sunderland, where homes cost an average of 136,070, saw more Londoners moving in than last year, as did Coventry (225,890) and Mansfield (181,840).
O ne in five UK tenants has faced eviction in the past year, with the figure likely to be even higher in London, according to new research.

Campaign body Generation Rent said 20 per cent of its supporters nationwide had been told to leave their home in the past 12 months.

The shock situation, understood to be even worse in the capital, comes amid soaring bills and an ever-fiercer battle for available properties.

Of more than 1,000 people polled for the latest report, 60 per cent had been asked to pay higher rent in the last year. Nine in 10 of those faced with rises of 50 or less had accepted the hike.

Although there is a formal process that should be followed for price rises, which legally have to be "fair and realistic", many landlords try to use so-called no-fault Section 21 evictions to force them through, warns Generation Rent deputy director Dan Wilson Craw.

The fast-changing process of renting a home

Requirement Proportion of renters encountering it in 2017 Proportion of renters encountering it in 2023 Provide a photo, CV or personal statement to landlord or agent 9% 22% Place the highest bid possible 3% 21% Attend viewing alongside other househunters 9% 39% Sign a tenancy longer than a year 7% 12% Provide a guarantor 25% 34%

Source: Generation Rent

"With rents going up so quickly, Section 21 is used to push tenants into accepting rent rises, says Wilson Craw . You are within your rights to negotiate but you might fear eviction."

Generation Rent called on the government to tackle this issue by urgently pushing through the eagerly anticipated Renters Reform Bill. The body also urged ministers to link local housing allowance to market rents and increase housebuilding.

Living in stress

The state of the rental market was laid bare by the report, with 39 per cent of private tenants viewing a property at the same time as others, up from nine per cent in 2017.

More than one in five respondents had experienced a bidding battle for a rental property, up from three per cent six years ago. Meanwhile 22 per cent reported being asked for supporting documents such as photographs or CVs in the latest poll.

Wilson Craw said that the overall impact of the current crisis was not only seen by those hit by huge rent rises but by people pressured into snap decisions and scared to leave an affordable but no-longer-suitable property to fight it out in the wild.

"People are living in stress and taking a hit to their quality of life," he warned. "Commuting further or living in more crowded conditions.

London is the worst place for this, we've seen rents go up more quickly and it stands to reason that we see more of the types of practices highlighted in the report."

A government spokesperson said the Renters (Reform) Bill would help tenants challenge unreasonable rate rises.

We are abolishing Section 21 no fault evictions, giving tenants greater security in their homes and making it easier for landlords to get rid of anti-social tenants, they added.

We are committed to creating a private rented sector that is fit for the 21st century and works for responsible landlords while strengthening protections for renters.
A s a twentysomething with a burning ambition to work in the music industry, moving from her native Southport to London seemed like a no brainer for Louise Baldwin.

Twelve years later Louise headed back to Merseyside as a thirtysomething, with her partner and their young daughter in tow, and for equally compelling reasons.

When Louise moved to the capital in 2010 it seemed like the only place to pursue her career dreams. There didnt seem to be much choice in the matter back then, she said. There wasnt much of a music industry in the north east at the time, and if I wanted a job I needed to move south.

Louise got a job with the PRS (Performing Rights Society) for Music, working on contract negotiations, and began producing music too (check out her work at @petalsinsound). And although shed only intended to stay in the capital a couple of years, she found that she loved the atmosphere and vibe.

When she met her partner, Pete Fellows, who works as an accountant specialising in the music industry, it only encouraged her to stay put.

In 2016 Louise and Pete put down roots, buying a two-bedroom flat in Sydenham, just south of Crystal Palace Park, for circa 400,000.

Seven miles north of Liverpool, the seaside town of Crosby has a long sandy beach and lots of good restaurants / Handout

Things changed when the couple had their daughter Blake, in the summer of 2021.

Although she was only small, all the stuff you have to get for a baby, like a buggy, is massive, said Louise. Our two-bedroom flat started to feel very, very small very, very quickly.

Buying a bigger place in London wasnt an option for the couple, both now 39, and as both had been brought up by the sea (Petes family is from Sussex) they started thinking about giving Blake the same experience.

Louise and Pete decided that their perfect location was Crosby, a coastal town some seven miles north of Liverpool, for its long, sandy beach, and the fact that it would represent a completely fresh start for both of them.

The couple swapped a two-bedroom flat in Sydenham for a five-bedroom home near Liverpool / Handout

In early 2022 bought a five-bedroom semi-detached house for 375,000  considerably less than they sold their London flat for and headed north.

For me it kind of feels like I have come home, said Louise, who now works for a record company in Liverpool. It has got the same sort of feeling as Southport, the architecture and the beach are similar, but it also feels like somewhere fresh.

We know all of our neighbours, and everyone really looks out for us, there are lots of good restaurants and cool little coffee places  lots of the cool things about London do exist in other places too, you might just have to look a bit harder for them  and the beach is a 20-minute walk away.

We do walk around feeling like we have won the life lottery a bit. We are so grateful. I dont regret moving to London at all, but I dont regret leaving either.
A Canadian author has had her life changed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after the pair reportedly snapped up the rights to her new book with a 3 million deal to produce it for Netflix.

Carley Fortune, who is also an award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor, found success with her first romance novel, Every Summer After, which was released in 2022 and went on to become a New York Times bestseller. But its her sophomore book, Meet Me At The Lake, which has proven to be a hit with Harry and Meghan, who have reportedly purchased the rights to produce a televised adaptation. A source said:The themes of the book gripped the couple and it was chosen for their first adaptation with Netflix.

Carley Fortune / Carley Fortune via Instagram

Meet Me At The Lake follows a love story between two adults who meet just twice in their lives, when they need each other most. Fortune also describes the novel as a love letter to Toronto, a city which Markle holds dear, having lived there for seven years during the filming of Suits. The book also features a key characters mother dying in a car crash, which bears similarities to Prince Harrys loss of Princess Diana.

The news of the deal comes after the collapse of the Duke and Duchess partnership with Spotify, worth a reported 18 million, after just one series of Markles diva-themed podcast Archetypes.

Itll be welcome news to Fortune, who is an already-established fan of the royal couple, as revealed by old tweets where she live-reacted to their wedding coverage (which she watched from Canada at 4am) and expressed her love for Markles role in Suits.

Carley Fortune was previously editor of Refinery 29 Canada and has written articles about Meghan Markle before / Carley Fortune via Instagram

Fortune also lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons, and she was raised primarily in Ontario, Canada, as well as in a suburban town on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. After obtaining her Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University, Fortune went on to work at a series of popular Canadian publications, such as The Globe and Mail and Chatelaine, a Canadian womens magazine.

While at Chatelaine, Fortune would occasionally write about Markle, including a piece on her wedding hair-do, titled Meghan Markle Cant Stop Wont Stop With The Messy Bun, Even For Her Wedding. Along with these titles, Fortune also worked as Executive Editor of the Canadian arm of the online womens publication Refinery29.

Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane in Suits / NBC Universal Media

During her time as Executive Editor of Refinery29 Canada, Fortune oversaw the publication of articles such as How The Meghan Markle Effect Has Transformed Canadian Fashion and Meghan Markles Favourite Canadian Fashion Brands, as well as a piece titled How Will Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Make Money Now? following the pairs acrimonious split from the royal family in early 2020.

As it turns out, Fortune and the Sussexes will be making money together, turning her successful second novel into a series. The adaptation will be Harry and Meghans first foray into fictional television, though their partnership with Netflix is already well-forged thanks to the bombshell documentary they released via the streaming service earlier this year.
In front of me stands a dusty, coal-slicked door on Wardour Street, Soho. To my right, a choice of three buzzers: Hyphen Films, Dimello Coffee and, in the middle, the single word: IDEA. I choose the latter, and wind-up crusty office stairs which do not appear to have been touched since Sir Elton John called the building his office in the Seventies. Its refreshingly grotty; a lesser seen sight in central London today. Certainly in Soho, anyway, which square foot by sweet square foot is having the gritty goodness corporate power-hosed away. That is what Angela Hill and David Owen, owners of IDEA, the rare bookshop and independent publisher, would tell you anyway.

The couple, who are both in their fifties, entered the book trade as a side hustle in the early Noughties, setting up shop at cult fashion store Dover Street Market in 2006, before renting in this building in 2009. Their obscure taste has cultivated an A-list Rolodex of clients that includes fashion designers, performers, tech bros and the global one per cent at large (they dont let a student leave without something affordable, either). They have also gained internet notoriety by sharing unseen pictures from their finds: IDEA is dubbed Instagrams bookshop, with more than half a million followers. But the magic happens in person.

Specifically, in the cramped, appointment-only, book room Ive found myself in. It is stacked on all sides with books of every type, first editions, signed copies and ones you never knew existed. There must be thousands, but a sense of organised chaos prevails. A central white table, with thin black chequered lines, is decorated with five, sparkling white hydrangeas and piles of books. Kubrick, Supreme, Issey Miyake and Tracey Emin are familiar names that jump out; others look to be in foreign languages, are totally illegible or glow in hellish, lacquer red.

Angela Hill and David Owen, of IDEA, know how to source a niche book / Adrian Lourie

When it comes to celebrity people, we dont take their pictures, and we dont make any reference to their coming. We figure thats one of the attractions of this place in the first place, Owen says. Hill agrees: I like doing it that way  and I think people like being treated that way. Weve had some of the biggest worldwide names, but we treat everybody exactly the same. They relax after a while here.

The pair are in the midst of finalising a deal to expand from their one floor and lease this whole building  apart from Brunos Cafe on the bottom, Owen says. Au revoir, Hyphen Films and Dimello. It is part of a refocus. They want to bring their business back to bricks and mortar. Were not going to stop working through Instagram; its directly responsible for making IDEA happen in the way that it has. But we did 12 years via Instagram, now were going to use Instagram to do another 12 years in real life. The rare book room will remain untouched, but a general shop space will be created; even if it is still protected by the unsuspecting black door. We had a dalliance with opening a [window front] store. But they are like a public space. If you fell over there, you could sue them. In Wholefoods, if someones shoplifting, they cant even say anything, says Owen. Hill jumps in, only semi-joking: Here we can just throw you down the stairs if you annoy us at all.

And like stars relax in this treasure trove of fantastical publications, so too do Owen and Hill. The celebrity stories cannot help but come out of the walls. The phone goes one day and this guy says Hi, I heard you sell books. Yeah, Hill says. In Soho? Yeah. 101 Wardour Street? Yeah. He says, Its Calvin, Im outside. Buzz. We were like, Shit! Its Calvin Klein, Hill says. He was 70-something, and he ran up those stairs. He was so quick. On check-out (designerKlein, the great purveyor of minimalism, was shopping for books on this subject for a hotel he was designing in Dubai) they told him the story of finding Sir Elton Johns archive up in a closet of the office, which they returned to him (Sir Elton is now a customer, Hill confirms). Oh Elton! Elton! You know we had some wild times in the Seventies. I put on a concert for him in [Central] Park, Hill remembers Klein saying. He said it drifting off remembering, as if we didnt know.

Celebrity book club: Calvin Klein, Kim Jones, Sir Elton John and Victoria Beckham all get the idea / ES

Some stories have not aged as well. There was the time Kanye West came round, she starts, adding: Oh  before he came out with various statements. He was a lovely person when he came around here. Owen clips: Hm. Ruined his anecdotal value for us, somewhat.

The die-hard supporters of IDEA are creative directors looking for ideas. Theres no major fashion designer in the world that we dont have as a customer, Hill says. Its a bold statement. Seventy-five per cent have been here in person. Sometimes we dont get Tom Ford himself, or Victoria Beckham, but then they send their team. We get teams of 10 in here: the textile person, accessories person, et cetera. And theyre here all day. Do they buy? She laughs. Oh yes. Its not a library. We dont allow photographs inside the books at all. Kim Jones, creative director of both Fendi and Dior Mens, is one of their longest supporters. We used to sell books to Kim Jones when we worked on eBay, way back, Hill says. He still buys something every week.

Niche tomes are the USP. We get really excited about books we didnt know existed, Owen says. We just need to love it. We dont have things we dont. Thats the difference between us and a normal book shop. If they specialise in art books, they have to have Cezanne, Matisse, Degas and Rembrandt. We havent. Weve got Hockney, and Kippenberger, Richard Prince, Andy Warhol and every Wolfgang [Tillmans] book, because hes my favourite, Hill continues. As she is speaking, Owen is pulling typical IDEA books off the shelves.

Book sellers to the stars: the pair count fashion designers, perfromers and tech bros as top clients / Adrian Lourie

One is Apple T-shirts, which collects 1,000 T-shirt designs made and worn by the companys employees. It caught the eye of Sir Jony Ive, Apples former chief design officer. And designers too: Fashion designers are the best people to buy for, because they dont buy books of dresses. That is the last thing they want. We dont even have many. They buy the things that inspire them, Owen says.

Other IDEA favourites include a mid-Seventies Cocaine Consumers Handbook; a late Eighties selection of heart racing portraits, called Men For Women Only; and a 1978 Japanese published book, with every variety of Louis Vuitton leather goods. More than half the people that buy this are from Louis Vuitton. Whoevers working in menswear or bags at Vuitton at that point buys it, says Owen. This one catches their imagination, and together they fawn over an LV monogrammed pet carrier. Their mutual obsessions are obvious. How is it working together? Its quite fiery, yeah, says Owen. We live together, work together, have kids together, Hill says. And we have different ideas. But theres some kind of synergy that happens and somehow it just works. We will both just gravitate to a book in a shop and know if its cool or not. Today, they buy between 20 and 50 books every day, sourced online, and on shopping trips to Amsterdam, Japan, LA and New York. They try to keep prices reasonable. We just have to sell it for more than what we bought it for. So we try not to overpay for things, but some are so scarce, if we see one we just buy it, Owen says. We would pay anything, Hill continues. We might only get 50 quid more in the end, but it would mean we got it.

Read up: a selection of books for sale at IDEA / ES

One of Hills personal ideas was launching the publishing sector of the IDEA, she tells me, as Owen steps out to see a regular. The first was in 2014, published under her name because Owen was unconvinced; 300 signed editions of a photo book called Crimea/Kids, by Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy. We didnt stop there, our second book was Collier Schorr [the American artist and fashion photographer], who I was a massive fan of, she says. Since then, they have published books with everyone from photographers Willy Vanderperre, Derek Ridgers and Alasdair McLellan, to brand books with Gucci and, most recently, New York model and artist Richie Shazam. They also published stylist Bay Garnetts Fanpages fanzine in 2017 and 2018. She attests to their influence. Theyve been a game changer to the fashion industry by unveiling all these incredible images and genres, she says, adding, David and Angela are a real asset to London, theyre kind of underground but not.

This year will see them put their heads a little higher over the parapet. But they are set on expanding without squashing the spark, or leaving Soho behind. Its like the heartbeat of London. I cant imagine our shop being anywhere else, Hill says. These chains can earn a fortune by taking over.

Not if this pair has anything to do with it. Youve got to have some sleazy, sexy, dirty elements here too. I hope Ann Summers stays forever. Why not? she pauses. I want the drunkards, and I want Pride. I want everyone here. You can be sure of one thing, IDEA is not going anywhere.
A retired miner who killed his seriously ill wife said he was expecting to spend about five more years in a Cypriot prison before a judge announced his sentence.

British expat David Hunter was released from custody last week after a court sentenced him to two years in jail for the manslaughter of Janice, his spouse of 52 years.

The 76-year-old was allowed to walk free within 15 minutes of being sentenced at Paphos District Court due to time already served and good behaviour.

Mr Hunter spent 19 months in prison before being cleared of premeditated murder by a three-judge panel, but found guilty of manslaughter.

On Monday the pensioner said that as he was about to be sentenced he was expecting about five years.

The pensioner told Good Morning Britain: I was prepared for it, I prepared my mind for it, I always prepared for the worst.

Mr Hunter now has a new home in Cyprus, in the same village where he and his wife lived up until their death.

I couldnt be more pleased  Im living where I wanted to be  200 metres from my wifes grave, he said.

Mr Hunter said he missed seeing his wifes funeral procession by seconds when police officers wouldnt let him stop to look at it while transporting him through the village.

I didnt quite get a glimpse of the coffin, he said.

That was one of the worst days in prison. Another few seconds and I would have seen my wifes coffin.

I could see (the priest) coming up to the church. I said: please lets stop.

They wouldnt let me stop. They didnt care, they just took me away.

He said he tried to take his own life after Mrs Hunters death because he didnt want to live without her.

When the police came, my feeling was I dont care what you do.

Mr Hunter said he and Mrs Hunter spent the 16 best years weve ever had after retiring to Cyprus, before his wife became ill with a rare form of blood cancer.

He told presenters Ed Balls and Ranvir Singh that Mrs Hunter asked him to help end her life around six to eight weeks before her death.

I just said: no, keep fighting. I said: I dont want to hurt you. She said you cant hurt me anymore.

She kept asking me and I kept refusing.

The last two weeks she pressured me and pressured me, she was begging me. At one point she got quite hysterical.

She was begging the last few days and crying all the time. She was in really bad pain.

Mr Hunter said he had had quite a few nightmares since killing Mrs Hunter and would like the British and Cypriot governments to work together to discuss a law on assisted dying.

When you take someones life, especially your wife who you love, it hurts.

I dont want anyone to go through what I went through.
A family is still desperate for answers five years after a seven-year-old boy was killed in an arson attack on his home in south-east London.

Joel Uhrie was at his family home in Adolphus Street, Deptford, on August 7, 2018, when an arsonist is thought to have pushed a burning item through the letterbox, setting fire to the house.

His mother and sister managed to escape the burning building by jumping from first floor windows, but Joel tragically died in an upstairs bedroom, where his body was found by emergency services.

A post-mortem found his injuries were consistent with fire and smoke inhalation.

Police are still investigating the incident.

On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, Joels family and Scotland Yard are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

His mother, Iroroefe O Edu, said: We have now spent five long years without Joel and time does not make it any easier, she said.

Nothing will ever bring him back but we are desperate to find out who carried out this deadly crime.

If you have any information or know anything, or anyone, who may be responsible for causing the fire, please come forward and speak to police.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Rogers, from Specialist Crime North, said: This is a significant anniversary for Joels family and our thoughts remain with them.

Joels young life was tragically cut short and his family will never see the man he would have become.

We need answers for them and someone must know why this happened or have information that can help progress this investigation.

Our investigation will not stop, and I would urge anyone who has information, regardless of how small or insignificant you might think it to be, to contact us.

Anyone with information is asked to call the dedicated incident room on 020 8345 3715, 101 or Tweet @MetCC.

To remain 100% anonymous call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers_uk.org where you will not be asked for your name and your IP address will not be recorded.
A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain in London.

Lance OConnor, of Plaistow, east London, was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards organisers and attendees and making a series of comments that were motivated by hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday of the offence against one of the gallerys operations managers, Matthew Rowan.

But she found OConnor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.

The Tate, in Millbank, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallerys website as the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

Westminster magistrates court early heard OConnor and his associates were blocked from the first-floor gallery where the event was held.

Protesters outside Tate Britain in London in February (James Manning/PA)

Prosecutor Luke Staton said organisers decided  as a result of protests for and against the event  that only families with children would be allowed inside the room itself.

The court heard Mr Rowan was among those who stopped OConnor from going into the event.

The defendant was aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, standing in close proximity to him and demanding to be let in, said Mr Staton.

The Crown says the defendant displayed the same behaviour towards members of the public trying to attend that event.

Lance OConnor was accused of hate speech at a drag queen story telling event at the Tate Britain / PA

At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the defendant said words to the effect of they are indoctrinating children in there  theres a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles.

The defendant also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of its not appropriate for a man to wear womens clothing and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.

The Crowns case is those words caused Mr Rowan harassment, alarm, or distress.

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan said when told it was a family-only event the group claimed to be a family, and OConnor then said one of his associates identified as a six-year-old.

The incident was quite upsetting, he told the court, saying: To be in my place of work which should be a safe place for anyone, to have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.

He continued: As a gay man, I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming, and talking about paedophilia, they are tropes used against gay people to my knowledge growing up.

Protesters outside Tate Britain (James Manning/PA) / PA Wire

Mr Rowan said the incident has been ingrained in my mind since, adding: Although the claims of indoctrination, paedophilia, and grooming were not directed at me on this occasion, as a gay man it does hurt to hear these kind of accusations against someone else.

These sorts of things were said to me in the past in the 1980s as I was growing up.

Mr Staton said PC De Santis arrived to try to defuse the dispute.

PC De Santis heard the defendant say words to the effect of you are indoctrinating young children into paedophilia, he said.

When confronted, the defendant said words to the effect of thats right, they are indoctrinating their children into paedophilia.

The defendant also made comments about gay men wanting to dress up as women and indoctrinating children into paedophilia.

It was said OConnor refused to leave the Tate Britain and was then arrested.

OConnor, from Plaistow in east London, who asked to be referred to simply as Lance in court, denied three public order offences. He was accused of causing harassment, alarm, or distress to both Mr Rowan and PC De Santis.

Defence lawyer Sundeep Pankhania told the court OConnor is not anti-trans, he disputed some of the comments attributed to him, and he said he was protesting about Ada H Dees alleged link to another drag queen Darren Moore, now deceased, with a troubled past.
If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea and blockade it with missile attacks, Ukraine will do the same which is a fair defense of our capabilities, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Latin American media published by La Nacion on Monday.

"[Russia] blocked the Black Sea, our territorial waters, by shelling, blocking and not letting in either sea transport or ships with grain. That is why Ukraine must prove that it has the right to import and export products in its territorial waters," he said.

"If there is a blockade, then Ukraine must find another way to end the blockade of our waters. If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea and blockade it by firing missiles, then Ukraine will do the same thing which is a fair defense of our capabilities. If they keep shooting, we don't have many weapons, but if they keep shooting, they may be left without ships by the end of the war," the president said.

"In chess, this is called a stalemate, since Russia is not able to win... Therefore, Ukraine will definitely respond to any attack on our civilian population, on our grain brokers. We want to show that they should not influence everyone," Zelenskyy said.
A popular trader dubbed the Flower Man of Islington was stabbed to death in the street during a family feud over his late partners suicide just weeks earlier, the Old Bailey has heard.

Tony Eastlake, 55, was allegedly knifed in the back by 23-year-old James Peppiatt after the two men became embroiled in a fist fight and he turned and walked away from the confrontation, it is said.

Peppiatt was not prepared to let the matter end there, said prosecutor Julian Evans KC, and allegedly came at the older man with a knife he was carrying.

Jurors heard Mr Eastlake had begun a relationship with Peppiatts mother, Alisha Callaghan, in 2018, but she had taken her own life in April 2020.

Her suicide clearly has a great impact upon her son and Mr Eastlake, her then-partner, and both were greatly affected by her death, said Mr Evans.

According to a friend of Tony Eastlakes, Alishas death caused something of a rift in the relationship between Tony Eastlake and James Peppiatt.

James Peppiatt blamed him for his mothers death.

The court heard Mr Eastlake was a popular figure in the north London community, and ran a flower store on Essex Road.

At closing time on the day of his death, at just after 5pm, Mr Eastlake rang Mr Peppiatt and then walked to an agreed meeting place in Elmore Street, near to Peppiatts home.

The court heard the two men walked a short distance into Ecclesbourne Road, at which point Mr Eastlake is said to have remarked: Dont piss me off. Ive taken a lot, Ive kept quiet.

James Peppiatt reacted to those words, said Mr Evans.

With an outstretched arm, he moved at speed towards Tony Eastlake. Although exactly what then happened cant be seen entirely, its clear the two of them started having a fight.

He said Peppiatt emerged from the brawl with a cut above his left eye, and Mr Eastlake then started to walk away.

James Peppiatt was not prepared to let the matter end there, said the prosecutor. He was not prepared to let Tony Eastlake just walk away. He was still upset and James Peppiatt wanted to carry on.

It is said the two men exchanged further words as they walked down the road, and as they reached Halliford Street Peppiatt was overheard by an eyewitness saying: Dont f***ing talk to me like that.

The witness reported seeing Peppiatt approach Tony Eastlake from behind and punch him once in the back on the left side, but Mr Evans said the reality was very different.

The prosecutions case is that as James Peppiatt approached Tony Eastlake from behind on that street, he was holding a knife.

Rather than punching Tony Eastlake once in the back, James Peppiatt stabbed him once in the back from behind with that knife.

Jurors heard Mr Eastlake collapsed in a nearby carpark, while Peppiatt walked back towards his home. He was arrested a couple of days later and made no comment in his police interviews.

Peppiatt, of Elmore Street, north London, denies murder. The trial continues.
O ne of Britains top judges has called for a review of police 999 speeds after an officer was jailed for three years for running over and killing a woman during an emergency call-out.

PC Nadeem Patel, 28, was driving at more than 80mph before his police car struck and killed Shante Daniel-Folkes, 25, as she crossed Stockwell Road in Brixton.

Moments earlier, a second police car driven by PC Gary Thomson had sped past Ms Daniel-Folkes and narrowly missing her as she negotiated the road crossing.

At PC Patels sentencing hearing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, said the officer was not bound by the 30mph speed limit due to his role as an officer responding to an emergency, but noted that the speed he was travelling was grossly excessive.

At Thomsons sentencing hearing on Monday, the judge said: I note there is no clear guidance provided by the Metropolitan Police on speeds police cars should not exceed in responding to emergency calls when driving in residential areas or roads subject to a speed limit of 30mph.

In my judgment further thought should be given to this issue particularly as the speed limits in many residential areas are being further reduced to 20mph.

Driving at speeds in excess of motorway speeds along roads with the characteristics of Stockwell Road, whist classified as an A road, poses obvious risks.

PC Patel, 28, pleaded guilty in February to causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years.

Reports of his sentencing hearing were delayed to allow for Thomsons trial, at which the 31-year-old was cleared of dangerous driving but convicted of the lesser offence of careless driving.

PC Thomson was fined 500 and given five penalty points, and must also pay costs of 500.

The incident happened on June 9, 2021, when Ms Daniel-Folkes was crossing the road at around 11.20pm and PC Thomsons car came passed with its emergency lights and siren activated.

Around three to four seconds later, Ms Daniel-Folkes continued to cross and was struck by PC Patels vehicle.

The court heard Patel had switched off his front emergency lights so to not affect Pc Thomsons vision in the lead vehicle but did have his siren activated.

He was travelling at 55mph at the time of the crash, having braked sharply from a speed of 83mph two seconds earlier.

In sentencing, Judge Lucraft referred to very moving impact statements from Ms Daniel-Folkes family.

Shante is described as kind, funny, loving, and very creative. She is described as bubbly and carefree  a lover of life and someone who was ambitious, he said.

She loved fashion and design. She was a mentor, an artist, a certified nail technician looking forward to opening her own salon and to a bright future for herself and her young son who she adored. She was much loved by all who knew her.

The family are devastated by the loss of Shante. They express a numb and empty feeling at Shantes loss and speak about the long-lasting impact on the family and that on Shantes young son in particular  a son she will not see grow up and make his own way in life.

Rosemary Ainslie, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Shante Daniel-Folkes following this avoidable tragedy.

Both officers, although not bound by the 30mph speed limit while responding to a 999 call, were driving at motorway speeds in a built-up urban area, with a number of potential hazards in the vicinity.

These included pedestrians, cyclists, and cars travelling in the other direction, as well as an open convenience store directly at the scene and a nearby pub in which 30-40 customers were present for a quiz night.

There was an obvious risk of injury to a person from vehicles travelling at that speed in the dark, and both officers fell below the expected standard of a competent and careful driver that evening.

PC Patel admitted causing the death of Ms Daniel-Folkes by driving dangerously and I hope his sentence, along with todays verdict for PC Thomson, offers some comfort to her family at this extremely difficult time.

The IOPC said its investigation identified potential learning for the Met police around creating a policy on speed caps for officers responding to incidents, and whether such caps could improve safety.

It consulted with the force and now plans to make a formal learning recommendation on a speed cap policy.

The police watchdog also recommended the Met review its current practices when officers are driving in convoy or tandem while responding to incidents. The MPS accepted the recommendation and made changes to its policy and training, the IOPC said.

In May 2023, following an accelerated misconduct hearing, Pc Patel was dismissed with immediate effect from the Met and placed on the College of Policings barred list - meaning he cannot serve again as an officer.

The IOPC found Pc Thomson had a case to answer for gross misconduct in relation to his driving prior to the collision and, following the verdict, it will progress misconduct proceedings against him with the Met Police.

Commander Seb Adjei-Addoh, who is in charge of the Mets policing in Lambeth, said: My thoughts and condolences are with the family of Shante Daniel-Folkes. The circumstances are tragic and have brought upset to our communities in Lambeth.

Our Police Community Engagement team will be working hard to listen and respond to local concerns stemming from this incident and trial verdict over the coming days.
A man has been found guilty of a public order offence after protesting against a drag queen story-telling event for children at Tate Britain.

Lance OConnor, of Plaistow in east London, was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards organisers and attendees  and making a series of comments that were motivated by hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The 59-year-old had denied two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

District judge Neeta Minhas convicted him at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday of the offence against one of the gallerys operations managers, Matthew Rowan.

But she found OConnor not guilty of the charge in relation to police liaison officer Anderson De Santis.

The judge said the defendants comments to Mr Rowan went beyond freedom of expression into hate speech.

OConnor will be sentenced at the same court on September 11.

The Tate, in Millbank, central London, had been hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK on February 11, with tales told by Aida H Dee, who was described on the gallerys website as the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery.

People demonstrating against the event were at the scene, as well as counter-protesters.

The prosecution told court that the defendant, who identified himself as Lance, was part of a group of five people who went to Tate Britain to protest against the story-telling session.

OConnor was accused of being aggressive and intimidating towards Mr Rowan, who was standing outside the event doors, and of displaying the same behaviour to members of the public trying to attend.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said: At one stage, when a mother and daughter attempted to enter the event room, the Crown say that the defendant said words to the effect of They are indoctrinating children in there. Theres a man dressed as a woman and he is defending paedophiles.

The defendant, the Crown say, also said to Mr Rowan words to the effect of Do you think its appropriate for a man to wear womens clothing? and made further comments about grooming and paedophilia.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up

Pc De Santis arrived at the scene after being notified of a commotion and is said to have heard the defendant make a comment about attendees indoctrinating young children into paedophilia.

OConnor was arrested the same day and denied during police interviews that he said: Gay people dressed as women are paedophiles.

Giving evidence, Mr Rowan, called the defendants demeanour quite aggressive and said he accused him of crossing the line into hate speech.

Asked how he felt after the interaction, the gallery operations manager said: It was quite upsetting.

To be in my place of work, which should be a safe place for everyone, to then have someone who is aggressive and filming me and trying to get a reaction out of me, it was very uncomfortable.

As a gay man I felt very uncomfortable with the claims of indoctrination, grooming and talking about paedophilia as they are tropes that have been used against gay people, to my knowledge, growing up.

He added that it hurt to hear those kinds of accusations because those sort of things were said to me in the past in the 80s as I was growing up.

Pc De Santis told the court he was very uncomfortable and alarmed after hearing OConnors comments.

Sundeep Pankhania, defending, said his client does not hold any non-trans ideologies and was protesting that day because of a link he believed existed between Aida H Dee and an alleged convicted paedophile  Darren Moore  whom the court heard is now dead.

Im a truthful man

The defendant confirmed he was motivated by the storytellers very close links to Moore.

He done a eulogy for him on the internet and also he done a GoFundMe page (for his funeral), OConnor said when giving evidence.

He added that he wanted to make parents aware of the links and was trying to protect the children.

He denied intending to cause anyone, including Mr Rowan and Pc De Santis, harassment, alarm or distress and denied being aggressive.

OConnor said: My hand has been on my Bible every question I have answered. I dont tell lies.

Im a truthful man, he added. I consider myself an honourable man.
A robbery victim was stabbed and assaulted in an east London high street.

The 50-year-old victim was found suffering a knife wound by police after being attacked at 8.20pm on Sunday in Ben Jonson Road, Stepney.

He was taken to hospital where his injury was declared not life-threatening.

Detectives believe the man may have been knifed during a suspected robbery.

A Met spokesman said: Police were called to reports of a man with a stab injury on Ben Jonson Road in Tower Hamlets.

Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended.

The 50-year-old man was taken to hospital for treatment; his injury is not believed to be life-threatening.

There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.
T he extent of the UKs sick pay crisis was revealed on Monday by figures showing that more than eight in ten frontline workers fear having to work through illness.

Campaigners have called for urgent reform of the UKs statutory sick pay laws after a survey found that 83 per cent of key workers felt they could not take a day off when sick due to current legislation.

Statutory sick pay (SSP) is currently 109.40 a week, which is around a third of the minimum wage. It is only paid from the fourth consecutive day of illness, and an employer does not have to pay if your average weekly earnings are less 123 a week.

Many employers do pay more than the statutory minimum but are not legally required to do so.

In 2019, the government proposed changes to SSP including extending eligibility to workers earning below the lower earnings limit. The Government has not since proceeded with the changes, despite a public consultation finding that they were supported by three-quarters (75 per cent) of businesses.

The survey of 2,000 low and variable-income workers among a sample of 500 UK employers was conducted by Wagestream, a financial wellbeing platform used by employers including the NHS, Bupa and Asda. Frontline workers were defined as employees who cannot work from home and includes roles such as healthcare, retail and hospitality.

Existing sick pay legislation means that a quarter (28 per cent) of frontline workers would be forced to go without heating or eating, if signed off for work for two weeks or more, the survey found.

An absence of two weeks or more from work would lead to feelings of anxiety and/or depression for 86 per cent of the UKs essential workers, with almost all (92 per cent) worried about burning out if they have to work through illness.

Respondents to the survey said they feared that extended time off work due to illness would leave them bankrupt.

One said: Having time off for a surgery required would jeopardise my ability to pay my mortgage let alone other bills. So I'm putting off the surgery and enduring the pain on a daily basis.

Another said: There have been instances where I was unable to afford to take time away from work and as a consequence was hospitalised.

The figures come as the number of people off work due to long-term illness hit record highs in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 2.6 million Britons were economically active as a result of long-term sickness in the three months up to April, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Last month, former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said that reforming SSP was a win-win policy for Rishi Sunak, arguing it would support hard-working people and boost our post-pandemic recovery.

Emily Trant, Head of Impact and Inclusion at Wagestream said: The UKs sick pay crisis requires urgent action on two fronts. Firstly, we need to ensure that no worker is left behind: its unacceptable that frontline workers pay more for basic services, and on top of that are given less protection for their income. Secondly, its time to modernise policy and ensure employers arent left alone to solve the problem.
A n upmarket sushi restaurant by the world-famous Abbey Road studios could lose its licence after a machete-carrying gang firebombed it with Molotov cocktails.

The Met Police have called on Westminster City Council to strip Monak of its licence, after a gang of machete-carrying men stormed the venue and torched it with molotov cocktails in April while customers were inside.

One person was left injured from shrapnel, police said.

In an earlier incident in May last year, a gang also fired shotgun pellets at the restaurants front door before speeding off, leaving customers running to the back of the restaurant out of fear.

In a submission to the council, police said when they asked the premises licence holder how police could be sure diners would be safe if the venue reopened, they replied: You are right.

Dramatic footage posted online after the firebombing showed flames and smoke billowing out of the high-class eatery / Supplied

Of the firebombing, Pc Steve Muldoon wrote: Six males attended and were in possession of large machetes.

The males entered and whilst inside lit what is described as molotov cocktails. The venue was then firebombed and the group of 6 made off.

The incident has resulted in the venue being burnt out on the upper floor, with extensive fire damage throughout. Thankfully all persons, customers and staff were able to evacuate.

Enquiries are ongoing into the incident, said Pc Muldoon.

Dramatic footage posted online after the firebombing showed flames and smoke billowing out of the high-class eatery yards from the zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles.

In a statement on Instagram afterwards, Monak said it was sorry that customers had to witness such a traumatic incident, and pledged to rebuild the restaurant.

The motive behind the drive-by shooting late on May 12 last year remained unknown, said police.

The motive remained unknown for the shooting, but it was believed that a group of customers who had not booked a table but arrived to have dinner, were connected in some way to the shooting, said Pc Muldoon.

Police said they were seeking revocation because both the designated premises supervisor and premises licence holder both admitted they are unsure how they can keep people safe should they reopen.

The Standard has contacted Monak for comment.
A south London council has sparked widespread anger by introducing higher parking chargers for drivers who pay by cash instead of using a mobile app.

Liberal Democrat-run Sutton Council was urged by the Government to reconsider its unfair policy, which the RAC branded discriminatory and Age UK said it is likely to hit older people particularly hard.

The local authority increased its car park prices in June for people using machines to pay, but froze them for those who use an app or automated telephone line.

The council said this was in response to the rising cost of providing the machines.

Those using the boroughs council-owned car parks for an hour must now pay 3 if paying at a machine, but just 2 via the RingGo app or phone service.

The move has been branded nothing short of discriminatory by RAC spokesman Rod Dennis.

While theres no denying that parking apps can make drivers lives easier, as everyone with a mobile phone knows, the technology is far from infallible, said Mr Dennis.

If the signal fails or isnt strong enough, drivers who have made every effort to pay to park are left in an impossible position.

It cant be right that those who find themselves in this situation, or who struggle with technology in the first place, end up having to pay more just to park their cars.

Mr Dennis also expressed concern that Suttons promotional parking prices could be a precursor to the council removing machines for good.

Nearly a fifth of drivers who responded to a recent RAC survey said their local authority had either scrapped parking payment machines or was consulting on doing so.

Caroline Abrahams, a director at charity Age UK, said: Charging considerably more for parking if you pay with cash unfairly penalises people who arent online or who dont have a smartphone, hitting older generations particularly hard.

There are hundreds of thousands of older people who depend on their cars but who dont use computers.

Hiking their parking costs is a disincentive to them getting out and about, and engaging fully in society.

We know that councils are under huge financial pressure but we hope this one will reconsider its approach, which has the unfortunate effect of clobbering some older motorists more than everyone else.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities added: This practice unfairly penalises those who choose to pay at parking machines, and we ask that Sutton Council reconsiders their policy.

Councils have a duty to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities.

The departments Secretary of State Michael Gove wrote to councils in April expressing concern about drivers being digitally excluded through parking machines being replaced by apps.

Several councils have introduced parking surcharges for diesel vehicles as part of emissions-based schemes, but several motoring experts were not aware of local authorities previously setting higher prices for cash payments.

Conservative MP for Hammersmith and Fulham Greg Smith, who is a member of the Transport Select Committee, said: Councils should not seek to rip off those who still want to use a pay and display machine.

Whilst the vast majority of us now use parking apps, there are many who cant or dont want to.

Barry Lewis, who chairs Sutton Councils environment and sustainable transport committee, said the borough has some of the lowest parking charges across London.

He continued: In order to keep our prices low, we are encouraging all our residents and visitors to go cashless when paying for parking, with the incentive being a discounted rate.

Maintaining the cash machines and collecting the money from our car parks has become more expensive.

The charge for paying for parking by cash has increased to cover these costs.

We understand concerns about people who dont have a smartphone but you can also pay using a dedicated phone line.

This means that those who do not have a smartphone are not excluded from benefiting from the discounted rate.

Unlike other councils who have completely removed the option for people to pay by cash, residents and visitors to Sutton still have the option to pay by cash at our parking machines.

The furore comes as London Councils, the umbrella group for local authorities in the capital, has been met with backlash over its proposal to hike the price of motoring fines across the capital.

It has launched a consultation over plans to raise the fines - which include parking fines, as well as bus lane and yellow box penalties - from a maximum of 130 to as much as 160 in all boroughs including the City.
A City Hall event in which Sadiq Khan and Martin Lewis offered advice to Londoners on the cost of living crisis has been criticised for costing too much.

Conservatives on the London Assembly said the events 12,621 price tag was evidence of the Labour mayor spending taxpayers' money to promote himself in a publicity stunt.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Mr Khan makes no apology for doing everything he can to support Londoners with rising bills and costs - and pointed out that the event was watched by thousands of people.

The amount of money spent on the event, which was held on February 2, was revealed via a written question to the mayor sent by Emma Best, the Tories deputy leader at City Hall.

The answer from Mr Khans team revealed that Mr Lewis - the money saving expert famed for his advice website - was not paid for his participation at the event, and instead donated his time to support Londoners.

It said the bulk of the cost was for the stage and technical production, costing 9,517.24, and the remainder covering accessibility (BSL/palantypist) (2,262), security (153.84) and catering (688.36).

The February event featured London mayor Sadiq Khan and money saving expert Martin Lewis / Noah Vickers/Local Democracy Reporting Service

The event memorably included an intervention from Mr Lewis on Mr Khans plan to expand the Ultra low emission zone (Ulez), with the money saving expert telling the mayor: The timing is pretty tough, to do it this year, amidst a cost of living crisis.

Shortly afterwards, audience member Angie Donnelly heckled Mr Khan, saying people wont be able to deal with the stress of the daily 12.50 charge faced by non-compliant vehicles. According to Transport for London, those vehicles are around one in ten seen driving in outer London.

In dramatic scenes, Ms Donnelly shouted that the mayor is a con man, as she was escorted out by security.

Commenting on the events costs, Ms Best said: "Sadiq Khan's publicity stunt with Martin Lewis went spectacularly wrong, when he was challenged on the cost of living impact of his Ulez expansion plans by the audience and by Martin Lewis himself.

Emma Best AM / London Assembly

Now we find out that taxpayers have paid over 12,000 for the event. Instead of helping Londoners with the cost of living, Sadiq Khan would rather spend taxpayers' money attempting to promote himself as always.

A spokeswoman for Mr Khan said in response: The mayor makes no apology for doing everything he can to support Londoners with the cost of living crisis, including ensuring they receive help on how to manage their bills and costs.

This event provided expert advice to hundreds of people in person with thousands more watching online, and stalls at the event promoted Sadiqs wider support for Londoners struggling with the soaring cost of living, including partnerships with Citizens Advice, the Energy Saving Trust, Thrive London and Debt Free Advice.
SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE LOREN LEGARDA'S STATEMENT

ON CHINA COAST GUARD'S DANGEROUS MANEUVERS AND ILLEGAL USE OF WATER CANNONS DURING THE RECENT RESUPPLY MISSION

07 August 2023

We condemn in the highest form China Coast Guard's (CCG's) recent blockage, dangerous maneuvers, and use of water cannons against the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessels escorting boats chartered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on 5 August 2023. These actions are not only reckless, but they are also illegal and have endangered the lives of Filipinos.

This violates international conventions, endangering our crew at sea. We demand that the China Coast Guard respect our sovereign rights, refrain from hindering freedom of navigation, and hold those involved accountable. Safe access to Ayungin Shoal is crucial for supplying our military troops.

China must follow international law. Ayungin Shoal is a low tide elevation part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, pursuant to the 1982 UNCLOS and as affirmed by the 2016 Arbitral Award. This is final and binding.

We commend the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for its prompt action by filing a diplomatic protest against China and summoning Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian over the incident. We also call on the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to ensure the well-being of those involved.
The former abbot of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC Moscow Patriarchate) Pavlo (Petro Lebed) has been released from custody after posting bail.

"Metropolitan Pavlo has been released from custody. On August 7, a bail was paid for Metropolitan Pavlo of Vyshgorod and Chornobyl," the UOC (MP) Information and Education Center said on the Telegram channel.

It is noted that funds for bail were raised from more than 1,000 people.

Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office confirmed to the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency that the bail was paid in full for the former abbot.

"The bail has been made. He has left the pre-trial detention facility," the prosecutor's office said, adding that now the obligations imposed by the court apply to him.

As reported, on July 14, Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv selected a measure of restraint for Metropolitan Pavlo in the form of detention with an alternative bail in the amount of more than UAH 33 million.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) notified him of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Part 2 of Article 161 (violation of the equality of citizens depending on their religious beliefs, committed by an official repeatedly) and Part 3 of Article 436-2 (justification, recognition of lawful, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, also committed by an official repeatedly).
T he Government has been accused of disastrous failure over its pledge to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats after asylum seekers started to board a barge moored in Dorset.

Campaigners were seen waving at coaches carrying passengers as they drove into Portland Port on Monday, while pictures showed men with luggage accompanied by staff in high-vis jackets as they walked up a gangway onto the barge moored on the Dorset coast.

Cheryl Avery, the Home Offices director for asylum accommodation, said 15 people have been moved onto the vessel so far as part of the Governments bid to cut the cost of hotel bills by finding other accommodation, which also includes former military bases.

Ms Avery told broadcasters: We have had a few challenges but this is part of an ongoing structured process to bring a cohort of up to 500 people on board.

Ms Avery said there have been some minor legal challenges but would not comment on the detail of them, adding accommodation is offered on a no choice basis.

Care4Calais said around 20 asylum seekers did not board the barge as planned because their transfers were cancelled after lawyers challenged the decisions.

In a series of legal letters to the Home Office, solicitors raised concerns about the suitability of the accommodation for people with disabilities, mental and physical health problems as well as those who had fled torture and persecution, according to the refugee charity.

Protesters gather as the Bibby Stockholm prepares to welcome its first asylum seekers / Getty Images

Labour accused the Government of disastrous failure over its pledge to stop the boats after official figures confirmed the number of migrants staying in hotels has passed 50,000.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the data showed a shocking 25% increase from 40,000 in December, when Rishi Sunak promised to end the placement of asylum seekers in hotel accommodation.

Some 50,546 migrants were being housed in hotels as of June this year, according to latest Home Office figures released on Monday.

Ms Cooper said: Rishi Sunak is failing to fix the Tories boats chaos and the Conservatives are just flailing around chasing headlines rather than getting a grip.

The Prime Minister admitted last December that hotel use was a serious problem and promised to end it, but instead since then it has gone up by a truly shocking 25% with more asylum hotels still opening, and the taxpayer having to pay billions more pounds as a result.

This is the direct consequence of Tory mismanagement and their disastrous failure to speed up asylum decisions or clear the backlog, which is still at a record high.

Asylum seekers placed in UK hotels began receiving letters telling them they would be moved to the Bibby Stockholm at the end of July.

It could near its 500-person capacity by the end of the week, Home Office minister Sarah Dines suggested.

Downing Street later rolled back on the suggestion and a spokesman insisted that the number of men on board would progressively increase.

Ms Dines told GB News: Its very exciting to start getting people out of the hotels onto other places like the Bibby Stockholm. Its a very good idea and we are hoping for it to be quite shortly.

But the plan has sparked a wave of criticism over conditions, with fears the barge could become a floating Grenfell.

Residents in Dorset have also expressed worries that the countys services will not be able to cope with an influx of immigrants.

Anti-racism campaigners gathered near the barge on Monday morning to protest cramped conditions. An investigation has also been launched by Dorset Police after a number of local councillors and businesses received threatening letters from a far-right groups containing threats to damage property linked to vessel.

Ms Dines indicated that the number of people living on the vessel could increase rapidly.

A coach arriving at the Bibby Stockholm / Getty Images

Pressed on whether all of them could be on board by the end of the week, Ms Dines told the BBC: Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.

Ms Dines excitement comment echoed Home Secretary Suella Braverman saying she had a dream of seeing a flight taking off from Britain to Rwanda under the Governments controversial deportation plans.

The proposal to remove asylum seekers who arrive in Britain by small boat to the east African country has been stalled by legal challenges that are now with the Supreme Court.

The Government hopes to the use of the barge, as well as Wethersfield airbase in Essex and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, as housing for migrants in a bid to reduce the almost 6million-a-day spent on hotel bills.

It is also considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island, according to multiple reports.

The proposals to use the British Overseas Territory are apparently being considered as a plan B if the Rwanda scheme fails.

Situated in the South Atlantic, the volcanic island could house an asylum processing centre as an attempt to reduce the number of small boats crossing the Channel.

The developments came during the Governments small boats week in which it is making a series of announcements on the issue that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to solve.

Penalties for people who assist migrants coming to UK by irregular means are to be hugely increased.

Fines for businesses who employ illegal immigrants will be increased up to a maximum of 45,000 per worker for a first breach and 60,000 for repeat offenders, tripling both from the last increase in 2014.

Landlords who house them face fines going from 1,000 per occupier to 10,000, with repeat breaches going from 3,000 to 20,000.

Shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds was non-committal when asked on Monday whether Labour supports the use of barges to house asylum seekers.

Asked if Labour endorses the use of the Bibby Stockholm, he said: We do not wish to run and will not run an asylum system that requires the use of bases, barges or indeed of hotels, those are being used as additional accommodation because of the failure of the Conservatives to run our asylum system properly over many years.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael MP said: The public has no faith in this government to deal with the asylum system and who knows how long these barges will be in operation for.

Local people don't want them, they may not be safe, and knowing these Home Office Ministers, they will probably give up on them soon enough.
F resh inquests have been ordered into the deaths of five Catholic men killed by Loyalist paramilitary group the UVF in Co Tyrone more than 30 years ago.

Northern Irelands Attorney General Brenda King has directed that inquests be held into the deaths of Phelim McNally, 28, in Coagh in 1988, Thomas Casey, 57, in Cookstown in 1990, Sean Anderson, 32, in Pomeroy in 1991 and teenager Dwayne ODonnell, 17, and Thomas Armstrong, 52, in Cappagh in 1991.

A solicitor for the families of the men said the cases are linked through suspects, geography, and ballistics, and said he believes the cases involve collusion with state forces.

The decision to grant new inquests was taken on the basis of deficiencies in the original investigation and inquest as well as new information coming to light.

Solicitor Gavin Booth of Phoenix Law, who acts for the families of the men welcomed the ordering of fresh inquests.

For too long these families have sought answers as to what happened to their loved ones, he said.

New evidence which has come to light raises serious questions, not only about the involvement of the 8th Battalion of the UDR in all these killings, but also as regards the failure of the RUC to prosecute these individuals.

The move comes as the Governments controversial Legacy Bill is expected to get royal assent later this year.

It is set to give immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences to people who co-operated with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), and will prevent future civil cases and inquests.

All inquests linked to the Troubles must reach a conclusion by May of next year. After May, cases are then passed to the ICRIR.

Mr Booth said his clients are steadfast in their commitment to seeing these inquests completed.

To be clear, this inquest and all those that are before the courts should continue, he said.

These families deserve that right and their inquests should be properly resourced and heard within a timely fashion.

Our next step is to ask for this case to be urgently listed before the Coroners Court and for immediate steps to be taken to make sure this case goes ahead without delay.

Seana Quinn, sister of Mr ODonnell, said her family has been fighting for decades for answers.

Our families are fighting for truth and justice, its not up for debate, she said.

We deserve this inquest.

Davina Bolton, daughter of Phelim McNally, said her father was an innocent man.

He was out doing his daily things and he was robbed of his life, she said.

This is an important day for us because were finally moving forward and getting closer to the truth. Weve been waiting for a long time for this, 35 years, we just need truth and justice.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill described the development as a positive step for truth and justice.

All of these families deserve to know what happened to their loved ones and access justice through the courts, she said.

The Attorney Generals ruling today has again laid bare the need for the British Government to scrap its cruel and heartless legacy bill that is simply about cover-up and closing door on families ever getting truth.
T hree hillwalkers have been found dead after failing to return from a walk in Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands, Police Scotland have said.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: We were made aware of concern for a group of three hillwalkers who had not returned from the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe shortly after 9.05pm on Saturday, August 5.

A search was carried out and the bodies of three people were found. HM Coastguard as well as Glencoe and RAF mountain rescue teams assisted with the recovery operation.

There do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.

The ridge, regarded as one of the narrowest of its kind on the British mainland, is a notoriously difficult climb with the British Mountaineering council warning would-be climbers need more than just some basic experience in the hills and a good head for heights.

It stretches for several miles and links the summits of two of Scotlands highest mountains - the 3,175ft Sgurr nam Fiannaidh and the 3,124ft Meall Dearg.

Police Scotland called out the Coastguard at 9.40pm due to the inaccessibility of the area and the Inverness search and rescue helicopter was despatched and carried out a search in difficult weather conditions, with low visibility caused by mist and fog.

The bodies were located and the Coastguards search and rescue helicopter from Prestwick returned in daylight to assist mountain rescuers with recovering the bodies.

A spokesperson for HM Coastguard said: HM Coastguard assisted Police Scotland following reports of three missing walkers in Glencoe on Saturday, August 5.

Alerted at around 10.50pm, the Coastguard helicopter from Inverness assisted with a thorough search of the Aonach Eagach ridge.

The helicopter from Prestwick provided further support to police and mountain rescue teams Sunday morning.
O fcom has launched a further four investigations into GB News over allegations of impartiality after politicians were seen to act as newsreaders.

The watchdog has added shows anchored by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Philip Davies and Esther McVey to its list - meaning it now has seven probes into the channel.

Ofcom confirmed on Monday that it has begun its process of investigation.

GB News has declined to comment.

Leader of the Reclaim Party Laurence Fox / PA Archive

Why is Ofcom investigating GB News?

Ofcom has a rule that prevents politicians from acting as newsreaders, interviewers or reporters, and the right-leaning channel has been accused of falling foul of this.

The episodes being given a closer look are:

12 May: Friday Morning with Esther (McVey) and Philip (Davies).

13 May: Saturday Morning with Esther and Phillip

13 June: State of the Nation (with Jacob Rees Mogg)

16 June: Laurence Fox

All of the above received complaints that they did not comply with the Ofcom requirement that due impartiality is preserved on matters of major political or industrial controversy.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has his own show on GB News / PA Wire

Who owns GB News?

The right-wing station is jointly owned by hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and investment firm Legatum. It sits under the umbrella of a holding company, All Perspectives Ltd.

GB News is headquartered in London.

What is Ofcom?

Ofcom is the regulator for all communications services, including TV, radio, Royal Mail, walkie-talkies, and even doorbells and car keys.

It is described as a government-approved regulatory and competition authority and came into existence in 2001.

Ofcom describes itself: We also help to make sure people across the UK are satisfied with what they see and hear on TV and radio, and that programmes reflect the audiences they serve. We consider every complaint we receive from viewers and listeners. Often, we investigate further and we sometimes find broadcasters in breach of our rules.
T he head of the UK Scouts has criticised organisers of an international jamboree in South Korea over alleged poor sanitary conditions on the campsite.

British nationals were forced to abandon tents for air conditioned hotels after a heatwave hit the site in Buan.

Temperatures had topped 35C at the site near the south-western town, where more than 40,000 Scouts from around the world camped out for the 12-day event.

Hundreds of participants have fallen ill due to the heat, prompting complaints from parents. On Saturday, 132 additional people were treated for heat-related conditions.

The British group of 4,500 Scouts aged 14 to 17 and adult volunteers have moved to Seoul and will now spend their time doing activities in the capital before their flights home on August 13.

Matt Hyde, chief executive of UK Scouts, said he has been left disappointed by tournament organisers for making people use dirty toilets on the campsite.

Mr Hyde told the BBC: We are both disappointed and feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went.

We were promised things were going to be put in place.

If you can imagine, toilets that are being used by thousands and thousands of people are not being cleaned with the regularity you would expect, you can imagine the sort of things that people were seeing.

It wasnt just that, it was actually the lack of soap as well, so again its the compounding impact of all these things together but like all of these things, when youre put in a position where you have to make difficult decisions there are choices.

He added: We have at this point had to make the difficult choice of investing our money to ensure that young people are safe. That is the right thing to do and the board took that decision and stand by it 100 per cent and unanimously.

South Korean government and event officials said the safety of the more than 40,000 participants from 155 countries was their priority, with more water trucks, airconditioned spaces, medics and sanitation workers being sent to the site.

But British, American and Singapore contingents continued to leave the jamboree on the Saemangeum reclaimed land project on the west coast, moving to other locations in the country, including hotels in capital city Seoul.

There were calls for the jamboree to be wrapped up early but the Korea Scout Association and the government of South Korea decided it should continue.
T he Bibby Stockholm housing barge has started welcoming its first group of asylum seekers on Monday, August 7.

Despite the safety concern raised, ministers insist that the boat is safe to be used as housing and will be a cheaper alternative to using hotels.

But, what exactly is Bibby Stockholm, where is it docked, and what are the safety concerns raised about it?

Here is everything we know.

What is Bibby Stockholm?

Bibby Stockholm is an engineless barge that is used as an accommodation vessel. Its name comes from the shipping and marine operations company that owns it, which is Bibby Line.

The ship was built back in 1976 before being transformed into an accommodation hub in 1992.

Between 1994 and 1998, it was used for the homeless in Hamburg, Germany. And in 2005, the Netherlands used it to detain asylum seekers in Rotterdam.

Later, in 2013, the barge was used as a house for construction workers at the Shetland Gas Plant.

In August 2017, a property management company briefly considered using the barge as student accommodation for university pupils in Galway, Ireland but it never materialised.

In June 2018, Sweden used it during the construction of the Markbygden Wind Farm, where it stayed until 2019.

In 2023, the UK government revealed its plans to use the barge as housing for asylum seekers.

Where is Bibby Stockholm?

Bibby Stockholm is currently docked in the port of Portland, in Dorset.

The 222-room barge consists of three storeys and will house up to 500 men aged between 18-65 from various countries.

Senior ministers reportedly want to confirm the use of further barges in the coming months, but have been struggling to find hosts for them. The BBC reports that a site next to London City Airport and another on the River Mersey in Wirral were among those rejected.

What are the fire safety concerns around Bibby Stockholm?

The Fire Brigades Union has raised concerns over the barges narrow exits and the possible overcrowding it may cause.

In an open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, they said: Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work. The diminished safety provisions only exacerbate our operational concerns.

They added: We are concerned about the risks on a large floating structure used to accommodate asylum seekers in long-term housing and would expect the risk assessment to recommend substantial prevention and control measures to tackle overcrowding, access to fire exits and other safety matters on the vessel.

However, Energy Secretary Grant Schapps told ITVs Good Morning Britain: This actual ship was previously used by Germany to house migrants, theres no reason why it wouldnt be absolutely safe. Ships are used to transport people all the time and theres no inherent reason why that (not being safe) would be the case.
D onald Trump has called for the judge overseeing the election fraud case against him to step down after claiming there is no way I can get a fair trial.

Mr Trump, 77, revealed on social media platform Truth Social that his team will be asking for the recusal of judge Tanya Chutkan, an apointee of former president Barack Obama.

He wrote: There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge assigned to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she!

We will be immeditately asking for rescusal of this judge on very powerful grounds, and likewise,for venue change, out if (sic) D.C.

Mr Trump faces charges including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct Congress certification of Joe Bidens electoral victory. Its the third criminal case brought this year against him.

He claims the case is persecution of a political opponent as he looks to be the front-runner to take on Mr Biden in the 2024 US Presidential election.

It follows a call by prosecutors for a Washington court to rein in what Mr Trump can publicly say about his trial for election fraud after he shared a threatening message online.

They flagged a social media post from Mr Trump, arguing it suggests he may intimidate witnesses by improperly disclosing confidential evidence.

On his Truth Social site, the former president wrote: IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU! a day after he pleaded not guilty to charges of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

Special counsel Jack Smith - appointed to prosecute Mr Trump - said the post raised concerns that he might publicly reveal secret material, such as grand jury transcripts, obtained from prosecutors.

Prosecutors are required to provide defendants with the evidence against them so they can prepare their defence.

It could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice, prosecutors wrote, noting that Mr Trump had a history of attacking judges, attorneys and witnesses in other cases against him.

At his arraignment last Thursday, Mr Trump swore not to intimidate witnesses or communicate with them without legal counsel present.
A n airline has apologised for delays caused after a bear broke out of its cage in the cargo hold of a plane.

A viral clip showed the planes captain explaining to passengers waiting on the tarmac at Dubai airport that the delay to take-off was because of the bears break for freedom on Friday.

An airline worker is seen calmly stroking the head of the brown bear as it roams from side to side in the hold. The beast was sedated and taken off the plane as passengers complained of the delay.

The Iraqi prime minister has demanded an investigation despite Iraqi Airways insisting procedures to transport the bear were carried out with standards approved by the International Air Transport Association.

The company apologises to the passengers of the flight from Baghdad International Airport to Dubai Airport for reasons beyond the control of the company, the airline said in a statement on its website.

The delay happened because of a shipment in the cargo hold.

Upon arrival to Dubai Airport, the animal escaped the crate specified for its shipment.

The statement said the bear was being transported in line with international animal welfare guidelines.

The plane crew co-ordinated with UAEs authority who sent a specialised team to sedate the animal and take it off the plane, it continued.

After checking the plane and making sure there is no damage from this incident the flight returned to Baghdad.

The airline did not comment on why the bear was being transported to the UAE or any further information on its well-being.

Keeping predatory animals as pets in Iraq  especially in Baghdad  has become popular among the wealthy.

Authorities have struggled to enforce legal provisions to protect wild animals. Baghdads police has previously called on citizens to assist authorities in preventing such animals from being let loose on the citys streets or ending up as exotic meals in restaurant by reporting such cases.

A sun bear in a Chinese zoo is / AP

It came as a zoo in eastern China was forced to deny some of its bears might be people in costumes after photos of the animals standing like humans were shared online.

The sun bears from Malaysia are smaller than other bears and look different but are the real thing, the Hangzhou Zoo said Monday on its social media account.

In posts on its official WeChat account and in interviews with local media, the zoo said the bear, named Angela, is definitely not a human.
A woman is accused of being a Russian spy who smuggled coordinates so Vladimir Putins forces could launch an airstrike assassination attempt on Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The female was caught red-handed trying to pass information to Russians, Ukrainian defence forces said on Monday.

They said the agent was trying to collect times and locations on the Ukrainian presidents schedule on the night before his visit to Mykolaiv oblast.

Ukrainian intelligence said in a press release the suspected spy is a resident of the fishing resort of Ochakiv and used to be a saleswoman in a local military shop.

They claimed they watched her as and boosted security measures ahead of Mr Zelenskys visit.

The Ukrainians said they continued to document the suspects actions to learn more about her Russian handlers who were plotting a new massive air strike on the region.

A Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) spokesman said: The SSU apprehended the traitor red-handed when she was trying to pass intelligence to the invaders.

To gather intelligence, the enemy agent drove in the target area, taking photos or video footage of Ukrainian facilities.

The court has chosen custody as a measure of restraint for the suspect, who is facing up to 12 years in prison.

It came as Vladimir Putins pilots are resorting to less accurate gliding bombs as they shy away from engaging up close with Ukraines air defences.

The British Ministry of Defence assessment came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had erected a sky shield to help protect Europe as a whole from Russian aggression.

President Zelensky accused Russia of hitting a blood transfusion centre in Ukraines Kupyan district late on Saturday  describing it as a war crime committed by beasts.

Multiple Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight Saturday into Sunday left six people dead.
China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia on August 5-6 on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped "to consolidate international consensus," Reuters reported.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks.

China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia Li Hui.

"Li had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis... listened to all sides' opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus," the foreign ministry said in a written statement to Reuters.

"All parties positively commented on Li Hui's attendance, and fully backed China's positive role in facilitating peace talks," the statement said.
V ladimir Putins pilots are resorting to less accurate gliding bombs as they shy away from engaging up close with Ukraines air defences, UK military chiefs said on Monday.

The Ministry of Defence assessment came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces had erected a sky shield to help protect Europe as a whole from Russian aggression.

With Ukraine pursuing a counter-offensive on the ground, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out more than 100 sorties every day this summer, the MoD said in an intelligence update.

But these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defences, it said.

Russia has attempted to overcome this issue by increasingly using basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments. Aircraft can release these many kilometres from their targets, but they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy.

At the start of Ukraines southern counter-offensive from June 2023, Russian attack helicopters proved effective. However, in recent weeks Russia appears to have been less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south.

President Zelensky accused Russia of hitting a blood transfusion centre in Ukraines Kupyan district late on Saturday  describing it as a war crime committed by "beasts".

Multiple Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight Saturday into Sunday, which came after Ukraines forces successfully hit a number of Russian naval vessels, left six people dead.

Ukraines air force said Russia launched 70 drones and missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea, including Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Mr Zelensky said that despite the strikes, US and German air defence systems were yielding "significant results".

Complete protection against terror is needed here, so that later there is no need to think about protecting other nations from it, he said on social media late on Sunday.

Ukraine can win this battle, and our sky shield will eventually guarantee security for the whole of Europe. I am grateful to every state and every leader who helps!

Moscows Vnukovo airport, located nine miles southwest of the capital, briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down in the airspace around the city.

That came after Ukraine used an unmanned sea drone to blast a hole in a Russian oil tanker.
S cientists in the UK have begun developing vaccines to ensure the public is protected against a new pandemic caused by an unknown Disease X.

The work is being carried out at the governments high-security Porton Down laboratory complex in Wiltshire, which is the UK Health and Security Agencys (UKHSA) science and defence technology campus , by a team of more than 200 scientists.

They hope that by carrying out this work, future pandemics are stopped in their tracks and will not cause the same disruption to everyday life as Covid-19.

What is Disease X?

Scientists have put together a threat list of animal viruses that are capable of infecting humans and could in future spread rapidly around the world. However, it isnt known which of them will break through and trigger the next pandemic - this is why it has been referred to as Disease X.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), told Sky News: What were trying to do here is ensure that we prepare so that if we have a new Disease X, a new pathogen, we have done as much of that work in advance as possible.

Hopefully we can prevent it [a pandemic]. But if we cant and we have to respond, then we have already started developing vaccines and therapeutics to crack it.

Around the world, countries have pledged a total of $1.5 billion (1.15 billion) to help scientists prepare for Disease X. The UK government has pledged 160 million ($210 million), alongside pledges from Japan, Germany, Australia, the United States and Norway as well as the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

Will another pandemic happen?

In 2021, a leading scientist predicted that another pandemic-causing could potentially be around the corner and it is a matter of when, not if.

Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, said that while pandemic flu is at the top of the list for outbreaks to be concerned about, there is a whole range of other viruses to be aware of.

Prof Woolhouse said that in 2017, he and some colleagues got the World Health Organisation (WHO) to add something called Disease X to its list of priority diseases.

He explained: We thought that the next emerging pandemic might be a virus that we dont even know about yet  quite frankly we thought it was the most likely scenario.

Speaking independently, he said: You could use the phrase it is when, not if.

We cant put a handle on when, of course. The precise mechanism by which a virus comes out is always extremely unpredictable.

You can never predict precise events, so you have to do it on sort of statistical grounds probability.
E lectric Brixton, one of South Londons most eclectic live music venues, is set to host its first-ever series of Oktoberfest parties, in celebration of the beloved Bavarian end-of-harvest festival, traditionally marked by merriment, lederhosen and plentiful pints (well, steins).

The Brixton Hill venue will be transformed with traditional long wooden tables, bunting, live music from an oompah band and more.

Across the month, running each Saturday from October 7 to 28, as many as 2,100 attendees are expected to line Brixton Hill weekly, with the day-party lasting from 1pm  8pm.

Each element of the events, set up by Oktoberfest UK, will have an authentically Bavarian feel, with staff dressed in traditional dirndls and lederhosen and steins-a-plenty (Spaten and Lowenbrau being the preferred choice). The expected food offering will continue the theme with German pretzels and bratwursts flown in from Germanys Black Forest.

Josh Counsell

Adding to the German festivities, the band German Jukebox will provide the live music, with a modern, playful approach to classic oompah music, and whilst comedy and Germans might not traditionally be thought of as bedfellows, live comics are promised to entertain party-goers too.

Charlie Holden, co-founder of Oktoberfest UK told the Standard: Fasten your lederhosen, Brixton! Were about to transform our corner of London into the ultimate Bavarian bash, brimming with non-stop music, a smorgasbord of German delicacies, and rivers of world-class German beer.

This isnt just an Oktoberfest, its a full-blown party! Lets fill Brixton to the brim with laughter, cheers, and a party spirit thatll shake Oktoberfest to its core. Get ready to eat, drink, dance, and revel like never before.

October 7, 14, 21 and 28, Electric Brixton, Brixton Hill, SW2 1RJ, electricbrixton.uk.com
T he Brazilian-inspired steakhouse group Fazenda has just opened its first London restaurant, at 100 Bishopsgate.

The 170-seater dining room opened last week with images of plentiful meats and opulent dining spaces already doing the rounds.

This is the debut London opening from the Fazenda group, who have slowly amassed a wave of loyal followers across the UK thanks to sites in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, as well as original locations in Liverpool and Leeds.

The plush interiors luxuriate in Italian marble and tanned leather, designed to befit the locale in the heart of the City, with the Standards Ben McCormack writing that the spot sounds tailor-made for City boys and girls out on the after-work razz.

The floors are herringbone and the dark wooden tables are thick and exposed. The ground floor bar is an altogether lighter affair, though, courtesy double height windows and a paler wood trim.

Hospitality design studio Carroll Design, who are responsible for London restaurant interiors including Alto by San Carlo on the rooftop of Selfridges, has led the interior design.

Fazenda via press

Set to continue the groups theme of exuding century-old gaucho traditions, Fazenda serves a meat-forward rodizio menu: a classic Brazilian method of hanging meats by large skewers, which move through the dining room and are carved tableside, allowing diners to sample multiple meaty options.

Naturally, the meats will be abundant, but expanding on the rodizio menu in London, and inspired by trips to Brazil and Argentina, chef Francisco Martinez has developed a range of other dishes. These include gamba patagonica (a large king prawn with spicy chimichurri), caviar e churros (Cornish Baeri caviar with churros), and moqueca de mar, a classic Brazilian stew of cod, carabinero prawns, mussels, tomato and coconut.

Alongside the south-American food offering, guests can expect a multitude of Chilean, Argentinean wines, as well as lesser known Brazilian and Uruguayan bottles.

100 Bishopsgate Tower, EC2M 1GT, fazenda.co.uk
B ella Hadid has detailed her near 15-year-long battle with Lyme disease and the impact its had on her in a new candid post.

The supermodel, 26, said she is finally healthy after more than a decade of struggling with her health as she shared several photos taken during her treatments throughout the years, to Instagram on Sunday.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans by infected ticks that can cause symptoms such as joint and muscle pain, headaches and tiredness.

In her lengthy caption, Hadid, who was eventually diagnosed with the disease in 2012, reflected: The little me that suffered would be so proud of grown me for not giving up on myself.

Living in this state, worsening with time and work while trying to make myself, my family and the people who support me, proud, has taken a toll on me in ways I cant really explain.

To be that sad and sick with the most blessings/privilege opportunity/love around me was quite possibly the most confusing thing ever.

The runway star reassured her followers that she was OK and you do not have to worry, and said that despite her struggles, she wouldnt change anything for the world.

Hadid added: If I had to go through all of this again, to get here, to this exact moment Im in right now, with all of you, finally healthy, I would do it all again. It made me who I am today.

She also promised fans who were also struggling that things will get better and urged them to stay strong.

Hadid continued: Take a step away, stay strong, have faith in your path, walk your truth and the clouds will start to clear up.

I have so much gratitude for and perspective on life, this 100+ days of Lyme, chronic disease, [co-infection] treatment, almost 15 years of invisible suffering, was all worth it if Im able to, God-willing, have a lifetime of spreading love from a full cup and being able to truly be myself, for the first time ever.

The American model explained she had chosen photos that were the most positive throughout her health journey in a bid to show how it has been the most enlightening experience of my life filled with new friends, new visions and a new brain.

Hadid also thanked her mother, Yolanda Hadid, who was also diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012 alongside younger brother Anwar, for keeping all of my medical records, sticking by me, never leaving my side, supporting, but most of all, believing me through all of this.

Rounding off the post, she also showed her gratitude to the brands and companies she has worked with, her agents for protecting me, and her medical team, adding: I love you SO much!!!

Hadid concluded that she would be back when Im ready, adding: I miss you all so much. I love you all so much.
I rish TV presenter Angela Scanlon has been announced as the latest star to sign up for Strictly Come Dancing 2023.

The 39-year-old, whose credits include BBC Twos Your Home Made Perfect and The One Show, was unveiled on BBC Radio 2s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Monday and is the sixth celebrity confirmed for the 21st series of the BBC flagship programme.

It comes after actress Amanda Abbington, Bad Education star Layton Williams, broadcaster Angela Rippon, journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy and comedian Eddie Kadi were the first contestants announced to be taking part in the show.

Scanlon told Gaby Roslin, who sits in for Ball on the Breakfast Show, about her forthcoming debut on the dancefloor, saying: Its been in the ether for a number of years, weve been close.

Truthfully, we wanted to have another baby, we were trying to have a baby, I was then pregnant, then I had a very small child and now, it just felt right this year.

I believe in feelings and timing and all of those sorts of things. Im not particularly fit. I have no idea how my pelvic floor is going to react to that level of jumping.

Ive never done any of these dances in my life bar a drunken jive at a family wedding, so it certainly feels like theres room to learn and really push myself.

Scanlon said she had spoken to Ted Lasso actress Ellie Taylor, who took part in the show last year, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo, who appeared in the 2020 series.

She said: Ellie has a little girl whos the same age as my eldest child and so I thought itd be good to know realistically when youre in the trenches with children, whats the reality of this because I think Ive had a kind of dreamy idea.

I travel a bit, I do a chat show in Ireland, I travel over and back to that so the idea of being in the same place for an extended period of time feels a bit luxurious.

But I dont know if Im totally deluded about the level of work, but she has kind of said, its intense, hardest thing she has ever done, but was so thrilled that she did it.

And then Clara did it in 2020 and a similar thing, she said its insane, she said lean heavily in which I intend to, I find it hard to lean out.

The TV presenter is the only woman in the UK and Ireland to have their own Saturday night chat show with Ask Me Anything on RTE One.

Scanlon, who married businessman Roy Horgan in 2014, with whom she shares two daughters, is also a published author and host of positivity podcast Thanks A Million.

In 2022, she published her part memoir, part self-help book Joyrider, which charts her own journey into the world of self-development  dipping into the anxiety and imposter syndrome she grappled with throughout her teens and 20s, and the bulimia she lived with for 15 years.

Strictly Come Dancing returns to screens this autumn and will be judged by Shirley Ballas, Anton Du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood and Motsi Mabuse.

Last year, the competition was won by British wildlife presenter Hamza Yassin and professional dancer Jowita Przystal.
S tranger Things star Noah Schnapp has opened up about crying following the reaction to revealing that he is gay earlier this year.

The 18-year-old actor, who rose to fame on the hit Netflix science fiction series as Will Byers, came out in a video posted to his TikTok account in January.

Schnapp told Variety on Monday that he was initially resistant to look at the social media response, but then he saw he received a thousand texts of hearts and congratulations and rainbow flags.

Schnapp said: I was crying. I was like, I made it. Im done. I dont have to worry.

He recalled his familys response to finding out the news along with the Stranger Things team.

Schnapp said: Being fully aware of it and just completely, blatantly hiding it, it was really hard. It just made everything miserable for those months.

I couldnt tell (my mother) how I was feeling without telling her what the problem was, so just one night at dinner, I was like, This is it. She was like, Finally, you told me.

Schnapp also told fellow Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown and the series executive producer Shawn Levy.

He said Brown, 19, reacted saying: Oh, Schnapper! You told me finally.

It was truly such a liberating feeling, just seeing my parents cheer me on, Schnapp added.

Ive never felt so supported and loved.

Following the Stranger Things season four finale, Schnapp told the publication that his character Will was gay prior to coming out.

I guess Im more similar to Will than I thought, the actor captioned his TikTok video this year.

He also wrote: When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was we know.

Ross Duffer, co-creator of Stranger Things, said that Will is going to hopefully tie the whole series together and part of his journey, its not just sexuality  its Will coming into his own as a young man.

In June, Schnapp said on Instagram that he attended his first Pride event in New York, US.

Stranger Things will return for a fifth and final season with Terminator star Linda Hamilton joining the cast.

Across four seasons, set in the 1980s, the residents of fictional town Hawkins, Indiana, have had to fight off the dark forces from an alternate dimension.

Beetlejuice actress Winona Ryder, Hellboy star David Harbour and Finn Wolfhard have also starred in the show.
O livia Attwood has revealed shes been in talks about returning to Im A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! after she was forced to quit the series just a day into the 2022 instalment for medical reasons.

Appearing on Mondays Loose Women, the 32-year-old acknowledged shes been in talks about a potential comeback to this years jungle following her early departure.

The former Love Island star confirmed: Weve had chats, when asked about a return by Judi Love to which the audience let out a loud: Oooh! in excitement.

The reality TV star dropped out of the ITV series in November after a routine blood test showed she was anaemic.

Attwood appeared on Mondays Loose Women / ITV

The check, which all contestants undergo, also revealed low sodium and potassium levels, prompting show staff to rush her to hospital.

Attwood said she was left disappointed for having to depart after just 24 hours in the Australian jungle.

In an interview following her exit, she said: I was so scared. I was like What the hell is wrong with me?. They couldnt give me an answer.

They just told me they had to get me to the hospital immediately. The results were really, really low.

But the TV star said when the tests were repeated, they came back normal and was then taken to a hotel to sleep while ITV decided whether she could re-enter the camp.

Attwood added: They said because of the results the shows medical team got, they were not happy to sign me off to come back in, even though I had the clean bill of health from the hospital.

They feared my levels might drop and it could be detrimental to my health and wellbeing.

Speaking on Jamie Laings podcast, Private Parts, Attwood admitted she cried the whole way from the jungle to the UK: I dont cry and I cried the whole way back from Australia  the whole flight.

The Standard have contacted ITV and Olivia Attwoods reps for comment.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Russia's armed aggression against Georgia, said that complete de-occupation of Ukrainian and Georgian lands, punishment of Russian invaders and compensation for the damage they have caused will bring peace and stability to Europe and the world.

"On the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Russia's armed aggression against Georgia, we express our solidarity with the Georgian people and our resolute support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country. It is only the complete de-occupation of Ukrainian and Georgian lands, punishment of Russian invaders and compensation for the damage they have caused that will bring peace and stability to Europe and the world," he said on Twitter on Monday.
Russian occupation forces inflicted two missile strikes on the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region on Monday, a multi-apartment building came under attack, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"The city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. Donbas, from which Russia is trying to leave only broken and scorched stones. Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit. Unfortunately, there are victims. Rescuers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues," he said on the Telegram channel.

"We have to stop the Russian terror. Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves lives. Everyone in the world who helps Ukraine will defeat the terrorists together with us. Russia will be held accountable for everything it has done in this terrible war," the president said.
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Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) has launched a new solution through which any person, regardless of whether he/she is a client of the bank or not, can receive and send money more simply and quickly, from and to over 200 countries, through the bank's multipurpose machines, the bank informs on Monday.

According to the same source, the facility is already available at BCR multifunction machines (MFMs), based on a partnership with MoneyGram, and allows almost instantaneous domestic and international transfers.

"Considering our extensive network of multifunctional devices in Romania, most of them available non-stop, as well as the extensive global network of the MoneyGram service, we thus manage to significantly simplify the process of receiving and sending money," said Vlad Hutuleac, Deputy Executive Director of Products and Retail Segments.

Accessing the MoneyGram service through BCR MFMs can be done immediately by BCR clients. In the case of people who are not BCR clients, the first step is to schedule a visit to the bank to obtain a QR code necessary for the operations, based on signing a financial services agreement, valid for 6 months, the bank's representatives say.

Afterwards, users can go to any BCR Multifunction Machine (MFM) and select the MoneyGram option from the list displayed on the screen. By simply scanning the received QR code, they can send or receive money in a secure and fast way.

According to the same source, the process of completing the transaction is just as simple. Thus, after entering the code received via SMS to the phone number declared when signing the agreement, select the option "receive money" or "send money" and fill in the necessary data, such as the reference number of the transaction and details about the country, amount and currency of the money. The screen will display the exchange rate for conversion into lei, and if the amount received is in euros, a refund of up to 1 lei will be received in favor of the recipient.

"We continue to focus on expanding access to our global network, from anywhere in Romania," said Marius Dobrescu, MoneyGram Head of Sales for Southern Europe.

The MoneyGram service offers fast and reliable transfers to Romania and internationally, with almost instant payment options, depending on the destination. The commissions for such transactions start from 6 lei. The transaction commission is always deducted from the amount sent via MoneyGram, and once enrolled in the MG Plus Rewards loyalty programme, users will benefit from a discount for the following transactions. At the end, users will receive a receipt with the reference number of the transaction that they must communicate to the recipient of the money.
President Klaus Iohannis on Monday signed the decree regarding the accreditation of Dan-Horia Maxim as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Romania to the People's Republic of China, with residence in Beijing, the Presidential Administration informs.

Dan-Horia Maxim holds, from 2022, the position of seconded national expert responsible for commercial relations between the European Union and the South Asian region within the European Commission - Directorate General for Trade (DG TRADE).

Between 2014 and 2022, he held the position of head of the Trade Section within the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union.

He held the position of president of the Commercial Policy Committee (CPC) in the format of substitutes and vice-president of the CPC in the format of incumbents within the Council of the European Union during Romania's Presidency of the EU Council (January - June 2019) within the Permanent Representation of Romania to the EU.

He used to be a director in the Directorate of Bilateral Relations Europe and Central Asia, Department of Foreign Trade and International Relations of the Ministry of Economy (2013 - 2014).

He also held, among others, the positions of economic advisor at the Embassy of Romania in the Swiss Confederation (2009-2013) and economic secretary at the Embassy of Romania in the French Republic (2002 - 2007).

* * *

On Monday as well, president Iohannis signed the decree regarding the accreditation of Iulia Pataki, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Romania to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, with residence in Addis Ababa, and as a non-resident ambassador of Romania to the Republic of Somalia.

AGERPRES
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the United States for all the assistance provided and called on it to provide Ukraine with ATACMS to enhance its long-range capabilities.

"In our call, Antony Blinken and I discussed further steps to broaden global support for the Peace Formula and solutions to expand grain exports. I thanked the U.S. for all the assistance provided and stressed the need to enhance Ukraine's long-range capabilities by providing ATACMS," he said on Twitter on Monday.

In turn, Blinken said, following the conversation, that the United States remain committed to standing with Ukraine in its defense against Russia's aggression.

"Spoke with Dmytro Kuleba about security arrangements, conversations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia about a just and durable peace in Ukraine, and developments in Ukraine's counteroffensive efforts. We remain committed to standing with Ukraine in its defense against Russia's aggression," he said on Twitter.
Romania is ready to provide specialist support to the national army of Moldova, Romania's Defence Minister Angel Tilvar said on Monday on a visit to Chisinau, Moldova.

"Romania is ready to provide specialist assistance and support to the national army of the Republic of Moldova in multiple fields. The recent donation of individual ballistic protection equipment and off-road vehicles is a concrete example of our concern to contribute to securing the resources necessary to equip the national armed forces. The donations are part of a continuous effort by Romania, through the Ministry of National Defence (MApN), to support the Republic of Moldova in the field of modern defence acquisitions," said the Romanian minister, according to a MApN press release.

Tilvar was in Chisinau at the invitation of his counterpart Anatolie Nosatii.

According to MApN, the discussions between the two dignitaries touched bilateral defence co-operation and matters related to co-operation in the regional context, inside NATO and the EU. Also discussed were regional security developments as a result of the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, with emphasis on the situations caused by the Russian bombardments on the ports of Ukraine on the Danube, near the borders with Romania and Moldova.

At the same time, Romania's full support for the advancement of Moldova in its pro-European journey was reiterated along with the importance of participating in the projects under the South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial Process (SEDM), which rotational chairmanship is held by Romania from July 2023 to July 2025.

The two officials also looked at the concrete steps that Moldova has to take to prepare its accession to this regional format of political and military consultations.

"You can count on Romania for full support, so that the desired accession of the Republic of Moldova to SEDM will be achieved under Romania's chairmanship. Moldova joining this initiative as a full member will strengthen the status of the country regionally and internationally while providing new opportunities for defence co-operation with the countries in the same geographical region," said Tilvar.

On the sidelines of his visit, Tilvar and his Moldovan counterpart attended a reception of the latest MApN donations to the National Army of the Republic of Moldova consisting of individual ballistic protection equipment, namely Kevlar helmets and bulletproof vests, and off-road vehicles, as part of a continuous effort by Romania to support the modernisation of Moldova's defence bodies.
The Ministry of Health (MS) informs, on Monday, that the draft government decision on the national vaccination strategy in Romania until 2030, which was put up for public debate the other day, does not impose mandatory vaccination, including in schools.

"The vaccination strategy does not impose mandatory vaccination, but it gives the right to everyone, especially patients with chronic diseases, to be vaccinated for free, if they wish. Compensation for vaccines is contrary to the principle of obligation, and Romania is currently taking this important step for adolescents and adults,", reads a press release of the Ministry of Health.

It also shows that vaccination will not be mandatory even in schools.

"In schools, vaccination will not be mandatory! By joint order of the Minister of Health and Education, there are measures to be taken by the educational units in special epidemiological situations (for example, measles outbreak). In such situations, unvaccinated children must stay at home, until the outbreak is extinguished, in order to be protected against the disease," the aforementioned press release states.

According to the same source, the project aims to achieve the maximum benefits of vaccination in Romania, by ensuring fair access to safe and effective vaccination services, which will contribute to a better state of health of the population.
PHILIPSBURG, Pa.  As a presidential candidate in 2020, Joe Biden pledged to end for-profit immigration detention, saying: No business should profit from the suffering of desperate people fleeing violence.

The opportunity for action came early in the Democratic presidents term, in May 2021, when a group of senior immigration officials launched an internal review of detention centers to decide which should be scaled back, reformed or closed.

The review, which has not been previously reported, followed years of complaints from government watchdogs, detainees and advocates about poor medical care and sanitation, a lack of access to lawyers, sexual assault and detainee deaths.

Months later, the group shared findings with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, highlighting around two dozen U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and recommending some be closed, according to five current and former officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal government deliberations.

Reuters could not confirm which centers were recommended to be shut down.

But, as illegal crossings reached record highs at the U.S.-Mexico border  putting pressure on Biden officials to keep detention space available  they only announced the closure of one facility in March 2022.

The stalled reform coincided with a boom in private prison revenues from ICE contracts during the Biden administration and an increase in the percentage of detainees being held in private facilities, according to an analysis of ICE data by the American Civil Liberties Union shared exclusively with Reuters.

Some officials argue private facilities can be better than local jails that contract with ICE. Companies say they provide crucial flexibility and adhere to ICE standards.

As Biden gears up to seek reelection in 2024  and a possible rematch against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump  immigration remains a political flashpoint. Advocates and some Democrats have criticized Biden for not going far enough to reverse hardline Trump policies and adopting some restrictive measures. At the same time, Republicans have lambasted Biden as too lenient.

While the review sought to close or reform troubled centers, the White House and Mayorkas wanted to preserve detention beds and were concerned with backlash in counties that benefited economically from the detention centers, three of the officials said.

The Biden administration shuttered or reduced use of some of the most criticized lockups, but it seemed like the barest minimum compared to what was initially envisioned by the group that conducted the review, one of the officials said.

A White House spokesperson said Biden continues to support moving away from the use of private detention facilities in the immigration detention system.

ICE regularly reviews detention operations to ensure non-citizens are treated humanely, protected from harm, provided appropriate medical and mental health care, and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said.

One facility evaluated as part of the Biden administration review was Stewart Detention Center, a Georgia lockup operated by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Eight Stewart detainees have died since 2017, the most of any center. A complaint filed in 2022 on behalf of four women alleged that they were sexually assaulted by a male nurse in the facility.

Ryan Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesperson, said the safety and well-being of detainees was the companys top priority and that the employee in question was on administrative leave as ICE and Georgia authorities investigate.

The Biden administration also looked at, but declined to close, several centers that were part of a Trump-era expansion in Louisiana and Mississippi, two of the officials said.

The facilities included Winn Correctional Center, a Louisiana detention run by LaSalle Corrections. A government watchdog recommended in 2021 that Winn be closed or drawn down until several critical health and safety concerns could be addressed.

While the Biden administration said in 2022 it would limit the use of Winn, the center currently houses 1,100 detainees.

Richwood Correctional Center, also run by LaSalle in Louisiana, was called out in a government report this year for a lack of critical translation services.

Ruben Dario, an Argentine who was detained at Richwood for eight months in 2022, said he needed to serve as an ad-hoc translator for a Mexican man on the verge of a stroke because staff didnt speak Spanish.

If you dont know what they are asking you, you wont know how to answer, either, he said.

Ryan Horvath, a spokesperson for LaSalle, said the company offered the federal government increased capacity and specialized services. Richwood had at least 14 Spanish-speaking employees last year and translation tools, he added.

Biden leans into private detention

ICE detainees include people who recently crossed the border, as well as those living in the country illegally, including asylum seekers. Many are fighting court cases to avoid deportation.

While the numbers of detainees dropped during the pandemic, in part due to lawsuits by rights groups, populations are rising again.

More than 90% of the roughly 31,000 people being held by ICE on average in July were in private facilities, up from 80% at the end of the Trump administration, according to the ACLU analysis.

Under Biden, private prison company GEO Group GEO.N saw its revenues from ICE contracts for detention centers and remote monitoring of immigrants jump to a record $1.05 billion in 2022, up nearly 40% from the previous year, corporate filings show.

CoreCivic, GEOs biggest competitor, also sustained high revenues from ICE during Bidens term, according to corporate filings.

Under a new Biden asylum policy that went into effect on May 11, more migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border are being sent to detention centers for rapid asylum screenings. Nine centers are focused on the screenings, two officials said. All are privately run.

By mid-July, two months into the new policy, the number of people in ICE custody had jumped by 48% compared to the beginning of the year, according to ICE data.

The administration has scaled back immigration detention in some ways. During Bidens first months in office, before the detention review formally began, ICE shuttered two much-criticized facilities. The agency also stopped family detention by early 2022 and significantly increased the number of people released with electronic monitoring while they await their immigration court hearings.

A White House spokesperson highlighted the use of detention alternatives and said they could be making a lot more progress if Congress would provide more funding and enact reforms.

GEO Group subsidiary BI Incorporated manages one of the monitoring programs and GEOs chief operating officer told investors in February that the number of people under remote supervision peaked at more than 300,000 at one point last year. The monitoring program predominately drove GEOs revenue growth from ICE, a company spokesperson said.

In April, GEOs chief executive Jose Gordo told investors of potential opportunities for upside for the company, including increases in populations at our ICE facilities.

ICE often pays to maintain a fixed number of beds at detention centers regardless of whether they are actually used.

Adelanto ICE Processing Center, a GEO Group-run lockup in California, currently houses only 16 detainees due to a COVID-related court order despite paying to maintain a minimum of 640 beds in 2023.

A prison repurposed

In March 2021, following a Biden executive order to phase out the use of private prisons for federal detainees, a remote prison in central Pennsylvania run by GEO Group shut down. But just six months later, the company signed a contract to reopen the same complex as a 1,900-bed immigration detention center.

Angela Kelley, a senior adviser to Mayorkas at the time, said officials were aware that opening a new privately run detention center could appear hypocritical.

It wasnt as if people forgot about the fact that the president made this commitment, said Kelley, who now works with an immigration lawyers association. Once youre in the chair making these decisions, executing on the promises is a lot different.

Now called the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, razor wire has been removed from the fences and staff do not carry deadly weapons. Detainees are called residents and guards are resident advisers.

Other things, however, have stayed the same. Some 80% of prison staff transitioned to the detention center, a GEO Group supervisor said during a tour with Reuters. Visitors pass through secure checkpoints and detainees are not permitted to move freely. There are cells for solitary confinement.

Sunny Boy Sonkarlay, a Liberian immigrant, was detained at Moshannon for 14 months until he was released in July, according to his attorney and court documents.

The 28-year-old alleged guards slammed doors in his face and unfairly placed him in solitary confinement on several occasions, leading him to attempt suicide, an incident documented in his medical records and a civil rights complaint.

I tried to hang myself because I just couldnt take it, he said.

GEO did not comment directly on Sonkarlays complaints but said it strives to treat everyone in their facilities with dignity and respect. It added it invested approximately $4 million to make improvements at Moshannon.

At a November 2021 county meeting to discuss the Moshannon transition to a detention center, one GEO employee talked about crying in her car when she heard the prison would close, saying it was devastating thinking about people losing their livelihoods.

Then Erika Guadalupe Nunez, executive director of a Philadelphia-based immigrant organization, stood up to speak.

I have heard the opening of Moshannon Valley being described as something that will provide jobs for the community, and that is how it is being sold to you, she said. Your livelihood should not depend on the imprisonment of others. This community deserves better.
The primary in August of 1968 represented a changing of the guard in Missouri politics. Here is our coverage of the election from the Aug. 7, 1968 edition of the Post-Dispatch.

Know the issues and candidates in today's Missouri elections Search the voters guide by address to see what will be on your ballot.

Lt. Gov. Thomas F. Eagleton, riding a 31,000 majority in St Louis county, won the Democratic nomination to the Senate last night.

He unseated Senator Edward V. Long, who reigned eight years in office. It was the first time since 1944 that an incumbent Senator from Missouri had been unseated in his party's primary. In that year, Attorney General Roy McKittrick defeated incumbent Senator Bennett Champ Clark in the Democratic primary.

Last night's result set up a November general election contest between Eagleton and Representative Thomas B. Curtis of Webster Groves, who easily won the Republican nomination to the Senate.

Gov. Warren E. Hearnes won renomination over token opposition. He will oppose in the general election St. Louis County Supervisor Lawrence K. Roos, who won the GOP gubernatorial nomination against nominal op- ' position.

In the other most hotly contested state-wide race, William Morris of Kansas Citv won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. He defeated his closest competitor, Edward L. Dowd of St. Louis, by about 25,000 votes.

The primary resulted in several other major political developments.

Missouri was assured of electing its first Negro to the 'House of Representatives when Negroes were nominated on both the Democratic and Republican tickets in the First district of north St. Louis and a small part of the county. They are William Clay, the Democratic nominee, and Curtis C. Crawford, the former Democrat who switched to the GOP this year and won the Republican nomination.

Another Negro, State Representative Raymond Howard, ended 56 years in the Missouri Senate by 93-year-old Senator Michael Kinney. Howard defeated Kinney for the Democratic nomination in the Fifth Senatorial district of St. Louis.

About 872,000 persons voted in the state, which was higher than expected and despite hot. humid weather. In St. Louis county, 44.5 percent of the registered voters cast ballots and in the city 41 percent of those registered voted. The vote in the county was a record for a primary.

Eagleton's victory was built entirely on St. Louis county. He lost outstate Missouri to Davis by a margin of 100,794 to 80,425, with 80,512 for Long. Eagleton lost Jackson County (Kansas City) to Long by 35,721 to 26,530, with 26,588 for Davis. In the City of St. Louis, Eagleton lost narrowly to Long by a margin of 38,796 to 37,872 Davis got 19,156. Therefore, when Eagleton carried St. Louis county by a vote of 62,344 for Eagleton, 31,327 for Long and 17,417 fori Davis, this gave him the victory.

Eagleton issued at midnight a statement claiming victory. "Quite naturally I am deeply gratified to have won this election," he said. To both Senator Long and Mr. Davis, I express my recognition for the thorough and forthright way in which they campaigned."

Davis said in a statement that "Democrats in Missouri have spoken. They have selected Mr. Eagleton and I'm certainly supporting him all the way."

In a statement after his defeat, Long declared: "My defeat is a great victory for all the wire tappers, snoopers and federal bureaucrats in Washington who violate the constitutional rights of our citizens. I hope and pray the citizens of Missouri find a haven for their defense and protection from such people."
Some 30,000 workers at Yellow Corp. were looking for jobs on Monday after the major trucking company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, potentially saddling U.S. taxpayers with losses from a government rescue of the long-troubled carrier.

The nearly 100-year-old company, which halted operations on July 30, has been a dominant player in the less-than-truckload segment that hauls cargo for multiple customers on a single truck.

It laid blame for the bankruptcy, likely the largest ever for a U.S. trucking firm, at the feet of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union that represents about 22,000 of its employees.

Teamsters leadership was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins said in a statement late Sunday.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters blamed Yellow executives for the companys demise.

Yellows dysfunctional, greedy C-suite failed to take responsibility for squandering all that cash. They still dont, said Teamsters General President Sean OBrien. They shamelessly pin their corporate incompetence on working people.

Financial analysts traced the companys persistent financial woes to acquisition-related debt, the high cost of operating disparate companies and low shipping rates that depressed revenue.

Prior to its filing, Yellow held roughly 8% to 10% of market share, according to brokerage TD Cowen. Its customers included large retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot, manufacturers and Uber Freight.

In its Chapter 11 filing, Yellow estimated total assets of $2.15 billion and total debt of $2.59 billion.

Yellow executives said they intend to fully repay a $700 million loan former President Donald Trumps administration issued to bail out the firm in 2020 under a pandemic relief program. Their success will depend on proceeds from selling Yellows properties and roughly 12,000 trucks, according to bankruptcy experts.

Government officials earlier this summer warned that U.S. investments could face losses. In particular, the Treasury Department has a nearly 31% stake in Yellow after accepting 15.9 million company shares as additional security for the loan, according to audit reports and bankruptcy documents. Shareholders are often last to recover their investments.

Yellow shares skidded 40% to touch a session low of $2.13 on Monday. They soared fivefold last week following a surge in retail investors interest.

It has $1.3 billion in debt payments coming due in 2024, including a roughly $500 million private-equity term loan in June and the $700 million U.S. loan in September.

Apollo Global Management APO.N has a big chunk of Yellows term loan. It arranged debtor-in-possession financing that will keep Yellow afloat during the restructuring and move it to the front of the line for repayment.

Yellow also has a roughly $450 million secured revolving loan from a syndicate of banks arranged by Citizens Bank, Merrill Lynch and others that expires in January 2024.

This leaves the taxpayer the last creditor to get repaid, said the authors of a congressional report in June.

Yellow recently averted a strike by 22,000 Teamsters-represented workers by agreeing to pay more than $50 million it owed in worker benefits and pension accruals. The companys business evaporated in the days leading up to that deal, according to court documents.

Meanwhile, Yellow employees on Monday filed two lawsuits accusing the company of failing to give the required 60 days notice before firing them.

Updated at 3:30 p.m.
Children injured or killed by gunfire in the St. Louis area in 2023

Below is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage of children who have been injured or killed by gunfire across the St. Louis metropolitan area in 2023. The children are 17 years old or younger.

Through Aug. 7, at least 50 children were injured or killed by gunshots. Sixteen were killed; 4 were 11 or younger.

These are not all the homicides involving children. For more details on local homicides, check the homicide tracker.
ST. LOUIS  Federal prosecutors in St. Louis say theyve seen a 50% increase in child exploitation cases this year compared with the average number of cases over the past four years, a jump driven largely by a rise in reports of online predators and crackdowns by law enforcement.

Some of those cases involve men who pose as teens on social media and convince kids to send nude photos and videos. Others are offenders who create collections of child pornography and share them with others. And investigators are increasingly seeing a new type of crime called sextortion, where scammers trick children into sending explicit photos, then demand money or more photos under threat of releasing the images to friends, family or the public.

The common thread is the internet.

The use of the internet in the sexual exploitation of children is ... an epidemic of our time, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson, who leads prosecutions of crimes against children in the St. Louis area.

Experts say reports of child exploitation first spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic when children and adults spent more time inside and online. Those numbers have continued to rise since then, especially as social media companies improve at flagging materials and sending them to law enforcement. Outreach campaigns have also made victims more comfortable with coming forward, experts say.

In 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which serves as a clearinghouse for information about online child sex crimes, received roughly 16.9 million tips about sexual abuse material. Two years later, that number had surged to 29.4 million.

In Missouri, the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, based in St. Charles County, saw a roughly 17% increase in tips from 2021 to 2022, according to the task forces commander, Lt. Kile Bay.

More kids are online, and more kids are vulnerable, Bay said.

In response, local and federal law enforcement agencies are cracking down. This year, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Missouri says it is handling the fifth- or sixth-most child exploitation cases out of the 95 offices across the country, and it recently hired a third prosecutor to take even more. Anderson cautioned that the volume isnt necessarily because Missouri has more offenders  rather, the crimes have been prioritized by area law enforcement.

Many perpetrators who have been sentenced for child exploitation crimes say they get addicted to child pornography much like drugs. Sometimes it starts with a regular pornography addiction that evolves into seeking out more explicit images. Some claim they were abused as children, which turns them into perpetrators later on.

And once they seek out such images, the internet provides a ready supply of victims.

Investigators warn of solicitations on apps like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Some use video games that allow children to talk to strangers online.

In one recent case, former Clayton resident and businessman Jason Fine contacted an 11-year-old girl through a messaging app called Kik. The girls parents said she had already been struggling with her mental health and sexuality, according to court testimony, but over several months in 2021, she became even more secretive and withdrawn.

One night, the girls mother went to her daughters bedroom and found the 11-year-old recording a video in bed. The mother grabbed the phone, opened the Kik app and read message after message, saw picture after picture, video after video, of our daughter doing things no 11-year-old should be asked to do.

The more I read, the more I knew that this was no child on the other end, she said in court.

The girls parents reported the crime to authorities. But even after that, the girl expressed suicidal thoughts. She had to be committed to a behavioral health facility.

Fine pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced in March to 11 years in prison.

Investigators say such cases continue to be frequent, but they also warn about a new type of case called sextortion, where a person  often outside the U.S.  poses as a teen and coerces children into sending photos, then uses the photo as leverage for money or more photos.

Bay, the ICAC commander, said at one point last year, his agency was receiving about a tip per week on sextortion cases. Across the country, the FBI has noticed dramatic impacts: They say at least a dozen young boys have killed themselves after falling victim to such schemes.

This is the new approach to an old problem of forming relationships over the internet and extorting or defrauding people out of money, said Chris Crocker, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in St. Louis.

No matter the type of online exploitation, investigators, experts and prosecutors all say that honest, open communication with children is the key to preventing victimization.

Parents should expect their children to encounter someone online who wants to show them pornography or send explicit material, said Anderson, the prosecutor, but the key is preparing them for it by creating an open line of communication.

Let them know its 100% OK to come tell, she said.

Investigators also recommend that parents learn about the apps their children are downloading, put in place appropriate controls on video games, and monitor their social media use. They also suggest confiscating phones and iPads when children leave common areas and go to bedrooms or the bathroom.

Crocker said above all, parents should be compassionate with their children if they do make a mistake.

As human beings, we dont always make wise choices, even if we are fundamentally good people, he said. The important thing is understanding that it is possible your kid will do something like this, but it doesnt make them a monster.
ST. LOUIS  A 22-year-old man was shot and killed Sunday in the city's Kingsway West neighborhood.

Officers were called to the 5100 block of Greer Avenue just before 2 p.m. and found Robert Green in the street suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

He later died at a hospital, police said.

Green lived on the 3000 block of Norwood Avenue in the city's Kingsway West neighborhood.

The man's shooting death marks at least the 97th homicide in the city this year.

This article was updated on Tuesday at 1:54 p.m. with the victims name.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.7. The US will continue to work with Azerbaijan, Armenia to pursue a peace agreement, US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said during a briefing on Aug.7, Trend reports.

"We have been engaged directly with those countries. Special Envoy Bono traveled to the region last week and engaged directly with them. And we believe that despite any comments from other countries, who are not a party to this matter, an agreement remains within reach, and we will continue to work with them to pursue it," he explained.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan held bilateral talks on June 27-29 at the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia.

They met with US Secretary Anthony Blinken and Assistant to the President and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington.

The ministers and their teams continued progress on the draft bilateral Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations. They reached an agreement on additional articles and achieved mutual understanding on the draft agreement, meanwhile acknowledging that the positions on some key issues require further work.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
ST. CHARLES  Nearly 5,000 Jehovahs Witnesses from throughout the region will gather at St. Charles Family Arena this weekend as the denomination resumes in-person conventions for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The regional convention, which is free and open to the public, will run from Friday to Sunday and will feature a series of presentations and testimonials. Similar conventions are also being held in Springfield, Missouri, and 142 other host cities throughout the U.S., according to the denominations website.

It is going to be a real joyous occasion for us, said Tom Kelsey, a lifelong Jehovahs Witness and a spokesperson for the St. Charles convention. We are all from different parts of the region, so I expect there is going to be a lot of hugging, a lot of catching up.

About 35 Jehovahs Witness congregations across the St. Louis region have been invited to attend the convention in St. Charles. Kelsey said volunteers with the denomination have also been going door to door to distribute flyers.

We are always pleasantly surprised by the number of people who show up and just want to know more about Jehovahs Witness, said Kelsey, of Cape Girardeau. He said Jehovahs Witnesses also invite their fellow Christians to join them at the convention.

As with other protestant denominations, Jehovahs Witnesses believe in God, heaven and Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, but there are some key differences between Jehovahs Witnesses and other Christian denominations.

Jehovahs Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions during medical care; do not participate in warfare; believe marriage is between one man and one woman; and limits divorce to only instances of sexual immorality.

Other differences include their stance on the Bible. Jehovahs Witnesses recognize that parts of the Bible are written in figurative or symbolic language and are not to be understood literally. They also dont believe in hell, instead believing that those who die without salvation simply pass of out existence.

Kelsey said Jehovahs Witnesses have been convening in St. Charles for more than 20 years and in the St. Louis area for much longer. In 2019, St. Louis was the host city of an international convention that drew 35,000 attendees to The Dome at the America Center. In 1941, a crowd of 115,000 Jehovahs Witnesses attended an international convention held at the famed St. Louis Arena.
CHICAGO  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.

Q&A: Biden inaction, mixed signals on death penalty What about ongoing death penalty cases? What measures has Biden taken? What does the review during the moratorium entail? Have any Trump-era protocols been revoked? What do death penalty opponents want done?
During the five decades that followed Roe v. Wade, lawsuit after lawsuit in states across the country chipped away at abortion rights. And again and again, the people who went to court to defend those rights were physicians who often spoke in clinical and abstract terms.

The entirety of abortion rights history is a history of doctors appearing in court to represent their own interests and the interests of pregnant people, said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin.

But in July, in a Texas courtroom, the case for abortion was made by women themselves who had been denied abortions and sued the state to clarify the exceptions to its ban, which makes it illegal to perform an abortion unless a patient is facing death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function. The aspiring mothers described in vivid, harrowing detail how the states abortion ban had endangered their health, traumatized them, and, in the case of Samantha Casiano, forced her to carry and give birth to a baby girl without a formed skull or brain only to watch her die a tortured death four hours later.

She was gasping for air, Casiano testified on the witness stand. She described how her baby turned purple and her eyeballs were bleeding. I just kept telling myself and my baby that Im so sorry that this has happened to you. I felt so bad. She had no mercy. There was no mercy there for her.

Casiano had been denied an abortion months earlier after she found out her baby had anencephaly, a fatal condition. She had wanted her daughter, whom she named Halo, to be spared from suffering and to go to rest sooner. She described abortion as an act of compassion, mercy, and love.

For decades, Christian anti-abortion groups have deployed ultrasound fetal images and grisly photos of what they say are aborted fetuses on highway billboards, protest signs, and online ads to garner sympathy for unborn children and advance their religious and political aims. But the Texas hearing, for the first time since the early 1970s, according to legal scholars and historians, trained the camera upward, away from the high-resolution fetal images to the faces of sympathetic women who say they suffered grievously under the states abortion ban.

Women have long shared abortion stories privately, and at public speak-outs, through #ShoutYourAbortion and the nonprofit group WeTestify. But the formality of the Austin courtroom focused unblinking attention on their experiences. The black-robed judge and court stenographer leaned in to hear plaintiffs as their testimony under oath was recorded for a national television audience. It put anti-abortion activists on the defensive.

Were in this moment where all of the stories are coming out and its raw, said Greer Donley, an associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. All of these secrets  abortion, miscarriage, the blurring of miscarriage and abortion  thats something people viscerally appreciate now.

Before the Supreme Courts conservative majority eliminated a federal right to abortion last June, polls showed that nationwide support for abortion care was pathetically stagnant, Donley said. Compare that stagnation, she said, to the support for same-sex marriage rights, which broadened as gay people and their families shared their stories publicly.

Storytelling is the future, Donley said. Thats how you change hearts and minds.

The pregnancy complications and medical emergencies described by the plaintiffs both subvert ideas about motherhood and support ideas about motherhood, said Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at the University of California-Davis who has written books about the history of abortion.

Soon after the Supreme Court held that women had the right to abortion in 1973, the anti-abortion movement began a concerted effort to narrow that newly established constitutional right. Movement leaders spoke in gruesome detail about abortions later in pregnancy, coining medically inaccurate phrases, such as partial-birth abortion, that infused the language of the abortion debate with emotional and provocative imagery.

Usually, the story is women versus fetuses, and that people having abortions are selfish or dont care, Ziegler said. But these women in court are saying, What was best for my child was the abortion. I was denied that, but so was my child.

Some Catholics and conservative Christians who oppose abortion proffer the notion of natural womanhood, Ziegler said  the religious belief that God created women to complement men, and that abortion is forcing women to be like men and disrupts nature.

That belief was expressed by Ingrid Skop, a Texas OB-GYN who opposes abortion and testified last month as an expert witness for the state. When asked on the stand about Casianos description of watching her baby die, Skop said inducing a birth is a much more holistic way to progress through the grieving process than to dismember your child and not have a way to grieve.

Infant deaths have spiked in Texas since the government mandated births of nonviable pregnancies. In September 2021, Texas banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and then instituted a prohibition on all abortions from the moment of fertilization unless a woman was experiencing a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy. The Texas law makes no exception for nonviable pregnancies.

In 2022, preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, first obtained by CNN, showed a 21.6% increase in infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects. That increase reversed a 15% decline in infant deaths from 2014 to 2021.

The case in Austin comes as abortion rights and civil liberties groups and state Democratic parties are mounting a series of legal and electoral challenges to the Supreme Courts ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which overturned Roe last summer. In November, Ohio voters will take up a proposed constitutional amendment that would ensure every individual has a right to make and carry out ones reproductive decisions. Litigation against abortion bans is ongoing in at least 17 states, according to KFF.

A new poll by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem that explored the impact of a viability limit on support for abortion ballot measures found that voters were 15 percentage points more likely to support ballot measures when they contained no government regulations on abortion over those that restricted abortion later in pregnancy.

The Texas lawsuit has highlighted the myriad reasons women and their families (at least two husbands were in the Austin courtroom) require abortion care throughout an entire pregnancy, Donley said.

In considering doing away with any limits on abortion, we dont have to trust that women are perfect, benevolent mothers, Donley said. We just have to believe they are rational actors.

After 24 weeks, most abortions require induced birth, she added. So, were imagining a person who, for no good reason, endured the burdens of pregnancy, watched her body change completely, and went through labor and delivery of a stillborn baby just because she couldnt get around to an abortion earlier? People have abortions late because horrible things happen.

Texas District Judge Jessica Mangrum on Aug. 4 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the Texas attorney general has appealed the decision, blocking the order. The states assistant attorney general, Amy Pletscher, had asked the court to dismiss the case. She told Mangrum that the plaintiffs sustained their alleged injuries as a direct result of their own medical providers failing them.

But while the outcome of the case is uncertain, legal scholars said it marked the beginning of a new strategy for the abortion rights movement in the United States.

We had a 50-year fight to get rid of Roe, Ziegler said. This is the beginning of the 50-year fight to get rid Dobbs.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF  the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. It was formerly known as Kaiser Health News.
WASHINGTON  When the Justice Department was announcing the highest-profile prosecution in its history in Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland was 100 miles away, meeting with police in Philadelphia.

He stepped outside briefly to speak about how the decision to indict Donald Trump for conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election came from career prosecutors and was led by a special counsel committed to accountability and independence.

In other words, this wasnt about politics.

Try as Garland might, though, there is no escaping the politics of the moment when the Justice Department of a president who is running for reelection is indicting his chief political rival, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Though he has distanced himself from the investigation since he appointed special counsel Jack Smith 10 months ago, Garland has the last word on matters related to the prosecution of Trump as long as he is the attorney general.

The Justice Department is facing its biggest test in history  navigating unprecedented conditions in American democracy while trying to fight back against relentless attacks on its own credibility and that of the U.S. election system. The success or failure of the case has the potential to affect the standing of the department for years to come.

In grand terms this is a really huge historic moment for the Department of Justice, said Wendy Weiser, vice president for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

President Joe Biden sought to distance himself from the Justice Department to avoid any appearance of meddling when the agency is not only probing Trump, but also the presidents son Hunter. But its going to get more challenging for Biden, too. Anything he says about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol from now on could complicate matters for prosecutors. The trial is likely to take place against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election.

The latest indictment is the third criminal case filed against Trump this year, but the first to try to hold him criminally responsible for his efforts to cling to power in the weeks between his election loss and the Capitol attack that stunned the world. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday before a federal magistrate judge and was ordered not to speak about the case with any potential witnesses.

Trump said he did nothing wrong and accused Smith of trying to thwart his chances of returning to the White House in 2024. Trump and other Republicans railed against the investigation and the Justice Department in general, claiming a two-tiered system of justice that vilifies Trump and goes easy on Bidens son, who was accused of tax crimes after a yearslong probe.

Another dark day in America as Joe Biden continues to weaponize his corrupt Department of Justice against his leading political opponent Donald J. Trump, said U.S. Rep Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

Trumps own Justice Department was subject to complaints of politicization, drawing heavy criticism as the federal probe of Russias 2016 election interference thrust prosecutors center stage and dragged out scandals that Trump seized on as proof of a deep state operating against him.

The release of the Russia report by special counsel Robert Mueller was colored by politics, with then-Attorney General William Barr issuing a four-page memo ahead of the report that was widely criticized as spinning the investigations findings in favor of Trump. Muellers actual report  two volumes and 448 pages  was far more nuanced and laid out in part how Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsels appointment in May 2017.

On Nov. 9, 2020, as Trump began to suggest with no evidence there might be widespread voter fraud, Barr issued a directive pushing prosecutors to investigate any suspected instances. Barr later turned against Trump, telling The Associated Press before he told the president that there was no widespread election fraud.

President Biden chose Garland, a longtime federal appeals court judge who was Barack Obamas choice for the U.S. Supreme Court but never got a hearing, to be a stabilizing force. He promised to return the Justice Department to normal, restoring its reputation for political independence and ensuring equal justice.

I appointed Jack Smith special counsel to take on the ongoing investigation in order to underline the departments commitment to accountability and independence, Garland said of the Trump case. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made in the courtroom.

The indictment covered much of same ground that played out on live TV, or was unearthed in the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

If Smith loses the case, the Justice Department could lose credibility, particularly as Republican attacks against the department grow. If prosecutors win, a former president could see time behind bars.

If Trump is reelected, he could undo the charges and said he plans to completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, part of a larger effort to push more power toward the presidency.

There are pieces now in play that the Justice Department is going to continue to take on for years to come, said Robert Sanders, a senior lecturer of national security at the University of New Haven. The next 12 months are going to be a critical stage in the history of this nation.

Scene: Trump in DC for historic 2020 election charges
Packed with rugged good looks and natural elegance that extends far beyond the celebs of Hollywood, California is one of the most geographically diverse states in the United States. From the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and stunning redwood trees to the picturesque beaches and rugged desert, there's beauty to be found everywhere in the Golden State. And while it's possible to ski at Big Bear and swim at Huntington Beach in the same day, there are plenty of other beautiful spots to explore. With that in mind, here are 12 of the most gorgeous places in California.

1. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

You could easily spend weeks hiking through Yosemite National Park and still not see all 1,100 square miles of valleys, vistas and cliffs. Travelers with less time may want to follow the paths that offer some of the most memorable lookouts. Valley View, for example, includes a view of El Capitan and the twin Cathedral Rocks. About an hour away, Glacier Point serves up vistas of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. And Olmsted Point has an unforgettable view down onto the Half Dome rock formation.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: The Majestic Yosemite Hotel

2. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY

Starting a little south of San Juan Capistrano and ending in Mendocino County, the Pacific Coast Highway offers nearly 650 miles of coastal views. Technically, you can tackle the drive in one day, but you'll want to stop and soak in some of the state's most scenic spots. The secluded Greyhound Rock Beach, southwest of San Jose, is often visited by elephant seals and dolphins. Dana Point, the "whale capital of the west," has dramatic cliffs and ocean views. Point Loma, a rugged peninsula, has a charming lighthouse that has been transformed into a museum about the area's history. If you want, you can always stop in Big Sur and track Jack Kerouac's sojourn to the misty coastal town.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: Hotel Point Loma

3. BOWLING BALL BEACH

Located near Mendocino, a section of Schooner Gulch State Beach is named for the round stones that dot the water's edge during low tide. These shapely stones were formed by concretion, in which minerals bind together and become larger forms  in this case, bowling ball-shaped rocks. The spheres were shaped by millions of years of gentle erosion.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: The Inn at Newport

4. EMERALD BAY STATE PARK

The crown jewel of Emerald Bay State Park is Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, a topaz-colored body of water that Mark Twain once described as "the fairest picture the whole earth affords." But that bay isn't the only notable feature of this 1,500-acre tract. Also on the grounds is Eagle Falls, miles of dense forest, and Vikingsholm, a 38-room stone castle that's one of the finest examples of Scandinavian-style architecture in the United States.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: The Landing Resort & Spa

5. SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK

East of Visalia, Sequoia National Park is home to a lot of big things you won't find anywhere else. For example, five out of the world's 10 tallest trees are here, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on earth. Mount Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous United States, is also located here. Look carefully and you may even find bobcats and mountain lions.

6. LADDER CANYON TRAIL

About 40 miles southeast of Palm Springs, tucked away in the Mecca Hills, is a hike that enables visitors to get a close-up view of what happens when the Pacific Plate and North American Plate meet. The Ladder Canyon Trail snakes through Ladder Canyon and Big Painted Canyon, and, as the name suggests, you need to access it via ladders. You'll wind through and over sandstone boulders, seeing the grand shapes that flowing water makes over thousands of years.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: Miramonte Resort & Spa

7. DEATH VALLEY'S NATURAL BRIDGES

Inside Death Valley National Park, there are natural archways and bridges that showcase the amazing power of wind and water. A short hike is required to find the massive structures, but the pathway through canyons is almost as breathtaking as the destination. Seventeen major natural bridges have been discovered so far, but don't be surprised if the list grows longer. Visitors who want to explore the foundations of the structures may want to bring a bathing suit and dive into the water-filled caverns below.

8. JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

You'll need to drive about two-and-a-half hours to get from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park, a reserve of almost 800,000 acres of desert. The park has two major sections: the Mojave Desert, which is home to Joshua trees and towering boulders, and the Colorado Desert, which has milder temperatures and blooms of verbena, beavertail cactus and golden smokes. You can drive through large sections of the park and get out to admire and photograph some of the more iconic landmarks such as Skull Rock.

A nearby boutique hotel pick: Spin and Margie's Desert Hideaway

9. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

San Francisco's most famous span took about four years to build, but you'll likely cross over it in a matter of minutes. The iconic design was influenced by Mayan and Art Deco architecture, among others. Many decisions about the construction were controversial in the 1930s  on the opening day, the San Francisco Chronicle described the structure as a "$35 million steel harp"  but that's all water under the Golden Gate Bridge.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square

10. PFEIFFER BEACH

The road to Big Sur's Pfeiffer Beach is unmarked, so you'll have to ask for directions or keep your eyes peeled for a sign that warns of the narrow road leading to the outpost. The beach itself is famous for several things: the purple sand that appears most spectacularly after rains, and the surrounding bluffs, which are covered in verdant vegetation and large, jagged rocks. The most famous of these stone landmarks is the Keyhole Arch, situated just off the coastline. Sunlight streams through its center. While the location is breathtaking almost any time of day, you'll get the most Instagram-worthy shots at sunset, when the last rays of light flicker through the keyhole.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: Post Ranch Inn

11. MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Just 12 miles north of San Francisco, the Muir Woods National Monument is one of the last old-growth coastal redwood forests. The fog that rolls in from the coast helps these trees to grow, even when rainfall is scarce. In addition to the stunning battalion of 200-foot trees, the Muir Woods park is also a spawning ground for silver salmon and steelhead as well 50 species of birds, including spotted owls.

A nearby luxury hotel pick: Loews Regency San Francisco

12. NAPA VALLEY WINERIES AND BEYOND

If you can't get under the Tuscan sun any time soon, Napa Valley's Mediterranean climate and rolling hills lined with grape trees is a great place to be. Presqu'ile Winery, located on a plot of coastland that almost seems like an island, has gorgeous views of the ocean and vineyard hills. Hall Winery in St. Helena has more than 35 pieces of contemporary art, including a giant stainless steel rabbit named Bunny Foo-Foo. And Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez Valley will make you feel as if you're on the grounds of a grand European country estate.

A nearby romantic hotel pick: Carneros Resort and Spa

___

At Oyster.com our special investigators visit, photograph, review and rate each hotel. We uncover the truth, before it's "uh-oh" time.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Republican presidential candidates have struggled with how to take on Donald Trump. The answer is the strategy Trump himself used in 2016: Directly attack a candidates perceived strength and make it his weakness.

For Trump, thats immigration. If there was one issue that drove his rise, it was concern over illegal immigration. And if there is one issue that highlights the failure of his administration, its immigration.

Several of the other Republican candidates have promised to finish the wall, along with the usual roster of unlikely immigration initiatives (invading Mexico?). But Trumps failure wasnt that he didnt finish the wall. It was that the wall couldnt do what he promised it would, and he failed to make the changes that actually would have made a difference in immigration.

Illegal immigration is driven by jobs that draw people to our country, laws that give them legal status and border security that allows them in. Trump the 2016 candidate had the answers. Mandate employer use of eVerify to confirm citizenship of employees. Clarify refugee laws to limit refugee status to people fleeing wars, not crime or domestic abuse. And ensure the border is actually secure.

Trump as president, of course, didnt do any of these things. He didnt even really try. His annual budget proposals had a token line about eVerify, but that was it  no follow up, no pressure on Congress. President Trump didnt bother proposing clarifications to the refugee laws. Even on border security, President Trump fell far short of what our country needed. He prioritized building a wall along parts of the border that hadnt seen an illegal crossing in decades. President Trump ignored more sophisticated technologies that would have made a difference where people were actually coming over (and would have been far more effective at stopping the flow of fentanyl across our borders). We needed a nuanced, sophisticated policy that addressed the realities of illegal immigration. We got a slogan that fit on a bumper sticker.

This is Trumps weak spot  his failure to live up to his promises on immigration. Trump has a record in office now, and its frankly not very good. Trump certainly transformed our policy conversations, but he didnt really do much to change actual government policies.

Trumps Republican opponents need to attack him head-on for his failures. It wasnt President Biden that promised to fix immigration  it was President Trump. The other candidates need to point out how many of his promises he didnt keep on immigration. It would almost certainly start a feeding frenzy of reporters asking Trump and his allies to respond to the charge, with numerous follow up questions about specific things President Trump could have done but didnt. It would put Trump on the defensive, because theres not a lot he can say.

At some point, the illusion of effectiveness that Trump has created will start to crumble. Forcing the issue of how weak he actually was on immigration, turning his strength into a weakness, will start the process. Once enough Republicans start recognizing his administration as a missed opportunity, a failure when there was a chance to actually do something, his grip on the nomination will (hopefully) start to fade. Nobody wins the presidency with a slogan of, Sure I botched it last time, but give me another shot.

All of Trumps challengers are running on some version the same basic idea: Trump the personality keeps him from achieving Trump the ideas; without his baggage, I am the candidate that can actually get the MAGA agenda passed. His immigration failure is the lever Trumps opponents need to start prying people away, to highlight the failure of Trump the personality.

Somehow Republicans have convinced themselves that the key to winning his voters is to not attack Trump. Instead, its just the opposite  his opponents need to attack him head on, and show just how weak of a president he actually was. Showing how Trump failed his own ideas is their best chance of convincing the MAGA voters that they are the candidate that can actually achieve the MAGA vision. And that is our countrys best chance of not having Trump as the 2024 Republican Presidential candidate.

Blake Ashby is a member of the Ferguson City Council and was involved in local Republican politics for many years. The opinions expressed here are his own.
Americas democracy, long admired and imitated around the world, now seems to be hurtling uncontrollably toward a 2024 presidential election campaign discombobulation unlike anything we have ever seen -- or our visionary Founders even imagined.

The campaign woe will mainly affect only one political party -- the Republicans. And it will be happening to Republicans because Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and most Senate Republicans failed to make a patriotic leadership decision two years ago. Even though they knew, in their hearts, it was in the best interests of their party, their voters and especially their nation.

Heres the Republicans 2024 problem: Their overwhelming presidential frontrunner wont be able to campaign normally. Frontrunner Donald Trump will probably be in a federal courtroom during the primaries and caucuses and/or the fall campaign -- the first U.S. president ever on trial for crimes allegedly committed while president. Trump was arraigned in the U.S. district court in Washington last week. He was charged on four criminal counts of seeking and conspiring to overthrow his 2020 reelection loss.

McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans knew all about the horrible wrongs Trump committed as president -- including his persistence at overturning his reelection defeat. It was presented to us all in 2021 in words that were powerful and persuasive. Indeed, to read that case today is to realize that the case that was made then, during the Senate trial of the second House impeachment of Trump was as compelling as the widely-praised 45-page indictment Special Counsel Jack Smith made public last week.

McConnell's presentation on Feb. 13, 2021, began with a denunciation of Trumps speech that inflamed the Jan. 6, 2021, violent break-in aimed at preventing Congress from certifying Joe Bidens election victory:

January 6 was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like  .

Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an election  .

There is no question  none  that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.  The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president  the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth  .

It was also  the increasingly wild myths  myths  about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen in some secret coup by our now-president  .

It was obvious that only President Trump could end this.  The president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job.  He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election  .

McConnell's case for action against Trump was as powerful as anything we heard from the Jan. 6 House panels case for impeaching Trump for his outrageous attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.

But after making the case for convicting and impeaching Trump, the Republican leader hit the brakes and made a narrowly defined judicial justification for his no-action vote of not guilty -- only because Trump was no longer president. He called it a close call. After all, Trump was president the day the House impeached him.

Besides, McConnell said, Trump can still be prosecuted for his crimes.

But a Senate impeachment conviction would have legally prevented Trump from ever serving again as president.

If our Founders wanted impeachment to be just a narrowly defined judicial decision, they wouldve put the Supreme Court in charge of deciding impeachment convictions. But the Founders sensed this ultimate governance decision might require political judgment. So they made it the Senates role.

Now Trump is running for president -- even while hes facing criminal trial for his crimes and schemes to sabotage Americas democracy. His best hope now is to become president and pardon himself.

McConnell gave Trump the help he couldnt get anywhere else, back on that Senate impeachment day -- and became the unlikely de facto driver of Trumps getaway bandwagon.
Fully a third of Missouris rural hospitals are in danger of closing in the next few years, leaving large swaths of the state without access to emergency services, obstetrics or even the most basic health care.

Its part of a national trend that qualifies as a looming crisis  one that might be addressed with a fundamental change in how the private insurance industry pays hospitals on behalf of insured patients.

A study released last month by the national Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that 19 of Missouris 57 rural hospitals are in danger of closing their doors in the next two to seven years because they arent taking in enough revenue from payments to cover their costs.

Here and around the country, rural hospitals long-term financial slide was alleviated by federal pandemic aid programs for the past three years but now has resumed with the end of those programs.

The numbers are daunting. One rural Missouri hospital administrator in Hermann told the Missouri Independent that after being kept afloat since 2020 by federal COVID-relief funding, We are back to losing over $1 million this year.

Those financial issues are likely exacerbated in Missouri by the widely reported difficulty in getting doctors to come here  a situation that cannot have been improved by last years enactment of a draconian state abortion ban that threatens doctors with 15 years in prison for violations.

Indeed, as struggling Missouri rural hospitals cut back on services, obstetrics is in danger of becoming a prime target. As the Independent reports, for instance, Cox Monett Hospital in southwest Missouri is shuttering its inpatient obstetrics unit this summer due in part to difficulty recruiting doctors. For local residents, it will mean traveling close to an hour for services.

But the main culprit in the crisis, CHQPR maintains, is the private insurance industry, with its one-size-fits-all approach to paying hospitals.

That approach doesnt take into account the fact that its inherently more expensive for smaller hospitals to provide care than it is for larger, busier ones, based on economy of scale. For example, all hospitals with emergency rooms must maintain staff 24/7, but in small rural areas, those ERs often stand empty.

Nationally, CHQPR reports, more than 600 rural hospitals, or about 30% of the U.S. total, are in danger of closing in the next few years.

The organizations report notes the mistaken belief that most financial losses for rural hospitals are due to Medicaid patients or the uninsured. In fact, it says, about half of rural hospital patients are under private insurance plans  and those plans, for the most part, are paying them less than what it costs to deliver services to patients.

The solution, CHQPR says, is to require that private insurers pay enough to prevent closures of endangered rural hospitals. The organization also calls for restructuring the way payments are made so that they cover not just the cost of services rendered but also standby capacity  the fixed costs of keeping hospital units open and staff on hand when there are no paying patients being served.

The organization claims these reforms would cost $4 billion annually. Large as that sounds, its actually just one-tenth of 1% of Americas total health care spending.

Whether these are the right solutions is a broader conversation  but its one that Missouris political leaders in Washington should be having, on behalf of their struggling hospitals back home.
The U.S. Supreme Court and many Republican elected officials believe that racism is no longer actively limiting the lives of people of color. The failure of people of color to achieve parity with whites in health, wealth, education, employment and other areas must mean there is something wrong with them, not with the social systems that somehow often benefit white people the most. Thus, affirmative action, diversity, equity and inclusion are dirty words to the GOP.

Furthermore, many, including conservative local school boards, are denying the reality of racism. Those individuals are creating a sanitized and falsified version of American history for themselves to believe in, one built on their belief that they have done no harm, protecting themselves from the anguish unsaid in their racism. (In fact, slavery taught Blacks useful skills, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.)

Recent research finds that only one in five white Americans consistently expresses high levels of sympathy about anti-Black discrimination.

Remember President John F. Kennedys famous quote, Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Later, Kennedy said, The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

We have to unite to reignite the idealism that drove our movements for liberation, from labor rights to civil rights. That means standing up to the bigotry and cynicism we're fed from the top down, by forces that have an interest in keeping us divided.

Ed Shew  Lake Saint Louis
Chinese ship builders and the military cooperate in deciding what features in new ship designs can be of use to the military as well as commercial firms buying and operating cruise ships. Foreign cruise ship builders often adopt the same features, at least the ones that confer a commercial advantage. Cruise ship design and equipment is always evolving. One of these developments is obvious; modern cruise ships are huge. Many cruise chips have displacements (250,000 tons) more than twice that of the largest aircraft carriers (100,000 tons). Ships that size are difficult to sink. Part of that is due to size, but the interior design is optimized to keep a sinking cruise ship afloat so that there is time for the thousands of passengers and crew to reach the lifeboats and get away from the sinking ship. Unlike the infamous Titanic over a century ago, modern cruise ships have enough lifeboats for everyone on board. These lifeboats are of a new design which means a larger capacity (over 200 people) are enclosed (for protection from the elements or rough seas) and have engines that can propel these large boats at speeds of up to 20 kilometers an hour.

These large, enclosed and relatively fast lifeboats are often a necessity for the ultra large (over, 200,000 ton) cruise whips. Size matters when it comes to finding a port where a ship can find a deep-water dock that can accommodate these behemoths, many ports dont make the cut. Passengers can come ashore and return to ship via the lifeboats, which also resupply the cruise ships. The lifeboats may be enclosed but they have windows and comfortable seating to make it more attractive to passengers. The largest cruise ships have 30 or more of these large lifeboats.

China noted that these large lifeboats could also rapidly move over 6,000 soldiers armed with assault rifles and some anti-tank (or small ship) missiles. Such a force could secure an undefended coast so landing ships or ferries could bring in vehicles and heavy weapons like artillery and mobile rocket launchers.

For over a decade China has been planning to use a growing number of large civilian ferries, especially the RoRo (Roll On, Roll Off) models, for a major amphibious operation to seize Taiwan or other islands. Chinese military planners have run some simulations from the defenders point-of-view and included the many anti-ship weapons Taiwan and its allies would have available, even after a port had been seized and reinforcements were needed to hold it. This is where the ferries and RoRos were essential, but staff exercises found that the civilian vessels were very vulnerable to attack and unexpected bad weather. These problems would, at the very least, render the civilian vessels unable to complete their missions and in some cases be lost. Arming the civilian ships with missile-defense systems, along with sailors to operate them, would help, but not solve the problem. The new, very large cruise ships are less vulnerable to anti-ship weapons and can carry enormous numbers of troops and support personnel as well as large quantities of supplies and munitions.

The staff exercises also found that there were now so many ferries and RoRos available, and part of the invasion operation, that there were not sufficient nearby Chinese ports to load all the civilian vessels at once. This was found to be a problem when the Germans were planning an amphibious invasion of Britain in 1940. With that in mind, China is now reconsidering its invasion plans.

As part of those plans, many Chinese RoRos have been modified for amphibious operations. Back in 2020 China was observed using a 20-year-old passenger RoRo ferry modified for amphibious operations in an amphibious training exercise. Built in 1995 as a vehicle/passenger ferry, the Bang Chui Dao was modified in 2019 to give it a sturdier and longer rear ramp that could load and unload the 26-ton ZTD-5 amphibious tank as well as the lighter ZBD-5 amphibious IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicles). Other modifications revamped the passenger area to accommodate about a thousand troops. Originally built to carry 1,200 passengers and about a hundred cars and small trucks, with the modifications the ferry can now carry fifty armored vehicles and nearly as many military trucks. In effect the militarized ferry can carry and land an amphibious mechanized infantry battalion on any dock, jetty or coastal area that the ferry can get close enough for its ramp to reach. RoRo ferries like this cannot handle rough weather, especially away from coastal areas. The ferries are not equipped for long voyages and these militarized ferries are intended for use against Taiwan or other nearby land masses. That means they must be loaded at ports close to the landing areas in Taiwan and there are not enough Chinese ports for that, plus such mass loading is observable from orbit and makes surprise attacks more difficult.

China has been modifying ferry designs for military use since 2012 when China launched Bohai Emerald Bead, the first of four passenger ferries designed for military use when called up for military service. These four ferries, each displacing 30,000 tons, can each carry 2,000 passengers (or troops) and up to 300 vehicles and do so for long voyages on the open ocean. This was but the first of many dual use (civilian-military) RoRo ships built in China. The government pays for the military modifications and assists in obtaining the financing for these ships. Owners are compensated when these RoRos are occasionally used for short periods of military service.

Militarized RoRos was an interesting development since it wasnt until 2009 that the first RoRo ship designed and built in China entered service. This ship was designed for military use, as it can carry up to 5,000 vehicles (cars and light trucks), or over a thousand armored vehicles. It has nine fixed and three adjustable decks for vehicles. A RoRo ship moves next to a dock and then deploys ramps so that its cargo of vehicles can quickly drive right off. If, for example, China invaded Taiwan, a RoRo ship could move into a recently captured port and unload an armored brigade in a few hours. Chinese planners became aware that the Taiwanese knew some intact docks in the right places were essential for the RoRos to succeed, so those ports are now more difficult to take quickly and Taiwan has plans to cripple key ports before the RoRos can get to them.

The owner of most of these RoRo ferries is COSCO (China Ocean Shipping Co.), which operates a fleet of over 700 cargo, tanker, and RoRo ships. COSCO is owned by the Chinese government and its ships are available for use by the military. COSCO is a $20 billion a year business that also owns ship repair facilities and port operations around the world.

COSCO has been scrambling to buy or build more RoRo ships, mainly because Chinese automobile manufacturers are exporting more cars to developing countries where Chinese vehicles are very popular, some selling for half what Western cars sell for. Back in 2005 COSCO had only three small RoRo ships, all leased from Japanese owners, and realized it would be cheaper to build Chinese RoRos to move most or all its exported cars. At the time, most of the RoRo ships in the world were owned by Japanese shippers. Noting the military usefulness of RoRo ships, COSCO was ordered to not only build these ships in China, but to optimize them for military use. Now China is exporting most of its vehicles using Chinese-built RoRo ships and many are part of the wartime reserve fleet. This concept of a wartime reserve fleet had long been used in the West.

China has also been building conventional military amphibious assault ships like those used by the United States since the 1960s. In early 2021 China launched the third (of eight) 40,000-ton Type 075 LHDs. This type of amphibious assault ship uses helicopters to get most of its troops ashore. That makes three LHDs put into service or launched within 16 months. The first two were launched in September 2019 and April 2020. The first one entered service April 2021 and another is undergoing sea trials. As more are built the basic design is modified based on the experience of earlier ships and the availability of new technology.

There is a well dock in the rear for loading Type 726 air-cushioned landing craft as well as conventional landing craft. The vehicle deck carries up to a hundred vehicles, usually a mix of trucks and amphibious ZBD-5 IFVs and ZTD-5 light tanks. Vehicles can also be driven on or off the LHDs via ramps, like RoRo vehicle transports and ferries. It will take a few years of experience before determining the optimal mix of combat vehicles and landing craft for this class of LHDs.

For the moment China depends on militarized, but more vulnerable, RoRo ships to deliver most of the troops and vehicles during an amphibious operation and that plan is in trouble because the enemy has the means to damage or sink the RoRos as well as destroy the Taiwanese docks needed to unload the RoRo. There are not enough ports available to load all the RoRos and Taiwan has been practicing airstrikes on some of these ports, using new air-to-surface missiles. Taiwan is following Chinese efforts in this area with great interest and responding with their own disruptive ideas.

The primary problem is that China must cope with a near-peer opponent that is also Chinese. This bothers Chinese military planners because the situation is like what Russia faced in Ukraine. There the Russians were shocked by the unexpected steadfast and effective resistance by the Ukrainians. China, like Russia, has become a police state run by men (Putin and Xi) who expect to rule indefinitely. Putin ignored the poor state of his military and the Chinese have long openly complained of the same thing. China considers itself more pragmatic than Russia and that is good news for Taiwan, which is continuing to prepare to do a Ukraine against any Chinese attack.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The Western Azerbaijan Community has condemned Pashinyans false statements, Trend reports.

The Western Azerbaijan Community, an organization representing Azerbaijanis exiled from Armenia and supporting their right to return, strongly condemns Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's next dishonest statements.

According to a video published a few days ago, Pashinyan announced the "voluntary withdrawal" of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, who were also purportedly paid "compensation" at a press conference on July 25, 2023.

"We categorically deny that Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia were compensated in exchange for giving up their right to return." "We remain steadfast in our demand for the right to return to our ancestral lands in Armenia," the Community stated in a statement.

The statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia are another attempt to distort the truth and evade responsibility for the injustice committed against the Azerbaijani community. The groundless claims of the Armenian Government aggravate the suffering of the exiled Azerbaijanis and complicate the path to peace and reconciliation.

Armenia's refusal to ensure Azerbaijani rights clearly proves that it discriminates on ethnic grounds based on hatred of Azerbaijanis and the policy of "no national minorities, no problems".

"We call on Armenia to follow the example of Azerbaijan, which allowed Armenians to return safely to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan after the end of the conflict in 2020. Armenia should show the same level of respect for human rights and international law and ensure the right of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to return to their homes in safety and dignity," the Community said.

"We demand that the Armenian government stop spreading false accusations and start a substantive dialogue with our community regarding the legitimate concerns of the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia," the statement says.
Industrial monitoring is a critical aspect of modern manufacturing processes, ensuring the efficiency, safety and compliance of operations.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2023 / Applied Measurement, a leading provider of innovative industrial monitoring solutions, sheds light on the revolutionary impact of advanced data logger systems in the realm of industrial monitoring.

Applied Measurement

As a pioneer in the industrial monitoring industry, Applied Measurement is committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions that transform how industries operate.

According to Applied Measurement, advanced data logger systems have emerged as a transformative solution in this domain, offering unparalleled data collection, analysis and real-time insights. By integrating state-of-the-art data loggers, industries can now optimise their operations with precision and agility.

Data loggers serve as the cornerstone of industrial monitoring, capturing and storing data from various sensors and instruments over time, explains Applied Measurement. These compact and versatile devices can monitor a wide array of parameters, including temperature, humidity, pressure, voltage and more. The data obtained is invaluable for identifying patterns, detecting anomalies and making informed decisions to enhance productivity.

Pressure transmitters also play a vital monitoring role in the industry. As Applied Measurement explains, a pressure transmitter measures fluid pressure accurately. By converting pressure into electrical signals, these devices enable continuous monitoring of pressure levels in industrial processes. The integration of pressure transmitters with data loggers empowers industries to monitor pressure variations and promptly address any deviations that may impact product quality or process stability.

Flow sensors form another integral part of industrial monitoring, facilitating the measurement of fluid flow rates in various systems. With precise flow data at hand, industries can optimise flow processes, minimise energy consumption and prevent potential disruptions in the production line. Combining flow sensors with advanced data loggers enables real-time tracking of flow patterns, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.

The benefits of advanced data logger systems in industrial monitoring extends beyond data acquisition. The integration of these technologies promotes predictive maintenance practices, reducing downtime and preventing costly breakdowns. Applied Measurement says these monitoring capabilities offer enhanced accessibility, allowing stakeholders to oversee operations from anywhere, facilitating faster decision-making and troubleshooting.

As a pioneer in the industrial monitoring industry, Applied Measurement is committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions that transform how industries operate. By harnessing the power of advanced systems, industries can elevate their efficiency, precision and competitiveness in today's dynamic business landscape.

About Applied Measurement

Established in 1976, Applied Measurement has built a reputation for delivering innovative and effective solutions in the realm of physical parameter measurement. Emphasising a comprehensive "one-stop-shop" approach, the company handles sensor and system applications from design to distribution, support and calibration.

Contact Information

Applied Measurement

Marketing Manager

[email protected]

(03) 98745777

SOURCE: Applied Measurement

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Celebrating Love's Brilliance: Ritani's Insights into the Captivating Engagement Ring of Lenny Hochstein and Katharina Mazepa

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Ritani, a leading online jeweler, is delighted to comment on the spectacular engagement ring that has captured the hearts of jewelry enthusiasts and celebrity followers everywhere. Celebrity plastic surgeon Lenny Hochstein, age 57, and his Austrian model girlfriend Katharina Mazepa, 27, have officially announced their engagement, revealing picturesque proposal photos that showcase her exquisite engagement ring, a truly exceptional piece of jewelry artistry that symbolizes their profound love and commitment.

Ritani Radiant Diamond

The expertly crafted engagement ring features a dazzling radiant-cut diamond, estimated to be around 12 carats. The stunning gem takes center stage as a solitaire stone, intentionally designed to exhibit its natural brilliance and exceptional clarity. The deliberate absence of accent design elements allows the diamond's nearly colorless nature to emerge and shine brilliantly

Ria Papasifakis, the Head of Product at Ritani, expressed her admiration for the extraordinary engagement ring: "The choice of a radiant-cut diamond as a solitaire exudes timeless elegance and represents a harmonious blend of classic and modern design," said Papasifakis.

"The sheer magnificence of the stone, combined with its exceptional clarity and near-colorless nature, makes it a true treasure. We estimate the ring's value to be as much as $1.5 million, reflecting this remarkable piece's rarity and unparalleled beauty," Papasifakis explained.

"A diamond of such substantial size and exceptional quality is a true rarity in the world of fine jewelry," Papasifakis stated. "The meticulous process of selecting the perfect diamond for Katharina most likely involved weeks of careful planning and consideration. The result is an awe-inspiring masterpiece that symbolizes the profound love shared between Lenny Hochstein and Katharina Mazepa."

As the world marvels at the sheer brilliance of this radiant-cut diamond engagement ring, Ritani extends its warmest congratulations to Lenny Hochstein and Katharina Mazepa on their engagement.

Read more about this celebrity engagement and design your own dream engagement ring by visiting: https://www.ritani.com/blogs/news/famed-plastic-surgeon-lenny-hochstein-is-engaged-to-his-model-girlfriend-her-ring-may-be-worth-over-1M

Contact Information

Taylor Kelly

Director of Organic Growth & Content Strategy

[email protected]

(347) 805-2522

SOURCE: Ritani

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BellRing Brands, Inc. (NYSE: BRBR) announced that Shawn Conway has been appointed to its Board of Directors (the Board) and the Audit Committee, effective October 1, 2023. With the addition of Mr. Conway, the Board will consist of seven members.

Mr. Conway is a seasoned executive who brings a wealth of experience to the Board, with over thirty years of experience in leadership roles across several consumer product categories with high-growth, branded consumer products and businesses. Mr. Conway has held multiple positions in general management, operations, supply chain and finance in high-growth, premium-branded specialty food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods companies.

Mr. Conway currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest winery in the Pacific Northwest, leading more than two dozen winery brands across three states. Prior to joining Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Mr. Conway served in various leadership positions across a 12-year tenure at Peets Coffee, Inc., culminating as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Peets Coffee, Inc., he served as Senior Vice President of Operations at SKYY Spirits, where he spent nearly a decade of his career. Mr. Conway earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from Santa Clara University.

Mr. Conway currently serves on the Board of Directors of SAMBAZON, an acronym for Sustainable Management of the Brazilian Amazon, a leading supplier of certified fair trade and organic Acai. Mr. Conway previously served on the Board of Directors of Peets China Inc., Intelligentsia Coffee Inc., Stumptown Coffee Inc. and Mighty Leaf Tea Inc. In addition, Mr. Conway served as the Chairman for the Boards of Peets China Inc., Intelligentsia Coffee Inc., Stumptown Coffee Inc. and Mighty Leaf Tea Inc., for various years while serving as a director on these boards.
Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) today announced that Anne Leyden has been appointed to serve on its Board of Directors. Anne is a senior human capital management executive with broad consumer and business-to-business leadership experience in the financial services and consumer credit sectors.

Anne is an extremely talented leader and strategist, and we are very pleased to welcome her to the Radian Board, said Radian Board Chairman Howard B. Culang. Throughout her career, Anne has demonstrated an impressive ability for developing high-performing teams, processes and strategies, and we look forward to benefiting from her expertise as we continue to build long-term stockholder value.

From forward-thinking People policy development to successful approaches for growing businesses and acquisition integration, Anne brings a valuable array of skills and experience that will complement our Boards existing expertise during this exciting phase for the company, said Radian Chief Executive Officer Rick Thornberry. Our People are the Difference is a core value for Radian and our thoughtful and independent Board is deeply committed to ensuring that we support and maximize our talent in the pursuit of our mission to provide affordable, sustainable and equitable homeownership  and we know Anne will help us do even more to further that objective.

About Anne Leyden

Anne Leyden, 62, served from 2014 until 2021 as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer for TransUnion (NYSE: TRU), a consumer credit reporting agency and a global information and insights company operating in 30 countries with more than $3 billion in annual revenues. During her tenure, she built and executed the talent, leadership, culture, and employee engagement strategies that supported the company through its IPO and a period of growth that saw its revenues and employee population double. Working with the Board, Leyden established executive compensation programs and succession planning processes. She also introduced leadership development programming, DEI strategies and reporting, and supported the integration of strategic acquisitions and the evolution of the global operating model.

Prior to joining TransUnion, Leyden spent 18 years in various roles at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Bank One (before its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase), including as Senior Vice President and Head of HR for JPMorgans Retail Financial Services division, which included its nationwide Mortgage, Retail Banking, Auto and other Consumer Lending organizations. During her HR leadership tenure, the retail organization grew to include nearly 122,000 employees and generated more than $30 billion in revenues.

Leyden earned a bachelors degree in Human Development from Colorado State University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: AMBC) (Ambac), a financial services holding company, today announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Riverton Insurance Agency Corp., a New Jersey-based insurance services business consisting of an MGA and a retail agency. Terms of the deal were not released.

Rivertons MGA, Professionals Best, offers professional liability insurance programs to licensed architects, engineers, construction managers, and real estate professionals. The Riverton platform also includes ALIA, a retail agency that places professional liability for real estate agents with various markets.

We are excited to welcome Riverton to our growing portfolio of insurance distribution businesses, said Claude LeBlanc, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ambac. Our vision is to build a best-in-class property and casualty insurance distribution platform, and the addition of Riverton advances that goal.

Riverton will join Ambacs insurance distribution division, Cirrata Group.

The Riverton team has deep roots in professional lines, said Naveen Anand, President of Cirrata Group. We look forward to helping them build on the strong foundation theyve already laid.

Riverton was founded in 2017 by L. Lenny Waldhauser, who has more than three decades of experience in professional lines insurance across several industry leading insurance underwriters.

Joining Ambac will position us to accelerate growth while continuing to deliver profitable results for our carrier partners, Waldhauser, Rivertons CEO, said. The Cirrata platform gives us access to a full suite of business services and resources that will support and enable such growth while maintaining strong underwriting selectivity.

About Ambac

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (Ambac or AFG) is a financial services holding company headquartered in New York City. Ambacs core business is a growing specialty P&C distribution and underwriting platform. Ambac also has a legacy financial guaranty business in runoff. Ambacs common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AMBC. Ambac is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the investing public, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations. To that end, we use our website to convey information about our businesses, including the anticipated release of quarterly financial results, quarterly financial, statistical and business-related information. For more information, please go to www.ambac.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807114844/en/

Investors:

Charles Sebaski

Managing Director, Investor Relations

[email protected]

Media:

Kate Smith

Director, Corporate Communications

[email protected]

Source: Ambac Financial Group, Inc.
MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Disprz, an AI-powered learning and skilling suite, has raised $30 Million in its Series C funding round led by Lumos Capital and 360 ONE Asset (IIFL), with participation from Kae Capital, KOIS, & Dallas Venture Capital. The funds raised in the round will be utilized for global market expansion and product development using new-age technologies like Generative AI in emerging markets such as India, & expanding to the US as they have already achieved product market fit. The company serves industry leaders like Thrasio, Amazon, Mint Dentistry, & others.

Since its inception in 2015, Disprz has witnessed remarkable growth & is one of few HR tech startups in Series C segment. The companys consistent revenue growth, during and after the peak of the pandemic, shows that people's advancement is recession-proof problem statement within HR tech - it is a core problem of humanity, stated Kuljit Chadha, Co-Founder & COO, of Disprz.

Subbu Viswanathan, Co-founder & CEO of Disprz, said, "Disprz is at the forefront of innovation in the learning and skilling space. We are on a mission to equip the workforce for the rapidly changing world, and we solve this mission using a B2B SaaS approach."

Rohan Wadhwa, Managing Director of Lumos Capital Group, said, "Disprz provides the rare combination of breadth in product with their Learning Management System, Learning Experience Platform, and Frontline Enablement offerings, to meet a spectrum of customer needs and also depth of product quality to ensure its serving customers with the highest level of product innovation."

Disprz has established its presence in every continent, serving over 350 organizations & boasting impressive roster of renowned household brands & industry leaders. The fundraise will enable Disprz to expand global team, hire data scientists, skilling scientists, and engineers to complement its product capabilities & accelerate success through bigger & local go-to-market teams. The company also plans to form strategic partnerships and make strategic acquisitions, partnering with the broader learning ecosystem, including HCM players, people reward platforms, learning content players, and assessment players.

Disprz envisions itself as people intelligence suite on global scale, extending beyond employee skilling to back every stage in an employee's lifecycle. The company aims to empower organizations worldwide to advance their workforce potential through skills, data & personalization.

For more information, visit https://disprz.ai/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230801744431/en/

Media Contact

Falguni Khemka

[email protected]

+91-8318076955

Source: Disprz
EVANSTON, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Engineering Director, Inc. (EDI), in Partnership with AtmosphericIQ LLC, is thrilled to announce the launch of the SpecDoctor, a cutting-edge, experimental Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool designed to assist with the management of corrosion-related challenges. SpecDoctor embodies the latest advancements in machine learning algorithms.

SpecDoctor provides information about ISO 12944 and ISO 9223 for protective coating systems. It also covers a range of general corrosion subjects, including key topics such as underground pipeline corrosion, cathodic protection systems, and stress corrosion cracking (SCC). This AI guide is also multilingual, making it easily accessible to the global market.

SpecDoctor is a tool born out of necessity. As we encounter increasingly complex engineering challenges, having a comprehensive understanding of corrosion issues is vital, said Joseph Mazzella, CEO of Engineering Director, Inc. (EDI).

By bringing SpecDoctor into the market, Engineering Director, Inc. reaffirms its commitment to empowering industries with advancing technology that will streamline complex processes and improve overall productivity.

About Engineering Director, Inc. (EDI)

Engineering Director, Inc., (EDI) a renowned name in the corrosion engineering sector, focuses on integrating technology to solve industry-specific challenges. The company is committed to delivering efficient, innovative, and user-friendly solutions that enhance productivity and promote sustainability.

Please visit our website at www.specdoctor.com or contact our press office at [email protected].

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803136015/en/

Thomas Hayden

CTO, Engineering Director, Inc. (EDI)

[email protected]

Source: Engineering Director, Inc.
Earnings per share of $0.34

Company increases quarterly dividend rate by 7%

Acquires seven water and wastewater systems

Reaffirms annual guidance

BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) today reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

We are pleased to report strong results for the first half of the year. Despite the weather challenges early in the year, we continue our track record of delivering strong financial results through significant and continuous investment in improvements for our customers, supplemented by a steady stream of acquisition of water and wastewater utilities, said Essential Utilities Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Franklin. As an industry leading water, wastewater, and natural gas utility, we remain committed to our mission while providing long-term value to our customers, shareholders and employees.

Operating Results

Essential reported record net income of $91.3 million for the second quarter of 2023, compared to $82.3 million for the same quarter in 2022. Earnings per share were $0.34 for the quarter compared to $0.31 in the second quarter of 2022. For the quarter, revenues from regulatory recoveries, customer growth, and increased volume from the regulated water segment were offset by other items, decreased regulated natural gas segment volume, and lower expenses.

Revenues for the quarter were $436.7 million compared to $448.8 million in the second quarter of 2022. Lower purchased gas costs and decreased volume from the regulated natural gas segment contributed to the decrease in revenues for the quarter, which was offset by additional revenues from regulatory recoveries and increased volume and customer growth from the regulated water segment. Operations and maintenance expenses decreased 1.1% to $133.5 million for the second quarter of 2023 compared to $135.0 million in the second quarter of 2022.

Essentials regulated water segment reported revenues for the quarter of $293.7 million, an increase of 9.0% compared to $269.4 million in the second quarter of 2022. Regulatory recoveries, customer growth, and increased volume were the largest contributors to the increase in revenues for the period. Operations and maintenance expenses for Essentials regulated water segment increased to $93.2 million for the second quarter of 2023 compared to $92.8 million in the second quarter of 2022, an increase of just 0.4%.

Essentials regulated natural gas segment reported revenues for the quarter of $139.0 million, compared to $167.7 million in the second quarter of 2022. Purchased gas costs decreased 37.4% to $39.7 million for the quarter as compared to $63.4 million for the same quarter in 2022. As a result, the recovery of lower purchased gas costs was the largest driver in the decrease of revenues. Operations and maintenance expenses for Essentials regulated natural gas segment decreased to $41.1 million for the second quarter of 2023 compared to $44.9 million in the second quarter of 2022.

As of June 30, 2023, Essential reported year-to-date net income of $282.7 million, or $1.07 per share compared to $281.7 million or $1.07 per share through the same period of 2022.

For the first six months of 2023, the company reported revenues of $1,163.2 million, an increase of 1.3%, compared to $1,148.0 million in the first half of 2022. Operations and maintenance expenses were down 2.2% for the first half of 2023 to $271.5 million compared to $277.6 million in 2022.

Dividend

On August 1, 2023, Essentials board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.3071 per share of common stock. This represents a 7% increase to the quarterly dividend rate and is the companys 33rd increase in the last 32 years. In the last ten years, the company has more than doubled the dividend paid to shareholders. This dividend will be payable on September 1, 2023, to shareholders of record on August 11, 2023. The company has paid a consecutive quarterly cash dividend for more than 78 years.

Rate Activity

To date in 2023, the companys regulated water segment received rate awards or infrastructure surcharges in Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia of $26.4 million and its regulated natural gas segment received infrastructure surcharges in Pennsylvania of $20.9 million. The company currently has base rate cases or infrastructure surcharges pending in Ohio, Texas, and Virginia for its regulated water segment, which combined would add an estimated $24.7 million in incremental annual revenues, and an infrastructure surcharge pending in Kentucky for its regulated natural gas segment for an estimated $1.5 million in incremental annual revenues.

Capital Expenditures

Essential invested approximately $547.6 million in the first half of the year to improve its regulated water and natural gas infrastructure systems and to enhance customer service across its operations. The company continues to be a leader in the country at replacing miles of underground utility pipe and is committed to maintaining elevated levels of infrastructure investment. The company expects to invest approximately $1.1 billion annually through 2025 to improve water and natural gas systems and better serve customers through improved information technology. Essentials investments include replacing and expanding its water and wastewater utility infrastructure and replacing and upgrading its natural gas utility infrastructure, with the latter leading to significant reductions in methane emissions that occur in aged gas pipes. The capital investments made to rehabilitate and expand the infrastructure of the communities Essential serves are critical to its mission of safely and reliably delivering Earths most essential resources.

Water Utility Growth by Acquisition

Essentials continued growth by acquisition allows the company to provide safe and reliable water and wastewater service to an even larger customer base than it could from organic customer growth alone. On June 30, 2023, the companys regulated water segment subsidiary, Aqua Ohio, closed on its acquisition of the Union Rome Sewer system in Lawrence County, Ohio, adding approximately $25.5 million in rate base and 5,300 customer equivalents. On July 24, 2023, the companys regulated water segment subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania, closed on its acquisition of the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah in Schuylkill County, PA, adding approximately $12 million in rate base and 3,000 customer connections. Additionally, at the end of July, the companys regulated water segment subsidiaries, Aqua Texas, Aqua Illinois, and Aqua Ohio, closed on the acquisitions of the Southern Oaks Water Company, a portion of the Village of Frankfort Water and Wastewater system assets, and the Village of La Rue water system, respectively. Collectively, these three acquisitions added four systems, nearly 2,500 customers and $7 million in rate base to the companys footprint. So far in 2023, the company has acquired seven systems, that collectively have added over $44.5 million in rate base and more than 11,000 new customers or equivalent dwelling units to the companys footprint.

The company has four signed purchase agreements for additional wastewater systems in Pennsylvania and Illinois that are pending closing and are expected to serve over 208,000 equivalent retail customers or equivalent dwelling units and total approximately $336 million in purchase price. The companys $276.5 million agreement to acquire the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA), a Pennsylvania sewer authority that serves approximately 198,000 equivalent dwelling units in the Philadelphia suburbs, is included among these signed purchase agreements, but is not included in any earnings guidance prior to the second half of 2025.

The pipeline of potential water and wastewater municipal acquisitions the company is actively pursuing represents over 400,000 total customers. The company remains on track to annually increase customer connections by 2% to 3%, on average, through acquisitions and organic customer growth.

Environmental, Social and Governance

As announced in January, Essential reaffirmed its ESG commitments, including its industry-leading, multi-year plan to ensure that finished water does not exceed 13 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA compounds across all states served by its regulated water segment. This commitment better positions the company to meet the recently proposed maximum level for PFAS chemicals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the company is confident that we will be able to comply with the final EPA standards and timeline, thus ensuring high quality water and exceptional service to our customers.

Reaffirms 2023 Financial and Growth Guidance

Essential published guidance for 2023, including its long-term guidance, and reaffirms this guidance as previously announced:

In 2023, net income per diluted common share will be $1.85 to $1.90

Through 2025, earnings per share will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 5 to 7%, based off the companys 2022 earnings per share of $1.77

Through 2025, we will make regulated infrastructure investments of approximately $1.1 billion annually, weighted towards the regulated water segment

Through 2025, the regulated water segment rate base will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6 to 7%

Through 2025, the regulated natural gas segment rate base will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 8 to 10%

The regulated water customer base (or equivalent dwelling units) of the business will grow at an average annual growth rate of between 2 and 3% from acquisitions and organic customer growth

Excluding the planned divestiture of West Virginia, the regulated natural gas customer base of the business will be stable for 2023.

Reaffirms ESG Guidance and Commitments

Reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2035 from the companys 2019 baseline

Multiyear plan to ensure that finished water does not exceed the federal maximum contaminant level once finalized, of PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA compounds

Multiyear plan to increase diverse supplier spend to 15%

Multiyear plan to reach 17% employees of color

Essential reaffirms its commitment to substantially reduce Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. The company plans to achieve these reductions through extensive gas pipeline replacement, the purchase of renewable energy, accelerated methane leak detection and repair, and various other planned initiatives. Essential also reaffirms its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to ensure the diversity of its employees and suppliers reflects the diversity of its customer population. Essential continues to be an industry leader regarding water quality with its commitment to test and treat for PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA compounds across all states served by its regulated water segment. The company reaffirms its commitment to providing finished water that will meet the EPA timelines and standards.

Updated Guidance Assumptions

Essential Utilities does not guarantee future results of any kind. Guidance is subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, those factors outlined in the Forward Looking Statements of this release and the Risk Factors section of the companys annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The earnings per share, infrastructure investment and rate base guidance includes the signed municipal water and wastewater acquisitions for which the company has entered into signed purchase agreements as of the date the guidance was announced but does not include DELCORA prior to the second half of 2025 or other potential municipal acquisitions from the companys list of acquisition opportunities that currently represents over 400,000 customer equivalents. The average annual regulated water segment growth guidance reflects the companys proven acquisition track record of adding nearly 129,000 customers or equivalent dwelling units and over $526 million in rate base since 2015, its current backlog of nearly $336 million of signed pending acquisitions with over 208,000 equivalent customers, and the current acquisition landscape.

The guidance is also based on the companys expectation that it will continue to issue equity and debt on an as needed basis to support acquisitions and capital investment plans.

The companys guidance does not include any impact from the agreement to sell its West Virginia natural gas utility, which is expected to close later this year, as it is not expected to materially impact the earnings per share, infrastructure investment and rate base guidance.

Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call Information

Date: August 8, 2023

Time: 11 a.m. EDT (please dial in by 10:45 a.m.)

Webcast and slide presentation link: https://www.essential.co/events-and-presentations/events-calendar

Replay Dial-in #: 866.583.1035 (U.S.) & International callers can find their dial in here

Confirmation code: 3478595

The companys conference call with financial analysts will take place on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The call and presentation will be webcast live so interested parties may listen over the internet by logging on to Essential.co and following the link for Investors. The conference call will be archived in the Investor Relations section of the companys website for 90 days following the call. Additionally, the call will be recorded and made available for replay at 2 p.m. on August 8, 2023, for 10 business days following the call. To access the audio replay in the U.S., dial 866.583.1035 (pass code 3478595). International callers can find their dial in number here (pass code 3478595).

About Essential

Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) delivers safe, clean, reliable services that improve quality of life for individuals, families, and entire communities. With a focus on water, wastewater and natural gas, Essential is committed to sustainable growth, operational excellence, a superior customer experience, and premier employer status. We are advocates for the communities we serve and are dedicated stewards of natural lands, protecting more than 7,600 acres of forests and other habitats throughout our footprint.

Operating as the Aqua and Peoples brands, Essential serves approximately 5.5 million people across 10 states. Essential is one of the most significant publicly traded water, wastewater service and natural gas providers in the U.S. Learn more at www.essential.co.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which generally include words such as believes, expects, intends, anticipates, estimates, and similar expressions. The Company can give no assurance that any actual or future results or events discussed in these statements will be achieved. Any forward-looking statements represent its views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the companys actual results to differ materially from the statements contained in this release. Such forward-looking statements include, among others: the guidance range of net income per diluted common share; the continuation of the three-year period of earnings growth; the anticipated amount of capital investment; the reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2035 from the companys 2019 baseline; its multi-year plan to ensure that finished water does not exceed the federal maximum contaminant level once finalized, of PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA compounds and that it is positioned to comply with the final EPA standards once finalized; that the companys municipal growth pipeline is strong; that the company will be able to positively impact the companys employees, customers, communities it serves, the environment, and its shareholders; the companys ability to increase diverse supplier spend to 15%; the companys ability to achieve 17% employees of color; and, the companys commitment to maintaining strong investment grade credit ratings with S & P and Moodys. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including: disruptions in the global economy; potential disruptions in the supply chain for raw and finished materials; the continuation of the company's growth-through-acquisition program; general economic business conditions; the companys ability to raise additional equity, including on an as needed basis; housing and customer growth trends; unfavorable weather conditions; the success of certain cost-containment initiatives; changes in regulations or regulatory treatment; the companys ability to successfully close municipally owned systems presently under agreement and successfully complete other acquisitions and dispositions; and other factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Essential's business, please refer to Essential's annual, quarterly, and other SEC filings. Essential is not under any obligation - and expressly disclaims any such obligation - to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

WTRGF

Essential Utilities, Inc. and Subsidiaries Selected Operating Data (In thousands, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Quarter Ended Year Ended June 30, June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Operating revenues $ 436,700 $ 448,756 $ 1,163,150 $ 1,148,031 Operations and maintenance expense $ 133,508 $ 134,981 $ 271,502 $ 277,562 Net income $ 91,268 $ 82,291 $ 282,702 $ 281,667 Basic net income per common share $ 0.35 $ 0.31 $ 1.07 $ 1.08 Diluted net income per common share $ 0.34 $ 0.31 $ 1.07 $ 1.07 Basic average common shares outstanding 264,418 262,099 264,306 262,026 Diluted average common shares outstanding 264,818 262,558 264,840 262,545

Essential Utilities, Inc. and Subsidiaries Consolidated Statement of Operations (In thousands, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Quarter Ended Year Ended June 30, June 30, 2023 2022 2023 2022 Operating revenues $ 436,700 $ 448,756 $ 1,163,150 $ 1,148,031 Cost & expenses: Operations and maintenance 133,508 134,981 271,502 277,562 Purchased gas 41,933 75,143 298,248 302,855 Depreciation 84,937 77,425 167,860 155,303 Amortization 724 1,751 1,595 2,219 Taxes other than income taxes 20,348 21,720 43,226 44,727 Total 281,450 311,020 782,431 782,666 Operating income 155,250 137,736 380,719 365,365 Other expense (income): Interest expense 69,182 55,221 141,850 108,857 Interest income (970 ) (824 ) (1,789 ) (1,433 ) Allowance for funds used during construction (3,424 ) (6,151 ) (9,112 ) (11,990 ) Gain on sale of other assets (220 ) (478 ) (469 ) (478 ) Other (323 ) (423 ) (563 ) (2,125 ) Income before income taxes 91,005 90,391 250,802 272,534 Provision for income taxes benefit (263 ) 8,100 (31,900 ) (9,133 ) Net income $ 91,268 $ 82,291 $ 282,702 $ 281,667 Net income per common share: Basic $ 0.35 $ 0.31 $ 1.07 $ 1.08 Diluted $ 0.34 $ 0.31 $ 1.07 $ 1.07 Average common shares outstanding: Basic 264,418 262,099 264,306 262,026 Diluted 264,818 262,558 264,840 262,545

Essential Utilities, Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (In thousands of dollars) (Unaudited) June 30, December 31, 2023 2022 Net property, plant and equipment $ 11,590,849 $ 11,130,946 Current assets 406,710 658,159 Regulatory assets and other assets 4,104,376 3,930,002 $ 16,101,935 $ 15,719,107 Total equity $ 5,614,698 $ 5,377,386 Long-term debt, excluding current portion, net of debt issuance costs 6,615,516 6,371,057 Current portion of long-term debt and loans payable 246,792 427,856 Other current liabilities 518,343 594,013 Deferred credits and other liabilities 3,106,586 2,948,795 $ 16,101,935 $ 15,719,107

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807637827/en/

Media Contact:

Jeanne Russo

Vice President, Communications

Media Hotline: 1.877.325.3477

[email protected]



Investor Contact:

Brian Dingerdissen

Vice President, IR and Treasurer

O: 610.645.1191

[email protected]

Source: Essential Utilities Inc.
2Q23 Net Income of $54.6M and Diluted Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $0.50

Utility Progressing Clean Energy Transition and Executing Well on Capital Plan

Bank Results Reflect Solid Credit Quality, Strong Capital Position and Ample Liquidity

HONOLULU--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE: HE) (HEI) today reported consolidated net income for common stock for the second quarter of 2023 of $54.6 million and EPS of $0.50, compared to $52.5 million and EPS of $0.48 for the second quarter of 2022.

We executed well across the enterprise at both our utility and bank this quarter despite a challenging operating environment, said Scott Seu, HEI president and CEO.

Our utility grew net income to $45.3 million, and although operations and maintenance expenses were elevated during the quarter, we expect some of those expenses to moderate in the second half of the year, with full year expenses still expected to be within annual revenue adjustment (ARA) allowed levels. The utility is executing well on its capital plan, ensuring the reliability and resilience of our system as we progress our clean energy transition.

American Savings Bank (ASB) delivered solid results for the quarter and grew net income to $20.2 million despite macro headwinds impacting the banking sector. Credit quality remains strong, indicative of the continued strength and resilience of Hawaiis economy, consumers, and businesses. ASBs capital position remains healthy, with liquidity of approximately three times uninsured or uncollateralized deposits. The banks loyal and long-tenured deposit base demonstrates the value of ASBs customer relationships, said Seu.

HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC COMPANY EARNINGS1

Hawaiian Electric Companys (Hawaiian Electric) net income for the second quarter of 2023 was $45.3 million, compared to $44.1 million in the second quarter of 2022, with the increase primarily driven by the following after-tax items:

$11 million higher revenues, consisting of $7 million from the ARA mechanism, $2 million from the fossil fuel cost risk-sharing mechanism, $1 million from the major project interim recovery (MPIR) mechanism, and $1 million from a one-time true-up of billable costs; and

$2 million higher allowance for funds used during construction (AFUDC) related to increased capital expenditures.

These items were partially offset by the following after-tax items:

$9 million in higher operations and maintenance expenses, including $4 million from higher transmission and distribution expenses, $2 million in higher outside services costs, and $3 million in other expenses, including increased labor and employee benefits costs and higher facilities expenses;

higher facilities expenses; $2 million higher interest expense due to increased borrowings; and

$1 million higher depreciation expense due to increasing investments to integrate more renewable energy and improve customer reliability and system efficiency.

AMERICAN SAVINGS BANK EARNINGS

ASBs second quarter 2023 net income was $20.2 million, compared to $18.6 million in the first quarter of 2023 and $17.5 million in the second quarter of 2022. The increase in net income compared to the linked quarter was primarily due to higher noninterest income, a lower provision for credit losses and lower noninterest expense, partially offset by lower net interest income. The increase in net income compared to the prior year quarter was primarily due to higher noninterest income, a lower provision for credit losses and higher net interest income, partially offset by higher noninterest expense.

Total earning assets as of June 30, 2023 were $9.2 billion, up approximately 0.6% from December 31, 2022.

Total loans were $6.1 billion as of June 30, 2023, up 2.7% from December 31, 2022, reflecting growth across most of the portfolio.

Total deposits were $8.2 billion as of June 30, 2023, a decrease of 0.08% from December 31, 2022. Core deposits declined 2.8%, while certificates of deposits increased 33.3%. As of June 30, 2023, 86% of our deposits were F.D.I.C. insured or fully collateralized, up slightly from 85% as of March 31, 2023, with approximately 79% of deposits F.D.I.C. insured. For the second quarter of 2023, the average cost of funds was 0.83%, up 17 basis points versus the linked quarter and up 78 basis points versus the prior year quarter.

ASBs return on average equity was 16.2%, compared to 15.5% in the linked quarter and 12.2% in the second quarter of 2022. Return on average assets was 0.84% for the second quarter of 2023, compared to 0.78% in the linked quarter and 0.76% in the prior year quarter.

In the second quarter of 2023, ASB paid dividends of $11.0 million to HEI. ASB had a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 7.8% as of June 30, 2023.

Please refer to ASBs news release issued on July 28, 2023 for additional information on ASB.

HOLDING AND OTHER COMPANIES

The holding and other companies net loss was $10.9 million in the second quarter of 2023, compared to $9.1 million in the second quarter of 2022. The higher net loss compared to the prior year quarter was primarily due to higher interest expense.

BOARD DECLARES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

On August 3, 2023, HEI announced that the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.36 per share, payable on September 8, 2023 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 18, 2023 (ex-dividend date is August 17, 2023). This quarterly dividend is equivalent to an annual rate of $1.44 per share. Dividends have been paid on an uninterrupted basis since 1901. At the indicated annual dividend rate and based on the closing price per share on August 3, 2023 of $37.72, HEIs dividend yield is 3.8%.

WEBCAST AND CONFERENCE CALL TO DISCUSS EARNINGS AND 2023 GUIDANCE

HEI will conduct a webcast and conference call to review its consolidated results and 2023 earnings guidance and outlook today at 10:15 a.m. Hawaii time (4:15 p.m. Eastern).

To listen to the conference call, dial 1-833-470-1428 (U.S.) or +1-929-526-1599 (international) and enter passcode 910697. Parties may also access presentation materials and/or listen to the conference call by visiting the conference call link on HEIs website at www.hei.com under Investor Relations, sub-heading News and Events  Events and Presentations.

A replay will be available online and via phone. The online replay will be available on HEIs website about two hours after the event. An audio replay will also be available about two hours after the event through August 21, 2023. To access the audio replay, dial 1-929-458-6194 (U.S.) or +44-204-525-0658 (international) and enter passcode 380478.

HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (Hawaiian Electric) intend to continue to use HEIs website, www.hei.com, as a means of disclosing additional information; such disclosures will be included in the Investor Relations section of the website. Accordingly, investors should routinely monitor the Investor Relations section of HEIs website, in addition to following HEIs, Hawaiian Electrics and ASBs press releases, HEIs and Hawaiian Electrics Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and HEIs public conference calls and webcasts. Investors may sign up to receive e-mail alerts via the Investor Relations section of the website. The information on HEIs website is not incorporated by reference into this document or into HEIs and Hawaiian Electrics SEC filings unless, and except to the extent, specifically incorporated by reference.

Investors may also wish to refer to the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Hawaii (PUC) website at dms.puc.hawaii.gov/dms to review documents filed with, and issued by, the PUC. No information on the PUC website is incorporated by reference into this document or into HEIs and Hawaiian Electrics SEC filings.

ABOUT HEI

The HEI family of companies provides the energy and financial services that empower much of the economic and community activity of Hawaii. HEIs electric utility, Hawaiian Electric, supplies power to approximately 95% of Hawaiis population and is undertaking an ambitious effort to decarbonize its operations and the broader state economy. Its banking subsidiary, ASB, is one of Hawaiis largest financial institutions, providing a wide array of banking and other financial services and working to advance economic growth, affordability and financial fitness. HEI also helps advance Hawaiis sustainability goals through investments by its non-regulated subsidiary, Pacific Current. For more information, visit www.hei.com.

____________________

1 Note: Utility amounts indicated as after-tax in this earnings release are based upon adjusting items using a current year composite statutory tax rate of 25.75%.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release may contain forward-looking statements, which include statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and usually include words such as will, expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, predicts, estimates or similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance, ongoing business strategies or prospects or possible future actions are also forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and the accuracy of assumptions concerning HEI and its subsidiaries, the performance of the industries in which they do business and economic, political and market factors, among other things. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

Forward-looking statements in this release should be read in conjunction with the Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors discussions (which are incorporated by reference herein) set forth in HEIs Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and HEIs other periodic reports that discuss important factors that could cause HEIs results to differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the report, presentation or filing in which they are made. Except to the extent required by the federal securities laws, HEI, Hawaiian Electric, ASB and their subsidiaries undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME DATA (Unaudited) Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 (in thousands, except per share amounts) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Revenues Electric utility $ 794,191 $ 818,873 $ 1,624,552 $ 1,527,665 Bank 96,885 75,324 190,742 150,439 Other 4,609 1,410 8,628 2,571 Total revenues 895,685 895,607 1,823,922 1,680,675 Expenses Electric utility 720,566 747,719 1,475,052 1,382,916 Bank 72,017 53,401 142,354 98,486 Other 10,123 7,819 20,019 13,329 Total expenses 802,706 808,939 1,637,425 1,494,731 Operating income (loss) Electric utility 73,625 71,154 149,500 144,749 Bank 24,868 21,923 48,388 51,953 Other (5,514 ) (6,409 ) (11,391 ) (10,758 ) Total operating income 92,979 86,668 186,497 185,944 Retirement defined benefits creditother than service costs 1,153 1,246 2,305 2,489 Interest expense, netother than on deposit liabilities and other bank borrowings (29,832 ) (24,965 ) (58,630 ) (49,314 ) Allowance for borrowed funds used during construction 1,295 798 2,426 1,576 Allowance for equity funds used during construction 3,772 2,470 7,073 4,879 Gain on sales of equity-method investment    8,123 Income before income taxes 69,367 66,217 139,671 153,697 Income taxes 14,284 13,203 29,394 31,043 Net income 55,083 53,014 110,277 122,654 Preferred stock dividends of subsidiaries 473 473 946 946 Net income for common stock $ 54,610 $ 52,541 $ 109,331 $ 121,708 Basic earnings per common share $ 0.50 $ 0.48 $ 1.00 $ 1.11 Diluted earnings per common share $ 0.50 $ 0.48 $ 1.00 $ 1.11 Dividends declared per common share $ 0.36 $ 0.35 $ 0.72 $ 0.70 Weighted-average number of common shares outstanding 109,573 109,432 109,544 109,397 Weighted-average shares assuming dilution 109,780 109,662 109,870 109,714 Net income (loss) for common stock by segment Electric utility $ 45,299 $ 44,135 $ 92,308 $ 90,544 Bank 20,204 17,466 38,766 41,336 Other (10,893 ) (9,060 ) (21,743 ) (10,172 ) Net income for common stock $ 54,610 $ 52,541 $ 109,331 $ 121,708 Comprehensive income (loss) attributable to HEI $ 47,001 $ (35,299 ) $ 122,210 $ (83,291 ) Return on average common equity (%) (twelve months ended) 10.2 10.4

This information should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto in HEI filings with the SEC. Results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for future interim periods or the full year.

Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (Hawaiian Electric) and Subsidiaries CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME DATA (Unaudited) Three months ended June 30 Six months ended June 30 ($ in thousands, except per barrel amounts) 2023 2022 2023 2022 Revenues $ 794,191 $ 818,873 $ 1,624,552 $ 1,527,665 Expenses Fuel oil 280,157 269,655 614,254 490,941 Purchased power 168,434 218,085 321,195 381,618 Other operation and maintenance 136,360 124,892 264,676 250,149 Depreciation 60,689 58,739 121,616 117,210 Taxes, other than income taxes 74,926 76,348 153,311 142,998 Total expenses 720,566 747,719 1,475,052 1,382,916 Operating income 73,625 71,154 149,500 144,749 Allowance for equity funds used during construction 3,772 2,470 7,073 4,879 Retirement defined benefits creditother than service costs 1,048 991 2,095 1,981 Interest expense and other charges, net (20,872 ) (18,800 ) (41,118 ) (37,126 ) Allowance for borrowed funds used during construction 1,295 798 2,426 1,576 Income before income taxes 58,868 56,613 119,976 116,059 Income taxes 13,070 11,979 26,670 24,517 Net income 45,798 44,634 93,306 91,542 Preferred stock dividends of subsidiaries 229 229 458 458 Net income attributable to Hawaiian Electric 45,569 44,405 92,848 91,084 Preferred stock dividends of Hawaiian Electric 270 270 540 540 Net income for common stock $ 45,299 $ 44,135 $ 92,308 $ 90,544 Comprehensive income attributable to Hawaiian Electric $ 45,255 $ 44,186 $ 92,219 $ 90,646 OTHER ELECTRIC UTILITY INFORMATION Kilowatthour sales (millions) Hawaiian Electric 1,480 1,506 2,910 2,954 Hawaii Electric Light 252 261 503 515 Maui Electric 262 264 517 519 1,994 2,031 3,930 3,988 Average fuel oil cost per barrel $ 122.69 $ 139.51 $ 131.48 $ 120.54 Return on average common equity (%) (twelve months ended)1 8.2 8.2 1 Simple average.

This information should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto in Hawaiian Electric filings with the SEC. Results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for future interim periods or the full year.

American Savings Bank, F.S.B. STATEMENTS OF INCOME DATA (Unaudited) Three months ended Six months ended June 30 (in thousands) June 30, 2023 March 31, 2023 June 30, 2022 2023 2022 Interest and dividend income Interest and fees on loans $ 67,966 $ 64,842 $ 48,129 $ 132,808 $ 94,134 Interest and dividends on investment securities 13,775 14,637 14,693 28,412 28,677 Total interest and dividend income 81,741 79,479 62,822 161,220 122,811 Interest expense Interest on deposit liabilities 9,661 6,837 921 16,498 1,868 Interest on other borrowings 8,852 7,721 139 16,573 144 Total interest expense 18,513 14,558 1,060 33,071 2,012 Net interest income 63,228 64,921 61,762 128,149 120,799 Provision for credit losses 43 1,175 2,757 1,218 (506 ) Net interest income after provision for credit losses 63,185 63,746 59,005 126,931 121,305 Noninterest income Fees from other financial services 5,009 4,679 4,716 9,688 10,303 Fee income on deposit liabilities 4,504 4,599 4,552 9,103 9,243 Fee income on other financial products 2,768 2,744 2,529 5,512 5,247 Bank-owned life insurance 1,955 1,425 (142 ) 3,380 539 Mortgage banking income 230 130 372 360 1,449 Gain on sale of real estate 495   495 1,002 Other income, net 678 801 475 1,479 847 Total noninterest income 15,639 14,378 12,502 30,017 28,630 Noninterest expense Compensation and employee benefits 29,394 30,204 27,666 59,598 54,881 Occupancy 5,539 5,588 5,467 11,127 11,419 Data processing 5,095 5,012 4,484 10,107 8,635 Services 2,689 2,595 2,522 5,284 4,961 Equipment 2,957 2,646 2,402 5,603 4,731 Office supplies, printing and postage 1,109 1,165 1,073 2,274 2,133 Marketing 834 1,016 934 1,850 1,952 Other expense 6,152 6,191 4,850 12,343 8,899 Total noninterest expense 53,769 54,417 49,398 108,186 97,611 Income before income taxes 25,055 23,707 22,109 48,762 52,324 Income taxes 4,851 5,145 4,643 9,996 10,988 Net income $ 20,204 $ 18,562 $ 17,466 $ 38,766 $ 41,336 Comprehensive income (loss) $ 12,994 $ 36,992 $ (71,369 ) $ 49,986 $ (169,940 ) OTHER BANK INFORMATION (annualized %, except as of period end) Return on average assets 0.84 0.78 0.76 0.81 0.90 Return on average equity 16.20 15.51 12.17 15.87 13.01 Return on average tangible common equity 19.40 18.73 14.20 19.07 14.95 Net interest margin 2.75 2.85 2.85 2.80 2.82 Efficiency ratio 68.18 68.62 66.52 68.40 65.32 Net charge-offs to average loans outstanding 0.14 0.14 0.00 0.14 0.01 As of period end Nonaccrual loans to loans receivable held for investment 0.22 0.24 0.40 Allowance for credit losses to loans outstanding 1.13 1.18 1.28 Tangible common equity to tangible assets 4.3 4.3 4.9 Tier-1 leverage ratio 7.8 7.7 7.7 Dividend paid to HEI (via ASB Hawaii, Inc.) ($ in millions) $ 11.0 $ 14.0 $ 12.0 $ 25.0 $ 27.0

This information should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto in HEI filings with the SEC. Results of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for future interim periods or the full year.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807998902/en/

Mateo Garcia

Director, Investor Relations

Telephone: (808) 543-7300

E-mail: [email protected]

Source: Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.
Acquisition to Accelerate Mainstream Adoption of Immersive Experiences with Expanded Addressable Market

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Leia Inc., the leading provider of 3D display hardware and content services, and the creator of the award-winning 3DAI Lume Pad 2 tablet, announced today the acquisition of Dimenco, an innovator in the display technology space. This strategic move unites the capabilities of two leaders in the 3D market, set to accelerate mainstream adoption of immersive 3D experiences across platforms and devices.

We are living in a 3D world, and its inevitable that our digital experiences will align with this reality. While VR/AR headsets have their place, the breadth of our technology allows any familiar personal device to offer a seamless, immersive 3D experience, says David Fattal, CEO of Leia Inc. Our customers wanted a unified solution across all devices  and this acquisition delivers exactly that.

By joining forces, Leia and Dimenco will eliminate the existing technological divide, merging the strengths of both companies. Previously, Leia focused on the Android platform catering to the mobile and automotive markets, while Dimenco led on the Windows-based laptops and monitors for professional use. This merger will benefit customers who have been seeking a single, cross-platform solution based on a common industry standard.

Additionally, the robust content ecosystem developed by Leia, which includes 3D video calling in partnership with Zoom, 3D movie streaming featuring top-tier Hollywood titles, 3D photo sharing, a generative AI platform and games from leading studios like Gameloft, will now be extended to all devices, providing consumers with unparalleled immersive experiences.

Were excited to be part of the Leia family and it delivers perfectly on our promise to provide immersive experiences accessible to anyone, anywhere on any device without the need for wearables, says Maarten Tobias, CEO of Dimenco. This joint entity is not only setting the industry standard, but it combines cutting edge display technology, an established high volume supply chain and a unique dynamic content ecosystem, both for consumers and professionals.

Maarten Tobias will join Leia as Chief Commercial Officer, leveraging his industry experience to further consolidate Leias position in the market and expedite the integration of teams to meet the rising demand for consumer-friendly 3D solutions.

By taking a quantum leap towards achieving its vision and mission, Leia is setting the stage for a 3D revolution, propelling the industry towards a future where digital interactions are as immersive and intuitive as real-world experiences.

About Leia Inc.

Leia Inc. is a leading provider of glasses-free 3D display hardware and software solutions. Our breakthrough technology, born from pioneering research at HP Labs, leverages advanced optics and AI to transform ordinary displays into naturally immersive experiences. We envision a future where the three-dimensional reality of our physical world is seamlessly mirrored in the digital space, and endeavor to make 3D accessible to everyone, anywhere, on any device. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.

About Dimenco

Dimenco, a leader in spatial visualization since 2010, integrates hardware, software, and technology to create rich, immersive three-dimensional experiences without the need for wearables. Originating from Royal Philips Electronics, and headquartered in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, the company's mission is to pioneer simulated reality and spatial computing, transforming the way we interact with displays. Their groundbreaking products, built on SR technology, are redefining the future of display technology.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807524947/en/

Media Inquiries:

Alicia Diotte, Global Marketing Director

Leia Inc.

[email protected]

https://www.presshook.com/brands/leia-inc/

Source: Leia Inc.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. In accordance with the training plan for 2023, combat training sessions are being conducted in the tank units of the Azerbaijan Army, Trend reports.

Prior to the start of the sessions, the safety rules were delivered to the crew members.

Reports on the decisions made on the terrain model board were heard. Then the tank platoon fulfilled the tasks on fire control in defense, as well as attack from depth on an imaginary enemy.

During the control of combat vehicles, the tankmen overcame natural and artificial obstacles in the area and successfully accomplished the assigned tasks.

Activities on improving the servicemens knowledge, abilities, and combat skills continue.
BELMOPAN, Belize--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, signed today a new development loan agreement worth USD $77 million with the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno, to fund the Construction of the Solar Energy Plant Project in Belize, through SFD.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807416002/en/

(from left to right): Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno, and The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad (Photo: AETOSWire)

The signing ceremony was also attended by Hon. Chris Coye, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development & Investment, and by official representatives from both parties to the signing.

This agreement is part of SFDs efforts to support sustainable development in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The loan will help build a solar power plant with a capacity of 60 megawatts, along with supplying and installing solar panels to help reduce emissions from the energy sector, equivalent to 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The project will play a key role in generating socio-economic growth in the country. Importantly, it will contribute towards improving the reliability of the electrical network, it will also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance Belizes efforts towards mitigating climate change and transitioning to clean energy.

The project also supports realizing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, and SDG 13, Climate Action.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno explained that the solar project is timely, as Belize finds it necessary to expand its energy output because of a growing economy. More importantly, it is in line with the country's energy policy that focuses on renewable energy. This brings numerous benefits to Belize including clean energy, cost savings, energy independence, environmental sustainability, job creation and improved access to electricity to rural communities.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Fund for Development, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, said: Todays agreement marks an important step forward in the existing development cooperation between both countries. The project to construct a solar energy plant in Belize will support the health and well-being of the local population, and help provide direct and indirect job opportunities, which will contribute towards the socio-economic growth of the country. This project reflects the importance that SFD places on mitigating climate change through smart and environmentally projects.

Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807416002/en/

Nawaf Alojrush

[email protected]

Source: Saudi Fund for Development
Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN), today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JL Audio, a privately-held U.S. company that designs and manufactures audio solutions for marine, aftermarket automotive, powersports, home and RV customers.

"JL Audio's extensive audio experience will create new opportunities to provide premium audio features across a broad range of our markets and products. The JL Audio brand is known around the world for offering a premium audio experience which is made possible by their talented and dedicated associates. We look forward to welcoming the JL Audio team into the Garmin family." Cliff Pemble, Garmin President and CEO

With over four decades of experience, JL Audio offers premium audio products and accessories, including speakers, amplifiers, subwoofers and other audio components.

"JL Audio shares Garmin's vision to deliver unique technology solutions, supported by meaningful R&D and engineering. We are thrilled at the opportunity to integrate into Garmin's product ecosystem. JL Audio will contribute audio knowledge and engineering expertise to create great audio products for many years to come." Lucio Proni, JL Audio Founder and CEO

JL Audio is headquartered in Miramar, Fla. , and employs more than 600 associates. The completion of this acquisition is expected to occur by the end of 2023 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. All existing JL Audio products will continue to be supported post-closing, and customers can expect to continue receiving the same great customer service. Financial terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.

Engineered on the inside for life on the outside, Garmin products have revolutionized the aviation, automotive, fitness, marine and outdoor markets. Dedicated to helping people make the most of the time they spend pursuing their passions, Garmin believes every day is an opportunity to innovate and a chance to beat yesterday. Visit the Garmin Newsroom, email our media team, connect with @garmin on social, or follow our blog.
FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen on the wheel of a Lucid Air Dream Edition parked at the Nasdaq MarketSite as Lucid Motors (Nasdaq: LCID) began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange after completing its business combination with Churchill Capital Corp IV in New

By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy

(Reuters) -Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid stuck to its annual production target on Monday and said it had enough cash to start producing its much-awaited sport utility vehicles next year and into 2025, sending its shares about 4% higher in extended trading.

The company reported second-quarter earnings and revenue below market expectations, but its strong liquidity after a $3 billion stock offering in June led by its majority owner, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, has given it an advantage over cash-poor peers that are battling parts shortages.

"We are not limited by our ability to manufacture. Most of the supply chain has now come through out of the COVID era," CEO Peter Rawlinson told Reuters. "We are limited by our ability to sell the cars right now, and that is my key focus."

Lucid said it was on track to produce 10,000 vehicles this year, but its deliveries in the second quarter were largely unchanged from the prior three months at 1,404 units.

To boost demand, the EV maker on Saturday slashed prices for its Air luxury sedan as part of a special offer, with the Air Pure model now selling for $82,400.

Competition from Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model S, Air's direct competitor and whose prices were cut sharply this year to $88,490, and rising borrowing costs have posed a threat to Lucid's growth.

"People have been affected by the macroeconomic climate ... so we're bringing that price down," Lucid's chief financial officer, Sherry House, said in an interview, adding that reducing costs helped the company make that decision.

Although logistics and labor costs have come down, there was a "significant amount of opportunity" to cut costs further, she said.

Despite Lucid's holding a lot of inventory, House and Rawlinson did not confirm how long the offer would last and if Lucid will stick to the lower prices if demand improves.

Lucid on Monday reported revenue in the April-June period of $150.9 million, missing estimates of $175 million, according to seven analysts polled by Refinitiv. Adjusted loss stood at 42 cents per share, wider than an estimated loss of 33 cents.

Cash stood at $2.78 billion at the end of June, compared with $900 million three month prior.

"Investors seem to be overlooking the miss in favor of the increased liquidity runway," CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said.

Lucid is set to unveil its Gravity SUV in November ahead of its launch in 2024.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Jamie Freed and Leslie Adler)
Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining

7 August 2023

Vast Resources plc

(Vast or the Company)

Company Update

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, is pleased to announce an update in relation to the Asset Backed Debt facility from A&T Investments SARL (Alpha) as announced on 16 May 2022, the debt owed to Mercuria Energy Trading SA (Mercuria) relating to Tranche A of the Prepayment Agreement announced on 21 March 2018.

As announced on the 16 May 2022, the totality of the debt owed to Mercuria and Alpha was due to be repaid on or before 30 June 2023. The Company is currently concluding documentation regarding an extension to 29 September 2023 that will allow further time to finalise the settlement of its historic claims outlined in previous announcements.

The Company will update the market with further details in due course.

**ENDS**

For further information, visit www.vastplc.com or please contact:

Vast Resources plc

Andrew Prelea (CEO)

Andrew Hall (CCO)



www.vastplc.com

+44 (0) 20 7846 0974 Beaumont Cornish  Financial & Nominated Advisor

Roland Cornish

James Biddle



www.beaumontcornish.com

+44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited  Joint Broker

Toby Gibbs / James Thomas (Corporate Advisory)



www.shorecapmarkets.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 7408 4050 Axis Capital Markets Limited  Joint Broker

Richard Hutchinson



www.axcap247.com

+44 (0) 20 3206 0320 St Brides Partners Limited

Susie Geliher www.stbridespartners.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 7236 1177

ABOUT VAST RESOURCES PLC

Vast Resources plc is a United Kingdom AIM listed mining company with mines and projects in Romania, Tajikistan, and Zimbabwe.

In Romania, the Company is focused on the rapid advancement of high-quality projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines.

The Company's Romanian portfolio includes 100% interest in Vast Baita Plai SA which owns 100% of the producing Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine, located in the Apuseni Mountains, Transylvania, an area which hosts Romania's largest polymetallic mines. The mine has a JORC compliant Reserve & Resource Report which underpins the initial mine production life of approximately 3-4 years with an in-situ total mineral resource of 15,695 tonnes copper equivalent with a further 1.8M-3M tonnes exploration target. The Company is now working on confirming an enlarged exploration target of up to 5.8M tonnes.

The Company also owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which the Company is looking to bring back into production following a period of care and maintenance. The Company has also been granted the Manaila Carlibaba Extended Exploitation Licence that will allow the Company to re-examine the exploitation of the mineral resources within the larger Manaila Carlibaba licence area.

Vast has an interest in a joint venture company which provides exposure to a near term revenue opportunity from the Takob Mine processing facility in Tajikistan. The Takob Mine opportunity, which is 100% financed, will provide Vast with a 12.25 percent royalty over all sales of non-ferrous concentrate and any other metals produced. Processing of stockpiled ore on site is expected to commence in mid-2022.
PONCE, Puerto Rico, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enernet Global (Enernet) has signed a power purchase agreement with Zimmer Biomet, a global medical technology leader, to provide low carbon energy from a new trigeneration system at their manufacturing facility in Ponce.

Zimmer Biomets 19,510m2 facility is used for the manufacture of state-of-the-art medical technology products designed to maximize mobility and improve health. The trigeneration system will be located at the manufacturing complex and comprises a total capacity of 2.06 megawatts via two liquid petroleum combined heat and power generator sets, coupled to a multi energy absorption chiller.

The system will provide 11,300 megawatt hours of low-cost electricity per year and serve Zimmer Biomet's manufacturing plant with both hot and chilled water. This system is expected to provide an estimated net CO2 emissions reduction of 1,437 metric tonnes per year by optimising the electrical consumption due to hot water and chilled water recovery and lower emissions compared to the utility. The trigeneration equipment will also be configured to provide a seamless 'no break' transfer to back up power mode during grid outages, which will greatly improve the power security at the manufacturing facility.

Design and construction of the trigeneration system is scheduled for completion in 2024 and will be provided by Enernet's local delivery partner, Teksol.

"We look forward to delivering Enernet Global's third energy project in Puerto Rico and commend Zimmer Biomet for their commitment to world class environmental stewardship," said Paul Matthews, Enernet's CEO.

About Enernet Global Inc

Enernet Globals mission is to decarbonise the worlds supply chains. It owns and operates hybrid power systems and drives the adoption of renewable energy, battery storage and energy efficiency solutions that displace CO2 emissions and reduce power costs. Built on the companys proprietary ARC software platform, Enernet Globals Energy-as-a-Service offering benefits on and off-grid customers by providing less expensive, more resilient power solutions at no capital outlay for customers.

Enernet has operations in Australia, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, where it focuses on power solutions for customers in the metals and minerals, commercial and industrial and agriculture sectors.

Media contact: Paul Matthews Chief Executive Officer Enernet Global Inc. Office: 3 East 80th Street, New York, NY 10075 Email: [email protected]

Source: Enernet Global
Grand Rapids, MI, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nearly 32,000 pets were adopted during the nations largest funded adoption event, BISSELL Pet Foundations Empty the Shelters. The Foundation partnered with MetLife Pet Insurance to raise awareness for deserving shelter pets by sponsoring reduced adoption fees at 335 shelters in 44 states.

During the event, which ran from July 6 to July 31, adoption fees were sponsored, providing crucial relief to shelters overwhelmed due to increased intakes and slowed adoptions. As a result, 16,585 cats and 15,276 dogs found loving homes through participating shelters. Additionally, Empty the Shelters allowed an extra 12,799 pets to be saved by transporting them to other participating shelters with available space, bringing the total number of impacted pets to 44,660!

"The people that chose to adopt during our Summer National Empty the Shelters event literally saved lives as shelter pets are at risk," said Cathy Bissell, Founder of BISSELL Pet Foundation. "Shelters nationwide are in crisis with an overwhelming number of highly adoptable, homeless pets. Each adopter who chose consciously to adopt a pet is my hero and made a lifesaving difference.

BISSELL Pet Foundations Empty the Shelters program provides funding to participating shelters for each pet adopted so the reduced fee of $50 or less is not a financial burden for their organization. Reduced fees generate more interest from adopters providing a much-needed boost to save lives. Since 2016, Empty the Shelters has helped 191,986 find loving homes.

We are proud to have worked with BISSELL Pet Foundation on their lifesaving Empty the Shelters event and to support these new pet parents, said Brian Jorgensen, head of MetLife Pet Insurance. Pet insurance can give pet parents peace of mind when it comes to dealing with their pets health expenses and offers pet parents confidence that they can keep their pets happy and healthy in their new homes.

Adoptions took place at participating shelters nationwide from coast to coast. Pets of all ages, breeds, sizes and abilities received much-deserved second chances. Extra special adoption moments included pets who had been waiting months or even years for adoption, bonded pairs of pets going home together, and senior cats and dogs getting a chance to live out their Golden Years with adoring families.

"Empty the Shelters cannot continue growing without donor support. Every donation to BISSELL Pet Foundation is maximized to reach more pets in more communities through the Foundations lifesaving programs. To donate or learn more about BISSELL Pet Foundation, visit https://www.bissellpetfoundation.org/.

###

About BISSELL Pet Foundation: BISSELL Pet Foundation is a charitable 501(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to help reduce the number of animals in shelters through pet adoption, spay/neuter programs, microchipping, and crisis and disaster response. Founded in 2011 by Cathy Bissell, BPF is an extension of her long-standing love for animals and commitment to their welfare. BPF has since partnered with more than 5,800 shelters and rescues across the U.S. and Canada to help pets find loving homes. The foundation is supported by generous donors and BISSELL Inc., where every purchase saves pets. To learn more or make a lifesaving donation, visit www.bissellpetfoundation.org.

About MetLife Pet Insurance: MetLife Pet coverage is underwritten by Metropolitan General Insurance Company (MetGen), a Rhode Island insurance company, headquartered at 700 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI 02886, and Independence American Insurance Company (IAIC), a Delaware insurance company, headquartered at 11333 N Scottsdale Rd, Ste 160, Scottsdale, AZ 85454. Coverage subject to restrictions, exclusions and limitations and application is subject to underwriting. See policy or contact MetLife Pet Insurance Solutions LLC (MetLife Pet) for details. MetLife Pet is the policy administrator. It may operate under an alternate or fictitious name in certain jurisdictions, including MetLife Pet Insurance Services LLC (New York and Minnesota) and MetLife Pet Insurance Solutions Agency LLC (Illinois).

Attachment

Brittany Schlacter BISSELL Pet Foundation 616.600.9470 [email protected]

Source: BISSELL Pet Foundation
INVL Partner Private Equity Fund I, a feeder subfund of INVL, the leading investment management and life insurance group in the Baltics, has raised a further EUR 12.175 million from investors and has been entrusted with funds by 29 investors.

The INVL Fund is entrusting the funds raised from local investors to EQT, one of the worlds largest private equity investment firms. More and more professional investors choose to invest in this fund, also because of the opportunity to geographically diversify their portfolio, says Paulius Zurauskas, Head of Asset Management Operations at INVL Asset Management.

The INVL Subfund for informed investors has now raised a total of EUR 30.5 million from investors. The Funds units were distributed in Lithuania by the brokerage firm INVL Financial Advisors. The minimum investment in the INVL Fund is EUR 125,000.

EQT X , launched last year and registered in Luxembourg, in which INVL Partner Private Equity Fund I invests, has already raised more than EUR 18 billion from investors as of mid-July 2023 and aims to increase this amount to EUR 20 billion. EQT X invests mainly in European and US companies in the healthcare, technology, and business service sectors. The global fund focuses on secular growth, investing in high-growth companies to achieve higher returns while maintaining lower risk than the private equity average.

Assets managed by EQT stood at EUR 126 billion at the end of June 2023.

INVL Partner Private Equity Fund I was established in January this year by INVL Asset Management, part of INVL, the leading investment management and life insurance group in the Baltics.
Denver, Colorado--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - CBD of Denver (OTC Pink: CBDD) would like to update its shareholders on Q2, the roll out of the Magic Lappen, and schedule a shareholder call.

CBDD is pleased to announce another quarter of top line growth, the company still has a loss for the quarter however the loss is substantially smaller from just a few quarters ago.

The company continues to grow its top line growth, Q2 is expected to be approximately 600k with a comparison of 259k Q1 2023, 113k Q4 2022, 26k Q3 2022. The company expects to announce full second quarter by the OTC market deadline this will provide additional detail of the company's results. However, as the Company has stated before, it's all about resources, both capital and human resources, as it is the Company's goal to meet the August 15th deadline. The Company's goal in the near future is to be ahead of the deadline for OTC Markets.

The Company's main goal is to continue to build profitable revenue and build additional support staff in order for the company to have the resources to expand.

"As I reflect on the accomplishments over the most recent future during this week break, I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish and are looking forward to the rest of the year and beyond," says Axel Reinke, CEO of Berliner the new CBD of Denver. "I want all our valued shareholders to understand another management challenge here in Europe is the summer. In Europe a 5-week mandatory vacation is required as I can understand this is foreign to all North Americans. July and August are very difficult months in Europe as most companies and decision makers are on holiday, however that being said we will continue to drive the company forward. Our goal is next year our staff is broader so the company can rotate holiday schedule."

CBD of Denver is proud that they have been able to exceed 150 locations in Germany going into the holiday months with Edeka and their goal is to get to 600 locations as soon as possible. The Company is also exploring other potential ways to penetrate the Edeka stores more rapidly. The Company is currently in negotiations to place the Magic Lappen in other chains though out Europe and will keep everyone updated as they progress on these opportunities.

The Company's Shareholder Update Call has been delayed as Axel has been ill, however, the Company would like to confirm the date of August 17th 2023, a dial will be announced prior. They are exploring better options as the last call was challenged. The Company is pleased to announce that Nick Sprung will be on the call. Call in information is available on the Company's website where shareholders will also be able to submit questions.

Follow Magic Lappen on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for more information and updates.

Follow The Magic Lappen on Instagram: @themagiclappen or shop on our website: The Magic Lappen

Visit the Company's corporate Website of Berliner Innovation: www.berlinerinnovation.de and the innovative Anti-Slip product: www.berlinr13.de.

For questions, please submit to [email protected] the company will respond.

About the Magic Lappen

The Magic Lappen provides maximum shine, streak free drying, and only requires water - no chemicals or detergents. The Magic Lappen is also chemical-free and lint-free; cleaning of all smooth and shining surfaces is robust and durable with a leather-like feel. Its innovative structure enables high absorption of dirt, dust, and grease and can be washed many times at 60. The product is vegan and ecofriendly.

About CBD of Denver, Inc. (Berliner Innovation)

CBD of Denver, Inc. is focused on acquiring profitable assets at attractive valuations to create value for shareholders. The company's team is dedicated to sourcing high-margin, innovative products that align with its values.

Information contained herein includes forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future financial performance, involving known and unknown risks and you should not place undue reliance on these statements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events. We assume no obligation publicly about update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176346
London, United Kingdom--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - Charles Karsten's family-office consortium, Conatus Global, opens doors to deals by bringing startups and investors face to face. Two world-renowned venture capitalists recently led a lucrative Series A funding round for a pioneering neuroscience company, brought to their notice through Karsten's offices.





Conatus Global

The company founder's new venture is already generating revenue from contracts with major institutions. The deal demonstrates the effectiveness of Conatus Global's strategies and capabilities, speaking volumes about the scale of Conatus' ventures and the profile of its contacts.

Under Karsten's leadership, Conatus Global is achieving significant growth for its clients and positioning itself as a prominent player in the world of investment facilitation and business optimisation.

With his extensive connections in the worlds of business, politics, and the media, and aided by his stellar team of market experts, Karsten and Conatus Global provide unrivalled investment resources and opportunities for their clients.

The CEO, Charles Karsten, has significant experience in raising capital, strategic relationship management and international contract negotiation. He has personally brokered international sponsorship deals for celebrities, facilitated meetings for clients with numerous ministers and heads of state, and concluded multimillion-dollar commercial contracts.

Chaired by Karsten's father, senior barrister, international lawyer, judge and academic Ian Karsten KC, and advised by a high-powered and globally connected team of investment and finance professionals, businessmen, lawyers, consultants and academics, Conatus Global is ideally placed to open doors in the Middle East, Hong Kong and the United States as well as in the U.K. and Europe.

Conatus Global will soon host a series of investment events at the prestigious Dorchester Hotel in London's exclusive Park Lane. Such events provide networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors unavailable elsewhere and reflect the extraordinary value that working with Conatus Global can offer.

Media Contacts:

Name: Charles Karsten

Country: United Kingdom

Website :https://www.conatus-global.com/

Email: [email protected]

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/173389
Reyna Law Firm's Corpus Christi offices announce newly upgraded legal services, assisting drivers hurt in car accidents in and around the Texas Coastal Bend area

Corpus Christi, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - The firm has moved to carry out timely updates in response to the ongoing dangers faced by motorists as they travel on poorly-maintained local roads. Construction is perpetually taking place throughout the area, warns Reyna Law Firm, and accidents are common - resulting in a prominent need for legal assistance with personal injury claims.

For more information see https://www.reynainjurylaw.com/corpus-christi.





Corpus Christi Car Accident Injury Claim Support Announced By Reyna Law Firm



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Reyna Law Firm advises that car accident victims typically need to seek higher compensation amounts than insurance companies are willing to initially offer. Its new services are tailored to weigh up the potential value of damage claims, taking into account severe injuries such as broken bones, crushed limbs, brain bleeds, paralysis - or even fatalities.

As explained by the Corpus Christi law firm, case reviews mark the beginnings of damage claim processes, with its lawyers moving swiftly to ascertain vital details. Based on the pain and suffering that victims are going through, coupled with the circumstances surrounding their car accident, Reyna Law Firm works to prove liability and determine an appropriate settlement figure.

In order to then recover such figures, the firm's new services also comprise negotiatory proceedings with insurance teams representing guilty parties. Reyna Law Firm notes that its attorneys are able to communicate directly with all required personnel, presenting evidence-based arguments for fair compensation on behalf of injured victims.

If an agreement cannot be reached regarding monetary amounts, Reyna Law Firm points to its capacity for pursuing proper legal action. Its new services, therefore, extend to lawsuit preparation and representation - where its attorneys draw on their previously-gathered testimony and records to target appropriate compensation in a Texas court of law.

Reyna Law Firm adds its updated car accident injury claim services to an extensive list of legal aid options, all geared toward targeting substantial settlement figures. Consultations regarding such services can be arranged via its over-the-phone listings, says the firm, with meetings taking place at its Corpus Christi offices.

Interested parties in Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas can find additional details about Reyna Law Firm and its new legal services for car accident victims at https://www.reynainjurylaw.com/corpus-christi.

Contact Info:

Name: James Lewis

Email: [email protected]

Phone:361-866-9076

Organization: Reyna Law Firm Corpus Christi

Address: 5656 S Staples St Ste 114 , Corpus Christi, TX 78411, United States

Website: https://www.reynainjurylaw.com/corpus-christi

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176251
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The South Caucasus has seen an acceleration of the normalization process, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the opening ceremony of the 14th Ambassadors' Conference in Ankara, Trend reports.

Fidan stressed the significance of advancing the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia, as well as between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in order to ensure the South Caucasus' stability, prosperity, and security.

The 14th annual Ambassadors' Conference, which included Turkish ambassadors, began on August 5 in Ankara. Since 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hosted a yearly gathering to examine regional and global issues.

Since the early 1990s, diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey have been officially nonexistent. In response to the first Karabakh war in 1993, Turkey closed its border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan.

In December 2021, following the 2020 second Karabakh war, Armenia and Turkiye announced appointing special envoys, who met in Moscow in January 2022, with positive international reactions for attempts at normalizing relations. On January 1, 2022, Armenia lifted the embargo on the import of goods from Turkiye.
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - ZeroMax Moving, a premier moving company based in the New York Area, is setting a new standard in the moving industry by offering unmatched services and unbeatable rates for both local and long-distance relocations. ZeroMax Moving and Storage, is setting new standards by introducing innovative technology to enhance the customer experience and prioritizing eco-friendly practices to create sustainable moving solutions. With a commitment to excellence and a deep sense of responsibility towards the environment, ZeroMax Moving and Storage is reshaping the way people approach relocations in the bustling city of New York.





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Innovative Technology for a Seamless Customer Journey

Embracing the digital age, ZeroMax Moving and Storage has harnessed innovative technology to transform the moving experience. Through a user-friendly and intuitive online platform, clients can now access real-time updates, track their belongings, and communicate directly with the moving team. This interactive approach ensures transparency, convenience, and a heightened level of control over the entire moving process.

"Our goal is to simplify and enhance the moving journey for our clients," explains Spokesperson, Thea Gilmore of ZeroMax Moving and Storage. "By leveraging cutting-edge technology, we empower our customers with information and insights that empower them to make informed decisions every step of the way."

With the introduction of advanced logistics software, ZeroMax Moving and Storage optimizes route planning, minimizing transit times and reducing the environmental impact of the moving process. This technological advancement not only enhances efficiency but also underscores the company's commitment to minimizing its carbon footprint.

Sustainable Moving Solutions for a Greener Future

In a city known for its commitment to sustainability, ZeroMax Moving and Storage stands as a beacon of eco-consciousness. The company has adopted a comprehensive approach to minimize its environmental impact and promote sustainable moving practices. From inception to execution, every aspect of the moving process is designed to reduce waste, conserve energy, and contribute to a greener future.

One of the hallmarks of ZeroMax Moving and Storage's commitment to sustainability is its use of biodegradable and recyclable packing materials. "We recognize that our responsibility extends beyond delivering belongings; we are stewards of the environment," says Thea. "By using eco-friendly materials, we ensure that our clients' items are not only protected but also contribute to a healthier planet."

Additionally, ZeroMax Moving and Storage has invested in a modern fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles, reducing emissions and promoting cleaner air quality in the neighborhoods it serves. The company's dedication to sustainable transportation aligns with its mission to provide value to clients while minimizing its environmental impact.

Empowering Clients Through Education and Choice

ZeroMax Moving and Storage doesn't just deliver belongings; it delivers an opportunity for clients to make environmentally conscious choices. The company educates clients about sustainable packing practices, offers guidance on efficient space utilization, and provides insights into reducing waste throughout the moving process.

"Empowering our clients to make eco-friendly choices is at the core of our philosophy," emphasizes Spokesperson. "We believe that every small decision counts, and by collectively making conscious choices, we can contribute to a more sustainable future."

As a testament to its commitment, ZeroMax Moving and Storage actively partners with local environmental organizations to support reforestation efforts, plastic reduction campaigns, and community clean-up initiatives. These partnerships reflect the company's belief that collaboration is key to creating lasting positive change.

A Moving Experience That Matters

ZeroMax Moving and Storage's integration of innovative technology and sustainable practices isn't just a trend; it's a commitment to redefining the moving experience. The company's dedication to enhancing customer satisfaction through technology, while prioritizing environmental responsibility, serves as a model for the industry.

For individuals and businesses seeking a moving partner that combines technology, sustainability, and exceptional service, ZeroMax Moving and Storage is leading the way. To learn more about their innovative approach and sustainable solutions, visit www.zeromaxmoving.com or contact the company via text at 888 493 2503, opt-in for their SMS service, or call directly at (929) 205-7758. This allows customers to stay informed and engaged throughout the moving process.

About ZeroMax Moving and Storage:

ZeroMax Moving and Storage is a leading moving and storage service provider in New York. The company's focus on innovative technology and sustainable practices sets it apart in the industry. With a dedication to customer satisfaction and a commitment to environmental responsibility, ZeroMax Moving and Storage offers a moving experience that combines efficiency, transparency, and a positive impact on the environment.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Cindy Berichon

Email: [email protected]

Address: 183 King St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, United States

Website: https://zeromaxmoving.com/

Phone number: +1(929) 205-7758

Instagram: https://instagram.com/zeromaxmoving

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zeromaxmovingNYC?mibextid=LQQJ4d

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/176337
LONDON , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 1500 people gathered virtually on 13 June 2023 for the ninth RELX SDG Inspiration Day: 'Not Too Late for Nature: Biodiversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals'. Eminent conservationist, Dr. Jane Goodall , DBE and former United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon , were keynote speakers. The annual online event brings together thought leaders, corporate representatives, students, investors, governments, and NGOs to explore pressing issues, gain practical insight, and inspire action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This year's event examined our progress as a global community in achieving the SDGs closely linked to biodiversity, namely SDGs 14, 15, 2, 3, 11, and 13. It was moderated by lawyer and activist Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and hosted in partnership with the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, UN Global Compact Network UK , Responsible Media Forum, Global Citizen, Pineapple Sustainable Partnerships, World Humanitarian Forum, Elsevier Foundation, Business or Social Responsibility (BSR), Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, Oxford SDG Impact Lab, and Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

In his keynote speech, which was one of the first events of the day, Ban Ki-moon said, "I believe it is vital that businesses firstly identify their full environmental impact, starting with a clear understanding of the organization's impact on the whole of the environment, not exclusively their carbon emissions and pollution."

Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Goodall highlighted the need for people and businesses worldwide to become more sustainable and the importance of community-led conservation. "How do I have hope for the future?" she asked. "Well, for one thing, there is a growing awareness about this (the need for biodiversity conservation). And then there are four main reasons  the human intellect, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and the energy, and passion, and action of young people."

Later, Juliette Pugliesi , Nature Manager at Business for Social Responsibility and Eva Zabey, CEO of Business for Nature discussed the link between biodiversity and economic stability. Their illuminating speeches also touched upon why businesses need to rethink their commitment to biodiversity conservation.

Through spirited panel discussions, the event next shed light on pressing issues in biodiversity conservation and gave attendees a platform to examine potential solutions. The panel discussion on Right to Nature, moderated by Justin Webb , a former foreign correspondent for the BBC, explored how law can protect biodiversity through legal rights accorded to natural habitats. Hosted by Josefine Gibson , Deputy Editor of The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, another insightful panel discussion examined the connection between biodiversity and human health. The ensuing panel discussion, hosted by the founder and CEO of Pineapple Sustainable Partnerships, Andy Dewis , discussed the wisdom of indigenous people. Attendees could then join discussions in six virtual biodiversity problem-solving spaces, the topics of which ranged from technology to business. Later, RELX awarded four customers that share their commitment to actioning the SDGs with an SDG Customer Award. The final panel discussion, hosted by Senior VP of Elsevier, Michiel Kolman , addressed barriers for policymakers in meeting biodiversity commitments. With closing comments, the event concluded on a fulfilling note.

Read all about the event, and watch highlights from the RELX SDG Inspiration Day here.

Media contact:

Mirieme Hill

RELX

London, UK

[email protected]

+44 20 7166 5500

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2170455/2023_RELX_SDG_Biodiversity.jpg

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SOURCE RELX Group
** Credit Union Now Offers 85,000+ Surcharge-Free ATMs Worldwide for Members **

GLENDALE, Calif. , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- California Credit Union today announced that it has joined the Allpoint Network, providing an additional 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs for its 170,000 members. Including its existing CO-OP ATM Network, California Credit Union members now have access to more than 85,000 surcharge-free ATMs worldwide.

Conveniently located at major retail locations coast-to-coast, including leading pharmacy, grocery, convenience, and big-box retailers, Allpoint Network ATMs will save California Credit Union members time as well as ATM fees. Through the partnership, California Credit Union-branded ATMs will be located in major retail locations in San Diego and the greater Los Angeles area.

"We are continually working to bring our members more value, convenience and cost savings. Partnering with Allpoint allows us to eliminate ATM fees and offer an enhanced member experience by providing surcharge-free access to cash at convenient retail locations where members already shop, including major brand pharmacy, grocery, convenience and big box retailers," said California Credit Union President & CEO Steve O'Connell . "By adding access to the Allpoint ATM Network, we are almost tripling the number of ATMs available to members so they will never be far from a surcharge-free ATM, wherever they are traveling or doing their day-to-day shopping. Our expanded ATM network, along with our Virtual Branch, online and mobile banking, will also benefit our newest members in San Bernardino and Ventura Counties as we continue to expand into new service areas."

Members can find a convenient surcharge-free ATM here or search on California Credit Union's 5-Star Rated Mobile App.

About California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 with assets over $4.5 billion , more than 170,000 members, and 24 retail branches. The credit union serves community members and businesses in the California counties of Los Angeles , Orange , Riverside , San Bernardino , San Diego , and Ventura as well as school employees throughout the state. The credit union operates in San Diego and Riverside Counties as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. The credit union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Visit ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @CaliforniaCreditUnion.

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SOURCE California Credit Union
Report Highlights Company's Progress on Ambitious Sustainability Commitments

DENVER , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Civitas Resources, Inc. (NYSE: CIVI) released its second Corporate Sustainability Report, which highlights the progress made in 2022 related to environmental, social, and governance factors, and details how Civitas continues to build on its already robust sustainability approach and practices. The new report can be found on the company's sustainability page: Sustainability: Protecting Colorado's Environment | Civitas Resources

"Two years ago, we set ambitious goals for Civitas Resources around our future performance and priorities as an industry leader," said Civitas President and CEO M. Chris Doyle . "This year, we continued to build on our commitment to safe operations, the environment, and the communities where we operate. As such, we continue to distinguish ourselves among exploration and production companies as a sustainability leader with bold actions."

Some of Civitas' major sustainability milestones and initiatives captured in this year's report include the company's new commitment to reduce its scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2027 against a 2021 baseline, enhanced data sourcing and management capabilities, a companywide retrofit of its natural gas pneumatic devices, the launch of the Civitas Community Foundation, and improvements in the diversity of the company's board.

Some of the company's additional 2022 sustainability highlights include the following:

Equipped more than 90 locations with over 100 real-time air monitoring stations, operating 24/7

Committed to voluntarily plug 42 wells orphaned by previous operators  making up 10% of all Colorado orphan wells as of January 1, 2022

orphan wells as of Achieved zero routine flaring as of January 2022

Maintained an annual Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.26

Contributed ~1.8MM to local social causes and humanitarian aid

Published Human Rights and Biodiversity policies

The publication of this report coincides with Civitas' evolution from being Colorado's largest pure-play operator to extending the Company's asset base into the Permian and Delaware basins. Civitas aspires to bring the same level of rigor in measurement and disclosure to these new assets as it has for all the Company's assets across its footprint to date.

About Civitas Resources, Inc.

Civitas Resources, Inc. is an independent, domestic oil and natural gas producer developing premier assets in the Denver - Julesburg (DJ) and Permian basins. The Company has a proven business model combining capital discipline, a strong balance sheet, sustainable cash flow generation, and peer-leading cash returns to shareholders. Civitas employs leading ESG practices and is Colorado's first carbon neutral oil and gas producer. For more information about Civitas, please visit www.civitasresources.com.

Contact:

Rich Coolidge

[email protected]

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SOURCE Civitas Resources, Inc.
Forging Nashville's Real Estate Dynasty with an Unstoppable Alliance of Visionary Teams.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Corcoran Reverie , a high-end real estate brokerage and an affiliate of Corcoran Group LLC, proudly announces its second partnership this week, this time with Wylder Collective, a hand-picked team of real estate experts led by luxury agent, Kris Wylder . With an average listing price of $2.15 million , a prestigious background in real estate investing, and over three years of real estate experience, Corcoran Reverie is thrilled to Welcome Kris and her team to the Nashville branch.

"It is exciting and impactful to have such a successful team join our Nashville office; we couldn't be more thrilled!" says Owner & Real Estate Advisor Jacob Watkins . "With the addition of Kris and her team, we are confident that Corcoran Reverie is poised to continue to expand and thrive within the Nashville market."

With a specialization in luxury residential real estate, Kris draws on her background in Los Angeles , New York City , and other major cities. This expertise uniquely equips her to assist families transitioning from these regions and beyond, facilitating their seamless relocation to the vibrant city of Nashvillea destination chosen by countless individuals every single day. Her vision for Wylder Collective was to assemble a team of experts dedicated to nurturing thoughtful client-agent connections, offering comprehensive concierge service, and showcasing profound expertise in Tennessee's real estate domain. Kris' team does just that; from liaising with movers and home organizers, to arranging contractors to quote a project, having cars delivered and the fridge stocked with groceries, The Wylder Collective can connect clients with anyone or anything.

Apart from her thriving real estate career, Kris finds delight in diverse pursuits. Whether it's exploring new destinations, indulging in her love for writing, or actively engaging in fundraising activities, she embraces life with zest. However, her true passion lies in giving back to the community. In March of 2023, Kris established " Love Wylder : A Women's Charitable Acts Group," a noble initiative with over 200 members dedicated to connecting women with charitable organizations throughout Nashville . Notably, her compassion and dedication shone brightly as she successfully raised over three thousand dollars to support Covenant school families this past April. Kris' unwavering commitment to philanthropy exemplifies the heart and soul of her purpose-driven journey.

"Corcoran Reverie is the perfect fit for myself and my team due to Hilary and Jacob's incredible leadership and our shared vision for the future of real estate in Nashville ." Says Kris Wylder . "They saw the bigger picture of what I was trying to accomplish in my career, and I could not be more excited to be joining them."

"We are thrilled to join forces with Wylder Collective, as this partnership promises to invigorate our brokerage with fresh perspectives, amplified resources, and an unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional client experiences." says Owner & Broker Hilary Farnum-Fasth . "Together, we will unlock new opportunities and elevate the standard of excellence in Nashville's luxury real estate industry".

About Corcoran Reverie

Corcoran Reverie, an affiliate of Corcoran Group LLC  a leading residential real estate brokerage firm headquartered in New York City  is a locally owned high-end brokerage specializing in the luxury home market in the greater Nashville area and across Northwest Florida from Destin to Panama City and the coastal communities along 30A. With a 220+ agent team lead by broker and owner Hilary Farnum-Fasth and partner Jacob Watkins and offices in 30A, Destin , Panama City , and Nashville , Corcoran Reverie was ranked #1 office ranking in Northwest Florida based on closed office sales volume of over $750 million in its first year as a Corcoran affiliate, and $1.12 billion in 2021. Throughout the entire network, Corcoran is home to more than 160 offices and more than 5,700 agents in key urban, suburban, and resort markets nationwide. For more information on Corcoran Reverie, visit corcoranreverie.com.

Media Contact:

Jessica Vaughn / Lindsey Torres

The Zimmerman Agency

[email protected]

850.668.2222

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SOURCE Corcoran Reverie
HANGZHOU, China , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Hikvision has introduced its AIoT-powered manufacturing solutions to help manufacturers maximize productivity and operating efficiency.

When it comes to industrial Internet-of-Things and Industry 4.0 issues, we usually think about the investment in automated equipment as well as the application of software systems such as MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). But enterprise leaders do well to note that smart manufacturing is more than that.

We see today's manufacturers facing three major challenges:

1.) Personnel Management  While people, or labor, remains the essential element of the production process, their output relies on finer management;

2.) Visibility across the process  Automation equipment and software systems need more timely alerts and improved incident handling protocols, as well as forward-looking insights, to guarantee operational stability; and

3.) Lean Management for Boosted Productivity  In environments as complex as manufacturing plants, lean management regarding factors of production such as office park vehicle traffic, dock management, and information sharing, are also important in boosting productivity.

The Hikvision manufacturing solution leverages AIoT technology to shift offline data online where it can be monitored and utilized. AI and intuitive visualization technology also allows managers to monitor the site, production, and operational processes, and to respond in real time in the event of an issue  helping to drive efficiency and productivity.

Managing personnel more efficiently

Manufacturing parks have significant personnel management requirements, with large teams arriving on site and accessing specific areas for their work all day long  creating complex logistics, access management, security, and health and safety requirements.

Hikvision's Quick Access Solution, enabled by Hikvision MinMoe face-recognition terminals, gives employees touch-free access to manufacturing sites, covering the main entrance, the floor, offices, exits, production areas, EPA areas (ESDPA  Electrostatic Discharge Protected Area), and more. The technology provides "non-stop" access to ensure that employees can enter the site quickly, even during peak times  such as morning and evening rush hours or in bad weather.

The solution safeguards plant safety with precise access management. For example, only authorized staff can access specific areas of the site. For visitors, the solution provides full-journey online management to enhance convenience and ensure no blind spots for security.

Another benefit of the Quick Access Solution is that it turns physical footprints into digital records for accurate time & attendance management. Based on a manufacturer's choice of verification and identification methods  from face recognition to fingerprint readers, cards or PIN codes  employees can be identified and attendance reports and work records can be generated automatically. This ensures that the HR department can support employees effectively, optimize time & attendance management, and maximize accuracy for payroll, overtime, and compensation in general.

The Quick Access Solution can also be used to manage in-park facilities  such as facilitating zero-contact payment in cafeteria.

Maximizing visibility for production and operations

Organizations with large-scale production environments often experience information silos, making it difficult to detect and respond to incidents in real time or to make changes that actually increase efficiency. Hikvision's AR Live Interaction Solution offers a solution to these challenges by providing full visibility of large-scale production processes.

The solution uses Augmented-Reality (AR) cameras and easy-to-use location capabilities to create a live map of a site, giving managers a bird's-eye view. The system, which integrates seamlessly with other industry control systems, presents production information and site images on a four-screen display.

Some of the key features of the AR Live Interaction Solution include remote inspections, alarm handling, automated information collection and analyses, predictive maintenance for equipment, and performance evaluations. The system also detects defects in equipment and human errors to minimize downtime, mitigate safety risks, and provide insights for better decision making.

With the AR Live Solution, manufacturers can also place visualized displays in the workshop, adding an extra layer of visibility for assets and production processes. Visual images can be used to send safety reminders to employees, to facilitate communications between teams, and to improve work supervision and collaboration for improved efficiency.

Optimizing facilities and traffic management

For all manufacturing parks, the ability to manage the flow of vehicles efficiently and safely is of paramount importance. This requires real-time visibility of driving and parking on site, as well as monitoring of loading and unloading, scheduling and dispatching, and security across all areas of the site.

Hikvision's Park Traffic Management Solution standardizes on-site vehicle flow to help park managers embrace innovation and increase productivity. The solution is powered by AIoT technologies, including cameras with tailored algorithms, auto-triggered radar, management software, LED displays, and more. These technologies all come together to help operators create more manageable park environments, and to improve vehicle and resource allocations for optimal efficiency.

Speed measurement cameras and LED Screen with real-time speed and ANPR displays help to regulate driving practices at a worksite. This helps to reduce accidents caused by speeding, reverse driving, driving out of lane boundaries, illegal lane changing, and more. Meanwhile, illegal parking cameras detect vehicles that have stopped in prohibited areas that could cause accidents or injuries.

All video images and alarms are received and displayed at a command center managed via HikCentral Professional software. Here, displays show real-time information such as vehicle license plate numbers and speed, enabling operators take prompt action in case of an emergency.

By creating a safer, more orderly park environment, site operators can help incoming drivers locate the right loading docks and warehouses more quickly and easily. Managers also find it easier to stay up-to-date with vehicle statuses, to control traffic, allocate resources, and respond to emergencies. In the end, this all leads up to racially improved productivity and more efficient operations.

Find out how, with Hikvision

Hikvision's cutting-edge technologies are helping manufacturers to boost their management capabilities around the world, every day, leading to greater efficiency, improved productivity, and site security and safety. To discover more about Hikvision's intelligent manufacturing solutions, and how they help to provide assistance for work and well-being, please visit the solution page.

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SOURCE Hikvision Digital Technology
SEOUL, South Korea , Aug. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it has received a 'Bosch Global Supplier Award.' The company receives this prestigious award in the category "raw materials and components", demonstrating its unmatched leadership in the automotive display market.

The Bosch Group, a global leading supplier of technology and services, reserves its "Bosch Global Supplier Award" for only 46 suppliers from 11 countries of roughly 35,000 suppliers worldwide in this year, recognizing the most outstanding performers in the manufacturing and supply of raw materials, products, and services on a biennial basis since 1987.

LG Display and Bosch have engaged in a decade of strategic collaborations since 2012, during which LG Display has demonstrated distinctive technical capabilities, stringent quality management, and reliable supply capabilities. The company is well known for successful incorporating automotive OLED displays into premium automotive brands' next generation of projects.

As a leading global supplier of digital clusters (instrument clusters) and center fascias (central control units) to top-tier automotive component makers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), LG Display continues to lead the market having achieved the highest global market share for the 5th consecutive year from 2018 to 2022  based on revenue generated by premium automotive displays measuring 10 inches or larger.

LG Display leverages its technological prowess in automotive OLEDs and high-end LCD displays to expand sales and orders while enhancing its position as the industry's global leader.

LG Display set a new standard for mobility when it introduced the world's first Tandem OLED for automotives back in 2019. Tandem OLED embodies its groundbreaking two-stack OLED technology, where an extra organic emitting layer is added to the existing layer to deliver brighter screens while effectively dispersing energy across OLED components for optimal stability and a longer lifespan. LG Display will start mass-producing its second-generation Tandem OLED, which heightens the efficiency of organic light-emitting components, this year to further widen the technological gap between itself and competitors.

P-OLED is LG Display's unique technology that incorporates innovative Tandem OLED into a flexible plastic substrate to make the design slim and light while maintaining unrivaled picture quality unique to OLEDs. P-OLED uses 60% less power and weighs 80% lighter than LCD displays, making it the ultimate solution for electric vehicles in particular. Moreover, the company's automotive P-OLED has received the Eco-Product Certification Mark from SGS, a global leader in inspection, verification, testing, and certification, recognizing their excellence in minimizing the use of hazardous substances.

Moreover, LG Display has been strengthening its competitive edge in the market with its various products and technologies, including ATO (Advanced Thin OLED), which delivers the core strength of OLED for automotive displays at a more competitive price point, LTPS LCD, which excel in large-scale implementation and high-resolution rendering, IPS (In-Plane Switching), which significantly enhanced the viewing angles, SPM (Switchable Privacy Mode), which controls a viewing angle for safe driving. What's more, it has become the first in the industry to introduce a flame-resistant certification program to every automotive panel in order to boost safety and stability.

"We are extremely proud to have been recognized as automotive display maker by Bosch. This award acknowledges our endless pursuit of the perfect customer experience, a journey that promotes innovation at every step of the way which enables us to deliver unparalleled technologies, quality, and support to our customers," said Byeong-koo Kim, Senior Vice President and Head of Auto Business Group at LG Display. "We will continue to strengthen our order-based business's competitiveness based on our revolutionary technologies, especially P-OLED and LTPS LCD."

About LG Display

LG Display Co., Ltd. [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220] is the world's leading innovator of display technologies, including thin-film transistor liquid crystal and OLED displays. The company manufactures display panels in a broad range of sizes and specifications primarily for use in TVs, notebook computers, desktop monitors, automobiles, and various other applications, including tablets and mobile devices. LG Display currently operates manufacturing facilities in Korea and China , and back-end assembly facilities in Korea , China , and Vietnam . The company has approximately 70,707 employees operating worldwide. For more news and information about LG Display, please visit www.lgdisplay.com .

Media Contact:

TaeHyun Tommy Jang , Assistant Manager, Global PR Team

Email: [email protected]

Joo Yeon Jennifer Ha , Manager, Global PR Team

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE LG Display
SINGAPORE , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- China Yuchai International Limited (NYSE: CYD) wishes to announce that all the resolutions as set out in its Notice of Annual General Meeting dated July 6, 2023 were duly passed at its Annual General Meeting held in Singapore today.

About us

China Yuchai International Limited ("China Yuchai" or the "Company"), through its subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("GYMCL"), engages in the manufacture, assembly, and sale of a wide variety of light-, medium- and heavy-duty engines for trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, construction equipment, marine and agriculture applications in China. GYMCL also produces diesel power generators. The engines produced by GYMCL range from diesel to natural gas and hybrid engines. Through its regional sales offices and authorized customer service centers, GYMCL distributes its engines directly to auto OEMs and retailers and provides maintenance and retrofitting services throughout China. Founded in 1951, GYMCL has established a reputable brand name, strong research and development team and significant market share in China with high-quality products and reliable after-sales support. In 2022, GYMCL sold 321,256 engines and is recognized as a leading manufacturer and distributor of engines in China . For more information, please visit https://www.cyilimited.com.

For more information:

Investor Relations

Kevin Theiss

Tel: +1-212-510-8922

Email: cyd@bluefocus.com

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SOURCE China Yuchai International Limited
Hemp for Feed, Food, Automotive and Building Materials Celebrated at SD Facility Grand Opening

What: National industrial hemp experts gathered at Complete Hemp Processing to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the new crop.

Who: A.H. Meyer & Sons, a fourth-generation South Dakota family-owned honeybee business have expanded into growing and processing hemp.

Where and When: The August 3-5 event included crop field tours in Clark, SD as well as an Open House and Conference at the Winfred, SD facility.

For more Information: Contact Complete Hemp Processing at (605) 291-9083

[email protected]

WINFRED, S.D. , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Industrial hemp experts discussed opportunities in food, feed, farming, automotive and building materials at the South Dakota grand opening of the state's first industrial hemp processing center near Madison, SD in Lake County .

After five years of planning and working with South Dakota lawmakers on industrial hemp policy, Complete Hemp Processing opened its doors to around 200 farming neighbors and visitors from across the United States on August 3-5 .

A.H. Meyer & Sons, a fourth-generation South Dakota family-owned honey and beeswax processing business expanded into growing and processing hemp. Siblings Ken and JB Meyer and Melissa Shipley have set up the new facility in Winfred, SD .

"We want farmers in the area to know we are here," said Ken Meyer . "They can grow industrial hemp and have a place for it to be processed."

The company has contracted with local farmers to grow the 1,600 acres of harvested hemp it will take to keep the facility running three shifts after the upcoming harvest.

The company was also promoting John Peterson and his Wakonda, SD -based Dakota Hemp  another processing plant being installed about an hour away.

The processors see themselves as collaborators building the new industry, not competitors.

"We need at least another two processors in South Dakota to continue to keep up with farmers growing hemp," said Meyer.

After 80 years of US prohibition, industrial hemp, a non-intoxicating version of cannabis sativa, was re-legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill. Further rules for hemp are expected to be incorporated in the 2023-24 Farm Bill, including possibly lessening fees and restrictions for growing hemp for grain and fiber.

Used by humans for 10,000 years, the hemp plant produces some of the world's strongest natural fibers and its high-protein grain (sold as "hemp hearts") is highly nutritious. Reintroducing the industrial crop into US agriculture has been challenging because of a lack of genetics and a 2019-2020 boom-and-bust CBD market that sidetracked the industry and alienated some US farmers.

Animal Feed as pathway to commodity prices

Bringing hemp prices down to compete with other commodities is a challenge at a small scale, said Andrew Bish, of Giltner, NE-based Bish Enterprises and Monte Vista, CO -based Global Fiber Processing.

Hemp hurd, currently selling for 36 to 66 cents per pound needs to be at 20 to 30 cents and hemp seed grain is priced at 50 to 55 cents per pound and needs to be between 30 to 35 cents for market competition with existing products, Bish said.

"Hemp can only be neat and cool for so long. There's a timeline. The rubber has to meet the road," he said. "The challenges really are regulatory. We can't produce enough fiber and hurd to make that market really sustainable, it will have to exceed 2 to 3 million acres a year. If we don't have more volume, you can't go into the automotive industry."

Approval for animal feed is the secret to scale in the hemp industry, Bish said. He serves as president of the non-profit Hemp Feed Coalition.

The majority of corn and soy grown in the United States , as well as other agricultural co-products like brewers grains, go to the $415 billion animal feed market. High-quality proteins and Omega 3 and 6 oils found in hemp seed have been deemed "Generally Recognized as Safe" for humans since the 1990s, but are yet not approved for animal feed by the FDA. Hemp seed has long been approved for animal feed in Europe and Canada . Some hemp genetic strains are dual-crop, harvestable for both grain and fiber.

The coalition has been working for three years on an egg-laying chicken application for hemp grain with the FDA. But costs to get a new ingredient approved for animal feed are high, about $250,000 per species.

A handful of states have approved hemp for animal feed including Texas , Montana (for companion animals) and Oklahoma . University research is being conducted in New York , Kansas , Kentucky , Colorado , Oregon and elsewhere to help approve hemp seed for animal feed.

"If you want to drive down those prices, we have to create an avenue to a market and the animal feed market is there. You don't have to do much with the hemp seed to turn it into a product," Bish said. "That's really where the money is going to be in this industry when we can have those two streams of income."

Decorticator facility toured

Along with a tour of Horizon Hemp Seeds' local hemp fields in Clark, SD , Irish music and barbecue, the event featured the unveiling of the facility's Fiber Track 660 decorticator. The machine unbales hemp stalks and separates the outer long fiber bark (bast) from the inner woody core (hurd).

Final outputs from the process include long fiber and short technical fibers used in textiles and nonwoven applications, hurd used for building materials, animal bedding and mulch and micronized dust used in plastics.

"We talk about value-added agriculture, we talk about ways to grow ag, and we really talk about 'how do we keep our kids and our grandkids here?'" said State Sen. Casey Crabtree . "To grow hemp in South Dakota and process it here creates opportunities for the next generation."

Stacked along the walls were bales grown by another lawmaker/farmer, Sen. Joshua Klumb , who worked with Crabtree and the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Association to eliminate barriers to growing industrial hemp in the state.

Acreage small, but growing in South Dakota

Nationwide, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service's count of harvested hemp acres dropped by 45% between 2021 and 2022 to 18,251 from more than 40,000, largely because of the crash of the CBD market. However South Dakota reported the highest hemp acreage harvested last year (2,550 acres) with about 3,000 acres planted this year, according to Derrick Schiefelbein of the South Dakota DANR.

Oil Seeds

Keynote speaker Roger Gussiaas, founder of Carrington, ND-based Healthy Oil Seeds said he needed at least 6,000 acres of grain hemp to be harvested to achieve his goal of 40% growth. He encouraged farmers to branch out from a rotation of corn and soy.

"I'd love to work with any of you that want to grow hemp for grain," he said. "We want to buy your hemp, pay you well and add respect to that too."

Building Materials

Hemp-lime building materials were used to build a sample wall in a "hempcrete" building workshop held by Texas -based hemp builder Ray Kaderli, president of the US Hemp Building Association.

"The overarching theme here is for building and construction to be the demand for what's being grown on a farm and processed in a facility like this," Kaderli said.

Hemp building materials are seen as plant-based alternatives that can help mitigate the large carbon footprint of the construction industry, which studies show contributes up to 38% of greenhouse gasses worldwide and takes up more than 25% of landfills.

The Project PA Home insulated with spray-applied hempcrete in New Castle, PA was developed as a way for farmers to see their product in use for the building industry, said Philip Berezniak of DON Services. The project was supported by local universities, housing agencies, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and private industry.

"Collaboration has been the secret," Berezniak said.

Corbett Hefner of Monte Vista, CO -based Formation Ag and Global Fiber Processing presented a load-bearing hemp cinderblock under development from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A tiny fraction of the cinder block market would require hundreds of thousands of acres of hemp to be planted, Hefner said.

Other hemp building materials made in the USA on the market include HempWood flooring and HempWool fiber batt insulation.

Automotive Industry

The European automotive industry has used hemp fiber in car parts for decades, and that demand is still strong in Tennessee and the region where General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan and Ford have developed large factories, said Frederick Cawthon, president of the Hemp Alliance of Tennessee.

The hemp in the car that's being manufactured right now at Mercedes Benz in Alabama "is being brought in from France ," Cawthon said. "Because we're not doing a quarter of a million acres that they're doing in Europe to support the industry right now," he said. "There's no reason we should not be producing that here  and we're just talking about one segment, automotive."

Hemp Alliance of Tennessee and a coalition of regional universities and organizations were awarded $55 million in grant money in the USDA's $3 billion Climate Smart Commodities program to help local farmers cover the costs of growing industrial hemp.

Agricultural Research

Independent seed trials in 10 states last year sponsored by the Utah -based Global Hemp Association planted multiple certified and non-certified seed strains in different US geographical regions. The data came in handy, said GHA founder Mandi Kerr , as industrial hemp advocates worked with federal lawmakers to encourage a "fiber and grain exemption" to remove barriers and slash licensing and testing costs for farmers growing hemp for industrial uses.

In a self-described "pep talk" Morris Beegle, founder of We Are for Better Alternatives, acknowledged that the re-introduction of industrial hemp had a long way to go before it became a standard rotational crop in the United States , but said the plant provided an answer for challenging times in agriculture and society.

"This extraordinary plant, long misunderstood and underutilized, possesses the power to revolutionize our industries, protect our and nutritional benefits for humans and animals, and drive positive change," Beegle said.

About Complete Hemp Processing: A.H. Meyer & Sons, Inc. (doing business as Complete Hemp Processing) is a 4th generation family-owned business with over 90 years of experience in the Agricultural Industry. In the early 1930's A.H. Meyer immigrated from Switzerland and began learning the beekeeping trade. The company is proud to still be in the

beekeeping service industry -- serving beekeepers across the United States with a Beeswax Rendering Facility and a Honey Packing Facility. The company's heritage of ingenuity and willingness to develop new ideas is what led the company to build a decortication facility for processing industrial hemp fiber -- supporting the industrial hemp farmers in the South Dakota agricultural community.

For more information contact Ken Meyer at Complete Hemp Processing at (605) 291-9083

[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sd-processor-boosts-industrial-hemp-in-dakotas-301894482.html

SOURCE Complete Hemp Processing
An aerial view shows flood-affected farmlands after the rains and floods brought by remnants of Typhoon Doksuri, in Zhuozhou, Hebei province, China August 7, 2023. REUTERS/Josh Arslan

By Tingshu Wang and Josh Arslan

ZHUOZHOU, China (Reuters) - As floodwaters began to drop over the weekend, residents of the Chinese city of Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, say their challenges have only just begun.

Zhuozhou bore the brunt of the worst storms to hit the northern province of Hebei in decades. More than a sixth of the city's 600,000 inhabitants were evacuated.

"Our difficulties are only beginning now," a Zhuozhou resident Wang Dan, told Reuters on Monday. "What's next will be the most bitter."

All of the inventories worth about 100,000 yuan ($13,915.75) in her clothing shop were soaked and likely damaged.

"Three years of pandemic, plus this year's flood, I don't know if I can keep going," said the 30 year old.

"Now I'm going to have no customers again."

Baoding prefecture, which administers Zhuozhou, said hundreds of bridges and hundreds of kilometres of rural roads had been water-damaged, with direct economic losses reaching nearly 17 billion yuan as of Saturday.

The owner of a local packaging factory estimated he suffered at least 15 million yuan of losses.

"My heart truly hurt. We'd never thought of suffering from such a severe natural disaster," said 41-year-old Wu Chunlei, standing amidst soaked paper packages in his factory.

"This is all I've worked for over the last decade."

He said the flood did more damage than the pandemic in the last three years.

"I don't know how to face this."

Gao Dong, 53, who has been staying at a disaster relief centre, despaired at the thought of rebuilding his home, now filled with a foot of mud.

"After so many years of hard work, it's heartbreaking. Our food is all gone, and we can't imagine how we'll be able to make ends meet."

He makes less than 200 yuan a day as a part-time worker and has not been able to visit his corn farmlands, which earn him a couple of thousands of yuan a year, saying it is probably all gone.

"Rebuild home, with what? If the government doesn't help, what can we use to rebuild our home?" Gao said, tearing up.

($1 = 7.1861 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(This story has been corrected to fix a resident's name in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Tingshu Wang and Josh Arslan, writing by Albee Zhang; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Rasim Balayev has been awarded with the "Istiglal" Order for great merits in the development of Azerbaijani culture, Trend reports.

In this regard, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree.

Rasim Balayev's first cinematic appearance was in the film "Stars Don't Die Away," where he played a minor role. His popularity grew after he appeared in three films and attended two film festivals: the 7th Soviet Festival in Baku and the 3rd International Festival in Tashkent, where he was awarded Best Actor and received numerous offers for leading roles in upcoming films. His roles in films such as "Nesimi", "Babek", "Dada Gorgud", "The Scoundrel", "Anecdote", and "The Bat" are among his notable performances.
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Four Syrian soldiers were killed and another four wounded in an Israeli missile attack near the Syrian capital Damascus early on Monday, Syrian state media reported, citing a military source.

State news agency SANA said the attack caused "some material damage" and that the missiles had targeted "some points in the vicinity of the city of Damascus," but gave no specific details.

Syrian air defences intercepted the Israeli missiles and shot down some of them, the military source told SANA.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said it had documented two additional fighters killed in the strikes that were members of non-Syrian militias aligned with Damascus.

Observatory head Rami Abdulrahman could not immediately confirm the nationalities of the two additional fatalities. He said the sites targeted included warehouses near the Damascus airport.

Since Syria's conflict broke out in 2011, its armed forces have been bolstered by military support from Iran and Russia, as well as allied fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and even Afghanistan.

Iran's proxy militias, led by Lebanese armed faction Hezbollah, now hold sway in large areas of eastern, southern and northern Syria and in several suburbs around the capital.

Israel has for years been carrying out attacks against what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, but has more recently stepped up its air raids on Syrian airports to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to transport arms.

A strike on Damascus in February hit an installation where Iranian officials were meeting to advance programmes to develop drone or missile capabilities of Tehran's allies in Syria, sources told Reuters.

(Reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Maya Gebeily in Beirut, and Yomna Ehab and Alaa Swilam; Editing by Kim Coghill, Lincoln Feast and Bernadette Baum)
DAKAR (Reuters) - Juan Branco, a French lawyer for Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, has been released on bail by a judge, Senegal's justice minister said on Monday.

Branco faces terrorism, conspiracy and public order charges, similar to charges against his client Sonko, who is in custody accused of plotting an insurrection - part of a long-running standoff with the authorities that he says is politically motivated.

"The judge charged him (Branco) and granted him bail," Minister Ismaila Madior Fall told reporters, adding that he had been placed under judicial supervision.

Branco's lawyer Robin Binsard has dismissed the charges as an effort to silence him professionally.

Senegalese authorities issued an arrest warrant for Branco last month after he made a surprise appearance at a news conference by Sonko's legal team in Dakar in late July, according to French newspaper Le Monde.

He then went to Mauritania where he was arrested and extradited to Senegal.

Fall described Branco as "a French lawyer who has made attacks on the Senegalese state". He entered the country illegally and wanted to leave it illegally as well, Fall said.

The minister said he would be able to serve any sentence in France thanks to Senegal's ties with France.

(Reporting by Ngouda Dione; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; editing by Grant McCool)
By James Pomfret

(Reuters) - Rights groups and activists protested outside the Laos Embassy in London on Monday to demand the release of a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who was arrested in Laos last month after fleeing China and who now faces the risk of repatriation.

Lu Siwei was arrested in Laos on July 28 as he tried to travel to the United States to reunite with his wife and daughter, according to rights groups now assisting Lu.

Lu has often taken on politically sensitive cases including one involving 12 Hong Kong citizens who were arrested by the Chinese coastguard in 2020 as they tried to flee on a boat to Taiwan. He was disbarred around a year later for an online speech that allegedly "endangered national security".

Lu had been placed under a so-called "exit ban" by Chinese authorities since May 2021, barring him from leaving the country. During this journey, however, the rights groups said Lu had a valid passport and visas for Laos and the United States.

An open letter signed by over 85 rights groups including Amnesty International demanding Lu's release was handed to a Laos official at the embassy as protesters held up signs including "China Cannot Be Trusted", according to online posts.

"We are gravely concerned that he (Lu) is at serious risk of forced repatriation to China where he faces the high likelihood of torture and other ill-treatment," the letter read.

Lu's wife, Zhang Chunxiao, in a YouTube video, had earlier called for Lu to be given access to lawyers and foreign diplomats.

Lu was arrested on suspicion of using "fraudulent travel documents", according to a letter written by the Laos Embassy.

"If found guilty Mr. Siwei will be deported," the embassy wrote in the letter dated Aug. 4 and seen by Reuters, that was addressed to Chakra Ip, the head of "29 Principles", a UK-based group supporting lawyers facing oppression.

The Laos embassy gave no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by Nick Macfie)
FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

By Bhanvi Satija and Mariam Sunny

(Reuters) - Shares of Sage Therapeutics slumped to a record low on Monday after the U.S. health regulator approved the company and partner Biogen's pill for postpartum depression, but rejected it as a treatment for major depressive disorder.

The decision raises fresh questions about the growth prospects for the firms, analysts said, as the market for major depressive disorder (MDD), also called clinical depression, is much larger than that for postpartum depression (PPD).

Jefferies had estimated peak sales of over $1 billion for the drug if approved to treat clinical depression, compared with $250 million to $500 million potential for postpartum depression.

At least one analyst said Biogen could potentially terminate its drug development deal with Sage to avoid further losses.

Biogen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Sage is considering job cuts to save cash after the FDA's decision, CFO Kimi Iguchi told investors on Monday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) decision on Friday made the pill, called Zurzuvae, the first oral drug to be approved for PPD, a common complication that affects one in eight women during and after pregnancy, and impedes their ability to return to normal functioning.

The FDA said additional studies might be required to support approval for MDD.

Biogen is unlikely to "quickly move forward on another late-stage study for MDD", given its focus on saving costs and job cuts, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said.

Zurzuvae, which relieved PPD symptoms in just days in clinical studies, is required to be given for two weeks.

The only other existing treatment for PPD, also sold by Sage, needs continuous intravenous infusion for 60 hours. Other common anti-depressants take several weeks to work.

Sage's shares were down 51.2% at $17.59 while Biogen's rose about 1%.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru, editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Sriraj Kalluvila)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his plans for continued student debt relief after a U.S. Supreme Court decision blocking his plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt, at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 30, 2023. REUTERS/

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Monday blocked the Biden administration from proceeding with another piece of its student debt relief agenda, a rule that would make it easier for people who are defrauded by their schools to have their loans forgiven.

At the request of a group representing for-profit colleges, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prevented the rule from taking effect pending the outcome of an appeal to be heard in November.

The three-judge panel gave no reason for granting the emergency injunction sought by the trade group, Career Colleges and Schools of Texas (CCST), which is appealing a lower-court judge's decision not to block the U.S. Department of Education's rule.

CCST sued in February after the Education Department in October finalized a new rule changing a program that allows students to seek debt relief if their schools mislead them.

The new rule offers greater grounds for borrowers to get debt relief in cases of fraud and establishes a procedure for the Education Department to forgive debt for groups of students at schools where this occurred.

The rule is separate from Biden's more sweeping student debt relief plan. The Supreme Court in June blocked his administration from canceling $430 billion in student loan debt for 43 million borrowers. The Democratic president has since announced plans to provide relief for student loan borrowers using a different approach.

A spokesperson for the Education Department in a statement said it was reviewing Monday's order, adding that it "won't back down in our efforts to take on predatory colleges, provide relief to borrowers who have been cheated or had their school close, and hold institutions accountable for deceptive schemes."

Students who have received debt forgiveness through the program on deceptive loans have attended for-profit colleges including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.

CCST called the rule an unlawful and unconstitutional plan designed "to accomplish massive loan forgiveness for borrowers and to reallocate the correspondingly massive financial liability to institutions of higher education."

The panel's three judges -- Edith Jones, Kyle Duncan and Cory Wilson -- were all appointed by Republican presidents.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)
The Air Force is the latest service to implement a new congressionally mandated policy that allows members of the military to request a confidential, expedited referral for mental health support through a commanding officer or supervisor.

Intended to make it easier for military personnel to seek help by reducing stigma and prioritizing mental health care, the policy stems from federal legislation known as the Brandon Act.

It was named for Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Caserta, an aviation electrician who died by suicide June 25, 2018, on the flight line at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

A command investigation found that abusive and toxic leadership in his helicopter squadron contributed to his suicide. His parents, Patrick and Teri Caserta, subsequently pushed Congress for legislation to expand mental health services for military personnel.

The services have been slow to roll out their respective policies despite a deadline set by the Pentagon.

In early May, the Defense Department officially implemented its policy, directing the services to establish the guidance for its active-duty force within 45 days. The Navy implemented the new policy for itself and the Marine Corps on July 10.

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall signed the measure for airmen and guardians on July 28. The memo first was shared on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. The Army has not announced an implementation date for its policy.

Kendall called the Casertas last week, the parents said on their The Brandon Act Facebook page on Friday.

He was very sympathetic and understood why The Brandon Act was created and why we fought so hard to get it implemented, they wrote.

The new Air Force policy allows airmen or guardians to seek a referral for a mental health evaluation from a commander or supervisor with the rank of E-6 or above on any basis, at any time, and in any environment, according to the Air Force guidance signed by Kendall.

Among the allowable reasons are personal distress or concerns and trouble performing duties and functioning in activities that could be attributed to mental health reasons, the Air Force policy says.

Commanders and supervisors in turn are directed to refer a service member seeking help for an evaluation as soon as practical and protect their privacy as much as possible.

Leadership wont be notified of the evaluations results unless there is a safety, readiness or duty concern.

Airmen and guardians still may request a mental health referral through their military provider or an off-base treatment facility without going through their leadership.

The new guidance also applies to guardsmen and reservists with orders of more than 30 days. A second phase for guardsmen and reservists on orders of 30 days or fewer will be introduced later, the Air Force memo said.

The Pentagon also is required to annually train personnel in recognizing signs that service members may need a mental health evaluation.

The shortage of mental health providers across the military, where at some bases appointments may take months to get, could provide a barrier to expediting evaluations for personnel.

When Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass announced the Air Force policy Sunday on her official Facebook page, one person asked how the Air Force will address manning for mental health.

There isnt one single program, solution or change that will fix the challenges we face when it comes to mental health, Bass replied, adding that she is encouraged by the latest changes to improve access to care.

Since President Joe Biden signed the Brandon Act into law in December 2021, the number of suicides among active-duty personnel increased from 75 in the first quarter of 2022 to 94 in the first three months of 2023, according to military data.
PANAMA CITY, Fla.  Five years later, the scars of Hurricane Michael are still visible across Tyndall Air Force Base.

The snapped and jagged trunks of once-towering pines protrude across its 29,000 acres, leaving expansive views toward the Gulf of Mexico where thick forests once stood. Dusty, empty lots remain on the site of some of the hundreds of buildings that succumbed to the Category 5 storm in 2018.

But these days, what is most striking about life at Tyndall  home to roughly 3,500 employees and their families, including the 325th Fighter Wing, a key combat training force  is not what is gone, but rather what is emerging.

The daily soundtrack is one of bulldozers and backhoes, of whirring saws and spinning drills, of thousands of workers in hard hats bustling across the sprawling base. There are piles of sheetrock and electrical conduit, stacks of pipes large and small, mountains of metal duct work, prefab concrete slabs and sheet metal.

All of it is part of a $5 billion, roughly seven-year effort to rebuild one of the most strategically important bases in the nation, one that's also threatened by climate change. And not merely to rebuild it, but to construct what the U.S. military calls "the installation of the future," which will be able to withstand rising seas, stronger storms and other threats.

"What Michael did for us is, it wiped the slate clean," said Don Arias, a spokesman at Tyndall's Natural Disaster Recovery Office. "It gave us the opportunity to reimagine."

That reimagining includes elevating buildings above projected storm surges in coming decades, building housing units and aircraft hangars that can withstand fierce winds and enhancing the natural landscape to protect the peninsula where the base sits.

While the fixes are primarily geared toward making Tyndall more resilient for generations, another hope is that the lessons unfolding here can be replicated at other bases around the world that will face  or already are facing  similar threats.

"Tyndall becomes the test bed," said Col. Robert L. Bartlow Jr., chief of the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's Natural Disaster Recovery Division, which was created after Michael.

"We don't want Tyndall to be a one-off."

A chance to rebuild on a valuable location

Hurricane Michael was a monster.

The deadly storm barreled into the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018, packing winds in excess of 160 miles per hour and fueling a catastrophic storm surge. The eye of the storm passed directly over Tyndall, where most service members and F-22 fighter jets had been evacuated.

The devastation left behind was staggering.

On the base alone, 484 buildings were destroyed or damaged beyond repair, according to the Air Force. The roofs of Tyndall's hangars, which housed some of the most expensive and high-tech airplanes in the nation, were shredded. Piles of rubble littered the base. The military eventually removed 792,450 cubic yards of debris  an amount that would fill the Capitol Rotunda nearly 17 times.

"I think 'biblical' is a fair word," Michael Dwyer, deputy chief of the Natural Disaster Recovery Division, said of the damage.

The disaster at Tyndall prompted fears in Florida that the Air Force might decide to shutter the base, which sits adjacent to badly damaged Panama City and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the local economy.

The military itself faced hard questions about whether to resurrect Tyndall  an endeavor that would cost billions of dollars, require years of disruption and still result in an installation perched on a vulnerable peninsula.

"A lot of people ask, 'Why rebuild?'" Col. Christian M. Bergholdt, commander of the 325th Operations Group, said on a recent morning at Tyndall.

He unfurled a map that shows the regions over the Gulf of Mexico where the Air Force trains pilots, including the use of live combat exercises. It's a massive area that encompasses 180,000 square miles of military-controlled airspace.

"This," he said, "is kind of a national treasure."

That ability to train over water and away from populated areas make Tyndall's location incredibly valuable to the Defense Department.

"It has unique military value that we cannot replace anywhere else," said Richard Kidd, who, before retiring at the end of May, was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for environment and energy resilience, overseeing the Pentagon's climate initiatives. "You can't pick that up and move it."

Given its prime real estate and historic importance, the military decided to take advantage of something it rarely gets these days  a blank slate.

The rebuild at Tyndall, which is expected to continue into 2027, marks the largest military construction project undertaken by the Pentagon.

"Think of it as the Air Force throwing its Costco card down on the table and buying buildings in bulk," Dwyer said of the massive undertaking.

A dizzying array of new technologies and approaches have been incorporated into the effort, from semiautonomous robot dogs patrolling the grounds to artificial intelligence software designed to detect and deter any armed person who enters the base. But the most robust funding is aimed at making Tyndall more efficient, connected and resilient in the face of a warming world.

Structures under construction  from dormitory complexes to a child care center to hangars that will house three new squadrons of the F-35A Lightning II later this year  are being built to withstand winds in excess of 165 mph. Steel frames, high-impact windows, concrete facades and roofing with additional bracing are among the features meant to weather the stronger storms to come.

At nearby Panama City, sea level rise has accelerated in recent years, with federal data showing seas have risen there more than 4 inches since 2010.

Planners factored in the potential for as much as 7 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century, and as a result placed the "vast majority" of new buildings at elevations that should be safe from storm surges for decades, Dwyer said. In addition, sensors placed near the low spots of buildings will send alerts the moment a flood threatens.

The Air Force also has created a "digital twin" of Tyndall  essentially, a virtual duplicate of the base that allows officials to simulate how roads, buildings and other infrastructure would hold up in different scenarios, such as a hurricane or historic rainfall events.

The job of protecting Tyndall, while largely a construction and engineering project, goes beyond just concrete and steel. The military also is determined to enhance the natural defenses that already exist along the base's dozens of miles of coastline.

On a sweltering spring afternoon, Gary Payne stood on the sugar-white beach along the Gulf of Mexico, stretching a hand far above his head to show how high the storm surge was from Michael.

"These dunes used to be 10 to 12 feet tall, but Michael pretty much flattened them," said Payne, the division's resilience coordinator.

Already, there are several projects planned around the base to help reduce coastal flood risks and erosion. Among them are efforts to restore dunes and sea grass meadows; the construction of a "living shoreline" composed of natural materials such as plants and rock and the installation of submerged oyster reef breakwater that can reduce wave energy and erosion.

"The nature-based components are really critical, because they are already there and already providing a benefit," said Christine Shepard, director of science for the Gulf of Mexico program at The Nature Conservancy, which is partnering with Tyndall on the resilience projects. "If you lose those habitats, you lose those benefits."

Shepard describes the military as an "early adopter" of such solutions. "The military has been appropriately considering sea level rise a lot longer than some other sectors," she said. "They know that the risk is real."

Payne agrees, and not just in the future. While leaders intend to scale up the nature-based projects over time, he is eager for any additional projection, as soon as possible.

"Even without [additional] sea level rise," he said, "the areas we are focusing on are already at risk today."

Making hard decisions 'before nature makes them for us'

As it faces more intense hurricanes and rapidly rising seas, Tyndall might be on the front lines of climate change. But it is hardly the only U.S. military installation grappling with the consequences of a warming planet.

"You have bases that are in every climate around the globe," said John Conger, director emeritus of the Center for Climate and Security and a former Defense Department official. "As the military looks at climate change, they look at it through the lens of mission. . . . It affects their ability to do their job."

Conger noted that U.S. installations exist on low-lying islands threatened by rising seas, in places such as Alaska and Greenland where permafrost is melting and sea ice is shrinking, in areas threatened by wildfires and extreme heat, saltwater intrusion and inland flooding.

The Pentagon long studied the potential impacts  it calls climate change " a critical national security threat and threat multiplier"  and has produced a growing body of research about the challenges, the potential solutions and increasingly specific plans to adapt.

The Defense Department maintains a web-based climate assessment tool, known as DCAT, that uses historical observations, global climate models and other data to help personnel plan for potential climate-fueled hazards at thousands of military outposts around the globe.

In addition, the Defense Department has spent years working on working on climate exposure assessments for major installations in the United States and abroad, though studies by the Government Accountability Office and even outside researchers have said work remains to make climate a key consideration throughout military planning.

Kate White, a DOD program director for climate and a veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the military has a much better grasp than it once did of the "tough choices" that lie ahead.

"The department really has been thinking seriously the last few years of how to understand and plan for these future realities," White said.

But even when as the risks become more fully understood, policymakers will have to decide  as they have with Tyndall  what is worth defending, and how best to do that.

"There's not enough money in the DOD's budget to build a sea wall around all of our coastal installations," said Kidd. "Given that, the nation will be faced with hard choices. Right now, we are starting to prepare the analytics to support those hard choices when the day comes."

In many places, he believes, those choices might come sooner than later.

"We may be too late to make these hard decisions before nature makes them for us."

'This is really the test base'

Back at Tyndall, the rebuilding is entering a period known as "peak construction."

As many as 4,000 contractors are flocking to the base each day  plumbers, carpenters, electricians, welders  to work on the dozens of structures that are rising from the ashes of Michael.

New hangars for fighter jets, dormitories for service members, a housing facility for visitors, a child development center, a chapel, fire stations and a new headquarters building are each in various stages of construction.

A sense of urgency surrounds the hive of activity, even as it remains years from completion. After all, sea levels in the nearby Gulf are rising at a rapid clip; ocean temperatures are hotter than ever as another hurricane season arrives; torrential rains are becoming more common as warmer air holds more moisture.

Despite those threats, Bartlow, the chief of the Natural Disaster Recovery Division, feels optimistic about the base's long-term viability once construction winds down.

"I'm confident that if Tyndall were to experience another storm, a Category 5," he said, "the installation would survive largely intact."

But on this day, he and his team are monitoring potential damage at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, where Typhoon Mawar is making landfall  the latest reminder that the threats at Tyndall are not unique, and that what the military learns here has implications around the planet.

"This really is the test base," Arias said. "This could very well set the standard."

The Washington Post's Chris Mooney contributed reporting from Washington.
WASHINGTON  The Army has improved its recruiting candidate pool and paid more than $15 million in cash bonuses since it rolled out a preparatory course a year ago to help more young Americans qualify for military service, officials said Monday.

The results from the Future Soldier Preparatory Course have been very encouraging, providing more than 8,800 young men and women a path to serve, said Gen. Gary Brito, commanding general for the Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Army will continue to find innovative ways to invest in individuals who have the desire and passion to serve but may need help in meeting the Armys enlistment standards, which we have not and will not lower.

The Army launched the prep course on Aug. 8, 2022, because of increased difficulty recruiting qualified people in recent years, which service officials have said is rooted partly in having an all-volunteer force made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. The goal of the course is to get young Americans in better physical and academic condition so they can meet the militarys entry requirements. Since the program started, the Army said it has a 95% graduation rate. The good results have led the service to open the course at a second location  Fort Moore, Ga.  earlier this year. Officials have said further expansion is possible.

Every day these young men and women show that when provided the right resources and training, they are able to perform and meet or exceed the standards expected of every soldier, said Brig. Gen. Jason Kelly, commanding general at Fort Jackson, S.C.

Fewer than 25% of young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 can meet the academic and physical requirements to join the military, according to the Pentagon. The Armys course has two tracks: an academic track and a fitness track. At the start, potential recruits could take only one track, but the Army changed the rules in the summer to allow candidates to take both tracks as needed.

Students in the academic track [increased] their [Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery] scores by an average of 18.5 points, and students in the fitness track [lost] an average of 1.7% of body fat per week, the Army said in a statement Monday. While the numbers clearly show the program is delivering for the Army, it is also helping many young Americans who may have struggled with meeting enlistment standards realize their dream of serving their nation as a professional soldier.

Like the Navy and Air Force, the Army has struggled to meet recruiting goals in recent years. In 2022, the service came up about 15,000 recruits shy of its target and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has said meeting the 2023 goal of 65,000 new soldiers will be difficult.

We are not going to make the very ambitious recruiting goal, Wormuth said last month at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. The good news is we are going to recruit more young Americans into the Army than we did last year  by several thousand.

Officials have cited numerous contributing factors to the difficulty in recruiting across the military, including waning interest. A recent Pentagon survey showed only about 9% of Americans between 17 and 24 are interested in serving. The pandemic compounded the problem by taking thousands of recruiters out of schools nationwide.

Test scores on the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery have dropped 9% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis, the former commanding general at Fort Jackson, said in June. The Army recognizes that the societal difficulties facing our youth are not going away, so we are going to do something about it ourselves and build the next generation of soldiers.

One incentive that the Army has pursued to improve recruiting is offering cash bonuses. In the prep course, candidates can qualify to receive financial awards if they graduate.

I started with an ASVAB score of 38, said Pvt. Nia Bautista, a recent graduate. I was able to increase my ASVAB score to 90 and  qualified for a bonus of $7,500.

Since the course was launched a year ago, the Army said its paid out more than $15.5 million in bonuses to graduates.

The course meant a lot to me, said Pvt. Elysette Ortiz, who raised her ASVAB score by 22 points. I spent a lot of time trying to get into the Army. This program helped me make it to this point.

The Navy, which has said it expects to be a few thousand recruits short of its goal for 2023, decided earlier this year to follow the Armys lead by launching a similar preparatory course in April. Its designed to get recruits in physical shape so they can pass the Navy Physical Readiness Test.
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Hundreds of Boy Scouts arrived at this Army base over the weekend, driven from the World Scout Jamboree nearby by an extreme heat wave, according to the Boy Scouts of America.

The Scouts organization announced Friday that its contingent would leave the jamboree site at Saemangeum, near Busan, and move to Camp Humphreys, roughly 85 miles away, until departing for the United States on Aug. 11, the organization said in an email to parents and staff that day.

The decision to leave early was due to the ongoing extreme weather and resulting conditions at the jamboree site, according to the email.

Over 600 people were shuttled from the jamboree to Humphreys on Sunday, Eighth Army spokeswoman Maj. Mayra Nanez told Stars and Stripes by phone Monday. The command did not immediately respond to an additional request for comment Monday.

Roughly 4,500 people from the British contingent and 60 people from the Singaporean contingent were relocated to hotels in Seoul, according to a Sunday report from South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily.

While we regret the need for the early departure, the move ensures the safety of our Scouts and alleviates pressure on the jamboree site services and infrastructure, the Scouts email said.

The 25th World Scout Jamboree  40,000 Scouts ages 14 to 17 from 150 countries -- kicked off in South Korea on Aug. 1, according to the organizations website.

South Korean government agencies and companies provided aid to the campsite following reports of Scouts falling ill from the 90 degrees F heat.

Around 240 air-conditioned buses were dispatched to the site by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport; the Ministry of National Defense erected 64 canopies; 700 government personnel were sent to clean bathrooms and other buildings; and numerous companies donated drinks, portable fans and repair equipment for facilities, according to a World Scout Jamboree news release Saturday.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday directed the government to make every effort to provide aid for the jamboree participants during the heat wave, according to a written briefing from the presidential office that day.

Pyeongtaek Mayor Jung Jang-seon in a news release Saturday said his city will work with jamboree organizers to hold community events for the Scouts and to make a good impression on our country.

We will support you to finish this journey, Jung said.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  Sometime during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, Marine Sgt. Alvin Josephy Jr. recorded a running commentary during deafening, close-quarter Marine combat with Japanese defenders.

The Japanese were ensconced behind an embankment. Theres a concrete abutment of some sort, and theyre set up behind it in a pretty nice manner, Josephys voice says calmly. He turns his attention to Marines rushing forward to fire bazookas at the structure.

There they go, he said. Theyre going to blast them out of there, concrete and all.

Josephys audio recording in the Marine Combat Recordings collection, hundreds of hours of audio transferred first to disc and later to magnetic tape, was discovered in the spring by Japanese public broadcaster NHK at the Audio-Visual Conservation Center of the Library of Congress in Culpeper, Va., library spokeswoman Leah Knobel said by phone June 30.

The recordings were made on Armour wire and filmstrip, both portable audio recorders available at the time, during 14 different Pacific campaigns, Knobel said.

An NHK documentary produced from more than 30 hours of Okinawa recordings and broadcast in June has been viewed more than 143,000 times since June 30. The documentary can be viewed on YouTube in Japanese.

The Marine recording project began in late 1943 at the behest of Harold Spivacke, then chief of the librarys music division, and Brig. Gen. Robert Denig, wartime director of Marine Corps public information, according to a history written by Marine Staff Sgt. Robert Bloch in 1953.

Advances in sound recording prompted the men to request Marines to carry cumbersome devices to capture music on remote Pacific islands. The Marines quickly switched to record the sounds of combat, Bloch wrote.

The recordings include interviews with troops on the eve of battle, briefings, personal messages for loved ones back home and after-action reports, Matthew Barton, the librarys curator of recorded sound, said by phone June 30.

They also include moments of levity, like when a chicken lands in a Marine trench during the battle, and the post-war occupation of Japan in 1945.

These are unique, Barton said. It isnt somebody summarizing what happened yesterday; its somebody talking about whats happening right now, and youre right there with it.
Q: The US State Department issued a statement criticizing China for obstructing Philippine vessels that sought to deliver new troops and supplies to a "grounded" warship at Renai Jiao and firing water cannons. The statement says such actions are inconsistent with international law and threatening regional peace and stability and calls upon China to abide by the South China Sea arbitration award issued in 2016. The statement indicates US support for the Philippines lawful maritime operations and says an armed attack on the Philippines Coast Guard would invoke US mutual defense commitments under the US Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. Do you have any comment?

A: Renai Jiao has always been part of Chinas Nansha Qundao. The historical context of the issue of Renai Jiao is very clear. In 1999, the Philippines sent a warship that illegally "landed" on Renai Jiao, attempting to change the status quo of Renai Jiao illegally. China immediately made serious demarches to the Philippines, demanding the removal of the vessel. The Philippines promised several times to tow it away, but has yet to act. Not only that, the Philippines sought to repair and reinforce the warship in order to permanently occupy Renai Jiao. On August 5, in disregard of Chinas repeated dissuasion and warning, the Philippines sent two vessels that intruded into the adjacent waters of Renai Jiao and tried to deliver the construction materials for repairing and reinforcing the "grounded" warship. Such actions violated Chinas sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels stopped them in accordance with law and warned them off through appropriate law enforcement measures. Their maneuvers were professional, restrained and beyond reproach.

The State Departments statement, in disregard of the facts, attacked Chinas legitimate and lawful actions at sea aimed at safeguarding its rights and enforcing the law. The statement also voiced support for the Philippines unlawful, provocative behavior. China firmly opposes the statement. For some time, the US has been inciting and supporting the Philippines attempts to repair and reinforce its warship that was deliberately "grounded" on Renai Jiao. The US even sent over military aircraft and vessels to assist and support the Philippines, and repeatedly sought to threaten China by citing the US Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. The US has been brazenly bolstering the Philippines as it infringes upon Chinas sovereignty, but those moves will not succeed.

The South China Sea arbitration was a pure political drama staged in the name of the law with the US pulling strings behind the scenes. The so-called award contravenes international laws, including UNCLOS, and is illegal, null and void. The USs attempt to make an issue of the illegal award will not affect Chinas firm resolve to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in accordance with the law. We urge the US to stop utilizing the South China Sea issue to sow confusion and discord, and we urge it to respect Chinas territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and respect regional countries efforts to uphold peace and stability in this region.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. A DJI Magic 3 quadcopter belonging to the Armenian armed forces attempted to fly over the positions of the Azerbaijani army located in the Basarkechar district along the direction of the Zod settlement at about 13: 30 (GMT+4), the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The quadcopter was discovered and dropped by advanced technical methods as a consequence of the alertness of Azerbaijani army units.
The U.S. Pacific Fleet over the weekend continued to track a flotilla of Russian and Chinese warships steaming through international waters off the coast of Alaska, a Navy spokeswoman said Monday.

The 11 warships cruised near the Alaskan coast and the Aleutian Islands in southeast Alaska last week, according to a joint statement from U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Alaska Republicans, on Saturday. They said they received detailed classified briefings about the matter. The statement did not disclose how close the ships came to U.S. shores.

This is a stark reminder of Alaskas proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty, Murkowski said in the statement.

Neither senators office responded to phone calls from Stars and Stripes on Sunday.

The ships never entered U.S. territorial waters and were shadowed by four U.S. guided-missile destroyers  the USS John S. McCain, USS Benfold, USS John Finn and USS Chung-Hoon  and a P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The flotilla on Friday steamed through the southwestern portion of the Bering Sea, where it conducted an anti-submarine exercise that included the destruction of a mock enemy submarine, according to a news release that day from the Russian Defense Ministry.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet has a myriad of joint capabilities to monitor foreign operations in the region, said U.S. Pacific Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christina Hough. She did not verify the Wall Street Journal report identifying the U.S. ships involved in tracking the flotilla.

The U.S. expects the Russian and Chinese navies to operate within the region in accordance with international law and plans to continue to track them through the duration of their time in the region, she told Stars and Stripes by email Sunday.

Beijing announced the third joint maritime patrol in the western and northern waters of the Pacific Ocean between China and Russia, according to a July 26 news release from the state-sponsored China Military Online. The operation does not target any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation, the release states.

The flotilla has traveled more than 2,300 nautical miles since the patrol began, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, and carried out included joint maneuvering drills and helicopter landing and take-off practice.

Sullivan called the flotilla an incursion and indicated the beginning of a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow, according to the statement.

He compared its presence to a similar China-Russia operation last year and said the U.S. responding with four destroyers would send a strong message to Xi Jinping and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska.

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kimball on Sept. 19 spotted three Chinese naval vessels and four Russian naval vessels  including a Chinese guided-missile cruiser and a Russian destroyer  operating as a combined surface action group within the United States exclusive economic zone near Kiska Island in the Aleutian Islands.

The Kimball, a 418-foot Legend-class national security cutter, monitored the ships activities.

The Chinese and Russian militaries over the past several years have deepened their ties, with frequent joint patrols and exercises, although China has neither endorsed nor condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Afghanistan, March 15, 2010: Petty Officer 3rd Class Brice Roberts, 24, swings a pickaxe while Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexander Taylor, 24, holds back the metal lathe for the concrete floor at the construction site of a new tactical operations center at Forward Operating Base Sharana in Paktika province. The construction by the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 was part of a massive building effort to support the surge in troops ordered in December 2009 by President Barack Obama.

Read the article and see additional photos here.
NIAMEY, Niger  A senior U.S. diplomat said coup leaders in Niger refused to allow her to meet Monday with the West African country's democratically elected president, whom she described as under "virtual house arrest."

Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland also described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to U.S. pressure to return the country to civilian rule.

"They were quite firm about how they want to proceed, and it is not in support of the constitution of Niger," Nuland told reporters. She characterized the conversations as "extremely frank and at times quite difficult."

She spoke after a two-hour meeting in Niger's capital, Niamey, with some leaders of the military takeover of a country that has been a vital counterterrorism partner of the United States.

In speaking to junta leaders, Nuland said, she made "absolutely clear the kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored."

If the U.S. determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid.

She said she also stressed U.S. concern for the welfare of President Mohamed Bazoum, who she said was being detained with his wife and son.

The meeting was with Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, a U.S.-trained officer, and three of the colonels involved in the takeover. The coup's top leader, former presidential guard head Abdourahamane Tchiani, did not meet with the Americans.

In other developments Monday, leaders of West Africa's regional bloc said they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the president. The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.

Meanwhile, the junta's mutinous soldiers closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

State television reported the junta's latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if Bazoum is not returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted "the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country," and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with "an energetic and immediate response."

The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger's population to defend the nation.

The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa's Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

Niger had been seen by the United States and others as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Also Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbors of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

Regional tensions have mounted since the coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Tchiani as head of state. Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigeria's Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

Guinea and neighboring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal's government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc's efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta has asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center.

However, Nuland indicated that coup leaders did not seem receptive to welcoming Wagner mercenaries into the country, as has happened with several surrounding unstable West African countries.

"I will say that I got the sense from my meetings today that the people who have taken the action here understand very well the risks to their sovereignty when Wagner is invited," Nuland said.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended almost $550 million in aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 U.S. military personnel also in Niger.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

"While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn't intervene. Is it now that they will intervene?" said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. "Shame on ECOWAS."

Knickmeyer reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Nearly two weeks have passed since the coup in Niger, and the two men making competing claims to power have gone quiet in recent days. One is the ousted president, who said last week he's being held hostage and has been publicly silent since then. The other is the military junta leader who asserts he acted out of concern for the country's security and has encouraged Nigeriens to defend it from any foreign intervention.

Here's a look at President Mohamed Bazoum and Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as Niger's junta defies a threat by the West African regional bloc to step in and use force if necessary:

PRESIDENT MOHAMED BAZOUM

As neighbors in West Africa experienced multiple coups and kicked out the military forces of former colonizer France in recent months, Niger's president came to be seen as a crucial partner of the West in the fight against groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization in what has become the global epicenter of extremism, the vast Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.

The 63-year-old Bazoum took office in early 2021 in Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since the country's independence in 1960. The preferred successor of outgoing President Mahamadou Issoufou, Bazoum had been a teacher by training and a longtime Cabinet minister who comes from Niger's small ethnic Arab minority.

Welcomed for his security cooperation with the United States, France and others as alliances with neighboring countries deteriorated, Bazoum was one of three "close partners" among African leaders to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at last year's U.S.-Africa summit.

Closer to home, Bazoum received praise for taking on issues such as child marriage in the country with the world's highest birth rate.

But some in his security forces reportedly felt threatened as Bazoum made changes in leadership in recent months. Under house arrest as the coup unfolded, he managed to stay in touch with the outside world by phone, at least for more than a week.

"I write this as a hostage," Bazoum managed to dictate for an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Thursday.

In that piece, he pushed back against the coup leaders' assertions that they had acted in response to growing insecurity in Niger, saying that "to the south, where we face the terrorist group Boko Haram, there have been almost no attacks for two years." He added, "The country's north and west have likewise suffered no major attacks since I took office."

The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project supported that in a statement after the coup in Niger, saying "levels of lethal violence are in steady decline, and significantly reduced in comparison to Mali and Burkina Faso."

Bazoum urged the United States and other international partners to intervene. Those partners are concerned. China issued a statement on Thursday calling Bazoum a friend of China and saying that "we hope that his personal safety is ensured."

U.S. officials said they were still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was Monday morning.

GEN. ABDOURAHMANE TCHIANI

The former head of the Niger's presidential guard, Tchiani has accused Bazoum of not doing enough to keep the country safe from Islamic extremists and declared himself the leader of the mutinous soldiers calling themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country,

Now he and his allies have reached out to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for help, according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, signaling a major shift in international partners.

The junta also is aligning with neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which also are led by juntas and are sending a delegation to Niger after saying any foreign intervention there would be seen as a "declaration of war" against them, too.

Tchiani, who is in his early 60s, is an army veteran and ally of former president Issoufou. He reportedly helped block a coup attempt in March 2021 shortly before Bazoum was sworn in as president.

The general is from the Tillaberi region northwest of the capital and bordering Mali. It is part of the area inside Niger that has suffered greatly from Islamic extremist attacks. After the coup, he asserted that he had stepped in to avoid watching Niger's "inevitable demise."

Like a number of high-ranking military officials in African nations, he received some U.S. training. In the past, he served as military attache at the Niger embassy in Germany. He also took part in a past mission with the regional bloc, ECOWAS, which now threatens a military intervention if Bazoum isn't reinstated.

Bazoum had been preparing to fire Tchiani as head of the presidential guard, the International Crisis Group said in a report on Monday, citing people close to the president.

The general hasn't spoken publicly since a televised speech on Wednesday in which he called on Nigerians to be ready to defend against "all those who want to inflict unspeakable suffering" on the country. He also promised to create the conditions for a peaceful transition to elections.

Bazoum, however, in his last public statement asserted that he's still in charge.

Petesch reported from Chicago. AP diplomatic writer Matt Lee in Washington contributed.
(Tribune News Service)  When Niger was rattled by a coup in late July, it was just the latest West African nation to be challenged by mutinous militaries bent on unseating the existing government  what some have called a domino chain of armed takeovers in a sensitive part of the world where Russia-loyalist mercenaries are in ascendance.

But Niger, U.S. officials say, is different.

Niger's president, Mohamed Bazoum, who is now being held captive by his former security detail, is a rare democratically elected leader who was inaugurated in 2021 in the country's first peaceful transfer of power. His nation is the recipient of $2 billion in U.S. and other Western aid annually. And more than 1,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Niger, where they train the Nigerien military to battle jihadist terrorist groups active in the area.

The Biden administration and European Union rushed to condemn the coup and have lamented the potential loss of their last reliable West African ally as international pressure continued to mount. Losing Niger could be seen as a victory for Russia, experts say.

Striking a harsh tone like the West, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, handed military coup leaders in Niger  led by presidential guard Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who has declared himself head of state  a Sunday deadline to stand down and reinstate Bazoum to office. Though ECOWAS is attempting to broker negotiations, it has said it will use military force if Tchiani does not comply, threatening a wider conflict that would further devastate an impoverished region marred by violence.

U.S. officials do not think ECOWAS will use military force in the near future, nor will they commit to join in, but they have warned that Niger risks collapse as a nation if the attempted coup isn't halted. And Russia's notorious militia force, the Wagner Group, is poised to step into the void.

"Let me be very, very clear about this," said U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who visited Niger in March and has been in regular telephone contact with Bazoum since the July 26 coup. "Our economic and security partnership with Niger  which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars  depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted. That support is in clear jeopardy."

Though Niger had, until now, remained a steadfast ally of Washington and the West, it has grown increasingly isolated, a lone island in a sea of countries ruled by military putschists backed by the Wagner Group, a vicious militia with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and led by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Niger sits in the middle of the Sahel, a thick belt of countries across the widest section of the African continent from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean westward to Sudan and Eritrea on the Red Sea. U.S. officials say the Sahel has become home to branches of the Islamic State and Al Qaeda terrorist groups.

Nearly all of Niger's neighboring governments have fallen to military coups in the last five years, while Islamist insurgent violence explodes on its borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, where the Wagner Group has deployed forces to offer protection to leaders while exploiting the countries' mineral and other natural-resource wealth. To offer itself as an alternative, the Wagner Group has capitalized on anti-colonial sentiment targeting France and the U.S., American officials say. Prigozhin was quick to offer support for the Niger coup, although U.S. officials do not believe he instigated it.

Despite the volatility of the region, U.S. officials said they were surprised by the Niger uprising, which they said may have been prompted when Tchiani thought he was going to be fired as head of the presidential security guard. The U.S. has been without an ambassador in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, while nominee Elizabeth FitzGibbon, a veteran Africa expert in the foreign service and an alumnus of UC Davis, awaited confirmation for a year as a small group of GOP senators held up diplomatic and military appointees to punish the Biden administration.

Senior State Department officials still hold out hope that the coup can be reversed, encouraged by the fact that they are able to speak regularly to Bazoum, to former Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou and even to people in Tchianti's circle. They believe Tchianti has yet to consolidate his control, potentially allowing some military elements to be swayed to restore the democratic system.

And in contrast to revolts in several other countries, the streets in Niamey have remained relatively calm, though the U.S. ordered non-essential personnel at its embassy to leave the country Friday and warned American citizens against any travel to the country.

"So this isn't an old-style coup that I would have seen [30 years ago], where they line up people and shoot them on the beach," a senior State Department official said, briefing a small group of reporters in Washington on condition of anonymity to discuss a fluid situation. "We're far from that, which means [coup leaders] haven't made up their mind."

Unlike some others who have been in his position, Bazoum has declared himself a hostage and refused to go quietly  he won't resign, is penning op-eds in U.S. newspapers and is still the rightful president of the country, even as Tchiani went on Nigerien television to declare himself president.

President Joe Biden observed Niger's national independence day on Thursday by demanding that Bazoum and his family be released immediately from imprisonment in their residence "for the preservation of Niger's hard-earned democracy."

The State Department official speaking on condition of anonymity said it was not likely the crisis will be resolved in days or weeks.

"This could play out over time," the official said. "But I think ultimately, there's too much at stake for Niger and the region to let it stand."

A major danger, the official said, is that although Prigozhin and the Wagner Group may not have had a hand in staging the coup, they will not hesitate to take advantage of it, even though Russia has not had the same kind of influence or presence in Niger that it had in other West African countries.

"They're very well placed to quickly take advantage of a situation like this," the official said. "This is an opportunity of a lifetime, the low-hanging fruit that they never thought would fall."

Another senior State Department official said there was also concern that Bazoum and his family could not be freed from their imprisonment without major risk to their lives.

"We believe the situation is really fluid," the official said.

John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, said military intervention by ECOWAS or any other force to rescue Bazoum was a last resort.

"Right now we are focused on diplomacy," Kirby said. "We still believe there's time and space for that. But ... the window is not going to be open forever."

2023 Los Angeles Times.

Visit at latimes.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
In the fall of 2020, the National Security Agency made an alarming discovery: Chinese military hackers had compromised classified defense networks of the United States' most important strategic ally in East Asia. Cyberspies from the People's Liberation Army had wormed their way into Japan's most sensitive computer systems.

The hackers had deep, persistent access and appeared to be after anything they could get their hands on  plans, capabilities, assessments of military shortcomings, according to three former senior U.S. officials, who were among a dozen current and former U.S. and Japanese officials interviewed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.

"It was bad  shockingly bad," recalled one former U.S. military official, who was briefed on the event, which has not been previously reported.

Tokyo has taken steps to strengthen its networks. But they are still deemed not sufficiently secure from Beijing's prying eyes, which, officials say, could impede greater intelligence sharing between the Pentagon and Japan's Defense Ministry.

The 2020 penetration was so disturbing that Gen. Paul Nakasone, the head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, and Matthew Pottinger, who was White House deputy national security adviser at the time, raced to Tokyo. They briefed the defense minister, who was so concerned that he arranged for them to alert the prime minister himself.

Beijing, they told the Japanese officials, had breached Tokyo's defense networks, making it one of the most damaging hacks in that country's modern history.

The Japanese were taken aback but indicated they would look into it. Nakasone and Pottinger flew back "thinking they had really made a point," said one former senior defense official briefed on the matter.

Back in Washington, then-President Donald Trump was busy contesting Joe Biden's election victory, and administration officials were preparing for a transition. Senior national security officials briefed incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan during the handoff, but the incoming Biden administration faced a swirl of issues  including how to deal with a major Russian breach of U.S. agency networks discovered during the Trump administration  and some U.S. officials got the sense the Japanese just hoped the issue would fade away.

By early 2021, the Biden administration had settled in, and cybersecurity and defense officials realized the problem had festered. The Chinese were still in Tokyo's networks.

Since then, under American scrutiny, the Japanese have announced they are ramping up network security, boosting the cybersecurity budget tenfold over the next five years and increasing their military cybersecurity force fourfold to 4,000 people.

The stakes are high.

Beijing, bent on projecting power across the western Pacific  an area it controversially claims as part of a historic maritime dominion  has increased confrontation in the region. It fired ballistic missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone last August after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China claims. It has embarked on a major nuclear weapons buildup. And it has engaged in dangerous air and naval maneuvers with U.S., Canadian and Australian ships and jets in the Pacific.

China, which already boasts the world's largest legion of state-sponsored hackers, is expanding its cyber capabilities. Since mid-2021, the U.S. government and Western cybersecurity firms have documented increasing Chinese penetration of critical infrastructure in the United States, Guam and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific. The targets include communication, transportation and utility systems, Microsoft said in May.

China-based hackers recently compromised the emails of the U.S. Commerce secretary, the U.S. ambassador to China and other senior diplomats  even amid an effort by the Biden administration to thaw frosty relations with Beijing.

"Over the years we have been concerned about its espionage program," said a senior U.S. official. "But China is [also] developing cyberattack capabilities that could be used to disrupt critical services in the U.S. and key Asian allies and shape decision-making in a crisis or conflict.''

In the face of this aggression, Japan has stepped up, moving beyond the traditional "shield and spear" arrangement in which Tokyo focuses on the country's self-defense, while Washington provides capabilities that support regional security, including the nuclear umbrella that protects Japan and South Korea. Japan is developing a counterstrike capability that can reach targets in mainland China. It is buying U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles. And it is permitting the U.S. Marine Corps to place a new advanced regiment in remote islands southwest of Okinawa, a location that  along with the northernmost islands of the Philippines  allows the U.S. military proximity to Taiwan should a conflict with China erupt.

"Japan and the United States are currently facing the most challenging and complex security environment in recent history," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a news conference with Biden in Washington in January. He noted Japan's new national security strategy boosting its defense budget and capabilities. "This new policy," he said, "will be beneficial for the deterrence capabilities and response capabilities of the alliance as well."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has indicated to Tokyo that enhanced data-sharing to enable advanced military operations could be slowed if Japan's networks are not better secured.

"We see tremendous investment and effort from the Japanese in this area," said a senior U.S. defense official. But work remains to be done. "The department feels strongly about the importance of cybersecurity to our ability to conduct combined military operations, which are at the core of the U.S.-Japan alliance."

Acknowledging the problem

As the Biden administration took office, it faced a maelstrom of cybersecurity crises.

The United States was debating how to respond to the massive Russian "SolarWinds" hack, which was uncovered during the Trump administration and had sowed malicious code and enabled cyberspies to steal information from several major U.S. government agencies.

Soon after, a Chinese compromise of Microsoft Exchange servers around the world  including at least 30,000 entities in the United States alone  threatened to cripple small and midsize businesses and state and local government agencies. Then, in the spring of 2021, a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline by a Russian criminal group shut down one of the nation's largest fuel pipelines for six days.

In the midst of this, Cyber Command offered Tokyo a team of cyber-sleuths to help assess the scope of the breach and begin to cleanse its networks of Chinese malware. The command's "hunt forward" teams for several years had been assisting partners in countries including Ukraine, North Macedonia and Lithuania dig for foreign intrusions.

But the Japanese were wary. "They were uncomfortable having another country's military on their networks," said the former military official.

The two sides came up with a compromise approach: The Japanese would use domestic commercial firms to assess vulnerabilities, and a joint NSA/Cyber Command team would review the results and provide guidance on how to seal gaps.

Meanwhile, White House national security staff and Tokyo's National Security Council set up regular technical exchanges and video conference calls to keep on top of the issue. Defense officials in both capitals did the same.

Upon taking office, the Biden administration created a new cybersecurity position, and placed a senior NSA official in the job. Anne Neuberger had been appointed as a deputy national security adviser for cyber and knew about the Chinese breach coming in.

But for much of the first year she was occupied with SolarWinds, Chinese compromises and Russian ransomware, and a presidential order to secure the federal software supply chain.

Then in fall 2021, Washington uncovered fresh information that reinforced the severity of China's breach of Tokyo's defense systems and showed that Japan was not making much progress in sealing it.

A warning from Washington

That November, despite Japan being in pandemic lockdown, Neuberger and a handful of other U.S. officials flew to Tokyo and met with top military, intelligence and diplomatic officials, according to several people with knowledge of the trip.

To protect sensitive sources and methods, Neuberger could not explicitly tell the Japanese how U.S. spy agencies knew about the Chinese compromise. She tried in an oblique way to assure Tokyo that the Americans were not in their networks, but suspicions lingered. After all, the Japanese, like other allies, knew that the United States spies on partners.

In 2015, the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks revealed that the NSA had spied on 35 targets in Japan, including cabinet members and the Mitsubishi corporation. Biden, then vice president, called then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to apologize for the trouble caused.

In any case, Washington and Tokyo had no history of working together to address a sensitive intelligence threat.

"We were asking for an unprecedented level of access to their systems," said one person familiar with the matter. "We were asking them to take their trust in us to a deeper level than we had before. And naturally any sovereign country would be cautious about that."

In deliberate, measured fashion, Neuberger laid out what the United States knew. She made clear that the White House felt the problem needed to be fixed.

"We're not here to wag fingers," said a senior administration official, describing the approach. "We're here to share hard-won lessons."

Neuberger found a partner in Japan's newly appointed national security adviser, Takeo Akiba, who zeroed in on an entrenched bureaucracy. They were helped by the fact that Kishida was keen on advancing a campaign launched by Abe to bolster Japan's defense capabilities. Tokyo set to work on a new cyber strategy, which sought to beef up spending and personnel and align cybersecurity standards with U.S. and international benchmarks.

"The first step is acknowledging that you have a problem, and then second, acknowledging the seriousness of the problem," said the senior U.S. defense official.

Japan launched a Cyber Command, which monitors networks "24/7," said a Japanese defense official. It has introduced a program to continuously analyze risks throughout the military's computer systems. It is enhancing cybersecurity training and is planning to spend $7 billion over five years on cybersecurity.

"The government of Japan intends to strengthen its cybersecurity response capabilities to be equal to or surpass the level of leading Western countries," Noriyuki Shikata, Kishida's cabinet press secretary, said in an interview. That goal  along with "active cyberdefense," or a form of offense-as-defense hacking  is enshrined in Japan's new national security strategy.

'Spy heaven'

For years before China audaciously hacked its networks, Japan was seen as a leaky vessel. During the Cold War, Soviet operatives used good old-fashioned tactics, capitalizing on people's weaknesses for food, drink, money and gambling to cultivate Japanese journalists, politicians and intelligence officers.

"They bragged to themselves that Japan was 'spy heaven,' " said Richard Samuels, a political scientist at MIT, whose history of Japan's intelligence community was published last year.

After the Cold War ended, Japanese officials finally started waking up to the importance of tightening up access to intelligence. For one thing, the Americans were taking notice. A year before 9/11, a report produced by a Pentagon-funded think tank noted that despite the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance, intelligence-sharing with Tokyo was far less than that with NATO partners.

"Both within and beyond Asia, Japan faces more diverse threats and more complex international responsibilities, which call for intelligence that provides a better understanding of its national security needs," stated the report, written by a bipartisan study group including foreign policy experts Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye.

It urged Japanese leaders to build public and political support for a new law to protect classified information.

"The Americans weren't happy with how porous the Japanese intelligence community was," said Samuels. "They did what you would expect, which was to share less. At a time when Japan needed more and better intelligence from its powerful ally, it wasn't getting everything it needed, and it was told it's because your intelligence community leaks. If you tighten it up, we can have a fuller and more robust exchange."

One of the most receptive to the message was Abe, scion of a prominent political family and twice prime minister. Abe, more than any modern political leader of Japan, paved the way for security reform in Tokyo.

During his second tenure as prime minister in the early to mid-2010s, he sparked changes. The parliament passed a state secrets law that set stiff penalties for mishandling documents and for leaking information. Abe set up a National Security Council, modeled in part after the U.S. version, to advise the prime minister.

Antiwar and civil liberties advocates protested the reforms, claiming they were infringing on privacy rights and voicing concerns about an expanding national security state. But by 2013, when the law was passed, the geopolitical landscape had shifted. The public had come to see that decades of a nominal commitment to self-defense had only emboldened a rising Beijing.

China had aggressively responded to Japan's nationalization of the Senkaku Islands, flooding the waters off the islands with Coast Guard vessels and maritime militia. In the South China Sea, it was turning remote atolls into military outposts seemingly overnight. President Xi Jinping had come to power, accelerating a vast military modernization. Meanwhile, North Korea continued provocative nuclear tests.

Abe was no longer prime minister in July 2022, when he was assassinated, but his legacy lives on. Over the last decade, attitudes toward China have hardened: Today, a majority of Japanese view the Chinese government unfavorably, while support for the U.S. alliance is at an all-time high.

"Enhancing bilateral cooperation between Japan and the U.S. strengthens the cyber defenses of both nations," said Nakasone in a statement to The Post. The United States is focused on helping Japan improve its cyber capabilities, he said, noting that the goal is for both nations to be able to ensure "a safe and secure Indo-Pacific region."

The future fight

In December 2022, Chris Inglis, then the White House national cyber director, flew to Japan to speak with counterparts. Part of his mission was to share what the U.S. government was doing to better secure its own systems as he was in the midst of drafting a national cybersecurity strategy. A pillar of that strategy, which was issued in March, was strengthening partner capacities.

"My discussions were intended to be quite positive about what we could do together, how we could frame cyber strategies and national strategies that would be complimentary," Inglis said in an interview. "But we have to make sure that each of us makes the appropriate investments in cybersecurity foundations."

Administration officials admit that U.S. networks are far from 100 percent secure. Over the past two decades, cases abound of Russian, Chinese, Iranian and North Korean hacks. Sensitive commercial and classified material has been stolen, the NSA's own top-secret hacking tools have been released into the wild, Hollywood studios have been coerced and embarrassed, and the United States' democracy has been assaulted.

The "attack surface," as cybersecurity experts call it, is vast.

Over the last 20 years, each successive U.S. administration has sought to do more to enhance American cybersecurity. New organizations have been created at the White House, Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department to deal with the issue. More money has been allocated. Authorities have been expanded. Efforts with the private sector, which owns and runs the majority of critical infrastructure, have been enhanced.

"We can't hold the Japanese to a standard that we ourselves can't possibly meet," said the defense official. "At the end of the day, we're going to share information with them," the person added. "We just want to do our best to keep our adversaries out."
MANILA, Philippines  The Philippine government summoned China's ambassador on Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guard's use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.

The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan expressed support for the Philippines and concern over the Chinese actions. Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if Philippine public vessels and forces come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference on Monday at which they showed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal. One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons. Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

"This was like a David and Goliath situation," Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

Malaya emphasized that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said China's ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas, Daza said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorization into the shoal, which Beijing calls Ren'ai Jiao. It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

"In order to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective, water cannons were used as a warning. The on-site operation was professional and restrained, which is beyond reproach," the Chinese coast guard said. "China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty."

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still-commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manila's territorial claim to the atoll.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that invalidated its claims in 2016 by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejects that ruling and continues to defy it.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Sunday that by "firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, (Chinese) ships interfered with the Philippines' lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew." It added that such actions are a direct threat to "regional peace and stability."

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often criticized China's aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says are in America's national interest.

China has told the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday accused the U.S. of "threatening China" by raising the possibility of the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty being activated.

"What the U.S. does is to blatantly support the Philippines' violation of China's sovereignty, and its plot is doomed to fail," the ministry said in a statement in Beijing.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  Tropical Storm Khanun rumbled toward Japan and South Korea on Monday after a second pass of Okinawa left roads there littered with debris and thousands still without power.

The storm wreaked havoc on Japans southern island chain for nearly five days, coming within 60 miles of Kadena Air Base on Wednesday morning before curving back and returning, weaker, to about 100 miles north-northwest of Kadena on Saturday afternoon.

Khanun was forecast to pass just west of Sasebo Naval Base on Kyushu, southernmost of Japans four main islands, overnight Wednesday into Thursday, and make landfall near Chinhae Naval Base in southeastern South Korea around midday Thursday, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said Monday.

The storm was 375 miles south of Sasebo and 513 miles south-southeast of Pusan, South Korea, on Monday morning and tracking east-southeast at 5 mph, according to the warning center. Its winds at the center were sustained at 63 mph with 81-mph gusts.

Sasebo on Monday afternoon entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 2, which means destructive winds of 57 mph or greater are anticipated within 24 hours, according to a post on the base Facebook page. People were advised to secure outdoor items.

Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, slammed into Okinawa on Tuesday night, the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane with wind gusts as high as 145 mph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. At Naha, the capital of Okinawa, 26 inches of rain have fallen since Aug. 1, more than double the average August rainfall since 1991.

The storm injured 68 people, according to the prefectures Disaster Prevention and Crisis Management Division website. Two deaths are being investigated as possibly being typhoon-related, a division spokesman said by phone Monday.

Several Marines received minor injuries, Capt. Brett Dornhege-Lazaroff, spokesman for the III Marine Expeditionary Force, said by phone Monday. He said he had no further details.

Readiness was not impacted by the storm, Dornhege-Lazaroff said.

An Air Force weather radar in Uruma city was damaged by the storm, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The 18th Wing did not immediately respond to a request seeking further information Monday afternoon.

Khanun on its first pass knocked out power to over 200,000 homes across the Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa Electric Power Co. said on its website. During its second pass, over 33,000 homes went or remained dark. Just over 4,000 were still without power Monday afternoon, the utility said. Khanun was downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday.

NEXCO-West, which operates Okinawas expressway, on Monday reopened the stretch of highway between Naha and Ishikawa, a spokeswoman said by phone Monday. NEXCO-West requires spokespeople to speak on the condition of anonymity.

Flights at Naha Airport, grounded two days, resumed Monday, according to the airports Twitter account Sunday.

Kadena experienced some outages and flooding but no injuries, wing spokesman Lt. Col. Raymond Geoffroy said by email earlier Monday. Engineers are working to restore power to a few remaining facilities around the base and the wing is preparing to resume normal flying operations.

Stars and Stripes reporters Frank Andrews and Dave Ornauer contributed to this report.
TOKYO  A train scheduled to accommodate a fireworks display near Tokyo crashed over the weekend, trapping hundreds of passengers without air conditioning for hours, according to the East Japan Railway Co.

The Tokaido Line train traveling between Ofuna and Fujisawa stations in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, hit a concrete power pole at 9:24 p.m. Saturday, according to a release on the JR East website Sunday.

Three passengers and the driver of the train sustained minor injuries, such as cuts, and nine people felt sick, some suffering heatstroke, JR East CEO Hitoshi Suzuki said during a televised news conference on Sunday.

Another 150,000 riders were affected by delays caused by the crash on a busy night for travel, according to the company. The trapped passengers eventually walked to nearby stations, Suzuki said.

Another train passed the site about 10 minutes before the accident, but the driver saw no problem; a regular inspection on Wednesday found no issues.

On Saturday night, the driver of the train suddenly saw an electrification pole in front and then (the train) crashed, Suzuki said.

We are investigating into why that electrification pole was there, he said.

The accident damaged the train, breaking the front glass window on the first car and causing the ceiling to fall, according to the release.

The accident caused a power outage, trapping passengers in the train cars without air conditioning for hours, according to Suzuki. The accident also suspended operations on other lines until 4:17 a.m. Sunday. The Tokaido line resumed service at 8 a.m. Sunday, the release stated.

The train that crashed was temporarily operating Saturday night to serve additional passengers anticipated from a nearby fireworks festival and other events, Suzuki said during the news conference. The end of COVID-19 restrictions in Japan earlier this year means more people are riding the trains, he said.

The company will inspect similar power poles in its service area and investigate the cause of the accident, Suzuki said.
NAPLES, Italy  For thousands of U.S. military families, an overseas assignment means living on the edge of poverty.

In Europe, nearly 7,000 U.S. service members or their spouses or children were in danger in the past year of not having enough to eat, Defense Department data show.

Those military families qualified for a low-income program designed to ensure that pregnant women, babies and toddlers dont go hungry.

The reason for that hardship after being sent to Europe is rooted in a loss of income resulting from U.S. and NATO country prohibitions that keep military spouses from working overseas, program administrators say.

But the harm to military families doesnt end there. The rules have created a pipeline of highly skilled, cheap  and in many cases free  labor exploited by military hospitals and other base organizations, a yearlong Stars and Stripes investigation shows.

For example, military spouses who are nurses, physical therapists or other medical professionals told Stars and Stripes they were encouraged to give as much as 40 hours a week to the American Red Cross or other organizations in the hope that doing so could lead to an eventual paid position.

In Germany, those professionals saved the DODs largest hospital overseas more than $600,000 in unpaid labor, according to Red Cross figures.

Other military spouses who found jobs on base in retail, food service or other areas earned as little as $10 an hour without paid holidays or leave.

Sometimes those spouses worked alongside local nationals who were paid considerably more for a similar job under union contracts.

Meanwhile, many spouses who hold U.S. green cards are effectively shut out of overseas base employment because of rules that require U.S. citizenship for most jobs.

Even lower-paying jobs in fields with critical shortages, like child care positions at bases in Europe, are open only to citizens of NATO member countries, leaving spouses with U.S. green cards who hail from allies like Australia, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere ineligible.

Other military spouses seeking to continue their home-based businesses must contend with confusing and inconsistently applied regulations that, among other restrictions, bar them from competing with base services and businesses, like the Army and Air Force Exchange Service  which took in $8.5 billion in worldwide revenue last year.

As a result, most military families sent overseas are forced to live on a single income, cutting expenses, digging into savings and, for some, relying on low-income government assistance to get by.

It's depleted our familys savings account, forced us to lower our standard of living and affected my mental health in that I feel I'm no longer a useful contributor for my family's well-being, said one respondent in an informal Stars and Stripes survey posted to private Facebook groups for military spouses in Italy.

Federal food aid necessary

Mallory Hardgrove, a teacher, couldnt find a job that paid enough to cover day care expenses during an assignment to U.S. Army Garrison Italy in Vicenza.

Relying solely on her active-duty husbands income saw the family of five struggle to pay bills and buy groceries, she said.

Hardgrove and her three daughters were among 1,176 people at five bases in Italy receiving benefits from the Women, Infants and Children program, according to data from U.S. European Command spanning from Jan. 1 to Oct. 26, 2022.

In all, 6,786 people at U.S. bases in Europe qualified for the supplemental food program managed by the Defense Health Agency. More than half were assigned to bases in Germany, data from the same period show.

The DHA did not respond to multiple requests by Stars and Stripes for updated and more complete data.

Worldwide, including at bases in Japan and South Korea, there were 7,825 people receiving WIC Overseas vouchers for milk, cheese, eggs, peanut butter, vegetables, formula and other nutritious foods as of Jan. 5, EUCOM said in a separate statement.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, Hardgrove said of the first time she used WIC vouchers at the commissary. Hardgrove, who never had previously received low-income assistance, recently returned to the U.S. with her family after three years in Italy.

Sunk in the SOFA

At issue in Europe is a pact signed in 1951, when fewer women worked outside the home and well before the existence of a digital workplace. There are similar agreements between the U.S. and other countries, such as Japan.

The NATO Status of Forces Agreement sets the rules, rights and responsibilities according to which U.S. troops may live and work in allied member countries.

However, the agreement doesnt directly address dependents employment, making military spouses vulnerable to U.S. and host country interpretations that often limit their job opportunities.

For example, in Italy and Belgium, spouses must give up their SOFA status if they want to work anywhere other than on base, including remotely for an American employer.

But military spouses living in Germany can work for a German employer or telecommute to their American job without losing their SOFA status in most cases. Telework also is allowed in Japan, South Korea and Bahrain.

Various agreements also restrict on-base jobs available to military spouses, frequently limiting them to entry-level, low-paying positions regardless of their education, experience or skills.

Confusion about what is allowed is made worse by opaque diplomatic and military agreements as well as vague and misleading official interpretations of those pacts.

Many spouses dont pursue telecommuting or other career options because they lack clear information or fear unintended consequences, advocates say.

For example, in summer 2021, military spouses attending an orientation briefing at Naval Support Activity Naples were given information implying that work anywhere but on base was illegal, according to a photograph of a presentation slide given to Stars and Stripes.

That information was false and amounted to fearmongering, said Beth Conlin, Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce board chair and Blue Star Families research and policy team adviser.

Conlin argues that clear explanations of all employment options overseas should be made available to military spouses.

After she pointed out the error, the base made modifications to explain that off-base employment is possible, Conlin said.

The briefing slide in question is no longer used, Morgan Gilliam, a U.S. Navy Europe Africa Central spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Gilliam went on to say that the Navy periodically updates the information it offers based on questions from its community.

But confusion about overseas spouse employment persists, and the quality and accuracy of information offered varies among bases, spouses say.

For years, U.S. military installations in Italy have warned spouses that giving up their SOFA rights would result in the loss of certain privileges, such as shopping on base, visiting the commissary or using the mail system, among others.

Those fears also are expressed by spouses living in Belgium and in non-NATO countries, such as Japan.

But spouses at NSA Naples and other naval bases in Italy learn different information.

As long as dependents have a valid military ID, they have access to the commissary, (Navy Exchange, Morale, Welfare and Recreation) services, and emergency medical/dental services while in Italy, Gilliam said in a separate response to Stars and Stripes questions.

That position is more in line with that of Conlin and others who say those privileges are tied to an active-duty service members orders, not SOFA status or an Italian residency permit.

However, NSA Naples does warn that spouses who get an Italian work permit could be taken off military orders and likely would lose some benefits, such as a NATO drivers license, Gilliam said.

Heavy on unpaid labor

Kennedi Pettway, a registered nurse whose husband works at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, has been unemployed since moving to Belgium about a year ago.

Pettway interviewed for a nursing job several months ago and recently learned that she had been selected.

But during her job search, Pettway had considered following advice to volunteer for the American Red Cross because it would get her foot in the door, she said.

People would know my face, and it probably would be easier for me to get a job on base, Pettway said she was told.

She ultimately didnt volunteer for the organization.

Faced with letting their skills and knowledge atrophy or licenses lapse, military spouses work as much as 40 hours a week for on-base organizations that pay them nothing for valuable nursing, marketing, management or other abilities.

Using nurses in volunteer positions at bases is common, said Elayne Saejung, a military spouse who couldnt get a job in her field of health care emergency management while she was in Okinawa during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its good enough for volunteer service but they wont pay them for it, Saejung said.

At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, about 275 Red Cross volunteers accounted for about 20,600 volunteer hours in the past year, a service worth about $655,000, based on a $31.80-per-hour federal estimate for volunteer work, according to the nonprofit agency.

Those volunteers performed such duties as clerical tasks, assisting patients or drawing blood for lab work. Spouses also have worked unpaid as obstetricians, dentists, nurses and physician assistants, among others.

The employment opportunities just arent the same here, so (military spouses) are more likely to volunteer in that professional capacity, to keep their skills or resume current, said Samantha Wudel, program director for the Kaiserslautern Military Community American Red Cross chapter. At home, they could get a full-time job in that area.

Red Cross and Pentagon policies prohibit volunteers from filling paid staff billets, Wudel noted.

Cindy Gourlie, an experienced restaurant manager and trained sommelier, wanted to continue her U.S.-based catering business when her active-duty husband was assigned to a post in Belgium.

But that wasnt possible because of SOFA-related restrictions that limited her work-from-home options.

Gourlie did find a job helping to open a coffee shop at Chievres Air Base. She also created a menu for it and ultimately became the manager. But the job paid far less than a comparable position in the U.S. and offered no paid vacation or holiday leave, she said.

You end up having no job or selling your soul for $10 an hour, Gourlie said.

Even when spouses can put advanced skills to work through a home-based business, they face a daunting review process that can take months and significantly limit the products or services they offer.

Victoria Negrete Furnary wanted to offer physical therapy services in her home at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo. It took more than four months to get the necessary approval, which came just before Furnarys active-duty husband received early orders for a new assignment.

You can work in Japan but its very limiting, Furnary said.

Onerous rules to ensure that hairstylists, bakers and other home-based workers dont compete with or use products from base businesses, such as the commissary or exchange, further restrict spouse employment efforts, she said.

Remote obstacles

Hardgrove and other spouses in Italy and Belgium said they understand host country concerns about protecting jobs, but they argue that working for an American employer shouldnt be a problem.

Lan Mai, a nurse who lives at NSA Naples, said being able to work remotely would allow her family to spend more money in Italy rather than stay on base for lack of funds to eat out or travel.

If Im doing remote nursing for Americans, Im not taking away from the Italian economy because Im not taking their jobs, said Mai, whose husband is active-duty Navy. Everybody wins if we have more jobs. We have more money to spend on our economy and this economy.

U.S. officials say they understand the worries and frustrations of military families. They point to base programs that help spouses with job searches, resume writing and education or skills acquisition as part of an effort to address the problem.

Policies that give military spouses preference over other federal job applicants in some cases also help, they say.

And diplomatic efforts, such as ongoing conversations with Italy about loosening restrictions on employment and a recent agreement with Bahrain that allows military spouses there to work off base, are evidence of U.S. commitment to a resolution, they say.

For example, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman discussed U.S. military spouse employment with Italian officials in January, a State Department spokesman said in February.

We hope to find a solution soon, the spokesman said.

Back home to get work

More than lost income, though, many people married to a service member said moving overseas with their active-duty spouse has robbed them of the sense of identity, purpose and accomplishment that comes from working.

They also are plagued by low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness and shame.

Its tough financially not having a second income but its also hard on the morale and mental state of spouses having to sacrifice their career to support their active-duty spouse, one Stars and Stripes survey respondent said.

Those feelings and a desire to contribute financially leave some spouses considering returning to America without their husband or wife.

Aurora Venden, whose husband is active-duty Army, volunteered for a couple of service organizations at Vicenza since arriving in January 2020.

She was fortunate enough to get a job at one for a couple of years, but the position was eliminated. She was applying for stateside employment and had planned to go home early rather than remain unemployed.

But Venden recently was hired to do part-time work for a military contractor. Although she earns less than she used to, the job has eased her worries about student loan payments and allowed her to stay in Italy.

I have no idea how we would have afforded the move (back to the U.S.), but it was like being backed into a corner, Venden said. There were just no other options.

Claire Carter, whose family recently returned to the U.S. after six years in Belgium, doesnt want to move overseas again unless she has more control over her job opportunities.

Carter resumed her career in human resources but is earning significantly less. Thats due to years of unemployment as part of living overseas, she said.

If my husband goes, I would not follow this time, Carter said, adding that she knows of other spouses who are making a similar decision. I would stay in the States, and if a job came up, I would go and then be my own sponsor.

Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer H. Svan contributed to this report.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The command of the Russian peacekeepers in Azerbaijan's Karabakh refused to accompany the "action", the march of Armenians towards the Azerbaijani-Armenian border (Khakari Bridge), Trend reports.

The command of the peacekeepers stated that, in accordance with the provisions of the trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, the escort of cars by the Russian peacekeepers and ensuring the security of various actions and rallies are not provided.

The "protest" with the "organization" of separatists in Karabakh, which began before the 6th meeting of the leaders in Brussels (July 15), has so far been accompanied by Russian peacekeepers.

Although it was pointed out as the main "reason" for discontent that Azerbaijan allegedly "closed" the Lachin border checkpoint and "created a humanitarian crisis" from which Armenian residents of Karabakh allegedly "suffered," it quickly became clear to everyone that this is all a sham campaign.

Facts and video evidence show that Azerbaijan does not make it difficult for Armenians residing in Karabakh to enter the Lachin border. Baku even offered Armenia a better Aghdam-Khankendi road to bring humanitarian help to Armenians in Karabakh, but the Armenians declined.

Thus, neither the Armenian authorities nor the remnants of the so-called regime in Karabakh are interested in the future fate of the Armenian residents of Karabakh. There is only one side that thinks about them and takes responsibility for ensuring their security, and that is Azerbaijan. The rest only strive to realize their goals, using the Armenian residents of Karabakh for this.

In order to prevent the transportation of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia for illegal Armenian armed groups on the territory of Azerbaijan (which weren't withdrawn contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020), and as an adequate response to the unilateral establishment of a border checkpoint by Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22, 2023 at the entrance to the Lachin-Khankendi road contrary to the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, on April 23 this year, the units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan set up a border checkpoint in its sovereign territories, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road.
More than 3,000 Marines and sailors sent to reinforce the U.S. presence in the Middle East are now in the region as part of a stepped-up push to counter Irans interference with commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived Sunday after transiting the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet said in a statement the same day.

The Bataan group includes the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, which can carry more than 24 rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, including MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and AV-8B Harrier attack jets, 5th Fleet said. It also can carry several amphibious landing vessels.

The group includes Amphibious Squadron 8, Fleet Surgical Team 8, Tactical Air Control Squadron 21, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26, Assault Craft Unit 4, Beach Master Unit 2 and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to the statement.

The dock-landing ship USS Carter Hall also is part of the group. It supports operations for various rotary-wing aircraft, tactical vehicles and amphibious landing craft, the Navy said.

About 100 Marines already are training in Bahrain for specialized defense units that will provide security aboard oil tankers and other commercial ships, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

The units will travel briefly aboard commercial vessels through sensitive areas, such as the Strait of Hormuz, at the request of shippers, among other criteria.

The step is unprecedented in the post-World War II era and clearly shows American commitment to ensuring that travel through the strait and nearby waters remains unrestricted, officials say.

On Saturday, Iranian news outlets said the countrys Revolutionary Guard Corps navy had been equipped with drones as well as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with a range of about 186 to 621 miles, Reuters reported the same day.

An Iranian official said the U.S. wasnt needed to provide security in the region, according to Reuters.

Last month, the Defense Department announced the deployment of additional forces to the Middle East to counter Iranian aggression in the Gulf region.

That came on the heels of Irans attempted seizures of two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in early July. Iranian naval forces fired on one of the ships. Those two attempts were the latest in a string of Iranian actions to harass oil tankers.

In late April, a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker headed to Texas was seized. Iran has harassed, attacked or seized 20 commercial ships since 2021, the Navy has said.
JERUSALEM  A Palestinian teenager who was shot by Israeli troops last week after throwing a firebomb in the occupied West Bank died Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

It was the latest in a long string of violent incidents involving Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank in the last year and a half. It came after a bloody weekend in which a settler killed a Palestinian man and a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli security guard in Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that Ramzi Hamed, 17, was shot near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, near his hometown of Silwad north of Ramallah.

Fathi Hamed, the boy's father, told The Associated Press that his son was shot by Israeli troops early last Wednesday after throwing firebombs at soldiers operating near Silwad.

The Israeli military said "it appears" that Hamed had thrown the firebomb toward the settlement's front gate. It provided security camera footage of what it said was the incident, in which a young male is seen getting out of a vehicle, throwing a firebomb and speeding away in a car after an explosion. It was not immediately clear how close the explosion was to security forces or when the teen was shot.

Violence has surged across the northern West Bank with the rise of shooting attacks by Palestinian groups against Israelis, near-daily arrest raids by the Israeli military, and growing attacks by extremist Jewish settlers.

On Monday, the Israeli military said troops arrested 17 Palestinians across the West Bank overnight. Israeli media reported that five of those arrested were suspected of involvement in clashes with Israeli settlers on Friday that left one Palestinian dead.

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the West Bank on Friday. They set fire to cars and fired on Palestinians who threw stones at them. Two Israeli settlers suspected of killing 19-year-old Palestinian Qusai Matan remained in police custody on Monday.

The surge in fighting is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in recent decades. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and innocent bystanders have also been killed.

At least 30 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis so far this year.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
QUETTA, Pakistan  A roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying a local politician and his friends in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing him and six others, police said.

In a separate bombing, two people were killed in the northwest.

The attack that killed seven happened in Kech, a town in Baluchistan province, local police officer Haider Ali said. He said that the slain politician, Ishaq Yaqub, was from the Baluchistan Awami Party and it was unclear who was behind the attack.

For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups and nationalists who complain of discrimination and demand a fairer share of their province's resources and wealth.

The bombing in Baluchistan happened hours after a suicide bomber apparently detonated his explosives-laden vehicle prematurely in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, killing a married couple in a nearby car, officials said.

A local administration official, Rehmant Ullah, said the bombing happened in North Waziristan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

He said a team from the bomb disposal unit was also present nearby when the blast took place, but they escaped unharmed.

"We suspect that the suicide bomber detonated his explosives either by mistake or prematurely, but it killed a man and his wife whose car was near the vehicle of the bomber at the time of the blast," he said.

It is unclear who dispatched the car bomber to the area, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and who have stepped up attacks on security forces since last year.

TTP is a separate group but is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Although the Pakistani military claims it has cleared the North Waziristan region and other former tribal areas in the northwest of militants, the violence has continued, raising concerns that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping in the area.
In mid-May, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a warning to the Taliban: honor Afghanistan's water-supply agreement or face the consequences.

A well-known Taliban figure offered a mocking gift of a 20-liter water container in response and told him to stop making terrifying ultimatums. About a week later, a skirmish erupted on the border, leaving two Iranian guards and one Taliban member dead. The Taliban sent thousands of troops and hundreds of suicide bombers to the area, according to a person familiar with the matter, who says the group is prepared for war.

After two decades fighting the U.S., Taliban leaders now find themselves sparring with neighbors as the realities of global warming hit home. The dispute with Iran over depleted water resources is further destabilizing an already volatile region.

"The water shortages in the Helmand River basin are a result of climate change as the country heats up and suffers huge excesses of rainfall followed by terrible dry spells," said Graeme Smith, a senior consultant on Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization. "Temperatures in the country are up 1.8C since 1950."

Iran signed an agreement in 1973 for Afghanistan to supply a stipulated amount of water a year in "normal" climate conditions from the Helmand, a more than 620-mile waterway that runs from the Afghan Hindu Kush mountains through the country and into Iran.

The water from Afghanistan's longest river is critical for agriculture and consumed by millions of people on both sides of the border.

Iran argues the Taliban reduced the water supply since it returned to power and isn't keeping Afghanistan's side of the bargain.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a news conference last week that "preliminary agreements are in place" with the Taliban government over Iran's rights to water from the Helmand, without providing further details.

"Take my words seriously," Raisi, Iran's president since 2021, said during a visit to Sistan and Baluchestan, the country's poorest province, which was hit hard by the water shortage. "I warn the officials and rulers of Afghanistan that they should honor the water rights of the people of Sistan."

Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid and Bilal Karimi didn't respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

Mujahid said in May Raisi's comments were inappropriate and could harm ties. Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi contends the issue only occurred because of drought, and Afghanistan respects the agreement.

The pact itself leaves room for interpretation. The water supply must be "adjusted" in times of drought, it says, and both countries must engage in "diplomatic negotiations" to resolve any issues.

But despite the call for diplomacy, the Taliban prepared for war. As well as soldiers and suicide bombers, its rare military deployment also included hundreds of military vehicles and weapons left behind by the U.S., the person said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation.

"Both sides can make a case to justify their positions," said Omar Samad, a senior fellow at Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council and former Afghan envoy to Canada and France. He pointed to Afghanistan's "protracted state of crisis" and Iran's need for water at a time of drought.

If neither wants to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels, it will be "politically irrational and lead to regional destabilization at a time when neither side can afford conflict," he said.

The agreement has been a source of tension for decades. Iran has long argued it doesn't receive enough water. The situation worsened with the Taliban's takeover, which came during years of drought.

And while it's hard to analyze both sides' claims as no water supply data is available, Fatemeh Aman, a nonresident senior fellow at Washington-based think tank the Middle East Institute, says Iran has only itself to blame.

"The Iranian authorities had over 40 years to invest in water management or prepare the region for disaster," she said. "They failed."

Iranian lawmakers said in June the situation in Sistan and Baluchestan is so dire that a "humanitarian disaster" will occur if people don't get access to water, according to local media. More than 10,000 families fled the province's capital in the last year, according to a report.

At least 300 towns and cities in Iran face acute water stress as the planet gets hotter. Dams are evaporating, and more than 97% of the country is affected by drought, according to one estimate. Some 20 million people moved to cities because the land is too dry for farming, according to one academic.

Some of the roughly 3 million Afghans who escaped to Iran to avoid decades of war at home are also affected.

"We traveled for hours to reach another village and get 30 liters of drinking water," said Sardar Ali, 45, who returned to Afghanistan this year with his family from Sistan and Baluchestan. "The heat and lack of water also killed many people's livestock and forced many people to flee."

Global temperatures hit records in July, with countries from Italy to China experiencing scorching heat as the emerging El Nino weather pattern helped push the mercury higher.

Afghanistan has been no outlier.

The country is reeling from drought, with six times more households feeling the effect in 2022 compared to 2020, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Some 64% of Afghans were impacted by drought in 2022, while 30 of 34 provinces have extremely low water quality, it said.

It's a trend that's expected to continue over coming decades, when climate change is likely to have severe effects, according to the U.N.

The water conflict comes as Afghanistan faces other emergencies.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs since the Taliban's return two years ago, with women bearing the brunt of it, the International Labour Organization said in a report. The economy remains crippled by sanctions and the international community doesn't recognize the Taliban administration, cutting Afghanistan from the global financial system.

The country's hunger crisis is also worsening. Afghanistan needs $4.6 billion this year to support more than 20 million people facing acute hunger, about half the population, according to the U.N.

But that hasn't stopped the Taliban from responding aggressively over water.

Just two days after Raisi's warning, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar ordered the restart of work on the controversial Bakhshabad Dam over the Helmand, a project that had been delayed for years due to conflict and Iran's attempts to stop it.

And more than two months later, no progress has been made in resolving the issues with Iran.

"We have seen nothing in the way of fulfilling commitments and securing Iran's water rights," Iran foreign ministry spokesman Kanaani said at a news conference July 10. "Talks are underway at various levels with the caretaker government of Afghanistan and we will continue to pursue this issue seriously."

The Taliban also created friction with other neighbors. It's building a huge irrigation canal in its northern region to divert water from the Amu Darya basin that would otherwise flow into Uzbekistan and other central Asian nations. Uzbekistan has voiced concerns but also vowed not to hinder the project.

The Middle East Institute's Aman says transboundary water should never be politicized. But she's also realistic: The region should brace for further climate-induced strife ahead, she says.

"The two sides should sit down and hammer out a better understanding of the 1973 water treaty," Smith of the International Crisis Group said of Iran and Afghanistan. Both countries "have isolated governments, but even pariah states need help with adapting to climate change. Survival on a heating planet will require cooperation with everyone, even the Taliban."

Bloomberg's Arsalan Shahla and Zulfugar Agayev contributed to this report.
Word spread through an Oregon hospital last month that a visitor was causing trouble in the maternity ward, and nurses were warned the man might try to abduct his partner's newborn.

Hours later, the visitor opened fire, killing a security guard and sending patients, nurses and doctors scrambling for cover.

The shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland was part of a wave of gun violence sweeping through U.S. hospitals and medical centers, which have struggled to adapt to the growing threats.

Such attacks have helped make health care one of the nation's most violent fields. Statistics show American health care workers now suffer more nonfatal injuries from workplace violence than workers in any other profession, including law enforcement.

"Health care workers don't even think about that when they decide they want to be a nurse or a doctor. But as far as actual violence goes, statistically, health care is four or five times more dangerous than any other profession," said Michael D'Angelo, a former police officer who focuses on health care and workplace violence as a security consultant in Florida.

Other industries outpace health care for overall danger, including deaths.

Similar shootings have played out in hospitals across the country.

Last year, a man killed two workers at a Dallas hospital while there to watch his child's birth. In May, a man opened fire in a medical center waiting room in Atlanta, killing one woman and wounding four. Late last month, a man shot and wounded a doctor at a health center in Dallas. In June 2022, a gunman killed his surgeon and three other people at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical office because he blamed the doctor for his continuing pain after an operation.

It's not just deadly shootings: Health care workers racked up 73% of all nonfatal workplace violence injuries in 2018, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

One day before the July 22 shooting in Portland, employees throughout the hospital were warned during meetings to be prepared for a possible "code amber" announcement in case the visitor attempted to kidnap the child, according to a nurse with direct knowledge of the briefing who spoke to The Associated Press. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared retaliation at work.

Fifteen minutes before the shooting, someone at the hospital called 911 to report the visitor was threatening staffers, according to a timeline provided by Portland police.

"He kind of fell through the cracks," the nurse said. "I don't know how many chances he received. It kind of got to the point where staff did not know what to do, or what they could or couldn't do with him."

Police arrived at the maternity ward within minutes, but it was too late. Bobby Smallwood, a security guard who had been called in from another Legacy hospital to cover shifts for Good Samaritan's understaffed security team, had been fatally shot. Another hospital employee was wounded by shrapnel. The suspect fled and was later killed by police in a nearby community.

The hospital declined to respond to the nurse's comments because the case is still under investigation.

"Events like these are unpredictable, but our team exhibited professionalism and a great deal of courage in the face of extraordinarily challenging circumstances that day," Legacy Health said in a statement to the AP.

Legacy Health in Portland plans to install additional metal detectors, require bag searches at every hospital and send patients and visitors to controlled entrances. More security officers will be provided with stun guns, the hospital said, and bullet-slowing film is being applied to some interior glass and at main entrances.

Around 40 states have passed laws creating or increasing penalties for violence against health care workers, according to the American Nurses Association. Hospitals have armed security officers with batons, stun guns or handguns, while some states, including Indiana, Ohio and Georgia, allow hospitals to create their own police forces.

Critics say private hospital police can exacerbate the health care and policing inequities already experienced by Black people. They also say private police forces often don't have to disclose information such as how often they use force or whether they disproportionately detain members of minority groups.

Security teams cannot address all of the factors leading to violence because many of them are caused by a dysfunctional health care system, said Deborah Burger, a registered nurse and the president of National Nurses United.

Patients and families are often bounced between emergency rooms and home, and are frustrated over high costs, limited treatment options or long wait times, Burger said.

"Hospitals don't really have a complaints department, so the only real target they have is the nurse or staff that are standing right in front of them," she said.

Understaffing forces nurses to care for more patients and affords them less time to assess each one for behavior problems. Efforts to de-escalate aggression aren't as effective if nurses haven't had time to bond with patients, Burger said.

Understaffing is an "absolutely catastrophic formula for workplace violence increasing," D'Angelo said. "Now you don't even have the good old buddy system of two co-workers keeping an eye out for each other."

Some hospital administrators encourage staff to placate aggressive visitors and patients because they are worried about getting bad reviews, Burger said. That's because the Affordable Care Act tied a portion of federal reimbursement rates to consumer satisfaction surveys and low satisfaction means a hit to the financial bottom line.

"The results of those surveys should never take priority over staff safety," D'Angelo said.

Eric Sean Clay, the president-elect of the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety and vice president of security at Memorial Hermann Health in Houston, said the workplace violence rates attributed to health care facilities are "grossly underreported."

"I think that a lot of it comes down to caregivers are just very tolerant, and they come to look at it as just part of the job," he said. "If they're not injured, sometimes they don't want to report it, and sometimes they don't think there will be any change."

Clay's hospital uses armed and unarmed security officers, though he hopes to have them all armed eventually.

"We actually have our own firing range that we use," Clay said. None of his security officers have drawn their weapons on the job in recent years, but he wants them to be ready because of the rise in gun violence.

Clay and Memorial Hermann Health declined to answer questions about whether an armed security force could negatively affect access to health care or existing inequities.

The nurse at the Portland hospital said the shooting left her colleagues terrified and unusually solemn. She is worried Legacy Health's promises of increased safety will be temporary because of the cost of finding, training and retaining security officers.

Some of her co-workers have resigned because they don't want to face another "code silver," the alert issued when someone at the hospital has a weapon.

"You know, we always say these patients and their families are so vulnerable, because they're having the worst day of their life here," the nurse said, and that makes many staffers reluctant to demand better behavior.

"We have to stop that narrative," she said. "Being vulnerable is bleeding out from a bullet wound in your chest. Being vulnerable is having to barricade yourself and your patients in a room because of a code silver."
(Tribune News Service)  A soldier went missing in action after becoming a prisoner of war during the Korean War 73 years ago. But a relative from Lynwood, Ill., donated her DNA in the hope of identifying his remains and it paid off.

Army Sgt. Cresenciano "Chano" Garcia, Jr. was at last identified, bringing closure to his family who were long left to wonder about his fate.

The soldier from Laredo, Texas, died during a death march during the Korean War. He's being returned to his family, who will have a celebration of life in Gary, Ind., in September before a burial next to his parents in Texas in October.

"He was the youngest of five kids. There's some discrepancy when he joined the Army but it's believed he was 17 years old because his dad had to sign for him," said relative Sandy Strong from Lynwood. "About 90% of his family is here in the Region."

Three of his sisters moved from the border town in Texas to East Chicago and his family has since fanned out across the Region. He now has family in East Chicago, Hammond, Highland, Griffith, Portage, Cedar Lake, Lake of the Four Seasons and Lynwood just across the state line in Illinois.

"That's partly what led him to join the Army," said Strong, who was Garcia's niece. "It was out of spite. My mom moved to East Chicago and he wanted to move up here with her but his parents wouldn't allow him to move away so he joined the Army."

He enlisted while the Korean War was raging and went to basic training at Fort Lewis in Washington. Garcia was deployed to Korea with Headquarters Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division in 1950. He was reported missing in action during a battle by Kunu-ri in South Korea in December of that year.

He wrote regular letters to his grandmother, which the family still has and kept in sequential order. She feared something was amiss when the letters stopped coming and then grim-faced soldiers in uniform showed up on their doorstep one day with grave news.

His remains were not recovered. He was officially declared dead in February of 1951 in POW Camp 5 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"He was in North Korea in a river by China on a death walk. One witness saw him drop on the side of the road and another saw he was too weak to carry on. They had visual confirmation when he fell dead on the side of the road."

He died a corporal and was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

Strong was in Washington, D.C., on union business for the United Steelworkers union back in 2006 with Garcia's sister and mother. They decided to donate their DNA for a potential match even though they thought there was a slim to none chance he would ever be identified.

"Flash forward to this year and we were told it was a 99.9% DNA match and they had found his remains," she said. "They had a whole slideshow. It looked like an NCIS-type thing. It was an amazing miracle. They found 90% of his body, including his skull, femur and jawbone. We broke down crying at the Army riding to see the skeletal remains laid out in the photos. It brings it full circle. I've heard his name over the years and never had the chance to meet him but this brought him to life. I'm glad my blood gave closure to the family. When he was buried DNA wasn't available."

He died young. He never got the chance to marry or have children.

But his memory lives on in the family.

Strong still has three Mexican coins Garcia obtained as a souvenir on a trip across the border and gave to a friend before he deployed to war. The friend held onto them after learning of Garcia's death and eventually gave them to the family.

Garcia was presumed missing but turned out to have actually been buried anonymously on U.S. soil for well over a half-century.

North Korea and the United States reached an agreement to exchange war dead in 1954. Garcia's remains were sent to the United States but were never identified.

He was buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, colloquially known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii in 1956.

"Since the 1980s the Army has been working to identify all the remains they found in the Punchbowl," she said "They've got boxes of bones with numbers."

His remains were exhumed in 2019 for more testing. A historian and forensic anthropologist determined the remains might be Garcia so they were sent to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory for dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

A rosette will be placed by his name at the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Honolulu. A celebration of life will take place from noon until 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 at the United Steelworkers Union's McBridge Hall in Gary. At least 500 people are expected to turn out.

"It's a ceremony for family members who can't get down to Laredo. The military will be putting on services when he gets to his final resting place," said relative Joe Perez, a union leader for the International Longshoremen Association at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. "I've heard a lot of stories about him, that he was a very handsome, very honorable and very prideful man. It's a great feeling to have some closure. My aunt donated her DNA to the military database and gave us an opportunity to get some closure."

The public is welcome to attend the ceremony, which will include taps and a 21-gun salute from a local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter.

He will be buried in Laredo, Texas, on Oct. 14.

His nephew Rolando Vera said the family was given the choice of leaving him in the Punchbowl, having him buried at Arlington National Cemetery or having him buried at any military post in the country. They opted to bury him with his parents in his hometown.

Vera, who lives in Laredo, remembers going with his mother frequently to a monument downtown for the Korean MIA/POW. He was so young he didn't initially grasp the concept.

"Everybody was holding out hope at some point he would be located," he said. "My mother, his sister, read a newspaper article in the local paper in the 1970s about POW/MIAs who survived by somehow blending in with the natives. It's been a long road for the last 73 years. But he's finally getting a military funeral."

After a suburban Houston newspaper article suggested it, Vera is looking into getting a local school in Texas named after Garcia. Laredo is in the process of building four elementary schools to try to keep up with population growth there.

"The article said he would be somebody deserving of having a school named after him and he was a true hero," he said. "It's been an amazing journey and there's been quite a bit of interest. I'm just blown away by all the interest being shown by people who didn't know him but admired him for being patriotic."

Strong hopes that by sharing her story more people related to POW/MIAs will consider donating their DNA in the hope of finding a match.

"I've been asked to consider going to conventions to share my story," she said. "It's been so moving, the miracle of it. We thought there was no chance of identifying him but you never know. There are thousands who still need to be identified. More people giving their blood would probably help."

(c)2023 The Times (Munster, Ind.)

Visit www.nwitimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(Tribune News Service)  At 2 p.m. Friday, the uncle Jatonna Hunt Garner never knew will be buried with full military honors at Salisbury National Cemetery.

The ceremony for Army Cpl. Rex Powell of Valdese, N.C., will finally provide closure to a mystery that has haunted Garners family for 73 years, the Thomasville mother of two told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.

Two weeks before Christmas in 1950, during the Korean War, her uncle was reported missing when his unit was attacked. The Army issued a presumptive finding of death in 1953 but Powells remains were never located. Until now.

Early this year, the 61-year-old Garner received a call from a military forensics investigator that shocked her. Powells remains finally had been identified.

A grandmothers hope

Powell was from small-town Valdese in Burke County, about 70 minutes northwest of Charlotte.

He was underage, probably 17, when he asked his mother to sign his papers at a local Army recruiting office. She refused.

But Garners great-uncle went along with the request and signed Powells papers. Her grandmother never again spoke to the great-uncle.

Just three months after Powell enlisted, enemy forces attacked his unit near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 12, 1950, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Fort Knox, Ky. Powell was 18.

Then in December 1953, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death for Powell.

But his mother, Isa Powell Williams Epley, held out hope until the day she died in the late 1980s that Powell might still be alive somehow.

Maybe he was taken as a prisoner of war and decided after he was freed to live in Korea, Garner said her grandmother thought.

A wandering spirit

Garner knows little about her uncle.

He was 17, she said. Did he graduate high school? Did he finish school?

The answers remain a mystery.

Her grandmother and other family members never talked about Powell or what might have happened to him.

Garner knew only one story about him from her mother, Barbara Hunt, who died last year.

Hunt was a girl when Powell, about 10 years her senior, went off to war. She fondly recalled how Powell was always kind to her, Garner said. She had a little red wagon, and he would pull the wagon with her in it.

Powell was a wandering spirit, according to Garners mother.

He didnt know what he wanted to do in life before he coaxed his relative to sign him up for the military, Garner said.

Identifying soldiers remains

Powell was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, according to the accounting agency.

While it is possible Powell was captured, there was no record or eyewitness accounts of him being held as a prisoner of war, and no recovered remains were ever identified as him, officials said in a July news release.

In 1954, the year after the Army issued its presumptive finding of death for Powell, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea returned the remains of more than 2,900 Americans. None were identified as Powell, and he was declared non-recoverable in January 1956, according to the accounting agency.

Powells were among 848 unidentified remains later buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

But as the science of DNA identification of human remains improved over the years, the Army began a project of disinterring remains from the Punchbowl.

In March 2021, Powells still unidentified remains were disinterred and transferred for analysis to the accounting agency lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

The agency accounted for Powell on Feb. 13 of this year, after his remains were identified through dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, officials said.

His name is recorded on a stone outdoor monument called the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, with others still missing from the Korean War, agency officials said.

A rosette, or special marker, will be placed beside Powells name to show he has been accounted for. At least 7,500 other Americans still remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the agency.

Powell also is survived by his nephew, Warren Hunt and his wife, Wendy; and two great-nieces, Devon Gailey and Dylan Gailey.

His funeral will be at noon Friday at J.C. Green and Sons Funeral Home in Thomasville, with Chaplain Tom Barton officiating.

Local members of the national Rolling Thunder motorcycle club will lead the procession to the Salisbury cemetery, which sits 43 miles northeast of uptown Charlotte.

The ceremony will provide closure for Garners family after nearly three-quarters of a century.

Finally, Garner said, hes at home and at peace.

2023 Raleigh News & Observer.

Visit newsobserver.com.

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Ovidiu Raducanu (38) was jailed for two years and nine months at Dublin Circuit Court for stealing over 8,500 from 11 different AIB bank machines.

A gang member was jailed this week for stealing thousands of euro from ATMs over four days in Dublin before later targeting UK machines and committing more than 200,000 worth of fraud.

Ovidiu Raducanu (38) was jailed for two years and nine months at Dublin Circuit Court for stealing over 8,500 from 11 different AIB bank machines.

Raducanu, with an address at Pinebrook Lawn, Huntstown, Dublin 15, pleaded guilty to 32 offences in total, including 15 of theft, seven of attempted theft and 10 of criminal damage, on dates between January 6 and 10, 2020.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard on Thursday that Raducanu, who is part of an international gang that has made a fortune targeting ATMs through various methods, caused 5,800 worth of damage to the bank machines while carrying out the frauds.

AIB never recovered the monies and remains at a total loss of 14,343, including the thefts and the criminal damage costs, the court heard.

After he was charged here, Raducanu skipped bail and fled to the UK where he committed more than 172,000 (200,000) worth of fraud targeting cash machines there.

Raducanu was so prolific at ATM thefts that he became a top target of the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist UK police unit sponsored by the banking and finance industry, that investigates criminals responsible for fraud.

Raducanu was jailed at the Old Bailey in London for four years and 10 months in June 2021 after being apprehended by UK cops.

Raducanu, who has 51 previous convictions in Ireland for offences such as burglary, assault causing harm, possessing controlled substances and road traffic offences, moved between Ireland and the UK while targeting ATMs.

UK police said he used a device known as a cash claw to steal funds from several cash machines across the UK between November 3, 2019 and August 12, 2020. By inserting the device into the cash machine, he was able to withdraw cash without it being debited to his card.

Footage from the ATM identified Raducanu and he was arrested in Nottingham in November 2020.

Marius Raducan also carried out ATM scams in the UK

He is part of a criminal network that includes his cousin Marius Raducan, who was also jailed after targeting 300 ATMs at various locations in England between November 2020 and March 2021  by which stage Ovidiu had been arrested.

Marius, with an address at Roseta Road, New Basford, Nottingham, had also worked with Ovidiu on ATM scams including one where they inserted cameras onto the bank machine and stole unsuspecting customers cards after trapping them in the card slot.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson of the DCPCU, said Ovidiu Raducanu thought he could get away with committing ATM fraud across the UK.

Gardai were already looking for Ovidiu Raducanu by the time he had been jailed in the UK.

An investigating garda told the prosecution that Raducanu used a process of transaction reversal fraud which involves using a genuine bank card to withdraw a very small amount of money.

A trapping device is then placed in the money slot while the bank card is removed and a gift card or loyalty card is inserted, the court heard.

A second transaction is then made for the highest possible amount that can be withdrawn, and this money comes down into the slot where it is manually removed.

The trapping device triggers a mechanism in the machine that detects an error in the card slot and recredits the bank account with the money that has been withdrawn.

Passing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe said it was a canny scheme as on someones bank account statement it looks like money has been debited and then re-credited.

Judge Crowe added that it was an aggravating factor in the case that Raducanu absconded to the UK after he was arrested, charged and bailed.

She set a headline sentence of three-and-a-half years but reduced this to two years and nine months, backdated to April 12, 2022.

The court heard that gardai began an investigation after AIB reported alleged thefts and criminal damage at 11 ATMs across Dublin, including in Sandymount, Firhouse, Killiney and Rathfarnham.

CCTV footage revealed two men going to ATM machines, and this was matched to GPS records for rented Go-Cars used by the men to travel between the bank machines.

Gardai found various cards left inside the machines, which were traced to bank accounts in Abu Dhabi and to a Revolut account.

The court heard that after he fled to the UK, Raducanu committed theft offences for which he was sentenced to four years.

Gardai liaised with police in the UK to issue a European Arrest Warrant, and Raducanu was returned to Ireland on the expiry of his jail sentence in the UK.

David Fleming BL, defending, said Raducanu had a chequered work history but has had some employment with manual handling and labouring.

Mr Fleming said that Raducanu was married with three children and that he has had very little relationship with his children because of his own deeds.

Mr Fleming said that although his client has struggled with drug addiction in the past, he claims that he is now clean.
James Delaney refused to stop his aggressive behaviour and was arrested for obstructing in the incident.

A house guest who was sleeping on the couch when gardai carried out a drugs raid got a shock and began recording and shouting at the officers, a court has heard.

James Delaney refused to stop his aggressive behaviour and was arrested for obstructing in the incident.

Judge Patricia Cronin fined him 200 when he appeared at Dublin District Court charged with a public order offence.

Delaney (38), a roofer and father-of-five with an address at Fana Glas, Ballybane, Galway, pleaded guilty to obstructing gardai on June 11 this year.

Dublin District Court heard gardai went to a house at Baskin Green, Clonshaugh, in north Dublin, to carry out a drugs search and when they entered the kitchen, Delaney stood up from the couch.

He began recording the gardai, became aggressive and was shouting at them.

The officers told him to desist but he refused and was arrested.

Delaney had come from England and was in his wifes sisters house on the day, his solicitor Evan Moore said.

Delaney was sleeping on the couch and the search was nothing to do with him.

However, when he was woken from his sleep, he was not expecting it and did not know what was going on, Mr Moore said.

he solicitor said this caused his client to act the way he did and he asked the judge for leniency.

I appreciate what was said, that he had a shock to be woken from his sleep, but he should have desisted when he was told, Judge Cronin told the court.

She gave Delaney six months to pay the fine.
Mr Coey, of Old Court Drive, Bray, is charged with possession of badges closely resembling the crest of An Garda Siochana so as to be likely to deceive.

A young man had fake garda badges and photos of himself dressed similarly to a garda in his house when it was searched in a theft investigation, it is alleged.

Jamie Coey (19) is accused of illegal possession of replica garda crests following the search in Co Wicklow last year.

The case against him was adjourned at Dublin District Court for Mr Coey to decide how he intends to plead.

Mr Coey, of Old Court Drive, Bray, is charged with possession of badges closely resembling the crest of An Garda Siochana so as to be likely to deceive. Under section 61 of the Garda Siochana Act, it is an offence to have such a badge on any article, equipment or vehicle in connection with any trade, business, calling or profession or for any other purpose.

The alleged find was made at Mr Coeys home address on July 19 last year. He is also charged with two earlier offences  theft of a Nintendo at Insomnia, Middle Abbey Street, on April 6, 2022, and an iPhone at Greeg Court, Dublin 1, on December 16, 2021.

A garda gave evidence of the accuseds arrest, charge and caution.

Garda Sergeant Tony Flanagan said the DPP consented to the case being dealt with in the district court, subject to a judge accepting jurisdiction.

He said in the course of their investigation into the earlier charges, gardai carried out a search of Mr Coeys home.

It was alleged they found a number of fake garda identification badges, as well as photos of the accused dressed similarly to what gardai wear on duty, Sgt Flanagan said.

Judge Patricia Cronin accepted jurisdiction after hearing the outlined evidence.

The judge granted bail with no garda objection, in the accuseds own bond of 100.

She also made an order for disclosure of prosecution evidence to the defence following an application by Mr Coeys solicitor, Niall Walsh.

Judge Cronin adjourned the case to a date in September.

She granted free legal aid following an application by Mr Walsh.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. We are deeply saddened over the demise of Ambassador Janos Hovari, Executive Director of the Representation Office of the Organization of Turkic States in Hugary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan wrote on its Twitter page, Trend reports.

"We convey our condolences to the family and friends of a person, who dedicated his life to strengthening Turkic world," the publication says.
Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham has shown his support for Iceland Ireland workers who held a protest in Dublin city centre today claiming they are still owed money after their jobs were lost earlier this summer.

Workers at the Talbot Street supermarket said they have now staged a sit-in at the property for over 40 days.

Former checkout worker Donna Grinds (32), from Dublin 1, told a crowd gathered outside the supermarket that they are prepared to continue their sit-in for 40 days more.

The staff claim some workers still have not received their full pay, including holiday pay, since the Talbot Street branch was closed in June, along with outlets in Coolock and Clonmel.

Actor Cunningham told Independent.ie he was there to support the workers in their plight, adding they had every right to protest.

He recalled walking down Talbot Street with his mother as a child to go shopping.

Former Iceland worker Abbie Treacy (18) smiled nervously, as the star spoke.

I liked working here, she said. We all enjoyed coming in, we were all like family.

Cunningham shook her hand and Abbie took a breath and continued, taken aback that a famous actor would care about the loss of her job.

I was on holiday when this happened, Abbie said. But I was due in on the Wednesday at 12pm. I got woken up and was told the shop had closed.

Id gone to sleep with a job and woke up without one - It was a shock. It was my second job after school and this was the first one I really liked.

I stayed here in the shop some nights at the start of our protest. People have been here ever since.

It was the routine - getting up, going to work - that I was used to. Then that day, I hadnt got a job.

Im living at home. Now Im on social welfare. Im just sitting around everyday, with nothing to do.

I was always shy but now I find it really hard to go for an interview. I feel whats the point.

Cunningham said: If youre not supporting this (protest), youre not supporting securing your own work.

This could happen in my employment. Im on strike at the minute. Im part of the Screen Actors Guild in America, so Im not working right now.

The actor told how had been due to board a flight to New York on Sunday for a red carpet event, for a new movie I made for Stephen Spielberg.

But thats been knocked on the head - Im not going to it, he said.

Its been cancelled because of our strike. You have to show solidarity with people whove been exploited.

Its not just the Iceland Ireland workers, its any workers with a legitimate concern for the way theyve been treated.

I mean its disgusting whats happened to these people.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has been on strike since last month, in a row over residual pay plummeting in the age of streaming.

There is also a concern that regulation needs to be tightened on the use of artificial intelligence.

Cunningham said he had been annoyed to hear of the salaries some of the Iceland Ireland workers had been paid and the way he felt they had been treated when the supermarkets closed.

It's utterly contemptible, he said.

Advising on how Abbie can move forward, he said: These things will pass.

But the worst thing you can do is ignore it, to pretend its not happening, he added.

Donna told how she had worked in the supermarket for two-and-a-half years, with a great team.

She claimed when the company was sold earlier in the year, everything changed and the music went off.

You dont treat people like this, she said. Its sad to see the shop gone. How easily they can close the shop and the jobs are gone.

People around here relied on the bargains and the chats - especially the older people.

They forget we worked all through Covid. We made sure people had food on the table.

We risked our lives to make sure people had food. Im disheartened this happened. But the fight goes on.

Independent.ie contacted a representative for Iceland Ireland but received no comment.

Metron Stores Ltd initially took over Iceland Irelands operations in January this year. Since then, staff have claimed issues with pay and not being offered proper redundancy.

The Independent Workers Union has been representing the workers and advising them.
Ms Finn was based in the Dun Laoghaire Garda division working primarily out of Shankill Garda Station in recent times.

Gardai and emergency services at the scene of a boat fire in Carrick on Shannon. The boat was moved to a cordoned off secure slipway. Pic: Gerry Faughnan

Tributes have been paid to garda who has died following a boat fire in Carrick-on-Shannon today.

The highly respected and experienced detective has been named locally as Garda Deirdre Finn.

Ms Finn was based in the Dun Laoghaire Garda division working primarily out of Shankill Garda Station in recent times.

The detective garda was a long-time member of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) where she advocated strongly for the rights of her colleagues over a large number of years.

It is understood that Ms Finn was due to retire from An Garda Siochana in the coming months and had loved spending her leisure time cruising on the River Shannon where she died yesterday morning.

Sources said that she had bought the boat that she died on in recent times and absolutely loved it along with Irelands biggest river.

She often spent her recreational time in Co Leitrim.

The experienced south Dublin based garda was involved in a number of important investigations including serious burglary and sexual assault offences during her lengthy and distinguished career.

GRA president Brendan OConnor said tonight:

"We are devastated at the loss of a colleague and friend who not only was a talented crime investigator but also served colleagues and the GRA so well in a number of elected roles . Ni beidh a leitheid ann aris.

A colleague of Ms Finn described her as an absolutely proper policewoman who when she was not involved in investigations was always the life and soul of the party.

This is a detective who always prided herself at being first at the scene of a serious crime. She will be missed very much by everyone who know her.

The boat in which the detective was on and was docked at the marina when the massive fire took place was towed away for technical examination.

Fire fighters spent an amount of time trying to tackle the fatal blaze before Garda Finns body was discovered in her boat.

Gardai assisted emergency services following reports of a fire on the boat this morning, a spokesperson from An Garda Siochana said in a statement.

One female has been confirmed deceased. The scene is currently being preserved, the spokesperson said, adding that investigation are still ongoing.

No further information is available at this time, they said.

Independent councillor and cathaoirleach of the Carrick on Shannon Municipal District Enda Stenson said it is a total tragedy to hit the local area.

The whole area of Carrick-on-Shannon and Leitrim offer our deepest sympathies to the family and our hearts go out to them, he said.

There is a numb feeling on everyone. Words cant describe how the family must be feeling.

Mr Stenson said Carrick-on-Shannon so appreciates the boating community and the number of tourists that pass through the town every year.

Everyone has a welcoming attitude, theres a lot of holiday makers on boats in the vicinity and so many people do it year in and year out, he said.

Its very raw, its simply awful.
The three  two Albanians and a Romanian  appeared before a special sitting of Cork District Court following their arrest

There were no applications for bail made on behalf of any of the men

Three men have been charged following a 4.2m cocaine seizure in Cork.

The three  two Albanians and a Romanian  appeared before a special sitting of Cork District Court following their arrest on Saturday at Dunkettle on the outskirts of the city.

It is alleged that 60kg of the drug was seized following a major Garda and Revenue Commissioners/Customs and Excise operation.

Brothers Gentjan Dodaj and Donatel Dodaj of Paradise Road, Athlone, Co Westmeath, were charged alongside Daniel Afedoaei of Sli an Aifreann, Athlone, Co Westmeath with possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine for sale or supply on August 5 at Richmond, Dunkettle, Co Cork.

Judge Treasa Kelly was told that none of the three men made any reply to gardai when formally charged.

Detective Garda Gavin Curran gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in the case of Gentjan Dodaj (39).

He charged the Albanian national at Togher Garda Station in Cork city at 6.52pm on Sunday.

Sergeant Pat Lyons applied for a remand in custody pending his next appearance before Cork District Court on August 14.

Mr Dodaj, who was wearing a black top and slacks, did not speak during the brief hearing.

Judge Kelly granted him free legal aid after she heard he had been in the process of setting up a business but was now without any income or assets.

Det Garda Val Russell gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in the case of Daniel Afedoaei (22).

He charged Mr Afedoaei, who is a Romanian national, at Gurranabraher garda station in Cork.

Solicitor Dara Hayden made an application for legal aid in the case.

He said his client had been working as a mechanic but was of limited means.

Judge Kelly granted legal aid to Mr Afedoaei who was also remanded in custody to appear again on August 14.

The court was told an interpreter was required to assist Albanian national Donatel Dodaj (22).

Solicitor Shane Collins Daly said that his client only arrived in the State four weeks ago.

Since then he had been living with his older brother who was the first named accused.

Mr Dodaj was also assigned free legal aid and remanded in custody to appear before the court again by video link on August 14.

Bail applications were not made in relation to any of the three men.
The Europhoria star filmed his last movie this summer in Ireland and scattered his late fathers ashes here

YOUNG Irish actress Alisha Weir is mourning the loss of tragic Hollywood star Angus Cloud as the pair recently shot a new movie together in Dublin.

A tearful Alisha told the Sunday World that Angus had the biggest heart and will always remember his smile and chats.

The Sunday World can also reveal that not only did Cloud scatter the ashes of his late father in Dublin last month but he also spent much of the summer filming in the capital.

Euphoria actor Angus (25) is believed to have never got over the death of his father last May and was found dead in his home in California last Monday.

We can disclose the Irish-American spent several weeks in Dublin during the summer filming a new monster thriller movie here and what is sadly set to be his last appearance onscreen.

Matilda the Musical lead actress Alisha (13) stars alongside Angus in the as yet untitled Universal film, which is still in pre-production and is based on the 1936 horror flick Draculas Daughter.

I was so lucky to work with Angus recently on a movie in Dublin, Alisha told the Sunday World.

He had the biggest heart and I will always remember his smile and chats and our special handshake every time we met.

He was so kind to me on set. May he rest in peace.

Alisha has several pictures of her and Angus together in their costumes from the movie.

Alisha Weir, who starred in Matilda the Musical. Photo: Damien Eagers/PA Wire

Downton Abbey and Beauty and the Beast star Dan Stevens is also among the cast, as are Big Little Lies actress Kathryn Newton, Screams Melissa Barrera (Sam Carpenter) and Canadian actor Kevin Durand (Joshua in Dark Angel)

The story centres on a group of kidnappers who abduct a band of young people, one of whom ends up being Draculas daughter.

Dubliner Alisha plays Draculas daughter and many of the cast including Cloud were seen filming scenes in several locations across the capital.

Alisha, from Knocklyon, is being dubbed the new Saoirse Ronan and recently starred in the main role of Matilda The Musical, opposite Emma Thompson and Stephen Graham.

She shot to fame when she wowed The Late Late Toy Show audience in 2017 when she fronted a choir which sang a cover of Cindy Laupers True Colours..

Angus, whose real name was Conor Angus Cloud Hickey, was found dead on Monday at his familys home in Oakland, California.

According to TMZ, his mother called 911 reporting a possible overdose and said that her son had no pulse. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Life of Angus Cloud

Read more Sinead OConnor to be laid to rest on home soil

The star had been mourning the death of his later father, also named Conor Hickey, who passed away on May 18 in California after a short battle with cancer.

Hickey was born in Swords, Co. Dublin and grew up in Ashbourne, Co. Meath and was a former captain of Ashbourne RFC and member of the OConnell Cup winning team in 1979.

He moved to the US in the 1980s, where he started a family with wife Lisa Cloud.

They welcomed Angus together in 1998 and twin daughters, Molly and Fiona, in 2003.

On July 19, Cloud  who is known for playing drug dealer Fezco on HBOs hit show Euphoria  was joined in Dublin by his mum and sisters to scatter his fathers ashes in his home country. The family returned to the US four days later.

A source told sundayworld.com how they spotted the actor walking down South William Street in Dublin during his trip to Ireland. They explained that he was walking in the middle of the street by himself and looked through them with glazed eyes as he dealt with his grief.

They said that they were unaware that Cloud had lost his father at the time, adding that the sighting was sad in retrospect.

It has also been reported that Cloud could not face his fathers funeral and stayed in his hotel room while the rest of the family attended the ceremony.

Angus Cloud as Fez in Euphoria.

He was just so traumatised that he could not attend, family friend Mick Gleeson told the Daily Mail.

He was in a very bad way and in total shock. He was in such a fragile state and struggling with the death of his father.

Another friend said Angus eventually accompanied his aunt to scatter some of his dads ashes.

I think coming back to his fathers place of birth and all that contained was just too much for him. He could not face the final goodbye to his father, they said.

Cloud was known to be close with his father and shared an Instagram post in memory of his father on July 14, miss u breh, he captioned the snap.

Clouds final Instagram post, shared on July 18, showed him wearing 18 carat white gold grillz on his teeth with Dublin, Ireland being tagged as the location. The accessory was made by Dublin-based grillz specialist Grant Grillz, who recently graduated from secondary school in Co Meath.

In a statement on Monday, the Euphoria stars family confirmed his death and said that he intensely struggled with the loss of his father.

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. The only comfort we have is knowing Angus is now reunited with his dad, who was his best friend.

Angus was open about his battle with mental health and we hope that his passing can be a reminder to others that they are not alone and should not fight this on their own in silence.

We hope the world remembers him for his humour, laughter, and love for everyone. We ask for privacy at this time as we are still processing this devastating loss.

Several of his co-stars paid tribute to him on social media  including Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Maude Apatow, and his onscreen partner-in-crime Javon Walton.

HBO said in a statement: We are incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Angus Cloud.

He was immensely talented and a beloved part of the HBO and Euphoria family. We extend our deepest condolences to his friends and family during this difficult time.

And in a statement shared with US outlets, Euphoria director Sam Levinson said: There was no-one quite like Angus. He was too special, too talented and way too young to leave us so soon.

He also struggled, like many of us, with addiction and depression. I hope he knew how many hearts he touched.

I loved him. I always will. Rest in peace and God Bless his family.

The star had been headhunted on a New York street having been spotted by a talent scout, who persuaded him to go for an audition for the show.

If you have been affected by issues in this article, you can contact The Samaritans on freephone number 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org
New film from Oscar-winning writer Emerald Fennell also stars Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant and Carey Mulligan

Actor Barry Keoghan with the Bafta he won for The Banshees of Inisherin (Ian West/PA)

Banshees of Inisherin star Barry Keoghan is set to make a return to the big screen.

The Dubliner is set to star in a new film from Oscar-winning writer Emerald Fennell will open the BFI London Film Festival.

Set in the mid-2000s, Saltburn stars Banshees actor Barry Keoghan as student Oliver Quick, struggling to find his place at Oxford University and drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, played by Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi.

Felix invites Oliver to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.

Written, directed and produced by The Crown actress Fennell, who won an Oscar for her screenplay for Promising Young Woman, the film also stars Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant and Carey Mulligan.

Emerald Fennell won a best original screenplay Oscar for Promising Young Woman

Keoghan was recently nominated for an Oscar for his turn in The Banshees Of Inisherin, while Elordi will soon be seen playing Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla Presley film.

Saltburn will have an opening night gala premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on October 4.

There will also be screenings of the film around the UK.

Actress Carey Mulligan will also star

Fennell, who can currently be seen as Midge in Greta Gerwig's Barbie film, said: "I'm honoured that our film is able to open this year's BFI London Film Festival.

"It is a festival that inspired me so much growing up, one that I followed excitedly from my bedroom on the other side of London. It feels extra special that Saltburn, this very British tale of excess, is able to make its international debut at the wonderful BFI."

A still from Saltburn (Amazon Studios/MGM)

Kristy Matheson, director of the BFI London Film Festival, said: "As soon as the credits rolled on Saltburn it was clear we'd met our opening night film.

"Academy Award-winner Emerald Fennell returns with an expertly crafted and exhilarating thrill ride of a film that showcases an enormous depth of UK talents in front of and behind the camera.

"With its exceptional performances, delicious plot twists and a soundtrack of early 21st century pop bangers, this hugely ambitious film immediately stole our hearts and we can't wait to share it with audiences in London and across the UK this October."

Saltburn will be released in UK cinemas on November 24.

The BFI London Film Festival will run from October 4 to October 15.
Physiotherapy NZ is calling on the Government to expand the funding for physiotherapy treatment for New Zealanders on orthopaedic surgical waiting lists, following the promising results of a pilot programme in Northland.

PNZ President Mark Quinn congratulates the Government on the results for Northland patients, which have in a number of cases meant that patients have no longer required surgery due to the positive impact of physiotherapy treatment.

Between August 2022 and July 2023 theres been a 76 per cent reduction in the number of people waiting more than a year for surgical treatment.

This is not to say there will be no surgery. People who need surgery are referred to the hospital services.

"But people who can improve their mobility and have their pain reduced through physiotherapy get offered services in their local community."

Mark says PNZ very much supports this initiative as one way in which they can see the health reforms working.

"We need to use all of the health workforce and physiotherapists have a key role to play in supporting primary health care in looking after New Zealanders, including Maori, Pasifika, and those in rural areas.

However, Mark says more funding is needed for this service.

National and international evidence consistently shows that many people referred for orthopaedic surgery will achieve significant health benefits from physiotherapy, and this is clearly illustrated by the wait list reduction in Northland.

PNZ is requesting for the Government to urgently fund a roll-out of the Northland physiotherapy model nationwide for the benefit of New Zealanders.

"The evidence shows that this model works and not only helps patients but will ultimately reduce costs in the long-term.
Data from the New Zealand Health Survey 2021-22 provides an in-depth look into the oral health of New Zealand adults over the past decade.

The findings suggest overall improvements but highlight some key disparities between various demographic groups.

Across all surveyed groups, there has been a noticeable decrease in the incidence of teeth removal due to decay over the last decade.

This, in combination with the increased frequency of tooth brushing with standard fluoride toothpaste, suggests better oral health habits among New Zealand adults.

Of all surveyed demographics, the Asian population reported the highest levels of self-rated oral health, although there was a slight dip from 86.2 per cent in 2011 to 81 per cent in 2021.

Europeans and others were not far behind, with a self-rated oral health status of 79 per cent in 2021, slightly down from 80.1 per cent in 2011. However, Maori and Pacific populations rated their oral health lower, pointing to oral health disparities that require targeted efforts.

While tooth brushing habits have improved across all ethnic groups, a gap remains.

Among Maori, the percentage of adults brushing their teeth twice a day or more with standard fluoride toothpaste increased from 48.9 per cent to 56.4 per cent.

Among Pacific Islanders, the increase was from 59.3 per cent to 63.3 per cent, Asians reported an increase from 68.3 per cent to 76.5 per cent, and for Europeans and others, the increase was from 64.2 per cent to 69.2 per cent.

Interestingly, despite an overall reduction in tooth removal due to decay, disabled individuals reported higher instances of tooth removal and all teeth removal due to decay than other groups.

These findings underscore the importance of regular dental check-ups and good oral hygiene practices in maintaining oral health. Dental clinics play a vital role in providing essential oral health services and education to New Zealand communities. In this context, a visit to a dentist forms an essential part of maintaining one's oral health.

While the data offers hope in terms of overall oral health improvements in New Zealand, it also stresses the need for continued and targeted interventions to ensure equitable oral health outcomes across all population groups.

The responsibility lies not just with individuals, but also with healthcare providers, educators, and policymakers to address these disparities and work towards an equitable oral health future for all New Zealanders.
Kilometres of fence line has been laid in Rotorua as part of an attempt to halt potentially millions of dollars in wallaby damage.

Dama wallabies have called Rotorua home for more than 100 years but unless they are controlled, they could cause an estimated $16.5 million in damage by 2025 in the North Island, according to Biosecurity New Zealand.

The agency leads the Tipu Matoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme, working with councils, iwi, landowners and other groups.

Wallabies feed on native flora important to native wildlife as well as compete with stock on farmland for pasture. They also damage pine and eucalyptus seedlings on plantations.

Of the 962 wallaby sightings reported in the Bay of Plenty in the last two-and-a-half years, 764 were in the Rotorua area.

There are an estimated one million wallabies in the country - including dama wallabies in the North Island - but how many are in the region is not known.

A project began at the end of last year to build a 12.5km wallaby-proof fence aimed to keep the pests in a limited area to stop their spread.

Construction of 7.3km of fence has finished and the full 12.5km is expected to be done by mid-September.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council's North Island wallaby programme manager Davor Bejakovich says the fence supports the aim to have all wallabies within designated containment areas by 2025.

The full containment area in the North Island is about 260,000 hectares, mostly in the Rotorua district.

The fence under construction runs from Waipa to Lake Rotokakahi and is designed to help keep wallabies inside the containment area at the Whakarewarewa Forest, as well as to stop re-infestation of land to the south where wallaby control measures have been carried out.

The area south of the fence will be surveyed to measure its success.

The wallaby fence in Whakarewarewa Forest. Photo: Supplied The wallaby fence in Whakarewarewa Forest. Photo: Supplied

The wallaby fence is being constructed in the Whakarewarewa Forest in Rotorua.

"While the long-term aspiration of the programme is to achieve a wallaby-free Aotearoa, it will take the continued efforts of programme partners, landowners and the wider community to achieve this goal," says Bejakovich.

The short-term focus is to find and control wallabies outside of the containment area.

Then the focus will shift to those inside it and reducing populations in size and range.

A Central North Island Regional Coordination Group, which consisted of representatives from iwi, community care groups, Forest and Bird, forestry and Federated Farmers, met quarterly to provide feedback on the programme's operations and progress.

Bejakovich says landowners, including many farmers, support the programme's goals.

Reporoa dairy farmer and Federated Farmers Rotorua/Taupo provincial president Colin Guyton says he has never seen any of the Aussie invaders as far south as his farm but he worries about if that day should come.

Federated Farmers Rotorua/Taupo provincial president Colin Guyton. Photo: Andrew Warner Federated Farmers Rotorua/Taupo provincial president Colin Guyton. Photo: Andrew Warner

"They really are a problem. We should have gotten on top of them a lot earlier maybe, but at least we are doing something now."

They are similar to rabbits in how devastating they can be in how much they eat, he says, but their nocturnal tendencies make them a challenge to tackle.

On social media last year, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council shared an image of glowing eyes in a dark Rotorua paddock, silhouettes of wallabies as far as the eye could see.

Guyton says he was "blown away by it".

"I didn't think it could be New Zealand that was concerning."

He had been sceptical of the fence at first but has since been convinced by the regional council it's the way to go and believses it will make a "big difference".

Biosecurity New Zealand readiness and response services director John Walsh says as a significant pest and threat, wallabies are classified as an "Unwanted Organism" under the Biosecurity Act.

It's illegal to have, hold, move or transport wallabies in New Zealand without a specific permit.

"Those who do can face significant penalties. As an individual, you can be fined up to $100,000 and/or sent to prison for up to five years."

He says there has been an increase in reported sightings recently on the back of an awareness campaign drawing attention to the existence of wallabies and the damage they did.

The campaign calls on New Zealanders to report any wallaby sightings or signs of their paw prints or poo to reportwallabies.nz.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
A move to mandate the registration and desexing of cats has taken a major leap forward, with a select committee calling for legislation to be put in place.

The environment committee made its recommendation to the Government in August after considering a petition presented by Erica Rowlands in 2021.

Erica says cats cause a problem for native species, and rescue groups face a relentless battle against the effects of irresponsible owners.

We have committed as a nation to invest in the goal of being predator free by 2050, but with no improvement in sight for the management of pet cats, or the elimination of feral populations, her petition says.

Requiring cats to be registered and desexed will reduce their populations, enforce responsible cat ownership, and protect our wildlife.

The committee heard numerous submissions, including one from the Ministry for Primary Industries, which has discussed the issue with officials from Tasmania, where mandatory microchipping and desexing of cats had been implemented under the Cat Management Act 2009.

The ministry says Tasmanian officials have emphasised that the success relied on resourcing and ongoing funding to enforce the provisions of the legislation over time. In Tasmania, the government provided partial funding, and required that the cost of desexing or microchipping of found cats was recovered from the owner

The committee also heard that cat management was inconsistent nationally, as regional bylaws vary, and some regions had no bylaws addressing the issue.

The Veterinarians Association for Animal Welfare Aotearoa told the committee that the regime should be self-funding, and while it supports the overall goal of cat control legislation, it doesnt think the proposed framework goes far enough.

It says regulating domestic cats only will not be enough to achieve the goals of Predator Free 2050, and the overall cat population will still increase under the proposed framework.

The committee says it accepts that pet cats provide companionship to people, but we accept the evidence presented by submitters that the current, largely unregulated approach to cats does not serve the welfare of the large numbers of stray and feral cats. Moreover, the stray and feral cat population decimates native wildlife.

The committee agrees that it's time to legislate a nationwide cat management framework based on the notion cats should be registered, desexed, and microchipped with appropriate exemptions.

Such a framework already exists for dogs, and we believe it is time to apply the same approach for cats, it says.

We consider that a nationally consistent approach to cat control would provide a more effective outcome than bylaws.

Public education and gaining community support for change will need to go hand in hand with legislative and regulatory action, but we note the significant and positive change in public attitudes to dog ownership since the enactment of the Dog Control Act in 1996, it says.

Not to be confused with your friendly neighbourhood kitty, feral cats live and breed in the wild, hunting for survival and killing native birds in the process.

The Government is due to respond to the recommendation by October 25.

Predator Free Zealand Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan is thrilled with the recommendation, saying it marks a milestone in the journey towards better cat management in New Zealand, reducing the number of unwanted cats and creating a safer environment for our native wildlife and pets.

A unified approach to cat management is good for native wildlife and animal welfare. By legislating the microchipping, desexing and registering of cats, we can begin to address the issue of unwanted pets being dumped, says Jessi.

The SPCA welcomes the committees recommendation, with its scientific officer Dr Christine Sumner saying the government needs to introduce a nationwide cat management framework with urgency.

-Marty Sharpe/Stuff.
Seven ambulances sourced in New Zealand by charity Kiwi K.A.R.E. have arrived in Europe and are now on the way to Ukraine.

Tenby Powell, the former mayor of Tauranga and founder of Kiwi K.A.R.E., told First Up it had been a long road for the ambulances, having departed New Zealand on May 4 and arriving at the port of Antwerp in Belgium last week.

"We went from Antwerp up to Hamburg which is a bit of a [dog-leg] but absolutely worth it, so we've got seven ambulances now filled with medical aid."

From there, the ambulances went on to Poland with the help of Ukrainian drivers, American volunteers and Powell's wife, Sharon, who drove most of the way in that phase.

"We've had pretty much a multi-national team but the vast majority have been Ukrainian," Powell says.

Once the ambulances arrive at Kyiv, they will be serviced before being handed over to medical units and "red zone" hospitals in early September, he says.

"We just want to make sure they go to the right hospitals and the right medical units where they're going to get well looked after on the one hand but really well used, we want them to be busy.

"The people of New Zealand have funded these ambulances in many respects and we want them to be used by people who are going to get them cracking."

Powell says there's a great sense of accomplishment given the various teams involved in getting the ambulances across.

"St Johns, as I've said many times, have been a dream to deal with, as have shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen, who have brought these things all the way from New Zealand, off-loaded them in Korea and put them on another one of their ships between Korea and Belgium in Europe all for free, and that's been a huge part of it.

"Without those two entities and many others that have helped us with logistics and medical aid, we would not be here. And then of course, the combined Ukrainian international team that has taken them forward and will end up in Kyiv tomorrow."

Next on Powell's list is heading to Zurich to give a speech as part of fundraising efforts.

"We have quite a big entity to run now. The intention was always to keep two vehicles for Kiwi K.A.R.E. as mobile health clinics, we have doctors and nurses that will accompany us. I just don't know if we can afford to keep two, I definitely want to keep one.

"So we've got a 12-tonne truck, we've got our vans, and we have an ambulance, we're a hungry beast to feed, and funds are everything at this stage.

"We spent a lot of time in Kherson, delivering medical and humanitarian aid, but it's long distances and the truck and as I've discovered the ambulances are very hungry, or I should say very thirsty, animals and it just takes a lot of funds to run an organisation the size that Kiwi K.A.R.E. is."

-RNZ.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has issued a statement, following misleading reports from special rapporteurs and an independent expert of the UN Human Rights Council, Trend reports.

"It is regrettable that some special rapporteurs and an independent expert of the UN Human Rights Council stated that the "Lachin corridor" is "blocked" by Azerbaijan, a "tense humanitarian situation" has arisen in "Nagorno-Karabakh". This indicates attempts to turn UN bodies into an instrument of political manipulation.

It is worrying that the UN special rapporteurs and experts, who for 30 years turned a blind eye to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the violation of the rights of almost 1 million refugees and internally displaced persons, the presence of Armenian armed forces in the territories of Azerbaijan over the past three years, preventing the return of internally displaced persons to their at home, have been misled by Armenia's manipulations and are voicing biased statements. At the same time, it is unacceptable that these persons use such terms as "Nagorno-Karabakh" in statements, not respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, interfere in the internal affairs of our country and apply a double approach.

We would like to remind you once again that in addition to the fact that, contrary to its obligations, Armenia did not completely withdraw its armed forces from our lands, it carried out the transfer of the military through the Lachin road, supplied them with weapons and ammunition, and plundered the natural resources of Azerbaijan. All this was met with silence in the UN and other international organizations. In order to control its borders and prevent the illegal actions of Armenia, Azerbaijan has established a Lachin border checkpoint on its sovereign territories. The fact that the International Court of Justice, in its decision of July 6, unanimously rejected the appeal regarding the liquidation of this checkpoint, once again proved the groundlessness of the claims of the Armenian side. Despite the fact that Azerbaijan ensured the passage of Armenian residents, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Russian peacekeeping contingent through the border crossing, the Armenian side spread false allegations about the alleged "tense humanitarian situation" in the region in order to continue its illegal activities in our territories. At the same time, Armenia committed provocations, such as shelling Azerbaijan's border guards on June 15, an attempt at smuggling, sending trucks to the territory of Azerbaijan on July 26 without permission.

Despite calls to refrain from provocations regarding the Lachin checkpoint and ensure safe passage, the Armenian side continued its provocations. Despite all these provocations, the Azerbaijani side creates conditions for the passage of Armenian residents, accompanied by the ICRC. As for meeting the needs of Armenian residents, despite the fact that Azerbaijan put forward a number of proposals in this regard, including the use of the Agdam-Khankendi road and other alternative roads, and they were supported by the European Union and the ICRC, the Armenian side opposes these proposals and blocked the entrance to the territory by erecting concrete barriers on alternative roads. All this once again showed that its statements about the "humanitarian situation" are political blackmail and manipulation.

Azerbaijan is making efforts to ensure sustainable peace and security in the region, and for this purpose has put forward initiatives on a peace agreement, delimitation and opening of communications. Biased statements instead of supporting these efforts will not help this process," the ministry said.
Emergency services are responding to the scene of a vehicle crash on State Highway 2, near Minden Road at Te Puna.

Police say they received the report of a two-vehicle crash involving a motorbike around 7.15am.

"It doesnt appear the road is blocked," says a police spokesperson.

It is unknown at this stage whether there are any injuries.

At the scene?

Phone 0800SUNLIVE or email newsroom@thesun.co.nz
Join NY Cannabis Insider at our next industry networking event on Aug. 15 at Madame Mikettes in NYC. Tickets will sell out.

Jeremy Rivera is the CEO of Terp Bros Cannabis dispensary in Queens and the owner of J&A Building Consultants. He answered eight simple questions for NY Cannabis Insiders People to know series.

Should you or someone you know be featured as a Person to Know? Fill out this form and we may publish your story.

What is your position and what do you/your company do in the cannabis space?

I am the CEO of Terp Bros Cannabis dispensary, a NYS licensed adult-use cannabis retailer located in Astoria, Queens. We intend to provide our community with a safe and comfortable experience when purchasing cannabis products.

How long have you worked in the cannabis space?

I spent some of my younger years in the legacy side of the industry. In 2018, I was released from a two-year prison term for cannabis. It wasnt until 2022 when I heard about the opportunity presented by the CAURD program that I decided to get back involved with cannabis.

Related: This former gang member wants to get kids off the street  with weed

What did you do before you were involved in the cannabis industry?

I am the owner of J&A Building Consultants, a NYC based construction safety consulting company where I instruct various Department of Buildings safety courses and work with construction companies to reduce their injury rates.

What led you to the cannabis industry?

The creation of the CAURD program is what really got me involved, having fit all the necessary criteria to meet requirements to possibly be given a chance to own a dispensary.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to get into the NY weed industry?

Simply work hard and network, get out there show who you are, meet people, talk and have them get to know you. Learn about the market, figure out what you want to do in the industry and learn everything there is to know.

What do you think the NY cannabis ecosystem will look like in five years?

I believe its going to be fresh and new, something different than what we are used to seeing in other mature states. With the CAURD program and the focus on social equity, we should see a lot more Black and brown owned cannabis businesses, also a lot more woman-owned cannabis businesses. With the slow roll out in New York State, in five years this industry may be just gaining running room.

Do you use cannabis? If so, whats your favorite method?

I am an everyday flower smoker, I will occasionally take a nice dab, but I mostly just smoke flower. This is mostly because of how I grew up smoking. Being from NYC and having started smoking in my teenage years, Dutches, Phillies, and White Owls were what we used as roll up. Bongs and pipes, things like that werent really part of the smoking culture. It even wasnt until my 30s that I started smoking out of papers.

Who should contact you, and whats the best method?

Any foundations that want to collaborate to help build a better, more equitable industry, any cultivator or processor who wants to get on our shelves, and anyone who just has questions about the industry can always reach out to me. Our email is: Kushculturenyc@gmail.com IG @ Terpbros.nyc LinkedIn @ Jeremy Rivera.
Syracuse, N.Y.  The French bulldog puppy was so small and sick that every breath shook her entire body when she slept.

She fit right there, Jana Dosztan-Reiss said, cupping just one hand.

Dosztan-Reiss and her husband, Steve Reiss, were not sure the dog, who weighed just over a pound, would make it through the night.

The couple has a lot of nights like that.

They started Seventh Heaven, a dog rescue, five years ago. It is volunteer-run and has no physical home. The dogs live with volunteer foster families until they are adopted.

Over the past five years, Seventh Heavens Central New York network of drivers, foster families and all-around do-gooders has delivered 1,000 dogs from death sentences to loving laps and hands that scratch ears and bellies. In recent years, the rescue has become one that takes the hardest of the hard-luck cases. The group raises about $100,000 a year that all goes to the care of the dogs, including their medical bills.

The list of needs for the dogs just in Dosztan-Reiss yard on a Saturday afternoon in July was in the thousands of dollars. Two Boston terrier puppies are waiting for surgery. An English bulldog has a congenital heart problem requiring medication and trips to a cardiologist in Albany. A puggle is partly paralyzed and needs a wheelchair.

More than half of the dogs rescued by the group have come from bad breeding operations  puppy mills -- that churn out puppies while keeping the dogs in cages with little access to health care.

Already a problem prior to the pandemic, the number of puppy mills and their production ballooned during lockdown as people looked for dogs to keep them company at home. The dogs rescued from puppy mills often have costly health problems.

The puppy mills, many in rural Ohio and Texas, keep the dogs in cages, provide little or no medical care, and will not keep dogs that are ill or on the market too long. The owners kill the dogs unless they can find someone who will take them.

They are just money, Dosztan-Reiss said.

A freedom ride

Juno, the little French bulldog, was one of those puppies that was too sick to sell.

Her breeder called Deb Bodenschatz, who lives outside of Buffalo.

For a decade, shes been driving a van to the puppy mills in rural Ohio once or twice a month to pick up doomed puppies and dogs. She never pays for the dogs; she doesnt want the bad breeders to benefit, she said. But she tells them to call her, day or night. More than 300 of them have her cell phone number.

Instead of killing a dog, they call her. She shares her list of dogs with the rescue groups, including Seventh Heaven. They tell Bodenschatz which dogs theyll take. Then a volunteer driver from her group goes to get the dogs and delivers them to volunteers from rescue organizations along the route.

Its a day that goes from dawn to well past midnight. They pick up about two dozen dogs from different breeders in Ohio by lunchtime, then take them to a vet for shots before they can cross the state lines. Then its parking lot after parking lot for dropoffs.

Seventh Heavens meet-up spot is always the Cracker Barrel in Henrietta off of the New York State Thruway.

Lauren McNerny has spent many nights waiting there. McNerny, who lives in Syracuse, is Seventh Heavens foster coordinator. But she is also a dog driver, a dog foster parent, and fast with a leash and collar.

French bulldog Pancake lies on the porch of Seventh Heaven Rescue president Jana Dosztan-Reiss, awaiting belly rubs on Sunday, July 16, 2023. (Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com)

The biggest issue is a chance of flight risk, McNerny said. You have to have good hands.

The dogs have all been riding in cages stacked on top of each other for hours. Most of them have never been in a car, or around people much, until that ride to freedom. Theyre terrified and their first instinct is to run, McNerny said.

She leashes them up, walks them around the parking lot, and then usually takes them back to her house in Syracuse.

Sometimes, the breeders wait too long to make the call. Libby, a French bulldog, was near death when her breeder called for help. Shed had a botched surgery on her uterus and wouldnt make it much longer. Volunteers from Seventh Heaven drove to Ohio to pick her up, then went directly to Cornell University so Libby could have surgery. The drive alone was 16 hours.

Cornell veterinarians fixed her uterus and reconstructed her urinary tract. But during that surgery, they found a cancerous tumor. The surgeons did what they could, but it was impossible to completely fix the dogs urinary tract or get rid of all the cancer. So Libby is incontinent and its possible her cancer will spread.

Who would want a dog like that? Laura Kappler, a veterinary technician at Cornells intensive care unit who often works with Seventh Heaven, and her husband, Chris.

Laura Kappler adopted Libby, a dog who required several surgeries after receiving poor care while being bred in a puppy mill.

Kappler was one of the techs who took care of Libby during her long stays at Cornell.

Shes as sweet as pie, said Kappler, who lives outside of Ithaca with her husband. They have two other dogs who have taught Libby how to be a pet.

She has learned to tip over the toy box and take out the squeaky animals. If the other dogs stick their heads out for a scratch, she does, too. Shes learned to bark. But what she loves the most are car rides. Everywhere, anywhere, nowhere. If shes outside, shell stand near the car, waiting for someone to take her for a ride.

She said theyre not focused on how long shell live. Whether its 17 years or 1 year, it will be the best, Kappler said.

Part of the pack

French bulldog Juno (aka Junebug) was born with a hole in her heart. She had a very small chance of survival. Under the care of Seventh Heaven Rescue founders Steve Reiss and Jana Dosztan-Reiss, Junos heart grew around the hole. Now shes a happy, healthy dog. Sunday, July 16, 2023. (Katrina Tulloch | ktulloch@syracuse.com)

Days after Juno arrived in Syracuse, Dosztan-Reiss took her to the veterinary cardiologist in Albany. The prognosis was grim. The dog, who was smaller than a childs shoe, had a massive hole in her heart. There was no way surgery could fix it.

They could try some medicine and hope for the best in the time she had left.

So every night the tiny dog tucked herself in next to Noah and the other dogs who live with the Reiss family. The number is always changing; this day it was 14.

She followed them around. She ate when they ate. Played when they played. Barked her tiny bark to make sure she got a treat, too.

Juno grew. She ran.

Shes a busy-body now. This day, she is trotting in and out of the Dozstan-Reiss house, checking on the visitors and the dogs. She plays with Ford, a Boston terrier puppy waiting to go to his foster family.

She rolls in the grass. She pops her head up for a scratch behind her ears.

A recent trip to the vet found that the fatal hole in her heart is not gone, but her heart has grown around it. Juno, now Junebug, is 15 pounds. She is healthy. She could live a long life.

She has also become the one that welcomes the other sick, tired and scared puppies to this outpost of Seventh Heaven tucked in Onondaga Hill. She shows them the things shes learned: The food dish. The water dish. Barking.

She plays with these other dogs who seem to have forgotten their scars. Pancake, a much larger French bulldog, was in a puppy mill dog with a prolapsed uterus. Now, shes the clown. She flops down on her back in front of anyone who pauses, then waits until they scratch her belly.

She looks like shes smiling.

On this hot day, all of the dogs take an afternoon nap after theyve run around in the grass. Noah, the English bulldog with a heart problem, snores like an old man.

Ford, the puppy, twitches. Buddy sleeps near Juno and Rue.

Juno wakes up first, her stumpy tail wagging, asking: Who wants to play?

Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people and public affairs (and puppies) in Central New York. Contact her anytime email | Twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246.
Syracuse, N.Y.  The staff at the Downtown Committee of Syracuse in recent years has noticed a new pedestrian trend.

Were seeing strollers, said Heather Schroeder, the committees deputy director.

Families with young children are a fast-growing demographic in downtown Syracuse, but Schroeder said the area is missing a key amenity: playgrounds.

The committee heard that feedback loud and clear in its most recent survey of merchants and residents and is now partnering with the citys parks and recreation department to try to develop play areas.

Weve definitely heard from downtown constituents that theyre missing this amenity that theyre able to find in other neighborhoods, Schroeder said.

Last month, Schroeder asked the Syracuse Common Council to formally endorse the downtown committees application seeking $500,000 from the state Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation Environmental Protection Fund to build a playground. The citys parks department would chip in $250,000 in matching funds toward the project.

If the state awards the funds, the committee and the city are leaning toward establish the first new playground at the creekwalk trailhead in Armory Square in a space that currently includes fitness structures and a small patch of grass. The Museum of Science & Technology is located across the street.

Schroeder told the council, which unanimously endorsed the application at its July 24 meeting, that the committee would likely consult with the MOST on the project, as well. The two nonprofits collaborated to install a climbable triceratops statue on the museums lawn last summer.

The Downtown Committee of Syracuse and the Museum of Science and Technology partnered with grant support from the Syracuse Parks Conservancy to install a triceratops climber on the museum's lawn in 2022.

But aside from the dinosaur climber and a small play space by the Salt City Market parking lot on South Clinton Street, theres no free outdoor play spaces for small children in the downtown area.

Thats noticeable to Arnisha and Harold Haywood, who live just south of downtown and were having an early dinner Tuesday at a picnic table in Clinton Square with their three children, ages 1, 3 and 4.

They definitely need something for them to do down here, Arnisha said as Harold nodded in agreement.

The Haywoods live within Syracuses 13202 zip code, which is the area that the state grant application covers. That goes just beyond the official downtown area to include some neighbors to the south and west who also could easily walk to a downtown neighborhood.

This would be an amenity not just for people living downtown, Schroeder said, noting that a playground would also serve residents with visiting grandchildren and visitors who bring their kids to destinations like the MOST and the Everson Museum of Art.

The idea of getting some fresh air on a playground downtown sounds appealing to 8-year-old Serinaty Worley, who was heading into the Central Library on South Salina Street with her mom, Charres Burnett-Starling, on Wednesday. Both said they love to come to the library from their nearby home just south of downtown, but wish there was more for Serinaty to do outside.

Both said they like the targeted location for a first downtown playground, with Burnett-Starling noting that hotels are in that area, so guests with children could use it, too.

I think that would be good for tourism, Burnett-Starling said.

The downtown area is officially defined by a census tract that includes interstates 81 and 690 as borders to the east and north, Onondaga Creek to the west and Adams Street to the south. U.S. Census Bureau data from the five-year American Community Survey estimates shows the overall population grew by 12% to 3,298 between 2017 and 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. At the same time, the number of residents between the ages of 35 and 44, has doubled to 517.

Schroeder said thats the age group where downtown has traditionally seen an exodus, because many residents at that age would have children and move to a suburb. Developing amenities geared toward young families is one way downtown can retain those families.

These are things that would keep young professionals staying downtown, said Sally Mather, a real estate broker with Acopolis Realty Group who has experience in the downtown area. People want to be near parks and playgrounds. Its a desirable amenity, for sure.

In addition to traditional playgrounds, Mather suggested a splash pad for the downtown area.

To that end, the downtown committee is also seeking grants for the development of a downtown master plan that would provide a deeper analysis on whats needed and where, Schroeder said. At some point, the committee might pursue additional playgrounds, but that would be guided by that master plan.

City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at jboyer@syracuse.com, (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.
To the Editor:

In response to Oh, the irony: Salina likes truck stops more than the trucks (Aug. 1, 2023):

If you travel 40 miles south from Liverpool you will find yourself in Cortland, in an entirely different county, where letter writer Michael Gallagher lives. This writer is remarkably off-base. It takes a special kind of mental gymnastics to attempt to connect the village of Liverpools fight against truck traffic and the town of Salinas fight against the Interstate 81 community grid. Nonetheless it is worth laying out the facts for readers.

Gallagher claims that I am somehow contradicting myself by fighting for the survival of Salina businesses against the predations of Albany insiders seeking to destroy the economies built up around Interstate 81, while also supporting village of Liverpool leaders trying to maintain peace and public safety in their residential village nearly four miles away.

The Pilot truck stop the misinformed writer mentions is part of the Seventh North Street Business Corridor, a business corridor built around I-81. That business corridor is anchored by several thriving hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that will be put at risk by the community grid proposition. Commercial traffic already exists in this corridor and many commercial businesses (including the newly redeveloped Unifirst building, the newly built Restaurant Depot and others) rely on the interstate for their success. And to this very day, New York state has not offered any form of mitigation to offset potential damages by the community grid.

The village of Liverpool is not located near the Seventh North Street business corridor. In fact, by taking I-81 or the Thruway connecting to I-81, traffic could circumnavigate the village entirely (and maybe even patronize the businesses at the Seventh North Street exit while they are at it). The village is a quiet community with small houses, community parks and weekly outdoor concerts. It has a thriving economy of its own but is primarily a walkable residential village. I would know; I lived there for most of my life.

When the author implies that Salina is one giant homogenous blob, he shows that he does not live here, does not know our community, and has no real stake in whether our residents thrive or fail. On the contrary, I am solely focused on providing for residents of the town of Salina.

As supervisor, I have listened to my constituents concerns, invested in our infrastructure and parks, halted full-value property assessments, and fostered a growing local economy with new construction and rehabilitation of formerly blighted areas of town. I have gone to bat for our residents, taking on Albany special interests and the New York City mayor. Serving this town is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. It takes an intimate understanding of the needs of our residents and the characteristics of each neighborhood and sector of town.

Nick Paro

Town Supervisor

Salina

Related: New York starts $2.25 billion Interstate 81 rebuild despite court challenges
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8. Agshin Babirov, an Azerbaijani serviceman who is being held captive in Armenia, has contacted his family, Trend reports.

The serviceman has contacted his family via video call through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Azerbaijani military servicemen Agshin Babirov (born in 2004) and Huseyn Akhundov (born in 2003) went missing due to limited visibility under adverse weather conditions in the border area of the Shahbuz district of Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with Armenia on April 10.

Later, it was revealed that both of the servicemen were captured by Armenian Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, on May 8, a court in Armenia passed "a verdict" against Babirov, sentencing him to over 11 years of imprisonment.
Update: A tornado watch has been issued for six Upstate New York counties until 11 p.m.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Heat and humidity will combine today to create conditions that are right for damaging thunderstorms to strike across Upstate New York.

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for all of Upstate, which is an early alert that severe thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and evening.

Today will be an active day, with severe thunderstorms expected this afternoon into this evening, said the weather service office in Binghamton, which forecasts for the Finger Lakes and Central New York. Some of these storms will have the potential to produce damaging winds, some tornadoes, hail, and locally heavy rain.

The odds of severe storms striking within 25 miles of any given spot is 15% across much of Upstate New York. Severe storms are defined as those carrying winds of 58 mph and/or 1-inch hail.

All of the atmospheric ingredients needed for thunderstorms will be in place today from Alabama to New Hampshire, the weather service said. In Central New York, temperatures are expected to reach the mid 80s, and there will be plenty of moisture in the humid air when a low pressure system arrives.

The atmosphere is also likely to have high levels of what meteorologists refer to as instability. Thats the tendency for air to accelerate upward, delivering energy for thunderstorms.

The greater the instability, the greater the potential for severe thunderstorms, the weather service said.

Storms are most likely to develop this afternoon as the air heats up. For Central New York, the most likely time for strong storms will be 5 to 11 p.m. The storms and rain showers could linger into Tuesday.

The cold front that will help fuel todays storms will bring cooler temperatures on Tuesday, with highs in the mid 70s. Wednesday looks to be warm and sunny, with temperatures back into the 80s. Rain is possible again Thursday and over the weekend.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. A number of non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan have issued a statement regarding the establishment of a coalition named 'Environmental Protection First', Trend reports.

"We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations of Azerbaijan, express our deep concern that the economic activity in Armenia's mining industry, which is increasingly strengthened by grossly violating environmental norms and standards, is leading the entire South Caucasus region, which is home to over 15 million people, into disaster. In response, we would like to announce the creation of the coalition called "Environmental Protection First" (EPF) to unite efforts in the fight against it.

Expert inspections have uncovered that the toxic chemical waste from Armenia's mining ventures has inflicted significant harm on water resources and the environment along the border with Azerbaijan. These issues are equally as troubling as the challenges posed by mines and ruins in the newly liberated areas, obstructing the safe return and livelihood of the local population.

The absence of a response from Nikol Pashinyan to the concerns and questions raised in the Open Letter directed to the Prime Minister of Armenia by Azerbaijan's civil society (https://azertag.az/xeber/Ermenistan_Respublikasinin_dag_meden_senayesinin_Cenubi_Qafqaz_regionunda_ekoloji_sabitliyi_pozmasii_barede_Bas_nazir_Nikol_Pasinyana_achiq_mektub-2684983), the refusal to facilitate visits by international experts to Armenia for on-site assessments, and the disregard for appeals from foreign NGOs echoing similar concerns (https://apa.az/az/sosial/arazdeyende-metallurgiya-zavodunun-torede-bileceyi-ekoloji-felakete-etiraz-eden-beynelxalq-qht-lerin-sayi-artir-776817) collectively lead to the formation of this coalition.

The continuous monitoring of the processes in Armenia's mining industry through all legal means available and strengthening the fight against the violations will be the main task of the coalition.

We also hope for the help of a number of Armenian civil society organizations in this matter. Because these issues pose a serious threat and health risks to the population of Armenia as well. Regrettably, the protests raised by certain Armenian civil society organizations, which grasp this situation well, have been disregarded and suppressed by local authorities. We will serve as a voice for the suppressed Armenian civil society, advocating for the entire population of the South Caucasus. We additionally hope for robust support from the Georgian civil society in this endeavour.

Today, at a time when the world community is mobilizing for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and working more diligently to solve environmental problems, Armenia's actions stand in stark contradiction to these activities.

The coalition initiates its activities by reviewing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) records of foreign corporations engaged in Armenia's mining sector. We regret that our preliminary monitoring indicates these companies operating in Armenia are covering up these documents, which should be accessible to the public.

We urge both domestic and international companies involved in Armenia's mining sector to promptly publish the complete text of their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) documents on their official websites or make public announcements about them. We seek to get acquainted with these documents.

Within the framework of our activities, we intend to establish active communication and cooperation with the head offices of foreign companies working in Armenia, the relevant official institutions of the countries they belong to, as well as international organizations.

Our activities will be fully transparent and accountable, and we will provide regular updates to the public regarding the work we have done.

We invite all interested parties to partner and cooperate with EPF.

Signatures:

Amin Mammadov, "Experts in the Field of Water Use" Public Union

Parvana Valiyeva, "Saghlamliga Khidmat" Public Union

Sabit Bagirov, Entrepreneurship and Market Economy Development Foundation

Gamza Yusubova, Environmental Education and Monitoring Public Union".
Philips Hue appears close to unveiling not one, not two, but four security cameras in the coming weeks, along with a contact sensor for doors and windows.

The move would mark a major strategy shift for Signify-owned Philips Hue, which up to now has more or less stuck to the smart lighting category.

We already learned last week from reliable Hue leaker HueBlog.com that the manufacturer was looking to debut its first smart security camera, following in the footsteps of sister smart lighting brand WiZ (another Signify property).

This news story is part of TechHives in-depth coverage of the best security cameras and best smart bulbs.

Now HueBlog is reporting that Hue is actually teeing up a quartet of smart cameras, including two wired models, a battery-powered camera, and a floodlight camera.

Moving beyond cameras, Hue is also set to unveil a contact sensor for doors and windows, HueBlog claims. Like Hues smart lights, the Hue contact sensor is said to rely on Zigbee for wireless connectivity.

Philips Hue has yet to confirm the rumors about upcoming security cameras and the contact sensor, but in an email thread with TechHive last week, a Hue rep didnt rule out the buzz, either.

Pricing for the rumored Hue cameras and contact sensor sounds predictably steep, with HueBlog pegging the price tags at 200 euros (about USD$220 based on recent exchange rates) and up for the cams and 40 euros for the sensor.

Philips Hue has already dangled its feet into the home security market, with the smart lighting maker offering its own motion detector, while a mimic presence feature can randomly turn on or douse your lights while youre away on vacation.

During a recent conference call with investors, Signify CEO Eric Rondolat described how a security camera could be used to trigger light alarms that would warn homeowners of intruders, as well as operate a traditional motion sensor that turns your lights on and off as people enter and leave a room.

Then theres WiZ, the Signify-owned smart light brand that introduced its own smart security camera (pictured above) back in May.

Philips Hue typically unveils new products at the IFA conference in Berlin, which is slated to kick off early next month. Well be keeping our ears open for any Hue news during the show, including whether the rumored Hue security cameras and contact sensor become official.
What just happened? All ransomware attacks are bad, but none are as insidious as those that could cost lives by targeting healthcare facilities. The FBI is investigating an incident last week that impacted the systems of a California-based provider, leading to emergency rooms across several states being shut down and ambulances being diverted to other hospitals.

The Guardian reports that the incident began on Thursday at the Los Angeles facilities of Prospect Medical Holdings, which has hospitals and clinics in California, Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.

The company said it took its systems offline upon learning of the attack to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists. The FBI confirmed it had also launched an investigation, and the White House said it was monitoring the attack.

"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," Prospect Medical Holdings wrote in a statement.

CBS News reported that the Crozer-Chester Medical System (CCMS) in Springfield, Pennsylvania reverted to paper records after most of its computers went offline; they're not expected to be ready for use again until sometime this week. This is something we've seen several times in the past after hospitals have been hit with ransomware, including when the Hancock Regional Hospital in the state of Indiana was attacked in 2018.

Law enforcement said Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima in Rhode Island were also impacted by the attack. The Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) said some of its locations were affected and it would contact patients whose appointments may be changed. The ECHN website states that all elective surgery, outpatient medical imaging, outpatient blood draw, urgent care, and its wound center are closed until further notice.

According to IBM's report on data breaches, the healthcare industry has reported the most expensive breaches of any field for the 13th consecutive year, averaging $11 million each. That's almost double the $5.9 million each from the second-place finance sector.

In 2020 at the height of the pandemic, the FBI warned of a massive ransomware campaign that was targeting US hospitals.

A survey in 2021 showed that almost three-quarters of healthcare facilities said patients had longer stays as a result of ransomware attacks on the facilities. The incidents also caused delays and errors in test results, patients needing to be transferred elsewhere, and increased complications from medical procedures and higher mortality rates.
NASA's planned Artemis missions are about more than just exploring the moon. They are a monumental chance for companies to enter the booming space market.

NASA is encouraging private firms to play a crucial part in its mission to expand human presence beyond Earth, with ambitions to construct human settlements on the lunar surface and pave the way for extraplanetary colonization.

Insider reported that the space agency's bold vision has opened up a market worth over $100 billion, with companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin leading the charge.

NASA and The Artemis Vision

In the past, the Apollo missions were about seeing if people could travel to the moon. But now, with the Artemis missions, we want to go even further.

The goal is not just to visit the moon temporarily but to actually live and work there. The ultimate aim is to use the moon as a stepping stone to send missions to Mars.

To make this happen, NASA has changed its approach. Instead of relying only on government agencies, they now work with private companies in space exploration.

This shift started in the early 2000s when President George W. Bush directed NASA to involve private companies after the space shuttle program ended.

Read Also: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Sees an Enchanting View of the Iconic Ring Nebula

Mining the Moon

One of the most enticing prospects of moon exploration is "in-situ resource utilization" - mining and exploiting lunar resources or the moon itself. The moon is a treasure trove of valuable materials, and companies are eager to capitalize on this potential.

Regolith, the scientific term for moon dust, holds immense promise. It can be mined for helium-3, a rare non-radioactive particle that could revolutionize clean energy production on Earth.

China plans to construct its lunar station using regolith as the building material. The lunar regolith could also be a source of rare-earth elements essential for electronics manufacturing.

However, the most prized resource on the moon is water. Scientists have discovered water near the moon's poles, and its extraction could serve as a vital resource for future lunar missions.

Water could be converted into fuel, enabling extended lunar missions and refueling rockets on their way to Mars, potentially turning the moon into a crucial pit stop for interplanetary travel.

According to Prachi Kawade, a senior analyst at NSR, a research-and-consulting company focused on the space market, the moon mining market holds opportunities worth a staggering $137 billion over the next decade.

NASA and Private Companies Join Forces

NASA's Artemis missions are paving the way for unprecedented collaboration between the government space agency and private companies.

Through strategic partnerships with SpaceX, Blue Origin, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, and General Motors, among others, NASA is tapping into the innovation and expertise of the commercial space sector.

The space agency is outsourcing various aspects of its lunar missions, including developing lunar landers. For instance, SpaceX has secured billion-dollar contracts to build the Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA's Artemis III and IV missions.

Related Article: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Gets Blinded by Countless Glittering Stars in Galactic Cluster

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple computers coming out this October will have the company's next-generation chip. An analyst revealed that Apple is releasing its M3 later this year.

The company is currently testing its M3, and it will soon be available to the public based on its release timeline, like its previous Mac releases.

Apart from this upcoming Mac device, six other devices are found on the latest obtained data regarding Apple computers, all sporting the next-gen Silicon processor.

Apple M3 Mac Is Coming This October, Analyst Says

According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg's Power On Newsletter, a new Apple Mac is coming this year, and it will center on the M3 Silicon chip to power the device.

Also under this new report is the latest information on Apple's future Mac releases, with the company already set for the M3 Mac mini coming this Fall.

The analyst noted that this latest update on the M3 came from sources familiar with its development, and it would feature an 8-core CPU alongside a 10-GPU and 24GB of RAM upon launch. Its 8-core CPU comprises four efficiency cores and four high-performance cores.

If the specs seem familiar, this is because it is the same as the M2's latest release, but instead of the 4nm chip, it will be in a smaller, 3nm device known as the M3.

Read Also: Apple Mac: New Desktops Leak from macOS Find My App, Is it a Revamp to its PC Developments?

Next Release Under Testing, Six Devices Coming Soon

Additionally, this device is already being tested, with the company expanding its latest program toward the development of the M3 Mac Mini. 9to5 Mac reported that, as per Gurman's report, other Macs are coming, with a total of six devices overall.

It includes the: M3 13-inch MacBook Air (codenamed Mac 15,1 and J513/J613); M3 15-inch MacBook Air (codenamed Mac 15,2 and J515/J615); M3 13-inch MacBook Pro (codenamed Mac 15,3 and J504); M3 iMac (codenamed Mac 15,4, Mac 15,5, J433 and J434), M3 Pro and M3 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros (codenamed Mac 15,7, Mac 15,8, J514 and J516); and the M3 Mac mini (codenamed Mac 15,12).

Apple's Mac and M-Series Chips

Mark Gurman claimed before that a new M3 Mac is coming this October, and he is now reaffirming his previous statement with more information and details. In his previous report, the analyst only confirmed the chip's upcoming release but not the devices that come with it.

Gurman also said before that these devices would arrive separately or only a handful would be released simultaneously, unlike before when they dropped these machines at the same time.

This new M-series chip will still come from Apple's long-time supplier and manufacturer, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

In this new 3nm process, the chip is smaller and more compact, but it does not mean it is less powerful than its previous releases.

Gurman affirmed that the next Mac's release will bring the next-gen chip this October. It will arrive with the Mac mini, the first Apple computer to get the new 3nm chip, featuring the same specs as the M2, with the other devices being released in the coming months.

Related Article: Prominent Apple Leaker Says M3 Chip-Equipped MacBook Pro to Launch in 2024: Device Would Skip on This Year's Release

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought immense devastation, but the tireless efforts of scientists and health workers worldwide have mitigated its impact. However, envision a scenario where we could proactively detect the most hazardous virus variants before they escalate into global threats.

(Photo : Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

LANDOVER, MARYLAND - MARCH 30: Healthcare professionals prepare to screen people for the coronavirus at a testing site erected by the Maryland National Guard in a parking lot at FedEx Field March 30, 2020 in Landover, Maryland.

Providing Advance Warnings About Virus Variants

This vision is becoming a reality thanks to a groundbreaking AI system. According to research conducted by experts from Scripps Research and Northwestern University in the US, this AI technology can provide advance warnings about the emergence of perilous virus variants in potential future pandemics.

Interesting Engineering reported that early warning anomaly detection or EWAD is a cutting-edge machine learning system to scrutinize virus variants' genetic sequences, frequencies, and mortality rates during global dissemination.

Through rigorous testing on authentic COVID-19 pandemic data, researchers discovered EWAD's remarkable ability to forecast with precision the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) as the virus underwent mutations.

Additionally, the system demonstrated its capacity to assess the potential impact of public health interventions like vaccines and mask-wearing on the virus's evolution. EWAD's promising results indicate that it could serve as a vital tool for proactive preparation and response to future outbreaks.

By detecting potential threats even before they receive official designation from the World Health Organization (WHO), this system holds the potential to significantly enhance our ability to anticipate and counter emerging health crises effectively.

Empowering the System to Make Accurate Predictions

According to William Balch, a microbiologist at Scripps Research and one of the study's lead authors, they observed crucial gene variants emerging and gaining prominence, accompanied by shifts in mortality rates. Surprisingly, all of this occurred weeks before WHO officially designated these variants as VOCs (variants of concern).

Employing a mathematical approach known as Gaussian process-based spatial covariance, the AI system possesses the capability to forecast novel data by leveraging existing data and their interconnections. Furthermore, it has the unique ability to uncover concealed patterns and rules governing virus evolution, which would remain obscured amidst the enormous volume of data.

This technique empowers the system to make accurate predictions and unearth valuable insights crucial for understanding virus behavior and evolution. According to Balch, a crucial takeaway from this research is the significance of considering not just the well-known variants but also the countless undesignated ones, referred to as the "variant dark matter."

Also Read: Coronavirus and Artificial Intelligence: Researchers See AI Solutions to Combat COVID-19

The researchers assert that their AI algorithms successfully identified hidden "rules" governing virus evolution that would have remained unnoticed otherwise. As per Science Alert, these discoveries hold immense potential in effectively tackling future pandemics as they arise.

Aside from this, this system offers an opportunity for scientists to delve deeper into the fundamental aspects of virus biology. Understanding these basics could lead to enhanced treatments and the development of more effective public health measures to combat infectious diseases.

Related Article: AI May Just Prevent the Next Pandemic-but How?

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Last week saw a massive collection of news regarding the crypto world, and now, we are rounding them up for you via Tech Times' CryptoWatch to get up to date on the latest in the industry. One of the most significant changes now is GameStop which recently announced the upcoming end-of-service of its renowned crypto and NFT wallet.

(Photo : Tech Times)

On the other hand, a New York couple dubbed as 'Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde' already pleaded guilty in courts, with Kenya also suspending Worldcoin.

GameStop Ends Crypto, NFT Wallet Service

Announced and opened only last year, GameStop's renowned blockchain Wallet is already seeing its end-of-service later this year, with owners getting until November 1 to use and transfer their assets to other providers. The main reason for GameStop's shutdown is because of "regulatory uncertainty," but the company did not expound on its specifics.

Right on its website, users will be met with a banner that announces its Wallet's end, with the company giving a short explanation as to what happened and what will take place in the future.

Users are given until October 1 to secure their 'Secret Passphrase' from their respective accounts to access their wallets securely. They are given until the start of November to withdraw their assets and holdings to transfer to other wallets.

Despite this, a report claimed that GameStop will continue selling NFTs.

Read Also: CryptoWatch: FTX Loses License in the AUS, Bybit's Super Trofeo 2023 Efforts, and Coin Prices Now

Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde Pleads Guilty

The infamous New York couple called "Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde" pled guilty to their crimes and actions against other owners, with the pair hacking wallets since 2016. For as much as six years, Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and Heather Morgan, 33, have hacked people's accounts for their gain, with the authorities able to track the said funds.

Lichtenstein and Morgan were able to amass as much as 95,000 bitcoin, with a valuation of $3.6 billion during that time, which the US government seized.

According to the report, the pair engaged in money laundering schemes and created fake accounts to continue their operations, misappropriating as much as 120,000 Bitcoins from Bitfinex.

The pair are also known for their lavish lifestyle in Manhattan, attracting attention in the media.

Kenya Suspends Worldcoin

Kenya has put a stop to Worldcoin's operations in the country, especially as it opened registration in the region, as many Kenyans looked to avail of the said service. One of the most notable promises of Worldcoin is it will give registrants cryptocurrency tokens in exchange for their iris scans, most notably known for its creator and also OpenAI founder, Sam Altman.

The Kenyan government highlighted its worries regarding data privacy and security of the individuals that are queueing up for the money it offers.

According to Reuters, the country is citing the safety concerns for the public regarding this "free money" that Worldcoin offers, especially in today's age where this biometric data can be used for massive fraudulence if it falls into the wrong hands.

Related Article: US Securities and Exchange Commission Sues Hex Crypto Founder for Massive Scam

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Lenovo Legion R25i-30 has recently been released and is a monitor that focuses greatly on gaming in the Legion series. The monitor reportedly comes with a high refresh rate IPS panel as well as coverage for a wide color gamut.

The Lenovo Legion R25i-30 Gaming Monitor Comes with an IPS Panel and Wide Coverage Color Gamut

According to the story by Gizmo China, due to its IPS panel and wide coverage color gamut, the gaming monitor isn't just for gaming but can also be used for creative workflows. It was announced that the gaming monitor was called the Lenovo R25i-30.

It was noted that the device comes with a 24.5-inch Full HD resolution display packed with a 165 Hz refresh rate. The gaming monitor can reportedly be overclocked to 180 Hz in order to achieve smoother gameplay.

It was noted that the gaming monitor is capable of 0.5ms MPRT response time in order to ensure minimal motion blur when users play their fast-paced gaming sessions. It was noted that the gaming monitor comes with excellent color accuracy that comes with a 99% sRGB as well as a 90% DCI-P3 coverage for color gamut.

Gaming Monito Comes with Support for 16.7 Million Colors with an 8-Bit Color Depth

It was also reported that the Lenovo R25i-30 gaming monitor reportedly supports 16.7 million colors along with an 8-bit color depth which packs on an anti-glare coating in order to reduce the reflections as well as glare that people experience on the screen.

The gaming monitor comes with DisplayHDR 400 certification as the monitor reportedly delivers better contrast as well as dynamic range. It was also announced that gamers would be able to enjoy the AMD FreeSync Premium support as well as screen tearing reduction and stuttering whenever utilized with compatible graphics cards.

When it comes to audio, the integrated 2x 3W speakers come with decent sound output without ever needing to add external speakers. It was noted that for users to experience eye comfort, the monitor comes with a Natural Low Blue Light technology while being able to reduce blue light emissions throughout extended use.

Read Also: Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Specs Revealed: Ryzen 9 7940HS, 140W Charging, 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM, 1 TB PCIe 4.0, and More

The Monitor Also Comes with a Contrast Ratio of 1000:1 with a 3M:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio

It was also noted that the peak brightness for the monitor reaches 400 nits while the typical brightness falls shortly at 350 nits. The monitor comes with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 which is also a dynamic contrast ratio of 3M:1.

It was noted that the monitor comes with wide viewing angles horizontally as well as vertically at the 178 with the screen ensuring clear visuals as well as multiple positions. It was noted that the power consumption comes at a typical 18.5W going up to the maximum of 28W.

The voltage requirement of the monitor comes at AC 100 to 240V, which results in 50-60Hz, which allows it to be utilized for different systems of power. More specifications of the monitors can be seen on the Display Specifications.

Related Article: 48-Inch Philips OLED HDR10+ TV Spotted at a 150 Discount Dropping Its Price to 850

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has recently conducted its static fire test for the Super Heavy rocket, centering on Booster 9's latest developments which is a success for the company.

This test firing saw a mixed performance from the spacecraft, but the good thing is all the Raptor engines fired showed the rocket's capabilities.

However, there are many things to improve on the Super Heavy rocket based on the adverse outcomes of the said static fire test, with SpaceX returning to its facilities for the tweak.

SpaceX Super Heavy Booster 9 Static Fire Test a Success

The folks over at SpaceX conducted its Super Heavy Booster 9's static fire test earlier today, and the company deems this a success for the latest rocket version under the program.

The test event was live-streamed all over X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, with the world seeing the latest performance of the heavy-lift launch vehicle. On a positive note, the rocket fired all 33 Raptor engines strapped underneath it, and no explosions happened amidst or after its firing.

Moreover, the rocket remained intact and in good shape after the test, meaning SpaceX could bring it back and work on it before returning it for another static fire test. It also gave the company the correct information and data to assess its latest performance.

Read Also: SpaceX Seeks Dismissal of Environmental Lawsuit, Denying Allegations for Leaving Destruction to Wildlife

Mixed Outcome for SpaceX's Test with Negative Results

According to Ars Technica, the Booster 9's static fire test run time was supposed to be 5 seconds, but it only fired off for 2.79 seconds, cut short after seeing several issues it encountered.

It was also reported that four of the 33 Raptor engines shut down prematurely in the short run, but the company has yet to release a statement regarding this.

For now, the Super Heavy Booster 9 will see more developments and tweaks to fix the issues to iron out all the problems it encountered in its recent testing.

SpaceX's Development of the Starship Program

Last month, the public finally saw the anticipated return test of the Starship program at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, but did not expect the explosive ending.

This was with Booster 7, the seventh iteration of the Super Heavy, which saw significant issues with the Raptor engines underneath the launch vehicle, concluding in a fiery demise.

The last incident followed the highly-awaited flight that resulted in an explosion of the Starship's Full-Stack flight test in April, the event that the world thought to be the start of a new age of exploration.

Despite this explosion, SpaceX was determined to get back on track with further development of the Starship for its future use in deep space missions.

SpaceX faced many setbacks for "the world's most powerful rocket" meant for exploring more of the neighboring regions in space.

However, the recent Booster 9 test shows that the company is nearly tweaking out all the kinks and issues found on the rocket. The test shows what needs to be done to make it ready for the next flight test.

Related Article: SpaceX's Starship to be the Next Space Station, LEO Destination with Support from NASA

 2023 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The conflagration in the Gizil-Aghaj State Reserve of the Neftchala district has been completely extinguished, despite the difficult terrain and windy weather, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Many bushes and reeds were burned as a result of the fire, which spanned 200 hectares. The majority of the national park is fire-resistant.

Employees of the State Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan, an aviation detachment (two helicopters), the forestry center of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the relevant executive authorities of the Neftchala district, participated in extinguishing the fire.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. 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 Zabukh in Azerbaijans Lachin district at the first stage, the Committee of Azerbaijan told Trend.

Representatives from the Special Representative Office of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Lachin district, which is part of the East Zangazur Economic Region, and the Executive Power of the Lachin district attended the ceremony.

The drawing drew a total of 20 families. According to the family composition, four of them are given with two-room, four-room, four-room, and five-room flats. These families have lived in Baku and Sumgayit, as well as in temporary settlements in the Absheron district's area.

The lotteries are used to ensure the objectivity and transparency of the placement procedure for internally displaced people.

Former internally displaced persons, who will soon return to the village of Zabukh for permanent residence, noted that they feel great joy in this regard. They expressed their deep gratitude to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva for the conditions created in the liberated territories from Armenian occupation after the second Karabakh war and their care for internally displaced persons.

The families that participated in the draw will go to the village of Zabukh soon.

The Azerbaijan Foundation for the Social Development of Internally Displaced Persons is the customer for the design and building of the Zabukh settlement. In the first stage, 223 single-story private residential buildings are being constructed in the village of Zabukh. A kindergarten, an administrative building, a medical facility, and other facilities are also being constructed.

Following the liberation of its territory from Armenian domination in 2020, Azerbaijan launched the long-awaited 'Great Return' initiative, which envisages the return of internally displaced individuals (IDPs) to their home countries.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. A regular penitentiary visit was carried out within the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) on behalf of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva, the Ombudsman's Office told Trend.

During the visit, the members of the National Preventive Group studied the conditions of detention and treatment in the penitentiary, the situation with ensuring the rights of detainees, inspected the cells, the medical and sanitary unit, the canteen, the library, and places of walks.

In addition, private meetings were held with detainees during the visit, which was attended by members of the National Preventive Group of the Ombudsman, doctors and psychologists.

Along with other persons, a private meeting was held with a citizen of Armenia Rashid Beglaryan, who was detained on August 1, 2023 due to illegal crossing of the state border on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border passing through the territory of Azerbaijan's Zabukh village, Lachin district.

During the conversation, the rights of the detainee were guaranteed, the necessary medical and psychological assistance was provided to him, which was confirmed by the detainee himself, who expressed gratitude in this regard.

The detainees were explained the process of applying for their rights during the visit of the members of the National Preventive Group of the Ombudsman, as well as national legislative acts and international documents, information publications on the possibilities of contacting the Ombudsman's call center "916" were presented.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) again visited Vagif Khachatryan on August 5, who was detained on July 29, Head of the Public Relations Department of the ICRC office in Baku Ilaha Huseynova told Trend.

According to Huseynova, a private meeting was held with the detainee, he took the opportunity to send a letter to his family through the ICRC.

"In conformity with its mandate, ICRC evaluates the treatment and conditions of detention of persons during the visit. The ICRC also creates conditions for detainees to be in contact with their families. In accordance with the ICRC procedures, observations and recommendations regarding visits are transferred only to the detainee," she said.

The investigation into the criminal case brought by the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan under the pertinent articles of the Criminal Code regarding the facts of genocide, deportation of Azerbaijanis, and destruction of numerous properties belonging to rural residents and the state on December 22, 1991, in the village of Meshali (Khojaly district), is still ongoing.

The investigation established that Vagif Khachatryan, born in 1955, a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan, born in Badara village of Askaran district and worked as a driver in Khankendi city automobile transport company, residing in Meshali village, together with other people of Armenian nationality, used various weapons, including firearms and infantry fighting vehicles, to completely destroy the village.

Using various weapons, including firearms and infantry fighting vehicles, they raided the village and killed 25 people of Azerbaijani nationality, injured 14 people, and contrary to national and international law norms expelled 358 Azerbaijanis from their domicile.

In addition, Khachatryan continued his criminal actions together with his accomplices, destroying and damaging property belonging to the state and villagers, causing a total of 5.5 million manat ($3.2 million) of material damage.

Due to the fact that sufficient reasonable suspicions arose regarding the criminal case, it was decided to involve Vagif Khachatryan as an accused person under articles 103 (massacre) and 107 (deportation or forced movement of the population) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. However, due to the fact that his whereabouts were unknown to the investigation, on November 12, 2013, an international arrest warrant was applied by the court's decision.

As a result of the conducted search measures, on July 29, 2023, Khachatryan was detained by the military personnel of the State Border Service at the Lachin border crossing point of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border. He was trying to go to the Republic of Armenia for treatment through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
ANZ could restructure its $4.9 billion planned purchase of Suncorp, which was rejected in its original form by the competition watchdog last week, to improve its chances of getting the deal through on appeal at the Australian Competition Tribunal, investors have said.

White Funds Management managing director Angus Gluskie said ANZ and Suncorp had an outside chance at having the deal approved by the tribunal, but modifying the deal would improve ANZs chances.

CEO Shayne Elliott and his team at ANZ could shed some of its assets to improve the chances of getting their planned purchase of Suncorp through the competition tribunal, investors have said. Credit: Australian Financial Review

They might be able to reshape it into a situation where its a more passive investment on behalf of ANZ in a bank that continues to operate as a separate competitor in its own market, he said.

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, arguing the deal would further entrench the countrys banking oligopoly.
During a tense meeting last week about the return to office policy, held on Zoom, CEO Eric Yuan faced a series of questions from employees who expressed frustration about the time and money theyd waste while commuting, according to an employee who was at the meeting but was not authorised to speak publicly about internal company matters. In 2020, participants in daily Zoom meetings leaped to more than 300 million, from 10 million the year before, as it became the most downloaded free iPhone app of the year. But the company has struggled to maintain its pandemic growth. In February, amid a wave of layoffs across the tech industry, Zoom cut 15 per cent of its staff, or about 1300 people. The companys workforce had grown more than 275 per cent between July 2019 and October 2022. Zoom was a poster-child of the work-from-home revolution that was driven by the pandemic. Credit: AP On an earnings call in May, Yuan said he was confident in the future of workplace flexibility and the benefits it had brought for his company. I think hybrid work is going to stay, he said. Zoom, like many other tech companies, is still holding on to some flexibility, requiring its employees to come in only on a part-time basis.

Hybrid and remote work levels remain far above what they were pre-pandemic. As of July, nearly one-third of the countrys full-time workers were in hybrid arrangements, spending some days working from home and some in an office, according to researchers at Stanford. But dozens of companies have joined Zoom in tightening their policies on office attendance this summer, as offices remain at just under half of pre-pandemic occupancy levels. Loading Google, which has asked employees to come into the office three days a week, announced that managers could take unexcused absences from the office into account when doing performance reviews and could use badge records to identify those absences. Salesforce, taking a softer approach, said it would give a $US10 charitable donation per day on behalf of any employee who came into the office for a 10-day period in June. Many companies have faced fierce resistance as they call people back to the office. Hundreds of Amazons corporate employees walked off the job for an hour in May, protesting the companys announcement that they had to return to the office at least three days a week. At Apple, corporate employees signed petitions protesting their return to the office.

At the start of the pandemic, the tech industry was quick to embrace flexible work, which was enabled by the industrys own products, including Slack (owned by Salesforce), Gmail and Zoom. But many of those companies realised that they didnt want their employees to remain permanently scattered. Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist and expert on hybrid work, said the tech industrys move back to the office was no surprise given the amount these companies spend on office real estate. Companies around the world are forcing workers back to the office. Credit: Louie Douvis Bloom said Zoom, for example, had all the downsides of fully remote work  some employees feeling disconnected  without the company seeing its financial upsides, such as saving money on office space, because the company was still paying for Bay Area real estate and Bay Area employees. Theyre paying for their office and hiring local people so they get no upside from being fully remote, Bloom said. The most surprising thing to me was they took so long to formally announce this.
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Eating outBrisbane First Look: Super Whatnot transformed into a classic-cocktail bolthole Yes, it still has three floors. Otherwise, its entirely different. Take a peek inside. Matt Shea August 7, 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

Martin Lange, Wiebke Lange, Belle Ward and Blake Ward are opening a bar in Brisbane, but none of them are in Brisbane. Not at the time of writing, anyway. It was completely unplanned, Martin Lange says over the phone, talking about Antico in the CBD. Its Friday just past, and his 50-seat bar is two days out from pouring its first drinks. The Langes are in Tasmania, the Wards the United States. Antico has opened in the old Super Whatnot space on Burnett Lane in Brisbanes CBD. Morgan Roberts We were meant to be taking it easy this year and focusing on our current [venues], Dr Gimlette, Death [& Taxes] and Cobbler.

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But then, in January, Death & Taxes Burnett Lane neighbour Super Whatnot closed, at relatively short notice. And then a replacement tenant fell over. And then a home-printed For Lease sign appeared in its window. Blake and Belle were in Italy for two months, but I called them and said, Weve gotta take it. And they said, Lets do it  Wiebkes the lawyer for the group and we negotiated the contract in two weeks. And then we were, like, F***, now we have to build a whole new venue. Not just a whole new venue, but a whole new venue to replace one of Brisbanes most iconic modern boozers. Super Whatnot was a lodestar for the citys small bar scene, opening in 2011 soon after the Queensland governments introduction of its game-changing small bars liquor licences. Its unique triple-level design and regular DJ line-up made it a favourite among CBD imbibers. Thats a hard act to follow.

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The team behind Death & Taxes and Dr Gimlette has created a 50-seat bolthole dedicated to classic cocktails. Morgan Roberts But the Langes and the Wards have done this before. And by now their collection of bars feels less a hospitality group and more a well-oiled drinks-making machine. Managing the opening of Antico is Carlos Hurworth, who operates The Meniscus Co, a hospitality consultancy business, and has worked with Lange on and off for the best part of a decade. Meanwhile, award-winning former Maker bartender Ed Quatermass has joined the group as creative director, and will be based at a new warehouse headquarters in Bowen Hills. In short, the owners can probably afford to be away 48 hours from go-time. Its good at this stage, Lange says. Were getting to that level where we can [hire] people like that and look after them.

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Fans of the groups existing venues  Death & Taxes and Dr Gimlette, in particular  will feel right at home here at Antico. Morgan Roberts To step inside Antico is to be both surprised and unsurprised. Super Whatnot this is not. That brilliant basic layout and original brickwork are the same, and the Langes and Wards chose to keep the handsome wrought-iron balustrade on the loft level. But otherwise the venue has an entirely different feel, with the group rolling out its typical touches of dark timber panelling, vintage-style light fittings, mosaic tile floors and buttoned leather booths and banquettes. The wood has been polished to a high shine and the bar now sits against the back wall of the main level, with the lower floor hidden from the laneway by an enormous curtain.

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A slight Italian influence is expressed mostly in the branding and in the peripheries of the drinks menu. Fans of the groups existing venues  Death & Taxes and Dr Gimlette, in particular  will feel right at home here. Antico features just 10 drinks on its seasonal cocktail list and and fresh Queensland produce features heavily. Morgan Roberts We love Europe, we love that old-school design. We love going into a place where it feels like its been there for two centuries, Lange says. When we go to Italy, when we go to London, when we go to Paris, or even when we go to New York  those venues feel like theyve been there for decades and have that genuine feel. Whats different is the approach to drinks. Antico eschews Death & Taxes and Dr Gimlettes lengthy cocktail lists and enormous back bars, or Cobblers focus on whisky, and instead drills down on a seasonal collection of just 10 original cocktails. Each is a twist on a classic, and fresh Queensland produce features heavily across all the drinks.

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Antico has an entirely different feel from Super Whatnot, which previously occupied the venue. Morgan Roberts Queensland has some of the best fresh produce in the world, hands down. And Ive tried all the fruit around the world, Lange says. So, we basically thought, Lets grab whatevers in season and just add it to a classic. Thats the focus. You might order the Old Fashioned-inspired Re-Re-Re Fashioned (Woodford Reserve bourbon, Oloroso sherry, manuka honey, grapefruit bitters), or a Blood and Sand-inspired Blood and Skye (Talisker whisky, cherry, raspberry vermouth, blood orange sorbet, citrus), or the Zombie Reviver #1, which mixes Casa Amigos tequila, triple sec, Cocchi Americano aperitif, pomelo and pastis for a different take on the Corpse Reviver No. 2. Beyond that? The idea is for Anticos barkeeps to stir or shake any classic you fancy. The star of the show is going to be those classic cocktails, Lange says.

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The bottom floor of the 48 Burnett Lane premises is now filled with booths and hidden behind a velvet curtain. Morgan Roberts Away from cocktails, theres a pair of beer taps pouring Peroni and Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, and a changeable wine list that leans towards Italian varieties and styles such as montepulciano, chianti and prosecco. Food is kept simple with a bruschetta, and a burrata with mortadella. And thats about it. At Antico, the idea is for the barkeeps to stir or shake any classic you fancy. Morgan Roberts

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The bar scene was going stagnant pre-Covid. It felt like it had hit a massive flat line, Lange says. There were a lot of big venues opening everywhere, and the customers were getting confused with what to expect from the offerings. Everybody was giving everything the customers wanted all the time. COVID basically erased and reset that, and focused [on restaurants and bars]. Customers became more empathetic and started to understand what each venue could do. People dont come into Cobbler now asking for a Baileys and milk  thats not what we do. That was the inspiration for Antico  this is what we offer and this is what youre gonna get. Open daily 4pm-late 48 Burnett Lane, Brisbane, no phone anticobar.com.au

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Eating outThe dish Celebrity chef Poh on reconnecting with her food heritage after the death of her mum The Malaysian-Australian cook and TV presenter credits her mums passion for making cakes and a familys love of cooking for driving her own obsessiveness in the kitchen. Jane Rocca August 8, 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

When Malaysian-Australian cook Poh Ling Yeows mother Christina passed away in November, it spurred the SBS cooking show host to discover old family recipes and reacquaint with dishes from her maternal past. The 49-year-old who owns Jamface, a bakery in South Australia, says she feels her mothers presence at work every day; and occasionally speaks to her when making cakes. She inherited her mums baking tips; from accurately knowing how to line cake tins and gently salt them, to whisking eggs into sponges at the right tilt for best results. There was always the scent of cooking in the air at home. Supplied Mum was consistent in perfecting things in the kitchen, Yeow says.

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She would make a sponge four times  sometimes two in a day and then try again the following to nail something she had read or apply a tip someone had told her. I get that obsessiveness from her because I like to push things. Baking was Yeows first love, but it wasnt highlighted as a strength when she was on MasterChef in season one in 2009, she says. Nobody knew what a stir-fry was more than 20 years ago, and now I am sure youd struggle to find an Aussie who wouldnt make one once a week these days. I spent all my school holidays baking while my parents worked, and as soon as I was old enough Mum taught me how to do everything with ninja precision  folding a sponge with utmost delicacy was her thing. I owe that to her, Yeow says.

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In the months before Christina passed away, she taught Yeow a signature Hakka dish. Its a comfort meal from her region in Malaysia  steamed fermented soy bean dish with taro and pork belly that oozes with nostalgia. Its quite sweet and very garlicky, and you layer pieces of taro and pork belly and squash them all into almost round cake tin so it can be steamed with ease, she says. The pork and taro are marinated in fermented bean sauce, sugar and garlic. Its delicious and one of the last things Mum shared with me. Hakka is from Mums side of the family, its a dialect they speak and this dish is very much a part of their tradition, Yeow says. What chef Poh Ling Yeow eats in a day Winter persimmon also reminds her of mum, as does the scent of pandan in the kitchen. And then theres coconut jam Christina made religiously  a traditional Malaysian staple that can be used on toast or sticky rice. Dark Hokkien noodles were another signature.

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There was always the scent of cooking in the air at home, Yeow says. She was amazing at making Malaysian kueh koci desserts and anything that involved sticky rice. Banana leaf wrap with palm sugar is another food memory and whenever I use pandan I think of her, she says. A second season of Adam and Pohs Great Australian Bites returns to SBS this month, with Yeow and Good Food columnist Adam Liaw taking mammoth road trips around the country to discover the cuisines that built the Australian identity. Helen Gohs pandan napkin cakes with coconut custard. William Meppem Helen Goh's pandan napkin cakes with coconut custard

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It was a pit stop in Ballarat that left a deep impression on Yeow  who met with celebrity chef and food icon Elizabeth Chong. We look at how her dad invented the fish and chip shop dim sum, Yeow says. I have met Elizabeth several times over the years, to see her again and as vibrant as ever at the age of 90 is amazing. Our food culture has evolved so much since she was cooking on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton. Nobody knew what a stir-fry was more than 20 years ago, and now I am sure youd struggle to find an Aussie who wouldnt make one once a week these days, Yeow says. EASY Adam Liaws adaptable two-ingredient stir-fry with pork and capsicum (or chicken, mushrooms ... )

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Baked black rice pudding with pandan and coconut Elizabeth paved the way for people like me and Adam to be on telly. When you taste food with her its like time has stood still, it speaks of her era and the type of economy we had and how people thought about food  it was less about luxury and more about steeling you up, she adds. Yeow also credits her Aunty Kim for a diehard Malaysian cuisine curiosity. Kim moved to Australia when Yeow and her older brother were young, and she still lives in the family home with Yeows father. We call them the odd couple, but Aunty Kim is still there and has been our entire lives. She still cooks for Dad even after Mum died. We refer to them as the O.C., Yeow says. Christina learned how to cook thanks to Pohs paternal grandmother.

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Review Eating outPotts Point Bibs and napkins, sticky fingers, hullabaloo: Is this the messiest meal in Sydney? Sydney institution Harrys Singapore Chilli Crab moves to Potts Point, proving once again that good chilli crab is a crazy assault on your tastebuds as well as your tablecloth. Terry Durack August 8, 2023 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

1 / 8 The new Potts Point venue. Wolter Peeters 2 / 8 Go-to dish: Singapore chilli crab, market price. Edwina Pickles 3 / 8 Prawn spring rolls. Edwina Pickles 4 / 8 Slow-cooked crisp pork belly. Edwina Pickles 5 / 8 Fried buns. Edwina Pickles 6 / 8 Pacific oysters with XO sauce and vermicelli. Edwina Pickles 7 / 8 Salt and pepper calamari. Edwina Pickles 8 / 8 XO scallops. Edwina Pickles Previous Slide Next Slide 13.5 / 20 How we score Asian$$$ Make a mess, says Andy Zhan. Dont worry about the tablecloth. Im not worried about the tablecloth. If Im going to make a mess  and Singapore chilli crab is the messiest meal on earth  Im worried about my shirt. Next, Im handed a plastic bib to tie around my neck. Emblazoned on it is the cheery face of the restaurant founder, the late Harry Lau, in a small act of continuity that gives the new Harrys Singapore Chilli Crab in Potts Point a sense of history. Its been 41 years since Harry opened the first Harrys in Eastlakes in 1982, and 31 years since he moved it to Surry Hills. Sadly, he died in 2020 at the age of 79. Son-in-law Zhan took over the business, and recently moved Harrys to a site off Macleay Street that has been home to a swathe of restaurants since it was the Japanese Edosei in the 1990s.

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Go-to dish: Singapore chilli crab. Edwina Pickles Its a pleasant, no-nonsense two-roomed space, fringed by a broad cocktail bar lit by a display of Edison light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. With a stack of eight plastic seafood tubs from the Sydney Fish Market piled up against the picture window, the message is clear. Its all about the crab, and anything else is incidental. Anything else includes Singapore Sling cocktails, dumplings, crab meat fried rice, Peking duck, salt and pepper calamari, XO oysters with noodles, and live lobster with ginger and shallot. But back to the live Queensland mud crab, available in 14 different ways, from the famous Singapore chilli sauce to black bean, typhoon shelter or salted egg. The price, says Zhan, fluctuates according to market prices. Tonight its $168 a kilogram, and the crab he pulls from the tubs is just under 1 kilogram for two people ($160). Chef Jacky Huang has been cooking mud crab for Harrys for 25 years. Longevity counts for little, of course, if youve been doing it wrong all that time, but I suspect he has it down pat. All chilli crab recipes owe their life to Madame Cher Yam Tians Singapore original, with its dried chillies, soy, garlic, ginger, stock, tomato ketchup and beaten egg. Huangs version adds three different paprikas.

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Tension builds as the waiter drops a bundle of white paper serviettes on the table. Next, a bowl of warm water. I fill in time with a glass of the S.C. Pannell Arido rose ($16), in which mourvedre, grenache and touriga nacional blend into strawberries and roses. Then it lands, the shells submerged in the familiar thick, chilli-red sauce flecked with egg. Good chilli crab is a crazy assault on your tastebuds as well as your tablecloth. You have to pick up the too-hot-to-handle cracked crab claws, and tease and suck and pull out the sweet white flesh. Luckily, the shells are expertly cracked to make access easier, and the luridly red, richly sweet sauce is memorable for its warm kick of chilli and hint of vinegar. Then its time to mop up with crisp, fluffy little mantou buns (six for $12). Its full-on, and a barrel load of fun. Salt and pepper calamari. Edwina Pickles Along with the buns, and maybe some fragrant rice ($5), the crab is what youre here for. If you dont do the crab, then youll probably do OK, but it may not be memorable. Prawn spring rolls (four for $16.80) are the most successful starter. The har gau dumplings (four for $17) I try are well-formed but bland, and mixed vegetables ($24) are mostly snow peas and broccoli. A generous bowl of slow-cooked and caramelised pork belly ($35) lolling about in sweet soy juices is fine, without being hallelujah. And its not the sort of place that does fancy desserts, although there is home-made fried ice-cream available.

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All of which goes to show the folly of dining at Harrys Singapore Chilli Crab and not ordering Harrys Singapore chilli crab. The low-down Harrys Singapore Chilli Crab Vibe: Bibs and napkins, sticky fingers, general hullabaloo Go-to dish: Singapore chilli crab, market price Drinks: Tiger beer and a decent, good-value wine list heavy on whites

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Some residents and councillors in Melbourne are pushing back against recent security measures to combat disruptions at council meetings, such as a ticketing system for attending, as locals say they are being locked out of public discussions.

At a meeting on Tuesday, Hobsons Bay councillor Daria Kellander will put forward a motion for a report to be made on how to introduce a regular public meeting or forum where residents can ask live and unscripted questions of the mayor, councillors and council officers.

Brimbank councillor Maria Kerr (left) and Hobsons Bay councillor Daria Kellander have moved similar motions. Credit: Luis Ascui

Kellander said a similar motion had been passed by other councils, such as Brimbank and Stonnington, as local governments across the state tighten security measures after disruptions to meetings by fringe conspiracy groups.

Residents tell me they are feeling locked out of meetings because of these new rules, Kellander said. I want residents to be a part of the conversation and ask questions and to actually speak using their own voices to council.
Singapore: The second son of King Maha Vajiralongkorn has reportedly returned to Thailand after more than a quarter of a century in exile in the United States, sparking feverish speculation about the potential implications for royal succession and the all-powerful role of the monarchy in the South-East Asian nation.

Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse, 42, has lived abroad since the mid-1990s, when, at the age of 14, he and his siblings were banished with their mother, Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, in the fallout of her divorce from the then crown prince, Vajiralongkorn.

Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse, the second son of Thailands King Maha Vajiralongkorn, has been a lawyer in the US. Credit: Facebook

With his royal title downgraded and his diplomatic passport revoked, he grew up abroad and has since forged a career as a lawyer in New York, unable to return home.

After decades away, however, vision emerged of Vacharaesorn arriving at Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday night  the first time he or his exiled mother and three brothers have set foot in Thailand since 1996.
UAE-headquartered Hardington Residential has signed an exclusive contract with Barratt London, part of the UKs largest housebuilder Barratt Group, to market the companys latest London developments to the investors in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

The new partnership, a first of its kind for Barratt London in the region, will capitalise on Hardington Residentials combined 75 years of real estate expertise, 25 of which are in the Mena region.

With over ten projects in various locations across London and at differing stages of completion, Hardington Residential will be responsible for selling one of the largest London portfolios of properties to investors from the region, it stated.

Stuart Leslie, International Sales and Marketing Director at Barratt London, said: "Hardington Residentials acute understanding of the makeup of Middle East real estate investors characteristics regarding the London property market was a significant factor in selecting the company as our regional partner."

"With an extensive portfolio of residential developments in strategic locations across the Capital, which are underpinned by substantial capital appreciation and annual yields, were confident the team at Hardington Residential will provide an invaluable link to key investors from the Middle East region," he noted.

As a leading international real estate consultancy, Hardington Residential provide professional advisory, brokerage and asset management insights in multiple regions.

As part of the companys offering, they provide investors with various services, including strategic consulting, market intelligence, feasibility studies, sales and marketing expertise, property valuation, residency and citizenship by investment planning and property-related legal advice.

The team, which is led by Managing Director Ian Plumley, has a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the buying patterns of real estate investors from the Middle East region and, according to Plumley, London, now more than ever, is proving to be a popular location for Arab real estate investors as well as European and UK ex-pats.

Research conducted last year by Barratt London, in conjunction with Rightmove, the UKs largest online real estate portal and website, revealed a growing demand from Middle Eastern investors for more affordable, high-quality homes in Londons outer zones.

These areas, often called 'Cinderella' locations, are characterised by ongoing regeneration efforts and are yet to experience the levels of growth seen in prime London locations.

As such, investors can purchase property at lower prices initially while still having the potential for significant capital gains in the future.

"The key motives for GCC buyers are firstly from an investment perspective, followed by personal use, especially those from the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. We are seeing a growing appetite from the latter two, plus Egyptian buyers, looking for investment-geared products in outer London areas as they look to generate more robust yields and higher ROIs," said Plumley.

"Locations south of the river, such as Battersea, Wandsworth and Bermondsey, and locations north of Hyde Park, including Wembley, Hendon, and Harrow, are proving popular for both those looking for long-term investment opportunities into off-plan regenerations schemes and from a personal usage perspective," he added.

The team from Hardington will be in the UK from August 15 -16 as part of a Barratt London roadshow, where they will be showcasing a range of the companys latest developments to specially invited guests from the Middle East to cater to investor demand over the summer, the event will take place at the Jumeirah Carlton Towers.

Barratt London is a market-leading residential developer with over 40 years experience in the Capital, delivering up to 2,000 units each year.-TradeArabia News Service
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The first voyage of the Shusha Aframax-type tanker, acquired by the SA Maritime Afezco joint venture, established on a parity basis with the consent of the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO) CJSC and the Supervisory Board and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), was held, Trend reports.

On July 29, the tanker was filled with crude oil in the Libyan port of Sidra and set sail towards the Italian port of Augusta, operated by ASCO Ship Management AFESCO (a subsidiary of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company CJSC).

The Aframax tanker's first voyage was completed successfully, and the cargo was safely unloaded from the vessel at the target port.

Furthermore, the overall carrying capacity (deadweight) of three Aframax tankers acquired by the SA Maritime AFEZCO joint venture is around 115,000 tons. They will sail in Caspian waters under the flag of Azerbaijan.

The acquisition of Aframax tankers became possible thanks to the direct support and attention of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. These vessels are named after the historical lands of Azerbaijan, which are important for the Azerbaijani people, in accordance with the recommendations and instructions of the president.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Turkiye is the only country that can ensure the renewal of the agreement on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the opening ceremony of the 14th Ambassadors' Conference in Ankara, Trend reports.

Fidan stressed that contacts with all sides will continue in connection with the restoration of the grain deal, which is important for peace during the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia terminated the grain deal on July 17.

Moreover, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed in Ankara in July 2022 between Turkiye, Russia, Ukraine and the UN due to the inability of Ukrainian grain ships to pass through the ports of the Black Sea as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine. As part of the agreement, about 33 million tons of grain have been transported by more than 1,000 vessels since August 1, 2022.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Visa is ready to share its expertise in the field of digital currencies with the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Vice President and Regional Manager of Visa in Central Asia and Azerbaijan Crisitna Doros told Trend in an interview.

Visa and the CBA, she claims, are engaging in an open and constructive debate to develop appropriate formats of contact and cooperation.

She mentioned that several countries' governments and central banks are working on developing a national digital currency. They are working together to discover and build a suitable infrastructure for digital money, as well as to comprehend the directions of their application.

"Now, central banks from various countries are working to answer critical questions, such as what the solution's infrastructure and architecture should be, and how it will be used." How will the issuer engage with commercial banks as the CBA? "As Visa, we are eager to share our experience and are open to dialogue," she continued.

The CBA, in cooperation with international think tanks, financial organizations, and banks, is working on the development of a national digital currency. The bank is actively monitoring the role of digital currency in monetary policy and transmission.

In the field of digital currency development, the CBA is working with the International Monetary Fund. Step-by-step work is underway to form the concept of this currency, as well as research to assess possible risks.
From meat pies to fish and chips and even some chocolate, we Kiwis have a large lineup of food we claim as our own. Apparently, though, we dont all eat them the same way and not to judge, but a few of these are very controversial!
Dialogue, diplomacy only way forward for peaceful solution to Ukraine conflict





NEW DELHI :

Respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity must by all states without exception: NSA Doval at a conference in Jeddah

DIALOGUE and diplomacy is the only way forward for a peaceful and enduring solution to the Ukraine conflict, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said at a conference in Jeddah on the crisis, asserting that sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected by all states without exception. The two-day meeting hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to find ways to end the war in Ukraine was attended by top security officials of around 40 countries including US NSA Jake Sullivan and Chinas Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui. Interestingly Russia was not invited to the deliberations.

In his address on Saturday, Doval said India will remain an active and willing partner to find a lasting and comprehensive solution to the conflict and that nothing will give New Delhi more happiness and satisfaction than such an outcome. Doval also said that all peace efforts involving all stakeholders must be pursued to find a just and enduring solution and that it is in this spirit that India participated in the meeting in Jeddah, people aware of the deliberations at the conference which concluded on Sunday said. Referring to the impact of the conflict, he said the whole world, especially the Global South is bearing the brunt of the situation. India has regularly engaged both Russia and Ukraine at the highest levels since the beginning of the conflict and New Delhi supports a global order based on principles enshrined in UN Charter and international law, he said.

The NSA especially emphasised that sovereignty and territorial integrity must be upheld by all states without exception, the people cited above said. He said New Delhis approach has been and always will be to promote dialogue and diplomacy, adding this is the only way forward for peace. On the meeting confronting a two-fold challenge that is the resolution of the situation and softening its consequences, Doval said efforts must be directed on both fronts simultaneously and much more groundwork is needed to ensure this.
Freedom, flexibility, choice to students is spirit of NEP





Business Bureau

Dr Manish Joshi, Secretary, University Grant Commission (UGC) while interacting with the faculty members at Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management (RCOEM), Nagpur on Saturday said that freedom, flexibility and choice to the students in sync with the aspirations of the young ones is the ultimate spirit of NEP.

Dr Joshi interacted with the faculty members about his thought on the uniqueness of RCOEM. He stressed that teaching is a profession which transforms the lives of human beings and thus asked the faculty members to share their experiences of such transformations.

He emphasized on breaking the barrier of language and thus to allow students to write examination in the local language. He said that UGC has translated books in twelve different languages which can be used for the same. He advised teachers to focus on experiential learning, changing the traditional system and initiative to bring innovative ways of teaching and using technology for the benefit of the students. He interacted with students also and encouraged them to be job creator and contribute towards the employment generation. He concluded his interaction by expressing the need to transform way of dealing with the students.
34 railway stations to be re-developed in Madhya Pradesh





Staff Reporter

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the renovation and development works of 34 railway stations in Madhya Pradesh, which is part of an initiative Amrit Bharat Station Scheme where 508 railway stations across the country will get a new look. In the State, stations will be developed with the budget of Rs 1,000 crores. On the historic occasion of inaugurating Amrit Bharat Station Yojana was virtually attended by Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Mangu Bhai Patel, Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Cabinet Ministers, other public representatives, freedom fighters, Padam Ward recipients, West Central Railway, General Manager, Sudhir Kumar Gupta, Additional GM, RS Saxena and a large numbers of residents and students at Sant Hirdaram Nagar Railway Station, Bairagarh.

Similarly, senior public representatives, railway officers and residents witnessed the virtual inaugural ceremony in a programme organized at Sihora railway station. Addressing the programme, Member of Parliament and Chief Whip of BJP in Lok Sabha, Rakesh Singh expressed his gratitude towards Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Rail Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw for overall development of railway sector through Amrit Bharat Station Yojana and termed the scheme as starting of golden era of Indian Railways. He informed that the scheme will ensure overall development of railway stations and providing world class amenities to the passengers. The scheme is the result of visionary approach and foresightedness of PM, Narendra Modi.
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Congress govt neglected development of rail infrastructure in MP: CM Chouhan





Vidisha,

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday said the previous Congress government neglected the development of railway infrastructure in the state by allotting meagre funds for it. The rail, road and air networks have grown by leaps and bounds under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the country, he said. Chouhan was addressing a function at Vidisha station in Madhya Pradesh. It was part of the foundation stone laying for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country by PM Modi via video conferencing. These railway stations include 34 in MP, to be redeveloped at a cost Rs 982 crore, as per officials. The previous Congress government gave just Rs 632 crore in five years for railway infrastructure in MP, whereas the government of Prime Minister Modi has given Rs 13,607 crore to the state for railway network development and expansion in the same period, 21 per cent higher than what the Congress government gave, Chouhan said.

The previous Congress government neglected the state, he said. Chouhan said the rail, road and air networks have grown by leaps and bounds under the leadership of PM Modi in the country. He said 2,000-km of roads have been laid in Vidisha district alone. Before 2014, India neither commanded much respect nor that much attention at the global level, but since the government led by PM Modi came to power, the countrys stature has grown in the world, the chief minister said. Everywhere, Modiji is being lauded. He is leading the world in some spheres, he added. Chouhan watched on a TV set PM Modis event of laying the foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country via video conferencing.

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, according to the Prime Ministers Office. Besides 15 of the stations are in Haryana and 13 in Karnataka. The redevelopment, which will cost Rs 24,470 crore, will provide modern passenger amenities along with ensuring well designed traffic circulation, inter-modal integration and well designed signage for guidance of passengers, the PMO had said in a statement, adding the design of station buildings will be inspired by local culture, heritage and architecture. Noting that Modi has often laid stress on provision of state-of-the-art public transport and that railways is the preferred mode of transport of people, the PMO said he has prioritised the importance of providing world-class amenities at railway stations.
Country roaring Quit India for corruption, dynasty, appeasement: PM





NEW DELHI :

Lays foundation stone for redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country via video conferencing

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Opposition of playing negative politics and said now the entire country is rooting for corruption, dynasty and appeasement to Quit India. Addressing an event after laying the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country via video conferencing, he alleged a section of the Opposition is driven by the principle of neither working nor letting others work. Today the whole country is roaring Quit India for every evil, corruption, dynasty and appeasement, he said. Unfortunately in our country, there is a part of the Opposition who even today wont do anything themselves and wont allow others to do anything either. They are stuck with this attitude. So, concerned about the countrys present and the future a modern Parliament building was built, the symbol of democracy which has representation of both the Government and the Opposition. They even opposed that. We developed Kartavya Path and they opposed that as well, he said. The PM then went on to refer to the Statue of Unity of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel which is the biggest statue in the world. He said that while all Indians feel proud of it, a few Opposition party leaders have gone to there to pay homage. But some parties remember Indias first Home Minister only during polls, he alleged.

In 70 years, they did not construct a war memorial for martyrs but when we built one they did not even feel ashamed of criticising it publicly, he said. Modi on Sunday asserted that his Government has changed the perception that the tax paid by citizens is squandered in corruption and said the 16 per cent increase in the number of people filing Income Tax returns this year shows the growth of trust in the dispensation. Addressing an event at which he laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country via video conferencing, Modi said that people used to think for a long time that the taxes that they pay amount to nothing and their hard-earned money is squandered in corruption. But our Government has changed that thinking, people today feel that their money is being used for nation-building, Modi said. He said facilities are increasing and so is the Ease of Living.

Day and night work is going on to ensure that the problems you faced are not faced by your children, the Prime Minister stressed. Away from the negative politics, we have taken the task of nations development as a mission and given it the top priority without caring for vote bank and party politics, he said. At present, the Prime Minister said, the Central Government is also running a campaign to provide jobs to 10 lakh youth through Rozgar Mela. This is the picture of a changing India where development is giving way to new opportunities for the youth, and the youth are giving new wings to the development of the country, he added. Referring to the Quit India Movement anniversary on August 9, the Prime Minister said it was a historic day that created new energy in Indias struggle for Independence. Inspired by the Quit India Movement, the entire country is now roaring Quit India for every evil, saying corruption, quit India, dynasty, quit India, appeasement, quit India, Modi said.
Nayab Tehsildar to get status of Gazetted Officer, announces CM





Staff Reporter

RAIPUR,

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel attended the state-level convention of the State Junior Administrative Services Association organised in the State Capital on Sunday. The event was held with a focus on the revenue departments contribution to agriculture and farmers development. Addressing the programme, the Chief Minister announced that Nayab Tehsildar would be given the status of gazetted officer. He also released a souvenir titled Bhuiyan Ke Mitan in the programme. Addressing the issue of promotion as demanded by the Junior Administrative Services Association, the Chief Minister guaranteed to provide timely promotions to eligible officers. Praising the efforts of junior administrative service officers and employees, the Chief Minister highlighted their diverse responsibilities in contributing to the administration. He acknowledged Chhattisgarhs commendable work during the COVID-19 disaster, earning widespread recognition across the country for the revenue officers significant role in assisting the people.

Praising the Junior Administrative Services officers and employees, the Chief Minister shared the remarkable achievement of the state government in allocating 1.5 lakh acres of land for Gothans across the state without any complaints. He commended the officers and employees dedication, which enabled the issuance of caste certificates, nomination certificates, and partition certificates to residents in the remote Sukma district and delivered these certificates to their homes.

Revenue Minister Jaisingh Agrawal shared that the Chief Minister fulfilled the demand for new tehsils and subdivisions as requested by local residents. The establishment of new districts aims to enhance the publics convenience and improve the state governments accessibility to the people. Addressing the people present at the event, Advisor to Chief Minister Pradeep Sharma emphasised the unique significance of the Tehsildar post, recognised by the same name not only in India, but also in neighbouring countries. He stressed the immense responsibility associated with the position and urged the people present to fulfil the responsibilities diligently and effectively. State President of the Junior Administrative Service Association Krishna Kumar Lahare, Secretary Vikrant Singh Rathore, Spokesperson Shashibhushan Soni, Tehsildars and Nayab Tehsildars from all over State were present.
Nine stations under SECR to be redeveloped





Our Correspondent

BILASPUR,

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi launched the foundation stone laying ceremony for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across India through a video conference. This initiative, known as the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, underscores Modis commitment to modernising public transport infrastructure. Chhattisgarh is a vital participant in this endeavor, witnessing notable upgrades in its railway stations. The scheme includes nine stations within the South East Central Railway (SECR) network: Bilaspur, Akaltara, Raipur, Durg, Bhilai Power House, Tilda-Neora, Gondia, Wadsa and Chandafort.

Upon completion, these stations will offer facilities comparable to airports, expanding beyond basic amenities. Bilaspur, Raipur, and Durg stations will evolve into attractive hubs with advanced passenger amenities. The scheme is anticipated to generate local employment opportunities alongside increased passenger traffic. The redevelopment strategy encompasses more than infrastructure enhancements. The City Centres concept ensures integration with both sides of the city, aligning with urban development focused around railway stations. Chhattisgarh plays a substantial role in the schemes first phase, with seven stations involved. The scheme emphasizes traffic circulation, inter-modal integration, signage, and modern amenities. Station designs will draw inspiration from local culture, heritage, and architecture. The comprehensive redevelopment of stations like Akaltara, TildaNeora, Bhilai Power House, Gondia, Wadsa, and Chanda Fort includes improved car parking facilities. The scheme aims to enhance the overall travel experience, revitalising stations and infrastructure. The 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme' envisions phased development with amenities such as access, waiting areas, toilets, Wi-Fi, and more. It prioritizes multimodal integration, accessibility, sustainability, efficient track systems, and long-term feasibility. Environmental considerations are integrated, with modern sewage treatment plants for waste management. Aesthetic improvements and landscaping create pleasing environments.

Travellers can expect better seating, improved water facilities, lighting, and ventilation. Modernised boards and signage aid navigation, ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities. The initiative transforms the South East Central Railway, aligning with Modi's vision of vibrant, well-connected stations that cater to local communities. At a ceremony in Bilaspur Railway Station, Arun Sao, State President of the BJP, hailed the leadership of Modi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, expressing gratitude on behalf of Chhattisgarh. Sao praised Modi's vision to elevate India's global standing and transform the nation. He paid tribute to Atal Behari Vajpayee's contributions, including the establishment of Chhattisgarh state and key institutions. Divisional Railway Manager Praveen Pandey discussed the redevelopment of 17 stations in the Bilaspur Division. The event was attended by various officials and dignitaries.
You are now at right place after long time: Amit Shah tells Ajit Pawar





PUNE,

UNION Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday shared the dais with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at an event in Pune and said the latter is now at the right place after a long time, but came very late. Shahs statement comes more than a month after Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, joined the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government led by Eknath Shinde along with eight party MLAs on July 2. This is my first public programme with Ajit Pawar. I want to tell him that he is now sitting at the right place after a long time. This was always the right place for you, but you came to sit here very late, Shah said.

Shah was speaking after launching the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office. CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were also present at the event. Speaking at the same event, Pawar praised Shah for bringing positive changes in the countrys cooperative sector. Amit Shah on Sunday hailed the strength of the cooperative movement in Maharashtra as he launched the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office here. He also said there should not be a single sugar mill in Maharashtra that is not producing ethanol. Speaking on the occasion, Shah said 95 per cent of the work of creating the national cooperative database has been completed. He said the Centre will come up with a New Cooperative Policy.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, August 7. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will increase its investment portfolio in Tajikistan up to 3 percent of the total investment portfolio of the bank by this year-end, Denis Ilin, Vice Chairman of the EDB Management Board, said, Trend reports.

The announcement was made during his meeting with Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan, Zavki Zavkizoda, on July 25, where the sides discussed expanding cooperation between Tajikistan and the EDB.

At the meeting, the sides also explored opportunities for attracting preferential funds, identified new priority projects aligned with the country's development goals, and discussed prospects for medium-term cooperation.

Earlier it was reported, that the bank plans to provide $650 million in funding for priority projects in Tajikistan between 2023 and 2026,

As of today, the EDB and its structures have implemented 13 investment projects in Tajikistan, with a total value of $266.4 million.

This includes seven grant and concessional projects from the Eurasian Fund for Stability and Development amounting to $215 million and six projects financed directly by the bank, totaling $51.4 million. These projects span various sectors of Tajikistan's economy and have contributed to its development.
Mountain Tales: First-hand stories of life in Tehachapi

The species of fence lizard found in the Tehachapi Mountains is the Great Basin Fence Lizard.

The Tehachapi Mountains are known to include floral and faunal representatives of multiple significant ecological zones, including the Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, Central Valley and South Coast. There are also multiple connections to another major ecological zone: the Great Basin.

For example, the subspecies of Western Fence Lizard found in the Tehachapi Mountains is the Great Basin Fence Lizard (Sceleporous occidentalis longipes). The subspecies of Tiger Whiptail found locally is the Great Basin Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris tigris). And while these are uncommon except for where the Tehachapis meet the Mojave Desert floor, the collared lizards in our area are Great Basin Collared Lizards (Crotaphytus bicinctores).

Some snakes also reveal Great Basin affiliation, for example our common and widespread Gophersnake is the Great Basin Gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola), along with possible intergrades with an adjacent subspecies.

In addition to the herpetofauna, there are many Great Basin plants found in the Tehachapis, including large stands of Great Basin Sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) and colonies of Antelope Bitterbrush (Purshia glandulosa). The Nuwa (Kawaiisu or Southern Paiute) name for Cameron Canyon is hunavida, meaning "Place of Antelope Bitterbrush."

The pinyon/juniper woodlands found in many higher elevations of the Great Basin are also well-represented in the eastern parts of the Tehachapis.

The Tehachapi Mountains also have prehistoric cultural affiliations with the Great Basin. The Native Americans that occupied the Tehachapi Mountains for more than 10,000 years self-identify as Nuwa or Southern Paiute, while they are typically referred to in archeological and anthropological literature as Kawaiisu.

These people exhibited cultural practices representing two major lifeways: California Culture and Great Basin Culture. Tribes in California Culture typically made domed houses framed with willow and thatched with tules or other plant materials, and relied heavily on acorns as a food staple. The Nuwa did incorporate these practices.

The species of gophersnake found in our area is the Great Basin Gophersnake.

Great Basin Culture tribes tended to make homes that were more conical or tipi-like, with a framework of juniper poles or willow covered with cedar bark, sagebrush, etc. They also relied more on pinyon pine nuts for food, since oak trees and acorns are absent in many Great Basin locations, and made rabbitskin blankets to keep warm. The Nuwa also followed these cultural practices, and in some respects show stronger affiliations with Great Basin Culture than California Culture.

The Tehachapi Mountains are a place of genuine convergence, where different ecological zones meet and overlap. Along with frequently cited Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, Central Valley and South Coast ecological regions, a fifth one should be remembered: the Great Basin.
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Moderate Buy from the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eighteen have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $144.92.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of EOG Resources in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of EOG Resources from $141.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of EOG Resources from $128.00 to $125.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of EOG Resources from $152.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of EOG Resources from a neutral rating to a buy rating and reduced their target price for the company from $150.00 to $146.00 in a research report on Friday, May 19th.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Jeffrey R. Leitzell sold 2,031 shares of the businesss 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 37,607 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,409,796.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other EOG Resources news, EVP Jeffrey R. Leitzell sold 2,031 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.26, for a total value of $238,155.06. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 37,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,409,796.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Lloyd W. Helms, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of EOG Resources stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.87, for a total transaction of $579,350.00. Following 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. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

EOG Resources Trading Down 1.4 %

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its stake in EOG Resources by 100,317.5% in the second 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 during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,005,328 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of EOG Resources by 12.4% in 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 buying an additional 2,977,408 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in 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 valued at $1,661,238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,222,209 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in 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 valued at $1,352,283,000 after purchasing an additional 262,445 shares during the period. 89.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of EOG opened at $129.80 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $117.87. EOG Resources has a 1 year low of $97.39 and a 1 year high of $150.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 2.02. The firm has a market cap of $75.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.55.

EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The energy exploration company reported $2.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.21. EOG Resources had a return on equity of 28.52% and a net margin of 33.58%. The business 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 company earned $2.74 earnings per share. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that EOG Resources will post 10.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EOG Resources Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 17th will be paid a $0.825 dividend. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 16th. EOG Resourcess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.24%.

EOG Resources Company Profile

(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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BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. The trade turnover between Turkmenistan and France from January through February 2023 amounted to over 28.91 million euros, the source at Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, told Trend.

These figures in the reporting period are 3.1 times more than in the first four months of last year (9.27 million euros).

Turkmen exports to France amounted to almost 3.29 million euros from January through April 2023, which is 2.4 times more than in the same months of 2022 (1.34 million euros).

Turkmenistan increased imports from France in the first four months of this year by more than 3.2 times compared to the same period in 2022 (7.93 million euros) - up to 25.62 million euros.

Meanwhile, the trade turnover between Turkmenistan and France in 2022 amounted to 40.67 million euros, which is 6.75 percent more than in 2021 (38.1 million euros).

Furthermore, the overall trade turnover between Turkmenistan and the EU countries during the first four months of 2023 amounted to over 345.67 million euros, indicating a growth of 10.4 percent compared to the same period in 2022 when it was 312.88 million euros.
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Professor Raphael Nyarkotey Obu, a professor of Naturopathy and who is currently an aspiring Barrister at Law at the Gambia Law School, Banjul, the Gambia, held a meeting with the the Gambia Health Minister, Dr.Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, to discuss the states of affairs of traditional and alternative medicine in the Gambia and the need for legislation.

Professor Nyarkotey argued that a profession that is not regulated pose danger to public health. hence, there is the need for legislation and regulations of the practitioners in the Gambia.

Professor Nyarkotey who is helping the national traditional healers in the Gambia as an aspiring Barrister at Law to help standardized their profession recently published a book on regulations of traditional and alternative medicine in the Gambia.

The minister admonishes the work of Prof. Nyarkotey in the Gambia as an aspiring Barrister at law at the Gambia Law school and encouraged him to continue rendering his support to the practitioners. He also praised his writing prowess in educating the public and creating awareness of evidence based natural remedies.

The Minister further challenges the department of traditional medicine at the ministry of Health to work hard to get the legal framework on traditional medicine passed especially when the profession has someone like Prof. Nyarkotey who is a practitioner with a legal background in the country.

Prof. Nyarkotey was also accompanied by two of his colleagues at the Gambia Law school, the project manager of the national traditional medicine program at the Ministry of Health and the President of the Traditional healers assembly, Mr. Saliue Puye.
The glory of man is the recognition of his strength, but the glory of God is

the right usage of his name. However, if the events characterized ones strength

are stolen from one, what shall be his pride? This is the position of the black

race in the light of history. J. B. Mbiti noted, Black Africa was the mother

of civilization and black intellectuals everyone owe it as a duty to mother

Africa to carry out a research for new Values, new identities and a new

self-consciousness.

There is no doubt that the pride and glory of mother Africa is reflected in different ways by unbiased writers. Mother Africa, the cradles of world civilization is the pivot and pioneer of various knowledge, science, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, medicine, engineering, philosophy, religion and esotericism. African scholars will lack no material if they truly want to showcase the rich heritage of our mother continent to the academic world.

Indeed a war of the brain translated into the activity of the pen, can do much to

salvage the damage already done to the image of the Blackman.

Under the sway of packaging the black race to the world as the never do well

continent, came the European anthropologists and historians distorted views. In

doing this, they presented Africa to the entire world as a continent of

apolitical, ahistorical and aphilosophical in origin. Indeed there arose what I

regard as a collective conspiracy by the western writers as a result, they gave

no credit to any system of thought that is of African origin. The superiority

complex which the westerners thought they inheritated from the gods made it very difficult for them to believe that Africans have brain and can reason.

The African way of reasoning was considered illogical. What an aberration!

This experience is still poignant in our minds. They forgot that some Greek

philosophers believe that their great thinkers like Socrates, Aristotle, Plato

and the rest of them copied their wisdom from ancient Egypt. There was this

Greek injunction I read while in school, the injunction goes thus, young men

go South of Greek for learning and wisdom. It is of note that when Alexander the great conquered Egypt, his friend Aristotle the then Greek philosopher gained access to the Egyptian Royal Library and the black Africans that were occupying Egypt by then ran towards southwards.

The Negroes dont believe in the mentality of the white men concerning bringing civilization to Africa hence they target it the stolen legacy. The white for a long time have rewritten history to suit their ignoble intentions, which is why we talk of stolen legacy. You can recall that during the invasion of Alexandra the great, they had access to the royal library and thus made away with some valuable books, the ones they did not destroy and burnt were stolen. History is very clear that the first University of the world was built in Egypt. The world greatest and mysterious pyramid is found in Giza Egypt. It is evident hitherto, that the continent of Africa introduced the first technology to the world, for instance some images of flying Helicopters and Aaroplanes were found on the ceiling beams of a 3000 year old kingdom temple that is located hundred of miles south of cairo and the Giza Plateau at Abydo Egypt. It is evident through advanced archaeological discoveries that some photographed images, we see many craft that look like our modern day flying machines.

However, Egyptologists and some pyramidiologists are of the view that Egyptians were traveling through flying machines to India within 3000 B.C. Again this recondite fact is attested to by different books in the hidden achieves. Egypt as the cradle of civilization may have given rise to the reason why the oldest fossil was found in Africa in accordance with history as it was, the said fossil according to archaeological discovery is dated seven million years, which to all extent attest to the profound fact that life originated in Africa.

But the collective conspiracy of the western world against the African

continent led to the reason why the black people are considered illogical in

their approach to life. It was Levy Bruhl, who regarded the attitude of the

primitives as pre-logical, and he further contradicted himself when

he categorically stated that, the logical structure of the human mind is the

same in all men. Yes, this same thinking was in the mind of Professor O.W

Jelfreys when he discredited the black race in his book, (The Negro Enigma), he

solely discredited the black continent as being in human and unable to produce

human culture and civil traits. With time however, an attempt shall soon be made to expose some celebrated European philosophers who in all sincerity cannot escape a charge of plagiarism and ingratitude to the great mother of the earth the African continent for the intellectual achievement that has not been

credited to her.

Africa was precipitated by the Edicts of Theodosius in the 4th century A.D

and that of Justinian in 6th century AD. Thus many universities, rich libraries

and rich intellectual treasures embedded in Egyptian mystery system were forced to close down as pagan institutions. This blow came with the wake and spread of Christianity in parts of Europe and Africa. In furtherance to this ignoble practices of systematic destruction of African civilization, the Moors from Mauritania invaded Spain and took with them Egyptian cultural artifacts which they had kept. The Moors were warriors in those days when they occupied Spain in 8th century A.D they displayed the African cultural heritage, learning and civilization which the Europeans used as an advantage. There was a centralized way of learning in those days. It belong to a common parent and system known as the wisdom teaching or mysteries of Egypt which the Greek used to call Sophia.

It is to our credit that most of the so called philosophical works of

Aristotle, Pythagoras, Plato etc had their source in Africa. Even the Delphic

Temple in Greece, which was destroyed by Greeks as a foreign institution was

rebuilt by king Amasis of Egypt by contributing three times as much as its cost.

In fact, the Delphic Temple was a branch of Egyptian mystery projected in Greece. So many Greek philosophers and other aspirants did go to Egypt for initiation into different secret ways of life for which Egypt was advanced as well.

Diagenes and Herodutus informed us that Pythagoras traveled to Egypt and was

initiated, and in the process he learnt the properties of the right angled

triangle, music and science of numbers. During the reign of Amasis, Thales the

Greek great Philosopher of Miletus who propounded the idea of all things having its origin from the water, visited Egypt and was consequently initiated into the secret order by the Egyptian priests. History as it was, reveals that Thales (in Black Wealth) learnt Astronomy, land-survey, Engineering and Theology while in Egypt.

So many Greek gods are of Egyptian origin. In fact it is contained in the

history that eleven out of twelve Greek gods together with the divinations

attending them were of Egyptian origin. What a shame! The Africans should arise and fight this battle of recovery for victory in all aspects is ours. No matter

what is said so far, the great question to mother Africa is, where is your

religion and your pride? Fellow Africans, we must all fight and regain our

pride.


The Acting Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has pledged to improve Customs community relations in Border Areas to facilitate the discharge of mandates of the Service.

The Customs boss said that the role of the border community is vital to help security agencies in the discharge of their duties as regards national security.

He made this known on Sunday during his courtesy visit to the Royal palaces of Oba John Olakunle Ojo, the Oniko of Iko Idiroko Kingdom, Oba Yisa Adeniyi Adelakun Olaniyan, the Onikpokia of Ikpokia Kingdom, as well as the palace of Oba Kehinde Adeboye Gbadewole Olugbenle, the paramount rulers of Yewa Kingdom.

Stating the purpose of his visit, the acting CGC solicited the support of border communities and their leaders, as it is paramount to the success of the service operations.

He said, Members of this community, like all other border communities in Nigeria, have a significant role in helping our Security Agencies in the discharge of their role as regards national security.

Idiroko is very strategic to our operations; all borders around Idiroko represent a strategic gateway to not just trade and economic development of Nigeria but also for National security management.

On their parts, the community leaders appreciated the Ag. CGC for his visit while raising concerns on issues affecting their livelihood.

CG Adeniyi, in response, charged them to channel their reactions appropriately to the government as the new administration would grant a listening ear while also soliciting their support.

I will request you, as a community, to continue to support the government. We have a new administration that has shown that it will listen to people, a new administration that has demonstrated that when policies are not working, we are ready to review it, he noted.

Because of that commitment, I want to charge members of this community to channel your reactions appropriately to government, and as a responsible government, I believe that they will listen to you and make amendments where necessary, he added.

The Customs Boss also noted that recruitment policies will be revisited to ensure that more people from the border communities get slots into Nigeria Customs Service.

One fair commitment will like to give to you is that we will do better in recruitment with people in border communities in the Nigeria Customs Service because we believe that they are stakeholders, and customs community relationship is stronger when you know that you have your sons and daughters in the Nigeria Customs Service, he revealed.

We are also not unmindful of the fact that where we have this kind of critical operations, we should also be talking about the kind of corporate social responsibility programs that we are going to be doing in places like this, he added.

The CGC also visited the Ogun I Area Command at Idiroko, where he was received by the Area Controller, Comptroller Bamidele Makinde, representatives of Sister Agencies and the Republic of Benin Customs Administration as well as stakeholders.

He reiterated the need for all Agencies to remain focused and committed towards the ideal of national and regional security.

For us in Customs and indeed all other members of the Security Agencies, our task in this part of the country is critical. We have a collective mandate to ensure and enhance national security, he said.

We see every criminal as an enemy of the state first and foremost before you begin to talk about our mandate of smuggling, human and drug trafficking, and all of that, he emphasized.

The Visit is in continuation of his familiarization tour to Area Commands and Units in Zone 'A'.
Patong barber shop owner charged for illegally hiring foreigners

PHUKET: A 38-year-old woman in Patong is to be charged with illegally hiring foreigners at her barber shop after she was found with her second foreigner working illegally at her salon.

patongimmigrationpolice

By The Phuket News

Monday 7 August 2023 12:20 PM

Photo: Patong Police

Patong Police named the woman only as Ms Petladda, 38 years old (employer), following the arrest of an Egyptian man found working illegally cutting tourists hair at the Professional Barber Shop on the Patong beach road (Thaweewong Rd).

Patong Police reported the arrest yesterday (Aug 6).

The foreigner arrested was named as 38-year-old Egyptian national Mohamed Bassem. Seized as evidence were hair clippers, a hair dryer, one comb, a hair brush and a razor. Presented as evidence were photos of Bassem cutting a tourists hair.

Bassem now faces charges of working illegally and with staying in the Kingdom of Thailand after his permit to stay had expired (often called overstay), Patong Police reported.

Petladda faces a charge of admitting foreigners to work without a work permit, Patong Police noted.

Both Petladda and Bassem were taken to Patong Police Station for further legal action, said the Patong Police report.

The incident marked the second time Petladda had been caught illegally hiring foreigners as barbers. She was named by Patong Police as the owner of the Professional Barber Shop on Rat U-Thit 200 Pi Rd where police arrested a Jordanian national named by police only as Mr Osamh (alias) last month.

In that incident, Patong Police made no mention of any legal action against Petladda for illegally hiring foreigners for work.

Foreigners by law are prohibited from working in haircutting, hairdressing or beauty treatment as an occupation reserved for Thai nationals.

Of note, while Patong Police publicly posted photos of the two foreigners arrested in the two instances, no photos of Petladda have been posted.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, August 7. Iranian Qeshm Air plans to launch direct flights between Tehran and Uzbekistan's Tashkent, Trend reports.

The first regular passenger flight is scheduled for August 9th on the Tehran - Tashkent - Tehran route. The flights will be operated using Airbus A320 aircraft once a week - on Wednesdays.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, the airline announced the launch of regular flights between Tehran and Samarkand. The first flight along Tehran-Samarkand-Tehran route took place on June 21. The flights on this destination will be operated by Airbus A320 as well, once a week, on Wednesdays.

Qeshm Air is an Iranian airline headquartered in Tehran, founded in 1993. It operates regular domestic and international passenger flights, as well as charter flights
Spanish chef faces murder rap for Phangan dismemberment

SURAT THANI: The Koh Samui Provincial Court has approved a warrant for the arrest of a Spanish chef, suspected to have killed and dismembered the body of his Colombian surgeon lover in a hotel room on Koh Phangan island.

murdercrimedeathpolice

By Bangkok Post

Monday 7 August 2023 07:30 AM

Police and rescue workers search a rubbish dump where human remains, later confirmed to be from Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, were found on Koh Phangan on Thursday (Aug 3). Photo: Bangkok Post

Pol Lt Gen Surapong Thanomjit, the Provincial Police Region 8 commissioner, said yesterday (Aug 6) the court approval came after a DNA test of human parts found by rubbish collectors at a dump on the island on Thursday proved to have come from Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, 44, a Colombian national.

The men were believed to have been involved in a relationship for about one year, reports the Bangkok Post.

The Spanish suspect, Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 29, has been detained at Phangan station.

He has been charged with premeditated murder, concealing and removing body parts to cover up the death or the cause of death.

Pol Lt Gen Surapong said that after admitting to killing and dismembering the Colombian, the suspect appeared relaxed.

Provincial and tourist police had questioned the Spaniard and gathered evidence in the case.

Only the body parts which the suspect said had been dumped into the sea in a duffel bag had yet to be found. A search was continuing, he added.

In a statement given to police, the suspect claimed Arteaga came to his hotel room on Thursday and asked for sex.

The Spaniard became angry and hit him, causing Arteaga to fall and strike his head against the bathtub, causing his death.

However, Pol Lt Gen Surapong said investigators were not convinced by his statement and had learned that Mr Bronchalo asked Arteaga to come to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon party and that aside from their relationship turning sour, money and property might also be factors.

Pol Col Panya Nirattimanon, the Koh Phangan police chief, said the suspect is the son of the Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre and actress Silvia Bronchalo.

His father was shocked on learning that his son had become a murder suspect and is travelling to the country to see his son.
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Wandering tsunami buoy recovered

PHUKET: The tsunami warning buoy that had drifted from its installed location some 340 kilometres northwest of Phuket in the Andaman Sea has been recovered and brought back to the mainland for inspection.

disastersSafety

By The Phuket News

Monday 7 August 2023 05:37 PM

The buoy, Station 23461, ceased transmitting data on July 31. By last Thursday (Aug 3), Chaowalit Nitharat, Director of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Region 18 office, based in Phuket, announced that efforts were underway to recover the buoy.

At that time, the buoy was reported to be some 44km from its original position, and was floating in the sea some 198km north of the Surin Islands, Mr Chaowalit said.

The DDPM has now reported that the Royal Thai Navy offshore patrol vessel HTMS Prachuap Khiri Khan departed the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command base in Phang Nga at 8:30am yesterday (Aug 6) to recover the buoy.

By 2:20pm yesterday the HTMS Prachuap Khiri Khan had located the buoy about 30km northwest of the Surin Islands.

The tsunami warning buoy has been recovered, and the HTMS Prachuap Khiri Khan returned to the Phang Nga Naval Base at about 8am today.

The buoy will be kept at the Phang Nga Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office and inspected to determine how it had been dislodged from its mooring.

Among the list of reasons given by the DDPM as to why a tsunami warning buoy might cease transmitting data was that a buoy being displaced more than two kilometres from its installed location would break its tether to the bottom pressure recorder (BPR) on sea floor, thus rendering the buoy unable to record measurements of wave heights.

The DDPM assured that its officers were working on rectifying the problem and to have the tsunami warning redeployed in its original location as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the other tsunami warning buoy maintained and operated by the DDPM, Station 23401, located about 965km west of Phuket, remains functioning normally, the DDPM reported. Station 23401 forms part of a multinational tsunami detection network in the Bay of Bengal.
KIM implores

|

IMPHAL, Aug 7: Expres-sing dismay over the ince- ssant terming of the Kukis as foreigners or otherwise illegal immigrants allegedly by the State Government, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has implored the Central Govern-ment to put an end to this contention and clearly spell out whether they think the Kukis as foreigners in line with the narratives of the Meiteis or as true citizens of India.

The Central Government must answer now: pronounce us as foreigners or otherwise protect us as true citizens of the country, said a press release issued by KIM.


BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Iran continues to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding its nuclear program, Vice President of Iran and Chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, said, Trend reports.

"As a result of the cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the nuclear program and a number of steps taken by Iran, it was able to prevent propaganda against Iran," he said.

Eslami added that in order to prove that Iran's nuclear program has a peaceful purpose, the 20-year perspective document of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has been accepted and steps have been taken in this direction.

Reportedly, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has prepared a 20-year perspective document regarding its plans. Within this document, the AEOI defines future goals.

According to the mentioned perspective document, the construction of nuclear power plants with a capacity to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity annually is planned for the country. The NPPs will be located in Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Sistan, Baluchestan, Golestan, and Bushehr provinces.

The vice president noted that Iran currently has the capacity to enrich 50,000 SWU (Separative work units) of uranium. At present, 30,000 SWU of uranium are being enriched.

Eslami also pointed out that with the development of Iran's nuclear industry, steps are being taken to meet the country's needs in various fields, including medical, agriculture, and energy.

Iran states that it cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in only two frameworks: the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the safeguards rules.

In late 2020, the Iranian parliament decided to implement a strategic plan to tackle the sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran suspended the implementation of additional steps and an additional protocol provided for in the nuclear deal. As a result, the control mechanism of the IAEA decreased by 2030 percent. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, 1,000 units of IR2M centrifuges have been installed.

On May 8, 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 group (Russia, China, the UK, France, the US, and Germany) and imposed new sanctions against Iran as of November 2018.

Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports and more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals. The sanctions have resulted in the freezing of Iranian assets abroad.

In the discussions, Iran is mainly trying to achieve the abolition of sanctions imposed by the US and Western countries, the removal of its funds frozen abroad, and the abolition of the restriction on the export of crude oil. In return, the US and Western countries want Iran not to acquire an atomic bomb, to keep its nuclear program under control, and to reduce the level of uranium enrichment.

---

Follow the author on Twitter:@BaghishovElnur
With just a year left for the Lok Sabha elections, Bengal BJP has decided to overhaul its district-level organisational network in West Bengal. The state party president and MP, Sukanta Majumdar, had already indicated this earlier. During his recent visit to Delhi to meet the BJPs former national president and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, Mr Majumdar had mentioned: Organizational reshuffle is a continuous process in our party. Currently, it is happening at the Mandal level, and after that, it will be carried out at the district level. It may also extend to the state level.

On Sunday morning, Mr Majumdar announced a new organisational structure for the state unit of the BJP, which will undertake party activities for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state ahead of next years general elections. Right now, our party has 42 district organisation committees for the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. However, in the overhauled process, we might have two organisation district committees for one Parliamentary constituency, and in selected cases, two organisation district committees might be merged into one, informed a member of the partys state committee in West Bengal.

Currently, Darjeeling Lok Sabha is the only exception where a single Lok Sabha comes under two organisation district committees, namely Darjeeling (plains) and Darjeeling (hills). On the other hand, three Lok Sabha districts in Murshidabad district, namely Berhampore, Jangipur, and Murshidabad, are managed by two organisation district committees, namely Murshidabad (North) and Murshidabad (South), thus balancing the numbers of Lok Sabha seats and organisation district committees. The BJP leader pointed out that under the previous district organisation committee system, the BJP managed to increase its tally to 18 in 2019 from just two in 2014.

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This year, the central leadership has set a target for the state committee to double the figure to 36. The state committee is in agreement with the central leadership; going somewhere near to the target will not be possible unless the district-level organization is strengthened. So we have decided to overhaul the organisation district committees, the state committee member said. Although refusing to spell out the exact parameters of such overhaul, the party leader said that probably the member base under each organisation district committee and the performance of the committee concerned might be the deciding factors for overhauling.

The final blueprint for such overhauling will be prepared by this month, and once the process is completed, the overhauled organisation district committees will be given their respective assignments, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he said. One major assignment for the overhauled committees will be to organise at least one mega community Durga Puja in the area under it during the forthcoming festive season.
Protestors blocked railway tracks at Birbhums Murarai station demanding an increase in the number of utility stores and restoration of train halts.

The members of the Murai Citizen Committee enforced the blockade from 7.30 am on Sunday, an official said.

The protestors claimed further that the railway authorities canceled halts of several trains at Murai station during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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However, even after the pandemic ended and the lockdown was lifted, the halts werent restored, the locals alleged.

Due to the blockade, many trains were stranded and the Sahibganj-Rampurhat passenger train was stuck at Murai railway station.

Large number of railway police personnel were deployed at the spot to lift the rail blockade.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez are reportedly not planning the wedding yet.

Theyre not planning the wedding yet, a person who celebrated their engagement party on the billionaires $500 million super yacht in Italy told People Magazine.

Theyre still just enjoying the engagement, the person was quoted as saying.

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They had an amazing time with close friends at the party, it added.

In May, Bezos, 59, and Sanchez, 53, got engaged, and shortly after they arrived in Cannes, south of France, on the superyacht Koru.

Earlier this week, both hosted another engagement party. Among those who attended the star-studded affair were Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his rumoured girlfriend, Paula Hurd, reports Page Six.

Gates, 67, and Hurd, 61, were photographed sitting in the yacht and chatting with other guests.

American entrepreneur Wendi Murdoch, the ex-wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, was among the VIP guests at the lavish party, according to the report.

They started dating in 2018 and reportedly went public with their relationship after the Amazon billionaire divorced his first wife MacKenzie Scott in 2019.

Bezos made a $38 billion divorce settlement with Scott. He shares four children with her.

Moreover, Sanchez can soon be known as the first person to lead an all-woman space mission on Blue Origin.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, she revealed that Bezos is encouraging her to put together a five-member female crew to fly on a Blue Origin rocket to space.
Uorfi Javed, well-known for her distinct outfits, is creating a buzz once again. This time, shes not only showcasing her personal style but also designing outfits for the participants of Bigg Boss.

Uorfi Javed has a unique fashion sense and a strong presence on social media. She started her career in soap operas and gained fame in 2021 after her appearance on the reality show Bigg Boss OTT. She has transitioned from being a participant on the show to now being a designer.

Recently, Uorfi joined the ongoing second season of Bigg Boss during its final weeks. Her fashion choices during her time as a contestant on Bigg Boss OTT caught the publics attention. Notably, she wore a dress made from a garbage bag, and shes also worn other unconventional pieces like dresses made from watches, yellow flowers, chains, and pins, which were described as bizarre dresses by Lifestyle Asia.

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Uorfis fashion sense has led to some controversies in the past. A tweet from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician Chitra Wagh accused her of public nudity in Mumbai. As a result, the Mumbai Police called her in for questioning at a police station in Amboli. However, there is no follow up of the case.

However, Uorfi clarified that she suffers from allergies that make wearing clothes uncomfortable. She shared pictures on Instagram, revealing skin irritations caused by her allergies.

Excitement is building among netizens as they look forward to seeing the Bigg Boss contestants donning Uorfis designed outfits. Speculations abound on the internet about how each participant will showcase their unique outfits, all crafted by Uorfi Javed herself. The anticipation is high, and fans are eager to see this fashion collaboration on display.
Recalling that Congress and other Opposition parties had supported the NewsClick platform, a website allegedly funded by Chinese propaganda arm indirectly, when it was probed by Central agencies, the BJP on Monday accused them of being part of a China axis.

Addressing a press conference here, BJP leader and Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said, Congress, China and NewsClick are all part of an umbilical cord. Chinese products are clearly visible in Rahul Gandhis fake Mohabbat ki Dukaan. His love for China can be seen. Their purpose was to run an anti-India and Break India agenda.

The BJP slammed the Congress for supporting the NewsClick portal after a report highlighted Chinese funding to the platform aimed at spreading Beijings propaganda.

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Thakur also alleged that China had signed an agreement with the Congress party and made payments to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation during the regime of the UPA.

The New York Times had in a recent report stated that one person identified as Neville Roy Singham, a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, has worked closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing Chinese propaganda worldwide.

Neville Roy Singham made the funding to NewsClick, and he was himself being funded by China. Neville Roy is in direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Chinese propaganda party. And these facts have been exposed by those newspapers which are highly praised by the Congress party, Thakur said.

The Union minister further alleged that when the BJP-led Centre was taking action against NewsClick, Congress and other Opposition parties had come out in its support.

In 2021, we exposed NewsClick as to how foreign propaganda is used against India. But these Opposition leaders came in support of NewsClick and alleged that the Centre is curbing the freedom of the press. Although Chinese companies were funding NewsClick through Mogul Neville Roy Singham, their salesmen were some people from India, who came in their support when action was taken against them. They tried to spread the Chinese agenda and mislead the Indian public through false propaganda. They spread fake news in the name of free news, Thakur said.

The BJP leader further stated that while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were used to be caged parrots under the UPA rule, the agencies are now under the BJP taking action against platforms like NewsClick.

We will not allow the Tukde-Tukde narrative to succeed. This is a war against misinformation and it should continue, the Union minister said.

Thakur further alleged that during the Beijing Olympics 2008, the Congress signed an agreement with China, under which payments were made to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

When Rahul and Sonia Gandhi went to China for Beijing Olympics 2008, they signed an agreement under which high-level exchanges were to take place. Under their agreement, a payment was also made to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. And the agreement was signed by none other than Xi Jinping and Rahul Gandhi, he said.

He added, What was in that agreement came to light in July 2017, when China tried to encroach on our lands. At that time, Rahul Gandhi was shaking hands and eating food with Chinese officials. Then, again in Cambridge, Rahul Gandhi heaped praises on China calling them force of nature and aspiring superpower.

Slamming Opposition parties, the Union Minister demanded an answer for supporting NewsClick.

My question is to Congress and all Opposition parties who supported NewsClick when they were spreading anti-India agenda. Today, when a foreign newspaper has exposed their agenda, will they answer to the country? I want to ask where the money was spent by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. What high-level meetings happened with China? Is Congress and NewsClick a part of the anti-India umbilical cord? And, I also want to ask other parties of the arrogant Opposition bloc, what benefits did they accrue? Thakur said.
BRS working president and Telangana Industry Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday predicted that the BRS will be part of the coalition government that would be formed at the Centre after the general elections of 2024.

The BRS is currently neither part of the NDA nor that of the Opposition-led alliance, INDIA, and according to party supremo Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, they have their own set of friends.

The prediction came when the minister was listing the harm done by the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government at the Centre to the handloom sector on the occasion of National Handloom Day.

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Pointing out that the Centre has imposed 5 per cent tax on the handloom sector; he said it has also discontinued the Handloom Board and insurance meant for weavers.

The minister assured that whatever the current Central government has discontinued will be restarted once the Narendra Modi Government is thrown out.

Although the BRS has attacked both the BJP and the Congress prior to Assembly elections in the state due to local political compulsions, it seems it is open to post-poll alliances. Many of the parties currently in Congress-led INDIA are also friendly with the BRS such as AAP and the Samajwadi Party.

Meanwhile, ahead of Assembly elections in the state, he announced a slew of schemes for weavers including a monetary incentive of Rs 3,000 transferred into their accounts. The government also issued an order giving Rs 5,000 per month honorariums to a total of 17,000 imams and muezzins in the state.
As Home Minister Amit Shah heads for Manipur to meet the representatives of the two warring communities  with Meiteis urging that the state should not be divided and the Kukis asking for a separate administration for the hill region within the state, the focus of the entire country is on this strife-torn state and will the Home Minister Shahs meeting bring about a lasting solution?

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the apex body of the Meitei community, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday not to divide Manipur and to introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This was done a day before the tribal leaders met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to press for their demand for the creation of a separate state for tribals. They submitted a memorandum to the Prime Ministers Office highlighting the demands in a mass rally that took place on July 29 in Imphal.

In addition, the COCOMI wants the current ethnic conflict, foreign (illegal immigrants), and Chin-Kuki narco-terrorism eliminated.

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COCOMI coordinator Jeetendra Ningomba claimed via a video message that the foreign elements, including some of the leaders of the Kuki-Zomi outfits with which Suspension of Operation pacts were signed, are directly involved in the Manipur conflict and said that they should either be eliminated or driven out of Indias territory. This was done after the COCOMI memo was submitted to the PMO.

With 1951 as the basis year, the NRC must be implemented in the state to detect unlawful immigration. In order to accomplish what is known as a Kuki-Zomi nation (Zalengam), which consists of areas from three countries, it is necessary to deny illegal immigrants the right to citizenship, though they may still remain as guests if necessary. This is done without engaging in destructive politics by fabricating history, flooding the media, and soliciting support from left-leaning liberals, the memo said.

On the other hand, the four members of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) have already reached the Manipur capital from Aizawl today for a meeting with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday about the five demands that have been put forward through the Assam Rifles.

Muan Tombing, secretary ITLF, Ginza Vualzong, spokesperson of ITLF, Thangzamang Hangsing, executive member ITLF and Leptu Hackip, executive members of ITLF are part of the four-member delegation that will meet the Home Minister.

Speaking to The Statesman, Muan Tombing, Secretary ITLF said, We want a separate administration for the hilly region. This means a separate chief secretary and other functionaries for the hilly region. We have submitted a five-point charter of demand to the Home Minister through the Assam Rifles. The meeting is in that regard only.

In a five-point charter of demand, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum said that the burial site in S. Boljang of Churachandpur should be legalized. And there should be separate security forces for the areas where the Kuki-zo community is living. Also, as per the demands of the ITLF, the 35 bodies kept in Imphal Hospital for burial should be brought to Lamka, Churachandpur. And the final demand of the ITLF is that there should be a separate administration for the Manipur hill area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs from the northeastern region on Monday as part of preparations for the next years Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting will be attended by BJP chief JP Nadda and Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju and Nitin Gadkari.

NDA MPs from eight northeastern states  Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim  will participate in the meeting today.

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The northeast has been a special focus of the Narendra Modi government. Manipur has faced ethnic violence and the government has been taking steps for restoration of peace.

PM Modi has so far held six cluster meetings with NDA MPs from different states.

The fifth such meeting was held with MPs from Bihar, a crucial state for BJP-led NDA.

The meeting was attended by Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nityanand Rai and RK Singh and Bhupendra Yadav apart from Sushil Modi, Chirag Paswan and Vinod Tawde.

The cluster six meeting was held NDA MPs from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The meetings of NDA MPs with PM Modi started on July 31.

The first meeting was held with NDA MPs from West Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Brij region with PM Modi urging 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.

On the same day, PM Modi also met NDA MPs from West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand and 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 said, according to a source.

PM Modi is learnt to have also said that the NDA government has done unprecedented work in infrastructure development in the past nine years.
A number of Rohingya refugees have been arrested by the Haryana Police in connection with the recent communal unrest in Haryanas Nuh area adjoining Gurugram.

The migrants were forced out of their residences on Thursday as part of a surprise demolition carried out by armed personnel.

A demolition drive was carried out because Rohingya refugees had illegitimately occupied Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikarans property in Tauru, according to Nuh Superintendent of Police Narender Bijarniya. Some of them have also been identified as accused of throwing stones and participating in the mob on July 31 violence.

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The Rohingya are primarily Muslim refugees from Myanmar who left their country after the government targeted brutality on their minority in 2017.

We have identified a list of them who were involved in the violence, and we have evidence for it. Based on it, the teams have arrested them, Bijarniya said, according to a national daily.

The majority of refugees in these camps are rickshaw pullers, ragpickers, and vegetable merchants, according to Sabber Kyaw Min, founder, and director of the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, an NGO that helps the community.

The FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) officers had informed at the refugee camp that they had a list of at least 17 refugees and had picked some of them, said Min. They were known to them for their involvement in the violence, he added.

The NGO will help the police if any refugees are engaged in unlawful activity, Sabber Kyaw Min said, but carrying out such raids makes the refugees feel uneasy and harassed, he said.

This is discriminatory conduct and unjust practice towards them. People in the camps are living in fear and the situation is dire. They are handled as though they were dacoits or criminals. He asserted that they were just trying to get by.

The UNHCR has validated 16,000 Rohingya refugees in India. The government estimates that there are more than 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in India, with the majority of them in Jammu.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. Afghanistan has invited Russia and Kazakhstan to participate in the construction of the Trans-Afghan railway, the Minister of Industry and Trade in the Interim Government of Afghanistan, Nuriddin Azizi, said, Trend reports.

"We invite Russia and Kazakhstan to take part in this project. I believe that it is not only about investments in Afghanistan, because this railway will benefit everyone, and we are ready to consider this project together, involving working groups from these countries," said Azizi.

The Trans-Afghan Railway project is a joint project of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. The route will pass through Termez, Mazar-I-Sharif, Kabul, and Peshawar. A memorandum of understanding was signed in connection with the implementation of the project.

In addition, the construction of a 600-kilometer-long railway line will cost about $5 billion and take five years.
Delhi services Bill was taken up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with Opposition parties including the Congress and AAP strongly opposing the legislation and dubbing it as unconstitutional.

On May 19, the Central government had brought an ordinance related to the transfer-posting of officers posted in the Delhi government. Through the ordinance, the government had overturned a decision of the Supreme Court to restore the right of transfer-posting of officers to the Delhi government.

Now, the same legislation is introduced through a Bill that is in the Rajya Sabha after clearance from the Lok Sabha. The Bill has already been passed in the Lok Sabha.

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The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to replace the ordinance, was moved in the Rajya Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday afternoon amid fierce resistance from the Opposition parties associated with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc.

The Union home minister moved the Bill in the House after Opposition members moved a resolution disapproving of the ordinance which was brought by the government in May this year.

Earlier on August 3, the Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha through voice vote amid strong opposition from the INDIA leaders and walkout by the Opposition MPs.

Participating in the debate in the upper house, Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi dismissed the Bill as contradictory to the Supreme Court judgement. It violates the key concepts of federalism. The governments intention is to control and control by hook and crook, more by crook less by hook, he added.

The Bill, the Congress leader pointed out clearly overrides two SC judgements. A nominated chief executive of the state will come under secretaries. Budget for the NCT will be prepared by the Delhi government, work for Delhi and appointments of officials from top to bottom will be done by National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA).

This Bill is totally unconstitutional, fundamentally anti-democratic, and a frontal attack on the local voice and aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil services accountability and all models of assembly-based democracy, the Congress leader said.

Rajya Sabha MP and former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the Bill to replace the ordinance is perfectly, legitimately valid and that if any member disagrees, his conscience must be left free.

Participating in the debate in the Upper House of Parliament, Gogoi termed the Bill correct and right. He said the Bill takes away Section 3A from the Ordinance promulgated by the Centre in May this year.

To my mind when 3A has been taken out of the Ordinance and it is not there in the Bill, the questions referred to the Constitution bench stand self-answered. Because if you read the order of the SC, referring the matter to the Constitution Benchmy view is that the entire reference has been necessitated by the provision of 3A of the Ordinance, which no longer exist, he said.

Justice Gogoi, who is a nominated member of the house, said for Delhi, which has a special status, the legislature makes the laws on three subjects and Parliament has power to frame laws beyond these three subjects. And that is exactly what the Bill is seeking to do. Therefore, there is no question of overreaching, he added.

Meanwhile, senior Congress MP P Chidambaram said the BJP has won the last elections in Delhi 25 years ago and has no constitutional authority or moral right to speak for the people of Delhi.

He asked the treasury benches when the last time the BJP had won elections in Delhi. Please remember you have no constitutional authority or moral right to pass this will, Chidambaram said in the Rajya Sabha.

Sheila Dikshit was Delhis chief minister for 15 years and she worked with two to three Lieutenant Governors. Not even once did the present arrangement come in the way of Sheila Dikshits functioning. Perhaps she was one of the best chief ministers the country has ever witnessed, he said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha opposed the Delhi Services Bill in the Rajya Sabha saying that it is a political fraud and a constitutional sin.

He dubbed the Bill as the most undemocratic and illegal presented in the House and urged the saffron party to fulfill the wishes of veteran party leader Vajpayee and Advani.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha referred to the recent Supreme Court ruling dated May 11 and said that a top courts Constitution Bench unanimously reaffirmed that civil servants in the Government of NCT of Delhi are accountable to the elected Council of Ministers led by the Chief Minister.

He said that this accountability, he highlighted, was essential for a democratic and accountable form of government.

The newly-introduced Ordinance undermines this accountability structure by transferring control from the elected Government of Delhi to the unelected Lt Governor, Chadha said.

He accused the Ordinance of aiming to reduce the Delhi government to its elected aspect  possessing the peoples mandate but lacking the necessary governing mechanism to fulfill that mandate.
Cracking whip, the Supreme Court on Monday constituted a committee of three former women judges  Justice Gita Mittal, Justice Shalini Joshi and Justice Asha Menon to oversee the measure for the relief, rehabilitation, rebuilding of homes, places of worship and suggest compensation and appointed former DGP of Maharashtra and Mumbai Police Commissioner Dattatrey Padsalgikar to oversee investigations by the SITs.

Justice Geeta Mital, who heads the committee, was chief justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court. Justice Asha Menon was a judge of the Delhi High Court and Justice Shalini Joshi is a former judge of the Bombay High Court.

Stating that the three-judge committee will ensure law, restore the trust, faith and confidence of the violence battered people,

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Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud heading a bench also comprising Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said that officers of the rank of deputy superintendent of police or superintendent of police will be inducted in CBI to be associated with the teams investigating 12 plus cases involving assault on women and other heinous offences.

The court clarified that the induction of deputy superintendent of police or superintendent of police from different states in the CBI, was in no manner an aspersion on CBI. It is only to ensure the faith of the people in the investigations.

We will ask the director general of police from the states where Hindi is spoken and have five officers to be brought on deputation to the CBI to oversee the investigation into these FIRs. These officers will also function within four corners of the administrative set up of the CBI and will be supervised by the joint director of CBI, Chief Justice Chandrachud said.

The court declined a plea seeking the transfer of trial of cases outside Manipur.

Besides the committee of three former high court judges, the CJI said that Dattatrey Padsalgikar will head another layer of supervision. Both the three-judge committee and Dattatrey Padsalgikar will submit separate reports to the top court.

Similarly, the court said that police inspectors from different States will be associated with the 42 Special Investigations Tean (SITs) set up by the Manipur police to investigate the cases, other than those handed over to CBI. One inspector will be associated with each of the SITs.

There will be about 42 SITs which will look at cases not transferred to CBI. Inspectors from where Deputy Superintendent of Police will come will also be brought in by the Ministry of Home Affairs in those 42 SITs so that one officer from outside the State is there in each of those cases. These 42 SITs will be supervised by six DIG Rank officers from outside the State of Manipur each officer will oversee 6 SITs, the CJI said giving the outline of the order.

Giving the broad outline of the order, Chief Justice Chandrachud said, The broad outline is to use whatever is in our power to restore faith in rule of law. We will appoint a committee of three former High Court judges. This committee of three judges will look at the investigation, relief, rehabilitation, remedial measures, and compensation. It is a broad-based committee.

The chief secretary and the Director General of Police, Manipur were present in the court. The top court in the last hearing had summoned the DGP to be present in the court today. However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that they asked the chief secretary too to be present.

The top court was hearing a batch of petitions relating to over three months long violence in Manipur including one by two women who were paraded naked and molested by the mob on the streets of the State.

Besides Attorney General R Venkataramani and the Solicitor General Tuehar Mehta, a number of lawyers Colin Gonsalves, Indira Jaisinh, Vrinda Grover, Anand Grover, Ranjit Kumar, Maninder Singh and others.

Stating that the government was handling the situation in Manipur at a very mature level, Attorney General Venkataramani told the bench, We are trying to understand the ground situation. All of us want restoration of peaceany small deviation can make a world of a difference.

On the segregation of cases crime wise, the attorney general said, In terms of the order, regarding disaggregation of offences, we have to be careful.

The Attorney General said that broadly, on the basis of analysis of FIRs and nature of offences, we have made this district configuration. In case of murders, there will be SPs etc, then in sexual offences there will be teams fully comprising of female investigative officers

Cautioning against the presence of investigating officers from outside the State, the Attorney General said, Today the position is still sensitiveAny externally directed investigation doesnt inspire confidence.

The hearing saw fingers being pointed to the infiltrators from across the border and poppy cultivation as one of the causes behind the violence. This dimension was raised by senior advocate Maninder Singh which found subtle endorsement by the Solicitor General Mehta.

Most of the lawyers gave suggestions on the way cases should be dealt with.

Indira Jaisingh pointed to the need for investigation and prevention. She said that conflict is going on and there was a need to set-up a high-powered commission to reach back to this court. This commission could be of retired female judges, it would be the eyes and ears of the court.

A lawyer from Manipur told the bench that for 90 days of violence, nobody came out. I request all, to do something for violence to stop, dont focus on one incident, do something to stop violence.

He called lawyers to come down to Manipur to see what is going on. We are all suffering. What is going on every day? Highways are blocked. Things are costly. There are no earnings. We want all of you to come to Manipur. A thing whose MRP 10, is available for Rs. 15.
George Orwells satirical allegorical novella, Animal Farm (1945), featuring a successful uprising by animals against a tyrannical farmer, ends with pigs emerging dominant, and adopting mannerisms of their erstwhile masters. At the climax, to defend their egregious conduct, the pigs coin a new doctrine: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Most revolutions of the twentieth century had a similar denouement, with newly dominant classes acquiring privileges of the old ruling classes. Thus, in India, we have parliamentary privileges, judicial privileges and administrative privileges, and caste privileges, to name a few.

Accustomed to life in the hard lane, the common man, himself devoid of any privileges, has to suffer the inconvenience of carrying the load of the large number of privileged people. A familiar occurrence is the stopping of all traffic for passage of VIPs, never mind that many students miss their classes, many professionals reach office late, and sometimes, an ambulance cannot take a critically ill person to hospital in time.

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However, such issues are only occasionally discussed, because most people are willing to look the other way when powerful persons are involved. Recently, the Governor of Karnataka was to catch a commercial flight from Bengaluru to Hyderabad. The dignitary reached the boarding gate after the scheduled departure time of the aircraft, by which time the flight had already left. In such a situation a common man would have been called a no show, and brusquely told to book another flight.

But Governors are privileged people; the Governors minions filed an FIR against the airline and its staff, and also complained to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The airlines, which initially defended the action of its employees, soon knuckled down and apologised to the Governor and suspended its manager, who had only followed rules.

The list of such incidents is not tiny. In 2017, a Shiv Sena MP assaulted a sixty-year-old Air India staffer with his slipper. A viral video shows the unrepentant MP claiming that he had hit the poor man twenty-five times. Initially, the MPs action was condemned by those in authority, a flight ban was imposed on him, and an FIR was lodged against him. After the controversy died down, the flight ban was lifted. Last year, a Delhi court discharged the MP from the criminal case filed against him. Again, recently, a fire-brand BJP MP, opened an emergency exit door of the aircraft, while it was taxiing for take-off, following which all passengers had to be deboarded. The aircraft could take off only after a thorough inspection, entailing a delay of almost two and a half hours ~ much longer than the actual flight time.

Both the Civil Aviation Minister and DGCA confirmed the incident but termed the MPs action as a mistake, taking no further action. Such incidents are not confined to politicians or the aviation sector alone; a High Court Judge felt so offended by not being attended to by the catering staff and his train running late, that he ordered the Registrar to write to the Railways General Manager ~ asking for the explanation of the concerned staff members. It goes to the credit of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) that after the incident came to his notice, the CJI wrote to all Chief Justices asking them to advise judges against such unbecoming behaviour.

A frequent and serious misuse of administrative privilege is the practice of the Government not granting sanction for prosecution of its employees, even when charged with serious offences like custodial torture or murder. More commonly, Government officials and their families bypass long queues at all places while lesser mortals wait their turn. PM Modi did the right thing by abolishing red lights for all vehicles ~ which had demoted all other vehicles to second-class status.

Yet the lal-batti culture of hierarchy, codified by the Warrant of Precedence, is too deeply ingrained to die down easily. A colonial relic, the Warrant begins with a disclaimer: (The Warrant) is only used to indicate ceremonial protocol and has no legal standing It is not applicable for the day-to-day functioning of the Government of India. But the Warrant of Precedence is the root cause of most of the inter-services rivalries, and causes much friction and heartburn in the day-to-day functioning of the Government.

TN Seshan, as Chief Election Commissioner, went to the Supreme Court to improve his ranking in the Warrant of Precedence. There are recorded instances where the Governor of a State refused to talk to the Departmental Secretary on urgent matters, because the Governor felt that he should be addressed by the Minister. Inter-services rivalry is a post-Independence problem, because the colonial administration could ensure that the military and the various components of bureaucracy worked in close co-ordination. Friction between members of services started building up soon after Independence ~ to fill up the large number of senior posts that had fallen vacant after the exodus of British officers. Promotions, too, became much easier in the new regime. An IAS officer could now aspire to be a Divisional Commissioner in sixteen years. Senior posts proliferated for the IAS; instead of eight or nine Divisional Commissioners forty years ago, UP now has around thirty Divisional Commissioners. Similarly, for the IPS, as against one Inspector-General of Police, most large States now have ten posts of Directors General of Police. Also, transition from a predominantly agrarian society to a highly complex modern one led to new challenges; old sources of Government finance like land revenue gave way to income-tax and central excise; the need for generalist administrators declined and domain experts came into demand.

Not surprisingly, services like Income-tax and Customs gained prominence and started demanding parity with the IAS. A bonanza of promotions ensued for the top men in the civilian bureaucracy; bombastic nomenclature was often invented for mundane jobs. Thus, departments have new apex grade posts like Principal Chief Commissioners and Principal Chief Controllers who are doing the same things as their less ostentatiously named predecessors.

Rampant inter-services rivalry has sometimes resulted in important senior level posts remaining vacant, because people in competing services have not been promoted to an equivalent level. Also, unashamed empire building has increased the number of VIPs manifold, destroyed the time-tested administrative structure and increased the burden of privilege on the common man. Even otherwise, the number of VIPs, which is in double digits in most countries, runs in lakhs in India. Combined with the Governments inability or unwillingness to fill up vacant lower-level posts, the civilian bureaucracy is on the verge of becoming an inverted pyramid.

An insane quest for promotions has resulted in adding levels to the bureaucratic hierarchy, with a deleterious effect on governance. Simply put, there are too many people to give directions but very few to obey. Armed forces have similar, but different problems. After Independence, the Commanderin-Chief of the Indian Army, who ranked just after the Governor General, was put down substantially, and so were other army officers. The post-Independence bonanza of promotions enjoyed by their civilian counterparts was largely denied to the armed forces, leading to a feeling of deprivation and hurt.

Therefore, not surprisingly, an armed forces cadre review committee recommended, in 2018, that every army officer should retire at a rank of Major General or above, a recommendation that went against the basic principle of military ranks being conferred according to the number of troops commanded; armies of many small nations are often led by Major Generals or Lieutenant Generals. However, the Committee did not consider the possible effect on army discipline, rather, it made no bones that this radical proposal emanated from a desire of army officers to attain parity with their civilian counterparts. A better way to satisfy the Armys demand for equivalence could be to resolve the anomalies in the civilian bureaucracy that would also improve the quality of governance, which boils down to the larger question of limiting privileges of all kinds of dignitaries ~ parliamentarians, judges and bureaucrats ~ a task more easily proposed than attempted.

A quote from Dr B R Ambedkars speech in the Constituent Assembly sums up the tyranny of privilege: What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights. Sadly, with time, inequality and discrimination of the social and administrative system has only increased.

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax)
The indictment of former United States president Donald Trump on charges he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election is the most serious test of Americas experiment in constitutional government since December 1860, when the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union and set in motion the events leading to the Civil War. Before reflecting on the stakes of this crisis, however, we should consider its deeper roots. How could a defeated president refuse to accept the results of an historically secure election, sic a violent mob on the U.S. Capitol and still command the unshakeable loyalty of one third of Americans?

How could this same person appeal to another sixth or so of voters, putting him in position to return to power in 2024 as the Republican front-runner? As a historian who tries to take the long view of current events, I see one underlying explanation that reaches back  strange as it may seem  to a single passage from a book published in Paris 238 years ago. Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God. So proclaimed Thomas Jefferson in 1785 in his Notes on the State of Virginia, which he had originally written as a series of letters for a French visitor. Jeffersons words were more than hot air.

After becoming president in 1801, he used the power of the federal government to vastly expand the public domain of the United States and to survey, divide and sell that domain to as many white farmers as possible. In the words of one historian, the early U.S. was a settlers empire, a political and military force with the main goal to provide farm families (and speculators) with more land. So it went for generations. With minor changes and variations, parties and presidents flattered and favoured the rural majorities of America. American culture identified farm folk and small towns as the most authentic and virtuous parts of the nation  or, as President Andrew Jackson put it in 1837, the bone and sinew of the country.

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Those people, in turn, came to believe that they, not the Crown or Congress, not the government or the constitution, were in charge. This continued after the Civil War destroyed slavery in the 1860s and after America became a majority urban society in the 1920s. Only with the cultural and social revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s have the heirs of Jeffersons chosen people lost their status as the most American of Americans. At its best, the more diverse culture that has emerged over the past half century holds that all Americans are equally American.

At its worst, that culture disdains the fly-over states as rustic, racist backwaters. Either way, the new, diverse America enrages tens of millions of people who predominantly live in small towns and in the South and mostly identify as white, straight and Christian. New Yorker though he is, Trump understands and stokes that rage. He plays with its dark energies.

He tells the MAGA faithful that they alone are what made America great and that he alone can restore them to greatness. This is why Trump has such an electric hold over so many of my fellow citizens. And now that hes facing multiple indictments, Trump is calling on them to reject not only the constitutional order of the United States but also their two pillars  the rule of law and the rule of facts. As he told the faithful at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee in March: I am your warrior.

I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution. The most recent charges show beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump kept repeating  and acting upon  claims about the election that even his closest advisers characterized as just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Whether Trump himself knew these claims to be false is not as clear, and the special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, will have to show as much to establish the former presidents criminality. But as American journalist Zackk Beauchamp points out, the indictments prove that Trump is either an extraordinarily selfish liar or profoundly deluded.

Trump will admit to neither, of course. Hes already called the indictments fake, while one of his most zealous followers in U.S. congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene of rural Georgia, insists the charges are a communist attack on the First Amendment and the people. In MAGA world, if a federal agency says that Trump violated the law or told a lie, that can only mean that the agency is part of the plot against the people  a target of Trumps promised retribution.

Sometime between his arraignment this week and election day next November, America will therefore have to choose between the rule of law and fact, on one hand, or with the rule of the chosen people and their leader, on the other.

(The writer is Professor of History, McGill University. This article was published on www.theconversation.com)
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin were in Australia as part of a wider tour of Oceania, comprising the islands that stretch across the south and central Pacific Ocean. Both officials attended the 33rd session of AUSMIN or the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations, the principal ministerial-level meeting through which the countries manage their regional alliance. The reason for these high-profile visits is not far to seek. As Bruce Jones of Brookings writes, the driving force is the USAs need to respond to Chinas sustained increase in presence, engagement, economic ties, and logistics presence across Oceania.

US near-term objectives in the Indo-Pacific range from renewed diplomatic engagement and enhanced people-to-people initiatives to an improved defence posture in the region as well as new strategic initiatives. Washington has already renewed basing arrangements in the Philippines; a new, US-Australia base-cum-logistics station in Papua New Guinea has been okayed; the Australia-UK-US submarines plus agreement has been inked; arrangements for trilateral defence cooperation between the USA, Australia, and Japan have been approved, and US embassies, USAID offices, and Peace Corp offices in several Pacific Island nations have been opened. However, as another expert Mireya Solis has repeatedly emphasised, the economic dimension of US relations in the Asia-Pacific region lags the strategic.

The Washington-promoted Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is seen in the region as a tepid version of the earlier proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. But this matters mainly to the developed economies of East Asia. For the sparsely populated island nations of Oceania, the issues are different. The biggest of them all is neglect. Since the end of the Cold War, America has largely ignored Oceania though its main regional allies Australia and Japan have done slightly better. That Americas renewed interest in Oceania is premised solely on its geopolitical interests given the rise of China is the dominant narrative in the region, and one which it will be difficult for the USA to counter effectively in large part because it is true. Jones expresses the hope that sustained, patient engagement by Washington may help overcome suspicions but concedes it doesnt help that US policy is weak on these countries vital, even existential interests ~ climate change and adaptation.

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America has only lately, and rather grudgingly, accepted the need for financing climate adaptation; this is a massive issue for the islands of Oceania whose very existence is threatened by sea-level rise. It is Beijing which is increasingly being seen as the city on the hill as it is both able and willing to support small island states in multilateral fora on global warming. It helps that China doesnt have to pay the bill to finance adapting to climate change, but even if it did it probably would as it is the rising global power willing to walk the extra mile. That, at least, is the perception, and the results are already there to see. The Solomon Islands have allowed Chinese police presence on their territory, Vanuatu is indicating it will follow suit, and Kiribati has withdrawn from the Pacific Islands Forum, cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and accepted a Chinese bid to restore a dualuse airstrip on the island.
The Bellator MMA competitor Cris Lencioni was allegedly allowed to leave the hospital on his own, which is being hailed as a promising move in his recuperation. He suffered a heart attack on June 8, 2023, and subsequently, he was hospitalized with doubts if he will live leave alone playing the sport.

Who is Cris Lencioni

On August 11, 2023, Cris Lencioni the 29-year-old Bellator MMA was slated to compete in a featherweight match at Bellator 298 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, against veteran Bellator MMA fighter James Gallagher. Lencioni, however, suddenly experienced a cardiac arrest on June 8, 2023, while working out in a gym in Spokane, Washington, in the United States.

As a result, his Bellator bout with Gallagher was postponed. Lencionis brain injury is also attributed to the heart attack, presumably as a result of the lack of oxygen the brain received when he was asleep.

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The doctors speculated that Long QT syndrome might have contributed to the heart arrest, according to Cris Lencionis wife Marca Lencioni. It is a medical condition that impairs the hearts capacity to unwind following a beating, leading to hazardous abnormalities in a persons heartbeat.

Marca Lencioni however emphasised that her spouse was making good strides towards rehabilitation because he began reacting to stimuli like her communication with him.

In addition, UFC lightweight Terrance McKinney recently shared a picture of Cris Lencioni with a few others outside the hospital where he had been admitted. Lencioni is reportedly recovering incredibly well after suffering a heart arrest and spending time in a coma, according to McKinney.

Lencioni left the hospital on his own, as noted by McKinney in a tweet:

Cris Lencioni suffered a heart arrest two months ago, and ever since then, he has had to relearn everything. He left the hospital today by himself, walking out. The kid whos back.
Cambodias King officially appointed Hun Manet as the countrys new leader. This comes after his fathers nearly four-decade-long rule and an overwhelming victory in the recent July election.

Following the landslide win, Hun Sen, one of the worlds most enduring rulers, declared his decision to relinquish the prime ministerial position and pass the reins of power to his eldest son. Thus, the transition of power takes place from the father to the eldest son after a rule of 38 years.

King Norodom Sihamoni issued a decree on Monday, officially endorsing the 45-year-old Hun Manet as Cambodias new leader. The decree was made public on Hun Sens Telegram channel and signifies the approaching conclusion of the current leaders nearly four-decade-long tenure at the forefront of a nation recovering from prolonged periods of conflict and economic hardship. Hun Sen mentions Thank you, my dear wife, for raising this unfortunate child during the hardest times so he can become the nations top leader today.

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The appointment of Hun Manet as Cambodias new leader is contingent upon the approval of the recently elected National Assembly, which is anticipated later this month.

Hun Manet, the current army chief of Cambodia, expressed his gratitude to the king for placing his trust in him. He conveyed through a Telegram post that serving the nation and its people would be the highest honour of his life. He also pledged his unwavering commitment to fulfilling his duties, vowing to elevate the living standards of Cambodians and enhance the nations reputation.

Following last months election, Cambodias electoral body declared the final results, with the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) securing around 120 out of 125 parliamentary seats. The contest saw all viable opposition sidelined during the process.

Following the proclamation of the royal decree, Hun Sen made an announcement on both Telegram and the X social media platforms, stating that he would step down to offer an opportunity for the successors to assume leadership roles. Hun Sen, who recently celebrated his 71st birthday, reminisced about how he became the worlds youngest prime minister at the age of 32. He emphasized that stepping down as prime minister does not signify the end of his political journey, as he intends to take up other positions at least until 2033, thus completing a remarkable half-century in office.

The New PM of Cambodia Hun Manet, holds a bachelors degree in economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a masters degree in the same field from New York University, and a doctorate from Bristol University in the United Kingdom, he boasts an impressive academic background.

The legislature is expected to meet on Aug. 22 to vote to approve Hun Manet
An American businessman named Vivek Ramaswamy is running for president of the republican party in the year 2024. Ramaswamy was born to Indian immigrants in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He received a bachelors degree in molecular biology from Harvard College and then graduated from Yale Law School with a J.D. Ramaswamy announced his bid in February 2023 to be the Republican Partys nominee for president in the 2024 election.

Forbes assessed his net worth to be $630 million in April 2023; his money is derived from biotech and financial ventures. His family is a Tamil-speaking Keralas Brahmin family. His father, VG Ramaswamy, is a National Institute of Technology alumnus who worked for General Electric as an engineer and patent attorney. His mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, a Mysore medical school graduate, worked as a geriatric psychiatrist. His parents immigrated from Palakkad district in Kerala.

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In a Saturday conversation with Iowa citizens, Vivek Ramaswamy suggested scrapping Juneteenth, calling it a useless celebration.

Also known as Emanciapaion Day, Juneteenth is a holiday observed on June 19 to honor the release of slaves in the US. The holiday was first observed in Texas, where enslaved people were declared free on that date in 1865 as a result of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, following the conclusion of the Civil War.

However, he shared a video commemorating the day on social media less than two months ago.

Juneteenth is a new holiday so we still have a chance to define what it means to us. It neednt be about grievance & self-flogging. Let it be a celebration of the American Dream itself.  pic.twitter.com/NyHfbJoAlw  Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 19, 2023

Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential contender, explained his strategy for establishing a national voting holiday on Saturday. He suggested eliminating an existing holiday to make room for the new one.

Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up, Ramaswamy said to a cheering audience gathered at a welding shop in this area.

When NBC News questioned Ramaswamy about whether or not he thought Juneteenth was a useless festival, he replied, I basically do.

It was declared a holiday as a result of political pressure. Because of George Floyds passing, it was a political hostage situation, Ramaswamy claimed.

Ramaswamy was slammed by one of his rivals, biracial former Texas representative Will Hurd, for saying he hopes to cancel a holiday that celebrates equality and freedom.
Nigers military junta has indefinitely shut the countrys airspace until further notice after a regional bloc warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated, the media reported on Monday.

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, there were currently no aircraft in Nigers skies, the BBC reported.

Following a crisis meeting on August 4, military chiefs of the Ecowas regional trading bloc which comprises 15 West African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Ghana, announced that they had drawn up a detailed plan for the possible use of force if Bazoum was not reinstated by 11 p.m. on August 6.

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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, the BBC quoted Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, as saying in a statement.

We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (Nigers junta) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done.

But as of early Monday morning, Nigers coup leaders have showed no no sign of willingness to cede power.

On Sunday thousands of their supporters rallied defiantly at a stadium in the countrys capital Niamey.

Bazoum was detained on July 26, and Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, later proclaimed himself the new leader.

In response to the blocs warning, a junta spokesman said that Nigers armed forces were ready to defend the country.

The military takeover has been internationally condemned, including by former colonial power France, as well as the European Union, UN and the US.

Meanwhile, two of Nigers neighbours  Burkina Faso and Mali  had earlier warned they would treat any outside military intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them, reports the BBC.

Burkina Faso and Mali are both Ecowas members but have been suspended from the bloc since being ruled by military juntas.
Former US President Donald Trump has called for recusal of the judge in the 2020 election fraud case.

Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday morning to express his displeasure with a federal indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. He described the case as the ridiculous freedom of speech, slash fair elections case and said that his legal team would immediately be asking for recusal of the judge.

Trump has said that he will ask the judge to step aside on what he called very powerful grounds, the BBC reported.

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He gave no details of his grounds for asking her to step down.

The former President has said there is no way he can get a fair trial with the judge assigned to his case.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Trump case, was appointed in 2014 by former President Barack Obama.

Judge Chutkan previously ruled against Trumps efforts to shield evidence from the House January 6 Committee and has faced frequent attacks from Trump allies in recent days. Trump had described her and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as highly partisan and very corrupt, the BBC reported.

She is the only federal judge in Washington who has delivered sentences against defendants in cases related to the 6 January Capitol riot that are longer than the sentences that the DOJ asked for, according to NBC News.

According to DOJ, any judge of the US shall disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 7. A meeting of the Turkish government will take place today, Trend reports.

The meeting, chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will discuss issues of domestic and foreign policy.

One of the topics to be discussed at the meeting will be the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkiye. The agenda of the meeting will include the situation in the South Caucasus and the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Among the main topics of discussion will also be the revival of the Black Sea grain initiative, as well as consistent attacks on the Koran in some Western countries, in particular in Sweden, and the fight against terrorism.

In addition, information will be provided on the work done in the province of Kahramanmarash over the past six months after the earthquake.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) on Monday announced that it has detained a female information for Russia who was preparing an airstrike in the Mykolaiv region during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In the statement, the SBU said the alleged informant on the eve of the recent trip of the President of Ukraine to Mykolaiv region, was gathering intelligence about the planned visit late last month, reports CNN.

The Security Service further said that the alleged conspirator tried to establish the time and list of locations of the approximate route of the Head of State in the territory of the region.

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However, SBU agents had obtained information about the subversive activities of the suspect and adopted additional security measures.

In monitoring the communications of the woman, the SBU had established that she also had the task of identifying the location of electronic warfare systems and warehouses with ammunition of the armed forces.

According to the investigation, the perpetrator was a resident of Ochakov, southern Ukraine, and a former saleswoman in a military store on the territory of one of the military units of the region.

She allegedly traveled around the territory of the district and filmed the locations of Ukrainian objects.

The woman has not been identified.
Two US convenience store employees, including a Sikh, are now facing an investigation for thrashing a shoplifter with a stick in a 5-minute video clip, which went viral late last month.

It has been brought to our attention that a video of two 7-Eleven employees assaulting a robbery suspect has been circulating. We are aware of the incident and the investigation is ongoing, the Stockton Police said.

The video shows a man, his face covered with a blue t-shirt, throwing boxes of cigarettes and other products into a trash can at a 7-Eleven location in California on July 28.

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Despite warnings and pleas from the store keepers, the shoplifter continues to empty the shelves, and at one point, also pulls out a knife and threatens them.

As he prepares to flee with the stolen items, a store employee tries to stop him, which leads to a scuffle. The Sikh then enters with a wooden stick and starts beating the robber until he pleads for mercy.

The case has been assigned to our Investigations Bureau for follow up interviews and evidence review. Once the investigations are complete the findings will be forwarded to the San Joaquin County District Attorney for review, the police said.

No other information was released by the Stockton Police Department. After being struck several times with a stick, the shoplifter is escorted out of the store by the man who filmed the incident, who had stopped at the store for gas and a Red Bull.

According to CBS news, the store employees told the man filming the video that the robber had tried to do the same thing on three separate occasions.
Vivek Ramaswamy, hailing from Indian origins, has stepped onto the center stage of Indias attention, making his mark in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries in the United States. While we often hear about the American presidential election process when elections draw near, this unique development has sparked curiosity. Lets delve into what presidential primaries entail.

In the United States, the presidential primary elections and caucuses play a significant role in selecting candidates for the presidency. The process is diverse: some states opt for primary elections, which the local governments overse. Caucuses are internal affairs that the political parties organize themselves.

Vivek Ramaswamy has emerged as a candidate in the 2024 Republican primary race. His campaign revolves around a conservative anti-woke stance.

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What are Presidential primaries?

Contrary to popular belief, the United States Constitution does not dictate a specific process for these primaries; rather, political parties have developed their own methods over time.

The variation continues among the states: some exclusively hold primary elections, others conduct only caucuses, and certain states utilize a combination of both.

The process of selecting a presidential candidate in a states primary election or caucus is often indirect. Instead of directly choosing an individual for the presidency, voters determine the number of delegates each partys national convention will receive from their state. These delegates, in turn, contribute to the selection of their partys presidential nominee.

The official nomination of presidential candidates takes place at the national conventions of the two major U.S. political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These conventions gather delegates chosen in line with their partys regulations. Many of these delegates, known as pledged delegates, are bound by the results of the presidential primaries and caucuses to vote for a specific candidate.

In essence, Vivek Ramaswamys journey isnt a direct run for the presidency just yet; its the presidential primary. The real test lies ahead, as we await the verdict of his voter base. Only time will reveal the path his candidacy will take.
The national flag waves as workers install the Ukrainian coat of arms on the shield in the hand of the country's tallest stature, the Motherland Monument, after the Soviet coat of arms was removed, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. Ukraine is accelerating efforts to erase the vestiges of centuries of Soviet and Russian influence from the public space amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine by pulling down monuments and renaming hundreds of streets to honor home-grown artists, poets, military chiefs, and independence leaders.
PROVEN Arabia, a Saudi Arabia-based holding company, has revealed three key executive changes as it continues to pursue its new business vision.

Hilel Baroud who takes charge as Chief Executive Officer of PROVEN Consult, brings extensive knowledge and experience in sales and technical capacities, with over two decades of involvement.

His accomplishments with UiPath in the Middle East & North Africa (Mena), Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) regions were especially instrumental in its rapid expansion. At PROVEN Consult, he has elevated the quality of intelligent automation delivery, improved business operations, and set new standards for customer satisfaction.

Groundwork for future

In his capacity as CEO, Baroud will focus on laying the groundwork for a future where cutting-edge intelligent solutions are delivered to assist organizations for intelligent automation and digital transformation. He plans to build PROVEN Consult as strong customer-oriented organization fostering innovation forging strong collaborations.

A financial specialist, Mohammed Alhanin, has over 18 years of experience in a variety of industries and projects, including restructuring, equity and debt financing, IPOs, rights offerings to the Saudi Stock Exchange, mergers and acquisitions, and feasibility studies.

As Group CFO, he will support PROVEN Arabia's various group entities to help develop group-level strategies and drive profitable growth.

As a product manager at PROVEN Solution for the past three years, Pavel Makarevich has contributed to the conception and development of numerous products and brands for virtual reality, robotics, chatbots, and document understanding. Makarevich's new position as vice president will see him concentrating on strategy and bringing the company's strengths in product, design, engineering, marketing, and sales together. Additionally, he will actively participate in the development of novel concepts and the launch of new product and services.

Market appetite

At PROVEN Arabia, we strive to provide products and services that meets the market's appetite for innovation and originality, said Zaid Al Mashari, CEO of PROVEN Arabia.

Any development plan's success depends on the team's commitment to placing people first in all of its efforts to expand. The addition of Hilel, Mohammed, and Pavel to the leadership team will be pivotal towards the growth for the entire group. Hilel has a strong sense of leadership, a focus on the client, and business savvy that can advance the organisation. Mohammed's extensive financial management skills will be an asset for PROVEN Arabia in achieving the crucial financial planning and stability required for the ambitious growth we anticipate, and Pavel's expertise in product design and management will open up exciting possibilities for developing more inventive products and services for future needs.

Our goal is to achieve sustainable organic growth, and we are dedicated to fostering continual progression and leave a lasting impression in the market with superior solutions that meet our customers evolving needs, at the same time make notable contribution to the countrys overall progress and success, Al Mashari concluded.-- TradeArabia News Service
Discover five of the best watchmaking experiences in Switzerland

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful vacation destinations in the world with its unique blend of natural beauty that includes stunning alpine landscapes, turquoise lakes, and quaint villages. It is also home to a rich watchmaking heritage that the Swiss love to share with visitors. Whether you are a seasoned collector or just passionate about watches, a Swiss vacation will undoubtedly leave you with unforgettable memories and a deeper appreciation for the art of timekeeping. Here is a list of our favourite experiences.

Road Trips

Driving around Switzerlands countryside is one of the best ways to see where all the horological magic happens (you can also cycle  if you are completely mad  or take the efficient Swiss trains). One of the most magical areas to explore is the Vallee de Joux which is located on the Jura plateau right next to France. Look out for the watchmaking farms of yesteryear with their typical extra windows on the attic floor and see the homes of big names such as Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Blancpain, Cartier and Jaeger-LeCoultre out in the middle of the rugged countryside.

Musee Atelier museum  Iwan Baan

If you plan in advance, definitely look into booking a guided visit of Audemars Piguets new Musee Atelier museum (by reservation only). There is also the Espace Horloger that tells the story of watchmaking in the Jura region which is open every afternoon (except Monday) from 1 pm to 5 pm. We would suggest driving to the Lac de Joux where you can swim in the summer and ice skate in the winter. And if you like hiking, you can walk around the lake (6h20), and if the hills dont scare you, we can recommend the hike up to the Dent de Vaulion from Le Pont, where you can see four lakes from the top (2h37).

Watchmaker for a Day

If you want to try your hand at assembling a mechanical watch movement, there are several places where you can have a go. Check out the Atelier Le Garde Temps in La Chaux-de-Fond, Neuchatel and Le Locle. There is also Initium in Le Noirmont and Geneva with workshops for three hours, half a day, or a full day. Both companies offer you the opportunity to build your own watch and take it home.

Manufacture Visits and Experiences

The majority of manufacture visits and brand museums need pre-booking in advance, ideally through your local brand retailer, however, an increasing number of brands now have in-house museums that can be booked online, see Zenith, Panerai, and Frederique Constant and Alpina to name a few. Museums that are open to the public without pre-booking and are definitely worth the detour include the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, the Omega Museum in Bienne, the Musee international dhorlogerie (MIH) in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Beyer Clock and Watch Museum in Zurich, but check the opening hours before heading out.

Omega Museum  Omega

Famous Clocks

If the rest of your family doesnt share your passion for watchmaking, you may need to be more discreet. Perhaps suggest some city shopping and make a sneaky detour to see some of Switzerlands famous clocks. There is the Flowery Clock in Geneva (everyone loves this) and the Zytglogge in Bern which was once a city gate. We recommend that you book a tour to see the working 16th-century clock mechanism, and for non-watch geeks, the views you get of the beautiful UNESCO city from the top are worth the climb up the 800-year-old steps.

Geneva's flowery clock  Carol Jeng

Watch Shopping

This should perhaps be at the top of the list. If there is anywhere in the world to buy a watch it is at the source! And if you want to make a day of it, why not try the Geneva Watch Tour that takes you on a historical journey through the citys horological past, visiting an array of boutiques along the way?

Time to Visit

When it comes to the best times to visit, there are some dates to keep in mind. There is always a lot going on in Geneva during the Geneva Watch Days (August 29th to September 1st, 2023) and Watches and Wonders (9th to 15th April 2024), and during the auction sessions when collectors from the four corners of the Earth descend on Geneva in search of new treasures (24th October to 7th November 2023). This year is also an Only Watch auction year when over 50 unique pieces will be auctioned for charity (the auction is held in Geneva on November 5, 2023).

Geneva watch days  gva-watch-days.com

GMT Publishing

And if you are in the Eaux-Vives region of Geneva, by the famous Jet dEau, let us know and we will invite you in for a coffee and a free GMT magazine (redaction@worldtempus.com)!

Cover AI art created by Kalen Strandberg @gottatogo
After passing the Lok Sabha hurdle, the crucial Delhi Services Bill is likely to be tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday. Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress issued a whip to all MPs to be present at the house.

The opposition parties had walked out of the Lok Sabha on Thursday when the Bill was passed.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government, was passed after nearly a four-hour debate which was replied to by Shah.

The central government had the power to make laws on Union territories and Delhi, being a Union Territory, the Centre has full rights to make rules, Shah said in LS.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha, issued a whip stating "very important issues will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday."

"All members of Congress Party in Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023, without fail and support the party stand," the chief whip said.

The debate on the Bill will be initiated by Senior Congress leader and Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

While talking to the reporters Sanjay Raut of the Uddhav Thackeray faction said that the BJP is "jealous" and the Kejriwal government is doing good work.

Since the Bill was brought in, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government has been at loggerheads with the Centre.

In May, the Centre promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, that overturned the Supreme Court judgment handing over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government.

Even the Manipur issue is set to rock the Parliament. With the Kuki People's Alliance (KPA) announcing their withdrawal of support to the N. Biren Singh-led government and fresh violence claiming more lives, the issue is likely to heat up the sessions.

Also, eyes are set on reinstating Rahul Gandhi as Member of Parliament after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in 'Modi' surname case last week. Congress had called a meeting of its Lok Sabha MPs in the party office on Monday morning for discussions to raise its demand of reinstating Gandhi as an MP.

The SC order of staying the Surat court conviction was handed over to the Lok Sabha secretariat on Saturday.

INDIA alliance parties will also hold a meeting at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament to prepare the strategy for the floor of the House.



(With PTI inputs)
The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Delhi Services Bill with a vote; 131 members voted in favour of the bill and 102 against it. The bill will come into force once the President gives her assent as Lok Sabha has already cleared it.



The Opposition wanted to counter the bill by jointly opposing it but government had the majority. Home Minister Amit Shah had dared the Opposition to stop it as the government had the numbers. The bill was a test case for Opposition unity as AAP had made it a pre-condition for joining the coalition, INDIA.

Shah hit out at the AAP government for continuously fighting with the Centre. Replying during the discussion on Delhi Services Bill in Rajya Sabha, Shah said the legislation has been brought to curb encroachment by Delhi government over the rights granted by the Centre.

He said in the past, there has been chief ministers of Congress and BJP in Delhi, but there was never a controversy over transfer posting; the trouble started after 2015 a new government came to power. Shah said such a system always functioned, now, it was being given legislative backing.

Earlier, during the discussion, Opposition benches hit at the centre for trying to usurp the powers of an elected government. All parties had issues whip to their members to be present in the house. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also attended the proceedings. He was brought in on a wheelchair. His presence was ensured as the bill was to be put to vote.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha said that the bill was an insult not only to democracy and the Constitution but also to (BJP leaders) Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madan Lal Khurana, Sushma Swaraj and their 40 years of struggle. The real reason for bringing this bill is that the BJP has lost six elections in Delhi in the last 25 years, Chadha said.

Shah attacked Congress saying it was opposing the bill as it wanted to appease the AAP due to political gains, whereas the grand old party in the past had brought in a related amendment in the house.

Referring to criticism that the governments move was to bring in legislation to overturn the Supreme Court's order, Shah said it was not the case as the judgement had said that the centre can bring legislation for Delhi. He said there were sufficient precedents when the parliament had made laws to counter judgments.

There were several instances of heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches. Home Minister said the AAP government wanted to take control of the vigilance department as it had files related to liquor scam and exorbitant expenditure on the CM's residence. He added that the ordinance was brought in to stop them from this control-taking.

Combative Amit Shah also took jibes at the Opposition coalition saying that after the bill is passed, Arvind Kejriwal will again make a u-turn. He also questioned the alliance between the Left parties and TMC, and JDU and RJD, calling them opportunistic to save their alliance.

The proceedings of the house took a curious turn when four MPs complained that their name has been included in motions against the bill. Shah said this was fraud in the house and it should be investigated.
On the Scheherazade yacht arrested in Italy began large-scale repairs. Despite the arrest, the vessel is being refitted at the expense of its owner. According to a number of Russian, American and British media, the yacht actually belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the formal owner is former Rosneft head Eduard Khudainatov.

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The Financial Times (FT) reported on the refit of the vessel, citing information from Italian Sea Group SpA, an operator in the maritime industry. The company noted that the yacht's owner is paying for "repairs and maintenance," but declined to provide further details, including the identity of that owner.

The Shaherazade yacht is in a marina in Tuscany in early August 2023. The 140-meter vessel is estimated to be worth $650 million.

"Italy has allowed her unnamed but sanctioned owner to pay not only for her personnel and maintenance but also for her refit..... The company ( Italian Sea Group SpA. - Ed.) confirmed that the refurbishment of the vessel continued after the asset was frozen by the authorities," the report said.

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The information was also confirmed by Agenzia del Demanio - a state agency that manages seized assets in Italy. It said it had worked with the finance ministry to allow the shipowner to pay for "technical work," but declined to go into details because "information about the frozen assets is classified."

"Italy has never publicly named the owner of the yacht, although at the time of the arrest it said it had "evidence of significant economic and business ties with prominent elements of the Russian government subject to EU sanctions". According to sources in Italy and Belgium, the owner is Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief executive of Russian state oil company Rosneft, who was placed under EU sanctions in June 2022," the publication notes."

Nevertheless, the Bloomberg report states: U.S. officials have alleged in court documents that Khudainatov was a front man for two yachts, including the Scheherazade, on Putin's behalf. The Russian opposition also claimed that the Russian president was the real owner of the Scheherazade.

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Some of the yacht's crew and service personnel, according to Russian investigators, were members of the Federal Security Service, which is responsible for Putin's security. The Kremlin denied the accusations at the time, but later the personnel on board the yacht were replaced for some reason.

Interestingly, in the official list of Russian assets seized in Italy, which has come into the FT's possession, the Scheherazade is the only one whose owner is not listed. The vessel is simply described as: "the Cayman Islands-flagged superyacht Shherezada, valued at around 650m".

The Shaherazade yacht is only four years old. The vessel has 22 guest cabins with gold-plated bathrooms, two helicopter decks and a spa. The refit is being carried out directly by Italian Sea Group SpA (registered in Milan).

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As reported OBOZREVATEL, scandalous Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev hides a luxury yacht Universe in Istanbul. It was moved to a Turkish port from the Russian city of Sochi. And this may indicate that the Russian authorities no longer consider the port of Sochi safe.

Only verified information we have in our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
The Delhi Services Bill, which will replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the city government, in no way violates the Supreme Court judgement, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Replying to a debate on the bill in the upper house, Shah said the aim was to make sure an effective, corruption-free administration in Delhi.

The Lok Sabha has already passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill.

Shah said the bill was brought not to usurp powers of the Delhi government, but to stop encroachment on the Centre's right by it. Taking a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party which rules the city state, Shah said: Earlier, there were no fights over transfer postings in Delhi; no chief minister had any problems. In 2015, a government came up after an 'andolan'.

He accused the AAP government of transferring officers in vigilance department as the files of the liquor scam were with it

Shah said the Congress and other opposition parties are opposing the bill only to appease the AAP. "Congress has no right to speak on democracy," he said while noting that the Congress government had amended Constitution giving parliament powers to frame laws for Delhi on all subjects, including services.

Some people said that the Centre wants to take power into its hands. The Centre doesn't need to do so as the people of India have given us the power and the right, Shah said.

The lower house passed the bill on Thursday after a nearly four-hour-long discussion which saw heated exchanges between the government and the opposition. AAP member Sushil Kumar Rinku tore a copy of the bill and thew it towards the chair. He was subsequently suspended by Speaker Om Birla for the remaining part of the Monsoon session for unruly behaviour.

Several opposition parties staged a walkout as the bill was being passed.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said he thinks of leaving the CM's post, but this post is not leaving me. And it take courage to state this, the Congress leader added.

Gehlot, who has been in a tussle with his former deputy Sachin Pilot over the top post since the Congress won the assembly polls in 2018, appeared to be projecting himself as his party's CM candidate when elections are held in a few months.

He however made clear that he will abide by the decision of the party's central leadership.

This is the second time in recent days that Gehlot has made the post-not-leaving-me statement. Last week, he made the remark when a woman told him that she wanted to see him continue as the chief minister.

At an event here to mark the foundation of new Rajasthan districts, Gehlot referred to that incident and stressed that when he says something it is after thinking it out.

It comes to my mind that I should quit the post -- why I should quit is a mystery -- but this post is not leaving me, he said.

Whatever decision the high command takes is acceptable to me. It takes courage to say that I want to leave but this position is not allowing me to leave, he continued.

Gehlot said he has been made the chief minister thrice by Sonia Gandhi, which is not a small thing.

As the elections near, the party high command brokered a truce between Pilot and Gehlot some weeks ago.

But Gehlot, in his address at the Jaipur event, appeared to pitch for another term as CM if the party wins, and recalled his vision for the state in 2030. He said a new, stronger Rajasthan has emerged due to his work and the reforms he has introduced.

"Why am I talking about 2030? I have worked in the fields of education, health, electricity, water and roads, so it is comes to mind why shouldn't I move forward? he said.

Last September, the party high command had tried to get him to contest the organisational elections for the Congress president's post.

The high command called a meeting of Congress Legislature Party in Jaipur, amid speculation that it would be a step towards replacing Gehlot with Pilot as the Congress-run state's chief minister.

But many Rajasthan Congress MLAs held a parallel meeting that day, indicating that they wanted Gehlot to remain the CM.

Later, Pilot tried to corner Gehlot on the issues of recruitment exam paper leaks and corruption. But the central leadership intervened, managing to extract a show of unity from the two leaders.
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was fully formalised when the Maharaja of Jammu and the founder of the Dogra dynasty Gulab Singh, who was also one of the initial owners of the Kohinoorbought Kashmir for 7.5 million nanakshahee rupees from the British in 1846, under the treaty of Amritsar.

In 1822, Gulab Singh was confirmed as a raja (Governor General) by his suzerain Ranjit Singh (the Sikh ruler also known as the Sher-e-Punjab).

Irrespective of that, Gulab Singh stayed aloof during the first Anglo-Sikh war in 1845, which helped the British defeat the Sikh empire. This defeat resulted in the partial subjugation of the Sikh empire, and the cession of Jammu and Kashmir as a separate and the largest princely state in British India.

Henceforth, the princely state of Jammu Kashmir was ruled by the Dogra rulers. Dogras are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group living primarily in the Jammu region. They speak Dogri, which is very close to Punjabi, and their culture is an interesting mix of Punjabi and Pahadi traditions.

Meanwhile, the adjoining valley of Kashmir, which was an important centre of Hinduism in the 1st millennium, followed by Buddhism and then Shaivism in the ninth century was taken over by Islam from the 13th to the 15th century. The Mughal empire took over Kashmir from 1586 to 1751, and finally the Afghan Durrani empire ruled from 1747 to 1819.

In 1819, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh annexed Kashmir, and were defeated by the British in the Anglo-Sikh war in 1846.

Gulab Singh died on June 30, 1857, just about a year after becoming the first Dogra Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. He was succeeded by his son Ranbir Singh.

Ranbir Singh developed a city called R.S. Pura (Ranbir Singh Pura).

Before Independence, the states only railhead was the R.S. Pura station built in 1867; it handled rail traffic heading up to Sialkot Junction, Wazirabad and Narowal (all in Pakistan now). The last train passed this station in 1947; it was loaded with refugees from Pakistan, and they settled near the rail line leading to them being called Patris.

Ranbir Singh was succeeded by his son Sir Pratap Singh. In 1925, Pratap Singhs heir and nephew Hari Singh became the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir , he self-governing salute state which was outside British India, but in a subsidiary alliance with it.

Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and is considered the most controversial ruler responsible for the mishandling of the state.

He faced an agitation in Kashmir in 1931, a rebellion in Poonch in 1947, and is also blamed for his alleged complicity in the 1947 Jammu massacres.

Hari Singh had very ambitious plans for the state during the Independence of India, which also coincided with the partition of India.

While he wanted to remain independent and did not want to join either India or Pakistan during the partition, he also wanted to alter the demographics of the state by eliminating the Muslim population and ensuring a Hindu majority.

Hari Singh and his armed forces mishandled the law and order in the state which caused large-scale communal violence in the state.

He targeted the Muslim population and reportedly massacred many Muslims and Gujjars around Jammu on October 14, 1947.

On November 16, 1947, Sheikh Abdullah arrived in Jammu and set up a refugee camp in Mohalla Ustad.

The violence initiated the mistrust that has remained between Hindus and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir in the decades that followed.

Hari Singhs other desire was to keep Jammu and Kashmir independent of India or Pakistan.

He appointed a new Prime Minister Major Janak Singh, and asked him to send telegrams to both India and Pakistan on August 12, expressing the State's intention to sign standstill agreements with them.

Standstill agreements were signed between the new dominions India and Pakistan and stated that all the administrative arrangements, existing between the British Crown and the state would continue unaltered between the signatory dominion (India or Pakistan) and the princely state until new arrangements were made.

The Government of Pakistan replied telegraphically on 14 August, 1947, confirming that the status quo would be maintained.

The telegraphic agreement bound the Government of Pakistan to continue the existing administrative arrangements about communications, supplies, and postal and telegraphic services. Jammu and Kashmirs postal and telegraphic services, which were formerly part of the Punjab provincial services based in Lahore, were taken over by Pakistan. Also on August 14, when Pakistan became independent, Pakistani flags were hoisted on most of the post offices until the Maharaja's government ordered them to be taken down.

However, only two months after the independence, on October 20, 1947, Pakistan breached the standstill agreement and attacked Kashmir under Operation Gulmarg, forcing Hari Singh to wake up to the new reality of the Indian dominion. He wrote to the Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten, seeking military aid.

Attached to this letter was the signed instrument of accession to India. Mountbatten signed the instrument on October 27, 1947. As per the instrument of accession, however, only defence, external affairs, and communications would be handed over to the government of India, while control over all other sectors was to be retained by the ruler, under the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution Act, 1939.

These conditions were peculiar to Kashmirs accession to India, unlike the 565 other states that had chosen to integrate fully with India. Article 370 was therefore introduced in the constitution to preserve the specific terms under which Kashmir had agreed to accede to India.

Under the new arrangement on March 5, 1948, Sheikh Abdullah was elected as the first Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state with a Hindu ruler. He immediately agitated against Hari Singh and urged for self-rule in Kashmir.

Subsequently, in 1953, Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed a year after Karan Singh (Hari Singhs son) was appointed the Sadr-I-Riyasat (President) of the state and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad was appointed Prime Minister.

However, in 1965 the designations Sadr-I-Riyasat and Prime Minister were replaced by the terms Governor and Chief Minister.

Sheikh Abdullah again became the chief minister in 1975 after signing an accord with Indira Gandhi.

This accord was an attempt to make Sheikh Abdullah sign an accord relinquishing multiple special provisions that the state had.

There were 23 constitutional orders passed to integrate the state into the Indian union and 262 Union laws had been applied to the state. However, the accord recognised the State's right to legislate on matters such as welfare, social and cultural issues, and Muslim personal law.

With time, Article 370 had remained a mere emotional crutch for the people of Jammu and Kashmir to relive their Maharajahs attempt to protect their special status.

Politicians from time to time had diluted Article 370 and the special status of the state in exchange for power, free flow of money to the state, and the vast amount of corruption that happened as a trade-off for not revolting against the Indian government.

These politicians were mostly of Kashmiri origin, as New Delhi adopted the appeasement policy to keep them under control by giving them a sense of power and ignoring the rampant corruption that they practised.

Some of the special provisions in the Article were very special to the people of the state, especially for the people of Jammu who always idolized their erstwhile Maharajahs. The Dogras of Jammu still hold on to the sense of royalty they enjoyed through their Maharajas who ruled a Muslim majority state and that, too, a state with unparalleled beauty.

However, the Kashmiri politicians have been extremely astute and taken advantage of every situation in the state. They always held the Indian government at ransom and took advantage of the naivety of the peace-loving Dogras of Jammu.

Jammu has been historically the capital of the state with its legacy of dynamic rulers, its Sikh-Dogri, Rajputana and Pahadi culture making Jammu a unique melting pot of progressive and inclusive culture.

In spite of Hari Singhs hostile intentions against other communities, Karan Singhhis only heir, from his fourth wife Tara Devi, the princess of Kangraturned a leaf in the history book of Dogra rule by taking more to academics and religion.

Karan Singh also failed at his various attempts to make a mark in politics. After the Congress denied him the Lok Sabha ticket from Jammu in 1985, he ran as an independent; Janak Raj Gupta, a young and dynamic Congress leader, defeated him with a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes.

Jammu, over the subsequent years, allowed the centre government of India to buy peace in the state at the cost of compromising their right to development and preservation of their blue-blooded culture.

The attention of the Government was diverted completely to Kashmir, whose leaders always kept New Delhi at gunpoint with the threats of plebiscite or seeking UNs or even Americas intervention.

It is no surprise that even today many self-proclaimed activists from Kashmir run to the other countries to blackmail the Indian government. This has been the pattern inherited through the ages to keep the turmoil simmering in the state for the personal glory of these activists.

Kashmir has been over the years mollycoddled by the Government of India with unlimited and unquestioned resources for its development while the real vertex of the northernmost IndiaJammu, has been ignored and starved of attention, resources or development.

The Dogras of Jammu in turn have lost the zest to fight for their rights in the absence of any dynamic and powerful leader in the recent past and have reconciled to the fact that the burden of Kashmir is something they will have to keep carrying.

The recent G20 event which ignored the Jammu region is just another example of how Jammu is dwindling into the shadows and as always is pushed back to glorify Kashmir.

The only solution to this situation lies in the rise of a discerning, dynamic and empathetic leader who belongs to the state and can find a balance of culture and can rule the battered state with emotion and intelligence.

The history and the culture of the state needs to be preserved, while empathy is required to undo the damages done to the Muslim community over the years and to bring Jammu to equal prominence in development and representation.

(The writer is an architect and entrepreneur from Jammu and is based in Delhi.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.)
With the assembly polls looming, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is currently on a month-long intensive tour of the state laying foundation stones and inaugurating development works worth over Rs two lakh crores in around 25 districts.

Along with the developmental works, the chief minister is also holding road shows, spending nights at district places and holding conventions of beneficiaries of different government schemes, mainly the women, youth and tribal people.

The month-long initiative that started on July 16 has been named Vikas Parva (development festival) and is clearly a pre-poll mass contact initiative of Chouhan, political watchers say. The initiative will continue till August 14.

The chief minister, known for his personal bonding with people and huge energy, has been active on the ground for the last about one year, holding a series of public conventions across the state.

They key among them were Laadli Behna Sammelan  where Chouhan interacted with women and highlighted the benefits of the cash assistance scheme of Rs 1000 per month, and the PESA Sammelan  wherein the implementation of the PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act was highlighted to the tribal people.

But with the assembly polls coming closer, the chief minister has decided on another round of mass contact through government programmes in the form of the 'Vikas Parva'. This precedes the proposed Jan Ashirwad (peoples blessings) tour of the ruling BJP in September, though different senior leaders are expected to lead this tour from different parts of state along with Chouhan.

Sources said that the CMs mass contact initiative comes on the backdrop of reports that anti-incumbency was high in the state and people were upset. Through the Vikas Parva, the CM is trying to fulfill several demands of the people to blunt the outrage. In this series, he announced the creation of the 54th district of the state in Nagda of Ujjain on July 21. Ujjain is a key district in the Malwa region that is considered a BJP stronghold and the ruling party will want to keep people here in good humour.

Foundation stones laid for Rs 1245 crore worth projects at Neemuch

On Monday, the chief minister laid foundation stones for 13 development works worth Rs 1,245 crores in Manasa of Neemuch district under the Vikas Parva. He also inaugurated works worth Rs 36.76 crores.

CM Chouhan at a road show in Neemuch

Speaking on the occasion at a womens convention, Chouhan attacked the opposition Congress saying that the party only deceived the people. In Neemuch, the Congress government never thought of providing water from Gandhi Sagar dam to the farmers. In 2018, when Kamal Nath became the chief minister, he failed to waive farm loans as promised and rather put a burden of interest on the pending loans on the farmers.

He said that the Rampur Manasa Micro-irrigation project, the foundation stone for which was laid on Monday, will be so beneficial to the farmers of Neemuch that they will leave behind the farmers of Punjab (in productivity).

He highlighted the schemes made by the BJP government for the women including the flagship Ladli Laxmi scheme and the Ladli Behna scheme. He reiterated that the monthly cash assistance under the scheme will soon be increased to Rs 3,000.
Amid the bulldozer action in Nuh district, Haryana, curfew has been relaxed for fours hours in the violence-hit district. In connection with the demolitions, Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of targeting Muslims after violence broke out in Nuh.

Bulldozer action is a collective punishment to Muslims, said Owaisi.

Confidence Building" means buildings,homes and medical shops &shanties of one community (Muslims)should be Demolished without following due process to give collective punishment. The @mlkhattar government has usurped the rights of Courts of Law  Confidence "is being given to people who are ideologically closer to BJP/Sangh, tweeted Owaisi.

Owaisi was responding to the recent statement by Nuh Deputy Commissioner, who said that the demolition was a routine procedure and action is not being taken to target anyone.

"Considering the request of LDM Nuh and in order to create normalcy in region and to provide banking facility in the public interest, exercising the powers vested in me by virtue of Section-144 of the code of Criminal Procedure, 1973,... permit the Opening of ATMs (10 am to 3 pm) at the MC area of Nuh, Tauru, Punhana, Ferozepur Jhirka and Pingwon and Nagina Block during curfew relaxation period and banks will remain open during the curfew period from 10 am to 3 pm for these areas. Cash transaction will be from 11 am to 2 pm only," read the official letter by Nuh District Magistrate Dhirendra Khadgata.

Meanwhile, there were also reports that several Rohingya refugees has been arrested by the Haryana Police in connection with the violence.

"We have identified a list of them who were involved in the violence and we have evidence for it and based on it the teams have arrested them," Narender Bijarniya, Nuh superintendent of police told Hindustan Times.

The curfew has been relaxed from 9 am to 1 pm.

However, Sabber Kyaw Min, founder and director of Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, an NGO, criticised the Nuh district administration for throwing out refugees from their space with surprise demolitions.

The authorities had made it clear that the bulldozer action was not related to the Nuh violence. Action was taken against illegal constructions, said the authorities.

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had earlier said that bulldozer action will be carried out wherever necessary.

On Sunday, bulldozer razed Sahara Hotel on the fourth day of the demolition drive.

Over 50 structures in different areas have been demolished so far. A 23-year-old mosque member was stabbed to death and a deputy Imam suffered grievous injuries in the mob attack on July 31.
Soon after his Lok Sabha membership was restored, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi arrived at Parliament House on Monday. Rahul, who offered floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi's statue, attended Lok Sabha proceedings after it resumed at noon. But, the session got adjourned within minutes.

He was welcomed by INDIA bloc leaders who chanted "Rahul Gandhi Zindabad". Congress leaders were also seen distributing sweets outside the Parliament buildings. Celebrations were also held at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.



This came as Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored following a Supreme Court order staying his conviction.



Senior Congress leaders and party workers hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, saying it is a victory for truth and justice. The party also said that Rahul will be the key speaker in the debate on the no-confidence motion likely to be taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.



Meanwhile, Rahul's Twitter bio has been changed to 'Member of Parliament' from the earlier "Dis'Qualified MP" description. He had edited his bio to "Dis'Qualified MP" after he was disqualification from the Lok Sabha in March following his conviction in the Modi surname case. A Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.



Lok Sabha adjourned



The Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Monday amid sloganeering by treasury and opposition benches over a report on Chinese funds coming to India.



As the House reassembled at 12 noon after an earlier adjournment, BJP member Nishikant Dubey raised the issue of a news report in the New York Times which claimed that web portal NewsClick has received Rs 38 crore funding and the money has been used to create an anti-India environment. Dubey alleged that NewsClick is a member of anti-India 'Tukde Tukde' gang, and demanded that the Government investigate the beneficiaries of the fundings.



"... Between 2005 and 2014, Chinese Government has paid money to Congress .... Congress wants to divide India ...," Dubey alleged in Lok Sabha, amid opposition uproar.



(With inputs from PTI)


An Agra sessions court has stayed the conviction of BJP leader and former Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria in a 2011 assault and rioting case, said reports. This comes two days after he was sentenced to two years in prison and was slapped with a fine of Rs 50,000.

The Lok Sabha MP from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, who was convicted of thrashing staffers of Torrent Power Limited in 2011, welcomed the order and said he got justice, according to Hindustan Times.

The development comes in the backdrop of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi being reinstated as Lok Sabha MP from Keral's Wayanad on Monday after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction on Saturday in a 2019 defamation case connected to the "Modi surname" remark.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Sunday sought the disqualification of Katheria as Lok Sabha legislator claiming his conviction was for an offence graver than what Rahul Gandhi was accused of. "He (Ram Shankar Katheria) should be disqualified. The law is equal for everyone. Now the Supreme Court decision has also come in the case of Rahul Gandhi. There is a big difference between what he (Katheria) did and what Rahul Gandhi is accused of, PTI quoted Nath as saying.



On Saturday, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said Gandhi was disqualified within 24 hours of a Surat court convicting the latter. "It will now be seen if Katheria's (LS) membership is revoked or not. Let's see how impartially the Lok Sabha Speaker works," Singh had said.



Gandhi was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP on March 24 after the metropolitan court in Surat in Gujarat handed him two years in jail in the case a day earlier. On July 7, the Gujarat High Court dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the conviction, after which he approached the apex court on July 15.

 With PTI inputs
The Lok Sabha Secretariat revoked Rahul Gandhi's membership in the upper house on Monday days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.

Congress posted the official notification from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on the X platform, calling it Victory of love against hate.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhis reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!@INCIndia @ProfCong  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 7, 2023

Earlier in the day, the Congress party said it would move Supreme Court on Tuesday if the Wayanad MP's membership is not restored by evening. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "We've given all the documents including order copy. We will meet Lok Sabha Speaker today and if needed we will protest as well. It is our right..."

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in prison. A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court stay on the conviction also means that Rahul can contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul's re-entry into the Lok Sabha means he will be part of the no-confidence motion against the Modi government, scheduled to be taken up on Tuesday.

Congress was ealrier 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.

Party leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Rahul in the case, said earlier, "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.
RPF constable Chetan Singh who gunned down four people aboard a Jaipur-Mumbai train has now been slapped with additional charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion.



Earlier, Singh, 33, denied any communal angle in the murder of the four victims, an NDTV report said. The victims were identified as assistant sub-inspector Tikaram Meena, 57, and three passengers -- Saifuddin Mainuddin, 43, from Hyderabad; Asgar Abbas Ali, 48, from Madhubani, Bihar; and Abdul Kadar Mohamed Hussain Bhanpurwala, 64, from Palghar, Maharashtra,

The Government Railway Police have added IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) in the FIR against accused. Earlier, the FIR was registered under IPC Section 302 (murder), Arms Act 3, 25, 27, and Railways Act.

The police was granted custody of the accused till August 11 after they sought time to identify the witnesses and scan CCTV footage.

The incident took place on July 31 near Palghar railway station in Maharashtra. After shooting the victims, the accused tried to flee.

As per Railway and RPF officers, Singh was carrying an AK 47 rifle and a magazine with 20 rounds. He fired 12 rounds, and the rest 8 bullets were seized with the weapon. He was caught with his weapon later after passengers pulled the chain of the train near Mira Road station.

Singh joined the RPF in 2009 on compassionate grounds after the death of his father. He was transferred to Mumbai from Bhavnagar in Gujarat last March, another railway official said. Railway officials refuted reports that Singh was upset over his transfer to Mumbai.

After media reports claimed that the constable suffered from "abnormal hallucinations" and was diagnosed with serious anxiety disorder, the Ministry of Railways in a statement on August 2 said in a statement that no mental ailment was detected in the last periodic medical examination of the RPF constable.

However, the statement was withdrawn that evening, with a Railway spokesperson saying,

"The press release has been withdrawn.

A senior RPF official earlier said its constables undergo a health check-up every five years, but no record is available to show whether Singh had undergone a health check-up in the last two years or not.

 with inputs from PTI
A suicide bombing targeting a political rally in Pakistans restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on July 30 claimed more than 50 lives, including many minors. This province, bordering Afghanistan, has seen a spate of such suicide attacks, the latest of them on July 18 and July 20.



It demonstrates the fact that terrorists belonging to the Islamic State (IS), who have claimed responsibility for the attack, have developed the ability to strike with impunity and at will across Pakistan.



The implications of these attacks are huge for India as the IS has named India as one of its prime targets because of the Kashmir issue.



Consequently, the Af-Pak axis, of late, is again unstable, a development that has inevitable spillover effects on India.



Making matters worse is the fact that the IS already has notable presence in India, including in Kashmir. Scores of Indiansmostly from Keralahave been found to be working for the IS with many of them having joined the IS ranks in conflict zones in Afghanistan and Iraq to wage the holy war.



It also proves that the US strategy of trying to manage the IS threat through indirect support to the Taliban in Afghanistan has collapsed as the Taliban has proved seemingly ineffective in dealing with the IS menace.



With the IS rearing its head in Pakistan which is already in deep economic and political turmoil, it may be possible that the US may again look at developing closer ties with Pakistan to curb the IS menace. The US has a history of moving in its assets wherever the IS strikes a presence.



With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafs (PTI) chief Imran Khan already in prison and facing an uncertain political future, the main impediment to closer US-Pakistan relations has been removed as the Pakistan military establishment has historically been supportive of closer US-Pak ties.



One of the main reasons for the feud between Khan and the Pakistani generals was the gap that Khan had put between Pakistan and the US and the increasing associations with China.



A closer US-Pak relationship would also be detrimental for India as one of the cornerstones of Indian diplomatic strategyto isolate Pakistanwould be considerably weakened.



According to a July 3 report by the independent think-tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), the first six months of 2023 had seen a total of 271 militant attacks across Pakistan that killed 389 people and injured about 700. Adding the numbers of those killed in the recent attacks would bring up the toll to more than 450. This is a huge escalation when compared to the first half of 2022.



The two main terror groups that have owned up to these attacks are the Islamic State (Khorasan) (IS-K) and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Ironically, both these outfits, besides fighting the Pakistani state, are also fighting one another.



The TTP was set up in 2007 when Pakistanis in the Afghan Taliban broke off with the parent body to focus more on Pakistan. It is believed to retain its filial connection to the Afghan Taliban which is in power in Kabul, where the outfit manages its safe sanctuaries besides logistical support, including weapons supply.



The Afghanistan-headquartered Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) began as a self-declared wilayat (province) under the overall control of the caliphate of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But perhaps realizing the distinct importance of India and Pakistan, ISK branched out to set up Wilayat al-Hind branch for India and the Wilayat Pakistan for Pakistan on May 10, 2019, and May 15, 2019, respectively.
Thunderstorms, which have become more frequent and intense due to climate change, sometimes lead to very unexpected results. For example, a lightning strike created a completely new phosphorus mineral on Earth, similar to the one previously found only on meteorites and in space. At least, this is the first sample known to science that has been recorded on our planet.

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The incredible find was reported by Talker. The researchers suggest that lightning strikes, such as the one that created this compound, could have led to the formation of chemicals that gave rise to life on Earth.

The mineral was found at the site of a lightning strike in a tree in New Point Richey (Florida, USA). As a result, a fulgurite was formed there - a piece of sintered rock (stone, soil, sand, etc.), which is also called fossilised lightning. It was discovered by the owners of the land plot and handed over to scientists for study.

Professor Matthew Pasek from the University of South Florida (USF), who studied the fulgurite, said that the mineral found in it had never been found naturally on Earth. "Minerals similar to it can be found in meteorites and space, but we have never seen this particular material anywhere," he said.

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According to the geologist, when lightning strikes a tree, the ground underneath usually explodes and the grass dies, leaving a "scar" of baked rock and sand around it.

Pasik studied fulgurite together with Luca Bindi, a professor of mineralogy and crystallography at the University of Florence in Italy. They published the results of their work in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

The scientists are interested in minerals containing phosphorus, especially those formed as a result of a lightning strike. In this way, they are trying to better understand the nature and consequences of high-energy phenomena.

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In humid environments, such as Florida's climate, iron often accumulates and coats the roots of trees. When lightning struck one of them, the discharge not only melted the metal, but also burned the natural carbon contained in the wood. The two elements led to a chemical reaction that resulted in the formation of fulgurite, which looks like a metal "ball". And inside it was a colourful, crystal-like substance that had never been found on Earth before.

When USF graduate and geologist Dr Tian Feng tried to recreate the mineral in the laboratory, he failed. This indicates that the material is likely to form rapidly under certain conditions and, when heated for a very long time, will turn into the mineral found in meteorites.

According to Dr Feng, previous research has shown that the transformation of phosphates by lightning was a common phenomenon on early Earth. "However, there is a problem with the environmental phosphite reservoir on Earth, which makes these solid phosphite materials difficult to recover," the scientist explained. He also added that this study may prove that other forms of reduced minerals are likely, and many of them may have been important for the development of life on Earth.

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Meanwhile, Professors Pasek and Bindi intend to continue studying the material to determine whether it can be called a mineral and how to present it to the scientific community in the future.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL told what danger Antarctic volcanoes can pose to humanity.

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Researchers have discovered that irrigation practices worldwide have caused a measurable shift in Earth's rotational axis, altering the position of the North Pole. According to computer simulations, from 1993 to 2010, irrigation played a significant role in nudging the pole towards the eastern coast of Greenland by about 78 centimeters.

This study from the University of Texas at Austin sheds light on the unexpected impact of irrigation on Earth's rotational axis.

While the shift caused by irrigation may seem small in comparison to other drivers of polar drift, it is a significant scientific finding. As the scientists continue to explore and study Earth's intricate mechanisms, it serves as a reminder of the profound influence human activities can have on our planet's delicate balance. Understanding the relationship between human activities and Earth's rotation can help us better comprehend the delicate balance of our planet's systems and the potential consequences of large-scale water movement.

Earth's polar drift

Earth's North Pole undergoes cyclic drift, partly influenced by seasonal weather patterns and long-term variations in ocean water temperature and salinity, known as the Chandler wobble. However, scientists have identified additional factors contributing to the pole's movement, including the subtle non-cyclic drift caused by the movement of water from land to sea due to melting glaciers worldwide, including those in Greenland and Antarctica.

Role of irrigation

In this study, researchers sought to examine the impact of different water movements on Earth's rotation. Among these factors, irrigation emerged as a surprising contender. Computer simulations revealed that from 1993 to 2010, approximately 2 trillion metric tons of water were transferred from land-based aquifers to the oceans due to irrigation. This redistribution of water alone was enough to shift the North Pole by an average of over four centimeters annually during the study period.

The Eastward drift

When considering all sources of water movement, including glacial melt and other factors, the North Pole drifted approximately 1.6 meters towards the east coast of Greenland. Irrigation primarily contributed to nudging the pole towards the east, rather than its natural path, which would have led it towards the center of Greenland. The researchers emphasize that irrigation's impact on the pole's movement is permanent and may be growing each year.

Impact on climate

Apart from its effect on Earth's rotation, large-scale irrigation also influences local and regional climates. For instance, studies have shown that irrigation in California's Central Valley cools temperatures and increases humidity. In the Four Corners area of the American Southwest, it leads to enhanced rainfall, while the Colorado River experiences heightened flow volumes.
Cambodia's king, on Monday, issued a decree stating Hun Manet will succeed Hun Sen as Cambodia's prime minister. Hun Manet is the eldest son of Hun Sen, who was prime minister for 38 years. Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, after a landslide victory in July's election, had said that he was stepping down as prime minister and handing power to his eldest son.

The main opposition challenger, the Candlelight Party, was barred from contesting the elections over a technicality, causing critics to call the elections a sham and undemocratic. The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) won 120 seats in the 125-member lower house. The US, EU and other Western nations have said the elections in July were neither free nor fair.

King Norodom Sihamoni issued the royal decree after Hun Sen sent a letter requesting the official note, BBC reported. 45-year-old Hun Manet was until recently the commander of the Royal Cambodian Army. His appointment needs to be confirmed by the parliament via a cabinet vote on August 22.

Hun Manet's cabinet is likely to see a crop of young ministers, with several of them taking over the baton from their fathers. Hun Sen will continue to serve as leader of the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

Hun Sen, who came into power in 1985, has become increasingly authoritarian with him silencing opponents by either jailing or exiling them. "I will continue serving in other positions at least until 2033," Hun Sen told Reuters. Hun Sen, while dispensing political and business privileges to potential rivals to keep them happy, encumbered Cambodia with corruption and inequality. Analysts expect Hun Manet to lead with a more liberal approach and be more receptive to Western calls on human rights.
Niger's military junta closed the country's airspace on Sunday after rejecting a deadline to reinstate the ousted president. This comes as the West African regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatened the new regime with military intervention.

"In the face of the threat of intervention that is becoming more apparent ... Nigerien airspace is closed effective from today," a junta representative said in a statement, adding that two Central African countries pre-deployed forces in preparation for an intervention

"Niger's armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory," he said, referring to thousands of junta supporters who flocked to a stadium in Niger's capital Niamey, cheering the decision not to cave in to external pressure to stand down.

Earlier, some of the ECOWAS countries agreed to a possible military action plan, including when and where to strike, if the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, is not released and reinstated by the deadline.

The ECOWAS bloc's military threat has sparked fears of further conflict in a region already battling the deadly Islamist insurgency. Niger's uranium and oil riches and its pivotal role in a war with Islamist militants makes it important for the US, Europe, China and Russia.

Niger's former coloniser France has backed ECOWAS's military intervention plan. Niger last week revoked military cooperation agreements with France, which has between 1,000 and 1,500 troops in the country, according to Reuters.
Nawaz Sharif will be Pakistan's next premier if the ruling PML-N returns to power after the country goes to polls in November, his brother and the country's current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said.



Shehbaz Sharif's remarks came at a public meeting in Kasur, some 50kms from Lahore, on Sunday evening.

Nawaz Sharif, 73, has been living in self-imposed exile in the UK since November 2019. He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018. He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills reference before he was allowed to proceed to London on "medical grounds".

"Nawaz Sharif will be the next prime minister of Pakistan. He will serve the people as he had done before," Shehbaz Sharif, 71, said.

He said his elder brother (Nawaz) would be the prime minister of Pakistan for the fourth time and would 'change the country's destiny' by boosting agriculture, industry, and infrastructure.

He said Pakistan saw phenomenal progress in Nawaz Sharif's last tenure 2013-17 and improved relations with countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye while former premier Imran Khan had damaged Pakistan's relations with these countries.

Shehbaz said he would dissolve the assemblies on August 9, and the people of Pakistan would elect their government through a vote in November 2023.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has not yet announced the date of the general election.

Since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in the Toshakhana (national treasury gifts) case, it is believed that the military establishment will now manage to get 'desired results' in the upcoming general elections.

Some ruling PML-N leaders, including Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, have linked Nawaz Sharif's return to the change of command in the apex court.

Nawaz Sharif will return to the country once he gets relief in cases he is convicted of, a senior leader of the Punjab chapter of PML-N told PTI on Monday.

He said no assurances had been given to the Sharifs on this by the establishment as yet, and the situation would be clear once the caretaker set-up is installed.

After Prime Minister Shehbaz's statement that the election will be held as per the digital census conducted earlier this year, it means the elder Sharif may get more time to settle his cases before booking a flight back to Pakistan, he said.

PML-N's former federal minister Talal Chaudhry has linked the holding of upcoming polls with the return of Nawaz Sharif.

The moment Nawaz Sharif boards a plane to Pakistan, it should be seen as a sign of elections taking place in the country," Chaudhry said and added that Nawaz Sharif would not only lead the election campaign but would also be the only party's candidate for prime minister.
Pakistan's Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Monday said lack of resources was the real cause of the recent tragic train accident. He added that a probe is on and individuals responsible would be punished.



Dawn quoted Rafique as saying, A very terrifying railway accident took place in which 30 precious lives were lost. This is a consequence of our lack of resources. The minister said though an investigation has been launched, shortage of resources was the real issue. The real [issue] responsible [for it] is that we do not have resources. We are unable to maintain things, Dawn reported quoting the minister.

The minister said the preliminary inquiry report has arrived but there was difference of opinion. Rafique asserted that those responsible for the accident would be punished. The minister said that if required investment is not made in the railways [sector] in Pakistan, then the already-established system will be absolutely ruined. He added that future governments should pay attention to railway projects as well.

The Hazara Express train travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi derailed on Sunday in Nawabshah district and at least 31 persons were killed in the accident. According to reports, 10 bogies of the train got derailed. Official sources in the Pakistan Railways termed the derailment of the Havailian-bound Hazara Express as a result of the breaking of the railway line, and hot axle, which jammed movement.

(With PTI inputs.)
Pope Francis, on Sunday, reiterated that the church is open to everyone, and that includes the LGBTQ community and all marginalised groups. The Pope made the comments during a 25-minute, in-flight press conference to Rome. He was returning from a five-day trip to Portugal, where he joined in celebrations for World Youth Day, a major Catholic youth festival where more than 1.5 million pilgrims joined the Pope during the final Sunday Mass.



The Pope has, for the last several days, been driving home a message to the youth that the church is open to everyone. The 86-year-old also said that his health was good following surgery for an abdominal hernia in June, Reuters reported. He added that his stitches had been removed, but he had to wear an abdominal band for two or three months until his muscles strengthened.

During his visit to Portugal, the Pope kept reiterating the message that everyone is welcome in the Catholic Church. He also asked young people to repeat after him "todos, todos, todos" ("everyone, everyone, everyone).

"The church is a mother," he said, adding that he does not like reduction when it comes to discussing who can take part in the life of the church. The Pope also said that while everyone was welcome at the church, but, there are laws that regulate life inside the church. Women and people in the gay community could not receive the same sacraments.

While women aren't allowed to become priests, same-sex couples aren't allowed to get married. He also said that not being allowed to take part in certain sacraments doesn't mean the church is closed. During his ten years at the Vatican, the Pope has pushed for various reforms including creating more high-ranking positions in the Vatican for women. He has also supported civil legislation that grants rights to same-sex couples in areas like pensions, health insurance, and inheritance.

While in Portugal, the Pope, on Wednesday, met with 13 survivors of clergy sexual abuse. According to a report released by an independent commission, Catholic clergy members in Portugal had abused more than 4,800 children since 1950.
Former US President Donald Trump has said he will not get a fair trial in Washington DC with the judge assigned in the alleged election fraud case.

Trump, the forerunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, hinted his plan to seek U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's recusal and change of venue through a social media post that read: "No way I can get a fair trial, or even close to a fair trial, in Washington, D.C. There are many reasons for this, but just one is that I am calling for a federal takeover of this filthy and crime ridden embarrassment to our nation."



Trump, however, gave no details of his grounds for asking her to step down.



The judge, Tanya Chutkan, was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014. She had previously ruled against Trump's efforts to hide evidence from the House January 6 Committee. She had also handed over sentences against accused the Capitol riot that were longer than the sentences sought by the prosecutors.



However, no formal request was filed with the court by Trump lawyers as of midday on Sunday.



The prosecutors had earlier said they feared Trump might disclose confidential evidence and sought a protective order to prevent "the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public".



Judge Chutkan gave Trump's legal team time until Monday evening to respond to the submission.



Meanwhile, Trump's attorney has said that any actions the former President took after his 2020 re-election loss were "aspirational asks." Hitting out at proposed order aimed at protecting witnesses and evidence, John Lauro told Fox News that every single thing that President Trump is being prosecuted for involved aspirational asks - Asking state legislatures, asking state governors, asking state electoral officials to do the right thing. "In fact, even asking Vice President Pence was protected by free speech," Lauro told Fox News.

Lauro also cast doubt on the idea that Trump could receive a fair trial in Washington, instead suggesting West Virginia as a more diverse alternative. "We would like a diverse venue. A diverse jury  that reflects the characteristics of the American people," Lauro said. He also sought cameras in the courtroom in order to show the public "what kind of prosecution is going on."


Ahmedabad, Aug 7 (PTI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday said it has registered a case against a city-based private firm, its directors and other individuals for allegedly cheating Union Bank of India of Rs 46.79 crore, and also searched its premises.

The first information report (FIR) was filed against 'Greendiamz Biotech Pvt Ltd', its directors Champat Sanghavi, Deepak Champat Sanghavi and Ashwin Shah, other private persons as well as unidentified public servants, the probe agency said in a release.

The CBI also carried out searches at different locations in Ahmedabad, including the company premises, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents and articles, said the release.

It was alleged the accused persons diverted loan disbursed to them by the government-run bank's Ahmedabad branch.

The loan was obtained by submitting forged documents and information, thereby committing offences of criminal breach of trust, cheating and misappropriation of public funds, among others, said the central agency.

Siphoning of the bank's fund by the private company has caused a loss of Rs 46.79 crore to the central government lender, added the release.
Bhawanipatna (Odisha), Aug 7 (PTI) The Director General Civil Aviation Monday (DGCA) on Monday said it has issued the license for Utkela airport in Odishas Kalahandi district to start flight operations. Utkela airport, 15 km from the district headquarters of Bhawanipatna, is among the airstrips that have been listed under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

This license from Civil Aviation has paved the way for regular flights of commercial aeroplanes from Utkella to Bhubaneswar and Raipur, capitals of Odisha and its neighbour Chhattisgarh respectively.

After Rourkela and Jeypore, the UDAN service will be launched soon in Utkela, an official said adding that initially GSEC Monarch has been given the license to fly nine-seated commercial planes.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik welcomed the DGCA's decision.

Glad to share that #UtkelaAirport in #Kalahandi district has received DGCA license to start flight operation. Soon flight operations will commence to #Bhubaneswar. It will boost connectivity, commerce & tourism, fulfilling aspiration of people of the region, Patnaik said in a statement posted on X, earlier known as Twitter.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunsure Energy, one of India's leading renewable power producers, has signed an open access solar PPA with Kajaria Ceramics, the largest manufacturer of ceramic/vitrified tiles in India. Through the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Kajaria Ceramics will source a significant amount of the power they need for their Sikandrabad plant from green energy, helping them greatly reduce their emissions. The PPA was signed in the presence of Mr. R.C. Rawat and Mr. Vinit Kumar from Kajaria Ceramics and Mr. Shashank Sharma (CEO & Founder, Sunsure), Mr. Vinod Sharma (Senior Vice President) from Sunsure Energy.



This is a significant step by Kajaria Ceramics to decarbonize their energy pipeline. Through the PPA, Sunsure Energy will be supplying over 15.75 Mn units of green power to Kajaria's Sikandrabad factory. This will enable them to offset over 12.6 million kgs. of CO2 yearly for the next 25 years.



Commenting on the PPA agreement, Mr. R.C. Rawat, COO (A&T) and Company Secretary at Kajaria Ceramics said, "Technology, research, design and quality have always been the main focus points at Kajaria and have led the organization to become the largest manufacturer of tiles in India. Our switch to RE power with Sunsure Energy is our attempt to conduct our business in the most responsible and sustainable manner. We are delighted to have Sunsure Energy as our partner in our route to decarbonization."



Mr. Shashank Sharma, Founder - Chairman & CEO of Sunsure Energy, said, "It gives us immense pleasure to join forces with the largest tile maker in India, taking yet another step towards making our nation greener. We welcome Kajaria Ceramics into our family of esteemed customers. It's very promising to see organizations of Kajaria's stature joining the green energy revolution. We hope to continue to leverage our strengths in the RE sector to help Kajaria Ceramics further in their Net Zero journey. Together, we are committed to creating a brighter and sustainable future for India."



About Sunsure Energy



Sunsure Energy is one of India's largest C&I focused Renewable Energy Power Producers. Sunsure is backed by Partners Group AG with a $400 million equity investment for developing over 3 GW of RE assets by 2027. Founded in 2015, Sunsure has developed and installed solar power plants for power-intensive industrial customers across 16 Indian states. Sunsure is the partner of choice to corporations committed to RE100 targets operating in India and takes pride in its ability to deliver end-to-end decarbonization solutions in-line with long term corporate sustainability targets.



About Kajaria Ceramics



Kajaria Ceramics is the largest manufacturer of ceramic & vitrified tiles in India. It has an annual aggregate capacity of 81.55 mn. sq. meters. Founded 34 years ago, Kajaria has since then grown stronger with its hard work, innovations and patronage from our discerning customers. Kajaria Ceramics has increased its capacity from 1 mn. sq. mtrs to 81.55 mn. sq. mtrs. in the last 34 years and offers more than 3000 options in ceramic wall & floor tiles, vitrified tiles, designer tiles and much more. With an unparalleled commitment towards quality Kajaria has strived to adopt latest technologies and standards with the changing times.



For more information, please contact:

Email: marketing@sunsure.in



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1947349/SunSure_Logo.jpg



(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

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The Russian dictator's spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave a vague and contradictory answer to a Western media journalist when asked whether Russia was seeking to conquer more of Ukraine beyond the four partially occupied regions it illegally annexed in September 2022. He also admitted that the election of the head of the aggressor country is an "expensive bureaucracy" and Putin will be re-elected once again already with 90% support.

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However, the Kremlin speaker later retracted his last statement. This was pointed out by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), explaining the Kremlin's cynical aspirations to continue significant military operations against the Ukrainian state.

Thus, in a comment to a New York Times reporter regarding Ukraine's territories, Peskov said that Russia simply wants to "control all the land" that it has already written into the constitution "as its own."

The analysts emphasized that such a direct answer of his was contradictory, vague and did not answer the journalist's initial question. After all, Russian troops have not fully occupied the four regions of Ukraine - Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk - that are officially claimed by the Russian government.

"Russian forces would have to conduct significant offensive operations to seize more than 16,000 square kilometers of land in these four regions to bring the de facto Russian-occupied territory in line with the Russian constitution, as described by Peskov," ISW pointed out the unrealistic nature of the Kremlin's plans.

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It added that today Russia also temporarily occupied territory in the northeast of Kharkiv Region and in Mykolaiv Region (Kinburn Spit), but the Kremlin did not formally annex them.

So Peskov's statement implies that Russian troops should give up the temporarily occupied territories in these areas. However, the Russian government has given no indication that it plans to do so, and in fact continues offensive operations to gain more territory in Kharkiv Oblast.

"The Kremlin is likely seeking to continue significant military operations against Ukraine in order to - at the very least - seize the remaining parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Russian forces have not yet occupied. In addition, the Kremlin has formulated additional maximalist goals in Ukraine, given the change in the Ukrainian government and constitution," ISW explained the terrorist state's intentions.

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Also, analysts drew attention to another contradictory expression of the speaker of the Russian dictator. In particular, Peskov strangely said, , presidential elections in Russia are "not really democracy", but rather "expensive bureaucracy". And he added that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be re-elected next year "with more than 90% of the vote." But as soon as this statement by Peskov was published, he retracted his words the same day.

As reported OBOZREVATEL, in response to the statements of the Kremlin speaker, the advisor to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak emphasized that there are no Ukrainian territories written into the Russian constitution. At the same time, there are only Ukrainian territories that are temporarily under occupation, so the Kremlin should say goodbye to its desire to control them.

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Only verified information we have in our Telegram channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
New York, Aug 7 (PTI) Indian-origin Vaibhan Taneja has been named Tesla's new Chief Financial Officer as the previous finance chief Zachary Kirkhorn announced his decision to step down, the automaker said in a company filing on Monday.

Taneja, 45, was appointed Tesla CFO in addition to his current role as Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) of the US-based electric car major on Friday after Kirhorn, Tesla's Master of Coin and finance chief for the last four years, stepped down from the post.

Kirkhorn's 13-year tenure with the Elon Musk-led American EV giant was described as one of "tremendous expansion and growth" in the company filing.

"Tesla thanks Mr Kirkhorn for his significant contributions. Mr Kirkhorn will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition," it said.

"This morning Tesla announced that Ive stepped down from my role as Chief Financial Officer, succeeded by our Chief Accounting Officer, Vaibhav Taneja," Kirkhorn said in a LinkedIn post.

"Being a part of this company is a special experience, and Im extremely proud of the work weve done together since I joined over 13 years ago. As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought (were) not possible. I also want to thank Elon for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people," he said.

Taneja has served as Teslas CAO since March 2019 and as the Corporate Controller since May 2018. He served as the Assistant Corporate Controller between February 2017 and May 2018, and from March 2016, served in various finance and accounting roles at SolarCity Corporation, a US-based solar panel developer acquired by Tesla in 2016.

Before that, Taneja was employed at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both India and the US between July 1999 and March 2016, the company filing said.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) The Lok Sabha on Monday passed an amendment bill to decriminalise the offences committed in carrying out the coastal aquaculture activities and ensure ease of doing business.

Union Minister Parshottam K Rupala said that the fishermen community of the country will welcome the bill.

He said that through this, "we can send a message from parliament that we stand with the fishermen".

The bill was passed by voice vote.

The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which was introduced in the lower house on April 5, also seeks to expand the scope, remove regulatory gaps and reduce the compliance burden without diluting environmental protection rules in the coastal areas.

To decriminalise the offences, the bill seeks to remove the jail term of up to three years and impose only a penalty of up to Rs 1 lakh.

It also seeks to fine-tune the operational procedures of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority to make it more responsive to the needs of the stakeholders, promote newer forms of environment-friendly coastal aquaculture like cage culture and seaweed culture, and usher in global best practices in this sector, including mapping and zonation of aquaculture areas, quality assurance and safe aquaculture products.

The bill also seeks to encourage the establishment of facilities in areas having direct access to seawater to produce genetically improved and disease-free broodstocks and seed for use in coastal aquaculture besides preventing the use of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances, which are harmful to human health in coastal aquaculture.

Rupala said that after its introduction in the Lok Sabha, it was sent to the standing committee.

The ministry has accepted 45 amendments of the committee out of 56.

Citing data, he said that there was an expenditure of only Rs 3,680 crore for the sector during 1947 and 2014.

But the Modi-led government has the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana with an investment of Rs 20,050 crore in fisheries sector.

During the last nine years, shrimp production in the country has increased to 11.84 lakh tonnes in 2022-23 from 3.22 lakh tonnes in 2013-14.

The government has removed a number of provisions, where imprisonment was there for minor offences, the minister said.

"We can send a message from parliament that we concerned about the fishermen community," he added.
Srinagar, Aug 7 (PTI) Over 18,000 foreign tourists visited Kashmir in the first five months this year, the highest in the past three decades, officials said on Monday noting that the successful conduct of the G20 here has generated greater interest among the travellers.

Besides tourists from southeast Asian nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, nationals of western countries like Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA have also visited Kashmir in huge numbers this season.

Authorities cited the success of the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting held here in May as the reason behind the rising footfall of inbound or foreign visitors.

"As the G-20 meeting was a grand success, the world saw our real tourism potential. The ambassadors, delegates, and high commissioners of G20 countries experienced the hospitality, warmth and flavour of Jammu and Kashmir," Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Secretary, Department of Tourism and Culture, told PTI.

He said Jammu and Kashmir was one of the prime destinations across the globe a few decades ago in terms of leisure, adventure and spiritual tourism and hoped that it will again become one of the top tourist spots in the world.

Shah said, "The number of arrivals and bookings have tripled and occupancy rates have also increased," adding that the number of tourists that arrived here in the first five months of the year has already surpassed the number of inbound visitors over the entire last year.

Manzoor Ahmad Pakhtoon, president of Houseboat Owners' Association, said the footfall of foreign tourists here this year is higher than in previous years.

"The figures have doubled this year as we saw around 10,000 foreign tourists last year but more than 18,000 tourists from different parts of the world have arrived in Kashmir already by this June," Pakhtoon said.

Mark Wory, a New Zealander, who has arrived in Kashmir on a motorbike expedition with others from his country and Australia after travelling through Ladakh, said, "The ride through the mountains was spectacular. This is a beautiful place and the people of Kashmir have been wonderfully hospitable; we feel safe here. I have heard of the G20 meet and expect policies would be reformed so that more people like me can come to Kashmir and enjoy this place," Wory said.

J Boyd from Australia's Queensland, a part of the bikers' group, said he was hopeful that more foreigners will come to visit the valley. "The people of Kashmir are friendly and helpful. I have enjoyed every moment here," Boyd said.

Tim Lang from New Zealand, while echoing the sentiments expressed by his trans-Tasman compatriots, said he felt safe in Kashmir.

"We were surprised that there is a travel advisory asking not to travel to Kashmir. Riding to Kashmir from the Himalayas on a motorbike, I felt completely safe and sound," Lang said.

Ellie, a resident of the Netherlands who camped in the Union Territory for over six months with her husband Kashmir for them "felt just like home" and she felt bad as their trip was about to end.

"We started camping in Kashmir in December. We went to Kishtwar and Lolab Valley and are staying in Srinagar for a week," Ellie said.

"In Holland, authorities do not advise us to visit Kashmir but after living and travelling to many places, I feel completely safe here. The people of Kashmir are generous and helpful. So, my message would be to visit Kashmir," she added.

Alexander, a traveller from Italy, said he was enamoured by the beauty of Kashmir. "It is beautiful, lovely and warm. The valley is very interesting as it has a lot of history, delicious food, and humble people and there are a lot of things to do. My message to everyone who wishes to visit Kashmir would be to come to Kashmir, you will enjoy it for sure," he added.
Mumbai, Aug 7 (PTI) "Jubilee" actor Wamiqa Gabbi is set to star alongside Varun Dhawan in an upcoming action entertainer movie, to be produced by filmmaker Atlee and wife Priya Mohans banner A For Apple Studios.

Also backed by Murad Khetani's Cine1 Studios, the untitled project will be directed by Kalees, best known for the 2019 Tamil movie Kee. It is scheduled to be released on May 31, 2024.

The details of the movies plot have been kept under wraps. It also features National Award winner Keerthy Suresh in a pivotal role.

"I am thrilled and grateful to be a part of this project. The opportunity to work alongside Varun Dhawan and Keerthy Suresh is definitely something Im looking forward to. I have been looking and waiting to do a full commercial Hindi project and this is just it. And Im really excited to be working and collaborating with Murad sir and Atlee," Gabbi said in a statement.

The actor, best known for her performances in "Grahan", "Mai" and "Jubilee", is currently shooting for next project in Budapest, Hungary. She will also be seen in filmmaker Vishal Bhardwajs maiden OTT series "Charlie Chopra and The Mystery of Solang Valley" and his film with Netflix titled "Khufiya" co-starring Tabu.
Mumbai, Aug 7 (PTI) Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer revenge drama movie "Haddi", directed by debutant Akshat Ajay Sharma, will soon arrive on ZEE5, the streaming platform announced Monday.

Produced by Zee Studios, Sanjay Saha and Radhika Nanda's Anandita Studios, the direct-to-digital movie also features filmmaker-actor Anurag Kashyap in a pivotal role.

Co-written by Sharma and Adamya Bhalla, "Haddi" is a crime revenge drama that will see Siddiqui portraying two distinct characters - Haddi and Harika, a transgender woman demonstrating remarkable versatility.

Sharma said "Haddi" revolves around the "intoxicating world of vengeance, violence, and power, delving into the very essence of a criminal's psyche."

"It highlights the ruthlessness of the society. It took me a lot of time to flesh out characters and craft this politician-mobster-transgender drama. With bated breath, I am truly hoping that 'Haddi' exceeds every expectation, leaving an indelible mark on the hearts of our audience on ZEE5," he added.

Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 India said "Haddi" delves into the heart of India's "dark criminal chain".

"At ZEE5, we constantly strive to live up to our consumer's expectations. Our viewers love thrillers and crime-dramas with unique stories. 'Haddi' is one such story that delves into the heart of the country's dark criminal chain, backed by a compelling storyline and unforgettable characters. We are confident that this film will stand out with exceptional performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anurag Kashyap," he said.

"Haddi" is a gripping crime drama that features Siddiqui in an unprecedented performance portraying a complex role, said producer Shariq Patel, CBO, Zee Studios.

"The film's exploration of vengeance, violence, and power promises to captivate audiences with its enthralling narrative," he added.

Actors Ila Arun, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Saurabh Sachdeva, Shridhar Dubey, Rajesh Kumar, Vipin Sharma, and Saharsh Shukla round out the cast of "Haddi".

The film be available to its viewers in Hindi, exclusively on ZEE5.
Rabat (Morocco), Aug 6 (AP) At least 24 people died in a bus crash on Sunday in the province of Azilal in central Morocco, marking one of the deadliest such accidents in recent years in the country.

According to local authorities, cited by Morocco's official news agency MAP, the accident happened when a minibus carrying passengers overturned at a curve while en route to the weekly market in the small town of Demnate, in central Morocco.

Authorities, along with the Royal Gendarmerie and Civil Protection, mobilized to the scene to begin rescue operations.

An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the accident.

A bus crash in August last year left 23 people dead east of Casablanca.

In 2015, a collision between a semi-trailer truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco on Friday killed 33 people. (AP) PY

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Lahore, Aug 7 (PTI) Nawaz Sharif will be Pakistan's next premier if the ruling PML-N returns to power after the country goes to polls in November, his brother and the country's current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said.

Shehbaz Sharif's remarks came at a public meeting in Kasur, some 50kms from Lahore, on Sunday evening.

Nawaz Sharif, 73, has been living in self-imposed exile in the UK since November 2019. He was convicted in the Al-Azizia Mills and Avenfield corruption cases in 2018. He was serving a seven-year imprisonment at Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail in the Al-Azizia Mills reference before he was allowed to proceed to London on "medical grounds".

"Nawaz Sharif will be the next prime minister of Pakistan. He will serve the people as he had done before," Shehbaz Sharif, 71, said.

He said his elder brother (Nawaz) would be the prime minister of Pakistan for the fourth time and would 'change the country's destiny' by boosting agriculture, industry, and infrastructure.

He said Pakistan saw phenomenal progress in Nawaz Sharif's last tenure 2013-17 and improved relations with countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye while former premier Imran Khan had damaged Pakistan's relations with these countries.

Shehbaz said he would dissolve the assemblies on August 9, and the people of Pakistan would elect their government through a vote in November 2023.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has not yet announced the date of the general election.

Since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in the Toshakhana (national treasury gifts) case, it is believed that the military establishment will now manage to get 'desired results' in the upcoming general elections.

Some ruling PML-N leaders, including Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, have linked Nawaz Sharifs return to the change of command in the apex court.

Nawaz Sharif will return to the country once he gets relief in cases he is convicted of, a senior leader of the Punjab chapter of PML-N told PTI on Monday.

He said no assurances had been given to the Sharifs on this by the establishment as yet, and the situation would be clear once the caretaker set-up is installed.

After Prime Minister Shehbaz's statement that the election will be held as per the digital census conducted earlier this year, it means the elder Sharif may get more time to settle his cases before booking a flight back to Pakistan, he said.

PML-N's former federal minister Talal Chaudhry has linked the holding of upcoming polls with the return of Nawaz Sharif.

The moment Nawaz Sharif boards a plane to Pakistan, it should be seen as a sign of elections taking place in the country," Chaudhry said and added that Nawaz Sharif would not only lead the election campaign but would also be the only partys candidate for prime minister.
Berlin, Aug 7 (AP) Jochen Goetz, the chief financial officer of Daimler Truck and credited with its successful spinoff from the automotive giant that makes the Mercedes-Benz, has died, the company said on Sunday. He was 52.

Goetz spent more than three decades working at the Daimler Group, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company best known as the maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars.

Daimler Truck said he was decisively responsible" for the spinoff in 2021 of Daimler's truck division, which is the world's largest maker of trucks, from the rest of the company that renamed itself Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

The company's statement said Goetz died in a tragic incident on Saturday but didn't give details.

The death of Jochen Goetz is a tremendous loss for Daimler Truck, both personally and professionally," said a statement from Martin Daum, chairman of the company's board of management, of which Goetz was also a member.(AP)



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Niamey (Niger), Aug 7 (AP) Niger's mutinous soldiers closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president.

State television announced the move Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn't returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice.

The junta also claimed that two central African countries are preparing for an invasion, but did not say which ones, and called on the country's population to defend it.

The junta said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around the airspace of Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

In Mali, the armed forces said today that it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending a delegation of officials to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, with the mutinous soldiers detaining Bazoum and installing Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS will do now that Sunday's deadline has passed. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

On Saturday, Nigeria's Senate pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

A former British army officer who worked in Nigeria said military officials there told him Monday that President Bolu Tinubu had not given orders to use military force. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against against the use of force. Senegal's government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for ECOWAS' efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, The Associated Press saw rallygoers behead a chicken decorated in the colours of former coloniser France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments among the population to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. The day before, the ministry announced that France had suspended development aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence in Niger, or to the 1,100 US military personnel also in the country.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

"While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn't intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS."

Niger's junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries including Mali.

But others have expressed concerns about the junta's tightening grip.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment, said the junta is scaring people into joining it. (AP)



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Hong Kong, Aug 7 (AP) Hong Kong government said Monday it was seeking to appeal against the court's refusal to ban a popular protest song at its request, renewing worries over further erosion of freedom of expression in the city.

The court's decision on July 28 was a setback for Hong Kong leaders who are trying to crush dissidents after a massive pro-democracy movement four years ago pushed hundreds of thousands of people into the streets.

Drama ensued after the popular Glory to Hong Kong  written during the 2019 protests with lyrics calling for democracy and liberty  was mistakenly played as the city's anthem at international sporting events instead of China's March of the Volunteers.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that its secretary, who acted as a guardian of public interest, pressed for the ban on the basis of safeguarding national security. The court can decide whether to review or dismiss the request for an appeal.

The department did not share further its legal grounds for the appeal in the statement.

The announcement came after multiple pro-Beijing lawmakers urged the department to file an appeal. The government's move has renewed concern over possible ramifications caused by the ban.

Critics have warned that granting the request to prohibit the broadcast or distribution of the song would add to a decline in civil liberties since Beijing launched a crackdown following the 2019 protests.

They said granting the court order might disrupt the operations of tech giants and hurt the city's appeal as a business centre.

The government went to the court in June after Google resisted pressure to display China's national anthem as the top result in searches for the city's anthem instead of Glory to Hong Kong.

The proposed injunction would target anyone who uses the song to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China. The government also would also seek to ban any actions using the song to incite others to commit secession and insult the national anthem, including online.

The department's announcement came days after several major political parties pushed for an appeal, so there are clearly some increasing political pressures on the case, said George Chen, managing director at The Asia Group, a Washington-based business and policy consultancy.

Chen said the case will become a good testament to judicial independence in the financial hub.

The world will watch how the new arguments will be made and justified in court, and how the court can strike a good balance on national security and free speech, he said.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and was promised that it could keep its Western-style civil liberties intact for 50 years after the handover. But a national security law imposed by Beijing coupled with other changes in recent years have shrunk the openness and freedoms that were once hallmarks of the city. (AP) SCY

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The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, has had another tantrum. This time, the Ukrainophobe was furious about the summit in Saudi Arabia dedicated to the implementation of the Ukrainian Formula for Peace.

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The odious politician was angry that dozens of countries supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Medvedev shared his inadequate thoughts in Telegram.

As is known, the participants of the summit in Saudi Arabia defined the basis of a future peace agreement for Ukraine. According to Medvedev, any peace proposals have a chance of success allegedly only if certain "conditions" are met.

The Ukrainophobe dreamed that the civilized world should consider the opinion of the terrorist state of Russia. In his traditional manner, he also said that Ukraine allegedly never existed before 1991.

Moreover, in Medvedev's sick imagination, our country is supposedly a "fragment of the Russian Empire". In addition, the Ukrainophobe continued to cynically talk about the alleged "return" of Ukraine's territories to the "composition of Russia."

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"That mediator, who will be willing to recognize these obvious things, has a chance of success. All others - none. However, the negotiations themselves are not needed yet. The enemy should come crawling back on his knees, begging for mercy," Medvedev said.

We shall remind you that based on the results of the first day of the summit in Saudi Arabia, dedicated to the implementation of the Ukrainian Formula for Peace, the participants defined the basis of a future peace agreement for our country. Delegations from about 40 countries came to the decision that respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine should be the basis of any peace agreement.

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Earlier it was reported that Ukraine made a new breakthrough at the meeting in Saudi Arabia to win the support of dozens of countries left behind by the war. It's the start of a broader campaign to ramp up diplomacy to isolate and weaken Russia.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, the U.S. believes the talks in Saudi Arabia could be the beginning of a peace process to end the war. However, unfortunately, peace requires the willingness of the aggressor country to be part of peace diplomacy.

Only verified information from us at Obozrevatel's Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
London, Aug 7 (PTI) Fines imposed on employers and landlords who allow illegal migrants to work or rent from them are to be tripled from early next year, the UK government announced on Monday.

The UK Home Office said from the start of 2024, the penalty for employers will be raised to GBP 45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach from the previous GBP 15,000, and to GBP 60,000 for repeat breaches from GBP 20,000.

For landlords, the fines will increase from GBP 80 per lodger and GBP 1,000 per occupier for a first breach to up to GBP 5,000 per lodger and GBP 10,000 per occupier. Repeat breaches will be up to GBP 10,000 per lodger and GBP 20,000 per occupier, up from GBP 500 and GBP 3,000 respectively.

Making it harder for illegal migrants to work and operate in the UK is vital to deterring dangerous, unnecessary small boat crossings, said Robert Jenrick, UK Minister for Immigration.

Unscrupulous landlords and employers who allow illegal working and renting enable the business model of the evil people smugglers to continue. There is no excuse for not conducting the appropriate checks and those in breach will now face significantly tougher penalties, he said.

According to official statistics, since the start of 2018, almost 5,000 penalties have been issued to employers with a total value of GBP 88.4 million for employing illegal workers.

Meanwhile, landlords have been hit with over 320 civil penalties worth a total of GBP 215,500 in the same period for housing illegal migrants with no right to stay in the country.

Employers and landlords are expected to check the eligibility of anyone they employ or let a property to in the UK, including through a Home Office online checking system.

The latest announcement follows the governments crackdown on illegal working and renting after it launched a taskforce and re-introduced data sharing with the financial sector to stop illegal migrants from accessing bank accounts earlier this year.

Immigration enforcement activity has also been stepped up with visits including those targeting illegal working now said to be at their highest levels since 2019, up 50 per cent on last year.

We have already arrested more people in 2023 than during the whole of 2022 as a result of this activity, the Home Office said.

It forms part of a slew of measures being deployed by the British government to crack down on illegal migrants, many of them arriving in the UK via unsafe small boat crossings across the English Channel.

It came as the first set of asylum seekers boarded the Bibby Stockholm housing barge in Portland, south-west England, after some delays over safety concerns. Up to 500 male migrants are eventually expected to be housed on the docked vessel in Dorset while they await the outcome of their asylum applications. The move has faced opposition from human rights groups, with Amnesty International dubbing the move utterly shameful.

Housing people on a floating barge is likely to be retraumatising and there should be major concerns about confining each person to living quarters the typical size of a car parking space, said Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UKs refugee and migrant rights director.

But the UK government has insisted it is an essential part of its plans to address the soaring taxpayer-funded hotel bills to house illegal migrants, including asylum seekers.
Dhaka, Aug 7 (PTI) The Bangladesh government has decided to redraft the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA), annulling some stringent provisions like jail terms on defamation charges, law minister Anisul Huq said on Monday.

Huq said the proposed Cyber Security Act (CSA) would replace the DSA to avoid the misuse of the existing legislation while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas cabinet in principle approved the new law.

There will be no jail term for defamation in the Cyber Security Act (CSA)," the minister told reporters at his office, adding that convicts under the proposed law would be required to pay fines only instead of serving jail terms.

Rights activists and journalists have long termed the DSA as a draconian law enacted in 2018 while the opposition said it was meant to suppress dissent and freedom of speech.

Section 29 (of DSA, prescribing prison terms) has been abolished. The only punishment would be fine or to suffer a jail term of three to six months in default, Huq said.

The minister said the proposed CSA suggested a two-year prison term instead of the five years prescribed in DSAs Section 28 which was related to the publication, or broadcast of information on a website or in any other electronic format hurting ones religious values and sentiments.

He said that people accused under this particular section could avail bail from the court as well while the DSA made the charges non-bailable.

Officials said the new law was expected to be passed in Parliament after further scrutiny by the law ministry and final cabinet approval.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk added weight to DSA protestors in Bangladesh by asking the government to impose an immediate moratorium on the enforcement of DSA.

He also called for reform comprehensively its (DSA) provisions to bring them in line with the requirements of international human rights law.

Huq, however, said the proposed law would retain some provisions of the DSA as we, of course, need some rules and regulation for our growing digital presence and cyberspace.

Corruption and rights watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) cautiously welcomed the government move but warned that the proposed law must not become a tool to obstruct free expression and suppress the voice of the media.

The Editors' Council of Bangladesh appreciated the attempt to repeal the harsh law.

Editors' Council President Mahfuz Anam said: We thank the government for the move but we are yet to know what provisions are there in the Cyber Security Act and if or not it impinges on press freedom in any form."

Some legal experts and lawyers said the redrafting was not enough while the mass circulation of Protom Alo newspaper in an opinion called the proposed law old wine in a new bottle.

The move came as Bangladeshs political landscape is gradually being heated up ahead of the upcoming general elections in late December 2023 or early 2024 with main opposition alleging that the government was becoming more suppressive.

Bangladesh's parliament passed the DSA in late 2018 after several major instances of deadly sectarian violence sparked by posts on social media.

The DSA criminalised engaging in acts of hurting people's religious sentiment, propaganda against Bangladeshs 1971 Liberation War, the national anthem, the flag and the nation's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the incumbent prime minister.

Rights groups say several thousand people, including journalists and opposition political activists, were charged or arrested under the DSA and the number of arrests increased since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kinshasa (Congo), Aug 7 (AP) Rebel groups, including one with ties to the Islamic State group, killed at least 21 people in restive northeastern Congo over the weekend, local officials said on Monday.

Isaac Kibira, deputy delegate of the governor in the Central African nation's northeastern Bwito township, said the victims in one attack were shot and killed early Sunday by members of M23, a rebel group the United Nations says has links to neighbouring Rwanda. Rwanda denies the accusation.

In a second attack on Saturday, armed rebels with ties to the Islamic State group killed 10 civilians in a restive province in northeastern Congo, a local human rights activist said.

Conflict has simmered in eastern Congo for decades as more than 120 armed groups fight for control of valuable mineral resources and some to protect their communities. Mass killings by rebel groups are frequent, and the violence has triggered an exodus of refugees.

M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo's largest city, located on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that the group accuses Congo's government of failing to implement.

The attack took place at 3 am on Sunday morning following armed confrontations between M23 and local self-defence groups near the village of Bwito, where the bodies of the 11 civilians were found, Kibira said.

The rebel group reportedly retreated into the area, killed residents, burned homes, and stole valuables.

According to local civil society leader Jonas Pandanzi, troops from a regional intergovernmental organisation who were deployed in the area did not intervene. The death toll is provisional, he said, as some local residents were missing in the wake of the attack.

We call on our government to assume its responsibilities and not continue to rely on agreements and declarations (with armed rebels). We need to find other mechanisms to protect the population, Kibira said.

Christophe Munyanderu, a human rights activist and coordinator in Ituri province, said on local radio that 10 civilians were killed Saturday by members of the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, which has established ties with the Islamic State group. The group rarely claims responsibility for attacks.

The victims, along with five others killed in a July 29 attack in the same chiefdom of Walese-Vilonkutu, have yet to be properly buried, Munyanderu said. Their bodies are scattered in the forest, and some of them have begun decomposing, he said.

We ask the (Congolese) military to accompany young volunteers to bury the bodies of our compatriots, said Munyanderu.

The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years targeting civilians in remote parts of eastern Congo and across the border in Uganda, including one in June in which 42 people, mostly students, were killed. (AP) PY

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Niamey (Niger), Aug 7 (AP) Leaders of West Africa's regional bloc said on Monday that they would meet later this week to discuss next steps after Niger's military junta defied a deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president while its mutinous soldiers closed the country's airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack.

The meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighbouring Nigeria, according to a spokesman for the ECOWAS bloc.

State television reported the junta's latest actions Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum is not returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country", and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice.

Any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

The junta also claimed that two central African countries were preparing for an invasion, but did not name them. It called on Niger's population to defend the nation.

The coup toppled Bazoum, whose ascendency was Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France in 1960. The coup also raised questions about the future of the fight against extremism in Africa's Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

Also on Monday, Mali said it and Burkina Faso, both neighbours of Niger run by military juntas, were sending delegations to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

The Associated Press saw several security officers from Burkina Faso at a hotel in Niger's capital.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, when mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and installed Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts believe the coup was triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS leaders will do now. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

Nigeria's Senate has pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigeria's president, the bloc's current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

Guinea and neighbouring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against the use of force. Senegal's government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for the bloc's efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

The junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries, including Mali, according to according to Wassim Nasr, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Centre.

US officials say they are still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was on Monday.

Two officials said the administration of US President Joe Biden intends to maintain both a diplomatic and military presence in Niger for the foreseeable future.

The administration is still weighing whether the developments amount to a coup, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic discussions. They said there was still time for Niger's military leaders to reverse course.

If the US determines that a democratically elected government has been toppled by unconstitutional means, federal law requires a cutoff of most American assistance, particularly military aid.

Since the coup, extremists have been ecstatic because they are able to move around more freely without fear of attack, Boubacar Moussa, a former jihadi fighter, told the AP. He had joined a nationwide program that encourages fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The programme's fate is unclear.

Moussa said he's received at least 10 phone calls from active jihadis in the Tillaberi region near the Mali border who said there's been no concern about airstrikes. If there's a military intervention by ECOWAS, they likely will attack the capital, Niamey, he said.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, rallygoers beheaded a chicken decorated in the colors of former colonizer France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts.

On Monday, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. France has suspended almost 500 euros (USD 550 million) in aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence, or to the 1,100 US military personnel also in Niger.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didn't intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS. (AP) PY

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Singapore, Aug 7 (PTI) Singapores Indian-origin former senior minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Monday submitted his application for eligibility to contest the upcoming presidential election due next month.

Shanmugaratnam, 66, formally launched his presidential campaign last month with a pledge to evolve the country's culture to keep it a "shining spot" in the world.

The 2023 presidential election is due in September, as President Halimah Yacobs six-year term ends on September 13.

Tharman, 66, has submitted his application for a certificate of eligibility, The Straits Times reported.

Apart from Shanmugaratnam, three other potential hopefuls, all of Chinese origin, have announced their own submissions.

Former GIC investment chief Ng Kok Song, 75, told the media that he had submitted the forms on August 2 to be considered eligible via the public sector deliberative track.

Entrepreneur George Goh, 63, submitted his eligibility form on August 4.

Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian, 75, said he has submitted his application for a certificate of eligibility for the upcoming presidential election but has not decided if he will contest, according to The Straits Times report.

Tharman, who stepped down from active politics after 22 years in June, during his campaign launch, had cautioned against judging candidates based on past affiliations rather than their track record.

Singapore has stringent criteria for candidates wishing to stand for the post of President.

Under requirements laid out in Singapore's Constitution, public sector presidential candidates must have held office for at least three years as a minister, chief justice, attorney-general or other high-level posts.

Private sector candidates must have served for at least three years as chief executives of a company with an average of Singapore dollars 500 million in shareholders' equity.

Tharman was an economist and a civil servant, mainly at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, before joining politics in 2001.

He has served as the Minister for Education and Finance and was the Deputy Prime Minister from 2011 to 2019. He has also held prominent posts at international organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.

Singapore will hold its first presidential election since 2011 after President Halimah announced on May 29 that she will not seek a second term.

She is the country's eighth and first female president. Her six-year term ends on September 13 this year.

The 2017 presidential poll was a reserved election in which only members of the Malay community were allowed to contest. Halimah was named president then as there were no other candidates.
Lahore, Aug 7 (PTI) Imran Khan's party has voiced concern over the health and safety of the former Pakistan prime minister in jail and firmly opposed the decision to subject him to harsh solitary confinement, according to a media report on Monday.

The core committee of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), under the leadership of party Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, held a crucial meeting on Sunday.

Khan, 70, was arrested from his home in Lahore on Saturday shortly after an Islamabad trial court found him guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana corruption case and sentenced him to three years in jail.

Khan's party earlier on Sunday accused authorities of denying his legal team access to the leader to get his signatures on essential documents for court purposes.

During the core committee's meeting, the party vehemently criticised the government's imposition of Section 144, which it said infringed upon the public's fundamental right to peacefully protest against cruelty and injustice, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The committee addressed the growing concerns over life and health threats. The meeting held in-depth deliberations on critical issues, including the former prime minister's arrest by the Punjab Police instead of the Islamabad Police despite the court's orders to the capital police chief to arrest him.

Similarly, the members also raised alarm over Khan's transfer to the Attock Jail instead of Rawalpindis Adiala Jail. The meeting expressed the conditions of his solitary confinement and the denial of access to lawyers and family members and explored the legal strategy for his prompt release.

It was the second meeting of the core committee held after Khan's arrest, which saw protests and strong condemnations from the legal fraternity as well as Khan's supporters who saw the trial as "biased" for its hurried proceedings.

In the meeting held a day earlier, shortly after Khan's arrest, the committee had rejected the arrest and called for nationwide protests.

During Sunday's meeting, the committee expressed strong reservations about the lack of information provided regarding the former prime minister since his arrest on Saturday and firmly opposed the decision to subject him toharsh solitary confinement, considering it a violation of established rules and regulations.

It condemned the government for its failure to provide updates on his health and safety.

It further emphasised that every step taken against the former prime minister, from the registration of the Toshakhana case to the biased trial and verdict, appeared to be driven by a vengeful agenda.

They also protested the government's decision to transfer Khan to Attock Jail in defiance of a court order.

Highlighting the challenges Imrans legal team faced in gaining access to him, the committee accused the government of refusing to grant them the necessary permissions.

The lack of information about Khan's health alarmed the committee, as more than 24 hours had passed since his arrest without any clarity on his well-being.

Citing concerns over custodial violence during the current regime headed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, the committee expressed concern about potential physical and mental harm to the former prime minister.

They also expressed apprehensions about the quality and hygiene of the food provided to them in prison, as numerous reports have indicated deteriorating conditions due to poor sanitation in jails.

The core committee demanded that lawyers be granted access to the former prime minister for fair legal proceedings against biased decisions. They urged the government to abandon its alleged cruel and vindictive approach and allow the legal team access to Khan.

The committee called on the judiciary to take notice of the government's unlawful actions and address the concerns raised by Khan's family and the party regarding his health and safety.

The core committee condemned the illegal crackdown and alleged mistreatment of PTI workers, demanding an immediate end to such undemocratic practices by the government.
Nicosia (Cyprus), Aug 7 (AP) A multinational force is helping Cyprus fight stubborn wildfires in the summer heat, with Israel joining Lebanon, Greece and Jordan in sending aircraft to fight a blaze that has scorched miles of mountainous terrain, officials said on Monday.

Israel said two Air-Tractor firefighting aircraft, ground crews and wildfire experts along with six tons of flame retardants were on their way to the island nation, adding to the 20 tons of material that Greece is sending.

Lebanon is pitching in with a pair of helicopters, while two Greek Canadair aircraft have been dispatched to help douse the fire in the mountains about 11 miles (17 kilometers) north of the coastal town of Limassol. Jordan has sent three aircraft of its own, including two Super Puma helicopters and a Russian-made Mi26 helicopter.

The multinational effort is battling a blaze that according to Agriculture and Environment Minister Petros Xenophontos scorched around 3.2 square miles (8.5 square kilometers) of land.

Xenophontos said the fire had been largely contained overnight but had rekindled along several areas on Monday, forcing air and ground crews to again mobilize. He said crews would remain at the scene for as long as needed to counter any flare-ups.

Fires are here, climate change exists and unfortunately it won't go away, Xenophontos told reporters at a fire coordinating hub near the fire.

Justice Minister Anna Koukkides-Procopiou told reporters late Monday that firefighting aircraft would again operate early Tuesday as a precautionary measure to snuff out any potential pockets of fire because of concerns over rekindling in some areas.

Fire Department spokesman Andreas Kettis had earlier posted on the platform known as X, formerly Twitter, that ground crews were working to hem in the blaze by building firebreaks.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted on X that he has given instructions for an initial estimate of the damage to private and state-owned property.

Officials said the residents of three villages have returned to their homes after being instructed to evacuate as a precaution.

Gregoriou, who surveyed the area by helicopter along with the country's fire chief, told state broadcaster CyBC that hundreds of fire fighters, including volunteers, managed to contain the fire overnight because winds had died down considerably.

The fire started on Friday, but authorities said a day later it had been contained.

Xenophontos said the fact that the fire reignited is something that concerns us and would be looked at by officials over the next few days. He downplayed suggestions that it may have been the work of arsonists, saying that strong winds were lashing the spot where the fire is believed to have reignited.

Some firefighters who have been on the front lines have been relieved to rest up for any possible fires elsewhere on the island, the minister said. (AP) PY

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Johannesburg, Aug 7 (PTI) The South African government on Monday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the next BRICS Summit to be held here from August 22 in person, dismissing some media reports as "rumours" that the Indian leader will not be present at the meeting.

Briefing the media on South Africa's preparations for the 15th edition of the summit, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor told journalists that the leaders of Brazil, China, India and hosts South Africa will participate in a range of discussions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate virtually, due to an ICC warrant which would have obliged South Africa to arrest him if he came in person.

I did speak to various colleagues in government and outside, and everybody was astounded by this rumour. I think that someone who is trying to spoil our Summit is creating all sorts of stories that suggest that it wont be successful, Pandor said as she confirmed Modis attendance.

The Prime Minister of India has never said that he is not attending the Summit. I am in constant contact with foreign minister Jaishankar. He has never said that. Our sherpas are in touch and they have never said it. So, we have all been trying to look for this needle in a haystack that began this rumour, Pandor said.

The Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi last week that Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Johannesburg to attend the BRICS Summit.

"President (Cyril) 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," the MEA said in a press release on August 3 after the two leaders held a telephone conversation.

Reacting to a question on whether Modi had agreed to come after a phone call by President Ramaphosa, Pandor said the phone call had been in the planning for some time already for Ramaphosa to brief Modi on a number of issues as they developed.

The phone call was on our agenda. It had nothing to do with this rumour of non-attendance (by Modi), she said.

Pandor highlighted a wide range of activities which will take place during the Summit.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the BRICS Business Council will be hosting a content-rich BRICS Business programme from August 19 to 23; an event that seeks to foster economic growth, collaboration, attracting investment, and showcase opportunities within South Africa, Africa (as a continent) and all the BRICS countries, the minister said.

All Business Councils from the BRICS countries are expected to bring large delegations to participate in sector-focused visits to various South African areas.

Pandor said BRICS leaders are expected to discuss the opportunities for realising the full potential of BRICS for inclusive global recovery and sustainable development.

The leaders national statements at the plenary will be followed by reports of the president of the New Development Bank (NDB)as well as the South African chair of the BRICS Business Alliance and the BRICS Womens Business Alliance, which will be reporting in person to the BRICS leaders for the first time, Pandor said.

The minister explained how the NDB was established in 2015 to play a catalytic role in providing financial support to emerging markets and developing countries for infrastructure and sustainable development.

In late 2021, the Bank welcomed Bangladesh, Egypt, the UAE and Uruguay as new members, firmly positioning the Bank as a preferred global financing mechanism for emerging markets and developing countries, Pandor said.

The minister said it was important to remember that BRICS countries are at the centre of global recovery.

One of the stated objectives of BRICS membership is to leverage the political and economic relations as BRICS members to address the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment through increased intra-BRICS trade, investment, tourism, capacity-building, skills and technology transfer, Pandor said.
Kyiv, Aug 7 (AP)  Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don't have the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  wasn't invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

But without Russia's participation and without taking into account Moscow's interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. It repeated previous assurances that Russia is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow's previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no Kyiv compromise on that.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced on Monday it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

It claimed the woman was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyy's visit.

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyy's route, times and visits in the region. She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscow's forces approached.

He has been one of Ukraine's unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognizable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also Monday, two Russian missiles hit the centre of Pokrovsk, a city in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the partially occupied Donetsk region in the east of the country. Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike killed one civilian and wounded seven more, damaging two residential buildings and other civilian structures.

Commenting on the attack, Zelenskyy charged that Russia is trying to leave only broken and scorched stones" in eastern Ukraine. We have to stop the Russian terror. Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves lives, Ukraine's president said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. He said Kherson had endured a tough night as the Russians covered the central part of the city with fire.

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. (AP) PY

PY
Kolkata, Aug 7 (PTI) The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) West Bengal unit has decided to conduct four 'Rath Yatras' in the state as a part of its 'Sourjya Yatra' across the country in October this year.

VHP state media-in-charge Sourish Mukherjee said there are plans to take out four 'Rath Yatras' from various parts of South Bengal from October 1-8.

"Later, a major rally would be held in Kolkata as all the four rath yatras would converge in the metropolis. These rath yatras will be part of the Sourjya Yatra across the state. This yatra will be part of our efforts to unite the Hindu community in the state and pay tribute to our freedom fighters," he told PTI.

However, Mukherjee noted that the date, venue and route of the Rath Yatras are not yet decided.

The Trinamool Congress frowned at the VHP's proposal of organising Rath Yatras and said those were aimed at "mixing religion with politics."

"We all know that VHP's programmes aim to spread hatred. But it will not yield any result," TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.

However, the BJP said in a democracy, every outfit has the right to conduct its programmes.

"In a democracy, everybody has the right to conduct its programmes peacefully. But the reality is that the TMC doesn't believe in democracy," BJP state spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said.

The TMC had fanned the 'Bengali pride' by coming up with a poll slogan, "Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chai" (Bengal wants its own daughter), and has created a poll narrative of sub-nationalism to counter BJP's identity politics in the 2021 assembly polls.

The "insider-outsider" debate in West Bengal gained strength before the assembly polls, with the ruling TMC embracing Bengali sub-nationalism as its main poll plank to counter the rise of the BJP's Hindutva narrative in the state and has branded it as a "party of outsiders".

The Trinamool Congress, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, stormed to power for the third consecutive time riding on that poll plank and bagged 213 seats. In contrast, the BJP, despite its high-pitch poll campaign, managed to bag only 77 seats.
The world's most powerful air defense system has been created around Kyiv. It consists, in particular, of Patriot, Nasams and IRIS-T SAMs.

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This was revealed by a colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who wished to remain anonymous, The Times reports. Ukraine must continue to improve its defense against enemy attacks.

"Currently around Kyiv we have the most powerful air defense system in the world. And in fact throughout history... These are Patriot, Nasams, German IRIS-T, S-300, French Crotale. The Russians have realized that beating your head against the wall is pointless," he said. .

However, according to the Ukrainian military officer, ammunition for defense against missile attacks is running out. If the West does not increase the supply of weapons - this winter may become heavier than the previous one.

"You cannot plan a war with an annual production of 150-160 Patriot missiles. We used them in a month... If we wait until the fall, until mid-October, they will hit the energy infrastructure again. There's no doubt about it. This winter will be even harder than the previous one," the colonel summarized.

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Recall, the Russian Federation is likely to resume attacks on energy facilities in the coming winter. Current blackouts are likely to be, but the situation may be better than last winter.

As reported OBOZREVATEL, in December 2022, the authorities of Kyiv were almost ready to announce the complete evacuation of residents of the capital. At that time, the Russian occupiers massively shelled the objects of the energy system.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Imphal, Aug 7 (PTI) The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of several Imphal-based civil society organisations, on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement NRC in the northeastern state to identify illegal immigrants involved in narco trade.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the COCOMI also demanded that no separate administration be allowed for the Kukis as demanded by a section of the states MLAs and others.

The central government should ensure that the foreign elements including some of the leaders of the Kuki-Zomi Suspension of Operation groups who are of foreign origin identified and confined or deported to Myanmar, the memorandum said.

The SoO was signed by the Centre, the Manipur government and two conglomerates of Kuki militant outfits  Kuki National Organisations and United Peoples Front. The pact was first signed in 2008 and extended periodically.

The territorial integrity and the system of administration in Manipur should not be altered.... Any change in the territorial integrity and administration may bring a death knell to many small tribal communities, which will be a great loss as even now they are highly marginalised, the COCOMI said.

Ten tribal MLAs belonging to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group in Manipur have urged the Centre to create a separate administration for their community in the wake of the violent clashes between the Meiteis and tribals.

To identify illegal immigrants, the National Register of Citizens must be implemented in the state with 1951 as the base year. This is to deprive illegal immigrants of being citizens though they may continue to stay as guests, if necessary, without indulging in destructive politics, the memorandum read.

These are the resolutions adopted in a rally held on July 29 in Imphal, said the COCOMI, which on Sunday announced that it has decided to boycott the Manipur government for its failure to convene an emergency session of the assembly and inept handling of the ongoing unrest in the state.

The memorandum also claimed that the ongoing strife is a manifestation of the simmering tension over deforestation, illegal opium poppy cultivation and change in demography in certain areas of the state mainly caused by illegal immigrants from Myanmar.

More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundreds 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.
Guwahati, Aug 6 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said celebrations for the forthcoming Independence Day will begin from August 8 with village-level programmes.

Sarma said freedom fighters and martyrs in security forces will be remembered by installing granite plaques in every village on the first day.

"From August 9-14, every gaon panchayat will plant 75 saplings to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav," he said.

The Assam Police will organise a special march on August 13, surrounding the Dighalipukhuri tank in central Guwahati, the chief minister told a press conference here.

"I appeal to all the people to hoist the tricolour at their homes," he said.

Sarma also said pots with soil will be brought from August 23 onwards from every village of Assam, and the same will be taken to Delhi to create an Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav memorial and an Amrit Vatika, as a lasting tribute and legacy of this commemorative activity.
Poonch/Jammu, Aug 7 (PTI) A terrorist was gunned down in a gunfight as Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday scuttled an infiltration attempt from across the border in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district, officials said.

The alert troops in Degwar sector noticed the movement of some terrorists attempting to sneak into this side under the cover of darkness in the early hours of the day and engaged them in an encounter, the officials said.

They said one terrorist was gunned down but his body was yet to be retrieved from the scene.

Jammu-based defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said an army ambush party established contact with terrorists in Garhi battalion area around 2 am.

Two individuals were observed moving across LoC in the general area Degwar Terva. In the ensuing firefight, one terrorist was seen dropping while the second moved towards Pintu Nala, the officer said.

The whole area was cordoned off and a search operation is underway, officials said, adding further details are awaited.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) Senior Congress leaders and party workers on Monday hailed Rahul Gandhi's reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP, saying it is a victory for truth and justice.

As soon as the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was restored on Monday, celebrations broke out at the AICC headquarters here with workers dancing and raising slogans in favour of Gandhi.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing that his disqualification has been revoked and his membership restored.

Reacting to the development, Congress' deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari said, "Truth has triumphed, and lies has been defeated. INDIA has won, our lion Rahul Gandhi has won, Modi Ji, your defeat has begun."

In a tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "With enormous relief, welcome the official announcement of @RahulGandhi's reinstatement. He can now resume his duties in the Lok Sabha to serve the people of India and his constituents in Wayanad. A victory for justice and for our democracy!"

Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi also hailed Gandhi's reinstatement as Lok Sabha MP.

Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha member on March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment for two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker.

The Supreme Court on Friday last stayed his conviction, paving the way for restoration of his Lok Sabha membership.

He represents Wayanad in the lower house.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) A BJP Lok Sabha member has questioned the government in Parliament whether it intends to recognise 'gaumata' (cow) as a "national animal" that is an integral part of the Indian culture.

Ajmer MP Bhagirath Choudhary asked this question to the Union minister of culture, in a written query in the Lower House of Parliament on Monday, to which no direct response was given.

He asked a series of questions, including as to "whether the Government intends to recognise 'Gaumata' an integral part of Indian Culture as a national animal," considering "protection and revival of Indian and sanatan culture" by bringing a legislation in the Parliament in this regard and if so, the details thereof.

Union Minister of Culture G Kishan Reddy, in his written response, said, "As informed by the Department of Animal Husbandry, under the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States, (Article 246(3) of the Constitution) preservation of animal is a matter on which the State legislature has exclusive powers to legislate".

"In order to complement and supplement the efforts made by the States and Union Territories, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and protection of indigenous breeds including indigenous breeds of cattle. The mission is leading to increase in availability of indigenous breeds including cattle in the country. Department has also established Animal Welfare board of India for protecting animals including cow and its progeny," he said.

Reddy was also asked whether certain bird flower, animal etc. in the country have been designated as national bird, national flower and national animal and provided protection along with the special status keeping in view the sentiments of common people across the country.

As informed by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), the Government of India had notified tiger and peacock as 'National Animal' and 'National Bird' respectively, the minister said in his response.

"As the said notifications of the government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF & CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as 'National Animal' and 'National Bird' respectively, on 30th May 2011," he added.

Tiger and peacock have been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby "according them the highest degree of protection from hunting. In addition, important habitats of these animals have also been declared as Protected Areas," he said in his response.

Choudhary also asked whether the Allahabad High Court and the Rajasthan High Court have also "ordered and commented to expedite the process of declaring 'Gaumata' as national animal".
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) Implementation of the Delhi services bill, passed in Rajya Sabha on Monday, is likely to halt for the time being the frequent skirmishes between the AAP dispensation and the Lt Governor over governance issues as the legislation puts the seal on the Centre's primacy on the control of the city government's bureaucracy.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed with the Upper House of Parliament approving it with 131 votes in favour and 102 against.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the contentious bill in the House and said that the proposed legislation is aimed at providing effective and corruption-free governance in the national capital.

The bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha last week, replaces an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

However, the matter is still hanging fire as the Supreme Court last month formed a constitution bench to examine the power of Parliament over governance in Delhi, which is yet to pronounce its judgment.

At the core of the power tussle between the Centre and the Lt Governor on one hand, and the elected AAP dispensation in Delhi on the other, is a home ministry notification issued on May 21, 2015, that empowered the Lt Governor to have jurisdiction over "services" matters of Delhi government involving transfer and postings of bureaucrats.

The notification also provided that the Lt Governor at his "discretion" may consult the chief minister whenever he deemed fit on issues of services.

The notification which came nearly two months after Arvind Kejriwal took oath as the chief minister of Delhi on February 14, 2015, was challenged by the AAP government in the high court.

In the last eight years since the notification, a long-drawn battle between the Lt Governor's office and the AAP government led by Kejriwal continued over a range of issues, including teachers' training, running of free yoga classes, the appointment of DERC chairman, foreign visits of the CM and ministers, removal of over 400 experts hired by the government, and funding of mohalla clinics, among others.

Experts said prior to the home ministry's notification, the control over the "services" department of Delhi was "vague".

"There was an understanding between the Lt Governor and the chief minister over the transfer and posting of officers. The transfer and posting of officers of the commissioner and the higher level was solely dealt by the Lt Governor, while the CM exercised a say in matters of other officers," former chief secretary of Delhi P K Tripathi said.

"Differences, if any, used to be settled through discussions between the two sides," he added.

A section of officers in the Delhi government believes that the new legislation will bring an end to the running feud between the elected government in Delhi and the Centre, bringing clarity to the jurisdiction of the constitutional authorities.

"We need clarity regarding policy matters and administration for smooth functioning that is hit if such a situation with two constitutional functionaries at loggerheads, exists," said a senior officer.

The Lt Governor's office and the Delhi government have locked horns on numerous occasions since 2015 while a legal battle is also going on between the two sides.

The high court, in August 2016, said the Lt Governor is the administrative head of the National Capital Territory and the AAP government's contention that he is bound to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers is "without substance".

The Supreme Court, in February 2017, referred pleas on Delhi-Centre row to a constitution bench that commenced its hearing in November 2017.

In July 2018, the SC said the Lt Governor does not have independent decision-making powers and is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. Further, a five-judge bench was constituted by the SC on November 9 for a hearing of the matter.

The constitution bench on May 11, 2023, ruled that the Delhi government has legislative and executive powers over the administration of services except for public order, police and land.

A week later, the Centre brought an ordinance to annul the effect of the SC verdict and formed a national capital civil services authority (NCCSA) headed by the Delhi CM to decide the transfer and posting of officers.

The Authority by nature of its composition was tilted in favour of the Centre.

While the AAP government challenged the ordinance in the SC, the Centre came out with the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, to accord parliamentary sanction to the ordinance.

The AAP dispensation moved courts on more than a dozen occasions against decisions of the Centre and the Lt Governor since the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2021 was implemented two years ago giving the Lt Governor primacy in the governance of the city.

The face-off between the two sides sharpened in the last year as V K Saxena took over as the Delhi Lt Governor in May 2022.

In November 2022, Saxena restricted Jasmine Shah from discharging his functions as the vice-chairperson of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD). He challenged it in the high court earlier this year.

In April, the AAP government approached the SC over the issue of sending school teachers for training in Finland.

Education Minister Atishi moved the Delhi High Court against ministries of the Central government for allegedly delaying her travel clearances to the UK. She was finally able to visit the country after the courts intervention.

A similar petition was filed by the transport minister in August 2022 in the high court, challenging a provision of the Centre's approval for foreign visits of the chief minister and ministers.

After winning the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in December 2022, the ruling AAP approached the apex court against voting rights given to 10 aldermen appointed by the Lt Governor.
Lucknow, Aug 6 (PTI) Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya on Sunday said there are only three seats of power and all of them are looting the country.

In a video clip in Hindi released by him on Twitter, Maurya identified the three "gaddis" (seats) as the "raj gaddi" of the prime minister and chief minister, "mutt gaddi" of the shankaracharyas and seers, and "seth gaddi" of businesses like the Adani and Ambani groups.

"Today there is an alliance between these three seats of power. When there is a threat to the 'raj gaddi', the 'seth gaddi' and 'mutt gaddi' come to its rescue by opening its coffers.

"When the 'mutt gaddi' is in trouble, the 'seth gaddi' and 'raj gaddi' provide financial assistance, and when the 'seth gaddi' faces any problem, it gets bailed out by the other two," Maurya said.

Pointing at the crowd, he said, "But you are not there on any of the three seats."

The SP leader had last week accused the BJP of inciting communal feelings on the Gyanvapi Mosque issue.

A month before the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Maurya had resigned from the post of labour and employment minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government and joined the Samajwadi Party.
Mumbai, Aug 7 (PTI) A court here has sentenced an armed constable of Maharashtra's State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) to two-and-a-half years of imprisonment for leaving his rifle unattended at a railway station in Mumbai and walking away to avoid joining Naxalite 'bandobast' duty in Gadchiroli district 12 years ago.

The accused, Pramod Patil, was convicted for an offence punishable under relevant provisions of the Bombay State Reserve Police Force Act by Additional Sessions Judge N P Tribhuwan on Friday (August 4). A detailed court order, however, was made available on Monday (August 7).

As per the prosecution, Maharashtra's Director General of Police (DGP) had issued an order to send police force -- SRPF contingent consisting of four officers and 102 other personnel -- for Naxalite 'bandobast' duty (related to arrangement, management, administration) in Gadchiroli district.

The selected officers and other police personnel, including constables, were given government arms, ammunition, bedding and other essential articles, the prosecution said.

For their departure to Gadchiroli by train, the personnel, escorted by government vehicles, arrived at the platform No. 18 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station in south Mumbai on August 9, 2011.

The Naxalite-affected district in eastern Maharashtra in located around 750km from Mumbai.

Patil, an "armed constable" who was part of the Gadchiroli-bound SRPF team, was allotted a 7.62mm self-loading rifle (SLR) rifle.

However, the accused disobeyed the DGP's order and without his permission, left the rifle at the platform unattended. He then went away in order to avoid joining duty, the police added.

The court, in its order, said the prosecution has successfully established guilt of the accused for the offence punishable under provisions of the Bombay State Reserve Police Force Act.

There is cogent, trustworthy and reliable evidence of prosecution witnesses," noted the additional sessions judge in his verdict.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) As Manipur sank deeper into ethnic violence, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to oversee relief and rehabilitation of victims and compensation to them besides asking former Maharashtra police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar to monitor the probe in criminal cases.

Observing that its effort is to restore people's faith in the rule of law in the strife-torn state, the top court also decided to monitor the overall situation there.

The court said the three-member panel will be submitting reports to it directly.

A bench chaired by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and include Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi High Court.

Cognizant of reports about the border state descending deeper into chaos, with more and more people getting killed and arson and mayhem prevailing, the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which had termed as "deeply disturbing" the video of women being paraded naked, said it will appoint a committee of three former high court judges to oversee relief and rehabilitation of those affected.

"We will appoint a committee of three former high court judges," the bench said and announced a panel of three former women judges.

It said the committee of judges will be looking at issues including relief, remedial measures, rehabilitation, compensation and also restoration of homes and places of worship.

The bench said the committee of judges will visit the relief camps and assess the conditions there.

On the investigation of cases, the court said 11 FIRs will be transferred to the CBI.

"We are not going to supplant the CBI because you (the state government) have the investigating agency which will be looking after the investigation," the bench said.

The top court said to ensure there is a sense of faith, it will direct that at least five officers, not below the rank of deputy superintendents of police, be brought into the CBI on deputation from various states to oversee the probe.

It said these officers will be functioning within the administrative set up of the CBI and may be supervised by an officer of the rank of joint director in the central agency.

"We are going to add one more layer of scrutiny for us. We have already identified the officer," the bench said, adding former Maharashtra DGP Dattatray Padsalgikar will monitor the overall investigation and keep apprising it of the developments.

It said as per report placed before it by Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, about 42 state SITs will be looking at the cases which will not be transferred to the CBI.

The bench said for each of these SITs at least one inspector from another state be brought on deputation to the Manipur Police.

It said these 42 SITs should be supervised by six DIG rank officers who will come in from outside the state of Manipur.

The bench said a detailed order will be uploaded on the apex court website later in the evening.

During the hearing, Manipur Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi and state DGP Rajiv Singh appeared before the bench.

The top law officers submitted a report, which the apex court had sought on August 1, on issues including the segregation of cases.

"The government is handling the situation at a very mature level," the attorney general told the bench.

The government law officers said the state government proposed to set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs), headed by the superintendent of police at the district level, to probe sensitive cases. The CBI has been asked to investigate 11 cases.

A battery of lawyers, including senior advocate Indira Jaising, Sanjay Hegde, C U Singh, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and lawyers Prashant Bhushan, Vrinda Grover, Nizam Pasha, Vishal Tiwari, gave suggestions to the bench on setting up of SITs for investigating cases of ethnic violence.

The directions by the top court came days after it said on August 1 that there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.

It had rapped the state police for a "tardy" and "lethargic" probe of incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, had summoned the DGP to answer its queries on August 7.

The Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

The bench is hearing around 10 petitions related to the spiralling violence, including those seeking court-monitored probe into cases, besides measures for relief and rehabilitation.

More than 160 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence first broke out in the state on May 3 when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh Police not to take any coercive steps till August 21 in an FIR lodged in connection with the Enforcement Directorate probe into a money laundering case linked to the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia made it clear that it is not impeding the investigation in the case.

Three Chhattisgarh government officials, including two IAS officers, and others have been booked on charges of alleged cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy by police in Greater Noida in connection with the ED probe into the alleged liquor scam, officials said on July 31.

The FIR was lodged at the Kasna police station on a complaint from the Raipur-based deputy director of the ED, which is probing the scam.

The apex court was hearing an application that claimed in order to circumvent the July 18 order of the top court, which had said that the concerned respondent authorities -- the ED -- must "stay their hand in all manner", the probe agency got an FIR filed in Uttar Pradesh.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, appearing for the ED, claimed that some bureaucrats are involved in rampant corruption and are "minting money" out of the liquor scam.

"They are under the protection of the Chhattisgarh government," the ASG claimed.

The counsel for the applicant argued that the issue of "duplicate hologram", which is sought to be raised in the FIR lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police, was something which came to the notice of the ED much earlier and it was also a part of the counter affidavit filed earlier in the top court.

Raju said this is a different offence and the ED was duty-bound to bring it to the notice of a concerned agency.

"On our query as to when these aspects came to the notice of the ED, ASG requests for a short accommodation to obtain instructions. List on August 21," the bench said.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the applicant, said there is "gross abuse and violation" of the apex court's July 18 order and the ED has got an FIR registered in Uttar Pradesh.

After the bench posted the matter for hearing on August 21, he requested that no coercive steps should be taken in the meantime.

"The Uttar Pradesh Police may not take any coercive steps till the next date. Though, we are not impeding the investigation," the bench said.

"Suppose all this comes to your notice six months ago and you start it now, then there is a problem. Suppose, it has come to your notice just immediately and some processing time is taken, it is a different scenario," the bench told Raju.

The apex court on July 18 asked the ED to "stay their hand in all manner" in the money laundering case linked to the liquor scam in Chhattisgarh.

It had passed the order while hearing the pleas, including the one filed by two Chhattisgarh-based people, challenging the proceedings initiated against them by the anti-money laundering agency.

While hearing the matter on May 16, the top court told the ED not to create an "atmosphere of fear", after the Chhattisgarh government had alleged that the probe agency was "running amok" and trying to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in a money laundering case linked to liquor scam in the state.

The Chhattisgarh government had earlier alleged in the apex court that several state excise department officials have complained that the ED was threatening them and their family members with arrest.

The state has filed an application seeking impleadment in one of the petitions, claiming that 52 officers of the excise department have complained in writing alleging "mental and physical torture" by ED officers during the course of the investigation.

The ED had earlier told a court about an alleged massive scam in the liquor trade in Chhattisgarh perpetrated by a syndicate comprising high-level state government officials, private people and political executives that generated tainted money more than Rs 2,000 crore in 2019-22.

Chhattisgarh had become the first state to move the top court challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) alleging that central investigating agencies are being misused to "intimidate, harass and disturb" the normal functioning of the non-BJP state government.

The Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government has filed an original suit through advocate Sumeer Sodhi challenging the law under Article 131 of the Constitution which empowers a state to move the Supreme Court directly in matters of dispute with the Centre or any other state.

The money laundering case stems from a 2022 Income Tax Department charge sheet filed in a court in Delhi.

The federal agency had alleged that bribes were collected from distillers in the state on a per liquor case basis procured from the CSMCL (state body for purchase and sale of liquor) and country liquor was being sold off-the-books.

According to the ED, bribes were taken from distillers to allow them to form a cartel and have a fixed market share.
In Russia made another cynical statement about the war against Ukraine. In the Kremlin issued that they want to control all Ukrainian regions, which previously wrote into the Russian constitution.

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Also in the aggressor state said that they see no grounds for a peace agreement with Ukraine, and threatened to "continue the operation for the foreseeable future". Such statements were made by the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitriy Peskov, in a commentary for the New York Times.

The publication's journalists asked Vladimir Putin's press secretary a direct question whether Russia was seeking to occupy more Ukrainian territories. In response, Peskov referred to the Russian constitution, where the occupiers have inscribed Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as theirs.

According to him, the Russian Federation "wants to control all those regions that are currently written in the country's constitution as Russian".

Moreover, the Kremlin speaker took to threatening to continue the war against Ukraine "in the foreseeable future."

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"There are currently no grounds for a peace agreement with Kyiv, the operation in Ukraine will continue in the foreseeable future," he said.

We will remind, earlier CNN with reference to several high-ranking American and European officials reported: the West is convinced that Putin will try to drag the war in Ukraine to the elections in the United States.

The Russian dictator is counting on the defeat of incumbent US President Joe Biden and a decrease in Washington's support for Ukraine. In addition, Putin believes that if Biden's predecessor Donald Trump returns to the White House, he will help Russia break the deadlock in Ukraine.

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Gurugram, Aug 7 (PTI) A sessions court here Monday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for killing his three minor daughters 14 years ago.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Mona Singh convicted Dharmendra Kumar, who is a native of Patna, the police said.

Kumar had also attacked his wife and another daughter with a knife and injured them, they said.

According to police, Kumar lived here with his wife Meena Sinha and four daughters, including Sujata (14), Shalini (11), Alka (5) and Sonali (3).

The couple used to quarrel frequently as Kumar suspected his wife to be in a relationship with another man, the police complaint said.

The incident took place on February 15 late evening when Kumar was returning home from a park near Sadar Bazaar here with his wife and children, the complaint said.

When they reached near a railway track in Basai here, he threw chilli powder at Sinha's eyes and attacked her with a knife. When the girls tried to save their mother, Kumar attacked them as well and fled the spot, the police said.

The next morning, Sujata, Shalini and Sonali were found dead near the railway track, while Sinha and his daughter Alka were admitted to the hospital in injured condition, they added.

Based on Sinha's statement, a search for the absconding accused was started by registering an FIR against him at the GRP police station here on February 16, 2009. A local court had declared him as a proclaimed offender as the police could not trace him, the police said.

After around 11 years, Kumar was finally arrested in March 2020 from Bihar, where he was residing by changing his name. He was later brought here and produced in the court from where he was sent to judicial custody, they added.
Bengaluru, Aug 7 (PTI) Prominent Kannada film actor-director Vijay Raghavendras wife Spandana dies in Bangkok on Monday, the family said.





Spandana (aged 44) had gone on a trip to Thailand's capital with her cousins, and Raghavendra too had joined them after completing his shooting schedules.







"Last night she went to sleep and did not get up in the morning. We believe it (death) is due to (complications arising from) low blood pressure, Sri Murali told reporters here, quoting his brother Raghavendra who called him up from Bangkok.







Spandana is the daughter of retired police officer B K Shivaram and niece of Congress MLC B K Hariprasad. She had acted in a movie Apoorva, making a guest appearance.







Hariprasad said: Spandana did not get up in the morning. They are saying its a heart attack".







Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and several others expressed shock over her death and offered condolences.
New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) A 74-year-old man was killed, while two others sustained injuries after three people attacked them in separate robbery bids in southwest Delhis Sagarpur area on Monday, police said.

The three accused have been arrested, police said.

On Monday, three separate incidents of stabbing-cum-robbery took place in the area of Sagarpur, they said.

At 5.17 am, a PCR call was received regarding a stabbing incident. Police rushed to the spot and found that injured Ashok (54), a resident of Jagdamba Vihar in West Sagarpur, was taken to the DDU hospital by PCR van, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Manoj C said.

Initial enquiry revealed that three accused people on a motorcycle had attacked and robbed a watch and purse of the injured. The condition of the injured was stable and he was later discharged from the hospital, the DCP said.

Within five to 10 minutes, the accused committed two more robberies.

In one of the incidents which took place near Mohan block, the injured -- identified as Mohan Lal Chhabra, a resident of Durga Park, Sagarpur -- was declared brought dead at the hospital. He was robbed of gold ornament and cash, the DCP said.

Another robbery was committed at near Durgapark, wherein the injured was -- Om Dutt Singh, a resident of Sagarpur -- was admitted with stab injuries. His condition was stable and later discharged from the hospital. He was robbed of Rs 500 cash and some documents, Manoj said.

Police have registered three separate cases in connection with the incidents at Sagarpur police station and an investigation was taken up, they said.

During the investigation, police analysed all the technical and human surveillance. They got a tip-off about one Akshay and apprehended him from Palam Village area, the DCP said.

The accused confessed his involvement in the crime and revealed the names of the co-accused. Later, his associates were also apprehended from Manglapuri Jhuggi and Dabri, the DCP said.

According to the police, the post-mortem report will ascertain how many stab injuries the deceased had received.

Prima facie, the motives seems to be robbery, however, further investigation will ascertain why they attacked with a knife. It will also be ascertained that whether they planned to target the elderly people.

Mohan Lal Chhabras son Mahendra Chhabra said that his father was going for a physiotherapy session when the incident took place.
A year after new law, veterans see historic expansion of benefits for toxic exposure




When the Justice Department was announcing the highest-profile prosecution in its history in Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland was 100 miles away, meeting with local police in Philadelphia.

He stepped outside briefly to speak about how the decision to indict Donald Trump for conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election came from career prosecutors and was led by a special counsel committed to accountability and independence.

In other words, this wasnt about politics.

Try as Garland might, though, there is no escaping the politics of the moment when the Justice Department of a president who is running for reelection is indicting his chief political rival, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

And though he has distanced himself from the investigation since he appointed special counsel Jack Smith 10 months ago, Garland has the last word on matters related to the prosecution of Trump as long as he is the attorney general.

The Justice Department is facing its biggest test in history  navigating unprecedented conditions in American democracy while trying to fight back against relentless attacks on its own credibility and that of the U.S. election system. The success or failure of the case has the potential to affect the standing of the department for years to come.

In grand terms this is a really huge historic moment for the Department of Justice, said Wendy Weiser, vice president for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.

President Joe Biden has sought to distance himself from the Justice Department to avoid any appearance of meddling when the agency is not only probing Trump, but also the presidents son Hunter. But its going to get more challenging for Biden, too. Anything he says about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol from now on could complicate matters for prosecutors. And any trial is likely to take place against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential election.

The latest indictment is the third criminal case filed against Trump this year, but the first to try to hold him criminally responsible for his efforts to cling to power in the weeks between his election loss and the Capitol attack that stunned the world. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday before a federal magistrate judge and was ordered not to speak about the case with any potential witnesses.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong and has accused Smith of trying to thwart his chances of returning to the White House in 2024. Trump and other Republicans have railed against the investigation and the Justice Department in general, claiming a two-tiered system of justice that vilifies Trump and goes easy on Bidens son, who was accused of tax crimes after a yearslong probe.

Another dark day in America as Joe Biden continues to weaponize his corrupt Department of Justice against his leading political opponent Donald J. Trump, said U.S. Rep Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.

Trumps own Justice Department was subject to complaints of politicization, drawing heavy criticism as the federal probe of Russias 2016 election interference thrust prosecutors center stage and dragged out scandals that Trump seized on as proof of a deep state operating against him.

The release of the Russia report by special counsel Robert Mueller was colored by politics, with then-Attorney General William Barr issuing a four-page memo ahead of the report that was widely criticized as spinning the investigations findings in favor of Trump. Muellers actual report  two volumes and 448 pages  was far more nuanced and laid out in part how Trump directed others to influence or curtail the Russia investigation after the special counsels appointment in May 2017.

On Nov. 9, 2020, as Trump began to suggest with no evidence there might be widespread voter fraud, Barr issued a directive pushing prosecutors to investigate any suspected instances. But by the waning days of the Trump administration Barr had turned against Trump, telling The Associated Press before he told the president that there had been no widespread election fraud.

Garland, a longtime federal appeals court judge who had been Barack Obamas choice for the U.S. Supreme Court but never got a hearing, was chosen by President Biden to be a stabilizing force. He promised to return the Justice Department to normal, restoring its reputation for political independence and ensuring equal justice.

Throughout his career, Garland has been steeped in Justice Department procedures and norms, and as a judge his decisions were thorough but judicially modest, said Jamie Gorelick, a lawyer who served as deputy attorney general in the 1990s and has been a Garland colleague and friend for decades.

His view was, you do what you need to thoroughly and well and you dont reach, you dont do more than you have to do, she said.

While Garland hasnt been directly involved with the Trump case since naming Smith as special counsel, the indictment handed down Tuesday reflects a similar approach, she said. It doesnt rely on crazy new theories. It does not try to do more when less would be more effective, she said.

Indeed, the indictment covered much of same ground that played out on live TV, or was unearthed in the House investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection, where violent protesters beat and bloodied police officers, smashed through windows and occupied the Capitol for hours.

If Smith loses the case, the Justice Department could lose credibility, particularly as the barrage of Republican attacks against the department grows. If prosecutors win, a former president could see time behind bars. If Trump is reelected, he could undo the charges and has said he plans to completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, part of a larger effort by Trump to push more power toward the presidency.

There are pieces now in play that the Justice Department is going to continue to take on for years to come, said Robert Sanders, a senior lecturer of national security at the University of New Haven. The next 12 months are going to be a critical stage in the history of this nation.

Against that fraught backdrop, the broader work of the department goes on.

On the same day Trump was arraigned in Washington, federal prosecutors announced guilty pleas in a racist assault on two Black men who were brutalized during a home raid in Mississippi. And U.S. officials also announced the arrest of two U.S. Navy soldiers for spying for China in California.

Garland, during his Philadelphia visit, went almost immediately back to the community event hed gone there to observe, chatting with police officers outside, as reporters shouted questions about the unprecedented indictment. But Garland wouldnt bite.

I appointed Jack Smith special council to take on the ongoing investigation in order to underline the departments commitment to accountability and independence, he said. Any questions about this matter will have to be answered by the filings made in the courtroom.

(AP)




Moscow unleashed a massive missile and drone barrage on western Ukraine Sunday, following through on its promise to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian tanker.

Russian and Ukrainian shelling across the country overnight killed in at least six people, officials said.

Separately, Moscows second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early Sunday following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Ukraines air force said Russia launched 70 attack drones and missiles, including cruise missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.

Serhiy Tyurin, deputy head of Ukraines Khmelnytsky region military administration, said three waves of missiles hit the Starokostiantyniv area, damaging several buildings and igniting a fire at a warehouse. The strike may have been intended for the citys airfield, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.

The Russian barrage came after a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late Friday. Ukraine also struck a major Russian port with drones earlier the same day.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned what she called a Ukrainian terrorist attack on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait.

There can be no justification for such barbaric actions, they will not go unanswered and their authors and perpetrators will inevitably be punished, Zakharova posted on the Telegram messaging app.

An official with Ukraines Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press that a Ukrainian drone packed with 450 kilograms (992 pounds) of explosive the service struck the tanker that as transporting fuel for Russian forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Russias Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport posted on Telegram that although the drone blasted a hole in the tankers engine room, there were no casualties among the 11 crew members. On Sunday, a Ukrainian missile hit the Chonhar bridge that connects the Russian-occupied Kherson region and northern Crimea.

The strike caused minor damage to the bridges roadway, said Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed leader of the Kherson region. He also said that several more rockets had been shot down by air defense forces at the time of the attack.

The bridge, which is one of three key road bridges connecting the Crimean peninsula to the mainland, was previously attacked on July 22 and 29.

Two of the six fatalities overnight Sunday occurred during a Russian air strike in Ukraines Kharkiv region, according to the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Another four people were injured.

Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the areas Kupyan district late on August 5.

This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression, Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.

Heavy shelling continued along the frontline in Eastern Ukraine as Kyiv continues to push forward with its ongoing counteroffensive. Elsewhere in the Kharkiv region, a 58-year-old woman was killed and a 66-year-old man was hospitalized after Russian shelling of the village of Podoly, an official said. In Ukraines eastern Kupyan region, Russian missiles injured a 55-year-old man and ignited a forest fire, officials said on social media. Russian attacks in the Donetsk region villages of Torske and Niu-York killed two people, local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko posted on social media.

Ukrainian shelling in Russian-held Donetsk killed a woman in her eighties, the citys Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said Sunday. The shelling also set the main building of a university on fire, according to the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed region, Denis Pushilin.

Russias Emergency Situations Ministry said that the blaze caused the buildings roof to collapse, but that there were no casualties.

Moscows Vnukovo airport, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) southwest of the Russian capital, briefly suspended flights Sunday morning after a drone was shot down in the airspace around the city. The attack was one of four strikes on the Russian capital in the space of a month, spotlighting Moscows vulnerability as Russias war in Ukraine drags into its second year.

The drone was destroyed by air defense systems in the Podolsk region of the Moscow suburbs, the Russian defense ministry said.

The Russian defense ministry said no one was injured from the abortive drone attack, although Russian media outlet Baza later reported that a 77-year-old man suffered a shrapnel wound to his hand. The reports could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian authorities, which generally avoid commenting on attacks on Russian soil, didnt say whether it launched the raid.

Flights were last halted at the airport on July 30, when two drones crashed into the Moscow City business district after being jammed by Russian air defenses.

(AP)
Ukraine on Monday, August 7, was able to return home 22 more of its defenders. These are the soldiers of the AFU, who took part in battles in different directions.

ADVERTISIMENT

The oldest of them is 54 years old, the youngest is 23 years old. This was reported by the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.

"Today brought home from captivity 22 more Ukrainian soldiers. These are fighters of the AFU", - stated in the message.

It is noted that among the returned defenders are two officers, as well as servicemen of the rank and file and sergeants. They participated in battles in different directions.

It is noteworthy that among the liberated there are wounded.

"The oldest of our soldiers is 54 years old, the youngest is 23 years old. All the liberated will undergo a course of physical and psychological rehabilitation, reintegration and receive the necessary treatment with the support of medical specialists. We must fulfill the President's task and return all our people," Yermak added.

ADVERTISIMENT

ADVERTISIMENT

We shall remind you that the last prisoner exchange took place on July 6. Our country was able to bring home 45 more people, as well as two children, aged 6 and 10, who had been illegally taken to Russia by the occupants.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense Andriy Yusov said that the Ukrainian side can not disclose statistics on how many Ukrainian military captured by the aggressor country or how many Russian occupiers are prisoners of war of the AFU. This is related to the process of preparing the next exchanges.

Only verified information we have in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel and in Viber. Do not fall for fakes!




North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the countrys key weapons factories, including those producing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and pledged to speed up efforts to advance his militarys arms and war readiness, state media said Sunday.

Kims three-day inspections through Saturday came as the United States and South Korea prepared for their next round of combined military exercises planned for later this month to counter the growing North Korean threat.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as the pace of North Koreas missile tests and the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, have both intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

Some experts say Kims tour of the weapons factories could also be related to possible military cooperation with Moscow that may involve North Korean supplies of artillery and other ammunition as Russian President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support in the war in Ukraine.

During a visit to an unspecified factory producing large-caliber artillery systems, Kim stressed the facilitys important responsibility and duty in further boosting his militarys war preparations, North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim praised the factorys efforts to employ scientific and technological measures to improve the quality of shells, reduce processing times for propellent tubes and increase manufacturing speed. He also urged the factory to move ahead with development and large-scale production of new kinds of ammunition, the KCNA said.

Kim echoed the message in visits to two other factories, calling the delivery of launcher trucks designed to transport and fire ballistic missiles a top priority for the military and urging for the rapid expansion of production of more reliable engines for cruise missiles and drones.

North Korean photos showed Kim walking past huge launcher trucks designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles which recent tests indicated they could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. Other photos showed Kim firing scoped rifles during a visit to a small arms factory where he said soldiers firearms need to be modernized, according to KCNA.

In the face of deepening confrontations with Washington and Seoul, Kim has been trying boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the United States.

His tour of the weapons factories comes after a giant military parade last month in North Koreas capital, Pyongyang, where Kim was joined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese ruling party official while rolling out his most powerful missiles designed to target South Korea and the United States.

Shoigus presence at the July 27 parade, which came after Kim took him on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, demonstrated North Koreas support for Russias invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia to support its war efforts.

Cheong Seong Chang, an analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Kims visits to the factories likely had a dual goal of encouraging the modernization of domestically produced weapons and examining artillery and other supplies that can possibly be exported to Russia.

Kims comments at the artillery factory about improving the quality of shells and the need to develop new types of ammunition, which he described as key to the countrys national defense economic work, clearly communicate an intent for exports to Russia, Cheong said.

North Korea has been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the hegemonic policy of the U.S.-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. But Pyongyang has denied U.S. accusations that it has been providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine.

Cheong said Kims comments at the factory about making missile-launch trucks could indicate that the North is seeing some progress in increasing the production of those vehicles, which would possibly improve the operational range of its ballistic weapons designed to target neighboring rivals and the U.S. mainland.

(AP)




by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Home

According to a JNS report, the number of Israeli women with permits to carry a firearm has jumped 88% over the last seven months, according to numbers released on Sunday by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Forty-four percent of the women to receive licenses were residents of Judea and Samaria, according to the figures.

The policy that I have been leading in the Ministry of National Security since I took office is to grant a weapon license to those who meet the criteria, so that they can protect themselves and their surroundings, said Ben-Gvir. Women who want to protect themselves and their families is a welcome thing, and I am happy that on my watch we see a big increase on this level as well.

Our question, however, is what is the halacha?

The Gemorah (Nazir 59a) discusses the pasuk in Dvarim 22:5 that a woman should not wear mens clothing nor should a man wear womens clothing. Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yaakov uses this verse as a source that women should not go out to war with weaponry.

Then in the Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel (Shoftim 8:26) we find that he provides this idea as the explanation for why Yael employed a tent peg  not a weapon to do away with Sisera.

BACKGROUND

And just for some background, Devorah was both a neviah and a Judge during the period of the Shoftim  before we had kings. Devorah advised Barak to take 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zvulun to Har Tabor to do battle against King Yabin of Cnaan. Barak said he would go, but only if DVorah went with him. She responded with a Nevuah that the honor of beating the Cnaanim would go to a woman.

In the battle at Mount Tabor, Hashem caused a cloudburst to rain heavily which caused the river to overflow. The chariots of the general were unable to move well. Sisera ran away and sought refuge in Yales tent. He asked for water, but she gave him milk. Sisera fell asleep and Yael then pounded a tent peg in his head. When Barak arrived she showed him Siseras dead body.

The Targum Yonasan explains that Yael used a tent peg so as not to be in direct violation of the pasuk in Dvarim.

The Shulchan Aruch codifies all of this in Yoreh Deah (182:5).

PIKUACH NEFESH

On the other hand, there is also the principle of Pikuach Nefesh that nothing stands before the preservation of life.

This concept is derived from no less than six different sources. Firstly, the Torah tells us vchai bahem  and we shall live by the Torah  not die by them.

Secondly, the verse in Parshas Ki Taytzai (Dvarim 22:2) discusses the Mitzvah of Hashavas Aveida, returning an object, with the words vahashaivoso lo  and you shall return it to him.

The Gemorah in Sanhedrin (73a), however, includes within its understanding of these words the obligation of returning his own life to him as well. For example, if thieves are threatening to pounce upon him, there is an obligation of vahashaivoso lo. In other words, this verse is the source for the Mitzvah of saving someones life. I believe this is the general mitzvah the Shulchan Aruch refers to in Shulchan Aruch Orech Chaim 325.

Lo Saamod Al Dam Rayacha

There is a negative Mitzvah of not standing idly by your brothers blood as well. This is mentioned in Shulchan Aruch (CM 426:1) and in the Rambam.

Lo Suchal lhisalaym

There is yet another negative commandment associated with the positive commandment of Hashavas Aveida, and that is the verse in Dvarim (22:3), You cannot shut your eyes to it. This verse comes directly after the Mitzvah of Hashavas Aveidah. The Netziv (HeEmek Sheailah) refers to this Mitzvah as well.

VChai Achicha Imach

The Sheiltos (Sheilta #37), based upon the Gemorah in Bava Metziah 62a, understands these words to indicate an obligation to save others with you. The Netziv in his HeEmek Sheailah understands it as a full-fledged obligation according to all opinions. He writes that he must exert every effort to save his friends life  until it becomes Pikuach Nefesh for himself.

VAhavta lRayacha Kamocha

The Ramban, Toras haAdam Shaar HaSakana (p42-43) understands the verse of and love thy neighbor as yourself as a directive to save him from danger as well. Although he discusses the issue of medical danger, it is clear that this is an example, and it would apply to danger from physical enemies as well. Even without the Ramban, however, it is clear that defending and protecting someone from danger is a fulfillment of this Mitzvah.

SO HOW DO WE RECONCILE?

How do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory concepts?

The Poskim have delineated four examples of exceptions:

1] When time is of the essence (as opposed to when time is not of the essence, as in the case of Yael). (see Yechave Daas Vol. V #55)

2] When there is a period of antagonism and there is a likelihood of attacks (ibid)

3] When one is, generally speaking, in a dangerous area (Sefer Chassidim #200)

4] When a woman travels past rock-throwing and the like (Sefer Chassidim #200)

ADDITIONAL CAVEATS

In regard to these parameters many Poskim have included additional caveats (See for example, Assei Lecha Rav 3:24):

When and if women are trained in the use of weaponry  the training should be done separately  they should attend mixed instructional classes.

When men are available for security duty, women should not hold weapons.

If not enough men are available the women should perform the sentry together and there should not be mixed crews.

The author can be reached at [email protected]




The Satmar Rebbe ztl on his 44th Yahrtzeit

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Home

This upcoming Sunday, the 26th of Av, marks the 44th Yahrtzeit of the Satmar Rebbe. Those that knew the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum ztl, loved him. After the Nazi beasts yimach shmam almost completely destroyed European Jewry, the Rebbe faced one of the most enormous challenges a spiritual leader could face. And he succeeded. The Satmar Rebbe rebuilt a broken nation, one person at a time.

He took broken men. He taught them. He inspired them.

Since his passing in 1979, three generations have passed. Those that knew him are getting older. Many of his Bnai Bayis are no longer with us, rl. How then can we gain insight into this great Tzaddik and builder of our nation?

In this tribute, it is suggested that we can see a tiny vignette of the Satmar Rebbe from an as-yet un-mined and untapped source. The source is one whose existence is not so well known  his oeuvre of responsa.

The two volumes of the Satmar Rebbes responsa were compiled by Rabbi Ephraim Yoseph Dov Ashkenazi and were printed twice. The first edition was printed in 1982, the second sixteen years later in 1998. Both were printed at the Printing House of Rabbi Sender Deutsch in Brooklyn. But let us get back to the content of his writings, and the insights.

A brief example: Insight can be gained into this extraordinary giant from a mere few words hidden in responsa #31 of his halachic writings.

It is an answer to someone who is bitter because of his own sins. He first tells him how to lift himself out of the abyss but he also tells him how not to give up. What follows is an exact translation.

For one that does not believe that the Holy One forgives those who have angered him, even if they have angered him without limit, recites a bracha lvatalah every day, Chas vshalom. Chanun HaMarbeh lisloach Gracious is He who forgives exceptionally. For the Creator forgives without limit. Our sages have already discussed the greatness of a Baal Teshuvah  for where they stand even the greatest of people do not stand.

They are a few simple words. But they inspire and build.

It is well known that the Satmar Rebbe built an extraordinary community. He built a community that gave the world Hatzolah, outstanding Bikkur Cholim, Kimpatoriums and much much more. For COVID patients in Mount Sinai Hospital it was Satmar Bikkur Cholim, among others, that led the way.

All of these accomplishments and his genuine ahavas-Yisroel-imbued interactions with individuals and their vivid personal recollections, tend to obscure another aspect of this extraordinary man.

They obscure the fact that the Satmar Rebbe ztl was a giant of a Talmid Chochom with deep insight and chiddushim in every corner and facet of Torah. There are thirty three Teshuvos in the Orech Chaim section of his responsa. We will review them all, and a few others in the other sections as well:

Responsa Divrei Yoel  Orech Chaim

Netilas Yadayim

The Orech Chaim section begins with the heart-rending question (OC #1) of, May saliva be used for the ritual washing of hands in the morning? It is a holocaust era question that speaks volumes not only of Jewish deprivation and suffering, but of Jewish dedication, and idealism in their all-encompassing commitment to fulfill Halacha.

His response to Rav Chaim Elazar of Munkatch, of course, was that it may not be used, the halachic status of saliva being something unclean, in and of, itself.

Tefillin

In a letter to Rav Yitzchok Isaac Lieberman of Chicago, dated Tuesday, January 1st, 1952 (Parshas VaYigash 5712) the Rebbe advised left handed people to try to fulfill the opinion of the Arizal that they should also wear their Tefillin on the left hand, but to do so at home and without a Bracha (OC responsa #2).

The Rebbe also dealt with (OC #3) the halachos of a weakened right arm that got better and the person still showed a preference to use his left hand did the person now become a left-handed person in terms of Tefillin? His response to Rav Simcha Bunim Sofer of Yerushalayim on Tuesday, March 22, 1955 (Parshas VaYikra 5715), differentiated between whether he now uses his left hand because he became used to it (which would be a halachic debate) or because his original right hand is weaker (in which case he has become a de facto lefty).

Newly Discovered Seforim

He also addressed (OC #4) the halachic status of the newly unearthed commentary of the Meiri which was found in an Italian monastery in 1948 in a letter to Rav Yoseph Scheinberger of Yerushalayim. He cites the responsa of the Chsam Sopher (Vol. VI CM #61) that one should not learn any sefer that does not contain haskamos  approbations of the greatest of the leading Rabbis, and not just any approbations. He discusses how his grandfather, the Yetiv Laiv gave a haskama to a great Talmid Chochom, only to discover to his chagrin that the work contained heresy. He withdrew the haskama.

[YH This position regarding new Seforim was the same one taken by the Chazon Ish, although neither referred to the other in their responses to the new Meiri.]

In Responsa #5, written to his student Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kahn of Yerushalayim, he deals with a number of issues, including that his grandfather, the Yetiv Levs custom in Tefillin regarding Stumos and Psuchos (the indents) was like the opinion of the TaZ (OC 32:26) and not like the Rambam. He found this out after he inherited the Tefillin of his grandfather and they were opened. He also deals with when the War of Gog and Magog will take place, before Mashiach arrives or after. He brought many proofs that it will be after and the arrival of Eliyahu may be before but it is unclear.

The Satmar Rebbe also addresses the fact that he was uncomfortable taking payments from the Germans  but never told others not to do so, because he was not entirely clear on the issue. He discusses the nusach of the Shabbos zemer Lsaadah bhada or bhadei  concluding that on Friday night Bhada should be said while on Shabbos day it should be bhadei.

In Responsa #6 to Rabbi Akiva Blau of Kehilas Krasnow, the Satmar Rebbe discusses whether an old pair of beloved Tefillin can be restored by writing over the letters or is it a problem of shelo ksidran  that the Parshios would not have been written in consecutive order. It is a long analysis and he concludes that it may only be done if the Parshios were at least minimally kosher.

A Sefer Torah that Fell rl

In Responsa #7 to Rav Shlomo Boruch Prager, the Satmar Rebbe deals with a case of a Sefer Torah that fell, but it is unclear whether any part of it had touched the ground or whether it was saved adequately during the fall. He concludes, after a long analysis that a doubt regarding a sin is often worse than a sin itself and advises that the Kehillah adopt certain measures.

Shuls, Torah Readings, & Mechitzos

In Responsa #8 written to Rav Michoel Eliezer Lipman Perslager, a student of the Avnei Nezer, he deals with an elderly person who can no longer walk to a distant shul and the only shul within walking distance is one where the majority of its minyan are Shabbos violators. The Satmar Rebbe recommends that he daven at home.

In Responsa #9 to Rav Shalom Yechezkel Shraga Hash, the Satmar Rebbe deals with the issue of the Torah readings during the beginning of Nissan and whether it is proper to initiate the reading of the Nesiim prior to Mussaf. He concludes that it should not be done in this manner.

In Responsa #10, to Rav Chananya Yomtov Deutsch the former Av Beis Din of the town of Helmitz, the Satmar Rebbe discusses the status of low Mechitzos even among the Orthodox in America. He discusses his amazement at Rav Moshe Feinstein ztls position that the purpose of a Mechitzah is to prevent mixing and not to prevent Histaklus  glancing. He cites a number of proofs that clearly state that the purpose is to prevent Histaklus.

In Responsa #11, also to Rav Deutsch, he discusses a halachic argument he had with Rav Elya Meir Bloch, the Telze Rosh Yeshiva ztl concerning the Satmar Ravs opinion that adding onto Binyan on Shabbos is a biblical prohibition regarding Mechitzos. He also rules that television is certainly to be considered Avodah Zarah and Gilui Arayos, non-kosher and apikorsus.

Wine and Brachos

In Responsa #12 the Satmar Rebbe discusses with Rav Yonasan Shteif ztl a distinction between making wine from small raisins versus larger raisins. He questions whether it is permissible with the smaller raisins on account of the fact that the blessing may not be HaGafen according to a number of Achronim.

In Responsa #13 to Rav Levi Yitzchok Gavo, the Av Beis Din of Arugas HaBosem in Brooklyn, he discusses in a very long responsa that the Borei Nefashos can serve as a general Bracha Achronah when there are some other doubts [YH: It is interesting to note that Rav Moshe Feinstein ztl held to a similar position and was attacked for it in the Meaneh lIgros].

In Responsa #14 he discusses with the Rav in Montevideo, Uruguay, Rav Asher Shmuel Katz, a forthcoming Chanukas HaBayis of a shul, and rules that regarding whether to recite a Shehecheyanu or a Boruch HaTov vhamaitiv that they should take a new fruit and recite the Shehecheyanu on that, having the building in mind. [YH: Rav Chaim Kanievsky advises the same in his sefer on Hilchos HaMikdash]

Shabbos

In Responsa #15 to Rav Moshe Dovid Teitelbaum, he deals with whether there is a Mitzvah of honoring Shabbos or any other Mitzvah in placing a date upon a letter. The Satmar Rav explores the issue extensively and concludes that there is not even a hint of such a Mitzvah.

In Responsa #16 to Rav Moshe Yisroel Feldman, he discusses whether there is an issue of Yaharog veal yaavor  giving up ones life when there is a governmental decree that the stores must be open on the Shabbos. He ruled that it is only applicable when they are doing it for the purpose of religion but when not on account of an anti-religious decree (but an economic one) it is not Yaharog veal yaavor.

In Responsa #17 the Rebbe discusses his position that a lock and key cannot address the issues of Shehiya  leaving non-fully cooked food on an uncovered flame before Shabbos begins. [YH: The Satmar Rebbes position here disagrees with that of Rav Moshe Feinstein (IM OC IV #74 Bishul 22,23,35) and that of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach SSK 1:71 and Rav Vosner in Shaivet HaLevi 1:91 UbEmes. It agrees with the Chazon Ish cited by Rav Moshe Shternbuch in Teshuvos VHanhagos OC I #207:8 and the position of Rav Elyashiv cited in Meor HaShabbos IV p. 149]

In Responsa #18 the Satmar Rebbe re-establishes his position that the Halacha regarding when Shabbos ends and begins is like the majority of the Rishonim and the Shulchan Aruch that held of the two Shkiyas theory (like Rabbeinu Tam). Nonetheless, he writes that it is worthy to be concerned for the view of the Gaonim that sunset is the time.

In Responsa #19 the Satmar Rebbe deals with whether an item that is for sale can be used by the storeowner himself on Shabbos or whether it would be considered Muktzah. He rules that he may do so if it is for the destined use of the item  i.e. if the item is shoes then it would be permissible to wear the shoes. He rules that they may not be used for a different purpose.

In Responsa #20 to Rav Shlomo Yitzchok Levin, the Rebbe answers an attack on a question that his father had posed regarding why the resting of a mans child on Shabbos (Shvisas Bno) shouldnt be derived from the verse demanding the rest of a mans servant and animal on the Shabbos. He cites proof from a responsa of the Rashba that the question is indeed quite valid.

In Responsa #21 he deals extensively with the question of whether an invalid height of a Mechitzah will invalidate a Tzuras HaPesach in an Eiruv. He ruled that it does.

In Responsa #22 the Satmar Rebbe deals extensively with city Eiruvs where the Tzuras HaPesach is more than four tefachim away from the walls of the citys Eiruv. He ruled that it is problematic.

In Responsa #23 he deals at length with an attack from Rabbi Naftoli Tzvi Brach on his interpretation of Omed Merubah al haparutz regarding Mechitzos, particularly as to whether the Mogain Avrohom is in conflict with a Maharit.

In Responsa #24 he writes that he was not too sharp against Rabbi Brach but if he was  he apologizes for his tone. He discusses another aspect of the issue in that responsa.

Pesach

In Responsa #25 the Satmar Rebbe deals with why regarding the obligation of vhigadeta lbincha on Pesach the Rambam didnt list as a separate Mitzvah the obligation to mention the exodus from Egypt each night? He answers that the obligation is from the same root and the main Mitzvah recited and explained on Pesach just needs to be reviewed in the regular nights.

Sefirah

In Responsa #26 the Satmar Rebbe writes to Rabbi Yeshaya Asher Zelig Margolios regarding the date of his grandsons wedding that the Minhag in Satmar is not to get a haircut until Erev Shavuos and certainly not to conduct a wedding. He also discusses a solution to the problem of the Rambams view of a Chuppah when the woman is in a state of impurity  that merely informing the groom of her status negates the Rambams animadversions. [YH: This is a revolutionary position]

In Responsa #27 in a letter to Rav Menachem Paam in Eretz Yisroel he writes that the custom is to hold the upsherin in Meron Lag BaOmer and that he should uphold this custom.

Yomim Noraim

In Responsa #28 he tells the congregation in Margareten that they may indeed retain their Chazan, Reb Yechiel, for Shabbos, Yom Tov and the Yomim Noraim even though he is a mourner. His reasoning was that since there is no one better than him, the Halacha permits it. [YH: This is a revolutionary view The love of the Satmar Rebbe in this responsa is readily apparent].

In Responsa #29 he writes to Rav Meyer Gavo in Toronto not to worry about being too ill this year to blow shofar and that Hashem counts the desire to fulfill the Mitzvah as if he did it. He differentiates this situation with that of wanting to be in a Sukkah and it is raining because that is not in the norm of the weather patterns in Eretz Yisroel, but illness due to the infirmities of age are quite normal. He blesses him with a complete recovery. [YH: The love of the Satmar Rebbe in this responsa too is readily apparent].

In Responsa #30 he recommends to Rav Avrohom Yitzchok HaKohain against excessive fasting for sins and suggests that charity be given instead. As far as an amount  he suggests that it should be equal to the tzaar of a fast to that individual.

In responsa #31 he advises someone who sinned terribly how to go about making things right. In explaining the element of Azivas HaChait  no longer doing the sin he advises the repentant sinner to make personal fences and boundaries. As far as expressing regret he advises him to do so in a heartfelt manner each day privately with Hashem, but to do so for a brief time and the rest of the day to serve Hashem with joy and hope that Hashem will certainly help him. Thridly, he advises him to engage in more Torah study, Tefilah and charity as much as he can and to do so with a sense of humility. He then offers additional encouragement

In responsa #32 to Rav Yuda Krauss, he explains the parameters of eating on Yom Kippur for an ill person. If there is any doubt whatsoever as to whether it could endanger life then one should eat. He did explain that care should be taken to ensure that the doctor is not saying these things because he wishes to undermine religious observance. Therefore, he advises that care must be taken to research a reliable doctor.

Mechias Amalek

In Responsa #33 he disagrees with the suggestion of the Maharam Shick (on Taryag Mitzvos 605:2) that in a Jewish leap year one should try to fulfill the Mitzvah of remembering Amalek in Parshas Ki saitzay so that 12 months do not pass without this Mitzvah.

Other Responsa

In Even HoEzer #107 the Satmar Rebbe argues with Rav Moshe Feinstein zatzal on the controversial issue of artificial procreation. Rav Moshe tells us that the Midrash tells us that Ben Sira was conceived in such a manner involving Yirmiyahu and his daughter, and concludes that Yirmiyahu would never have later consulted with Ben Sira in spiritual matters if he was a halachic Mamzer. Artificial procreation, according to Rav Moshe s psak does not cause mamzeirus. The Satmar Rebbe dissents. He rules that even if all Rav Moshes suppositions were correct, Yirmiyahus daughter performed no real maaseh active deed. Going to the doctor, on the other hand, would constitute an active deed.

In Responsa #157 he provides a remarkable explanation in the complex area of Hilchos Shabbos. There is a difficult Rosh that has eluded all the commentaries on the notion of Psik Raisha Delo Nicha Lay regarding other prohibitions other than the prohibition of Shabbos. The Satmar Rebbes reading resolved all the problems completely.

IN CM #98 the Satmar Rav discusses his opinion the notion of relying on lone opinions in times of difficulty (Daas Yachid BeShaas HaDeChak). It is a controversial area of halacha. Some take the idea at face value. Chazon Ish ruled that the concept is true only when the bottom line halacha was like that sole opinion and it was rejected out of a stringency, but not because the underlying was rejected. The Satmar Rebbe took a middle ground  it is a halacha that is true that during times of difficulty we rely on lone opinions, but the step may nly be taken by the leaders of the generation. The logic of his position is remarkable. Those unattuned to the underlying halachic difficulties that he is addressing between the lines will not fully appreciate the beauty of his remarkable intellect and pen.

Of course there were hard line positions that he had taken that were not understood by others. But no matter where anyone stands, and by any yardstick, he was a Tzaddik Gammur and a Gadol HaDor.

In conclusion, what we had in the Satmar Rebbe zatzal was a remarkable individual with the charisma to rebuild a nation, he combined his love for others with his charisma, and with the vast knowledge of the depth and breadth of the entirety of Torah.

Chaval al deavdin.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

It is requested that family members of the recipients of these responsa reach out to the author to fill in biographical details of these responsa.




The last former Minneapolis police officer to face sentencing in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd will learn Monday whether he will spend additional time in prison.

Tou Thao has testified he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyds neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020.

A bystander video captured Floyds fading cries of I cant breathe.

Floyds killing touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning of police brutality and racism.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In his 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thaos actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including a an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances, Cahill wrote.

He concluded: Thaos actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.

Thao rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he didnt think he was in the wrong. He instead agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvins 2021 murder trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Thao and former Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander.

That trial in federal court ended in convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges instead of going to trial a second time, while Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter.

Minnesota guidelines recommend a four-year sentence on the manslaughter count, which Thao would serve at the same time as his 3 1/2-year sentence for his federal civil rights conviction, which an appeals court upheld on Friday. But Cahill has some latitude and could hand down a sentence from 41 to 57 months.

Lane and Kueng received 3 and 3 1/2-year state sentences respectively, which they are serving concurrently with their federal sentences of 2 1/2 years and 3 years. Thao is Hmong American, while Kueng is Black and Lane is white.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.

(AP)




Donald Trumps defense attorney says the former president never asked Mike Pence to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election, but only wanted the former vice president to pause the certification of votes to allow states to investigate his claims of election fraud. Those baseless claims had already been rejected by numerous courts.

Speaking on several Sunday morning news shows, Trump attorney John Lauro said Trump was within his First Amendment rights when he petitioned Pence to delay the certification on Jan. 6, 2021.

The ultimate ask of Vice President Pence was to pause the counts and allow the states to weigh in, Lauro said on CBS Face the Nation. He added that Trump was convinced there were irregularities in the election that needed to be investigated by state authorities before the election could be certified.

The former president on Sunday also lashed out at the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said his legal team would be immediately asking for recusal of this judge, as well as to move the case outside of Washington.

The pronouncements were Trumps latest legal wrangling, made in full public view, as he faces charges that could carry decades in prison if he is convicted.

Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges. Separately, he also 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.

Last weeks indictment chronicles how Trump and his allies, in what special counsel Jack 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 Pence and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power. Those efforts culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification.

Speaking on ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Lauro said Pences testimony will show Trump believed the election was rigged and that he was listening to the advice of his attorneys when he sought to delay the certification. Pence, who appeared before the grand jury that indicted Trump, said he will comply with the law if asked to testify.

I cannot wait until I have the opportunity to cross examine Mr. Pence, Lauro said. He will completely eliminate any doubt that President Trump firmly believed that the election irregularities had led to an inappropriate result.

Pence, who like Trump is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, flatly rejected that Trump was merely seeking a certification pause during an interview Sunday, saying Trump seemed convinced as early as December that Pence had the right to reject or return votes and that on Jan. 5, Trumps attorneys told him We want you to reject votes outright.

They were asking me to overturn the election. I had no right to overturn the election, Pence said on CNNs State of the Union.

Pences role in certifying Joe Bidens win over Trump in the 2020 election makes him a central figure in the prosecution against Trump on charges that he sought to overturn the will of the voters and remain in office even after the courts had roundly rejected his claims of electoral fraud. Federal and state election officials and Trumps own attorney general also had said there were was no credible evidence the election was tainted.

The 45-page indictment details how people close to Trump repeatedly told him he had lost and that there was no truth to his claims of fraud. In one encounter days before the riot, Trump told Pence he was too honest after the vice president said he didnt have the authority to reject electoral votes, the indictment says.

Former allies of Trump have said Trump knew he lost but spread false claims about fraud anyway. After he failed to convince state officials to illegally swing the election, Trump and his allies recruited fake electors in swing states to sign certificates falsely stating Trump had prevailed.

He knew well that he had lost the election, Trumps former Attorney General Bill Barr told CNN last week.

Lauro said Trumps defense team will seek to move the case from Washington because it wants a more diverse jury. He said he would support televising the trial, and dismissed speculation that it could wrap up before the 2024 election.

In 40 years of practicing law, on a case of this magnitude, Ive not known a single case to go to trial before two to three years, Lauro said on CBS Face the Nation.

Responding to questions about whether Trump can get a fair trial in the nations capital, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor and a Republican, said he can.

Yes, I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people, Christie said Sunday on CNN.

A slew of people charged in the Jan. 6 riot have tried to get their trials moved out of Washington. Yet judges have rejected those motions in every case, saying fair jurors can be found with proper questioning.

Trumps legal team has until 5 p.m. Monday to respond to the prosecutions request for a protective order limiting Trumps ability to publicly disclose information about the case. The decision is up to Chutkan.

Protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said its particularly important in this case because Trump has posted on social media about witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.

Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Truth Social platform from Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters, If you go after me, Im coming after you!

(AP)




In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his confidence in Israels potential to establish a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia. While a formal peace agreement remains a possibility, Netanyahu emphasized that crucial ties between the two nations will continue to flourish regardless of the outcome.

Netanyahu highlighted the strategic significance of their geography, pointing out that there exists an economic corridor of energy transportation and communication that naturally goes through our geography from Asia through the Arabian Peninsula to Europe. He asserted that the realization of this corridor is imminent and crucial for both countries.

The Israeli Prime Minister described the present moment as a pivot of history, indicating a turning point in the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He stressed that the two nations are on the verge of forging vital partnerships that transcend formal peace treaties.

Regarding the Palestinian issue, Netanyahu remained tight-lipped about specific concessions he would be willing to make to achieve a deal with the Saudis. However, he suggested that the Palestinian matter has somewhat receded in its significance, referring to it as a checkbox rather than a central obstacle.

Netanyahu acknowledged that there might be speculation about the discussions taking place in corridors and behind closed doors. However, he asserted that the reality of such negotiations is a lot less than you think, possibly indicating a more discreet approach to the negotiations.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




Tou Thao, the last former Minneapolis police officer convicted in state court for his role in the killing of George Floyd, was sentenced Monday to 4 years and 9 months.

Thao had testified that he merely served as a human traffic cone when he held back concerned bystanders who gathered as former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on Floyds neck for 9 1/2 minutes while the Black man pleaded for his life on May 25, 2020.

A bystander video captured Floyds fading cries of I cant breathe.

Floyds killing touched off protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning of police brutality and racism.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill found Thao guilty in May of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

In his 177-page ruling, Cahill said Thaos actions separated Chauvin and two other former officers from the crowd, including an emergency medical technician, allowing his colleagues to continue restraining Floyd and preventing bystanders from providing medical aid.

There is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Thaos actions were objectively unreasonable from the perspective of a reasonable police officer, when viewed under the totality of the circumstances, Cahill wrote.

He concluded: Thaos actions were even more unreasonable in light of the fact that he was under a duty to intervene to stop the other officers excessive use of force and was trained to render medical aid.

Thao had rejected a plea bargain on the state charge, saying it would be lying to plead guilty when he didnt think he was in the wrong. He instead agreed to let Cahill decide the case based on evidence from Chauvins 2021 murder trial and the federal civil rights trial in 2022 of Thao and former Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng.

That trial in federal court ended in convictions for all three. Chauvin pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges instead of going to trial a second time, while Lane and Kueng pleaded guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting manslaughter.

The sentence Cahill handed down Monday will run concurrently with Thaos 3 1/2-year sentence on his separate conviction on a federal civil rights charge, which an appeals court upheld on Friday. His state sentence was more than the 4 years recommended under Minnesota state guidelines.

Lane and Kueng received 3 and 3 1/2-year state sentences respectively, which they are serving concurrently with their federal sentences of 2 1/2 years and 3 years. Thao is Hmong American, while Kueng is Black and Lane is white.

Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole. There is no parole in the federal system but inmates can shave time off their sentences with good behavior.

(AP)




Israels Supreme Court on Sunday issued a temporary injunction against the Incapacitation Law following last weeks unprecedented hearing on the law, which was passed as an amendment to a Basic Law.

The court also stated that it will hold an extended hearing on the law, with an 11-judge panel versus the three-judge panel that deliberated the law on Thursday. The Incapacitation Law prevents an attorney-general from declaring a prime minister as incapacitated [unfit for office] except in exceptional circumstances.

The injunction orders Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Knesset to justify why the court shouldnt rule that the implementation of the law be postponed until the next Knesset so it wont be viewed as a personal law designed to aid Netanyahu.

The courts statement is quite a dramatic one since it indicates that it is considering interfering with a Basic Law for the first time despite the fact that it has no authority to do so, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




Jewish-US billionaire Arthur Dantchik, one of the main donors of the conservative think tank Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem, announced last week that he is ending his funding to the group, which was involved in the development of the governments judicial reform plan.

Dantchik issued the statement following months of harassment by Israeli anarchists living in the US, who protested at loud volumes with megaphones outside his home and offices and even his shul. One protest in his offices ended only when police officers arrived at the scene and threatened to arrest the protesters.

Dantchik, a resident of Philadelphia, is an extremely private person who stays away from the press and never grants interviews. Nevertheless, the leftist bullies publicly shamed him by buying ad space in a Philadelphia-based Jewish newspaper and posting a full-page ad with the word SHAME above a photo of his face. Ironically, the ad, organized by Israeli yordim living in the US, stated: Neither you nor your children will bear the consequences for the disastrous agenda youre promoting in our country. Get your hands off our democracy!

According to a Jewish Press report, the protests against Dantchik were organized by Shany Granot-Lubaton, one of the leaders of the anarchist protests against the Israeli government in the US and a former parliamentary adviser to former Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich. She runs a Whatsapp group called UnXeptable NYC 4 ISRAELI DEMOCRACY which organized the protests against Israeli politicians who traveled to New York in June for the annual Celebrate Israel Parade.

The video below shows the Israeli ex-pats protesting outside Dantchiks home in Philadelphia in March.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




In yet another occurrence of left-wing elements politicizing public life, the huge Strauss company recently pulled its advertisements from the right-wing Channel 14, ostensibly due to a statement made by a guest.

The guest panelist appeared on the channels The Patriots show and the discussion that day was about the Supreme Courts decision to knock down the Teveria Law, deeming it a personal law since it was advanced to allow the caretaker mayor of Tiveria, Boaz Yosef, to run for mayor in the upcoming municipal elections. The guest panelist commented that if the Supreme Court opposes personal laws, then Yigal Amir, the assassin of former-prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, should be released since personal laws were also enacted against him.

The guest was of course, only making a point and not actually advocating for Amirs release but nevertheless the next day, the Strauss company jumped on the opportunity to further polarize the Israeli public and announced that they would no longer advertise on the TV channel. The move was made despite the fact that the company has never made a similar move in response to the countless outrageous statements over the years on other media outlets. Following Strausss announcement, Delek Motors, a large auto import company, joined the fray and announced that it will also no longer advertise on the channel.

Channel 14 News journalist Yinon Magal responded by launching a boycott of Strauss products. The boycott spread to one of Strausss subsidiaries, the Tami 4 water bar which provides hot and cold filtered water and is specifically geared for frum people as it has a Shabbos setting. So many right-wingers canceled their subscription service for the Tami 4 that the company provided their customer service employees with scripted answers for customers calling to complain about Strausss boycott of Channel 14. The boycott has already resulted in the decline of the companys stock prices.

  

   **    35:  pic.twitter.com/W3zXRp68Hd    (@YinonMagal) August 7, 2023

Last week, a number of leading Dati Leumi Rabbanim signed a letter excoriating Strauss for using its economic powers in order to control a political agenda.

The letter states: Channel 14 is the only channel that balances all the other media channels, including the state media, which all broadcast with one voice that is blatantly biased in favor of the left and the opposition. The desire to boycott Channel 14 is reminiscent of the dark times of communist Russia, when it was forbidden to broadcast any opinion other than the one accepted by the atheist communists.

We cannot let this pass in silence! We want to announce that from today our yeshivos and educational institutions will not purchase products from companies that boycott public goods in Israel, that harm freedom of expression and the unity of the people. We call on our students and their families to follow our path and avoid purchasing products from commercial companies that attempt to silence others.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned the terrorist state of Russia against further attacks on Ukrainian ports. The head of state warned that otherwise Russia risks being left without ships.

ADVERTISIMENT

The Ukrainian leader spoke about this in an interview with Latin American media, including La Nacion. He is convinced that Ukraine must prove that it has the right to import and export products in its territorial waters.

"If there is a blockade, Ukraine must find another way to end the blockade of our waters. If Russia continues to dominate its territory in the Black Sea and blockade by firing missiles, then Ukraine will do the same, which is a fair defence of our chances," Zelenskyy said.

"If they keep shooting, we don't have many weapons, but if they keep shooting, they may be left without ships by the end of the war," the president stressed.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would definitely respond to any attack on our civilians and grain brokers.

The news is being supplemented...




The members of the National Council for Research and Civil Development and heads of Israeli universities recently warned that the governments advancement of its judicial reform plan will harm academic research.

Prof. Asher Yahalom from Ariel University countered that the research bodies themselves are the ones harming academic research.

In an interview with Radio 103FM, he said: It reminds me of the story of a man who started a fire and then began screaming Help! Fire! These people are ruining our international relations, defaming the country and then they shout that there arent any donations and people dont want to invest in Israel. Of course, they dont. They disparage their own merchandise, slander their country, and harm the economy and foreign relations and then they come with complaints to the prime minister?

The money [for research] goes to places where theres potential for profit. Im staggering under the weight of invitations to international conferences. I recently returned from a conference in Greece. There is no such problem.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Recruiter PageGroup slashed almost 450 jobs in the first half amid a 45 per cent decline in first-half profit as companies in Asia, the UK and the US cutback on hiring.

The group, which has its headquarters in Surrey and operates in 40 countries, said it cut 448 jobs, or 5 per cent of its global workforce, to cope with tough market conditions.

Almost 100 UK employees were sent home, or 7 per cent of its workforce in the country, as 'more challenging trading conditions' drove revenues 3.2 per cent lower.

Hiring slowdown: PageGroup said companies delayed making decisions about taking on new staff, while also candidates were being more reluctant to accept offers

In the US and South America, 190 roles were cut, or just over 11 per cent of the workforce across the region.

Pre-tax profit fell to 63.3million in the six months to the end of June, from 114.5million a year earlier.

Revenues across the group rose 5.8 per cent to 1billion, but costs and administrative expenses surged.

Europe, its largest market contributing to more than half of the group's gross profit, was its strongest performing region, but some 50 jobs were cut there too, or 1.2 per cent of its workforce on the continent.

'The challenging conditions we saw towards the end of 2022 continued into H1 2023, with lower levels of both candidate and client confidence resulting in delays in decision making and candidates being more reluctant to accept offers,' the group told shareholders.

'In line with these conditions, we reduced our fee earner headcount [...] in all regions'.

Clients continued to prefer employing temporary staff rather than permanent due to economic uncertainty, according to the group, which focuses on the recruitment of white collar jobs.

This was echoed by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation's latest survey, which found that permanent staff appointments have fallen at the steepest pace for three years.

There were frequent reports of redundancies and hiring freezes, while competition for skilled workers and the increased cost of living continued to place upward pressure on rates of starting pay during July, the REC found.

Chief executive, Neil Carberry, said: 'The jobs market overall remains fairly robust, with vacancies and pay still rising and unemployment low, but there is a sense in today's report that the economy will need some growth soon to sustain this positive picture.

'Permanent hiring has been slowing all year. To some extent this is normalisation as the post-pandemic boom abates, but it is also driven by uncertainty.'

Despite the profit slump, PageGroup stuck to its full-year profit forecasts and announced higher investor payouts.

It raised its interim dividend by 4.5 per cent to 5.13p and declared a special dividend of 15.87p, which is 41 per cent lower than last year's 26.71p.

PageGroup's chief executive, Nicholas Kirk, said: 'Looking forward, there remains a high level of global macro-economic and political uncertainty in the majority of our markets.

'However, against this backdrop, we continue to see candidate shortages and good levels of vacancies, as well as continued high fee rates.'

PageGroup shares fell at the open on Monday, but were 0.2 per cent higher at 453p by 9:15am.
Vinyl record sales have continued to soar despite the popularity of streaming services such as Spotify.

More than 2.7m LPs were sold in the first six months of 2023, up 12 per cent from last year, according to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The vinyl revival has continued to gain speed. In 2022, records enjoyed their largest volume of sales since 1990  with 5.5m flying off British shelves.

Hit album: The best-selling LP so far this year has been Lana Del Rey's Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

The best-selling LP so far this year has been Lana Del Rey's Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, followed by albums from British artists Lewis Capaldi and Gorillaz.

A spokesman for the BPI said: 'Demand for vinyl continues to rise despite many years of growth, driven by the passion fans feel for the format and the emotional connection it provides with the music they love.'
Hitting the headlines: CRH boss Albert Manifold was paid 11.9m last year

Some of Britain's best-known companies are paying their bosses up to 260 times more than their typical workers, research shows.

They include supermarket giants Sainsbury's and Tesco, oil behemoth BP and cut-price retailer B&M.

The news will come as a shock to many facing higher food and fuel bills, which are rising faster than average pay rises.

Analysis by The Mail on Sunday found the most unequal company in the FTSE 100 index of leading firms is construction group CRH, owner of Tarmac.

Chief executive Albert Manifold was paid 11.9million last year  259 times more than CRH's average worker in the UK.

The firm made headlines this year when it revealed plans to move its main listing from London to the US, where valuations are higher and attitudes to executive pay more relaxed.

A typical FTSE 100 boss was paid 3.4million last year  103 times the average full-time worker's earnings of 33,000  according to the High Pay Centre, which monitors boardroom pay.

But in the US the gap between chief executive and typical worker pay is far larger, with S&P 500 chief executives making 13million last year  272 times more than their workers on average. The growing pay gulf means top bosses now make more in the first four days of the year than their workers earn over an entire twelve months.

It deals a blow to attempts by former PM Theresa May to tame 'fatcat' pay by forcing companies to disclose more information about their pay ratios.

In 2017, she described the behaviour of some bosses as 'the unacceptable face of capitalism' in an article for The Mail on Sunday.

She launched a public register to name and shame firms where significant numbers of shareholders said boardroom pay was too high. The companies mentioned have been contacted for comment.

Sainsbury's said: 'We've prioritised supporting our colleagues and have made a record investment, committing 225 million over the last year in increasing retail hourly pay and enhancing other benefits.'

Calls by London Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett for the leaders of UK companies to be paid in line with US peers were dismissed as 'a bit deluded' by the High Pay Centre think-tank.

Stephen Schwarzman, head of private equity firm Blackstone, which owns extensive assets in the UK, was the best paid US boss last year on 198million.

Unions and some politicians say lavish executive pay contrasts with stalling real wages for millions of workers.

Tory MP and former minister Andrew Percy said that company bosses had 'every right to earn a fair wage' but shouldn't 'act like vultures' during a cost of living crisis.
House prices have fallen for the fourth consecutive month, according to the mortgage lender Halifax.

The average house price fell by 0.3 per cent in July, and 2.4 per cent compared to July 2022.

The typical home is now worth 285,044, which is 3 per cent - or 8,948 - lower than the 293,992 peak recorded in August last year.

Regional variances: The exception to the downward trend is the West Midlands, where prices have remained effectively flat year-on-year

Despite being the fourth consecutive monthly fall, Halifax says the market is displaying resilience with industry data showing increased activity.

Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages said: 'While this was the fourth consecutive monthly decrease, all have been smaller than 0.5 per cent.

'In reality, prices are little changed over the last six months, with the typical property now costing 285,044, compared to 285,660 in February.

'These figures add to the sense of a housing market which continues to display a degree of resilience in the face of tough economic headwinds.'

'We're seeing activity amongst first-time buyers hold up relatively well, with indications some are now searching for smaller homes, to offset higher borrowing costs.'

House price falls have been impacted by higher mortgage rates. It was possible to get a five-year fix at less than 1 per cent two years ago. Now the cheapest five-year fix is 5.25 per cent.

Most mortgage borrowers are on fixed rate deals, however, meaning they are protected from rate rises until their current deal finishes.

Halifax says the property prices are being supported, to an extent, by the performance of the wider economy.

Falling but not crashing: Typical home now costs 285,044 vs peak of 293,992 last August

Kinnaird adds: 'Prospects for the UK housing market remain closely linked to the performance of the wider economy.

'Several factors are providing support, notably strong wage growth, running at around 7 per cent annually.

'And, while the uptick in unemployment is likely to restrain that somewhat, it seems unlikely to reach levels that would trigger a sharp deterioration in conditions.'

Will house prices fall further?

Halifax said it expected house prices to continue falling over the coming months in much the same way.

'The continued affordability squeeze will mean constrained market activity persists,' says Kinnaird. 'We expect house prices to continue to fall into next year.

'Based on our current economic assumptions, we anticipate that being a gradual rather than a precipitous decline - and one that is unlikely to fully reverse the house price growth recorded over recent years, with average property prices still some 45,000 (+19 per cent) above pre-Covid levels.'

Iain McKenzie, chief executive of The Guild of Property Professionals, believes we will see fewer transactions and falling prices over the coming months.

He says: 'The main summer months of July and August are generally slow periods for the property market, as house hunters shelve their searches for holidays. This impacts prices, as sellers in a rush to move may be inclined to lower their asking price to entice buyers in.

'The affordability factor is still weighing on the minds of most buyers, but particularly for first-time buyers that may be seeing their deposit not go as far.

'Others may face mortgage offers that aren't as competitive as we've previously seen over the last decade.

'This squeeze will undoubtedly have an impact on sales, and we are anticipating a fall of around 20 per cent by the end of the year.'

Jonathan Hopper, chief executive of Garrington Property Finders agrees.

'Looking ahead, the market's price correction is likely to continue as cautious buyers price risk and higher borrowing costs into what they're prepared to pay for a property.

'In response, sellers are being forced to accept the new market landscape if they want to move and the market's soft landing is set to continue.'

Regional variances

Halifax also looked at differences in house prices across various regions of the UK.

Average prices in the South East are down 3.9 per cent on an annual basis, just over 15,500 has been taken off the value of a typical property in the region over the last year (average house price now 382,489).

House price resilience: The average house price fell by -0.3 per cent in July meaning that they are down 2.4 per cent year-on-year.

Greater London mirrors that trend, with average property prices down by -3.5 per cent annually in the capital. Average house price there are now 531,141.

Wales  home to some of the most rapid growth in house prices witnessed during the pandemic 'boom'  experienced a -3.3 per cent fall year-on-year. Average house prices are now 214,495.

In Scotland, prices were down by less, at -0.7 per cent over the last year, while in Northern Ireland they were down by just -0.3 per cent annually.

The only exception to the downward trend is the West Midlands, where prices have remained effectively flat year-on-year.
Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO  Get Free Report) (NYSE:BMO) has received an average rating of Moderate Buy from the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$135.23.

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Bank of Montreal from C$151.00 to C$143.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$121.50 to C$130.50 in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Cormark dropped their price target on shares of Bank of Montreal from C$140.00 to C$131.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Bank of Montreal from C$151.00 to C$143.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 25th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on Bank of Montreal from C$134.00 to C$125.00 in a report on Thursday, May 25th.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Linda Susan Huber sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$87.56, for a total transaction of C$43,780.00. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Bank of Montreal Price Performance

BMO stock opened at C$119.44 on Friday. Bank of Montreal has a 12 month low of C$111.88 and a 12 month high of C$137.64. The company has a market cap of C$85.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$119.13 and a 200 day moving average price of C$122.63.

Bank of Montreal (TSE:BMO  Get Free Report) (NYSE:BMO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 24th. The bank reported C$2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$3.15 by C($0.22). The business had revenue of C$8.44 billion for the quarter. Bank of Montreal had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 23.87%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bank of Montreal will post 13.2820237 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Montreal Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 28th. Investors of record on Monday, August 28th will be paid a $1.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 27th. This represents a $5.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.92%. This is a positive change from Bank of Montreals previous quarterly dividend of $1.43. Bank of Montreals dividend payout ratio is presently 58.57%.

Bank of Montreal Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers.

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Arcelik Anonim Sirketi (OTCMKTS:ACKAY  Get Free Report) and SEB (OTC:SEBYF  Get Free Report) are both consumer cyclical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Arcelik Anonim Sirketi and SEBs 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 Arcelik Anonim Sirketi N/A N/A N/A $4.47 6.49 SEB N/A N/A N/A C$3.49 30.60

Arcelik Anonim Sirketi is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEB, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

Analyst Ratings

0.1% of Arcelik Anonim Sirketi shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.4% of SEB shares are owned by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Arcelik Anonim Sirketi and SEB, as provided by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Arcelik Anonim Sirketi 0 0 1 0 3.00 SEB 1 1 0 0 1.50

SEB has a consensus price target of C$92.50, suggesting a potential downside of 13.40%. Given SEBs higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SEB is more favorable than Arcelik Anonim Sirketi.

Dividends

Arcelik Anonim Sirketi pays an annual dividend of $1.74 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. SEB pays an annual dividend of C$1.39 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Arcelik Anonim Sirketi pays out 39.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SEB pays out 39.8% 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. Arcelik Anonim Sirketi is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Arcelik Anonim Sirketi and SEBs net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Arcelik Anonim Sirketi N/A N/A N/A SEB N/A N/A N/A

Summary

Arcelik Anonim Sirketi beats SEB on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Arcelik Anonim Sirketi

(Get Free Report)

Arcelik Anonim Sirketi, together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, sells, services, imports, and exports consumer durable goods and electronics in Turkey and internationally. It operates through White Goods, Consumer Electronics, and Other segments. It offers top and front door washing machines, horizontal and vertical deep freezers, split air conditioners, microwave ovens, water dispensers, cooking appliances, washing machines, dishwashers, coolers, gas and/or electric cookers, refrigerators, coffee machines, laundry and washer-dryers, hoods, and built-in cooking products. The company also provides televisions, computers, cash registers, and other electronic devices. It offers its products under the Arcelik, Beko, Grundig, Defy, Arctic, Dawlance, Elektrabregenz, Blomberg, VoltasBeko, Leisure, Altus, and Flavel brand names. The company was incorporated in 1955 and is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey.

About SEB

(Get Free Report)

SEB SA designs, manufactures, and markets small domestic equipment worldwide. It offers kitchen electrics including electrical cooking products, such as deep fryers, rice cookers, electrical pressure cookers, informal meal appliances, waffle makers, grills, toasters, and multicookers; beverage preparation products, which includes filter and pod coffee makers, espresso machines, electrical kettles, and home beer-taps; and food preparation products comprising blenders, soy milk makers, cooking food processors, kitchen machines, mixers, and beaters. The company also provides home and personal care, which includes linen care, such as irons and steam generators, and garment steamers; canister vacuum cleaners with or without dust bag, steam and upright vacuum cleaners and sweepers, and versatile vacuums, and robots; home comfort products, such as fans, heaters, and air purifiers; and personal care products including hair care appliances, depilators, electrical beard trimmers and hair clippers, and bathroom scales. In addition, it offers cookware comprising frying pans, saucepans, woks, pressure cookers, bakeware, kitchen utensils, food storage containers, vacuum flasks, and mugs. The company provides its products under various consumer brands including Aron, Asia Vina, Calor, Clock, EMSA, imusa, Kaiser, Krupus, Maharaj Whiteline, MIRRO, Moulinex, OBH NORDICA, PANEX, Rochedo, Rowenta, Samurai, Seb, SUPOR, Tefal T-fal, umco, and WearEver brands. Further, it offers under premium brands, which includes All-Clad, Krampouz, Lagostina, Silit, and WMF brands; and professional brands, such as HEPP, Schaerer Coffee ProCare, Wilbur Curtis, and Zummo brands. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Ecully, France.

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EnerSys (NYSE:ENS  Get Free Report) will be releasing its earnings data after the market closes on Wednesday, August 9th. Analysts expect EnerSys to post earnings of $1.64 per share for the quarter. Persons interested in participating in the companys earnings conference call can do so using this link.

EnerSys (NYSE:ENS  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 25th. The industrial products company reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.44. The business had revenue of $990.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $953.05 million. EnerSys had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 4.74%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect EnerSys to post $6 EPS for the current fiscal year and $7 EPS for the next fiscal year.

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EnerSys Price Performance

Shares of ENS opened at $104.50 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.53, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $106.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 2.64 and a quick ratio of 1.53. EnerSys has a 12 month low of $56.72 and a 12 month high of $113.34.

EnerSys Announces Dividend

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 16th were paid a $0.175 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 15th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. EnerSyss payout ratio is 16.43%.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ENS. BTIG Research upped their price objective on EnerSys from $100.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, June 16th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on EnerSys from $110.00 to $119.00 in a report on Friday, June 16th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on EnerSys in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a strong-buy rating on the stock. Finally, CL King assumed coverage on EnerSys in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating and a $137.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Activity at EnerSys

In other EnerSys news, insider Andrew M. Zogby sold 10,537 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.21, for a total value of $1,098,060.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,135,783.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EnerSys

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ENS. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of EnerSys in the 1st quarter valued at $60,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of EnerSys by 58.2% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 930 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of EnerSys in the 1st quarter worth $87,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of EnerSys in the 1st quarter worth $212,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in EnerSys by 23.5% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,546 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 94.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EnerSys Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

EnerSys provides various stored energy solutions for industrial applications worldwide. It operates in three segments: Energy Systems, Motive Power, and Specialty. The company offers uninterruptible power systems applications for computer and computer-controlled systems, as well as telecommunications systems; switchgear and electrical control systems used in industrial facilities and electric utilities, large-scale energy storage, and energy pipelines; integrated power solutions and services to broadband, telecom, renewable, and industrial customers; and thermally managed cabinets and enclosures for electronic equipment and batteries.

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Lmcg Investments LLC trimmed its position in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) by 0.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 204,828 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 1,220 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. accounts for approximately 1.8% of Lmcg Investments LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Lmcg Investments LLCs holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co. were worth $26,691,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of JPM. Adirondack Retirement Specialists Inc. boosted its stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 510.8% in the 1st quarter. Adirondack Retirement Specialists Inc. now owns 226 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Boulder Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Capital Directions Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. VitalStone Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Finally, Freedom Wealth Alliance LLC acquired a new stake in JPMorgan Chase & Co. during the 4th quarter worth approximately $60,000. 70.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other JPMorgan Chase & Co. news, CEO Douglas B. Petno sold 4,930 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.16, for a total value of $700,848.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 277,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,401,207.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other JPMorgan Chase & Co. news, CEO Daniel E. Pinto sold 113,640 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.93, for a total value of $15,447,085.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 566,665 shares in the company, valued at $77,026,773.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Douglas B. Petno sold 4,930 shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.16, for a total value of $700,848.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 277,161 shares of the companys stock, valued at $39,401,207.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 145,861 shares of company stock worth $19,858,275 in the last three months. 0.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Stock Performance

NYSE:JPM traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $156.99. The companys stock had a trading volume of 712,774 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,959,455. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a 12-month low of $101.28 and a 12-month high of $159.38. The firms fifty day moving average price is $146.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $139.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $458.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.10, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.10.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The financial services provider reported $4.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.62 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $42.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.66 billion. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had a return on equity of 17.29% and a net margin of 23.45%. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 34.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will post 15.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 31st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 6th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 5th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. JPMorgan Chase & Co.s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

JPM has been the subject of several analyst reports. 888 restated a maintains rating on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a report on Monday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $169.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $160.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price target on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $160.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $174.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Monday, July 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $164.39.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Company Profile

(Free Report)

JPMorgan Chase & Co operates as a financial services company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consumer & Community Banking (CCB), Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB), Commercial Banking (CB), and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM). The CCB segment offers deposit, investment and lending products, cash management, and payments and services to consumers and small businesses; mortgage origination and servicing activities; residential mortgages and home equity loans; and credit cards, auto loans, leases, and travel services.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding JPM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM  Free Report).

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Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Antero Midstream Co. (NYSE:AM  Free Report) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 42,513 shares of the pipeline companys stock, valued at approximately $446,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 2,155.9% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,301 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199 shares during the last quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new position in shares of Antero Midstream during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 257.5% during the 4th quarter. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 2,849 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 2,052 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Antero Midstream by 666.7% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,160 shares of the pipeline companys stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 4,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC acquired a new position in shares of Antero Midstream during the 4th quarter worth about $59,000. 51.00% 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 commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Antero Midstream from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 4th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Antero Midstream in a research report on Wednesday, May 10th. They set a buy rating and a $14.00 price objective for the company. Capital One Financial reaffirmed an equal weight rating on shares of Antero Midstream in a research report on Thursday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Antero Midstream from $12.00 to $11.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Antero Midstream from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $12.25.

Antero Midstream Stock Performance

Shares of Antero Midstream stock traded up $0.20 on Monday, reaching $11.93. The stock had a trading volume of 238,946 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,578,482. The stock has a market cap of $5.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.76 and a beta of 2.36. Antero Midstream Co. has a fifty-two week low of $8.80 and a fifty-two week high of $12.13. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $11.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The pipeline company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $258.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $267.03 million. Antero Midstream had a net margin of 34.36% and a return on equity of 18.13%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Antero Midstream Co. will post 0.81 EPS for the current year.

Antero Midstream Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 26th will be given a dividend of $0.225 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 25th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.54%. Antero Midstreams dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Antero Midstream news, insider Sheri Pearce sold 19,600 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.25, for a total transaction of $200,900.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 155,267 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,591,486.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Antero Midstream Profile

(Free Report)

Antero Midstream Corporation owns, operates, and develops midstream energy infrastructure in the Appalachian Basin. It operates through Gathering and Processing, and Water Handling segments. The Gathering and Processing segment includes a network of gathering pipelines and compressor stations that collects and processes production from Antero Resources' wells in West Virginia and Ohio.

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Military personnel from the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry have carried out another successful operation to clear Ukrainian soil of the enemy. On the left bank of the Kherson Region, they eliminated an entire unit of the Russian missile forces.

ADVERTISIMENT

In memory of the destruction of the grouping of the occupation army fighters showed the trophies. Photos are published on the pages of the Main Directorate of Intelligence in social networks (to view, scroll to the end of the news).

It is noted that the special operation in the temporarily seized part of the Kherson region was carried out by fighters of the battalion "Shaman" - special purpose unit of the Main Directorate of intelligence.

They are stealthily advancing deep into the occupied territories and continue to inflict losses on the enemy.

"Thanks to their actions, one of the units of the ra*ist "special purpose rocket troops" was destroyed," the Defense Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence indicated.

ADVERTISIMENT

In the published photos, the defenders with their faces covered, because they are special forces, showed the trophy flag and chevrons of the servicemen of the Russian group, whose foot will no longer set foot on Ukrainian soil.

Earlier, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is going difficult because of the powerful defenses of the occupants, but the Defense Forces will move forward.

ADVERTISIMENT

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, as of August 6, the Russian army lost in Ukraine more than 250.2 thousand military. The AFU daily liquidate hundreds of Putin's mercenaries and burn dozens of units of their equipment and weapons.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Pinnacle Associates Ltd. trimmed its position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO  Free Report) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,500 shares of the basic materials companys stock after selling 499 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearview Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Southern Copper in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 248.5% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 697 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 497 shares during the last quarter. 7.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Southern Copper Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:SCCO traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $83.64. The stock had a trading volume of 104,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,248,135. Southern Copper Co. has a 1 year low of $42.42 and a 1 year high of $87.59. The firms 50 day moving average is $74.81 and its 200-day moving average is $74.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 3.57 and a current ratio of 4.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.30, a P/E/G ratio of 20.24 and a beta of 1.26.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

Analysts Set New Price Targets

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 9th will be given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 8th. This is an increase from Southern Coppers previous quarterly dividend of $0.95. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.78%. Southern Coppers dividend payout ratio is currently 111.11%.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $53.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Southern Copper from a neutral rating to a sell rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $65.00 to $66.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $55.00 to $56.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $67.00 to $74.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $62.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern Copper

In other Southern Copper news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.11, for a total value of $43,555.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,414 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $471,613.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.08% of the companys stock.

Southern Copper 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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Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its position in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEARCA:EEM  Free Report) by 7.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,230 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.s holdings in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Ahrens Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. ZRC Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Regimen Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the 4th quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.70% of the companys stock.

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iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF Price Performance

NYSEARCA:EEM traded down $0.19 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $40.35. 3,002,951 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,928,533. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has a one year low of $33.49 and a one year high of $42.53. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $40.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.68.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF Profile

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, formerly iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (the Fund), seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded equity securities in global emerging markets, as measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (the Index).

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Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its position in iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:IWF  Free Report) by 19.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 988 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 240 shares during the quarter. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc.s holdings in iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,723 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $583,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its position in iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 1,050 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $257,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its position in iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 1,208 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF by 1.9% during the first quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 2,565 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $627,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF by 0.4% during the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 13,092 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $3,199,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF Price Performance

Shares of iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF stock traded up $0.25 on Monday, reaching $276.47. 297,120 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,438,348. iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF has a 1-year low of $202.05 and a 1-year high of $286.96. The company has a market cap of $70.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.14 and a beta of 1.08. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $273.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $251.03.

About iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF

iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment returns that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Russell 1000 Growth Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of equity securities of Russell 1000 index issuers with relatively higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth.

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TELUS International (Cda) (NYSE:TIXT  Get Free Report) had its price target reduced by equities research analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group from $21.00 to $19.00 in a report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Groups target price would indicate a potential upside of 100.63% from the stocks current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of TELUS International (Cda) from $15.00 to $11.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 25th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS International (Cda) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on TELUS International (Cda) from $21.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on TELUS International (Cda) from $17.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on TELUS International (Cda) from $26.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Sunday, July 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $19.33.

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TELUS International (Cda) Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of TIXT traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $9.47. The stock had a trading volume of 69,083 shares, compared to its average volume of 198,713. The firm has a market cap of $692.07 million, a PE ratio of 25.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.57. The stocks 50 day moving average is $13.44 and its 200 day moving average is $17.95. TELUS International has a 1 year low of $8.74 and a 1 year high of $31.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

Institutional Trading of TELUS International (Cda)

TELUS International (Cda) ( NYSE:TIXT Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 4th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.03. TELUS International (Cda) had a net margin of 3.85% and a return on equity of 15.22%. The firm had revenue of $667.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $663.11 million. As a group, analysts forecast that TELUS International will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TIXT. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS International (Cda) in the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS International (Cda) during the 2nd quarter worth $63,000. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS International (Cda) by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 4,781 shares of the companys stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 755 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS International (Cda) during the 1st quarter valued at $101,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC acquired a new position in shares of TELUS International (Cda) during the 3rd quarter valued at $101,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.30% of the companys stock.

About TELUS International (Cda)

(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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Perpetual Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR  Free Report) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 12,335 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock, valued at approximately $1,213,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in DLR. Aspire Private Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 1st quarter valued at $12,316,867,000. Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Clear Street Markets LLC increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 28,900.0% in the 4th quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 290 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Digital Realty Trust in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Digital Realty Trust by 97.3% in the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 432 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. 97.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Digital Realty Trust news, insider Cindy Fiedelman sold 2,770 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $346,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Jean F. H. P. Mandeville sold 1,500 shares of Digital Realty Trust stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.47, for a total value of $146,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $991,854.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Cindy Fiedelman sold 2,770 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $346,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,970 shares of company stock valued at $566,424 in the last ninety days. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Digital Realty Trust Price Performance

Several research firms recently issued reports on DLR. Raymond James cut their target price on Digital Realty Trust from $155.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $175.00 to $130.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. 22nd Century Group reaffirmed a reiterates rating on shares of Digital Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, May 30th. Barclays increased their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $80.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Digital Realty Trust from $125.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $118.43.

Digital Realty Trust stock traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $120.67. The company had a trading volume of 661,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,673,007. The company has a market capitalization of $35.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.55. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.76 and a 12-month high of $135.20. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $112.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 15th were paid a $1.22 dividend. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 14th. Digital Realty Trusts dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 378.30%.

About Digital Realty Trust

(Free Report)

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data "meeting place" and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges.

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Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEARCA:EEM  Free Report) by 33.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 982,936 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after purchasing an additional 247,373 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp owned approximately 0.16% of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF worth $38,787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF during the first quarter valued at approximately $146,000. AMI Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 5.7% during the first quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,268 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 62.5% during the first quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 65,005 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $2,935,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its position in iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 14.5% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 8,965 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF by 9.3% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 892,269 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $40,286,000 after acquiring an additional 76,229 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.70% of the companys stock.

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iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of EEM traded down $0.15 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $40.39. The stock had a trading volume of 10,586,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,983,832. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has a 1 year low of $33.49 and a 1 year high of $42.53. The stocks 50 day moving average is $40.15 and its 200 day moving average is $39.68.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF Profile

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, formerly iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (the Fund), seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded equity securities in global emerging markets, as measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (the Index).

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Sigma Planning Corp cut its position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF (BATS:EFV  Free Report) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,773 shares of the companys stock after selling 1,126 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corps holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF were worth $1,785,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 92,577.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 228,843,548 shares of the companys stock worth $10,499,342,000 after purchasing an additional 228,596,624 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 57,373,048 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,632,275,000 after buying an additional 7,374,338 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 11,979,393 shares of the companys stock worth $549,615,000 after buying an additional 1,680,250 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,328,235 shares of the companys stock worth $519,739,000 after buying an additional 872,912 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,496,476 shares of the companys stock worth $389,818,000 after buying an additional 805,938 shares during the period.

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iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF Stock Performance

Shares of BATS:EFV traded up $0.27 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $49.68. The stock had a trading volume of 2,803,696 shares. iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF has a 1-year low of $49.15 and a 1-year high of $59.57. The stocks fifty day simple moving average is $49.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 0.84.

iShares MSCI EAFE Value ETF Profile

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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ProVise Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE:CMP  Free Report) by 34.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,151 shares of the basic materials companys stock after buying an additional 5,393 shares during the quarter. ProVise Management Group LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Compass Minerals International worth $725,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CMP. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Compass Minerals International by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,615 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $667,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in Compass Minerals International by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 3,275 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $126,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Compass Minerals International by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 9,639 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $395,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in Compass Minerals International by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,768 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Compass Minerals International by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 15,031 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $515,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.11% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CMP shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Compass Minerals International from $50.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, May 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded Compass Minerals International from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday. Loop Capital began coverage on shares of Compass Minerals International in a report on Monday, July 17th. They issued a buy rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Compass Minerals International from $81.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Finally, BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Compass Minerals International in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. They issued a neutral rating on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Compass Minerals International Trading Down 1.4 %

CMP stock traded down $0.53 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $38.50. 143,743 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 345,509. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.24 and a beta of 1.35. Compass Minerals International, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.89 and a 12-month high of $47.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.71.

Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The basic materials company reported ($0.46) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.99). The company had revenue of $411.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $427.00 million. Compass Minerals International had a negative return on equity of 6.08% and a negative net margin of 2.99%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Compass Minerals International, Inc. will post -0.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Compass Minerals International Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 9th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 8th. Compass Minerals Internationals payout ratio is currently -61.86%.

About Compass Minerals International

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Compass Minerals International, Inc, produces and sells essential minerals primarily in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Salt and Plant Nutrition. The Salt segment produces, markets, and sells sodium chloride and magnesium chloride, including rock salt, mechanically and solar evaporated salt, and brine and flake magnesium chloride products; and purchases potassium chloride and calcium chloride to sell as finished products or to blend with sodium chloride to produce specialty products.

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Citigroup downgraded shares of Celcomdigi Berhad (OTCMKTS:DIGBF  Free Report) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Thursday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Celcomdigi Berhad Stock Performance

Shares of Celcomdigi Berhad stock remained flat at C$0.75 on Thursday. The stocks 50-day moving average is C$0.75 and its 200-day moving average is C$0.75. Celcomdigi Berhad has a 12 month low of C$0.75 and a 12 month high of C$0.75.

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About Celcomdigi Berhad

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Celcomdigi Berhad, an investment holding company, provides mobile communication services and related products in Malaysia. It engages in the establishment, maintenance, and provision of telecommunication and related services; trading and distribution of communication devices and related products; managing retail stores; and fibre optic transmission network and property investment activities.

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Cascades (OTCMKTS:CADNF  Free Report) had its price objective lifted by National Bank Financial from C$13.00 to C$13.50 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

CADNF has been the topic of several other research reports. Desjardins upped their price objective on Cascades from C$10.50 to C$14.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Cascades from C$13.00 to C$14.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Finally, TD Securities upped their price objective on Cascades from C$13.50 to C$14.00 in a research note on Friday.

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Cascades Price Performance

Shares of OTCMKTS CADNF remained flat at $8.76 during midday trading on Friday. Cascades has a 52-week low of $5.68 and a 52-week high of $9.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $8.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.18.

Cascades Company Profile

Cascades Inc produces, converts, and sells packaging and tissue products in Canada and the United States. The company operates through three segments: Containerboard, Specialty Products, and Tissue Papers. It offers various packaging solutions comprising trays and accessories, produce baskets and boxes, clamshells, produce boxes, egg packaging solutions, pizza and insulated boxes, bulk bins, cup carriers, food grade films, and customized containers for the food sector; protective packaging, including die-cut boxes, handling and shipping solutions, protective materials, large format boxes, and shipping trays; e-commerce packaging solutions, which include e-commerce boxes, custom mailer boxes, custom printing, packaging optimization products, and cutter for multi-depth boxes, as well as the solution for faster packing and shipping tests; and various retail packaging products.

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Samsung Electronics has announced the first step in a plan to reimagine mobile device security for business customers in partnership with Microsoft.

This collaboration has led to the industrys first on-device, mobile hardware-backed device attestation solution that works equally well on both company and personally owned devices.

Device attestation can help ensure a devices identity and health, verifying that it has not been compromised. On-device, mobile hardware-backed device attestation  available on Samsung Galaxy devices and combined with protection from Microsoft Intune  now adds enhanced security and flexibility.

Layer of protection

For enterprises, this is an extra layer of protection against compromised devices falsely claiming to be known and healthy, gaining access to sensitive corporate data.

Additionally, organisations can now enable employees to bring their own device (BYOD) to work with the confidence that they are protected with the same level of security as company owned devices. For employees, this means added flexibility for their personal Galaxy devices to safely access their work environment.

In a rapidly evolving landscape with changing work habits and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, Zero Trust is a security model based on three principles: always assume breach, verify explicitly, and provide least privilege access. Implementation of Zero Trust has become mandated by regulated industries and public sector customers, such as the US government.

New approach

This requires a new approach for enforcing security end-to-end, from apps to the network and the device itself, regardless of device ownership and enrollment.

Together, Samsung and Microsoft are uniquely positioned to enable this. Samsung is the industry leader for global smartphones. The Samsung Knox security platform is 10 years old. In that time, Samsung Knox has been activated on more than a billion Samsung Galaxy devices. Thats more than 30,000 businesses in 110 markets relying on Samsung Knox to protect their devices from cyberattacks.

Microsoft is the industry leader in unified endpoint management software market share, and delivers end-to-end cross-cloud, cross-platform security solutions, which integrate different categories across security, compliance, identity, device management, and privacy, informed by more than 65 trillion threat signals each day.

With this partnership, the first mobile hardware-backed device attestation bridges the consumer and the world of work, allowing people to safely bring their personal devices to work.

Meaningful innovations

Samsung is committed to meaningful innovations that are as secure as they are versatile and optimised, said KC Choi, EVP and Head of Global Mobile B2B Team, MX Business at Samsung Electronics. As work habits evolve and people are working from virtually anywhere on any device, we are paving the way for the future of enterprise device security and democratising the means for businesses to better protect their information.

Flexibility for enterprises and end users

For enterprise IT managers, mobile hardware-backed device attestation with Intune provides strong protection for corporate needs without impacting the user experience. With this integration, even highly regulated organisations can adopt a BYOD policy with this additional layer of protection on the Samsung devices widely used by consumers and professionals for work. This increases worker productivity, provides better experiences for users, and simplifies administration.

This joint Samsung-Microsoft solution works on both managed and unmanaged devices regardless of ownership. Traditional device attestation mainly works on managed devices as it is server-based and requires network connectivity, meaning the entire device has to be enrolled into the corporate system.

With mobile hardware-backed attestation, enterprises can verify a devices integrity and allow access to the corporate system whether it is managed or unmanaged. The user experience is also streamlined to enable employees to bring their personal devices to work and safely access the corporate system without extra security steps.

Samsungs industry-leading hardware and software solutions, coupled with the power of the Microsoft Cloud and Intune, uniquely position us to empower defenders with end-to-end capabilities to help stop sophisticated bad actors and improve Zero Trust security posture, said Michael Wallent, CVP Microsoft Security - Management. With this partnership, we are committed to continuous innovation that will ensure the most security-minded organisations have the best possible mobile device protection.-- TradeArabia News Service
Andreas Schwarz, a member of parliament of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party, urged Berlin not to procrastinate with the delivery of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He warned the country's authorities against losing time in this matter.

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About it writes Bild. As noted, Schwarz said that the Defense Forces need such weapons in order to support the counterattack at the front and the liberation of the occupied by the Russians settlements.

He noted that Ukraine currently does not have a significant Air Force to support the offensive, so only guided weapons, such as Taurus cruise missiles, remain. With the help of these weapons, the Ukrainian army can overcome the minefields set up by the Russians and reclaim its territory.

He recalled how long Germany hesitated to transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine. In the end, the decision was still made, but a lot of time was lost. Schwarz said that in the case of Taurus missiles, the decision on their transfer is likely to be made, too, so there is no point in stalling.

The MP also commented on the words of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius regarding the fact that Taurus has a "special range" and that Ukraine can use them to strike objects on the territory of the aggressor country. He noted that the Ukrainian army can already reach the Russian Federation using the Mars and HIMARS artillery systems supplied to them.

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"We want to ensure that Ukraine is able to win the war faster. For this purpose, it needs air-to-ground cruise missiles of the Taurus type," the MP said.

Taurus is an air-to-ground cruise missile designed for high-precision strikes and defeating highly protected and deep targets. Taurus is a direct competitor to the Storm Shadow cruise missile, a joint Anglo-French development.

The Taurus missile weighs 1,400 kg and is 5 meters long. The missile has been in service with the Bundeswehr since 2005 and has a range of 500 kilometers.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, German authorities are delaying the sending of the military aid package promised to Kyiv in May. FRG has so far transferred only 10 Leopard 1 tanks.

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Virgin Money UK (OTCMKTS:CYBBF  Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from GBX 175 ($2.25) to GBX 180 ($2.31) in a research note published on Thursday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered their price target on Virgin Money UK from GBX 265 ($3.40) to GBX 200 ($2.57) in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Virgin Money UK from GBX 220 ($2.82) to GBX 230 ($2.95) in a research note on Monday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Virgin Money UK from GBX 200 ($2.57) to GBX 180 ($2.31) in a research note on Friday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Virgin Money UK from GBX 205 ($2.63) to GBX 220 ($2.82) in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned 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 $209.29.

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Virgin Money UK Price Performance

Shares of CYBBF remained flat at $1.90 on Thursday. Virgin Money UK has a 52 week low of $1.44 and a 52 week high of $2.29. The companys 50-day moving average is $1.86 and its 200-day moving average is $1.93.

About Virgin Money UK

Virgin Money UK PLC provides banking products and services for consumers, and small and medium sized businesses under the Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, and Virgin Money brands in the United Kingdom. The company offers savings and current accounts, mortgages, credit cards, and home loans; business loans, overdraft facilities, treasury solutions, and corporate and structured finance; asset and invoice finance services; risk management; international trade services; and home, car, and life and critical illness insurance products.

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CLS Holdings USA (OTCMKTS:CLSH  Free Report) had its price objective lowered by Berenberg Bank from GBX 190 ($2.44) to GBX 175 ($2.25) in a research note published on Friday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

CLS Holdings USA Stock Up 12.0 %

Shares of OTCMKTS CLSH traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $0.09. The company had a trading volume of 44,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 79,178. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $0.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $0.06. CLS Holdings USA has a 12 month low of $0.03 and a 12 month high of $0.50.

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CLS Holdings USA Company Profile

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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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Headwater Exploration (OTCMKTS:CDDRF  Free Report) had its price target lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from C$8.00 to C$8.50 in a research note published on Friday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

CDDRF has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Headwater Exploration from C$8.50 to C$8.25 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Headwater Exploration from C$8.00 to C$9.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Headwater Exploration from C$9.00 to C$10.00 in a research note on Friday.

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Headwater Exploration Stock Performance

Shares of CDDRF stock traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $5.61. 7,600 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,916. Headwater Exploration has a fifty-two week low of $3.67 and a fifty-two week high of $5.80. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.78.

Headwater Exploration Increases Dividend

Headwater Exploration Company Profile

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.0739 per share. This represents a yield of 6.07%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 29th. This is a positive change from Headwater Explorations previous dividend of $0.07.

(Get Free Report)

Headwater Exploration Inc engages in the exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas in Canada. It holds interest in the Marten Hills area located in Alberta; and McCully Field area located in New Brunswick. The company was formerly known as Corridor Resources Inc and changed its name to Headwater Exploration Inc in March 2020.

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ProVise Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF (NYSEARCA:EWL  Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,390 shares of the exchange traded funds stock, valued at approximately $426,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. CX Institutional bought a new stake in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the 1st quarter worth about $13,061,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 1,290.1% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 294,079 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $14,439,000 after purchasing an additional 272,923 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 20.6% in the 4th quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 1,346,950 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $56,478,000 after purchasing an additional 230,522 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF by 628.4% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 210,289 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $8,817,000 after buying an additional 181,420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC acquired a new position in iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF during the 3rd quarter worth $6,315,000.

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iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF Price Performance

Shares of NYSEARCA EWL traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $46.78. The stock had a trading volume of 446,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 842,403. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.35 and a beta of 0.73. iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF has a fifty-two week low of $36.01 and a fifty-two week high of $48.94. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $46.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.96.

iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF Profile

iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped ETF (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI Switzerland 25/50 Index (the Index).

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ProVise Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF (NYSEARCA:SUSA  Free Report) by 31.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,673 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 1,360 shares during the quarter. ProVise Management Group LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF were worth $498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF by 29.6% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 3,803 shares of the companys stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY boosted its stake in iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF by 1.5% in the first quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 22,282 shares of the companys stock worth $1,956,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Levy Wealth Management Group LLC grew its position in iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF by 34.9% during the first quarter. Levy Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 14,350 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,259,000 after acquiring an additional 3,714 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank lifted its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 19,545 shares of the companys stock worth $1,715,000 after acquiring an additional 1,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Affinia Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Affinia Financial Group LLC now owns 16,401 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,434,000 after purchasing an additional 953 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF stock traded up $0.75 during trading on Monday, reaching $95.27. 43,667 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 146,491. The stocks fifty day moving average is $93.28 and its 200 day moving average is $89.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19 and a beta of 1.02. iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF has a 1 year low of $73.86 and a 1 year high of $97.71.

iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF Company Profile

The iShares MSCI USA ESG Select ETF (SUSA) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Extended ESG Select index. The fund tracks an index of US companies with high environmental, social and governance (ESG) factor scores as calculated by MSCI. SUSA was launched on Jan 24, 2005 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Russian occupiers have struck another blow in Kharkiv region - this time missiles fell in the settlements of Kupyansk district. One of them killed 65-year-old Valentina Shevchenko, who worked as an accountant in the regional military administration.

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The tragic news was published by the deputy head of Kupyansk regional military administration Andriy Kanashevich on Facebook. In the epitaph he indicated that the staff will always remember the dead at the hands of war criminals as a sincere, decent and principled person.

"Our support and sincere condolences to the family and friends of Valentina Petrovna. Bright memory and the kingdom of heaven", - stated in the obituary.

Three people were injured as a result of the morning shelling of the villages of Putnikove, Podoly and Kupyansk itself. Several private houses where people lived were destroyed.

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"Under the procedural guidance of the Kupyansk district Prosecutor's office of Kharkiv region started pre-trial investigations on the facts of violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)", - indicated in the law enforcement agency, emphasizing that all responsible for the deaths and suffering of Ukrainians will be punished.

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As reported by OBOZREVATEL, Ukrainian law enforcers reported suspicion of another serviceman of the Russian Federation. The attacker during the occupation of the Vyshgorod district of the Kiev region abused civilians and tried to rape a girl, who was forced to hide in basements because of this.

Russia's criminal attack on a residential five-story building in Kryvyi Rih took the life among others of the head teacher of the school. Irina Borisova gave three decades to pedagogy.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
On the evening of Monday, 7 August, Russian occupation forces shelled the village of Kruglyakivka in the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv region with four guided aerial bombs. The enemy hit private residential buildings, killing two people and wounding five others.

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This was reported by the Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko (to see the photo, scroll to the bottom of the page). The head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said that the shelling took place around 19:45.

The victims of the shelling were a 45-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man. Two other women and two men were hospitalised with injuries, and one 62-year-old victim was treated on the spot.

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As a result of the Russian attack, houses caught fire and there was destruction. When law enforcement and rescuers arrived at the site of the hit, the occupiers fired again, using cluster munitions.

"When special services arrived at the site of the hit, the occupiers fired again with cluster munitions. Two rescuers of the State Emergency Service and a police investigator of Kharkiv region were wounded," wrote Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights.

He noted that both guided aerial bombs and cluster munitions are prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

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As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Russian occupation forces opened fire in the Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions on Sunday, 6 August, and on the night of Monday, 7 August. The enemy's terrorist actions resulted in destruction and casualties.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
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[August 07, 2023] National Air Cargo Group, Inc. Partners with Etihad Cargo on USPS ICAIR 2023-27 Program Tweet

ORLANDO, Fla. and ABU DHABI, UAE, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. based National Airlines, a division of National Air Cargo Holdings, Inc., has entered an interline agreement with Middle East's dynamic Etihad Cargo to successfully roll out the ICAIR23 program for the United States Postal Service (USPS). This agreement initiates a unique partnership, as it combines National's extensive experience in providing international freight transportation services with Etihad Cargo's global commercial network. National Airlines will dispatch USPS civilian, military, and diplomatic mail using scheduled services of Etihad Cargo Under phase 1 of the ICAIR23 program, National Airlines, a U.S. flag carrier with P1 preferences, will dispatch USPS civilian, military, and diplomatic mail using the scheduled services of Etihad Cargo across several awarded lanes for the period 2023 -2027. "It's our honor to once again be part of the ICAIR program for USPS. This time it brings us much pleasure in collaborating with Etihad Cargo, a dynamic and rapidly growing global airline. We are looking forward to this association and hope to provide best-in-class mail delivery experiences to customers around the world through this program", commented Mr. Christopher Alf, Chairman, National Air Cargo Group, Inc. Tim Isik, Vice President, Commercial at Etihad Cargo, said, "Etihad Cargo is committed to making the transportation of mail across the carrier's network as seamless and efficient as possible. Etihad Cargo's partnership with National Air Cargo Group will enable the two airlines to join forces to enhance international USPS mail deliveries, providing greater connectivity to destinations across Etihad Cargo's global network, and provide customers wih an efficient service."



With National Airlines' proven track record in worldwide cargo charters and logistics movement over the past three decades and Etihad Cargo's growing network which connects major cities across the globe, this association is set to enhance the efficiency of international USPS mail deliveries, demonstrating a shared commitment to the ICAIR program. Customers can expect improved transit times, enhanced tracking capabilities, and a more seamless end-to-end experience to move their mail and packages. Phase 1 of the ICAIR23 program, powered by experienced personnel and subject matter experts, is slated to launch in August 2023 and continue through August 2027. The teams are looking forward to working together in a close alliance to service USPS customers globally.

About National Air Cargo Group, Inc.

Established in 1991, National Air Cargo Group, Inc. offers premium global end-to-end logistics solutions and freight forwarding services. Through global operational hubs, niche, and industry-specific transportation solutions are curated for governmental programs, defense departments, e-commerce, automotive, oil-field projects, temperature-controlled shipments, live animal movements, and humanitarian aid and relief support. National Airlines, the airline division of the company, is a U.S. FAA-certificated Part 121 air carrier, with a fleet of eight B747-400Fs, A330-200 and B757-200 provides on-demand commercial cargo and passenger charters to over 100 plus locations worldwide. Experienced crew, technology-driven networking platforms, and strategically located hubs in the U.S., Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Dubai, Malaysia, Japan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong offer customers immediate and customized supply chain solutions around the clock. For more information, please visit www.gonational.com About Etihad Cargo

Etihad Cargo is the cargo and logistics arm of Etihad Airways. Since its establishment in 2004, Etihad Cargo has grown rapidly to become one of the leading air cargo carriers in the world, offering customers a range of cargo products and services to five major continents. Its hub in Abu Dhabi is strategically located at the centre of the world's busiest trade lanes, providing an integral link between Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa. In addition to general cargo, Etihad Cargo offers a wide range of specialty products including live animals, dangerous goods, valuables, and vulnerable, personal effects, as well as its market-leading cold chain products (the latter holding IATA's stringent Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators certifications for both Pharmaceutical and Perishables Logistics, as well as Live Animals Logistics). For more information, please visit www.etihadcargo.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-air-cargo-group-inc-partners-with-etihad-cargo-on-usps-icair-2023-27-program-301894603.html SOURCE National Air Cargo Group

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[August 07, 2023] Vontier's Veeder-Root TLS-450PLUS Automatic Tank Gauge Receives Approval from California Air Resources Board for In-Station Diagnostics Certification Tweet

Vontier Corporation (NYSE: VNT), a leading global provider of critical technologies and solutions to connect, manage and scale the mobility ecosystem, and Veeder-Root, a subsidiary of Vontier and worldwide leader in fuel management and environmental technology, announced today that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved the In-Station Diagnostics (ISD) certification for Veeder-Root's TLS-450PLUS Automatic Tank Gauge (ATG). The certification took effect on July 28, 2023. Under CARB regulations, California gas stations with an annual throughput of more than 600,000 gallons must be equipped with an approved In-Station Diagnostic system. The approval of the TLS-450PLUS positions Veeder-Root's ISD as the only certified solution that supports all vapor processor configurations and all certified vapor recovery nozzles. California fuel retailers now have the opportunity to upgrade their ATG systems to the latest technology the industry has to offer, while staying compliant with all ISD performance requirements as defined by CP-201. "Vontier is committed to supporting our customers as they adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and industry trends by leveraging our broad portfolio of market-leading solutions," said Mark Morelli, President & CEO of Vontier. "Sustainability is key to our strategy as we pave the way to a cleaner, more secure, and more connected mobility ecosystem. At the same time, delivering differentiated solutions that increase our customers' productivity is equally as critical, and the TLS-450PLUS enables both." The TLS-450PLUS platform brings retailers additional capabilities that improve operational efficiency, including remote monitring and management, enhance network security, and lower cost of ownership while still providing the same reliability of the TLS-350 system they know so well. The TLS-450PLUS also provides extended record retention, role-based access management, and an intuitive user interface via the integral touch screen or a web browser.



"We're excited to bring the TLS-450PLUS to this important market," said Dave Coombe, President of Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Fueling Solutions. "This certification is the result of close coordination and collaboration between our engineering team and CARB. We're proud to continue our 150-year legacy of providing innovative, expandable solutions and look forward to supporting our California customers with the TLS-450PLUS for years to come." ABOUT VONTIER

Vontier (NYSE: VNT) is a global industrial technology company uniting critical mobility and multi-energy technologies and solutions to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving, more connected mobility ecosystem. Leveraging leading market positions, decades of domain expertise and unparalleled portfolio breadth, Vontier enables the way the world moves - delivering smart, safe and sustainable solutions to our customers and the planet. Vontier has a culture of continuous improvement built upon the foundation of the Vontier Business System and embraced by over 8,500 colleagues worldwide. Additional information about Vontier is available on the Company's website at www.vontier.com. ABOUT VEEDER-ROOT Veeder-Root, a Vontier business, is a leading global supplier of fuel management and environmental solutions with a tradition of excellence in the petroleum industry. Our portfolio of market leading products includes: Veeder-Root Automatic Tank Gauges, probes and sensors, Red Jacket submersible pumps and pressurized line leak detectors, HydrX Fuel Conditioning System, EMR meter registers, and stage II vapor recovery solutions. Our products improve profitability and abate risk for customers by delivering solutions to manage onsite operations, compliance reporting, fuel procurement, inventory reconciliation, and accounting processes. Veeder-Root products and services are installed in over 500,000 tanks globally and responsible for 22 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel annually. To find out more about Veeder-Root, visit veeder.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807056026/en/

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[August 06, 2023] Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC Posts New Blog About the Benefits of Water Softeners Tweet

As the Blog Notes, Water Softeners Transform "Bad" Hard Water Into Cleaner Soft Water MOORESVILLE, N.C., Aug. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Joe Hughes, the owner, and founder of Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC, is pleased to announce that he posted a new blog to the company website that discusses how water softeners help to improve the quality of water. To read the new blog, which is titled "Hard Water is Bad Water; How Water Softeners Make Water Better and Cleaner" in its entirety, please visit https://ultimateplumbingandhvac.om/plumbing-repair-blog/hard-water-is-bad-water-how-water-softeners-make-water-better-and-cleaner-by-ultimate-plumbing-and-hvac/ .



As the blog notes, everybody at Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC knows firsthand that hard water can cause issues with skin and hair. Hard water can also damage customers' plumbing and household fixtures and appliances. From laundry that doesn't come out clean and showers that leave people feeling grungy, having hard water in a home is definitely an undesirable situation. "The good news is there are ways to help soften hard water and safely remove dissolved calcium and magnesium in the water to improve everyday water quality.

"As hard water enters the softener and filters through the salt, resin beads inside of the softener trap the calcium and magnesium and exchange them for sodium or potassium resulting in soft water. Your hair, skin, and laundry will feel so much softer, and your fixtures and appliances will last longer and be safe from build-up, corrosion, and dezincification. About Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC: At Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC in Mooresville, North Carolina, they pride themselves on the fact that they have never turned down a plumbing job. Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC is the Number One Plumbing and HVAC company, and they offer an array of comprehensive services that includes: drain cleaning, sewer lines, video camera inspection, water leak detection, toilet repair, water heaters, HVAC services, and much more. The company is now offering residential and commercial heating and cooling services. For more information, please visit https://ultimateplumbingandhvac.com/ . View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ultimate-plumbing--hvac-posts-new-blog-about-the-benefits-of-water-softeners-301894216.html SOURCE Ultimate Plumbing & HVAC

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[August 06, 2023] Nur Ink Innovations has signed an agreement for the sale and supply of ink to a leading European manufacturer of digital textile printers Tweet

The sales agreement signed by Nur Ink Innovations and the digital printer manufacturer is a multi-year agreement for the supply of a unique ink developed by the company TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nur Ink Innovations Ltd. (TASE: NURI), which is engaged in the research and development of various types of water-based, green, and environmentally friendly pigment inks, is pleased to report that it has signed an agreement for the supply of ink with a European company that develops, manufactures, and markets digital printing systems for printing on various clothing items. The water-based pigment ink set developed by the company in specific, was formulated in accordance to the client's requirements, is an innovative ink that contains notable advantages for the client's end users, such as exceptional resistance to abrasion in washing, high stability of the print heads - resulting in a lower need for routine printer maintenance, the possibility of printing directly onto nearly any type of fabric including dark polyester, while using a single printer, and a stretchability of over 500%, while maintaining lack of odor and non-stickiness of the printed fabri.



The ink that will be supplied to the client has received the two most important standards in the textile industry: the OekoTex Eco-Passport standard and the GOTS 7 standard. The agreement is a long-term engagement of ink supply that includes ongoing supplies for the client's ink procurement; the agreement includes an indicative expected forecast by the client as the basis for the company's anticipated supply orders.

According to Mr. Moshe Nur, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the company: "This agreement is proof of the company's research and development capabilities and of the innovation and uniqueness of the products we develop, and also an indubitable expression of confidence in Nur Ink as a global company that brings significant value to the world of digital printing. This is a long-term ink supply agreement that includes an ongoing supply of ink to the client - a European company that develops, manufactures, and markets digital textile printers worldwide." Nur Ink Innovations presently estimates that given the agreed prices, the gross profit from ink sales to this client will be about 60%. This agreement includes an indicative expected forecast by the client as the basis for the company's anticipated orders for delivery.

Nur Ink Innovations is expected to supply a water-based pigment ink set that was developed in accordance with the client's specific requirements; an innovative ink that contains notable advantages for the client's end users, such as high stability of the print heads, resulting in lower need for printer maintenance, as well as the possibility of printing directly onto any type of fabric including dark polyester while using a single printer. Mr. Moshe Nur, chairman of the board and CEO of the company, further added: "I am very proud to have reached this day, when we signed an agreement with one of the world's leading manufacturers of digital textile printers. This agreement was signed after hard work with the client in order to develop a single and unique water-based pigment ink set that was specially formulated to the client's requirements and to various models of printers produced by the client. The agreement is made under an OEM Private Label business model, where the printer manufacturer will market our ink as its own product. In parallel, we continue adjustments and pilot processes with several other printer manufacturers and expect to sign further commercial agreements such as the aforementioned agreement. Press contact:

Eliav Priel

Email: [email protected]

Office: +972 (74) 7973081 (Ext. 1)

Mobile: +972 (54) 3277271 SOURCE Nur Ink Innovations Ltd.

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[August 07, 2023] Graph Database Market to grow at a CAGR of 19.9% from 2022 to 2027|Increased demand for low-latency queries is a major trend _ Technavio Tweet

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The graph database market size is estimated to grow by USD 7400.79 million from 2022 to 2027, growing at a CAGR of 19.9%, according to Technavio. North America is estimated to contribute 36% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. The growing demand for connected data has driven the demand for graph databases in North America. American companies are increasing the value of leveraging data to gain actionable insights and make informed decisions. Additionally, organizations can use graph databases to find hidden relationships, patterns, and dependencies in their data, leading to more accurate and useful analysis. Graph databases are widely used by industries such as finance, healthcare, retail, logistics, and social networks to drive their data-driven strategies. Therefore, the regional graph database market will expand during the forecast period. For Comprehensive details on the market size of the historical period (2017 to 2021) and forecast period (2023-2027) - View Sample report Company Landscape

The graph database 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 Open knowledge network gaining popularity is a key factor driving market growth. Without standardized APIs and query languages, developers will have to work with multiple languages and frameworks specific to graph databases during the forecast period. Lack of standardization can lead to supplier lock-in, where organizations become highly dependent on a particular graph database player due to a lack of interoperability standards. This locking limit flexibility in switching players, making it difficult to adapt to take advantage of emerging technologies. The complexity and learning curve associated with query languages and proprietary APIs, as well as concerns about player lock-in that could prevent potential users from exploring and using graph databases, which impede the growth of the market during the forecast period. Lack of standardization and programming flexibility is a key factor driving market growth. The growth of the open knowledge network (OKN) may have a substantial impact on graph databases. These databases are excellent at connecting related entities and combining heterogeneous data. They can connect data from several areas, allowing for a more extensive and integrated knowledge network. Consequently, the development of the open knowledge network may increase the demand for graph databases as a core technology to support the ingest, query, and discovery of interconnected knowledge. Hence, these factors are expected to restrict market growth during the forecast period. Major Trends Increasing demand for low-latency queries is a major trend in the market. The ability of a database system to respond to queries quickly (usually within milliseconds, sometimes microseconds) is called low-latency query capability. Furthermore, there is a growing demand for low-latency query capabilities across industries, driven by the need for real-time or near-real-time access to data and the ability to quickly process large amounts of information. In addition, these advances combined with hardware meet his performance needs for real-time or near-real-time queries in chart databases. Hence, 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 graph database market report includes information on the product launches, sustainability, and prospects of leading companies, including Amazon.com Inc., ArangoDB Inc., DataStax Inc., Dgraph, Franz Inc, InfluxData Inc., JanusGraph , Memgraph Ltd, Microsoft Corp., Neo4j Inc., Ontotext USA Inc., Oracle Corp., Redis Ltd., Stardog Union Inc., TigerGraph, and vesoft 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 end-user (large enterprises and SMEs), type (RDF and LPG), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa). The market share growth by the large enterprises segment will be significant during the forecast period. Large enterprises often deal with complex, interconnected data that can be difficult to represent and query using traditional relational databases. Graph databases provide a natural and intuitive way to model and store relationships between data entities, allowing for more efficient analysis and insights. Furthermore, graph databases can perform fast querying and analysis, allowing businesses to derive valuable insights from their real-time data. This is especially useful for use cases such as real-time fraud detection, direct marketing, and customer behavior analysis, which are expected to fuel the growth of the market during the forecast period. Gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Related Reports The stationery and cards market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.82% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 49.21 billion. Furthermore, this report extensively covers market segmentation by product (stationery and cards), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and the Middle East and Africa). The rising number of commercial establishments and offices is notably driving the market growth during the forecast period. The digital evidence management market is expected to increase by USD 2.65 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 8.48%. Furthermore, this report extensively covers digital evidence management market segmentation by component (software, services, and hardware) and geography (North America, APAC, Europe, South America, and MEA). The increasing demand for a consolidated crime database is notably driving the digital evidence management market growth during the forecast period.







Graph Database Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 19.9% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 7,400.79 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 19.17 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 36% Key countries US, China, UK, Germany, and France Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Amazon.com Inc., ArangoDB Inc., DataStax Inc., Dgraph, Franz Inc, InfluxData Inc., JanusGraph , Memgraph Ltd, Microsoft Corp., Neo4j Inc., Ontotext USA Inc., Oracle Corp., Redis Ltd. , Stardog Union Inc., TigerGraph, and vesoft 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 End-user



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 graph database market 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 18: Historic Market Size  Data Table on global graph database market 2017 - 2021 ($ million) 4.2 End-user Segment Analysis 2017 - 2021

Exhibit 19: Historic Market Size  End-user 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 End-user 6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 30: Chart on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2022-2027 (%) 6.2 Comparison by End-user

Exhibit 32: Chart on Comparison by End-user



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Comparison by End-user 6.3 Large enterprises - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 34: Chart on Large enterprises - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Large enterprises - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 36: Chart on Large enterprises - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 37: Data Table on Large enterprises - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 6.4 SMEs - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 38: Chart on SMEs - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on SMEs - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 40: Chart on SMEs - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 41: Data Table on SMEs - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 6.5 Market opportunity by End-user

Exhibit 42: Market opportunity by End-user ($ million)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market opportunity by End-user ($ 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 RDF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 48: Chart on RDF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on RDF - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 50: Chart on RDF - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on RDF - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 7.4 LPG - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

Exhibit 52: Chart on LPG - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on LPG - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)



Exhibit 54: Chart on LPG - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on LPG - 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 South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 75: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 77: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 78: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%) 9.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 79: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 80: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

and - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 81: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 82: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - 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 China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 87: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 88: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 89: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 90: Data Table on China - 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 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 (%) 9.12 France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 Exhibit 99: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 100: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2022-2027 ($ million)

Exhibit 101: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2022-2027 (%)

Exhibit 102: Data Table on France - 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 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 Amazon.com Inc.

Exhibit 111: Amazon.com Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 112: Amazon.com Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 113: Amazon.com Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 114: Amazon.com Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 115: Amazon.com Inc. - Segment focus 12.4 ArangoDB Inc.

Exhibit 116: ArangoDB Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 117: ArangoDB Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 118: ArangoDB Inc. - Key offerings 12.5 DataStax Inc.

Exhibit 119: DataStax Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 120: DataStax Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 121: DataStax Inc. - Key offerings 12.6 Dgraph

Exhibit 122: Dgraph - Overview



Exhibit 123: Dgraph - Product / Service



Exhibit 124: Dgraph - Key offerings 12.7 Franz Inc

Exhibit 125: Franz Inc - Overview



Exhibit 126: Franz Inc - Product / Service



Exhibit 127: Franz Inc - Key offerings 12.8 InfluxData Inc.

Exhibit 128: InfluxData Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 129: InfluxData Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 130: InfluxData Inc. - Key offerings 12.9 Memgraph Ltd

Exhibit 131: Memgraph Ltd - Overview



Exhibit 132: Memgraph Ltd - Product / Service



Exhibit 133: Memgraph Ltd - Key offerings 12.10 Microsoft Corp.

Exhibit 134: Microsoft Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 135: Microsoft Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 136: Microsoft Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 137: Microsoft Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 138: Microsoft Corp. - Segment focus 12.11 Neo4j Inc.

Exhibit 139: Neo4j Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 140: Neo4j Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 141: Neo4j Inc. - Key offerings 12.12 Ontotext USA Inc.

Inc. Exhibit 142: Ontotext USA Inc. - Overview

Inc. - Overview

Exhibit 143: Ontotext USA Inc. - Product / Service

Inc. - Product / Service

Exhibit 144: Ontotext USA Inc. - Key offerings 12.13 Oracle Corp.

Exhibit 145: Oracle Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 146: Oracle Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 147: Oracle Corp. - Key news



Exhibit 148: Oracle Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 149: Oracle Corp. - Segment focus 12.14 Redis Ltd.

Exhibit 150: Redis Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 151: Redis Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 152: Redis Ltd. - Key offerings 12.15 Stardog Union Inc.

Exhibit 153: Stardog Union Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 154: Stardog Union Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 155: Stardog Union Inc. - Key offerings 12.16 TigerGraph

Exhibit 156: TigerGraph - Overview



Exhibit 157: TigerGraph - Product / Service



Exhibit 158: TigerGraph - Key offerings 12.17 vesoft inc

Exhibit 159: vesoft inc - Overview



Exhibit 160: vesoft inc - Product / Service



Exhibit 161: vesoft inc - Key offerings 13 Appendix 13.1 Scope of the report 13.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 162: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 163: Exclusions checklist 13.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 164: Currency conversion rates for US$ 13.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 165: Research methodology



Exhibit 166: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 167: Information sources 13.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 168: List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

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Email: [email protected]

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[August 07, 2023] The Outlook for Desk-Top Quantum Computers, Discuss IDTechEx Tweet

BOSTON, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum computers have the potential to tackle problems it would take classical computers trillions of years to solve. Most quantum computer designs depend on cooling the hardware to extreme temperatures well below -200 degrees Celsius. However, in recent years the technology for desktop quantum computing has begun to advance. Quantum Computers Are Cool Quantum computers are cool; they exploit the sub-atomic phenomena of superposition and entanglement. Creating bits of information, 1s and 0s, at a quantum scale leads to an exponential advantage in computational power. However, quantum systems are notoriously susceptible to noise. Multiple noise sources can reduce a computation's accuracy or even entirely destroy quantum information. One of the most challenging noise sources to overcome is thermal noise. To avoid it, many popular hardware approaches are cooled to ultra-cold temperatures. For example, superconducting quantum computers require specialist vacuum pumps and cryostats. This equipment is expensive, dependent on helium, and needs a lot of space, water, and power. To date, the infrastructure required to cool quantum computers has created a barrier to bringing quantum computers to our desktops. However, new approaches to quantum computing are emerging, including photonic and diamond defect designs. The potential for these technologies to operate at room temperature could significantly improve accessibility to quantum computing and ultimately result in a larger addressable market. Photonic Qubits Can Survive Warm Temperatures Photonic platform quantum computing uses light to form qubits. This could be using the state of individual photons (polarization/squeezed) or the quantum states of beams of photons (qumodes). Photons are naturally more robust to thermal noise, and multiple companies today are producing early-stage photonic quantum processors which don't need cooling  for example, QuiX. While scalable and versatile photonic hardware for quantum computing is still a way off, some application-specific devices have already been realized. This includes machines from ORCA capable of time-bin boson sampling - suited to machine learning and generative modeling. However, photonics is not an approach to quantum computing without challenges. In some instances, detecting photons to read out the solution to a quantum algorithm still depends on super-cooled sensors. In other words, the qubits may be at room temperature, but the technology to detect them is not. Also, the entangled light sources required for more advanced systems require more development  for example, specialist quantum dots or semiconductor nanostructures. Furthermore, while photons are less affected by warm temperatures, they are still prone to leaking out of waveguides. That being said, investment in photonic quantum computing is on the rise  surpassing US$500 million in 2022. Many of the requirements for better photon sources and less-noisy architectures are being tackled, and optimism is high that scalable and versatile quantum computing using this methd is possible. This sector seeks to capitalize on the existing use of fiber optics for high-speed communications and the growing governmental interest in photonics for cryptography and cyber security.



Diamond Lattices Naturally Protect Qubits From Noise Engineered diamond was historically identified for its applications in quantum sensing, but in recent years, research has evolved toward room-temperature and even desktop quantum computing. Diamonds with a specific defect can form 2-state quantum systems and, therefore, qubits. For example, nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers have spin states which can be used to represent 1s and 0s. The frequency of stimulated emission of NV centers is dependent on this spin state, and as such off-the-shelf fluorescence microscopes can be used to read out algorithm results. Because these qubits are naturally insulated from noise sources in the environment by lattices of carbon atoms in diamonds, they are good candidates for room-temperature quantum computing.

Indeed, multiple companies are already selling desktop-sized diamond defect quantum computers. Supercomputing centers and aerospace companies have invested in diamond-defect technology from the likes of Quantum Brilliance and XeedQ. However, the number of qubits demonstrated using diamond defect remains in the single digits. It is widely agreed that to provide the most commercial value and meet the needs of error correction techniques, thousands, if not millions of qubits are required. Some developers do plan to demonstrate hundreds of diamond-defect qubits in the next few years, but there is plenty of research left to do, particularly in terms of optimizing the engineered diamond manufacturing processes. Hype vs. Reality While creating room-temperature desktop quantum computers is theoretically possible, today, most quantum computing hardware developers are focused on providing systems for industrial applications, including the aerospace, finance, and chemical sectors. This includes many of the leaders in photonic and diamond-defect quantum computing. There is general agreement that the highest value problems quantum computers will solve first will be achieved through cloud access models. However, a future with room-temperature solutions for the mass market shouldn't be ruled out, the photonic technology was even featured at CES this year. There are many more potential users outside of pharma and aerospace who could benefit from an affordable and mobile solution  predominantly for edge-AI, image processing, and real-time logistics optimization. Autonomous vehicle manufacturers and supermarket chains are already exploring this quantum application space. There is even demand for higher-performance computing in the harsh environment of space, for example, to process images from satellite-mounted astronomical instruments. Outlook Though quantum computing could come to the desks of the mass market, classical hardware solutions will remain dominant here for at least the next twenty years. In the meantime, room-temperature quantum computers are instead set to play a role in educating society about quantum computing. Ultimately this will serve to facilitate research and enable the adoption of the most powerful, high qubit number devices on the cloud. It remains uncertain which the market leading technologies will be, with photonic and diamond competing with superconducting, trapped ion, neutral atom, photonic, and even silicon based. However, according to IDTechEx's research study, long-term commercial success is most likely for more inherently scalable solutions  for which desktop suited modalities could have a significant competitive edge. The addressable market for quantum computers is forecast to increase rapidly as technology advances, with over 3000 systems likely to be installed by 2043. To find out more about the IDTechEx report "Quantum Computing 2023-2043", including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/QuantumComputing. About IDTechEx IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Subscription and Consultancy products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.IDTechEx.com. Images download: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/hxo0su529zsjrvdli90v1/h?rlkey=jbd9t46ks1905ia4hzytvg8sp&dl=0 Media Contact: Lucy Rogers

Sales and Marketing Administrator

[email protected]

+44(0)1223 812300 Social Media Links: Twitter: www.twitter.com/IDTechEx

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/IDTechEx Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2169072/Photonic_Qubits__Source_IDTechEx.jpg

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[August 07, 2023] Coro Named to Prestigious MES Midmarket 100 Tweet

Coro, the modern cybersecurity platform for mid-market organizations, announced today that Midsize Enterprise Services (MES), a brand of The Channel Company, has recognized Coro on its 2023 MES Midmarket 100 list. The MES Midmarket 100 list recognizes today's IT movers and shakers who've set themselves apart as forward-thinking technology providers supporting midmarket organizations. MES defines midmarket as the nearly 200,000 companies in the U.S. with annual revenues between $50 million and $2 billion. Coro was selected because its all-in-one cybersecurity platform delivers complete end-to-end protection for midmarket companies, providing enterprise-grade security that is easy to use, affordable, and offloads lean IT teams from 95% of security workloads. "The midmarket is a major driver of the U.S. economy, representing one-third of the private sector GPD," said Adam Dennison, VP Midsize Enterprise Services, The Channel Company. "I'm so proud of the vendors identified on this elite list for their consistent commitment to helping midmarket organizations succeed and thrive." "We are thrilled to be named to the 2023 MES Midmarket 100 list," said Guy Moskowitz, CEO, Coro. "This award acknowledges our commitment to provide comprehensive yet affordable security for the midmarket, and our 100% focus on that sector's growth and success." The MES Midmarket 100 list is featured at https://www.crn.com/midmarket100



About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com

Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. About Coro Coro provides modern cybersecurity that unifies comprehensive protection into a single platform. Coro empowers organizations to defend against malware, ransomware, phishing, data leakage, insider threats and email threats across devices, users, and cloud applications. More than 5,000 businesses depend on Coro for protection, unrivaled ease of use, and unmatched affordability. Coro's cybersecurity platform automatically detects and remediates the many security threats that today's distributed businesses face, without IT teams having to worry, investigate, or fix issues themselves. In addition to Energy Impact Partners, investors in Coro include Balderton Capital, JVP, and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures. For more information, please visit Coro at coro.net, or via LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.  2023 The Channel Company, LLC. The Channel Company logo is a registered trademark of The Channel Company LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807195783/en/

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[August 07, 2023] Ariel Re Adds CyberCube's Exposure Databases and APIs to its Suite of Analytical Tools Tweet

Ariel Re, a premier global reinsurance business with offices in Bermuda, London and Hong Kong, is expanding its partnership with cyber risk analytics leader CyberCube by licensing its Industry Exposure Databases and Portfolio Manager APIs. Ariel Re already licenses Portfolio Manager from CyberCube. Portfolio Manager is the (re)insurance industry's cyber risk modeling platform of choice, allowing stress testing of portfolios against a range of systemic cyber-related scenarios including data breaches, cloud outages, and global ransomware attacks among others. CyberCube's Industry Exposure Databases were launched in October 2022 to enable (re)insurers and brokers to perform a wide array of benchmarking, sensitivity, and real-time analyses for cyber risks. They provide a foundation for cyber risk models and include CyberCube's Economic Exposure Database (EED) and Industry Exposure Database (IED). The databases are designed to work seamlessly with Portfolio Manager, the industry's leading cyber portfolio modeling solution. With both, clients can view each Exposure Database and run analyses to develop industry loss estimates.



Portfolio Manager analytics are also available via CyberCube's CyberConnect API offering to support integration and automation of workflows into client systems. Simon Shreeve, CyberCube Principal Client Account Manager, said: "We are thrilled to expand our partnership with the Ariel Re team to enhance the analytics within its decision-making process. Ariel Re is operating with a granular and sophisticated view of risk, taking into account multiple data sources, in-house expertise and new comparative analytics to enable better risk selection and pricing to support its cyber reinsurance growth plans. We are excited to help Ariel drive innovation in the cyber reinsurance industry."

Daniel Carr, Head of Cyber at Ariel Re, said: "As we increasingly embed and expand our analytics capabilities in support of our reinsurance offerings, adding these tools to our partnership with CyberCube allows us to further sensitivity test, benchmark and stress test our deals and wider portfolio more easily. This enables us to communicate more effectively with all stakeholders, helping us to support our customers with tailored risk transfer solutions and continue to grow and innovate within the market with confidence. CyberCube is proving us with solutions that will further our vision of being the premier manager of reinsurance risk." ENDS View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807639587/en/

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The United States has officially approved the shipment of the first batch of Abrams tanks to Ukraine. This includes 31 units of this military equipment.

ADVERTISIMENT

The tanks are expected to arrive in our country in autumn. This was announced by Doug Bush, Chief of the US Army's Procurement Division, at a briefing on Monday, 7 August, CNN reports.

According to him, the first batch was approved for shipment to the Ukrainian Defence Forces over the weekend.

"Now they have to get to Europe, and then to Ukraine, along with everything that goes with them. Ammunition, spare parts, fuel equipment, repair facilities. So, you know, it's not just the tanks, it's the whole package that goes with it. It's still a work in progress," Bush said.

According to the newspaper, the training on the management of American Abrams tanks took place in Germany in May 2023. The 31 tanks destined for Ukraine had been undergoing repairs and preparations for shipment for several months.

ADVERTISIMENT

The M1 Abrams (named after General Creighton Abrams, former Chief of Staff of the US Army and Commander of the US Armed Forces in Vietnam) is a third-generation American main battle tank.

The vehicle is powered by a Honeywell AGT 1500 gas turbine engine with a capacity of 1,500 horsepower and a six-speed (four forward, two reverse) Allison X-1100-3B automatic transmission.

The tank can reach a top speed of 72 km/h on paved roads and 48 km/h on rough terrain.

ADVERTISIMENT

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the United States said that in a few weeks it would start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters. It will take place in Europe and will last for several months. At the same time, no country has committed to sending F-16s to Kyiv.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
[August 07, 2023] Student Freedom Initiative Expands to Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and Aims to Support Underserved Native American Students Tweet

Today, Student Freedom Initiative is pleased to announce the historic memorandum of understanding with Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, located in Hayward, Wisconsin, as part of the Tribal Colleges and Universities portfolio. This partnership is a modern funding solution for Ojibwe University and ignites innovative financial resources curated for the Indigenous and Native American communities. This partnership also follows a long-standing commitment to investing in minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and builds on future program investments. The agreement will provide Native American and Indigenous students with financial tools and work opportunities. Students at Ojibwe University will also benefit from venture capital education, internship opportunities, tutoring, mentoring and capacity building through Student Freedom Initiative. The goal of the partnership is to support student financial needs beyond paying for college by providing new technological equipment and teaching students how to invest their money, how to grow a network and the importance of relationship building. Every student is deserving of a quality education, and through this partnership, SFI is committed to building a future filled with prosperity. This agreement is a significant breakthrough for the Indigenous community and is symbolic for SFI. "Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University's priority has always been the success of our students, the partnership with SFI is significant not only for our students but for all tribal colleges and universities. This innovative funding tool will strengthen our current programs and support more Native American students to achieve and obtain sovereignty for themselves and future generations. SFI's partnership provides another opportunity for LCOOU students to build their skills, supporting them through graduation and preparing our new alumni for the workforce. The agreement is significant for LCOOU and SFI, and the first of its kind for all Tribal Colleges and Universities. Chi-miigwech to Dr. Mark A. Brown and Toney Begay from SFI for the opportunity to develop this partner," said President Russell Swagger of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University. The agreement encourages the use of non-monetary forms of support, including internships and certifications, as well as targeted capacity building, such as access to affordable broadband. The partnership aims to focus on the education of the Indigenous and Native American populations, specifically a future filled with new technologies and innovations. "I am thrilled to welcome Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University to the Student Freedom Initiative cohort," said Robert F. Smith, Board Chair of Student Freedom Initiative. "It is an honor to partner with tribal colleges and universities to give their students the financial freedom to soar in their careers. I cannot wait to see what these students will achieve." The Student Freedom Initiative is making significant investments in the education of Indigenous and Native American communities to strengthen the bridge of hope for the future, as this partnership shows. "SFI is committed to diversity and inclusion across all minority demographics. We're thankful that Lac Courte Oreilles Ojiwe University is taking this leap of faith and becoming our partner. Every student is deserving of a quality education, and through this partnership, we are committed to building a future filled with prosperity. This partnership aims to bridge the equality gap and be an example for other Tribal Colleges and Universities to follow," said Mark A. Brown, SFI's executive director.



"Cisco is proud to provide cyber security support to Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University," says Scott McGregor, Director of Cisco's Social Justice Action Office. "Powering a safe and connected world is a core part of our purpose and we look forward to supporting this important work." With the addition of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, Student Freedom Initiative is now engaged with 57 minority-serving institutions (MSIs) participating in one or more components of the program in a total of 22 states and U.S. territories.

About Student Freedom Initiative A single-purpose nonprofit organization, Student Freedom Initiative aims to reduce the wealth gap through the lens of education. This is achieved by providing a catalyst for freedom in professional and life choices for students attending Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) by increasing their social and economic mobility using a student-centric, evidence-based, holistic and collaborative approach. Initially focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Student Freedom Initiative enables mobility through four transformational components: (1) Student Freedom Fund as a private education loan alternative to Parent PLUS loans; (2) internships and industry-driven certifications; (3) comprehensive support; and (4) targeted MSI capacity building (e.g., access to affordable broadband, strengthening endowment governance and risk adjusted returns, workforce development in clean energy). Student Freedom Initiative collaborates with community-based organizations, businesses and governmental entities through public-private partnerships to make sustainable, systemic changes to support the entire MSI ecosystem. To date, the Student Freedom Initiative has received generous contributions from Robert F. Smith, Fund 2 Foundation, Cisco, Jane Street, Prudential, First Republic and the Walmart Foundation. The program has also been acknowledged and supported by the Business Roundtable's Racial Equity & Justice Subcommittee on Education. Our ability to provide support to MSI students is based on the continued financial support of these donors and others interested in aiding our mission. To learn more, visit www.StudentFreedomInitiative.org or follow us on Twitter @StudentFreedom. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807557925/en/

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[August 07, 2023] Aaron's Announces the Opening of its Newest GenNext Store in Grandview, Missouri Tweet

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aaron's Company, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions, today announced the opening of its newest company-operated Aaron's GenNext store in Grandview, Missouri. The new Aaron's store in Grandview  a southern suburb of Kansas City  reflects an expansion by Aaron's into the greater Kansas City market. The new store is conveniently located at 12340 15th Street in the Truman Shopping Center just off of I-49. The store will be open Monday  Saturday from 10:00 a.m.  8:00 p.m. "GenNext stores are an integral part of the Company's strategy to transform Aaron's. As we bring our GenNext stores to communities all across the country, we continue to receive positve feedback from our customers," said Douglas Lindsay, CEO of The Aaron's Company. "We're excited to open this new store and serve Grandview and the greater Kansas City area."



The Company's GenNext initiative is transforming the in-store customer experience. GenNext stores include larger showrooms and/or re-engineered store layouts, updated signage, expanded product assortment, enhanced technology-enabled shopping and checkout, and an innovative operating model, providing a best-in-class experience for shoppers. The GenNext program includes remodeling existing stores into the updated format as well as opening stores in new locations. So far this year, Aaron's has converted or opened 23 GenNext stores, bringing the total to 234 company-operated GenNext stores since launching the initiative in 2018. About The Aaron's Company, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, The Aaron's Company, Inc. (NYSE: AAN) is a leading, technology-enabled, omnichannel provider of lease-to-own and retail purchase solutions of appliances, electronics, furniture, and other home goods across its brands: Aaron's, BrandsMart U.S.A., BrandsMart Leasing, and Woodhaven. Aaron's offers a direct-to-consumer lease-to-own solution through its approximately 1,260 Company-operated and franchised stores in 47 states and Canada, as well as its e-commerce platform. BrandsMart U.S.A. is one of the leading appliance retailers in the country with ten retail stores in Florida and Georgia, as well as its e-commerce platform. BrandsMart Leasing offers lease-to-own solutions to customers of BrandsMart U.S.A. Woodhaven is the Company's furniture manufacturing division. For more information, visit investor.aarons.com, aarons.com, and brandsmartusa.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aarons-announces-the-opening-of-its-newest-gennext-store-in-grandview-missouri-301893561.html SOURCE The Aaron's Company, Inc.

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[August 07, 2023] Leaders and Luminaries of Cyber-Physical Security Assemble in Miami for Claroty's Second Annual Nexus Conference Tweet

Company Announces Distinguished Lineup of Speakers and Educational Session Agenda NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Claroty , the cyber-physical systems protection company, today announced it will bring together hundreds of cybersecurity leaders for the second annual Nexus Conference, taking place October 10-12, 2023 in Miami, Florida. As the premier cybersecurity leadership event focused on protecting cyber-physical systems, Nexus provides an exclusive forum for industry leaders whose perspectives on securing critical infrastructure  from healthcare, to oil and gas, to transportation, to electric utilities, to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology  generate invaluable connections and new ideas that move the world forward. Leaders in cyber-physical security speak highly of the event, sharing praise and value-gained from attending last year's inaugural Nexus Conference: Adam Zoller , CISO, Providence : "Nexus offers a level of expert-led content and peer collaboration unlike any other cyber conference I've attended. The significant insights and value yielded from attending the conference will certainly keep me returning for years to come."

"Nexus offers a level of expert-led content and peer collaboration unlike any other cyber conference I've attended. The significant insights and value yielded from attending the conference will certainly keep me returning for years to come." Javier Garcia Quintela, CISO, Repsol: "The unique challenge of protecting cyber-physical systems creates a need for space for those in our field to exchange ideas around securing the most critical assets. Nexus brings together a community of folks who can discuss their successes, failures and actionable insights towards accomplishing our shared goals."

"The unique challenge of protecting cyber-physical systems creates a need for space for those in our field to exchange ideas around securing the most critical assets. Nexus brings together a community of folks who can discuss their successes, failures and actionable insights towards accomplishing our shared goals." Ted Douglas , Director, Global Automation, OT/ICS Cybersecurity, Technology and Architecture, Pfizer: "Nexus sets a high standard for delivering thoughtful sessions and content to help drive innovation in our industry. This conference truly creates a sense of community for the dedicated professionals working so hard to protect the technology underpinning society's most critical systems." According to Gartner, Inc.,1 "cyber-physical systems protection platforms that discover and protect assets in production or mission-critical environments are emerging as a leading market category," and "the rapidly changing threat landscape and equally fast pace of vendor innovations are accelerating market maturity." Now, more than ever, the protection of cyber-physicl systems merits innovation, collaboration and diversity of thought.



"The era of digital transformation has left the world's critical infrastructure at its most vulnerable," said Yaniv Vardi, CEO of Claroty. "The convergence of the greatest minds in cybersecurity at Nexus presents an opportunity to face this challenge head on and offers a myriad of learning opportunities and insights for protecting an organization's most critical assets." Nexus 2023 attendees can look forward to compelling sessions led by private and public sector speakers at the helm of safely connecting the cyber and physical worlds, protecting inter-connected systems from the most dangerous of cyber threats. Agenda highlights include:

Chris Inglis , Former National Cyber Director and Admiral Mike Rogers , Former NSA Director: A fireside chat where the pair will discuss the shifting geopolitical landscapes and the impact on digital defense

and A fireside chat where the pair will discuss the shifting geopolitical landscapes and the impact on digital defense Phil Venables , CISO Google Cloud: An unfiltered conversation on the five year outlook for digital transformation.

An unfiltered conversation on the five year outlook for digital transformation. Charles Carmakal, SVP & CTO, Mandiant (Google) and Adam Meyers , SVP, Intelligence at CrowdStrike: 2024 industry predictions through the lens of geopolitical conflicts and emerging cyber threats

and 2024 industry predictions through the lens of geopolitical conflicts and emerging cyber threats Megan Samford , VP, Chief Product Security Officer (EM), Schneider Electric Speaking on "Secure by Design" and how security is included in the next generation of products.

Speaking on "Secure by Design" and how security is included in the next generation of products. Greg Garcia , Executive Director of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, and Erik Decker , CISO, Intermountain Health: Discussing the impact of the anticipated White House Executive Order for health delivery organization (HDO) cybersecurity "minimum standards"

Discussing the impact of the anticipated White House Executive Order for health delivery organization (HDO) cybersecurity "minimum standards" Jesse Whaley , CISO Amtrak: The impact of TSA Regulations and how they can be effectively leverage by organizations building up their cyber defenses. Dee Young , CISO UNC Health: Presenting on AI as the next frontier of defense and what the industry can expect to come from it

The impact of TSA Regulations and how they can be effectively leverage by organizations building up their cyber defenses. Presenting on AI as the next frontier of defense and what the industry can expect to come from it Nicole Darden Ford , CISO Rockwell Automation and Dave DeWalt , CEO Nightdragon: Discussing how AI is impacting critical sectors such as healthcare and it's potential for combatting organizations' biggest threats To apply to attend Nexus 2023, visit nexusconference.io . For speaking or partnership opportunities, contact [email protected] . For continuous thought leadership and insights from the top minds in cyber-physical security, visit Nexus Connect . Gartner disclaimers:

Gartner, Market Guide for CPS Protection Platforms, 29 June 2023, Katell Thielemann, Wam Voster

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Claroty

Claroty empowers organizations to secure cyber-physical systems across industrial, healthcare, and commercial environments: the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT). The company's unified platform integrates with customers' existing infrastructure to provide a full range of controls for visibility, risk and vulnerability management, threat detection, and secure remote access. Backed by the world's largest investment firms and industrial automation vendors, Claroty is deployed by hundreds of organizations at thousands of sites globally. The company is headquartered in New York City and has a presence in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit claroty.com . Media contact:

[email protected] ____________________________

1 Katell Thielemann, Wam Voster, Market Guide for CPS Protection Platforms , Gartner, Inc., 29 June 2023 - ID G00788607 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leaders-and-luminaries-of-cyber-physical-security-assemble-in-miami-for-clarotys-second-annual-nexus-conference-301894049.html SOURCE Claroty

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[August 07, 2023] MUSC Health Collaborates with Andor Health to Power Decentralized Care Delivery Tweet

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Andor Health, the company that harnesses open AI and healthcare-trained ChatGPT models to orchestrate the way care teams collaborate, is working with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC Health) to leverage this technology in a decentralized care delivery model. MUSC Health, one of the country's leading telehealth centers, will leverage ThinkAndor enterprise-wide to build a next-generation virtual care ecosystem. ThinkAndor Virtual Command Center provides a strategic approach that unifies the five pillars of virtual health  Virtual Visits, Virtual Hospital, Virtual Patient Monitoring, Virtual Team Collaboration, & Virtual Community Collaboration. Innovative health systems like MUSC can leverage ThinkAndor as a platform approach to virtual care to power a decentralized approach to care delivery. By leveraging ThinkAndor, MUSC Health will continue its transition from a one-size-fits-most care delivery model to a decentralized approach to care delivery. By shifting toward decentralized care, MUSC will create a more accessible care model that increases access to care and expands care to schools across the state. "As the state's only comprehensive academic health system, MUSC Health's purpose is to preserve and optimize the health of all South Carolinians and we do that by thinking differently and creating new approaches to care delivery," explained Patrick Cawley, CEO of MUSC Health & Executive Vice President for Health Affairs, University. "By using telehealth wherever and whenever possible, MUSC Health can continue to expand care access in underserved areas of the state while increasing the physical presence of new specialties customized for communities' needs." "To effectively deliver care, health systems must pivot away from traditional care delivery an shift towards new models of care. By implementing ThinkAndor Virtual Hospital, health systems can leverage AI to support next-generation care capabilities including virtual nursing, virtual sitting, & on-demand specialty consultations at scale," Raj Toleti, Chairman & CEO of Andor Health.



Visit Andor Health to learn how you can rethink clinical work with ThinkAndor. About Andor Health

At Andor Health, our mission is to change the way care teams connect and collaborate. By harnessing machine and human intelligence, our cloud-based platform unlocks data stored in electronic medical records to deliver real-time actionable intelligence to care teams  both inside and outside of their enterprise. By optimizing communication workflows, our solutions accelerate time to treatment, decrease clinician burnout, and drive better patient outcomes. For more information, visit Andor Health or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter .

About MUSC Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state's only comprehensive academic health system, with a unique mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates more than 3,200 students in six colleges  Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy  and trains more than 900 residents and fellows in its health system. MUSC brought in more than $298 million in research funds in fiscal year 2022, leading the state overall in research funding. MUSC also leads the state in federal and National Institutes of Health funding, with more than $220 million. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu. As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 16 hospitals (includes owned and affiliated), with approximately 2,700 beds and four additional hospital locations in development; more than 350 telehealth sites and connectivity to patients' homes; and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2023, for the ninth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health University Medical Center in Charleston the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org. MUSC has a total enterprise annual operating budget of $5.1 billion. The nearly 26,000 MUSC family members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers, scientists, students, affiliates and care team members who deliver groundbreaking education, research, and patient care. Media Contacts: Andor Health

Jennifer Skitsko, SVP, Marketing

Email: [email protected] Medical University of South Carolina Heather Woolwine, Public Affairs and Media Relations Director

Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/musc-health-collaborates-with-andor-health-to-power-decentralized-care-delivery-301893878.html SOURCE Andor Health

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[August 07, 2023] Wolters Kluwer's technology solutions honored as winners in the 2023 Globee Awards for American Business Tweet

Legisway, MediRegs, and Kluwer Arbitration, offered by the company's Legal & Regulatory division, recognized as industry leading solutions NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. announced today that its Legisway, Kluwer Arbitration, and MediRegs solutions were honored as winners across multiple categories in the 2023 Globee Awards for American Business. "Our innovative technology solutions are designed to deliver insights and enable increased productivity for legal professionals in law firms, corporates, and our healthcare compliance customers," said Atul Dubey, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. "These recognitions from the Globee Awards are a testament to the relevancy and fit of our solutions and the value they provide to our customers." Legisway, Wolters Kluwer's all-in-one SaaS platform focused on the needs of the corporate law department across contracts, intellectual property, real estate, entity manaement, and compliance, is a Gold winner under the awards program's Business Products category. The solution offers truly flexible enterprise legal information management that can be configured, helping corporate law departments enhance collaboration with the business and minimize risk.



Kluwer Arbitration, a world leading information-based solution for international arbitration, won a Bronze Globee in the program's Legal Information Solution category. Clients have access to exclusive arbitration materials and a streamlined research experience that supports legal professionals throughout the arbitration process end-to-end. MediRegs won a Bronze Globee in the HealthCare | Health & Medical Information Solution category, as well as a Silver Globee under the program's HealthCare | Healthcare Technology Solution. The SaaS based workflow solution provides immediate access to accurate regulatory content, coding tools, and calculators, while helping healthcare workers keep up to date on constantly changing healthcare regulations and reimbursement.

The Globee Awards for American Business celebrate organizations demonstrating outstanding accomplishments in customer service, innovation, leadership, and more. Participants range from startups to small, medium, and large corporations whose achievements are measured by a global panel of more than 350 industry experts. About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software, and services for professionals in healthcare, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of 5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. MEDIA CONTACT:

Frank Ready

Senior Specialist, External Communications

Legal & Regulatory

Wolters Kluwer

Office: 717-205-3647

Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wolters-kluwers-technology-solutions-honored-as-winners-in-the-2023-globee-awards-for-american-business-301894574.html SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

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[August 07, 2023] Chip on Board Light Emitting Diodes Market to Reach $5.5 Billion, Globally, by 2032 at 11.8% CAGR: Allied Market Research Tweet

The global chip on board light emitting diodes market is driven by factors such as increased acceptance of chip on board light emitting diodes lights in residential, commercial, and industrial lighting systems. PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- COB (chip-on-board) Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are a subset of LED packaging technology. COB packaging involves directly mounting an LED chip onto a substrate, such as a ceramic or metal board, rather than using a typical LED package. The bare LED chips are placed onto the surface, which is then coated with a layer of phosphor to convert the blue light emitted by the LED chip into multiple colors, such as white light. Additionally, the phosphor layer improves color rendering and overall light quality. Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Chip on Board Light Emitting Diodes Market, By Material (MCPCB and Ceramic), Application (Automotive, Illumination and Backlighting): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20222032". According to the report, the chip on board light emitting diodes market was valued at $1.9 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $5.5 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.8% from 2023 to 2032. Request PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/127573 Prime determinants of growth The global chip on board light emitting diodes market is driven by factors such as surge in demand and adoption of chip on board light emitting diodes lights in several applications, which fuels the demand for chip on board light emitting diodes. In addition, customizable illumination in public and private spaces is required to increase sales of light emitting diode circuits. However, chip on board light emitting diodes sales may be hampered by a complex manufacturing process restricting market growth. Moreover, the adoption of chip on board light emitting diodes in horticulture provides lucrative opportunities for market growth. Report coverage & details:







Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $1.9 billion Market Size in 2032 $5.5 billion CAGR 11.8 % No. of Pages in Report 308 Segments covered Material, Application and Region. Drivers Surge in demand and adoption of chip-on-board (COB) LED lights in several applications. Customizable Illumination in public and private spaces is required to increase sales of light emitting diode circuits Opportunities The adoption of chip on board light emitting diodes in horticulture Restraints Chip on board light emitting diodes sales may be hampered by a complex manufacturing process

COVID-19 Scenario The COVID-19 epidemic significantly changed the dynamics of the supply chain, raised demand for e-commerce packaging, and brought attention to health and safety precautions, all of which influence the chip on board light emitting diodes market.

Many businesses swiftly adjusted to the growth in e-commerce by developing packaging that can endure the rigours of shipping and handling.

The pandemic had intensified the attention on sustainable chip on board light emitting diodes solutions as people looked for eco-friendly choices. The ceramic segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period Based on material, the ceramic segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the global chip on board light emitting diodes market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period, with the surge in need for high-power, high-brightness LEDs, there is a rise in demand for ceramic materials with improved thermal conductivity. Advances in ceramic production processes and the development of novel ceramic formulas are aimed at producing better thermal conductivity, enabling effective heat dissipation from LED chips. The same segment is estimated to showcase the fastest CAGR of 12.11% during the forecast period. The backlighting segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period Based on application, the backlighting segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly half of the global chip on board light emitting diodes market and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. A surge in demand has been witnessed for energy-efficient lighting solutions, and chip on board light emitting diodes that offer higher efficiency compared to traditional lighting technologies. In addition, the increase in popularity of LED lighting, with its advantages of efficiency, longevity, and color rendering, fuels the adoption of chip on board light emitting diodes for backlighting applications. The same segment would cite the fastest CAGR 12.73% from 2023 to 2032. Asia-Pacific to maintain its dominance by 2032 Based on region, Asia-Pacific held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting for nearly half of the global chip on board light emitting diodes market revenue and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific serves as one of the potential markets for chip on board light emitting diodes globally. However, North America region is projected to cite the notable CAGR of 13.19% from 2023 to 2032. Buy This Report (308 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures) @ https://bit.ly/3Oo1xOA Leading Market Players: - Osram Gmbh

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Citizen Electronics Co., Ltd

Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd.

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd

Nichia Corporation

Tridonic

Prophotonix Limited

Perkinelmer, Inc.

Cree Led, Inc. The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global chip on board light emitting diodes 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. Key Benefits for Stakeholders This study comprises an analytical depiction of the market size along with the current trends and future estimations to depict the imminent investment pockets.

The overall market analysis is determined to understand the profitable trends to gain a stronger foothold.

The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities with a detailed impact analysis.

The current global chip on board light emitting diodes market forecast is quantitatively analyzed from 2022 to 2032 to benchmark financial competency.

Porter's five forces analysis illustrates the potency of the buyers and suppliers in the chip on board light emitting diodes market.

The report includes the market share of key vendors and global chip on board light emitting diodes market trends. Chip On Board Light Emitting Diodes Market Key Segments: By Material MCPCB

Ceramic By Application Backlighting

Illumination

Automotive By Region North America (U.S., Canada , Mexico )

(U.S., , ) Europe ( Germany , France , UK, Rest of Europe )

( , , UK, Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , India , Japan , South Korea , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

( , , , , Rest of ) LAMEA ( Latin America , Middle East , Africa ) Want to Access the Statistical Data and Graphs, Key Players' Strategies: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/chip-on-board-light-emitting-diodes-market/purchase-options Trending Reports in Semiconductor and Electronics Industry (Book Now with 10% Discount + COVID-19 Scenario): LED Market is projected to reach $192.68 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8.2% from 2021 to 2030. Industrial LED Market is projected to reach $20.16 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 16.8% from 2019 to 2026. Industrial and Commercial LED Lighting Market is projected to reach $172.95 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.1% from 2021 to 2030. Outdoor LED Display Market is projected to reach $14,522.40 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 9.10% from 2021 to 2030. Mini LED Display Market is expected to reach $1.90 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 91.10% from 2020 to 2027. Chip Scale Package (CSP) LED Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032. GaN Micro LED Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032. About Us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: United States

1209 Orange Street,

Corporation Trust Center,

Wilmington, New Castle,

Delaware 19801 USA.

Int'l: +1-503-894-6022

Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285

Fax: +1-800-792-5285

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[August 07, 2023]

Eugenio Lolli Named Alcantara's CEO and Managing Director

MILAN , Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Eugenio Lolli has been named CEO and managing director of Alcantara S.p.A., the "Made in Italy" luxury lifestyle brand featured in automotive interiors as well as in the world of consumer electronics, high fashion and interior design.

Lolli succeeds Andrea Boragno who now serves as chairman of the company's board of directors and its executive committee.

Lolli joined Alcantara in 2011 and pogressed through a series of management positions to become director of sales in 2017. Most recently he had been director of sales, technology and operations.







A native of Perugia in Umbria, he holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Perugia in Perugia, Italy, and a master's degree in business administration from Bocconi University in Milan.

Founded in 1972, Alcantara was certified as Carbon Neutral in 2009. It was the first Italian industrial company and one of the first companies in the world to achieve the status of Carbon Neutrality which is based on the offset of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon credits derived from certified and verified offset projects.

For further information:

www.alcantara.com

twitter.com/alcantaraspa

facebook.com/alcantara.company

youtube.com/alcantaracompany

instagram.com/alcantara_company/

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SOURCE Alcantara S.p.A.
[August 07, 2023] SCS Technologies Partners With Reforestation Non-Profit One Tree Planted; Commits to Donate One Million Trees by 2030 Tweet

SCS Technologies (SCS), a leading provider of CO 2 compression and measurement systems, methane vapor recovery units and petroleum LACT units, today announced a partnership with One Tree Planted to plant one million trees by 2030. SCS will plant 100 trees with One Tree Planted for every unit SCS produces. To date, SCS has planted over 5,000 trees as part of its commitment. "As an advocate for the energy industry's shift towards sustainable practices, SCS Technologies takes immense pride in our partnership with One Tree Planted," said Cody Johnson, CEO of SCS Technologies. "Aligning ourselves with the positive environmental impact of One Tree Planted complements our commitment to support energy companies in their carbon neutrality goals. Every purchase of our advanced CO 2 compression and vapor recovery measurement equipment empowers our customers with eco-friendly operations and also contributes to the preservation of our planet by supporting tree-planting initiatives." The objectives of this new partnership include: Supporting global reforestation efforts

Urban reforestation

Empowering consumers with sustainable actions

Raising awareness about the importance of ecosystem restoration "Protecting and restoring our world's forests is a top priority, and partners like SCS play a key role in helping us to make an impact for the environment," said Ashley Lamontagne, Senior Partner Marketing Manager at One Tree Planted. "With SCS's commitment to planting 100 trees for every unit they produce and to planting 1 Million trees by 2030, we are restoring forests, creating habitat for biodiversity, and making a positive social impact." Planting trees is consistently identified as one ofthe best ways to positively impact the environment. Trees help to clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat for over 80 percent of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. Trees also provide lasting social impact by providing jobs to over 1.6 billion people, empowering women in underdeveloped nations, and supporting communities that are devastated by environmental damage.



As a leader in CO 2 compression and measurement solutions, SCS Technologies is dedicated to utilizing its expertise and technology to actively support the energy sector in attaining its sustainability objectives. Partnering with One Tree Planted is a part of SCS' strategic initiative to mitigate CO 2 emissions within its operations. Collaborating with One Tree Planted ensures that local partner organizations and community volunteers will plant the trees donated by SCS in regions adversely affected by deforestation. Through these collective endeavors, SCS is actively fostering sustainable practices within the energy industry and taking tangible steps toward a greener future. To learn more about SCS Technologies' environmental initiatives, please visit www.scstechglobal.com/environmental. About One Tree Planted

One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Their projects span the globe and are done in partnership with local communities and knowledgeable experts to create an impact for nature, people, and wildlife. Reforestation helps to restore forests that have been degraded or deforested, provide jobs for social impact, and restore biodiversity habitat. Many projects have overlapping objectives, creating a combination of benefits that contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at www.onetreeplanted.org. About SCS Technologies SCS Technologies designs, fabricates, and installs CO 2 compression and measurement systems, methane vapor recovery units, and petroleum LACT units for the energy, industrial and environmental sectors. SCS Technologies has committed to net zero emissions by 2050 as part of the company's strategic initiative to mitigate CO 2 emissions within its operations. Based in Big Spring, Texas, with a Strategy & Innovation Office in the Ion Houston, SCS Technologies is partnered with Black Bay Energy Capital, an energy-focused private equity fund based in New Orleans, Louisiana. www.scstechglobal.com; www.blackbayenergy.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807297165/en/

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[August 07, 2023] AVS Leverages Optimum Coverage of EUTELSAT 65 West A Satellite over Brazil to Expand Its Broadcast Services Tweet

Regulatory News: AVS, a leading Brazilian service provider and integrator in the public and private sectors, has signed multiple contracts with Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) for capacity on its EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite. This partnership has allowed AVS to deploy public channels such as TV ALEPR, TV ALESC, TV ALEPE and TV ALBA on the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite, avoiding interference generated by the activation of 5G, underway in the country. Brazil is implementing 5G in the 3.5 GHz band, which is currently used to support satellite TV services in the C-band. The planned C-band of EUTELSAT 65 West A is a single frequency band with a frequency range between 4 .5GHz to 4.8GHz, operating at 800MHz above the 5G operating frequencies in Brazil. Consequently, EUTELSAT 65 West A allows for cost-effective geographic expansion for broadcasters, as filters do not need to be installed to avoid 5G interference. Commenting on contracts, Jose Ignacio Gonzalez-Nunez, Eutelsat Senior Regional VP, Media Sales Americas, said: "We are delighted to support this partnership with AVS through EUTELSAT 65 West A. Our 'Planned C Band' solution offers a transparent and cost-effective proposition for broadcasters forced to migrate their signals out of the lower end of the C-Band spectrum, while offering them unparalleled coverage of the Brazilian territory. We will continue ths support aimed at increasing AVS's business"



Joao Paulo Erthal, Engineering Manager at AVS, said: "Today there is great interest in expanding the audience of public TVs, aiming to bring the content produced to the entire population and for that, we need to guarantee a very high quality of service for our customers. Pleased to have EUTELSAT as one of our main partners to achieve this goal". About Eutelsat Communications

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world's leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of 36 satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Around 7,000 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Committed to promoting all facets of sustainable development across its business activities, Eutelsat leverages its in-orbit resources to help bridge the digital divide while maintaining a safe and uncluttered space environment. As an attractive and socially responsible employer, Eutelsat assembles 1,200 men and women from 50 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service. For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com www.eutelsat.com - Follow us on Twitter @Eutelsat_SA View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807494754/en/

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[August 07, 2023] Prepare for an Unforgettable Journey: WOW Summit Dubai 2023, the Epitome of Luxurious Web3 Experience Tweet

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brace yourself for an extraordinary experience that transcends limits and propels you into a realm of unmatched grandeur and innovation. Welcome to the World of WEB3 Summit Dubai, widely hailed as the WOW SUMMIT Dubaithe most monumental Blockchain extravaganza in the Middle East. Get ready to be immersed in the epitome of opulence and exclusivity on October 8th and 9th as this remarkable Web3 event of the year unfolds before your eyes. Prepare to embark on a journey curated for the privileged few who dare to dream bigger and reach higher. Following its unparalleled triumphs in Lisbon and Hong Kong, WOW Summit Dubai 2023 emerges as an unstoppable force destined to surpass all expectations. It unites distinguished industry titans, esteemed government officials, visionary funds, enterprising venture capitalists, boundary-pushing NFT and digital artists, trailblazing entrepreneurs, and influential multinational corporations. Against the awe-inspiring backdrop of Dubai, the undisputed Global Capital of Web 3.0 and NFT Marketplace, this extraordinary affair will unfold at the iconic Atlantis the Royal, The Palma sanctuary of innovation where dreams transform into reality. The Summit aims to drive the innovative trajectory of Web3, covering cutting-edge trends and innovations in technology. Through carefully selected programs, attendees will explore topics including the Web2 - Web3 transition, CBDC, regulations, asset tokenization, and the social impact and applications of blockchain and DLT technologies for real-life applications. With our discerning selection process, we ensure that only the most eminent leaders from across the globe receive invitations, making WOW Summit Dubai a truly unique experience unlike any other blockchain event held in Dubai to date. Renowned Blockchain visionaries and digital assets leaders, alongside respectful UAE government officials will grace the conference stage, including Eowyn Chen, CEO, Trust Wallet; Joy John, Director, Cloud Native and Innovation, EMEA, Oracle; Talal Tabbaa, CEO CoinMena; Prof. Hoda Alkhzaimi, Director for EMARATSEC & Co-chair of the WEF Global Future Council; Ben Caselin, MaskEx SVP & CSO; Scott Tiel, TOKO Founder & CEO of TOKO by DLA Piper; Sam Katiela, Founder & CEO of Mamemo and Chairman of Crypto Valley Partners.



The summit will cover a wide range of topics and activities, providing valuable insights into the main NFT use cases, the latest updates on DEFi, DAOs, and dApps, digital asset management companies, global digital assists regulations, and more. Additionally, startup competitions will be held, offering valuable prizes to the winners and a chance to win up to USD 1,000,000 with the MMPro Expert program. Ivan V. Ivanov, global CEO of WOW Summit, said: "Our mission is to organize an exclusive event unlike any other in the landscape of blockchain, web3, and crypto events. Our vision is to create an unparalleled experience, setting us apart from others in the region. We are fully committed to delivering top-notch content, showcasing world-renowned speakers, and forging strategic partnerships that define the cutting edge. To ensure the utmost value for our attendees, we meticulously verify all participants, guaranteeing the finest networking opportunities and the best event experience possible."

WOW Summit Dubai 2023 is an event not to be missed by those seeking to witness the convergence of luxury, innovation, and groundbreaking advancements in Web3. What are you waiting for? Join us now as we redefine the boundaries of what is possible and chart a course towards unprecedented success. About WOW Summit Dubai

WOW Summit is a premier global event that takes place in major cities around the world, including Lisbon, Hong Kong, and Dubai. With a focus on go-to-market management and business development relations, WOW Summit fosters collaboration between Government Authorities, Institutionals, VCs, and fintech companies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. WOW Summit Dubai is a premier global event that brings together industry leaders, visionaries, and entrepreneurs from around the world. As a platform for inspiration, empowerment, and business development, WOW Summit drives success in the dynamic landscape of the UAE and beyond. The event covers a wide range of topics, including the Web2 - Web3 transition, CBDC, regulations, asset tokenization, and the social impact and applications of blockchain and DLT technologies. WOW Summit Dubai 2023 will feature an incredible art and NFT area, providing attendees with an immersive experience in the world of digital art and opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals. The event is hosted by GuyWay, powered by MarketMakingPro, and co-organised by Uvecon.vc.



In the past, WOW Summit has hosted renowned speakers, such as Yat Siu (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Animoca Brands), Sebastien Borget (Sandbox), Lennix Lai (OKX), Dave Chapman (Executive Director at BC Group), Angelina A. Kwan (CEO at Stratford Finance Limited), Duncan Wong (CEO at CryptoBLK), and Julian Gordon (Hyperledger, Linux Foundation). To exhibit, sponsor or partner, contact us at [email protected]. Media Contact:

WOW Summit

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://wowsummit.net



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A group of North Korean hackers secretly infiltrated the computer networks of the Russian corporation NPO Mashinostroenie. This is one of Russia's leading rocket and space enterprises that produces ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and the cyber spies were hunting for the technology they needed.

ADVERTISIMENT

Reuters reports this with reference to its own sources in the field of cybersecurity. It is noted that groups of cyber spies affiliated with the North Korean government (ScarCruft and Lazarus) secretly hacked into the system of the missile design bureau in the city of Reutov near Moscow.

The hackers infiltrated the company's IT environment and were able to read emails, navigate between networks and extract various data. The publication notes that they had access to the Russian corporation's networks from late 2021 until May 2022, when IT engineers from the Russian bureau were able to detect the cyber spies' activities.

A few months later, North Korea announced a number of achievements in its ballistic missile development programme. However, the newspaper notes that it is unclear whether these developments were related to the hacking.

ADVERTISIMENT

This incident shows that a North Korea isolated by sanctions is even targeting its allies, such as Russia, to obtain important technologies.

The Reutov Missile Design Bureau specialises in three areas: hypersonic missile development, satellite technology, and next-generation ballistic weapons. These are areas that have been of great interest to North Korea since it began developing its own intercontinental ballistic missile, which is allegedly capable of striking the US mainland.

The news of the hacking came shortly after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Pyongyang last month to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL:

On the night of 7 August, hackers broke into the website of the Moscow City Bureau of Technical Inventory, which collects data on property owners in Moscow and the Moscow region. After the hack, the site posted a message that all data on the locations and property of Russian politicians, military and intelligence officers had been transferred to the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

ADVERTISIMENT

Earlier, Ukrainian hackers hacked into the databases of the Russia-Africa 2023 economic summit. The documents obtained as a result of the attack show, among other things, that the United States is investing in education, healthcare, cybersecurity, energy independence and other vital sectors for the development of African countries. Russia, on the other hand, sees Africa as a raw material base that can be used for mining.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel, Threads and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Hagens Berman Investigates Unlawful Copying of Online Content on Behalf of Website Owners

Hagens Berman, a leading consumer-rights and high-tech litigation law firm, is investigating potential infringements of the rights of website owners whose online published content may have been illegally copied for commercial purposes without their consent.

If you own a website, your content may have been copied and used without your consent. Find out your rights. Attorneys advise affected website owners to take swift action to learn more about their rights and potential recourse in the firm's ongoing investigation. By coming forward, website owners may help pave the way for fair compensation, deter future violations and safeguard the rights of digital content creators.

"In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, individuals and businesses who operate websites must be aware of their rights against Big Tech, or risk being lattened," said Steve Berman, managing partner at Hagens Berman and the attorney leading the investigation. "Website owners have a right to control the copying and usage of their original content. When their websites are exploited without their consent, it not only undermines their hard work and dedication but also violates their legal rights."







Hagens Berman has extensive experience pursuing litigation on behalf of web developers and content creators. In 2021, the firm secured a settlement valued at $100 million for U.S. developers of iOS apps who had allegedly been shortchanged by Apple's App Store policies. Litigation on behalf of France-based iOS developers is ongoing. In 2022, the firm recovered a settlement valued at $90 million on behalf of Android app developers who made similar allegations regarding Google's Play Store.

Find out more about the investigation into unauthorized copying and use of website owners' proprietary content.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation law firm with a tenacious drive for achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. Since its founding in 1993, the firm's determination has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of "Most Feared Plaintiff's Firm," MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807917941/en/
[August 07, 2023] Electrify Expo Heads to New York For A Festival Weekend Full Of Electric Experiences, Vehicle Debuts, Demo Rides, a Thrill Zone and Fun for All Ages Tweet

Electrify Expos stop in Long Island, NY will see thousands of festival goers begin their all-electric adventure with hands-on experiences with the world's top electric cars & trucks, e-motorcycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards on multiple demo courses.



The all-new, small yet mighty Volvo EX30 SUV will make its US public debut at the festival

Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, August 12 and Sunday, August 13; tickets can be purchased online and in person



NEW YORK, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Electrify Expo , North Americas largest electric vehicle (EV) festival, is bringing all-electric fun for families, shoppers and thrill seekers to New York this weekend for an action-packed event, August 12-13, at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. Attendees at Electrify Expo will ride, drive and demo the world's leading electric cars and trucks alongside electric motorcycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards and more. Were excited to bring the festival tour to New York, where EVs continue to grow in popularity as the state incentivizes people to make the switch to electric, said BJ Birtwell, CEO and founder of Electrify Expo.There is no better way to experience the thrill of going electric than through first-hand experiences. Our open-air weekend festival, showcasing the most popular EVs from leading manufacturers like Ford, Kia, BMW, Tesla, Toyota, Volvo, Lexus, Volkswagen, Mistsubishi alongside many e-bike, e-scooter, and e-skateboard brands, couple with a huge kid zone, is guaranteed to be fun for the whole family. Plus, were excited to bring our new Thrill Zone and allow people to sit shotgun in a 1400 HP Ford Mach-E al-electric race car! The New York stop will be the first time the US public will get to see Volvos new EX30 affordable SUV, the companys first compact fully electric crossover is its quickest car ever, alongside their new EX90 fully-electric SUV. The much-anticipated Volkswagen ID.Buzz will also continue on the tour, with its eye-catching old-school VW bus look paired with new-school fuel. One of the most anticipated EVs of the year, the all-new spacious Kia EV9 with third row seating for up to seven passengers, will also be on display at the festival before it hits US roads latr this year.



Ford is back inside the Electrify Expo Thrill Zone demonstrating the Mustang Mach-E 1400, with a one-of-a-kind 1400 horsepower prototype developed in collaboration with RTR Vehicles to highlight the performance capability of electric vehicles. Electrify Expo attendees will have the opportunity to experience an exhilarating thrill ride with a professional driver in the Mustang Mach-E 1400 and take a hot lap in the Mustang Mach-E GT. Whether you're looking for a high performance demo or a comfortable street cruise, Electrify Expo is the one-stop shop to kick the tires on all things electric including:

BMW: i7, iX xDrive50, iX M60, i4 eDrive 35, i4 eDrive 40, i4 M50

Ford: Mach-E, F150 Lightning

Kia: EV9, EV6, Niro EV, Sportage

Lexus: TX 500h, RZ 450e, RX 450h+ and NX 450h+

Mitsubishi: Outlander PHEV

Tesla: Models S, 3, X, Y

Toyota: Prius Prime, Prius, Rav4 Prime, Sequoia Hybrid, Corolla Cross HV, BZ4X

Volvo: EX30, EX90, All-electric XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge; Plug-in Hybrid XC60 Recharge and XC90 Recharge

Volkswagen: ID.Buzz, ID.4

In addition to automakers, New York attendees will experience exciting e-bike, e-scooter, and other micromobility products on two and four wheels from top brands including: Bosch

Bulls

Gocycle

LeMond

Riese & Mueller

Shandoka

Tern

and many more For a full brand lineup, visit www.electrifyexpo.com . Electrify Expo gates will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, August 12-13, with a full day of fun concluding at 5 p.m. each day. Tickets for Electrify Expo are available to purchase in person and online . Media interested in attending may request credentials by emailing [email protected] . About Electrify Expo

Electrify Expo is North America's largest outdoor electric vehicle (EV) festival showcasing the latest technology and products in electrification including startup and legacy EVs, electric motorcycles, bikes, scooters, skateboards, boats, surfboards and more. The festival addresses one of the most challenging barriers to mass adoption of electric vehicles - first hand experience with the product - with meaningful demonstrations and test rides. Top brands from around the world exhibit and attend Electrify Expos events to meet consumers at all stages on their path to electrification. 2023 events will take place in Long Beach and San Francisco, Calif., Washington DC, New York, Seattle, Miami, and Austin, Texas. To stay up to date on the latest news and announcements from Electrify Expo, visit www.electrifyexpo.com and follow on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram . Media Contact

Skyya PR

[email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7ae15626-297b-4490-9c23-78e845c5cd1c



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[August 07, 2023] KBRA Assigns Preliminary Ratings to New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Residential Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Financing Green Revenue Bonds, Series 2023A Tweet

KBRA assigns preliminary ratings to a term bond issued by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority Residential Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Financing Green Revenue Bonds, Series 2023A ("NYSERDA 2023A"), a consumer solar loan and home improvement loan ABS transaction. NYSERDA will issue a $4.86 million term bond and nine serial bonds which total $14.14 million. The serial bonds have maturity dates ranging from 2024 through 2032 and the term bonds mature in 2038. The NYSERDA 2023A Bonds are not guaranteed by NYSERDA and are non-recourse. The transaction is structured with all bonds supported by overall enhancement of 44.10% (overcollateralization plus amounts deposited into the reserve account). The credit enhancement levels are sufficient to cover KBRA's corresponding stressed cash flow assumptions for the rating on the bonds. This transaction represents New York State Energy Research and Development Authority's ("NYSERDA" or the "Authority") first term ABS securitization of 2023 and fifth KBRA-rated securitization. NYSERDA is a public benefit corporation created in 1975 pursuant to Title 9, Article 8 of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. NYSERDA was formed to develop and encourage the use of energy conservation technologies by developing and implementing new energy technologies consistent with economic, social and environmental objectives. Although the Issuer is not structured as a special purpose vehicle, under current law, NYSERDA is not authorized to seek protection from its creditors pursuant to the United States Bankruptcy Code. KBRA applied the General Global Rating Methodology for Asset-Backed Securities as well as its Global Structured Finance Counterparty Methodology and ESG Global Rating Methodology as part of its analysis of the portfolio pool data, underlying collateral pool, and capital structure. KBRA considered its operational reviews of NYSERDA, as well as periodic due diligence calls with the Authority. Operative agreements and legal opinions will be reviewed prior to closing. To access ratings and relevant documents, click here.

Click here to view the report.



Related Publications General Global Rating Methodology for Asset-Backed Securities

Global Consumer Loan ABS Rating Methodology

Global Structured Finance Counterparty Methodology

ESG Global Rating Methodology Disclosures

Further information on key credit considerations, sensitivity analyses that consider what factors can affect these credit ratings and how they could lead to an upgrade or a downgrade, and ESG factors (where they are a key driver behind the change to the credit rating or rating outlook) can be found in the full rating report referenced above.

A description of all substantially material sources that were used to prepare the credit rating and information on the methodology(ies) (inclusive of any material models and sensitivity analyses of the relevant key rating assumptions, as applicable) used in determining the credit rating is available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) located here. Information on the meaning of each rating category can be located here. Further disclosures relating to this rating action are available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) referenced above. Additional information regarding KBRA policies, methodologies, rating scales and disclosures are available at www.kbra.com. About KBRA

Kroll Bond Rating Agency, LLC (KBRA) is a full-service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered as a CRA with the European Securities and Markets Authority. Kroll Bond Rating Agency UK Limited is registered as a CRA with the UK Financial Conduct Authority. In addition, KBRA is designated as a designated rating organization by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus. KBRA is also recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807367548/en/

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Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales & Services Company, LLC Provides Backpacks and School Supplies to Students in Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma

Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales & Services Company (CCBSS) recently concluded their annual Back to School Supply Drive. This effort spans three states: Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma. CCBSS provided over 200 backpacks to students in need and an ample reserve of supplies that will serve as a repository throughout the school year. In Oklahoma alone, the company's donations were able to contribute to over 6,000 people served.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807590132/en/







"CCBSS firmly upholds the principle of giving back to the communities where we reside and operate. Education forms a foundational pillar for CCBSS, and we are committed to supporting it wholeheartedly. Particularly in times of economic uncertainty, we recognize the critical importance of equipping students in under-resourced communities with the necessary tools and supplies to help them achieve success," commented Caitlyn Carr, Senior Vice President, CCBSS Business Services.

Throughout the years, CCBSS has donated thousands of backpacks and countless supplies, actively assisting in preparing students for successful academic journeys.

CCBSS regularly partners with a variety of non-profit organizations and programs aimed at providing students in underserved communities an equal opportunity.

About CCBSS

Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales & Services Company (CCBSS) is a limited liability company owned by nearly 70 independent Coca-Cola bottlers in North America. The company supports operations for its bottler owners as well as bottler-owned production cooperatives, Coca-Cola North America Operating Unit (NAOU), and other participating beverage partners across the Coca-Cola System.

Visit us at ccbss.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807590132/en/
[August 07, 2023] TerraPay receives In-Principle approval for an MPI License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Tweet

SINGAPORE, Aug. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure company, has secured an In-Principle Approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), marking a significant step towards being a payments company with the most regulatory approvals. With this coveted approval from MAS, a key financial services regulator, TerraPay's customers and leading global enterprises will be able to access its expansive network, across 120 receive countries and 208 send countries while enabling fully compliant, affordable, and seamless cross-border money movement. TerraPay, with regulatory approvals in 28 countries, facilitates fully compliant international money transfers, frictionless business pay-outs, and alternative payment methods. Singapore has always been a strategic region for TerraPay as it derives almost 50% of its revenues from Asia. With Singapore's position as a gateway to high-growth markets of Southeast Asia, TerraPay will capitalize on this liense to tap into the immense potential of the region and bolster its existing local presence and partnerships across Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Philippines.



On securing the approval, Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO, TerraPay said "I am incredibly proud of the comprehensive network of partners, employees, countries, and licenses we have established worldwide, enabling us to offer simplified payment services for everyone. Obtaining the approval in Singapore is a game-changer, solidifying our position as a leading cross-border payments powerhouse in one of the most significant financial markets globally. At TerraPay, our core values revolve around inclusion and innovation. We are inspired by Singapore's fintech journey, which aligns perfectly with our mission to improve lives and contribute to a dynamic, inclusive economy. The approval from MAS reinforces our commitment to excellence as we aim to become the most regulatory-approved payments company in the world."

Backed by Prime, IFC, Partech Africa & Visa, TerraPay is enabling secure real-time global payment corridors across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA, and expanding rapidly in Latin America. In May 2023, TerraPay announced its Series B equity financing round, where it successfully raised more than $100 million for global expansion plans, enabling the company to strengthen its existing pay-out network, and expand its regulatory and compliance capabilities and infrastructure globally. About TerraPay Headquartered in the United Kingdom, TerraPay believes that the smallest payment deserves a borderless journey as safe as the largest. The group has been building an ever-expanding payments highway that empowers businesses to create transparent customer experiences with an uninterrupted, secure, and real-time global passage for every payment, however small or large. Registered and regulated across 28 global markets, TerraPay is one of the leading global partners to banks, mobile wallets, money transfer operators, merchants, and financial institutions, creating a more expansive and inclusive international financial ecosystem. With its vast network of 7.5Bn+ bank accounts, 2.1Bn+ mobile wallets, across 120 receive countries and 208 send countries, TerraPay enables its partners to drive global financial inclusion at scale. SOURCE TerraPay

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The maverick Kansas City petitioner and the only guy to win a citywide light rail vote shares frustration with the status quo in his latest news blast.

However . . .

It's fair to note that many council candidates actually blame the lack of a credible Mayoral challenger for the lack of voter turnout in 2023 . . . They argue: Chastain's campaign turned voters away from the polls and didn't offer kind of incentive for better media coverage of the election. To support this thesis, they note the low-interest numbers Chastain has achieved via other social media outlets.



As always, to be fair, we offer the last word to Mr. Chastain:



Clay Chastain press release: Mayor Lucas was not re-elected by the people, but by a failing, conniving institution - the media.

For the most part, most people only know what they view through the lens of the media. Hence, the enormous responsibility of this institution. But in the Mayor's race, KC's media failed the greater good by sucking the public interest out of the Mayor's race, ignoring crucial solutions by the challenger and knocking the stuffing out of a fair election process. Make no mistake, this institution controlled the election - not the voters.



KC's media institution (led by the Kansas City Star & KCUR Public radio) stood silent while Mayor Lucas refused to debate; stood silent while Lucas misused gov't power to try and criminalize his opponent; and stood silent while Lucas offered no solutions to anything, including KC's (entrenched) homicide rampage. The stakes were high. Lives were in the balance. The City's future on the line. It did not matter. This institution elected its (failed) favorite anyway by putting a lid on the Mayor's race, stifling public discussion between the candidates and refusing to hold Mayor Lucas accountable.



Conversely, this institution was not silent in holding the (qualifying) challenger accountable for not (currently) residing in KC full time. KC's media institution obsessed with that issue, though not near as important as the City's serious and mounting problems that the media (and Mayor Lucas) made sure were never debated before the people.



So the Mayor's race was filtered through an institutional machine that spit out a vacuous Mayoral contest that suppressed information, debate and interest. Hence, the anemic 12.7% voter turnout that dishonored our Community.



Is it any wonder the media continues to be the least trusted institution in America. Our Nation is being dragged down by once revered institutions that have now supplanted the greater good with their own self-serving good. And if our Nation falls (KC with it) it will be in large part because our institutions ("instituted among men") betrayed the ideal of providing beneficial, impartial service to the people and our Country.



Former Mayoral Candidate, Clay Chastain

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Developing . . .


Overall this is a move that should earn public support . . . Sadly, the efforts are tied into property tax assessment hikes and some of the conversation on this issue has sparked misinformation and a confusing ballot issue confronting the smallish group of voters who will decide this issue . . .

"The Independence School District will ask voters to approve tax levy changes to fund higher teacher salaries on August 8, following several Kansas City area districts that have already inched up their pay to stay competitive."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Independence School District wants voters to pass a tax levy so they can pay teachers more Natianna Ohmart, an English teacher at William Chrisman High School, said the tax levy's passage would take financial pressure off her strained budget.

Independence School District asking for levy changes on Aug. 8 ballot The Independence School District is asking voters on August 8th to allow the board to increase the operating tax levy, with plans to decrease its debt levy.

Developing . . .
Investing in R&D is synonymous "to investing in a better future, with multiple benefits to the country's economy overall"

Greece comes second in the European Union in terms of Government Budget Allocations for Research & Development (GBARD), according to Eurostat figures reported by the Development Ministry on Monday, ANA reports.

Between 2012 and 2022, said the European Union's statistical office, all EU governments increased their budget allocations for R&D in terms of euros per person.

During that time, the largest percentage hikes were recorded in Latvia (+208% from 16.1 euros per person in 2012 to 49.6 euros in 2022) and Greece (+129% from 66.0 euros to 151.2 euros).

Specifically, the annual government expenditure on R&D in Greece reached 1 billion 581,43 million euros in 2022, compared to 1 billion 40 million euros in 2018 (an increase of 51%) and 731,94 million euros in 2012 (an increase of 116%).

Welcoming these numbers, Greek Development Minister Kostas Skrekas said they "confirm the leap that has been achieved in research and development during the first term of Kyriakos Mitsotakis' government."

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: pixabay.com
Mercenaries of the Russian private military company "Wagner" were spotted 2 km from the border with Poland. They have already made an attempt to break through from the territory of Belarus.

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In this regard, the Polish side is considering the option of complete closure of the border. This is reported by Telegram-channel NEXTA.

In particular, the "Wagnerites" were noticed by local residents at the recreation center "Format" in the village of Piaschatka, located less than two kilometers from the Belarusian-Polish border. It is noted that the former prisoners drink alcohol in large quantities.

Meanwhile, the Polish authorities said that the mercenaries had tried to enter the country from Belarus.

According to the deputy head of the Interior Ministry of Poland, Pawel Jablonski, Warsaw is strengthening the protection of its borders in anticipation of new provocations.

"Obviously, there will be attempts of "Wagnerites" to get into Poland. We expect new attempts of attacks on the border, possibly also new attempts to violate our airspace," he said.

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Recall, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that some fighters of PMC "Wagner" were deployed near the Lithuanian state border. The head of state emphasized that the presence of "Wagnerites" in Belarus creates an additional risk factor for the security of his country.

Earlier OBOZREVATEL reported that propagandists from the TV channel "Russia-1" often speculate about hypothetical successes on the front with NATO countries. State Duma deputy Kartapolov assessed the prospect of seizing control of the Suvalki corridor connecting the borders of Lithuania and Poland.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
U.S. airlines are scrambling to restructure their networks as corporate travel continues to lag. Before the pandemic, corporate travel accounted for as much as half of passenger revenue at U.S. airlines. But with many companies still delaying their return to the office, business bookings have remained well below pre-pandemic levels. As a result, airlines are cutting flights to smaller markets and reducing frequencies on routes that are not as popular with leisure travelers. They are also consolidating some of their hubs and focusing on their most profitable routes.For example, American Airlines is cutting flights to 15 cities and reducing frequencies on 100 routes. Delta Air Lines is consolidating its hubs in Atlanta and Detroit, and United Airlines is reducing flights to smaller markets in the Midwest.The restructuring of airline networks is likely to continue as long as corporate travel remains sluggish. This could have a ripple effect on the economy, as it could make it more difficult for businesses to conduct meetings and travel for training and other purposes.

What does this mean for travelers?

For travelers, the restructuring of airline networks could mean fewer flights to smaller markets and less convenient connections. It could also mean higher prices, as airlines try to recoup their losses from the pandemic.

However, there are still plenty of opportunities for travelers to find good deals. Leisure travel is still strong, so there are plenty of flights available to popular destinations. And with the rise of low-cost carriers, there are more options for budget-minded travelers.

What can businesses do to help?

Businesses can help to support the travel industry by encouraging employees to travel for business purposes. This could include providing financial incentives or making it easier for employees to work remotely.

Businesses can also help to promote the benefits of business travel, such as networking opportunities, increased productivity, and improved customer service.

By working together, businesses and travelers can help to keep the travel industry afloat and ensure that it is there for the long term.

What does the future hold for corporate travel?

It is still too early to say what the long-term future holds for corporate travel. However, there are a few factors that could help to drive demand in the coming years.

One factor is the rise of remote work. While many companies are still hesitant to have employees return to the office full-time, some are starting to experiment with hybrid models. This could lead to an increase in business travel as employees need to make trips to the office for meetings or training.

Another factor is the growth of the global economy. As businesses expand their operations into new markets, they will need to travel to meet with clients and partners. This could also lead to an increase in business travel.

Of course, there are also some factors that could weigh on demand for corporate travel. One is the rising cost of airfare. As airlines raise prices to offset their losses from the pandemic, it could make it more difficult for businesses to justify sending employees on trips.

Another factor is the increasing popularity of video conferencing. Video conferencing can be a cost-effective way for businesses to connect with clients and partners. This could lead to a decline in the need for face-to-face meetings, which could in turn hurt demand for corporate travel.

Overall, the future of corporate travel is uncertain. However, there are a number of factors that could help to drive demand in the coming years. Only time will tell what the long-term impact of the pandemic will be on corporate travel.

For More Information about International corporate travel visit www.satgurutravel.com
Navigating the Canadian Visa Process: Insights from the Canada Visa Forum



(TRAVPR.COM) CANADA - August 4th, 2023 -

Introduction

Canadas diverse landscapes, vibrant cities, and welcoming culture make it a top destination for travelers and immigrants alike. If youre planning to visit Canada, you may find yourself navigating the process of obtaining a visitor visa. With the vast amount of information available online, its essential to seek guidance and share experiences with fellow travelers. In this blog, well explore the significance of the Visa Forum and its role in helping individuals obtain their visitor visa to Canada.

1. Canada Visa Forum

It serves as a supportive community where members can ask questions, seek advice, and gain insights from others who have successfully gone through the process.

2. Understanding the visitor visa canada

Before delving into the forum discussions, its essential to understand the visitor visa to Canada. The visitor visa is designed for individuals who wish to visit Canada for tourism, family visits, or business purposes. This temporary visa allows visitors to stay in Canada for a specified period, usually up to six months.

3. Navigating the Application Process

The application process for a visitor visa to Canada can be complex, involving various documents and requirements. Aspiring travelers often have questions regarding eligibility, application forms, processing times, and supporting documents. The Visa Forum provides a platform to ask these questions and receive valuable insights from members who have successfully applied for a visitor visa.

4. Tips and Best Practices

The forum is a treasure trove of tips and best practices for a successful visa application. Members share their experiences, highlighting potential pitfalls to avoid and steps to take for a smooth process. From crafting a compelling letter of explanation to preparing for an interview with the immigration officer, the forum offers a wealth of firsthand knowledge.

5. Updates on Immigration Policies

Immigration policies are subject to change, and staying informed about the latest updates is crucial for visa applicants. The Visa Forum keeps its members updated on changes in visa regulations, processing times, and other relevant information. Being well-informed helps applicants make well-prepared and timely decisions.

6. Connecting with Others

The forum is not just a source of information; its a platform for building connections. Members share their success stories, provide encouragement to those in the midst of their visa journey, and celebrate each others achievements. This sense of camaraderie creates a supportive environment that eases the anxieties often associated with visa applications.

Conclusion

Obtaining a visitor canada visa can be an exciting yet daunting process. The Visa Forum offers a valuable resource for anyone looking to embark on this journey. From clarifying doubts and sharing experiences to staying updated on immigration policies, the forum serves as a guiding light for prospective travelers. So, if youre planning to visit Canada, dont hesitate to join the Visa Forum and become a part of this thriving community of like-minded individuals. Together, you can navigate the visa process with confidence and make your dream of exploring the beauty of Canada a reality.

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The embassy urged Indian citizens who are planning to travel to Switzerland to apply for a visa as early as possible.



(TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - August 4th, 2023 - The Swiss Embassy in India has issued a statement to clarify that it has not suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups. The statement comes after reports circulated online that the embassy had stopped accepting new visa applications for Indian tour groups until October 2023.

The embassy's statement said that it has almost 800 daily appointments through the end of September 2023, and that these include 22 groups. The embassy also said that it has processed more visa applications this year than it did in 2019, and that people-to-people contacts are the core of the Swiss-Indian relationship.

The statement acknowledged that there is a backlog of pending visa applications at the embassy, but said that it is working to clear the backlog as quickly as possible. The embassy also said that it has implemented several measures to ease the visa application process for Indian applicants, including increasing the number of visa application centers in India and providing online visa application services.

The embassy urged Indian citizens who are planning to travel to Switzerland to apply for a visa as early as possible. The embassy said that it is committed to processing visa applications in a timely manner, and that it will do its utmost to accommodate the travel plans of Indian citizens.

The embassy's statement is a welcome clarification for Indian tour groups that were concerned about the possibility of being unable to travel to Switzerland this year. The statement also underscores the importance of the Swiss-Indian relationship, which is based on strong people-to-people ties.

More information Visit us : visadone.com

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With a growing garbage patch in the Caribbean Sea, we in Trinidad and Tobago need to be more
Russia has doubled its 2023 defence spending target to more than $100 billion - a third of all public expenditure.

This is reported by Reuters citing a document of the Russian government, according to Ukrinform.

They show that in the first half of 2023 alone, Russia spent 12%, or 600 billion roubles, more on defence than the 4.98 trillion roubles ($54 billion) it had originally targeted for 2023.

Defence spending in the first six months of 2023 amounted to 5.59 trillion roubles, 37.3% of a total 14.97 trillion roubles spent in the period.

Russia's budget plan envisages 17.1% of total funds spent on "National Defence".

It is noted that increased defense spending could increase Russia's budget deficit.

As reported, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia's military budget this year is about 6.6 trillion rubles (about $85.8 billion), but these costs may be higher.
As part of the new military assistance package provided by Germany, Ukraine will receive mine clearing tanks, howitzers, drones, and other military equipment units.

The relevant statement was made by the German Federal Government on August 4, 2023, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The new military assistance package includes two Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers (as part of the project jointly financed with Denmark and Norway), two WISENT 1 mine clearing tanks (four were handed over before), 11 mine ploughs for T-72, and nine border protection vehicles (168 were delivered before).

Additionally, Ukraine receives three VECTOR reconnaissance drones (81 were sent before), five mobile antenna mast systems (42 were handed over before), and five SurveilSPIRE mobile reconnaissance systems.

Germany is also preparing to send to Ukraine forty MARDER infantry fighting vehicles (20 are already in service on the battlefield in Ukraine), six Bergepanzer 2 armoured recovery vehicles, seven mobile, remote controlled and protected mine clearing systems, and 18,000 man-portable anti-tank weapons.

A reminder that Germany is the second biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States.

Photo: EPA
Lithuania will soon hand over the NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System), anti-drone and logistic equipment, and many other goods to Ukraine.

The relevant statement was made by Lithuanias National Defence Ministry, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Lithuania has been providing uninterrupted military support for Ukraine. During the first seven months of 2023, the military aid delivered to Ukraine from Lithuania included the Mi-8 helicopters, L-70 anti-aircraft systems with ammunition, M113 armored personnel carriers, millions of cartridges, and grenade launcher ammunition.

In addition to military vehicles and equipment, Lithuania has been training Ukrainian servicemen on a regular basis, offering Ukrainians treatment and rehabilitation, arranging expert consultations, and allocating financing for the international support funds of Ukraine.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said Russias losses would only become larger and heavier as time goes by.

The official made the statement via Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

With each new combat mission, Danilov noted, Ukrainian strike aerial and naval drones are becoming more precise, operators  more experienced, and combat coordination  more efficient, while manufacturers get opportunities to improve tactical and technical features of their military products.

"August was particularly successful for Ukrainian hunters. Next is the expansion of the scale and range of combat operations, the scale and severity of Russian losses," he noted.

According to Danilov, Russian targets are the best training ground for Ukrainian weapons and their promotion in the world arms markets.

The Secretary of the National Security Council is convinced that the Ukrainian military-industrial complex will become one of the main global players as their equipment has passed a unique combat test.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in Novorossiysk Bay, a surface drone damaged Russian Navys large landing assault ship Olenegorsky Gornyak, on which there were nearly 100 crew members at the time of the strike.

In the Kerch Strait, as a result of an attack by naval drones, the U.S.-sanctioned Russian tanker SIG, known for transporting aviation jet fuel from Russia to Syria and which was anchored in the area after arriving from Turkiye, is also believed to have been damaged.
Russias occupation administrations reported the strikes targeting two bridges between mainland Ukraines Kherson region and Crimea  the Chonhar bridge and structures across the Tonka Strait, which connects Kherson regions Henichesk with Arabatska Spit.

This is reported by Radio Liberty with reference to representatives of the occupation "authorities", Ukrinform saw.

The Russian-planted "head of Crimea" Sergey Aksyonov reported "a missile attack in the area of the Chonhar bridge", as a result of which the road surface was damaged.

Vladimir Saldo, the "acting governor" of the occupied part of Kherson region, confirmed the report. He also wrote about the bridge across the Tonka Strait also being hit. Saldo claims that Ukraines Armed Forces fired off a total of 12 missiles, nine of which were allegedly shot down.

Operations have been suspended at the Chonhar checkpoint, one of three on the border of Crimea and Kherson region. The Armiansk and Perekop checkpoints function as usual.

The invaders have been using the Chonhar road bridge to deliver munitions and fuel from the occupied Crimea to the Russian group of troops in the southeast of Ukraine

As reported, on June 22 two bridges connecting Crimea and mainland Ukraine - the Chonhar bridge and the crossing on Lake Sivash  were hit in a missile attack.

In an interview with Ukrinform, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov, confirmed that Ukraine struck these objects with Storm Shadow air-to-surface cruise missiles.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which belongs to the ruling coalition, does not exclude the possible transfer of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

"I do not rule out the possibility that we, in alliance with the Americans, will also supply additional systems, such as Taurus," said Nils Schmid, SPD parliamentary group's spokesperson for foreign affairs in the Bundestag, DW reports.

But first, according to him, it is necessary to make sure that the Ukrainians themselves can program missiles to reach a target and do not need the Bundeswehr military for this.

"Otherwise, we will come dangerously close to direct intervention in the war," the politician told Tagesspiegel in an interview.

However, he does not see the need to make a relevant decision right now. "I share the defense minister's assessment," Schmid explained.

Earlier, Bundestag MP from SPD Andreas Schwartz also offered to support the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with cruise missiles.

"The counteroffensive is stalling, Ukraine does not have a significant air force to support it. Therefore, only guided weapons remain  for example, Taurus cruise missiles, with the help of which the Ukrainian army can overcome the minefields installed by the Russians and win back its territory," Schwartz said.

As reported, Ukraine has been asking Germany to provide Taurus cruise missiles with a range of up to 500 km since the beginning of summer.

However, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Berlin was not considering the possibility of transferring Taurus missiles to Ukraine in the foreseeable future due to fears that the German weapons could be used to strike Russian territory.
Serhii Slabenko, a former Verkhovna Rada Deputy of the 4th convocation, died fighting for Ukraine.

The Verkhovna Rada announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"People's Deputy Serhiy Slabenko of the 4th parliamentary convocation perished in the battle for Ukraine's independence in Zaporizhzhia region," the report reads.

Slabenko was a lawmaker in 2002-2006, chairing the subcommittee on courts, the judiciary and judicial reform of the Committee on Legal Policy.

Subsequently, from 2006 to 2009, he worked as Deputy Chairman of the Attestation Chamber at the Volyn Bar Qualification and Disciplinary Commission, and in 2015-2020 he was deputy of the Volyn Regional Council, member of the permanent commission on the use of property co-owned by territorial communities in villages, towns, and cities.

The ex-MP is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

TRC Avers noted that Slabenko had been killed in action on August 4. He was 57 years old.
Over the past 24 hours, 50 combat clashes between Ukraines Defense Forces and the Russian invasion army took place in different directions of the front.

Thats according to a morning update by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

"In the past 24 hours, the enemy launched 30 missile and 52 air strikes, as well as 75 attacks involving MLR systems, on the positions of our troops and populated areas. As a result of Russian terrorist attacks, unfortunately, there are civilian deaths and casualties. Residential buildings and other civil infrastructure were affected," the statement reads.

The likelihood of Russia launching more missile and air strikes on the entire territory of Ukraine remains high, warns the General Staff.

Fifty combat engagements were reported in the past day.

On the Volyn and Polissia axes, the operational situation has not changed significantly.

On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes, the enemy went for mortar and artillery attacks on over 35 settlements, including Buchky, Hremiach, and Vesele in Chernihiv region; Seredyna-Buda, Sydorivka, Studenok, Basivka, and Velyka Pysarivka in Sumy region; and Huryiv Kozachok, Strelecha, Hatyshche, Potykhonove, Odradne, and Bolohivka in Kharkiv region.

In the Kupiansk direction, Ukrainian soldiers are firmly holding their defense lines, having successfully repulsed enemy attacks in the area east of Petropavlivka, Kharkiv region. The Russians carried out airstrikes in the Petropavlivka and Podoly districts of Kharkiv region. More than 10 settlements, including Fiholivka, Dvorichna, Kindrashivka, Kucherivka, Kupiansk, and Kislivka of Kharkiv region were hit by enemy artillery and mortar fire.

On the Lyman axis, enemy airstrikes targeted the areas of Bilohorivka, Luhansk region, and Spirne and Rozdolivka, Donetsk region. The settlements of Kuzmine and Bilohorivka in Luhansk region, and Torske, Verkhniokamianske, Spirne, Berestove, and Rozdolivka in Donetsk region were hit by enemy artillery.

In the direction of Bakhmut, defense forces are restraining the enemy in the area northeast of Diliivka. Over 15 settlements, including Vasiukivka, Bohdanivka, Bakhmut, Ivanivske, Klishchiivka, and Severne of Donetsk region, were affected by enemy artillery shelling.

In the Avdiivka direction, Ukraines defenders successfully repelled attacks by Russian troops in the Avdiivka area under heavy fire from the enemy's aircraft and artillery. Avdiivka and Pervomaiske in Donetsk region were hit by artillery.

In the Marinka direction, Ukraines defense forces are holding back the advance of Russian troops in the areas of Marinka and Krasnohorivka. Near the latter, the enemy launched an air strike. Krasnohorivka, Maksymilianivka, Heorhiivka, Pobieda, and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk region were affected by artillery fire.

On the Shakhtarske axis, the enemy launched an air strike in the Staromayorske area. Vodiane, Vuhledar, Vidradne, Blahodatne and Rivnopil in Donetsk region were hit by artillery fire.

In the Zaporizhzhia direction, the Russians ran unsuccessful offensive operations in the Robotyne district and carried out airstrikes in the areas of Mala Tokmachka, Robotyne, and Orikhiv. Over 15 settlements were subjected to artillery fire, including Levadne, Chervone, Zaliznychne, Pavlivka, Pyatykhatky, and Kamianske in Zaporizhia region, as well as Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk region.

On the Kherson axis, the enemy launched an airstrike in the Olhivka area. More than 20 settlements, including Mykhailivka, Respublikanets, Lvove, Dniprovske, Veletenske, and Novodmytrivka were hit by enemy artillery.

Read also: President hears report on use of air defense systems provided by partners

According to the General Staff, the enemy continues to suffer heavy losses, trying to conceal them from general public. In the temporarily captured settlement of Chaplinka, Kherson region, two trucks loaded with the bodies of Russian soldiers arrived in a local morgue from the Kherson direction. The bodies were then buried in two locations.

"Over the past day, the air force of the defense forces have delivered 10 strikes on enemy manpower clusters and four - on the invaders' anti-aircraft missile systems. During the day, missile and artillery units hit two command and control points, two manpower clusters, two artillery systems in firing positions, and an e-warfare system," the report concluded.

As reported earlier, the General Staff says since February 24, 2022, Ukraines Defense Forces have eliminated 249,700 Russian invaders.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
No Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups are being spotted on the border with Belarus, but they operate on the borders with the Russian Federation in Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Thats according to the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"We see that the enemy is trying to deploy sabotage and recon groups, especially on the border with the aggressor country directly. If we talk about the border with Belarus, we do not detect such groups in this direction, but along the border with Russia, unfortunately, the enemy is trying to use such groups, especially in Sumy region. Attempts to use them in Chernihiv region were also recorded when they cross into the territory of Ukraine, first of all, of course, in order to locate the positions of Ukraines Defense Forces but also to carry out various attacks, which, unfortunately, target, including civilians. This is in addition to the shelling that the enemy conducts in this area every day," Demchenko said.

Read also: Russians shell Sumy region 21 times today

He added that since the beginning of August, border guards have recorded about 500 strikes at Ukraine from enemy territory.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on August 1, Ukraines Defense Forces repelled an attempt by a subversive recon group to cross the border of Ukraine in Chernihiv region.
Ukraine hopes to receive TAURUS missiles from international partners which will allow the defense forces to destroy the enemy more effectively.

"We really need such [long-range] missiles, and you see their results all the time in burning Russian depots, destroyed crossings, bridges, etc. These are high-precision, long-range weapons that leave no chance for the enemy, that brings our victory closer. I would like to see German missiles next to Storm Shadow and SCALP. Now the discussion about TAURUS cruise missiles is already ongoing. We do not yet know what decision the German government will make, but we hope it will be in favor of Ukraine," Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said during the United News nationwide telethon, commenting on the supply of French SCALP and German TAURUS missiles, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the Air Force spokesman, German missile has more powerful characteristics which will make strikes at greater distances possible. He also added: "we are waiting for this missile, and we would also like to get ATACMS, of course."

Answering questions about the range of German missiles, the spokesman noted that each manufacturer was restrained in talking about tactical and technical characteristics, adding that the range could be from 250 km.

"We are interested in range, accuracy, power. Everything is tested in practice. The range of missiles or aerial bombs depends on the carriers on which they are located and on the height to which these carriers raise them. Therefore, everything is conditional there. And to increase the range, you need a flight height," Ihnat explained.
The Defense Forces of Ukraine do not allow the enemy to advance in Kupyansk, Lyman, Avdiyivka, and Marinka directions. Heavy battles continue there.

As Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar posted on Telegram, the previous week was extremely difficult. The Russian invaders did everything they could to stop the Ukrainian offensive.

In Kupyansk direction, the Russians searched for weak points in the defense of the Ukrainian troops, conducted unsuccessful assaults in the area east of Petropavlivka, Kharkiv region.

In Lyman direction, the Russian army continued to conduct assaults to knock the Ukrainian troops out in the area of Serebriansky forest in Donetsk region.

Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled enemy attacks in the area of Novoyehorivka, Bilohorivka, Serhiyivka, and Nadiya.

Over the past week, the units of defense forces continued to conduct offensive operations on the southern flank of Bakhmut direction.

"The movement was very complicated by landmines and shelling. But our troops forced the enemy to defend themselves quite costly as they destroyed a lot of enemy equipment and fighters," the deputy minister said.

According to her, the battles have been going on for a week and still continue in the area of Klishchiyivka, Andriyivka, and Kurdiumivka.

In Avdiyivka and Marinka directions, Russian troops concentrated their main efforts on conducting offensive operations with the aim of establishing full control over Krasnohorivka and Marinka and encircling Avdiyivka.

The invaders made futile attempts to restore the lost position near Staromayorske.

As reported, Russian troops increased the number of strikes in the east last week and used almost half a million rounds there.
The Russian Federation will be left without ships until the end of the war if it continues to attack Ukrainian ports.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with Latin American media, La Nacion reports.

As Zelensky noted, Moscow blocked the Black Sea, in particular the territorial waters of Ukraine. Therefore, our country must now prove that it has the right to import and export goods in its own territorial waters.

"If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea and block it with missiles, then Ukraine will do the same, which is a fair defense of our capabilities. If they continue to shoot, we don't have many weapons, but if they continue to shoot, they may be left without ships until the end of the war. And this is what we want to show them," Zelensky emphasized.

According to him, now the Russian occupiers cannot win, so they want to put Ukraine in a stalemate by using weapons and violence. "Therefore, Ukraine will definitely respond to any attacks on the civilian population and grain corridors," Zelensky emphasized.

The President emphasized that Moscow was trying to pursue a policy of colonization of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov but it had no right to decide what Ukraine can produce and export.

As reported, Russia attacked the southern regions of Odesa region with combat drones. As a result of the Russian attacks, fires broke out at the port facilities and industrial infrastructure, and an elevator was damaged.

It is noted that the UAVs were launched from the Sea of Azov through the Black Sea.

The soldiers from the Operational Command "South" added that the enemy was specifically trying to destroy the port infrastructure on the Danube, hitting both the elevator and a granary.
The Russians hit a residential building in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region.

The city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. Donbas, from which Russia is trying to leave only broken and scorched stones. Two missile strikes. An ordinary residential building was hit. Unfortunately, there are victims, President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Telegram.

As noted, rescuers and all necessary services are on the scene. The rescue of people continues.

We have to stop the Russian terror. Everyone who fights for the freedom of Ukraine saves lives. Everyone in the world who helps Ukraine will defeat the terrorists together with us. Russia will be held accountable for everything it has done in this terrible war, the President stressed.
The South Korean government has decided to allow Korean businesspeople to visit Ukraine for negotiations on participation in reconstruction projects.

As Yonhap reports with reference to its own sources, the decision was made as an exception to the current rules, according to which Korean citizens are prohibited from visiting areas of armed conflicts under the threat of punishment. The South Korean government banned entry into Ukraine since February last year, when Russian troops began the invasion.

Earlier this month, officials said the government of South Korea was planning to allow businesspeople to enter Ukraine for preparing reconstruction projects.

Under the detailed plans, the government will place a cap on the number of traveling businesspeople at no more than 30, with the length of their stay to be limited to two weeks per trip, the sources said. They will be traveling under "exceptional use of passports" under the Korean law, and the foreign ministry is receiving applications from businesspeople starting this month. If the number of applicants exceeds the limit, they will be asked to adjust the time of their departure to keep the number of travelers under the quota.

Many Korean companies are expected to visit the country to explore opportunities in participating in potential reconstruction projects. Construction and infrastructure companies and those in utility and energy sectors have shown interest in the reconstruction.

At the government level, a delegation led by Land Minister Won Hee-ryong plans to visit Ukraine later this month for discussions on the rebuilding project with officials in Kyiv. Separately, the industry ministry is organizing a delegation of its own, consisting of energy and plant companies, with a plan to visit Ukraine in October.

Such efforts are accelerating after President Yoon Suk Yeol made a surprise visit to Ukraine in July and promised to provide a package of security, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance.
The meeting on peace in Ukraine, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, concluded without a final declaration, however, with "cautiously positive signals from China."

This is what Germanys Spiegel writes about the negotiations, Ukrinform reports.

European diplomatic circles say an agreement was reached on the focal points of a peaceful solution, such as the "territorial integrity and sovereignty" of Ukraine. In particular, Chinas active role was noted as its representative expressed "positive" views on a possible future meeting of this kind, the article says.

Read also: Bankova tells of consultations in Saudi Arabia on peace principles for Ukraine

Instead, the head of the Brazilian delegation, Celso Amorim, called for "genuine negotiations involving all parties," including Russia. "Even if Ukraine is the biggest victim, if we really want peace, we must somehow involve Moscow in this process," said Brazils official.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Bild that "every millimeter of progress toward a fair and honest peace brings a glimmer of hope for the people of Ukraine."

The message of the Jeddah meeting, she said, is that "this brutal Russian war of aggression also affects people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, it has implications far beyond Europe: from the future of the international order to energy security issues, to rising grain prices and the global food supply that Russia has so ruthlessly degraded.

The head of German diplomacy called on all countries around the world to do everything to prevent wars of aggression from becoming a normal phenomenon again in the 21st century. Despite the fact that the view of the war in Pretoria, Brasilia, or Beijing is different than that in Europe, the United Nations Charter should be a common understanding everywhere, emphasized the German foreign minister.

In total, representatives of about 40 countries took part in the several-hour meeting held behind closed doors.

Its goal, as reported in Berlin earlier, was "consolidation of various peace plans," in particular those of China, Africa, and Brazil with a 10-point plan developed by Ukraine.

The meeting in Jeddah was the second after talks by a narrower group of countries in Copenhagen in June, which were informal and also issued no joint statement.
Saudi Arabia's hosting of negotiations on the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula testifies to the strengthening of the kingdoms role in the international arena.

Thats according to Voice of America, Ukrinform reports.

"Saudi Arabia engaged in the discussion 40 countries, including the United States, India and other nations of the Global South, and some of the participating countries were neutral or even allied with Russia, while China took part in the discussion in this format for the first time," the report states.

Dania Koleilat Khatib, head of the Beirut-based Research Center for Cooperation and Peacebuilding, told VOA that Middle East anxiety over the U.S. withdrawal from the region has prompted Saudi Arabia to expand its influence elsewhere. Thus, China, which is the kingdoms largest trading partner, helped it restore relations with its competitor - Iran.

Read also: Yermak discusses Peace Formula with heads of more than 30 delegations in Saudi Arabia

According to Khatib, the U.S. also wants to cooperate with Saudi Arabia, which has been seeking to diversify its friends and not rely solely on Washington. It has succeeded to this end, the analyst notes, as the country reached out to China, Russia. The nation is also trying to build relations with Turkiye and Iran. On the other hand, the U.S. seeks to ensure that Saudi Arabia remains in one boat with them.

It is noted that high-ranking officials of Saudi Arabia consider these negotiations to be the result of the country's success in adopting a policy of strong ties with Ukraine, China, and Russia.

Joost Hiltermann, who leads the International Crisis Group's Middle East program, told Agence France-Presse that Saudi Arabia wants to be in the company of India or Brazil because only together can these mid-tier powers have an impact on the world stage. At the same time, he noted, whether they will be able to agree on all issues, such as the war in Ukraine, remains a big question.

Read also: Bankova tells of consultations in Saudi Arabia on peace principles for Ukraine

As reported, on August 5-6, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) hosted a second meeting at the level of national security advisers and political directors regarding the key principles of peace based on the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelenskys Peace Formula is about ensuring radiation, nuclear, food, and energy security, and the release of all prisoners and deportees, fulfilling the UN Charter and restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the world order, the withdrawal of Russian troops and ending hostilities, restoring justice, combating ecocide, preventing escalation, and fixating the end of the war.
The port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting of diplomatic representatives looking for an algorithm to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Poland and Ukraine exchanged ambassadorial summonses to the Foreign Ministry and sharp statements by politicians. The Baltic-Black Sea region is turning into a zone of heightened tension.

Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, unveiled in the fall of 2022, was discussed last weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 10 points, which, unfortunately, are poorly known to Ukrainian citizens, formed the basis for finding ways to resolve the situation. The meeting was noteworthy for the presence of Chinese representative Li Hui, as well as for the opportunity for representatives of the West and the global South to seek common approaches to ending the Russian-Ukrainian war. There were no Russian representatives in Jeddah, and Sergey Lavrov, in his usual manner, criticized the very possibility of discussing the document created in Kyiv. It should be understood that Zelensky's peace plan will undergo transformations, but it is important for Ukraine to demonstrate its interest in ending the war and minimizing its negative impact on the world.

Tensions in Poland related to the parliamentary elections to be held in October were reflected in the political "friendly fire" between Kyiv and Warsaw. The two countries, which are strategic partners and are at the peak of their relations, exchanged ambassadorial summonses and rather loud statements by government officials. It seems that the issue of Ukrainian grain is not the main one in this case. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki demonstrated increased activity on the communication track with Ukraine due to his leadership in the Law and Justice list and the fight for the right to represent the party in the Polish presidential election next year. It is worth recalling that Poland is not only a hub for providing military and technical assistance to Ukraine, but also a tuning fork in the West's efforts to support Ukraine. Therefore, a pause in the public activity of Warsaw and Kyiv could benefit the climate of bilateral relations.

The need for normalization of Polish-Ukrainian relations is evident against the backdrop of a marked deterioration of the situation in the Baltic-Black Sea region. Two Belarusian helicopters crossed the Polish air border last week and returned with impunity. Lukashenka took back his words about the "Wagnerian excursion to Rzeszow" and emphasized that he did not want Belarusians to fight. Nevertheless, Prigozhin's military-criminal company continues to play on the nerves of the people of Poland and Lithuania. Prime Minister Morawiecki and President Nauseda defiantly met in Suwaki to demonstrate their determination to repel possible provocations. It is unfortunate that there was no Ukrainian representative there, as the relevance of the challenges for the Lublin Triangle has not yet been canceled.

The beginning of August was tragic for Belarusian volunteers fighting in the Defense Forces of Ukraine, six of whom were killed in battles with Russian aggressors. Kastus Kalinouski's regiment held consultations with representatives of the Joint Transitional Cabinet (represented by Pawe Latuszka and Franciszak Wieczorka). On June 6, Warsaw hosted the second "New Belarus" conference, where representatives of Belarusian democratic forces discussed the fight against Lukashenka and the factors that would strengthen their own ranks. Aliaksandr Azarov lost his position as a representative of the defense industry for the restoration of law and order, but retained leadership of the "Peramoga" plan. The Belarusian Democratic Forces in Ukraine will now be represented by Hennady Manko, who has been communicating with Belarusian volunteers from various units for a long time.

Yevhen MAGDA, Institute of World Policy
A humanitarian corridor has resumed operation in the Sumy region at the border checkpoint Kolotilovka (Russia)-Pokrovka (Ukraine).

The relevant statement was made by the Ukrainian Temporarily Occupied Territories Reintegration Ministry on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Ukrainians, evacuating from the temporarily occupied areas, can return to the Ukrainian-controlled territory via the checkpoint Kolotilovka (Russia)-Pokrovka (Ukraine). Starting from yesterday, the checkpoint on the border between the Belgorod region and the Sumy region resumed operation, the report states.

A humanitarian center was set up at the Ukrainian border, where all Ukrainians can receive free psychological, legal and humanitarian aid, as well as stay overnight and get to the city of Sumy or any other place.

The ministry mentioned that those willing to evacuate from the Sumy region can use the Sumy-Kyiv evacuation train running on a daily basis. Kyiv Regional Military Administration will offer such people accommodation in a modular town in the Vyshhorod district.
The agriculture industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries faces unique challenges due to arid climates and limited natural resources. However, the GCC nations have embraced technology as a catalyst for localising their agriculture industry.

Use of the latest technology bolsters food safety efforts and increases productivity, while achieving food security objectives.

Here are some of the technological practices in transforming the agriculture industry in the GCC, paving the way for localisation and sustainable practices:

 Food safety efforts with innovative SaaS solutions: Ensuring food safety is a critical aspect of agriculture in the GCC. To address this, the industry has turned to innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. These technologies enable real-time monitoring of farming practices, soil quality, and pest control measures. By analysing data collected from farms, farmers can identify potential risks and take timely preventive actions, ensuring the production of safe and high-quality food. SaaS solutions also facilitate traceability, enabling efficient tracking of produce from farm to table.

 Increasing productivity: Advanced farming techniques such as hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled-environment agriculture are being widely adopted. These methods optimise resource utilisation, reduce water consumption, and maximise crop yields. By harnessing technology, farmers can cultivate a diverse range of crops throughout the year, overcoming the limitations imposed by climate and geography. This not only boosts productivity but also reduces the region's reliance on food imports.

 Tech to achieve food security objectives: Food security is a primary concern for the GCC countries, given their heavy reliance on food imports. Technology plays a pivotal role in achieving self-sufficiency. Through the implementation of innovative irrigation systems, precision agriculture tools, and genetic modifications, farmers in the GCC can enhance crop yields and minimise losses caused by environmental factors. Moreover, technology enables vertical integration across the agricultural value chain, ensuring greater control over production and distribution, and ultimately leading to improved food security.

 Automation of inventory tracking and counting: Efficient supply chain management is vital for the agriculture industry in the GCC. Technology enables the automation of inventory tracking and counting processes, reducing human errors and improving efficiency. Automated systems monitor and manage inventories, providing real-time data on stock levels. This facilitates demand forecasting and ensures timely replenishment, leading to streamlined operations and reduced costs. With automation, farmers can maintain a seamless flow of agricultural products, ensuring their availability to meet local demands.

 Using sensors for precision and climate-smart farming: Sensors have revolutionised agriculture by enabling precision farming and climate-smart practices. These devices monitor and collect data on soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and nutrient levels. By analysing this data, farmers can make informed decisions regarding irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control, ensuring optimal growing conditions for crops. Precision farming maximises crop yields while minimising resource wastage, fostering sustainability and resilience in the face of challenging environmental conditions.

 Using drones for improved decision-making: Agricultural drones have emerged as indispensable tools for farmers. Equipped with high-resolution cameras and multispectral sensors, these drones capture detailed imagery of fields, providing valuable insights into crop health and growth patterns. Farmers can identify disease outbreaks, nutrient deficiencies, and irrigation problems promptly. With this information, they can make data-driven decisions, optimising crop management strategies and mitigating potential risks. Agricultural drones enhance efficiency, accuracy, and productivity, contributing to localised and sustainable agriculture practices.

* Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms for predictability: By analysing vast amounts of agricultural data, including weather patterns, historical yields, and market trends, AI and ML algorithms offer valuable insights and predictions. Farmers can optimise resource allocation, make informed planting decisions, and forecast crop yields accurately. These technologies enhance the predictability and profitability of farming operations, empowering farmers to adapt to changing market dynamics and ensure sustainable growth.

* Using satellite imagery for yield estimation and crop health: Satellite imagery is a game-changer for agriculture in the GCC. By capturing high-resolution images of fields, satellites provide critical information on crop health, growth patterns, and yield estimation. This data assists farmers in optimizing resource allocation, identifying areas of improvement, and responding promptly to crop stress or disease outbreaks. Satellite imagery enables proactive decision-making, ensuring efficient resource utilisation and maximizing crop productivity.

By embracing technology, the GCC nations are making efforts to create a resilient and self-sufficient agriculture sector that can overcome the challenges posed by arid climates and limited resources.

With continued focus on technological advancements, the future of the agriculture industry in the GCC looks more sustainable and a promising localised approach to feeding the region.


(Photo : The Pros and Cons of Studying Abroad in Italy)

Italy is increasingly capturing the interest of international students for higher education. The rising trend owes much to Italy's unique offerings in terms of education quality, cultural immersion, and cost of living.

Yet, like any international study decision, it carries its share of challenges. This article provides an insightful exploration of the pros and cons of studying abroad in Italy.

Be aware that if you're an American planning to study abroad in 2024 and beyond, you may first need to apply for an ETIAS for US citizens. With that in mind, let's dig in!

The Pros of Studying in Italy

Italy is not just a country of remarkable beauty and rich heritage, but also a hub of academic excellence. As international students flock to its historic universities, the benefits of studying in Italy are coming into sharp focus. Below, we break down some of the best parts of this distinctive academic experience.

High-Quality Education

Italy houses some of the world's oldest and most revered universities in the world, known for their commitment to academic excellence. Courses in arts, design, architecture, and humanities are particularly recognized, with an education framework that values critical thinking and creativity.

Cultural Immersion

Italy's cultural depth extends far beyond the allure of its historic sites and famous artworks. As an international student, you have the unique opportunity to delve into the heart of this vibrant culture.

This immersion allows you to experience Italy's storied history firsthand, appreciate its rich artistic legacy, and participate in local traditions and festivals. Furthermore, living and studying in Italy provides the chance to learn the Italian language, fostering a deeper connection with locals and enhancing your overall experience.

Affordable Cost of Living

Compared to many other European destinations, Italy offers a relatively affordable cost of living, making it a practical choice for students on a budget. Government initiatives and university partnerships also offer scholarships and financial aid, further easing the financial burden.

Unique Student Life

From savoring Italian cuisine to exploring iconic cities like Rome, Florence, and Milan, Italy offers an unparalleled student life experience. Each city in Italy has its unique flair and traditions, ensuring a diverse and stimulating experience, from the chance to take in the latest fashion trends in Milan, or bask in the architectural splendor of Rome.

Additionally, Italy's geographical location in the heart of Europe makes it an ideal springboard for travel to other European countries, enriching your student life experience further.

The Cons of Studying in Italy

Studying abroad is a major life decision that demands a comprehensive understanding of potential challenges. Despite its appeal, studying in Italy does present certain drawbacks. Let's take a closer look at some of the negative aspects.

Language Barrier

While many universities in Italy offer courses in English, Italian is the primary language used in daily life. This language barrier can present challenges, particularly for students in smaller cities or towns where English is less prevalent.

Daily tasks, such as grocery shopping, socializing, and navigating public transport, can become more difficult without a basic understanding of Italian. Moreover, lack of fluency in Italian can limit interaction with locals, thereby restricting complete cultural immersion.

Bureaucratic Hurdles

Italy's bureaucratic system can be complex and time-consuming, which could prove challenging when dealing with visas, residence permits, and university registrations.

Nevertheless, these obstacles can be easier to overcome if you have Italian dual citizenship.

Cultural Adaptation

While diving into a new culture can be exciting, it can also be challenging. Italians are known for their relaxed approach to time, which may contrast starkly with what some international students are used to.

Additionally, Italians are very expressive and passionate communicators, which could come as a surprise to those from more reserved cultures. Understanding these cultural nuances and adapting to them is a process that requires patience and openness.

Limited Job Opportunities

While Italy's education is renowned, it can be challenging for foreign students to find part-time jobs or internships, especially without fluency in Italian. Local businesses may prefer to hire individuals who can communicate effectively with their Italian clientele.

Moreover, Italy's economy has seen fluctuations over the years, which might limit job opportunities in certain sectors. Therefore, international students need to be proactive and flexible in their job search, possibly considering roles that may be outside their field of study.

In conclusion

Studying abroad in Italy offers an enriching blend of high-quality education, cultural exploration, and unique student life experiences. However, a comprehensive understanding of the pros and cons is crucial so that you can be prepared for potential challenges you may face.
UNODC marks the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons in Turkmenistan

In Turkmenistan, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), jointly with partner organizations organized a number of activities devoted to the commemoration of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons marked every year on 30 July.

On 24 July 2023, a round table on the enhancement of the national legislation in the field of countering trafficking in persons (CTIP) with a focus on human-rights based and victim-centered approaches was conducted with the representatives of the Parliament, the Prosecutor Generals Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population, the State Migration Service, and civil society organizations.

The present activity was a follow-up to three workshops conducted a year earlier to finalize the recommendations on the enhancement of the states legislation in the CTIP field to fully harmonize it with the provisions of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

On 31 July 2023, an awareness-raising session targeted at youth was conducted in partnership with the civil society organization Yenme, the Embassy of Turkiye in Turkmenistan, and the USAID-funded Safe Migration in Central Asia Project.

The event was attended by representatives of state agencies, international and civil society organizations, including the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, the Youth Union, and the National Red Crescent Society of Turkmenistan.

The program of the event included informational sessions, demonstration of dedicated videos, as well as interactive quizzes and flashmobs.

The present activity was aimed at supporting the states efforts to CTIP in raising public awareness on the issue of trafficking in persons and its consequences, as well as encouraging coordinated and consistent action to combat this phenomenon, with full respect for fundamental human rights at all levels, leaving no one behind.
ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 07th Aug, 2023) The Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) recently held its third Board of Management meeting of 2023, during which the board discussed matters relating to FANRs nuclear regulatory activities, licencing and oversight of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant operation, and FANRs international collaborations.

The board reviewed a comprehensive report on the ongoing regulatory oversight and inspection activities at Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, in addition to the status of the operating licence for Unit 4. Currently, three units are commercially operational and FANR will issue the operating licence for Unit 4 once the operator meets all its licencing and regulatory requirements.

FANRs Director-General, Christer Viktorsson, provided an update on FANRs recent activities, including its participation in the fifth Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Turkiye in Antalya. He also highlighted the recent engagement and cooperation with FANRs Republic of Korea counterparts in the area of nuclear safety, regulatory oversight of nuclear facilities and research and development.

The board was also briefed about multiple workshops, training sessions and IAEA technical cooperation activities hosted by FANR in recent months, supporting the countrys capacity building in the areas of emergency preparedness, nuclear security and environmental monitoring.

The Board approved a number of updates related to licences for the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, after extensive review and assessment by FANR to ensure compliance with all the regulators safety, security and safeguards requirements.

Furthermore, the Board reviewed FANRs ongoing international agreements and commitments, discussing several cooperation agreements with key international partners covering aspects of nuclear and radiation safety, radiation protection, non-proliferation and research and development.

Moreover, the Board approved FANRs 2022 Annual Report, which details FANRs regulatory activities and milestones throughout 2022. The report is available for public view on the FANR website.
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The arrest comes in connection with a distressing case of alleged abuse and torture of a 14-year-old girl who worked as domestic help at their residence.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-August 7th, 2023) In a significant development, the wife of Civil Judge Asim Hafeez, Somia Asim, was arrested after her bail was revoked by a local court in Islamabad.

The arrest came in connection with a distressing case of alleged abuse and torture of a 14-year-old girl who worked as domestic help at their residence.

The harrowing incident came to light earlier this month when the teenage girl's parents rushed her to a hospital in Lahore due to severe injuries.

They accused Somia Asim of subjecting their daughter to brutal treatment while she was employed as a domestic worker at their house.

Today, Somia Asim appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Farrukh Fareed along with her legal team to present her bail plea.

The defense lawyer argued that Somia had already pleaded innocence before the joint investigation team (JIT) appointed to probe the case.

During the investigation, she denied the allegations of mistreatment and stated that she had provided financial assistance of Rs60,000 to the girl's parents.

The defense lawyer emphasized that police records did not indicate any torture inflicted by Somia on the girl named Rizwana.

He further mentioned that Somia had safely returned the child to her parents, urging the court to wait for the JIT's inquiry report, expected to be completed by this evening.

On the other hand, the prosecution opposed the bail plea and requested the court to reject it. The court directed both parties to present their arguments regarding the bail plea and also ordered the investigation officer to obtain the video mentioned by the defense lawyer.

This video reportedly showed Somia accompanying Rizwana to the bus stop to send her back to her parents.

The prosecution asserted that the recovery of the object allegedly used by Somia to beat Rizwana was crucial to prove the charges, making her arrest necessary to secure the evidence.

Judge Farrukh Fareed expressed the importance of finding the truth and ordered Somia's arrest while disposing of her bail plea. Somia became visibly emotional and cried during the court proceedings, prompting the judge to instruct officials to escort her out.

Following the court's decision, the Islamabad police promptly arrested Somia Asim outside the courtroom. She will now be presented before a duty magistrate to seek her physical remand for further interrogation.

The case has gained public attention and is being closely monitored to ensure justice for the victim and a fair investigation into the alleged abuse and mistreatment.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Aug, 2023 ) :Chief of Staff Sultan Armed Forces Oman, Vice Admiral Abdullah Bin Khamis Al Raisi on Monday visited Naval Headquarters (NHQ) here and called on Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi.

During the meeting, matters of mutual interest including bilateral collaborations and regional maritime security environment were discussed, a Pakistan Navy news release said.

The Naval Chief highlighted Pakistan Navy's initiatives to ensure maritime security and peace in the region through Regional Maritime Security Patrols. The visiting Admiral acknowledged and lauded Pakistan Navy's efforts and commitments in support of collaborative maritime security in the region.

Oman is a maritime neighbour of Pakistan and both countries have a common maritime boundary. The ships of both countries routinely operate close to each other's coasts and accordingly provide support to each other in terms of medical evacuations, cooperation in maritime law enforcement and logistics support. Both the navies enjoy very close relations and are very forth coming to support each other.

The visit of Chief of Staff Sultan Armed Forces Oman will further enhance bilateral collaboration between the two countries.
ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Aug, 2023 ) :President Dr Arif Alvi has accorded his approval to four bills under Article 75 of the Constitution.

The president approved the National Logistics Corporation Bill, 2023 which provided establishment of the Corporation, the President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release on Monday.

Separately, the president also approved the Pakistan Air Safety Investigation Bill, 2023. The objective of the legislation was to improve investigations into air accidents and travel incidents.

Similarly, approval was granted to the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terror Financing Bill, 2023. Under the legislation, the National Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism Authority would be established.

The president also sanctioned his approval to the Gun and Country Club Bill, 2023. The legislation would pave the way for establishment of Gun and Country Club Islamabad, and its management and arrangements.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke over the telephone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed developments in the ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces as well as the recently concluded peace talks in Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2023) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke over the telephone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and discussed developments in the ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces as well as the recently concluded peace talks in Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba today via phone from Washington, D.C. The two discussed developments in Ukraine's counteroffensive efforts, recent conversations about a just and durable peace in Ukraine held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and long-term security arrangements between the two countries," Miller said in a press release.

Saudi Arabia hosted peace talks on Ukraine in Jeddah over the weekend, having invited representatives from some 30 countries, but not Russia. The Jeddah meeting is a follow-up to a similar conference held in Denmark in June. The Copenhagen meeting failed to produce any joint statements.

On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces have lost over 43,000 soldiers on the line of contact since the start of its counteroffensive in June.
ISTANBUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2023) An explosion near the Turkish major commercial port of Derince in the Kocaeli province on Monday damaged 13 out of 16 elevators, Kocaeli Municipality Mayor Tahir Buyukakin said.

"As a result of the explosion, 12 people were injured, the condition of two is serious.

Explosion damaged 13 elevators out of 16," the mayor told the Haberturk broadcaster.

Meanwhile, a source in Turkey's Coast Guard told Sputnik that the explosion did not damage any ships in the port.
(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2023) The militaries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) need more time to prepare for military intervention in Niger against the background of the military takeover in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a senior commander from one of the ECOWAS countries.

"For the moment, we need to build up the strength of our units before taking part in such a military action. The success of any military action depends on good preparation," the commander said.

He added that the bloc would continue to pressure the coup leaders in Niger through economic and financial sanctions and seek support for the trade embargo from other international institutions, such as the African Union.

The coup leaders in Niger, who ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in July, closed the country's airspace for all aircraft until further notice on Sunday due to "the threat of intervention, which is becoming clearer through the preparation of neighboring countries.

"

On July 26, Niger's presidential guard ousted and detained Bazoum. The guard's commander, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, proclaimed himself interim leader and the president of the caretaker National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.

On July 31, ECOWAS condemned the coup, suspended financial aid to the country, and gave Niger's coup leaders one week to reinstate detained president, or the community would use "all measures," including military, to restore order in the African nation. Several European countries have also suspended aid to Niger and evacuated its citizens.

A Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday that thousands of Nigeriens defied the ECOWAS deadline for the return to power of the ousted president to rally in support of the rebel military in the national capital of Niamey. Crowds appeared undaunted on Sunday night as the deadline was set to run out. Demonstrators chanted slogans in support of the rebel commander while waving Nigerien and Russian national colors.
Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, who is accused of illegally helping a sanctioned Russian billionaire, has been granted a change of plea hearing on August 15, according to a court order

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2023) Former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, who is accused of illegally helping a sanctioned Russian billionaire, has been granted a change of plea hearing on August 15, according to a court order.

"The Court has been informed that Defendant Charles McGonigal may wish to enter a change of plea. Accordingly, on August 15, 2023 at 12:15 p.m., a plea proceeding will take place in Courtroom 12B, 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York 10007," the order said.

McGonigal is a retired former head of counterintelligence in the FBI's New York office.

He was indicted in January on charges of money laundering and violating US sanctions for allegedly working for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska to remove him from the sanctions list and to investigate a rival.

McGonigal had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

McGonigal also faces a separate indictment related to accepting $225,000 from a former Albanian intelligence operative while working for the FBI.
China's participation in the Saudi summit on Ukraine was productive, but further details about the meeting are private, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2023) China's participation in the Saudi summit on Ukraine was productive, but further details about the meeting are private, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

"We did believe it was productive that China attended.

I'm not going to speak to the details of the meeting because it was a private meeting," Miller said during a press briefing.

Miller added that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who attended the summit, had a separate meeting with the Chinese special envoy Li Hui on the margins of the summit.
As a leader, she valued innovation and wasnt afraid of change. She built the foundation for numerous programs within the college. In addition to her work with AACSB reaccreditation, she established the Deans Fellows program for faculty, developed the Graduate Business Student Commons and spearheaded development of the ACOB Student Success Center.

But, more importantly, Smith had a passion for promoting causes that increased diversity within higher education. As a faculty mentor for the Ph.D. Project, an organization that works to encourage diversity in business school faculty, she encouraged the colleges doctoral students to engage with this organization and led the colleges participation. She actively mentored young faculty and administrators within the ACOB and served as a role model as a female African American administrator. Smith was also a faculty coordinator for the colleges Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

Pamela had an exceptional record of service, and her ability to navigate challenging administrative tasks was unprecedented, said Sharad Asthana, chair of the UTSA Department of Accounting. She was a unique soul who exuded positivity. She will truly be missed in both our accounting department as well as the college and at UTSA.

As an academic, she taught federal income tax at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Smith sought to inspire her students and to prepare them for success within the accounting profession. Prior to joining academia, she began her tax career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Washington, D.C.

A high-performing faculty member, her research focused on how tax policy impacts decision-making within the nonprofit healthcare field, and she published numerous articles in tax and specialized health care journals.

In honor of her accomplishments, Smith received the colleges Endowed 1969 Commemorative Faculty Award for Overall Faculty Excellence in 2008, and again earlier this year. In 2010, she received the Deans Excellence Award in Community Service.

She was also a member of several professional organizations including the American Accounting Association, the American Taxation Association and the National Association of Black Accountants. Utilizing her talents, she gave back to the San Antonio community as a member of the Scleroderma Foundation and volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club and Seton Home.
The University of Wyoming is part of a coalition of esteemed Northern Plains research institutions that has been awarded a grant of nearly $100,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together research support professionals across the region.

The group -- spearheaded by South Dakota State University (SDSU) and including other research institutions from South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Nebraska -- secured the grant through NSFs GRANTED (Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity) program. This program aims to address systemic barriers within the nations research enterprise by providing enhanced research support and services to emerging research institutions.

The primary objective of the grant is to support the organization of a groundbreaking conference, bringing together research support professionals from across the region. The event is scheduled June 6-7, 2024, at Black Hills State Universitys facility in Rapid City, S.D.

Through the grant, travel and lodging expenses for 50 research support professionals attending the conference will be fully covered. This diverse group of professionals represents a wide array of higher education institutions from across the Northern Plains, including emerging research institutions and tribal colleges and universities.

The conference extends invitations to research leaders from all Wyoming community colleges and tribal colleges to participate. Further details regarding the conference will be made available in the near future.

Leading the grant as its principal investigator is Dianne Nagy, assistant vice president for research development and administration at SDSU. Joining as a co-principal investigator is UW Director of Research Services Farrell Rapp, who will represent UW and collaboratively plan and coordinate the conference with representatives of Montana State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and North Dakota State University.

We are delighted that Farrell Rapp will be representing the University of Wyoming as a co-principal investigator and will be involved in the planning, organization and assessment of this project, says Parag Chitnis, UWs vice president for research and economic development. In her leadership role, she will work diligently to ensure that the needs of Wyomings institutions of higher education, including eight community colleges, are effectively incorporated into the discussion at the conference.

Organizers say the conference is poised to become a pivotal event, empowering research support professionals in the Northern Plains region to drive innovation and progress throughout the academic landscape.

This gathering will foster valuable exchanges of proven practices, resource sharing and the establishment of future collaborations, Nagy says. Our focus is shifting from serving individual institutions to supporting the entire regional research enterprise; promoting greater cooperation and resource optimization among understaffed units and institutions with limited resources for hosting events; and creating training materials.
Temple Stoellinger

In recognition of her expertise in the field and a rich history of engagement, Temple Stoellinger, a University of Wyoming associate professor and a Wyoming Excellence Chair, has been appointed as a trustee-at-large of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (FNREL).

The appointment celebrates Stoellingers excellence in scholarship, teaching, mentorship, outreach and service. Stoellinger is on the faculty of UWs College of Law and Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.

FNREL is a collaborative, educational, nonprofit organization dedicated to the scholarly and practical study of the laws and regulations relating to mining, oil and gas, energy, public lands, water, environmental and international law. In her capacity as a trustee-at-large, Stoellinger will help to advise the Board of Directors leading FNREL.

Professor Stoellinger is the kind of academic who contributes to the work of the foundation -- a recognized mentor to students, an active scholar on natural resource issues critical to the foundations audience, and someone who knows how to convene lawyers and law students around cutting-edge natural resource and energy topics, says Rebecca Watson, who was president of FNREL from 2019-2020 and is now special counsel at Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley PC. Her elevation to trustee is a recognition of all she has contributed and will contribute to the foundations educational mission.

In 2022, Stoellinger and Watson published a comprehensive guide to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) with FNREL, one of many influential publications Stoellinger has contributed to the topic and to FNREL. Other publications include a current state of affairs of federal agency NEPA authorities and a guide to optimizing NEPA public comments.

Stoellinger also has held a number of appointments with FNREL, serving on the program committee for FNRELs Special Institute on Air Quality Issues Affecting Oil, Gas and Mining Development in the West and as a member of the Natural Resources Law Teachers Committee.

Her speaking engagements with FNREL cover topics such as NEPA; the future of oil and gas leasing; public lands; wildlife law; and big-game migration corridors.

As a trustee-at-large, I am looking forward to continuing to support FNRELs efforts to foster legal education, scholarship and collegiality in the natural resources and energy law community, Stoellinger says. In particular, I am excited to find opportunities to involve and highlight the work of University of Wyoming students and alumni who are doing exceptional work in the natural resource and energy law space.

Stoellinger also was recently named a Senior Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center and appointed to the American Bar Associations Editorial Board for the Natural Resources & Environment publication.
Love City BBQ serves up signature barbecue sauce until all is gone
Dust and rubble fill the street as an excavator tears off chunks of concrete from an old apartment building.

Bystanders and former residents watch from afar as construction equipment tears down the structure.

Among the bystanders is Ibrahim Ozaydin, 30, a former resident. He watches the demolition not with worry, but with relief, as his building was marked by officials as unsafe months ago.

Ozaydin and his family were shocked to learn that the municipality deemed his building uninhabitable.

"We decided to build our own house," he told The Associated Press as he watched his former home being torn down. "Instead of living in a poorly built house, let us take our own precautions."

The sight of construction vehicles demolishing buildings became engrained in Turkish minds six months ago today, after a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Kahramanmaras and 10 other provinces in southern Turkey on the morning of Feb. 6.

More than 50,000 people died, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless, sheltering in tents and other temporary accommodation.

The International Labor Organization estimates that some 658,000 people were left jobless. As for the material cost, some 300,000 buildings were damaged. Survivors needed to be rescued, rubble to be cleared and buildings on the verge of collapse torn down.

Yet this latest demolition is taking place in Istanbul, Turkey's largest metropolis, far away from the earthquake zone. This time the building wasn't torn down as part of search-and-rescue efforts, but to prevent such harrowing scenes in the future.

The building was occupied only by Ozaydin and his extended family, who also owned a shop on the ground floor. The family managed to relocate their shop and build a new, sturdier house at a different location, but theirs is an exceptional story in a city where hundreds of thousands of buildings are at risk and property prices are soaring.

Istanbul lies atop a major fault line, one which experts warn could break at any moment. In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, both the national government and local administrations are racing against time to alleviate the pain of the February quake while also preparing their cities for potential disasters in the future.

However, even preparedness can fall victim to political rivalry: the authorities in opposition-held Istanbul municipality and the national government in Ankara cannot agree on the exact number of buildings at risk of crumbling in the event of an earthquake. But both put the figure at hundreds of thousands.

After the February tragedy, the Istanbul municipality headed by Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a prominent figure in the opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, earmarked for demolition 318 buildings housing more than 10,000 people.

Bugra Gokce, an official with the Istanbul municipality overseeing the demolition, said, "We are identifying buildings at risk of collapse and fortifying others, all to reduce the potential loss of life."

During a heated campaign right before his re-election to a third decade in power, Erdogan pledged to construct 319,000 new homes within the year. He attended many groundbreaking ceremonies as he persuaded voters that only he could rebuild lives and businesses.

"It's easy to say, 'we are building this many square meters atop a hill' or '5,000 residences are being built somewhere," adds Gokce, in an apparent jab at the national government's urban transformation programs. "We are also doing that. But if you're not also reducing the risk to existing buildings in the city, it is nothing more than urban expansion."

Both experts and Erdogan critics argue that the sheer scale of February's destruction was due to the president's weak enforcement of building codes amidst a construction boom that helped drive economic growth.

Ankara launched several programs aimed at inspecting damaged buildings both in and outside the 11 provinces hit by the earthquake. Meanwhile, victims have been offered both financial aid and a chance to resettle in public housing projects built by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey, or TOKI.

Although many promises were made by both the ruling party and the opposition in the leadup to the elections in May, those still in the earthquake-affected provinces are demanding faster action.

Lawyer Mehmet Ali Gumus in Hatay province, one of the worst hit by the earthquake, told The Associated Press that people were starting to lose hope. He said there were no signs of reconstruction in Hatay, and that the emergency shelter situation in Antakya, Hatay's most populated city, was deteriorating by the day.

People are living in metal shipping containers and tents in sweltering heat that can reach up to 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) without any access to air conditioning. Residents must also contend with flies, snakes and other wildlife while living outdoors, according to Gumus.

Another health risk is the rubble from collapsed buildings, which is being dumped on farmland, shores and even right outside encampments where survivors are staying.

"Everyone around me says that we survived the earthquake, but they'll be dealing with cancer in 5-10 years because of the asbestos (from the rubble)," adds Gumus.

In a social media post on July 15, the Hatay governor's office stated that levels of asbestos in the rubble are safe and below the "regulatory limit." Results showing low amount of asbestos taken from samples collected in debris dumping grounds were also posted.

While Hatay residents deal with the elements and other environmental hazards, their future remains uncertain.

"There were concrete statements before the elections, but afterwards we stopped hearing anything concrete," continues Gumus, claiming that the government has not committed to securing new houses for victims or even to fortifying their existing residences. "Six months after the disaster we should be talking about newly built residences, not lines of people waiting for water," he adds.

Another Hatay resident, Bestami Coskuner, was leaving for the western province of Izmir because of the power cuts and water shortages in his hometown.

"Tap water is not potable, but people use it to wash. Pipes burst daily, and power is cut two or three times a day," Coskuner told The Associated Press. He said water was rationed, and some who drank from the tap came down with serious illnesses.

"You can't easily drink water. In a place where you can't easily drink water, how are you going to make any decisions? Even bottled water tastes bad in Hatay," he added.

Victims of the earthquake have already had to deal with the aftermath of a disaster, the worst cost of living crisis in decades, and a highly polarizing election. They'll have only had a brief break from politics as Turkey heads to hotly contested municipal elections in March. Erdogan, fresh off his victory in national elections last May, has vowed to take back the metropolitan cities he lost in 2019.

One of Erdogan's campaign strategies had been a focus on providing housing and aid in the earthquake regions. The government made sure to provide amenities, shelter, and financial aid for earthquake victims.

His perceived support for the victims was one of the factors that enabled Erdogan's party to hold on to power in most of the provinces hit by the earthquake, despite accusations of being responsible for the devastation with his lax enforcement of building codes and the perception of poor emergency response by the government.

Experts like professor Naci Gorur, a geologist and member of the Science Academy, have been warning of a potential earthquake in Istanbul and other provinces for years. He told the Associated Press that the "steps taken were far outweighed by those not taken," and that Istanbul is not ready for a potential earthquake with the current state of structures and building codes.

Gorur described the soil in the affected regions as causing buildings to "resonate," making it even more difficult for such structures to stay intact during earthquakes. The quake occurred in a seismically active area known as the East Anatolian fault zone, which has produced damaging earthquakes in the past, such as the 7.4 magnitude quake near Istanbul in 1999, in which an estimated 18,000 people died.

"We could have prepared the whole of Turkey for an earthquake, not just Istanbul, if we had started working with the ministry to make our at-risk provinces earthquake-resistant. If we had distanced ourselves from politics, if policies were not left to the whims of new administrations, and if there had been a serious budget and determination," said Gorur.

"I have no doubts as to government's good intentions, but if you are going to do something, do it properly. You don't rush things like these," he said, adding that instead of rushing permanent buildings, the government should have focused on maintaining temporary residences while conducting proper studies for the building of permanent structures which comply with "scientific principles."
The use of sophisticated spyware to hack into the devices of journalists and human rights defenders during a period of conflict in Armenia has alarmed analysts.

A joint investigation by digital rights organizations, including Amnesty International, found evidence of the surveillance software on devices belonging to 12 people, including a former government spokesperson.

The apparent targeting took place between October 2020 and December 2022, including during key moments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Amnesty reported.

The region has been at the center of a decades-long dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory.

Elina Castillo Jimenez, a digital surveillance researcher at Amnesty International's Security Laboratory, told VOA that her organizations research  published earlier this year  confirmed that at least a dozen public figures in Armenia were targeted, including a former spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a representative of the United Nations.

Others had reported on the conflict, including for VOAs sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; provided analysis; had sensitive conversations related to the conflict; or in some cases worked for organizations known to be critical of the government, the researchers found.

The conflict may have been one of the reasons for the targeting, Castillo said.

If, as Amnesty and others suspect, the timing is connected to the conflict, it would mark the first documented use of Pegasus in the context of an international conflict.

Researchers have found previously that Pegasus was used extensively in Azerbaijan to target civil society representatives, opposition figures and journalists, including the award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova.

VOA reached out via email to the embassies of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington for comment but as of publication had not received a response.

Pegasus is a spyware marketed to governments by the Israeli digital security company NSO Group. The global investigative collaboration, The Pegasus Project, has been tracking the spywares use against human rights defenders, critics and others.

Since 2021, the U.S government has imposed measures on NSO over the hacking revelations, saying its tools were used for transnational repression. U.S actions include export limits on NSO Group and a March 2023 executive order that restricts the U.S. governments use of commercial spyware like Pegasus.

VOA reached out to the NSO Group for comment but as of publication had not received a response.

Castillo said that Pegasus has the capability to infiltrate both iOS and Android phones.

Pegasus spyware is a zero-click mobile surveillance program. It can attack devices without any interaction from the individual who is targeted, gaining complete control over a phone or laptop and in effect transforming it into a spying tool against its owner, she said.

The way that Pegasus operates is that it is capable of using elements within your iPhones or Androids, said Castillo. Imagine that it embed(s) something in your phone, and through that, then it can take control over it.

The implications of the spyware are not lost on Ruben Melikyan. The lawyer, based in Armenias capital, Yerevan, is among those whose devices were infected.

An outspoken government critic, Melikyan has represented a range of opposition parliamentarians and activists.

The lawyer said he has concerns that the software could have allowed hackers to gain access to his data and information related to his clients.

As a lawyer, my phone contained confidential information, and its compromise made me uneasy, particularly regarding the protection of my current and former clients' rights. he said.

Melikyan told VOA that his phone had been targeted twice: in May 2021, when he was monitoring Armenian elections, and again during a tense period in the Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict in December 2022.

Castillo said she believes targeting individuals with Pegasus is a violation of international humanitarian law and that evidence shows it is an absolute menace to people doing human rights work.

She said the researchers are not able to confirm who commissioned the use of the spyware, but we do believe that it is a government customer.

When the findings were released this year, an NSO Group spokesperson said it was unable to comment but that earlier allegations of improper use of our technologies had led to the termination of contracts.

Amnesty International researchers are also investigating the potential use of a commercial spyware, Predator, which was found on Armenian servers.

We have the evidence that suggests that it was used. However, further investigation is needed, Castillo said, adding that their findings so far suggest that Pegasus is just one of the threats against journalists and human rights defenders.

This story originated in VOAs Armenia Service.
Angola's police have allegedly killed over a dozen activists since January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday, urging government to swiftly probe reports of abuse and rights violations.

The country's law enforcement authorities have also been accused of the arbitrary arrests and detention of hundreds, the NGO said in a statement.

Angolan law enforcement authorities including police, state security and intelligence services "have been implicated in unlawful killings of at least 15 people," HRW said.

Political activists, artists and protest organizers were the main targets of the "alleged rights violations," which HRW has condemned.

"Angolan authorities should urgently act to end abusive police policies and practices and ensure that there is justice for victims and their family members," Zenaida Machado, senior Africa researcher at HRW said in the statement.

Although the government has attempted to improve law enforcement, criminal prosecutions against police officers who commit these violations remain rare, HRW said.

The arrests are more frequent in the oil rich northern province of Cabinda, close to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the last six months, HRW has interviewed 32 people across the country including victims and their relatives, witnesses and security sources.

In one instance men who identified as criminal investigation service members held a group of young men in custody "whose bodies were found three days later at a hospital morgue."

A friend of the victims, who were known for participating in anti-government protests, said that police had been monitoring the group.

Angola's ruling party, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), have denied HRW's claims.

"Investigations are already underway," party spokesman Rui Falcao told AFP.

"However, we find it strange that those calling for the necessary investigations already have conclusions and are passing judgement," Falcao said.

According to the HRW the country's leading opposition, UNITA, said it had documented over 130 cases of people being killed by security forces during protests since 2017.

On Saturday, thousands of people called for Angola's President Joao Lourenco to step down during a rally in the capital organized by UNITA to commemorate its late leader.

The oil-rich southern African nation has experienced a wave of protests since the government cut subsidies for petrol in June.
Around 20 people were killed in a suspected terror attack in Burkina Faso, security and local sources told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

The Sunday attack in the Centre-East region near the Togolese border killed "around 20 people, mostly traders," a security source told AFP, while a trader put the toll at 25, and another said there were a dozen wounded.

More than 16,000 civilians, troops and police have died in terror attacks, according to an NGO count, including more than 5,000 since the start of this year.

More than 2 million people have also been displaced within their country, making it one of the worst internal displacement crises in Africa.

Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in Burkina Faso in a September 2022 coup which ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who in January that year had toppled the country's last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The motive for both coups was anger at failures to stem a rebel insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since spilling over from neighboring Mali in 2015.
Investigators scoured the wreckage on Monday of a weekend train derailment that killed at least 34 people, the latest deadly crash to hit Pakistan's antiquated railway network.

More than 1,000 passengers were aboard the Hazara Express when it came off the tracks in a flat, rural part of Sindh province near Nawabshah, around 250 kilometers (155 miles) by rail from the southern port city of Karachi.

It was winding its way north on a 33-hour journey to Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when disaster struck near Sarhari around lunchtime.

"I was sitting in my shop... Suddenly, there was a huge bang," said Azmat Ali, 25, who has a store near the crash site.

"We immediately thought an accident had taken place. We started running and when we arrived... we pulled out bodies and injured people from the wreckage."

Muhammad Afzal Kolachi, a spokesman for Pakistan Railways, told AFP Monday the death toll had risen to 34.

Hospitals in the area declared an emergency as they struggled to deal with dozens of passengers brought in with severe injuries.

Local residents, some who waded through waist-deep water in a canal that runs alongside the railway track to reach the crash site, were praised for their heroic response.

Crashes common

"Despite Sarhari being a backward area, the locals swiftly arrived at the scene to provide assistance," said 28-year-old rescuer Zulfiqar Ali. "Whoever heard the news  even women and children  came here. I saw myself local farmers reached the spot to take part in rescue efforts."

Crashes and derailments occur frequently on Pakistan's antiquated railway system, which has nearly 7,500 kilometers (4,660 miles) of track and carries more than 80 million passengers a year.

The network, once the pride of British rule during the colonial era, still has tracks, junctions and bridges dating back more than 150 years, although modernization is underway as part of the massive China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

It is still a favored means of transport for poor people, especially those who migrate to the mega-city of Karachi for work and then return to their rural homes to visit family.

Railway minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said Sunday that no faults had been reported on the stretch of line where the accident happened, but some residents said it had been affected by the monsoon floods that engulfed a third of the country last summer.

"The track is in a bad condition due to last year's flood," said Ali Dost, a 52-year-old local police officer.

Most of the rail network, however, is laid along berms and the tracks often provided the only high ground for people to take shelter during the floods.

Rafique promised a full investigation.

"There can be two reasons: first that it was a mechanical fault, or the fault was created  it might be a sabotage. We will investigate it."

A special crane carriage reached the site late Sunday and technicians worked through the night to try and clear the tracks.

"The down track has been cleared and the work is ongoing," said Shahnawaz Mashori, a 24-year-old teacher who volunteered at the site. "We are hopeful that very soon it will be cleared."

Passenger compartments were strewn to the side, mangled steel from the undercarriage twisted and buckled.

Sunday's crash is just the latest to hit the network in recent years.

Two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh in June 2021, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others.

In that crash, an express derailed onto the opposite track, and a second passenger train ploughed into the wreckage a minute later.
In the days since the coup in Niger that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, journalists have faced threats or attacks, and access to broadcasts from two French outlets has been cut.

Journalists from at least four news outlets have been threatened or physically attacked and some have reported having equipment damaged, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.

Separately, on August 3, the signals of French international news broadcasters Radio France Internationale and France 24 were blocked inside Niger.

The coup took place amid anti-French sentiment in the former French colony, with pro-junta protesters attacking the French Embassy in the capital Niamey a few days later.

"The attacks on press freedom that we see emerging in Niger are extremely worrying," Sadibou Marong, the director of RSF's sub-Saharan Africa bureau, said in a statement. "We remind the junta that the right to information must be preserved and respected, and we urge it to ensure that no journalist is again targeted by protesters or the security forces at this uncertain time for Niger."

Among the incidents documented by RSF are threats that protesters directed at Anne-Fleur Lespiaut, for TV5 Monde, and Stanislas Poyet, a reporter with Le Figaro, on July 30. RSF said that protesters were angered by the presence of journalists from French media.

Two days earlier, during a July 28 press conference at the headquarters of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism  the party led by Bazoum  unidentified individuals attacked crews from two privately owned domestic news outlets.

Threats and violence have been coupled with censorship in Niger, where the military blocked access to Radio France Internationale, or RFI, and France 24. Both remain available via satellite, the stations' parent company France Medias Monde has said.

The group, in a statement, said it "deplores this decision taken outside any conventional and legal framework, further depriving citizens in the region of their access to free and independent information."

RSF's Marong in a statement said that the action "bodes ill for the media," adding, "In an already fraught security environment in the Sahel, cutting off the signals of news media that just do their job is an unacceptable attack on press freedom."

The military staged the coup on July 26 over claims of insecurity in the country.

Among the state institutions suspended by the junta are Niger's media regulator, the High Council for Communication, which had power to suspend or issue warnings to broadcasters.

Blocking access to RFI and France 24 follows a pattern in the Sahel region, where military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso were followed by media outlets getting blocked in both countries.
Australia is hoping its trade dispute with China, which has affected billions of dollars in commodity exports, could be coming to an end after Beijing lifted tariffs on barley.

Trade restrictions imposed by China on a range of Australian goods, including coal, wine and beef, have been part of broader disputes between the two nations.

There has been diplomatic friction in recent years over democracy in Hong Kong, human rights, and Beijings ambitions in the South China Sea and the Pacific.

Last week, Chinas commerce ministry said it would scrap its 80.5% tariffs on Australian barley.

Australia has insisted the restrictions were punitive and were economic coercion, although Chinese officials stressed there were sound technical reasons for the duties.

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell is hoping that Beijing will soon lift similar sanctions on Australian wine exports to China.

"Our whole process over the last 15 months has been to try and stabilize our relationship with the Chinese government to get them to remove the trade impediments that have been a blockage in our relationship over period of time,"Farrell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Monday. "Bit by bit, that process has been working."

The Canberra government is challenging Chinas tariffs of up to 212% on Australian wine at the World Trade Organization, which tries to regulate global commerce.

Chinese restrictions also remain on exports of Australian beef, cotton and seafood.

Farrell said China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao agreed to visit Australia, although no details have yet been released.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit China later this year.

The trade of goods and services with China accounts for about a third of Australias global trade.

The China Australia Free Trade Agreement came into force in December 2015.

Australia is among Chinas largest suppliers of commodities, including iron ore, a key ingredient in steelmaking.

The Canberra government has been seeking to diversify Australias international trade away from its heavy reliance on China to include other countries, such as India and Indonesia.
Hun Manet was appointed Cambodia's new leader by the king on Monday, after having effectively been given the post from his father, who ruled for nearly four decades.

Days after a landslide victory in July's election, Hun Sen  one of the world's longest-serving leaders  announced he was stepping down as prime minister and handing power to his eldest son.

The polls were widely decried as a sham after the main opposition challenger, the Candlelight Party, was barred from running over a technicality, with the ruling Cambodian People's Party winning all but five seats in the 125-member lower house.

On Monday, following a request from Hun Sen, King Norodom Sihamoni issued a royal decree stating that he "appoints Dr. Hun Manet as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia for the 7th mandate of the parliament."

To officially become the country's next leader, the 45-year-old and his cabinet must win a confidence vote in parliament set for Aug. 22.

The lower house is overwhelmingly stacked with members loyal to Hun Sen and he has pursued a ruthless campaign against any opposition, banning parties and forcing adversaries to flee abroad.

Longtime rival Sam Rainsy  self-exiled in France  said any hopes for more freedom under Hun Manet or that he might distance the country from major benefactor China were misguided.

"I think this is pure illusion," he told AFP ahead of the appointment. "You can change leaders many times but nothing will change because the system remains the same."

The incoming government will usher in a crop of young ministers, with some taking posts vacated by their fathers.

While insisting he would not interfere with his son's rule, Hun Sen has also promised Cambodians that he will continue to play a prominent role in politics.

"It is not the end yet," he said Monday following the appointment, adding he would continue serving in other positions until at least 2033.

After stepping down, Hun Sen will become president of the Senate early next year and acting head of state when the king is overseas.

Untried, untested

Despite being groomed for years, the eldest son of Cambodia's iron-fisted ruler remains untested in the political arena and relatively unknown beyond it, according to Sebastian Strangio, author of "Hun Sen's Cambodia."

"It is very hard to determine any distinctive national vision," he told AFP.

Hun Manet has an economics degree from England and graduated from US Military Academy West Point, but there are few signs he would bring his country closer to Western powers.

"I have not seen any evidence that Manet has either the ability or the desire to push Cambodia in the direction of significant reform," Strangio said.

He said Hun Manet's decisions would be "dictated by" the country's rigid political system, requiring him to maintain the loyalty of powerbrokers in the political establishment, business elite, and security forces.

The 45-year-old Hun Manet is a member of the ruling party's powerful permanent committee and has been the Royal Cambodian Army's commander since 2018.

He has in the past met world leaders, including China's President Xi Jinping, Cambodia's main ally and a significant benefactor.

Following the announcement, Hun Manet posted a congratulatory song on social media.

Opposition crushed

Hun Sen has rejected international condemnation that last month's polls were neither free nor fair, saying the handover was done to avoid "bloodshed" should he die in office.

A former Khmer Rouge cadre, Hun Sen has run the kingdom since 1985.

He helped modernize a country ravaged by decades of civil war and genocide, although critics say his rule has also been marked by environmental destruction and entrenched graft.

Rights groups accuse Hun Sen of using the legal system to crush any opposition to his rule  jailing scores of activists, union leaders and lawmakers.

In March, opposition leader Kem Sokha was convicted of treason and sentenced to 27 years in prison, currently being served under house arrest.
Cambodia's king on Monday will appoint Hun Manet the country's new leader after his father Hun Sen calls time on nearly four decades of hardline rule.



Days after a landslide victory in July's election, Hun Sen -- one of the world's longest-serving leaders -- announced he was stepping down as prime minister and handing power to his eldest son.



The polls were widely decried as a sham after the opposition challenger Candlelight Party was barred from running over a technicality, with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) winning all but five seats in the 125-member lower house.



On Monday, following a request from Hun Sen, King Norodom Sihamoni is set to issue a royal decree making four-star general Hun Manet the prime minister.

However, to officially become the country's new leader the 45-year-old and his new Cabinet must win a confidence vote in parliament set for August 22.



The incoming government will usher in a crop of young ministers -- with some taking posts vacated by their fathers.



While insisting he would not interfere with his son's rule, Hun Sen has promised Cambodians he will continue to dominate the country's politics.

Having come to power in 1985, he helped modernize a country devastated by civil war and genocide, although critics say his rule has also been marked by environmental destruction, entrenched graft, and the elimination of nearly all political rivals.



The United States, United Nations and European Union condemned last month's polls as neither free nor fair.



Hun Sen rejected those allegations and said his handover, a dynastic succession compared by some critics to North Korea, was being done to maintain peace and avoid "bloodshed" should he die in office.



He also warned that should Hun Manet's life be seriously endangered, he would return as prime minister.



While groomed for the position for years, the eldest son of Cambodia's iron-fisted ruler remains untested in the political arena, analysts say.



And there are few expectations Hun Manet will chart a more liberal path than his father, despite being educated in England and the United States.



A member of the ruling party's powerful permanent committee, he has been the Royal Cambodian Army's commander since 2018.



Hun Manet has also met some world leaders including President Xi Jinping of China, Cambodia's main ally and a significant benefactor.



After stepping down, Hun Sen will become president of the Senate early next year and acting head of state when the king is overseas.
Military officials in Cameroon say they have found a mass grave near the border with Nigeria containing the bodies of nine civilians, including five government officials, who were abducted by rebels in June 2021. Government troops were led to the mass grave by a separatist fighter who participated in the killing, but surrendered and joined a disarmament and demobilization center.

Cameroon's military says government troops exhumed the bodies from the mass grave, located about 20 kilometers from Ekondo Titi, a town in Ndian, an administrative unit on the border with Nigeria.

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Nguele said he led several dozen Cameroon government troops to the mass grave Saturday. He said they exhumed the bodies after a reconnaissance mission to the area, which is prone to regular separatist attacks. He said Cameroons government has asked the military to transport the human remains to Buea, capital of the English-speaking Southwest Region for families to identify and collect for reburial. Nguele said Cameroon can now confirm the individuals as dead and no longer missing.

Nguele said the victims were abducted in Ndian by a self-proclaimed separatist general known as 10 Kobo on June 15, 2021.

At the time, separatists claimed responsibility on social media and said the officials were abducted for collaborating with Cameroon's central government in Yaounde.

One of the officials, Mabia Johnson Mudika, was killed three days later, while the other five were considered missing until the mass grave was found over the weekend.

Last month, Tamaya Clinton, a 24-year-old separatist fighter who disarmed and surrendered to authorities in Cameroon's Southwest Region, said the officials were killed by separatist fighters. He promised to take government troops to the grave where the officials were buried.

The military did not say if Tamaya took them to the mass grave or not.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of Cameroon's Southwest Region, said the discovery of the mass grave once more indicates how brutal and insensitive separatist fighters are to civilians. He said the English-speaking elite should go to their towns and villages and ask fighters who are still hiding with weapons in the bush to surrender and be forgiven or otherwise be killed by government troops. He said the military will track fighters who have killed civilians and government officials since the separatist crisis erupted.

Bilai spoke on Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV.

Cameroons separatist crisis conflict began in 2017, after teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, where English is the predominant language, protested alleged discrimination from the countrys French-speaking majority.

The military responded with a crackdown and fighters took up weapons claiming to defend English-speaking civilians from what separatists described as extreme military brutality.

The conflict has killed an estimated 6,000 people and displaced more than three quarters of a million, according to the International Crisis Group.
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A woman is arrested for apparently conspiring in an assassination plot targeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia continues attacks on Ukraine, striking a blood donation center as the Ukrainian navy strikes a bridge in Crimea. We chat with Human Rights Watch about possible war crimes in Lymann
After its defeat, Japans post-war constitution curtailed its armed forces and renounced war as a right of the nation. Growing threats from neighboring China and North Korea, however, have a prompted a radical change of course, as Japan embarks on a significant overhaul of its self-defense forces.

Japan is this week marking the 78th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and brought an end to World War II.



Atomic bombing

The United States Air Force dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945. Three days later, a second nuclear weapon targeted the port city of Nagasaki. Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his countrys surrender on August 15.

Sueichi Kido was five years old when the bomb was dropped over his home city of Nagasaki on August 9. He lived around two kilometers from the epicenter of the blast.

That morning, several mothers had gathered outside our home to prepare a meal of somen noodles, the 83-year-old told VOA.

Then I heard the sound of an airplane. One of the mothers said that it was strange, as the sound was very powerful. She said it was definitely an American airplane.

At the moment when I looked up in that direction, I was bathed in a flash of light, and with a boom, I was thrown about 20 meters away and passed out. My mother had burns to her face and chest. Half of my face was burned.

An estimated 215,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Radiation sickness and cancers caused by the nuclear blasts would kill tens of thousands more in the months and years that followed.

Anniversary

Sueichi Kido travelled to Hiroshima August 6 to mark the anniversary, along with several other atomic bomb survivors  known in Japan as hibakusha  from his home prefecture of Gifu.

Kido has spent much of his life campaigning for peace and nuclear disarmament. He fears the world has failed to heed that message.

Every citizen in the world is now in danger of becoming a hibakusha. With [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's invasion of Ukraine, that danger is more present than ever. The possibility that nuclear weapons could actually be used has become very close, he said.

That sentiment was echoed by the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, who addressed the delegates gathered in the citys Peace Park, below the epicenter of the nuclear explosion.

Given the reality that there are some who would use nuclear threats, leaders around the world need to face up to the fact that the theory of nuclear deterrence has failed and urgently begin to take concrete steps to move us away from the dangerous present towards our ideal world, Matsui said.

Japan military

Japans defeat in 1945 saw its military curtailed to a small self-defense force. Its post-war constitution still renounces war as a right of the nation.

The voices calling for disarmament are competing with the reality of an increasingly tense and militarized Indo-Pacific region.

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles into the Sea of Japan in recent months. Meanwhile, Chinas military actions around Taiwan and the South China Sea are seen as a direct threat to Japan, says Tetsuo Kotani of the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. China considers self-administered Taiwan a wayward province.

There's a huge gap between Japan and China in terms of defense capabilities. So now the Japanese political leadership recognize that we have to fill this gap and the Japanese general public, you know, they are also supporting the Japanese political leadership because the Japanese people witnessed what happened to Ukraine, Kotani told VOA.

Defense spending

In 2014, Japans late former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, initiated an increase in defense spending and a more flexible interpretation of the constitution.

Those changes have taken on a new urgency in recent months. In a policy document published last December, Japan outlined plans to double defense spending by 2027 and acquire strike capabilities against foreign bases  for decades a red line.

Public attitudes to nuclear weapons are also evolving, says analyst Kotani.

Because Japan is the only victim of an atomic bombing, there is a consensus among the Japanese general public that Japan should seek nuclear disarmament, rather than a nuclear arms race. But given that fact that Japans neighboring countries  North Korea, China, Russia  are all increasing their nuclear arsenal and capabilities, the Japanese general public recognizes that we have to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, he told VOA.

Hibakusha hopes

Sueichi Kido, like many of the "hibakusha who experienced the atomic bombings, fears humanity is edging toward renewed global conflict.

I'm worried. The most important thing to understand is this: disagreement between the countries of the world is not something that can be resolved by force, Kido said.

Japan is entering a new era: discarding its post-war aversion to a powerful military.

Meanwhile, with each passing year, the number of atomic bomb survivors is dwindling. Their lasting hope is that the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be forgotten.
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Russian shelling in Kherson and Kharkiv killed at least three people and wounded three others.

The Ukrainian Security Service said Monday that it had detained a Russian informant aiming to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while he was visiting the Mykolaiv region in July.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba requested ATACMS long-range missiles in a phone call Monday with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken.

At least seven people died and 31 were injured after Russian missiles hit residential areas in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region and in Kupiansk district.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Monday that four civilians died in the first attack while a Donetsk emergency official was killed during a second attack.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, later reported two more victims of Russian strikes in Kruhliakivka village in Kupiansk district.

Videos and pictures released by Ukrainian officials showed people sifting through the rubble including a badly damaged five-story apartment building while an ambulance emergency team was on the scene treating the wounded.

Jeddah summit

The United States characterized as productive China's participation at the Jeddah peace summit on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this past weekend.

Neutral China agreed to participate in the two-day meeting aimed at finding a peaceful resolution of Russia's war in Ukraine.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland held a brief sideline meeting in Jeddah with China's Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Beijing would uphold an independent and impartial position on a peace settlement.

Wang said China would serve as an "objective and rational voice" at any international forums and "actively promote peace talks."

Western officials and analysts say Saudi diplomacy was important to securing China's presence at the talks.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom has kept ties with both sides, presenting itself as a mediator and seeking a bigger role on the world stage.

Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, said Monday that the talks dealt a "huge blow" to Russia as the participants agreed to a follow-up meeting.

"We will hold another meeting within a month [to a] month-and-a-half and we will move towards [holding] a summit," Yermak said at a news briefing.

Senior officials from 42 countries participated in the two-day Jeddah peace summit. Russia was not invited to the high-level talks.

Yermak said all the countries present at the talks fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity, and that only peace initiatives put forward by Ukraine were discussed at the meeting.

He acknowledged that participants had not come to an agreement on parts of Zelenskyy's 10-point peace formula, which calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops and return of all Ukrainian territory to Kyiv's control.

With the exception of Russia the high-level talks included delegates from all other BRICS bloc nations: Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

Moscow chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful resolution for the Ukraine war without including Russia in the talks, which it described as lacking "the slightest added value."

During the two-day summit, the head of Brazil's delegation, foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim, stressed that "any real negotiation must include all parties," including Russia, according to a copy of his statement shared with Agence France Presse.

Moscow dismissed the talks as a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv.

Russia grain attacks

U.N. Spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a news briefing Monday that Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown visited the Danube port of Izmail on Saturday, three days after it was hit in an attack on a grain storage facility that damaged thousands of tons of grain that would have been enough to feed approximately 66 million people for a day.

This attack, which is not an isolated incident, follows Russia's decision to exit the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a move that is already impacting global food prices and is affecting the most vulnerable people.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Russia's intensification of attacks on Ukrainian ports, calling for the immediate cessation of all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continues to sound the alarm about the plight of civilians already facing a dire situation in Ukraine, as the intensification of attacks affecting critical civilian infrastructure in the country will likely worsen humanitarian needs.

Ukrainian counteroffensive

Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Monday said Kyiv's counteroffensive is progressing at a steady pace, and that its defensive lines are stable as troops repel Russian attempts to counterattack and distract Ukrainian forces from other parts of the front.

"Heavy fighting is underway, and step-by-step, Ukrainian troops are continuing to create the conditions to advance," Zaluzhnyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app after a telephone call with U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley. "The initiative is on our side."

Ukraine has so far recaptured several villages in the south and regained some territory around the ravaged city of Bakhmut in the east but has not achieved a breakthrough yet against heavily entrenched Russian lines.

Ukraine's deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said Russia was using all its resources to stop Kyiv's advance, but that Ukrainian troops were advancing steadily toward the southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian officials have responded to criticism that the counteroffensive is going slowly, saying they are trying to avoid high casualties as they attack well-fortified Russian lines that are strewn with landmines.

In its latest assessment on the war in Ukraine, Britain's defense ministry said Monday that Russia's air force continues to deploy "considerable resources" in support of ground operations in Ukraine, "but without operational effect."

The ministry says Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 missions a day, but they are almost always restricted to Russian-controlled territory "due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses."

The assessment also said that while Russian attack helicopters had proved effective at the start of Ukraine's southern counteroffensive that began in June, it appears to be less able "to generate effective tactical airpower in the south."

Some information is from VOA's U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

Russian shelling in Kherson and Kharkiv has killed at least three people total and wounded three others

U.K. Defense Ministry says attacks by Russian air forces are waning in effectiveness in latest assessment of war

Russia called the Jeddah peace talks on Ukraine a doomed attempt by the West to rally the Global South behind Kyiv, the state news agency TASS reported.

A Ukrainian woman was killed in Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, local officials said.

Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on his Telegram messaging app account that the shelling had started around midnight and lasted for several hours.

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and three others wounded in Russian shelling of border areas in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, Reuters reported, quoting Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraines presidential office.

The news agency says 22 Ukrainian soldiers have returned home as part of the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges on Monday, also quoting Yermak.

Yermak said the released service members included two officers, sergeants and privates who fought in different parts of the front. Some of them were wounded.

In its latest assessment on the war in Ukraine, Britains defense ministry Monday said Russias air force continues to deploy considerable resources in support of ground operations in Ukraine, but without operational effect.

The ministry says Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 missions a day, but they are almost always restricted to Russian-controlled territory

due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses.

The assessment also said that while Russian attack helicopters had proved effective at the start of Ukraines southern counter-offensive that began in June, it appears to be less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south.

Peace talks end in Saudi Arabia

Separately, the Jeddah summit on finding a peaceful end to Russias war against Ukraine concluded Sunday, with participants agreeing to continue discussions toward peace, according to a closing statement released by host Saudi Arabia.

Senior officials from 42 countries participated in the two-day Jeddah peace summit, but none were from Russia.

Ukraimes Yermak, on Sunday called talks held in Jeddah very productive, while Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to sway the Global South behind Kyiv.

The high-level talks included delegates from the world economies of the BRICS group, Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

The head of Brazil's delegation, foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim, stressed, however, that "any real negotiation must include all parties," including Russia, according to a copy of his statement shared with AFP.

"Although Ukraine is the biggest victim, if we really want peace, we have to involve Moscow in this process in some form," he said.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan led Washington's delegation at Jeddah, a senior White House official said.

Western officials and analysts said Saudi diplomacy had been important in securing China's presence at the talks.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom has kept ties with both sides presenting itself as a mediator and seeking a bigger role on the world stage.

In his nightly video address from Jeddah, Zelenskyy said, The greater the consolidation of the world for the sake of restoring a just peace is, the sooner an end will be put to the bombs and missiles with which Moscow wants to replace the norms of international law.

Russia was not involved in this weekends talks and said it wouldnt be part of the summit planned for the fall.

Beyond its Western backers, Ukraine hoped to garner diplomatic support from more Global South countries, including Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey emphasizing how food prices have risen after Russia quit the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal last month and began attacking Ukrainian port facilities.

Some information for this story came from Reuters.
Lebanon is sending two helicopters to join Greek and Jordanian aircraft in helping European Union member Cyprus fight a blaze that has scorched miles of mountainous terrain, an official said Monday.

Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis told The Associated Press that neighboring Lebanon is expected to send a pair of choppers as the wildfire continues to reignite on several fronts.

Two Greek Canadair aircraft have been dispatched to help douse the fire in the mountains about 17 kilometers north of the coastal town of Limassol. Jordan is sending three aircraft of its own, including two Super Puma helicopters and a Russian-made Mi26 helicopter. The multinational effort is battling a blaze that has scorched as much as 10 square kilometers of land.

Environment Ministry Secretary Andreas Gregoriou, who is coordinating firefighting efforts, told state-run Cyprus News Agency that talks are ongoing with Israel for additional air support if needed.

Greece's Civil Protection Ministry said 20 tons of fire retardant is also on its way to Cyprus.

Fire Department spokesman Andreas Kettis posted on the platform known as X, formerly Twitter, that although the fire was brought under partial control early Monday, it rekindled along several areas, forcing air and ground crews to again mobilize.

The spokesman had earlier posted that ground crews were working to hem in the blaze by building firebreaks.

Officials expressed concerns that the fire could rekindle because of expected strong winds later in the day.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted on X that he has given instructions for an initial estimate of the damage to private and state-owned property.

Officials said the residents of three villages have returned to their homes after being instructed to evacuate as a precaution.

Gregoriou, who surveyed the area by helicopter along with the countrys fire chief, told state broadcaster CyBC that hundreds of fire fighters, including volunteers, managed to contain the fire overnight because winds had died down considerably.

The fire started Friday, but authorities said a day later it had been contained. Gregoriou said the blaze apparently reignited on its own, dispelling suggestions that it couldve been the work of arsonists.
Police records show that for the past five years suicide cases in Malawi have jumped from 128 in 2018 to 292 last year.

Police statistics given to VOA show that the current suicide rate is at 11.6 per 100,000 people, higher than the global average of 10.5 per 100,000.

Peter Kalaya, a spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service, said the records show that more youths are committing suicide than older persons.

And what topped the list are issues to do with disagreement in relationships such as marital problems. Even for young girls who killed themselves  most of the reasons were that of relationship issues for example, failing to accept that a relationship has ended.

However, Kalaya said other people have killed themselves because of economic problems.

Charles Masulani, a mental health expert, said another contributing factor might be unrealistic parental expectations or negative parenting.

There are a lot of parents that psychologically stress their children but also serious expectations; the child might be doing well at school but not performing well, the child, to run away from those problems, might also resort to commit suicide, said Masulani.

A shortage of public mental health care is seen as a contributing factor to the problem.

Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has only one public mental hospital, Zomba Mental Hospital, and few privately-owed mental health facilities.

While facilities are few, our mental health seeking behaviors are quite low because mental health in Malawi is stigmatized. So, lets say if you are stressed up, for you to go to psychiatric hospital, you fear that people will say Oh, he is mad. And the problem is quite huge, especially among men, Masulani said.

Harry Kawiya, a clinical officer with the Zomba Mental Hospital in the Zomba district, said suicide cases are likely under reported.

It is very difficult for us to have the actual prevalence rate of suicide because of our laws which take suicide as a crime. So, a lot of suicide [attempts] are happening but people are not reporting because of fear of being arrested, said Kawiya.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare in Malawi, Pauline Kaude, told VOA that rise in suicide cases is concerning.

Kaude said the government has developed several strategies to cope with the issue. One targets men who she says have faced gender-based violence but have been too shy to voice their problems. They encourage victims to seek support from service providers.

Kalaya says police, through their Victim Support Unit, work to educate people to seek psychosocial solutions whenever they face problems rather than resorting to killing themselves.
The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and NATO's strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said.

"I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend's floods," Stoltenberg said.

On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.

The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU's Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The flooding in Slovenia was the worst in recent history in Slovenia, a country of some 2 million people, according to Slovenian officials.

France is sending two excavators with engineering units to Slovenia, while Germany is sending two prefabricated temporary bridges and two excavators with the accompanying staff, the European Commission said.

Bulgaria and Croatia have also offered support, including helicopters, excavators, prefabricated bridges and engineering teams. The United States has also deployed staff to Ljubljana to assess the situation and determine urgent humanitarian needs.

The German Interior Ministry said it was sending a team from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief to Slovenia. The first team, specialized in rescue, was expected to arrive Monday and additional teams were expected to follow.

The floods were caused by torrential rains Friday that caused rivers to swell swiftly and burst into houses, fields, villages and towns. Slovenia's weather service said a month's worth of rain fell in less than a day.

Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fueled by climate change. Parts of Europe have seen record heat and wildfires this summer.

Entire villages are still under water in Slovenia. Crops have been destroyed and cars stuck in mud. Major highways in parts of Slovenia have been closed. Many bridges have also collapsed.

Slovenian authorities warned of danger from possible mudslides and swollen rivers that could overflow at any time, overtaking banks of sandbags placed by emergency teams.

Several severe storms in the Alpine nation earlier in the summer blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region.

Flash floods were also reported in neighboring Austria and Croatia and heavy rains and storms caused major damage farther east in Serbia, which is downstream from the swollen Sava river that flows from Slovenia and Croatia over the Balkans.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the countrys key weapons factories, including those producing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and pledged to speed up efforts to advance his militarys arms and war readiness, state media said Sunday.

Kims three-day inspections through Saturday came as the United States and South Korea prepared for their next round of combined military exercises planned for later this month to counter the growing North Korean threat.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as the pace of North Koreas missile tests and the joint U.S.-South Korea military drills, which Kim portrays as invasion rehearsals, have both intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

Some experts say Kims tour of the weapons factories could also be related to possible military cooperation with Moscow that may involve North Korean supplies of artillery and other ammunition as Russian President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support in the war in Ukraine.

Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Friday that Kim's staged visits to the arms factories are possibly aimed at both demonstrating North Korea's military might in the face of U.S.-South Korean drills and also communicating an intent to export weapons.

We express deep regret that North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) as well as conventional weapons at the expense of the wellbeing of its citizens, Koo said during a briefing.

During a visit to an unspecified factory producing large-caliber artillery systems, Kim stressed the facilitys important responsibility and duty in further boosting his militarys war preparations, North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim praised the factorys efforts to employ scientific and technological measures to improve the quality of shells, reduce processing times for propellent tubes and increase manufacturing speed. He also urged the factory to move ahead with development and large-scale production of new kinds of ammunition, the KCNA said.

Kim echoed the message in visits to two other factories, calling the delivery of launcher

trucks designed to transport and fire ballistic missiles a top priority for the military and urging for the rapid expansion of production of more reliable engines for cruise missiles and drones.

North Korean photos showed Kim walking past huge launcher trucks designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles which recent tests indicated they could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. Other photos showed Kim firing scoped rifles during a visit to a small arms factory where he said soldiers' firearms need to be modernized, according to KCNA.

In the face of deepening confrontations with Washington and Seoul, Kim has been trying boost the visibility of his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he tries to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert himself into a united front against the United States.

His tour of the weapons factories comes after a giant military parade last month in North Koreas capital, Pyongyang, where Kim was joined by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese ruling party official while rolling out his most powerful missiles designed to target South Korea and the United States.

Shoigus presence at the July 27 parade, which came after Kim took him on a tour of a domestic arms exhibition, demonstrated North Koreas support for Russias invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to supply arms to Russia to support its war efforts.

Cheong Seong Chang, an analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Kims visits to the factories likely had a dual goal of encouraging the modernization of domestically produced weapons and examining artillery and other supplies that can possibly be exported to Russia.

Kims comments at the artillery factory about improving the quality of shells and the need to develop new types of ammunition, which he described as key to the countrys national defense economic work, clearly communicate an intent for exports to Russia, Cheong said.

When asked whether North Korea has ever used the term national defense economic work in government comments before, Koo didn't answer directly but described it as very rare.

If they meant arms exports with this, then they are openly pledging to violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, and I think that would be deplorable, Koo said.

North Korea has been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the hegemonic policy of the U.S.-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. But Pyongyang has denied U.S. accusations that it has been providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine.

Cheong said Kims comments at the factory about making missile-launch trucks could indicate that the North is seeing some progress in increasing the production of those vehicles, which would possibly improve the operational range of its ballistic weapons designed to target neighboring rivals and the U.S. mainland.
The Philippine government summoned China's ambassador Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guards use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said.

The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan expressed support for the Philippines and concern over the Chinese actions. Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if Philippine public vessels and forces come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference Monday at which they showed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal. One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons. Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

This was like a David and Goliath situation, Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

Malaya emphasized that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said China's ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas, Daza said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorization into the shoal, which Beijing calls Ren'ai Jiao. It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that invalidated its claims in 2016 by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejects that ruling and continues to defy it.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement Sunday that by firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, [Chinese] ships interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It added that such actions are a direct threat to regional peace and stability."

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often criticized Chinas aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says are in Americas national interest.

China has told the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. Monday of threatening China by raising the possibility of the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty being activated.
Poland's government on Monday accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating another migration influx into the European Union via the Polish border in order to destabilize the region.

"We're talking about an operation organized by the Russian and Belarusian secret services that is getting more and more intense," Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told reporters.

Tomasz Praga, the head of the Polish border guard, added that the Belarusian services had become "a criminal group that is masterminding illegal migration."

"Of course, they are making huge profits from it," he told reporters.

During a previous border crisis, starting in the summer of 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees -- mostly from the Middle East -- crossed or attempted to cross into Poland from neighboring Belarus.

At the time the West accused the Belarusian regime of orchestrating the influx with its ally Russia in a "hybrid" attack, a type of warfare using non-military tactics -- a charge Minsk denied.

Poland reacted then by setting up a no-access zone at the border, which lasted for nine months and banned non-residents including migrants, aid workers and media from the area.

It also sent thousands of troops and police officers to reinforce border guard patrols at the height of the crisis, built a steel wall along the border and approved a law allowing migrants to be forced back into Belarus.

Wasik said the situation "is not as chaotic today as it was two years ago.

According to Praga, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus so far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022.

Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border.

In response, the border guard on Monday called on the defense ministry to send 1,000 additional troops to the border.
More than 1,000 firefighters were on Sunday battling a wildfire in central Portugal that has destroyed 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of land and slightly injured 11 people.

Temperatures were above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some regions of Portugal and authorities said wildfire risks would remain "very high or at maximum level across the entire country" over the coming days.

Around 7,000 hectares were destroyed in the district of Castelo Branco in the center of the country but the commander of the firefighting operation, Jose Gulherme, said the potential risk from the blaze could be as high as "more than 20,000 hectares.

"It's a very extensive area with many isolated homes and villages," he told journalists, adding that the fire perimeter already extended 60 kilometers (40 miles).

Smoke and ash from the blaze, which started on Friday, had spread more than 130 kilometers east on Saturday to the town of Fatima, where Pope Francis was holding a service at a revered Catholic shrine with more than 200,000 pilgrims.

A further 400 firefighters were deployed to battle a separate wildfire in Odemira, near the southwest coast.

Civil security official Tiago Bugio said the flames in Odemira were being beaten back on Sunday. Two fronts were still active but a third, which had been heading toward the southern tourist mecca of the Algarve, was now under control.

Authorities warned the risk of wildfires remained extremely high across the country.

In neighboring Spain, at least five water bomber planes were deployed to a large-scale fire that threatened homes near the southern cities of Puerto Real and Cadiz, a popular tourist destination.

On the northeastern coast of Spain, a blaze that started on Friday in Catalonia and destroyed nearly 600 hectares of land, was mostly under control on Sunday despite strong winds.

Early assessments by government suggest over 1,000 hectares have been blackened by fires in Spain over the last three days.

Temperatures in the southernmost Andalusia region approached nearly 40C on Sunday and the country was bracing for a further heat wave on Monday.
Rights groups and activists protested Monday outside the Laos Embassy in London to demand the release of a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who was arrested in Laos last month after fleeing China and who now faces the risk of repatriation.

Lu Siwei was arrested in Laos on July 28 as he tried to travel to the United States to reunite with his wife and daughter, according to rights groups now assisting Lu.

Lu has often taken on politically sensitive cases including one involving 12 Hong Kong citizens who were arrested by the Chinese coast guard in 2020 as they tried to flee on a boat to Taiwan. He was disbarred around a year later for an online speech that allegedly "endangered national security."

Lu had been placed under a so-called "exit ban" by Chinese authorities since May 2021, barring him from leaving the country. During this journey, however, the rights groups said Lu had a valid passport and visas for Laos and the United States.

An open letter signed by over 85 rights groups including Amnesty International demanding Lu's release was handed to a Laos official at the embassy as protesters held up signs including "China Cannot Be Trusted," according to online posts.

"We are gravely concerned that he (Lu) is at serious risk of forced repatriation to China where he faces the high likelihood of torture and other ill-treatment," the letter read.

Lu's wife, Zang Chunxiao, in a YouTube video, had earlier called for Lu to be given access to lawyers and foreign diplomats.

Lu was arrested on suspicion of using "fraudulent travel documents," according to a letter written by the Laos Embassy.

"If found guilty Mr. Siwei will be deported," the embassy wrote in the letter dated August 4 and seen by Reuters, that was addressed to Chakra Ip, the head of "29 Principles," a U.K.-based group supporting lawyers facing oppression.

The Laos embassy gave no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment.
Four Iranians, including two police officers, were killed and at least 11 other people injured when several buildings collapsed in the capital of Tehran, local media reported Monday.

The police officers were securing the planned demolition on Sunday of "unauthorized buildings" in the city's southwest, ISNA news agency said that day, reporting at least three deaths in the incident.

Tasnim news agency on Monday said "four people including two policemen and two civilians died following the collapse of unauthorized buildings in the southwest of Tehran."

Rescue operations were underway to find others who may be trapped under the rubble, ISNA and Tasnim reported.

According to ISNA, authorities had begun the demolition of one building when five others collapsed.

The report quoted a police statement saying the buildings which collapsed did not comply "with construction safety measures."

A Tehran city official said on Saturday that authorities had demolished more than 46,000 unauthorized buildings over the past two years, according to the newspaper Hamshahri.

In May 2022, a building collapse in Iran's southwest killed 43 people, in one of the country's deadliest such incidents.

The collapse of the 10-story Metropol building, which had been under construction in the city of Abadan in Khuzestan province, sparked protests across the country.
Its all about speed and skill  in the air and on the water. In Seattle, the annual Seafair summer festival concluded with Coast Guard rescue operation demonstrations, U.S. Navy Blue Angels aerobatics and the fastest hydroplanes in the world racing for the Gold Cup. Natasha Mozgovaya reports from Lake Washington.
Several thousand people  their faces covered to conceal their identities  marched through Haiti's capital on Monday demanding protection from violent gangs that are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.

Haitians' daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.

"We want security!" the crowd chanted as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister's official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.

"I can't work. I can't go out. I'm like a prisoner in my own home," said Wilene Joseph, a 36-year-old street vendor and mother of two who joined the march out of frustration.

"I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying from all directions all the time," Joseph said of her children, ages 5 and 7. "The situation is unacceptable."

Since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, experts say gangs have seized control of up to 80% of Port-au-Prince, killing, raping and sowing terror in communities already suffering endemic poverty.

From January to March, more than 1,600 people have been reported killed, injured or kidnapped, a nearly 30% increase compared with the last three months of 2022, according to the newest U.N. report.

On Monday, UNICEF announced an "alarming spike" in kidnappings, with nearly 300 confirmed cases so far this year, almost equaling the number reported for all of last year, and almost three times the total for 2021.

The agency noted that women and children are increasingly being kidnapped and used for financial or tactical gain. Among those kidnapped in late July was Alix Dorsainvil, a U.S. nurse from New Hampshire, and her young daughter. Dorsainvil works for El Roi Haiti, a Christian organization that offers medical care, education and other services. She and her daughter remain in the hands of their captors, who are demanding $1 million in ransom.

Parents of young children are particularly fearful that gangs will snatch them when they go to and from school. Nacheline Nore, 40, said her two boys, ages 10 and 8, have to call her every day as soon as they step inside their school, and she rides back home with them every afternoon: "You don't know who's going to be the next target," she said.

Mario Jenty, a 36-year-old cell phone vendor who joined Monday's march, said the increase in kidnappings is pushing Haitians into even deeper poverty. "They're going to have to sell that home to pay for ransom, and there's a chance they might not be released," he said of the victims.

Jenty, who lives in Carrefour-Feuilles, said he would not allow gangs to take over his neighborhood. "I'm going to fight this," he said. "I'd rather die than leave my community."

Jenty joined the thousands of Haitians who yelled "Bwa kale!" on Monday as they marched, a reference to a violent uprising that began earlier this year, with civilians targeting suspected gang members. More than 200 people have been slain since then, and demonstrators vowed to keep the movement alive as gangs overwhelm Haiti's understaffed and under resourced police department.

Last October, Haiti's prime minister and other top-ranking officials requested the urgent deployment of an international armed force to help quell gang violence.

In late July, Kenya offered to lead a multinational police force, but the U.N. Security Council has yet to vote on a resolution to authorize a non-U.N. multinational mission. The United States said last week that it would put forward such a resolution.
A mother is suing the city of Detroit, saying unreliable facial recognition technology led to her being falsely arrested for carjacking while she was eight months pregnant.

Porcha Woodruff was getting her two children ready for school the morning of February 16 when a half-dozen police officers showed up at her door to arrest her, taking her away in handcuffs, the 32-year-old Detroit woman said in a federal lawsuit.

"They presented her with an arrest warrant for robbery and carjacking, leaving her baffled and assuming it was a joke, given her visibly pregnant state," her attorney wrote in a lawsuit accusing the city of false arrest.

The suit, filed Thursday, argues that police relied on facial recognition technology that should not be trusted, given "inherent flaws and unreliability, particularly when attempting to identify Black individuals" such as Woodruff.

Some experts say facial recognition technology is more prone to error when analyzing the faces of people of color.

In a statement Sunday, the Wayne County prosecutor's office said the warrant that led to Woodruff's arrest was on solid ground, NBC News reported.

"The warrant was appropriate based upon the facts," it said.

The case began in late January, when police investigating a reported carjacking by a gunman used imagery from a gas station's security video to track down a woman believed to have been involved in the crime, according to the suit.

Facial recognition analysis from the video identified Woodruff as a possible match, the suit said.

Woodruff's picture from a 2015 arrest was in a set of photos shown to the carjacking victim, who picked her out, according to the lawsuit.

Woodruff was freed on bond the day of her arrest and the charges against her were later dropped due to insufficient evidence, the civil complaint maintained.

"This case highlights the significant flaws associated with using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects," the suit argued.

Woodruff's suit seeks unspecified financial damages plus legal fees.
The spokesman said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

"Niger's armed forces and all our defense and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory," a junta representative said in a statement on national television.

After the ECOWAS deadline passed Sunday for Nigers military to stand down and restore President Mohamed Bazoum, military leaders there issued a pledge to defend the country and closed Nigers airspace.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said it would hold an extraordinary summit Thursday in Abuja, the capital of neighboring Nigeria, according to spokesperson Emos Lungu.

West African leaders say they will meet on Thursday to discuss the crisis in Niger after the countrys military rulers defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president or face a possible military intervention.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around Niger's airspace. The United Nations said its humanitarian flights have also been grounded because of the closed airspace.

Also Monday, neighboring Mali said it and Burkina Faso would send a delegation of officials to Niger to show support for the military rulers.

Both countries  which have fallen to military coups in recent years  have said military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Alex Vines, the head of the Africa program at think tank Chatham House, told VOA that he is not surprised Mali and Burkina Faso have supported Niger.

They're afraid of a regional economic community intervening and restoring democracy. And that's not what they stand for, he said.

Another nation led by coup leaders, Guinea, has also expressed support for Nigers military takeover.

Vines said he was surprised by Guineas support because the junta there has been trying to distance itself from the other juntas.

I guess it shows how fearful they are that a values-based intervention that is about preserving and supporting democratic processes and accountable government is something that they dont welcome, he said.

On Friday, West African defense chiefs drew up a plan for a possible military intervention in Niger if the countrys military leaders did not release and reinstall Bazoum.

"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, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said Friday.

The 15-nation bloc has sent military forces into member states in the past. However, it is not clear if ECOWAS members will support military action in Niger to resolve the current crisis.

Nigerias Senate urged the bloc to focus on political and diplomatic options instead of the use of force.

Italy urged ECOWAS to extend the deadline for Nigers military leaders to back down, and called for a diplomatic solution.

"A solution must be found. It's not set that there is no way other than war," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa newspaper.

Nigers military rulers have not shown much interest in negotiating.

An ECOWAS diplomatic delegation that arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, on Thursday ended up leaving without meeting junta chief General Abdourahamane Tchiani or Bazoum.

Residents in Niamey have been stockpiling food and supplies in anticipation of a tense week ahead. Some have expressed support for the coup and used the situation to express anti-French sentiment. Protesters in Niamey on Sunday slaughtered a rooster a national symbol of France  painted with the countrys tricolor.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated Monday his full support to ECOWAS ongoing mediation efforts, and expressed concern over the continued detention of Bazoum and the failure so far to restore constitutional order in Niger, according to a U.N. spokesperson.

Besides the United Nations reaction, the coup has been widely condemned by the African Union and Western governments. 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 in a statement on Friday. But he said humanitarian and food aid would continue.

The State Department said Monday the paused aid is valued at more than $100 million and includes development assistance, security assistance and law enforcement assistance.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the suspended aid could be reversed if Nigers military leaders reinstate the elected government.

If the junta leaders would step aside and restore constitutional order tomorrow, that pause would  go away and security systems would be reinstated, he said.

Miller said U.S. officials are still able to communicate with Bazoum and that their most recent contact was on Monday. He also said there has also been direct U.S. contact with Niger military leaders, urging them to step aside.

Niger, one of the worlds poorest countries, has the highest fertility rate in Africa and depends heavily on foreign aid.

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 July 26, Tchiani, the former head of Niger's presidential guard, declared himself the countrys new leader, saying the power grab was necessary because of ongoing insecurity in the country caused by an Islamist insurgency.

Niger has been a partner in the fight against counterterrorism in the Sahel, where militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State are operating. Both the United States and France have troops in Niger focused on counterterror operations.

Last week, Nigers military leaders read a decision on national television ending bilateral military agreements with France, Nigers former colonial ruler.

It is not clear what will happen to the French military presence consisting of 1,500 troops or the 1,000 U.S. military personnel in the country.

Pentagon officials said Monday there was no change to the force posture of the of U.S. troops in Niger and no plans to evacuate them.

VOA correspondents Anita Powell at the White House and Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. Some information for this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The indictment of Donald Trump on charges that he attempted to defraud the US of its democracy seems unlikely to have a significant impact on his standing in the Republican presidential field. Neither facts nor law are valued currencies in the contemporary GOP, while Trumps core competencies  lies, rage, whataboutism  very much are.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released last week, before the latest indictment, highlighted that Republican voters have limited appetite for candidates embracing democratic norms and rule of law. A majority of GOP voters prefer another off-road adventure with the shady Sun King of Mar-a-Lago; most others remain open to supporting him even if they are uncommitted now.

If for some reason the wild ride is cut short, Florida Governor Ron DeSantiss authoritarian jalopy looks to be the backup vehicle. (DeSantis last week sharpened his anti-democratic rhetoric, saying he would start slitting throats of federal civil servants if elected.)

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Yet paradoxically, as Trump has become more dominant in the race, the presence of the also-rans has grown more important.

Added together, candidates Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Will Hurd, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence and Tim Scott have at most a 10% share of the electorate. If we add the waffly former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to the pro-democracy group, the collective share rises to a meager 13%. (The democratic affections of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy seem dubious.)

Its hard to imagine any of these candidates catapulting into contention for the nomination. The tag team of Trump and DeSantis together have consistently attracted almost three-quarters of the GOP primary electorate. And as Trumps former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Politico, Republican voters arent confused about Trumps merits. If they want a knife fighter who pays porn stars, theyre gonna get it, Mulvaney said.

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What Republicans clearly dont want is someone like former Representative Will Hurd of Texas speaking the truth. Hurd was roundly booed in Iowa recently when he said that Trump was running for president expressly to  stay out of prison . Like Fox News viewers who decamped for Newsmax when Fox briefly dabbled in truth after the 2020 election, GOP voters rebel when they arent served their preferred gospel.

Every Republican candidate understands that fact, which is why its significant that a few are telling the truth anyway. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called Trumps post-election efforts a stain and a disgrace. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson noted Trump is morally responsible for the attack on the US Capitol.

Even less confrontational rhetoric can still be useful in reminding Republican voters that not every conservative vision is a combustion of grift and White rage. When Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina announced his presidential campaign in May, he made a more subtle, but no less obvious, contrast with Trumpism.

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The choice for America, Scott said, was between victimhood or victory. Then he said it again. Victimhood or victory. Then he said it once more. Victimhood or victory. In case you somehow missed the point, Scott recast the choice as grievance or greatness.

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Scott has been a paragon of weakness in acquiescing to Trumps corruption, but he has never traveled Trumps low road. Similarly, former Vice President Mike Pence was roused from political slumber to point out, in the wake of Trumps most recent indictment, that no one who puts himself above the Constitution belonged in the White House. He followed up by confessing, in his clearest language yet, that Trump had unambiguously demanded that Pence defy the Constitution to subvert the 2020 election.

In a video previewing his own all-but-hopeless presidential candidacy, North Dakota Governor and tech billionaire Doug Burgum said: Anger, yelling, infighting, thats not gonna cut it anymore. Lets get things done. In North Dakota, we listen with respect and we talk things out. Decency, competence and respectful democratic political give-and-take are all, of course, contrasts with Trumpism.

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These democratic messages arent selling. But just as a largely powerless Charles de Gaulle placed in French minds an honorable alternative to Petainism in the 1940s, Republicans need a conceptual holding space for decency and democracy even as they descend deeper into the degradations of Trumpism.

For American democracy to continue, tens of millions of American conservatives must recommit themselves to democratic norms. No one knows if the GOP can still provide a vehicle for that.

Another round of damning, documented, criminal charges against Trump has already produced more GOP attacks on rule of law and more whataboutism about President Joe Bidens wayward and well-investigated son. But in a closely divided nation, a small shift away from Trumpism in just a few places could have profound consequences for republican government.

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If the GOP is salvageable for democratic politics, its only because democratic Republicans  Burgum, Hurd and the rest  are still waging a fight for it. They offer a haven from Q-Anon and MAGA, and a fighting chance that todays fellow travelers might one day be persuaded to join the Free French.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Bidenomics Worked, But Voters Arent Buying It: Jonathan Bernstein

 Bill Barr Suddenly Discovers the Rule of Law: Francis Wilkinson

 Trump Will Struggle to Lie His Way Out of This One: Timothy L. OBrien

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering U.S. politics and policy. Previously, he was an editor for the Week, a writer for Rolling Stone, a communications consultant and a political media strategist.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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Weve definitely paid attention to what theyve done, Pennsylvania state Sen. Sharif Street, chair of the state Democratic party, said about the two states. Ive offered to Pennsylvanians that if we could flip the Senate, we could pass similar legislation.

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Democrats in four states, including Massachusetts and Maryland, scored victories in the 2022 midterms to gain a trifecta  control of the state House, state Senate and the governors office. Republicans, who held trifectas in 19 more states than Democrats just six years ago, now hold an advantage of 22 states to the Democrats 17.

Ahead of the 2024 election, Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania, Arizona and New Hampshire are hoping similar election gains can help them achieve trifectas. Theyre looking to Michigan and Minnesota, where leaders have been unapologetic about quickly rolling back years of Republican measures and implementing their own liberal agendas.

This is the first time in 40 years that weve had this opportunity, Whitmer said of Michigan Democrats, who last held a trifecta in 1983. This is a huge step forward that weve taken.

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Michigan Democrats were able to flip both chambers with the help of new districts redrawn by a citizens commission instead of ones crafted by Republican lawmakers and a ballot proposal enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution that led to record midterm turnout.

Whitmer, who spoke with The Associated Press last week, said she hopes voters in other states see that you can lead with your brain and also be a kind person in the process. She added an oft-repeated phrase of her second-term that bigotry is bad for business.

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The quick work by Democrats in the two states was due in part to uncertainty over how long the full control will last considering voters could decide to flip state House majorities back to Republican control as soon as next year. Michigan and Minnesota Republicans are already strategizing to regain some power in the 2024 elections by calling out what they say have been overly partisan sessions.

In Michigan, Republican legislators in the House and Senate out-raised Democrats in the first part of 2023, led by the efforts of former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Minnesota Republicans, who lost a majority when Democrats won a decisive Senate district by only 321 votes, have criticized Democrats for excluding them from a legislative session that ended in May.

The issues, I think, are still on the table. Its public safety, its education, its tax relief. And the Democrats did not deliver on any of those promises or expectations, said Minnesota GOP Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson.

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The key Democratic leaders in Minnesota  Walz, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic  decided to act swiftly, knowing they might not get another chance for a long time if they hesitated. Their last trifecta, in 2012-13, lasted only two years, but theyre betting that this years successes will prove popular with voters come 2024.

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Leaders in the state were among those invited to the White House to brief the presidents advisers on legislation, including a paid family and medical leave program, that the Biden administration would like to enact nationally if not for a divided government.

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If you need a reminder that elections have consequences, check out whats happening in Minnesota, former President Barack Obama tweeted earlier this year.

National leaders are hoping that the liberal swing in the Midwest continues in 2024. The party is hosting the Democratic convention next year in Chicago and voter sentiment after two years of unchecked liberal policy in Michigan and Minnesota could have an enormous impact on national politics; recent presidential races have hinged on the critical Midwestern blue wall, which also includes Wisconsin.

President Joe Biden applauded Michigan for leading on labor rights after the state became the first in nearly 60 years to repeal a union-restricting law known as right-to-work that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

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Major legislation, such as the right-to-work repeal, has only been possible in Michigan due to strong party discipline with Democrats only holding a two-seat majority in each chamber.

State Rep. Joe Tate, who is Michigan's first Black speaker of the House, said the Democratic caucus began the year by finding legislation all members could agree on with.

This is legislation that weve been talking about for, if not years, decades. So it helped to prioritize where we needed to go at the beginning of this session, said Tate.

Michigan Democrats have already passed many of their top priorities only halfway through this years legislative session, including a 11-bill gun safety package that had stalled in the Legislature for years.

Winnie Brinks, the first female Senate majority leader in Michigan history, called said it was an intense six months and that Democrats dont plan to ease up the rest of the year. Future legislation, Brinks said, will include a focus on climate and the environment in addition to more work on reproductive rights.

___

Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press reporters Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, also contributed to this story.
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia  Cambodias king on Monday formally appointed army chief Hun Manet to succeed his father and long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen as the nations leader later this month after their party sealed victory in a one-sided election last month. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The royal decree signed by King Norodom Sihamoni and shared to the public by state social media means the 45-year-old Hun Manet is officially the incoming leader and will take office Aug. 22 when the new National Assembly adopts the new cabinet.

Hun Manet thanked the king for his trust and said in a Telegram post that it was his lifes highest honor to serve the nation and its people. He added that he was determined to fulfill his duties and promised to keep raising Cambodians living standards and the nations prestige.

His appointment came after Cambodias electoral body on Saturday announced the final results of last months election. The polls that gave Hun Sens party a mandate for the next five years were criticized by Western governments and rights groups as neither free nor fair because the main credible opposition party was barred from participating.

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Hun Manet won his first seat in Parliament in the election, and the handover from his father is part of a larger, generational shift: Many younger lawmakers are expected to take up ministerial positions, including Hun Sens youngest son and others related to older party members.

Many were educated in the West, like Hun Manet, who has a bachelors degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a masters degree from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University in Britain, all in economics.

After the royal decree was announced, Hun Sen posted on Telegram and the X social media platform that he was stepping down to give a chance to the successors to lead.

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Hun Sen, who turned 71 on Saturday, noted that he took office at age 32 as the youngest prime minister in the world at the time. He added that stepping down as prime minister is not the end yet and he would serve in other positions at least until 2033, which would bring him to a half-century in office.

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Hun Sen is expected to retain a large amount of control as president of his Cambodian Peoples Party and as the Senate president.

I will still have the ability to serve the interests of the people and help the government oversee the countrys security and public order, as well as joining them in guiding the development of the country, Hun Sen said on July 26, the day he announced the widely expected succession plan.

Cambodia under Hun Sen has ushered in a free-market economy that raised living standards, but the gap between Cambodias rich and poor has widened and land grabs by Hun Sens domestic allies and foreign investors are widespread.

After a strong election challenge from the opposition in 2013 that the CPP barely overcame, Hun Sen targeted the oppositions leaders and the main party was dissolved by Cambodias sympathetic courts. The pattern of crushing any serious opposition followed this year when the main challenger was banned on a technicality before the vote.

The European Union said the election was conducted in a restricted political and civic space where the opposition, civil society and the media were unable to function effectively without hindrance.

The U.S. went further, imposing visa restrictions on individuals it considered responsible and pausing foreign assistance programs.
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NAIROBI, Kenya  Ethiopias federal government says it lost control of some districts and towns to militia fighters in the countrys Amhara region during the latest conflict emerging in Africas second most populous nation. Residents reported heavy gunfire and military aircraft overhead in some areas. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Ethiopias Cabinet declared a six-month state of emergency last week in the region as clashes and mass protests intensify over a plan to absorb regional forces into the military. The federal government has tried to centralize security powers after the end of a devastating two-year conflict in the countrys Tigray region, where Amhara regional forces and militia were key allies of the federal military.

Now, however, Amhara residents who were badly affected in that conflict accuse the federal government of trying to undermine their region. Authorities reject the accusation but see the regional fighters as a threat to constitutional order.

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Ethiopias intelligence chief and the official overseeing the state of emergency, Temesgen Tiruneh, acknowledged Sunday that irregular Amhara forces had taken control of towns, released inmates from prisons and seized government institutions.

These forces have the desire and goal of dismantling the regional government and then moving on the federal system, Temesgen said.

Gunfire could be heard Monday morning in the Amhara towns of Gondar, Lalibela, Debre Birhan and the regional capital Bahir Dar, residents told The Associated Press, and main roads were blocked across the region.

Debre Birhan is like a battlefield. There is an exchange of fire every minute, said an official in the town, which is on a main road 135 kilometers (83 miles) from Ethiopias capital, Addis Ababa. Like others, he spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

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Residents said the informal Amhara militia known as Fano now controls Gondar and Lalibela, which are main tourist towns. A resident said gunfire could be heard Monday on the edge of Lalibela in the direction of the airport, ending days of calm.

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Residents reported heavy fighting to the north of Gondar as federal forces attempted to retake it.

We hear gunfire and can see smoke, said a Gondar resident, who added that local officials were holed up in the main police station.

Military aircraft could be heard in the sky above Bahir Dar, where the water system has stopped working, one resident said. Another said tanks were moving in the city. Things are getting worse and worse, he said. You can hear the sound of heavy shooting.

State-run Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Lalibela, Gondar and Dessie.

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In a call to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern about the deteriorating security situation.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, said Sunday that the violence in the Amhara region was affecting humanitarian operations. He called for uninterrupted access and protection of health care facilities there.

The new state of emergency in the Amhara region, which must be approved by parliament, bans gatherings and gives authorities powers to detain suspects without a court order, impose curfews and conduct searches.

The federal governments communication service said Saturday that several arrests were made to control illegal armed activities.

On Friday, federal police arrested Christian Tadele, a prominent lawmaker with the National Movement of Amhara opposition party and an outspoken government critic, at a residential compound for members of parliament in Addis Ababa, a party member said.

The Ethiopian Constitution says lawmakers cannot be arrested without parliaments permission.
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NEW DELHI  His social media accounts suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching high-speed trains and rubbing shoulders with foreign leaders as a powerhouse on the global stage and the face of an ascendant India. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight But that carefully crafted image, followed by millions, sits uncomfortably at odds with his silence on whats come close to a civil war engulfing India's northeastern state of Manipur.

For three months, the strongman leader has been absent on arguably the worst ethnic violence ever seen in the remote state, where Modis Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is in power. Modis role, or lack thereof, has sparked a no-confidence motion against him in Parliament, where his government holds the majority.

He will almost certainly defeat the effort this week. But proponents of the motion are betting that just bringing it up will force Modi to address the Manipur crisis from the floor of Parliament.

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More than 150 people have died and over 50,000 displaced after ethnic clashes in Manipur erupted in early May.

The conflict was triggered by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand by mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

I think everybody is very puzzled by the prime ministers silence, said Arati R. Jerath, an independent journalist and political commentator.

A harrowing video showing two women in Manipur being assaulted and groped went viral a few weeks ago, forcing Modi to condemn the specific attack even as he held back from addressing the overall conflict.

Modi is the first to showcase incidents or projects that reflect Indias rising prowess, but critics and analysts say he is often deliberately mute on controversies such as the COVID-19 Delta surge across India, or acts of communal violence.

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Last week, a railway police officer opened fire inside a train, killing a senior officer and three Muslims before hailing Modi, according to a purported video of the attack. Police are investigating the incident.

On the same day, five people died in a communal clash between Hindus and Muslims in a BJP-ruled state during a religious procession by a radical Hindu group.

The prime minister believes that silence on these issues does not harm him. He believes that he is reaching out to the people of India through the work that his government is doing, Jerath said.

Speaking out on the tension in Manipur could also amount to criticism of his own party in the state, especially as calls grow for a dismissal of the chief minister and government which has failed to quell the bloodshed.

Some observers say that his silence could shield his political brand ahead of a general election next year, especially since Modi is more popular than the BJP. But Jerath said the conflict has now become too consequential to ignore.

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It is harming the prime minister because he comes across as somebody who doesnt have empathy ... and thats not a good image especially with India set to welcome leaders of the top 20 economies for a summit next month, she said.

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The danger of violence and distrust between communities remains high in Manipur, which has essentially been split into two parts -- between the hill tribes home to the Kukis and the plains below, where the Meitei live. Theyre divided by a buffer zone manned by police forces.

The internet was blocked for over two months and movement for residents remains severely restricted. Furious and armed mobs have torched homes and buildings, massacred civilians and driven tens of thousands from their homes. They have also raided police armories, looting nearly 3,000 weapons including rifles, machine guns and AK-47s, said Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and an Indian army veteran.

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Last week, Indias top court said there has been a breakdown of law and order and demanded the Manipur police director appear in court on Monday.

Theres also growing fear that the turmoil in Manipur could potentially spread across Indias northeast, a region with a fractured history of ethnic violence that previous governments have long tried to resolve. The state also shares a border with Myanmar.

There are shared ethnic roots that run across state boundaries -- it has already started to spill over into nearby states like Mizoram and parts of Assam, said Singh.

And since the state machinery has collapsed, tens of thousands of army personnel have been brought in, including those from a division that was manning the disputed India-China border, according to Singh.

If the issue is not resolved quickly, these commitments will continue and can weaken Indias defense posture against China in the eastern sector, he added.

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The opposition knows theres hardly any chance of winning the no-confidence vote. But they argue that the motion means the prime minister will have to appear on the Parliament floor to answer questions and address the Manipur crisis.

The newly formed INDIA alliance comprising 26 opposition parties have been pushing for a statement from Modi on Manipur in Parliament since its session began last month.

They have also called for the firing of Biren Singh, Manipurs top elected official in Manipur and a member of Modis party, and to impose a rule that would bring the state under direct federal control. For weeks, the opposition has protested inside and outside the Parliament, which has been consistently adjourned amid loud sloganeering and booing as the government tries to rush through bills.

They also visited the state recently, in a bid to pressure the government while taking a swipe at Modi, who hasnt set foot in Manipur since the violence began.

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But nothing has worked so far. We had to escalate our efforts, said Gaurav Gogoi, a lawmaker from the opposition Congress party who initiated the no-confidence motion.

Home Minister Amit Shah visited Manipur in May for three days, where he held talks with community leaders and groups. But overall, critics say the government has shared very little publicly on the situation in Manipur and any plans to resolve it.

When there is a conflict of this magnitude, the leader of the country uses the forum of the Parliament to communicate his vision and message and then members of the house come together in support, said Gogoi. But at a moment when the Indian Parliament needs to be at its finest, we are seeing such unwarranted indifference from the government, he added.
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QUETTA, Pakistan  A roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying a local politician and his friends in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing him and six others, police said. In a separate bombing, two people were killed in the northwest. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The attack that killed seven happened in Kech, a town in Baluchistan province, local police officer Haider Ali said. He said that the slain politician, Ishaq Yaqub, was from the Baluchistan Awami Party and it was unclear who was behind the attack.

For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups and nationalists who complain of discrimination and demand a fairer share of their provinces resources and wealth.

The bombing in Baluchistan happened hours after a suicide bomber apparently detonated his explosives-laden vehicle prematurely in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, killing a married couple in a nearby car, officials said.

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A local administration official, Rehmant Ullah, said the bombing happened in North Waziristan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

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He said a team from the bomb disposal unit was also present nearby when the blast took place, but they escaped unharmed.

We suspect that the suicide bomber detonated his explosives either by mistake or prematurely, but it killed a man and his wife whose car was near the vehicle of the bomber at the time of the blast, he said.

It is unclear who dispatched the car bomber to the area, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and who have stepped up attacks on security forces since last year.

TTP is a separate group but is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Although the Pakistani military claims it has cleared the North Waziristan region and other former tribal areas in the northwest of militants, the violence has continued, raising concerns that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping in the area.
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MANILA, Philippines  The Philippine government summoned Chinas ambassador on Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guards use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan expressed support for the Philippines and concern over the Chinese actions. Washington renewed a warning that it is obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally if Philippine public vessels and forces come under armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

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Philippine coast guard and diplomatic officials held a news conference on Monday at which they showed videos and photographs which they said showed six Chinese coast guard ships and two militia vessels blocking two Philippine navy-chartered civilian boats taking supplies to the Philippine forces at Second Thomas Shoal. One supply boat was hit with a powerful water cannon by the Chinese coast guard, the Philippine military said.

Only one of the two Philippine boats managed to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Philippine forces guarding the shoal, the officials said.

During the confrontation, two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats were also blocked by the Chinese coast guard ships at close range and were threatened with water cannons. Three Chinese navy ships stood by at a close distance at one point, Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela said.

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This was like a David and Goliath situation, Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council said.

Malaya emphasized that the Philippines would not withdraw its forces from Second Thomas Shoal.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Teresita Daza said Chinas ambassador to Manila, Huang Xilian, was summoned and handed a diplomatic protest by Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro.

In it, the Philippines told China to stop its illegal actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, and abide by international laws, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Seas, Daza said.

In Beijing, the Chinese coast guard acknowledged its ships used water cannons against the Philippine vessels, which it said strayed without authorization into the shoal, which Beijing calls Renai Jiao. It accused the Philippines of reneging on a pledge to remove the grounded Filipino warship from the shoal.

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In order to avoid direct blocking and collisions when repeated warnings were ineffective, water cannons were used as a warning. The on-site operation was professional and restrained, which is beyond reproach, the Chinese coast guard said. China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty.

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China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its naval personnel and tow away the still-commissioned but crumbling ship, the BRP Sierra Madre. The ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region.

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China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that invalidated its claims in 2016 by an arbitration tribunal set up under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejects that ruling and continues to defy it.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Sunday that by firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, (Chinese) ships interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It added that such actions are a direct threat to regional peace and stability.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often criticized Chinas aggressive actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says are in Americas national interest.

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China has told the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday accused the U.S. of threatening China by raising the possibility of the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty being activated.

What the U.S. does is to blatantly support the Philippines violation of Chinas sovereignty, and its plot is doomed to fail, the ministry said in a statement in Beijing.
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HONG KONG  Hong Kong government said Monday it was seeking to appeal against the courts refusal to ban a popular protest song at its request, renewing worries over further erosion of freedom of expression in the city. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The courts decision on July 28 was a setback for Hong Kong leaders who are trying to crush dissidents after a massive pro-democracy movement four years ago pushed hundreds of thousands of people into the streets.

Drama ensued after the popular Glory to Hong Kong  written during the 2019 protests with lyrics calling for democracy and liberty  was mistakenly played as the citys anthem at international sporting events instead of Chinas March of the Volunteers.

The Department of Justice said in a statement that its secretary, who acted as a guardian of public interest, pressed for the ban on the basis of safeguarding national security. The court can decide whether to review or dismiss the request for an appeal.

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The department did not share further its legal grounds for the appeal in the statement.

The announcement came after multiple pro-Beijing lawmakers urged the department to file an appeal. The governments move has renewed concern over possible ramifications caused by the ban.

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Critics have warned that granting the request to prohibit the broadcast or distribution of the song would add to a decline in civil liberties since Beijing launched a crackdown following the 2019 protests. They said granting the court order might disrupt the operations of tech giants and hurt the citys appeal as a business center.

The government went to the court in June after Google resisted pressure to display Chinas national anthem as the top result in searches for the citys anthem instead of Glory to Hong Kong.

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The proposed injunction would target anyone who uses the song to advocate for the separation of Hong Kong from China. The government also would also seek to ban any actions using the song to incite others to commit secession and insult the national anthem, including online.

The departments announcement came days after several major political parties pushed for an appeal, so there are clearly some increasing political pressures on the case, said George Chen, managing director at The Asia Group, a Washington-based business and policy consultancy.

Chen said the case will become a good testament to judicial independence in the financial hub.

The world will watch how the new arguments will be made and justified in court, and how the court can strike a good balance on national security and free speech, he said.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and was promised that it could keep its Western-style civil liberties intact for 50 years after the handover. But a national security law imposed by Beijing coupled with other changes in recent years have shrunk the openness and freedoms that were once hallmarks of the city.
Syrian state television, citing a military source, said four other soldiers were also wounded while the strikes caused some material damage.

Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine.

Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russias war in Ukraine.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitor, said the strikes targeted weapons and munitions warehouses and positions of Iran-backed militias around Damascus. They say at least six were killed and seven others wounded.
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LONDON  A small group of asylum-seekers was moved Monday onto a barge moored in southern England as the U.K. government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country. Fifteen people were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a floating hostel that will ultimately house up to 500 men, from other sites around the country, according to Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation for the Home Office.

More were expected to arrive later as authorities seek to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in expensive hotel rooms that were requisitioned on an emergency basis as the number of arrivals has surged in recent years.

Avery said there had been some minor legal challenges to the transfers, but wouldnt elaborate.

A charity for refugees, Care4Calais, said lawyers who intervened got transfers canceled for about 20 asylum-seekers.

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Amongst our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea, said Steve Smith, the groups CEO. To house any human being in a quasi floating prison like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane.

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The barge, which is owned by UK-based Bibby Marine, is normally used to provide temporary housing for workers when local accommodation isnt available. With three stories of closely packed bedrooms, the barge resembles a college dormitory, though the rooms are utilitarian. It also includes a kitchen, dining area, common rooms and laundry facilities.

The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Portland Port on the south coast of England, where some locals have opposed the plan because of concern about the impact on the small surrounding community, which already has a shortage of medical services and is connected to the mainland by a single road. Immigrants rights groups are also opposed, saying it is inappropriate to house asylum-seekers in such accommodation.

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The U.K. government wants to use barges and former military bases to accommodate some migrants after the cost of housing them in hotels soared to 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) last year.

Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told the BBC that people arriving in the U.K. via unauthorized means should have basic but proper accommodation and that they cant expect to stay in a four-star hotel.

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Follow APs coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
The Voice to parliament could be up and running within this term of government, according to Indigenous lawyer and Yes campaigner Noel Pearson, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned Australians they would have just one chance to vote for constitutional recognition and a Voice.

In an interview at the Garma Indigenous cultural festival on Sunday, Albanese gave the clearest signal yet that he would not attempt to create the Voice by legislation if voters rejected it at the referendum later this year, describing the vote as a once in a generation opportunity.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives for the Garma opening ceremony. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Pearson, a Cape York lawyer and prominent Voice advocate, said the festival had energised the Yes campaign, and he argued creating a Voice was about completing the Constitution.

That is the recognition thats missing [of Indigenous Australians]. And that has been missing from day one, he said. With the actual Voice structure, I would say that we would, if we worked hard, we could have legislation within 12, 18 months of passage of the referendum.
The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, visited Andorra on 4th August 2023, following an invitation from the Government of Andorra. The purpose of the visit was to explore opportunities for enhancing cooperation between Andorra and the WCO.

Upon arrival in Andorra la Vella, the capital of the Principality of Andorra, Dr. Mikuriya was warmly welcomed by the Prime Minister, H.E. Xavier Espot Zamora. The landlocked country's geographical location in the Pyrenees makes connectivity at land borders crucial, particularly as it lacks its own airport. Prime Minister Espot reassured the Secretary General of Andorra's commitment to adhering to and implementing international standards, including the Revised Kyoto Convention, and expressed a strong desire to continue the excellent cooperation with the WCO.

During a productive working session, Dr. Mikuriya met with Minister of Finance H.E. Ramon LLados and the Customs team, led by Director Mr. Carles Ferreira. The meeting delved into the current situation of Andorra Customs, given its unique position between France and Spain. Maintaining strong relationships with these bordering countries, as well as fostering ties with a wider range of nations, is crucial to attract visitors and investment. The participants discussed common Customs challenges, including strategic communication to raise Customs' visibility and the need to enhance training for the next generation of Customs officers.

Dr. Mikuriya also had the opportunity to meet with the President of the Parliament, H.E. Carles Enseyat, who shared his vision for Andorra's prosperity and the role of Customs in achieving it. Key topics included addressing the impact of e-commerce in surrounding countries and the importance of efficient border crossings to facilitate the movement of goods and passengers, thereby promoting tourism and winter sports, which are vital industries for Andorra.

To gain a deeper understanding of the Customs operations, Dr. Mikuriya visited the juxtaposed offices at the Andorra-French borders, accompanied by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Andorra, H.E. Imma Tor. Minister Tor highlighted that Andorra relies on the airports in Barcelona, Spain, and Toulouse, France, making efficient border crossings imperative as it takes around three hours to drive to Andorra from both airports. At an altitude of 2000 meters, Andorra Customs has facilities in French territory, working closely with French Customs under the same roof. Dr. Mikuriya expressed his appreciation for this collaborative arrangement, which serves as an excellent example of cooperation between neighbouring Customs administrations. The visit concluded on a positive note, with the potential for strengthened ties and future collaboration between Andorra and the WCO.
Ethiopian Airlines Group, the fastest-growing global airline brand and Africas largest airline brand, has recognised travel agencies.

Ethiopian has rewarded the top three travel agencies in eight different categories based on their performance from January to December 2022.

The eight categories are Ethiopian Overall Top Performer, Ethiopian Top Market Share Performer, Newly Emerging Travel Agencies, Industry Pioneers, Ethiopian top Tour package seller, Ethiopian best booking quality Performer, Ethiopian Top Corporate seller, and Ethiopian best online check-in Contributor.

Pivotal role

Recognising the pivotal role of travel agencies in easing travel experiences to customers, Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Mesfin Tasew said: Ethiopian Airlines attaches great importance to travel agencies and the significant role they play in the development of travel, tourism and socio-economic activities by easing travel arrangements. Ever since launching its operations, Ethiopian has been working closely with travel agencies. As a noted commercial airline with successful services of more than seven decades, Ethiopian has built deep-rooted, historical business partnerships that it will continue to nurture.

In an era of technology where customers demand for the most convenient services, the harmonisation between the airline and the travel agencies in offering seamless customer services will have multiple benefits to the parties on one hand and to the proliferation of the countrys travel and tourism industry on the other.

Ethiopian is cognisant of the great contribution of travel agencies to the airlines performance and customer handling experiences. There are indeed a number of fertile grounds for the travel agencies to widen their horizon and exploit so that they will be competitive in the international arena.

Among others, working with Africas biggest airline, proximity to Africas major hubBole International Airport with an annual total passenger carrying capacity of close to 20 million, availability of skilled workforce that can meet industry standards with training from Ethiopian Aviation University, among others are some of the enticing opportunities available for the travel agencies to take advantage of.-- TradeArabia News Service
Today

Mostly sunny and continued dry and pleasant; a bit warmer than Saturday. Some haze is possible later in the day from Canadian wildfire smoke.

Tonight

Mostly clear skies.

Tomorrow

Partly sunny, very warm, and more humid; spotty late shower or t-storm possible, especially north, however most remain dry.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Two Russian missile strikes hit the city center of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region Monday evening, killing at least five people and wounding two dozen more, Ukrainian officials said.

The strikes, which targeted the Ukrainian portion of a region partially occupied by Russia, occurred within 40 minutes of each other, according to Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. The attack damaged nine- and five-story buildings, residential houses, a hotel where foreign journalists used to stay, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings, he said.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said five people, including a local official of Ukraines State Emergency Service, were killed and 31 more were wounded by the strikes. Nineteen policemen, five rescuers and one child were among the wounded, Klymenko said.

The Suspilne news site, however, cited head of the Pokrovsk City Military Administration Serhiy Dobriak as saying that seven people were killed and 27 were wounded. The conflicting reports could not be immediately reconciled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an online statement accused Russia of trying to leave nothing but broken and scorched stones in eastern Ukraine. His remarks accompanied footage of a damaged, five-story residential building with one floor partially destroyed.

The deadly attack came just a day after officials from around 40 countries gathered in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced the two-day talks in Jeddah as not having the slightest added value because Moscow  unlike Kyiv  wasnt invited.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry repeated previous assurances that Moscow is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that would end the 17-month-old war, and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals. The Kremlin's demands include Kyiv recognizing its annexation of four Ukrainian regions, which Russian forces at this point only partially control, and Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscows previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied. He said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise by Kyiv on that.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo participated in the Jeddah meeting by video, and U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the United Nations welcomes all diplomatic initiatives and wants to keep pushing forward towards any form of a peace that is based on the U.N. Charter, including on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Security Service announced Monday it had detained an alleged Russian informant who gathered intelligence about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys trip to the southern Mykolaiv region last month.

It claimed the woman was collecting data for an airstrike during Zelenskyys visit.

The woman attempted to establish Zelenskyys route, times and visits in the region. She was detained when she tried to pass the information to the Russians, the statement said, without providing evidence.

Zelenskyy has been a prime target for the Kremlin since Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he refused to leave Kyiv as Moscows forces approached.

He has been one of Ukraines unexpected trump cards in the war, playing a key role in rallying public morale, including a nightly video address, and becoming a recognizable face across the world as he presses allies and others to help Ukraine.

Also on Monday, Russian shelling struck a nine-story residential building in the city of Kherson, killing one person and wounding four others, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. He said Kherson had endured a tough night as the Russians covered the central part of the city with fire.

A 57-year-old woman was killed and four people were wounded in the Russian shelling of a village in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.

Jim Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
BOYERTOWN, Pa. - From pie-eating contests to live cooking demos and much more, dozens of families in Berks County took advantage of the nice weather to enjoy this year's Great Frecon Peach Jubilee.

The free event was held Sunday at Frecon Farms in Boyertown.

Officials say the jubilee is a celebration of the Pennsylvania peach.

There were plenty of food options to choose from, including peach pie, grilled peaches and peach sundaes.
EASTON, Pa. - For 47 years, the Lebanese community in Easton has been celebrating their heritage.

"We want them to celebrate our culture and religion at the same time, embracing this great community we call home," said parishoner Marta Gabriel.

Each year, the Lebanese Heritage Days festival is hosted at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Easton.

It's filled with dancing, music and authentic Lebanese food.

"It's a good way for us to teach the younger generation about their heritage....what it means to be a Maronite Catholic," said Gabriel.

Husband and wife Violine and Alex Karam say it's a family affair for most.

"We work day and night for over a week," said Violine Karam. "None of our children complain- they're all a part of it."

Grandparents, parents and kids work side by side, celebrating where they came from.

"For us to maintain our identity, our Lebanese identity, American identity, religious heritage and cultural heritage," said Alex Karam.

And they wouldn't miss it for the world.

"People plan their vacations, when they have one or two weeks, they usually plan it around heritage day. That's dedication," said Violine Karam.
SOUDERTON, Pa. - An event was held Sunday in honor of a Bucks County teen shot and killed by a hunter in Nockamixon State Park.

"Ever since the incident, all the love and support has pretty much gotten us through the hard time," said Ron Kutt.

Ron and Dana Kutt continue to keep the memory of their son Jason alive.

He was the Bucks County 18-year-old who was accidentally shot and killed by a hunter in Nockamixon State Park in 2020.

The hunter, Kenneth Heller, pleaded guilty in 2021 to involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, and other offenses including two hunting law violations. He was sentenced to 7-20 years in prison.

"Since the incident happened, we are trying to have positive vibes," said Ron Kutt.

A car meet was held in Souderton, raising money for the Jason Kutt Legacy Fund.

Jason's family created this legacy fund to advocate for safer state park guidelines in areas occupied by both hunters and the general public, and to raise money for communities to help improve their quality of life.

Sunday's car meet was an event the family says Jason would have loved.

"It's really a great legacy for Jason because even at a young age, he was giving of his time and money. He always thought of others," said Jason's mom, Dana Kutt.

Jarrod Lehman put the meet together. He says he wants to make it a tradition.

"We're all here together now," said Lehman.
LANSDALE, Pa. - Students at a school district in Montgomery County will be able to use technology to get an idea of what career they might be interested in.

The North Penn School District Educational Foundation has partnered with the Boston Legacy Foundation and the VNA Foundation of Greater North Penn to implement a grant to provide five career exploration headsets for students at North Penn High School, according to a news release from the North Penn School District.

The district says the technology will provide virtual opportunities for students to explore different career options.

The program is designed to engage traditionally under-represented students in learning about career paths in numerous fields, including the health care field, according to the news release. The district says the headsets provide a virtual reality experience of a day in the life of different professionals to experience what a future career could be like.

The district says it will enhance the Community Hosted Internship Program (CHIP) at North Penn High School by providing opportunities for students to experience a day in the job without the transportation and other barriers that may prevent all students from participating.

The community is invited to attend an informational event on Monday, August 14, 5 p.m., at North Penn High School (1340 Valley Forge Road, Lansdale) to learn more about the program, try the headsets, and listen to students about how technology affects their education and careers, according to the news release.
Pope Francis has led an estimated 800,000 people in a meditation on the scourges of violence, poverty and intolerance at World Youth Day. Lisbons central Eduardo VII park was packed on Friday night for Francis evening Way of the Cross prayer. The evening event is one of the most solemn at World Youth Day. It came as the Portuguese government weighed in on an incident of intolerance directed at LGBTQ+ pilgrims at the big Catholic youth festival, when some protesters disrupted a Mass for LGBTQ+ Catholics. Frances said there is no greater love than dying for others, as Jesus did, and urged the crowd not be afraid of loving: Loving is a risk, but a risk worth taking.
NIAMEY, Niger (AP)  Nigers mutinous soldiers closed the countrys airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, as the junta defied a deadline to reinstate the ousted president.

State television announced the move Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which has warned of using military force if the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum isn't returned to power.

A spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, noted the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighbouring country, and said Niger's airspace will be closed until further notice. The junta also claimed that two central African countries are preparing for an invasion, but did not say which ones, and called on the country's population to defend it.

The junta said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with an energetic and immediate response.

International airlines have begun to divert flights around the airspace of Niger, which the United States and others had seen as the last major counterterrorism partner in the vast Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are expanding their influence.

In Mali, the armed forces said today that it and Burkina Faso, both neighbors of Niger run by military juntas, were sending a delegation of officials to Niger to show support. Both countries have said they would consider any intervention in Niger as a declaration of war against them.

Regional tensions have mounted since Niger's coup nearly two weeks ago, with the mutinous soldiers detaining Bazoum and installing Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, former head of the presidential guard, as head of state. Analysts say the coup is believed to have been triggered by a power struggle between Tchiani and the president, who was about to fire him.

It was not immediately clear what ECOWAS will do now that Sunday's deadline has passed. The region is divided on a course of action. There was no sign of military forces gathering at Niger's border with Nigeria, the likely entry point by land.

On Saturday, Nigerias Senate pushed back on the plan to invade, urging Nigerias president, the blocs current chair, to explore options other than the use of force. ECOWAS can still move ahead, as final decisions are made by consensus by member states.

A former British army officer who worked in Nigeria said military officials there told him Monday that President Bolu Tinubu had not given orders to use military force. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Guinea and neighboring Algeria, which is not an ECOWAS member, have come out against against the use of force. Senegals government has said it would participate in a military operation if it went ahead, and Ivory Coast has expressed support for ECOWAS efforts to restore constitutional order.

The junta does not appear interested in negotiation. An ECOWAS delegation sent to Niger last week for hours of talks was not allowed to leave the airport and met only with Tchiani's representatives.

At a rally on Sunday, thousands cheered junta leaders who said their loyalty would be repaid.

We are with you against them. We will give you the Niger that you are owed, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba said. After his speech, The Associated Press saw rallygoers behead a chicken decorated in the colors of former colonizer France.

The junta is exploiting anti-French sentiments among the population to shore up its support base and has severed security ties with France, which still has 1,500 military personnel in Niger for counterterrorism efforts. On Monday, Frances Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally discouraged any travel to Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, and called on French nationals to be extremely vigilant. The day before, the ministry announced that France had suspended development aid to Burkina Faso.

It's not clear what will happen to the French military presence in Niger, or to the 1,100 U.S. military personnel also in the country.

Many people, largely youth, have rallied around the junta, taking to the streets at night to patrol after being urged to guard against foreign intervention.

"While they (jihadists) kill our brothers and sisters ... ECOWAS didnt intervene. Is it now that they will intervene? said Amadou Boukari, a coup supporter at Sunday's rally. Shame on ECOWAS."

Nigers junta has also asked for help from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which operates in a handful of African countries including Mali.

But others have expressed concerns about the junta's tightening grip.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the junta is scaring people into joining it.

AP writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korea will evacuate tens of thousands of scouts by bus from a coastal jamboree site as Tropical Storm Khanun looms, officials said Monday.

More than 1,000 vehicles will be used starting Tuesday morning to move 36,000 scouts  mostly teenagers  from the World Scout Jamboree in the southwestern county of Buan, according to Kim Sung-ho, a vice minister at South Koreas Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Most of the scouts, who come from 158 countries, will be accommodated at venues in the capital city, Seoul, and the nearby metropolitan area, he said. Officials were trying to secure spaces at government training centers and education facilities as well as hotels. Kim said it would take six hours or more to evacuate the scouts from the campsite, which organizers said will no longer be used for any event after they leave.

Officials at Camp Humphreys, a major U.S. military base 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul, did not immediately confirm reports that thousands of scouts from Sweden, Norway and Denmark were to be transferred to its facilities.

The base is already accommodating hundreds of American scouts, who were moved over the weekend because of heat concerns as South Korea grapples with one of its hottest summers in years.

The announcement about the evacuations came after the World Organization of the Scout Movement said it called on South Korea to quickly move the scouts from the storms path and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries.

South Koreas government did not immediately specify any venues where the scouts will be staying. David Venn, global director of communications for the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said it was still waiting for government officials to provide detailed plans.

An official from Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's biggest province surrounding Seoul, said they were working to secure accommodation based on the potential relocation of around 15,000 scouts to the region. The possible venues include the Korea International Exhibition Center, a major convention facility in Goyang, according to the official, who did not want to be named because the plans weren't finalized.

Khanun has taken an unusual, meandering path around Japans southwestern islands for more than a week, dumping heavy rain, knocking out power to thousands of homes and disrupting flights and train services. On Monday afternoon, it had sustained winds of 108 kph (67 mph), with higher gusts, and was forecast to maintain that strength as it brushed Japans main island of Kyushu this week, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

South Koreas weather agency reported that Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, potentially packing winds as strong as 118 to 154 kph (73 to 95 mph). Large swaths of the countrys south, including Buan, could be affected by the storm as early as Wednesday, the agency said.

The plans to evacuate the scouts were announced hours after President Yoon Suk Yeols office said he called for contingency plans, including relocating them to hotels and other facilities in the greater capital area.

The Japanese weather agency said the storm was about 160 kilometers (99 miles) east of Amami city on Japans southern main island of Kyushu and moving gradually toward the north as of Monday afternoon. It warned residents in affected regions to watch out for mudslides, high winds and rough seas.

The storm has caused one death and 70 injuries on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, according to the countrys Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Due to the forecast of harsh weather in the region, West Japan Railway Co. said there was a possibility of suspending Shinkansen bullet train services from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.

The South Korean Safety Ministry said the storm will unleash strong winds and rain throughout the country from Wednesday to Friday and instructed local officials to prepare to shut down coastal areas, hiking trails, river parks, underpass tunnels and other sectors vulnerable to flooding.

Hot temperatures have already forced thousands of British and American scouts to leave the site, which is made on land reclaimed from sea. The British scouts were transferred to hotels in Seoul while the American scouts were moved to Camp Humphreys.

Hundreds of participants had been treated for heat-related ailments since the jamboree started on Wednesday. Long before the event started, critics raised concerns about bringing such large numbers of young people to a vast, treeless area lacking protection from the summer heat.

Geir Olav Kaase, leader of the 700-member Norwegian contingent, said Norwegian scouts had already started leaving the campsite on Monday evening to avoid any chaos that may arise in the event of a joint evacuation. Kasse said the evacuations were proceeding in close cooperation with the Danish contingent, but he did not specify whether the Danes have started to leave too.

We do all we can to ensure that the scouts are safe and well, and that the transfer goes as smoothly as possible. We help each other and keep our spirits up, Kaase said in a statement.

The Swedish news agency TT said some 1,500 scouts from Sweden will be relocated to Camp Humphreys along with Norwegian and Danish scouts.

Kim Hyun-sook, South Koreas minister of gender equality and family, said officials are trying to arrange new cultural events and activities for the scouts before they leave, including a possible K-pop concert at a Seoul soccer stadium on Friday to go with the closing ceremony.

We dont see it that way, Kim said when asked whether the scouts departure from Buan should be seen as an early end for the jamboree. We are creating new programs with regional governments away from the campsite, so it could be said the jamboree is widening.

Organizers earlier on Monday were scurrying to come up with plans to evacuate the scouts ahead of the storms arrival but werent committing to abandoning the campsite entirely.

Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the jamborees organizing committee, said organizers have secured more than 340 evacuation venues, including community centers and gyms, in regions near Buan.

About 40,000 scouts came to the jamboree. About 4,500 were from the U.K., representing the largest national contingent, while about 1,000 were from the United States.

South Korea categorizes Khanun as a typhoon, defined as a tropical storm with winds stronger than 61 kph (38 mph). South Koreas weather agency expects Khanun to weaken to a storm within the next five days.

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
Donald Trumps legal team told a judge overseeing the election conspiracy case against him on Monday that prosecutors' proposed protective order aimed at preventing the public disclosure of evidence is too broad and would restrict his First Amendment rights.

Lawyers for the early 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner said in court papers that the judge should impose a more limited order that would bar the public release only of materials deemed sensitive"  such as grand jury documents  rather than all evidence handed over by the government in the case accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith's team quickly countered with their own filing accusing Trump of objecting to their proposal because he wants to be able to use the government's evidence to try the case in the media rather than in the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said later Monday that she would hold a hearing on the dueling proposals, and that Trump would not have to attend.

Prosecutors asked Friday for the protective order, which would impose rules on what Trump and his defense team can do with evidence shared by the government as they prepare for trial in the case unsealed last week.

Smith's prosecution team has said a protective order  not unusual in criminal cases  is particularly important in Trump's case because of his penchant for using social media. They have expressed concern that Trump could improperly share sensitive case information online that could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses.

In their filing Friday seeking the order, prosecutors included a screenshot of a post from Trumps Truth Social platform that same day in which he wrote, in all capital letters, If you go after me, Im coming after you!

Trumps lawyers said citing that post to claim theres a danger that Trump might publish secret grand jury information was a provocative claim when searching for headlines, perhaps, but one that falters under minimal scrutiny.

The former presidents legal team said his post was generalized political speech and had nothing to do with the case. A Trump spokesperson said last week that the post was in response to dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.

Trump's lawyers, who have characterized the case as an attack on his right to free speech, told the judge that the need to protect sensitive information about the case does not require a blanket gag order over all documents produced by the government.

In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights, Trump's lawyers wrote. Worse, it does so against its administrations primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party members and media allies have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated its false allegations.

Trump's lawyers accused President Joe Biden of trying to capitalize on the indictment in posting what they called a thinly veiled reference to Trump's prosecution just hours before Trump's court appearance last week. They included a screenshot in their court filing of a tweet from from Biden's campaign account, which included a video of the president drinking from a mug emblazoned with Dark Brandon  a meme featuring Biden with lasers for eyes. The caption said, "A cup of Joe never tasted better."

Trumps lawyers on Saturday had asked for an extra three days to respond to prosecutors request for the protective order, saying they needed more time for discussion. But Chutkan who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama, swiftly denied that request.

Prosecutors said that they are ready to hand over a substantial amount of evidence to Trumps legal team and that much of it includes sensitive and confidential information.

The prosecutors proposed order seeks to prevent Trump and his lawyers from disclosing materials provided by the government to anyone other than people on his legal team, possible witnesses, the witnesses lawyers or others approved by the court. It would put stricter limits on sensitive materials, which prosecutors said would include grand jury witness testimony and materials obtained through sealed search warrants.

Prosecutors noted in court papers Monday that Trump has made several comments about the case on social media even since they filed their protective order request. They referenced one Trump post about former Vice President Mike Pence  a potential witness in the case  in which Trump called Pence delusional."

Prosecutors said Trump's proposal aims to allow for the release of transcripts and audio recordings of witness interviews conducted outside the grand jury process.

The Government has proposed a standard, reasonable order that will streamline the flow of discovery to the defendant while preserving the integrity of these proceedings. The defendant has proposed an unreasonable order to facilitate his plan to litigate this case in the media, to the detriment of litigating this case in the courtroom. Normal order should prevail," prosecutors wrote.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, as well as another prosecution brought by Smith that accuses him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

He has has characterized all the cases against him as an effort to take down his 2024 campaign. His legal team has indicated that it will argue that he had relied on the advice of attorneys around him in 2020 and that Trump had a right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.

Trump pleaded not guilty last week to four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct Congress certification of Bidens electoral victory. The charges could lead to a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction, with the most serious counts calling for up to 20 years.

Its the third criminal case brought this year against Trump, but the first to try to hold him responsible for his efforts 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.

Smith also charged Trump in June with dozens of felony counts alleging the former president illegally kept classified records after he left the White House and obstructed government efforts to get them back. A new indictment recently unsealed in that case accuses Trump of scheming with Mar-a-Lago staffers to try to delete security footage sought by investigators.

Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in that case imposed a similar protective order in June that prohibits Trump and his legal team from publicly disclosing evidence turned over to them by prosecutors without prior approval.

Richer reported from Boston.
"We're Japanese, not Russian." Kyocera files US lawsuit over Russian sanctions

Kyocera Document Solutions America has sued the New Jersey, USA Department of Treasury over economic sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. The NJ state law prevents government entities from contracting with a company whose parent has operations in Russia.

Kyocera's TASKalfa 1500C inkjet production printer





In its lawsuit, Kyocera said the New Jersey law undermines federal sanctions by obstructing the president's authority to control economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus, according to a report by US-based law.com.





The New Jersey law, which is stricter than federal sanctions against Russia, bars Kyocera from doing business with the state because another branch of the company operates in Russia, the report said.





Kyocera Americas corporate parent, Kyocera Document Solutions, is a Japanese company that also co-owns a Russia-based subsidiary with Kyocera Document Solutions Europe, the suit states.





Kyocera America has no interest in or business relationships with that Russian subsidiary or in Russia, according to the suit.





Kyocera America, with its principal place of business in Fairfield, New Jersey, does significant business in the State of New Jersey, including as a vendor to municipalities and government entities throughout the state, the suit says.
Museum's crowdfunding to relocate historical press is 30% there

With a target of $5,000 to decommission and transport the 1939 Heidelberg Zylinder Automat from the Don Dorrigo Gazette newspaper, 575km to the Penrith Museum of Print, it is gratifying that 30% - AUD$1,500 - has already been raised in just 5 days. 'we have had donations from $5 to $250' says a spokesman 'and every one will receive a handsome certificate of appreciation once the press is restored and working again.'

This is how the Zylinder Automat would have looked when new - magnificent engineering

People are asking 'Why is this press so important?' While its full history is still being researched, it is well known that, since 1970, it has printed Australia's last surviving all-letterpress/hot metal newspeper in the town of Dorrigo, NSW. The English family had published this local Gazette for 113 years with the last owner, Mick English, reluctantly closing is in June due to health issues and a declining circulation.

Mick has made it available to the Print Museum but Dorrigo is 575km away and it need specialist transport and re-commissioning, costing at leasy $5,000. The Museum is volunteer-run and a not-for-profit, so this represents a fair chunk of its treasury.

We can now reveal that, prior to Mick's Father John English installing the cylinder press in 1970, it had been operating since 1954 at Port Pirie, South Australia at a company named Automatic Printing, owner Albert Harold May. It was imported from Germany by long-term Heidelberg agent Seligson & Clare. Automatic Print today - still in Pirie!



Amazingly, May's grandaughter, Robyn, still runs the bisiness which today does mainly digital print and textile printing such as T-shirts and uniforms. She recalled "I remember my Grandad running that press on Simpson Street, not far from where we are now. I was a little girl, so memories are a bit vague."

The arrival of the automated press made news in SA, with the Port Pirie Recorder of July 12th 1954 reporting:



New Machine Installed In Pirie
Good Life Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO  Free Report) by 18.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,678 shares of the utilities providers stock after purchasing an additional 3,090 shares during the quarter. Good Life Advisors LLCs holdings in Southern were worth $1,369,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SO. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 48.7% during the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 3,196 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC purchased a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,000. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 14,463 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,006,000 after purchasing an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter worth approximately $76,000. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 22,620 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 6,879 shares in the last quarter. 63.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Southern Stock Performance

Shares of Southern stock opened at $67.84 on Friday. The stocks fifty day moving average is $70.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.71. The company has a market capitalization of $73.97 billion, a PE ratio of 23.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 0.50. 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 Southern Company has a 52 week low of $58.85 and a 52 week high of $80.57.

Southern Dividend Announcement

Southern ( NYSE:SO Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $5.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.47 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 9.85% and a net margin of 11.17%. Southerns quarterly revenue was down 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 21st will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 18th. Southerns dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 98.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of the companys 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 in the company, valued at approximately $63,705,014.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Southern news, CEO Thomas A. Fanning sold 50,000 shares of the companys 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 in the company, valued at approximately $63,705,014.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 47,326 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.78, for a total value of $3,302,408.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 118,659 shares of the companys stock, valued at $8,280,025.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 225,678 shares of company stock valued at $16,334,121 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Southern from $79.00 to $77.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. StockNews.com cut Southern from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley reissued an underweight rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Southern from a buy rating to a conviction-buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Southern from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $73.57.

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.

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Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT  Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from an underperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report issued on Sunday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on RKT. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Rocket Companies from $7.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup raised their price objective on Rocket Companies from $9.00 to $11.00 in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Rocket Companies from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Rocket Companies from $8.00 to $9.50 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Rocket Companies from $7.50 to $8.00 in a research note on Monday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $8.50.

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Rocket Companies Trading Up 10.5 %

Shares of Rocket Companies stock traded up $1.06 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.18. 5,576,238 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,262,165. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -53.24 and a beta of 2.15. The company has a current ratio of 12.65, a quick ratio of 12.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. Rocket Companies has a 52-week low of $5.97 and a 52-week high of $11.54. The company has a fifty day moving average of $9.45 and a 200-day moving average of $8.98.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Rocket Companies ( NYSE:RKT Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.06). Rocket Companies had a negative return on equity of 8.18% and a negative net margin of 0.59%. The business had revenue of $666.07 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $754.56 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Rocket Companies will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of RKT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Rocket Companies by 8.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 92,184 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 7,048 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Rocket Companies by 32.1% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 16,693 shares of the companys stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 4,056 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Rocket Companies by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 737,843 shares of the companys stock worth $8,205,000 after buying an additional 61,950 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in Rocket Companies by 341.4% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,414 shares of the companys stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 3,414 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new stake in Rocket Companies in the first quarter valued at $52,000. Institutional investors own 4.41% of the companys stock.

About Rocket Companies

(Get Free Report)

Rocket Companies, Inc, a fintech holding company, provides mortgage lending, title and settlement services, and other financial technology services in the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments, Direct to Consumer and Partner Network. The company's solutions include Rocket Mortgage, a mortgage lender; Amrock that provides title insurance, property valuation, and settlement services; Rocket Homes, a home search platform and real estate agent referral network, which offers technology-enabled services to support the home buying and selling experience; Rocket Auto, a virtual marketplace where consumers can shop and compare vehicles of many makes and models from a wide network of dealers; and Rocket Loans, an online-based personal loans business.

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IQVIA (NYSE:IQV  Get Free Report) and Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH  Get Free Report) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

IQVIA has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

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Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for IQVIA and Laboratory Co. of America, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score IQVIA 0 1 12 0 2.92 Laboratory Co. of America 0 2 7 0 2.78

Insider & Institutional Ownership

IQVIA currently has a consensus price target of $253.07, indicating a potential upside of 16.66%. Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus price target of $254.25, indicating a potential upside of 18.13%. Given Laboratory Co. of Americas higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than IQVIA.

86.9% of IQVIA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.8% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of IQVIA shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares IQVIA and Laboratory Co. of Americas revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio IQVIA $14.41 billion 2.79 $1.09 billion $5.81 37.34 Laboratory Co. of America $13.35 billion 1.43 $1.28 billion $9.27 23.22

Laboratory Co. of America has lower revenue, but higher earnings than IQVIA. Laboratory Co. of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than IQVIA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares IQVIA and Laboratory Co. of Americas net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets IQVIA 7.47% 30.14% 6.78% Laboratory Co. of America 5.89% 14.63% 7.38%

Summary

IQVIA beats Laboratory Co. of America on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IQVIA

(Get Free Report)

IQVIA Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients' outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and decentralized clinical trials, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. IQVIA Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Laboratory Co. of America

(Get 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. The company offers various tests, such as blood chemistry analyses, urinalyses, blood cell counts, thyroid tests, PAP tests, hemoglobin A1C and vitamin D, prostate-specific antigens, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis C tests, microbiology cultures and procedures, and alcohol and other substance-abuse tests. It also provides specialty testing services comprising gene-based and esoteric testing; advanced tests target specific diseases, including anatomic pathology/oncology, cardiovascular disease, coagulation, diagnostic genetics, endocrinology, infectious disease, women's health, pharmacogenetics, and parentage and donor testing; occupational testing services, medical drug monitoring services, chronic disease programs, and kidney stone prevention tests; and health and wellness services to employers and managed care organizations (MCOs), including health fairs, on-site and at-home testing, vaccinations, and health screenings. In addition, the company offers online and mobile applications to enable patients to check test results; and online applications for MCOs and accountable care organizations; and end-to-end drug development, medical device, and companion diagnostic development solutions from early-stage research to clinical development and commercial market access. It serves MCOs, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and diagnostics companies, governmental agencies, physicians and other healthcare providers, hospitals and health systems, employers, patients and consumers, contract research organizations, and independent clinical laboratories. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina.

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China Pacific Insurance (Group) (OTCMKTS:CHPXF  Get Free Report) and Old Mutual (OTCMKTS:ODMUF  Get Free Report) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares China Pacific Insurance (Group) and Old Mutuals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio China Pacific Insurance (Group) N/A N/A N/A $1.12 2.13 Old Mutual N/A N/A N/A $0.11 5.84

China Pacific Insurance (Group) is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Old Mutual, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score China Pacific Insurance (Group) 0 2 1 0 2.33 Old Mutual 0 2 0 0 2.00

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for China Pacific Insurance (Group) and Old Mutual, as reported by MarketBeat.

Old Mutual has a consensus target price of $62.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9,875.86%. Given Old Mutuals higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Old Mutual is more favorable than China Pacific Insurance (Group).

Dividends

China Pacific Insurance (Group) pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 15.1%. Old Mutual pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.0%. China Pacific Insurance (Group) pays out 32.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Old Mutual pays out 76.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. China Pacific Insurance (Group) is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares China Pacific Insurance (Group) and Old Mutuals net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets China Pacific Insurance (Group) N/A N/A N/A Old Mutual N/A N/A N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.0% of China Pacific Insurance (Group) shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.5% of Old Mutual shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

China Pacific Insurance (Group) beats Old Mutual on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About China Pacific Insurance (Group)

(Get Free Report)

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance products to individual and institutional customers in the People's Republic of China. It operates through Life and Health Insurance, Property and Casualty Insurance, and Other Businesses segments. The company offers life, health, automobile, liability, agricultural, property, accident, construction and engineering, and guarantee insurance products; pension and annuity insurance products; investments with insurance funds, etc.; and reinsurance products. It also provides real estate management, consulting, medical consulting, insurance agency, fund management, seniors and disabled care, elderly, real estate development and operation, technical, cloud computing, bid data, and health advisory services, as well as senior living property investment, construction, and management services. It sells its products directly, as well as through agents, bancassurance, telemarketing, and internet Sales. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.

About Old Mutual

(Get Free Report)

Old Mutual Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial services primarily in South Africa and rest of Africa. The company operates through Mass and Foundation Cluster, Personal Finance and Wealth Management, Old Mutual Investments, Old Mutual Corporate, Old Mutual Insure, and Old Mutual Africa Regions segments. It offers risk products, including group risk and funeral covers; long-term savings; lending products comprising micro-lending; and transactional products. It also provides financial advice, investment, and income products, as well as asset management services. In addition, the company offers investments, annuities, and consulting services to employee-sponsored retirement and benefit funds; and health, property, and casualty insurance products. It serves low-income and lower-middle income markets; high income and high net worth individuals; and employee-sponsored retirement and benefit funds. The company was founded in 1845 and is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.20-1.48 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $0.98. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.4-1.5 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.05 billion. Canada Goose also updated its FY 2024 guidance to $0.89-$1.09 EPS.

Canada Goose Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Canada Goose stock traded up $0.11 on Friday, reaching $16.71. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,356,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 827,516. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. Canada Goose has a 52 week low of $14.51 and a 52 week high of $24.73. The firms fifty day simple moving average is $17.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.50.

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Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 18th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.04. Canada Goose had a net margin of 4.28% and a return on equity of 21.74%. The firm had revenue of $216.84 million during the quarter. Equities analysts anticipate that Canada Goose will post 1.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Institutional Trading of Canada Goose

GOOS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Canada Goose from $17.00 to $14.80 in a report on Thursday, May 18th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Canada Goose from $20.00 to $18.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Canada Goose has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $25.48.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Canada Goose by 203.0% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,179,953 shares of the companys stock worth $83,715,000 after purchasing an additional 2,130,452 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Canada Goose by 135.6% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,930,284 shares of the companys stock valued at $34,764,000 after buying an additional 1,111,105 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Canada Goose by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,779,032 shares of the companys stock valued at $27,112,000 after buying an additional 125,265 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Canada Goose by 67.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,531,805 shares of the companys stock worth $27,281,000 after acquiring an additional 616,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Canada Goose by 27.6% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,237,176 shares of the companys stock worth $23,790,000 after acquiring an additional 267,606 shares during the period. 55.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Canada Goose Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Canada Goose Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and sells performance luxury apparel for men, women, youth, children, and babies in Canada, the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through three segments: Direct-to-Consumer, Wholesale, and Other.

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Checchi Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (NYSEARCA:IJR  Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,727 shares of the exchange traded funds stock, valued at approximately $651,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 78,641 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $8,484,000 after acquiring an additional 6,036 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 27,546 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,972,000 after acquiring an additional 1,456 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 67.2% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 52,705 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $5,686,000 after acquiring an additional 21,177 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 24,791 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,674,000 after acquiring an additional 1,128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 8,847 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $954,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF Price Performance

NYSEARCA IJR traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $103.96. The stock had a trading volume of 2,547,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,023,947. iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF has a 1 year low of $86.40 and a 1 year high of $108.24. The stock has a market cap of $72.62 billion, a PE ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $99.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.39.

About iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF

iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF, formerly iShares S&P SmallCap 600 Index Fund, seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors SmallCap 600 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of publicly traded securities in the small-capitalization sector of the United States equity market.

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Eneti (NYSE:NETI  Get Free Report) is set to post its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Tuesday, August 8th. Analysts expect Eneti to post earnings of $0.06 per share for the quarter. Individual that wish to listen to the companys earnings conference call can do so using this link.

Eneti Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NETI stock traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $11.81. 19,921 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 503,702. The businesss fifty day moving average is $11.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.75 and a quick ratio of 3.63. Eneti has a 12-month low of $6.62 and a 12-month high of $13.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $456.46 million, a P/E ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.15.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Pareto Securities began coverage on shares of Eneti in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. They set a buy rating and a $13.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup downgraded Eneti from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $14.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, June 22nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Eneti

Eneti Company Profile

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eneti during the 1st quarter worth $2,563,000. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Eneti during the 4th quarter worth $2,710,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Eneti by 116.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 439,541 shares of the companys stock worth $4,110,000 after buying an additional 236,259 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its stake in shares of Eneti by 223.2% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 255,465 shares of the companys stock worth $2,567,000 after buying an additional 176,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Eneti by 57.3% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 463,145 shares of the companys stock worth $2,941,000 after buying an additional 168,787 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.42% of the companys stock.

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Eneti Inc engages in offshore wind and marine-based renewable energy businesses. It owns and operates five wind turbine installation vessels. The company was formerly known as Scorpio Bulkers Inc and changed its name to Eneti Inc in February 2021. Eneti Inc was incorporated in 2013 and is based in Monaco.

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IDACORP (NYSE:IDA  Get Free Report) updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $4.95-$5.15 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $5.09.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on IDA. Mizuho reduced their price target on IDACORP from $107.00 to $105.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 21st. StockNews.com raised IDACORP from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on IDACORP from $112.00 to $108.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday.

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IDACORP Stock Down 1.9 %

IDA traded down $1.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $98.61. 201,460 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 245,806. IDACORP has a 12-month low of $93.53 and a 12-month high of $115.92. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $103.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29, a PEG ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.60.

IDACORP Announces Dividend

IDACORP ( NYSE:IDA Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The energy company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $413.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $359.32 million. IDACORP had a return on equity of 9.72% and a net margin of 15.31%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. Analysts predict that IDACORP will post 5.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 2nd will be issued a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 1st. IDACORPs payout ratio is currently 58.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDACORP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IDA. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in IDACORP by 5,338.0% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 602,962 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $65,029,000 after buying an additional 591,874 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in IDACORP by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,874,121 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $677,639,000 after buying an additional 313,956 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in IDACORP by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,674,867 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $193,213,000 after buying an additional 221,072 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in IDACORP by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,316,570 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $684,274,000 after buying an additional 105,226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in IDACORP by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,031,531 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $326,951,000 after buying an additional 91,714 shares in the last quarter. 81.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About IDACORP

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IDACORP, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, distribution, purchase, and sale of electric energy in the United States. The company operates 17 hydropower generating plants located in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon; three natural gas-fired plants in southern Idaho; and interests in two coal-fired steam electric generating plants located in Wyoming and Nevada.

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Integrated Advisors Network LLC lessened its position in shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW  Free Report) by 1.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,341 shares of the industrial products companys stock after selling 101 shares during the period. Integrated Advisors Network LLCs holdings in Illinois Tool Works were worth $1,300,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ITW. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 8,534 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $2,078,000 after buying an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,539 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Illinois Tool Works in the 1st quarter valued at $312,000. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 78,465 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $19,102,000 after buying an additional 4,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mattern Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 249.4% in the 1st quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,660 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,621,000 after buying an additional 4,754 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.37% of the companys stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Illinois Tool Works news, CAO Randall J. Scheuneman sold 5,425 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.23, for a total transaction of $1,297,822.75. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,870 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,121,970.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.78% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Illinois Tool Works Price Performance

NYSE ITW traded up $3.09 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $249.73. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,074,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,099,606. The stock has a market cap of $75.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 1.13. Illinois Tool Works Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $180.27 and a fifty-two week high of $264.19. The companys 50-day moving average is $245.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.25, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.59.

Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.14 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a net margin of 19.30% and a return on equity of 94.14%. The firms revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.37 EPS. Analysts forecast that Illinois Tool Works Inc. will post 9.74 EPS for the current year.

Illinois Tool Works Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This is a boost from Illinois Tool Workss previous quarterly dividend of $1.31. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. Illinois Tool Workss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ITW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $203.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. 3M reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Illinois Tool Works in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Illinois Tool Works from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $236.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $183.00 to $181.00 and set a sell rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $236.75.

View Our Latest Analysis on Illinois Tool Works

Illinois Tool Works Company Profile

(Free Report)

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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Shares of MGIC Investment Co. (NYSE:MTG  Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of Moderate Buy by the five brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.00.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MTG shares. Compass Point increased their price target on shares of MGIC Investment from $18.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of MGIC Investment in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of MGIC Investment from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research note on Friday.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of MGIC Investment by 62.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 17,055 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $269,000 after buying an additional 6,537 shares during the period. Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new stake in MGIC Investment in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,271,000. Barclays PLC lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 208.1% in the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 690,302 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $10,900,000 after purchasing an additional 466,231 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its position in MGIC Investment by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 298,167 shares of the insurance providers stock valued at $4,708,000 after purchasing an additional 7,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of MGIC Investment by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 41,488 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $655,000 after buying an additional 3,930 shares in the last quarter. 95.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MGIC Investment Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE MTG opened at $17.98 on Monday. MGIC Investment has a 1 year low of $12.13 and a 1 year high of $18.14. The firms 50 day moving average price is $15.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.64. The firm has a market cap of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.66.

MGIC Investment (NYSE:MTG  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The insurance provider reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.13. MGIC Investment had a net margin of 67.83% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The firm had revenue of $290.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.81 earnings per share. MGIC Investments revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that MGIC Investment will post 2.37 earnings per share for the current year.

MGIC Investment Increases Dividend

The business 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 a positive change from MGIC Investments previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 9th. MGIC Investments dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.15%.

MGIC Investment Company Profile

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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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Fortis (TSE:FTS  Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Raymond James from C$65.00 to C$62.00 in a report issued on Thursday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Raymond James also issued estimates for Fortis Q2 2023 earnings at $0.61 EPS, Q4 2023 earnings at $0.76 EPS, FY2023 earnings at $3.02 EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at $0.68 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $0.78 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $3.11 EPS.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. CSFB cut their price objective on shares of Fortis from C$62.00 to C$61.50 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Fortis from C$58.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. Susquehanna Bancshares lifted their price target on Fortis from C$56.00 to C$57.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. TD Securities cut their price target on Fortis from C$65.00 to C$63.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on Fortis from C$54.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Friday, May 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fortis currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of C$57.92.

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Fortis Stock Up 1.1 %

TSE:FTS opened at C$53.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$26.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.28, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.19. Fortis has a 1-year low of C$48.45 and a 1-year high of C$62.00. The companys fifty day moving average price is C$56.53 and its 200-day moving average price is C$56.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 127.94, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.36.

Fortis Announces Dividend

Fortis Company Profile

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.565 per share. This represents a $2.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 18th. Fortiss dividend payout ratio is currently 76.87%.

(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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Stryker (NYSE:SYK  Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $295.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an equal weight rating on the medical technology companys stock. Morgan Stanleys price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.80% from the stocks current price.

SYK has been the topic of a number of other reports. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Stryker in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Stryker from $290.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 17th. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Stryker from $313.00 to $331.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Stryker from $285.00 to $336.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Stryker from $275.00 to $336.00 in a research note on Sunday, April 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Stryker currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $309.33.

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Stryker Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:SYK traded up $2.56 during trading on Monday, reaching $286.27. 1,233,251 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,333,754. Stryker has a 12-month low of $200.80 and a 12-month high of $306.93. The firms 50-day moving average price is $289.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.54. The firm has a market cap of $108.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Stryker

Stryker ( NYSE:SYK Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The medical technology company reported $2.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.16. Stryker had a return on equity of 22.31% and a net margin of 13.92%. The company had revenue of $5 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.25 earnings per share. The firms revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Stryker will post 10.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 1,000 shares of Stryker stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.00, for a total transaction of $286,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,706,562. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 500 shares of Stryker stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.50, for a total transaction of $139,250.00. Following 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Srikant M. Datar sold 1,000 shares of Stryker stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.00, for a total value of $286,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,967 shares in the company, valued at $1,706,562. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Stryker

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Steward Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Stryker in the second quarter worth $79,000. Lincoln National Corp boosted its position in shares of Stryker by 2.7% in the second quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 6,942 shares of the medical technology companys stock worth $2,118,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Stryker by 0.7% during the second quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 48,087 shares of the medical technology companys stock valued at $14,671,000 after purchasing an additional 335 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in Stryker by 4.2% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 14,410 shares of the medical technology companys stock valued at $4,396,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, White Pine Investment CO acquired a new stake in Stryker during the second quarter valued at $211,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the companys stock.

About Stryker

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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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Thomson Reuters (TSE:TRI  Free Report) (NYSE:TRI) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from C$145.00 to C$150.00 in a report issued on Thursday, BayStreet.CA reports. Citigroup currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Thomson Reuters from C$175.00 to C$185.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. National Bankshares lowered Thomson Reuters from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and raised their price target for the stock from C$184.00 to C$194.00 in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Thomson Reuters from C$182.00 to C$184.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Thomson Reuters from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Sunday, May 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of C$175.86.

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Thomson Reuters Price Performance

TSE:TRI opened at C$176.07 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$79.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.54, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 37.20, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$173.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$169.98. Thomson Reuters has a 1 year low of C$136.02 and a 1 year high of C$185.12.

Thomson Reuters Increases Dividend

Thomson Reuters Company Profile

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.649 per share. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. This is a positive change from Thomson Reuterss previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 16th. Thomson Reuterss dividend payout ratio is presently 85.49%.

(Get Free Report)

Thomson Reuters Corporation engages in the provision of business information services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in five segments: Legal Professionals, Corporates, Tax & Accounting Professionals, Reuters News, and Global Print. The Legal Professionals segment offers research and workflow products focusing on legal research and integrated legal workflow solutions that combine content, tools, and analytics to law firms and governments.

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Foreign envoys visit a potable water project in Jiashi County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 1, 2023. [Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie]

URUMQI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua)  Envoys from 25 countries, including Dominica, Myanmar, Iran, Samoa and Surinam, visited northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from July 31 to Friday at the invitation of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During their visit to the regional capital Urumqi, as well as Kashgar and Aksu prefectures, the diplomats affirmed that "people in Xinjiang are enjoying a happy life." They also had the opportunity to witness Xinjiang's impressive economic development and diverse culture, which stands in stark contrast to the falsehoods spread by certain Western media.

During an exhibition on Xinjiang's anti-terrorism and deradicalization work in Urumqi, Ijaz Ahmad, minister of the Pakistan Embassy in Beijing said: "Chinese authorities have put great efforts in counter-terrorism, and the people of Xinjiang have been provided a safe and secure environment." He also said that China and Pakistan will continue cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Regarding the so-called "violations of human rights," Martin Charles, Dominican ambassador to China, stated that he engaged in candid conversations with the locals and observed that they are leading happy and dignified lives. "I have not seen any forced labor, and have not found any human rights violations."

After visiting the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar and Xinjiang Islamic Institute in Urumqi, Luamanuvae Mariner, Samoan ambassador to China, pointed out that Chinese law guarantees the freedom of religious belief for all ethnic groups, and China's development outcomes are encouraging.

In Kashgar's Jiashi County, the delegation visited a potable water project built with an investment of over 1.7 billion yuan (about 238 million U.S. dollars). The foreign envoys witnessed the innovative approach of sourcing water from melted glaciers and snow, and how this project has effectively provided clean and safe drinking water to all residents in the county.

"Providing drinking water to 460,000 people everywhere is a fundamental victory everywhere," said Michael Campbell, Nicaraguan ambassador to China, adding that Nicaragua can learn from China's experience in ensuring people's well-being and fighting poverty.

The delegation also visited the Urumqi International Land Port. Batir Tursunov, minister-counselor of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Beijing, said that Xinjiang plays a vital role in connecting markets between Europe and Asia. He said he is looking forward to the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which will bring convenience to people along the route.

Xinjiang serves not only as a crucial transportation hub but also a region with diverse cultures along the ancient Silk Road. Erika Lizardo, minister-counselor of the Embassy of Peru in Beijing, expressed her admiration for the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves in Aksu, one of China's earliest large-scale grotto groups. "China is making a great effort preserving these budda caves, and values its culture everywhere," she said.

The delegation also visited the Jiayi Village in Aksu's Xinhe County, renowned for musical instrument production. The locals warmly welcomed the delegates with lively dances and captivating performances on folk musical instruments such as rewap and tambourine.

Overflowing with excitement, Hector Dorbecker, minister of the Embassy of Mexico in Beijing, couldn't resist purchasing a dutar, a string instrument. "I will give the gift to my brother. He is a music lover and I can hear him play music with this Xinjiang instrument," he said.

In response to the false accusations made by some Western media of so-called "cultural genocide," Ijaz Ahmad said: "Seeing is believing, the Chinese government is making efforts to preserve the culture and language of multi-ethnic groups."

Foreign envoys visit an exhibition on Xinjiang's anti-terrorism and deradicalization work in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. [Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie]

Hector Dorbecker, minister of the Embassy of Mexico in Beijing, tries to play dutar, a string instrument, in Jiayi Village of Xinhe County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 2, 2023. [Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie]

(Source: Xinhua)
Yang Yu, director of the publicity and education department of the Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in Shanghai, is a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress. "As a Chinese Communist who tells stories about CPC's national congress, at the site where the CPC was founded, and where the great founding spirit of the CPC was nurtured, being a delegate to the 20th CPC National Congress is a recognition of my work," says Yang.

Becoming a Docent

On July 23, 1921, the first CPC National Congress was convened, secretly, in a two-story, brick-and-wood building, at what is now 76 Xingye Road, in Shanghai. The building was designated a memorial site in September 1952. After a major renovation and expansion between 2019 and 2021, the memorial now houses the site of the first CPC National Congress, an oath-taking hall, and a newly built exhibition area.

In 2000, after she graduated from university, Yang applied to become a docent at the memorial site. Even though her major was international trade and advertising, Yang hoped to challenge herself. "It is a noble job  Also, I can interact with visitors from all walks of life," says Yang.

After Yang was hired, she began working hard to improve her narration skills. From voice and rhythm to body posture, she tried to use and optimize her movements and expressions. She gradually realized that memorizing long paragraphs of commentary, standing tall and straight, and pronouncing words correctly were only some of her duties.

"I carefully studied the stories behind the photos and antiques. My aspiration and mission is to promote revolutionary culture, and to pass on the strength of revolutionary belief to visitors," says Yang. "I should not merely tell stories. I should let the memorial become a 'classroom' for Party-history publicity and education, and let the antiques and historical materials become 'teaching materials' of Party history. The heroes and role models are our 'teachers.' In this way, visitors will have a better understanding of Party history."

Yang clearly remembers one event that occurred after she took the job. One day, in June 2000, many visitors flocked to the memorial site, to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the CPC on July 1.

"Among the visitors was a role model policeman. During the visit, I helped push his wheelchair. He told me that he would come here every year, as long as he could. He hoped to draw nourishment and strength from the deeds of the revolutionary martyrs, to better strive for his ideal," Yang recalls.

"I was touched by his words. I was even more touched when I saw that he revisited the memorial, accompanied by his family members, the next year. Because of his faith and persistence, I deeply feel my job is so important," continues Yang.

In 2002, Yang was promoted to deputy director of the memorial's publicity and education department. Two years later, she became a Party member. "I was admitted to the Party on July 23, 2004. I was so excited, as July 23 was the anniversary date of the convening of the first CPC National Congress," says Yang.

Impetus for Work

October 31, 2017, was an unforgettable day for Yang. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, visited the memorial site, with members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, on that day. Yang guided them, and explained the exhibits to them.

After that day, the number of visitors to the memorial experienced "blowout" growth, rising to 835,000 visitors in 2017. In the two years that followed, the memorial received more than 1.4 million tourists, consecutively. "Many people followed General Secretary Xi's footsteps to the memorial site, to visit the 'spiritual home' of Chinese Communists," Yang says.

In August 2019, construction began on the memorial's new exhibition hall. The new facility would ensure better services were provided to visitors, and help visitors have a better understanding of the history of CPC's founding. The hall officially opened in 2021. Within half a year, the memorial had received nearly 1.45 million visitors. Almost 130,000 visitors wrote messages after they visited the memorial.

"The messages reflect their love for the Party, which is an important impetus for our work," says Yang.

For Younger Generations

The average age of the more than 10 members in the publicity and education department is less than 30. Yang leads these young members in innovating publicity and education methods. For example, when talking about the 13 representatives who participated in the first CPC National Congress, the young docents call them "the best team in history." Also, they refer to the history of the founding of the CPC as "the growth of the young CPC."

Yang has also guided her team in focusing on digital education. During the memorial's temporary closing in 2020, due to COVID-19, Yang and her team provided access to virtual exhibitions on a digital platform. The docents also worked as "live streamers," so visitors could "tour" the memorial through live streaming.

In 2021, Yang launched a short-video program to publicize Party-history stories. She planned to shoot 100 episodes, each one minute long.

In recent years, Yang has led her team in improving the quality of afterschool education, especially for teenagers. In 2019, the team launched a public-benefit project  organizing teenagers to tell stories about the founding of the CPC. The project won first prize in the National Culture and Tourism Volunteer Service Project Online Competition, organized by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in 2020. It also won the gold medal during the fifth Chinese Youth Volunteer Service Project Competition, organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, the same year.

In 2021, Yang took the lead in launching a program  displaying revolutionary cultural relics and sharing the stories behind the relics  in 100 schools in Shanghai.

In 2022, Yang led her team in organizing interactive activities, especially aimed at teenagers, in the memorial, to celebrate the convening of the 20th CPC National Congress. During the activities, visitors were placed in teams and then worked together to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks. It was an innovative way to promote Party-history learning and education. Nearly 15,000 visitors participated. In May 2023, the team upgraded the activities, which have attracted more than 50,000 participants.

"The youth are the future of our country. We should study how to tell the revolutionary stories in a better way, so young people can keep the stories in mind," Yang says.

Statistics provided by Yang indicate the proportion of young visitors has increased, year by year, during the past five years. "It fully proves that revolutionary culture has attracted legions of young 'fans.' Revolutionary stories are welcomed among the younger generations," Yang says.

"More and more young people have been admitted to the Party. The great founding spirit of the Party has nourished, and will nourish, generation after generation of Chinese people. The Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will surely be realized," says Yang.

In the future, Yang will lead her team in focusing on guiding young people to have firm ideals and faith, and to enhance their sense of responsibility and mission for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

"Shanghai has abundant revolutionary resources. There are more than 600 revolutionary sites in the city. We should devote ourselves to protecting revolutionary sites and relics, and to disseminating revolutionary culture," Yang says.

Photos Supplied by Memorial of the First National Congress of the CPC and Interviewee

(Women of China English Monthly July 2023 issue)
Weather Alert

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 10 PM CDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values of 105 to 115 expected. * WHERE...Portions of southern Illinois, southwest Indiana and western Kentucky. Generally locations along and northwest of a line from Fulton to Paducah Kentucky to Shawneetown Illinois to Princeton Indiana. * WHEN...From noon today to 10 PM CDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Extreme heat and humidity will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...This will likely be the worst heat wave we have experienced this summer in terms of duration. The multiple day aspect of this excessive heat will add to the impact. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
Abigail Spanberger, a three-time House Democratic Representative from Virginias 7th Congressional District, has let it be known that she plans to run for governor in 2025, and will likely give up her seat in the House of Representatives next year as a result, according to the online publication Politico.

A former CIA agent, Spanberger would join Elissa Slotkin, another former CIA agent, who is seeking a vacant seat in the US Senate next year and will also give up her seat in the House of Representatives.

Spanberger and Slotkin are among more than a dozen members of the House of Representatives who have entered Congress since 2018 from active service in the CIA, military or State Department, whom the World Socialist Web Site has labeled the CIA Democrats.

This group has been deliberately promoted by the Democratic Party leadership and given prominent roles in the caucus leadership. Six of the CIA Democrats signed an op-ed advocating the 2019 impeachment of Trump over his disruption of US military aid to Ukraine. One of the six, Jason Crow, a former Army paratrooper in Afghanistan, was a House impeachment manager.

Spanberger herself was promoted this year to a leadership position as head of a newly formed House Democratic caucus aimed at winning tightly contested elections in so-called battleground states. In addition, she sits on the high-powered House Intelligence Committee, overseeing the same agency in which she worked for 12 years, mainly in Europe.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Democratic-Virginia speaks about her past work as a Central Intelligence Agency officer and her recent appointment to the House Intelligence Committee during an interview at her congressional offices in Washington on Wednesday, February 8, 2023. [AP Photo/Nathan Howard]

Spanberger was first elected in 2018 in a district stretching north from the suburbs of Richmond to the fringes of Northern Virginia, defeating incumbent Republican ultra-rightist David Brat, benefitting from the wave of popular revulsion over the first two years of the Trump administration.

While she has not officially declared her intent to run for governor, she has dropped more than hints, generating a string of media reports last week based on comments by top political aides and four Democrats in Virginia and two members of Congress, all obviously intended to build up support for her eventual run.

Politico commented that Spanberger, a powerhouse fundraiser who recently earned a spot at House Democrats leadership table, has been laying the groundwork for a statewide run for monthseven years.

She would seek to take over the governorship from Republican Glenn Youngkin, who is limited to a single term by state law.

Spanberger has reportedly raised over $1.2 million for a reelection bid to Congress, but under state law she can transfer that to a gubernatorial campaign. In 2022, she raised more than $9 million for her House campaign, one of the largest sums for any representative.

After narrowly winning reelection in 2020, a year in which a significant number of incumbent Democrats were defeated, Spanberger made a series of notorious comments denouncing the influence of The Squad and Senator Bernie Sanders, who posture as socialists while advocating thoroughly pro-capitalist measures.

She demanded, in a Democratic caucus meeting, that no Democratic candidate should ever again use the word socialism to describe his or her policies, claiming that this had fueled Republican campaign propaganda and led to the loss of House seats even though Biden defeated Trump in the presidential contest.

Spanberger is continually described in the corporate press as a political moderate but is, in fact, a staunchly right-wing politician. She combines appeals to gender politics with vociferous support for the police, fiscal austerity and the US military and foreign policy establishment.

Her most recent press release touts her refusal to vote to raise the US federal debt ceiling without first discussing our nations finances openly before taking an action as important as raising the ceiling on appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year. Spanberger previously criticized Democratic President Joe Bidens so-called leftist spending policies enacted during the pandemic.

Spanbergers political physiognomy is identical to Slotkins, although Slotkin has taken the lead on national security issues while Spanberger has focused more on fiscal and law-and-order domestic issues.

Slotkin, like Spanberger, has had access to a massive fundraising network and has regularly outspent Republican opponents by a wide margin. This support from Wall Street and retired military-intelligence operatives is supplemented in Slotkins case by a wealthy family, which owned Detroit-based Hygrade Foods and produced Ball Park Franks, sold at many sporting events.

Slotkin has the odious distinction of overseeing war crimes by both Republican and Democratic administrations, moving from the CIA in Iraq to the National Security Council in the Bush White House, a similar position in the Obama White House, before being promoted to a higher position in the civilian hierarchy at the Department of Defense.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, left, Democratic-Michigan, and then-Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican-Wyoming, leave a campaign rally Tuesday, November 1, 2022, in East Lansing, Michigan, where Slotkin received the support of Cheney. [AP Photo/Carlos Osorio]

Since entering Congress two years after she left the Pentagon, Slotkin has become one of the leading Democratic Party voices on foreign and military policy, appearing regularly on national television programs and being heavily promoted as a future senator.

When Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan announced she would retire in 2024, the state Democratic Party effectively cleared the field for Slotkin, ensuring that no elected Democrat in the state would challenge her for the nomination. Only actor Hill Harper, who is able to finance his own campaign, has joined the race, and Slotkin is heavily favored.

The emergence of the CIA Democrats was part of the overall shift to the right by the Democratic Party, which included strengthening its ties with the military-intelligence agencies during the Trump administration. It was part of the effort by the Democrats to divert popular opposition to Trump, on a wide range of issues, into the reactionary anti-Russia campaign.

There are additional military-intelligence concerns in the Spanberger campaign in Virginia. The state is home to key intelligence and military installations, including the headquarters for both the military and the CIA.

In addition, it also houses critical facilities essential for manufacture and infrastructure. One-third of the worlds internet traffic flows through the complex of data centers which have been built in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

Another aspect of the promotion of the CIA Democrats is related to the class struggle itself. Last week, the Washington Posts conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote favorably of Spanbergers anticipated gubernatorial run, as well as that of the Senate campaign of Slotkin.

Spanberger and Slotkin, writes Rubin, are models for fellow Democrats worried about losing the heartland and/or working-class White voters. They refute the GOP talking point that Democrats are a bunch of socialists.

At a time when deep tribalism pervades politics and the Republican Party has descended into reactionary nationalism, these are the sort of politicians  who can appeal to Democrats, independents and the kind of normal Republicans [who the] defeated and indicted former president Donald Trump alienated, she enthuses.

So the answer to the fascistic drift of the Republican Party is to promote representatives of the bloodiest and most reactionary institution on the planet, the Central Intelligence Agency, whose operatives are to be presented as normal and moderate.
Indications of new waves of COVID-19 infections are emerging in the UK this summer, fueled by new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the disease.

According to the ZOE Health Study which encourages smart phone users to submit health reports, 52,375 symptomatic COVID cases were reported on August 3, leading to a prediction of as many as 805,411 current symptomatic cases in the UK. In all some 4,817,218 users contribute to ZOE's data.

The ZOE app [Photo: screenshot: covid.joinzoe.com]

Most cases are currently being reported from Suffolk and Leicestershire, while a few days ago the South West and Wales were reporting the highest figures. The ZOE figures record a 30 percent increase in cases since early July, although overall figures remain, thus far, much lower than during the Omicron surge last year, which peaked at over 3.8 million cases.

Testifying to the demolition of systemic community wide testing, the Conservative government's own dashboard for England alone reported a far lower figure of 4,076 new cases in the week to July 29, an increase of 27.8 percent. The dashboard reported 1,438 hospital admissions, an increase of 40 percent. The latest weekly figures for deaths record 63, a reduction of 22 percent, but this dated from the week to July 7. In Scotland, in the week to July 30, there were 118 admissions, and five deaths up to July 8. In Wales, there were 44 hospitalisations and another 69 cases acquired in hospital. Three patients are in critical care.

According to Worldometers, there have been 228,429 deaths from COVID in Britain.

Christina Pagel, a professor of operational research at University College London, commenting on the implications of testing failures, told the Guardian that Britain was nearly flying blind. Pagel warned that a new wave of infection appeared to be underway, and that this might accelerate into the autumn.

Pagel called for the re-introduction of high-quality masks in healthcare settings along with re-establishing a nationwide infection survey. Failing that, wastewater testing, also suspended, should be restored. Pagel expressed alarm over a repeat of the last winter NHS [National Health Service] crisis this winter again, with COVID, flu and RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] all hitting around the same time.

Wastewater testing, rolled out by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), sampled untreated sewage three times a week from over 300 treatment works in England. Similar programmes were established in Scotland and Wales, searching for fragments of coronavirus DNA released in faeces, thus giving a broad indicator of COVID-19 levels in the population. In an act designed solely to suppress public knowledge of infection levels, particularly advance warning of emerging infection waves, the UK government ended sampling in 2022. Some level of sampling is continuing in Wales and Scotland.

Epidemiologist professor, Rowland Kao of Edinburgh University, commented in the same article on the significance of the deliberate collapse in surveillance. With seasonal flu, we have of course a certain amount of predictability with the many years of data. However, with Covid, now that we dont have those multiple data streams to rely on, its harder to say what is happening.

Kao explained that COVID-19 was not following simple seasonal patterns and that the timing and impact of COVID variants was unknown.

Currently there are two emerging Omicron variants in the UK, accounting for nearly half of all UK casesEris and Arcturus. Eris, or EG.5.1, was first monitored in Asia, early July this year. In the UK it was classified as a variant July 10, by which time it was accounting for 11.8 percent of cases. That figure has increased to 14.6 percent. Arcturus emerged in April and now causes 39.4 percent of infections.

Thus far, Eris has not raised concerns to the level generated by Omicron. Eris is currently classed by the World Health Organisation as a variant under monitoring, as opposed to a variant of concern. Speaking to the Guardian, Imperial College London's Danny Altmann warned of the growing period since most people were vaccinated The immune-evasion mutations continue to emerge and cross-protection is looking ever more precarious. Meanwhile, immunity beyond one-year wanes appreciably.

A further indication of an emerging UK wave, and broad public concern, is the rapid growth in the sales of lateral flow test kits from pharmacies. Boots reported sales increased 33 percent in the week to July 22, compared with the previous three weeks. Boots charge 9.85 for tests that were formerly provided free of charge, Lloyds sell individual tests for 1.89. PCR swab tests, also formerly free, cost 62.00 from Boots, 67.00 from Lloydsdevastating costs for working class households amid a surge in the cost of living.

Further variants continue to emerge. Last month, the Daily Mail reported a mutation of the virus, taken from a patient swab in Indonesia, with 113 unique mutations. 37 of these were reported to affect the spike protein, which is central to SARS-COV-2's high rate of transmission. The spike protein is also the target of most of the vaccines developed, giving rise to further concerns of reduced vaccine efficacy. It is not known whether this mutation poses a threat, but the emergence of countless variants is unavoidable given the vast level of infection worldwide, driven by the calculated indifference of the capitalist class.

Commenting on the current wave in the UK, Leeds University professor of virology Stephen Griffin said that while numbers seem to be rising less quickly than previous waves the low level of testing means that this is difficult to confirm. He warned, More infections will also mean more Long Covid, which remains a massive concern and yet is often overlooked when factoring the impact of infection waves.

A Long Covid study published July 21 in The Lancet by King's College London which explored the impact of Covid on brain function found that deficits following SARS-CoV-2 infection were detectable nearly two years post infection, and [were] largest for individuals with longer symptom durations, ongoing symptoms, and/or more severe infection. Tests employed measured memory, attention, reasoning, processing speed, and motor control.

The study, carried out in 2021, found people with Covid-19 infections recorded lower cognitive scores, particularly if symptoms had persisted for over 12 weeks. The impact was described as comparable in scale to the effect of presentation to hospital during illness, an increase in age of approximately 10 years, or exhibiting mild or moderate symptoms of psychological distress. The tests were performed on 3,335 people who had been infected by SARS-CoV-2.

As many as 1.9 million people, 2.9 percent of the population, were reporting some level of Long COVID symptoms, as of March 2023 according the UK's Office of National Statistics. Described as symptoms continuing for more than four weeks after the first confirmed or suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) infection that were not explained by something else, fatigue, muscle ache and shortness of breath were most reported.

The spread of the disease in Britain, in the fourth year of the pandemic, is mirrored in other countries, including the United Stateswith data showing that the level of SARS-CoV-2 viral particles in wastewater across the US has risen by 125 percent over the past six weeksand Australia, which has seen a marked spike in deaths in recent months.

These development refute government lies that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about, is now endemic and equivalent to the cold or flu. All evidence points to the deadly virus continuing to mutate rapidly, more than twice as fast as the common flu. New variants that can bypass prior immunity threaten to unleash repeated waves of infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
Last Friday the Labour-led government in New Zealand released two policy documents from its ongoing Defence Policy Reviewthe Future Force Design Principles and a Defence Policy Strategy Statementas well as a new National Security Strategy. Taken together, these signal a significant strengthening of New Zealands alignment with the US-led military and intelligence build-up to war against China.

Defence Minister Andrew Little launches the first two documents of the Defence Policy Review and New Zealands first National Security Strategy. [Photo: Andrew Little]

At a press conference to launch the documents, Defence Minister Andrew Little was asked: Are you mentally preparing Kiwis for a war in our region? He confirmed that this was the case, saying: No one wants conflict but while there are threats of conflict we have to be prepared for that as well.

He said the policy review was aimed at strengthening New Zealands military alliance with Australia and ties with our longstanding Five Eyes intelligence partners, the United States, Canada, UK and Australia. Minister Little made the usual meaningless references to the militarys supposed role in humanitarian and disaster relief, but he stressed that future investment was primarily needed to have a combat capable, ready force that protects New Zealand and our interests.

Spelling out what this means, Little said: If for example conflict does break out in the South China Sea, where $20 billion of our exports flows through every year, we have a stake in that, and we may be called on to play a role should conflict break out. We need to be equipped for that and prepared for it.

In other words, the focus of military spending is not about defending New Zealands territory, which has never been subject to a foreign military attack. Rather, the armed forces must be equipped and prepared because they will be called on to fight nearly 9,000 kilometres away in a war between the US and China, two nuclear-armed powers.

The release of the New Zealand strategic documents follows intensified US efforts to provoke a conflict with China, which Washington views as the main obstacle to its imperialist hegemony. Late last month, in the face of strenuous objections by Beijing, the Biden administration announced it will provide $345 million in weapons to Taiwan as the first tranche of an annual $1 billion in military equipment.

The Japanese government, meanwhile, released a defence white paper describing China as the greatest strategic challenge and calling for a massive military build-up and closer alliance with the US. Australia has been fully integrated into US war plans, including through the AUKUS military pact, with basing arrangements for US troops, warplanes and warships, and a deal to supply Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines.

The US and Australia have pressured New Zealand to drop its pretence of not taking sides, maintained by successive governments nervous about antagonising China, which takes roughly 30 percent of all New Zealand exports.

As a minor imperialist power in the Pacific, New Zealands ruling class has, since World War II, depended on a close alliance with the US to defend its own neo-colonial interests in the region and more broadly. Successive Labour and National Party governments have sent troops to the illegal US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have killed over a million people. At present, New Zealand soldiers are in Britain helping to train Ukrainian conscripts, who are being used as cannon fodder in the US-NATO proxy war against Russia.

The Defence Policy Strategy Statement marks a definite shift. In belligerent language, it portrays China as the major driver for the new era of strategic competition among states.

The document declares: 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. It denounces Beijing for seeking to grow its political, economic, and security influence in the Pacific at the expense of more traditional partners such as New Zealand and Australia.

The statement continues: Activities that would be of significant concern include: the establishment of a persistent military presence by a state that does not share New Zealands Pacific security interests and values; military or para-military-backed resource exploitation (particularly fisheries); or even military confrontation or conflict.

All of this is profoundly hypocritical and misleading. Unlike the United States, China has no military bases in the Pacific. This has not stopped Washington, Canberra and Wellington from whipping up hysteria over the prospect of deepening security arrangements between Beijing and the Solomon Islands and other small Pacific states.

New Zealands defence strategy calls for ramping up its military presence in the Pacific. The country already has close ties with the armed forces of Tonga, Samoa and other countries, including regular joint military exercises and exchanges of personnel.

In addition to strengthening military and intelligence interoperability with the other Five Eyes countries (US, Australia, UK and Canada), the strategy calls for stronger ties with Singapore, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, in particular, as well as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia as well as NATO and the European Union.

The document states that joining Pillar Two of the AUKUS agreement may present an opportunity for New Zealand to cooperate with close security partners on emerging technologies.

A Labour Party social media election campaign ad [Photo: New Zealand Labour Party]

Minister Little made clear that there will be a further increase in military spending, currently about 1.4 percent of GDP. This is below Australia and other US allies, which spend 2 percent or more. He did not give any specifics, but indicated that there would be more upgrades to the navy and a stepped-up recruitment drive, aimed at countering recent attrition.

Spending on the armed forces is at the direct expense of vital services such as health and education, which are facing a worsening crisis of understaffing and lack of resources.

In the face of soaring living costs and social inequality, the government is increasingly concerned about rising anti-capitalist and deeply entrenched anti-war sentiments in New Zealand. The new National Security Strategy documentprepared in consultation with pro-US academic Anne-Marie Brady, among otherswarns of growing feelings of distrust and disenfranchisement, rooted in rising economic inequality and discontent. It asserts that these trends are exacerbated by disinformation and foreign interference from Russia and China.

In fact, any opposition to US imperialism is now denounced as disinformation. The state and corporate media have, over the past several weeks, engaged in a campaign attacking Radio NZ journalist Michael Hall for spreading Russian propaganda because he pointed to the real origins of the Ukraine war in the US-backed 2014 coup. Hall also highlighted the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraines military. The references have since been scrubbed by Radio NZ from its online articles.

There are divisions in New Zealands political establishment over the open and unambiguous alignment with Washington. Former Labour Party Prime Minister Helen Clark wrote on Twitter that the new Defence documents suggest that NZ is abandoning its capacity to think for itself & instead is cutting & pasting from 5 Eyes partners. She criticised the suggestion that New Zealand could join AUKUS.

Clarks government signed a free trade agreement with China in 2008. Like her successor, National Party prime minister John Key, she represents a faction that strengthened business ties with China, while at the same time boosting New Zealands US ties and supporting imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This balancing act has become untenable for the ruling elite, with the position of Key and Clark finding no echo in the leadership of Labour or National.

Labours ally, the Green Party, sought to verbally distance itself from the new policy statements. MP Golriz Ghahraman told the New Zealand Herald: Its a very outdated response in the modern context, to think that falling into old defence allegiances and a defence prism to look at global affairs is still valid.

This is completely hollow and hypocritical; the Greens have fully supported Labours repeated increases in military spending, along with its contribution to the US-NATO war in Ukraine.

As New Zealand approaches an election on October 14, it is clear that which ever party leads the next government will continue to deepen the countrys alignment with US imperialism.

The rush towards a catastrophic Third World War can only be halted through the political intervention of the working class in an international mass anti-war movement. Such a movement must urgently be built, guided by a socialist perspective aimed at abolishing the source of war: the capitalist system itself.
This statement was submitted by the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists in Russia and Ukraine to the Student Council of Bochum University, which has voted to call upon the university administration to ban the IYSSE from campus. The YGBL is a Trotskyist youth group that works in political solidarity with the IYSSE and its parent organization, the International Committee of the Fourth International.

With the activities of the IYSSE taking on an ever wider scope, the same is happening with the far-right attacks on these activities.

Wherever in the world there is an IYSSE meeting on the war in Ukraine and its likely catastrophic consequences due to the escalation by imperialism, the ultra-right uses the same blueprint to go after the IYSSE.

A graphic designed by the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists to honor its 5-year anniversary.

The ultra-right thinks they can confuse young people by slandering our international movement and are denouncing everything that the IYSSE says and does among students as the promotion of a pro-Russian narrative.

The latest attack on the democratic rights of the IYSSE of this sort is taking place at the Ruhr University Bochum. And it is again based on these false accusations about a pro-Russian narrative.

We, as comrades of the IYSSE in Germany in Russia and Ukraine, want to say that all these accusations are not based on a true representation of reality, but only on the political interests of our opponents on the right.

The IYSSE is the youth wing of the nearly century-old international Trotskyist movement, which was the main opponent of Stalinism and the policies of the Soviet bureaucracy that led to the tragic collapse of the Soviet Union.

This collapse plunged Soviet society back into the barbarism of the 1990s, when, amid the absolute impoverishment of the majority of the population, a bunch of oligarchs enriched themselves by selling off everything that had been created in the USSR as a legacy of the October Revolution.

When this collapse took place, the entire elite of the imperialist powers of the West rejoiced as if the end of history and the full flowering of capitalism had arrived. Finally, society could develop through personal enrichment and the free market around the world.

The main heir to the 1990s plunge into barbarism in the USSR is the current Putin regime, which has established its dominance through the merger of mafia groups with the state apparatus and the capitalist profit machine based on the exploitation of the Russian working class.

At the same time, the rule of the Putin regime was also based on the support of its imperialist big brothers, who, for the time being, benefited from the establishment of stability on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

Everything continued until imperialism was confronted with the harsh reality of the crisis of capitalism, and Putins regime with the fall of its dream of aligning with the imperialist powers in NATO.

Contradictions heated up and led to a series of proxy conflicts in Georgia, Syria and more broadly in Ukraine. The situation is now escalating at such a pace that the whole world is on the brink of World War III which would threaten the very likely use of nuclear weapons.

Almost 27 years ago, in December 1996, Russian historian Vadim Rogovin gave a lecture at the University of Bochum. His lecture was an explicit criticism of Stalinism and Yeltsins regime of capitalist restoration.

Vadim Rogovin lecturing at Bochum University, Germany, in 1996

If someone had dared to accuse Rogovin and the International Committee of the Fourth International of promoting a pro-Russian narrative, the entire audience in the lecture hall would have laughed at such accusations.

Thus, we see that the Trotskyist movement was the main critic of the Stalinist regime and then regimes of Yeltsin and Putin in the Kremlin. This clearly contradicts the accusations against the IYSSE by the Student Council.

In fact, all accusations of a pro-Russian narrative are based on what is a pro-German imperialist narrative, the essence of which is the revival of Germany as a military power capable of leading Europe in opposition to other economic blocs.

The recent actions of the German government very clearly show a basic strategic course toward rebuilding the full power of German imperialism at a scale which it has not had since the days of Hitler.

But as is often the case, the pursuit of strength in reality indicates serious weakness. The German government is trying to turn back the wheel of history by reviving national chauvinism, as if in this way it could save itself from the crisis of the entire world system of capitalism.

The laws of history, as Leon Trotsky said, are stronger than bureaucratic apparatuses. These laws stand on the side of the working class, the only force capable of moving humanity forward.

That is why the youth will only be able to defend their future by uniting with the workers in an independent struggle for their rights. This is the program the IYSSE presents to the youth and we call on everyone to defend our democratic right to fight for this program to the end.
Niger and the wider West African region are teetering on the brink of war.

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a military coup led by the chief of his presidential guard Abdourahamane Tchiani on July 26. After a deadline for Bazoums reinstatement set down by the Economic Community of West African States expired Sunday, ECOWAS announced a summit to be held in the Nigerian capital Abuja this Thursday.

The defense chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries excluding Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Niger, pose for a group photo during their extraordinary meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, August 4, 2023, to discuss the situation in Niger. [AP Photo/Chinedu Asadu]

Nigeria, on Nigers southern border, dominates the union, with 230 million of its total 400 million population, 250,000 soldiers and 35 combat aircraft. Together with Senegal and the Ivory Coast, its government has indicated it would send troops if agreed.

While Nigerias Senate voted not to approve a military intervention, a similar vote did not stop then-President Muhammadu Buhari from deploying troops to The Gambia in 2017 to remove President Yahya Jammehafter he refused to hand over power to Adama Barrow. Nigeria has also led major interventions in Liberia in 1992 and Sierra Leone in 1997.

ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security Abdel-Fatau Musah warned Friday, All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out. He continued, We are determined to stop it, but ECOWAS is not going to tell the coup plotters when and where we are going to strike.

The military leaders in Niger have closed the countrys airspace, In the face of the threat of intervention that is becoming more apparent. They warned that any violation would meet an energetic and instant response.

A spokesperson declared that two African countries had already begun deploying forces, adding, Nigers armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory. The country has 25,000 soldiers in its armed forces, and two combat aircraft.

The coup leaders in Niger are supported by the regimes on its Western border in Mali and Burkina Fasoproducts of military coups in May 2021 and September 2022which have said they will treat an ECOWAS invasion of Niger as a declaration of war against them. The two countries sent a delegation to the Nigerien capital Niamey on Monday, to demonstrate their solidarity with the brotherly people of Niger, according to the Malian army.

Guinea, run by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya as interim president following a coup in September 2021, has also backed Niger.

Algeria and Chad, both large countries with significant military forces, bordering Niger to the North and East, have declared against military action and said they would not intervene. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune described any war as a direct threat to Algeria.

ECOWAS has already imposed sanctions on Niger, suspending all commercial transactions, freezing its state assets, suspending financial assistance through regional development banks and cutting electricity supply, leading to blackouts.

The imperialist powers, including France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union have suspended aid payments. These measures are a humanitarian time bomb in a country where 40 percent of the government budget is provided by international aid.

France, the former colonial power in Niger, has been the most aggressive. Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna met Nigerian Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou in Paris on Saturday before declaring, France supports with firmness and determination the efforts of ECOWAS to defeat this coup attempt. She left unsaid whether this would include French military support.

Italy and Germany have been more cautious. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told La Stampa Monday, The only way is the diplomatic one. Annalena Baerbock, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcome[d] the mediation efforts.

There are major interests at stakemost importantly the supply of and profits from crucial energy commodities, and the policing of African migration to Europe.

Niger is the worlds seventh-largest producer of uranium, Europes second largest supplier (at 25 percent) after Kazakhstan. Its other major exports include gold and, locally, petroleum.

This wealth is controlled by foreign companies. The SOMAIR, COMINAK and Imouraren uranium mines are majority owned by French interests, the SOMINA uranium mine, Agadem Basin oil wells and SORAZ refinery by Chinese, and the Samira Hill Gold Mine by Canadian.

None of the profits generated make their way back to the Nigerien population. The countrys tax-to-GDP ratio was just 9.8 percent in 2022the OECD average is 34 percent. Massive tax exemptions for the extractive industries mean that Nigers uranium production contributes a mere 4-6 percent to its government revenue.

Much of this is in any case spent on security on behalf of the European powers. Niger is considered central to what the European Unions former special representative for the Sahel Angel Losada called Europes new forward border. Its northern town and region of Agadez is considered the gateway to the Sahara, and a major staging point for journeys to the North African coast and on to Europe.

Hundreds of millions of euros have been spent by the EU employing the Nigerien military and police as pre-emptive border guards. It sponsored Law 201536 cracking down on migration through the country which has caused immense disruption to patterns of social and economic life in the region and fuelled a dramatic growth in illegal smuggling.

Italy and Germany, two of the European powers most involved in policing migration across the Mediterranean, are worried a major conflict would blow up these arrangements and drive huge numbers to seek asylum in Europe. It would also undermine Italys Mattei Plan for sourcing more of its energy from Africa, already involving major deals with Algeria and Libya and discussions with Congo-Brazzaville, Angola, and Mozambique.

For Niger, exploitation and securitization have contributed to a social catastrophe. Over 40 percent of the population live on less than $1.90 a day, with nearly 20 percent requiring humanitarian assistance. Over 3 million people suffer acute food shortages. More than 40 percent of children aged 5-14 are labouring.

These conditions, combined with an influx of NATOs Islamist proxies used in the Libyan civil war to the Sahel, have fuelled the growth of jihadist militias across the region, responsible for thousands of killings every year and hundreds of thousands of displacements.

Hostility to the government of Bazoum and his Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism which presided over this disaster, combined with opposition to the presence of now ousted French soldiers, will have contributed to the rally of 30,000 in support of the coup on Sunday.

But Tchiani is no more a solution to Nigers problems than ECOWAS and the imperialist powers. None of the military takeovers in the region have done anything to improve the conditions of the population, whatever the anti-colonialist rhetoric deployed.

The task confronting the Nigerien working class and rural masses is to mobilize for the defeat of Tchiani and Bazoum and to reach out to their class brothers and sisters across West Africa, whose interests they share, to take up the same fight against their own ruling elites, rather than a fratricidal war.

In an already fragile society, any conflict between ECOWAS and Niger-Mali-Burkina Faso would have appalling consequences. Commenting on the prospect, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Cameron Hudson told Foreign Policy, If its not a bluff and they were to attempt to go through with this, there is no clean way that happens without massive civilian casualties and without the fear of a spreading regional conflict.
In the face of four felony charges unveiled last Thursday which detail some of his illegal efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and install himself as president-dictator, ex-president Donald Trump has responded with an avalanche of fascistic rhetoric aimed at instigating violence against prosecutors and his political enemies.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 56th annual Silver Elephant Gala in Columbia, South Carolina, Saturday, August 5, 2023. [AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.]

In a Truth Social post Friday night, Trump promised to exact retribution against anyone who cooperates in the ongoing investigations against him, writing, IF YOU GO AFTER ME, IM COMING AFTER YOU!



After Trump posted his threats appealing to the far-right militia elements that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, federal prosecutors filed a motion with District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal case, seeking a protective order to prevent Trump from speaking publicly about discovery evidence in the case until the trial begins.



In their motion, prosecutors noted that it was particularly important that Trump and his legal team not be able to publicly post information about witnesses and their evidence against Trump because the former president has frequently attacked witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.



In their filing, prosecutors cited Trumps COMING AFTER YOU! post and explained that this was part of a pattern of Trump attacking anyone involved in litigation or criminal cases against him. Just this past April on his Truth social account, Trump promised death and destruction if he were charged in the hush-money case involving an adult film actress.



Judge Chutkan asked Trumps lawyers to respond to the prosecutors request by Monday evening, upon which Trumps lawyers attempted to get this deadline pushed back until Thursday. However, on Saturday, Chutkan denied this request and held Trump to the Monday 5 p.m. deadline.



A statement issued by the Trump campaign Friday night claimed that Trumps post was just political speech and not targeted against any specific person, but instead a response to dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs.



At the same time that Trumps lawyers were claiming his threats were not directed against any single person, the Trump campaign released a political advertisement targeting prosecutors investigating Trump. The ad attacks radical liberal Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, Special Counsel Jack Smith, socialist attorney general of New York Letitia James and incompetent Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis. Three of the four are African-American, as is Judge Chutkan, and Willis has already been subjected to a barrage of racist death threats from Trump supporters in recent weeks.



The unprecedented crisis and breakdown of the US political system is expressed in the character and frequency of Trumps threats, as well as the response of the political establishment in both parties.

Very few Democrats, and virtually no Republicans, have objected publicly. Never before has any prominent bourgeois politician so openly incited violence against judges, prosecutors and his political enemies, while Biden and the vast majority of the Democratic Party remain silent.



This silence is not a mistake, but a political calculation. In order to carry out their shared class agenda of austerity at home and imperialist war abroad, now against Russia in Ukraine, and later against China in Taiwan, the Democrats require the political support of their increasingly authoritarian Republican colleagues.

The Democrats are far more concerned that the growing militancy and strike wave in the working class will spiral out their control and threaten the entire capitalist system than they are with the danger of a fascist would-be president.



Trumps outbursts are not unique to him and reflect the transformation of the large sections of the ruling class, and a majority of the Republican Party into a fascist organization that no longer accepts democracy, or election results that do not favor them. At a campaign event last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promised to start slitting throats of these deep state people on day one of his administration.



Spitting in the face of federal prosecutors request, Trump doubled down on his violent rhetoric while speaking to a room of 2,700 Republicans in Alabama on Friday night. After receiving a sycophantic introduction from Alabama senator and defender of white nationalists, Tommy Tuberville, Trump railed against the sham indictment which he claimed was the product of rabid left-wing lawyers.



Trump attacked really corrupt Marxist prosecutors with most of his vitriol aimed at Special Counsel Jack Smith whom he characterized as a deranged ... bad guy devoid of a soul.



Trump absurdly claimed that Democratic President Joe Biden, the war-mongering, strike-breaking, capitalist former senator from Delaware, was leading a cabal of vicious Marxists and communists. These Marxist prosecutors were not only going after Trump but attacking Catholics and the Catholic Church.

In addition to his incoherent anti-communist hysteria, Trump repeated the Wuhan Lab Lie and promised to make China pay for unleashing the China virus.

Trump promised to reinstitute the immigration policy known as Title 42 as part of his plan to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Trump estimated that there were some 15 million people that needed to be deported including children. Trump promised to send the children back to their home country and reinstitute the Trump travel ban to bar visitors from majority Muslim countries.



The next night in South Carolina, Trump repeated the same attacks against his political enemies and prosecutors. As in Alabama, Trump was warmly received by South Carolina elected Republicans in attendance including Senator Lindsey Graham and Governor Henry McMaster.



In his introduction of Trump, McMaster claimed the indictments against Trump were bogus and emanated from the deep state opposition he faced. McMaster called for warriors to defend Trump, whom he called a great leader for our people.



In his over hour-long speech Trump thanked McMaster for keeping the state open during COVID-19 and reiterated his attacks against maniac Jack Smith.



Trump called on the Senate to step up and defend him from further prosecutions and claimed that the fact Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had not yet done so was a sign that they had something on him.



The senators have to step up, Trump demanded. The tables will turn and we will destroy the deep state.



On Sunday morning, Trump continued his violent attacks against prosecutors and his political opponents. Trump attacked former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was the victim of a brutal hammer assault inflicted by Trump supporter last year, calling her a wicked witch and a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!



In a thinly veiled racist swipe against African-Americans living in Washington D.C. Trump later wrote that there was NO WAY he could get a fair trial in D.C. a FILTHY AND CRIME RIDDEN EMBARRASSMENT TO OUR NATION. Trump called for Judge Chutkan, an African-American to recuse herself and for the trial to be moved outside of Washington D.C.



On the various Sunday morning talk shows, Trumps lawyer John Lauro, repeated Trumps intention to try to get the federal case related to the January 6 attack moved to West Virginia which he claimed had a diverse jury that represented the characteristics of the American people.




The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed on Friday that the American military has advanced plans to establish a command centre in the northern Australian city of Darwin. The information, though scanty, indicates that the facility will function as a hub for aggressive military operations throughout the region, directed against China, with a central focus on the deployment of the most potent strike assets of the US Air Force.

US Marines with Marine Rotational Force  Darwin and Australian Army soldiers training together. [Photo: United States Marine Corps ]

The development of the Squadron Operations Facility was not announced by the Australian Labor government, or even discussed in the parliament. Instead, the ABC discovered the plans in US budget filings and procurement documents. That is, without even the semblance of a democratic mandate or of the public being informed, the US administration is proceeding to establish the facility.

The ABC reported that according to tender documents, the facility will be used for maintenance, mission planning, intelligence and crew briefingsit is budgeted to cost $US26 million ($40 million). Those extremely broad descriptions cover almost the entire gamut of potential military activity, up to and including the launching of armed operations against other states.

The establishment of the centre is taking place in the context of a massive militarisation of northern Australia. That itself is part of a broader US strategy of diversifying the stationing of its military infrastructure throughout the Indo-Pacific. Assets that had previously been based at the US military facility on Guam, for instance, are being moved elsewhere, including to Australia. The rationale, spelt out by think-tanks close to the US government, is that they will be further from the Chinese mainland and thus out of the range of some of its missile systems.

In 2011, the Gillard Labor government signed up to the pivot to Asia, including a vast military build-up in preparation for war against China, which is viewed as the chief threat to US imperialist hegemony. At that stage, the centrepiece was the establishment of a US Marine base in Darwin, through which up to 2,500 US Marines now rotate each year.

Darwin, thus already with a substantial US military presence, is being transformed into something of a garrison city, to serve as a launching pad for American operations across the Indo-Pacific. According to the ABC, the US has earmarked $630 million in military spending in northern Australia for the next two to three years.

That will include $258 million to build a parking apron at the RAAF Darwin airbase to facilitate the takeoff and landing of US warplanes. Similar upgrades are already underway at the RAAF Tindal base, south of Darwin, which will also host a maintenance facility for B-52s. Previous tender documents have disclosed $270 million to build 11 huge jet fuel storage tanks around Darwin.

The context is the decision by the Labor government to allow the US to rotatethat is, basesix of its nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in the Northern Territory. Because the US policy is never to confirm or deny whether its nuclear-capable assets are carrying such weapons, Labors decision effectively overturns Australias nuclear-weapons free status.

As with the revelations about the command centre, the information about the B-52s was discovered through US budgetary and tender documents last year. No government minister has spoken substantively on the momentous decision to station the nuclear-capable bombers in Australia.

According to the ABC, the latest US tender documents declared: The [squadron operations] facility is required to support strategic operations and to run multiple 15-day training exercises during the NT dry season for deployed B-52 squadrons.

For the past decade, Pentagon documents have sketched out an AirSea Battle strategy for war with China. In the physical terrain of the Indo-Pacific, maritime warfare would be central to such a conflict, as would the operations of warplanes and missiles. In such planning scenarios, Australia has been nominated as the southern anchor. It would serve as a hub for US and allied military infrastructure and weapons, and as a base from which operations could be launched.

The Labor government is fully committed to this policy. Its Defence Strategic Review earlier this year outlined the largest build-up of the Australian military in 80 years, centred on the acquisition of strike capabilities, especially missiles, across all branches of the armed forces to enable impactful projection throughout the Indo-Pacific.

Labor has also undertaken to dramatically expand basing for the US military. At an Australia-US Ministerial Consultation (AUSMIN) meeting in Washington last October, Labor ministers gave open-ended undertakings for US basing in the country across air, land and sea.

Those commitments were reiterated at the latest AUSMIN meeting in Brisbane at the end of last month. The AUSMIN statement recalled the Force Posture Agreement, which recognises the mutual benefits to Australia and the United States from access to facilities and areas in Australia by the United States Armed Forces and that such access and use is on a rotational basis

Such rotations would be expanded through US Maritime Navy Patrols operating out of Australia, as well as maritime spy planes and through frequent visits by nuclear-powered submarines to Australian ports. The AUSMIN talks unveiled a US commitment to invest in Australian missile manufacturing. Australia will serve as a hub and stockpiler of missiles for the US military. It also revealed the existence of a secret agreement for collaboration on space warfare.

Just a week after the AUSMIN talks, the USS North Carolina, one of Americas Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, docked at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Perth, Western Australia. It is the first visit by one of the vessels since the Labor government announced a $368 billion deal in March for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the US and Britain.

The submarine project, the centrepiece of AUKUS, the militarist pact between the three countries, has several phases. Long before Australia receives any nuclear-powered submarines, it is to become a de facto base for existing US and British submarines.

A Nine Media report on the docking was particularly blunt as to the purpose. It was part of plans to bolster the Indo Pacific against any Chinese naval threat. HMAS Stirling is to be upgraded, as thousands more submariners file through Perth in Western Australia. Under AUKUS the Labor government is also planning to develop an east coast submarine base.

The Nine Media report included an extraordinary declaration: The public is not allowed to know how long the North Carolina will be docked in Perththat information is classified even from Australias defence minister.

More and more, the US and Australian militaries are being integrated all down the line. AUSMIN also unveiled the establishment of a Combined Intelligence Centre in Australia. Under it, US intelligence operatives from the Defence Intelligence Agency will be integrated into the Australian intelligence apparatus, particularly the Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation.

That underscores the extent to which Australia will be automatically involved in all US military operations, including wars, in the Indo-Pacific. The US spying and war planning facility of Pine Gap in Central Australia already plays a central role in American surveillance and military operations throughout the region. The most advanced US strike assets are being deployed to Australia and the military and intelligence operations of the two countries are being completely interwoven through the development of joint command centres.

The transformation of Australia into a frontline state in the preparations for war with China demonstrates the urgency of workers and young people joining the fight to build an international anti-war movement of the working class, directed against the source of war, the capitalist system itself. Such a struggle involves a political fight against the Labor government and all of its defenders.
The Health Professionals Association (HPA) of Sri Lanka cancelled strike action that was to occur on August 4. The stoppage had been called to demand that the health ministry withdraw a circular banning its employees from speaking to the media on issues related to the public health service.

The circular, issued on July 20, included a blanket ban on public health staff making any statements or expressing their views on the sector. It cited a Supreme Court ruling that state employees have no right to make comments to the press without prior approval from their departmental head.

The circular warned that violation of this regulation is punishable under the Establishment Code governing state sector employees. Disciplinary actions include warnings, suspensions or termination.

Ravi Kumudesh

Justifying the cancellation of industrial action, HPA leader Ravi Kumudesh said that the ministry secretary, Janaka Sri Chandraguptha, had given a written assurance that the ban would not apply to the union and similar associations. It would, however, continue to apply to rank-and-file health employees, Kumudesh added.

In effect, the union has agreed to the ministry using the anti-democratic regulations to penalise health workers speaking about or exposing the collapse of the health sector, something that affects the lives of patients, employees and the population as a whole.

This censorship is an outright betrayal of the democratic right to freedom of expression. It underscores the role of the union as an industrial police force of the government and the corporations.

Last Monday, Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella defended the circular, saying: Some people are trying to use health as a very sensitive area to bring another agitation in the country. Without a shred of evidence, he cynically branded all comments circulating in the media about the worsening health crisis as false.

The attempt to silence health professionals, including doctors and nurses, is tantamount to insisting they breach their medical oath to serve their patients. They are forbidden from speaking about the consequences of the governments cuts, which have brought the public health system to the brink of collapse.

The Health Ministry circular was first issued in May 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, provoking anger among employees and the public more broadly. Former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse declared that responsible officials should not unnecessarily hold media briefings and panic the public about the pandemic.

In the same month, Rajapakse imposed the Essential Public Services Act on key government services, including health. This act bans all industrial action, with penalties including jail, fines and dismissal.

Last November, the health ministry suspended Dr Chamal Sanjeeva, president of the Medical Professional Association for Civil and Medical Rights, accusing him of causing inconvenience to the government by presenting false information to the media.

Part of a health workers protest march in Colombo on July 7, 2022

Sanjeeva had revealed to the press that in one region of the southern Hambantota district of Suriyawewa, 30 percent of children were suffering from severe malnutrition and 50 percent from mild malnutrition.

He told the World Socialist Web Site that the figures were based on a scientific survey, adding: It is my democratic right to reveal its results to people.

The circular was reissued last month amid mounting anger among health workers and the broader population. A number of deaths and serious illnesses have been reported in state hospitals that are thought to have resulted from low-quality drugs and injections.

On July 11, a 24-year-old woman died at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital after being administered a Ceftriaxone antibiotic injection. Similar deaths and more than 15 allergic reactions have been reported in Colombo, Kandy, Ragama, Nuwara Eliya, Kilinochchi and Panadura hospitals.

The State Medical Supplies division has been forced to remove 64 drugs and items of surgical equipment from use because of complaints from hospitals over their low quality. The lack of drugs and frequent malfunctioning of medical equipment is forcing the postponement of scans, dialysis and urgent surgery, including heart operations and kidney transplants.

Public anger has also been fueled by reports that pharmaceutical companies and ministry officials involved in importing low-quality drugs have engaged in corrupt practices and underhanded deals.

In a television discussion on July 11, Dr. Ananda Wijewickrema, a medical specialist at the National Institute of Epidemiology, said the health ministry was importing drugs not approved by the National Medical Regulatory Authority.

Health employees, patients and their relatives have spoken to the media, including the World Socialist Web Site, about the situation they confront.

A nurse working at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital said she and her colleagues are working in terrible conditions due to the lack of adequate staffing. Though it is necessary to do dialysis for kidney patients three times a week, it is happening only two times. In the Kandy National Hospital, it occurs only once a week.

She spoke about a death of a young girl at her hospital who had been administered a cefuroxime injection: Our colleague who administered this injection has been condemned on Facebook and is facing mental stress. It was not her fault. This is the only medicine available. Employees have to pay for the health crisis. Not a single trade union has come to her defence.

Instead, the unions have now agreed to the authorities using this anti-democratic circular against employees. Unions could use this circular to silence criticism of themselves.

A doctor at the Kandy National Hospital told the WSWS that there was a serious shortage of medical drugs earlier. The situation had improved slightly. However, because of the poor quality of these drugs, staff had to explain the situation to patients and ask whether they wanted to use them.

Those who have money can buy the relevant drugs from outside. What about the others? the doctor asked. We have been compelled to use these drugs as we are government employees. Because of the ministry secretarys circular we cannot explain this true situation to people.

While the HPA leaders met with health authorities, other union leaders issued perfunctory statements or called limited protests to let off steam among angry workers.

A section of health workers protest in Colombo on July 7, 2022

On July 18, thousands of state health employees held demonstrations to oppose the regulations at key hospitals including the Colombo National Hospital and at regional facilities. Protesters displayed placards with slogans such as: Prevent the importation of inferior medicines, Patients lives are in danger, Stop the privatisation of health services, and Lets get rid of the dysfunctional government that takes the lives of patients.

This limited action was called by the All Ceylon Health Employees Union, which is controlled by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The JVPs overriding interest is not the democratic rights of workers but to boost its bid to form the next government.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep crisis of the countrys health system, which was unable to cope with the deadly disease. Successive governments have provided a small allocation for public health in their annual budgetson average about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Now, the government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe is implementing the austerity demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of which is to slash state expenditure, including on public health. At the same time, the government is taking steps to privatise health care and liquidate what remains of the free public health service.

The trade unions bear responsibility for the present crisis in the health sector. Since 2021, the unions have been forced to call more protests and strikes in the sector than in any other state institution. But those actions have been aimed at sowing illusions that the government can be pressured to make concessions.

Health employees must take matters into their own hands and form action committees independent of the trade unions and capitalist parties to defend their democratic and social rights. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is campaigning to build such action committees, democratically elected by workers in every workplace. We say:

Withdraw the repressive censorship circular! Withdraw the Essential Public Services Act!

Provide adequate staffing, medical drugs and vital equipment!

This means billions of rupees must be allocated for public health. However, the Wickremesinghe government is intent on repaying foreign debts and boosting the profits of big business and investors at the expense of the working class.

The proper provision of resources for health, education and vital welfare programs is bound up with the broader struggle to reorganize the economy for the benefit of the vast majority of society. This requires the repudiation of all foreign debt and the nationalisation of the banks, large estates and big companies under the democratic control of the working class.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is fighting for these socialist policies and a workers and peasants government to implement them as part of the broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally.
Mexican and Texas authorities confirmed an unidentified body was found stuck in the buoy barrier that Governor Greg Abbott installed last month in the Rio Grande, between Eagle Pass, Texas, and the Mexican city of Piedras Negras.

On Wednesday, Mexicos foreign affairs office issued a news release stating Texas troopers alerted the Mexican consulate at about 2:30 p.m. that a body was found on the south side of the buoys.

A young man and a small child walk past a floating border buoy barrier on the Rio Grande. Tuesday, August 1, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. [AP Photo/Eric Gay]

So far, authorities have been unable to determine the identity or the nationality of the deceased. Mexicos foreign affairs office said the cause of death has also not been determined.

However, Texas Department of Public Safety head Steve McCraw claimed in a statement Thursday, preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys.

Even if true, the state of Texas bears an immense responsibility for the death and misery migrants face along the Texas-Mexico border. In fact, Texas selected the location the barrier is deployed to precisely because it is a relatively shallow stretch of the Rio Grande and is a preferred crossing point for many immigrants. Previous injuries and deaths have already been reported after migrants attempted to circumvent the buoys, including in parts of the river that Texas has deployed barrels wrapped in razor wire as traps.

Soon after the first body was discovered Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News reported that another body was found near the buoys. According to the newspaper, the body was identified as a 20-year-old Honduran man after his mother recognized his tattoos. However, authorities reported being unable to confirm the bodys identity due to the advanced state of decay.

The Mexican government has since criticized Texas in a statement, saying that the placement of the buoys is a violation of our sovereignty.

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, the news release said.

A spokesperson for Governor Abbott said the Mexican government is flat-out wrong. The first reported body had floated into the buoys and the second body was found miles upstream from the marine barriers, said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott.

Also, DPS monitors the barriers for anyone attempting to cross and has not observed anyone attempting to cross since they were installed, Mahaleris said.

The area of the Rio Grande between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras has become a popular crossing point because it is shallow enough to traverse on foot. Still, it is common for migrants to be washed away by the deceiving river, where currents can catch them unawares and upset their footing.

The marine barrier, which extends 1,000 feet along the river, is composed of a series of orange spheres that have a mesh net between them. The barrier was strategically placed and designed so that climbing over it or swimming underneath is impossible.

Last month, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas saying the placement of the buoy and other obstacles in the river was illegal without the approval of the federal government.

Abbott has defended his policies, claiming Texas has its own constitutional right to protect its borders. In a Letter to President Joe Biden, Abbott declared he only took action where the federal government would not.

If you truly care about human life, you must begin enforcing federal immigration laws, reads the letter. By doing so, you can help me stop migrants from wagering their lives in the waters of the Rio Grande River. You can also help me save Texans, and indeed all Americans, from deadly drugs like fentanyl, cartel violence, and the horrors of human trafficking. To end the risk that migrants will be harmed crossing the border illegally, you must fully enforce the laws of the United States that prohibit illegal immigration between ports of entry. In the meantime, Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused. Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.

Meanwhile, a federal judge struck down the Biden administrations temporary restrictions on asylum seekers, ruling that the federal governments plan to reduce crossings at the border violated federal law.

On July 25, US District Judge Jon S. Tigar ruled against a system the Biden administration imposed over two months ago that penalized migrants who crossed the border illegally.

In his ruling, Tigar sided with advocacy groups who had urged him to reject the restrictions on the basis that they endangered migrants and violated federal law, which states that anyone on US soil may request asylum, no matter how they arrived.

Lawyers for the Biden administration had told Tigar in court filings that overturning the restrictions could have a chaotic impact on the border, and that they feared migrants would rush the international boundary and overwhelm the Border Patrol.

Tigar granted the governments request to delay the ruling from taking effect for 14 days to allow time for officials to appeal.

Officials imposed the temporary rules in May as they ended a pandemic policy known as Title 42 that allowed border agents to quickly expel asylum seekers without a hearing.

The rules state that migrants are ineligible for asylum if they crossed the border without seeking asylum in another country on their way to the US. Asylum seekers can ask to get into the United States legally via an app or if a US resident sponsors them to enter via a system known as parole. Migrants can also ask to bypass the restrictions if they face a serious health condition or an imminent safety threat.

Biden administration officials say the rules, in part, contributed to a nearly 42 percent drop in illegal border crossings in June, the first full month the policy was in effect. The Border Patrol made 99,545 arrests last month, the lowest monthly tally since Biden took office.

Tigars decision Tuesday echoed his prior rulings on the issue under the Trump administration, which had instituted similar restrictions on asylum seekers.

In 2018, Tigar temporarily blocked the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who crossed the southern border illegally. The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and the Supreme Court declined to stay that decision. Tigar also shot down a 2019 rule that forbade migrants to seek asylum if they had failed to ask for refuge in a country they passed through on their way to the US-Mexico border.

The legal battles between the two capitalist parties demonstrates that hostility towards immigrants is a conscious class policy. Both sides are not concerned with the well-being of those fleeing violence and poverty, but instead argue about what is deemed an acceptable level of violence to secure the border. Securing the rights and safety of migrant workers can only be achieved through the mobilization of the working class on an international basis, and abolition of capitalism and its nation-state system.
China has released a new documentary about the army's preparation to attack Taiwan and showcasing soldiers pledging to give up their lives if needed as Beijing continues to ramp up its rhetoric against the self-ruled island.

"Chasing Dreams," an eight-part docuseries aired by state broadcaster CCTV earlier this week to mark the People Liberation Army's 96th anniversary, features military drills and testimonials by dozens of soldiers, of which several express their willingness to die in a potential attack against Taiwan.

China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary.

State media and the PLA frequently release propaganda materials promoting the army's modernization as well as sleek videos of military drills.

The materials serve to fan rising Chinese nationalism and display military confidence against Taiwan and, implicitly, its ties with the United States. While the U.S. doesn't recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country, it has pledged to help the island defend itself in case of an invasion.

Last month, the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taiwan. The move, which experts said drew on lessons from the U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, was criticized by Beijing.
Saudi Red Sea Authority, the regulator of marine tourism activities and the enabler for recreational activities, has issued seven regulations for maritime tourist activities.

These regulations, which covers the cruises, yachts, marinas, and other coastal tourism components, will come into effect within 90 days, said the Authority in a statement.

Developed by SRSA in cooperation with maritime entities, these regulations are in line with SRSAs mandate to update navigational rules, policies and laws to ensure the preservation and protection of the Red Sea and stimulate coastal tourism economic growth, it stated.

Lauding the move, Acting CEO Mohammed Al Asiri said: "The seven new regulations formulated by the Saudi Red Sea Authority in collaboration with maritime stakeholders are an important development toward facilitating cruise ship and yacht navigational activities in the Kingdoms Red Sea and creating the conditions for sustainable coastal economic growth."

"As SRSA continues to review and update regulations, we can expect to see further benefits for Red Sea operators and practitioners," stated Al Asiri.

The seven new regulations comprise part of SRSAs continuing efforts to regulate maritime activities for cruise ships and yachts, as well as to enable marine activities.

The Authority said that it will issue the necessary procedures and measures to enforce the regulations and all parties subject to them are required to comply with the authoritys directives.-TradeArabia News Service
India's latest space mission entered the moon's orbit on Saturday ahead of the country's second attempted lunar landing, as its space program seeks to reach new heights.

The world's most populous nation has a comparatively low-budget aerospace program that is rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global space powers. Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface.

The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed that Chandrayaan-3, which means moon craft in Sanskrit, had been "successfully inserted into the lunar orbit," more than three weeks after its launch.

If the rest of the current mission goes to plan, the mission will safely touch down near the moon's little-explored south pole between Aug. 23 and 24. India's last attempt to do so ended in failure four years ago, when ground control lost contact moments before landing.

Developed by ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 includes a lander module named Vikram, which means valor in Sanskrit, and a rover named Pragyan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom. The mission comes with a price tag of $74.6 million, far smaller than those of other countries, and a testament to India's frugal space engineering.
Police dispatched commandos and armored vehicles across Korea on Sunday after two random knife attacks were followed by scores of death threats online.

Police fear that the death threats were not mere hoaxes. A man in his 20s surnamed Huh was arrested last Friday at Gangnam Express Bus Terminal carrying a knife. Huh had posted a threat on social media to "stab a police officer" several hours before he was arrested. Analysis of his smartphone revealed he posted the message, and police have charged him with criminal threat.

An active-duty sailor was also nabbed for posting a death threat on Instagram but told police he posted it as a joke while drunk.

Altogether police said 154 death threats have been posted online and 54 people were arrested for them since a knife-wielding man went on a rampage in a mall in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province last week, injuring 14 people. More than half of them were posted by teenagers.
The next World Youth Day, the largest Catholic youth gathering, will be held in Seoul in 2027.

At a mass in Lisbon at this year's event on Sunday morning, Pope Francis said the festival's trajectory from the western edge of Europe to East Asia is a "symbol of the universality of the church."

Since being launched by Pope John Paul II in 1984, World Youth Day has been held every two or four years on the five continents in rotation. Each event is attended by hundreds of thousands of young Catholics as well as the pontiff himself.

Seoul is the first Asian capital to host it since Manila in 1995.
The post The 1975 to Face Legal Consequences for Controversial Kiss During Malaysia Show appeared first on Consequence.

The 1975 are expected to face legal consequences after frontman Matty Healy called out Malaysias anti-LGBTQ laws during their controversial performance at Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur last month.

After venting between songs about Malaysias fucking ridiculous criminalization of homosexuality, Healy shared an extended kiss with bandmate Ross MacDonald, causing The 1975s set to be cut short and prompting Malaysian government to cancel the rest of the festival. Now, Future Sound Asia (FSA)  the organizers of Good Vibes  are preparing to demand financial compensation from the band, or else take legal action in their home country of England.

The Bands actions intentionally contravened the agreement they had with FSA for their

performance at GVF2023, FSA said in a statement (via Billboard). This breach led to the festivals cancellation, resulting in significant financial losses for FSA and negatively impacting local artists and businesses that depended on the festivals success  affecting the livelihoods of many Malaysians.

The statement continues: FSA deeply values the trust that fans and regulatory authorities have placed in them over the years. The organization remains unwavering in its commitment to fostering vibrant live music experiences in Malaysia, ensuring full compliance with local laws and regulations.

FSAs lawyer David Matthew added in a statement to Rolling Stone: Future Sound Asias claim against The 1975 is, in the main, one for intentional breach of contract. Mr. Healys representative categorically provided a pre-show written assurance that Mr. Healy and The 1975s live performance shall adhere to all local guidelines and regulations during their set in Malaysia. Despite this, the assurance was ignored, and the bands actions clearly contravened the agreement with Future Sound Asia. This led to the cancellation of the festival which, in turn, caused significant losses to Future Sound Asia.

But even members of Malaysias queer community were critical of Healys actions at Good Vibes, arguing that his speech did more harm than good by leaving fans to to deal with the aftermath. As one Twitter user wrote: Matty pulling that stunt actively endanger all those efforts by shining a spotlight onto us. Conservatives outrank us here and literally raided Swatch for having a pride collection. All this does is tighten the laws against us and increase the number of eyes on us.

The 1975 to Face Legal Consequences for Controversial Kiss During Malaysia Show

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Minnesota Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips said Sunday he was undecided on whether he'd challenge President Joe Biden for their party's nomination, though he defended his push for others to do so in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"I have not decided yet," Phillips said of a potential 2024 bid, which would likely mark an uphill battle given Phillips' relative lack of recognition on the national stage and Biden's institutional support among Democrats.

Phillips said on CBS that he is calling for a rigorous primary contest in 2024 because he argues it's what Democrats want, citing last week's New York Times/Siena College poll that found more Democrats (50%) felt the party should nominate someone other than Biden compared to those who backed the president (45%).

"Democrats are telling me that they want -- not a coronation, but they want a competition," Phillips said.

MORE: Biden and Trump seem set for 2024 rematch -- why do their bases say they want anyone else?

"If we don't heed that call, shame on us," Phillips added. "The consequences, I believe, are going to be disastrous. So my call is to those who are well-positioned, well-prepared, of good character and competency -- they know who they are -- to jump in because Democrats in the country need competition. It makes everything better."

Phillips, when pressed on whether he'd challenge Biden himself, as he has been reported to be pushed to do, said he was not currently "well-positioned" to run.

"People who are should jump in because we need to meet the moment," he said.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ronald Klain, Biden's former White House chief of staff, defended the president on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

"It's not a coronation, it's a coalition of Democrats coming together to reflect @JoeBiden to #FinishTheJob on the economy, climate change, equity, abortion rights, and more," Klain wrote.

Phillips has said before that he wasn't inclined to support Biden's nomination for president in 2024.

PHOTO: In this June 15, 2022, file photo, Rep. Dean Phillips speaks at a news conference in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, FILE)

"I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats who step up," Phillips said on WCCO-AM's "The Chad Hartman Show" in July 2022.

Phillips did heap praise on the president on Sunday and maintained that his push for challengers is not about Biden, specifically.

"I love the man. He is competent, he is honorable, his integrity, I believe, is unvarnished. He has led this country through extraordinarily difficult times," Phillips said.

"This is not about him," he added. "This is about listening to people."

Biden, who is the oldest person ever elected president and would be 86 at the end of a second term, acknowledged on the day he announced his bid for reelection that he considered his age when deciding to run again.

"They're going to see a race and they're going to judge whether or not I have it or don't have it," he said in April, referring to the public. "I respect them taking a hard look at it."

At the time, he said, "I took a hard look at it before I decided to run, and I feel good. I feel excited about the prospects, and I think we're on the verge of really turning the corner in a way we haven't in a long time."

MORE: Biden took 'hard look' at his age, would run even if Trump wasn't

Biden currently faces long shot primary challenges from speaker and author Marianne Williamson and activist and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Though Phillips said Sunday that wants a strong challenger to Biden, he said he is opposed to third-party candidates who could possibly serve as a spoiler by attracting Democratic-leaning votes in a general election against former President Donald Trump.

Phillips also weighed in on Vice President Kamala Harris as a future White House contender.

"I think she's absolutely qualified. In fact, I think she's misportrayed," he said, later adding that "the job of the vice president is not an easy one."

But he said he does not see her as an heir apparent if Biden were no longer leading the Democratic ticket.

"We have 12 [notable] Republicans as options for Republican primary voters," Phillips said. "Right now, we only have three on the Democratic side. I believe in competition. We're the Democratic Party. Democracy means the freedom to make choices, and we don't have many of them."

Democratic lawmaker calls for 'well-positioned' primary challenger to Biden originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The death of Emperor Commodus didnt result in Rome becoming a Republic again in either real life or in Ridley Scotts fictional Rome. We know because his 2000 classic Gladiator is finally getting a long-discussed sequel that will find Rome is still an empire. What else will we find when we return to the ancient world? Heres everything we know about Gladiator 2 so far.

Gladiator 2

DreamWorks Pictures

The working title for the sequel to 2001s Best Picture winner is Gladiator 2.

Gladiator 2s Plot

Paramount has not yet shared an official synopsis for the film, but it will prominently feature major characters from the original. The movie will follow Lucius, the young son of Lucilla whom Maximus saved in the 2000 historical drama.

Behind-the-Scenes

Various prequel and sequel ideas to Gladiator have been discussed, developed, and even written since the original films release. The most famous saw the Roman gods sending Maximus back to Earth as an immortal warrior tasked with fighting Christianity.

It seems unlikely the sequel that will finally arrive in theaters will have much to do with that story. It will still have the same director, however. Ridley Scott will once again bring Ancient Rome to life with a script from David Scarpa (All the Money in the World, Napoleon). Filming began in Morocco in early June 2023, with shooting also set to take place in Malta and the UK. An on-set fire during a stunt in Morocco injured six crew members early in the production.

Gladiator 2s Cast

DreamWorks Pictures

While Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenixs characters both died in the original and will not return, Connie Nielsen will be back as Lucilla. Also back are both Djimon Hounsous freed Roman gladiator Juba and Derek Jakobis Senator Gracchus. Paul Mescal will take on the major role of Lucillas now adult son, Lucius, originally played by Spencer Treat Clark.

HBO

Some big names will also join them in the film. Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington have both signed on the movie, as has Stranger Things 4s Joseph Quinn. Hes reportedly playing Emperor Caracalla, which would indicate within this fictional version of Ancient Rome Maximuss dying dream of restoring the Republic was not fulfilled. Fred Hechinger is also reported to be playing Caracallas younger brother and initially co-emperor Geta, whom Caracalla had murdered rather than co-rule with.

Netflix

Gladiator 2 will also feature May Calamawy, Lior Raz, Peter Mensah, and Matt Lucas. Barry Keoghan had been in discussions to join the film, but will not appear in the movie.

Gladiator 2s Release Date

Commodus sticks out his tongue from his box at the Colosseum in Gladiator

Paramount set Gladiator 2s release date for November 22, 2024. It now seems certain the film will arrive in theaters at a much later date. The movie shut down while filming in Malta a month into production after SAG-AFTRA went on strike. (Filming was underway despite the WGA strike.) Until the AMPTP offers both unions a fair contract Gladiator 2 will not resume filming, leaving its release date up in the air.
OShae-Sibley-lead - Credit: Maria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone

The name OShae, when said repetitively in chant, gives a beat for a vogue, simultaneously sounding like the West African Yoruba word ase, meaning it is so, similar to Amen. The name OShae, said to derive from the word Joshua, means to save. The Irish say its a powerful name meaning to be fortunate or hawklike  one sharp with vision and protective of their nests. And yet, whichever cultural definition one chooses, you evoke the spirit of the human OShae Sibley  a New Yorker from Philly, who was only 28 when his life was senselessly robbed.

July 29, 2023 had been a buzzing day. Beyonce fans took to the Jersey Turnpike for the first day of her New Jersey-New York leg of the Renaissance Tour. Sibley and friends piled into the car on the same Jersey highway for a beach trip. At around 11 p.m., Beyonces dancers vogued onstage for thousands while at a Mobil gas station in Midwood, Brooklyn, Sibley and friends vogued to her music. According to news reports, one witness said that as the group danced, a group of men approached them, yelling homophobic and racial slurs, telling them to stop and claiming that their dancing was offensive to their faith.

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OShae Sibley.

We were having a ball, recalls friend Azul Mari Juanna of their beach trip. Juanna, a prominent drag queen, was with Sibley when he was killed. We were learning the choreography for my next big show. Im doing a Beyonce performance and we were dancing to My Power. OShae and Otis [Pena, Sibleys best friend from Philadelphia] were my back-up dancers and OShae was going to be Blue [Ivy].

In Beyonces performance, the song has been a viral moment, showcasing her dancing alongside her eldest child Blue Ivy. When Juanna retells the beach trip, it seems almost adjacent to the events taking place at MetLife that night, as if it was the same situation but in an alternate universe. It was a great day until we got to the gas station, Juanna says.

In a Facebook live, Pena recounted the words of the men who had approached them. We [are] Muslim, we dont do that gay shit over here, Pena said between tears. Sibley had attempted to diffuse the situation, while also sticking up for his group of friends. We may be gay but its not calling for all of that, he said, according to Pena. Were not going to live in hiding. According to Pena, this is when the scuffle broke out and Sibley was stabbed in the chest.

As visibility and discourse regarding gay men, femmes, and transgender women is increasing to raise awareness and acceptance, the violence against these marginalized groups continue. Sibleys murder is representative of a larger societal attitude. It exposes the dangers of homophobia and transphobia, and how when theres an abundant culture of folks who feel threatened by LGBTQ existences and experiences, it can and oftentimes does lead to senseless acts of violence, especially towards queer Black folks.

ITS NINE DAYS AFTER SIBLEYS DEATH. On West 13th street in New York Citys Greenwich Village  where the fight for LGBTQ rights has been centerstage since the 1960s  orange balloons, Sibleys favorite color, fill a back room of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center  better known as the Center  which has aided LGBTQ people for 40 years. On this Saturday, the Center is holding a memorial service followed by a march to Pier 47, where a balloon and lantern release will take place and, of course, vogueing. OShaes face, adorned with yellow eyeshadow, is on a projector that sits on a wall above a stage. Family, friends, and an array of Black queer folks within the community of activism and ballroom, file in silently and somberly. Willie the Genius, a Bed-Stuy based artist, entertainer, and activist sits quietly in observation, with their black vegan-leather Cise purse that reads Protect Black People by their side. The room, filled with kin and strangers, is a testament to the ways Sibley exhibited being a beacon of light in his life  as his best friends describe it  and death.

Members of the crowd comfort each other during speeches at the action in Brooklyn on Friday.

Ever since Sibley was a child, he had been a skilled dancer. He was a student at Philadanco dance company in Philadelphia and had dreams of performing in The Lion King, his favorite Broadway musical. He had recently been studying at the prestigious Alvin Ailey dance school in Manhattan, furthering his skills in ballet, tap, contemporary, jazz, and his ultimate favorite, vogue.

He always been a bright light of sunshine, says Alvernian DuMure, Sibleys grandfather from the House of DuMure-Versailles. Sibley and DuMure had known one another since 2013, when DuMures ran an after-hours club in Philly, hosting monthly vogue nights. Even when you were mad at him, you couldnt stay mad because he was always smiling and full of laughter and joy, DuMare says. He had an innocence about him.

Sibley was the life of the party, dancing to the beat of his own strut. OShae was a goofball, says Juanna. Everyone would be bussin it wide open in the club, twerking, hes the only one doing pirouettes, with his leg in the air. Like, Sir! Its not giving that! But he was very spiritual and grounded, he was into the stars and the moon and its alignments. Every time, Id say, Here you go, you Namaste ass bitch.

Sibley had won a few balls, where he vogued, while also being eager to learn the ballroom scene in its entirety. His ambitions led him to try out numerous categories of competitions like All American Runway and Realness, which DuMure describes as a category in which its contestants compete on who is the most unclockable to the cis-hetero gaze.

OShae reminded me of what I wanted to be, says Kemar Jewel, a Black queer professional director and choreographer. Sibley and Jewel met through the dance circuit as teenagers in Philadelphia. Although Jewel was only two years older than Sibley, Sibley called him uncle due to the mentorship Jewel provided in navigating dance and life as a Black queer man. OShae was so excited to dance. He wanted to take classes and learn new things. He had this energy about him that was a willingness to learn and to work.

Sibley had been an instrumental part in Jewels 2021 project SOFT, which was a modern contemporary style dance video, where Sibley danced alongside some of his best friends like Pena and Malik Berry. It was a love letter to feminine Black gay males, who experience outsized trauma and violence in society. The project was inspired by the 2017 murder of 14-year old Giovanni Melton, who was killed by his father for being gay.

OShae Sibley and friend and fellow dancer Lik Uchiha.

OShae really helped me bring SOFT to life and he co-choreographed the video as well, says Jewel. Ive done eight videos and OShae was in six of them; he was an incredible performer and very professional. When the camera was off he was jumping around and being silly, but once you said Action he was ready to go.

On the day of Sibleys memorial at the Center, his siblings from Philadelphia are just getting to New York after landing from a family vacation to Disney World. He was supposed to come with us on Tuesday, says his brother Safyaan Kelly, who is older than Sibley by three months. We still went to celebrate his life because we know that he wouldnt have wanted us to not go. He was the type of person that if he got sick, he would say still go, so we had fun for him.

Sibley was the middle child of 11 and was what his siblings describe as goofy but a grounding force in their lives. He was the peacemaker amongst the siblings, says Destineh Kelly, Sibleys younger sister. He always wanted to fight me, chimes in Safyaan, laughing. It was fun having OShae as a little brother. He was always stealing my sneakers. We went to Miami a few years back and I left the room and came back and he had on my sneakers, again. I was like whats good with you, bro?

ON FRIDAY, THE DAY BEFORE Sibleys memorial, the suspect in Sibleys murder  who is reported to be 17 years old  turned himself in. The day of the surrender, supporters of Sibley gather at the Mobil to protest and vogue as demonstrations against the steady violence towards the LGBTQ community. As Beyonces I Was Here, plays from the speakers, Qween Jean, a transgender activist, speaks to the crowd, stating Voguing is not a crime! Following activists speeches, voguing commences in the middle of the street as the crowd chants OShaes name. The next morning, at the same Mobil, city officials held a press conference. NYPD assistant chief Joe Kenny of the NYPD Detective Bureau said that although there was a group who verbally attacked Sibley and his friends, the suspect in custody will be the only one charged at this time. Based on our investigation, the group did start to disappear but the defendant stayed unfortunately and stabbed the victim, Kenny said.

Supporters from the community vogue in the streets of Brooklyn on Friday.

While relieved that the alleged killer is off the streets, family, friends and community are still concerned with the larger picture of homophobia.

What I hate most about the situation is that he got killed for being who he was as a person, which is a peacemaker, says Destineh, who is Muslim. My faith doesnt hate or think any other person or religion is above or beneath Islam. Sibley grew up Christian but according to his family, always had their acceptance. We were supportive and we never judged him about how he dressed or who he was as a person, says Destineh. So for somebody to take his life away because he was standing up for who he was as a person is sad.

Violence against the LGBTQ community is prevalent. In a report from June 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the rate of violence amongst gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons over the age of 16 was more than two times (43.5 per 1,000 persons) the rate of heterosexual-identifying people. The rate of violence against transgender persons was even higher, being 2.5 times (51.5 per 1,000 persons) the rate of cisgender persons.

Im a drag queen, Juanna says. But a lot of people think Im a transwoman, so my life is in danger just walking outside.

On Saturday, as the sun sets over the Hudson River, family and friends set up a poster of Sibley, placing candles next to it and tea lights in the front spelling out the name OShae. Those who gathered at West 13th clap and chant Sibleys name. The chant garners looks from those on the street but eventually leads to a circle of voguers on the pier who pirouette into a dip to the sound of the last syllable in OShae. There are tears but theres also a playful energy in the air. The wind is blowing, making it either impossible to light the lanterns or burning them entirely too much and too close to a few peoples heads and fingers. We shouldve looked at the instructions first, someone yells, which causes a fit of laughter.

A few lanterns go down towards the river, and Pena calls out to the crowd to encourage the lanterns to fly high. The crowd cheers on the lanterns and surprisingly, amid the chants of OShae, it seems to work. OShaes best friend and fellow dancer from SOFT, Malik Berry, does a split into a pose and starts a sequence of vogueing that lasts well into the night. Prynce Pedro, an artist and model in community with Sibley, breaks out in a new vogue chant: Fly up in the sky / What?/ I really want to fly/ you gonna fly, bitch, you gonna fly.

Launch Gallery: Community Honors O'Shae Sibley With Memorial Ball

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Donald Trump takes all the air out of our politics. Its hard to think anything else merits attention when a former, and perhaps future, president is being tried for scheming to overthrow the American form of government. Ill concede all political sins pale compared to those of the 45th president.

That means talking about the North Carolina General Assembly can seem to be punk, two-bit. I get that. Sometimes I think our Republican lawmakers benefit from a comparative invisibility. And perhaps from a less vicious but more effective and long-lived crusade against democracy and equality. As the legislative session begins to wind down then, maybe a few words can be forgiven.

It can be spectacularly demoralizing to contemplate our Republican legislative hegemony. Supermajorities reappear and wound. Time and again, they pile onto the disadvantaged. They seem to revel in a barbed ascendancy. And their adversaries, like me, are often incapable of meeting the challenge. Though challenge we must, if North Carolina is to have the future it deserves. One that matches its often impressive past and its stubborn, affectionate future.

Can there, in truth, be a basis for optimism? Or will we, indeed, out Mississippi Mississippi?

My reed of hope is a thin one. But at least its grounded in information, in the drumbeat of consistency, in repetitive performance. By 2023 there cant be any doubt what were in for. Unlike me, most people arent obsessed with politics and policy. Theyd rather ignore the ruckus and the altercation. But North Carolinas brand of Republicanism is, these days, set in stone.

Our GOP is, by record, first and foremost, relentlessly anti-democratic. Its most consistent goal is to slant the playing field in its favor, democracy be damned. You know the list  redistricting, voter suppression, ballot manipulation, legislative process tampering, impermissible power grabs and more. They cheat to amass power. Then, they cheat again.

Next,  though its unpleasant to say  our nearly all-white Republican legislative caucuses repeatedly use their authorities, intentionally, to burden and disadvantage Black Tar Heels. The case reports of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals prove it to be so. Lawmakers dont like it mentioned, but it is what it is.

Third, N.C. Republican legislators treat women and LGBTQ folks as second, or perhaps second- and third-class citizens. Think abortion restrictions, gay marriage bans, licenses to discriminate, House Bill 2, and the brutal targeting of transgender teens. Bullies show their stripes.

Fourth, our Republican lawmakers consistently target poor people via legislation. A few examples: abolishing the earned income tax credit, slashing the states unemployment compensation program, cutting SNAP benefits for poor kids and dramatically reducing legal aid support. They seem to be saying that impoverished folks are unworthy. So stepping on their necks is, apparently, the moral high ground. Weve done it more self-righteously than any other state.

Fifth, Republicans have, for more than a decade, acted to decimate the public schools. They dont admit it. They just do it. Day in, day out. They wont stop til the doors close.

Sixth, they reportedly loathe what they regard as liberal professors. Fair enough. But they carry out their antipathy by trying to destroy universities. And that crushes a commonwealths future. Theyre doing it now. This day.

Seventh, like their apparent presidential nominee, N.C. Republican leaders work to diminish the rule of law. It gets in the way of their ever-aggrandizing quest for power. Judicial independence, by definition, cramps their style. Autocrats wont put up with it. They never do.

Eighth, these folks are the opposite of environmentalists. They embrace extraction and bristle at regulation. Climate change is seen by some as a hoax, like a Trump indictment. Just turn up the air-conditioner. Everything will be fine. Take their word for it.

I dont think this unpleasant octet is North Carolinian. There lies my hope.

Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
During the Centre Hill Mansion Ghost Watch held on Jan. 24, 2022, the tour guide explains the location of the figure in the mirror believed to be that of Pocahontas Rebecca Bolling to Jackson Marlowe and Elizabeth Fodor of Richmond. "It took us a while, but we both saw the lady," stated Fodor. Image by Kristi K. Higgins/progress-index.com

HOPEWELL  The Historic Hopewell Foundation's Lunch & Learn Lecture Series topic this week may haunt you. Local reporter and podcaster Chaiyatath "Chai" Gallahun, a U.S. Air Force veteran, will share paranormal occurrences in the Tri-Cities and stories relayed to him by people during his time in the military as well as a couple of personal experiences.

"The Tri-Cities area of Central Virginia has been the setting for many historic occasions," Gallahun said. "It is clearly evidenced by the presence of the numerous historical mile markers throughout this area how richly steeped in history this land is."

Gallahun pointed out that Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg serves as a reminder of just a sample of the blood spilt on soil in the Tri-Cities.

'Blood and history are often inseparable companions. And, needless to say, there is a lot of history in the Tri-Cities and surrounding counties," Gallahun said. "Because of this, it is not much of a surprise that so many people have reported encounters with the paranormal here."

Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va. on May 30, 2021.

Paranormal, as explained by Gallahun, is a broad umbrella term under which falls many different kinds of phenomena, from cryptozoological creatures that science hasnt categorized or officially recognized like Sasquatch aka Bigfoot and river monsters, to sightings of unidentified flying objects [UFOs] in the sky traveling at impossible speeds and conducting strange maneuvers.

"Most commonly in the Tri-Cities, the paranormal includes encounters with ghostly apparitions and things that go bump in the night," Gallahun said. "Pretty much anything would be considered 'paranormal' if it cannot be explained by our current understanding of science. A lack of explanation leads many people to curiosity. Because of this innate love of mysteries, many people seek out the paranormal especially after having witnessed something unexplained."

Violet Bank Museum in Colonial Heights, Va. on January 14, 2023. The Magnolia acuminata, commonly called cucumber tree, is one of the largest in the world.

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Gallahun, a Hopewell native, plans to share with Lunch & Learn attendees how he was nudged into the mysterious world of high strangeness.

"Ill share a few encounters and incidents that some military professionals shared with me personally, as well as documented events and personal sightings at a base or two where I was stationed," Gallahun said.

As a newspaper reporter, Gallahun was invited by Tri-City Paranormal, a local paranormal investigative group, to tag along during their investigation of Violet Bank in Colonial Heights. He will tell the tales during Lunch & Learn.

Petersburg: Centre Hill Mansion Ghost Watch

In January 2020, Gallahun and I covered Centre Hill Mansions annual Ghost Watch event together. Little did we know that he would capture video evidence of what appeared to be anomalous paranormal activity. Or, was it dust?

"It was a lot of fun. I had covered Centre Hill's Ghost Watch about five times previously, but it was the first time I took video during the event," Gallahun said. "I was not even thinking about getting orbs on video when it happened."

United States Air Force veteran Chai Gallahun strikes a pose in the Club Room at Hopewell American Legion Post 146 in Hopewell, Va. in March 2022.

Who is Chai Gallahun?

Gallahun grew up in Hopewell since the age of four and graduated from Hopewell High School. He served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force with backgrounds in public affairs, visual information, intelligence analysis and special operations as well as newsprint and radio journalism, editing, hosting and producing. He worked as a reporter and editor at the Hopewell News, News-Patriot, Herald-Post and Progress-Index. He also hosted a daily radio talk show at WHAP 96.9 FM / 1340 AM. He holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Phoenix.

Besides delving into and attempting to document strange happenings, Gallahun covers local stories and events for the Petersburg-based LNN USA media company. If you have a paranormal experience to share, reach out to Chai Gallahun via Facebook Messenger. He may include the experience in the lecture on Wednesday, August 9.

Historic Hopewell Foundation display at Hopewell American Legion Post 146 on August 2, 2023.

Hopewell: Historic Hopewell Foundation

The Historic Hopewell Foundation office is located at Weston Manor, an 18th century home rumored to be inhabited by spirits.

The Lunch & Learn program offers a variety of events throughout the year which features talks by expert historians, archaeologists and cultural leaders as well as tours of historic sites and exhibits. The lectures are free and open to the public. Guests may bring a bag lunch or order food from the American Legion. A beverage and dessert are provided.

Lunch & Learns are on Wednesdays from noon  1 p.m. through August 30 at the American Legion Post 146 at 217 E. City Point Rd. in Hopewell. Visit historichopewell.org for the 2023 schedule and more information. Historic Hopewell Foundation's Lunch & Learn schedule states, "Please note that opinions expressed by presenters do not necessarily reflect those of HHF."

To watch Gallahun's video footage at Centre Hill Mansion, read this story online at Progress-Index.com.

Rumored to be inhabited by spirits Hopewell: Tour historic Weston Manor along Appomattox River, view 40-image gallery

'The spirits are willing' Petersburg: Centre Hill Mansion Ghost Watch

 Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly, an award-winning columnist, is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index voted the 2022 Tri-Cities Best of the Best Social Media Personality. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter @socialbutterflykristi on Instagram.

Your support is vital to local journalism. Please subscribe.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Hopewell: Lunch & Learn Lecture Series, free 'Paranormal' presentation


Charlize Theron may enjoy a glamorous and relatively stress-free lifestyle nowadays, but it turns out her childhood was quite the opposite. In fact, the actress faced some terrible trauma while growing up in Benoni, South Africa.



When Theron was 15 years old, her mother Gerda Maritz shot and killed her father, Charles, after he came home drunk and pulled a gun on her and her mother. Maritz was not prosecuted, and police ruled the case was self-defense.

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Since coming into the spotlight, however, the Mad Max: Fury Road actress hasnt spoken about her childhood much, with only a few exceptions over the years.



While preparing for her role in the film adaptation of Gillian Flynns thriller novel, Dark Places, for example, she got candid about the similarities between the film and her own tragic past.

Click here to read the full article.



Speaking to French TV station TF1, via Us Weekly, Theron told them, Theres definitely an acknowledgment on my part that I had an experience of a very traumatic experience, an event, in my life. And somehow its formed me.

DARK PLACES, Charlize Theron, 2015. ph: Doane Gregory/A24/Courtesy Everett Collection



The Oscar-winning star then went on to explain the trauma that her character, Libby Day, goes through is similar to that which she faced when she was a little girl.



In the film, my character goes through this event when shes 8 years old, and it really is examining what a trauma like that would do to a child, especially when shes expected to speak about it, Theron explained of her character, who testifies in court about the murders of her family members. And thats definitely something that I can relate to, thats definitely something that Ive experienced in my life.



As far as events go, theyre very similar, she said of her character and her own life. Theres a murder mystery, and my situation was a very unfortunate incident with self-defense.

Charlize Theron shares how her daughter, August, isn't afraid to speak her truth. https://t.co/8EtyVYFODW  SheKnows (@SheKnows) December 9, 2022



A few years later, Theron opened up even more during Howard Sterns radio show. According to the Monster star, she dealt with the situation by just pushing it under the rug at first. I just pretended like it didnt happen, she remembered, per People. I didnt tell anybody  I didnt want to tell anybody. Whenever anybody asked me, I said my dad died in a car accident. Who wants to tell that story? Nobody wants to tell that story.



Looking back, Theron knows why she kept it a secret for so long. I didnt want to feel like a victim, she said. I struggled with that for many years until I actually started therapy.



In fact, therapy was a long-winding process that she didnt fully start healing from until her late 20s, early 30s. And, after years of working hard to overcome her struggles, she realized it wasnt her fathers death that traumatized her the most. I think what more affected me for my adult life that happened in my childhood was more the everyday living of a child living in the house with an alcoholic and waking up not knowing what was going to happen, she said. And not knowing how my day was going to go and all of it dependent on somebody else and whether he was not going to drink or drink.

Charlize Theron (R) and mom Gerda during Charlize Theron Honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Her Achievements in Film at Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, California, United States. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)



Theron then also attributed much of her endurance and bravery to her mother. I have an incredible mother Shes a huge inspiration in my life, she said. Shes never really had therapy. So a mother who never really had therapy dealing with something like that  trying to get your child out of that. Her philosophy was This is horrible. Acknowledge that this is horrible. Now make a choice. Will this define you? Are you going to sink or are you going to swim? That was it. Talk about incredible parenting!



Theron continued, I think both of us have dealt with that night really well. I think both of us still have to deal with the life that we had  and thats what people dont really realize. Its not just about what happened one night.



Indeed, Theron has made a whole new life for herself despite all the terrible things shes had to overcome in her past. And, of course, her mothers been by her side the entire time.



A version of this article was originally published in 2015.

Before you go, click here to see what celebrities say about the moment that helped them recover from addiction:



Selma Blair, Jessica Simpson, Jamie Lee Curtis

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Saget died in January 2022 at the age of 65 after a head injury

John Stamos/Instagram John Stamos and Bob Saget.

John Stamos paid tribute to his late friend and Full House co-star Bob Saget in a sweet snap.

On his Instagram Friday, Stamos, who is best known for his role as Jessie Katsopolis on Full House, shared an undated throwback photo of himself and Saget sunning it up at a pool in Greece.

"Tan and Tanner #greece, Stamos captioned his post, referring to Sagets character, Danny Tanner, from the beloved 80s and '90s sitcom.

Stamos co-star from Full House, Dave Coulier, responded to Stamos' post in the comments section with three heart emojis.



Stamos has been open about sharing his memories of Saget, who died at the age of 65 on January 9, 2022, due to head trauma, as his family later confirmed. Both Stamos and Saget starred in Full House from 1987 to 1995, and they later reprised their roles as Jesse and Danny respectively on Fuller House, a reboot of the original series, from 2016 to 2020.

At Sagets memorial in January 2022, Stamos said of the late comedian: God, he loves us all so much. Bob goes to sleep dreaming of when well meet again  and hes smiling. I know in my heart hes smiling, still hearing the laughter from a few hours before.

Related: What Really Happened to Bob Saget? New Details on His Final Hours

John Shearer/WireImage

In September 2022, while promoting his Disney+ show Big Shot at the D23 Expo, Stamos mentioned his late friend when images of the two of them together appeared on screen. Those photos, he said at the event, were taken from the last time he and Saget visited Disneyland.



"I don't remember what rides we went on, I don't remember what we ate, but I do remember the feelings that we felt," Stamos said then. "We had fun, we laughed, we acted like big kids we felt that easy, unspoken love that happens between grown men dressed in weird pajamas. Winnie the Pooh said 'any day spent with you is my favorite day' and every day that I spent with Bob was my favorite day, especially that day at Disneyland."

John Stamos Instagram

Stamos further added: "Being able to share this memory with all of you here today, right now, is my new favorite memory, so thank you for that. Bob never left anything on the table. He always told you how much he loved you and how much he cared about you  he was bombastic with his love."

And earlier this year, on the first anniversary of Sagets passing, Stamos shared an archival clip on Instagram featuring himself and Saget on the set of Full House engaging with the studio audience. In the clip, Stamos says of the cast's special bond: "What you see up here is really how it is. We'll never have another show like this."

Saget responds with a joke: "My agent told me I'll never have another show!"

Related: John Stamos Gets Choked Up as He Remembers Trip to Disneyland with Late Friend Bob Saget

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Stamos captioned that January 9, 2023, Instagram post: The most lost day in our life is the day we dont laugh. Its hard sometimes Bob without you, but well try. Well keep loving and will keep hugging just like you want us to. I cant believe its been a year, time flies when youre grieving I guess.

This October, the actor will be releasing his book, If You Would Have Told Me, documenting his life and career. The memoir will touch on his friendship with Saget.

"Everyone has a book in them. If You Would Have Told Me is mine," Stamos told PEOPLE in February. "I honestly didn't think I had much to share, certainly not enough to fill a book."

"But losing one of my best friends, becoming a father, taking a look back at the ups and downs, highs and lowsmaybe there is something in my story that people can connect to, he added. There will be laughs, tears, and some fun filler, just like life.



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Read the original article on People.
This year's sixth typhoon Khanun will likely change course and make landfall on the Korean Peninsula after all, the Korea Meteorological Administration said Sunday.

Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, is expected to make landfall in Busan on Thursday and maintain its strength all the way to Daegu. It is expected to roar through Gyeongsang provincial areas that come within its radius with a wind speed of more than 25 m/s.

According to the KMA, Khanun has a central pressure of 970 hPa and is moving east from waters northeast of Okinawa before it turns toward Korea on Monday and starts to affect the southern part of the country on Wednesday. It will bring heavy thunderstorms until Friday on its way through the Gyeongsang provinces.
If its true that youth is wasted on the young, then so are friendly aliens.

Sure, the kids in E.T. had a great time with their pint-sized buddy from another planet, and so have countless other children in family-themed sci-fi films over the years. But its about time that seniors get in on the fun, and theres plenty of it in Marc Turtletaubs whimsical sci-fi dramedy thats as much about the burdens and loneliness of old age as it is about extraterrestrial bonding. Featuring sterling performances from an uncharacteristically underplaying Ben Kingsley alongside Harriet Sansom Harris and Jane Curtin, Jules emerges as a low-key delight.

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Set in the sort of western Pennsylvanian town that has clearly seen better days, the story revolves around 78-year-old Milton (Kingsley), who lives alone and whose early signs of dementia are made evident by his repeated verbatim requests at town hall meetings that the town motto be changed and that a traffic light be installed at a busy crosswalk. Although his loving daughter Denise (Zoe Winters, Succession) pops by occasionally to lend support, Milton is living a very isolated existence.

That all changes with the crash landing of a flying saucer in his backyard late one night, which mainly upsets him because its destroyed his bushes. He attempts to notify the authorities, but the 911 operator doesnt believe him. The next morning, he wakes up to discover the spaceships apparently sole inhabitant, a small, humanoid-like creature (Jade Quon) who seems terribly weak. Milton brings him a blanket and a glass of water and eventually invites him to his house, where he discovers that the alien has a taste for apples. Meanwhile, television news bulletins indicate that the government is searching for a weather satellite that crashed down somewhere in the vicinity.

Things get more complicated when fellow oldsters Sandy (Harris) and Joyce (Curtin) discover the alien guest in Miltons house, whom Sandy promptly dubs Jules. The shy, gentle Jules proves a nice companion, sitting quietly with Milton watching television when hes not outside attempting to repair his spaceship. Although he doesnt speak himself, Jules listens very attentively to whomever is talking, his large blank eyes seeming to register comprehension.

His eyes are so understanding! Joyce exclaims, shortly before confiding in him and regaling him with a rendition of Free Bird. The three humans and their alien visitor soon form a deep bond, especially when Jules demonstrates his psychic powers by violently interceding when Sandy gets attacked by a man attempting to rob her. They resolve to help Jules fix his spaceship so he can return home, the necessary ingredient for which turns out to be dead cats.

Those last two plot details give you some idea of the quirkiness and dark humor of Gavin Stecklers screenplay, which occasionally feels a bit over-the-top in its baroque flourishes. But it mainly works beautifully nonetheless, thanks to its movingly incisive depiction of the older characters, who all seemed spiritually adrift at first, bonding together over a common purpose. Even if it does involve hunting down cat carcasses to fuel a crashed spaceship.

Veteran film producer Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine, The Farewell) employs the same subtle, relaxed style as his last directorial effort, the underseen Puzzle, to excellent effect. Kingsley, outfitted with a horribly unflattering wig and glasses, never once winks to the audience with his dignified, unshowy performance that is all the more effective for its restraint. Harris and Curtin provide delightful support; the formers hilarious double-take reaction to first encountering the alien visitor casually sitting on Miltons sofa should be required viewing in comedy acting classes.

But the true acting honors go to Quon, a stunt performer (Transformers: The Last Knight, Iron Man 3) who delivers a wonderfully expressive physical turn despite not uttering a word and being covered in make-up and prosthetics. Her Jules is so touchingly endearing that it makes you wish that every lonely senior could have an alien friend to call their own.

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A magnet hovering above a superconductor. Persistent electric current flows on the surface of the superconductor, forming an electromagnet that repels the magnet. J. Adam Fenster/University of Rochester

South Korean scientists claim to have made a superconductor, LK-99, that works at room temperature.

Experts are skeptical, but if such a material exists, it could boost energy production and storage.

It could also improve chips used in cars and consumer electronics like cell phones.

Electricity is inefficient compared to what it could be. But electricity that travels along a superconductor barely loses energy along the way.

Present-day superconductors, however, function under costly special environments  what if we could change that?

That's the premise behind LK-99, a possible superconductor material that scientists in South Korea say they have devised, which has been dominating headlines and social media posts in the past week or so.

The LK-99 material is a compound comprised of lead, oxygen, and phosphorous, the scientists describe in two preprint papers that have yet to be peer-reviewed. They discuss how they doped the material with copper, which, they speculate, may have distorted the chain of lead atoms, creating channels along which the superconductivity occurs, per Science.

However, many experts are skeptical that the material actually does what the scientists claim. Therefore, whether LK-99 is actually a breakthrough remains to be seen until others can replicate its results.

To that end, some experts are trying, but this holy grail has eluded scientists for many years, so the prospects are still a long way off, experts told Insider.

Why room-temperature superconductors are so elusive

"The holy grail would be to get something that was superconducting at room temperature," said Leonard Kahn, the chair of the physics department at the University of Rhode Island.

The problem is that scientists are playing a guessing game for now, swapping out materials to try and raise the critical temperature.

MRI machines contain liquid helium to cool their magnets. Getty Images

Elements like tantalum and mercury all have superconducting capabilities, for example, but they have to be chilled to about -450 degrees Fahrenheit. Some compounds become superconductive at higher temperatures and can be cooled with liquid nitrogen at around -320 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yet other materials become superconducting at warmer temperatures, "but you need to have them under such high pressures that they're impractical for any applications," Kahn said.

LK-99 isn't the first claim of its kind. There have been similar attempts in the past that don't quite seem to have panned out. One piece on the subject, published in the science journal Nature in 2020, was later retracted.

Ultimately, achieving a room-temperature superconductor would "require breakthroughs in understanding the fundamental principles behind superconductivity, inventing new materials, or discovering novel ways of increasing the critical temperature," Edwin Fohtung, associate professor in materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, told Insider in an email.

Where and how superconductors are used today

"It's not that we do not have superconductors, but we can only make that work under extremely high pressures, and at very low temperatures," said Elif Akcal, an associate professor at the University of Florida who teaches industrial and systems engineering.

"When that's the case, you're putting in so much energy to make that work," Akcal said. "For me, from a business perspective, it's losing its value."

Superconductors expel magnetic fields and are diamagnetic, a phenomenon known as the Meissner effect. "If you put a magnet near it, they oppose the magnet, and so magnets actually float on top of them," Kahn said.

Currently, MRI machines, quantum computers, and magnetic levitation trains all use superconductivity. Cooling an MRI magnet requires about 2,000 liters of liquid helium, which is both expensive and in short supply.

Replacing current power lines with room-temperature superconductive materials would make them far more efficient. iStock / Getty Images Plus

But if researchers could find a room-temperature superconductor, it would be huge for energy, transportation, and many other industries. Take power stations, for example:

"If you had superconducting wires instead of the regular wires that they're using, it would be the equivalent of having 5% to 10% more power stations, and you wouldn't be putting any more carbon into the atmosphere," Kahn said. "The opportunities for that would be tremendous, but we're not there yet."

Any revolutionary use of superconductors will still take time

We're a while away from making a radical shift in superconductor use, experts said. At minimum, multiple labs will first need to repeat and verify the experiment to make sure LK-99, or something like it, really works.

And even a workable material will mean companies will have to change how they make things.

Take the case of chips, for instance. There's still a question as to whether this type of superconductor material can be successfully incorporated into the chip manufacturing process in a way that is economically viable and not too burdensome, said Siddharth Joshi, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

"Currently, we don't design chips assuming you can have superconductors on there," Joshi said.

"Using superconductors in the design of the chips could lead to interesting designs, but the technology would first need to be mature enough to use it in chips," he said.

But again, if it does work, that could mean we can produce chips that require less energy to function, which means they can do more and take up less space. Your phones and laptops, for one, could get even more compact, said Navid Asadi, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Florida.

Low-energy chips could also help machines do a lot more. For newer technologies, like electric and autonomous vehicles, it can mean helping them better navigate the kinds of questions the machines encounter on drives, Asadi said.

"Should I keep the car between the lines? Am I going to pass this car? Should I brake? Should I adjust my speed? These are all decisions constantly made in the chips, and they need energy," he said. "So low power energy chips is one major area in chip design."

The potential that chips could be faster and more efficient thanks to superconductors also means they could support the large amounts of computing power and energy required to sustain other artificial intelligence efforts including generative AI, said Dale Rogers, a supply chain expert and professor at the Arizona State University business school.

"This kind of superconductor breakthrough, if it's real, can really enable huge advancements and processing abilities in artificial intelligence," he said.

Correction August 7, 2023  An earlier version of the headline misstated a source's affiliation. Leonard Kahn is the chair of the physics department at the University of Rhode Island.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SOUTH BEND  Marvin V. Curtis has kept busy since his retirement as dean of Indiana University South Bends Raclin School of the Arts.

He currently serves on several organizations boards of directors and, in April, he started a new job as the Venues Parks & Arts departments Arts Equity & Public Art Coordinator at the Morris Performing Arts Center.

Since July 1, his schedules gotten a little fuller with the start of his two-year term as president of the South Bend Symphony Orchestras board, where he had most recently been vice president.

For the orchestra, it was a historic appointment: The composer, conductor and music educator is the first African American to hold the board presidents position in the SBSOs 91-year history.

12 years at IUSB: Staff gives IUSB's Marvin Curtis a socially distanced Standing Ovation

I think Marvin makes a ton of sense as a board president, whether hes Black or not, SBSO Executive Director Justus Zimmerman said. That being said, I think its symptomatic of broader changes at the symphony. We used to have one board member who was Black, or none. Going into this year, were up to 25%.

Curtis has been instrumental in making those broader changes possible as the boards chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee that the SBSO formed after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020.

The South Bend Symphony Orchestra announced Monday that Justus Zimmerman has been named the executive director of the orchestra. He begins work Jan. 6.

Change has to happen at the core, Zimmerman said about the SBSOs EDI initiative. It cant change that much until an organizations leadership changes. Its just a Band-Aid if you start at the lower or hourly levels of an organization.

But, he said, Curtis election  and the appointment of the SBSOs first Asian American, Cindy Gretschmann, to the board  arent box checking and instead represent finding the right people who happen to come from diverse backgrounds.

I hope it sends a strong signal to the community, not just the Black community but the whole community, Curtis said, that we are an inclusive organization.

Dream big

Curtis has collaborated with the SBSO almost since right after he arrived in South Bend in August 2008 to become dean of IUSBs Raclin School of the Arts.

His work with the SBSO has included co-founding the orchestras Martin Luther King Day Concert with then-SBSO Music Director Tsung Yeh in 2010 and spearheading the establishment of the SBSOs annual Dia de los Muertos concert and festival, as well as serving on the board for several years leading up to now.

Curtis also serves as president of the St. Joseph County Public Librarys board of directors, 100 Black Men of Greater South Bend and Uzima Drum and Dance, as well as being a board member and the EDI liaison at The History Museum, serving on the board for the Rotary Club of South Bend, and conducting the South Bend Symphonic Choir.

Im busier than I should be, but Im having a good time doing it, Curtis said. As you know, nothing stops me.

His relationship with the SBSO, his years as a dean at IUSB, his perspective as a musician and his civic leadership on several other boards in South Bend, Zimmerman said, add up to a mix thats complex and that made Curtis unanimous election an obvious choice for the board.

Hes more steeped in orchestral and choral music than any other board member, the executive director said about Curtis background as a musician.

Curtis has big dreams for what the SBSO can accomplish during his two-year term as president of its board.

Id like to see us do a CD, he said. Wouldnt it be cool if we won a Grammy Award? Im just dreaming, but I dream big.

That impulse to dream big, Zimmerman said, is one of many qualities he and the board admired about Curtis when they elected him president.

I think thats what you want from a board president, he said. Hes not taking over a sinking ship. We want to dream big. We want to know whats possible or almost possible.

Shown at the South Bend Symphony Orchestra's 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration Concert at the Morris Performing Arts Center, Marvin Curtis recently became the SBSO's first Black president of its board of directors in the orchestra's 91-year history.

We have to make it exciting

For the foreseeable future, Curtis plans to continue as the SBSOs EDI committee chair, work that he sees as tied to a broader campaign to expand the SBSOs audience across all demographics.

Symphonies are different than they were 15 years ago, he said. If they dont change, they wont survive.  In a city thats 25% African American and 15% Hispanic, our repertoire has to represent that.

'At long last': South Bend Symphony shines a light on music, influence of Black composers

For him, one duty of the board is to get all people to understand what an orchestra does and how it relates to their lives.

Its educating people about whats out there, Curtis said. Because of the lack of arts funding in schools, a lot of young people dont know what a symphony is.

Beyond making an album, Curtis has other ideas aimed at expanding the orchestras audience and reach in the community, including offering the text of the SBSOs programs in Spanish and embracing other genres of music without forsaking the classical repertoire.

From hip-hop to jazz to exposing people to composers of different backgrounds, he said, its about expanding the orchestras visibility and repertoire to include all types of music.  Why would 20- and 30-year-olds come to the symphony? We have to make it exciting.

Marvin Curtis rehearses the South Bend Symphonic Choir for its annual "Teddy Bear Concert" in 2021.

Email Tribune staff writer Andrew S. Hughes at ahughes@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Black composer becomes South Bend Symphony's board president. A first.
Writer-director Ena Sendijarevics second feature, Sweet Dreams, follows a recent trend of arthouse films  including Zama, The Settlers and The Tale of King Crab  that explore Europes troubled colonial history through a postmodern mix of satire, surrealism and cinematic lyricism.

All of these elements are present in a story set in 1900 in the Dutch East Indies, where a family running a prosperous sugar plantation finds its status quo upended when their patriarch suddenly passes away. Left to deal with the fallout, the landowners wife and children are quickly exposed to the limits, as well as the terrors, of colonialism, in the face of Indigenous people who refuse to keep bowing down.

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Shot in the 1.33:1 Academy ratio and divided into chapters like a novella, Sendijarevics movie maintains a certain distance from its subject, gazing at it through a contemporary prism that critiques the racism and exploitation of the epoch. Compared to the Indonesians, the Dutch characters are presented as grotesque caricatures, which makes Sweet Dreams more of a dark comedy than a drama at times.

The results arent always convincing, with the films mannered acting and heightened aesthetics keeping the viewer at arms length from any real emotion. But the director also displays a fine sense of craft and a deep understanding of the skewed European attitudes of the period, where the inferior races were merely seen as human tools for the accumulation of Western wealth.

Sendijarevics story takes place at a moment when the Dutch began to lose their grip on a vast territory they had controlled for a century (Indonesia finally declared independence in August 1945, at the end of WWII). The colonys demise is reflected by the sudden death of Jan (Hans Dagelet), a plantation owner whose sugar refinery allowed him to build a massive house in the jungle while filling his familys coffers back home in the Netherlands.

Jans widow, Agathe (Renee Soutendijk), sends for their son, Cornelius (Florian Myjer), who soon shows up with his pregnant wife, Josefien (Lisa Zweerman), in tow. The recently married couple is hoping to sell off the fields and refinery so they can make a quick break back to the old country, but theres a catch: Jan sired a second child, Karel (Rio Den Haas), with his loyal servant, Siti (Hayati Azis), and hes decided to leave the entirety of his estate to a young boy who is equal parts Dutch and Indonesian  like a living, breathing illustration of the conflict that has plagued his land for so long.

Sendijarevic is herself a dual national hailing from Bosnia and the Netherlands  a personal history that her first feature, Take Me Somewhere Nice, transformed into a quirky European road movie that premiered in Cannes ACID sidebar back in 2019. Theres still some of that quirk in Sweet Dreams, although it comes with a darker undercurrent that never shies away from the abuses committed by the late Jan and his surviving kin.

In the films very first scene, the patriarch humiliates a fieldworker in front of Karel, then sleeps with Siti in a manner that suggests an ongoing act of colonial rape. Later, Cornelius tries to kill his younger brother so he can keep the family fortune for himself. Hes prompted by a conniving wife whos constantly horny and overheated, her face covered with mosquito welts that accumulate as the movie progresses.

None of the Dutch characters are worthy of redemption, and in that sense Sweet Dreams is very much a one-sided affair. The Indonesians, who also include Reza (Muhammad Khan), a swaggering young laborer on the verge of rebellion, are more lively and filled with humor, mocking their overseers whenever they get the chance and allowing the director to insert a few scenes of surreal beauty amid the madness.

With its careful camera setups (courtesy of Emo Weemhoff) and studied decors (by Myrte Beltman), especially the darkly wooded interior of the family villa, the film seems to be illustrating a point  about colonialisms glaring evils and troubled heritage  more than telling a captivating story. In that sense, its a worthy addition to a subgenre of period pieces that have been playing the festival circuit for some time now, as emerging filmmakers confront historic traumas with both horror and fascination.

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Kuwaits censors have banned Australian horror hit Talk to Me over its inclusion of star Zoe Terakes because they identify as transmasculine and nonbinary.

While it is not unusual for Kuwait to bar media featuring LGBTQ+ themes and references, this marks the first time a film has been singled out for one actors gender identity. More alarming is that this is never actually addressed or even referenced in the movie.

The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news over the weekend. Terakes put out their own statement on the matter, saying, This isnt the first film Kuwait has banned. If there are queer or trans themes or scenes in your film, its probably not gonna make it to the Gulf. Which is devastating and terrifying in its own right. But our film doesnt have queer themes. Our film doesnt actually ever mention my transness, or my queerness. I am a trans actor who happened to get the role. Im not a theme. Im a person. Kuwait has banned this film due to my identity alone. Reportedly, this is a first. This is a new precedent. It is targeted and dehumanizing and means to harm us.

Terakes goes on to express concern for the trans and queer people of Kuwait. They also encourage people to donate to the Rainbow Railroad organization, which provides help to at-risk queer and trans people.

Talk to Me Producers Issue Statement of Solidarity

Talk to Me producer Causeway Films and sales agents Bankside Films issued a joint statement on the ban and lent their support to Zoe Terakes.

We stand in solidarity with Zoe Terakes following the decision by Kuwait to ban the film Talk to Me, wrote Causeway and Bankside. Zoe has made their own statement, which we fully support, and we are immensely proud of their involvement in the film.

Talk to Me has been taking the movie world by storm, with success all over the world for the supernatural horror movie. Theres talk of a potential sequel, and the directors revealed they had already shot a prequel of sorts that features a bold change of direction.

The post Talk to Me Banned in Kuwait, Zoe Terakes Issues Statement appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Causeway Films, the producer of horror feature Talk to Me, and its sales agent Bankside Films have issued a joint statement in support of the films star Zoe Terakes. The move comes after The Hollywood Reporter on Friday broke the news that Talk to Me  which has become a box office smash around the world and a hit for A24 in the U.S.  had been banned by censors in Kuwait over the casting of Terakes, who identifies as nonbinary and trans masculine.

While many films have been banned in Kuwait for the inclusion of LGBT themes or references, this title is the first to be blocked from release over the gender identity of a castmember, something not referenced in the story, and could represent the start of a worrying trend going forward when it comes to LGBTQ talent.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

We stand in solidarity with Zoe Terakes following the decision by Kuwait to ban the film Talk to Me, said Causeway and Bankside. Zoe has made their own statement, which we fully support, and we are immensely proud of their involvement in the film.

Over the weekend, Terakes wrote a lengthy and emotional statement about the situation on their Instagram account and on X.

I am a trans actor who happened to get the role. Im not a theme. Im a person. Kuwait has banned this film due to my identity alone, they wrote. It is targeted and dehumanizing and means to harm us.

They added: As much as it is very sad to be on the receiving end of this, what is even more heartbreaking is what this precedent means for the queer and trans people of Kuwait. Eliminating trans actors on screens will not eliminate trans people (as much as the government of Kuwait wishes it would) but it will eliminate a lot of hope. And hope is such a large part of how we live as marginalized people. Its how we learn to move through the hatred and the mistreatment and the violence.

See Terakes full statement below.

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Israeli-French telecoms and media mogul Patrick Drahi took the unusual step of directly addressing investors and analysts at a quarterly results call for Altice International on Monday in a bid to calm jitters over a corruption probe shaking its Portuguese subsidiary.

The move follows the arrest in Portugal on July 13 of long-time collaborator, Portuguese-French businessman Armando Pereira as part of an investigation into corruption, fiscal fraud and money laundering allegations.

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This was a shock and a big disappointment for me, Drahi told investors and analysts on Mondays call.

If the suspicions of the Portuguese tax authorities turn out to be true, I will feel betrayed. It means that a small group of individuals hid their actions and profited from some of our acquisitions, to the detriment of the group and my reputation, he continued.

The address marked Drahis first personal comments on the corruption probe as well his first direct address to investors since 2017.

Pereira was a co-founder of the larger Altice group, alongside controlling shareholder Drahi, and held a number of key posts at the telecoms conglomerate including managing director of its French telecom unit SFR.

His arrest followed a three-year investigation by Portugals Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) of the Public Prosecutors Office, in collaboration with the Tax Authority.

Dubbed Operation Picoas, in a reference to the location of Altices Portuguese HQ in Lisbon, it alleges that Pereira oversaw corrupt practices involving around 60 companies supplying services to Altice, which will have cost the Portuguese state and Altice millions of euros.

Pereira, who is now under house arrest, has denied the accusations via his lawyer Manuel Magalhaes e Silva.

The corruption probe has sent ripples across the larger Altice group, with Alexandre Fonseca, co-CEO in Europe and chairman of the board at Altice USA, who previously headed Altice Portugals operations, resigning within days of Pereiras arrest.

Altice International, which is one arm of the larger Altice holding, groups telecom companies Portugals Meo, Israels Hot and the Dominican Republics Altice DR as well as online advertising platform Teads.

Drahi also detailed Altices actions in response to the corruption allegations in Mondays call.

They include the commissioning of an independent investigation coordinated by international law firms Ropes & Gray and DLA Piper France as well as a small number of key legal representatives, managers and employees in Portugal and abroad being placed on leave while the investigation is conducted.

Drahi added that Altice had also suspended payment to the some 60 supply companies implicated in the Picoas investigation.

The telecoms tycoon and the Altice management team, including some country CEOs, are due to host further investor meetings in London and New York in September 2023.

In the meantime, Drahi is expected to make a further appearance on Tuesday (August 8) at the quarterly results call for Altice France, the French arm of the Altice which encompasses SFR, news channel BFM and Radio RMC.

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UPDATED 8/12, 5:28 p.m. ET: Three more people have been arrested on assault charges regarding the violent riverboat brawl at an Alabama waterfront, according to the Montgomery Police Department.

In addition to Richard Roberts, who turned himself in and was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, three others  Mary Todd, 21, Allen Todd, 23, Zachary Shipman, 25  turned themselves in and were also charged with one misdemeanor count of third-degree assault.

(Image via Montgomery Police Department)

Earlier this week, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said more charges are likely coming as investigations into the riverboat brawl continue.

See original story below.

The Montgomery Police Department has issued four active arrest warrants following the chaos that ensued at a waterfront on Saturday.

According to Alabama Local News, a brawl broke out between people at the waterfront, which the mayor has described as "an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred." Videos of the incident hint that the brawl broke out over a dispute regarding a parking space at the dock.

One clip, shared by a man named Josh Moon, showed the fight going down after a Black man in uniform spoke to a white man. Things got heated, and a shirtless white man appeared to strike the Black man in the head.

The confrontation got even bigger once more people got involved in an attempt to break up the scuffle. Other footage showed several people in handcuffs, while the Montgomery Police Department released a statement Saturday claiming that "several subjects had been detained and any charges are pending."

There's no word on what incited the brawl. However, Mayor Steven L. Reed issued a statement via social media stating justice will be served as warrants have been signed.

"Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job," Mayor Reed wrote. "Warrants have been signed and justice will be served. This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred."

He continued, "As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violent actions will be held accountable by our criminal Justice system."

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A knife-wielding man in his 20s went on a rampage in a department store in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province last week that killed one person and injured 13. The perpetrator plowed his car into a bus stop and chased after people who were fleeing for their lives and stabbed them. The victims were caught completely off guard. The indiscriminate attack occurred just two weeks after another knife-wielding man went on a rampage in Sillim-dong in southern Seoul and may have been inspired by that senseless atrocity. Last Friday another man in his 20s was arrested while wandering around the Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam carrying a knife, while a man in his 40s stabbed a high school teacher in Daejeon.

Scores of death threats have been posted online since the Silim-dong stabbing, which suggest the possibility of more copycat crimes occurring. A man in his 20s was arrested after posting a message threatening to kill 20 women in Silim-dong, and many teenage hoaxers have also been nabbed. The stabbing spree in Bundang was likely a copycat crime. The perpetrator drove his car onto a sidewalk in front of the department store, running over pedestrians, before going on a stabbing spree inside the mall, which is eerily reminiscent of the stabbings in Akihabara, Tokyo in 2008 that left seven people dead after the assailant rammed his vehicle into a crowd.

The perpetrator dropped out of school in 10th grade and was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. People suffering from that disorder experience difficulty forming relationships with other people and tend to become loners. He could have been influenced by the Silim-dong stabbings and the raft of death threats posted online. Stabbing sprees are difficult to prevent because they occur randomly and sporadically, but continued copycat crimes could cause great fear in Korean society. Police must swiftly locate people who post death threats online and deal with them firmly.
The New York Times has fired and is investigating Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf for allegedly using the papers funds to pay non-US journalists over the daily limit, a regulation that has caused conflict in the NYTs foreign bureaus, Semafor reported Monday.

Its the second time in five years that the paper has fired a Baghdad bureau chief, which has caused pushback from staff across the Middle East.

According to the report, Arraf was placed on leave earlier this year amid an investigation into her use of the NYTs funds for the Baghdad bureau. Decisions being examined in the investigation include payment of non-US journalists over the papers $150-a-day limit, a payment cap that has prompted complaints in foreign bureaus. Arraf, a respected veteran of Mideast reporting, privately denied that her spending as the Baghdad bureau chief was improper, according to Semafor.

The New York Times did not immediately respond to TheWraps request for comment.

Arraf joined the NYT in 2020, after working for CNNs Iraq bureau beginning in 1998. The veteran Middle East correspondent clashed with NYT management over the papers ordered cost-cutting, including firing some non-US staff employed by the bureau. According to Semafor, Arraf pushed back against the cuts, going as far to suggest that the paper may have violated local Iraqi law.

The NYT and Arraf are still negotiating the terms of her departure. According to reporting, several staff members who worked for the papers foreign bureaus have complained about the decision to place Arraf on leave.

This comes as almost every major US outlet has scaled back its presence in Iraq over the last few years. Baghdad was once one of the most coveted postings in foreign reporting, but since media attention has veered away from the countryso have the outlets that dictate its coverage.

The NYT, which once boasted over a 100-person Baghdad office, has now not had a bureau chief in place for a majority of 2023.

The move to cut costs from on-the-ground coverage from foreign bureaus is not surprising, as it tends to be expensive while only catering to a limited audience. Additionally, foreign conflict priority has shifted over the last few years with media attention being drawn to the war in Ukraine.

However, the removal of resources from Middle East reporting has left Iraqi and other Arab journalists who cover the region feeling left behind.

The NYTs Baghdad outpost has seen leadership difficulties as of late, with Arrafs predecessor, Margaret Coker, leaving the paper after an investigation concluded that she worked with the Iraqi government to bar Times journalist Rukmini Callimachi from entry.

The post The New York Times Fires Baghdad Bureau Chief for Overpaying Local Journalists appeared first on TheWrap.
A Ukrainian woman has been detained by Ukraines Security Service in connection with an apparent plot to attack President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the service said on Monday.

The woman, who is from Mykolaiv but was not publicly named, was being questioned, officials said. She had been part of a plot aimed at assassinating Zelenskyy during his visit last week to Mykolaiv, a southeastern city near the front, officials said.

PHOTO: An undated photo released by Ukraine's Security Services shows a woman, center, being detained by law enforcement after she was accused of plotting to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Ukraine's Security Services)

Law enforcement officials said she had been caught "red-handed" as she handed info to the Russians.

She allegedly was passing information on to Russian forces about Zelenskyy's location, including a full itinerary of the president's visit to the region. The Russians would have then ordered an airstrike to assassinate him, Ukrainian officials alleged.

Investigators learned of the woman's alleged plans ahead of the visit and Zelenskyy took additional security measures while in the area, security officials said.

The Ukrainian Security Service continued to document the criminal actions of the enemy accomplice in order to obtain new data about her Russian curators and the tasks received, officials said in a Monday statement written in Ukrainian.

PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks staff as he visits a military hospital in the town of Ochakov, in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine July 27, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters)

As investigators gathered additional info, they found that the woman had been locating Ukraines defense systems and ammunition warehouses throughout the Ochakov region, they said. She traveled to the region and photographed sites, officials said.

The woman had allegedly been planning to share that info with Russia for a new massive air strike in the region.

Zelenksyy said he was briefed on "the struggle against traitors in Ukraine" during his daily conference call with Ukrainian leaders on Monday.

ABC News' Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Woman arrested in plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
So here are 15 entry-level jobs you probably haven't considered but should:

1. "If you're interested in the medical field (nurse, respiratory, clinical lab, doctor, physician assistant, etc.), become either a phlebotomist or a certified nursing assistant. Many hospitals and clinics will train you on the job, and you make pretty decent money (at least $15 an hour at hospitals). This gives you a chance to decide if this is what you want to do."

Er Productions Limited / Getty Images

"If it is, GREAT! Many of these organizations have great tuition reimbursement programs and discounts for local colleges. Nursing (RN/LPN) can be done at a local community college, along with clinical laboratory technology, respiratory therapy, physical therapy assistant, etc.

"You can start with an associate degree and then get a bachelor's at a slower, more financially manageable pace with help from your employer. If you want to do the MD/PA route, you'll have INCREDIBLY valuable experience to take with you. If you keep your certification up while you're in school, you'll also have a guaranteed income if times get tight.

"If you don't want to continue on the patient care side, you can still leverage that into an HR, registration, non-patient-facing career and still make good money with great benefits."

buttercreamandsugarplums

2. "Another one you may not think of is hotel front desk agent. I started as one, and you touch every area of the hotel's operations. If you work in a larger hotel, you can make up to 10% of every upsell. In DC, front desk workers can make upward of $70,000 a year if they're good salespeople."

Disney Channel / Via Disney+

"Every general manager started or worked at the front desk. It's the greatest entry into a hotel career. I've personally been promoted three times in two years. If you have the ability and customer service skills, you can make tons, and it's an amazing field."

mroskosky1212

3. "Substitute teaching is an easy job to get, especially if you're in college and can only work part time."

"In Florida, Kelly Education requires an associate degree/60-plus credits and a clean background check and drug test. Technically I still work there, but I'm looking for a more permanent job now that I've graduated.

"But you can choose when you work and what schools and teachers you sub for. And the pay isn't terrible."

smokeyandvv

4. "I never see trades in this type of list. Most trades, you start as an apprentice and get paid while you learn. Some, like electricians and plumbers, pay extremely well."

"But even bricklayers make good money with very little training."

Uncommonly Jane

5. "Get a job at the post office. The first year is brutal; you work six-day (during the holidays, seven-day) weeks and 12-hour shifts, but the pay is very good, and anything over 40 hours is time and a half. The benefits are government-job level, so the best you can get in the US. Once you get your own route, it calms down and is a pretty good gig. It's union, so there are benefits and protection; you're not going to be fired for getting sick or injured."

Sony Pictures Releasing / Via youtube.com

"And unlike Amazon, they can't require you not to take breaks and ridiculous stuff like that. If you have the stamina and physical ability and can put up with the monotony of a sorting and delivery job, you can't beat a job with the post office.

"My uncle retired from the post office, and a good friend works there now. They both say it's not an easy job, but it can set you up in a good career and for early or reasonable retirement."

toastygod

6. "Payroll  if you have good data entry, attention to detail, and basic math skills. Plenty of opportunity to move up. Everyone has to get paid!"

tuffyrama

Prapass Pulsub / Getty Images

7. "Driving a school bus. I started driving four years ago. I worked my butt off doing extra field trips, helping cover routes, etc. Anything that was needed, I did. I'm now working in school transportation as a professional assistant and training for a supervisor position."

"We've had drivers work their way all the way from bus driver to executive director of transportation."

ashleyvictoriab

8. "With no college degree, I got a file clerk job at a law firm and worked my way up to legal assistant. I was there nine years, and it gave me the footing to jump into event production (the ability to work under pressure, communicate with clarity, and ensure that contracts are legit translated VERY well to events), and I love my life!"

Chelsea Neel

Goodboy Picture Co. / Getty Images

9. "If you work as a legal administrative professional or paralegal for the office of the general counsel in a corporation, you can transition easily to a contracts administrator. Contracts professionals (at least in the area I live) make a lot more than legal admins  you can easily be earning six figures within five to six years."

USA Network / Via youtube.com

"The work can be stressful (you're sometimes seen within the company as a roadblock for them being able to record revenue), but you perform a vital function of trying to mitigate risk, should things go awry during contract performance. Many companies also allow contract admins to work remote full time or part time."

typeo

10. "There's a shortage of certified court reporters right now. That's another way into the legal industry."

halfmanhalfshark

11. "I was able to start at a fashion company inputting their orders, and I ended up designing shoes for them in less than two years."

fabpunk30

20th Century Fox / Via youtube.com

12. "I clean houses, and honestly, its great. I get a workout and listen to music or a podcast. There's no coworker drama or office politics, I can choose who I want to clean for, and I work part-time hours but make the same amount I was making when I worked 40 hours a week at an office job."

lucyintheskywithdiamonds3985

13. "I work as a correctional officer at a federal prison. It's a very progressive prison where we try to help get the inmates back on their feet. We have programs for EVERYTHING  even programs to help inmates accept their sexuality and transitioning. Many of our jobs here are entry level."

"BTW, I believe private prisons should be banned. I work in a prison because I am trying to help make changes from the inside out."

pepper314

14. "Being a broker. Most big firms will pay for you to get your licenses in training, and you can grow into so many different areas of the business, even if you just start off in client services."

emilysorrells3

Nitat Termmee / Getty Images

15. And finally: "You can get in the door via the call center for most financial services companies. Look for where you service the financial advisers rather than the clients, as the financial advisers are held to a code of conduct and are generally grateful for someone to help them. You can then take a multitude of courses and be eligible for other, better jobs within a few years."

Blue green

Channel 4 / Via youtube.com

Which entry-level job do you think is severely underrated? Why? Share your answers in the comments!

Note: Some entries have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Looking for new horror movies to watch? August may not be the traditional month to get scary, but we're less than 100 days away from Halloween now, so let's get stuck into some nailbiters.

Happily, the best streaming services offer up a variety of must-see movies to choose from each month, including both brand-new films and older films that are just new to these particular streamers.

Highlights this month include Shudder dropping a new hotel-set slasher to compete with the best Shudder movies, Paramount Plus offering a brutal Western, and Prime Video offering a handful of excellent options. So get caught up on some of the year's creepiest outings with our picks of the top horror movies new to stream in August.

Saw

When: August 1

Where to stream it: Prime Video (US/Australia), Netflix (UK)

Just in time for the upcoming prequel-sequel, Saw X. While a great many horror series don't necessarily warrant a rewatch before the latest movie arrives, Saw is different. This first outing kicks off 20 years of storytelling, stitched together by retcons, and remains a solid piece of early 2000s horror cinema. Most of the movie takes place in a single location as two apparent strangers wake up to find themselves tied up with a dead body between them. James Wan directs from a script he co-wrote with Leigh Whannell, delivering a headscratcher that packs in twists galore and a still-shocking ending. Maybe time to acquaint yourself with our guide on how to watch the Saw movies?

Skinamarink

When: August 4

Where to stream it: Hulu (US), Shudder (UK/Australia)

There's a reason Skinamarink went viral following its Fantasia Fest debut. This microbudget horror hails from Canadian filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball and tells the simple tale of two siblings who wake in the night to discover their father is missing. Oh, and so are the doors and windows to their home. While its creepy premise warrants exploration, beware: this is an experimental mash  a shoegaze chiller with intentions of lulling you into a hypnotic state before unleashing some of the creepiest scenes last year. Further proof that you don't need stacks of cash to scare the bejeezus out of audiences.

Bones and All

When: August 8

Where to stream it: Prime Video

This is the second sublime horror movie directed by Call Me By Your Name filmmaker Luca Guadagnino. This follow-up to Suspiria confirms he's got the chops to handle genre storytelling with aplomb. Bones and All adapts the YA novel about two young lovers, Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell, adrift in an unending American landscape with a taste for human flesh. It carries the emotional heft of Guadagnino's more romantic works, and at times, its aesthetic feels plucked from 1970s cinema. But this love story is very much also a cannibal story, awash with plenty of grue and blood, and a creepy performance from Mark Rylance for the ages.

Enys Men

When: August 9

Where to stream it: Hulu (US), BFI Player (UK)

Keeping with the trend of muted horror offerings, Enys Men is an understated folk film that takes place off the English coast. Set in the days preceding May Day on an uninhabited Cornish island in 1973, it follows the experiences of a wildlife volunteer  simply called The Volunteer (Mary Woodvine) as she explores and tracks the growth of wildflowers. While it sounds rather quaint, this dreamy feature from Mark Jenkin (who crafted 2019's Bait) is anything but. Shot on 16mm as an attempt at capturing its epoch, perhaps, the film mesmerizes more than it shocks. When The Volunteer makes a sudden discovery, all bets are off between what is real and what is imaginary.

Cocaine Bear

When: August 15

Where to stream it: Prime Video

Of course, you might prefer an animal attack horror. Cocaine Bear is a B-movie that delivers exactly what you'd expect from its title. This surprisingly gory flick is loosely based on the true story of a bear that happens upon a stash of dumped cocaine in the woods and proceeds to ingest it. Everything else outside of that framework is pure fiction and Elizabeth Banks directs the hell out of it. Several story threads following an ensemble of kids, park rangers, drug runners, and cops all pull together in the Georgia forest. Alas, as the titular beast gets more coked-up, it takes its rage out on whomever crosses its path. One particularly inspired setpiece involves the bear attacking a moving ambulance that winds up with someone's cheek shredded against the tarmac. Pure Friday night fuel.

Bad Things

When: August 18

Where to stream it: Shudder

Comparisons to The Shining feature in almost every review of the movie following its debut at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. And is it any wonder, considering its premise? This creepy slasher follows four friends during a stay at a wintry abode who soon discover the place has horrific designs on them. Gayle Rankin leads this psychological pic as Ruthie, who invites her girlfriend and two of her best friends to stay at the hotel she inherited from her aunt. The vibe lifts from Kubrick's classic, an ominous sense of dread as the four women face ghosts  literal and figurative  in the walls of the abandoned lodge.

Organ Trail

When: August 24

Where to stream it: Paramount Plus (US/UK), Apple TV Plus/Prime Video (rent in Australia)

See what you did there, Organ Trail. Set in 1870 Montana this unflinching Western carries flecks of horror that make it a must-see for August  even if it takes some time for those components to kick in. Abigail (Zoe De Grand Maison) is discovered in the wilderness, bloodied but hanging on, surrounded by the bodies of her family. Her pledge to seek revenge on those responsible ignites a trek across the American west that's lensed beautifully by filmmaker Michael Patrick Jann (best known for mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous). Replete with sufficient slayings to make it a distinctly solid genre offering, Organ Trail might not match the shock of Bone Tomahawk but it's nevertheless a worthy watch.

Don't forget to check out lists of the best Prime Video movies for more from the service, which apparently is having a very horror-friendly month. And we've got guides to the best Netflix movies and best Max movies for those, too.
Price tags tell a story. When first introduced by retail pioneer John Wannamaker in the 1860s, price tags said as much about the value and worth of a product, relative to others in the store, as they did about the trustworthiness of the retailer. At that time, fixed pricing was unheard of, and haggling was still commonplace. Price tags kicked off an honest dialog between retailer and shopper, and as a result, business boomed.

Over time, price tags evolved to say much more. They came in different colors, drawing shoppers attention to the cool or new or discounted. They could literally show shoppers what the price of an item WAS, which appeared crossed out, and what the price was NOW. And as the industry advanced, they came to include bar codes and other data that conveyed as much to retailers themselves, like where to find stock in the warehouse, as they did to shoppers. Today, discerning what a price tag is trying to say (like that a 4 at the end of a Target price tag signals a final clearance price) has spurred a cottage industry of online interpreters.

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One hundred and sixty years later, the ambient Internet of Things (IoT) is the humble-yet-powerful, high-tech successor to Wannamakers industry-changing invention, allowing products to communicate all the time, and in much more detail. Using a tiny, ultra-low-cost compute device ambient IoT Pixels  affixed to products and packaging, everything in a store, warehouse, or distribution hub can tell its story. Not only can ambient IoT Pixels tell shoppers everything about a product, they can tell them everything about its production, like whether it was made or grown sustainably, and communicate the products real-time carbon footprint, based on how far it traveled, how it was handled, and more.

And it doesnt have to be a one-way conversation: By combining ambient IoT with generative AI, shoppers (and retailers, for that matter) can ask products anything they want. Like questions about the farms where food was grown or cotton was cultivated (in the case of shoppers), or to give a summation of a products supply chain journey (in the case of retailers), in order to identify any problems along the way.

But heres the most important way in which ambient IoT is the greatest advance since the price tag: Unlike price tags, ambient IoT Pixels know whats going on around them. They can sense and communicate where theyre located (on the retail floor or on a loading dock), what condition theyre in (too hot or too cold), and even what direction theyre heading (to the correct store, or somewhere else).

Retail companies are now benefiting from ambient IoT. Grocers track produce from farms to store shelves to ensure customers get the freshest food possible. Pharmacies track the location, temperature, and handling of crucial vaccines and medications, leading to healthier outcomes.

Wannamaker would be impressed.

Ambient IoT permeates retail

Ambient IoT marks the next step in development of the Internet of Things. For too long, the IoT has been an Internet of Expensive Things (smart appliances, cars, speakers) but with ambient IoT, everything  trillions of things  can be on the network, communicating their status and giving retailers visibility into the opaque corners of supply chains, manufacturing, distribution, and even consumption.

For example, when a pair of jeans connects to the cloud via ambient IoT (with permission of the owner), a brand can know how often theyre worn and doesnt have to guess which fashion line is most popular. And it can use the ambient IoT to communicate information back to the consumer about the jeans authenticity.

In the food chain, supermarkets can be alerted if temperature-sensitive produce, meat, or dairy have been left out or transported under sub-optimal conditions.

This is because with ambient IoT, sensors, compute power, and connectivity are all around us. Ambient IoT forms the fabric of the physical retail world, connecting it with the digital through several technologies: inexpensive, stamp-sized compute devices (the ambient IoT pixels); standards-based, Bluetooth wireless communications; and self-generating power supplies that harvest radio energy, so no batteries are required. All of this drastically reduces  by a factor of 100X  the infrastructure costs of electronically tagging and connecting products, packaging, pallets, and shipping containers by any other means.

Moreover, employees dont need to scan anything, virtually eliminating human error from inventory operations. Ambient IoT Pixels communicate via a vast mesh of existing wireless devices, such as smartphones and wireless access points, or though off-the-shelf, standardized routers installed in stores and throughout the supply chain.

Ultimately, ambient IoT can drastically reduce retail shrinkage, for example, because retailers know where all their inventory is. And it can be a boon to omnichannel sales because it eliminates any disconnect between e-commerce sites and physical stores. When a consumer buys online for pickup in a store (BOPIS), ambient IoT confirms the product is, in fact, available in the store, ensuring a positive costumer experience.

Ambient IoT: key to supply chain traceability

In fact, the retail applications of ambient IoT are many. Supply chain visibility all the way to the consumer opens the door to seamless, as a service delivery models. Its no longer the case that a smart refrigerator tries to determine if youre out of milk; the milk carton knows its almost empty and places an order.

Food retailers have already used ambient IoT to help eliminate waste in their supply chains, which is good for the retailer but also good for the planet. Plus, ambient IoT is critical to meeting a growing body of supply chain regulations, such as the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act, which requires traceability and reporting throughout the food chain.

In fact, traceability laws are poised to impact retailers worldwide across industries, from Californias Transparency in Supply Chains Act to the European Unions Supply Chain Act. In all these cases, ambient IoT offers the most comprehensive, cost-effective means of tracking products through the supply chain and gleaning their stories, like what theyre made of, where they came from, and whether theyre safe.

But retailers need to get started now to take advantage of ambient IoT. Some of the largest have begun creating the interoperable platforms necessary for pervasive ambient IoT in their supply chains and putting in place systems to interpret the vast stories their supply chains tell. Like in the 1860s, retail will never be the same.

Steve Statler is the chief marketing officer and ESG lead at Wiliot, the Internet of Things pioneer whose visibility platform is enabling trillions of things to gain intelligence.

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Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A woman in Arizona is charged with attempting to kill her husband by poisoning his coffee.

Melody Felicano Johnson, 39, was arraigned on Friday on charges of attempt to commit first-degree murder, attempt to commit aggravated assault-serious injury and adding poison or a harmful substance to food or drink, KVOA in Tucson reported.

Johnson pleaded not guilty. She is being held in Pima County Jail on a $250,000 bond, according to KOLD.

Roby Johnson, Melody Johnson's husband, alleges that he began noticing that his coffee tasted strange when he and his wife were stationed in Germany in March. Roby Johnson serves in the U.S. Air Force.

After a few weeks, he used pool testing strips to test the coffee and found that it contained high levels of chlorine.

Roby Johnson then installed hidden cameras to catch his wife putting something into his coffee, CNN reported.

In June the couple returned to Tucson in temporary housing. He set up cameras there as well. The footage allegedly captured her putting bleach into a container and pouring it into the coffee maker.

Roby Johnson shared the footage with the Tucson Police. He believes his wife was trying to kill him to collect "death benefits."

According to court documents, a complaint was filed against Melody Johnson on July 18. She has been assigned a public defender.
When I became a mother, there were a few things I knew for sure: changing diapers, the need to hold the babys head sturdy and burping right after a feeding. Since I was a Black mom with a little girl, I also knew that I was expected to keep her hair picture-perfect at all times.

But heres the thing about great cultural expectations  I did not possess the gift of styling my childs hair. Too many times I sent her to pre-school and elementary with crooked parts, lopsided afro-puffs, uneven French braids, and on the days I was really struggling, we did free hair: a cute afro and colorful headband. One look I did with confidence were flat twists, which I styled into a faux-mohawk and a row of two-strand twists for bangs.

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However, for the many years I was my daughters primary hairstylist, I noticed that while her body was growing healthy and strong, her hair wasnt. In fact, after washing and conditioning with the products Id use on my hair, I became hyperaware that her precious coils would pop off and break while detangling.

Her father, whos first generation Haitian American, often insisted that her hair needed lwil maskriti, a dark oil made from seeds of the castor plant that grow in Haiti. (Its commonly referred to as Haitian black castor oil). He swore that the Haitian women in his family regularly applied it to their scalp.

But I heard the opposite from my community of southern Black women, who had unlearned the ritual of greasing the scalp because the oil clogged the pores and prevented hair growth. To keep peace in the house, Id only use lwil maskriti as a hot oil treatment once a month. But I couldnt escape the reality. Our daughters hair wasnt growing past her chin and at 13, she started asking questions.

I needed a professional stylist with growing hands.

With Brooklyns thriving beauty businesses and large Caribbean community, I didnt look long before finding hair care stylists who could help me better understand why the treatments I gave my daughter were not working. The problem was me thinking we could follow the same Black hair care routines. Her braider, Bonnie Da Stylistt (nee Naya Smith) explained that Jillians 4C hair texture required some extra TLC.

According to the hair hub section of Carols Daughter, whose founder Lisa Price started her hair care business in her Brooklyn home 30 years ago, 4C means that the hair has tight, densely packed coils that are naturally the most prone to shrinkage, giving the hair a sponge-like texture. 4C curls can be extremely dry, brittle, and prone to breakage without the proper moisturizing routine. (This is the opposite of my hair, which is a mix of 3C and 3B.)

Next Smith asked me, was I using oils on her hair daily? I sheepishly said, No, because I was told that oils weigh down Black hair. Jillians hair doesnt have any weight to it. Only in its natural state does it seem thick, she educated me. Her hair needs products that will thicken her hair. Smith, who works with private clients in Clinton Hill, also warned me that youre not going to notice results if youre using more than one hair care line  everything should be the same. Have you heard of Kreyol Essence?

Have I? Kreyol Essence is the most widely available lwil maskriti in Brooklyn and I rushed out to pick up a bottle from Whole Foods on Third Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus. (Its also sold at Ulta Beauty and JCPenney nationwide). Still unclear of its true benefits, I called up Kreyol Essence founder Yve-Car Momperousse for a crash course. Heres how she explained it:

[Haitian] castor oil has up to 90 percent ricinoleic acid, which no other castor oil has. This means that instead of sitting on top of the skin, it goes deeper in, said Momperousse, who was born and raised in Flatbush. When its going down into the layers, the ricinoleic acid and fatty acids help to repair and also give sort of a pulsating effect, which is why it stimulates hair growth. Thats why Haitian castor oil, or black castor oil, is superior to general castor oils that you have.

Theres also the cultural connection with black castor oil to Haitians who not only use it for hair treatments, but also as a catch-all for body ailments. My grandmother, who still lives in Brooklyn, is 104 years old. Whenever shes having any pains, she tells you to go get that castor oil, laughed Momperousse, who now lives in Miami and regularly sources her castor oil from a farm cooperative in Haiti.

If there was a time I had dandruff or my hair was breaking or I just added color, whatever it was, my grandmother would sit me down and pull out her castor oil, she continued. Its truly a part of our culture and something that any Haitian person will have a memory about, which was the affirmation to start the business.

After having a better understanding of how Haitian black castor oil would provide adequate moisture for my daughters natural, coily texture, it was time for a wash, blowout and trim so that we could see her current hair length. I went to my personal hair stylist, Karen Walker, who operates a beauty salon in Little Caribbean (formerly Flatbush). I should share now that my daughter is tender-headed. One reason I did her hair myself was because shed squirm and fidget anytime a stylist would blow-dry or flat-iron her hair.

Karens serene studio and soft touch would be what my child needed. A lot of my clients tell me, Youre the only one who blow-dries my hair like this. Youre so gentle, everybody else is always tugging and pulling. Thats a misconception with Black hair: when its thick and full, its difficult to work with. Its actually not, it just takes more patience.

Thats exactly what Jillian needed  the time and care for her natural hair to thrive. Jillians braider recommended the following growth plan: keep her hair in a protective style for six weeks and a break for one week. Her go-to braid style is knotless individuals with purple ombre ends. This allows her versatility in styling (she is a teen) and its easy for her to wash and condition the braids herself. Her father and I alternate between oiling her scalp.

For her next hair break and trim, we tried the newly opened Soft salon at 472 Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant for a silk press blowout. Although one should never judge a salon by its exteriors, Softs minimalist aesthetics immediately stood out from the blocks dated business facades. Once inside, owner and lead stylist Paris Guy offered complimentary water, tea, wine and WiFi as she began prepping Jillian for her treatment. I felt I entered a chic, boutique salon in Manhattan and for Guy, thats exactly the feeling she wants her clients to have.

When I lived in Brooklyn, I stumbled upon TAMA Open Streets, she said, in reference to the arts, culture, food and music festival on Tompkins Avenue in the heart of Bed-Stuy. I told myself, Look how diverse this community is look at all of these people. Where do they go for a Dry Bar vibe if they want to get in and out? Where do they go if they want something simple and somebody to take care of their hair? They have to leave the borough to find something like this.

Guy went back to her Brooklyn apartment, pulled out a white board and began building out a business plan based on her expertise as an Aveda-trained cosmetologist and then business manager for radio personality Angela Yee. There was a whole business renaissance happening in Bed-Stuy. There were 5 million coffee shops but wheres the niche hair salon? My friend owned a bakery on Bergen. Angela had two businesses. I said, I could be a part of this. I want it to be around my community, as well as provide what I felt was missing.

This was also the goal for celebrity hairstylist Ursula Stephen, who celebrates 10 years as the owner of Ursula Stephen The Salon at 66 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene. People have asked me so many times, Why Brooklyn? and for me, the answer is so clear. Why not Brooklyn?, said Stephen, whose clients include Natasha Lyonne, Ariana DeBose, Yara Shahidi, Storm Reid and Melissa Barrera.

Brooklyn chose me a long time ago, she said. We have a long relationship. I learned how to do hair in Brooklyn. I assisted in salons in Brooklyn, everything that has been important for me when it comes to hair [has happened] here.

For Stephen, tapping into her Grenadian heritage may be the next evolution of her hair care services. At the salon we offer personalized, steamed hydration treatments. We mix up a few things based on what we think you need for your hair type, she said. In Grenada, were known for our spices, like nutmeg, so that actually might be a good idea for me to look into. I havent tapped into it yet, but soon come.

Another celebrity stylist with Caribbean roots has found a home in Brooklyn for her first salon. Braider Xia Charles opened Braided New York at 39 Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights in 2021. Growing up in Tobago, where she graduated from the University of the West Indies with a BSC degree in law and economics with honors, Charles found extra income by braiding on the island and when she came to the U.S. after finishing her studies. I started braiding hair in my mothers kitchen and I guess you could say I was good at it, said Charles with a knowing smile. Her clientele grew and she eventually rented a two-bedroom apartment in Brownsville, where she officially launched her business and has become known for her knotless braiding style, innovative patterns and growing hands.

Its very humbling because were from the Caribbean and we dont like a lot of people in our hair, said Charles of the almost intuitive ways she cares for and styles hair. I build some level of comfort. My clients dont see breakage in their hair. They see that their hair is flourishing. Braids is a protective style, it is not supposed to damage your hair. Even when Im not available, the people who Ive taught, my clients feel comfortable going to them.

The reason Charles might not be available is because celebrity clients like Beyonce, Cardi B., Nia Long and influencers such as Julee Wilson and Lellies Santiago have her booked and busy. Still, she makes sure that anyone who walks into her Brooklyn salon feels as if they are A-list.

I treat your hair like if it was mine. I know how I want my hair treated, said Charles. Im first a client before I am a stylist. I put myself in their position. I try not to tug on their hair. I treat their hair with love.

Treating Black hair with love, thats the Brooklyn way.

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The case between Donna Traynor and the BBC in Northern Ireland and its director Adam Smyth was settled in June with no admission of liability

The BBC has paid a legal bill of more than 450,000 in high-profile disputes with two former employees.

The corporation disclosed the figures following a freedom of information request from the Belfast Telegraph.

Both cases, involving Donna Traynor and Lena Ferguson, were settled without any admission of liability.

BBC NI said that the legal expenditure was "only incurred to the extent that is necessary and after careful consideration".

The employment tribunal case between Ms Traynor and the BBC in Northern Ireland and its director Adam Smyth was settled in June with no admission of liability.

Ms Traynor, a former BBC Newsline presenter, had claimed she was discriminated against on the basis of age, sex and disability.

In an agreed joint statement following the settlement, Ms Traynor acknowledged "the BBC and Adam Smyth continue to refute strongly all the allegations made against them".

Later in June, Ms Ferguson, who had sued the BBC over alleged bullying, also settled her case.

Ms Ferguson was an experienced journalist who had worked on the Spotlight programme for BBC Northern Ireland.

The BBC paid Ms Ferguson's legal costs as part of agreed terms, which involved no admission of liability.

The financial terms of the settlements in both cases were undisclosed.

The Belfast Telegraph subsequently submitted a freedom of information (FoI) request to BBC Northern Ireland asking for the BBC's legal costs in both cases.

In response, the BBC provided "the fees incurred on legal advice and counsel fees which have been invoiced to and paid by the BBC to date" for both Ms Traynor's and Ms Ferguson's cases.

The figures also included "amounts which have been invoiced but not yet verified and paid," according to the BBC response, and do not include VAT.

In Ms Traynor's case, the BBC said the total legal costs it incurred in respect of claims in both the Industrial Tribunal and High Court were 256,231.

Those costs were incurred between April 2020 and the date of the Belfast Telegraph's FoI request on 16 June 2023.

In Ms Ferguson's case, the BBC said that the legal costs it had incurred since April 2020 to the date of the FoI request were 207,884.

That meant the BBC's total legal bill to date for the two cases came to 464,115.

In a statement, a BBC spokesperson said that the corporation was "committed to resolving employee relations issues without external legal support, whenever that is possible".

"When legal actions are initiated by others against the BBC or important considerations of law are engaged, we may decide to draw on external legal advice and representation to ensure that the BBC's position is properly protected," they added.

"Such expenditure is only incurred to the extent that is necessary and after careful consideration.

"It may also, in a local context, reflect the requirements of Northern Irish law and the absence of in-house legal expertise in this area."
Celebrate National Farmers Market Week by visiting the Shreveport Farmers Market on Saturday, Aug. 12, to shop from local farmers and vendors. Mayor Tom Arceneaux has proclaimed the day to be "Shreveport Farmers Market Day."

National Farmers Market Week is an annual celebration of farmers markets proclaimed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and coordinated by the Farmers Market Coalition. This year, the campaign is centered around the essential role that farmers market operators play, both in local food systems and in communities. For more than 50 years, farmers markets have influenced the way Americans eat, shop and connect to their food, their farmers and each another.

Mahaffey Farms at the Shreveport Farmers' Market Saturday morning, June 24, 2023, in downtown Shreveport.

The Shreveport Farmers' Market has been open for 37 consecutive summer seasons and currently hosts more than 75 farmers and vendors selling a variety of products, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, plants, honey, breads, pickles, jams and jellies, canned goods, seasonings, meats and more.

The Shreveport Farmers' Market also is USDA approved, which allows shoppers to use their Louisiana Purchase (SNAP) cards and receive a dollar-for-dollar match of up to $20 to use on SNAP-eligible items through the Greaux the Good program. Through these partnerships, area SNAP recipients will gain access to fresh, nutritious, local produce at the Shreveport Farmers' Market while boosting the local economy by shopping with local farmers, ranchers and artisans.

Saturday morning, June 24, 2023, at the Shreveport Farmers' Market in downtown Shreveport.

"Our farmers markets are changing the way we wat, shop, connect and more," said Ben Feldman, policy director of the Farmers Market Coalition. "Across the country, farmers markets are defining their role in our communities. Markets are designed in partnership with the people they serve and are a place where market operators, farmers, shoppers and neighbors can collaborate to meet the evolving needs of their community. Throughout National Farmers Market Week 2023, we will be highlighting the ways farmers markets are making change in communities nationwide."

The Shreveport Farmers' Market also is participating in the 15th annual America's Farmers Market Celebration presented by the American Farmland Trust and Farmers Market Coalition. You can show your support for the Shreveport Farmers' Market by voting for it to receive national recognition and cash prizes at the American Farmland Trust website.

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Meredith G. White is the arts and culture reporter for the Shreveport Times. You can find her on Facebook as Meredith G. White, on Instagram and Twitter as @meredithgwhite, and email her at mgwhite@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Celebrate National Farmers Market Week in downtown Shreveport


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Before starring in Peaky Blinders and Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy was just a young theater actor in Cork, Ireland. His part in the 1996 play Disco Pigs earned him a role in its 2001 film adaptationand Murphy's career ascended from there. Director Danny Boyle was so impressed by Disco Pigs that he gave Murphy the lead role in the post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later. Murphy then appeared in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which (at the time) became the all-time highest-grossing Irish independent film.

Later on, Murphy became one of Christopher Nolan's favorite returning actors, appearing in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, Dunkirk, and now, Oppenheimer. Throughout his career, the Irish actor has stayed clear of the celebrity scene, but his few interviews have revealed a keen sense of humor. "I haven't created any controversy," he once told The Sunday Times about how he purposely lives a life that keeps him out of the tabloids. "I don't sleep around. I don't go and fall down drunk."

Although Oppenheimer is by far one of Murphy's best performances, the following roundup consists of the actor's greatest roles, including Peaky Blinders, A Quiet Place Part II, and Sunshine. If you remain shocked by Oppenheimer, or are still waiting for the Peaky Binders film, this is the list for you.

Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer features Cillian Murphy's best performance so far. The film may have received the Barbenheimer box-office boost, but the Christopher Nolan-directed film's critical acclaim has proved it to be s a success on its own merits. Embodying one of history's most controversial figures, Murphy was so emaciated that he reportedly ate just "an almond every day."

In theaters

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Peaky Blinders

OK, so Peaky Blinders isn't a moviebut it's about to be! Before Oppennheimer, the British period crime drama was Murphy's most-famous gig. Murphy played gang leader Tommy Shelby for six season, with a movie on the way.

Watch on Netflix

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Batman Begins

Murphy brought us the first live-action appearance of the scientist Scarecrow in Batman Beginsthe first of Nolan's acclaimed Batman trilogy. Though the character returns in the much-lauded The Dark Knight, he features as the main villain in Begins.

Watch on Max

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28 Days Later

Waking up to an apocalypse is never a good feeling. The Walking Dead may have done it back in 2003, but 28 Days Later had Cillian Murphy exit a coma, only to be greeted by fast-moving, homicidal infected people. The Last of Us who?

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A Quiet Place Part II

Murphy joined A Quiet Place Part II as a survivor who lost his entire family to the creatures. At the time, he told Total Film that his character Emmett, "represents where the heart of the world lies right now," which is, "finally feeling like they've all given up."

Watch on Amazon Watch on AppleTV+ Watch on Paramount+

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Inception

Murphy plays Inception's main target, Robert Michael Fischer. Leonardo DiCaprio and his crew spend most of the entire film within Fischer's dreamscape, convincing him to destroy his father's company.

Watch on Amazon Watch on AppleTV+

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In Time

In Time depicts a future where time is the main currency, with people paying minutes and seconds for food, rent, and medicine. Run out of time and you die. When Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) receives an influx of cash, Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) is sent to investigate him.

Watch on Hulu

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Sunshine

Another Cillian Murphy role about a guy reckoning with the power of a massive bomb! Sunshine depicts a group of astronauts in the year 2057 who are on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying sun.

Watch on Amazon Watch on AppleTV+

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Disco Pigs

One of Murphy's earliest on-screen roles, Disco Pigs portrays two teenage friends who call each other "Pig" and "Runt" as they grow up together in Cork, Ireland. But everything changes when they turn 17 years old.

Watch on Tubi

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The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Another Murphy-led film about two brothers from Cork, The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an Irish Independence film that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Watch on Amazon

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Red Eye

In Red Eye, Murphy plays an airline flight's worst nightmare: an international assassin who calls himself Jackson Rippner. Can't be more obvious than that!

Watch on Amazon

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Dunkirk

In Dunkirkwhich marked yet another collaboration between Nolan and Murphythe actor plays a "Shivering Soldier," as the credits reveal, who is the catalyst for the crew's tension at sea.

Watch on Amazon Watch on AppleTV+ Watch on Netflix

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Tomasz Praga, the head of the Polish border guard, added that the Belarusian services had become "a criminal group that is masterminding illegal migration." "Of course, they are making huge profits from it," he told reporters.

"We're talking about an operation organized by the Russian and Belarusian secret services that is getting more and more intense," Polish Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told reporters.

Poland's government on Monday accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating another migration influx into the EU via the Polish border in order to destabilize the region.

During a previous border crisis, starting in the summer of 2021, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees -- mostly from the Middle East -- crossed or attempted to cross into Poland from neighboring Belarus.

At the time the West accused the Belarusian regime of orchestrating the influx with its ally Russia in a "hybrid" attack, a type of warfare using non-military tactics -- a charge Minsk denied.

Poland reacted then by setting up a no-access zone at the border, which lasted for nine months and banned non-residents including migrants, aid workers and media from the area.

It also sent thousands of troops and police officers to reinforce border guard patrols at the height of the crisis, built a steel wall along the border and approved a law allowing migrants to be forced back into Belarus. Wasik said the situation "is not as chaotic today as it was two years ago."

According to Praga, 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus so far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022. Last month alone, more than 4,000 migrants tried to cross the border. In response, the border guard on Monday called on the defense ministry to send 1,000 additional troops to the border.
On this day in history, August 7, 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki raft make it to Polynesia

Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew arrived in Polynesia after 101 days at sea aboard the Kon-Tiki raft on this day in history, August 7, 1947.

Hyderdahl, along with five crewmen (and one parrot), left Callao, Peru, aboard the Kon-Tiki, a balsawood raft, on April 28, 1947.

Heyerdahl was attempting to prove that it was possible the Polynesian islands were settled in part by people indigenous to South America, said the Kon-Tiki Museum's website.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, AUGUST 6, 1911, TV SITCOM STAR LUCILLE BAR IS BORN

Inspired partly by the story of "Kon-Tiki Viracocha," an Incan creation myth claiming that the deity Viracocha had left Peru on a raft, heading west, Heyerdahl was ridiculed when he presented his ideas to other anthropologists in 1946.

"They gave him the cold shoulder," the Kon-Tiki Museum SAID. Herbert Spinden, an anthropologist, even said, "Sure, see how far you get yourself sailing from Peru to the South Pacific on a balsa raft!"

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Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl seen here with a model of the balsa raft, Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki and its crew arrived in Polynesia on August 7, 1947, after 101 days at sea.

Up for the challenge and confident in his theory, Heyerdahl began assembling a crew  and a raft.

Despite the risks inherent with crossing the Pacific Ocean in a raft constructed out of balsa wood, finding a qualified crew was "relatively easy," said the museum.

FIRST MEN ON THE MOON, A UNIQUE AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT, STILL AMAZES US TODAY

Heyerdahl was joined on the expedition by fellow Norwegians Knut Haugland, Erik Hesselberg, Torstein Raaby and Herman Watzinger, and Swede Bengt Danielsson.

"Thors criteria in choosing crew members were that they all possess[ed] unwavering courage as well as one unique qualification, indispensable for the expedition," said the museum.

Only Hesselberg, a childhood friend of Heyerdahl's who served as the Kon-Tiki's navigator, had any maritime experience.

The Kon-Tiki raft, seen above, proved to be an excellent seaworthy vessel, said Heyerdahl in his log.

The crew traveled together to Ecuador to get wood to build the raft, then to Peru to actually build it.

While any ancient indigenous Peruvian who would have made the journey to Polynesia would have done so without supplies such as sunscreen, radios and sleeping bags, the Kon-Tiki was well-equipped for its voyage.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JAN. 11, 1935, AMELIA EARHART IS FIRST AVIATOR TO FLY SOLO FROM HAWAII TO CALIFORNIA

Using his personal contacts with the American military, Heyerdahl "was able to obtain everything from sleeping bags, field rations, suntan lotion and canned goods, to navigational instruments and radio equipment," said the museum.

Despite naysayers who said the attempt to float across the ocean in a primitive raft would be "pure suicide," Heyerdahl and his crew forged on with their plan to see if his theory were possible.

Heyerdahl documented his expedition in the book "Kon-Tiki," which was also the name of an Academy Award-winning documentary on the trip.

Although the crew made it to Polynesia, the journey was not all smooth sailing.

Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki experienced "rogue waves" during the voyage  and the parrot did not survive the trip.

The raft, along with objects from Heyerdahl's various other expeditions, can now be viewed today at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.

Heyerdahl documented his voyage in the best-selling book "Kon-Tiki" and in the 1950 documentary film of the same name.

That film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for 1951.

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In 2012, "Kon-Tiki," a dramatized retelling of the Kon-Tiki expedition starring Pal Sverre Hagen as Heyerdahl, was released in theaters.

The film was a commercial success in Norway and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, said IMDB.

Heyerdahl died in 2002 at age 87.

In 2016, an attempt to recreate the Kon-Tiki expedition had to be prematurely aborted and the crew rescued after unfavorable weather conditions.
The airline is amping up its service to destinations like St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Guatemala, San Jose, Liberia, San Juan, Cancun, Punta Cana, and Montego Bay.

Kryssia Campos/Getty Images

Delta Air Lines is adding 30 percent more capacity to Latin America and the Caribbean next winter with more flights to popular destinations from Costa Rica to San Juan.

The airline will plan to fly more than 1,000 weekly flights to Latin America and the Caribbean next year, announced on Friday.This will be in the form of added seasonal frequencies on Saturdays to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Guatemala, San Jose, Liberia, San Juan, Cancun, Punta Cana, and Montego Bay.



The added routes will all launch on Jan. 13, 2024, from Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Boston. Each of these flights will include the airlines first class cabin, Delta Comfort+, and the airlines Main Cabin.

With the additional frequencies, Delta will fly from Atlanta to San Juan six times each day, for example, from New York to Cancun three times each day, and twice each day from Minneapolis to Punta Cana, Montego Bay, and San Juan.

Kryssia Campos/Getty Images

Delta said in a statement the new routes will create a crucial gateway to the U.S. for customers, providing them with seamless onward connections to as many as 100 U.S. cities through Delta's largest hub in Atlanta.

In addition, Delta will add an extra seasonally-operated flight from Seattle to Cancun on Fridays with a return trip on Saturdays starting Dec. 22.

The new flights come on the heels of Deltas plans to add more flights to Colombia starting this fall in partnership with LATAM Airlines. It also comes months after the airline announced plans to increase its flight capacity to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean in time for the holiday season this year as well as add a new flight between New Yorks LaGuardia Airport and Nassau, Bahamas.

And in December, the airline will resume flying to the Caribbean island of Curacao for the first time in more than a decade.

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A 35-year-old mom in Indiana died after drinking too much water.

Her family members say she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes.

Doctors stress that water poisoning is possible, yet rare, and explain the circumstances under which drinking too much water could be fatal.

An Indiana mom of two died after her family says she developed water toxicity from drinking too much water.

Devon Miller told WRTV Indianapolis that his sister Ashley Summers was on a boat with her husband and two daughters and felt like she was dehydrated. The 35-year-old reportedly complained of having a headache and feeling lightheaded. So, she drank a lot of water in a short period of time.

Someone said she drank four bottles of water in 20 minutes, Miller said. 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.

Summers went home after her boating trip, but passed out in her garageand never regained consciousness. She was taken to the hospital where she died from what the family was told was water toxicity.

It was a shock to all of us. When they first started talking about water toxicity. It was like, this is a thing? Miller said.

While it doesnt happen often, doctors say that water toxicity is real. Heres what you need to know about this scaryand sometimes fatalcondition.

What is water toxicity?

Water toxicity actually goes by several nameshyponatremia, water intoxication, water poisoning, and overhydration.

The big challenge with water toxicity is its impact on levels of sodium, one of your bodys key electrolytes, says Russ Kino, M.D., an emergency medicine physician and medical director of the Weingart Foundation Emergency Department at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Sodium helps your nerves, muscles, and other body tissues work properly, and its important for maintaining your blood pressure, the U.S. National Library of Medicine explains.

What are symptoms of water toxicity?

If you drink too much water too rapidly, you dilute the electrolytes in your blood and, in particular, the sodium, Dr. Kino explains. That leads to the movement of water into cells in your brain, and your brain swells up. This swelling can cause major problem with your brain, he says.

That can lead to a slew of potential symptoms, the Cleveland Clinic says, including:

Muscle cramps or weakness

Nausea and vomiting

Low energy

Headache

Altered mental status

In severe cases, water toxicity can lead to seizures, coma, and death, says Edward W. Boyer, M.D., Ph.D., an emergency medicine physician specializing in medical toxicology, at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

How much water does it take to cause toxicity?

This is a little tricky to figure out. Theres no rule of thumb, other than listen to your body, Dr. Boyer says. If youre not thirsty, you usually dont need to drink more fluids.

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends that women aim to take in 11.5 cups of fluids from food and water a day, and that men should strive for 15.5 cups. However, you may need to take in a little more than usual if its a hot day or if youre sweating a lot, Dr. Boyer says.

Boyer continues that factors like your body size, whether you tend to sweat a lot, the level of activity youre doing, and humidity levels can all be variables. But your body is pretty good at telling you when you need more wateryoull get thirsty, he says.

Dr. Kino stresses the importance of listening to your body. Be mindful of how much youre drinking and drink until youre satisfied, he says. Then stop. Dont try to overcompensate.

What causes water toxicity?

Water toxicity is usually caused from taking in too much water, Dr. Kino says. However, the Cleveland Clinic points out that, less commonly, you can lose too much sodium from your body, leading to hyponatremia. Those causes can include:

Taking diuretics . These can increase the amount of sodium you pee out.

Drinking too much alcohol . This can cause you to pee more and lose fluid from throwing up.

Having untreated diarrhea . This may lead to dehydration and lowered sodium levels.

Using certain medications. Some drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and carbamazepine (Tegretol) raise your risk of hyponatremia.

Dr. Boyer stresses that people shouldnt be scared to drink water for fear of getting water toxicity. Its a pretty rare event, he says. Still, Dr. Kino says its a good idea to be aware that this can happen. Your thirst is a good guidepay attention to it, he says.

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It's time to take your kitchen knowledge up a notch.

Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox

Rising grocery prices means most of us would like to preserve every single item bought at the grocery store or farmers market as long as possible. One way to do this is figuring out which foods, specifically fruits and vegetables, should not be stored together in order to extend shelf life.

If you've got kitchen organization down, it's time to consider what foods shouldn't be stored together. When it comes to food storage, it can be tricky to remember what is safe and what is not, especially when you're trying to stretch your grocery budget.







Expert

Molly Gordon is a chef and culinary expert in Charleston, South Carolina







Raw Meat/Poultry With Produce

When it comes to storing items in the refrigerator, it can be tricky figuring out where the best place to store items like raw meat or poultry, particularly if you're keeping them away from other food items. "Raw meat or poultry should never be stored alongside fresh vegetables or fresh fruit," Molly Gordon, a chef in in Charleston, South Carolina, tells Southern Living, adding that the best place to store raw meat is below any ready-to-eat foods to avoid contamination.

Mushrooms With Onions Or Garlic

Because mushrooms are categorized as a fungi, they are very porous. In the kitchen, this means they can (and will) absorb odors from nearby food. "If you store mushrooms near onions or garlic, your mushrooms are going to taste like onions and garlic," Gordon explains, adding mushrooms should be stored in a paper bag for best taste.

Spices

It may seem like common sense, but only spices should be stored in your spice cabinet. "Keep spices separate in a cool, dark cabinet," Gordon says. "I wouldn't recommend storing spices above your stove, because heat rises. You want to keep them cool and dry."

Ethylene Producers With Ethylene Sensitive Produce

Produce is one of the more expensive grocery items, so it's important to recognize what can be stored together and what cannot. Part of that is recognizing which food items are ethylene producers and which produce is ethylene sensitive.

"Things like avocados and apples exude ethylene gas," Gordon explains. "So you don't want to put apples next to lettuce, for example, because the ethylene gas is going to make the produce that it's sitting next to ripen super quickly."







What Is Ethylene?

Ethylene is a gas released by some fruits and vegetables that causes produce to ripen faster. Therefore, you do not want to store produce that is sensitive to ethylene with or near those that produce it.







Ethylene producing produce includes:

Avocados

Apples

Bananas

Peaches

Melons

Grapes

Pears

Tomatoes

Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox

Ethylene sensitive produce includes:

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Collard Greens

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Onions

Lemons

Lettuce

Peaches

Gordon says that consumers can sometimes use ethylene to their advantage. "It's great if you want to ripen things up super quickly," she says. "But if you don't, avoid putting sensitive produce next to ethylene producing produce."



Human Food With Other Supplies

Gordon says that it is important to keep human food stored away from anything meant for animals, or any non-food items, like cleaning supplies. "Anything that is not edible should not go into your cabinet," she says, adding that consumers should have a separate cabinet for non-edible items, like scented trash bags or dish soap. "I would also keep dog food away from animal food. Human consumption in one cabinet and everything else in another."

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.
My children are being raised by two parents who have a deep love for movies, and introducing our children to the films we love has been one of the most rewarding parts of parenting for me and my husband.

As our kids grow, we can show them movies with more complicated plots, interesting characters, and, at times, intense scenes. To help emotionally prepare them for what might scare them, we talk a lot about movie magic and what goes on behind the scenes to make scarier scenes effective. We are not showing them inappropriate material. Just media that pushes their sense of comfort a bit. Disneys Haunted Mansion, which I took my two oldest children to see in the theater, skirts that line.

Research suggests that thrillers, and even horror films, can help relieve anxiety by allowing the viewer to practice emotional regulation. Researchers at the National Library of Medicine found that horror fans were more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exposure to frightening fictions allow audiences to practice effective coping strategies that can be beneficial in real-world situations, they wrote.

Anecdotally, Ive found that watching scary movies helps put things in perspective. An upcoming deadline, or text from a boss that reads, We need to talk, doesnt seem nearly as terrifying after Ive watched Toni Colletes demise in Hereditary.

I want my children  now 11, 8 and 4  to have the emotional regulation skills they will need to navigate adulthood, and experts believe exposure to some scarier media can help. Shelli Dry, a pediatric occupational therapist, told Parents magazine, Healthy fear ... helps develop a little bit of resilience in the child because it lets them practice being scared and then recovering from being scared.

But my children are not ready for the horror-movie big leagues yet, even with their movie magic understanding. Ive experienced enough haunting images that have kept me up at night as a grown-up, and so Im not willing to expose my kids to anything that might stick with them beyond the final credits. We are only dipping our toes into the deeper, scarier end of the made-for-kids movie pool, which is where Haunted Mansion swims.

Haunted Mansion, rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and scary action, is based on the Disneyland ride of the same name. The movie features a mother, played by Rosario Dawson, and her son, played by Chase Dillon, who move into a haunted home in Louisiana and learn they cannot leave. They enlist the help of a priest, a disenchanted ghost hunter and a medium to help rid the house of ghosts and, of course, shenanigans ensue.

When I take my kids to movies made for their demographic, my standard for the cinema becomes entertaining enough. In a lifetime of consuming childrens movies, Ive seen maybe a handful that I would call really good  a few by Pixar and Paddington 2. Most are completely fine by my adult cinephile standards and terrific by my kids standards, which is great because thats who these movies are for. If they have a good time and I stay awake, its a win.

Its unrealistic, in my opinion, to expect a masterpiece from a movie based on a theme park ride (sorry, Pirates of the Caribbean fans), and Haunted Mansion is no masterpiece. There are plenty of flaws  obvious product placement, a run time 30 minutes too long, and a bizarre Jared Leto casting  but it was better than I expected, thanks in large part to the performances of LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish.

And Haunted Mansion accomplished what I hoped it would  scaring my two oldest kids just enough.

Related

Related

The scary moments are only jump-in-your-seat scares. One of the mansions haunts will flash on the screen and then disappear, a suit of armor will change position in a room between cuts, and a figure will briefly appear in a mirror. When the ghosts faces are revealed, they look more like muppets than deceased humans, and even the Hatbox Ghost  the movies supposed scariest villain  reads like a cartoon. Nine hundred and ninety-eight of the ghosts are friendly and just want to live their best lives in the mansion. One just wants to watch The Perfect Catch on TV.

Haunted Mansion is true to the beloved Disneyland ride, which never gets any scarier than the elongated walls and hanging silhouette of the mansion lobby.

What makes the scariest movies terrifying is their roots in plausibility. Family dramas slowly spin into supernatural terrors, home renovations unlock trapped demons, and women look for a place to stay, then meet their violent ends. We can all see ourselves in the beginning situations of these films, making their terrifying conclusions feel within the realm of possibility.

This is not the case with Haunted Mansion.

It begins with the premise that a mother and son move into a mansion they immediately recognize is haunted and spend the next 120 minutes trying to solve that problem with the help of supporting characters who provide laughs, some emotional depth, namely Stanfields character reckoning with the grief of losing his wife, and star power from Hollywood heavy-hitters Jamie Lee Curtis and Danny DeVito.

No part of the movie ever felt close to reality and thereby it created a safe space. Even the seance scenes, which often serve as the backdrop for the horror genres most intense terrors, are well-lit and full of jokes. The screenplay nods to supernatural forces, but never dabbles in the actual darkness of those forces.

As we left the theater, my daughter said, It was scary but not really scary. Which is exactly what I had hoped.
Every summer in Colorado, without fail, Id see someone hiking in flip flops. It was usually when I was hiking a 14er, one of Colorados 58 peaks above 14,000 feet that make up most of the highest mountains on the continent. Id have left the trailhead before sunrise to summit before noon and get back down below treeline in case afternoon thunderstorms decided to make an appearance.

By lunchtime, Id be striding down the last mile or two of the trail, feet getting a bit warm and tired in my hiking boots but otherwise feeling satisfied with my morning and ready for a slap up meal. Usually, Id pass a few groups of hikers heading up, definitely a bit late in the day, but not a problem if theyre not actually trying to summit, Id think to myself. And based on the choice of footwear of at least one member of the party, Id assume a summit was out of the question regardless of their intentions, since there was always that guy hiking in flip flops.

Among many mountain folks, hiking in flip flops has come to symbolize the clueless tourist, a flatlander thats traveled from some midwestern state, and heads up the first mountain they lay eyes on dressed as they would be for a trip to Walmart. I have no idea if these hikers actually were tourists  they might have been native Coloradans for all I know. But without fail, they were always struggling, unsteady on their feet and just not having a very good time, which is a shame when youre hiking in one of the most gorgeous mountain ranges in the world.

Now Im a big proponent of hiking safety  checking the weather, telling someone where you are going, carrying a map and compass  but Im also aware that the vast majority of folks hiking in flip flops get back to the trailhead without needing a helicopter or an ambulance. Statistically speaking anyway, youre more likely to just not get very far and have to turn back. But does that make it a good idea? Lets take a look at why flip flops arent a great idea for hiking, even when its hot out.

Low section of hiker sitting on mountain against cloudy sky

Can you go hiking in flip flops?

You can go hiking naked or dressed as a Yeti if you want to, but hiking in flip flops is a bad idea. Assuming were talking about your typical 20 dollar flip flops made from foam and plastic that you wear to the grocery store on a Sunday morning from April to November anyway, there are some important reasons not to wear flip flops, and its not just because the locals will laugh at you.

1. They offer no protection

First and foremost, flip flops dont provide your feet any protection. The soft soles make sure you feel every sharp rock under foot, and after four miles, that sensation gets really old. The open-toed design of flip flops also means no protection from stubbing your toes on tree roots and boulders, which isnt just painful, it can quite easily result in a broken toe.

At any time of year at high altitude, you can easily find yourself crossing snow or ice. Flip flops wont protect your skin from that coarse, grainy summer snow thats thawed and frozen thousands of times and shreds your skin as well as leaving you with cold feet, which can become a problem as you get higher in elevation and the air temperature cools (or if you get stranded due to a foot injury). You might also end up bushwhacking or hiking through long grass, and who knows what types of fanged critters might be lying in wait for a taste of your flesh.

Hiking Sucha Bela Hornadu Gorge streams and ladders in thongs

2. They have zero traction

Next up, if you dont already know, hiking shoes are built for the mountains because they have thick, grippy soles with deep lugs. These prevent you from slipping and sliding on mud and slick rock surfaces as well as those steep slopes covered in rolly pebbles. Step onto any of those surfaces in flip flops and chances are your shoe will instantly slide back, your foot will slide out of it and youll find yourself eating dirt. If youre really unlucky, you could end up like the flip flop wearing hiking who slipped 30 feet down a Utah waterfall. Hiking without slipping isnt just less annoying and a way to expend less energy, it also reduces your risk of falling and sustaining more serious injuries like a sprained ankle.

3. You have no ankle support

Speaking of sprained ankles, hiking boots and even shoes to a certain degree do arguably give your ankle a little support if you take a wrong step and roll your ankle. They're not a guarantee against an ankle injury, but combined with high side walls that let your foot sit nestled in your shoe, they do afford you some stability. In flip flops, theres no such support and if you go over on your ankle, you could be looking at a long limp out, or worse, a call to mountain rescue.

Young man hiking

4. They cause blisters

Finally, though hiking boots can definitely rub, flip flops are notorious for hot spots. This is down to the materials theyre made from, the fact that you dont wear them with hiking socks and the concentration of friction between the thong and the gap between your big toe and second toe. Sure, you might wear your flip flops all summer long with no rubbing whatsoever, but when you wear them for several miles, all the time gripping with your toes to try to keep your feet from sliding out, theres a better chance that youll soon experience rubbing and blisters in between your toes, and thats just a difficult spot to place a blister plaster.

sandals

Are there any advantages to hiking in flip flops?

Now in the interests of balance, there are a few reasons why you might want to wear flip flops for hiking and we do understand that. First off, theyre super lightweight compared to clumpy hiking boots, and theres no chance of getting blisters on your heels while wearing them. Theyre also super cool in hot weather and theres no hassle typing your laces at the trailhead. Flip flops can also be worn in the water, if your hike involves any swimming, though again they dont have much traction against slick rocks so wed caution you to consider water shoes instead if you plan to get wet.

So should you go hiking in flip flops? Well, I still advise against it, but there is an alternative that might help you fulfill your desires to air out your feet and get your toes in the dirt, so keep reading.

Best womens walking sandals

Are hiking sandals good for hiking?

If you tend to hike some place where its really hot in the summer, say Arizona, and the trails are always dry, you might be firm in your resolve against trapping your feet inside wool socks and heavy boots, and I can understand that to a certain degree (though synthetic socks and trail running shoes still seem like a better option).

If youre a flip flop devotee who wants to get out in the mountains, rather than risk having a miserable time, suffering flesh wounds or breaking an ankle, I highly recommend you look into a pair of hiking sandals instead.

Hiking sandals arent quite as open as flip flops, but they do let your feet breathe, you can wear them without socks (though you dont have to) and theyre lightweight as compared to regular boots and shoes. That said, a good pair will also be designed to afford your feet some good protection and best of all have thick soles with pretty decent traction. I personally own a pair of the Keen Newport H2 sandals and Ive been really impressed with how much grip I get, even on Scotlands muddy trails. These types of sandals are designed to let you walk properly, and theyre also waterproof, so theyre great for hikes that also involve wild swimming, river crossings or water sports.

In fact, you might come to like your hiking sandals so much that they replace your flip flops for beach days, summer vacations at the lake and trips to Walmart.
Italy's competition authority has settled a probe of Google focused on data portability after accepting commitments from the tech giant that look set to make it easier for users to take their data elsewhere, the AGCM said today.

The watchdog opened the investigation last summer, acting on a complaint by a local company which operates a direct marketing platform, called Weople. Its owner, Hoda, had complained Google's data portability offer -- aka Takeout -- is extremely complicated and discourages users from porting their data elsewhere.

The Italian company has a commercial reason to want to smooth the path of data portability since the Weople service works by encouraging users to port data from third parties, such as social media platforms and loyalty card schemes, in order to populate so-called virtual data deposit boxes.

Per an explainer on its website, data deposited in virtual spaces on the Weople platform is encrypted and tokenized -- a process Hoda claims renders personal data "anonymized" and "aggregated" -- in order that it can be repurposed for targeted marketing, including the sending of personalized offers, without users' personal data or identity being shared with advertisers. So Hoda is purporting to act as an identity-screening intermediary, albeit while processing user data itself.

The carrot offered to users to encourage them to share a copy of their data is a promise that they'll get cut in on any ad revenue. The FAQ suggests up to 90% of any revenue generated off the data is returned to users in passive earnings.

Given the dominant role Google plays in several online market, such as the market for general search, access to data it holds on users was seen by Hoda as important for the development of its business.

Back in 2019 it started by asking Google to improve interoperability mechanisms to make it easier for users to port their data into its platform. But its complaint to the AGCM said the tech giant rebuffed its asks -- pointing to its existing Takeout procedure as the only available route for porting data. Hence Hoda filing a formal complaint with the watchdog that Google was obstructing interoperability.

The regulatory oversight has now culminated in the AGCM accepting proposals from Google aimed at easing data portability.

Trio of commitments ahead of API

It's not a formal finding that Google broke competition law by impeding interoperability. But the Italian authority said it believes the three commitments offered by Google resolve competition concerns.

Two of the commitments supplement what Google already offers with Takeout, while a third relates to a new direct (service to service) data portability offering that Google will make available to third party operators in the future.

The AGCM's settlement decision provides more details of the commitments. One of which will see Google provide third parties with a URL they can embed in their own applications to help automate the Takeout process -- making it easier for users to select and export their data via Takeout by linking them directly to their Takeout profile where one or more categories of Google user data will have been pre-selected in line with the third party's preferences. A field for the frequency of data exports may also be pre-selected.

Google has also committed to make the data available as a single file in a standard machine-readable format via relevant cloud storage services. And Google users will receive a notification email once the down has finished -- containing a link to the cloud storage service where the export file is hosted so they can more easily share it with third parties of their choice.

A second commitment by Google will see it make more detailed documentation available to third parties regarding data fields related to users' web searches, Chrome browsing history and YouTube -- with the aim of making exported data more useful to third parties.

Under the third commitment, it has pledged to provide early access (i.e. for testing before official release) to a new service-to-service direct portability API it's developing. Per the AGCM, this API is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2024 but under the early adopter program commitment third parties will be able to start testing what Google has in the works at least six months ahead of the full release in the case of some of its services (such as Google Search and YouTube).

The AGCM document specifies October 2023 as the start date for the early access to the API.

The first two commitments run for five years from their implementation dates. The third commitment is binding until Google releases the direct data portability API. An independent monitoring trustee will be appointed to monitor Google's compliance.

In a press release announcing the settlement, the AGCM suggested the commitments from Google will see users benefiting by more easily being able to take their data elsewhere -- ahead of what it couched as a key development next year, when the tech giant is set to release an API to automate the data portability process.

Reached for comment on the settlement, A Google company spokeswoman sent us this statement:

People should be able to use their data with the services that they like best. For over a decade we have offered people the ability to take out and transfer their data from more than 70 Google products. We continue to make investments in Takeout, the Data Transfer Project, and data portability more broadly in a way that improves user experience while protecting user privacy and security. We are pleased that the AGCM have accepted our commitments in this matter.

Data portability and the EU's DMA

The commitments Google is making around data portability may have been extracted by the Italian watchdog but are likely to be linked to wider efforts to prepare its business for compliance with the pan-EU Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The regulation started to apply in May but designations are still pending and compliance for the first so-called "gatekeepers" won't kick in until next Spring. Although the ex ante competition reboot is widely expected to apply to Google's business in Europe.

The tech giant recently signalled it believes it operates at least one "core platform service" which will be regulated under the new regime.

The DMA applies a series of 'dos and don'ts' on the platform giants it applies to with the aim of rebalancing the competitive playing field online. Among these obligations is a requirement that gatekeepers support market contestability by enabling service switching (or multi-homing) via support for data portability linked to their core platform services.

Here's a chunk of a relevant recital from the DMA:

[E]nd users, as well as third parties authorised by an end user, should be granted effective and immediate access to the data they provided or that was generated through their activity on the relevant core platform services of the gatekeeper. The data should be received in a format that can be immediately and effectively accessed and used by the end user or the relevant third party authorised by the end user to which the data is ported. Gatekeepers should also ensure, by means of appropriate and high quality technical measures, such as application programming interfaces, that end users or third parties authorised by end users can freely port the data continuously and in real time. This should apply also to any other data at different levels of aggregation necessary to effectively enable such portability.

This suggests the API that Google is developing for direct data portability is likely to be part of its response to DMA compliance -- meaning it will be made available across the EU (at least). The Italian procedure thus looks like a stop-gap measure until the bloc's big digital competition reboot kicks in next Spring. But in that regard it offers a taster of more major changes coming down the pipe for the most powerful digital players early next year.
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
From secret bunkers to creepy messages under a layer of wallpaper, it seems as if everyone is finding the craziest (and coolest) things in their home. And, if you thought uncovering a sunken living room or indoor swimming pool was the ultimate too-weird-to-be-true, the internet just reminded us that a man found an entire city under his home back in 1963. (Yes, you read that correctly: A city.)

According to a popular Instagram account called History Photographed, back in the early 1960s, a Turkish man was chasing his chicken in his basement during a round of renovationsand found a hole that lead to a series of intricate tunnels and shelters up to 280 feet deep.

Upon further investigationand some serious excavation workthe area in question was identified as Derinkuyu, an underground city in Turkey that's large enough to house up to 20,000 people. While its origins are up for debatesome think it was built by the Hittes in 200 B.C., while others believe the Phrygians created it in 900 B.C.most historians agree that Derinkuyu was used as hiding place from enemies and conquerers. Regardless of who built it, it's worth noting that the infrastructure is top-notch. As Atlas Obscura points out, none of the city's floors have ever collapsed. In fact, many believe that the early Christian dwellers who eventually inhabited Derinkuyu added modern upgrades including stables, churches, and dedicated places to make wine and olive oil. (You know, the essentials.)

It's been decades since Derinkuyu was excavatedtoday there are even public tours of the underground citybut it seems that the people who are just learning about it now would've had a very different approach to this discovery than the homeowner who shared his news with the archaeological authorities. "He should've kept quiet," one person wrote. "He would've had a great place to himself." "I wouldn't have told a soul," a second commenter added. "I would have spent my life loving that piece of ancient history in peace and quiet." Another person wished the owner had turned it into the ultimate bat cave. "So much potential," they added. A fourth commenter said that the owner should've listed it on Airbnband if he had, we would've booked a room so quickly!

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The EU is extremely concerned about the military coup staged in Niger, considered the Wests last ally in the Sahel region, which is ravaged by the rise of extremism. The president, Mohamed Bazoum, ousted by a group of high-ranking military officials, is still being held by members of his security guard, according to EU sources. There are growing fears that Niger, a country of 25 million inhabitants, will now join the countries in the region governed by military juntas, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, in an environment of autocrats supported either directly or indirectly by the Kremlin. In addition to the humanitarian crisis and instability facing a nation that has endured years of extremist violence, Brussels fears that Russia will capitalize on the military uprising to extend its tentacles in the region and strengthen its influence in the Sahel, where the Wagner mercenary group is already operating, senior EU sources say.

What is happening in Niger is of interest to Russia, explains a diplomat who is well acquainted with the Sahel, where he has been stationed for several years. He does not believe that Moscow is behind the coup but believes there is now a window of opportunity open to Russia and signs of this have begun to show. On Thursday, the military junta revoked military cooperation agreements with France and moved closer to the regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Conakry. It has also moved closer to Russia, whose flag was on display at demonstrations in Niamey. Meanwhile, international pressure is mounting urging the junta to restore constitutional order, with an ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) expiring at midnight on Sunday. The organization has already slapped sanctions on Niger and has discussed a possible military intervention should democracy not be restored. The coup forces closed the countrys airspace minutes before the deadline passed.

Since his detention, President Bazoum himself issued warnings in a letter published by The Washington Post: The entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner group. Despite being under surveillance, the ousted leader maintains close and ongoing contact with some African and Western leaders, and with the highest levels of the EU institutions, notably with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. The head of EU diplomacy, after a meeting on Saturday with Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ataf, said that both shared the concern and the desire to avoid an escalation that would have serious consequences for an already fragile region.

The coup leaders motivations are primarily personal, in the context of a reform of the presidential guard that Bazoum apparently intended to carry out. The coup leaders, like General [Abdourahamane] Tchiani, primarily want to hold on to power, says French researcher Lauriane Devoize, from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) research institute. However, she then adds to the growing fears: In my view, Wagner is lying low and there is no doubt that the group will try to take advantage of the coup if it succeeds. The visit of the Nigerian general [Salifou] Mody to Bamako [Malis capital] could imply that the coup leaders want to follow in their neighbors footsteps. During that visit, the coup leaders reportedly sought Wagners help, the Associated Press reported Saturday, citing an analyst at the Soufan Center, a security and conflict think tank.

Niger is one of the poorest countries on the planet. However, under the ousted leader it pursued a program of modernization, including education for girls and a reduction in the birth rate, the highest in the world with an average of more than seven children per family. Until a few days ago, it had been singled out by Europe as one of the few nations in the region that had successfully resisted a coup attempt, in March 2021, two months before the coup in Mali, which began to shift the geopolitical landscape in the region. In addition, Niger had experienced a transition of power between two democratically elected presidents when the ousted Mohamed Bazoum succeeded Mahammadou Issoufou.

A demonstrator displays an image of the ousted Mohamed Bazoum at a protest against the military coup in Niger, during a demonstration in Paris on August 5. STEPHANIE LECOCQ (REUTERS)

Up until now, it has been a stable and reliable partner with which the Europeans have worked well, says Devoize. There was a strong desire in Brussels to maintain that status quo, as demonstrated by the visit of the high representative just two weeks before the coup. Niger possesses the worlds fourth-largest uranium reserves, it was the worlds seventh-largest producer in 2022 and it is a major supplier to France, where 70% of electricity is of nuclear origin. The country also has phosphate, gold, coal and oil resources. Additionally, the overthrown government collaborated in the containment of migration in the area. This is of vital importance for Europe, which is highly concerned and divided over the migratory flows that reach the Mediterranean through the Sahel. For the EU, if the coup is successful, it will have disastrous consequences for two key elements of cooperation with Niger: the fight against terrorism and the fight against migrant smuggling, adds the ECFR researcher.

The Kremlin has been flexing its muscles in Africa for years, where it has increased its arms sales deals and investments in vital raw materials, hydrocarbons, and precious minerals. It has also deployed Wagner mercenaries to protect Russian interests and allied leaders in the region. Russian paramilitaries are present in several African countries, but they are particularly active in the Central African Republic  a country now regarded as their stronghold  Mali, Sudan and Libya.

All this is in addition to the customary disinformation and influence campaigns through social networks, according to several investigations. Western intelligence is now looking into whether Russia launched targeted disinformation and destabilization campaigns in the weeks in the run-up to the coup. No evidence has been found so far, according to an intelligence officer from a European country. They have identified information campaigns coinciding with the coup and especially with the Russia-Africa summit held at the end of July in Saint Petersburg, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In this case, the data suggests that Moscow is acting more opportunistically, says the intelligence source  a view shared by a number of EU sources. The leader of Wagners mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has already offered his services to the perpetrators of the coup in Niger. Indeed, in recent days, one of the coup leaders traveled to Mali, where he met with Malian leaders and people connected to Wagner, according to intelligence sources. What happened in Niger has been simmering for years, Prigozhin said on one of the Telegram accounts.

The rebellion of Prigozhin and his henchmen against the Kremlin last June, which exposed the cracks in Putins regime, does not seem to have shaken one certainty  Russia needs its mercenaries and the businessman in Africa. Prigozhin was present in Saint Petersburg during the summit with around 15 African leaders  a diminished delegation since the last occasion two years ago  and he can be seen in photographs posted on Facebook together with one of the Central African regimes security chiefs.

On July 30, thousands of coup supporters took to the streets in Niamey, the nations capital, waving Russian flags and chanting pro-Kremlin slogans against France and colonialism. The coup instigators have also spread the false news that the French army is poised to intervene and reinstate President Bazoum, according to a senior EU source.

At present, Western countries have focused on evacuating their people. France has already returned more than a thousand French citizens and some 50 other foreign nationals, and Spain has repatriated around 50 Niger nationals. However, the EU police training and border protection mission and the humanitarian mission, which are considered essential personnel, will remain in the country, EU sources say.

Meanwhile, Ecowas has imposed sanctions on Niger and the EU has suspended direct budgetary aid as well as security cooperation. A destabilization of Niger would create serious security risks for its neighboring countries and beyond, in the Gulf of Guinea, and the primary beneficiaries will be jihadist groups. From a political point of view, if the coup is successful, there is a risk of a knock-on effect in other countries, hence the firm stand of Ecowas, since the credibility of the organization and the future of the region are at stake, both politically and with regard to security, says Devoize.

Turbulence on the southern flank, a rather undefined broad geographic, strategic and military construct encompassing North Africa, the Sahel and the Middle East, is also of great concern to NATO. At the Vilnius summit, the final declaration underlined the explosive mix of institutional fragility, climate change and proliferation of terrorist organizations, denouncing Russias action to fuel tensions and instability in these regions.

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The Manitowoc Breakwater Lighthouse sticks out from the muted grays in the skyline June 28 in Manitowoc.

MANITOWOC  The Manitowoc Breakwater Lighthouse is an oft-photographed and well-recognized beacon along the citys skyline on Lake Michigan.

But it's much more than a pretty photo op. And since Aug. 7 is National Lighthouse Day, we thought wed celebrate the treasured structure by shedding some light on Manitowocs recently restored contribution to Wisconsins maritime and lighthouse history.

Here are 10 things you may not have known about the lighthouse.

1. It's not Manitowoc's first lighthouse.

Manitowocs first lighthouse was established in 1839. In 1840, a brick structure located at the corner of Fifth and York streets was built on a hill near the mouth of the Manitowoc River.

2. The current lighthouse dates to 1918.

The Manitowoc lighthouse glows in the evening light, Saturday, July 9, 2022, in Manitowoc, Wis.

The current lighthouse was built in 1918 at the end of a long breakwater and was owned by the U.S. Coast Guard for many years.

3. The keepers did not live in the lighthouse.

Lighthouse keepers did not live in the structure. They lived in a brick house still owned by the Coast Guard on the shore. The building consisted of three apartments for the keepers, their families and assistants to live.

Manitowoc's roots: In 1836, three Chicago men braved winter along Lake Michigan to found a new village

4. Early keepers carried buckets of kerosene up and down the the stairs several times a day.

In the early years, the lighthouse lamp was lighted by kerosene and keepers carried the fuel in buckets down the breakwater and up the lighthouse stairs several times a day.

There was an elevated catwalk that led from the keeper's quarters to the lighthouse so men could get fuel to the lamp in winter when the breakwater was covered in ice.

5. The lighthouse is a five-story building.

The lighthouse starts with a basement, with an engine/motor room on the next story.

The third story is a watch room, the nicest room in the lighthouse, according to Paul Roekle of the Manitowoc Sunrise Rotary Club.

It has a table, chairs and desks, said Roekle, who runs tours of the lighthouse. It has beautiful wood floors.

The fourth floor houses the foghorn, and the top floor encases the lighthouse lens.

6. Automation led to abandonment and disrepair.

The light was automated in the 1970s and the lighthouse was abandoned. It fell into disrepair and was often vandalized.

7. A New York businessman now owns the lighthouse, fulfilling a childhood dream.

New York businessman Phil Carlucci bought the lighthouse in 2011 for $30,000 when he was the successful bidder after the U.S. Coast Guard put the structure on its excess list.

Carlucci spent $325,000 renovating the lighthouse, with the goal of opening it up to the public.

The Coast Guard still owns and maintains the working light. The project fits into Carluccis lifelong love of lighthouses.

One of my childhood dreams was to own a lighthouse, he said. Ive always enjoyed going to visit them, I was so glad to buy one and to be able to restore it and share it with the community.

SS Badger season ends early: SS Badger Lake Michigan Carferry ends 2023 season early after ramp damage in Ludington

8. The lighthouse still plays a key role in today's maritime economy.

The lighthouse continues to play a role in Manitowocs maritime economy, even as technology in ships makes the navigational light less necessary.

Companies such as Broadwind, Briess Malt & Ingredients and Eden Valders Stone continue to ship products out through Manitowocs port, Roekle noted.

9. Sunrise Rotary Club is the official Lighthouse Keeper.

The Manitowoc Sunrise Rotary Club is the recognized Lighthouse Keeper for the lighthouse.

The club's members check, clean and offer tours of the building.

They also work with sponsors and donors to raise funds to offer the tours and expand educational projects throughout the community.

10. Public tours of the lighthouse are offered on occasion or private tours can be arranged.

The building is occasionally open to the public, or you can schedule a private tour by visiting https://www.manitowocsunriserotary.org/page/lighthouse.

The Rotary Club is searching for photos of the building's interior from the early 1900s with hopes of restoring and furnishing the rooms with historical accuracy.

Got a tip, comment or question for reporter Patti Zarling? Contact her at pzarling@gannett.com or call 920-606-2575. Follow her on Twitter @PGPattiZarling.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc lighthouse: Is it open to the public? Did anyone live in it?
As part of the first nationwide See You at the Library Day on Saturday, families at the Salida Library were read books of godly virtue, according to the Escalon church that hosted the event.

Such story times reportedly were held across the nation Saturday in response to actor and filmmaker Kirk Cameron being denied story-hour slots at some public libraries for the reading of faith-based childrens books.

Cameron himself was at a story hour Saturday in Huntsville, Alabama, hosted by the group Moms for Liberty, according to Fox News. The previously scheduled event had been canceled purportedly due to capacity concerns, but on Friday, the library acquiesced, Fox reported.

The reading room at the Salida Library was filled to capacity with about 250 children and adults.

In addition to supporting the call by Camerons publisher Brave Books for a national movement for free speech, the Salida event clearly was an answer to the LGBTQ+ Rainbow Story Time held in June, which was Pride Month, at the same library.

A Heritage Church Facebook post promoting the event said, With the recent Woke agenda to indoctrinate our kids with LGBTQ stories, this is a great opportunity to share a story of bravery and standing for Truth with our kids. Please join us as Pastor Morgan reads one of Kirk Camerons childrens storybooks on National See You at the Library Day. This reading time is geared towards 6 to 12-year-olds, and we look forward to seeing you there.

According to Bee staff at the event, pastor Morgan Lawrence ended up not reading books by Cameron but rather a book about gender identity, Elephants are Not Birds, by Ashley St. Clair, and It Will Be Okay: Trusting God Through Fear and Change, by Lysa TerKeurst.

The story time also included songs and prayer, the Facebook post said.
Recognizing that young voters have recently turned out in high numbers, and in overwhelming support of Democrats, Republicans are ramping up efforts to suppress youth voting access ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

In Idaho, Republican governor Brad Little signed a bill that prohibits students from using a student ID card as a form of voter identification. In Ohio, out-of-state students could be impacted by a new bill that requires voter ID in the form of an unexpired in-state drivers license, state ID, passport, or military ID card.

And in Florida, Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed an election omnibus bill into law that restricts third-party voter registration organizations by requiring them to register with the state every election cycle, directly impacting many voter engagement groups that aim to increase youth and student voter participation. The bill also prohibits non-US citizens from handling voter registration applications for third-party groups. In July, a federal judge blocked this and another part of the new bill. The same bill also requires first-time voters without a social security number or state ID to vote in person, which voting rights advocates say could pose a challenge for some young voters in the Sunshine State.

Attempts by GOP lawmakers to change election laws come as prominent Republicans denounce on-campus voting options and resources that make voting easier for young people. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that elections lawyer Cleta Mitchell told a roomful of GOP donors that there needs to be tighter parameters around on-campus voting. And 2024 presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has even proposed the idea of raising the voting age to 25 for everyone except those who engage in civil service work or pass a test.

But while high-powered Republicans are trying their best to dissuade young people from going to the polls, students and youth vote organizers are pushing back. From legal action to robust volunteer programs and on-campus voting access education, young people across the country are signaling that theyll do whatever it takes to ensure that their votes are counted and their voices are heard.

Babe Vote, a youth voter engagement organization in Idaho, along with the League of Women Voters of Idaho, is suing the state over recent changes to election laws that prohibit using student IDs as a form of voter ID, arguing that those changes violate the state constitution, which guarantees all Idahoans the right to suffrage.

In March, Saumya Sarin, a 19-year-old youth vote organizer with Babe Vote, spoke at a press briefing about the groups lawsuit: Idaho should be focused on increasing turnout, especially among groups that have traditionally voted in lower numbers, like young people. We should not be making it harder for eligible voters to cast their ballots. It is unacceptable if one eligible voter is prevented from exercising his or her constitutional right to vote, she said at the time.

In a conversation with Teen Vogue, Sarin said, Democracy works best when citizens participate, and are active members, and its really, really important to make sure that citizens have that ability because voting is one of the rights that this country was founded on.

Under a new law, only tribal IDs, concealed-carry licenses, a passport or other federal photo ID, or an Idaho drivers license or ID card could be used to register to vote or cast a ballot. Sarin said she knows many students without passports who would have to obtain a form of identification, which is not always an easy process, especially without access to transportation. That process sets up a whole lot of barriers, she said.

Idaho has seen a major uptick in teen voter registration numbers since 2018. Data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts showed a remarkable 66% uptick in voter registrations for 18- to 19-year-olds between November 2018 and September 2022.

Not to say that Babe Vote was the only organization responsible for this, but I think we're really proud of how that has happened," Sarin said. "And we're excited to continue our efforts to make sure that young people and people who have other socioeconomic barriers to voting are able to vote and to get registered.

In Florida, Monica Bustinza, the Democracy Programs director for the youth civic engagement group Engage Miami, said groups looking to register Florida voters will see new barriers now that Florida has enacted its most recent election bill. Bustinza is particularly focused on a stipulation in the new law that requires third-party voter registration organizations to register with the state every election cycle. Bustinza worries that due to what she called this administrative obstacle third-party groups may be deterred from engaging in voter registration, resulting in fewer opportunities and options for individuals to register to vote, especially minority voters.

Bustinza believes third-party voter registration organizations are necessary in order to register as many young voters as possible in the state. Our government doesn't have the capacity to be on every campus and speak to every student, she told Teen Vogue. Why would you make it more difficult for us to be on college campuses and help register people to vote? That, for me, is like an attack on third-party voter registrations, but it's also an attack on potential voters themselves because who will motivate them?

But Engage Miami will continue its efforts to involve young voters in South Florida. It's just so important for us to be out there in the community, she added.

These restrictions aren't being passed in only a handful of states, nor do restrictive voting bills only target young people. Voting rights in many states across the country are under attack. The reason why [restrictive] voting rights laws are happening is Shelby v Holder, the Supreme Court case that really gutted the Voting Rights Act and changed the voting rights laws in this country and allows a state to pass these suppression measures, Rotimi Adeoye, a voting rights advocate and political strategist, told Teen Vogue, speaking broadly about the slate of restrictive voting laws across the country. According to the liberal Brennan Center for Justice, the 2013 Shelby v Holder decision eliminated an integral part of the Voting Rights Act that required areas with a history of racial discrimination to submit changes in election laws to the US Department of Justice or a federal court in Washington, DC, for review before they were enacted. That decision, Adeoye said, has led to the onslaught of voting rights attacks we've seen.

News about student voting access isnt all negative, however. While in many cases Republican-backed laws that put up barriers to student voting have passed, others have failed. In New Hampshire, Republicans proposed a bill that would have prevented out-of-state students (and students at private universities) from being able to register to vote in the state, but the bill didnt make it past committee. In Virginia, a Republican state lawmaker introduced a bill that would reverse the course on pre-voter registration (currently, teenagers can pre-register to vote at age 17 if they will be 18 by the time of the election). But that bill also died in committee. And in Texas, a Republican-backed bill to ban on-campus polling locations is stalled.

At the same time, Democratic governor-led states are making it easier for all citizens (including students and young people) to vote by expanding vote-by-mail policies and adding polling places on college campuses. Take New York, which added on-campus or near-campus polling locations last year for campuses with 300 or more registered voters last year, or Minnesota, which increased pre-voter registration this year for voters turning 18 ahead of an election.

When you look at the state of student voting access across the country, its as if its two distinct stories, said Mike Burns, national director of the nonpartisan Fair Elections Centers Campus Vote Project. He explained that during the pandemic, a number of states saw that when you meet voters where they are by allowing early voting and vote-by-mail options, the turnout increased. They passed laws to expand voter access.

On the other hand, Burns said, The really troubling concern is that there are a faction of states, driven largely by what seems to be partisanship, trying to restrict access to voting. He added that in a number of those states, we've seen a focus within that restriction targeting young people, and students in particular, as one of the groups they're singling out when they're figuring specific ways they can adjust the election laws to make it harder for those groups to access registration and voting.

Asked why students are being targeted by lawmakers who are looking to curtail their path to the ballot box, Burns said he believes its the result of the perceived progressive leaning of many young voters. I think there's a perception about the politics of young people and those partisan actors are attempting to restrict who gets to vote [so they can] stay in power without having to adjust their positions to meet the needs or demands of their communities, he said.

Since 2012, the Campus Vote Project has worked to expand access to student voting rights through efforts to institutionalize student voting by working directly with colleges and universities across the country. In recent years, this has included a fellowship program for student organizers and education on college campuses through campus voting guides in states across the country. As more states look to eliminate protocols that make voting easier for students, their efforts have become more challenging.

The thing that concerns me at the state level, and even federally, is that they might not pass the first time, but they dont go away, Burns said, about the myriad anti-student voting bills that have been proposed but not passed. Were highly concerned just to see a number of these ideas get proposed.

Dominique Mitchell, Campus Vote Projects National Historically Black College and University (HBCU) coordinator said the organizers she works with are aware that just because their state hasnt passed a restrictive law yet, doesnt mean it couldnt happen down the line. I do know that my administrators and my fellows at the campuses not in those states [with the restrictive laws] are very concerned about what's happening in Florida, and are like, If it can happen there, it can happen here, Mitchell told Teen Vogue.

Advocates are trying to keep students spirits up amid this ominous environment. Marley Fishburn, an intern with Campus Vote Project and a student at William & Mary, a public university in Virginia, described efforts to boost energy from students on her campus so theyre eager to vote not just in major election cycles, but also participate in local politics and elections. Even though you're only here for four yearsthe university isn't a bubble, Fishburn said. You're contributing to the economy here. You're using the transportation here. If youre living off-campus, you are a resident of this community, so [were] really establishing how important it is to vote in those local elections, she said.

As a student, Fishburn said she hasnt personally witnessed any barriers to student voting access. In fact, she said, William & Mary has one of the highest voter registration rates in the state, which she believes is due in part to the efforts of organizers like herself who have worked to educate students on campus about the potential impact of their votes.

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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The search continues for a beloved Maryland teacher who mysteriously vanished a week ago, as the community held a vigil praying for her safe return.

Mariame Toure Sylla, 60, was last seen near a park on July 29 around 8 p.m., the Greenbelt Police Department said.

PHOTO: In this photo released by the Greenbelt Police Department, Mariame Toure Syll is shown. (Greenbelt Police Department)

She is considered a critical missing person, police said. Officials told ABC Washington, D.C., affiliate WJLA that Sylla takes medication.

MORE: Missing Florida teen found after routine traffic stop in North Carolina: Police

Sylla is a teacher at Dora Kennedy French Immersion School in the Prince George's County school district, where she is known by her students as Madame Sylla.

"We hope and pray for Mariame Toure Sylla's safe return," Prince George's County Public Schools said on social media.

The search for the missing teacher has included Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt, where she was known to take walks.

PHOTO: A vigil for missing teacher Mariame Toure Sylla on Aug. 4, 2023. (WJLA)

During a vigil and prayer event held at the park on Friday, attendees spoke about Sylla's dedication to the community where she lives and teaches. One described her as a "really good woman" who "strived for a life of righteousness" and a veteran teacher who enjoyed her students.

PHOTO: A flyer is handed out at a vigil for missing teacher Mariame Toure Sylla on Aug. 4, 2023. (WJLA)

MORE: Arizona teen missing since 2019 found 'safe, happy and healthy' in small Montana town

Attendees canvassed the area and handed out flyers to spread the word about Sylla's disappearance. According to the flyer, the teacher also goes by Mariam Toure and was last seen walking around the Greenbelt neighborhood in a long dress and head scarf.

"We continue to follow all leads that have come in to us," Greenbelt Chief Richard Bowers said during the vigil. "We keep all of our possibilities open as to the cause of her disappearance."

Sylla was described by police as a Black woman who is approximately 5'5" and weighs 135 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Greenbelt Police Department at 301-474-7200.

Search continues for beloved teacher who went missing 1 week ago originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
What happens when new landowners fence off what the public long thought belonged to them?

The history of Americas West is marred by disputes over land ownershipif not all-out warsand so too will be its future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, well-off residents from California, Washington, and Texas sought their own slice of the mountains and moved to Montana in droves. For every 100 people that left the state in 2020, 372 moved in. As a result, many mountain town locals have felt a crowding and degradation of their public lands and waters.

In Montana, the state stream access law remains a bright spot. But public water hunters and anglers have found themselves increasingly at an impasse with the new, fast-growing population of riverfront landowners, thanks to the mass-wealth migration thats priced many multi-generation Westerners out of their hometowns. Cookie-cutter housing developments full of large, sleek abodes sprawl across valley floors in places like Gallatin County, eating up what was traditionally agricultural land nestled between vast mountain ranges. In March 2023, the median cost of a single-family home in Montanas wealthiest county was almost $700,000. (Thirteen months before that, it was $1.1 million.)

What follows is the story of how one small bit of river access on the outskirts of Bozeman disappeared after years of complaints and dispute between the public and new landowners from California. The impact of the closure is small; anyone with a map can find other access points to the Gallatin River just a few miles upstream and downstream, assuming the parking lots arent full. But this storys main characters say this is a cautionary tale for what the West could look like in the future. In other words: As more wealthy out-of-towners move in, locals will lose public access not through some dramatic showdown, but through slow, mind-numbing, bureaucratic processes.

Access Lost

Matt Treinen was searching the sky for mallards when his phone buzzed in his pocket. A restricted number made him wary of answering, but he picked up on impulse. It was a Gallatin County sheriffs deputy, telling Treinen he needed to come back to the access point he used that morning.

Treinen and his hunting buddy Jeremy Sarren left their guns and gear and waded a mile down Montanas Gallatin River. They took care to stay well below the high-water mark that divides private land from the public water. When the two hunters reached the access pointa worn path climbing the riverbank to a wide shoulder on a county roadthey found two deputies parked in a patrol car.

Treinen and Sarren showed the cops the exact route they had used to access the Gallatin River, how they navigated around new fences and No Trespassing signs that someone had installed on the shoulder of River Road. Deeming their route to the river legal, the deputies released the two hunters.

Wire fence blocks off the spot Treinen, Sarren, and others used to get to the river below.

But just 15 minutes later, as they were working their way back to their setup, Treinen got another call. The deputy told the hunters to come back.

The landowners who had recently purchased the property adjacent to the road and the river wanted to see trespassing tickets written, Treinen recalls the deputies explaining. These landowners were the same people who built the new fences and posted the access route. Even though the hunters felt certain they hadnt trespassed, they offered to go back upriver, collect their decoys, and leaveto let bygones be bygones, as Treinen puts it.

But the deputies told Treinen and Sarren theyd offered that same solution to the landowners, and the landowners werent satisfied. So after the two hunters and two deputies spent 45 minutes searching the Internet on their phones for clarity on Montanas stream access laws, the deputies gave up and wrote Treinen and Sarren trespassing citations.

Hell or High Water

In Montana, anyone can legally wade a river that cuts through private property under one condition: They cannot step above the high-water mark.

According to Montana law, the ordinary high-water mark is defined as:

...the line that water impresses on land by covering it for sufficient periods to cause physical characteristics that distinguish the area below the line from the area above it. Characteristics of the area below the line include, when appropriate, but are not limited to deprivation of the soil of substantially all terrestrial vegetation and destruction of its agricultural vegetative value.

As confusing as those few sentences are to the average person, a lot rides on that water line. It demarcates the liberal freedoms that hunters and anglers have in Montana. But interpreting the exact location of a rivers high-water mark isnt always easy. Plants grow and die, rocks tumble and settle, and erosion wears away at the bank.

Much depends on the facts of the situation. Sometimes its quite obvious where the high-water mark goes on a particular stream. But in other places, its just not that clear-cut, particularly where banks are steep, Montana attorney and stream access expert Jim Goetz tells Outdoor Life. Thats a difficult concept sometimes  [but] if the high-water mark moves, it moves, and the new place is the high-water mark, in my opinion.

The New Neighbors

That morning Treinen and Sarren were ticketed (Oct. 31, 2021) wasnt the first time Marc and Aurora Cohodes had called the sheriff to over folks accessing the river near their home. It wouldn't be the last, either.

Marc Cohodes has long been known as the "highest-profile short seller on Wall Street." He made $40,000 on the stock market by the time he was 16. He and Aurora, who are reportedly now divorced, own a farm and equestrian facility in northern California where Aurora manages a performance horse training operation. They bought the 84-acre property on River Roadjust across from Treinen and Sarrens favorite river accessin September 2020 from a multigenerational Montana ranching family that had coexisted with public hunters, anglers, and other recreationists for decades. The property was listed at $3.8 million at the time, and is currently valued at over $4.7 million. (Aurora confirmed she is no longer on the title to the property but would not comment further on the situation, and Marc's lawyer did not return requests for comment either.)

The Cohodes property boundary spanned both River Road and the Gallatin River and included a few acres across the river. Gallatin County has owned an easement on River Road since 1892, creating a 60-foot-wide public strip on the property where anyone can walk, drive, or park. Similarly, everything below the high-water mark of the Gallatin Riverwater, riverbed, and bankis public property. In places where the county road easement overlaps the Gallatins high-water mark, the public can legally leave the road and walk down the bank without setting foot on private dirt.

Locals have accessed the Gallatin River along this road for decades, and Treinen says that it has turned into a popular place. Hes seen construction workers eating lunch out there during weekdays, and friends getting together to drink beer and fish after work.

The Cohodeses and neighboring landowners tell different stories, according to emails, reports, and correspondences obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. Their experiences include alleged package theft, strangers ambling into their front yard, drug use, human defecation, garbage, and intimidation tactics. So the Cohodeses tried stopping the problem at the source. They hung No Trespassing signs near the traditional access points shortly after moving in. When the signs didnt work, they built fences. But the public access users, who genuinely believed they were allowed to access the river there, couldnt figure out if the Cohodeses were serious about enforcement or just trying to deter troublemakers.

Many locals continued using the access point, walking around the fences and even ripping them out of the ground. No Trespassing signs started disappearing from their posts. Meanwhile, the Cohodeses asked the county to close the road shoulder to public parking to discourage trespassing and to break up the long standing habits of many local drug users and dealers, according to a July 2021 letter to the Gallatin County commissioners Outdoor Life obtained from the Treinens. The county did not close the shoulder.

Two months later, Aurora emailed various county officials againthis time about moving the road easement [farther] away from the bank  allowing clear and obvious land between the easement and the bank for legitimate fencing along the entire stretch. She explained how it would provide us a clear path to eliminate trespassing and  would deter much of the activity we are hoping to eliminate. The county didnt move the easement, either.

Later in that same email, Aurora addressed Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer personally.

Sheriff Springer, we look forward to more visits from law enforcement and any help you can provide in creating a presence in our neighborhood. We would be happy to take an unused marked car and park it in our yard at any time. It will help us a great deal if we can keep the hostility down and our fences up [smiley emoji].

That same month, three surveying firms mapped the Cohodeses' land boundary, the high-water mark of the river, and the county road easement. The resulting map illustrated what onX and Gallatin County's interactive maps couldnt: that the road easement and the high-water mark did overlap and create public access in some places along the Cohodes property and didnt in others. Except the spots where access did exist, which were overgrown with dense brush and trees or too steep to climb down, were not the spots the public had been using for decades.

A detailed map from September 2021 shows where the county road and the river's high-water mark do and don't overlap. (These parcels are now controlled by new owners and no longer belong to the Cohodeses.)

But this map wasnt exactly made available to the recreating masses. It was buried in an application for a fence-building permit that the Cohodeses filed with the Gallatin Conservation District. (Their application was denied; they didnt need the permit because their fences were deemed legal, GCD tells Outdoor Life.) So while the public continued to believe that the old, worn path on the riverbank was a point of public access, the Cohodeses got the green light to complete the fencing project.

The Cohodeses called the sheriffs department at least 13 times in two years to report trespassing, suspicious activity, harassment, and drug use. They also approached public users multiple times on their own, informing them they were trespassing. They even filed a restraining order against an older man who liked to park along River Road in the morning and watch the sunrise over the river, according to complaints both the man and his son filed with the Gallatin County Road and Bridge Department.

River users filed seven other complaints over 16 months with the same department. They berated the rich Californians who were blocking their river access, specifically the lady in a black car who was extremely rude."

But the Cohodeses werent deterred.

We are on our third attempt at fencing our property, Aurora wrote on Oct. 21, 2022 to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, as well as the Gallatin County sheriffs department, conservation district, road and bridge department, and commissioner Zach Brown. We are in good faith attempting to reduce trespassing, which in turn [sic] reduces traffic, which in turn reduces nefarious activities as the druggies prefer to mix into a crowd.

The Way Things Used to Be

The Cohodeses bought the 84 acres on River Road from the Leadbetter family a few months after Dan Leadbetter died in February 2020. Dans son, Joel, was reluctant to discuss his parents ownership of the property because the Cohodeses sued him and other family members, along with the real estate agency named as the broker on the property listing, according to public records from the Gallatin District Court. (Neither Joel Leadbetter nor the Cohodeses would comment on the reason for the lawsuit.) But Joel did note that his parents had a track record of creating public access. On a previous property, the Leadbetters either donated or sold (Joel cant remember) part of their Madison River frontage to MFWP to create a public fishing access near the town of Ennis. On River Road, the locals got used to the Leadbetters pro-access attitude. But after his dads death, even Joel complained to the county about the mess going on at the access point, according to county records.

Changing the status quo has proven difficult for the Cohodeses. Their efforts have seemingly deterred some users from accessing the river, but others carry on without batting an eye.

I was told by a kindly but stubborn swimmer last week that he wont tear down my fencing but he will climb over and under it, Aurora wrote MFWP fisheries biologist Mike Duncan on Aug. 29, 2022. Not much I can do about that and I try not to get too excited about these kinds of visitors. Still, I must do what I can to deter trespassing, preserve our bank, and disrupt the drug activities and hostility along our road.

Gray Areas

Sherri Renck, another local who has fished and ridden her horses up and down the Gallatin River from the River Road access for 20 years, insists that the county and state are wrong in their assessment of where the high-water mark of the river is. She has a background in natural resources, and she filed two complaints with GCD after coming across the signs and fences.

At the time, I saw the fence starting to go in, Renck tells Outdoor Life. It was clearly intimidating, and it appeared that it was going to be a big problem for public access there.

Renck rides her horse up the path from the Gallatin River in May 2017.

Renck claimed that the fences were built below the high-water mark of the river, violating state law. This runs contrary to what MFWP reported upon investigating Rencks complaints, that the fence is fine and is nowhere near the high water mark and that the new sections have smooth cable that are relatively loose and allow for reasonable access, GCD tells Outdoor Life in an email. But Renck says that anyone familiar with Montana stream access would take one look at the fences and disagree.

I just shake my head, Renck says. This is black and white. Where they have put a fence in that stream bank and bed, they are violating the law. There is no gray area there.

The Future of River Road

This May, the Gallatin River was swollen with spring thaw. It roared next to the dirt road, drowning out the noises of the few vehicles that drove by. Maybe the days heavy rain was keeping people away, or maybe people just dont come around much anymore.

The Cohodes property has since been split among multiple new landowners. (The new landowner who controls the contested access point is a real estate development company.) This change in ownership was not reflected on Montanas cadastral map or popular digital mapping app onX at the time of publication. With new owners, theres hope that the dispute will dissolve over time.

Despite the years of contention and pushback from the public, from the surface, it looks like the Cohodeses never did anything illegal. According to the survey map from 2021, they built their fences on slivers of private land. Where that map says public access existed, there was no fence. There was no safe, reasonable way down to the water, either; especially not while it churned the color of melted chocolate. But despite its strength and volume, the water wasnt touching the fence posts. In fact, it wasnt even close. This winter was a snowy one and melt happened fast, thanks to abnormally high springtime temperatures. This was the highest the water would likely get this year.

But under the eye of the law, the duck hunters didnt do anything wrong either. Treinen and Sarren didnt end up getting convicted of trespassing. Their tickets were thrown out in court a few months after the incident. Treinen spent $3,000 on lawyer fees, which he says hed like to get back somehow to donate to a stream or land access organization.

Treinen returns to River Road a year after a morning duck hunt turned into a legal battle.

If you cant access [streams] from county roads, its going to really restrict the places where people can fish, hunt, and congregate, he says. This is a slippery slope in Montana. If we dont do something here where we do have some rights, people with big money are going to change our laws.

Read Next: 7 Sneaky Ways Landowners Block Access to Public Lands

Hes not wrong. Elsewhere in Montana, wealthy landowners push for land swap deals that give them exclusive access to public, elk-rich lowlands in exchange for nearly unreachable high country. MFWP holds that, at least in Montana, corner crossing is still unlawful. Here on River Road, the contention may cool with time, but future access is still unclear.

"I remember going in there with my husband after a family member had died," Renck says. "We rode up the river and fished. To have what we had taken away, its just heartbreaking.

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect that new owners now hold the property that was under dispute. Marc and Aurora Cohodes no longer own the contested stretch of land along River Road.
Songbirds start tuning up well before sunrise in the Austrian Alps. By the time light breaks over cragged peaks, a full chorus explodes in echoic rhapsodies loud enough to replace any alarm clock. The hills have come alive, you might say, but Ive been awake the whole time. Blame it on jet lag or, more likely, my long to-do list before the days agenda: a ride up the Grossglockner High Alpine Roadthe highest paved road in Europe.

Im in Austria to not only witness one of the worlds most unexpected gatheringsa group of over 300 Can-Am three-wheeler enthusiasts who attempt the so-called Grossglockner Challenge every yearbut also to join in on the fun. I'll be straddling one of these peculiar triangular motorcycle-automobile amalgamations for the very first time in a very specific place on a very singular occasion.

This year marks the Grossglockner Challenges tenth running, drawing solo riders and two-ups from far and wide across Europe. Pre-Challenge prizes announced at an evening dinner include the longest rides to actually attend the eventwith the top distance measuring a whopping 5,001 kilometers from the U.K. The highest odometer reading on any Can-Am present? Also impressive, at 143,000 kilometers.

Personally, I probably could've used a few thousands klicks to acclimate to the peculiarities of my new three-wheeled ride. Instead, I arrive in the Traunsee region south of Gmunden, about halfway between Munich and Vienna, then hop right onwearing full moto gear for the first loop, just in case. By the time the group caravans to the base of Grossglockner, I feel almost ready for a steep, tight, and technical Alpine sprint.

Michael Teo Van Runkle

Taking the High Road

Construction on Grossglockner High Alpine Road began on August 30, 1930. The ribbon of asphalt reaches two passes, at the highest point just over 2,500 meters in elevation (just over 8,200 feet). Our planned route traces 21 miles from a toll booth south of Zell Am See to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe visitor center.

As a testament to Can-Ams capabilities, that distance and almost 6,600 total vertical feet of climbing flies by surprisingly quickly. We buzz past cars, trying not to get too close to the brave cyclists enduring oxygen deprivation, and haul around the Grossglockner switchbacks at a pace I never thought the Spyders and Rykers could manage.

A few Porsches, Ferraris, and even a group of classic Alfa Romeos try to keep upbut the motorcyclists leave us done and dusted. These three-wheeled machines have a snowmobile chassis and use handlebars, but handle nothing like a motorcycle. There's no leaning or counter-steering required, though I find myself putting weight onto my inside foot trying to combat the strange centripetal sensation of turning without any tilt.

Related: Kickstart Your Year: The Best New Motorcycles of 2023

By the top of the first false summit, I find a flow and stop to snap a few pics of the snowy peaks all around. Then I cruise down a short few kilometers to F.A.T Mankei, a mountain hut that just reopened, serving espresso and sandwiches to the 900,000 or so tourists who visit the Grossglockner each year.

The restaurants charming, simple building also houses a F.A.T. International livery Porsche 962 that raced at Le Mans in a small atrium next doorand, of course, a few Porsches parked in the lot nearby.

Michael Teo Van Runkle

After re-upping my espresso buzz, I hop back on the Can-Am and blast farther up the hill towards a deep, dank tunnel that cuts a few vertical feet from the next saddle summit. A steep drop in elevation leads toward a visitor center, overlooking a crystalline glacier lake below the Grossglockner proper, the tallest mountain in Austria and the entire Alps at 12,461 feet.

In the shadow of towering mountaintops, weather often turns unpredictable. Luckily, part of my to-do list this morning includes checking multiple website and app forecasts. So, when temps start to approach freezing after peaking over 80 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the day, I pull out plenty of layers. While pausing for a group photo and more espresso, I feel the first few drops of rain. Just a few hundred feet higher, gusts of snow begin swirling ominously.

Battling now-frigid temperatures in light rain poses a stark contrast to the previous days activities. We weathered scorching temps through traffic in Linz on the way to visit the Rotax factory and raced electric go-karts. Rotax builds Can-Am's three-wheeler engines, but also aims to lower the barrier of entry for the next generation of shifter kart racingwhich, in Europe, always provides the foundation for future Formula 1 and rally pros.

As we drop back down Grossglockner, the cold, wet weather also reveals the Can-Am three-wheeler's stellar stability in slippery conditions, at least compared to two-wheeled cyclists and motorbikes. One has already taken a tumble on a relatively flat, straight section of wet road. A newbie like me manages to whip the Can-Am around with confidence despite the conditions, even if I've spent a decent amount of time overwhelmed with motorcycle envy.

Michael Teo Van Runkle

Switching to Two-Wheeled Fun

The next day, I pack some two-wheel fun into my travel schedule, if not on the Grossglockner itself. I'd originally hoped to rent a road bike and test oxygen deprivation by attempting the three-hour-plus climb, but foul weather looks likely to continue for the next several dayswith forecasts of snow and temps in the low 30s at summit. Staying at lower elevations, I rent a Scott Axis eRide mountain bike from a shop called Sport Jirka in nearby Gosau, where owner Jirka Senk installs my Speedplay pedals on the electric mountain bike, slips me a pump and spare water bottle, and shares a map of nearby trails through the woods.

In Eco mode the whole time, which essentially negates the additional weight of the e-bikes battery and motor, I follow the maps dotted dirt lines and work my way up into the mountains. The tiny town of Gosau draws tourists eager to take in stunning vistas while hiking around the small lake of Gosausee, tucked at the base of steep canyons.

Related: 17 Best Summit Beers to Drink After Hiking and Mountaineering

Before I reach Gosausee on my circuitous adventure, though, I follow Senks advice and visit Rosalm Hutte, one of many Alpine mountain huts dotting his map. Some of these huts operate akin to Scottish bothy houses, providing free shelter for hikers and bikes, but others serve full meals, coffee, teas and, of course, schnapps. With more climbing ahead, I stick to an open-faced sandwich of cured meats rather than indulging in the local zirbenz, or stone pine liqueurthough when the rain starts on my descent to Gosausee, I'm pining for that spicy warmth in my belly.

After returning the e-bike, I warm up with a hearty bowl of Bratstrudel soup at the nearby Gosauerhof. Essentially a meat roll soaked in beef broth, this local favorite caters perfectly to the shivering, damp traveler who brought foul-weather motorcycle gear but only spandex to wear on the bicycle.

Michael Teo Van Runkle

Navigating Alpine Quirks

Food, in general, I've found to be hit or miss in Austria. A highlight includes a big salad topped with locally caught grilled fishof "various kinds" is the most I glean from the waiterbetween many a steak fillet and sausage. A glass of wine from the region usually runs about $3.50 to $5 and is typically on the drier, bitter side. Finding a better breakfast than pastries and coffee is a struggle in the smaller towns of the Alps. Just about every establishment still closes on Sundaysand even Mondaysleaving me to choose between gas station food and hotel restaurants. Next time, Ill be a certified Alps professional and shop for groceries on Saturday.

Overall, the pastoral setting lends a supremely safe and secure spirit throughout Alpine towns I visit. Here, residents routinely leave bikes unlocked outside. Lines at buffets and stores are virtually unheard of in Austria, where I find you have to adapt to more of a free-for-all scrum mentality and roll with the elbows. Perhaps most annoying, slow vehicles on roads never pull overneither farm implements rumbling along in the single-digits nor a Volkswagen Jetta pulling a horse trailer with literally hundreds of vehicles in a mile-long chain inching behind.

One last important caveat for all visitors to the Alps, and Austria, in general: The speed limit is the speed limit. One of the Can-Am club members got a ticket near his hotel going only 5kph over the posted sign, which is only 3mph too fast.

Related: The Best Mountain Towns in America and Beyond

This comes as an even greater surprise to me, having driven to the Alps from Munich in a Hyundai I30 N Line rental car, which I took up to its top speed of 207kph (128mph) on an unrestricted part of the German Autobahn. Even going 128, more powerful cars flew by going easily 30 to 50 mph faster. Back home, about a month later, I'll receive a 30 ticket on the Hyundai rental for going only 6 kph over the speed limitas caught by an Austrian traffic camera!

In stark contrast to the excellent German roads, Austria also requires a so-called vignette for any vehicle that drives on highways. This sticker costs 9.90 (about $11 depending on exchange rates) for 10 days of highway access, and is only sold at certain gas stations and post offices. I end up purchasing a vignette just in case, but spend most of my time hustling the little Hyundai hatchback up the steepest winding roads I can spot on a map, above lakes and streams fed by snowpack still melting in the burgeoning summer weather.

Michael Teo Van Runkle

The farther east I drive, the higher the temps rise. So, after two nights based in Gosau, I decided to stop for a nice hike on the steep eastern shore of Traunsee. Divergent trails with well-defined signage (albeit in German) indicate where I might not need climbing ropes, but as I scale another few thousand feet of elevation between thickets of densely packed forest, plenty of other hikers scrabble up the vertiginous cliffs fully equipped with ropes and harnesses. Surprisingly, the trail includes three long, dark tunnels blasted into the rock facesomewhat haunting as the air turns cold and damp once more.

My legs end up pretty sore after riding the Can-Am, climbing about 3,000 feet in 40 miles on the e-mtb, then hiking up a steep lakeside mountain. The Austrian Alps reward such work with stunning sunsets above weathered peaks and glistening mountain lakes around every bend. The sun stays up well past 9 p.m. in summer monthsperfect for recovery meals and drams of zirbenz on decks overlooking stupendous valleys.

As I drive the Hyundai east to Vienna, I'm looking forward to time in a city where grocery stores, restaurants, and bars stay open round the clock. When I arrive, I find that I miss those Austrian Alpsand notice a sequel already cropping up in my imagination. With a bit more planning and the knowledge gleaned from my first alpine adventure, I will return to ride a road bike, motorcycle, and Porsche in succession up the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

It might not be the road less traveled, but it's certainly a road worth traveling.
As the U.S. government encourages corporations to divest from China and establish supply chains in allied markets, the importance of expiring global trade deals has come into sharper focus. The fate of two such U.S. trade preference programsAGOA and the Haiti HOPE-HELP Actshave been under debate for months, and are now being thrust into the spotlight due to recent developments on the world stage.

Devastating waves of gang violence overtook Haiti following the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise in 2021, and a spirit of lawlessness has pervaded in the country ever since. In July, an American nurse and her child were kidnapped and held for ransom, and the United Nations estimates that about 1,000 people have suffered similar fates over the past six months.

More from Sourcing Journal

Calls from Haitian government officials for military intervention have been largely met with silence, until last week, when Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua made the unforeseen declaration that the African nation would take up the mantle of peace. Mutua offered up to 1,000 police officers to help train and support Haitian law enforcement in battling the criminal cliques who now control much of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken chimed in last week, saying that the U.S. commends the Government of Kenya for responding to Haitis call and for considering to serve as the lead nation for a multinational force in Haiti to assist in addressing insecurity caused by gang violence.

American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) president and CEO Steve Lamar said the peacekeeping mission reinforces that a country like Kenya has shared values, and shared prosperity, with the United States and with Haiti, and is trying to be a long-term partner. The countrys involvement could help stabilize the situation and invite other partners, including the U.S., to do the same. There may also be some residual benefits to the U.S.-Kenya, and writ-large, the U.S.-Africa relationship as well, he added.

Thats important given the looming 2025 expiration of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA. The deal offers sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market on more than 5,000 products, including apparel and textile goods. Kenya is the largest exporter of apparel under AGOA, with the vast majority of the nations output making its way to U.S. shores. While the trade deal has enjoyed long-term bipartisan support, calls from industry stakeholders and trade groups have done little to sway Congress to expedite its renewal.

The preference program upon which industry trade and investment decisions are based is going to expire, and now is the worst time to have a program like that facing expiration, Lamar said. Theres a lot of business thats leaving China, and we want to do everything we can to show that these other locations are long-term, stable, predictable investments for sourcing partners.

Haiti faces a similar plight, in that its own U.S. trade preference programsthe Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act, and the Haiti Economic Lift Program, known in short as HOPE-HELPwill also expire in 2025, with no renewal date set.

The export-oriented apparel industry matters significantly to Haiti, said Dr. Sheng Lu, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the department of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

Recent U.N. Comtrade data shows that apparel accounted for more than 92 percent of the countrys manufacturing exports in 2022, and because of the Haiti trade preference program, over 90 percent of Haitis apparel exports went to the United States alone, Lu said. Haitis share of U.S. apparel imports is small, accounting for just 1.2 percent of clothing that entered the country during the first five months of the year, up slightly from 1.1 percent in 2022. But the American fashion sector strongly supports another 10-year renewal of the HOPE-HELP programs, as investment in the countrys manufacturing base grows, the associate professor added.

Earlier this year, California blank clothing designer Next Level Apparel said it plans to shift more of its production to a supplier with facilities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, with the aim of using more U.S. cotton and getting closer to its end market. And in May, South Korean textile and apparel producer Hansae signed a deal with fabric manufacturer Willbes Dominica Synthetic Mill in the Dominican Republic, with the goal of enhancing its existing operations in Haiti. Hansaes three Haitian factories are capable of producing about 2 million garments each month.

Haiti HOPE-HELP enjoys synergies with the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). Theres a lot of activity in Haiti connected to the Dominican Republic, because the two countries share an island and what happens in one country often affects the other, Lamar said. There has been a lot of effort that to try to promote the co-production between those two countries, an objective that has led to greater trade investment in Haiti.

The U.S. apparel industry wants to see a politically stable and economically successful Haiti, which could serve as an emerging sourcing destination to support fashion companies diversification goals, Lu added. Given Congress and the Biden administrations emphasis on human rights and labor practices in trade, it becomes crucial for Haitis political stability to ensure a smooth HOPE-HELP renewal. Without the trade agreement, he believes that Haitis garment industry and the national economy would be devastated.

Lamar said that while quashing the unrest is the near-term objective, steps must be taken to safeguard Haitis commercial industries. Trade can be a very effective tool to promote stability, peace and economic cooperation, the AAFA lead said. The absence of that trade exacerbates the problems that lead to longer term strife.

A lot of resources will be deployed to keep the lid on gang violence, but unless we can provide a stable economic future, its going to be really hard to migrate away from that, he added. Its the wrong time to be signaling that we might not be eager to renew [HOPE-HELP]. Slow progress on the trade programs renewal could spook enterprises looking to invest in the countrys apparel and textile sector, and damage commitments with those already doing business in Haiti. Right now, there are a lot of companies that have a very strong commitment [to Haiti], but given the competitive pressures that exist around the world, they may not be able to hold on as long as they would like, Lamar said.

African Coalition for Trade (ACT) president Paul Ryberg said the deteriorating security situation in Haiti has created ample concern for trade partners, but the dire circumstances also create additional reasons for Congress to act more quickly than it might otherwise do, in order to send positive signals that companies will be able to continue to do business in Haiti. A bill was reintroduced in Congress in December that would renew HOPE-HELP for an additional decade, and Ryberg believes its a sign that action on the issue is imminent.

This is what we hope to accomplish for AGOA as well, the Africa expert said, as the two programs are running on parallel tracks. But, Congress focuses on crisesand theres a crisis in Haiti right now.

Ryberg said that while AGOA has few detractors on The Hill, its renewal is being held up by a lack of Congressional urgency. Legislators have also thrown out a slew of ideas on how to improve the program, but at this point, they are for the most part, very amorphousmore 30,000-foot policy goals, rather than actual legislation.

Too much waffling comes at a cost, the ACT lead said. We are actively lobbying Congress to try to educate them on the need to act now, because the lead times are such that deals to be delivered in 2025 are being negotiated right now. Uncertainty about the future of the trade agreement means Africa risks losing those orders, he added. If it takes two more years to get it renewed, we will see a dramatic drop off in the level of AGOA trade, and well see tens of thousands of jobs lost in Africa.

Worrisome trends are already beginning to take shape. If you look at the history of apparel trade under AGOA, every time it has been up for renewal, about one year out, the volume of trade starts to decline because of the uncertainty, Ryberg said. Unfortunately, we are seeing that right now even though were two years out. In 2022, the volume of apparel trade under AGOA hit record highs, increasing by about 30 percent in Q4. But in the first half of this year, its gone flat.

For Kenya, further renewal delays could blunt progress. The country is the largest beneficiary of new trade opportunities created by AGOA, and is the largest exporter of apparel products under the program, Ryberg said. The trade agreement is, in fact, the singular reason for the apparel and textile manufacturing sectors growth over the past two decades, with over 90 percent of Kenya apparel exports going to the U.S. market.

The country is continuing to funnel capital into the sectors development. Earlier this year, the East African nations government said it planned to invest $1.6 million into revamping and reopening closed garment factories, as well as rebuilding its cotton farming sector. The countrys government is eager to deepen ties with the U.S., having engaged in a conceptual discussion with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in February about a potential Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP). Ryberg said those efforts will be for naught if AGOA is not renewed quickly, as the STIP program would not include duty-free market access.

Congress could continue to drag its feet on the renewal process, as it has in the past, but Ryberg believes there are new factors at play. Over the past two years, theres been such a high level of interest in disinvestment from China that I think people are realizing that Africa is poised to become a major supplier.

There is always an effort to get renewal accomplished sufficiently in advance to avoid disruption, he added. Its rarely successfulit usually takes up to the last minutebut this time around, with AGOA and also with Haiti HELP-HOPE, I sense a difference.

Theres a much greater interest in making sure that we dont lose ground on what weve already accomplished, Ryberg said. Its the foundation for new investment.

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Whether it's a santoku, slicer, or scimitar you want, one of these makers is probably a good choice

The Spruce Eats / Dera Burreson

As probably the most important tool in the kitchen, the knife gets a lot of attention here at The Spruce Eats. In the Lab, test kitchen, and our editors' homes, we're constantly using knives of all shapes and sizes. In fact, we've researched and tested hundreds to put together more than a dozen roundups of all different styles, from chef's knives to electric meat carvers, and there are a handful brands that consistently show on our lists of favorites. These makers are very reliable and should be a good choice no matter what kind of knife you're looking for.

Wusthof

The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore

With 91 different blade shapes available, Wusthof proudly boasts that it sells the worlds largest portfolio of knives. It makes one of pretty much every kind, with multiple options for size, color, and handle style. Founded in 1814, the company is based in Solingen, a town in Western Germany famous since medieval times for its swords, knives, and other blades. Wusthof is probably best known for its all-purpose chefs knives, but if theres a specialty knife youre looking for, it likely has one (or more) of those, too.



Wusthof Classic Ikon 6-Inch Chef's Knife: The Wusthof Classic is certainly a classic, with a versatile shape able to handle most kitchen tasks. It features a double bolster (basically an extra-thick area where the blade meets the handle), which adds weight for balance. It performed beautifully in our slicing tests, though we dinged it for its high price.



Wusthof Classic Ikon 3.5-Inch Paring Knife: This knife has a fairly short blade, even for a paring knife, but that makes it all the more versatile for cutting fine garnishes or peeling small items. "Ikon" refers to the handle style, which is comfortable to grip and adds a weighty feel for better control. When we tested paring knives, the 3.5-inch Wusthof received top marks in all of our performance tests, from mincing shallots to segmenting oranges.

Wusthof Classic 6-Inch Cleaver: Our overall favorite cleaver, the Wusthof Classic combines a sharp blade with strong steel and hefty weight that make it easy to hack apart a chicken or slice up tough produce like sweet potatoes and butternut squash. This 6-inch version is comparatively small, so if you plan to chop really large cuts of meat, you might need the 8-inch version.

Wusthof Gourmet 5-Inch Spreader Knife: We're not kidding when we say Wusthof makes a knife for practically every purpose. This unique serrated spreader is one of our favorite cheese knives, and it can also be used for making sandwiches. The serrated side can cut through soft fruits and veggies or the rind of a soft cheese like Brie, while the rounded end is for scooping up condiments (or cream cheese) and the wide, flat blade for spreading them on bread or a bagel.

Shun

The Spruce_Eats / Russell Kilgore

Shun embodies the reputation of Japanese knives for being both razor-sharp and beautifully crafted. You can spot one of the brands blades instantly from the wavy ripples visible in the steel, created by forging together layers of different compositions. This process produces a dense and very hard center of the blade, and a softer, easy-to-sharpen outer layer, making for a durable knife as well as a distinctive one. Most of the brand's handles are made of Pakkawood, a type of resin-impregnated wood that retains the beautiful grain but is perfectly smooth and easy to clean. Shun knives are best for serious cooks: Theyre gorgeous heirlooms, but they carry a high price tag and require careful maintenance to keep their edges honed. Never put one in the dishwasher.



Victorinox

The Spruce Eats / Dera Burreson

A knife-maker that did indeed supply the military of Switzerland in the 19th century, Victorinox made its name on the Swiss Army Knife. The famous multi-tool was originally released in 1897 and is still popular all over the world. Today, Victorinox uses its knowledge in precision engineering to make a variety of knives and watches as well as luggage, backpacks, and even perfume and cologne. Like most brands, Victorinox makes knives at several price levels, but were especially big fans of its low-cost Fibrox Pro line. Its non-slip handles may not be the prettiest to look at, but they're comfortable to hold, and the blades performed consistently well in our testing.



Zwilling and Henckels

The Spruce Eats / Will Dickey

Zwilling and Henckels are, in theory, separate brands of knives, but both have always been part of the same company: Zwilling J.A. Henckels, which dates all the way back to 1731. (Its based in Solingen, Germany, the same place as Wusthof.) Either name is a sign of high quality, but Zwilling is the more luxury brand, with generally higher prices, while Henckels knives are a bit more basic. Between the two, theres a long list of options to choose from. If youre not sure exactly what you want but know exactly how much you want to spend, theres probably a Zwilling or Henckels thats a good choice for you.



Henckels Classic 15-Piece Self-Sharpening Block Set: Whether it's a housewarming gift for a young adult starting out in their first apartment or just because you need an excuse to replace all your knives at once, this tried-and-true knife set is a great deal. It includes 13 knives, a pair of shears, and a block to store them inall for the price you might pay for a single high-end chef's knife. We love the self-sharpening block, with which custom-sized slots hone the edges of the knives every time you pull them out or put them away.

Zwilling Gourmet 6.5-Inch Nakiri: The nakiri is a knife especially for handling vegetables. It's double-beveled, sharpened on both sides to ensure clean, even slices, while the long, flat blade cuts all the way through larger veggies in one chop. In our testing, Zwilling's version made paper-thin tomato slices with ease. It's on the pricier side but well-constructed enough to last for many years.

Zwilling Pro 7-Inch Rocking Santoku: With the the slightly curving blade of a traditional chef's knife but also a curve on the top of the knife like a traditional santoku, this Zwilling model bridges the gap between the two styles. You can rock it back and forth on the cutting board to finely mince ingredients like garlic or herbs, or chop up and down for larger, tougher items. It's great for all-purpose, everyday use.

Henckels Steak Knife Set: These stainless-steel steak knives look great and can slice through even gristly bits of meat with ease thanks to its micro-serrated blades. In our testing of steak knives, Henckels was the top budget pick: For less than fifty bucks, this set gets you eight long-lasting, super-sharp knives.



Mercer Culinary

The Spruce Eats / Renu Dhar

If you peek in the kitchen at most restaurants, you wont find culinary professionals using high-end knives from consumer brands: Its just not economical to outfit six sous chefs with six artisanal santokus. Instead, youll find a more utilitarian maker like Mercer Culinary, which is designed expressly for working chefs. The companys products might have basic looks, but they make up for it with high quality at a more affordable price. Mercer Culinary knives are made to hold up to heavy use, all day every day, and they came out near the top in several different sets of our testing.



What to Look for In a Kitchen Knife

Material

Most kitchen knives are made of steel, which is an alloy of iron and carbon, but there are many different "recipes" for steel, each of which has different properties. Carbon steel, made with a high proportion of carbon, is a popular knife material because it's very hard and able to hold an edge well. But carbon steel knives are expensive, and the brittle material is prone to chipping if you drop it on the floor or bang it on the counter.

Stainless steel adds chromium to the mix, which makes for a softer steel that's resistant to rust. Stainless-steel knives can't hold as sharp an edge, but they're more durable and less expensive than carbon steel.

There are also ceramic knives, made from zirconium oxide. The material is even harder than carbon steel and can hold an edge longer, but it's also even more brittle.



Size

Most any type of knife is available in multiple blade lengths. Bigger isn't always better: A longer blade is heavier and more unwieldy than a shorter one, though it can chop through more food more efficiently. It's really down to personal preference and your individual knife technique, but keep in mind whether you prefer a longer or shorter blade when selecting a knife.



Price

As with most kitchen tools, a higher price doesn't always indicate higher quality when it comes to knives. That's especially true where the blade itself is concernedthere are plenty of budget knives with excellent, razor-sharp blades. Materials, looks, and handle comfort (not to mention brand name) all contribute to the final price. With a tool that you're likely to use every day, it might be worth splurging on a nice kitchen knife.

FAQs

What kitchen knives do you need?

There are dozens of different sizes and shapes of knives, each best suited to different tasks. Here are a few of the more useful ones that every kitchen needs:

Chef's knife/santoku : Designed as all-purpose knives for chopping, slicing, and general food prep, the chef's knife and santoku have broad, medium-length blades with a balance of heft and control. The chef's knife has a slightly curved blade to rock back and forth as you chop, while the santoku has a flat blade for up-and-down chopping,

Paring knife : A short, sharp blade, the paring knife is best for small, precise cuts like coring apples and tomatoes or deveining shrimp. It's also perfect for decorative garnishes and other items that need detailed cutting.

Boning/fillet knife : The thin, curved blade of a boning or fillet knife is good for slipping between meat and skin or bones when cutting steaks or filleting fish. Many models have a flexible blade for extra dexterity.

Bread knife/meat slicer : The bread knife and meat slicer are both long, narrow knives good for making neat, even slices of breads or meats. Bread knives are usually serrated to help get through tough crust, while meat slicers generally have a flat blade.

Cleaver/nakiri: A cleaver has a large, heavy, rectangular blade and is made to hack through meat, bone, and hard veggies. The nakiri is a Japanese-style cleaver made especially for slicing vegetables, with the same shape in slightly smaller size and an extra-sharp blade.



How do you sharpen a knife?



There are lots of different ways to sharpen a knife, from the old-school whetstone to automated sharpening devices. They all work on the same principle: running the blade along an abrasive, ideally at a roughly 20-degree angle. You can also outsource the task to a pro and mail off your knives for sharpening. No matter what, it's best to sharpen your knives once or twice a year. In between, run the blade over a steel every few uses to keep the edge honed.

How do you wash a knife?

A knife should generally not go in the dishwasher, as this can dull the blades. Even brands that say their knives are dishwasher-safe usually add that washing by hand is preferred. To wash a knife, simply scrub with a soapy sponge down both sides of the blade, being careful not to slice through the sponge or your fingers. Don't forget to wash the handle, too, while carefully holding the knife by the back of the blade. It's best to wash your knife (or at least rinse it off) soon after use, as dried-on bits of food are more difficult to remove.



Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

This story was written by The Spruce Eats commerce writer Jason Horn. He's been writing about food and drinks for almost 20 years, cooking since he was a toddler, and using knives since earlier than his parents should have been letting him use knives, to be honest. When he got his first "real" job in food media, he celebrated by buying a Shun chef's knife. He still uses it daily.

Read Next: The 10 Best Cutting Boards of 2023, Tested and Reviewed
After nearly a century in business and just three months after receiving $700 million in pandemic relief funds from the federal government, less-than-truckload (LTL) company Yellow has filed for bankruptcy.

The company shutdown operations on July 30, after negotiations with the Teamsters union broke down. Yellows Chapter 11 bankruptcywhich was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delawareoutlines the companys planned operational wind-doIt is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business, Yellow CEO Darren Hawkins said in a statement. Today, it is not common for someone to work at one company for 20, 30, or even 40 years, yet many at Yellow did. For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers.

More from Sourcing Journal

Yellows closure is expected to leave around 30,000 employees, 22,000 of whom are represented by the Teamsters, without a job. The filing will allow the company and its subsidiaries to operate as debtors-in-possession, and included several motions to seek authority from the bankruptcy court to honor financial obligations, including employee wages and benefits, as well as outstanding vendor bills.

In a statement posted on Yellows website, Hawkins blamed the Teamsters for contributing to the companys demise.

All workers and employers should take note of our experience with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and worry, Hawkins said. We faced nine months of union intransigence, bullying and deliberately destructive tactics. A company has the right to manage its own operations, but as we have experienced, IBT leadership was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, despite every effort to work with them.

In late June, Yellow filed a $137.3 million lawsuit against the Teamsters union in a Kansas federal district court, alleging the union prevented the company from implementing its One Yellow turnaround plan, which would have consolidated its four individual trucking firms.

After Yellow was unable to make $50 million in pension and benefits payments, the Teamsters threatened a strike, only backing off after the company said it would pay by August.

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. This is a sad day for workers and the American freight industry, Teamsters General President Sean M. OBrien said after Yellows July 31 shutdown.

At the end of June, Yellow had more than $100 million in cash, a paltry sum compared to its $1.5 million in debt, including $730 owed to the U.S. government. Yellow received a $700 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a U.S. Department of Treasury audit, the company has paid around $66 million in interest on the loan, but has only paid $230 million toward the principal on the loan, which is due in 2024. As part of the loan, the federal government assumed a 30 percent equity stake in Yellow.

Yellow reported having around $39 million in accessible funds, which it said would not be sufficient to support its wind-down.

According to court documents, Yellow plans to sell all or substantially all of its assets. Some of those assets include a 3PL wing it put up for sale in July, as well as a network of 317 terminals. The company estimated in court documents that it has more than 100,000 creditors along with more than $1 billion in liabilities. Some of its largest unsecured creditors include Amazon, which is owed more than $2 million, and Home Depot, which claimed nearly $1.7 million.

Yellow has a roughly 8.9 percent share of U.S. revenue and 6.8 percent of shipments, according to logistics and transportation consultancy SJ Consulting. Disruptions are expected to be felt in the short term as Yellows freight partners seek new providers.

The industry is well positioned to pick up about 6.8 percent share of U.S. shipments, or some 48,000 a day since most carriers are running with slack capacity, Lee Klaskow, senior freight transportation and logistics analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told Sourcing Journal in July. Carriers can be selective about which freight they accept, and the market consolidation should provide them with pricing power.

Click here to read the full article.
Eleven people were injured after a school bus with at least 30 on board rolled over near a major highway in Banks, Idaho, on Friday afternoon, according to an Idaho State Police Facebook post.

The bus was part of a YMCA summer camp program carrying children between the ages of 13 and 18.

Seven of the 11 people injured were said to be in critical condition, while the other four were deemed non-critical, the release said. All children were taken to local hospitals by air or ground ambulance out of an abundance of caution, authorities added.

Idaho State Police said the bus was one of four heading back to the Treasure Valley Family YMCA when the crash occurred. None of the other buses were involved in the accident, they added.

The incident is still under investigation. Authorities do not know if the bus driver is a YMCA employee and did not provide the drivers medical status.

CNN has reached out to the Treasure Valley Family YMCA for comment.

CNN affiliate KIVI-TV said all lanes on Highway 55 have reopened following the crash.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Daniel Sancho (center), during a reconstruction of the crime with Thai police officers in Koh Pha-ngan, Thailand. ROYAL THAI POLICE HANDOUT (EFE)

Kho Pha-ngan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand and world-famous for hosting the full moon party, when the islands beaches are crowded with revelers dancing until dawn. Daniel Sancho Bronchalo and Edwin Arrieta had arranged to meet in the paradisiacal location to attend the festivities: a meeting that ended in the death and dismemberment of the latter, a Colombian plastic surgeon, at the hands of the former, a Spanish chef and son of the actor Rodolfo Sancho.

Arrieta, 44, had booked a hotel from July 31 to August 3, but Sancho, 29, arrived on the island before the Colombian, although it has not been revealed precisely when. Sancho claims that it was Arrieta who decided to join him on the trip, while the Thai police claim it was the Colombian paid all the expenses.

Although Sancho was staying in the room booked by Arrieta, he had another hotel reservation, for August 1 and August 2, near Salat Beach the police confirmed to the Bangkok Post. On August 1, the two had dinner at a restaurant near this second hotel. On the evening of the same day, the Spaniard was caught on security cameras buying knives, rubber gloves, garbage bags and cleaning utensils at a store, according to the same source.

Daniel Sancho and Edwin Arrieta in Koh Pha-ngan. Policia de Tailandia

In his first statement to the police, Sancho said that he had seen Arrieta for the first time on Wednesday, August 2, at around 3 p.m., when he went to the Koh Pha-ngan pier to pick him up. According to Sanchos statement, the pair went to eat at a restaurant and then visited Hat Rin beach, near the hotel where they were staying. However, the crime had taken place a day earlier.

In his confession to police last Saturday, Sancho claimed that Arrieta had gone to his hotel room on August 1 asking him to have sex. According to what he told the police, the Spaniard refused and, in a fit of anger, pushed his friend, who fell and hit his head on the bathtub. Sancho decided to dispose of the body by dismembering it and leaving the parts at different locations on the island, including in the sea.

To do so, he acquired a kayak that was found on Saturday around 300 meters from the hotel where the murder took place. According to the women in charge of the hire store, Sancho appeared on Tuesday, August 1, at around 9 p.m., visibly agitated and asking to rent a boat. Although at first both claimed that it was not safe for a tourist to sail at night, they ended up accepting $1,000 that the Spaniard offered when he insisted on buying it.

After throwing a suitcase with some of Arrietas remains into the sea, Sancho returned to his room. He checked out at 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 3, according to the Bangkok Post. During the day, local media reported that a garbage collector had found a severed pelvis and human intestines hidden in a fertilizer bag at around 12:30 p.m. at a landfill on the island. In an article published that day, the Bangkok Post reported that police forensics examiners estimated that the murder had taken place at least 24 hours before the body parts were discovered and that the remains, due to their size, must have belonged to a foreigner.

The Koh Pha-ngan landfill where human remains were found. SITTHIPONG CHAROENJAI (EFE)

Sancho, who is a chef at the Madrid catering service La Boheme, went to the full moon party that Thursday with two girls he met at the hotel. After returning from the event  and after news of a murder hit the press  he reported the disappearance of his Colombian friend, who, he said, had arrived on the island on Wednesday, the day after the murder.

On Friday, during a new search at the same landfill, more human remains were found in a plastic bag, including two parts of lower limbs, as well as some clothes. After these discoveries, investigators decided to interrogate Sancho as a suspect on Friday. Police had also noticed that the Spaniard had cuts and scratches on his body when he went to the station to report Arrietas disappearance, according to the EFE news agency.

When police inspected the hotel room Sancho had booked, they found that the refrigerator, toilet, and sink were completely clean, but forensics collected samples of hair and tissue from the drain. Sancho, who has been in police custody since Friday, admitted to the crime in front of his Thai court-appointed lawyers and several officers at Koh Pha-ngan police station, according to EFE. I am guilty, but I was Edwins hostage, he said. In an earlier interrogation, he had denied being the perpetrator. When asked if he felt he had been coerced into a confession, he replied: I did not feel comfortable, but I was not forced either. Sancho added the Thai authorities were treating him well: Nobody hit me or hurt me.

Daniel Sancho (with cap) and Thai police officers during the reconstruction of events. ROYAL THAI POLICE HANDOUT (EFE)

Sancho has denied having a romantic relationship with the victim, as Arrietas family told investigators in the case, according to Thai media. He was obsessed with me. He deceived me, he made me believe that what he wanted was to do business with me, to put money into the company in which I am a partner. [...] But it was all lies. The only thing he wanted was me, for me to be his boyfriend, Sancho claimed. Every time I tried to get away from him, he would threaten me, he told EFE.

On Sunday, agents escorted Sancho to different parts of the island to carry out a reconstruction of the crime and the Koh Samui Provincial Court approved a court order against the accused, who is expected to be transferred there on Monday. The court order was issued following the results of tests carried out on human remains found at a landfill on the island and samples of hair, fat, and tissue that forensic experts obtained from the drain of the room where the murder allegedly took place. The DNA matches that of Arrieta, a surgeon from the Colombian town of Lorica, in the northern department of Cordoba, who owns a clinic in the city of Monteria.

Sancho faces charges of premeditated murder, concealment, and removal of body parts to cover up the death or the cause of death. The Thai Penal Code carries punishments of life imprisonment and the death penalty for homicide, although the latter can be commuted by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The Thai monarch exercised this prerogative three years ago in the case of another Spaniard, Artur Segarra, who in 2016 was sentenced to capital punishment for murdering and dismembering David Bernat in Bangkok. Segarra is now serving a life sentence. Article 288 of the Penal Code also considers a sentence of between 15 and 20 years in prison for murder, which can be increased if there are aggravating factors in the case.

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Experts on other end of 988 phone call help folks in crisis

July 16 marked one year since our nation transitioned to 988, the nationwide mental health crisis helpline.

This number connects callers with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Congress designated 988 in 2020, and as a part of the federal governments commitment to addressing the mental health crisis in America, federal resources have been invested to scale up crisis centers in support of 988.

988 is confidential, free and available 24/7/365, connecting those experiencing crises with trained crisis counselors. Access is available through every land line, cellphone and voice-over-internet device in the United States, and services are available in Spanish, along with interpretation services in more than 150 languages.

Spread the word.

Since the launch of 988 in 2022, data shows an increase in overall calls, texts and chats. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:

 98% of people who contact 988 are helped by a trained crisis counselor, resources are shared and community connections made during the calls/texts/chats.

 9,360 is the average number of daily contacts to 988.

 About 1% of people who contact 988 agree to have their crisis counselors call 911 because of serious risk to life.

 In fewer than 1% of 988 calls, the crisis counselor must call 911 without consent because of serious risk to life.

We are listening.

If someone is experiencing an emotional crisis or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or seek help at a licensed behavioral health facility. 24/7 assessments are available by contacting us directly.

As a behavioral health care provider here in the Treasure Coast, our team at Coral Shores Behavioral Health is dedicated to support individuals in a manner that promotes hope, resiliency, connectedness and recovery. We are proud to partner with the 988 network and are a resource for individuals referred for help.

Stephen Quintyne, Stuart

988 Mental Health Lifeline workers are pictured Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Ukraine-Russia: Learn from history, not Hollywood

On July 29, Fox News published a story saying filmmaker Oliver Stone thinks Joe Biden will "stupidly" drag us into World War III.

Stone's recent conspiracy film, "Ukraine On Fire," claims the United States was behind Ukrainian democrats ousting pro-Putin leader Victor Yanukovych in February 2014, which led to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Crimea. Stone claimed Biden and Barack Obama provoked this whole conflict, helped by "neo-conservative" warmongers.

Finally, Stone claims in 2022 Biden rejected requests from Russia to give autonomy to Eastern Donbas "Russians," leading to recent escalation toward a NATO conflict.

All this might sound reasonable to uninformed observers. But it is not.

I served in Kyiv at our U.S. embassy for two years, speak Russian and follow closely developments there. Putin in 2012 usurped power for a third term, repressing the free press and civic freedoms. He even assassinated his opponents.

Yanukovych was his hand-picked puppet in Ukraine, who rejected young Ukrainians' desire to join the European Union and follow the successful path of Poland. Yanukovych's rejection of an EU path led to street protests that overthrew him. He fled, of all places, to Moscow. His gold-plated palace and exotic private zoo were exposed for all to see.

President Obama supported Ukraine's movement toward democracy and helped it fight corruption. Putin, in outrage, invaded Crimea in 2014 and built a $3 billion bridge to Russia.

I gave several speeches condemning his illegal acts, but overall Western reaction was muted. Perhaps people believed that was all he wanted? Like Adolf Hitler's invading the Sudetenland, tyrant Putin was not satisfied and next invaded Donbas in 2022, after promising he wouldn't. Like Hitler, he lied about his intentions.

Now Putin is threatening Poland, falsely claiming Poland plans to invade Ukraine and Belarus. We need to learn from history, not from Stone's conspiracy films.

David W. Hunter is a retired U.S. diplomat from Vero Beach

GOP exhibits hypocrisy when it comes to free enterprise, freedom

Stephen Stills, who performed with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Neil Young), included these lines in his lyrics to For What Its Worth:

Theres battle lines being drawn. Nobodys right if everybodys wrong. Young people speaking their minds. Getting so much resistance from behind.

I was one of those young people speaking my mind during the 1960s in support of civil and womens rights and against the Vietnam War, a post-colonial civil war the United States had no business prosecuting. My decision to oppose some tenets of conservative ideology created considerable friction among some members of my family, die-hard Republicans who held a deep-seated hatred for Democrats and their positions.

It was a difficult period for all of us, and Im thankful my parents and grandparents dont have to contend with todays deeply insane political and cultural divisions exploited by immoral politicians for personal advantages.

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when traditional conservatives supported free enterprise. Republican politicians then wouldnt dream of attempting to undermine a major American corporation out of pure spite, something theyd consider anti-capitalist behavior.

How the times have changed. Eighty-six percent of polled Republicans support Ron DeSantis personal dispute with Disney, while an equal percentage of Democrats oppose this nonsense waged by DeSantis as part of his so-called anti-woke campaign, underscoring how differently Americans see the world. And each side believes the other is unpatriotic.

Republicans continue to suggest theyre the Knights Templar of personal freedom; however, thats always been qualified with a big but, as in but with considerable exemptions (racial minorities, women, homosexuals and atheists).

This behavior always has revealed Republican hypocrisy. Protecting freedoms for some, while denying it to others is as un-American as it gets.

Traditional conservatism has been superseded by petty cultural grievances.

Cray Little, Vero Beach

'Vile, manipulative nonsense'? Here's another writer's definition

Cray Little recently wrote a letter again about hatred, but does he see it in himself?

We already know from past letters how he feels about Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, but now hes making clear the contempt he feels for anyone who supports either candidate, as if that wasnt a God-given American right  to support the candidate of your choice.

Little claims that DeSantis has picked up Trumps torch, setting ablaze his supporters concealed hatred of homosexuals, people of color, immigrants ...  In one sentence, he has ascribed hateful attributes to anyone who doesnt think the way he does. This is shameful and irresponsible.

This seems like a repeat of lies and innuendos the left and the mainstream media have launched against Donald Trump for more than six years and have now set their sights on Ron DeSantis. Have we learned nothing?

I taught in a Black school in North Philadelphia, but I guess Im considered a racist by some people. I believe we should have immigration laws, so that makes me hate immigrants?

As a retired teacher, I believe there should be age-appropriate reading materials and content, so, to some, I also hate homosexuals?

You could say Im outraged by these ill-conceived assumptions, but Im more outraged that Little used the words of Martin Luther King Jr. to support his absurd theories. It's sad divisive rhetoric is typical of how the left operates: Accuse your opponent of what you yourself feel; its called distraction.

Little states at the end of his letter that thoughtful, loving individuals reject such vile, manipulative nonsense. But what is more manipulative or more vile than demonizing a large group of people in a letter to the editor of your local newspaper?

Patricia Perrone, Stuart

OK to forgive atrocities, but never forget them

A recent letter to the editor regarding "spiritual attainment" addresses the concept of forgiveness. The writer pens "that to forgive, you must forget or there is no forgiveness."

I believe one should forgive. However, not forget.

By forgetting you are setting yourself up for future harm. It may not be the one who initially hurt you, but someone else.

Some can forgive the Holocaust, slavery and more, but do not forget those evils.

Lastly, if Jesus asked God to forgive them, he did not say forget them. Christians may have forgiven Jesus' persecutors, but Christians have not forgotten, as they celebrate Easter: the crucifixion and resurrection.

Ronald D. Roberts, Sebastian

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Mental health; Ukraine; Stone, Hollywood; DeSantis, Disney | Letters
A chilling text message has revealed how a Georgia mother-of-three urged her lover and alleged hitman to kill her husband as part of a murder plot in the Bahamas, according to newly-released court documents.

In a Whatsapp message, seen in court documents obtained by ABC News, Lindsay Shiver told her alleged lover Terrance Bethel, 28, and the man she allegedly hired as a hitman Faron Newbold, 28, to kill him.

Ms Shiver, 36, admitted during a police interrogation to sending the message along with photos of her husband Robert Shiver, who had filed for divorce from her earlier this year, the documents state.

Officials had been looking into Mr Bethel as a suspect in an unrelated break-in at Grabbers Bed Bar & Grill when they discovered the messages on his phone and uncovered the alleged murder plot.

Mr Shiver was then alerted to the plot by local police and the three suspects were arrested in Abaco in the Bahamas.

The former Auburn University football player, who played from 2006 to 2008, filed for divorce earlier this year after allegedly finding out that his wife was having an affair.

He also accused her of taking their children for a weekend and refusing to give them back until authorities intervened.

Attorneys for Ms Shiver denied the affair.

Any extramarital relationship defendant has had was during the parties separation and legally condoned by husband, her lawyers wrote.

The Shivers wedding photo (Lindsay Shiver / Instagram)

Wife feels unsafe in the marital home and has installed locks on the interior doors of the home for protection, the lawyers wrote, adding: Husband has abused the wife in the home in the childrens presence on multiple occasions, not only physically but also mentally and emotionally.

Ms Shiver instead alleged that her husband was cutting her off financially and hiding money from her.

The parties have an overall expensive lifestyle in general, her lawyer wrote, adding: Suddenly husband is not permitting wife to use the jet or have access to funds.

Although the pair appears to not follow each other anymore on social media, their descriptions are still in-sync. Ms Shivers Instagram bio reads, Mom to the Shivertrio, while Mr Shivers reads, Dad to the trio!

The three suspects were all held behind bars in the Bahamas before they were granted emergency bail on 1 August.

The suspects are due back in court on 5 October.
A US Marine launches a Switchblade drone during an exercise in California in September 2020. US Marine Corps/Cpl. Jennessa Davey

The US Army is rushing to develop its own tank-killing drone that soldiers can carry into combat.

The weapon will be a loitering munition, a type of drone being used widely in the war in Ukraine.

A drone powerful enough to destroy a tank but cheap enough for mass employment would be valuable.

As kamikaze drones wreak havoc in the Ukraine war, the US Army is rushing to develop its own tank-killing version.

The Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance program aims to develop a lightweight weapon that can be carried by soldiers in the Army's Infantry Brigade Combat Teams.

Known as LASSO, the weapon will be "a man-portable, tube launched, lethal payload munition," according to an announcement by the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier. "It includes electrical optical/infrared sensor, precision flight control, and the ability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal fires. LASSO currently consists of three modules: the launch tube, unmanned aerial system, and fire control station."

In a sign of how seriously the Army is taking this project, LASSO has been deemed an urgent capability acquisition, a Department of Defense procedure designed to deliver new systems to the field in less than two years. These acquisitions are reserved for capabilities that are "meant to save lives or ascertain mission accomplishment."

A Ukrainian serviceman attaches a simulated explosive to a drone during training. Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Loitering munitions  the US military avoids the term "kamikaze drone"  are a cross between a drone and a guided artillery shell.

Light enough to be carried by foot soldiers and equipped with a warhead and a camera, they can orbit an area while relaying imagery to an operator who decides when to crash it into a target. They were designed to give infantry an indirect-fire capability to hit targets shielded from sight by terrain or other obstacles.

Though loitering munitions such as the US-made Switchblade have been around for years, they have seen their most prolific use in Ukraine. Ukrainian troops have often strapped small explosive charges to commercially produced quad-copters, turning them into suicide drones capable of knocking out armored vehicles and artillery pieces. Russia has used military-grade Lancet 3 loitering munitions to hunt Ukrainian artillery and disrupt Ukraine's counteroffensive.

All of which makes LASSO interesting on multiple levels.

It is an indication that the US Army is no longer keen on the Switchblade, a backpack-size loitering munition that has been used by the Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command for more than a decade, including in Afghanistan.

In a move that generated a lot of buzz, the US sent more than 700 Switchblades to Ukraine, mostly the 6-pound Switchblade 300 but also a few of the 33-pound Switchblade 600.

Remains of a Russian-made Shahed-136 used to attack Kyiv on display in May. Oleksii Samsonov /Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Curiously, the Army's 2024 missile procurement budget doesn't include any Switchblades. One reason may be their price. Each Switchblade costs $58,000, though defense writer David Hambling estimates the true cost at about $80,000 apiece. But Ukraine is launching swarms of militarized commercial drones that cost a few hundred dollars each. Even if some are shot down or disrupted by Russian jamming, economics favor the cheaper drone.

What is also interesting about LASSO is that the Army is emphasizing it as an anti-armor weapon. "This anti-tank capability is a key contributor to our efforts to increase the lethality of the Army of 2030's IBCT and maintain overmatch against our near-peer threats," an Army spokesman said.

While there are frequent videos of Ukrainian drones crashing into Russian tanks, these are improvised weapons. The Switchblade 300's warhead is only the size of a 40 mm grenade, while the Switchblade 600, which is designed to kill armored vehicles, is expensive. It's not clear what kind of warhead LASSO will pack, and the Army didn't mention cost in its announcement, but if combat in Ukraine is a guide, LASSO will target the thinner armor on top of tanks.

There are numerous top-attack anti-tank weapons  the US-made Javelin missile and laser-guided artillery shells such as US's Excalibur and Russia's Krasnopol, to name a few  but these munitions cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each. If the Army can figure out a way to build a LASSO that's powerful enough to destroy a tank but cheap enough for mass employment, the impact could be immense.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Tupperware was a mainstay of kitchens in the US. Now, the company is on the verge of going out of business. Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images

Tupperware has become a meme stock as the brand struggles to stay in business.

It helped make plastic bowls a key part of American kitchens and multilevel marketing a part of American consumerism.

Here's a history of Tupperware, from a plastics manufacturer during the Great Depression to its modern troubles.

Tupperware was developed by Earl Tupper, who founded a plastics manufacturing company in Leominster, Massachusetts, during the Great Depression.

Tupperware

Tupper was born in New Hampshire in 1907. While he wasn't a great student, he spent a lot of his early life sketching out inventions in a notebook, such as a comb with a belt clip and a fish-powered boat, according to PBS's "American Experience."

His inventions didn't lead to financial success, so Tupper started a landscaping business to support himself and, later, his wife and children, per "American Experience." Then, during the Great Depression, he started working in the plastics industry and eventually founded his own company in Leominster, which was a manufacturing hub at the time.

Tupper started out making plastic holders for soap and cigarettes, but his big break came after World War II.

US Army reinforcements wade ashore from landing ship tanks in the background, at Saipan in the Mariana Islands, about 1,500 miles from Japan, in June 1944. AP Photo/US Army Signal Corps

After the war, chemical company Dupont was trying to increase sales of a new substance called polyethylene, according to PBS.

Polyethylene was a popular component of radar equipment during the war. It was "the resin that helped win World War II," Plastics News reported in 2007.

Afterward, Dupont, the company that made it, turned it into the most widely used kind of plastic, promoting its use for packaging, toys, and other consumer goods.

By 1946, Tupper had refined the plastic to make kitchenware.

Smithsonian Museum of American History

It took some experimentation, but Tupper used polyethylene to make the first-ever set of Tupperware.

Tupper's "wonder bowl" sealed, allowing users to keep its contents from spilling. They could also push air out before sealing to keep food fresh  a process the company called "burping," according to PBS.

Tupper sold his kitchenware in department stores and a showroom in Manhattan, but sales were slow.

Meanwhile, in Florida, a woman named Brownie Wise was running a company called Patio Parties.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Wise had worked as an advice columnist before she started selling Tupperware. Her company's premise: Tupperware was so new that most people didn't understand how it worked if they saw it on a store shelf.

Instead, Wise sold Tupperware by demonstrating how it worked at parties. The events targeted stay-at-home women, who bought the kitchenware after seeing its merits over glass and ceramic alternatives, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Importantly, Wise also recruited some of those women to host parties of their own, which got Tupperware in front of new potential customers. Tupperware was one of many multilevel marketing companies at the time, alongside cosmetics maker Avon.

Wise's strategy worked. One woman she recruited sold 56 bowls in one week, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Smithsonian Museum of American History

At the time, Wise called the events "Poly-T parties" in a nod to the plastic that the bowls were made of.

Tupper himself eventually heard about Wise's success. In 1951, he hired her to be vice president of marketing for Tupperware.

Smithsonian Museum of American History

Tupper remained focused on the manufacturing side of the business, while Wise built out Tupperware's network of dealers and most public-facing parts of the company.

Tupperware built its headquarters near Orlando in 1953.

John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

Tupper bought 1,300 acres of land in Kissimmee, Florida, to the south of Orlando, in 1953. The area was a small farm town at the time, according to the company. Part of that land is still home to the company's headquarters today.

Tupperware sales reached $25 million in 1954. Tupper oversaw production, while Wise expanded the Tupperware party model across the US during the 1950s.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Wise nationalized the model she had developed in Florida.

At Tupperware parties, attendees would play games, such as tossing a sealed bowl full of grape juice around the room to demonstrate how leakproof the bowls were, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

The model was also a key source of income for the women who worked as dealers, many of whom had no income apart from what their husbands made. Wise also organized an annual "Jubilee" event that recognized top-selling dealers and awarded them prizes including a brand-new car.

But Tupper got jealous of the attention that Wise got as the public face of the brand.

A Tupperware party scene, 1960. Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images

In 1958, he and the company's board of directors fired her, and Tupper sold the company later that year to drugstore chain Rexall for $9 million, according to the New York Times.

Tupperware continued to grow in the 1960s and 1970s, reaching new countries such as the UK.

A Tupperware party at a home in the UK in 1963. Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images

Tupper ended up parting ways with the company after the sale to Rexall. He divorced his wife and moved to Costa Rica in an effort to avoid paying US taxes, according to PBS.

Meanwhile, Tupperware parties continued in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. One television ad from 1961 showed the virtues of hosting a party, including free Tupperware for the host and her guests. "It's a Tupperware party, and it's really fun," the narrator says.

But in the 1980s, the patents on Tupper's products started to expire.

Amazon

That made it possible for other companies to produce cheaper versions of Tupperware's products and cut into its sales.

At the same time, more women than ever were working full-time.

Women in a commercial for Tupperware in 1980. deputay/Youtube

The share of US women in the labor force went from 34% in 1950 to 60% in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More women going to work outside the home was bad news for Tupperware since it meant fewer were interested in hosting parties and selling the plastic containers.

Tupperware was acquired by Kraft, the food company, in 1980.

REUTERS/Frank Polich

Kraft tried new products and sales strategies. It made microwave-safe Tupperware and encouraged hosts to have Tupperware parties with colleagues during lunch breaks at work, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2017.

But none of that was enough to reverse the brand's fortunes. Kraft ended up spinning off the brand in 1996, turning it into a public company.

Tupperware has tried new ways of reaching consumers, from mall kiosks to brand partnerships to online sales.

Tupperware

It has also continued selling through its network of party hosts.

A 2019 segment from CBS Sunday Morning featured a Tupperware dealer in Charlotte, North Carolina throwing a party. Her mother also worked for Tupperware.

Tupperware also struck partnerships with other brands, such as Loop, which makes reusable packaging for consumer brands, retailers, and restaurants.

The company experienced a bump in sales as people cooked at home early in the pandemic.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

After years of struggling, Tupperware got a boost as people cooked more at home during the early months of the pandemic, according to its 2020 earnings reports.

Its stock reached above $35 a share, its highest price in years, in November 2020.

"We do believe the results reflect that we pivoted as a company, and now we're more confident in our ability to turn around the business," Executive Vice Chairman Richard Goudis said during a July 2020 earnings call.

But sales have slowed down since then.

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Its shares lost almost half their value and closed at $1.23 on April 10, 2023, after the company warned investors that it could go out of business.

Tupperware ran afoul of New York Stock Exchange requirements when it failed to file an annual report for 2022 earlier this year, the company said. It's also hired financial advisors to help attract new investors.

In July, it joined other troubled companies that have attracted attention from meme stock investors.

Omar Havana/Getty Images

Shares of Tupperware rose 350% over just five days, Quartz reported on Friday. Other companies targeted by the same investors include movie theater chain AMC and retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond.

In fact, it was likely just a rally in AMC stock at the end of July that caused some investors to take an interest in Tupperware's share, Quartz reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In early August 2023, Finland's food authority ordered three of the nation's fur farms to slaughter 50,000 of their animals. The purpose was not to create new fur coats, but to stop a virus: the H5N1 influenza strain, also known as "bird flu," which had been detected on those farms. Because Finland and Norway are already facing an H5N1 outbreak, their governments are being especially cautious, aware that fur farms  in particular, mink farms  are notoriously potent incubators for dangerous diseases.

In a worst case scenario, H5N1 or another virus could mutate in a mink and infect a human  and this is why many experts believe fur-producing facilities such as mink farms should be abolished.

According to Dr. James Keen, an expert on zoonotic diseases who studied outbreaks as a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the threat posed by facilities like mink farms is simply too grave.

"There is a valid reason to be concerned about bird flu H5N1 creating a mutant viral strain with pandemic potential in people," Keen told Salon by email. "Farmed mink in both Spain and Finland have now been shown to become infected with bird flu H5N1. More fur-farmed mink outbreaks will surely follow. Mink fur farming (as well as raccoon dog and fox fur farming) should be banned for both humane and zoonotic disease risk reasons."

Keen noted how farmed mink tend to fare very poorly, fighting each other and engaging in acts of cannibalism and self-mutilation due to the intense stress of living in cramped, densely populated conditions.

"You cannot separate the inhumane conditions of factory fur-farmed mink from their susceptibility and propensity to acquire and spread infectious diseases to other mink, wild animals, or people," Keen said. "Mink are not just more susceptible to COVID-19 and bird flu H5N1 on a molecular level, they also get sick more than other animals because of their high density, high-stress farm environments to which they are genetically, behaviorally, and physiologically maladapted."

It is easy to find anecdotes supporting Keen's observation about cruelty on mink farms. Speaking to Salon in 2021 about his experiences growing up on a mink farm, Scott Beckstead  who is now director of campaigns for animal wellness action at the Center for a Humane Economy  recalled one mink with a beautiful bluish coat that literally died from terror.

"The foreman pulled out this sapphire female, and she struggled and she screamed," Beckstead told Salon, describing an incident that occurred in one of the last years that he visited his grandfather's southern Idaho mink farm. "Then she went limp. She literally died. There is no doubt that she was terrified. She had watched what was happening to the mink next to her. I think, honestly, the only explanation is that she died of sheer terror."

Even without the horrid living conditions weakening their bodies and minds, however, farmed mink would still be unusually disease prone because of what Keen earlier described at the molecular level.

"Mink are highly susceptible to respiratory viruses, which we know pass back and forth between mink and the humans working at fur farms," Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote to Salon. "The crowded conditions they exist in at fur farms, and the close contact and handling that are part and parcel of these operations are ideal for disease transmission."

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Keen broke down the exact science of why mink are so disease-prone. From an evolutionary standpoint, mink in the wild "are solitary carnivores. Carnivores have an inherent susceptibility to becoming infected with, but not clear, bacterial and viral infections, making them pathogen carriers." Carnivorous mammals like mink have inherent deficiencies in their immune systems that allow them to carry zoonotic diseases (those that spread between humans and animals) for long periods of time without killing them.

"These parasites and pathogens can then be transmitted to other susceptible animals and people," Keen pointed out. "Keeping large numbers of farmed carnivores crowded together on industrial 'farms' creates perfect conditions for the pathogens to be carried, to amplify their numbers, and, perhaps most importantly, to mutate into more dangerous variants."

Keen also broke down how some nations have been far better than others in addressing the public health crisis posed by the ongoing existence of mink farms.

"As far as I can tell, there have been two types of responses to COVID-19 outbreaks and zoonotic risk in fur-farmed mink," Keen observed, including "vigorous serious" responses such as those "in Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Spain and most EU countries where there has been mandatory testing, active surveillance and monitoring of mink and mink farmers, including euthanasia of infected herds and temporary or permanent shutdown of the farmed mink with farmer compensation."

Yet if the Finnish government's recent actions are any indication, there may be more of a public push to finally shut them down. Certainly there is major action occurring in the United States on that front. For example, the Center for Biological Diversity is pushing for legislation such as the Mink VIRUS Act, a piece of legislation the environmental group says is slowly gaining momentum. The bill would prohibit farming mink for their fur and compensate the farmers for their lost livelihoods.

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Two homes were destroyed in Juneau, Alaska, over the weekend due to glacial outburst flooding.

This type of flooding has been happening in Juneau since 2011. It occurs when thinning ice above the terminus of Mendenhall Glacier creates an ice dam in an area called Suicide Basin, which traps rain and meltwater. It fills up over the spring and summer before draining into Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River.

Usually, the glacial outburst flooding is gradual, but on Saturday, the lake and river levels began rising quickly. Juneau resident John Loverink told the Anchorage Daily News he had "no concerns" on Saturday morning, but by the afternoon the Mendenhall River was "four times as wide as it's ever been." Once the banks of the river eroded and he saw large clusters of trees start to fall into the water, Loverink quickly left his condo. He returned home on Sunday to see that one corner of his building was over a drop-off and the building next door was dangling in mid-air; both have been condemned by the city.

Several decks, deck chairs and structural timber floated by Juneau resident Bill Ballard as he watched the river rise on Saturday. "I was like, 'Oh my God, that's from houses upstream,'" he told the Daily News. His daughter lives in the same building as Loverink, and he helped get her out just before the fire department arrived. "You can't get in once they put up the tape," he said. "She's gonna lose a lot of stuff."

There was flooding reported "in areas that have not previously seen flooding before," the National Weather Service said, with the crest of Mendenhall Lake reaching 14.97 feet late Saturday, two feet over the last record set in 2016. "We didn't even think that this was possible," National Weather Service Juneau hydrologist Aaron Jacobs told ABC News.

There are thousands of cruise ship visitors who arrive in Juneau every day during the summer, with many including a trip to Mendenhall Glacier on their itinerary. City officials have already been dealing with the glacier receding  the glacier is melting faster because of rising temperatures, and by 2050, it might not be visible from the visitor center  and may need to add intense summer flooding to their list of concerns. "People come to Alaska to see what they consider to be a pristine environment and it's our responsibility to preserve that for residents and visitors," Alexandra Pierce, Juneau's tourism manager, told the Daily News.

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Junaid Saqib and his wife, Naseem Naz, stand with their daughters, Mishmal Junaid, 9, and Imsaal "Cherry" Junaid, 11, at their home in Lakeland. Junaid Saqib came to Lakeland in 2017, fleeing his native Pakistan, where he faced threats as a Christian in a Muslim country. His wife and daughters finally joined him here in May.

LAKELAND  For six years, Junaid Saqibs wife and two daughters knew him only as a face on a computer screen and a voice on the phone.

Separated by nearly 8,000 miles, Saqib and his family existed in different realms. As his daughters prepared for school in the morning in Pakistan, it was late at night in Lakeland, where Saqib resided.

And for six years, Saqib missed receiving cozy hugs from his daughters.

The family rupture has now been repaired. Saqibs wife, Naseem Naz, and their daughters  Imsaal Cherry Junaid, 11, and Mishmal Junaid, 9  arrived in the United States on May 2 and are now living with Junaid at his home in North Lakeland.

Its a great thing for us that we are together, Naz said. Its major happiness for our family.

Saqib fled his native Pakistan in 2017 after deciding it was unsafe for him to remain. As a Catholic, he was among only 1.6% of the Pakistani population who identify as Christians in a nation where Islam is the official state religion. In 2003, Saqib founded the Pakistan Minority Rights Commission, and he gained national prominence as an advocate for the fair treatment of religious minorities.

That status put him at risk in Pakistan, especially as the Pakistani Taliban  an ally of the pro-Muslim militant organization in neighboring Afghanistan  emerged and began carrying out attacks.

In 2013, suicide bombers affiliated with the Taliban detonated blasts in a Peshawar church, killing an estimated 300 people, including 11 of Saqibs relatives, he said. Despite such violence, Saqib and the PMRC continued to operate. Meanwhile, Saqib became a minority spokesman for a political party and twice ran unsuccessfully for a seat in a provincial parliament.

Saqib organized a demonstration that drew coverage from news outlets, and he appeared on TV saying the PMRC would oppose terrorism against non-Muslims. He soon began receiving threatening phone calls during the night, he said, and he found a letter slipped under his door warning that he would be killed if he did not desist.

Saqib decided to leave Pakistan, even though it meant separating from his wife and daughters, then ages 2 and 4. After an interval in Thailand, he came to the United States, supported by a Canadian pastor and missionary who had met him during a trip to Pakistan.

That pastor, a winter resident of Lakeland, asked a retired couple, Jim and Jan Plumb, if they might be able to host Saqib as he sought a home in the United States. They agreed, and Saqib became a guest in their home in March 2016.

Painful separation

After settling in Lakeland, Saqib stayed in touch with his family through daily videochats and text messages. He talked to Cherry (a longtime family nickname) and Mishmal as they prepared to leave for school. The girls attended a Catholic school in which all students learned English, but the family communicated in Urdu, Pakistans national language.

At first, Naz told the girls that Saqib had left simply to take a job in another country, not wanting to explain about religious persecution when her daughters were so young.

Naz served as a medical officer in the Pakistan Army, working in cardiac units. Photos displayed in the familys home depict her in various military uniforms  always wearing a headscarf, as the Army required women to do, even if they arent Muslims.

Naz, who spent 18 years in the Army, said she regularly received postings to other provinces for intervals as long as six or eight months. She periodically gained leave periods of 10 to 15 days, sometimes traveling 12 hours each way to be with her daughters.

It was a hard thing for me and for my kids, as I was a working woman and doing my job without husband and brought up my kids without husband, Naz said, sitting in the parlor of the house her husband recently bought. But his family has been a lot (of help) in all this, but definitely it was a hard time for me.

Naz said that Saqibs parents and siblings provided crucial support in caring for Cherry and Mishmal during her absences.

As Cherry grew older, she learned about her fathers work with the PMRC and became active with the organization. She served as a figurative substitute for Saqib, attending ribbon cuttings and other events as the PMRC opened new offices.

Previously Pakistani refugee fears Taliban will bring bloodshed

An electronic screen in the familys home displays a slide show of images, some of them photos of Cherry at PMRC gatherings with members of the Pakistan parliament.

Cherry was like my legacy in Pakistan when I left, because she went to different cities and spoke on behalf of me to the public rallies, Saqib said. And when she came to know why my dad left the country, she was upset, like  'Why do we struggle a lot for the country and still he has to leave the country?' So she couldn't handle that. But she said, I'm not quitting. I will keep forwarding to take this job to help people so nobody can say Khaan is dead. Khaan is still alive.

Khaan is an honorific nickname given to Saqib by fellow advocates for minority rights, adapted from a historic title for a military chief or ruler.

Following father's example

Asked if she felt any fear in following her fathers advocacy, Cherry shook her head and then spoke in a mix of English and Urdu.

She said she was not scared because shes Khaans daughter, Saqib said, prompting a laugh from Cherry.

The 12-year-old, dressed in American style in jeans and a collared top, said that friends were curious about her absent father.

They asked about my dad, and I told them he was the chairman (of the PMRC), she said in English.

Naseem Naz served as a medical officer in the Pakistan Army. She recently came to the United States to be reunited with her husband, Junaid Saqib, who fled Pakistan in 2017.

When her friends didnt believe her, Cherry shared photos of her father from PMRC events.

They were shocked, she said.

As a military member, Naz was mostly barred from involvement in political issues, though she did sometimes appear at PMRC events.

Saqib has remained one of the groups leaders even while living in the United States. He communicates regularly with other PMRC members, most recently working to gain protection for a Christian family he said was facing physical harassment from Taliban members.

During most of the time after Saqibs departure, Naz and the girls lived on military bases, affording them a level of security. For the final two years, though, the girls lived with Saqibs parents in Peshawar, often called one of the worlds most dangerous cities.

'These are proud people' Lakeland couple help displaced Afghans in New Mexico

Saqib now has permanent resident status in the United States, allowing him to petition U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to allow immediate family members to join him. He said the immigration process took much longer than he expected, but Naz and the girls eventually received visas. They are now seeking permanent resident status.

Naz and the girls left from the Islamabad airport, joined by about 20 weeping relatives, she said.

We had our relatives, brother and sisters and mother and father, all the family, Naz said. Its very hard to leave them. But we have to, because Junaid is here, and we have to reunite.

Settling in Lakeland

Saqib flew to New York to meet his wife and daughters as they arrived. The family spent about 10 days as tourists, visiting Niagara Falls and sightseeing in New York City, before coming to Lakeland.

Saqib had provided virtual tours of the neighborhood during his chats with his family, giving Naz and the girls a feeling of familiarity before they even arrived.

Mishmal, a petite girl with dark, curly hair, seemed shy and spoke little during an interview with the family, impatient to resume watching an Indian comedy program on Netflix.

While Saqib is thrilled to receive cozy hugs from his daughters again, he acknowledged that the adjustment has been difficult for Mishmal, who was only 2 when she last saw him in person.

Imsaal "Cherry" Saqib, in front holding flowers, represented her father in Pakistan at events organized by the Pakistan Minority Rights Council, a group Junaid Saqib founded. Cherry, now 11, has been reunited with her father in Lakeland.

She knows him but is not strongly connected with him, Naz said. That's why theres a little bit of trouble with her. When she saw the first time her father, she was a little 

She gave me a weird look, Saqib said.

Generally, though, Naz and the girls give the impression of adapting quickly to their new home. Mishmal and Cherry have become regulars at a community swimming pool, and the family has explored such local restaurants as Chilis, Golden Corral, a Chinese buffet and Curry Mango, whose Indian cuisine Saqib said is similar to the traditional Pakistani recipes the family makes at home.

They like spicy food, Saqib said of the girls. American food is  it's different.

Cherry finished fifth grade and Mishmal second grade in Pakistan, and Saqib has been seeking to enroll them in a local Catholic school. He credited Florida Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, with helping the girls secure scholarships through Step Up for Students, a nonprofit that administers state-supported financial aid to attend private schools.

Saqib said he expected the girls to begin next week at St. Anthony Catholic School in North Lakeland, though their enrollment had not been confirmed as of Thursday.

I came to know that mission work and helping people is not a piece of cake, Saqib said. You have to sacrifice, and I sacrificed for six years, being apart from my family, my kids, and that hurts me sometimes. But whenever I thought, like, how many people I helped, then I have more stability in myself and that was OK. I lost my family love, my time, my cozy hugs with the kids. But finally God has blessed me with them again.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Religious refugee from Pakistan reunited with wife, kids in Lakeland
Voters in communities across Wayne County will head to the polls Tuesday to vote in primary elections for council and mayoral races that will whittle down candidates for the general election in November.

The elections come as Wayne County struggles with population and economic growth. The county's population decreased by more than 16,000 residents last year, from 2021 to 2022, according to census data. About half of the decrease was outside of Detroit. The county also lost population the year before that.

Some of the candidates challenging incumbents said they're trying to improve transparency in how municipalities are run and make decisions. Others say they want to improve public safety and reduce taxes and regulations they say is making it difficult for small businesses. Cultural issues have also come up in some cities, such as Hamtramck, where one of the council candidates is speaking out against a ban on LGBTQ+ flags on public property.

Several cities, such as Livonia, don't have a primary because not enough candidates are running. Here's a look at some of the Wayne County cities that do have competitive races. In addition to the races discussed below, there are competitive primary races for Inkster council, Grosse Pointe Park council, Melvindale mayor, and Riverview mayor and city council.

Westland

With about 84,000 residents, Westland is one of the larger suburbs in Wayne County. It faced some political uncertainty after former longtime Mayor Bill Wild unexpectedly announced his resignation last year despite being reelected in 2021 for a four-year term. In April, Westland Police Chief Jeff Jedrusik resigned after videos surfaced from decades ago that appeared to show him verbally harassing and humiliating citizens, Hometown Life reported.

In January, the city council voted to make Michael Londeau, a former city council president, the mayor. Londeau is among six candidates on the ballot for the Tuesday primary; the top two will advance to the November election.

Five of the six candidates running for mayor in Westland in 2023. Top row, from left: Ali Awadi, state Rep. Kevin Coleman and Councilman Jim Godbout. Bottom row, from left: Anthony Jones and interim Mayor Mike Londeau.

"I know firsthand what it takes to run one of Michigan's largest cities," Londeau told the Free Press. "I am the only candidate with this valuable experience. It takes a talented team, a hard worker, motivation, and an innovator to manage a city of our size. Westland residents want a mayor that can deliver results, and I have been able to do that in my short time in office, and will continue to do so."

Londeau said he will focus on public safety and crime prevention; improving roads, parks, public spaces; create affordable housing, and promote cultural events, recreational programs and volunteer efforts to promote a better sense of community in Westland.

"I have also developed a deep familiarity with local issues and constituent needs, enabling me to address community concerns effectively," he said. "I believe I have strong collaborative and consensus-building abilities that have allowed me to work with diverse stakeholders. ... I also believe my experience in budgetary matters and financial acumen will continue to provide a solid foundation for making sound fiscal decisions."

More: Public test of election equipment nets audience of 2, ahead of Oakland primary

One of his challengers is State Rep. Kevin Coleman, D-Westland, who previously served on the city council.

"I believe Westland needs a mayor who knows government and how to deliver results for all of us that live here," Coleman told the Free Press. "My experience at the state and local levels will allow me to take Westland to the next level of great services, new businesses and amenities while keeping Westland a safe, secure community."

Coleman added that he will make public safety his top priority, nothing that he recently helped secure $7 million in state funding for the fire department. He also wants to improve city's streets and parks that he said will help attract new businesses.

"My experience at the state and local levels has given me the resources and relationships that will give Westland an advantage," he says in a campaign flyer.

Another challenger, Ali Awadi, is a political newcomer who moved to Westland a few years ago after living in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. He was previously director of public safety at Allegheny College in western Pennsylvania and also once was the assistant director for campus safety and Title IX administrator at Henry Ford College in Dearborn. Born in Iraq, he came to the U.S. in 1974, according to his biography

Awadi, who earned a doctorate in public administration from Walden University and taught business classes at Henry Ford, said Westland needs a mayor with more educational qualifications. He said that decisions by Westland's government are often made with little transparency and for special interests instead of the public good.

"The problem you have is there's no transparency," Awadi told the Free Press. "When you lack transparency, you're introducing corruption. ... things like contracts, who's getting the contracts? ... (Taxpayers) want to know where their tax money is being spent."

He said the resignation of the police chief illustrates problems in a department that is struggling to recruit officers despite offering higher pay than other departments in the region.

Awadi said he's an independent who's not part of a political machine or beholden to a party.

"Power needs to go back to the people," he said. "We've lost our founding fathers' goal."

The other three mayoral candidates are Councilman Jim Godbout, Anthony Jones, and Ronald Sassak, all of whom did not return messages seeking comment.

Hamtramck

Hamtramck has drawn national attention this year for its city council votes on cultural issues, such as approving animal sacrifices for religious reasons; criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians; banning political, religious and sexual orientation flags, and firing two commissioners who raised an LGBTQ+ flag on a city pole.

Some of those issues have become part of the race for three city council seats, but the candidates are also talking about several other issues, including: tax rates; concerns about bike lanes on commercial streets; selective enforcement of city laws; keeping streets clean, and policing.

There are nine candidates running for three city council seats; the top six candidates will advance to the November election.

Hamtramck City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan, right, Councilman Mohammed Alsomiri and Councilman Abu Musa listen to public comment before a vote about banning the LGBTQ+ pride flag and some other flags on government buildings during a city council meeting at Hamtramck City Hall on June 13, 2023. Hassan and Alsomiri are running for reelection in August 2023 primary.

Three of the candidates are incumbents: Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan, Nayeem Choudhury and Mohammed Alsomiri. Challengers include Lynn Blasey, the only candidate who supports allowing the raising of LGBGQ+ pride flags on city property.

Nasr Hussain, another candidate running for council who is outspoken on city issues, has made several promises he explained on his Facebook campaign page.

"I will present a resolution to abolish any unnecessary ordinances and laws that are selectively enforced," he wrote in one of his promises. "Giving preferential treatment to well-connected people will no longer be the tradition in Hamtramck."

Hussain also said that he would help put on the ballot a proposal to keep or get rid of the city's income tax and work to remove the bike lanes and posts placed on Joseph Campau Avenue that residents have criticized for disrupting traffic.

Regarding cultural issues, he told the Free Press: "I am for city neutrality regarding all controversial issues. City should remain neutral and concentrate on providing services to its residents."

More: Hamtramck city council ousts commissioners who raised LGBTQ+ flag

In contrast, Blasey said she is "absolutely against city council's decisions to prohibit and remove the Pride, Cherokee Nation and Pan African flags from public property."

She said: "Our diversity is our strength. No matter your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, language, culture, or country of origin, you belong here."

Blasey said she will also work to improve community safety, reduce speeding, add crosswalks, prevent flooding and sinkholes by upgrading infrastructure, attract new businesses, set up guidelines for tax abatements, and create "better public transit, bike lanes, and a less predatory parking meter system."The other challengers are Sari Ahmed, who said on a Facebook page he wants to lower property taxes and fix streets and alleys; Ruhel Amin; Muhtasin Rahman Sadman, a real estate broker who said he wants to lower property taxes, grow small businesses and make the city safer, and Yousuf Osman Saed.

The nine candidates represent the changing demographics of Hamtramck, which census data indicates is probably at least half Muslim and has the highest percentage of immigrants among cities in Michigan. Except for Blasey, all of the council candidates are Muslim. The six-member city council and mayor are also all Muslim.

Voters can choose English, Arabic or Bengali-language ballots to cast their vote.

Dearborn Heights

In Dearborn Heights, Mayor Bill Bazzi has tried to bring about what he said are necessary reforms for city government and the police department, hiring last year a new police chief, Jerrod Hart.

His changes have brought some criticism that sparked a recall effort.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi works in his office at Dearborn Heights City Hall on Oct. 25, 2021.

There are nine candidates running for three city council seats. The Tuesday primary will pare the nine down to six candidates for the general election. Two of the candidates are incumbents Mo Baydoun and Ray Muscat, both of whom did not return emails seeking comment on their candidacies.

One of the challengers is Zouher Abdel-Hak, an outspoken resident of the city for 32 years who is a former city councilman and city treasurer.

Last month, Abdel-Hak filed a petition to recall Bazzi, alleging the mayor violated city laws when making changes to the police and fire departments, reported the Dearborn Press and Guide. Bazzi said the attacks are politically motivated, and that he has been trying to root out waste and corruption. The recall petition language effort was rejected by the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.

"I want to focus on every dollar spent by the city to give the maximum benefit to the residents," Abdel-Hak said.

Another candidate running is former interim mayor and former city council chair Denise Malinowski Maxwell, In a statement to Patch, she said she wants to help with flooding problems in the city and also improve public safety.

"We have lost a lot of good officers," she said to Patch. "We need to give them the pay and respect they deserve. We need to make more changes to attract new officers."

The council candidates reflect the growing political activity of the city's Arab American population, who make up about one-third of the residents. Of nine candidates running, seven are Arab American.

Other council candidates on the ballot are Ahmad AlKaabi, president of the Iraqi American Foundation; Wissam Fadlallah, a real estate agent; Hussein Mazloum, a banking center manager at Comerica; Hassan Saab, who serves on the city's planning commission and downtown district authority, and Mohammed Janny. Janny told the Free Press that while he is still on the ballot, he has essentially dropped out and is not campaigning.

A full list of Wayne County candidates and ballot proposals is available at waynecounty.com/elected/clerk under "Election Information."

Hometown Life reporter Shelby Tankersley contributed to this report

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, Facebook.com/nwarikoo, Twitter @nwarikoo

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wayne County elections in Westland, Hamtramck, Dearborn Heights
Nearly 15 years before Greta Gerwig would break box office records as the director and co-writer of "Barbie," the filmmaker/actor was roaming the beach towns of Delaware filming a super low-budget $55,000 indie film named "The Dish & the Spoon."

Gerwig ("Lady Bird," "Little Women") starred as Rose, a woman spiraling from her husband's affair with her friend who then finds a British teenager sleeping in a World War II watchtower on Delaware's coast and befriends him.

Director Greta Gerwig arrives for the world premiere of "Barbie" at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, on July 9, 2023.

The future breakout director behind this summer's billion-dollar-grossing Margot Robbie/Ryan Gosling smash hit can be seen in scenes filmed in Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Broadkill Beach and Dewey Beach, along with Milton, Milford and Dover in the R-rated drama, which was released in 2011.

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"The Dish & the Spoon" director/co-writer Alison Bagnall imported the film's stars to Delaware  Gerwig and Olly Alexander, who has also gone on to bigger things as frontman of British electropop act Years & Years)  and used real-life Delawareans to play many of the other roles, including Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewery.

Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander sit on a bench on the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach in the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

Greta does Delaware

If you're familiar with Delaware's beaches, "The Dish & the Spoon" is not only a touching drama but also a fun scavenger hunt of sorts as identifiable locations keep coming throughout the 92-minute film.

The movie, which began its monthlong shoot in December 2009, starts with Gerwig driving along Route 1 in Dewey Beach with the former Grotto Pizza in the background as she heads north past Rehoboth Beach, past the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Greta Gerwig walks along the coast at Delaware's beaches with World War II watchtowers looming in the distance from the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

Following a stop at the former Lloyd's Deli and Resale Shop in Milford for a six-pack of Dogfish Head India Pale Ale wrapped in now-retro bottle labels, she walks along the coast with a pair of the beach's iconic watchtowers looming in the distance.

After walking up to the top of the watchtower on a gray winter day and slugging a beer, she discovers Alexander, whose character has just been stood up by a woman whom he had traveled from England to be with.

YUM YUM Looking for a specific dish or new Delaware restaurant? Try this popular Facebook group

Soon, they are off on many little adventures together, starting with a tour of Dogfish Head's Brewery in Milton with Calagione himself playing the brewer leading the tour.

Calagione has a few lines opposite Gerwig and Alexander before their characters split from the tour. Alexander playfully takes a bottle of beer from the production line as it goes by; Gerwig flips the fermentation tank spigot and gulps the flowing beer like she's in a boozy "Willy Wonka" film.

Greta Gerwhig drinks beer from a tank at Dogfish Head's Milton brewery in a scene from the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon" as Olly Alexander looks on.

Later, the pair walk along Rehoboth Avenue, peeking into Browseabout Books, resting on the white Boardwalk benches and sharing a kiss in a booth at the former Finbar's Pub & Grill, now Dogfish's Chesapeake & Maine. In another scene, Gerwig has a moment in front of the Candy Kitchen at the end of Rehoboth Avenue on the Boardwalk.

After a visit to the Sussex Family YMCA in Rehoboth Beach, they end up at Lewes' Fisherman's Wharf, complete with a cameo by owner H.D. Parsons as they set off on a chartered fishing trip. Later, the duo dress up for retro photographs at Yesteryear's Old Time Photos on Rehoboth Avenue with owner Jim Miller himself playing the photographer.

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Locals who co-starred with Gerwig

During his scene, Calagione seems natural as the film's brewer. It shouldn't be too surprising since he's a former model who took a few theater classes in college and spent his post-college years living with actors, including some of the founders of MTV's "The State."

Ryan Gosling, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie attend a photo call for "Barbie" at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on June 25, 2023, in Los Angeles.

He remembers getting an email from Bagnall and was impressed by her credentials: She had co-written Vincent Gallo's 1998 film "Buffalo 66" and also directed/co-wrote 2003's "Piggie," which had a cast including John C. Reilly and musician Dean Wareham of rock act Luna. (Wareham contributed a few songs for "The Dish & the Spoon" soundtrack.)

"We think of Dogfish Head as an art project first and business second, so I said come down," Calagione says.

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He wasn't familiar with Gerwig or Alexander, but remembers taking them to Half Full in Lewes for pizza and beer with Bagnall one night.

Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione in a scene with Greta Gerwig at his Milton brewery in the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

It was when Gerwig wrote and directed "Lady Bird" in 2017, earning five Academy Award nominations, when Calagione first realized she was a one-time co-star of his.

"I was like, 'Oh my, God, that's a name I remember from that movie,'" he says.

As for Parsons at Lewes' Fisherman's Wharf, it wasn't until he got a call from Delaware Online/The News Journal last week that he recalled his day on the boat for "The Dish & the Spoon." He recalled having to buy a frozen fish at the market for the scene where they reel in a catch.

H.D. Parsons, owner of Fisherman's Wharf in Lewes, in a scene from the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

Even so, Parsons had no idea the woman whom he shared a scene with is now the hottest director in Hollywood with a blockbuster that has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide in less than three weeks  a film his 17-year-old daughter saw opening night at Movies at Midway on Coastal Highway.

"I'm going to go home and tease her about it," Parson says of his newfound Gerwig co-star status.

Gerwig: a 'powerhouse' even back then

Bagnall says she chose Delaware's beaches after hearing about the area from a student's mother at her kid's school. She didn't want to use the Jersey Shore; she was looking for a more old-fashioned seaside town and with less of the larger, newer homes that dominate the coast.

Writer/director Alison Bagnall (right) with "The Dish & the Spoon" stars Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander during filming at Delaware's beaches.

"I had never set foot on Delaware's beaches before," she says, adding that she used an old cottage that was for sale on Broadkill Beach as the home where Gerwig and Alexander spend some time. "There was an elderly couple selling it and it was unchanged from the '60s so it had a lot of character."

After a week of scouting locations in the fall of 2009 while staying at a local motel, she finished her script, making sure to add scenes to fit what she found during her visit like those in the watchtower and at Dogfish Head.

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"I like movies where the location is almost one of the characters, so for me, the Delaware beaches were really one of the characters in the film with those two people" Bagnall adds. "They were all equal."

Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander walk along Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach in the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

Gerwig had been attached to a previous film Bagnall had been working on, but it fell apart. She used the remaining money from that film to make "The Dish & the Spoon." And since she was contractually obligated to make a film starring Gerwig, she wrote a new script and built a story around her and Alexander.

The pair had previously met on the set of 2008's "Nights and Weekends," which was co-directed and co-written by Gerwig with Bagnall playing a reporter in the romantic drama.

"I could tell she was dynamic. Sometimes you meet people and they are just movie stars," she says of Gerwig. "She's always been a powerhouse. A force of nature. When you were with her, you felt like you were in the presence of someone extremely special."

"The Dish & the Spoon" director/writer Alison Bagnall with actor Olly Alexander during filming at Delaware's beaches.

Bagnall has seen "Barbie," which she knew Gerwig would put her unique stamp on it. However, she didn't believe she would be able to make it as subversive as she did.

"I had no idea she was going to be able to make it a whole discussion on gender and culture," says Bagnall, who saw it opening day in the afternoon at a Philadelphia-area art house theater.

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She says she was blown away not only by the film but the experience of seeing women of all ages dressed in pink flooding theaters again for what has become a cultural touchstone event.

Jim Miller, owner of Yesteryear's Old Time Photography in Rehoboth Beach, takes a photo of Greta Gerwig and Olly Alexander in the 2011 film "The Dish & the Spoon."

"I'm getting emotional just thinking about it," says Bagnall, who is currently working on her next film, "Mendicants." "Everybody came together and felt connected at a time when everyone seems to be at each others' throats and feel so divided. It was so thrilling. I'm so happy for her."

And, yes, she did shed some tears watching the film, as many moviegoers have in recent weeks: "I didn't expect to cry at the end of a 'Barbie' movie."

Where to watch 'The Dish & the Spoon'

"The Dish & the Spoon" is available for free on ad-supported streaming services Tubi, Pluto TV, Vudu and The Roku Channel. It can also be rented ($2.99) or purchased ($7.99) on Amazon Prime.

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and Twitter (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware's beaches starred alongside Greta Gerwig before 'Barbie'
TAVARES  One of two co-defendants in the frenzied slaying of a beloved 92-year-old retired teacher is scheduled to stand trial on Aug. 15.

Joshua McClellan, 26, is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the slaying of Rubye James at her home in Leesburg in 2017. The state is seeking the death penalty.

Co-defendant Krystopher Laws, 28, pleaded guilty in 2020 in a deal that sent him to prison for life without parole instead of death row.

Authorities charged the two with breaking into James' Leesburg home in the 2200 block of Edgewood Road and beating and repeatedly stabbing her. Authorities say they stole her car and buried her body in a shallow grave. They reportedly netted $70 in cash, which they spent buying marijuana.

The murder outraged the community.

Family and friends of Rubye Harrison James leave after a service on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017, at Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Leesburg. The 92-year-old retired school teacher was murdered in her home.

This had no business happening, the Rev. Haywood Richardson said at her funeral.

It ripped my family. I think about it every day," her son, Wayne Solomon, told the Daily Commercial in 2019. I think, how did she feel? Did she suffer?

Goodwin Orchids even created a new hybrid in her honor: Vanda Memoria Rubye Harrison James.

I did it because I did not want Miss Rubye to be forgotten, Donna Goodwin said in 2019.

Soft heart for students

James taught in Lake and Sumter schools for more than 50 years, including Dabney Elementary in Leesburg and Webster Elementary in Sumter County. She also taught in Georgia. I think it was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Solomon said with a chuckle during a recent interview with the Daily Commercial.

She had a soft heart for the kids who were slow, Solomon said. She was the type of person who would do anything for you.

McClellan, who had done yard work for James, wept and denied killing her when sheriffs deputies took him and his co-defendant to the Lake County jail.

All you all know I loved that woman, he told reporters. She sometimes fed him.

He admitted breaking into her 2016 Hyundai Veloster to look for money. I just took it for a ride, he said.

You are putting on a show and Im tired of it, sheriffs Detective Levi Burns told Laws during his interrogation, according to court documents. Stopstop the fake crying, lets talk.

I swear. I swear. I swear. And Josh wouldnt kill Ms. Rubye. He loves her too much.

Bloody crime scene

Deputies were called by neighbors on Feb. 8, 2017. They had not talked to her for a day or two. They found a house slipper and her glasses on the front porch, two potted plants that had been turned over, and security bars pried off the door. There was also blood spatter.

Inside, they found droplets, a stained light switch, and puddles of blood. The contents of James' purse had been emptied onto her bed, and drawers and file cabinet doors yanked open. Her car was missing. There were drag marks and some blood-stained tools in the garage.

Her car was found in the parking lot of Snow Place apartments on Sunnyside Drive. A resident noticed blood smeared on the outside of the vehicle.

Deputies found a blood-stained knife on the console and a Bible that had been used to soak up blood. McClellan, who said Laws accidentally cut his hand when the blade folded on his hand, said the two originally eyed the Bible pages for marijuana rolling papers.

A cadaver dog sniffed out a trail leading to her shallow grave, covered with vegetation.

Officials investigate the scene where Rubye Harrison James' body was found on Thursday, Feb. 09, 2017 in Leesburg.

Detectives got some unexpected help from McClellans mother, Sara Collins, who lived at Snow Place, according to court documents. She went to the Leesburg Police station on Feb. 10 with her son and Laws. She told Lake investigators Burns and Danny Morales that the two had stolen a car from the Leesburg parking garage.

Conflicting stories

I did not kill her, McClellan told investigators when they turned up the heat. He did.

Then what happened? the investigator asked, according to documents in the court case. If he killed her, tell me what happened.

I dont know because I was not there, he said.

Prosecutors, however, are seeking the death penalty, stating that the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice.

Detectives began their questioning of Laws by taking a DNA swab of his mouth. He claimed he cut himself while playing with his fiancees nephew.

Why would your blood be on Ms. Rubyes car? Burns asked.

Its not on the inside of the car, is it?

Yeah, it is, Burns replied.

Crime scene investigators also found an adhesive bandage on the floorboard that matched ones found in the house.

The detective then asked why his palm print was on a mirror in the living room. Laws cursed. Asked why his sweater with his DNA was found in the house, he denied it was his.

It was Joshs plan, he said.

What was the plan?

I dont know.

He claimed he thought she needed him for something, then claimed he didnt go in the house with McClellan. Then, he admitted going inside.

Josh said he was going to get a few dollars.

He said the plan was to rob her, though he could not say how that would work since she would certainly recognize McClellan.

Ms. Rubye, Im so sorry I did it. I didnt want to do it, he exclaimed.

What did you do, Krys?

I  killed Ms. Ruby.

When asked how he killed her, he denied saying he had.

You just did.

Brutal attack

He said McClellan hit her head with his hand. Later, he admitted striking the first blow.

McClellan closed the door, he said, adding, he started stabbing her and then he handed me the knife.

He said she was lying face down when he kicked her a couple of times and stuff like that  the back of her head or something. He told me to make sure  he told me to make sure she was dead.

How did he make sure?

I  stabbed her.

The autopsy report cited multiple sharp force injuries, including several head wounds, a large neck wound, and injury to the spine, five stab wounds to the back, including injuries to the ribs, left lung and spine, two stab wounds to the buttocks, multiple blunt force injuries, broken ribs and several cuts and bruises.

Burns asked how a robbery plan ended up as a frenzied stabbing.

It was just the right thing to do.

Killing her was the right thing to do?

No, he said, robbing her seemed like the thing to do.

Cry for justice

Its going on six years. Its unbelievable, Solomon said during the interview.

His oldest daughter, Tanika Palle, wanted the death penalty, but she died two years ago.

The state and the defense have been granted delays. Covid delayed the case by at least two years.

Solomon is not in favor of the death penalty. When I face my maker, I dont want anything on my slate," he said.

Earlier coverage: Life in prison for death of beloved teacher

Theyre going to do what theyre going to do, he said of the State Attorneys Office. Thats on them.

Seeking the death penalty was a decision made by the now retired elected State Attorney Brad King.

What Solomon does want is to ensure that McClellan never gets a chance to walk the streets again.

He was pleased when Laws was sentenced to life in prison.

What are his chances of rehabilitation? he asked of Laws. "None. He will be locked up with other animals, he said at the time.

One good thing, hes got to face the Lord above, he said last week. If he gets a chance to repent, hell still pay for it.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Death penalty sought in 2017 slaying of teacher. Trial set for Aug. 15.
Grzegorz Kobeluch, 53, is a hard-faced man of few words. Polish with Ukrainian roots, hes one of the owners of West Agro  a Ukrainian agricultural company.

Maybe because of his heritage  or maybe because it was simply a good business opportunity  he crossed the border to work the 25,000 acres of wheat fields, distributed among a handful of towns on the western fringe of Ukraine.

West Agro exemplifies the damage that Moscows blockade of the Black Sea has done to Ukrainian agriculture. In the past, the grain would be shipped out through the Port of Odessa, in the southwest of the country, but now this route cant be used. Instead, the grain has to be transported by train to Western Europe, but the narrow rail infrastructure complicates everything. On top of that, while Poland allows Ukrainian grain to pass through its territory, the government  to protect local farmers  has imposed a ban on the purchasing of the produce, meaning that it has to travel a much greater distance to reach buyers.

Kobeluch  who doesnt seem like a pessimistic fellow  affirms: If things continue like this, well have funds for one year, but not for two, we would have to close. His company employs 80 people.

In the middle of July, Russia announced that it wouldnt extend the grain agreement reached a year ago with the mediation of Turkey and the U.N., which cleared the journey of cargo ships through the Black Sea. If the situation for Ukraines agricultural sector  the main source of its exports, with less than a third of the harvest allocated for domestic consumption  was already complicated, now, its suffering from a barrage of daily torpedoes, both literally and figuratively. The Russian veto has also put economies in the Global South at risk, as many nations depend on wheat imports. The European Union and the U.N. have warned of a possible food crisis.

The UCAB agrarian association  which brings together the largest Ukrainian companies in this sector  shares an important piece of data with EL PAIS: two million tons of cereals destined for export havent been able to set sail in the last year. The inability to export through seaports, says Svitlana Litvin, an analyst at UCAB, the destruction of infrastructure in Odessa and the Danube river ports, and the ban on importing agro-industrial products in neighboring EU countries will have a very negative impact.

On the ground, one can see that the corn stalks in the West Agro fields are very tall, with rich, bright green leaves showing. Theyre ready for harvesting. Your eyes get lost trying to see the end of the cultivated land  in Ukraine, the fields are endless. Ninety percent of what Kobeluchs men have planted is corn, while 10% is wheat. In charge of operations is Nazarii Garasim, a 28-year-old Ukrainian. Elegant, tall and smiling (despite everything), he recounts another problem: We have to keep the corn where the wheat that we havent sold is stored. That is, in the storage elevators, which are the most important place in an agricultural company, and the target of Russian missiles. These silos  like those attacked by Moscow in the Port of Izmail last week  can hold up to 85,000 tons. From there, the wheat is loaded onto the trucks and sent to the western border. But if the grain doesnt sell quickly enough, theres no room for the new crops, which are either harvested late, or they rot.

The agreement between Ukraine and Russia  brokered by Turkey in July 2022  allowed cargo ships carrying grain to leave the Odesa terminals, following inspections by Ukrainian, Turkish, Russian and U.N. officials. This laborious process was very slow at times  according to UCAB data, this past July, only 292,000 tons were exported through this channel. Each time the pact was set to be renewed, Moscow showed hesitation, claiming that the contents of the agreement werent being complied with, or demanding that the sanctions be lifted. And then, 20 days ago, Russia left the table completely.

A combine harvester in a barley field in the Odessa region. STRINGER (REUTERS)

This past Friday, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry  Maria Zakharova  listed Moscows demands, with a tone of annoyance at Washingtons pressure to return to the grain agreement. On behalf of the Kremlin, she denounced obstacles to exporting its own grains and fertilizers, two essential products for many countries in the Global South. Zakharova conditioned the return to the talks with the reconnection of the Russian agricultural bank  Rosselkhozbank  to the international payment system SWIFT. The disconnection of Russian banks from this platform was one of the first sanctions agreed to by the West after the start of the invasion in February 2022. She also demanded the reestablishment of transportation logistics and insurance coverage for the Russian agricultural sector, while emphasizing that Russian companies must be allowed to access their assets abroad.

Maksim Panchenko is an analyst for the online publication UkraineWorld, run by Ukrainian journalist and philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko. Panchenko believes that yielding to the demands expressed by Zakharova would give a double victory to Moscow. First, on the strategic level, it would mean that Russia is no longer stuck in a dead end in the face of anti-Russian Western unity. And secondly, in a reputational sense: The Kremlins goal is to cancel Putins image as a big Hitler-style villain. Russia will try to say: if we were really like Nazi Germany, would the world be negotiating with us?

The UkraineWorld analyst also warns that the consequences of the breach of the agreement will not only inflict a new blow on the Ukrainian economy, but [this will also have an effect] on buyers who were waiting for their grain and will not receive [their orders].

Despite everything, the businessman Kobeluch  who estimates that he has lost millions of hryvnas due to the resumption of the blockade in the Black Sea  is optimistic. I think they [Ukraine and Russia] will come to an agreement, he shrugs. They have no other choice.

However, as the negotiations drag on, agricultural businesses are suffering. In fact, the costs theyre facing have already increased. West Agro is, again, a good example of this. Kobeluch calculates that they spend 90 ($98.8)for each ton of grain that they take by rail to the Netherlands, one of the main destinations for their cargo. Exporting through the Port of Odesa, on the other hand, cost them only 35 ($38.4) per ton.

And if you cant sell all that youve harvested?

We have to sell it no matter what, Kobeluch answers grimly.

In a way, he still projects the confidence of a businessman who will always figure out how to achieve his goals. He already did it when, one day, he saw that a lot of grains were being left over during the harvesting process. He decided to embark into the world of livestock, so that this wouldnt go to waste. Around 500 cows are now benefiting from this new little venture.

Sooner or later, the war will end. But that doesnt mean we should sit around doing nothing in the meantime.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition
A train derailment in southern Pakistan on Sunday left 30 people dead and more than 90 others injured, according to local officials.

Ten cars of a Hazara Express train headed to the city of Rawalpindi derailed off the tracks near the Sarhari railway station off the town of Nawabshah in Pakistan, senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho told The Associated Press (AP). He said some cars were also overturned during the derailment.

Videos from local television documented the rescues of women, children and elderly passengers who were trapped in the damaged and overturned cars. Locals were seen distributing food and water, according to the AP.

The injured were taken to the nearby Peoples Hospital in Nawabshah, Lakho said.

Train traffic was suspended on the main railway while repair trains were called to the accident, said senior railway officer Mohsin Sayal. Sayal told the AP that alternative travel plans and medical care would be made available to the trains passengers.

Abid Baloch, another senior railway officer, later said from the scene that rescue efforts were completed after dozens of those wounded were taken to safety and crews cleared the last flipped car.

Pakistan Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said Sunday morning that rescue efforts were assisted by the Pakistan Army, the Sindh Rangers  a parliamentary federal law enforcement corps in Pakistan  and the provincial government.

He told the AP a mechanical fault or the result of sabotage may have caused the crash, but the investigation remains underway.

The exact cause of the accident is being investigated, despite the fact that the track is technically fit of travel. It is too early to say anything before the investigation into the accident, Rafique wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said he was deeply saddened to learn about the accident, adding he asked railway authorities for a report on the accident.

May Allah forgive the deceased passengers and grant patience to their families, Sharif wrote on X.

I pay tribute to the Pakistan Railways, Rescue and Pakistan Army personnel for their efforts to help the people, he continued.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Older Americans scammed into believing they won a massive lottery prize sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay fees and taxes on the winnings that didnt exist, federal prosecutors said.

Antony Linton Stewart, 39, a Jamaican national, convinced at least 10 people they won a prize worth millions  and at other times, a new car  by lying to them over the phone, according to court documents filed in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.

After telling them they needed to pay taxes and fees to obtain their winnings, some people mailed packages with thousands of dollars in cash to Stewarts intermediaries, according to a factual basis filed in support of a plea agreement.

Other victims wired the money to the intermediaries, who are accused of turning the money over to Stewart, prosecutors said.

Stewart, of St. James Parish, Jamaica, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with his lottery scheme, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of North Carolina announced in an Aug. 4 news release.

His guilty plea comes after his extradition from Jamaica, according to the release.

McClatchy News contacted Charlotte-based attorney S. Frederick Winiker, who represents Stewart, for comment Aug. 7 and didnt receive an immediate response.

Each year, millions of older Americans suffer heavy financial losses in the hands of scammers operating in the United States and abroad, U.S. Attorney Dena J. King, for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a statement. Todays guilty plea underscores our efforts to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of elder fraud schemes no matter where they originate.

How much money were Americans scammed out of?

Stewart is accused of leading his lottery scam targeting older individuals living in the U.S. from 2010 until at least August 2016, according to the factual basis, which says he used aliases including James Carter and Robert Morgan when calling victims.

Those conned into believing they won a lottery prize  and sending Stewarts intermediaries money  were repeatedly barraged with additional calls from Stewart, who is accused of requesting more money, the factual basis says.

Ultimately, there was no lottery and no winnings were paid; rather, Stewart and his co-conspirators fraudulently kept the victims money for their own benefit, the factual basis says.

While prosecutors didnt specify exactly how much money victims were scammed out of, the amount is more than $550,000 and less than $1,500,000, according to the factual basis.

Stewarts scheme targeted at least one person described as a vulnerable victim and involved him pretending to act on behalf of a government agency, the factual basis says.

His guilty plea is the result of an investigation led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, according to prosecutors.

The Department of Justices Consumer Protection Branch and prosecutors for the Western District of North Carolina are prosecuting the case against him, the release said.

Woman conned into converting life savings to gold  but she outconned the cons, feds say

Father, sons lied and claimed $21M in lottery prizes, feds say. 2 are going to prison

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Nashville musician Derek Webb expected the attacks from conservative Christians about his new Gospel album. But he didn't anticipate how the protest against those attacks would propel a singing-songwriting drag queen to the top of the Christian music charts.

Webb, a former Contemporary Christian music star, just released his new album, The Jesus Hypothesis, and as part of that, collaborated with drag musician Flamy Grant for a song and a music video. The collaboration fueled backlash from a rightwing Christian musician, creating a scenario that Grant leveraged to find new levels of success and attention to her solo work.

Though it happened a different way than Webb expected, the two artists achieved the same goal they originally sought after: to reclaim the definition of contemporary Christian music.

Nashville musician Derek Webb and singing-songwriting drag queen Flamy Grant perform a song from Webbs new album, The Jesus Hypothesis at GracePointe Church in Nashville for an album release event, July 23, 2023. Photo credit: Emily Tingley.

I like the idea of a Christian church staying in that space and trying to catch all the people who were being cast out of evangelical spaces, Webb said in an interview. The same group that was doing the hurting is now doing the healing.

That contrarian ideal has guided both Webb and Grant in their recent careers.

'They're not alone'

After 10 years playing with Caedmons Call, an evangelical Christian band, Webb embarked on a solo career that allowed him to make music that challenged religious traditions. Grant, also drawing from her evangelical background, released her 2022 album Bible Belt Baby, which she calls the worlds first contemporary Christian music record by a drag performer.

Inspired by a small group church discussion, Grant wrote a track on her 2022 album called Good Day about reconciling ones faith and their identity as an LGBTQ person. Grants offstage name is Matthew Blake.

I want to place myself squarely in the (religious) space and take up the space so that other people know theyre not alone, Grant said in an interview.

That sowed the seeds of the eventual collaboration between Grant, an emerging artist, and Webb, whos well-established and was looking for creative ways to speak to the present discourse about drag and gender identity. Out of that emerged Boys Will Be Girls, a track on "The Jesus Hypothesis" that Webb collaborated with Grant for the vocals and a music video. In the music video, Grant dresses Webb in drag.

"The Jesus Hypothesis" is Nashville-based singer-songwriter Derek Webb's latest album and it seeks to challenge traditional notions within evangelical Christianity and affirms those who are doubting their faith.

Tennessees recent legislative fight over drag shows was an event Webb said directly inspired the music video. I was extremely conscious of that and was really hoping that it would be provocative in a constructive way, especially in Tennessee, in my home state, Webb said.

In June, a federal judge in Memphis struck down a new state law aimed at severely restricting some drag performances.

The Nashville region is also notably the home of the contemporary Christian music industry.

Taking it a step further, Webb and Grant performed Boys Will Be Girls at a local church, GracePointe Church in Nashville, at a July 23 album release event for The Jesus Hypothesis.

Webb posted a photo on social media after the July 23 event, drawing the ire of Sean Feucht. Feucht, a former worship leader at the prominent Bethel Church in California, is a controversial figure who's known for his musical performances at far-right political rallies.

These are truly the last days, Feucht said in a tweet about Webbs photo, commenting on how Webbs collaboration with Grant is an example of the perilousness that follows someone who abandons orthodoxy. Feucht said in another post nobody listens to Grants music, a comment that energized Grant to mobilize her fans to defy Feucht.

Flamy Grant, a singing-songwriting drag queen whose 2022 album, "Bible Belt Baby" is the first contemporary Christian album by a drag performer.

I thought it would be a win if we could just see a drag queens face literally on the Christian charts, that would have been awesome, Grant said. But she didn't just crack the charts.

Rising on the music charts

Through TikTok posts and word-of-mouth, Grants 10-month-old album, Bible Belt Baby, and the track Good Day climbed to the top of the iTunes Christian music charts.

Feucht did not respond to a request for comment.

Webb and Grant are aware of the combative nature of their work and are somewhat intentional about it. They also dont expect widespread reception from the gatekeepers of genres in which their work is labeled, such as Gospel or contemporary Christian.

But Webb and Grant also didnt foresee their ability to invert those rules by using momentum generated by those same naysayers.

Im just trying to get people to wake up and pay attention and to think about their presumptions, Webb said. If people stand up and clap or if people stand up and leave, Im equally pleased and feel like Ive done my job.

Similar themes: 'Training ground': How the Vanderbilt Divinity School is challenging the religious status quo

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter and Threads @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Gospel album featuring a drag queen topped Christian music charts
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was interrupted repeatedly by jeers during a breakfast speech in his home state of Kentucky Saturday, for what appeared to be the entirety of his appearance.

While the Associated Press describes how McConnell arrived to a prolonged standing ovation, and received a rousing welcome from the party faithful, he was also met with boos as he told the crowd that he and his wife, Elaine, were really excited to be back at the 143rd Annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic, where almost 20 Democratic and Republican speakers appeared. The picnic traditionally marks the beginning of the fall campaign season.

McConnell appeared to bear the brunt of the crowds ire, with chants including shame on you, ditch Mitch, retire, and lost the Senate, ringing around the packed arena as he spoke. McConnell, seemingly unperturbed, powered on without acknowledging the hostile reception. The Associated Press cites Democrats for leading the crowd revolt.

My friends, Ill be honest, its not hard for Republicans to look good these days, McConnell could be heard amid roaring boos.

Well, this is my 28th Fancy Farm, and I want to assure you, its not my last, McConnell added. The comment seemed to confirm speculation he was not retiring anytime soon after recent concerns surrounding his healthmost notably after the Senate Minority Leader seemingly froze mid-sentence while talking to reporters last week. It was the only hint he made about his recent health battles.

BREAKING: Mitch McConnell met with chants of "Retire" today at Kentucky's Fancy Farm Picnic 2023 pic.twitter.com/BbGpB9IMeq   Tess T. Eccles-Brown, PhD - she/they  (@TTEcclesBrown) August 6, 2023

During his speech, McConnell stuck to the script, failing to discuss national issues, or Donald Trump, who just this weekend described McConnell at an event in South Carolina as perhaps the worst leader in the history of our country running the Senate. The former president also urged him to step up and do something to help him fight his recent legal battles.

Theyve got something on Mitch McConnell, Trump fumed.

Its a terrible thing thats happening with that guy and with the wholethey gotta step up. The House is stepping up, theyre working hard and they are stepping up and I think a lot of things are happening but well see.

Kentucky crowd shouts retire at Mitch McConnell  pic.twitter.com/DxsHUzl5AK  1776 (@TheWakeninq) August 6, 2023

During his speech, McConnell instead focused on increasing pork prices and Democrats who turned their backs on rural America while praising state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is challenging Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

Ive watched him over the years, McConnell said amid the mayhem. And now you have. And youve seen his leadership skills, his ability to rally people together.

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Connecticut was getting a handle on homelessness issues, but now more people are becoming homeless again.

After years of fewer and fewer people being homeless in the state, 2021 saw a 13% increase in the number of homeless individuals to 2,930 and 2022 saw a 2.9% increase in homelessness to 3,015, according to Advancing CT Togethers HIC PIT (Housing Inventory Count Point in Time) Reports for 2022 and 2023. However, both years saw decreasing chronic homelessness.

A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic instability, and a lack of affordable housing caused the current homelessness situation today, Martin House Executive Director Jon Maderia said.

Martin House Executive Director Jon Maderia met with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney Wednesday about addressing homelessness.

We say we have vouchers for housing, but theyre not places that go along with the voucher all the time, he said.

In 2013, Martin House was able to place 15 people into transitional housing. This year, theyve only placed four, Maderia said.

About Martin House

Martin House is a facility that can house individuals who were homeless or were almost homeless due to mental health reasons. The co-ed facility can house 54 individuals, according to its website.

In addition to the 54 residents, Martin House currently has a 20-person waiting list. It may be a long time before those people can move in, as the typical Martin House resident stays four or five years, said housing supports program director Lori Goepfert.

Ninety percent of residents at Martin House, and 80% of the waiting list, are men. While there might not be a definitive answer, there could be more services available for women, Goepfert said.

Lori Goepfert, in center, has worked at Martin House for 33 years, and is currently the Housing Supports Program Director. Housing affordability has been an issue in eastern Connecticut for decades, she said.

A lack of affordable housing in southeastern Connecticut isnt new, and while people would find roommates in the past, the pandemic made people less likely to live with people they dont know, Goepfert, a 33-year employee of Martin House, said.

Fewer people can afford rent to live the way they want to live, she said.

The affordable housing issue isnt going away until all cities and towns have those options.

People shouldnt have to be stuck, but Im not seeing a big difference from 30 years ago to today, she said.

Stereotypes around homelessness and affordable housing need to be dispelled

Stereotypes about affordable housing also need to be dispelled, as affordable housing doesnt need to be massive buildings that the disrupt the character of neighborhood, Maderia said.

While Martin House residents often stay for years, theres a need for them and others in the area to have access to transitional housing and support programs, where people can be supported until theyre ready for services to be pulled back, Madiera said.

Some of those support pieces include social support, and instruction in everyday tasks, like cooking. Martin House supported a man who got into an apartment from the Norwich Housing Authority for a year until he could be referred to another service agency who can give similar supports but less time, Recovery for Life Program Director Constance Graves said.

We get them back again, or they go to another agency, and they have to start the process over again, she said, referring to when transitional services arent available.

More: 'This is meant to be': Two more families move into Greeneville Habitat homes

Outside of Martin House in Norwich

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep Joe Courtney visited Martin House. He echoed Martin Houses sentiments that transitional housing is a time-tested model, and needs to be supported further, even though the housing market has tightened up.

If were going to solve that problem and avoid whats happening in other parts of the country where communities have lost control of the issues of housing and homelessness, we need to listen to folks at places like Martin House, he said.

Martin House relies on grants, donations and fundraisers to keep the doors open

Currently, Martin House receives only a minimal amount of guaranteed funding, and relies on grants, donations, and fundraisers, including a fundraiser prime rib dinner Sept. 15 at the Shennecossett Yacht Club in Groton.

With donations, theres a need to engage younger donors, as they tend to donate less, or are less likely to donate to local causes. Theyre needed to counteract reductions in grant funding and older donors stopping, Maderia said.

How do we maintain what were doing, he said.

Residents also have to contribute between 60% to 75% of their social security income to Martin House, but get access to services and cafeteria meals for each meal, Hatfield said.

While staff salaries take up most of the budget, we do more than what were paid for, as Martin House staff need to be available at all hours Development Assistant Cara Hatfield said.

Were not going to sit by and watch somebody struggle or whatever the case may be, because thats not what were about, she said.

Martin House resident Donald Hunter wants to become a drug and alcohol counselor, so he can help people who've been through similar situations.

One residents story

One of Martin Houses current residents is Donald Hunter. After being incarcerated for an addiction-related reason, he went to a program in New Haven for a few months, then was at another program in Norwich for a year and half before coming to the Martin House three years ago.

Hunter has had good experience while living at the Martin House, and has stayed out of trouble. He is looking for a job, as his last one ended when his workplace closed. Despite this, hes confident he can talk to staff or his friends at Martin House if hes going through rough patches.

Im not a statistic anymore, he said. Im not in a continuous cycle of going in and out of prison.

Once hes ready to move on, Hunter wants to return to New York, where he lived in 2004 and 2005. He also wants to eventually become a drug and alcohol counselor.

Id like to give back any way that I could, he said.

Whats next?

The homelessness picture going forward depends on how the economic picture is. Some people may be able to keep a job, but arent able to keep up with expenses, Goepfert said.

If your income is here, and everything else is up here, sometimes youre left out in the cold, she said.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Homelessness increasing in CT state needs affordable transitional housing
ASHEVILLE - At the beginning of June, a new North Carolina law was passed that will change the way members of the Buncombe County school board will be elected. But what will this law do for Asheville City Schools?

The Asheville City Board of Education met Aug. 1 for its first work session of the 2023-24 school year, also marking the first meeting with new Superintendent Maggie Fehrman. Board Chair George Sieburg called the meeting to order and a round of applause echoed the room as staff and board members welcomed Fehrman.

At the work session, board members discussed the possible ramifications that the law, which requires the redrawing of Buncombe County school districts, may have on the city school district. While it doesn't seem to impact the city board, it could possibly impact students and ACS families.

Board Attorney Chris Campbell said that this law "raises very real legislative and constitutional issues."

A map that shows the district lines of Asheville City Schools and Buncombe County Schools and how they both overlap with one another.

There are little islands of Asheville schools that are within the Buncombe district and vice versa. Will children have to change districts? Will this change what supplemental tax families pay? How will these lines be redrawn in terms of Asheville City Schools?

All of these questions lingered at the Aug. 1 meeting, as no one has an answer to them yet.

"Part of the act was that, if Buncombe County Schools did not redraw the districts, then the General Assembly would redraw these districts, and that's where this starts to potentially become an issue for Asheville City Schools," Campbell said to the board members.

As the law states now, the Buncombe County electoral districts must be contiguous.

"That's impossible, because there are areas of Buncombe County Schools that are completely surrounded by Asheville City Schools. We know for a fact that there is going to have to be a technical correction to this law. It cannot be implemented as written." Campbell said.

Buncombe County Democratic Sen. Julie Mayfield, who opposed this bill, told the Citizen Times that there will also be financial implications to this law.

"It also has tax implications and funding implications. City of Asheville school residents pay an Asheville City Schools tax and Buncombe County residents don't pay an additional school tax. So, either you would be moving people into a district where they would suddenly be paying a lot more money in school tax, or you would be moving people out of that district and that costs the city school system money," Mayfield said.

A new North Carolina law was passed that will change the way members of the Buncombe County School Board will be elected. At the Aug. 1 work session, the city's board discussed the possible ramifications that this law may have on their district.

Sen. Warren Daniel, a Republican who represents part of Buncombe, McDowell and Burke counties, added the Buncombe County language to the bill after it passed through the House and moved to the Senate.

Campbell told board members at the Aug. 1 meeting that Daniel said he wants to hear from folks who could be affected by this.

Mayfield said that Daniel has agreed to let the school systems gather data around how many families and kids will be affected, and what the financial implications would be of moving those kids from one district to another before making any amendments to legislation.

The law is scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 1, 2024.

Tanya Presha, academic and program support coordinator, announced at the meeting that Asheville City Schools has 4,101 students as of Aug. 1.

Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman listens as Board Attorney Chris Campbell discusses the ramifications of a new North Carolina law August 1, 2023.

How the ACS board is elected now

In 2021, House Bill 400 was passed that changed the way Asheville City Board of Education members are selected. Instead of being appointed as previously was the case, members are selected by vote moving forward. Instead of five members, it increased to seven.

Section 1 of HB 400 says, "Beginning in 2022, the Asheville City Board of Education (Board) shall be composed of seven members, with three members appointed by the governing body of the City of Asheville and four members elected in accordance with this act. Beginning in 2024, the Board shall be composed of seven members elected to staggered four-year terms."

The three remaining appointed board members are Sieburg, James Carter and Jesse Warren. These three seats will be up for election in 2024. The other four seats will be up in 2026. Those are held by the winners of the 2022 election: Amy Ray, Sarah Thornburg, Rebecca Strimer and Liza English-Kelly.

School board elections are nonpartisan and occur during even-numbered years.

More: New state law shifts Asheville City Board of Education members from appointed to elected

What will HB66 do for Buncombe County?

Instead of voting for seven board members, county residents will now only vote for two  one member for their designated district and the other for the at large position. The bill, HB66, requires that districts be equal in terms of population, which means current district lines will be redrawn.

However, the bill says that the new lines should be drawn as close as possible to the old ones to respect the existing boundaries. The new districts will change where the representative on the school board comes from, which means that not all school board members will live in their respective district. In order to calculate the population, the bill states that they will use census data.

From the 2021-22 school year there were 22,078 students in Buncombe County, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The prior system of electing school board members into the county had been in place since the 1970s.

More: New Asheville City Schools superintendent talks achievement gap, putting students first

More: New NC law changes how Buncombe County School Board will be elected in 2024

The next regular meeting for the city's school board will be on Aug. 14 at 5 p.m., at the administrative offices on 85 Mountain St.

McKenna Leavens is the education reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at mleavens@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter @LeavensMcKenna. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Will new NC law change where ACS students go to school?
STRATHAM  The New Hampshire SPCA was one of nine New England shelters that participated in a special Clear The Shelters lifesaving pet airlift mission.

The flight celebrates the return of the annual pet adoption and donation campaign, which began Tuesday, Aug.1. The New Hampshire SPCA received 21 cats and kittens from the lifesaving transport and is preparing them for adoption.

The Clear The Shelters airlift featured 250 cats and dogs from overpopulated shelters in Alabama, Florida and Louisiana, including harder-to-place or vulnerable pets, like dogs with asymptomatic heartworm, homeless cats and large dogs.

The New Hampshire SPCA received 21 cats and kittens from a special Clear The Shelters life-saving pet airlift mission.

The pets were flown from Florida to New Jersey and New Hampshire and received by several shelters, which will provide any needed medical care and place the pets for adoption.

On Aug. 2, a chartered plane departed Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at approximately 9 a.m. and arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where a portion of the pets were dropped off to participating shelters. The plane then traveled to Boston-Manchester Regional Airport in New Hampshire to deliver the remaining pets to the receiving shelters in New England.

The New Hampshire SPCA received 21 cats and kittens from a special Clear The Shelters life-saving pet airlift mission.

This flight, as well as Clear The Shelters is all about saving lives, said Lisa Dennison, executive director of the NHSPCA. There are overcrowded shelters all over this country. We are honored to be able to relieve some of that pressure while bringing wonderful animals to our community.

The Clear The Shelters airlift is a part of Greater Good Charities Good Flights program and funded by Hill's Pet Nutrition and The Animal Rescue Site.

The New Hampshire SPCA received 21 cats and kittens from a special Clear The Shelters life-saving pet airlift mission.

As part of NBCUniversal Locals Clear The Shelters, NBC and Telemundo-owned and affiliated stations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico are partnering with animal shelters and rescue services in their communities to promote pet adoption and raise needed funds.

We are grateful to Greater Good Charities, NBC & Telemundo, and all of the sponsors involved in the Clear The Shelters event," Dennison said. "We would like to invite the public to consider adopting a homeless pet this month.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NHSPCA welcomes 21 cats and kittens from Clear The Shelters airlift
Kim Jong Un presides over a military parade while flanked by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Li Hongzhong, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress on July 27. File Photo by KCNA/UPI

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- North Korea's permanent mission to the United Nations on Saturday called the isolated country a "responsible nuclear power."

"Today's sobering reality is that the threat to international peace and security and the nuclear non-proliferation regime is being generated by the United States," the mission said in a statement published by North Korea's Foreign Ministry.

North Korea said that the United States "unilaterally" prioritizes the "narrow interests of itself and its allies" on the U.N. Security Council and blasted the AUKUS alliance between the U.S., Britain and Australia announced in 2021.

One of the main provisions of the AUKUS alliance regards assisting Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. The deal has been criticized by scholars and politicians and described as an act of nuclear proliferation.

North Korea accused the U.S. of raising the level of military tension between the two countries to the highest level in 42 years and "to the point of nuclear war" by establishing the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group with South Korea.

The White House said in a statement in July that the U.S. and South Korea held what it described as an "inaugural meeting" of the Nuclear Consultative Group.

"Any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime, and the U.S. and [South Korea] sides highlighted that any nuclear attack by the DPRK against [South Korea] will be met with a swift, overwhelming, and decisive response," the White House said.

"Both sides affirmed that the NCG will play an integral role in discussing and advancing bilateral approaches, including guidelines, to nuclear and strategic planning and responses to DPRK aggression."

The White House said the U.S. and South Korea will plan "operations, exercises, simulations, trainings, and investment activities" to act as a deterrent against a nuclear North Korea.

North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of simulating of nuclear weapons against North Korea and added that the country is seeking to strengthen its self-defense nuclear deterrent in what it called "a legitimate exercise of its sovereignty to prevent the outbreak of a nuclear war."

"In spite of this, the U.S., along with its followers, has made a series of statements that grossly misrepresent the reality of our self-defense measures and are a political provocation to mask the identity of the DPRK as a criminal nuclear power and to deflect the international condemnation that will result from its failure to implement nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation," North Korea said.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a responsible nuclear power committed to the prohibition of nuclear use and threats against non-nuclear states and the obligation to prevent nuclear non-proliferation, and its nuclear arsenal poses no threat to countries that respect our sovereignty and security interests."
Sat. May 30, 2020; Columbus; OH, USA; Peaceful demonstrators stand in the middle of Broad Street as Columbus Division of Police officers attempt to move them from the area during protests following the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd on Saturday, May 30, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio.

Kevin McGruder is an associate professor of History at Antioch College.

The era that we are experiencing now in the United States, in which the 2020 nationwide protests for racial equality have been followed by a well-crafted campaign to misrepresent the vocabulary and the demands of the protesters, has many parallels to the distortions of the efforts to achieve racial equality during the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War.

The dramatic post-Civil war progress of extending full citizenship rights to Black people was quickly characterized as a mistake. Contemporary efforts advocating racial equity have been inaccurately characterized as divisive and unfair to White Americans.

More: How highways destroyed Black neighborhoods in the '60s, as told by elders who were there

The Reconstruction period refers to the post-Civil War years between 1865 and 1877 when the federal government took uniquely aggressive efforts to repair the divided nation, and to establish and protect the full citizenship rights of Black Americans.

The Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution were ratified during this period. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery nationwide. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) established citizenship rights for all people born in the United States, overturning the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision that asserted that Black people, enslaved or free, were not citizens.

More: Ohio Constitution allows slavery as a penalty for crime. Lawmakers want to change that

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) gave Black men the vote. When the former Confederate states began to establish Black Codes placing severe restrictions on Black people in many southern states, the federal Reconstruction Act was enacted in 1867, after overriding President Andrew Johnsons veto.

The new law required the division of the former Confederacy into five districts, each commanded by a Union Army general, and the deployment of federal troops in these districts to enforce the many provisions of the Reconstruction Law.

Opinion: Ohio lawmakers terrified of well-informed white children

Progress in the Reconstruction Era

The results were dramatic.

Black men voted in local, state and national elections for the first time.

Two Black men, Blanche Bruce and Hiram Revels, were elected to the U.S. Senate in Mississippi. Over a dozen Black men were elected to the U.S. Congress.

Hundreds of Black men were elected to state and local offices. Public school systems were established in southern states that had previously had none, benefitting White and Black children (although they were primarily racially segregated). The federal Freedmans Bureau assisted Black people to acquire farmland and employment.

More: 5 politicians who were treated more unfairly than Trump

The swift backlash

This historical marker outside of the Alachua County Administration Building in Gainesville acknowledges the lynchings of Blacks locally during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. [Julia Cooper/The Gainesville Sun]

As recounted in Eric Foners landmark 1988 book, "Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877," the backlash by southerners to Reconstruction policies was immediate.

Calling themselves Redeemers, the term associated with the Christian concept of humanity being saved, redeemed, from sin through the actions of Jesus Christ, they worked to save white southerners from the sin of Reconstruction.

Their efforts gained critical momentum in the early 1870s when the North became preoccupied with an economic downturn.

Terroristic violence directed at southern Black people and their white allies, coupled with voting fraud and intimidation, were common southern resistance strategies.

A woman wearing the robe of the Ku Klux Klan spreads her arms during a cross lighting in Middletown, Ohio, on July 23, 1979. One anti-Klan protester was arrested after a confrontation.

The Ku Klux Klan which had been established in 1866 in Tennessee, even before the Reconstruction Act became law, was soon joined by other terror organizations such as the Knights of the White Camellia.

A major strategy of the Reconstruction backlash was the characterization of Black office holders as unqualified and corrupt.

White southerners were very receptive to both accusations since for centuries the institution of slavery had been justified by the belief that Black people were inferior and incapable of independent living. The Reconstruction institutions required federal, state, and local taxation and spending in states in which the planter class had previously maintained low tax rates and negligible services.

While some corruption exists in any government, the term carpetbagger northerners seeking a quick dollar in the South, and scalawag  white southerners betraying their race by aligning with Black people to make a quick dollar, implied that corruption was inherent to Reconstruction and therefore a primary aim of those seeking racial equity.

Reconstruction's end, false narrative's beginning

The stalemated presidential election of 1876 pitting Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican from Ohio, against Samuel Tilden, a Democrat of New York, led to a compromise in Congress in which it is claimed that in exchange for the presidency, Hayes agreed that federal troops would cease enforcement of the Reconstruction Law.

The end of Reconstruction was only the beginning of an effort to shape the retrospective narrative on Reconstruction as a corrupt mistake.

This narrative grew in the latter decades of the 1800s as racial segregation became the law of the South. It was accompanied by the dominant narrative in the southern press of Black men as rapists of white women.

This became the justification for hundreds of lynchings that took place, primarily in the south, over the succeeding decades.

Hollywood director D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) predicted talking movies and color films, but he did not see the future of television.

In 1915 D.W. Griffiths blockbuster film Birth of a Nation, with plot lines of Reconstruction corruption, Black inferiority and rapaciousness, and with the Ku Klux Klan riding to the rescue, is credited with inspiring the 1920s revival of the Klan.

Its new base was in Indiana, reflecting the large number of anti-Black advocates in the North.

In Reconstruction, Foner notes that by the twentieth century, the narrative of Reconstruction as a mistaken effort had attracted northern academics, such as historian William Dunning of Columbia University, whose interpretation of Reconstruction, in sympathy to the white southern perspective, influenced generations of historians.

Those historians influenced the general public.

Decodifying critical diversity, equity and inclusion

New College of Florida trustee Christopher Rufo approaches protesters following Governor Ron DeSantis' signing of several higher education bills on the New College Campus on May 15, 2023.

The recent distortions of the basic terms used by contemporary advocates for racial equality, such as critical race theory, anti-racism, woke, and diversity, equity and inclusion as terms of divisiveness rather than as concepts associated with the effort to achieve racial equality, is not happenstance.

A key figure in this well-organized campaign is Christopher Rufo, a journalist and conservative activist whose 2020 articles in City Journal, an online journal of the Manhattan Institute, disparaged federally supported DEI trainings and caught the attention of Donald Trump and some Republicans.

In a 2021 statement on Twitter, Rufo explained that his goal regarding the phrase critical race theory was to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think 'critical race theory.' We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans."

More: How critical race theory went from conservative battle cry to mainstream powder keg

When one considers the negative images that the mere mention of CRT now conjures up for many Americans, Rufo succeeded not only in decodifying critical race theory but also the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion.

The amendments prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the military, added recently to the federal Defense Bill now under review in Congress, make this clear.

Opinion: There is an 'uncomfortable' truth behind Critical Race Theory some want to silence

In 2022 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Rufo to the Board of Trustees of Floridas New College, the liberal arts college that DeSantis has promised to remake as an example of what can be done in the state where woke goes to die.

The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think "critical race theory." We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) March 15, 2021

Restoration of rights since Civil Rights

It took a century for the Civil Rights Movement  often called the Second Reconstruction  spurred by the nonviolent direct action of Martin Luther Kings Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to reveal to the nation the damage done by the Jim Crow segregation that followed the Reconstruction era.

This new visibility led to grassroots mobilization resulting eventually in political support for important legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

The restoration of the rights of Black Americans began. The 2020 advocacy campaigns for racial equity were efforts to address the unfinished business of the Second Reconstruction.

The frog in the pan

We are in the midst of a backlash to these recent efforts. We might not recognize it because over the last decade we have witnessed a rise in white nationalism and a steady stream of overtly racists acts and statements from political leaders, celebrities and others that in other times would have been vigorously denounced.

YWCA: Ohio's chilling new pro-ignorance bill a threat that will drive off students

Like the proverbial frog in the pan of water with the heat slowly rising, as the level of overt racism in our culture has increased, many of us have become desensitized to it.

If those of us who are committed to our nation becoming a nation with liberty and justice for all dont soon organize an aggressive, strategic response to the current backlash to racial equity demands, we could be entering a decades-long period in which our rights as they relate to racial equity will continue to be rolled back.

Like the frog in that pan of slowly rising, heated water, the result could be death  in this case of our democracy.

Kevin McGruder is an associate professor of History at Antioch College.

Kevin McGruder, vice president for academic affairs and associate professor of history, Antioch College

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: We are in midst of racial equity backlash paralleling what happened after Reconstruction
The Panama Canal has capped the number of ships that it lets through because of drought-induced low freshwater levels. REUTERS/Rafael Ibarra

The canal has capped the daily number of ships that can pass through because of the summer drought.

Its income could fall by $200 million because of a lack of rain, the administrator said Thursday.

"If we don't adapt, we are going to die," Ricaurte Vasquez said, France 24 reported.

The Panama Canal is experiencing an intense drought that's forcing officials to cap the daily number of ships that can pass through the vital waterway.

Ricaurte Vasquez Morales, the administrator of the canal, said Thursday that operators had decided to allow a maximum of 32 ships a day through the canal, down by about 14% from a norm of about 36 to 38.

He said the canal's income could fall by as much as $200 million next year because of lost traffic.

The canal system relies on freshwater rather than seawater, meaning that poor rainfall this summer has affected the canal's operations.

"The big disadvantage that the Panama Canal has as a maritime route, is that we operate with freshwater, while others use seawater," Vasquez said, the French state-owned international-news outlet France 24 reported.

The outlet reported that meteorologists are warning that the El Nino climate pattern, which can cause drought and flooding at the same time in the Pacific Ocean, could worsen the situation for the canal.

"We have to find other solutions to remain a relevant route for international trade. If we don't adapt, we are going to die," Vasquez said.

He added that shipping companies could use other routes if the restrictions carry on.

The 51-mile canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, which has historically made it a vital trade route.

It had expected to bring in fees of about $4.9 billion in 2024 before the drought, Vasquez said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Mules are the weakest link in international drug trafficking, more victims than executioners. Treated like pack animals, they travel by plane carrying drugs inside their bodies to cities in Europe. The reward  most of them are women  is minimal; the risks, considerable. If they are caught at the departure airport or on arrival, they will most likely end up behind bars. They are essential, albeit expendable, cogs in an opaque machine. The Nana case, a judicial investigation to which EL PAIS has had access, provides a glimpse of how trafficking by mules is organized in Spain, from recruitment in Peru to training for the flight.

These secrets have been uncovered through explicit conversations that Jasmenn Katherin O., alias Martina, held for months in her car without knowing that the police had bugged the vehicle. Martina is the leader of a criminal group based in Barcelona that recruits Peruvian and Colombian women as mules and as prostitutes. The girls are, like cocaine, just another raw material to be acquired. The first step is to convince them to make the trip. They are recruited from among people in precarious economic or personal situations, often for little more than $1,000, a tiny amount compared to the multi-million-dollar drug trafficking business, but enormous when it comes to supporting a family.

In April 2022, the group contacted a woman from Pereira, Colombia, who suffered from depression and offered her a good work contract in Barcelona: 1,200 ($1,317) a month to take care of children and the elderly. Martina told her that she had to pose as a tourist and say that she would be staying in a hostel in the Chueca neighborhood of Madrid. She sent her the plane tickets and the girl arrived at Barajas Airport in the Spanish capital without any issues, where a tall, burly man was waiting for her, who handed her a train ticket to go to an apartment in Barcelona. Martina was waiting there. Until then, she had been charming, but the facade was swiftly dropped. She accompanied the girl to buy high heels and took away her passport because he owed her $2,000 for the tickets. When the first customer arrived and she was forced to have sex with him, she understood that the job was a lie.

The victim managed to escape from the premises a few days later and told the police what had happened to her. She became X37, a protected witness and the origin of an investigation that led a judge in Barcelona to order a tap on Martinas phone, while the gang leader continued to issue threats via the Telegram social network: Remember that I can have your family killed. Killing in Colombia doesnt even cost a quarter of the fare. But her caution when using the phone led investigators to explore a more daring avenue: installing an audio pickup device in a Kia car she was using. It reaped huge returns. From November 2022, Martinas loquacity and that of her associates laid bare the workings of the organization.

In Peru you will get through without any problem

The method for recruiting mules is a mixture of threat and persuasion. In a tapped conversation with a potential candidate, Martina summarizes the process: In Peru you will get through without any problem, because the same people from [airline] LATAM will be there to supervise you. A policeman will give you the guidelines and we will give you another phone number so you can contact us. You supposedly come for nine days as a tourist with your debit card in your name. Once [the drug] is sold, after five days you have your money and you decide whether you want to leave or stay in Spain.

The group headed by Martina has partners in Peru, among them Don Arturo, who assists the girls (with the help of a nurse) when it comes to ingesting or introducing the substances into their bodies, and who then accompanies them to the airport in Lima. He is an older man who does not swindle. I pay him $1,000 and he takes care of them, he makes them presentable, he does all the work, says Martina in the recorded conversation.

With Arturos mediation, on November 21, 2022, a girl arrived in Madrid carrying 1.5 kilos of cocaine wrapped in condoms, according to Martina, who went to pick her up at Barajas with two other people. During the drive to Barcelona, the mule says she has been in a lot of pain since I got off the plane, and Martina gives her laxative to expel the substance in the sink of a gas station. You go in and put the bag on. You put on your gloves, but dont wash them. Hold on, okay? You did all this for a reason.

The trip had been a half success. The group, which allegedly included nine people, intended to sell the drug (a task that Martinas partner, Pedro C., oversees), but the smell of the cocaine after it has been recovered made this difficult. Martina wanted to try her luck with another system: the mule will carry the cocaine inside her clothes. For that, she needs a tailor to make her an adjusted suit. She is cautious during the preparation with her partners in Peru: Before putting on the girdle, you have to put on a body suit. Try to perfect it because if you pat it, you can feel it. We are risking our lives, our freedom. Yocelin, the chosen mule, was going to carry four kilos of cocaine but she was arrested before getting on the plane. Martina was furious: Im going to take it out of her in blood.

This policeman wants 2,500 to let the girl through

The Nana case underlines that it this an international business whose success depends on the collaboration of officials and workers on the other side of the Atlantic. In another call with Don Arturo, Martina asks him to activate a contact of his nicknamed El Raya: a policeman who helps the girls to pass through airport security controls. This policeman wants 2,500 to let the girl through, says Don Arturo. I wanted to know, she asks another collaborator, if your friend the policeman could let her pass.

The Catalan police state that the group always uses the same company  LATAM  where they allegedly have the personal favor of some employees. I use the same people from LATAM, the coordinator and the manager. And those on the ramp, who are the ones who speed up the metal ring, Martina says somewhat cryptically. She also claims a certain Kemel provides discounts on tickets and other favors. I need you to take the girl out on a tour as if shes coming to sightsee. I need her to get through no matter what.

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Russian and Chinese ships patrolled 'near Alaska' but were not 'a threat,' US officials say

A Russian and Chinese naval formation patrolled "near Alaska" last week but "was not considered a threat," U.S. Northern Command said Sunday.

"Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada," a NORTHCOM statement to ABC News said, adding that "the patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat."

A U.S. official also told ABC News that the Pentagon had been tracking and expecting this patrol for several weeks, since well before the exercise began. Four U.S. destroyers and P-8 aircraft were also sent to shadow the patrol.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the formation.

MORE: China releases TV documentary showcasing army's ability to attack Taiwan

PHOTO: A warship and a helicopter from Russian navy are pictured after a joint naval exercise, Joint Sea 2022, in the East China Sea on Dec. 27, 2022. (Li Bingxuan/Xinhua via Getty Images, FILE)

Russia has not publicly commented, though a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington told the Journal in a statement: "According to the annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries, naval vessels of the two countries have recently conducted joint maritime patrols in relevant waters in the western and northern Pacific Ocean."

"This action is not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation," the spokesman said.

The Journal reported that the formation involved 11 Chinese and Russian ships -- and that number was echoed by U.S. lawmakers.

MORE: Russia unleashes missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, retaliating for an attack on a tanker

The move represents an apparent show of force by China and Russia. The two countries have increased their ties amid tensions with the U.S. over Taiwan and Ukraine, respectively.

Alaska's senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, spoke out against the exercise in statements while reiterating their call for more military funding for their state.

PHOTO: A military warship of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation arrives in Saint Petersburg and moored on the Neva River to participate in the Main Naval Parade of the Russian Navy, July 29, 2023. (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE)

"This is a stark reminder of Alaska's proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty," Murkowski said, in part.

"We have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow," Sullivan said. "In recognition of this reality and our state's unrivaled strategic location, for years, I've been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure."

ABC News' Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.

Russian and Chinese ships patrolled 'near Alaska' but were not 'a threat,' US officials say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) released its provisional agenda for the 2023 World Heritage Committee session taking place in September. The organization designates locations and structures around the world as World Heritage sites. It can also designate World Heritage sites as "in danger," signifying that they're threatened by any number of factors, including tourism, development and climate threats.

What are the designations?

Locations deemed World Heritage sites are of "outstanding universal value to humanity" and should be "protected for future generations to appreciate and enjoy," according to Unesco. The organization also lists World Heritage in danger, "designed to inform the international community of conditions" that "threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage list and to encourage corrective action."

The World Heritage list is a result of the Unesco Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted in 1972. The treaty sets the guidelines for the consideration of a World Heritage site, and the countries that signed it agree to "conserve not only the World Heritage sites situated on its territory but also to protect its national heritage." These countries have access to a World Heritage fund that provides money annually to "assist states parties in identifying, preserving and promoting World Heritage sites."

Part of the treaty also includes stipulations for adding sites to the danger list. Unesco takes into account the ascertained and potential danger of sites and decides whether to add them to the list. If added, the World Heritage Committee can "allocate immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund to the endangered property," and "the mere prospect of inscribing a site on this list often proves to be effective and can incite rapid conservation action."

How does designation impact a destination?

The effects of Unesco's designations are a debated topic. A site being added to the list can be a "kiss of death" and "all too often cures the disease by killing the patient," Italian journalist Marco D'Eramo wrote in 2014, coining the term Unescocide. Essentially, in designating a World Heritage site worthy of protection, the destination becomes a place of unsustainable levels of tourism. This was not accounted for in the original treaty, as Unesco "didn't have the scope of international tourism then," Mike Robinson, a professor of cultural heritage at Nottingham Trent University, told The New York Times.

For example, Italy has been struggling with overtourism, especially tourists vandalizing sites like the Roman Colosseum, which has been a Unesco World Heritage site since 1980. "Countries with Unesco World Heritage sites spend public funds on protective measures and archaeological ventures," stated Insider. "But vandalism forces those same host countries to spend money on security measures with that funding." It's also difficult for people who "work in cultural heritage and in tourism to find that right balance between protecting objects but not destroying the experience," Leila Amineddoleh, a lawyer specializing in cultural heritage, told Insider.

Venice, Italy, has been proposed to be added to the World Heritage in danger list, as overtourism and climate change have caused the city to remain "under serious threat," per the Times. The draft resolution from Unesco concludes that Italy has not made a "significant level of progress in addressing the persistent and complex issues related in particular to mass tourism, development projects and climate change."

In general, when places are listed, "when they clearly haven't got the right systems and policies and processes in place, there's always a problem," Susan Macdonald, the head of buildings and sites at the Getty Conservation Institute, told the Times.

Can it be helpful?

Being designated as a World Heritage site or being identified as a site in danger can raise awareness of threats that can harm the region. Highway construction was halted near Egypt's Pyramids of Giza, and a dam was stopped from being built above Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, as these were sites seen as having cultural significance globally, per National Geographic. More recently, Australia's Great Barrier Reef was at risk of being placed on the endangered list, but the report opted not to add it to the list, citing "'significant progress being made on climate change, water quality and sustainable fishing  all putting the reef on a stronger and more sustainable path," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during a media briefing, Reuters reported.

There's also an incentive for developing nations to get destinations added to the World Heritage list to boost tourism. "The power of the Unesco brand can skyrocket a lesser-known destination to a different level," wrote CNN. Despite the threat of overtourism, a Unesco World Heritage designation can "bring much-needed money, support and global recognition to a deserving destination."

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Amid the opioid epidemic and the ongoing threat of fentanyl, speaking to kids about drugs, peer pressure and overdoses has become critical.

Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs are commonly found in illicit street drugs. Drug dealers will also produce counterfeit pain medication made from fentanyl. Anyone can purchase these drugs from social medial platforms.

Drug dealers use these platforms to sell their products and often target young people because they frequently use social media.

Resources like "The Parent's Guide to Fentanyl" and local drug education are critical to helping parents converse with their kids. Yet it is up to parents and caregivers to initiate these talks frequently and make them part of everyday conversations.

Marcel Gemme

PHOTOS: Opioid awareness day on the Framingham Centre Green

The risks are real. Opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts increased by 2.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. There were more than 2,300 confirmed opioid-related deaths last year.

When parents or caregivers have conversations about drugs and peer pressure, consider some of the following pointers:

Keep conversations frequent and small, rather than one big talk; this helps to build strong communication and trust. These conversations should fit into everyday life, and its never too late to start.

Ask them what they know about fentanyl, listen to their opinions and answer their questions. The conversation goes both ways. Avoid lecturing, threatening or using scare tactics.

Make your views and rules about legal substances clear; set boundaries. They must have an understanding of the consequences.

Be a reliable source of factual information; search out the answers together and find accurate data. Its essential to fill in the void of false information.

Be prepared to share personal experiences. Help them prepare to manage peer pressure, rehearse scenarios and practice what to say when faced with it.

Teach them about online safety and using social media safely, such as not giving out personal information.

Frequent conversations aim to create a safe and trusting environment where young people can come to their parents and speak openly about peer pressure and dangerous situations.

New annual high: Drug overdose deaths in Mass. soared to 2,357 in 2022

Its vital to provide them with reliable information they can use. This helps young people make informed decisions and avoid dangerous situations. Peer pressure can become a big problem and lead to a perilous outcome when it involves illegal drugs.

Its never too late to speak to your kids about drugs, fentanyl and peer pressure. Make this a regular conversation and encourage open dialogue.

Marcel Gemme has been helping people struggling with substance use for more than 20 years, most recently with the creation of SUPE: Substance Use Prevention Education. His work focuses on a threefold approach: education, prevention and rehabilitation.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Counselor urges parents to talk to teens about fentanyl, other drugs
Donald Trump blared Sunday morning that his legal team would be immediately asking for recusal of U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan from his latest criminal case, proclaiming (but not revealing) very powerful grounds for the demand.

Hours later, his attorney John Lauro would publicly walk back that plan, saying Trump was speaking with a laymans political sense and reacting primarily because Chutkan was nominated to the bench by a Democrat. (She was confirmed 95-0 by the Senate in 2014 after Barack Obama nominated her).

We havent made a final decision on that issue at all, Lauro said on a podcast hosted by Florida defense attorney David Markus. I think as lawyers we have to be very careful of those issues and handle them with the utmost delicacy.

On Monday morning, Trump was again hammering on the recusal issue, calling Chutkan the Judge of [special counsel Jack Smiths] dreams (WHO MUST BE RECUSED!).



The back-and-forth on public airwaves and social media underscores the familiar tension between Trump and his legal team, which has been rocked by infighting, departures and conflicting advice in recent months. All of it, however, is secondary to Trumps own whims and instincts, which have served him politically but are grating against the rules and norms of behavior for those charged with serious federal crimes.

Lauro, the newest member of Trumps team, is working with attorney Todd Blanche on the latest criminal case: charges that Trump conspired to derail the transfer of power to Joe Biden after the 2020 election. But already, Trump has tested Lauros public advice in a few ways  primarily by talking about the case at all, and often in incendiary ways.

I think its a little bit different than our standard case where we would pull our hair out if a client commented on a prosecutor or a judge, Lauro said on Markus podcast. He feels strongly that he needs to speak out, and he also, in particular, looks at this prosecution as a political prosecution. I think, in his mind, its sort of fair game from a political perspective to make these comments.

I have a responsibility, certainly, as an officer of the court to conduct the proceedings in a dignified manner, and I will do that at all times, Lauro added. To the extent that I can make any appropriate suggestions to a client, I do. But as we know, David, sometimes clients follow our suggestions, sometimes they dont.

Lauros comments were among the most revealing on a daylong media tour in which he sought to sketch out Trumps defense in the case. He said he prefers to be a ubiquitous media presence because it helps inject the defense perspective into news reporting on complex issues.

But Trump has at times appeared, in public statements, to push beyond Lauros description of the issues he plans to raise in the new case. In addition to demanding that Chutkan recuse, Trump has also contended that he wants to relocate his case outside of Washington, D.C., based on the districts overwhelming vote for Joe Biden in 2020.

Lauro has acknowledged Trumps argument in his own public comments but also told Markus that political affiliation is not the end all and be all. Rather, he said, the crux of their argument would hinge on Washington, D.C.s proximity to the violence of Jan. 6.



The political piece is in play to some extent.  Its more of whether or not youre facing this roadblock of bias and whether the community youre trying the case in front of is affected by the case in an emotional, passionate way, which certainly Washington, D.C. was.

Even before Trumps latest comments, Trumps hack-and-slash attacks at adversaries  real and perceived  seemed guaranteed to create headaches for his legal team. His broad Friday night Truth Social post, vowing If you go after me, Im coming after you!, prompted prosecutors to alert Chutkan to a potentially ominous threat. Trump later denied he was referencing anyone connected to his criminal cases.

Trump said under oath on Thursday, when he appeared in Washington, D.C.s federal court to be arraigned on his latest charges, that he would not attempt to influence witnesses, retaliate against anyone or seek to obstruct the administration of justice in any way. So a weekend attack on his former vice president Mike Pence  which might have been a typical Trumpian swipe in a different context  raised eyebrows.

Lauro said Sunday that he 100 percent expects Pence to be a central witness in the case. In fact, Lauro said, if prosecutors dont call Pence, he anticipates calling him as a defense witness. Lauro emphasized that hes spent a significant amount of his limited time starting to prepare a cross-examination of Pence.

Im trying to get into his head, quite frankly, he said, noting that hes read Pences memoir So Help Me God twice. Im trying to understand his personality, who he is. Im trying to be Mike Pence to understand where hes coming from.


A Westport couple allegedly targeted by the so-called grandparent scam led police to arrest an undocumented immigrant on attempted larceny charges.

Hector Arias-Guzman, 28, of Mallard Avenue in Boston was arrested last week in Taunton after police said he called a Westport couple claiming to be their son who needed a large amount of cash to avoid jail after getting into a car crash.

According to police, Arias-Guzman had attempted to swindle $6,000 from the Westport couple. He was charged with attempted larceny and conspiracy.

Police said Arias-Guzman had been arrested by Customs and Border Protection in January for illegally entering the United States near Del Rio, Texas.

Hector Arias-Guzman was arraigned on charges of conspiracy and attempted larceny at Fall River District Court.

On Tuesday, during his arraignment in Fall River District Court, Judge Thomas Barrett released Arias-Guzman on $4,000 cash bail, which he posted. He was freed pending trial.

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Cheney had asked the judge for $25,000 cash bail; District Attorney Thomas Quinn III criticized the ruling.

The amount of cash bail set in this case is clearly too low, Quinn stated in a release. Given the defendants immigration status and lack of connection to the area, he is definitely a flight risk.

Helpful hints: The DA's office wants to help seniors avoid abuse and fraud

What is the grandparent scam?

A common form of telephone fraud, the grandparent scam involves a scammer who preys on fears that a loved one is in a crisis and needs money right away.

Scammers obtain personal information including names and phone numbers, sometimes through mining information posted to social media or by buying information from cybercriminals.

A scammer calls someone claiming to be a close relative, and says theyve had an emergency and need money right away. According to the Federal Communications Commission, the scammer will sometimes hand the phone to an accomplice claiming to be a lawyer. The victims are often pressured to give out more information or send money quickly through mobile apps, wire transfer, gift cards, money orders or even in-person cash deliveries, and they are frequently advised not to tell other people about the incident.

Scammers often target the elderly by pretending to be their grandchildren. According to The Washington Post, more sophisticated scammers sometimes use AI technology to replicate voices of loved ones.

Unknown caller show on mobile phone screen.

Bristol County's top 100 salaries: Correctional officers pulled in major overtime in 2022

What do police say happened in this case?

Westport police said the couple received a call from someone claiming to be their son, saying he had been texting while driving and crashed the car with a pregnant woman passenger. Police said the man claimed to have been arrested and was at the hospital with injuries, but would be jailed immediately if he did not post bail.

According to the police report, the caller put another man on the phone claiming to be a public defender named Mark Cohen who said their son would need to post $25,000 cash bail within the hour. When the couple said they could not raise that money so quickly, police said, the caller suggested they could also pay $10,000. When the couple again balked, police said, the caller negotiated the "bail down to $6,000.

The couple reported the call to Westport police. Detective Sgt. Bryan McCarthy said he recognized the phone number and name Mark Cohen as consistent with a scam perpetrated the previous week. Police said the detective advised the couple to await further instructions from the caller and collaborate with police to deliver the cash in a sting operation.

Following directions from the caller, the couple packaged the cash and gave it to a Lyft driver who, they were told, would deliver it to their son in Boston. A team of detectives followed the Lyft vehicle to an address in Taunton. The driver delivered the package of cash to a man who police arrested and identified as Arias-Guzman.

How to protect yourself from grandparent scams

Police and the FCC advise people who receive such calls to hang up and report them to police.

Use your legitimate contact info to double-check with the person who claims to be in an emergency, or verify with other loved ones.

Never be bullied into giving personal or financial information over the phone.

No legitimate business, hospital, police station, or judicial/court department accepts prepaid gift cards, phone cards or cash in an envelope delivered by any rideshare company for services rendered," Westport police stated.

Victims often do not report these types of attempted scams to police," stated Quinn. We all need to be very vigilant to the scam artists who are trying to rip off law abiding citizens of their hard-earned money.

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: Undocumented immigrant out on bail in Mass. 'grandparent scam' charges
An Arizona woman is accused of trying to kill her husband by poisoning his coffee. Melody Feliciano Johnson's husband, who is in the Air Force, was suspicious of his wife and did not drink the coffee she had been prepping for him, according to court documents.

The couple, who have a child together, were going through a divorce while living in Germany. The husband, whose name was redacted from the police report, noticed that the coffee his wife prepped at night for him to drink in the morning started tasting bad. He told police he is the only one who drinks coffee from the machine.

He told investigators he bought pool chlorine testing strips and started testing his faucet water and the water in his coffee and found while the faucet water was normal, the coffee had high levels of chlorine.

He stopped drinking the coffee but didn't immediately report his wife while they were in Germany. Instead, when they moved to Arizona on June 28, he decided to set up cameras in their new home on Davis Mountain Air Force Base.

On a video he recorded, he saw Johnson pour something into the water reservoir, according to court documents. He filed a police report with the Tuscon Police Department but there was no follow-up, so he bought additional cameras  placing one in the laundry room, where the bleach was kept.

One video showed his wife allegedly walking from the laundry room to the coffee maker. Another video showed her allegedly pouring bleach into a smaller container then walking it over to the coffee maker.

After the husband collected multiple videos to make his police report, police detained Johnson at home. Investigators searched the home with a warrant and found a liquid in the coffee maker that smelled like bleach. They also found a container that smelled like bleach.

Johnson faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault and adding harmful substances to food, drink or medicine.

Last month, a high bond was requested for Johnson, since she has a house and family in the Philippines and may be a flight risk, according to the documents.

Her bond was set for $250,000 and she pleaded not guilty during her arraignment on Friday, according to AZ Family.

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Monica Poli is interviewed by the media in Venice.

It may not be a song, but it has certainly become the catchphrase of the moment: Attenzione, borseggiatrice! Attenzione, pickpocket! or Watch out, pickpocket! Monica Polis message to alert tourists in Venice to the presence of street thieves has spread fast through everyones cell phones, and its mastermind has become a star of social media, especially on TikTok. Her videos always have the same theme. She films a scene where there is usually a large concentration of people and, in a booming voice, warns with her trademark warning slogan that there is a possible pickpocket in the area about to perform the classic tricks to snatch the purse of an unsuspecting passerby. The suspected thief in question usually rushes away, covering his or her face. Sometimes, the woman even manages to record the act of theft.

57-year-old Poli, a resident of Venice, where she serves as a councilor for the far-right Lega Nord party, has recently shot to fame on social media, but she has been patrolling the streets of her city and warning visitors for years. She belongs to a group known as Cittadini Non Distratti [Undistracted Citizens], who go around the city shouting at those they believe to be thieves stealing wallets, passports and other items from tourists bags. The group, which has been denounced in the past for assaults on foreigners, denies on its Facebook page claims it is racist or incites violence against migrants.

Occasionally, these amateur vigilantes report would-be pickpockets to the police. Although they have been operating for several decades and are well known in the city, they have recently hit social media, where they have gained hundreds of thousands of followers and their videos have gone viral, partially thanks to Polis unique and unmistakable voice. Now, the tourists recognize her, film her and ask her for photos on the street. Many urge her to continue and thank her for her work.

The Cittadini Non Distratti group is appealing to the institutions to introduce a permanent team of anti-pickpocket vigilantes in civilian clothes. The group was founded in the late 1990s by a street painter, Franco Dei Rossi, together with shopkeepers and other workers in the tourism sector. They were keen to protect their businesses and to raise awareness among citizens and institutions of the extent of the pickpocketing issue.

Racist patrols in Venice

Despite the recent popularity of their initiative and the messages of thanks they have been receiving from many parts of the world, their actions are also accompanied by a degree of controversy, as the group represents a familiar face to Italians. National newspapers previously reported on these citizen patrols decades ago, following a series of assaults, frequently against foreigners, who were allegedly caught swiping tourists wallets. In 1996, Il Corriere della Sera talked about racist patrols in Venice and reported the case of four members of this kind of patrol formed by Venetian shopkeepers who were accused of beating up an Algerian citizen. In 2000, the newspaper La Repubblica collected information regarding another person of Algerian origin who had been stabbed, in the presence of numerous witnesses, by two members of the citizen group when they had caught him stealing a young womans purse. Massimo Cacciari, the mayor of Venice at the time, slammed the initiative and called on citizens to report any such theft to the authorities rather than take the law into their own hands.

On the Cittadini Non Distratti Facebook page, they clarify that they do not make reference to any ethnic group nor do they incite racism. The group singles out thieves who steal freely every day, thieves who ruin the vacations of thousands of tourists and ruin the image of Venice, they add. They also call for the avoidance of inappropriate comments, incitements to violence and racial discrimination, which sometimes surface in many of the comments left by their followers.

In an interview with The New York Times, Monica Poli denied that the political positions of Lega, a far-right party to which she belongs, are reflected in the anti-pickpocket citizen patrols. Cittadini volunteers do not adhere to any political party and politics does not affect our goal, which is to support local law enforcement whenever possible, she said.

Polis famous videos, widely praised or used as memes or even as a humorous reference, take on a different dimension when her political affiliation comes into play. Lega, headed by Matteo Salvini, has criminalized immigration on numerous occasions.

In the same interview, Poli explained that she works as a cleaner in the mornings and in the afternoons she patrols the Venetian streets on the lookout for pickpockets. She also said that the police have never asked her to stop this activity, and told the U.S. paper that her intention is to protect tourists because tourism in Italy is very important.

St. Mark's Square in Venice, packed with tourists in August 2022. Mirco Toniolo

Venices case is quite particular. Here, the coexistence between tourists and residents, which is key to the citys economy, is a traditionally sensitive issue. The number of residents is dwindling, while the number of visitors is on the rise. Given this scenario, groups denouncing petty crime and vandalism with this approach are gaining special prominence.

In addition to the patrols in this city, websites and social media pages devoted to denouncing incidents of street crime and urban decay have been increasingly gaining visibility in Italy lately. Their success is partly because they add fuel to the fire of a media narrative that has been running for years in some sensationalist newspapers and television channels, which use scaremongering tones to convey the idea of a growing security problem.

While there is certainly a problem, contrary to some public reports, petty crime is not on the rise, but has actually been on the decline for years. In Venice, according to an investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the number of reports of street theft decreased between 2021 and 2022 by around 20%, compared to the previous period. Although there is a lack of support for the claim that petty crime is an emergency, various political parties, particularly those on the right and far-right, often exploit the information, even using it to attack certain types of immigration, and this can paint a very distorted picture.

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It Happened Here: William O. Douglas orders halt to U.S. bombing of Cambodia after Yakima hearing
Laurie Arbeiter of New York, is seen outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, in Washington. Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court in Washington today, to answer charges he sought to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
Today

Windy with scattered thunderstorms, especially during the afternoon hours. High 86F. Winds SE at 25 to 40 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy and windy this evening becoming partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 75F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunny. High 93F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Rapid a scufundat Farul lui Gica Hagi

Rapid a surclasat-o pe Farul Constanta cu scorul de 3-1, duminica seara, pe teren propriu, intr-un meci din etapa a 6-a a Ligii 1. Formatia de sub podul Grant a deschis scorul prin belgianul Xian Emmers (34), cu un sut din marginea careului, fara sperante pentru portarul Marian Aioani. Atacantul croat Marko Dugandzic [citeste mai departe]
Text in which the author defends ideas and reaches conclusions based on his / her interpretation of facts and data

El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele is highly undemocratic, highly abusive  and highly popular. With worrying levels of crime and insecurity in Latin America, his security model threatens democratic institutions in the region. Responding to these challenges requires effective and rights-respecting measures to confront violence and crime.

Recently, Bukeles allies in the Legislative Assembly passed a law that allows mass trials. Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said that up to 900 people could be prosecuted at the same time. Under new legislation, prosecutors will not be required to present individual evidence against alleged gang members, lawmakers said. These Kafkaesque trials would undermine access to justice for victims of gang violence, hinder the release of innocent people, and violate due process guarantees.

Security forces have arrested over 71,000 people, including more than 1,600 children, under a state of emergency that has suspended basic rights for almost a year and a half. Many Salvadorans with no connections to gangs have been arrested, especially in low-income neighborhoods. Our research shows that some people detained have been tortured, dozens have died in custody, and thousands have been subjected to inhumane conditions in detention, including extreme overcrowding. Most are held incommunicado.

An immense concentration of power in the executive branch made that possible. Since taking office, Bukele has packed the Supreme Court, replaced the attorney general with an ally of his, and purged the judiciary. He has promoted a hostile environment for journalists, forcing some into exile.

In many peoples eyes, however, Bukeles security policies appear to be a solution to growing crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean. The countrys long-standing high homicide rate decreased to 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people in 2022, according to official figures. Bukele says it has decreased even further in 2023, although changes in the ways killings are counted make it harder to estimate the true extent of the reduction. Extortion, which was the main source of gang financing, seems to have also significantly decreased.

In some countries, citizens are even calling for a Bukele of their own, however Draconian his policies. Latinobarometro, a regional public opinion survey, recently said that Bukele was the best ranked president of all times since the start of [democratic] transitions in Latin America.

Its easy to see why.

According to the latest statistics, the region had the highest regional homicide rate in the world, with 19.91 homicides per 100,000 people in 2021  nearly double the rate the World Health Organization considers the threshold for endemic violence.

While some countries like Venezuela and Honduras have reported rates of over 30 or even 40 homicides per 100,000 people, a number of large countries in the region, including Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, have rates between 20 and 30, and some countries with historically lower rates, such as Chile and Costa Rica, have had a significant increase in homicides in recent years. Rates of other crimes, such as extortion, are also high.

Most worrying, gangs in Ecuador have fueled a dramatic increase in violence, with homicide rates doubling in a year, extortion at a historic high, and attacks with explosives, prison massacres, and killings of elected officials, prosecutors, judges, and political candidates.

Leaders in the region have struggled to come up with a rights-respecting and effective response. Colombian President Gustavo Petros total peace strategy has so far failed to reduce massacres, child recruitment, and kidnappings.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico has publicized a hugs, not bullets slogan, while increasing militarization, reducing funds for local police, and failing to reduce cartel violence. President Xiomara Castro of Honduras campaigned against militarization but recently re-established military control over prisons and, like Bukele, suspended constitutional rights in large parts of the country.

Bukele offers a simple way forward: mass imprisonment, more prisons, mass trials. Supported by a powerful propaganda machine, he has advertised his governments human rights violations as achievements.

But his flashy propaganda also obscures some disturbing truths. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, his government initially engaged in secret negotiations with gang leaders, offering jail privileges to imprisoned gang members and protection from extradition to the U.S., in exchange for the gangs commitment to lower homicide rates and to give him political support. As the negotiations fell through, the government shifted to iron fist security measures.

In the past, both secret negotiations with gangs and hardline security policies have failed to sustainably address gang violence. Bukeles predecessors negotiated with gangs without effectively dismantling them. They achieved a short-term reduction in killings, followed by long-term surges in gang violence. At the same time, previous massive arrest strategies allowed gang members to increase recruitment in prisons, using detention centers as their base.

Bukeles narrative is also deceptive. He has depicted democratic checks and balances as an obstacle for security. Rather, these are key to prevent corruption, and abuse of power, and ensure that the law is applied to all.

He has also portrayed human rights and public safety in opposition to each other. Much to the contrary, governments have a human rights obligation to take effective measures to protect the population from criminals and organized crime. In doing so, they are also obliged to respect due process guarantees  a critical protection to ensure that prosecutions are not arbitrary, innocent people are not abused, and that victims receive the justice they deserve.

Bukeles popularity shows that Latin American governments are falling short. They should redouble their efforts to provide rights-respecting strategies to tackle the root causes of much criminality, including high levels of poverty and social exclusion, and push for strategic criminal prosecutions focused on violent abuses, particularly those committed by senior gang members or chronic abusers, and severing their networks of finance, political support, and weapons supply.

The lack of an effective and legitimate response to insecurity and crime is putting the lives of our citizens  and our democratic institutions  at risk.

Juan Pappier is the Acting Americas Deputy Director at Human Rights Watch.
The Hungarian Ecumenical Charity has provided a 5 million forint (EUR 13,000) in emergency assistance to communities hit by devastating floods in Slovenia, the organisation said.

In the worst-ever natural disaster in Slovenias history, flash floods and mudslides have hit the countrys north-eastern and central regions, claiming human lives and forcing the evacuation of several thousands of people, it said in a statement. It cited the local weather service as saying that a months worth of rain had fallen in less than a day.



The countrys prime minister anticipated unprecedented levels of damage, it added.



Defmin: Hungarian Army's Helicopters Helping In Slovenia



Defence Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Sunday that following cooperation talks with Marjan Sarec, his Slovenian counterpart, the Hungarian army would send helicopters to Slovenia to help rescue operations in the neighbouring country.



He said a detailed military planning had already started.



Neighbouring countries can always rely on Hungarys help, the minister said.



Storms and heavy rains in recent days have caused massive floods and significant damage in Slovenia, he said.



Szijjarto: Hungary Offers Disaster Relief Assistance To Georgia



Hungary has offered disaster relief assistance to Georgia, the foreign minister said on Saturday.



In the past few days, we have been faced with extreme weather conditions, Peter Szijjarto said, adding that the storms, heavy rains and flash floods have serious consequences in more distant parts of Europe as well.



In Georgia, unusually heavy rains have led to a landslide in the northern part of the country, many people have died or gone missing, and the storm left behind huge damage, he said on Facebook.



I expressed my sympathy over the phone to my Georgian colleague and offered Hungarian disaster relief assistance, if need be. Ilia Darchiashvili appreciated the offer and said they would contact us if their own resources are exhausted, Szijjarto said.
YORK  The York County fair wrapped up this last weekend with many fun and interactive activities for the community. Spanning all age groups there were plenty of ways for everyone to enjoy the summer weekend.

It all started on Saturday with the Waffleman. A 4-H fundraiser that supplied the masses with $5 all you can eat. A perfect start to the day especially with the loaded lineup that followed.

Kids got their groove on at Kids Day Under the Tent where a live performance by the String Beans was headlining. This Lincoln based band travels around the state, and sometimes parts of the country, and performs at fairs, festivals, libraries, schools, churches, museums and zoos. They write family-friendly songs about things kids enjoy: animals, cartoons, food, science and sports. Kids got to hit the dance floor and enjoy the goofy trio perform and interact with the band. Towards the final act of the show parents got moving by raising and lowering a parachute allowing the little ones to run across underneath it.

While the concert was in progress many other yard games like checkers and cornhole were spread on the outside of the tent for kids to get active. Kids even got a chance to show off their artist skills with a coloring contest and were able to get childrens tattoos to wear the rest of the day.

The York General had a table set up underneath the tent as well. Representatives of the hospital had a teddy bear repair shop with the theme of a doctors visit. Kids were able to bring their own teddy bear or stuffed animal and get a diagnosis by picking out pictures of x-rays to identify the problem. Afterwards they got the necessary tools and parts to repair the teddy bear.

Just across from the main tent the final livestock show was under way at the Cornerstone Ag and Event Center. The swine show got started at 10 a.m. starting off with the Showmanship category. In this category the majority of the judging was placed on the individual rather than the animal. Exhibitors have to show the ability that they can control the animal both in the show ring and holding pen. Then the judge asks questions about the animal and project as a whole. Following that category they got into the breeding and market classes. Where the judgment is more on how the animal looks and the condition the swine is in.

After the swine show kids gathered at the Grandstand to compete in the Kids Pedal Tractor Pull. This event had kids ages 4-12 operate a pedal tractor pulling a weighted sled. The winner is determined by who drags the sled the furthest. It may seem easy enough until the friction builds up making it harder to pedal the further you go.

The night ended with a live performance by Jordan Schoch under the main tent. Originally from Nebraska, Jordan travels across the state and performs his music that is heavily influenced by the farm life he grew up in. It was a great show for the whole family.

On Sunday, the final day, spectators gather to watch the Antique Tractor Pull. Much like the pedal pull it required tractors to pull a sled with the goal of who can pull it the furthest. Instead of small tractors fit for children, its contestants drove old tractors that the kids in the pedal pull wouldnt have been born when some of these tractors were built and sold.

Then kids got to show how much of a cowboy they really were at the Mutton Busting contest. This event is much like bull riding except it uses sheep instead of bulls. Additionally, the normal contestant for this contest is children. However, there are still age, height and weight restrictions to prevent injury to the animal. The contest also make sure the kids are safe as well. They require children to wear helmets and a protective vest. Most of the kids do inevitably fall off in eight seconds, but this contest is a great way for them to get experience in rodeos.

The final event to close out the 150th York County Fair was the Farm Olympics. Participants gathered at the north side of the beef barn to compete in five events that were farm related. The first event had the competitors change a simple tire on an axil in the fastest time possible. Following in the second event had them take and assemble a siphon tube to a water tank and run water to an empty jug. The third event was loading wood chips into a tub and hauling them to a specified destination. Fourth was a simple hammer and nails event where contestants battled to see who could hammer down the most nails into the board. The final event was a similar event that are usually held in lumberjack games. A giant saw was the tool used in the finale to see who could saw off a piece of a log the fastest.

This year's fair was filled with great opportunities for 4-h kids to develop their skills. Fun activities for young ones and for older audiences. Most importantly though it was a great time for the community to get together and celebrate their great county.
Airport security checks allow travellers to pass through the gate only after thoroughly inspecting all of the contents of their luggage. The inspection to assure the safety of all the passengers on a flight often becomes a hustle for the travellers. Furthermore, many even get annoyed when asked to take out the contents. Notably, electronic devices, including laptops, mobile phones, chargers, power banks, and others are to be taken out of the luggage for a separate screening. Here's why passengers have to adhere to these rules under all circumstances.

X-Ray Scanners Used At Airport: Working

The X-ray scanners generally used at airports emit X-ray that penetrates through the object and hence reflects an image of all the contents of a bag on the screen. The image created on the screen depends on the amount of penetration an X-ray makes. It is to be noted that the penetration rate varies depending on the material and hence making it easier to differentiate various materials.

Also read: Air India's First Airbus A350-900 Aircraft Performs Maiden Flight: Details Here

Why Laptops Are Removed From Luggage At Airports?

The airport authorities ask the passenger to remove the laptops because the mechanical components, especially the batteries made of Lead are too dense to be penetrated by the X-Rays. Hence, having devices like laptops, cameras, tablets, and other devices can block the view of other items, which might be potentially dangerous.

Considering the fact, such items are placed separately allowing them to see the components of the bag and the internal components of the device. Furthermore, the batteries are highly inflammable and made of lithium-ion material.

Use Of Advances Scanners On Airport

Multiple international airports are moving towards the use of next-gen scanners which allow viewing the contents of luggage from multiple angles. Hence, eliminating the need to take out electronic devices. These powerful scanners can detect whether something is hidden, avoiding the need for a separate electronics or liquids check. Furthermore, they can also help in clearing the queues at the airport faster.
The good news is that, according to a new study, some 500,000 tons of plastic  over ten times less than previous estimates  reach the sea every year, according to a new study. The bad news is that this plastic lasts longer than it was believed to, sometimes decades longer. New research, published in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, estimates that there are 3.4 million tons of plastic floating in the ocean, but there must be far more at the ocean floor and ingested by marine animals.

A good portion of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic that people have made since they learned to do so has ended up in the ocean. It is difficult to give exact or even approximate figures for this problem. We know almost to the gram how many tons of these polymers are produced per year: 461 million in 2020. We also know the approximate amount that is recycled. But the certainty ends there: we dont know how much plastic ends up being burned in landfills or winds up in rivers and reaches the ocean from there.

For a little over a decade, between environmentalists and scientists, several organizations  including 5Gyres, the Tara Ocean Foundation and Surfing for Science  have conducted expeditions and campaigns in which they collect the plastic they find on their journeys. Then, based on the area and what they collected, they estimate the quantity and mass of plastic materials.

Supported by a new mathematical model using 22,000 measurements from coastlines and sea surfaces and depths, a group of scientists has now recalculated the key figures for the flow of plastics. According to the new studys lead author Mikael Kaandorp, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Marine Research at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the researchers goal was to end the mystery of missing plastic. Based on studies from 2014 and 2015, it was thought that between 4,000 and 12,000 kilotons [one kiloton is 1,000 tons] of plastic reaches the ocean every year, with only about 250 kilotons floating, he says. That would mean an incredible amount of plastic disappears every year, so we think our new numbers  500 kilotons of input and around 3,400 kilotons of plastic in the water  make much more sense, adds Kaandorp, who is also a researcher at the IBG-3 Institute of Bio and Geosciences in Julich, Germany.

In the open sea, floating plastic ends up on islands of waste that are formed in ocean gyres as a result of ocean currents. The image shows a net full of plastic from the Ocean Cleanup's expedition. the ocean cleanup

The new calculations detail the origins of marine plastics. Around 40% enters from the coast. We can think of plastic waste that is poorly managed near the coast, like leaky landfills. Or maybe [its] waste thrown into the sea by rain runoff in coastal cities or blown into the ocean by the wind, Kaandorp details. But the distribution of the rest of the plastic stands out. Almost half of petroleum derivative waste comes from fishing, mostly from fishing nets. And only 12% would come from rivers.

As for the plastic floating in the sea, the researchers estimate that there must be between 3 and 3.4 million tons on the surface. The vast majority of this plastic is relatively large, over 25 millimeters in size, and tends to be concentrated in so-called plastic islands, collections of garbage that are formed by the sea currents in the so-called ocean gyres. The new researchs figure is more than double the estimates of previous studies, which left it at a quarter of a million. The papers authors believe that the plastics size and concentration make it feasible to remove all of this artificial material from the sea.

But the amount of plastics on the ocean floor must be far greater. According to the new study, almost half of the accumulated plastic from previous years ends up on the seabed, forming part of the sediment at a rate of 220,000 tons per year. Going back to the 1950s,when mass production began, the researchers calculate that there must be 6.2 million tons of plastic on the ocean floor that floated into the sea. But this transit between the surface and the bottom of the sea remains the greatest unknown. The problem is that it is not easy to trace plastics (even if water bottle caps still bearing a manufacturers name have been found in the Arctic).

Jose Maria Alsina, of the Polytechnic University of Catalonias Maritime Engineering Laboratory, gives the example of a water bottle: When it comes from the river it is not the same as when it has been thrown from a boat. It is necessary to take into account where it ends up, whether on the shore [or] in the oceanic gyres, and whether it sinks. Degradation by solar radiation and erosion by sand also play a role. And [then] there is biofouling, the incrustation of microalgae in the plastic [which affects its buoyancy]... Everything makes it difficult to know where that bottle of water will end up.

Despite its greater visibility, the percentage of plastic that ends up on the coastline is negligible when compared to the plastic that goes to the bottom of the sea. In the image, cleaning work is done on Marunda beach in Jakarta, Indonesia. Future Publishing / Getty

Previous studies have estimated that only around 3% of the plastic in the sea is floating on the surface. The vast majority of plastics would be at the bottom. The problem, Alsina says, is that over 99% of the measurements have been done on the surface [using] floating plastic, theres hardly any data from the [oceans] depths. Tracking plastics at the bottom of the ocean requires special vehicles and technologies that are not readily accessible. For example, the new study is supported by more than 20,000 measurements, but only 120 come from the sea floor.

Another factor also complicates the calculations: there is a huge mass of water, thousands of meters deep, between the surface and the bottom, and nobody knows how much plastic is there. In theory, this material floats. But thats not always the case. Some of the modern plastics like PVC and PET containers can have a greater weight than salt water and sink slowly. A work reviewing previous research published last year estimated that there were 170 million tons at the bottom of the sea, interspersed with the sediment (the estimate range is between 25 and 900 tons, which indicates the uncertainty that exists).

Plastic that doesnt float or sink

Carlos Duarte, an oceanographer at Saudi Arabias King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, led that work on plastics on the seabed. Researchers then concluded that over 95% of the mass of plastics that has entered the ocean is buried on the seabed, which denotes very efficient sedimentation processes, the nature of which remains to be resolved and which this article does not clarify, comments Duarte, who is surprised by some of the figures they obtained. Duartes study also mentioned processes about which we know very little that cause some plastics not to float or sink; in their cycle in the sea, little pieces of plastic can sink under the weight of the biofilm that forms on its surface. But as they sink, the amount of light they receive decreases, which would kill the algae. In addition, these biological materials are formed primarily by silicates and carbonates, which dissolve in cold water. So, there could be a huge amount of plastic bobbing up and down that hasnt been accounted for.

University of Cadiz biologist Andres Cozar is a leading expert on plastics in the sea. A pioneer in calculating the amount of this material in the ocean, he was the first to mention the mystery of missing plastic. According to Cozar, the problem with Kaandorps work is that there are two ways to make these numbers add up. One is by making the residence time of plastics on the ocean surface very short, that is, the plastic that enters is quickly removed and goes to the coasts and the ocean floor. That approach has been common in previous studies. The second way to adjust the numbers is that the inputs from rivers are much less than those estimated up to now. And that is what this new study has done. Mathematically, both options are valid.

According to Cozar, the same problem remains: We still do not have calculations of the surfaces plastic load or of inputs from rivers that are precise enough to choose one option or the other. In other words, the uncertainty range is so wide that it allows both mathematical adjustments. But if the latest calculations from Kaandorps work are valid, that implies that they indirectly locate large amounts of plastic inland, Cozar explains.

The amount of new plastic entering the sea could be much less than previously believed, but according to the Kaandorp groups calculations, it is growing at a rate of 4% per year. If nothing is done to reduce or remove it, the plastic floating in the sea will double in two decades. If the researchers numbers are correct, plastics will remain as macroplastic, microplastic and simple plastic on the surface, on the shores, on the seabed and in the oceans medium depths for years to come.

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Aviation watchdog, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has, since 2021, instituted a 'No Fly List', resulting in the prohibition of 166 passengers from boarding flights to/from India for a designated duration, the Parliament was told on Monday. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh (retd) also told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the total number of complaints lodged by passengers were 4,786 in 2020, 5,321 in 2021, 5,525 in 2022, and 2,384 since January this year to date. He also said that the fleet size of aircraft endorsed on the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of the scheduled operators in the country in 2014 was 395 whereas in 2023 it is 729.

As per the information received by the DGCA, the total fleet size of the major domestic airlines in the country is expected to be approximately 1,600 in the next seven years, the minister stated.

Singh said that as a part of monthly submission of traffic data by Scheduled Domestic Airlines, the percentage of flights cancelled in the year 2023 (till June) is 0.58 per cent.



The minister was responding to questions by BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi, who had asked about the number of passengers travelling by airlines in last 3 years till June 2023, the percentage of domestic flights that were cancelled this year and the number of complaints lodged against unruly behaviour of passengers, the action taken against such unruly passengers.

He had also asked about the total complaints lodged by passengers in the last three years, year- wise and the number of aircrafts with Indian Carriers in 2013-14 and 2022-23.

Also, as many as 338 cases of technical snags have been reported in aircraft of various airlines up to July this year with the maximum number of such cases (206) occurring in aircraft of no-frills carrier IndiGo.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has recently approved an ambitious plan to create seamless multimodal connectivity for the upcoming Noida International Greenfield Airport in Jewar. This project includes the construction of two new expressways and a rail link that will connect Chola Railway Station in Bulandshahr to the airport. While this proposal aims to boost regional development and business opportunities, questions arise about the need for such extensive infrastructure investments and potential missed opportunities for synergy with existing projects.

The proposed plan consists of two expressways, one being 20km and the other 16km long, with a 2.5km gap in between. Interestingly, this gap area will be developed into a warehousing and logistics hub, aiming to create job opportunities and foster economic growth. Additionally, a rail link will run parallel to one of the expressways, further connecting the airport and the region to the vital Delhi-Howrah rail link that houses the Chola railway station in Bulandshahr.

However, concerns arise as to whether such significant land acquisition, construction of new expressways, and laying of railway lines are justified, given the existence of the dedicated freight corridor rail line. The dedicated freight corridor is a flagship infrastructure project of the Government of India, with 15 years of planning and an investment of over 1.5 lakh crore rupees. The New Khurja DFC station is situated merely 15km away from the Noida Airport and is connected through the Major District Road (MDR 70 W).



According to experts, one plausible solution is to enhance the existing connectivity by broadening the MDR or creating better last-mile connections to the New Khurja DFC station. This approach could potentially save the state exchequer thousands of crores of rupees and also reduce the time and effort required to acquire land from farmers and tender the construction of new rail lines and expressways.

Interestingly, the Government of India had previously launched the Gati Shakti master plan, which aimed to identify synergies in the Indian infrastructure sector and address inefficiencies in the logistics and other infrastructure sectors. The Noida Airport case, however, presents a scenario where the Gati Shakti master plan might not have achieved its full potential. The lack of integration between existing infrastructure projects and new developments in Noida raises concerns about optimizing resources and efforts.

While the YEIDA's proposal for multimodal connectivity to the upcoming Noida Airport seeks to boost regional development and business opportunities, it also raises questions about the need for such extensive investments and whether existing infrastructure projects can be better utilized to achieve the same objectives. Experts said that a thorough review and consideration of synergies between various infrastructure initiatives are crucial to ensure efficient and effective development for the benefit of citizens and businesses alike.

According to experts, while the emphasis is being laid on UP hosting multiple DFC track trackage, no one is bothered about road connectivity to bring the very freight to the station. "Yet another typical instance, one arm of the Government not communicating with another, especially for an Infrastructure which has been under construction for a decade!!... The same mistakes are being repeated in AMRIT KAAL! ...When will we wake up?" asked Murlidhar Venkata Satya, Founder & President, MVS CONSULTANCY.

The Noida airport is a mere 15 kilometres away from the emerging DFC station, but it's infuriating to witness how its strategic location advantages are being neglected. The government has set ambitious goals of raising the percentage share of rail freight in total freight transport to 45%, all in the name of meeting decarbonization targets. Yet, their so-called commitment to implementing these promises is nothing short of lacklustre and disappointing, he said.

"What's even more exasperating is the woefully inadequate road infrastructure linking Jewar to Khurja DFC station. The current road is a narrow and inefficient mess, obstructing any hopes of smooth and efficient transportation. And to add insult to injury, the last-mile road connection to the DFC station has still not received the attention it deserves. It's as if they are playing games with our logistics infrastructure!" said Satya.

Experts shared that it's high time the government gets its act together and takes decisive action to provide the much-needed connectivity for seamless freight movement. "The DFC station's true potential can only be realized when we have a robust and well-thought-out logistics infrastructure in place. No more empty promises and half-hearted efforts - it's time to deliver on commitments and make things happen," said Vardaan Chaudhry, Partner, Northward Infra.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to introduce the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Rajya Sabha on Monday (August 7). The Delhi Services Bill, which seeks to replace a May 19 Ordinance brought by the Centre regarding control of services in the national capital, was passed by Lok Sabha despite a walkout by Opposition parties on Thursday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is to move the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in Rajya Sabha tomorrow, August 7.



This Bill has already been passed by Lok Sabha. pic.twitter.com/CbEtL8w9Ft  ANI (@ANI) August 6, 2023

AAP, Congress Issue Whip

Meanwhile, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been seeking opposition parties' support against the Ordinance, has issued a three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha members, asking them to be present in the House on August 7 and 8.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress' chief whip in the Upper House, issued a three-line whip on August 4, saying that "very important issues will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday i.E. August 7, 2023".

"All members of Congress Party in Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023, without fail and support the party stand," the chief whip said. This may be treated as most important, Ramesh added.

The Rajya Sabha Number Game

In Rajya Sabha, there are a total of 245 seats out of which 8 are currently vacant. This means the current strength is at 237. Thus, the majority mark to pass the Bill in the Upper House will be 119. On the other hand, the combined strength of all the parties who have extended support to AAP, including the Congress, is 105. YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has extended their support to the Bill which will be tabled in Rajya Sabha now where the NDA does not have the majority.

The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the lower house of parliament on August 3 after a walkout by members of the I.N.D.IA alliance. The Bill sailed through the Lower House of Parliament easily as the BJP-led NDA has the majority. However, the Opposition bloc- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has cleared it stand to oppose the Bill in the Upper House.

"I.N.D.I.A has a clear stand on this bill, we are against it," said Congress leader Pramod Tiwari.

Delhi Services Bill

The ordinance on the control of services in Delhi was promulgated in May days after the Supreme Court verdict on the issue. The Bill empowers the Central Government to make rules in connection with the affairs of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi including the functions, terms and other conditions of service of officers and employees.

Arvind Kejriwal has been seeking the support of opposition parties against the Bill, especially in the Rajya Sabha. AAP Minister Gopal Rai said that all the opposition parties will together protest against this bill on Monday. "Central government is trying to forcefully take the rights of Delhi. All the opposition parties will together protest against this bill on Monday," he said.

Floor leaders of the newly formed Opposition alliance the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) will meet at the office of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Parliament on Monday to chalk out the strategy for the floor of the House. The meeting of the floor leaders will be held at 10 am on Monday.

AAP Issues Whips To Its MPs





Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) issued a three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha members, asking them to be present in the House on August 7 and 8. "The following very important issues will be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday 7th August 2023 and Tuesday, 8th August. The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 - Discussion and Passing," the whip notice issued by Chief whip Sushil Kumar Gupta read.

The notice further asked its Upper House MPs to be present in the House as it is the most important issue. "All members of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the house from 11 AM onwards until the adjournment of the House from August 7 to August 8 without fail and support the party stand. This may be treated as MOST IMPORTANT," it added.

The Bill holds significance as the Central government and the Delhi government have locked their horn over this Bill. In his reply to the debate in Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said that opposition parties did not take part in the debate on any Bill passed in the House and kept protesting on their demands over the debate on the Manipur situation.

Pointing towards the opposition benches, he asked what has changed that they were taking part in the Bill concerning Delhi. The opposition's priority is to save their alliance. The opposition is not worried about Manipur...Everyone is talking about the rights of a state. But which state? Delhi is not a state but a Union Territory...The Parliament has the right to make laws for Delhi...," Amit Shah said.

Union Minister Amit Shah, on Thursday in Lok Sabha said the Opposition parties belonging to I.N.D.I.A came together to oppose the Bill for the sake of their alliance and not for democracy, the country or its people.
Poonch/Jammu: A terrorist was gunned down in a gunfight as Army troops guarding the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday scuttled an infiltration attempt from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district. The alert troops in the Degwar sector noticed the movement of some terrorists attempting to sneak into this side under the cover of darkness in the early hours of the day and engaged them in an encounter, the officials said.

They said one terrorist was gunned down but his body was yet to be retrieved from the scene. Sharing more information, Jammu-based defence PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said an army ambush party established contact with terrorists in Garhi battalion area around 2 AM.

"Infiltration bid was foiled in Poonch, in a joint operation by Indian Army and J&K Police in the early hours today. Two terrorists were engaged by the joint teams of the Indian Army and J&K Police. One terrorist fell down immediately, and the second terrorist tried to run back, engaged and hit and was seen falling down near LoC. Operation is still underway," Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, PRO (Defence) Jammu said.



#UPDATE | J&K: Infiltration bid foiled in Poonch, in a joint operation by Indian Army and J&K Police in the early hours today. Two terrorists were engaged by the joint teams of the Indian Army and J&K Police. One terrorist fell down immediately, and the second terrorist tried to https://t.co/BlKMKtcv22  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

The whole area has been cordoned off and a massive search operation is underway.

Further details are awaited.
New Delhi: Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi on Monday changed his bio on microblogging site X formerly known as Twitter from "'Dis' Qualified MP" to Member of Parliament'. Gandhi changed his Twitter bio after the Lok Sabha Secretariat restored his membership today. The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday restored the membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case. He was disqualified from the lower house in March 2023.

"In continuation of Notification No. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B), dated the 24th March 2023, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8644/2023, staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala, which was ordered by the judgment dated 23.03.2023 of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat in C.C./ 18712/2019," an official notification issued by Lok Sabha secretariat read.

"In view of the order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi notified vide Gazette Notification no. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B) dated the 24th March 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," it added.



Lok Sabha Secretariat restores membership of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court on Friday (August 4) stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.



He was disqualified from the lower house in March 2023. pic.twitter.com/UBE3FvCGEN  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the sentence of two years awarded to Gandhi in the 2019 defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark. The court while granting relief to Gandhi had said the ramifications of the trial courts order are wide. Not only was Gandhis right to continue in public life affected but also that of the electorate who elected him, the court had added.

The apex court also issued notices to the Gujarat government and the complainant in July on an appeal of the Congress leader challenging the Gujarat High Court order.

Meanwhile, I.N.D.I.A alliance leader along with the Congress Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge celebrated the restoration of Rahul Gandhi's MP status with sweets. In a video shared by the news agency ANI, member of Congress party and oppsition alliance are seen offering sweets to each other.
New Delhi: Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Monday termed the Delhi services bill "unconstitutional" and "anti-democratic" and appealed to all opposition parties in Rajya Sabha to oppose it with the warning that "someday this anti-federal knock will come" at their door too. He accused the government of bringing the bill out of "vendetta" and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, will replace an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

Initiating a discussion on the bill, which was moved by Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said no government in the past had ever tried to overrule the status of the Delhi government and accused the current dispensation of being a "control freak".



"This bill is completely unconstitutional. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is a frontal assault on the regional voice and the regional aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability, all models of assembly based democracy. It violates the basic structure," he asserted.

He said that no government since 1992, when Delhi's special constitutional status was created, tried to overrule two judgments of the Supreme Court constitution bench on the status of National Capital Territory.

"This government and this bill have done it all, something not done earlier," he said, adding such a step has now been taken because of the "control freak" nature of the government whose "visiting card appears to be vendetta, whose identity badge is of a graceless and fuming electoral loser...."

He said the approach of the government is "to control by hook or crook, usually more by crook and less by hook".

Singhvi criticised the provisions of the bill which he said seeks the "creation of an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a 'Super CM' and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies".

Stating that this is not about any particular government in the NCT, he said, "It is the deliberate regression from a people's government guaranteed to the people of Delhi 30 years ago. And hence it is a decimation of the most fundamental constitutional values...."

Asking all parties to collectively rise to oppose the bill, he said, "Someday this anti-federal knock will come at your door."

This is a matter to ponder for those who are supporting this bill, he said, adding "what is happening with the Delhi government today could happen to you soon".
Union Home Minister Amit Shah blasted opposition bloc India while speaking during the discussion on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha last week after a walkout by members of the opposition. Shah lambasted the Congress for supporting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the bill saying that AAP came to power by abusing Congress and today, it's taking support from the same Congress. Shah told Congress that nothing is going to happen (kuchh nahi hone wala) as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will again take a u-turn once the bill is passed or rejected by this house.

Shah also slammed the AAP-led Delhi government saying that while it held only six cabinet meeting in the last year, three were related to the budget and three cabinet meeting was held to provide benefit to an electricity company. He said that the aim of the bill is to make sure corruption-free administration in Delhi.

#WATCH | AAP was born after opposing Congress. They (AAP) used almost three tons of offensive words against Congress and came into existence. And today they are seeking support from Congress to oppose this bill. The moment this bill will be passed, Arvind Kejriwal ji palat pic.twitter.com/vPeL7Zg2fO  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

#WATCH | Union Home Minister Amit Shah replies on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha



"Shabdon ke shringar se asatya ko satya nahi banaya ja sakta...Oxford ki dictionary ke sundar, lambe shabdon ko bolne se asatya satya nahi ho jata pic.twitter.com/eAprznZRPq  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

The Union Home Minister also said that the bill doesn't violate the Supreme Court order. "Earlier, there were no fights over transfer postings in Delhi, no CMs had any problems....In 2015, a government came up after an 'andolan'....Some people said that the Centre wants to take power into its hands. The Centre doesn't need to do so as the people of India have given us the power and the right....," said Amit Shah while replying on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha.

Shah also alleged that the AAP government transferred officers of the Vigilance Department because files related to the 'excise scam' were lying there. The Union Home Minister also slammed the AAP government for not holding assembly sessions besides the Budget session. Referring to I.N.D.I.A alliance, the Home Minister targeted Congress over joining hands with AAP and said the Congress was opposing the bill which was in consonance with the law it had enacted. If you have conscience,. You will support the bill but you want to save the alliance, Amit Shah said.

#WATCH | They (AAP govt) transferred officers in Vigilance Department because files related to 'excise scam' were lying there...: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha. pic.twitter.com/vWHDiNF0sQ  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 empowers the Central Government to make rules in connection with the affairs of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, including the functions, terms, and other conditions of service of officers and employees. The bill was brought by the Centre on May 19 after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Delhi government in the case related to the control of services in the UT.
New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi arrived in Parliament on Monday shortly after the Lok Sabha secretariat revoked his suspension from the Lower House on Monday. Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) alliance leaders raised 'Rahul Gandhi Zindabad' slogans as they welcomed him to Parliament.

#WATCH | Delhi: I.N.D.I.A alliance leaders raise 'Rahul Gandhi Zindabad' slogans as they welcome him to the Parliament. pic.twitter.com/Fd2P5J2DXY  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

Upon reaching Parliament Housse along with his mother Sonia Gandhi, the Congress leader paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

#WATCH | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi pays tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the Parliament House.



Lok Sabha Secretariat restored Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership today after Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case. pic.twitter.com/jU9bWXG6UL  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

Rahul Gandhi Changes His Twitter Bio



The Congress leader also updated his account bio on X (formerly known as Twitter) from 'Dis'Qualified MP' to 'Member of Parliament'. Congress leaders were also seen distributing sweets outside the Parliament.

#WATCH | I.N.D.I.A alliance leaders celebrate following restoration of Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.



(Source: AICC) pic.twitter.com/vaVwBcreYM  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

Earlier this morning, the Lok Sabha Secretariat restored the membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case. He was disqualified from the lower house in March 2023. "In continuation of Notification No. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B), dated the 24th March 2023, the Supreme Court of India has passed an order on 04.08.2023 in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 8644/2023, staying the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala, which was ordered by the judgment dated 23.03.2023 of the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat in C.C./ 18712/2019," an official notification issued by Lok Sabha secretariat read.

"In view of the order dated 04.08.2023 of the Supreme Court of India, the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi notified vide Gazette Notification no. 21/4(3)/2023/TO(B) dated the 24th March 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements," it added.

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the sentence of two years awarded to Gandhi in the 2019 defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark. The court while granting relief to Gandhi had said the ramifications of the trial courts order are wide. Not only was Gandhis right to continue in public life affected but also that of the electorate who elected him, the court had added.

The apex court also 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 Congress party had earlier called a meeting of its Lok Sabha MPs in the party's parliamentary office on Monday over the issue of reinstating Rahul Gandhi as the Member of Parliament after the Supreme Court verdict in the Modi surname remark case. The Congress said that it will raise its demand for restoring Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership in view of any delay after a favourable Supreme Court verdict in the Modi surname remark case.

A copy of the Supreme Court order, that stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction by a Surat court in a criminal defamation case, was formally handed over to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The Congress leadership and several opposition leaders had expressed their disappointment over the Lok Sabha Secretariats response to their request that Gandhi should be immediately reinstated, so that he can participate in the no-confidence motion against the Modi government, which begins on August 8.

The speed with which he was disqualified, it is important to reinstate him with the same speed. I called up Speaker Sahib last night and told him that I want to submit the court documents to you to facilitate Rahul Gandhijis return to the House. He then advised me to call him up this morning, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told reporters at a press conference.

SC Stays Rahul Gandhi's Conviction In Modi Surname Case



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.

Significantly, the Opposition parties have decided to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha and Rahul Gandhi is also likely to take part in this.

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. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have faced adjournments over opposition demands for a detailed discussion on the situation in Manipur and a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has said it is ready for discussion on Manipur but the opposition parties are pressing for discussion under a rule which also entails voting.
Mexico city: Tropical storm Eugene is strengthening in the Mexican Pacific and could become a hurricane in the next few hours as it moves parallel to the coast of the Baja California peninsula, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported on Sunday. Eugene was located 205 kilometers (127 miles) southwest of the peninsula and blowing maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour (68 miles per hour) moving at 30 km/h (18.6 mph) in a west-northwest direction, according to data from the Miami-based NHC.

"Eugene could become a hurricane later today before starting to weaken on Monday," the NHC said in a report, adding that no coastal warnings were in effect. The state water commission in Mexico, Conagua, said the storm will cause very heavy rains in the state of Baja California Sur and waves up to four meters (13 feet) high. Waves are also expected in the states of Nayarit and Sinaloa.

Baja California Sur is home to tourist hotspots like Cabo San Lucas, while Nayarit hosts San Blas and San Pancho. The port city of Mazatlan is in Sinaloa. Eugene is expected to continue on its current track through Tuesday with winds extending up to 130 km (81 miles) from the center of the storm, the NHC said. In late June, Hurricane Beatriz dumped heavy rains in its path, also off the Pacific coast of Mexico.


Air India is set to get its first Airbus 350-900 aircraft. The new aircraft destined for the Tata-owned airline took its maiden flight from Southern France to get to India. The aircraft took off from Toulouse on August 4th completing a flight of 2 hours and 52 minutes over the Bay of Biscay, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux and returning to Toulouse, as per Simple Flying's report. However, the aircraft with registration F-WZFZ is yet to adorn Air India's livery.

The Airbus aircraft was to be delivered to Aeroflot, however, was passed on to Air India because of the ongoing sanctions. The new aircraft is part of Air India's massive order of 250 Airbus aircraft. It is to be noted that the order includes 140 A320neo, 70 A321neo, 6 A350-900 and 34 A350-1000.

Also read: IndiGo Passenger Caught Smoking On Dubai-Mumbai Flight, Case Filed



According to AeroTime, Air India expects six brand new A350-900s to be in service by the end of the year; however, because the aircraft was originally slated for Aeroflot, they will come with the Russian carrier's interior. This will take some time to customize.

Given that the aircraft will have Aeroflot's interior, the configuration will be 28 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and the remaining 264 economy class seats. The main reason Air India kept the Russian interior is simply due to scheduling constraints and the Indian carrier's ambition to get these aircraft in the air as soon as possible in order to coincide with its ambitious growth objectives.
Former U.S. president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump likes to attack anyone he perceives as a rival, even if they are of little importance. But when his former vice president, Mike Pence, announced he was also running for the White House in June, Trump largely left him alone. But that changed last week, when Trump lashed out: 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. The reason for the change was clear: Pences testimony is key to the indictment against Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. His once-faithful servant is emerging as a pivotal figure in what promises to be a historic trial.

Pence, 64, is not a glamorous politician. Many adjectives can be used to describe him, but charismatic is not the first that comes to mind. In many respects, he is the absolute opposite of his former running mate. Where Trump is exuberant and fickle, the former governor of Indiana is discreet, always neat and always proper. He comes from the most conservative and religious wing of the Republican Party: he is an evangelical Christian, who considers the fight against reproductive rights one of his top objectives. By his own admission, he avoids being alone with a woman other than his wife, Karen.

Pence didnt seem like the most obvious choice to join Trump in the White House. And yet, the combination worked. The extroverted New York-raised real-estate magnate wanted a vice president with rural roots that would connect with the evangelical Republican base. A political path was opening up for Pence  one that would have been very difficult for him to achieve on his own. Throughout the campaign, and after his victory in the 2016 elections, the two appeared to have a good relationship. The former governor collaborated deferentially with Trump and willingly fulfilled a secondary role, defending each of his decisions and making sure not to steal the limelight. Back then, Trump described his vice president as a good man.

This relationship changed when Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The former president spread false allegations of voter fraud and pressured Pence to refuse to certify the results of Joe Bidens win. When Pence refused, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, yelling Hang Mike Pence! The final deathblow was Pences testimony in the latest indictment against Trump, which is the most serious of the three he is facing.

The former vice presidents testimony and notes, taken in January 2021, are central to the case that special counsel Jack Smith has been preparing over the past two and a half years. Pences conversations with Trump in the weeks leading up to the January 6 assault, and the notes he took about them, are cited over and over again in the 45-page indictment document. Based on this evidence, Smith argues that the former president and six of his aides constantly pressured Pence not to certify the election results. If Pence testifies in trial, his statement could be devastating for Trump.

On December 25, 2020, Pence called Trump to wish him a Merry Christmas. According to the indictment, Trump quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the vice president reject electoral votes that day. Pence pushed back, replying: You know, I dont think I have the authority to change the outcome. A week later, on January 1, 2021, Trump attacked Pence for ruling out a lawsuit to authorize him to dismiss the votes. Youre too honest, Trump told him.

Pence  who maintains that his actions on January 6, 2021, upheld the Constitution, although he believes that Trump did not commit a crime with respect to the assault on the Capitol  did not want to testify in the investigation. He tried to avoid testifying until the last moment, even filing an appeal against the summons. He only agreed to speak with investigators when a judge rejected his appeal.

They asked me to annul the elections

Like the rest of the 2024 Republican presidential candidates, Pence had tried to maintain a delicate balance between the need to distance himself from Trump, his now rival, without confronting the many Republican voters who support the former president. Its a position that has not helped him gain followers: before last week, he was only polling at around 5%. Indeed, his campaign does not meet the 40,000 donor threshold set to qualify to participate in televised debates. To Trump supporters, he is a traitor to the cause. For those who criticize the former president, he is the man who supported the excesses of the Trump government.

Following Trumps latest indictment, however, Pence has taken on his former boss in much stronger terms. And he has not ruled out testifying at trial. What the president maintained that day [January 6, 2021] and frankly has said over and over again over the last two and a half years is completely false, Pence told reporters in Indianapolis. And its contrary to what our Constitution and the laws of this country provide.

The American people deserve to know that president Trump and his advisers didnt just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election, he told Fox News.

Although, true to his cautious nature, he has avoided saying that Trump committed a crime. My focus is going to be not on the indictment or the merits of it, he said Wednesday. The president can make his case for it. But Im going to make it clear to the American people, as I seek the Republican nomination, that despite what Donald Trump has said over the last two and a half years, that I had no right to overturn the election, he said.

The Pence campaign claims that it has received more than 7,400 donations since the release of the indictment, a jump of almost 25% compared to the previous week. But his problems continue. His fundraising campaign  which has around $1 million  is light years behind rivals such as Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Only 44% of Republican voters have a favorable perception of Pence, compared to 66% for DeSantis, or 76% for Trump, according to a poll published by The New York Times. At a Saturday rally in New Hampshire, a group of Trump supporters booed him when he arrived, yelling: Traitor, sell out!

Pence, meanwhile, is trying to take advantage of the attention caused by the indictment in a bid to boost support, painting himself as a man who does what he must, regardless of pressure. His campaigns latest merchandising offering is a mocking allusion to Trumps insults: caps and T-shirts with the slogan too honest.

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New Delhi: With an illustrious career, Arjun Rampal has firmly established himself as a versatile powerhouse of talent in the Indian film industry. From embodying intense characters in high-octane action dramas to delving into emotionally charged roles, Rampal's acting prowess knows no bounds. With an impressive movie slate that boasts diverse and exciting projects, he continues to entertain audiences and prove time and again why he is hailed as one of the industry's finest actors.

Join us as we delve into the four instances where Arjun Rampal's versatility shines through, making him one of the top actors in the industry today.

Prepare to witness Arjun Rampal's dynamic versatility in the adrenaline-pumping action film Crakk. Arjun embraces the role of the main villain, exhibiting his versatility in portraying intense and menacing characters. Rampal's commanding presence and dedication to performing his own stunts showcase his commitment to bringing authenticity to this high-octane role and were really looking forward to this one.



With Punjab '95 Rampal ventures into a different genre, taking on a role that delves into the impact of the Punjab insurgency on people's lives. This showcases his versatility in tackling subjects with historical and emotional depth, promising a compelling and impactful performance. The film will be screened at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival in a few weeks and all eyes are on that premier that showcases Indian cinema on a global platform.

Arjun Rampal's debut in Telugu cinema, Bhagavanth Kesari, marks an exciting milestone in his career. Venturing beyond linguistic boundaries, he brings his charisma and acting prowess to captivate a wider audience. There are many surprises in store for the audiences in relation to his character, look, and his visit to Hyderabad created a mass hysteria too!

In The Rapist, Arjun Rampal proves his versatility by stepping into an intense drama centered around a hard-hitting subject of rape, nature versus nurture, death penality, and more. By portraying characters that address sensitive social issues, Rampal showcases his ability to handle roles that demand emotional depth and nuance. The Rapist has had a dream run at various festivals such as one of South Korea's biggest festivals where it was named a co-winner of the Kim Jiseok Award at the 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) followed by The Kerala Film Festival and The Kolkata International Film Festival along with The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne! Arjun's performance was highly appreciated post every screening, making this as one of the most awaited movies for his fans and beyond.

We surely cannot wait for more of Arjun on screen in the coming months.
BHU UG Merit List 2023: The BHU UG Merit List 2023 for Round 1 admissions has been revealed. Candidates who applied for BHU UG Admissions 2023 will be able to view and download the Round 1 results on the university's official website, bhuonline.in. The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Central Admission Committee has released the seat allocation list for the main campus and associated colleges. Candidates who have been assigned seats must pay the cost by August 8 at 5:59 p.m.

"First list for admission to various undergraduate programs has been released. The list of the main campus paid seats and affiliated colleges has been displayed on http://bhuonline.in. The fee deadline under the first list is 08.08.2023," BHU Tweeted.

BHU UG Merit List 2023: Steps to download here

1. Visit the official website- bhuonline.in

2. On the appeared homepage, click on the BHU UG Merit list link

3. A new login page would open

4. Enter the asked credentials

5. Access the BHU UG Admission portal and check the allotment order

6. Download the same and take a print out for the future references

When the seat allotment results are announced, candidates must accept the offer of admission and pay the money by the deadline. If a student does not accept the offer, they will be denied admission. BHU UG Admissions 2023 will take place in multiple rounds, including normal and mop-up rounds.
Kerala HSCAP 3rd Allotment 2023: The Kerala Department of General Education, DGE, released the third supplementary results of higher secondary (Class 11) admission today, August 7. Students who are concerned can now get the Kerala HSCAP 3rd allotment result 2023 on the official website. Students must pay admission fees in order to get enrolled.

On the DGE official website, students may also view the category-wise final ranks of each institution to which they have applied. All pupils who received an allotment should report to their assigned schools between August 7 at 10 a.m. and August 8 at 4 p.m.

Kerala HSCAP 3rd Allotment 2023: Steps to check here

1. Visit the official Kerala HSCAP website, hscap.kerala.gov.in.

2. On the homepage, on the left side, click the candidate login tab.

3. Candidates must then enter their user name, password, and district of choice in the following step. Then choose 'School Wise Admitted Students List'.

5. Choose a district to view the Kerala HSCAP third allotment result 2023.

6. Verify the allocation status and save the letter

7. Print a copy of the Kerala HSCAP allotment letter for future reference.

There were 25,735 vacancies that were advertised. The third additional allocation was considered for 11,849 students out of 12,487 applicants. Of these, 638 applications were rejected for allotment due to a lack of options and other reasons.
New Delhi: AIMIM leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has slammed the Haryana governments bulldozer action in the aftermath of the communal violence in Nuh, calling the move a collective punishment. The AIIM MP also accused Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of usurping the rights of the courts of law in ordering bulldozer action after the violence in Nuh and punishing innocent Muslims.

He was responding to Nuh Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata's statement that confidence-building measures are underway in the violence-hit area. "Confidence Building means buildings, homes, and medical shops, and shanties of one community (Muslims)should be Demolished without following due process to give collective punishment. The @mlkhattar government has usurped the rights of Courts of Law," he said in a tweet.





Confidence Building" means buildings,homes and medical shops &shanties of one community (Muslims)should be Demolished without following due process to give collective punishment.

The @mlkhattar government has usurped the rights of Courts of Law

 Confidence "is being given to https://t.co/t8WpMP1U7H  Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) August 6, 2023

Four teams of Haryana Police have been formed to investigate the cause of the violence that erupted in Nuh and later on spread to other districts of the state. As illegal structures are being razed in the violence-hit Nuh from where stones were allegedly pelted on a religious procession during the clashes, Nuh Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata said that ban on the internet in the district will continue till the situation normalises.

"Ban on the internet will continue for now. Once we will witness changes in the situation we will lift it. An extra one hour has been added to the movement of the public from tomorrow when the Curfew will be lifted," Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata said. M Ravi Kiran, ADGP, South Range said, "As of now 56 FIRs have been registered and 147 arrested. 4 teams have been formed and an investigation is underway."

As the drive against illegal constructions in the state continued for a third straight day, Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata said that "Confidence-building" measures are underway and action is not being taken to target anyone.

Continuing their drive against illegal constructions in Haryana's Nuh, district administration authorities demolished a restaurant-cum-hotel which was used by hooligans to pelt stones during the recent violence there. "Confidence-building measures are underway, meeting held with both communities...Internet services suspended till August 8...," Nuh Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata said.

Curfew Lifted In Nuh

Meanwhile, the curfew in the state was lifted for the movement of the public from 9 am to 1 pm on August 7. According to the order by Nuh District Magistrate, "ATMs opened in the MC area of Nuh, Tauru, Punhana, Ferozepur Jhirka and Pingwon and Nagina Block during the curfew relaxation period and Banks will remain open during the curfew period from 10 am to 3 pm for these areas. Cash transactions will be from 11 am to 2 pm only on August 7.

Internet Ban To Continue

Moreover, the Haryana government announced on Sunday that mobile internet services will remain suspended in the Nuh district till August 8. The order passed by the Haryana Home Secretary stated that the conditions in the district remain critical and tense.

"Whereas, it has been brought to my notice by Deputy Commissioner Nub that the law and order situation has been reviewed and the conditions are still critical and tense in the district," the statement said.

Furthermore, a four-member delegation of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was stopped from entering Nuh district. After a four-member delegation of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was stopped from entering Nuh district, MP Binoy Viswam slammed the police for preventing them to visit violence-hit areas in Haryana, adding that hooligans, goons and fascists are allowed to roam freely in the state.

Police stopped the delegation from visiting violence-hit areas citing prohibitions under Section 144 CrPC. The four-member delegation including CPI Rajya Sabha MP, Binoy Viswam, CPI general secretary Amarjeet Kaur, party MP Sandosh Kumar P, and party leader Dariyav Singh Kashyap will visit violence-affected areas in Gurugram and Nuh districts.

CPI MP Binoy Viswam said, "We have seen it, this is the plight of the country today. The reality of the day, the Police are not allowing even us. That means that under this rule, even the freedom of movement is prohibited. Hooligans, goons and fascists can move freely...We have been prevented here and we wanted to protest over that. But we don't want to create a tussle here..."

14 Arrested, 55 FIRs Registered

Haryana police said that as many as 141 people have been arrested and 55 FIRs registered in connection with the violence and rioting in Haryana's Nuh district on Monday. Meanwhile, the Gurugram Police said it has filed 27 FIRs and arrested 38 accused persons, so far, in connection with the violence in Gurugram and adjoining districts following the clashes in Nuh.

"We have filed 27 FIRs and arrested 38 persons in connection with the recent violence in Gurugram. We have also taken 60 persons under preventive detention," Varun Kumar Dhahiya, Assistant Police Commissioner (Gurugram), said on Friday.

The toll in the violence that broke out between two groups stood at 6, including 2 police home guards, while another 88 were injured, police informed further. 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 peopleincluding around 20 policemeninjured in the frenzy of violence that followed.
Lack of lactation rooms at the workplace present a key challenge for new mothers who resume work from office post their maternity, said experts on Monday as part of the breastfeeding week, calling for better provisions for women. World Breastfeeding Week is observed globally from August 1 to 7 every year to raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding and to empower and support mothers who breastfeed.

The theme this year is: 'Let's make breastfeeding and work, work!'

"Most often, workplaces lack a designated area or nursing room where women can express milk in privacy. This is a big deterrent for women to rejoin work after their maternity leave. For new mothers who must choose between caring for their infant while nursing and concentrating on their professional development at work, a lack of flexibility, the inability to work from home, and long work hours can add to the troubles," Dr Deepa Mohan, Paediatrician, and Neonatologist, Motherhood Hospitals, told IANS.



Also read: Around One-Third Of Australians Are Suffering From Loneliness: Report

Mohan said: "Lack of facilities to continue breastfeeding, long intervals of not feeding/ pumping milk result in low milk output." In addition, "Difficulties in expressing milk at workplaces timely, mothers also suffer with engorged breasts which can be painful for the mother.

As a result, "Unacceptably, only few women continue to breastfeed their babies after returning to work and many women cease breastfeeding quickly after returning to work," she said. Another issue that women face is the storage of milk at workplaces.

"Most of the companies or workplaces dont provide refrigerators for storage of expressed or pumped milk, making breast feeding a challenge to the mothers. Absence of lactation rooms and less number of feeding breaks results in inadequate sucking of the baby which slowly reduces the milk production due to decreased stimulation of the brain reflex," Dr Babita Maturi, Gynaecologist at Apollo Clinic, told IANS.

In such cases, milk can be placed temporarily in an insulated cooler with ice packs or ice box, Mohan said. However, it is easier said than done.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, infants have to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months and continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond.

However, "the challenging combination of breastfeeding and work is one of the foremost reasons for early breastfeeding cessation," Dr Saravanan R, Consultant - Neonatology and Pediatrics, Rainbow Children's Hospital, told IANS.

"Though numerous factors play a role in creating a breastfeeding-friendly work environment, paid breastfeeding breaks and the availability of a lactation room (private space designated for milk expression or breastfeeding) are important basic requirements," Dr Saravanan said.

But the reality is that the provision of a lactation room is included in the legislation of only 31 per cent of countries, as per International Breastfeeding Journal.

According to the Harvard Business Review, 43 per cent of highly-qualified women with children are leaving careers or taking a career break. However, 75 per cent of them would be back if they can have flexible work.

"Breastfeeding is a right for both mother and child, yet working moms may find it difficult to balance breastfeeding with their professional obligations. This years focus is to raise awareness of the maternity benefits among Indian working parents," Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) said in a tweet.

Mohan said: "Offices can be more accommodating by incorporating breastfeeding-friendly policies, creating space for lactation rooms, offering hybrid options, reducing working hours for a couple of months post maternity leave, providing lactation breaks during work hours, or even allowing employees to go home and feed the baby if their homes are close to their places of employment."

"These modest initiatives can help employers retain talent on board, cut down on new mothers' absences, and a solution for those who are having trouble finding a balance. By empowering women to continue breastfeeding while working many women will not quit their jobs post maternity leave."
New Delhi: Delhis ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) on Monday alleged that the BJP was trying to bring the Delhi Services Bill in order to stop Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from moving forward in politics and threatened to expose the saffron party by going to the public over the issue. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak said, "This bill is being brought to stop Arvind Kejriwal from moving forward in politics. Congress party and other parties are supporting us. They (The central govt) are bringing this bill for their political interest. We will go among the public and expose the BJP..."

#WATCH | On Delhi Services Bill, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak says, "This bill is being brought to stop Arvind Kejriwal from moving forward in politics. Congress party and other parties are supporting us. They (Central govt) are bringing this bill for their political pic.twitter.com/7ORNHGV89d  ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2023

"This is an experimental bill that BJP is introducing, starting from Delhi...wherever there are non-BJP govts, they will introduce this bill and weaken the state govt. The parties which believe in Democracy will oppose this...", another AAP MP Sushil Gupta said on Delhi Services Bill.

AAP, Congress Issue Whip





Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to introduce the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Rajya Sabha on Monday (August 7). The Delhi Services Bill, which seeks to replace a May 19 Ordinance brought by the Centre regarding control of services in the national capital, was passed by Lok Sabha despite a walkout by Opposition parties on Thursday. With the Delhi services bill set to be taken up in Rajya Sabha on Monday, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have issued whips to their MPs asking them to be present in the Upper House till its adjournment.

Jairam Ramesh, the Congress' chief whip in the Upper House, issued a three-line whip on August 4, saying that "very important issues will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha on Monday i.E. August 7, 2023".

"All members of Congress Party in Rajya Sabha are requested to kindly remain present in the House from 11 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday, August 7, 2023, without fail and support the party stand," the chief whip said. This may be treated as most important, Ramesh added. On Sunday, a reminder was also sent to the party's MPs in Rajya Sabha.

"Be present positively in Rajya Sabha from 10:45 am onwards till the adjournment of the House on Monday i.E. August 7, 2023, and support the party stand, as important items of Legislative Business will be taken up for voting. Three-line whip in this regard has already been issued," the reminder said.

The AAP also issued a whip to all its MPs, asking them to be present in the Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday. In May, the Centre promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, which effectively nullified a Supreme Court judgment that handed over control of "services" in the NCT administration to the Delhi government.

Delhi Services Bill

The bill seeks to replace the ordinance on transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to move the corresponding bill for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Rajya Sabha Number Game

In Rajya Sabha, there are a total of 245 seats out of which 8 are currently vacant. This means the current strength is at 237. Thus, the majority mark to pass the Bill in the Upper House will be 119. On the other hand, the combined strength of all the parties who have extended support to AAP, including the Congress, is 105. On the other hand, YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has extended their support to the Bill which will be tabled in Rajya Sabha now where the NDA does not have the majority.

The Bill was passed by a voice vote in the lower house of parliament on August 3 after a walkout by members of the INDIA alliance. The Bill sailed through the Lower House of Parliament easily as the BJP-led NDA has the majority. However, the Opposition bloc- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, has cleared it stand to oppose the Bill in the Upper House.

Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties will make all-out efforts to thwart the government's move to pass the bill even as the numbers are stacked in favour of the NDA with BJD and YSRCP pledging their support to the government on the bill.

The ruling NDA has over 100 MPs in the Upper House, and the BJD and the YSRCP have also announced their support to the Bill. It is also likely to be backed by nominated members and some Independents in the 238-member strong House. The 26-bloc INDIA alliance of opposition parties is hoping to thwart the bill in the House.
New Delhi: A BJP Lok Sabha member has questioned the government in Parliament whether it intends to recognise 'gaumata' (cow) as a "national animal" that is an integral part of the Indian culture. Ajmer MP Bhagirath Choudhary asked this question to the Union minister of culture, in a written query in the Lower House of Parliament on Monday, to which no direct response was given.

He asked a series of questions, including as to "whether the Government intends to recognise 'Gaumata' an integral part of Indian Culture as a national animal," considering "protection and revival of Indian and Sanatan culture" by bringing a legislation in the Parliament in this regard and if so, the details thereof.

Union Minister of Culture G Kishan Reddy, in his written response, said, "As informed by the Department of Animal Husbandry, under the distribution of legislative powers between the Union and the States, (Article 246(3) of the Constitution) preservation of animal is a matter on which the State legislature has exclusive powers to legislate".



"In order to complement and supplement the efforts made by the States and Union Territories, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission for development and protection of indigenous breeds including indigenous breeds of cattle. The mission is leading to increase in availability of indigenous breeds including cattle in the country. Department has also established Animal Welfare board of India for protecting animals including cow and its progeny," he said.

Reddy was also asked whether certain bird flower, animal etc. In the country have been designated as national bird, national flower and national animal and provided protection along with the special status keeping in view the sentiments of common people across the country. As informed by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), the Government of India had notified tiger and peacock as 'National Animal' and 'National Bird' respectively, the minister said in his response.

"As the said notifications of the government of India were not forthcoming in the official records of MoEF & CC for quite some time, the Ministry renotified Tiger and Peacock as 'National Animal' and 'National Bird' respectively, on 30th May 2011," he added. Tiger and peacock have been included in the Schedule-I animals of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, thereby "according them the highest degree of protection from hunting. In addition, important habitats of these animals have also been declared as Protected Areas," he said in his response.

Choudhary also asked whether the Allahabad High Court and the Rajasthan High Court have also "ordered and commented to expedite the process of declaring 'Gaumata' as national animal".
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha on Monday called the Delhi services bill a 'political fraud' and said that it is an insult to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Participating in a discussion on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha, Chadha said it was the BJP that fought hard to get statehood for Delhi from 1977 to 2015. He also cited the BJP's election manifestos demanding statehood for Delhi.

The bill, notably, will replace an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

"This bill is an insult not only to democracy and the Constitution but also to Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Madan Lal Khurana, Sushma Swaraj, and their 40 years of struggle," Raghav Chadha said.



He said that the real reason for bringing the Delhi Services Bill is that the BJP has lost six elections in the national capital in the last 25 years.

ALSO READ | Delhi Services Bill Is 'Completely Unconstitutional', 'Fundamentally Anti-Democratic': Congress' Abhishek Singhvi

"They know that they won't be able to win in the next 25 years as well. So they are trying to destroy the state government," the AAP leader added.

He noted that the bill is an abuse of the power to promulgate an ordinance granted under Article 123 of the Constitution.

"What extreme situation has come that the government had to overturn a Supreme Court order in just eight days?" Chadha said, adding that the bill 'insults' the Supreme Court of India.

The ordinance was promulgated by the central government on May 19, a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order, and land to the elected government, currently headed by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.

Chadha said that the bill also undermines the principles of collective responsibility and ditches the principle of a triple chain of authority and accountability.

He said the bill gives powers to the lieutenant governor for postings and transfers in Delhi.

"If in Delhi someone is not getting electricity, water, or someone's child is not getting admission in school, will the person go to the Lt Governor and not reach out to his minister, chief minister? Do people know where the Lt Governor lives, from which assembly he represents, from where he has won the election," Chadha said.

All the powers from an elected government have been given to the Lt Governor, he stated and added that the bill symbolizes the dominance of non-elected officials over the elected ones.

He also appealed to the non-NDA parties to support AAP against the bill and invoked the Mahabharata, saying his party seeks justice in the House.

What is Delhi Services Bill?

According to the Delhi Services Bill, the National Capital Civil Services Authority will consist of the chief minister, chief secretary, and the principal home secretary of Delhi.

The bill empowers the authority to make recommendations to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor regarding transfers and postings of officials and disciplinary matters.

It also empowers the L-G to exercise his sole discretion on several matters, including those recommended by the National Capital Civil Services Authority, and the summoning, prorogation, and dissolution of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
Pune: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday hailed his deputy Devendra Fadnavis as a "master blaster" who knows how to hit sixes and how to take a wicket, a day after Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray termed the senior BJP leader a "muster minister". Speaking at a state government programme in Jejuri city, Shinde said one should think before calling Fadnavis a "muster minister".

"When he (Fadnavis) was the chief minister (2014-19), he didn't say no to any work. I am witness to this. He did every work. He is not a muster minister. He is a master blaster who knows how to hit sixes and fours and how to take a wicket," Shinde said while speaking at the 'Shasan Aaplya Dari (Government at Your Doorstep) programme.

While addressing a joint meeting of workers of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sambhaji Brigade in Mumbai on Sunday, Thackeray said BJP has become a party of "aayarams" (turncoats).



"I pity cadres of BJP as they have to worship 'aayarams' in the party. Devendra Fadnavis has become a minister who is maintaining the muster record of the incoming people. How much burden will he take?" Thackeray had questioned.

Shinde hit back at the opposition for mocking him whenever he and senior leaders like Fadnavis visit Delhi.

"When we go to Delhi, (the opposition) mocks us. We go to Delhi in the interest of the state, to ensure better facilities for citizens, and to bring development. The Centre's support is important for (implementing) big-ticket projects. Nonetheless, we will keep going to Delhi for our people and will bring projects to Maharashtra," he said.

Deputy Chief Ministers Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar also attended the event.

Shinde said the Centre is always a "mai-baap sarkar" and the state government has to take follow-ups to bring schemes.

"We didn't go there to plead when a notice of an inquiry is received. We go to Delhi to ensure people of the state get justice," the chief minister added.

Shinde said a government should keep its ego aside and try to get maximum benefit from the Centre.

"When Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power, the then government didn't take a single penny from the Centre due to its ego," he alleged without taking the name of the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Shinde said the Shiv Sena-BJP government has become a "triple engine" government after Ajit Pawar's induction as deputy CM along with 8 MLAs of NCP.

Speaking on the occasion, Fadnavis said big infrastructure work for roads, railways (metro), airport etc is going on in the Pune district.

Notably, the district is the home turf of NCP leader Ajit Pawar.

Fadnavis also said all types of permissions have been secured from the Centre for the Purandar airport project in Pune district.

"I am not going to contest the election from Pune district. I will continue to contest from Nagpur but I would like to tell you that without the airport, Pune district development can not be achieved.

"If this airport comes into reality, it will be beneficial for industry and agriculture. I would like to request with folded hands to keep the political differences aside and unite our efforts to give Pune a new airport by addressing the issues of people (whose land is being acquired for the airport project)," Fadnavis added.
The right to freedom of expression is set to play a key role in Donald Trumps defense against charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. His lawyers have made it clear that they will argue that when the former president made false allegations of election fraud, he truly believed the allegations and was exercising his right to freedom of expression. They claim that when Trump called on his allies and electoral officials to alter the results, he was not pressuring them, but rather expressing an aspirational ask.

John Lauro, one of Trumps lawyers and his lead defender in the case, was a very busy man this Sunday: he appeared on talk shows on all the national television networks to put forward that argument.

Every single thing that president Trump is being prosecuted for involved aspirational asks  asking state legislators, asking state governors, asking state electoral officials to do the right thing. In fact, even asking Vice President Pence was protected by free speech, Lauro told the conservative Fox News network.

More information Trump pleads not guilty to charges that he conspired to overturn 2020 presidential election

Following his loss, Trump called on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes  one more than the number by which his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, had defeated him in the state. He also demanded that Pence refuse to certify the official result of the elections in the U.S. Congress on January 6, 2021. The vice president did not agree. That day, a horde of Trump supporters  convinced by Trumps false claims of voter fraud  stormed the Capitol chanting Hang Mike Pence!

Last week, Trump was held formally accountable for these actions. In the indictment, Trump is accused of 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.

According to Lauro, Trump had a right to petition governments around the country, state governments, based on his grievances that election irregularities had occurred. In order to have a violation of the law, you have to have criminal intent, he told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday. In a separate interview on CNN, Lauro said that asking is not the same as directing. While on CBS, he stressed that Trump believed in 2020 that he won based on the fact that he had 10 million more votes than in 2016.

But when Pence was asked about these claims, he told CBS: Thats not what happened. The former vice president, whose testimony is key in the prosecutions indictment, recounted that Trump asked him to overturn the election results on Christmas Day in 2020. A week later, on January 1, 2021, a similar conversation took place. As Pence has stated on several occasions, the former president demanded that he choose between himself and the Constitution, and Pence opted for the law.

Since Special Counsel Jack Smith filed the indictment against Trump, the ex-presidents defense has hinted that, in addition to pushing the first amendment, he will also try to delay the start of the three trials he is facing. In addition to the indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Trump is also accused of falsifying business records in New York and for illegally withholding confidential papers in his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago. His legal team hopes to push back the trials until after the 2024 election, with the hope that Trump  the frontrunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination  will be back in the White House by the time they go to court.

Motion to change judge and court

Trump has already stated that he will push to have the election fraud case moved to a new court and for the recusal of the judge. There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge assigned, he posted in all capital letters on his social media channel Truth Social.

The case has been assigned to federal court in Washington, and will be presided over by Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has imposed some of the harshest sentences on the protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. Chutkan also previously clashed with the former president in another case, when Trump tried to stop the House committee investigating the January 6 assault from accessing Trumps White House files. In her ruling, she wrote: Presidents are not kings.

On Saturday, Chutkan gave Trumps defense until Monday afternoon to respond to the prosecutions request for a protective order aimed at protecting witnesses. The request for a protective order was made after Trump posted: If you go after me, Im coming after you.

The former president is also worried about his chances in a trial in Washington, where he won just over 5% of the presidential election vote in the district in 2020. When the indictment was filed, there were far more protesters demanding Trump be sent to prison than those supporting him outside the District of Columbia courthouse.

Following the indictment, Trump said that he would request the case be transferred to West Virginia, a conservative-leaning state near Washington, where he defeated Biden with two-thirds of the votes in 2020.

No way I can get a fair trial, or even close to a fair trial, in Washington, D.C. There are many reasons for this, but just one is that I am calling for a federal takeover of this filthy and crime ridden embarrassment to our nation, Trump said in a Truth Social post.

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Most Eligible Bachelors: It is said that finding true love is difficult. Additionally, you frequently find what you're seeking in the strangest of locations. You might not find the kind of line-up of men we have for you here if you use dating or marriage applications. They are well-known, influential people who are frequently tracked on social media, but they still haven't met "the special one." Maybe, after all, the missing piece will connect. There is something for everyone, and we've tried to highlight what likely places them on the aforementioned lists. All of this is done in good fun and without any malicious intent to offend anyone.

Aditya Roy Kapur

Since the release of Aashiqui 2, everyone has fallen in love with this boy! His great acting, combined with his charming personality, can make any woman weak. Aditya began his career with Channel V as a VJ. Later, in 2009, he attempted to break into Bollywood with his first movie, London Dreams. He ended up being among the best actors in the business.



Kartik Aaryan

Being one of the most eligible and appealing bachelors in b-town, Kartik can't avoid this scrutiny either, and online users are frequently checking up on him to learn more about his life. In a recent Twitter interaction with the actor, Kartik was referred to as "Mr. Most Eligible Bachelor." His six-pack and million-dollar smile are enough to melt hearts!

Abhinav Bindra

Abhinav Bindra, known as "the man with the golden gun," is a skilled shooter who took home the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Further, what? As Indians celebrated a historic first individual gold medal, Abhinav Bindra's mother made fun of the fact that his Olympic victory had made him "the country's most eligible bachelor."

Prabhas

With his appearance in the Bahubali franchise, Prabhas captured the hearts of millions. I love the institution of marriage, and I'd like to settle down soon, he once stated in an interview. It is said that over the past five years, he has received close to 5,000 marriage proposals. His impending engagement to Kriti Sanon is the most recent rumor.

Rahul Gandhi

Lalu Yadav, the RJD's leader, is renowned for his distinctive personality. He abruptly advised Rahul Gandhi to get married and follow his mother's counsel during a major gathering of opposition parties in Bihar. Lalu Yadav, who was attending a political gathering for the first time in a while, responded, "Shaadi kariye, hum log baraati chalenge (Get married; we would like to be a part of your wedding procession)," making the Congress leader smile. The 53-year-old leader of the Congress joked in response, "Now that you have said it, it will happen." Rahul Gandhi, a Nehru-Gandhi descendant, is one of India's most eligible bachelor politicians. Many aspiring young Indian politicians look up to him as an inspiration.

Tiger Shroff

Tiger has a distinguished martial arts talent in addition to a flourishing career in Bollywood. Not to mention, his scorching, gorgeous lewks are to die for! Various NGOs that promote animal care have received assistance from the Baaghi actor as well. Tiger is a good-looking, good-hearted guy.

Temjen Imna Along

What is there not to like about a funny politician? In a tweet, the state president of the BJP in Nagaland stated that he was "still looking for her" after realizing that one of the most popular searches about him on Google was about his wife. He has expressed his singleness frequently, and he has even asked the founder of Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal, for advice on finding "the special one."

Salman Khan

Without mentioning Bhaijaan, a list of bachelors would be incomplete. It might be a topic of interest on a global scale if and when he decides to get married. 'Bhai' has a distinct fan base all of his own, riding high on his appearance in Pathaan, which undoubtedly received the greatest applause. The original action hero, always producing heartwarming blockbusters, the 57-year-old also serves as the unifying force behind the reality competition show Bigg Boss, which garners high TRPs and has long been a reliable source of rumors, amusement, and scandals.

Numerous Indian men who are the most sought-after bachelors are young, talented, attractive, wealthy, and single. And a few males who have been bachelors for years are included in this list. Due to their endearing personalities, charisma, and established reputations, even in their 50s, they have a larger following than their younger counterparts and continue to compete with them. We hope that this will serve as motivation for everyone who wants to succeed in life but wants to put off getting married for a while.
NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, amid noisy protests by the Opposition, which later staged a walk-out after their request for raising a point of order was disallowed. The point of order was on the allegations levelled by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Congress party and Rahul Gandhi.

Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tried raising the point of order along with other party members, but Kirit Solanki, who was adjudicating the proceedings, did not allow it. Even Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab could be seen expressing his displeasure over the lack of order in the House when the bill got passed.

He was heard saying that bills cannot be passed when there is no order in the House, and if this is the manner in which bills are to be passed, then the House should pass all the bills. Once the Digital Personal Data Protection bill was passed after an hour-long discussion in the House, the Congress-led Opposition staged a walkout.



Minister for IT and Electronics Ashwini Vaishnaw while piloting the bill, said that it has all the provisions to ensure the protection of public's data. He said that it is framed in a simple language, is gender-sensitive, and based on the principles of legality. Vaishnaw further said that the bill also ensures data minimisation, accuracy of data and time limit on data storage.

During an almost hour-long discussion on the bill, in which eight MPs across parties participated, concerns were raised on lack of independent regulator, with Mahtab even saying that the bill was more about data processing rather than data protection. Vaishnaw allayed the fears of the members, saying that the government has introduced certain "legitimate causes" where the government and private entities can process citizens' data without explicit consent.

It will also impose restrictions on platforms on processing children's data, he said. The bill also mandates that India have its data protection regulator in the form of a Data Protection Board. The bill says the chairperson and members of the board will be appointed by the Union government.

Apart from that, the bill also has provisions that give wide exemptions to the government. The proposed law says its provisions will not apply in respect to the processing of personal data when notified by instrumentality of the state as the central government may notify".
As Manipur sank deeper in ethnic violence, the Supreme Court on Monday announced setting up of a committee of three former women high court judges to look into relief and rehabilitation of those affected. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the committee will be headed by former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and include Justices (retd) Shalini P Joshi and Asha Menon.

The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the effort of the apex court is to restore a sense of confidence and faith in the rule of law in the state. It said besides the judicial panel that will oversee relief and rehabilitation efforts among other things, senior police officers will be asked to supervise the investigation in criminal cases to be probed by the state SITs.

The bench said a detailed order will be uploaded on the apex court website later in the evening. During the hearing, Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh appeared before the bench to answer queries on the ethnic violence and the steps taken by the administration so far to check it, besides the segregation of cases for the purpose of effective investigation.



Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the state government, submitted a report, which the apex court had sought on August 1, on issues including the segregation of cases. "The government is handling the situation at a very mature level," the attorney general told the bench.

The government law officers said the state government proposed to set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs), headed by the superintendent of police at the district level, to probe sensitive cases. The CBI has been asked to investigate 11 cases. On August 1, the top court had said there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur.

It had rapped the state police for a "tardy" and "lethargic" probe of incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, had summoned the DGP to answer its queries on August 7. The Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

The bench is hearing around 10 petitions related to the spiralling violence, including those seeking court-monitored probe into cases, besides measures for relief and rehabilitation.
New Delhi: The central government's ambitious Project Cheetah is facing a major problem, with the animals translocated from South Africa developing a "winter cover", a thick coat of fur, in anticipation of African winter, the Supreme Court was told on Monday. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati told the court that this phenomenon was happening when the temperature at the Kuno National Park (KNP), where these cheetahs have been translocated, was around 45-46 degrees.

Nine cheetahs, including three India-born cubs, have died in Madhya Pradesh's KNP since March this year, raising questions about the management of the project.

At the outset, Bhati told a bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra that cheetah deaths at Kuno were troubling but not alarming.



"The number of deaths is not low given the fact that 20 cheetahs were translocated. Sum and substance of your argument is that everything is going well and there is nothing wrong. But the general public is concerned about what is being done about the deaths," Justice Narasimhha told Bhati, who appeared for the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The top court took note of a letter written to it by four South African wildlife experts who said some cheetah deaths could have been prevented with better monitoring and veterinary care. They had reportedly said their opinion was being ignored by the Project Steering Committee and also suggested some remedial measures.

The bench noted Bhati's submission that experts are being consulted to check cheetah deaths at KNP and that though the letter in question was said to have been written by four experts, it was signed by only one.

"We see no reason to disbelieve counsel for the Union of India. It is an issue which is best left to the experts as the court is not an expert in the subject matter. Whether any experts need to be in the panel, it is up to the Union of India to consider. This court cannot thrust any expert in the panel," the bench said.

Senior advocate Prashanto Chandra Sen, appearing for some experts, said it is an emergency situation and experts like MK Ranjitsinh and YB Jhala may be included in the panel of cheetah experts for the project.

The bench asked how can it direct that a particular person be included in the list of experts when already there are experts from South Africa and Namibia.

"Just because you are an expert, you need to be there in the panel? Sorry, that cannot be done. There are already enough experts in the panel," it said.

Bhati submitted intercontinental translocation of the big cats under Project Cheetah was first of its kind in the world, and every year around 12-14 cheetahs will be translocated for the next five years subject to their availability.

The government's law officer said several media reports about cheetahs were factually wrong and creating a lot of confusion. She said a mechanism is being considered for disseminating regular updates about Project Cheetah.

"None of the cheetahs have died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution etc. Cheetah is a very vulnerable and fragile species, even where translocation is not done. The Cheetah Project is on the path of positive progression," she said.

Under Project Cheetah, a total of 20 animals were imported from Namibia and South Africa to the KNP in two batches in September 2022 and February this year.

The Supreme Court had in January 2020 lifted the ban it had imposed on the project in 2013 following a petition filed by the NTCA. The court continues to monitor the project.
New Delhi: The Congress party has called a meeting of its Lok Sabha MPs in the party's parliamentary office at 10:30 AM on Monday over the issue of reinstating Rahul Gandhi as the Member of Parliament after the Supreme Court verdict in Modi surname remark case. The Congress is likely to raise its demand for restoring Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership in view of the favourable Supreme Court verdict in the Modi surname remark case.

Meanwhile, a copy of the Supreme Court order, that stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhis conviction by a Surat court in a criminal defamation case, was formally handed over to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Lok Sabha officials said the authenticated copy of the Supreme Court order will be reviewed and necessary action will be taken. After the order is studied, the process usually takes less than 30 minutes. The proforma for such notifications is readily available with the secretariat, an official was quoted as saying by media reports.

The Congress leadership and several opposition leaders have expressed their disappointment over the Lok Sabha Secretariats response to their request that Gandhi should be immediately reinstated, so that he can participate in the no-confidence motion against the Modi government, which begins on August 8.



The speed with which he was disqualified, it is important to reinstate him with the same speed. I called up Speaker Sahib last night and told him that I want to submit the court documents to you to facilitate Rahul Gandhijis return to the House. He then advised me to call him up this morning, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told reporters at a press conference.

SC Verdict In Modi Suriname Case

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.

No-Confidence Motion Against Modi Govt

Significantly, the Opposition parties have decided to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha and Rahul Gandhi is also likely to take part in this. "The Bharatiya Janata Party should return Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership to him. Rahul Gandhi will take part in the 'no-confidence' motion against the Modi government's 'anti-people's policies", said Congress leader Surendra Rajput.

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.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have faced adjournments over opposition demands for a detailed discussion on the situation in Manipur and a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has said it is ready for discussion on Manipur but the opposition parties are pressing for discussion under a rule which also entails voting.
New Delhi: Actress Sherlyn Chopra is known for her fearless and candid personality. The actress often hits the headlines for her bold and unfiltered presence. The Bigg Boss 3 contestant was once again in the news on Monday when she playfully answered a question about Rahul Gandhi.

Sherlyn recently asked whether she would like to marry Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and her reaction to it has gone viral on cyberspace. The actress was spotted in the city recently donning a beautiful off-shoulder black dress with a thigh high slit. While she clicked selfies with her fans patiently, a paparazzo asked her whether she would marry Rahul Gandhi and she replied in a yes, but with a condition. She said, "Yes, why not. But I would want that after getting married, my surname remains the same."

The video quickly caught the attention of the public and media and soon went viral on social media.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi himself has been in the news lately. The former Congress president was reinstated as the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad constituency after Supreme Court suspended his conviction in a case related to 'Modi' surname remark.

On the work front, Sherlyn is all set to make her comeback to the screen with 'Paurashpur Season 2'. She will be seen in the role of the enchanting and royal 'Maharani Snehlata' in the web-series. The 35-year-old star was the first Indian woman to pose nude for Playboy magazine back in 2012. Her photos were released two years later, reportedly. She was recently seen in the rap song 'Wo Karte Hai Judge'. She has also been a part of films like 'Dosti: Friends Forever' (2005), 'Red Swastik' (2007), 'Wajah Tum Ho' (2016), and has lately been trying her hands at making short films.
Indian Railways is set to start international train services between India and Bhutan. The train between the neighbouring countries will be operated from Assam in India and will be aimed at improving tourism between the two nations. Addressing the ongoing progress into the matter, India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said that Bhutan is "very keen" to increase points for the movement of tourists.

As per ANI's report, EAM Dr S Jaishankar said, "We are in talks on the Rail link between Bhutan and Assam, Bhutan is very keen to open more points for tourists and it is very good for Assam, Says EAM Dr S Jaishankar."

Also read: PM Modi Lays Foundation Stone For Redevelopment Of 508 Railway Stations Across India - Check Complete List



Meanwhile, he also informed that India is working on boosting connectivity with Nepal and Bangladesh. Jaishankar also addressed the enhanced border infrastructure in the last nine years, including along the frontier with China.

Earlier, Bhutan Live reported that the survey to start the construction of the railway link between India and Bhutan had been completed in April 2023. The railway line will connect Bhutan's Gelephu and Kokrajar in India's Assam. The construction work of this 57-km railway link is expected to be completed by 2026 and will be funded by the Indian government. It is to be noted that the train on this route will be operated by the Northeastern Frontier (NF) Railways.
New Delhi: Popular Kannada actor Vijay Raghavendra's wife Spandana succumbed to heart attack at a hospital in Bangkok on Monday. Spandana was on tour with her husband Vijay. Though she was immediately shifted to the hospital, Spandana died.

Family sources explained that the body of Spandana will reach Bengaluru on Tuesday. The postmortem of her body will be conducted in Bangkok today. The death of Spandana, who is in her late 30's has shocked the film industry. She had also acted in films and she is the daughter of decorated senior police officer B.K. Shivaram.

The doctors said that Spandana had suffered massive cardiac arrest resulting in her death. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has stated: "The demise of Spandana, the wife of popular Kannada actor Vijaya Raghavendra has shocked me. I pray for her soul. I condole with the bereaved families of Vijaya Raghavendra and B.K. Shivaram."



Former CM Basavaraj Bommai stated that he is shocked after hearing about the demise of Spandana. "I pray to God that her soul rests in peace. I pray to God to give strength to the families of Vijaya Raghavendra and B.K. Shivaram in this moment of grief."
Activists in New York during a protest over the deaths of Rikers prisoners, on July 11. MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO (Getty Images via AFP)

The New York judiciary has called for intervention in the citys prison system in the face of the rampant crisis at the Rikers Island jail complex, where a succession of inmate deaths and abuse of power by officials are combining explosively. Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, recently requested federal government intervention in New Yorks prisons, wresting decision-making power from the city council of Democratic Mayor Eric Adams. The decision whether to appoint a receiver will be made in the U.S. District Court on August 10.

Williams recommendation is a setback for Adams, who won the mayoral election on a clear law-and-order message but finds himself entangled in security issues. Keechant Sewell, the chief commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD)  the largest in the country and in which Adams previously served  surprisingly resigned a few weeks ago after a little more than a year and a half in the post, allegedly over a lack of autonomy.

Eight years after a historic agreement with New York City to reform Rikers Island, attempts to straighten out a facility that many describe as a house of horrors have proved futile. If U.S. Attorney Williams proposal to cede control to Washington is approved by a federal judge, the administrator would not only remove decision-making power from the city administration, but possibly do away with union agreements and other long-standing labor standards.

This is a collective failure with deep roots, spanning multiple mayoral administrations and DOC commissioners, Williams said on July 17. After eight years of trying every tool in the toolkit, we cannot wait any longer for substantial progress to materialize. His announcement came two days after the death of William Johnstone, the 25th inmate to die in custody or shortly after release since Adams took office in January 2022. The tragic list includes suicides, overdose cases and a high incidence of mental health problems among the prison population, which are not properly treated. A week after Johnstones death, an officer was suspended following the death of another inmate, the second fatality in 15 days and the seventh so far this year.

Adams, who frequently pointed to his professional experience as a police officer to garner votes during the mayoral election campaign, finds himself on the ropes. He opposes any concessions such as the one recommended by Williams and enthusiastically backs the current commissioner of prisons. But in practice he is alone, with no support other than that of the prison officers unions. The municipal comptroller, the ombudsman, several councilors and human rights organizations have long been demanding a judicial administrator to address the crisis. Protests about conditions in the prison are frequent.

However, Rikers is not the only prison in New York facing problems. The Brooklyn correctional facility, famous for housing high-profile inmates such as Ghislaine Maxwell and many drug traffickers, is bursting at the seams due to overcrowding. The Manhattan jail where Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in August 2019, known as New Yorks Guantanamo Bay, was closed for failing to meet minimum conditions of habitability and security.

The federal courts have been directly involved in Rikers since 2015, when one of Williams predecessors reached a deal with the city to tackle violations of the constitutional rights of detainees in the citys jails. The agreement was the result of a landmark lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society, in which it was alleged that jail officials were abusing detainees so severely and systematically that drastic action was required. A federal observer, Steve Martin, was appointed to oversee the reforms and his office has issued dozens of reports describing worsening security and living conditions. The current state of affairs and rates of use of force, stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff, and in-custody deaths remain extraordinarily high  they are not typical, they are not expected, they are not normal, reads a recent report. Minimum hygiene conditions are conspicuous by their absence.

Rikers Island Prison. Seth Wenig (AP)

Plans to close Rikers by 2027

The New York prison system is increasingly deadly and dangerous, exacerbated by the confinement imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and absenteeism, coupled with periodic sit-down strikes by officials protesting a lack of means. In 2017, under Mayor Bill de Blasio, a decade-long Rikers closure plan was agreed upon  a move also backed by Adams, who has described the prison as a national disgrace  but the timeline is facing setbacks and federal intervention is more a desperate attempt to plug the holes than a programmatic solution. The numbers have put the brakes on any expectations: New Yorks largest prison houses more than 6,000 inmates  mostly pretrial detainees but also a small percentage of those convicted of misdemeanors  and averages 100,000 admissions annually.

Martins impatience has gone so far as to ask that the city be held in contempt for failing to ensure the normal operation of the jail. In his request, the federal observer underlined the fact that officials have totally lost control of the facility. The agreement providing for the closure of Rikers in 2027 remains in place with new, smaller jails being built in four districts of the city, but the new facilities will only be able to hold 3,300 inmates, half of Rikers current population.

In addition to the image setback for Adams, the debate on prisons contains a key question: the viability of the current management model, in which private jails  New Yorks are municipally managed  monopolize practically all the revenues. The USA has the largest number of prisoners in the world and the highest proportion of the population behind bars: 2.2 million at the end of the last decade. According to NGO The Sentencing Project, which advocates reform of the system, of the national ratio of 350 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants (in some states, such as Louisiana, Oklahoma or Mississippi, this ratio is doubled), only 43 are in federal prisons; the rest, 307, are serving their sentences in private facilities. At the end of the last decade, the private prison business in the U.S. was worth $3 billion per year.

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KYODO NEWS - Aug 7, 2023 - 20:53 | All, Japan, World

Japan urged Iran on Monday not to provide Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine, the government said, amid criticism from Western countries over Tehran's suspected supply of drones to Moscow for use in the prolonged military campaign.

During a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Tokyo, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi called on Iran to take "constructive responses" to the war, with the two agreeing to continue "close communication" over issues affecting the Middle East, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

Their talks came as Western nations have alleged that Iran has been giving Russia military assistance such as drones and ammunition, while Tokyo aims to leverage its traditional friendship with Tehran to help end the war.

Japan holds this year's presidency of the Group of Seven nations, which have maintained economic sanctions on Russia over its war against its neighbor since February last year.

Hayashi also expressed "serious concern" about the expansion of Iran's nuclear activities, while calling for its "complete and unconditional cooperation" with the International Atomic Energy Agency, in light of a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal that Japan supports, the ministry said.

Iran had agreed with six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- to curb its nuclear programs in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

But negotiations have been at a stalemate since then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew his nation from the accord in 2018.

Later on Monday, Amir Abdollahian also met with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Amir Abdollahian, who has been here since Sunday, is the first Iranian foreign minister to visit Japan since Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi assumed office in August 2021.

Related coverage:

Iran will slow uranium program if int'l deal revived: nuclear chief
By Rosi Byard-Jones, KYODO NEWS - Aug 7, 2023 - 18:46 | All, Japan, World

A memorial service has been held at a major cathedral in Coventry, central Britain, to mark the 78th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At the Hiroshima Day Remembrance Service at Coventry Cathedral on Sunday, about 150 attendees mourned the victims of the two cities, estimated to have totaled 214,000 by the end of 1945, and prayed that nuclear weapons will never be used again.

The service has been held almost annually since its creation in 1987 by the city council-endorsed Lord Mayor's Committee for Peace and Reconciliation, with the city building ties with other cities devastated in World War II.

The committee, whose founding members have backgrounds in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament movement, hopes not only to pass on the lessons of the tragedies but also to promote the messages of peace and reconciliation.

The historic city in the West Midlands was devastated by air raids in 1940, at the height of Nazi Germany's Blitz bombing campaign against Britain during World War II. They killed more than 500 people, left over 1,000 injured and 43,000 homes destroyed.

The medieval cathedral was ravaged in the attack, but out of its ruins, the city's current ethos of peace and reconciliation grew, with the cathedral's then Provost Richard Howard having the words "Father Forgive" inscribed on the building's sanctuary wall.

As a reminder of the devastation, the new cathedral, adjoining the ruins, houses the symbolic "Charred Cross" made from two burnt wooden beams from the original structure.

This past inspired the city authorities to build relationships with other cities devastated in the war, such as Dresden in Germany, which the British bombed in retaliation for Coventry, and in particular, Hiroshima, which was hit by the U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

Funded in part by the British city's council, the committee organizes Coventry Cathedral's annual Hiroshima Day memorial service, during which letters of greeting and hope for a more peaceful world are exchanged between the mayors of Hiroshima and Coventry.

Along with prayers for all who suffered during the bombings and the survivors "living with their wounds and terrible memories," a central part of the service is the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died of leukemia after being exposed to Hiroshima's blast and radiation.

While in hospital, Sadako had aimed to fold a thousand paper cranes in wishing for recovery, but she died aged 12 in 1955.

After Coventry school children read out Sadako's story, the people who attended this year's service folded their own paper cranes as "symbols of hope for harmony in today's world, and our willingness to work together for peace."

Ann Farr, a former committee member who first introduced Sadako's story into the remembrance service, has previously also organized vigils on the anniversary of Nagasaki's bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, on the steps of the cathedral ruins.

Farr finds parallels in the symbolism of Coventry Cathedral's "Charred Cross" and the severed head from a statue of Mary from Nagasaki's Urakami Cathedral, which both serve as poignant reminders of "the foolishness of war."

"I have a firm belief that most people, including politicians, have no idea of the awfulness of nuclear weapons," Farr said. "I think this time of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is very important to give us the opportunity to tell the world."

Harry Teather, who attended this year's service with his wife Frehiwot, is one person on whom the story of Hiroshima and its message left a deep impression from a young age.

Shortly after the war and at around the age of 9, he was taken to see an exhibition of images from the bombing that were deemed so horrifying that only three local authorities in Britain displayed them - London, Glasgow and Coventry.

After visiting Hiroshima with Frehiwot for the first time this year, Harry was able to see those images once more at the Hiroshima Peace Museum and finally experience the place that had always been so significant to him.

"I've had a few different encounters with Hiroshima during my life and always wanted to go," Tether said. "I love that city. I've been coming to this remembrance service every year I can, but when I went to Hiroshima, it felt so familiar -- like home."

Related coverage:

FOCUS: Expert warns nuclear proliferation could "spiral" out of control

Nagasaki A-bomb anniv. ceremony to be held indoors due to typhoon

Hiroshima mayor calls nuke deterrence a "folly" at 78th A-bomb anniv.
By Honoka Ito, KYODO NEWS - Aug 7, 2023 - 12:11 | All, World

The director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Dan Smith, has warned that nations such as the United States, China, and Russia are on the brink of an "uncontrolled nuclear arms race spiral" similar to the Cold War against the backdrop of conflict in Ukraine and Taiwan.

Speaking to Kyodo News following the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Hiroshima and the launch of the "Hiroshima Vision" on nuclear disarmament, he noted that security guarantees based on nuclear deterrence are inherently destabilizing to the international order and that instead, constructive dialogue between nuclear powers like the United States and China is possible.

Smith, who has directed SIPRI since 2015 and has an extensive research and publication record on a range of peace and conflict issues, also stated that developed countries should seriously review their relations with the Global South, the emerging and developing countries mainly in the southern hemisphere, in order to achieve better global stability.

Referring to the state of China's expanding nuclear weapons program, Smith estimates that China will build up its nuclear arsenal at a rate of 60 new weapons per year -- the consequences of which would depend on the response from the United States and Russia.

Smith argues that if the United States or Russia decide to reduce their commitment to nuclear disarmament or even increase their own nuclear arsenals, the international order could enter into an "action/reaction spiral" where the arsenals of the world's nuclear powers can only increase.

This highlights the instability of the nuclear deterrence ideology that had dominated since the beginning of the 1947-1991 Cold War era.

"Each side perceives the other's move as hostile and thinks it has to defend against it by being stronger. That was where those huge numbers of nuclear warheads (during the Cold War) came from -- then it was necessary to break out of that. So we are perhaps at the very beginning of that process now," Smith said.

One recent example of the deterrence mindset in action can be seen in the context of the war in Ukraine, when Poland requested "nuclear sharing" after the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus. This would involve U.S. nuclear weapons being deployed and jointly operated by member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

With this kind of deterrence strategy, Smith says that when one side strengthens its nuclear capabilities, the other side will inevitably be destabilized and seek to increase its own military capabilities.

To prevent these "spirals" of nuclear proliferation, Smith asserts it is important to get rid of the illusion that nuclear weapons, which cause devastating levels of radiation, are tactically useful.

"I think it is really important to demystify nuclear weapons -- first of all to understand how awful they are, and secondly to understand that from a military point of view, they're almost useless," Smith said.

Smith also stressed that U.S.-China relations are, in fact, "at the table" and are currently being negotiated, despite tensions over trade issues and Taiwan.

Given the two countries' shared common interests, such as climate change, infectious disease control and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, he expressed hope that their respective hardline standards will be reviewed so constructive dialogue can progress.

Regarding the perception among Western countries that nations in the "Global South" are "supporting" Russia as opposed to Ukraine, Smith stressed that this is a misunderstanding within Western diplomacy, which can come across as "self-righteous" in its posture.

While these states regard Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a breach of national sovereignty and wish an end to the war due to the negative impact of fewer exports from the region, such as food and fertilizer, he says they simply do not see it as their issue -- a stance which echoes how they have historically been treated by Western powers.

"They point out with some justice that when they've had wars or armed conflict in recent years, they're often told by representatives from the Global North to just settle it and stop fighting," Smith said. "So this is what they're trying to say now to Ukraine and Russia."

In order to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine and prevent nuclear proliferation, Smith thus states that a better understanding of the Global South perspective is imperative and that the United States and Europe should try to achieve greater cooperation with these nations on the international stage.

Related coverage:

Hiroshima mayor calls nuke deterrence a "folly" at 78th A-bomb anniv.

Iran will slow uranium program if int'l deal revived: nuclear chief

Hiroshima survivor who met G-7 says visit was step to nuke abolition
KYODO NEWS - Aug 7, 2023 - 20:05 | All, 3/11 Fukushima, Japan

Japan is considering beginning the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea between late August and early September, even though local fishermen and some countries remain opposed to the plan, government sources said Monday.

The government is expected to determine the specific date to start releasing the water after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida returns on Aug. 20 from a trilateral summit with the United States and South Korea to be held at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington.

During their U.S. visit, the Japanese prime minister is expected to explain once again the water discharge plan to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, hoping this will be relayed to the South Korean public to alleviate their concerns, according to the sources.

Japan could delay the start of the release, however, until after explaining the plan to Chinese leaders on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia and a Group of 20 summit in India, both scheduled for early September, the sources added.

While some European countries have recently removed their restrictions on Japanese food imports, China has introduced blanket radiation testing on Japanese seafood in an apparent bid to put pressure on Tokyo over the water discharge plan.

After the government under Kishida's predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, approved a plan in April 2021 to discharge the water into the sea "in around two years," the current administration decided in January to carry it out sometime "from spring to around summer."

On Monday, Kishida told reporters there is no change to that plan.

The government has been weighing the timing since the International Atomic Energy Agency said in its final report in early July that the planned discharge would comply with global safety standards.

But challenges remain for the Japanese government to address, including safety concerns among some neighboring and Pacific countries, as well as worries among local fishermen about the potential reputational damage to their seafood products.

If the water release commences as planned, it will coincide with the trawl fishing season off Fukushima starting in September.

South Korea has said it "respects" the outcome of the U.N. agency's report, with Yoon requesting Japan to share real-time monitoring information and allow South Korean experts to participate in the safety checking process.

Kishida also plans to hold talks with the head of Japan's national fisheries federation to convey the government's readiness to implement measures to protect the reputation of seafood products, other sources said.

As of late July, the volume of treated water stored in tanks at the Fukushima nuclear complex totaled about 1.34 million tons, or 98 percent of storage capacity, according to the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.

The treated water with trace amounts of tritium will be diluted to one-40th of the concentration permitted under Japanese safety standards before being released via an underwater tunnel 1 kilometer off the power plant.

Related coverage:

EU, Norway, Iceland lift post-Fukushima import curbs on Japanese food

Hong Kong steps up radiation inspections of Japanese seafood imports

FEATURE: Fukushima mothers taking radioactivity watchdog role into own hands
SARI PUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Police have discovered arms and ammunition in north Afghanistan's Sari Pul province, provincial police spokesman Deen Mohammad Nazari said Monday.

The official said that weapons including an AKM, a mortar and an 82 mm caliber gun, and ammunition kept illegally, were discovered in Balkhab and Sangcharak districts during search operations recently.

Police had taken two people into custody for keeping the weapons illegally, but set them free on surety, the official said.

The Afghan caretaker government has discovered and seized thousands of light and heavy weapons including battle tanks since its taking over power in August 2021. It has vowed to collect arms and ammunition from anyone living outside security organs. 
COLOMBO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua)-- Two military personnel died after a trainer aircraft crashed at Sri Lanka's Air Force Academy based in Trincomalee city in Eastern Province on Monday morning, the air force said.

Director of Media of Sri Lanka Air Force Dushan Wijesinghe told the media the PT-6 trainer aircraft took off at 11:25 a.m. local time, and that both the trainer and the trainee died in the crash.

According to him, Air Force Commander Udeni Rajapaksa has appointed a committee to probe the incident. 
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and around 18 others injured on Monday in a collision between a bus and a dumper truck in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, the rescue service reported.

According to the reports, the accident took place on the Northern Bypass of the city when a passenger bus, on a one-way road, overtook a vehicle and collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction, resulting in the casualties.

The rescue service said that the bus driver didn't properly estimate the speed of the dumper which caused the collision, adding that a troller collided with the dumper afterward followed by a car.

The locals and the rescue workers shifted the victims to local hospitals, said the rescue service.

Five of the injured were in critical condition, it added.

The passengers on the bus were the residents of Karachi who were going on a picnic, according to the rescue service. 
Over the past 10 years, the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has yielded fruitful win-win outcomes, creating a successful practice under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers of Yemen's government forces were killed in an attack by militants from the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda in the southern province of Abyan on Monday, a government official said.

The terrorist attack took place in the eastern part of Mudiyah district, where an ambush by al-Qaeda militants on a unit of government troops resulted in a fierce gunfight between the two sides, said the official who asked to remain anonymous.

Ten government soldiers were wounded in the attack and sent to a nearby hospital, he said, adding some of them were in critical condition.

The attack occurred just one day after Yemeni government forces launched a large-scale operation that intended to halt the activities of al-Qaeda militants in the area.

The operation, which targeted the Mudiyah district, a refuge for al-Qaeda militants in the province, has resulted in the capture of a mid-level al-Qaeda commander named Abu al-Qaqa, the official said, adding Monday's attack might have been a retaliatory attack by the al-Qaeda militants to obstruct and undermine the operations of government troops.

Abyan and other neighboring provinces in southern Yemen have witnessed increasing violence between Yemeni government forces and al-Qaeda militants in recent months.

The ongoing civil war and power vacuum in Yemen have allowed the expansion of al-Qaeda's Yemeni faction, referred to as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, posing a serious security threat inside and outside Yemen. 
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's jobless claims rose last month amid growing worry about an economic slump, labor ministry data showed Monday.

The number of new applicants for job-seeking benefits stood at 104,000 in July, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

The number rebounded this year on the mounting concerns about the economic downturn, driven by the continued export fall and the faltering housing market.

The benefit applicants expanded in the manufacturing, construction, and information and communications industries.

The job-seeking benefits are offered by the government to help the unemployed seek jobs, taking up a majority of unemployment benefits. It is financed by the state employment insurance fund.

The number of benefit receivers totaled 634,000 in July, up 3.4 percent from a year earlier. It kept an upward trend for the sixth straight month since February.

The total payment of job-seeking benefits increased 4.9 percent to 958.2 billion won (734.9 million U.S. dollars) in the cited month.

The per-capita payment added 1.5 percent to 1,512,000 won (1,160 dollars) last month. 
A new evidence of human experiments and germ war crimes by Japan's notorious Unit 731 was revealed for the first time at a symposium held on Saturday in Mudanjiang City, northeastern China's Heilongjiang province.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
LUSAKA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese companies in Zambia on Friday held a job expo on the sidelines of the 95th Agricultural and Commercial Show aimed at attracting prospective job seekers.

A total of 16 Chinese companies attended the event, organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Zambia (CCCZ). On the first day, hundreds of prospective job seekers thronged the Chinese pavilion, where the companies were exhibiting to try their luck for employment.

Li Tie, president of the CCCZ, said the job expo represents a landmark initiative aimed at bridging the gap between employers and job seekers in Zambia.

"This platform provides unique opportunities for our esteemed local and multinational companies to search for talent in an exclusive manner without discrimination, while at the same time inspiring economic transformation through increased productivity by the talented workforce that will be recruited," he said.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
PHNOM PENH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday appointed Hun Manet as the new prime minister after incumbent Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen announced he was stepping down.

The monarch signed a royal decree to designate Hun Manet, 45, as the new prime minister for a five-year-term government following a request from Hun Sen.

"The designated prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia has duties to prepare the members of the government in order to ask for the adoption of confidence from the National Assembly," Sihamoni said in the royal decree.

"This royal decree takes effect from the day of signature," he added.

Hun Manet, along with his new cabinet members, will need to win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly slated for Aug. 22 in order to officially become the new prime minister, and he is expected to be sworn in on the same day.

The appointment came after the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the July 23 general election, gaining 120 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

Hun Manet is currently a member of the CPP's Standing Committee and a deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Hun Sen announced on July 26 that he would step down as the prime minister after having held the position for more than 38 years, handing the reins of power to his eldest son Hun Manet.

However, the 71-year-old leader said he will remain the CPP's president and will take the position of President of the Senate in a Senate Election on Feb. 25 next year. 
BEIRUT, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said on Monday that the situation in the Ain Al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon has stabilized.

"The atmosphere has calmed down, and security agencies continue to exert effort to arrest the perpetrators," Mawlawi said at a press conference in Beirut, according to the National News Agency.

Clashes erupted in Ain Al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon between members of the Palestinian Fatah movement and hardline Islamists since the early morning on July 30 and continued until dawn on Thursday, resulting in several deaths and injuries.

The clashes prompted some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to urge their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately, while others, such as Kuwait, warned their citizens to stay away from areas of disturbance.

Mawlawi assured that "the Lebanese state does not cover any criminal or perpetrator or any organization, and political and military contacts are continuing to hand over those involved in the events of Ain Al-Helweh camp."

The minister added that "There is no compromise on the application of the law," stressing Lebanon will not be used as a "stage for sending messages."

Clashes between rival groups often occur in the Ain Al-Helweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp. The ongoing Syria crisis has also led to an influx of Syrian refugees and Palestine refugees displaced from Syria. 
ISTANBUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were injured in a massive explosion in Turkiye's northwestern province of Kocaeli on Monday, local media reported.

The NTV broadcaster said the blast occurred in a large warehouse that belonged to the Turkish Grain Board in Derince Port.

The injured people have been rushed to nearby hospitals, it added.

Many fire brigades and health care units were dispatched to the scene, it noted, adding that the area has been cordoned off in case of more explosions.

According to the NTV, tons of grain had been stored in the warehouse and the cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. 
ROME, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least two people died and more than 30 went missing near the Italian island of Lampedusa after two ships carrying asylum seekers capsized in rough seas, a police official said Sunday.

At least 57 people were saved after the ships went down amid high waves around 43 km southwest of Lampedusa between late Saturday and early Sunday local time.

According to local media, the ships departed from Tunisia. The bodies of an 18-month-old child and a woman were recovered.

"These are tragic events that should have never happened," said Emanuele Ricifari, the official in charge of public safety in Agrigento, Sicily. "The death toll will rise ... whoever forced these people to leave shore under these conditions is a lunatic."

Ricifari told Xinhua that the rough seas damaging the two vessels were also challenging the authorities' search efforts. As the difficult weather is expected to continue over the next several days, it was unlikely to find more survivors, he said.

Separate from the two shipwrecks, 34 migrants who had been stranded for 36 hours on a steep cliffside in Lampedusa were rescued on Sunday. A ship carrying those migrants crashed into rocks just off the shore between Friday night and Saturday morning, so the migrants were forced onto the cliffs to avoid drowning.

After Air Force and firefighter brigades airlifted them to safety via helicopter on Sunday, three of them were taken to a hospital for treatment. Local media reported that none of them were seriously injured.

Media reports said that as of Sunday, more than 2,400 people were crammed into a migrant shelter in Lampedusa that is designed to house only 400. Bad weather has made many migrants' transfers to the Italian mainland impossible.

According to Italy's Ministry of Interior, nearly 92,000 refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and beyond had landed on Italian shores so far this year, more than doubling the nearly 43,000 refugees landing in the country during the same period last year and three times the figure of 2021.

Historically, July and August are the most common months for migrant arrivals via the central Mediterranean route. 
Yasmin Von Roon poses for a photo as a train runs through a 19-story residential building at Liziba Station of Chongqing Rail Transit Line 2, southwest China's Chongqing, on April 27, 2023. Italian girl Yasmin Von Roon is a successful online influencer with 110,000 fans on TikTok, but she still recalls the strong emotional impact of learning about Marco Polo's travels. (Xinhua)

CHONGQING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- At the age of four, Italian girl Yasmin Von Roon asked her mother to take her to China, after watching a movie about China's legendary female warrior Mulan and listening to her grandmother's account of Italian traveler Marco Polo's life, who traveled to China in the 13th century.

Now aged 26, she is a successful online influencer with 110,000 fans on TikTok, but she still recalls the strong emotional impact of learning about Marco Polo's travels.

Considering herself the "No. 1 fan" of China, she has traveled to 17 Chinese provinces since 2018, and chose Zhejiang University for her master's degree studies rather than French or British universities, and is now majoring in international affairs and global governance.

Such travels are a dream come true for the girl. She is even more delighted to see the widespread interest that her explorations have garnered online. When she traveled to southwest China's Chongqing Municipality this May, she posted several videos about the cityscape, garnering millions of views and tens of thousands of fans on TikTok.

"I never imagined these videos would go viral. I think the reason for this interest is that the videos are made without 'filters' and reflect the real China," said Yasmin Von Roon.

The Italian said that Chongqing is a futuristic city with magical architecture and an amazing transportation system with monorails passing through the buildings.

"When I was in Italy, I saw content on Chongqing circulating on the internet. I feel like 'How come I didn't know this city?'," said the girl.

Thus, when she returned to China to pursue her studies, she bought a ticket from Rome to Chongqing.

Not only was she shocked to find that these magical views were real, but she also learned that Chongqing is right next to her favorite city in China, Chengdu, which is the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

When she came to China for the first time in 2018, she chose Yunnan Province and Sichuan Province rather than the popular cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. "I did some research and I just wanted to find the 'hidden gem' in China," she explained.

Chengdu and Chongqing are close to each other and have many things in common, such as the dialect and food, said the foreign vlogger, and yet they have completely different vibes, both of which are appealing to tourists.

Also, it was in Chengdu that she felt the enthusiasm of the Chinese people. When she asked a random passer-by for directions to a particular location, the local resident actually spent 30 minutes taking her there.

"She didn't do it for money, but just as a gesture, to let me know that I'm welcome in the country. The genuine character of the Chinese people is one of the reasons I've stayed here," Yasmin Von Roon recalled.

Yasmin Von Roon's father is German, and her mother is Italian, giving her an international perspective from an early age, and she has now traveled to over 70 countries. But she has been particularly impressed by China's diversity, with different ethnic groups from various settings across the vast territory, ranging from the snowy north to the warm coastlines of the south.

"I would like to stay here in China, and after finishing my studies, I will see what opportunities the country can offer me. In the meantime, I would like to continue showing the public how beautiful China is," she added. 

Yasmin Von Roon poses for photos in front of Hongya Cave, a popular tourist attraction in southwest China's Chongqing, on April 27, 2023. Italian girl Yasmin Von Roon is a successful online influencer with 110,000 fans on TikTok, but she still recalls the strong emotional impact of learning about Marco Polo's travels. (Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni appointed Hun Manet as the new prime minister on Monday after incumbent Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen announced he was stepping down.

The monarch signed a royal decree to designate Hun Manet, 45, as the new prime minister for a five-year term following a request from Hun Sen.

"The designated prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia has duties to prepare the members of the government in order to ask for the adoption of confidence from the National Assembly," Sihamoni said in the royal decree.

"This royal decree takes effect from the day of signature," he added.

Hun Manet, the eldest son of outgoing Prime Minister Hun Sen, thanked the king for appointing him as the new prime minister.

"This is the greatest honor in my life, receiving a great opportunity to serve my most-loved motherland and people in this noble position," he said in a thank-you letter to the king.

"I, along with all dignitaries in the royal government of the seventh legislature of the National Assembly, are committed to fulfilling this noble national mission with heroism, honesty and high responsibility to serve the motherland and the people of Cambodia," he added.

Hun Manet vowed to continue ensuring the protection of national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the throne and the constitutional monarchy.

He also pledged to continue ensuring national peace and stability, promoting further development, improving the living standards of the Cambodian people, and enhancing the national prestige on the international arena.

Hun Manet, along with his new cabinet members, will need to win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly slated for Aug. 22 in order to officially become the new prime minister, and he is expected to be sworn in on the same day.

The appointment came after the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the July 23 general election, gaining 120 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

Hun Manet is currently a member of the CPP's Standing Committee and a deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Hun Sen announced on July 26 that he would step down as the prime minister after having held the position for more than 38 years, handing the reins of power to Hun Manet.

However, the 71-year-old leader said he will remain the CPP's president and will take the position of President of the Senate after a Senate Election on Feb. 25 next year. 
KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A number of foreign nationals including Americans have been held in Afghanistan's prisons, local TV TOLOnews reported on Monday.

Without revealing the exact number of imprisoned foreigners in Afghanistan, the caretaker government's chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, "They have been held in connection with security and other issues such as violation of our laws."

If proven innocent the detained would be released and the solution would also be found for those not innocent, TOLOnews quoted Mujahid as saying.

Neither Mujahid nor Tolonews provided more details.

According to media reports, a U.S. delegation met with Afghan officials led by Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi in late July in the Qatari capital Doha upon the release of U.S. nationals. 
DAMASCUS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Four Syrian soldiers were killed and another four injured in an Israeli missile attack over Syria's capital Damascus, the state broadcaster Alikhbaria reported early Monday.

The country's air defenses confronted an overnight aerial attack in the vicinity of the capital Damascus, said the report.

Explosions were heard in the suburbs of Damascus as a result of the "Israeli aggression," it said. 
COLOMBO, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera on Monday instructed the Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board to estimate the damage caused by the drought to agriculture.

The minister said this following a discussion with representatives of farming communities. Currently, the government's compensation is only 100,000 rupees (about 315 U.S. dollars) per hectare of farmland, which is not adequate, he added.

The government provided 1.7 billion rupees (5.3 million dollars) as total compensation for farmers for crop damage in 2022, the minister said. 
RIYADH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed an agreement and two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) here on Sunday to localize the production of drones and components in the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday.

Both the agreement and the MoUs are an extension of the two contracts that Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry signed with Turkish drone maker Baykar weeks ago to improve the readiness of the kingdom's armed forces and strengthen its industrial and defense capabilities, the SPA said.

The agreement, which was signed between the Saudi Arabian Military Industries and Baykar, involves the manufacturing of electronic systems, mechanical components, and drone structures. It also includes the test of the products and the provision of training and support services, according to the report.

The MoUs were respectively signed between the Saudi National Company for Mechanical Systems with Roketsan and Aselsan, two major Turkish defense companies, to localize the production of drone ammunition and optical sensors in the kingdom.

The signing of the agreement and MoUs aligns with Saudi Vision 2030's target of localizing more than 50 percent of the kingdom's military spending, Saudi Arabia's Assistant Minister of Defence for Executive Affairs Khalid bin Hussein Al-Bayari was quoted as saying.

Khalid said the deals would also significantly contribute to the kingdom's development through technology transfer, knowledge sharing, and training of Saudi professionals. 
An award winner delivers a speech at the ceremony for "Engineer Sistek" award during the Serbia's national miners' day in Bor, Serbia, on Aug. 6, 2023. Serbia's national miners' day was marked on Sunday here and also in Majdanpek with ceremonies, concerts, exhibitions, sports, an outdoor bazaar, and fireworks. The celebration in the two cities in east Serbia was attended by representatives of the Serbian government, Chinese mining company Zijin, and local communities which number thousands of miners and their families. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

BOR, Serbia, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's national miners' day was marked on Sunday here and also in Majdanpek with ceremonies, concerts, exhibitions, sports, an outdoor bazaar, and fireworks.

The celebration in the two cities in east Serbia was attended by representatives of the Serbian government, Chinese mining company Zijin, and local communities which number thousands of miners and their families.

Dragana Jelisavac Erdeljan, head of the mining sector at the Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia expressed satisfaction that the Chinese mining company continues with Serbia's traditional celebration of the national miners' day.

"I want to express my pleasure with the fact that Zijin continues our tradition and shares our values, especially in the mining sector," she told Xinhua.

The city of Bor arose on Sunday to an early "miners' wake-up call," which marked the start of numerous festivities.

Serbia's national miners' day was established in 1903 and has been celebrated to this day. 

People watch a firework show during the Serbia's national miners' day in Bor, Serbia, on Aug. 6, 2023. Serbia's national miners' day was marked on Sunday here and also in Majdanpek with ceremonies, concerts, exhibitions, sports, an outdoor bazaar, and fireworks. The celebration in the two cities in east Serbia was attended by representatives of the Serbian government, Chinese mining company Zijin, and local communities which number thousands of miners and their families. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)

People watch a concert during the Serbia's national miners' day in Bor, Serbia, on Aug. 6, 2023. Serbia's national miners' day was marked on Sunday here and also in Majdanpek with ceremonies, concerts, exhibitions, sports, an outdoor bazaar, and fireworks. The celebration in the two cities in east Serbia was attended by representatives of the Serbian government, Chinese mining company Zijin, and local communities which number thousands of miners and their families. (Photo by Wang Wei/Xinhua)
NEW DELHI, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A constable with India's Railway Protection Force (RPF) was charged additionally with promoting enmity after killing his senior colleague and three other passengers on a moving train, officials said Monday.

Other charges against the constable Chetan Singh also include kidnapping, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, murder, and relevant sections of the Arms Act and the Railways Act.

Meanwhile, the court extended the police remand of Singh until Aug. 11.

On July 31, Singh shot dead four people, including an assistant sub-inspector, onboard a running train. Following the incident, a video of Singh was recorded by some passengers, showing the body of a man lying at his feet while he made a communal speech mentioning domestic political issues.

Singh tried to flee after the killings but was arrested. 
GENEVA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations (UN) human rights official on Monday highlighted the issue of racial discrimination against migrants and the rights of indigenous peoples threatened by climate change.

Speaking at the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which opened its 110th session in Geneva on Monday, Abdoul Thioye, a senior official from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and representative of the UN Secretary-General, drew the committee's attention to the situation of migrants in many regions.

He said they were often victims of appalling acts of racial discrimination, and were subjected to racist violence leading to death in certain situations, xenophobia and abuse in many forms including sexual exploitation.

According to the UN human rights official, people, whose way of life is intricately linked to the environment -- mostly indigenous peoples, are most disproportionately affected by climate change and need to be part of the conversation in addressing the racially discriminatory impacts of climate.

Thioye told the committee that the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, established early last year, has drawn global interest, with over 1,600 persons attending its two sessions in December 2022 and May 2023, and more than 100 side events having been held.

He said that in the coming October, the UN High Commissioner would present the office's third report on racial justice and equality for Africans and people of African descent at the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The UN Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement, an independent panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, will also present its report to the council then. 
Rescuers search in Kaiyuan Town of Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Workers repair wire damaged by flood water in Kaiyuan Town of Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Transportation staff members repair road damaged by flood water in Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Workers repair wires damaged by flood water in Kaiyuan Town of Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Rescuers from Blue Sky rescue team search in Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 5, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Rescuers transfer a trapped person in Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

Medical workers transfer a trapped person to a hospital in Shulan City, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 6, 2023. Shulan had experienced continuous rainy weather since Tuesday night. This round of rain has basically ended.

The local government has mobilized various rescue forces to relocate residents, repair roads, and restore power and communication to resume people's normal lives as soon as possible. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)
RABAT, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan navy rescued 189 Senegalese migrants heading for Spain's Canary Island in the Atlantic, official news agency MAP reported on Monday.

A patrol boat of the Moroccan navy on Saturday intercepted a pirogue with 189 migrants and five bodies on board, which was having troubles in the waters off Guerguerat, the agency quoted a military source as saying.

After receiving the first aid on the boat, the migrants were brought to the port of Dakhla on Sunday and handed over to the Royal Gendarmerie for the routine administrative procedures, it added.

Among the intercepted, 11 were in critical conditions, it said, adding they were taken to a hospital in Dakhla for treatment, it said. 
JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Africa is ready to host the much-anticipated 15th BRICS summit, said Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor on Monday.

"President Ramaphosa has confirmed South Africa's readiness to host the 15th BRICS summit in person, in Sandton, Johannesburg. The president has therefore invited 67 leaders from Africa and the Global South to attend the BRICS-Africa outreach and BRICS Plus dialogues," Pandor said while briefing the media about the country's preparations for the summit, which will be held on Aug. 22-24.

The leaders invited to attend the summit cover all the continents and regions of the Global South, Pandor said.

South Africa will host the summit under the theme "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development, and Inclusive Multilateralism." During the summit, it will host the BRICS Business Forum, the BRICS Leaders Retreat and the 15th BRICS Summit Plenary, among others, according to Pandor.

"BRICS leaders are expected to discuss opportunities for realizing the full potential of BRICS for inclusive global economic recovery and sustainable development and strengthening each other," she said.

The BRICS is an acronym for five emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. South Africa assumed the BRICS presidency on Jan. 1, 2023, taking over from China. 
BANGKOK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Bhumjaithai Party announced on Monday that it will join a Pheu Thai Party-led alliance to form a new government in a bid to end a political stalemate more than two months after elections.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew said both parties have gathered enough support from more than half of the members in the House of Representatives, but they need more votes from other MPs and senators to successfully form a government.

The problems that the country is facing are severe, and delayed government formation would cause even more damage, he told a press conference, adding that the sooner the government is formed, the faster the problems can be solved.

The move came as the Pheu Thai Party started to form a new coalition after the eight-party alliance it had left failed to secure the necessary support in the previous two bicameral sittings of the Thai parliament to nominate Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister.

The Pheu Thai Party and the Bhumjaithai Party emerged as the second and third largest parties in the lower house of the National Assembly, respectively, in the May general election.

The Thai parliament last week postponed the vote to select a new prime minister due to a pending court decision regarding Pita's rejected renomination. A new date for the selection has not yet been set. 
YANGON, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar exported over 800,000 tons of corn in the first four months of the 2023-24 fiscal year starting from April 1, according to the Myanmar Corn Industrial Association (MCIA) on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country earned more than 240 million U.S. dollars from the corn export during the four months, the MCIA said.

The export of corn this year was not good due to the decline of the corn price in the global market and policy issues, said Phyo Ko Ko Naing, vice chairman of the MCIA.

About 65 percent of the country's corn is cultivated and produced in Shan State, while about 10 percent of the corn is grown and produced in Ayeyarwaddy Region, he said, adding that corn is also cultivated in Mandalay and Bago regions and Kayin and Kachin states.

Myanmar annually produces about 3.2 million tons of corn, of which about 2 million tons are exported to foreign markets, he added.

Myanmar's total export between April 1 and July 28 this year was valued at over 5.09 billion dollars, the Ministry of Commerce's figures showed. 
VIENTIANE, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people across Laos have been affected by flooding and landslides as a result of continuous heavy rain, which caused havoc in several parts of the country.

Laophattana Daily News on Monday quoted Governor of Khammuan province Vanxay Phongsavanh as saying that torrential rains, which started on July 27, have caused widespread floods, destroyed homes and farms, and washed away roads and other infrastructure.

Khounkham district in Khammuan province, some 250 km southeast of Lao capital Vientiane, has been hit by heavy floods, and more than 12,000 people living in 14 villages, or almost half the population in the district, have been affected by the flooding.

In the Hinboun district, more than 180 houses and hundreds of hectares of farmlands in four villages have been impacted by the floods. Several roads were cut off, and the electricity and telecommunication networks were disrupted by the floods, according to the report.

In addition, heavy rains over the past few days have caused landslides along a stretch of National Highway No. 8 between Khoun district in Khammuan province and Bolikhamxay province, with more than 80 people and about 90 vehicles trapped on the highway.

Days of torrential rain have also caused landslides blocking roads in districts of northern Laos' Luang Prabang province. Relevant authorities are making efforts to restore normal traffic, the Public Works and Transport Office of Phonxay district under the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport reported on Monday.

The Lao Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources released a notice on Monday, advising citizens across the country to monitor the weather and be on alert for possible flash floods and landslides.

The rain will continue to fall across the country, causing rivers to further rise and overflow.

Meanwhile, hundreds of hectares of farmland and thousands of families in Savannakhet province have been affected by the floods.

In Atsaphone district, 28 villages have been affected by flooding, which has also inundated more than 1,300 hectares of farmland. In Atsaphangthong district, more than 1,400 households in 19 villages were affected, with at least 2,900 hectares of farmland also submerged.

Lao Deputy Minister and Deputy Chairman of the National Disaster Management Committee, Khambay Khatthiya, and representatives of relevant authorities on Sunday launched a ceremony on the delivery of relief items to the people affected by flooding in the provinces of Bolikhamxay, Khammuan and Savannakhet. 
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese companies working under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have contributed immensely towards Pakistan's industrial promotion in various walks of life, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said here on Monday.

"Your contribution has not only led to the creation of job opportunities and industrial production, but it has further strengthened our brotherly and economic ties," Sharif said while addressing an award ceremony organized to honor the contribution of Chinese companies operating in Pakistan under the CPEC.

The prime minister noted that the two countries have recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of CPEC under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a very innovative vision of the Chinese leadership.

He added that CPEC is now entering into its second phase of turning into a green corridor while focusing on innovation, information technology, and the development of special economic zones.

All these would be carried out into different modes of business-to-business framework under the umbrella of the two governments, said the prime minister.

Speaking to the occasion, Pang Chunxue, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, said that through the joint efforts of the two countries in various fields, including the 29 companies awarded here at the ceremony, CPEC has made outstanding contributions to the socio-economic development of Pakistan.

"It has become a distinctive symbol of China-Pakistan cooperation and the pilot project of the BRI," said Pang.

Launched in 2013, CPEC, the 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. 
JAKARTA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The general session of the 44th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) kicked off here in Indonesia's capital on Monday, calling for governments and parliaments in the Southeast Asia region to promote the regional economic growth and enhance ASEAN's economic integration.

"Amid the uncertainty of the global economy, the governments, members of parliaments and other stakeholders in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries should show solidity and play central roles so that we can show the relevance of ASEAN to the world," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in his remarks of the opening session.

The whole series of events of the AIPA is scheduled on Aug. 5-10.

Citing a survey showing that for the last 56 years, ASEAN had contributed significantly to the peace and stability in the region and its surroundings, he said that around 80 percent of countries across the globe see ASEAN as an important partner with promising economic opportunities.

"Their survey means that global trust in ASEAN is very high; our job is to use that trust to build a prosperous ASEAN," Widodo said.

The AIPA was attended by hundreds of legislators from ASEAN countries and representatives from observing countries and international organizations.

This year, the assembly upheld a theme of "Responsive Parliaments for a Stable and Prosperous ASEAN," aiming to encourage the parliaments to be more sensitive to multi-dimension crises. Among the issues discussed during the five-day meeting include economy, renewable energy, climate change, and among others.

Indonesia's House of Representative Speaker Puan Maharani, who chairs the 44th AIPA, said on the same occasion that the current regional and global crisis, including global warming, were tests for ASEAN.

The AIPA General Session is, therefore, necessary to support ASEAN unity and centrality amid global challenges, Maharani said. 
MOSCOW/RIYADH, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments related to the Ukraine crisis:

Russia's air defense system has destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle over the country's Kaluga region, the region's governor Vladislav Shapsha said Monday.

"There has been no impact on people or infrastructure," Shapsha said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Kaluga region borders the Moscow region to the north.

- - - -

Security advisors and representatives from 43 countries on Sunday concluded a two-day meeting in Jeddah, a coastal city in western Saudi Arabia, where they discussed solutions to the Ukraine crisis that has dragged on for more than a year.

The closed-door meeting was attended by quite a number of developing countries, many of which have primarily stayed neutral in the crisis. Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui also attended the meeting.

Analysts said that China's participation reflects its role as a responsible major country in promoting peace, and the meeting represents the latest efforts by the international community in solving the crisis.

- - - -

Russia expects the BRICS countries to inform Moscow of the outcome of the recent Saudi-led peace talks on Ukraine, the country's foreign ministry said in a statement Monday.

"We expect that, in accordance with the agreements, they will share their assessments with us," said the ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Zakharova further commented on Moscow's position with regard to Ukraine's 10-point peace plan discussed during the meeting in Jeddah.

Russia does not see any grounds for a peaceful settlement under such conditions, the spokesperson said. 
NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Congress responded to the fiery train derailment in Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, with both parties agreeing that a legislative response was needed, but little has changed after six months, reported The Associated Press on Thursday.

"While President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have praised a railroad safety bill from Ohio Senators," said the report, noting that "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, it noted.

Residents still worry about the long-term health effects, and many are looking to Congress to act. "If our legislators don't 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 they're fools," one resident was quoted as saying. 
NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and five others injured in a multiple-vehicle crash on a highway in Long Island, U.S. state of New York late Sunday.

A car was heading west on Sunrise Highway at a "high rate of speed" when the vehicle collided with three others around 7:20 p.m. local time on Sunday, Nassau County Police said on social media.

Three people in the crash were pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Five others were transported to local hospitals, two of them were in critical condition.

First responders used the jaws of life to remove people trapped in their cars, WABC TV channel reported.

The investigation was ongoning. 
Pro-Ukrainian hackers breach Moscow engineering service website 7 August, 09:10 PM Hackers claim that all data was transferred to the Ukrainian Defense Forces (Photo:roketpik/pixabay.com)

A group of pro-Ukrainian hackers has compromised the website of the Moscow Technical Inventory Bureau, transferring some of the retrieved information to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and making a portion of the database public, RFE/RL reported on Aug. 7.

The Moscow Technical Inventory Bureau, a Russian state service, stores data about real estate developments and buildings in the city. This includes plans, technical specifications, data on demolitions, utilities, and more.

The group left a message on the bureaus website: "Information about civil servants, politicians, military and intelligence officials who support the war with Ukraine has been handed over to the Ukrainian Defense Forces."

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The hacker group began posting screenshots of the data, likely procured from the breached database. They publicly revealed addresses and register numbers of facilities belonging to Russias FSB and military units in Moscow. Part of the database was also published online.

The group, identified as "sudo RM-RF," has taken credit for the cyber-attack. Previously, they had infiltrated the website of the Russian Skolkovo Foundation and made the acquired materials public. Skolkovo was commissioned by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy head of Russias Security Council.

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.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Promise for peace? Saudi-hosted summit on conditions to end war good and constructive, says USA 7 August, 03:22 PM Negotiations on the Ukrainian peace formula were held in Saudi Arabia, China took part in them (Photo:Saudi Press Agency/Handout via Reuters)

It was a good and constructive set of conversations with a range of countries who came together to exchange views and build common ground in support of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, discuss how to end the war in Ukraine, and address the practical consequences of Russias war in Ukraine and around the world, the official said.

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In addition to Ukraines G-7 allies, strategically important countries like India, Brazil, and host Saudi Arabia participated. China was also part of the discussions after missing the first meeting in Copenhagen in June.

Russian representatives were not invited.

The official also expressed Washingtons gratitude to Saudi Arabias capital of Riyadh for hosting the talks, saying: We were glad that more than 40 countries attended the talks and benefited from the chance to hear directly from Ukraine about the war and to exchange views.

The U.S. delegation was led by U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the official said.

Peace summit in Saudi Arabia: What is known

Two days of negotiations on the Ukrainian peace formula took place in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 5-6.

Ukraine and its Western backers pitched the talks as an effort to rally global support behind appropriate conditions for ending the war, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 6.

After the talks in Jeddah concluded, diplomats said there was broad acceptance that central principles of international law, like respect for Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity, should be at the heart of future peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

In Jeddah, Ukraine and the major developing countries appeared determined to find a consensus. A senior European official said that Ukraine didnt push again for its peace plan to be accepted and other countries werent insisting that Kyiv drop it. Nor was there any disagreement over Ukraines demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops.

There was agreement on pursuing more detailed work on the global impact of the war, and most countries attending, including China, appeared willing to meet again in the coming weeks in the current format, with Russia excluded, according to people involved in or briefed on the closed-door talks.

The biggest difference between the Copenhagen and Jeddah meetings was attendance  more than twice as many countries attended or dialed into talks on Aug. 5. That included European countries, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, and South Africa.

While no date has been set for a third meeting, there was agreement on a two-track process to move forward. Ukraine will continue discussions with foreign ambassadors in Kyiv on peace conditions.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia plans to propose a set of working groups for specific issues raised in the Ukrainian peace plan, some of which touch on the global impact of the war.

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.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Russia and Belarus engineering another migrant crisis, Poland says 7 August, 11:40 PM In 2022 alone, 19,000 migrants tried to enter Poland from Belarus, 4,000 of them in June alone. (Photo:REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki)

Russia and Belarus are organizing another campaign of migrant influx into the European Union through the Polish border, deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik said on Aug. 6, as reported by Polish outlet RMF 24.

Wasik noted that the situation is not as chaotic as it was two years ago, but it still causes concern.

"We are talking about an operation organized by Russian and Belarusian special services, which is becoming more and more intense," he said.

Read also: Poland detains Belarusian spy collecting intelligence about the Polish ports and military facilities

Wasik pointed out that since the erection of a fence on the border with Belarus, the aggression of those trying to enter Poland has increased.

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The official added that Belarusian services are involved in damaging the border barrier by expanding and cutting beams with power tools.

Meanwhile, the head of the Polish Border Guard Service, Tomasz Praga, called Belarusian services a "criminal group that manages illegal migration" and "receives huge profits from it."

He said that in 2022 alone, 19,000 migrants attempted to enter Poland from Belarus, with 4,000 in June alone. The total number of migrants in 2022 was 16,000.

Praga also appealed to the Defense Ministry to send 1,000 troops to the eastern border due to the increasing attempts of illegal border crossing from Belarusian territory.

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.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Risks and Dangers at the Zaporizhzhia NPP 7 August, 08:37 PM ZNPP (Photo:REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)

The reduction of personnel and the transfer of the fourth power unit to the "hot stop" state is a gross violation of the operating requirements.

Many ZNPP personnel with Ukrainian licenses have left the plant as the occupiers allowed them to leave Enerhodar. These are unit shift supervisors and station shift supervisors. Thus, there is now a critical shortage of licensed personnel at ZNPP. For example, only half of the employees are on duty according to the staffing schedule. This situation increases risks and hazards. According to the regulatory document by Energoatom, a minimum number of employees is required to operate the plant, which is not being met. Although in the IAEA notes, Russia claims that there is enough staff.

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On the part of Ukraine, I would still demand that the IAEA check the compliance of the staffing of the operational personnel with our regulatory documents. It is imperative. Whether the power unit is operating at capacity or is in a state of hot or cold shutdown, the number of operating personnel at reactor facilities must comply with the regulatory document. Blackmail is also increasing. Some employees are forced to work even without a contract.

Regarding nuclear blackmail: There is information that power unit No. 5 was put on cold shutdown. This was done because the steam generators at that power unit were leaking. According to technological regulations, a power unit can be in hot shutdown for no more than 100 hours a year. This power unit has been in hot shutdown for eight months.

However, the transfer of power unit No. 4 to hot shutdown is carried out with the aim of nuclear blackmail because, in my opinion, the technological and production needs for steam, as explained by the Russians to the IAEA, are not as important as safety. A power unit in a hot shutdown can be switched to the minimum controlled capacity very quickly, according to the regulations, in 17 hours. This increases the risks that in case of cooling loss of the power unit, a severe accident with melts on the cores and radionuclide emissions may develop. Therefore, when a chain reaction begins at the minimum controlled power, hazardous radionuclides, volatile ones like Y-131, accumulate in the core. Consequently, they do all these things in violation of regulations, even though the personnel must be properly trained to work on VVER-1000 reactor units.

In other words, Russia put the fourth power unit on hot shutdown to continue nuclear blackmailing Ukraine.

Representatives from Smolensk and Kursk's Russian nuclear power plants now operate the Chornobyl-type LWR (high power channel reactor). This is an entirely different reactor. If we also consider that ZNPP has undergone a significant modernization during this period as part of the lifetime extension of power units, with Western equipment, with Ukrainian equipment that is not available at Russian NPPs, even with VVER-1000, the risks are growing.

As for the leaking steam generators, power unit 6, which also operated in hot shutdown all winter, was put into cold shutdown in the spring because of leaking steam generators. These are serious problems. The second power unit is good if it can be repaired, but the steam generators may need to be replaced. This is expensive equipment. That is, two power units are already in question regarding equipment integrity.

About the risks: As you know, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam was not coordinated with Rosatom. The ZNPP, which cannot produce the electricity they planned to send to the Russian unified energy system last summer, is like a suitcase without a handle. Their plans to supply the south of occupied Ukraine and Crimea with electricity from ZNPP have failed. According to my sources, the military does not coordinate their actions in Enerhodar and Zaporizhzhia NPP with the staff and management of Zaporizhzhia NPP. This is a problem. Knowing how all the coordination in Russia is done and their crookedness, we need to prepare for different developments.

Read also: Rosatom ends operations in Czechia

They are keeping Unit 4 in this state now to maintain the degree of escalation. The IAEA, for example, reported that they were allowed to inspect Unit 5 and visually confirmed that everything was working. Of course, the unit is not working, but all the equipment is fine. They also inspected the Zaporizhzhia Heat Canal but were barred from checking the locking gates on the coolant pond. Some work was done there, allegedly to strengthen it, but we know from the Main Intelligence Directorate that Russia mined the locking gate of the pond. The report also emphasizes that IAEA experts heard the detonation. It's strange that they just wrote about it now because the exits to the villages near Energodar and the nuclear power plant are under fire every night.

Last week, there were also reports in Enerhodar's telegram channels that something had flown into the area of the city's fire station. Until now, IAEA experts have not received permission to visit the roofs of the engine rooms, where there are some sniper positions. Movement is restricted, information is limited, and we have no data on radiation monitoring, which was shut down by Russia back in May of this year. The IAEA experts manually measured the radiation background and entered this data into the IAEA system of radiation conditions.

In other words, the only official information is from the experts currently at ZNPP, and Ukraine and the civilized world have virtually no additional information.

Everything leads to the fact that ZNPP is spinning out of control. If, in August last year, the general in charge of the occupation troops in Enerhodar said that ZNPP was either theirs or scorched earth, it is clear that they would do maximum damage to prevent the plant from working. It can only operate with the Kakhovka reservoir at full capacity anyway. Therefore, they will also steal equipment, because some equipment is unavailable at Russian nuclear power plants. They have already looted a training center with American computer programs and equipment. Therefore, we should not expect that the nuclear power plant will only start working after the de-occupation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Will it be possible to restore everything? First, a lot depends on the equipment. For example, steam generators for this type of reactor are made in Russia. Second, the integrity of the reactor itself is also essential. If there is a loss of reactor cooling, even in a cold shutdown, and a severe core melt accident develops, it will take longer than in a hot shutdown, up to 8 days. But if Ukrainian specialists cannot intervene in the process, it will mean the loss of the reactor unit, which cannot be repaired or replaced.

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.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
As electric two-wheeler sales bounce back, manufacturers have lined up at least 20 new models for launch in the next eight to 10 months. These models include the TVS Creon, Kinetic E Luna, Honda Activa, Suzuki Burgman, Vespa Elettrica, LML Star, Harley Davidson Live Wire, and Hero Electric AE 47E. There are also a number of offerings from electric two-wheeler startups to hit the road, such as the Zero SR/F, Svitch CSR 762, Liger X, and the Gogoro 2 series. Adoption of electric two-wheelers is growing fast, say experts.While electric two-wheeler sales peaked in May this year, crossing the 100,000 mark, the volume had plummeted to under 46,000 units. However, strong general interest in turning electric, coupled with the still available (albeit reduced) subsidy, has helped volumes to recover to 54,292 units. This is expected to help sales volume to reach 750,000-800,000 units. Sales of electric two-wheelers this year had crossed 400,000 units, accounting for 5% of overall two-wheeler sales, according to data from consultancy firm Jato Dynamics. Manufacturers are also gearing up for the festive season by launching new models, expanding dealer networks, and allocating for additional capital expenditure."In line with this growth, we are seeing our volumes also growing, and we are gearing up for the festive season. We have begun taking pre booking of our upcoming scooter the 450S, which is due for launch," said Ravneet Singh Phokela, chief business officer at Ather Energy. In India, the penetration rate (of electric two-wheelers) stood at 5.4% for Q4 FY23, and it is growing fast. TVS will capitalize on these opportunities by investing continuously in EV technology, TVS Motor chairman Ralf Speth said at the companys recent annual general meeting.The Chennai-based manufacturer plans to infuse additional capital and launch new models in the next couple of. According to data Vahan Sewa portal, the top 10 players accounted for as much as 80% of the electric two-wheeler volume in FY23. While these include established two-wheeler companies such as Bajaj Auto and TVS, most are recent entrants into the automobile space, such as Ola Electric, Ather, and Okinawa, said Gagan Sidhu, director of CEEW Centre for Energy Finance.With the reduced subsidy, manufacturers have scaled up prices. Yet, many consumers are opting for electric two-wheelers over fossil fuel powered models, which have seen a stagnation in sales. Meanwhile, several manufacturers are working on launching low-cost variants of their existing electric two-wheeler models with fewer features and smaller battery sizes to make prices competitive.Maharashtra continues to lead in electric two-wheeler sales volumes, accounting for 41,302 registrations in the April-June quarter, according to Sidhu. Goa had the highest electric 2W penetration of 19.05% in the quarter.
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.
In this article, we will be taking a look at the 20 countries with the highest rates of smoking. If you are not interested in reading the details, head straight to the 5 Countries With The Highest Rates Of Smoking.

Smoking remains a pervasive global health concern and certain countries like Lebanon. Serbia and Bulgaria have faced the enduring challenge of high smoking rates within their populations and stand among the top ten countries with the highest percentage of smokers. Despite extensive awareness campaigns and anti-smoking initiatives, these nations grapple with the intricate web of cultural, economic, and regulatory factors perpetuating smoking habits.

The consequences of these high smoking rates are far-reaching, from a surge in preventable diseases to an immense burden on healthcare systems. This introductory exploration delves into the highest smoking countries in the world, shedding light on the complexities of this issue and the urgent need for effective strategies to combat the tobacco epidemic.

Prevalence of Smoking: A Comparative Analysis

Smoking is a prevalent habit that has been around for centuries. It has been estimated that approximately one billion people worldwide smoke, with most smokers residing in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of smoking varies across different regions, with some countries having a higher smoking rate than others.

Financial statistics show that individuals with a lower income are more likely to smoke than those with a higher income. Studies have shown that individuals below the poverty line are twice as likely to smoke as those above it for various reasons, including the fact that tobacco products are often cheaper than healthier alternatives. For example, a pack of cigarettes can cost anywhere from $5-$10. The prices are way cheaper in the emerging economies.

Additionally, individuals with a lower income may be under more stress, making them more likely to turn to smoking as a coping mechanism. Cultural norms also play a significant role in smoking rates. In some cultures, smoking is seen as a sign of masculinity or sophistication, making it more socially acceptable. For instance, in some countries, smoking is associated with the image of a successful businessman.

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Additionally, advertising and marketing by tobacco companies like Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) and Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) have played a significant role in promoting smoking as a fashionable and desirable habit. In 2019, tobacco companies spent $8.2 billion on advertising and promotions in the United States alone. Despite the many factors contributing to the prevalence of smoking, many efforts are also being made to reduce smoking rates.

Governments and organizations worldwide are implementing policies and programs to reduce smoking rates. For example, increasing taxes on tobacco products is an effective way to reduce smoking rates. According to American Lung Association, every 10% increase in cigarette prices in the United States has been linked to a 4% decrease in smoking rates. Implementing smoke-free laws and offering smoking cessation programs have also effectively reduced smoking rates.

Smokeless Tobacco Products: A Hidden Challenge in Some Countries

As businesses like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco expand globally, it's crucial to be aware of cultural differences and customs in other countries, which is particularly important in the sale and marketing of tobacco products, especially as the global tobacco market is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2030.

In some countries, smokeless tobacco products from Swedish Match AB, Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), and Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) are a popular alternative to traditional cigarettes. However, these products can pose a hidden challenge for businesses that must become more familiar with the local market.

Understanding the regulations surrounding these products and ensuring that marketing materials are culturally appropriate is essential. By taking these steps, businesses can navigate the complexities of the global tobacco market and ensure that they are operating safely, reasonably, and socially responsibly.

Emerging Trends in Harm Reduction Strategies

Harm reduction strategies have been gaining popularity in recent years as more and more people realize the importance of minimizing the negative consequences of drug use. Emerging trends in harm reduction strategies include a focus on community involvement and education, as well as the use of technology to improve access to resources and support.

One promising trend is the integration of harm-reduction strategies into healthcare systems. This approach recognizes that drug use is a health issue, not just a criminal one, and seeks to provide individuals with the tools and resources they need to stay safe and healthy, which can include things like needle exchange programs, overdose prevention training, and access to medications like naloxone that can reverse opioid overdoses.

According to a report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2021, over 106,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States alone. The US's economic cost of drug abuse is estimated to be over $151.4 billion annually. By implementing harm reduction strategies, healthcare systems can reduce the negative impact of drug abuse on individuals and society.

Another trend is using technology to improve harm reduction efforts, including smartphone apps that provide information on safe injection practices, overdose prevention, and telemedicine services that allow individuals to access care remotely. These tools can benefit people living in rural areas with limited access to healthcare services.

20 Countries With The Highest Rates Of Smoking

Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com

Our Methodology

For our methodology, we have ranked the countries with the highest age standardized smoking rates (for both sexes) in ascending order as of 2023. For the accuracy of the data, we relied on the Global Health Observatory of World Health Organization.

Here is our list of the 20 countries with the highest rates of smoking.

20. Bangladesh

Total Smoking Rate: 17.1%

Smoking affects about 17.1% of the population in bengladesh, putting it on the list of countries with the highest rates of smoking. The economic cost of tobacco in 2018 was around $3.6 billion, making up 1.4% GDP of the country. Each year, more than 100,000 people die from smoking-related illnesses, and the financial burden on families is significant due to high tobacco costs and healthcare expenses. Urgent action is needed to address this alarming situation.

19. Myanmar

Total Smoking Rate: 18.7%

Myanmar is one of the countries with the highest rates of smoking. Annually, approximately 64,000 lives are claimed by tobacco use in Myanmar, and a significant 56% of these deaths occur among individuals under 70. In 2016, the economic toll of tobacco use amounted to MMK 2.6 trillion ($1.7 billion), which accounts for approximately 3.3% of the country's GDP. Furthermore, healthcare expenses related to tobacco use amounted to MMK 307 billion ($1.9 billion).

18. Laos

Total Smoking Rate: 24.5%

In Laos, smoking is widespread, with about 24.5% of the age standardized population being smokers. A packet of cigarettes costs less than $1 in the country, which leads to more people buying cigarettes resulting in smoke pollution. Moreover, secondhand smoke exposure is a significant concern, putting non-smokers at risk of developing smoking-related illnesses and impacting their quality of life. Tobacco use in Lao PDR leads to nearly 6,800 deaths annually and incurs a cost of 3.6 trillion Lao Kip ($393,300) annually.

17. Chile

Total Smoking Rate: 27.2%

Prevalence of smoking is higher among men than women in Chile. In 2017, smoking caused 16,472 deaths in Chile, making up about 16% of all deaths. The impact included 416,445 DALYs annually, and the healthcare system spent approximately 1.15 trillion pesos (around U$D 1.8 billion) on treating smoking-related illnesses. Raising tobacco prices by 50% could prevent 13,665 deaths and 360,476 DALYs over a decade, leading to cost savings in healthcare and increased tax revenue. However, the tobacco tax collection still falls short of covering the full healthcare costs associated with smoking in Chile.

16. Timor Leste

Total Smoking Rate: 30.5%

Every year, tobacco-related diseases claim over 700 lives in Timor-Leste, and smoking costs the country approximately USD 64 million annually, equivalent to about 1.5% of its GDP. Cigarettes are less expensive in East Timor than in the United States. Local cigarettes cost $1.40 per pack, while famous brands like Camel, Marlboro, and L&M cost around $1.80.

15. Greece

Total Smoking Rate: 31.3%

Smoking is prevalent in Greece, with the rate standing at 31.3%, one of the highest in Europe. Based on data from the World Bank, the expenses for smoking-related healthcare in Greece range from 0.1% to 1.1% of the country's GDP. In 2016, Greece's GDP was approximately 288,418 million USD, which indicates that about 288 to 3,172 million USD is allocated annually to cover healthcare costs associated with smoking-related diseases in the country. Despite efforts to reduce smoking rates through taxation and smoking bans, more action is needed to address this issue.

14. Andorra

Total Smoking Rate: 31.3%

Smoking is a notable issue in Andorra, with 31.3% age standardized rate of smoking as of 2023. The health consequences are well-documented, with respiratory diseases, heart issues, and cancer prevalent. Smoking-related healthcare costs strain the country's economy. Deaths caused by smoking continue to rise, making it the leading preventable cause of death in Andorra. The government has increased tobacco taxes and launched anti-smoking campaigns to combat this. Additionally, the financial impact on smokers is substantial, with the packet of Marlboro by Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) cigarettes costing around 4 euros ($4).

13. Indonesia

Total Smoking Rate: 32.6%

Indonesia is one of the most tobacco smoking countries in the world with over 50 million smokers, making it one of the largest smoking populations globally. Tragically, as WHO notes, around 225,700 people die annually in Indonesia due to smoking-related illnesses, out of which many die due to secondhand smoke, making it a significant public health concern. Moreover, smoking is a substantial financial burden for many individuals, affecting their ability to afford the habit and impacting their overall economic well-being. In Indonesia, a pack of cigarettes costs around $1.65, lower than the global average of $3.38 and the average in the Asia-Pacific region of $4.67.

12. France

Total Smoking Rate: 33.3%

France has a 33.3% age standardized smoking rate, making it one of the most tobacco smoking countries in the world. This addiction leads to severe health issues, such as lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory problems, impacting individuals and the healthcare system. Annual cigarette consumption has declined by 40% per adult and 35% per smoker between 2004 and 2020. Smoking-related illnesses claim around 78,000 lives in France annually, emphasizing the urgent need for continued efforts to address this public health and economic concern.

11. Bosnia And Herzegovina

Total Smoking Rate: 33.5%

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the countries with the highest percentage of smokers, with around 33.5% of the age-controlled population being smokers. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most recent data reveals that tobacco-smoking-related diseases led to approximately 8,595 annual deaths. Among these deaths, about 2,500 were women, while 6,100 were men. The economic cost in 2019 ranged from 367.5 to 635.1 million (2.0%-3.5% of GDP), with direct costs being the largest share (1.0%-1.7% of GDP).

10. Lebanon

Total Smoking Rate: 33.7%

Tragically, about 3,500 people die annually due to smoking-related diseases in Lebanon. Smoking is also a financial burden for individuals, with cigarettes being expensive in Lebanon, with a pack of 20 costing around $11.50, nearly twice the price in New York City. Surprisingly, despite the high cost, smoking continues to be widespread in the country.

9. Latvia

Total Smoking Rate: 34.2%

Smoking is a significant issue in Latvia, with about 34.2% of the age-standardized population engaging in the habit, making Latvia stand among the countries with the highest rates of smoking. The economic impact is substantial, with the cost of smoking-related illnesses burdening the government and taxpayers and decreased productivity affecting the economy. Tobacco consumption, including direct and secondhand smoking, accounted for approximately 15% of all deaths, totaling around 4,100 fatalities, underscoring the need for awareness and education. Smoking is also a financial burden for individuals and families due to the high cost of cigarettes and related products.

8. Tuvalu

Total Smoking Rate: 34.2%

Smoking's toll extends to the country's economy, with funds diverted from vital infrastructure and healthcare. Tragically, around 40 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses, a significant number for a small population. Moreover, the cost of cigarettes is high, imposing a financial burden on individuals and diverting funds from essential needs.

7. Cyprus

Total Smoking Rates: 34.5%

In Cyprus, the smoking rate is 34.5%, with 50.1% of the smokers being male and 23.3% female. Each year, over 600 people in Cyprus die due to smoking-related illnesses, making it a leading cause of preventable deaths in the country. Smoking impacts the economy through increased healthcare costs, absenteeism, and reduced productivity. Additionally, smoking is a financial burden for individuals, with a pack of local cigarettes costing around 2.50 ($2.96), while imported brands like Marlboro, Silk Cut, and B&H are priced at approximately 3.40 ($4). they are leading to significant expenses for regular smokers.

6. Soloman Islands

Total Smoking Rate: 35.5%

In the Solomon Islands, the age-controlled rate of smoking for both sexes stands at 35.5%, leading to significant health and economic impacts. The cost of treating smoking-related illnesses strains the healthcare system and affects productivity. Additionally, around 798 people die yearly in the country due to tobacco consumption, emphasizing the need for effective prevention and cessation programs.

Click to see and continue reading the 5 Countries With The Highest Rates Of Smoking.

Suggested Articles:

Disclosure. None: The 20 Countries With The Highest Rates Of Smoking is originally published on Insider Monkey.
Business leaders who responded to the survey said they had avoided hiring recent college graduates. Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

A survey found that 40% of business leaders thought Gen Z grads were unprepared for the workplace.

Of that subset, 94% of respondents said they had avoided hiring recent college graduates.

And 88% of the subset said "etiquette classes" could help graduates transition to post-college jobs.

Gen Z is entering the workforce, and while many recent college graduates are excited about the opportunities that await them, a recent survey indicated that the feeling might not be mutual among their older supervisors.

A new survey by Intelligent, an online magazine focused on student life, found that many business leaders thought recent college graduates were unprepared for the work environment and that some managers were trying to avoid hiring them.

Intelligent had the survey platform Pollfish ask 1,243 business leaders about their thoughts on working with the graduating classes of 2020 to 2023, whose members consist mostly of Gen Zers, generally defined as those born from about 1997 to 2012. The survey found that 40% of the business leaders surveyed said recent college graduates were unprepared to enter the workforce.

However, most respondents said Gen Z grads were at least somewhat prepared.

The survey defined a business leader as someone aged 30 to 60 who made at least $75,000 in household income and worked as a C-Level executive, HR manager, director, president, owner/partner, or senior management at a company with more than 10 people.

The survey said that this poor perception of Gen Z graduates might even be affecting the hiring decisions of some business leaders. Of the 40% of business leaders surveyed who said recent graduates were unprepared to enter the workforce, 94% of the subset told Intelligent that they had avoided hiring them: 7% said that they always avoided hiring Gen Z grads, 27% said that they usually avoid hiring them, 40% said that they "sometimes" did, and 20% said that they "rarely" avoided hiring them.

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Business leaders who responded to Intelligent's survey said Gen Z grads had negative traits, including a poor work ethic, sub-par communication skills, and a sense of entitlement.

Of the business leaders who said Gen Z grads were unprepared for the workplace, 62% said modern culture was at fault, and 48% blamed the COVID-19 pandemic. Some respondents also said recent grads were hard to work with because parents and teachers failed to prepare them for the workplace. A large majority of the subset, about 88%, of the subset who said graduates were unprepared told Intelligent that "etiquette classes" would help.

The survey echoed similar feelings reported by managers in an April survey from Resume Builder. 74% of managers who responded to the survey said Gen Z was more difficult to work with than previous generations.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is grappling with fear about their futures. A survey by Zip Recruiter found that 76% of Gen Z respondents were worried that ChatGPT could replace them at work.

Diane Gayeski, a professor of strategic communication at Ithaca College, told Intelligent that no one was truly prepared for the workplace because of rapid changes in technology, the mass resignation of teachers, nurses, and other professionals, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gayeski said many Gen Zers might even have stunted "people skills" because they were still in school during the pandemic.

Some companies and universities, however, are trying to train Gen Z employees to join the workforce, The Wall Street Journal reported. The courses, which cover how to behave in an office, what to wear, and other necessary soft skills, may prove beneficial  they're the "etiquette classes" many of the business leaders surveyed by Intelligent said could help.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Telecom Plus implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

A total of 13 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership

Using data from company's past performance alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Telecom Plus Plc (LON:TEP), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 82% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Telecom Plus.

View our latest analysis for Telecom Plus

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Telecom Plus?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Telecom Plus does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Telecom Plus, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Telecom Plus. abrdn plc is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.6% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.8% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

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Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 13 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Telecom Plus

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Telecom Plus Plc. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own UK96m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment by insiders. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 10% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Telecom Plus .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
(Bloomberg) -- Private equity firm Advent International has acquired a majority stake in Australian fashion brand Zimmermann from Style Capital.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Style Capital and Zimmermanns founding family will retain significant minority stakes in the company, according to a statement Tuesday confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.

Financial details werent disclosed. The transaction values Zimmermann at about $1 billion, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Sisters Nicky and Simone Zimmermann founded their namesake label in 1991 in Sydney. They own a 30% stake in the business, while Style Capital owns the remainder. The Italian firm bought the majority stake in 2020 from General Atlantic for $408 million.

There are so many exciting opportunities for Zimmermann ahead and Simone and I feel extremely fortunate to be going on this journey with our team, one that started nearly 30 years ago at Paddington Markets in Sydney, Nicky Zimmermann, who is also chief creative officer, said in the statement.

This is the second large deal this year for a big Australian brand. French skincare giant LOreal SA agreed in April to acquire luxury cosmetics brand Aesop, which was founded in Melbourne, for an enterprise value of $2.53 billion.

(Updates throughout with confirmation of the deal.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines is racing to defend its share of the nearly $300 billion global business process outsourcing market as it battles deteriorating talent, rising competition and rapidly evolving artificial intelligence.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Southeast Asian nation, the worlds second-largest provider of outsourcing services, is producing a low ratio of graduates with the required level of communication and technical skills, potentially losing out on opportunities to add 800,000 jobs in the next five years, according to industry group IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines.

The most common challenge I hear is comprehension, Jack Madrid, who heads the countrys main BPO trade group, said in an interview, referring to failed job seekers. I think they fail at a more basic level, he said in his office in Manila on Aug. 2.

The skills gap is making it tougher for the Philippines to defend its turf in an industry that has helped expand its middle class since the 1990s  outsourcing accounts for around 8% of the nations gross domestic product and is a major source of foreign exchange inflows. As AI-powered bots take away an increasing number of outsourcing jobs since the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise of English-speaking workers around the world is also diminishing the longstanding language advantage for natives of the former US colony.

Illustrative of the deterioration in the quality of education in the country, nine out of 10 Filipino children are unable to read a simple text with comprehension by age 10, according to World Bank data.

I think we were better English speakers before, Madrid said, urging the government to consider reverting to English as a mode of instruction in schools instead of the learners mother tongue.

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Job applicants in the Philippines are also falling short on basic information technology skills like programming and troubleshooting, which BPOs increasingly need, according to Madrid.

During the pandemic, the Philippines outsourcing industry added 255,000 jobs, representing growth thats at least 1% below the global expansion, he said. That suggests that the country may be losing market share to India as well as newcomers such as South Africa, Egypt, Poland, Colombia, Costa Rica.

Part of the problem is poor employability. Only one is hired for every 10 outsourcing job applicants, according to industry leaders.

The skills mismatch is becoming a more urgent issue as artificial intelligence threatens to disrupt industries worldwide. AI and similar technologies are projected to displace almost a quarter of the people in the Philippine outsourcing industry by 2030, according to the Asian Development Bank.

AIs impact on the industry will be felt in a few years, and BPO workers should start learning how to use new technology to make their jobs more efficient, Madrid said. There is time to prepare and upskill, but the time is shortening.

Despite these challenges, the industry group head still projects an increase of 6%-7% this year in full-time BPO employees from 1.57 million in 2022 while revenues are seen to grow 7%-8% to about $35 billion.

The outsourcing industry has mapped out a plan to create 1.1 million new jobs and become a $59 billion industry with 2.5 million employees by 2028. It seeks to increase its contribution to economic output to nearly 9%, as it targets to boost its market share in Europe.

Currently, prospective investors continue to pour in and existing ones remain keen on expanding their presence in the country. There is continuing significant demand for our industry here in the Philippines. It doesnt seem to wane despite all the headwinds, he said.

The group has partnered with the Philippines Commission on Higher Education on initiatives including a revamp of the IT education program to align with current trends and develop competencies in the sector.

There are some fundamental weaknesses in our educational system, Madrid said. Its an old problem but its just become much more urgent now.

(Updates with comment that demand for Philippine outsourcing workers remain robust in 14th paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A380 of German air carrier Lufthansa is seen at the airport in Frankfurt

ROME (Reuters) - A group of airlines operating in Italy on Monday criticised government plans to curb ticket prices at the height of the summer season, saying they could breach European Union free market rules.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's cabinet was set to approve later on Monday a decree law covering a range of subjects including support for strategic industries, taxi licences, a blue crab invasion as well as airline prices.

The draft decree, still subject to change, forbids companies from raising fares for Sicily or Sardinia beyond a level that is "200% higher" than the average price for such routes. Ticket prices to Italy's two main islands have soared in recent weeks.

The Italian Board of Airlines Representatives (IBAR) and Assaereo trade associations complained in a joint statement that the government never discussed the issue with them, saying it could have led to "less punitive solutions."

They also said the price controls "appear to be in conflict with the applicable sector regulations," which generally allow carriers operating in the EU "to choose the routes on which to operate and to freely set passenger and cargo fares."

Sicily and Sardinia, have poor connections to the mainland, leaving both residents and tourists little choice but to use air transport to reach them, even when prices are sky-high during peak seasons.

Companies including Lufthansa, EasyJet, American Airlines and Delta are members of the IBAR, the association's website shows.

The groups called on the government to reconsider its decision, warning that "any attempt to restrict the freedoms of the sector and the competition that characterises it" could negatively impact supply and ticket prices, as well as employment levels in the airline sector and related industries.

Measures in a decree law take effective immediately, but parliament has to ratify them within two months, otherwise they lapse. Parliament can also amend the contents of a decree during the ratification procedure.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Alvise Armellini)
Advanced Infusion Cares Nurse Specialists and In-Home Infusion Care Offerings Extended to Cover Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island

DALLAS, August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Infusion Care (AIC), a division of AIS Healthcare, today announced the expansion of its nurse specialists and in-home infusion care offerings to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. With its expansion to cover more of the New England market, AICs network of 180 nurses is now present in 40 states. AICs pharmacists and nursing team will offer a comprehensive suite of medications and services for patients with complex medical conditions like immune deficiency diseases.

By providing a team-based approach to intravenous and subcutaneous immunoglobulin (Ig) therapy, AIC delivers specialized treatment options to individuals living with immunodeficiencies and other complex conditions. For these patients, Ig therapy enables them to fight infections, stay healthy, and receive care in the comfort of their own homes. All patients in the expanded territory will have access to 24/7 nurse availability for education, care coordination, medication management, and more.

"Our growth into the New England market will allow AICs talented team of infusion nurse specialists to support even more patients," said Jud Hall, President at AIC. "Our team of nationally accredited home infusion specialists will help ensure each individuals specific clinical and personal needs are met, driving better outcomes for all of our patients."

AIS Healthcare is dually accredited by URAC and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), further setting it apart from other infusion services providers. AIC is also a member of the Immunoglobulin National Society and is regularly inspected by national and state boards of pharmacy.

In recent months, AIC announced the grand reopening of a newly designed pharmacy in Valdosta, Georgia. AIC continues to add cutting edge medications available to patients through its locations in Valdosta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Clinton, Mississippi; Panama City, Florida; and Dallas, Texas.

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Physicians interested in AIC care services should contact their AIC representatives to get started or visit us at www.aiscaregroup.com/our-divisions/infusion-care/.

About AIS Healthcare

Advancing quality. Improving lives.

As the leading provider of targeted drug delivery and infusion care solutions, AIS Healthcare is committed to doing more of what matters. From pharmacies that put patient safety first to comprehensive services that enhance the entire care experience, we go beyond the expected in everything we do.

Learn more at aiscaregroup.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807600191/en/

Contacts

Jud Hall

877.443.4006
Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation (NYSE:AP) shareholders will doubtless be very grateful to see the share price up 32% in the last quarter. But that can't change the reality that over the longer term (five years), the returns have been really quite dismal. Indeed, the share price is down 54% in the period. So we're hesitant to put much weight behind the short term increase. We'd err towards caution given the long term under-performance.

Since shareholders are down over the longer term, lets look at the underlying fundamentals over the that time and see if they've been consistent with returns.

See our latest analysis for Ampco-Pittsburgh

There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

Ampco-Pittsburgh became profitable within the last five years. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

The revenue decline of 2.2% isn't too bad. But if the market expected durable top line growth, then that could explain the share price weakness.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

We consider it positive that insiders have made significant purchases in the last year. Having said that, most people consider earnings and revenue growth trends to be a more meaningful guide to the business. Dive deeper into the earnings by checking this interactive graph of Ampco-Pittsburgh's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

A Different Perspective

Investors in Ampco-Pittsburgh had a tough year, with a total loss of 18%, against a market gain of about 8.2%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 9% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Ampco-Pittsburgh (including 2 which are a bit concerning) .

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If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ankyra Therapeutics, a pre-clinical biotechnology company developing targeted immune potentiating agents for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Robert V. Tighe, as chief scientific officer. He joined the team on July 10, 2023 and brings considerable immuno-oncology drug development experience to the company.

"Rob is an outstanding scientist who has over 20 years of drug development experience with a focus on immuno-oncology," said Dr. Howard L. Kaufman, president and chief executive officer of Ankyra. "I am delighted to be working with Rob again, especially at this important time in Ankyras history as we prepare to transition our first agent into the clinic". Kaufman added, "Robs track record with moving early-stage assets into the clinic makes him the right person for Ankyra at the right time."

Rob began his career as a research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weinberg at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has over 20 years of industry experience and has previously served as associate director of immunopharmacology at EMD Serono, vice-president of translational immunology and immunopharmacology at Compass Therapeutics, and most recently was vice-president of research at TCR2 Therapeutics. Mr. Tighe completed his undergraduate training at Salem State College and has attended the Harvard University Extension School, the International Management Program at Merck, KGaA, and has a certificate in executive leadership from Cornell University.

"I am absolutely delighted to become a part of Ankyra Therapeutics, especially at this pivotal stage in the companys journey," said Robert V. Tighe, the newly appointed chief scientific officer of Ankyra. "With great enthusiasm, I anticipate leveraging my broad experiences in the development of immunotherapies to help realize the full potential of Ankyras remarkable platform. Together, we aim to build a strong pipeline of tumor-anchored immunotherapies that hold tremendous promise for patients with cancer."

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About Ankyra Therapeutics

Ankyra Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that has developed a highly differentiated technology platform designed to expand the therapeutic window of cytokine drugs. By forming a stable depot in the tumor after local administration, Ankyras therapeutic aim is to provide prolonged immune activation and potent local and systemic immunity with reduced systemic toxicity. Ankyra was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.ankyratx.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807583023/en/

Contacts

For Investor Inquiries:

Howard L. Kaufman

President and CEO

hkaufman@ankyratx.com

For Media Inquiries:

Noah Oshry

Head of Business Operations

noshry@ankyratx.com
When it comes to stock buybacks, Apple (AAPL) and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) are on the same page.

For more than a decade, Apple has made good on its history-making buyback plans, spending more than $573 billion on share repurchases since 2012. And in its most recent quarter, Apple spent another $18 billion on buybacks despite a third straight quarter in a row of declining revenues.

It's clear that Apple's buybacks have benefited Berkshire's bottom line. Buffett himself has said as much, telegraphing that he very clearly believes in Apple's consistent buyback program.

"At Apple and Amex, repurchases increased Berkshires ownership a bit without any cost to us," Buffett wrote in Berkshire's annual shareholders letter this year. "The math isnt complicated: When the share count goes down, your interest in our many businesses goes up. Every small bit helps if repurchases are made at value-accretive prices. Just as surely, when a company overpays for repurchases, the continuing shareholders lose."

A staggering 46% of Buffett's portfolio is concentrated in Apple stock, which Buffett's Berkshire first bought in 2016. Famously, Apple just last month became the first company in history to cross the $3 trillion-dollar mark.

Buffett has long been an advocate of stock buybacks, even as the practice faces pushback from critics in Washington, D.C., including President Biden, who proposed an increased tax on them as recently as this year.

Buffett even penned a fervent defense of buybacks in his annual letter.

"When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue (characters that are not mutually exclusive)," he wrote.

In this Aug. 1, 2016, file photo, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett applauds at a presidential campaign rally in Omaha, Neb. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo, File)

Stock buybacks 'have helped make Buffett richer'

In the three months leading up to July 1, Apple repurchased $18.14 billion in its own stock, according to SEC filings. In the past nine months overall, Apple spent a whopping $56 billion on buybacks.

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Though that's an impressive number, it's still less than the $64 billion the company spent on share repurchases over the same period in 2022.

So how much have Apple's buybacks boosted the stock  and Warren Buffett's bottom line? After all, by spending on buybacks, Apple is spending less on other areas such as product development. (In the latest earnings report, Apple reported holding $28 billion in cash.)

"Investors commonly view stock buybacks as a benefit to Apple, and given Berkshires relatively large allocation to Apple, stock buybacks have helped make Buffett richer," VerityData senior analyst Ali Ragih told Yahoo Finance.

However, he added that "financial literature often views stock buybacks in a neutral action on a theoretical basis."

As buybacks have become an essential part of Apple's business model  and a necessary method of deploying capital  there's every reason to believe Apple's buyback train will continue full steam ahead, revenue woes or not.

In May, Apple said that it had authorized $90 billion in share repurchases, building on the 2022 announcement in which Apple also OK'd $90 billion in buybacks.

"On average, with buybacks we will see the stock price go up," said Michael Roberts, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "In the tech space, the largest players have a lot of cash, and a question to answer  how do we return that money to investors? Repurchases are an artifact of their operating business. They're generating so much money and don't have enough new investments to use it on."

Furthermore, Apple's competitors are increasingly upping their buyback game too.

"Apple routinely buys back the most stock of any company every quarter with amounts that are around $20 billion per quarter," Ragih said. "Google is gradually catching up and bought back $15.0B last quarter. Buybacks market-wide are swayed by the largest companies and Apple plays an important role in that."

Still, for all of Washington, D.C.'s pushback on share repurchases, it's important to remember something even bigger than Buffett.

Huge swaths of both Berkshire and Apple aren't just owned by billionaires and large institutional investors, they're both tickers that have massive followings among retail investors.

"Berkshire's an investor in Apple just like you or me," Roberts said. "They just own a lot more stock than you and I do. When Apple buys back shares, remember, we have to consent to sell them. ... And, after all, who owns Berkshire Hathaway? A lot of retail investors."

Allie Garfinkle is a Senior Tech Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @agarfinks and on LinkedIn.

Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks

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FILE PHOTO: Amin H. Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, speaks during a news conference in Dhahran

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's CEO Amin Nasser said on Monday that the company's supplies to customers remain adequate even with recent voluntary oil production cuts by the kingdom, adding that global demand remained resilient despite economic headwinds.

Saudi Arabia last week decided to extend a voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day for another month to include September, and said it could be extended beyond that or even deepened.

"We still have adequate supply to satisfy our customers," Nasser said on Monday.

Oil futures are now at their highest since mid-April after Saudi Arabia and Russia pledged to keep supplies down for another month to tighten global markets further. Brent was trading around $86 a barrel on Monday.

Aramco reported on Monday a near 38% drop in second-quarter net profit on the back of weaker oil prices and thinner refining and chemicals margins.

Despite the economic challenges, Aramco has seen positive signals that global demand remains resilient and that Chinese demand will continue to grow, Nasser told reporters on a media call.

"There is still a lot of mileage for China and the economy (to pick) up," he said, adding that the aviation sector was at 85% compared to pre-pandemic levels, indicating room for growth.

On the Durra shared offshore field with Kuwait, Nasser said plans were going ahead.

"Durra field is going as planned with the Kuwaitis, (with) no issue at this stage in terms of... the engineering and development," he said.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait claim exclusive joint rights to the field. Iran also claims a stake, and says a Saudi-Kuwaiti agreement to develop it that was signed last year is illegal.

Both countries renewed calls for Iran to negotiate on the demarcation of the eastern border of the Gulf's maritime "Divided Area" last week. They say they want to negotiate with Iran together.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Yousef Saba; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)
Contest addresses severe global skills shortage by engaging engineers of tomorrow with hydrogen-focused sustainability challenge

LONDON, August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, has opened entries for its highly anticipated AVEVA Process Simulation Academic Competition. The competition serves as a platform for engineering students in North America and Europe to demonstrate their process simulation skills and offers the chance to secure an internship at AVEVA or take home a cash prize of $3000.

The contest is open to students residing in the US, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Norway, and EU.

The annual AVEVA Process Simulation Academic Competition is an exceptional opportunity for chemical engineering students to enrich their process simulation skills using the latest technology.

Participants are invited to tackle real-world sustainability problems using AVEVA Process Simulation, the new paradigm in process engineering. Even students with no prior experience can dive into this easy-to-learn software to unlock their potential.

Mihaela Hahne, Sr Director Sales Development  Academia at AVEVA, said, "As an industrial software provider, AVEVA is committed to inspiring chemical engineers to help solve the world's sustainability challenges from the early stages of their careers. The 2023 AVEVA Academic Competition is designed to encourage students to develop professional skills and solve real-life engineering problems."

AVEVAs competition plays a significant role in developing a new generation of engineers, alongside achieving its goal of driving sustainable and inclusive industrial growth.

In 2021, the AVEVA Academic Competition attracted more than 100 entries. A total of 46 teams of four individuals each, and 32 individual students from 20 universities across North America entered the event that year. In the same year, 59 individual students and 53 teams of four entered the same contest from Europe.

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Hahne added, "We have witnessed some remarkable achievements in previous years. We believe that by partnering with the universities, we can help design and build a sustainable future together. Today's students will shape the future of our planet and tackle the challenges presented by a changing climate."

Lea Scharli, Simulation Support Engineer at AVEVA said, "The AVEVA Process Simulation Academic Competition is a great opportunity for students to work on real problems and gain insight into the possibilities of process simulation. Having participated in the previous edition of the competition, I was challenged to put my theoretical knowledge from university into practice  which has now led to me working at AVEVA as an engineer! Through this program, AVEVA supports students professionally and personally, and opens several avenues for progression. The potential is endless with AVEVA Process Simulation. Engineers and users can implement their own models, which enables us to work freely and solve problems creatively."

This years challenge concerns the production and transportation of hydrogen in a clean and sustainable manner. Students will use the same tool currently deployed by the biggest chemical companies. Experience using the same software as potential employers puts participating students ahead of their peers and enhances their professional profile.

AVEVA Process Simulation is cloud-enabled software used to design and optimize equipment, processes and plants. Groundbreaking ease-of-use and simple data connections allow engineering teams to evaluate more ideas, faster. Greenhouse gas metrics built directly into models help put sustainability at the heart of process engineering.

-ENDS-

About AVEVA

AVEVA is a global leader in industrial software, sparking ingenuity to drive responsible use of the worlds resources. The companys secure industrial cloud platform and applications enable businesses to harness the power of their information and improve collaboration with customers, suppliers, and partners.

Named as one of the worlds most innovative companies, AVEVA supports customers with open solutions and the expertise of more than 6,400 employees, 5,000 partners and 5,700 certified developers. The company, which has operations around the globe, is headquartered in Cambridge, UK. Learn more at www.aveva.com.

Copyright  2023 AVEVA Solutions Limited. All rights reserved. AVEVA Solutions Limited is owned by AVEVA Group. AVEVA, the AVEVA logos and AVEVA product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of AVEVA Group or its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and other countries. Other brands and product- names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807754255/en/

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As a homeowner, your property may very well be one of your greatest assets. But like anything else, houses need some care and maintenance to maintain their value. If youre trying to increase your property value so you can sell it for the highest possible price, you may need to do some renovations on it.

Check Out: 5 Expensive Renovations Homeowners Always Regret

Learn: How To Save $200 on Your Grocery Bill Every Month

Before planning any home renovations, however, its important to consider your budget. After all, you could be looking at spending thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on your project. Depending on your budget and goals, you may want to stick with one or two large renovations or several smaller updates.

If youre not sure which option is right for you, heres some advice from real estate agents about the best way to spend a limited amount of money on renovations and get the best return on your investment.

Home Renovations To Make When You Have $10,000 to $15,000

When you are looking to maximize the return on your investment, the most cost-effective improvement you can make is to paint the interior of the home a neutral color, said Yolanda Muckle, agent at Long and Foster Real Estate. I also advise my clients: If you have hardwood floors under old carpet, remove the carpet and refinish the floors. Additionally, once you paint, do not forget to update the light switch and electrical outlet covers.

Dont forget about curb appeal. Muckle advises power washing the exterior of your home and then painting it to spruce it up and make it more appealing to potential buyers.

Make sure to obtain two to three estimates from licensed contractors, Muckle said. Many of my clients are willing to spend $10,000 to $15,000 on these improvements to increase the sales price of their home.

Read More: How To Avoid Paying Taxes When You Sell Your House

Luis Carlos Perez from Side, who is also a licensed Realtor and founder at Center Real Estate, added, If a homeowner is looking to sell their home on a limited budget, focusing on small renovations can be more beneficial than undertaking large-scale projects.

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For instance, making minor yet impactful changes, such as applying a fresh coat of paint on the front door or exterior accents of the home, can significantly enhance the homes curb appeal. This can create a positive first impression for potential buyers without the need to paint the entire house.

Another small improvement could be upgrading the kitchen cabinetry and countertops  rather than replacing the entire kitchen. Or it could be sprucing up the front yard with some fresh bushes or plants that draw the eye and add some color.

Sebastian Jania, owner of Ontario Property Buyers, a real estate solutions and investment company, also weighed in.

The typical cost of these renovations vary widely based on the state that one is in and what exactly its going to take to make the renovations, Jania said, whether its simply painting cabinets for a kitchen or whether one has to completely strip the original kitchen and put a new one in. An example for my market is that, on average, a new kitchen will cost about $15,000, [a] new bathroom $7,000 to $10,000.

Landscaping, Jania added, can be as little as a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, and painting is typically around $5 per square foot. With all these renovations, it is also important to consider whether one is buying the materials for the contractor or whether one is even going to consider doing the work themselves.

Save Money Over Time With Smart Renovations

If you have a smaller budget and dont plan to sell right away, you can always make some even smaller upgrades that can pay off over time.

If you plan on staying in the home for five-plus years, then I would invest in energy efficiency, such as blowing insulation into the attic or getting new energy-efficient appliances, said Alex Caras, broker at Magellan Realty LLC. This might cost you more money  around $2,000 for insulation  and maybe an additional $2,000 on the appliances, but the energy savings you will experience over the five-plus years will offset much of those costs.

Renovations To Make When You Have a Larger Budget

Whether you choose to make larger, more expensive updates to your home or you opt for smaller, more affordable ones depends on both your budget and your goals. Think about whether you want to sell your home and thereby get the highest offer you can, or you want to update your home for personal reasons.

If you have a larger budget, you can focus on bigger renovations. But that doesnt mean you should neglect the little things.

Smaller updates will make a big impact if the home is really outdated, said Jamie Curtis, global real estate advisor at Street Sothebys International Realty. If the finishes are tolerable, then a homeowner will want to focus on one big project at a time, like remodeling the kitchen or master bathroom.

The cost of a major remodel can vary greatly, though.

Cost estimates will always be dependent on the market and square footage, Curtis added. The cost of materials and labor have surged in recent years, so naturally this has an impact on homeowners.

In a general sense, I would expect $20,000 plus for a full bathroom renovation and $50,000 plus for small kitchen renovations in Columbus, Ohio. In a market like L.A., homeowners should expect to pay $300 per square foot for any renovation.

Home Renovations With the Greatest Return on Investment

According to a recent report by Curbio, a leading pre-listing home improvement company, these are some of the top renovations to make if youre looking for a high return on investment:

Minor kitchen upgrades (e.g., repainting the cabinetry, installing new countertops or appliances, etc.): 377% ROI

Refinishing hardwood flooring: 348% ROI

Minor interior updates (e.g., updating the electrical wiring): 297% ROI

Replacing a roof: 288% ROI

Replacing carpets: 280% ROI

The renovation project with the highest ROI, according to the Curbio report, was a kitchen refresh. Unlike a full remodel, which has an expected average ROI of 220%, a kitchen refresh brings in around a 377% ROI. If, for example, a homeowner spends $15,000 on kitchen updates, the person could earn roughly $56,550 in profits.

Ultimately, its up to you which types of home renovations you focus on. But if youre working with a limited amount of money and want the highest returns, smaller-scale projects may provide the most bang for your buck.

By focusing on small-scale renovations, the homeowner can maximize their limited budget and achieve a noticeable impact on the overall presentation of the home, Perez said. These improvements are more cost effective than major renovations and can make the property more appealing to potential buyers, increasing the chances of a successful sale.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Best $10K You Can Spend on Home Renovations, According to Real Estate Agents
(Bloomberg) -- A beaten down micro-cap biotech company, Vistagen Therapeutics Inc., notched its best day ever, surging by as many as four digits after its experimental nasal spray for social anxiety disorder hit targets in a late-stage trial.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The drug developers stock soared a record 1,370% intraday  before paring gains to close up 677% at $13.05, the highest level in over a year. The unexpected success pushed the stocks market value to $104 million, a level it had been trading below for the better part of a year amid a broad market selloff in risky assets and a prior trial setback.

Vistagen said the study of fasedienol nasal spray met its main goal, showing improvements on patients reported distress in a public speaking challenge while a secondary goal was also met with no severe or serious adverse events reported.

The new result is supportive of the companys hypothesis that Covid negatively impacted the first trial, and increases our confidence that fasedienol can be successful in the next study, Jason McCarthy, a Maxim Group analyst wrote in a note.

McCarthy, the lone analyst tracked by Bloomberg that covers the stock, upgraded his rating to a buy from hold, and set a price target of $30.

Vistagen had four analysts covering it with a buy rating as of last July, just before the stock plunged after a prior late-stage trial of the drug failed to reach its main goal using the same scale measuring patient distress, dubbed SUDS. Shares had been setting record lows this year.

Fasedienol demonstrated a rapid and very clinically meaningful reduction in SUDS score, indicating a single administration has the potential to reduce anxiety symptoms during an anxiety-provoking situation, Michael Liebowitz, a founder of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a member of Vistagens advisory board, said in a statement.

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An additional late-stage study is planned. That will include multiple administrations of the spray over several weeks on what the company said will be a patient-tailored, as-needed basis.

US-listed shares of Australian peer Bionomics Ltd. surged as much as 69% before paring gains to close down 13%. Bionomics is also developing a social anxiety drug.

--With assistance from Jeremy R. Cooke.

(Updates with analyst comments in fourth and fifth paragraph and closing prices throughout.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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Never underestimate the power of grandchildren  especially when it comes to lifestyle and financial decisions. Recent data shows that many baby boomers are relocating further away from home than they used to so they can be closer to their grandbabies. Unfortunately, this means some are paying more money on new homes than they ordinarily would.

Real Estate Transfer: Baby Boomers Secure Generational Wealth by Transferring Property to Children

Find: 3 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Retirement

The median distance Americans moved in 2022 was 50 miles, according to the National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. Thats a significant increase from the median distance of 15 miles between 2018 and 2021.

One-quarter of buyers traveled more than 470 miles to find their new home in 2022, the NAR said. Younger boomers born between 1955 and 1964 moved the longest distance at a median of 90 miles. Older boomers born from 1946 to 1954 moved a median of 50 miles. Millennials tended to stay the closest to previous homes, moving only 15 miles.

A big reason boomers are moving further away is to be closer to their kids and grandkids. Moving for friends and family is the top motivation for relocating, at 25% of those tracked by the NAR, Yahoo Finance reported. That was followed by retirement, at 12%.

Theyre chasing that grandbaby multiple states away, just to be down the street, NAR deputy chief economist Jessica Lautz told Yahoo Finance.

A separate report from Realtor.com found that during the 2023 second quarter, 60.3% of house shoppers searched for listings outside of their metro areas. That represented an increase of 0.7% from the previous quarter and 4.1% from the previous year.

Explore: Prepare for Retirement by Living on Less and Taking the 80% Challenge

Theres nothing new about older Americans and retirees moving to be closer to family and grandchildren. The difference now is they are traveling much longer distances to do so because their offspring are moving further away from their hometowns.

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With many younger Americans settling in expensive urban areas, their boomer parents might also find themselves moving into pricier communities than in the past. This could be a bad financial move if you stretch your housing budget too thin  especially now, with home prices still near historic highs. However, it might make sense if you can split certain costs with other family members, such as elder care or child care.

One thing boomers should do before moving is consider how the cost of living will impact their lifestyles. According to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), you might need to tweak your spending habits if you move someplace more expensive to be closer to grandkids.

Do the math on what youve been spending on travel to visit your kids when they werent close, and if youre saving on airfare or car mileage, consider investing that money for retirement, the TIAA advised in a blog.

You should also consider whether you will want a big home for hosting family events. If thats the case, you might have to spend more on a home than you would with a traditional post-retirement downsize.

For most house hunters, price is still the major factor in where they move, whether they want to be near family or are relocating for some other reason.

Housing affordability isnt likely to improve anytime soon, Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said in a press release. So, its not surprising to see that Americans are on the move and increasingly searching for homes in more affordable areas of the country where they can stretch their housing dollars further.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Boomers Are Moving Further From Home Than Ever To Be Close to Their Grandbabies  Is It a Good Financial Move?
France's Lorraine mining basin could yield high-purity hydrogen at a depth of only 3,000 metres

A British oil exploration specialist says it has developed a way to locate underground hydrogen deposits, in an attempt to capitalise on rising excitement over the potential of naturally occurring clean fuel.

Leeds-based Getech has spent decades helping fossil fuel companies analyse geological data for crude oil and methane reserves. Now it has adapted its software techniques to hunt the so-called white hydrogen stored in the Earths crust.

Scientists posited more than 20 years ago that rocks deep under the earths surface might be harbouring the gas, but that getting to it could involve drilling down several kilometres.

However, a deposit found in France this year could yield high-purity hydrogen at a depth of only 3,000 metres.

The US Geological Survey said in April that there is probably enough accessible hydrogen to meet total global demand for hundreds of years.

Getech says its software can identify sweet spots for the gas using models of the earths subsurface and artificial intelligence.

Chairman Richard Bennett said: Natural hydrogen is anticipated to be a major future energy resource and we expect the exploration industry will be keen to utilise our expertise, especially given our reputation for successfully locating other types of energy sources and our ability to provide data simply and compatibility.

Hydrogen is seen as an important alternative to burning methane for industrial processes, since it can burn at high temperatures, combining with oxygen and with water as the only byproduct.

It is also a candidate for replacing petrol in cars and trucks, heating homes and powering aeroplanes. But today green hydrogen is made either by splitting water molecules using renewable electricity, which is expensive, and blue hydrogen by splitting methane molecules and storing the carbon dioxide, which is carbon-intensive.

The US Energy Department is drawing up plans to help kick start the white hydrogen industry, deeming the potential astronomical.

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Viacheslav Zgonnik, a Ukrainian geologist, has estimated that the gas price could fall to $1 a kilo compared to the $3-$4 it costs today, making it far more economical as a replacement for oil and gas.

Another prospector, Gold Hydrogen, has found accumulations with 80pc hydrogen at 500 metres in the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia.

As well as burning well, hydrogen is attractive because it can be stored, while storing electric power is tougher and less efficient than using it immediately.

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.
GREENVILLE, SC / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Cameron Ashley Building Products (Cameron Ashley) is pleased to announce the opening of its first distribution center in Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The new location will stock drywall, acoustical ceilings, fiberglass insulation, residential and commercial spray foam, as well as all the associated accessories for fast delivery to customers' job sites and locations. The expansion is a continuation of Cameron Ashley's strategy to expand their footprint throughout the country.

Cameron Ashley Salt Lake City Distribution Center

"Our Salt Lake City customers were previously being serviced by our Las Vegas distribution center," said Regional Sales Vice President Rob Rutkowski. "This new location allows us to improve delivery efficiencies by providing same day and next day delivery in addition to having inventory available for will call. We received lots of feedback from customers to open a location here, and we're thrilled to fulfill this request."

"We've got a great knowledgeable team ready to serve customers in the Salt Lake City metro area and beyond," said Distribution Center Manager Chad Stocking. "With our best-in-class digital toolset, along with our customer-focused delivery options, I am confident that we will help our customers Play to Win!"

The Salt Lake City Distribution Center is located at 570 West 1700 South, Building 2 Suite 1000, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115 and can be reached at (385) 295-9696.

About Cameron Ashley Building Products, Inc.

Cameron Ashley is a wholesale distributor of roofing, insulation, drywall, siding, and other specialty building products. They deliver an industry leading portfolio of marquee brands to customers in the lumber and building materials industry. Cameron Ashley operates a physical network of more than 50 distribution centers stocking large quantities of building materials locally throughout the United States. They feature a variety of customer-focused delivery options under the same day or next day FAST delivery banner. Their relationship-based approach rewards customers with their PLUS Points loyalty program, free merchandising, as well as purchasing and show incentives.

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Customers can order 24/7 online through either our customer portal or mobile phone app. Online they will find a complete set of digital tools and resources including product availability, pricing, previous and pending orders, invoices, along with secure payment options, product specifications, warranty information, and more!

To shop online or learn more, please visit cameronashleybp.com.

Contact Information

Camille Hammond

Marketing Communications Manager

camillehammond@cameronashleybp.com

864-281-3435

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Cameron Ashley Salt Lake City Distribution Center Chad Stocking

SOURCE: Cameron Ashley Building Products

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https://www.accesswire.com/772612/Cameron-Ashley-Building-Products-Expands-to-Salt-Lake-City




(Bloomberg) -- Campbell Soup Co. agreed to buy Sovos Brands Inc. in a deal valued at $2.7 billion, expanding the soupmakers presence in frozen meals and giving it a foothold in the premium pasta sauce market.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The acquisition of Sovos, best known for the Raos pasta sauce brand, widens Campbells presence in key food categories. Raos accounted for 69% of adjusted net sales last year for Sovos, which went public in 2021. The transaction is expected to close by the end of December.

Its Campbells biggest deal since 2017 when it acquired snackmaker Snyders Lance for about $6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sovos soared as much as 26% following the news. Campbell Soup shares fell 1.5% at 10:29 a.m. in New York trading.

Adding Sovos reflects several of the most relevant consumer trends today, Mark Clouse, chief executive officer of Campbell, said on a call following the deal announcement: more premium restaurant quality experiences and quick and delicious meal solutions. Campbells premium business in its meals and beverage portfolio will jump above 25% with the new brands, up from about 10% currently, Clouse said.

After stocking up during the pandemic, Americans have pulled back spending on packaged food over the past year. Rising prices have helped companies maintain sales growth, but that formula is showing signs of weakening as shoppers increasingly hunt for bargains.

Campbell will pay $23 a share, according to a statement Monday, representing a premium of about 28% over Sovos Aug. 4 closing price. The acquisition is expected to support Campbells long-term financial growth plan with annual cost savings of about $50 million over the next two years. The termination fee would be $145 million minus expenses.

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Campbells long-term rating was downgraded at S&P Global Ratings after the announcement, reflecting an expected increase in debt leverage and lower free operating cash flow over the next couple of years. Campbell plans to finance the deal through the issuance of new debt.

S&PGR expects Campbells interest expense to increase meaningfully with the debt as well as its plans to boost investment in capacity. The higher interest expense will leave less cash flow for discretionary debt reduction, the credit-ratings company wrote.

Rapid Growth

The sale punctuates Sovos rapid growth over the past two years. The company, which also makes Noosa yogurt, was valued at about $1.3 billion following its trading debut in September 2021.

Yogurt is not core to our strategy, Clouse said on the call. But its performing well and Campbell will continue to run the brand as we evaluate strategic alternatives, he said.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Campbell Soups plan to acquire Sovo Brands for $2.7 billion (19.8x without synergies) makes sense, mainly due to the Prego-Raos overlap, though Noosa is hard to rationalize and may be the first candidate for divestment. The brand has 2% of the yogurt category, generating $216 million in the 52 weeks ended July 16, according to Circana. At a 1.12x price-to-sales (median BI North America packaged-food peer group), it could be sold for $242 million.

- Diana Rosero-Pena, consumer staples team

Sovos is also the parent of the Michael Angelos brand of frozen Italian meals, which include lasagna and pasta. While these are new categories for Campbell, the company said it will use its existing Pepperidge Farms frozen portfolio to create synergies.

--With assistance from Matt Townsend and Liana Baker.

(Adds downgrade in seventh and eighth paragraphs.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Viewing insider transactions for Carnavale Resources Limited's (ASX:CAV ) over the last year, we see that insiders were net buyers. This means that a larger number of shares were purchased by insiders in relation to shares sold.

While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares.

Check out our latest analysis for Carnavale Resources

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Carnavale Resources

The insider Phillip Coulson made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for AU$354k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.002 each. Although we like to see insider buying, we note that this large purchase was at significantly below the recent price of AU$0.0065. While it does suggest insiders consider the stock undervalued at lower prices, this transaction doesn't tell us much about what they think of current prices.

Phillip Coulson bought 221.37m shares over the last 12 months at an average price of AU$0.0025. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Does Carnavale Resources Boast High Insider Ownership?

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Carnavale Resources insiders own 32% of the company, worth about AU$6.9m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Carnavale Resources Tell Us?

It is good to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Carnavale Resources insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. To help with this, we've discovered 6 warning signs (4 shouldn't be ignored!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Carnavale Resources.

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If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
DREX will be the official name of Brazil's new central bank digital currency (CBDC), also known as the digital real, according to a Monday announcement from the Central Bank of Brazil.

The name was revealed during a live broadcast on the Bank's YouTube channel hosted by Fabio Araujo, coordinator of the digital real, and Aristides Cavalcante, deputy head of the Central Bank's technology and information department.

DREX combines several elements of innovation: the D for digital, R for real, E for electronic, and X for transaction, taking a step further in this family of Pix that we created and was a success, Araujo said.

Pix is a Brazilian platform that offers instant, free electronic fund transfers using QR codes and easy-to-remember IDs like phone numbers and emails addresses instead of account numbers.

The Central Bank also released the new visual branding for DREX today.

Alluding to a transaction, the two arrows that lean into the 'D' relate to the evolution of the real to the digital environment, reinforcing the attribute of agility, and the use of colors, in a transition from blue to light green, conveys the message of 'transaction completed,' the entity explained.

The digital real project will rely on authorized entities to mint the CBDC, which will be recorded with a distributed ledger technology (similar to blockchain). From there, DREX will begin to support operations such as buying and selling public treasury bondstransactions that will take place quickly on the surface and be supported by Web3 infrastructure for burning, creating, and registering tokens.

Citizens will thus be able to use the tokenized real, which will be a representation of the digital real, which will be handled only by authorized financial institutions.

The project coordinator explained that the DREX will have a practical impact on the lives of everyday Brazilians, especially in increasing the financial services that can be offered to the population.

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With the digital real, people can make a loan more easily or have more accessible investment options or easier insurance," Araujo explained. "That is, we want to bring these financial products into people's hands and increase banking in Brazil."

Practical applications of DREX

Portal do Bitcoin detailed three use cases that the Central Bank is testing in the digital real pilot, which will conclude next March.

The president of Caixa Economica Federal (Brrazils largest public bank), Maria Rita Serrano, said that government benefits such as Bolsa Familia could be paid in the future through digital real.

It's conceivable to pay social and labor benefits with tokenized currency in the future, said Serrano. According to her, the bank intends to leverage the digital real to advance financial digitalization and social inclusion.

Caixa is in 99% of Brazilian municipalities and has 155 million customers. It's a great breeding ground to test solutions, added the president.

Earlier this month, Senator Carlos Portinho (PL) said that the digital real could also open doors for municipalities and other state entities to maintain cryptocurrency walletssomething not currently provided for by law.

The digital real will be a reality and will underpin the cryptocurrency market. It will allow municipalities, states, and public powers to have their digital wallets, which will gain scale and attract investors, the senator said.

In the politician's view, blockchain technology itself will change transparency and oversight of public power.

It will allow us to track the real destination of the money," he explained. "For example, if an amendment that we allocate for the construction of a hospital was effectively used for that or was lost within a health fund."

Brazil's Central Bank could freeze accounts and change balances

In early July, the Central Bank published the digital real pilot project on its GitHub profile. This allowed the public to audit of the system code, and developers discovered the existence of a series of problematic functions within the smart contract.

According tot he code, one of the capabilities that the Central Bank has is the ability to freeze users' accounts, decrease target balances, confiscate, and mint new units of the digital currency.

According to Brazilian legislation, the judiciary, in the proper conduct of judicial proceedings, has the prerogative to freeze or seize amounts held in the SFN (National Financial System)," the Bank told Portal do Bitcoin after being questioned about the entity's capabilities. "These functionalities, therefore, currently exist in the SFN and must be reproduced on the digital real platform to ensure its compatibility with current legislation."

Editor's note: This article was translated from Portuguese with permission from Portal do Bitcoin.
Ceridian HCM Holding Inc.

Donn to also assume role of Managing Director for the region, effective October 1, 2023

MELBOURNE, Australia, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceridian (NYSE: CDAY; TSX: CDAY), a global leader in human capital management (HCM) technology, today announced the appointment of Brian Donn to Head of Revenue, Asia-Pacific Japan (APJ) effective immediately, and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific & Japan (APJ), effective October 1, 2023. In his expanded role, Donn will continue to strengthen relationships with customers, prospective customers, and partners, while accelerating business growth and strategy in the region. Donn will continue reporting into Sam Alkharrat, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer at Ceridian.



Donn is a seasoned leader with more than 15 years of experience leading enterprise software businesses across APJ, including roles at Oracle, Verint Systems, KANA, and Sword Group. He joined Ceridian in January 2022 as Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), overseeing a team of 650 employees. Donn has been integral to Ceridians growth and success in the ANZ market, responsible for managing the successful post-acquisition integration of Ascender into Ceridian, and driving a world class experience for Ceridian employees and customers.

Stephen Moore, who currently serves as APJs Managing Director, will move into an Executive Advisory role starting October 1, 2023 to his retirement in March 2024. Since joining Ceridian in 2019, Moore has been instrumental in leading Ceridians APJ operations, including driving market momentum for Dayforce, Ceridians market leading HCM platform. Under Moores direction, hundreds of APJ customers have made Dayforce their platform of choice.

Building on the strong foundation that Stephen has created in APJ, Brian will focus his efforts on driving quantifiable business value for organisations and solidifying Dayforce as a market leader in the region, said Sam Alkharrat, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer, Ceridian. We have experienced tremendous momentum in Australia and New Zealand since Brian joined Ceridian, and he has demonstrated that he is a highly effective, trusted leader who is well-equipped to guide our next stage of growth in the critical APJ region.

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In APJ and beyond, our customers increasingly rely on Ceridian to deliver transformational business outcomes, fueled by rapidly changing workforce dynamics and a challenging compliance landscape, said Brian Donn, Head of Revenue, APJ, at Ceridian. Working with our talented APJ team, Im excited to bring more organisations into the Ceridian community and help them elevate their business operations with our industry-leading cloud platform.

Todays announcement follows the opening of four new Ceridian office spaces across APJ: Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Shanghai. Thoughtfully designed with employee wellness in mind, these new state-of-the-art facilities provide the opportunity for enhanced collaboration, innovation, and teamwork. Catering to teams from across the business  including customer success, sales, finance, product and technology, HR, and implementation  these office openings represent a major milestone in Ceridians growth strategy across the region.

About Ceridian

Ceridian. Makes Work Life Better.

Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. (Ceridian) is a global human capital management software company. Dayforce, our flagship cloud HCM platform, provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality. Our platform is used to optimize management of the entire employee lifecycle, including attracting, engaging, paying, deploying, and developing people. Ceridian has solutions for organizations of all sizes. Visit Ceridian.com or follow us @Ceridian.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release should be read in conjunction with the risks detailed in the Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information, Forward-Looking Statement, Risk Factors and other sections of Ceridians Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Media Contact:

Leslie Whitelaw

+1 437-224-6993

Leslie.Whitelaw@Ceridian.com




(Bloomberg) -- Chinas sovereign bonds are an obvious trade as the central bank will ease monetary policy for at least another year to support a slowing economy, according to Invesco Ltd.

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The Peoples Bank of China will need to maintain loose monetary policy as a recovery of the nations over-leveraged property sector will be painful and take time, said Freddy Wong, head of Asia Pacific fixed income. The yields on longer-maturity bonds may decline by another 10 basis to 20 basis points, he said.

China is rebooting the economy, the monetary policy is more on the easy side and thats where the attractiveness will come, Wong said in an interview in Hong Kong last week. Theres also little currency risk as Beijing wants to maintain stability, he said.

Global funds are increasingly turning positive on Chinese debt after a record exodus last year, with the month of June marking a second consecutive month of inflows. Invesco joins Pacific Investment Management Co. and JPMorgan Asset Management in favoring Chinese debt as stuttering growth prompts rate cuts by the PBOC, with economists forecasting that more easing may come as soon as this month.

Chinese bonds have rallied since the start of the year as a slew of weaker-than-expected economic data raised expectations of more stimulus measures. The yields on the 15- and 20-year government bonds are down about 20 basis points this year, and both tumbled to the lowest since 2002 in late July.

When you lack growth, and you are slowly stimulating, allowing an interest-rate environment to keep rates lower for longer, this is why the China trade has been very obvious, Wong said, without giving details on his allocation.

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Invesco, which manages $1.5 trillion of assets, became more positive on the government debt in late April on signs that officials were prioritizing sustainable growth quality improvement instead of the growth quantity, the firm said in e-mailed comments Monday. We believe sell-sides forecast on Chinese economic growth was too optimistic at that time. As such, we turned more bullish on CNY rates.

(Adds Invesco comments in sixth paragraph on when it turned bullish)

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(Bloomberg) -- Chinas health-care stocks slumped as sentiment took a hit after authorities widened an anti-graft crackdown on the sector.

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The CSI 300 Health Care Index declined as much as 3.4% on Monday to underperform all the other sectors on the onshore benchmark gauge. The biggest losers included Huadong Medicine Co. and Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co.

Investors have been on guard since the nations top graft buster said last month that authorities would conduct a year-long nationwide crackdown to root out corruption in the pharmaceutical sector. As of July 26, at least 155 officials at hospitals nationwide were being probed for allegedly violating laws and regulations, more than double 2022s total tally, according to a local media report, which didnt provide details of the investigations.

The decline in pharmaceutical shares was mainly due to the crackdown, Topsperity Securities analysts including Chen Tielin wrote in a note. The campaign looks to be deepening with more short-term uncertainties on the horizon, they said.

Five of the 10 biggest decliners on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index as of 2:04 p.m. in Hong Kong were linked to the Chinese pharmaceutical industry. China Traditional Chinese Medicine Holdings Co. and Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc. plunged at least 12% each in Hong Kong while Betta Pharmaceuticals Co. slid almost 14% on the mainland.

The pharma crackdown is specifically targeting corruption and unfair business practices, said Manish Bhargava, fund manager at Straits Investment Holdings in Singapore. It is possible that it could lead to increased uncertainty and volatility in the short term.

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--With assistance from Abhishek Vishnoi and Mengchen Lu.

(Updates with details of report in third paragraph and fund manager comment in final paragraph)

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(Bloomberg) -- China last week unleashed some of its strongest criticism against Russia since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Yet any suggestion that Xi Jinping is shifting his view on the war amounts to wishful thinking.

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The rare admonition took place on Friday over an incident involving Chinese citizens  including a popular video blogger  who were denied entry from Kazakhstan into Russia at a border checkpoint. Video footage widely circulated on Chinese social media platforms over the weekend showed Russian border officials going through suitcases, with one of the travelers saying he felt like he was being treated as a criminal.

Russias brutal and excessive law-enforcement activities in this incident have seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizens, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow said in a post on the social media platform WeChat.

Yet while the language was unusually harsh, it hardly signals a broader shift from Beijing. Since Russias invasion, China has repeatedly sought to create some space with Moscow on issues such as the use of nuclear weapons and attacks on civilians, even as Xi consistently backs Putins reasons for going to war  not least because Beijing sees the US and its allies strengthening ties with Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the nations are good partners in a phone call Monday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, according to a statement from the ministry in Beijing, which made no mention of the border incident. China would take an independent stance on Ukraine, Wang added.

The border incident shows the world that relations between China and Russia are more layered and nuanced than understood by many in the West, according to Henry Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization research group based in Beijing.

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China needs to maintain good relations with Russia, he said. It doesnt mean theyre in favor of everything Russia does.

Xi, who signed up to a no limits friendship with Putin shortly before his invasion, has sought to portray China as a neutral broker on Ukraine, releasing a 12-point blueprint for bringing peace that included calls to respect sovereignty, facilitate grain exports and halt all hostilities. While the roadmap has been widely panned by the US and its allies, it has bought Xi credibility among the so-called Global South and won China a seat at Ukraine talks hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend.

Unpredictability

China sent a delegation led by veteran diplomat Li Hui to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to join more than 40 countries including the US and European nations  but not Russia. While the discussions brought little in the way of concrete steps to stop the war or reverse Russias territorial gains, they showed Xis success in countering US efforts to isolate Beijing due to its relationship with Russia.

Still, China has several reasons to be irked with Putin, including his move to end a deal that allowed grain exports through the Black Sea, leading to food supply problems that also impact China. And thats only part of the problem, according to Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

The main issue remains the unpredictability of the long-term nature of the conflict, he said. The war destabilizes the world, and this is bad from Beijings perspective as much as they might like the distracting effect it has toward the Wests focus on China.

China has also made some economic overtures to Ukraine, although not to a degree that comes anywhere close to its trade ties with Russia.

Last month, Chinas deputy commerce minister met with Ukraines deputy economy minister in Beijing, pledging to import more products from Ukraine and develop mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation with the country, according to a Chinese readout from the meeting. Chinas exports to Ukraine totaled nearly $233 million in June, down from a high of $1.2 billion from January last year.

By contrast, Chinas exports to Russia reached a new historical monthly high of 69 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) in June. Its crude imports from Russia rose 8.2% month-on-month to a record 10.50 million tons in June, according to customs data.

Military Exercises

China and Russia are also deepening military cooperation.

Over the weekend, both countries sent 11 navy patrol ships near Alaska, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the seventh bilateral military exercise between the two nuclear-armed nations this year. It also set a new milestone in cooperation, marking the highest number of joint military exercises in the past two decades between the neighbors, according to data compiled by the US National Defense University and Bloomberg News.

Moscow and Beijing have tried to put a lid on the slow-boil friction between the two powers in order to focus on areas where their interests converge, said Theresa Fallon, director of the Brussels-based Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies.

At the same time, Xi isnt afraid to hit back at Russia  particularly if its actions could pose a threat to his domestic standing or make him look weak. The border incident showed that many social-media users in China remain skeptical that Russia is worth all the grief Beijing is getting from the US and its allies.

A hashtag on Chinas response to the incident saw nearly 50 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, at one point ranking among the top ten most searched topics. Videos posted by social media accounts run by party-backed outlets such as Beijing Youth Daily primarily focused on the mistreatment of the travelers, echoing parts of the embassy statement that such behavior isnt in line with China and Russias current friendly situation and the trend of increasingly close exchanges between people.

Online Outrage

Some of the most upvoted comments on Weibo questioned whether the travelers had failed to give a bribe, while others cautioned against having deep diplomatic relations with Moscow. It goes without saying that one cannot have a deep friendship with Russia, said Weibo user Wall-E_22, in a post that received almost 1,000 likes.

Russia is looking into the matter to avoid similar issues in the future, Tass reported Saturday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. The incident wont harm relations between Russia and China, the state news wire said, adding that Western media is using the issue to try and undermine ties between the countries.

While the relationship with Russia is too important for China to throw Vladimir Putin under the bus, Xi must also show his people that he will stand up for their interests, said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

The strongly worded statement is not a signal to the Russian authorities themselves, but rather a reaction and signal to Chinese domestic online public to say that Xi Jinpings government and MOFA is vigorous in protecting the rights of Chinese regardless of who the violators are, Gabuev said, referring to Chinas Foreign Ministry. Be it enemies like the West or friends like Russia.

--With assistance from Kari Lindberg, Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Philip Glamann.

(Updates with analyst comment.)

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The News

Beijing is restricting local economists from discussing the countrys economic woes despite all signs pointing to rocky waters ahead.

Researchers at universities and think tanks and brokerage analysts told the Financial Times that they are being pressured to present economic news positively in order to increase public confidence. This coincides with earlier reporting from Reuters detailing how Chinese firms have been ordered not to discuss risks in offshore listing documents or face losing approval for IPOs.

Weve curated reporting and analysis on Chinas efforts to censor negative trends about its slowing economy.

Insights
(Bloomberg) -- A Chinese maker of long-range electric vehicle batteries  including one capable of going 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on a charge  plans to go public as soon as 2025 as it banks on automakers embracing next-generation cells in the race to overcome range anxiety.

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Beijing WeLion New Energy Technology Co., which supplies the long-range semi-solid state cell to Chinese EV upstart Nio Inc., is targeting a 20-fold surge in revenue to 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) by 2025 to fuel its aspirations, founder Li Hong said in a recent interview.

The company, better known as WeLion, was valued at 15.7 billion yuan in its most recent funding round, said Li, who also holds the title of chief scientist.

Solid-state batteries are a potential game changer for the EV industry because they enable high-voltage, high-capacity cathodes that provide a substantial boost to battery capacity and performance.

Read More: The Next-Generation Battery Tech Vying to Supercharge EVs

While no one has succeeded yet in commercializing solid-state batteries, WeLions semi-solid state cell is being used in Nios new ES6 sport utility vehicle unveiled in May, making it one of few next-generation battery makers in the world to start mass production.

WeLions battery for Nio has a 150 kilowatt-hour pack, and the 1,000-kilometer range compares favorably with the Lucid Air Dream Edition R (840 kilometers) and Tesla Inc.s Model S (640 kilometers). The cell has an energy density of 360 watt-hours per kilogram, Li said. Thats higher than the estimated 300 watt-hours per kilogram of Teslas 4680 battery, according to Shinyoung Securities in Seoul.

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WeLion isnt the first company to successfully deliver commercialized semi-solid state batteries, but its 360 watt-hours per kilogram reached the highest energy density among current commercialized EV battery cells, said Jiayan Shi, an analyst at BloombergNEF. Nio has a standard size for battery packs, but WeLions cell managed to put more energy into the same volume, and that it is a success.

The technology is attracting interest from a wide array of automakers, including Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co., Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., as well as Chinese consumer-electronics maker Xiaomi Corp., Li said.

To meet its ambitious sales goal, WeLion is building four more battery production facilities in China to boost its annual capacity to 30 gigawatt-hours by 2025, from 6 GWh now. In addition to going into EVs, the batteries can be used for energy storage systems and drones.

Li, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also co-founded low-cost sodium-battery maker HiNa Battery Technology Co. He says a hybrid semi-solid state battery that adds liquid to solid electrolyte is a practical way to improve battery performance and realize commercialization.

When we increase energy density, we have a serious concern on safety, but a hybrid one can get a balanced performance, he said.

Read More: Electric Vehicle Battery Makers Test a Future Without Lithium

Its unlikely WeLions battery can replace most lithium-ion batteries in the near future, given the high cost of manufacturing solid-state cells, said James Lee, an analyst at KB Securities in Seoul.

A key is whether customers would be willing to pay for the high price for EVs with solid-state batteries, just because of the long range, Lee said. Companies like WeLion will have to target luxury cars only. Its not easy for them to lower prices.

Even Li concedes that the company likely cant erode the market share of lithium-ion battery giants like Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., which specializes in low-cost iron-based batteries for cheaper EVs. WeLion will probably have less than 1% market share by 2025, he said.

--With assistance from Chunying Zhang and Ali Izadi-Najafabadi.

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When you see that almost half of the companies in the Medical Equipment industry in Malaysia have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") above 1.9x, Comfort Gloves Berhad (KLSE:COMFORT) looks to be giving off some buy signals with its 0.4x P/S ratio. However, the P/S might be low for a reason and it requires further investigation to determine if it's justified.

View our latest analysis for Comfort Gloves Berhad

How Has Comfort Gloves Berhad Performed Recently?

As an illustration, revenue has deteriorated at Comfort Gloves Berhad over the last year, which is not ideal at all. Perhaps the market believes the recent revenue performance isn't good enough to keep up the industry, causing the P/S ratio to suffer. Those who are bullish on Comfort Gloves Berhad will be hoping that this isn't the case so that they can pick up the stock at a lower valuation.

We don't have analyst forecasts, but you can see how recent trends are setting up the company for the future by checking out our free report on Comfort Gloves Berhad's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Do Revenue Forecasts Match The Low P/S Ratio?

The only time you'd be truly comfortable seeing a P/S as low as Comfort Gloves Berhad's is when the company's growth is on track to lag the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 60% decrease to the company's top line. The last three years don't look nice either as the company has shrunk revenue by 4.4% in aggregate. So unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the company has not done a great job of growing revenue over that time.

In contrast to the company, the rest of the industry is expected to grow by 26% over the next year, which really puts the company's recent medium-term revenue decline into perspective.

With this in mind, we understand why Comfort Gloves Berhad's P/S is lower than most of its industry peers. However, we think shrinking revenues are unlikely to lead to a stable P/S over the longer term, which could set up shareholders for future disappointment. There's potential for the P/S to fall to even lower levels if the company doesn't improve its top-line growth.

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The Key Takeaway

Using the price-to-sales ratio alone to determine if you should sell your stock isn't sensible, however it can be a practical guide to the company's future prospects.

As we suspected, our examination of Comfort Gloves Berhad revealed its shrinking revenue over the medium-term is contributing to its low P/S, given the industry is set to grow. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in revenue isn't great enough to justify a higher P/S ratio. If recent medium-term revenue trends continue, it's hard to see the share price moving strongly in either direction in the near future under these circumstances.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Comfort Gloves Berhad that you should be aware of.

It's important to make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across. So if growing profitability aligns with your idea of a great company, take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a low P/E).

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.
It might seem bad, but the worst that can happen when you buy a stock (without leverage) is that its share price goes to zero. But in contrast you can make much more than 100% if the company does well. For example, the Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) share price has soared 126% in the last three years. Most would be happy with that. It's also good to see the share price up 16% over the last quarter. But this move may well have been assisted by the reasonably buoyant market (up 9.1% in 90 days).

Since the long term performance has been good but there's been a recent pullback of 6.9%, let's check if the fundamentals match the share price.

View our latest analysis for Copa Holdings

To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During three years of share price growth, Copa Holdings achieved compound earnings per share growth of 28% per year. We note that the 31% yearly (average) share price gain isn't too far from the EPS growth rate. Coincidence? Probably not. That suggests that the market sentiment around the company hasn't changed much over that time. Rather, the share price has approximately tracked EPS growth.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

We know that Copa Holdings has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Copa Holdings, it has a TSR of 130% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

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A Different Perspective

We're pleased to report that Copa Holdings shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 53% over one year. And that does include the dividend. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 7% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Copa Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Copa Holdings , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of companies that have proven they can grow earnings.

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.
Operated approximately 210,000 owned and colocated bitcoin miners

Produced 1,022 self-mined bitcoin and 493 bitcoin for colocation customers

AUSTIN, Texas, August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Core Scientific, Inc. (OTC: CORZQ) ("Core Scientific" or "the Company"), a leader in high-performance blockchain computing data centers and software solutions, today announced production and operations updates for July 2023.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807568718/en/

Core Scientific is one of the largest producers of bitcoin in North America (Photo: Core Scientific)

Data Centers

As of month-end, the Company operated approximately 210,000 bitcoin miners for both colocation and self-mining, representing a total potential hash rate of 22.2 EH/s at its data center facilities in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas.

Self-Mining

Core Scientifics self-mining operations produced 1,022 bitcoin in July, including 22.9 bitcoin in transaction fees. As of month end, the Company operated approximately 145,000 of its own bitcoin miners, accounting for approximately 69% of its total number of miners and representing a total potential self-mining hash rate of 15.2 EH/s.

Colocation Services

In addition to its self-mining fleet, Core Scientific provided data center colocation services, technology and operating support for approximately 64,000 customer-owned bitcoin miners, representing approximately 31% of the bitcoin miners operating in the Companys data centers as of July 31. Customer-owned bitcoin miners produced approximately 493 bitcoin in July.

Grid Support

The Company powered down its data center operations on several occasions due to seasonal high temperatures. Curtailments in July totaled 14,484 megawatt hours. Core Scientific works with utility companies and the communities in which it operates to enhance electrical grid stability.

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ABOUT CORE SCIENTIFIC

Core Scientific (OTC: CORZQ) is one of the largest blockchain computing data center providers and miners of digital assets in North America. Core Scientific has operated blockchain computing data centers in North America since 2017, using its facilities and intellectual property portfolio for colocated digital asset mining and self-mining. Core Scientific operates data centers in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas. Core Scientifics proprietary Minder fleet management software combines the Companys colocation expertise with data analytics to deliver maximum uptime, alerting, monitoring and management of all miners in the Companys network. To learn more, visit http://www.corescientific.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

This press release includes "forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of 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," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target" or other 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, those related to the Companys ability to scale and grow its business, meet its expected operating plan, source clean and renewable energy, the advantages and expected growth of the Company, future estimates of revenue, net income, adjusted EBITDA, total debt, free cash flow, liquidity and future financing availability, future estimates of computing capacity and operating capacity, future demand for colocation capacity, future estimate of hash rate (including mix of self-mining and colocation) and operating gigawatts, future projects in construction or negotiation and future expectations of operation location, orders for miners and critical infrastructure, future estimates of self-mining capacity, the public float of the Companys shares, future infrastructure additions and their operational capacity, and operating capacity and site features of the Companys operations and planned operations. These statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of the Companys management. These forward-looking statements are not intended to serve, and must not be relied on by any investor, as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of the Company. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the Companys ability to obtain bankruptcy court approval with respect to motions in its Chapter 11 cases, successfully enter into and implement a restructuring plan, emerge from Chapter 11 and achieve significant cash flows from operations; the effects of the Chapter 11 cases on the Company and on the interests of various constituents, bankruptcy court rulings in the Chapter 11 cases and the outcome of the Chapter 11 cases in general, the length of time the Company will operate under the Chapter 11 cases, risks associated with any third-party motions in the Chapter 11 cases, the potential adverse effects of the Chapter 11 cases on the Companys liquidity or results of operations and increased legal and other professional costs necessary to execute the Companys reorganization; satisfaction of any conditions to which the Companys debtor-in-possession financing is subject and the risk that these conditions may not be satisfied for various reasons, including for reasons outside of the Companys control; the consequences of the acceleration of the Companys debt obligations; the trading price and volatility of the Companys common stock as well as other risk factors set forth in the Companys reports filed with the U.S. Securities & 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. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

Please follow us on:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/corescientific/

https://twitter.com/core_scientific

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807568718/en/

Contacts

Investors:

ir@corescientific.com

Media:

press@corescientific.com
DAYTONA BEACH  A pair of beachside buildings along the Halifax River that used to be home to Volusia County's oldest synagogue were torn down this past week.

The former Temple Israel building and adjoining preschool/Hebrew school at 1400 and 1402 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach were demolished last week.

Many longtime locals considered the former synagogue a beachside landmark.

"That building was a part of our community's history," said Ormond Beach resident Robin Kennedy. She was not a member of Temple Israel but for years lived down the street from it.

Here's why it was torn down.

Buildings were vacant for a long time

Debris from the demolition-in-progress of the old Temple Israel building at 1402 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach can be seen on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. The synagogue vacated the building in 2016 to move to Ormond Beach's mainland. Built in the early 1980s, the building was torn down this past week by the riverfront property's new owners. They have yet to announce what they intend to build in its place.

Dick Jaffe, a board member and past-president of Temple Israel, said the synagogue, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, vacated the beachside buildings in 2016 to move to the mainland in Ormond Beach to be closer to where most of its congregation now live.

"A hundred years ago, when Temple Israel was founded, the majority of the area's Jewish population lived on beachside," Jaffe said. "That's no longer the case."

Jaffe said the congregation sold its beachside property in 2016. The buildings sat unused up until they were demolished. "That's a long time to sit vacant on the beach," he said.

Property records identify the buyer seven years ago as a New York-based entity doing business as Temple Estates LLC. It paid $975,000.

Temple Israel is now at 403 N. Nova Road, Ormond Beach, where it shares a building with Congregation B'Nai Torah. From 2016 until last year, it shared space with another synagogue up the street, Temple Beth-El.

The old buildings were not salvageable

This is an undated photo of the old Temple Israel building at 1402 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach. The synagogue vacated the building in 2016 to move to Ormond Beach's mainland. Built in the early 1980s, the building was torn down in early August 2023 by the riverfront property's new owners. They have yet to announce what they intend to build in its place.

Temple Israel's former beachside property was sold once more late last year. The new owners are an out-of-state group, who made their $2.45 million purchase under the name "Spanish Oaks Peninsula LLC."

Realtor Cynthia Kaszirer of Smith & Associates in Tampa represented the property's latest buyers. She declined to identify them, saying they value their privacy.

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Property records show a Denver, Colorado address for the buyers that's also home to a wealth management company called Plante Moran. Kaszirer said she is not familiar with that company and does not know the nature of her clients' affiliation with it.

Kaszirer said her clients looked into restoring the aging Temple Israel buildings, but found they were beyond repair. "It (the former synagogue building) was full of asbestos and the roof was collapsing and the little school next door was also dilapidated," she said.

What will be built in its place?

Kaszirer said the new owners of the property "have not yet decided" what they will build. "It definitely will not be commercial. It's going to be something interesting," she said. "They want to do something to beautify the area. It will be some sort of technology education center."

Realtor P.J. Warner of Ponce Inlet Homes represented Temple Estates LLC in its sale of the former Temple Israel property. The transaction closed Nov. 21, 2022.

A faded sign showing the address of the old Temple Israel building at 1402 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach can be seen on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. The synagogue vacated the building in 2016 to move to Ormond Beach's mainland. Built in the early 1980s, the building was torn down this past week by the riverfront property's new owners. They have yet to announce what they intend to build in its place.

The new owners also bought the property next door

Kaszirer represented the new owners in their $2.6 million purchase of the riverfront home directly to the north of the temple property. That purchase closed in September 2022.

The home at 1350 S. Peninsula Drive used to be the residence of the late Dr. Edwin Davis, the orthopedic surgeon who in 1974 founded Florida Health Care Plans. The Daytona Beach-based health maintenance organization, now owned by Florida Blue, is the oldest and largest in the Volusia-Flagler area. Davis, who did not belong to the synagogue, died in 2017 at age 92.

The buyers bought the former Davis residence under the name Idyllic Pad LLC. Property records show the same Denver address for the buyers as the one used to acquire the former Temple Israel property.

Kaszirer said her clients intend to keep the former Davis home, but did not say what their plans are for it.

Temple Israel was Volusia-Flagler's first synagogue

Temple Israel was founded as the Daytona Hebrew Association on Oct. 24, 1924. It adopted its current name the following year.

Jaffe said Temple Israel was the Volusia-Flagler area's first synagogue. Today, the two-county area is home to six, four of which are in Ormond Beach. The others are in DeLand and Palm Coast.

Temple Israel and Temple Beth-El, when they shared the same building, held separate worship services. Temple Israel now holds joint services with Congregation B'Nai Torah.

"When they were formed 25 years ago, many if not most of (Congregation B'Nai Torah's) members were former Temple Israel members," said Jaffe. "With the two synagogues getting back together, it's a reunification."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona beachside landmark bites the dust. Here's why.
MUMBAI, India, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

(From left) Subbu Viswanathan (Co-founder and CEO) and Kuljit Chadha (Co-founder and COO)

Enterprise skilling platform aims to expand its thriving footprint in Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East while breaking into the US market

Disprz, the pioneering global leader in the enterprise learning and skilling industry, has achieved a remarkable milestone with a significant US$30 million secured in its Series C funding round. The funding was led by Lumos Capital and 360 ONE Asset (IIFL), alongside support from existing investors Kae Capital, KOIS, and Dallas Venture Capital. With this funding, Disprz is now poised to ignite a world of possibilities through unmatched global expansion and cutting-edge product innovation, including the integration of Generative AI across the learning and skilling cycle.

The success of Disprz represents a turning point in enterprise skilling, propelling the company to the forefront of the industry. With a strong focus on unlocking potential on a global scale, Disprz aims to revolutionise the future of learning and skill development in emerging markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, while breaking into the US market. The vast Southeast Asian region, encompassing countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and The Philippines, is expected to benefit immensely from Disprz's unique business and data driven people development approach, driving businesses to achieve tangible outcomes through skill-based talent management for knowledge workers and learning-driven performance improvement for frontline workers.

Since its establishment in 2015, Disprz has witnessed remarkable growth and has garnered a staggering 2.8 million users. Renowned brands such as ICICI Bank, Amazon, IndianOil, and Swiggy have all entrusted Disprz to create transformative people experiences that drive business advancement. In Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and The Philippines, companies such as PETRONAS, AIA, Axiata, RHB Bank, PNM, Yoma Bank, Sinarmas, Starbucks and Malayan Insurance have benefited from Disprz's bespoke solutions.

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Guiding the ship of innovation and progress is Mr. Subbu Viswanathan, Disprz's visionary Co-Founder and CEO. He emphasises that Disprz is not just shaping the learning and skilling space but also creating its future: "By integrating AI, effectively linking learning with performance management and adopting a skills-focused approach, Disprz's platform can tackle any capability-building or upskilling challenge for any type of workforce. With the world ready to be disrupted by Generative AI and organisations increasingly realising that upskilling and reskilling are not the mandate of just HR but every function, Disprz is ready to shape the industry, and steer towards becoming India's first centaur (profitable $100 million company) in this category in the next 4-5 years."

Disprz is well-prepared to embark on a global growth journey with SEA as a crucial growth engine utilising the newly secured funds. The company plans to expand its dream product team, hiring data scientists, skilling scientists and software engineers to shape the future of people advancement and people intelligence, including investments in Generative AI capabilities. Additionally, Disprz aims to strengthen its presence in existing markets by establishing larger, localised go-to-market teams in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, thereby marrying the state-of-the-art in this space with local cultural context.

Executing on the company's vision would need partnerships with the broader community, as Disprz seeks strategic alliances with key players in the learning and people-tech ecosystem. To enhance its already robust suite of products, Disprz plans to partner with Human Capital Management players, people reward platforms, learning content providers, assessment companies, and global HR consulting firms.

Mr. Kuljit Chadha, Disprz Co-Founder & COO, highlights that the company serves over 2.8 million users across nearly 350 organisations globally: "With the latest funding, Disprz's focus expands to some of the world's fastest-growing markets, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the US. The company is strategically positioned to capitalise on the increasing demand for innovative and scalable learning and skilling solutions."

Industry leaders have also recognised Disprz's unique position in the corporate learning segment. Mr. Rohan Wadhwa, Lumos Capital Group Managing Director, notes that Disprz offers a rare combination of breadth and depth in its product offerings, catering to diverse customer needs with the highest level of product innovation. Mr. Karan Ahuja, 360 ONE Asset (IIFL) Fund Manager, praises Disprz's ability to enable organisations to scale and deliver customised learning solutions, ultimately linking them to business outcomes.

Disprz's remarkable growth trajectory and exemplary leadership have garnered worldwide attention. The successful Series C funding stands as a testament to the company's unwavering vision for success amidst challenging funding conditions.

For more information about Disprz's transformative journey and remarkable accomplishments, visit their website at https://disprz.ai/.

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Elon Musk-backed biotechnology company Neuralink announced the raise of $280 million in Series D funding, led by Peter Thiels Founders Fund, in a short tweet on Monday.

Were happy to announce our $280M Series D round led by @foundersfund. Were extremely excited about this next chapter at Neuralink. If youd like to help make the first human experience incredible and work on engineering challenges to restore vision and mobility, come join!  Neuralink (@neuralink) August 7, 2023

Excited to support Neuralinks next chapter of helping human patients in need, Scott Nolan, partner at Founders Fund, subsequently posted to Twitter. The team has been working for seven years to make this possible, pulling off technical breakthroughs that feel like science fiction.

Co-founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, Fremont, Calif.-based Neuralink develops implantable brain-computer interfaces or BCIs designed to enable direct communication between the brain and external devices like computers.

Founders Fund has invested in Other Musk projects, including The Boring Company and SpaceX.

While Neuralink did not say what the funds would be used for, the company has said it aims to help people with paralysis or other neurological conditions regain independence by controlling computers and mobile devices using their brain activity. Neuralinks career board has several current openings for engineers, safety, operations, and IT specialists.

Our surgical team enhances their skills by training on realistic, patient-specific head and brain models, ensuring surgeries are tailored to each individual for safety and success  pic.twitter.com/1HvXbeG3Fm  Neuralink (@neuralink) August 1, 2023

Others working to bring neuro implants into the mainstream include researchers at Northwell Healths Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, which last week announced that a man living with quadriplegia after a car accident in 2020 could move his limbs and feel touch feedback thanks to a double neural bypass.

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Neuralink has been the subject of some controversy around the testing of its technology on animals. In May, U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff and Earl Blumenauer co-authored a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture demanding an investigation into the panel responsible for overseeing animal testing at Neuralink, citing a conflict of interest.

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) appears to be composed almost exclusively of company employees with significant financial stakes in the very animal studies they are required to evaluate under the Animal Welfare Act, the letter said.

Until recently, Neuralink tested its technology on smaller animals, including monkeys and pigs, demonstrated in April 2021 by having a monkey play pong. In May this year, Neuralink received FDA approval to start human clinical trials.

Neuralink has not yet responded to Decrypts request for comment.

-
Elon Musk. Chesnot via Getty Images

Elon Musk said he couldn't confirm a date for his fight with Mark Zuckerberg just yet.

Musk said he was getting an MRI of his neck and back, and might even require surgery before the fight.

It looks as if the cage match isn't going to happen anytime soon if Musk's got to go under the knife.

Elon Musk may be set on live-streaming his fight with Mark Zuckerberg, but he wants to get his neck and upper back checked before fixing a date.

"Exact date is still in flux. I'm getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow," Musk wrote on Sunday night, responding to a tweet about Zuckerberg waiting for his confirmation to set a date for fight night.

"May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week," Musk continued.

Musk's tweet about his back problems came after he announced Sunday that the fight, whenever it happens, would be streamed live on X, which was formerly known as Twitter. The billionaire added that the fight's proceeds would "go to charity for veterans."

Musk, injuries aside, has been training for his fight with Zuckerberg. In July, Canadian UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre said in a tweet that he had a "great training session" with Musk, the podcaster Lex Fridman, and the martial artist John Danaher.

And on Friday, Musk did a livestream where he lifted some weights.

"This is me curling a 45 so there you go," Musk said to the camera as he lifted a dumbbell.

Musk's video appeared to be a test for Twitter's live video feature. He later said in a tweet he was doing a quick workout while testing his products.

"Product testing & working out kills two birds with one stone! I swing one of the 45 lb weights for a kettle bell workout," Musk said, later adding in another tweet that he builds muscle fast.

Musk mentioned his neck and back issues before when he posted about a sumo match he once participated in. In March 2022, the billionaire posted a photo of himself fighting a sumo wrestler, but he did not specify when this sumo match took place.

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"Managed to throw him, but it cost me smashing my c5-c6 disc & 8 years of mega back pain! Finally fixed with c5-c6 disc fusion," Musk said on Twitter, describing the back injuries he sustained during the match.

In any case, it looks as if Zuckerberg  who said he had offered Musk a date for the fight  won't be surprised by this new delay.

"I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn't confirmed. Not holding my breath," Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Meta's Threads.

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
FILE PHOTO: Pedestrian walks past a logo of Credit Suisse outside its office building in Hong Kong

By Selena Li

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Around 80% of Hong Kong-based investment banking staff at Credit Suisse will be made redundant starting this week, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as part of the bank's integration with UBS Group.

Only about 20 bankers will be spared the cuts that will impact Credit Suisse's 100-strong investment banking team in the territory, the people said, declining to be identified as discussions on the matter were private.

Hong Kong accounts for Credit Suisse's biggest share of investment bankers in Asia.

Credit Suisse and UBS declined to comment.

UBS closed a Swiss government-backed deal to buy its troubled peer in June after a series of soured deals sparked an exodus of clients. It has since said it would reduce risk in Credit Suisse's investment banking operation.

UBS laid off employees from Credit Suisse's investment bank in New York last week, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the situation. UBS has also decided to close Credit Suisse's office in Houston, the source said.

Market participants expect UBS to provide more detail this month on its integration plans. Its targets and indications from insiders and analysts point to cuts amounting to about a third of the combined group's global workforce.

Reuters reported in June that UBS was looking to retain over 100 Credit Suisse investment bankers across Asia to shore up talent in markets where the latter has a stronger presence.

Besides Hong Kong, other regional markets in which Credit Suisse has investment bankers include China, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and India. Its total investment banking headcount in the region was not immediately known.

As part of the integration, most Credit Suisse investment banking teams in Hong Kong will able to keep just one or two staff, though certain sector coverage teams will be removed entirely, the two people said.

Those retained will mostly work on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), they said.

Christian Deiss, head of Credit Suisse's Asia-Pacific M&A business since 2021, is leading the regional investment banking transition in collaboration with UBS, the people said. Deiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Selena Li; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Christopher Cushing)
(Bloomberg) -- Chinas decision to scrap tariffs on Australian barley is set to shake up global trade, with the return of the supplier heating up competition with other exporters for a chunk of the worlds biggest import market.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Australia once supplied as much as 70% of Chinas barley imports before Beijing slapped hefty duties on the countrys shipments in 2020, cutting off a market worth more than A$1 billion ($660 million) a year. China shifted to buy more of the grain from France, Canada and Argentina in the past three years, while Australia sought alternative markets, such as Saudi Arabia.

Currently, the price of barley in China is determined by the cost of barley in France plus freight charges, said Stefan Meyer, senior cash grains broker at StoneX Group in Sydney. With Australia being significantly closer to China, this could potentially reshape the market dynamics, he said by email.

China last week scrapped tariffs on Australian barley in a further sign of improving bilateral relations. The country imposed duties more than three years ago, at a time when ties were spiraling downward.

Top importer China and No. 2 buyer Saudi Arabia together account for about 45% of international trade, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Saudi has traditionally bought from Russia, but Australia has been vying for market share after it was shut out of China. With Chinas tariffs lifting, Australia may no longer have to compete with Russia in the Saudi market.

China Caution

Still, Australian barley exporters will remain cautious of rushing back into China. Many have found new markets, and increased shipments to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Japan, Vietnam, Kuwait and Mexico.

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I think most farmers have a realistic understanding that future disruptions in trade to China are possible, said Tracy Lefroy, a barley grower in Western Australia. I would like to think there will be ongoing efforts to diversify export destinations and thereby reduce our dependency on any single market.

Chinas tariffs meant many Australian growers replaced barley for larger wheat plantings, Lefroy said. With the reopening of the China market, barley growers might adjust their production plans to meet the potential increase in demand.

Malt barley is one of our most profitable crops on a per hectare basis, and with the re-opening of the China market, we are keen to capitalise on this opportunity, Lefroy said.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
EDF France

France has become Europes top energy exporter amid a surge in British demand after the countrys state-backed nuclear power operator finally fixed cracks in its ageing fleet of reactors.

The countrys total net exports stood at 17.6 TWh in the first six months of 2023, according to data analysis company Enappsys. This is roughly enough energy to power 5 million homes for a year.

Enappsys said most of this flowed to Italy and Britain, which were the two largest importers of energy in Europe over the same period.

Jean-Paul Harreman, director of EnAppSys, said: The cause for the increase of exports in France versus the previous year was an increased availability of the countrys nuclear assets.

Clement Bouilloux, Enappsys French territory manager, said the figures also suggest the UK, which imports around half its gas needs, remained one of the most vulnerable countries to another spike in prices.

Gas is also used to fuel around a third of the UKs electricity generation, so rising gas prices usually lead to rising electricity prices. Mr Bouilloux said: The UK is pretty dependent on outside gas and its quite expensive to produce electricity with gas power plants.

It comes after Frances EDF was forced to shut down several of its nuclear power plants last year after discovering cracks and corrosion in some pipes used to cool reactor cores. The company expects nuclear output to be 20pc higher this year.

Mr Harreman said: Although availability is still 10-15pc lower than normal, the increase in capacity of between 5 and 10 GW versus last year helped to flip the French energy balance to export again.

High voltage cables buried under the seabed that connect the electricity systems of neighbouring countries enable excess power to be easily traded between countries. Exports and imports are largely driven by price.

Figures published by the department for Energy Security and Net Zero showed net electricity imports rose 44pc in the first three months of 2023 compared with the same period a year earlier as French electricity prices fell.

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Enappsys said a surge in hydropower production in France due to heavy rain also boosted exports. Mr Harreman said: As cheaper generation became available to the French market, it started exporting to the UK again. The price differential ensured that cheaper power flowed from France to Britain.

The figures also showed Germany became a net energy importer in the first half of 2023 as the countrys last three nuclear power plants were finally shut down.

Germany first began using nuclear power in 1961. The country pushed through its first plan to phase out nuclear power in the early 2000s, and this was sped up after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011. However, the decision has exacerbated the countrys energy crisis as it continues to wean itself off Russian energy.

Enappsys said: The closure of nuclear power plants was the main reason why the energy balance flipped to imports. These closures meant that Germany had to source additional power from other countries in periods of low renewable generation.

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Fortune Business Insights

Key Companies covered in Geospatial Imaging Market are Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd (AAS) (Japan), Cyient Limited (India), ESRI, Inc. (U.S.), Fugro N.V. (Netherlands), Hexagon AB (Sweden), NV5 Global, Inc. (U.S.), Pasco Corporation (Japan), Surdex Corporation (U.S.), Trimble, Inc. (U.S.), Woolpert Inc. (U.S.) and more players profiled.

Pune, India, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global geospatial imaging market size was valued at USD 1.73 billion in 2022 and is expected to be worth USD 2.02 billion in 2023. The market is projected to reach USD 5.84 billion by 2030, recording a CAGR of 16.4% during the forecast period.

Geospatial imaging captures, analyzes, and interprets a wide range of complex imagery and data pieces of the Earths surface and its features. It uses advanced technologies, such as aerial photography, mapping systems, LiDAR, and remote sensing, to analyze this data. The growing need for 3D maps for road networks and cities is predicted to fuel the geospatial imaging market growth.

Fortune Business Insights displays this information in a report titled, "Geospatial Imaging Market, 2023-2030."

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List of Key Players Profiled in the Geospatial Imaging Market Report:

Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd (AAS) (Japan)

Cyient Limited (India)

ESRI, Inc. (U.S.)

Fugro N.V. (Netherlands)

Hexagon AB (Sweden)

NV5 Global, Inc. (U.S.)

Pasco Corporation (Japan)

Surdex Corporation (U.S.)

Trimble, Inc. (U.S.)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast CAGR 16.4% 2030 Value Projection USD 5.84 Billion Market Size in 2023 USD 2.02 Billion Historical Data 2019-2021 No. of Pages 191 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Company Profiles, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors and Latest Trends Segments Covered By Platform Analysis

By Application Analysis

By End-User Industry Analysis Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

South America

Middle East and Africa Geospatial Imaging Market Growth Drivers Rising Demand for 3D Maps of Cities and Road Networks will Catalyze Market Growth Development of Autonomous Vehicles to Boost Geospatial Imaging Market Share

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/geospatial-imaging-market-107834

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Segments

Rapid Infrastructure Development and Maintenance to Augment Demand for Vehicle Mounted Devices

By platform, the market is categorized into drones, vehicle mounted device, mobile, and backpack. The vehicle mounted device segment is expected to dominate the geospatial imaging market share during the forecast period as these devices are used to enable the rapid development and maintenance of infrastructure.

Growing Need for Imaging Solutions from Construction Sector to Boost Product Use in Corridor Mapping Applications

Based on application, the market is segmented into corridor mapping, engineering, environment, exploration, ADAS and others. The corridor mapping segment dominated the market and is expected to register significant growth during the forecast period as the construction sector is increasingly demanding robust imaging solutions.

Infrastructure Industry to be a Major Product End-User with Rising Need for Surveying and Mapping from AEC Sector

By end-user industry, the market is divided into infrastructure, transportation & logistics, real estate, energy & utilities, and others. The infrastructure segment has captured a dominant position in the market as there is a high demand for surveying and mapping services from the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry.

With respect to region, the market covers North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World.

COVID-19 Impact:

COVID-19 Positively Influenced Market Due to Rising Use of Remote Sensing and Monitoring Technologies

The COVID-19 pandemic positively impacted the market growth as there was a major demand for remote sensing and monitoring technologies in different industries such as urban planning, public health, and disaster management. Geospatial imaging technologies were crucial in analyzing the spread of COVID-19 and assessing the impact of the outbreak on the healthcare systems. They were also used to track the movement of people in crowded areas to ensure that social distancing norms were adhered to. These factors favored the market progress during the pandemic period.

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Report Coverage:

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the industry and highlights major areas such as optimization of the operating services and R&D capabilities. It also provides key insights into the market share, regional analysis, trends, competitive landscape of various companies profiled in the report, porters five forces analysis. The report also covers top industry developments. In addition to the above-mentioned factors, it sheds light on several factors that have contributed to the market growth in recent years.

Drivers and Restraints:

Increasing Demand for 3D Mapping of Cities and Road Networks to Fuel Market Growth

The significance of geospatial data has increased tremendously in recent years due to factors such as large-scale urbanization and rollout of advanced infrastructure development projects. This data will be used by end-users for land management, effective planning, and infrastructure monitoring activities. Using 3D maps of cities can help individuals visualize their surroundings and easily identify the landmarks, understand spatial relationships between different factors, and navigate through complex road networks. These factors are expected to augment the usage of geospatial imaging solutions.

However, rising concerns regarding data security and privacy as well as high data storage needs might impede the market growth.

Regional Insights:

North America to Dominate Global Market Due to Presence of Leading Companies

North America is expected to dominate the global market as the region has a vast presence of leading geospatial imaging solution developers such as Trimble Inc., Fugro N.V., ESRI Inc., NV5 Global, Inc., and many others.

Europe held the second-largest share in the market as the adoption of geospatial technologies increased tremendously for environmental control and asset management.

Competitive Landscape:

Leading Market Players to Focus on Technological Advancements, Emerging Markets, and Drone Imaging Solutions

The market is highly competitive due to the presence of leading companies such as Fugro N.V., Trimble, Inc., NV5 Global, Inc., ESRI Inc., Hexagon AB, Cyient Limited, Woolpert Inc., and others. These firms are increasing their focus on technological innovations, emerging markets, and drone imaging solutions to solidify their market presence.

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Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Market Trends

Key Insights Key Industry Developments - Key Contracts & Agreements, Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships Latest Technological Advancements Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis Quantitative Insights - Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Geospatial Imaging Market

Global Geospatial Imaging Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 5.1 Key Findings / Definition 5.2. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Platform 5.2.1. Drones 5.2.2. Vehicle Mounted Device 5.2.3. Mobile 5.2.4. Backpack 5.3. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Application 5.3.1. Corridor Mapping 5.3.2. Engineering 5.3.3. Environment 5.3.4. Exploration 5.3.5. ADAS 5.3.6. Others 5.4. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By End-Use Industry 5.4.1. Infrastructure 5.4.2. Transportation & Logistics 5.4.3. Real Estate 5.4.4. Energy & Utilities 5.4.5. Others 5.5. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Region 5.5.1. North America 5.5.2. Europe 5.5.3. Asia Pacific 5.5.4. Rest of World

North America Geospatial Imaging Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Platform Drones Vehicle Mounted Device Mobile Backpack Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast - By Application Corridor Mapping Engineering Environment Exploration ADAS Others



TOC Continued...!

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Key Industry Development:

June 2023 - Axim Geospatial, LLC, a subsidiary of NV5 Global Inc., was given a prime contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) under the GEOINT Enterprise Operations Service and Solutions Program with Industry, Core Mission Operations (GEO-SPI B). GEO-SPI B is a seven-year, multi-award deal worth around USD 900 million, aimed at offering robust geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to NGA's Analysis and Source Directorates.

Read Related Insights:

Geospatial Analytics Market Size to Reach USD 147.58 billion by 2028, Exhibiting a CAGR of 12.8%

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(Bloomberg) -- German industrial production fell for a second month in June, further holding back Europes biggest economy after it barely exited a recession earlier this year.

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Output declined 1.5% from May, led by cars and construction, according to the statistics office in Wiesbaden. The median prediction in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a drop of 0.5%. The index for output showed the lowest level since December.

German factories are enduring extended weakness amid poor demand from China, worker shortages, tighter monetary policy and the lingering fallout from last years energy crisis.

Thats weighing on the economy as a whole, which is anticipated by the International Monetary Fund to suffer the only contraction of the Group of Seven this year. Germany stagnated during the second quarter after a winter recession.

A turnaround is not yet in sight, Ralph Wiechers, chief economist of the VDMA, the countrys leading engineering industry lobby, said last week in a report that showed a large drop in manufacturing orders in June from a year earlier.

Germanys production decline was mirrored by lower industrial output in France and Spain during the month. Of the four biggest euro zone economies, only Italy enjoyed an increase, and that was primarily due to vehicle production.

What Bloomberg Economics Says...

The risk of the German economy slipping back into recession is getting higher.

Martin Ademmer. For full report, click here

For officials at the European Central Bank, the report will represent more evidence of deterioration in the euro-zone economy that they already observed at their latest interest-rate decision last month.

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Policymakers havent signaled whether they intend to deliver more tightening or to pause at the forthcoming meeting in September.

Theres little evidence that Germanys industrial downturn is over. While factory orders surged in June by the most in three years, that was simply completing a rebound after an even bigger drop in March.

Prospects for German factories have stayed bleak amid continuing bad news from China. Economic activity there lost more steam in July as manufacturing contracted again, according to the countrys official purchasing managers index.

While recent company outlooks have been mixed, some reveal ongoing struggles. On Thursday for example, Infineon Technologies AG shares plunged after its fourth-quarter margin outlook missed estimates and the German chipmaker said costs had increased.

German government officials are bracing voters for the countrys economic challenges to last for years. Their answer for now is to ramp up spending.

This coming Wednesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his cabinet will approve a 20 billion ($22 billion) top-up to a 200 billion fund for climate protection and investment in semiconductor production, according to people familiar with the plan.

--With assistance from Joel Rinneby and Kristian Siedenburg.

(Updates with Bloomberg Economics after sixth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's federal network regulator has rejected a request by postal service operator Deutsche Post to raise the price of a postage stamp to cover rising costs, the agency said on Monday.

"We recognise the challenging environment in the letter and parcel business, but according to the data presented, letter prices are sufficient to cover unit costs," said Klaus Mueller, president of the Bundesnetzagentur.

In May, Deutsche Post had applied to the regulator to lift a price cap currently in place until the end of 2024, with the goal of raising its postage stamp prices next year.

Deutsche Post called the decision "wrong", saying the inability to raise prices would massively slow its efforts to reach climate-neutrality.

"The decision exacerbates the cost pressure in the letter mail sector," board member and head of the Post & Paket unit Nikola Hagleitner said in a statement. "Investments in a sustainable universal postal service are hardly possible under these conditions."

The regulator's decision comes after German consumer prices rose by 6.5% on the year in July, according to preliminary data.

Deutsche Post said the cost of a stamp in Germany - 0.85 euros ($0.9331) for a standard letter - was below the European average despite relatively high salaries. It argued that forecasts from 2021 on which current pricing is based were no longer accurate.

"Deutsche Post was unable to prove that reduced mail volumes led to cost increases per letter item - the average unit costs are even slightly below the 2021 forecast," the regulator said in a statement.

($1 = 0.9109 euros)

(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Writing by Friederike Heine; Editing by Rachel More and Sonali Paul)
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Dublin, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Circuit Monitoring Market Forecast to 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global circuit monitoring market is on a growth trajectory, estimated to expand from USD 659 million in 2023 to USD 829 million by 2028, registering a CAGR of 4.7% during the forecast period. Key drivers such as significant investments, stringent carbon footprint reduction standards in data centers, and the rising number of data centers are propelling the demand for circuit monitoring solutions.

Market Segmentation & Growth

Modular Circuit Monitoring Leading Growth: Among different types of circuit monitoring solutions, the modular circuit monitoring segment is experiencing the fastest growth. Its benefits, including accuracy, easy installation, and connectivity, are driving its adoption in the market. Commercial Segment Emerging as Second Largest End-user: In terms of end-users, the commercial segment, encompassing banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, government, and defense, is expected to be the second largest segment during the forecast period, contributing to the market's expansion. North America Dominating the Market: North America is projected to be the largest circuit monitoring market during the forecast period, driven by the rise of new data centers and numerous growth opportunities in the region.

Key Players

The circuit monitoring market is dominated by a few major players with significant regional presence, including ABB (Switzerland), Schneider Electric (France), Eaton (Ireland), Toshiba International Corporation (Japan), and Legrand (Ireland).

Market Dynamics

Drivers:

Uninterrupted Business Operations: Growing concerns over power stability for uninterrupted business operations are driving the demand for circuit monitoring solutions. Increasing Number of Data Centers: With a rising number of data centers, the need for efficient circuit monitoring systems is on the rise. Carbon Neutrality Goals: The need to monitor energy consumption and achieve carbon neutrality is pushing the adoption of circuit monitoring solutions.

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Opportunities:

Stringent Regulations for Carbon Footprint Reduction: Enforcing stringent regulations to reduce the carbon footprint of data centers creates opportunities for circuit monitoring providers. Shift to Cloud-Based Data Centers: The shift towards cloud-based data centers offers potential growth avenues for the circuit monitoring market.

Challenges:

Advancements in Energy Monitoring Systems: The decline in circuit monitoring adoption can be attributed to the advancements in energy monitoring systems. Supply Chain Constraints and Integration Complexities: The challenges of supply chain constraints and complexities in integrating circuit monitoring systems into operational data centers are obstacles in the market.

Conclusion

The global circuit monitoring market is poised for significant growth, driven by the increasing demand for data centers and the need for uninterrupted power stability. Modular circuit monitoring solutions and commercial sectors are expected to be the key drivers for market expansion. As the world embraces carbon neutrality goals, circuit monitoring systems will play a pivotal role in monitoring energy consumption and ensuring efficient data center operations.

Key Topics Covered

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview

6 Circuit Monitoring Market, by Type

7 Circuit Monitoring Market, by End-user

8 Circuit Monitoring Market, by Region

9 Competitive Landscape

10 Company Profiles

11 Appendix

Companies Mentioned

ABB

Accuenergy

Acrel - Electric Co

Anord Mardix

Bay Power Inc.

Cet Inc.

Circuitmeter

Daxten

Eaton

Elmeasure

Legrand

MPL Technologies

NHP

Nlyte Software

Omron Corporation

Packet Power

Schneider Electric

Senva Inc.

Socomec

Toshiba International Corporation

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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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WASHINGTON, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Vantage Market Research, the Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market has been experiencing consistent growth, driven by the rising significance of medical advancements and technical innovations. In both developed and developing countries such as the US, China, and India, there is a growing focus on preventive healthcare and cost-effective solutions. Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is proving to be a promising approach in the healthcare industry. Its application in this field has the potential to revolutionize disease treatment. By enabling the production of accurate 3D models for testing, it significantly enhances the efficiency of clinical trials.

As per the findings of Vantage Market Research, the global Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market is projected to reach an estimated value of USD 29.5 Billion by the year 2030. This significant growth is expected to be driven by a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.2% from 2023 to 2030. Notably, in 2022, the Healthcare Additives Manufacturing market already reached a substantial milestone, attaining a value of USD 7.6 Billion.

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The significance of the additive manufacturing market in the healthcare sector becomes even more pronounced during infectious disease outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The revolutionary impact of additive manufacturing in healthcare makes the items used in this field of utmost importance in the market. These items, including 3D-printed medical equipment, implants, prostheses, and healthcare solutions, offer numerous benefits that contribute to the improvement of patient outcomes and the overall efficiency of healthcare.

One of the key advantages of additive manufacturing in healthcare is its ability to enable customization. By allowing for patient-specific therapy alternatives, additive manufacturing empowers medical professionals to tailor treatments to individual patients' needs. This personalization leads to improved patient outcomes and enhanced treatment efficacy, as medical devices and implants are precisely designed to fit each patient's unique anatomical characteristics.

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Top Findings

By Technology, Deposition Modeling holds the largest share across the globe in the forecast period 2023 to 2030.

By Application, the Medical Implants segment dominated the largest market share globally from 2023 to 2030.

By Material, the Polymers segment will increase the Market from 2023 to 2030.

In 2022, North America dominated the market with the highest revenue share of 48.50%.

The Asia Pacific region will grow at a high CAGR from 2023-2030.





Top Companies in the Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market

GE Additive (Sweden)

3D Systems Inc. (U.S.)

EnvisionTEC (Germany)

RegenHU (Switzerland)

Allevi Inc. (U.S.)

EOS GmbH (Germany)

Materialise N.V. (Belgium)

Stratasys Ltd. (Israel)

Nanoscribe GmbH (Germany)

GPI Prototype and Manufacturing Services LLC (U.S.)

3T Additive Manufacturing Ltd. (UK)

Fathom (U.S.)

General Electric (U.S.)





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Top Trends in Global Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market

The increasing emphasis on personalized medicine has been a driving force behind the growth of additive manufacturing in healthcare. With the ability to create medical devices, implants, and prostheses tailored to individual patients' specific needs, additive manufacturing enables personalized treatment approaches. This focus on patient-specific solutions leads to improved therapeutic outcomes and patient satisfaction.

3D bioprinting is a rapidly emerging trend in additive manufacturing for healthcare. This technology allows for the creation of intricate biological tissues and structures, making organ transplantation and tissue engineering more feasible than ever before. 3D bioprinting holds the promise of revolutionizing regenerative medicine and providing novel solutions for patients in need of organ replacements or tissue repairs.

Additive manufacturing processes are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies offer significant advantages, such as better design optimization, process automation, and quality control. AI-powered algorithms can analyze complex data to optimize designs, streamline production processes, and ensure the quality and consistency of manufactured medical products.

The utilization of cutting-edge materials is expanding the possibilities of healthcare additive manufacturing. Biocompatible and bioresorbable materials are gaining traction, as they allow for the production of medical devices and implants that can be safely integrated into the human body and gradually absorbed over time. These materials open up new avenues for innovative medical solutions and improve patient outcomes.

Market Drivers

Several key factors drive the healthcare additive manufacturing market. The demand for personalized medicine and patient-specific treatments fuels the adoption of additive manufacturing technologies in healthcare. The ability to produce specialized medical devices, implants, and prosthetics tailored to individual patient needs is a significant driver. Additionally, advancements in additive manufacturing technologies, such as 3D printing, contribute to market growth by enabling faster production, improved accuracy, and expanded material options. The market is further fueled by the increased prevalence of chronic diseases and the demand for affordable healthcare solutions. Additionally, encouraging legislative frameworks, research and development projects, and partnerships between academic, industrial, and healthcare organizations foster innovation and encourage the use of additive manufacturing in healthcare.

Market Restraints

One of the primary barriers to adopting additive manufacturing in healthcare is the significant upfront investment required. Implementing 3D printing and other additive manufacturing technologies demands substantial funding for infrastructure setup, specialized equipment, and advanced materials. For healthcare systems with limited financial resources, this high cost can be a deterrent to adoption.

The healthcare industry is subject to stringent quality standards and regulatory requirements to ensure patient safety and product efficacy. Incorporating additive manufacturing technologies into medical device production involves adherence to these standards and regulations. The process of obtaining necessary regulatory clearances for medical devices and implants may be prolonged due to the lack of standardized guidelines specific to additive manufacturing in healthcare.

The absence of well-established industry standards and guidelines specific to additive manufacturing in healthcare poses a challenge. The lack of standardized practices can lead to uncertainty and caution among healthcare professionals and manufacturers, potentially impeding the widespread adoption of these technologies.

The successful implementation of additive manufacturing in healthcare necessitates a skilled workforce proficient in the use of these technologies and related design and engineering procedures. The shortage of qualified personnel with expertise in additive manufacturing may hinder the industry's growth and adoption.

Ensuring the biocompatibility and compatibility of materials used in additive manufacturing processes for healthcare applications is crucial. Identifying suitable materials that meet the necessary safety and performance requirements can be challenging, limiting the range of applications and materials available for medical device production.

While additive manufacturing technologies have made significant advancements, some applications may still face challenges in terms of technology maturity and reliability. Ensuring consistent and reliable performance of medical devices and implants produced through additive manufacturing is essential for gaining trust and widespread acceptance in the healthcare sector.

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Market Opportunities

Additive manufacturing enables the creation of personalized medical equipment, implants, and prostheses, tailoring them to individual patient needs. This capability revolutionizes patient care by providing customized solutions that lead to improved treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction.

The use of additive manufacturing allows for the production of patient-specific models, implants, and surgical guides. These 3D-printed tools enhance surgical accuracy, aiding surgeons in planning and executing procedures with precision and reducing surgical risks.

Additive manufacturing has opened the door to the development of cutting-edge materials, including biocompatible and bioresorbable materials specifically designed for healthcare applications. These materials play a crucial role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, allowing for the production of intricate structures and bioactive components that promote tissue growth and repair.

With the ability to produce complex and bioactive structures, additive manufacturing has significant potential in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This technology paves the way for the creation of functional organs and tissues, advancing the possibilities for organ transplantation and regenerative therapies.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into additive manufacturing techniques brings a new level of efficiency and productivity. AI-powered algorithms can optimize designs, automate processes, and ensure quality control, streamlining the production of medical devices and implants.

AI and machine learning algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to optimize designs and identify the most efficient and effective configurations. This results in the development of high-performance medical solutions that meet specific patient requirements.

AI-driven automation in additive manufacturing streamlines the production process, reducing human error and minimizing production time. This automation enhances overall productivity and scalability, making additive manufacturing a more viable option for mass production of medical devices.

AI and machine learning can continuously monitor and assess the quality of manufactured medical products, ensuring compliance with stringent industry standards and regulations. This level of quality control helps build trust among healthcare professionals and patients in the reliability of additive manufacturing.

Browse market data Tables and Figures spread through 147 Pages and in-depth TOC on Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market Forecast Report (2023-2030).

Recent Development of the Global Healthcare Additives Manufacturing Market

In August 2022: Sandvik moved significantly in the 3D printing materials market by acquiring Sphinx Tools Ltd and P. Rieger Werkzeugfabrik AG, two Swiss-based companies. This acquisition adds to Sandvik's impressive portfolio of 3D printing materials and technologies.

In July 2022: When Markforged released its first high-temperature printing polymer. This thermoplastic material, ULTEM Filament, has excellent flame, smoke, and toxicity properties, making it suitable for aerospace production applications. With this release, Markforged is expanding its CFR technology into a new realm of parts, and the availability of ULTEM Filament in this new domain is expected to be a game-changer in the market.

Regional Analysis

The North American region dominates the market for manufacturing healthcare additives globally. North America has been at the forefront of implementing additive manufacturing technology in the healthcare industry due to its advanced healthcare infrastructure, considerable investments in research and development, and a supportive regulatory framework. The desire for personalized treatment in the region has expanded, which has prompted the use of 3D printing for specialized medical equipment, implants, and prostheses. Collaborations between academic, industrial, and healthcare organizations have also sparked innovation and strengthened the region's market leadership. The dominance of North America in the healthcare additive manufacturing industry has been cemented by the presence of major market competitors and a strong commitment to technological improvements.

The market for healthcare additive manufacturing is expected to expand quickly in the Asia Pacific area. This growth forecast is influenced by a number of variables, including the region's growing population, rising disposable incomes, and improvements in the healthcare system. Additionally, nations like China, Japan, and India have made large R&D investments, encouraging innovation in additive manufacturing technology for medical purposes. The demand for affordable healthcare solutions and a sizable patient pool also benefits the Asia-Pacific area. As a result, the market for healthcare additive manufacturing in Asia is anticipated to rise as demand for personalized medical devices, implants, and prostheses soars.

Market Segmentation

By Technology

Stereolithography

Deposition Modeling

Electron Beam Melting

Laser Sintering

Jetting Technology

Laminated Object Manufacturing

Other Technologies





By Application

Medical Implant

Prosthetic

Wearable Device

Tissue Engineering

Other Applications





By Material

Metal & Alloy

Polymer

Biological Cell

Other Materials

By Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa





Read Full Report with TOC @ https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/industry-report/healthcare-additive-manufacturing-market-2225

Scope of the Report:

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2022 USD 7.6 Billion Revenue Forecast by 2030 USD 29.5 Billion CAGR 17.2% from 2023 to 2030 Base Year 2022 Forecast Year 2023 to 2030 Key Players GE Additive, 3D Systems Inc., EnvisionTEC, RegenHU, Allevi Inc., EOS GmbH, Materialise N.V., Stratasys Ltd., Nanoscribe GmbH, GPI Prototype and Manufacturing Services LLC, 3T Additive Manufacturing Ltd., Fathom, General Electric Customization Options Customized purchase options are available to meet any research needs. Explore customized purchase options https://www.vantagemarketresearch.com/healthcare-additive-manufacturing-market-2225/customization-request

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We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Ai-Media Technologies (ASX:AIM) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

View our latest analysis for Ai-Media Technologies

When Might Ai-Media Technologies Run Out Of Money?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. When Ai-Media Technologies last reported its balance sheet in December 2022, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$15m. In the last year, its cash burn was AU$1.4m. That means it had a cash runway of very many years as of December 2022. Notably, however, analysts think that Ai-Media Technologies will break even (at a free cash flow level) before then. If that happens, then the length of its cash runway, today, would become a moot point. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

How Well Is Ai-Media Technologies Growing?

Happily, Ai-Media Technologies is travelling in the right direction when it comes to its cash burn, which is down 70% over the last year. And it could also show revenue growth of 7.9% in the same period. It seems to be growing nicely. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

Can Ai-Media Technologies Raise More Cash Easily?

We are certainly impressed with the progress Ai-Media Technologies has made over the last year, but it is also worth considering how costly it would be if it wanted to raise more cash to fund faster growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.

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Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$53m, Ai-Media Technologies' AU$1.4m in cash burn equates to about 2.6% of its market value. That means it could easily issue a few shares to fund more growth, and might well be in a position to borrow cheaply.

So, Should We Worry About Ai-Media Technologies' Cash Burn?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Ai-Media Technologies' cash burn. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. On this analysis its revenue growth was its weakest feature, but we are not concerned about it. There's no doubt that shareholders can take a lot of heart from the fact that analysts are forecasting it will reach breakeven before too long. Taking all the factors in this report into account, we're not at all worried about its cash burn, as the business appears well capitalized to spend as needs be. Its important for readers to be cognizant of the risks that can affect the company's operations, and we've picked out 1 warning sign for Ai-Media Technologies that investors should know when investing in the stock.

Of course Ai-Media Technologies may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Just because a business does not make any money, does not mean that the stock will go down. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. Having said that, unprofitable companies are risky because they could potentially burn through all their cash and become distressed.

So, the natural question for Greenvale Energy (ASX:GRV) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

View our latest analysis for Greenvale Energy

Does Greenvale Energy Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at December 2022, Greenvale Energy had cash of AU$2.8m and no debt. In the last year, its cash burn was AU$5.4m. That means it had a cash runway of around 6 months as of December 2022. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Greenvale Energy's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Because Greenvale Energy isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. So while we can't look to sales to understand growth, we can look at how the cash burn is changing to understand how expenditure is trending over time. With the cash burn rate up 9.5% in the last year, it seems that the company is ratcheting up investment in the business over time. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. Greenvale Energy makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

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Can Greenvale Energy Raise More Cash Easily?

Since its cash burn is increasing (albeit only slightly), Greenvale Energy shareholders should still be mindful of the possibility it will require more cash in the future. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$42m, Greenvale Energy's AU$5.4m in cash burn equates to about 13% of its market value. Given that situation, it's fair to say the company wouldn't have much trouble raising more cash for growth, but shareholders would be somewhat diluted.

How Risky Is Greenvale Energy's Cash Burn Situation?

Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Greenvale Energy's cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. Summing up, we think the Greenvale Energy's cash burn is a risk, based on the factors we mentioned in this article. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 5 warning signs for Greenvale Energy you should be aware of, and 3 of them are a bit concerning.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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.
HSBC supported a China-backed law banning anti-government activity in Hong Kong - ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP

HSBC has been accused of putting profits before human rights after a senior executive at the UK-based lender suggested Britain was too tough on China.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, head of public affairs at HSBC, was forced to apologise after he said the Government was weak for complying with US demands to cut back dealings with the communist state.

Sir Sherard, a former senior British diplomat, said in June that the UK should not blindly follow the US.

He said that an example of the Government being weak was caving to US demands including banning Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from the countrys 5G network, Bloomberg reported.

The comments led to a backlash from peers and MPs on Monday, in a row that threatens to wipe out the credit HSBC built up with Rishi Sunaks government after rescuing Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) earlier this year.

Lord David Alton, vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hong Kong, said: HSBC continues to put profits before human rights and is determined to keep the Chinese regime on side, no matter the brutal disregard that the CCP has for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

HSBC has been at the receiving end of protests over its decision to shut down the bank accounts of a Hong Kong opposition party - Lam Yik/Bloomberg

It comes as HSBC faces growing scrutiny of its activities in China and Hong Kong, where it has been accused by British MPs of complicity in human rights abuses.

HSBC has faced criticism for supporting a Beijing-backed law introduced in 2020 that banned anti-government activity in the former British colony. At the time, the bank said it respects and supports all laws that stabilise Hong Kongs social order.

Since the law was introduced, HSBC has frozen the bank accounts of a raft of activists, including pro-democracy politician Ted Hui, on orders from Hong Kong police.

The bank, which counts Hong Kong as its biggest market, has said repeatedly that it has to comply with laws in every jurisdiction where it operates.

In June, the lender was also accused by UK and US politicians of persecuting dissident Hong Kongers who leave the country over pension rights.

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A spokesman for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, said: HSBC continues to bow to the Hong Kong authorities as it is one of several banks that prevents Hong Kongers from accessing more than 2.2bn worth of their hard-earned pensions.

The comments from Sir Sherard speak volumes to the value HSBC places on the economy over national security and human rights.

Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed that HSBC had admitted it risks endangering human rights amid its pivot to Asia.

Lord Alton said: This incident raises further concerns about HSBCs priorities and its cosy relationship with the brutal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.

HSBCs continued backing of the vicious National Security Law lends the CCP-backed Hong Kong government an undeserved veneer of respectability and this is the real scandal for which HSBC should be apologising.

Sir Sherards comments were also criticised by Conservative backbenchers on Monday, including the partys former leader Iain Duncan Smith, who branded the HSBC executive the worst sort of apologist following the remarks.

A HSBC spokesman said Sir Sherard, who is also chairman of the China-Britain Business Council lobby group and a former British ambassador who held posts in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Afghanistan, made the comments at a private roundtable discussion and shared his personal views.

The comments were made at an event in London under Chatham House rules, which means attendees can use the information gained from discussions but should not reveal the identity of who made the comments.

Sir Sherard said: I was speaking at a private event under Chatham House rules and my personal comments do not reflect the views of HSBC or the China British Business Council. I apologise for any offence caused.

Despite the lenders pivot to China in recent years, HSBC bosses won plaudits with the Government in March after stepping in at short notice to rescue collapsed SVB UK.

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.
David Karr and Jeremy Rydberg in early 2022 decided El Paso would be a good place for their fledgling Dallas company to build a large industrial park to tap into this area's booming warehouse and logistics sector.

After they searched several months, the Marshalls clothing chain's 2-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center  one of El Paso's largest industrial buildings  caught their attention as it was being built. It was completed in early 2023 on El Paso airport land.

More: 2.6 million square foot Amazon distribution center is largest industrial building in area

It alerted the Green Point Property Co. owners to thousands of acres of undeveloped airport land tied to what Karr called superb road and utility infrastructure.

"So, it really made us think, 'Wow, there should be more (industrial) buildings here,'" Karr said during a recent phone interview. "We just kind of realized this is an overlooked, underutilized land asset."

An aerial view of the Marshalls clothing chain's 2-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center on El Paso airport land in East El Paso. A Dallas development company plans to put a 200-acre industrial park on nearby, vacant airport land.

Sky Park part of airport's new development districts

That led the pair to El Paso International Airport officials, who for about the last two years, stepped up efforts to get developers interested in constructing industrial buildings and other commercial developments on 3,450 acres of vacant airport land.

That brought the birth of Sky Park El Paso  Green Point's planned, four-phase industrial park on just over 200 acres in what an airport development plan dubs the 601 Corridor Business District, now anchored by Marshalls.

Airport officials have divided airport land into five property districts with various development goals.

Sky Park is to have at least six buildings with more than 2 million square feet of industrial space by at least 2029 and additional buildings in its final phase, airport information shows.

Construction is projected to start by early October on Sky Park's multimillion-dollar, two-building first phase, with just over 636,000 square feet of space. It's at Walter Jones Boulevard and the end of George Perry Boulevard, which will be extended in the future to connect with the Spur 601 highway. The land is kitty-corner from the Marshalls' facility.

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Map shows El Paso International Airport's land development districts. The Green Point Property Co.' s planned Sky Park El Paso industrial park, top left, is to be located kitty-corner from the Marshalls clothing store chain's huge warehouse and distribution center (shown as Marmaxx, operator of the Marshalls stores).

This will be the second industrial park developed on airport land, but the first in decades.

The 588-acre Butterfield Trail industrial park, started more than 40 years ago, has just over 80 industrial and office buildings constructed and operated by individual companies with airport land leases, airport officials said. It's located along Airport Road, northeast of the airport terminal.

Airport officials also plan to break ground early next year on another industrial park  the Advanced Manufacturing District on 250 acres at Global Reach Drive and George Perry Boulevard. It's part of a $40 million federal grant given to a UTEP-led coalition to grow defense and aerospace manufacturing in this area.

More: Innovation Factory opens at El Paso airport as part of UTEP-led manufacturing initiative

The renewed push to develop airport land came during the COVID-19 pandemic when airport traffic substantially declined and the airport needed to grow revenues in other ways, said Sam Rodriguez, the city's chief operations and transportation officer and airport aviation director.

Besides industrial buildings, airport officials also want to attract other commercial development, including an upscale hotel on vacant airport land at Airway Boulevard and Montana Avenue, not far from the airport's main entrance. A proposed deal to put a hotel and retail shops there died several years ago, Rodriguez said.

Rendering of how the first phase of the planned Sky Park El Paso industrial park is to look. Green Point Property Co., of Dallas plans to build the four-phase industrial park on about 200 acres of El Paso airport vacant land at George Perry and Walter Jones boulevards.

FAA allows airport land to be leased, not sold

Federal Aviation Administration regulations only allow airport land to be leased, not sold, for development, which may have kept some developers away in past years, Rodriguez said.

Green Point's Karr said something that struck him and Rydberg is how the El Paso airport's leasable land is underdeveloped compared to Dallas and some other Texas cities.

The El Paso City Council in March approved a 40-year land lease for Sky Park between the city and a Green Point property holding company.

The Sky Park El Paso industrial park is to be built on about 200 acres of El Paso airport land. The vacant land is seen here Aug. 1 where Walter Jones and George Perry boulevards connect. George Perry is to be extended in the future to connect to the Spur 601 Highway.

The City Council also approved a proposal Aug. 1 to almost double the number of acres of airport land in the El Paso Foreign Trade Zone to almost 3,500 acres to further enhance the airport land's attractiveness. The zone expansion includes Sky Park and the Advanced Manufacturing District.

The zone provides warehouse/distribution and manufacturing facilities with breaks on U.S. Customs fees and other Customs-tied benefits. The zone also includes industrial sites in other parts of El Paso County, which will expand further under the proposal that has to be approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

When Sky Park is fully developed  required by at least 2031 under the lease  Green Point's property holding company will owe the city monthly payments totaling just under $1.8 million a year. Lease payments will grow incrementally to that total as each phase is completed.

Monthly lease payments will initially total $418,138 a year when the first phase is completed, projected for late 2024 by the Green Point partners. Green Point must submit a security deposit of $104,534 for the first phase after it becomes part of the Foreign Trade Zone, according to the lease.

Rendering of how the first building is to look in the planned, four-phase Sky Park El Paso industrial park that Green Point Property Co., of Dallas plans to build on about 200 acres of El Paso airport vacant land at George Perry and Walter Jones boulevards. The first phase is to have two buildings with a total of about 636,000 square feet of space.

El Paso is Green Point's second industrial project

Karr and Rydberg have a combined 40 years of commercial real estate investment and development experience with other companies, according to their company website. They formed Green Point in early 2021.

This is the company's second industrial park development. Its first is the 231-acre GTX Logistics Park in the Austin area. GTX's first building is completed and a second one is about to begin construction. GTX eventually is to have more than 3 million square feet of industrial space, Rydberg said.

Once construction began at GTX in late 2021, Karr and Rydberg looked for another project. They chose El Paso because of the continued demand for industrial space here even as developers have added new industrial spaces at a feverish pace.

"We're bullish on El Paso. I think there's a long tail here with growth in the market overall, and then specifically on the industrial side," Rydberg said. "The (industrial building) vacancy rate is under 3%. Everything being built is being filled."

Karr added: "More (manufacturing) buildings are being built in Juarez, and that just drives more growth in El Paso." Warehouse and logistics facilities in El Paso support manufacturers in Juarez.

Officials with the CBRE real estate firm's El Paso office, which is handling leasing for Sky Park's buildings, in a news statement agreed that demand for new industrial space in this market remains strong.

More: Akorbi expands to East El Paso with bilingual call center, creating 150 jobs

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421, vkolenc@elpasotimes.com and @vickolenc on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Marshalls' facility draws industrial park developers to airport land
The Huobi cryptocurrency exchange has been hit with outflows totaling a staggering $64 million this past weekend, continuing a long decline in the total value locked (TVL) on the exchange to $2.5 billion from $3 billion a month ago, according to DeFiLlama.

Adam Cochrana fintech executive, angel investor, and renown crypto Twitter analystrecently raised eyebrows with a series of statements regarding the apparent financial instability of Huobi. He reported that global crypto heavyweight Binance had commenced the bulk sale of Tether (USDT), a leading stablecoin.

Why is Tether selling off? Likely due to Huobi's insolvency, Cochran mused, later adding that there had been "weird balance shifts at Huobi" over the past month.

Cochran connected these observations with recent rumors that Huobi executives and personnel from Tron, a blockchain platform founded by crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, were questioned by police.

Cochran even posted a list of names of people he said were detained, including its heads of human resources, server operations, product, and chain techall of whom reported to Tron CTO Marus Zhong. But the tweet was subsequently deleted.

Crypto Heads East as Huobi HK Launches Trading Service in Hong Kong

I don't think Binance is selling their Tether for two reasons, he theorized. They want to topple USDT to push [stablecoins] they can control and gain from, [or] they realize Sun doesn't have the USDT he claims to and if users find out they might mass dump to escape his exchange.

Cochran then broke down his understanding of Huobis holdings.

Across USDT and USDC combined, Huobi only holds $90M of assets, he alleged. Huobi's own Merkle Tree Audit still lists that Huobi users have $630M of USDT held and a wallet balance of $631M USDTusers think they have balances of $631M in Huobi, but there is only $90M there.

The missing funds, Cochrane theorized, are being used to prop up the yields of Tron, Poloniex, and other DeFi apps operated by Sun. But even those amounts suggests that Sun only seems to have about half the total obligations for Huobi.

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Following these claims, the exchange's head of social media responded on Twitter, saying the report of police involvement has been pure rumors and asserting that all operation has been normal as usual at Huobi.

I believe there needs to be more investigation into the information source and avoid FUD, she wrote.

Cochran stood his ground, revealing that his source is a senior executive at Tron who has first-hand knowledge of the investigation and has been at Tron for many years.

Whether youve been informed or not, your colleagues are currently under criminal investigation, he concluded.

Huobi has seen other woes this year, from laying off 20% of its staff in January to an order to cease operations in Malaysia. Cointelegraph also reports that at least one C-level executive has left the exchange in the past few weeks.
Key Insights

Significant control over Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions

Hong Leong Company (Malaysia) Berhad (Hlcm) owns 58% of the company

Institutional ownership in Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad is 25%

If you want to know who really controls Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad (KLSE:MPI), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 59% stake, private companies possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And institutions on the other hand have a 25% ownership in the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad.

Check out our latest analysis for Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

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Hedge funds don't have many shares in Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad. Our data shows that Hong Leong Company (Malaysia) Berhad (Hlcm) is the largest shareholder with 58% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. The second and third largest shareholders are Eastspring Investments (Singapore) Limited and Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 5.0%.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around RM97m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 14% stake in Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 59%, of the company's shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Malaysian Pacific Industries Berhad that you should be aware of before investing here.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
gorodenkoff / Getty Images/iStockphoto

When news leaked earlier this year that Microsoft had invested billions of dollars into OpenAI  the company behind the revolutionary ChatGPT tool  this led to rumblings of additional investments from other major tech companies. Since then, significant investments have been made in artificial intelligence. Many feel that this is just the beginning, as global tech companies are looking to increase the presence of AI-powered tools in business operations.

How To Buy ChatGPT Stock: Your 2023 Guide to AI Investing

Learn: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000

Since ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022, investors have started dropping billions on AI startups and competing products in the space of generative AI. Heres an examination of the trend of AI startup investments and what the field looks like at the moment.

Whats the Field Like for AI Startups?

According to Crunchbase, companies that operate under the AI category raised $25 billion in funding for the first half of 2023. This figure amounts to about 18% of total global funding and includes the $10 billion investment that Microsoft made in OpenAI at the beginning of the year.

In 2022, $4.5 billion was poured into generative AI startups alone, according to PitchBook. It also announced that there were about 46 deals in the first quarter of 2023 that amounted to $1.7 billion in funding for generative AI, with $10.68 billion worth of deals that were announced but not completed officially.

There have been substantial investments made in various AI-based startups. There are also many AI unicorns: startups that have surpassed the one billion dollar valuation mark in a quick period of time. For example, Inflection AI recently announced a valuation of $4 billion after funding came in from Microsoft, Nvidia and Bill Gates personally, among other investors.

Check Out: 10 Stocks That Could Be the Next Apple or Amazon

Notable AI Startup Investments

Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are looking to invest heavily in this space. This is in addition to the venture capital funding coming in globally. There are a few startups in the AI field that are worth paying attention to right now. Here are some notable AI startup investments:

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Inflection AI

Forbes recently reported that the year-old startup raised $1.3 billion in funding only two months after its chatbot Pi was released. The startup is focused on personal AI, which uses a similar technology to ChatGPT to give regular people a chatbot that can help with planning, scheduling and gathering information.

Anthropic

Google, Salesforce and Zoom were the notable tech giants participating in the recent $450 million round of funding for Anthropic, making this the largest AI investment behind Microsofts support of OpenAI in January. The company founded by former OpenAI executives is the creator of Claude, a competitor to ChatGPT.

Cohere

This generative AI startup out of Toronto was able to raise $270 million recently, bringing its valuation up to $2 billion. Only rivals Anthropic and OpenAI have been able to raise more in capital funding. With funding from Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures, the startup is known for providing AI tools that offer interactive chat features and the ability to generate text for product descriptions.

Competition in AI Investing Space

Many tech giants are investing in AI across all levels, from generative tools to technology needed for manufacturing.

According to Meta, it has applied machine learning to various aspects of the Facebook social media platform. The simple introduction of AI-based suggestions led to a 7% increase in the overall time that users spent on the platform. This AI-suggestion tool also helps with targeted ads so that users see completely relevant ads. All of this means that the AI-powered tools can help these companies increase ad revenue, making the investments worthwhile in the long run  hopefully.

How Competitive Is the Landscape?

The AI arms race is heating up, and its not rare to see a press release about another round of extensive funding for an AI startup. Here are some of the recent updates from tech giants that are investing heavily in AI startups:

Chipmaker Nvidia made six deals last year that totaled $297 million, and its been heavily involved in other investments this year.

Google and Salesforce Ventures participated in Anthropics $450 million funding round.

Microsoft has participated in nine AI-based deals since 2021, with notable investments in Cruise and Wayve, two startups focused on self-driving cars and the technology needed.

Its worth noting that large global companies like Microsoft, Google and Salesforce have separate venture capital segments that are focused on investing, as well.

Whats the Potential for Success?

Only time will tell what the potential for success is for these AI startups as the funding pours in. The largest companies in the world have realized that investing in AI startups will benefit other business ventures.

For example, Microsoft and Nvidia have invested heavily in Inflection AI while also working with it. Microsoft is the cloud computing partner for the startup, while Nvidia has been working with it to set up GPUs needed to power language learning models.

Closing Thoughts

There are currently substantial amounts of funding being invested into AI startups, and this doesnt appear to be slowing down any time soon. Companies that werent even around a few years ago are already unicorns with billion-dollar valuations.

While its impossible to say for sure how profitable these startups will become, it is clear that major tech companies are banking heavily on AI.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Investors Are Dropping Billions on Startups in the AI Craze
There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Abbott Laboratories:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.11 = US$6.7b  (US$73b - US$14b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2023).

So, Abbott Laboratories has an ROCE of 11%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 8.8% generated by the Medical Equipment industry.

See our latest analysis for Abbott Laboratories

roce

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Abbott Laboratories compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Abbott Laboratories here for free.

So How Is Abbott Laboratories' ROCE Trending?

Abbott Laboratories has not disappointed with their ROCE growth. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 90% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

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What We Can Learn From Abbott Laboratories' ROCE

To sum it up, Abbott Laboratories is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. Since the stock has returned a solid 84% to shareholders over the last five years, it's fair to say investors are beginning to recognize these changes. With that being said, we still think the promising fundamentals mean the company deserves some further due diligence.

One more thing to note, we've identified 3 warning signs with Abbott Laboratories and understanding these should be part of your investment process.

While Abbott Laboratories isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Iowa Eatz driver Bobby Chase carries food from Hickory Park as he prepares to make a delivery Thursday, Aug 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

Ames-based Iowa Eatz is enjoying a substantial impact on the local food delivery industry, anchored by exclusive agreements with two of the community's most popular restaurants.

Hickory Park, a decades-old barbecue icon, and Pasta Al Forno, a new Italian restaurant, both use the food services of Iowa Eatz.

Establishing a strong rapport with local food joints is key to a successful delivery business, Iowa Eatz owner Kevin Mahoney said, in addition to employing reliable drivers.

Knowing your restaurants, knowing your drivers  its all about the relationships we have with them and with our customers, Mahoney said.

With 34 Ames restaurants currently contracted for meal delivery with Iowa Eatz drivers, options include a range of tastes from Mexican and Chinese to Thai, Irish and even fast food.

We rely on word of mouth. Its literally treating every customer like its your mom. I tell every driver, pretend like youre delivering to your mother, Mahoney said.

Iowans order food delivery more than any other state, with each individual spending about $3,366 annually, according to travel website Upgraded Points. Iowans spend the most on delivery per order at $45.11, which is 27.4% higher than the national average. They also order delivery at the highest rate as well, an average of 6.2 times per month.

Iowa Eatz driver Bobby Chase carries food from Hickory Park to deliver to a resident Thursday, Aug 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

Local delivery takes strong foothold

Its a very simple concept, Mahoney said. Pick up food and deliver it to the final destination.

But there are so many little things that have to be perfect on every single order, he said. We want to make sure customers are getting a good value. No missing sauces, no missing drinks.

Mahoney thrives off perfection, always searching for ways to immediately correct a mishap while taking note of the mistake to make sure it doesn't repeat.

With a lot of these other companies, youve got to go to a chat room or send an email, Mahoney said. We handle it immediately and make sure theyre happy when we get off the phone.

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Quality drivers are a crucial part of Mahoneys business strategy. He interviews each personally, either in person or via video call, in order to match personalities that will do well with both the restaurant personnel and the customers.

Iowa Eatz has a massive service area, ranging fas far north as Story City, south into Huxley, east into Nevada and as far west as Boone.

We go up to 20 miles from the given restaurant, Mahoney said.

More: A chef's touch: Pasta Al Forno opens in Ames with Italian recipes passed down through generations

Iowa Eatz driver Bobby Chase gets help from Hickory Park restaurant's employee Cris Schmann while packing the food in a bag for delivery at Hickory Park Thursday, Aug 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

Kevin Mahoney has a long history in food delivery industry

Iowa Eatz began serving the Ames area in April, though Mahoney is no newcomer to Ames or to the delivery industry.

With more than 40 restaurants in Mason City, including 20 that are exclusive, Iowa Eatz has had a presence in northern Iowa since 2019. The exclusives in Mason City include Pasta Bella, the sister restaurant to Ames Pasta Al Forno.

Working from his home in north Ames, Mahoney dispatches drivers to both cities.

He's been involved with food delivery for 31 years, starting when he was 16.

I started literally as a driver at a large company, Waiter on the Way, in Maryland. We were one of the first businesses in the country to do this, Mahoney said. I worked my way up to customer service to dispatcher to manager to general manager and then managing partner.

He met his wife in Maryland. Originally from Ames, Emily (Harris) Mahoney encouraged him to move to Iowa to raise their girls, Riley, now 10, and Maggie, 9.

He considered opening a branch of Waiter on the Way. Instead, he invested in MyTown2Go, which was already doing business in Ames. Mahoney's support helped the business expand to tremendous heights in 12 months.

I bought into that and we were doing about 10 orders a day. That was in February of 2017. In less than a year, we were up to 300 or 400 orders a day, he said.

Iowa Eatz driver Bobby Chase carries food from Hickory Park restaurant for delivery at Hickory Park Thursday, Aug 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

In 2019, Mahoney sold MyTown2Go to EatStreet, working for them for a year while the market transitioned. His love of operating his own business again pulled him back in as Mahoney founded Iowa Eatz, enlisting his first deliveries in Mason City. A three-year non-compete clause kept him from immediately diving back into the Ames market, which expired in early 2023.

Mahoney expects his exclusive agreements with Ames-area restaurants to increase as Iowa Eatz becomes more well-known to local customers.

Its all about relationships, Mahoney said. I make sure its fair to the restaurants  none of them pay more than a 10% commission. Our drivers are compensated well because of how we schedule them. We have to make sure we have dependable, loyal drivers.

We have lots of customers request certain drivers because they like to chat and then they get to know each other.

Locals can place orders through the Iowa Eatz app or the companys website, IowaEatz.com.

Iowa Eatz driver Bobby Chase carries food from Hickory Park restaurant for delivery at Hickory Park Thursday, Aug 4, 2023, in Ames, Iowa.

Ronna Faaborg is a reporter for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rlawless@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames-based food delivery Iowa Eatz boasts exclusive with Hickory Park
(Bloomberg) -- OHB SE surged after KKR & Co. said it plans to take the German space and technology company private alongside its founding family, as competition in the satellite sector heats up.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Investors will receive 44 ($48.33) for every OHB share, the company said Monday. The offer values OHB at about 1 billion including debt. KKR also agreed to participate in a plan to raise OHBs capital by 10%.

Shares in OHB rose as much as 34% for the biggest intraday gain in more than two decades. The stock was up 31% at 12:56 p.m. in Frankfurt, giving the company a market value of 738 million. The news confirms an earlier Bloomberg report that the US buyout firm was close to announcing the deal.

The transaction is the latest attempted deal in the satellite industry, which requires significant investment to build and launch spacecraft. Plans by billionaire Elon Musk and fellow tycoon Jeff Bezos to launch thousands of spacecraft into lower orbits and blanket the earth in fast broadband have pushed the traditional satellite industry into mergers.

OHB has built satellites and products for Europes Galileo navigation system, weather forecasting and the International Space Station. Its also supplied technology to help search for life on Mars, track comets and support rocket launches, according to OHBs website.

A group of Fuchs family shareholders, who together own about 70% of the company, wont sell any shares.

Family Company

The companys customers include German and European governments. Given the sensitivities around space systems, aerospace and digital businesses, which have gained in importance amid Russias war with Ukraine, any deal could draw political scrutiny.

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OHB said in its most-recent annual report that it is evaluating potential market access strategies for the Middle East and North America and has held discussions with potential partners in these regions.

OHB traces its roots back to a small workshop with five employees repairing hydraulic systems for the German armed forces. In 1981, businesswoman Christa Fuchs took over the firm, eventually roping in other members of her family and shifting its focus to the space industry.

Foreign investors have been flocking to family-owned German industrials businesses. In April, century-old manufacturer Viessmann agreed to sell most of its business to US air conditioner maker Carrier Global Corp. for about 12 billion. And a month later, Messer SE secured an investment from Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte that values the industrial gas maker at more than 12 billion including debt.

A take private of OHB would be a bright spot in an otherwise subdued buyout market thats been hampered by high financing costs and disagreements over valuations. The value of private equity acquisitions is down more than 50% to roughly $287 billion in 2023, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Still, KKR has been active in recent weeks, agreeing July 21 to buy US specialty chemicals maker Chase Corp. for $1.3 billion.

Space Launches

In November 2021, California-based Viasat Inc. announced it would acquire Britains Inmarsat Group Holdings Ltd., while Frances Eutelsat Communications SA agreed in July last year to combine with UK-backed low-earth orbit venture OneWeb Ltd. Intelsat SA and SES SA were in merger discussions earlier this year to create a satellite giant before talks collapsed.

KKR has a track record in the satellite industry through its $3.5 billion acquisition of PanAmSat almost two decades ago. It also has experience in German aerospace, having listed plane engine maker MTU Aero Engines AG in 2005.

--With assistance from Dani Burger and Swetha Gopinath.

(Updates shares in third paragraph.)

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Key Insights

The projected fair value for Siemens is 178 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Current share price of 149 suggests Siemens is potentially trading close to its fair value

Our fair value estimate is 2.9% lower than Siemens' analyst price target of 183

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:SIE) by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. We will take advantage of the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model for this purpose. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple!

We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. For those who are keen learners of equity analysis, the Simply Wall St analysis model here may be something of interest to you.

See our latest analysis for Siemens

The Calculation

We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars:

10-year free cash flow (FCF) estimate

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF (, Millions) 9.10b 9.67b 9.01b 9.67b 9.75b 9.82b 9.87b 9.91b 9.95b 9.99b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x9 Analyst x9 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ 0.86% Est @ 0.67% Est @ 0.54% Est @ 0.45% Est @ 0.39% Est @ 0.34% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 7.1% 8.5k 8.4k 7.3k 7.4k 6.9k 6.5k 6.1k 5.7k 5.4k 5.0k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = 67b

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The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (0.2%) 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 7.1%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = 10.0b (1 + 0.2%)  (7.1% 0.2%) = 146b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= 146b ( 1 + 7.1%)10= 74b

The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is 141b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of 149, the company appears about fair value at a 16% discount to where the stock price trades currently. 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

We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Siemens 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 7.1%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.153. 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 Siemens

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

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Industrials market.

Opportunity

Annual revenue is forecast to grow faster than the German market.

Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the German market.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation ideally won't be the sole piece of analysis you scrutinize for a company. DCF models are not the be-all and end-all of investment valuation. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. 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. For Siemens, there are three fundamental aspects you should consider:

Risks: We feel that you should assess the 2 warning signs for Siemens we've flagged before making an investment in the company. Future Earnings: How does SIE's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the XTRA every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
(Bloomberg) -- Lucid Group Inc. assured investors its on track to its achieve full-year production target after the maker of luxury electric sedans posted worse-than-expected quarterly results.

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The companys shares jumped as much as 7% in postmarket trading after Chief Executive Officer Peter Rawlinson said in a statement Monday that Lucid is on pace to manufacture more than 10,000 vehicles this year.

The second-quarter loss came to 40 cents a share, or 6 cents deeper than analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg,. Revenue of $150.9 million also fell short of expectations. Lucid announced in July that it delivered 1,404 vehicles during the period even as output amounted to 2,173.

Lucid is one of many upstart automakers trying to become a bona-fide Tesla Inc. competitor. But since commencing production in 2021, its struggled to find buyers for its Air sedans that start at around $87,000 and can easily top $100,000 depending on which features are selected.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Lucid, the nascent automaker focused on high-end electric sedans, may be fully capable of sticking to its 10,000-unit production goal in 2023, yet it faces a daunting task in finding enough customers. A battery-powered car, retailing for an average transaction price near $107,000, may not have a large enough target audience, compromising a much-needed ramp-up in production.

 Kevin P Tynan and Andreas Krohn, BI analysts

Read the full report here.

The company has repeatedly revised its ambitions, most recently saying that it is only expecting to produce near the low-end of its 10,000 to 14,000 vehicle goal for this year. In March, Lucid announced plans to cut staffing by nearly 20%. Over the weekend, the company announced numerous price cuts to the different trims of its sedan.

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Were on track toward achieving our 2023 production target of more than 10,000 vehicles, but we recognize we still have work to do to grow our customer base, Rawlinson said in a statement Monday,.

In June, the company announced a deal to provide electric powertrain technology to Aston Martin Lagonda Holdings Plc, which is partially-owned by Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund. The fund also owns about 60% of Lucid.

(Updates with extent of earnings miss in third paragraph.)

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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to reduce Riyadh's reliance on oil revenues - AFP

Saudi Arabias state oil company will help plug the Gulf nations widening budget deficit after massively increasing its dividend payout despite falling revenues.

Saudi Aramco, the worlds largest oil producing company, on Monday said it would increase its payout to investors by 56pc to $29.4bn (23bn).

Nearly $29bn will go directly to the government in a boost for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, who has been battling a growing budget deficit.

The Saudi government announced last week that its quarterly deficit has leapt by 80pc to 5.3bn riyals (1.1bn), following huge investment in efforts to diversify the economy away from fossil fuels.

MBSs spending on diversification projects include the $500bn development of the Neom city, a futuristic project intended to boost tourism.

Riyadhs continued reliance on oil revenues shows that MBSs aim of making Saudi Arabia less dependent on fossil fuels remains a pipedream.

Aramco increased its payout to the state despite profits tumbling from last years record highs, hit by a combination of lower oil prices and major production cuts.

Net income in the three months to June fell to $30.1bn, down 38pc from $48.4bn a year earlier when the energy crisis sent oil prices soaring.

Saudi Aramco said it would make a quarterly dividend payment of $19.5bn, as well as a performance-linked payout of $9.9bn.

Jason Turvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics, said Aramcos higher dividends showed the government is trying its hardest to ensure that the slump in oil earnings does not impact its fiscal plans.

Saudi Arabia has been trying to prop-up the price of oil to help underpin state spending.

The country, which leads the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) bloc, slashed production by one million barrels per day in July and announced last week that it would extend this cut through September.

Russia, an Opec ally, has also announced it will extend export cuts through September.

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The action has helped push up the price of Brent crude to around $85 per barrel, up from $75 at the end of June. However, prices remain far below the high of $127 per barrel seen last year after Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Aramcos chief executive Amin Nasser said: The second quarter of 2023 was characterised by continued global economic uncertainty and market volatility.

This obviously affected energy prices, yet Aramco delivered strong earnings thanks to our low cost production, high supply reliability and strong demand for our products.

Saudi Aramco reaffirmed plans for its biggest capital expenditure programme in history and signalled it would make further investments in China as it diversifies its activities overseas.

Investment rose by 13pc to $19.2bn in the six months to the end of June, despite falling profits. Aramco said this spending was to capture unique growth opportunities.

In July, Saudi Aramco purchased a 10pc share in Rongsheng Petrochemical, a Chinese chemical company, for RMB 24.6bn (2.7bn), with a long-term sales agreement to enable it to significantly expand its presence in the country.

The Saudi government sold around 1.5pc of Saudi Aramco to investors during an initial public offering (IPO) in April 2019.

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Yellow Corp. dockworker Armando Rivera spent 25 years moving goods for the firm, which located its headquarters in Nashville last year, before he was abruptly let go on July 28 with about 30,000 others nationwide.

Instead of celebrating its centennial anniversary next year, the trucking company ceased all operations last month. On Sunday, it petitioned the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware for Chapter 11 relief while it develops a plan to repay debtors and stabilize operations to stave off liquidation.

Rivera and numerous other workers sued the company the same day seeking a nationwide class action, according to court documents. They made claims for severance and 60 days of lost pay and benefits, arguing that Yellow should have filed advance notice of layoffs required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

"It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business," CEO Darren Hawkins said in a news release late Sunday. "For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers."

The company, also known as YRC Worldwide Inc., said it was given no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Yellow filed a separate suit last month alleging the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sabotaged the firm with "egregious breaches." The Teamsters represent 22,000 of the company's former employees.

YRC and Yellow-branded trucks at a freight yard in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Aug. 7, 2023.

Yellow executives say the Teamsters were on board with the One Yellow restructuring plan implemented late last year to offset ongoing operating losses. They argue that union President Sean O'Brien inexplicably stopped supporting the plan about eight months ago.

"The union and Mr. O'Brien know that obstructing One Yellow would financially destroy the company, put 30,000 employees out of work and badly disrupt the country's supply chain," states the lawsuit, which details communications between the parties.

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President Joe Biden's administration intervened, at Yellow's request, without success in luring the Teamsters back to the negotiating table.

"Mr. OBrien has rebuffed the White Houses overtures," the lawsuit states.

Yellow is suing for $120 million in compensation. The company's reformation plans revolve around integrating operating subsidiaries YRC Freight, Holland, New Penn and Reddaway and reducing redundancies.

Meanwhile, former employees in Tennessee, Geogia, New York, New Jersey, California and elsewhere are part of the class action request for back pay.

"On July 28, 2023, plaintiffs were informed that it was their last day and that they should not report to work thereafter," states the lawsuit filed by Rivera and others. "Defendants were required by the WARN Act to give plaintiffs and the class members at least 60 days advance written notice of their terminations."

'It's a sad situation'

The loss of a discount trucker that specialized in partnering with small businesses will result in higher prices for consumers and continue a global trend of consolidation by massive corporations, said Vanderbilt University finance professor Peter Haslag.

"The other firms have incentive to raise prices because the low-ball company is no longer," Haslag said. "In general, industry consolidation is continuing to happen. As companies consolidate, they don't have to pay employees as much because of their monopoly on labor."

In the Nashville market, 600 former Yellow drivers, mechanics and clerical staff are looking for work, said Teamsters Local 480 President Lendon Grisham.

"Its a sad situation," Grisham said. "We're trying to find jobs for them, union and non-union, just anything to get a paycheck and benefits. There are people who have been there all of their adult life."

Yellow has had a significant regional hub in the Nashville area for decades. Last year, it announced that it would move its headquarters from Overland Park, Kansas to 501 Commerce Street in downtown Nashville.

Grisham derided Yellow for blaming the union for its failures.

"The company is pointing the finger at the Teamsters and the members who work there and have taken sacrifices in wage reduction and reduced pension contributions," Grisham said. "The workers can only do so much. The employees have been under wage concession and partial pension reductions for 15 years. To say its the union's fault is completely irresponsible."

He said union leaders negotiated an extra week of health benefits that ended Aug. 5.

Yellow's legal complaint said the Teamsters have actively attacked the business this year, adding to its many troubles.

"Mr. OBrien has refused to permit any cooperation or negotiations, choosing instead to direct profanities at Yellow and its executives and even to gloat at Yellows impending demise," according to the lawsuit. "In fact, for his own inexplicable reasons, political or otherwisereasons that could not possibly be in the interests of union members, let alone the countryMr. OBrien has made clear that he wants to bring about Yellows demise."

In a series of Twitter posts this summer, O'Brien called Yellow "incompetent" and a "deadbeat company," and published a photo of a cemetery headstone inscribed with, "Yellow: 1924-2023."

Shortly after Yellow's shutdown, O'Brien praised UPS for increasing pay for part-time workers among other concessions in a new contract. A union official said they are working on connecting laid-off Yellow workers with UPS jobs.

On Monday, O'Brien issued a press release criticizing Yellow's leadership again.

"Yellow may try to use the courts to eradicate its financial responsibilities, but they can't escape the truth," O'Brien's statement reads. "Teamster families sacrificed billions of dollars in wages, benefits, and retirement security to rescue Yellow. The company blew through a $700 million government bailout. But Yellow's dysfunctional, greedy C-suite failed to take responsibility for squandering all that cash. They still don't."

Taxpayers on the hook

Yellow was in heavy debt following large acquisitions when it took on a $700 million federal loan in 2020.

Company leaders promised that, despite apparent mismanagement for decades, things were on the cusp of turning around before the union blocked progress.

Vanderbilt University finance professor Josh White said Yellow made too many mistakes, particularly in relying on debt to take over its competitors.

"They took a hands-off approach with the companies they acquired," White said. "You pay a premium to make acquisitions to eliminate a competitor. So, if you don't find other ways to cut costs, then you're not going to catch up with the price you overpaid. They didn't achieve savings."

The bankruptcy process will likely result in taxpayers and other debtors taking "a haircut," or reduced repayments.

"The Debtors commenced these chapter 11 cases to implement a timely and efficient process to maximize the value of the Debtors estates for the benefit of all stakeholders," the bankruptcy filing states. "Through these chapter 11 cases, the Debtors will immediately commence an orderly and value-maximizing wind-down of their businesses. The Debtors will use their time in chapter 11 to market a sale or sales of all or substantially all of their assets."

Apollo Global Management, a "vulture" firm that specializes in distressed assets, is reportedly making plans to assist Yellow with funds to complete its bankruptcy negotiations. Apollo is already a primary creditor at the company, having handled its 2019 debt refinancing.

Yellow could remain in business if the company is able to settle its debts, experts said.

"There is some probability they will be able to turn it around," Haslag said. "They're trying to attract capital and willing to give up stuff to get capital. It could be a negotiation move to say they are distressed and can't do pay raises or other demands. But it's also true that they have some cash issues. They probably need the capital."

Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville-based Yellow Corp. files bankruptcy, alleges union sabotage
ATLANTA, August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), a leading enterprise technology provider, today announced it has successfully expanded its ATM network, under the Cashzone brand name, into Portugal. There are over 100 Cashzone-branded ATMs installed in Portugal so far, providing consumers, including those visiting the country, with easier access to cash. NCR is the worlds largest independent ATM operator. NCRs Cashzone brand is present in the UK, Spain, Germany, Ireland and, now, Portugal.

The combination of Portugals high cash usage, branch consolidation and active tourism market made it an ideal location for Cashzone expansion. NCR has added ATMs primarily in the tourist-popular regions of the south of Portugal and Lisbon, with plans to enter new regions in the coming months. The machines are being installed in trusted retail locations, such as convenience stores, supermarkets, food and drink outlets, shopping centers, and leisure outlets.

"There continues to be a widespread demand from consumers for access to cash, particularly while on holiday," explained Stuart Mackinnon, EVP, ATM Group, NCR Banking. "By bringing NCRs Cashzone-branded ATMs to Portugal, we are enabling visitors to Portugal to interact with an ATM brand theyre familiar with and giving retailers the ability to widen their service offerings and engage with new customers."

NCR is the UKs largest independent ATM operator, delivering reliable and secure cash access to consumers through its Cashzone brand. NCRs proprietary ATM software and solutions make its ATMs more engaging while delivering exceptional service.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a leader in transforming, connecting and running technology platforms for self-directed banking, stores and restaurants. NCR is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with 35,000 employees globally. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.

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Web site: www.ncr.com

Twitter: @NCRCorporation

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ncrcorp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ncr-corporation

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/ncrcorporation

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230803078474/en/

Contacts

Scott Sykes

NCR Corporation

scott.sykes@ncr.com
By Gwladys Fouche

OSLO (Reuters) -Facebook owner Meta Platforms will be fined 1 million crowns ($98,500) per day over privacy breaches from Aug. 14, Norway's data protection authority told Reuters on Monday, a decision that could have wider European implications.

The regulator, Datatilsynet, had said on July 17 that the company would be fined if it did not address privacy breaches the regulator had identified.

Meta Platforms did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Datatilsynet had said Meta cannot harvest user data in Norway, such as users' physical locations, and use it to target advertising at them, called behavioural advertising, a business model common to Big Tech.

It had until Aug. 4 to prove to the regulator that it had addressed the issue.

"As of next Monday, a daily fine of 1 million crown will start to apply," Tobias Judin, head of Datatilsynet's international section told Reuters.

The fine will run until Nov. 3. Datatilsynet can make it permanent by referring its decision to the European Data Protection Board, which has the power to do so, if it agrees with the Norwegian regulator's decision.

That could also widen the decision's territorial scope to the rest of Europe. Datatilsynet had yet to take this step.

Meta last week said it intends to ask users in the European Union for their consent before allowing businesses to target advertising based on what they view on its services such as Facebook and Instagram.

Judin said that step was not enough. Meta had to stop the processing of personal data immediately, and until that consent mechanism was up and running.

"According to Meta, this will take several months, at the very earliest, for them to implement ... And we don't know what the consent mechanism will look like," Judin said.

"And in the (meantime), peoples' rights are being violated, every single day."

Meta said the change was made to address regulatory requirements in the region and stems from an order in January by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, Meta's lead EU regulator, to reassess the legal basis on how it targets ads.

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Norway is not a member of the European Union but is part of the European single market.

($1 = 10.1569 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, editing by Terje Solsvik and David Gregorio)
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO), a leading player in the biotechnology industry, is currently trading at $161.48 with a market capitalization of $361.61 billion. The company's stock price has seen a gain of 3.12% today and an overall increase of 2.77% over the past four weeks. With a GF Score of 95 out of 100, Novo Nordisk falls into the category of stocks with the highest outperformance potential, indicating a promising future performance.

Novo Nordisk A/S: A Biotech Giant with High Outperformance Potential

Financial Strength Analysis

The Financial Strength Rank of Novo Nordisk stands at 7 out of 10, suggesting a robust financial situation. The company's high interest coverage of 1301.11 and low debt to revenue ratio of 0.14 further strengthen its financial stability. Additionally, an Altman Z score of 10.48 indicates a low probability of bankruptcy.

Profitability Rank Analysis

Novo Nordisk's Profitability Rank is a perfect 10 out of 10, reflecting its high profitability. The company's operating margin stands at 42.84%, and it has maintained profitability for the past 10 years. However, the Piotroski F-Score of 6 suggests average business operations health.

Growth Rank Analysis

The company's Growth Rank is also at the maximum of 10, indicating strong growth potential. The 5-year revenue growth rate is 10.90%, and the 3-year revenue growth rate is 14.90%, both of which are impressive figures.

GF Value Rank Analysis

The GF Value Rank of Novo Nordisk is 5 out of 10, suggesting that the stock is fairly valued. This rank is based on the price-to-GF-Value ratio, which takes into account historical multiples and an adjustment factor based on past returns, growth, and future business performance estimates.

Momentum Rank Analysis

With a Momentum Rank of 6 out of 10, Novo Nordisk shows a decent momentum, which is calculated using the standardized momentum ratio and other momentum indicators.

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Comparison with Competitors

When compared to its competitors in the biotechnology industry, Novo Nordisk holds a strong position. Genmab A/S has a slightly higher GF Score of 98, while Alk-Abello A/S and Zealand Pharma A/S have lower GF Scores of 79 and 54, respectively. You can find more details about these competitors here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Novo Nordisk A/S presents a promising investment opportunity with its high GF Score, strong financial strength, impressive profitability, and robust growth potential. The company's fair valuation and decent momentum further enhance its appeal to value investors. However, as with any investment, potential investors should conduct their own thorough research before making any investment decisions.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Jersey Mike's is opening its eighth location in Richmond and Columbia counties at 217 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Pkwy. on Aug. 9.

A new fitness studio is headed for Fenwick Street; a sub-sandwich shop is helping Ronald McDonald; husband-and-wife franchise owners want your junk; and a local auto-dealership chain has reached Infiniti.

Here's a brief look at openings, closings and other changes in Augusta-area business:

Fit Augusta

DO I HEAR A SECOND? A health and fitness studio in Columbia County is bringing a second location to Augusta and hopes to open it in October.

Fit Augustas next home is expected to be a former brick warehouse sitting on a wedge-shaped patch of land at 1110 Fenwick St. The Finem Group at Meybohm Commercial recently successfully negotiated the lease. The studio began in Evans in 2008.

Barry Slaymaker, chief financial officer at property development and management firm ATC Development, owns the property and is renovating the building.

Fit Augusta composes fitness and wellness plans for participants as young as age 8. It offers personal training, CrossFit classes, a Legends program for people 55 and older; and a Crossfit Kids and Teens program for children 8-17.

Jersey Mikes

SUBMARINE LAUNCH: A national sandwich chain is marking its new opening in Augusta with a local fundraiser.

Jersey Mikes is scheduled to open at 217 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Pkwy. on Aug. 9. It will occupy the former location of LifeWay Christian Stores, which closed in 2020.

Franchise owners Andrew Brooks and Ryan Hendrix will hold a grand opening and fundraiser from Aug.13 to support Ronald McDonald House Charities of Augusta. Customers with special fundraising coupons can make a minimum $3 contribution to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Augusta in exchange for a regular sub. Customers must have a coupon to be eligible.

The restaurants hours will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. For more information, call (762) 585-7102.

The new Augusta restaurant will be Jersey Mikes eighth location in Richmond and Columbia counties.

1-800-GOT-JUNK?

IN THE BIN: An international refuse retrieval business that bills itself as the World's Largest Junk Removal Service is establishing a franchise in Augusta.

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Mark Pettitt and his wife, Kylin, decided to start the business in Augusta four years after Mr. Pettitt joined 1-800-GOT-JUNK's Columbia, S.C., franchise and rose to the position of operations manager.

1-800-GOT-JUNK? was founded in 1989 and now operates in more than 160 locations in North America and Australia.

Miracle Infiniti of Augusta

ANOTHER MIRACLE: The Augusta areas Miracle Auto Group officially welcomed its newest location July 28.

Miracle Infiniti of Augusta is at 3300 Washington Rd. in Martinez.

On Friday, July 28, 2023, Mike Murphy, CEO for Murphy Auto Group introduced Miracle Infiniti of Augusta. The new location becomes the fifth Miracle Dealership in the Augusta area, joining Miracle Toyota of North Augusta; Miracle Nissan of North Augusta; Miracle Nissan of Augusta; and Miracle Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram of Aiken, S.C. A sixth Miracle dealership, Miracle Toyota, is in Haines City, Florida.

The local franchise rights for Infiniti are legally changing ownership from Jim Hudson Infiniti to Murphy Auto Group, and then officially becoming Miracle Infiniti of Augusta.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Now Opening: New fitness studio; sub-shop fundraiser; new junk haulers
The sales agreement signed by Nur Ink Innovations and the digital printer manufacturer is a multi-year agreement for the supply of a unique ink developed by the company

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nur Ink Innovations Ltd. (TASE: NURI), which is engaged in the research and development of various types of water-based, green, and environmentally friendly pigment inks, is pleased to report that it has signed an agreement for the supply of ink with a European company that develops, manufactures, and markets digital printing systems for printing on various clothing items.

Nur Ink Innovations Ltd. Logo

The water-based pigment ink set developed by the company in specific, was formulated in accordance to the client's requirements, is an innovative ink that contains notable advantages for the client's end users, such as exceptional resistance to abrasion in washing, high stability of the print heads - resulting in a lower need for routine printer maintenance, the possibility of printing directly onto nearly any type of fabric including dark polyester, while using a single printer, and a stretchability of over 500%, while maintaining lack of odor and non-stickiness of the printed fabric.

The ink that will be supplied to the client has received the two most important standards in the textile industry: the OekoTex Eco-Passport standard and the GOTS 7 standard.

The agreement is a long-term engagement of ink supply that includes ongoing supplies for the client's ink procurement; the agreement includes an indicative expected forecast by the client as the basis for the company's anticipated supply orders.

According to Mr. Moshe Nur, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of the company: "This agreement is proof of the company's research and development capabilities and of the innovation and uniqueness of the products we develop, and also an indubitable expression of confidence in Nur Ink as a global company that brings significant value to the world of digital printing. This is a long-term ink supply agreement that includes an ongoing supply of ink to the client - a European company that develops, manufactures, and markets digital textile printers worldwide."

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Nur Ink Innovations presently estimates that given the agreed prices, the gross profit from ink sales to this client will be about 60%. This agreement includes an indicative expected forecast by the client as the basis for the company's anticipated orders for delivery.

Nur Ink Innovations is expected to supply a water-based pigment ink set that was developed in accordance with the client's specific requirements; an innovative ink that contains notable advantages for the client's end users, such as high stability of the print heads, resulting in lower need for printer maintenance, as well as the possibility of printing directly onto any type of fabric including dark polyester while using a single printer.

Mr. Moshe Nur, chairman of the board and CEO of the company, further added: "I am very proud to have reached this day, when we signed an agreement with one of the world's leading manufacturers of digital textile printers. This agreement was signed after hard work with the client in order to develop a single and unique water-based pigment ink set that was specially formulated to the client's requirements and to various models of printers produced by the client. The agreement is made under an OEM Private Label business model, where the printer manufacturer will market our ink as its own product. In parallel, we continue adjustments and pilot processes with several other printer manufacturers and expect to sign further commercial agreements such as the aforementioned agreement.

Press contact:

Eliav Priel

Email: eliav@nur-ink.com

Office: +972 (74) 7973081 (Ext. 1)

Mobile: +972 (54) 3277271

SOURCE Nur Ink Innovations Ltd.
Francois Roux / Shutterstock.com

Around 1 million New York City residents will soon be at risk of rent increases for their rent-stabilized apartments. The New York City Rent Guidelines Board determined landlords can raise their rates by 3% on one-year leases, with an effective date of Oct. 1.

On two-year leases, the increase will happen in phases. The first year, residents will experience a 2.75% hike. The second year, the rent will go up by 3.2%.

Im a Real Estate Agent: These Will Be the Best States To Buy Property in the Next 5 Years

See: What To Do If You Owe Back Taxes to the IRS

While the price climb seems nominal, many impacted renters worry about their budgets. When youre living paycheck to paycheck, any additional cost can be tough to absorb.

Still, it could be worse. Occupants of rent-stabilized apartments pay significantly less than the typical NYC renter. The average NYC rent is nearly $3,800 per month, up more than $250 from last year.

So, how is the rest of the nation faring? Lets find out.

National Rent Price Trends

According to a recent survey by Avail (part of Realtor.com), 65% of landlords plan to raise the price of their rentals in 2023. The prospect of nearly two-thirds of property owners boosting their rates is enough to make any renter anxious. However, there is some good news. Overall, rate hikes are slowing down nationally.

Major Metro Rent Price Trends

Rental price trends vary from city to city. Heres whats happening in seven major metros:

Atlanta

Currently, the average rent is about $2,200 per month, down around $50 from last year. Rental rates are cooling a bit from the highs of the pandemic, but affordability in Atlanta has been majorly impacted by the growth many cities in the South have seen since 2020. More people move here every year, said Lauren Bowling, licensed real estate agent and blogger behind Financial Best Life.

Housing Market 2023: These 15 Cities Are Poised for the Most Stable Growth and Are Likely To Keep Their Value

Chicago

Chicagos rent price is trending upwards. In the last year, the average rate increased by more than $150, bringing it up to $1,900 per month.

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Houston

Houstons average monthly rent comes in at $1,800. The citys rental cost is holding steady, with the median price increasing by just $5 since last year.

Miami

Miamis average monthly rent rivals NYCs, coming in at $3,500. However, the expense declined by around $500 within the last 12 months.

Phoenix

Phoenixs average monthly rental fee is trending downwards, too. The price has dropped roughly $90 to approximately $2,000.

San Diego

Currently, San Diegos median monthly rent is $3,400. Since last year, the cost has decreased by about $110.

Seattle

Seattles average monthly rent has dropped by roughly $170 since last year. Currently, the median rate is around $2,300. However, former property management firm owner and certified financial planner of Embolden Financial Planning LLC Tim Melia said, In Seattle, it appears rents, after nominal changes over the last several months, may be trending up.

Protect Your Finances

The housing market is volatile for both homebuyers and renters, so its wise to know how to prepare for a rent hike. Here are some steps you can take if your landlord surprises you with a rate increase:

Breathe, and dont panic. You can figure this out. Review your lease. Does it stipulate when or how much your landlord can increase your rent? Do some homework. What are similar apartments renting for in your area? Check your budget. Can you afford the new price easily, or will you struggle to make ends meet? Consider the cost of moving. It can cost thousands to relocate. How does that expense compare with the rent increase? Try to negotiate with your landlord. If theyre charging more than the market rate, point that out to them.

Obviously, landlords are keen to get higher rents for their units, hoping current tenants will stay and pay. If a tenant is going to leave, turnover and vacancy are usually unwelcome expenses. A landlord may be inclined to be flexible in some sort of compromise to prevent vacancy, which will benefit the tenant if their intent is to stay, Melia said.

Pro Tip: Ask your landlord for a longer lease at a lower rate. Youll save money each month, and your landlord wont have to worry about filling a vacancy for an extended period. Both parties win!

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: NYC Sees Another Rent Hike  Are Other Cities Raising Rents Too?
Opponents of a plan to build a new headquarters in a rural area between Ankeny and Bondurant for Bob Vander Plaats nonprofit are appealing a judges decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the Polk County Board of Supervisors.

In February, supervisors approved a plan from The Family Leader Foundation, a Christian activist group currently based in Urbandale, to build a new headquarters on a rural site 1 1/2 miles east of Ankeny and about four miles west of Bondurant-Farrar High School. The supervisors voted 3-2 without discussion Feb. 7 to grant a rezoning from agricultural to mixed use, which would allow the development to move forward.

In March, the nonprofit 1000 Friends of Iowa, which promotes responsible and equitable land use, and landowners near the site sued the Polk County Board of Supervisors, alleging they violated the countys zoning laws because there are no similar mixed-use projects on or near the site.

The Family Leader wants to build its new headquarters on the former site of a pumpkin patch between Ankeny and Bondurant.

Polk County Judge Jeanie Vaudt found that 1000 Friends of Iowa and the landowners did not meet the heightened pleading requirements required by a 2021 law that shields police officers and municipalities from civil lawsuits to file suit. So Vaudt dismissed the case with prejudice on July 4. Plaintiffs appealed on July 28.

The 2021 law passed by the Iowa State Legislature, which proponents dubbed the Back the Blue bill, made it harder to sue public officials in civil court by creating a qualified immunity defense against claims that officials have violated someone's rights. In most cases the law has been used to shield police officers accused of misconduct from civil liability.

Whether the Iowa Supreme Court or Iowa Court of Appeals allows the lawsuit to move forward could come down to whether that law applies to non-monetary cases.

CeCelia Ibson, an attorney representing the landowners and 1000 Friends of Iowa, said in the past the Iowa Supreme Court has shown the law can shield municipalities like Polk County from civil claims where money is an issue. In this case, however, the plaintiffs are requesting the courts issue an order declaring the board's approval of The Family Leader project illegal and that the area remain zoned for agricultural uses.

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The court has already determined that statute applies beyond just police officers, Ibson said. This case is not an action for money damages. We are simply seeking a declaration by the court that the action of the Polk County Board of Supervisors violated the Polk County zoning ordinance."

For 17 years until they retired in 2021, Malinda and Darrell Geisler operated a commercial pumpkin patch and wedding venue on the site under a conditional use permit. The Family Leader plans to build an office and event space while revamping existing structures, including a silo and barn, according to its plan.

More: See where Des Moines metro's northern suburbs of Ankeny, Johnston, Grimes plan for growth

Neighbors were fine with the Geisler's use, said Sondra Feldstein, a plaintiff who, with her husband, owns land two miles east of the property. They also own a business on land two miles north of Geisler farm.

That kind of use fit in very nicely and something like that could go back in there again, Feldstein said.

Vander Plaats, The Family Leader CEO and president, said previously that none of the acreage currently used to grow row crops will be taken out of production. An unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Iowa governorship in 2002, 2006 and 2010, he told The Des Moines Register Jan. 10 that the goal is to "showcase the best of Iowa" with the property.

"Were going to try to keep an iconic farm looking like an iconic Iowa farm. I think its something that people are going to be very proud of," Vander Plaats said.

Polk County staff also found that The Family Leader project could require additional sanitary sewer and firefighting resources in the area. The road network cannot accommodate the project, according to a memo from staff members sent late last year to supervisors. The Family Leaders headquarters  and what the plaintiffs see as spot zoning  could promote urban sprawl, Feldstein said.

Ankeny has grown so fast, and theres already more traffic on that road now than there used to be," Feldstein said. "The roads are going to get way more crowded."

The Family Leader wants to buy a pumpkin farm near Bondurant for a mixed-use project.

Judge Vaudt also found that the plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue because members of 1000 Friends of Iowa did not suffer an immediate injury or have a personal interest in the contested rezoning.

While Plaintiffs are correct that the instant application rezoned the subject property from agricultural to mixed use, this rezoning decision did not occur in a vacuum, Vaudt wrote. As Plaintiffs acknowledge, the subject property has been used for years as a commercial enterprise  a pumpkin patch and events space. In this context, the rezoning application was not as significant as a traditional rezoning decision.

The plaintiffs appealed the case to the Iowa Supreme Court who could hear arguments to resurrect the case or allow the Iowa Court of Appeals to hear those arguments.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Landowners near new Family Leader headquarters appeal lawsuit dismissal
(Bloomberg) -- Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will acquire a 10.3% stake from Chinas Ant Group Co., in an unusual transaction that will make the entrepreneur the companys single biggest shareholder without paying any cash.

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Sharma, also chief executive officer of Paytm-parent One97 Communications Ltd., will increase his holding in the Indian fintech company to 19.42% while Ants drops to 13.5%, according to a regulatory filing. Ant gets convertible securities that will give it the option to recoup its stake in future. That means it can raise its holding back to above 23% at a later date, potentially benefiting if Paytms stock price rises, though the company didnt specify a timeframe for exercising that option.

For now, the deal reduces a large overhang on the market as investors had bet that Ant, the Chinese fintech pioneer backed by billionaire Jack Ma, would eventually offload a chunk of its Paytm shares. By taking control, Sharma also addresses concerns that a prominent Chinese company is running one of Indias best-known tech firms, at a time tensions between the two countries are rising.

Paytms shares surged as much as 11% Monday, building on a 50% rally in 2023. It had shed some gains and was up about 7% in late trading.

This acquisition could be for the optics of getting rid of the tag of being a Chinese company. However, the big positive is that Vijay Shekhar Sharma is increasing his commitment to the company, said Shriram Subramanian, founder of InGovern Research, a corporate governance advisory firm. The overhang of Ant selling shares will go away.

Geopolitics has complicated Paytm and Ants relationship. India has clashed with China in recent years in a dispute that hurt Chinese companies ability to operate in the neighboring country. This year alone, India issued orders to block more than 200 apps and websites, largely linked to China.

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Several Indian startups including Paytm have since come under fire domestically for ceding vast stakes to Chinese firms. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which owns about a third of Ant, completed the sale of its remaining stock in Paytm in recent months.

Read more: SoftBank-Backed Paytm Posts Narrower Loss After Winning Users

As we announce this transfer of ownership, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ant for their unwavering support and partnership over the past several years, Sharma said in the statement.

Sharma took the digital payments pioneer public in 2021 only to see the shares plummet in one of the worst performances for a major initial public offering. Shares closed Friday at 796.6 rupees ($9.63), compared with the 2,150 rupee offering price.

The SoftBank Group Corp.-backed company is beginning to staunch losses and win users in new segments such as smaller merchants. Revenue from operations rose 39% to 23.4 billion rupees in the June quarter.

This also speaks volumes about Antfin belief in Paytm as they are supporting out of way with no commercial upfront, Rahul Jain of Dolat Capital wrote in a research note.

--With assistance from Chiranjivi Chakraborty.

(Updates with details of the deal and share action in the fourth paragraph)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
(Bloomberg) -- In his four and a half years in office, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has placated Pemex investors by repeatedly giving the state oil company cash bailouts and tax cuts.

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Each time, the aid  around $77 billion and counting  temporarily alleviates pressures on the companys bonds. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the rally fades.

The pattern has led to a growing sense of fatigue among money managers who hold the debt. They argue the handouts made by AMLO, as the president is known, have done little to solve the companys deep structural problems or address growing questions about its governance and sustainability practices.

This administration really is not making a concerted effort to address investor concerns, said Edwin Gutierrez, a money manager at Abrdn in London. The latest capital injection is good news in the near term as it clarifies any uncertainty over short-term financing. But obviously these governance issues will continue to weigh on the company.

Investors are now demanding 600 basis points more to hold the oil giants notes due in 2027 than similar sovereign bonds, even though the company is entirely owned by the government. Thats about double the premium for bonds of South Africas troubled, state-owned energy company Eskom Holdings.

In a sign of how fed up markets have become with AMLOs Band-Aid approach, it took just five days for the spreads on Pemex bonds to return to some of the highest levels in years after a brief reprieve when it announced it received a $4 billion handout last month.

The same pattern that has unfolded every time AMLO has stepped in. Whether its a capital injection or a reduction of Pemexs massive tax burden, any rise in bond prices quickly fades as investors return their focus to the companys mounting debt, dwindling oil production and lack of plans to tackle sustainability concerns.

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On top of capital injections, AMLO has reduced the profit-sharing tax to 40% from 65% in the last four years, and taken every opportunity to voice his support for the driller. Pemex isnt a private company, Lopez Obrador said during a morning press conference last month. Its connected to the nation.

The capitalizations  720 billion pesos ($42.2 billion) through the end of June  have been earmarked for debt repayment and investment, ranging from the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery to the purchase of Shells stake in the Deer Park plant and other refining and fertilizer projects.

Read More: Pemex Profits Fall Amid $4 Billion Government Injection

Even though the debt isnt explicitly guaranteed by the government, AMLOs repeated pledges to support the driller made the bonds a favorite for some emerging-market investors who are attracted by the yields.

As a result, Pemex debt has rallied since AMLO took office at the end of 2018, with a total return of 15.8%, compared to 4.5% for a broad emerging-market index.

But with his departure looming after next years election, the question has turned to how much support Pemex will receive going forward, said Claudia Calich, the head of emerging-market debt at M&G Investments.

Some of the spread volatility is reflecting risks ahead for the election, Calich said. Its difficult because its a bit of the chicken or the egg  who do you blame? Do you blame the company for not being more efficient or do you blame the Mexican government?

Some Wall Street giants including Pimco have limited themselves to short-dated bonds out of concerns the next administration wont be so generous. Pemex bonds will face pressure as long as there is the lack of a plan for the medium term, said JPMorgan Asset Managements Pierre-Yves Bareau, who oversees about $50 billion in emerging-market debt.

Theres definitely a rhetoric in favor of Pemex, he said. Beyond that, theres definitely a bigger issue for the Mexicans that they need to address.

The questions over government support come on top of a litany of underlying concerns, including production thats fallen roughly by half from two decades ago, inefficient refineries, and a ballooning debt burden. The $110.5 billion it owes ranks it as the most-indebted oil major in the world both as a total number and as a ratio of its earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Read More: Pemex Says Size of Gulf of Mexico Spill Has Been Overstated

The operational woes have been brought into sharp contrast by a spate of recent incidents, including a deadly gas platform explosion in the Cantarell field complex last month, setting the ocean on fire, an oil leak nearby the site of the blast several days earlier, and a series of fires this year at half of its refineries.

That track record has alienated funds that are increasingly incorporating environment, sustainability and governance  known as ESG  standards into their portfolio. Pemex has yet to produce a long-awaited plan to address sustainability issues.

For Sergey Goncharov, an investor at Vontobel Asset Management who holds the debt, theyre all signs of a slow-motion downfall.

Its never a rapid demise, he said, but Im turning more cautious lately.

(Updates ninth paragraph with details on government support.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Istanbul, Turkiye News Direct Kontrolmatik Technologies

During a recent speech in South Carolina, U.S. President Joe Biden emphasized the critical importance of increasing domestic production in the United States. He noted Kontrolmatik's (IST:KONTR) Pomega investment in the U.S., highlighting the need for local battery cell manufacturing, as it plays a crucial role in advancing the U.S. economy. Furthermore, the President underscored the indispensable role of battery technologies in driving the transition to clean energy, describing them as a 'gamechanger' in this endeavor.

Empowering Energy Storage: Pomega's Sustainable Solutions for a Greener Future

Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) stands at the forefront of green and sustainable technologies, making significant investments in Pomega Energy Storage Technologies and its gigawatt capacity plants in both Turkiye and the United States. These cutting-edge facilities will be dedicated to the production of lithium iron phosphate (LFP/LiFePO4) battery cells and energy storage systems. With a capacity of 3 GWh each, the gigafactories will not only enhance energy supply security but also enable the seamless integration of more renewable energy plants into national grids. The factory in Ankara, Turkiye, is set to open on August 29, 2023, with plans to transfer the accumulated knowledge and technological capabilities to establish a similar factory in South Carolina, United States.

Additionally, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) holds a 50.1% ownership of Enwair, an R&D company specializing in anode and cathode material technologies for batteries, further contributing to Kontrolmatiks (IST:KONTR) and Pomegas electrochemistry R&D efforts.

The Journey of Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR): From Vision to Global Market Player

Fifteen years ago, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) began its journey as an ambitious engineering and entrepreneurial vision. Today, the company operates in 33 countries and has grown to become a prominent global market player in the dynamic fields of energy and technology. Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) offers comprehensive digital solutions covering software, hardware, and systems development and integration for various engineering applications, including energy generation, transmission, distribution, energy storage technologies, and internet of things (IoT) implementations. Listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange since 2020, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) ranks 28th among the world's largest system integrators.

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Since its establishment in 2008, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) has consistently enhanced its capabilities and embraced sustainable technology-oriented approaches in its offerings striving to contribute to a more livable and carbon-neutral world. With a strong focus on sustainability and technological advancements, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) continually invests in research and development, resulting in competitive products and solutions. With a turnover exceeding USD 100 million and a capitalization exceeding USD 1.5 billion, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) has established a solid foundation to realize ambitious growth plans across various sectors and geographies through its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Progresiva Energy Investments: Pioneering Energy Storage in Turkiye and Beyond

Progresiva Energy Investments, another subsidiary of Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR), has secured a 20-year supply license for trading electrical energy and capacity in Turkey. Furthermore, it has obtained an energy generation pre-license for a 250 MW wind power plant with a 1 GWh lithium-ion energy storage facility, which will store energy from renewable sources and release it to the grid as needed. The facility will be remotely monitored and controlled 24/7, with fully integrated battery modules, inverters, and energy management systems. These investments will extend internationally contributing to energy security and adding value in various geographical locations.

Controlix: Empowering Sustainable Solutions with IoT and Advanced Sensors

Kontrolmatik's (IST:KONTR) IoT brand, Controlix, has successfully completed large-scale IoT projects and implemented the largest facility management IoT solution at Istanbul Airport. Controlix modules are equipped with advanced sensors for environmental monitoring, whereas its integrated platform collects and analyzes data from various sources. With over 40 sensors and products, along with proprietary cloud software, Controlix serves industrial facilities, power plants, transportation, and smart cities. It revolutionizes impact analysis management by offering low-carbon modules that operate independently of stable energy sources, empowering responsible production and consumption practices. Controlix covers a wide range of sustainability areas, including water and energy resource consumption tracking, waste management, air quality monitoring, forest fire detection, environmental conditions tracking, irrigation systems management, temperature and humidity monitoring, and real-time air quality monitoring stations.

Empowering Industries through Automation: Mcfly Robot Technologies' Collaborative Robot Arms

Mcfly Robot Technologies, another Kontrolmatik's (IST:KONTR) subsidiary, has gained expertise through the development of the first collaborative robot arm prototype and commenced other prototype production studies. These robot arms, designed to work in collaboration with workers, offer solutions ranging from small and medium-scale enterprises to large industrial facilities.

Unlocking the Potential of Space: Satellite Advancements with Plan-S

With a 25% stake in Plan-S, a New Space company, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) has successfully designed, developed, tested, integrated, and qualified satellites for IoT technology demonstrations, earth observation, and tests. Plan-S plans to continue its R&D studies on satellite and satellite mission computers, communication subsystems, various payloads, modules, and ground segment terminals. The company has already launched three satellites into orbit through the Falcon 9 Transporter missions and established a new ground station in Turkiye. Future plans include additional ground stations in Turkiye and abroad. Plan-S aims to become Turkiye's leading R&D Center in space and satellite technologies, offering end-to-end turnkey solutions in the field.

Building a Sustainable Future for a Livable World: Kontrolmatik's (IST:KONTR) Commitment to R&D and Next-Generation Products

Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) remains committed to its future-oriented approach. The company will persist in completing international projects to generate profits and reinvest them in R&D for the development of next-generation products. With an unwavering focus on creating a sustainable, carbon-free, and livable future, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) will continue to invest in subsidiaries and technologies aligned with future market trends. The energy sector will remain a key focus area, with decisive steps taken to provide carbon footprint-reducing solutions. Through long-term partnerships, Kontrolmatik (IST:KONTR) will further enhance business quality, sustainability, and corporate structure. It will expand its regional presence, actively follow international projects and collaborate with local institutions to consistently deliver end-to-end value-added services and products.

Discover captivating details within Kontrolmatik's (IST:KONTR) activity reports Activity Reports (kontrolmatik.com) and investor presentations Presentations (kontrolmatik.com)

About Kontrolmatik Technologies (IST: KONTR)

Since 2008, Kontrolmatik Technologies has been providing end-to-end digital solutions in the areas of energy generation and transmission, energy storage and Internet of Things (IoT), developing innovative and green technologies for a sustainable and carbon-neutral planet. Kontrolmatik's core business is brand-independent energy system integration and automation. To date, more than 300 projects have been implemented in over 30 countries, backed by supranational financial institutions like the World Bank, IFC, EBRD, etc. Kontrolmatik is listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (>$1.5 billion market capitalization).

Contact Details

Natalija Kostrikova

+90 536 599 05 77

natalija.kostrikova@kontrolmatik.com

Company Website

https://kontrolmatik.com/en/

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/president-joe-biden-notes-kontrolmatiks-ist-kontr-pomega-investment-in-the-u-s-803208850
(Bloomberg) -- Qatar Investment Authority bought a 2.7% stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd. for about 39.2 billion rupees ($474 million) through a block deal on Monday, according to stock exchange data.

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INQ Holding, a unit of Qatars sovereign fund, bought more than 42.6 million shares of Adanis green energy arm at 920 rupees each as the embattled power-to-port conglomerate seeks international backing in a bid to recover from a scathing shortselling attack earlier this year. Infinite Trade and Investment Ltd., a founder group company of Adani Green, sold 44.9 million shares Monday, BSE data showed.

The latest QIA investment would serve as a vote of confidence for billionaire Gautam Adani, who has been attempting a comeback from the crisis triggered by Hindenburg Research. The US-based short seller in January leveled fraud allegations against Adani Group, which has denied any wrongdoing. It would also mark another major investment into the Indian tycoons conglomerate after GQG Partners. Economic Times had reported the QIA deal earlier Monday.

Separately, Adani Green last month rolled up plans to raise 123 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) to fund expansion. By selling shares through qualified institutional placement, or QIP, the renewable energy unit is looking to bring on board more institutional investors and attract more research analysts to cover the firm, a person familiar with the matter had said. Only two analysts currently track the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

For QIA, buying a stake in Adani Green is in line with its plans to increase its exposure in India. It is among parties that are in talks to buy a minority stake in Reliance Retail Ventures, Bloomberg News reported last month. Reliance Retail, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambanis daughter, is Indias biggest brick-and-mortar retailer. The QIA ranks as the worlds 10th-largest sovereign wealth fund, according to SWF Institute data.

Story continues

--With assistance from Ashutosh Joshi and Devidutta Tripathy.

(Updates with stock exchange data)

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Paulia Rico, a server at Arepazo Tapas Bar and Grille, takes the check out to a table on the patio during a lunch shift at the restaurant. The restaurant has begun charging some larger parties an automatic tip, although its owner says tips remain at pre-pandemic levels.

You visit a carryout store or a coffee shop or order a can of beer at the bar, and there it is, that touch screen, spinning toward you with suggested tips for that bottle of wine or cup of coffee or Stroh's you just bought.

What to do?

No matter where you go, you're being asked to tip. You're used to paying a tip for service at your favorite sit-down restaurant or giving something extra to the person who cuts your hair.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems the number of places looking for tips has exploded. More pressure to tip, perhaps more tipping fatigue.

Customers at Arepazo, a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, recently saw this sign upon entering.

Samantha Gerity, who was about to eat lunch earlier this week outside the Brown Bag Delicatessen in Columbus, Ohio, said she and her husband have talked a lot about tipping since a recent family trip to North Carolina.

"Personally, I feel we tip at more places where before we wouldn't tip," said Gerrity, 33, of Columbus. One reason: She said the screens aren't clear sometimes as to where to go if you don't want to tip. Often the default is 20%, she said.

But Gerity said she usually tips above and beyond because she worked in a restaurant during college and knows how important tips are to workers.

"You feel guilty not tipping," she said.

US tipping habits

In a 2022 survey of tipping habits of more than 1,000 people nationwide, PlayUSA, a Las Vegas-based website focused on the gambling industry found that 49% don't tip at restaurants with no tableside service (think Chipotle), while 83% always tip at a sit-down restaurant.

But according to this survey, 54% feel pressure to tip during iPad-style touchscreen checkouts, while 51% have tipped when they normally wouldn't because the screen asked them to.

"Everybody can relate to that," said Emily Thornton, a spokesperson on behalf of PlayUSA. "When its turned toward you, even if they cant see what you press, you feel the need to."

Nico Prokup, a server at Arepazo Tapas Bar and Grille, refills waters at a table on the patio during a lunch shift at the restaurant.

The survey found that beyond food service workers, people give tips most often to hair stylists or barbers (74%), ride-hailing drivers (54%), and taxi or shuttle drivers (47%). When it comes to coffee shop workers, just 39% of customers give them tips.

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It also said that 53% said they have not tipped because of bad service.

Tipping also varies among age groups, at least according to the PlayUSA survey.

It showed that nearly three-quarters of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers base their tips on service, and one-third of Millennials and Gen Zers tip the same no matter how good or bad service is.

Meanwhile, 90% of women consider themselves good tippers compared with 83% of men.

Are people tipping enough?

But perhaps some people aren't as generous as they think they are.

At Double Take Bar & Grill in Columbus, the owner has placed a sign in the window that says: "18% gratuity will be added to all checks. Thank you. Double Take."

Nearby, at Arepazo, a Latin American restaurant, the owners recently put up a sign that said: "Parties of 6 or more & dine-in non-tippers customers are automatically charged 20% gratuity (unless service was unacceptable!)."

Carolina Gutierrez, who owns Arepazo with her husband, Carlos, said that sometimes customers don't give fair tips to servers.

"The cost of living has increased," Gutierrez said.

"We want our staff to be taken care of. There are some customers who do not tip. That is discouraging," she said.

She said customers were good to servers right after the COVID-19 pandemic when they could eat at restaurants again. "People were very generous, happy because you were open again because the industry has been hurt," she said.

"It's come back to where it used to be," she said. "No less than it used to be."

Satia Thornton, a bartender at Arepazo Tapas Bar and Grille, talks to customers during a lunch shift at the restaurant. The two guests, Annette Grant and Sarah Karakaian, were planning a convention.

Scott Heimlich, owner of Barcelona in Columbus, said he hasn't noticed any drop-off in tips for his servers. "I do the payroll. I see the amount of tips generated by employees. It's been very consistent pre-pandemic through post-pandemic," he said, running in the 18% to 20% range, pretty standard for the industry.

John Barker, president and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association, said his group hasn't seen any noticeable drop-off in tips, which he said are still trending from 15% to 20%.

"Where I think you see fatigue is where people arent providing any service," Barker said, such as someone handing you a cup of coffee across a counter. "There's no service component at all, it's just part of the job."

Barker said tipping has experienced swings with the pandemic, with reports of high tipping when restaurants reopened. "Its reverted back to more normal," he said.

Andy Paynter, general manager at Accent Wine in Columbus, which hosts tastings and has an iPad for tips with options like no tip, along with 10%, 15% and 20%.

"We do get a fair amount of tips," Paynter said. He estimated that probably between 40% to 60% of all interactions involve one. He said he hasn't received any pushback from customers.

Those in other businesses said that their customers remain generous.

Dave Carty has owned Longview Barber Shop in Columbus since 2001. He has heard customers talk about shopping at other places and feeling pressure to tip. But he said they continue to be good to the barbers who work at his place.

"I dont hear from staff that we need to change prices because clients are not contributing as much in the past," Carty said.

Kathi Borror, who owns Exquisite Hair Salon in the city, said business has been great, and she hasn't seen any changes when it comes to tips.

"It's almost like maybe people are getting a bit more generous," Borror said.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Do I need to tip? U.S. tipping habits, fatigue and expectations
The board of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE:RGA) has announced that it will be paying its dividend of $0.85 on the 29th of August, an increased payment from last year's comparable dividend. Based on this payment, the dividend yield for the company will be 2.4%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

View our latest analysis for Reinsurance Group of America

Reinsurance Group of America's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

We aren't too impressed by dividend yields unless they can be sustained over time. Before making this announcement, Reinsurance Group of America was easily earning enough to cover the dividend. This means that most of what the business earns is being used to help it grow.

The next year is set to see EPS grow by 75.1%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 18%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.

Reinsurance Group of America Has A Solid Track Record

The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. Since 2013, the dividend has gone from $0.96 total annually to $3.40. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 13% per annum over that time. We can see that payments have shown some very nice upward momentum without faltering, which provides some reassurance that future payments will also be reliable.

The Dividend Has Limited Growth Potential

Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. Let's not jump to conclusions as things might not be as good as they appear on the surface. Reinsurance Group of America's earnings per share has shrunk at 15% a year over the past five years. Such rapid declines definitely have the potential to constrain dividend payments if the trend continues into the future. Over the next year, however, earnings are actually predicted to rise, but we would still be cautious until a track record of earnings growth can be built.

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Our Thoughts On Reinsurance Group of America's Dividend

Overall, it's great to see the dividend being raised and that it is still in a sustainable range. While the payments look sustainable for now, earnings have been shrinking so the dividend could come under pressure in the future. Taking all of this into consideration, the dividend looks viable moving forward, but investors should be mindful that the company has pushed the boundaries of sustainability in the past and may do so again.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. As an example, we've identified 1 warning sign for Reinsurance Group of America that you should be aware of before investing. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon is the largest single donor to Democratic 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s super PAC, American Values 2024.

According to campaign finance disclosures provided to the Federal Election Commission, the billionaire single-handedly contributed $5 million of the $9.8 million raised by the PAC in the first 6 months of 2023.

The revelation that the candidate, who is running as a Democrat, is being primarily funded by a Republican megadonor who contributed more than $20 million to former President Donald Trumps Save America PAC in 2020, tracks with other disclosures related to Kennedys candidacy.

A previous Rolling Stone investigation found that the Heal the Divide Super PAC, which was created by supporters of Kennedy, was heavily funded by pro-Trump figures who have previously supported a roster of MAGA-aligned politicians.

A July analysis of the Kennedy campaigns disclosures found that amongst the 96 individuals who maxed out their legal contribution to Kennedys campaign last quarter, 37 had donated exclusively to Republicans running for federal office in the past.

The financial discrepancies reflect the reality that Kennedys campaign is courting Republicans far more effectively that it is enticing Democrats. President Joe Biden continues to hold a commanding 50+ point lead over Kennedy, yet a June YouGuv survey found that Kennedys net favorability amongst prospective Republican voters is surging.

One reason for his appeal amongst Republicans may partially be attributed to his conspiratorial claims about vaccinations. Baseless declarations Kennedy has made about vaccines while on the campaign trail include that vaccine research was likely responsible for the creation of HIV, the Spanish Flu, Lyme Disease, and of course, his long standing (false) belief that vaccines are responsible for autism. Earlier this month  while discussing bioweapons at dinner  Kennedy raised unfounded claims that Covid-19 was ethnically targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people, while Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people were most immune to the virus.

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Despite it all, even some Republican candidates have taken such a shine to Kennedy that they have floated finding a place for him in their future administration  should they manage to win the general election. Last week, Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis suggested that he would consider tapping Kennedy to run the Food and Drug Administration, or the Centers for Disease Control.

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BELMOPAN, Belize, August 07, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, signed today a new development loan agreement worth USD $77 million with the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno, to fund the "Construction of the Solar Energy Plant Project" in Belize, through SFD.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807416002/en/

(from left to right): Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno, and The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Chief Executive Officer, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad (Photo: AETOSWire)

The signing ceremony was also attended by Hon. Chris Coye, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development & Investment, and by official representatives from both parties to the signing.

This agreement is part of SFDs efforts to support sustainable development in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The loan will help build a solar power plant with a capacity of 60 megawatts, along with supplying and installing solar panels to help reduce emissions from the energy sector, equivalent to 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The project will play a key role in generating socio-economic growth in the country. Importantly, it will contribute towards improving the reliability of the electrical network, it will also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance Belizes efforts towards mitigating climate change and transitioning to clean energy.

The project also supports realizing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, and SDG 13, Climate Action.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister of Belize, Hon. John Briceno explained that the solar project is timely, as Belize finds it necessary to expand its energy output because of a growing economy. More importantly, it is in line with the country's energy policy that focuses on renewable energy. This brings numerous benefits to Belize including clean energy, cost savings, energy independence, environmental sustainability, job creation and improved access to electricity to rural communities."

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On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Fund for Development, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad, said: "Todays agreement marks an important step forward in the existing development cooperation between both countries. The project to construct a solar energy plant in Belize will support the health and well-being of the local population, and help provide direct and indirect job opportunities, which will contribute towards the socio-economic growth of the country. This project reflects the importance that SFD places on mitigating climate change through smart and environmentally projects."

Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807416002/en/

Contacts

Nawaf Alojrush

alojrush@sep.gov.sa
This Everlane sale helps you update your wardrobe for the fall.

 Recommendations are independently chosen by Revieweds editors. Purchases you make through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

The summer heat is almost over and the cool comfort of fall is on the way. If you're sick of thin shirts and breezy shorts, it's time to swap out your closet with something more seasonal to head back to school and beyond. That's why Everlane is hosting a limited-time sale with stylish fall threads at early Labor Day discounts

Save 25% at Everlane

The brand is currently hosting a sale on pre-fall favorite styles available for up to 25% off. You'll find savings on women's pants, men's hoodies, handbags and shoes. Whatever you want to add to your wardrobe, Everlane threads offer relaxing comfort in chic colors to match the changing leaves coming this season. If you don't know where to start, we've found five amazing styles to shop today.

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Featured deals at the Everlane Pre-Fall Favorites sale

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From $31 at Everlane (Save $22 to $57)

Add a final touch to your outfit with the Everlane Boxy Oxford now on sale for as low as $31. Typically listed for $88, this button-up blouse is available in Ocean Cavern Plaid for a whopping 65% discount. Everlane says the Boxy Oxford is made of premium organic cotton for maximum comfort with any outfit. You'll sport a classic point collar, dropped shoulders, oversized patch pockets and a clean button front for any night on the town.

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Everlane Men's The Performance 5-Pocket Pants

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From $39 at Everlane (Save $20 to $39)

Stay warm and stylish with The Performance 5-Pocket pants for men. Normally priced at $78, the uniform-style bottoms are available for as low as $39 in Stone. Everlane says the Performance pants are made with four-way stretch fabric so they don't feel too tight while out on the town. They're also made with sweat-wicking, quick-drying fabric so you can stay comfortable even if you take a roll in the snow.

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Here's the deal: Subscribe to our Perks and Rec newsletter for daily savings on all the things you want and need.

3. Everlane The Italian Leather Day Glove Shoes

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Get these Everlane Day Glove shoes on sale for less than $65 right now.

From $61 at Everlane (Save $34 to $74)

Nothing beats Italian leather, especially on your feet, and the Everlane Day Glove shoes are a chic essential to your fanciest outfits. The brand calls the material "buttery soft" and can mold to your foot for the best possible fit. The shoes also come with side vents, rubber soles and cushioned insoles that can handle any kind of surface you need to walk through this fall. The cherry on top? They come in 10 different colors and are now available for as low as $61that's 55% off.

4. Everlane The Organic Oxford Shirt

Everlane The Organic Oxford Shirt

Get the Everlane Organic Oxford Shirt for as much as half off at this sale.

From $44 at Everlane (Save $22 to $44)

Whether you need to bundle up or want to finish a fall outfit, the Everlane Organic Oxford shirt works for any occasion. Typically listed for $88, this long sleeve shirt is available in nine different colors in standard and tall lengths for as low as $44. Everlane says the Organic Oxford gets its name from organic cotton and eco-friendly materials that use crop rotation, cover crops and organic fertilizers. You can wear it untucked or tucked in with dress pants and denim.

Heading back to school? Take advantage of the best teacher and student discounts to save

5. Everlane The Luxe Italian Leather Tote

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Carry all your essentials with ease by grabbing the Everlane Luxe Italian Leather tote bag. Normally priced at $275, this hefty accessory is on sale in all three of its color options for $69 off at $206. Everlane says the bag has a top width of 20.8 inches and a bottom width of 15.3 inches, plus a depth of seven inches that makes for a deep carrier. You can hold it all thanks to its two over-the-shoulder straps and an interior slip pocket.

Shop the Everlane Pre-Fall Favorites sale

The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or Flipboard for the latest deals, product reviews and more.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

This article originally appeared on Reviewed: Everlane sale: Save up to 25% on fall styles
(Bloomberg) -- Siemens Energy AG launched a strategic review of its wind power business as problems with its turbines are expected to cause a 4.5 billion ($5 billion) net loss in one of industrial Germanys biggest debacles.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The worsening outlook, which compares with a previous roughly 1 billion net loss prediction, marks the latest setback for the German manufacturer in getting to grips with quality flaws and unprofitable contracts weighing on its wind unit. Siemens Energys other businesses are performing well and the company has strong cash reserves.

The quality issues, which can occur in onshore turbines at some rotor blades and main bearings across two platforms, are unlikely to happen again in the same magnitude, Jochen Eickholt, who heads the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy wind unit, said Monday on a call.

The problems center on the discovery that a main piece on the frame of a wind turbine can move or twist over time, potentially damaging other critical components, people familiar with the matter have said.

Read more: Wind Turbines That Shake and Break Cost Their Maker Billions

Shares in the company, where former parent Siemens AG still holds a 32% stake, were volatile Monday, falling 4.5% at 1:30 p.m. in Frankfurt following earlier gains and losses. The moves may indicate some short covering with the company one of the most shorted stocks in Europe.

The manufacturer has been lurching from one crisis to the next in a long line of attempts to get a grip on its Spanish unit thats been loss-making for years with few comparable missteps in Germanys industrial sector. Steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG in 2013 sold steel operations in the US that caused several consecutive annual losses, while Daimler AG dumped Chrysler at a fraction of its original $35 billion price tag.

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Siemens Energy Chief Executive Officer Christian Bruch has blamed the rapid introduction of new turbines and ramping up capacity quickly for some of the issues. To better address Gamesas problems, the company last year took control of the remaining Gamesa shares it didnt already own at a cost of 4.4 billion.

Most of the deep-seated technical struggles, some of which the company is pinning on suppliers, are centered in the onshore activities, where business has been particularly tough for all turbine makers due to higher costs and lack of scale.

Record Slump

Mondays announcement marks the first update from Siemens Energy after it suspended its annual profit guidance in June. At the time, its shares slumped by a record after the company said the technical problems at the Spanish subsidiary could cost more than 1 billion to resolve. The company in January had expressed confidence it had uncovered all of Gamesas quality issues.

It has been a very demanding quarter, Bruch said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The company is now reviewing different elements in its wind business, he added, as the problems delay our path to profitability for the division.

Siemens Energy on Monday said total costs to fix the flaws in Gamesas onshore turbines will cost 1.6 billion. Despite the quality problems in the 4.X and 5.X platforms, the majority of turbines is still performing well and fixes are expected to be made during regular service intervals, Eickholt said. The main part of the repair costs is expected over the next two fiscal years.

In addition, the company detailed issues in its offshore business, where higher product costs and ramp-up challenges incurred charges of 600 million during the fiscal third quarter through June. The higher outlays mean Siemens Energy is making a loss on certain contracts if customers take delivery.

Read more: Wind Power Is in Crisis Just When the World Needs It Most

While Siemens Energys wind power business is beset by internal problems, the industry has for years suffered steep losses after soaring raw materials prices, increased transportation costs and supply chain disruptions. Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the worlds biggest wind turbine maker, earlier this year outlined a surprise first-quarter profit, leading to predictions of better times for manufacturers laboring through a backlog of unprofitable contracts.

Adding to the expected annual net loss is a 700 million writedown of deferred tax assets during the fiscal year through September. Despite the additional charges, Siemens Energy has cash and cash equivalents of around 4.3 billion.

To contain the fallout from its quality problems at Gamesa, Siemens Energy is trying to delay delivery of new wind turbines from its troubled 5.X platform by as much as seven months, people familiar with the matter have said.

Read more: Siemens Energy Looks to Delay Turbine Orders During Probe

The company will give details on its wind business review in November during an investor day.

While the wind turbine problems at Gamesa weigh on earnings and outlook, revenue and profit in the companys gas turbine and grid technology segments rose.

During the fiscal third quarter through June, revenue gained 8% to 7.5 billion after orders jumped by more than 50%. Net losses ballooned more than five-fold to 2.93 billion as as the costs of fixing issues at its Gamesa units drag on earnings.

--With assistance from Lizzy Burden.

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Fortune Business Insights

Pune, India, Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global small drone market size was valued at USD 14.04 billion in 2022 and is expected to be worth USD 16.90 billion in 2023. The market is projected to be valued at USD 77 billion by 2030, recording a CAGR of 24.2% during the forecast period.

A small drone is also known as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and is designed to take relatively short-range flights. This machine can be operated by a single person and is typically lightweight and has a low Maximum Weight Take-Off (MWTO). Small drones are also referred to as mini drones, micro drones, or nano drones. They are being increasingly used in several areas including aerial photography, defense, inspection of infrastructure, and surveying & mapping. These aspects will boost the small drone market growth.

Fortune Business Insights displays this information in a report titled, "Global Small Drone Market, 2023-2030."

Get a Free Sample Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/small-drones-market-102227

List of Key Players Profiled in the Small Drone Market Report:

SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd. (China)

Parrot Drones SAS (France)

AeroVironment Inc. (U.S.)

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (U.S.)

Guangzhou Walkera Technology Co Ltd (China)

Yuneec (China)

Northrop Grumman Corporation(U.S.)

BAE Systems (U.K.)

Elbit Systems Ltd. (Israel)

Turkish Aerospace Industries (Turkey)

Report Scope & Segmentation

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast CAGR 24.2% 2030 Value Projection USD 77 Billion Market Size in 2023 USD 16.90 Billion Historical Data 2019-2021 No. of Pages 200 Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Company Profiles, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors and Latest Trends Segments Covered By Type Analysis

By Maximum Take-off Weight Analysis

By Power Source Analysis

By End-use Analysis Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

South America

Middle East and Africa Small Drone Market Growth Drivers Rising Product Demand from Defense Sector for ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) May Catalyze Market Growth Increasing Demand for Aerial Surveying and Mapping to Boost Market Growth

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/small-drones-market-102227

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Segments:

Rotary Wing Segment to Hold Dominant Market Position Due to Beneficial Characteristics

By type, the market is bifurcated into fixed wing, rotary wing, and hybrid wing. The rotary wing segment dominated the market share in 2022. A major reason for this is the beneficial properties of rotary wing drones such as lightweight design and flight stability. These features make them suitable for a variety of applications.

Growing Demand for Search & Rescue Operations and Industrial Inspections to Boost Demand for Drones with 5-25 kg Maximum Take-off Weight

By maximum take-off weight, the market is categorized into less than 5 kg, 5  25 kg, and above 25  150 kg. The 5  25 kg segment held the largest market share and is predicted to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast timeline. This is due to the growing demand for military and search & rescue operations and industrial inspections.

Demand for Higher Payload Capacities to Boost Adoption of Fuel Powered Drones

Based on power source, the market is classified into fuel powered and battery powered. The fuel powered segment held the biggest market share in 2022 as there is a robust demand for higher payload capacities.

Defense Sector to Use Small Drones to Inspect Military Operations

By end-use, the market is segmented into defense, consumer, commercial, and civil. The defense segment accounted for the largest market share and is anticipated to be the fastest growing segment as the demand for surveillance and monitoring solutions for military applications has risen tremendously in recent years.

Geographically, the market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.

COVID-19 Impact:

Growing Demand for Contactless Deliveries and Medical Supplies for Healthcare Industry Boosted Market Growth During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic played a key role in expanding the global market share. These drones were widely used to facilitate contactless delivery of goods and closely monitor compliance with social distancing measures. These machines were also utilized to deliver medical supplies and disinfect public areas to mitigate the risk of infection.

Russia-Ukraine War Impact:

Small Drones Widely Used During Russia-Ukraine War for Various Military Operations

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has boosted the demand for small drones to conduct top secret military operations. Both the nations are using these drones to keep a close track of each others military operations and prepare their future war strategies accordingly. Both the countries defense ministries have increased their spending on advanced military technologies, such as small drones, thereby fueling their demand.

Inquire Before Buying This Research Report:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/queries/small-drones-market-102227

Report Coverage:

The research report provides a detailed analysis of the market and covers major aspects such as R&D capabilities and optimization of operating services. The report also offers insights into the regional analysis, latest market trends, competitive landscape, porters five forces analysis, and covers key industry developments. Besides the above-mentioned factors, it focuses on many factors that have contributed to the markets growth in recent years.

Drivers and Restraints:

Growing Product Demand for ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) in Defense to Boost Market Growth

Small UAVs are witnessing robust demand in the defense sector to offer situational awareness, conduct tactical missions, and gather valuable intelligence. Since these drones are quite versatile, they are being used for different military applications. They can also be used to gather information on enemy movements, monitor enemy positions, and conduct targeted strikes on enemy targets. These wide-ranging applications of small drones will boost the market growth.

Rising safety, privacy, and security concerns can hamper the market progress.

Regional Insights:

North America Dominated due to the Presence of Major OEMs

North America captured the largest market share in 2022 as the region has a vast presence of reputed OEMs and governments across the region are handing out big-budget contracts to expand and strengthen its military power.

Asia Pacific accounted for the second-largest small drone market share. The region is also anticipated to be the fastest growing region during the forecast timeline due to the notable demand for crop monitoring and surveying solutions in the agriculture sector.

Competitive Landscape:

Key Players to Focus on Product Developments and Technological Advancements

The market is fragmented with top players such as SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd., Parrot Drones, AeroVironment Inc., Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, Guangzhou Walkera Technology Co., Ltd., and others. These companies are focusing on product innovations, technological advancements, and are planning to expand into emerging markets to boost their market share.

Ask for Customization:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/ask-for-customization/small-drones-market-102227

Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Key Industry Developments  Key Contracts & Agreements, Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships Latest technological Advancements Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis Impact of Russia Ukraine War & COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Small Drone Market

Global Small Drone Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Key Findings / Definition Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Type Fixed Wing Rotary Wing Hybrid Wing Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Maximum Take-off Weight Less than 5 Kg 5 - 25 Kg 25 - 150 Kg Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Power Source Fuel Powered Battery Powered Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By End Use Defense Consumer Commercial Civil Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region North America Europe Asia-pacific Rest of the World

North America Small Drone Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Type Fixed Wing Rotary Wing Hybrid Wing Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Maximum Take-off Weight Less than 5 Kg 5 - 25 Kg 25 - 150 Kg



TOC Continued...!

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/small-drones-market-102227

Key Industry Development:

March 2023  The Finnish army purchased Parrot ANAFI U.S.A. micro-drones for USD 2.76 million. Boston Group Oy will deliver these drones to the Finlands Defense Forces for training and exercise purposes. The Parrot ANAFI U.S.A. micro-drones are anticipated to improve the troops immediate information acquisition ability for activities, such as intelligence, surveillance, and targeting of troops & weapons of various defense branches across Finland.

Read Related Insights:

Commercial Drones Market Size to Hit USD 47.38 Bn by 2029 | With a 28.58% CAGR

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Market to Worth USD 25.13 Billion by 2027 | UAV Industry to Grow at 12.23% CAGR

Drone Services Market to Hit USD 189.4 Billion by 2030 | With a CAGR 38.9%

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Fortune Business Insights delivers accurate data and innovative corporate analysis, helping organizations of all sizes make appropriate decisions. We tailor novel solutions for our clients, assisting them to address various challenges distinct to their businesses. Our aim is to empower them with holistic market intelligence, providing a granular overview of the market they are operating in.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station late Sunday, taking the company's latest batch of Starlink internet satellites on a southeastern trajectory before landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

At 10:41 p.m. EDT, the 230-foot rocket bolted off the pad at Launch Complex 40 with 22 of the internet-beaming satellites, then completed its fourth mission to date after landing on the Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship. It marked the Space Coast's 40th launch of the year.

Rocket launch schedule: Upcoming Florida launches and landings

All told, SpaceX has launched roughly 5,000 Starlink internet satellites to an orbit about 340 miles above Earth. The network supports between 1.5 and 2 million customers around the globe.

The Space Coast's next launch, meanwhile, is slated for just a few days from now: yet another Falcon 9 rocket will fly from Launch Complex 40 with more Starlink satellites between 8 p.m. and midnight on Thursday, Aug. 10. That mission, labeled Starlink 6-9, will also include a drone ship landing.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches Starlink mission, setting stage for next mission
Achieves 20% Revenue Surge in Key Markets, Demonstrating Success of Strategic Initiatives and Growing Market Demand

MIRAMAR, FL / ACCESSWIRE / August 7, 2023 / Stemtech Corporation (OTCQB:STEK)

John W. Meyer, President and COO of Stemtech Corporation, says "Stemtech, the pioneer of stem cell nutrition, is thrilled to provide an enthusiastic update to its esteemed shareholders, highlighting the remarkable business advancements achieved through its Business Academies and the dynamic efforts of its newly appointed Director of New Business Development, Jeff Weisberg. Together with our existing Field Leaders like Network Marketing Hall of Fame Member, Izzy Matos, we see enthusiastic growth with motivated existing Independent Business Partners (IBPs) as well as new direct selling professionals joining us".

Throughout the month of July, Stemtech has experienced an exceptional surge in growth in its strategic target markets - Mexico and the United States. The company proudly reports an impressive 20% increase in revenue within these key regions, underscoring the efficacy of its strategic initiatives and the ever-expanding market demand for its stem cell nutrition or stemceutical' products. One of the driving forces behind this accelerated growth are Stemtech's innovative Business Academies, which serve as a cornerstone of the company's commitment to nurturing and empowering driven individuals looking to establish their own successful enterprises. Through the academies, aspiring entrepreneurs gain access to cutting-edge resources, mentorship, and industry insights, enabling them to improve their entrepreneurial journey with confidence and competence. Jeff Weisberg has played a pivotal role in propelling the company's outreach efforts to new heights. With an unwavering dedication to fostering strategic partnerships and seizing growth opportunities, Weisberg's leadership combined with our Field Leadership has led to a substantial increase in the number of new IBPs who have joined Stemtech's thriving network during the month of July.

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The Stemtech commitment to excellence and innovation is evident in its consistent efforts to not only meet but surpass challenges. The impressive revenue growth and influx of new partners in key markets are a testament to Stemtech's unwavering focus on delivering unparalleled value and support to its partners and customers alike. This powerful combination of efficacious products for eighteen years and income-earning opportunity will continue to propel Stemtech to greater heights.

As Stemtech continues to forge ahead with its mission to empower individuals, elevate businesses, and contribute to improved quality of life through better health and financial wellness, the company remains steadfast in its pursuit of excellence and anticipates further achievements in the months to come.

ABOUT STEMTECH

Stemtech Corporation, a leading stemceutical company with a direct sales distribution model, was founded on April 18, 2018, after acquiring the operations from its predecessor Stemtech International, Inc., which was established in 2005. From 2010 through 2015, Stemtech International, Inc., was recognized four separate times on the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies list. In 2018, Stemtech underwent an extensive executive reorganization, and continued operations under new leadership as Stemtech Corporation. In August 2021, Stemtech became a publicly traded company (OTCQB: STEK) and has expanded business opportunities for its Independent Business Partners, who may earn incomes by sharing Stemtech products. January 2022 saw the introduction of new marketing efforts. In September 2022, the new Stemtech AdvanceOffice mobile app based on the VERB Technology platform was successfully launched as a powerful communication - recruiting tool for our Field On November 1, 2022, Stemtech introduced the new travel/sample size OraStem Toothpaste. On December 6, Stemtech announced the promotion of Alejandro Carrillo to the role of Vice President Global Sales from his current role as Managing Director Latin Markets. Stemtech introduced the new CellectOne Rapid Renew Stem Cell Peptide Night Cream at their December 2022 International Leadership Event in Cancun, Mexico. January 10, 2023 Stemtech appoints Margie and Mike Mares to Field Advisory Board. Stemtech has Ranked Number 11 in Momentum out of 700+ top Global MLM companies by Business For Home independent MLM publication, January 23, 2023. In March 2023, Life Factor Research became the Research and Development, product formulation - science division of Stemtech to create cutting-edge stemceuticals and other products. Stemtech conducted Field Leadership Business Academies in Aguas Calientes, Mexico May 25 - 27, and in Las Vegas, NV on June 1 - 3.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest 10-Q Report filed on May 15, 2023. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement, or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about Stemtech Corporation which are condoned by the Company must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its Source.

Investor Relations:

Gabriel Rodriguez

Email: erelationsgroup@gmail.com

Ph: 623-261-9046

Stemtech

Phone: 954-715-6000 ext 1040

Email: invrel@stemtech.com

www.Stemtech.com

SOURCE: Stemtech Corporation





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/772546/Stemtech-Showcases-Remarkable-Strides-in-Business-Development-and-Revenue-Growth




(Bloomberg) -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters balked at Yellow Corp.s efforts to blame the union for financial woes that sent the short-haul trucker spiraling into bankruptcy.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Teamsters President Sean OBrien said Monday that the union sacrificed billions to keep Yellow afloat even as the firm blew through a $700 million government bailout. The company for years used its financial troubles to extract concessions from workers, he said.

Yellows dysfunctional, greedy C-suite failed to take responsibility for squandering all that cash, OBrien said in a statement. They still dont.

Yellows management has had scathing criticism for the Teamsters in the wake of its demise, including an Aug. 6 filing in which Chief Executive Officer Darren Hawkins said the companys financial debacle was caused by the unions bullying and deliberately destructive tactics. In sworn testimony on Aug. 7, Chief Restructuring Officer Matt Doheny accused OBrien of using the company as a sacrificial lamb and said the Teamsters chief would rather see Yellow destroyed than be perceived as weak in negotiations.

The Nashville-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it seeks to sell assets to cover a $737 million loan from the US government and $485 million of debt from private lenders. The USs third-largest less-than-truckload carrier began winding down operations last week, throwing 30,000 people, including 22,000 union members, out of work.

Yellow at one point was USs largest trucking company by sales after an acquisition spree in the early 2000s that saddled the company with debt. Then the financial crisis forced bondholders to swap debt for equity to keep the trucker afloat. Losses piled up and the company had to restructure its debt again in 2011.

Story continues

During the pandemic, the US government provided Yellow with an emergency loan that the administration said was needed to protect Defense Department suppliers. As part of that deal, the US Treasury took an equity stake of about 30% in the company.

Read More: Yellows Downfall Throws $700 Million US Covid Loan in Jeopardy

Combining Units

Yellows management sought to save the company by combining its different trucking units, which mostly have operated separately since the acquisitions, a plan that would have increased efficiency. To implement the plan, Hawkins needed the union to sign off on the changes. The two sides agreed to open their labor contract about a year early to discuss the plan, but those talks never got off the ground.

The union threatened to strike after the company said it needed to defer a $50 million payment to a centralized pension fund and, in turn, the company sued the union for not negotiating in good faith. That strike was averted after the pension fund operator gave the company more time while keeping worker benefits intact. But customers began to leave, forcing the company to file for creditor protection.

The union points to two labor agreements, ratified in July for the less-than-truckload units of ArcBest Corp. and TFI International, to rebut Yellows accusation that the Teamsters werent willing to negotiate in good faith. The units of ArcBest and TFI both pay their union workers more than Yellow does, the union has said.

Yellow had said the union was using Yellows situation in talks with other companies. The Teamsters reached a tentative agreement in July with United Parcel Service Inc.

Read More: They Blinked: UPS Call Led to $30 Billion Teamsters Win

When mismanaged companies like Yellow cry about needing more flexibility to modernize, theyre telling you they want to take advantage of workers, said Fred Zuckerman, general secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters, in a statement. Yellow benefitted from historically low labor costs compared to other freight leaders, yet they still managed to drive the company into the ground.

Yellow has an incentive to break the company into pieces  or restructure it into something unrecognizable  to avoid its obligation to the Teamsters collective bargaining agreement, said Bruce Markell, a former bankruptcy judge who now teaches at Northwestern Universitys Pritzker School of Law. Federal law requires new business owners to honor existing labor agreements if operations stay more or less the same, but they may toss out labor contracts if the workforce changes substantially.

It is rare for a union to drag a company to insolvency, Markell said, yet they often are left empty-handed in bankruptcy because other creditors are given priority.

I used to say welcome to the land of broken promises, because thats what bankruptcy is, Markell said.

--With assistance from Jeremy Hill.

(Adds commentary from bankruptcy expert in final three paragraphs.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
FILE PHOTO: A Tesla logo is seen outside a showroom of the carmaker in Beijing

By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Tesla finance chief Zachary Kirkhorn has stepped down, surprising analysts who considered the company veteran of 13 years as a possible successor to CEO Elon Musk.

The world's largest electric vehicle automaker did not give a reason for the departure. Vaibhav Taneja, 45, replaced Kirkhorn as of Friday and will also retain his role as head of accounting. Kirkhorn plans to stay on at Tesla until the end of the year to support "a seamless transition," it said.

The depth of Tesla's executive bench and the company's succession planning have been issues of concern for investors, especially since Musk's 2022 purchase of Twitter, now known as X. In addition to his responsibilities at Tesla and X, Musk is also CEO of satellite firm SpaceX and owns brain-chip startup Neuralink.

Kirkhorn was seen as an effective and soft-spoken balance to the more volatile Musk and was one of the most visible executives who often spoke on calls with analysts and made presentations on strategy and products.

"He was able to be an effective liaison communicator between Elon and other executives ...that would be a skill set that is hard to come by and very valuable but hard to quantify," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, a Tesla investor.

Shares of Tesla were down 1% in trading after the bell.

Kirkhorn's departure comes as Tesla readies the first deliveries of its delayed Cybertruck and works to complete a plant in Mexico dedicated to a mass-market EV that will be the basis for a robotaxi.

During Kirkhorn's tenure, Tesla posted its first quarterly profit after ramping up production of the Model 3 compact sedan and hit a market valuation of more than $1 trillion.

"Being a part of this company is a special experience and I'm extremely proud of the work we've done together since I joined over 13 years ago," Kirkhorn said in a LinkedIn post.

Story continues

Kirkhorn did not respond to queries when contacted on LinkedIn.

"That he's going to be around until the end of the year is evidence that this is just for personal reasons and the personal reason is likely that working with Elon Musk is really hard and he's done it for 13 years," said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management.

Kirkhorn's decision to step down marks the highest profile executive change at the company since long-time executive Jerome Guillen, who oversaw its electric Semi truck development, left in 2021.

"I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years. Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career," Musk said in a post on X.

Taneja spent nearly 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the big four accounting firms, before joining solar panel maker SolarCity in 2016, the same year that it was acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion.

At Tesla's shareholder meeting in May, investors rejected a proposal that asked the board to report on Tesla's "key person" risk. Musk said then he had no intention of leaving.

Tesla director James Murdoch said in November that Musk had identified a potential successor without naming that person.

The Austin, Texas-based automaker this year cut prices of its cars across all of its markets in a move that prioritizes sales growth and market share but squeezes its industry-leading margins. It has also hinted at more price cuts in what Musk called "turbulent times."

Many analysts have accepted the case for Tesla's valuation and its ability to fund its aggressive growth plans - in part because of the company's success in taking costs out of production.

"In this industry, in this business, you survive or you die based upon the ability to manage your costs," Kirkhorn said at Tesla's investor day in March.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Kevin Krolicki in Singapore; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Arun Koyyur and Edwina Gibbs)
By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) -Tesla finance chief Zachary Kirkhorn has stepped down, surprising analysts who considered the company veteran of 13 years as a possible successor to CEO Elon Musk.

The world's largest electric vehicle automaker did not give a reason for the departure. Vaibhav Taneja, 45, replaced Kirkhorn as of Friday and will also retain his role as head of accounting. Kirkhorn plans to stay on at Tesla until the end of the year to support "a seamless transition," it said.

The depth of Tesla's executive bench and the company's succession planning have been issues of concern for investors, especially since Musk's 2022 purchase of Twitter, now known as X. In addition to his responsibilities at Tesla and X, Musk is also CEO of satellite firm SpaceX and owns brain-chip startup Neuralink.

Kirkhorn was seen as an effective and soft-spoken balance to the more volatile Musk and was one of the most visible executives who often spoke on calls with analysts and made presentations on strategy and products.

"He was able to be an effective liaison communicator between Elon and other executives ...that would be a skill set that is hard to come by and very valuable but hard to quantify," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, a Tesla investor.

Shares of Tesla were down 1% in trading after the bell.

Kirkhorn's departure comes as Tesla readies the first deliveries of its delayed Cybertruck and works to complete a plant in Mexico dedicated to a mass-market EV that will be the basis for a robotaxi.

During Kirkhorn's tenure, Tesla posted its first quarterly profit after ramping up production of the Model 3 compact sedan and hit a market valuation of more than $1 trillion.

"Being a part of this company is a special experience and I'm extremely proud of the work we've done together since I joined over 13 years ago," Kirkhorn said in a LinkedIn post.

Story continues

Kirkhorn did not respond to queries when contacted on LinkedIn.

"That he's going to be around until the end of the year is evidence that this is just for personal reasons and the personal reason is likely that working with Elon Musk is really hard and he's done it for 13 years," said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management.

Kirkhorn's decision to step down marks the highest profile executive change at the company since long-time executive Jerome Guillen, who oversaw its electric Semi truck development, left in 2021.

"I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years. Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career," Musk said in a post on X.

Taneja spent nearly 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the big four accounting firms, before joining solar panel maker SolarCity in 2016, the same year that it was acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion.

At Tesla's shareholder meeting in May, investors rejected a proposal that asked the board to report on Tesla's "key person" risk. Musk said then he had no intention of leaving.

Tesla director James Murdoch said in November that Musk had identified a potential successor without naming that person.

The Austin, Texas-based automaker this year cut prices of its cars across all of its markets in a move that prioritizes sales growth and market share but squeezes its industry-leading margins. It has also hinted at more price cuts in what Musk called "turbulent times."

Many analysts have accepted the case for Tesla's valuation and its ability to fund its aggressive growth plans - in part because of the company's success in taking costs out of production.

"In this industry, in this business, you survive or you die based upon the ability to manage your costs," Kirkhorn said at Tesla's investor day in March.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Kevin Krolicki in Singapore; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Arun Koyyur and Edwina Gibbs)
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn stepped down after 13 years at the electric-vehicle maker, a surprise shakeup that raises new questions about succession in the top ranks of Elon Musks company.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Kirkhorn, one of just four executive officers and a prominent voice for the company with shareholders, resigned from his duties Aug. 4, the company said Monday in a regulatory filing. Hell continue to serve in an unspecified capacity through the end of the year to support a seamless transition.

Chief Accounting Officer Vaibhav Taneja took on the CFO role in addition to his current duties, Tesla said. Taneja, 45, held several positions at the EV maker before becoming accounting chief in 2019. He previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and the US.

Read More: Musks Finance Chief Quietly Tallies Profit Surge at Tesla

Tesla shares fell 1% in New York. The stock price has more than doubled so far this year.

Kirkhorns departure comes as Tesla builds a new factory in Mexico and prepares to bring its Cybertruck pickup to market as it fends off rivals in the increasingly crowded EV market. Tesla has lowered prices across its lineup to maintain its position atop the electric-car industry.

Hes done a 13-year tour of duty working for Elon, which is like working 50 years for anyone else, said Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management. The fact that hes sticking around until the end of the year bodes well for the transition.

Still, the departure of Kirkhorn, who was considered a top contender to succeed Musk as chief executive officer, renews uncertainty over leadership at Tesla. It also instantly raises the profile of Taneja, who wasnt among the 16 executives invited on stage with Musk at an investor meeting in March.

Story continues

Musk thanked Kirkhorn in a tweet and acknowledged that his tenure wasnt an easy one. He didnt give any hints about what might be next for the outgoing executive.

Kirkhorn joined Tesla in 2010 as a senior financial analyst and was promoted five times, most recently to CFO in early 2019 at the age of 34. Before he took over, Tesla had a long history of losses and occasionally burned more than $1 billion of cash per quarter. The company has been consistently profitable since then and repaid about $10 billion of debt in the last three years, helping it secure investment-grade ratings. It also joined the S&P 500 Index in December 2020.

Kirkhorn, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, worked under his predecessors as CFO, Deepak Ahuja and Jason Wheeler. He spoke at length on Teslas quarterly earnings calls and was well-regarded by investors for reining in costs. He regularly talked about how recurring revenue from software would play an increasing role going forward.

Zach did a great job expanding margins, said Munster. Usually when companies scale up production, their margins come under pressure. He threaded the needle, and thats a hard thing to do.

Kirkhorn owned 197,540 shares as of last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, a holding valued at about $49 million. He recently sold about $1 million of shares.

Being a part of this company is a special experience and Im extremely proud of the work weve done together, Kirkhorn wrote Monday on LinkedIn. I also want to thank Elon for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people.

Kirkhorn was a calm, steady presence on earnings calls, in stark contrast to Musks infamous bombast.

Ark Investment Management CEO & Chief Investment Officer Cathie Wood said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday that she will miss Kirkhorns presence but that Taneja is well-suited to take on the CFO job.

We will miss him but his successor has been at Tesla right underneath him since 2018, Wood said of Kirkhorn and Taneja. He trained his successor well.

Tesla is the largest individual contributor to Arks flagship Ark Innovation ETF. It accounts for almost 11% of the net asset value of the fund, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The executive added Master of Coin to his job title in early 2021, about a month after Tesla disclosed it had made a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. The tongue-in-cheek title was given at the same time Musk became Technoking of Tesla.

The companys filing Monday did not mention Master of Coin as one of Tanejas roles as new CFO.

--With assistance from Craig Trudell, David Welch and Ed Ludlow.

(Updates with Musk tweet in eighth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
In this article, we will find which countries take in the most immigrants and discuss the impact of such high immigration rates on the host countries. If you want to skip the details, head straight to the Top 10 Countries With The Most Immigrants.

United States, Germany, and Saudi Arabia are the top countries with the most immigrants, housing millions of foreign-born people, both legally authorized and unauthorized. On the Middle Eastern side, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are amongst the nations with the highest immigrant populations, who come here predominantly for labor. If we talk about the distribution of immigrants, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Report 2022 states that 67% of migrant workers are in high-income countries (around 113.9 million people), 29% in middle-income countries, and 3.6% in low-income host countries.

While legal immigrants go through extensive authorization processes to settle in a new country and pay hefty amounts for that, unauthorized immigration continues to be a contentious issue in countries receiving the most immigrants. The US struggles with this issue significantly, with an estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants, per recent estimates. Likewise, the European Union faces challenges, with irregular arrivals peaking during the 2015 Syrian refugee and migration crisis when over a million migrants crossed into Europe. The handling of the situation spotlighted divisions within the EU. Some member states, like Germany and Sweden, initially welcomed large numbers of refugees, while others, such as Hungary and Poland, strongly resisted mandatory quotas for refugee resettlement.

We have already covered 25 Countries with the Highest Proportion of Immigrants; give it a read to know about the percentages of foreign-born people in these countries.

Unrest Caused By Immigrants

Illegal immigration is a pressing issue in immigrant-friendly countries like the United States, Germany, and the UK as it impacts their economic and welfare systems. The Pew Research Center reported that in 2017, the US had 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants, making up 23.7% of the entire immigrant population at that time, and the number reached 11 million as per recent estimates. Most unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and India.

Story continues

While immigration, in itself, can bring benefits, such as a diverse workforce and more skilled people, unregulated and illegal entries are draining for host countries. For instance, about 17% of the US labor force consisted of immigrants in 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Likewise, in 2018, 32% of immigrant adults in the US had a bachelor's degree or higher, close to 33% of US-born adults with bachelor's degrees. Also, illegal immigrants contribute to the economy through consumption and by paying some form of taxes.

On the other hand, immigrants also disproportionately use public resources such as healthcare and education, often without contributing a proportionate share in taxes. This imbalance can strain public finances and compromise services for legal residents. The labor market in countries with the most immigrants is another area of concern, as illegal immigrants often work in low-skilled jobs, sometimes suppressing wages in those sectors.

According to the Public Policy Institute Of California, non-native workers' wages are 12% lower than American-born workers, which explains how immigrants can change wage distribution. Notably, un-skilled immigrants, and sometimes illegal non-natives, also fill labor shortages in industries like agriculture and hospitality. Yet, the fact that many are exploited due to their illegal status  with lower wages, longer hours, and poor working conditions  presents a serious humanitarian and economic concern.

The welfare system is also affected by immigration as, in some cases, illegal immigrants can indirectly access welfare benefits through their US-born children. An old study by the Center For Immigration Studies revealed that 63% of non-citizen households received some form of welfare benefits, compared to 33% of native households. If we talk about numbers, immigrants spent 11.1% (or $294 billion) in all means-tested welfare and entitlement benefits in 2020. Although non-documented non-natives cannot generally access welfare benefits, this aspect eventually leads to debates about the fairness of these practices and the sustainability of the welfare system.

Companies Integrating Foreign-Born People

A growing number of companies in developed countries with the most immigrants are integrating foreign-born people into their workforce, recognizing the talent and diverse perspectives they bring.

In the US, where immigrants account for around 17% of the labor force as of 2020, technology firms like Google and Microsoft stand out for their comprehensive efforts. These companies often sponsor H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers, actively recruit international students, and provide support with legal, relocation, and cultural adaptation processes. Similarly, in the UK, companies are keen to tap into the skills of immigrants. For instance, the National Health Service (NHS), the UK's largest employer, relies heavily on international workers, that comprise nearly 16.5% of its workforce as of 2020.

Moreover, settling in a new country takes time, and during that, resources like commute, housing, and healthcare determine how comfortable their transition is. In this aspect, companies like Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) are important. For immigrants without immediate access to personal transportation, the ride-sharing feature offered by Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) ensures affordable and convenient transportation. Also, as Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT) offer flexible employment opportunities, they can help less-educated and non-skilled immigrants make a living in a new country.

Let's now move towards leading nations for immigrants.

Top 30 Countries With The Most Immigrants

Top 30 Countries With The Most Immigrants

Our Methodology

We ranked countries with the most immigrants according to the number of foreign-born people they are currently housing. Our primary source to find immigrant-dense countries was the Migration Data Portal, where we selected the International Migrant Stock Total indicator to find the top countries with the largest immigrant populations. Other sources for this study were the International Organization For Migration Report 2022, The World Bank's Migrants, Refugees, and Societies Report, and the Knomad Database.

Note: The distinction between unauthorized and authorized immigrants is unclear, and the authorities present limited data on them. Therefore, we have selected the top 30 countries with the largest immigrant populations based on their number of foreign-born people, whether permanent residents, unauthorized residents, or refugees.

According to our findings, here are the nations with the greatest number of immigrants:

30. Qatar

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.2 million

Qatar has one of the world's highest percentages of foreign-born residents, with expatriates comprising around 77.3% of the total population. But as the country's population is small, the number of foreign-born people is a mere 2.2 million. Notably, the nation heavily relies on migrant labor driven by its booming economy, especially in the construction and service sectors. Despite the economic dependence, ongoing concerns about labor rights and the kafala sponsorship system exist.

29. Argentina

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.3 million

Argentina's immigrant population has its roots primarily in Europe, mainly Italy and Spain. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Argentina was one of the countries with the highest number of European immigrants, second only to the United States. In recent years, there has been a noticeable influx of immigrants from neighboring Latin American countries, notably Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru.

28. Netherlands

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.4 million

The Netherlands has had strong migratory ties with its former colonies, including Indonesia, Suriname, and the Dutch Caribbean islands. The country has also seen an influx of labor migrants from Turkey and Morocco since the 1960s. More recently, the country has experienced an increase in asylum seekers from conflict-ridden areas like Syria and Eritrea.

27. Oman

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.42 million

Oman's economic development after the oil boom in the 1970s led to a surge in its foreign-born population, who mostly live here are temporary workers. The majority of expatriates in Oman are from South Asian countries, primarily India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. There is also a sizeable community of Western expatriates in managerial and technical roles.

26. Switzerland

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.5 million

Due to bilateral agreements facilitating movement, Switzerland's foreign-born population is mostly from EU and EFTA countries. Italians, Germans, and Portuguese constitute some of the largest foreign communities, giving the Swiss land a place amongst countries with the most immigrants.

25. Singapore

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.5 million

Singapore's immigration landscape is linked to its formation and growth. The country has three predominant ethnic groupsChinese, Malay, and Indian. Its rapid economic development has also attracted professionals and laborers from all over the world. The Foreign Manpower Management Division in Singapore oversees the influx of foreign workers to ensure that sectors like construction, domestic services, and healthcare are adequately staffed.

24. Ivory Coast

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.6 million

The Ivory Coast is a magnet for migrant workers in West Africa, owing to its comparatively robust economy. Immigrants mostly enter the country from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea and come in search of work, especially within the agriculture sector.

23. Japan

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.8 million

Japan has recently become more accepting of immigrants (or temporary workers) from China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, due to labor shortages and an aging population. In 2019, Japan implemented a new visa system to allow more foreign workers into the country. This was in response to the severe labor shortages in agriculture, nursing, construction, and hospitality.

22. Iran

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.81 million

Iran is not a usual name that pops up among countries with the most immigrants. Still, the country's current foreign-born population of 2.81 million says otherwise. Iran hosts one of the world's largest refugee populations, primarily consisting of Afghans fleeing instability and conflict in their homeland. These Afghan immigrants, alongside a smaller number of Iraqis, often find employment in unskilled labor sectors.

21. South Africa

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 2.9 million

South Africa attracts foreign-born individuals from neighboring Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, and other countries, many seeking employment and better living conditions. Notably, xenophobic tensions have occasionally surfaced in the country that, result in social and political challenges. Also, South Africa's tertiary institutions, such as the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand, are renowned in the region. Students from neighboring countries often immigrate for higher education.

20. Kuwait

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.1 million

Kuwait's 72.8% population is foreign-born, which makes 3.1 million people as of current. Like other Gulf countries, Kuwait relies heavily on foreign labor, particularly from Asian and Arab nations, to support its robust oil economy. Most of these immigrants are temporary workers and must have a renewed visa to stay in the country.

19. Pakistan

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.3 million

Pakistan doesn't have many foreign-born residents, as it's primarily a country of emigration rather than immigration. That said, it has hosted a significant number of Afghan refugees over the decades due to conflicts in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's political conflict and severe economic downfall have pushed its people into a loop of uncertainty. But regardless of this, 3.3 million people in the country are foreign-born.

18. Jordan

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.5 million

Jordan has a long history of welcoming refugees and migrants, especially from Palestine, Iraq, and, more recently, Syria. Consequently, nearly 3.5 million people in the country are foreign-born. The nation has demonstrated commendable hospitality in hosting refugees but often faces economic and infrastructural pressures which impact locals and newcomers alike.

17. Malaysia

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.56 million

Malaysia is both a destination and a transit country for migrants. It houses 3.56 million foreign-born residents, mostly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Foreign workers in Malaysia support agriculture, construction, and domestic service industries.

16. Thailand

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.6 million

Thailand, although a tourist hotspot, is also a destination for immigrants and temporary settlers. As of recent data, less than 5% of the population is foreign-born, which makes up 3.6 million people. Most of these are migrant workers from neighboring countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. While the country welcomes expatriates and retirees, there are strict visa regulations, so permanent residency is challenging.

15. Kazakhstan

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 3.7 million

Kazakhstan also contributes to migration patterns due to its historical position between Europe and Asia. Roughly 3.7 million people are born in another country from neighboring countries. The nation has put forth efforts to attract ethnic Kazakhs living abroad to return. While they have frameworks to support returnees, accepting other immigrant groups is limited.

14. India

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 4.9 million

India has one of the highest emigration rates to the US, Canada, and the UK. But the country also houses 4.9 million foreign-born people, mostly refugees, students, or workers. India has traditionally not been a significant destination for immigration due to its dense population and economic challenges.

13. Ukraine

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 5 million

Ukraine's position in Eastern Europe resulted in a mix of cultures and peoples. Currently, the foreign-born population is below 5 million, as the country does not actively seek immigrants. Notably, Ukrainian people have generally been accepting of immigrants, especially of those who share linguistic or cultural ties.

12. Turkey

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 6.1 million

Turkey's strategic location between Europe and Asia makes it a crossroads for many. Around 6.1 million of its population is foreign-born, with a notable influx of Syrian refugees in the past decade. Turkey has showcased a mixed response to immigrants because while there's significant acceptance and integration of some communities, others face challenges stemming from political, social, or economic reasons.

11. Italy

Number Of Residents Born In Another Country: 6.4 million

Italy has seen big waves of immigration, which have made its foreign-born population estimated at over 6.4 million. Interestingly, the country transitioned from being a major source of emigrants to a receiving country. Also, Italy has faced assimilation challenges, resulting in mixed public sentiment even when the immigrants have rejuvenated an aging workforce.

Click to continue reading Top 10 Countries With The Most Immigrants.

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Disclosure: None. Top 30 Countries With The Most Immigrants is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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Traveling abroad for any reason  whether its for work, school or holiday  can be exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. After all, youre going to a different country where many things could be different from what youre used to. And even if you go somewhere relatively similar to home, youre still sure to find something new wherever you go.

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Thats why its important to be prepared before you travel. Get your finances organized and have a realistic travel budget in place. It also means you should know where and how to access your money in the case of a financial emergency. After all, emergencies can happen to even the most seasoned, best-prepared travelers.

Here are the best ways of making sure youre prepared for anything and can access your money quickly and securely while abroad.

Enroll in Online Banking

Many banks have online and mobile banking services. Provided you have a secure internet connection, you can use this service to monitor your funds and make quick transfers.

The first thing you need to make sure of is that youre enrolled in online banking, said David Triana, account executive at Delight Labs. If that is an option, your first point of contact should be family and friends. Services like Zelle can immediately wire funds to your bank account from family and friends if youre in a dire situation and need funds immediately.

See: Why Nobody Is Buying Vacation Homes Anymore

Use Local ATMs

If you have a debit card on hand, find an ATM and withdraw money from your account.

Cash can easily be withdrawn internationally at bank ATMs, instead of independent ATMs, with debit or credit cards, as the fees are much less and the likelihood of a bad actor skimming your card information is less, said Alise Saunders, owner at Tales From An Untamed Soul.

The same can be said for certain credit cards, especially those from major credit card companies.

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Credit cards like American Express allow for a limited cash withdraw from eligible ATMs, Saunders said. American Express can assist you, through their Global Assist Hotline, to find an ATM, get an interpreter, get a message to someone back home or even an English-speaking doctor in an emergency.

Use Travel Insurance

Having travel insurance can give you much-needed peace of mind while traveling, but it also can help in the case of financial emergency.

Purchase travel insurance that provides real-time reimbursements on common travel snafus  such as delays and cancellations  as well as a provider that pays claims in real time, so you dont have to wait until you return home or pay significant fees out of pocket, said Lauren Gumport, vice president of communications and brand at Faye Travel Insurance. Modern, new travel insurance providers have hit the scene to provide real-time reimbursements on common travel inconveniences.

Most travel insurance policies have a facility to access cash in an emergency, said Murtaza Khanbhai, founder at Reward Flight. If youve lost access to your money or need it for some emergency, the insurance company can arrange for cash to be picked up either at a local bank branch or a Western Union branch. Of course, the definition of an emergency will depend on the policy youve taken out, but its always best to read the [fine print] before traveling.

Barter or Trade With the Locals

In some cases, you might be able to barter with the locals for some quick cash in exchange for a valuable of your own.

I recommend bartering or trading because its pretty easy to get quick cash through this approach, said Anton Radchenko, co-founder at Air Advisor. On my trip to Egypt last year, I lost my wallet and needed urgent cash, so I traded a Ukrainian souvenir in exchange for cash. As you can see, bartering or trading is a brilliant way to get some quick cash especially if youre in an emergency situation overseas.

Contact Your Home Countrys Embassy

Before traveling, check to see where your countrys closest embassy or consulate will be at your destination. Then, let them know your travel plans.

Connect with your countrys embassy in the country youre visiting, Radchenko said. Youre valuable to them and citizens interests are taken as a priority, so youll definitely receive some assistance from them in the event of an emergency.

Connecting with the embassy also can help with matters of personal identity and financial security.

Be very careful with your personal and financial information, Triana said, and make sure to have your countrys embassy information stored away in case any issues do arise.

Use Emergency Cash Services

Some banks and credit card companies offer emergency cash services, said James Kinsella, travel expert from Turtle Trip. A colleagues purse was stolen in Rome in 2018, and her bank offered an emergency cash service, enabling her to pick up cash from a local branch the same day. Check if your bank offers this service before you travel.

Contact Your Bank

Ideally, youll have already informed your bank about your travel plans  after all, doing this can keep your account from being flagged when you try to use it overseas. If youre traveling and your funds have been frozen, contact your bank either via mobile app or international phone number so you can access your money again.

Use Your Banks International Services

See whether your bank offers international money transfer services.

Companies like Western Union or MoneyGram allow someone back home to send money that can be picked up at various locations worldwide within minutes, Kinsella said. This can be a lifesaver in an emergency.

Some U.S. banks have locations internationally like Chase, Citi, HSBC, Charles Schwab and more, Saunders said, making it easy to move money between your accounts, make a withdraw in person, get in-branch assistance, lower fees or use their ATM.

Have Multiple Forms of Money on You

To avoid a financial emergency in the first place, its a good idea to have multiple forms of money on your person.

Always take multiple sources of money and separate them from each other physically, Khanbhai said. Take at least two credit or debit cards with you and keep them in different bags in case one gets lost or stolen. When leaving your hotel room, dont take all your cards with you in case your wallet gets stolen.

Carry an additional debit or credit card of a different provider to have an alternative payment method if one card encounters issues, added Shreya Patel, marketing manager at Lowest Flight Fares. Bring a small amount of local currency in case you encounter places that dont accept cards or experience ATM unavailability. If available in your destination, consider using contactless payments like Apple Pay or Google Pay for quick and secure transactions.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Traveling Abroad? How To Access Your Money in an Emergency
(Bloomberg) -- Yellow Corp. filed for bankruptcy and will remain shuttered  throwing 30,000 people out of work  after the trucking firms long-running financial woes were compounded by a dispute with the Teamsters Union.

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The carrier will sell its warehouses and trucks in order to repay a pandemic-era, government loan of $737 million and another $485 million in debt it owes private lenders, according to court papers filed Monday in bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. The Chapter 11 petition gives Yellow breathing room from creditors as it winds down and solicits bids on its assets.

The companys shares are already reversing some of last weeks gains, plunging as much as 40% as of 11:07 a.m. New York time Monday.

It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business, Yellow Chief Executive Officer Darren Hawkins said in a statement. For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers.

The shutdown will leave Yellows roughly 30,000 employees jobless, according to a statement. The company has already fired at least 3,500 people, court papers show. Yellow and the American Trucking Associations are launching a jobs database to help employees find work, the company said.

The company also expects to obtain some fresh cash to fund its wind-down and pay certain wages accrued prior to the bankruptcy. Yellow will keep about 1,650 workers to help it shut down and sell its assets, the company said.

The Nashville-based Yellow blamed its collapse on union officials, claiming that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the most powerful labor groups in the US, refused to help management revitalize the long-struggling business. It had previously traded barbs with Teamsters, saying the union had gummed up plans to reshape its trucking divisions.

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Funding During Bankruptcy

During the pandemic, Yellow received a $737 million loan from the Trump administration to keep the company afloat. The debt made up 95% of what was dispersed under a Cares Act program to offset losses for businesses critical to national security, but Congressional investigators last year concluded the company was ineligible for the loan.

Yellow claims that it may be able to fully repay that taxpayer loan and its other secured debt if it gets enough cash from selling its assets.

To fund its wind-down, the company plans to borrow as much as $142.5 million and to refinance another $501 million in older debt, according to court papers. That money is being provided by Yellows current lenders, who were the only investors willing to give the company more money.

Investing giant Apollo Global Management is among the companys biggest private lenders and was involved in putting together the new loan package, court documents show.

Read More: Trucking Firm Yellow Mulls Asset Sale Through Bankruptcy Filing

Earlier, the company had notified union officials that it planned to file for bankruptcy after ceasing operations, according to a statement from the Teamsters. Trucking firms and other companies across the shipping industry have been burdened by a slowdown in freight demand coming out of the pandemic.

Yellow is the third-largest less-than-truckload carrier, meaning it accepts shipments that dont fill a whole trailer. The company has been struggling financially as it stares down more than $1 billion of debt that matures in 2024.

Bankruptcies tend to bite less-than-truckload carriers hard because shippers often divert their loads to competitors, weakening already-struggling companies in a manner similar to bank runs, Bloomberg Intelligences Lee Klaskow said in a July 27 note.

Yellow has faced years of financial stress. The company staved off a bankruptcy filing in 2009 after bondholders agreed to swap debt for equity, only to have to restructure again in 2011.

The case is Yellow Corp. 23-11069, US Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware (Wilmington).

--With assistance from Subrat Patnaik, Giulia Morpurgo, Jonathan Randles and Amelia Pollard.

(Updates throughout with details from court papers.)

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Some workers were informed of Yellow Corporation's decision to shut down when they found entrances blocked and gates locked Sunday morning, Monday, July 31, 2023, in Copley, Ohio.

NEW YORK  Trucking company Yellow Corp. has declared bankruptcy after years of financial struggles and growing debt, marking a significant shift for the U.S. transportation industry and shippers nationwide.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was filed Sunday, comes just three years after Yellow received $700 million in pandemic-era loans from the federal government. But the company was in financial trouble long before that  with industry analysts pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back decades.Former Yellow customers and shippers will face higher prices as they take their business to competitors, including FedEx or ABF Freight, experts say  noting Yellow historically offered the cheapest price points in the industry.

The filing was expected as hundreds of Yellow Freight employees at Akron-area company locations in Copley, Green and Richfield were left jobless last week.

Yellow in Akron area: Collapse of trucking giant Yellow leaves local workers in the lurch

"It is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business," CEO Darren Hawkins said in a news release late Sunday. "For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers."

Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation's largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company had 30,000 employees across the country.

The Teamsters, which represented Yellow's 22,000 unionized workers, said last week that the company shut down operations in late July following layoffs of hundreds of nonunion employees.

The Wall Street Journal and FreightWaves reported in late July that the bankruptcy was coming  noting that customers had already started to leave the carrier in large numbers and that the company had stopped freight pickups.

Those reports arrived just days after Yellow averted a strike from the Teamsters amid heated contract negotiations. A pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, avoiding a planned walkout  and giving Yellow "30 days to pay its bills," notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15.

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Yellow blamed the nine-month talks for the demise of the company, saying it was unable to institute a new business plan to modernize operations and make it more competitive during that time.

Teamsters Local 24 member Charles Ferrell of Copley discusses Yellow's shutdown, Monday, July 31, 2023, in Akron, Ohio.

The company said it has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware for permission to make payments, including for employee wages and benefits, taxes and certain vendors essential to its businesses.

Yellow has racked up hefty bills over the years. As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.

In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds.

A congressional probe recently concluded that the Treasury and Defense departments "made missteps" in the decision and noted that Yellow's "precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss."

The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.

The financial chaos at Yellow "is probably two decades in the making," said Stifel research director Bruce Chan, pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s.

"At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore," he said.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Trucking giant Yellow Corp. officially closes, declares bankruptcy
(Bloomberg) -- Tyson Foods Inc. will shut down four additional chicken facilities after fiscal third-quarter sales trailed even the lowest of analyst estimates. The companys shares dropped the most since May.

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Production from the facilities, which are based in Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri, will be moved to other locations as the meat supplier seeks to boost capacity utilization and reduce costs, according to Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson. Tyson declined to provide details on the number of jobs impacted by the closures.

Its a difficult decision, the executive said in an interview. But for the long-term future of Tyson, this is the right choice to make.

About 3,000 people work at the facilities that are slated to be shut, according to a person familiar with the matter. It remains unclear how many positions will be cut as Tyson plans to relocate at least some of them to other plants, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

Net income for the three-month period ended July 1 was 15 cents per share, down 92% from a year earlier, the company said in a statement. That compares with an analyst average estimate of 26 cents per share. Sales were down roughly 3% from a year earlier, trailing even the lowest analyst estimate.

Shares of Tyson, the biggest US meat company, fell 5.5% as of 1:45 p.m. in New York trading.

An unusual combination of headwinds including tight cattle supplies, high feed costs, and a chicken and pork supply glut sent meat producers profits plunging this year. Even before Mondays announcement, the Springdale, Arkansas-based company had moved to cut corporate staff and shut two under-performing operations as part of efforts to slash costs.

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Quarter over quarter, the market conditions have not really changed materially. We recognize were not where we need to be, John Tyson said in the interview. On the flip side, the CFO said hes really pleased with the performance of Tysons brands, particularly in retail.

The average price for pork fell 16.4% from a year earlier in the quarter, with prices for chicken shrinking 5.5%, the company said. Volumes were down for both beef and pork. Tyson also wrote down a combined $448 million in its chicken and international businesses.

Tysons chicken losses contrast with results from Pilgrims Pride Corp., which reported a better-than-expected profit for the quarter and signaled improving conditions.

Read More: Pilgrims Pride Signals Worst Is Over for Chicken Suppliers

Tyson shares have slumped almost 30% in the past 12 months through Fridays close.

(Updates with number of impacted workers in fourth paragraph.)

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FILE PHOTO: Logos of Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are seen in Zurich

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -UBS on Monday announced an overhaul of its investment banking division, including naming the unit's M&A chiefs, marking a key step in integrating Credit Suisse.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti is seizing on the opportunity presented by the rescue takeover of Credit Suisse in March to reorganize its investment bank to better compete against Wall Street firms.

UBS is hiring top bankers from competitors as well as promoting staff from within its ranks and Credit Suisse as part of the shake-up, which will also lead to hundreds leaving.

As a result of the investment bank overhaul, Credit Suisse's David Kostel will become global co-head of coverage, while Tom Churton, also from Credit Suisse, was named global chief of staff, a memo to staff seen by Reuters showed.

Christian Lesueur, who was global head of TMT Investment Banking at UBS, has been promoted to global co-head of coverage and will continue to oversee technology, media and telecoms, which will now be split into two groups.

Nestor Paz-Galindo and Marc-Anthony Hourihan will be global-co-heads of M&A in the merged organization.

UBS said Michael Santini, former executive chair of global banking, is among executives who will leave as a result of the changes, some of which were reported on by Reuters on Friday.

In the Americas, UBS appointed Solon Kentas and Jeff Hinton as heads of mergers and acquisitions and Brad Miller as head of equity capital markets. Michele Cousins will lead leveraged capital markets in the Americas and Anthony DeRosa and Yuriy Oren will be co-heads of leveraged finance, according to a separate memo.

Among the group of more than 40 senior executives announced by UBS to lead the Americas businesses, 12 came from Credit Suisse.

In the Americas, the financial institutions group leader will be Vik Hebatpuria; Emre Gunalp will lead global industries; Seth Damergy and Jason English will co-head healthcare; and Max Justicz and Diron Jebejian will lead the financial sponsor group.

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Among the global group heads based in the Americas, UBS appointed Terry Sullivan as global head of the financial institutions group, and David Kostel as global head of healthcare. Consumer and retail will be led globally by John Levin, the memo added, and TMT will have Neil Meyer as global co-head.

In APAC, UBS has put together a team which its regional head Gaetano Bassolino said "has the potential to be the undisputed leader" due to the "combined footprint and complimentary platforms" in the region.

The line-up is tasked to compete with major Wall Street banks which had to launch rounds of layoffs to downsize their banking workforce since late last year amid China dealmaking slump.

UBS veteran Basolino remains head of global banking. John Lee, who was UBS vice chairman and head of Greater China, and former Credit Suisse banker Kuan-Ern Tan will co-head Asia country coverage, according to an internal memo sent by Basolino, which was seen by Reuters.

Former Credit Suisse head of North Asia M&A, Keith Leung, will remain on UBS M&A team, which will continue to be co-headed by Samson Lo and Nick Brown, the memo said.

Christian Deiss, former Credit Suisse head of Asia-Pacific M&A, will take a new role of co-head of global industries group Asia.

Former Credit Suisse head of Asia-Pacific TMT, Allan Chu will head UBS TMT sector coverage jointly with Axel Granger and Tim McKessar, the memo said.

A Hong Kong-based UBS spokesperson declined to comment.

UBS could axe around 30% of its combined workforce, which has expanded to 120,000 after the state-brokered rescue, Reuters reported in June, with Credit Suisse's investment bank, back office, and its Swiss retail bank likely taking the biggest hit.

Hundreds of Credit Suisse bankers have already left to other institutions and UBS has been laying off employees from Credit Suisse's investment bank around the globe.

Around 80% of Hong Kong-based investment banking staff at Credit Suisse will be laid off and the cuts will start from this week, Reuters also reported on Monday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

Hong Kong makes up Credit Suisse's biggest share of investment bankers in Asia.

Other UBS changes announced on Monday include Marc Warm, who will join David Slade as global co-head of leveraged and debt capital markets, while Scott Lindsay and Robin Rankin will both be global M&A chairman.

(Reporting by Andres Gonzalez, Oliver Hirt, Tatiana Bautzer, Scott Murdoch, Kane Wu and Selena Li; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Stephen Coates)
(Bloomberg) -- The US government will have to write off billions of dollars of student loans from borrowers who died during the pandemic, adding another complication to a system ill-equipped to handle the resumption of payments this fall.

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Some 300,000 borrowers are estimated to have died since March 2020 when the pause was initiated, according to Adam Looney, an economist at the University of Utah whose research includes student loan policies.

Even if that number were cut in half  which demographers say would be quite conservative  the government likely lost out on over $5 billion, according to a Bloomberg analysis of government data.

Death is one of the only ways to get out of paying student loans, as the debt dies with the borrower. Payments are set to resume in October  which is likely to be fraught with logistical challenges due to fewer companies administering the loans and outdated computer systems.

The payments lost due to borrowers who have died is just a small fraction of the total, but its still meaningful to a government with shakier finances. Fitch Ratings downgraded the USs credit rating last week, highlighting the debt pile that the nation has built up in recent years, largely due to pandemic stimulus and tax cuts.

The Department of Education did not respond to requests seeking comment.

The calculation to arrive at the lost revenues is twofold. First, Bloomberg asked economists and demographers to estimate how many borrowers died during the forbearance period. Loan holders skew older now than before the pause and thus have a higher probability of dying.

Looney, who has testified before Congress on the implications of President Joe Bidens student loan policies, applied the death rate to the ages of borrowers, which amounted to 93,000 deaths per year. Several of his peers say the figure is reasonable, including Ronald Lee, a demographer and economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

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The number is entirely plausible, Lee said. I thought that was impossibly high. But it is not, not at all.

Looney cautioned that the estimate  about 300,000 in total  could be cut in half after factoring in differences in income, education, occupation, marital status and other factors that affect health and longevity. However, Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, said that would be too big of a cut, and just reducing it by 25% would be plenty.

Bloomberg then calculated what the average borrower owes, dividing the total amount outstanding ($1.6 trillion) by the total number of borrowers (46 million). That came out to roughly $35,720 per person.

By multiplying that by the conservative estimate of 150,000 deaths, it amounted to about $5.36 billion of lost student-loan payments.

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HONG KONG, Aug. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Valtech Valuation, a Hong Kong-based boutique firm in valuation advisory, industry research and risk consulting, has recently launched a Valuation Dashboard to analyse the latest market startup valuations by various industries, stages of funding rounds, along with other value drivers. The Dashboard can help dedicated valuation professionals, analysts and business owners to quickly check the valuation landscape of a particular scenario.

(PRNewsfoto/Valtech Valuation Advisory Ltd)

Back in 2022, Valtech has launched an application for public use to provide useful reference materials and allow potential valuation clients, typically finance management of publicly listed corporates, to reach Valtech seamlessly. In 2023, Valtech has further escalated its research commitment to cover quick assessment on fast growing startup companies.

Valtech's Dashboard can derive valuation insights on various financial and non-financial value drivers. For example, a biotech company with pipelines in regenerative therapy solutions can be benchmarked against the market valuations obtained by comparable funding rounds and clinical stages. A drug discovery company that utilised AI for initial molecule screening can be benchmarked against a pool of hybrid characteristics with pharmaceutical and AI exposure. With the Dashboard, Valtech's professionals, analytics and business owners can obtain insights from a more customised dataset of comparable business.

Mr. Max Tsang, Director of Valtech, said, "Following last year's launch on our app ecosystem on financial valuations, we are glad to further extend our coverage to start-ups and fast-growing business with alternative and non-financial KPIs. Mr. Jimmy Wong, another Director of Valtech, said "Valuation is about exploring and presenting evidence from multiple dimensions. Having a bird's eye view of the value drivers is a strong boost to the comprehensiveness of our analysis to support a startup's capital agenda."

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As of today, Valtech professionals have contributed to help multiple startup projects from HKSTP and Cyberport. Some of them have completed Series A and latter series of funding rounds. We are delighted and proud to be one of the trusted valuation advisors to have worked with many fast growing business stories in Hong Kong.

About Valtech Valuation

Valtech Valuation Advisory Limited combines specialized expertise, technology and database to provide wide range of industry-leading valuation and related analyses (such as expected credit loss estimation, distressed debt valuation etc.). We have solid track record in valuation advisory for listed companies (including blue chip stocks), private equity, startups, fund managers and financial institutions. We work closely with international accounting firms, corporate financial advisors, fund managers and legal advisors. Valtech Valuation has established its presence in two dynamic Asian hubs - Hong Kong and Singapore.

For more information on Valtech, its valuation and advisory services, visit https://valtech-valuation.com/.

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Concerns have been expressed in the last year or so about how Artificial Intelligence could one day replace many roles that traditionally required a human being. You dont have to look far to see a robot or machine working in a position traditionally held by a human, from self-checkouts to customer service chatbots.

Make Money With AI and ChatGPT: How To Earn $1,000 a Month

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On the flip side, theres also the possibility that AI could add more jobs to the economy. With the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence, many experts suggest that money can be made. We researched how to make money with AI and the skills needed to succeed.

What Types of Jobs Can You Find Working in AI?

The good news is that this space has created numerous opportunities despite the fears that robots could replace millions of jobs in the coming decade. Here are the types of jobs that you can find in AI:

Machine Learning

Machine learning engineers are in high demand in the field of AI currently. You should have strong software skills and be able to apply predictive models. Youre going to have to work with massive data sets as well.

This may be one of the more challenging jobs to gain in this field, as you will need at least a bachelors degree in computer science along with years of experience in the field.

Data Scientist

Data scientists are responsible for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting large data sets with machine learning and AI systems. Those in this role are relied on for collecting, storing and making sense of the data to improve business decisions.

For a practical example, it should come as no surprise when the Facebook algorithm or the Netflix suggestions are accurate, as copious amounts of data sets have been analyzed to improve the individual user experience.

Youll need some sort of a degree in mathematics or have extensive experience working with machine learning.

More: 11 Best ChatGPT Plugins To Use for Making Money

AI Product Manager

Once a product is created, the Product Manager is needed to determine the market fit. This person will be utilized to manage the creation, application and overall management of products in the AI space. While the innovations in this field are astonishing, the firms behind them still have to ensure a market fit. A product manager will work with software developers, business strategists, and data scientists.

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To find an AI product manager job, you should have a background in project management with some sort of a degree in this field.

Coding/programming

With the rise of AI-powered tools across various industries, theres an increased demand for those with a coding or programming background. The credentials needed to find work in this space will depend on the type of coding platform that the company uses.

User Interface

You may be experiencing the user interface work daily, from your Alexa device in your home to the self-checkout at the grocery store. UX designers can expect to make an average salary of close to six figures, depending on their experience in the field.

This job requires a mix of technical and soft skills. The good news is that you can take a course from Google or IBM and be certified within months.

Prompting

A recent type of work that has popped up involves prompting. There are even startups dedicated to prompting alone. Jobs are available in prompt engineering that can pay over $300,000 that dont require a background in engineering.

Prompt engineers are responsible for training AI chatbots to have better responses. For example, Anthropic recently had an open position for someone to work in prompt engineering that paid up to $375,000. The kind of education you need for this type of work is usually self-education, as the chatbot just came out last year, and instantly, many new opportunities were popping up.

Theres even a prompt marketplace that allows you to sell your prompts or hire prompt engineers. If youre looking for a side hustle, there are various ways that you can take advantage of chatbots to make some extra money on the side, from writing articles to social media management.

Its also worth mentioning that the credentials and skills required to work in AI-related jobs are rapidly changing as new tools are released.

Other Ways To Make Money in AI

There are numerous startups and businesses that are being built around using generative AI and AI-powered tools. These companies are hiring for positions across numerous fields, from customer service to brand ambassadors.

Its also important to remember that almost every company utilizes AI at some level, so your current role may already have a machine learning component, or there could be the potential for you to transfer roles into a department that focuses on some sort of AI-powered tools.

You can also use AI to grow your current business. Weve highlighted various examples of business ideas based on using ChatGPT, from personal training to data collection.

Recommended Skills for Working in AI

While some of the jobs in the field of AI will require an extensive background in engineering or coding, the work you find in this field doesnt always have to be technical. You can learn more about AI by taking a course online or earning a certification from Coursera or the University of Michigan.

AWS even offers free online courses so that you can educate yourself on this space. From there, you could either get a salary raise at your current job or find new work based on your training.

When it comes to soft skills required to work in AI, Microsoft recently commented on the importance of emotional intelligence since one still has to determine when to leverage AI and when to rely on a human being. The report also discovered that the other key skills needed to thrive in this new environment are analytical judgment and flexibility.

Its clear that generative AI is changing the workforce, and were still in the early stages.

Closing Thoughts

Theres money to be made from working with AI and understanding this field. Some jobs in AI will require extensive education and years of experience, but there are also jobs in AI that have just been created since the introduction of chatbots in late-2022 that could be obtained by taking an online certification or through self-education.

You can even create your own business from scratch using an AI chatbot as a personal assistant. The opportunities for work in AI are truly endless.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Want a Job Working With AI? Youll Need These Skills To Succeed
The Cowboy Preacher Shares Heartbreaking, Heartwarming Memoir

Monty Rieck's new book, Eli's Road Less Traveled, reveals God's faithfulness despite difficulty

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Aug. 7, 2023

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Aug. 7, 2023 /Christian Newswire/ -- A broken heart, bankruptcy and back surgery didn't prevent God from using Monty Rieck for a higher purpose. Rieck, author of the autobiography I Am Eli, announces the sequel Eli's Road Less Traveled: Hanging Up My Spurs, and Hanging Onto Jesus, will be published on Monday, August 7.

This second book in The Cowboy Preacher Series share's Rieck's faith-filled journey, experiencing triumph through tragic events. Although he had to put his rodeo dreams to bed, Rieck found a new calling that the devil didn't like. Facing incredible difficulties like dealing with spousal infidelity, divorce and becoming a single father to three rambunctious boys, God used Rieck to bring many to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

"I read this book in one sitting," said Dean Wilson, president and CEO of The Turner Foundation. "Monty allows us to walk alongside him through great personal suffering and loss. And he does it with hope. Why? Because of Jesus. This book series is a testament to the grace and goodness of our Goda God who can do anything."

Rieck recounts how God moved him to share the gospel with old friends, homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics while recovering from debilitating back surgery which prevented him from earning a living. Through it all, God blessed Monty and gave him a new calling.

Eli's Road Less Traveled picks up where the first book in the series, I Am Eli, leaves off. In I Am Eli, Rieck explains how God never gave up on him while he chased dreams of becoming a professional rodeo cowboy. Along the way, he drank heavily, did drugs, nearly died and made other bad decisions. Yet, God had plans for him, eventually chasing Rieck down with His loving, saving grace -- which changed everything including a new identity.

A retired, fourth-generation plumber, Rieck resides in Santa Barbara with his wife Heidi, where he attends Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, and is teaching himself to play the fiddle. Between he and his wife, they have eight children and twelve cherished grandchildren. Subscribe to Monty's news at cowboypreacher.us.

SOURCE PublishPro

CONTACT: David Jahr, 805-452-4180
Warren Buffett's former deputy who snagged her job with a daring letter says the risk of doing so is 'pretty low'  so why not try. Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Warren Buffet protege Tracy Britt Cool famously got her job with Buffet by asking for one in a letter in 2009.

She said on CNBC Make It that the risk of doing so is pretty low, "so why not try?"

As a student, her letters also secured her meetings with Morgan Stanley's and Bear Stearns' CEOs.

Tracy Britt Cool famously got her job at Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway, after writing him a letter in 2009. She says doing so was a no-brainer.

"The risk is pretty low  it's that someone is going to say 'no.' So why not try?" she told CNBC Make It in a report published Sunday. It is not immediately clear when the interview took place.

Her letter to Buffet earned her a meeting with the Oracle of Omaha, to which she brought corn and tomatoes from her farm as an homage to their shared Midwestern upbringing, the New York Times reported in July 2022.

And the letter paid off, with her landing a job as a financial assistant to Buffet, before rising quickly through the ranks to become one of Buffet's top lieutenants, according to a Bloomberg profile of her.

While her letter to Buffet helped land her the job, Britt Cool told CNBC that she also wrote letters to executives she admired while still a student. These letters resulted in meetings with the CEOs of Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns.

"I wasn't doing it because I wanted a job. That's not why I reached out to people. I was doing it because I wanted to become more thoughtful," she told CNBC, per the report.

Comparing the reachouts to her college scholarship applications, she said this persistence "requires the discipline and the time and the energy to do it. And to invest in that."

Britt Cool spent a decade working at Berkshire Hathaway before striking out on her own in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported. In her decade-long stint at Berkshire, she chaired four of the company's subsidiaries and was one of its few senior female executives.

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Her work even earned her the moniker of "the fireman" from Buffet, who told the Journal that "anything I've assigned her she's done a first-class job on."

After leaving Berkshire, she started her private equity firm Kanbrick in 2020. In her company's annual letter published in April, she took a jab at "meme stocks" and touted the "iPhone moment" that artificial intelligence was experiencing.

Britt Cool isn't alone in her proactive approach to career building. Similar audacious letters landed Madonna her first film gig but got Hunter S. Thompson rejected from the Vancouver Sun.

Britt Cool did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Recently I was carded for trying to buy a lemonade. I thought the cashier was joking. Then she pointed to the label reading spiked. I laughed and opted for a regular lemonade instead, since it was 2 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Its an easy mistake to make these days when just about every non-alcoholic drink has an alcohol-infused, or spiked, twin. Coconut water, cold brew, Mountain Dew, Fresca, AriZona Iced Tea and even SunnyD are just a sample of the spiked beverages being sold across the country.

To me, it seems like the market peaked. How many more drinks are left that havent already hopped on the spiked booze train? Apparently, a lot.

Nowadays, just about every non-alcoholic drink has an alcohol-infused twin. - Casey Brooke Lawson/AP Images for HARD MTN DEW

Were not near a peak on this. Were really at the very beginning, said Duane Stanford, editor of Beverage Digest, an industry trade publication.

What started the spiked beverage trend?

Spiked beverages have been around for a while. But until recently if you wanted, for instance, a vodka and cranberry youd have to purchase a bottle of vodka and some cranberry juice separately to mix it yourself.

Brands recognized that this was happening with their non-alcoholic beverages all the time, said Stanford.

Consumers are already using the non-alcoholic Simply brand as part of their mixology regimen, Jamie Wideman, vice president of innovation at Molson Coors, told CNN ahead of the companys Simply Spiked Lemonade launch last year. So, bringing that into the ready-to-drink space was a no-brainer, she added.

But it took some time for brands like Simply, which is owned by Coca-Cola, to reach that realization.

For decades, it was generally frowned upon for non-alcoholic beverage brands to enter the alcoholic beverage market, Stanford said.

There was also a perception that a non-alcoholic brand becoming associated with alcohol would damage or harm the brand in some way, said Caleb Bryant, associate director of food and drink reports at Mintel, a market research firm. And on top of that, theyd have to comply with a complicated legal landscape in the United States where laws for selling alcoholic beverages vary by state.

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It didnt seem worth the time and money when people would just turn to beer.

Enter: spiked seltzer

But around 2016, beer sales started flagging, while seltzer and liquor sales were growing. Brands like White Claw and Truly Hard Seltzer took advantage of the trend by pre-mixing and bottling low-calorie seltzer with liquor, creating a sweet spot in the market with drinks that have comparable alcohol percentages by volume to beer. They succeeded beyond expectations. In fact, their products were in such high demand at one point that there were shortages.

White Claw was among the first beverage companies to recognize the changing consumer tastes in the alcohol market. - Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Coca-Cola took advantage of the trend and created its own hard seltzer version of Topo Chico in partnership with Coors, which hit shelves in 2021. Its been one of Coca-Colas most successful hard beverage launches to date, Dan White, chief of new revenue streams at Coca-Cola, told CNN.

When more beer brands started to see that hard seltzers were taking a bite out of their market shares, they began producing their own alcoholic seltzers.

When that market became saturated and sales began declining, alcohol brands once again needed a new source of growth.

Spiked seltzers success opened a door and had a renaissance for ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, said Bryant.

It also widened the potential consumer base outside of beer, said Adam Rogers, research director at IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, adding that brands sought to cater to a new market of drinkers who craved alcoholic drinks that masked the taste of alcohol.

That inspired Coca-Cola to make spiked Simply juices as well as a canned Jack and Coke in partnership with Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey and Brown-Forman.

Were very thoughtful in selecting and approving the use of our trademarks on beverage alcohol products, and the success of these products is a testament to that process, said White. Were continuously evaluating our consumers preferences and its our goal to deliver more options for more people during more occasions throughout the day, he added.

Newcomers like Cutwater, a canned cocktail brand, and traditional liquor brands like Absolut also started making premixed cocktails.

Ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages, an umbrella category that includes premixed cocktails, flavored malt beverages and hard seltzer, accounted for $10.9 billion in US sales over the past 12, months, a 7% increase from last year, according to data Nielsen IQ shared with CNN.

Flavored malt beverages like Simply Spiked made up the greatest share of sales within the RTD category with $4.4 billion in US sales over the past 12 months, a 21% increase from last year. These drinks tend to have lower alcohol content than premixed cocktails that are spirit-based.

Hard seltzer, meanwhile, had $3.8 billion in sales over the past 12 months, a 14% decline compared to last year. Although spirits-based drinks accounted for a small sliver of total RTD sales in the US - $1.5 billion over the past 12 months  they are one of the greatest sources of growth with sales up 55% from a year ago, according to Nielsen.

The nostalgia generation

Every year, the alcoholic beverage industry gets a new class of (legal) drinkers to sell to. That forces the industry to come up with fresh ideas that cater to their generation.

Gen-Z has become known as the nostalgia generation that prefers to look back on the simpler times they grew up in, devoid of AI and TikTok.

Thats part of the reason why disposable cameras and flip phones have made a stunning revival.

Gen-Z drinkers who've been using SunnyD as a mixer can now find the beverage of their childhood with an adult twist. - Sunny Delight Beverages Co.

SunnyD Vodka Seltzer, which launched in March, was a direct response to an influx of posts across social media from people now of drinking age who grew up drinking SunnyD, said Ilene Bergenfeld, chief marketing officer at SunnyDs parent company Harvest Hill Beverage Company.

SunnyD declined to share sales data.

As a brand, we recognized the love for SunnyD as a mixer and recognized that the canned cocktail industry was growing, she told CNN. This seemed like the perfect time to give SunnyD fans what they were asking for and make consumer lives easier.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
(Bloomberg) -- Wheat extended gains after Ukraine used sea drones to cripple a Russian naval vessel and an oil tanker over the weekend, posing a risk for a key export route for Russian commodities through the Black Sea.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Top wheat shipper Russia moves most of its grain through the waterway. It is in the midst of a second bumper harvest, making this a crucial time for getting crops to markets and ensuring enough supply to constrain global food costs.

In addition to the spike in grain costs, the attack could also prompt increases in freight and insurance, said Andrey Sizov, managing director at SovEcon. Risks in the region have grown after the recent strikes on Ukraines Odesa and Danube terminals, followed by the attacks on vessels near Russia.

During recent weeks, we made a few large steps climbing up the escalation ladder, Sizov said by phone.

Futures in Chicago climbed as much as 4.1% to $6.59 a bushel on Monday. Milling wheat in Paris rose about 2.4%.

The risk in the Black Sea is increasing by the day and any threat to Russian exports is much more potent than a threat to the Ukrainian export corridor, said Ole Houe, chief executive officer at broker and adviser IKON Commodities.

Still, commercial ships continued to pass through the Kerch strait Saturday after the attack, Bloomberg reported. Chicago wheat futures remain more than 15% lower this year as Northern Hemisphere harvests roll in, replenishing near-term supplies in some major exporters.

Read More: Ukraines Drone Attack Yet to Jolt Insurance for Black Sea Ships

Egypt, one of the worlds top buyers, plans to hold a fresh import tender on Tuesday. That will offer fresh insights into which wheat-export origins remain the most competitive, after the nation primarily booked Russian supply in its prior tender last week.

Story continues

--With assistance from Keira Wright.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
In just the last two years, Web3 has been on a rollercoaster ride of fortune. Hailed as the future of the internet as well as the crypto and blockchain spaces all at once, Web3 had a difficult set of expectations to meet even from the beginning. By the summer of 2023, many prominent voices inside and outside of the Web3 space have criticized the project heavily. One popular website, Web3 is Going Just Great, purports to keep a running total of all of the scams and fraud in the crypto space with a Grift Counter. As of August 2, 2023, the counter totals about $67.8 billion in fraud.

There are many reasons why detractors of Web3 can argue that the project is not yet successful. These range from the fraud above to a widespread decline in venture capital heading toward Web3-focused companies to problems with project utility to wild swings in the crypto market and much more. In such a turbulent world that is dominated by strong personalities and potentially large sums of speculative cash flying around, its perhaps to be expected that high-profile feuds and fights will develop. Some may argue that these battles do nothing to help Web3 overcome its many hurdlesand, in fact, that they may exacerbate some of the problems that critics point to.

In this list, we look at the top five most famous feuds in Web3 history.

1. Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg

Undoubtedly the most high-profile feud in the Web3 (or Web3-adjacent) space is the ongoing tension between Tesla CEO and owner of X (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk and Meta (formerly Facebook) founder Mark Zuckerberg. Musk and Zuckerberg are among the wealthiest people on the planet (Forbes places them at #1 and #7, respectively, as of this writing), and they both have legions of fans as well as scores of detractors. Their fighting also pre-dates the Web3 project by many years.

Will Elon Musk Fight Mark Zuckerberg in a Cage? You Can Bet on It

In the fall of 2016, a $200-million satellite built by Zuckerberg exploded in an pre-launch accident on a rocket for SpaceX, another of Musks companies. Zuckerberg pinned the blame on Musks company, writing on Facebook at the time that SpaceXs launch failure destroyed our satellite.

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Zuckerberg took another shot at Musk the next year, when he commented on artificial intelligence naysayers as being irresponsible. Though he didnt mention Musk by name, the billionaire was widely seen as the primary target of Zuckerbergs comment. Indeed, Musk took to Twitter to respond, calling Zuckerbergs understanding of artificial intelligence limited.

The popular site Web3 is Going Just Great keeps a Grift Counter.

Musk escalated in 2018 when he publicly joined the Delete Facebook movement following the companys political scandal with Cambridge Analytica. Both SpaceX and Tesla deleted their official Facebook pages. He has never reinstated official pages for either company. Musk went on in later years to call Facebook lame, urging followers to delete their accounts, and blaming Facebook for the events of January 6th, 2021 in Washington, D.C.

After Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, Zuckerberg seemed to make an attempt to bring the temperature down. The latter executive praised Musks early handling of Twitter, saying Musks decision to lay off a substantial portion of Twitters staff was probably good for the industry.

However, any potential calming of the waters did not last long. Twitter advertisers have left the platform in droves since Musk took over leadership, opening up space for rivals to assert dominance. Meta Platforms recently launched Threads, designed as a direct rival to Twitter, and Musk escalated the rhetoric with Zuckerberg. Following the news of Threads launch, Musk tweeted Im sure Earth cant wait to be exclusively under Zucks thumb. Musk even floated the idea of a cage match between the two; Zuckerberg responded seriously, saying send me location. Musk didnt back down: Vegas Octagon was his response. There was even a famous shirtless photo produced as part of the sparring.

Twitter's 'X' Rebrand: All the Things Elon Musk Has Planned for the 'Everything App'

This back-and-forth heated up through June of 2023. As of this writing, no public plans for a real cage match have been announced, but neither has there been any apparent ceasefire between the two billionaires.

2. Vitalik Buterin vs. Craig Wright

Craig Wright is a polarizing figure in the crypto world. Hes the self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoindeveloped by a pseudonymous figure or figures known as Satoshi Nakamotowho is known for being particularly litigious. In fact, he launched five separate lawsuits against prominent figures in the cryptocurrency community who all publicly questioned Wrights claims of creating the most famous crypto of all.

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, was the most high-profile target of Wrights lawsuits. At Deconomy 2018 in Seoul, South Korea, Buterin asked why a fraud was allowed to speak at the conference, referring to Wright. Buterin followed that question up with a public repository of links to materials from cryptocurrency experts supporting the assertion that Wright is not, in fact, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Is Craig Wrights Campaign to Convince the World That He Invented Bitcoin Over?

Wrights lawyers asked Buterin to retract his comments and apologize. When Buterin didnt meet their request, Wrights legal team then served a formal writ against Ethereums developer in the U.K.

What happened next is somewhat unclear. According to Buterin, Wright allowed the time limit to expire without following up on the lawsuit, and nothing happened. Wright says, though, that Buterin declined to respond to the letter, effectively denying the lawsuit due to discrepancies in libel laws between the U.K. and other parts of the world.

The feud has continued more recently as well, as Wright has sought to codify his legal status as Satoshi and Buterin has continued to lash out, calling Wright a not very intellectual person, among other comments.

3. Roger Ver vs. Everyone

Roger Ver is sometimes referred to as Bitcoin Jesus for his early and outspoken support of the nascent cryptocurrency. However, in more recent years he has become a target of enmity from many in the crypto world. A primary reason for this is Vers shifting beliefs about bitcoin, which have led to some strong and potentially misleading statements, among other provocations.

Vers view of bitcoin shifted after the early days of the coin. He came to see Bitcoin Cash, forked from the original bitcoin, as a token that adhered more closely to the original vision of the cryptocurrency. Fundamentally, Ver would like the bitcoin blocksize to be increased immediately in order to reduce transaction fees. This view has led Ver to voice his support for several other crypto tokens in addition to or before his support for Bitcoin Cash. The Bitcoin Jesus has advocated for Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic, and Bitcoin Unlimited at various times, among other tokens. Vers detractors claim that he makes misleading statements about these coins.

Ver has also complained about what he views as excessive censorship on the /r/bitcoin subreddit. Additionally, he owns the website bitcoin.com, which some critics have said pushes propaganda for Vers own pet projects and goals. But perhaps the biggest reason of all why many in the crypto space dislike Ver is that he has allegedly defaulted on multiple loans, including to the crypto broker Genesis and trading platform CoinFLEX. Even Craig Wright has pursued legal action against Ver.

4. Justin Sun vs. Ethereum Community

Justin Sun is the founder of the TRON Network, a blockchain that can run smart contracts. He is known for pushing the initial coin offering of Trons crypto token, TRX, in China just days before the Chinese government banned ICOs, and then for having left the country. Some have speculated that Sun was aware the ban was coming and went ahead with the ICO anyway, despite knowing that it might be harmful to early adopters of the new token. Sun has also been accused of insider trading and market making activities.

Suns business tactics may be catching up with himin March of 2023 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was charging Sun and his companies for fraud and securities law violations.

Tron Token Sees Selloff After SEC Files Charges Against Founder Justin Sun

Besides his activities surrounding his own companies and crypto tokens, Sun has drawn the ire of members of the Ethereum community as well. Sun has reportedly redeemed tens of millions of dollars worth of staked Ether from the liquid staking platform Lido. He is the largest holder of staked Ether, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tokens accounted for. Still, redeeming even a portion of those tokens could send the price of staked Ether away from the price of Ether, causing trouble for investors in both areas.
The Virginia Black Business Directory will host the Virginia Black Business Expo & Conference from Aug. 11-13 at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center, showcasing more than 115 businesses from Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. Keynote speaker Quinn Conyers will share her insights and experiences as an event emcee for organizations such as Nike, TedX and others. The event, coinciding with National Black Business Month, will feature workshops, panel discussions, a career fair, a Black art festival and food trucks. Other events include: The Great Blacksby Gala on Saturday night, featuring recording artist Keke Wyatt; Live Jazz & R&B Brunch on Sunday; and the After Skate Party on Sunday, featuring celebrity skate instructor PUSH, known for training R&B artist Usher. VABBD is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the growth and success of Black-owned businesses in Virginia. For tickets, visit vablackbusinessexpo.org.

Process Over Prize Academy, a dynamic and innovative martial arts academy, celebrated its grand opening in Stafford with an official ribbon cutting ceremony July 8. The business, located at 11 Hope Road, Suite 207, offers a comprehensive range of Jiu-jitsu programs designed to cater to all ages and skill levels. Our goal is to create a positive and inclusive space where individuals can develop their skills, enhance their fitness, and gain the confidence to overcome challenges both on and off the mats. We believe that Jiu-jitsu has the power to transform lives, and we are excited to embark on this journey with our students, said owner Martin Thomas. To learn more, visit larutinallc.com.

The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce will host the seventh annual First Responders Appreciation Breakfast on Aug. 23, from 9-11:30 a.m. at the Fredericksburg Convention Center. Awards that will be presented, include Heroism (Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards; Meritorious Civilian Award); Investigative (Excellence in Criminal Investigation Award; Merit Award; The Business of First Responding Award); and the Citizen Valor Award. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alisicia Andrews will provide the keynote address. To register for the breakfast or become a sponsor, contact Siera Rogers at events@fxbgchamber.org

Debra Balestreri, of Corgi Clay, LLC./Corgi Clay Art Center LLC., is opening an arts center focused on education in the ceramic arts in North Stafford. A soft opening will occur this month, with several one-day workshops for kids and adults, tours of the new space and an exhibit of teacher artwork and more. This has been a long journey; nearly 2.5 years. I am so excited to bring this space to Stafford County and have been so humbled by the support this community has shown me over the years, said Balestreri, who began a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to help develop this space in 2021. Corgi Clay Art Center is due to open in September, with a grand opening Labor Day Weekend. To learn more, visit corgiclayartcenter.com.

SYNERGY HomeCare has opened a location in Fredericksburg at 500 Westwood Office Park. The company is owned and operated by Beata Alghabra, with husband Jalal Alghabra. Caring for others and being able to improve someones quality of life has always been a passion of mine, said Beata. Theres no better feeling than to know youre making a positive impact in peoples lives by inspiring them to lead independent lives. The homecare franchise offers a wide array of services to its clients, including in-home care, post-surgery assistance, child care, backup care and more. The company will serve the surrounding communities of Spotsylvania, Stafford, Culpeper, Orange and Caroline. To learn more, visit synergyhomecare.com.
It began with prayer and ceremony at a graveyard in quiet woods. Then blossomed into a day of activities devoted to how to best honor the enslaved people who toiled for fourth U.S. President James Madison on his farms in Orange County.

Saturdays We the People celebration brought descendants of those people, historians and visitors to James Madisons Montpelier from far and wide.

The event launched a $5.8 million, three-year project to memorialize the Madisons enslaved African Americans and recognize their contributions to Americas fledgling democracy, especially the lives of the father of the U.S. Constitution and his family.

After an African American libation ceremony led by Charlottesville drummer Darrell Rose, descendants and friends entered the burial grounds woods to pray, led by the Rev. Larry Walker, president of the Montpelier Descendants Committee.

Later, at the historic sites David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center, Montpelier descendant Henry Anglin said in an interview that everyoneof whatever race or backgroundshould care about the memorialization project because were all human.

We know that history has treated people in different ways, and has not given some people the recognition that they really deserve, said Anglin, who chairs the Montpelier Descendants Committees memorialization subcommittee. Without the contributions of the enslaved here, it would have been very difficult for Madison to have the time and opportunity to do the things he did, including writing the Constitution.

For every free person at Montpelier during the Madisons day, it is estimated that 28 enslaved residents worked on the plantation.

Beyond the Montpelier Burial Ground, where about 300 enslaved folks lie at rest, the memorialization will extend across the 2,650-acre historic site to explain the many contributions those people made to the Madisons various farms, he said. Those included designing and building a road network and extensive irrigation system in the sites East Woods.

The effort will include neighboring plantations, too, because the Madisons slaves moved from property to property as they courted and married, were sold and families were broken up, Anglin said. To give it solid footing, the task requires doing archaeology, researching documents and recording descendants oral histories.

The days program at the visitor center began with We the People participants singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, considered the Black national anthem, and listening to L. Renee, an award-winning poet and James Madison University assistant professor of English.

Renee read her work The Unmapped Place, which ends with:

waiting for us to remember our way

Back to those kin, like Mother Franklin,

Back to the unmapped place where they wait

dwelling on perches we can still sing from.

Montpelier Foundation board chair Hasan Kwame Jeffries and the Rev. Walker welcomed participants and shared their hopes about the memorialization project.

Jeffries said Montpelier, home of the Constitutions intellectual architect, provides a place to reflect on all parts of Americas past, both those which make people joyful and those that make us sad.

Regarding the Madisons human property, Montpeliers enslaved persons would have us remember them through their descendants  and what they left behind, the material in the soil that we uncover on a daily basis, the history professor at The Ohio State University said.

Theyre speaking to us, Jeffries said. Theyre telling us to remember them because they have something to teach us about how to be kind. They have something to teach us about our own humanity. They have something to teach us about how to be democratic, about how to give meaning to the words born on this place.

Jeffries and other leaders stressed that Montpelier continues to honor Madisons legacy and educate visitors about the Constitutions global impact.

Two panel discussions, streamed live on YouTube, occupied most of the afternoon.

Former Washington, D.C., Mayor Sharon Pratt conversed about the Constitution with Jeffries and legal scholar Michael Higginbotham, a professor at the University of Baltimore.

Higginbotham recalled being thrilled upon reading a draft of South Africas constitution as it was written after the end of apartheid. In homage to the U.S. Constitutions preamble, it begins with the words We the People.

National Trust for Historic Preservation interpretation director Elon CookeLee moderated a talk on memorialization with College of William & Mary historian Michael Blakey; Omar EatonMartinez, the trusts senior vice president for historic sites; and Montpelier descendants Irish Ford and Bettye Kearse. The trust owns Montpelier.

For decades, starting in the 1990s, Montpelier has worked with descendants to commemorate its enslaved people, research their lives and share them with the public.

Now, the memorialization project aims to demonstrate the descendants co-stewardship of the historic site with The Montpelier Foundation. After national controversy, descendants gained equal representation on the foundations board in 2022, a first for a U.S. presidential site.

For years, Montpelier researchers have collected letters and other papers that mention the plantations enslaved people. Montpeliers online Naming Project shares those names with the public and, if known, what those individuals did there. The enslaved folks physical memorial, once completed, will incorporate those details, Walker said.

Anglin, the descendants memorialization leader, acknowledged that the project is a challenging job.

People have different ideas.  We have to show them that things will end up being positive, he said.

Parity has really started to work well lately, Anglin said. Were working closely with The Montpelier Foundation. Its getting much better as we go along.

For more about James Madisons Montpelier, visit montpelier.org. To learn about the Descendants Committee, visit montpelierdescendants.org.
Spend enough time with ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots and it doesn't take long for them to spout falsehoods.

Described as hallucination, confabulation or just plain making things up, it's now a problem for every business, organization and high school student trying to get a generative AI system to compose documents and get work done.

Some are using it on tasks with the potential for high-stakes consequences, from psychotherapy to researching and writing legal briefs.

"I don't think that there's any model today that doesn't suffer from some hallucination," said Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude 2.

"They're really just sort of designed to predict the next word," Amodei said. "And so there will be some rate at which the model does that inaccurately."

Anthropic, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and other major developers of AI systems known as large language models say they're working to make them more truthful.

How long that will take  and whether they will ever be good enough to, say, safely dole out medical advice  remains to be seen.

"This isn't fixable," said Emily Bender, a linguistics professor and director of the University of Washington's Computational Linguistics Laboratory. "It's inherent in the mismatch between the technology and the proposed use cases."

A lot is riding on the reliability of generative AI technology. The McKinsey Global Institute projects it will add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion to the global economy. Chatbots are only one part of that frenzy, which also includes technology that can generate new images, video, music and computer code. Nearly all of the tools include some language component.

Google is already pitching a news-writing AI product to news organizations, for which accuracy is paramount. The Associated Press is also exploring use of the technology as part of a partnership with OpenAI, which is paying to use part of AP's text archive to improve its AI systems.

In partnership with India's hotel management institutes, computer scientist Ganesh Bagler has been working for years to get AI systems, including a ChatGPT precursor, to invent recipes for South Asian cuisines, such as novel versions of rice-based biryani. A single "hallucinated" ingredient could be the difference between a tasty and inedible meal.

When Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, visited India in June, the professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi had some pointed questions.

"I guess hallucinations in ChatGPT are still acceptable, but when a recipe comes out hallucinating, it becomes a serious problem," Bagler said, standing up in a crowded campus auditorium to address Altman on the New Delhi stop of the U.S. tech executive's world tour.

"What's your take on it?" Bagler eventually asked.

Altman expressed optimism, if not an outright commitment.

"I think we will get the hallucination problem to a much, much better place," Altman said. "I think it will take us a year and a half, two years. Something like that. But at that point we won't still talk about these. There's a balance between creativity and perfect accuracy, and the model will need to learn when you want one or the other."

But for some experts who have studied the technology, such as University of Washington linguist Bender, those improvements won't be enough.

Bender describes a language model as a system for "modeling the likelihood of different strings of word forms," given some written data it's been trained upon.

It's how spell checkers are able to detect when you've typed the wrong word. It also helps power automatic translation and transcription services, "smoothing the output to look more like typical text in the target language," Bender said. Many people rely on a version of this technology whenever they use the "autocomplete" feature when composing text messages or emails.

The latest crop of chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude 2 or Google's Bard try to take that to the next level, by generating entire new passages of text, but Bender said they're still just repeatedly selecting the most plausible next word in a string.

When used to generate text, language models "are designed to make things up. That's all they do," Bender said. They are good at mimicking forms of writing, such as legal contracts, television scripts or sonnets.

"But since they only ever make things up, when the text they have extruded happens to be interpretable as something we deem correct, that is by chance," Bender said. "Even if they can be tuned to be right more of the time, they will still have failure modes  and likely the failures will be in the cases where it's harder for a person reading the text to notice, because they are more obscure."

Those errors are not a huge problem for the marketing firms that have been turning to Jasper AI for help writing pitches, said the company's president, Shane Orlick.

"Hallucinations are actually an added bonus," Orlick said. "We have customers all the time that tell us how it came up with ideas  how Jasper created takes on stories or angles that they would have never thought of themselves."

Here's why 61% of Americans think AI could spell the end of humanity Here's why 61% of Americans think AI could spell the end of humanity
Residents will have a final opportunity to address the El Paso County Redistricting Commission, tasked with redrawing commissioner districts for the first time since 2017, and offer input on proposed maps this week.

The commission has convened for nine meetings in just under three months to create, analyze and rework dozens of maps based on public feedback on "communities of interest," like a consolidated southeast Colorado Springs in one district or military installations, required for consideration under Colorado law.

As of Friday, the commission has left six maps in consideration before designating map finalists at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Centennial Hall in downtown Colorado Springs.

While July 24 was the last day for residents to submit their own public comments and map suggestions to the county's online redistricting portal, commissioners on Friday directed county staff to incorporate time for public comment in person on existing maps as well as on any further tweaks to maps made on Tuesday.

The commission is expected to adopt the final district map on Aug. 15.

"It would be viable for us to hear that public support or opposition to those last-minute changes, versus us going to the last meeting (on Aug. 15), which could potentially go straight to voting," Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez said Friday.

The redistricting commission consists of the five members of the El Paso County Board of Commissioners. All Republicans, the commissioners appointed themselves to oversee the process without a citizen advisory committee at a controversial meeting on April 18, during which dozens of residents voiced concern over disenfranchised Democratic voters and accused the board of gerrymandering, given that a Democrat has not served on the board since Stan Johnson's election in 1970.

Since then, commissioners said they have blocked from consideration any previous or future proposed maps that did not keep 30 racial minority-majority precincts in southeast Colorado Springs, as defined by residents, together  a step toward crystalizing the area as a voting bloc in future elections.

Click or tap here to view the current maps under consideration.
The Colorado Supreme Court has approved a new rule  just days after taking public testimony about it  that requires the seven justices to step down from any misconduct inquiry that involves them or a former member of the court.

The rule, formally known as Rule 41 of the Rules of Judicial Discipline and adopted Thursday, also requires the justices to recuse themselves if the inquiry involves a colleague, family member or staffer either as a focus of investigation or as a witness.

In approving the rule, the court glaringly did not address objections by the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, which had said it was a conflict of interest for the justices to replace themselves in such inquiries with members of the state Court of Appeals, which the new rule does. The commission recommended replacements from a pool that includes district court judges.

The court did, however, address concerns by The Judicial Integrity Project, which argued that naming appellate judges was unconstitutional because it gave them additional duties not allowed by law.

Randomly substituting in judges from the Court of Appeals as contemplated by this rule is not an expansion of the Court of Appeals jurisdiction, the justices wrote. Any judicial officers randomly selected will not be acting in their capacities as Court of Appeals judges; rather, they will be temporarily stepping into the shoes of the Supreme Court justices.

The commission would not comment when The Denver Gazette asked about the court's rejection of their finding. The court similarly refused to comment when asked to explain. The court and commission have been at odds for months despite laws that require the two sides to work out their problems when there's disagreement.

A court spokesman last week said Rule 41 mirrors the summertime work of a special legislative committee that took testimony about reforming the judicial discipline process. The committee referred to the Legislature a resolution that would create a wholly independent office of judicial discipline, including a three-person tribunal to hear cases. That resolution  known as HCR23-1001  was introduced last week and similarly recuses justices during inquiries involving them and replaces them with appellate court judges.

The resolution also makes formal judicial proceedings public and limits the Supreme Court to reviewing discipline decisions rather than being able to keep them secret or dismiss them outright.

If approved by the Legislature, the resolution would need to be approved by voters in 2024 because it would amend the Colorado Constitution. The court spokesman said the new rule was merely to ensure the process did not have to wait until voter approval. The resolution, if approved, would codify the new rule in law so that the court couldn't change it in the future.

Rule 41 is largely in response to a three-year-old scandal in which the disciplinary process for judicial misconduct has come under heavy fire, particularly by the discipline commission that handles it.

Part of the scandal included accusations that former Chief Justice Nathan Ben Coats in 2019 had approved a contract to a former Judicial Department administrator who was being fired for financial irregularities. The contract was allegedly in response to a threatened tell-all sex-discrimination lawsuit in which years of judicial misconduct were either kept from the commission or handled leniently. An investigation by an outside firm hired by the Judicial Department said it was not a quid-pro-quo deal.

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Coats is under investigation by the commission, according to the person who filed that complaint, which by law are to be kept secret.

Under current rules, the Supreme Court acts as the final arbiter on any discipline the commission metes out  even if its against one of their own. That changes with Rule 41.

Coats is also under investigation by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which announced the inquiry shortly after news reports exposed the contract allegations in February 2021.

ARC Jessica Yates last week told The Denver Gazette that she had no information to report about that investigation.

Along with the constitutional amendment resolution, the House of Representatives is set to take up House Bill 23-1019, which allows anyone to anonymously file a complaint alleging judicial misconduct in person or via the discipline commissions website.

The bill also would mandate the commission keep complainants informed about every stage of the complaint process, and establish a rulemaking process for the discipline system.

Additionally, the commission would be required to maintain a searchable database that would show the types of discipline meted out and the frequency and type of complaints filed against jurists statewide.

The measures are first to be heard by the House Judicial Committee. No date for those hearings has been scheduled.

Chief Justice Brian Boatright in November issued his own directive  known as CJD 22-01  in which any complaint of judicial misconduct levied by any employee, volunteer or contractor of the Judicial Department must be referred to the discipline commission within 35 days.

The directive, however, requires a judge to report to the discipline commission the misconduct of another judge only if they have knowledge, such as personally witnessing it.

A judge who receives information about another judges misconduct  unless as a complaint by an employee or contractor  doesnt have to. Instead, the judge shall take appropriate action, which may include reporting the violation to the discipline commission.

In an amendment to its budget submission, the commission said the Supreme Court did not consult with it about the new directive even though the Legislature last year passed a law that requires it to consult.
Its hard to believe the summer is winding down, and kids are getting ready to head back to school already. Time flies when you have kids!

If youre like me, you may be looking for school supplies right now. I want to make sure you dont fall for any scams.

This time of year, its common for scammers to set up fraudulent websites advertising that you can buy your kids school supplies at a deep discount, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

If the offer sounds too good to be true, it always is.

Here are some tips to keep in mind during your back to school shopping trips:

 Make purchases from legitimate companies that you know and trust. CBI advises you shop at your local store or an online store you have used successfully before.

 Make sure to use a credit card instead of a debit card because it offers more protection for fraudulent charges.

 As Ive warned you before, dont click on any links or websites from an ad you see on social media, and be careful of emails and text messages. Make sure to check the URL carefully. Scammers can make it look like the website is similar to big companies.

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 CBI said you should keep your receipts to make sure everything you paid for is included in your shipment.

 Finally, CBI also recommends if you need to make a return, take care of it as soon as possible while theres still a good supply of the items you may want.

You can report scams and fraud to the Colorado Attorney Generals Office's statewide consumer helpline at 800-222-4444.

This week, we also talked with Pikes Peak State College about the new Career Advance Colorado program, which provides free training for in-demand jobs in Colorado. The qualifying programs at Pikes Peak include Early Childhood Education, the Pikes Peak Regional Law Enforcement Academy, Fire Science Programs and Building and Construction.

Its real hands-on training. When were doing law enforcement academy, fire science, early childhood education, the students in those programs are actually doing the work, theyre putting hands on, theyre going out fighting fires, theyre doing real things in law enforcement at shooting range, driving academies, that sort of thing, to learn to be professionals in these fields, said PPSC President Lance Bolton. Learn more at pikespeak.edu.

Finally, a reminder to all drivers about an important law that goes into place on Monday. Colorado is expanding the Move Over Law. You now have to move over or slow down when you pass a disabled vehicle with hazard lights on. Its already the law to move over for police and emergency responders.

The Colorado Department of Transportation said on average, nearly 350 people across the country are hit and killed every year while outside of a disabled vehicle, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Find more information at codot.gov.
An injured hiker was hospitalized after being rescued from a popular park in Colorado Springs Sunday night, according to the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

Around 8:30 p.m., crews responded to Pulpit Rock, located north of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and performed a high-angle rescue for the injured hiker, the department said in a social media post.

A little over an hour later at 9:45 p.m., the department reported the hiker had been brought down to safety. The extent of the hiker's injuries were not reported, but Gazette news partner KKTV said that the woman was able to drive herself to the hospital.
Saturday was a day to celebrate a hero and a birthday at Wings Over the Rockies Exploration of Flight.

Friends and admirers gathered at the Centennial museum to mark Lt. Col. James H. Harvey IIIs 100th birthday.

Harvey is a former United States Air Force pilot who flew as part of the 99th Fighter Squadron, best known as the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen Red Tails. He is one of 1,007 documented such pilots.

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of Black military pilots and airmen who were trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Fields in World War II. The 99th Fighter Squadron was their squadron.

Harvey was drafted in 1943 and was part of Tuskegees Class 44-4 in October 1944. He completed combat training in April 1945. While he did not see combat in World War II, he was the first Black fighter pilot to engage in combat in the Korean War, flying 140 combat missions while winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and other medals.

His 332nd Fighter Group Weapons pilot team won the USAFs inaugural Top Gun team competition in 1949. Their accomplishment was downplayed for years but was formally recognized on January 11, 2022.

Harvey retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1965, having served 22 years in the United States Army Air Corps and United States Air Force.

In June of that year, Oscar Mayer, an American meat and cold cut production company, hired him as a corporate salesman, moving his family to Denver, where he still lives. He retired from Oscar Mayer in 1980.

Harvey said his lifes motto has always been to do unto others as youve had done unto you.

Thats it, Harvey said. Thats carried me through.

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One of Harveys favorite accomplishments was graduating flying school, he said. The Tuskegee Airmen werent supposed to be better than everyone else, but they were because he and his team used their skills to prove it, Harvey said.

When he first joined the Army Air Corps, which later became the Air Force, Harvey knew nothing about planes, he said. But hard work took him far and he enjoyed the learning process, a process he called easy.

The instructor would demonstrate what he wanted us to do and wed duplicate it, then Id practice, practice, practice until I got it down perfect, Harvey said. It was easy for me.

Harvey gave his heart and soul to flying, gearing all of his energy toward airplanes and forgoing other hobbies. Flying airplanes is what he loved and what he was good at, he said. He didnt have time for much else.

Harvey and the Tuskegee Airmen set a precedent for equality in military, but not through their words, Harvey said. Harvey and his team had to work harder than their White counterparts to prove themselves, he said, making them better pilots in the long run.

We were head and shoulders above (their White counterparts), Harvey said. Everything we did had to be perfect. When we learned to fly, we learned to fly the aircraft and it paid off for us. All they had to do was demonstrate that they could get the aircraft up and down safely.

Harveys actual 100th birthday was July 13, a few days before the celebration.

He spent that morning having a late family breakfast of basted eggs, toast and bacon fixed by his daughter, whom he visits every Sunday, he said.

Harveys 100 years of life have taught him that hard work pays off, and his advice to younger people who admired his achievements was to be the best at whatever you do.

Strive to be the best no matter what youre doing, Harvey said. If youre a sanitation engineer, strive to be the best one.
Calling 911 for help in life-threatening or critical emergencies in Colorado Springs will mean waiting longer for police to respond than they did five years ago, a symptom of ongoing staffing shortages the department is working to address, officials say.

Data provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department show its average and median response times have increased since 2019 for calls for service during life-threatening situations, which the department categorizes as Priority 1 calls, and critical situations with potential danger but no immediate threat to life, categorized as Priority 2.

The median response time measures the midway point in data reflecting the time in which officers arrived 50% of the time. The average response time is calculated by adding up response times and dividing the sum by the number of data points.

The median better reflects response times because the average can be affected by extreme outliers, such as if an officer forgets to report they've arrived on scene and run the clock for hours, Colorado Springs police previously said in 2018. That year, the department began using the median response time as a second measurement.

Colorado Springs police average response time data show a person is waiting about two minutes longer this year for police response to Priority 1 calls and about 14 minutes longer for response to Priority 2 calls than they were in 2019.

Average response times for Priority 1 calls increased from 12 minutes and 37 seconds in 2019 up to 14 minutes and 21 seconds so far in 2023, according to police data. They increased from 30 minutes and 59 seconds for Priority 2 calls in 2019 to 44 minutes and 45 seconds in 2023.

Median response times for Priority 1 calls increased from 9 minutes and 48 seconds in 2019 up to 10 minutes and 21 seconds so far in 2023, and from 16 minutes for Priority 2 calls in 2019 up to 19 minutes and 49 seconds in 2023, according to police data.

Various factors directly impact police response time, Colorado Springs Police Department spokeswoman Lt. Pam Castro said. That can include patrol staffing levels, travel times to calls for service and the amount of time officers spend on calls for service, she said.

"When officers are not available, response time is higher," Castro said.

In an emergency, every minute counts, said D'Ontay Roy, president of the Colorado Springs Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Commission that makes recommendations to the City Council on police reforms.

"People that are making those calls, that can seem like a lifetime if you're in the middle of a situation. When you think about the amount of damage that can be done in  that lag time alone, it's risky. It's dangerous," Roy said.

The department's current model, Castro said, aims to reach police staffing levels that will allow an average response time of 10 minutes to Priority 1 calls. The department doesn't have a target response time for Priority 2 calls, and there are no national established standards for law enforcement response times to Priority 1 calls, she said.

Agencies also don't calculate response times the same way. Colorado Springs police measure response times from the time a call is received to the time the first officer arrives on scene, Castro said.

"The 10-minute target was chosen for several reasons, including that it is a realistic target when CSPD is fully staffed to its 2024 authorized sworn strength," she said.

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The need to improve response times took center stage in debates among mayoral candidates during this year's mayoral election, as candidates promised to address public safety citywide.

The conversation was renewed and emotional three weeks after the May 16 runoff election, when Tali'Ja Campbell and her attorneys claimed the Colorado Springs Police Department ignored a call for service from her on June 2, when she reported her husband Qualin Campbell had been taken hostage. Her call came about an hour before Qualin Campbell's body was discovered that day in a parking lot on 1500 S. Nevada Ave., less than a mile from Colorado Springs police's downtown headquarters. He was shot and killed; the El Paso County Coroner's Office ruled his death a homicide.

Attorney Harry Daniels, a Georgia-based civil rights lawyer representing TaliJa Campbell, said the Police Department confirmed to him they had received her 911 call.

In the weeks since, police have not shared further information on the incident.

In recent years Colorado Springs police officials have attributed slower call response times largely to the department's ongoing staffing issues. In a use-of-force study completed in spring 2022 by a third-party consultant, Pennsylvania-based Transparency Matters, officers indicated they felt the longer response times have deteriorated public trust in police.

The Police Department commissioned the $169,000 study that examined racial disparities and evaluated use of force policy after protests of police use of force tactics in Colorado Springs and nationally over the death of George Floyd, a Minnesota Black man who was murdered by a White police officer in 2020.

The Colorado Springs Police Department has 730 sworn officers, and 37 people who are in the academy will join the department later this year, according to figures the department provided July 10.

Colorado Springs has designated enough funding for 818 sworn police officers, but retaining them has also been a challenge.

"The members of the Colorado Springs Police Department want to answer every request for assistance as quickly as possible but this urgency is obviously higher when someone is in a life-threatening situation," Castro said.

Steps the department has taken to improve response times include reviewing various types of calls for "alternative responses" such as online and over-the-phone reporting and responses by a community service officer, to take some of the workload off of patrol officers so they can respond to higher-priority calls for service, she said.

The department has also trained sworn and professional staff supervisors on how to manage active calls so police can efficiently respond; is working to update and improve its technology to increase efficiency; and has moved to a continuous hiring of sworn and professional staff, with academies held every 15 weeks  "meaning multiple police academies will be held at the same time in the same small space," Castro said.

To that end, Mayor Yemi Mobolade and Police Chief Adrian Vasquez last month shared with the City Council their proposal to build a new police academy, which they hope to partially fund with around $5 million in excess tax revenues. The City Council will hear more from Mobolade and Vasquez on the idea during the board's work session Monday.

Having two police academies running concurrently under the continuous hiring model will "significantly" increase the number of staff being trained at one time, Vasquez said.

"Having more academies will help put more officers on patrol responding to calls from the community, but it is not just about the number of officers," he said. "A new academy will help ensure we are training our new officers and allow space to continue to train our current officers and professional staff. Up-skilling our employees will help with retention as it is a key factor in employee wellness across many professional fields. Retaining the officers we currently have is also important."

Five of the residents who addressed the City Council during the board's regular meeting July 25 said they would prefer to see the $5 million that could go toward the new academy used to address affordable housing or homelessness. Another two said they feared adding more officers to the department's ranks would "disproportionately impact" disenfranchised communities. One expressed general approval to the plan.
By Tim Reid

(Reuters) -Donald Trump will attend the Iowa State Fair this Saturday, his campaign announced on Tuesday, a move likely designed to steal the limelight from his White House rivals, especially Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who will visit the event on the same day.

It had not been clear until now that Trump, the runaway frontrunner for the Republican nomination, would attend the annual fair, a political must for aspiring presidential candidates in state capital Des Moines that runs from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20.

Trump's decision to attend the event on the same day flagged earlier by DeSantis, his closest rival for the nomination, is likely no coincidence.

DeSantis is desperately trying to recalibrate his campaign, which has been sinking in the polls and seen two staff shake-ups in the past two weeks.

The Iowa state fair last year attracted 1 million attendees and is an important venue for political candidates as they court voters in the state that opens the nominating contest in January.

Most of Trump's rivals, including DeSantis, have agreed to be interviewed individually at the state fair by Iowa's Republican Governor Kim Reynolds between Aug. 11 and Aug. 18, but Trump turned down her invitation. Trump has been angered by her public neutrality in the primary race and her appearance with DeSantis at several of his Iowa events.

In 2015, early in his ultimately successful bid for the White House, and when most pundits were dismissing his campaign, Trump flew into the Iowa State Fair in a helicopter.

He was given an enthusiastic reception by crowds, in an early sign of the support that would propel him to victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in November 2016.

"Just like he had a great event in 2015, he's going to have a great event at the Iowa State Fair in 2023," a Trump aide told Reuters.

Trump is currently crushing his primary opposition. He is roughly 30 points ahead of DeSantis, with the others still only in single digits.

Trump has been telling crowds in recent weeks that he does not see the point of attending the first Republican debate on Aug. 23, because he is so far ahead of the field.

The aide said Trump has not ruled out attending the debate, but is "unlikely to attend."

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Jamie Freed)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. government offices in the Washington D.C. area closed early on Monday because of threatening weather as forecasters warned people across the eastern U.S. of possible tornadoes, damaging winds and large hailstones.

Fast-moving thunderstorms and powerful winds toppled trees and knocked out power for nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in neighboring Maryland and Virginia, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us. As many as 800,000 customers had lost power in the southern and mid-Atlantic states.

Though drenched with rain and pelted with some hail, the nation's capital had escaped any twisters by the time a National Weather Service tornado watch expired at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT).

A coastal flood advisory remained in effect for Washington until 4 a.m. 08000 GMT).

The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people from Alabama to western New York state had been at risk of tornadoes on Monday, but none had been reported as of 9 p.m. EDT.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered departing flights grounded at airports in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Baltimore because of thunderstorms. The FAA said it was rerouting aircraft around the storms as much as possible.

Libraries, museums, the National Zoo, pools and other municipal and federal services in the Washington area were also closing early. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said federal employees had to depart no later than 3 p.m.

FlightAware, a flight tracking site, said more than 2,600 U.S. flights had been canceled, including 102 at Washington Reagan National Airport and 35 at Washington Dulles. Another 7,700 U.S. flights had been delayed.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, David Gregorio and Cynthia Osterman)
The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's classified documents case rebuked the Justice Department on Monday and demanded an explanation for the use of an "out-of-district grand jury."

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's Monday order denied special counsel Jack Smith's request to file two supplements under seal, which prosecutors argued was needed to protect grand jury secrecy. Cannon's order also asked Smith to explain "the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district."

THE FOUR DEMOCRATS WHO COULD ATTEMPT TO UNSEAT BIDEN IN 2024 ELECTION

"Clerk is directed to Strike from the docket sealed entries 95 and 96," according to the docket text from the case, which is being handled in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Cannon also gave Trump's co-defendant Walt Nauta an Aug. 17 deadline to respond to a Justice Department motion from Aug. 2 that informed him that his attorney, Stanley Woodward, has represented "at least seven other individuals who have been questioned in connection with the investigation." The government requested what is known as a Garcia hearing with Woodward's client to "inform them of potential risks and inquire into possible waivers."

Trump and his co-defendants were offered permission to file their own briefs on the grand jury matter by Aug. 17, though Cannon said this was optional. The prosecution is required to file its response by Aug. 22.

It is not immediately clear where the grand jury that Cannon referenced is being convened, but the government on Aug. 2 referenced a grand jury in the District of Columbia and in the Southern District of Florida is still at work over matters related to the Mar-a-Lago case.

"The grand jury in this district and a grand jury in the District of Columbia continued to investigate further obstructive activity," according to a background section for the government's Aug 2. motion for the Garcia hearing.

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Trump is fending off a 38-count indictment that accuses him of willfully hoarding classified documents, including top secret records, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and conspiring with his valet, Walt Nauta, to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The former president was arraigned last week following his indictment on four counts related to his alleged efforts to subvert his 2020 election loss. He has pleaded not guilty in both federal cases.

The Washington Examiner contacted the office of the special counsel.

Original Location: Judge in Trump documents case strikes Justice Department filings and questions 'out-of-district' grand jury

Washington Examiner Videos
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) dismissed former President Donald Trump's claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.

DeSantis has avoided giving a clear answer on the 2020 election fraud claims about whether his top GOP opponent lost the last presidential election since he launched his campaign earlier this year. However, when pressed about whether Trump won in 2020, the Florida governor gave a clear answer.

TRUMP'S TRIFECTA: THREE THINGS FORMER PRESIDENT IS COUNTING ON TO AVOID HISTORIC CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

"No, of course he lost," DeSantis said in a Sunday interview with NBC News that airs Monday. "Joe Biden's the president."

While acknowledging that he did not believe the 2020 election ran perfectly, DeSantis quipped that "whoever puts their hand on the Bible on Jan. 20 every four years is the winner."

"I think what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like somehow this was just like the perfect election. ... I don't think it was a good-run election," DeSantis said in the NBC news interview. "But I also think Republicans didn't fight back. You've got to fight back when that is happening."

DeSantis said to NBC News that Trump set himself up for his own loss, particularly due to an increase in mail-in voting during the pandemic and his response to COVID-19. The Republican National Committee has urged its voters to embrace early voting, as well as voting by mail  something Democrats have used to their advantage over the years.

"But here's the issue that I think is important for Republican voters to think about: Why did we have all those mail votes? Because Trump turned the government over to [Anthony] Fauci," DeSantis said. "They embraced lockdowns. They did the CARES Act, which funded mail-in ballots across the country."

His comments come after he told a crowd in Iowa on Friday that the election fraud theories "did not prove to be true," as he continues to receive pressure from reporters and voters to denounce Trump's claims. He did not address Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner, by name  DeSantis has attempted to steer clear of outright mudslinging the former president, as several key battleground states are filled with Trump supporters.

However, he is still looking to present himself as the best alternative to Trump for the 2024 election, drawing attention to his 2022 midterm win in Florida and the state's recent legislative wins.

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On the other side, Trump is facing three indictments: two federal and one out of Manhattan, New York. The most recent indictment, which dropped on Aug. 1, stems from special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

DeSantis blasted the Justice Department for "weaponization" when Trump's third indictment was announced. However, the governor said to NBC News that Republicans are focusing too much on Trump, his indictments, and the past, which could lead to another GOP loss in 2024.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"If the election is a referendum on Joe Biden's policies and the failures that we've seen and we are presenting a positive vision for the future, we will win the presidency and we will have a chance to turn the country around," DeSantis said. "If, on the other hand, the election is not about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, if it's a referendum on that, we are going to lose."

DeSantis remains steadily in second place behind Trump in most state and national polls. Real Clear Politics puts him at an average of 15.7%, 38 percentage points behind the former president.

Original Location: Ron DeSantis acknowledges Trumps 2020 election defeat: Of course he lost

Washington Examiner Videos
A Trump-aligned super PAC announced the targets of its newest TV advertisement Sunday, as it looks to help former President Donald Trump clinch the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

In the group's latest 60-second ad, MAGA inc. attacks President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, over what it alleges to be crimes committed by Hunter overseas.

TRUMP SAYS HIS TEAM WILL SEEK RECUSAL OF JUDGE AND VENUE CHANGE IN JAN. 6 CASE

Specifically, the group makes reference to Hunter's business dealings in China.

The ad titled "Hey Joe," as described by Taylor Budowich, the CEO of MAGA Inc. intends to, "prosecute the case against crooked Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden crime family," according to a statement released by Budowich.

The ad's narrator reads: "Joe, how come your Justice Department goes after Trump endlessly yet they cover for your family? Hunter's laptop? Yeah, that was censored, but we know that laptop is real and it's not just filled with photos of Hunter's drug-fueled debauchery either."

The accusation refers to a laptop hard drive, owned by Hunter, that was left at a Delaware computer repair store in 2020. Its contents came into the public eye after reporting by the New York Post the same year, highlighting discussions over email discovered on the hard drive about alleged business meetings between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter, and Ukrainian business leaders.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The ad goes on to discuss Hunter Biden's so-called business with China, and claimed the president's "brother, grandkids, even nieces and nephews got paid from foreign deals," allegedly totaling $17 million.

"You, Joe, went from being one of the poorest in Congress to a millionaire in the White House," the ad states. "Come on, Joe, all this, a coincidence? Or corruption?," the ad continued.

Original Location: Trump-aligned super PAC eyes Hunter Biden in latest ad

Washington Examiner Videos
A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer made a small departure from protocol to help an injured deer on Friday, according to social media posts from the state agency.

Officer Aaron Berscheid responded to calls about a mule deer buck that was limping, in obvious pain, and discovered that the animal had a piece of metal stuck on its hoof.

Today's #wildlife #rescue is a mule deer buck in #ColoradoSprings suffering from a piece of metal stuck on its hoof. @COParksWildlife Officer Aaron Berscheid responded and decided he might be able to sedate the buck, cut off the metal and give it a chance to recover. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/rPcgrp53ET  CPW SE Region (@CPW_SE) August 4, 2023

Wildlife officers are typically reluctant to sedate animals because it can be so stressful on them that they die, the agency said. On Friday, though, Berscheid decided that a sedative might be the best way to remove the metal and give the deer a chance at recovery.

After putting the deer to sleep and removing the obstruction, Berscheid massaged and rocked the deer to revive it.

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After some tense minutes, the deer began to move, officials said. Ultimately, it sat up and recovered under a deck.
Last Friday, Derron Harris accepted a plea bargain from the Denver D.A.s office for his murder of an Ohio man and the shooting of his wife while they rented a car. Headlines announced that Harris faced up to 60 years in prison. Nonsense. Harris, like every violent criminal who is not convicted of first-degree murder, will become parole eligible in less than half that time, but nobody can say exactly when.

Successive liberal governors (John Hickenlooper and Jared Polis) and their legislatures have put in place policies and laws that have steadily reduced Colorados prison population over the past decade. Such policies have resulted in Colorados prison population decreasing from roughly 17,000 inmates a decade ago to 15,000 last year, despite rapidly increasingly crime and population over the same period.

Our laws are weak. Colorado statutes plainly dictate that an offender sentenced to prison for conviction of a violent crime must serve 75 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. That is 100 percent fake. In reality, Colorado has so watered down its sentencing structure with good time, earned time, finally got an education time, didnt stab your inmate this week time, getting ready to transition into a half-way house time, coloring book time and many other sentence reductions for who-knows-what, nobody knows the minimum sentence a violent felon will spend in prison before joining us back on our streets. Not the judge, prosecutor, defendant, victimsnot even the executive director of the Department of Corrections can tell us that minimum number. That is a dysfunctional system disconnected from justice and transparency. It is broken.

Here is how the legislature has worked to put an increasing number of violent criminals back into our community under this mysterious system. In 2021, under the leadership of the Democrats and signature of Polis, the legislature reduced felony murder from a guaranteed life sentence to a guaranteed parole-eligible sentence. Last year, that same Democrat team of crime apologists considered treating extreme indifference murder  the kind committed by the Aurora Theater mass murderer  the same way. Those changes would result in a sentence as low as 16 years in prison and no more than 48 for an average murderer. BTW, those are also fake numbers. These convicted murderers can be parole eligible in as little as eight years.

Colorado deserves better, and under a proposed initiative to be placed on the 2024 ballot, Colorado will do better. Initiative 71 (as it is currently entitled) would mandate that violent criminals spend at least 85 percent of their earned sentences in prison before re-entering our neighborhoods. In addition to a far better reflection of justice, there is the justice that flows from offender, victim, attorney and community knowing the minimum amount of time a criminal will spend in prison. No rational person can oppose that kind of predictable accountability.

This is another reason the initiative process is critical for a self-governing people to serve as a check against a legislature that values criminals over victims. Expect the party of violent crime to attempt to derail this initiative. Again.

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Just last year, a similar initiative was offered to be placed on the ballot for our consideration along-side the many elected law enforcers seeking re-election. The language of the voter-driven initiative was forced to be reviewed and approved by a title board  a procedure that legislature-driven initiatives do not have to endure. The board is comprised of three representatives of Attorney General Weiser, Secretary of State Jenna Griswold and the office of Legislative Council.

Two are high-profile Democrats who  along with Polis and Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet  were going to appear on the same ballot as this crime-focused initiative. For Weiser, who notoriously championed allowing repeat car thieves to remain in our parking lots until they had stolen three or four cars in a three month period; Polis, who reduced the sentence of the semi-truck driver convicted of killing four and setting on fire several others, and numerous other Dems  having crime on the ballot with their names could prove distracting from the message of crime isnt that bad here.

So, in a move nobody could remember happening before or since, Weiser replaced his normal title board representative at the last minute with the solicitor general, who showed up, voted to cripple the initiatives ability to be on the ballot, and then he left the title board, never to been seen again. Mission accomplished.

The initiative headed for the 2024 ballot  the ballot Weiser is not on  has already fared much better in front of the title board.

A fiscal analysis of the initiative  which will impact about 449 convicted violent felons  states that [l]onger prison sentences will reduce workforce participation, which may reduce economic activity from labor and spending and may increase government spending on prisons and social welfare programs. It is difficult to imagine the level of workforce participation of those inclined to commit violent acts against others, but it must be more than zero. Given Colorados ranking as fourth-worst in America for recidivism  and the finding in the Common Sense Institutes most recent Cost of Crime report that crime has a $27 billion economic impact on Colorado  this citizen-led initiative is not just common sense, it is jillions of cents.

George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He also is an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute and president of the Advance Colorado Academy, which identifies, trains and connects conservative leaders in Colorado. He hosts The George Brauchler Show on 710KNUS Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter: @GeorgeBrauchler.
Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics' roundup of news from the third branch of government.

The American Bar Association held its annual meeting in Denver last week (and it continues through Tuesday), and two federal judges backed an unusual request for full-court consideration of a procedural immigration issue.

High-profile trials, misconduct and more

 The ABA's annual meeting began last week in Denver and is still ongoing, with an address from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland happening this morning. While the meeting brought attorneys and judges from across the country to speak and attend panel discussions, some voices from Colorado made it onto the stage.

 Attorney General Phil Weiser spoke to a luncheon crowd about his office's initiatives working with local governments, the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger and his thoughts on election integrity. Denver District Court Judge Adam J. Espinosa, a former lawyer with Colorado's attorney regulation office, gave his advice for approaching judicial and legal misconduct.

 "A lot of times we might not see our own faults and errors, and someone else might see them clearly. When you have a trusted colleague that can share with you whatever feedback they have  I hope we can develop a culture where that is acceptable and normal and a positive thing," Espinosa said.

 One of the more electrifying discussions involved two state trial judges  Eric M. Davis of Delaware and Clifton Newman of South Carolina  who recently handled cases that made national headlines. For Newman, it was a murder trial involving prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh. For Davis, it was a defamation lawsuit by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.

 Although Davis had an appreciation for the once-in-a-lifetime experience, he was nonetheless put off by the attention he received from the media: "They asked for a photograph. Im like, no," he said. "I really did not want to be a part of this process.  The parties, they could be front and center."

Immigration decisions

 Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit revived a man's petition for protection against torture. The man had been beaten and raped by Costa Rican police, but an immigration judge in Colorado believed it wasn't ironclad that the police were acting as police at the time  even though they were in uniform and driving their police vehicle. The 10th Circuit called the judge's decision illogical and sent the case back for review.

 At the same time, in an unusual two-person concurrence, Judges Timothy M. Tymkovich and Allison H. Eid, both Republican appointees from Colorado, urged the entire 10th Circuit to review the case in an "en banc" hearing with all judges, rather than the usual three-judge panel. En bancs are very rare in the 10th Circuit, and happen less than once per year on average. A majority of the 11 members must vote to hold one, meaning Tymkovich and Eid would need four more votes.

 The question they'd like the 10th Circuit to answer: Has recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent narrowed the window in which a non-citizen who has reentered the country may appeal his deportation order, even if torture-protection proceedings are still ongoing?

 A man feared his family would torture or kill him if he's deported to Mali because he deviated from strict Islamic tradition while in the United States. The 10th Circuit said, sorry, we don't think that's likely.

 The 10th Circuit clarified that a conviction in Colorado for felony menacing, even if there's no injury to a victim, qualifies as a "crime involving moral turpitude" and renders someone deportable.

 A federal judge determined the government was unjustified in its fight to keep a woman locked up in immigration detention because the federal bench in Colorado has recently made clear that prolonged confinement without a bond hearing is not OK.

In federal news

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 The U.S. Postal Service did not discriminate against or refuse to accommodate a disabled worker when it reassigned her to different positions, the 10th Circuit ruled.

 A woman has persisted in challenging a foreclosure decision from nearly a decade ago, and a federal judge recently dismissed her claims against the Colorado Supreme Court for its alleged violation of her rights in the case.

 Jefferson County, two of its sheriff's deputies and the operators of an assisted living facility may be held liable for the drowning death of a mentally ill man, a federal judge decided.

 The Bureau of Land Management, for the most part, provided the documents it needed to disclose to an environmental advocacy group after a federal judge ordered it to redo its records search.

 A male student suing a female student over her allegedly false claims that he sexually assaulted her may not proceed anonymously, a federal judge ruled.

 An Arapahoe County judge did not inappropriately speak to one party's lawyers outside the presence of the other party, a federal judge observed, because the other party was in the courtroom when it happened.

Vacancies and appointments

 Today is the first day for U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathryn A. Starnella, who succeeds two-term Magistrate Judge Kristen L. Mix on Colorado's federal trial court. Starnella comes to the bench from the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

 The governor has appointed public defender Amy Danielle Touart to the Arapahoe County Court, where she will succeed now-District Court Judge LaQunya L. Baker.

 There are three finalists to succeed retiring District Court Judge Lily W. Oeffler in the First Judicial District (Jefferson and Gilpin counties): Arapahoe County Court Judge Chantel E. Contiguglia, Adam D. Kendall and Magistrate Ryan P. Loewer.

Miscellaneous proceedings

 Even though attorney John Eastman appeared as unnamed co-conspirator in the latest criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump, he will apparently continue to litigate on behalf of the Colorado Republican Party in an effort to prevent unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in primary elections.

 In the criminal proceedings against police officers and paramedics for the death of Elijah McClain, the parties discussed trial logistics last week.

 The Colorado Supreme Court's ethics panel said it's OK for a part-time county court judge to also serve as a part-time prosecutor, as long as he's in a different jurisdiction.

 The ACLU of Colorado has filed suit alleging Colorado Springs police acted unconstitutionally in obtaining search warrants against housing rights activists.

 A gun rights group is seeking a federal judge's intervention to block a new Colorado law that raises the age limit to purchase firearms.
Nathan B. Coats, the former chief justice of Colorado, received an unprecedented public censure on Monday for mishandling the award of a contract to a judicial branch employee who was facing termination for her own misconduct.

Coats, who served as chief justice from 2018 through 2020, admitted to violating the Code of Judicial Conduct's requirement that judges competently and diligently perform their administrative duties. As head of the judicial branch, Coats authorized a multimillion-dollar contract with Mindy Masias, a high-ranking employee at the time, even though there was evidence suggesting Masias had falsified documentation.

Media coverage of the Masias contract and independent investigations highlighted improper behavior from multiple leaders within the Judicial Department during Coats' tenure. However, even before disciplinary proceedings had concluded, one inquiry found Coats' lack of training as an administrator, his reliance on an untrustworthy subordinate and his poor judgment were partly to blame for the scandal.

"Chief Justice Coats undermined the publics confidence in the integrity of the judiciary," the Aug. 7 disciplinary decision noted. "(C)ompliance with the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct required that former Chief Justice Coats prevent the Judicial Department from entering the contract prior to its public execution."

Coats' public censure came not from his former colleagues on the Supreme Court  who recused themselves in the matter  but from a special tribunal of Court of Appeals judges. The Coats discipline marked the second use of a special tribunal since the Supreme Court enacted the procedure in January, the first occurring in April with the censure of disgraced former Mesa County District Court Judge Lance P. Timbreza.

The members of Coats' tribunal were Judges David Furman, Anthony J. Navarro, Elizabeth L. Harris, Rebecca R. Freyre, Craig R. Welling, Jaclyn Casey Brown and Christina F. Gomez.

Former Sen. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, acknowledged that while a censure may seem like a light punishment, for an attorney or a judge it is a "big deal."

"Public humiliation of a guy at that level of esteem is a huge sanction," said Lee, an attorney himself. "There isn't anything more Draconian you can do from the standpoint of the legal profession  the esteem of your peers."

Questionable conduct abounds

Coats, a 2000 appointee of Gov. Bill Owens, left the court nearly three years ago upon reaching the mandatory retirement age. Last summer, former federal prosecutor Robert C. Troyer and former Denver independent monitor Nicholas E. Mitchell issued a report detailing the circumstances of the Masias contract.

In mid-2018, financial services personnel detected that Masias, who was the chief of staff in the State Court Administrator's Office, included a falsified date on a reimbursement request. The personnel advised Coats and then-State Court Administrator Christopher Ryan to fire Masias, given that state auditors were reviewing the judicial branch's finances at the time.

Wanting to keep Masias involved with the judiciary, Ryan and Coats discussed letting Masias resign and become a leadership training contractor with the Judicial Department, provided no other misconduct surfaced.

In late 2018, the men began to put the contract in motion. Ryan assured Coats there were no further irregularities with Masias' reimbursement requests, but the Troyer-Mitchell investigation found that to be untrue.

Human resources director Eric Brown, who the investigation deemed to have an "inappropriately close relationship" with Masias, then helped draft a public solicitation for leadership training that seemed suspiciously tailored to her. Consequently, no entities applied to provide the service. The department proceeded to award a multiyear contract to Masias following her resignation, worth up to $2.75 million.

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However, in April 2019, Coats learned that Ryan  with the assistance of Masias and Brown  was involved in further impropriety regarding an ex-employee and that Masias had secretly recorded a conversation with former Chief Justice Nancy Rice. In July, the Supreme Court fired Ryan and terminated Masias' contract.

The Troyer-Mitchell report blamed Ryan for concealing or misrepresenting critical information, Masias for being dishonest, Brown for putting his personal relationship over the judiciary's interests, and Coats for being an incompetent manager.

"Coats received no training, orientation, or instruction on running a large, complicated organization like the Department," the report concluded. "His own intuition also should have told him that choosing a person known for dishonesty and self-interest (Masias) as the face of the Departments leadership training program would gravely undermine trust and confidence in the Department and his own leadership."

Lessons learned

Since the turmoil inside the judicial branch became public, Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright, who succeeded Coats in 2021, told lawmakers earlier this year that the judiciary was undertaking the reforms recommended in the Troyer-Mitchell report. At a legal event in May, Boatright explained the court has moved away from the traditional protocol of the chief justice simply relaying administrative decisions to the other six justices without their participation.

"We learned that 14 sets of eyes and ears is much better than having two sets of eyes and ears on any decision," Boatright said. "If wed had a number of different eyes and ears on the problems at hand, we would have navigated more smoothly."

Boatright also indicated that when he rotates out of the chief justice position next summer, his successor will have more preparation time for assuming the top job.

"My onboarding process was, I sat across the table from Chief Justice Coats and he said, 'What would you like to know?' And a month later I was chief," said Boatright.

Lee, the former senator who oversaw efforts to enact judicial reform in the wake of the scandal, applauded the whistleblowers who came forward and the journalism that shone a spotlight on the misconduct.

"I think that the Judicial Department ought to provide access to training in the administrative process and management to these appointed chief judges in all 22 judicial districts," he said. "They make a lot of decisions  personnel, management, financial, etc. If lawyers don't have training to do that, let's get them training."

Coats' disciplinary case also featured the unusual involvement of Andrew Rottman, counsel for Coats and now for Boatright. Although Rottman was not a party to the proceedings, he objected to a statement in the narrative offered by the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline and by Coats, which claimed Rottman knew of Masias' clandestine recording of a former chief justice but did not tell Coats.

"That statement is factually untrue and is contradicted by overwhelming evidence to the contrary and the conclusion of every other investigation," wrote lawyers for Rottman.

Even though Coats had previously signed the document containing the alleged factual error, attorneys for Coats clarified that he now considered the statement to be "factually incorrect." The judicial discipline commission reissued its narrative on June 16, omitting the reference to Rottman.
The Danville Life Saving Crew last week announced the appointment of Johnny Mills as chief executive officer.

Mills replaces Doug Young, who retired in June after close to two years in the position.

Johnny accepted this new leadership role with the crew after serving for six years as the crews division chief for community health and planning and leading the innovative community paramedicine program, Danville Life Saving Crew President Wade Collins said in a statement. His vast experience and knowledge of operations will serve as a guiding force to the crews emergency response and nonemergency transport operations.

Mills started his emergency management career as a volunteer member in 1982. He took on a full-time leadership role in 2017.

My work with the Danville Life Saving Crew family is driven by my goal to enhance its operational efficiency, to explore new opportunities for expanded medical resources and training tools for our responders, to establish pathways for our career staff and volunteers to build their leadership capacity, and to engage the community in understanding and supporting this vital work of the Danville Life Saving Crew, Mills said in the news release.

Danville Life Saving Crew Chief Robbie Woodall called Mills a true champion of the nonprofit rescue organization.

His credentials include being a National Registry Paramedic and a Virginia Certified Community Health Worker.

He also has training in crisis intervention, Virginia Medicaid, Family Access to Medical Insurance Security, SNAP programs, chronic disease management and chronic pain and substance abuse.

All of that brings the knowledge and health perspective our crew needs as its leader, Woodall said.

Mills has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond, an Associate of Applied Science degree in computer information systems from Danville Community College and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University.

The sudden death of the DLSCs long-time Executive Director Tommy Pruett in 2021 was a devastating loss, Collins explained. Johnny was part of the team that provided leadership during the months that followed Tommys death.
Luke Tewalt, a junior at Wake Forest University, says his school will be deprived of talented students in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling striking down the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

I think what happens is Wake loses out on a lot of different experiences and cultures and backgrounds, Tewalt said.

The reason that affirmative action was a cool thing, Tewalt said, is because a lot of peoples backgrounds, which held them back  maybe from achieving in life or in the classroom in certain ways  their backgrounds were being considered for maybe shortcomings in other areas.

The nations highest court ruled on June 29 that race cannot be a factor in college admissions, forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diversity on their campuses.

When we dont have that ability to look past just a test score, or just a grade, we lose out on so many different stories and unique opportunities to bring people who had who have different stories to Wake Forest, a place that really needs that, said Tewalt, a member of the universitys track and field team.

Among Wake Forests 8,963 undergraduate and graduate students, 64% of its students are white, 12% are Asian, 9% are Hispanic, 8% are Black, 4% are mixed race and 3% are of unknown race and ethnicity and less than 1% are American Indian or Alaskan native, according to the universitys diversity status report for the 2022-23 academic year.

Critics of the courts ruling on affirmative action say future incoming students at elite universities such as Wake Forest will be more white and Asian, and there will be fewer Black and Hispanic students.

At the same time, critics predict historically Black universities and colleges, such as Winston-Salem State and N.C. A&T State universities, will see increasing numbers of applicants because of the courts ruling.

As an African-American student, Tewalt says he sees a lack of racial diversity at Wake Forest. Tewalt is a native of Washington, D.C.

I come from a background of relative privilege and thats helped me, Tewalt said. But I went to public high school and public middle school, and a lot of my friends had a lot of tough things going on in their lives.

The work that they put in the classroom didnt necessarily reflect everything that was going on (in their lives), Tewalt said. Now that affirmative action is gone, a place like Wake is just going to keep lifting up the privileged people, and forgetting the stories of those who come from backgrounds not as privileged and not as wealthy.

Tewalt said he is sad and mad about the courts ruling.

What about the kid who has to take care of his mom and cant go to sleep, cant study, Tewalt asked. Now his story cant be heard in the admissions process to come to a place like this, so that he can lift up his opportunities and his future.

Wake Forest University is beginning an initiative to further lower barriers to undergraduate admission for first-generation college students, the university said.

Wake Forests early action plan will allow first-generation applicants to learn about whether WFU has admitted them early in the process  by Jan. 15, while retaining their ability to consider other offers of admission at other schools and financial-aid options before making their final decision.

Looking ahead

The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees took action 20 days after the school announced that it will offer free tuition to some students in order to expand diversity efforts following the courts ruling.

The trustees approved a resolution July 27 to strictly bar the use of race, sex, color or ethnicity in admissions and hiring decisions. The resolution promises not to grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race.

UNC also must not establish through essays or other means any regimen premised upon race-based preferences in hiring and admissions.

Beginning with the incoming class in 2024, free tuition and required fees will be provided to undergraduates from North Carolina whose families make less than $80,000 annually, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz has said.

The school has also hired additional outreach officers to spread awareness of the new policy in under-resourced communities and to recruit students from across the state, UNC said.

We want to make sure students know financial constraints should not stand in the way of their dreams, Guskiewicz said.

Those who apply in the upcoming admissions cycle will be the first group to do so after the courts ruling on affirmative action.

At UNC, tuition and fees for fulltime in-state students in the 2023 academic year add up to about $9,000.

Colleges and universities in the Triad and across North Carolina are considering ways to maintain the diversity among their incoming classes of students.

Will not waver

Higher education institutions will take these steps in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in college admissions.

Spokespeople for Wake Forest, Winston-Salem State University and Appalachian State University pointed to the statements from their campus leaders after the courts ruling on June 29.

Wake Forest University will not waver in its commitment to creating and sustaining inclusive, diverse learning communities, President Susan Wente and Provost Michele Gillespie said in a statement. Our mission and values have not and will not change.

We will continue to recruit and enroll academically qualified students of diverse backgrounds who seek an intellectual home at Wake Forest where they belong and thrive, and in compliance with the courts ruling, Wente and Gillespie said.

WSSU supports the recent statement made by UNC System President Peter Hans about the courts ruling, said Richard D. Davis III, WSSUs director of government relations and external affairs.

UNC System officials will follow the law laid down by the courts ruling, Hans said.

Our public universities do extraordinary work every day to serve students of all backgrounds, beliefs, income levels and life experiences, Hans said.

WSSUs faculty and staff will follow the UNC Systems commitment to student diversity, Davis said.

Every student in North Carolina should know that (the) UNC System institutions like WSSU welcome their talent and ambition, Davis said.

President Summer J. McGee of Salem Academy and College said that the courts ruling doesnt change the schools approach to college admissions or to serve diverse students.

Our current approaches to enrollment, academics and student support both align with the current policy landscape, and will continue to strive to be a diverse and welcoming community, McGee said.

UNCGs leaders are closely reviewing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Students for Fair Admissions case, said Kimberly Osborne, the universitys interim vice chancellor for strategic communications.

UNCG will follow the law but does not expect that this decision will impact UNCGs current admissions processes, Osborne said.

N.C. A&T isnt expecting an immediate increase in applications from high school seniors in the wake of the courts ruling, said Todd Simmons, N.C. A&Ts associate vice chancellor for university relations.

Weve been in a growth trend for 10 years now, Simmons said. Weve been dealing in significant growth in applications and in enrollment for some time now.

N.C. A&T is expecting to enroll nearly 14,000 students in the fall semester, which begins on Aug. 23, Simmons said.

The UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem didnt issue a statement about the courts ruling on affirmative action or make any changes to admissions policy, said Katherine Johnson, a university spokeswoman.

Neither race nor ethnicity is a factor in admissions at UNCSA, Johnson said. As an arts conservatory providing professional training to students seeking careers in the arts, UNCSA heavily prioritizes artistic gifts and professional potential in its admissions process as assessed through a required audition or portfolio presentation.

N.C. State along with the UNC System is reviewing the courts ruling and its potential impacts, NCSU said in a statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court made a landmark ruling regarding affirmative action in higher education, NCSU said. The courts decision is complex. N.C. State will of course follow the law.

N.C. State has every intention of continuing our critical public land-grant university tradition of admitting and serving talented and ambitious students from across North Carolina and beyond, NCSU said. We remain committed to providing the opportunity of a transformative N.C. State education to future leaders from all backgrounds, experiences and interests.

After the courts ruling, the White House announced that the Biden-Harris Administration will provide colleges and universities with clarity on what admissions practices and additional programs to support students remain lawful.

The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice will provide resources to colleges and universities addressing lawful admission practices by Aug. 12, the White House said.

I want to send a message to all aspiring students, especially Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and other students from underserved communities, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in late June.

We see you and we need you, Cardona said. Do not let this ruling deter you from pursuing your educational potential.

Our colleges and our country itself cannot thrive and compete in the 21st century without your talent, ingenuity, perseverance and ambition, Cardona said.
A federal judge in California is allowing a lawsuit to proceed against T.W. Garner Food Co. that alleges the company deliberately deceives consumers because its Texas Pete products are not made in the Lone Star state.

In actuality, Texas Pete products are made in Winston-Salem and have been since 1929.

The lawsuit was filed last year in the U.S. Central District of California by Phillip White. White is seeking an undeclared amount of compensatory and punitive damages related to his purchase of a $3 bottle of Texas Pete Original Hot Sauce in a Los Angeles supermarket.

Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpongs 20-page ruling against T.W. Garners motion to dismiss the lawsuit was posted Thursday.

The companys defense is that its packaging does not imply that Texas Pete was manufactured in Texas and that a reasonable consumer would understand that the trademark symbol next to the Texas Pete name indicates it is a brand.

Frimpong acknowledges the back-label disclosure lists Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Yet, Frimpong determined a reasonable consumer would most likely read the reference as a designation of T.W. Garners corporate address.

T.W. Garner said the mere use of Texas Pete as a brand name and imagery of a single white star and a cowboy caricature would not mislead a reasonable consumer to believe that the hot sauce is made in Texas. The Texas Pete brand name and trademark identifies the Garner Foods brand of condiment, seasoning, hot sauces and BBQ sauce, not the location of manufacturing.

However, Frimpong determined that when considering the label as a whole, the court finds that a reasonable consumer, relying on the products labels could believe  erroneously  that the products originated in Texas.

What moved the lawsuit from being considered as frivolous to something serious is that California law has a low bar for proving violations of business and professions code, as well as false advertising and breach of contract.

White claimed he believed that when he bought the Texas Pete sauce that he was getting a product made in Texas, in part because of the logo featuring a notorious Texan cowboy throwing a lasso on the front label. The cowboy and lone star symbols are famously and inexorably linked to the state of Texas.

According to the lawsuit, had he known Texas Pete was made in Winston-Salem, he wouldnt have bought it.

White claims that by naming the hot sauce as Texas Pete, the company was trying to take advantage of consumers willingness to pay a premium price for products that are authentically connected to a significant geographical area.
BLOOMINGTON  Downpours of rain Saturday didnt dampen the spirits of a recently published Lincoln author at his first book signing in Bloomington.

Just like Noah and the ark, Ethan Goodey joked that he needed a boat.

Goodey, 22, is the writer of Finley Finds Home, an illustrated childrens book about kids dealing with homelessness, staged in the sea and cast with anthropomorphic, talking fish characters. The book shares credits with Texas-based illustrator Ethan Perea.

The back cover states 50% of all profits will be donated to help real kids find a home. Currently, Goodey said those funds are being directed to Project Oz, which provides food, clothes, shelter and counseling to youth in McLean and Livingston counties.

In an interview with The Pantagraph, Goodey summarized the takeaway of the book, independently released June 30 on Amazon, as a way to build awareness to the issue of unhoused children.

If you ignore it, it wont go away, he said, adding that many of those kids go unnoticed. While people may talk about a homeless crisis that needs to be fixed, he said the stories of unhoused people are heard as just a social issue and not on an individual level.

Goodey said he was personally touched by this problem as a 17-year-old, describing it as one of the most challenging times of his life. There were times he could only find food to eat in grocery store dumpsters, he said. He recalled having to go place to place for a couch to crash on at night.

So, the other message of his book is to encourage people to help and be kind to others, as he said that will help more than you will ever realize.

The book depicts a young clownfish named Finley who was bullied out of his home by invasive lionfish. He spends the following nights at the homes of his sea-creature friends, including a seahorse, a manta ray, an eel and an octopus. Finley is taken in by his grandmother at the end.

Goodey said he signed close to a dozen copies on Saturday, with over two dozen people present at the Bobzbay Books event in downtown Bloomington.

Goodey said illustrations by Perea were well received in many compliments he heard that day. In a statement to The Pantagraph, Perea said he made Finley a clownfish because they are commonly known to have homes, as opposed to sardines.

I wanted to make sure it was easy for small children to make the connection of Finley losing his home while tackling the tough subject, he said.

While he has no future signings planned, Goodney said he intends to offer the book through Ingram, a national distributor. It's also available on Amazon.

He added he wants to provide copies to area school districts and is arranging meetings for that.

Goodey doesnt expect unhoused children to have money to buy the book, but he still wants to make it available in schools so they can read that theyre not unseen.
DECATUR  Police say a man broke into a Decatur home where a mother and her three children were present only to walk away with the family's German Shepherd.

According to a sworn affidavit, officers were called Sunday evening to a home on Glenview Court to a report of someone having broken into the basement.

The woman and the couple's three small children were upstairs when they heard a downstairs door sensor sounding repeatedly, the affidavit said. The woman went downstairs to see if a family member was home. She reported seeing no sign of him.

Then the woman said she heard the sound of a man she did not recognize yelling from the basement. The woman "began to panic," the police report said, and she quickly grabbed her three children and left the house through the garage.

As her family fled, the woman told police, she could hear the invader attempting to get into the locked door at the top of the basement stairs. She also reported seeing a white male in a black T-shirt in her backyard while driving southbound away from the house.

The woman's husband arrived at the home after his family had fled, the report said. There he said he found the basement door frame had been damaged, as if it had been forced open, with two muddy shoe prints on the door.

Outside, the man said some of the tools that had been stored in a small shed had been removed and were laying on the ground.

While there didn't appear to be anything missing from within the house or any other damage, the family said their dog was missing from its fenced-in area in the yard.

According to police, the wire fence appeared to have been cut. A pair of tin cutters the male homeowner identified as his own were found laying on the ground next to the fence.

Officers later found a man walking a German Shepherd about a mile away in the yard of a home on Hackberry Drive, the report said.

The female homeowner identified the dog as the family's dog and also positively identified the man of the person she saw in their yard, police said.

A neighbor told officers he'd been approached by the suspect, who police said was captured on security footage questioning the neighbor about the homeowners. After his interaction with the suspect, the neighbor called police to have someone check on the man because "he was acting abnormal," according to the police report.

The 30-year-old Decatur man was arrested on preliminary charges of residential burglary and theft with a prior conviction. He is being held in the Macon County Jail on $75,000 bail, requiring him to post $7,500 to be released.

All preliminary charges are subject to review by the Macon County State's Attorney's Office.

50 best crime TV shows of all time Intro #50. Southland #49. Happy Valley #48. Boston Legal #47. Bosch #46. American Crime Story #45. The Americans #44. Banshee #43. Broadchurch #42. Person of Interest #41. Ozark #40. Brooklyn Nine-Nine #39. Love/Hate #38. Harley Quinn #37. The New Batman Adventures #36. Alfred Hitchcock Presents #35. Trailer Park Boys #34. Luther #33. Big Little Lies #32. Boardwalk Empire #31. The Punisher #30. Hannibal #29. Sons of Anarchy #28. Mr. Robot #27. Homicide: Life on the Street #26. Wentworth #25. Endeavour #24. Young Justice #23. Poirot #22. Justified #21. Deadwood #20. The X-Files #19. Mindhunter #18. Daredevil #17. Dexter #16. The Return of Sherlock Holmes #15. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #14. Line of Duty #13. The Shield #12. Oz #11. The Boys #10. Better Call Saul #9. Twin Peaks #8. Narcos #7. Peaky Blinders #6. Fargo #5. True Detective #4. Sherlock #3. The Sopranos #2. The Wire #1. Breaking Bad 50 best crime TV shows of all time #50. 24 #49. Brooklyn Nine-Nine #48. Love/Hate #47. The New Batman Adventures #46. Alfred Hitchcock Presents #45. Bosch: Legacy #44. Southland #43. Harley Quinn #42. Happy Valley #41. Boston Legal #40. Bosch #39. Person of Interest #38. Big Little Lies #37. The Punisher #36. Hannibal #35. Ozark #34. Foyle's War #33. Mr. Inbetween #32. Wentworth #31. Endeavour #30. Trailer Park Boys #29. Poirot #28. Justified #27. Deadwood #26. Boardwalk Empire #25. The X-Files #24. Mindhunter #23. Sons of Anarchy #22. Mr. Robot #21. Daredevil #20. The Return of Sherlock Holmes #19. Homicide: Life on the Street #18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #17. Young Justice #16. Line of Duty #15. The Shield #14. Oz #13. The Boys #12. Dexter #11. Twin Peaks #10. Narcos #9. Peaky Blinders #8. Fargo #7. Better Call Saul #6. True Detective #5. Batman: The Animated Series #4. Sherlock #3. The Sopranos #2. The Wire #1. Breaking Bad
NEWTON  A Newton man has been arrested and charged with first degree murder in the June death of another Jasper County man.

Paul S. Schoonover, 30, of Newton was charged Monday Jasper County Circuit Court with five counts of first degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in the June death of Terry L. Eastep, an Illinois State Police news release said.

Schoonover is being held in the Jasper County Jail awaiting a bond hearing.

Eastep, 59, also of Newton, was discovered with life-threatening injuries inside a residence in the 100 block of Marion Street in Newton early on June 8, the release said. Eastep died as a result of his injuries on June 11.

The Newton Police Department requested the aid of the State Police Division of Criminal Investigation in the homicide investigation. The departments were also assisted by the Jasper County Sheriffs Office and State Police Crime Scene Services.

The news release said the charges followed a "thorough investigation."

No additional information is being released.
SHELBYVILLE  The county farm bill birthed out of an ongoing debate in Shelby County has been signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

House Bill 1076  a bipartisan effort spearheaded by State Rep. Lance Yednock, D-Ottawa  was approved by the governor on Friday.

The now public act amends the Illinois Counties Code and allows, with some restrictions, the leasing of county-owned farmland. But the bills path to becoming law proved controversial to many in Shelby County, and it has failed to provide any clarity on the future of the countys farmland.

Hundreds of self-identified Shelby County residents filed witness slips in support of HB1076, which was approved unanimously by the state legislature after being amended in the Senate.

Many of those residents sought legislative protections for the continued farming of the county-owned farmland. Others say the land fails to provide an explicit public purpose, thereby making farming of the land unconstitutional.

The Illinois Attorney Generals Office has not released a formal opinion on the Shelby County debate but has also never taken action against the county or suggested continued farming would be unconstitutional.

At least two dozen other Illinois counties currently cash rent or lease their farmland.

The county farm bill was written, in part, by former Shelby County States Attorney Nichole Kroncke but then opposed by current States Attorney Robert Hanlon. One of Hanlons first public appearances as Shelby County states attorney was testifying against the bill in the House Counties & Townships Committee on Feb. 23.

Hanlon later told the Herald & Review he is not opposed to HB1076 as amended.

Rep. Brad Halbrook, a Shelbyville Republican, similarly voted against the bill three times before voting yes during the final floor vote on May 25.

The Shelby County farmland includes 197 tillable acres, but spans roughly 240 acres because of a cemetery also on the property. It was leased from the 1950s until about three years ago, when questions about the property began to arise, ultimately leading to the proposed legislation.

The county board was evenly split on a vote to continue farming the land back in June.

During the boards July meeting, Chairman Robert Bobby Orman, R-Windsor, resigned from his spot on the Farm Committee and unexpectedly appointed Carol Cole, R-Shelbyville, to serve as the committees chair.

A Farm Committee meeting originally scheduled for last week was canceled. The boards primary focus in recent weeks has been the countys dive team, every member of which resigned one-by-one in July following a controversial stand down order issued by a county board member.

The Shelby County Board has had a contentious year, with the public comment portions of its meetings regularly being dominated by public criticisms on a number of issues, including the county board, the dive team, an alleged toxic work environment at the Shelby County Courthouse and more.

The Shelby County Board meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, in the Shelby County Courthouse.

Close File photo: Terry Scroggins, front left, of San Mateo, Fla., and other competitors set out to start the championship from the boat launch at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. (Herald & Review/Jim Bowling) File photo: Competitor Gerald Swindle of Warrior, Alabama, preps his fishing poles at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville for the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Competitor Randy Howell of Springville, Alabama, places lures on his lines before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. File photo: The first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. File photo: Competitors and attendees stand for the playing of the National Anthem before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Competitor Randy Howell of Springville, Alabama, places lures on his lines before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Fan favorite Mike Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, gets set to start the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Fan favorite Mike Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, gets set to start the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. A black swallowtail sits on a milkweed leaf in the butterfly barn at Eagle Creek State Park near Findlay. Summer intern Kailee DuVall talks about her work in the butterfly barn at Eagle Creek State Park near Findlay. One of her tasks for this summer was to organize the Butterfly Frenzy, which will include competitions, educational sessions, artwork and music. Herald & Review/Kevin Kilhoffer A sign outside the entrance to Eagle Creek Resort near Findlay informs visitors of a change of venue for a meeting in light of the resort's closure. Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison

A beautiful, calm fall day brought out the crowds for balloon rides at Eagle Creek Resort. Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison

Olivia Young takes a cautious look down as the balloon goes up.

Tyler Francisco pumps up his brother Tanner's tire while their father, Mike, carries a cooler to the car, prior to leaving Eagle Creek Campground Sunday morning.

Click Here to purchase a reprint of this photo Herald & Review/Phil JacobsTyler Francisco pumps up his brother Tanner's tire while their father, Mike, carries a cooler to the car, prior to leaving Eagle Creek Campground Sunday morning. Herald & Review photo / Carlos T. Miranda

Illinois State Police Sgt. Bill Emery, safety education officer for District 10, leads a safety belt demonstration Monday for St. Michael's Elementary School students at the 11th annual DARE picnic at the Inn at Eagle Creek. Herald & Review/Phil Jacobs Annette Sims, right, explains to Rikki Bailey of Cowden some of the activities at the 10th annual DARE Picnic on Monday at the Eagle Creek State Park. The graduates of the DARE program have completed a 17-week course to help them avoid drugs, gangs and alcohol. Photos: Looking back at Eagle Creek A look back at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. File photo: Terry Scroggins, front left, of San Mateo, Fla., and other competitors set out to start the championship from the boat launch at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. (Herald & Review/Jim Bowling) File photo: Competitor Gerald Swindle of Warrior, Alabama, preps his fishing poles at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville for the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Competitor Randy Howell of Springville, Alabama, places lures on his lines before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. File photo: The first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. File photo: Competitors and attendees stand for the playing of the National Anthem before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Competitor Randy Howell of Springville, Alabama, places lures on his lines before the start of the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Fan favorite Mike Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, gets set to start the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. Herald & Review/Jim Bowling Fan favorite Mike Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, gets set to start the first day of the Bassmasters Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship Thursday morning at Eagle Creek State Park on Lake Shelbyville. A black swallowtail sits on a milkweed leaf in the butterfly barn at Eagle Creek State Park near Findlay. Summer intern Kailee DuVall talks about her work in the butterfly barn at Eagle Creek State Park near Findlay. One of her tasks for this summer was to organize the Butterfly Frenzy, which will include competitions, educational sessions, artwork and music. Herald & Review/Kevin Kilhoffer A sign outside the entrance to Eagle Creek Resort near Findlay informs visitors of a change of venue for a meeting in light of the resort's closure. Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison

A beautiful, calm fall day brought out the crowds for balloon rides at Eagle Creek Resort. Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison Herald & Review/Lisa Morrison

Olivia Young takes a cautious look down as the balloon goes up.

Tyler Francisco pumps up his brother Tanner's tire while their father, Mike, carries a cooler to the car, prior to leaving Eagle Creek Campground Sunday morning.

Click Here to purchase a reprint of this photo Herald & Review/Phil JacobsTyler Francisco pumps up his brother Tanner's tire while their father, Mike, carries a cooler to the car, prior to leaving Eagle Creek Campground Sunday morning. Herald & Review photo / Carlos T. Miranda

Illinois State Police Sgt. Bill Emery, safety education officer for District 10, leads a safety belt demonstration Monday for St. Michael's Elementary School students at the 11th annual DARE picnic at the Inn at Eagle Creek. Herald & Review/Phil Jacobs Annette Sims, right, explains to Rikki Bailey of Cowden some of the activities at the 10th annual DARE Picnic on Monday at the Eagle Creek State Park. The graduates of the DARE program have completed a 17-week course to help them avoid drugs, gangs and alcohol.
There will be a Forage Field Day beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17, at the Virginia Tech Research Farm in Glade Spring, Virginia. We will serve supper, so please call 276-676-6309 by Tuesday, Aug. 15, if you plan to attend. There is no cost for the meeting.

The program will include research plot discussions and presentations on various topics as described below. Tall fescue is the foundation grass of most pastures in the region. However, fescue presents a problem when it is infected with the toxic endophyte. Often this goes unnoticed because the cattle continue to eat it and they dont die. However, performance in terms of gain and milk production are negatively affected. There are varieties of tall fescue on the market that perform without the negative effect of the endophyte. We will address this in the presentation, Which Fescue is the Best Fescue?

Fall fertilization of forages, when done right, can make big improvements in production and quality of pastures and hay. Applying phosphate and potash in the fall can often be done cheaper and since these elements tend to bind to the soil particles in our soils, nothing is lost over the winter. We will discuss the advantages of fall fertilization at the field day.

Technology often seems out of reach for the smaller producer but there are options that are useful for smaller producers and generally are not price prohibitive. This will be discussed in the presentation, Using GPS Technology for Fertilizer, Lime, and Spray Applications.

Another part of the program will include looking at the corn silage variety trials (we are testing 52 hybrids from 11 different companies). We also will look at the cool season grass variety trial data which includes 13 orchardgrass varieties and 10 tall fescue varieties. We will also discuss the yield results from a project evaluating the yield of fall-seeded small grains and grasses.

There will be seed company representatives there to discuss their products. There will also be equipment dealers there to display and demonstrate their equipment.

I believe we have a good program lined up and hope you will be able to attend. Credits for Certified Crop Advisors and Virginia Nutrient Management Planners will be offered. The address for the research farm is 12326 VPI Farm Road, Glade Spring, VA 24340.

We hope you will plan to be there, and please call by Tuesday, Aug. 15, if you plan to come.
After more than 20 years, it appears that re-establishing passenger rail travel from Salisbury to Asheville has become more than just talk.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has a draft feasibility study for a western passenger rail that looks at where stops along the line may be, the length of time it would take to get to a destination, funding the line and potential revenue.

In 2001, the North Carolina Department of Transportation started looking into offering western rail service that would run from Salisbury to Asheville.

But state officials have long said it would take federal money to make a western passenger rail line a reality. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bill, passed by Congress in late 2021, could be the much-needed shot in the arm to make a western line an actuality.

The $1 trillion law provides $550 billion from 2022 through 2026 for investment in infrastructure, including in roads, bridges, mass transit, water infrastructure, resilience and broadband, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

When President Joe Biden first unveiled his proposed infrastructure bill in April 2021, Amtrak said in a release that the $80 million proposed to go to the company would be used to expand rail to underserved communities, create jobs, improve the quality of life, reduce carbon emissions and generate economic growth. It also released a map showing its plans and it included a new western North Carolina rail line from Salisbury to Asheville.

The western rail line

The proposed passenger rail corridor spans around 139 miles between Salisbury and Asheville, NCDOT says.

And adding the Western North Carolina Passenger Rail service would extend service to an additional 1.03 million state residents, the study says.

The study says the population within the Salisbury-to-Asheville corridor is also home to a population with a higher proportion of residents over the age of 65 and a higher proportion of disabled residents than in the Charlotte-to-Raleigh corridor.

The study says access to passenger rail service provides increased accessibility and mobility particularly for those with limited available transportation options. Low-income and elderly riders benefit from rail and other transportation alternatives compared to using individual vehicles to get to work, school, errands, medical care and recreational activities, the study says. With the passenger rail services, disadvantaged populations are able to access locations outside of the cities and towns where they live, which benefits them by increasing their access to employment, educational, medical and recreational opportunities, it says.

The Western North Carolina Passenger Rail Corridor would be a connection to major metropolitan areas throughout the state, such as Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, the study says. Those cities have important health care centers and facilities, as well as four-year universities.

Asheville also is a health care hub and home to Mission Hospital and numerous other health facilities and doctors, as well as a four-year university.

Salisbury has the benefit of being a connector to other rail corridors going both north and south to other states and areas of the country.

It also would connect Western North Carolina to rail routes on the East Coast, the study says.

In addition, tourism is a major part of the local economy in Western North Carolina. Along with the national forests, the region also contains a large portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as several lakes and dams such as Lake Lure and Fontana Dam, the draft feasibility study says.

In addition to those, Burke County boasts South Mountains State Parkthe largest state parkand Lake James State Park, as well as Fonta Flora State Trail, Overmountain Victory Trail and the future Wilderness Gateway Trail that will run through Catawba, Burke, McDowell and Rutherford counties.

The draft feasibility study says each year the western part of the state welcomes millions of visitors for camping, hiking, whitewater rafting and other recreational activities. It is a popular spot for tourists, outdoorspeople and holds the historic Old Fort Loops that sit along the rail corridor from Salisbury to Asheville, the study says.

The study says that just east of Black Mountain is a 13-mile section of railroad that twists, winds and curls its way through tunnels and over bridges up the Eastern Continental Divide and through the Blue Ridge Mountains. The loops were necessary to spread the vertical change of the Continental Divide out over the railroad track length to minimize the grade of the railroad, the study says.

Stations

So where would potential stops along the western line be located?

Morganton and Valdese have long been noted as potential stops by NCDOT.

The draft feasibility study said in some cases, station buildings are present and have been renovated in preparation for future passenger services. In some communities, station buildings need to be constructed.

The study says the 2015 Comprehensive State Rail Plan from NCDOT said some initial station planning has occurred between Salisbury and Asheville. Several station buildings along the Salisbury-to-Asheville route, including Conover, Marion, Morganton, Old Fort and Statesville have already been renovated and are housing other interim compatible uses.

The city of Morganton renovated its train station, located off Green Street, in the early 2000s.

Morganton City Manager Sally Sandy said if the western passenger rail line becomes a reality, the city would like to be a stop. As for the station, Sandy said doesnt know whether it would meet the standards that would be required or if additional changes would need to be made.

While she said the city would be supportive of looking into it and seeing if a stop in the city could work, its not on the top of the priority list of things the city is trying to accomplish right now.

The draft feasibility study said in Asheville, Valdese and Black Mountain, future potential station sites have been identified in past studies.

The old Valdese train depot has long since been demolished. It was located across from the current town hall at the corner of Massel and Rodoret streets. An iron artwork structure was installed several years ago at the location depicting the first Waldensian settlers getting off the train. The art piece sits in front of the train tracks and also includes a small walkway to a covered train depot with seating.

Valdese Town Manager Seth Eckard said that area would likely be where a new train station would be built, if it happens. He said the town hasnt had discussions with any agencies about how it all would work.

The NCDOT draft study said during the development of the study, Hickory also expressed interest in being a stop along the line.

The study says estimates include costs to provide platforms, canopies and buildings, where needed, at each intermediate station. It said separate station tracks are not budgeted at any of the intermediate stations. Traditionally, NCDOT has partnered with communities to pursue grants to help with construction, but through agreements, towns and cities help fund ongoing maintenance of station buildings, the study says.

An allowance associated with improvements at seven potential intermediate stops has been included in the cost estimate, although additional planning is needed to optimize service development planning and stopping patterns, the study says.

The study shows the cost estimate for the stations along the line at $81 million. Station costs include those for the Biltmore Village site alternative, Salisbury and seven other locations along the line.

In Asheville, NCDOT and Asheville own land near Biltmore Village near Garfield Street, north of the train corridor, which may be used for a potential future passenger rail station, the study says. A platform, station track and layover track would need to be constructed, in addition to a station building, it says.

The study says that at a meeting with the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization, a request was made for NCDOT to consider building the station in an alternate location near the River Arts District closer to Ashevilles downtown. However, that would mean an additional $5 million tacked onto the cost, the study says. Similar station infrastructure would be needed for the River Arts District Station, and additional right of way or use of railroad right of way would be required, it says.

Salisbury has an existing station and will serve as a connection to trains serving stations between Charlotte and Raleigh along the Piedmont and Carolinian corridors. The station is already set up to accommodate a future additional platform that will also be able to accommodate a new station track extending from the new service along the Norfolk Southern AS-Line, the study says.

Cost and revenue

So how much would a western passenger rail line cost?

The total capital cost for everything including the three sets of trains needed, maintenance, stations, controls, signal infrastructure, crossings and signals, track infrastructure and class of track improvements is $665 million, according to the study. It says all costs are conceptual and are subject to change pending freight railroad coordination.

That breaks down to:

$119 million for track infrastructure and class of track improvements;

$169 million for grade crossing and grade crossing signal upgrades;

$35 million for rail signal infrastructure;

$45 million for Positive Train Control, which are systems designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursions into established work zones, and movements of trains through switches left in the wrong position, according to the Federal Railroad Administration;

$81 million for stations along the route;

$160 million for equipment (three train sets);

$55 million for maintenance facility;

As for net operating and maintenance costs per year, the study estimates it to be between $7.3 million and $10.9 million.

It says the annual operating and maintenance costs were calculated by applying unit costs associated with the Piedmont service to the corridor length and number of trains anticipated on the proposed western rail corridor.

As for the revenue projected, the study says a projected yield of approximately 17 cents per passenger mile (the current yield for the Piedmont service) was applied to the passenger-miles to estimate revenue. A 17 cents yield results in a potential $24 fare (reflecting current 2023 pricing assumptions) to travel the distance from Asheville to Salisbury, the study shows, with a caveat that ticket prices and revenue are preliminary and could change prior to the service being implemented.

The study says that with a potential yearly ridership of between 245,000 to 390,000, total potential yearly revenue, based on 2023 prices, would be between $5 million and $8.6 million.

Whats next

The feasibility study says its information is conceptual and can be used to initiate conversations between NCDOT, Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and Rural Planning Organization (RPO), Norfolk Southern Railway, Amtrak, and other key stakeholders on design requirements and pursuing funding to re-establish passenger rail between Salisbury and Asheville.

It says municipalities and their respective MPO/RPO will need to work together and consider including passenger rail services and its associated station and rail infrastructure improvements in the regions comprehensive transportation plans (CTP) and long-range transportation plans (LRTP).

The study says MPOs and RPOs can use the information in the report to submit the project for funding consideration through the NCDOT Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) law prioritization process, which allocates available project funding based on data-driven scoring and local input. If the project scores well enough to receive state transportation funds in STI, it will be included in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), the study says. The study says MPOs and RPOs should consider submitting the project into STI prioritization process during the next submission window, which opened in July.

The study says state funds secured through the STI process can also be used as leverage or match to pursue a federal competitive discretionary grant, which would greatly reduce the burden on state funds for development. A federal grant will help offset up to 80% of the costs associated with the project, the study says.

The study says letters of support from communities along the corridor will be needed to go after the most appropriate federal grant program, which is the FRAs Federal State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail.

Liz Macam, communications officer for the Rail and Integrated Mobility Divisions of NCDOT, said generally, station projects are eligible for federal grants and inclusion in the state Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) law funding process with local support.

But for federal funding, the proposed western rail corridor would have to be chosen in the FRAs Corridor Identification and Development Program (CID), according to the study.

Following the service development plan, the Corridor Identification and Development Program (CID) would fund 80% percent of the costs to prepare environmental documentation in compliance with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The study says the FRAs intent is that projects that move through the CID steps will be eligible for and positioned for grants through programs like the Federal State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail.

NCDOT submitted an application to FRA for the Asheville-to-Salisbury corridor to be included in the Corridor Identification and Development Program (CID), the study says.

The Federal Railroad Administration anticipates announcing corridors selected for the CID Program in the fall, according to the study and NCDOT.

Macam said NCDOT is hopeful the western line will be one of the corridors selected.

She said if the corridor is selected for Corridor ID, feasibility studies, planning work and preliminary engineering for stations will be eligible for FRA Corridor ID funding.

If selected, Macam said the NCDOT Rail Division will begin more detailed coordination with the freight railroads and local stakeholders on the project.

The study says if the corridor is selected into CID, the program will fund 90% of the costs to develop a service development plan for the project. It says a service development plan is a high-level business, operating and capital plan with the objectives of demonstrating operational and financial feasibility and the value of the proposed service.

Macam said NCDOT is working to ensure it receives final input from project stakeholders and intends to issue a final study report this fall.
Last month I joined dozens of other writers, scholars, activists, and leaders across the country to declare ourselves Freedom Conservatives. What do FreeCons stand for? You can read our statement of common principles at FreedomConservatism.org.

Of course, virtually all Americans value freedom. But they dont necessarily define the term in the same way. Nor do they agree on what policies are most likely to advance freedom as they define it.

The roots of these disagreements run deep. In his seminal work Albions Seed, the historian David Hackett Fischer describes four waves of settlement, emanating from four different regions of the British Isles, that helped shape the history and politics of the North American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each of the four folkways, as Fischer put it, contained its own conception of freedom.

For the Puritans who settled New England from East Anglia and the Netherlands, the organizing principle was ordered liberty. You were free if you were part of a free, self-governing community. Public liberty, as the concept was also called, was thought to be consistent with close restraints upon individuals, Fischer explained.

For the Royalists who settled Virginia and neighboring colonies from their original home in the south of England, the organizing principle was something closer to hegemonic liberty, in Fischers phrase. That is, while they emphasized individual freedom instead of the Puritans sense of collective liberty, Virginians didnt think everyone was entitled to it. Rank had its privileges, in other words, and obviously those held in bondage were excluded entirely.

Quite different was the reciprocal liberty espoused by the Quakers and other religious dissenters who settled Pennsylvania and its environs. Their concept embraced all humanity and was written in the Golden Rule. While religious liberty was essential to this tradition, its protection of individual autonomy extended to other spheres of life, as well, including property rights and procedural rights for those accused of crimes.

Finally, large waves of settlement from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Northern England during the 18th century brought the idea of natural liberty to the American backcountry. Rejecting the idea of tempering their personal freedom with the communal authority of the Puritans, the hierarchical authority of the Royalists, or the radical egalitarianism of the Quakers, the backcountry folk insisted that they simply wanted to be left alone. Indeed, as a group of Mecklenburg County leaders put it in 1768, their individual liberties came before their political obligations. We shall ever be ready to support the government under which we find the most liberty, they stated.

These were just the original British folkways that help shaped Americas political culture. Weave in the distinctive beliefs of Americas other origin cultures and you have an ideological tapestry of intricate complexity.

The late University of Oklahoma scholar Rufus Fears described freedom as existing at three levels. Individual freedom means the right to do as you choose without the government telling you otherwise. Political freedom means the right to vote and participate in civic affairs. Finally, national freedom means the right of a people collectively not to be ruled by some other people.

Ideally, one would enjoy freedom at all levels. But for most of recorded history, most people have enjoyed just one or two of these freedoms, if any. For example, within the Roman empire quite a few people enjoyed individual freedom and some enjoyed the political freedom to elect local magistrates. But no one outside Rome itself experienced national freedom.

To my way of thinking, individual freedom is the essential foundation of self-government. I value political freedom and national freedom precisely because I think they are most likely to protect individual freedom from encroachments, foreign or domestic. To be free is not necessarily to be happy. It certainly doesnt make one free of social attachments, or capable of obtaining any particular goal. It simply means you can pursue whatever goal you wish without government telling you otherwise. And I think its worth fighting for.
The Whitney Police Department took two suspects into custody after a chase Tuesday, August 1.

According to reports, officers were dispatched to Pit Stop convenience store at 209 North Bosque Street in reference to a possible break-in.

When an officer arrived on scene, he reportedly saw a subject running from the store and gave chase, but lost him in a wooded area.

Authorities arrested a 17-year-old male and a juvenile male and charged them both with burglary of a building.

See The Reporter Newspaper for more information.
For months, an American woman poisoned the coffee of her husband, who works in the US Air Force, with bleach. The couple was about to divorce, but they lived together because of their common child. According to the man, the woman may have wanted to kill him because of the help she received after her death, reports Sky News.

According to court documents, the husband (who has not been named) first noticed his coffee had a strange taste in March, but continued to drink it for two to three weeks before taking a test to find out what might be causing the unpleasant taste. He first tested the tap water, but it showed no difference, but when he also tested the water in his coffee maker, the test showed high chlorine content.

At that time, the man was stationed in Germany, where he lived with his family. He placed a hidden camera in their home, which recorded his wife pouring something into the container of the coffee maker. At first, the man said nothing, instead pretending to drink his coffee every morning, and only contacted the police when they returned to the United States on June 28.

Placed briefly in Tuscon, Arizona, he also hid the camera in the hotel room, which again recorded his wife pouring something into the coffee maker.

The next day, on July 6, the husband turned to the police with the recordings, from where they sent them citing that it was not possible to clearly determine what the woman was putting in the container.

On July 7, the family moved back into their permanent residence, and the husband installed more cameras disguised as smoke alarms in the house: one above the coffee maker, one in the laundry room, and one in the hallway connecting the two.

On several occasions, the cameras recorded his wife pouring bleach from the laundry room, walking into the kitchen, and pouring the bleach into the coffee maker.

With the recordings, the husband went back to the police, whose employees were convinced by the evidence this time, and conducted a search of the house, where they also found a container with a bleach-smelling liquid in the bathroom next to the womans bedroom, and the water tank of the coffee maker also smelled of bleach, according to the report of the scene investigators.

Melody Johnson, 39, was arrested on July 18 and charged with attempted murder and attempted grievous bodily harm.

The husband told the police that they had been separated for some time and were on the verge of a divorce, but they were still living together only because of their common child. According to the man, the woman may have tried to kill him in order to get the widows allowance after his death.
Dozens of organisations have suffered security breaches at the hands of Russian hackers posing as tech support in Microsoft Teams chats.

Last week, Microsofts threat intelligence researchers detailed a spate of highly targeted social engineering attacks carried out through chats in Microsofts workplace messaging app Teams.

The attacks  carried out by a Russia-based threat actor called Midnight Blizzard  affected approximately 40 global organisations.

Our current investigation indicates this campaign has affected fewer than 40 unique global organisations, Microsoft researchers wrote.

The organisations targeted in this activity likely indicate specific espionage objectives by Midnight Blizzard directed at government, non-government organisations (NGOs), IT services, technology, discrete manufacturing, and media sectors.

The attacks targeted victims log-in credentials using phishing lures sent in Teams chats under the guise of tech support.

By using previously hacked Microsoft 365 tenants owned by small businesses, the attackers were able to create domains which were very convincingly masked as valid technical support providers  using onmicrosoft.com in combination with security-themed keywords to masquerade under domains such as teamsprotection.onmicrosoft.com.

From there, Midnight Blizzard set their sights on multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes  messaging users of target organisations in attempts to gain illegitimate approval of MFA prompts.

MFA prompts are used during some of Microsofts authentication processes, during which users are required to enter a code displayed during login into a Microsoft Authenticator app on their mobile device.

Hackers sent messages to targeted users over an ostensibly valid Teams chat, eliciting the user to enter the MFA code into their device.

Once the user fell for the misleading chat request and approved an MFA prompt, the hackers were granted direct access to their Microsoft 365 account  enabling malicious activity such as information theft.

Microsoft has mitigated the actor from using the domains and continues to investigate this activity and work to remediate the impact of the attack, Microsoft researchers wrote.

Midnight Blizzard rages on

Microsofts threat intelligence described the attacks from Midnight Blizzard as nation-state actor activity, and said the Russia-based group has been linked to the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.

According to Microsofts researchers, the group is known to target governments, diplomatic entities, non-government organisations and IT service providers primarily in the US and Europe.

Their focus is to collect intelligence through longstanding and dedicated espionage of foreign interests that can be traced to early 2018, Microsoft researchers wrote.

Their operations often involve compromise of valid accounts and, in some highly targeted cases, advanced techniques to compromise authentication mechanisms within an organisation to expand access and evade detection.

The group  also known as APT29  is said to employ a wide range of cyber criminal techniques, from credential theft and spear-phishing through to brute force attacks and password spraying.

In 2020 APT29/Midnight Blizzard was attributed to a string of cyber attacks at COVID-19 medical research centres, and in 2021 the groups activity led to the US sanctioning Russia for a breach at network software company SolarWinds which saw widespread monitoring of systems in large businesses and US government departments.

Last month, Microsoft shared findings from a similar string of attacks out of China which also saw government organisations targeted through Microsoft systems.

Microsoft listed a range of recommendations to reduce the risk of this threat, such as deploying authentication-related security controls and educating users about social engineering and phishing.
GREENSBORO  A judge in North Carolinas 18th Judicial District Court has issued a protective order against a News & Record reporter that prevents her from using her reporting inside a courtroom last week.

Kenwyn Caranna, who covers Greensboro and Guilford County government, was observing juvenile court proceedings inside the courthouse on July 28. She was in the courtroom most of the day except for a period when District Court Judge Ashley Watlington-Simms closed the courtroom to hear a particular matter.

Everyone in the courtroom, including Caranna, was directed to leave the courtroom with only the parties and attorneys to that matter left behind. When that matter concluded, Caranna and others were permitted to return to the courtroom.

Late in the day, Watlington-Simms asked Caranna to identify herself. Caranna did so, and Watlington-Simms said she intended to leave the courtroom and consult with Chief District Court Judge Teresa Vincent. Caranna asked if she could call her attorney, a common practice for journalists, and Watlington-Simms denied her request.

When Watlington-Simms returned to the courtroom, she told Caranna she was under a gag order and asked those in the courtroom if they had any questions.

When an attorney asked Caranna if she had taken any notes, Watlington-Simms repeated the question, to which Caranna replied yes. The judge then instructed bailiffs to seize Carannas notes and said the reporter could appeal the action later.

At the end of the day on Aug. 2, Watlington-Simms released a five-page "protective order" against Caranna, contending it was necessary to protect the integrity of confidential information discussed in juvenile court. The order sealed Caranna's notes and states she is not allowed to speak about information discussed during cases heard that day.

Jon Buchan, a Charlotte attorney who is not involved in this case, has spent decades practicing media law and is a member of the UNC Press Advancement Council.

"North Carolina law prohibits a judge from compelling a news reporter to turn over her notes unless the reporter has had the opportunity for a hearing where she is represented by counsel," he said when contacted for comment about the reported incident.

According to the NC Courts website, "juvenile court hearings are open to the public, but the records of these proceedings are confidential." A judge can decide to close the courtroom to the public and only allow those who are directly involved in a case to remain.

The judge's order concludes by stating, "Caranna can make a motion for the release of the notes seized and placed under seal by the Court."

The News & Record is requesting a hearing to vacate the gag order and unseal and return Carannas notes.
The group of attackers revealed to have compromised SolarWinds Orion monitoring software back in December 2020 are claimed to be back again, and Microsoft has given them a new name to boot.

At the time, when the attack group was identified by both FireEye and Microsoft, the latter called it Nobelium. In a post dated 2 August, Microsoft Threat Intelligence gave it a new name: Midnight Blizzard. No reason was given for the new name, although it is notable that Microsoft Threat Intelligence in December 2020 also had a different name, being known as Microsoft Threat Intelligence Centre.

The group  call it Nobelium, orMidnight Blizzard  is now claimed to have attacked compromised Microsoft 365 tenants owned by small businesses and created new domains that posed as tech support entities.

It then sent Teams messages to try and steal credentials leveraging multi-factor authentication.

Microsoft said 40 organisations had been affected by these attacks across the globe, but did not provide any names.

In its post, the MTI said: "The organisations targeted in this activity likely indicate specific espionage objectives by Midnight Blizzard directed at government, non-government organisations, IT services, technology, discrete manufacturing, and media sectors.

"Microsoft has mitigated the actor from using the domains and continues to investigate this activity and work to remediate the impact of the attack."

The post about this group was issued on the same day that Tenable chairman and chief executive Amit Yoran published a post claiming that Microsoft was notified in March about a critical flaw in its Azure platform, but took more than 90 days to effect a fix that was only partial.

Microsoft has since claimed it has completely fixed this issue; Yoran has said he has no way to verify such a claim, saying, in part: "When we find vulns in other products, vendors usually inform us of the fix so we can validate it effectively. With Microsoft Azure that doesn't happen, so it's a black box, which is also part of the problem. The 'just trust us' lacks credibility when you have the current track record."

Regarding its claims about Midnight Blizzard aka Nobelium, MTI said the actor has "either obtained valid account credentials for the users they are targeting, or they are targeting users with passwordless authentication configured on their account  both of which require the user to enter a code that is displayed during the authentication flow into the prompt on the Microsoft Authenticator app on their mobile device.

"After attempting to authenticate to an account where this form of MFA is required, the actor is presented with a code that the user would need to enter in their authenticator app. The user receives the prompt for code entry on their device. The actor then sends a message to the targeted user over Microsoft Teams eliciting the user to enter the code into the prompt on their device."

The MTI post provided a list of ways by which one could avoid getting taken advantage of by these attackers.
ExtraHop, is a leader in cloud-native network detection and response (NDR), has released a new report analysing the financial impact of several high-profile data breaches. According to the findings, public companies profiled saw net income drop an average of 73 percent roughly one year following the announcements of a data breach.

Industry research on the cost of a data breach has historically focused on the number of records stolen or people affected, overlooking long-term consequences, insurance premiums, or earnings results. To help business leaders better understand the full impact of a data breach, the analysis from ExtraHop looks at the costs associated with data breaches at six organisations, calculating the sum of regulatory fines, legal settlements, and cyber insurance, in addition to the longer-term effects on corporate earnings and stock price.

Nearly all organisations analysed experienced a decline in quarterly earnings and stock prices after a data breach occurred. In one example, ExtraHop noted a companys stock price fell nearly 21 percent the day after the breach was reported, and net income dropped 27 percent year-over-year in the quarter the breach was reported. These losses are in addition to over 1 billion dollars in reported costs, including regulatory fines, legal fees, and multiple settlements with consumers, businesses and individual states.

When a data breach hits, real people lose real money - it goes way past the upfront costs that accompany stolen records and the number of people affected, said Patrick Dennis, CEO, ExtraHop. Both investors and customers lose faith in the business, which has a ripple effect on the organisation for years to come. Its important that corporate leaders take a hard look at their budget and make the cybersecurity investments they need to more effectively manage risk.

"Bad actors are relentless in their efforts to compromise the public and private sectors, leaving organizations of all sizes susceptible to the potential ramifications of a data breach," said Andrew Heighington, CISO and Head of IT & Privacy, Visit.org. "These threats transcend the significant monetary disruption outlined in the report, leading to the erosion of trust, tarnished reputations, and disrupted operations, ultimately jeopardising the core of a business. This research offers the proof that the attack landscape is only growing more complex, propelling enterprises to understand material cyber risks to their business and take action today."

In todays security landscape, organisations need full visibility into their network to track the movement of potential intruders and identify security threats before they become business problems. With full network transparency, organisations can uncover the truth about attackers to see more of what theyre doing and stop them with greater speed, precision, and frequency.

For more details, download the report, The True Cost of a Security Breach

Additional Resources:
GUEST EVENT: Each year, TelSoc hosts the Henry Sutton Oration in Melbourne to commemorate the distinguished but scarcely known Victorian scientist, engineer and inventor from Ballarat. Please join us for TelSocs Henry Sutton Oration for 2023 on Wednesday, 30 August.

This years orator is David Tudehope CEO and Co-Founder of Macquarie Technology Group

The Henry Sutton Oration is named after Henry Sutton, a prolific Victorian inventor and innovator. His many accomplishments are detailed in a book by Lorayne Branch (his great granddaughter), Henry Sutton the Innovative Man.

This year's Orator is David Tudehope:

David Tudehope is CEO and cofounder of Macquarie Technology Group. He will be sharing his experience in the telecommunications industry since 1992, when Macquarie Technology Group was launched, and, in line with the Henry Sutton theme of innovation, sharing his insights on the industry today and into the future.

Today, Macquarie Technology Group provides cyber security, cloud and data centre services to government, as well as data, voice, mobile and colocation services.

About the speaker, David Tudehope:

Tudehope has been a director of Macquarie and its predecessor companies since 16 July 1992. He is responsible for overseeing the general management and strategic direction of the group and is actively involved in the Groups participation in regulatory issues.

He is a member of the Australian School of Business Advisory Council at the University of NSW and was a member of the Australian Governments B20 Leadership Group. David holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of NSW.

In 2011, the Australian Telecommunication Users Group awarded David the Charles Todd Medal for leadership in the telecom industry (this medal is now a TelSoc award).

In 2018, at the 12th Annual ACOMM telecom industry awards, David received the highest award, Australian Communications Ambassador.

In 2020, Macquarie Technology Group took double gold at the annual World Communications Awards 2020. The company received the award for the best Customer Experience and David won CEO of the Year.

David is also part of the Federal Government's Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee to guide implementation of the 2020 Cyber Security Strategy.
NBN Co has formed a five-year research agreement with University of Technology Sydney to study artificial intelligence and push the capability of fibre, offering insights that could help advance broadband technologies and to improve performance of the network.

It will give the opportunity to attract women in STEM fields to work on a continent-sized piece of vital national infrastructure in the Australian telecommunications sector.

We expect that ten years from now our network will carry three times more data than it does today. That pace of change means we need to be ready to evolve our network and continue to develop our capabilities, said NBN chief engineering officer John Parkin.

This agreement will allow industry insights to solve real world problems by applying cutting edge research, that will ultimately make the internet experience better for millions of Australian homes and businesses.

The joint effort was named Astrid (Advancing STEM, Technology Research, Innovation and Deployment).

Astrid opens new doors of opportunity for researchers and students to engage with some of the key challenges, while promoting diversity in STEM and bringing Australian innovation to the forefront on a global stage, said UTS vice-chancellor, president, and professor Andrew Parfitt.

NBN Co and UTS previously formed a research partnership in 2018.
The coronavirus pandemic has failed to halt the growth of the Apple juggernaut, with the company posting quarterly revenue of US$58.3 billion for its second quarter, an increase of 1% year-on-year. Earnings at US$11.25 billion were slightly down from US$11.56 billion posted in the corresponding 2019 quarter.
Photo: Contributed

White Spot is bringing back Pirate Pak Day later this month.

The fundraiser returns on Wednesday, Aug. 16, after a three-year hiatus, and the restaurants goal is to surpass the $1 million mark in its 11th year.

White Spot will donate $2 from every adult and youth Pirate Pak sold throughout the province to Zajac Ranch for Children, a B.C.-based charity dedicated to giving children and young adults with life threatening illnesses and chronic disabilities an unforgettable camp experience.

One of White Spots values has long been a deep commitment to people and the community, White Spot Hospitality president Trent Carroll said in a press release. Pirate Pak Day holds a special place in our hearts because it exemplifies these values while also showing the immense positive impact that a day of fun can have in young peoples lives.

This year is especially important as we strive to surpass the million-dollar mark in our accumulative Pirate Pak Day fundraising efforts, so we have all hands on deck to help us reach this historic milestone.

Pirate Pak day has raised $889,502 over 10 years from 444,751 meals sold.

Originally called Little Mateys, Pirate Paks consist of endless Kennebec fries, creamy coleslaw, choice of soft drink, premium rich ice cream and the treasured gold coin.
These are the tools I depend on, both when establishing a new SQL Server or encountering one in the wild.

Any significant application needs to store data and, although the cloud is becoming more prevalent, the old-school on-premises SQL Server was the winner of DB-Engines' 2016 database of the year.

DB-Engines tracks database popularity through Google trends, job offers, professional profiles, and other mechanisms that combine to show the popularity of a database in actual use.

No doubt a contributing factor is Microsoft's work on releasing SQL Server for Linux, but it certainly must be recognised that SQL Server is a high-performance, high-quality database management system in its own right.

Yet, like any database, you cannot simply leave it to itself. You must manage disk storage, disk performance, index fragmentation and other factors to ensure the continuing excellent performance.

Here are the three free and publicly available tools I use whenever I set up SQL Server, or whenever I am assessing the health of somebody else's SQL Server.

dbWarden

dbWarden is a monitoring package which delivers a nightly report, along with alerting, giving many facts and figures about your database health, schema changes, file growth, disk I/O and a good many other items.

This script is freely available without cost. It was first published in SQL Server Central by Michael Rounds in April 2013 and can be downloaded from SourceForge. At the time of writing, it was last updated in May 2016 and is a mature and stable product.

I can testify to the value of dbWarden. At one company I consulted, I was assured by the development team their SQL Server was in RAID 10 configuration. Yet, I observed application timeouts and long-running queries and I sensed something was not right.

dbWarden confirmed disk I/O was a problem; disk reads and writes and waits were excessive.

I further tested this with sp_Blitz (below) and was confident disk activity was greatly degraded on this system.

I asked the IT manager to show me the disk configuration, and it is something I will never forget. The server had hardware RAID with two RAID controllers. One was not being used. The other had two RAID 5 volumes on it. Within Windows, one of these RAID volumes was allocated exclusively to drive E:. "What's that?" I asked, and was shown it was the page file. The other RAID volume was partitioned within Windows to two drive volumes, C: and D:.

C: of course, contained Windows and the SQL Server software. D: held database files and log files, together on the same disk.

Oh, and D: also held a file share for one of the busiest departments in the company.

It also held a file share where all the company applications ran from. They weren't installed locally. This very same IT manager insisted that you got the best database performance when apps ran from a file share on the same server as the database. I couldn't believe my ears when I was told that, but I digress.

For now, seeing this disk configuration, I couldn't help but wonder how anyone had tolerated such a setup for so long. I knew why disk I/O was so poor. I could only look at the IT manager in surprise.

He, in turn, said "The sysadmin must have changed this! These were RAID 10!" and went out and asked the systems administrator. He said, "No, that's how it has always been." The IT manager responded, with speed that was in deft contrast to his infrastructure, "Oh yes, that's right; we ordered this from the hardware vendor and said it would be a database server so this is their best practice."

Needless to say, after some discussion with management, a Nimble SAN was soon purchased.

Your experiences may not be as extreme, but this is a real-world example of a company labouring with suboptimal database performance, believing it was actually the best they could get. Yet, every operation was performing poorly. Every minute of every hour of every working day, many staff members were waiting for database operations to complete. The damaging effect on productivity was vast and, in my personal opinion, an unacceptable situation for any IT department that considers itself competent to preside over.

Brent Ozar 1st Responder

Consulting firm, Brent Ozar, makes available a free set of scripts, along with other resources, to analyse the health of a SQL Server environment.

I also used Ozar's sp_Blitz script in the situation described above, in conjunction with dbWarden. Both gave me vital information.

They differ largely in purpose; dbWarden is designed to be a continuing daily and nightly reporting tool on the ongoing health of a system, while the Ozar toolkit is largely to run once, or as-needed, and then to deal with the issues presented.

What I particularly like about this toolkit is the extensive detail it provides on indexing, and the script sp_BlitzIndex can be run over specific databases as well as the server as a whole.

Ola Hallengren's management and indexing scripts

Lastly, the third essential tool I believe any SQL Server needs is Ola Hallengren's scripts for ongoing maintenance and backups.

It's pretty easy to set up a maintenance plan in SQL Server, but is it truly effective? You can tweak it but Hallengren's scripts have been used, and tested, by many large organisations including banks, Universities, energy providers, governments and more. When you deploy these scripts for your ongoing database management and backups you are leveraging the practices and testing of many very large SQL Server environments.

Unlike dbWarden and Brent Ozar's scripts, Ola's require some configuration and consideration to set up how you would like, but once in place they will reduce your maintenance windows, ensure solid ongoing performance, and in turn, reduce your own management burdens.
The American Red Cross began accepting donations Monday from newly eligible individuals, many in the LGBTQ+ community, under the Food and Drug Administration expanded eligibility recommendations.

Among those scheduled to donate is state Health Secretary Kody Kinsley and state Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson.

Kinsley, who was promoted to secretary in January 2022, is the first openly gay cabinet secretary in the states history.

What the FDA approved is a change to blood donor eligibility by using gender-inclusive, individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV.

Kinsley and Tilson led an effort, joined by nine other states and the District of Columbia, that urged the FDA to approve these donations.

We applaud the life-saving decision by the Food and Drug Administration to adapt its rules for blood donation, joining countries around the world in proposing a set of rules that defers donors for risky behaviors, not for who they are, Kinsley said. This decision allows a previously marginalized group of people to participate in one of the most selfless acts that individuals perform, coming together to save lives.

The American Red Cross collects, processes and distributes about 40% of the nations blood supply.

The Red Cross celebrates the elimination of blood donation policies that are based on sexual orientation and also recognizes there is more work to be done to make blood donation more inclusive, the agency said in a statement.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is partnering with EqualityNC, Harmony and the LGBT Center of Raleigh to encourage donations for those newly eligible.

To find donation locations across the state, schedule an appointment to give blood or platelets by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, go to RedCrossBlood.org or calling 800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767).

Kinsley and Tilson said the FDA decision is especially welcome as blood donations continue to be low in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a major step forward for ending stigmatization of gay and bisexual men. We look forward to saving lives together.
National trucking company Yellow Corp. filed for federal Bankruptcy Court protection Sunday, confirming plans for a total shutdown of operations that has put nearly 30,000 employees out of work.

The abrupt closing affects an estimated 145 Yellow employees at its 1255 N.C. 66 South facility in Kernersville. The Kernersville facility had the second-largest jobs impact, trailing a Charlotte location with 518.

The company listed $1.5 billion in debt.

Yellow entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy with expectations of obtaining debtor-in-possession financing.

If approved by the court, the unspecified funding would provide Yellow with needed liquidity, which will be used to support the businesses throughout the marketing and sale process, including payment of certain pre-petition wages, salaries and benefits, taxes, and certain vendors and other providers of goods and services essential to the companys businesses.

Chief executive Darren Hawkins said in a statement that it is with profound disappointment that Yellow announces that it is closing after nearly 100 years in business.

For generations, Yellow provided hundreds of thousands of Americans with solid, good-paying jobs and fulfilling careers.

The bankruptcy filing comes five days after Yellow, based in Nashville, said it was closing all operations amid media reports of a pending bankruptcy filing.

According to the N.C. Commerce Department, Yellows shutdown also affects a second facility in Charlotte with 118 employees, as well as Raleigh (55), Durham (24), Rocky Mount (13), Fayetteville (six) and Jacksonville and Wilmington (three each).

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.

Yellow said it has gained the assistance of the American Trucking Associations to assist its employees with job searches and applications.

This initiative intends to streamline job placement, while giving ATA member companies the ability to connect with thousands of skilled freight and operations professionals, mechanics, logisticians and more, Yellow said.

For information on the initiative, go to https://www.trucking.org/jobseeker.

Old Dominion Freight Line

Yellow has been a lower-cost competitor of Old Dominion Freight Line of Thomasville.

Old Dominion, as of June 30, listed having on average 22,438 full-time employees as of June 30. Thats down 533 from March 31, or 2.3%, and down 2,455, or 9.8%, over the year.

At last count, Old Dominion had 1,318 employees at its Thomasville headquarters, 668 at its Greensboro service center and 107 at the Kernersville service center that became operational Dec. 13.

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.

A Yellow's financial and labor challenges became more public and more apparent, Old Dominion's management team was asked about how the company could benefit during its second-quarter earnings conference call on July 28.

The executives  as expected  declined to mention Yellow by name.

Chief financial officer Adam Satterfield told analysts that "we don't want to make any comments specifically on one carrier or another."

"We have seen an uptick in business over the past few days, in particular.

"But really, I think that over the past few weeks, we have started to start seeing a little bit better trend, if you will, and it goes back to maybe beyond that. I think we're at the end of a long, slow cycle."

Satterfield added that "when we look at things, we look at our success measured over the period of years over the long term is the way that we continue to try to manage our business, and we doubled our market share over the last 10 years."

"I think when we think about the next 10 years of opportunity, we've got a long runway for growth ahead, and we want to keep winning market share in the right way for us."

When asked about Yellow's struggles specifically, Satterfield said "I think that there may be direct freight opportunities, but indirect trade opportunities as well that may come out of if there is an industry event."

"I think that's still an if. And we don't know any more than anybody else.

"But we just are staying engaged with our customers, making sure that they understand the capacity that we have."

Assigning blame

In the news release, Yellow pulled no punches in assigning blame for the companys collapse on the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

All workers and employers should take note of our experience with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and worry, Hawkins said. We faced nine months of union intransigence, bullying and deliberately destructive tactics.

The company cited as an example that because of the unions negotiating tactics against Yellow, it caused grave concern among investors, drove away customers, and put 30,000 jobs at risk.

Instead, IBT leaders announced a strike against Yellows then-significantly wounded company. Customers fled and business was not recoverable.

A company has the right to manage its own operations, but as we have experienced, IBT leadership was able to halt our business plan, literally driving our company out of business, despite every effort to work with them.

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.

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.

Stifel research director Bruce Chan said in July that Yellows financial struggles are probably two decades in the making, citing management and strategic decisions going back 20-plus years.

At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore, Chan said.
The Tyson Foods Inc. chicken-processing operations in Wilkesboro has been spared from the latest round of plant closings announced by the company Monday.

Tyson disclosed in its fiscal third-quarter 2023 earnings report it is closing chicken-processing plants in Corydon, Ind.; Dexter, Mo.; Noel, Mo.; and North Little Rock, Ark.

It did not disclose the number of affected employees. The company has 124,000 employees in the United States and an additional 18,000 globally.

As of last count, Tyson has 2,244 full-time and contract employees in Wilkes County.

The four plant closings follow on Tysons announcement in March of shutting down facilities at Van Buren, Ark., with 969 employees, and Glen Allen, Va., with 692 employees.

The company said the four plants are being closed to reduce costs and improve capacity utilization with production being transferred to facilities closer to its primary customer bases.

We expect to shift production to other facilities and cease operations at the impacted locations in our first two quarters of fiscal 2024. Based on our preliminary analysis, we currently estimate total charges of $300 million to $400 million.

Donnie King, Tysons president and chief executive, said in the third-quarter news release that the difficult decision to close four chicken facilities ... demonstrates our commitment to bold action and operational excellence as we drive performance, including lower costs and improving capacity utilization, and build on our strategy of making Tyson Foods stronger in the long term.

Tyson launched in fiscal 2022 a new productivity program designed to drive a better, faster and more agile organization that is supported by a culture of continuous improvement and faster decision making.

We targeted an aggregate $1 billion in productivity savings by the end of fiscal 2024 relative to a fiscal 2021 cost baseline. We surpassed our aggregate $1 billion target in the second quarter of fiscal 2023  more than a year ahead of our plan.

Third-quarter sales dropped 3% to $13.14 billion. Beef sales were unchanged at $4.96 billion, while chicken sales declined 3.5% to $4.21 billion, prepared foods dropped 2.6% to $2.38 billion, and pork sales fell 18.2% to $1.32 billion.

Tyson reported an operating loss of $350 million for the third quarter, compared with operating income of $1.03 billion a year ago.

The biggest factors were the decision to record goodwill impairment charges of $210 million involving its chicken segment and $238 million for its international/other segment.

Goodwill arises when a company acquires another business. The amount of goodwill is the cost to purchase the business minus the fair market value of the tangible assets, the identifiable intangible assets, and the liabilities obtained in the purchase.

A company typically writes down its goodwill when the value of certain assets declines.

CFRA Research analyst Arun Sundaram responded to the earnings report by lowering his 52-week share-price target by $7 to $52, as well as reducing his fiscal 2024 earnings per share estimate from $4.91 to $3.98.

It was another challenging quarter for Tyson, as the macro backdrop remains unfavorable for commodity protein processors, Sundaram said.

In beef, herd liquidation has led to tighter cattle supply, resulting in higher cattle costs and narrower spreads. In pork, excess supply and soft demand has led to negative operating margins. In chicken, the turnaround continues as Tyson announced additional plant closures today in order to improve overall capacity utilization.
The sale of the historic Weeks plant in northwest Winston-Salem has been approved by a federal bankruptcy judge as part of a $65 million bid of Phoenix Acquisition for the United Furniture Industries Inc. portfolio.

Meanwhile, 12 former United employees, including five from North Carolina, have filed an amended complaint in their attempt to force the defunct manufacturer to meet WARN Act requirements for final compensation and benefits for about 2,700 employees.

Judge Selene Maddox approved the sale on Aug. 1.

Phoenix, based in Milwaukee, specializes in buying and renovating manufacturing plants. Phoenix has three N.C. properties, including a 100,810-square-foot building on a 33-acre site at 8425 Triad Drive in Greensboro.

The next step is for trustee Derek Henderson to file a report addressing how the sale will be completed. Property closings are expected to take place in late August.

The portfolio includes four Triad and 10 Mississippi properties and the accompanying 626 acres  all in as-is conditions.

At least $27 million of the proposed purchase price would go toward the Winston-Salem, Lexington and Trinity properties, according to court documents.

When Hanes Hosiery Mills Co. opened the Weeks plant in 1960 at 401 E. Hanes Mill Road, it was the largest manufacturing plant in N.C.

Hanes Hosiery spent about $30 million on the plant, which would be about $308.2 million in 2023 dollars, according to calculations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The plant currently has 755,599 square feet of space on a 54.5-acre tract. Its the largest single piece in the United operational portfolio.

Background

United made promotional- to mid-priced upholstered furniture in the U.S. under its brand and the Lane Home Furnishings brand. The manufacturer also imported wooden bedroom and dining furniture.

After more than eight years of operations at the Weeks plant, United unexpectedly shut down all of its plants on Nov. 22, ending employment and health insurance benefits for 530 Triad employees and about 2,700 companywide.

At that time, United had a combined 245 employees in Archdale and Trinity, 220 in Lexington and between 50 and 70 in Winston-Salem.

After facing pressure from creditors, led by Wells Fargo & Co., for an involuntary bankruptcy filing, United submitted in February its Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy filing, citing between 200 and 999 creditors and between $1 million and $10 million in assets and liabilities.

Wells Fargo filed on Dec. 30 a motion for Chapter 7 liquidation of the manufacturers assets and the appointment of a bankruptcy trustee.

On Jan. 18, Maddox issued a ruling giving United owner David Belford and the company the opportunity to direct the sale of its assets in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection motion.

Maddox said in her memorandum and order that Belford and the United board of directors did not rise to the level of bad faith in their decision to shutter operations.

However, she wrote that its management made serious errors in business judgment and displayed clear financial incompetence.

WARN Act update

United has not filed a WARN notice addressing the abrupt shutdown in California, Mississippi or North Carolina where it had operations.

The majority of companies going out of business, or conducting job cuts affecting at least 50 employees, typically file a WARN notice in which they agree to pay 60 days worth of wages and benefits to affected workers.

The former employees are requesting class-action status in the six filed federal WARN lawsuits, some of which have been combined.

The plaintiffs also are requesting unpaid commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay, accrued vacation pay, and pension and 401(k) contributions, and other ERISA benefits. They claim none of those compensations has been made since the abrupt shutdown.

According to N.C. law, the defendants may be liable for civil penalty of up to $250.00 per employee with a maximum per employee of $2,000 per violation of WARN Act requirements.

However, the WARN Act lacks enforcement teeth, with several studies showing it has lots of loopholes, and virtually no enforcement authority from federal, state and local officials.

Henderson claims former employees are barred from claims by the unforeseeable business circumstances exception in the act.

Henderson summed up his opposition to the WARN lawsuits by saying that although United did not provide a notice in November, he denies that United violated the act and/or any state law because the shutdown and layoffs were due to unforeseen business circumstances, as well as the inability to obtain financing.

These efforts at refinancing and to provide alternate means for its continuing in business were suddenly and abruptly rejected, leaving the debtor with no choice but to cease operations.
Nearly seven years  and at least $4.7 billion in federal regulatory fines  after Wells Fargo & Co.s fraudulent customer account scandal erupted in September 2016, the bank is the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging the same conduct with a twist.

The twist, in this instance, is the unauthorized opening of checking accounts for at least 40 individuals who had not been Wells Fargo customers rather than adding unauthorized accounts to existing customers.

The bank, along with fellow defendant Early Warning Services LLC, was sued Aug. 1 in Northern District of California in San Francisco, where Wells Fargo has its headquarters. Class-action status and a jury trial has been requested.

The plaintiff is Bernard Jay Patterson, described in the 43-page complaint as being from Little Rock, Ark., and a forensic accounting expert specializing in mortgage servicing-related accounting issues.

Patterson claims that in March 2022, at least $4,992 was placed in an unauthorized account in his name, and then paid out to a third-party group.

The complaint requests damaged and injunctive relief for four violations: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act; The Electronic Funds Transfer Act; The Fair Credit Reporting Act; and for negligence/gross negligence.

Wells Fargo said in a statement that the allegations of unlawful activity by Wells Fargo are without merit.

Early Warning, created in 2017, is owned by Bank of America Corp., Capital One, JPMorgan Chase & Co., PNC Financial Services Group, Truist Financial Corp., US Bancorp and Wells Fargo. It is best known for operating the person-to-person money transfer service Zelle.

It is a specialty consumer credit reporting agency that collects and reports consumers detailed personal and business banking information from its more than 2,500 member institutions, according to the complaint.

It provides customer identification services to banks as they attempt to open accounts.

In January, the banks announced participating with Early Warning in the creation of a digital wallet format to compete with PayPal and Apple Pay. The digital wallet would offer consumers the ability to link their MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards for use with retailers online checkouts.

The complaint

According to Pattersons complaint, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau listed there could be more than 40 other consumers who had unauthorized Wells Fargo accounts opened in their name between March and June 2022.

The complaint alleges Wells Fargo is engaging in a practice known as synthetic identity fraud, which is where fraudsters ... use a combination of fake and real personal identification information (names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and drivers license numbers) to open unauthorized accounts in their consumer victims names.

The complaint alleges that through the unauthorized accounts, Wells Fargo secretly processes unauthorized electronic funds transfer transactions in its victims names using these unauthorized accounts ... and, with assistance from Early Warning, Wells Fargo also fraudulently obtains its victims valuable true and correct personal identification and personal financial information.

Pattersons participating as lead plaintiff comes from claims that an unauthorized checking account was opened in his name in March 2022 by Wells Fargo through identification information obtained through Early Warning.

He claimed at least $4,492 was deposited in the account, and then transferred to a third-party group.

The complaint alleges Early Warning knew that the personal identification information provided by Wells Fargos unauthorized bank accounts did not match the personal identification information Early Warning other financial institutions had furnished to Early Warning regarding the victims legitimate bank accounts.

Yet, according to the complaint, the defendants worked together to effectuate the scheme, and they profited from the scheme.

Wells Fargo said that identity theft is broad industry problem that we are all 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.

When we learn of fraudulent activity, we take action and work to ensure theres no harm to the consumer.

The response

The complaint says Patterson has provided expert services in hundreds of litigated matters in courts throughout the United States, including numerous cases involving Wells Fargos mortgage servicing business.

As such, Patterson said he consciously avoided opening bank accounts with financial institutions  like Wells Fargo  that are engaged in the mortgage serving business.

Along with saying Wells Fargo opened an unauthorized account in his name in March 2022, Patterson said Early Warning supplied his credit identification information to the bank without his knowledge and permission.

Patterson said he received a bank statement in June 2022 that listed a $12 balance.

Patterson said after inquiring about the checking account, he was told the account would be frozen.

Following Pattersons disputing of the unauthorized account, Wells Fargo closed it and Early Warning removed the insufficient funds reports from Pattersons credit history.

Patterson said that, fearful of being a victim of identity theft, he requested reports from the three credit report agencies of Equifax, Experian and Transunion. He said none of the agencies listed him with a Wells Fargo account on June 17, 2022.

A request for an account report from Early Warning supplied on Aug. 2, 2022, found that four transactions had been attempted through the unauthorized account.

The final three attempts to transfer $5,000 each were returned due to insufficient funds.

Just the latest?

Pattersons lawsuit begins with just as one Wells Fargo fake account scandal concludes, another emerges.

However, in the footnotes, the complaint clarifies that the Wells Fargo and Early Warnings practices described are separate and distinct from Wells Fargos well-documented and relatively recent sales practices scandal involving employees opening fake customer accounts in order to meet increasingly higher sales goals.

The complaint listed several examples of Wells Fargos history of abusing consumers.

Wells Fargo confirmed on Aug. 31, 2017, that there could be at least 3.53 million accounts affected by its fraudulent customer accounts scandal that erupted in September 2016, up from the 2.1 million initially announced.

Retail-bank employees opened accounts for customers who did not request them, or added non-requested insurance and residential mortgage services. Those moves garnered Wells Fargo tens of millions of dollars in fees.

Depending on which issue is discussed, the scandal period could go back as far as May 2002, with some customers potentially affected into mid-2017.

Most of the customer account fraud victims were in Arizona and California. Wells Fargo has said it cannot rule out that at least 38,722 unauthorized customer accounts were established in North Carolina and 23,327 in South Carolina.

Since September 2016, total regulatory penalties have added up to at least $11.54 billion.

In December 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted more details on how it determined the violations in ordering Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion in fines and customer compensation: $1.7 billion in fines and more than $2 billion in redress and compensation to customers.
RALEIGH  Last month I joined dozens of other writers, scholars, activists, and leaders across the country to declare ourselves Freedom Conservatives. What do FreeCons stand for? You can read our statement of common principles at FreedomConservatism.org.

Of course, virtually all Americans value freedom. But they dont necessarily define the term in the same way. Nor do they agree on what policies are most likely to advance freedom as they define it.

The roots of these disagreements run deep. In his seminal work Albions Seed, the historian David Hackett Fischer describes four waves of settlement, emanating from four different regions of the British Isles, that helped shape the history and politics of the North American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Each of the four folkways, as Fischer put it, contained its own conception of freedom.

For the Puritans who settled New England from East Anglia and the Netherlands, the organizing principle was ordered liberty. You were free if you were part of a free, self-governing community. Public liberty, as the concept was also called, was thought to be consistent with close restraints upon individuals, Fischer explained.

For the Royalists who settled Virginia and neighboring colonies from their original home in the south of England, the organizing principle was something closer to hegemonic liberty, in Fischers phrase. That is, while they emphasized individual freedom instead of the Puritans sense of collective liberty, Virginians didnt think everyone was entitled to it. Rank had its privileges, in other words, and obviously those held in bondage were excluded entirely.

Quite different was the reciprocal liberty espoused by the Quakers and other religious dissenters who settled Pennsylvania and its environs. Their conception embraced all humanity and was written in the Golden Rule. While religious liberty was essential to this tradition, its protection of individual autonomy extended to other spheres of life, as well, including property rights and procedural rights for those accused of crimes.

Finally, large waves of settlement from Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Northern England during the 18th century brought the idea of natural liberty to the American backcountry. Rejecting the idea of tempering their personal freedom with the communal authority of the Puritans, the hierarchical authority of the Royalists, or the radical egalitarianism of the Quakers, the backcountry folk insisted that they simply wanted to be left alone. Indeed, as a group of Mecklenburg County leaders put it in 1768, their individual liberties came before their political obligations. We shall ever be ready to support the government under which we find the most liberty, they stated.

These were just the original British folkways that help shaped Americas political culture. Weave in the distinctive beliefs of Americas other origin cultures and you have an ideological tapestry of intricate complexity.

The late University of Oklahoma scholar Rufus Fears described freedom as existing at three levels. Individual freedom means the right to do as you choose without the government telling you otherwise. Political freedom means the right to vote and participate in civic affairs. Finally, national freedom means the right of a people collectively not to be ruled by some other people.

Ideally, one would enjoy freedom at all levels. But for most of recorded history, most people have enjoyed just one or two of these freedoms, if any. For example, within the Roman empire quite a few people enjoyed individual freedom and some enjoyed the political freedom to elect local magistrates. But no one outside Rome itself experienced national freedom.

To my way of thinking, individual freedom is the essential foundation of self-government. I value political freedom and national freedom precisely because I think they are most likely to protect individual freedom from encroachments, foreign or domestic. To be free is not necessarily to be happy. It certainly doesnt make one free of social attachments, or capable of obtaining any particular goal. It simply means you can pursue whatever goal you wish without government telling you otherwise. And I think its worth fighting for.

-30-

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).
COVID-19 cases are on a slight uptick in the Chicago area. Marnie Monogue, outside her Chicago home, Aug. 4, 2023, is one of the people who got COVID during the summer surge. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

When Marnie Monogue developed a tickle in her throat last week, COVID-19 was the last thing on her mind.

I had been feeling sick and awful all day Saturday, said Monogue, 24, who lives in Uptown and works in marketing for a nonprofit. I kept thinking, Oh, its just sinus pressure from changes in the weather.

Monogue took two at-home COVID-19 tests Saturday night. Both were positive. Monogue suspects she caught the virus during a recent trip to see the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies as a double feature.

I had heard that there was going to be a summer surge, but it caught me by surprise, she said.

Shes among an increasing number of Chicago residents whove been unexpectedly hit with COVID-19 in recent weeks. The numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the Chicago area have been slowly creeping upward as summer winds down, following a national trend and reminding people that COVID-19 is still lurking, even if its no longer top-of-mind.

In Chicago, laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were up 27%, to 67 new cases a day, on average, as of July 28, compared with the previous week, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Only 4.3 Chicago residents were newly hospitalized with COVID-19 each day on average, as of July 22. But that was an increase of 43% over the prior week. In Cook County, hospitalizations increased by 13.6% percent, to 100 new patients for the week ending July 22, compared with the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationally, hospitalizations for COVID-19 were up 12.1% for that same week.

Local health leaders, however, say theres no need to panic. Overall COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations remain low.

COVID-19 in Chicago is still broadly under great control, said Massimo Pacilli, deputy commissioner for disease control at the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Doctors dont necessarily expect this latest bump to turn into a major surge. Thats partly because so many people have antibodies to fight COVID-19, thanks to vaccinations and previous bouts with the illness. Its also because omicron variants and subvariants are still the main circulating strains  rather than new, more threatening strains, Pacilli said.

Absent some dramatic shift in the type of virus circulating, we dont expect for it to have the same impact of stretching the system as when omicron first came on the scene, Pacilli said.

Its not surprising that numbers are rising slightly, said Dr. Mia Taormina, chair of the department of infectious disease at Duly Health and Care. She said she noticed more patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in recent weeks, often people who are elderly or immunocompromised.

We couldnt be at historic lows forever, Taormina said. Its bound to pick up a little bit, but I think were in good shape still.

She anticipates that numbers may continue to rise, as children go back to school in the coming weeks and the weather cools. But she doesnt expect a wave of the illness anywhere near as large as the ones that flooded hospitals in previous years. Across the U.S., there were about 8,000 new hospitalizations for the week that ended July 22. At this time last year, that number was more than 40,000.

Yes, were going to see numbers coming up. Were going to see hospitalizations come up, were going to see emergency room and immediate care visits come up, she said. But its still not going to be to the magnitude of what we saw a year ago, unless we have something strange happen.

Some local doctors say theyve noticed the uptick while others say they have yet to see it.

In recent months, it wasnt unusual for Dr. Sindhu Aderson to go an entire shift at an immediate care clinic without seeing any patients with COVID-19. During one shift this week, there were four COVID-19 positive patients.

I had gone weeks without seeing any, said Aderson, who is the central region medical director of Northwestern Medicine Immediate Care Centers. But, she said, At this point Im not terribly concerned, given a good proportion of our population is vaccinated and we do have Paxlovid in our back pocket.

Paxlovid is an antiviral treatment for people with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 who are at high risk of developing severe illness.

Pfizer's Paxlovid is displayed on July 07, 2022 in Pembroke Pines, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Rush University Medical Center, however, hasnt had many more hospitalizations for COVID-19 lately, said Dr. John Segreti, hospital epidemiologist at Rush University Medical Center.

He noted, however, that hospitalizations often lag behind increases in cases. It can take time for a person with COVID-19 to get sick enough to go to the hospital.

It can also be difficult to tell from publicly available data how widespread the illness is. Data collection isnt nearly as complete as it used to be, he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also monitoring wastewater for the virus that causes COVID-19, but those results seem to be a mixed bag for the Chicago area, with some sites showing increasing levels and others decreasing levels from July 17 to July 31.

Many COVID-19 cases are also likely going unreported because so many people test for COVID-19 at home when they feel ill, or they dont test at all.

Segreti said he wouldnt be surprised if COVID-19 spreads more once kids go back to school, but he also doesnt think its a certainty.

Doctors will, however, be watching cases and hospitalizations as the cold weather sets in, and the start of the traditional respiratory illness season begins. Last fall, cases of RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus, stretched childrens hospitals in Illinois and across the country. Increases in RSV often coincide with flu season and a jump in other respiratory illnesses.

Its going to be very similar to last fall where its going to be like whack-a-mole: Is it flu? Is it COVID? Is it RSV?, Taormina said of what patients may experience in coming months.

Physicians hope new RSV vaccines for infants and older adults, and new boosters expected for COVID-19 will help blunt any surges.

In the meantime, doctors say Illinois residents should be aware of the uptick in COVID-19, and take commonsense precautions if they feel ill, such as staying home.

People should get vaccinated if they havent done so, doctors say. Those who are high risk of severe COVID-19 should consider whether to mask in public places, and should see if they are candidates for Paxlovid if they catch COVID-19, Segreti said.

At this point, I think its very important that people realize that COVID did not go away, he said. Its been with us, albeit at very low levels and people can still catch COVID, and if you do get sick, you should test yourself or get tested and avoid being around other people.
Chief Agri, a leading provider of agricultural storage and handling solutions, is thrilled to unveil their latest addition to the Farm Progress trade show in Decatur, Illinois. The CBLS 18-14 Chief Bin has a diameter of 55 feet, 8 inches, with a peak height of 63 feet, 10 inches, and a substantial farm bin capacity of over 112,000 bushels. This farm bin represents the quality and reliability you expect in a grain storage solution. Its design exemplifies the commitment to efficiency and functionality that Chief Agri is renowned for in the industry.

With a long-standing tradition of showcasing the latest upgrades and innovations, Chief Agri has consistently impressed attendees at the Farm Progress event for years. This year's featured grain bin will include an array of cutting-edge features designed to enhance functionality and ensure optimal safety for farmers.

Among these notable features of the new Chief show bin is the innovative lap splice. The stiffener lap splice is a structural enhancement incorporated into all Chief Bin designs. It ensures increased strength and stability by effectively connecting the stiffener plates, reinforcing the sidewall structure. This robust construction significantly enhances the bin's load-bearing capacity, allowing it to safely store and protect over 112,000 bushels of grain.

In addition to the stiffener lap splice, Chief Agri has included the 10k side draw feature to the new Chief show bin, further optimizing its functionality. The 10k side draw is a specialized grain retrieval system that enables farmers to efficiently access stored grain from the side of the bin. This innovative design facilitates convenient and streamlined grain handling, reducing time and labor involved in the retrieval process.

The new Chief Bin at Farm Progress is equipped with the A-Series Commercial Roof Safety Package from Greene Stairs, a trusted name in safety solutions. Recognizing the importance of safeguarding workers and commodities, Chief Agri has partnered with Greene Stairs to provide industry-leading safety measures. Additionally, the bin features the Farm Duty C-Series Sidewall Stairs, further improving accessibility and ease of use.

Greene Stairs is a trusted vendor for Chief Agri, providing top-notch equipment with a strong emphasis on farmer safety. They consistently deliver high-quality products that meet rigorous safety standards, making them a valuable partner in the agricultural industry. Chief Agri is grateful for the partnership with Greene Stairs, as their commitment to safety aligns perfectly with Chiefs values. Together, the two companies strive to provide reliable and secure equipment that empowers farmers with confidence.

"We have had a long-standing partnership with Chief Agri, and it has been a pleasure working together. Our collaboration is built on trust, shared values and a mutual commitment to farmer safety. We are proud to provide top-notch safe access solutions that empower farmers and enhance their operations. Here's to many more years of success together!" said Mike Adams, president of Greene Stairs.

A standout feature of this year's grain bin is the inclusion of the mid-roof walkaround and eave walkaround, also supplied by Greene Stairs. These additions provide farmers with convenient access points for inspections, maintenance and grain handling, streamlining day-to-day operations.

This year, all of Chiefs bins proudly feature the new V-Rib Roof, which enhances the grain storage capabilities of the bin. Engineered for both structured and unstructured roofs, the V-Rib panel incorporates a stair-step in the side slopes of the rib and subtle corrugations in the pan to enhance strength. Furthermore, the roof panels utilize steel graded at an increased 40ksi, surpassing the industry standard of 33ksi. This upgrade ensures enhanced protection against the elements, including snow, wind and peak loads, safeguarding farmers' valuable commodities well into the future.

Chief Agri is immensely grateful for the work of Valley View Agri, a Chief dealer headquartered in Jonesboro, Arkansas, with additional locations in Arkansas, Mississippi and Illinois. The expertise and dedication of the Valley View Agri team have played a pivotal role in the successful construction of the Chief Bin at Farm Progress. Chief Agri values their partnership and appreciates the exceptional craftsmanship and commitment to excellence demonstrated by Valley View Agri throughout the process. With the shared vision of innovation and customer satisfaction, Chief Agri looks forward to growing this partnership and achieving continued success together.

Chief Agri invites all farmers, potential customers and agriculture enthusiasts to join them at Farm Progress in the North-West quadrant location, 00W, for the exciting unveiling of their brand-new grain bin. This renowned trade show offers a unique opportunity to explore the latest advancements in agricultural technology, connect with industry experts and gain invaluable insights into the future of farming.

Don't miss the opportunity to see for yourself the impressive features of the CBLS 18-14 Chief Bin. Visit Chief Agri at the Farm Progress event and explore the enhanced safety measures, improved accessibility and sturdy V-Rib Roof that contribute to the advancement of grain storage. Join Chief Agri in embracing the future of farming at Farm Progress and discover how their innovative solutions are designed to meet the evolving needs of the agricultural industry.

About Chief Agri

Chief Agri is a leading provider of agricultural storage and handling solutions, committed to delivering innovative products and superior customer service. With a strong presence in the industry, Chief Agri consistently showcases groundbreaking advancements in grain storage technology at renowned trade shows and exhibitions. Their dedication to excellence has made them a trusted partner for farmers and industry professionals seeking top-of-the-line storage solutions.

For more information, visit agri.chiefind.com.

This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com.
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 state's 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 they're 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 it's 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 board's 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 doesn't 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.

Photos: Inside the new Standing Bear High School in southeast Lincoln Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21 Standing Bear Highschool, 7.21
A legal nonprofit that has targeted colleges and universities offering preferential treatment based on race accused the University of Nebraska-Lincoln of racial discrimination for creating and supporting a residency program for Black filmmakers.

The Equal Protection Project, which was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case challenging Harvard Universitys race-conscious admission policies, filed the complaint dated Sunday against UNL with the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights.

In its complaint, the Equal Protection Project alleges a partnership between UNLs Johnny Carson School of Emerging Media Arts and the New York City-based nonprofit Black Public Media violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act.

The Black Public Media Residency program between the two entities was a partnership to serve "Black filmmakers, artists and creative technologists" by offering them access to and training on emerging technology equipment and software.

The residency program, which ran for several weeks in July in both 2022 and 2023, "seeks to develop the talent of producers of color," specifically projects where "a person of African descent is in a key creative position" such as writer, director or producer.

William Jacobson, a Cornell University professor and the founder of conservative blog Legal Insurrection, which launched the Equal Protection Project in February, said requiring at least one person on the team of creatives to be Black diminished the opportunities for others.

"The racial discrimination of the (UNL) program is particularly pernicious because it requires that student teams organize themselves around race, with one team member required to be Black," Jacobson said in a statement. "This puts students in the position of choosing among their peers focused on race. Making students complicit in the discrimination is offensive and troubling."

Three filmmakers and artists  Eboni Zamani of Philadelphia, J. Bird Lathon of Clarksville, Tennessee, and Conrad Burgos of Buffalo, New York  were selected for the second year of the residency program funded through a $40,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which ran between July 10-21.

Because UNL receives federal funding, it is required to follow Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning discrimination on the basis of race, the complaint states, even if the discrimination advances "a benign 'intention' or 'motivation.'"

"Thus, regardless of UNLs reasons for creating, sponsoring and promoting the BPMR, it violated Title VI by doing so," the complaint states. "And, because UNL is a public institution, its creation, sponsorship and promotion of the BPMR also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."

The complaint also refers to the Students for Fair Admissions case decided in June by the Supreme Court, which found that racial categories were often overly broad and did not further the educational goals of an institution.

The Equal Protection Project asks the Office of Civil Rights to "investigate the blatantly discriminatory" program and implement penalties, including "imposing fines, initiating administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue federal financial assistance."

Jacobson also said the NU system should "appoint a special investigator" to look for other programs that provide preferential treatment on the basis of race.

In a statement Monday afternoon, a university spokeswoman said NU has not received a copy of the complaint from the Office for Civil Rights.

"When we do, we will respond appropriately," the university said in its statement.

According to the Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights will review the complaint to determine whether it has legal authority to investigate or if the allegations raised have been resolved.

If investigators determine there are grounds to proceed, investigators can review documentary evidence, interview the parties involved or conduct a site visit to evaluate the allegations.

The office will then decide whether there is a preponderance of evidence to support a conclusion that UNL violated the law, or if there is insufficient evidence to support that finding.

The action against UNL is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Equal Protection Project this summer against colleges and universities that offer residencies, internships or other programs that give preference to racial minorities or other underrepresented groups.

The EPP filed a civil rights complaint against the State University of New York at Buffalos School of Law for its Discover Law Undergraduate Scholars Program, a four-week residential program for 20 high-performing students that gives preference to students of color and first-generation students.

In early June, the organization also targeted an internship program offered by the University of Minnesota for Black and Native students that has been in place since the 1980s, the MinnPost reported.

The University of Minnesota quickly renamed and relaunched the program, eliminating the preferences for students from minority groups, but that didnt assuage EPP or state lawmakers who criticized the program as discriminatory.

The Equal Protection Project also filed a complaint against Missouri State University earlier this year, alleging the small business boot camp for women and people of color was discriminatory against white males.

Top Journal Star Photos for August
Why UW-Parkside?

The answer for Jenn Staton, a University of Wisconsin-Parkside student regent and Army veteran, is simple.

The people, the programs and the academic opportunities, but most of all, UW-Parksides emphasis on creating your own path at your own pace.

They (the faculty) really helped me grow as a student and I dont think they realize how important that was in my life, because I had zero confidence (before), Staton said. They really care about student success, so I know Im exactly where I need to be.

Staton joined the Army straight out of high school in 2007 at just 19 years old.

She served as a combat medic in Iraq and Afghan, taking on a variety of roles from line medic and EMT to covering in the dental office and pharmacy.

Staton learned valuable and lifelong experiences during her time in the Army but after eight years, she wanted to do something more.

UW-Parkside wasnt Statons first stop after the Army. After returning to Wisconsin, she began attending Gateway Technical College to become a physical therapy technician; but as soon as she built up the educational confidence to pursue graduate school as a physician assistant, she discovered Parksides pre-PA program.

With the help of the Wisconsin GI Bill and scholarship opportunities, Staton was able to take the leap from Gateway to UW-Parkside.

Things have just been falling into place, she said. And then when I got this regency, its like, what else can I do to make Parkside look great?

As Staton completes her first year on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, a governing board that directs policies for the states 13 universities, she reflects on how these opportunities have given her a chance to find her path in life.

Statons primary responsibilities on the Board of Regents include serving on the student discipline and student appeals committee.

She said she is very passionate when it comes to student issues and demonstrates that passion in committee meetings.

I advocate for the students, Staton said. I give a perspective when theres a conversation, even if its devils advocate, because you really need to understand that these are real lives happening and these are peoples futures that could be impacted.

As Staton heads into her second year on the Board of Regents, she wants to focus on student issues related to the Affirmative Action ruling from the Supreme Court.

As a Hispanic student, Staton wants to advocate for the community and be a part of those important conversations, especially because of Parksides status as a Hispanic-Serving Institute.

Statons work does not stop there.

When she is not busy with school or board member duties, she can be found helping out other students at the Veterans Affairs office with their educational benefits or Wisconsins GI Bills.

Statons path to success was not a short or easy one, but she remains positive with everything that has been thrown at her.

Staton proves that getting your degree is not one straight path, but rather a very complicated path filled with twists and turns and with opportunities where youd least expect it.

Although the path is unknown, UW-Parkside will be there to support students every step of the way.

Parksides going to change my life so Im forever fortunate to be a Parkside Ranger, Staton said.


Heading of the Bill of Rights from Congress

One of the silliest arguments about the purposes of the Second Amendment is put forward this way. The newly formed Constitutional government would never have created an amendment with the purpose of destroying the government just created. Here is an example from the far-left eugeneweekly.com:

That newly created narrative included the supposed purpose of arming citizens in order to enable them to rebel against the very constitutional government which the Founders were establishing with its checks and balances. This despite the Founders having defined treason as taking up arms against that very government. But this glaring contradiction persisted and found a home within the halls of the Supreme Court, whose collective wisdom may have suffered from the influx of unreported gifts by billionaires to a number of justices weighing in on the question.

The writer does not appear to have read the history of the Revolutionary War, the Federalist Papers, the arguments surrounding the Bill of Rights, the rudiments of the political theories the Constitution is based on, or the Constitution itself. Knowledge of any one of these fields provides ample refutation of the argument above.

One of the principle causes of the Revolutionary war was the attempt by the Government of England, specifically the King, to disarm the American colonists. The proximate start of the war resulted from an attempt by the Crown to confiscate privately and publicly owned weapons, resulting in the battles of Lexington and Concord. During the war, a British minister proposed disarming all the colonists, in perpetuity. Having just defeated a government bent on their disarmament, the successful revolutionaries were not about to grant such a power to the newly formed government of the Constitution.

During the argument about ratification of the Constitution in the Federalist papers, those who were concerned about the centralization of power in the federal government, demanded more checks and balances on the newly formed government. .....
1. Yes. As long as the basic ordinance is still intact, its smart to adjust to the local market.

2. Yes. If part of the ordinance isnt workable, it doesnt make sense to force the issue.

3. No. City staff worked hard on those design standards; its not fair to scrap them now.

4. No. Developers and builders shouldnt get to set their own rules. Keep the standards intact.

5. Unsure. Its best if the city and developers work together, but the city has the last word.

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The leader of a Kenosha organization that advocates for equity and social justice denounced the actions of local police who she said brutalized and detained the wrong person following a hit-and-run crash last month.

You know, now we have another young African American male who was in a restaurant eating with his family, said Tanya McLean, Leaders of Kenosha executive director Sunday night. And  they were just brutally attacked by police officers and they had nothing to do with the incident.

To that end, the organization is planning a demonstration to protest law enforcements actions at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Public Safety Building, 1000 55th St.

The incident stems from a crash that occurred at around 11 p.m. on July 20 at Green Bay Road and Highway 50 and ended at the Applebees at 6950 Green Bay Road. A video, which has gone viral on social media, shows a man being subdued by police and telling officers to let him go. A woman screams to someone telling them to get the baby. The man and the baby are then seen on the floor when the man tells at least two officers to let him go and someone appears to pull the child away.

Officers continue to wrestle the man to the ground until they handcuff him behind his back. However, the video appears to show an officers arm and elbow moving repeatedly over the man while the person recording tells them to stop. Another officer tells the man recording the scene to step back. Officers from Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie police departments were on scene.

Officers later learned they had arrested the wrong man along with the woman he was with.

Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton has said that officers were following a lead in good faith that led to the couple in the restaurant that had matched the description of suspects in a hit-and-run. Patton said he did not know what injuries that man had, but said that pepper spray was involved while officers subdued him. The man was transported to a local hospital following the incident.

The incident is currently undergoing an internal police department investigation. Patton said the review will look to determine aspects that may have gone wrong or right, disciplinary action that may or may not be taken and whether additional training is needed.

McLean criticized police, wondering what had really changed in how officers treat those under arrest, particularly Black men, since the Kenosha police shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, 2020. The police shooting set off protests and riots over several days and placed the city front and center in the debate over police brutality, racial inequality and the need for systemic reform.

My biggest question is, you know, what has changed since Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times? she said.

Rusten Sheskey, the white officer who shot Blake, a Black man, was not charged with wrongdoing following an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and a review by an independent use-of-force consultant.

McLean noted yet another disturbing comparison between the Blake shooting three years ago and the way police pursued the arrest of a Black man in the restaurant with his child with him. Blakes children were also present three years ago when their father was shot.

The fact that  there was a very young child involved and no recourse was taken to make sure that the baby was safe, or, quite frankly anyone in the restaurant  I mean, theyre pepper spraying  you know, its just more of the same.

Where was the de-escalation? That just could not have been proper protocol for you to brutally attack someone who has a young child in their arms, she said.

What is even more disturbing, she said, was that police didnt even verify the identity of the people when this happened. McLean said she has been in contact with the family involved.

What you see in the video is what happened, she said. There is no wiggle room. You see it. I mean, its right there. This is on the Kenosha Police Department, you know? What are they going to do about this?

WATCH NOW: Videos of Downtown march, protest April 25 in Kenosha Watch now: Protesters call for firing of Kenosha police officer Watch now: Kenosha protesters share demands before sit-in Watch now: Demands of Kenosha protesters outlined Watch now: Tanya McLean speaks ahead of Kenosha rally Protesters lock arms Whitney Cabal reads list of demands Justin Blake speaks
The 554 at Seven Treasures is made of steamed white rice covered by fatty slices of red-hued char siu on one side and fried eggs on the other. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Seven Treasures, the beloved Chinatown restaurant best known for the 554 and wonton noodles served late into the night, will close permanently Aug. 15.

Owner Ben Au said hes ready to retire.

A hot pot restaurant will replace Seven Treasures, Au said in Cantonese, in the dining room just before closing time at 2 a.m. Monday. He owns the building but not the new business, which has leased the space. Au declined to name the new restaurant, because he did not have permission, he said. The space will be closed for renovation for about two months, he added.

His father, Chung Leung Au, opened Seven Treasures on Wentworth Avenue in 1986. The 554, a dish that takes its name from a numbered place on a former menu, offers char siu and fried eggs over steamed rice, all drizzled with soy sauce. The restaurant is one of the increasingly few family-owned businesses in Chinatown.

Benjamin Au, owner of Seven Treasures Cantonese Restaurant in Chicago, is seen in June 2016. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

While Chicagos Chinatown has been cited as booming while others across the country fade, many of the biggest new businesses are global brands, with a number of notable hot pot restaurants among them. Haidilao Hot Pot, Shoo Loong Kan Hotpot and Qiao Lin Hotpot have all opened in just the past few years.

The oldest restaurant in Chicagos Chinatown is the family-owned Three Happiness on Cermak Road, opened in 1971. By comparison, Nom Wah in New York City was founded in 1920, and Sam Wo in San Francisco was founded in 1908.

Au said he plans to keep Seven Treasures open until 2 a.m. as usual on its last night, but might need to close earlier if they run out of food.

The social media account Chicago Chinatown first posted notice of the closure online, resulting in hundreds of comments.

2312 S. Wentworth Ave., 312-225-2668

lchu@chicagotribune.com

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By Mitch Shin



It has been apparent that the competition between the U.S.-led alliance and the anti-U.S. coalition in the East Asia region, endangers the Korean Peninsula and may be a key area for the new Cold War.



Considering the monumental agreement signed in the six-party talks in 2005  which encompassed the phased denuclearization of North Korea under the support of the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and North Korea  it is a tragedy that the U.S. and South Korea cannot garner support from China and Russia on North Korea issues at the moment. As we witnessed the limitations of the U.S.-led alliance to resolve the North's illicit nuclear and missile threats due to the vetoes of China and Russia in the United Nations Security Council, North Korea will continue developing its advanced nuclear program with no effective check going forward.



During the 2018 Singapore Summit, then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un confirmed joint efforts to denuclearize North Korea while reaffirming the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, one of the biggest accomplishments then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in made during his first summit meeting with Kim. As both leaders then agreed to establish new U.S.-North Korea relations "in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity," Washington should take a more active stance, formalizing its cemented willingness to negotiate with Pyongyang under the agreements made in the past. This is the price Washington should make due to Trump's political decision to walk out of the Hanoi summit in 2019  which ultimately pushed North Korea to take a more hawkish position to lead the U.S. and South Korean concessions first while isolating itself even further.



The Ukraine War, which started on Feb. 24, 2022, by the Russian invasion, aggravated security concerns in regions where parties pursued different ideologies such as the two Koreas. Ironically, Russia's invasion of Ukraine rather demonstrated that dismantling nuclear arsenals is a choice that autocratic leaders should never adopt due to safety. Without clear and consolidated security guarantees, Kim would never give up his nuclear weapons even though he once showed his willingness to denuclearize his country during the peace process of the Moon administration in 2018.



Also, as Trump rejected Kim's offers to progressively denuclearize his country in exchange for the partial withdrawal of economic sanctions, it has become clear from Kim's perspective that the U.S. economic assistance and security guarantee to his country will follow up only after he dismantles all of his nuclear programs  which could be a suicidal decision for Kim as his power comes from his nuclear programs within North Korea.



Technically, the two Koreas are still at war. The policymakers in the U.S. and South Korea have tried to set the timeline to formally end the Korean War. However, it has not been discussed seriously and deeply as other issues such as taking back the wartime operational control (OPCON) and the possible withdrawal of roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea have been repeatedly dragged into discussions as major barriers.



Since the breakdown of the 2019 Hanoi Summit meeting between Trump and Kim, there has been no major momentum that Washington and Seoul can utilize to revive the stalled dialogue with Pyongyang. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Pyongyang imposing a complete shutdown for almost three years. The Ukraine War divided the world into two sides: the pro-U.S. and the anti-U.S. state actors. While there is no sensational diplomatic overture that can bring the North Korean leader back to the negotiating table, offering to sign the peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War might be an approach that interests Kim. It could consequentially be a catalyst for constructing permanent peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula in the end. Also, it could be the starting point for the U.S., South Korea, China and North Korea to make the Korean Peninsula a buffer zone with no nuclear weapons.



The arms race has intensified on the Korean Peninsula since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May 2022. The blame should, for sure, go to North Korea as it repeatedly launched ballistic missiles, a clear violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, and led the U.S. and South Korea to reinvigorate their joint military drills. To respond to the North's missile threats, it is understandable that the U.S. and South Korea hold joint military drills and deploy the U.S. strategic assets involving its aircraft career to the South's soil.



Considering the isolation of North Korea in the international community, and the conventional and asymmetrical military capabilities of North Korea, what should be noted is that Washington and Seoul's hawkish overture could give Pyongyang room to justify its illicit missile launches as an act of self-defense. In this context, it is critical for Washington and Seoul to make consistent efforts to resolve the security issues on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy, not military measures, as the costs would be greater if Pyongyang continues to develop new types of nuclear and ballistic missile programs.



In its military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1950-53 Korean War Armistice on July 27, North Korea displayed its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), new military drones which had crossed the South's air space in December 2022, and other missile weapons with the attendance of the Russian and Chinese delegations. The photo of Kim standing with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Li Hongzhong, a vice chairman of the standing committee of China's National People's Congress, implies the new Cold War can begin on the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang is also gripping its ties with Beijing and Moscow.



Thus, if the U.S. and South Korea want to make a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula for peace and prosperity in the region, they should craft a concrete offer ending the 1950-53 Korean War to North Korea and China with no pointless delay. Putting political interests aside, it is time for all concerned countries to weigh in to make a peaceful Korean Peninsula through diplomatic means centered on dialogue.





Mitch Shin is a young fellow at The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy. Shin was an assistant editor and chief Koreas correspondent for The Diplomat, and a non-resident research fellow at The Institute for Security & Development Policy, Stockholm Korea Center.




A 30-year-old man with no permanent address faces multiple charges after he allegedly stole a vehicle and drove it into the Market Square parking ramp in La Crosse.

Ryan D. Utt was charged in La Crosse County Circuit Court with felony counts of taking a vehicle without the owners consent and bail jumping and misdemeanor counts of movable property theft, retail theft, obstructing an officer, operating while revoked and bail jumping.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called July 29 to an 8th Street South address, where a woman told police she noticed her Hyundai Kona missing. She told police that it had been parked at her residence and no one else had been given permission to drive it.

The complaint says police were conducting an extra attention patrol at the Market Square ramp when an officer located the Hyundai shortly before 5 p.m. Police reportedly located Utt a short time later running to the elevator nearest to where the Hyundai was parked. He was observed with a pair of the vehicles license plates.

Police pursued Utt, who allegedly ignored police orders to stop. The pursuit continued through Cameron Park and into an alley on Division Street, where he stopped running and followed police commands to lie on his stomach and put his hands behind his back. Dispatch confirmed that Utts driving status was revoked.

The complaint says Utt didnt have the license plates with him when he was apprehended. He said he gave them to an unknown person riding a bicycle at Cameron Park and told the cyclist to get rid of the plates.

The owner of the vehicle later told police a blanket and a pair of roller blades were missing from the vehicle. She estimated the value of the vehicle at $25,000.

The complaint also lists a separate July 25 incident in which Utt allegedly stole a basket of food, including ice cream and mixed berries, from The Peoples Co-op on 5th Avenue. He then distributed the food to unsheltered people in Cameron Park.

Utts next court appearance is an Aug. 9 bond hearing. He is not listed as an inmate in the La Crosse County Jail.
Q: What are the trade winds?

Answer: On the morning of August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage to the Americas. He sailed south along the west coast of Africa, searching for the easterly trade winds, discovered earlier by the Portuguese, that would propel his fleet westward toward what he thought was India.

The trade winds are a component of a global-scale tropical circulation feature known as the Hadley cell. This cell is driven by the fact that the equator is heated more intensely than latitudes to its north and south, resulting in the production of collections of thunderstorms girdling the globe roughly along the equator.

The rising air that fuels these thunderstorms spreads out at the tropopause (about nine miles high) and heads both north and south. Cooling at the cloud tops of this poleward-directed air forces it to sink at about 25 degrees latitude on either side of the equator. The sinking air that reaches the surface in the Northern Hemisphere heads southward toward the equator in a huge vertical circulation cell. The rotation of the Earth, and the resulting Coriolis force, turns this southward moving air to its right, creating the near surface trade winds.

Though known by mariners for centuries, it was not until 1735 that George Hadley proposed this explanation for the trade winds. It was not until the 1950s, amazingly, that observational evidence provided by balloon soundings of the atmosphere finally confirmed the veracity of Hadleys conjecture.
SHAWANO  A Wisconsin teenager has been charged with triggering a bonfire explosion that injured more than a dozen people.

Prosecutors in northeastern Wisconsin's Shawano County charged Sam Armstrong, 18, on Thursday with 13 counts of injury by negligent handling of explosives or fire in connection with the Oct. 14 explosion outside the community of Pulaski, WLUK-TV reported.

Armstrong was attending the bonfire with other teenagers when he threw a barrel containing a gasoline-diesel mix into the fire, sparking an explosion that burned at least 17 people, according to the criminal complaint.

Armstrong, who was 17 at the time, later told police he didn't know his actions would cause an explosion and injure anyone, according to the complaint. He told investigators he had been drinking beer.

Armstrong waived his preliminary hearing Thursday. Judge William Kussel set a $100,000 signature bond, and Armstrong is due back in court Sept. 13 for an arraignment.

Greg Petit, listed in court records as Armstrong's attorney, didn't immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

A 16-year-old accused of helping Armstrong with the barrel was ordered in February to perform community service.
The term for the Lake Geneva Parking Ad Hoc Committee is coming to an end.

Members of the Lake Geneva City Council unanimously approved, Feb. 27, to establish the ad hoc committee to determine and recommend short-term and long-term solutions to the citys parking issues and to recommend alternative sources of revenue for the city besides increasing parking rates and parking fines.

The committee was formed after several Downtown business owners and residents expressed concerns about the citys revised parking rate for 2023, which includes a $2 an hour parking rate Monday through Thursday and $4 an hour parking rate Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

City officials approved the revised parking rate to help offset a projected $1.8 million budget deficit. The citys previous parking rate was $2 an hour daily.

The parking ad hoc committee was to be established for six months with the last meeting set for Aug. 9, unless the city council decides to extend the committee.

However during their July 26 meeting, the ad hoc committee members indicated that they do not feel the committee needs to be extended.

Terrence Pisano, parking ad hoc committee member, said he no longer wants to be involved with the group even before its term expires based on the committees discussion during the July 12 meeting.

It seems to me in the last meeting we were at, you guys were basically saying, We talked about this stuff. We cant figure it out. Theres no real solution here. Were done, Pisano said. So that sounds like thats what were going to do. I came so my attendance would be recorded. I dont really need to be here to listen to that.

Fred Gahl, parking ad hoc committee member, told Pisano that he was welcome to leave the meeting and discontinue his involvement.

Lets stop right here. If you dont want to be here, we dont necessarily need you here, and I appreciate you got other things to do, Gahl told Pisano. Being sour grapes isnt going to be helpful.

Mayor Charlene Klein thanked Pisano for serving on the committee as he left the meeting.

Thanks you for your time, Klein said. Now, lets regroup and reset.

Members of the parking ad hoc committee recapped some of the items they have discussed and recommended to the city council during the past few months.

One of the items the committee members proposed was establishing a senior citizen parking pass for Walworth County residents, in which residents 65 years and older could purchase a parking pass for $65 a year, which would allow for three hours of continuous free parking.

Lake Geneva City Council members unanimously approved the senior citizen parking pass, May 22.

The purpose of the pass is to offer more affordable parking to senior citizens in Walworth County. Previously, Walworth County senior citizens had to pay $80 a year for a Lake Geneva parking pass.

The city has done more as far as promoting the Walworth County pass and the fact that we lowered that senior rate, Klein said. This was an effort to assist the businesses. Were not against the businesses. Were on their side.

The ad hoc committee members also recommended establishing parking Lot I, 151 Wells St. located across the street from the Geneva Lakes Family YMCA, for reserved parking which the city council approved April 10.

People can reserve 10 hours of parking in Lot I through the ParkMobile app or through the citys website, www.cityoflakegeneva.com.

Klein said the purpose of the program is to provide more parking in the Downtown area and to encourage more people to use parking Lot I.

The idea with this is nobody was parking in Lot I to begin with and we can try it out as a pilot program, Klein said. If it works, we might find other areas for reserved parking.

Klein said the reserved parking program has been promoted on the citys website and Facebook page to encourage more people to use it.

Youre going to see a little uptick now, I hope, because its been on Facebook now, Klein said. Ive seen it come to my Facebook page a few times.

Parking Operations Manager Seth Elder said he plans to promote the program at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa and other nearby hotels.

Theyre far enough off the beaten path from Downtown that they might have some guests who would want to utilize it, Elder said. We can try it.

The committee members also proposed establishing $4 an hour parking rate for Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day because of an increase in parking revenue for Memorial Day weekend this year compared to Memorial Day weekend in 2022.

However, the city council voted down the proposal, June 12, by a 5-3 vote.

The ad hoc committee members discussed establishing designated parking areas for Downtown business employees.

Gahl said based on a survey conducted by the Lake Geneva Business Improvement District, several of the Downtown business owners indicated that they would not be in favor of such a program.

The conclusion was the BID themselves basically said through the representatives that it doesnt look like that would work, Gahl said. People would not support it.

Other suggestions that were not completely discussedGahl said there were several items the ad hoc committee did not completely discuss which were recommended by a previous committee that was established late last year to help the city address parking issues.

One of the items the previous committee proposed was establishing paid parking zones in the Maple Park Historic District.

Gahl said that is an item the city could still consider.

Paul Hummel, parking ad hoc committee member and Maple Park District resident, said the city could implement prepaid parking in the Maple Park District. He said establishing prepaid parking in the district could help ease parking issues in that area.

Those who prepaid would have a sticker and there would be a couple of signs that said prepaid parking, Hummel said. Personally, it could benefit our neighborhood. It could keep some people away. The cars are going to be there on the weekends, so why not collect some money.

Klein said she is concerned that establishing a prepaid parking program in the Maple Park District could cause confusion among residents and visitors.

Gahl said it also could take awhile for people to support and utilize the program.

Prepaid parking requires a behavior change of people doing things differently, Gahl said. Its probably not going to work that well initially.

Sherri Ames, parking ad hoc committee member, indicated that she would not be in favor of making any parking changes in the Maple Park District.

I dont think we should touch Maple Park with a 10-foot pole, Ames said.

Other options the previous committee proposed included increasing paid parking hours from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and establishing year-round paid parking.

The ad hoc committee members said the city could implement year-road paid parking and establish a $3 an hour rate.

Elder said year-round parking would cost the city more money because the parking operations department would have to hire year-round staff. He said year-round parking also could confuse residents and visitors and probably would not be supported by the Downtown business owners.

Youre going to get the push back from the business community, Elder said. Theyre going to go bonkers.

Gahl said the parking operations department could have less employees work during days when there are less visitors in the community and more employees work during days when there are typically more tourists.

He said year-round parking could provide more revenue to the city.

If you know you can write enough tickets to justify the increase cost, Im guessing you can, Gahl said.

Coming to an end

Gahl said he plans to present a report to city aldermen regarding the items the ad hoc committee discussed and proposed during the past six months, during the Aug. 14 city council meeting.

He said he plans to present the report to the ad hoc committee members for them to review during their Aug. 9 meeting.

I will draw something up, Gahl said. I will get it to everybody, and everybody can take a look and they can proof it.

Gahl said he is pleased with what the ad hoc committee has accomplished during the past few months.

Weve done a great thing, Gahl said. We touched all the basis and the next people can hopefully take this information and not have to go through the research and discussion we did.

Watch now: Lake Geneva restaurant hosts hot sauce challenge Watch now: Contestants begin hot sauce challenge Lake Geneva officials, business representatives and Guac Star customers prepare to participate in the Hot Sauce Challenge Kevin Singh pours some hot sauce for City Administrator Dave Nord Kevin Singh shows off a bottle of Hellfire Hot Sauce to the contestants Hot Sauce Challenge participants used tortilla chips to soak up their hot sauce Kevin Singh prepares some hot sauce and chips for the contestants City Administrator Dave Nord and Captain Dennis Detowski share a laugh during the hot sauce challenge A Hellfire Hot Sauce van is stationed outside of Guac Star restaurant Kevin Singh, co-owner of Guac Star, gives a sample of hot sauce to Captain Dennis Detkowski Contestants complete the Hot Sauce Challenge City Administrator Dave Nord places a towel over his head and drinks some juice after sampling some hot suace The finalists for the Hot Sauce Challenge pose for a photo outside of Guac Star restaurant Watch now: Lake Geneva City Administrator Dave Nord reacts to final sample of hot sauce
An ocean researcher at the University of California, San Diego says waves are getting bigger and stronger since 1970. There are also more big wave events than ever before.

A big wave is about four meters tall or more.

Peter Bromirski at the universitys Scripps Institution of Oceanography looked at seismic records going back to 1931 in his research.

Seismic information is often used to measure the power of earthquakes. But Bromirski said large waves create enough energy to be measured by seismographs, also.

When large waves reach the shore, they bounce back and run into new waves. The crash sends energy through the ocean floor where it can be measured by seismographs.

Those measurements permitted Bromirski to judge the strength and size of waves over a period of 90 years.

Bromirski said he stumbled upon the seismographic information. Before the discovery, he said, it was almost impossible to compare waves from the past with those from the present.

It took a lot of work to put the data together. Much of the information was on paper. Bromirski and his team of student researchers had to put the information into a computer so they could examine the data. The slow process took years.

They found that the height of most waves in the winter along the California coast have grown by about 30 centimeters since 1970. Starting that year, waves of over 4 meters happened more often, as well. Between 1996 and 2016, the large waves happened twice as often as they did from 1949 to 1969.

Bromirski and his team published their research recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.

1970 is the year scientists believe the warming of the planet began to speed up. Bromirski says the new data shows that climate change is making ocean waves taller and stronger. That means they are more likely to damage the coast, roads and structures, such as piers and houses.

Bromirski said his research may be a warning that bigger and stronger waves are ahead. With more warming, sea levels will rise and waves will get stronger, causing flooding and more damage to land. The California coast has already been damaged by big waves in recent years.

Gary Griggs is an ocean researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He did not work on the study. He said a 30 centimeter increase in wave height over 50 years is not that large. However, the findings of the study support what scientists already know: waves are becoming stronger and causing more damage along coasts.

He said Bromirskis project adds to the data showing the world is warming fast and sea levels are rising.

The challenge, he said, is sort of how to really respond to that.

Im Caty Weaver.

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

____________________________________________________

Words in This Story

seismic adj. having to do with an earthquake or energy created by the shifting of the earths surface

stumble upon phr v. a surprise discovery or unexpected encounter

pier n. a long structure built in water that connects the shore to where boats dock and allows people to walk

challenge n. a difficult task that takes hard work to complete

respond v.

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KEARNEY  Its an activity on the rise in summer months that many homeowners and businesses do, but theyre unknowingly putting themselves and others in a dangerous situation. Digging without line location could result in costly fines, damage to property or harm to yourself and others. Thats why Black Hills Energy is working with communities to recognize Aug. 11 as 811 Day, an opportunity to urge residents to call 811 at least two business days prior to any digging project to have underground utility lines marked. Summer months are heightened times for working outside and hitting lines, making it incredibly important for everyone to focus on being safe.

Our most important responsibility is the safety of our customers, employees and the communities we serve. That includes safe digging any time of year, said Quintin Gaddis, Black Hills Energy General Manager of Nebraska operations. On Aug. 11 and throughout the year, we remind homeowners and professional contractors alike to use the free 811 service before digging to reduce the risk of striking an underground utility line. As we continue to rely on important utilities to keep us connected and safe, calling 811 or visiting ne1call.com is really the only way to know which utilities are buried in your area so that you can dig safely. Black Hills Energy reminds you:

1. Call or Click Before You Dig. Always Call or Click Before You Dig at least two working days in advance to have utility lines marked. You can call 811 toll-free or schedule online at ne1call.com

2. At no charge to you, utility locators will respond within two business days to mark the approximate location of buried utility lines at your site with color-coded paint or flags.

3. Mark Your Planned Excavation Site. Use white spray paint, stakes, or flags to mark the area around your planned excavation site before you call. White-lining helps the utility locator understand your plan and reduces the chance of project delays if the utility locator must return to locate additional areas.

4. Respect the Marks. Always dig with care and use a shovel within the tolerance zone of any utility lines as opposed to using heavy equipment, the tolerance zone in Nebraska is 18 inches plus the width of the underground facility. Just a nick can create a weak spot that may develop into a gas leak, cause an electrical or internet outage or result in injury.

5. Dont Rely on Old Line Locate Marks. If you dont dig within 10 days of having utility lines marked, contact Nebraska 811 again. At no charge, utility locators will gladly return to re-mark the lines within two business days. Never rely on outdated information.

When calling 811, homeowners and contractors are connected to Nebraska 811, which notifies the appropriate utility companies of the intent to dig.

Installing a mailbox, building a deck, or planting a tree are examples of digging projects that need a call to 811 before starting. Requests can also be made online at ne1call.com at no cost to you. Professional utility locators will arrive at the digging site to mark the approximate location of underground utility lines with flags, spray paint or both.

Every few minutes, an underground utility line is damaged because someone decided to dig without first contacting 811. Striking a single line can result in injury, repair costs, inconvenient outages, and fines. For every digging project, no matter how large or small, call or click 811  its free, its safe and its the law. Visit ne1call.com or www.blackhillsenergy.com/safety and click on Call 811 before you dig for more information about 811 and safe digging practices
An American woman has become the first person to swim from the United States to the Soviet Union.

Lynne Cox, 30, took two hours and six minutes to cross the Bering Strait which separates the Arctic and Pacific oceans  and the two superpowers.

She swam the 2.7 miles (4.3 km) from Alaska to Siberia in a bathing suit despite warnings the temperature of the water  which is frozen for most of the year  was dangerously low at around 5C.

Experts believe she succeeded because of a combination of determination and her own body fat which insulated her like a seal.

Ms Cox who weighs 13 stone, has about 36% body fat compared to the average for women of between 18-25%.

After completing the crossing Ms Cox said she was thrilled by the help she had received from the USSR.

Its the best, its more than I ever imagined  to have them open their door and let us land on their shore.

Having that support from the Soviets and having them help us get into shore and meeting us was wonderful, she said.

The crossing was the latest in a series of endurance swims undertaken by Lynne Cox.

At the age of 14 she swam the 31- mile-wide (49 km) Catalina Channel in southern California.

In 1975 she became the first woman to swim the 14-mile (23km) Cook Straits in New Zealand in a time of just over 12 hours.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

After her arduous swim Lynne Cox became famous throughout the Soviet Union.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev praised her later that year during the signing of a nuclear weapons treaty in Washington DC.

She proved by her courage how closely to each other our people live, Mr Gorbachev said.

But though she became a heroine in the Soviet Union her swim did not make that much of an impact at home  US President Ronald Reagan allegedly had no idea to whom Mr Gorbachev was referring.

Lynne Cox returned to the Soviet Union in 1988 to swim across Lake Baikal.
Public opinions will be listened to in a sufficient manner before the government makes its final decisions on Project Hac-Sa, Secretary Andre Cheong has pledged to lawmakers.

Over the weekend, the senior official presented in front of the parliament in order to brief lawmakers on the redevelopment of Hac-Sa Beach and its neighborhood, colloquially referred to as Project Hac-Sa. The project comprises a series of architecture revolving around an adventure campsite.

He first underlined that the proposal for the adventure campsite has started off with the [intention] to provide local youths with outdoor training facilities and local families with leisure areas. He stressed that it has always been a livelihood project. Based on this, he added, the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) will sufficiently listen to the people, in particular from schools, youth organizations, students, teachers and parents. The government will confirm its choices in accordance with mainstream opinions.

Describing the project as a magnified Lam Mau Leisure Area situation in the suburb, Cheong disclosed that the IAM wanted to build something for all ages, after seeing the popularity of the citys several childrens playgrounds. He considered Hac-Sa to be the only suitable location.

When questioned about the MOP1.4-billion budget, Cheong reiterated that a third-party consultancy would be commissioned to audit and assess the expenditure of the project, so as to ensure it come within budget. He also pledged that without sacrificing the projects positioning, layout and quality, expenditure will be minimized as much as possible. He also expressed his confidence that the current budget is the maximum.

In addition, he disclosed that the government has recently touched base with certain local professional or youth organizations on the operational rights of the future campsite. These organizations have exhibited strong interest, he said.

On maintenance costs, the senior official believes that it would not be too expensive, because more durable, damp-proof and anti-corrosion materials will be used. Moreover, the facilities will not require electricity to operate. Other parts of the campsite will rely on maintenance services similar to those at other leisure areas.

Cheong also explained that the first budget submitted to the parliament MOP230 million  was meant for minor construction based on current facilities. The current six-fold budget is meant for an overhaul. He expects the design to be concluded at the end of this year and construction to start next year. Hopefully, the campsite can be opened for public use in phases from 2025.

The campsite will not only be opened to local residents, Cheong said, while tourists will be welcomed. However, different tariffs may be levied on the two groups of people. In addition, he said the government was not intended to commission casino operators to handle the redevelopment.
BEIJING  There were plenty of reasons to think the Barbie movie might have a hard time finding an audience in China. Its an American film, when Chinese moviegoers interest in, and government approval of, Hollywood movies is falling. Its been widely described as feminist, when womens rights and political representation in China are backsliding.

But not only did the film screen in China, it has been something of a sleeper hit  precisely because of its unusual nature in the Chinese movie landscape.

There arent many movies about womens independence, or that have some flavors of feminism, in China, said Mina Li, 36, who went alone to a recent screening in Beijing after several female friends recommended it. So they thought it was worth seeing.

Despite limited availability  the film, directed by Greta Gerwig, made up only 2.4% of screenings in China on its opening day  Barbie has quickly become widely discussed on Chinese social media, at one point even topping searches on Weibo, Chinas version of X, formerly known as Twitter. It has an 8.3 rating on the movie rating site Douban, higher than any other currently showing live-action feature. Theaters have raced to add showings, with the number nearly quadrupling in the first week.

Although not nearly as hotly anticipated as in the United States, where it left some movie theaters running low on refreshments, Barbie has set off its own mini-mania in some Chinese circles, with moviegoers posting photos of themselves decked out in pink or showing off glossy souvenir tickets. As of Wednesday, the movie has earned $28 million in China  less than the new Mission Impossible, but more than the latest Indiana Jones. American movies hauls have been declining in general in China, in part because of strict controls on the number of foreign films allowed each year.

Mia Tan, a Beijing college student, saw Barbie with two friends, in an array of festive attire that included a peach-colored skirt and pink-accented tops. During a scene in which the Ken dolls realized that being male was its own qualification, she joked that the characters sounded like fellow students in their major.

The movie was great, Tan said. It used straightforward dialogue and an exaggerated plot to tell the audience about objective reality. Honestly, I think this is the only way to make women realize what kind of environment theyre in, and to make men realize how much privilege theyve had.

The discussion about womens empowerment that Barbie has set off is in some ways a rare bright spot for Chinese feminists. In recent years, authorities have arrested feminist activists, urged women to embrace traditional gender roles and rejected high-profile sexual harassment lawsuits. State media has suggested that feminism is part of a Western plot to weaken China, and social media companies block insults of men but allow offensive comments about women.

Some social media comments have disparaged Barbie as inciting conflict between the sexes, and moviegoers have shared stories of men walking out of theaters. (In the United States, conservatives have similarly railed against the movie.)

At the same time, public awareness of womens rights has been growing. Online discussions about topics such as violence against women have blossomed, despite censorship. While many of Chinas top movies in recent years have been chest-thumping war or action movies, a few female-directed movies, about themes such as complicated family relationships, have also drawn huge audiences.

And the Chinese government has proved most intent on preventing feminists from organizing and gathering, rather than stopping discussions of gender equality writ large, said Jia Tan, a professor of cultural studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Even some Chinese state media outlets have offered cautious praise of the movies themes. One said that Barbie encourages contemplation of the status and portrayal of women. Another quoted a film critic as saying it was normal that the topic of gender would stir disagreement, but that Barbie was actually about the perils of either men or women being treated with favor.

In a sign of how Chinese womens expectations have shifted, some of the most popular  and critical  online reviews of Barbie came from women who said it hadnt gone far enough. Some said they had hoped a Western movie would be more insightful about womens rights than a Chinese one could be, but found it still exalted conventional beauty standards or focused too much on Ken. Others said they felt compelled to give the movie a higher rating than it deserved because they expected men to pan it.

Vicky Chan, a 27-year-old tech worker in Shenzhen, said she thought mainstream conversations about feminism in China were still in their early stages, focusing on surface-level differences between men and women rather than structural problems. The movies critique of patriarchy was ultimately gentle, she said  and that was probably why it had gotten such wide approval in China, she said in an interview. (Chan gave the movie two stars on Douban.)

Some lingering wariness of feminism and its implications was evident at the recent Beijing showing of Barbie, where several audience members  male and female  told a reporter that they saw the movie as promoting equal rights, not womens rights. Opponents of feminism in China have tarred the movement as pitching women above men.

The Chinese subtitles for Barbie translated feminism as nu xing zhu yi, or literally women-ism, rather than nu quan zhu yi, or womens rights-ism. While both are generally translated as feminism, the latter is seen as more politically charged.

Wang Pengfei, a college student from Jiangsu province, also drew that distinction. He had liked Barbie so much that he wanted to take his mother to see it, feeling she would appreciate the movies climactic speech about the double standards imposed on women.

But Wang also said he was alarmed by what he called extreme feminist rhetoric, with women declaring that they didnt need men. He liked the movie, he said, because it hadnt gone as far as some other films did.

If Chinese women are really going to become independent, he said, it wont be because of movie gimmicks.
The Micro Connect Macao Financial Assets Exchange (MCEX) officially started operation last week in Macau, becoming the worlds 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 Chinas economic development while also help with Macaus 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 Macau SAR government, said that the exchange can leverage Macaus institutional advantages and open financial system to attract international capital and enable mainland small and micro firms, contributing to Macaus appropriate economic diversification.

Senior officials including Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, together with nearly 600 representatives of investors, mainland small and micro firms, financial institutions and media organizations, attended the ceremony. MDT/Xinhua
Rain continued to pelt northeastern China in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri on Saturday, as authorities reported more fatalities and missing people while evacuating thousands more.

Six people died and four went missing in the city of Shulan in Jilin province, which has seen five straight days of rainfall, according to state media.

Over 18,900 people were evacuated from the city of more than 700,000, according to the local disaster relief agency. State news agency China News Service showed images of waterlogged streets around homes and factories. The average precipitation in the city had reached 111.7 mm by Friday afternoon.

China is struggling with record-breaking rainfall in some areas while others suffer scorching summer heat and drought that threatens crops. The heavy rains  remnants of Typhoon Doksuri  have battered northern China since late July, disrupting the lives of millions. Flooding near Beijing and in neighboring Hebei province this week killed at least 22 people.

In northeastern Heilongjiang province, which is known as Chinas great northern granary, rain inundated farms and flooded streets, leading to the evacuation of thousands.

In the city of Shangzhi, heavy rainfall turned roads into rivers and inundated thousands of households.

National emergency management authorities said 25 rivers across Heilongjiang threatened to burst their banks, while disaster relief groups have been dispatched to the province.

In Heilongjiangs capital of Harbin, more than 53,000 people had to be evacuated as multiple reservoirs and rivers exceeded safety levels while some 41,600 hectares (103,000 acres) of crops were damaged.

In the city of Yushu in Jilin province, about 120 kilometers south of Harbin, flooding forced the evacuation of around 19,000 people.

Meanwhile, in Hebei province around Beijing, which saw some of the regions worst flooding in the past few weeks, authorities issued fresh alerts for rainstorms on Saturday.

Floodwaters in Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, started to recede Saturday, state media reported, allowing some of the 125,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes.

The death toll in the 11 million-strong city of Baoding reached 10 while another 18 people are still missing, local authorities said Saturday.

Floods damaged roads and washed away bridges in the citys Yesanpo Scenic Area, a national park known for its gorges and mountains.

Meanwhile, an earthquake in eastern China before dawn yesterday knocked down houses and injured at least 21 people, according to state media, but no deaths were reported.

The magnitude 5.5 quake occurred near the city of Dezhou, about 300 kilometers south of Beijing, the Chinese capital, at 2:33 a.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.4.

The quake caused 126 homes to collapse and 21 people were injured, government broadcaster China Central Television and other news outlets reported.

TV broadcasters showed Dezhou residents who ran outdoors after the quake sitting on sidewalks in the predawn darkness. Video on social media showed bricks that had fallen from cracked walls. MDT/AP
The Philippine military yesterday condemned a Chinese coast guard ships excessive and offensive use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering new troops, food, water and fuel to a Philippine-occupied shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

The tense confrontation on Saturday at the Second Thomas Shoal was the latest flare-up in the long-

seething territorial conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The disputes in the South China Sea, one of the worlds busiest sea lanes, have long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China in the region. China claims ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway despite international rulings that invalidated Beijings vast territorial claims, such as that of 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague; China rejects that ruling.

Philippine navy personnel on board two chartered supply boats were cruising toward Second Thomas, escorted by Philippine coast guard ships, when a Chinese coast guard ship approached and used a powerful water cannon to block the Filipinos from the shoal that China also claims, according to Philippine military and coast guard officials.

The Chinese ships action was in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board the Philippine navy-chartered boat and violated international law, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which did not say if any of its sailors were injured.

The excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels near the shoal prevented one of the two Filipino boats from unloading supplies needed by Filipino troops guarding the shoal onboard a long-marooned Philippine navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine military said in a statement.

It called on the Chinese coast guard and Chinas central military commission to act with prudence and be responsible in their actions to prevent miscalculations and accidents that will endanger peoples lives.

Several countries expressed concern over the actions of the Chinese ship.

The United States immediately expressed support to the Philippines and renewed a warning that its obliged to defend its longtime treaty ally when Filipino public vessels and forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that firing water cannons and employing unsafe blocking maneuvers, PRC ships interfered with the Philippines lawful exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and jeopardized the safety of the Philippine vessels and crew. It used the acronym for the Peoples Republic of China.

It added that such actions are the latest by the PRC in the South China Sea and are a direct threat to regional peace and stability.

Australia expressed its concern, describing the actions of the Chinese coast guard ship as dangerous and destabilizing.

Japan said it supported the Philippines, adding that the harassment and action, which infringe on lawful activities of the sea and endanger navigational safety, were totally unacceptable.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila did not immediately issue any reaction but has filed a large number of diplomatic protests over increasingly hostile actions by China in recent years. Chinese government officials did not immediately comment on the incident.

China has long demanded that the Philippines withdraw its small contingent of naval forces and tow away the actively commissioned but crumbling BRP Sierra Madre. The navy ship was deliberately marooned on the shoal in 1999 and now serves as a fragile symbol of Manilas territorial claim to the atoll.

Chinese ships had blocked and shadowed navy vessels delivering food and other supplies to the Filipino sailors on the ship in the shoal, which Chinese coast guard ships and a swarm of Chinese fishing boats  suspected to be manned by militias  have surrounded for years.

While the U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, it has often lashed out at Chinas actions and deployed its warships and fighter jets in patrols and military exercises with regional allies to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, which it says is in Americas national interest.

China has warned the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute and has warned of unspecified repercussions.

Additionally, Beijing has criticized a recent agreement by the Philippines and the U.S., which are longtime treaty allies, allowing American forces access to additional Filipino military camps under a 2014 defense agreement. JIM GOMEZ, MANILA, Philippines, MDT/AP
Pope Francis told young people yesterday the Catholic Church needs them and urged them to follow their dreams as he wrapped up World Youth Day in Portugal with a massive open-air Mass and an announcement that the next edition would be held in Asia.

At the end of the Mass, Francis announced that the next edition would be held in Seoul, South Korea in 2027, bringing the festival back to Asia for the first time in over three decades. The continent is of huge importance to the Catholic Church, given it is young and growing there whereas the church is withering in traditionally Christian lands in Europe.

Do not be afraid! Francis told an estimated 1.5 million pilgrims, many of whom camped out overnight on the Lisbon field so they could be in place for the grand finale of the Catholic festival.

Francis largely stuck to script Sunday but again skipped much of his prepared homily, continuing the improvisation that has characterized his five-day trip to Portugal to preside over the Lisbon edition of World Youth Day.

Early on in his 10-year papacy, Francis would frequently go rogue and ignore his pre-planned speeches, seemingly moved by the moment to engage directly with even huge crowds of people. In more recent years, he largely stuck to script especially when visiting places where Christians are a minority or where his audiences might not appreciate his informal style.

But in Lisbon, hes been back on comfortable turf, with many people who can easily follow his native Spanish and seem to appreciate his conversational way of communicating. They also seem to appreciate the massive turnout.

I never thought that so many people would come, said Ana Garcia Prat, a 23-year-old Spanish pilgrim in Lisbon. In my head, I never pictured a Mass with so many people from so many different countries.

On Sunday, Francis urged the young people to follow their dreams and not be afraid of failing, reprising a theme that St. John Paul II frequently repeated during his quarter century of World Youth Days.

As young people, you want to change the world and it is good that you want to change the world and work for justice and peace, Francis said. You devote all your energy and creativity to this, yet it still seems insufficient.

He insisted: The Church and the world need you, the young, as much as the earth needs rain.

Francis gave a special shout-out to John Paul in his closing remarks, recalling that he launched the World Youth Day events in the 1980s to inspire the next generation of Catholics. It was John Paul who presided over one of the largest-ever Youth Day gatherings, in Manila, Philippines in 1995, the last time the festival was held in Asia.

After Francis announced Seoul would host the 2027 edition, South Korean youths bearing a huge national flag jumped on the stage in glee. A half-century ago, Catholics represented about 1 percent of the population; today they represent 10 percent of the population of 50 million, and Vatican statistics show that more than 100,000 people are baptized every year.

Usually, faith festivals are held in August, the hottest month in South Korea. Even this year, there were calls to cut short a big international scout festival because of excessive heat.

Notably, Francis didnt say he would be in Seoul  he will be 90 in 2027. But he noted there will be an earlier occasion for a youth jamboree in 2025 when the Vatican hosts a Jubilee year expected to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.

Over the last few days, Francis has ditched speeches in favor of off-the-cuff conversations with young people and substituted a formal prayer for peace in Ukraine at the Fatima shrine, long associated with exhortations of peace and conversion in Russia. The Vatican later published part of the prayer on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Responding to questions about whether the popes health is the reason behind his ignored speeches, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said Francis is in good shape and isnt suffering any eyesight problems that might make reading his remarks difficult.

The young people seemed thrilled with all that hes been saying. They braved a searing temperature of 38 degrees C on Saturday to be in place for the vigil service to hear him.

They woke Sunday as the sun rose over the River Tagus. Many had slept on mats, cots and the bare ground to be in place for Francis Mass, scheduled for early to avoid midday temperatures that were expected to hit 40 degrees C. Starting at dawn, a priest-DJ started spinning thumping reggae and Christian hymns from the sound system. NICOLE WINFIELD, FILIPE BENTO & JORGE JERONIMO, LISBON, MDT/AP
As local landfill sites have reached capacity, the land assignment for pre-handling of recyclables will be halted, a local environmental official has said.

In reply to lawmaker Ron Lams written inquiry dated Jun. 9, acting director Ip Kuong Lam of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) disclosed that the construction waste landfill site of the city is full. In light of this, the land assignment has been halted because the bureau considered it necessary to reevaluate the layout of the landfill. Ip hinted that the bureau has prioritized construction wastes.

In his written inquiry, the lawmaker cited the Policy Address 2019 as stating that a land plot measuring 15,000 square meters will be assigned for the use of pre-handling of paper, plastics and metals before they are exported. On the other hand, land measuring 30,000 square meters will also be used to build facilities for the centralized handling of kitchen wastes. It is aimed to handle at least 50% of the citys daily kitchen waste.

The lawmaker also asked how the solid recyclables are pre-handled in compliance with tightening global measures on recyclables-handling. Ip did not respond to this question.

On the construction of other waste-handling facilities, Ip disclosed that glass bottle shattering facilities, electronic wastes pre-handling facilities, public resources recyclables pre-handling facilities, the expansion of the Macau incinerator and an organic resources collection center have seen the commencements of their constructions or enhancements. The sorting facility for inert demolition and construction materials will soon start its simulation. He added that the government has two action plans that are in fact identical, although there is an internal version and a public version.

In his inquiry, Lam asked about the bureaus intention to publicize the internal version of the action plans. He also asked about the construction and establishment of a series of facilities, to which Ip has responded, except for Lams mention of a ferry dock for the export of recyclables.

Lams last question focused on increasing, or at least maintaining, the proportion of recyclable exports amid tightening measures around the world with regards to the intake of waste from external jurisdictions. In fact, mainland China has also tightened its restrictions on the import of external waste materials.

In response to this, Ip stressed that his bureau would continue negotiating with the mainland regarding the acceptance of certain recyclables from Macau.

Recycling industry hopes for substitute plans

The recycling industry hopes for substitute plans to realistically solve the problem, such as introducing reconstructed or restructured used materials to ease the burden on the landfill. Certain industry practitioners told local media outlet Macao Daily that the government should start making plans. Without reusing resources or materials, recyclables can only be exported elsewhere. Long-term commitments must be made to resolve the problem, the practitioners said. Industry practitioners also pointed out that Macau has high costs in recycling. They said that the industry has developed well because the government has not made supportive policies.
Le Buffet at The Parisian Macao has returned, giving dinner buffet guests the opportunity to immerse themselves in an evening gastronomic journey of culinary artistry from the team of talented chefs.

The buffet features jet-fresh seafood, including freshly shucked oysters and Canadian snow crab legs, plates of sashimi and sushi, followed by Boston lobster thermidor from a live station, or roasted sea bass fillet with lobster sauce.

Meat-lovers are also in for a treat, including a range of charcuterie, the Rotisserie Carving station that offers Australian prime beef rib roasted on the bone with a choice of condiments, succulent roasted lamb cutlets with wild mushrooms and thyme jus, and elevated fried rice cooked with Wagyu beef and XO sauce.

To close, meal diners can opt for a European cheese board or opt for the wide-ranging selection of tempting desserts sure to please all, beginning with the signature Insta-worthy carousel of mini desserts that allows for the sampling of a myriad of choices.
The University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) has hosted the Health Sciences Summer Camp for Outstanding Students of Mainland Universities 2023. The summer camp aimed to enhance students knowledge and interest in health sciences. The summer camp featured a string of activities, including lectures by UM professors in fields such as precision oncology, stem cells and development, neuroscience, biomedical imaging, nanomaterials, and others. A total of 79 outstanding undergraduate students and professors from Zhejiang University, Jilin University, Sichuan University, and Northwestern Polytechnical University joined the summer camp.

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Ahan has outgrown its space inside The Bur Oak music venue on Winnebago Street and its owners plan to move the popular pan-Asian restaurant into the much larger former Eldorado space, 744 Williamson St.

I really like the location, said chef/owner Jamie Brown-Soukaseume, who formerly went by Jamie Hoang. She owns the business with her husband, Chuckie Brown-Soukaseume, formerly Chuckie Brown. The couple married in April.

I like to stay in the Willy Street area, but its also close to Downtown, which is nice, she said.

Jamie, who with Brown started Ahan  food in Lao  in August 2020 doing takeout only because of COVID-19, said shes excited for more seating and their own bar. Plus, the former Eldorado has a nice patio, she said.

Ahan had already been building a formidable reputation for itself, and then in January, Jamie was named a semifinalist for a coveted James Beard Award in the category of emerging chef.

With that recognition came bigger crowds, said Jamie, who spent about three years as executive sous chef for the former Sujeo, co-owned by LEtoiles Tory Miller, himself a Beard winner.

I know just talking to guests, it seems like more and more people have found out about us, Jamie said. Definitely with the Beard, its just definitely increased. I dont know by what percentage.

Jamie said theyre not able to serve alcohol inside The Bur Oak because the venue has an exclusive bar and liquor license for that address.

Itll be nice to have another creative thing that we can do and offer some unique drinks, she said.

Jamie said she hopes to sign the lease on the space this week, get her liquor license in September, and open at the beginning of October.

She said theyre not planning to do too much renovating, just some cosmetic changes to the interior.

All the staples like the Lao egg rolls, chevre wontons, red curry udon, and drunken noodles will stay. I could see us doing more specials, maybe adding a few things, she said.

The new space has a capacity of 100 indoors. The current space can seat 16 people in front. How many people bring their food into The Bur Oak varies depending on the show. Ahan can also seat about 25 people on its deck.

Were planning on keeping things kind of similar, Jamie said. Were still going to do takeout, delivery, counter service, but with a full bar and all that.

The restaurant will need to close during the transition, but Jamie said she wont know when their last day on Winnebago will be for another week or so.
Anti-war activists held an annual "Lanterns for Peace" event in Tenney Park on Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the United States using the first nuclear weapon on Hiroshima, Japan.

But unlike past anniversaries of the bombing, this year's event comes amid a cultural craze around the history of the atomic bomb and the those who invented it thanks to the blockbuster movie "Oppenheimer."

At dusk on Sunday, a crowd of all ages crafted paper lanterns to cast out into the waters of the lagoon at Tenney Park. Physicians for Social Responsibility  Wisconsin organized the event.

The only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki three days later killed an estimated 200,000 people and caused long-term health complications for some who survived it.

"Oppenheimer," which chronicles the life of theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer who helped develop the bomb for the U.S. military, has some faced criticism for not depicting the actual bombings or their impact on the victims

Even so, the blockbuster movie is leading more people to research what the bombing did to its victims and the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, said Paula Rogge, a board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

"From our stand point its a way to get people more aware of what happened in 1945," Rogge said.
The Madison School District will pay $18,000 to settle an open records lawsuit and has reportedly agreed to take a number of steps to improve its slow and much-maligned process for fulfilling public records requests, the conservative law firm that brought the suit said Monday.

The district will pay Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty $7,386.45 in attorneys fees and court costs and the rest in punitive damages to settle the suit filed Jan. 17, according to an agreement signed Wednesday by district and WILL officials.

The suit came after the School District failed to fulfill a records request WILL made in January 2022 for the policy behind a document that instructed teachers to prioritize Black students when leading small instructional groups, which the law firm said would be racially discriminatory.

In particular, the document  which appears to have been an overhead slide shown to teachers during a training session  told teachers to prioritize your African American students meeting with you first and more often because it is important for us to prioritize and group our students in service of our (school improvement plan), equity vision and black excellence.

The School District said in January that there was no official policy on prioritizing students for instruction by race and that the language in the slide was a singular guidance document, the content of which was modified over a year ago.

The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning, but in a statement Monday, WILL said the district disavows a document apparently requiring teachers to meet with your African American students first and more often.

In a letter to counsel, (the district) claimed that the document, which appeared to be an official policy or directive, was limited to a single elementary school and the principal involved has been advised of her misunderstanding, WILL said. In other words, (the district) acknowledges that teachers are not permitted to discriminate based on race and that (the district) should not have a policy, directive, or guidance suggesting as much.

According to WILL, the district has also:

Agreed to meet with public records clerks from the Milwaukee Public Schools to find ways to improve how the Madison district responds to records requests.

Implemented a new e-discovery system to manage public records requests.

Agreed to post a list of active and closed public records requests.

Hired additional staff, including an attorney, to reduce the current backlog of public records requests.

The obligations are not included in the settlement agreement, however, and it wasnt immediately clear Monday when they would be implemented or how they would be monitored or enforced.

These are all items that (the district) stated during settlement negotiations and we are reluctant at this time to release the entire emails/letters, WILL communications director Pat Garrett said in a statement. The district, however, will tell you the same thing, and if there is a dispute, we can revisit the issue of whether portions of the letters can be released.

Under state law, public entities must provide public records when requested as soon as practicable and without delay. The state Department of Justice has said that 10 working days is generally a reasonable amount of time for responding to simple requests.

The district has for years been criticized for its unwillingness or inability to follow the states open records law and has been sued at least five times since 2021 for long delays in responding to records requests, Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council said in a July 5 column in The Capital Times.

As of earlier this year, the Wisconsin State Journal had at least eight outstanding public records requests with the district, some that are about a year old.
Foreign envoys witness Xinjiang's vibrant life, development in visit

Xinhua) 08:27, August 07, 2023

Foreign envoys visit a potable water project in Jiashi County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie)

URUMQI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Envoys from 25 countries, including Dominica, Myanmar, Iran, Samoa and Surinam, visited northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from July 31 to Friday at the invitation of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During their visit to the regional capital Urumqi, as well as Kashgar and Aksu prefectures, the diplomats affirmed that "people in Xinjiang are enjoying a happy life." They also had the opportunity to witness Xinjiang's impressive economic development and diverse culture, which stands in stark contrast to the falsehoods spread by certain Western media.

During an exhibition on Xinjiang's anti-terrorism and deradicalization work in Urumqi, Ijaz Ahmad, minister of the Pakistan Embassy in Beijing said: "Chinese authorities have put great efforts in counter-terrorism, and the people of Xinjiang have been provided a safe and secure environment." He also said that China and Pakistan will continue cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Regarding the so-called "violations of human rights," Martin Charles, Dominican ambassador to China, stated that he engaged in candid conversations with the locals and observed that they are leading happy and dignified lives. "I have not seen any forced labor, and have not found any human rights violations."

After visiting the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar and Xinjiang Islamic Institute in Urumqi, Luamanuvae Mariner, Samoan ambassador to China, pointed out that Chinese law guarantees the freedom of religious belief for all ethnic groups, and China's development outcomes are encouraging.

In Kashgar's Jiashi County, the delegation visited a potable water project built with an investment of over 1.7 billion yuan (about 238 million U.S. dollars). The foreign envoys witnessed the innovative approach of sourcing water from melted glaciers and snow, and how this project has effectively provided clean and safe drinking water to all residents in the county.

"Providing drinking water to 460,000 people everywhere is a fundamental victory everywhere," said Michael Campbell, Nicaraguan ambassador to China, adding that Nicaragua can learn from China's experience in ensuring people's well-being and fighting poverty.

The delegation also visited the Urumqi International Land Port. Batir Tursunov, minister-counselor of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Beijing, said that Xinjiang plays a vital role in connecting markets between Europe and Asia. He said he is looking forward to the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which will bring convenience to people along the route.

Xinjiang serves not only as a crucial transportation hub but also a region with diverse cultures along the ancient Silk Road. Erika Lizardo, minister-counselor of the Embassy of Peru in Beijing, expressed her admiration for the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves in Aksu, one of China's earliest large-scale grotto groups. "China is making a great effort preserving these budda caves, and values its culture everywhere," she said.

The delegation also visited the Jiayi Village in Aksu's Xinhe County, renowned for musical instrument production. The locals warmly welcomed the delegates with lively dances and captivating performances on folk musical instruments such as rewap and tambourine.

Overflowing with excitement, Hector Dorbecker, minister of the Embassy of Mexico in Beijing, couldn't resist purchasing a dutar, a string instrument. "I will give the gift to my brother. He is a music lover and I can hear him play music with this Xinjiang instrument," he said.

In response to the false accusations made by some Western media of so-called "cultural genocide," Ijaz Ahmad said: "Seeing is believing, the Chinese government is making efforts to preserve the culture and language of multi-ethnic groups."

Foreign envoys visit an exhibition on Xinjiang's anti-terrorism and deradicalization work in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie)

Hector Dorbecker, minister of the Embassy of Mexico in Beijing, tries to play dutar, a string instrument, in Jiayi Village of Xinhe County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Chenjie)

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
First came the Germans and the Swedes. Then Russian Jews, a group that remained dominant through the 1960s. By the late 1980s, there were Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans and Guatemalans. And Somalis, Pakistanis, Romanians, Cambodians, the Burmese, and folks from the former Yugoslavia, and, and, and. By this century, the Chicago neighborhood of Albany Park was recognized as one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the nation.

The 26-year-old Albany Park Theater Project has a new home now on Montrose Avenue, in the heart of Albany Park. The kids who spend their summers, and some of their school year, working with the young peoples theater company typically are the second, or the third, generation of their families to reside in Chicago. And inside a former storage warehouse, the company has built a formidable tribute to those who came first.

And that, frankly, is what kept firing through my head last week when I saw Port of Entry. Most of us are aware that we stand on the shoulders of parents and grandparents, even if it takes us a few years to realize that truth. But few of us, especially while we are young, get such a chance to articulate who we are, why we are, where we are.

The talented teenagers in this show, all of whom have been taught that great theater always means taking a shared breath and drinking in the possibilities of the moment, have been given a gift and they run with it through the faux apartment building that their company, working with Third Rail Projects, has built inside this portal.

Beatriz Gigante in "Port of Entry." (Eric Strom and Sarah Joyce/HANDOUT)

Only 28 people can see this immersive show at once. In essence, you are led by a cast member into the apartment building (its not real, but youd swear otherwise) as if you were a guest of the entire building. You share drinks and snacks and watch cultural rites of passage. You share worry and sadness over a family member struggling to cross a border or the loss of employment. You spend time in kitchens and living rooms and even outside on what feels like a porch or a pocket urban backyard.

From time to time, you are taken off into someones private space; not everyone experiences the same show and although the piece is hyper-realistic  at times you pinch yourself that these spaces are artificial  it is not confined by prosaic reality. Young people take you into their closets and show you their worries and dreams, often physically manifested by elements of the natural world. Often, you do stuff with the cast: you make crafts, you dance, you take part in rituals, you play Loteria. Its all warm, forgiving, fun.

Neophytes at APTP often are blown away. They dont always know why, although the truth is that it has to do with emotional intensity and engagement. Ive seen many of their shows across the years, of course, so I know what this theater does, if not always how. But even by those vaunted historical standards, Port of Entry is an astonishing piece of work; the actors are simply wonderful, but you are most likely to leave thinking about and still feeling the pulse of this physical environment. There is much to be said for this show being where it purports to be and not in a theater.

Lucrecia Ortiz in "Port of Entry." (Eric Strom and Sarah Joyce/HANDOUT)

At one point in the production, which takes about two hours to experience, the piece becomes something other than the experiences of each of the resident families, as performed at least in part by kids who are growing up with these traditions.

There is a room that is dedicated to a port of entry in the broadest possible sense: the idea that certain places hold profound familial histories. Museums are one thing, but there are apartment buildings in Chicago that have housed successive generations of immigrant families from all corners of the world, hosted their parties, been the locus of their sorrows and losses. They have moved on. Their old apartment remains.

If you go and see this show  and you truly should, for it is beautiful and fresh and a work of reconciliation  youll never again travel through Albany Park without turning your head and looking up anew at its windows.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

Samantha Gallegos in "Port of Entry." (Eric Strom and Sarah Joyce/HANDOUT)

Review: Port of Entry 4 stars

When: Through Aug. 12 (sold out); then Oct. 6 to Dec. 16; 2024 dates to be announced

Where: APTP on Montrose, 3547 W. Montrose Ave.

Running time: 2 hours

Tickets: Pay what you choose ($70 suggested) at 773-866-0875 or portofentrychicago.com
A 28-year-old man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to gunning down a man at a Madison gas station in 2021 will remain in prison until at least his 65th birthday, a Dane County judge decided Monday.

Its still not clear why Christopher L. Somersett Jr., of Madison, fired as many as 11 shots at point-blank range at 22-year-old Keshaun Q. Davis-Williams as the Dodgeville man sat in the passenger seat of a vehicle outside a Southwest Side BP gas station just after midnight on July 5, 2021. An autopsy found Davis-Williams had sustained seven gunshot wounds, including to his head.

The criminal complaint that charged Somersett with first-degree intentional homicide in August 2021 did not reference a motive, but according to statements made in Somersetts sentencing hearing Monday, Somersett recently told an investigator for the state Department of Corrections that he believed Davis-Williams had earlier fired at him.

Assistant District Attorney Valerian Powell said there was no police report of such an incident and that Davis-Williams family denies the allegation. Somersetts attorney, Michael Covey, said his client had been grazed by a bullet he thought was fired by Davis-Williams and that Somersett killed Davis-Williams in retaliation.

Members of Davis-Williams family filled half of the courtroom Monday. Four of them stepped forward to tell Circuit Judge Ellen Berz that Somersett, who pleaded guilty in April, deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison.

First-degree intentional homicide comes with a mandatory life sentence, but under Wisconsin law, a judge can decide when, if ever, the person convicted can apply for supervised release.

The mother of Davis-Williams children, Tamara Harper, said Davis-Williams had been a great father to his kids. To Somersett, she said, You broke me and my family and I dont think you deserve to see daylight.

Somersett was the second man to plead guilty to charges in Davis-Williams shooting. In December, Avieon L. Little, 25, of Fitchburg, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide as party to a crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 24.

Somersett is a previously convicted felon who first started to get into trouble with the law as a juvenile, Powell said Monday.

In his statement to Berz, Somersett took responsibility for Davis-Williams murder and apologized to his victims family.

I deserved to be called everything the family called me, he said. But while he also deserved his life sentence, he said, he can be better in the future.

The district attorneys office had recommended Somersett spend 30 years in prison before being eligible for release, while Covey argued for 20.

Berz said Davis-Williams was doing nothing to Somersett when Somersett ambushed and killed this person.

Who are they? WI children reported missing as of July 29 These are recent reports of missing children made to local law enforcement. If you think you have seen a missing child, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul on Monday asked a Dane County judge to skip any future oral arguments and make a final decision in his lawsuit seeking to reinstate abortion rights in Wisconsin.

Kauls motion comes one week after the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is expected to make a final ruling on the matter, shifted to a 4-3 liberal majority.

It also follows Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlippers July ruling that the 1849 law widely interpreted as a near-complete abortion ban doesnt apply to abortions at all.

There is no such thing as an 1849 Abortion Ban in Wisconsin, Schlipper said in a ruling that provided a huge but preliminary win for Wisconsin Democrats and abortion rights advocates. Schlipper said in her ruling the law applies only to feticide, the act of killing a fetus, usually by assaulting and battering the mother.

Given Schlippers ruling, Kaul has asked the judge to make a final decision on the matter without further oral argument.

Women should not be denied the freedom to make fundamental reproductive health-care decisions, Kaul said in a statement. Our filing today marks another important step in our fight to protect the freedom and safety of women in Wisconsin.

Schlippers final decision will be subject to a possible appeal to a higher court. Ultimately, the case is expected to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Justice Janet Protasiewicz  who was sworn in last week, giving the court a 4-3 liberal majority  has been especially vocal about her support for abortion rights.

After the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, abortion providers in Wisconsin immediately stopped providing the service given the 1849 statute, which most interpreted as banning abortions in every case with an exception only for saving the mothers life.

Kaul filed the lawsuit along with state agencies last year, alleging that the law bans feticides and conflicts with later, more permissive abortion bans. Doctors later joined the case late last year as intervenors for the plaintiffs, arguing a 1994 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision made clear that the 1849 law doesnt apply to abortions.

Kaul initially filed the case against Republican legislative leaders, but the defendants in the case are now prosecutors in counties that had abortion clinics before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade: Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski.

Urmanski sought to dismiss the case earlier this year, but Schlipper rejected his request.

In her July ruling, Schlipper also said that the physicians who joined the lawsuit seeking to reinstate abortion rights in Wisconsin could request a declaration that Urmanski cant prosecute them under the 1849 law. An attorney for the physicians previously said they would seek such an order.

The Supreme Court fight over an abortion pill: What's next? Intro What is mifepristone? How did the case get started? How did the case get to the Supreme Court? What could happen next? A closer look
The extreme partisan gerrymanders under Republican-drawn legislative maps violate the state Constitution by diluting and debasing Wisconsinites ability to vote, a group of liberal voters and redistricting advocates argue in a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit is the second filed directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Court and requests new legislative maps ahead of the 2024 election. The first lawsuit was filed a day after Justice Janet Protasiewicz was sworn into office, giving liberals a 4-3 majority on the states highest court.

The latest lawsuit was filed Friday by voters who support Democratic candidates and several members of the Citizen Mathematicians and Scientists, a group of professors and research scientists who submitted proposed legislative boundaries leading up to the state Supreme Courts 2022 decision adopting the GOP maps.

The complaint seeks to undo the high courts decision last year that helped Republicans increase their majority in the Legislature and led to a supermajority in the Senate. Like the other case filed this month, the complaint doesnt challenge the states congressional maps.

The new lawsuit states that current maps violate Wisconsins free speech guarantee by diluting the voting power of Democratic voters in the state. Additionally, it states the maps violate the states constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law by entrenching a GOP majority in the state Legislature.

And voters engagement with, and interest in, Wisconsins elections will decline because mapmakers have effectively predetermined the results, the lawsuit states.

Much like the lawsuit filed last week by several voters, including a former Democratic legislative candidate, the new complaint also asks for every Wisconsin legislator to be on the ballot next year under newly drawn maps, including the half of state Senators who otherwise wouldnt be on the ballot until 2026.

In Wisconsin, the present partisan gerrymandering in the Legislative Plans is so extreme that it must be eradicated entirely in time for the 2024 elections, according to the lawsuit. Every Wisconsin voter should have the opportunity to vote for both Senate and Assembly members in 2024 and for the remainder of the decade under legislative plans that comply with the Wisconsin Constitution.

Redistricting experts say the states political geography, with Republicans spread out over the state but Democrats concentrated in the states biggest cities, makes it unlikely that any new set of legislative maps would give Democrats a legislative majority. But they also say that Wisconsins maps are among the most gerrymandered in the nation and Democrats would likely win many more seats under nonpartisan maps.

Previous rulings

The Wisconsin Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the states set of 10-year legislative and congressional maps early last year after Evers vetoed Republicans preferred maps in 2021.

After calling for maps that made minimal changes to previous legislative district boundaries, the Wisconsin Supreme Court selected Evers preferred legislative and congressional maps. But Republicans alleged the governors legislative maps included a racial gerrymander and appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nations highest court then struck down Evers legislative maps but accepted his preferred congressional maps. The Wisconsin Supreme Court then selected the GOP-drawn legislative maps.

Plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit argue that, by ordering minimal changes to the states previous maps, the state Supreme Court created an even greater partisan skew.

The result is legislative districting plans that violate multiple rights guaranteed by the Wisconsin Constitution, the lawsuit states. This Court should act swiftly to establish new maps that fully cure the rampant constitutional violations in the current plans.

Since the adoption of current legislative boundaries, the Wisconsin Supreme Courts liberal justices have dropped hints that they would move away from the least change approach, which the court ordered leading up to the adoption of current maps.

Additionally, the liberal majority could draw their own maps rather than choose from a selection of predrawn maps.

Like the previous lawsuit challenging the states maps, the latest complaint does not specify how it wants the Wisconsin Supreme Court to choose new maps.

Election advantages due to district mapping
Rebel Wilson needed stitches after a "stunt accident" on the set of 'Bride Hard'.

The 43-year-old actress was left with facial injuries following a mishap while shooting the action comedy - in which she plays "badass secret agent" Sam, who is tasked with "one of her hardest missions yet", being Maid of Honour for her childhood best friend - in Savannah, Georgia, last week.

She shared a photo of her battered and bruise face on her Instagram Story on Thursday (03.08.23) and wrote: "NOT the way I wanted to end this movie!. 3 stitches and in hospital last night after a stunt accident at 4am.(sic)"

'Bride Hard' has been granted an Interim Agreement to continue filming during the SAG-AFTRA strike because it is an independent production.

The actors' organisation - which is striking due to issues including the rise of AI and streaming revenue - explained in a message to members last month: "The Interim Agreement gives many of our journeyman performers and crews the opportunity to pay their rent and feed their families. This approach maintains our strength, solidarity and upper hand with the AMPTP until they yield to the deal we deserve.

"The Interim Agreement is not a waiver. To be clear, it is a contract that includes all terms and conditions for producers looking to employ our members on their specific independent productions.

"This Interim Agreement was created for several reasons, all of which are aimed at protecting the interests of our members, helping them successfully navigate the strike and demonstrating to the AMPTP that other producers are eager to work with our members under these terms."
Cornhole tourney to raise funds for boy with cancer

A cornhole tournament has been scheduled for Saturday in Twin Falls to raise money to help pay expenses for an 11-month-old boy who has been diagnosed with cancer.

The event, to be held at Rock Creek Park, will be hosted by Steve Edens. Check-in time is at 10 a.m. There will also be a raffle for a gun and custom cornhole boards.

Registration is $25 per person. will be a 20% payout to the tournament winner.

To register, text Micquel at 208-251-7059. You dont have to play in the tournament to enter the raffle.

U of I-led climate project lands $6M in funding

A University of Idaho-led project will receive $6 million in competitive funding to investigate how people in rural communities perceive the extent of climate change  specifically extreme heat, wildfires and drought  and how this perception affects their ability to adapt.

The study will focus on rural communities, which provide the majority of food, energy and water for the United States and have been effectively left out of climate adaptation dialogues, according to a university news release.

The reality of a changing planet is often at odds with perception and adaptation for everything from human health to national security. We know that producing endless graphs doesnt change perception, so what does? Lil Doc Alessa, the research project principal investigator and co-director of U of Is Center for Resilient Communities, said in the release.

The University of Nevada and the University of South Carolina are partnering with Idaho on the project, which will bring researchers from the three universities together to tease apart how perception drives adaptive capacity (the potential to take action to minimize the negative effects of climate change) and adaptation (actually taking action).

SCCAP to celebrate 100-home milestone

The South Central Community Action Partnerships Self Help Housing Program will celebrate the completion of 100 homes on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1211 Saddle Dr. in Filer.

The SCCAP, which provides assistance to qualified families to build their own affordable home through the USDA/RD Mutual Self Help Housing, has helped local families realize the dream of home ownership since 2010.

Also:

The Hailey Public Library and the Central Idaho Dark Sky Alliance will host 2023 Astronomer in Residence Dr. Joel Weisberg for a nighttime observing session on Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30. Participants should meet at the Croy Canyon Motorized Trailhead, 3.1 miles west of Hailey. In case of weather-related issues, check the library website at www.haileypubliclibrary.org

after 5 p.m. For more information, call 208-788-2036.

The

Lincoln County Youth Center

in Richfield, 410 S. Main St., will host a free eight-week parenting course on Mondays from 6 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Aug. 28. Daycare, supplies and family dinner will be provided each week. All caregivers welcome. For more information or to register, call 208-421-6280.

Green Acres Pet Center

, 868 Green Acres Dr. in Twin Falls, has achieved the highest level of veterinary excellence following review of practice protocols, medical equipment, facility, and client service by the American Animal Hospital Association.

Times-News
When I came to the Idaho Statesman as opinion page editor in 1999, it was suggested that I read a special section that the editorial department did on dam breaching.

It was a gold-standard argument for saving salmon  the kind of effort that gets a Pulitzer Prize.

As the Statesman saw it, breaching the four dams on the lower Snake River was the only practical way that salmon could survive and the writers outlined a compelling case. The environmental, economic and scientific reasons clearly were on the side of breaching the dams.

COMMENTARY: Idaho must protect Snake River dams for its future vitality COMMENTARY: It's pivotal to protect the Snake River dams and other federal water infrastructure, write Idaho Sen. Jim Risch and Jason Mercier of the Mountain States Policy Center.

Keep in mind, that was 24 years ago. The debate was raging long before that, and it continues today  without much movement in either direction. The groups that were for it decades ago are still for it, and those who have been opposed are still opposed. Idahos congressional delegation and state officials were  and still are  adamantly opposed to breaching.

Predictably, conservationists and tribes favor it.

A big breakthrough on the breaching side came a couple of years ago when Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson came out in favor of breaching and issued a $33 billion plan to get it done. He said at the time that he didnt know that breaching would save salmon, but he was certain that removal of the dams was the only chance.

Simpson doesnt have a lot of support from fellow politicians; even Democrats from Washington and Oregon are, at best, lukewarm to the idea. But Simpson is not one to give up easily, and he may have the biggest ally of them all on his side. President Joe Biden has said he supports salmon and dam removal, drawing recent attention from national outlets such as Politico and the Wall Street Journal.

Quote So, were back to where the breaching debate was when I returned to my home state 24 years ago. The way it looks, the rhetoric will be the same 24 years after Im gone from this earth.

If salmon recovery becomes a legacy issue for Simpson (he has no shortage of those in his long career), he might consider establishing a Republicans for Biden committee, mixing with those within the GOP who dont like the idea of four more years of Donald Trump. Simpson often is reminded of his statement in 2016, declaring that Trump was unfit for the presidency  a statement that may be more applicable today than seven years ago.

Of course, Simpson wont break from Trump if he wins the GOP nomination  his caucus in the House wouldnt stand for it. But its a sure bet that breaching will not happen if Trump, or any other Republican, gets in the White House.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, for one, is taking the potential of Bidens intervention seriously. Risch is looking more toward the human benefits that the dams bring, such as hydropower and clean energy. The dams, he said, are a lifeline for the Port of Lewiston.

As a U.S. senator and the leader of an independent free-market research organization, we are unified in our effort to protect the Snake River dams and maintain their economic and environmental benefits for our region, Risch wrote recently. Beyond us, there is strong, widespread support for the dams, including from Idaho officials and trade groups.

Risch points out that dam removal will not be an easy process, even if the president pushes forward. He has introduced the Northwest Energy Security Act, along with Republicans from Washington and Monana.

Congress authorized these dams, and only Congress has the power to remove them, he wrote. Thankfully, many of the congressional members elected to the area surrounding the Snake River dams are working to protect the economic and environmental benefits they provide.

Responding to Rischs efforts, Simpson said, While I respect Jims opinion, following his path forward would mean the annual loss of half a million-acre feet of water and extinction of Idahos salmon runs. This all to save four dams in Washington. Thats a path I cannot follow.

So, were back to where the breaching debate was when I returned to my home state 24 years ago. The way it looks, the rhetoric will be the same 24 years after Im gone from this earth.

By that time, salmon probably will be wiped out and the environmental argument will be about saving goldfish.
National pundits are largely unified around the idea that former President Donald Trump is so far ahead in support for the Republican nomination for his previous office that none of the other contenders stand much chance of catching him.

I wont argue that as of now, indictments notwithstanding, that seems an accurate assessment.

If the current trajectory holds, the Republican nomination could be a done deal by the time any Idaho Republicans get to vote on it, whether in primary or caucus.

But that doesnt mean Idaho and the Republican battle for the presidential nomination are unconnected, at least this year. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on the air this year with radio spots in Idaho, and his campaign would have reasons.

He does have cheerleaders in Idaho. One of them may be the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which in January delivered an opinion piece on university spending in Florida  referencing DeSantis policy there  and concluding, So, bravo to DeSantis and company for showing bold leadership in the Sunshine State. Lets hope we will see some of that here in Idaho soon. The group has offered other laudatory comments (making the case that DeSantis is a better governor than Idahos Brad Little), as well.

This can be taken as an indication that significant portions of Idahos state Republican Party leadership may be (or may have been) drawn toward DeSantis, given how close many of them (and many legislators as well) are to the Foundation. Theres also a personal Idaho link to the DeSantis campaign: Former Idaho Deputy Attorney General David Dewhirst this spring left to work for DeSantis.

From the national perspective, a DeSantis strategist logically might look at which states Trump lost in his nomination battle in 2016 (effectively unopposed in 2020, he won them all then). Nearly eight years ago, Idaho was one of the holdouts: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz romped, and it wasnt close (45.4% to 28.1% for Trump, with Marco Rubio running third at 15.9%).

Whats also notable about the results is that the dozen counties Trump won were in the lightly-populated, low-growth central-mountainous part of the state. The states urban centers, from the Sandpoint and Coeur dAlene areas to Moscow and Lewiston, and to the south in Ada, Canyon, Twin Falls, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Rexburg, all went for Cruz over Trump. Might DeSantis campaign planners see opportunity there?

I suspect they do, and the nature of that radio advertising suggests one angle for it.

What he said in the ad, The members of Congress will never vote to limit their own power. Thats why we need states to step up and take action. Idaho could be the next state to pass a resolution calling for an Article V term limits convention  giving state legislators a way to make term limits on Congress a reality.

It was a call for a constitutional convention  a Convention of States  an action never taken in the nations history. The reason is that such a convention might do almost anything, including throwing out the current constitution and replacing it (which is how we got this one).

The eerie potential of that concerns people on both sides of the spectrum; on the right, Twin Falls radio show host Bill Colley wrote against it out of concern of what left-leaners might do to, say, the Second Amendment. Whether you come from the left or right, theres plenty to be worried about should such a convention be called.

But the convention idea in recent years has generated traction among organization Idaho Republicans, and there have been attempts in the Idaho Legislature to call for a convention. Its easy to see the current Republican leadership seizing on the idea, and DeSantis forces trying to leverage that for support in Idaho.

Idaho may be some distance from the core action in the Republican nomination battle  that would be in Florida  but in national politics these days, you can run but you cant hide.
ADM Philippines was recently awarded the Excellent Performance recognition in Commercial Feedmill for Swine by the Livestock Philippines 2023 organizers at the World Trade Center in Manila.

ADM is one of the leading animal feed manufacturers in the Philippines and has been doing business there for over 20 years, assisting and supporting the countrys livestock and poultry producers. ADM Philippines feed mills are situated in strategic locations and equipped with state-of-the-art machinery and technology that allows the company to produce high-quality feed products that are safe, nutritious, and affordable.

The companys feed mill for swine is certified by the Department of Agricultures (DA) Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), which gives ADMas customers assurance that the companyas feed products meet the high standards of quality and safety as set by the DA.

Receiving this award is a way of being recognized for ADMs achievements and efforts in helping the country achieve vital food security. This is a testament to our Philippine farmers who continuously grow their businesses in pig farming through the technology we provide in our animal feed, said Dr. Lorenzo Mapua, Managing Director of ADMs animal nutrition business in the Philippines.

Livestock Philippines has always been at the forefront of international B2B events dedicated to the livestock, poultry, aquaculture, feed, and meat sectors.

Attendees accessed various technical seminars, conferences, and other activities that ignite knowledge concerning market trends, news, research, and the latest industry developments. The biennial event has been helping to promote and contribute to the growth of the said industries, which ADM is also committed to improving via the introduction of innovative products and services.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., currently acting Department of Agriculture Secretary, was the guest of honor as he formally opened this years event.

In addition to the Excellent in Performance in Commercial Feedmill for Swine recognition, ADM Philippines also received the Sustainability Booth Design Award for Creativity award. The awards add to the accolades ADM earned last year with its Sustainability Booth Design Award for Information.

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Blended learning can be effective and improve education delivery and learning continuity through targeted interventions that use available technology, according to education experts.

Experts made this statement at a recent webinar conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies in partnership with the Innovations for Poverty Action. The virtual event featured two studies on the delivery of education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite universal access to cellphones, there are still disparities in internet access at home and quality of home support for learning, especially among different income classes. Online learning mode may not reach most public school students. Therefore, supporting printed and blended learning modes becomes crucial, PIDS president Aniceto Orbeta said in a presentation.

Orbetas study titled Basic Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Do Enrollment by Learning Modality and Household Characteristics Tell Us? examined the education delivery in the Philippines using enrollment data and household characteristics.

It is part of the award-winning PIDS book, The Philippines Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Learning from Experience and Emerging Stronger to Future Shocks, which recently bagged the 2023 Most Outstanding Book Award from the National Academy of Science and Technology.

Orbeta underscored the need to improve education by addressing the low uptake of TV and radio-based learning and the disparity in the quality of home support by socioeconomic class. He said using learning support aids and increasing interaction through printing modules and cell phones may help target support for poor households.

Webinar discussant and Second Congressional Commission on Education executive director Karol Mark Yee agreed that technology is a potential enabler in improving learning outcomes but reminded to consider technologies [that] are suitable for different learners and stages of education.

Many public school students do not have internet access while technologies like television and cellphones are more accessible. The quality of home support also plays a role in childrens learning, particularly for those with parents who are not present due to overseas work or internal migration. Text messages and phone calls are also powerful tools in enhancing learning, and the right interventions can lead to improved outcomes, he said.

One of the possible interventions presented at the webinar was mEducation, which uses mobile phones for math instruction. It was first implemented in Botswana by the nonprofit organization Youth Impact, then carried out in five countries, including the Philippines, to test for scalability.

Locally, mEducation was jointly implemented by the Department of Education and IPA.

The program was motivated by the school closures during the pandemic, which disproportionately affected low-income families without access to alternative sources of instruction, IPA Philippines research manager Rene Marlon Panti said.

The phone-based education program engaged parents in childrens learning without the need for the internet or special applications. After eight weeks of three-hour sessions, the project results showed significant progress, a 15-percentage point improvement in the students division skills. Even those who previously struggled in basic mathematical operations like addition and subtraction made substantial progress through targeted instruction.

We need to have approaches that can work when disruptions happen, and were seeing that this phone-based approach works. It can reach people where they are and provide that quality education amid disruptions, University of Oxford senior fellow and Youth Impact co-founder Noam Angrist said.

Angrist also highlighted the importance of emergency responses, targeting instruction around technology, and implementing tutoring programs that are cheap, scalable, and engage parents or guardians.

We need to think about technology as not just the devices but using what people have and making these work, Angrist said.

Webinar discussant and Department of Education Schools Division of Calapan City senior education program specialist Cerilo Illaga Jr. shared that the teachers who were initially hesitant to participate in implementing mEducation realized that it helped simplify their work and solve numeracy problems in Grades 3 and 4.

The teachers found the research fun and worthwhile, and they hope that DepEd will continue providing opportunities for them to be part of similar innovations that address problems in numeracy, literacy, and reading comprehension, he said.

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Consumer credit service Digido predicted that the adoption rate of financial technology in the Philippines among the population aged 15 years old and over through mobile apps would reach 72.2 percent or 59.3 million users by end-2023.

The findings from our report indicate that the inertial movements towards the fintechization of the population is going from strength to strength. The countrys fintech infrastructure is also showing high adaptability to ever-emerging challenges, mainly due to a large domestic market and progressive government support, Digido country manager Farit Shakirov said.

Digido said in a report the maximum growth of the indicator is expected to come from payments and transfers segment (+17.6 percent), followed by e-wallets (+4.9 percent), digital banking (+4.3 percent), digital investments (+3.7 percent) and digital lending (+0.9 percent).

The adoption rate of fintech services in the country climbed to 69.3 percent in 2022 from 64.4 percent in 2021. Similar to the region as a whole, the largest contributor is the e-commerce sector, with adoption among adults close to 100 percent in the Philippines at the end of 2022.

Digido said of the 867 actively used fintech applications in the Philippines, the digital banking and e-wallets segments are the most popular  with 163 (18.8 percent) and 134 (15.5 percent), respectively, followed by payments and transfers with 104 (11.9 percent), wealth management with 86 (9.9 percent) and digital lending with 84 (9.6 percent).

The payments and transfers segment posted the highest download growth rate at 11.3 percent per month from 2018 to 2022, followed by business management (10.7 percent) and financial advisors (8.4 percent).

The main contributors to user growth in the past five years were e-wallets (+1026 percent), digital lending (+330 percent) and e-commerce (+222 percent).

As it stands, there remains opportunity for the fintech industry to maintain momentum and build towards a more vibrant ecosystem by cultivating further trust in their services by providing seamless, communicable user experiences and fruitful collaborations, said Shakirov.

Digido said every hard-working Filipino should have access to convenient and secure financial tools. With a growing line of inclusive lending solutions through its mobile app and official website, Digido offers instant and transparent financing for the underbanked and underserved consumers of the country, helping them immediately participate in the formal digital ecosystem, strengthen their financial well-being and reach their personal goals faster and easier.

Robotic technologies are at the heart of Digidos services, with applications, credit scoring and disbursement of funds fully automatic and available every single day.

Services under the Digido platform are financed by Digido Finance Corp. with SEC Registration No. 202003056 and Certificate of Authority No. 1272.

It received the Best New Online Lending Services Philippines 2023 award from Global Banking & Finance Review and the Best Loan App Philippines 2023 award from Global Financial Market Review. It was also named Most Innovative Online Lending Platform and Fastest Growing Loan App in the Philippines at the 2023 International Finance Awards.

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Tim Mapes, center, former chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan, arrives at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Aug. 7, 2023, for the first day of his federal perjury trial. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

The federal perjury trial of former Springfield insider Tim Mapes was bound to highlight the tight-knit nature of Illinois politics and the fierce opinions it engenders.

That became clear even during jury selection: One prospective juror said he is close friends with a former state representative. Two worked for AT&T, a company caught up in the widespread corruption scandal related to powerful former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Then there was the potential juror who wrote in her questionnaire that Madigan, Mapes ex-boss, could not be trusted.

Further, she wrote, she hopes Madigan and all his friends go to jail.

She was dismissed shortly afterward.

In all, 22 people made it past the first round of cuts Monday as prosecutors and defense lawyers sifted through the potential jurors. The process is slated to continue Tuesday morning. Opening statements are expected to begin after attorneys have selected 12 jurors along with alternates.

Mapes, 68, is accused of lying to grand jurors in an attempt to obstruct the sweeping federal corruption case against Madigan. He has pleaded not guilty to both the perjury and attempted obstruction counts. The latter charge calls for up to 20 years in federal prison, while lying to a grand jury carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

According to prosecutors, Mapes lied repeatedly in his March 31, 2021, grand jury testimony in an ill-fated attempt to protect his former boss, claiming he couldnt recall anything relevant about Madigans relationship with longtime confidant Michael McClain.

While Mapes is hardly a household name outside the states political circles, his indictment marked an intriguing power play by the U.S. attorneys office in what has become one of the biggest political corruption scandals in state history.

Mapes has denied wrongdoing. His attorneys have maintained federal authorities were attempting to squeeze him to give up information to bolster the prosecutions case against Madigan, who is slated for his own trial next year.

Before Mapes jury selection got underway Monday, U.S. District Judge John Kness made a flurry of decisions about what evidence could be introduced at trial.

Jurors will not hear the name of a onetime campaign aide who accused a Madigan lieutenant of sexual harassment, Kness ruled. They could, however, hear recordings of a conversation with a member of Madigans inner circle concerning the transfer of state property to the city in Chinatown in an alleged scheme to bring business to Madigans property-tax law firm.

Tim Mapes arrives at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Aug. 7, 2023. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Jurors may hear evidence, including wiretap recordings, related to a wide range of insider Springfield dealings, such as the alleged Chinatown land transfer proposal and the 2018 sexual harassment allegations that brought down some Madigan allies, including Mapes.

But the matters discussed on the tapes are not the main issue in the trial  rather, the recordings will be played in an attempt by prosecutors to prove that Mapes had a tight-knit relationship with Madigan and McClain.

The Mapes defense team successfully sought to block the name of whistleblower Alaina Hampton from the trial, viewing it as prejudicial. Hampton was involved in a high-profile 2018 scandal in which she accused Madigan lieutenant Kevin Quinn of sexual harassment.

Madigan subsequently ousted Quinn, the brother of Madigans hand-picked 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, from the then-speakers government and political operations. Hampton later settled a federal lawsuit against four Madigan-controlled campaign committees over allegations that she was blackballed from Madigans organization because she called out Kevin Quinn.

In his ruling on Hampton, Kness acknowledged the matter, which rocked Madigans operations while Mapes was still chief of staff, had received extensive public exposure.

The judge suggested it is the topic of sexual harassment accusations, which was discussed within Madigans inner circle while Mapes was on board, thats potentially relevant to the case, not Hamptons name specifically.

For Madigan, 2018 was a year of reckoning with the #MeToo movement as he ended up separating several allegedly misbehaving allies from his political and government teams, including Mapes.

Madigan in June 2018 ousted Mapes from his top roles as chief of staff, House clerk and executive director of the Madigan-run Democratic Party of Illinois. It happened just hours after a downstate staffer accused Mapes of sexual harassment and fostering a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying. Mapes disputed the allegations.

In the perjury case Monday, the defense also successfully kept out of the trial the name of attorney Julie Porter, who once served as interim legislative inspector general while Mapes and Madigan were in office. She is the wife of Mapes attorney Andrew Porter.

Kness, in ruling, said he did not want to draw the jurys attention to the idea that Julie and Andrew Porter are spouses, saying its not important for jurors to know the name of the legislative inspector general.

Julie Porters work as legislative IG included reviewing marijuana advocate Maryann Loncars accusations of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, including what she considered sexual harassment.

Lang, who is on a list of potential witnesses in the Mapes trial, immediately branded Loncars allegations absurd and later declared himself vindicated when Porter determined a preponderance of evidence does not support Loncars allegation that Lang engaged in misconduct and closed the matter.

Porter wrote she attempted to reach Loncar via mail, email and Facebook but that she has declined to respond to my overtures. Porter did interview Lang and other witnesses. At the time, Loncar released a statement that called the process a joke, saying she was leery of a review process in which the IG was chosen by lawmakers.

Loncar sat in the courtroom gallery Monday, saying that she wanted to see justice served for the women citizens of Illinois.

Lang testified in the previous ComEd Four trial in which all four defendants, including McClain, were convicted.

Prosecutors played a series of recordings that showed Madigan, with McClains help, muscled Lang out of his longtime House seat following Loncars allegations and concerns that other accusations may surface against Lang, who once served on Madigans leadership team.

During that case, Lang bristled when a lawyer referred to sexual harassment charges in one of his questions, prompting Lang to loudly declare he was not facing sexual harassment charges and that he resented the allegation and the inference.

In the Mapes case, prosecutors have alleged Mapes lied when he said he had no knowledge that McClain had communicated with two unnamed state representatives in 2018 on Madigans behalf. The Tribune reported the two Democrats are Lang and Rep. Bob Rita of Blue Island, who is also a potential witness.

Other potential witnesses in the case include former House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago; longtime Madigan staffers-turned-lobbyists Tom Cullen, Will Cousineau and Craig Willert, who are three former political point men on the speakers staff.

Nancy Kimme, longtime top aide to Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, also was mentioned as a potential witness.

Two years ago, Democratic Rep. Theresa Mah, who represents Chinatown, told the Tribune that Kimme, acting as a lobbyist, had brought an amendment for a Chinatown parcel to the lawmaker and asked her to sponsor it. But Mah said she had declined, saying the community was against it

In the interview, Mah said Kimme, who has deep political relationships on both sides of the aisle, did not say whom she represented when she was pushing the proposal. Many lawmakers expect lobbyists to disclose their clients when bringing an amendment forward.

In a written order, Kness ruled against Mapes request to prevent jurors from hearing about a conversation with McClain regarding the Chinatown property.

In a discussion with Mapes, McClain allegedly referred to the Chinatown issue as an assignment from Madigan, and prosecutors are contending Mapes did not answer truthfully in the grand jury about what he knew about McClains relationship with Madigan.

That evidence pertains directly to whether Mapes knew he was lying about McClains relationship with Madigan, the judge wrote.

Mapes allegedly misleading statements did not stop Madigan and McClain from both being indicted on racketeering charges last year. Prosecutors alleged Madigan was at the top of a criminal enterprise aimed at enriching himself and his cronies and maintaining his nearly unfettered political power.

Madigan and McClain have pleaded not guilty in that pending case.

Mapes indictment in May 2021 caught many by surprise, particularly since he was granted immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorneys office and warned by the chief judge before his grand jury testimony that failing to answer truthfully could result in criminal charges against him.

Mapes is receiving just under $150,000 a year in a taxpayer-supported state pension. Since his ouster in 2018, he has received $711,282 in pension benefits, according to the states pension system.

rlong@chicagotribune.com

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
The Department of Education would receive P924.7 billion under the proposed 2024 national budget as the government focuses on subsidies, skills development and improvement in learning facilities.

Budget Secretary Amenah said Monday higher provisions for subsidies, facilities, learning materials and skills training programs comprise the bulk of the 3.3-percent increase in the budget allocation for the education sector in the fiscal year 2024 National Expenditure Program.

The DBM recently transmitted the proposed budget to the House of Representatives for deliberations, following its approval by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

As mandated by the Constitution, education will remain our top priority with a total budget of P924.7 billion, equivalent to 16.0 percent of the FY 2024 NEP, Pangandaman said.

The President recognized the amount as a crucial expenditure that will benefit students as they resume full face-to-face classes after lifting the pandemic-induced state of public health emergency in the country.

President Marcos said with 99.5 percent of our public schools now implementing 5-day in-person classes, this amount will fund significant investments in the education of over 28 million learners nationwide.

Pangandaman said of the amount, P758.6 billion was allotted for the Department of Education and P31.0 billion for the Commission on Higher Education. She said P15.2 billion was provided for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and P105.6 billion for the 116 state universities and colleges, among others.

Echoing the pronouncement of our President, alongside the strengthening of our economy, we will also invest heavily in human capital development through education, health, and social protection, she said.

The subsidies for students consist of P51.1 billion for the UAQTE Program and an additional P41.0 billion for Education Assistance  of which P39.3 billion goes to DepEds Education Service Contracting, Junior High School and Senior High School Voucher Program and Joint Delivery Voucher Program for SHS Technical Vocational Livelihood Specialization.

Meanwhile, P1.5 billion was allotted for CHEDs Student Financial Assistance Program and P200 million for TESDAs Private Education Student Financial Assistance Program.

The Alternative Learning System will receive P632 million to support education, employment and entrepreneurship programs for out-of-school youth above 15 years old who lack access to formal education.

The learning environment for students, including those in remote areas, will be upgraded via the Basic Education Facilities Program, which has a P33.8 billion allocation for the construction of 7,879 new classrooms and technical vocational laboratories; repair and rehabilitation of 10,050 classrooms; procurement of 21,557 sets of school desks, furniture, and fixtures; electrification of 432 classrooms; and construction of 333 priority school health facilities, 3 medium-rise school buildings, 72 library hubs, 16 Inclusive Learning Resource Centers and 4 Community Learning Centers.

Various infrastructure projects of state universities and colleges will receive P3.4 billion.

About P12.0 billion will go for textbooks and instructional kits aligned with the new curriculum for Kinder and Grades 1, 4, and 7. An additional P3.9 billion will fund the procurement of learning tools and equipment, including science and mathematics equipment and technical vocational and livelihood equipment.

The DepEd Computerization Program will receive P8.9 billion to procure eLearning cart packages, laptops for teachers and non-teaching personnel and various ICT equipment for the establishment of the MATATAG Center in 2024.

The education budget will support DepEds MATATAG Agenda for Basic Education through the provision of higher allocations for textbooks and other instructional materials amounting to P12.04 billion, she said.

She also said that to improve childrens learning reception and capacity, there is a need to address nutrition.

Furthering the cause of better nutrition for improved learning, we have also allocated P11.71 billion for the School- Based Feeding Program, among others, she said.

To equip the Filipino youth with the necessary experience for employment and offer them access to skills training in accredited institutions, the Government Internship Program will receive a budget of P808 million.

The Special Program for Employment of Students will get P829 million, and the JobStart Philippines Program, P205 million.

TESDAs Supporting Innovation in the Philippine Technical and Vocational Education Training System will be allotted P1.8 billion to modernize the countrys technical and vocational education and training system.

Its Training for Work Scholarship Program will receive P3.2 billion, while the Special Training for Employment Program and Tulong Trabaho Scholarship Program will get P1.3 billion and P1.0 billion, respectively.

Meanwhile, to tap the Bangsamore peoples potential for productive employment and skills development, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will also be supported through the establishment of a Professional Regulation Commissions field office in the region with an allotted budget of P5 million.

This will help address the needs of BARMM professionals, such as applications for initial registration of PRC licenses, PRC ID renewals, registration for professional examinations, requests for certification and authentication, and the holding of examinations.

The proposed national budget for 2024 is set at P5.768 trillion, equivalent to 21.8 percent of the gross domestic product and is 9.5 percent higher than this years P5.268-trillion national budget.

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The Araw ng Tayabas reenactment organizing committee members RFRG secretary Alex Avila, Oplan Sagip Tulay Tayabas Heritage Group project coordinator Kevin Pabulayan, RFRG treasurer Marco Abutog, City Mayor Lovely Reynoso-Pontioso, Cultural Heritage Preservation Office focal person Koko Pataunia, and RFRG public relations officer Bernard Supetran.

In line with the 125th Philippine Independence Day celebration, the City Government of Tayabas will celebrate the historic 1898 siegewhich ended Spanish colonial rule in the province on Aug. 13.

Dubbed Trece de Agosto, the highlight of the observance is the reenactment of the 2-month siege around the Cuartel de Tayabas where the Spanish troops led by Lt. Col. Joaquin Pacheco defended the town against Filipino revolutionaries led by generals Eleuterio Marasigan, Miguel Malvar and Vicente Lukban.

The surrender of the Spanish forces led to the liberation of Tayabas province and enabled the victorious Filipino army to proceed southward to the Bicol Region.

According to Tayabas City Mayor Lovely Reynoso-Pontioso, the annual commemorative event immortalizes the bravery and patriotism of the people of the city and Filipinos in general, across generations. She said that among the citys key programs is cultural and historical preservation because of its rich tangible, intangible, natural, and culinary heritage.

Known locally as Araw ng Tayabas, the event will be held at the Casa Comunidad, one of the biggest 19th-century stone houses in the country, and now serves as a museum, gallery, tourism, and socio-civic center.

The reenactment will be highlighted by the raising of the Philippine flag at the belltower of the St. Michael Archangel Minor Basilica, where it was also raised 125 years ago after the Spanish surrender. It will be followed by a civic parade to the new City Hall for the unveiling of the Quincentennial Wall with National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) chairman Dr. Emmanuel Calairo as guest of honor.

The celebration will also include a forum on the Siege of Tayabas at the Casa Comunidad by Mark Anthony Glorioso, shrine curator of the (NHCP) Museo ni Jessie Robredo, on August 12.

Republica Filipina Reenactment Group (RFRG), will play the role of both Spanish and Filipino combatants, while the local theater group Susi ng Tayabas will serve as the civilian population. RFRG is a Manila-based group of history aficionados that reenacts key events during the Philippine Revolutionary Era through extensive research and period-accurate costumes, paraphernalia, and military doctrine.

Chartered as a component city in 2007, Tayabas was the colonial-era capital town of Tayabas province, which is now known as Quezon. It is also the hometown of Apolinario Dela Cruz or Hermanong Puli, founder of the pre-Revolution Cofradia de San Jose which advocated for religious reforms from the Spanish friars.

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China said on Monday that a maritime clash in which it fired a water cannon at Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea was professional and restrained.

A foreign ministry spokesperson said a Chinese coast guard ship lawfully stopped two Philippine vessels, adding: This professional and restrained on-site operation is beyond reproach.

Footage of a Chinese Coast Guard ship using a water cannon against a Filipino resupply vessel is shown during a press conference at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila on August 7. In foreground is DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza. AFP

The incident happened on Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel and other supplies to Filipino military personnel stationed at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

The intervention by China  which claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own sovereign territory  was criticized by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who said on Monday that Manila had summoned Beijings ambassador.

The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese vessels conduct, saying it directly threatened regional peace and stability.

Chinas foreign ministry statement on Monday pushed back against Washingtons criticism, accusing the State Department of disregarding the facts.

What the United States is doing is to blatantly support the Philippines violation of Chinas sovereignty, and this plot is doomed to fail, the statement said.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law by blocking and firing water cannon at the resupply mission, preventing one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal. AFP

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SEOULOrganizers of the World Scout Jamboree asked host South Korea Monday to urgently evacuate tens of thousands of children from their campsite ahead of a typhoon, just days after a heatwave caused mass scout illnesses.

Typhoon Khanun, which killed at least two people in Japan, is due to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday, near where some 43,000 scouts have been camping in North Joella province for their problem-plagued jamboree.

Korean media have called the jamboree a national disgrace after an extreme heatwave caused hundreds of scouts to fall ill, and prompted American and British scout groups to withdraw as criticism grew over conditions at the campsite.

Organizers had insisted the event would continue but on Monday the World Organization of the Scout Movement said Seoul had told them that due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure will be planned for all participants.

We urgently call on the Government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries, it said in a statement.

Some 36,000 participants from 156 countries will begin evacuating from the campsite at 10 am (9 am in Manila) Tuesday, Vice Minister for Disaster and Safety Management Kim Sung-ho said on Monday.

South Koreas weather agency said Typhoon Khanun is forecast to bring heavy rain and strong winds across the Korean peninsula, including winds with a maximum speed of up to 44 meters per secondpowerful enough to derail a moving train.

The jamboree was scheduled to run until August 12. South Koreas presidential office has suggested that its contingency plan is for the tens of thousands of young people to be relocated to Seoul for the rest of their stay.

We will do our best to secure the participants accommodation and to ensure that the programme continues for the remaining five days, Kim said.

Organizers have been strongly criticized by Korean media and parents of the scouts for a lack of planning for the extreme heat, even though South Korea had six years to prepare.

Media also reported on poor drainage at the site, rudimentary showers and toilets, and gruesome bug bites affecting the mostly teenage participants of the event.

One of the biggest factors in the string of problems afflicting the jamboree was that the event was organized by government officials and not scout experts, said Lee Hoon, a professor of tourism at Hanyang University in Seoul.

Scout events must be overseen by someone with expertise, someone who really understands the programs, because they are different from other events, while the government provides administrative, legal and financial support, Lee told AFP.

I think that kind of system wasnt established this time, he said. This will definitely hurt South Koreas reputation abroad.

The problems have been a significant public relations setback for the South Korean government, which has called top-level meetings and thrown millions of dollars of emergency funding into salvaging the event.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Saturday organizers would create and operate a tour program featuring South Koreas industry, culture, history, and nature.

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SPEAKER Martin Romualdez has emphasized his commitment to raise critical issues concerning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) scheduled Monday.

Among the key issues we want to address here include the protection and welfare of our OFWs Romualdez said in a speech at a Filipino community event in Jakarta, Indonesia late Sunday.

Romualdez stressed that the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was steadfast in ensuring the safety, well-being, and protection of OFWs, acknowledging their sacrifices and contributions to the Philippine economy.

Nagpasya po akong dumalo sa AIPA ngayong taon dahil marami tayong kailangang i-discuss sa mga kapwa ko mambabatas mula sa mga bansa sa ASEAN at BIMP-EAGA, Romualdez said.

Kasama po rito ang mga batas na kailangang ipasa naming lahat para mapalakas ang ating mga ekonomiya. Gusto rin nating makatulong ang mga batas na ipapasa para maging masigla ang mga negosyo at makapagbigay tayo ng mas maraming trabaho sa ating bansa, he added.

ROMUALDEZ ADDRESSES AIPA. Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez delivers his message during the plenary session of the 44th (ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) general assembly at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta Indonesia Monday. Romualdez stresses that regional solidarity and cooperation are vital in building a more resilient and sustainable ASEAN community. Inset shows the Speaker in discussions with his counterpart, the President of the National Assembly of Vietnam Vuong Dinh Hue, during their bilateral meeting, with Pangasinan Rep. Rachel Arenas and Zamboanga Del Norte Rep. Glona Labadlabad. Ver Noveno

The Speaker recognized the vital role played by the Filipino community in Indonesia, pointing out how well-regarded Filipinos were in the country as teachers, company executives, business consultants, engineers, accountants, lawyers, and investors.

Romualdez vowed to support them by creating more opportunities in livelihood and investment, with the aim to stimulate the overall economic development of the Philippines, such as initiatives to attract more foreign investments into the country.

Among others, he cited the passage of amendments to the Public Service Act, which relaxed the restrictions on foreign investments in public services.

Many of you are abroad working for multinational companies. Why dont we open our economy to these multinational firms so you can have the choice of working for these companies in our country where you can still come home every day to your families Romualdez said.

We are thinking every day of ways on how to serve you. All our energies are directed at how it (our work) will benefit the Filipino people because we are your representatives, he said.

As Romualdez proceeds to the 44th General Assembly of AIPA, he committed to carry with him the aspirations of Filipinos globally.

I will bring with me all the cheers, kind intentions, and goodwill of the Filipinos who are present here today and from all over the world, he stated.

His speech was seen as part of wider efforts to leverage international platforms to improve the welfare of Filipinos both domestically and overseas.

Romualdez noted the strides made towards the protection of OFWs through various laws Congress has passed.

Among others, he cited the enactment of Republic Act (RA) No. 11641 creating the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), acknowledged as another significant step forward in promoting and strengthening the welfare and protection of Filipinos working abroad.

Prior to the creation of DMW, the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 (RA 10364) and the Anti-Mail Order Spouse Law (RA 10906) were enacted in 2016 to protect Filipinos overseas who were victims of trafficking and exploitation.

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Saying that former President Rodrigo Duterte afforded them too much respect during his six-year term, Senator Christopher Go urged China to respect and stop bullying the Philippines.

I am urging the government of China, our former President had just [come from] there. Stop bullying us, said Go, a close associate of the former President who served as his special assistant before he won a Senate seat.

Go was supposed to accompany Duterte during his week-long visit to China President Xi Jinping, but failed to do so due to his busy schedule.

He reminded China that Duterte was good to them during his administration. He even pivoted away from the Philippines traditional alliance with the United States after then-US President Barack Obama strongly criticized Dutertes bloody war on drugs.

While we are a small country, they will do that to us, said Go.

Chinas Coast Guard ships used a water cannon against a Philippine vessel in the West Philippine Sea while it was delivering supplies to Ayungin shoal on Saturday.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said they were informed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that Duterte told Chinas Xi to look kindly on the Philippines.

Asked if this appeal seemed effective, Go said Duterte was no longer president of the Philippines.

Thats a personal trip. Hes no longer the president, he said. He went there upon the invitation of a school, a foundation for the inauguration of the Solidad Duterte building, a school there.

While there, Duterre was invited by President Xi, so he went, Go added.

Go said the Philippines should fight for what it won, referring to the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that declared the West Philippine Sea to be within the countrys exclusive economic zone.

The ruling invalidated Chinas nine-dash line and sweeping claim in the South China Sea.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said the Chinese Communication Construction Co. (CCCC), a Chinese state-owned company operating in the Philippines, should also be banned from the country.

China is not a friend. She is not even a good neighbor. Banning one of their state-owned companies is a way to tell China that we will not tolerate any abuse anymore, Hontiveros said.

The Marcos administration had resumed canceled loan applications with the CCCC for the Davao-Digos Rail segment, the Calamba-Matnog long haul rail, and the Subic-Clark Rail.

But Hontiveros said it was in the countrys interest to decline any CCCC funding.

There is no unique advantage to having Chinese banks and Chinese contractors being involved in these mega projects. One might even argue that the ADB (Asian Development Bank) or Japan, and maybe even the Philippine private sector, will be a better match for these projects, the senator said.

If the Tutuban-to-Clark rail is based on Japanese technology and ADB environmental and social safeguards, we might as well choose them for other connected projects, she added.

In 2020, Hontiveros also called on the government to drop projects with the CCCC, after it was revealed that it was among the dozens of companies that contributed to the dredging and construction of artificial militarized islands in the WPS.

The CCCC is a predatory company. It works in conjunction with the Chinese maritime militia to deliberately destroy coral reefs in the WPS and poach endangered giant clams. It acts in the guise of a legitimate business, but it is only aiding the Chinese state in its creeping invasion.

The Executive should also look into existing government projects with this company and stop any engagements as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged President Marcos to take more drastic actions against the newest harassment and bullying tactic employed by China on Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy vessels.

I ask the President to downgrade our embassy in Beijing to show our deep indignation, anger, and protest over the water cannon blast by the Chinese Coast Guard on our personnel, he said.

The President should also order our unusually quiet and inactive ambassador there to return to Manila and to replace him with a lower-level diplomatic officer, he said.

Rodriguez, chair of the House committee on constitutional amendments, said the administration should now firmly address these continuous violations of our sovereignty rights over the West Philippine Sea.

We cannot allow these harassment and bullying tactics and encroachment on our maritime territory to continue. We have to take more drastic actions, instead of filing the usual diplomatic protest note, he said.

Also on Monday, Defense Senior Undersecretary Irineo Espina said the Philippines will have the capability to fight China if it passes amendments to the decades-old National Defense Act of 1935.

Espina said the law supports not only procurement, but also modernization, which does not buy second-hand guns, but sophisticated weapons.

In the same hearing, Senator Ronald dela Rosa said modernization should include guarantees that the military structure is adaptable to the changing times.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, who presided over the hearing, said it would also be useful if the discussions of defense could be framed with the recent aggression encountered by the Philippine Coast Guard from the Chinese Coast Guard.

Estrada said it was high time the country got its act together, fortified its defense establishment, and made it responsive to the times.

Amid the simmering dispute between Manila and Beijing, the administration has increased the P50 billion budget of the AFP Modernization Program.

The AFPMP is set to receive another P50 billion in fresh funding in the 2024 national budget, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said in a statement on Monday.

The P50 billion in programmed new appropriations is all for capital outlay and shall be used exclusively to bankroll the funding requirements of the AFPMP, Pimentel, a staunch backer of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between Manila and Washington, said.

We are most exposed to threats coming from the sea, so we definitely favor larger modernization projects for the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Marine Corps in the years ahead, Pimentel said.

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PBBM: DFA fires off note verbale to protest latest WPS mess

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) summoned Beijings envoy Monday to protest the use of water cannons and dangerous maneuvers against Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

Our secretary of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador Huang (Xilian) today and gave him a note verbale including pictures (and) video about what happened and we are awaiting their reply, Mr. Marcos told reporters.

The position of China, of course, is they say this is ours so we are defending it and we, for our part, are saying no, we own it so we are defending it. So that becomes a gray area that we are discussing.

ANATOMY OF A BLOCKADE. These screengrabs of videos shared by the Philippine Coast Guard to the media on Monday show the path of the PH contingents resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal, which the PCG said Chinese maritime militia had already prepared to block as early as August 4, or 3 days prior to the trip. The Chinese ships  at least eight of them, according to the PCG  then immediately tailed the Filipino boats. They used a powerful water cannon on an indigenous bout carrying supplies (as caught by a drone camera), while the others either blocked or came dangerously close to the PH vessels. The second supply ship managed to escape the naval blockade and deliver its cargo to Ayungin Shoal and BRP Sierra Madre.

But Beijing claimed it took necessary controls against Philippine boats that illegally entered its waters.

Two repair ships and two coast guard ships from the Philippines illegally broke into the waters in Chinas Nansha Islands, China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said, adding that Beijing had implemented necessary controls in accordance with the law and stopped Philippine ships carrying illegal building materials.

But officials in China could not be reached during the critical hours when the Philippines tried to use the hotline between the two countries after the Chinese coast guard trained a water cannon at Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said.

During the summon, the Philippines through the DFA expressed disappointment that the DFA was unable to reach its counterpart to the maritime communication mechanism for several hours while the incident was occurring, Daza said in a joint media briefing that included representatives from the Defense Department, National Security Council, and the Philippine Coast Guard.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Monday supported the Presidents decision to consult military leaders after the illegal use of water cannons on PCG and civilian vessels.

The President made the right decision to get the consensus of officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on how best the government can address the latest incident in the West Philippine Sea, Romualdez, head of the 312-member House of Representatives, said in commending the Presidents course of action.

The Chinese ambassador met on Monday morning with senior DFA diplomats, who conveyed Manilas deep concern over the incident and emphasized that Chinas actions violated international law.

The incident happened Saturday as the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) escorted charter boats carrying food, water, fuel, and other supplies for Filipino soldiers stationed at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually. It has ignored a 2016 international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Philippine military and coast guard have accused the China Coast Guard of breaking international law in using as many as eight CCG, Chinese Navy, and maritime militia ships in blocking and firing water cannons at the resupply mission, which prevented one of the charter boats from reaching the shoal.

Another charter boat managed to squeeze through the blockade and was successful in unloading its cargo, video supplied by the PCG and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri showed.

China said it had taken necessary controls against Philippine boats that had illegally entered its waters.

The US State Department on Sunday condemned the Chinese actions, saying they were carried out by the coast guard and maritime militia, and that they directly threatened regional peace and stability.

Britain, Australia, Canada, and the European Union also criticized Beijings actions.

On Monday, the United Kingdom joined the United States and other foreign governments in calling out China for its actions in Ayungin Shoal.

The UK is concerned by reports of unsafe conduct towards (Philippine) vessels in a recent incident in the South China Sea. Such action poses serious risks to regional peace and stability, the British Embassy in Manila said in a Twitter post.

Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines David Bruce Hartman said Canada unreservedly condemns the dangerous and provocative actions taken by the Chinese Coast Guard against Philippine vessels on August 5th, in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal inside the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Calling them reckless actions, the envoy said Canada was in full solidarity with the Philippines in upholding the rules-based international order.

Unsafe maneuvers and use of water cannons to disrupt the lawful operations of Philippine vessels is unacceptable, and inconsistent with the obligations of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) under international law, he added.

By continuing what he called acts of intimidation and coercion, China is undermining safety, security, and stability across the region, and raising the risks of grave miscalculation.

The ambassador expressed support for the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling that invalidated the basis of Chinas sweeping claims in the resource-rich region, and called on Beijing to comply with its obligations under international law.

A Philippine naval vessel  the BRP Sierra Madre  has been grounded at Ayungin shoal since 1999. The ship manned by more than a dozen Marines and sailors has become a symbol of Philippine sovereignty in the offshore territory.

Ayungin Shoal is about 200 kilometers from Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometers from Chinas nearest major landmass of Hainan Island.

Chinas coast guard and navy vessels routinely block or shadow Philippine ships patrolling the contested waters, Manila says.

The Philippines has issued more than 400 diplomatic protests to Beijing since 2020 over its illegal activities in the South China Sea, the foreign ministry said.

For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal. We are committed to Ayungin Shoal, National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told reporters Monday, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

In fact, if we wish to speculate, they are probably looking for weaknesses in the Philippine position or trying to gauge our commitment to supply troops on the shoal, he added.

At the same press conference, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar scored Chinas order for the Philippines to tow away the BRP Sierra Madre.

Who is the China Coast Guard to tell us what to do? he said.

He said the AFP would continue to resupply the troops stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre.

DFA spokesperson Ambassador Ma. Teresita Daza added: Its important for the Philippines to continually assert what is rightfully ours. The policy of this government is very clear, not one inch of our territory should be handed over to China.

Daza also supported the AFP statement that China has no right or legal basis to prevent us from exercising such sovereign rights and jurisdiction.

Earlier, President Marcos called for a command conference with his top military brass, defense, and security officials to come up with a comprehensive action to respond to Chinas dangerous and illegal actions.

Saturdays incident was the first time since November 2021 that the Chinese coast guard had used a water cannon against a Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal.

The Philippines condemns in the strongest terms the latest incident of harassment perpetrated by China Coast Guard, Peoples Liberation Army Navy, and Chinese maritime militia vessels, said the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, which includes representatives of various government agencies.

As a low tide elevation, Ayungin shoal can neither be the subject of a sovereignty claim nor is it capable of appropriation under international law, the task force said in a statement.

Ayungin Shoal is part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone.

Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime disputes over the South China Sea.

However, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was in power from 2016 to 2022, was reluctant to criticize his more powerful neighbor as he sought closer ties with Beijing in the hope of attracting investments.

Mr. Marcos has insisted since succeeding Duterte that he will not let China trample on the countrys maritime rights.

Unlike Duterte who shunned and insulted the Americans, Mr. Marcos has gravitated towards the United States, seeking to strengthen defense ties with the countrys longtime ally. With AFP

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Santiago, Chile  An enormous blue whale, considered the largest animal on Earth, has washed up onto a beach in southern Chile, probably after dying at sea, local authorities said Sunday.

Residents of the city of Ancud, on Chiloe island, first spotted the giant marine mammal Saturday on a Pacific ocean beach some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Agents of the Chilean national fishing agency Sernapesca, sent to investigate, confirmed the carcass was that of a large cetacean of the family of Balaenopteridae, they posted on the X platform formerly known as Twitter.

We helped identify the specimen and, based on preliminary evidence, it is a blue whale, the agency added.

Sernapescas regional director Cristian Hudson told local media that given its condition, the whale must have died at sea some time ago and drifted in that state.

Environmental groups noted that the areas waters are heavily used by the fishing industry and maritime traffic, and they called for an investigation to determine whether the creature was the victim of a collision.

According to the non-governmental Cetacean Conservation Center (CCC) of Chile, the family of Balaenopteridae, or rorquals, includes a variety of species, ranging from the nine-meter (30-foot) minke whale to the blue whale  which at up to 30 meters is considered the largest animal on Earth.

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Many Marsh Arabs have left for the towns and cities, where they are often treated as pariahs

CHIBAYISH, Iraq  Mohammed Hamid Nour is only 23, but he is already nostalgic for how Iraqs Mesopotamian marshes once were before drought dried them up, decimating his herd of water buffaloes.

Even at their center in Chibayish, only a few expanses of the ancient waterwayshome to a Marsh Arab culture that goes back millenniasurvive, linked by channels that snake through the reeds.

Pull back farther and the water gives way to a parched landscape of bald and cracked earth.

Mohammed has lost three-quarters of his herd to the drought that is now ravaging the marshes for a fourth-consecutive year. It is the worst in 40 years, the United Nations said this week, describing the situation as alarming, with 70 percent of the marshes devoid of water.

I beg you Allah, have mercy! Mohammed implored, keffiyah on his head as he contemplated the disaster under the unforgiving blue of a cloudless sky.

The buffaloes of the marshes produce the milk for the thick clotted geymar cream Iraqis love to have with honey for breakfast.

As the marshes dry out, the water gets salty until it starts killing the buffaloes. Many of Mohammeds herd died like this, others he was forced to sell before they too perished.

If the drought continues and the government doesnt help us, the others will also die, said the young herder, who has no other income.

Both the Mesopotamian marshes, and the culture of the Marsh Arabsor Maadanlike Mohammed who live in them, have UNESCO world heritage status. The Maadan have hunted and fished there for 5,000 years, building houses from woven reeds on floating reed islands where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together before pouring into the Gulf.

Even their beautifully intricate mosques were made of reeds.

But the marshlands have shrunk from 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 square miles) in the early 1990s to 4,000 (1,500 square miles) by latest estimates  choked by dams on the great rivers upstream in Turkey and Syria and the soaring temperatures of climate change. Only a few thousand of the quarter million Maadan who lived in the marshes in the early 1990s remain.

Experts say that Iraqs management of the waters has not helped.

50 degrees C

AFP crisscrossed the central Chibayish marshes at the end of June, where at dawn it was already 35 degrees Centigrade (95 degrees Fahrenheit) before temperatures shot towards 50.

Iraq is one of the five countries most touched by some effects of climate change, according to the United Nations. Rainfall is rarer and rarer, and in the next 25 years the World Bank said the temperature will go up by an average of 2.5 degrees.

Water levels in the central marshlands and the Euphrates which feeds it are dropping by half a centimeter a day, said engineer Jassim al-Assadi, of Nature Iraq, the countrys leading conservation group.

That will get worse over the next two months as the temperatures rise and more and more water evaporates, he added.

To draw water for his remaining buffaloes, Mohammed Hamid Nour takes his canoe out into deeper water, where salt levels are lower.

He rolled up his sleeves to fill a water tank on the canoe revealing a tattoo of the Zulfikar, the sword of Imam Ali, one of the founding figures of Shiite Islam. He got it for baraka or blessing, he smiled. He needs all the help he can get.

Saddams bid to kill them

The marshes already almost died once when former dictator Saddam Hussein dried them out so he could hunt down the Shiite rebels who had taken refuge there after the failed uprising in the wake of the First Gulf War in 1991.

In a few months, Saddam turned 90 percent of the marshes into a desert, Assadi recalled. Most of the Maadan fled or moved elsewhere in Iraq or emigrated to Sweden or the United States.

But when Saddam was toppled by the American-led invasion in 2003 the ditches he dug to drain the marshes were destroyed, and both the marshes and the Maadan returned.

Two decades later, the water level is plummeting again.

The level of the Euphrates in Iraq is around half of what it was in the 1970s, said Ali al-Quraishi, of Baghdads University of Technology.

Dams upstream in Turkey, where the Tigris and the Euphrates have their sources, and others on their tributaries in Syria and Iran, are the principle cause, he said.

The Turks have built more dams to meet the needs of agriculture there. As the population rises, more water is needed for irrigation and domestic use, the expert added.

Water has always sparked tensions between Iraq and Turkey. With Iraq asking Ankara to release more, the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad, Ali Riza Guney, sparked outrage last July by accusing the Iraqis of wasting water.

There is a grain of truth in the Turkish claim, scientists say. Iraqs water management is far from ideal.

Since the time of the ancient Sumerians, Iraqi farmers have flooded their land to irrigate it, which is considered hugely wasteful.

But now water for agriculture is short, with the authorities drastically reducing arable farming to make sure there is enough drinking water for the countrys 42 million people.

Iraqs President Abdul Latif Rashid told the BBC last month that the government has taken significant steps to improve the water management system in talks with neighboring countries, without going into detail.

Pollution and heavy metals

Meanwhile in the central marshes, there is so little water even canoes get stuck. AFP

Where there was water two months ago is now a desert, said herder Youssef Mutlaq.

Not long ago a dozen or so mudhifs  traditional reed houses  were still occupied.

There were lots of buffaloes, but when the water started to disappear, people left, said the 20-year-old as his animals chewed feed from a bag with less and less grass to be found.

Pollution is also rising alongside salination. Sewers, pesticides and waste from factories and hospitals are dumped directly into the Euphrates along its course, and much of it ends up in the marshes, said Nadheer Fazaa, of Baghdad University, and a specialist on climate change.

We have analysed the water and found numerous pollutants like heavy metals which cause illness, the scientist said.

And all the while, the fish are dying. Where once the binni  the king of the Iraqi table  swam, there are now only fish unfit for consumption.

While the causes of the disaster are not being tackled, some are trying to limit the consequences of the drought.

Our life is there

The French NGO Agronomists and Vets Without Borders (AVSF), supported by France, is training their Iraqi colleagues and trying to help herders and fishermen.

We spent last summer distributing drinking water for both the people and the animals of the wetlands, said vet Herve Petit, an expert in rural development.

Many herders have been forced to sell off their animals at derisory prices, he added.

But such initiatives are rare. Engineer Jassim al-Assadi is one of the few battling for the marshes and alerting the authorities.

Khaled Shemal, of the water resources ministry, said they were working hard to restore the wetlands. But drinking water and supplies for homes and agriculture came first.

In the meantime, many Marsh Arabs have left for the towns and cities, where they are often treated as pariahs. Last year, the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called it an exodus.

Walid Khdeir left the wetlands with his wife and six children four or five months ago to live in a house on dry land in the city of Chibayish.

It was difficult, our lives were there like our grandparents before us. But what can we do? the 30-year-old said.

Today, he is fattening buffaloes to resell but is obliged to buy fodder at exorbitant prices because there is hardly a blade of grass for them to eat.

If the water comes back like before, we will return to the marshes. Our life is there, he said.

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Phishing is a term regularly heard in the news. Its cybercriminals go-to infiltration technique, because its simple, and because it works.

Basically, phishing is a type of Internet fraud that seeks to acquire a users credentials by deception. It includes theft of passwords, credit card numbers, bank account details and other confidential information.

Cybercriminals follow trends. They know the latest topics they can effectively piggyback on. Its a social engineering technique that plays on our human minds, thats why its difficult to resist clicking an unknown link, which may eventually turn out to be malicious, says Adrian Hia, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Kaspersky.

For instance, in 2022, key phishing topics monitored by Kaspersky experts related to compensations, bonuses, and even refunds.

Bonuses and compensation are hard to deny in times of crisis and instability, which is why financial assistance is frequently promised by con artists to swindle users out of their money.

Promotional campaigns by major banks were a popular bait in 2022. Visitors to a fraudulent web page were offered to receive a one-time payment or to take a service quality survey for a fee.

In Muslim countries, scammers promised to send charity packages, purportedly under a Ramadan Relief program that aimed at helping low-income families during the Ramadan fast. The fasting period typically sees higher prices for food and household products, whereas observers buy more than they normally do and may be faced with a shortage of money.

Growing utility rates and an increase in the price of natural resources have prompted several governments to start discussing compensations for the population. Payout notices could arrive by mail, email, or as a text message.



Cybercriminals attempted to take advantage of the situation by creating web pages that mimicked government websites, promising cash for covering utility payments or compensation of utility expenses. Visitors were occasionally asked to provide personal details under the pretext of checking that they were eligible, or simply to fill out a questionnaire.

In Singapore, scammers offered a refund of water supply costs, purportedly because of double billing. An energy or resource crisis was not used as a pretext in this particular case, but refunds were still offered in the name of the water supply authority.

Our solutions blocked more than 43 million phishing attacks against our users in Southeast Asia last year. Clearly, phishing is a tool used frequently by cybercriminals. Because its nature requires a users participation  the mere clicking a link or opening of a file  its urgent for everyone to know how phishing really works so we can avoid falling prey against it, adds Hia.

How a phishing campaign unfolds

In 2022, Kaspersky experts saw an increase in spear (or targeted) phishing attacks targeting businesses around the world. In addition to typical campaigns consisting of one stage, there were attacks in several stages. In the first email, scammers in the name of a potential client asked the victim to specify information about its products and services. After the victim responds to this email, the attackers start a phishing attack.

Stage 1: Attackers send an email in the name of a real trade organization requesting more information about the victim companys products. The email text looks plausible and has no suspicious elements, such as phishing links or attachments. A senders email address from a free domain, like gmail.com, may raise doubts. The email on the screenshot below is sent from an address in this domain, and the company name in the From field is different to its name in the signature.

Example of the first email

It is worth noting that the use of free domains is not typical for spear phishing in the name of organizations, because such domains are rarely used in business.

Most often in targeted attacks, attackers either use spoofing of the legitimate domain of the organization they are pretending to be, or register domains similar to the original one. In addition, Google and Microsoft are pretty quick in blocking email addresses spotted sending spam. This is the most likely reason why attackers used different addresses in the From header (where the email came from) and Reply-to header (where the reply will go when clicking Reply in your email client).

This means the victim responds to another address, which may be located in another free domain, such as outlook.com. The address in the Reply-to header is not used for spam, and correspondence with it is initiated by the victim, so it is less likely to be blocked quickly.

Stage 2: After victims respond to a first email, attackers send a new message, asking them to go to a file-sharing site and view a PDF file with a completed order, which can be found via the link.

An email with a link

Stage 3: By clicking the link, the user is taken to a fake site generated by a well-known phishing kit. It is a fairly simple tool that generates phishing pages to steal credentials from specific resources. Our solutions blocked fake WeTransfer and Dropbox pages created with this kit.

A fake WeTransfer page created using the same phish kit as the target campaign sites

In the phishing campaign described above, the phishing site mimics a Dropbox page with static file images and a download button. After clicking any element of the interface, the user is taken to a fake Dropbox login page that requests valid corporate credentials.

A fake Dropbox page

Login page with a phishing form

Stage 4: When victims attempt to log in, their usernames and passwords are sent to https://pbkvklqksxtdrfqkbkhszgkfjntdrf[.]herokuapp[.]com/send-mail.

HTML representation of a phishing form

The campaign began in April 2022, with malicious activity peaking in May, and ended by June.

Kaspersky identified targets for this campaign around the world, including the following countries: Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Singapore, USA, Germany, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey, Serbia, Netherlands, Jordan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Portugal, and Malaysia.

Phishing trends in 2023

Times of crisis create the preconditions for crime to flourish, including online. Kaspersky experts predict scams promising compensation and payouts from government agencies, large corporations and banks are likely to remain popular among cybercriminals next year.

The unpredictability of the currency market and departure of individual companies from specific countries markets will likely affect the number of scams associated with online shopping. At the same time, the COVID-19 topic, popular with cybercriminals in 2020 and 2021, but already beginning to wane in 2022, will finally cease to be relevant and will be replaced by more pressing global issues.

In addition, Kaspersky also has seen an increase in targeted phishing attacks where scammers dont immediately move on to the phishing attack itself, but only after several introductory emails where there is active correspondence with the victim. This trend is likely to continue. New tricks are also likely to emerge in the corporate sector in 2023, with attacks generating significant profits for attackers

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Senior Vice President of Global Delivery Kamalakar Gunupati gives a talk titled Move to Cloud which aimed to shed light on the groundbreaking Self Healing Operations Platform (SHOP) and why this serves as a game-changer for managing Systems Applications and Products in data processing (SAP) environments.

In todays rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are embracing cloud technologies as a means to drive innovation, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. The move to the cloud has become a strategic imperative across all industries, and Cloud4C, an Advanced Managed Cloud Service Provider, stands at the forefront.

The KaUSAP Summit 2023 was held recently at the Grand Hyatt Hotel with the theme of Building Blocks Towards Business Agility, with Cloud4C as a Titanium event sponsor. Senior Vice President of Global Delivery Kamalakar Gunupati gave a talk titled Move to Cloud which aimed to shed light on the groundbreaking Self Healing Operations Platform (SHOP) and why this serves as a game-changer for managing Systems Applications and Products in data processing (SAP) environments.

Mastering Digital Transformation

Migration, management & modernization of SAP environments is a very complex activity, especially when done in a scale environment. Pulling these complex activities off, time & again with accuracy, agility and consistency requires a specialist capability, backed by high levels of automation and a migration factory approach. Very few companies can claim this. These are the pillars that Cloud4C was built on. The organization started as part of the CtrlS group of companies in India. CtrlS owns the largest pools of Rated 4 datacenters in Asia Pacific. Not even the Philippines has that high of a digital infrastructure. Our founder & chairman saw that were good at hosting all of this unimaginable amount of workload, but why not take it to the next level and manage them? Thats how Cloud4C was born, said Edler Panlilio, Cloud4C President and CEO.

Cloud4C is able to confidently streamline complex processes because of 3 things. The first is a strong foundation set in place with the delivery platform of SHOP. Secondly, built-in practices have been developed from decades of doing SAP and non SAP related practices. And what those practices will give clients is a baseline. Transformation will always be complicated. The hardest part is knowing where to start. We are able to inform you of that, Panlilio says. And thirdly, its a question of capability. This is all the more proven by the rapid growth the organization has seen over the years with now being over 20+ centers of excellence that Cloud4C has.

Understanding how SHOP can help

Every organization looks for the best way to efficiently use resources. More than having less physical labour, automation offers operational value for both businesses and its customers. Cloud4C understands that not all workloads have the same migration requirements or urgency. They can prioritize critical workloads and devise migration plans that minimize disruption and downtime for business-critical processes.

SHOP enables businesses to scale their SAP environments dynamically based on workload demands. Cloud4C leverages the elasticity of the cloud to provide resources as needed, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency. This scalability and elasticity accommodate businesses with varying workloads and growth patterns, allowing them to scale up or down without constraints, Gunupati says.

Based on the name itself, SHOP leverages automated scripts to provide self-healing operations for SAP environments on the cloud. Its ability to proactively identify and resolve issues, optimize performance, and reduce manual intervention results in enhanced operational efficiency.

IT decision-makers are faced with multiple challenges when migrating SAP environments to the cloud, such as complex configurations, scalability issues, and cost concerns. Cloud4C works closely with organizations to assess their specific needs and develop a customized migration approach. This approach takes into consideration factors such as the size of the SAP landscape, complexity of the existing infrastructure, desired cloud platform, and business goals. By tailoring the migration strategy, Cloud4C ensures that the transition to the cloud aligns with the organizations objectives and architecture.

We have developed our own unique configuration management and template. We do assessments with the client to figure out what is the deviation from standard practice and tweak the SHOP for that particular difference, Gunupati said.

Cloud4Cs SHOP offers hybrid and multi-cloud capabilities, allowing businesses to choose the cloud platform that best suits their requirements. Whether its public clouds like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, or private cloud environments, Cloud4C can accommodate them. This flexibility enables businesses to leverage their existing investments, adhere to specific regulatory requirements, or adopt a multi-cloud strategy for redundancy and performance optimization.

Each client is unique depending on the industry theyre in. SHOP is able to offer a high level of customization and flexibility to businesses because it is a low-code platform in which a non-developer can operate themselves.

We have built in bots to write the code for the functionality that is required. You just need to provide whats needed and itll give a program or an API in no time. This helps us with not just integration but it also gives complete control with how the platform is used, Gunupati says.

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The National Weather Service in Greenville, S.C. has issued a tornado watch for McDowell County and surrounding areas until 9 p.m. tonight.

The watch is in effect for Alexander, Catawba, Davie, Iredell, Rowan in the Piedmont and Burke, Caldwell and McDowell in western North Carolina. This includes the cities of Advance, Ashford, Bethlehem, Dysartsville, Ellendale, Farmington, Fero, Fork Church, Glenwood, Granite Falls, Hickory, Hiddenite, Kings Creek, Lenoir, Marion, Millersville, Mocksville, Mooresville, Morganton, Nebo, Newton, Patterson, Pleasant Grove, Salisbury, Sawmills, St. Stephens, Statesville, Stony Point, Sugar Hill, Taylorsville and Valdese, according to a news release.

Widespread severe thunderstorms are likely this afternoon and evening ahead of a cold front approaching from the west. In addition to the tornado watch, some of these storms are likely to produce areas of damaging winds, the NWS said. Any storms will be capable of producing torrential downpours, gusty winds, and frequent cloud- to-ground lightning.

Southwest winds of 6 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph are expected. The chance of precipitation is 60% with new precipitation amounts of less than a 10th of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms, the NWS said.

The storms are expect to clear by around 10 p.m. tonight and cloudy conditions will gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 65.

Please listen to NOAA Weather Radio or go to weather.gov on the internet for more information about the storm.

Tuesday will begin with patchy fog before 9 a.m. followed by mostly sunny skies with a high near 85 with winds at 5 to 9 mph. Tuesday night will be partly cloudy, with a low around 62 and a northwest wind of 5 to 8 mph becoming calm after midnight.

Wednesday will be sunny, with a high near 87 with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, mainly after midnight, with a low around 66, the NWS said.

The chance of showers and possibly a thunderstorm will return Thursday after 9 a.m. with a high near 84. Chance of precipitation is 70%. The chance of showers and storms will continue through 9 p.m., then changing to showers between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. with a low around 66. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Residents are urged to call 911 for an emergency and 828-652-3241 for non-emergencies. You can also TEXT-A-TIP by texting TIP MCDOWELLEM followed by your message, to 888777.
Police officers of the Republic of Mozambique have not received a salary for two months. Speaking to the media, the police commander general, Bernardino Rafael, says he is aware of what is happening, but calls for calm from the agents.

The two months of delay in the payment of salaries of police officers is generating controversy, admits the commander general of the police.

Speaking to the media, Bernardino Rafael said that colleagues have had to postpone surgeries for lack of money. I have colleagues who are having health problems [and] are not being operated on because they have not had their salaries, he noted.

The police commander general says other colleagues have been evicted from their homes because they didnt pay the rent and others whose children were unable to take school assessments because their parents didnt pay the fees. Bernardino Rafael, says he is aware of what is happening, but appeals to officers to remain calm.

A problem with the computer system and the framework of state employees in Mozambique, as part of the implementation of the new Single Salary Table (TSU), is causing delays in the payment of salaries to the Civil Service, the Mozambican executive said in July.
The former Minister of Economy and Finance of Guinea-Bissau Geraldo Joao Martins is the name proposed by the coalition Plataforma Alianca Inclusiva (PAI) Terra Ranka, winner of the latest legislative elections in the country, to lead the next Government, an official source announced.

According to the resolutions of the meeting of the political bureau of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which leads the coalition, published on Sunday August 6, Martins name was chosen unanimously by members of that body in Bissau.

The PAIGC president presented the proposal of comrade Geraldo Joao Martins as the candidate of the PAI Terra Ranka coalition for the post of Prime Minister, under the terms of Article 42, Point 3, of the PAIGC, a proposal that was voted unanimously by the 86 members of the political bureau, reads the final resolutions.

The leader of the coalition, Domingos Simoes Pereira, also president of the PAIGC, is to present the proposal of the name Geraldo Martins to the Guinean Head of State, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, this Monday.

If the President agrees with the proposal, he will appoint Martins Prime Minister and the latter, in turn, will present the list of future members of the Government to the Head of State, a process that the PAIGC expects to be concluded during the week.

Politicians from the PAIGC leaders close circle of friends, Geraldo Martins and Simoes Pereira have a career that both claim dates back to their student days in Bissau and later in the former Soviet Union.

Geraldo Martins graduated first in physical chemistry in Moldova, later, in law from the Faculty of Law of Bissau and also completed a Masters degree in Management and Public Policy at a university in London.

A former militant of the Democratic Convergence Party (PCD), Geraldo Martins joined the PAIGC in 2018 and is currently a member of parliament, elected in the legislative elections held on June 4.
Sunday August 6 was the last day of the ultimatum issued by ECOWAS to Nigers putschists to relinquish power. The West African organization is threatening the mutineers with military intervention. As a major regional power, Nigeria could play a leading role in this operation. Indeed, the country holds the presidency of ECOWAS. At home, however, political pressure is mounting on the Head of State, Bola Tinubu. The Senate has asked him to consider other options.

Bola Tinubu had written to the Senators asking them to approve the ECOWAS resolutions. But the elected representatives did not give the Head of State a blank check. Quite the contrary, in fact. After several hours of meetings, the Chamber finally asked Bola Tinubu to consider diplomatic and political options to resolve the crisis in Niger.

In its response, the Senate not only rejected the military coup, but also demonstrated its reluctance to engage in armed confrontation.

Already on Friday August 4 evening, Senators from the North had expressed concern about the repercussions of a military operation. The two countries share a 1,500 km border, and the regions elected representatives had emphasized the cultural, religious, and linguistic links between the two sides. They therefore warned against resorting to force before having exhausted all diplomatic channels. An operation would have implications in Nigeria, with the possible destabilization of very poor regions already under pressure from armed groups, they argued.

Finally, the political pressure on Bola Tinubu has been stepped up with the strong words of the CUPP. On Saturday August 5 morning, the largest opposition coalition denounced the military project as not only unnecessary, but irresponsible. Nigeria cannot afford to waste its dwindling resources and the precious lives of our soldiers. A new front could plunge the fragile economy into an even deeper crisis, the opponents had declared.
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Scheme of mechanisms of AGO2 (de)regulation and its (novel) functions in T-PLL. Credit: Oncotarget (2023). DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.28378

A new editorial paper titled "AGO2 in T-prolymphocytic leukemia: its canonical and noncanonical deregulation and function" has been published in Oncotarget.

In their new editorial, researchers Till Braun, Hanna Klepzig and Marco Herling from University of Cologne and University of Leipzig discuss T-prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL)a mature T-cell neoplasm with an aggressive and treatment-refractory course, stating, "In light of limited therapeutic options, median overall survival times from diagnosis is hardly longer than 2 years."

There is currently no FDA- or EMA-approved drug for the treatment of T-PLL. Although 8090% of patients experience a response to the most efficient single agent Alemtuzumab, relapses are common within the first 1224 months following this first-line treatment. One of the defining characteristics of T-PLL is the presence of the chromosomal aberrations inv(14) or t(14;14), which lead to constitutive expression of the proto-oncogene T-cell leukemia 1A (TCL1A).

This adapter molecule is centrally implicated in the enhanced T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling that is observed in the memorytype malignant T-cell. Other recurrent genomic alterations that have been identified in T-PLL affect the genes ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), Janus kinase (JAK), signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT), and MYC. In a recent study published by Braun et al., the team made significant advances in the understanding of the biology of T-PLL at the level of post-transcriptional gene regulation.

"For the first time, descriptive and mechanistic data implicated the involvement of molecules of the RNA interference (RNAi) machinery in T-PLL's leukemogenesis and by that refined our current disease model by concepts beyond protein-coding genes," the researchers conclude.

More information: Till Braun et al, AGO2 in T-prolymphocytic leukemia: its canonical and non-canonical deregulation and function, Oncotarget (2023). DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.28378 Journal information: Oncotarget

Provided by Impact Journals LLC
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Academic performance has long been linked to how supported students feel at school. Now, a Rutgers study suggests this sentiment is also essential to preventing suicides.

A Rutgers researcher found that having a strong sense of school belongingthe subjective feeling of being accepted, valued, included and encouraged in the school communitycould mitigate suicidal tendencies among Black adolescents.

"Having a supportive teacher or other nonparent adult can change a child's life because they will want to go to school," said Adrian Gale, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and co-author of the study published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. "We wanted to understand the factors that affect kids' sense of belonging at school, and how these factors might influence rates of suicide."

To fill this knowledge gap, Gale and colleagues at Ohio State University, Washington University in Saint Louis, and the University of Michigan analyzed data from a national sample of adolescents in grades 7-12. The study, which started in the 1994-95 school year, followed the adolescents in waves, with the most recent wave in 2016-2018. Participants were asked a series of questions about their emotional ties to school and experiences with teacher-based discrimination and peer-based prejudice.

Researchers found that as Black adolescents' sense of school belonging decreased, their risk for suicidal ideation and attempts dramatically increasedby as much as 35%.

Of the 4,229 respondents, 8% said they thought about suicide and 4% had attempted it. Less than half said they felt a sense of belonging at their school, and more than half reported feeling that their teachers treated them unfairly. Slightly more than 50% of the participants said students at their school were racially prejudiced.

In the United States, Black suicide rates have historically been lower than other racial groups. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native people and non-Hispanic whites had the highest rates of suicide, with 28.1 and 17.4 per 100,000, respectively. For non-Hispanic Blacks, the rate was 8.7.

But Gale said recent research indicates a disturbing increase in the rates of suicide among Black boys and girls. With these trends accelerating in the COVID-era, understanding how the sense of belonging at school impacts suicidal thoughts could be useful for mitigation.

"These findings highlight the importance of working to enhance the feeling of belonging among Black teenagers in school," he said.

To address this challenge, Gale said educators should provide thorough mental health support services that consider the cultural background of Black adolescents. Also, schools should help teachers identify indications of reduced school belonging.

"Most of the elements that influence children's academic achievement and school lifefamily socioeconomic status, for instancetake a generation to change," said Gale. "The relationship a child has with their school is something we can influence now."

More information: Donte T. Boyd et al, Do We Belong? Examining the Associations Between Adolescents' Perceptions of School Belonging, Teacher Discrimination, Peer Prejudice and Suicide, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s40615-023-01622-5
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

In 2021, 1.6 million Medicaid beneficiaries in North Carolina moved from a fee-for-service Medicaid model to a managed care system known as N.C. Medicaid Managed Care. In this plan, the state pays a set amount per beneficiary each month to the private plan, and then the plan pays for any health care services received by the beneficiary.

"With such a major change affecting a vulnerable population, there was concern about enrollee awareness and engagement in the transition to the new private plans and continuity of care with their providers," said Amresh Hanchate, Ph.D., professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The study findings may inform the implementation of future policy changes, including North Carolina's Medicaid expansion.

What impact did the transition have on Medicaid enrollees who live in Forsyth County?

To answer that question, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine analyzed data from surveys and health medical records of Medicaid enrollees receiving primary care within the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist network, the largest provider network in western North Carolina.

One of the main findings was that a large proportion of enrollees were not aware of the transition process and were not engaged in the choice of plans.

"We were surprised to find that most77.3%of the Medicaid enrollees reported that the managed care plan they were on was not chosen by them, but automatically assigned to them," said Hanchate, who was the corresponding author of the study.

While the new plans were responsible for screening and providing assistance for social needs, such as food and transportation, 79% reported not receiving any social need assistance.

The findings were recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

For the study, the research team identified 4,859 Medicaid enrollees and 5,137 individuals with private insurance, along with survey data from 398 Medicaid enrollees in Forsyth County. Researchers collected data on engagement in managed care plan selection, continuity of care, receipt of social need services and primary care use.

Other key findings:

19.2% reported lacking assistance with plan choice.

13.1% of enrollees reported insufficient information about the transition.

5.9% were assigned to a different primary care provider.

Also concerning was that there was a 7.1% reduction in the volume of primary care visits among Medicaid enrollees relative to privately insured enrollees. However, Hanchate acknowledged that the transition occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when many patients experienced disruptions in health care access.

Researchers also conducted focus groups with 22 Medicaid beneficiaries from January to March 2022 to gain insight into their experiences with the transition. These findings were recently published in North Carolina Medical Journal.

The team identified four major themes:

Participants expressed confusion about the signup process.

Participants had a limited understanding of their new plans.

Participants expressed difficulty accessing services through their plans.

Participants primarily noted negative changes to their care.

"Many enrollees expressed fear and confusion related to using their new plans because they were unsure that services would be covered and had trouble reaching a Medicaid representative to help them navigate their services," said Rachel Zimmer, DNP, assistant professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and corresponding author of the focus group study. "Many participants also did not know about the new additional services covered by their plans, such as YMCA memberships, or coverage for over-the-counter medicines."

Zimmer said the focus group findings suggest that plan participants felt unsupported during the enrollment process.

"As Medicaid managed care becomes more established, we hope to see an improvement in the awareness of the policy and choices relating to plans," Hanchate said. "There also needs to be more assistance for social needs to gain better enrollee engagement, which will hopefully lead to improved patient experience, greater health care access and improved patient outcomes."

Both Hanchate and Zimmer agree that the Medicaid program can benefit from listening to the recommendations of members to guide strategies for addressing whole-person care.

More information: Amresh D. Hanchate et al, North Carolina's Medicaid Transformation: the Early Enrollee Experience, Journal of General Internal Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s11606-023-08319-9 Rachel P. Zimmer et al, Perceptions of North Carolina's Medicaid Transformation: A Qualitative Study, North Carolina Medical Journal (2023). DOI: 10.18043/001c.83956 Journal information: Journal of General Internal Medicine

Provided by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
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A government scheme to give out free vapes to smokers appeals to most but not all, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The "Swap-to-Stop" scheme was announced earlier in 2023providing a million e-cigarettes to disadvantaged people who smoke.

A new study supports the scheme, with people who vape saying that this type of approach might have helped them if it had been available when they attempted to quit. "Medicalisation of Vaping in the UK? E-cigarette users' perspectives on the merging of commercial and medical routes to vaping," was published in the journal Perspectives in Public Health.

But the research also shows that accessing vapes via the NHS might not be appealing to everyone, because some people don't see e-cigarettes as treatments but more as consumer products that they can shop for themselves.

The team says there is a place for both commercial and medical routes to vaping for quitting smoking to satisfy people's personal preferences.

Lead researcher Dr. Emma Ward, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said, "The vast majority of people who have quit smoking via vaping will have done so without any support from health care professionals.

"However, using vapes to quit smoking has been supported by the NHS and there are guidelines for health care professionals to support patients looking to quit smoking with vaping.

"In April 2023, the government announced a "Swap-to-Stop' schemeto help achieve its Smokefree 2030 target of less than 5 percent of people smoking in England by 2030.

"The scheme will be the biggest government supported stop smoking scheme to date using e-cigarettes. The scheme will use vaping products that are also available to buy commercially.

"We wanted to better-understand how well it might work."

The team interviewed 136 people from across the UKnearly all of whom had quit smoking via vaping.

They asked them how helpful they would have found e-cigarettes being provided by the NHS when they were attempting to quit. They also asked for their views on different ways to access vaping for quitting smoking.

Dr. Ward said, "Our research shows that people who quit smoking using commercially purchased vapes believe they might have benefitted from the NHS providing e-cigarettes and support if it had been available to them when they were quitting.

"Vaping being available via health care professionals offers reassurance around the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in helping people quit smoking and potential harms.

"However, it is unlikely that one type of e-cigarette will suit everyone seeking to quit and our research highlights how important being able to choose vaping products in a commercial environment is for some quitters.

"People who vape believe they have benefited from being able to choose vaping products in shops to get the right mix of device and flavors to work best for them to help them to permanently stop smoking.

"Even those who do achieve success with vapes given to them by the NHS are likely to continue to use shops to buy ongoing vaping supplies.

"So, we argue that there is a place for both commercial and medical routes to vaping to help people stop smoking."

This research was carried out in collaboration with London South Bank University.

More information: Medicalisation of vaping in the UK? E-cigarette users' perspectives on the merging of commercial and medical routes to vaping. openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/943zq

Provided by University of East Anglia
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Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

Gastroschisis is a complex and costly birth condition that affects babies' bowels. Cases have doubled in the United States over the last two decades.

We talked with Geoanna M. Bautista, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Neonatology at UC Davis Health Children's Hospital, to learn about gastroschisis. She also shared the best practices for caring for newborns with the condition.

Bautista's research focuses on gastrointestinal diseases that affect newborns. She is especially interested in premature births and birth defects that impact normal gut development, including gastroschisis.

She has spearheaded the establishment of the UC Davis Baby Intestines Group (B.I.G.). It is a collaborative initiative among neonatology, gastroenterology and surgery to improve the outcomes, growth and longitudinal care of newborns at high risk for intestinal failure, such as babies with gastroschisis.

What is gastroschisis?

Gastroschisis develops during pregnancy. It is an abdominal wall defect that prevents the gut from growing properly and causes problems in the gut's muscles and nerves (dysmotility). The developing baby has an opening in the abdomen through which their intestines spill out into the surrounding amniotic fluid. With time, the unprotected intestine becomes irritated, causing it to swell, shorten and become inflamed.

Gastroschisis is unique in that it disproportionately affects younger mothers. It also appears to be associated with environmental factors, although the underlying causes and development are still poorly understood.

When is gastroschisis diagnosed?

Gastroschisis is often diagnosed during the anatomy scan (ultrasound) performed around 16 weeks gestation. In some cases, it is not found until after the baby is born, usually due to limited or no prenatal care.

If diagnosed prenatally, parents typically get referred to a hospital with a level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), such as UC Davis Health Children's Hospital, that has access to specialist surgeons.

Does gastroschisis come in different severity levels?

Gastroschisis severity varies widely. Most babies born with the condition have "simple" gastroschisis. This means no other intestinal complications developed in utero. "Complex" gastroschisis, on the other hand, is linked to conditions such as intestinal atresia (blockage), perforation (hole in the bowel's wall), ischemia (not getting enough blood or oxygen), and necrosis (death of tissues). These conditions may have developed later in gestation and are often not discovered until after the baby is born.

What happens when babies with gastroschisis are born?

Babies with gastroschisis can often be delivered vaginally, which surprises most parents since the baby's intestines are literally outside their body. At the delivery, it is very important that the bowel is handled with the utmost care as any compression can cause injury. The bowel outside the body can also lead to dehydration and electrolyte changes. It needs to remain moist at all times. The baby will also need a lot of fluids.

How is gastroschisis treated?

Surgical correction of the original defect occurs shortly after birth. The babies are brought to the NICU where surgeons evaluate the defect size, the amount of bowel, and if any other organs, such as the liver, have also managed to herniate out.

Babies get one of two repairs: A primary repair, which means the surgeons put the intestines back into the abdominal cavity directly after birth or a staged reduction, which means the intestines are slowly placed back into the abdomen little by little.

After the repair surgery, there is often a long monitoring period until the baby has adequate bowel function and motility before we slowly introduce milk.

What are some health complications linked to gastroschisis?

We have come a long way in optimizing neonatal management and postnatal repair of the original defect. Yet, these babies often struggle with delayed gut motility and function due to the damage that happened in utero.

About 20% of babies with gastroschisis develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a disease that causes inflammation and death of tissues in the intestine. Thus, some babies may need to have part of their intestines removed due to atresia (obstruction) or from the development of NEC. This may lead to short bowel syndrome, intestinal failure and life-long challenges.

Babies that don't require additional surgeries or resections can still have problems with dysmotility and absorption of nutrients. This can further impact growth and development.

What is the best way to care for a baby born with gastroschisis?

Typically, the hardest part for parents is seeing their babies "repaired" but continuing to wait for their bowels to function normally. Then feeding is slowly initiated and advanced Most babies can get through this period in the NICU without additional complications. Once they tolerate full feedings and grow appropriatelywhich can often take several weeks to monthsthey can be treated like any other newborn and taken home.

The babies still need careful monitoring even if they do not require additional surgeries. Some can have poor growth and have nonspecific GI symptoms, like constipation.

Unfortunately, babies with gastroschisis may also develop complications and require multiple surgeries. Those babies are more likely to have lost a significant amount of bowel. They may go home needing IV nutrition and continued follow-up with our intestinal rehabilitation program. I always tell parents that every baby is different.

What could be driving inflammation in babies with gastroschisis?

We still don't know what is driving this inflammation. Our team believes a signaling pathway may be the missing link in understanding gastroschisis-related complications.

This is truly an exciting time in science. We now have better tools and a greater understanding of some of the mechanisms driving these impairments in other similar disease processes. We have also moved towards a more collaborative team science approach. This means our efforts translate into true clinical benefit for these babies.

Are there interventions that can help developing babies with gastroschisis in the womb?

There are currently no in-utero interventions available for gastroschisis. There is growing interest in developing fetal interventions that focus on earlier targets to hopefully prevent the ongoing damage that clearly affects normal gut development.

Thanks to Drs. Diana Farmer and Shinjiro Hirose who established the Fetal Care and Treatment Center (FCTC) and the Center for Surgical Bioengineering (CSB) co-led by professor Aijun Wang, UC Davis has truly become a hub for pioneering fetal interventions that result in amazing outcomes. With this kind of environment and resources, I anticipate that my current collaboration with Dr. Hirose will lead to new efforts and success at intervening in these developing babies before they are born.
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Map of Biotech Bay by BioSpace. Credit: BioSpace, https://www.biospace.com/

During their time on campus, recent University of California Santa Cruz graduates Ted Malpass and Edwina Malmberg channeled their passion for health equity issues into undergraduate research. Now, the study they helped to author is published in the peer-reviewed journal, Area Development and Policy, and is shedding new light on how local and national governments deal with the trade-offs between economic benefits and health benefits in their relations with the biopharmaceutical industry.

Global & Community Health Program Executive Vice Director Matt Sparke led the research team in comparing biopharmaceutical hubs in California, Puerto Rico, China, Singapore, and South Africa. The article's findings detail the varying strategies that governments use to attract and manage the industry, focusing in particular on the different types of economic value and health value that these efforts provide, or fail to provide, to citizens.

Malmberg, who majored in sociology, first got involved with the project through the Institute for Social Transformation's Building Belonging program, which provides fellowship funding for undergraduates to work alongside faculty on research projects. As a transfer student, she said the program helped her to make the most out of her time on campus. She also enjoyed bringing her Spanish-language skills to the team and realized that she'd like to continue doing research as she pursues a career in public health.

"This research experience has given me a new lens on how to go into my professional life," she said. "It was fun in a way that I was not expecting. Some of the types of information that we were looking for about these biopharmaceutical companies are not straightforward to find and make sense of, so it was a bit of a puzzle and a challenge that we had to overcome."

Sparke said the research team's work comparing governance models for the biopharmaceutical industry was all the more important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated vast inequities in access to vaccines and other medications around the globe.

"People in the Global South have always been very familiar with unequal access to medicines, and we also experience it to some degree within our population here in the United States," he said. "It remains a huge problem, and most governments have found themselves very weakly positioned in relation to Big Pharma. They therefore often tend to be price takers, rather than price makers."

In the United States, for example, the paper explains that governments provide public funding, infrastructure, and tax incentives to support the development of biopharmaceutical hubs, and the industry then helps contribute to regional economic growth. But the research team argues that these policies also turn public resources into private profits, creating corporate monopolies that reduce the affordability and accessibility of medications for populations both locally and globally.

Countries like China and Singapore take different approaches that aim to capture increased health benefits alongside the economic value of biopharmaceutical innovation, the paper shows. It details how China's policies focus partly on domestic procurement and production of medicines to support biosecurity goals. And Singapore encourages companies to tailor medicines to the needs of the local population by hosting clinical trials and serving as an experimental frontier. However, biomedical development is still primarily market-based under both models.

Meanwhile, South Africa's public health care system provides antiretroviral drugs to citizens for AIDS treatment, and the paper discusses how the government's role in purchasing such medications relates to its efforts to regulate monopoly pricing. South Africa also promotes domestic production of essential medicines and is working toward state production of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization picked Cape Town, South Africa, to serve as a new mRNA vaccine hub, with the goal of both producing medications and sharing technology throughout the Global South.

The paper argues that the new Cape Town mRNA hub, in particular, shows how a different type of governance of the biopharmaceutical industry is possible. The researchers also shared some evidence of changes that might be coming to the United States. For example, the paper discusses how medicare price caps and other recent federal policies, along with efforts by the state of California to produce its own insulin, successfully pressured the biopharmaceutical industry to lower costs of the medication.

"Those efforts have made great progress in pushing down the prices on insulin, and this is a lifesaving transformation," Sparke said. "People were rationing supplies because they couldn't afford the amount of medicine that they needed, and some people were dying as a result. Now, that's going to change. This is a huge policy achievement, not least of all here in California, that really should be more widely acknowledged."

For undergraduate student co-author Ted Malpass, studying this success story was one of the most exciting aspects of the research. Malpass, who recently graduated with a degree in politics, is a type 1 diabetic and has sometimes struggled to afford insulin. Those experiences inspired him to found a chapter of Universities Allied for Universal Medicines (UAEM) at UC Santa Cruz and to join the research team working on the article. Now, Malpass hopes to continue his advocacy for affordable health care through his career.

More information: Matthew Sparke et al, Bio-pharma hub development in global production networks: contrasting state policies and conjunctural value strategies, Area Development and Policy (2023). DOI: 10.1080/23792949.2023.2216258
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Mental health problems can emerge as early as childhood and, if left unaddressed, can be an indicator of problems later in life.

Early intervention in mental health involves identifying and addressing these problems as soon as possible to prevent more severe and long-lasting issues. To do this, we first need to identify interventions and treatments that work for young people.

This was the focus of Professor Willem Kuyken and his team in the My Resilience in Adolescence (MYRIAD) project. The study investigated the effectiveness of a brief school-based mindfulness intervention in supporting the mental health of young people in secondary schools aged 11 to 16a demographic increasingly vulnerable to mental health problems in the UK.

The result? It didn't help.

Now, this important project offers valuable insight for researchers, policymakers and educators to help shape future interventions for young people.

What is the MYRIAD project?

The MYRIAD project was led by Professor Kuyken and Mark Williams at the University of Oxford, Sarah Jayne Blakemore, formerly at University College London and now at the University of Cambridge, and Tim Dalgleish at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.

The project spanned eight years, from 2015 to 2023, and involved more than 28,000 students, 650 teachers, 100 schools and 20 million data points. Mindfulness training was developed by the Mindfulness in Schools Project and taught by teachers to their students after completing the program themselves.

The study specifically investigated the use of a brief school-based mindfulness intervention to improve the mental health of early teens aged 11 to 16, which was found to be ineffective.

Decision-makers must rely on evidence to find solutions

Professor Kuyken urges policymakers and decision-makers to consider the evidence before implementing mental health interventions in schools.

"In my view, the ethical thing to do as a head teacher, policymaker or teacher is to consider the science. Because, if you invest in something that doesn't have evidence, you're taking those resources away from something else that might," he says.

Regarding school-based mindfulness, he believes that "enthusiasm was ahead of the evidence."

Although inconsistent practice was one reason mindfulness didn't work in the study, Kuyken and his team believe there's more to it.

He says that for any intervention to work, we must consider a range of factors from individual to societal.

"For example, we know that inequalities, deprivation and poverty drive mental health problems. And maybe we need to be thinking about interventions which help improve those first," says Kuyken.

Finding what doesn't work moves mental health science forward

Reporting null findings in research can be challenging, but at Wellcome, we believe finding out what doesn't work is just as important as finding what does.

Mindfulness training is an example of how interventions are not universally effective. While research has proven it to be effective in treating adults, Kuyken emphasizes that "one size doesn't fit all" when it comes to mental health, especially among young people.

The MYRIAD project highlights the importance of how interventions are delivered and by whom. According to Kuyken, the treatment of mental health problems belongs in the hands of experienced and qualified mental health providers, not teachers and schools.

"We are placing children and teachers in an untenable position when we ask them to deal with complex mental health problems that they don't have the competence, experience and confidence to work with," he says.

Kuyken also notes that secondary school is a time "when young people are shifting their frame of reference away from adults towards their peers," which may be one reason why students did not engage with mindfulness training delivered by their teachers.

Using insights from MYRIAD, we can focus resources on finding more effective interventions that address the specific needs of young people and advance the field of youth mental health.

We need to involve young people

Kuyken advises that the best way to find effective interventions for young people is to work with them.

Lived experience is essential in mental health research to ensure that interventions and treatments support the people they aim to help. This is something that Wellcome advocates for across the field of mental health science and in the projects we fund.

The study included a number of public engagement activities and a youth advisory group was used to advise on the MYRIAD project design, however they did not contribute to the design of the intervention itself, which was designed by experienced school teachers.

"If given the opportunity again, I would co-design an intervention with young people," Kuyken says.

He believes that young people are best placed to advise what works for them and what does not. "It's about making sure that whatever we do, the young people will actually want to do it and engage with it," he says.

The project also co-designed a sub-study with students, asking them if there were any questions missing from the project's measures that they would include. One question that emerged was: "Do you have a close friend that you can share all your troubles with?"

"This turned out to be one of the most important questions, with about one in three kids saying they didn't, which is quite striking," says Kuyken.

This is an example of how co-designing research with young people can lead to important insights about what is crucial to their mental health. By listening to young people, we can identify gaps and work to develop more effective and targeted interventions.

Collaboration is key to advancing mental health science

The MYRIAD project was not only rigorous in scope and scale, but its findings are also supported by the expertise of the transdisciplinary team involved.

"The problems we're facing in mental health research are increasingly complex," says Kuyken. "They won't be solved by people with just one disciplinary knowledge set or skill."

The project benefited from an extraordinary team of professionals, including educators, psychiatrists, school researchers, health economists and statisticians. That's why, he explains, they are so confident in their findings.

Looking to the future, Kuyken encourages people to learn from this study.

"I hope this serves as a wake-up call in the broader field of young people's mental health, school-based interventions and universal interventions," he says.

"If we're serious about the mental health of young people, we need to ask ourselves: what can we learn from this trial that can be applied to all school-based interventions?"

More information: MYRIAD project: myriadproject.org/
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Graphical abstract. Credit: Immunity (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.06.024

Bone marrow transplants have saved the lives of thousands of blood cancer patients, but graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD, remains a debilitating and even life-threatening complication. A new study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center points to patients' pre-transplant gut microbiome as a major player in the development and severity of GVHD.

In the study, published in Immunity, the research team used animal models of GVHD and complex computational analyses to identify bacteria that help instigate GVHD, and others that suppress it. Microbiome data from blood cancer patients who received bone marrow transplants suggested some of the same bacterial groups may also influence GVHD in people.

"Many studies on GVHD and the microbiome focus on the microbiome after transplant," said Motoko Koyama, MD, Ph.D., a staff scientist in Fred Hutch's Hill Lab who led the study. "Our work shows that the pre-transplant microbiome could be the focus of therapies to reduce GVHD severity."

The work helps scientists better understand how GVHD develops and where to focus further translational studies aimed at preventing this often-devastating outcome. In particular the findings point toward approaches to modulate this pathway that can be tested clinically, said Geoff Hill, MD, who directs Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at Fred Hutch.

Untangling a deadly transplant complication

When blood cancers like leukemia strike, white blood cells that should fight infection have lost their way and begun growing out of control.

Bone marrow is the source of our immune cells, our oxygen-carrying red blood cells and our clot-forming platelets. To treat leukemia, doctors wipe out both cancerous immune cells and the bone marrow that can re-seed them, replacing them with healthy donated blood stem cells that will take root (engraft) and produce a new blood and immune system.

Donor immune cells do two things: They help replace cancerous immune cells, and they attack lingering leukemia cells in what's known as the graft-versus-leukemia, or GVL, effect.

Unfortunately, they sometimes also cause GVHD by attacking healthy recipient cells. Symptoms of this often-debilitating condition include vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, skin rashes and heightened risk of infection. Severity ranges from mild to deadly. Acute GVHD arises within 100 days after transplant often occurs at regions where the body meetsand repelsthe external world, like the gut and the skin. GVHD is the leading cause of non-relapse deaths in bone marrow transplant patients, and about 5,500 patients develop GVHD each year.

Scientists don't completely understand why this is so, but it's becoming clear that the microbes that call these areas home contribute to GVHD incidence and severity.

Koyama and Hill want to understand exactly how bacteria connect to the immune cells that do the damage. In a previous study, Koyama revealed that, unexpectedly, the epithelial cells lining the gut can give immune cells the helping hand they need to induce GVHD.

That work revealed the importance of an immune molecule called interleukin 12. The findings inspired a team led by Fred Hutch bone marrow transplant expert Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, who holds the David and Patricia Giuliani/Oliver Press Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, to undertake a clinical trial testing an GVHD-preventive strategy aimed at inhibiting IL-12.

Koyama and the team also found that epithelial cells turned on a molecule called MHCII, or major histocompatibility complex class II, that allows them to communicate with immune cells. She saw that mice raised without a microbiome had little to no MHCII in their gut epithelial cells and also didn't get gut GVHD, suggesting that bacteria were playing a major role.

Bacteria can help or hinder GVHD

"We knew that the microbiome was important in causing GVHD via MHCII, but we didn't know which bacterial species were involved," Koyama said.

To help her uncover the bacterial players in GVHD, Koyama took advantage of the fact that the gut microbiome is shaped by environmental factors like food and water.

Over the long term, changing these factors changes the microbiome's makeup. The team surveyed genetically identical lab mice grown by different vendors and found that mice raised in different locations have different microbiomes and different levels of MHCII in their gut epithelium, and that mice with higher levels of gut MHCII get more severe GVHD.

To narrow down which bacterial species were involved in generating acute GVHD through MHCII, the researchers tackled the problem from both sides: by adding bacteria and taking them away.

First, Koyama and Hill teamed up with microbiome expert Sujatha Srinivasan, Ph.D., in Fred Hutch's Fredricks Lab. The collaborators used genetic sequencing to analyze the bacterial species present in mice from different vendors. Koyama collaborated with computational biologist Daniel Hippe, Ph.D., in Fred Hutch's Randolph Lab, to breakdown the correlations between bacterial groups and MHCII. They saw that certain bacterial generaa taxonomic grouping broader than speciesappeared to induce MHCII expression, while others suppressed it.

Then, Koyama put mice with different levels of gut MHCII in the same cages.

"This transfers the bacteria [between the mice] and we can see how this changes MHCII expression," Koyama said.

After four weeks, the MHCII-low mice had transformed into MHCII-high mice, and Koyama and Hippe saw that MHCII-inducing bacteria had moved into their gut microbiomes. She was also able to kill off "inducer" bacteriaand tamp down MHCII and GVHDusing certain antibiotics prior to transplant.

Unfortunately, Koyama also saw that treating mice with these antibiotics also reduced GVL, the ability of the donor cells to attack residual leukemia cells, although less severely than GVHD. In patients, GVL helps keep their cancers from recurring, so treatment strategies must balance the benefit of reducing GVHD with the risk of reducing GVL and enhancing recurrence.

"Another group had already shown that certain bacteria increase MHCII expression on gut epithelial cells," Koyama said. "We needed to know, do the suppressor bacteria have a functional effect?"

Working with Hutch colleague and microbiome expert Neelendu Dey, MD, the team grew two types of suppressor bacteria. Koyama pretreated two groups of MHCII-high mice with antibiotics to wipe out most of the "inducer" bacteria.

Two weeks of daily dosing with the suppressor bacteria ramped down their gut epithelial MHCII, while MHCII levels bounced back in mice that received antibiotics but no suppressor bacteria. Mice that received the suppressor bacteria after antibiotic treatment also survived better after transplant.

Koyama then collaborated with another Fred Hutch microbiome scientist, Kate Markey, Ph.D., MClin, to see if the human data supported her findings in mice.

They analyzed a cohort of microbiome data taken from bone marrow transplant patients prior to transplant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. While individual species differed a great deal between mice and human gut microbiomes, the researchers saw distinct overlap between GVHD-associated bacterial genera in mice and humans.

"This suggests that before transplant, humans also have different bacteria in their gut microbiota that can influence GVHD outcomes," Koyama said.

A window of opportunity

While the team's findings highlight the power of the microbiome in promoting GVHD, it will likely be some time before doctors will be able to modulate this complex ecosystem to improve transplant outcomes, she said.

But by further clarifying how interactions between the microbiome and donor and host immune cells precipitate GVHD, the researchers' work reveals the key interactions and players that can then become the focus of further research into therapeutic targets and new treatment strategies.

"There is still a lot to understand about how to manipulate the microbiome, but our work shows that the pre-transplant microbiome is an important place to focus future research," Koyama said.

More information: Motoko Koyama et al, Intestinal microbiota controls graft-versus-host disease independent of donor-host genetic disparity, Immunity (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.06.024 Journal information: Immunity
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Psychedelics such as LSD, ketamine and psilocybin, used by therapists to assist in the treatment of certain mental illnesses, could receive billions for state-funded research under a newly proposed bond initiative.

Dr. Jeannie Fontana, a Los Angeles internal medicine physician, filed paperwork last month to place a $5 billion measure on the November 2024 ballot to create a new state agency for studying the effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy for people diagnosed with PTSD, substance abuse and other mental health issues.

The Treat California Initiativean acronym for Treatments, Research, Education, Access and Therapieshas a long way to go before it qualifies for a ballot, including the collection of approximately 1 million signatures from California voters. Yet, Fontana feels optimistic about gathering the necessary support.

"Our mental health programs are falling far, far short of what needs to be done for the citizens of California, she said. "It makes sense that we try something new and make sure we do it thoughtfully and carefully."

Research into psychedelic medicine began in earnest in the 1950s following the discovery of LSD. But that came to a screeching halt in the 1960s due to growing political concern over the recreational use of psychedelics.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a renewed and growing interest in the therapeutic potential of drugs like MDMA, LSD, ketamine and psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in 'magic mushrooms.' Studies over the last decade have found that psilocybin has the potential to treat substance abuse disorders and depression. MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, has shown promise for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Food and Drug Administration in 2019 approved limited use of Esketamine, a form of ketamine, for depression in patients who did not experience relief from other antidepressant medicines.

Paul Hutson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies psilocybin and leads the school's center for psychedelics research, said he anticipates within the next five years there will be enough evidence for the FDA to approve MDMA and psilocybin to treat PTSD and depression.

What makes psychedelic-assisted therapy unique is that studies are showing that the drugs appear to have long-lasting effects after just one or a few doses, as compared to daily antidepressant consumption.

"These types of medicines really represent a paradigm shift in the way we approach mental health," said Dr. David Olson, director of the UC Davis Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics.

The barriers around psychedelics and mental health treatment

The federal government does not recognize a medical use for most psychedelics. Yet, universities across the globe, including almost every prominent one in California, are studying their use to treat certain psychiatric diagnoses.

Most of the research is funded by private pharmaceutical companies and nonprofits such as the Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which has raised over $130 million for research and education since it was founded in 1986, according to its website.

The state agency and funding model proposed under Fontana's bond measure would be the first of its kind for psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Fontana envisions an agency similar to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was established through a $3 billion bond measure approved by voters in 2004 to accelerate research into stem cell treatments. With those funds drying up, California voters in 2020 agreed to an additional $5.5 billion in bonds to further the Institute's work.

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The research conducted on psychedelic-assisted therapy is strong but not yet conclusive, according to Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Grob, who first conducted his first research on patients in the early 90s, said a new state agency could help strengthen the science around the topic and guard against dangerous outcomes.

More than 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. are living with a mental illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fontana sees her initiative as complementary to a $4.7 billion bond measure proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to build up to 10,000 new behavioral health beds across California. Newsom's measure is expected to go before voters in March.

While some hope that psychedelics could soon be part of the state's official medicine cabinet, they won't be the answer for all of those afflicted. For people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, psychedelics may actually worsen their condition.

Some studies have also found adverse outcomes from the use of certain psychedelics. Ibogaine, a natural psychedelic drug that comes from a plant, has shown promising results for treating substance abuse but it caused heart damage and deaths to several patients.

"There's certainly ample promise to move forward with research, but one really needs to be careful with safety parameters," Grob said.

Psychedelic treatment is time-consuming and costly. It typically consists of an initial exam, a supervised dosing session of about eight hourssometimes with an overnight stayand then a debrief session. All told, a single dose requires 32 to 40 hours from trained mental health practitioners and is estimated to cost $3,000-$8,000, according to Hutson.

In addition to cost, two major barriers to broad access are a lack of trained health care professionals and uncertainty around whether insurance will pay for the expensive treatments.

Will California voters fund psychedelic treatment research?

Fontana is hoping to gather support from veteran groups and unions representing first responderspopulations especially vulnerable to addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The initiative comes as a bill authored by Senator Scott Wiener, D- San Francisco, makes its way through the legislature with hopes of decriminalizing psychedelics across the Golden State.

More than six out of ten registered U.S. voters support legalizing regulated therapeutic access to psychedelics and more than three-quarters favor making it easier for researchers to study the substances, according to a recently released survey by the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.

If successful, Fontana's measure will join a crowded 2024 general election ballot in California.

Lawmakers have proposed nearly a dozen bond measures to address statewide issues ranging from affordable housing and schools to climate change and fentanyl use. Other citizen-led initiatives proposed for ballots next year seek to expand rent control, limit the ability of lawmakers in California to increase taxes and authorize city and county leaders to spur more housing production by overriding state land use statutes that conflict with local regulations.

Two referendumsone to reverse a recent voter-approved ban on oil and gas wells near schools and homes and another to prevent a hike in minimum wages for fast food workershave already qualified for the November ballot.

2023 The Sacramento Bee.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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In situ vaccination with single-dose NvIH reduced TME immunosuppression, enhanced TME antitumor immune milieu, and elicited systemic antitumor immunity, resulting in robust immunotherapy of large poorly immunogenic tumors with abscopal effect. NvIH is composed of injectable (NVs + ICBs)-in-hydrogel that was loaded with triple immunostimulants (TLR7/8/9 and STING agonists R848, CpG, and cGAMP) and antiprogrammed death receptor (PD-1) antibody, and prolongs the tumor retention of these immunotherapeutics. Single-dose intratumoral injection of NvIH remodeled immune milieu, increased tumor antigen accumulation in TDLNs, and elicited potent systemic antigen-specific antitumor T cell responses with memory. Single-dose NvIH substantially inhibited and regressed large poorly immunogenic tumors with abscopal effect that inhibited distant tumors, including orthotopic glioblastoma. NVs, nanovaccines; NvIH, NvH loaded with ICB agents; TDLN, tumor-draining lymph node; APC, antigen-presenting cell; TLR, Toll-like receptor; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; T CM , central memory T cell; T EM , effector memory T cell; T H , helper T cell; T reg , regulatory T cell; NK cell, natural killer cell. Credit: Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade6257

The present variants of cancer immunotherapy such as immune checkpoint blockades only benefit a small subset of patients due to its immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The capacity to vaccinate tumors and reduce immunosuppression in the microenvironment is a significant method to improve cancer immunotherapy.

In a new report now published in Science Advances, Furong Cheng and a team of scientists in translational medicine and pharmaceuticals in China and the U.S. presented single-dose injectable, nanovaccines and immune checkpoint blockade in a hydrogel to conduct robust immunotherapy of large tumors and abbreviated the invention as NvIH.

The cancer biologists and bioengineers developed the drug as a thermoresponsive hydrogel co-encapsulated with immune checkpoint blockade antibodies and polymeric nanoparticles loaded with immunostimulatory agonists and stimulators of interferon genes. They vaccinated the tumor environment and noted how the vaccine underwent rapid sol-to-gel transformation to prolong its retention in the area, sustain the release of tumor therapeutics and reduce systemic inflammation.

Cheng and colleagues administered the compound as a single-dose to reduce multitier immunosuppression of the tumor microenvironment, elicit potent immunity memory in the region with an abscopal impact (simultaneously impact both local and distant tumors) on the immune system, with additional impact on distant orthotopic glioblastoma. The injectable nanovaccine (NvIH) holds great potential for tumor immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy has a significant impact on many types of cancers, although existing methods only benefit a small subset of patients due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and insufficient filtration of anti-tumor T-cells. Many research approaches address these challenges by developing cancer vaccines, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and oncolytic virotherapy.

In this work, the team developed nanovaccines for simultaneous antigen cross-presentation, alongside multipronged pattern recognition receptor antitumor immunostimulation. Macroscale hydrogel and nanocarriers are biomaterials that can retain chemical and biological therapeutics to reduce off-target adverse side-effects. These results underscore the potential of NvIH for safe and robust immunotherapy of local and distant tumors.

NvH synthesis and characterization. (A) Chemical structures of four polymers with different substituent modifications screened for triple immunostimulant co-delivery. (B) cGAMP-loaded NPs outperformed free cGAMP to induce IFN-I responses in RAW-ISG macrophage reporter cells (treatment: 24 hours; n = 4). (C) Representative flow cytometry histogram (left) and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) (right) of the MHC-I/SIINFEKL complex levels on DC2.4 cells that were incubated with the indicated OVA formulations (n = 3). (D) Hemolysis assay results showing the pH-dependent membrane rupture activity of PHD-AEP NPs (30 g/ml, 37C, 1 hour; n = 3). (E) Hydrodynamic diameters and a TEM image of NVs. (F) Hydrodynamic diameters of NVs stored in water over 6 days, indicating good stability (1 mg/ml, ambient temperature; n = 3). (G) Gelation of blank hydrogel and NvH using a vial-tilting method. (H) In vitro release kinetics of R848 and cGAMP from NVs and NvH (n = 3). (I) Photograph of syringe injection of NvIH. ICB agent in NvIH was PD-1. PHD-NH 2 NPs: NNP; PHD-DAB NPs: DNP; PHD-AEP NPs: ANP. Data: mean  SD. P values were determined by two-way ANOVA, Tukey's multiple-comparison test (**P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001; *****P < 0.00001). Credit: Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade6257

Bioengineering and characterizing the immunotherapy vaccine

The scientists added the immunostimulant-loaded nanovaccines within the hydrogel to regulate prolonged tissue retention of immunostimulants. Cheng and colleagues hypothesized that adding the immunostimulant-loaded nanovaccines in hydrogel can mediate their regulated release and prolong tissue retention of immunostimulants.

They synthesized these immunostimulant-loaded nanovaccines by designing cationic polymers to form nanoparticles with a hydrophobic core. They engineered polymeric nanocarriers with minimal toxicity and high immunostimulant loading and synthesized a series of cationic polymers via thiol-Michael addition polymerization and substitution reactions.

During the experiments, the team synthesized poly (-thioester esters) and confirmed their consistency by using nuclear magnetic resonance and gel permeation chromatography. The scientists assessed the intracellular delivery of nanoparticles as immunostimulants.

Ideally, tumor vaccination can remodel immune milieu in the tumor microenvironment and elicit anti-tumor T-cell responses. The team facilitated prolonged release of immunostimulants by using a thermo-sensitive Pluronic hydrogel to prepare the constructs. The syringe injectable hydrogel enabled surgery-free minimally invasive syringe injection accompanied with fast gelation at physiological temperatures to accomplish prolonged retention in the tumor microenvironment alongside sustained release of drugs from the nanovaccine's hydrogel reservoir.

Robust antigen-presenting cell (APC) activation by the hydrogel vaccine

The research team expected the co-delivery of immunostimulants to elicit potent anti-tumor immunostimulation. They first monitored the immunostimulant co-delivery efficiency by using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. The team then studied the capacity of the hydrogel-based vaccine to activate antigen-presenting cells.

The outcomes showed enhanced pro-inflammatory responses and dendritic cell maturation, altogether with the ability of nanovaccines to capture antigens and produce robust antitumor T-cell responses. The scientists then investigated the retention rate of immunostimulants in the tumor microenvironment while monitoring potent anti-tumor immunity via in situ tumor vaccination with a single-dose of the nanovaccine hydrogel.

Antitumor modulation and immunotherapy of large tumors using single-dose vaccination

The research team studied the therapeutic impact of the nanovaccine/hydrogel in a mouse model subcutaneously inoculated with large, poorly immunogenic tumors. The outcomes showed negligible tumor growth inhibition with a control vaccine, while in contrast, the single-dose nanovaccine/hydrogel decreased tumor growth rate, while increasing mouse survival. The outcomes highlighted the dose-dependency of the therapeutic agent.

The researchers explored the vaccine with and without immune checkpoint inhibitor inclusion for immunotherapy of large, poorly immunogenic melanoma. The two variants showed robust immunotherapeutic efficiency of large tumors with proactive antitumor immunity and lasting immune memory.

Cheng and colleagues further studied the capacity to overcome cancer metastasis, and thereby prevent cancer patient death. They accomplished this by investigating systemic antitumor immunity for the therapeutic intervention of distant tumors inaccessible for in situ vaccination and administer effective immunotherapy with abscopal effects. They studied this with a mouse model to understand single-dose nanovaccination induced systemic antitumor immunity to treat primary and distant tumors.

The results showed great safety potential of the nanovaccine. The robust single-dose nanovaccine presented immunotherapy for primary vaccinated tumors, and for distant orthotopic glioblastomas that mimic human brain metastases to elicit systemic antitumor immune memory and prevent tumor relapse.

Outlook: Scope for effective nanovaccines for cancer therapy with robust immune memory to prevent relapse

In this way, Furong Cheng and the team investigated the dynamics of immunotherapy to treat a growing number of cancers. They bioengineered injectable nanoparticle-integrated hydrogel composites to develop the nanovaccines alongside immune checkpoint blockade within a hydrogel (NvIH) that contained triple immunostimulants to facilitate prolonged tumor retention via the regulated release of immunotherapeutics.

The scientists imparted robust immunotherapy of large local and distant tumors with abscopal effects across a variety of tumor models. These nanovaccines hold great potential for combined immunotherapy strategies to target a range of cancer types.

More information: Furong Cheng et al, Single-dose injectable nanovaccine-in-hydrogel for robust immunotherapy of large tumors with abscopal effect, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade6257 Antoni Ribas et al, Cancer immunotherapy using checkpoint blockade, Science (2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aar4060 Journal information: Science Advances , Science

 2023 Science X Network
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Chronic pain is often accompanied by depression and anxiety. In an invited commentary published in JAMA Network Open, Kurt Kroenke, M.D., of Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine, discusses the relationship between pain, the most common symptom for which individuals visit a physician, and depression and anxiety, the two most prevalent mental health conditions worldwide. He highlights the importance of not neglecting psychological symptoms in patients experiencing pain.

"One of the reasons for the bi-directional linkage between pain and depression, as well as anxiety, is the existence of a feedback loop. Individuals with pain don't sleep well and their resulting tiredness affects their mood, making them vulnerable to depression and anxiety. Having problems with depression or anxiety can increase susceptibility to pain."

"Also, areas in the brain that affect the pain that people experience are connected with areas that regulate mood, making physical and mental symptoms closely associated," Dr. Kroenke said.

Noting that successfully addressing depression and anxiety is associated with improvement in pain, he observes that treating pain may not improve depression and anxiety to the same degree but does not negate the benefit of identifying and treating both physical and psychological symptoms.

"Symptoms of the body and the mind are frequent fellow travelers," said Dr. Kroenke. "But patients seeing their primary care physician for a headache, back or muscle or leg pain or stomachache often neglect to mention the symptoms commonly associated with depression and anxiety that they are also experiencing such as fatigue, lack of motivation, nervousness and moodiness. And physicians don't always ask about symptoms beyond the ones which brought the patient into the office."

"Un- or under-treated, these emotional symptoms can cause long-term suffering and impaired quality of life. If clinicians measure and monitor both physical and mental symptoms they will be more able and likely to treat them. But there is no blood pressure cuff, lab test or X-ray for symptoms. We don't have a way to measure symptoms other than from what the patient tells us, yet screening and diagnosis are crucial to improving patient outcomes."

Dr. Kroenke is one of the fathers and leaders of the growing field of symptomology and the developer of several validated and widely used scales which enable clinicians to use feedback from patients to measure type and severity of pain (PEG), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) and other symptoms including cancer fatigue (FSI-3) and risk of suicide (P-4). These brief measurement tools have been translated into more than 100 languages.

Symptoms account for half of all outpatient primary care visits. In a review article published in 2014, Dr. Kroenke and colleagues reported that one in three common symptoms do not have a clear-cut disease-based explanation. That percentage is now thought to be more than one in two, he says.

The need to address both physical and psychological symptoms has long been recognized, says Dr. Kroenke, whose measurement tools are helping physicians to do so. He concludes his JAMA Network Open commentary with an illustrative quote from Ovid [born 43 B.C.], "I am no better in mind than in body; both alike are sick and I suffer double hurt."

More information: Kurt Kroenke, Improvements in Pain or Physical Function and Changes in Depression and Anxiety Symptoms, JAMA Network Open (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20474 Journal information: JAMA Network Open
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The spinal cord is harder to access and study than even the brain. The challenges posed by its mobility and anatomical structure have made understanding exactly how it functions difficult.

Rice University engineers will work with collaborators to optimize an array of nanoelectronic threads, or NETsalready used successfully for gathering high-fidelity, long-term data from neurons in the brainfor use in the spine.

In addition to neuronal activity recordings, NET probes can provide tunable, localized stimulation of adjacent neurons. Rice neuroengineers also hope to maximize NETs' functional bandwith by integrating them into a larger-scale, data-processing system.

The new tool could help neuroscientists crack the secrets of spinal cord function and bring new hope to patients dealing with injuries and other associated medical conditions.

"So far, we haven't had a good understanding of how the neurons in the spinal cord actually work," said Chong Xie, the principal investigator on the grant and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and neuroengineering. "For example, if you move your arms or walk around, you have the intention in your brain and the muscles operate exactly as you want them to. This conversion of the initial intention into specific motions of each of the muscles is operated and implemented in the spinal cord, where circuits consisting of many, many neurons are responsible for carrying out this job. But we don't know exactly how this is achieved."

Using electrodes to track neuronal activity in the brain has allowed neuroscientists to learn a great deal about brain function. The flexible NET probes developed by Xie and collaborators integrate seamlessly with brain tissue and perform better than rigid probes when used to record electrical information from individual neurons in the brain.

Preliminary tests have shown that NET probes can achieve high-quality, long-duration recordings from spinal cord neurons of mice. However, the scientists intend to further adapt NETs to the specific structural and functional demands of the spinal cord.

In the brain, the distribution of neurons (gray matter) and the bundles of nerve fibers known as white matter is the exact inverse of spinal cord anatomy.

"We typically refer to this as the 'inside-out anatomy' of the spinal cord," said Lan Luan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-investigator on the grant. "The outer layer of the brainthe gray matteris where the neurons are, whereas the fibers called white matter are on the interior. In the spinal cord, the white matter or fibers are on the exterior, shielding the neurons. This makes accessing those neurons more challenging."

To ensure better access, scientists plan to develop a probe design that is small enough to be implanted at different sites on the spine, yet that has greater depth coverage and enough channels to capture data from neurons in a spinal cord cross section.

Another goal is to equip the probes with stimulation capabilities in addition to their recording function.

"The electrode can do both," Luan said. "This has a direct health relevance, because for patients with spinal cord injury or other types of injuries, stimulation could be a way to restore fine motor control. There are several very successful technologies demonstrating that stimulation in the cord can restore local motions. But to impact finer motor control, we believe we need to go inside the cord and have a greater degree of access and precision for applying this stimulation."

The spinal cord plays a significant role in pain processes, so identifying which spinal neurons are directly involved with pain-signal relay could open the door to better pain-management therapies.

"Identifying the specific type of spinal neurons that play a significant role in processing pain information could potentially enable the development of drugs that target precisely those cells," Xie said. "Or maybe we can use the electrodes to stimulate those neurons and modulate their activity so that they don't convey the pain signal to the brain."

Scientists plan to not only optimize probe design, but also to incorporate spinal NETs into an extremely miniaturized, integrated data-processing and stimulation-feedback system.

In addition to developing the technology, Xie, Luan and their team have partnered with the Pfaff lab at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Weber lab at Carnegie Mellon University and the Basbaum and Ganguly labs at University of California, San Francisco for a series of spinal cord studies that will test the devices across different spinal regions, animal models and research topics.

Luan said she hoped that developing and optimizing NET-based technology for spinal cord research would "provide a tool that can help the entire neuroscience community achieve a more fundamental understanding of spinal cord function."

"My real hope is that four years down the road, at the end of this project, neuroscientists will be able to see and do new things that are impossible with current technology," Xie said.
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CT-scan in a coronal section showing an adenoid cystic carcinoma as an inhomogeneous mass in the rightmaxillary sinus with infiltration of neighboring structures. Credit: 2023 Dudde et al.

A new paper was published in Oncoscience on June 28, 2023, entitled, "Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and necktreatment strategies of a highly malignant tumor with variable localizations."

In this editorial, researchers Florian Dudde, Kai-Olaf Henkel and Filip Barbarewicz from the Army Hospital Hamburg discuss head and neck tumors, which are among the most common malignancies.

In this anatomical region, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignant entity. However, there are also other malignant tumors that, unlike SCC, originate in the salivary glands of the head and neck region, such as mucoepidermoid carcinoma or adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC).

In general, tumors originating from the minor salivary glands often show a higher degree of malignancy than tumors of the major salivary glands (parotid gland, submandibular gland, sublingual gland). Consequently, the ACC in particular is often localized in the area of the hard palate (small salivary glands). In rare cases, ACC has also been described in other regions of the head and neck region, such as the paranasal sinuses or the tongue.

"In principle, ACC grow slowly and consequently often cause a lack of clinical symptoms."

Their perivascular and perineural growth pattern can present therapeutic challenges, particularly in the head and neck region. The treatment of ACC in the head and neck region consists of surgical tumor resection with subsequent neck dissection and one- or two-stage plastic defect reconstruction. Severe ACC often require adjuvant radiotherapy.

"Proton therapy, as a special form of radiotherapy, seems to have decisive advantages with regard to the long-term survival of this highly malignant tumor originating from the small salivary glands."

More information: Florian Dudde et al, Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and necktreatment strategies of a highly malignant tumor with variable localizations, Oncoscience (2023). DOI: 10.18632/oncoscience.581

Provided by Impact Journals LLC
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The three women sitting around a table at a busy lunch spot share a grim camaraderie. It's been more than a year since an 1849 law came back into force to criminalize abortion in Wisconsin. Now these two OB-GYNs and a certified midwife find their medical training, skill, and acumen constrained by state politics.

"We didn't even know germs caused disease back then," said Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who lives in Green Bay.

Like undertakers and garbage haulers, obstetricians see the nitty-gritty of human existence that can be ghastly and grotesque. A fetus with organs growing outside its body. A woman forced to birth a baby with no skull to push open her cervix.

OB-GYN Anna Igler regularly performed abortions for medically indicated reasons before the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion last year. She is beyond fed up.

"I'm at a different level with it now," she said. "Part of me is so upset at people for sticking their head in the sand." With her world inside a Green Bay hospital in turmoil, she said, she cannot fathom that people might be oblivious to the government's incursion into their medical care. "So many people I've talked to have no idea what our laws are in our state."

Even now, a year later, Igler said, expectant parents come into her office with the assumption that if their fetus has a lethal genetic disorder, like anencephaly or trisomy 13 or 18, they can end the pregnancy safely.

"They are shocked when I tell them they can't," Igler said, "and they are shocked when I tell them we are following the law from 1849."

She was referring to the state's original abortion law, which was passed before the Civil War, when women could not vote or own property. The law makes it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, unless it would prevent the death of the pregnant person.

It had been some time since these women were together, and they were eager to compare notes. The certified midwife spoke on the condition of anonymity because she's not authorized to talk to the media and is concerned about losing her job at a local health system. "My biggest issue right now is getting medication to end a pregnancy that has already passed," she said. "I'm finding locally that pharmacists just won't dispense the medication."

She offered a rundown: One pharmacist told her patient that misoprostol, a drug that causes cramping to expel the pregnancy tissue, had expired. Another, at a Walgreens, simply canceled the order. A third said he needed preauthorization, noting, "It's a $3 pill, and we're not going to get preauthorization on a weekend."

The midwife said she and physician colleagues in her practice have half-joked that they'd send a gift basket to one pharmacist in town she'd found who will fill their prescriptions for abortion pills.

Now, when a patient miscarries, the midwife said, "we warn patients that this might happen, and they are like, 'But my baby is dead,' and I tell them, 'I'm sorry. I don't know why, but a lot of pharmacists in Green Bay think it's their job to police this.'"

A year into this new era of compulsory birth for most women with pregnancies, the dismay and disorientation of those first few months have settled into, if not acceptance or resignation, a kind of chronic fear. Obstetricians and gynecologists are fearful of practicing medicine as they were trained.

A recent survey by KFF pollsters of OB-GYNS in states with abortion bans found 40% felt constrained in treating patients for miscarriages or other pregnancy-related medical emergencies since the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last summer. Nearly half of them said their ability to practice standard medical care has become worse.

The specter of felony charges and losing a medical license has led to futile exercises.

Under the Wisconsin abortion banand bans in at least 13 other statesphysicians who cannot detect fetal cardiac activity should, in theory, not face criminal charges for prescribing pills for a medication abortion or performing abortions. But physicians here in Green Bay, and others interviewed in Madison, said theyand the litigation-averse hospitals they work forare requiring patients whose pregnancies are no longer viable, or who have gestational sacs that do not contain an embryo, to return for multiple ultrasounds, forcing them to carry nonviable pregnancies for weeks.

Before Wisconsin's abortion ban, Igler would typically use the ultrasound machine in her office to detect when a patient's pregnancy had ceased. She would break the news to expectant parents there. In some cases, a patient wanted further ultrasounds and she would refer them to the fetal-imaging department. It might help with their grieving, and "I was happy to do that for them," Igler said.

But her bedside ultrasound can't record and save the images that Igler would now need to prove that her medical judgment was reasonable during a criminal prosecution, so she is compelled to send all her patients for additional imaging.

"It seems cruel to show a woman her nonviable, dead baby and then say, 'Well, now I have to bring you over to fetal imaging so we can record a picture and you have to see it again,'" she said.

In March, Rep. Ron Tusler, a Republican who represents a rural swath of Wisconsin south of Green Bay, posted on Facebook, "Thank God for the Dobbs decision!" In response, a local resident asked, "If my non-verbal, non-ambulatory 14-year-old daughter is assaulted, should she be forced to carry?"

The exchange escalated into a confrontation. "Is her health jeopardized?" Tusler asked. "Is she unable to leave the state? Can she provide consent?"

In the torrent of vitriol, certain moments stand out. Igler was incensed at the callous response and jumped in, writing: "Are you a monster, Ron Tusler? Do you know what compassion is? Come the next election, you will feel the backlash of your inhumane and outdated views. Get your hands off women's bodies and out of the exam room. I'm an obstetrician. I'm the expert, not you."

Tusler shot back that Igler was "angry she can't kill babies until and occasionally after birth" and asked whether "I'm a monster for stopping her." He wrote, "Honestly, how many babies have you aborted? How much money have you made from it? Did your hospital harvest the bodies for stem cells?"

The lunchtime rush at the restaurant in Green Bay had eased, and the women stared at the Facebook post on Igler's phone.

She shook her head in baffled amusement. "This doesn't even make sense," she said. "It's a conspiracy theory. I make so much more money if people actually have their babies. And if I don't give out birth control, I would make a lot more money."

Those sitting at the table laughed at the absurdity.

The salad bowls were empty. Everyone had told their own abortion stories. Igler was forced to travel to Colorado after her baby, at 25 weeks, was ravaged by a viral infection; Lyerly had lost a pregnancy at 17 weeks and did not want to endure the trauma of a vaginal birth.

Some 22 million women living today have had an abortion. It doesn't take much effort to find a few of them.

Igler has found a community of women to grieve with, in a Facebook group called "Ending a Wanted Pregnancy." There are an untold number of other online groups.

"Politicians would like to believe we live in a perfect world where these things don't happen," she said.

The Wisconsin Legislature is one of the most gerrymandered in the country, according to Princeton University's Gerrymandering Project. Republicans hold a majority in the state Senate and Assembly, and last month Senate Republicans voted unanimously to keep the 1849 abortion ban.

But a judicial alternative to restoring abortion rights has begun to unfold. In April, Janet Protasiewicz, an abortion rights supporter promoted by Democrats, won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving liberal justices a narrow majority and opening a path for a ruling on the legitimacy of the 1849 law. On July 7, a Circuit Court judge in Dane County, Diane Schlipper, appeared to doubt the validity of the pre-Civil War-era ban, allowing a lawsuit by Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, to proceed.

For now, Lyerly is driving across the border to work in rural Minnesota. "I want to practice medicine here," she said, "but first we have to get rid of this law."

2023 KFF Health News.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Weekend rain and cool temperatures delivered mixed fortunes to western Montana and central Idaho wildfires: The rain dampened some blazes, failed to wet others, and in Idaho created landslides in a burn scar that stranded rafters on the Salmon River.

The Niarada fire sparked by lightning July 30 was 18,366 acres and 7% contained on Monday morning. Some weekend precipitation tempered fire activity over the weekend as the fires southeast front burns toward Marion Lane and Loon Lake south of Elmo. Northern Rockies Team 3, a national-level complex incident management team, took command of the fire Wednesday. The team is also overseeing the 2,135-acre lightning-caused Mill Pocket fire immediately west of the Niarada fire. Light precipitation and cool temperatures through the middle of the week were expected to reduce fire spread, according to an update Monday, but drier, warmer conditions toward the weekend could foment an increase in fire activity.

Gravel Pit fire

Meanwhile, 25 miles southeast of Libby along Highway 2 just west of Loon Lake, the Gravel Pit fire had scorched 304 acres by Sunday near where Silver Butte Road meets the highway. An evacuation order was issued for areas along Highway 2 near the fire, according to the Lincoln County Sheriffs Office, and residents in that area were notified. The human-caused fire was 0% contained Sunday, as rain led to moderate fire activity but minimal overall growth.

East Fork fire

Farther north, about 12 miles south of Trego, the East Fork fire grew to 1,247 acres by Sunday evening. The fire, started by lightning July 30, didnt get the rains that wetted the rest of western Montana and burned actively over the weekend with growth in all directions, but primarily to the east. The fire exhibited aggressive runs Saturday driven by wind and dense fuels, but it was not threatening any structures as of Sunday evening. The fire is burning mostly in the Kootenai National Forest, with a small portion in the Flathead National Forest.

Ridge fire

The Ridge fire just southeast of Hungry Horse and Martin City had burned 2,773 acres just north of the South Fork of the Flathead River by Monday morning, up from 50 acres less than a week ago. The fire, yet another sparked by lightning July 30, burned actively over the weekend with the most intense burning on the south and east sides. It is primarily spreading north toward Hungry Horse Mountain in steep terrain littered with dead and downed timber. According to an update Monday, fire managers primary goal is to keep the blaze east of private property around Hungry Horse, Martin City and Coram. The blaze was 0% contained Monday.

As of Monday, East Side Road (No. 38) was closed to Desert Mountain Road (Forest Road 497). West Side South Fork Road (No. 895) was closed to public travel past the Lid Creek Campground. Officials planned to close the West Side South Fork Road starting at Hungry Horse Dam on Tuesday.

Big Knife fire

The Big Knife fire just southeast of Arlee, about 22 miles north of Missoula, saw only moderate burning and growth over the weekend, according to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Division of Fire. The fire was 4,864 acres and 5% contained Monday morning. A pre-evacuation warning remained in place Monday morning for the areas at the base of the mountain on the fires west side, including the areas accessed by Francis, Jocko Canyon Canal and Jocko Canyon roads. More active fire behavior was expected later this week as dry, warm conditions return to the area. The fire was sparked by lightning July 24.

Colt fire

Containment on the Colt fire 15 miles northwest of Seeley Lake increased to 25% by Monday morning, with containment lines bounding the blazes east side, keeping it from Rainy Lake and Lake Alva. At the south end of that line, crews were extending line westward along the fires south end, up the West Fork Clearwater River. To the north, crews were extending containment line westward toward Colt Lake. The fire has burned 7,179 acres since it was caused by lightning July 17. About 0.8 inches of rain dampened fire activity Sunday, and crews worked over the weekend to address hot spots on the fires eastern side  although rainfall did hinder access to some locations, officials stated in an update Monday. Drier conditions later this week were expected to increase fire activity.

An evacuation order for areas along Highway 83 immediately east of the fire was lifted.

Landslides

Significant rainfall Saturday caused multiple rock- and landslides along the main Salmon River and other nearby areas in the burn scar of last years Moose fire northwest of Salmon, Idaho. According to the Salmon-Challis National Forest, a landslide impacted the Salmon River Road between Pine Creek and Panther Creek. The road was also impacted by large boulders that tumbled into the travel lane between Indianola Guard Station and the Spring Creek Campground near Shoup. Also, Panther Creek was blocked by a landslide near Beaver Creek.

Salmon River Road runs from Highway 93 at North Fork, Idaho, on the east to Corn Creek on the west, just downstream of where the Middle Fork Salmon River meets the main Salmon River. It is the primary egress route for rafters coming off the Middle Fork. Its also the main route down the main Salmon for rafters launching into the wilderness at Corn Creek. Panther Creek Road, which intersects Salmon River Road from the south roughly halfway between North Fork and Corn Creek, is the primary alternate route when the Salmon River Road is closed.

The landslides left rafters coming off the Middle Fork stranded until both roads were reopened Sunday evening. But the Forest Service still cautioned travelers on Salmon River Road not to stop between Spring Creek and Panther Creek because of an ongoing risk of landslides.
When Autumn Nelson decided she was ready to seek treatment for her alcoholism, she knew she had to act fast.

When someone with an addiction says, I need help, were begging, she said. We want it.

Nelson, who lives on the Blackfeet Reservation, knew she might have to leave home to get the help she needed. Crystal Creek Lodge provides inpatient and outpatient treatment on the reservation, but community members say the place is almost always at capacity. Journey to Recovery, another facility on the reservation, provides outpatient services primarily focused on supporting individuals after they return from inpatient treatment. And sometimes, it can be helpful for people struggling with addiction to leave their environment and disconnect from people in their circles who may be using.

So when Journey to Recovery gave Nelson the contact information for a treatment center in Arizona, Nelson was hopeful. She was ready to get clean. Little did she know shed soon be caught up in a national scandal.

Phoenix House Recovery, a treatment center in Arizona, paid for Nelsons plane ticket to Arizona, and Nelson was eager for a fresh start. Her father died of cancer three years ago, and just before his death, her younger brother died in a car accident.

That really set my alcoholism off, she said. I kind of just stepped out of reality for a while.

But Phoenix House Recovery wasnt what Nelson had imagined. She has a background in health care and had been to other treatment centers in the past, and as time went on, she grew suspicious about how the facility was run.

I started asking questions, Nelson said. Like, Wheres the 12-step plan? Why isnt that in our daily agenda? Why arent we learning about triggers, external and internal? Where is our life skills training? Why arent we building resumes? Why is there one therapist for 30 patients? I asked the clients and staff, and they kicked me out the next day.

Out on the streets in 100-plus degree weather, Nelson had to find somewhere to go. She looked into other sober living homes but grew concerned when she was offered alcohol and drugs at one of them. She didnt know who she could trust.

I was scared, she said. Im thousands of miles away from my family and my home. I was freaking out. I was hysterical.

While Nelson ultimately made it home to the Blackfeet Reservation, her experience in Arizona is not uncommon.

What happened to her has happened to thousands of other Native Americans in Arizona amid a widespread Medicaid fraud scheme, where treatment centers billed the state thousands of dollars per patient for services that were not actually provided. Indigenous people from Montana, Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota were recruited to get treatment at these fraudulent facilities, and experts estimate that at least 100 Native Americans from Montana are tangled in the scam.

The scheme defrauded Arizona taxpayers, and at these fraudulent sober living homes, some clients were given drugs and alcohol. Others were told to get on food stamps. And some people seeking treatment were paid to recruit more Native Americans to these facilities. As the fraudulent treatment centers have shuttered amid a government crackdown, Montana tribes and grassroots advocates are scrambling to get their relatives home. But because these facilities changed clients state of residency to Arizona for billing purposes, its even harder for tribes and families in Montana to locate their loved ones.

What exactly is happening in Arizona?

Arizona officials have called it a stunning failure of government.

In a widespread scam, treatment facilities in Arizona billed for nonexistent services, and the money was paid through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), Arizonas Medicaid program. The scam targeted Native Americans because a loophole in AHCCCSs American Indian Health Program allowed individuals to pose as a treatment facility.

Reva Stewart, who launched the campaign #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits to raise awareness of the fraud, said experts have traced the origins of the scam to the pandemic.

They targeted Native Americans because the American Indian Health Plan would pay for everything they documented, she explained. Once these places found out they could get something like $1,700 per day per person, you saw them popping up everywhere. With that money, one home can make $2 million in two weeks. I even saw a YouTube video on how to open a sober living home in 15 minutes.

The Arizona Mirror reported that AHCCCS was billed $53.5 million under the outpatient behavioral health clinic code in 2019. In 2020, it more than doubled to $132.6 million, and by 2022 it exploded to $668 million.

The FBI, which is investigating the fraud, is seeking to contact victims of the scam. The agency said in some cases, organizers pick up addicts at popular gathering places; sometimes individuals are given alcohol during transport; and clients are told to obtain food stamps during their time in treatment even though their enrollment brings funding to the home. The FBI investigation has resulted in at least 45 indictments by the office of the Arizona Attorney General, and at least $75 million has been seized.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs in May announced, according to The Associated Press, that the homes defrauded the state of hundreds of millions of dollars. AHCCCS has since suspended payments to hundreds of providers in the state.

As these homes have closed, Native American residents are left on the streets of Arizona in temperatures nearing 115 degrees. Some people have been reported missing, and others have turned up dead.

I blame them

Mona Bear Medicine, Blackfeet, said when her 25-year-old son RayDel Calf Looking went to Phoenix for treatment, she had high hopes for him.

Calf Looking completed a longer treatment program, lasting 60 or 90 days, and Bear Medicine said he was doing well. There are many highly regarded treatment facilities in Arizona that have effective programs and competent staff, and plenty of Montana tribal members speak highly of them.

He sent a selfie over Christmas, and he looked really healthy, Bear Medicine said of her son. He looked good. And I could tell he was doing good for himself.

Bear Medicine said her son started drinking in high school, but she didnt realize he was doing drugs until about five years ago. Calf Looking was gay, and Bear Medicine said he struggled to come out and faced adversity when people he loved didnt accept him.

I think that was the reason he got into drugs, she said. He didnt know how to come out. He was teased for it, and it hurt him. He started doing different drugs, and it got worse and worse, and he got into meth. It was hard for me to realize the extent of it, and I didnt realize how hard it was going to be on my family.

Calf Looking completed the long-term program, and then went to a sober-living home in Arizona, called Calm Integrated Healthcare. Bear Medicine said, Thats when the problems started.

In February, Bear Medicine hadnt heard from her son in a while, and she was worried. She and her sister flew down to Arizona and found Calf Looking, who had walked out of the home and appeared to be intoxicated.

He was disappointed in himself for relapsing, Bear Medicine recalled.

Bear Medicine took her son back to Calm Integrated Healthcare and almost immediately got a bad feeling about the place. She said her son was clearly intoxicated, and the staff at Calm Integrated said it was fine for him to stay with Bear Medicine at her motel for a few days.

It was so shady, Bear Medicine said. When she said RayDel could stay with us, I asked, What does he need to do? Does he need to go to class? And she just said, No, he doesnt need to do anything. When I drove away, I said to RayDel, Im so confused. I thought sober living was sober. And he said, They dont care as long as they get your money.

When Calf Looking stayed with Bear Medicine at the motel, he kept drinking, and after Bear Medicine left, she knew he was still drinking, even though hed returned to the sober-living home.

In late March, Calf Lookings cousin, Vandree Old Person, was found dead on the Blackfeet Reservation, and Calf Looking, who was supposed to fly home to be a pallbearer, was taking the death hard. Again, Bear Medicine didnt hear from him, and again, she was worried.

One day in April, Bear Medicine got a call from a detective.

When she called, I thought, What did he do now? Bear Medicine recalled. I said, Is he in jail? Is he hurt? And she said, No. Then she asked me, Is anyone with you? and thats when it started clicking. I said, Oh my God. Is he dead? And she said, Yes.

The detective told Bear Medicine that her son broke into a house while intoxicated and the homeowner, fearing for his life, shot Calf Looking as he walked up the stairs of his home. Bear Medicine said her son was shot in the back, which she finds incongruous with the detectives recounting. And she still hasnt received an autopsy. She was told the FBI is investigating her sons case, but months later, she still hasnt heard from the federal agency.

Calm Integrated Healthcare has told Bear Medicine that her son walked out of their facility and was not under their care at the time he was killed, but Bear Medicine maintains that the sober-living home had a part in his death.

I do think the center was responsible for his death, she said. They took the money but still let him drink. He was really trying. He really did try, but it was so easy for him to have a free place to stay that allowed him to drink. I blame them. I really blame them.

AHCCCS payments to Calm Integrated Healthcare were suspended on May 15  about a month after Calf Looking was killed.

Its systemic

Just as with Autumn Nelson, Journey to Recovery in Browning connected Josh Racine to a treatment center in Arizona. A spokesperson for Journey to Recovery was not available for comment.

Racine, Blackfeet, flew out to Sunrise Native Recovery, an alcohol and drug treatment center in Scottsdale, in March. About a month later, he was on the streets.

Laura McGee, Racines sister, didnt know where he was or what happened, but she was determined to find him. She called Sunrise Native Recovery, but they were no help. She called the hospitals in the area, but no luck there, either. Racine would occasionally ask her to send him food at the treatment center  something McGee thought was odd  so she scoured previous food orders to try and nail down a timeline of his disappearance. She scrutinized past texts with her brother to pinpoint a location, but her efforts felt futile.

I was panicking because I knew what had happened to RayDel, she said. It was a feeling I cant even describe. We lost our mother suddenly, and seven months later, our stepdad, who primarily raised Josh, died. And then our grandmother died, and our first cousin died of an overdose. So Josh is already an addict and now hes out on the streets dealing with sudden death.

As McGee did more research, she learned about the hundreds of other sober-living homes in Arizona that had been shut down. It became clear that the problem was bigger than just her and her brother, so she approached the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council.

I told council, I need help, she recalled. You sent him there through a program on this reservation. I need help getting him back.

The council ultimately paid for a few of McGees family members to fly to Arizona, and they successfully brought Racine home, but McGees work was not done. Upon her brothers return, she began to piece together the broken system.

Through conversations with her brother, McGee said she learned that Sunrise charged AHCCCS at least $117,000 in one month for services related to Racine  services that Racine himself said he did not receive.

That was for one month for one person, McGee said. So imagine doing that for 20 or 80 people in a facility. It adds up.

Racine told McGee that the centers would give clients $50 a week to live on, and he was reportedly told by Sunrise that if he recruited other Native Americans, they would reward him with $100.

Its systemic, McGee said. There werent protocols, and people were being taken advantage of.

McGee said people struggling with addiction are a particularly vulnerable population, which worked to the schemes advantage.

These are addicts who have lost the trust of their families, she said. So when they say, This treatment center isnt good. Theyre putting me out on the street, families werent believing them. These people knew that and used it against them.

Thats exactly what happened to Wendy Bremner. Her daughter Brooke Running Crane, Blackfeet, also went to Sunrise, and Running Crane was also suspicious of the facility. She told her mother she wasnt comfortable at Sunrise and was scared to be there. But Bremner didnt know what to do.

I didnt want to be an enabler, she said. I dont know if what shes telling me is true. I dont want to interfere with treatment.

Later, Running Cranes anxiety about Sunrise rose to a breaking point, and she was hospitalized for a panic attack. Sunrise told Bremner that her daughter could not return to the facility, and as far as Bremner could tell, her daughter was going to be discharged from the hospital on to the streets.

Bremner called Sunrise over and over again until they finally agreed to help transfer Running Crane to another facility. Running Cranes new facility is a good one, but Bremner said she doesnt know what wouldve happened to her daughter if she hadnt intervened.

It was really scary, she said. She didnt have anywhere to go, and I was just calling people saying, You cant just throw my daughter out.

Bremner said her daughter ended up at Sunrise because shed heard of several people in Browning whod gone there. And when Running Crane expressed that she wanted to receive treatment, Bremner said the treatment facilities in Arizona felt like a miracle.

Families are desperate to get their people help when they say, I want to go to treatment, she said. Its very rare, so at that moment, you really want to get them in somewhere while theyre ready to go. Its so hard to get treatment here, and sending her far away is scary, but we wanted her to get help.

AHCCCS payments to Sunrise Native Recovery were suspended on July 21  almost two months after Racine went missing and five months after Running Cranes panic attack.

Tribes take action

After the Blackfeet Council helped get Racine home, it quickly became clear that its work wasnt done.

As McGee became more vocal on Facebook, more and more families reached out saying their loved ones were missing or stuck at treatment centers in Arizona. McGee continued to present her findings to the tribal government, and eventually, the council came out with a formalized plan of action.

Councilman Lyle Rutherford directed facilities on the reservation, including Journey to Recovery, not to send clients to treatment centers in Arizona. The tribe has worked with McGee and other advocates to bring at least 10 members home. And on Tuesday, the council issued a public health state of emergency for Blackfeet tribal members affected by the humanitarian crisis arising from shuttered fraudulent behavioral health treatment facilities in Arizona.

The council on Thursday instituted a ban prohibiting the solicitation of individuals on the reservation to attend fraudulent treatment facilities in Arizona and established civil penalties for individuals or entities that violate the ban at $5,000 for the first offense, $10,000 for the second offense and permanent expulsion from the reservation on the third offense.

The council also pledged to continue to help members who were displaced and said it created a task force to identify displaced individuals.

Councilwoman Shelly Hall said the emergency declaration helps bring awareness to the crisis and could allow the tribe to allocate more money toward its resolution.

I believe there are about eight or 10 more Blackfeet down there, Hall said. This is important because these are our members. If theyre in any kind of trouble, we want to help them. Weve heard horror stories of people who are on the streets in this heat.

McGee said she also urged Gov. Greg Gianfortes office to issue a public service announcement on the matter but was told that his office needed more information on the subject. She also reached out to members of Montanas congressional delegation, and Sen. Jon Tester sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urging the group to immediately investigate this matter further and provide a detailed report of their findings.

The Billings Area Indian Health Service has asked Montana tribes to let the agency know how many members have been impacted, and other tribes in Montana have also taken action.

Josie Fisher, Northern Cheyenne, was at a different treatment facility in Arizona and didnt feel safe. She said a staff member made inappropriate sexual comments to her, and she wrote on Facebook that she wanted to leave.

Fisher got connected with advocates through Facebook, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe paid for her plane ticket home.

Im so thankful to be home, she said. Im at peace now. When I was there, I was just in survival mode.

Northern Cheyenne Councilwoman Melissa Lonebear said as of Aug. 1, the tribe had helped three members get home from Arizona and added that the council is working with the tribal health department to develop a plan to get more people home.

She said part of the issue is that there is no treatment center on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

The way the system is set up is if someone hits rock bottom and they want treatment, they will do an assessment at the Northern Cheyenne Recovery Center and then get referred to an outpatient 10-day program, she said. After 10 days, theres a chance a bed will open in Billings or Butte, but that person may have to just return home. And because we dont have sober living homes here, people come back and return to the same environment.

Lonebear is hopeful that the tribe will be able to help people return home from Arizona, but acknowledged the council will have to overcome significant barriers in doing so. To be eligible for AHCCCS, treatment centers had clients change their residency address to Arizona, so its hard for tribal councils in Montana to know how many of their members are there. And tribes have noted that even when someone returns home, it can take time to change their residency back to Montana and re-enroll them in Medicaid.

I just posted on Facebook asking, How many Cheyenne members do we have in Arizona? Lonebear said. Im getting names from families, and its hard. Its hard to reach people because theres no way to communicate if that person doesnt have a phone. This is a lot bigger than we know.

Fishers boyfriend was at the same facility in Arizona, but it wasnt as easy for him to get home. Jacinto Brien is Crow, and he tried reaching out to his tribe, just as Fisher had. But he had no luck.

I tried reaching my tribe on the phone, but I couldnt get ahold of anyone, he said. And because Im Crow, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe couldnt help.

Reva Stewart, of the #StolenPeopleStolenBenefits campaign, ultimately fundraised to help get Brien home. Her GoFundMe has raised more than $8,000 to help Native Americans caught in the scam.

Im really grateful, Brien said of Stewarts efforts. Id just say, for any tribe thats willing to help, please answer your phones. People need your help. This is important.
Caleb Decker, a Mooresville resident, is headed to Bucharest, Romania to begin a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elder Decker, as male missionaries are called, will be one of 68,000 missionaries who serve around the world. While in Romania, he will be teaching others about the gospel of Jesus Christ, volunteering to help others in the community, and studying scripture.

There are currently 416 missions worldwide, each organized geographically. Missionaries do not choose which mission they are assigned to; these assignments are made prayerfully by leaders in the Churchs mission department. Decker was excited by the news that he would be going to Bucharest, Romania and learning Romanian as part of his missionary training.

In explaining his decision to serve a mission, Decker describes that his faith in Jesus Christ and his belief in the teachings of the Church have been his main motivators. He says, I am excited to see how others lives can be changed through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Deckers parents, Matt and Jen Decker, are confident that he will be a terrific missionary. They describe him as being patient, kind, hard-working and open to new people and experiences.

Jen says, He has a strong desire to do what is right and to help others. He has much to offer the people of Romania and the other missionaries with whom he will serve.

Matt agrees and adds, This mission fits nicely with Calebs testimony of Jesus Christ and of his desire to share that with others. He will love this new experience and it will help to define his future.

Since graduating from Mooresville High School, Decker has had a busy summer preparing to serve a mission and working at his grandparents home in Mississippi while doing an internship with the US Department of Agriculture. After returning home from his mission, he plans to go to college and eventually pursue a career in a STEM field of study.

The Decker family attends the Mooresville congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Visitors are welcome to join worship services on Sundays at 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1:30 p.m., at the church building located at 148 Lazy Lane in Mooresville.
Assault arrest

Michael M. ODell, 19, of Butte was arrested early Monday morning near the intersection of Montana and Galena streets in connection with partner or family member assault.

Sunday DUI

Jarrud R. Nadeau, 47, of Butte was arrested Sunday and charged with driving under the influence.

Arrested on warrants

At around 3 a.m. Saturday, two people were stopped near the intersection of Iron and Wyoming streets. One of the persons questioned was Cody J. Dodd, 30, of Butte.

Turns out Dodd had four warrants out for his arrest for alleged violation of release conditions and was taken into custody without incident.

Disturbance leads to arrest At 3:30 p.m. Friday, officers responded to a disturbance near the intersection of Placer and Second streets and questioned Kayla C. Hoffman, 31, of Butte.

Hoffman had several warrants out for her arrest and was taken to jail.

Out of gas

A call came in about 5:30 a.m. Friday regarding a man asleep in his car near the intersection of Broadway and Crystal streets.

Frank J. Pongratz III, 34, of Lolo told officers he had run out of gas. During the investigation, officers learned Pongratz had active warrants out for his arrest for theft, criminal contempt, driving a vehicle while privilege to do so is suspended or revoked, expired registration, and no vehicle insurance.

Asked to leave

Starlin R. Raasakka, 21, of Butte. was at a place of residence in the 200 block of South Washington Street and was asked by the residents to leave, which she allegedly refused.

When police arrived, they learned she had a $10,000 warrant out for her arrest and took her to jail.

Assaulting officer

Skyler J. Reinke, 27, of Billings was taken into custody Thursday on a warrant alleging assaulting a peace officer, causing bodily injury.

Other reports

Someone spray-painted the east wall of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church.

An apartment in the 100 block of North Idaho Street was broken into. Nothing was taken but alcohol containers were found.

A woman was allegedly kicking a door at the Lincoln Apartments, 207 W. Park St., but when officers arrived, she had left the scene.

A car parked in the 2100 block of Gaylord Street was broken into. Nothing was missing but the dashboard was damaged.
The West End of Butte in 1888 was the 400 block of West Quartz Street. The house on the southeast corner of Quartz and Grizzly Street (todays Jackson) wasnt quite the last house going west, but it was pretty close.

Buttes First Baptist Church had been without a pastor since September 1886 when the Rev. George R. Darrow arrived from Massachusetts in January 1887 to serve the congregation. He was a widower, and his 32-year-old daughter, Julia, came with him.

Julia quickly organized a private school in the Darrow home on Quartz Street, which proved popular enough that within a year it expanded into a second house to the south on Jackson Street. The West End Academy averaged 40 students in the spring of 1888, and even offered boarding for a limited number of pupils.

The home school for both sexes included kindergarten, preparatory and academical departments. Julia Darrow used her education from Mount Holyoke College and degree from Wesleyan Seminary in Cincinnati, plus a newly earned Montana teaching accreditation, to establish herself as principal. She had an initial staff of two: Mary Denton taught kindergarten while Mary von Gottschalck was the German teacher. Although they advertised that they had terms reasonable, German, French, music and art were offered only at extra costs. Evening classes in bookkeeping and business arithmetic were also offered.

For the fall term of 1888, Miss Addie Jenkins of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, arrived in Butte, fresh from her education at Wellesley College. She was hired as the assistant in the Academical Department, where she taught Greek and mathematics.

The private school continued until about 1890 or 1891. Julia Darrow took a job with the Butte Public Schools about 1892. She was also active in the Butte Library Association, which she served as vice president while the groups president was John E. Rickards (Montanas second state governor starting in 1893) and W.A. Clark was treasurer.

The Darrow home at Quartz and Jackson hosted meetings of Buttes Shakespearean Club when it was first organized in 1887. Although much modified, the house there today is probably the original Darrow home.

Julia was also an active member of the Homer Club. She married Jacob Jackson in January 1893, but in November, she died after a brief illness at age 38.

George Darrow had served as chaplain of the 3rd New Jersey Volunteers during the Civil War. He retired as the primary Baptist pastor in Butte after a year of service when he was 68 years old, but he remained active in Baptist organizations and occasionally served as a temporary pastor. He lived in the old annex to the West End Academy, 214 N. Jackson St., until he died in October 1906 at age 86.
Living in southwest Montana, residents learn quickly that Mother Nature can be fickle. Proof positive was this past weekends cooler-than-usual August temperatures. Saturdays high was 62, and Sundays, a deceiving 70 degrees.

Rain and more rain were also on the menu.

If you had scheduled activities for the great outdoors, the thunder, lightning and accompanying downpour Saturday and Sunday may have put more than a damper on those plans.

By Sunday afternoon, the clouds had lifted and the sun appeared, but lo and behold, there was more than a dusting of snow, or perhaps hail, decorating the Highlands. By 6:45 p.m. Sunday, dark clouds had rolled back into Butte and rain returned with a vengeance. An additional dusting would be found by Monday morning.

Brian Conlon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, was not too surprised at the news. He and his colleagues estimated that freezing levels in the Butte area would go down about 9,000 feet this past weekend and that lightning would be prolific.

Montana has 240 peaks with elevations exceeding 10,000 feet. Two such peaks are the Highlands Red Mountain and Table Mountain.

The meteorologists predictions were spot on, but with a silver lining.

No one area really got pummeled, said Conlon.

According to Conlon, the weekend weather was caused by a closed low over the area, which meant it separated itself from the normal west-to-east flow and sat over southwest Montana for a period of time. Low pressure condensed the atmosphere, which lead to precipitation.

This past weekend, 1.2 inches of rain fell between Yankee Flats and Georgetown Lake, while Anaconda got 0.7 inches.

Butte, however, seemed to be the bigger target. Weather data collected at Montana Tech shows Butte received 1.6 inches of rain, while the Bert Mooney Airport measured 0.8 inches.

Rain has made a Butte appearance more than a few times since May 1, with a total accumulation of 9 inches of precipitation.

Butte has been its own little island, said Conlon. It stayed cooler with more moisture.

Unfortunately, the one place that really needed the moisture, Northwest Montana, didnt get any relief this past weekend.

For the last several weeks, the region, particularly in the Flathead Lake area, has not accumulated much in precipitation and is currently under extreme fire danger. In the Flathead National Forest alone, there have reportedly been nearly 20 wildfires.

Currently, major fires in that area include the Ridge Fire, Tin Soldier Complex Fire, Niarada Fire and the Colt Fire. (See fire update, Page A11)

Here in southwest Montana, firefighters are still trying to douse the Bowles Creek Fire, which is located near Skalkaho Pass and is only 3 percent contained.

As for Butte residents returning to some summer outdoor fun, Conlon predicted that the current weather pattern will meander around the Northern Rockies and soon move off to the east.

Butte will be back to normal for this time of year by Saturday, said Conlon.

Lets hope hes right. Currently, the National Weather Service is predicting warmer weather is, indeed, on the way and by Friday, Butte will have clear and sunny skies, with temperatures in the upper 70s.
On Saturday, about 10 people gathered at Muscatine High School to commemorate 78 years of peace with Japan and to promise 'never again' regarding the use of nuclear weapons. Muscatine Sister Cities annual Muscatine-Ichikawamisato Bell Ringing event used video to bring together people from seven countries to observe the anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and to discuss peace in the world.
JERUSALEM  Israel is being rocked by a wave of mass protests calling for the countrys democracy to be upheld. But the pro-democracy movement lacks any clear message of opposition to Israels open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians.

This contradiction reflects a widely held belief among Jewish Israelis that the conflict with the Palestinians is both intractable and somehow separate from Israels internal strife.

Critics of the protest movement, including Palestinians, say this is a significant blind spot and that such selective advocacy of democratic ideals shows how disconnected Israelis are from the harsh reality of those living under Israels occupation.

Its so ironic that theyre talking and protesting for democracy while at the same time its been a dictatorship for Palestinians for 75 years, said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian commentator. Theyre afraid that their own privileges and rights are going to somehow be affected, but they wont make the connection with the occupation.

The protesters are demonstrating against the drive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to weaken the judiciary by limiting judicial oversight on official decision-making and legislation.

The protest movement says its limited message against the judicial overhaul is holding together one of the largest and most sustained protest movements Israel has ever seen, bringing tens of thousands of people to the streets for the past 30 weeks.

Netanyahu's government, made up of ultranationalist and ultra-religious parties with close ties to the West Bank settler movement, says the overhaul will restore power to elected lawmakers and rein in what it says is an overly interventionist judicial system.

Critics see the legislative push, especially because it's driven by far-right and conservative religious parties, as an assault on Israel's democratic fundamentals and its weak system of checks and balances. They say it will open the door to serious infringements on personal liberties and the rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community and minorities that will set Israel on a path toward autocracy.

The protesters come from a wide swath of Israeli society. They chant democracy or rebellion! carry signs reading Israel will remain a democracy, and have unfurled a giant copy of the country's declaration of independence, which serves as an unofficial bill of rights, at various events.

But largely missing from the raucous protests is any meaningful reference to Israel's 56-year occupation of lands the Palestinians seek for their future state. A small contingent of activists waving Palestinian flags have taken part, but remain mostly on the fringe.

In some cases, they have even been ostracized by organizers who feared that mentioning the occupation would somehow undercut the protest movement. Israels Palestinian citizens, who make up a fifth of the population, have sat out the protests in part because the demonstrations are ignoring the occupation.

The protest is against the reduction of the democratic space for Jews. Most Jews in Israel dont have a problem with Israel enforcing an apartheid regime in the West Bank, said Dror Etkes, a veteran anti-occupation activist.

Despite his concerns, Etkes has made a point of participating in the protests. He sees the absence of occupation-related themes as a strategy meant to unite disparate groups against a more imminent threat. He said that if the government has its way, people like me won't be able to protest against the occupation.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories the Palestinians seek for their hoped-for independent state, in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and, along with Egypt, enforces a blockade on the territory. More than 700,000 settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Palestinians in the West Bank live under limited autonomous self-rule, but Israel controls major parts of their lives, including movement and travel, construction permits in certain areas and significant parts of the economy. Israel's military also frequently targets Palestinian areas in what it says is a bid to thwart militancy.

A two-tier legal system is also in place in the West Bank, where large parts of Israeli law apply to Jewish settlers and Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law. Palestinians cannot vote in Israeli elections. Their own leadership, established as part of interim peace agreements in the 1990s, has repeatedly delayed Palestinian elections.

While Palestinians in east Jerusalem hold Israeli residency and have access to certain social benefits, they face widespread discrimination. They can apply for citizenship but many choose not to, either on ideological grounds or because the process is too bureaucratic.

Those contrasting realities have prompted rights groups to say an apartheid system has taken root. Israel vehemently denies such claims.

Shawan Jabarin, head of the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said he considers the protests an internal Israeli struggle to maintain a status quo that has only cemented the occupation.

What democracy are you speaking about? he said. Democracy doesnt go in the same time with occupation.

Photos: Scenes of protest in Israel over Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Susan Nakhumicha, has announced a reduction of Sh.200 in contributions to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) starting September.

The CS, while in Bungoma County, highlighted that the current financial years budget allocation to the sector will empower her Ministry to implement essential reforms. These reforms encompass revitalizing maternal services and improving medical logistics nationwide.

President William Rutos government is doing a lot in the area of health. Two months from now, NHIF rates will be revised from Ksh. 500 to Ksh. 300. This financial year Ksh 4.1 billion has also been allocated to support the Linda Mama program, said Nakhumicha.

CS Nakhumicha emphasized that the Kenya Kwanza government is proactively engaged in overhauling the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) and NHIF, while simultaneously providing training and resources for community health promoters.

These initiatives, she stated, are geared towards enhancing healthcare services and making them more accessible throughout the nation.

The Health minister noted that significant challenges had afflicted the Ministry of Health prior to her appointment, including issues of corruption and mismanagement. She affirmed that active efforts are underway to restore order to the sector, assuring Kenyans that positive transformations will become evident in the near future.

When I joined the Ministry of Health, I found a huge mess. I immediately moved in to clean the rot at KEMSA and things are back in good order there. I am also streamlining NHIF and soon the Fund will have a new CEO, she said.
After losing his parents at a young age, Fredrick Otieno relied on the kindness of strangers to endure. He shares his personal challenges and the reasons behind his decision to establish a foundation aimed at assisting orphans.

Briefly introduce yourself.

I am Fredrick Otieno Abuom from Siaya County. I am the last born in a family of four siblings; three boys and a girl. I went to Pal Pal Primary School and later joined Sega Township Secondary School.

What is your foundation all about and why did you initiate it?

Freddy Junior Foundation is an institution where we support Orphans, Widows, Young girls and our brothers who are still in schools. In the year 1994, my mother died on the month of March while I was four months old, I was left with my dad and my grandmother. Three months later my dad passed away. I lived with different people (my relatives), and I went through the usual struggles orphans go through to the point I reached today.

Please tell us your motivation behind this project.

Being left an orphan at a tender age was extremely challenging. I came face to face with the challenges of life; as an orphan; I depended on well-wishers to pay my school fees. Most of the time, I had no one around to tell my problems including sleeping hungry but nobody to understand my situation. Some of my age mates disowned me because of having no parent. And thats why I basically decided to initiate Freddy Junior Foundation in Feb 2020 to support some children who are coming from poor families and facing similar or worse problems I went through.

What particular incident stirred your initiative?

One day during my regular rendezvous, I encountered a young boy from our village that was sent home after his parents failed to pay his school fees. I took the matter seriously, I called my friends and we agreed to start a contribution which went successfully.

Where is your foundation based and what have been your achievements so far?

My foundation is located in Central Alego Siaya County. Weve tried our best as we speak today we have six boys who we have placed at different secondary schools, six at different polytechnics, eight at different primary schools and we hope to help many more.

Currently, what are you doing to sustain yourself and your project?

Currently, Im a herbalist at Dr. Mayamba Junior Herbs and Im also working in the music industry as a songwriter and video director. This project has no sponsors but only a group of friends who are willing to help.

What is your message to Kenyans in supporting such a noble cause?

I want to tell my fellow brothers and sister out there that many orphans out there face a lot of ups and downs. If you see someone suffering please help him/her if you can. The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is that a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.

Your parting shot to readers?

Faith is taking the first step even when you dont see the whole staircase.
In September 2015, Ibrahim Ngigi Mungai was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, dramatically altering the course of his life. However, he has since transformed his own experiences into a source of support and inspiration for fellow individuals navigating the same condition.

Briefly introduce yourself.

My name is Ibrahim Ngigi Mungai. Im 35 years old. I was born in Narok but later shifted to Limuru and finally to Nairobi. I hold a Bachelors degree in Purchasing and Supplies Management from JKUAT and a Diploma in Transformational Church Leadership from PAC University. I am Schizophrenic.

When were you diagnosed with Schizophrenia and what do you think were the triggers?

I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in September 2015 and admitted to Mathare Mental Hospital. I have been on and off the hospital because of relapses. Doctors have never told me the triggers but I believe genes in my family though its never traceable could be a cause. Again, a lot of childhood trauma, adverse childhood experiences, as well as alcohol abuse could have triggered the condition.

What were your initial reactions upon diagnosis of this condition?

I was in denial for a while. I consider myself very sharp and bright and so I failed to understand how this could happen to me. It took me more than four years to accept.

How has this condition affected you on a personal level?

I am never able to focus on my career or any project. It has also affected my family financially because of medication and hospital bills at Mathare Mental Hospital and the stigma is real. It has affected my self-esteem and my interactions with people.

You are actively involved with mental awareness campaigns; please tell us more about them

In my daily mental health awareness, which I do through webinars, my motivation has always been to sensitise people who have been diagnosed with Schizophrenia or have a family member with the condition to seek help and better manage their condition. It has always been to create awareness of available treatment and management of the disease and how to come up with life coping mechanisms. I intend to mobilise funds to take sick people from the streets and towns to mental health facilities.

What impact have these campaigns made so far?

My greatest impact has been sensitising parents and especially those with teenagers to spend more time with their children. I have been able to educate parents on how some of the many addictions like substance abuse can lead to one getting the disease.

What opportunities have you missed due to this condition?

I am not able to keep jobs.

What do you think the government needs to do to better mental healthcare in the country?

Empower the county hospitals with more qualified personnel, improve the facilities, and enhance access to drugs. I have been to the hospital many times and went back home without the prescribed drugs because they werent available. The government can do better and make sure we have access to proper healthcare.

Courtesy: The Nairobian
Raila Odinga has dismissed assertions that his Azimio coalition is seeking to join President William Rutos Kenya Kwanza government.

Emphasizing that the opposition has no such aspirations, Raila clarified that his faction has agreed to engage in a dialogue with the ruling coalition to tackle crucial national concerns.

Speaking at St. Tiberius Ekerubo Catholic Church in Nyamira County during a church service on Sunday, the ODM leader and leaders accompanying took issue with a section of leaders from Kenya Kwanza who have maintained a hard-line position on the impending talks.

We have not said we want to be in (President William) Rutos government. Even those who claim I was in President Uhuru Kenyattas government are wrong. I didnt hold any cabinet position. We neither had a Cabinet Secretary nor a Principal Secretary, he said.

The leader of the opposition reiterated their willingness to participate in discussions but made a commitment to withdraw from the talks and pursue an alternative course of action if President Rutos faction persists with their stance.

Kenya belongs to all of us that is why we want to dialogue. When Uhuru was president there were food subsidies. We also had kazi kwa vijana. Even the price of fuel was not as high as now. But these prices have been raised, Raila said.
The Government will implement the Guaranteed Minimum Returns programme as pledged.

President William Ruto said this will ensure that farmers earn a stable income even when market conditions are adverse.

It was his desire to see farmers profit from their economic activities.

We must break the poverty cycle that is associated with farming in our country, he argued.

The Head of State was speaking on Saturday during a public meeting in Karatina, Nyeri County.

We want agriculture to be transformed into a profit-making venture so that our farmers can earn more.

He said the move will be supported by the Governments deliberate plan to invest in agro-processing and value addition.

Earlier, the President, who is on a five-day working tour of Mt Kenya, opened the Githurai Market and commissioned the Ruiru-Juja and Greater Githurai Water Project.

The project is expected to serve more than 500,000 people in Ruiru, Githurai, Mwihoko and Kahawa.

In Kirinyaga, he launched the Kagio Water Supply Project before commissioning the Marua-State Lodge Road in Karatina.

The sustained supply of water for irrigation in Kirinyaga will increase rice acreage by 10,000 and boost production, he added.

On his way, he made stop-overs in Githurai, Juja, Kenol, Makuyu, Kambiti, Makutano, Kagio, Baricho and Kiburu.

In the meetings, the President explained that the bipartisan talks were not meant to give birth to a Handshake or sharing of positions in Government.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Cabinet Secretaries Moses Kuria, Alice Wahome, Zacharia Njeru, Governors Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu), Irungu Kangata (Muranga), Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga) and MPs led by Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwah were present.
Judd Finkelstein grew up in the wine industry. He worked his first tasting room shift in his familys winery, Whitehall Lane Winery in St. Helena, at just 9 years old.

Today, he runs his own winery, Judds Hill, off the Silverado Trail in Napa. But as much as he loves wine, Finkelstein said hes always been drawn to the art of cocktail making.

This led him to The Fink, his semi-eponymous bar at the Napa River Inn downtown in what was once Silo's jazz club.

Still, he said he didnt fall in love with cocktails until he worked at a fine wine and spirits shop in Phoenix, Arizona after college. Throughout his time at Arizona State University, Finkelstein played in bands at parties and bars, and said that despite spending lots of time playing music in these drinking-centric environments, he was never a big drinker.

I was pretty much always the designated driver  so I was popular in that way, Finkelstein said.

While he said most of those early band gigs were in bars full of keggers and cheap liquor, Finkelstein discovered that by using fine spirits, he could make drinks that actually tasted delicious. While working at the fine wine and spirits shop, he would often bring a few ounces of some fancy liqueurs home and make a cocktail meant to be enjoyed, not used as a means to a blurry end of the night.

When he moved back to Napa Valley after living in Arizona and Los Angeles about 20 years ago, Finkelstein found that a good cocktail was hard to come by in wine country.

Weve got the best wine in the entire world right here in Napa Valley, but a cocktail culture hadnt developed, he said.

Finkelstein was convinced a good mixed drink was impossible to find in the area until he and his wife visited Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena. The pizza joints bartender, freshly 21 Andrew Salazar, made Finkelstein a drink he enjoyed so much, he spent the next two decades following Salazar to whatever restaurant or bar he worked at, just as a patron, and eventually, a friend.

I pointed in his direction and said, Youre my guy; Ill follow you, Finkelstein said. ...When wed go out, the question was, Wheres Andrew working? or Is he working tonight?

In the years since, Salazar has become famed in Napa Valley for his mastery of more than 125 drinks, his impressive employment history, most recently as the head barman of Miminashi until 2020, and his perfectly-balanced and acclaimed cocktails.

Finkelstein has also made waves in the cocktail industry in Napa since moving back. He founded the Friends Of Ardent Mixology (FOAM) group, Napa Valleys cocktail appreciation guild, and said he was approached countless times about opening a cocktail bar of his own. However, it wasnt until 2019 that he decided the time was finally right.

As his kids got older and he and his wife became a bit more hands-off at the winery, Finkelstein began to think he might have the bandwidth to begin a new business venture. He had begun looking at potential venues for a small downtown bar when Greg Cole, the previous owner of Celadon, suggested the location at the Napa River Inn which had been sitting empty since Silos closed in 2019.

Cole sat down with Finkelstein and the general manager of the Napa River Inn, Sara Brooks, to discuss a potential bar. At the meeting, Brooks realized she had actually been to a fundraiser hosted at Finkelsteins home tiki bar, designed by Danny Gallardo, who also did the design for The Fink.

That was a great icebreaker because she recognized me, Finkelstein said. She said OK, I've seen what youve done in your garage  what do you think you could do with this space?

Around the same time, Salazar approached Finkelstein looking for advice on a potential independent venture in the cocktail industry of his own.

[At the meeting], Salazar sat down and took out his notebook, and I sat down and took out a non-disclosure agreement, Finkelstein said. By the end of our chilaquiles and coffee, we decided Lets do this together.

While the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the bars opening, Finkelstein and Salazar still managed to generate buzz for the coming business during lockdown by traveling around Napa Valley neighborhoods with The Finks Distinct Drink Wagon, a mobile cocktail wagon serving complimentary cocktails at socially-distanced driveway get-togethers. In late 2020, Salazar was announced as the wagons Global Drink Ambassador, teasing the coming partnership on the bar.

As the wagon garnered more and more attention, Finkelstein finally announced plans to open The Fink, with Andrew Salazar as head barman, on Nov. 30, 2021. On June 21 of this year, the cocktail bar officially opened for business.

The neighborhood bar for the world traveler aims to pay homage to the historic space it occupies in the building of the old mill on the Napa River.

We wanted to bring the theming of the 19th-century mill into this space and we imagined it as the 19th-century boat house for the mill, Finkelstein said. Here we are in this amazing space with the river and the millwe had to celebrate them both.

Stepping into the space is like stepping back in time, thanks to The Finks detailed branding, rapidly-expanding global food and drink menu, and special toucheslike a custom globe that plays music from around the world, depending on which way you spin it.

All of the drinks are segmented geographically, playing on how the river historically connected Napa to the rest of the world, bringing some of those flavors in, with the food and the drink selections, Finkelstein said.

Currently, the menu has 24 drinks spread across three sections: their classic cocktails, as well as a California-inspired section titled LA to the Bay which features tiki drinks, and Gotham City, including New York-inspired cocktails.

In the coming months, Finkelstein and Salazar hope to expand across the globe, with drinks inspired by New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America.

To first-time patrons, Salazar recommends the Fifteen-Love The Finks take on a Pimms cup  complete with Pimms No.1 lemon, fassionola, mint and soda. His favorite of the bars drinks, though, isnt on the menu just yet.

When we roll out our collection of Caribbean classics, one of my long-standing favorites is a Mary Pickford, Salazar said.

In addition to the expansive cocktail menu, the bar also has a secret food menu of sorts, which Finkelstein described as worldly bar snacks. Though it isnt printed on any menus, the bar serves up house-made beef birria tacos, Roman-style square-cut pizza, Israeli hummus and fresh pita, and a Tamago egg-salad sandwich.

Finkelstein hopes that the cocktail bar will be a classy, but not snobby joint where locals and travelers alike can come for good company, food, and most of all, a delicious mixed drink.

The Fink is located at 530 Main St., Napa. For more information, visit thefinknapa.com.
The situation in Artsakh has long since crossed the border of the understanding of a humanitarian disaster, and today we are witnessing the genocidal policy of Azerbaijan. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Artsakh Public TV.

"If we were to word [it], Artsakh is a big concentration camp where Azerbaijan is carrying out genocide. It is no coincidence that a few days ago I petitioned to the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, requesting an expert opinion. Now we already have a preliminary conclusion that this is genocide," said the leader of Artsakh.

Reflecting on the current difficult situation in Artsakh, its president first emphasized the serious lack of medicines in the healthcare system, detailing that there is already a shortage of life-saving medicines in pharmacies and soon there will be none at all.

"The increase in complications and deaths of various chronic diseases continues. For example, the number of deaths from diseases of the blood circulation system increased almost twice in the first half of the year. Especially vulnerable are pregnant women, children, people with chronic diseases, whose health condition worsens due to malnutrition, stress, and other reasons," said the leader of Artsakh.

Speaking about the issue of food and other goods, Harutyunyan reminded that a few days ago, Artsakh declared a disaster zone, expecting that the international community would provide humanitarian support, as it does for everyone in the event of a disaster. Armenia was the first to respond to that announcement, and the convoy of trucks with humanitarian cargo has been standing near the Hakari bridge for days, while Azerbaijan prohibits the entering of these goods, essential food items to Artsakh.

According to Artsakh President Harutyunyan, compensation should be provided to tens of thousands of people who have been deprived of their source of income. In addition, it will take decades to restore Artsakhs economy destroyed by the ongoing blockade by Azerbaijan.

"That is, we are really witnessing genocide, and we are planning steps in that regard," the Artsakh president generalized.
In 1992-1994, Artsakh was fighting against Azerbaijan. In 2016, Azerbaijan tried to solve the Karabakh problem on its own during the four-day war, it was unsuccessful. But unfortunately, the war of 2020 was a different reality. Turkey participated with Azerbaijan, and a number of other countries assisted, there were mercenaries, whereas Karabakh was alone with Armenia. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Artsakh Public TV.

"That's why we had results that were not good for us, and the November 9 [trilateral] statement was born. At first it was not accepted; but based on the results of the war, it was an acceptable statement for us, and it gave us hope that having the guarantees that are available: a territory in the form of Nagorno-Karabakh, a line of contact, an uninterrupted connection with Armenia. It was the fulcrum which was to ensure further our struggle for the right to self-determination. What changed? Initially, we trusted and started to restore the consequences of the war, started to restore the economy. Most of our compatriots returned, including our forcibly displaced compatriots who linked their future with Artsakh," said Harutyunyan

Then he continued by recalling that the statements during the many meetings between the prime Minister of Armenia and the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, at the initial phase, seemed to show that everything was being done to fulfill the points that were specified or the guarantees that were given.

As per President Harutyunyan of Artsakh, the situation changed after the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"Azerbaijan, taking advantage of Russia's situation, was trying to force us to give up, so to speak, the points of the statement, the rights given to us, and enter into dialogue with their proposed agenda. After that, we sent many requests, letters, first of all to the head of Russia, the prime minister of Armenia, all international player; and what is happening today, we warned about it a year ago. A year ago, we were talking about Azerbaijan starting a genocidal policy," the Artsakh President said.

According to him, Azerbaijan wants to abandon the tripartite statement and continue the war.

"This is already a war, a continuation of the war through the siege, and then, as a result, turning Artsakh into a large concentration camp, carrying out genocide," Harutyunyan stressed.

He quoted the statement by the president of Azerbaijan, which he made before the tripartite meeting in Brussels, during the meeting with the Secretary General of NATO, declaring that the Zangezur corridor, according to his wording, should work within the logic of the Lachin corridor.

"We did not pay attention to it in the first phase. We thought that it was a statement to put pressure on the Armenias authorities, getting the most out of point 9 of the tripartite statement, which refers to the opening of regional communications, especially since it was mentioned about Nakhichevan and the connection with Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijan was underscoring it with its future behavior, policy conducted," said Harutyunyan.

"I can also announce today that Azerbaijan continues its pressure to extract the maximum. We must record that Azerbaijan wants to keep the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the status of a hostage as well to some extent, while simultaneously carrying out genocide and putting pressure on the authorities of Armenia and international players to have a more privileged version of the Zangezur road," the Artsakh president elaborated.
Reactions from international organizations have been, are and will be, but there is no result. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Artsakh Public TV, referring to the fact that genocide is taking place in Artsakh by Azerbaijan.

"It seems that they have recorded everywhere that there is a problem and the situation is getting worse day by day, but the results are zero," emphasized, in particular, the President of Artsakh.

Reflecting on the possible Baku-Stepanakert dialogue, Harutyunyan said: "Dialogue is not forced. It seems that there is a tacit agreement to leave us all alone with Azerbaijan. And Azerbaijan, using the pressure method... but this is no longer a pressure method; we are in a situation where we are on the verge of genocide. That is, this cannot be called a dialogue, they are only pushing us to accept Azerbaijan's conditions, demands, which are unacceptable to us. Any dialogue should be within the framework of equality, dignity, and rights. Those three principles have been violated, thats why we will continue to insist on the international community to respect our rights. There is still a toolkit in that regard."

"In the coming days, I will address the international players with a special message and a specific proposal or demands because if they push [us] for a dialogue with Azerbaijan, they should create those conditions after which they will urge us or demand to meet," he added.

Arayik Harutyunyan noted that until now there were contacts with Azerbaijan through the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, and they were only related to social infrastructure, which gave certain results, but starting from December 12, Azerbaijan changed its behavior and moved the talks in an atmosphere of respect to the level of pressure.

"We need to restore that format, after which there can be real dialogue and negotiations," added the President of Artsakh.
An effort was made by the West to organize a Baku-Stepanakert meeting in a third country. Of course, there was a positive response from our side, especially since it was close to the international format, and Azerbaijan also refused that format. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Artsakh Public TV, adding that after Azerbaijan's refusal, this matter has remained hanging in the air.

To the question of what is proposed on the Western and Russian platforms, the Artsakh president answered: "At the first phase, they don't make any proposals, they try to form that dialogue and leave the topics during the meeting. Azerbaijan has its own demands, its own agenda here. We also have our own agenda, our proposals based on our rights; no specific agenda has been discussed for that."

Commenting on Baku's proposal to provide humanitarian aid to Artsakh via the Aghdam road of Azerbaijan, Harutyunyan noted that the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh was created by Azerbaijan itself.

"Any proposal addressed to us must first of all be within the framework of our dignity, be in accordance with international humanitarian norms, rules. In case of any proposal or decision of vital importance, we must have a consensus which should express the sentiments of our people," said the Artsakh president.
It is as a result of the government's activities that we have the chance to still fight, not to surrender, not to starve, and in that sense, the accusations are groundless. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan said this in an interview with Artsakh Public TV, responding to the remark that the authorities of Artsakh are accused of not stocking necessary products in sufficient quantity under the current blockade by Azerbaijan.

"Yes, the purpose of this interview was to announce to the people that the authorities of Artsakh, having the opinion, point of view of the people of Artsakh, declare that we will lead this struggle. We will continue to fight for self-determination. We are told that we could have been more prepared during those 6-7 months. Yes, we could have, but today we are getting 5 to 6 thousand tons of potato crop, wheat crop enough to allow us to extend, to have flour. Thousands of tons of the same vegetable products. That is, the goal of the [Artsakh] government was to bring, store, but to bring, produce, and that product enables us to have at least the minimum product," he said.

Harutyunyan noted that in the near future there will be a message addressed to the international community and players, and, also, they expect a respective discussion at the UN Security Council and pressure on Azerbaijan.

"Yes, we still haven't lost our hope in terms of international influence. Thats why at this phase our struggle will continue on those platforms, and we expect to have some success," he said.

Arayik Harutyunyan concluded his interview by saying that they shall fight for their future, the people, the right to self-determination, the martyrs, for the salvation of Artsakh, and that the deprivations are temporary and transitory.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia received the EU Ambassador

Azerbaijani units fired from fire arms towards the Armenian combat outposts in the vicinity of Verin Shorzha

Ararat Mirzoyan will participate in a strategic conference in Slovenia

Azerbaijani Armed Forces open fire on Armenian positions in Akhpradzor section. Armenian Defense Ministry

Greek authorities have rescued about 60 migrants traveling by boat from Turkey to Aegean islands

Iran will launch a locally manufactured Tolou-3 satellite into orbit by the second half of March

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry tries to justify its regular fire to disrupt wheat harvesting. Artsakh Defense Army

The Azerbaijanis once again targeted the 'Syunik' civil airport. Gor Tsarukyan

Artsakh State Minister: Azerbaijani Armed Forces hold at gunpoint the only wheat field in Sarushen community

Azerbaijan refuses to allow the body of the Artsakh girl to be taken to her homeland. MFA

Armenia PM is informed about plans to invest another $15M in Agarak Copper-Molybdenum Combine

Azerbaijan does not allow body of young woman who died in tragic Armenia road accident to be sent back to Karabakh

Azerbaijan plans to try abducted Karabakh resident Vagif Khachatryan

Dollar, euro drop in Armenia

Armenia deputy PM, Poland envoy confer about regional developments

Central Electoral Commission registers electoral lists of political forces to run in Yerevan municipal elections

Karabakh MoD: Azerbaijan statement, video footage are utter falsehood

Ambassador Kvien emphasizes US support for Armenia sovereignty, security (PHOTOS)

Karabakh MFA: We expect UN Security Council member countries to demonstrate consistency, principled stance

Armenia ex-FM: Perhaps international community keeps open possibility of changing today's negotiation agenda

Armenia MoD: Azerbaijan disseminates another disinformation

London Coptic Church leader, UK Armenian Apostolic Church primate discuss crisis in Karabakh

11 medical patients from Karabakh are transferred to Armenia through Red Cross

MFA official: China is closely following of North-South international corridor current operation

Armenia battalion deputy commander is charged with causing soldier to commit suicide

Armenia MFA: It is evident that Azerbaijan continues distorting international community appeals

Armenia FM stresses to UN deputy secretary general urgency of reopening Lachin corridor

US ambassador to Armenia visiting Jermuk town (PHOTOS)

Artsakh President meets with group of militia fighters

Karabakh President receives Free Motherland-UCA Faction MPs

Presidential advisor: Azerbaijan cut fiber optic internet cable, disrupting Karabakh's stable internet connection

Azerbaijan fires on tractor working in Karabakh village field

Ardshinbank recognized as Retail Bank of the Year in Armenia by Asian Banking & Finance magazine

Azerbaijan fires in direction of Armenias Kapan city airport

EU Special Representative for South Caucasus meets with some other European officials, in Yerevan cafe

Newspaper: What to expect after UN Security Council emergency meeting on Lachin corridor issue?

France cities, regions want to deliver humanitarian aid to besieged Karabakh

China interested in development of relations with Armenia

Ambassador to Armenia on Zangezur corridor: Chinese initiative has nothing to do with it

Armenia MoD: Azerbaijan fired in direction of Yeraskh village

Mher Grigoryan, Toivo Klaar discuss humanitarian crisis in Karabakh

Fan Yong: China is concerned about situation around Lachin corridor

Armenia FM to Romania colleague: Karabakh crisis resolution requires international community to take clear steps

Dollar gains, euro loses value in Armenia

Ocampo: Armenians should not be side victims of Ukrainian conflict

Chaarat Gold announces selling Kapan mine in Armenia for $54.5M

Azerbaijan again fires at combine harvester working in Karabakh village field

Armenia ambassador-at-large: Azerbaijan is blaming Karabakh children for eating cookies on their birthdays

Demonstration in support of Karabakh held outside Israel MFA (VIDEO)

Pashinyan: Next week we will start Yerevan-Kapan regular flights

Armenia PM heads from Yerevan to Kapan by plane, tests new airline

Arman Tatoyan: Azerbaijan is preparing new fascist disaster for Armenia

Kirby: We continue to stay engaged diplomatically to encourage peaceful resolution between Armenia, Azerbaijan

Karabakh presidential advisor: UN Security Council recorded that we are starving, but what does that change?

Karabakh MoD: Azerbaijan defense ministry statement is completely false, disinformation

Azerbaijan MFA tries to distort content of UN Security Council meeting on Lachin corridor issue

Armenia ombudsperson sends letter to Azerbaijan counterpart 1 month ago, not received reply yet

MoD: Azerbaijan fires at combine harvester working in Karabakh village field

Armenia government petitions to European Court regarding soldier captured by Azerbaijan

Armenia statements about Karabakh blockade are groundless, Bayramov tells Klaar

Armenia PM: Azerbaijan is subjecting Armenians of Karabakh to genocide through starvation

Armenia ombudsperson: Azerbaijan statement that Vagif Khachatryan committed crime as part of armed group is not true

Azerbaijanis attack Armenian family outside UN headquarters in New York

Karabakh MoD: Azerbaijan violated ceasefire

Armenia MoD: Azerbaijan disseminated another disinformation

EU representative at UN: Dialogue between Karabakh Armenians and Baku should be encouraged

Azerbaijan representative speaks at UN Security Council, accuses Armenia

US representative at UN: We call for direct talks between Baku authorities and Karabakh representatives

Speech of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia at the UN Security Council urgent meeting

Russia representative at UN: We proposed parallel opening of Aghdam and Lachin corridors

Armenia MFA spox: As there is meeting at UNSC, Azerbaijan opened fire on border several times in past 3 days

President: People of Karabakh are anxiously anticipating todays special session of UN Security Council

N Koreas Kim, Russias Putin exchange letters

55 dead from clashes in Libya's capital

Armenia MoD: Azerbaijan fired at Armenian positions

Alen Simonyan, Valentina Matviyenko discuss details of humanitarian disaster in Karabakh

Photo of Armenia reservist detained by Azerbaijan appears in Azerbaijani domain of social media

OSCE Chairman-in-Office reiterates his call, asks Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk to visit Lachin area

Armenia ranks 3rd in most visits to Georgia

Azerbaijan MoD announces name of captured Armenia serviceman

Azerbaijan MFA makes accusations against Armenia

Azerbaijan holds tour for foreign diplomats to familiarize them with Aghdam road being proposed to Karabakh

Group of Turkey intellectuals appeal to world regarding humanitarian disaster in Karabakh

Azerbaijan soldiers approach Armenian reservist, apprehend him: Armenia MoD releases video footage

France FM expresses concern about Azerbaijan shooting during patrol of EU monitors in Armenia

Concerned citizens staging protest in front of UN office in Armenia

Armenia FM heads for New York

MoD: Theory of Armenia reservist ending up on Azerbaijan side is being investigated

Azerbaijan announces capture of Armenia soldier

Azerbaijan praises advantages of Aghdam road to Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan MoD tries to misinform foreign embassies military attaches

Armenians prevented Ataturk statue installation in Prague, Turkish ambassador says

Armenia MoD: Reservist deserts combat position

Azerbaijan fires at grain-harvesting combine in Karabakh (PHOTOS)

Armenia to host Eurasian Intergovernmental Council special meeting

Armenians continue demonstrations outside Los Angeles consulates of UN Security Council member countries

US State Department: We urge Azerbaijan government to restore free transit through Lachin corridor

Azerbaijan accuses France of efforts to aggravate the tension in South Caucasus

Senators Menendez, Padilla send letter to US representative at UN regarding situation in Karabakh

Karabakh residents block Russian military base entrance, peacekeepers reopen it
A murder, with the use of firearms, was committed in Yerevan Monday, shamshyan.com reports ( https://shamshyan.com/hy/article/2023/08/07/1243967 ).

At around 1am, the police received a call from a Yerevan hospital informing that a person with a gunshot wound in the head was brought to them.

Subsequently, this person died without regaining consciousness.

The police found out that the deceased is Yerevan resident Arsen Hovsepyan, 39.

Also, they found out that an unidentified person had shot at Hovsepyan, as a result of which the he died in the hospital.

One bullet shell and two bullets were found.

And Artur Gorgotyan, the complete information on whom is being ascertained, handed over a bullet shell to the police and investigators.

Upon inspection of the scene of the incident, two gunshot marks were found on a car, and one gunshot mark was found on a car in the aforementioned hospital.

These cars have been impounded.

And a murder investigation has been launched into this incident.
Jerry Pillay, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Jorgen Skov Sorensen, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, have sent a letter to Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, regarding the ongoing blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) by Azerbaijan. The letter reads as follows, in particular:

We at the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Conference of European Churches (CEC) are deeply concerned about the current situation in Nagorno  Karabagh. The plight of Armenian citizens, call on us all to exert in our relevant spheres of responsibilities the maximum effort at persuading Azerbaijan to respect the orders of the International Court of Justice to immediately lift the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by reopening the Lachin Corridor.

The humanitarian crisis in the blockaded enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) is escalating into tragic levels of experiences with the prolonged deprivations and sufferings of civilians. We are, thus, prompted to stress the urgency of finding solutions to the ongoing crisis. We reiterate our previous statements and positions on the need for urgent and immediate action by the international community.

The Lachin corridor is the only road that links the region to Armenia and it has been blocked for more than seven months, seriously affecting the lives and living conditions of 120,000 people, including children. They are lacking food, medication, electricity, and fuel supply. Their fundamental human rights are increasing violated on a daily basis.

We have urged Azerbaijan and other actors to be involved in the process of establishing stability to put new efforts into the immediate lifting of the blockade by reopening the Lachin corridor to enable the free and safe passage of civilians, unimpeded transport, and H.E. Josep Borrell Fontelles High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy European Union Geneva and Brussels flow of goods along it to guarantee the accessibility of humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of the Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).

The ever-tightening blockade continues to put the people of Nagorno Karabakh into seriously deteriorating circumstances. It prevents furthering the progress toward settlement of outstanding issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia from their November 9, 2020, agreement as well facing in full the legal, political and ethical consequences of the atrocious 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

The WCC and the CEC urges the European Union and the whole international community to step up immediately their efforts and act without delay to bring the blockade to an end in order to save the lives of the Artsakh residents and to restore and respect their fundamental rights and freedoms.

In this regard, we believe that a step in the direction to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan through the sustained dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert/Khankendi is most necessary.

We reiterate our firm conviction that lasting peace could be built only on the genuine commitment of all interested parties in negotiations who take seriously the full observance of all human rights and the fundamental freedom of all people based on mutual trust and respect.

We continue to hope and pray for the ending of this blockade so that peace, harmony and justice may prevail.
Maltas Armenian community held a peaceful demonstration calling for the reopening of the Lachin corridor, which is the sole route through which 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh get essential goods and services, Malta Today reported.

The small Maltese Armenian community gathered in front of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to raise awareness and seek support for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the region.

It urged the Maltese government to use its diplomatic channels and international influence to address the urgent situation and support the reopening of the Lachin corridor.

By taking a strong stance in international forums, Malta can play a crucial role in advocating for the rights and wellbeing of the affected civilians in Nagorno Karabakh, the community said.

In a press release the community said it is actively participating in discussions in various international organizations Malta is a member of, calling for immediate attention to the critical situation.

It said that for over a week, approximately 400 tons of vital humanitarian aid have been unable to reach the Armenian population due to the blockade of the only supply road by the Azerbaijani government.

Innocent lives are at risk as essential supplies, including food and medicine, are cut off, leaving the region in a state of extreme distress and peril. Both the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Azerbaijan to open the corridor, however, despite the court's order, the corridor has not been implemented by Azerbaijan, leading to concerns about the protection of human rights, the community said.

The community also called for the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola's support, asking her to highlight the gravity of the humanitarian crisis.

As the highest-ranking official in the European Parliament, her support can garner greater international attention and mobilize action to resolve the situation, the community said.

It said that it is determined to use peaceful protests and advocacy to raise awareness and make a difference.

"We believe that the international community, including Malta and the European Parliament, can play a decisive role in ending the suffering of the vulnerable population in Nagorno Karabakh, it said.

Malta is both a United Nations member state and a member of the UN Security Council.

The Armenian community calls upon all concerned citizens, media outlets, and international organizations to unite in solidarity and amplify their voices to end the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh, the community said.

The crisis has left the region without transportation options, as there is no petrol, and people are forced to wait for hours in long queues, just to purchase a single loaf of bread for their families, Malta Today noted.

In July 2022 the European Commission embraced the autocratic regime of Azerbaijans Ilham Aliyev, as its search for natural gas in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine took Ursula von der Leyen to Baku.

There, the EC president and energy commissioner for energy Kadri Simson, met Aliyev to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy in a bid to move away Europe away from Russian fossil fuels.

Since 2014, Malta has sourced natural gas through Azerbaijans trading arm in Geneva, SOCAR, a deal tainted by corruption accusations linked to Muscats closest allies in government at the time the Panama Papers broke, Malta Today added.
A group of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) residents on Monday protested outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia.

They demanded from the MFA that the Armenian government do everything to reopen the Lachin corridor, to ensure an uninterrupted traffic there, and to protect the fundamental rights of the people of Artsakh.

"We stand firm, we will fight until the demands are fulfilled. Let's be together the catalysts of changes, advocates of justice, and defenders of the rights of all Armenians. We want to address the toothless statement of Armenia's representative at the UN Security Council session. Yes, the call he made to the UN and the Security Council is undoubtedly important, but it was very far from the urgent problems faced by our compatriots of Artsakh. Armenia's toothless statements are not enough," said one of these protesters.

Subsequently, they passed on a letter with this content to the Armenian government.
Sazonov, the deputy commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), responded Monday in writing to the members of the civil initiative to unblock the Lachin corridor that the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement does not provide for the escorting of motorcades, as well as the ensuring of security at various actions and rallies. Artur Osipyan, a member of the headquarters of the People's Movement for Unblocking the Kashatagh [(Lachin)] Corridor, published the answer on Facebook.

"During traffic through transport checkpoints, the peacekeeping contingent check the presence of prohibited items, in particular, firearms and explosives," said the response of the peacekeepers, which was publicized by Osipyan, a member of the initiative.

On August 4, members of the aforesaid movement had arrived at the location of these Russian peacekeepers and demanded that their commander, Aleksandr Lentsov, answer what steps under the November 9, 2020 tripartite statement they will take to ensure their safety during their motorcade on buses to the Hakari bridge. And the Russian peacekeepers had promised to answer the demonstrators' questions in writing.
At 1am Monday, the police received a call from a Yerevan hospital informing that a man with a gunshot wound in the head was brought to them.

Later, this medical center informed that this person, Arsen Hovsepyan, had died at 1:03am.

Criminal proceedings have been launched and an investigation is underway into this incident.

Traces of blood, a fired bullet shell, and a fragment of a bullet shell were found at the scene of the incident, and one bullet was found inside the outer wall of the house. Also, gunshot marks were found on a car.

It was found that immediately after the incident, Hovsepyan was taken to the aforesaid medical center in another car. During the inspection at the parking lot of this hospital, this car was found, on which a gunshot mark was found, as well as traces of blood.

Several forensic examinations of the victims body have been ordered.

CCTV footage of the scene of the incident was obtained.

The criminal investigation continues.
Member of the European Parliament Costas Mavrides (Cyprus) has accused Azerbaijan of committing a war crime in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) by blocking the Lachin corridor and called on the international community to impose sanctions on Baku.

Asked on the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, MEP Mavrides told Armenpress that the blockade of the Lachin corridor since last December is a humanitarian emergency and a blatant violation of international law by Azerbaijan.

He added that the blockade constitutes a war crime under international law.

The current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh with the blockage of the Lachin Corridor since last December is a humanitarian emergency and a blatant violation of the international law by Azerbaijan. 120,000 native Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh including 30.000 children, with no medicines, no food, were blockaded by the Azerbaijanis. Following that, we had the binding International Court of Justice order that requires Azerbaijan to take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons. And what has Azerbaijan done since then? Nothing. The complete and arbitrary blockade of the Lachin Corridor, in particular the obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian cargos for the basic needs of the people of Nagorno Karabakh under siege, is considered a war crime under international law, the MEP said.

Mavrides recalled his recent questions to EUs High Representative (HR) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

In the relevant debate last month, in June, with the HR/VP Joseph Borrell, during the plenary session of the European Parliament, I posed to him the following questions: With all the understanding, do you consider today Azerbaijan as a reliable partner? Second question, which is very specific: Based on the facts, is Azerbaijan committing a crime like ethnic cleansing, yes or no? And do you consider the response of the EU so far as proportionate to the crime in the making? European Parliament has a strong position on this, urging Azerbaijan to respect the relevant decisions and immediately reopen the Lachin corridor. Though decisions on the foreign policy and sanctions are taken on the European Council level where the Heads of State and Government participate and the High Representative can have an important political role, MEP Costas Mavrides added.

The Member of the European Parliament described the EU monitoring mission in Armenia (EUMA) as an important step for political and practical reasons.

Considering that the situation on the ground deteriorates with Azerbaijan to continue its policy of starvation in Nagorno Karabakh and to disrespect the international organisations decisions, it is time for the international community and EU to take more drastic measures, such as imposing sanctions against Azerbaijan, Mavrides added.
At Mondays session of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) National Assembly (NA), the ruling Free Motherland-UCA Faction nominated Davit Ishkhanyan of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Faction for the position of new speaker of the Artsakh NA, Armenian News-NEWS.am learns from the Artsakh parliament.

Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, who also was in attendance, delivered special remarks.

"Regardless of his party affiliation, Davit Ishkhanyan has traveled such a political and state path, he has earned such experience and respect that already make him a worthy candidate for the President of the National Assembly," Harutyunyan said, in particular.

Subsequently, Ishkanyan delivered an address.

"All of us took this step with deep awareness, understanding that the process of electing the leadership of the parliament is not taking place under classical conditions, but this decision is made in an emergency situation," said Ishkhanyan, and thanked for nominating his candidacy for such an accountable position in these difficult days for Artsakh

Ishkhanyan especially emphasized the unity of strong political forces, the state-church cooperation, and the restoration of interparliamentary relations and the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity.

"Our political stance should be aimed at building bridges, avoiding destructive manifestations," said the candidate for the Artsakh NA speaker.

In conclusion, Davit Ishkhanyan stated as follows, in particular: "We will continue the fight for the preservation and strengthening of the Artsakh statehood at any cost."

After the final speeches, the parliament held secret ballot. As a result, Davit Ishkhanyan was elected the new speaker of the NA of Artsakh with a vote of 22 for and 9 against.

The session was concluded with a thank you speech by the newly elected head of the National Assembly of Artsakh.
23:55





Stalin led the march after garlanding a statue of the leader on the premises of the Omandurar government estate here and it culminated at the former CM's memorial at the Marina Beach.





Also, the chief of the ruling DMK, Stalin was joined by his sister Kanimozhi, son Udhayanidhi, cabinet colleagues and scores of party workers.





Paying his tributes, the DMK president said the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is not a "usual, once in 5-year polls" but an election that would determine the future of democracy in India. Tamil Nadu is the beginning for everything and it is the state that paved the way for the opposition alliance INDIA, which has spread across the nation, he said.





The vision and dreams of the late leader on the ideals of self-respect, social justice, equality, state autonomy and a federal India has been taken forward across the country by the party, he said.





In Delhi, top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi paid floral tributes to a decorated portrait of Karunanidhi.





In Puducherry, Chief Minister N Rangasamy paid homage to the late leader.





The DMK leaders paid floral tributes here at the memorial of Karunanidhi, which was decorated with flowers. -- PTI

Late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi was remembered on his fifth death anniversary on Monday, with his son and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin leading a peace march in memory of the Dravidian stalwart.
VMPL Pune (Maharashtra) [India], August 7:infinite-VARIABLE, a requirement based solutions providing company , is pleased to announce its association with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the world's largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative. By joining forces with the UNGC, infinite-VARIABLE reaffirms its commitment to sustainable development and responsible business practices. The UNGC provides a platform for businesses to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. infinite-VARIABLE recognizes the significance of these principles and believes that a collaborative approach is essential to achieve a sustainable and inclusive global economy. "We are proud to join the United Nations Global Compact and contribute to the collective effort of advancing sustainable development world-wide, we need to sound the alarm, our initiative for contribution of focused 6 is our way of contributing towards SDGs. While increasing the awareness towards other SDGs we are finding youth and elder generations are unaware of the goals set by UNGC. We all believe 10 principles are integral processes which not just us but every company should follow." said Arnav Fadnavis, CEO & Founder of infinite-VARIABLE. "As a responsible corporate citizen, we are dedicated to integrating sustainable practices into our operations, promoting human rights, protecting the environment, and fostering ethical business conduct. Our association with UNGC further strengthens our commitment to making a positive impact on society." infinite-VARIABLE's decision to align with the UNGC reflects its ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability. By participating in the UNGC initiative, the company aims to drive positive change within its own organization and influence others to follow suit. Through its association with UNGC, infinite-VARIABLE will actively engage in initiatives that advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a universal call to action to address social, environmental, and economic challenges. The company recognizes that by aligning its strategies with the SDGs, it can contribute to a more sustainable future for all. infinite-VARIABLE will report on its progress and efforts towards sustainable development through its annual Communication on Progress (COP) to the UNGC. This transparent reporting framework ensures accountability and fosters dialogue on sustainability matters. infinite-VARIABLE is a Real Estate & IT solutions company based in Pune, India. The company provides requirement based customized solutions . Conceptualized in 2018 & founded in 2020 by Mr. Arnav Fadnavis, infinite-VARIABLE manages spaces through custom solutions to help Enthusiastic humans create and collaborate. These are for various communities and domains including arts and culture, gaming, technology, culinary, and much more. For more information about Infinite Variable, please visit - infinite-variable.com Contact: For more information about Infinite VARIABLE, please contact: Name: Swamini Pandit [PR] Phone: 7620234828 Email:swaminipandit@ivuniverse.com Website: infinite-variable.com instagram: @infinite_variable (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
BusinessWire India Dallas (Texas) [US]/ Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], August 7: Kasmo, one of the leading Salesforce consulting and ISV partners, is delighted to announce the addition of two accomplished Salesforce Practice leaders, Kiran KM and Subba Reddy, to its global team. The strategic initiative reflects Kasmo's ongoing commitment to enhancing its Salesforce practice and delivering exceptional services to its valued clients.Kiran KM takes on the role of Vice President and Global BU Head of Salesforce Practice at Kasmo, bringing with him more than 16 years of invaluable global experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. With a rich background in cloud-based CRM solutions, Kiran boasts a remarkable history of facilitating business transformation for clients across diverse industries. In his new capacity, Kiran's primary objective is to establish a robust Salesforce industry clouds competency, catering to the needs of the growing Salesforce clientele in both India and global markets.Embarking on this transformative journey with Kasmo presents an exhilarating opportunity to be part of a forward-thinking team spearheading innovation in delivering personalized Salesforce solutions. I am dedicated to empowering our exceptional consultants and leveraging my experience to catapult the success of our clients to unprecedented heights. I vow to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible, enabling clients to achieve the results through trailblazing technologies, said Kiran KM.Subba Reddy with 14 years of experience joins as the Director of Salesforce. Subba is an accomplished Salesforce Marketing Cloud Architect with a solid background in delivering multi-channel campaign management solutions to global clients. With a deep understanding of the Salesforce DX platform and its capabilities, Subba has played a pivotal role in assisting organizations to maximize their Salesforce investments."Joining Kasmo's growth journey as a Director of Salesforce fills me with excitement, as it offers an opportunity to foster enduring client partnerships. With its inherent power, Salesforce has consistently been a transformative platform, and at Kasmo, our objective is to unleash its full potential to drive success for businesses globally," expressed Subba Reddy.Kiran KM and Subba Reddy's inclusion coincides with the growing trend of businesses adopting Salesforce to streamline operations and embrace digital transformation. Kasmo's commitment to nurturing top talent and being at the forefront of Salesforce implementation has earned the company recognition from industry experts. As a Salesforce partner, Kasmo remains dedicated to broadening its portfolio and ensuring clients achieve optimal returns on their Salesforce investments. The company takes pride in its team of 80+ Salesforce consultants, boasting over 120+ Salesforce certifications.Rajesh Pawar, the CEO of Kasmo, expressed excitement about welcoming Kiran KM and Subba Reddy to the team. He confidently stated that their expertise and innovative strategies will undoubtedly benefit the clients. Rajesh reaffirmed Kasmo's ongoing commitment to investing in its Salesforce ecosystem, emphasizing the company's dedication to delivering excellence in the Salesforce domain.Kasmo Inc. is a digital technology services consulting company headquartered in Dallas, USA, with a team of over 250+ professionals. Kasmo works with Global companies in the domains of Salesforce, Data, Analytics & AI, and Digital Engineering. Kasmo's emphasis on a customer-centric, people-first approach, combined with its broad expertise and thought leadership, aids customers in their digital transformation journeys. For more information, visit the website atwww.kasmo.co. (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)
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], August 7: GS Caltex, one of India's leading premium lubricant oil manufacturers, is thrilled to announce the launch of its latest digital campaign, #KixxAllWaysWithYou, in celebration of this years International Friendship Day. The heartwarming campaign, resonating with the firms key message of Celebrating all kinds of friendships and Celebrating friends that are ALL WAYS WITH YOU, aims to capture the beautiful essence of true friendship through an emotionally engaging short film, which will be unveiled across all digital platforms. The short film, the highlight of the campaign, displays the touching moments of unconditional friendship between the actor and his pet dog, who is seen aiding the former in different situations in life. Beautifully portraying how true friendship knows no bounds, the film also commemorates the friendship between engine oil and vehicles (Cars and Bikes) engine, much like the commitment of GS Caltex's Kixx Engine Oil which acts as Aapke engine ka best friend by safeguarding it under extreme driving conditions #KixxAllWaysWithYou. Speaking about the campaign,K Madhu Mohan, General Manager - Marketing, GS Caltex India,said,"We are excited to launch the#KixxAllWaysWithYoucampaign, which reflects GS Caltex's commitment to celebrating all kinds of friendships. Showcasing the unrivalled bond between the protagonist and his loyal canine companion, the short film perfectly captures the essence of our campaign and embodies our brand's vision to create lasting bonds with people. Just like a true friend, as highlighted in the special film, our Kixx Engine Oil is always there to protect the engine in extreme situations, fostering trust and reliability with our customers. So, this Friendship Day, I invite everyone to join us on this emotional journey as we celebrate all kinds of friendships and those friends that are 'ALL WAYS WITH YOU'." Formulated with GS Caltexs cutting-edge technology, Kixxs range of automotive & Industrial lubricants have earned the trust of customers in over 63 countries, including India. Recognized by First Brand Awards as Koreas leading lubricant, Kixxs complete lineup of high-quality engine oils have been formulated to deliver premium performance, even under extreme conditions. With its enhanced wear prevention and lasting engine protection, Kixx engine oil is an engines best friend for any road, through any season. Link for the Campaign:youtu.be/BuhQkXElHZI Idea & Concept: Rajeev Dusa Creative team: Tejas Dhorje, Rohit Pediredla, Prabhu GS Caltex India, a 100% subsidiary of GS Caltex Corporation, South Korea, was established on 2nd February 2010 in India, with its registered office in Mumbai. The company specializes in providing high-quality premium lubricants manufactured from its own group II plus base oils, imported from the renowned Yeosu Refinery in South Korea. GS Caltex India's operations span across the entire country, with strategically located warehouses catering to the needs of its valued customers. The brand proudly supplies its premium lubricants to esteemed businesses, including major OEMs like Kia Motors, Volvo Construction, Hyundai Motors, Hyundai Construction, Kohler, Ajax, Doosan, Indus Towers, Putzmeister, Puzzolana, and many others. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
You are here: China

This aerial photo taken on Aug. 5, 2023 shows flooded areas in Yanshou County of Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese authorities on Sunday earmarked an additional 350 million yuan (about 50 million U.S. dollars) to assist flood-hit regions of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and also provinces in northeast China.

So far, the central government has allocated 520 million yuan in central natural disaster relief funds to the above-mentioned regions, according to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Local governments can use these funds for disaster relief, emergency response, relocating residents, seeking flood-related hazards, and restoring damaged homes, the authorities said.

Torrential rainstorms and floods have wreaked havoc in north and northeast China over the past week.

In the face of the emergency, China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) actively participated in rescue operations. Centrally-administered SOEs have dispatched rescue workers, equipment, and vehicles to help reinforce river embankments, repair roads, relocate residents, and restore power and communication facilities.

Insurance companies also accelerated compensation payments in 16 flood-hit regions, paying out 264 million yuan so far. The total compensation claims from car damages to losses of crops have amounted to 6.24 billion yuan.
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], August 7: Bal Bhavan Public School marked the successful conclusion of its three-day-long annual art and science exhibition, "The Odyssey," on 6 August 2023. The event showcased a remarkable display of talent and innovation, centered around the prestigious theme of G20 presidency. The closing ceremony, graced by the esteemed presence of Puneet Kumar, The Additional District Magistrate, was an unforgettable celebration of creativity and intellect. The evening commenced with an enthralling dance performance and a mesmerizing mime act presented by the incredibly talented students of the School. Their captivating expressions and graceful movements left the audience spellbound, setting the stage for an eventful evening. The highlight of the ceremony was the Prize Distribution, a moment to recognize and reward outstanding achievers. Each winner was bestowed with a gleaming trophy and a commendation certificate, acknowledging their relentless efforts and exceptional talent. Among the winners, Ayush Dwivedi and Ayush Sarkar emerged as brilliant young innovators, receiving the coveted Young Innovators Award. Their remarkable project left an indelible mark on the exhibition, inspiring future generations of innovators to dream big. To encourage the spirit of innovation further, Ayush Dwivedi and Ayush Sarkar were not only awarded with the prestigious title but also received a generous cash prize of rupees 2100, a gesture aimed at fostering a culture of creativity and discovery among the young students. In a gracious gesture of admiration and support, the school felicitated the young innovators behind the creation and launch of the Neeryaan rocket, taking inspiration from the successful Chandrayaan 3 mission. The Special Appreciation Award, presented to these gifted minds, symbolized the school's acknowledgment of their relentless pursuit of excellence and contribution to space exploration. As the curtains drew to a close, the school principal Vividh Gupta took the stage to express his heartfelt gratitude to all the participants, teachers, parents, and esteemed guests who made "The Odyssey" a resounding success. He praised the students' boundless imagination and thanked the chief guest, Puneet Kumar, for gracing the event with his esteemed presence, motivating the budding minds. "The Odyssey" annual art and science exhibition has undoubtedly been a remarkable journey of exploration and ingenuity, showcasing the remarkable potential of the young minds at Bal Bhavan Public School. The event served as a testament to the school's commitment to nurturing talent, fostering creativity, and promoting innovation. The school is an elaborate tale of celebrating the very doctrine of education, since its inception in 1967. It is an established dream of the late Sh. G. C. Lagan, the Founder Chairman, who was a true mason of ideas. With the passing years school has bloomed its branches amongst the alleys of Delhi, NCR region, where it not just secured dignified glories but is also attaining the pinnacle heights of success. Today the school has its five established branches under the alliance of Lagan Kala Upvan (a regd. Society). (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
GLOBAL PR CONNECT (GPRC) New Delhi [India], August 7: Zyber 365, a cutting-edge Web3 cybersecurity startup, has achieved a significant milestone by securing USD 100 million in funding from SRAM & MRAM Group, a prominent UK-based investment firm. The successful funding round has valued Zyber 365 at an impressive USD 1.2 billion. The startup, founded earlier this year by Pearl Kapur and ethical hacker Sunny Vaghela, is dedicated to providing a decentralized and cyber-secured operating system with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. Headquartered in London, Zyber 365 has established a robust presence in India, with a vision to make the country its operational hub. This recent investment positions Zyber 365 to expand its operations and offerings in the Indian market, aligning perfectly with India's economic growth initiatives, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious "Make in India" campaign. A celebratory event held at Pullman, New Delhi, showcased Zyber 365's founders, Pearl Kapur and Sunny Vaghela, as they shared their inspiring journey and plans for the future. The event was graced by the presence of Bollywood actress Tara Sutaria, who expressed her excitement and wholehearted support for Zyber 365's mission to contribute to India's economic growth. Co-founder Pearl Kapur stated, "We are deeply committed to being a part of India's economic growth and expanding our services in the Indian market. Our aim is to support the Prime Minister's Make in India initiative and contribute to India's goal of reaching a USD 5 trillion economy growth. It has been an incredible journey of two years with our dedicated team, investors, and funding to develop this groundbreaking technology." Zyber 365's innovative portfolio comprises a diverse range of Web3 products, including Layer-0, Layer-1, and Layer-2 blockchains, decentralized identities, data analytics, software development kits, web browsers, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, and initial coin offerings (ICOs). These offerings can be customized to cater to individual user requirements or collectively leveraged to create a comprehensive Web3 ecosystem. Tara Sutaria said, "I am thrilled and inspired by Zyber 365. I can't wait to witness the new revolution they will bring to promote India's economy through their innovative services." Commenting on the funding milestone, Sunny Vaghela, Co-founder, and Chief Product Officer of Zyber 365 said, "With this infusion of capital, we are now well-equipped to accelerate our product development for Web3 and AI products. This investment will not only fuel our growth but also solidify our foothold in the Web3 ecosystem with a diversified portfolio of use cases related to AI and cybersecurity." Zyber 365 is poised to revolutionize the cybersecurity landscape by introducing innovative and decentralized solutions that prioritize user privacy, data security, and environmental sustainability. The startup's commitment to driving India's economic growth and advancing Web3 technologies positions it as a crucial player in the global cybersecurity and AI industries. For media inquiries, please contact: PR Panda Promotions , WA: +91-9667329503, E: marketing@prpanda.in (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by GLOBAL PR CONNECT (GPRC). ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], August 7: Oakridge International School in Gachibowli celebrates a year of academic excellence and student achievements in the Middle Years Programme. Aditya achieved a perfect score of 56 out of 56, with gratitude for the support of his parents and teachers. He emphasised the importance of applying knowledge in the real world for growth as a learner. The Head of MYP, Ms Sweta Verma, expressed her excitement and pride in the remarkable achievements of the students. She highlighted that the school's average score was an impressive 44, global average being 37.56. 26 students achieved 50 or above, which is 25%. The results underscore the high standards of education and support provided by the teaching faculty. The student's success in the MYP is a result of collaborative efforts involving the dedicated faculty, supportive parents, and students' commitment to excellence. The Programme Coordinator, Savitri Potluri, praised the IB MYP curriculum for its emphasis on academic rigour, critical thinking, and personal growth. The exceptional results validate the effectiveness of this approach in nurturing well-rounded individuals. Dipika Rao, Oakridge International School, Gachibowli, says, "A great performance is a showcase of collaboration, commitment and unwavering faith in the abilities of our students and staff. It is also a reminder of how we have lived up to the trust placed on us by our ever-supporting parent community. I congratulate everyone who has made this possible for us." The achievements of Oakridge International School Gachibowli reflect its commitment to providing a nurturing environment that empowers students to achieve their full potential and fosters a lifelong passion for learning. The school community celebrates these accomplishments and continues to uphold its dedication to excellence. To know more about it, visit www.oakridge.in/gachibowli. Oakridge International School Gachibowli, a Nord Anglia Education School, is a leading premium educational institution. It has the proud privilege of being the pioneer of IB schooling in South India and one of the largest providers of IB education in India. With the experienced and IB-trained faculty, the school has consistently achieved outstanding results, and its students are placed into the worlds leading universities. Oakridge offers PYP, MYP, IBDP, and CBSE curricula and is recognised as one of the best schools in Hyderabad. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir Manipal (Karnataka) [India], August 7: The Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is pleased to announce the gracious welcome extended by Justin Trudeau, the esteemed Prime Minister of Canada, to the distinguished MAHE delegation during their visit to the University of New Brunswick (UNB). The delegation, currently engaged in the esteemed Nursing Preceptorship program at UNB, has been warmly received by the Canadian Prime Minister, marking a significant milestone in global academic collaboration. The visionary partnership between MAHE and the University of New Brunswick has culminated in the creation of an innovative dual BSc Nursing Degree Program, a joint venture between the esteemed Manipal College of Nursing (MCON) at MAHE, Manipal, and UNB. This pioneering program has received the esteemed endorsement of the Indian Nursing Council, further solidified its credentials and positioned it as a leading global model for educational institutions. Trudeau expressed his enthusiasm for the collaborative efforts that address staffing shortages and knowledge gaps, emphasizing the potential benefits this "learn where you live" approach holds for nursing students in both nations. He commended the commitment to high-quality international education and recognized the strength that comes from unity. His words of encouragement and support have deeply motivated the visiting delegation and the teams from both institutions involved in this innovative initiative. The upcoming Preceptorship Opening Ceremony, scheduled for the 8thof August, will be a momentous occasion commemorating the unwavering dedication of both MAHE and the University of New Brunswick to advancing global education and fostering cross-cultural alliances. Generously supported by the Government of New Brunswick, this ceremony will feature the gracious presence of President Mazerolle, who will extend a warm welcome to the Manipal delegation. As a symbol of unity between the two esteemed institutions, each participating student will receive a lab coat adorned with the distinct logos of Manipal and UNB. Central to this collaboration is the Preceptorship, a meticulously designed clinical course aimed at empowering senior nursing students. Through immersive collaboration with seasoned healthcare professionals, students will elevate their nursing practice, cultivating a deeper sense of independence and autonomy. This distinctive experience will equip students with the skills to adeptly coordinate and deliver nursing care across a diverse array of healthcare settings. The MAHE delegation is thrilled by the support and recognition received from Trudeau and the University of New Brunswick. This partnership signifies a significant stride in global academic collaboration, enhancing the future of nursing education and the profession. We eagerly anticipate the flourishing of this program, which will undoubtedly create a profound impact on nursing students in both Canada and India. MAHE is recognized as a leading quality academic and education service provider and has significantly contributed to continuously improving the standards and penetration of higher education in India. The Manipal Academy of Higher Education has, as its genesis, an enthralling story of a genius, the late Dr. T. M. A. Pai who had the vision of making society rid of the three major ills of illiteracy, ill health, and poverty. It provides a great variety of graduate and postgraduate skill enhancement educational courses covering several important disciplines like medicine, engineering, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, allied health, management, communication, life sciences, hotel administration, etc. through its 28 Professional Higher Education institutions. It has world class academic and research departments in Statistics, Commerce, Geopolitics & International Relations, European Studies, Philosophy & Humanities, Atomic & Molecular Physics, etc. Over 40,000 students from all over the world pursue undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in diverse subjects. The finest of infrastructure facilities, state-of-the-art equipment, well-equipped laboratories, and dedicated and competent faculty have enabled MAHE to be recognized as Institution of Eminence status by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. The University has two Off-Campus centres, one each at Mangalore and Bangalore, One Medical College with TATA Group at Jamshedpur and two Off-Shore campuses, one in Dubai (UAE) and the other in Melaka (Malaysia). For further information log on to:manipal.edu/mu.html. To readMessage from the Prime Minister of Canadaplease clickhere. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
GLOBAL PR CONNECT (GPRC) New Delhi [India], August 7: Kiaasa, the premium ethnic wear brand renowned for its exquisite designs and timeless elegance, is delighted to announce the appointment of Kanika Maan, the beloved actress famously known for her iconic role as 'Guddan,' as their new brand ambassador. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for both Kiaasa and Kanika Maan, promising an exciting chapter in the world of ethnic fashion. Kanika Maan's extraordinary talent, charming personality, and immense popularity among audiences of all ages align perfectly with Kiaasa's core values of celebrating cultural diversity, embracing tradition, and empowering women to express their individuality through fashion. As an accomplished actress and style icon, Kanika Maan embodies the essence of modern Indian femininity, making her the ideal choice to represent the brand's vision. Expressing her excitement about the association, Kanika Maan said, "I am truly honored and thrilled to be the brand ambassador for Kiaasa, a label that resonates deeply with my personal style and values. Kiaasa's exquisite collection of ethnic wear reflects the rich heritage of India, and I am looking forward to collaborating with them to promote the art of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary designs." Kiaasa's two pillars Om Prakash and Amit Chauhan expressed their delight on welcoming Kanika Maan to the Kiaasa family, stating, "We believe that Kanika Maan is the epitome of grace, elegance, and charisma, making her an ideal fit to represent our brand. With her unparalleled talent and immense popularity, she will undoubtedly amplify Kiaasa's presence in the fashion industry and help us connect with a wider audience." Through this partnership, Kiaasa aims to reinforce its position as the go-to destination for discerning women seeking authentic and chic ethnic wear for every occasion. Kiaasa has over 100+ stores over 20+ Indian states spreading its authenticity all over. The brand's commitment to using high-quality fabrics, impeccable craftsmanship, and unique designs that blend tradition with contemporary flair has earned them a dedicated clientele globally. Stay tuned for upcoming campaigns and collaborations featuring Kanika Maan and Kiaasa, as they embark on a journey to celebrate the beauty of ethnic fashion, empower women, and inspire everyone to embrace their cultural heritage with pride. For more information about Kiaasa and its exclusive collection, please visit: https://www.kiaasa.com/ (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by GLOBAL PR CONNECT (GPRC). ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], August 7: SquadStack, a pioneering Indian startup, is revolutionizing the telecalling industry with its modern, tech and data-first approach. As a leader in the space, SquadStack empowers enterprises and SMEs with best-in-class connectivity, usage-based pricing, powerful analytics, and enterprise-grade security. With employment and growth at the core, they propel businesses and individuals to unparalleled heights of efficiency and success. A recentGartner studyreveals that 63% of service & support leaders claim that improving their operations is among their most important business goals. SquadStack positions itself as the leading innovator to address these critical industry challenges. At the heart of SquadStack's offerings is a team of the best-trained on-demand and dedicated telecallers empowered by cutting-edge AI-driven features. AI plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the telecalling executives enable businesses and can seamlessly connect with customers, optimize costs, and analyze performance with precision. As an advocate for inclusive growth, SquadStack champions an employee-centric environment with policies like Unlimited Leaves & Flexible work timings, democratizing skilled work. Powered by the countrys rapidly ascending rate of digital penetration and by leveraging AI, SquadStack enables employment opportunities for anyone with a mobile phone and internet connection, transcending geographical and socio-economic barriers. SquadStack's transformative journey is a gamechanger for the future of work in the country. With the combination of AI and human intelligence, the company stands at the forefront of creating an empowered and future-ready workforce. With over 10,000 trained telecallers and serving 100+ businesses across BFSI, E-commerce, Health & Wellness, and Edtech industries, SquadStack is a firm believer of a digitally empowered India where technology fuels growth and success nationwide. Elated by what is to come,Apurv Agrawal, CEO, & Founder, SquadStackshares,Telecalling as a service can be traced back to the early 90s, but it is only now, in the age of AI, that we witness its true potential. With AI as our biggest ally, we've built efficient and tech-driven systems that empower our team and callers, setting new standards in effectiveness and efficiency. Change can be overwhelming and we recognize the concerns of job displacement by AI, but at SquadStack, we believe in the powerful blend of AI and human intelligence. Our goal is not to replace jobs but to empower our workforce and create a future where AI enhances human capabilities, delivering unparalleled experiences. People will always be at the core of everything we do! In essence, SquadStack's journey is a testament to its commitment to building a future that embraces technology while prioritizing people empowerment. With a Made in Bharat for Bharat approach, SquadStack's visionary outlook encompasses progress, inclusivity, and innovation, positioning them as a driving force in the ever evolving landscape of telecalling outsourcing and customer support solutions. SquadStack is a rapidly growing Indian startup that is revolutionizing the telecalling industry. By leveraging highly trained telecallers, industry-leading connectivity rates, cutting-edge analytics, and a unique usage-based cost model, the company enables businesses across industries like BFSI, Ecommerce, Health & Wellness, and Edtech. Catering to SMEs and enterprises alike, to deliver customized solutions that meet unique needs and provide optimal results and exceptional customer experiences. We work with existing sales talent and homemakers to improve sales conversions and funnel efficiency. Currently, in operation in Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Goa, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune. Founded by Apurv Agrawal, Kanika Jain, Rishabh Ladha, and Vikas Gulati, SquadStacks community of sales experts sell to 200K leads daily on behalf of top brands including Upstox, Razorpay, ZestMoney, Edelweiss, Delhivery, and Classplus. To learn more, visit -SquadStack. (Disclaimer: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
SRV Media New Delhi [India], August 7: Vadodara-based premier Indian institute, Parul University recently became the youngest private university to have received the prestigious A++ grading from the renowned education-centric government body, National Assessment and Accreditation Council. This stamp of approval points to excellent educational outcomes, a crucial metric that the leading institution strives to uphold. The institution, in a rather short period, has made a name for itself in the competitive education sector, and a close look at its success trajectory would reveal one of its most enviable forte: an elite league of faculty members, especially for STEM disciplines. While speaking about its faculty, Dr. Parul Patel, Vice President, Parul University said, We understand that teachers play a pivotal role in the growth of students and the institution is as good as its array of instructors. This is why we have spared no effort in congregating some of the best minds of our time under the same roof. From helping students in their entrepreneurial journey to guiding them in their research aspirations, Parul University faculty members continually endeavour to go above and beyond. Most importantly, true to the spirit of the noble profession they belong to, our teachers inculcate a solid moral compass, encouraging students to be responsible and sensitive future leaders. The teaching staff comprises academicians, researchers and alumni of leading HEIs, such as IITs, NITs, and IISc, among others. Also, top industry experts closely work in curriculum curation as well as student mentoring, contributing extensively to Parul Universitys first-rate, industry-specific pedagogical efforts. Moreover, it's worth mentioning that the concerted efforts of the faculty members have resulted in an impressive track record of innovation and entrepreneurship as well as solid placement records. Speaking of innovation, the excellent faculty of Parul University has been the driving force behind the inception of a whopping 180+ incubates, which have garnered over 8.6 crores. Further, attesting to the superlative guidance provided by the faculty, these start-ups have generated not just an impressive sum of 30+ crores in revenue but also 1100+ jobs. Additionally, with the aim of fostering practical learning and innovation in candidates as well as conducting cutting-edge Research and Development work, the faculty members also spearhead or contribute to 700+ industry collaborations. Under the guidance of the expert faculty members, 5000+ papers have been presented, and 128 patents and copyrights have been filed, proving that the university has left no stone unturned in its human capital investment. Owing to research-centric faculty, Parul University has collaborated with prestigious international bodies such as IAMA ( Indian American Medical Association), with which there were made conjoined projects on medicine and pharmaceutical-centric welfare. Parul University has also participated in an advanced scientific and technological initiative by the renowned Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, in association with Larsen and Toubro. Similarly, the robust placement figures of the institute validate the fact that the professors at Parul University successfully train cohorts that find much appreciation from major industry players. To elaborate, notable recruiters from the university include DMart, Flipkart, Godrej, ICICI Bank, BYJUS, IndusInd Bank, Adani Gas, Patanjali, Aditya Birla Group, Colgate, Asian Paints, Amul, and Amazon, among others. Further, the average and highest-grossed packages stand at 8 LPA and 30 LPA, respectively. In short, Parul University's relentless efforts to bring together good faculty members have yielded great results, whether it is in terms of education outcomes, innovation or research. To know more visit Parul University (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)
Members of the armed police force in Tianjin strengthen the dams at the Jinghai section of Daqinghe river, north China's Tianjin Municipality, Aug. 4, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

North China's Tianjin Municipality issued a red alert on Sunday, the highest level of warning, for possible floods in its Daqinghe River, a major tributary of the Haihe River, which is currently undergoing its worst flooding since 1963, said local authorities.

The Daqinghe River saw its floods reach the range of Tianjin at noon on Aug. 4 when the city had already put the river's significant floodwater detention and retention area into use.

Relevant personnel, emergency vehicles and disaster relief materials have been sent to the floodwater detention and retention area, with the riverway's outer embankment reinforcement work underway.

At present, the Haihe River Basin in northern China is experiencing the worst flooding caused by rainstorms, said the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources.
A 21-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death while two of his friends were injured in Kholi Park in New Delhi's Kholi Khizarabad area, police said. The deceased was identified as Hrithik, the police said, adding that the injured were identified as Sonu (18) and Prashant (19) from Taimur Nagar. The area where the incident took place falls within the ambit of the New Friends Colony police station in the national capital. "The trio were travelling from Khazirabad towards CV Raman Marg on a bike when an unidentified man stopped them. The man then got into an argument with Hrithik, the deceased, demanding that latter come clean on why he beat up the brother of a Shahrukh," a police officer said. "The man, along with three of his friends, and started attacking them (the trio travelling on the two-wheeler) with sticks and knives. The incident took place at 4pm on Sunday," the officer added. Further, according to the police, that the three accused persons were identified as Shahrukh (21), Shoaib (18) and Masoom (19). All were bekieved to be friends of the deceased, Hrithik, police informed further. "Hrithik sustained multiple injuries on the chest, neck and abdomen. He was initially admitted to Lions Hospital. However, considering his grave injuries, he wasreferred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Trauma Centre. However, he was declared dead on arrival there," the officer said, adding that two of his friends sustained minor injuries as well. The Medico-Legal Case of two injured persons was prepared and they were discharged from the hospital upon receiving necessary treatment, police said. The crime team and the FSL visited the spot, collecting physical evidence. Police said they recovered a blood-stained stick from the scene of the crime. The police registered a case under sections 302, 323, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The police added that Hritik was involved in seven criminal cases, including one under Arms act registered in March. (ANI)
President Murmu embarked on a visit to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on August 5. She will conclude her visit on August 8.

On Sunday, the President was accorded a guard of honour at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai.

Speaking at the 165th convocation of the University of Madras in Chennai, President Murmu said, "The University of Madras has promoted a culture of research and academic rigour. I would urge the university to invest more in cutting-edge research, encourage inter-disciplinary studies, and promote international collaborations."

She added that the University of Madras should be at the forefront of finding learning-based solutions to the problems being faced by the nation and the world at large.

Earlier in the day, the President said, "The University of Madras is a shining example of gender equality. By investing in the education of girls, we are investing in the progress of our nation."

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Governor RN Ravi shared the stage with President Murmu at the event.

Governor Ravi said, "You are fortunate to be graduating at a time when our country is experiencing comprehensive transformation. Today, unlike a few years ago, India is not looked upon as a poor developing country at the margin of international affairs."

On Monday, August 7, President Murmu will inaugurate the Linear Accelerator of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry.

She will also virtually inaugurate a 50-bed Hospital at Villianur, under the National AYUSH Mission and attend the civic reception to be hosted in her honour by the Government of Puducherry.

On August 8, at Auroville, the President will visit 'Matrimandir', a city exhibition, and inaugurate a conference on Aspiring for Supermind in the City of Consciousness. (ANI)
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday said that the name of our country is India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to foreign countries to represent the same. Reacting to the remarks made by PM Modi over the naming of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, Uddhav Thackeray said," I.N.D.I.A meeting will be held in Mumbai soon. PM Modi said that even 'Indian Mujahideen' uses India. India is our country's name, on which you (PM Modi) travel.When you travel to America and hug Joe Biden at that time, do you represent India or do you say I am from the Indian Mujahideen? India, Hindustan, and Bharat are our country's names." Uddhav Thackeray further stated that the BJP follows Hindutva for vote bank politics, and that is why he went out of their alliance. "I left BJP alliance because they are doing fake Hindutva. They are only pretending that they follow Hindutva, but they only follow Hindutva for votes. I can't pretend to fake Hindutva," he said. He further claimed that Central agencies such as the ED, CBI, and Income Tax are used to destroy those parties that are in opposition to the BJP. "Today, this BJP daggers us. They are sending their army (ED, CBI, and Income Tax) and saying, Come with us, and if you don't, then we will put you behind bars. They destroyed Shivsena, NCP, and now I am hearing that they are trying to destroy Congress too. ED, CBI, and Income tax are strong only under the NDA," he said. Uddhav Thackeray also mentioned that he has no personal hatred for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I don't have any personal hatred for Narendra Modi. In my heart, I call him Narendra Bhai Modi, but not from outside because they dagger me from behind," he added. Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig in its party's parliamentary meeting that as the Britishers named themselves the East India Company and terror organisations like the Indian Mujahideen and the Indian People's Front, all of whom have India in them, similarly the Opposition was presenting itself with the name of India. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also took note of PM Modi's jibe at the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, comparing the grouping with terrorist outfits like Indian Mujahideen and Popular Front of India. "The day PM Modi links us with terrorist organisations, the home minister writes a letter seeking cooperation from the opposition parties. The gap between the government and the opposition existed for years, but now we see a gap in the government as well. Calling INDIA directionless by PM Modi is unfortunate," Kharge wrote in his letter. Twenty-six Opposition parties had named their alliance I.N.D.I.A during their second meeting in Bengaluru last month. (ANI)
The incident took place on August 2, and police filed a cross FIR following complaints from both sides, they said.

According to the police, on August 2, a PCR call regarding a quarrel was received at around 1.38 PM at Maidan Garhi police station.

After the police reached the spot, they were informed by the complainant that while she was talking with her sister-in-law, her brother-in-law Vashistha Choudhary, came and started verbal abuse, molestation, and physical assault.

She further alleged that Manoj Mishra, Vashistha Choudhary, Krishna Mishra, and Shubhankar Choudhary also joined the assault and beat her and her son. Locals from Maidan Garhi village, including Mahavir Singh, Umed Singh (Counsellor of Maidan Garhi), and Rahul Dagar, also assaulted her son, Shivam Choudhary.

Police have registered an FIR on the basis of her complaint under Section 354B/509/323/34 of the IPC.

Further, on August 3, complainant Manoj Kumar Mishra filed a written complaint against the woman who had lodged the FIR and her family members.

He alleged that his daughter called him and informed him that the complainant and her family members were attacking them, the police said.

On the basis of said complaint, a cross FIR under Section 323/324/341/34 IPC was registered, the police added.

An investigation into both cases is being carried out, police said. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on a plea by Kashmiri separatist leader, Shabir Ahmed Shah.He has sought bail in a terror funding case lodged by the NIA in 2017 against various separatist leaders of Jammu and Kashmir. The Division Bench, comprising justices Siddharth Mridul and Anish Dayal, issued a notice to the agency. The matter has been listed on September 12 for further hearing. Meanwhile, the bench has been directed to place on record the relevant documents. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that it is a fresh bail application. He is in custody for past 6 years. The charge sheet has been filed against the petitioner. His earlier bail plea was dismissed by the trial court on July 7. A petition has been moved on behalf of Shah seeking bail. It has been submitted that the trial court judge erroneously declined to grant bail to the appellant herein by observing that in view of the bar under Section 43D(5) of UAPA and there being a prima facie case established at the point of framing charges, the appellant could not be granted bail. It is also submitted that the Hon'ble Court ignored the complete lack of material against the appellant, the prolonged period of custody undergone, and that no criminality with respect to the commission of the offence was assigned to the appellant. There is not a single criminal act that can be attributed to the appellant. It is also submitted that the Appellant is a reputed political leader in Kashmir, having founded the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party in 1998 with the objectives of seeking the cooperation of people from within and outside the state, to inculcate brotherhood, friendship, and goodwill, cultivate religious tolerance, and foster regional and ethnic cooperation and interaction. The plea stated that the Appellant finds no mention in the main chargesheet and the first supplementary chargesheet, where all the allegations aforementioned have been stated and the Investigation Agency has shown the offences that have allegedly occurred as a result of the said conspiracy. The Investigation agency has in fact gone on to show the interlinkage between the accused persons' chargesheeted where again the appellant finds no mention, the plea said. The FIR that was registered owing to the alleged conspiracy and the investigation showing the execution of the conspiracy in the main chargesheet by the accused persons admittedly does not find mention of accused Shabir Shah or his connivance in such a conspiracy or any interlinkage in so far as the conspiracy or execution of the conspiracy concerned. It is also submitted that the Appellant has only been included in the 2nd supplementary chargesheet and was arrested in pursuance of the same on June 4, 2019. However, the Appellant has been in custody since July 26, 2017, in a PMLA case. The plea has stated that the Appellant has been incarcerated for over 4 years in the present FIR and intermittently for 35 years in different prisons in Kashmir and the country, apart from being under house arrest for a substantial period, without a single conviction or charge against him. On May 30, 2017, the NIA registered a case against 12 accused persons for alleged conspiracy to raise and collect funds for causing disruption by way of pelting stones, damaging public property, and thereby conspiring to wage war against the government of India. On June 4, 2019, the appellant was arrested. On October 4, 2019, a Second Supplementary chargesheet was filed, and the appellant was arrayed as an accused along with others. The allegations against the appellant included him playing a key role in building a separatist/militant movement in Jammu and Kashmir, inciting and instigating masses to shout slogans for secession of Jammu and Kashmir, paying tribute to the families of slain terrorists, receiving money through hawala transactions, and raising funds through LOC trade, which were used to fuel subversive and militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir. It is alleged that on February 26, 2019, his house was searched, and a lot of incriminating material, including documents and electronic items, was seized from his house. Since the formation of JKDFP, accused Shabir Ahmad has become the mouthpiece of Pak ISI, which had been handling him through his Pak/POK-based representative Mehmood Ahmed Sagar. It is further alleged that the scrutiny of CDs recovered from his house has revealed numerous instances wherein accused Shabir Shah had made inflammatory speeches at several locations such as Kishtwar, Bhadarwa, Anantnag, Kargil, Poonch, etc., instigating the masses to shout slogans for the secession of Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India and creating such a surcharged atmosphere against the Government of India that people started pelting stones on the security forces. The investigation has also revealed that accused Shabir Shah was in touch with Pak/POK-based militant leadership, including Syed Salahuddin, Hafiz Mohd. Saeed, and Iftikar Haidar Rana, as the trial court noted in its order of July 7. It is further alleged that the accused, Shabir Shah, was duly supported by Pakistani agencies through Hurriyat representatives such as Shafi Shair and Mehmood Sagar based in Pakistan. (ANI)
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A) alliance leaders raised 'Rahul Gandhi Zindabad' slogans as they welcomed him to Parliament.

Upon reaching Parliament Housse, the Congress leader paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

He also updated his account bio on X (formerly known as Twitter) from 'Dis'Qualified MP' to 'Member of Parliament'.

Congress leaders were also seen distributing sweets outside the Parliament.

Earlier today Lok Sabha Secretariat Gandhis membership after Supreme Court had on August 4 stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.

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 High Court, had, in its order earlier, declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which Rahul 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. (ANI)
China's passenger trips up 56.3 pct in H1

Xinhua) 08:49, August 07, 2023

Passengers board a train at Dingxi North Railway Station in Dingxi City, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 3, 2023. (Photo by Wang Kexian/Xinhua)

BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's passenger trips surged 56.3 percent year on year to 4.32 billion in the first half of the year (H1), data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

The country's road passenger trips totaled 2.14 billion in this period, rising 18.6 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

Passenger trips made via China's waterways soared 146.8 percent from the same period last year to 120 million.

During the same period, passenger trips using China's urban transport stood at 45.42 billion, up 15 percent from the pervious year, the data revealed.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
A Boeing 747 freighter of Kalitta Air skidded off a runway after landing at Ningbo Lishe International Airport in east China's Zhejiang Province on Monday afternoon.

All crew members have been evacuated and there is no visible damage to the aircraft. No deaths or injuries were reported, the airport operator said, adding that the cause of the incident is being investigated.
Dubey referred to report in a US-based newspaper about links between Chinese propaganda and a US Tech Mogul and said the article also mentions an Indian news site which is being probed by ED.

He also made allegations against the Congress in relation to China and sought a probe by Election Commssion.

Dubey said that Rahul Gandhi had met the then Chinese envoy during the Doklam standoff.

As the Chair sought to proceed with the business of the day, opposition members protested against Dubeys remarks.

The House was adjourned till 2 pm. Lok Sabha was earlier adjourned till 12 noon as opposition parties pressed their demands including early discussion on the no-confidence motion against the government.

Rahul Gandhi arrived in the Parliament after being reinstated as member of Lok Sabha.

Lok Sabha Secretariat restored Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership today after Supreme Court stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.

The Congress leader, who was disqualified from the lower house of Parliament on March 24 this year, has been reinstated as MP from Wayanad in Kerala.

The Supreme Court, in an interim order on Friday, stayed Gandhi's conviction in the criminal defamation case over the 'Modi surname' remark.

The Gujarat High Court had declined to stay his conviction in the criminal defamation case in which Rahul was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court over the 'Modi surname' remark. (ANI)
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said that Maharashtra Police is successfully working on Operation Muskan since 2015 under which 35,000 to 40,000 missing children were reunited with their parents. The Maharashtra Deputy CM was addressing the state assembly. "Maharashtra police have succeeded in bringing back 96 per cent of children in 2021, 91 per cent in 2022 and in this year until now 71 per cent. Maharashtra Police is successfully working on Operation Muskan since 2015 under which 35,000 to 40,000 missing children were reunited with their parents. Parliament has praised this mission", said Fadnavis. Operation 'Muskan' also known as Operation 'smile' is an initiative by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was launched in 2015 with the purpose of rescuing and rehabilitation of missing children. Under the initiative, the ministry alloactes resources to the state police forces in order to carry out the operation. Significantly, the monsoon session of the Maharashtra assembly began on July 17. Speaking on the issue of drug-peddling in the state, Deputy CM Fadnavis said, "Maharashtra Police has adopted preventive approach and zero tolerance against crime. Under this, preventive action is taken against around 32,602 people. A Joint Task Force of the Central and the State Govt. is working together to resolve the issue of drugs in every District of the State". In addition, Fadnavis also spoke on the issue of cyber laws. He said that the State Govt. has established 43 cyber labs to combat cyber crimes. "In these fast changing times, cyber crime is a huge challenge for the police. To prevent cyber crimes, the State Govt. has established 43 cyber labs, Very soon, a cyber intelligence unit will be established. Apart from this, a very robust integrated cyber platform is under construction. In this platform, banks, social media, financial institutions and NBFC will be included", Fadnavis added. Adding further, the Maharashtra Deputy CM said, "Action is taken on sand mafias on a large scale. Around 1,566 sand mafias are arrested. Strong action like MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) is invoked". (ANI)
After days of violence in Nuh district, normal life has started to restore in the area, due to the efforts of the district administration, said Haryana's District Public Relations Officer (DPRO). On Sunday and Monday, the curfew was lifted in an attempt to restore normalcy in the area. People of all communities were engaged in restoring peace by cooperating with peace and harmony. People are now completely alert to any kind of rumours. Citizens bought their essential commodities from various markets. The officers of the district administration and police remained in constant contact with the people, said DPRO. It was told that Banks and ATMs were fully operational in the Nuh district during curfew relaxation hours. As per the order of the District Magistrate, banks and ATMs remained open in the district from 10 am to 3 pm during the relaxation of curfew. During this, all the employees and officers were present in the banks. All services related to banks continued to operate normally. Cash transactions functioned as usual from 11:00 am to 3:00 am. There was no problem of any kind in any bank branch in this regard, officials said. The banks were opened as per the order issued by the administration. Common citizens are doing their transactions by coming to the banks. ATMs have also been opened in the city from which customers are doing financial transactions, said Dharmendra Singh, Manager of Union Bank in the city. It was also told that mandis in the district remained completely functional during this period. The mandis of the district functioned completely normal during the curfew relaxation period. Citizens coming from rural areas were also seen buying their essential household items in the mandis. The labourers working in the mandis started getting work like normal days. Whether it is grain market or vegetable market, citizens everywhere were seen busy in their respective works, DPRO further said. Notably, government offices functioned normally with citizens reaching the office for various services. All government offices in the district functioned normally. Citizens are reaching the offices to avail various services. As per the order of Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khargata, all the officers and employees are working in their respective offices, officials said. Deputy Commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata has given strict instructions to all officers and employees of the district not to leave their stations without prior permission. It is necessary for everyone to maintain their station. If any officer and employee disobeys these orders, the strictest action will be taken against them. The Deputy Commissioner has sent a letter to all the officers in this regard, instructing them to strictly follow these orders," DPRO further mentioned. Violence had broken out between two groups on July 31 in Haryana's Nuh district. Meanwhile, the Haryana government announced on Sunday that mobile internet services will remain suspended in the Nuh district till August 8. (ANI)
Air Commodore Vivart Singh, who was commissioned as an Air Officer on June 1995, is a Qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot with over 4,000 hours of flying. He has a rich experience of flying multiple variants of fighter, transport and trainer aircraft.

Singh has commanded a premier fighter squadron and has held important staff appointments at Air Headquarters. He is an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.

The Air Officer has contributed as a Test Pilot in the indigenous fighter project for the homegrown Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas.

Earlier in July, Air Commodore Sagar Singh Rawat was handed over the command of Air Force Station Jammu by Air Commodore Gurjot Singh Bhullar. (ANI)
Accused of vandalizing and assaulting an employee of the Torrent Power Company office in 2011 an Agra court had on August 5 awarded Katheria a jail term of two years.

The MP-MLA court had found Katheria guilty under Sections 147 (rioting) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Katheria an MP from Etawah constituency in Uttar Pradesh said, In 2011 Torrent company came into Agra under Mayawatis government. The company used to provide electricity. People opposed the company because it was charging customers.

Under political influence, FIR was registered on me and a verdict was announced two days ago. I have appealed to the District judge today, said Katheria.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP had previously served as the Union Minister of State, in the Ministry of Human Resource Development from November 2014 to July 2016.

Katheria is a member of Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence and Consultative Committee of the Union Home Ministry.(ANI)
The Supreme Court on Monday expressed satisfaction with the Centre's effort on the cheetah issue and noted the steps taken by the Government after deaths of Cheetahs at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. A bench of justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Prashant Kumar Mishra disposed of the application relating to Cheetah's death after taking note of the submission made by the government. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the government, told the top court that some of the media reports are not accurate on the death report of Cheetah. ASG Bhati also told the court some of the achievements of translocation that happened directly to the wild, including a female cheetah giving birth to four cubs.She also apprised the court about the preparation and said that the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has done a fine job. Responding to the court's query about the deaths of Cheetahs, ASG Bhati said that some may have died due to dehydration. She said that the project is progressing. The Centre also said that this is the first of its kind project and will be taken care of.The Court also noted that an expert panel has been constituted to look after the translocation of Cheetahs. The Court said that it has no hesitation in disbelieving the fact that an expert was not consulted, given that this is an issue requiring domain expertise and falling within the realm of the executive. Ealier, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has told the Supreme Court that they have identified potential sites in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for Cheetah introduction, adding that the diagnosis of mortality events points towards natural causes and none of the Cheetahs has died due to unnatural reasons. NTCA apprised the top court that the provisional diagnosis of mortality events points towards natural causes and none of the Cheetahs died due to unnatural reasons such as poaching, snaring, poisoning, road hits, electrocution etc. In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, NTCA submitted that as per the Action Plan, Kuno National Park, Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh Bulge, Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary and enclosure of Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan are the potential sites identified for Cheetah introduction. On February 18 this year, twelve cheetahs from South Africa were brought to Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park after South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the re-introduction of Cheetahs in India to establish a viable cheetah population in the Asian country. Earlier, eight cheetahs brought from Namibia were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kuno National Park on the occasion of his birthday on September 17, 2022. One Cheetah died due to illness recently. The MoU on the reintroduction of cheetahs to India facilitates cooperation between the parties to establish a viable and secure cheetah population in India, promotes conservation, and ensures that expertise is shared and exchanged and capacity is built to promote cheetah conservation. Notably, a Cheetah named Dhatri (Tiblisi) died at the national park this week on Wednesday, while another big cat, named Suraj, died last month on July 14. With these, the total number of deaths of Cheetahs at Kuno Park rose to nine, including the death of three cheetah cubs. (ANI)
Responding to BJP's allegations that China and Congress are part of one umbilical cord, the senior leader of the grand old party Shashi Tharoor on Monday said that such a charge makes no sense as his party is the only one who criticizes the Centre for not being "tough enough" on the south-East Asian country after they killed our 20 soldiers in Galwan. Tharoor's reactions came hours after Union Minister Anurag Thakur alleged that China had signed an agreement with the Congress party and made payments to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation during the regime of the UPA and said that Congress, China all are part of anumbilical cord. Information and Broadcasting Minister Thakur on Monday attacked the Congress party alleging that it and other parties had supported the NewsClick platform when it was investigated by central agencies. The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, slammed the Congress party for supporting the NewsClick portal, after a report highlighted Chinese funding to the platform aimed at spreading Beijing's propaganda. Reacting to it, the Congress MP said, "This kind of politics is absurd, no one in political parties can be considered as anti-Indian. We have a different view of how India should progress and what it needs in terms of its future as a democracy and that's the difference." He said that instead, we (Congress) have been critical of this government for not being tough enough on China after they killed 20 of our soldiers in Galwan. "So it makes no sense to make such a charge," said Tharoor. US-based newspaper The New York Times had in a recent report stated that one person identified as Neville Roy Singham by the daily as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, has worked closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing the Chinese propaganda worldwide. Union Minister Thakur, in a press briefing, said, Congress, China and NewsClick are all part of an umbilical cord. Chinese products are clearly visible in Rahul Gandhis fake Mohabbat ki Dukaan. His love for China can be seen. Their purpose was to run an anti-India and Break India agenda. Neville Roy Singham made the funding to NewsClick, and he was himself being funded by China. Neville Roy is in direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Chinese propaganda party. And these facts have been exposed by those newspapers which are highly praised by the Congress party, Thakur had said. (ANI)
After two terrorists were gunned down as security forces foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in the general area of Degwar Terwan in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch, the Indian Army on Monday said that the one of the killed terrorists was Division Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terror outfit. The killed terrorist has been identified on the basis of Police Records as Muneer Hussain. He was a dreaded terrorist and a Division Commander of Hizbul Mujahideen(HM), Lt Col Suneel Bartwal PRO(Defence) Jammu said. According to an Army statement, Muneer Hussain was close associate of Maulana Dawood Kashmir(TuJ) who in turn is a close associate of Syed Salauddin (HM). The statement further said that the killed terrorist along with his bodyguard came with the agenda of reviving Hizbul Mujahideen in Rajouri and Poonch of J-K. As per reliable intelligence inputs, a high level meeting of Hizbul Muzahiddin Group took place in Islamabad which he attended. Agenda of the meeting was revival of terrorism in Rajouri & Poonch areas. Recently high level meeting of HM group took place in Islamabad which he attended. Agenda of meeting was revival of HM in Rajouri and Poonch. Muneer Hussain along with his body guard was sent with the agenda of reviving HM in Rajouri, Poonch / South of Pir-Panjal (SPPR). He was given a larger leadership role of Tanzeems and told to revive terrorism South of Pir Panjal, the statement said. The Army statement further said that Muneer Hussain is the senior most leader of HM terror outfit. He is the most dreaded terrorist killed in the last 10 years in Rajouri/Poonch, it added. It is evident that Pakistan is trying to send old terror veterans to JK to motivate and recruit youth thus making desperate attempts to revive terrorism, the statement added. Two terrorist were gunned down as security forces foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in the general area of Degwar Terwan in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch during the wee hours of Monday, a Defence official said. Two terrorists were engaged by the joint teams of the Indian Army and J&K Police. One terrorist fell down immediately, and the second terrorist tried to run back, engaged and hit and was seen falling down near LoC. Operation underway, Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, PRO (Defence) Jammu said. (ANI)
"In yet another success in its crusade against Narco terrorism, the Srikona Battalion of Agartala Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (East), recovered 13 soap cases of Heroin worth approx Rs 80 lakhs from Chotabekra, Jiribam district and apprehended three individuals on August 7, 2023. The operation was jointly launched with a special team of Jiribam police," stated an official release.

Exploiting the current situation in Manipur, the smugglers were trying to smuggle drugs from Manipur to Assam.

The recovered consignment and apprehended individuals were handed over to Jiribam police for further legal proceedings.

Drug trafficking is a major cause of concern in North East due to its proximity to the Golden Triangle. Assam Rifles, rightly christened as the Sentinels of Northeast have continued their efforts against Narco terrorism which is continuously fuelling insurgency in the area.

The operation contributed to the goal of preventing the youth from falling prey to the drug menace. Assam Rifles will continue its efforts to achieve a drug-free society. (ANI)
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that MP Rahul Gandhi will "definitely"speak during the no-confidence motion discussion to be held in the Lok Sabha on August 8. "(Rahul Gandhi) will definitely speak," said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on being asked if Rahul Gandhi will speak during no-confidence motion discussion in Lok Sabha tomorrow. According to Congress sources, Rahul Gandhi is also likely to open the debate from the Congress side in the House tomorrow. Earlier today, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said that he is absolutely certain that Rahul Gandhi will participate in the discussions on the no confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. Reacting to the restoration of Rahul Gandhi's membership in the Lok Sabha, speaking to ANI, Karti Chidambaram said," We always knew this was going to happen. We knew we would get justice in the Supreme Court. I am glad that the Lok Sabha has not delayed reinstating him. We look forward to welcoming him back to the House. And this will strengthen our ranks. A no-confidence motion is coming up tomorrow; this will bolster our arguments on why this government has lost the confidence of India." "I am absolutely certain that he will participate in the no-confidence motion," he added. 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 of I.N.D.I.A bloc was accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last week. The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday restored the membership of Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court on August 4 stayed his conviction in the Modi surname remark case. The Congress leader who was disqualified from the lower house in March 2023 was reinstated as the Wayanad MP. Talking to ANI, Uttarakhand state All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge Devendra Yadav said, "I would like to congratulate the public...Rahul Gandhi who has come out as the voice of the country, will get a chance to speak again in Parliament. No matter how much the truth is suppressed, it cannot be hidden. After all the truth has won." Earlier the Supreme Court, in an interim order on Friday, stayed Gandhi's 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 High Court, had, in its earlier order, declined to stay Rahul's conviction in the criminal defamation case in which Rahul 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 an MP from Keralas Wayanad on March 24. (ANI)
Iran's government are sending women for counselling in an effort to enforce regulations requiring them to cover their hair. Healthcare organisations have warned that the country's judiciary is appropriating mental medicine for its own ends, but others have cited the action as evidence that the government is unable to uphold hijab rules, France 24 reported. In a symbolic act of defiance, Iranian actress Afsaneh Bayegan has repeatedly posted photos of her unveiled hair on Instagram and recently attended a public ceremony without a hijab. The action infuriated the Iranian government, which has been searching for fresh means to compel women to cover their hair. According to the country's Fars News Agency, Bayegan, 61, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and told to go to a "psychological centre" once a week to "treat her anti-family personality disorder." A few days earlier, a court in Tehran province sentenced a woman to spend a month cleaning corpses in a morgue after she was caught driving without a hijab. Many Iranian women have chosen to start showing their hair since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 after being detained by Irans morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf. Iranian celebrities, athletes and actresses have followed suit in solidarity. The sentence that [Bayegan] was given sets an example, explains Azadeh Kian, an Iran specialist and professor of political science at Universit Paris Cit. Bayegan was one of Irans first cinema stars after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and is a respected figure on Iranian television," France 24 reported. Bayegans case is not an isolated one. Iranian judges recentlydiagnosedIranian actress Azadeh Samadi with an antisocial personality disorder after she wore a hat instead of a hijab at a funeral. Samadi will also have to seek therapy weekly in a psychological centre. At the start of July, a Tehran court sentenced a woman to two months in prison and six months of psychological treatment for a contagious psychological disorder that leads to sexual promiscuity because she didnt wear a hijab. The surge in sentences forcing women to undergo psychological treatment has alarmed the Iranian psychiatric sector. In anopen lettersent to the head of the countrys judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, on July 23, thepresidents of four mental health organisations accused authorities of exploiting psychiatry for other purposes. Diagnosing mental health disorders is the responsibility of psychiatrists, not judges, they decried, according to France 24. Their concerns are all the more serious given that even young children are not being spared. At the peak of the anti-government protests that broke out in Iran following Mahsa Aminis death, Education Minister Youssef Nouri admitted that schoolchildren were being detained in the streets or at school and held in medical psychological centres where they were re-educated to prevent anti-social behaviour. Kian said this misuse of psychiatric treatments is first and foremost, a demonstration of the disarray of the authorities. Despite government efforts to raise the pressure on anti-hijab protesters, more and more women have been abandoning their headscarves in recent months. Authorities have been handing out hefty fines, sending text messages if women are spotted driving without a hijab, confiscating vehicles and even pressuring employers including those in the private sector to get women fired. Unveiled women have even been refused hospital treatment while shops catering to them have been forced to shut down, France 24 reported. In July, the authorities temporarily closed the offices of the Iranian equivalent of Amazon, Digikala, after a photo was posted on social media showing employees at the retail giants headquarters without headscarves. The authoritieshavetried everything [to stop women from disobeying the hijab law] and it hasnt worked, Kian says. Theyare becoming increasingly weakened, forced to take measures like psychologicaltreatment. ForFarhad Khosrokhavar, the director of studies at the Paris-basedSchool of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences,the trend isyetanotherexampleof the rift betweentheIranian authorities and Iranian society, especially its youth. At the uppermost echelons of the authorities, who are mostly men in their eighties, power comes with certain preconceptions and arbitrary notions, he said. They are trying to impose standards that are totally disembodied and no longer have any legitimacy in the eyes of Irans youth. They are further discrediting themselves within Iranian society and losing legitimacy, he added. But the effort toclamp down onanti-hijabprotestersisnot likely to slow anytime soon. Various branches of the Iranian stateseem to be taking part ina game of one-upmanshipto stifle any act of defiance, Kian observes. A bill presented to the Iranian parliament at the end of July proposed even harsher penalties for women who refuse to wear a headscarf, France 24 reported. If this law is passed, women could lose their civil rights, their right to work. They would be deprived of everything, Kian said. Most importantly, the Bill introduces a new crime that has sparked concern among legal experts, namely that of promoting being unveiled. It would mean that, for repeated offences, unveiled women could be accused of disseminating ideas against the hijab in which case they could even be sentenced to death, Kian warned. (ANI)
Russia has all military and military-technical capabilities to counter threats in the Black Sea, and the country's security will be ensured, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS. "The main thing is that we have all military and military-technical capabilities to stop this situation without compromising the interests of our security, the security of our people and facilities," the deputy minister said. "We will never compromise our security interests and will reliably ensure them," he added. According to Ryabkov, Russia keeps on focusing the Wests attention on the security situation in the Black Sea and the United States and United Kingdoms policy on this matter has no common sense. "I think that Washington and Londons escalators and dangerous course have no spark of common sense. We will continue relevant efforts," he said. "The Americans are playing with fire and this is dangerous. In the past, we saw situations when they were on the brink of a more far-fetching incident but have been managing to escape it so far. This is why we call on them to show more wisdom and not to believe allegations of their own propaganda that they can resolve these or those tasks they have set for themselves the way they need. No way. We will never bargain our security interests and ensure them reliably," he added. Earlier, Ukraine issued a warning about a "military threat" near six Russian Black Sea ports, namely Anapa, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Taman, and Tuapse, from August 4. (ANI)
The regional bloc ECOWAS had set a deadline for the release and restoration of Niger's democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum which was supposed to expire on Sunday. The deadline is being met by the coup leaders, according to Euronews. If the junta, which grabbed power on 26 July, does not comply, it may face a foreign military intervention, the ECOWAS deadline stated. Its leaders claimed that they ousted the president to fight jihadist insurgents and stop corruption. On Sunday, some 30,000 supporters of the coup gathered at a stadium in the capital, Niamey, for a rally attended by junta leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, Euronews reported. Euronews is Europes international news channel, providing global, multilingual news with a European perspective. The new military leaders say they will not cave in to external pressure to stand down and have reportedly sought the assistance of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, Euronews reported. Two neighbouring countries, Mali and Burkina-Faso, which have both been subject to recent coups, strongly opposed ECOWAS moves and have promised military support for Niger in case of foreign intervention. However, while some citizens are cheering the coup leaders, others fear what might happen next. In Niamey, people say they hope that talks will take place to avoid any further conflict, Euronews reported. Economic sanctions imposed by several countries since the coup are making life tougher for citizens, with the price of basic staples such as rice and vegetables increasing sharply. We want peace, no aggression by foreign countries against another country. Just to be able to afford to eat is a problem for us. So, if there is a war that wont fix anything," Niamey resident, Mohamed Noali told Euronews. ECOWAS, which agreed to the military action last week, has not said what its next steps would be, or exactly what time the deadline expires on Sunday. (ANI)
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has claimed that the PTI chief Imran Khan's life is in danger and the jail authorities are not even providing meals to him, ARY News reported on Sunday. He added that Lahore police immediately reached Zaman Park's residence to arrest the PTI chief when the order was issued to the IG Islamabad. He further said the court directed the authorities concerned to keep the PTI chief at the Adiala Jail but he was shifted to the Attock Jail. He added that there is a lack of facilities at the Attock Jail where "B Class" facilities are not provided, ARY News reported. Claiming that a former premier was imprisoned in a "C Class" prison cell, Qureshi said the lawyers were not given access to Imran Khan in jail. He added that they cannot file an appeal for the PTI chiefs release without having his signature on the power of attorney. Qureshi also criticised that the PTI chief was not taken to the Poly Clinics medical board for his medical examination which is a mandatory right of each inmate and the responsibility of the jail administration, ARY News reported. He demanded the judiciary to take notice as the Khans life is in danger. On Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was arrested from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after he was found guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years in prison. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was shifted to Attock jail after his arrest in the Toshakhana case, ARY News reported. The court also imposed PKR 100,000 fine on the convicted chief of the PTI. The court also declared the former prime minister ineligible to hold public office for five years. (ANI)
Air defence systems in the Syrian capital were activated against the attacks.

Explosions were also heard in the city, according to Syrian media.

The last attack in Syria took place two and a half weeks ago, according to N12 when the IDF attacked seven targets in Damascus using missiles from the Golan Heights.

Among the targets were military depots, a truck parking lot, and an anti-aircraft battery.

The Israeli strike was reportedly aimed at military sites, near the town of Al-Dimass. At these sites are reportedly warehouses belonging toHezbollah, N12 reported.

Further details are awaited. (ANI)
Niger edged closer to conflict after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deadline threatening military intervention expired on Sunday. In the wake of an ultimatum from the West African states to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, Nigers coup leaders have closed the countrys airspace, Al Jazeera reported on Monday. The move announced late on Sunday, came as tens of thousands of coup supporters gathered at a stadium in Nigers capital, Niamey, to cheer on the generals who seized power or the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). Amadou Abdramane, a spokesman for the CNSP, cited the threat of military intervention from the ECOWAS for the airspace closure. Abdramane said in a statement read out on national television, that there had been a pre-deployment of forces in two Central African countries in preparation for intervention, but did not give details. In the face of the threat of intervention, which is becoming clearer through the preparation of neighbouring countries, Nigers airspace is closed from this day on Sunday for all aircraft until further notice, Al Jazeera quoted Abdramane as saying. He added, Nigers armed forces and all our defence and security forces, backed by the unfailing support of our people, are ready to defend the integrity of our territory, he added. Meanwhile, the deadline set by regional bloc ECOWAS was supposed to expire on Sunday. If the junta, which grabbed power on July 26, does not comply, it may face a foreign military intervention, the ECOWAS deadline stated. Its leaders claimed that they ousted the president to fight jihadist insurgents and stop corruption. Amid the threat of a regional conflict, West African countries are divided in picking sides. While, Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have said they would send troops. Although, the Nigerian Senate has pushed back against President Bola Tinubus request for a deployment approval, asking him to explore options other than the use of force. On the other hand, Burkina Faso and Mali which are ruled by military-backed governments have said any intervention in Niger would be considered a declaration of war against them. Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also warned against a military solution. Notably, France Nigers former colonial ruler, which has about 1,500 troops in the country said it would firmly back whatever course of action ECOWAS takes after the deadline expired. But it did not specify if that included military assistance. Russia, on the other hand, has opposed military intervention in Niger, while the head of its Wagner mercenary group has offered the services of his fighters to the country. Nigers coup leaders have reportedly sought help from Wagner, which has become an influential force in Mali since the coup there in 2021 and has a longer-standing presence in the Central African Republic as well as Libya. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, military coups have occurred frequently in Niger. However, political instability has declined recently. In 2021, Bazoum was elected president in the nation's first democratic transfer of power. Before gaining its independence in 1960, Niger spent more than 50 years as a French colony. Strong diplomatic relations existed between the two nations prior to Thursday's coup, but many Nigeriens believe France has continued to treat Niger like an imperial state, depriving it of its natural riches and imposing its leaders' economic policies. One of the poorest nations in the world, Niger receives aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. (ANI)
Singapore is well-known for being a financial hub and high-tech manufacturing hotbed as well as an attractive destination for visitors. It is also an appealing business centre where many global companies have based their Asian headquarters. What is not very well-known is that Singapore is one of the most important oil trading and refining centres in the world. In fact, it is one of the top three oil trading and refining centres in the world. With a total crude refining capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day, it is the worlds fourth-largestexporter of refined petroleum, fuels and chemicals. Key players in the sector, and related industries like builders of offshore rigs and floaters, also site their regional headquarters on the island. In 2020, output from the oil and gas and petrochemical industries here was valued at about USD 60 billion but this figure fluctuates a fair bit due to the volatile price of oil. The petrochemical industry in Singapore accounts for 23 per cent of the nations total merchandisetrade, five per cent of GDP and employs almost 30,000 people. As a comparison, manufacturing is about 30 per cent of GDP employs close to half a million people and financial services which makes up around 15 per cent of the economy hires over 200,000 people. When British energy giant Shell announced in June that it would assess the viability of its refining and manufacturing facilities on Bukom and Jurong islands, it was met with a little bit ofconsternation in the country. The talk in the industry is of divestiture, repurposing, or even closure if a suitable buyer or buyers cannot be found. That Shell is doing so should not be a surprise as its a reflection of a trend and challenges faced by the petroleum industry across the world due to a move towards renewable sources of energy. Already in March, Shell made a decision not to go ahead with two projects it said it was studying to produce biofuels and base oils in Singapore. The project had it proceeded, would be sited on Bukom Island and have the capacity to produce 550,00 tonnes per year of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to supply major Asian aviation hubs such as Hong Kong International Airport and Singapore's Changi. The plant would also have the flexibility to produce renewable diesel and bionaphtha feedstock for petrochemicals. If Shell, which has been in Singapore for over 130 years, does withdraw from Singapore, it is by no means the first major European oil company to do so. BP (formerly British Petroleum) closed its refining business in Singapore in 2004 and sold its stake in Singapore Refining Company in 2004 to PetroChina and Chevron. Like other petrochemical and plastics suppliers, Shell is reducing its dependence on these twoenergy-intensive products as a way to shrink its carbon footprint and become a net zero emitter by 2050. Shells Energy Transition initiative will see it become more of a natural gas giant than an oil major. Singapore as a nation has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In its Long-Term Low-Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS), it said that it plans to reduce emissions Intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and stabilise greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of peaking around 2030. However, industry and government officials believe that demand for fuels, lubricants andpetrochemicals will continue to be robust for many years to come especially in the emergingmarkets which surround Singapore. The city-state which has a natural deep-water harbour occupies a strategic spot where the Straits of Malacca intersects the South China Sea and is within close shipping distance to these rapidly growing markets where need for these products will remain strong for decades. Contrary to Shell, ExxonMobil, the number one energy company in the world by revenue, said it has been growing its business in Singapore to meet the increasing demand for its products across the region. Geraldine Chin, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, told SingaporesStraits Times, When we invest, it is for the long term, through the ups and downs of businesscycles. She expects that demand for cleaner fuels and lubricants will grow across Asia and these can be developed from bottom-of-the-barrel products which her company is deploying proprietary technology to produce. Feeling the pressure from the global greening trend on the industry here, the Singapore government plans to transform Jurong Island into a sustainable energy and chemicals park. The island which opened in 2000, was created as a petrochemicals hub by amalgamating seven islands, is emerging as a major exporter of sustainable fuels, recycled chemicals and renewable feedstocks for making industrial chemicals and plastics. Singapore also plans to be a leading regional centre for carbon trading, green finance, consulting and risk management, and other services. Damian Chan, executive vice-president at the Economic Development Board, said, We havecontinued to see a healthy flow of investments from energy and chemicals companies which arekeen to expand their global presence, grow new capabilities to capture green growth opportunities in the region, and transform their business to be environmentally sustainable. (ANI)
Slamming former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) chairman Pervez Khattak alleged that he wanted a puppet chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), ARY News reported on Monday. Khattak said that the PTI chief wanted a puppet Chief Minister in KP and I was not a puppet CM. The former Chief Minister of KP said that PTI had four opportunities for holding elections and every party was ready for election in July. The talks were held with the government team and with former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa but the PTI chairman was not agreeing even on easy conditions, Khattak said. He further said that if the PTI chief had agreed on the election date with the government the May 9 violence would have not happened. The PTI chairman did not want someone else to get more popular than him in the party, he added. Khattak was expelled from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), over his statement against the party chief. Following this, the former Defence Minister launched a new political party under the name of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Parliamentarians, ARY News reported. Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore soon after he was found guilty of corrupt practices in the Toshakhana case and sentenced to three years in prison. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman was shifted to Attock jail after his arrest in the Toshakhana case, ARY News reported. The court also imposed PKR 100,000 fine on the convicted chief of the PTI. The court also declared the former prime minister ineligible to hold public office for five years. The Toshakhana case, filed by ruling party lawmakers, is based on a criminal complaint filed by the ECP. The case alleges that Imran Khan had "deliberately concealed" details of the gifts he retained from the Toshakhana during his tenure as Pakistan Prime Minister and proceeds from their reported sales, the report said. According to Toshakhana rules, gifts and other materials received by persons to whom these rules are applicable shall be reported to the cabinet division. Imran Khan has faced a number of legal issues over his retention of presents and it resulted in his disqualification by the ECP. (ANI)
A police personnel was killed and two others were injured after a police van in the Badaber area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Peshawar was attacked, Pakistan-based Geo News reported. Police Constable Yar Muhammad was critically injured along with two other policemen when unidentified armed men attacked their van. While undergoing treatment, Muhammad succumbed to his injuries, according to Geo News report. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a police vehicle. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan has witnessed a rise in terror incidents in recent months after the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with Pakistan. As per the news report, a rise in attacks has been witnessed in July, making it the second deadliest month of 2023, with 124 fatalities and 218 injuries. July also saw the highest number of suicide attacks in any single month of the current year, with five such attacks causing the death of 69 people and injuring 175 others. Most of these casualties took place during a suicide blast at a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) election rally in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Keeping in view the rise in terrorist attacks, the Pakistan government has warned Afghanistan against providing safe havens to the outlawed TTP, Geo News reported. Earlier on Saturday, a group of police personnel guarding and escorting polio vaccination team faced an armed attack in Killi Qambrani, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. The attack took place during the last leg of immunisation in the region. Notably, this was the third attack on police officials guarding polio vaccinators during the past week. The other two had claimed three lives, as per Dawn. The police said that the police personnel survived the armed attack and the polio workers also remained safe. Police personnel, who were guarding the polio team, were alert in the wake of Mondays shooting on police in Nawan Killi area, Dawn quoted a senior police officer as saying. After coming under attack, the police guards also opened fire and one of the attackers suffered injuries, however, he was taken away by his accomplices on motorbikes, Dawn reported. However, there was no official confirmation in this regard, according to Dawn. No injured was brought to any government hospital in Quetta till late evening hours, the officials stated. Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove said the government would ensure the security of polio vaccinators. 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. (ANI)
Border talks between India and China have not been halted and both the countries "have made progress on key tension points in the last three years", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday. In an interaction with mediapersons here today, the foreign minister said that there has been progress on key tension points between the two countries in the last three years. He further informed that another meeting on the border talks will be held soon. India-China border talks not halted, meeting will be held soon, Jaishankar said. India and China have time and again faced border disputes and they date back to 1962. The most recent clash was in June 2020, when Indian and Chinese troops engaged in a brawl in the Galwan Valley. Both countries have been holding several rounds of military-level talks to solve issues in the border regions. On April 23 this year, the 18th round of India- China Corps Commander Level Meeting was held at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Chinese side. Jaishankar today said that over the last nine years the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has been "significantly enhancing border infrastructure, including in the areas along Northern frontier". Post 2014, when there is big push on border infrastructure, contestation and patroling has increased from the Chinese side, said Jaishankar. The foreign minister said that India is in talks with Bhutan for railway connectivity with Assam. We are in talks on the Rail link between Bhutan and Assam, Bhutan is very keen to open more points for tourists and it is very good for Assam, Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, on talks between Bhutan and China, Jaishankar said, "...they are having negotiations, and 24 rounds have been completed. They will be holding more rounds. We track carefully what affects us. It is for them to determine the pace." Speaking on Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, Jaishankar said, "Kailash Mansarovar - Infrastructure is building up, there is a need for a tunnel there, Border Road Organisation (BRO) is working and planning it. But, there is no signal from China on coming back to the old process". Terming the Myanmar Trilateral highway a big challenge due to the prevailing law and order situation there Jaishankar said India has to engage with authorities in Myanmar to complete the project and to get access of the Sittwe port. The border situation with Myanmar is challenging. Sittwe Port is operational, and we are hopeful to conclude the coastal shipping agreement this year. Myanmar Trilateral highway is a big challenge due to the law and order situation. We are engaging with Myanmar authorities to meet challenges, Jaishankar said. (ANI)
Four labourers died after falling unconscious during the excavation of a well in the Dora Badhal area of Rawalpindi's Gujar Khan on Sunday, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. Local sources said that the workers lowered a petrol-run electricity generator into the deep well for lighting when smoke started accumulating inside, resulting in their suffocation, Dawn reported. Speaking to Dawn, Mohammad Usman, the in-charge of Rescue 1122 in Mandra, said that they received a call at 9:45 am (local time) informing them that two workers had fallen unconscious while they were digging a well in the Dora Badhal area. Usman said that the teams were sent to the site of the incident for the rescue operation. Mohammad Usman said while the Rescue 1122 teams were on their way, two people who were assisting the exercise went down the well to rescue those who had fainted and were affected by the emission, according to Dawn. He said three people were rescued by his teams and one person was taken to a hospital. According to Usman, the victims were taken to Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) Hospital Gujar Khan for treatment, the report said. However, they could not survive. He identified the victims as Mohammad Ramzan, Wahab Aziz, Jameel Afsar and Mohammad Naseer. (ANI)
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday attacked the Congress party alleging that it and other parties had supported the NewsClick platform when it was investigated by central agencies. The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, slammed the Congress party for supporting the NewsClick portal, after a report highlighted Chinese funding to the platform aimed at spreading Beijing's propaganda. Addressing a press conference in the national capital today, Thakur also alleged that China had signed an agreement with the Congress party and made payments to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation during the regime of the UPA. US-based newspaper The New York Times had in a recent report stated that one person identified as Neville Roy Singham by the daily as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, has worked closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing the Chinese propaganda worldwide. The Union Minister said, Congress, China and NewsClick are all part of an umbilical cord. Chinese products are clearly visible in Rahul Gandhis fake Mohabbat ki Dukaan. His love for China can be seen. Their purpose was to run an anti-India and Break India agenda. Neville Roy Singham made the funding to NewsClick, and he was himself being funded by China. Neville Roy is in direct contact with the propaganda arm of the Chinese propaganda party. And these facts have been exposed by those newspapers which are highly praised by the Congress party, Thakur said. The Union Minister further alleged that when the BJP-led Centre was taking action against NewsClick, Congress and other Opposition parties had come out in its support. In 2021, we exposed NewsClick as to how foreign propaganda is used against India. But, these Opposition leaders came in support of NewsClick and alleged that the Centre is curbing the freedom of the press. Although, Chinese companies were funding NewsClick through Mogul Neville Roy Singham their salesmen were some people from India, who came in their support when action was taken against them. They tried to spread the Chinese agenda and mislead the Indian public through false propaganda. They spread fake news in the name of free news, Thakur said. The BJP leader further stated that while the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate were used to be caged parrots under the UPA rule, the agencies are now under the BJP taking action against platforms like NewsClick. We will not allow the Tukde Tukde narrative to succeed. This is a war against misinformation and it should continue, the Union Minister said. Further, Thakur alleged that during the Beijing Olympics 2008, the Congress party signed an agreement with China, under which payments were made to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. When Rahul and Sonia Gandhi went to China for Beijing Olympics 2008, they signed an agreement under which high-level exchange were to take place. Under their agreement, a payment was also made to Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. And the agreement was signed by none other than Xi Jinping and Rahul Gandhi, Thakur said. He added, What was in that agreement came to light in July 2017, when China tried to encroach on our lands. At that time, Rahul Gandhi was shaking hands and eating food with Chinese officials. Then, again in Cambridge, Rahul Gandhi heaped praises on China calling them force of nature and aspiring superpower. Slamming the Opposition parties further, the Union Minister demanded an answer for supporting NewsClick. My question is to Congress and all Opposition parties who supported NewsClick when they were spreading anti-India agenda. Today, when a foreign newspaper has exposed their agenda, will they answer to the country? I want to ask where was the money spent by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation? What high-level meetings happened with China? Is Congress, NewsClick a part of the anti-India umbilical cord? And, I also want to ask other parties of the arrogant Opposition bloc, what benefits did they accrue? Thakur said. Meanwhile, the NYT report has stated that under Chinese President Xi Jinping, China has expanded state media operations, teamed up with outlets based in other nations and cultivated foreign influencers. Their aim is to disguise propaganda as independent content. According to the report in the US daily, Singhams groups have produced YouTube videos that have garnered millions of views. They also seek to influence real-world politics by meeting with congressional aides, training lawmakers in Africa, running candidates in South African polls and organizing protests like the one in London that erupted into violence. (ANI)
The rise in Khalistan activities in Punjab as well as overseas countries is of utmost concern and requires a proactive approach from policymakers and the national security establishment to counter the Pakistan-sponsored threat, author Antariksh Singh wrote in a piece in Khalsa Vox. Notably, the Khalistan movement supported by Pakistan has lately seen a steady rise among the Sikh diaspora in Canada, Australia, the US, and the UK, where it holds a significant presence. This upswing in activity since 2022 appears to be externally instigated, with elements associated with the Pakistani ISI calling for a referendum on Khalistan. The author stated that the Khalistani groups abroad have resorted to violent acts, primarily targeting Indian interests, especially in Punjab. Diplomatic missions have been vandalized, temples defaced, and past incidents of Khalistan terror in India have been glorified. A concerning incident occurred in July 2023 when the Indian Consulate in San Francisco was set on fire by Khalistan separatists belonging to the newly formed group Sikhs for Justice. This organization further escalated the situation by calling for the killing of Indian diplomats stationed in Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia, Khalsa Vox piece stated. These separatist elements have even conducted referendums for a separate Khalistan, attracting significant participation from the Sikh community in various countries. Additionally, incidents of communal violence between Khalistan supporters and pro-India groups were reported in places like Canada and Australia. As per the author, what makes the situation alarming is that these subversive activities abroad are accompanied by violent actions within India itself. Khalistan elements were found to have infiltrated the farmers agitation in 2020, and instances of violence, such as the Red Fort incident on January 26, 2021, have occurred, raising further concerns about the revival of terror in Punjab. Canada, which provided sanctuary to notorious Khalistan terrorists in the past, has been identified as a hub for Khalistan sympathizers, with some political support from the administration. Indian authorities have expressed concern over Canadas failure to act on this matter due to perceived vote bank politics, Khalsa Vox piece stated. Notably, the revival of the Khalistan movement is viewed as Pakistans desperate attempt to revive the terror profile of the 1980s in Punjab, after India made progress in controlling cross-border terrorism in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. The situation necessitates a proactive approach from policymakers and the national security establishment to address the growing threat. Diplomatic, political, and police measures must be implemented to prevent further deterioration in Punjab. Additionally, efforts should be made to counter pro-Pakistan lobbies internationally, supported by China, and promote unity among Punjabis based on the values taught by Guru Nanak. For addressing the situation effectively, the author advises appointing a Governor with a national security background to guide the state and educate the state government on the developing security challenges. Punjab needs to be handled with a mature approach, in coordination with the national security set-up and requires a smooth Centre-State relationship to advance the larger interests of the state and the nation. This resurgence of the Khalistan movement must be seen in the context of Indias national security horizon, marked by rising external threats endangering internal security. The strategic advantage gained by Pakistan over India in Afghanistan due to the return of the Taliban, increased collaboration between Pakistan and China, and the use of social media for information warfare and radicalization of terrorists are major security concerns, Khalsa Vox piece stated. China and Pakistan are actively working together to exploit opportunities to destabilize India through clandestine funding, weapon supply, and drug trafficking via drones. The situation in Punjab, therefore, demands urgent attention and robust measures to counter the growing threat of Khalistan militancy, author Antariksh Singh further stated in the piece. (ANI)
The latest edition of the Malabar exercise is all set to commence in the Australian waters from August 11-21 that will see the participation of the United States, Japan, India and Australia. Australia is also the host for this mega event which is being hosted there for the first time. The ten-day exercise aims to deepen the interoperability between the key partners, Australia, India, Japan and the United States who are also members of the Quad or the Quadrilateral security dialogue. The exercise is also designed to deepen the partnership for the Indo-Pacific, for shared aspiration, for a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific and it will be followed immediately afterwards by AUSINDEX, the bi-annual naval exercise between India and Australia. The Malabar series of exercises began as an annual bilateral naval exercise between India and the US in 1992. Japan joined the Naval Exercises in 2015. Malabar 2020 saw the participation of the Australian Navy also. Malabar exercise is a navy-led exercise that will witness the participation of the navies from all four countries. Two major Australian ships HMAS Brisbane and HMAS Choules will perform an entry into the Sydney Harbour. The vessels and the aircraft will then proceed out to an exercise area off the coast of New South Wales. The Indian Navy will be represented by its multi-role stealth frigate, INS Sahyadri and indigenous destroyer INS Kolkata. A destroyer from the United States will be seen along with a major surface vessel from Japan. There's a large designated and gazetted exercise area which is referred to as the East Australian exercise area which will witness this high-voltage exercise. Though Malabar has four countries as participants, there are no plans or discussions on its expansion at the moment. During his India visit in March this year, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his country will host Exercise Malabar. Albanese was received onboard INS Vikrant by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar with a Guard of Honour. The Australian PM said his visit reflected his government's commitment to place India at the heart of Australia's approach to the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Malabar exercise which represents one of the most complex naval activities that the four nations do together is also the capstone exercise that builds on a number of the bilateral excercises that the countries do with each other around the world. China has been suspicious about the purpose of the Malabar exercise as it feels that the aim is to contain its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, but this exercise is not directed at any country and hence isnt a China exercise per se since it is not a military or the defence arm of the Quad. Notably, the Indo Pacific region has been subject to significantly enhanced strategic competition. And all partners of this exercise are determined to see greater strategic equilibrium and their purpose is to make sure that there is some concrete action beyond the words and talks. Even as Beijing alleges that the Quad is aimed at it, the grouping has maintained that it is not intended against China. Earlier in March this year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Quad is not a military grouping adding it is now engaged in working together to help countries to deal with humanitarian situations in natural disasters. "We are working on things that are really critical," Blinken said at a panel discussion of the Quad Foreign Ministers themed The Quad Squad: Power and Purpose of the Polygon in the national capital in March this year. Australia and India have seen an exponential increase in defence cooperation. Exercising has been both more frequent, and complex and that is an aspiration that both countries are determined to see continue. Since, the United States and Japan will send only one warship each, its important to understand in which context Malabar has been scheduled this year, and the size of exercises and ships numbers shouldnt equate with complexity the important thing here to understand is, what those ships and what those men and women inside those ships and aircraft are doing together. Australian PM during his March visit earlier also noted that Last year, India and Australia conducted more exercises, operations and dialogues than ever before. The strategic importance of the India-Australia partnership is increasing and there has never been a point in both countries histories where they have had such a strong strategic alignment, Albanese said. There has never been a busier or more productive time in the bilateral defence and security partnership and 2023 will be busier than ever in this area, he added. During PM Modi's visit to Australia in November 2014, both sides decided to extend defence cooperation to cover research, development and industry engagement and agreed to hold regular meetings at the level of the Defence Minister, conduct regular maritime exercises and convene regular service-to-service talks. The fourth edition of AUSINDEX was held during between September 7 and 10, 2021 in Australia at Off Darwin. Navies of India, Australia, Japan and the USA also participated in Phase I of Exercise Malabar 2021, from August 26 to 29, 2021 off Guam and in Phase II in the Bay of Bengal from October 12 to 15, 2021. India also participated as an Observer in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 in July 2021. India-Australia Joint Military Exercise AUSTRAHIND 2022 was held in Rajasthan from November 28-December 11, 2022 between Indian Army and the Australian Army, the first exercise in the series of AUSTRA HIND with the participation of all arms and services contingent from both armies. Australia and India have also built links between their defence forces through regular personnel and training exchanges, such as short specialist courses and longer-term higher education positions. Every year, Australia sends officers to attend Indias premiere military educational institutions. India also sends four officers to study in Australia annually. Inaugurated in 2023, General Rawat India - Australia Young Defence Officer Exchange Program offers the opportunity each year for fifteen young officers from across Army, Navy, and Air Force, to learn more about each others training, operational environments and culture. In 2023, 15 young Australian Defence Officers travelled to India and in 2024 it is expected that 15 young Indian Armed Forces officers will travel to Australia, to study Australian Defence capability and culture. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday met former Mongolian President Enkhbayar Nambar and discussed the deepening of bilateral ties and cooperation between the two countries. Jaishankar said that he values the guidance and insights of the Mongolian leader in taking the cooperation between the two countries to the next level. Pleasure to meet former President of Mongolia Enkhbayar Nambar this afternoon. Appreciate his contributions to strengthening our relationship and deepening our spiritual ties. Value his guidance and insights on taking our cooperation to the next level, Jaishankar said on Twitter. https://twitter.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1688448382271193088?s=20 Earlier on Saturday, Nambar called on Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar at the latter's residence on Saturday. The two leaders underlined the cherished ideals of democracy and freedom that form the foundation of India-Mongolia relations. H.E. Mr Enkhbayar Nambar, former President of Mongolia called on the Hon'ble Vice-President, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas today. Both leaders underlined the cherished ideals of democracy and freedom that form the foundation of India-Mongolia relations, and committed to further strengthening the spiritual, cultural and civilisational ties between the two nations, the official Twitter handle of the Vice President stated. Last month, the Indian Army and Mongolian Armed Forces participated in Exercise Nomadic Elephant 2023 in Mongolia. Ministry of Defence in the press release said, "The aim of this exercise is to build positive military relations, exchange best practices, develop inter-operability, bonhomie, camaraderie and friendship between the two armies. The primary theme of the exercise will focus on counter-terrorism operations in mountainous terrain under United Nations mandate." In June, Ganbold Dambajav, Ambassador of Mongolia to India, highlighted that there is a great potential for cooperation between India and Mongolia, especially in the protection of the environment and eco-protection. "I'm happy to be here and attended the inaugural ceremony of the Boilers Expo. I see that it's a very big event and it's very important. Happily, we are arranging this event together with the GCTI (Global Trade and Technology Council of India). And I see there is great potential for cooperation between Mongolia, India, especially, when it comes to terms of environmental protection and eco-protection. So, we believe we have a lot of future in cooperation, Dambajav told ANI. He called India the "biggest democracy" in the world, adding that Mongolia is a "young democracy." He said Mongolia has a lot to learn from the Indian experience. He made the remarks during the Boilers Expo 2023. (ANI)
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni has approved the nomination of Prime Minister Hun Sens son Hun Manet as the country's new leader after their party won the election last month. "He (Cambodian PM) understood the request of the Cambodian People's Party No. 039/0823 / LKK dated 7 August 2023 on the request to appoint HE Dr HUN Manet as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia," according to the statement released on Hun Sens Telegram channel, "Appoint His Excellency Dr Hun Manet as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia for the 7th legislature of the National Assembly," the statement read. However, to officially become the country's new leader Prime Minister Hun Sens son must win a confidence vote in parliament. This statement came after Cambodian PMannounced that he will resign as prime minister in three weeks and hand the position to his eldest son Hun Manet. He has been prime minister of Cambodia since 1985, reported New York Times. Three days after his political party claimed victory in stage-managed parliamentary elections, Hun Sen, 70, made the news in a televised speech. In the speech, he announced that his 45-year-old oldest son, Gen. Hun Manet, would follow him, adding that since his son is also a politician, the succession would not be in violation of any National Assembly regulations. However, Hun Sen said he will still be the head of the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) and a member of the national assembly. The CPP swept the recent general election on July 30, taking 82 per cent of the vote. Hun Sen said Hun Manet will be appointed on August 10. In June, Hun Sen had said that he would hand over the premiership to his son at some point after the vote. But he also made clear that he had no plans to retire, the New York Times reported.Even if I am no longer a prime minister, I will still control politics as the head of the ruling party, he said at the time. Hun Sen, who has held power since 1985, said on Wednesday that his son would be confirmed as the new prime minister by Parliament on August 22, New York Times reported citing local news media. His government has suppressed all meaningful opposition over the years by jailing dozens of critics and shuttering dissenting news media outlets, among other tactics, according to the New York Times. In March, a prominent opposition leader, Kem Sokha, was sentenced to 27 years of house arrest on a treason charge and barred from running or voting in elections. Another opposition leader with a high profile, Sam Rainsy, lives in exile in France. Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge fighter, has long maintained tight control of most of Cambodias institutions. In recent years he has used social media to reinforce his power. Weeks before the recent election, Hun Sens Facebook account went silent after the company recommended that he would be suspended from the platform for threatening political opponents with violence. However, a few days before the vote, his account was reactivated. (ANI)
On the allegation of blasphemy, a teacher was shot dead by unknown men in Kech district in southern Balochistan, Dawn reported. According to the police, an English teacher, Abdul Rauf, was attacked near a graveyard in the Malikabad area in Turbat town of the district on Saturday when he, accompanied by some people, was going to attend a 'jirga,' a forum for resolving disputes, to explain his position to Ulemas on the matter. The 22-year-old teacher used to work in the language centre. Citing the sources, Dawn reported that students of the language centre had lodged complaints with local clerics, accusing Rauf of committing blasphemy during a lecture. The matter also gained traction on social media. On this matter, Sudhir Ahmed, the principal said that a group of ulema visited the language centre on Friday and listened to the students and Rauf on the issue. Rauf denied the allegation and insisted he did not commit any blasphemy. He tendered an apology for any objectionable words on the issue, according to Dawn. The clerics said they would resolve the issue and asked Rauf to come to the 'jirga', to be held in a madrassa, to explain his position. I invited Abdul Rauf to the jirga where over 100 ulemas from Turbat were present to resolve the issue amicably, but he was killed by unknown masked men before reaching the madrassa, Mufti Shah Mir said. He said police were informed about the issue after the murder. The teachers family has not lodged any case with the police. They received the body and took it to their native town, the Bal Nagor area, for burial. No one from the family is available to provide further information. However, police have registered a case against unknown individuals, as per Dawn. A special police team has been constituted for a thorough investigation into the incident, considering all aspects, District Police Officer Mohammad Baloch told Dawn on Sunday. He urged people to refrain from spreading hate statements or news on social media. The principal said Mr Rauf was studying at Turbat University and teaching English at the centre part-time. (ANI)
In addition, the speakers brought forth a statement from FNF Pakistan that stated 4,253 child abuse incidents were registered in 2022, a 30 per cent rise from 2021.

The session was informed that the state was responsible for promoting and protecting children's rights by teachers, social workers, attorneys, students, journalists, and representatives from several pertinent agencies.

According to FNF Pakistan's leader of the programme, Mohammad Anwar, signs of sexual abuse include terrifying behaviours including nightmares, sadness, abnormal fear, efforts to flee, and the emergence of sexual behaviour that is incredibly inappropriate for the child's age, reported Dawn.

He made the observation that 50 per cent of child abuse victims knew their abusers, who could belong to any class, caste, religion, or ethnicity. He noted that the perpetrator could be a male, woman, child, relative of the victim, or a total stranger.

Imran Takar, a child rights specialist, also gave the attendees a briefing on the various facets of child abuse.

According to him, psychological disorders caused by child maltreatment frequently result in victims having anxiety and mental health problems as adults.

Senior journalist Shamim Shahid addressed the attendees of the occasion's core causes of the children's concerns, including the nation's political instability and unchecked population growth, Dawn reported.

He said that although there were laws in existence to support and preserve human rights, they could not be put into practice. He claimed that all parties involved must immediately cooperate in order to resolve the problem. (ANI)
Further, according to the VOA report, the Japanese foreign minister expressed optimism that his nation and Ethiopia will work together to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative after a private conversation with the deputy prime minister of Ethiopia.

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, according to VOA.

Since the start of the Black Sea grain deal, which took effect in July 2022, theUnited Nationshas 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, VOA reported.

I mentioned Japans support for the 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, VOA reported.

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, he added.

The Japanese foreign minister's stop in Ethiopia wrapped up a six-nation tour of Southwest Asia and Africa. (ANI)
Its almost back to school time, and that means 11 Cares and our partners will be hosting our annual 11 Cares Pack the Bus event with the Education Partnership.

This years summer school tools drive will take place on Saturday, August 26th from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Pittsburgh area Staples locations.

Participating Staples locations:

4801 McKnight Road (North Hills Village Mall)

6521 Steubenville Pike

2515 Banksville Road

999 Freeport Road (The Waterworks)

6375 Penn Ave in Pittsburgh (Suite B)

Most needed supplies include pencils, notebooks, markers (8-pack), crayons (24-pack), dry-erase markers and scissors. Other high-need items include copy paper (8.5x11, white), headphones, colored pencils and desk chairs.

In addition to the August 26th event, 11 Cares partner Clearview Federal Credit Union will be collecting school supplies at its locations throughout the month.

Thanks for considering helping Western Pennsylvania students and schools.

11 Cares is sponsored by 84 Lumber, Clearview Federal Credit Union, Duquesne Light Company and Highmark Wholecare.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

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Investigators walk around rotor blades from one of the crashed helicopters on a burned hillside in Cabazon, California. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Three people were killed when two helicopters battling a California blaze collided on Sunday.

The tragedy unfolded when crews were dispatched to a brush fire in Riverside County.

A Cal Fire division chief, a Cal Fire captain, and a pilot contracted by the department died.

Two firefighters and a pilot were killed when the helicopter they were using to battle a southern California brush fire collided mid-air with another chopper that was also involved in efforts to put out the blaze, officials said.

The tragedy unfolded Sunday at around 6 p.m. as crews were dispatched to a fire that erupted in the Riverside County community of Cabazon.

"While engaged in the firefight, two helicopters collided," David Fulcher, a southern region chief for California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), told reporters during a press conference.

One helicopter managed to land "safely" nearby, but all three people aboard the other chopper  a Cal Fire division chief, a Cal Fire captain, and a pilot contracted by the department  were killed, according to Fulcher.

The crash sparked an additional four-acre fire, which was later extinguished.

"This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service community and Cal Fire, and Riverside County Fire Department," Fulcher said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the two choppers to collide. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

Fulcher added that he was "thankful" that the disaster "wasn't worse."

"The individuals in the first helicopter were able to land safely without incident, and no one else was hurt," he said.

The chief described the victims, whose identities were not immediately released, as "three great individuals" and "three fathers, three husbands, three friends, three sons."

Fire crews were responding to a fire that originated in a structure and quickly spread into the surrounding vegetation at the time of the collision.

Both helicopters involved in the collision were "under exclusive agreement" with Cal Fire, Fulcher said.

Read the original article on Insider
Two people were killed in a crash Monday morning when an 18-wheeler driving the wrong way on Interstate 30 in North Texas hit three cars, according to Royse City police.

Royse City police and firefighters were dispatched to the major accident scene just before 8:30 a.m. on eastbound I-30 at FM 35. A tractor-trailer that was traveling west crossed over onto the eastbound side of the interstate, causing the collision, police said in a news release.

One of the cars that was hit by the semi truck caught fire and was fully engulfed when first responders arrived, police said. Two people in that car died. They have not been identified.

Eastbound I-30 was closed to traffic between FM 35 and FM 2642 for much of the day during the investigation and cleanup, police said. The eastbound lanes reopened about 3:15 p.m., but traffic was still backed up on the interstate and side streets. Police asked residents to drive safely and be patient.

Westbound I-30 near the accident scene reopened about 11 a.m. Authorities also opened the eastbound I-30 service road between FM 35 and FM 2642 on Monday morning.

Royse City is about 65 miles east of Fort Worth.

This is a developing story. For the latest updates, sign up for breaking news alerts.
Two Lake Wales men died in separate shootings on Sunday that authorities say appear to be connected.

The Lake Wales Police Department said the shootings happened hours apart on Sunday night in the Lake Wales Housing Authority Grove Manor complex. Officer responding to a medical call found Rhasaan Marquese, 23, with gunshot wounds. He was taken to AdventHealth Lake Wales, where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses told officers that they saw Kendrick J. Akins leaving the apartment immediately after the shooting, and police began searching for Akins as a person of interest.

About 11:45 p.m., officers received a tip that Akins was walking near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Sessoms Avenue. As they started looking in that direction, officers heard gunshots and ran toward the shooting. They found Akins lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.

Review Lake Wales officers justified in fatal shooting of suspect who killed police dog

Police said Marquese and Akins are both from Lake Wales and knew each other. They said they don't yet know the motive for the first shooting, but believe the second shooting was retaliatory. There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the second shooting suspect.

Lake Wales police ask anyone with information about the shootings to call 863-678-4223. Or to remain anonymous and still be eligible for a cash reward, call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS (8477). You can also dial **TIPS on your cell phone, visit www.hearlandcrimestoppers.com and click "Submit a tip," or download the free app "P3tips" on your smartphone or tablet.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Police say 2 Lake Wales men die in shootings. One seems retaliatory
A 2-year-old was outside of an Oklahoma Chick-fil-A with his parents when he was struck by a vehicle, authorities said.

The Yukon Police Department responded to the fast food restaurant at about 11:50 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, according to a news release shared on Facebook. Officers learned parents were walking with their toddler when the child was hit in a drive-thru lane.

Upon receiving the emergency call, police and fire personnel swiftly responded to the scene, providing immediate lifesaving efforts before the child was rushed to a level one trauma hospital, police said.

But the child died while receiving further treatment at the hospital, according to the release.

Family members identified the boy as Ismael Perez, KWTV reported.

He and his parents had dined in at the Chick-fil-A before they crossed the drive-thru, aunt Casandra Borjas said on GoFundMe.

The Yukon Police would like (to) extend our deepest condolences to the grieving family during this heartbreaking time, police said. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and we offer our full support to help them through this difficult period.

An investigation into the fatal collision is ongoing. Authorities said the driver of the involved vehicle was going to be interviewed.

We are incredibly saddened by the tragic accident that occurred outside of our restaurant on Saturday, Chick-fil-A at Yukon owner Chad Gerlt said in a statement to McClatchy News. We are assisting authorities with their investigation and our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time.

Witnesses and those with additional information are asked to call the department at 405-354-2553.

Yukon is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.

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The case was as disgusting as it was baffling.

More than 23 years ago, someone left a photograph of male genitalia and a plastic bag of seminal fluid on the dashboard inside a woman's car in the parking lot of the Walmart off Peach Street in Summit Township. Suspected seminal fluid was also rubbed on the steering wheel.

The case has finally been solved.

Using DNA evidence and a law that expands the statute of limitations in certain DNA cases, the Pennsylvania State Police have charged a 68-year-old Pittsburgh-area man with the second-degree misdemeanor of indecent assault and the first-degree misdemeanor of distribution of obscene materials in the incident, which happened Jan. 11, 2000.

The defendant, Jeffrey W. Bechtold, of Trafford, was convicted in 2022 of a similar incident that occurred in Clarion County in 2021. State police said they used DNA in that case to match the DNA from the seminal fluid in the 2000 case.

Pennsylvania State Police used DNA to file charges of indecent assault and distribution of obscene materials from an incident in 2020.

Bechtold was never identified as a suspect until the DNA match, which police made March 9, according to the criminal complaint filed against Bechtold on July 31 in the latest case.

The statute of limitations for the charges against Bechtold would normally be two years, unless the victim was a minor, according to the criminal complaint and its affidavit of probable cause. The victim in the case was 22 at the time.

But since 2004, state law has allowed the prosecution of certain misdemeanor and felony charges related to sexual offenses after two years if DNA evidence is "used to identify an otherwise unidentified individual as the perpetrator of the offense." In such cases, the prosecution can occur up to a year after the "the identity of the individual is determined," according to the law.

The trooper who filed the charges in the Bechtold case, Christopher Marghella, cited the 2004 change to the law in the criminal complaint.

Case unique for Erie County District Attorney's Office

Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said the Bechtold case is new for Erie County. She said it marks the first time her office has prosecuted a case beyond the normal statute of limitations using the 2004 changes to the law regarding DNA identification of a suspect in a case that involves a sexual offense.

She said her office has prosecuted sexual assault cases beyond the normal statute of limitations when the cases involve minors, in which the statute of limitations is expanded. The 2004 changes to the law regarding DNA identification enlarged the statute of limitations no matter what the age of the victim.

"Due to advances in the technology, the statute allows us to pursue cases outside the statute of limitations," said Hirz, the district attorney since January 2022 and a prosecutor in the office since 2002. "It is another tool that allows us to prosecute older cases."

Marghella filed the charges against Bechtold in the office of Summit Township District Judge Brian McGowan. Bechtold was charged by summons, and McGowan scheduled a preliminary hearing for Sept. 5.

Suspect in Erie County case pleaded guilty in similar case in Clarion County

Bechtold declined to comment on the case when reached by telephone at his residence in Trafford, southeast of Pittsburgh. He confirmed that he had been convicted in a similar incident that occurred in Clarion County in November 2021. Police in that case identified Bechtold as a suspect using video surveillance  a security measure not yet widespread in 2000.

In the 2021 case, Bechtold was accused of placing Polaroid-like photos of male genitalia on a woman's car parked at a Country Fair. He was charged in November 2021 with distribution of obscene materials as a first-degree misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced to a year of probation on Jan. 5, according to court records.

As part of the sentence, according to court records, Bechtold was ordered to undergo an evaluation for drugs and alcohol and ordered to "submit a DNA sample."

A 'hit' from DNA database opened up 2000 case

In the 2000 case, the victim reported the incident at Walmart to state police shortly after it happened, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint said the victim, a resident of Fairview Township, had driven her boyfriend's car to Walmart with a friend and parked outside the store.

In 2000, the Walmart was at 1900 Keystone Drive, off upper Peach Street in Summit Township. The current Walmart Supercenter is at 1825 Downs Drive, about one-quarter-mile south of the site of the former Walmart, which closed in October 2010.

While the woman was inside the Walmart in 2000, according to the complaint, someone  later identified as Bechtold  placed a Polaroid photo of male genitalia and the plastic bag of seminal fluid on the dashboard of the car and rubbed suspected seminal fluid on the steering wheel. The incident happened about 9:30 p.m., police said.

"The victim was frightened and drove home and contacted PSP-Erie later that night," the complaint said, referring to state police.

Police obtained DNA from the seminal fluid and ran the DNA through a nationwide database called CODIS, for Combined DNA Index System, which the FBI maintains. No match occurred, and the state police uploaded the DNA sample to CODIS, according to the criminal complaint.

The profile sat in CODIS without activity until March 9. Marghella on that date received "a CODIS hit" indicating the suspect in the 2000 case was Bechtold, state police said in a news release. Bechtold's known DNA sample had been uploaded to CODIS following his conviction in 2022, and that sample matched the sample from the 2000 case, police said.

Marghella got a search warrant for Bechtold's DNA and obtained it March 29, according to the criminal complaint. He sent that sample to the state police lab for analysis.

The lab report came back July 13. The report, according to the criminal complaint, "confirmed that the seminal fluid left in the victim's vehicle was a match to Bechtold's known DNA profile."

Marghella filed the charges.

Cracking cold cases: Partnership between DA, investigators pushes to resolve unsolved major crimes in Erie area

DNA as key evidence: Prosecutors seek 1st-degree murder against grandson in 1988 killing of Helen Vogt in Erie

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie-area Walmart incident from 2000 leads to indecent assault charge
A massive fire ripped through a barn, killing 26 horses at a family-owned riding school and farm in north Georgia, officials say.

Crews were called around 6 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 6, about multiple reports of smoke near Old Preserve Trail in unincorporated Forsyth County, fire officials said in a news release.

They arrived to find a barn with multiple horse stalls engulfed in flames and determined the fire had been burning well before neighbors called 911, the release said.

A Google search shows the address belongs to Blue Springs Farm in Ball Ground, a family-owned facility offering camps, trail rides, lessons and boarding, according to its website.

In addition to the horses killed, the barn was also a complete loss, fire officials said.

Firefighters had to battle the flames from outside as the fire tore through the barn, making it unsafe to go inside, the release said. No people were injured.

The owner and riders at the property said theyre reeling from the devastating loss.

... We recognize what it is going to take to get back on our feet, a GoFundMe for the farm states. Please keep everyone in our barn family, and especially the Blue family, in your thoughts and prayers as we grieve the loss of some amazing horses who have made immeasurable impacts on hundreds of lives.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.

Ball Ground is about 50 miles north of downtown Atlanta.

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CalFire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher told reporters late Sunday that three people died following a midair collision of two helicopters. Screen capture courtesy of CalFire/Riverside County Fire Department/Twitter

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Two helicopters fighting wildfires in Southern California collided Sunday evening, causing one to crash, killing all three of its occupants, authorities said.

In a late Sunday press conference, CalFire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher announced the incident, saying it happened in the area of Cabazon and was being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

He said the two aircraft collided midair, but only one was able to land safely.

"Unfortunately, the second helicopter crashed, and tragically all three members perished," he said, identifying the fatalities as a CalFire division chief, a CalFire captain and a contracted pilot.

Media Briefing - Helicopter Crash in Cabazon, CA https://t.co/J7ngV1TK1L CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department (@CALFIRERRU) August 7, 2023

Two of the three families have been contacted by CalFire and work was underway to reach the third, he said.

"Although this was a tragic event, we are also thankful today that it wasn't worse," he said.

"The individuals in the first helicopter were able to land safely, without incident and no one else was hurt. We think about this and how it affects the families. They have lost, we have lost, three great individuals, three fathers, three husbands, three sons."

He said the crash happened as six helicopters were responding at around 6 p.m. to a structure fire that had spread to vegetation in the area.

He identified the crashed aircraft as a Bell helicopter that was deployed for observation while the second helicopter, a Sikorsky Skycrane, was deployed to drop either water of fire retardant on the flames.

Two people, including a contracted pilot, were aboard the Sikorsky aircraft and were uninjured.

The crash also ignited a second, 3-acre fire, which was put out, Fulcher said.

"I would like to express our deepest sympathies and sorrow to the families and coworkers and the personnel," he said. "This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service community and CalFire and Riverside County Fire Department."

According to the CalFire website, the fatalities appear to be the first of the fire season, which has already seen nearly 3,900 fires accounting for nearly 100,000 acres burned.
Three people were killed when two firefighting helicopters collided while battling a blaze in Southern California, officials said early Monday.

The helicopters were sent to fight a fire in the community of Cabazon, Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said in a news conference Monday. After the collision, one helicopter crashed, killing all three people on board and sparking another fire, Fulcher said.

I would like to express our deepest sympathies and sorrow to the families and co-workers of the personnel, he said. This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service community and CalFire and Riverside County Fire Department.

This aerial image taken from video provided by ABC7 Los Angeles shows the scene of a firefighting helicopter crash, with emergency vehicles at the base of a mountain and the area blocked off with police tape, in Cabazon, Calif., Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023.

What happened during the crash?

Resources from Cal Fire and the Riverside County Fire Department were sent to fight a structure fire in Cabazon Sunday evening, Fulcher said. Shortly after the first engine company arrived, he said, the fire spread into the vegetation and "a full wildland fire dispatch was initiated."

The vegetation fire covered about 3 acres by about 6 p.m., officials said on social media.

The helicopters were among six aircraft that responded to the blaze. During the firefight, the helicopters collided, Fulcher said. One was able to land safely, but the other crashed.

The crash caused an additional 4-acre fire, which Fulcher said was extinguished. Just after 10 p.m., fire officials reported the "forward rate of spread" of the vegetation fire had been stopped.

Who were the victims?

The victims included a Cal Fire Division chief, a Cal Fire captain and a contract client pilot, Fulcher said. He did not further identify the dead.

Fire captain and spokesman Richard Cordova told The Associated Press the helicopter pilot was working under contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Crash under investigation

Fulcher said the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the crash and his organization would provide more information later Monday.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Helicopters collide, one crashes while fighting fire in California
An effort that started with a private search company working missing persons' cold cases led a team of divers to find nearly three dozen cars under water in a South Florida lake, police confirmed.

Investigators Doug Bishop and Ken Fleming told local 7News on Sunday they found 32 cars while diving in a murky lake in Doral, Florida just west of Miami International Airport.

The body of water where the divers found the vehicles is in a commercial area surrounded by businesses including a Walmart Supercenter, a car dealership and several popular chain restaurants.

Updates from Doral Miami police being pulling cars submerged from a Doral lake. Here's what they found so far.

An effort that started with a private search company working missing persons' cold cases led a team of divers to recently find nearly three dozen cars under water in a South Florida lake Investigators Doug Bishop and Ken Fleming said they found 32 cars while diving in a murky lake in Doral, Florida just west of the Miami International Airport.

Bishop is an investigator with United Search Corps a non-profit group based in South Beach that aims to crack missing person cold cases.

Underwater video footage obtained by the outlet shows one of the divers swim across one of the discovered vehicles.

Which theory do you believe? Inside the police files of a missing childs cold case

Police investigating men's report

Doral Police Department Cmdr. Alicia Neal told USA TODAY the department is working with "multiple agencies" to investigate the men's findings.

We have been informed that a private search company possibly located multiple sunken vehicles in the area of 9064 NW 13th Terrace," Neal said. "We will continue to gather further information in the coming days.

Miami-Dade Police Department Detective Luis Sierra confirmed the agency is investigating the case and plans to remove the vehicles from the water.

"We are coordinating with our divers and looking to pull out the vehicles sometime tomorrow," Sierra said Monday. "Time is still TBD."

Gilgo Beach Jane Doe ID'd: Fifth Gilgo Beach victim identified as Karen Vergata, police say

'Hiding them from law enforcement'

Neither the company, Bishop or Fleming could immediately be reached by USA TODAY Monday morning.

But the team told the local TV station it has found 60 submerged vehicles across Florida, some of which could be linked to crimes.

When we discover a spot like this with multiple vehicles, it pretty much indicates that a crime (took place) where theyre disposing the vehicles and hiding them from law enforcement, Fleming told the outlet.

Bishop said the team works to provide answers to families of missing people.

Departments, respectfully, have to justify their use of resources, and when a case goes cold, we have the ability to step in," Bishop told the outlet. "We dont have to justify our use of resources, and we can help eliminate the drag on personnel locally. We can do this, we specialize in it, we can do it on a high level and do so as volunteers.

Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dozens of submerged vehicles found in Florida lake in cold-case search
A 35-year-old woman was arrested Saturday and charged in the stabbing death of a 79-year-old man who was found on July 1 in a smoldering Daytona Beach home, according to police.

Nichole Maks, 35, whose state of birth was listed as Michigan, was arrested at the corner of Ridgewood and Kingston avenues at 5 p.m. police said.

Maks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Michael Cerasoli, whose address was listed as Port Orange. She was being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail Monday without bail.

Shootings plague Daytona Daytona Beach police chief addresses rash of shootings in the city, promotes collaboration

According to a Daytona Beach police report, firefighters were called to a home at 622 Clark Street at 1:46 a.m. on July 1 and arrived to find smoke coming out of a second-floor window.

Firefighters found the front door unlocked and entered the home. At the top of the stairs they found clothes that had been set on fire and extinguished them, the report states.

Firefighters then searched the smoke-filled upstairs and found Cerasoli on the floor, the police report indicated. Cerasoli was unresponsive, so they brought him downstairs to be checked out by a paramedic who pronounced the man dead at 1:50 a.m., the report revealed.

Cerasoli suffered blunt force trauma to the back of his head and multiple stab wounds to his torso. He was lying on his left side on the floor of a bedroom near the stairs, police said. A knife with blood on it was found near his body, police said.

The landlord told police that Maks lived with Cerasoli at the home, reports indicate. When a search warrant was executed at the home, Maks's cell phone was found on a window sill with a second knife on it, police said.

Shortly after police learned on July 1 that Maks had been in the house, a citywide alert was sent to police. She was found at 3:30 a.m. near a restaurant at Ridgewood and Mason avenues, investigators said.

Maks was holding a knife and a hammer, was shoeless, and bleeding from a toe, police said. She told police she had walked to Ormond Beach and back.

Maks gave conflicting stories about where she lived and initially denied knowing Cerasoli. She then admitted seeing the victim a few times but denied being in the home at the time of the murder, police said.

She became agitated when she was asked about the fire, stopped talking, and asked for an attorney, the report states.

Daytona Beach police had video surveillance recordings and other evidence analyzed, including the knife, found near Cerasoli's body.

On July 28, Daytona Beach police detectives got the DNA results collected from the knife. The blood on the blade belonged to Cerasoli.

Maks's DNA was on the handle of the knife, police said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Woman charged with murder in Daytona Beach stabbing death
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.

Assessing your senior care options can be a difficult process for you and your family. If youre among the majority of seniors who want to remain in their homes for as long as possible, there are numerous home care providers in the Kansas City area that can help accomplish that goal.

Working with a local Kansas City agency allows trained caregivers to come to your home and provide support services, such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication reminders, transportation and assistance with daily activities. These caregivers can come on an as-needed basis to give your loved ones a break or on a regular schedule that can range from an hour a day to 24/7 care.

Below we have a list of five of the best home care providers in the area. Read on to find highlights of the services that they offer, and why they may be a good fit for your needs.

Speak to a family advisor

Right at Home Northern Kansas City  Best Overall Services

5-step senior-centered approach

Memory care, stroke recovery and diabetes support

Caregivers undergo extensive background checks

If youre looking for outstanding home health care services in the Kansas City area, Right at Home Northern Kansas City home care service may be the right option for you. It takes a 5-step approach to ensure you receive the specific services you need. Before creating your personalized care plan, staff members take the time to better understand your health history, physical and cognitive abilities and limitations, daily routines and personal preferences.

Whether youre looking for supportive services just a few hours a week or require around-the-clock support, Right at Home Northern Kansas City can provide you with solutions. Its caregivers handle everything from meal preparation and light housekeeping to medication reminders and transportation.

Synergy HomeCare  Best Family Communication

Daily reports

Memory care support service

Fall prevention recommendations

Caregivers with Synergy HomeCare offer more than just companionship, transportation and housekeeping services; they become an extended part of the family. They strive to create a warm and welcoming environment where open communication with family members is encouraged.

Between making beds and folding laundry, they also keep an eye out for potential hazards in the home. For instance, they might recommend removing a throw rug to prevent dangerous slips and falls.

These caregivers are also there to keep an eye out for those with cognitive disorders, such as dementia, and lend a helping hand with personal tasks such as bathing and dressing. In addition to their regular duties, they prioritize family involvement by keeping you informed of your loved ones well-being through regular updates and daily reports. Every caregiver with Synergy HomeCare undergoes a rigorous background check and ongoing training process.

Home Instead Kansas City  Best Memory Care Services

Specialized in memory care services

Personalized care plans

Offers hospice care services

Whether youre looking for home care services for just an hour a day or require 24/7 care, Home Instead Kansas City can accommodate your needs. Its caregivers provide everything from mobility support and medication reminders to light housekeeping and transportation, with the primary goal of keeping you safe, healthy and happy living at home.

Home Instead Kansas City specializes in memory care support for seniors living with memory loss illnesses, such as Alzheimers or Parkinsons. Its Care Pro caregivers can help you and your family develop a stable daily routine, which is critical for those struggling with memory loss.

Premier Custom Care, LLC  Best Senior Assessments

Online calendar

Assistance with finances

Extensive in-home assessments

The first step for receiving services from Premier Custom Care is to complete a full in-home assessment. Its trained staff members come right to your home to assess your current care needs, understand your personal preferences and identify any necessary home modifications. Premier Custom Care uses the outcomes of these assessments to develop a customized care plan that best matches your needs.

While its caregivers provide various services to help you live at home, such as light housekeeping and medication reminders, they also work to build strong relationships with you and your loved ones. These relationships not only can help you feel more comfortable with your caregivers, but they also ensure you always receive the specific services you need.

Preferred Care at Home of Greater Kansas City, MO  Best Live-In Care Services

Specializes in live-in care services

Offers skilled nursing care

Provides memory loss support services

Owned and operated by a trained EMT and firefighter who is a native of the Kansas City area, Preferred Care at Home of Greater Kansas City, MO, focuses on helping seniors remain safely at home while also maintaining their dignity. It offers all levels of home care services but specializes in 24/7 live-in care support.

Your caregivers can help with tasks such as grooming, bathing and toileting. They may also prepare meals for you and complete light housekeeping tasks, or help transfer you from your bed to a wheelchair as necessary. All employed caregivers undergo an extensive background check and receive initial and ongoing training, including in memory care support.

Bottom Line

Seniors wishing to remain living at home can benefit from in-home care services. Before searching for a home care agency, take some time to determine exactly what types of services you require. For example, are you just looking for a caregiver to provide companionship and basic assistance or do you also require transportation to and from doctor appointments? Understanding your specific needs can help you better determine which home care agency is best for you.

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.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Monday blocked new rules implemented by the Department of Education that aimed to make it easier for defrauded borrowers to get access to student debt relief.

The conservative three-judge panel granted the injunction in favor of Career Colleges and Schools of Texas (CCST) until the case is heard on appeal in November.

CCST is a for-profit group that represents trade schools and for-profit colleges in Texas. The group sued the Department of Education after it released new rules that make it easier for students defrauded by their schools to get debt relief.

The department has long had a borrower defense program available to individuals with student loans who believe they were defrauded by their institutions, which most commonly involves for-profit schools.

The new rules include barring schools from forcing students to sign mandatory arbitration agreements and a provision that gives borrowers automatic student debt relief a year after a school closes.

We are reviewing the courts order. The Department issued a set of new and stronger regulations to ensure that borrowers have a path to relief when their colleges take advantage of them or leave them stranded by closures, an Education Department spokesperson said.

And the Department wont back down in our efforts to take on predatory colleges, provide relief to borrowers who have been cheated or had their school close, and hold institutions accountable for deceptive schemes, the spokesperson added.

CCST sued the administration, arguing the new rules were just another way for the administration to give student loan forgiveness and that the standards for fraud were unfair to colleges. A district court originally rejected their plea before it went to the 5th Circuit.

CCST is not commenting on the matter, but other college organizations are celebrating the move from the 5th Circuit.

We are pleased that the 5th Circuit has ruled in favor of delaying the onset of the borrower defense to repayment and closed school discharge regulations. The facts presented by Career Colleges & Schools of Texas are compelling. Imposing these two provisions would have been detrimental to career schools in Texas and across the country, said Career Education Colleges and Universities President and CEO Jason Altmire.

The website where borrowers can apply for a borrower defense loan discharge says applications can still be submitted, but they will not be processed under the new regulations while the courts order is in place.

Updated at 9:10 am ET.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Scheherazade superyacht features six floors, two helipads, a swimming pool, a spa complex, and a beauty salon. Osman Uras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Scheherazade, a $700 million superyacht linked to Russian President Putin, is being refitted in Italy.

Italy seized the yacht in 2022 following sweeping sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war.

The unnamed owner of the yacht is paying for the vessel's staff, maintenance, and refit.

A $700 million superyacht linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin is sitting in an Italian port and being refitted on the unnamed owner's dime, the Financial Times reports.

Italy seized the Scheherazade superyacht in May last year but allowed its unnamed sanctioned owner to continue paying for the vessel's staff, maintenance, and a refit while it sits in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, the FT reported.

The 459-foot, four-year-old vessel features six floors, two helipads, a swimming pool, a beauty salon, and gold-plated bathrooms, reported by the FT and an Insider report.

It's now being refurbished by the Milan-listed Italian Sea Group, which confirmed the refit to the FT. The company declined to provide further details  including ownership  to the media outlet.

People with knowledge of the matter told the FT that the owner of the Scheherazade yacht is Eduard Khudainatov, the sanctioned former CEO of the Russian state oil company Rosneft.

However, the oligarch is merely the "straw owner" of the vessel, Bloomberg reported in May last year.

US authorities believe the superyacht could belong to Putin, The New York Times reported in March last year.

Two activists working with the imprisoned Putin opponent Alexey Navalny claimed last March that some of the ship's crew members were from a Russian state agency responsible for protecting Putin. The FT reported that the Kremlin denied these allegations.

The Scheherazade is one of the many luxury assets that have been seized by the West following sweeping sanctions against Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022. Other yachts linked to Russian oligarchs that have been seized include the $81 million Alfa Nero and the $48 million Phi.

The Kremlin and Italian Sea Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
At 2 p.m. Friday, the uncle Jatonna Hunt Garner never knew will be buried with full military honors at Salisbury National Cemetery.

The ceremony for Army Corporal Rex Powell of Valdese will finally provide closure to a mystery that has haunted Garners family for 73 years, the Thomasville mother of two told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.

Two weeks before Christmas in 1950, during the Korean War, her uncle was reported missing when his unit was attacked. The Army issued a presumptive finding of death in 1953 but Powells remains were never located. Until now.

Early this year, the 61-year-old Garner received a call from a military forensics investigator that shocked her. Powells remains finally had been identified.

A rainbow appears over the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The remains of Army Corporal Rex Powell of Valdese NC were identified after being disinterred from the cemetery and analyzed at a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lab.

A grandmothers hope

Powell was from small-town Valdese in Burke County, about 70 minutes northwest of Charlotte.

He was underage, probably 17, when he asked his mother to sign his papers at a local Army recruiting office. She refused.

But Garners great-uncle went along with the request and signed Powells papers. Her grandmother never again spoke again to the great-uncle.

Just three months after Powell enlisted, enemy forces attacked his unit near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 12, 1950, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Powell was 18.

This newspaper clipping from the 1950s lists Rex Powell as Missing in Action.

Then in December 1953, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death for Powell.

But his mother, Isa Powell Williams Epley, held out hope until the day she died in the late 1980s that Powell might still be alive somehow.

Maybe he was taken as a prisoner of war and decided after he was freed to live in Korea, Garner said her grandmother thought.

A wandering spirit

Garner knows little about her uncle.

He was 17, she said. Did he graduate high school? Did he finish school?

The answers remain a mystery.

Her grandmother and other family members never talked about Powell or what might have happened to him.

Garner knew only one story about him from her mother, Barbara Hunt, who died last year.

Hunt was a girl when Powell, about 10 years her senior, went off to war. She fondly recalled how Powell was always kind to her, Garner said. She had a little red wagon, and he would pull the wagon with her in it.

Powell was a wandering spirit, according to Garners mother.

He didnt know what he wanted to do in life before he coaxed his relative to sign him up for the military, Garner said.

Identifying soldiers remains

Powell was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, according to the accounting agency.

While it is possible Powell was captured, there was no record or eyewitness accounts of him being held as a prisoner of war, and no recovered remains were ever identified as him, officials said in a July news release.

In 1954, the year after the Army issued its presumptive finding of death for Powell, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea returned the remains of more than 2,900 Americans. None were identified as Powell, and he was declared non-recoverable in January 1956, according to the accounting agency.

This newspaper clipping from the 1950s lists Army Corporal Rex Powell of Valdese as presumed dead.

Powells were among 848 unidentified remains later buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

But as the science of DNA identification of human remains improved over the years, the Army began a project of disinterring remains from the Punchbowl.

In March 2021, Powells still unidentified remains were disinterred and transferred for analysis to the accounting agency lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

The agency accounted for Powell on Feb. 13 of this year, after his remains were identified through dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, officials said.

His name is recorded on a stone outdoor monument called the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, with others still missing from the Korean War, agency officials said.

A rosette, or special marker, will be placed beside Powells name to show he has been accounted for. At least 7,500 other Americans still remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the agency.

Powell also is survived by his nephew, Warren Hunt and his wife, Wendy; and two great-nieces, Devon Gailey and Dylan Gailey.

His funeral will be at noon Friday at J.C. Green and Sons Funeral Home in Thomasville, with Chaplain Tom Barton officiating.

Local members of the national Rolling Thunder motorcycle club will lead the procession to the Salisbury cemetery, which sits 43 miles northeast of uptown Charlotte.

The ceremony will provide closure for Garners family after nearly three-quarters of a century.

Finally, Garner said, hes at home and at peace.
An 8-year-old girl died after being shot in the head outside her apartment, Illinois authorities say.

Chicago police said the shooting happened about 9:40 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5.

The girl, identified as Sarabi Medina, had just gotten ice cream for her and her father before she was shot, according to WLS and WBBM.

She was among a group when the accused gunman approached them from across the street, police said. For unknown reasons, he shot Sarabi in the head, according to police.

Sarabi died after being taken to a hospital, police said.

Before she could even have a chance to put her scooter up, this individual ran across the street, discharged that weapon. Now we have a child thats lost, community activist Andrew Holmes told WBBM.

The accused shooter was tackled by the girls father and shot in the face during the struggle, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Police said the suspect was hospitalized in critical condition. Charges are pending.

Sarabi was believed to be targeted in the shooting, police told WBBM.

A neighbor described Sarabi as an innocent girl who did not deserve that.

She was sweet, she would just ride her scooter up and down the sidewalk smiling, Destiny Hill told WFLD.

A day before the shooting, the accused gunman had confronted the girl about being too loud, neighbor and family friend Megan Kelley told the Sun-Times.

Everybody in the community would just tell him they are just kids having fun playing, just let them, said Kelley, who described Sarabi as an absolutely amazing and beautiful little girl.

Sarabis mother was previously killed in a 2019 shooting, the Sun-Times and WFLD reported.

Something needs to be done. Something has to change, Kelley told WFLD. And just something so senseless like that cut her life short at 8 years old, it just doesnt make sense.

9-year-old playing outside during birthday party is shot and killed, Illinois cops say

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14-year-old found shot dead on South Carolina road, cops say. Teens among 4 charged
(Bloomberg) -- Mexicos Guerrero state, which hosts tourist hotspot Acapulco, is seeing an increasing wave of political killings as criminal groups appear to fight for control, the latest case of violence hurting the Latin American country ahead of general elections next year.

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Over the weekend, a member of Governor Evelyn Salgados family was murdered in his vehicle, the second relative of the states highest authority to be assassinated in less than a week, Reforma newspaper reported. This follows a series of other homicides, burning of vehicles, and clashes between local groups, forcing the government to bolster the presence of the military and National Guard in Mexicos southwest state.

While Mexico tends to see an uptick in political violence in electoral periods, the Guerrero situation and the countrys general insecurity problem can be a growing liability for the party of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the June vote approaches. Salgado and her father, a senator for the government Morena party, are close allies of Lopez Obrador, who has sought to stave off criticism and vowed to investigate the crimes.

Unfortunately, there was this assassination and the wife of the person who lost his life is injured, AMLO, as the president is known, said at a press briefing Monday about the relative, who Reforma reported was a candidate from Morena for a local post. Theyre doing the investigation to determine who was responsible.

Read More: Narco Violence Flares as Mexico Nabs Kingpin Before Biden Visit

Homicide has done a great deal to drive away tourists from Acapulco, which late last century was the preferred destination for everyone from Hollywood stars to Mexico City weekenders. Some of the recent incidents took place on the highway that links Acapulco with the countrys capital, one of Mexicos most used transportation links. Iguala, where Salgados relative was murdered over the weekend, was also the site of the infamous police-involved disappearance of a group of students in 2014.

Even though the military has been much more involved and has been given so much power and leeway in the administration, it doesnt seem to have translated into lower levels of violence, said Rodolfo Ramos, strategist at Banco Bradesco SA. When we see some of these incidents reaching up to close levels to the governor, it could be a preamble of what could come in the election.

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NEW CONCORD  He found his path  from self-described starving actor to college administrator and professor.

As a young child, I was painfully shy, recalled Robert McManus. I started coming out of my shell around high school when I started getting involved in theater and music. Given my shyness as a child, its ironic I wanted to be an actor by the time I went to college. In fact, my first job out of college was acting in a small touring theater company. However, after about a year of that I decided I wasnt cut out for a life as a starving actor.

Robert McManus with his two beloved dogs, Charlie and Linus.

I started working in the corporate sector and returned to school for my MBA, he continued. There was still something missing, though. I missed the creativity that was so much a part of the other areas of my life.

Out of the blue, he added, I was offered the opportunity to teach a public speaking class for a local college because an instructor resigned just before the semester. I found that I really enjoyed teaching. It provided me with the creativity I needed. At the same time, it allowed me to stretch myself to become a subject expert in a particular area. So I went on for my Ph.D. and pursued a career in higher education.

Today, Robert M. McManus is executive director of applied leadership, chair of the economics, accounting, and business department, and professor of leadership at Muskingum University.

I came on board, he said, to develop a new Master of Applied Leadership and Doctor of Applied Leadership. Its the first doctoral program at the university, so we are all very excited. Were also creating an undergraduate leadership program  The Muskingum University Leadership Academy.

McManus grew up in the Chicago area

McManus, 54, grew up just north of Chicago, graduated from a small private high school, then earned his undergrad and masters degrees in the Chicago area and his Ph.D. in communication studies in Virginia.

I spent my 20s trying to find something I enjoyed and was passionate about, he said. That landed me in education. I was lucky. Many people spend their adult lives wondering what they want to be when they grow up.

Teaching that first public speaking class was a game-changer for me, he added. I only considered becoming a college professor when I was almost 30. Once I started my career in higher education, I began focusing on the study of leadership. Ive been working in the area of leadership studies for about 20 years now.

McManus started at Muskingum University in July 2022.

Robert is an exceptional human being, a wonderful collaborator and team player, assessed Bonnie Callahan, associate VP of graduate and continuing studies at Muskingum. But most importantly he is passionate about education and providing our students and doctoral candidates with an experiential learning experience that prepares them to be job ready.

I love teaching, McManus responded. I enjoy working with students and learning new things. And its fulfilling to be a part of something new such as the universitys first doctoral program.

Moving from being a full-time faculty member to being a full-time administrator was a bit scary, he summed. I loved teaching so much. I wondered if I would equally enjoy administration. I do, but its different. I found that I create opportunities for a larger number of people as an administrator. I feel like Im part of something much bigger than myself or even my classroom. Although, I still have one foot in the classroom and probably always will.

For more information about Muskingum University, visit www.muskingum.edu.

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs  whether theyre unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.

This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Teaching changed everything for Robert McManus of Muskingum University
Adm. Samuel Paparo has served his country from a variety of locales during his nearly 40 years in uniform, from the cockpit of a fighter jet to boots on the ground in the most contentious corner of Afghanistan.

But the commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet  and the White Houses pick to be the next head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command  arrived on civilian Americas radar in March during an interview aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz in the West Pacific for the 60 Minutes news program.

Paparo played the role of the steely, squared-away military leader. He answered questions diplomatically, but with conviction. He noted how Chinas military mustered just 37 vessels in the early 2000s and that Beijing now has a fleet of 350 ships.

Asked what his fleet would do should Beijing invade Taiwan, Paparo said that was a decision for his civilian bosses in the White House and Congress.

But when asked if the Navy was ready for such a fight if ordered to do so, he answered in the affirmative.

Ill never admit to being ready enough, Paparo added.

Admiral Samuel Paparo says Id be a fool not to worry about Chinas long-range anti-ship missiles. He says the U.S. Navy has developed the tactics and the techniques and the procedures to evade Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Rocket Force. https://t.co/JjSsPTr1Eo pic.twitter.com/63FlM8FFDY  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 20, 2023

The Pentagon has in recent years made getting ready for such a fight its main priority, and President Joe Bidens nomination of Paparo to lead the potential battlefront against China further reinforces that priority.

Earlier this summer, news emerged that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had sent the admirals name to the White House to become the next chief of naval operations.

But instead, the Biden administration has nominated Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the current vice chief of naval operations, to become the Navys next top officer.

In a war with China, the Navy would not only be the tip of the spear, but most of the spearhead in a largely maritime conflict.

As PACFLEET commander, Paparo has wielded that spear since 2021.

He still needs to be confirmed by Congress, a normally rote procedure that has been frozen for months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville. The Alabama Republican imposed a blockade of military confirmations in February to protest the Pentagons new policy providing leave time for troops to travel to receive abortion services if theyre stationed in states where its now illegal.

Former SecDefs blast senator over irresponsible nomination holds

Keeping Paparo in the West Pacific also continues a longstanding tradition of having an admiral in charge of INDOPACOM or its predecessor, U.S. Pacific Command, dating back to the joint commands creation in 1947.

And the path to INDOPACOM command has run through the Navys Pacific Fleet.

In addition to his experience in the Pacific, Paparo has shown creativity and innovation while leading PACFLEET, according to Bryan Clark, a retired submariner and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank.

Navy Secretary Carlo Del Toro, center, and U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Samuel Paparo, left, greet retired Capt. E. Royce Williams before a ceremony awarding Williams the Navy Cross in January. (MC2 Logan Keown/Navy)

During the last couple years, he has been leading impressive concept development and experimentation efforts in the Pacific to develop new approaches for deterring China, Clark said in an email.

Many of those efforts are sensitive or classified, Clark added, but he pointed to an Integrated Battle Problem in May that took place under Paparos watch and involved integrating sea and air drones.

Paparos innovative approaches to operational problems can now also be applied to (Indo-Pacific) strategy, said Clark, who recently authored a report on how the Defense Department can further deter Chinese aggression. Paparos ideas for how to deploy and evolve naval forces to influence Chinese military plans could be applied more broadly across all the INDOPACOM components.

Paparo also has a great reputation as a strong leader, according to Bradley Martin, a retired surface warfare officer who spent two-thirds of his 30-year career at sea.

Ive never heard bad things about his leadership style, and Ive heard a lot of good things about it, he added.

Adm. Samuel Paparo visits seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4 in December in Diego Garcia. (Navy)

The path to INDOPACOM

Paparo is the son of an enlisted Marine and the grandson of an enlisted sailor who fought in World War II, according to his command biography.

A naval aviator by trade, the Pennsylvania native received his commission in 1987 after graduating from Villanova University in Philadelphia.

OPINION: Pacific Fleet goes to Washington: How Adm. Paparo will refine the Navy

A TOPGUN graduate, Paparo has logged more than 6,000 hours flying the F-14 Tomcat, the F-15 Eagle and the F/A-18 Super Hornet and has 1,100 carrier landings under his belt.

While he has spent recent years focused on planning for Americas next potential war, he spent time on the ground in Afghanistan, Americas longest war and the militarys focus for much of this century.

As a fighter pilot, he took out a surface-to-air missile site in Kandahar during the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.

Then-Cmdr. Paparo went on to command a provincial reconstruction team comprising more than 100 troops in Nuristan province, a remote and restive area near the Pakistani border, in 2007.

Then-Cmdr. Sam Paparo commanded the Nuristan Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan in 2007. Nuristan was one of the most remote and contentious provinces in the country. (Army)

Nuristan was also the site of the Battle of COP Keating in 2009, when a small number of U.S. soldiers repelled an attack by 300 Taliban.

Paparo popped up briefly in The Outpost, a book about COP Keating written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

Paparo was helping lead counterinsurgency efforts in the province, and Tappers book shows the future admiral playing diplomat between warring local factions.

The book portrays Paparo as having bought-in on the hearts and minds focus of counterinsurgency and wary of any actions that risked alienating the locals they were trying to win over.

At one point, according to the book, Paparo found himself stuck in the middle of two warring tribes.

He was trying to calm the feuding clans and achieve stability to a level where UN workers could come in and begin development projects, the same mission that so many U.S. officers in Afghanistan wrestled with for 20 years.

He commanded U.S. 5th Fleet in the Middle East from August 2020 to May 2021, then assumed command of U.S. Pacific Fleet.

As commander of PACFLEET, he has overseen the Navys controversial Red Hill fuel storage facility spill in Hawaii, which polluted the tap water of military members and civilians alike and forced a shutdown of the vital fuel hub.

During a press conference announcing the findings of a Navy investigation into the fuel spill, Paparo recommended that the Navy review its operations at 48 other fuel storage facilities worldwide and added that the sea service needs to get real with ourselves and be honest about our deficiencies.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is received by Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet as she arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Aug. 26, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstien/AFP via Getty Images)

We cannot assume Red Hill represents an outlier, and similar problems may exist at other locations, Paparo wrote in the investigation.

One of the plaintiffs attorneys in a Red Hill lawsuit, Kristina Baehr, told Hawaii Public Radio this summer that Paparo shares blame for the water contamination and the Navys botched response to the crisis, which initially involved telling military families that tainted tap water was safe to drink.

That happened on his watch, Baehr told Hawaii Public Radio. He is personally responsible for the Navys failure to warn 93,000 people that their water was toxic.
Welcome Bots

Lake Tahoe's got a new high-tech resident  one with a fairly important job no less. In a press release, the Keep Tahoe Blue nonprofit introduced their brand new PixieDrone, an aquatic robot built to patrol the lake's famously-blue waters, and extract trash and invasive plants.

Created by the French startup Searial Cleaners, PixieDrones are deployed on lakes like Tahoe to help clean water sources in ways human hands can't. Using on-board LIDAR (light, detection and ranging) technology, the roughly desk-sized robot can be operated autonomously or via remote control, as it "captures debris inside its open 'mouth,' just like manta rays and humpback whales capture prey," the nonprofit's press release notes.

Interestingly enough, the PixieDrone is, as the press release and local reports note, one of a pair of robots deployed to clean up the star-studded lake. Its larger beach-combing counterpart is known as BeBot, which sifts through the sand on the lake's shore as it motors along picking up difficult-to-extract "micro-debris"  which is, as Keep Tahoe Blue notes, "difficult to detect, hard to remove, and potentially harmful."

https://twitter.com/ohioseagrant/status/1661768445313286144

Great Lakes

Though the land-and-lake pair are just making waves in Tahoe, the tech has been deployed in other waterways as well. For example, last year, the Meijer grocery store chain put up the money to deploy a PixieDrone and BeBot in the Great Lakes Region (which, like Tahoe, has a massive trash problem).

"This not only impacts Great Lakes wildlife, but also the 40 million Americans and Canadians that require the Great Lakes for their drinking water," Lora Shrake of the Council of the Great Lakes Region said in a press release. "Once collected, the litter is analyzed providing valuable data that allows us to understand the scale of the problem."

Last year, Axios reported that a single BeBot costs $55,000, which would make it difficult for conservationists at smaller and less-tony water sources to purchase. And while the impact of companies like Meijer funding these sorts of efforts is objectively positive, it's hard to imagine this kind of aquatic and beach trash solution being deployed at scale without massive government investment in this sort of infrastructure.

All said, however, the robots are nothing if not cute  and at the very least, a novel solution to an ever-accumulating environmental problem.

More on trashbots: Researchers Pleasantly Surprised That Only One New Yorker Attacked Their Cute Trash-Collecting Robots
Immigration advocacy groups are slamming the Biden administration for distributing videos of families boarding deportation flights to tout its repatriations of foreign nationals.

A coalition of 11 groups Friday called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop distributing the footage  sent to media outlets as B-roll for removal flights  and called on outlets to avoid using it.

The use of this footage is shocking and dehumanizing, and ICE should immediately discontinue it, read the release, led by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC).

Entirely missing from these frames is the complexity of the human story behind each family, including the love, devotion, and courage that led that family to leave their homes in search of safety and the trauma of being forced back to danger. The blurred faces, militarized surroundings, and police pat downs of parents clinging to their children dehumanizes these families and portrays them as threats.

The Hill reached out to ICE for comment.

In the Biden administrations carrot-and-stick approach to immigration policy, the videos are part of the stick  attempts both to deter migrants from coming to the United States and to curtail Republican attacks over conditions at the border.

These are people who have in many cases [fled] to the United States for safety. And we turn around and basically dehumanize them to make a point about our immigration or about our strong immigration stance, said Tom Cartwright, an advocate with Witness at the Border, one of the groups that signed the appeal.

This is something I would have expected under the old administration, not under this administration.

Republicans, meanwhile, are unlikely to ease off on one of their top political cudgels against the administration, and advocates say deterrence has proven useless.

The U.S. government has been trying to discourage migration to the United States using the deterrence framework, officially at least since 1994, and just continues to ignore the fact that theres absolutely no evidence to suggest that it has ever worked, said Heidi Altman, director of policy at NIJC.

Migration flows over the last three decades have more closely correlated with economic and political conditions in specific countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, even as U.S. border policies have gradually tightened.

If the administration knows  as they must  that this theory of deterrence doesnt work, then it becomes clear that this is political, said Altman.

ICEs choice to publicly tout tough enforcement angers advocates, especially in the wake of violent attacks like the 2019 El Paso mass shooting, where a gunman who expressed xenophobic intent killed 23 people.

Its been clear for a while now that the political discourse around immigration is increasingly xenophobic, increasingly includes dehumanizing references and images and call-outs, said Altman.

And what weve been waiting for is for the administration for the current leadership to present an alternative framework that acknowledges the humanity of people seeking asylum in the United States, that acknowledges the right to seek asylum at the southern border.

And the specific content of the videos also angered advocates, who equated them to controversial perp walks used by police in criminal cases.

The fact that theyre not criminal cases, and the fact that many law enforcement agencies shirk away now from doing these kinds of perp walks  because its almost a form of exploitation, said Cartwright.

The perp walk has for decades been a matter of debate in major police departments amid concerns that the exercise can unjustly augment negative public perceptions of detainees.

I dont know about you, but I cant remember the last time I saw a perp walk in a law enforcement situation, said Cartwright.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Belarus and Russia are orchestrating a new influx of migrants into the European Union through the Polish border, Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told AFP reporters on Aug. 7, as cited by the Guardian.

"We're talking about an operation organized by the Russian and Belarusian secret services that is getting more and more intense," Wasik said.

The official added, though, that the situation "is not as chaotic today as it was two years ago."

In 2021, Belarus let thousands of asylum seekers into the country with a pledge of safe entry into the European Union. In November of that year, Belarusian troops escorted thousands of asylum seekers to the Polish border, cutting through the wire fence to allow refugees to cross. Most of them were violently pushed back by Polish border guards who set up a no-access zone at the border for nine months.

"(The Belarusian services have become) a criminal group that is masterminding illegal migration. Of course, they are making huge profits from it," the head of the Polish border guard Tomasz Praga said, according to AFP.

According to Praga, 19,000 migrants have attempted to enter Poland from Belarus this year, with 4,000 in July alone. Last year, a total of 16,000 people tried to cross the border.

In response to an increasing crisis, Poland's border guard asked the defense ministry to deploy more than 1,000 troops to the border with Belarus.

Read also: Poland to double the size of military in response to security threat

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Was a $75 million legal fee awarded by Attorney General Alan Wilson to his old law firm and other private attorneys excessive given their role in settling a lawsuit against the federal government over nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site?

And just what did those attorneys do to earn that amount? After all, some of South Carolinas top politicians were also involved in settling the dispute.

Those and other questions were originally set to be aired Monday morning in a virtual hearing before state Judge Clifton Newman; however, the hearing was delayed Monday due to a conflict with the judge. It was not immediately clear when a hearing would be rescheduled.

The eventual hearing will be part of a lawsuit that challenges the payment.

The hearing almost didnt happen.

In September 2020, Columbia attorney John Crangle and the S.C. Public Interest Foundation sued Wilson, arguing that the $75 million fee was unreasonable and Wilson had no need to hire private counsel to address a relatively straightforward issue that government leaders ultimately negotiated.

A month earlier, Wilson, joined by former President Donald Trumps energy secretary, Dan Brouillette, held a State House press conference to announce the federal government would pay South Carolina $600 million for the governments years-long failure to remove bomb-grade plutonium from the Savannah River nuclear weapons complex in Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties. The state had been stuck with the deadly material for years after a major government construction project unraveled.

Wilsons agreement required the Department of Energy to remove nearly 10 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium from SRS over the next 15 years.

The agreement also carved out $75 million in fees for attorneys from two Columbia law firms. Wilson said that amount was derived from a contingency fee formula based on the amount recovered.

The firms were Willoughby & Hoefer, and Davidson, Wren & DeMasters. Before becoming attorney general, Wilson worked for Willoughby & Hoefer.

Gov. Henry McMaster publicly questioned giving $75 million of the $600 million Wilson got for the state to private attorneys. McMaster also said the 15-year timeline for getting rid of the nuclear waste was unduly long. McMaster and Wilson are both Republicans.

The lawsuit by Crangle and the Public Interest Foundation went forward in state court, where Judge Kirk Griffin and now-retired Judge Alison Lee, in two separate rulings, tossed the case. They ruled that Crangle and the foundation lacked standing. A party to a lawsuit has standing if they are personally affected by the matter.

Crangle and the foundation then appealed to the S.C. Supreme Court, which took up the case.

In September 2022, the high court unanimously reversed the rulings by Griffin and Lee and sent the case back to circuit court.

Crangle and the foundation qualified for standing because they were advocating a matter of significant public interest on behalf of the public, a matter that just might come up again, justices ruled.

This issue will inevitably arise again in the future because Wilson has seven other litigation retention agreements with private attorneys, justices wrote.

Justices noted they were not commenting on the cases merits.

The $75 million has already been transferred to the law firms.

Wilson authorized giving the money to the law firms within days of the settlement.

Among other goals, Crangles lawsuit seeks to have the courts declare that Wilsons payment of $75 million in public money to private attorneys violated the state constitution. The lawsuit seeks to have the full $600 million given to the state.
FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the Fulton County Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse, in Atlanta, Georgia

Ahead of possible Trump indictment, Atlanta locks down courthouse FILE PHOTO: The exterior of the Fulton County Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse, in Atlanta, Georgia

By Rich McKay and Josephine Walker

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Law-enforcement officers surrounded the Fulton County courthouse on Monday in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, amid closed roads and traffic barriers put up to boost security ahead of a possible indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is wrapping up a probe of attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the politically competitive state of Georgia. If he is indicted, it would be the fourth time since March he was criminally charged.

Normally bustling streets outside the gray stone courthouse were largely empty, devoid of food trucks that normally serve breakfast and lunch to court workers, most of whom Willis had urged to work remotely as a grand jury decision loomed.

The front of the courthouse was lined with rows of orange plastic, water-filled Jersey barriers and steel crowd control barricades. Dozens of county sheriff's deputies were stationed out front, and other deputies and Atlanta police drove marked cars in circles around the streets nearby.

"Our goal is to have all the services we normally have open and operational but at the same time create a safe environment for those that we actually service," Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat told a press conference last week as security measures were being phased in.

"It is part of a protective plan," he said.

Trump, 77, the front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, was indicted a third time last week.

He pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Washington that he conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victory, depriving U.S. voters of their right to a fair election.

He has lashed out against the prosecutors who have brought action against him, accusing them of political bias.

"IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social site on Friday.

Trump faces a 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) Monday deadline to respond to the U.S. government's proposed protective order aimed at protecting witnesses and evidence in the federal case.

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying his defeat. Five people died during and in the immediate aftermath of the violence and dozens were injured.

Samaya Lockridge, 23, a Democrat, who just moved from Tampa to Atlanta, said she hoped Atlanta would not see a replay of that violence.

"I hope it doesn't come to that but who knew it could happen there," she said.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Josephine Walker and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
FILE PHOTO: French nationals and other European citizens are evacuated from Sudan

By Joanna Plucinska and Paolo Laudani

LONDON/GDANSK (Reuters) -European carriers on Monday reported disruptions and suspended flights across the African continent after Niger's junta closed its airspace on Sunday.

The junta on Monday braced for a response from the West African regional bloc after ignoring its deadline to reinstate the country's ousted president or face the threat of military intervention.

The disruption adds to a band of African airspace facing geopolitical disruptions including Libya and Sudan, with some flights facing up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in detours.

"The closure of Niger's airspace dramatically widens the area over which most commercial flights between Europe and southern Africa cannot fly," tracking service FlightRadar24 said in a blog post.

Air France has suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali until Aug. 11, the company said on Monday, with longer flight times expected in the west African region.

A spokesperson added that Air France expected longer flight times from sub-Saharan hub airports and that flights between Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Accra in Ghana were set to operate non-stop.

But aviation analyst James Halstead said that airlines would mostly have to find alternative routes and difficulties should be limited given the small number of African air connections.

"I'm not sure this is huge disruption ... it will affect routes from Europe to Nigeria and South Africa and probably from the Gulf of the Ethiopia to West Africa," he said.

Spokespeople for Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines said that flight times could be between one-and-a-half and three-and-a-half hours longer for rerouted flights.

British Airways in an emailed statement said it "apologised to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys," and said it was working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.

(Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach and Tim Hepher; Editing by Jason Neely, Mark Potter and Conor Humphries)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Major U.S. airlines on Monday asked the Federal Aviation Administration to extend cuts to minimum flight requirements at congested New York City-area airports and a Washington airport, citing a lack of adequate air traffic control staffing.

The FAA in March agreed to the request of Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to temporarily return up to 10% of slots and flights at New York-area airports and Washington National Airport through Sept. 15.

Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, in a letter seen by Reuters, asked that the cuts be extended through Oct. 28, saying air traffic staffing levels in a key northeastern sector have not "meaningfully improved."

The FAA said Monday it was "is in the final stages of review and will decide soon."

Airlines can lose their slots at congested airports if they do not use them at least 80% of the time. In the Airlines for America letter, the group said air traffic control staffing and extreme weather "are unique circumstances beyond our control." The group added: "Granting relief for the rest of the summer season is in the best interest of the flying public because it will minimize disruptions and provide greater predictability for airlines and consumers."

Last month, Chicago-based United said it would drop to about 395 daily flights from 410 at Newark Liberty International Airport after planning 438 on peak days before the FAA waiver.

In June, a government audit said the FAA faces critical air traffic staffing shortages and "lacks a plan to address them."

The audit said New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) staffing was at 54% compared with optimal levels; it had eight supervisors but was authorized for 30.

Last summer there were 41,498 flights from New York airports where air traffic control staffing was a contributing factor in delays.

In March, it said that later this year it planned to reassign approximately 100 square miles of Newark airspace from the area known as N90 to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control to address staffing issues.

"Since the issuance of the March waiver, the Newark airspace has not been transferred, nor have the staffing levels at N90 meaningfully improved," Airlines for America said in Monday's letter.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Leslie Adler, Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio)
Alabama authorities have issued arrest warrants following a fight that broke out over the weekend on a riverboat dock, with local officials vowing justice as footage of the brawl garners widespread attention online.

The Montgomery Police Department said in a statement that it responded to a disturbance near Riverfront Park on Saturday night.

Officers arriving at the scene located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation, the police said in the statement.

At least four warrants for arrest had been issued as of Sunday afternoon, with police saying more warrants could be issued after reviewing additional video.

Police and other local officials are set to hold a press conference Tuesday afternoon to provide more information.

Local outlet WSFA reported that its crew saw several people in handcuffs at the scene on Saturday, with police saying charges were pending.

Footage of the incident, which has since gone viral on social media, shows two men  with one in a white shirt described as an employee  getting into an increasingly tense conversation.

Moments later, a third man appears to lunge at the man in the white shirt. Punches are then thrown as others join in and the brawl escalates.

Its unclear what exactly led to the confrontation.

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed has promised justice will be served following the incident.

Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served, Reed said in the statement.

This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violent actions will be held accountable by our criminal justice system, he added.

Updated: 5:12 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Haiti's children and women increasingly are becoming targets of kidnapping in Haiti, where a spike in such abductions is raising alarms checked by doctors at the Fontaine Hospital Center in the Cite Soleil slum in Port-au-Prince on August 4, 2023. In Cite Soleil, the largest slum in the gang-infested Haitian capital, the early days of August have brought a grim flow of skeletally malnourished children to the Fontaine Hospital Center. The community clinic, a reassuring presence in this poorest corner of Port-au-Prince for more than 30 years, offers rare respite to inhabitants who now face daily threats from the armed groups controlling much of the city. (Richard PIERRIN)

Some 300 women and minors were kidnapped in Haiti by criminal gangs in the first half of this year, UNICEF said Monday, warning of a disturbing rise in abductions that leave "deep physical and psychological scars."

That six-month number is close to the total registered for the entirety of last year and is triple the 2021 tally -- "an alarming spike in kidnappings," the United Nations children's agency said, adding that many women and children face "unthinkable terror" at the hands of the pervasive gangs.

"The stories we are hearing from UNICEF colleagues and partners on the ground are shocking and unacceptable," Garry Conille, the agency's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a statement.

"Women and children are not commodities. They are not bargaining chips. And they must never be exposed to such unimaginable violence."

The surge in abductions, he added, threatens "both the people of Haiti and those who have come to help."

Calling the overall situation in Haiti "catastrophic," Conille said almost half the country's population, including nearly three million children, now require humanitarian assistance.

He called for "the immediate release and safe return of all those who have been kidnapped."

UNICEF had warned earlier that the political and economic chaos roiling the poorest country in the Americas has fueled a surge in malnutrition, with one child in four now chronically undernourished, many gravely so.

Conille said local healthcare systems are "teetering on the brink of collapse and schools are under attack," adding that the violent gangs made it "difficult to deliver much-needed aid."

While praising the "remarkable resilience" of Haiti's children, women and families, Conille said they continued to face "increasing, unthinkable terror."

He added: "It must stop now."

Criminal gangs control some 80 percent of capital city Port-au-Prince, and kidnappings, rape, robbery and murder have become a looming daily threat.

Kenya recently announced it was willing to lead a multinational peace force to support Haiti's overwhelmed security forces and help the impoverished country cope with its compounding crises. The United States has promised its support.

af/db/bbk/mlm
FREEHOLD - On the same day his retrial on charges stemming from a 2017 gang execution was supposed to start, an Asbury Park man took a surprise plea deal instead.

Avery Hopes, 28, an alleged member of the Bloods street gang, pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder in the Nov. 22, 2017, murder of Denzel Morgan-Hicks, a member of the rival Crips gang.

Avery Hopes listens to testimony. The trial of Avery Hopes and Vernon Sanders for the murder of Denzel Morgan-Hicks continues. Freehold, NJFriday, March 10, 2023

Opening arguments had been expected Monday in Hopes retrial on the murder charges. But even though Hopes was in the courtroom, the jury was never seated. It became clear that something was in the works when the judge closed the courtroom and asked spectators to leave more than once. The doors reopened with news of the plea.

Monmouth Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley accepted Hopes plea after Hopes admitted to possessing a handgun and using it on the night of Nov. 22, 2017, running up to the passenger side door of a vehicle and aiming to kill the occupant.

In explaining the plea for the attempted murder, Hopes' attorney, Paul Zager, said none of the bullets ever struck the target.

Hopes original trial on the charges, along with co-defendant Vernon Sanders, lasted six weeks and ended in a mistrial. The pair were expected to stand trial together again, but Superior Court Judge Marc C. LeMieux assignment judge in Monmouth County, agreed with a prosecutors request to sever the case and try each defendant separately.

Morgan-Hicks, a former Asbury Park resident who was living in Barnegat, died in a hail of gunfire while returning to his sport-utility vehicle after visiting friends in an apartment on Prospect Avenue on Thanksgiving Eve 2017.

Prosecutors alleged that Sanders wanted Morgan-Hicks dead and enlisted Hopes to participate in the murder because he thought Morgan-Hicks killed 21-year-old Neptune resident Edric Gordon, a member of the Bloods, in Asbury Park in 2011. Morgan-Hicks, however, was never charged in Gordons death.

Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley declared a mistrial on March 23 in the original trial after one of the jurors told the judge she has attention deficit disorder and was having trouble concentrating, and that she felt bullied by the other jurors.

The bullying was denied by many of the other jurors when they contacted the Asbury Park Press after the mistrial to give their side of the story.

LeMieux, in deciding a motion by prosecutors to have the two defendants tried separately, said that the alleged bullying was never established because O'Malley never questioned the other jurors about it. But he cited the one juror's difficulty concentrating, and said the complexity of the case was the reason he was severing it.

The attempted murder charge can carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in New Jersey state prison and a maximum $200,000 fine, according to Oxley.

At the time of sentencing - scheduled for October 20 - the state will recommend a sentence of 14 years, with 85% of the sentence having to be served before the opportunity for parole.

Zager will recommend 12 years in state prison, with the same parole stipulations.

Hopes' sentencing will move forward once Sanders' case is also resolved, according to Oxley.

Jenna Calderon covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Surprise guilty plea in Asbury Park gang execution trial
Amazon will reportedly meet with the FTC next week before the filing of a possible antitrust lawsuit against the online retailer. The New York Times reports that FTC chair Lina Khan and commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya will sit down with Amazon representatives as the government agency nears a decision on whether to sue the company for antimonopoly laws. The scheduled conversation is viewed as a last rites meeting: Amazons final chance to persuade the FTC to back off before filing a suit.

The FTC began investigating Amazon in 2019 for using its influence to hurt competition. Investigators reportedly began the probe by interviewing third-party marketplace vendors, asking how their earnings on Amazon compared to those on competing platforms like eBay and Walmart. Politico reported in July that the potential lawsuit will likely challenge a host of Amazons business practices and could lead to a court-ordered restructuring of the $1.3 trillion empire. This suit is separate from one the FTC filed in June against the retailer, accusing it of tricking customers into Prime subscriptions and making it hard to cancel the service.

Khan has been a longtime Amazon critic. While a law student at Yale, she wrote a paper suggesting the rethinking of antitrust laws in response to the companys dominance. Her report criticized US antitrust laws for focusing too much on consumer prices while dismissing other ways companies can break the law to gain competitive advantages. As consumers, as users, we love these tech companies, she told The New York Times in 2018. But as citizens, as workers, and as entrepreneurs, we recognize that their power is troubling. We need a new framework, a new vocabulary for how to assess and address their dominance. Amazon has argued for Khans recusal from the case based on her academic work and previous statements.

The Biden administration has reportedly grown increasingly concerned about the influence of Big Tech companies. Bloomberg describes the executive branch as seeking to reverse what it has viewed as decades of lax oversight over corporate consolidation and market power. The DOJ has sued Meta and Google multiple times (although a federal judge recently narrowed the scope of one of those cases).
They did what?

Those were the words I uttered upon hearing about one of the most unique undertakings by a C-130J Super Hercules turboprop crew in the airplanes history.

In May, shortly before I assumed installation command at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, an innovative new procedure was tested by elite operators from Little Rocks 19th Airlift Wing. With the blessing of Air Mobility Command, these C-130 aviators flew a trial run 30-hour, two-crew mission (only stopping for fuel), zigzagging across the United States to simulate one, continuous airlift mission from the central U.S. to the Western Pacific. The event was a daring new way of employing one of the most reliable weapons systems in the Air Forces inventory, and it foreshadowed an even-more audacious mission to come.

Maximum Endurance Operations, or MEOs, have been in existence for decades, primarily in the bomber community. In 1957, three B-52Bs flew the first non-stop around-the-world jet missions in 45 hours. Nearly 30 years ago, two B-52s took to the skies to demonstrate true global reach, circumnavigating the globe to a demonstrated bombing in Kuwait. In 2001, the B-2 set a record with a 44-hour air combat mission, proving stealth global reach to both our allies and partners, as well as our enemies and competitors.

Within the airlift community, MEOs have been somewhat shorter in duration but equally as effective. In 1998, eight C-17s set the record for the longest airdrop in history, transporting paratroopers and equipment from the United States to Central Asia in a mere 19 hours. Today, strategic airlift crews are often staged at forward locations to keep the iron moving around the world, even as aircrews swap for crew rest.

However, with the modern-day focus on the Pacific, the tyranny of distance and the necessary speed of maneuver to ensure unrepentant lethality at a time and place of our senior leaders choosing requires development of novel tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs. Our tanker and airlift fleets must exploit agility and establish the tempo required to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific governed by a rules-based international order.

Upon assuming command of Air Mobility Command in 2021, Gen. Mike Minihan provided the shot in the arm for a community entrenched in tactics from past conflicts. Publishing his Mobility Manifesto in 2022, Minihan beseeched mobility leaders to wean atrophy and stagnation from the daily approach to mobility problems. He directed weapons system communities to  innovate, using the tools we have in new ways, to create novel operational concepts for Air Mobility and the Joint Force. The goal: Deliver victory for America by developing the future Air Mobility, a lethal contributor so advanced it is unrecognizable by our forbearers.

Commanders and key staff at all echelons embraced Minihans manifesto and vigorously set-out to deliver on his commanders intent. The C-130 community started with our Achilles heel: our lack of speed to the fight. Long known for its ability to fly the last tactical mile, the Lockheed Martin C-130 has always been a force multiplier in combat, able to resupply the Joint Force by deftly landing on the smallest, most unimproved airstrips around the world or airdropping in the most challenging terrain. The C-130 will eventually be a 100-year platform for the United States, able to execute nearly any mission asked of it. However, one thing the C-130 couldnt do well was maneuver quickly to the fight  until now.

Building upon Mays remarkable 30-hour trial run mission, 19th Airlift Wing planners pivoted to the true test on the horizon: commencing Julys Mobility Guardian exercise, the most audacious display of Pacific airpower in generations, supporting eight joint exercises and building interoperability with seven nations, with a speed of maneuver never before seen by a C-130. Planners created a two-phase approach: align logistics, maintainers, operators, medics and support agencies in parallel to rocket launch eight C-130Js within 20 hours of execute order receipt, and deliver tactical airlift power to airfields inside East Asias first island chain less than 48 hours later.

In order to execute phase two, planners developed new TTPs for crew-resting operators in-flight. Specific attention to detail focused on the length and quality of the rest period, potential medications to enhance both rest (when sleeping) and alertness (when flying), and consistent physical and mental acuity monitoring by qualified professionals throughout the flight. Further innovative practices in development involve integrating all aspects of aircraft enroute servicing, including crew changes, refueling and cargo loading to minimize ground time.

The hard work paid-off handsomely. During the first week of July, for the first time, seven C-130s completed missions greater than 35 consecutive hours to maneuver significant tactical airpower from Americas Heartland into the Western Pacific. Even more impressive: one crew flew an historic 42-hour mission to place a C-130 inside the first island chain in record time. All crews were prepared to execute follow-on missions throughout the Western Pacific immediately upon arrival.

Our competitors are officially on-notice: Americas premier tactical airlifter vanquished its Achilles heel. In this era of accelerated change, the pioneering airmen of Herk Nation effectively closed the largest gap in our capabilitys arsenal. Moving forward, the tactical airlift community will no longer be bound by limitations of time and space. The C-130 will always be known as the primary airframe to fly the last tactical mile; its newfound agility demonstrates the mighty Herk also delivers the first strategic mile in this era of great power competition.

And what did I say when notified of our C-130s historic final landing in East Asias first island chain?

Never a doubt. TacAir anywhere!

Colonel Denny R. Davies is the commander of the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, where he is responsible for the health and welfare of 10,000 personnel and families. He oversees organizing, training and equipping the personnel who operate, maintain and sustain 65 C-130 aircraft, ensuring support for combat, contingency, and humanitarian requirements worldwide.

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 Flash

A woman has died and two men have been injured following a Ukrainian attack on Donetsk's Kuibyshev district, Donetsk Mayor Alexey Kulemzin said Sunday.

As a result of Ukraine's evening shelling of the Kuibyshev district, a woman had died in the backyard of her house, and two men have been injured as a result of the shelling of the Azotny settlement, Kulemzin said in a Telegram post.

The mayor also said that a private house and two cars had been damaged due to Ukraine's attack, as well as the building of a cultural center, two shops and a trade pavilion.

Kulemzin said Saturday that Ukrainian forces had attacked the Donetsk University of Economics and Trade, which caught on fire. According to preliminary information, he said that Ukraine had used cluster munitions in the attack.
Generation Z will be the last generation of Americans with a white majority, according to census data. The nations so-called majority minority arrived with Generation Alpha, those born since about 2010.

Barely two decades from now, around 2045, non-Hispanic white people will fall below half as a share of the overall U.S. population.

Those conclusions, and the numbers behind them, seem simple enough. Yet, some scholars contend that the numbers are wrong, or at least misleading, and that the looming ascent of a majority-minority America is a myth.

Americas white majority, and its numbered days, is a lightning-rod topic, given the nations history of slavery and enduring patterns of discrimination against minorities and immigrants.

Demographers and economists celebrate the nations growing diversity as vital to a prosperous future. Other voices vilify racial change as a threat to the nations white heritage.

Race is the most complicated variable in the census, and its the one that draws people like moths to the flame, said Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at the University of Southern California.

Generational data from the 2020 census shows the upward march of racial diversity by age group. Non-Hispanic white people make up 77 percent of the over age 75 population, 67 percent of the age 55-64 population, 55 percent of the 35-44 cohort, and barely half of the 18-24 age group. Americas children are only 47 percent non-Hispanic white, according to an analysis released this week by William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In the decades to come, that wave of diversity will wash across the generations, yielding an America with no single racial group that can claim a numerical majority.

By 2045, according to census projections, non-Hispanic white people will fall below 50 percent as a share of the American population. By 2050, non-Hispanic white people will represent less than 40 percent of the under-18 population.

Demographers warn, however, that those milestones vastly oversimplify the story of a diversifying America.

For a start, millions of Americans no longer embrace a single racial identity. How many? Its hard to tell.

Getting back to those census projections: By 2045, more than 18 million people will claim two or more races. Subtract them from the total, and the population of non-Hispanic white people leaps from 49 percent to 52 percent of the remaining population, their majority status restored.

Whites are going to be the largest group in this country for a long time, said Richard Alba, distinguished professor emeritus in sociology at the City University of New York.

In a sense, were forming a new kind of mainstream society here, which is going to be very diverse. But whites are going to be a big part of that. Its not like theyre going to disappear and be supplanted.

Alba argues that the census itself is locked into a way of thinking that dates to the 20th century, and thats the idea that people are only one thing when it comes to ethnicity and race.

It makes sense: Back in 1980, non-Hispanic white people made up about 80 percent of the American population. Black and Hispanic people, Asian Americans and others split the remaining 20 percent. They were the statistical minority, and demographers used that term to describe them.

Today, multiracial Americans are the fastest-growing racial category in the census, a group projected to double in size between 2020 and 2050.

Alba and others said they believe even that number is a dramatic undercount.

People of mixed race have relatively fluid identities, Alba said. They can think of themselves as white, they can think of themselves as minority, or they can think of themselves as mixed.

Consider an American with three grandparents who are non-Hispanic white people, and one who is Black, Hispanic or Asian. Simple math suggests labeling that person as white. But long-standing American tradition might favor a minority identity.

The practice of labeling mixed-race Americans as minorities dates to the 1600s and the racist one-drop rule, which held that a person with any Black ancestry should be counted as Black.

The nation engaged in racial reductivism as recently as 2008, scholars say, when America unblinkingly identified its new mixed-race president as Black.

Demographers point to other curiosities in how the census handles race. The agency counts people of Middle Eastern or North African descent as white, even though many of them do not see themselves as white. Americans from nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan, meanwhile, are termed Asian.

Writing in The Atlantic in 2021, Alba, Myers and Morris Levy reasoned that the myth of a coming majority-minority America was both false and divisive.

In the minds of many Americans, they wrote, this ethno-racial transition betokens political, cultural, and social upheaval, because a white majority has dominated the nation since its founding.

White nationalists have seized on replacement theory, which holds that liberal elites are promoting immigration and interracial marriage to replace non-Hispanic white people with people of color, all to disempower whites.

When white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, some of them chanted, You will not replace us.

Outside the racist fringe, the researchers say, most white Americans are receptive to the idea of expanding mixed-race families and a growing multiracial population.

Despite what many people say, segregation has weakened, Alba said. He notes that the average white American now lives in a neighborhood where roughly 1 in 3 residents identifies as a race other than white.

In any case, demographers say, America will need a diverse population if it is to prosper in the decades to come.

The nations median age is 38.9, the highest it has ever been. Median age is rising because the national birthrate is falling. These trends threaten to deplete the American workforce: Fewer workers means less growth.

For Americas economic growth to persist, demographers say, the nation needs a steady stream of immigrants. New arrivals, especially from Latin America, keep the nation young. The median age for non-Hispanic white people is 43, according to census data. For Hispanic people, it is 31.

Immigration is a good thing for America, said Frey, the Brookings researcher. Youre going to want a country thats growing and robust and has a lot of energy and people who will contribute to Social Security and Medicare. And you cant just count on whites for that.

Frey and other researchers hope future censuses will do a better job of capturing the full depth of multiracial America.

Starting in 2000, the census allowed respondents to choose more than one race. A separate question asks about Hispanic origin, yielding separate and somewhat confusing data sets.

Frey favors a new set of categories, starting with the 2030 census. The separate Hispanic question would be cut. Instead, respondents could check any of several origin categories, and they could write in any number of specific racial or ethnic identities, such as Lebanese, Guatemalan, Nigerian or Navajo.

Such an exercise might yield a richer understanding of ethnicity and race in America. Then, perhaps, the majority-minority conversation would fade away.

We should plan ahead, Frey said, because this is our future.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Dan Heching, CNN





(CNN)  The mother of Euphoria star Angus Cloud, who died Monday at age 25, shared more details about his final day and said while a cause of death hasnt been announced, the actor did not intend to end his life.

Friends, I want you all to know I appreciate your love for my family at this shattered time, Lisa Cloud, the late actors mother, wrote in a social media post on Friday. I also want you to know that although my son was in deep grief about his fathers untimely death from mesothelioma, his last day was a joyful one. He was reorganizing his room and placing items around the house with intent to stay a while in the home he loved. He spoke of his intent to help provide for his sisters at college, and also help his mom emotionally and financially.

First responders from the Oakland Fire Department determined Cloud was already deceased when they were dispatched to the familys California home for a medical emergency, Michael Hunt, a spokesperson for the fire department, told CNN earlier this week.

A cause of death has not yet been determined by the Alameda County Coroner.

He did not intend to end his life. When we hugged goodnight we said how much we loved each other and he said he would see me in the morning. I dont know if or what he may have put in his body after that. I only know that he put his head on the desk where he was working on art projects, fell asleep and didnt wake up, Lisa Clouds message reads. We may find out that he overdosed accidentally and tragically, but its abundantly clear that he did not intend to check out of this world.

His mother continued, noting, his struggles were real. He gave and received so much love and support to and from his tribe. His work in euphoria became a lightning rod for his generation and opened up a conversation about compassion, loyalty, acceptance and love.

Clouds mother referenced a brain injury he suffered as a teen.

His head injury 10 years ago miraculously didnt result in death as it almost always does. He was given 10 bonus years and filled them with creativity and love, she wrote.

Social media posts have suggested his death was intentional. I want you to know that is not the case, her post concluded. To honor his memory, please make random acts of kindness part of your daily life. Bless your hearts.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Editor's note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to connect with a trained counselor or visit the Lifeline site.
Anita Carey, an actor known for her work on Coronation Street and Doctors, has died aged 75.

Her agent Katie Threlfall confirmed the news of Careys death on Monday (7 August). The actor had been living with breast cancer for 13 years.

Carey played two roles on the Manchester-based ITV soap throughout her career. She first played Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, in 1978, before returning in 1996 to portray Joyce Smedley, mother of Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye).

She was cut from the programme in 1997, however, amid a series of action-packed farewells following a cast cull by new producer Brian Park in an apparent bid to boost viewing figures.

Prior to her stint as Joyce on Coronation Street, Carey had performed in professional theatre and in the sitcom A Kind of Living (1990), which also starred Richard Griffiths and Tim Healy.

In 2007, Carey returned to the world of soaps in the role of Vivien March on BBC Ones Doctors, for which she scored a British Soap Award for best dramatic performance in 2009.

Former Doctors director Steve Hughes, who worked on the show between 2005 and 2010, paid tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing: Sad to hear that Anita Carey has passed. I really enjoyed working with her on Doctors back in the day.

Meanwhile, Doctors writer Roland Moore tweeted: Saddened to hear about Anita Carey. She was a joy to write for as Vivien on Doctors and it was great to meet her once at the soap awards.

Anita Carey (Granada TV)

Carey first established herself in TV comedy playing Susan Chambers in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? in 1973.

That same year, she met her future husband, fellow actor Mark Wing-Davey, while she was playing Miss Heasman in the touring theatre show Butley.

A year later the couple appeared in a Crucible Theatre production of The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, before Carey starred in the West End production of Hobsons Choice.

In the following years, the actor appeared in the sketch show One-Upmanship, based on Stephen Potters spoof self-help books, as well as the comedy-drama Beryls Lot, playing one of the on-screen children of actor Carmel McSharry.

She also starred in John Finchs drama The Spoils Of War as Martha Blaze, before appearing as the devoted wife of a Labour MP, Joyce Gould, in ITVs 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archers 1984 novel First Among Equals.

Carey took on countless TV roles before moving to New York after Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, had become a successful director in the US and chairman of the graduate acting programme at New York University in 2008.

Additional reporting by PA
Last month, Congress drew one step closer to passing a bill that will supposedly childproof the internet when the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

KOSA, which was reintroduced after failing to gain traction in 2022, is a bipartisan bill that lawmakers say will protect children from online platforms by stopping them from targeting and recommending harmful content to minors.

The bill states that big tech companies and social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, who use algorithmic recommendations to present users with content that is most likely to keep them engaged, ...must act in the best interest of minors using the applications or services, including by mitigating harms that may arise from that use (e.g., sexual exploitation and online bullying).

Despite this lofty goal, the bill is supported by a number of far-right organizations and opponents warn that the overly-vague language of the bill has the potential to cause actual harm by censoring LGBTQ+ content under the guise of preventing depression, anxiety, and eating disorders in children, VICE reports.

Supporters of the bill include a whos who of anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, including the right-wing Heritage Foundation which took to Twitter on May 20 to announce that their goal for the bill is keeping trans content away from children. The organization has also repeatedly claimed on its website that social media turns kids trans.

These types of unsubstantiated claims have been used repeatedly over the past year to justify the anti-LGBTQ+ laws that have been sweeping the nation, including laws that ban books with queer themes from libraries and schools, block transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care, and ones that even threaten parents with criminal charges if they support their trans children.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a far-right anti-trafficking group is also among the bipartisan bills supporters. The group has lobbied against porngraphy, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ rights since the 1960s when they used to be known as Morality in Media. NCOSEs current CEO is Patrick Trueman used to work for the far-right Christian organizations American Family Association and The Family Research Council, both of whom have been labeled as anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, VICE notes.

Many studies [have] shown the dangers that social media poses to children. Senator Blackburn's Kids Online Safety Act is a common sense solution to address those concerns and start protecting our next generation, NCOSE wrote endorsing the bill in May on the website of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the bill's Republican sponsor.

The far-right organizations the America First Policy Initiative and the American Principles Project both support the bill and have a history of opposing gay marriage and transgender rights.

A letter from the digital rights group Fight For The Future made it clear what is at stake if the bill were to pass. KOSA will be weaponized against youth who are members of the LGBTQ community, the letter, addressed to the bills supporters, reads. That's a statement of fact, confirmed by supporters of the bill who have repeatedly stated that they intend to use the bill against LGBTQ content. Anti-trans bigots are telling us that they want KOSA passed to help them continue their campaign of hate, and we should believe them.

While the bill attempts to curtail the monopolistic tech companies who use mass data collection and algorithms to push people towards harmful content and misinformation and address real societal ills like anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance use disorders, physical violence, online bullying, and sexual exploitation, in reality many believe it will only harm LGBTQ+ youth and censor the internet.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to defend civil liberties on the internet, warned that KOSA will put the tools of censorship in the hands of state attorneys general, and would greatly endanger the rights, and safety, of young people online.

The bill will also ban advertisements targeted at kids, require that minors have the strongest privacy settings by default, and mandates that companies have parental controls available on their platforms.

Our bill provides specific tools to stop Big Tech companies from driving toxic content at kids and to hold them accountable for putting profits over safety, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who first introduced the bill last year. Record levels of hopelessness and despaira national teen mental health crisishave been fueled by black box algorithms featuring eating disorders, bullying, suicidal thoughts, and more. Kids and parents want to take back control over their online lives. They are demanding safeguards, means to disconnect, and a duty of care for social media. Our bill has strong bipartisan momentum. And it has growing support from young people whove seen Big Techs destruction, parents whove lost children, mental health experts, and public interest advocates. Its an idea whose time has come.

The previous iteration of KOSA made it to the floor of Congress in 2022 before it was dropped after it faced criticism from LGBTQ+ rights groups and digital rights advocates, according to VICE. Since then some of the language of the bill has been changed, including an exception to the duty of care for news media websites and the age verification requirements has been modified for online platforms. After these changes, the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD dropped their initial opposition.

Although some groups no longer stand against the bill, there is a coalition of several dozen LGBTQ+ and digital rights organizations who still oppose it. The ACLU, Fight For The Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation all say that the bill has not changed enough to stop the potential for abuse and harm. These groups have said that KOSAs vague language allows for state attorneys general to label LGBTQ+ content as harmful and force platforms to censor.
Around 400 years ago, a young child was laid to rest in a Polish cemetery in a strange fashion.

The childs body was restrained with an anti-vampire device and buried facedown.

Now, the remains have been discovered by archaeologists, and they could shed light on some of the superstitious beliefs that once ran rampant throughout Europe, according to a July 28 news release from Nicolaus Copernicus University.

The 17th century grave was unearthed in an ancient cemetery of outcasts located near the village of Dabrowa Cheminska, archaeologists said.

A partial skeleton of the child, who was between 5 and 7 years old, was found upside down under layers of soil.

This peculiar funerary arrangement indicated that whoever buried the child feared potential reanimation.

By placing the body facedown, gravediggers ensured it could only gnaw on the ground  and not on the living  were it to somehow be revived, archaeologists said.

A triangular padlock was also found at the skeletons feet, likely to further hinder any posthumous exploits.

The childs partial remains were located just a stones throw away from the grave of a woman buried with a padlock as well as a sickle around her neck. The woman, found last year, came to be thought of as a vampire.

Vampires, believed to be reanimated corpses that fed on the living, were part of Slavic folklore that originated around the 11th century or earlier, according to a study published in 2014 in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

At a time when scientific knowledge was limited, vampires helped explain otherwise incomprehensible diseases or untimely deaths, and belief in them strengthened the Christian social order.

Individuals believed at risk of becoming vampires were buried with special treatments that typically involved restraining certain body parts, particularly the hands, feet and mouth, according to the study.

Individuals who deviated from the norm, including those who were sick or had an odd appearance, were prime targets for being suspected of vampirism, Darius Polinski, a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University, told News in Poland.

Further research, including DNA analysis, is being conducted on the childs remains and on the remains of other individuals in the cemetery.

Dabrowa Cheminska is located about 180 miles northwest of Warsaw.

Google Translate was used to translate a news release from Nicolaus Copernicus University and a news report from News in Poland.

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SOMERS, N.Y. -- Residents in a northern Westchester County town are in shock after learning about the deaths of a prominent doctor at Mt. Sinai Hospital and her baby, killed in an apparent murder-suicide.

CBS New York has learned more details on the tragedy that struck a young family.

Somers is typically a quiet town in Westchester, a place where residents spend time on bike trails and at a nearby farm on summer weekends.

"Somers is a nice, quiet community in northern Westchester and everybody knows everybody and this is just awful," Stuart's Farm owner Betty Stuart said.

Stuart woke up Saturday morning to emergency vehicles outside her small community on Granite Springs Road.

"Our friend is an EMT and he texted us and it's so sad, so sad. They were a nice young family and we didn't know that they had a child," Stuart said.

Just next door to the farm is where Krystal Cascetta and her family lived.

"They came here when they bought the house from a friend of ours and they kept to themselves," Stuart said.

Police say the renowned oncologist at Mt. Sinai in New York City shot and killed her baby and then killed herself in her home at around 7 a.m.

"I don't think I've ever heard anything so sad as long as I've been here," one resident said.

The news has rocked the community and Dr. Cascetta's patients. One told CBS New York by phone that Dr. Cascetta was just on maternity leave. The patient added she remembers Cascetta being full of life as she helped patients through their cancer journeys.

Photos online show Dr. Cascetta working through the pandemic, speaking at medical engagements, and during events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"When we heard about it, it just rocked us to the core. Really it did. And the whole neighborhood ... we're all upset," the patient said.

CBS New York spoke with family members at the home on Sunday. They didn't want to speak on camera, but they said that Dr. Cascetta was a wonderful person and it's a true tragedy what happened to their family.

If you or someone you know needs help, text or call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Trained counselors are available 24-7.

Doctor gives pediatric patients custom cast art

Sona Jobarteh: The 60 Minutes Interview

How conservationists are helping make buildings bird friendly
A complete evacuation of the campsite for the World Scout Jamboree in Buan, South Korea, was announced by government officials on Monday due to the approach of Typhoon Khanun. Photo by Yonhap

SEOUL, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of scouts will be evacuated from the campsite of the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea, officials announced Monday, as a typhoon bears down on an event plagued by a scorching heatwave that caused the early withdrawal of several contingents.

Kim Sung-Ho, South Korea's Vice Minister for Disaster and Safety Management, said at a press briefing that about 36,000 scouts and volunteers will start evacuating at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Some 1,000 buses will be mobilized to relocate participants from the Samangeum campsite in the southwest of the country to the Seoul metropolitan area. The government is working with local municipalities and educational facilities to finalize accommodations, Kim said.

Typhoon Khanun is forecast to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday morning, bringing heavy rains and winds that could reach more than 90 mph, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. The typhoon killed at least two, injured dozens and caused widespread power outages in southwestern Japan last week.

The jamboree kicked off Aug. 1 with an attendance of more than 43,000 scouts and volunteers from 158 countries.

Despite the site evacuation, the event will continue through its scheduled finale on Saturday, officials said.

"The government will make full preparations so that the participants can stay and the jamboree program can continue for the remaining five days and four nights," Kim said.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement announced the decision to evacuate in a statement earlier Monday, which it said came after consultation with the South Korean government.

"We urgently call on the government to expedite the plan for departure and provide all necessary resources and support for participants during their stay and until they return to their home countries," the statement said.

The evacuation comes after scorching temperatures left hundreds suffering from heat-related illnesses over the first days of the event.

The jamboree campsite, on a reclaimed tidal flat, has no trees and offers very little natural shade. Accounts of a hospital bed shortage, waterlogged conditions due to previous heavy rains, swarms of mosquitoes and spoiled food have added to the widespread criticism organizers are facing.

U.S. and British contingents left the campground over the weekend due to the extreme weather and conditions at the site, while Australian scouts had announced their plans to leave earlier on Monday before the evacuation decision was made.

A local South Korean contingent also pulled out over the weekend after accusing organizers of mishandling allegations of a sex offense.

South Korea has been experiencing its hottest summer in recent memory, with the government raising its heatwave warning level to "serious" for the first time in four years after temperatures topped 100 degrees in parts of the country last week.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement asked organizers on Saturday to end the event early, but South Korean officials conducted inspections over the weekend and decided that conditions had improved sufficiently to keep things going.

Among the events being rescheduled is a K-pop concert, which was postponed on Sunday due to heat concerns. It will be held on Friday, officials said, with a venue still to be determined.
Here's the latest news from Austin Peay State University.

Campus leaders take to the skies with U.S. Army Parachute Team

As he soared thousands of feet in the air over central Kentucky at speeds approaching 120 mph, it was hard to imagine that Kris Phillips, vice president for alumni, engagement and philanthropy, had just celebrated his grandsons birth a week ago.

A longstanding fear of heights made Phillipss leap from a military aircraft even more daunting. Still, he was in good company: the United States Army Parachute Team, also known as the Golden Knights, supervised the experience and paired him with a seasoned tandem jumper.

Phillips and Dr. Chad Brooks, dean of the College of Graduate Studies, were among several higher education and community leaders who jumped with the Golden Knights on July 12 at Addington Field, just outside Fort Knox, Kentucky. The United States Army Cadet Command (USACC), which supervises ROTC programs at 274 schools, is headquartered at Fort Knox and coordinated the event.

Dr. Chad Brooks, dean of APSU's College of Graduate Studies, lands in Addington Field outside Fort Knox, Kentucky on July 12 after a tandem jump with the U.S. Army Parachute Team (Photo 1, U.S. Army photo by 7th Brigade ROTC).

Were trying to educate professionals around campus about the opportunities available for students through ROTC, said Lt. Col. Mark Barton, a professor of military science who oversees Austin Peays ROTC program. Every summer, USACC brings the Golden Knights to Fort Knox and asks schools around the country if they have any [faculty or staff] who support the ROTC program and would benefit from learning more about the Golden Knights and what ROTC does.

Phillips and Brooks were chosen to participate because of their support for Austin Peays military population and their families  from Phillips work raising money to fund the ROTC program to Brooks history of acquiring military-focused grants and training opportunities for active-duty and retired soldiers and their families. After a thorough safety briefing, they suited up and prepared to jump from approximately 13,000 feet.

It seemed like a long time, but youre really in the air for just a couple of minutes, he said. Once you got in the air, it was quiet and serene  I didnt hear anything. It was a spiritual thing for me, looking around as I was freefalling through the air.

After adjusting to the environment, Brooks decided to make the most of his time in freefall.

Both Phillips and Brooks enjoyed the experience, from the jump itself to the opportunity to learn more about the Army and its ROTC programs.

Leadership Exchange program with Fort Campbell leaders

An inaugural Leadership Exchange program is being launched as a unique initiative to foster closer relationships with senior-level leaders from Clarksville and the surrounding region through seminars, discussions and workshops. The program will kick off on Sept. 6, focusing on leaders from Fort Campbell.

This program, part of the 2022-27 Experience Austin Peay Strategic Plan, is a testament to the universitys goal of becoming the regions top choice for individuals seeking to enhance their lives. Recognizing the significant military and military-affiliated segment of our student population, Austin Peay launched its program by inviting Fort Campbell leaders, paying homage to the strong connection between the university and the military.

The Leadership Exchange program will provide participants with an exclusive and comprehensive look into the university's exceptional programs and facilities. The event commences at 7:30 a.m. with a welcoming breakfast, followed by a day filled with engaging activities and informative sessions. Highlights include a lunchtime Q&A session with a military student panel, an interactive activity with the ROTC program, and a guided tour of the Newton Military Family Resource Center.

The next Leadership Exchange event is scheduled for Nov. 14, 2023, with two additional programs planned for Spring 2024.

Education professors work abroad with NSF grant

A group of faculty members from the Eriksson College of Education traveled to France this summer as part of a three-year, $300,000 International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant from the National Science Foundation. The team, consisting of Drs. John McConnell, Philip Short and Donna Short, arrived in June to evaluate Austin Peay STEM students participating in the program at the University of Rennes.

The University of Rennes, in Rennes, France, along with the two other European universities participating, specialize in nano and glass technology. As part of the experience, six Austin Peay students conduct research and learn from experts in these fields each year. The students also gain valuable cultural experience throughout their seven weeks in Europe.

Drs. Philip and Donna Short visit France through a National Science Foundation grant.

Dr. Andriy Kovalskiy, a professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering and Astronomy, is the projects principal investigator. Kovalskiy was persistent in bringing the Jack Hunt STEM Center, where the Shorts serve as co-directors, onto the project. With a background in biology rather than physics, Dr. Philip Short was initially hesitant to evaluate the research of students at these specialized nanotechnology and glass science sites.

The project seemed very interesting and very worthy of funding; however, Im an old biologist  not a physicist, Dr. Philip Short said. Thankfully, Dr. Kovalskiy was persistent and patient with me as I eventually understood the role for the Jack Hunt STEM Center team to assess the educational effectiveness of the program overall.

The Austin Peay education professors work abroad included viewing student presentations and learning more about their research projects, with focus group sessions and interviews throughout the week-long visit.

CSA Summer Arts Camp's new addition, theatre

The Community School of the Arts (CSA) recently began its annual Summer Arts Camp for children ages 8-14, and this years program offered theatre classes for the first time.

The camp features four disciplines of art: theatre, dance, ceramics and painting. Students attend one of three week-long programs and spend their days rotating through each discipline.

Theatre proved to be a popular addition to the camp, and each group of students closed out the program by getting on stage in front of their families to demonstrate their newly learned skills.

Alyssa Amos is an instructor for the camps theater discipline and said she loves seeing its impact on the kids. She is a recent graduate of APSU who majored in both theatre and business. Amos said she hopes that all students take what they have learned and use it, whether it be in theatre or another aspect of life.

The New Gallery exhibition season opens

The New Gallery, with support from the Department of Art + Design and The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, is kicking off the 2023-24 exhibition season with "Reclamations, a solo-exhibition by Atlanta-based artist Tokie Rome-Taylor.

This free, public exhibit will run from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. on weekdays from Aug. 28  Oct. 13 at The New Gallery, located in the Art + Design Building on Austin Peays campus. There are several events associated with the exhibition:

Tokie Rome-Taylor's exhibit "Reclamations" will kick off APSU's exhibition season.

Tokie Rome-Taylor will present an artist lecture on her work and creative practice at 6 p.m. on Sept. 19 in Heydel Hall room 120, of the Art Design + Building.

A reception and gallery talk with Rome-Taylor will be held in The New Gallery beginning at noon on Sept. 20.

This exhibition will be open during Clarksvilles First Thursday Art Walk; 5-7:30 p.m. on Sept. 7 and Oct. 5.

Dickins said Rome-Taylor's work stems from ethnographic and historical research, probing the material, spiritual and familial culture of the descendants of Southern slaves.

Hours for The New Gallery are from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday  Friday. The gallery is closed on weekends and holidays and follows the Universitys academic calendar. For more information on this exhibition, contact Michael Dickins, director of The New Gallery, at dickinsm@apsu.edu.

APSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from APSU News and Communications department.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: APSU Mondays : Leaders parachutes, study abroad, theatre camp
5 years ago

Aug/Sep 2018

"America's main allies and adversariesEurope, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and Chinaare facing even more severe problems of falling youth and rapidly increasing aging populations. They will need to bring in young people from elsewhere in the world to refuel their economies. Whether they accept migrants and train them or seek to recruit the most skilled workers from abroad, they will be looking to scoop up talent. If the U.S. instead shuts its doors to immigration, it will inflict upon itself the severe shrinkage in the number of new workers that is challenging other developed countries. The economy will grind nearly to a halt as more and more resources are devoted to taking care of the aging rather than improving the productivity of the young."

Jack Goldstone

"The U.S. Needs More Immigrants"

20 years ago

Aug/Sep 2003

"The result is a growing national security apparatus, including a bigger military, a new Department of Homeland Security, and expanded domestic and international spy agencies. All of these diminish domestic liberty and soak up more and more of our citizens' wealth. These expanded state powers have even tempted some conservatives to agitate for the establishment of an American empire. In the past our government justified supporting unsavory regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Zaire as necessary allies in our nation's struggle against even more menacing tyrants and terrorist organizations. Not surprisingly, to people yearning to be free of their tyrants, our support of their oppressors looked like hypocrisy and thus often encouraged them to adopt anti-liberal ideologies as guides for their struggles against oppression."

Ronald Bailey

"Should Libertarianism Stop at the Water's Edge?"

40 years ago

August 1983

"If the government were to do away with the current tangle of agricultural price supports and subsidies, there's little question that a freer market would drive down food prices for the consumer and hence dramatically lower food costs to an affordable level for many people who now depend on food stamps. Drastic reform of the government's agricultural policies could conceivably eliminate the perceived need for food stamps as general support for low-income households. That the food stamp program was not so conceived at its inception is evident from the early estimates of the limited number of people who would receive stamps. At ever-increasing costs to the taxpayer, and with agriculture and the welfare bureaucracy building up an ever-greater vested interest in the program, food stamps have come to play a far larger role than tiding people over temporary emergencies and assisting those on the very bottom rung of the economic ladder."

David Lips

"How To Get Out of the Food Stamp Trap"

45 years ago

September 1978

"The liberals and conservatives have always represented a false alternative on these issues: the conservatives favoring economic freedom while fighting for every control they could get over ideas and personal moral codes; the liberals fighting for a free press and moral choices while tying up the economy. In neither camp was there a consistent advocate of freedom in both respectsan across-the-board, principled advocate of individual rights."

Steve Wright

"The First Amendment Under Siege"

50 years ago

August 1973

"Our proposal is more than a tax plan. It gives Americans an option for a more positive, democratic, productive, fair, voluntary and rational society. As an example, let's take public education on all levelselementary, high school and college. Some Americans would undoubtedly choose to financially support the present system. Others would choose to utilize their rebates to shop for free market alternatives: private, religious, or public schools that offer more community control. But public education, with pressure of the rebates and referendum and with the new threat of competitive forces, would be compelled to improve; to become more productive, increase quality, and become more responsive to social and community needs."

John Zeigler

"The Pay-What-You-Want Tax Plan"

The post Archives: August/September 2023 appeared first on Reason.com.
An Arizona woman is accused of using bleach to poison the coffee of her estranged husband, a member of the U.S. Air Force, over a period of several months, according to court documents.

Melody Johnson was arrested on July 18 after her husband submitted video to police allegedly showing her pouring the toxic substance into his coffee machine.

The husband, who is not named in court documents, started noticing that his coffee tasted badly at the end of March 2023 while stationed in Germany.

Johnson and her husband are going through a divorce but lived together with their child.

The husband continued drinking the coffee for two to three weeks before using chemical testing strips to test the water in his faucet, which came back normal. When he tested the water in his coffee pot it showed high levels of chlorine, court documents state.

In May 2023, the husband set up a camera in the home which showed Johnson pouring something into his coffee pot. He pretended to drink the coffee until the family went back to the U.S. on June 28 because he didnt want to file a report in Germany, according to the complaint.

Pima County Adult Detention Center in Arizona. (Google Maps)

While temporarily stationed at a hotel in Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, the husband set up another camera which again allegedly showed Johnson walk to his coffee maker and pour something into his water reservoir, on July 5. The husband filed a police report the next day but was told by officers that it wasnt clear what Johnson was pouring into his coffee pot.

When the family moved to permanent housing on July 7, the husband set up more cameras that looked like fire alarms to the ceiling, according to court documents. One was placed in the laundry room where bleach was kept, another was placed right over the coffee machine and a third was placed to show walking between those two areas.

After collecting multiple videos allegedly showing Johnson take bleach, pour it into a container and then walk over and pour it into the coffee maker, the husband went back to police, court documents state.

The husband told police he believes his estranged wife was trying to kill him to collect death benefits.

Johnson was arrested by the Tucson Police Department and charged with attempted first degree homicide, attempted aggravated assault and adding poison to food or drink. Shes being held at the Pima County Adult Detention Center, per online records.

A search warrant was executed at the home that recovered a container in Johnsons bedroom under her bathroom sink that smelled like bleach and had some liquid inside it. There was also liquid inside the coffee maker that smelled like bleach, according to court documents.

Its not clear if Johnson has an attorney at this time.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
 Flash

Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (R) meets with European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 14, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

China and the European Union (EU) should conduct more institutional dialogues to inject new and strong impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing on Sunday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks during a phone conversation with High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

For his part, Borrell expressed his deep condolences for the recent torrential rains and floods in China, and emphasized that the EU is firmly committed to developing good relations with China.

The EU's Global Gateway strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative are no rivalries but complementary to each other, as both are aimed at promoting global development, he added.

Borrell stressed that he looks forward to visiting China as soon as possible and launching a strategic dialogue with the Chinese side to jointly prepare for this year's EU-China leaders' meeting and to promote the further development of EU-China relations.

Wang said that at present, China-EU high-level exchanges have maintained a good momentum, and both sides believe that partnership is the most important feature of China-EU relations.

China has always taken a positive attitude in promoting China-EU relations, he noted, adding China attaches great importance to the China-EU leaders' meeting scheduled for this year and expects it to play a strategic leading role in China-EU relations and bilateral cooperation.

China and the EU should conduct more institutional dialogues, so as to make up for the missing exchanges between China and the EU in the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and inject new and strong impetus into the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, Wang said.

He also noted that China welcomes Borrell to lead a delegation to visit China this fall and hold a strategic dialogue to make political preparations for the China-EU leaders' meeting through extensive and in-depth exchanges.

The two sides also exchanged views on Ukraine, Niger and other international and regional issues of common concern.
An Arizona woman is behind bars after allegedly attempting to slowly kill her husband by putting bleach in his morning coffee for months.

Melody Johnson of Tucson was indicted by a grand jury on charges of first-degree attempted murder, attempting to commit aggravated assault and poisoning food or drink, CNN reported. She was arrested on July 18, NBC News reported.

Court documents obtained by KVOA-TV in Tucson say that the husband  who was not named in initial reports but is identified by CNN as Roby Johnson  began to suspect his wife of poisoning him at the end of March. Roby is in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Germany at the time. The couple were going through a divorce but were still living together in the country with their son.

In March, Roby says, he noticed his coffee had started having a bad taste, according to the documents. Several weeks later, he purchased pool chemical test strips. He tested the water in his faucet, which came back normal. But when he tested the water in his coffeepot, it showed high levels of chlorine, the documents say.

In May, Roby set up a camera in the home, which captured Melody pouring something into his coffee pot, according to the complaint. Roby stopped drinking the coffee at that point but said he pretended to continue to drink it until the family returned to the U.S. on June 28 because he didnt want to file a report in Germany.

On July 5, Roby reportedly caught Melody on camera walk to his coffee maker and pour something into his water reservoir while the family was temporarily stationed at a hotel on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Roby showed the video to police, but officers told him that whatever Melody poured into the machines reservoir wasnt apparent and that his report was taken with no follow up, according to the complaint.

When the family moved to permanent housing on July 7, Roby set up more cameras that looked like fire alarms that attached to the ceiling, according to court documents. One was placed in the laundry room, where bleach was kept, another was placed over the coffee machine and a third was placed to show the space between the two areas, the documents said.

With the new setup, Roby was able to collect multiple videos that show Melody take bleach, pour it into a container and then walk over and pour it into the coffee maker, the documents say.

After Melody Johnson was arrested, a search warrant was served on the residence, where police found a liquid in the coffee maker that smelled like bleach as well as a container beneath her bathroom sink that also smelled like bleach.

Investigators say Roby Johnson believes she was trying to kill him to collect death benefits, according to the court documents.

Melody Johnson is being held at the Pima County Jail until her next court appearance, scheduled for Sept. 6, CNN reported.

The complaint also said that a high bond is recommended because Melody Johnson recently bought a house in the Philippines near family and so is considered a flight risk.
A woman poisoned her estranged husband by pouring bleach into his coffeemaker, prosecutors said.

The couple is in the midst of a divorce, but still live and raise a child together, per NBC News.

The husband believes his wife was trying to kill him to gain death benefits, court documents said.

A woman in Arizona used bleach to poison the coffee of her estranged husband, with whom she is going through a messy divorce, according to court documents seen by NBC News.

Melody Johnson was arrested on July 18 by Tucson police and indicted by a grand jury on Friday on charges of attempted first-degree homicide, attempted aggravated assault, and adding poison to food or drink.

She entered a not-guilty plea at her arraignment, per CNN.

Authorities said that the arrest came after her husband submitted video evidence to the police allegedly showing Johnson pouring a toxic substance into his coffee machine over a period of several months, according to NBC News.

The husband, whose name has not been publicly released, is a member of the Air Force, the local news outlet KVOA reported.

While the couple is still legally married and cohabiting with their child, they are in the midst of a divorce.

According to the court documents, the husband started noticing his coffee tasted weird at the end of March, while he was stationed for his work in Germany. Despite the strange taste, he continued drinking the coffee for two to three weeks before further investigating, the court documents said, per NBC News.

He then started using chemical testing strips, designed to be used in swimming pools, to test the water in his faucet, which showed no signs of chlorine, the court documents said.

However, the media outlet reported that the testing strips revealed "high levels of chlorine" in his coffee pot, according to the court documents.

In May, the husband set up a camera which the complaint said caught Johnson "pouring something into his coffee pot," NBC News reported.

He pretended to drink the coffee until returning to the US in late June, waiting to be on American soil before filing a police report, the news outlet reported.

During a temporary stay at a Tucson hotel, the husband set up another camera, with the footage showing Johnson again pouring something into the water reservoir of his coffee maker on July 5, according to the court documents.

The day later, he filed a police report, but police said it wasn't clear what was being poured into the pot, NBC News reported.

Insider reached out to Tucson Police Department for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.

The husband continued his attempt to catch his wife by installing additional cameras in their new house, including one near the laundry room where the bleach was stored, the court documents reviewed by NBC News said.

After gathering multiple videos allegedly depicting Johnson taking bleach and pouring it into the coffee maker, the husband shared his suspicions with the police, believing that his wife was attempting to end his life to gain death benefits, court documents said, per NBC News.

Court documents said that a search conducted under a warrant revealed a container containing a liquid with a bleach-like smell, with the liquid in the coffee maker also smelling like bleach, per NBC News.

Johnson is being held at the Pima County Jail.

Court records reviewed by CNN show that the suspect has a bond set at $250,000, which prosecutors said was necessary because Johnson is considered a flight risk owing to the fact that she recently bought a house in the Philippines near her family.

Read the original article on Insider
A photo of cape-wearing volunteers for Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES) at a secretary of state facility delivering boxes of petitions

This article was originally published in Arkansas Advocate.

The public education group that spent the summer petitioning for a ballot measure to repeal the LEARNS Act failed to gather enough signatures and submit the proper paperwork, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston determined Friday.

Thurstons rejection means the referendum will not appear on the 2024 ballot, barring some sort of legal challenge.

Thurstons staff found that Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students fell short of the 54,422 signatures required to place a referendum on the ballot both in the groups own estimate and in an actual count of signatures.

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CAPES submitted a document claiming it collected 53,675 signatures of registered voters just before Mondays deadline to submit referendum petitions.

While the Secretary of State is not required to conduct a raw count of signatures when a sponsor represents that the submission is legally insufficient, we nevertheless  as a courtesy to you  proceeded with a raw count, Thurston wrote in a Friday letter to Steve Grappe, CAPES executive director. That count determined that you submitted no more than 53,444 signatures  at least 978 signatures short of the number legally required.

CAPES officials initially acknowledged the signature effort had fallen short by under 1,000 signatures, but a day later, they reversed, saying they thought volunteers might have gathered enough to put the LEARNS repeal to voters next year.

In addition to the signature shortfall, Thurstons office also said CAPES didnt submit the required affidavit indicating the number of signatures and petitions being filed.

Further, CAPES failed to meet new requirements set forth in Act 236 of 2023, which requires signatures to be gathered from 3% of voters in each of 50 counties. The requirement was met in 48 counties, according to the secretary of state.

Previously, signatures only needed to be collected from 15 counties. The new law has been challenged in an ongoing lawsuit.

We certainly appreciate the efforts and impartiality of the Secretary of States office to expedite this process as quickly and as accurately as possible, Grappe said in a statement. We are very disappointed they did not show we met the minimum totals. We are confident that if we had the time the Constitution allows, we would have far exceeded the minimum.

Arkansas Constitution allows citizens to, by petition, order the referendum against an act passed by the General Assembly.

CAPES launched its repeal effort in April. The groups proposed ballot title was rejected twice before Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin approved it on June 5.

The nonpartisan group then had about 55 days to collect signatures from 6% percent of the total votes cast for governor of the preceding general election.

The group has been critical of Griffins ballot title denials and the manner in which the LEARNS Act was enacted by the state Legislature and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The Executive Branch, under the leadership of Governor Sanders, used the Legislative Branch and Attorney Generals office to actively bypass the Constitutional rights of the Citizens of the State of Arkansas to actively participate in direct democracy, CAPES said in a news release. CAPES will pursue this issue to the fullest extent as allowed by law.

The LEARNS Act, which took effect Tuesday, makes sweeping changes to the states education system, including increasing the minimum teacher salary to $50,000, creating a school voucher program and repealing the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.

Sanders has attacked efforts to stop the LEARNS Act as coming from the radical Left.

I ran for Governor & Arkansans elected me on the bold promise to overhaul Arkansas education system and break the failed status quo. Arkansas LEARNS is the plan our state needs and voted for overwhelmingly, Sanders said in a statement. Self-serving partisan extremists tried to play political games to undermine LEARNS, overturn the will of the voters, and hold our kids back. Today its official: they failed, Arkansas students won, & my administration will continue to raise teacher pay, invest in literacy, & empower parents & students through LEARNS.

It is rare for a referendum to make it to the ballot. The last time was in 1994 when voters affirmed the states soft drink tax with 55% voting for and nearly 45% voting against, according to the secretary of states office.

A referendum wouldve raised complicated questions for state education officials because the Constitution requires laws that have been challenged through the referendum process to be put on hold until a vote is held.

Information for this article was contributed by Antoinette Grajeda.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on Facebook and Twitter.
The first asylum-seekers boarded a controversial barge moored in southern England Monday as public health experts warned of the possible risk of infection in living conditions that campaigners branded as inhumane.

Fifteen migrants boarded the boat, named Bibby Stockholm, which is docked in Portland, on the Dorset coast of southwest England.

Accommodation is offered to individuals on a no-choice basis, said Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation at the UK Home Office, noting that there have been legal challenges to the plan.

Plans announced by the UK government in April to house around 500 single adult men on the vessel struck a political nerve in Britain, where the Home Office has ramped up hostile policies towards refugees in a bid to reduce the number of small boat crossings in the face of the European migrant crisis.

We have had a few challenges, but this is part of an ongoing structured process to bring a cohort of up to 500 people on board. There have some challenges - some minor legal challenges - and I cant go into the detail of those, but accommodation is offered to individuals on a no-choice basis, Avery told reporters Monday.

Several groups have flagged safety concerns over the Bibby Stockholm. It was called a death trap by the UKs Fire Brigades Union (FBU) on Wednesday. And Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, warned that respiratory infections were more likely to spread in cramped spaces with narrow corridors and doorways.

Generally respiratory infections, as weve all learnt through the pandemic  are at higher risk in confined settings with poorer ventilation, so the sorts of things we look at is what the ventilation is like, she told BBC Radio 4s Today show on Monday.

The agency will visit the barge to assess the infection prevention control once migrants are on board, Harries said, adding: We know that the accommodation complies with marine standards, which is what has been agreed is correct for that particular accommodation.

An aerial view of the Bibby Stockholm at Portland Port, in southwest England, on Sunday. Campaigners flagged safety concerns over the UK government's plans to house 500 asylum-seekers on the boat. - Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

Public health experts warned that the cramped living conditions of the barge increase the risk of respiratory infections spreading. - Andrew Matthews/Press Association via AP

Last week, the FBUs Assistant General Secretary Ben Selby said the barge had been retrofitted for 222 people, not the 500 people the government wants to accommodate.

If firefighters were needed to make entry through those narrow corridors when people were seeking to escape from it in the case of a fire, how would they even reach the seat of that fire and make the necessary rescues? Selby told Sky News.

More people had been expected, but 20 had their transfers canceled after legal representatives intervened, the refugee charity Care4Calais told CNN later on Monday.

Use of the Bibby Stockholm is part of a raft of measures by the Conservative government intended to slash the cost of housing migrants in hotels and ease the backlog of unprocessed asylum claims.

The UK government is spending 6 million (nearly $7.6 million) per day on accommodating migrants in hotels, according to UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden.

Dowden responded to the FBUs statement last week, saying the government would take into account those concerns and thats exactly what were doing.

Floating prison

The number of people risking the treacherous crossing between Britain and France has spiraled so far this year, fueled by war, global inequality and the climate crisis.

In 2022, 45,755 people crossed in small boats, according to UK government data, heaping pressure on an immigration system that critics warn is broken and underfunded.

About 11,500 people were monitored crossing the Channel in small boats in the first half of 2023. Even though the figure represents a 10% decrease compared to the same period in 2022, most journeys happen in the second half of the year.

Last month, the UK government pushed through the Illegal Migration Bill, a controversial law that gives it powers to detain and remove undocumented migrants from the country.

The UNs refugee agency condemned the legislation and said it amounts to an asylum ban, breaching the UKs obligations under international law.

Steve Smith, the CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais, told CNN that the move to house refugees on the Bibby Stockholm was causing a huge amount of anxiety.

Amongst those we are supporting are the survivors of torture, people with disabilities and people who have experienced trauma at sea. Housing any human on a floating prison like the Bibby Stockholm is unacceptable. Doing so to people like this is completely inhumane. It is causing a huge amount of anxiety, he said in a statement on Monday.

This is yet another example of an ill-thought-out, knee-jerk reaction to the Governments own backlog of asylum claims. If it had been properly planned, we wouldnt be seeing last-minute, panicked activity to address the serious fire safety concerns that arise when trying to cram over 500 people into a boat built for just 220.

Reporting contributed by Chris Liakos

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Former President Donald Trump declared on Sunday that he will ask for the recusal of the judge overseeing his prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

"THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE 'ASSIGNED' TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE," Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform. "EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C. [sic]"

Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was randomly assigned to Trump's case. Chutkan was one of the first federal judges to reject Trump's claims of executive privilege after he refused to turn over White House communications to members of the House Jan. 6 committee.

"Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President," Chutkan wrote in a November 2021 ruling. "At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President. And the Supreme Court has already made clear that in such circumstances, the incumbent's view is accorded greater weight," she added.

Appointed to the U.S. bench in 2015 by former President Barack Obama, Chutkan also has handed down the harshest Jan 6 sentences on the D.C. federal court, per the Washington Post.

She has not minced words over her thoughts and feelings regarding the deadly Capitol attacks, observing their fundamental connection to the former president and his rallying rhetoric.

In the sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant Carl Mazzocoo, Chutkan said he "went to the Capitol in support of one man, not in support of our country." During the December 2021 sentencing of rioter Robert Palmer, she noted his "very good point" that "the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged."

The federal indictment against Trump over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election results alleged that six unnamed  and currently uncharged  co-conspirators acted in cahoots with the ex-president to "assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power."

Legal experts were able to use details provided by special counsel Jack Smith's team of prosecutors to identify the individuals, who are likely former Trump lawyer and New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, "coup memo" author John Eastman, disgraced attorney Sidney Powell, Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and a still undetermined "political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding."

Politico reported that the former president will likely not see much major headway on his demands to oust Chutkan and have his trial take place outside of D.C., noting that requests from "dozens" of other Jan. 6 defendants to transfer their cases to a new location have been denied on the grounds of the intensive "voir dire" jury selection process, which is "intended to weed out jurors who might have an impermissible bias or be unwilling to set aside political views to judge a case based on evidence and facts." Chutkan, meanwhile, has shown no signs of recusal.

"Makes perfect sense Trump's lawyers would move to change venue," tweeted national security attorney Mark Zaid. "Legit legal move. Jack Ruby asked for same after he killed Oswald in Dallas."

"But personally attacking [the] Judge like this is trouble," Zaid added. "His lawyers will need to think long & hard [about] firing this salvo. No turning back."

Makes perfect sense Trump's lawyers would move to change venue. Legit legal move. Jack Ruby asked for same after he killed Oswald in Dallas.



But personally attacking Judge like this is trouble. His lawyers will need to think long & hard abt firing this salvo. No turning back. pic.twitter.com/gQBsEhQGsT  Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) August 6, 2023

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman argued that the change of venue and motion to recuse "are dead losers and will be denied in short order."

"You have to wonder if part of his strategy is to lose repeatedly [with] crappy motions to try to ground an argument in the public sphere that the court is biased."

The change of venue & motion to recuse that Lauro says Trump will bring are dead losers and will be denied in short order. You have to wonder if part of his strategy is to lose repeatedly w/ crappy motions to try to ground an argument in the public sphere that the court is biased  Harry Litman (@harrylitman) August 6, 2023

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Georgia State Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis told Newsweek that Trump's post is a "political argument, not a legal argument."

"Trump wants a judge of his choosing and jury of his preferred peers when he's entitled to an impartial jury of his peers and an unbiased judge," he said. "We have now had hundreds of January 6th defendants tried in Washington, D.C. and by all accounts those defendants have had fair juries. Some defendants even had jurors acquit them. There's no factual basis to allege that Judge Chutkan can't discharge her duties fairly, either. It's a publicity stunt," he added.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg agreed that the recusal "is not going to happen."

"This is another delay tactic and a way to further rally his base," he told the outlet. "Nothing fuels MAGA like grievance and martyrdom."

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who has frequently criticized the Justice Department's investigations of Trump, also agreed that a "venue change is highly unlikely" just because he is being tried in a "politically disadvantageous district."

"It is always difficult to prevail on such motions, but this would be a particular stretch of the precedent," he told Newsweek. "I would bet heavily against it. On recusal, the judge has made some concerning statements but it is highly unlikely that she would consider herself compromised or conflicted out of the case. Appellate courts are equally skeptical about such motions and heavily disfavor compelled recusals. Thus, Trump could not have pulled a less advantageous selection of the district or the judge."

Read more

about the Trump indictment
A former veteran Columbus police officer whom a grand jury indicted on murder and reckless homicide charges last week for killing an unarmed Black man last year pleaded not guilty Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Officer Ricky Anderson, 60, was indicted Friday, accused of shooting Donovan Lewis, 20, inside his Hilltop apartment on Aug. 22, 2022, while he and other officers were there to arrest Lewis on multiple warrants.

The nine-person grand jury decided on the charges after special prosecutors Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer appointed by Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack's office presented evidence to them last week.

Magistrate Pamela Broer Browning sets bond for former Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson as he appears at his video arraignment to face murder and reckless homicide charges in the death of Donovan Lewis.

Magistrate Pamela Broer Browning set a $500,000 bond for Anderson, who was booked Friday into Franklin County Jail. By Tuesday morning, court records indicated bond had been posted in the amount of $50,000, or 10%, for Anderson. He is no longer listed as an inmate in the jail.

While he appeared in court from jail via a projector screen at Monday's arraignment, Lewis' mother, Rebecca Duran, was present in the courtroom. Neither Anderson nor Duran spoke during Monday's court proceedings.

Browning delivered the bond with two conditions: that Anderson would surrender all his firearms as well as his passport as the case progresses.

Former Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson appears through video during his arraignment to face murder and reckless homicide charges in the death of Donovan Lewis. In the courtroom is his defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens.

Defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens cited due process involving previous, similar cases with law enforcement officers, Anderson's compliance with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation's efforts and his clean record in the defense's case for setting a bond not to exceed $250,000.

"Unfortunately, these cases are all over the place. Weve had $100,000 (bonds), weve had $250,000, weve had a million and now we have $500,000. So, it is what it is," Stephens said about Anderson's case and others involving charges against law enforcement.

Moving forward, Stephens said the defense team is going to pursue an argument of justification in Anderson's case as they try to prove that, in the case of his fatal shooting of Lewis, Anderson "had a subjective belief that he was in imminent fear of serious bodily harm or death and that his belief was in fact reasonable," Stephens said.

Former Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson appears through video during his arraignment to face murder and reckless homicide charges in the death of Donovan Lewis. In the courtroom is his defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens.

In March, Anderson retired in bad standing from the Columbus Division of Police after being put on paid administrative leave after the August 2022 shooting.

Meanwhile, the Lewis family is moving forward with a civil lawsuit filed in February against Anderson and the four other officers present at the incident.

Duran, executor of Lewis' estate, has filed the civil suit seeking compensatory and punitive damages against Anderson and his colleagues Chance Knox, Harry Dorsey, Jack Randall and Justin Dodrill.

Staff reporter Jordan Laird contributed to this report.

gtucker@dispatch.com

@tucker0527

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus officer's attorney says Donovan Lewis shooting was justified
By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian inquiry said in a report on Monday that it had found serious misconduct by a public prosecutor in connection with the trial of a former political staffer accused of raping a colleague in Parliament House.

Brittany Higgins, an ex-staffer for former defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, went public in 2021 with the accusation that she had been sexually assaulted by Bruce Lehrmann in a ministerial office at Parliament House in March 2019.

Reuters does not usually identify victims of sex crimes but Higgins went public with the accusation.

Prosecutors in December dropped charges against Lehrmann over fears the trial was harming Higgins' mental health. Lehrmann, who worked in the same office as Higgins, pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence.

In an 839-page report released on Monday, the inquiry said the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, tried to deny key documents to the defence, lost his objectivity at times and that he "did not act with fairness and detachment as was required by his role".

"Regrettably, I have found it necessary to make several serious findings of misconduct on the part of Mr Shane Drumgold," said former Queensland state judge Walter Sofronoff, who led the inquiry.

The ACT government in December set up the inquiry to check the conduct of criminal justice agencies after allegations of political interference in the trial.

Drumgold resigned on Sunday after learning the findings of the report, the government said. It was considering whether to prosecute Drumgold and had asked him to respond to the findings.

In a statement, Drumgold acknowledged he had made mistakes but disputed many adverse findings against him, media reported.

Drumgold could not be immediately reached by Reuters, while the office of the director of public prosecutions did not respond to a request for comment.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said his government would check if it was against the law that two journalists had received the inquiry report before it was made public.

"This action, and the subsequent reporting that has followed, has interfered with the due process that should have been afforded to impacted parties," Barr told reporters.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; editing by Robert Birsel)
By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will put climate change and local jobs at the centre of its international aid programme, in a policy overhaul designed to compete with China's infrastructure-building in the region.

From next year, half of all new Australian aid investments worth over A$3 million ($2 million) will include a climate change objective, rising to 80% by 2028, under a new policy. Projects will also have gender-equality objectives.

As China and the United States compete for security ties in the strategically located Pacific Islands, these nations have said rising sea levels and worsening storms brought by climate change are their greatest security threats.

The Pacific Islands Forum has lobbied at global climate talks for greater access to financing to mitigate the impacts of climate change, which they say is hampered by red tape.

Australia, historically the major development partner to the region, is also the biggest aid donor to Solomon Islands, but is concerned its influence is waning after Manasseh Sogavare's government signed a security pact and strategic partnership with China.

The shift in Australia's aid policy is a response to geostrategic competition and China's security ambitions in the region.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Monday that aid needs to work alongside Australia's diplomatic, defence and economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific.

"Australia is using all elements of our national power to advance our interests and shape the world for the better. Development and prosperity underpin peace and stability," Wong said in a statement.

Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said Australian aid should create local jobs that bring greater economic benefits on the ground.

Public debt is forecast to double in the Pacific Islands by 2025, and seven countries had been assessed as at high risk of debt distress, the report said.

High debt repayments limit capacity for further borrowing, contributing to a "substantial deficit in critical infrastructure", impacting services like water, electricity and transport, the Australian aid policy said.

Australian aid would offer an alternative to strategic competitors without creating unsustainable debt burdens, it said.

Australia will increase its aid spending by A$1.7 billion over five years, and restore indexation to its aid budget, which will see spending rise by A$8.6 billion between 2027 and 2037, the government has said.

($1 = 1.5228 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Conor Humphries)
LISBON  Law enforcement agencies are looking for a 37-year-old woman who escaped from the Eastern Ohio Correction Center on Saturday.

Ashley Croley is described as 5-foot-5 and weighs 130 pounds with blonde/brown hair and blue eyes. She is believed to be wearing a bright orange tank top and black shorts. She is believed to be driving a blue Chevrolet Cobalt.

Croley may be heading to Salem or Youngstown, according to the Columbiana County Sheriff's Office.

She had been found guilty earlier this year in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court of fifth-degree aggravated possession of drugs, and sentenced last month to six months at the Eastern Ohio Correction Center for violating her probation.

WMFJ-TV (Channel 21) in Youngstown reported that Croley is accused of jumping over a fence and stealing the Cobalt, driving over the vehicle's owner as she left the scene.

Anyone with information about her location is asked to call the Lisbon Police Department at 330-424-7810.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ashley Croley escaped from Eastern Ohio Correction Center in Lisbon
A mother charged with the murder of her newborn baby 31 years ago will face a jury trial this week in York County court.

The newborn baby girl was found dead in the Catawba River between Rock Hill and Fort Mill in 1992. But the case went cold, without identification of the baby or an arrest until August 2021, when York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson announced the arrest of Stacy Michelle Rabon.

DNA linked the mother and baby, Tolson said in a news conference and written statement at the time. The deceased baby was found in 1992, floating in the river wrapped in a sheet inside a plastic grocery bag, Tolson said.

Tolson said a national database showed DNA from Rabons arrest from a drug charge in 2019 matched DNA from the baby.

Now, Rabon, 50, is scheduled to face a jury trial starting Monday on charges of murder and homicide by child abuse, according to online York County court records and scheduling records from the York County Clerk of Court public website.

The arrest warrant for homicide by child abuse against Rabon states that around Aug. 12, 1992, Rabon caused the death of her newborn infant daughter through abandonment, and the death occurred under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.

The warrant states deputies based probable cause to arrest Rabon on investigation, recovery of the baby and other physical evidence, forensic testing, and statements of the defendant.

Court records also show Rabon was indicted for murder in May.

Prosecutors with the 16th Circuit Solicitors Office confirmed the case is scheduled for trial this week, but declined comment on the pending trial. The case is set to be prosecuted by Deputy Solicitor John Anthony and Senior Solicitor Leslie Robinson.

Rabons defense lawyer, Phil Smith of the 16th Circuit Public Defender Office, declined comment on the case or upcoming trial.

Two years pending trial

Rabon has not been convicted of any crime connected to the baby case, court records show.

She been in jail in York County ever since arrest and without bail, sheriffs office jail records show. In two separate court hearings since, Rabon sought bail, but a judge denied her release pending trial, court records examined by The Herald show.

The 1992 death

A swimmer found the deceased red-haired baby on Aug. 12, 1992 near the Catawba River Bridge that runs parallel to U.S. 21 east of Interstate 77, Tolson said in 2021.

When found in 1992, the infant was hours old, Tolson said.

The baby had stab wounds, but the coroners report determined that death was the result of suffocation, and not drowning or the stabbings, a statement released by the sheriffs office in 2021 stated.

In 1992, the baby was buried in a grave in Rock Hill marked Angel Hope.

The trial

York County Circuit Court Judge Bill McKinnon is expected to preside over the trial.

For anyone to be convicted at trial, all 12 jurors must unanimously agree to convict, South Carolina law states.

Rabon faces 30 years to life if convicted of murder under South Carolina law. A conviction for homicide by child abuse carries 20 years to life.

Court is scheduled to start Monday at the Moss Justice Center in York.
Its back to school for students across north Georgia Monday.

Thousands of students are ready for the first day for the Fulton County School District, DeKalb County School District and Oglethorpe County.

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Fulton

As Georgias fourth largest school district, Fulton County Schools welcomes back students Monday to its 104 schools.

District officials said due to the ongoing bus driver shortage, students and parents are encouraged to download the Here Comes the Bus app to track where the bus is, arrival times and more. The app is available for download in the app store.

Officials added that intruder drills will be implemented throughout the year to enhance security and safety practices throughout the school district.

More information about what is new this year can be found here.

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DeKalb

A new superintendent is in charge for the 2023-24 school year. The DeKalb County School District announced that Dr. Devon Horton would take over the role of Superintendent before the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Horton officially joined DCSD in July as the fourth superintendent for the district in as many years.

Channel 2 Action News reported that Horton comes to DeKalb County from a position in Chicago, where he was the Superintendent of Evanston/Skokie School District 65, a district with about 7,000 students.

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Oglethorpe

Students age PreK to eighth grade with last names beginning A-L will return to school Monday. The remaining students will return to school Tuesday.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Students in Clover and York schools are heading back to school a week earlier than last year with a new modified calendar.

In York, students will have a full week off from school in October and in February in addition to the traditional winter and spring breaks.

READ MORE: New program designed to give some South Carolina schools more freedom in course selection

York School District 1 Superintendent Kelly Coxe told Channel 9s Tina Terry this new calendar will give students who are behind a chance to catch up during the school year.

Its an opportunity for our teachers to have a break. In this time of competitiveness between districts, the teacher shortage, Coxe said. We wanted to make sure we honored the voice of our teachers.

SEE PREVIOUS: South Carolina schools point to benefits of modified calendar

She says it will also help improve teacher recruitment and retention.

Chester and Chesterfield counties have also implemented modified schedules this school year.

Chester County public schools start on Monday. Lancaster County, Fort Mill and Rock Hill schools start on August 21st.

(WATCH: Channel 9 takes part in Rock Hill School reading day)
Ballroom icon Carmen Xtravaganza, who had been living with lung cancer, has died at age 62, according to Out magazine.

Carmens friends at the House of Xtravaganza, a popular house in the New York City ballroom scene, announced the sad news via Instagram on Saturday.

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of Carmen Xtravaganzas passing, the House of Xtravaganza said about its beloved member. Today, we extend our deepest condolences to all who loved her . . . Rest in power, dear Carmen. You will be missed, but your spirit will continue to inspire.

Carmen, who is a Ballroom Hall Of Fame member, was featured in the now-iconic documentary Paris Is Burning, which tells the story of New Yorks Ballroom scene in the 1980s. One of the most iconic scenes of the documentary shows Carmen and house sister Brooke Xtravaganza singing Gloria Gaynors I Am What I Am. The inspiring performance became known as a symbol of resistance for the transgender community.

In its tribute to Carmen, The House of Xtravaganza referenced one of her most famous quotes from the documentary: That voice is still there. The quote, according to the group, now takes on new meaning, serving as a reminder that Carmens spirit will live on through the love and memories she left behind.

In an interview with TransGriot, the Spain native said she was just 5 years old when she realized that she was trans.

As far back as I can remember my dad always knew from when I was a small child I was always effeminate, she said in the 2013 interview. [My dad] explained it to me much later after I had already transitioned.

Carmen was also featured in the 2006 documentary How Do I Look, where she revealed that she took hormones at age 16 to complete her medical transition. At that time, Carmen said she was staying at a runaway home.

According to Out, the LGBQT advocate joined the ballroom scene in 1981 when she became part of the House of St. Laurent in New York. At the same time, Carmen was doing sex work in the citys meatpacking district, a place where many trans people also did the same. Carmen then joined House of Xtravaganza a few years later.

After moving back to her native Spain in the early 90s, Carmen founded a House of Xtravaganza chapter in the European nation. She also worked as a model while in Spain and released a few songs.

Carmen became the mother of the House of Xtravaganza in 1997 when she returned to New York. In 1999, the beloved leader was was honored with an induction to Ballrooms Hall of Fame.

In a Facebook post on July 3, Carmen said the cancer she had been battling has reached stage four, spreading to her bones.

My message is my departure coming soon as I was noticed by my oncology [doctor], she wrote according to The Pink News. The chemotherapy I was taking has not worked. My message is enjoy life. Love family, be forgiven, humble, and love god over all things. I want to thank you all for being part of my journey in life. Carmen Xtravaganza.
In Bangladesh, dengue fever has killed more than 300 people this year and infected almost 63,700 others, with hospitals having a difficult time keeping up with all of the cases.

This is the deadliest outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease since the government began tracking in 2000. Across Bangladesh, people are being urged to use mosquito nets and kill any mosquito larvae they find.

The World Health Organization said that today, about half of the world's population is at risk of dengue fever, which is more common in tropical and subtropical climates. The most common symptoms are headache, nausea, body aches, fever, and rash, but not everyone who becomes infected reports symptoms. In severe cases, people can experience organ failure and die. Because there isn't a specific treatment for dengue, the protocol is to manage symptoms.

Climate change is causing warmer and wetter weather, and these conditions are perfect for mosquito breeding. WHO official Raman Velayudhan said during a webinar last week that dengue is "a problem linked mostly with climate change, and we need to find ways to mitigate its impacts on every country level." After monsoon season is over in October, he expects to see even more dengue cases in Bangladesh and other Asian countries.

Mushtaq Hossain, senior adviser to Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, agreed, writing in an opinion piece for the Bangladesh Pratidin newspaper that the number of people hospitalized for dengue could keep rising all the way through November. Despite extra beds being put in hospitals, the country is "not adequately prepared to deal with dengue," he said.

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FILE PHOTO: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) stage nationwide protest against attack on sit-in programmes in the capital Dhaka

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh will tone down its Digital Security Act, criticised by many as a draconian curb on dissent, to allow bail for suspects and halt the jailing of journalists for defamation, the law minister said on Monday.

Journalists and rights activists have long demanded the repeal of the act to protect press freedom.

"Many sections of this act will be incorporated in the new Cyber Security Act. Major amendments will be brought in some clauses," Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Huq told parliament in June that there had been 7,001 cases filed under the act across the country from the enactment of the law in October 2018 until January this year.

The act combines the colonial-era Official Secrets Act with tough provisions such as allowing police to make arrests without warrants.

"I don't know whether the government is just (playing) a trump card under severe pressure both at home and abroad," said a journalist, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

"I hope it will not be old wine in a new bottle."

Washington welcomed the decision, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that the law had been used to "arrest, detain and silence critics".

"We encourage the government of Bangladesh to give all stakeholders an opportunity to review and provide input on the new draft Cyber Security Act to ensure it meets international standards," Miller said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has maintained tight control since coming to power in 2009 and has been accused by opposition groups cracking down on free speech, suppressing dissent and jailing critics. Her government has denied the charges.

Western governments and rights groups have also criticised the government for cracking down on anti-government protests.

Opposition groups have held large protest rallies calling on Hasina to step down and for the next election, due in January, to be held under a neutral caretaker government.

In May, Washington said it would restrict visas for Bangladeshis who undermine the democratic process at home, after accusations of vote-rigging and suppressing the opposition marred elections in 2014 and 2018.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)
History was alive in Westmoreland County on Sunday.

The Bushy Run Reenactment was held in Jeannette. The Battle of Bushy Run was a significant battle in the French and Indian War that helped prevent the capture of Fort Pitt.

There were also activities available for kids and educational sessions with historical experts.

Visitors could see weapons that were also used in the battle fired in person.

This years event was nearly canceled over concerns about the portrayal of Native Americans but it was ultimately still scheduled.

It was dicey, and because of the hard work of the battlefield, all of our supporters, and our state reps  we were able to continue to bring living history to the people of Pennsylvania here in the local area, Brian Harris, a reenactor said.

This year was the 260th anniversary of the battle.

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Vulnerable residents at a care home for the elderly near Nairobi, Kenya's capital, have been mistreated and neglected, a BBC Africa Eye investigation has revealed.

Secret filming shows staff members physically mistreating residents, dumping food directly onto tables without any plates, and leaving medical conditions untreated.

"Hit her on the buttocks. Beat her," a member of staff urges a stick-wielding colleague, at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Thogoto Care Home for the Aged, about 20km (12 miles) west of Nairobi.

The undercover footage shows that moments before, three staff dressed in purple uniforms, surround an old woman by a metal gate flanked by sheets of corrugated iron at the perimeter of the home's garden.

"Where were you heading to on that side?" asks one of the staff. "You were called and refused to come back."

The old woman, wearing a fleece and a bobble hat, appears confused and frightened.

"Oh, please forgive me," she says.

"Now we have to cane you," says one of the staff.

A staff member can then be seen hitting the elderly woman's bottom with a wooden stick.

This is just one example of evidence of mistreatment uncovered in the BBC Africa Eye investigation.

The care home was set up by the Women's Guild of the local PCEA church but is now managed independently. It is home to around 50 elderly women and men.

Over the last decade, the number of homes for the elderly is reported to have almost tripled in Nairobi. Many don't charge rent and are supported by local churches or rely on donations.

In the next 30 years the elderly population in Africa is projected to triple from 75 million to 235 million, according to the United States Census Bureau report from 2020.

Its growth will be faster than in any other region of the world, making the prospect of sending elderly relatives to a care home a reality for an increasing number of families.

The care home manager says the home is guided by Christian principles

In 2020, the Kenyan broadcasting channel, Ebru Television, filmed inside Thogoto Care Home. The manager, Jane Gaturu, presented an image of a safe haven, where residents were well fed and cared for.

BBC Africa Eye heard worrying reports this was not the case. Two undercover reporters got jobs at the care home and spent 14 weeks secretly filming inside the facility.

As well as the footage of staff hitting the elderly woman with a cane, they recorded staff admitting to physically abusing other residents.

"Sometimes you have to use force," says a staff member, sitting outside under a canopy during a tea break.

"Even carers who start being polite, they find themselves being aggressive towards clients," she says.

They go on to describe one man who "is always being caned".

"We beat him and that is what calms him down. Because if he gets angry, he can even hit you with a rock," she says.

The reporters filmed further examples of apparent neglect and mistreatment, including medical conditions being left untreated. One elderly man was suffering with a serious skin problem.

"I'm feeling pain. Too much, too much. I feel like I'm burning," he can be heard saying in the footage, trying to show an undercover reporter his neck. He claims care home staff won't take him to hospital to be treated.

The gravity of his skin condition is difficult to determine in the secret footage, but the undercover reporter says he was bleeding very badly.

"He gave money to Jane [Gaturu, the care home manager] to take him to hospital," the reporter says.

"He was not taken to hospital. And when he asked Jane, Jane was very angry with him. And she even told him: 'Your home is just around the corner, and your people have given up on you. Do you think I will be able to help you'?''

"He used to tell me: 'We are waiting for death','' the reporter recalls.

It took around six weeks before the man saw a doctor, with money provided by his family.

The man can be heard in the footage saying he feels like he is "burning"

In photos taken by an undercover reporter, white flaky skin covers his entire body from the waist to the top of his neck. It is not known what the condition was.

Ms Gaturu declined to comment on whether she was given money for medical treatment and then did nothing.

Government guidelines say residential homes should provide medical care for the residents.

"I personally was in pain when I see them suffering and I can't help," says the undercover reporter.

"I used to cry a lot. Most of the time I used to get to the toilet. I switch off my camera and cry."

One of the undercover reporters filmed an elderly woman using her hands to eat food left directly on the table without a plate because she was unable to feed herself with a spoon.

A former care worker said they witnessed similar scenes, describing how staff told her not to assist residents with their meals.

"They told me not to help them today because no-one would help them tomorrow," she says.

An undercover reporter secretly filmed a conversation with a staff member about staff not feeding vulnerable residents.

"Do you think she will be the first to die of hunger here?" the member of staff tells her.

"Many have died of hunger here. They [carers] deny them lunch, deny them dinner, all because they don't want to make time to come and feed them."

"Should we find anybody abusing, harassing, maiming these older persons, I can assure you the necessary punishment would be inflicted on whoever does that"", Source: Joseph Motari, Source description: Government official, Image: Joseph Motari

Most of the food at the home is donated, and on three occasions the undercover reporters saw food being loaded into a senior staff member's car.

An undercover reporter was also asked if she wanted to take residents' food from the facility, but declined.

A former carer from the home alleged food was being stolen by staff.

"There was food there but most of the food was stolen. They overload the car with food. They overload the car with so much food it tilts," she says.

BBC Africa Eye showed some of the undercover recordings to Joseph Motari, the principal secretary for social protection and senior citizens affairs - the Kenyan government member responsible for elderly care.

"Should we find anybody abusing, harassing, maiming these older persons, I can assure you the necessary punishment would be inflicted on whoever does that," he said.

"We are going to do spot-checks on various private homes and see as to whether they meet the standards that they should be having. We are willing to take action against any private-run old person's homes that mistreat them," he added.

We put the allegations to Ms Gaturu.

"The home is a non-profit organisation run on a voluntary basis which depended entirely on donations from well-wishers," she said.

She added that it does not have a professional medical team and relies on others to provide medical care, "but that allegations they did not take care of residents who needed medical attention were lies and malice".

"Residents who struggle to eat are given priority assistance and anyone seen carrying food away from the home should be dismissed.

"The home and the management do not condone any form of brutality or aggression towards the aged. Staff have been victims of attacks by residents.

"The home always observes the rule of law and remains guided by the Christian principles on which it was founded," Ms Gaturu said.

Watch the full documentary Betrayed: Elderly Care Exposed on BBC Africa's YouTube channel

More Africa Eye investigations:
An Iraqi Airways regional jet aircraft. Ali Mukarrem Garip/Anadolu Agency/Getty

A bear escaped from its crate in the cargo hold of an Iraqi Airways plane, per the AP.

The flight was held up at Dubai Airport while officials sedated and removed the bear.

Iraq's prime minister has launched an investigation into the incident which led to delays.

Iraq's prime minister has launched an investigation after a bear being transported on a commercial airplane escaped from its crate in the cargo hold.

On Friday, the Iraqi Airways plane traveling from Dubai to Baghdad was delayed on the tarmac at Dubai International Airport while specialists sedated and removed the bear from the flight, Sky News reported.

One video shared by UAE daily newspaper The National appeared to show the bear roaming free in the plane's cargo hold while staff try to deal with the issue.

Representatives for Iraqi Airways did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside usual working hours.

An Iraqi Airways official told The Associated Press the bear was being transported to Iraqi's capital Baghdad, they spoke to the news outlet anonymously as they were not authorized to comment on the matter publically. The airline representative also declined to name the bear's owner.

It isn't clear what type of bear was being transported.

In a statement shared with The Sun, the airline said the delay was caused by reasons "beyond the control of the company." The company apologized to passengers affected by the delay, adding that the plane continued on to the Iraqi capital after the bear was removed.

They said: "The delay happened because of a shipment in the cargo hold. Upon arrival to Dubai Airport, the animal escaped the crate specified for its shipment."

The airline told the AP that it had worked with authorities in the United Arab Emirates to remove the bear from the plane, adding that the transport of the bear was carried out in accordance with the law. Representatives said the company was not to blame for the incident.

Representatives for Dubai Airport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
The Montgomery Way Gateway Historic District in Sacramentos Curtis Park neighborhood is one of 13 nominated California areas passed by the State Historical Resources Commission to be added to the register of federal historic designations.

Commissioners unanimously voted during their quarterly meeting Friday to submit all 13 properties to the National Register of Historic Places. One property remained in limbo according to a spokesperson from the commissions office. Alpha Omega Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity House was approved during Fridays hearing, but the spokesperson said there was a remaining question of the propertys ownership.

Sacramento already has dozens of streets and properties recognized on this list, including the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, Crocker Art Gallery and the California Historic Governors Mansion.

Residents of Montgomery Way spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing, both in support and opposition of their residential streets nomination. Those who opposed the historical reservation of their district referred to its history of racial housing segregation, arguing it was a step backward and would honor a divisive, elitist and racist past.

To allow this to go forward will continue the abominable contribution to disparities of race and ethnicity, said Frances Freitas, a Montgomery Way property owner.

Those who were in support spoke to the preservation of the historical architecture of the homes lining the street. Sharon Kaplan, owner of a Tudor revival home on Montgomery Way with her husband, said she was proud to own and care for this piece of Sacramento history.

Many of the homes along the block  bookended by East Curtis Way and Franklin Boulevard  were designed by Dean & Dean, an architectural duo of brothers James and Charles. Their firm was responsible for many stately homes in the capital city before the Great Depression took root. The pair also designed downtowns Memorial Auditorium and the Sutter Club, as well as Sacramento City Colleges original buildings and Trinity Episcopal Church in midtown.

We have 14 Dean & Dean designed homes on our street, along with one home that was built by Frank Williams, Kaplan said. All of these were prominent architects and builders of that time.

Trees shade Curtis Parks Montgomery Way on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Sacramento. Local residents are behind the effort to list the Montgomery Way Gateway Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Xavier Mascarenas/xmascarenas@sacbee.com

Historical significance of South Curtis Oaks

All but two of the 23 homes in the subdivision, known as South Curtis Oaks, were built between 1922 and 1937, according to a district record from Californias Department of Parks and Recreation. The nomination record to the state commission noted 18 contributing properties on Montgomery Way and three non-contributing properties.

The homes of the neighborhood were nominated for their historical architectural significance and the association of their development with the Better Homes for America movement. This campaign was a national trend initiated by then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover to boost home ownership before the Great Depression.

The Better Homes movement stands on the belief that our people, by well-planned measures, can obtain for themselves a finer type of home and family life, Hoover wrote in a 1926 pamphlet Guidebook for Better Homes in America.

South Curtis Oaks was built to reflect a period of dramatic growth and economic prosperity in the Sacramento Valley, according to the neighborhoods nomination form. This lineup of architectural home designs was influenced by Italian, Spanish, Tudor and Mediterranean revivals to showcase influential business and social leaders of the Sacramento community.

The Anne Hathaway Cottage, a Tudor revival located at 2640 Montgomery Way, was registered as a federal historic designation in 2019. This home, built in 1923, was one of several designed by Dean & Dean in association with the Better Homes movement.

At the other end of the block, the home of J.C. Carly at 2761 Montgomery Way was registered in 2006. The man this home was named after operated a major Sacramento real estate company that built several of the Montgomery Gateway properties.

The Anne Hathaway Cottage, designed by prominent local architects Dean & Dean and built by South Curtis Oaks developer J.C. Carly in 1923, is seen at 2640 Montgomery Way on Tuesday in Sacramentos Curtis Park neighborhood. The home, intended to be similar to the English home of William Shakespeares wife, is recognized as historic. Xavier Mascarenas/xmascarenas@sacbee.com

A history of housing discrimination

Carlys firm, which employed Dean & Dean as its chief architect, levied deed restrictions in South Curtis Oaks based on racial discrimination, according to the districts nomination form. Although a 1948 Supreme Court ruling struck down these covenant restrictions as unconstitutional, Carly resisted the push for housing integration.

That push was buoyed by residential maps created by state and federal agencies that segregated some neighborhoods as more or less-desirable based on the race and ethnicity of current residents, a process known as redlining.

Homeowners in redlined areas were less likely to receive federal loans without default, institutionalizing racial housing segregation. That wasnt the case on Montgomery Way.

Thomas Lane, who lives at the J.C. Carly House with his husband, Spencer, said Montgomery Ways architectural significance deserved the distinction as a federal historic district, despite its checkered past.

I do think that is beside the point, Lane said at the hearing. I doubt very much that Spencer and myself would have been invited to live on Montgomery Way in 1922, being a gay couple and Jewish.

Commissioners during Fridays hearing did not deny the tactics used to keep the neighborhood out of minorities reach. However, the sole mission of the commission is to evaluate the historical criteria of submitted properties, according to Janet Hansen, one of the state commissioners.

I dont think a nomination is celebrating that history  its acknowledging the truth of a development of a neighborhood, Hansen said.
The Enquirer called a bug expert to learn more about bedbugs and whether theres anything you need to worry about when you get your Amazon packages.

Bedbugs  vampire-like insects that suck your blood at night while you sleep  were allegedly found at the largest Amazon Air Hub in the world recently, workers said. Amazon officials deny the claim.

The Enquirer checked with workers, company officials and an insect expert to learn more about bedbugs and whether theres anything you need to worry about when you get your Amazon packages.

More: Potentially record summer travel + low housekeeping staff = bedbug nightmares

What do Amazon workers say?

Amazon workers said they found a bedbug in a crew van back on Memorial Day and had to fight for the right to go home with pay to decontaminate themselves.

Ramp agent Braeden Pierce, 25, said in an interview that workers use the vans to get around the large facility.

He was among those in the van and featured in a TikTok about the incident on the Unionize Amazon Northern Kentucky KCVG account.

"This issue has been going on for about as long as I have been working there, about a year and some change," he said about the bugs.

What does the company say?

Amazon officials, however, said the facilities and vehicles are regularly inspected by pest control professionals as part of health and safety protocols.

"In this instance, an employee told us about a potential issue and we immediately took the van out of service and had it treated. Pest control experts have since confirmed the insect in question was not a bedbug," Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in a statement.

Amazon officials would not release the name of the pest control company so The Enquirer could independently verify their statement. Amazon also did not respond to a question about what kind of bug or insect was found.

Last year, an Amazon fulfillment center in Amarillo, Texas temporarily closed after an alleged bedbug incident, according to reports. The company also denied there were bedbugs at that facility.

What an expert on bedbugs had to say

Bedbugs like dark places and need blood to survive. They usually prey on humans but will settle for cats or dogs if theyre in a pinch. But can they sneak into your home on packages?

I would say people do not need to worry about this, Gregory Dahlem, an entomologist and faculty member at Northern Kentucky University, said.

Boxes and warehouses aren't the ideal home for the bugs. The critters prefer something soft, like a bed or couch, to hide in until they can feed.

Its possible a bedbug found its way into a van at the Amazon facility, Dalhem said. But its not likely the bugs would last long in public places without a consistent supply of humans to feast on.

Dahlem also said bedbugs are more common than people think and can be found in movie theaters, schools and offices. The appearance of one or two of the bugs isn't likely to create an infestation because of the optimal environmental factors they need to thrive.

Cincinnati is consistently ranked among the topmost bedbug-infested cities in the country, coming in at 13 this year on Orkins Top 50 Bed Bug Cities List. The Cleveland-Akron area is ranked at No. 4 and Columbus comes in at No. 10.

#Amazon #UnionizeAmazon #AmazonLies #UnionStrong #GoUnion #Solidarity #ALU #AmazonLaborUnion #KCVG #NorthernKentucky #AmazonWorkers #UnionCampaign #UnionDrive #AmazonWorker #amazonemployee  Puff - Hany Beats @amazonunionkcvg UNION VICTORY: AMAZON WORKERS TAKE ACTION and are sent home with FULL PAY including Memorial Day time and 1/2 after discovering another BED BUG OUTBREAK AT AMAZON KCVG. Amazon has refused to address recent outbreaks of bed bugs in our ramp crew vans at Amazons Air Hub KCVG in Northern Kentucky. In the last year there have been many cases of bed bug outbreaks with workers often sent home unpaid. TODAY workers TOOK ACTION and refused to leave the HR office until management agreed to pay us for our full shift including time and 1/2 holiday pay for Memorial Day. We came in to work today not take home bed bugs because Amazon is unwilling to address this safety issue for us and our coworkers. We will build a democratic union at KCVG by taking collective action to fight for workplace safety, $30/hr, 180 hours of paid time off and union representation with a strong contract to have real job security at Amazon. Please donate $30 for our demand of a $30/hr starting wage, and help us unionize Amazon's largest air hub. DONATE HERE: https://unionizeamazonkcvg.org/donate #Union

Bedbug charge comes amid union drive

Amazon worker Pierce pointed to the bedbug incident as one of the reasons workers continue pushing for unionization, getting people to sign union authorization cards in support of a vote and convincing people of the importance of a $30 per hour starting wage and 180 hours of paid time off annually, among other demands.

"We're really working hard for it and we're very happy with the progress that we've made," he said.

Workers said hundreds of people have committed to a union vote and they continue to recruit people, including using informational material that's been translated to Spanish.

If the Amazon Air Hub in Kentucky is unionized, it will be only the second of the company's facilities to do so. The first was at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York.

Amazon reiterated in a statement that employees have always had a choice about whether to unionize.

"As a company, we dont think unions are the best answer for our employees," the statement continued. "Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work."

Workers have accused Amazon of union busting, but company officials deny those claims.

If the Amazon Air Hub in Kentucky is unionized, it will be only the second of the company's facilities to do so. The first was at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York. Other unionization efforts by Amazon workers have been unsuccessful in places like Alabama and upstate New York, according to reports.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bedbugs at Amazon Air Hub? What you need to know